OLD il-bloop !

Antara pelbagai sepanduk dan poster terpampang antaranya tertera tulisan "Yang kaya Khairi - Kamaludin, kuburkan BN 2008, pemimpin kaya rakyat derita, Islam Hadhari minyak naik lagi, rakyat bukan kuda kayu, BN bila-bila pun penipu, Pak Lah jangan choong kami, apa ni semua rugi dan berbagai lagi.

"The people have a right to protest the oil price increase in a peaceful manner," said MTUC secretary-general R. Rajasekaran. "There really is no reason for so many policemen to be around and intimidate and arrest us."

Malaysia Today : Kecaman ramai terhadap tindakan ganas polis di KLCC

Menurut Naib Presiden Parti Keadilan Rakyat, Sivarasa Rasiah, seramai dua puluh dua orang telah ditahan. Pasukan Polis telah menggunakan kekerasan, menahan dan memukul orang awam yang berhimpun secara aman di KLCC pagi ini untuk membantah kenaikan minyak.

Bendahari PAS Pusat, Dr Hatta Ramli bersama dua anaknya antara yang ditahan dalam perhimpunan aman membantah kenaikan harga minyak yang dihadiri 2000 peserta di hadapan Menara Berkembar Petronas (KLCC) sebentar tadi.

Dua anak perempuan Dr Hatta, Amirah 9, dan Atiqah 17, yang menyertai demonstrasi itu turut ditahan ketika hendak bersurai hadapan jalan bertentangan KLCC setelah memulakan semula demosnstrasi di kawasan berkenaan.

Let me just begin this post like this, ask no questions, and I’ll… ok just don’t ask any questions. But knowing that some of you probably will not be happy with such an answer (and the some others will have no idea what I’m talking about (some others will be saying to them , “welcome to the club!”)) , I hope you’ll be satisfied when I say my results aren’t worth posting and shared online. There. ‘Nuff said.

Of course, it goes without saying that disappointment hangs thick in the air (though whether you believe it or not, I actually expected such horrendous an outcome). And some will place it upon themselves to offer me kind words of advice and counsel, so that I won’t jump from any buildings. I thank you for caring, but I’m fine and the less said about STPM the better. It’s over. Done. Buried.

SAM on the other hand, is still very real. Any reminders to study or to stop blogging would be greatly appreciated. But whether it adhered to is a different matter altogether.

Not that we have got that safely out of the way, I suppose we can continue with this post. Very seldom do I ever stay up beyond 12, doing anything. What more blog. But blogging is so much easier to do than preparing notes for a presentation, eh? I’m so unfocussed.

But when you blog, you must blog about something. The easiest topic to write about (after writing about one’s self) is to write about blogging. But this is NABA. So what to write about? Hmmmm.

I’m sure you would have noticed that this is already the sixth paragraph, and there’s still no proper subject. If I were you, I’d stop wasting time and go do something productive. But if you insist on continuing, well, if you must.

In today’s Star, there’s an article on M Nasir new soon-to-be released album. According to the article, he will be dropping all the world-music pretensions and returning to the hard-rocking roots of his music (read : Kembara). Of course, I actually take issue with this statement. I happen to think that his “world-music pretensions” are very nice and make for a delightful listening experience. Of course I can’t say to have listened to all songs from the later albums, but the ones that I’ve listened to , like “Sahabat Gua”, “Phoenix Bangkit”, “Raikan Cinta”, they’re not bad. In fact, they’re quite good. But I would have to say, compared to the earlier works (i.e “Hati Emas”, “Apokalips”, “Rajawali”) they lack the timelessness of those songs. Regardless, I’m sure the new album will be good whichever route he decides to take. It is M Nasir after all.

One thing about the songs I like to listen to, is that they have ‘big’ lyrics. Not exactly things to jiwang to (I think I just created a new verb!). There’s something enchanting in words set to music that speak to the very core of your consciousness. Something magical. How people from a multitude of backgrounds can all relate to the universal truths written by some scruffy young man. I wish I could write like that. I also wished for 4As, but I didn’t get that neither…

Now I end this post, with congratulatory wishes to my friends who managed to persevere through STPM and emerged victorious. You have my greatest respect. Enjoy university! They’re the last few years of fun before you join the daily grind.

The sea was a bright blue today, stretched out as far as the eye could see. Beautiful day as it is, it is unfortunate that i am still sick. Serves me right for trusting dogdy clinics.

However one can only mope and whine for so long. Especially when they seem to fall on to deaf ears. Might as well channel what little energy i have left to blogging

Anyway, by next week my group (class) would have finished preparing steps 1 to 4 of our civic participation task for our legal studies subject. A little explanation is in order here. The civic participation task (CPT) is essentially a project wherein the students are required to research and write about current legal issues. With it making up 50% of the total internal assesment marks (for the legal studies subject), no one can afford to play the fool with his cpt.
Step 1 to 4 is the initial planning stage where the student must decide on his research topic, formulate a hypothesis, brainstorm and outline his ideas.

The topics that our lecturer frequently recommends are Australia's Constitutional Monarchy, The Senate House, and also aboriginal issues. Though these are specifically australian topics, the cpt is by no means limited to them. In fact, malaysian issues (i.e nude squats, 'botak'-gate, etc.) are allowed though they require an explanatory note to educate the australian invigilator of the current going-ons in Malaysia.
So that brings us to the question, what am i going to write about? I am currently of two minds regarding this matter. I had previously begun hunting for topics and i found that the issue of the new australian terrorism laws interesting. I've even collected a few sources, the most helpful being a booklet by Amcran (Australian Muslim Civil Rights Advocacy ). Basically the research will seek to find out whether the new Australian terror laws infringe fundamental liberties.
But since malaysian topics are allowed, i would like to do something related to unlawful detention, basic legal rights and so on. Of course being a student in Malaysia it would make more sense to do that instead. On the other hand, australian topics are more preferable.

Also, spm results was announced today. Congratulations to those who managed to score spectacularly (including my sister - 12As). For the others, don't fret. It's not the end of the world.

There are few things worse than to suddenly get sick when you have so much to do. A fever, a cold and a sore throat torments your body so that even the simplest of tasks become impossible to accomplish. However, there is a silver lining. One takes comfort in the fact that the sickness is kaffarah for one's wrongdoings. Wallahualam.