Look East Policy

Mahathir introduced the Look East Policy, encouraging us to look at countries such as Japan and South Korea and try to emulate them. What I propose to do now is to make a very brief, skin-surface comparison with the political situation in Japan right now. A disclaimer first, I am no expert in Japanese politics. I just happen to watched an interview over Al-Jazeera with a Japanese professor about the upcoming election this Sunday and what I realised is that the political scenario is similar in some ways in this two countries.

The Japanese government party the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has dominated the Diet for almost five decades. BN on the other hand has never lost a single election since the inception of our country, an unbroken 52 years of rule. Although I have never heard anyone saying BN is a conservative party, it seems to me that they have been leaning more to the right, just like the LDP.

Pre-election polls have indicated that the LDP is facing a historic landslide loss at this election. From the tone of the interviewee professor I surmise that it is almost certain that the Opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) will win the election, or at least win much more seats that they previously do.

The DPJ was said not to be a viable government, and people do not actually think the Opposition leader is ready to be PM. But nonetheless, people are still going to vote them in because they feel that the LDP has been failing them.

Now, let us move to Malaysia. BN, the dominant party for over 50 years, can be easily identified as the Malaysian equivalent to the LDP. On the other hand, the DPJ and PR shares similarities; both relatively young, both are not exactly viable alternative governments, and both leaning on social democracy as their political idealogy.

Also from the interview, it was raised that the role of the youth in this coming election will be decisive. I can't help but to think the same for Malaysia. In the next Malaysian election, I believe the young voters are going to be very much decisive. I do not have the stats, but I have also been told that by someone who does. (Sorry I'm just plain lazy to do any research)

I was surprised when the interviewer asked whether in the next Japanese election we will see Japan moving more towards bipartisan politics. I always thought Japan as a developed country, its democracy must have been more developed than ours, probably on par with Britain where there is a true bipartisan scene in place. I did not expect it to be so much like us Malaysia. In fact, we could say we probably owned them in this respect as we started 'moving' towards bipartisan politics since the last GE. But then again, we might slow down in the process and be overtaken by them in 10 years time, the evergreen pepatah 'hangat-hangat tahi ayam' comes in to mind.

Now we move to THE most important message I want to send out. If the Opposition wins the Japanese election as expected, then we can probably look forward to the same thing to happen here in the next GE. The situation in both countries seems to be so similar that for one second I thought Japan was a developing country like us. But for change to take place, we need everyone to exercise their right to vote. If indeed the young voters are more informed in this age of internet and are more capable of making an informed choice, then the most important thing we have to do is to make sure they can vote and they will vote. So, please go register yourself to vote if you have reached the age of 21. It is your right as a citizen of our country. Exercise it wisely.

I do hope the DPJ will win. Then I will use it as an inspiration to the Malaysians who are going to vote when the next GE comes around. In the last GE, SMSes about the changes in Australia, Thailand and also the monks' protest in Myanmar serves as great inspirational stories to Malaysian that a change is needed and it is possible. A DPJ win will be another great one.

Hellooo..

Funny and meaningful, the hallmarks of Petronas ads. Sit back and laugh.

Bonjour

I witnessed a few mini-disasters in the last couple of days.

First, it was an old aunty- in her fifties I guess- who was on the same bus as me yesterday. She was getting up from the seat on a bus preparing to disembark, then suddenly the exit door flung wide open and it hit her hard on the head. I would have seen stars with such a solid object knocking on my head, and I imagined it must have been worse for her.

Then, it was a blind lady who is walking around Brickfields this morning. She passed by the front of a lorry, and as she was walking across the lorry-head, suddenly her head knocked unto the side mirror of the lorry. She was groaning in pain as she rubs her palm against her forehead.

Later on, after I finished my class, as I was walking down the stairs, an Indian lady suddenly slipped and tripped and fell. Then, at night I saw another aunty who carelessly poked her eyes against the metal prong which shops used to hang flip-flop and cap. She was directly opposite me and I caught her look right after she hit that thing and it was scary.

One mini-disaster happened to me yesterday as well. I was having my lunch, and suddenly, someone knocked into my sirap limau ais which was on the table. My white shirt became pink shirt, and white shoe became pink shoes. And the worst part, that dude didn't really bothered to apologise or help, which really pissed me a lot.

One bad incident happened after the other, and I thought it was getting a little ludicrous and I have to blog about it. Never witnessed so many misfortune happening so frequently. Just wished that there will be as many, or more, good things happening in a day rather than all these bad incidents.

Or maybe there is already many good things happening in a day, but we tends to keep note of the bad ones rather than the good ones.

Have a happy weekend.

How deep is your love?

Yea, another corny post from me talking about love after this one here.

Well, actually, not quite. The title is in reference to the song, originally sung by The Bee Gees. It is one of my favourite song, and it is also on my list of 'songs-for-singing-along-with-your-machas-while-walking-on-the-streets-in-the-middle-of-the-night'. One of the reason I like it is because I can sing out of tune, yet justify it by saying I am singing it 'The Bee Gees style', ie. the voice you sing with when your balls are squeezed. That is exactly how Barry Gibb's falsetto sounds like.


Bee Gees - How Deep Is Your Love (live, 1998)


John Frusciante (of Red Hot Chilli Peppers) covering How Deep Is Your Love

This second video tells me classic songs like this one never die. They are truly timeless classic. (pardon the 'lampapalan') They never get outdated, nor are they forgotten. I mean, just think about it, this song was first released in 1977 and yet almost 30 years later it is still being covered by other artists. And the fact that it was a rock band like RHCP who covered it, and actually sounds great doing it I shall add, shows that its popularity transcend all musical genres. And this has been one of the reasons I have been listening to classics like Sinatras and Beatles.

I hope you enjoyed the videos.

One interesting point: It's funny how John's vocal changes during the entire song, probably because of him not being that much of a polished vocalist himself. Also note how he sings 'The Bee Gees Style', starting from the part where he made a mistake and swears at 1:53.

Muddy estuary

This city turns out to be more than what I thought it is.

Went to KLCC the other day with my friends and I must admit, I suddenly realised how beautiful the Twin Tower is. We talked about how Petronas spent billions building it, but I do find it as one pride of our nation, in a sense that it IS an architectual beauty!


Spent time with my friends at KLCC park doing nothing but just chilling by the fountain and talk, and indeed I was surprised to find that KL do have nice places which are free. From the park, you can take in the views of the surrounding sky-scrappers. Though not as brightly lit as the Twin Tower, it was still a pleasant view to take in. This place seems to be a nice place to do just nothing but sit down and relax and indulge in people-watching- an activity which might be weird to some but one which I find to be interesting. As the Malay saying goes 'banyak orang banyak ragam', it is always intereting to look at the diferent antics and reactions of different peoples.

Another new discovery in town- Tua Pui Mee at Jalan Imbi.


Darren tried to took us here the other day, but we ended up at another place which was also pretty good. So, the next day me and my friend went hunting for this place. Poor sense of direction got us lost and we took a big round, even walking along the Smart tunnel highway at one point. But in the end the food was quite good, though a bit expensive. Penang still has the best foods in terms of quality and value.

Another new discovery is Bangkok Jazz at Chulan Square, right behind Pavilion KL. Got to know this place after watching this video on Youtube (do check out the video, very nice song), where Kevlyn Yeang and the ARECA Jazz Ensemble performed there.




My first visit to a jazz bar was very recent-G Spot in Penang- which was a nice place. And Bangkok Jazz is just as nice. So nice that I made a return visit the very next evening. The band was good, the singer was great. The place is cozy and warm, just like how a jazz place should be. It will be a nice place to chill with friends, or just to come alone for the music. I'll come here everyday if I have the money, but unfotunately I don't.



I am appreciating KL more, and I am really looking forward to exploring it more. I'll have to admit KL is definitely more happening than Penang, with lots of arts, cultural, musical events being held here. It also has many places of interests which even many KLites might not have visited before, yet you still hear them lamenting about the lack of places to go. However, transportation is a big problem here, and the lack of a car or a reliable public transport system serve as one big obstacle in my exploration of this city.

But for now, good night KL!