The Soothing Tones

There I sat quietly,
There in the loneliness,
Blissful in the nature of serenity,
The lilting nature of the tranquil flute.

The harp joined in the mood,
Complementing the lovely wind,
I picture myself in a hood,
And lost myself in the green, calm scene.

And the music kept its graceful calm,
It brought me to a dreamy state,
The harmony like a divine psalm,
Gone were all my anger and hate.

The strings came to complete it all,
The beguiling tones charmed me to a new world,
There my spirits will not fall,
There I can rest in eternal tranquility.

Thus, in the very end of things,
The sea of beautiful harmony,
Continues to charm, to sing,
To the days of end, to a quiet sunset.

The Week That Has Been

Of all the weeks spent during my industrial training here in Kuala Lumpur, the busiest week is most likely to be this week, with lots to do, lots to learn and lots to laugh!

My senior structural engineers had been so kind to invite me to come along for the SACS Software Training and I am very much gratified that he extended the invitation to me personally. SACS is a very important and powerful software that structural engineers use to model the offshore platforms and how they will be behave under different load conditions. It is a software that can simulate the deflections and any impending problems before the structures are actually fabricated, launched and installed.

I had a more enjoyable Monday and Tuesday when the training materials were light and easy to understand. It was on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (today) that the training materials got more and more difficult to comprehend. Most of us, even the current engineers, sometimes found it difficult to clearly understand everything that was said on the latter three days of training. More often than not we would require much clarification and verification on certain concepts.

Nevertheless, the whole training has been a very fruitful one for me, especially. Now that I have learnt how to use the SACS software, it will be easier for me to analyse a SACS model and understand the nature of the SACS software. I enjoy viewing the animation of the simulated platform when it is subjected to different load conditions.

I could actually hardly believe that I spent up to thirty-five hours learning about SACS and what it could actually do for me. Now that I have learnt to model the offshore platforms and performed certain simulations, I could actually appreciate the hard work that consultants are doing.

And due to the SACS training, I had decided to spend about two to three hours in office after working hours to complete on my weekly reports which were due to be submitted this week. Thankfully I managed to complete my weekly reports by Tuesday.

Thursday was quite a special day for a friend. Kee Siong finally reached 21 years old and a few of us friends decided that we would celebrate it for him. (Oh, but before that, last Friday was Ivan’s birthday. Too bad that he was in Port Dickson; nevertheless, I hope he found the card which I left for him on his table!) We went to Nando’s and had a wonderful time there laughing and poking fun at one another, talking about certain scandals of the month (if not the year)!

Tomorrow being a Saturday, I certainly am looking forward to a beautiful performance in the Dewan Filharmonik PETRONAS. I sure hope that “Carmen!” will be a great hit tomorrow. After tomorrow’s show, I’ll be looking forward to Igudesman and Joo, together with the Kremerata Baltica, performing in the Dewan on the 16th of November.

Hmm… the end of the show tomorrow would also mark the end of October 2009, and I’ll only have another two months left in PETRONAS Carigali before I’ll be going home and continuing with my final year studies in UTP again. I wish I could have more time in the company, considering the fact that I have just begun, not very long ago, to really make myself feel so much at home in the company, and having people treating me like an engineer.

I’m happy to say that the engineers and managers in my department are friendly and full of laughter. It is indeed a very warm department which I believe I will miss very much upon my return to UTP.

SRCUTP – Government; students – Opposition?

A good friend of mine recently wrote an article “MPPUTP in Perspective” which I found to be a good read. It covers the issues and problems that students often have regarding the most important student body in Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, known as the Majlis Perwakilan Pelajar Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (MPPUTP), or also known as the Student Representative Council of Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (SRCUTP).

I, too, had my own share of bittersweet moments – more bitter than sweet, unfortunately – and it has come to a point where the SRCUTP is no more than a façade to me, and that I have entirely lost trust in the administration of the SRCUTP. I have, in my past almost four years of academic pursuit in UTP, been given empty promises made by candidates of the SRCUTP, and all the top five members of the SRCUTP have, more often than not, disappointed me ridiculously.

No doubt they are good in their communication, they behave in a somewhat professional manner, and they project a powerful image in the eyes of UTP students (especially the new students who have just joined the university). It is as if they are the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister and Ministers of the students in UTP, fighting for the students and ensuring that the students get what they deserve from the university.

One of my best experience with the SRCUTP was when my friends and I had a big problem regarding our Concrete Technology laboratory sessions about a year ago. Laboratory sessions were supposed to be capped at two hours per session but our demonstrator insisted on setting the duration of each session at four hours, citing that a longer period of time is necessary. This created clashes between our Concrete Technology lab and our Geotechnical Engineering lecture. The demonstrator, however, refused to give in to our protests and insisted that we had to do something about it.

I managed to contact the Academic EXCO of the then SRCUTP board, Viknesh Kumar (through Jared Ee), who promptly made an appointment with me and I had the opportunity to pour out all my anger and frustration, which he thankfully comprehended. He promised to meet my programme head the following week, and he did! Soon after that, our problems were resolved and the instruction was that lab sessions must not exceed the stipulated two hours.

While the EXCO board of the SRCUTP may be doing its job well, my communication with the top five members of the SRCUTP have been anything but fruitful. I had, in the past, sent e-mails to the high committee (HICOM for short) members, through their MPPUTP e-mail addresses, but have received no response whatsoever. Clearly disappointed, I took matters into my own hands and decided to communicate with the Manager, the Senior Manager or even the CEO directly. In some ways, this was viewed as going against certain basic communication protocols. But if the people at the bottom part of the administration would not respond or that their e-mail addresses were there just for the sake of beautifying their personal images, then I will act on my own. But when I do act, it will not be at the best interest of the SRCUTP.

I am indeed appalled by the fact that the SRCUTP was formed to provide a check-and-balance between the students and the administrators, and yet I find the SRCUTP to be very weak and its voice is no louder than those who are not in the SRCUTP. They dare not challenge the administrators (which perhaps they view as being disrespectful) unlike the student representative councils in other universities such as MMU and IMU. Therefore, they best give the impression of a “yes-man”.

More shameful was the fact that they actually spent quite a considerable amount of money making banners thanking the university administrators for upgrading the Internet services, which till today is giving some problems every now and then. I remember the fact that my friends and I actually attended a meeting with the ITMS staff in Lecture Hall 1 to discuss on this issue and how 8 MB/s for the whole residential college at 75% efficiency will only provide at most 2.0 KB/s of Internet connection to every student in UTP! The ITMS provided numbers which my friends and I were not impressed at all; these numbers and figures were also produced by the SRCUTP sometime back before the upgrade was done and we were shocked to see that they gave in to the explanation by the ITMS without further dissecting the situation or analysing it properly.

We emphasised on the fact that when we came into UTP in January 2006, the Internet, though slow, was accessible even without any form of network block or firewall to MSN Messenger, Youtube, etc. In July 2006 when the firewall (or Network Box) was imposed, the Internet started to deteriorate until the network collapsed entirely somewhere around early January 2009 semester. Although they found that it was the GoogleTalk application that took up so much of the connection (as it is run on HTTPS protocol, not HTTP), they failed to understand that they have only themselves to blame for blocking the MSN Messenger application. Students need to communicate among themselves easily, so the only other option was to use GoogleTalk.

It was after such a long time before the administrators finally agreed to upgrade the Internet to 150 MB/s, which should be sufficient. And I don’t see how the SRCUTP found it fit to produce banners publicly thanking the administrators for upgrading the Internet facilities, on our behalf, considering the fact that the Internet is such an important tool today.

(Please, do not give me the excuse that “Hey, I never had the Internet during my student days, so be grateful that we’re providing you with it.” Yes, that’s true, but do not expect me to go back to your student days. Your era and my era are entirely two different worlds. People go forward, not backwards. These are harsh words, but true.)

The SRCUTP believed that it is of paramount importance that they maintain a diplomatic and tactful relationship with the administrators. While I see nothing wrong in that, it also brood weakness in their part. A good leader can be diplomatic and tactful while being firm also. The SRCUTP represents the students of the university, and it is important to note that while the administrators might view the SRCUTP negatively, it is more important to have the support of the students. If students back you up strongly, then you have nothing fear while fighting for us. But if you do not have the students’ support, then you are definitely easily bullied and looked down upon by not just the administrators, but the student community as well.

Had the SRCUTP got the full support from the students, then they can definitely voice up for help from the students, summoning petitions and have the students to show the administrators in their way that the SRCUTP is not to be trifled with, because the administrators cannot do whatever they like without being answerable to the SRCUTP, and eventually to the students.

It has come to a point where a shadow cabinet might be necessary to ensure that the SRCUTP is really doing their part of the job scope. This shadow cabinet may oppose or support what the SRCUTP proposes, and the shadow cabinet could be necessary to ensure that the SRCUTP maintains its confidence among the students without being virtual slaves to the administrators of the university. However, it is most unfortunate that a shadow cabinet is not recognised as part of an official organisation and as such students have no opportunity to entirely oppose any proposal which they find utterly preposterous.

What the SRCUTP proposes is not necessarily at the best interest of the students, and sometimes we truly need another strong voice to tell them to stop their fallacy in their mindset and thinking.

However, most importantly, if the SRCUTP wants to function well as a reputable organisation with authoritative powers which it deserves, it must have a strong support from all the students of the university. In order to the attain that amount of trust and to obtain that amount of power, the SRCUTP must improve its image and truly fight for the students in our best appropriate interests.

The SRCUTP must also remember this: students in a university are customers to the university – administrators, even the Vice Chancellor, are but staff working to ensure that our welfare and academic interests are protected. They are paid to do the job, and they must perform excellently. The SRCUTP is there to assure exactly that. Staff who under-perform deserve to be given the boot out of the university. In fact, they do not deserve to work anywhere for their sheer lack of understanding and lack of commitment if found to be truly so.

So, to the SRCUTP HICOM of the 2009/2010 term, do you actually know what to do when you are in power? Are you there just to just beautify your résumé? If you are, you’d better step down and let someone else more sincerely committed to do the job.

Edited 29th of October 2009

Feeling Nostalgic?

Henry Yew will now bring you back to moments quite sometime ago, at no particular order:

Class of 3A10 Year 2003 (St. Michael's Institution) - I was seated, most right. (Picture courtesy of Nor Nafis Shazwih - captured by Rev. Bro. Matthew Bay)

Class of 1A10 Year 2001 (St. Michael's Institution - picture courtesy of Mr. Peter Khiew)

Class of 5Sc1 Year 2005 Farewell Party (and also a birthday-cum-retirement party for Mr. Louis Rozario Doss) - Hillciti Hotel Ipoh (picture courtesy of Wong Sen Loong)

Class of 5Sc1 Year 2005 Farewell Party - Hillciti Hotel Ipoh (picture courtesy of Wong Sen Loong)

Class of 5Sc1 Year 2005 Farewell Party - Hillciti Hotel Ipoh (picture courtesy of Wong Sen Loong)

Class of 5Sc1 Year 2005 Farewell Party - Hillciti Hotel Ipoh (picture courtesy of Wong Sen Loong)

Teachers for the class of 5Sc1 Year 2005 Farewell Party - Hillciti Hotel Ipoh (picture courtesy of Wong Sen Loong)

Freshie's Talent Nite January 2006 - Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (picture courtesy of Nguyen Thi Minh Anh)

Health, Safety and Environment Public Speaking January 2008 - Amphitheatre of Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS

Canning Garden Methodist Kindergarten Year 1993

Graduation and Dean's List Award ceremony for Foundation Studies January and July 2006 semesters - Chancellor Hall of Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS

Rector's Cup Debates Year 2007

National University of Singapore Arts Festival, March 2008

National University of Singapore Arts Festival, March 2008

Class of Primary 2 Hijau of SK St. Michael 2 Year 1996 - Assembly grounds of the old primary school, now demolished

What do you think?

Times have really changed over so many years. We have all grown from something to another, from nobody to somebody. We start to create a niche for our own in this society which initially knew nothing about us. But as we continue living and working with people of various backgrounds, we build our network extensively. We move on from one phase of life into another, and in the process of moving into a new phase of life, people come and people go. Sometimes this process of growing up (and growing old) is a bitter moment for quite a few of us; some would say that it brings them much joy and happiness.

Yet, when we look back into our earlier years, we marvel at how much we have changed over the years, how much our impression of people have changed, how best friends suddenly no longer become so intimate anymore, and how our enemies during our earlier years become friends whom we can call for a drink and talk. In the process of growing up, unfortunately, we have also moved from Ali, Ah Chong and Gopal into just Chong, Tan and Wong; Ali, Abu and Ahmad; Gopal, Muthu and Krishnasamy.

Nevertheless, these are memories well worth keeping.

Masquerade Night 2009

For those of you who did not know, I was in Ipoh last Friday (9th of October 2009) till Monday (12th of October 2009). Initially, my intention to return to Ipoh was to attend the Masquerade Night that was organised by some of my university friends as we never really had a large-scale promenade before. As this was my once-in-a-lifetime sort of event, I thought that I should go.

However, my return to Ipoh turned out to be more than that. I accompanied my parents to attend the dinner held by the Han Kang Association of Perak, and though the food was good, I can’t say that the atmosphere was comfortable.

Nevertheless, I am not going to rant about the Friday dinner, for my Saturday night (the night of the Masquerade promenade itself) was filled with excitement. It was great to see people dressing up for the event, with unique masks, wonderful performances and appealing dances.

Did I get drunk? No, absolutely not. It was the policy of the organisers for this event to be entirely non-alcoholic, which I praise heartily.

There were about hundred over attendees and each of them stood out in their own individual manner. It was good to see old friends and make new friends, too, and to also keep my updated on the goings-on in the university. Overall, it was a very memorable social event, and I thought that one should be held again next year before I graduate! But this time, please start it earlier (grins)!

Now for some photographs (I regret not taking the tripod with me; the lighting was n0t good enough and the bulk of the pictures were either slightly overexposed, or that they were blurred and noisy):

In our masks - with Tan Xiao Ci. Lovely, no?

Girl (Jia Min) in evening gown, guy in tailcoat suit. I didn't really like this picture for its lighting, though. But this will have to do.

My juniors - Graham, Serena and Laura - all dressed up for the event. Laura, you didn't need high-heels anymore. You're already so tall!

The Chinese Orchestra group (me, Shu Wei, Xuan Hui) minus Aamir (far right)

Some entertainment shows here and there...

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Announcement: Locked Posts

Dear readers,

(This post will be stuck to the top of the main page for about two weeks. In the meantime, any new posts will be posted below this entry.)

Thank you for following this blog so closely. I realise that this blog is not just about discussions on certain issues, be it political, social, economical, etc. but also some glimpse of my personal life and experiences that I have gone through, which I deem are worthy to share.

The purpose of this announcement is that starting from now, there will be locked posts. This would mean that readers will have restricted access to such posts. Readers who are authorised to view these posts will be given a password, which must be provided prior to viewing the locked posts.

The reason that these posts are locked is that these are insights into perhaps my personal life which I would prefer that only a handful of people know, or that the issues that I touch on are issues that I, for any reason whatsoever and at my sole discretion, choose not to disclose to whosoever party.

However, when the time is right, these locked posts might one day be opened for general public view, and when this happens, a notice will be provided at the Announcements section.

Notwithstanding the lock, these posts are not confined to only people whom I know. In fact, any individual who are interested to view will only need to request for permission from me either via e-mail, a text message, Facebook or any other medium of communication. However, when the password to the post is provided, it is expected and required from the authorised reader that sole secrecy is practised – no content of the post is to be divulged to any other party by any method, electronic or otherwise.

I may also choose to automatically provide the password to any of the locked post to readers whom I have confidence in their ability to maintain secrecy automatically, even if it means without them requesting for permission to view such locked posts. In this way, I maintain the absolute autonomy of this blog.

A Man’s Best Friend

We often hear that a dog is a man’s best friend. Dogs are particularly loyal and faithful to their masters; they are also known for being very helpful to people who are impaired in some way or another, usually visually impaired. They are often adopted as pets to guard over the house, and some people use dogs for hunting. Some have dogs for company, and they certainly know how to have fun with their owners.

I am a dog-lover myself, and I love my dog, Rambo, very much. Although very playful, it cheers me up very much every time I come home from Kuala Lumpur or from university when he would give me a very excited welcome, jumping and pouncing onto me impatiently – his tail wagging till you couldn’t really see it. My neighbours find my dog very affectionate and they have somehow attached a part of them to him, too. Rambo doesn’t simply bark; it only does when there are strangers at night lurking around from a corner of a house. This has even earned him some respect from the inspector of police who is also my neighbour. He remarked, “You have such a good dog. When he barks at night I would immediately look out from the window because that would mean that there is somebody around the neighbourhood at such a late hour of the night, who is often up to no good.”

And while my dog enjoys quite a good life at home, a rather candid conversation between my parents and I struck a sympathetic chord in me. When the bitch gave birth to a pack of eight puppies near my house, all the three male puppies were adopted, leaving only the female puppies (one of the male puppies was Rambo). However, as the remaining puppies were females and leaving them on the roadside would not only mean disaster in the future, it was quite pitiful to imagine them to be stray dogs while their brothers are living happily in a home. Therefore, my mother decided to take the puppies and their mother to the Ipoh SPCA.

At the SPCA, the person-in-charge was quite reluctant to accept the dogs as she claimed that there were too many in the centre. However, my mother retorted that she had travelled far from home to the centre and actually bothered to bring the stray dogs there because of an advertisement which she saw in the newspapers. Eventually, she was allowed to leave the dogs there, and donated some money to the centre.

Two weeks later, my parents went back to the centre for a visit and found that the dogs have been well taken care of. In fact, some of the puppies have already been adopted. But there were still so many of them there.

It is, in my opinion, quite unfair to leave the dogs to the SPCA and expect them to take care of them. Sure enough, the SPCA has taken a responsibility to ensure that the cats and dogs that are sent there are protected from any form of abuse. However, it is a non-profitable, non-governmental organisation. And from my mother told me, it’s often the veterinarians who give out donations or sponsorships to the SPCA so that it could continue on with its mission.

It is definitely not cheap to maintain the well-being of the animals in the SPCA, and quantity is definitely a problem. With people only aiming to adopt puppies, those adult dogs in the centre are usually left to eventually die of old age there, without an owner.

It actually surprises me that I could hardly see any advertisement from the SPCA encouraging people to adopt a pet there. And its location which is quite far away from the Ipoh city does not make things any better, too.

But my point is that they have been working so hard without help from the state government or the federal government. After all, have you heard of any budget allocations for these SPCA organisations?

The dogs in the SPCA would love to have an owner, too. They would like to have a nice, comfortable permanent home to live in. The SPCA is definitely not the place for them to spend the rest of their lives.

It’s rather unfortunate that not many people from Ipoh are actually aware of the existence of the SPCA and that they can adopt dogs from there. Many would go to veterinarians or pet shops to get their dogs, and they actually have to pay to buy the dogs whereas the dogs in the SPCA are open for adoption, for free (if I am not wrong).

Still, I would be happy to know that the dogs have been adopted provided that they are being treated well by their owners. It angers me to learn that there are some of my neighbours who want to have dogs but are entirely unfit to be dog owners. In fact, if they had been in the United States, I would have lodged a police report for alleged animal abuse. Some owners do not bother to feed their dogs well and let them loose outside as much as they like. Some owners would actually beat the dogs, in the name of discipline, to the extent that the dogs actually die! While I agree that sometimes the stick must be used to discipline the dogs, I certainly do not approve of excessive punishment to the extent that the dogs cry out for help and eventually die from such a torturous ordeal. I call that morbid.

(To the Americans or individuals who do not condone beating or caning as a form of disciplining children or pets, Malaysians generally believe that if you spare the rod, you’ll spoil the child. I can proudly say that I am who I am today simply because I have been exposed to the stick, and my dog is a very disciplined dog simply because my father had administered a few beatings for his mischief. While some believe that the carrot is better than the stick, we believe otherwise and this system has worked for us for so many years. Therefore, don’t come around and tell us that we’re cruel for disciplining children or pets by caning them. You are entitled to your opinion and we are entitled to ours, and we don’t find your carrot to be that superior to our stick. But we know to what extent should be use the stick, and we do reward those who are good.)

There was a case where a family was given a Labrador puppy. Being a growing puppy, biting shoes was its nature and the man of the family got angry. Thus, he administered a hard beating consistently to the extent that the puppy was crying for help constantly. The next thing that my mother knew was that she received news of the puppy being dead. It wrenched my heart to learn about that and my heart (though involuntarily) started cursing the deed. After all, pets have the right to live and right to live a dignified life, too. If you want a pet, make sure you know your responsibilities to it and treat it well. Otherwise, you are unfit to have a pet.

Eid Mubarak 2009!

In conjunction with the year 2009 Eid ul- Fitr celebrations, I wish all Muslims:

There’s Nothing Like Home

I am finally back in Ipoh, a city where I grew up, a city where I’d obtained quality education from a La Sallian school, a city where traffic jams are hardly seen, a city where…

OK, enough of that now. The point is that I am already home for the Eid ul-Fitr holidays, and I shall only be back in Kuala Lumpur on the 22nd of September 2009.

Today, being a Saturday, I went to St. Michael’s to visit the Michaelian Chinese Orchestra. I had quite a long talk with them about the importance of a vision and mission, the importance of communication, the roles of members and the roles of every member of the executive committee board. I had often looked back during my days as an executive committee member and I feel quite ashamed at how ambiguous or vague the responsibilities of every portfolio were defined.

I am quite ashamed to note that my publicity directors did nothing much except to decorate the notice board of the orchestra. Today, I paid special attention to the publicity directors by telling them on how they could polish up their communication skills because publicity is not just about the notice board. It is also about how to brand the Michaelian Chinese Orchestra and how they portray the orchestra to the rest of the school community and society. It is all about communications and public relations. I have learnt enough from Corporate Communication (I sincerely must thank Mr. Alan Downe for his wonderful lectures on this subject) to realise how communication can bring an organisation far ahead, and how his teaching made me realise that the Virgin Group is what they are today.

It’s good to see that there are juniors who care about the orchestra, but there are also faces which show worrying signs of waning interest. Nevertheless, with the proper guidance given to them, I hope that they will realise the importance of mending up certain things, and to get going with the new missions that they have set. Yes, I am happy to see that they have finally set their mission and will later set a vision as well. I sincerely hope that they will work diligently towards attaining their missions.

Now that I have partially done my part for the MCO, I plan to do some follow-up sessions later on.

However, there’s more to my holiday than MCO and I am already beginning to feel that I’ve got quite a lot of programmes waiting for me. Still, tomorrow being a Sunday, I feel very much like just wasting it in a leisurely manner without needing to meet up with friends etc. I have set aside Monday for all the meet-ups and gatherings.

It’s been nice coming back home after quite a long time, and really munch on my very much missed Ipoh food! Nothing beats home-cook food, personally prepared by my beloved mother who took the trouble to prepare some of her finest dishes.

And my dog, Rambo. He always gives me a very excited welcome whenever I come home, with his tail wagging ever quickly. Oh, how could I miss the comedy of the dog and the cat?

Rambo was given a bath by my father and after that he smelt something and kept wandering around the area where the washing machine was located. My parents and I thought that he smelt a rat (literally) until he suddenly looked up, and we saw, to our surprise, a cat (which we think belong to our neighbour who calls it Kuning). It was standing happily on the wall, knowing that Rambo could not reach it.

Rambo was persistent. He would try to jump as high as possible to reach the cat (for reasons known only to him) but his attempts were all in vain. Kuning soon became complacent and confident that Rambo was of no threat to it. It walked towards the other side of the wall and was not even bothered by Rambo’s jumping towards it. So it turned its body and was about to jump into our neighbour’s garden when it had forgotten its long Garfield-like tail. The tail drooped and went into our side of the wall. Rambo wasted no time and attempted a high jump; he opened his mouth wide and managed to actually grab the tail, and as he fell back to the ground he yanked the startled cat off the wall and into our side of the garden. My parents and I shrieked in surprise as the frightened cat jumped to its feet and ran immediately to the neighbour’s garden, and we slumped into our chairs laughing our tears out.