Author: Hafiz Noor Shams

For more about me, please read this.

Categories
Activism Liberty

[653] Of Anwar Ibrahim at Michigan II

I sent an email to Jeff Ooi about Anwar Ibrahim’s lecture . Mr. Ooi has kindly and willingly highlighted the issue.

With that, at least two more mails need to fly. In my list are Michigan Student Assembly and the Office of the President. Maybe, a CC to the Michigan Daily and Michigan Independent will do the trick too.

If you disagree at how Malaysian Student Department (MSD) at Chicago is handling the matter, please send a short letter of protest to the Student Assembly and the University President.

For representatives in the Assembly, their emails can be found at this page. Alternatively, send your protest to msa[dot]reps[at]umich[dot]edu. For the President, her office email is presoff[at]umich[dot]edu. Replace [at] with “@” and [dot] with “.”.

Don’t forget to give MSD Chicago a visit and give them a piece of your mind.

Be a good citizen. Email these people and assert pressure against MSD Chicago. The time for indifference has come and gone.

For more information, read [672] Of Anwar Ibrahim at Michigan and [670] Of hypocrisy in Malaysian policy.

Categories
Liberty

[652] Of Anwar Ibrahim at Michigan

Suddenly, this letter from Malaysian student department (MSD) makes absolute sense. It’s not a “re-emphasization” of a policy. Instead, it’s simply done in the light that Anwar Ibrahim is coming to Michigan.

Anwar Ibrahim , as I have found out, will be giving a lecture at the University of Michigan this week. It should be interesting to know what he has to say, notwithstanding that I don’t fully trust him.

Most interesting is, a few people inside the Malaysian students’ association at Michigan are advising Malaysians at Michigan of the possible difficulties that may arise if any of Malaysian student attend the lecture. Too bad to see people are being coerced by irresponsible few.

Personally, I don’t sympathize with Anwar’s political ambition but MSD’s coersion is an affront to civil rights. If I were still a student there, I would have reported this infringement of rights to relevant university authority and the Michigan Student Assembly. In fact, I think I’ll zap a few mails to several students’ rep in the assembly.

It will be hilarious to see how the Malaysian ruling party’s political inflexibility will measure up against American Michigander Berkeley of the Midwest People’s Republic of Ann Arborite civil consciousness.

And pity, I graduated a few months too early. But I trust Michigan ITD will record the lecture and post it few days later on the web.

Categories
Photography

[651] Of Kuala Lumpur sunset

One luxury of living on a hill facing Kuala Lumpur is the chance to witness the city skyline during sunset. This was taken yesterday, around sunset, if it isn’t apparent enough.

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

In the middle is a silhouette of Menara Celcom (I think), a building that stands near the intersection of Jalan Gurney and Jalan Tun Razak. The photo was taken from the northwestern side of the city, looking southeasterly.Menara Celcom, perhaps, marks the transformation of my area – Titiwangsa and Kampung Datuk Keramat – from a medium density residential area into high density. The composition has also changed – more Arabs now here than there was five or six years ago.

Talking about Jalan Gurney (aka less famous Gurney Road), overzealous nationalists renamed it to Jalan Semarak in the 1990s if my memory serves me.

Digressing, oi Penangnites, Kuala Lumpur had Gurney Road too. Stop thinking of Penang, Penang, Penang whenever you hear Gurney Road. The universe doesn’t evolve around the Earth, much less around Penang. Bah!

It does however, ahem, evoles around __earth. I know, that’s lame.

I have another version of the pix – well, several others in fact. Though some of them are sharper than this one, the colors somehow ran amok and inaccurate. The navish sky for instance was shown as grey while the reddish cloud was overly bright.

p/s – hey dreamstate, would love to see that ps’d shot. =)

Categories
Liberty Politics & government

[650] Of hypocrisy in Malaysian policy

Ah, yes. Malaysian students should not get themselves into opposition activities but it’s alright to join the ruling party’s Kelab UMNO Minnesota or any other Kelab UMNO Luar Negara.

I received the following letters via Malaysian students’ association at my alma mater.

Not sure about the license but seems to be public domain. So, share away while it lasts!

Bah. If you are “Malayly-challenged“, here’s a rough translation:

President,
Malaysian students’ association (MSA),

Students’ involvement in activities that go against government policy

The government is seriously concerned with students’ involvement in activities sponsored by the Malaysian opposition parties, especially students that are subsidized by the government or any other government agency.

As such, student leaders must remind their respective association members not to attend such activities.

If there are students that are active in any opposition sponsored event, student leaders are requested to inform the Malaysian Student Department (MSD) at Chicago immediately.

Director,
MSD Chicago
[Stamp]

Practice caution – MSA presidents are the newly-instated moles of the ruling party. Now, you people will need to go underground. Heh.

This policy is not new. It’s just that the ruling party (aka the government) in the past few years have been rather flexible on it. This development is a signal that the ruling party is re-emphasizing the policy.

p/s – read [672] Of Anwar Ibrahim at Michigan for context.

Categories
Environment

[649] Of on the first day of…

Sing along kids.

On the first day of Raya,
my not-too-friendly-neighborhood-greenie sent to me,
a picture of a stinking river.

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

This one is somewhere near to the Zoo Negara – that’s the national zoo. And people wonder why I’m almost always grumpy. And who cares whether it rhymes…I wonder how well our zoos are ranked internationally? Among the top 200, 300, 9000? Hmm, maybe. You’ll never know, eh?

Hmm, Selangor negeri maju pun tak leh jaga longkang sendiri.