blog.davidteoh.com

It is 1.11 am in the morning. I’m blogging again… because I’m waiting for a heavy email to get through.

I’ve been so busy of late which is a good thing, I’m enjoying learning and more importantly I’m beginning to enjoy living. Yes, I schedule movie times next to a very hectic schedule and I’ve stopped turning down invites to events unless I really have to.

Perhaps I should thank Haig. If we are to work as designers, we involve ourselves in the act of creation which is driven by our inner passions. The more at ease we feel with our inner selves, the apparent is the quality of our work. Here, I do not mean a quality in its literal meaning, but rather the quality as described by Christopher Alexander - the quality that has no name. Vis a vis happy people create better work.

I’ve been staring at this since I started on the HCMC Masterplan drawings… which has so much to do with the Timeless Way of Building… Its something RP extracted from Anthony Grey’s Saigon:

Everything evolves, that is how nature wills it
After days of rain, fine weather returns
Suddenly the whole world throws off its damp garments
And carpets of green brocade sparkle on the mountains
The sun is warm, the wind is clean, the flowers smile
Rain has washed the trees and birds sing happily
The heart of man is warmed, life reawakens
At last sorrow gives way to happiness
because that is how nature wishes it to be

Last Sunday Malaysia welcomed a new dawn. The ruling coalition was routed for the first time in 50 years at Federal and state levels. Despite their attempts to cheat in the polls to manipulate marginal seats, voters came out in droves to cast a vote for the opposition. You can cheat through postal votes and phantom votes when the result is marginal, but for most prominent opposition candidates, their victory margin was in the tens of thousands, not the several hundreds.

Malaysians, don’t be afraid of the change - there has been some anxiety over recent developments casting doubt on whether or not the opposition can govern and work together as a team. I’m sure there will be problems, but it would be only natural. This is the first time this has happened in history! Don’t let the UMNO bullies start another May 13 again. While PM Abdullah warns everyone else not to play the racial card, it is becoming more and more obvious that the only one doing so is UMNO.
I think Michael Backman’s post election commentary published in The Age sums it all up nicely.

Malaysian voters open the door for Anwar Ibrahim
by Michael Backman
The Age
March 12, 2008

MALAYSIA Boleh! (Malaysia Can!) is Malaysia’s national slogan but after last Saturday’s elections, the real slogan should be Malaysians Boleh! for ordinary Malaysians are to be congratulated. The humiliation they handed their government at the federal and state elections demonstrates how politically sophisticated and mature they have become in the face of a high-handed and patronising government.

Five state governments were won by the opposition and federally, the Government had its worst showing ever. But it was the clinical precision in which voters went about their business that was most impressive.

Zainuddin Maidin, the information minister, lost his seat. A measure of how complacent the Government had become was its appointment of the inept Zainuddin to the role in the first place. His appalling performance on Al Jazeera television late last year was a very public international humiliation for all Malaysians. Voters did what Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi did not have the guts to do: they removed him from office.

Malaysia’s media has become so discredited that local bloggers are now hugely popular. Zainuddin had patronisingly warned Malaysians about false information spread by bloggers. They responded by voting one of the most popular bloggers — Jeff Ooi — into parliament.

The birthday of Samy Vellu, the long-serving public works minister and head of the party that represents Malaysia’s Indian community, coincided with election day but it was Malaysians who got the birthday present. Samy lost his seat.

No one is more to blame than he for driving Malaysia’s Indians into their pitiful state as second-class citizens. His deputy also lost his seat, as did the head of the party’s youth wing, its vice-president, and the head of its women’s wing. The party barely exists now.

Meanwhile, a lawyer who championed the rights of Indians and who has been detained without charge since December because of it, won a seat in a state parliament — a seat in which the majority of voters are actually Chinese. It seems that ordinary Malaysians have a greater sense of fair play than their Government.

The Government lost power in the state of Penang. Lim Guan Eng, the much-respected new chief minister, was arrested and jailed in 1994 after he distributed a brochure complaining about the handling of claims that the (then) chief minister of Malacca, Rahim Thamby Chik, had sexual relations with an under-age girl who happened to be
one of Lim’s constituents.

Unbelievably Thamby Chik was not charged for what amounted to statutory rape but Lim was, for having distributed the pamphlet. How embarrassing for Abdullah that he must now deal with a chief minister that his Government so unfairly jailed.

Only the state government of Sarawak was spared voters’ ire but only because it had its elections last year. But nature will bring change there too. Its long-serving, outstandingly greedy, cancer-stricken chief minister is soon to learn that a shroud has no pockets.

More broadly, the very legitimacy of Abdullah’s Government is open to question. At the federal level, the opposition received 47.8% of the vote; a remarkable result given voting fraud, a frightened media that gives the opposition almost no positive coverage, and severely rigged electoral boundaries. As it was, about a third of eligible voters did
not vote, meaning that Abdullah’s Government was returned by only four out of 10 eligible voters.

Late last year, I met with former finance minister and senior ruling party lawmaker Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah at his residence in Kuala Lumpur. He told me how appalled he was by the direction Malaysia had taken. He said that Malaysia needed a free media and a truly independent judiciary. He decried the corruption and nepotism that had
beset the leadership of his own party. “But why don’t you stand up in parliament and say these things?” I asked.

“Because the media would be instructed not to report it,” he said.

If the opposition parties and their leaders can put their egos aside and think strategically, they have a chance of giving Malaysia what it sorely needs, a stable two-party system.

Opposition figure Anwar Ibrahim will become eligible for election next month with the expiry of the ban following his criminal conviction.

The nightmare scenario for Abdullah is that Anwar’s wife, who was again elected on Saturday, will resign in the coming months, forcing a by-election at which Anwar will be elected. He might then help to coalesce the opposition parties into a more unified and effective voice. If he were to lure the Chinese-based MCA and perhaps the
Sarawak-based United Traditional Bumiputera Party away from the ruling coalition, then the opposition would have precisely half the members of parliament. And if just one more government member were to walk — Tengku Razaleigh perhaps — then the Government will fall after 50 years in office. The current 13-party ruling coalition
would be replaced by a five-party coalition. Whether or not this happens, there will be constant tension from the fact that it might.

Abdullah has emerged as probably Malaysia’s most pointless prime minister. The election results are an unmitigated disaster for him and his Government. If the opposition is sufficiently disciplined and the ruling coalition starts to crack, then his nightmare has only just begun. Could Abdullah negotiate such a minefield? So far his political talents don’t seem to have stretched beyond using chemical-laden water cannons against his own people. It would seem his days are numbered.

ends

See the published version on the Age website at:
http://business.theage.com.au/malaysian-voters-open-the-door-for-anwar-ibrahim/20080311-1yrf.html

Ah back to blogging again. Hello everyone!
The week began in a sombre mood. I received news that my maternal grandmother had passed away. I wouldn’t be returning for the funeral, as this was my first week back at university. By Tuesday it seemed like the week had run its course - it was going to be a tough week. So here’s my rant.

I admit, I have been edgy and quite upset with the university since the end of January, it all started when they issued me an offer letter on the 22 January asking for payment and acceptance on the 25 January. 2 1/2 days to transfer some $10,000 to secure my enrollment. I went to the university only to find myself threatened: ‘oh, if you don’t pay on time your enrollment will be delayed and you may not start the semester on time.’ and how about this: ‘your visa may be canceled’ and this classic ‘I don’t deal with the fees, you will have to call this person up (hand me a phone number instead of calling the person for me)’. Look, if I had went to Toyota the same day and told them ‘I have $26000 to spend’, the salesman would pull up a chair for me, be as helpful as possible and even make me coffee. But thats the trouble with education today. On one hand the university is a big business, on the other hand its an education provider. So in my point of view, those clowns behind the counter at administration should treat me like a paying customer (a paying customer for the past 3 years!). Let the academics treat me like a student. The things is, I never asked the university to give me a place in the Masters program. They offered me a place, so why do I have to be inconvenienced?

So out went my first salvo - the 5 point email stating my displeasure and frustration. Promptly an apologetic reply came and things were sorted out. All’s good I thought.

Fast forward to a week before the start. I found myself in a room with my other course mates having a Q&A with the Head of Architecture. After 45 minutes he mumbled under his breath ‘… its like the inquisition in here’. Well it was. We weren’t all that excited about the recent developments. It was tiring and frustrating for all of us. But then again, change is difficult and I have to admit, it was no walk in the park for the faculty.

A week later, we’re in a flea-market of a room, listening to the studio presentations by each studio leader. After the first 5 presentations, I was hardly impressed. We were the guinea pigs of a bunch of wannabe academics pushing their individual agendas. Where were the hero-architects? None of the presenters impressed upon me a clear ethos and direction. A good portion of them were doing social housing, and the rest were specialised in fields I had no interest in.

1. While all that was happening, I couldn’t enrol in elective subjects I was interested in. It was like all the balls were up in the air for the first few days of uni. It seemed like a deep gloom had descended on everyone. What if it went the other way and worst case scenario eventuated - I get stuck in a studio I didn’t like while doing electives I had no interest in?

2. While this was happening, I discovered that I couldn’t access subject information. I was bounded from counter to counter trying to figure out why. In the end I discovered that the university withheld my confirmation of enrollment because I had failed to pay them $2. I smiled and gave the counter girl my gold coin donation and laughed at the irony of it all.

3. While all this was happening, drama was unfolding in the office. Some intrigue, tragedy, frustration, a sacrificial lamb, some bullfighting, silent revolution, a semi-coup de tat but my confidentiality agreement probably prohibits me from blogging about this.
Back at uni, to pre-empt a worst case scenario,I fired a second salvo - the diplomatically correct email. I emphatised with the dilemma faced by the university, and thanked the staff for making the transition less painful while asserting all my concerns and frustrations while trusting decisions taken to the faculty, trusting that they will make informed choices with everyone in mind. The result? I get an email thanking me for a ‘thoughtful and well considered email’ and hinting that, things will be taken care of, with no promises.

By the end of the week, some order prevailed over the chaos. Not everyone got what they wanted and I guess it can’t be helped. The battle of Week 1 is over. My studio was confirmed, and I was lucky enough to get my first choice. My timetable was sorted out with all the subjects I wanted arranged in the first half of the week, leaving me Thursdays and Fridays free.
With preparations complete, I felt a calm prevail. It was all up to me now. I guess in my mind, a semester of architecture should be considered like a long preparation for battle. My favourite tutor Marjan keeps telling us ‘generals are wisest after the battle’. After 5 years of architectural education, I guess I have to consider myself a General now. I have to strategise my time and rally my willpower and faculties to do my best.
The past few months have been a time of personal development and reflection. I had decided early in the year that this would be MY year. The coming of age. The end of an era. The final charge in a long battle. I’d gradually getting fitter - spiritually, mentally and physically. There will be a lot of hard work and a lot of personal growth in the coming months, and finally I feel ready for it.

I have been on a long hiatus since late August. Its now been 111 days since I last blogged. Time does fly.

In the past 3 or so months, life has changed so much it is hard to begin to start writing again.

So I’ll leave it here for now and in time I’ll write a bit more again.

Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high
There’s a land that I heard of
Once in a lullaby

Somewhere over the rainbow
Skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true

Some day I’ll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far behind me
Where troubles melt like lemondrops
Away above the chimney tops
That’s where you’ll find me