Earnestly, Erna

Archive for Current Affairs

The price we will not pay

February 2, 2012 Current Affairs, Faith One comment

I was reminded yesterday of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. A German Lutheran priest, he spoke out against the Nazi party from the start and he paid for it with his life.

There are too many champagne nationalists these days, I think. They talk about or campaign for things all from the safety and comfort of their homes or cafes. But big things require big sacrifices. And I’m not so sure the people who start all these armchair activism endeavours are prepared to give up more than the price of a latte.

What would I give up? Would I have the courage of Bonhoeffer to speak the truth, even if it would mean I could ultimately lose my life?

I’d like to think so but part of me wonders if I would, in the end, give in to my own cowardice.

So much for less writing…

January 10, 2012 Current Affairs, Journalism, Writing No comments

The thing about being in the Malaysian media…it rarely gets boring.

Found time to write two “Side Views” pieces for TMI. “Side Views” is for viewpoints and opinion pieces outside TMI’s “Opinion” pages. The latter is usually reserved for TMI’s regular columnists.

Despite being one of the aforementioned regular columnists, there were some things that made more sense expressing on TMI than just, say, on the blog.

One was the embarrassing gaffe by the Ministry of Defence. What riled me was that some tried to defend the mistake. You do not “defend” something as laughable as the page was.

When you can’t defend the Ministry of Defence

Then the surprising Anwar Sodomy II acquittal happened. Wasn’t planning on writing about it but my super said, “Why not?” I concurred.

901: A day for cautious optimism

In other news, am amazed people still read my opinionated blather. I try.

Gotta be standing for something

January 6, 2012 Current Affairs, Personal No comments

It can be hard dealing with pigheaded people. But someone stubbornly set on an opinion is still better than someone who’s wishy-washy. You have to stand for something and figure out what you’re for and what you’re against.

Sometimes what angers you is a good clue about what makes you feel alive. And I figured out that it riles me up when people make excuses for poor use of language in the public sphere.

Use all the bad grammar you want on your blog or at home, but I have no patience for people justifying it on government websites. Have some standards for pity’s sake, Malaysia.

Dear HSBC: please support the arts

December 30, 2011 Current Affairs No comments

I heard that the local HSBC bank is pulling its arts funding. That is sad news for the industry, especially when it has and will always need all the support it can get.

Why is HSBC pulling the funding? Rumour has it that its CEO thinks funding the arts provides “no value”.

If this is true then I question said CEO’s “values”.

The arts is often shortchanged and seen as a poorer cousin of the sciences or the wealth creation monolith of finance and economics.

But there is value in the arts by what it gives in ways that cannot be quantified. If it were up to the bean counters, the aesthetics of buildings would never be taken into account when building them. We would go to work or live in grey buildings that all looked the same, give a floor or two because buildings would solely be created on functionality and cost-effectiveness.

HSBC is obviously too fixated on ROI.

“Funding the arts isn’t going to help us sell credit cards, loans or premier services.”

No, it probably won’t. There is no justification, monetary-wise to give money to the arts. Yet taking away arts funding isn’t going to help with the poor image banks and financial institutions have now thanks to the shaky global economy.

Banks take, and trade, on the needs of its customers. Using money held in trusts, banks routinely gamble on what they call “investments”, encouraging consumers to build debt so as to rake in hefty interest on said debt.

While people lose their homes or struggle to survive on credit, the top employees of banks like HSBC still make more money than the poorest of the poor will see in a lifetime.

So is it too much, HSBC, to ask that you give a little back to the community? Is it a lot to ask for what to you constitutes pennies to support creative expression and the things that make life better?

The sciences gives us tools, economics and finance gives us means, but the arts make life worth living.

Kevin Spacey makes a far more eloquent appeal in this video.

Part II: why the CPB is still a bad idea

December 9, 2011 Current Affairs 10 comments

I got a comment from an ex-intern of mine about the CPB and why it does not apply to all tech workers but only to those wanting to work on CNII (critical national information infrastructure) projects.

The thing is, Malaysia being as small as it is, IT companies may eventually find themselves working for or with a government-linked agency. There is no specific definition of what agency or department that is or is not deemed CNI.

Does this make things better? Not really. The bill is still poorly worded, very misleading and the worst case scenario still applies: if a fresh grad, non-tech certified and not registered, emails an idea to a friend about upgrading a government service, it is still TECHNICALLY against the law.

Also:

1. To bid for a contract, instead of going through one layer of bureaucracy, you add even more layers. You have to pay annual fee, get tested and adhere to some vague standard to be judged qualifed to work on government or CNNI-related projects. In other words, it’s a rather fancy way to legalise paying duit kopi.

2. The CPB board is minister-appointed. What’s to stop the MOSTI minister from appointing a crony?

3. Registered professionals not being able to practise outside their declared proficiency. Hello, IT people pick up skills as and when they go along. So everytime a professional learns a new skill, he/she needs to take another exam or show another certification to prove their competence? It doesn’t work that way, bub.

4. An agency to define what IT professionals are should be independent of the government. Self-regulation! The government has no right to declare that, say, a Microsoft-certified fresh grad is a professional while a self-taught Linux hack with no formal degree or certs isn’t. IT professionals should be judged by their peers and not have the government try to MAKE MONEY out of “certifying” IT professionals.

So my verdict? The bill is still an act of bodohness. But I’ll let my former intern Will have his say. You may or may not agree with either of our point of views but freedom of expression is important.

Hey former boss (referring to Erna )

TLDR: The only thing that really changes with this Act is that critical government services will now only be serviced by an exclusive club which restricts membership according to formal qualifications (and/or extensive proof of experience). Rest of IT not affected.

After speaking with one of the proponents of the bill, and re-reading the Bill – it turns out that this has been a huge misunderstanding. If you read it carefully, you will find that only “CNII” (Critical National Information Infrastructure) services requires one to be registered. I.e., if you’re in the IT industry, and you don’t provide IT services for the government in critical areas, you don’t need to even be aware of the existence of this act.

There are only two places in the document which talks about restrictions to non-registered persons. One says that non-registered persons shall not render the services of a registered person. The other says that only registered persons can render services for CNII related stuff.

The only remaining issue is less major – i.e. that the academics require that the word ‘professional’ to be reserved for those with formal qualifications / training or extensive proof of experience. Considering that this doesn’t affect freedoms in any major way, I’m fine with it.

Killing techies the Malaysian way

December 8, 2011 Current Affairs 46 comments

After the draconian Peaceful Assembly Bill, Malaysia is now trotting out the next Really Bad Idea: the Computing Professionals Bill 2011. You can read the draft bill here.

The gist of it is this: the plan is to create a Board of Computing Professionals and make it mandatory by law for all computing professionals to be registered with and certified by said board.

This board will decide whether you are a ‘properly’ qualified professional. There will of course be registration fees involved, payable yearly. And a proposed ‘fund’ created. Why does all this smell rather like a poorly disguised moneymaking scheme?

If you are NOT a registered member, you are prohibited from submitting “proposals,plans,designs,drawings,schemes,reports,studies or others to be determined by the Board to any person or authority in Malaysia”.

In other words, if I don’t register, it is technically illegal for me to even email ANY MALAYSIAN with even an IDEA for a tech-related project. It would be against the law for me to even sketch, on a napkin, my idea for a new app while having coffee with someone.

Want to know the hilarious part? The country with a bill nearly identical to ours is…Nigeria. So we’re taking a leaf out of their book? Brilliant, Malaysia, totally brilliant.

In countries like Australia, there are professional bodies like the Australian Computer Society. But enrollment is voluntary – in Malaysia, the powers that be are figuratively putting a gun to the head of every computing professional. “Register or you’ll be deemed doing business illegally.”

Why is this a big deal? The bill goes against the grain of everything tech stands for. It’s about innovation and the freedom to create; things this bill intends to snuff out. What’s to stop the country from deciding what kind of tech we’re allowed to create?

The bill even states that IT professionals are not allowed to participate in fields not within their expertise. So if I’m a registered systems analyst but taught myself to program in Rails in my spare time, it would be ILLEGAL for me to do some coding for a client unless I re-declare my skills.

As an IT grad and ex-tech worker, I learned first-hand that it isn’t paper qualifications that count as much as proven skills. I know programmers without degrees or any form of certification who are skilled, competent and in most cases, entirely self-taught. After all, the biggest names in the global IT industry —Bill Gates, the late Steve Jobs, Michael Dell and Larry Ellison—dropped out of college.

Dear tech industry workers, I urge you to oppose the bill.

Oppose it because it seeks to force you to limit and narrowly define the scope of your talents.

Oppose it because the government is effectively trying to decide what you can or cannot work on and who you can work with.

Oppose it because unnecessary regulation like this will cripple, not enhance the already challenged industry.

Oppose it because this is a poorly thought out, badly put-together piece of bullcrap.

I’ll be damned if I’ll let the government insist I register with them and pay them money for the freedom to program, build websites and apps or propose tech-related ideas to my fellow Malaysians.

(Featured image courtesy of Funny Junk)

The LOLBudget that made me cry

October 8, 2011 Current Affairs 2 comments

There was something rather different, for me, about this year’s national budget.

I had never felt as disappointed as I was and am right now, when I “covered” the budget on Twitter the last two times.

LOLBudget came about because I thought some brevity was needed. The national budget tabling in Malaysia is taken so seriously and is often so predictable, that it was laughable. And I wanted some laughter because, by God, we need humour more than ever. Else we’d likely go mad in this current climate.

Budgets are serious things. But politicians take themselves far too seriously and so do most political and economical pundits. Yes, I mocked and jibed my way through LOLBudget but if it got people talking, conversing and thinking about the damn budget, I’d consider my playing the jester worth it.

See, before I started LOLBudgeting proper, someone Tweeted me, asking me what to expect. I answered “How much goodies (the government) will offer without bankrupting the nation.”

And the budget was full of so many sweeteners I swore my teeth would fall from rot.

Look, no one addressed the biggest elephant in the room: where was the money to fund all those handouts coming from? Emergency funds for small business, abolishing of school fees, bonuses and lots of incentives for civil servants…someone has to pay for that.

What was even more alarming was the income tax cut across the board…for big business. Malaysia in comparison to most other countries really doesn’t tax much. So even more discounts in the perhaps vain hope that we push domestic consumption and draw in more investments? You have got to be kidding me.

Am I an armchair economist now? No. I’m just a journalist. A journalist who wonders how the government is going to make good on its promises especially when they involve spending a lot of money I’m not sure we have.

What bothers me is the lack of transparency in spending, allocations, tendering etc. The closest we come to openness is the annual accountant-general’s report. The man must cry himself to sleep at night.

I wanted answers to the problem that is our economy. But all we Malaysians got were promises of more sweeties.

But it’s not about me, is it? It’s about gaining the popular votes so instead of doing the right but unpopular thing, we get the popular measures that in the big picture scheme of things are really not what we need.

And that is nothing to laugh about.

Budget 2012 or the LOLBudget

October 7, 2011 Current Affairs 28 comments

Once upon a time, I was a very bored Malaysiakini sub watching the Budget presentation in 2009. So I started Tweeting about the budget, partly for my own amusement and partly to explain it in layman’s terms.

Because, really, Budget sittings are very, very boring. This is my third year Tweeting about the budget: come on and join in the fun!

17.46

OK, free HPV vaccine is something to be happy about. #LOLBudget12

17.42

Oi, can we stop zooming in on Shahrizat’s face can or not. A short pan, can. Long focus is annoying. #LOLBudget12

17.32

We are going to reward bloated, inefficient civil service. Such genius! Forward thinking! #LOLBudget12

17.31

So, let’s wipe out our EPF savings to buy the house we’ll work to 60 to pay for! #LOLBudget12

17.30

Norway can afford welfare state – high income, low corruption, high taxes. Great education. But us? HAIH.

17.25

Couples can now apply for up to RM400k laons under First Home scheme. Singles, you’re out of luck.

17.24

More 1Malaysia kedai runcits. O yay. Now there’s even a Menu Rakyat 1 Malaysia. And I bet bacon’s not on it. #LOLBudget12

17.23

All these sweeteners come with a clause: “You don’t vote for us, you don’t get them.” #LOLBudget12

17.22

Subsidies are still in effect and govt saying it’s keeping them for us. Who says they won’t be whittled down later? #LOLBudget12

17.18

Summary – govt is giving tax breaks to hoteliers, MNCs, private schools. And who’s paying for it? We are. #LOLBudget12

17.17

Have tiered education. The poor get assistance, exemptions from fees. The ones who can pay, pay. #LOLBudget12

17.16

I don’t know whether #LOLBudget12 should actually be #BribeBudget12

17.15

OK, pretty much budget is full of sweeteners to get biggest vote block in – civil servants, felda. #LOLBudget12

17.13

I would like to remind PM – Gates & Jobs were college dropouts…but had good public school education. #LOLBudget12

17.12

No offence but we need more master and PhD holders in govt like I need another arm. #LOLBudget12

17.11

So instead of giving money to our kids to do tertiary, we’re giving it to civil servants. Oh, well done. #LOLBudget12

17.08

Retirement age increased to 60 for civil servants. Poor blokes. #LOLBudget12

17.05

Civil servants, as usual, given enough sweeteners to give them diabetes #LOLBudget12

17.04

At least the #LOLBudget12 is free of epic silliness like mentions of perfume, underwear and ANOTHER TOWER.

16.58

All the tax cuts, all the rosy predictions. Where is the money coming from to fund all these corridors? #LOLBudget12

16.56

Wow, it took 50 years for govt to look into improving East Malaysia’s water supply? #LOLBudget12

16.53

Parents would be willing to pay a bit more for better teachers than have free, crap education #LOLBudget12

16.51

I’d rather govt charge parents who can pay and have money go into improving our education #LOLBudget12

16.49

All govt primary and secondary schools are now completely free – no fees charged for incidentals including extracurricular #LOLBudget12

16.47

Eh, what’s so special about giving schools money. Don’t they give them anyhow each year? #LOLBudget12

16.47

More money thrown at schools. All schools. Fix the education system first, can? Our English syllabus is geared towards 3-year olds. #LOLBudget12

16.45

Best way to kill innovation: have an official Innovation Agency. Oi-lah, Malaysia. #LOLBudget12

16.44

World Innovation Forum & Asia Business Angel Forum. Sigh. Better not be big, expensive wastes of money. #LOLBudget12

16.43

And using market validation to certify a product’s desirability? Err. #LOLBudget12

16.42

National Innovation Movement. I facepalm. You can’t have innovation without freedom of expression or thought. #LOLBudget12

16.40

Oh boy innovation speech coming. #LOLBudget12

16.39

A lot of tax cutting here – even for 4-5 star hoteliers. Now I really wonder where money’s gonna come in. #LOLBudget12

16.37

25mil foreign tourists last year. Langkawi being redeveloped. Don’t raise our sin taxes please #LOLBudget12

16.36

RM10mil emergency fund for small-time business peoples. OK, sound idea.#LOLBudget12

16.35

Failing once isn’t failing forever, says glorious leader. Half expect him to sing “Jika kau fikirkan kau boleh.” #LOLBudget12

16.32

Felda settlers getting sweeteners. Hmm hmm. No surprises #LOLBudget12

16.30

Pak Lah looks wide awake. Good job! Can’t say the same about some blokes behind him. #LOLBudget12

16.29

Malaysia largest Islamic bonds issuer. Expect more Islamic banking products coming your way soon! #LOLBudget12

16.29

MNC perks: income tax exemptions, duties exemptions. Will they bite? Hmm #LOLBUdget12

16.26

What the heck is with all the corridors. North, Sabah, Sarawak… #LOLBudget12

16.24

Liberalisation in medical, law among other sectors. More foreign ownership. Good news, bad news? #LOLBudget12

16.23

Whoa almost 58 percent contribution by services sector. Govt claims to liberalise more sectors. #LOLBudget12

16.21

Another stimulus package. Schools, hospitals, infrastructure. Open tenders, PM? #LOLBudget12

16.20

29.8 bil for economy, 13.6 social. Hmm. and oh, 1.2 bil just-in-case. #LOLBudget12

16.18

All rosy predictions so far. Ooh RM232.8 billion allocated for spending. Now where is it gonna come from? #LOLBudget12

16.16

We have a plan to improve local economy and investments! Predicting moar of it next year. Err, OK. #LOLBudget12

16.15

5-5.5 percent growth predicted says our noble leader. Revised down a little from last year’s. #LOLBudget12

16.14

Most optimistic PM predicts private sector to contribute muchly to 2012 budget. #LOLBudget12

16.12

Oh yay pretty slides to accompany mention of North Economic Corridor. Tenkiu TV3 #LOLBudget12

16.11

OK “Negara maju berpendapatan tinggi” rhetoric is back. Internet still sucks, dear PM #LOLBudget12

16.09

Summary of speech so far : “We care about the little guy, really! We feel your pain!” #LOLBudget12

16.07

Instead of “pendapatan tinggi” we’re going for “pendapatan sederhana tinggi”. Eh? #LOLBudget12

16.04

I hope the PM hired a new speechwriter. His last one sucked. Seriously. #LOLBudget12

16.03

Long-winded #LOLBudget12 theme summarised: “We want your votes.” You’re welcome.

16.01

Wahai TV3 talking heads, can we get back to watching hensem MPs in baju Melayu? Kthksbai #LOLBudget12

15.57

Dashinglah our PM today. Red, matching the DPM. Is that the colour of our budget this year? #LOLBudget12

15.53

The #LOLBudget12 drinking game: drink when an MP nods off. Chug if camera pans to Rosmah.

15.51

I wonder if cameramen this year have been told NOT to pan to Rosmah if PM mentions shopping #LOLBudget12

15.49

I see Hisham! And Nazri! Kit Siang in the house! #LOLBudget12

15.48

As usual half the analysts will be proven wrong once budget is tabled. #LOLBudget12

15.45

OK flipping through channels. Men in suits, men in suits blablabla snore #LOLBudget12

Malaysia remembers its birthday

September 15, 2011 Current Affairs No comments

Malaysia Day for me is a reflection of how much things have changed.

Two years ago, I wrote an angsty rant about how little people in West Malaysia thought about Sept 16 and how its significance seemed to be lost outside East Malaysia.

“Dates are funny things. We celebrate birthdays and anniversaries with reverence and as the 16th of September is Malaysia’s ‘real’ birthday, you would think some celebration would be in order.

How do you celebrate what you don’t recall? While every year Sabahans are reminded of the choice and sacrifices we made to be a part of this country, many West Malaysians are woefully ignorant of 16th September’s significance.”

Things have changed. Sept 16 is now a gazetted national holiday with Aug 31, Malaya’s Independence day sidelined. The latter for me is sad. Though I have no personal attachment to the date, I am sure many other people do. Must Merdeka lose its meaning just because we want to make the country more inclusive for the East Malaysians among us?

I muse this just as the Prime Minister has given a Malaysia Day address, announcing the much hoped-for repeal of the ISA. It is testament to the long years of struggle by activists brave enough to protest its existence, when many Malaysians were complacent or too afraid to speak up.

But the Prime Minister’s promises are still just promises. Anything could happen between now and the elections. Still, I think as a country we have made some strides despite economic challenges. There is much less apathy among Malaysians, the “tidak-apa” attitude does not have as much of a grip as it used to. For better or for worse, Malaysians are learning to express themselves and participate more as members of society.

So with some hope and tempered joy, I wish Malaysia a very happy birthday with even better ones to come.

Journos shouldn’t be tragic “heroes”

September 4, 2011 Current Affairs, Journalism One comment

There is a lot of pointless political posturing around the death of BernamaTV cameraman Noramfaizul Mohd Nor. Opposition politicos going on about how charity begins at home, that Instead of helping Somalia we should be looking after our own.

By their reasoning, we should ignore all pleas from outside. No helping Japan, Palestine, Indonesia, no. Let us be honest here. It is not that Malaysians do not need aid but that Somalia is desperate in a way our countrymen aren’t. We can spare some aid. My only issue is with the means it was given.

Of all the people we could have sent, why send Putra 1Malaysia? Why couldn’t we instead channel funds directly to organisations already in Somalia instead of spending money to send our people there? We didn’t need to send our journos there – we have newswires to give us the updates on the state of the ground.

There are allegations the team was ill-equipped and ill-prepared for the mission. I wonder if the people going there realised just how dangerous and unstable Somalia is. Did the Bernama crew know just how much danger the trip posed? Did they understand there was a possibility they might not return?

If Putra 1Malaysia wanted to run a humanitarian mission, why couldn’t it get a member to document the proceedings instead of bringing a journalist along? Was it worth it, risking journalist lives to cover what they were doing?

I say they never should have gone. Or at least, not force media to come along. Did media even have a choice? If you want a means of documentation that does not bleed, then bring a camera. You can’t as easily replace a human being.

Many of the journalists who knew Noramfaizul are angry. They grieve a friend and compatriot. They know he deserved better. All journalists deserve better than to be collateral damage in a mission as flawed as this was.

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