Dancing Depur

The drumming didn’t cease
Even though the party was over
We carried it in our hearts
The next day

We felt the lightness of their feet
And the steadiness of their song
As they wished us well
And thanked us grandly

We felt but tried not to feel
The sadness in their eyes,
The pain in their limbs,
And the burning in their hearts.

Poverty poetry aka the National Poverty Summit

Malaysia now,
Is certainly not bereft
Of issues so sordid
As sex scandals,
Corruption and theft

That I was happy to see
That amidst all this s**T
ASLI and CPPS
Held the National Poverty Summit

4 stunning chandeliers,
Hung above a photo
Of a poor woman, child on her lap
A perfect reflection
Of the income gap

Despite that
Real issues were to be discussed
With politicos and the like
And we were all waiting for
The PM to wield the mike

Badawi strode up, smiley and warm
Who would’ve guessed, miles away
A No Confidence vote
Was causing a storm!

“Urban poverty is
Rural povertys reflection”
He spoke of strategies
Headed in the right direction

E-Kasih! Microcredit! Zakat!
Health and education subsidies
He says he has put these in place
Perhaps the man is not such a disgrace

Sulochana Nair
Spoke of all things dire,
Well she didn’t as such,
I just couldn’t rhyme Nair with much.

She spoke with passion and haste
Of all the pain and issues faced
But was pragmatic, and sound
She thinks UN guidelines should be applied to the ground

Then came the MP from Seputeh
Man, shes cool.
Teresa Kok is, in herself,
An antipoverty tool.

Low cost housing provided too far away,
There is nowhere for the kids to play!
From this a healthy society can not grow
Indeed from the crime rate this does show

Next was Selangors new Mentri Besar
Who apologized for his poltical faux pas
His controversial immigrant tax, he says
Was misunderstoond in so many ways

He admitted he was wrong
Which in my mind, is strong
We need more politicians like Khalid Ibrahim
But looking around right now, chances of that
Are certainly grim

There were many others of note,
Dr Ng Yen Yen, I can see how why she got the vote
Walao! The way she described it
Malaysians really deserve more credit

The statistics of which she announced
Were based on definitions already denounced
We cannot be proud
Till we have healthcare and education all round

One thing was missed
Refugees left out of the list
How do we expect to prevent the urban poverty rise
If a large part of them nobody will even recognise?

There was many wise words,
and a few foolish turds
But it was heartening to see live discussion
To see in the audience true passion,
In working towards the end of poverty
Because only then,
we will be truly free.



The above are all those that stood out for me personally, and in no means sums up and shows the most pertinent parts of the summit. It was by the way, well organised and very interesting! And unlike what is going on in most headlines of most newspapers, MSM and otherwise, these are key issues for our country. CPPS/ASLI has done a fabulous job of putting together a poverty fact sheet, a summary of the summit, and the reforms already in place, and those reforms suggested! Its FANTASTIC!

(http://www.cpps.org.my/sub_page.aspx?catID=398&ddlID=401)

I recommend the presentations on the low cost housing. Fascinating!

As Jeffrey Sachs (my favourite economist) says

"We can be the generation to end poverty, but will we?"

Slavery in Malaysia?

June 20th was International Refugees Day- and I received many articles/reports on the state and treatment of refugees in Malaysia. A few things stood out, although upon a background of more chronically terrible facts.

The first thing that took me aback was that there was a survey, that had been commissioned by USCRI (the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants) that had Malaysia in the TOP TEN WORST COUNTRIES in terms of violation of refugee (hence human) rights. You know who else was in this prestigious list?

Iraq. Sudan. Bangladesh.

These are the countries people are seeking refugee FROM?! I am so ashamed. I thought Australia was bad (and it is) with their treatment of refugees. I should have looked closer to home.

Things became worse as we read on. One of these violations that earned us such a honoured spot was that Malaysian officials turned these refugees directly over to human smugglers. They then go on to either smuggle them back into Malaysia OR sell them into slavery to Thai fishing boats or brothels as sex workers.

Our fellow Malaysians are engaging in slavery.

I started reading up more on refugees in Malaysia. This issue is so incredibly complex, that trying to get one fact-filled, emotion-filled, exhaustive blog entry on it was impossible and not true to the aspects in question.

There are *&*6loads of other issues that are key, which range from the actual definition of refugee and asylum seeker, the importance of recognition, as well as how refugees are used as a political, religious and racial tool.

But for now, back to the slavery,

'Slavery is known as a system where certain persons are deprived of personal freedom and compelled to work. Slaves are held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase, or birth, and are deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to receive compensation in return for their labor.'

If anyone can point out the differences between this, and whats happening at the Malaysian-Thai border, please do.

Now before we say “but they are illegal immigrants” or “they are just looking for a better life”, or “what about our own problems” as we eat dinner with our family in the comfort of our homes, lets just pretend.

Lets pretend, that these truly are people seeking asylum, seeking refuge, trying to protect their families, trying to survive life. We not only turn them away at our doorstep, we not only pretend to look the other way, we actively sell them like products to a significantly worse life. A life where even their choice of freedom has led them to a prison.

I love this country. And I know we can do better.

Whats happening to refugees and asylum seekers here, and the consequences of that to society is a major issue. This is just the tip of the iceberg, to highlight how dire the situation is. Human rights is not some artsy fartsy left wing issue. Its almost all that matters. This is not something we can or should ignore any longer... so watch this space... theres so much more to come.

Proposal for a new DSM IV diagnosis

Disclaimer: I realize that this is a ridiculous notion, and I really don’t mean to insult anyone who have made the comments below. I also think that most of us are guilty of making such comments, and although I sound really self righteous in this, I know I’m guilty of this too. This just reflects my anger at some of these flippant comments. It’s a reminder to myself as well that most things happen as a result of consequence, likely caused by society itself.


Proposal for a new DSM IV diagnosis

For those of you who don’t know, the DSM IV is the Diagnostic and Statistic Manual, 4th edition. It is the book by the American Psychiatric Association, and it includes all psychiatric diagnoses and the criteria for these diagnoses.

In the past few months Ive heard many comments like “Homosexuality should be re-included in the DSM”, “the Australian government should not be sorry because they were well intentioned” (this person was referring to the Stolen Generation, and if you don’t know what this is then google or wiki it please), “sex workers deserve HIV/AIDs”. I’m sure everyone could add a few in they have heard, kan? Now this may because Ive left the comfort zone of my hippie, left wing, activist gang and have recently started work in a new place, but these words still came as a slap in the face.

Try to argue. You get called “sensitive, argumentative, idealistic”. Whatever people can think of, when they can’t think of logical arguments. I even had someone laugh in my face.

Anyway as I was walking back from hospital the other day, fuming as I had just heard someone recite the statistic that “8 out of 10 aboriginals – or I think the word native was used- in Australia, are either criminals, or drug/alcohol abusers”. After establishing that this was a statistic completely made up, perhaps from his myopic observations at Victoria Square in Adelaide, I started wondering.

Why do some people seem so narrow minded, and even if they are ignorant of the social problems that underlie some of these issues, why are they so unwilling to broaden their minds, listen and realise most problems are a result of marginalization of some sort.

Then I realized, I was doing the same thing. To these people who were making the comments. I wasn’t wondering WHY they said these things, I was just so angry that they did, and that they took nothing of logic into consideration. Then I tried to explore (in my head, anyway) the reasons that people are like this. Background, upbringing, exposure, education, all these things matter. Of course most of these people had similar background to me, but still there must have been some differences that affected the way we think

Im not saying im perfectly non-judgemental, and have a mind as open as a wicket behind an outlandishly confident batsman. We all have our moments, but the point is you try not to be. There is no point in being judgemental, it doesn’t solve any problem, and its such a headache trying to balance that halo on your head.

So back to my first paragraph – with the comment about homosexuality being reintroduced in to the DSM, I had an epiphany. Maybe narrow mindedness should be a psychiatric disorder, then I could possibly understand it better. The best thing about it would be that like all psychiatric disorders, it would become unfairly stigmatized!

Furcamentis (from the Latin Furca- Narrow, Mentis- Mind)

A. Presence of 2 or more of the following symptoms for more than 5 years continuously
- inability to accept alternative lifestyles, even though these are not affecting ones own life
- concrete thinking and fixed ideas although a logical and more humane explanation is available
- disordered argument process regarding controversial issues
- constant need to pipe up during an argument and profess opinions when no actual knowledge has previously been acquired

Note : Only one Criterion A symptom is required if the symptoms are racist or potentially exacerbating of the social problem underlying the argument

B. Social/Occupational dysfunction

For a significant amount of time, two or more people at work are offended or take issue with what is said. Interpersonal relations are strained as everyone thinks you are a bigot.

C. Duration

Continuous signs of the disturbance persist for at least 5 years. This must be during adulthood, when seemingly free from peer pressure, and ability to think for oneself is present.

D. Substance/General Medical Condition exclusion

The disturbance is not due to the direct physiological effects of a substance or a general medical condition

E. The symptoms are not better accounted for by another psychiatric condition or a pervasive developmental Disorder

The fact that the name I came up resembles a certain expletive, was a mere but pleasurable coincidence.

I strongly believe that, although perhaps statement of opinion different from mine, does not a psychiatric diagnosis make :), that certain mentalities are detrimental to existing problems related to drug abuse, HIV/AIDs, racism and similar social issues. But perhaps these ideas (that are perceived wrong by me, which I understand doesn’t make them wrong per se) need to be challenged in a open minded manner themselves. Otherwise, change of attitude towards these issues will never happen, and I believe we need this for change for the better within these complex social matters.

A room with no bed

He lay on the floor,
And cried.
This old sick man.

I stood
And my heart broke
In a way its never done before

I knelt
And I held his hand
And he held mine

A Matter of Trust

Jen and I attended a forum today (shocked?)- called “Who Needs an Islamic State”. Now in our forum going euphoria we didn’t think twice. So we headed on our merry way. When we arrived we were greeted by two lovely ladies from the Muslims Professional Forum who welcomed us, and were excited that we were there. The excitement at these things is so infectious that we couldn’t help but be excited ourselves.

All speakers handled this quite sensitive, and very potentially controversial topic with grace. My favourite was Dr Dzulkz – he said “You must allow us to have our views, and follow our beliefs” As well as “I don’t use the term non-muslim, I prefer believers of other faiths". Hell yeah. The man is a star in my book.

Anyway, they all had their say, and my heart was filled with excitement for the understanding and open-mindedness that was going on in this seemingly tolerant space. Then the questions began.

Now the questions ranged from the typical crap, to some quite interesting though long winded questions. It wasn’t the questions themselves that bothered me.

What got me, was what people applauded at. They applauded things like “how will we create an army without an Islamic state”. People quoted fitna! So basically, for the first time, my emotions at a forum were based on what my fellow Malaysians sitting next to me were thinking and feeling rather than the speakers. The enthusiasm at things I was hardly enthusiastic at, and the disdain of things I passionately felt for were contradictions I was not used to feeling at these forums. Having said that, everything about this forum, except for the presence of Malik Imtiaz, was different about the peri-election forums that I attended.

It made me feel cold, and it made me feel sad.

It made me feel like the thought of an Islamic state is scary. And that has nothing to do with Islam. I feel comfortable with Islam, and I trust Islam.

Trust is an arbitrary thing. Personally, trust is something in my heart. It has nothing to do with practicality. There are certain people in the political scene, that I greatly admire, but that are few and far between that I trust. Is that a good thing, Im not sure. But its me. I trust Sivarasa, and I now trust Dr Dzulkz. I feel I lost something at this forum, and that was trust in my fellow Malaysian.

And that is the hardest thing to lose. I felt shaky, after the forum (we had to go and have a stiff drink after). This land, this country is the only thing in the world I know is mine. Truly mine. And I know I belong to this country and to no other. And that has held me strong for most of my years.

If I can not trust my fellow Malaysian, I can not trust Malaysia. If I can not trust my own home, my feet have nowhere to land and my heart nowhere to rest.

It'll happen

It’ll happen

I know it will
Its in my heart, its wedged between the orifices of my soul
Like it always has been

It’ll happen

The tears, the laughter, the fight and the love
Will in the end give way
Like it always has

It’ll happen

The success, the fighters, the struggle and the sacrifice
Will soon be forgotten
Like we always do

The Campaign against Nescafe... Or Why I think Nestle is evil.

"When people try to dismiss those who ask big questions as being emotional, it is a strategy to avoid debate. Why should we be scared of being angry? Why should we be scared of our feelings if they're based on facts? The whole framework of reason versus passion is ridiculous, because often passion is based on reason. Passion is not always unreasonable. Anger is based on reason. They're not two different things. I feel it's very important to defend that.”

The above passage is by one of my heroes, Arundhati Roy. I felt no need to repeat the sentiment, as I doubt there is any reason and any way to express it better. It is common for people to react to activists in this way. To pass them off as passionate and idealistic. In my opinion, these are good emotions. These are emotions that create change. But for some reason emotional arguments lose credibility.

But as said above, passion and anger are borne from real experiences and real facts. So why do people do this? They do this to protect their guilt conscience, because you know what? Its tiring to care. Its tiring and inconvenient to care.

But I don’t feel like I’m here to protect people guilt consciences anymore. I used to hate being called self righteous, idealistic and naïve. Now Im okay with it, because there are things I have to say, things I have learnt that outrage me. These are things that I know the good, decent people reading this blog will want to know, if they don’t already. Because as my very clever friend Sneha says “These things, once learnt, cannot be ignored”

Its so difficult to be ethical. People boycott all sorts of things, for all sorts of reasons. So why do they do it? The reason I personally do it- is so people will ask why. I don’t do it because I think Nestle will go under if I stop drinking Nescafe, or that Pfizer will stop producing useless doctor paraphernalia if I resist the urge to snatch up one of the hundreds of drug company pens available to all drs and med students out there. Its about awareness.

Its so people will ask me questions, and I can tell these stories…

Spattered across the world, there will be people who refuse to drink Nescafe. This is a form of boycott of Nestle. Nescafe was chosen because Nestle being the massive MNC it is, has products far and wide, and it is extraordinarily difficult to boycott all nestle products, but I can assure you there are people who go to these lengths. It was also chosen because of its undeniable association to Nestle, whereas Maggi or Milo (god forbid) has less of an obvious association. So why the hullabaloo?

In a nutshell, Nestle promotes Lactogen (baby formula) as a superior alternative to breast feeding in developing communiies- In health circles, this is pure evil- there is no superior option to breastfeeding except in specific cases. There are significant reasons that range from health to economic reasons for this. Nestle also distributes these products with NO CLEAR instructions on the formation of the milk- These business strategies of Nestle resulted in inordinate rates of malnutrition, diarrhea and subsequently a rise in mortality rates in these communities.

The worse thing of all is that this issue has been happening since the early 1970s! Since then, many struggles against this have been made. A guideline was introduced on introduction of milk products in developing countries- but with the companies not having any real incentive to follow them. As part of their business strategy, Nestle also gives free or low cost samples to begin with, which raises the incentive for consumers, with the added thought that this is the healther option for their children. So on one hand, you have nestle almost giving away milk product that is detrimental to infant health, and on the other hand you have major pharma companies denying these same communities a lower price for HIV/AIDs medication. If that is not evil, Im not sure what is. But that’s for another day!

Nestle is not the only company that does this, other companies like KLIM (did you know, that’s milk spelt backwardsJ) advertised their milk powder to new mothers, without further explaining that it was a milk substitute not a specific formula for babies. I watched on a documentary once, that these multi- national companies are able to do these things, because not one person was responsible for actions – there was no collective (or individual) conscience held responsible for actions. Hence here was a massive strength/power/resource, with no one individual to be held accountable for any atrocities that may occur under the companys name. Hence a form of invincibility is created. This is what these boycotts are trying to do- trying to say – No, you are not invincible, No you WILL be held accountable. But this hasn’t happened. People are not angry enough. Children are dying. When will they be angry enough?

There are many more- McDonalds, Starbucks, Conflict diamonds (watch Blood Diamond!)… if you don’t want to join in these Boycotts, struggle with us in other ways, tell people about it, discuss it, think about it- Anything.

When I first started thinking about these things, I decided I wouldn’t boycott. Didn’t think there would be enough of an impact for me to sacrifice things I had come to enjoy. Frankly though, every time I order a Nescafe tarik – it simply tastes like shit.

The Comfort of Conformity

Now for anyone who doesn’t know me, I’m painfully idealistic (some people say naïve, I prefer idealistic). Just imagine what I was like 10 years ago. And damn impressionable, to boot.

This is when I first watched the movie Dead Poets Society for English literature in Taylors College. So we didn’t just watch the movie, we studied it. And boy, did it affect me- especially the conformity part of it- Captain (Mr Keating) had all the schoolboys marching in the schoolyard and told three of them to all walk in their own individual ways, and eventually they all start marching in the same rhythm. The rest of the boys start clapping in time. When they discover they are marching in rhythm, they exalt in it. He stops them, and he says he has tried to illustrate the point of conformity.

He describes “The difficulty in maintaining your own beliefs in the face of others.” And he says to them “Now, those of you -- I see the look in your eyes like, "I would've walked differently." Well, ask yourselves why you were clapping. Now, we all have a great need for acceptance. But you must trust that your beliefs are unique, your own, even though others may think them odd or unpopular”

Now lets bring it back to now, 2008, 12th general elections- I see a mobilized, excited society, in particular the youth. I see a change from as early as two years ago. I remember when I first started reading and becoming interested in politics not that long ago, the crowd I would be speaking to, regardless of age, were people who simply did not know or care, or cared but were too cynical about things to even engage in conversation about it. Now, what a change! What a breath of fresh air! How heartening to read the responses to the blogs, to the alternative news websites. How exhilarating to see people standing in the bludgeoning rain sharing umbrellas with their neighbours to hear what the opposition has to say. How exciting for us, Malaysians.

I am as thrilled as can be imagined that the change in mentality that people previously flippantly and callously brushed off as ‘never gonna happen’ is happening right in front of our eyes. But I worry, because are we suddenly just blindly following what the ‘in’ thing right now is? Since I have come back from Australia, I have noticed a massive change in the air - it is suddenly ‘cool to care’. And that is phenomenal. And very, very rare. But its similar to the anti American bandwagon traveling all over the world, what we have here in Malaysia is an anti-BN bandwagon. Now, don’t get me wrong, I would drive the anti BN bandwagon, or the anti American bandwagon if given the chance. There are so many reasons to be angry at these institutions/empires for the wrong they have done. But I want the people jumping on to jump on because they are angry, and they know why they are angry.

If they don’t, then suddenly it becomes a crowd mentality, where no one person is responsible for anything, and we are just a mass of people, not individuals. Initially full of different voices, saying different things. Different, interesting, colorful things, and then slowly becoming one voice chanting out a slogan. That sounds kind of beautiful doesn’t it. One Malaysia, one voice. What the hell!? How can we be one voice, each one of us is different. We care about different things. I care about leprosy and TB in rural Malaysia, the person next to me cares about roadworks, someone else cares about racism, others care about corruption and inequality. We are not one voice. We are a united people fighting for issues that affect the Malaysian rakyat.

The only reason I have started thinking about these things is because I am guilty of it myself. For the last two or so years, I have begun reading the work of Farish Noor- from his books, to the Other Malaysia (which is great, make sure you go have a look www.othermalaysia.org), to Off the Edge to his Facebook notes. At a time when I was so confused and disappointed with a whole range of things from Islam to Malaysian politics, his writing lifted my spirits and helped me understand. Now, all of a sudden, I feel I have idolised him, and by doing so, I stop thinking about what he says and just blindly believe. That’s ridiculous, I mean the man is intelligent, witty, knowledgeable and lets face it, seriously smoking hot. But if I suddenly decide he is the shit and think that everything he says is gold, I will just be repeating history. Worse still, I will be rejecting the advice of advocates of free thinking like Farish himself. Its weirdly ironic.

Im not saying I should not admire him and another like-minded activists, I should, and I really, really do. Without them, I truly believe the world would be significantly poorer. I just, for myself, at least, believe that I have the intelligence to constantly think carefully of every idea, every protest, every complaint put forward. To always think about both sides, sit in the middle and look at both the left and right wing.

To come back to the quote from Dead Poets Society, I think sometimes it is not so much the difficulty in maintaining your own beliefs that is the problem, but the ease in assent to others beliefs and ideas. The ease of not fighting, not opposing. The comfort of it. It takes a toll on the mind, to constantly question, to constantly oppose and challenge, people you dislike, like, admire. But it is essential because as Malik Imtiaz says in his blog 'It is only in the clash of ideas and opinions that we see the synthesis of true democratic value.'

About Me....and this blog

You know, Ive been wanting to write in my blog for MONTHS now. And I have so many things to say, hence creating a blog in the first place. Finally, I decided, hey its one week before elections. My emotions are riding as high as they are ever going to be in terms of Malaysia. Its now or never.

So here I am. How does this work- Ive learnt the beauty of the Blog is that its like a piece of art. I made it, and I can call it good if I damn well please. Now that’s fun.

I am 26, Malaysian, a doctor (extremely junior) have just returned from 9 years in Australia. I struggle with my identity, only because people constantly argue it. When Im in Australia- “what?! you’re Malaysian, but you don’t look Chinese, you look Indian” Which is the oddest thing ive heard, but Ive heard it time and time again. When Im in Malaysia- its more, “Why you think you so action, ah” because I have a god awful aust/uk/odd accent that makes people sound like im putting it on. And then people imply that I am westernized because of it, so go back where I belong lah.

These things used to bother me, but Ive recently realized I am Malaysian, whether I like it or not, and whether you like it or not

A caesura is a pause in a work of art. Whether it is a poem, song, movie. I feel like am in the midst of a piece of art- that is that I am surrounded by inspiring people like my family, friends, activists like Farish Noor and Arundhati Roy, heroes and legends like Aung San Suu Kyii, Nelson Mandela, Gandhi. Its exciting, thrilling, exhilarating. Its overwhelming. To fully absorb it all, I need to stop and think. This is what this is – this is me, pausing.