Strands of dissent

I don’t know if it’s the fact that I’m no longer being brainwashed in the system that is the public education of our country, but once I’ve climbed up further on the rungs of the ladder of life (ie: entered college), it feels like a whole new torrent of broken glasses and veiled lies has unleashed and stormed my beliefs. I have been rendered less and less patriotic when injustices and such discordance kept assaulting me through published news or somewhere down the grapevine, and it’s a far cry from the previous me who had loved singing songs during my secondary school days like Setia (honestly, still my favourite patriotic song till now) or even to the cheesy tunes of Keranamu Malaysia.

And this seems to be reflected even more during a conversation I had with an uncle at Klinik Ooi of SS15 on Monday, who was sitting next to me while waiting to have his medical report translated into layman terms and deduced by the good doctor. And whilst I waited for nearly 1 hour and 45 minutes till my turn, time passed by quickly with him engaging in a conversation with me, when he spotted me revising for my Management Accounting mid-terms.

And it was a conversation laced with strands of complaints and pessimism that we can very well define as dissent—something that our government may be quick to quash. As a businessman himself, the uncle voiced his dissatisfaction over corruption that is rife in his line of dealings, and words like “their people” and “unfair” peppered many of his sentences, and I’m mildly shocked. It’s unlike before when dissatisfaction is swept beneath the carpet, and now, with the advent of the Internet, we’re more aware of issues affecting us, but afraid to do anything because of the government’s draconian ISA.

He asked if I’ve ever studied overseas, and when I nodded in affirmation, he voiced his pleasure and said that all of us should “taste some soap water” from abroad (apparently it’s some Chinese proverb). And it’s true—being in Melbourne made me even more aware of all that Malaysia isn’t and has no hope of improving because of how we’ve been raised to be submissive, petrified puppets who are generally apathetic.

Curiously enough, when I was at the gym on Tuesday afternoon and was the only one there, the owner came to me whilst I was resting from my bicep curl routine, and this time, phrases like “their kind” and “the education system in the old days is much better” flew out from his mouth. Have I missed something? If two near strangers rant about injustice to me in two consecutive days, surely it’s a sign of things to come.

The uncle from the clinic asked if I’ve registered to be a voter, and when I said yes, he immediately called to vote against the present ruling government, for their rule of more than 50 years, while has seen some progress, much has yet to be done. “Give the new opposition party a try,” he advised, and he needn’t even ask as I’ve a firm idea of who I’m going to be voting for in the next election.

But ah, enough of this politically-charged rant.

Melbourne, for some reason, is the source of much nostalgia to me, and I missed the city a lot. I could visualise every lane, every street, every tram, and Walsh Residence in my head, and occasionally the pictures I see from my Walsh St Boys’ Facebook albums forced a fistful of painful pining down my throat.

Also my Management Accounting mid-term was alright, except for a question that confuzzled most of us even though some tips have been dished out beforehand.

I also acquired Heavy Rain, a PS3 game, from Neo of GameOn from my work as a game reviewer, which is an intense, emotionally-charged game revolving around the mystery of the serial killer known as the Origami Killer. One of the most unique and fun games I’ve played in a long while.

Me, Ding, Andy, and Ryui Bynn was at Shawn’s house on Thursday night (at 11.30pm+) up till 4am as we drank and gambled and chatted away. Shawn was departing to France the next day, and I feel pretty happy for him—he hasn’t had a vacation (overseas much less) in ages, and despite this being education-oriented, it should be smashing for him too. He arrived on Tuesday night to pick up my backpack and I lent him my Lumix.

And last night, Sarah (who’s now working as a trainee broker) asked me out to mamak with Andy and Ding there, along with her friends Melissa and Kah Leong, the former whom she knew from Adelaide.

Financial health problems notwithstanding (a huge dip in advertising revenue is rather worrying), it’s otherwise a pretty good uneventful week.