Second class upper

By Ng Eng Kiat

Most Malaysians have no notion of class. Which is sad, really, because there are those who claim to understand class but actually only see in shades of race and religion.

For them, class division is more about whether one is Malay, Chinese, or Indian than about the Mercedes S-Class. In reality, however, it’s the Mercedes (or kapchai) in your porch that counts, not your skin colour.

Unless, of course, one goes as far as to say “what car you drive depends on what race you belong to!”

Then, my friend, you probably belong in an era still fighting Hitler.

The new dawn racists do not want

By Ng Eng Kiat

March 8, 2008 will be a date forever recorded in the hearts of a few Malaysians who voted against a dominant racial ideology in favour of justice, equality, accountability, and freedom.

My emphasis: a few.

CCTV powerless against Orang Minyak

By Ng Eng Kiat

Universiti Sains Malaysia’s efforts in projecting itself as a clean and healthy garden campus have been recently blighted by hot rumours amongst students that that women have been raped in their dorms.

While such talk have not been new – apparently surfacing once every couple of years – paranoia and fear have gripped the female population (for real) this time because the alleged rapist is known to them. And because CCTVs cannot catch it.

It is purportedly the Orang Minyak, a mythical paranormal being in oily human-like body that needs to make greasy love to virgins. And CCTVs do not catch Orang Minyaks on tape because the Minyaks are supposedly able to walk float transport themselves through walls.

For Malaysia, let’s dialogue

By Ng Eng Kiat

For many Malaysians, it is hard imagining the young today coming together to critically unravel the various realities constructing their lives.

Coming together is hard when certain stereotypes, especially racial ones, have built walls of doubt around our hopes for change.

As sad as this sounds, there are those who construct meanings using empirical “facts”, which are derived and dependent on one supposed constant – race, and claim that rationalism has triumphed.

And as rational as some still think that formula is, efforts to integrate the people of this nation as one people continue to be in vain.

It is hence encouraging, though painful, that this little initiative by the name of Kasikampus aims to call upon fellow students to leave one bag of constructs behind, and walk out of campus a new person, “Kita Anak Bangsa Malaysia”.

Healthy campus needs creative expression

By Ng Eng Kiat

Coming from purportedly the healthiest university campus in Malaysia, one would probably be inclined towards being more appreciative of the environment we humans live in. While recycling aluminum tin cans and tree planting activities seem to have plunge down the chart of ‘Popular Environmentalist Campaigns’, Malaysian society’s “healthiest” have not failed to suggest fresh ideas.

I recall three of the biggest energy sapping campaigns one ‘healthy campus’ has mustered in recent times. (There may be more than three, but for me to do research now for accuracy’s sake will defeat the purpose of recalling for memory’s sake, which should be the end-goal of any campaign) And they are:

Motor vehicle ban in science university

By Ng Eng Kiat

Please mark reporter Sobana Damodaran’s prophetic opening remarks:

Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) akan ‘mengharamkan’ sepenuhnya penggunaan motosikal dan kereta di kampus dalam tempoh lima tahun lagi.

Will the Vice-Chancellor be cycling to work in five years?

Campus polls irrelevant… Not!

By Ng Eng Kiat

Malaysians are living in interesting times. In a democracy where we become democratic once every five years, the buildup to the next orgasmic democratic moment, i.e. elections, in our history cannot be less exhilarating.

For us students, campus polls offer a training ground for democracy every year but sadly, we find ourselves increasingly desensitised when it comes to preserving, much less feeding, that basic responsibility of ours. We are so often told that “politics is dirty” and somehow forget democracy isn’t, nor should it be, dirty.

For the casual observer, campus polls might be a pointless, almost meaningless, fight between highly charged political infants. Some would say these students are but chess pieces on the larger national chess board – representing not students’ interest, but serving, with utmost loyalty, their political idols. It really doesn’t get any more ludicrous than reading that the most prestigious university in the whole of Malaysia this September conducted a “SULIT” survey asking students to rank their favourite “personalities” in a compulsory form.