Month -3-08, May
The May Day was the milestone, and it was so glaring to be on Monday. Students began their long vac from May 6 Sat. Deserted campus means a lower entropic biosphere: the parking lots and the rightfulness of privacy, although the first week May was actually very hectic with the post-exam matters. The first May mission commenced only in May middle, and the second in the May end during the much needed school break. Nevertheless, to the end May, the former mission was still unsured of its accomplishment.
Slowly, eleven months to go, but surely; packing, and cleaning the masses I did in this 2154 'box' since 1983 Mar; many things only the creator remembered; the carvings about something done and dispensed; those indespensable papers; documents without which life would be very hard to go on, the copies of which are next to non-existence. Some of them arrived here from somewhere while others were the casted shadows of those created here, and all these while are here. Very soon, for the first time, and the only time, they will move, then eventually they become nobody's interest. Physically they are just papers; but the words are about many 'souls', some of them would stay for a long time to come in different forms of matters. Being a lecturer was like a pulsar: creating and radiating the wave in all directions to distances, dissipated only by the frictions. A lecturer virtually has no competitor; like a pulsar, the nearest pulsar is a galaxy away.
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 I don't believe it. The same guy who said in Jan this year that HP is ok in the school and hostel and immediately retracted by the higher authority; the same guy I stumbled in July last year 2005 in SESERI. Notice how the subject is put into words. I believe the speech was written by either: (1) non-teachers, probably the sponsor members who are non-teacher, or (2) the dude teacher who has separated with the profession of teaching. I don't believe the guy is so dude to have written such a speech by himself. But I don't believe either that people like him is serious about what he is saying. At least we all know that they know that gangsterisme is well flourish in the hostel and that CCTV is not the solution. Standing in waiting about CCTV is not that it could (not necessarily would) solve the stated problem, but its monetory impact when all hostels were given the budget to install the CCTV. And imagine if all the schools are given the contract to only one company, like that of the computer labs a couple of years ago.
Catching the 'gangsters' via CCTV will not prevent the birth of another generation of gangsters. We all know that the best solution is to protect the innocent young juniors from being menaced by the seniors so when they grow into seniors they don't develop defense mechanisms of the gangsterisme characters. For a simple child's mind, "For an eye, is always an eye," CCTV has no ability to function as protector. We all know that, the installed CCTV would work only for a few months. The CCTV will dysfunction when (1) mulfunction develop and there is no budget for the maintenance, (2) the gangsters themselves smash the CCTV camera and to affect the replacement will require the activation of budget procedures, (3) the person in-charge is no longer working there, and the new person put to charge does not know any thing. Just look at how things were circumvented when the PA system mulfunctions in the hostel. The seniors in school did not choose to become gangsters, unlike those in the street. They became so as a result of defense mechanisme to overcome the traumatic agony they suffered when they were juniors. We all know that they know that it does not require a high tech gadget like CCTV to prevent gangsterisme in hostels. What is needed is the commitment of the wardens who assume the responsibility of parents when the parents checks-in their kiddos in the hostel. They spoke very much about assuming parent responsibility, but deliver very little when it comes to dispensing the resposibility. Dedication is another 'tool' needed. Nowadays, commitment and dedication are given the price tag, they thus have limited abilities. |
 
This is perhaps the first step to solution, perhaps: rename the teachers college, rename the certificate awarded from diploma to a dgree. The basics: increased number of people wanted to become teacher, increased number of applications for teachers training. The results: higher quality of teaching profession (in the background of increased number of graduate unemployment!!). Well, about the quality of teaching profession, while some people read as restoration of it, others read as improving. Reading the unemployment scenario, it is interesting to note that: (1) One third of the male graduates are employed against two-third of female [In the universities, more than two-thirds are females]. Put in simple figure, from 100 graduates, 70 are likely females, 50 of them will unlikely get job. From the 30 males, about 12 will likely be unemployed; thus from the 100, about 62 (about two-thirds) are unemployed, still depended on factors (2) and (3) et seq. (2) The least likely employed graduates are agricultural scientists, social scientists, and pure scientists. They are incidently in the frontier knowledge. Frontier or pioneer scientists are like the policy makers in the admin area. Thus S&T in this part of the world is not steered by the "policy makers". Well, this not untypical of non-developed nation. In this type of "civilisation", pure scientists are not needed; they in fact "wastes" a lot of the coffer content. Pure scientists are "producers", applied scientists are "consumer". In this global era, producers are perpetually the developed nations while undeveloped nations are "consumers". (3) UKM's students is the third-least likely to get job after graduation. All the while it has been "renaming" itself by many names such as "Universiti Ilmu Terpilih", "THE National University with International Reach" etc, etc, etc. There is an international joke about the zero inventer: "They invented zero, and they remained zero". Inventing zero was renaming some thing which does not have content or matter. Renaming the zero-content matter is a big business in this 21st century because it is zero capital. However, there are some grey picture also. E.g. (1) the most likely employed graduates are those of architecture and town planning, preceeding the medical and dentistry. This is surprising. May be the samples are not random, or the sampling were not random, or simply the number of samples were not representative. This is understandable since doctors and dentists do not have much time to stroll the streets to have been met by the sampling agents. (2) The most likely employed graduates are those from IPTS doing no other than ICT aka designing webpages and the internet. This is in contradiction to the results itself in the other column where it presented that the likelyhood an ICT graduate to get employment is only 46%. The ICT in IPTS is not superior to the one in IPTA; in fact the converse is probably true. |
It Happened, the Better Way, What I Thought I Missed in Apr
2005 May 3 Wed, had a chat with Izham of Education (co-PIBG SESERI), about the Education Bureau program. The night, called Husin Wahab wherever he is, if he could fit in one of the slot. He could not because he was no longer in the school. That was the bad news, but the good news is he was in Dynasty, KL, having the PTK3 a-go-go since Mon to end next Tue.
 35 years ago, (L-R) Husin Wahab, Mat Zakaria, Sulaiman Md Nor, Izzudin Hamzah: 1970 May 30 Sat, in RRI Sg Buluh, Selangor. The road to RRI was narrow for the big new SAS bus. On the way out of RRI, the incoming car got the preference; the bus gave away by swaying on the grassy roadside, and ditched in the muddy soft ground. Abang Shaari go no problem in getting the boys to push the bus out of the mud. |
The Annual "Peace Time" Arrived
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2005 May 5 Fri, the final paper for some for this Semester II, 2005/06. The campus was "deinfested" since late Apr. It was marked by many vacant parking lots, less getting the door knocked, less menu items in the cafe, many staff went into "incomunicado", day off scenery early every morning, aircondition mulfunction, many telephone calls unanswered, scary dark twilight after sun-set, and no buzzy motocycles. This 'peace time' will perpetuate to early July. But, into the second week of May, the academia were still on the run for the results to be tabled on the 9 Tue (ironically four days after the last papers) and revision and re-revision for several days after that. Probably this is my last "peace time" in the campus. By the time it comes again next time, it may perpetuate.
Four of my students finishing in May. The middle two were my students I supervised directly: Lim Kuan Chien (A96590) and Koh Hwi Keng (A96526).
The Long Lost Little Mango
Green when young hidden between the leaves, orange when fully ripe, purple seed, the fruit the size of a thumb, the tree with many branches making climbing very easy and hand-pick the fruits, the tree could grow big many won't realise it is fruiting until specks of orange colour ripen fruits appear, lasting several generations of owners, slender leaves, rather thin mesocarp, very juicy and gelly orange ripen flesh, very sour and crunchy white mesocarp when unripe, only slightly sweet even when fully ripe, very bitter seed, the ripen fruits very alluring to the eyes, the firm princessly skin, the resinuous sap is more itchy than that of ordinary mango.
The fruit that unzipped the memory of childhood. They were the 'trade-mark' of the home of MekAbang, a close relative of whom was Mariam, a distance away from Batu 6, on the opposite side of Pak Katak. There was two varieties, a smaller one, sweeter, locally called "gemia" or "gumia", and the slightly bigger one, more sour, locally called "setor" (with silent "e" and "r" - sound like "stall" without double "l"). The bookspeak is "kundang", from the colour of the seed (kundang = "purple"). Nowadays, this fruit is very rare, even in the night market, unlike the ubiquitous mango in their shapes and varieties which are mostly domesticated and cross-bred. Its infrequently appearence at the fruit stalls in the night markets, or sometimes supermarkets, are from the Southern Thailand where in the development vacuum, the rurality is very much "preserved" and this little mango enjoyed its natural habitat.
Wow !!! Very Bad Indeed !!!!
You have got your meritocracy, now what? They abused the meritocracy? It's pity isn't it? Well lets talk about it as true. Wow! It happened in our local medical schoolS? All our medical schools? - No, the story 'narrated' is in ONE LOCAL medical school. Ok then, other medical schools may not yet have this 'open secret'. What? this one medical student by FOUR male lecturers? This medical student a male or female? Mas bi a female wan aaahhhh... Can not male wan aahhh, how come four male wan aahhh chasing wan male wan aahhh ... Four male wan aaahhh can chase wan female wan aaahhh ... But not laik dat wan aaahhh ... Wan female student aaahhhh go' wan each male lecturer aaahhhhh asking for sex wan aaahhh... And one of them is the deputy dean? Demanded sexual favours in return for questions to the final exams? Yes aaahhh ... The student gave or not? Of cos not wan aahhh ... she is not supid laik de deputi din wan aahhh ... And another one senior professor? Religious one? Yes one aaahhh ... don bilif wan aaahhhh ... What religion is he? Yu no wan aaahhhh ... How do you know he is religious? He ware religious one aaahhhh ... You mean during the lecture and the clinical demonstration? Yes wan aaahhh ... Then this one junior lecturer who asked for the phone number of the student? Yes aahhh ... Then what? Then aahhh ... he fon wan aahh ... meni meni taims wan aaahhh ... asking to go to si wayang wan aaahhh den drink wan aaahhh den finally sex wan aaahhh ... And the student entertained the junior lecturer? No wan aaahhh ... de student is not det lausi as de lecturer wan aaahhh ... And wan mo aaahhh ... dis lecturer merid de studen wan aaahhh bicos if not aaahhh she canot pas wan aaahhh ... You meant she was forced by the lecturer to marry him so that she could pass the exam and become a doctor? What happened to her when she had passed the exam and became a doctor? Did she get divorced? No wan aaahhh ... she stil become waif wan aaahhh ... but not fair to athes not merid wan aaahhh ... Oh, I see. Do you think this is also happening in other medical schools? I tin so wan aaahhh ... yu can fain out yosef la. It's teruk, isn't it. If the deputy dean is like that, then what about the lecturers? the lab assistants who will help the students to study the anatomy? If the senior lecturer is like that, then what about the junior lecturers? What about the dean who is supposedly unaware of this 'trading' in his medical school? Then what about the medical school itself? What about the doctors produced by such a medical school? Did they graduated out of the sex they were demanded by the lecturers? Are the doctors produced by the local medical schools that bad? What about the male medical students. Did they get harrasement too from the female lecturers? Wow! it's really pornographic. I wonder whether a pig could fly or not if a pair of chicken wings is sewn to it!
In the meantime, a sub-solution to the parking woos. That left no space for non-pegawai. Half of the University staff are non-pegawai. And one keep getting more and more confused: Are lecturers, senior lecturers, and Assoc Professors pegawai or not? I guess in this case they are defined so. But the originator of the problem is not taken cared of. With the "pegawai-pegawai tadbir" and "pegawai sains" are well defined for their parking space, who care for whom these pegawai parking lots are? First come first get. Right?
The short term solution is to guard the space so that only the permitted car can park. But then it will look the professors and the "pegawai tadbir" become less important because their parking spaces are not guarded. A longer term solution would be to put a bar gate at the entrance, the permitted car being given the swipe card to pass through. The problem is how about the garbage truck? The newspaper van? The gas lorry? The bread van? The canteen operators? Etc etc. Are they also be given the swipe card? Like that of the orange stickers found on most of the contractors lorry? Well, at the end of the day, somebody, those who painted the parking lots and those who supplied the paints got the pay. That was for sure a solution.
2006 May 17, Another Mission Acompalished
After a long quest, like that of CheGu Saadiah_Ahmad Yahya, since late 1980's, even up to UNESCO webpages. Eventually, I e-met CheGu Hussein Hj Ahmad, my form 2 teacher in SM Padang Midin 1965, the hostel warden who had been an instrumental in the mechanic of my destiny, by phone, from his office, Institute of Principleship Studies, University of Malaya, Kampus Kota, Jln Sultan Ismail. It was from today's media, for yesterday he received his "Anugerah Tokoh Guru Kebangsaan 2006" in PWTC.
His unmistaken voice, even at 64, and untarnished memory of the mid-1960's in Padang Midin, Kuala Terengganu; his friends (all were my teachers); and me for one, he still have in one piece up to when I last met him in SAS in 1970 Jun Sports Day, when he was the HM of Sek Men Keb Sri Petaling, KL. He told me that my shadowy image in 1965, whence I attributed most from him, was sharpened by the then HM CheGu Nordin Nasir in Jan 1967 first Sunday assembly; and again a rock-solid in 1970 Jun with my HB attribution which I believed he held it irreversibly in his memory, since this moment was his cross-point after a few words when he answered my phone call. I deliberately held the "friday sermon" anecdote from the short chat; perhaps telephatically it was in his mind. I wanted to make it a trump card whenever I meet him personally and in ample time, because this is the very reason why he was "haunted" for this long. I will visit him at his home in a short time. Ironically, all this while, he is a neighbour to one of us, Zawiah, in Kg Tunku.
I Have Met Before
I met before, about six years ago in the MTDC-UKM incubators, wearing nearly the same dress. Two of them (his companion was on a PhD programme in UPM), visiting what was then the 'edge' of UKM research product. The host BIRO's Chairman was so excited by the fact that they were iranians.
Could not understand the content of the cooperation. Their brains are obviously denser and more grey matter. I believe they knew it from the feed they got from the handful of their graduate students in UKM: A nation with charted civilisation vs a civilising nation.
2006 May 19-23, Kenyir, Here I Come
I am sorry Trg, I am late. .. Kenyir Lake is the biggest man-made lake in Southeast Asia. Populated by more than 340 islands spread out in water catchments area of 38000 hectares. The biggest island is estimated as big as Singapore. And Kenyir Lake got her name from one of the river known as Kenyir River but now the river is beneath the lake when Kenyir Lake was filled by the rainfall and surrounding water sources. This area had been listed as a centre of civilization in the era of Neolithic. Some artifact had been uncovered by a group of archeologists in 1956 and 1970’s. Such artifacts were kitchen utensil, axes and tools dating back in Neolithic era. It is believed that during that era this place was known as one of the business activity centres...
   A teen-mate was waiting with two speedboats, and four staff, enough food supplies for two days, and a complete camping gears - completely outside the handset coverage;       Headed for the most southern tips of the lake; sg Cicir, sg Pepek, and sg Terenggan; all in the Taman Negara. Sg cacing was closed by PERHILITAN for fish rebreeding, and sg Petang by KETENGAH for the same reason;    Ready to get 'sunk' in the most 'natural' habitat in the country for two nights; the cool and fresh air, the evergreen view, the dark of the night, the wet of the rain the build the 'tropical rain forest', and the absolute telecommunication blackout - deep in otherwise inaccesible jungle; |
The picture of Kenyir was initially painted for the dam to produce hydroelectric. Its history of construction spanned for 15 years, from the planning stage to the completion. It was first identified in 1961 but proved uneconomic due to the small demand and the high cost of production. Early 1970’s the government revived the study and further site investigations was proceeded. Even though the original survey for the project was in 1972 the construction was started in 1978 and completed in 1985. In 1987 the whole project was officially opened by his Royal Highness The Sultan of Terengganu Darul Iman and was named after the baginda Sultan "Sultan Mahmud Hydro Electric Power Station". The main project site is located at Kuala Kenyir (about 55km from Kuala Terengganu). The main features of Kenyir Hydroelectric Project are a rock fill dam with 400 megawatts of generating plant. During the construction period, two temporary diversion tunnels were built for the purpose of diverting the rivers. The normal capacity of the lake store is 13.6 billion cubic metres of water. Whereas the deepest point is 145 metres deep. This power station complex building can produce 100 MW power units which supplies through out Malaysia. Normally the daily operation produces 165 MW of power and its average annual output is 1600 GWh.
But hidden to most of those who followed the XPDC was that I met my teen-mate from my place, with whom I went to school together, and then to the university together: En Hamzah the deputy general manager of KETENGAH. His luck was that he studied in non-science faculty. I last saw him in 1974 when I left for my postgraduate studies in the UK. We talked on the phone two or three times in between. Today was the reunion; he made every effort to make it happen, the grand extravagant way; he helped to glorify my being in the occasion, dwarfting all those present irrespectively, who admittedly had to mention me by my name. Thanks very much mZah, you made up my day.
              
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RMK9 suddenly sprang from its unknown hideout like a cobra; its online application was undomesticated. Dr Pauzi and Dr Jumat asked to join them for a 'fun', on the subject I had tried and aborted during RMK8, then another last year under different flag (SAGA or something). The tango began since before the Kenyir XPDC, and dragged to dissipation after the trip.
2006 May 26 Fri, Pengkisahan #4
It was embedded inside the faculty assembly 2/2006 to ensure the attendance; and that was after the May 18 Thu schedule deffered. As I have contended before, the #1 in the series was for to the nostalgic 'reunion'. The following two had no such soul since the speakers in one way or another were colleagues. The youngs who were not were so ignorant about the past. It is not their fault though for seeing the future more promising then past because they do not see any beginning when they first checked-in. This #4 had to be dealt with, and it will push the following proportionately, or perhaps more. There are going to be up to #13, scheduled 2006 Sep 18 Mon which certainly has to be dilated further.
On the same day the very much awaited two-weeks school break commenced to Jun 11 Sun. Everybody was at home by the day end; including the letter on CB. Inevitably, the end of May diffused into the beginning of Jun.
Chapter dated May 31, 2006