Proud to be Malaysian?

I hate politics, cos I think it gives me high blood pressure. So I never bother to blog about politics, how stoopid the government is and all that. I write about things that amuses me and stay away from scandalous issues for I fear I may be detained under ISA.

However, someone recently brought something to my attention, and I responded. So I am putting it in here - for both your reading entertainment, but also for posterity.

(What was brought to my attention)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24BfxA48aT8


(My response)
~ Me and my SMART - a love hate relationship, now nearing hate ~

I used to live near where the SMART tunnel runs through now. And though I hated having to be awakened by the traffic running along Jalan Tun Razak at all hours, it was a comfortable home with an even more comfortable sofa. So comfortable that I had friends come by to visit and end up taking a nap. And my housemate was Da Bomd - though some guy friends kept telling me she was a lesbian.

Then the explosions began. And the tremors. And the sudden insurgence of dust particles filled the air. And of course the cracks and the potholes in and outside the apartment grounds. To top it all off was a collapse of a portion of a school building nearby endangering some of the students.

When dialogs were held, Gamuda and the powers that be could not explain why those of us who would be directly affected due to our locality were informed of:

1) That they were doing all these things to being with,
2) The repercussions it would have to the quality of our lives, and
3) The effects to the value of our property, thanks to the cracks and all.

Anyway, some of them bit the bullet and stayed on. Some of us moved away. And some of our voices against this project were drowned by the sounds of explosion.

I moved away and resigned to the knowledge that on the long run, this would do KL City some good. Not good for tourism when potential visitors read about floods in the City Centre. And also not good for my church which gets flooded along the way – St Mary’s Cathedral – opposite Dataran Merdeka.

So, I accepted the idea of this project and the possibilities it will have for the many ppl who have suffered because of the flood.

But then a few weeks ago AFTER the opening of SMART, there was a massive flood. And the SMART tunnel was of no use to alleviate the situation. In fact our fav uncle Samy said don’t blame SMART. How is that again? Esp when SMART was meant to reduce the likelihood of floods like the one we recently endured from happening.

Frankly, I don’t give a toss that the damn thing is cracking.

What I do care is all our taxpayers money goes into supposedly building things like these for the betterment of the community and it does SHITE for anyone. So much talk about the price to use the damn thing, and not even one government response to the men and women whose livelihood depended on their little shops that was thrashed by the flood. *By the way, we recently renovated our church causing us about 1 mil and all our bibles, some music instruments, children’s toys, PCs were all thrashed in the flood.*

So our flood is not as bad as what the ppl of JB endured, but for all the money and hoo-haa that went into the damn thing, I just wished my earlier submission and acceptance of the project was worth it. And I wished our government – ruling party and opposition would stop thinking that all of us Rakyat Malaysia were dumb asses by feeding us lame ass excuses, rubbishy press statements and stories and fighting for nonsensical issues when there are bigger problems in our country today… because seriously, that is how the government makes me feel.

Come on! Lets talk about education for example! I was shocked when working as a sub teacher in a secondary school discovered that a 13 year old girl could not read. And she was classified as stupid. After spending time with her, I realised she wasn’t dumb, she was just dyslexic – and no one, not a single teacher in all her years of education recognised that! And to top it all off, she came from a below average income family whose parents weren’t the smartest either. So they accepted that the teachers were right – my daughter is stupid. When I told her class teacher about it, she said – Oh really? What is that ah? Tak pernah dengar lah.

We spend so much money on building sky scrappers yet we can’t give our own children a decent education or a fighting chance in life. Don’t forget also that just because they are lowly students the food they eat (specifically ref to the conditions of school canteens in recent news) can be prepared under such disgusting environments.

I hate to say this… but there are moments I am truly ashamed to say I am a Malaysian.