New GSC in Melaka

Golden Screen Cinemas Sdn Bhd (GSC) today extended another 10-screens in Melaka, in addition to the current 4-screen GSC Mahkota Parade to cater to the entertainment needs in the historic city of Melaka.

To date, a total of RM49 million has been invested in three new multiplexes throughout Malaysia in 2008, namely GSC Alamanda Putrajaya (April –RM13 million), GSC 1Borneo Kota Kinabalu (June – RM16 million) and now GSC Dataran Pahlawan Melaka (at the cost of RM20 million).

According to GSC Chief Executive Officer, Ms Koh Mei Lee, “Being the leading cinema operator in the country, GSC believes in providing our customers with the best cinematic experience”.

With the additional 2002 seats in the new multiplex, there will be a total of 2,811 seats available in the two GSC cinemas in Melaka. Tickets will be priced at RM9 per normal seat in GSC Dataran Pahlawan.

GSC’s e-payment facility @ www.gsc.com.my will be extended to GSC Dataran Pahlawan patrons, and facilitate a hassle free online payment for movie fans and enable them to select their seats from the comfort of their homes or office.

Also present to witness the soft opening of the cinema was Datuk Haji Shuaib bin Haji Lazim (Hatten Group Sdn Bhd Chairman), Datuk Eric Tan (Hatten Group Sdn Bhd CEO), Datuk Seet Har Cheow (Melaka State Exco, Tourism) and En Ahmad bin Yahaya Al-Jahsyi (Melaka Tourism Director).

Movie fans were treat to a selection of past blockbuster movies like “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian”, “Fool’s Gold”, “Congkak”, “My Wife is a Gambling Maestro” and “Azhagiya Tamil Magen” prior the opening.

As part of the opening attraction, GSC will be organizing fun activities and freebies in the cinema during the opening weekend. This will include Star Wars and Batman movie characters, photography sessions, balloon giveaways, dart contest, popcorn eating contest and strongest man contest to keep the family crowd occupied throughout the day.

With each purchase of a F & N Coca-Cola Over at the concession counters in both GSC Dataran Pahlawan and GSC Mahkota Parade, GSC patrons will be entitled to a spin at the “Wheel of Fortune” and an opportunity to win prizes like GSC passes, can drinks and movie premiums.

Damn it, just damn it

U know what? I just found out that my car's rear bumper was banged when i went to PROTES. Don't know which idiot that doesn't know how to drive knocked into my car. I only noticed it the day after PROTES. Fuck lah. Just ruined my day when i saw that hideous mark. I curse that driver to get into accident. I don't care. I'm not in the mood to forgive and forget when it involves monetary losses and emotional hurt. Fuck you !

Protes

Went to Protes Sejuta Rakyat Turun yesterday. The afternoon session's highlight was Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim's speech. After that it was pretty uneventful till the evening session. A ruckus broke out. Water bottles, rocks and bricks were being thrown. I was there, at the side of the stage when it happened. Crazy lar. Flying missiles coming from everywhere.

The whole thing started because some punk rock group were performing some rude acts on stage while singing a song with bad words. They performed 3 songs. I loathed them the moment they stepped on stage. The first and second songs built up the emotions of the people and the final song did it for the crowd. That idiot vocalist flashed his bum several times and was singing "Jilat" to the crowd made up of mostly Muslims. They got offended and started to boo and scold the band. When the band continued, missiles started flying. The band was escorted away so quickly that i couldn't even locate them although i was right in the midst of the action. Luckily a PAS MP, Dr Lolo Ghazali was there to calm the crowd. Then Hishamuddin Rais, the person in charge of stage performances appeared to apologize to the angry crowd. The crowd was still not satisfied and were cursing and swearing at him as he was escorted out.

I personally don't agree to what the crowd resort to. Violence is not the way to show your disagreement but yet i understand how they feel. They are Muslims and when they are treated to so obscenity, they definitely get enraged of course. So many non-muslim malaysians were there too. Even they felt that the band went overboard. For me, i felt that the band was at fault because they provoked this reaction. Some would say that the crowd should just walk away if they don't agree with the performance but i would ask back the same to the band, if you know that many people couldn't not accept what you're doing why don't you perform somewhere else where people could accept your acts? Why must you perform in front of people who have opposite views to yours? You punks deserved this, padan muka.

Unluckily this ruckus caused some hurt to innocent people a well. The chairperson, a sweet young lady was hit by a bottle full of water flung by a guy who was standing near to me. After throwing the bottle, he could pretend that he didn't do anything. WTF! I stared at him and he stared back at me. I walked away then as i don't want to get into trouble as he is with the majority. Later tak pasal pasal i kena wack by a group of angry people pula.

All this happened just before the Magrib prayers. What a shame lah. Lucky the Dr Lolo and an Uztaz was there. They initiated the prayers and the crowd started to pray and everything went back to normal.

More and more people were streaming in to the stadium after the prayers. A few politicians took turns to speak while waiting for more people to turn up. Then YB Lim Kit Siang arrived to the cheers of many, he then addressed the crowd and in the middle of his speech, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim arrived. The whole stadium got animated and stood to greet the arrival of the 'guest of honor" in the words of YB Lim. When it came to Anwar's turn to speak, he was in his element. The crowd was in his control and they responded to every chants and questions of his. The multiracial crowd was in unity, in one voice to demand that the fuel prices go down.

I left at about 10.30pm, a few moments before Anwar finished his speech. I knew that the crowd will start to leave as soon as he finishes, so i leave a bit earlier to avoid the chaos. Luckily for me i left at that time. When i neared my car, i saw a whole contingent of traffic police officers were there to issue summonses to cars park along the road. They haven't reach the other side of the road which my car was parked at. I quickly left the scene as i don't want to get into any troubles with officers that were there on purpose. To spoil the day of the protesters. Boo to the police force.

Reached home in about 15 minutes as Federal was clear and smooth flowing. Sleep soundly after taking a bath as i was dead tired. I didn't get any rest at all as i was in the stadium from 3 till 10.30 running here and there.

Breathtaking view

My fren took this photo from the window of his plane. It is a bird's eye view of Dubai. What a wonder it is. Buildings jutting out from the desert. They even have a golf course. Notice the greenish area? that's the golf course.

Then there is the world famous Palm Island. An engineering and architectural marvel. Just look at how the city's development was planned. It is farsighted and visionary. I wish to go there one day and have a look at this beautiful place. The freeways are so huge and well planned. Not like the ones we have in malaysia. Sigh. Seeing it in a picture or with own eyes is so much better than seeing it in tv. In tv there no sense of realness. Can't really grasp the beauty of it..however, this picture is just perfect.

Below is the picture of Dubai's airport...That counter u see is a gold selling counter. The whole place is so beautiful. Gosh..

Stinging night

Last night went over to Tony's house with the bunch of fellas to watch tv. i managed to squeeze in a session of badminton when i was there too. Started off badly and keep it that way for almost the whole session. Don't know whether if its because i'm rusty from lack of practice or freezing bcoz of anxiety or bcoz of infamiliarity with surroundings and the people. Stroke play still ok but my net shots are horrendous. I've nvr missed shuttles so badly b4. Haih~ Obviously i need to play more to get back my touch around the net. i can accept losses in many things but not in sports. Yeah, i'm saying that i kiasu abit in sports. i hate to lose!

Went to mamak after that. Was so hungry that i managed to wolf down RM7.70 worth of food. Lepak around for quite sometime at the mamak and was back at tony's home b4 12 midnite. The others were playin boardgames when we entered. i quickly snatched the remote control and switched to ESPN in time to catch sportscentre asia. Managed to get myself updated with things happenin in the sports world for the past day. I miss home and my tv set. i wish i have a tv and astro here with me. i miss my daily drama, sports and serials tv sesssion !!

At 12.30am, went to bath and prepare for the coming session of US Open golf and Euro 2008 action. Oh ya i managed to complete my Mass Media & Society chapter reading report while watching Tiger Woods in motion on his way to his 14th major.

The others all went to sleep at around 2am. All of them can't tahan d. I almost dozed of too while watching Germany vs Austria. So boring lah. Germany were lucky Michael Ballack rescued them with that spectacular missile of a free kick. Could not stand it anymore, so i switched channel and watch Tiger slugging it out with Rocco Mediate. I know many ppl will lambast me for impling that golf is more interesting than football. I will admit that football is more exciting but there are times when you get dour matches. Germany vs Austria was one of them. Golf is interesting when Tiger is in the hunt for major titles. You'll nvr understand the excitement and pleasure when Tiger performs his magical stuff on the course if you don't know how to appreciate the game. We should count ourselves lucky to have witnessed sporting legends in action during our time. Ppl like Tiger, Roger Federer, Michael Schumacher and I dare say Kobe Bryant are once in a lifetime athletes that do amazing things in their respective sports.

Tiger hoisted the trophy at around 4.30am local time. I switched everything off at around that time to sleep and my torture started right after that. I forgot to mention this but yeah i'm sleeping on the sofa in the living room. Damn lah. Mosquitoes all over. I only have 5 hours plus of time to sleep but the mosquitoes kept me drifting in and out of slumber. Could not manage to get a good rest at all. Dah la exhausted from the badminton session and now can't sleep pula. It started to get light at around 6.45 like that. I think mich already awake around that time. I was starting to drift into sleep when she came into the living room. Mosquitoes were starting to disappear as the sun shines brighter. I tried again to sleep but by then Shan also woke up d and terganggu my sleep. Haih. i cukup kesian lah.

At last i managed to get some proper rest from around 8 to 8.50am. I wanted to sleep more one but was awakened by Mich's shoving to remind me that it is almost 9 and we had to start our journey back to PJ. Terpaksa wake up and freshen myself and drive back. Sienz lah. Tony's still in his sleep mode when i woke him to let us out of his house. Was constantly grumbling that he needs more sleep. He should appreciate that he got more sleep than me leh ! i terpaksa suffer countless mosquito bites in the living room.

We got to experience the traffic jam of Klang in the morning for the first time of our lives on our way home. Decided to use NKVE instead of Federal Highway as we dont have much time to waste getting stuck in traffic. Fuel consumption also teruk if get stuck in traffic. Money flying away ler. Something stupid happened just b4 the first toll on NKVE. As i was approaching, i wound down my windows to get in contact with the Touch and Go device. I was using mich's maybank zinkard that time. I din know that the wind was so strong. The gust blew away the card from my fingers. So kan cheong d that time. Quickly use another card to pass the toll first and stop at the side to go retrieve the Zinkard that is lying in the middle of a highway !
Mich found the location of the card first and she went to pick it up. She so damn brave lah. I am the one supposed to go get the card 1 but i couldn't see where it is. As soon as she spotted it, she went to the middle of the highway to get it. My god. Tak sempat i offer to go she went d. Was kicking myself that time for lettin the gust of wind blow the card away from my fingers. What a stupid incident. Was glad ntg more happened all the way back. Got speed abit, hopefully no speedtraps around the place i sped. If not sure kena lecture from parents again.

I reached home at around 9.45 after dropping off the 3 of them. Washed up and prepare for class. Went to campus at around 10.15 like that. I had to go early coz i need to print my report and do some stuff la. Wanted to get theSun newspaper too but none of my coursemates were around yet that time. So i asked Peiling to get one for me. Luckily there are many copies left although its 10am plus d. Usually by this time, all the papers gone d. Peiling, thank you so much. You're the best, muacks. haha.

First class was mass media tutorial. ntg much happened and i was still fresh that time. so i din doze off. Angie's tutorial followed. I was starting to feel the effect of not having enough sleep by that time. Managed to tahan until class finish. Went to eat at mamak with Shan to fill my super hungry and croaking stomach. Lolz. The following class was Language Learning lecture. I seriously could not tahan anymore. Constantly dozing off by that time. She even manage to tick me off for dozing off. Luckily i managed to open my eyes the moment she finished her sentence. No one realized she was ticking me off. Haha. Then i saw a few others starting to get drowsy after that. I continue to suffer for the whole lecture. Tried my best to stay awake d but still failed. Ms. Angie, i'm so sorry for dozing off in your class yah. Paiseh. I'm very tired ler today.

P3 of Ruling the Rulers : Mahathir Vs the Malay Rulers

By Huzir Sulaiman

BY October 1983, Malaysians were becoming aware that a constitutional crisis was in full swing. The Constitution (Amendment) Bill 1983 had been passed by both houses of Parliament, but the King, under pressure from his fellow rulers, was refusing to give his Royal Assent to it.

The bill would remove the need for the King to assent to legislation, and would similarly do away with the need for Sultans to assent to State laws. It would also take away the King's power to declare an Emergency and give it to the Prime Minister.

The Rulers publicly rejected these amendments after a meeting in Selangor on Nov 20, 1983. When the public became aware that a storm was brewing, Dr Mahathir’s administration initiated a propaganda war to put pressure on the Rulers.

There took place a “series of illegal public rallies held by Umno in Alor Star, Bagan Datoh, Seremban, Batu Pahat, Malacca, for the Prime Minister with reports of officially inflated crowd figures?.” as Lim Kit Siang would later describe them in the Dewan Rakyat.

These rallies, staged in order to generate sympathy for the Government’s cause, were illegal in the sense that police permits were neither sought nor granted.

Whether or not the crowd figures were inflated by the Umno-aligned media – it is true that they generally reported these events in positive terms – it is clear that the 1983 rallies were exciting evenings, with republican sentiments on everyone’s minds, if not exactly on their lips. One of the most arresting images in Rais Yatim’s Faces in the Corridor of Power is a photograph of two youths at one such rally. They are wearing T-shirts bearing Dr Mahathir’s picture and the words “DAULAT RAKYAT”.

Although the Prime Minister denied wanting to abolish the monarchy, at these rallies “the historical moment of unfolding Malay nationalism was relived as a continuing battle of Malay popular sovereignty against royal hegemony,” as Khoo Boo Teik writes in Paradoxes of Mahathirism.

At a rally in Alor Star on Nov 26, Dr Mahathir declared that “It was the rakyat who had protested against the Malayan Union after the Second World War; it was the rakyat who wanted a democratic system that would enable them to choose their own leaders. It was always the people who had fought for their destiny.”

At the largest rally, in Batu Pahat, Dr Mahathir told the crowds, in a thinly veiled dig at hereditary rulers, “We weren’t born Ministers ? We’re up here because we were chosen by all of you.”

The propaganda war continued, with tales of royal extravagance and impropriety emerging. The Government leaked the fact that they were compiling dossiers on the Sultans. RTM announced they were preparing a year-long TV series on the Rulers and the Constitution.

Yet pro-royal rallies took place too – especially in Kelantan and Terengganu, where Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah was rumoured to be responsible for them – and they drew large crowds, although they went unreported by the media.

Upping the ante, the Umno Youth executive council called for the Government to gazette the Constitution (Amendment) Bill without waiting for the King's assent, effectively daring the Rulers to challenge it in court. Dr Mahathir did not immediately adopt this strategy, but held this “nuclear option” in reserve while behind-the-scenes negotiations continued with the Rulers.

Public opinion was divided over the issue. Rural Malays tended to support the Rulers; urban Malays, while not uncritical of Mahathir’s strategies and motives, were more ready to accept egalitarian ideas.

As for the Chinese community, R.S. Milne and Diane K. Mauzy note in Malaysian Politics Under Mahathir that “One might have expected that, since the rulers and the Agung were symbols of ‘Malayness’ the Chinese would feel little loyalty to them. Paradoxically, they were quite pro-royalty, because they did not really trust Malay politicians. Indeed, they viewed the Agung and the rulers as protectors of their vital interests.”

There seemed to be no way out of the impasse except by compromise – which is what happened. The Rulers agreed to the Constitutional (Amendment) Bill 1983 on the condition that many of its provisions were modified or repealed immediately with the introduction of the Constitution (Amendment) Bill 1984.

The new bill, passed in January 1984, meant that the King could now only delay a piece of non-money legislation for a month. It then had to be sent back to Parliament with his objections. If the King still opposed it in the form in which Parliament then passed it, he could only delay it for another month before it was gazetted as law.

The King could therefore only delay legislation for up to two months before it became the law of the land.

But this principle was no longer extended to the State level: Sultans still needed to assent to State bills before they became law, which was an important symbolic victory. Most importantly for those who feared Dr Mahathir’s supposed plan to concentrate power in his own hands, the bill removed the proposed ability of the Prime Minister to declare an Emergency by himself, and restored it to the King.

Nonetheless, Dr Mahathir saw himself as having won, declaring at a victory rally in Malacca that the feudal system had ended. He had brought his theatrical, confrontational, unapologetically antagonistic style to a high-stakes arena and had, by some accounts at least, triumphed over the Malay Rulers.

He quickly moved to consolidate his gains. Stories had been circulating that the head of the army, Jen Tan Sri Mohd Zain Hashim, was opposed to Mahathir’s approach and believed the armed force’s loyalty lay with the Rulers. Mohd Zain took early retirement. This was followed by a reorganisation of the army and some 500 other early retirements and dismissals.

When the independent-minded Sultan of Johor took over as Yang di-Pertuan Agong in 1984, some feared (and some hoped) that royal activism would reassert itself.

As Roger Kershaw writes in Monarchy In South-East Asia: Faces of Tradition in Transition, “From the beginning, the Agong had made no secret of his contempt for Mahathir on the grounds of his mixed blood, calling him, to his face, ‘Mamak’ (a derogatory nickname for those of Indian Muslim ancestry). [?] But Dr Mahathir had proved more than a match for this difficult sovereign. Having got the measure of the King’s essential vanity and exhibitionism, he prudently pandered to it, even to the extent of placing a more convenient Royal Malaysian Airforce helicopter at his permanent disposal?.”

Through this and other measures, Dr Mahathir maintained good relations with the new King, enlisting him in his 1987 move against the judiciary, the effects of which are still felt today.

The Prime Minister’s campaign continued. He silenced the Rulers over the issue of the 1987 ISA detentions; staged a hostile debate on the monarchy in the 1990 Umno general assembly after the loss of Kelantan to PAS; removed the Rulers’ immunity to prosecution following the constitutional crisis of 1992-93; stripped away their flights, outriders, and special hospital wards; and in 1994, with little opposition, finally removed the need to obtain the Rulers’ assent for State laws.

Looking back, we can see how the bars of the yellow silk cage began to go up in 1983, closing in year after year.

Should we find it surprising, then, that after 25 years the tigers within should want to break free? Can we not understand that the Rulers might want to regain what has been lost?

And here is the hardest question of all: without giving up our democratic ideals, in a cynical and disloyal age, can we find a way to let our Rulers rule?

Relief

The results for last semester is finally out. I got the gpa that is around the target that i set albeit it could be better if Paul Ang had given me a B+ instead of a B. Sir, why u so cruel 1? On the bright side however, I am one of the lucky ones that manage to check their results because as soon as word got out that results are out, students all flood in to the intranet to check for their results. As a result, UTAR's shitty and sucky server crashed. No one can check their results now. ICT buck up lah. UTAR, dont so kiam siap, upgrade la for heaven's sake.

Another good news is, UTAR management knew of our demands to choose our electives. They seemed to be afraid of us now after all the things that we did. They straight away sort things out and say that we can take Religious and Cultural Practices subject. Woohoo. They even contemplated giving us more elective choices. They really are worried of my batch it seems. Wahaha. Who ask you not to do things properly. If you prepare before hand, you won't have this problem. Right?

So take note. Don't repeat any of this in the future. If we see any thing that we don't like, we'll complain again. We're not docile students that only know how to say "yes sir" or "yes madam". We know our rights and we fight for it. We don't lie down for u to step on us. The student representative body is USELESS. We practically don't need them to fight for us. We fight for ourselves. The student representative election is just a popularity contest. It's not about who can do a good job of being student representative. It sad but somehow it's true. If you're popular, you get elected. If you're not, then goodbye. Stupid mentality. This is especially true in chinese educated people. I know it's an ad-hominem attack but who cares. I still wan to commit this fallacy cause it holds true for the majority. :p

Next issue is the RM 100 fee to exempt us from taking Bahasa Malaysia paper. We're not goin to pay the RM 100. Forget it! How can you charge us RM 100 to exempt ourselves? Ridiculous. To make matters worst? Isn't a credit in SPM BM a pre-requisite to enter UTAR? It's common sense that all of us have to pass our BM in SPM or else we don't get our SPM certs. How ridiculous for you to ask us to take that subject. Come on. Be real.