misc sun | weaning off facebook

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I will be weaning off facebook for this month.

no, not because of the fasting month...

wishing all my Muslim relatives, friends, colleagues, acquaintances, patients, enemies and passerbys - have a holy month of fasting, may you be stronger following the blessings of your Mighty God.

wishing all my Chinese relatives, friends, colleagues, acquaintances, patients, enemies and passerbys - have a good, safe Hungry Ghost month. may you rejoice that the passing does not bring sorrow but bring remembrance. Plus, a grim reminder that life is uncertain but death is.

wishing my department will have new medical officers and not those invisible ones, especially not during Hungry Ghost month.

meet the pengarah

a real un-doctored pics posted up by a cool colleague in anaest dept

it's almost 2 months since the sting of the medical shortage. the poison now ran so deep, so dissipated, so profoundly rooted that maybe what ever comes in these few months to come, everything will never be the same again.

the statistics of graduate trainees coming in been obnoxiously devastating. in 3 years, it had dropped from 2 to -1. no one came while one left with reasons being openly obvious to everyone except to those who chose not to believe it, continued with their impervious hallucination or just simply accepted as fated by god or any higher beings.

new bloods were injected into the fellowship, but morals, interest, enthusiasm continued to wane. they were being deceived into a short voluntary charity service, only to be found themselves stuck in their self-proclaimed hell. the plot thickened, especially when contradictory decisions reared its ugliest head. they found themselves gasping for the air of escape.

while the rest got more weary, wasted and worn, as we're all expected to be totipotent and multipotent. at times, i was being put in a position with antithetic and conflicting crossfires.

as suggested by the most experienced, we placed ourselves in a very shallow, desperate and pathetic position, pleading for our sanity, health and life to the one person that could be our savior.

as the dialogue went past the long list of manpower with the imaginary names without a contributory soul being crossed out one after another, there were sighs all around, as well as the look of complete surprise.

"well, i really, really didn't know. there were complaints from specialists from this and that department of shortage, but there aren't any so far from your department. as i look out this window, to the maternity hospital below, i always thought you all a happy family there."

promises were flying on the air as the conversation exasperated into extravagance, ridiculing our current predicament as the calm before the storm of medical officer glut.

"in times to come, there will be so many of you, that you'll will come to beg me to stop sending anymore to the department."

my mind only able to retain this two profound statements, for several reasons mainly because they gave a clear picture of things now and beyond.

as for now, it's all que sera sera. a painful sorrowful song, nonetheless...

random thoughts

手指指 finger-pointing

手指指... 不能确定是否是好还是坏...
finger-pointing... not sure whether this is good or bad...



如果我秃头，你应该知道为什么...
if i go bald, you should know why...

the Lawliet position

today's random thought

somehow i find myself concentrating more and absorbing greatly when i read in this position.
nah, it's the furniture lacking of proper ergonomics. either that or i'm going cuckoo.
i chose to believe in the former, possibly in denial.

WTF of week: Ibrahim Ali Award

pimp this article from Sinchew.

The UiTM is going to give away the Ibrahim Ali Awards to its students.

It is yet to be known whether the awards will eventually get handed out, but just in case they are awarded, I doubt what would happen to the recipients.

I have imagined the following scenario:

In 2012, Ibrahim Ali Award recipient Encik Abu visits a multinational corporation for an interview after his graduation.

"Hi! May I know how you performed at UiTM?"

"Yes. I was awarded the university's Ibrahim Ali Award that came with a trophy and RM5,000 cash prize which I received from the hands of Encik Ibrahim Ali himself."

"Sounds good. But can I know what the award is all about?"

"The award is given to a highly principled student who would defend the rights of his own ethnic group, just like Ibrahim Ali."

"Wonderful. This Encik Ibrahim Ali must be a great man then."

"Most definitely. I would say he is unprecedented and his achievements are hard to duplicate."

"Excellent! Can you tell me how great this man is?"

"He used to oppose the BN government, but is now more supportive of the BN regime than even the most loyal BN members.

"He used to love Anwar Ibrahim, but has grown to hate Anwar more than anyone else.

"He used to run under Umno, Semangat 46 and PAS in elections, but later betrayed all these parties, elected or otherwise.

"He said the Malays were entitled to at least 60% of the country's wealth given the fact that the Malays made up 60% of the national population.

"He said the Christians were trying to take over Malaysia.

"He said his tolerance for the Chinese had been stretched to a limit.

"He also said women were to take the blame for their husbands' infidelity.

"He said he would send 15,000 people to the street to counter Bersih but only 30 turned up in the end, he himself absent on his wife's advice.

"During an interview with CNN, neither the anchor nor the audience could understand his English. A CNN record indeed!"

"Give me a break! Ibrahim Ali is such a stupendous person. I have yet to see anyone like him having recruited people all across the world."

"Ibrahim Ali is to Malaysia what Apple's Steve Jobs is to America."

"Sure, I can imagine that."

"So, looks like I will be in your distinguished company's payroll soon."

"Well, I believe you, a recipient of Ibrahim Ali Award, have the style of Ibrahim Ali. Unfortunately, we are a multinational corporation doing global business, not a warring organisation nor a circus.

"I would nevertheless suggest that you apply to al-Qaeda, the Taleban or Cirque du Soleil. Good luck, young man!"

touched

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Dearest 与孩子一起制作的爱心生日卡

acute uterine inversion

presented in conjunction with the presentation on our dept's recent experience with this rare but life-threatening obstetrics emergency.

here's an update

Acute uterine inversion

'Tung Shin Drs, live not in fear' by Willing Shaking-Spear

Shall we fear when Truth becomes inconvenient?
Or shall we fear to speak when untruth surrounds us?
Shall we fear the law which is to protect all?
Or shall we fear to act and let lawlessness rule?

Shall we fear to change for it is uncomfortable?
Or shall we not join the forces that make change possible?
Today, fear bridles your love for peace.
Your yearning for freedom is but a dream.

You fear to walk, less your life be snatched.
The street you once loved is now your fear.
You fear to complain for it puts you in a spot.
You fear to stop wrongs for it shows you weak.

You fear the law for it protects not all.
Your fear the halls of justice and the shadows behind the wall.
Eventually, the fear you fear consumes you all. Leaves your body empty of spirit and soul.
You become nothing but a falling leaf,

To be swept away into darkness like a rotting heap
Of broken men without hope or love,
Grovelling for crumbs from the master's table.
You fear other voices,

Because it tells the truth.
You fear the truth for it foretells your lies.
You fear to speak without a spin.
Your tolerance for truth has just gone thin.

Power you use to suppress the truth.
The cells of history have many good men.
Who one day will appear to unlock the secrets,
That you so tenderly keep from the streets.

Doctors fear not when you are right.
Speak the truth and bring on the light.
Fear not the fear, where darkness hides.
You heal sometimes but never shall harm.

To comfort always those in need.
What gives you the strength is that you are right.
Join hands together for the fight.
For better care and patient's rights.

This poem is dedicated to the 11 doctors at Tung Shin Hospital who have come forward to speak the truth about the July 9 incident.

doctors and stains...

You recognize a surgeon or an ob-gyn because he has blood on his shoes, a urologist because he has urine on his, and an anesthetist because on his you see spots of spilled coffee.
—Bernard Cristalli

I guess we stained ourselves regularly, some more regular than others.
Anyway, perhaps a bit contrary to what generally perceived by the medical fraternity, i think the anesthetic team in my hospy is just pure awesome in some way or another, especially the ones who are on call with me during this weekend.

at a point, between managing the ill patient in ICU and strolling that same patient in for procedure, the anaesthetic team reminded us about getting our midday consumption.

whether or not we ate in to their suggestion yesterday is of complete irrelevance. nevertheless, the importance of food and fluid intake, in quantity and quality, can and will determine the quality of our work and generally our health in the long term time frame. that's a fact, not a fantasy.

regularly, it is common to see anaesthetic specialist coming into the OT to chase their medical officers out for the food consumptions. At times, when there is lack of variety in satisfying their palates, they will organize something from outside.

reminds me of the time when i was in my last posting as house officer, when i started the 'tabung hypo' for the male medical ward of kenanga 7. i bought a huge packets of sweets and put it into a large jar. And anyone, which is too busy to catch a meal can take one of the sweets of their likings for hypoglycaemic prevention. it was there for sometime until someone took it out, possibly due to its lack of relevance since now there is 6 to 7 house officers, compared to my time, when it was maximum... yes, maximum 2 house officers per ward. Now, possibly they need 'tabung kurang berat' stuffed with metformin tabs, sibutramine tabs, high fibre drinks or skipping ropes.

often it is not the lack of food that is killing the the medical practitioner slowly, it is the lack of fluid and hydration, causing dehydration.

contemporarize

it is always essential to keep up with the trends.
a lot of things can be fun if we put our heart into it and break the conventional pattern without losing the core of the principle.

i am someone that hope, aspire and perspire to do so, although, there will be a lot resistance, a lot of pondering minds, a lot of wondering thoughts, i believe the conception and achievement of the vision is more important the ways that dictate its path to it.

traditional postnatal services?

i had mixed feelings when i read about this in The Star...

KOTA BARU: The first traditional and complementary postnatal service for mothers has been set up at a rural clinic here.

The service at Jalan Bayam provides postnatal massage as well as sauna and herbal treatment.

State health deputy director (Public Health) Dr Wan Mansor Hamzah said the centre was the first in the country that enabled mothers to obtain traditional treatment right after giving birth.

The setting up of the service at the clinic cost less than RM3,000 and packages are expected to cost around RM60.

To be honest, totally, postnatal service in Malaysia is probably the best, if not, up to standard of health care of a first world country, although, the third-world-mindset citizen who received such a privileged service wouldn't think so.

I did not comment the above from a medical doctor's perspective, but as a husband to my wife who received good postnatal service. The community nurse rode a RX5 and came to my rented house and did the necessary check up with her simple postnatal check up kit. All done within less than 30mins and she started her journey to other postnatal mothers' home.
Ladies are being spared off the painful walk with the perineal trauma to the clinics. Even the privates do not provide such service. But then, they are lacking in giving contraceptive advices.

Let me critically appraised the postnatal complementary service of massage, sauna and herbal treatment.

As it is complementary, the role of such service is not recommended by professional bodies, neither within or outside of country. Recommendation for postnatal care as recommended by NICE, UK is clearly summarized here.

Therefore, there are no clear evidence of benefits, but preliminary reports from reviews of such traditional services, shows that it will relax down and slim down the mothers.

The relaxation may be beneficial in improving maternal health, preventing postnatal depression. Slimming down the ladies will offer positive results in reducing maternal obesity and the well-fretful metabolic syndrome.

One of the downside of these traditional treatment is the unknown effect towards the practice and physiology of breastfeeding.

Secondly, financially channelling the cost of public health allocation to this unrecognized service will take away the necessary focus on some part of the postnatal care that is still very lacking such as contraception initiative.

The current contraception take-up rate in Malaysia is hovering around 30%, which is a very disappointing low rate. As the community failure of taking up adequate contraception, the public health postulated it was all due to our socio-cultural of being thankful for all God's gift, even if the gift means 12 kids, one year apart, nightmare adhesions after 4 C-Sections and a life-saving hysterectomy because of atony. Ever consider the invention of contraception as the God's gift?

Thirdly, the lack of transparency in selecting which traditional practitioners for the complimentary treatment concession is another questionable income flow within the public health expenditure.

Lastly, lacking of audit and control of the practice of this treatment may have detrimental effects. For instance, abdominal massage for patient post C-Section may induce uterine rupture. Wrongly given advice on putting traditional paste on the episiotomy wound to make it hasten healing may caused wound infection leading to wound breakdown.

My sentiment really is when you're complimenting, supporting and approving non-evidence-based traditional practice, you offended the main practice of medicine.

At the very least, do your best in your primary duty, before embarking on additional stuff.
It is vital that focus and re-focus on contraception be stressed, to prevent more unplanned, unwanted pregnancy, and in a way, reduce maternal mortality as being advocated in our Millennium Development Goal 5.

BERSIH 2.0 vids and pics

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everyone is invited... including balisan...


main video!






minister said "we have erection every 5years"


janji kosong nak sediakan stadium


BERSIH 2.0 melbourne


BERSIH 2.0 london


hospital diBERSIHkan oleh polis


BERSIH parody

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Some people have to get the service of 'rent-a-pakistani'

In Pictures: Protests suppressed in Malaysia

Police fired tear-gas and arrested hundreds of protesters in Kuala Lumpur who were calling for electoral reforms. Al Jazeera staff Last Modified: 09 Jul 2011 13:39

More than 20,000 people demonstrated for electoral reforms across Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian capital, on Saturday in a rare protest that was declared illegal by police. The protest was called for by opposition groups, including the Coalition for Free and Fair Elections, Bersih (Clean). Police fired tear-gas and water cannons at demonstrators and arrested more than 1,400 people, including top opposition leaders, according to protest organisers. The activists' demands include an overhaul of voter registration lists, tougher measures to curb fraud and fairer opportunities for opposition politicians to campaign in government-linked media. Malaysia's next general election is planned due in 2013. 1) With Kuala Lumpur under police lockdown since the morning, protesters tried to gather and seek refuge inside a railway station before being led outside by police where many were detained and put into police vans. [Saeed Khan/AFP] 2) Protesters display the yellow shirts of the Coalition for Free and Fair Elections, or Bersih (Clean}, during a rally calling for electoral reforms in Kuala Lumpur [Ahmad Yusni/EPA] 3) Riot police stand making a cordon in front of Malaysia's iconic twin towers before demonstrators gather [Saeed Khan/AFP] 4) A Bersih supporter shouts at police during clashes in downtown Kuala Lumpur [Shahir Omar/Reuters] 5) Police use a water cannon to spray Bersih supporters in downtown Kuala Lumpur [Samsul Said/Reuters] 6) A Bersih supporter throws a water bottle at a police water-cannon truck [Mohd Rasfan/AFP] 7) Police face off against thousands of Bersih supporters [Saeed Khan/AFP] 8) A Bersih supporter holds the Malaysian flag in front of a police water cannon [Damir Sagolj/Reuters]) 9) Police in riot gear march under heavy rain toward protesters calling for electoral reforms [Saeed Khan/AFP 10) Police face off against thousands of protesters in a scene shrouded by tear gas [Saeed Khan/AFP] 11) A Bersih supporter is detained by police during protests in downtown Kuala Lumpur [Damir Sagolj/Reuters] 12) A Bersih supporter is detained by police during protests in downtown Kuala Lumpur [Saedd Khan/AFP] 13) Bersih supporters are detained by police during protests in downtown Kuala Lumpur [Damir Sagolj/Reuters] 14) Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim (C) is surrounded by supporters, one of whom is injured, after a protest in Kuala Lumpur calling for electoral reforms [AFP] 15) Bersih supporters chant slogans during a protest calling for electoral reforms in downtown Kuala Lumpur [Damir Sagolj/Reuters]

analogy of a critically-ill patient

many would have argued, with their facts and numbers, justifications and qualifications, experiences and exposures, belief and principles that the core of management of a department is completely different from management of a patient.

but, i beg to differ. i beg from a lowly position that i held, without any power, respect or jurisdiction. management of patient is a life and death affair, but management of department is just about life and death of the corporate body - no blood, no gore, no people dying. But if that people in the department is involved in management of patients, by compounding factors, there's more gore, more blood and more... I will stop the list here

here's the analogy...

beep... beep... beep...
the machine of the ICU beeping to the heart rate of the ill mother, who had labored for many hours and managed to survived a postpartum haemorrhage. On the verge of going into the nightmare of disseminated intravascular coagulopathy, her condition continues to slide.

2 obstetricians stood by her. maybe more. both agreed - the patient need blood. the blood bank was contacted earlier. very very much earlier. the blood bank agreed to supply 4 pints of whole blood. whether or not the promised quantity is sufficient is still questionable, but to the very least, it will alleviate the condition, possibly to a great extend.

1 obstetrician waited patiently, while the patient continued to filled up her drainage tubes with small crimson tide. he called back to blood bank and "on the way" was the standard reply, even after few hours. he continued to wait - patiently, in spite of news that the assigned blood was channeled to other patients, for reasons only known to the blood bank who couldn't really comprehend the clinical side of matters.

another obstetrician, at a slightly lower hierarchal position, suggested that someone should go to the blood bank to get those essential life-saving human products. his polite recommendation seemed to have fallen into deaf ears. as patient deteriorated further, his motion escalated into a stern proposition. he was seen as impatient, harsh, pushy, less civilized from the approach, though his intention was noble, timely and appropriate.

the remaining hemoglobins of the patient is fighting their best war in keeping the patient alive. the patient wished she could stand up and march to the blood bank to keep herself alive.
the patient hopes and trusts that she's in the good hand of obstetricians.
and the only thing that she needed badly is still "on the way".

on the way...
on the way...
on the way...

and soon, the patient will be on the way to heaven...

no, this is neither an open assault on the blood bankers, the obstetricians or the intensivists, but a grim reminder of the negative repercussion of the refined gentle courteous practice of a manager.

expectant management must be used with extreme caution and extreme flexibility and fluidity in managing development in the case scenario, or else, be prepared to bear the extreme liability due to delay in responding to the arised complications.

GCP | grievious coma-inducing program

no, for real, it's good clinical practice.
but for 'real' real - it is really a grievious coma-inducing program.

this is the first time, in the history of mankind (I mean, mine), that in the middle of the course, I felt like going to the bathroom to bang my head on the wall. yes, for real.

being in the Master training program doesn't exclude you from being uninitiated and waiting for the sky to pour down guidance for you.

since the first day of orientation of the program, we were all being told - to start the research early, start the research early and start the research early.

No, I am not whining, but serious, it was told in the same exact language (if not, words) so many times over the orientation, mainly because our Profs were afraid that we'll be barred from the Finals, not because of our lack of white and gray matters, but rather our affinity towards procrastination in putting in sound research work and print outs. Nevertheless, neither my internal nor external supervisor breath a tune about asking me to get the GCP certification - which is the compulsory document to have before starting any medical research.

Let me rephrase that, before starting any LEGAL medical research.

within the context of starting off my compulsory research, my sincere gratitude to Dr. T, my senior and mentor, who given me sound advice on getting the GCP.

GCP by itself, good clinical practice, can be a pretty amazing misnomer, because halfway through, a participant commented that the course should be renamed as good practice in research, because he was duped (by himself) to believe that this is a course about good CLINICAL practice.

this is where i would like to remind everyone not to undermine the power of literacy, and reading everything and not just the headlines. Anyway, that chap looks like he has tonnes of money to splash around as well as a lifetime to just hang around and be amused.

Anyway, the name GCP sticks, because it's the standardization of term used all over the world. Just like balisan, the name remains, no matter how it much it had evolved to a crooked wavy line.

In a brief, GCP mainly governs all the essential ethics to protect the human subjects in a medical research, with concern on the validity of the study. It is a regulation and a law by indirect jurisdiction, mainly by enforcement by the drug authority. No doubt it is an important program, essential to the bone prior to starting any medical research, but i think to have everyone to attend to pseudo-law crash course for 2 and 1/2 days and participate in the exam is really pushing the limit of boredom. I was pretty suicidal after the second day. Apart from the content, the organizer really did their best to perk things up and their effort is just praiseworthy with multiple thumbs-ups - all the group game, card game and etc.

Frankly, they would have save us a lot of money, save them a lot of time, save everyone a lot of trouble if they make it just purely exam with focus-driven questions and we revise those essential GCP protocol online prior to the exam.

I presented my study proposal twice. Once in my department, the second time in today assessment at the Uni. I was brutally attack verbally from head to toe on the proposal of research and I am glad, not in the masochistic way.

Because their machine-gun verbal assaults on my proposal is a boost to my study. It is like a company hiring a hacker to hack into their own system, to create a better security system. But in this case, all my consultants, profs and specialists did it voluntarily (or it was within their SKT) and I was totally awed and gratified. I am sure there are more imperfections.

As a matter of fact, most Profs sigh, lament, groan, roar, whine or simply sulk whenever they found out that the trainees shilly shally on the research.
However, they failed to understand the spirit of a research.

The research is being developed and run with enthusiasm, either for altruistic, knowledge or monetary gain.

Drug companies do research to create new drugs to earn bigger bucks.
Space exploration corporation do research to get to the moon to take a look at the wreck of Ark, the ship of Sentinel Prime and to gain the technology of advanced alien race.
Many bioequivalence tests to get similar actions from the drug without breaking the wallets of the people.

So, what's our driving desire to do a research?
To do something simple (and not weird), get it over with, so that can sit for Final exam.

Now, the perspective is clear. We can choose to fake our enthusiasm, or fake our study.
But by the law and regulation, only the former choice is GCP-compliant

the degree of yellow-phobia

so scared till asking for help?

pimped from here.

US Navy stealth ship is headed for Malaysia

US Navy stealth ship is headed for Malaysia

The Sea Shadow's End
By Twenty Mike Mike
Mon, June 20, 2011, 11:10 am PDT

U.S. Navy's Sea Shadow. The stealth ship, which served as an inspiration for the supervillain's supervessel in the James Bond movie "Tomorrow Never Dies," is set to serve the Royal Malaysian Navy.

These vessels are designed for a variety of different missions, including escort, patrols, reconnaissance, and front-line combat duty.

HEAVY MISSILE LAUNCHERS : To back up the heavy lasers the Sea Shadow's are also armed with twenty heavy missile launcher tubes that launch ICBM-like missiles at enemy ships. The missile tubes resemble torpedo launchers and are mounted alongside the hidden main laser cannons on each side of the ship. The launchers contain long-range nuclear or reflex missiles and are usually used only during assaults and heavy combat.

death of Dr.Death

life is uncertain, but death is.

though what Dr. Death had done may or may not be within the accepted social or professional norms, but his ideal belief and the trend line that follows, maybe something the medical fraternity is looking for. for better or worse.

Here's why Dr. Jack Kevorkian probably had a profoundly correct message:

This was a time when the American medical enterprise was very afraid to use opiates to treat pain in cancer and other terminally ill patients, concerned that they would addict, or would be accused of addicting, their desperate patients. And doctors and nurses practiced the notion that human life should be preserved and extended at any cost in suffering or money.

It took the Debbie case, the Kevorkian extreme actions, and yet other trailblazers who saw life and death through a different prism to move our society, ever so slowly, towards realizing that death is not the enemy; the enemies are premature death, disease, disability, pain, human suffering.

Death is normal. Every American deserves to have a death with dignity and as free from pain as possible, as can now happen with much hospice care.

Strange though he was, Jack Kevorkian helped us as a society to move a little closer to that ideal.

Let’s keep that trend line.

seriously?

The Health Minister said: Housemen need to practise their specialties at district level as there is a lack of specialists in district hospitals

= housemen to fill specialists' shoes?

Aedan's first movie (in the theatre)

first movie with my kid!


aedan's wearing yellow without any reference to the recent CLEAN movement

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the only legal photography inside the movie theater, in the twinseat.

the movie - awesome
the company - more awesome than the movie.

P.S. twinseat also called as couple seat is generally a misnomer, because most of them were filled up with families of three (like yours truly), and even five.

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Clean Two Point Ooh!

or in bahasa melayu, Bersih 2.o.

as we get closer and closer to the 9th, the government and the police, are all up in arms.

it isn't a bit surprising that there are massive loads of papers and posters with handcuffs around the wards, hung around like the ahlong posters.

the mainstream played down and probably twisted the whole truth by calling it a massive display of disruption to business, hooliganism and some opposition play-ups, without giving us the whole truth about Bersih 2.o.

if one is interested,

the full guide here.
the (half) idiot guide here.

a bit of excerpt from the (1/2) idiot guide:

Look at the 8 demands by Bersih 2.0 :

1. Clean up the electoral roll. Again. (what fucking took the EC so long to do it? Bunch of incompetent goons.)

2. Reform postal voting. Again. (still not done and the EC actually makes it harder now for postal votes counting process to be impartial with some stupid new rules, I cannot remember it so you google it up)

3. Use of indelible ink. Again. (nothing done over this promise by EC and now they are suggesting for the use of biometric system. You cannot even implement this cheap indelible ink idea you want to use biometric system? Are you dumb?)

4. Introduce a minimum 21-day campaign period. (this is a new demand, because the EC is blardy inconsistent with the given campaign period. 21 day is just right, not too long, not too short and should be enough time for all parties to prepare for D-day. 1st election this country had, campaign period was 42 days. Now? 2 weeks. Some voters don’t even know who are the candidates in some elections.)

5. Allow all parties free and equal access the media. Again. (well, you need a fair, equal footing or fighting ground for a fair fight and to win the fight respectably.)

6. Strengthen public institution. (I am not quite sure how asking EC to fulfill this demand)

7. Stop corruption. (during the election time, some parties often resorted to pork-barrel corruption, going blatantly without regards to the laws)

8. Stop dirty politics. (Well, yeah. It’s only dirty when you want it to be dirty. We should aim for election where candidates talk about policies they offer to voters. Not about sex. Slander.)

Any of the demands above is political? Bias to any political party? And if any of the demands above is achieved, does it has anything to do with communism, religion, foreign espionage bla bla bla? Opposition parties are seen openly supporting Bersih 2.0 because they always have been at disadvantage in any election and they just want an equal chances to win the people’s votes. Isn’t that a fair request? All political parties should demand for this, an equal chance. Unless you’re a quack.

The demands above matter because impartial referees matter in determining the governance of our country.

..................Before the 1962 amendments, the EC had tremendous power and, more importantly, it had a great deal of independence.

Between 1957 and 1962, it was the EC that determined the delineations of the constituencies. And because commissioners had security of tenure (it was really hard to get rid of them as once appointed their tenure was akin to that of judges), their decision could be made independent of any sort of pressure from the government of the day.

However, in 1962, all that changed. The security of tenure was stripped away so that the commissioners worked at the pleasure of the Executive. Furthermore, the delineation of parliamentary constituencies was now placed into the hands of Parliament.

The implications are obvious. Whoever controls Parliament could then determine the delineation of the constituencies that best suits them.

And because you have control of Parliament that means you also determine the Executive. Thus, you will have power over the EC, too.

In the words of H.E. Groves at the time of the amendment:

“The vital power of determining the size of constituencies as well as their boundaries is now taken from a commission, which the Constitution makers had apparently wished, by tenure and status, to make independent and disinterested, and has been made completely political by giving this power to a transient majority of Parliament, whose temptation to gerrymander districts and manipulate the varying numerical possibilities between ‘rural’ and ‘urban’ constituencies for political advantage is manifest.”

I do not care who has the majority in Parliament, be it Barisan Nasional or Pakatan Rakyat or any other party that may pop up.

The current situation is simply not a good state of affairs because it can be abused by whoever has power................

Thus, I believe uncle N and his merrymen should really consider joining the bandwagon of Bersih as well, because at the end of the day, if it is his party that is being re-elected in the next GE based on fair electoral fight, the opposition will have nothing to say but to shut up, right?

2ndly, the amount of economic disruption that Bersih could have done is probably more or less similar to any streets marathons that were being held. It is just a bunch of guys in yellow, walking with one of them holding a memorandum to pass to the Royal Highness. Anyway, the supporters all mean business, clean political business, not business as usual.

3rdly, it could do a lot of good in the matter of health. It is probably a full body exercise - the legs doing the walking, the hand-raising, and the slogan shouting exercise.

4thly, also a time for muhibbah. malaysian from all walks of life, old and young, all races, obese and underweight, literate and illiterate.

With all this plus points, probably, prizes should be given to the participants like those marathons and do some afterwalk events, such as concerts or yellow food fiesta.

And instead of letting a bunch of people walking around the streets peacefully for their own health, the muhibbah of the community and the vision of an impartial democracy, if one is contemplating the same watercannon and teargas fiesta again, one will probably be ridiculed by the whole wide world, again.

because the public... sometimes has their own 'watercannon', too.

I hope for a clean electoral system as well, and hoping to create as minimal economical disturbance to others, I silently supported this vision by wearing yellow on that same day.

I think every Malaysian should do the same.

last word of advice - make love, not war