BTN teaches disunity?

came across this letter in the star
reminded me of my Biro Tatanegara (BTN) course in USM...

before i proceed...in the aforementioned letter...it says
"...participants are repeatedly told not to question Malay rights and so on. The course coordinators keep talking about social contracts and telling non-Malays not to question Malay rights and so on..."

when i attended in USM...i didn't recall anything about Malay rights and social contracts and so on...i wish they could tell me more about the social contract...i dun really understand the principle...

maybe because it was held about a month before the General Election...ya rite..."THE" 8th March GE...

in the BTN course i attended...they were too busy telling us not to believe foolishly what was told to us...to analyse information before we choose to believe them...

being a well trained university students with "kemahiran berfikir secara kritis dan kreatif"...my immediate reaction was this...

hey man...if u meant what the oppositions said wasn't the real truth and ask us not to believe and follow blindly...i can say the same to the government...can't i?

especially in this new era...with more and more educated urbanites...you can't really cover up...and definitely can't lie...

try give a ceramah at Bintang Walk or Bangsar or Pandan Jaya...bragging about how "developed" our country is...see how much cheer you can draw...come on get real...
with the cheap air ticket...more and more ppl had been to singapore or hong kong or shanghai or beijing or tokyo or seoul or sydney or paris or frankfurt or london or new york...ppl can compare their "developed" country with ours...

when issues raised...you can choose to cover up or ignore...but the moment an issue come to light...it spreads so rapid that by the time you respond...it's too late...and when you ignore it...the ppl don't...they punish you in GE...and you wonder why u lose...funny huh?

since i am a public servant...i MUST attend another BTN course...
i eagerly await...hopefully it can give me more input on social contracts...so i can share my view with you all...

two parties...back to back

last friday had a BBQ at colleagues house...to celebrate Babies of May's birthday...
the next day...saturday...went up Maxwell Hill (Bukit Larut) at Taiping for a small LifeGuard (LG) reunion...there were...quite a bit of differences between the two...

Friday...
it was supposed to start at 7pm
i reach around 6.30pm...turned out to be the earliest...
i brought over the chic wings and porks, charcoals, foldable table, platic chairs with my loyal Iswara...started the fire...burn some chics...

i also brought over a box of Lindemans red wine (its a 2 liter boxed wine, not a box of 12 bottles)...in case any of my colleagues is actually an alcoholic in disguise...it turned out none of them were...

my colleague brought mahjongs and cards too...in case any of my colleagues is actually a gambler in disguise...it turned out none were interested...maybe due to the volume constraint

we had good laugh...but have to keep our volume down cause the neighbours are senior citizens who sleep before 9pm...

at the end of the party...there were lots of leftovers...i was there dumping all the proteins into my ever growing tummy...

we talked and chatted and laughed and gossiped...till around 12am...we finally have to leave and go home...

Saturday...
suppose to meet at 11.30am at the foot of the hill...i arrived at 11.20am...turned out to be the last...the gang were already there...as usual...LG punctuality...the 8 of us then took the jeep up the hill...another 2 guys joined us later...

besides my personal stuffs, i brought the same box of wine, in addition...7 cans of Carlsberg...leftover from chinese new year party (also with my colleagues)...
then my buddy also brought 8 cans of beer...and another bottle of red wine...

as soon as we settled down in our well isolated bungalow...while preparing for lunch...they already started to pour out the mahjongs and red wines...
at the dinner table...during dinner...everyone was either drinking green (carlsberg) or red (isn't obvious)...
at the end of the dinner...you cannot see a single plate filled with food...i don't recall any leftover in any LG gatherings...

after dinner...we were playing cards and mahjongs...intoxicating ourselves...yelling and screaming and laughing out loud like nobody's business...till 3am...who cares...there were no other human beings within at least 500 meters from our bungalow...i guess...

only a few of us who were really drinking...but by bedtime...we managed to gulp all the beers and red wines...killing our livers...damn fools...


they were friends from two different stages of my life...and the way we enjoy a party were so much different...
i enjoyed both the party...but if i have to choose...i have to admit...the crazier party was a little bit more fun...



by the way...if you carry a DSLR to Maxwell Hill and want to try some panning shots...there is a good spot...
there is an observation tower...wait there for the jeeps to pass by...i think you can have some good panning shots from there...
but not much trial and error...cause its not that common for a jeep to pass by...so grab your chances well...
here's one i took with my compact PnS (point and shoot)...i'm sure you can have much better and sharper picture with your dear DSLR...