Well now seriously. When Khalid Ibrahim made his suggestion for 10% of UiTM placements to be opened up to non-bumis, who did you think he was looking out for? The non-bumis? When was the last time you heard Chinese or Indian students clamouring for UiTM allocations? A degree from UiTM is probably worth less than a good private diploma (outside the govt sector that is).

Yes it’s true that the majority of (private) university and college students are non-bumi - but the solution isn’t to cloister yourselves up in a bumi-exclusvive institution. Degrees are only worth as much as the university behind it: from the university’s own site, half of its “international achievements” come from those dubious Geneva exhibitions we heard about last year.

As Education Malaysia points out, it’s pretty hard to see how UiTM is justified as a university, aside from its name, when it’s non-selective and mono-ethnic. “Charity school funded by taxpayers” is a more apt description, or perhaps “Umnoputera factory”.

The political response is also telling:
- The Higher Education Minister Khaled Nordin reads the suggestion as an “insult to Malays”.
- UiTM vice-chancellor Ibrahim Abu Shah called Khalid a “traitor to his race” (Education Malaysia dug up an interesting profile on him as well ).
- “Prime Minister for all Malaysians” Abdullah Badawi vetoed it saying Khalid had “no power” to implement such a thing.
- Toothless MCA and Gerakan pay lip service to Khalid’s suggestion (or maybe not?)
- Malaysian Muslim Consumer’s Association director Noor Nirwandy Mat Noordin had the most insiduous comment of all:

“If something like this is allowed to happen, then there will be a worrying situation where many Malay institutions will crumble and be ‘Malaysia-nised‘.

It’s exactly 2 weeks before Merdeka Day. I find it hard to celebrate.

Popularity: 60% [?]

Apologies for missing this last week, was busying watching HIMYM :P

Malaysia

• Dr. Mahathir joins the ranks of the unemployed lying females in Malaysia.
• MCA newsletter editor Wong Chun Wai follows suit.
• The Sun aggressively calls for reform of press freedom laws.
• Newly appointed CM of Penang Lim Guan Eng is spotted flying economy class. Meanwhile, in a written reply to a question in Parliament, PM Abdullah Badawi says that the government spent RM792,325 for the use of executive jets for himself and DPM Najib in the two weeks before the polls.
  (Yes, somehow it’s hard to believe that we don’t have money for projects in Penang).
• Anwar is in TIME’s list of 100 most influential people in the world.
• Jakim has rejected the PM’s proposal to compel Muslim converts to inform their families about their conversion.
  (Apparently the PM is not in their list of influential people).
• Hishammudin Hussein finally “apologizes” over his usage of the keris. The Star calls him a “big man” for this.
  (WTF - it bore all the hallmarks of a non-apology apology, was much belated, and he was practically forced to do it. “Big Man” my ass. )
• The much-ballyhooed sports complex to be built in England is scrapped. Citizen Nades of The Sun reports.
• Malaysia ranks 2nd-highest in the world… for malicious web activity.

Science

• According to Nature, 20% of scientists who participated in an informal survey said they used “cognitive enchancing” drugs.
• Australian researches find that there is a very effective way of preventing prostate cancer by 40%.
• A genetic study suggests that humans came close to extinction 70,000 years ago.
• Keyboards may carry more bacteria than toilet seats, a UK study finds.
• South Korea has cloned seven dogs from an active drug-sniffer in active service. All of them will be named Toppy.

Entertainment

• JK Rowling is suing a (former?) fan who planned to publish his own Harry Potter lexicon, an encyclopedia to the series. He reportedly cried on the witness stand.
• A million WoW players were online at the same time over the weekend, reports the company that hosts WoW servers in China.

Interest

• A New Yorker survived being trapped in an elevator for 41 hours. The ordeal was captured on CCTV.
• Six Masai warriors were invited to run in the Flora London Marathon. “The marathon was easy, there were no lions!”

World/Politics

• A Russian newspaper reported plans by President Putin to wed a former Olympic gymnast half his age. He denied the rumour, and the paper was promptly shut down.
• 60% of the world’s paintings apparently are churned out from a single village in China.
• An Italian performance artist who planned to hitchhike from Italy to the Middle East in a wedding dress to “send a message or peace” is found brutally murdered in Turkey.

Tech

• A writer from MacWorld builds and successfully runs Mac OS X on a “clone” computer.
• The latest beta of Opera 9.5 blows competitors out of the water - yes, including FF b3!

Popularity: 74% [?]

Note: I was planning Snippets to be just a mishmash of everything interesting I find on the Web but would never have the time to blog about. I thought making it a fortnightly thing would be fine, but it appears a lot happens in two weeks :/. Oh well.

Malaysia

• Hamilahton, mother of maths prodigy Sufiah Yusof who was recently revealed to be working as an escort girl in UK, starts a blog to tell her side of the story.
• GSC’s website is hit by a trojan that can potentially exploit IE to steal user passwords.
• Malaysia Airlines is hit with an RM900k loss after a ticket price typo.
• Faizal Tahir, who was recently censured for baring his chest onstage during an 8TV concert, receives the most AIM (Anugerah Industri Musik) nominations this year.
• A Samad Said hits out at the Education Ministry for omitting his works from the national curriculum because they are too “difficult”, also blames DBP for the decline of Malay literature.
• Dr. Chua Soi Lek starts his own blog.
• Tengku Faris, Crown Prince of Kelantan, says that non-Malays should not seek equal treatment, and that their citizenship is owed to the Malays.

Tech

• A class action lawsuit is being brought against Apple for fitting newer iMacs with inferior TN displays. (For those who don’t know, the widely-used TN panels cost roughly half of a higher quality S-IPS/PVM panel, and have much worse viewing angles and colour reproduction.
• Sony BMG is found to be using pirated software after one its employees called tech support with an invalid key.
• It seems that buying an upgrade edition of Vista without actually “upgrading” allows you to nearly halve the price.
• President Bush is apparently caught with pirated songs after talking about his iPod in an interview.
• Universal claims that promotional CDs sent out en masse still belong to them.
• A power grid in San Franciso is hacked in less than a day by a team of penetration testers.
• A Microsoft exec talks about Vista’s UAC at a conference and informs participants that it was “meant to annoy”.

Science

• A study shows men are much less able to tell when a woman is interested (or rather, disinterested ) in them, and vice versa.
• The youngest planet ever discovered could be less than 2,000 years old.
• New data from spacecraft orbiting Venus suggests that the evolution of the planet was “too fast”, ultimately rendering it inhabitable.

Teh Internets

• Two bloggers die “on the job”, sparking reflections on the frenzied pace of news today. (One of the victim’s final emails said: “Have come down with something. Resting now posts to resume later today or tomorrow.”).
• TIME begins compiling its annual index of the top 100 most influential people in the world. The online version again sees Korean pop-star Rain at the top, followed closely by Stephen Colbert and Shigeru Miyamoto.

  Context:

  There are also a number of spinoff lists, including the top 25 blogs and a list of top lists.

Religion/Culture/Issues

• A young Saudi woman is murdered by her father for using Facebook. [related] Also, a Saudi court increases a gang rape victim’s sentence because she “used the media to influence them“.
• In a case of legality over morality, two public defense attorneys disclose that their client had boasted of committing a murder he was on trial for 20 years ago. They felt it would breach the lawyer-client privilege.
• The family of a baby born with two faces in India refuse medical care, claiming that she is the incarnation of the goddess Shakti.
• A raid on a polygamist cult in Texas frees 400+ children [related]

World/Politics

• China eases its restrictions on Wikipedia ahead of the Olympics.
• Zimbabwe’s elections sees its dictator of 28 years, Robert Mugabe, losing his grip on power. (Go tsunami!)

Entertainment

• Mass Effect for the PC is delayed a month from its initial launch date of May 2008.
• More juicies about Fallout 3
• A comprehensive list of games to look forward to in 2008-2009

Interest

• An 80-year old man has been phoning his wife’s voicemail every day to hear her voice. She passed away in 2005. In a network upgrade, the voicemail was lost, but after hearing of the story, the telco restores the voicemail from their archives.
• Rustylime has a photoessay comparing family food expenditures around the world.

Popularity: 96% [?]

Teh Internets

• 60% of all Photoshop users are pirates (sample size: 500).
• Adobe launches Photoshop Express, a stripped down version of its flagship product. Focus is on community and “family” functions.
• Torrentspy.com, which was once the most visited BitTorrent site, shuts down in the face of MPAA suits.
• Firefox 3 will debut in June 2008, fixing its memory-hogging.
  [I still have faith that Opera 9.5 will reclaim its position as the fastest browser when it’s released >:( ]
• Facebook widget-maker Max Levchin sells a 9% stake in his company (known for widgets like SuperPoke ) for USD $50mil.

Malaysia

• A new opposition leader unleashes his blog.
• Elected MP M. Manoharan, who is currently being detained under the ISA, has been denied release by the Govt. [Reuters]
• UMNO flip-flops on the Terengganu MB drama, agreeing to the appointment of Ahmad Said. Pak Lah had earlier insisted that appointing anyone but Idris Jusoh would be unconstitutional.
• The chief of the Penang branch of the National Union of the Teaching Profession (NUTP) has said that attending state functions are no longer compulsory. Teachers are also being discouraged against inviting the new MPs for school events.

World

• A major ice shelf in Antartica is beginning to break apart, as chillingly (pun unintended) captured by time-lapse videos.

Religion/Culture

• The Vatican releases a list of new sins. Among them: stem-cell research, and pollution.
• Why do suicide bombers shave their bodies?

Science/Tech

• Statistics show that monogamous men have the most children if they marry women younger than themselves.
• A Macbook is hacked in less than 2 minutes in a 3-day hacking contest. A laptop running Vista was only cracked after relaxing the rules on the last day, while a laptop running Ubuntu was left unscathed throughout.
• Certain cows are fitted with fistulas, man-made, permanent “holes” into their stomachs, to help research their digestive system.

Entertainment

• Bethsheda claims there will be “over 200 endings” in Fallout 3.

Interest

• Black swan to be reunited with its love - a paddle boat.
• Interesting demonstration of the “lap guitar” method.
• The legend of DB Cooper, whose story features in the hit series Prison Break, comes back to the spotlight after a half-buried parachute is found.

Popularity: 85% [?]

Sickening, really.

Just 5 months ago 20 people died in a bus crash at Bukit Gantang. The driver (who at least died in the accident) was later found to have had 13 outstanding traffic summons. There was talk about demerit points and discussion over how it happened. There were also a series of other accidents; in one of them the bus involved was found to have 94 summonses since 1999.

On Friday history repeats itself - you have probably read about the poor young people who died, and the bastard who was behind the wheel also had 13 outstanding summons. According to survivor accounts compiled by Jolene he was speeding and sms-ing behind the wheel, at night time, and under heavy rain to boot! Too bad he only got off with a broken leg.

It also hits much closer to home this time (I only touched on it lightly in August) since my cousin was seriously injured in the accident. She was travelling to KL with her father. Thank goodness she’s out of danger.

Some people are getting together to petition for action - real action, not just election talk or passing the buck - to be taken. I’ve travelled enough by bus to know that it’s not just this company or that company at fault; it is nearly the entire coach network in Malaysia.

Please post this on your blog now to help: Chung Lern and Nian Ning’s families would like all families and friends of the victims, dead or alive, in the Slim River Bus Crash to come forward and join them in taking action against the bus company. Stand up to seek justice for these three innocent individuals, who were all so young and full of life.If you have a blog, please call out to ANYONE who knows someone who survived or did not survive the crash to come forward to join the Lee family.
Make a huge difference, make a huge fuss.The next time, it could be you or me.

Popularity: 16% [?]

Picked this up from Digg, Leaky Cauldron is running the highlights of a recent Q&A with JK Rowling on that series of hers.

Among the usual “who-marries-who” and “what-ifs”, Rowling answered a thoughtful question:
“Did Dumbledore, who believed in the prevailing power of love, ever fall in love himself?” by outing him as gay and revealling that he had at one point been in love with the man who would become his nemesis.

In fact, recently I was in a script read through for the sixth film, and they had Dumbledore saying a line to Harry early in the script saying I knew a girl once, whose hair… [laughter]. I had to write a little note in the margin and slide it along to the scriptwriter, “Dumbledore’s gay!”

Interestingly, she got an ovation from the audience. But I doubt this will go down well with the fundies who’ve already accused her of everything this side of murder. She didn’t shed too much light when asked exactly how much Dumbledore’s brother Aberforth liked goats (come to think of it, what a mental family).

Some may think she’s been reading too much fanfic or that she’s just looking for free publicity, but personally I think it gives you another reason to go through the books again and see if you can pick up anything you missed before :). Poor McGonagall…

Popularity: 40% [?]

Wong Chun Wai is the new Editor in Chief of the Star. (From rocky’s bru).

If you read his editorials you’ll know that he’s (relatively) level-headed and at least tries to be fair in his opinions. Here’s hoping he’ll be the one to lead the Star to rise above the lalang.

Popularity: 23% [?]

Today’s Star had this bit about the (much belated) police crackdown following the recent bus fiasco:

Konsortium Express Penang manager Albert Chew said his company was having problems getting replacement drivers after 20 of its 140 drivers went missing after Ops Bersih started on Aug 22.

…

A Gunung Raya Express ticketing officer Abadi Abdul Kadir said 30% of its drivers were affected and he anticipated that between 60% and 70% of bus commuters wanting to balik kampung this Hari Raya would be affected.

I’d bet most of you, especially those who studied in uni, would find the names of those companies familiar (I know I do!!) - just think how lucky you are to be alive people. Thank goodness I never came back that often…

Popularity: 17% [?]

Fresh on the heels of the Joy case is a little gem from Reuters:

A Malaysian Muslim man switched at birth in a hospital mix-up has filed a lawsuit seeking to become a Buddhist and have his name changed, newspapers reported on Saturday.

The gaping logic hole that is our constitutional definition of “Malay = Muslim”, coupled with Islam’s anti-apostasy stance, makes for a dilemma that would be comical if it weren’t so sad (I know, I know, I’ve been using this phrase lots).

[Edit]: This story is actually a few months old.

Popularity: 28% [?]

The clown we have for an Information Minister strikes again:

“I hope local journalists will not dance to the tune of their foreign counterparts.

“There are local journalists who think too highly of the foreign media, and to me, this demonstrates an inferiority complex,” he said when launching the Malaysia Creative competition organised by Bernama here.

Referring to the British Broadcasting Corporation’s (BBC) article titled “Malaysia Rejects Christian Appeal” on the Lina Joy’s court decision carried on its news portal yesterday, he said the piece was inaccurate and sensational.

Inaccurate and sensational? Look up the BBC piece in question and see for yourself:

Malaysia rejects Christian appeal

Is the headline inaccurate and sensational? Does Zainuddin think that Lina Joy is not a Christian?

Malaysia’s highest court has rejected a Muslim convert’s six-year battle to be legally recognised as a Christian.

How is this inaccurate and sensational?

A three-judge panel ruled that only the country’s Sharia Court could let Azlina Jailani, now known as Lina Joy, remove the word Islam from her identity card.

How is this inaccurate and sensational? BBC even left out the fact that the sole dissenter was the only non-Muslim on the panel.

Malaysia’s constitution guarantees freedom of worship but says all ethnic Malays are Muslim. Under Sharia law, Muslims are not allowed to convert.

How is this inaccurate and sensational?

Ms Joy said she should not be bound by that law as she is no longer a Muslim.

How is this inaccurate and sensational?

Malaysia’s Chief Justice Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim said the panel endorsed legal precedents giving Islamic Sharia courts jurisdiction over cases involving Muslims who want to convert.

How is this inaccurate and sensational?

About 200 protesters shouted “Allah-o-Akbar” (God is great) outside the court when the ruling was announced.

How is this inaccurate and sensational? Many other reports confirm this number.

“You can’t at whim and fancy convert from one religion to another,” Ahmad Fairuz said.

Ms Joy’s case has tested the limits of religious freedom in Malaysia.

She started attending church in 1990 and was baptised in 1998.

In 2000, Ms Joy, 42, went to the High Court after the National Registration Department refused to remove “Islam” from the religion column on her identity card. The court said it was a matter for Sharia courts. Tuesday’s ruling marked the end of her final appeal.

Ms Joy has been disowned by her family and forced to quit her job. She went into hiding last year. A Muslim lawyer who supported her case received death threats.

How is this inaccurate and sensational?

Sharia courts decide on civil cases involving Malaysian Muslims - nearly 60% of the country’s 26 million people - while ethnic minorities such as Chinese and Indians are governed by civil courts in the multi-racial country.

How is this inaccurate and sensational?

I doubt that our “Information” Minister even read the report. “Dancing to the tune of their foreign counterparts?” Just because the foreign media doesn’t dance to your tune (mentions of the case in today’s papers is scant, even in letter columns. It’s like it didn’t happen), that doesn’t mean they are “inaccurate”.

“Inferiority complex” - Oho, now our newspapers are the paragon of journalism. If our local papers didn’t syndicate their “foreign counterparts”, we wouldn’t have any World or IT sections btw.

Popularity: 24% [?]