On its face, patriotism seems to be a straightforward concept but it is not. It calls for an empathetic understanding of what makes your country your country – what makes Malaysia Malaysia, and a true devotion of ensuring Malaysia is what its people envision it to be. […]
Mulan was recently released in Malaysia. Amidst the #BoycottMulan movement, my friend asked whether I was going to watch it. I said yes.
Mulan should be judged based on its quality as a cinematic work. One can do more than boycotting a movie to support human rights. […]
As at the date of writing (18th March 2020), there are 2 (reported) deaths and 790 (reported) confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Malaysia. As an attempt to contain the coronavirus outbreak, Malaysia implemented a movement control order having effect from 18th March to 31st March.
This is a time of crisis. This is also a defining moment. […]
Article 153 talks about the special position of the Malays and natives of any of the States of Sabah and Sarawak in educational privileges given or accorded by the Federal Government, and not, everything and anything under the sun (see Article 8). It is not a constitutional licence to drum-roll one’s racial sentiment in everything they say and do in public universities.
Therefore, while we can put the issue of quotas to rest (unless and until Article 153 is amended), the MOE has a lot of work to do, in terms of implementing values. […]
This reminds me of one of the chapters I read in ‘The Art of Thinking Clearly’. Rolf Dobelli talked about an irrationality called the “confirmation bias”. He called it “the mother of all misconceptions” and “the father of all fallacies”. Confirmation bias is the tendency to seek, interpret, favour, and recall information in a way that confirms one’s preconceptions. In plain language, you collect information to confirm your biasness. Here, I collected information to make sure what I planned to write in my blog post is justified and supported with facts. […]
