Some Things Just Have to be Said

Here's one of the contexts for this piece, the world I grew up in.

I don't think it was bad in any way except that it was unnecessary; but such are people when they play gentlemanly games. The people are kept in fear of violence. I prefer quick, violent, solutions. But I'm not one to pick fights... finishing them on the other hand...

Pick your battles mate. I get concerned about Malaysian politics as soon as democracy fails and we descend into civil war. Meanwhile, I have busloads of work to worry about... that's the first-order thought anyway. The second-order thought is, geez, these reform activists are as shallow as the people they're trying to replace... ... God help us all.

Many people pontificate over others, that what is lawful is not ethical. I am encouraging the latter to tell the pontifs to fuckoff. I'm just saying that being lawful is more important than being ethical ;P *

This country doesn't mean that much to me - to be honest, not that any other country has had much greater appeal... I think you have to understand that (local politics) doesn't disgust me (perhaps others like me too) more than it bores me. Life in general, bores me. What little entertainment I manage to squeeze out of it... does not come most efficiently from helping people with their day to day concerns. I mean, I can appreciate the job of getting things done quickly, but it's the pleasure of doing such a job that would draw me to do it, not the pleasure of helping people. If I ever run for public office, I will let people know this... and if they don't want to vote for me, that's fine. But one should always be candid about one's motivations, at each specific point in time...

(* Because ethics ex-law is an open question; also, this is obviously in and of itself a point of ethics.)

As the parties to go the polls, popcorn... and coffee! Perhaps, one day I shall be subject to that fate. But for now, coffee is keeping me awake in front of code, not in parliament...

Some network/data-activism related links, for the GE13:

• discussion & documentation of ISPs blocking videos
• further analysis on access to another video
• some data on Malaysian Elections
• some data on Malaysian members of Parliament
• DAP's http Facebook page (inaccessible); the https page (accessible); pure lulz
• a more thorough report

Tell you what lah - I've had a slight interest in building high-availability infrastructure for publishing the content of disenfranchised political factions (don't really care what country, or party, but we have obvious local victims). If GE13 doesn't result in a complete meltdown, let's hang out more and start looking at a design for GE14. This could be fun.

I've previously approached local web publications about the consistently low-availability of their sites I under duress. They don't seem to want help, often enough. I'm interested in developing a "mostly idiot proof" method that can be taught to content publishers say, 1 year before GE14 is due. Would be fun to discuss.

At which point, intelligent readers in this field should smell a unicorn...

Sometimes, it feels like I'm the only chatty person who doesn't give a fuck about the future of the nation, who hasn't left yet. No push, no pull. Life's easy here. But I have low standards... and if there's a Malaysia I do give a fuck about, it'd probably be run by the government that comes after both the current options have proven themselves to be corrupt. Around 1998, I gave myself 20-30 years to see what would happen. I'm still holding out. Strike when iron is hot, they say. Some believe hot is now, I believe hot is later.

BN supporters should uphold the democractic process, to give any victory a sense of legitimacy? That's true if you're on the side of democracy. But I guess a significant chunk of BN's supporters still aren't - they're still operating with a feudal mentality, so BN only stands to win, in the near term, by derailing the democratic process. Democracy and BN have been incompatible (at least) since Mahathir - I simply assumed since 1998 that I don't live in a democracy.

Then you have kiddies complaining that non-voting is bad citizenship, and that it doesn't matter who wins as long as one votes. 1. If it doesn't matter who wins, it doesn't matter who votes; robot citizens make robot makers rich; plain as day. 2. If you want X to win, you have to ask your self is voting a sufficient condition? Also, is voting a necessary condition? I believe it is neither. Most people do, however, associate voting with the necessary conditions for responsible citizenship, and I am happy to accept their points of view... From my silly point of view, I grew up in a Malaysia that was run as a veiled dictatorship. I'm happy to let you guys turn that into a democracy while I get on with other things in the mean time. Thanks in advance, if it works out.

I wish there was more BN stuff on my Facebook newsfeed to share... but most of my network seems to support PKR!! (Do I mean PR? I guess. You know, I barely involve myself in the difference. Pardon my lack of involvement.) Call me for a fist-fight, but I ain't voting in an environment where mobs are implicitly condoned. I'll leave voting to you non-violent types. ;)

Post results: Without saying the unnecessary... oh look, NOW everyone's getting philosophical...