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Wednesday August 13, 2008
UiTM slams MB’s proposal

SHAH ALAM: Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) Vice-Chancellor Prof Datuk Seri Dr Ibrahim Abu Shah has hit out at Selangor Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim’s suggestion that the university open its doors to non-bumiputra students.

Prof Ibrahim said the call to have non-bumiputras allowed into the university was against the purpose of setting up the university.

“UiTM was set up to provide the bumiputras a chance to improve themselves by attaining tertiary education,” he told a press conference at the university here yesterday.

He was commenting on Khalid’s statement asking for UiTM to open 10% of its intake to the other races to raise the level of integration, competitiveness and the quality of graduates.

He said the power to decide on any changes to the intakes in UiTM was up to the government. Earlier about 5,000 UITM students held a peaceful demonstration in front of the state secretariat building where they also handed over a memorandum to a state government official objecting to the call by Khalid.

UiTM student body president Luqmannulhakim Mohamad Idris said the students wanted Khalid to retract the statement and apologise.

“We (the students) are very disturbed by the statement and we have planned our strategy on what to do if the Mentri Besar does not apologise and retract the statement,” he said.

Khalid, meanwhile said the proposal was done in the interests of both bumiputras and others.

Khalid said he was fully aware that he had no right to decide on the quota for non-Malays in UiTM.

These people were acting as if UiTM is as prestigious as Oxford or Harvard, and we non-bumis are trying to pillage their intelligence out from their asses… what a chode.

If anyone from UiTM is reading this - don’t worry about it guys. I’m not going to send my kid to UiTM. No fucking thanks. Not even if you pay me to send her there. Not in a million years. That’s because I don’t think I’m (we’re) that desperate, and I definitely would hate to see her turn into someone like you (and yeah, I will convince my non-bumi friends to stay the fuck away as well. You guys can have the whole place all by yourselves…)

A group of engineers led by a couple of foreigners came barging into my lab today looking for a computer notebook. The duo - one a white guy who has an uncanny resemblance to Kevin Spacey and the other a middle aged Mexican - are supposed to be somekind of ‘important experts’ from the States, you see… here to support the newly launched notebook model in Company X. They herded the group into the lab with a deep sense of urgency without saying a word to anyone and straight away congregated in front of my bench, totally disregarding my presence (I was reading some comics). Then one of them pointed out to some of my computer parts and started to bullshit to the group…

“This is it. It was dismantled by bla bla bla and we’re suppose to bla bla bla [insert a bunch of nonsensical corporate jargons]”

Now, this may sound perfectly normal for someone who doesn’t know what’s going on here. The thing is, the specimen that they’re looking at was a completely different product and was TOTALLY NOT what they’re looking for. The 2 of them were obviously making a big boner and didn’t even know about it. The ironic sense of the whole thing was, they are suppose to be the ‘experts’ for the project, and they are here to make things easier and shit. But how come they couldn’t even recognize the product that they’re suppose to know well like the back of their hands? Making an unforgiving mistake like this is akin to having a gynaecologist recognizing your pubic hair as the fallopian tube… A bunch of fucking posers and douchebags, that’s what they are.

I intended to counter their rudeness and arrogance by hollering at them, but decided to play nice in the end, after weighting in the troubles I’m gonna get for doing that… so I politely asked Mister Kevin Spacey and George fucking Lopez this instead -

“May I help you, gentlemen?”

One of them replied, in a faked courtesy,
“Oh, I’m sorry. We’re here to look at the recent issue of [insert nonsensical description of some shit only he knows]”

“Well, I have no idea what you’re talking about, but you can look for your stuff at the trolley over there [points]. Somebody left them there a couple days ago. The thing you’re looking here is mine, and a totally different product.”

Oops. Embarassed, the 2 douchebags then went over to the trolley to get their stuff and left the lab not long after that. I reckoned that if they’re ostriches, they would have buried their hollow heads into a hole somewhere. But sadly, they aren’t. Instead, they are real people claiming themselves to be ‘managers’ that are revered by many and are extremely overpaid in wages for their ‘not so technical’ expertise. Hell. From what I see, it seems more like they’re being paid to be pricks than anything else… part of the inexplicable things that happen in the corporate world… (maybe that’s what it takes to be successful - acting like pricks and being stupid…)

Bedtime, inside the room, it was dark.

Emily (my wife): “Regine, do you want milk?”

Regine (my 2 yr old daughter): *Nods*

Emily saw her nodding, but decided to prod for a verbal answer… because we parents are all so sadistic like that…

Emily: “It’s dark in here, mommy couldn’t see if you’re nodding. Again, do you want milk?”

Regine: *Nods*

Emily: “No… you have to say, ‘Yes or No’…”

Regine: “Yes or No.”

Emily: *blood pressure shoots through the scale*

I’m so proud of my girl…

My new-boss came to me yesterday and asked me a question,

New boss: “So Michael, do you have the projected spending for this coming new quarter?”

“Yeah”, I thought. I’m gonna need a bigger car that guzzles less fuel. And perhaps a new pad to go with it. A petrol subsidy from the company would be nice. And I also would like a personal masseur in the lab to give me a backrub when I need it (a hot girl please).

Ridiculous as it may sound, the outcome is still the fucking same - the sore miser director (boss’ boss) is not going to fucking approve anything we request anyway. We wanted to buy a few cheap cabinets to store our shits a few months back but, we got rejected flat. They were only 65 bucks a piece. That should be nothing for a 50 billion multinational company. But still, the management decided that we should save that mere few hundred bucks and piss some engineers off. That question about projected spending, was probably just a half assed effort of a ‘feel good’ question to keep us in check (oh I’m gonna ask him anyway it makes me feel good). I might as well give it a pass to make myself look more prudent…

Me: “Not that I can think of at the moment. We don’t need any major upgrades. In fact, we have bigger things to worry about now. Like batteries for my meters. I requested a few batteries a couple months back for my dying meters, and I still haven’t got them. I was about to ask for your permission to get the damn batteries off shelf, and file for a claim.”

File for a claim. A claim that literally takes weeks to reimburse. Fucking ridiculous, isn’t it? They can’t even fucking get me my batteries, let alone to upgrade our equipments? And this is only part of it, a few months back, the doctor smacked his forehead when he saw me in the clinic - the guy told me that Company X had defaulted the medical payment for its staff for 6 months. Just yesterday, I even got chased by a local vendor for a bad debt. Many more horrid tales. I wonder what next. Getting beaten up by apeshit doctors for not paying? Loan sharks giving my car a red paint job? Mahai.

Sometimes, I wonder if these people are taking the word ‘cost saving’ a little bit too far. I’m so fucking pissed and demotivated right now. I could use a little backrub and a cream bun.

Regine was at the playground playing when she came across this tunnel. She wanted to enter the thing but, she somehow hesitated. Being a pair of supportive parents (alright, wannabes…), we gave her a few words of encouragement for her to go through it.

“Go on, go into the tunnel. Don’t be afraid… Mommy will be on the other side, and daddy will be behind you…”

But she didn’t budge. It must be the longest tunnel she has ever seen. The previous tunnels we’ve brought her to, were all short and looked very much safer. But this was different. It was oblique, and a bit dark as well. God knows what manner of creatures could be lurking in there, she must have thought. And just when we were about to give her another push, my Regine said the darndest thing ever…

“The tunnel is so BIGGGG! Regine is so small… Cannot!”

We were both amused and surprised, because we’ve never actually heard her express herself like that before, especially when she gestured the ‘BIG’ adjective with her open arms and used her thumb/index to show how ’small’ she is compared to the tunnel, with a somewhat miserable facial expression.

After we’ve laughed our hearts out, I kind of acknowledged that maybe the tunnel was too intense for her, and I told Emily that maybe we should try it again when she’s older. But Emily was relentless, and decided to give one final push. She crawled through the monster infested hell hole herself… you know, to lead by the example to see if Regine would follow. Regine procrastinated a little while, and eventually went into the tunnel and came out from the other side.

I tell you man, I couldn’t have been prouder and any more impressed. Had my baby not contrasted to us that it was hell of a task for her to crawl through that shit, I wouldn’t have felt it that much. This, people, is called ‘lowering the expectations’ and when you score, you score it with colors - more or less the same as ‘Lesson #2′ featured in my ‘What have I learned?‘ post. Dirty trick but, works all the time.

It took her old man 20 over pathetic years to learn that, but my baby already knew how to do it intrinsically (goddamn!)

Like I said, I couldn’t have been any more impressed.