What's In A Name?

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"In an effort to brand itself as “progressive” and “egalitarian”, and move away from feudalistic connotations, the party has introduced new descriptions for its organisational structure. The supreme council (majlis pimpinan tertinggi) is now replaced with central leadership committee (majlis pimpinan pusat) while “bahagian” or division has been superseded by “cabang”, and “cawangan” or branch will be referred to as “ranting”."

Central leadership committee?

Anybody else thinking of Lenin's Council of Commissars?

PKR, you do not sound 'progressive' or 'egalitarian', you just sound out of touch with reality.

Yes, this smacks of Socialist 'egalitarian' rebranding, ladies and gents.

And before I get flamed as a crackpot Commie-basher, here're my arguments. So finish reading before you click the Comments link.

A committee, by definition, is a group of ordinary party members who get together in order to accomplish a particular goal or target.

Ostensibly, this implies that the members of the Committee are, in fact, just your everyday, run of the mill PKR party members.

So, by rebranding the Supreme Council a Central Leadership Committee, the party's saying, "Hey, we're democratic! Look! Our leaders are normal people! Just like you! And you! And you, the homeless unemployed guy who lives off his brother smoking pot over there! Yes, you too!"

I disagree with this.

Why pretend that a group of leaders that are higher ranked (and by extension, more valuable) than the other members of the party are 'the same as everyone else'?

Why pretend that the men (and women) who contribute most to the party are the exact same as the ones who join it for the glamour of being part of 'the Opposition' or, worse, the money?

I say keep the title 'Supreme Council.'

I believe that Parties are not run by Committees.

Scratch that, Parties CANNOT be run by committees.

Parties are run by councils, with a clear hierarchy and a leader that leads with integrity, with a clear succession plan to an intelligent, competent successor. There is no cooperation in leadership.

Cooperative Leadership does not and cannot exist. It is an oxymoron.

And the 'Feudalistic connotations' of the term Sepreme Council? People, the Supreme Council, i.e. the notion of an enlightened form of organised leadership is not FEUDAL at all! It is the absolute base of the modern Government! The idea of a 'Leadership Committee' is the perverted version of this noble ideal! Why are we equating the single greatest breakthrough in human governing systems with something that is ancient and 'bad'? This makes no sense.

Look.

PKR's supreme council is (mostly?) made up of competent, intelligent individuals, and I, for one, respect who they are and what they have to offer to Malaysian politics.

And so they deserve to be recognised as maybe a little better than all of us for what they have achieved as the main opposition to the admittedly slightly wayward ruling party we have now.

PKR has never been led by a committee. PKR is what it is today because of a council, a team, the leaders, men with vision, a wise group of elders and not-so-elders, and there is no point calling them otherwise. To do so would be an insult.

Calling them a 'committee' will just draw derision from Malaysians sick of these half-assed attempts to 'democratise' PKR's image (which I personally think is too democratic already). We want good government, not fancy committees. The most democratic titles in the world will not get you anywhere when the economy crashes, GLCs go bankrupt, the crude oil runs out and pop stars are falling left and right.

PKR's leadership has given much to us all, and even I, who privately lean towards the ruling coalition (they can be saved, people!) ungrudgingly admit this. They deserve to be treated as such.

Call a spade a spade, ladies and gentlemen. After all it's done for you, it's the least you could do.

Quickie Pt 2

My UK trip (originally planned for 28th June -12th July) has just been cancelled, due to the big swine flu scare.

And I'm understandably disappointed.

I spend much time cursing unnamed things, trying to find some way to spend an extra two weeks in Malaysia.

But then, the next day (i.e. Today) I get a call from Ms Parvin from the Yayasan Bumiputera Scholarship Whatchamajigger, and she says she wants to schedule a face-to-face interview for me on the 3rd of July, Friday.

Whoa.

And it turns out our tickets can be held for a year, meaning that we'll be going in September after Raya, in the Fall when it's not so tourist-y.

Double Whoa.

Which just goes to show you kids.

Things'll pretty much almost always end up going your way.

Now to see how long this optimism will last.

I'm gonna go read a book and try not to kill myself over my terrible Malay language skills.

Quickie Pt. 1.

Quick update on what could have possibly been the best weekend I've had all year.

And regular readers of this blog (which number in the high 0.005s) will know that this is a rare occurence for me, as I almost never put up posts recounting my increasingly-mundane exploits.

Anyway.

Awesome weekend.

Why? Consider the following.

Friday.

1. Came back on Friday after squash with Suman, so got the exercise quota of the weeekend filled (Ha. Ha.).
2. Dinner with Mommy at Pasta Zanmai in OneUtama, which had surprisingly well-prepared pasta. Bloody hell, teh japanese are cooking better spaghetti than the Italians, why is that?

Saturday.

1. Went out to buy prom suit with Mom. Yes. I'm a mommy's boy. Sue me.
2. Found and bought the suit from Zara. A two-button this time, thank god. If I show up at a prom in a business suit again i'd be forced to go into the Himalayas and be inducted into a monastery.
3. Came home, watched an awesome qualifying session, where Mr. Vettel snatched pole in a fantastic lap.
4. Did P3. yes. Don't laugh. = D
5. Noticed that downloading speed had quadrupled and downloaded The Pixies and Robert Plant & Alison Krauss tracks, and... That's it. Right. Cough.

Sunday.

1. Woke up and got my Dad to send me to The Gardens, like I'm some freaking fourteen year old, gahhh! Happy the Car is busted, and the road tax is dead, so it was either be chauffered like a dick or drive an effing Kia Naza Ria minivan around. And that ain't happening.
2. Met up with Sheril. = )
3. Watched a movie, whose name shall not be mentioned here.
4. Bumped into Hairul, MABA, Stab, Jijul, Min and basically half of Sapphire in MPH while i was with Sheril.
5. Had a Big Mac after she left. (Sooooo good.)
6. Watched Turkish GP. Which was kinda sucky. And I vowed to Kesh that if, in the last 10 laps, Vettel and Webber did something stupid and crashed or something I would cut my... Legs off. Thankfully, I can still... Walk. Race ended Button, Webber, Vettel.
7. Got back to college at 11.30pm.
8. Was so hungry I had lemon biscuits dipped in Mamee 'Buntu Pedas Terer' broth. which wasn't bad. Haha.
9. Called her, and went to bed.

And that was my weekend. Plus this morning, I got up at like. 8.14. And rushedrushedrushed to Aizan's class, pushed the door open, panting like a bastard, and started yelling 'IMSORRYMISSAIZANSORRYSORRY' to an empty class.

Class was cancelled.

She'a at a seminar, says Kammy-who-just-woke-up-cause-Aiman-called-her.

Great.

Anyway.

That was my weekend, with a little epilogue.

How was yours? = )