It's that time again..

No, no, no, not the time of the month. But rather the "errection" is back. We've already known it was in the offing. Our free press were printing stories of how much progress the "gahmen" has achieved in the last 5 years.

I've been rather impressed with the changes of late. Service counters are open from 7:30 in the morning till 5:00 in the evening (well, they should be) and you can check your voter registration status online, get a passport in 24 hours, a drivers license in 20 minutes and pay your local council taxes in shopping malls. Everything more or less works (sometimes slow and a bit broken but all governments are like that, bureaucracy breeds inefficiency)

However, one item of news irks me.

EC: Postal vote only for certain groups

PUTRAJAYA: Malaysians living overseas cannot vote through the post unless they are military personnel, students, staff of embassies and high commissions and their spouses.

Election Commission (EC) secretary Datuk Kamaruzaman Mohd Noor advised them to return home if they wanted to vote on March 8.

“The law does not provide for ordinary citizens living abroad to cast postal votes.

“Under the Election Regulations (Electoral Roll) 2002 and Election Regulations (Postal Votes) 2003, only three categories of citizens living overseas are allowed to cast postal votes.

“Individuals who are keen to vote must come back to Malaysia as there is no other alternative for them to exercise their rights,” he said in response to an e-mail sent to The Star by a Malaysian living in Hong Kong who wants to vote in next month’s election.

Of the 10,922,139 registered voters on the 2007 master electoral roll gazetted on Feb 5, 221,085 are postal voters.

Kamaruzaman said voters who are not able to go to the polling stations due to work commitment, such as emergency service personnel and journalists, could apply to the EC through their organisations to vote by post.

“No individual application will be entertained because the law does not provide for this,” he said.

Kamaruzaman assured postal voters that they need not fear as the process was carried out in secret, adding that the serial number on the electoral roll would be different from that on the ballot paper.

“Even during the counting process, the candidates’ agents will closely scrutinise every ballot paper before giving their approval or objection.

“So, unless the agents are completely blind, I cannot entertain any allegations that there is no transparency in voting by post,” he said.

On the issue of voters aged 100 and above and still listed on the electoral roll, Kamaruzaman said as long as the National Registration Department's records showed that a person has not died, the EC could not expunge the name from the roll.

Postal votes are not allowed in a country where we have super-duper high-tech biometric ID cards. Everyone must return to the address on their identity cards to vote. Where is the logic in this? A discontent must arise from people who do not work in their home states, that to exercise their right to be heard by the government they must spend an inordinate amount of time and money to do so.

Why can't the government have remote polling stations for out of state workers? If they can organise overseas postal votes for certain groups of people, why can't they do in in Malaysia itself?

Actually, while I'm on the subject, why can't ALL Malaysians abroad vote? Are they afraid that because we don't live in Malaysia and experience the progress of the government we won't vote for them? Hardly makes for democratic elections, does it? I'm in two minds over this one.

Much as we make fun of the people in power in this country, there has been some progress (I've been abroad and each time I return, there is always a change even though a small one or sometimes not a good one). The opposition in this country is a small minority, and they don't really do things any better, there is more power grabbing and the greed is obvious in their eyes.

Do we continue the pseudo-theocracy* of this country or do we appoint those who object the government for the sake of objecting instead of bringing chance?


*for those that object the use of a theocratic government of Malaysia, I'll think you'll find many instances where many of the ruling subsumes posts that are given to them by a higher being. Although in some states, there's an almost dictatorship, especially with regards to certain chief ministers

So

what have I been up to?

Well, I'd like to say that I've had a full and exciting life but it isn't the case.

I've been sat on my behind, waiting for a piece of paper that will take me back to my job and my beloved. I miss TL a lot. It's harder than I thought it would be. Mainly because there's no end date, I don't know when I'll leave. My life is hanging on in limbo, waiting for someone at the Work Permits department to go through my stacks of papers and issue me (hopefully) a work permit. Then it has to fly here and then I apply for entry clearance. It doesn't make me feel better that it's now 11 working days delay at Work Permits and the woman at HR isn't going to bother chasing it for me anymore.

I shall just sit and wait. People tell me to go and relax but it's hard. I haven't earnt anything and I'm spending all this money that isn't mine. And I can't relax because I'm impatient and excited about going back to my new project and my darling. Yes, I'm being sickly sweet and romantic. Suck it.

The waiting game is the worst in the world. I miss you.

A new efficiency

It's been a while since I posted, mainly because there wasn't much to post. In fact, there still isn't that much to detail about. http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

But I'm back in Malaysia for a couple of weeks, sorting things out and hoping it will be all ok in the end. What I am posting about is how efficient things have become in my absence. Everyone extols the wonders of whatever first world country they live in but I've been rather impressed with this country's experience lately.

I needed a new passport as the last one expires in September so off I trundle to the Immigration department expecting massive queues and stupid waiting times. Strangely enough, although there was no power when I got there at about 2, I was done by 4:30pm. And my new passport would be ready tomorrow afternoon. 24 hours for a new passport. Even the application wasn't painful.

Then I had to replace the driver's license that I lost. So off we go to the Department of Road Transport. It's a fair drive away but I walked in, explained what I needed and in my kiasu-ness (please see wikipedia for a definition) punched a number before I filled in a form. Which was totally unnecessary because we didn't need to wait. 5 minutes, RM20 later and I have my replaced driver's license. Yes, I don't drive but I'm guessing it'll come in useful someday. For something. I'm sure.

I'm stunned at how things have improved. There are actual government provided services that work. It's all a matter of paying for it! Welcome to the new third world capitalist government.

A change of status

I was on the train the other day, doing some reading for my new job and when I got up to leave, the woman next to me asked in her nosy American accent if I was still a student.

The natural instinct was to reply yes but it took me about 5 seconds to work it out in my head and I had to mutter a no. She commented that I was doing some heavy duty reading and I assured her it was for my job.

It's very sad that I have to let go of it.

Now, if only I could get the real job to start. But that's another story.

Welcome to my day from hell

How bad can one day get? It's like in the movies, where someone has one streak of bad luck after another and it's quite funny.


Today is the day I get to come back to Oxford to print out my thesis, so it can get bound and I can submit the final copy and get the official confirmation so I can get the work permit.

(No, nothing is ever simple in my life, a thesis submission is never JUST a thesis submission)

We start the day off waking up to the alarm clock and realising I've no idea where the stickers for the CD labels are, mad hunt around the house for them and they are tucked safely in a box yet to be unpacked (oh, there's more to that)

Then off to the train station where there are no trains because a piece of rail broke. Get told to wait so I do. Half an hour later, we get on the train where miraculously it actually stops at somewhere I can change at. Only that I get there 3 minutes to late and the next train isn't for another hour. So I sit and wait, like a well-trained English person now only to find the train has been cancelled due to staff shortage. Excellent.

Thankfully, 10 minutes later, the train is reinstated. Except that I get to my next changing station 3 minutes too late as the last train just left and wait 10 minutes for the next train. The hard part is over, I hear you say.


IT's only just begun....


Arriving in Oxford, I rush to the binders, and get told that even if I rush it in for tomorrow, it won't be ready till Tuesday. FABULOUS.

My addled brain thinks it's certainly possible to print off the copies I need in 2 hours, PLENTY OF TIME.

So...

madly rushing to the lab for THE print. First print run, Word has fucked up some of my formatting so I fix it on the fly and hope for the best but on printing out supposed fixed pages, I find word has actually fucked up the formatting for SOME (but not all) of my captions, automatically renumbering pages as I go along. Course, I didn't realise this until I sent the second copy to print.

So it's now 4:30, I'm tired and just want a fuck off glass of red wine but I'm sat in a cold crappy lab having had a lukewarm pasty and tea that tasted of dishwater for lunch and swearing at word.

You just can't make up a day like this.

So I got carried away...

And haven't started work

BUT

I accepted my job offer. The bright lights of London Town beckons. More updates as and when I know.

This is my month!

Smugness

So I'm feeling a little smug.

I've been shortlisted for another interview. This makes position number 3 in probably about the same number of days.

The problem is now to be still motivated to continue writing job applications as there is this hope that I should just get the first one that I was picked for. That's just wishful thinking. But I believe in the existence of a higher being, that's sort of wishful thinking as well?

*ducks for lightning strike*

Must prepare for thesis viva. Anyone want to cram about innate immunity and the cytokine signalling of haemocytes in Drosophila?

*didn't think so*

I'll be back in a few days.

EEK

what up, crazy kids.

Job interview in the big smoke tomorrow. I have a smokin' hot powerpoint presentation. However, if i don't get it at least it'll be a good excuse to meet some of the people I've been putting off for ages.

Free trip down to London my chaps and chapesses.