to the plunging death.

my death or the other fella's death?

we learned something interesting in Conflicts of Law lecture today. it's the concept of rem. if you bring an action in rem, it means you arrest a thing. an action in personam is to sue an individual.

do note that when i talk about the other, i'm talking in the in rem sense. *go figure*

mum has cautioned that i should be careful when i blog, in case i get suspended.

that brings to mind another interesting thing i learned yesterday in Constitutional Law lecture. we were comparing the Islamic model of rule with the constitutional model that many corrupted buggers denounce as being "too Western for us Eastern people".

most of us should know Saidina Abu Bakar, because even if we don't remember the rest of them khulafa (plural for khalifah public: ahhhhh now i remember!), we somehow remember this one. in his famous actually i've never heard it speech, he said (i paraphrase, since i'm so good at it *wink*):

if you speak the truth to your ruler, it is faithful loyalty.
if you conceal it, it is treason.

k la. it sounds nicer in malay.

kebenaran adalah suatu amanah,
dan dusta adalah pengkhianatan.

in a country where those who point out governmental flaws are considered committers of high treason (ya, they don't say it like that, but that's what they mean when they throw you into ISA detention. the rakyat are not dumb.), and those who popularize the phrases "everything's alright", "malaysia boleh" and "we're doing very well" are the best rakyat in the world... honesty is a rarity.

it's the truth. the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. and some people can't handle the truth.

in light of such amazing truth, the government is wasting its time teaching the children the "berkata benar" value in our Pendidikan Moral syllabus. what's the point of making so much effort to remember that it's "berkata benar" and not "bercakap benar" for the exam when so much of it isn't practiced anyway?

i understand that sometimes we lash out a bit too aggressively, my own posts included. but the authorities must also understand that this has come to be because we are so deprived of the opportunity to speak out that once we find an avenue that is the closest to actually speaking out (here, it is blogging), we find that all we say is an accumulated mass.

it's like how you weren't allowed to cry when your parents were giving you a scolding or the rotan. when you did find a chance to cry, you found that you couldn't quite stop. it felt like those tears were larger than the situation that caused you to cry.

my resentment for the other fella has turned into pity.

the traffic police intervened with their fantabulous policy yesterday, because of the jam they were causing.

er, thank you, i appreciate being able to drive now, but for your own sake, please reconsider the policy. our student council reps are sending in a referendum soon. do give it due consideration. i despise the feeling of pity. i really do. the presence of pity signifies the presence of a certain degradation to the receiver of pity. you don't pity a bahagia or dignified person, do you?

so.

if you antibiotic your flu, i promise i'll forget the flu ever happened. i really will.

are you even reading?

*shakes head*

oh ya. you guys notice my previous posts sounded angry. er, when i wrote the first one, i wasn't angry. just felt incredulous. like, "got such people in the world? preposterous!", kinda thing. the second post was after jason's recollection of the incident. and i felt o_O too. but, the second post is quite an accurate representation of how i felt when jason said, later in the day: "i think you guys should really go in from damansara gate la".

i felt...

true, that would be more convenient. plus i would be a much lesser rebel. we shouldn't be rebelling against the authorities. a lot is at stake. and they did send out the letter informing us of the policy. we have no defence if they decide to reprimand us.

BUT.

i don't have to do this. i shouldn't have to use the damansara gate. i'm supposed to have my rights.

these words rang in my head as i reconsidered my 7 fantastic strategies.

and then i got upset. i refrain from using the word "angry" because i happen to know what my anger feels like, and at that point, that wasn't it. i was upset.

upset, as in when someone was supposed to take you out for dinner, and they didn't. or as in when someone disagrees with what you felt was an awesome idea, and you really think they're not being mature enough to see your point of view.

that kind of upset. and not pointing out real-life events. jangan perasan. =P

ah, long post. supposed to prepare for my tutorials. but yeah, i'll heed my mum's advice.

from now on, i shall not blog for the plunging death of the other fella's reputation. i'll just smear it a little. politely.

ladida~