Steven Sim

It has been a crazy weekends.

First, there was an offer from the new state government to join one of the exco as her “political sexy-tary” or the exco office manager (I still dunno wut exactly is the post, neither did she, we just know it's a lot, and I mean A LOT, of work - we inherited an almost non-functional adminstration 30 years of BN-Gerakan government in Penang). It's pretty confirmed I'll join the exco office to coordinate the youth developement and sports committee, but details will only be known next week when I really submit my CV and go through the employment procedures. I told one of my pastor friends, it's like making a decision to be a pastor…gulp, I mean a pastor in Kampar, not Klang Valley, low pay, lots of work, no big annual bonus. But I am excited with the possibilities and challenges I'll face in my new life with the “gomen”.

Secondly, on Saturday, I went snorkelling with JR and my friend Martin from UK. It was a one day trip to Pulau Payar, about 1.5 hours of boat trip off Penang. Got my little tan on the face and upper body, dunno why I can get an even tan though I stripped to my swimming tights to sunbath. Anyway, we had a lot of fun, Martin went scuba diving (which I promise him I'll join him in the next trip if I ever had the opportunity to pick up a diving license) while JR and I went snorkelling, a good part of the morning and a good part of the afternoon after lunch. The trip was kinda expensive even for locals (RM200/person include a not-too-memorable buffet lunch; and RM280 for foreigners include the buffet lunch). Scuba diving is another RM70 for a 45 minutes dive.

I swam in the morning without life jacket - mau jadi hero - but got into some difficulties when JR and I tried to swim from the platform to the beach (close to 1km??). She (didn know how to swim) got panicked halfway when water got into her breathing tube and mask and kicked me and I being very unfit and already exhausted lost balance. I gathered whatever strength I have to “save” here hoping to bounch on her (she was with a life jacket) to swim back to the platform. Fortunately the life guards there were very very sensitive to emergency situations, one of them came swimming towards us with a float, I was really glad. I mean, we tried to maintain calmness but the life guards still managed to smell fish. In our second attempt to cross to the beach after lunch, I wore a life jacket and it was much much easier. Oh, speaking about fish, we saw some sharks, which the locals call “yu bodoh” (stupid sharks, or “you are stupid” depends on how you wanna perceive it). I thought sharks are supposed to be wild predators? But I see ppl swimming around them like they are some little puppies. Martin even told me he was swimming underwater with a FEW sharks. Gulp. dunno.

And on Sunday, I attended DAP's 42nd Anniversary Convention. It was not the huge scale, UMNO general assembly type, but I think almost all the elected representatives came down to grace the events. Our east Malaysian comrades came down as well. I saw Hannah Yeoh up close (but never got to greet her…) but I took picture with someone I respect alot, Dr. Chen Man Hin, one of our founders and one time chairman (now life advisor). I liked what Dr. Chen said, all the leaders and representative must take a vow before god (he's a devoted Catholic) and he quickly added, your respective temples, to serve the people. Wow…that's a strong one. I guess he's probably about 80 if not more, but he still spoke with strength. Also our new YAB Chief Minister reassured the Rakyat and request all DAP members to continue to demonstrate that we are a government for ALL Malaysians, not a racial based government. He wants Penang to be a model state in Malaysia where justice and equity will rule and where our prosperity will be shared by all.

Some of the key points of the speakers (I paraphrase)

Dr. Ramasamy: We are in for a new politic. We will now crush the lies of the UMNO led BN government who said that the DAP cannot rule without facing racial riots and political anarchy.

Chong Eng: No social equality without gender equality.

YAB Lim Guan Eng: We believe the only person able to lead this new era of Malaysia is our alternative Prime Minister, Saudara Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim. (wow!)

After Chow Kon Yeow's speech, JR and I took off to a local mamak at Tanjung Tokong where we met with a bunch of very very cool and enthusiastic Malaysians. We have been communicating for a few months now since before the election through the bangsamalaysiapenang google group. Now we finally meet up to discuss the exciting opportunities for us to further our agenda of a new Bangsa Malaysia with the new politcal climate we are in. Ong Boon Keong wrote about it and some photos can be found here

We realized that our current representation is not ideal. There were no Malay in the core group and all of us are committed to invite our Malay friends to join us. Hopefully this will kick off and will steer our nation into realizing the dreams of Dato Onn Jaafar of seeing a trully bangsa Malaysia. We have made plans with the task of defining bangsa Malaysia highest on the list, promoting our googlegroup forum, and plans to create a blog and hold another big scale gathering (the last was well attended with 200 plus participants), dialogues with the civil society and the state government etc. These are huge ambitions we realized, but even with our baby steps, we believe in the power of the people. Especially since after March 8th. Makkal Sakti!

We ended today with a short meeting with Chong Eng and Lydia (my future boss, the only lady state exco!) in our BM office. Both looked very tired and they need to go into office very early tomorrow. I think I will have a tough job keeping up with Lydia, she's hyper. Super duper hyper.

No photos on the Pulau Payar trip and the 42nd Anniversary yet…wait lah till i can sort them out.

JR wanted to start a photo blog and she needed money to buy a good camera. If anyone wanna sponsor, contact me through facebook.