Police Attack Anti-ISA Vigil

I was almost there.

Almost.

But I stayed home cos the past few days had been very hectic for my family and I was pooped. I actually wanted to go. I already had my paper cups and I was thinking of decorating them with "No to ISA", "Yes to Freedom & Justice", etc.

But thank God, I changed my mind.

According to reports the roads leading to the field where the vigil was supposed to be held were sealed by police since the early evening. Then as people gathered, the FRU surrounded the crowd. At first, they harassed the crowd to the Amcorp Mall parking lot. Then they harassed them to the PJ Civic Centre.

There a few bloggers spoke. The last one to speak was RPK. Then as the people were singing Negaraku, the cops stormed in. 24 people were arrested, including 2 State Assemblymen and an MP. Also arrested was Father Paulino, a Catholic priest.

How are men, women, children who are participating in a quiet gathering such a danger to society that fully armed riot police have to be unleashed on them? How are politicians advocating a just and fair society and a Catholic priest a danger to society? I fail to see any reasonable reason why the vigil had to be stormed.

I had been to one of the vigils a couple of weeks ago. It was a very quiet affair. People gathered. Lighted candles. Talked politics. Mostly, people just sat/walked around, smiled at each other. A coffee shop at lunch time was more noisy that the 300 people gathered at that place!

Why? Why? Why?

And to think that I wanted to bring my family there yesterday as part of their political awakening as citizens in this dear land of ours.

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I post here some info from Wikipedia about the Gestapo - Nazi Germany's ruthless and much-feared secret police. You may draw your own conclusions...

"The Gestapo had the authority to investigate treason, espionage and sabotage cases, and cases of criminal attacks on the Nazi Party and Germany."

"The power of the Gestapo most open to misuse was called Schutzhaft - 'protective custody', a euphemism for the power to imprison people without judicial proceedings."

"By February and March 1942, student protests were calling for an end to the Nazi regime. These included the non-violent resistance of Hans and Sophie Scholl, two leaders of the White Rose student group. However, resistance groups and those who were in moral or political opposition to the Nazis were stalled by the fear of reprisals from the Gestapo. In fact, reprisals did come in response to the protests. Fearful of an internal overthrow, the forces of Himmler and the Gestapo were unleashed on the opposition. The first five months of 1943 witnessed thousands of arrests and executions as the Gestapo exercised their powers over the German public."

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I for one will not allow our beloved Malaysia to become a Gestapo State!

P.S. The Nazi regime eventually collapsed under the weight of their own evil, done in by their own greed, pride and lust for power.

God is good pt 2

Tomorrow morning, we are going to Kumon head office to attend the Franchisee Orientation. My wife is going to attempt the entrance test - again!

She's scared witless, but I have confidence that it will go well.

It's gone well so far. And we can see the hand of God in the process so far.

1) It was by blind chance that I knew this Kumon centre was for sale

2) The Kumon Instructor who wants to sell actually was very willing to speak to us even though she was already in negotiation with a buyer.

3) She is willing to and sell to us, while waiting for my wife to work on getting the Kumon license, and forego the other buyer who already HAS a Kumon license (!!)

4) She is willing to let us take over on VERY generous terms.

So tomorrow, whatever happens, I'm confident that the results will be positive. I really feel that this is God's gift to us after years of financial struggle.

God is good.

Chee Seng

God is good!

I'm...so...tired...

Seminar today from 10am to 11.30am...
Study group from 12.30 pm to 4pm...
Then took my bike for repair. reached home abt 6.30...

then...

have to cook dinner...

aiyooh....

On the bright side, yesterday we went to see a Kumon centre for sale. We're quite interested and the instructor prefers to sell to us instead of another buyer as we have experience. There are some issues that need to be worked out though, but do keep us in prayer.

We are really looking forward to have this deal go through as it is something we are passionate about AND it'll be a big help to us financially.

Chee Seng

Kumon ASHR Ceremony 2008!

Today was a proud day for us. Not only was our girl going to receive her gold medal in her second Kumon Advanced Student's Honour Roll (ASHR) ceremony, this year also marked the highest ever number of students qualifying from our Centre. A total of NINE students from our centre were honoured this year. But only six managed to make it today.

It was also a little bittersweet for me. This was the first time Wai Ling's parents joined us in attending this ceremony but my dad is no longer around to witness Ashley accepting her medal. We thank the Lord that he was able to attend last year's ceremony and share the joy of Ashely's achievement then.

The ceremony was held this morning at Berjaya Times Square Convention Centre. More than 600 students turned up (this number does not include their families, Kumon Instructors and Kumon staff!) All in all, I would estimate that almost 2000 people attended the event.

Here are some photos of my students. (They're not that great, so i guess maybe it's time to get a better camera!) Will post some more pictures when I get the “official” photos.

From left: Ashley, Terenia (Ashley's classmate from kindy), me, Daniel and Ashley (yup!)

Ashley Lai is in kindy studying Pri. 4 English, Daniel is in Pri. 3 studying Sec. 2 Maths, Ashley Lim is in Pri. 2 studying Sec. 2 English!

Posing with the ORIGINAL worksheets prepared by Mr Toru Kumon (they are already 50-plus year old!)

More than a thousand people packed into the hall! Many cancelled at the last minute or else there would have been much more!

Doogie is almost completing the whole programme! We are so proud of him - he has not given up or stopped progressing though he faced PMR (and now SPM), several hospital visits and even major surgery!

All my students who attended this morning. As usual, my girl has to "do something". Itchy backside like the father!

Chee Seng

Nephew's birthday party

Just finished a birthday party for my 2 nephews. (Fwooh..little terrors!) My wife felt it was kind of funny that the party was held at our place, and that we were the main organisers and the parents acted like guests rather than birthday boy's parents. For me, ok la. Just another party (our dunno-number-what so far this year - Christmas open house coming next!!).

Anyway, as usual, I had to do a whole lot of preparations, although this time it was better cos I only made a few simple dishes. The rest was bought.

So today I made:
- Cut fresh veges (salad bar)
- French loaf with tuna dip
- Roast chicken
- Risotto (actually, it's just a fancy name for rice...)

Started preparing abt 3.30pm. After cutting the veges and marinating the chicken, at 4.30 I had to drive all the way to setapak to collect some food we had ordered. The trip took me 1 1/2 hours. I come back and continue to make risotto and the tuna dip and the salad dressing and the roast chicken. Finally kautim all at 8pm. We all went to the poolside for makan. (my wife happy la, not so much to clean up at home!)

There was so much food! We only managed to finish about half, so we packed and tried to give away as much of the leftovers as possible. But we still have a quarter of all the food left! Came back up abt 10pm. I'm so pooped! Thank God for my massage chair - 15 minutes kneading my feet helped a lot!

Actually not bad leh. Got positive reviews for food again. And I think I can handle cooking that much food (enough for abt 30 ppl). We're seriously thinking of going into mini-event catering as a side business. What you think?