Lets support the young lawyers

 While the Malaysian Bar was playing politics yesterday with this move

Bar to hold protest over ‘judicial intimidation’

its junior members were doing this

Young lawyers call for binding rule on minimum wages

excerpts:

Vince Tan, another member of the YLM, said that the financial abilities of smaller firms should not be an excuse to not pay pupils a fair minimum wage.

“The Bar needs to stop listening to some council of elders or cartel monopolising the legal profession,” he said as young lawyers make up a majority of the Bar.

He said smaller firms should not take in any pupils if the firms could not afford to pay them a minimum wage.

Yeah, they talked so much about justice and stuff but at the same time refused to even pay minimum wage to their pupils.

Let's not even talk about the bullying junior lawyers have to endure at the start of their career.

This has actually been going on all the way back through the decades, something like a tradition of the legal profession.

Very similar to all the nonsense we heard about the medical profession.

They bullied the juniors and many of the juniors later on became bullies themselves.

They even bullied and cheat their clients too.

Well, if a young lawyer is well connected and from a rich family (possibly with parents who are senior lawyers) then he/she would not feel much of such tough life, but if he/she is a nobody, then it's a different matter all together.

I don't know how much they pay a chambering student these days but it's definitely below the RM1,500 minimum wage.

All these bring me back memories, actually.

Back then after I got my LLB, they were paying a chambering student as low as RM300 per month.

As I wrote before, I didn't do my CLP despite passing my law exams with honours because I ran out of money.

Yup, I paid my way through law school with the help of my family and had no scholarship or student loan.

By the time I was supposed to prepare for my CLP, I really have no more money.

I actually borrowed some money from my uncle for my CLP tuition fees but decided to drop out when I realised that I can't even pay the exam fees without borrowing more.

After all, on top of having to pay for my studies, I still need to pay my rent and food.

The thought that even if I pass the very difficult CLP with one try, I will still have to go another year as a chambering student slave made me decide to postpone the whole thing.

Told myself to work first and get enough money so that I won't starve doing my CLP and chambering.

I did get a job, which I hated so much at first but later on learnt to love.

By the time I had saved enough money, I realised there's no need for me to continue with my once dream of becoming a lawyer.

After all, during my studies, I came to know that the legal profession was not what I used to think it was.

No need for me to go through more shit just to join it.

Well, I'm not trying to discourage others from becoming lawyers but I do hope they know the truth about what they are joining.

If they are still good with it, then I wish them all the best and hope they would be better lawyers than their seniors.

Anyway, I hope the young lawyers will get what they are fighting for, which are decent pay and better treatment from their seniors.

Pakatan's Sri Lankan nightmare

Looks like this is what the Pakatan people want,

Johor PKR man tells people to take to the streets over soaring food prices, weakening ringgit

Yup, they want people to go to the streets and kick up a ruckus so that our country would end up in a mess like Sri Lanka.

I have also saw their comments on that on social media.

Just like the one previously made by Lim Kit Siang.

Rioting, looting, burning of homes of prime ministers and ministers, and even public lynching.

Is that what we want?

Yes, the country's situation is not so good but does it need to get worse with such protests, which could easily become riots?

Do we need to undermine investment confidence in our country some more with such insanity?

Honestly, I think these Pakatan people are getting desperate that they wanted to start some sort of unrest in order to stay relevant.

Hopefully the authorities could act firmly against them before they start such nonsense.

We don't need such things as we and the rest of the world are recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic.

After all, ours is not the only country facing the current problems. This is actually a global phenomenon, exacerbated by the economic fallout of the Russia-Ukraine war.

The way I see it, everyone need to stay calm and let things settle down.

I'm quite sure everything will be alright sooner than later if we just bear with the problems just for a little while longer.

I really don't think we need to start a street protest because there's a lack of chicken supply in the markets.

I'm sure the prices will stablise again once the supply chain, disrupted by the pandemic is back to normal.

Anyway, are there starving people yet in Malaysia?

Not yet, right?

Really guys, is our country heading towards the mess such as in Sri Lanka as Kit Siang said?

You see, this is why I dislike the Pakatan people more than the BN people.

People like Kit Siang and that PKR man who called for street protests are willing to go overly dramatic to incite people for their political expediency.

Also, remember when that DAP's Selangor exco falsely announced that a group of Muslims had attacked a Hindu temple, leading to the rioting which killed fireman Adib?

All that just so that they could stay relevant, especially among their people.

Quite disgusting, actually.

DAP's glamorous Malay personalities

The Malay Mail has highlighted DAP's only elected Malay in the party's central executive committee over the past two days.

DAP needs give-and-take to move past race barriers, says party’s sole elected Malay official

Be the change you want to see, Young Syefura tells those criticising DAP as Chinese chauvinists

It basically revolves around the participation of Malays in the Chinese dominated party.

Unfortunately, this Young Syefura is not a very deep thinking person.

She ends up putting the onus on proving that DAP is not Chinese dominated on the Malays.

Malays should join the party so that it would not be too Chinese, she concluded.

Hello, people join a political party because of what it is lah, not because they are trying to change it.

If a political party doesn't seemed to like someone like you, why join?

Okay, maybe DAP offers some nice ideals, but its practices may not reflect what it preaches.

Last time, one would argue that DAP was never given the chance to run the country thus can't prove itself but after 2018 that no longer applies.

They and their allies were in power for 22 months and what was the result of that?

They simply imploded.

DAP turned out to be so inflexible, causing its Malay-dominated allies to bail out as they were losing the support of their base. 

Many DAP personalities treated the 2018 Pakatan victory as a win for their communities against the perceived tyranny of the Malay-Bumiputra majority.

And their supporters behaved the same as they waged a racially toxic campaign in the social media against the Malays.

Remember the comments made by several DAP leaders and their supporters about the death of fireman Adib back then?

And then they blamed Umno for allegedly playing up racial sentiments, causing the defeat of Pakatan candidates in consecutive by-elections as if that party has all the while been hiding the fact that its struggles were for the betterment of the Malays.

Not enough with that, DAP people went to social media accusing the Malays of tolerating corruption.

If the Malays are so okay about corruption as alleged, how did Pakatan manage to win in 2018 by peddling the idea that Umno leaders were all corrupt?

Because DAP and gang got all the Indian votes, is it?

Guess these people never learn - you can't go around insulting people and get their support.

Recognise and rectify your own flaws before blaming things on others.

And how about the Malays who joined DAP?

I believe that some were true idealists, but others were just into it because they were seeking personal glamour or due to their unhappiness for not having a place in mainstream Malay politics.

The idealists will get tired of it all after realising the true nature of DAP (unless they are really dense), the glamorous ones will disappear after defeat in the next election (unless they get involved in some marital scandals) and the unhappy with Malay politics ones will fade away after not given a freebie position in DAP (unless then given a role by Umno to whack DAP).

As for Young Syefura, let's see where she would be after GE15.

Her state constituency Ketari has 47 per cent Malay voters, 45 per cent Chinese, over 4 per cent Indians, and over 2 per cent Orang Asli.

BN is likely to field a MCA candidate there.

If she loses, I think she would disappear despite her DAP CEC membership.

Hopefully she would not end up like another glamorous DAP young Malay personality Dyana Sofya Mohd Daud.

Better disappear for good than being remembered for the wrong reasons.

Debates are just for entertainment

Someone yesterday asked me to comment on the Anwar-Najib debate.

Honestly, I'm not interested in debates.

They were just talking and nothing really can come out of talking.

As expected, after the debate those who support Anwar said he was the winner while those who were on Najib's side said their man was the one who won.

It's actually like watching football with no goal posts.

They were just dribbling around with words and got nothing really tangible to show.

If I really want to compare between Anwar and Najib, I rather check their track records on what they had done as leaders.

Just look back at what happened in the country over the past 20 or 30 years and see what those two had been up to.

What were their contributions?

How about you all?

Do you like things after Anwar's Pakatan took over in 2018 or was your life better during BN rule led by Najib nine years before that?

Try to be honest about it and put aside your racial and other prejudices.

Isn't that better than trying to compare those two by their mere words?

I did watch the debate but that was because it's my job to monitor such nonsense.

I really don't feel like commenting on it because I think it would be pointless.

Anyway, someone clever made this and I have to more or less confess that it's basically how I saw the debate went,

You can change the name of the sinking ship from Sapura to Malaysia if you want.

But, did it change anything?

Not really, okay.

Then again, that's just me.

I'm not easily impressed by anyone's oratory skills or what they call charismatic persona.

Most conmen have those.

Most leaders in history who were known to give fiery speeches and charismatic are bad or even outright evil.

They were that or later proven to be incompetent as all they were good at was talking.

The good ones were instead almost always those who talked less and instead focused on the works that needed to be done for the people and their country.

I don't know about you all, but if it's up to me, I rather for this country to be led by people who can actually do their job well rather than just talk well.

Well, if you all still like being entertained by the debate, then I hope it's worth your time.

It's pure entertainment and that's about it.

Me, I rather spend my time for that watching a good standup by Dave Chappelle or Bill Burr.

At least I can get a proper good laugh that way.

Ciao.

Being a lawyer is not the same as being noble

I always find it amusing whenever I listened to people who have never even been to court talked about the country's justice system and its practitioners.

They always got the whole thing wrong in a funny way.

That's why I had a good laugh reading this article by the hilariously intelligent Amir Hafizi,

Amir’s Half-Easy: Courting Trouble

excerpts;

And none of the court stuff I have read in the papers ever play out like in Boston Legal, The Practice, LA Law, Ally McBeal or any of the K-dramas I have never watched.

Yup, the whole thing is not like in the movies or TV shows.

Especially, the lawyers.

People tend to think that most lawyers are extremely intelligent simply because they were supposed to know the laws, and this is definitely not true.

I have highlighted the stupidity of those who were supposed to be the best among them when they indulged in 

• Bullshitting over separation of powers

And now they are even talking about holding a rally to protest the so-called attack against the judiciary as if they have forgotten that they themselves had been doing that for years by claiming that judges were cronies of past BN administrations.

Seriously, are they planning the rally because they wanted to protect the country's judicial system or it's because of their political affiliation?

And lawyers are street crusaders now, is it?

How about intelligently arguing their case on the issue befitting the noble status of their profession instead of throwing tantrums like a stupid mob?

So much for being lawyers, I would say.

In actual fact, many of them are just glorified clerks, and those were the more intelligent ones among them as they tend to make more money working for corporations than the court lawyers.

All those successful legal firms, how do you think they managed to get the big money? By representing drug crazed murderers and rapists?

My best friend in law school, who scored second class upper honours for his LLB is now a corporate lawyer.

He started by being idealistic and wanting to be a court lawyer like his father before he got smarter and joined an oil company.

Another good friend, who was a bachelor in his mid-40s when he managed to scrape through with third class honours became an actual court lawyer.

He was a teacher but always wanted to be a lawyer because he thought it was a noble profession and being one would elevate him to a higher level in society.

Poor stupid guy.

He was actually reduced from being a good teacher to become a mediocre lawyer, who doesn't earn really that much either, judging from the way he lives now.

Me, I just bailed out when I realised that the whole thing was not what I thought it is. Running out of money to do my CLP also helped me to make that decision.

Like Amir Hafizi, back then, I also thought being a lawyer is like in the movies and TV shows.

Well, I was young and stupid at that time, okay.

Anyway, having said all that, I have to stress that not all lawyers are stupid like those heading their Bar Council.

Many are indeed smart, including among the court lawyers.

Some were even truly idealistic such as an old friend who enjoys doing lots of pro bono services for poor folks in his hometown in Terengganu.

For me, it all boils down to the individuals.

It's not the profession that makes one noble because what really matter is the individual's sincerity and good heart.

Enough of Raya, time to work again

My Raya celebration ends today.

Four days were more than enough for me.

I don't share the belief that Raya should be celebrated throughout the whole of Syawal month.

That's my personal view of course, and if you all want to celebrate it for that long, then go ahead and knock yourselves out.

As for me, I have more pressing things to do....like starting work to earn a living during this trying time of Covid recovery.

Anyway, I actually didn't celebrate Raya that much.

Just did the usual of eating all sorts of Raya food, and visiting relatives to please my family.

Actually, if I have my way, I rather just eat and sleep.

As usual I didn't give out duit raya to kids as I dislike that adopted angpow giving tradition.

Same with the burning of firecrackers and putting up lampu Raya. I just refused to do that kind of celebrating.

Even when taking Raya pictures with my family, I tried to look as natural as possible.

They said I looked glum in those pictures.

I didn't do all those usual cheerful poses for the occasion, which people do for them to be put up on their social media sites.

Well, I have no problem with other people doing that, but I don't like to bluff others with how I feel about things.

If I'm feeling like shit, then I prefer them to see that I'm not in the mood to tolerate any kind of shit.

That's just the way I am....and at the moment I'm not feeling very cheerful and have no intention to fake it to look otherwise.

I believe that Elon Musk was right when he said that social media platforms such as Instagram are doing more harm than good.

They projected a false image of life.

Everyone tries to put up the best pictures of themselves on Instagram while in reality, life is not as rosy as what they projected.

We looked at pictures of happy people on Instagram and wondered why our own lives are so miserable in comparison....while the actual fact was that those people are likely living as badly as us, except that they managed to fake it in those pictures.

Yup, that's why I just prefer this old fashion blogging as an outlet compared to all those social media platforms.

By the way, this blog's page views just passed the eight million mark today. That's after more than nine years which is rather slow.

 Still I would like to thank you all for stopping by here to read my silly nonsense.

After all, I never really tried to promote my writings as I don't really have any other platform other than this.

Also I have slowed down and write only occasionally these days.

I will try to improve and write more regularly like I used to do after this.

Hopefully I will regain my old energy and interest in things to do that.

Cheers.

A balanced podcast

 Someone recommended me to follow this podcast by The Vibes gang;

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly 

So I did and found that it's not such a bad effort at trying to present a balanced platform on current issues.

I know those three guys featured in the podcast.

There's my blogging captain Rocky, who is supposedly pro-BN; Terrance, who is supposedly pro-Pakatan and Zainul, who is supposedly somewhere in between those two.

All "supposedly" because I'm actually not totally sure what are their respective current political affiliation.

Basically, I'm just assuming from what I know of them in the past.

 I'm also not sure who is the good, the bad or the ugly, as all of them looked ugly to me. 

Well, I think the podcast's title refers more to the issues that they are discussing. Some are good, some are bad and some are ugly. 

I didn't expect from the start that those three will fight each other over the issues and true enough, yesterday they discussed things nicely as if they were lepaking at a cafe somewhere in Bangsar.

So, if you all prefer to listen to people screaming at each other like in the Dewan Rakyat, then I believe the podcast is not going to be your cup of tea.

It's more for the more civilised crowd who can mix around despite their political differences...something like those three guys.

I listened to the whole thing yesterday, and it was quite okay.

I didn't fully agree with the opinion of those three, but since they argued their case rather nicely, I didn't feel like whacking them in the comments.

Anyway, it was actually the first time that I  listened to a podcast session from start to finish. 

You all should give it a try, sometimes.

Okay, that's all for today.

Don't actually feel like writing much as I'm already in raya mood.

Got to go help make pineapple tarts in the kitchen now.

Cheers.