Elections aftermath

Finally.... Taiwan and Malaysia a week after....
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Recount or not?

This was the last thing everyone would be expecting following an election. Taiwan may be the world's most sensationalized democracy, but it may also the hotbed of "dirty politics" as we may have not seen openly.

I was quite surprised given the huge amount of spolit votes, and some ppl are speculating that the Election Commision tear up votes that are for Lien Chan. Also, it'll take months or even years to solve the shooting incident, as speculations continue on and on. Ah Bian may have denied that the incident was self-inflicted, but is he telling the truth? That is why we see so much weaknesses in a democracy! In fact, given the current situation in Taiwan, China can actually invade it, under the motivation of "solving the unrest" as an excuse! This period indeed is a very tense period for the world, as all eyes are looking to whether Chen was really legitimately elected.

I was surprised that the KMT supporters were really "all out" in demanding for transparency, which is in fact an important trait of good governance. Could this be another Tiananmen? I don't know but Chen can choose to use violent methods to "solve the problem" rather than to let China do it. I admire Lien Chan and James Soong for not giving up, but I hope that if a recount does occur and is against their favour, I hope they leave as gallant losers.

I was totally aghast that Taiwan presidential election laws does not give a provision for a recount! Recounting of votes is one of the fundamental ways of determining the accuracy and also witholding in true sancitity of democracy due to random errors! All these tussles in the court and parliament is simply ridiculous and it has painted a black face among all the democracies in the world.

I hope the authorities do conduct a recount, otherwise it'll be unfortunate to see the value of freedom and democracy being undermined! The US should feel guilty with such a friend like Taiwan, especially when Bush kept on emphasising on the word "freedom". The Taiwanese people have excercised their freedom. How the state makes use of the people's freedom is even more significant, because democracy can be easily abused. Hitler's Enabling Act is already a good example. So was Marcos' rigging of the polls. I can now hope that Taiwan can find a peaceful solution to it, which includes a recount which will determine who is really the president-elect.

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Malaysia -- Fall of the opposition?

I wasn't surprised that Badawi won big. In fact, he deserved it and I believe that it'll bring future confidence and growth in Malaysia. On the other hand, to see the BN recapturing Terengganu and severely undermining PAS power in Kelantan is a major sign in this polls -- Moderate and Progressive Islam is the way to go.

If you ask me why the opposition fail, it trails all the way to 2001. Their fate was sealed in the year 2001 when DAP pulled out of the Alternative front due to the falling Chinese confidence in their party especially regarding the Islamic State issue. With this, the opposition becomes disunited with separate agendas, but yet necessary because Malaysia can't be an Islamic State given its high multi-racial environment. Also, with PAS's insensitive and restrictive laws in Terengganu, it easily offends the Chinese!

The Chinese is always playing a dominant role in Malaysia, politically or economically. Too bad communalism rather than multi-racialism rules the day in multi-racial Malaysia rather than Singapore. I guess, it is partly because of the contrasting environment that leaders in Malaysia and Singapore portray that we have one "communal" and one "non-communal" state here! The fact that the Malaysian people, especially the Chinese and the pro-PAS Malays, fight so hard for their rights and have suspicions on others, it'll be a very long time before we see a "Malaysian Malaysia". Lee Kuan Yew coined the term. Lim Kit Siang is having difficulty building it on his foundation.

With the renaissance of the DAP, I guess there might be a rise in the "Malaysian Malaysia" sentiment, especially when Badawi has portrayed a face of tolerance and unity. Also, the effects of Malaysia's NS might hasten the possibilty of a "Malaysian Malaysia" just like Singapore.

Nevertheless, I see great hope with Badawi around. With Singapore-Malaysia relations taking a turn for the better, I guess we just have to watch and see.....


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March Crappy Tests

As promised, the Zenon analysis of the March Common Tests is now ready! However, for those waiting for the analysis for the Taiwan and Malaysian elections, as well as Friendster testimonials will have bear for a while. Allow me to take things one step at a time.

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Introduction

The title tells it all. The common tests for many of us is just crap, crap and more crap. Known as the most murderous of all tests in your two years in Temasek, this Common Test will indeed be a "wake-up call" for many of us to be focused on what we are really for in our two years in a junior college. Crapping will be more relevant for the Science and Arts faculty, "smoking" for the Arts students and "tikaming" for the mathematics students. The most murderous of all: Chemistry, Biology, Economics and Further Maths, in which I take two. In fact, one is enough to kill. Those in the Life Science (biochem) faculty are the worst casualties of all. They take three!

Allow me to go through paper by paper for the subjects I take. For the subjects that I do not take, I do not mind if you guys can share your opinions about it. If you're frustrated, just vent it out. After all, we've all done our best.

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Saturday, 20 March 2004 -- History Paper 3

"Peacekeeping was a feel good role that the UN imposed on itself that it was never capable of truly fulfilling."

This was the hypothesis for the source-based question. Basically the source based was okay, however they were generally lacking in depth and hence need other sources and contextual knowledge had to be constantly brought up to support one's arguments. Well, I just followed what Mr Bala said which was to consider the content more than its provenance (don't trivalise it, even though it's a memoir!) and use contextual knowledge to support the source. I in general attempted that, but at first glance it was not easy to pair up sources for cross-referencing and I wondered if Mr Bala accepts my cross-comparison. Anyway, I found the hypothesis a bit weird because it said peacekeeping was a "feel good role" and I disagree, hence suggesting in my conclusion that the two words be removed since they were not touched on by the sources, and that peacekeeping doesn't make you "feel good". It's knotty, it's complicated... the examples are self-explanatory.

As for the essays I did the one on Gorbachev's twin policies and also the one on Deng Xiaoping's flex in relation to Communism. I realised that my history essays were getting frightenly shorter. Perhaps the new foolscap pad had more and smaller lines and thus I saw my essay shrinking... but of course, quality beats quantity. I wonder whether I can hit at least 17-18 and chances are indeed slim in my opinion. Perhaps chances of getting an A for history is very slim... Perhaps I don't have the time or perhaps I had writer's block that I didn't give that adequate critical evaluations. How do you define 'adequate'? I don't know...

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Monday, 22 March 2004 -- General Paper

"War settles nothing." Do you agree?

Perhaps one of the relatively easier political questions I've seen, compared to my disastrous promos in relation to freedom. Well I felt that my intro wasn't good enough cos' I didn't really state clearly that I was focussing on the consequences of war. My points were okay (in my opinion) and obviously, I agreed! Much for opposing the War in Iraq. However, I dunno how I'll fare this time for my essay as I'm at the mercy of the examiner. You know, Mr Hasim did not return our essays to our class before he left for his reservist that it's equivalent to going to the battleground without any pass battles to look on. We've the ammunition (with Mr Hasim's lessons on tackling essay structure and his endless discussions on the political ideologies) but we've no experience. Nevertheless in general, I feel more confident for GP compared to other papers.

As for Paper 2, I wasn't surprised. In fact, I find Genetics a very interesting topic to talk about (but it's actually poison for we debators). I felt that the summary and the AQ were easier compared to the general questions. Just use your genetic knowledge, "smoke" your way with moral and economic-related arguments for the AQ and....I hope the examiner accepts my AQ. The bottomline is: I'm at the examiner's mercy. In the JCT, handwriting was a sore point. In the Promos, the failure to link to the question was the sore point. MCT? I don't know.

I just realised that the essay topics on the evaluation on Singapore's policies, liability of children, law review, movie/books were the more popular ones. But of course, your fate also depends on how the "Big Guns" fare in their essays. When I say the "Big Guns", I'm referring to the top GP students in the college. Put your essay next to a big gun's one and...... I hope these "Big Guns" know who they are. They read my blog. (a sidenote: the 12/03 guys interprete my term of 'big gun' as something gross)

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Tuesday, 23 March 2004 -- Mathematics

I've the feeling somebody from my class is going to unseat me in maths and perhaps get an A while I don't. And it'll be a big insult for myself. You know who you are. Well, that's not the point here. It's partly my own fault cos' I sort of neglected maths and devoted only 15% of my revision time to the subject. I just messed up P/C and 3D problems as well as the AP question. At the most, I lose 20 marks and perhaps my A. I must get at least a B to prove myself worthy of the S paper, even though I passed the qualifying test. Don't forget the careless mistakes. Well the fact that the major chunk of calculus like Maclaurin's Series, applications of Integration etc wasn't tested this time means that I can't score for this MCT. In fact, I had predicted this long ago. What's next? I don't know. I'm very worried and I hope it's either A or B... Nevertheless, it's one of the papers I have greater confidence in cos' the others are very horrendous...(read on)

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Tuesday, March 25 2004 -- Economics

The beginning of the MCT nightmare. I would agree that the CSQ was indeed quite a mouthful and basically I just crap through the last part, and I hope Mrs Ivy Lim finds my opinion sensible. That's why the above title is March Crappy Tests! Basically, it's crap, crap and more crap. However, to quote Lee Lee Fong last year, she said that economics examiners can tell very easily from a person's essay if he has been crapping or not. Anyway, I attempted the theory of firm and NYA question (realised that combi of qn was not popular, the combi of theory of firm + NYD was more popular). As usual, it's crap, crap and more crap; and whether the examiners think I make sense, I don't know. We shall see what happens....

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Wednesday, March 24 2004 -- History Paper 1

I was quite surprised that the WWI essay question was compulsory and not of a choice, but I don't really take this essay question that seriously cos' it wouldn't appear in the A levels. And yes, I did say my essay was getting shorter. My Balkan essay was only 3, not 4; and I couldn't really recall all the Balkan instabilities that well. Hope Mr Thompson finds my links sensible and answering the question. As for the Russia one, I was surprised that Mr Thompson gave us familiar stuff. (he also did that for source-based, including the blank cheque source) Perhaps he knows that since all the other subjects will kill, why not make history a merciful subject?

Well a few people challenged the source-based hypothesis, including myself. (including the person who might unseat me) I think I really pity Wilhelm II this time (see how history can changed people's opinions that easily) that I changed the hypothesis to "Kaiser Wilhelm II was against a general European War.", a huge digression from the actual one. I wonder whether it's acceptable, but nevertheless, the source-based was relatively easy compared to that of Paper 3.

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Wednesday, March 26 2004 -- Chemistry

The most horrendous of all. To those people who dropped Chemistry after the promos, I think you all made the right choice. It drains you so much that you can't think. They stump you, they immobilize your thinking. (that I got compound A wrong for the organic essay qn)

I think I was crapping for NMR, and perhaps chemical bonding. And I hope I got my Chem/Ionic Equilibria calculations correct, or it's game over. So does Ziyou, Lydia and Jingting. It's do or die for the remaining four chemistry cross-faculty students, as the juniors look up to us, and for ourshelves, our A levels.

FYI, when I collected Min Dan and Jia Jun's papers, you know what? They didn't do 55% of the questions. So disastrous. I worry alot for Min Dan, cos she has to get O for chem at all costs or she's finished. So does Jia Jun. I think Chemistry is the bigger evil than economics, but the biology students told me their subject was the worst of all, and the chemistry was relatively merciful. In fact, when I gave the paper to Mrs Chua (my ex-teacher and invilgilator in LT1), you know what she said?

"So easy hor."

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Well, I dunno what to expect. Perhaps it's better to look at the more fun sides of life, like destressing ourself, taking a well-deserved break of gaming, gymming, gossiping, etc. The damage is done, and we can't control it. Anyway, I'm glad it's all over, right?

Carpe Diem!

P/S: Lennard, thanks for visiting, and don't be too upset by the MCTs. Do enjoy life ok? And pls update your blog regularly.
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Zenon takes a break....

Due to the impending March Common Tests, your vocal Zenon will temporarily "shut up" and focus intensitely in mugging for the coming common tests, in which he is desparately trying to ensure that he gets good grades for it.

Zenon wishes all JC readers (with the exception of TPJC) best of luck for their common tests and may you get the grades that you really desire. Carpe Diem!

Zenon will return as soon as the Common Tests are over, in which he promises a commentary on:

a) His expectations on the MCT
b) His views on the aftermath of the Taiwan and Malaysia elections

Stay tuned, and to all my academic competitors I say:

DRACO DORMIENS NUNQUAM TITILLANDUS
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open house

To read from other people's blogs that the three universities in singapore hold their open houses on the same day is absolutely disastrous. Well I ended up going only to the NUS one cos' firstly, I'm not planning to do management in SMU, and NTU is way too far for me to pay a visit...

The admission talk was quite a bore as the spokesman spoke way too slowly. At least I got to know that interviews, aptitude tests are the call of the day which means admission into the various faculties is actually much harder to enter especially if you have lack of confidence or views or excellant results....

I still do not know what I want to do in future... Science (Chemistry/Materials Science) or Humanities (Political Science/History)? I still do not know which one which is actually a flipside to being a cross-faculty student in a junior college. When I chose this subject combination, I knew those were my strengths and I went for it. Now, chemistry has suffered while history is still standing high. On the other hand, the sciences tend to give you better job prospects rather than the humanities, which my mother kept on emphasising...

The FASS tour was a waste of time, though I got some personal info from a NUS student about Political Sciences. What for they open the sociology and pyschology centres and not the others? Unfortunately my impression of FASS has wavered and my impression for Design and Sciences increased... For once in my life I ever thought of giving up on the arts faculty.....

But of course, given my personality who enjoys the sciences and humanities and enjoys being stretched mentally who try to search for something, I found an answer. It was the USP (University Scholars Programme). For once in my life (again), I felt that studying in Singapore is better than going overseas. The UK doesn't tolerate doubles, for the US, I don't really know how the degree of contrast is. Met an ex-TJCian who told me everything about the USP (mind you, they take up 5 out of 7 storeys of the block adm) and how it enables me to be flexible and to be cross-faculty student I always wanted to be. In addition, a spokesman at the exhibition hall told me that the USP is for me since I can't bear to give up one of my interests. Also, they told me that they need open-minded, outspoken, vocal ppl, etc.. which is quite abit like myself.... perhaps I should see how I fare for my A levels before making any choices..

By the way, the exhibtion hall was so crowded that a stampede could occur anytime, anywhere... if only the universities could stagger their open houses on separate days... they should have done so to make us have more informed impression of their courses...
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3/11, 3/20 and 3/21 (the fourth installment of the XXXism series)

The recent events has spurred me to write something here in midst of revision... but after this I'll hibernate for a while... (unless another event makes me decide to give a response....)

WARNING: It is not very nice for a blogger to comment on other countries' politics and I apologise for making any errors in fact or judgement. Flame me if you want, but do it in a constructive manner.
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(1) 3/11 ~~ Terrorism

It may not bother us but the terrorist attacks in Madrid is no joke. I don't give a damn about who's responsible, cos' the bottomline is that, blood is shed, innocent lives are lost! The thing, we can only tell ourselves this: Constant Vigilance!, to quote Alastor Moody from Harry Potter. I wonder if everyone in the college are aware of such events and I hope they're aware of it. If they do not, (given the apathy in many of us over current affairs) then I think the terrorists (either ETA or Al-Qaeda) in Spain will have to strike the Bernabeu to make everyone wake up.

Let's take a break from revision to observe a minute of silence for the victims of this merciless blast, and pray that such kind of attacks don't affect our people, especially our fragile and vulnerable country. Singapore is like Spain, for both have been staunch supporters of the US attack on Iraq, and as we board our trains, be lucky that peace is still in out hands. Guess we Singaporeans even take train security and safety forgranted as we forget last year's deadly subway fire in Korea.

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(2) 3/20 ~~ Sensationalism I

Ah Bian vs Lien Chan. If you wanna see democracy in the most sensationalized manner, Taiwan is the ultimate attraction! Taiwanese politics never fail to bore me unlike our countries politics including Singapore. (The PAP's whitewash has sort of given me a bore) You know, my mother also enjoys talking about Taiwanese politics including the degree of "barbarity" there, which would perhaps make me appreciate the "clean" state of Singaporean politics. From Chu-mei-fung, to James Soong kneeling for Ma Ying Jiu, to rallies held at 3.20pm, Taiwan is the place for democratainment. That's why the Greek philosophers described democracy as the most efficient yet weakest government system you can have. Taiwan's a good example of this.

I'm glad Singapore's opposing any form of Taiwanese independence. As a Singporean of Chinese blood, I strongly oppose any Taiwanese action of independence, and there is only one China. China has gone through alot of tumultous events throughout the 20th century and thus all Chinese must be united in their preferred way of governance (being democracy or communism). Perhaps MINDEF should give Taiwan a slap by pulling our troops out (of training) if Ah Bian starts playing with fire. This is indeed international diplomacy at work and I'm glad diplomacy is the victor in maintaining the status quo especially when the world is alreafy hit by the recession as well as the bloodshed in Spain and Iraq. If Ah Bian goes rashly and China strikes, I think it's WWIII and nobody wants this to happen.

I hope 3/20 not only shows Taiwanese unity but also the Taiwanese stance of peace and tact! I hope that Chen Shui Bian is not given a chance to shui2 bian4 take things to worse times...

=============================================================== (3) 3/21 ~~ Sensationalism II

Perhaps we can see democracy being sensationalised in a country next to us -- Malaysia.

PAS's recent slogan was the "Ticket to Heaven" campaign, and I ever wonder if PAS has unintentionally abused Islam. Why? In any religion, to get to your "heaven", it is the individual that matters, not the state! They're desparately remaking themshelves (such as recruiting retired generals and even Chinese!) as Pak Lah apparently poses a stronger threat and also the fact that their stance makes them unpopular is of contention. Will they hold on to Kelantan and Trengganu? Only if they remake Islam to suit the modern needs as well as remaking their ideals of an Islamic state to suit the multi-racial society of Malaysia. If Turkey can do it, why not them?

Personally, I think that the National Front (BN) will have a victorious performance compared to 1995 and 1999. The opposition is now divided (given the DAP~PAS split which weakens the BA) and the Anwar charisma has faded. As I'm writing this, my relatives in KL, Penang and Alor Setar will most likely rebut me since they're pro-DAP people (with the exception of my grandma who being illiterate will prefer to recognise the scales rather than the sun nor rocket) but I guess Pak Lah will do Mahathir proud. Singapore is optimistic with Badawi around, and Malaysians seem to their recently appointed PM more confidence unlike Singaporeans' attitude towards Goh Chok Tong in 1991.

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Postscript

Just my two cents on these three issues, but of course you people will now question my time management... study hard and to end, I shall now quote Mrs Ivy Lim. Your opinion is greatly welcome.

Fail to Prepare is to Prepare to Fail
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A short note

As the MCTs are nearing this means that I'll blog at a less frequent interval so do bear with it and of course to all year twos, happy revising and all the best...

The class has been without Mr Hasim for almost a week due to his reservist and I find it weird to have no GP this entire week, partly due to the engaging discussions that he has always been initiating. Most of them are quite happy without him due to the extended "free period"s which means we have more time to revise! In addition, I had a problem negotiating with 31/03 over the extra chem tutorial slot due to the conflict over remedials, free periods, lunch breaks.... it's damn ridiculous partly because I try to make sure that our class's interests such as lunch breaks, early dismissals are guarenteed. 33/03, you all enjoy being dismissed at 1140. Okay. Have you heard of students having only one Maths lecture on wednesday and can call it a day? Yep. That's a 31/03 student who does only maths, chem and econs. So don't think you all are the luckiest ones. Well the timetabling is forever screwed and our SPP group is finding it quite hard to solve (with regards to bidding of time slots).

And know what? Our proposal to have more PE electives seem to have worked! We year twos have another round of electives next term! cheers everyone! looks like the SPP is quite useful in pushing for a small change...

Also, Mrs Ho, my ex-geography teacher called me to ask for my help in the SPH geography challenge, unfortunately I can't make it due to my debate commitments. Chung Cheng got into the semis again where they failed last year. And it's the usual GeoTrail, an Amazing Race style challenge... well they should embrace themshelves for more 'ulu' locations...

Well the heat in Malaysia is defintely worth watching as "Pak Lah" and "Niz Aziz" fight over the "Ticket to Heaven" issue... perhaps we don't need Taiwan to show us how democracy can become so sensational..... a neighbour closer to us is as interesting as well... too bad the MCTs has prevented me from writing a commentary here....bye...
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Plans for the future

I'm suspending the "XXXism" series temporarily to talk about today's events, and I'll come back to it when the time comes to discuss about a certain issue worth discussing.

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A Level Results

The Result. Now. Check this. Well as usual the seniors churn out the expected, and I'd like congratulate all my seniors in debate as well as my OGA/Ls in Ohana for performing miraculously well for their examinations. You've done all of us proud, and you've defintely set even greater heights for we yr2s to step on. All the best for your NS, uni life, scholarships, etc... you've really blazed Temasek's fame....

As for my batch. Quite okay. Everyone in my class have done well in AO Chinese. Kelvin and Rachel got A1, while Justin scraped a pass (he's very satisfied). Jigar did the college proud by being the sole distinction scorer for Gujarati. For myself, I got a B4, a rather mediocre grade on absolute terms, but on relative terms, I've done even better than my C5 for the O levels and I'd say my mum and I are quite pleased with this performance. After 11 years of slogging with this subject, I can finally bid Chinese goodbye (in the examinations sense), but of course I still have to keep in contact with the subject where possible.... It's 4 free periods and blimey. I'm abit more free and hence I can concentrate on my main subjects (which includes joining chem remedial voluntarily). I really want to thank Ms Tan, my CL tutor for the "near-personal" guidance as well as the deep patience and understanding that she had in me. Though I had problems expressing myself especially in essays, she was willing to help clear my doubts thoroughly where possible. This is a point where all of us would unanimously agree. That is why you must have faith in Temasek's tutors as well as yourself. Looks like I got abit of "value-addedness"!... I now appreciate the Chinese department's tough tests (where you can get zero for tian4 xue3 han4 zi4)... so juniors! If you're reading this, do well for once!! If you want to excel, declare it and the teachers will help you reach the goal but with lots of hurdles along the way...

And so with this incident that I start to recollect a target set by my secondary school form teacher, Mdm Teo, who was my chinese teacher and previously ever a tutor in TJC as well as a SC teacher advisor. When I met her last year for the school anniversary, she set this target for me...

SIX distinctions, which is GP, the 4 subjects and one S Paper.... (she knows that my chinese is weak so she didn't set a target for my chinese)... it may seem overrating but it's sort of a wake-up call now... which means now there is need for focus for all. (reminds me of Ian from Amazing Race 3 whose sole philosophy is to "keep focussed")

And as I attended the London universities talk today at the EDB, my own opinion is: You can choose any course you want but can you afford the expenses? This is the sole point of contention I have. A friend felt that the US is better as it promotes independent learning and flexibility unlike the traditional way of doing things in the UK. Well the bottomline for me (and for other scholars-to-be) is: Get a scholarship to overcome the financial barrier! Perhaps I should have a nice chat with Mr Thompson about this then...

Once again, congratulations to everyone, and do chase the dreams and carreers that you desire!
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"XXXism" (Part 3)

The third of the "XXXism" articles. Today's article will have some reference to the recent changes in the local university admission system.
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(1) Radicalism..... a little too late?

NUS/NTU have made changes to their local univerisity admission system which will affect the class of 2003 and subsequent batches. With SAT and MT being optional, this would have a huge impact on our attitudes and decisons when we plan our strategies for the A levels.

I would first say that NUS/NTU was a little too late in their decisons, and rather inconsistent with their policies. I ever ask myself, what is the rationale of having the SAT for Singaporeans when you're not even going to the US? SMU has decided to keep the SAT, saying that it is a fair gauge amongst the A levels, PW, CCA etc which may differ. The College Board had annouced changes to the SAT which included a mini-essay as early as 2001/2002! At the same time, the class of 2002 was to be the first batch to embrace the SAT! We've already got the A levels, GP, PW and PEARLS which are already quite a credible measurement of a person's ability to reason and to excel. I don't understand why they call it a reasoning test. GP and Combined humanities is already quite a good tool to search for a candidate of reasoning ability. Also, what is really the use of the SAT's bombastic words and kajagugus? During our GP lesson, Mr Hasim explained that you don't need bombastic vocabularies to score. The thing that examiner look for is well-structured arguments and ideas being presented in a clear manner!

The changes made by NUS/NTU are radical indeed, but not as radical as MOE's revision of the JC/CI system for the year 2006 and beyond, which included KI (knowledge and inquiry), H1/2/3 subjects, contrasting subjects and more importantly the monointake system. Perhaps their reaction to MOE's radical changes was a bit too slow and the annoucement made too late. I guess, for the class of 2002 and 2003, they'd feel a bit cheated to be in the "guinea" pig environment and being cheated of their money. I myself was assuming if I got straight As for my A levels, then I don't have to give a damn about my mediocre SAT score. But perhaps I'd retake it cos scholarship boards could look at the SAT. For example, A*Star requires at least 1400-1500 for their SAT in addition to your A levels, S papers and CCA record.

The issue of radicality is of huge contention. I'd define radical as "making reforms which are sweeping, revolutionary and innovative." I don't see much radicalism in the varsities compared to the MOE and the College Board cos' the old system is still there. Also, inconsistent and freakle-minded policies would discredit them and would create an air of uncertainty among future batches of students. If you want radicalism, make sure it makes a significant impact on those affected and those who're going to be affected in future.

Perhaps I may be contradicting myself then. In addition, the abolition of MT would call into question whether the standard of Chinese would be compromised even further. Back in the college, Ms Tan, my AO Chinese tutor in year 1 told me that the new changes means less CL teachers are needed (since they teach only 1 batch compared to 2) and thus the demand for chinese teachers would decline, causing some to be transferred to secondary schools. Her class even discussed the topic "Chen2 Lao3 Shi1 de4 chu1 lu4" (or Ms Tan's future plans). For myself, I'm quite happy with it given my mediocre and unsatisfactory performance in Chinese. That's how I managed to get an impressive L1R5 for my O levels since Chinese need not be included! Then, radicalism would be questioned again. In my opinion, radicalism with the negative overshadowing the positive effects isn't considered radical. Instead, it'd be a Pandora's Box!

Has NUS/NTU compromised the standard of Chinese in Singapore, and has the government contradicted itself by allowing it despite advocating the importance in Chinese? ( like advocating its culture and investing in China) This is where another issue comes in. This change would be felt in the SAP as well as schools offering Higher Chinese very seriously. Higher Chinese demands higher levels of using the language, and students might even neglect O level higher chinese just because of the new system. If the Higher Chinese standard drops (don't talk about AO chinese) then it could be a huge standard-related problem that all would be concerned of. In Marist Stella, the number of higher chinese students is decreasing. Perhaps this time round we would see an increase in demand to take higher chinese since they need not do it in JC as long as you pass the subject! Another problem when your radical changes clashes with government policy.

One more thing, NUS/NTU has not been transparent in the Faculty/Score system. What makes and comprises of a score? By comparing 76 and 68, which one is better? What makes up a faculty score? individual subjects and interviews? They need great transparency in this issue cos' it affects the student's decisons in making their choices gien the new changes are implemented. This is why when you've too many loopholes on radicalism, it's no longer called radicalism!

So, is radical so radical? Something technical to think about....
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(2) responses to tags

So sarah and lynnette have met after being broken up for so long. Thanks Lynnette for adding my blog to your link, and I'll do it likewise for you. Well, my blog is just a centre of my opinion and if you think it's debatish, go ahead. However, i can't hold a candle to one of TJ's top GP students, and thus shall we help one another in such writings? It's just like when you say in chinese "qin3 duo1 duo1 zhi3 jiao4".

Anyway i plan to write something about class morale especially after Mr Hasim gave us quite a stern lecture today. Guess many would not like him after this incident. Oh well.... we just have to do something about it... Way to go!
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