Week 4

Local
Malaysia makes international headlines again.. Shit.

Every time Malaysia makes international headlines, I get worried. And then I try to bury my head in the ground. So, what has Malaysia done this time around? Another pot of political gumbo? Surprisingly, not quite. This time, Malaysia tried to ban Valentines' Day.
I know. What, the .
On Friday (11 February 2011), the city Islamic Department (Jawi) and the Selangor Islamic Department (Jais) delivered a sermon in mosques banning Muslims from celebrating Valentines' Day, as it was apparently a "Christian tradition". They also accused Jews and Christians of continually trying to "deceive Muslims" and will "do anything to undermine the Muslim's belief and personality".
International news channels such as BBC and Al-Jazeera caught on with this headache-inducing incident, and honestly, as much as I love this country, I am honestly embarrassed when things like this happen. Who wants to be associated with a country that blames another religion that is not it's official religion for it's shortcomings and downfalls?
Of course, PAS Youth just had to put in its two cents worth. PAS Youth came forward to insist that they would continue their "mission to save the young (read : Muslims)" from immoral activities and the like.
Obviously, not all Malaysian Muslims agree with this move. Some say that Valentines' day is harmless, and it is futile trying to put a ban on it. Besides, immoral activities do not ONLY occur on Valentines' Day. Honestly. Why do you think budget hotels are open all year round, at such low prices?
Duh.
I think I'll go dig a hole in the floor of my house now, and pretend this nonsense isn't happening.

International
Hosni Mubarak gets the message, finally.

After ruling the country for 30 years, President Hosni Mubarak finally steps down from his "Pharoah"-like reign. This happened on Friday, 11 February 2011. However, the complete transition of power is still unclear to the people of Egypt, as during his speech, Hosni Mubarak said that he has transferred all his power to the vice president of Egypt, Omar Suleiman, but Mubarak still remains "de jure head of state", while the Omar Suleiman is now the "de facto president".
However, during his speech, hundreds of demonstrators that had gathered in a Cairo square to witness the speech were ecstatic to hear that Mubarak was leaving, and were chanting, "Leave! Leave!" even while the speech was going on.
President Obama released a statement after Mubarak's speech saying that the Egyptian government had better clarify what they mean by the transition of power soon, so that the country can work on regaining its stability, which has been on the rocks ever since the protests against Mubarak started.

February 4th, 2011

Local
Egypt, Let My People Go!

Over the past week, people all over the globe have been watching closely as the situation in Egypt becomes progressively worse and none more closely than the people of Malaysia. Over 11,000 Malaysian citizens, most of whom are students studying medicine in Egypt, were, for lack of better word, trapped in Egypt and had no way of contacting their friends and family back here (no) thanks to the ban on the Internet and the limitations on foreign contact.

Thankfully, the Malaysian government has acted upon this massive problem, and has so far evacuated more than 6,800 Malaysians from Egypt to Jeddah. The operation, codenamed "Operation Pyramid", has so far been a success despite the extended curfew and other glitches. The Royal Malaysian Air Force, AirAsia and MAS have been deploying planes since the beginning of the week for the evacuation exercise.

According to Najib, the first group of Malaysians should be arriving in Kuala Lumpur from Jeddah on Monday. When asked about the total cost of evacuation, Najib reassures the parents of the formerly-stranded students that the government would be completely responsible for it.

For some reason, Najib has released a statement calling for an end to the violence and bloodshed in Egypt and stresses on the importance of democracy. How he expects this to have any impact on the impending doom that is Egypt is beyond me, but we are thankful for his relatively-swift action in evacuating our people from the crisis-stricken country.

International
Egypt.. 'Nuff said.

The whole week has been filled with news about Egypt and demonstrations and Egypt and protesters and Egypt and arson and Egypt and.. Well, you get the picture. President Hosni Mubarak seems to be adamant in refusing to budge from his position of power, and the people of Egypt are getting tired of him, more tired than they already were. In the middle of the week, we saw violent acts carried out by pro-Mubarak protesters (notice how all the pro-Mubarak protesters are men of a certain age.. Not a single woman or child in sight. Coincidence? I think not! Hired, most probably), including footage of a van plowing into a group of people who were crossing the street and even reports of Molotov cocktails being thrown into crowds of protesters in attempt to disperse the campaign.

Most recently was the demonstration held in Tahrir Square, Cairo, where a fight broke out between the anti- and the pro-Mubarak protesters, resulting the the death of five people and wounding several hundred demonstrators.