remember, remember, the eighth of March

I know the quote in "V For Vendetta" was re November, but March 8th is the one I'm talking about right now. Elections were held yesterday, and it was definitely a day hereon engraved in history - democratic history. The National Front (Barisan Nasional) were denied a two-thirds majority, which means the idea of check-and-balance in Parliament will be strengthened.

Yay for the Opposition! Also super thrilled that DAP's Tony Pua Kiam Wee and Dr Cheah Wing Yin won the PJ Utara and Damansara Utama elections respectively. And Subang's Hannah Yeoh was another early winner! :D Another interesting battle was won by Loh Gwo Burne, the dude with the "I took the Lingam video" campaign slogan.

My family, friends and I were up until 4/5/6 am this morning following the election results on the Internet and TV. This has definitely been the most exciting election in a long, long time. More importantly, I'm very thankful another May 13th tragedy did not occur - this shows that we have grown together as Malaysians.

There were fierce rumours of riots and fights being texted and spread on Internet forums, but more often than not, they were just rumours. To quote one Lowyat.net forumer: "Two people standing and arguing on the street is not a riot - don't simply spread rumours okay."

I don't know what the future holds for Malaysian politics, especially now that Selangor is now under the Opposition and not the National Front. I guess only time will tell. In the meantime, all of us are definitely hoping for the best. :]

Besides the election fever, I wanted to update on how things are going in law school right now - especially since this is probably going to be my last entry for a couple of months. :)

First up - the Jessups moot was quite interesting - although I only watched the first round on the first day (it was a 3-day competition). I'm grateful for the opportunity of being able to see what the UIA campus is like - University Islam Antarabangsa, for those who didn't know the acronym - and it was definitely a REALLY REALLY NICE campus. Something Taylor's doesn't have - not until the new campus opens in 2009, at least.

But I like Taylor's. Despite the paling comparisons with the UIA library, campus size and facilities, Taylor's is small and cosy and we can wear whatever we want. ;P To visit UIA, we were first required to wear 'tudung' - can you believe that? - but our lecturers refused to accept that sort of regulation. :) I also thought it was really interesting how there were large life-size posters promoting "Kursus Sebelum Perkahwinan" (pre-marriage courses). Oh, and also warning notices plastered everywhere warning university students not to participate in political activities.

The moot itself, however, lacked the wow-factor of exploring a never-before-seen campus. I only got to watch Aarthi and Faan Jin's moot - they were brilliant, of course :D - and their opponents, one of the UIA teams. The senior respondent was a snore-inducing mumbler, but the junior respondent was like - one of the best speakers I've ever heard in my entire life! I know it's horrid to be such a fan of a rival speaker, but I really appreciate good speakers when I see/hear them - and that girl was goooood. She was like ... DJ-ians, think Suraya! Think Jean Lee! Think Samantha and the Ayob sisters! And for those who know Ahnaf, think Ahnaf!

Incredible. :)

Anyway - I hitched a ride home with Shaun and Paul after the first round - and you won't believe what happened on the way back! We got stopped by the police! T_T

Okay, okay - Shaun's car didn't get stopped by the police, Rachel's car did. But we had to stop anyway because we couldn't just leave her there alone. It was our fault anyway. This is the traffic-offence equation of youthful stupidity:

Shaun's car follows Rachel's coz he didn't know the LDP way + Shaun asks Sha-Lene to call Rachel to check if we're on right road + Sha-Lene calls despite her bad feeling about law-breaking + Rachel answers the cellphone while driving + police car was right in front of Rachel's car and SAW HER + police signals to Rachel to pull over = One Night In Jail

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Ahahahahah I'm just kidding! We settled it lah. To quote Aarthi: "Three cars full of law students ..." After that, me and Shaun paid Rachel back because we felt super duper bad. But you know what ... like three minutes after we parted ways with our beloved mata-mata, my friends (in the driver's seat) called each other again!! Hahahahaha. Suffice to say .... we never learn.

On a final note about the moot, our Taylor's team came in 3rd place for submissions and 5th place for speaking. :] UIA won everything, with UM coming in 2nd.

Second up - my Constitutional & Administrative Law House of Lords Presentations are to be held this week. My group's turn is on 11th March - so wish me (and my team) good luck, yeah!! :] Head of Reading Law School Professor Leopold will be grading us, along with our lecturer good ol' Mr Joseph. We were supposed to have group rehearsals today (Sunday) but due to possible election backlash dangers, rehearsals were cancelled.

Third up - there's going to be a really interesting forum about Parliament this Wednesday at Taylor's Subang Jaya main campus from 5.30pm to 7.30pm. All Taylor's students are welcome - it's even compulsory for all Year 2 law students to attend - I'm not sure if outsiders are allowed to attent, but if you're interested I'm sure you can call up Taylor's and ask. :) Forumers include Head of Reading Law School Professor Patricia Leopold and Professor Shad Faruqi.

Fourth up - two of my BFFs in class, Cheryl Lim and Rachel Low, are participating in the Taylor's Law Debate that's going to be held on March 18th. To anyone interested to watch the debate - do come and show your support! :D I'm sure posters will be up all over Taylor's for you to find out time and venue. :)

And fifthly, my final exams are in May - date unconfirmed, but we're all assuming it's May 5th until sometime before May 17th. If all goes well, I'll be in Reading by the end of September. :)

Sixthly, I just have to mention my current TV fixes: American Idol, Are You Smarter Than a Fifth-Grader, and the Jay Leno Show. :D All my 3 favourites have made it into the Top 12 in AI - Brooke White, David Archuleta, and Michael Johns. Yay! Americans, vote for them please! :D I was a tad disappointed when Alaina Whitaker got kicked out instead of Kady Malloy (o_O?) but then again - Kady was really cool 'cause she could mimic Britney Spears to perfection. :P Nevertheless, she's not in the Top 12.

Seventhly - if that's even a word - Writing Credit fever is starting to reek from across the Straits. My title is "An unwritten constitution is 'not worth the paper it is not written on'". It's a pretty interesting title (I mean, I picked it, hahaaha). Only thing is that it's due in five weeks. Must ... persevere ...

And now I shall go and watch the Jay Leno Show properly (it's been playing in the background) - SUCH a HILARIOUS show, by the way! :D The scripts are pure GENIUS. The writers' strike must've really really really hit shows like this hard.

Take care, everyone! :)