it's official - singapore has legalised discrimination

it's a catchy title no doubt. but the start of having a law that formally criminalised one minority from the majority signals the start of discrimination in singapore, regardless of how we define this word `minority'. for today, it's gays, what about tomorrow?...

the pledge has got no more meaning to me and henceforth, i will no longer recite the singapore pledge.

i am not against the status quo to respect the majority's view and the continuation of progressing as the society matures, but i am, for one, a strong advocate of equality. if we want to keep 377a, then, let's keep 377. and if we want to repeal 377, then let's repeal 377a. we should be gender neutral. the act of the cock penetrating the anus (or into someone's mouth) remains unchanged, regardless of whether the anus or mouth belongs to a male or female. and i am sure, everyone, regardless sexuality, education or religious background, practices it (for that matter, even professors - both males and females).

the whole issue, was, in the first place, started by some minister who made an issue out of 377. if this issue had not started, it wouldn't have have divided the society in the first place. it wouldn't have created such a stir in the first place. it tells me that when our law-makers review the penal code, it is not based on principles of what we have been told - principles of democracy, equality, justice and so on... but rather, it is based on the `whims and fancies' or who calls the shots and perhaps possible impact on their votes in the next general election. it was so obvious to me when this whole motion was initiated by an nmp in the first place. and that even the opposition had chosen to keep silent or at best maintain a `status quo' don't rock the boat position.

well, watever the case, we have come to where we are today. of cos the other way of looking at it is that the whole debate had created a huge, huge publicity and that it had educated the public abt the plight of gays. it has also unveiled a more frightening finding of our state of social integration and indicators of how some individuals of a particular religious group (read - christians) has made use of their god as an excuse to initiate verbal / hate abuse on their fellow human beings; or for that matter, openly declaring that singapore is a christian state (and that females are inferior to males and so on). there are more than enough hate actions and articulations in the internet by these individuals and for that matter, even quote their church leaders about their anti-sentiments towards gays. it would not be illogical to assume that the government monitored such postings in the internet closely during the period of the discourse on 377a.

with the closure of the penal code debate, i think the ball is in the government's court to apprehend these people who incite hate amongst singaporeans. it is no different from how the government would use the isa to arrest people who incite hate or disinformation on another religion or minority race. if there are no clear actions carried out, it would further reinforce this government's lack of courage to face the current state of affairs and they would have totally lose the moral integrity to look after all of its citizens (regardless of sexuality) equally.

number game

call me too free on a lazy sunday evening... but looking at the number of postings in the keep377a.com and repeal377a.com sites, we can conclude the the majority has actually not spoken, very different from what was claimed by the initiators of keep377a.com. and if silence mean consent, then the majority had actually signaled that 377a should be repealed. let's look at the numbers below. my key assumptions - there are 5% gays in the population, the percentage of people posting against the motion in both website are negligible to the total number of actual postings.

possibility one
key assumption - people in repeal377a are only gays, lesbians and anyone less than perfect straightness and their agenda is nothing but one of gay rights, ie the whole motion is straight vs gay. then for the majority to have spoken, if repeal377a.com has 7500 postings, keep377a.com must have at least 150,000 posts. this is not the case. that is to say, the majority has not spoken as claimed by keep377a.com.

possibility two
key assumption - assuming that out of every 2 gay person, there will be one straight who supports their cause, then we can only consider 2/3 of people in repeal377a are gays, lesbians and anyone less than perfect straightness. as such, for the gay agenda to be the argument as the key motive for the repeal377a.com postings, we can only consider 5000 (2/3 of the 7500 postings) to be `qualified'. using the same 5% gays in the population, then we should have 100,000 postings in keep377a.com to consider the majority to have spoken. again, this is not the case.

possibility three
key assumption - assuming that out of every gay person who made the repeal377a.com posting, there is an equal proportion of supporter. as such, using the same argument as above, for the gay agenda to be the argument as the key motive for the repeal377a.com postings, we can only consider 3750 (1/2 of the 7500 postings) to be `qualified'. using the same 5% gays in the population, then we should have 75,000 postings in keep377a.com to consider the majority to have spoken. again, this is not the case.

and even if i were to adopt a 10% gay population (which the straight people will probably freak out), the numbers still lean towards a majority wanting to repeal 377a! or perhaps, the majority has actually agreed that this is an equality issue and not merely a gay issue?

how's that? the cynic in me tells me that in politics, statistics like this can be twisted and argued to suit what the people in power wants. let's wait and see. i don't have much hopes in this set of people. then again, when you are already the underdog, you have nothing to lose :-)

evil me...

somehow, the evil in me actually wish that 377a will not be repealed... cos with such a heightened profile both locally and internationally, if it stays, it means the country has created a new group of people, a group called the discriminated. singapore will henceforth never ever be called a fair country. and the country will now have a new stigma in the world. and this indirectly gives us a louder voice. this is my evil side speaking and thinking aloud. go on, keep it. if it is repealed, many of my friends will have nothing more to do :-)

also, if the people who posted ultra-religious views in the net are not apprehended, singapore will also be branded as a country that condone such extreme religious/ hate views by a certain group. this will do big time damage to social fabric and also the image of this otherwise clean and perfect country in the world.

perhaps this is just an indicator of the fatigue that i am feeling after observing the episode unfold since many months back. i cannot wait for an end of this episode.

our time will come

i do not think 377a will be repealed despite all these hype. but the process of trying to get it repealed itself has achieved the purpose of raising the awareness amongst singaporeans. and of course the keep377a has unveiled a more serious confidence issue in the society.

this episode also tells me the time will surely come when 377a will be repealed. and i am very very confident about this. there are sufficient indicators - a look at the typical profile of the people asking for it to be repealed suggests it to be so - eg while it cuts across all race, religion, sexuality and age, we also see a very high degree of students who had posted. and the profile of these students cuts across the whole spectrum of the society. give it 10 years plus minus. when the current team of politicians make way for a new team, when these students move into positions of power, when the population gets more exposed to the world. when singapore gets more globalize. when singapore becomes more cosmopolitan. 377a will definitely be 377a-bolished.

it is not a matter of whether it will be, it is a matter of when. and i am sure our leaders see it coming. and perhaps, just maybe, that is it is a case of our politicians trying to find a fine balance and calibrating how it can be open up yet keeping the larger population quiet and taking into considerations the political costs in the next elections.

as i have said before, with or without it, life goes on.

invisible monsters

there are monsters. monsters that walk and dwell amongst us... and often we do not or worst, we choose not to see and acknowledge its existence. and when the monster finally consumes us, it is too late... i call these the invisible monsters...

this was the case when there were signs of ideological extremist who used islamic teachings as a platform to mount a terrorist war that resulted in 9/11. did we not see it coming? did we not pick up all the indicators? and regrettably, the peaceful religion of islam was dragged in and it soon developed into what some called a war between christianity and islam. how more wrong can this be? and of cos, it did not help when we have a highly developed country trying to impose it's form of democracy on another country that is totally not ready for it. look at where iraq is today? closer to home, just take a look at philippines. it has all the same structures of what would be seen as a western democratic country - a senate, a president, etc etc etc... but is philippines able to achieve a high quality of life for its people as compared to the western countries? of cos it has all the mechanisms of a full democracy, but so what? many of its people are still living in poor conditions and that living standards are not progressing as fast as some of its asian neighbours.

closer to home, the recent 377a debate showed up something more disturbing. looking and comparing the postings in repeal377a.com and that of keep377a.com websites, it is hard not to observe the following trends:

• profile. the profile of people posting in 377a includes a wide spectrum of the population across race, religion, sexuality, age as well as marital status. however, postings in the keep377a website seemed to be more skewed towards a more christian, married and straight segment of the population.

• confidentiality. ironically, there tend to be more people who indicate a proper name (i would assume it is the name of the person making the posting) in repeal377a.com. comparatively, most of the postings in keep377a.com tend to be under some form of pseudonym. and i don't understand this. if being straight and married is the norm, why the need to hide in the first place? i would have expected a higher percentage of pseudonyms in repeal377a.com instead. no?
  

• tone. the tone of the postings in keep377a.com tend to be very much emotional and dwells on the `what ifs'... comparatively, those who post in repeal377a.com seemed to be more composed and less emotional. and if being emotional is one of the traits of insecurity, then can we say that the postings in keep377a.com suggest that the people who post in the keep377a.com are very insecure?
  

• religion. and one extra worrying trend that i was able to observe is that there is a rampant use of the christian god (compare to the god/s of all other religions) to justify why 377a should be kept in keep377a.com. comparatively, those who post in repeal377a.com seemed to be more arguing from the point of equality and citing objective examples. there is a lot less posting in repeal377a.com about god (or any god for that matter). and to top this off, i see spin off websites/blogs that advocate the use of god's institutes (namely the church) to stage events and protests. ultimate of it all was that there are some posting that uses the christian god as an excuse to express their hatred thereby turning this debate into a hate campaign.

there are many other observations that i have made and i do ask - did the 377a episode unveil a more disturbing observation that in singapore, there is indeed a trend towards christian extremism and religious intolerance in our midst? there was one person that even went to the extent of proclaiming singapore as a christian state, that women should not be allowed to vote, that women should remain subservient to men, etc... looking at the profile of our population, are we seeing an elitist, christian-fanatic group of people that is totally intolerant to other non-christians growing in our midst? i am worried.

i also ask a more fundamental question - in our nation-building efforts that focused so much on racial and religious integration (esp after 9/11), have we missed somethings? have we inadvertently portrayed the threat and focused our attention towards our muslim citizens to the extent that we missed out other religious groups? what and where is our check system?

whatever the outcome of the 377a debate, the whole process is in itself a huge boost and success insofar as raising the awareness of gays and their plight in singapore is concerned. most importantly, to me, the biggest takeaway for us as a society, if i may suggest, is the revealing of the many monsters that exist in our midst; and that, if not nibbed at its bud, might tear our society apart eventually. i really think the authorities better look and scrutinize some of these issues than just treat this as a gay rights/ equality issue.

theory vs practical, head vs tail

it's been a really really terrible week for me. expected it to be so. but did not expect it to be so so so so terrible. it's one thing after another at work and having to cover for one after another. came home close to midnight every night since the start of the new course.

downsizing and rightsizing? and rightsizing to rationalize manpower requirements and optimize ops cost? well, all sound good and logical from an organisational management point of view. but regrettably, when it comes to the crunch, and where people are assessed by their ability to implement new things, invariably, it will boil down to imposing new objectives, new demands on the people at the end of the food chain.

and there is a limit to this. if not managed well, things will one day just collapse and come to a stand still. that, it perhaps what is happening now. everything that management wants, it's ok. and this ended up with everyone being drawn to all different directions. there is absolutely no capacity anymore to do what we are supposed to do. as trainers, we are now everything but trainers. yet, the direction is that we have to be with our trainees all the time to coach and guide the learning process. how? how? how to manage?

we cannot expect rightsizing to mean we can do news things immediately. we need new processes, we need new solutions, and even if there are new procedures drawn out, it needs time to stabilize. it needs time to reach an equilibrium.

these are basic management axioms. but sadly management does not realize this.

rat race...

i miss ron...

i was so elated when i opened my post-box last afternoon. i instantly recognized that handwriting on the envelop and felt it was really god-sent to receive something from someone whom I have tried to write to, search for for the last few years! the envelop bore kathy's handwriting but the letter itself had been typed out and printed. my happiness was short-lived when i read the letter. i felt a lump in my throat.

the year was 1993. i had been sent to canungra, queensland for a course. canungra was in the mountains about 45 min drive from brisbane. 5 min from my school was this little convenient store that i would frequent to get my groceries and stuff. one fine day, on my way back to my dorm, i saw this chinese lady by the side of the road. seeing an asian in a predominantly ang-mo country was certainly refreshing and quite surprising for me, and i guessed for her too. we exchanged smiles and self-introduced. she told me she was waiting for her husband ron. that chance encounter was the start of a very warm and endearing friendship that i shared with them both. kathy and ron would bring me around brisbane on weekends for barbeques, shopping etc. kathy would also cook me all her malaysian specialities on evenings when i was free. she took it upon herself to make me feel at home. to me, kathy and ron were my family and their home was my home, away from my home.

we kept in touch after my 6 weeks stay in australia. they had a child, natasha, 2 years later and they brought her to visit me in 2000. that was the last time we corresponded. we lost contact after that. my attempts to trace them thru emails, etc did not meet with any success. i had left their address stucked on my notice board and frequently i would see it and wondered how they were. other than that, i knew i would never be able to trace them again.

until i received the letter.

when i read the letter, i was shocked and so very affected to learn of ron's passing on. he had a heart attack 3 years ago and left behind kathy and 9-yr old tasha. it broke my heart to learn that someone whom i really cherished had left this world and i had not been able to keep in touch with him all these while. the rest of my day was in the pits.

nonetheless, i was glad that i am able to reconnect with kathy. i wrote her an email in the evening and managed to get a reply today. kathy told me that ron became a buddhist before he died. his ashes had been placed around the world. kathy has since moved on and she is slowly piecing her life together again.

to ron, rest in peace. and to kathy, i wish her well.

stupid?

for the longest time, i have been a highly disciplined person. one who's values and priorities are totally aligned to my organisation. and sometimes, i wonder if, in doing so, i am just plain stupid...

my grumpy dad

i came back from my weekly marketing this morning to find my dad grumbling away... issues from long time ago such as how some of his frds would only visit during chinese new year, how my uncle would speak bad of my mum behind her back, la la la... and together with his long strings of hokkien expletives came out...

i was not really prepared for this on a nice sunday morning. nonetheless, i chatted with him and whenever i can, i attempted to calm him down and tried to tell him nicely that he should not jump to conclusions of why some things happened in the past and perhaps there are other reasons why these things happened the way it did.

my mum, on the other hand, was not so patient. she snapped at him and told him off for being consistently grumpy. she told me that of late, he has been grumbling and has been talking about issues that happened years ago, as long as when 20-30 years back... and when i heard what my mum said, i got worried. perhaps i was jumping to conclusions, but what i have learnt so far is that it is not a good sign when old people begins to talk and grumble about their past.

i hope i am wrong.

'cuse me again

paid a visit to my doctor this morning for me regular check-up. told him of my recent periodic check-up with my company doctor and about the hearing loss.

he seemed worried and shared with me that there are many possible causes for such hearing losses. one possibility could be that there is a cancerous growth on one of my hearing nerves. and usually such growths are benign. nonetheless, trends have shown that such cancerous growth will grow and may complicate matters. and to treat it, it would usually involve undergoing an operation to remove the growth. nonetheless, he advised me to go for all the test possible first before making any conclusions.

so, in the meantime, i will have to wait for my follow-up checks...

managing relationships

managing relationships have been on my mind for the longest time ever and today, i decide that i will write something about it. it may come across as disorganised, but hmmm, i need to start somewhere rite? so here goes...

i am that kinda person who would withdraw into myself when things around me stresses me out (esp when people behave in the manner that does not commensurate with my expectations). when this happens, the turtle personality in me would take over. it is the kinda personality that chooses to withdraw into oneself and that would enter into a reflective mode to analyze why things did not go the way i envisage it would go. and often my reflective mode upsets people. and i really wish that when i get into such reflective self, i could be left alone so that i can sensemake peacefully.

people who donno me calls me moody and that i have many mood-swings and then they get upset and starts to question/ confront me. this would only make me withdraw further and often actually become moody in the process. i would very much prefer if the person can assure me calmly and talk it through with me. and of cos a hug or a cuddle would be most appreciated. anyway, when i emerge from my reflective mode, i would have already concluded how i should tackle such situation when it arise again in future. and often, i find myself getting into a self-blame mode and if the tension was due to my behaviour, i will end up choosing not to behave the same in future.... in short, i get more and more jaded...

this perhaps explain how one person's behaviour can be shaped and changed over time by the people he hangs around with. often, when a person is faced with an environment that does not live up to his expectations, he either adapt or withdraws, or worst still, withdraws and tries to adapt. and the same dynamics also occurs internally in the opposite party. and depending on how each other interpret and receives each other's change in behaviour, tension may arise. this tension must be removed for if this tension is not clarified, it will built and grow...

overtime, the tension will reach a tipping point where everything will break loose... that is where arguments, fights, disputes, or even relationships will break. so there is a lot of truth in the saying that `one should not go to bed with his partner if there is a hanging tension'.

my conclusion is that, the tension is created due to the differences of perspectives between the 2 persons. and this is to be so becos both are borned of different parents and have gone thru different life's experiences. therefore, both needs to communicate (now, this is a big word that no two person has the same definition). both needs to clarify the source of the tensions. take away all the inferences, assumptions and anger and drill down to the crux of the matter - be it sexual needs, differences in intellectual capacity, attitude to specific issues, etc... ultimately, both may not agree, but at least both will have a better clarity of the source of frustration/ tension. also, make the communication explicit.

don't assume that everything u do is understood or perceived by the opposite party to be the way you intended it to be. assuming makes an ass out of both parties. and often, it is not how much you do or say, but rather, how you make the other party feel that is important. and when you do this, make sure the other party understand ur purpose/ agenda. again, don't assume the other party understands ur actions. don't take the chance. this clarity will make the effort to adapt easier - eg you cannot say `i want you to communicate' or for that matter, communicate intellectually, and expect it to happen suddenly. you need to help nurture it, you need to help the other party. and that, is where the actual communication process comes in - it is abt communication & not conversation. communication is a process, not an end-state.

and despite all this, if one party refuses to bulge or expect a change without lending a hand to the other party during the process, there will be no solution. it will only end up with the both parties getting more tense. a relationship is not much different from a transaction. both sides need to negotiate. and for that matter negotiate on a win-win basis. and to be able to do this effectively, the layers of assumptions need to be taken away and the empirical factors involving individual needs must be made explicit. often, one tends to be more critical about his own partner as compared to his friends. why is this so? one should never take the relationship for granted.

eugene once told me this 3 yrs back - in a relationship, both parties need to grow. and i do add here - that both parties need to help each other grow. to make a relationship work, you need to take cognizance of these 2 points and prioritize your resources (time, money, effort...) accordingly. work towards going into a positive cycle where ur efforts will result in the opposite party's effort and in turn drive your effort. avoid going down the negative effort spiral. once you hit the negative spiral, it is difficult to go up. it takes two hands to clap. if one hand refuse to clap and only focus on one's own needs, the relationship is doomed, either it will break-up or one party will commit suicide.

in a relationship, if one party refuses to do it, it is better to break off early. don't let the tension disguise itself in the form of one-sided accommodation and built over time. you will be robbing each other of the time that could have been better spent on someone else. and it is detrimental to both parties. short term pain for long term gain - sounds familiar?

finally got this written down. it is easier to write about it retrospectively and i admit i have, as one of the two clapping hands, contributed to the failure of my relationship. and from this perspective, i would also want to suggest that there is also some truth in the phrase that says - with age, comes wisdom... or to reword and to take away implied assumptions that age equates to experience - with experience, comes wisdom.

do i make sense?

my dad's birthday

tomorrow is my dad's 74th birthday* and i actually forgot abt it... until my brother-in-law text me and suggested going out for dinner! wtf! angry with myself.

* actually tomorrow is not the actual date. none of us actually know the actual date cos my grandma smuggled my dad to singapore from china and when she registered his birth here, he was already one year old. that means, he should actually be 75 years old around this time... and for purpose of referencing, we all agree that 3rd oct will be his birthday, but we will count from 1932 and not 1933 when he was registered officially... but all's not lost cos we know his lunar birth date and that he was born in the year of the monkey :-) complicated hor?...

exhausted

sometimes one can get so exhausted mentally & emotionally that one just wants to take a break from life... and that is how i am feeling now. guess it must be the stress that has been building up, especially since last month. tying loose ends of the last course, managing a new course, doing my masters, planning for a new course in 2009, awaiting and preparing for next year's course, having a new boss, having a new boss's boss, etc... and to top it off, planning and seeing the end of my current career nearing... and not being able to prioritize my time to attend to managing it... can be so overwhelming...

yet, no one seemed to understand...

refreshing article

too much rantings abt gays and lesbians and same sex stuff these days in the open media. and often, it is from a very one-sided angle. i get rather exhausted reading all these writings. too skewed, too one-sided and often laced with loads of remarks that reek of discrimination & homophobia. str8 people trying to justify why this should not be done and that should not be done. all sound so righteous from a str8's point of view. but so bloody discriminating from a gay's perspective. and on the other hand, gays (largely gays) who went on and on about how they want to get 377a off, etc etc etc... and often, it come across as too gay-sided too. also, very tiring.

and last night, as i flipped thru the strait's times, i chanced upon and article abt homosexuality by t wong. it was about how she has a frd mark & how she, through time, realised that her views on homosexuality had been coloured by prejudices and homophobia. the article also spoke of how she eventually came to accept mark as a person - for what he is worth, not coloured by his sexuality. it was such a refreshing article. one that brings things down to the human-level, to a very personal-level. a level that recognizes that hey, homosexuals are no different from anyone else.

i ended up getting out of bed to pen a thank you mail to her.

friends, health & idiotic motorcyclists

some tidbits to capture the last couple of days...

• made a new buddy dennis. v nice person. was good chatting with him over the past couple of days.

• hooked up and corresponded with a person who was able to discuss at length abt life - including my past and about relationship, etc. i shall not describe nor name this person (abc) as i do not want to cause any discomfort in the dynamics between abc and abc's friends. am appreciative of abc's effort to share views about my relationship and my tensions. very objective based on what i have furnished. anyway... thanks abc. you know who you are.

• went for my medical check-up round up. no big surprises - high cholesterol (needs to maintain compliance for my medication), loss of hearing (needs follow-up with a specialist), no relapse of my black-out/ epileptic spells and asthma for the last 2 years (and that is a good sign). my only peave was the medical officer aka doctor... he seemed so totally bo-chup (nonchalant, don't care attitude) during the whole consultation and he even had the audacity to answer phone calls (3 calls for that matter) during that less than 10 min consultation (how urgent can a call be if he went something like - hullo! who is that? arhhh... ok... oh... hi. i don't know leh... maybe lor... ok, we'll see ya?.. alright... byeeeeeeee...) is it me getting old? or is it that doctors nowadays are getting less professional in their conduct?... so unbecoming.

• had a frustrating encounter with a motorcyclist (think his bike registration number is ft 150) last evening on sheares bridge. you see, these days, after drawing 4 lanes out of the original 3 lanes, the lanes have become narrower. and this made the squeezing between cars v v v difficult for motocyclists. wat happened was that i had this guy who tried to squeeze between me and the car beside me. as he got too close to my comfort, i honked at him - a short beep-honk type of honk, not the long blasting hey-you-fucking-knnbccb!!!-type. anyway, he took offence, rode his bike in front of my car and slowed down to 10km/hr. and when i tried to change lanes, he did the same, and this went on and on, change to left, change to right, etc for a whole stretch of distance from the top of sheares bridge to the fort road exit. i was so frustrated i really wanted to knock him down and hopefully kill that bastard! for that moment, i could feel my heart pounding furiously it almost took control of my brain. ultimately, logic prevails. i exited from fort road to allow myself to cool down before i really end up killing him...

happy children's day

today is children's day. and invariably, the children's day song will ring in my ears (see below). i simply love this song... we would sing it once a year during children's day and i think many of us singaporeans would be able to associate our childhood with this song. and often i wonder how many children (or for that matter, singaporeans - adults inclusive) actually understand and appreciate the meaning and the values that had been weaved into the song. and tis morning, my frd dennis confirmed my thots... v farnie...

well, here is a short clip from our chat:

xxx says:
hey, happy children's day
dennis says:
happy children day too
xxx says:
heh heh... sama sama maju kehadapan....
dennis says:
pe lang ja lee pen lang ja la..
dennis says:
not correct lyrics
dennis says:
but i thinki its how it sounds like
dennis says:
I LOVE this song last time in pri school
xxx says:
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.......
dennis says:
HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHH
xxx says:
it is SOOSOSOSOSOSO farnie
xxx says:
now i can see a non malay interpreting his malay song
dennis says:
yes, only one of my close fren from uni remember this song too. and we kept wonderinng whether there is an mp3 version we can download
dennis says:
LOL




semoga bahagia
sama-sama maju ke hadapan
pandai cari pelajaran
jaga diri dalam kesihatan
serta sopan-santun dengan kawan-kawan
dengan hati bersih serta suci
sama-sama hormat dan berbudi
jaga tingkah pemuda-pemudi
adat dan budaya junjung tinggi
capailah lekas cita-cita pemudi-pemuda
supaya kita ada harga di mata dunia
kalau kita lengah serta lupa
hidup kita sia-sia
jiwa besar sihat serta segar
rajin dengan sabar tentu bahagia
lemah lembut perangai pemudi
cergas tangkas wataknya pemuda
suka rela selalu berbakti
sikap yang pembela dan berjasa
capailah nama yang mulia pemudi-pemuda
rajinlah supaya berjaya semoga bahagia

English translation
may you achieve happiness
together we progress
clever at seeking knowledge
take care of your health
and be courteous to your friends
with a clean and pure heart
we respect and do good to each other
watch your behaviour, oh youths
respect and honour your customs and traditions
quickly reach your goals/dreams, oh youths
so that we'll have our worth, in this world
if we are lazy and forgetful
our lives are worthless
a big heart and a fresh mind
hardworking and patience definitely brings success/happiness
soft-spoken is the lady
energetic and tenacious is the man
charitable, always contributing
having a righteous spirit and doing good
attain a respectable position, oh youths
be hardworking so that you will succeed, may you achieve happiness