Anyway, the reason I found that radio segment a little strange was that it baffled me that such a large decision could be hinged on such simplistic reasons. And to be fair to her, I’m sure the segment was largely intended to portray a sort of Prozac-induced reality that the brain-drain that Malaysia is currently facing can be reversed by reminding people how wonderful this country is, because after all, this is a fantastic country isn’t it? Ask most Malaysians what the best thing about this country is, and more often than not, you’ll get some variation of the fact that not only is the food great but you can gorge in the wee hours of the morning. Isn’t there more?

Don’t get me wrong, I love our food and I love eating nasi lemak at 3am in the morning but surely there’s gotta be more to Malaysia than just that? Tell me that our country has more to offer than mamaks and cosmopolitan cuisine. Tell me that TalentCorp, the agency responsible for luring back almost 1 million Malaysian diaspora around the world is going to bank on more than street food. Those in the fold will say that TalentCorp also offers attractive personal income tax rates and tax-free allowances on car imports. *yawn* Gimme a break!

I guess a constructive way to approach this is to ask why do people leave Malaysia for Australia, or the UK, or the USA, Canada and New Zealand? And let’s not forget Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai. What do these destinations have in common that Malaysia lacks? Let’s see now, just off the top of my head…

1. A wage that doesn’t make you feel like a luxury-starved villager everytime you walk into a supermarket.
2. A sense that if you work your ass off, you’ll be able to see the fruits of your labour either in terms of remuneration or recognition.
3. A system that generally seems to function in a way that doesn’t confound or frustrate you.
4. A vision of a better future for your children.
5. Uncensored movies and books.
6. Good customer service, accountable public service, and reliable infrastructure service.

Oh and the list goes on I’m sure, but the point is pretty clear. By identifying the reasons why Malaysians leave, it naturally leads to the solution to get them to come back. Because at the heart of it all, I’m sure most people would prefer to be in Malaysia with their family and friends.

So from this line of thinking, it would seem that TalentCorp, which I’m sure has been allocated millions of dollars of funding to hire highly-qualified professionals to come up with policy to reverse Malaysia’s brain drain, isn’t really needed at all. Common sense will easily prevail. My critics will scream ‘easier said than done!’ Of course… no one is denying that the solution to transforming Malaysia into a brain gain state is neither quick or easy. Clean politics, political will and good policies is essential to say the least.

But a good start will be to stop drinking the kool-aid of how wonderful Malaysia is because we can get char koay teow at 3am. Because if it wasn’t for family, friends and the rare instance of true patriotism, Malaysia’s middle-class and academic elite would take root elsewhere if given the chance. Even if nothing beats a teh tarik.

Anyway, what else about the brilliance of Anthony Hopkins is there left to say? Throughout the movie, i was spellbound, scared shitless and mesmerised all at the same time by his performance as the unorthodox Welsh exorcist who teaches the lead character, a God-doubter, about the existence of the devil.

For the record, I LOVE movies that revolve around Christian mythology, the mysticism and dogma that lead to the inevitable conspiracy theories involving the Vatican, etc. Movies like Exorcist, Stigmata, Exorcism of Emily Rose, even Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code. It’s just something about the ongoing battle between God and devil that somehow appeals to me.

First off, I absolutely believe in the devil. And it goes further than just equating the devil with the evil that exists within humanity. I actually believe in the entity that is the devil. I believe in the physical manifestation of the devil because this belief stems from my belief in God. Yes folks, despite my flippant attitude to religion, my faith in the existence of God is unshakable. And while I also believe that good triumphs over evil, I know it doesn’t always seem like it on Earth when bad things seem to happen to good people.

The thing is, over the years I have distilled my thoughts on the subject to a point where I think that ultimately, good always win because even if you die fighting evil, passage into heaven or a higher form of reincarnation is the purest form of the victory of good. The catch is of course that this victory involves dying. Which is unpalatable to us but remains a certainty of life. I lost my Dad to a car accident at the age of 9 but I believe that he’s in a better place and as unscientific as it sounds, I have on occasion felt like he even watches over me.

Coming back to the movie which involves demonic possession, it raises the question on how the average soul can expect to protect themselves against something as scary as demonic possession? The truth is that I believe that you can’t always do that. However, I do believe that if ever you are, then God will come to your aid, be it in the form of Anthony Hopkins the exorcist or maybe even death, or anything in between. Either way, the devil cannot win. Fear the devil, but believe that he will never win.

In this post I used the word ‘believe’ 6 times. Which is the essence of faith ain’t it? Anyway, great movie even if the reviewers have panned it. Watch it if you don’t believe in the devil, watch it if you believe in the devil, or just watch it for Anthony Hopkins.

It’s amazing to say the least how powerful the mobile phone has become. It’s unleashed the power of Twitter, Facebook, blogs, alternative media, and memes, capable of mobilising movements that bring down governments. Tunisia seems to have sparked a fad that carried on into Egypt and as of today has infected Yemen, Bahrain, Iran, Libya, Jordan. All this empowered by the ubiquitous power of mobile phones.

Malaysia has a mobile phone penetration of over 100%. Could mobile phones be used to start a revolution here? If an SMS was sent out to every mobile phone in the country informing people that a revolution was taking place at every town square in every major city, would Malaysians attend?

Personally, I think the best we as a nation will do in terms of numbers is probably 100,000. Because we don’t have it in us to stay the course. Between needing to go home to take a shit, and breaking for teh tarik; or going from Dataran Merdeka to Kg Baru for nasi lemak, or even just needing to charge our phones, I’m pretty sure any protest would fizzle out after a day or so.

So in the even that a Tahrir Square actually happens in Malaysia, my advice to government is to just let em be. It’ll fizzle out on it’s own. Bring in the FRU and the militar and the tear gas and water cannons and you just fuel their cause even more.

We Malaysians generally aren’t hungry enough, aren’t oppressed enough, aren’t angry enough to sacrifice the relative comforts of our daily routines.

Another difference between protest in Malaysia and the protest in Egypt is the fact that in the latter, the crowd was overwhelmingly middle class as well as the poor while the number of women protesters easily rivalled the men. All the previous protests I’ve seen in KL seemed to consist mainly of men. Protest organisers would be wise to remember that only women and children will stop a bunch of marauding tanks.

I say protest organisers because someone always has to. Someone organised Tahrir Square. Someone paid for the logistics. I mean think about it, people were ferried into Cairo, mobile toilets were set up, screens and projectors to show video, mobile phone chargers to enable people to use their phones, etc.

The million dollar question is who was backing the organisers with the money? My bet is the CIA. It felt weird to see the US being the first major nation to ask Mubarak to step down. Maybe Barack and Langley are tag-teaming… Obama in the open, the CIA in the shadows, Obama and Hillary lull countries with a softer foreign policy while the disinformation boys in the CIA are overthrowing governments.