Current mood:	determined
Current music:	The Pixies

Youth Rights in Malaysia:

yesterday was trash. i don't remember the last time i've ever felt so fucking fragile. i had an accident yesterday while during this play i was helping with because i had to pee not even halfway through the play and i had to man the soundboard. it wasn't the most horrible thing that could happen and i'm lucky i'm thick skinned. my main dilemma is i think that my bladder problem is due to child abuse. when i was in primary school (chinese school) i had this teacher who taught us Malay and we had to read from a sheet of a hundred malay words, all the words, five times each. we did this for 50 minutes straight and this class was always before recess. for some reason, i always had to pee during the beginning of this period and the teacher would never let me leave because recess was next and i had to read the stupid, fucking words. my teachers back then couldn't even pronounce 'vegetable' properly and they wanted us to read those stupid words so we could somehow improve our pronounciation.

anyway, a few times a week i would be holding it in for 30-45 minutes and when recess came i'd be crying in my seat holding on to myself because the toilets were at the other side of the school and i did not dare stand up fearing i'd wet myself. i've had a couple of accidents in my adolescent years and it is not fun at all.

i hate malaysia so much. i hate the education system and i hate the teachers. most of all i hate that fucking bitch of a teacher for never even considering that what she was doing may have been detrimental to my health. i could have gotten kidney stones and now i think i may have weak bladder control and i'm only 19.

Malaysia does little, almost nothing, to encourage young people effectively without coming up with something more mundane and ineffective as 'ceramahs' and forums. Many Malaysian parents still encourage teachers to discipline their children through physical punishment in schools. Malaysian educators still fail to recognise that everyone has different methods of learning and we should help children in ways that make sense to them instead of beating them senseless. I have a friend who was born left handed but got beaten up by his dad because he wanted him to be right handed. That's vaguely related, but you get what I mean.

Malaysian youths are dropping out of high school or getting taken into harmful past times because students and their parents think that they're stupid just because they don't get lots of A's. There is no consideration whatsoever for the intellectual growth of young people but merely their entrances into university and the working world. Young people in Malaysia are not given that extra oppurtunity to discover themselves because there are no facilities that cater for the youths and much less outside of the capital city and in the rural areas. The government attempts to cater for young people through the 'Youth and Sports' minister, further demonstrating that our options and solutions as youths are limited to sports. I resent that Malaysia refuses to support young people unless they're poor or are successful in sports or their studies. The Malaysian adult public does not want to see young people doing things unless they are in the stereotypical frame of what the model Malaysian youth would be doing.

Young people in Malaysia have no voice not because their mouths are closed but because their minds have never been opened.

You know there is a problem. We can be angry or we can do something about it. Right now what i want to do is become an advocate for children's rights in Malaysia especially when i realised a few days ago that children have no rights. starting as soon as i can, i will be building a website with articles and maybe (if i'm 1337 enough) a forum. i'll start writing to the newspapers and if i'm diligent enough (hopefully if i'm diligent enough or if i can get some help) i'll distribute pamphlets and write to the government about my concerns. With some help this will be successful. I can't do this on my own.

If there is anyone out there who wants to collaborate with me and fight for the rights of young people in Malaysia, please email me at nad.ilana@gmail.com.