A last post before flying off to Berkeley
Yesterday I went to the JPA office in Putrajaya and met 4 other JPA Scholars who were going to the United States under the same inaugural JPA Ivy League and setara Scholarship Program. In total 6 Malaysians were offered this Scholarship to the US (UK another story), including the MIT girl who appeared in the Star recently, but she did not turn up and so there was only the 5 of us. (UK Scholars will be briefed later on, about 70 UK people versus the 6 US people)
Interestingly, all the five of us are non-bumiputeras. 4 Chinese students and 1 Indian student. 4 boys and 1 girl. They briefed us about all the procedures and payment of allowances and fees, etc.
Truth be told, I have to be grateful to the Government for such a scholarship offer which is worth about RM 600,000. Bond is 6 years. If after graduation they cannot give you a job within 12 months, they might release you from the bond. Since they are giving me so much dough, I would try my best to serve-lah. But I would prefer to the serve the nation through the private way, staying in Malaysia to build a Malaysian global company. OK, ranting about my dreams again… See how lah.
The officer, Mr Azriey was very helpful and entertained all our questions. Quite a patient guy considering the barrage of parents and students he has to deal with. (He remembers me as the guy who called him many (the most) times.)
He also noted that there should not be any blogging about anything which is against the status quo in politics (the RPK kind of blog posts), failing which the Scholarship may be revoked.
Henceforth from now on ernsheong.com will cease to have posts about political issues with the exception of mild and relatively harmless commentaries along with the occasional observations, rants and suggestions. But there will be no strong sentiments of Malaysian politics expressed in ernsheong.com anymore, with no affiliations or preference for any Malaysian political parties or political figures openly discussed. (Go Obama!) This is a politically neutral blog from now on, as I have to uphold one of the responsibilities of being a Government-sponsored scholar.
So yeah, JPA Scholarship is on track. I will go ahead and take up the Scholarship. No turning back.
I’ve been dreaming of studying in a US top U for many years… I can’t believe it’s happening. God is good.
The 5 very fortunate JPA Scholars to the United States.
From left, standing: Cher Hao, UPenn; ES, Berkeley; Kuhan, Berkeley; Si Jie, Dartmouth; Wai Kin, Cornell (Year 2). Seated: Encik Azriey, our Scholarship Officer.
**********
Had a small yum-cha session on Tuesday for the mostly DJ people who kept on bugging me to go yum-cha with them XD (Marcus missing in pic.). Thanks guys for coming and calling me to go out, which I would not if you did not bug me to have a gathering in the first place. (Sorry I did not call the whole world down so if you’re not there it doesn’t mean you’re not a good friend or something…)
And thanks to my Cell Group people, Sherene, Kevin, Min Huei, Jessica Q and Ai Teng for having a farewell dinner outing for me yesterday night. You guys take the trouble and I appreciate it. And thanks to the Cell Group people for the gift and cake last Sunday, you guys are the best.
The most thanks goes to my mum for supporting and cheering me all the way all this while, going all out to make things possible for me, and being understanding all the time. I love you, mum. Not to mention my dad of few words, who supports in his own way.
I’ll miss all of you people and friends while I am away. I’ll also miss the girl who reminded me to do it all for God’s glory, and not for my own glory.
Take care, all.
*****Some things I plan to do in the US*****
1) Get an iPhone
2) Assemble and build my own PC
3) This is still a thought: Join the Cal Triathlon Team and train
4) Travel to LA, Vegas, New York, Philadelphia, Boston, etc. etc. etc. (all over US!)
**********
Bye guys. I’ll be back.
Loading ...
All the best to you bro. I used to drive from L.A. to Vegas. You will witness a lot of beautiful view. Study hard. Will wait for your update!
God grant you journey mercy to USA, and see you in USA!
hi thanks guys! flying off in an hour. God bless!
ern sheong, i see you deleted this post?
anyway, looks like you merely closed off comments on that post when you could not respond to william’s comments…
is that an admit of guilt? are ern sheong’s points really justified? i will leave it to the readers to read the post / comments from a few days ago…below is an extract of the last comment
#
william on August 15th, 2008
“As for my assertion that posting as anon is abuse of freedom of speech, I stand by it. I believe that if you are indeed making a valid, sensible argument, there is no point for you to stand behind the shadow. Not using anonymity shows that you are ready to stand behind the words that you say.”
The whole point of anonymity is for one to freely express one’s ideas without fear. If he is making a valid, sensible argument, what more you do want? Does knowing his name make it any more valid? Or are you actually planning to make personal threats?
Anyway, clearly you obtained an excellent deal here. Congratulations! In theory, there is nothing inherently wrong with what you did. But that’s not the point. In theory, there is also nothing wrong with not giving up your seat to the elderly on the bus, not helping blind people cross the street, and not stopping for jaywalking pedestrians.
What happened to your sense of empathy? You soon leave to attend one of the best universities in the United States on a government scholarship and are poised to make a living orders of magnitude better than the durian seller. And you’re proud of your mother making some pocket change off him? That in itself is terrifying. With that attitude, how can we ever expect you to do anything for people other than yourself (who are paying for your scholarship with their taxes, too)?
@ES: you yourself said you support freedom of speech. then why are you deleting comments from your blog when you do not like them?
on another issue:
you could not defend yourself against any of anonymous’ points and hence decided to target his anonymity. when william chipped in, in support, you could neither target his points nor his lack of anonymity, so you closed the comments on the previous post? mind you, these were not senseless remarks but to me, they definitely look like well thought-out responses.
what type of civil servant are you going to be? one who quashes opposition with underhand methods?
Quit bugging ES. He’s decided to end all discussion on the topic, and let’s respect his decision.
@ William.
I am not trying to defend Ern Sheong but on the grounds of impartial judgments, here are my opinions about the context of your comment.
In superficial, you have very good reasoning skills expressing your opinion, as each argument becomes more invective than the last. Congrats!
However, as I quote from your comment, “In theory, there is also nothing wrong with not giving up your seat to the elderly on the bus, not helping blind people cross the street, and not stopping for jaywalking pedestrians.”, in theory, there is also nothing wrong voicing out your opinion base on your biased accusations.
In theory, you could possibly be right too! It is indeed “terrifying” that while Ern Sheong is going to be studying in one of the most prestigious institutions in the world, it is unfair that he and his mom is “proud” to make “some pocket change” over a durian seller.
However, here’s something you should consider before going full-length at commenting and accusing someone- theories are merely assumptions. While you can come up with all these statements questioning Ern Sheong’s sense of empathy, have you also considered this- The durian seller can choose not to sell his mom the durians if he thought that the deal was unfair.
If bargaining (for a better deal) would lead to a speculation on our morality and competency, then I doubt anyone, even you can accuse Ern Sheong, on fair grounds.
Not unless if you only purchase all your items at retail price and you do not buy anything with discount.
Ern Sheong’s mom did not force, threaten or intimidate the durian seller when bargaining for a better deal. She merely persuaded the durian seller and yes, I think Ern Sheong does have a right as a son to be proud of his mother. Even better, I think Ern Sheong should be proud if he can be as persuasive his mother!
If we (including you) are expecting him to do something for the people in future, then to be a good leader, it is important for Ern Sheong to be persuasive. Did you not know that the persuasiveness of a good leader is the backbone to success?
So, here’s what I want to tell you: Don’t judge someone and don’t try to sensationalize something from its face value.
You said that its is terrifying for Ern Sheong because he is proud of his mom “making some pocket change off him”, well, I think that it is terrifying for someone to judge another base on a blog-post.
@ Ern Sheong
I can’t believe I typed that out. -_-
Amen.
Heheh! Looks like you’re having fun even before you’re there! LOL
Awesome awesome, keep us posted when you’re there!
P.s. Whose the girl? Sf…
-pohsim-
@nps: hahah dun need lah. hold your peace. take care ps. will update from time to time
@anonymous a.k.a travis (i have your IP address): i do not wish to argue about this (whatever that is) anymore. no matter what I say, you will always try to find some fault in it. you wanna hunt me down, come to Berkeley and find me.
hi. travis is a cunt.
no need for good reasoning skills here.
i win.
Hi this is random and you don’t know me but HAHA CHER HAO LOOKS INCREDIBLY FUNNY IN THE FIRST PICTURE OF HIM WITH THE OTHER SCHOLARS!! Heehee.
Okay that’s all
I just had to say that! ((: