Memories: Imperial Studies

Memories: Imperial Studies

1. It has been almost 15 years to the time I graduate and left my alma mater, but the true value of the education I received there seems to be amplified the longer time wears on.

2. I remembered the struggle and the suffering, contrasted with the gallivanting my brethren faced in LSE undergoing some artsy type education, pretending that they too were suffering. I remember the Eid where I spent the day at the lab, trying to make the circuit design work according to its cursed specs, and then still trying to squeeze the performance out of the stupid bugger. I remember almost failing in my 1st year after being unable to juggle my repsonsibilities and unable to discern between my capabilities and potential. I remember the passionate teachers, lecturers and professors, the Greek, Prof Spence, the Powerman - and the Brit colleagues who like me took a look at the Sings, and collectively decided, it aint worth it to be like them.

3. I wasnt happy with my results, I thot it wasnt commensurate with the effort that I put in. But I also realised that between effort and passion were two great gulfs. I studied in Imperial because I wanted the name, and I studied in E&E because it had practical relevance in what was to be my career in TNB then. I wasnt prepared for the slog though. Everything up to then had been a piece of cake, all I needed was a lot of last minute cramming, and things would turn out to be not so bad, or pretty great. I had no idea that there was a lot hinging on these little decisions, or that being good wasnt enough. Good is the enemy of great, is the champion of mediocrity. Until and unless you seek the frontiers of your chosen profession, your career, your choices, you'll languish.

4. That last statement could have been a little exaggerated, especially when I look around at this country and see the society that our mass production education system has produced. We can all live happily without straining ourselves to be the best that we can be. Ok, what. But wait, the undercurrents are very strong indeed, and it could just sweep us off our feet and drown us all.

5. Malaysia is now the 10th most competitive nation by one measure. Yet, that masks the fact whether our industrial policy has effectively cultivated manufacturing, industries and services around our resource advantages, or whether we have diversified away so that we are no longer masters of any. Socially, we are disintegrating except for the efforts by society to painfully gradually bring about change in spite of the leadership.. and that beings us to the issues that we face politically.

6. All these are manifestations of attitudes of individuals, where aggregated at society level, brings about the lethargy that we can obviously view without much effort now.

7. It all begins and ends with attitude. Be the best that we can be. Be disciplined enough to bring this change that we want to see. And change the system - we collaborate to bring about the change taht we want.. bit by bit, step-by-step, until we end up fulfilling our beliefs, either in life or in death.