The Rig

As it was in the past election, I kept a close eye on the results as they trickle in. Rather than wait to hear it on mainstream channels, social media was the way to go.

My Mac Pro were rigged to them allowing me to blast the reports through twitter and facebook as they came in.

I used a multi-column tweetdeck app to monitor twitter with keywords and mentions, while another screen scour the RSS feeds using feedly and of course facebook though the web browser.

Stock for the night ...I had instagram on the phone and to disseminate my tweets, I used tweetcaster pro, which allowed me to simultaneously post on both twitter and facebook with just one click. I ended up usign the phone to send out posts attached to a bluetooth physical keyboard allowing me to type fast and post ont the fly.

The disappoinitng thing was how slow it took for the results to reach us. SPR really let us down - and Karim Raslan really had a go on live TV - and it was bordering on frustration. Once the results started to come in, it was evident that the then opposition were gaining ground.

SPR optimistically - and somewhat arrogantly - promised that the results would be done and dusted by 10 pm, but it was not to be. When Tun Mahathir came live on the air at around 1.30 am putting pressure on the commission, then finally things were moving.

Clearly the Chairman was unprepared with the shift that night and since there were plenty of results not going as expected, they had to do more checks and recounts. This raised the suspicion of the so-called “black magic” which were rife in previous elections. The Chairman also had to answer the question on why the voters who came earlier that 5 pm were not allowed to vote despite queueing for hours before to get to the room. He simply did not hvae the details and looked stunned. There were also an imbalance in the number of voters paired with centers with clearly they had too many voters than they could cope.

Karim Raslam really went mental after elarning that Tony Pua had a majority of more than 100,000. Clearly there were just too many voters at the constituency.

Almost out of kuaci .... but many of the results were still pendingThe results were more or less confirmed by 3 am and despite the tally was not ready for Sabah, I had to call it the night. I was already tired from my tons of posts and reply. Suffice to say that it was an interesting night and the rig worked like a charm ....

The Walking Wounded

It was a long evening in the end, going through the streams of results which came thick and fast by midnight. Twitter definitely helped me sift through the confirmed results and I was able to post them straight into my own stream and to Facebook with minimal fuss. Sorry about the updates on my Facebook feed to those who were expecting something else.

In the end, it was a simple majority, which is about what everybody could sensibly hope for. Although I must say, I was expecting a much closer results. A few surprises and a few lessons to be learnt, although not sure if those in power would be taking heed or not.

Studying the streamRan out of fuel by midnightIn any case, I felt compelled to write about a candidate who I hoped, or least in my eyes, the one who carries the aspiration of my generation at least, a far who a Malay UMNO candidate should strive to. Basically, if I ever grew balls to go into politics, and aligning to my political belief and demography - no! I am not Bangla! - I would hope to progress along the line of this person. It is not Abang Bung and his hot wife. It would not be my senior from school, Dato' Razali Ibrahim - sorry bro! It would not be one of my cousin who frankly I don't rate too highly who won Kepala Batas.

It would be Dato' Saifuddin Abdullah. He was the Deputy Minister for Higher Education, and he lost to PAS's Nasruddin Hassan by just over 1000 votes. Why he gets my time of the day? Maybe the video below would explain it better. I wish you the very best Dato' and if the current government understood the young Malay voters, they could do no wrong by selecting him as a Senator. He is an asset. That was it. Enough politicking! Good day all …..

Results

I had the pleasure and displeasure earlier today to be present during the announcement of the results for the MMed Part I and II written exams taking place earlier this week. The majority of the candidates passed, and were looking forward to the Clinical Paper next months. Unfortunately there were casualties. A number of them I really did not expect to fail and I really was disappointed.

My colleague and I will be mulling through their marks and will try to make an objective recommendation when I meet them again next week for a post-mortem discussions. The implication of failing such exam was quite big, in the sense that, it forms a delay in their graduation by six months. It can result loss of seniority and income, not to mention denting one’s confidence. I hope those who did not make it this time to be objective, take the weekend off to chill. We shall meet again next week to see how we can assist them to pass in the very next seating. For those who have passed, you may still chill, but remember, the clinicals will be around soon. Before start working for that!