The Problem with Choice

Finally, its election time here at Malaysia again..Speculation on the election date started since last year.. if you kept a beard since then, it would probably be longer than Gandalf's by now.. 

                           

Since parliament was dissolved on 3rd April, KLCI has jumped from 1685 points to as high as above 1700 points.. which is completely opposite from what OSK predicted in this article:

“The election trading strategy will be to keep it short and tight,” OSK advised. “Investors should remember that elections are in general a short term localised driver.”

The report further recommended that investors wait for profit taking ahead of the general election before entering the market and focus on blue chips in the banking, oil and gas, and construction sectors.

“Outside of this localised trading strategy, we remain defensive on the longer term and maintain our 1466-pt KLCI fair value for 2012,” OSK concluded.

Well does that make the KLCI extremely unfairly valued now? We'll see by the beginning of next month.. 

Which brings me to my point - the problem with democracy. Even if elections were totally fair, without gerrymandering, phantom votes and false allegations on sexuality, it ends up being a popularity contest like American Idol - Does the best singer win? The one with the most promising career? Or the best looking? Or the one that just makes us feel good, reason unknown?

For a candidate/party to win, it has to cater to the whims and fancies of the general populace.. even if it means polices that are financially detrimental to the country in the long term such as cash hand outs, subsidies, unnecessary projects, etc.. and the less educated the general populace are, the easier it would be to manipulate their thoughts. Both sides simply need to have populist policies just to win, but these polices may well end up draining the country's already drained-out funds.. 

                          

This will not be the state of the country's funds with democracy..

So what's an alternative to democracy? There really isn't any, as long as humans are the rulers. Humans are emotional, and emotions don't always result in the best decisions.. What we need are a bunch of computers programmed with the best political, social and financial theories and a bunch of robots to execute orders.. But wait, doesn't that mean humankind would be leaving its fate to computers and machines? Of course not, where do you think those theories came from? What we need are governments which are completely unbiased and unprejudiced, with full access to the latest information all the time.. Plato had it right in his work The Republic: 

According to this model, the principles of Athenian democracy (as it existed in his day) are rejected as only a few are fit to rule. Instead of rhetoric and persuasion, Plato says reason and wisdom should govern. As Plato puts it:

"Until philosophers rule as kings or those who are now called kings and leading men genuinely and adequately philosophise, that is, until political power and philosophy entirely coincide, while the many natures who at present pursue either one exclusively are forcibly prevented from doing so, cities will have no rest from evils,... nor, I think, will the human race." (Republic 473c-d)

Well there weren't any computers or robots back then so philosophers would be the best bet.. but philosophers are humans and hence corruptible.. computers and robots are not. 

Undilah Sains dan Teknologi!

I vote him for our next Prime Minister

Adventure at Lombok

Havent't updated this blog in awhile.. That's because I was busy climbing a volcano.. that's right, on March 25th, after some 8 hours of sweat, blood and sore muscles, my fiancee and I conquered Mount Rinjani  on the Indonesian island of Lombok.

We started our journey at Kuala Lumpur on March 24th, taking AirAsia's new direct flight to Lombok. At the airport, we were picked up by a personnel of the Rinjani Trekking company (John's Adventures). The ride from the airport to the base of the mountain at Senaru was an adventure itself, about 3 hours of stomach churning weaving through narrow roads.

The view from Senaru was great, we could see Mount Rinjani looming over the rice fields, set to be conquered by us the next day. As a taster, we did a half an hour trek to a nearby waterfall..

 The view from our guest house at Senaru, the base of Mount Rinjani

Waterfall at Senaru

We woke up at the crack before the crack of dawn at 5am the next day to begin our ascent to the volcano.. rather than a fellowship of 9 to destroy the One Ring, it was 5 of us, as we had one guide and two porters to carry our tents and food for the next 2 days.

The journey started fairly easily with some trekking through the forest for about an hour. I was pretty worked up after that hour but little did I know that we were just trekking to the gate of the Rinjani park.. that's when I knew it was gonna be a long day ahead of us..

The entrance to the volcano.. where are the danger signs?

From the gate we climbed up for about  2 hours through thick jungle terrain to the first post (Pos 1).. after a brief stop for some snacks, we continued on to the next post, Pos Ekstra. This extra post was a welcome relief after another hour of trekking.. really should be renamed as essential rather than extra, as by then I was well tired out..

Our first rest stop at Pos 1

 

Trusty porters packing food and stuff for our journey

And so our adventure continued to Pos 2 for another rest and on to Pos 3 where we would have lunch.. the climb from Pos 2 to 3 felt as epic as Frodo's journey to Mondor for the unfit and untrained yours truly.. had to rest every 15 minutes just to catch my breath! We stated off before our porters at Pos 2 but they soon overtook us, which was good as by the time we arrived at Pos 3 two hours later, they already had lunch prepared for us.

Our guide was so hardcore that he ate a pack of instant noodles raw.. we opted for the cooked version instead.. after our growling stomachs were silenced with lunch, we ventured on through rocky terrain to the rim of the volcano..

Not only am I walking like an old man, I also felt like one by the stage of this journey.. 

The climb to the rim felt less tiring but had its own challenges as the trek was steep and the trail not well defined.. well there was no point stopping around as two hours of trekking later, this was what awaited us..

The view from the crater rim of Mount Rinjani. When the original volcano erupted, a mini volcano formed 

And what a view it was.. after enduring what was probably the most physically challenging 8 hours of my life, it was well worth it.

By the time we arrive at the crater rim our porters had set our camp for us. We even had a toilet tent where they dug a hole for us to deposit our.. ermm business.. well I guess that's what 2 million Rupiah per person buys.. 

The view from the other side of the crater rim.. very Lord of the Rings-ish

Enjoying the view with some volcanic Coke!

Our toilet for the evening.. 

Tents of other climbers line up the peak of the mountain

Its erupting!

Mount Agung at Bali can be seen in the distance

The next morning, we began our descend after watching the sunrise.. the trip down wasn't any easier.. too bad we couldn't throw a ring down down the volcano and have some eagles rescue us as it erupts..

As we reached Pos 2, the rain started to fall down.. what was supposed to be an easier trek down became a wet and soaking one.. After what seemed like an eternity, we finally reached back to where we started.. by then out legs felt like two sore wooden poles..

We spent the next few days at Lombok recovering our drained out bodies, eating ayam lalapan and ikan bakar, and checking the Gili islands. Meals at local warungs cost around half that at restaurants, around 50,000 rupiah for both of us each meal. The Gili islands didn't impress me too much, noticed that most of the corals were dead when we went to snorkel.

After a week at Lombok, it was time for us to head back. It was a great week away for us, highlighted by the magnificent Rinjani Volcano..