Witness Protection Programme - Real Motive?

This posting has been delayed by a few days due to more exciting happenings, but here is it anyway.

On the witness protection programme, the PM wants the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) to submit its proposal for the scheme so that the government may ‘fine-tune’ it before legislating an Act to empower the responsible body to manage the programme. On the necessity of the programme, he repeated the obvious, what DPM Najib had stated day before yesterday.

But he hedged his commitment to the proposal for the programme, stating that the government needs to weigh the pros and cons of the scheme, and if the cons outweigh the pros, then what’s the point of having such a setup.

And of course AAB being AAB, he hedged again within the previous hedging, stating that “Kita belum dapat pastikan dengan jelas keburukan dan kebaikannya.” (We haven’t yet ascertained fully the pros and cons of the programme).

AAB then revealed that previously the former Head of the ACA had already proposed the programme, because the ACA had received anonymous letters of complaints. The term used was ‘surat layang’, which in contemporary Malay carries a more nasty or mischievous connotation than just anonymous letter of complaint (or criticism), perhaps even of a malicious nature.

He admitted that’s the author of those complaints weren’t brave enough to sign their missive because they were worried that revealing their identity could imperil their safety. And he added that (the anonymity) has been precisely the case why the ACA couldn’t conduct their investigation.

That’s only partially true, but I find it hard to accept that the ACA in some selected cases couldn't even conduct a preliminary investigation based on tips by an anonymous letter, because if the information had touched on matters of importance, say, like the contract for PORR had been dodgily awarded, it should be able to suss out the grounds to see whether it should and could proceed further into a full blown investigation.

If the ACA insists on waiting until an informer provides them with solid evidence, chapter and verse, why then would we need the ACA? It would just be another Suhakam, unwilling to investigate 'certain' grounds. But that could explain why no one in Malaysia respects the ACA, which has been behaving like a piece of wood, waiting only for word from the boss to cudgel those not in favour.

But AAB’s most telling statement has been “Pada masa yang sama, menurutnya, ia akan dapat menghentikan penyebaran surat layang oleh pihak tertentu yang mengambil kesempatan memburuk-burukkan seseorang, termasuk pegawai dan pemimpin kerajaan."

Rough translation: “At the same time (of protecting the witnesses) the implementation of the witness protection programme will stop the circulation of such letters that exploits its anonymity to bad-mouth an individual, including officers and leaders of the government.”

my underlining

Perhaps that has been the real motive of the whole proposal. Perhaps he’s anticipating a deluge of such surat layangs.

Is KJ the de facto PM?

Matthias Chang, the former political secretary of Dr Mahathir Mohamad, wants the PM to explain how his son-in-law Khairy Jamaluddin had raised RM9.2 million to acquire a 3% stake in boutique investment house ECM Libra. That bunch of dough paved the way to the merger between ECM Libra and government-linked company Avenue Capital Resources Bhd.

But, ... elegant silence!

Matthias Chang said: “Khairy is a stakeholder in ECM Libra and the prime minister is also the finance minister. Is this not corruption? What else do you need as evidence?”

Corruption? ... elegant silence!

Then Chang latched on to what Dr Mahathir had said about the 4th and 5th floor relationship of the PM, namely that the PM son-in-law is the country’s de facto prime minister.

He asked “If Khairy is not appointed by the government, why is he allowed to make decisions that affect the country’s economy?”

“No one can explain this, except the prime minister himself. Rumours are flying all over the country, this is a serious crisis.”

Serious? ... elegant silence!

He said the issues concerned Abdullah’s integrity, and therefore the PM must speak up and not direct his ministers to provide answers.

PM's integrity? ... elegant silence!

Indeed he promised that the political crisis following Mahathir’s scathing criticism of the current administration could be resolved within 24 hours if the government stopped beating around the bush and provided adequate answers to Dr Mahathir.

Well, ... elegant silence!

But hey, don’t blame the PM, because his chief hatchet man had asserted that there was no need for Numero Uno to respond.

He swore: “We can’t keep quiet if Tun Mahathir continues criticising. Every minister has to defend the decision. It is not my sole responsibility, but we won’t allow our prime minister to answer.”

There you have it. No one will be allowed to tamper with that beautiful elegant silence. Only thing is, which PM had he been referring to?

Anwar oh Anwar ...

Anwar Ibrahim advised us that we shouldn't be distracted by the ongoing verbal battle between Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his buat-ta’tahu-buat-diam* successor Abdullah Badawi.

* "politely" put, 'conveniently ignorant, elegantly silent'

He said the priority should be on the reformation (that Anwar word again?) agenda to redress the country’s ‘sluggish’ economic growth and strengthen the institutions of the civil society and governance.

However, he wasn’t to stop those two from their stoush, saying that Abdullah may not continue to ignore Mahathir’s criticisms which till now have remained unanswered.

He pontificated: “These issues must be put in perspective. Of course, this does not mean that there is no need to explain on other issues. A government leader cannot say I’m not going to talk about corruption, I’m not going to talk about what Dr Mahathir says because I am focusing on economic development. And at the same time the economy is not developing.”

Then he came to what we have always believe to be the real case. Malaysiakini reported him as saying:

Anwar said he believed the entire episode showed that UMNO was indeed in a turmoil but he did not want to speculate on whether it would lead to a leadership crisis in the near future.

“I frankly don’t know because my contacts in the party (UMNO) are among the grassroots leaders. And they, too, are disillusioned with the way things are going.”

Maybe they are looking for a leader, a sort of political messiah?

He said he still communicated with the grassroots - whom he said have openly came to his home for meetings - because he did not want to give the wrong impression that he was at war against the party (UMNO) and the members.

Of course not – in fact we know that and have never ever dismissed his ... er ... friendship with UMNO.

“My problem is only with one or two leaders in UMNO. Of course these few (corrupt) leaders are fearful (of me). Sebut nak masuk Umno pun dia dah pengsan (Even talk of me returning to UMNO and they faint).”

Naturally, everyone knows that there are only 1 or 2 UMNO blokes who are corrupt. Hmmm, maybe 3? But in general it’s a good clean just party.

Anwar, however, dismissed any possibility of re-joining UMNO stating that he was committed to PKR, the opposition coalition and their reform agenda.

Anwar oh Anwar, the man doth protest too much, methinks!

But in the meanwhile, maybe Anwar Ibrahim could enlighten us as to why, when he was the Finance Minister, as well as Deputy PM in 1993, his Ministry picked Perangsang International Sdn Bhd (PISB) to construct the Matrade building by overruling a Works Ministry’s recommendation of a company that offered a better deal.

Investigation into the alleged corruption of millions being siphoned off by PISB could do with his sagely explanation.

US Supreme Court: "Bush Violated Geneva Conventions"

Extracts from the BBC News:

The US Supreme Court has ruled that the Bush administration does not have the authority to try terrorism suspects by military tribunal.
In a landmark decision, justices upheld the challenge by Osama Bin Laden's ex-driver, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, against his trial at Guantanamo Bay.

The court's ruling that the proceedings violated Geneva Conventions is seen as a major blow to the administration.

But the ruling does not mean the closure of the Guantanamo Bay camp.

Mr Hamdan is one of 10 Guantanamo inmates facing a military tribunal. He is demanding a civilian trial or court martial, where the prosecution would face more obstacles.

The Sydney Morning Herald also carries the announcement. It's a bloody blow for the Bush Administration, and rightly so.

One of the most draconian bullsh*t has been the fundamental absence of justice in that detainees are not allowed to see classified evidence that may be presented against them, so they would be forced to leave their hearing, meaning they won't know what could or would be accused of, or how to defend themselves.

What a sorry day for the USA that the Bush Administration has attempted to turn the nation's military justice system into a kangaroo court. The US Supreme Court has pulled them back from the brink.

A page from a woman's diary (2)

Dearest Diary,

I need to write again about Dad. I worry for him but at 81 he seems more determined than ever to carry on. I think his criticisms must be biting, because they are frantically demonising him even as I pen these words. And who would be ‘they’ that I had just mentioned? Well, people who once kissed his hands and genuflected to him.

The pseudo-warriors of Distortion, Distraction and Deception have been let loose. The real issues must be camouflaged by throwing red herrings to attract the public’s attention – gimmicks like an unprecedented rude young man telling Dad to ‘get out’, followed by another seemingly unrelated one to mock someone he should be ‘grateful that he did not die', disgracefully uttered in an august place.

Yes, they even selected a hatchet man to lead the frontal attacks, a man who once kissed Dad's hands but who’s now just too eager to buy into the new inner circle. Then there's one more from a little afar who had previously shown his equal eagerness to fawn on the rising star - how he had lavished praises on that someone. Oh those men, their avaricious ambitions are inversely proportional to their loyalty or their dignity.

His poor successor - he may believe these people are loyal to him but it’s a case of the timeless “The King is dead, long live the (new) King.”

One casts off the old and swears allegiance to the newly crowned, ad infinitum.

And the most disappointing one of all, Uncle Zig Zag - what did he say about the hatchet man's rude and crude call to Dad to 'get out'?

"Investment won't be affected".

The demonising has annoyed Dad because they distorted his criticism of unexplained actions and implausible reasons into a case of him consorting with the opposition. They accused him of being Julie Roberts, sleeping with the enemy. By flinging the accusation of treachery, they hoped to avoid answering his queries.

The hatchet man has cast red herrings to divert attention from the unanswered queries into questionable decisions by his successor and the latter's faceless though known advisors. I wonder who the hatchet man could be taking instructions from? Unprecedented in Malay tradition or behaviour, he has publicly told Dad, his former boss, to 'get out', while feigning regrets at being disrespectful to an elder.

Is someone making a big pile of money that resulted in the cancellation of a project, which now costs more than if the project had continued, and the sale of assets worth hundreds of millions of ringgit for nothing more than a tuneless song?

Now one more person has emerged from the ranks to dispute there was mischief afoot in tying a project with the sales of material that we have. He blamed the affair on the other side of the fence, when it was the greed on our side that initiated the offer, but was subsequently caught flatfooted for wanting to corner and monopolise the sales of goods. The new spokesman has disclaimed the truth we here had been the side that offered to sell the goods.

If we examine very carefully, through the fog of distraction, the unprecedent and very crude attacks had not been rudeness per se against Dad, but designed to obfuscate the real issues by distracting the attention of the public from the avarice of the le nouveau puissant.

But even then, there really shouldn't be any excuse to discard our heritage, our culture and our tradition.

It’s a strange world when the Malays, who boast of their loyalty, seem to have lost their gratitude recently.

It’s a strange world when the Malays, who pride themselves on their soft spoken reasoning, seem to have abandoned this characteristic now.

And it’s a strange world when the Malays, who admire respect of elders, seem to have forgotten their culture lately.

It looks like it has been left to us women to safeguard and nurture these virtues for our children, to teach them to subscribe to the traditional Agama, Bangsa dan Negara, and not the new call of Kuasa, Haloba Tama' dan SAYA.

Good night, dearest diary.
M

Related:
A page from a woman's diary

Mandarin Scholar

Amazing stuff!

I want to send this to DPM Najib who had complained that Chinese employers were discriminating against Malay graduates because those Chinese companies' had advertised for applicants with Mandarin language ability.

18-year-old Muhammad Izwan Zulkifli has been named SMK Keat Hwa Gold Medal Award recipient, the school’s top scorer among 468 students. Yes sir, that’s a Chinese medium school.

And apart from being the first Malay student to be honoured in such a manner by the state’s premier Chinese secondary school, he scored 11 1As in the SPM examination last year.

The Sultan of Kedah Sultan Abdul Halim Mu’adzam Shah presented him with the award. Izwan is now taking up an accountancy programme at Kolej Matrikulasi Negri Sembilan.

Star Online photo

But what annoys me is that this brilliant handsome bloke couldn’t even get a scholarship for his study of accountancy, all because he did not sit for the Basic Economy paper (Kertas Ekonomi Asas).

He said: “I applied for several scholarships but was unsuccessful in all. I did not know the Basic Economy paper is a must for the accountancy scholarship.”

But his parents must have been very proud of his amazing achievement.

An outstanding aahievement 祝贺

'Sweet' wisdom, 'Sweet' actions, 'Sweet' bullsh*t

Here’s a brilliant and wonderful solution to commodity shortages.

Deputy Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister S Veerasingam said that the recent sugar shortage has actually been good - so you guys should bloody stop whinging.

Why good?

He said the shortage had helped consumers reduce their sugar intake.

He pronounced: “Sugar is in the rice and fruits which we take, so we actually take a lot of sugar in a day. It is advisable to cut down intake.”

Fantastic! Now I've heard, no, in fact read that Petronas wants the government to approve its proposed price hike for gas. I would imagine Veerasingam telling us the same good news, as in:

“Gas is in the farting and belching which we make, so we actually produce a lot of gas in a day. It is advisable to cut down use of gas.”

And may I add, if anyone still runs short, please see the ministers because they are so full of gas, always sprouting hot bullsh*t air.

But dash it, Veerasingam spoilt his revelation by saying that his ministry had helped areas suffering from sugar supply shortage to overcome the problem.

What bloody for? Afterall, sugar shortage is a blessing in disguise, so let’s not tamper with the shortage when it’s good.

But that’s the bullsh*t quality of our ministers, always attempting to insult our intelligence.

It’s f**king high time the government recognise that they are interfering with the price of sugar and distorting the market, at the expense of the sugar industry who had been forced to bear the loss. If people want to reduce their sugar intake, well and good, but there should be sugar for those who want it.

P/S
Meanwhile the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry will start gathering data on the weekly production of sugar by factories and compare it to the amount distributed to grocery stores and hypermarkets.

Minister Mohd Shafie Apdal said they would also gather information on the amount sent out by the factories to each wholesaler and the distribution network.

He said: “Those who are inefficient will have their licences revoked.”

Hmmm, I wonder whether this is democratic free-enterprising Malaysia, or a f**king Stalinist State where your life or livelihood would depend on your quota of production of goods, even at losing business cost.

But just in case people don’t believe his explanation for sugar shortage, he added that consumer demand had also risen this year compared to last year.

The flogging will continue until one way or other, the sugar shortage is not blamed on the government's price control.

P/P/S
Veerasingam has come up with another of his scatological gem. He wanted parents to tell their children their salaries so that the kids can help the parents by not overspending. He said children needed to know what their parents earned so that they, the children, could gauge the family spending power and know the monthly budget.

He said: “Many parents do not do this. So, their children tend to overspend their parents' money.”

I have to admit that till today I wasn't aware that kids manage their parents' household budget.

He advised it was also crucial for people to start to save early and that working people should begin with at least 10% of their salaries to ensure that their future and that of their children were taken care of.

Yeah, that explains why most of the Indian Malaysians have been so f**ked up economically. Those rubber tappers, road sweepers and what other lousy professions that Indians have been forced to take up should listen to his wise words. Save and don't pretend you have mucho problems trying to make ends meet.

Forgotten But Unfortunately Not Entirely ...

In some states in the USA, there’s no escaping a death penalty once all avenues of appeal have been exhausted, even when some death row inmates spent more than 20 years waiting for the last walk. Apparently several prisoners were executed when they were already in their 80s.

We may well ask – has justice been served? And, was it meant to be served in this way, executing 80-year old people?

There has been a debate in the USA and Britain on the length of time convicts should spend on death row. In 1993, a British court found that it was inhuman and degrading to hang anyone who has spent more than five years waiting for their execution. It argued that such prisoners should have their sentences commuted to life in prison.

It’s the only sensible and humane option for a civilised society. But better still, don’t have the penalty, as our neighbour the Philippines has decided.

In Malaysia we too have what are now known as the forgotten convicts - prisoners who received their death sentence, exhausted all appeal options, and have spent more than two decades on death row.

It’s just a horrible punishment.

Among this group is a man who has been waiting for his final moment for 22 years, since he was 26 years old. Nearly a decade has passed by for him in a cell, waiting, waiting, waiting ……..

The authorities have refused, as Malaysian authorities would and could, to explain why those prisoners are left in such horrendous limbo. However, the New Straits Times has learnt that a combination of administrative hitches and delays in handing down written court judgements have kept these criminals in solitary confinement for years. So our august judiciary has thus contributed to the prolonged inhumane mental torture for those hapless souls.

Suhakam, after its reputation has recently suffered terrible disrepute in refusing to investigate police brutality, has indicated its concerns that these death row prisoners — convicted of murder, drug trafficking and firearm possession offences — are receiving two distinct punishments: the death sentence and years of living in solitary confinement.

It also wants to know whether executing someone after prolonged periods on death row violates the Constitution and the principles of justice.

Next year is Malaysia’s 50th Anniversary as a nation. Please let us celebrate this occasion by demonstrating our humanity and compassion as a civilised nation, and commute their death sentences, as we have seen done for a former UMNO bigwig who was sentenced to death for murder.

In fact, let’s take it one further step – let’s abolish the ultimate punishment, which as you religious people know, is and should be the sole prerogative of God.

Related:
(1) Hot Babe: "No More Hot Seat!"
(2) Stupid if He's Smart, Smart if He's Stupid!

PAS Preachers - Marry for God or Money?

The Kelantan State Religious Affairs committee chairman Hassan Mahamood, who is the PAS member for Tawang, said the PAS-led State government has been unhappy with the conversion rate of the orang asli (aborigines), who are prime targets for both Islamic and Christian missionaries. For our overseas readers, PAS is the State ruling Islamic party.

He indicated that the latest figures for the past five years saw only 2,904 of some 3,000 orang asli in Gua Musang and Jeli districts, embracing Islam on their own free will.

I wonder why he’s disappointed when the conversion rate is over 95%. Maybe he’s an idealist?

Anyway, as part of the State government’s strategy to increase conversion to Islam among the orang asli, it wants to encourage marriages between Muslim preachers (male and female) and orang asli (women and men respectively). Thus the Muslim cleric must pioneer the implementation of the conversion strategy.

Now, this strategy is not new as the Communist Party of Malaysia (CPM) had done the same thing during the Malaysian Emergency. The insurgents were ordered to marry orang asli women in order to become members of the tribes. By doing so, they effectively denied security forces access to aborigine intelligence or even tracking assistance, as the orang asli didn’t want to betray their ‘tribesmen’.

However, the Kelantan government has a motivational plan, offering a lump sum of RM10,000, free accommodation, a four-wheel-drive vehicle and a fixed monthly allowance of RM1,000 to each Muslim preacher who marries an orang asli woman (or man, if the preacher is female). These are very generous rewards.

However, he was a bit coy about such marriages making the orang asli women as second or third wives of the preachers. Hassan said it depended on the individual, which KTemoc takes as ‘it’s OK’.

I wonder whether this motivational scheme would corrupt the intentions of the preachers who would then be marrying for material rewards rather than missionary love or care. And I wonder whether the reward scheme applies to the layperson.

Hot Babe: "No More Hot Seat!"

I am so glad that Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has abolished the death penalty on Saturday. Now, it’s up to Malaysia and Singapore to follow her enlightened path.

The death penalty had actually been abolished in the Philippines in 1987 but was restored in late 1993 for heinous crimes such as murder, child rape and kidnapping. But executing someone, even a criminal, reflects on the State’s morality of taking a life prematurely. Additionally, there have been cases especially in the USA where people had been sent wrongly to the gallows by over-eager but unscrupulous state prosecutors.

Arroyo sought to assure the nation that her opposition to capital punishment had not undermined her commitment to fighting crime. She said:

"We will never be intimidated by these treacherous acts, and we shall fight terror as seriously as we embrace peace. We shall continue to devote the increasing weight of our resources to the prevention and control of serious crimes, rather than take the lives of those who commit them."

More than 1,200 death-row convicts - including at least 11 al-Qaeda-linked militants - will benefit from the ban on the death penalty.

Papal Nuncio Archbishop Fernando Filoni, the Vatican's envoy to Manila, congratulated Arroyo and legislators who supported the measure. And I will send her my love too.

I knew I was justified in having the hots for Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. ;-) Let it not be said that KTemoc doesn’t have taste.

Related:
Stupid if He's Smart, Smart if He's Stupid!

Beneath the buah cherry tree (3)

The typical idyllic scene in an older part of Suburbia – a kedai kopi (coffee shop or in reality just a stall) beneath a Malaysian ‘buah cherry’ tree. The customers sit al fresco enjoying their coffee or tea, some nasi lemak, roti canai or kueh, and their favourite hobby, causal conversation.

A limousine arrives and parks beside the stall. Two men in dark glasses exit the car and seat themselves in the shade of the tree …..

J: I don’t suppose this dump even has an expresso or … what’s the bloody point of coming to this place everytime we need to talk in private when that tambi can’t even serve a short black?

N: Look boss, here we can talk freely without anyone suspecting I would be hammering that old man on your instructions. Oh, don’t forget not to call the kopi kedai tambi … it’s rude and you must remember you're going up higher on the ladder where you need to show your multi-ethnic and bersopan-santun (manners) credentials.

J: Don’t bloody try to teach me what to do … I have you know I have a degree from ..… dei tambi, mari sini, cepat.

N (closes his eyes in exasperation): Er … vannakam mamak (morning uncle).

Muthu: Selamat pagi Encik, apa mahu?

J: Diet coke … hey Nez, apa kau mahu?

N: Kopi-o-peng, nasi lemak. Terimakasih.

Muthu: Apa itu mati punya coke?

N (secretly delighted): I’m afraid no diet coke for you.

J (waves Muthu away impatiently): Bugger the drink. Look, your attack has not been effective. Some within our party are against what you had done, and the bloody stupid public thinks we are giving him an unfair hard time. They are even talking as if he’s the leading paragon of democracy … sheesh. What’s your plan eh? I can’t be doing all the thinking – time for you to contribute!

N (deep thoughts for a while): I’ll accuse him of sleeping with the enemy, you know, those other groups who attended his malicious lecture. That will remind our own people that he’s gone berserk and renegade, like Hang Jebat! Nothing like a bit of Malay legend to stir their emotion against him.

Then I’ll pretend that I’m still hesitant about opposing him because I still think of him as our former leader. I’ll bersandiwara and pretend to mull about the possibility that, if he has the decency, he should leave because then I won’t be disrespectful if I fight back.

I’ll put on the welfare face and claim that he’s making our position impossible. We can easily rebut him except we don’t want to be disrespectful. So if he wants a fair fight, which should arouse his pride, he should leave, and go over to the people who had called him Pharaoh.

J: Not very convincing, isn’t it? How can you be respectful, even if only pretending, when you are attacking him in the same breath? Besides, I don’t suppose you’ve heard of the Pharaoh Akhenaten, have you?

N: Akhenaten? Eh no, but what about him? But look, no worries, it’s only for public consumption. No one in this country cares for facts, logic or details except those rocket people, and they don’t matter. In fact they can have him hahaha.

J: I'll explain who Akhenaten was, though not now, but it's dangerous to play the Pharaoh game because one day it'll backfire.

N: Once we can convince the public he’s an ar$e-h*le who’s treacherous even to his own party, no one cares whether he has made good points about those dodgy sale of the motorcycle or the cancellation of the project …

J (glaring): Hold on a ding dong second … what do you mean by dodgy sale?

N (realising he’s committed a faux pas): Dodgy only in his arguments. All of us believe that had been the most sensible solution to a complex problem which would have laden us with a geometrically incremental financial burden at a time when the world’s ….

J: Shut up … you are talking like a lawyer. Wait, you’re a lawyer, but don’t try that vortex bullsh*t on me.

N (offended but afraid): Yes boss, then I’ll drive a deeper wedge between him and that zigzag bloke, you know, deal a double blow to your main rival for the top job. I’ll say he’s pissed off with Datuk ZZ for being a yes-man to your Apah. Makes ZZ feel worried about that mamak, and at the same time, also make ZZ looks like a willow tree, you know, bending here and there with the wind. I’ll create ZZ into a Hang Tuah to that Jebat.

J: Now you’re talking, though I can’t visualize ZZ as a Hang Tuah … and then?

N (warming up): Then I’ll take you out of the equation by pointing out that as a hairy-experienced bloke, surely he isn’t going to burn down the party just because of one 31-year old handsome rookie? Now, that will make our gutless members view him as behaving with very selfish and self-centred petulance.

J (secretly flattered and pleased): What did I say about not going overboard with the ‘handsome’ part!

N (piling on the butter and cream): It’s always easier to speak the truth. And I’ll also play up on that ‘elegant silence’ for your Apah.

J: OK, good good, do it, I’m off.

N: Singapore again?

J (charming smile): Time, tide and business wait for no man, except me. But still, there’s no point in taking any chances, is there?

He zoomed off, leaving a pensive N alone at the stall in deep reflection.

Muthu: Dei Encik, itu budak, siapa dia?

N (pensively): Mamak, bila anak kamu nak kahwin, pilih baik baik, seperti dengan anak SV.

Beneath the buah cherry tree (2)

The typical idyllic scene in an older part of Suburbia – a kedai kopi (coffee shop or in reality just a stall) beneath a Malaysian ‘buah cherry’ tree. The customers sit al fresco enjoying their coffee or tea, some nasi lemak, roti canai or kueh, and their favourite hobby, causal conversation.

Except this time two men weren’t having casual conversation …..

J: Oy, tambi, latte satu.

N: Eh boss … they don’t do latte here. They just have the traditional teh, kopi, ovaltine and horlicks. And may I advise not to call the elderly man tambi … it’s a bit derogatory … best to address him as aneh (elder brother) or mamak (uncle).

J: I … I, the most powerful man in this country ... call him uncle? You must be dreaming. Why the hell do you bring me here if I can’t get a latte or a decent cappuccino with skim milk?

N: For privacy lah, we need some space from spies to work out our next step, now he has dragged you openly into his campaign of attack.

J: Look, I am going to make a no-comment statement. But I want you to attack that bastard.

N: Yes, boss. What do you want me to say?

J: Play on his ego – tell him if he doesn’t like our group, to f**king leave then. Provoke him into resigning his membership. Yeah, tell him if he’s an anak jantan, to leave our group. Blast Apah – he couldn’t even marshal enough support to deal that man a humiliating expulsion.

N: Great strategy, you’re good, Yah, I tell him to PORRah. Afterall he’s a mamak.

J: Don’t use the word PORRah, Apah doesn’t like to ever hear that, tahukah!

N: Oh right boss, sorry, I forgot. I’ll play on that anak jantan stuff, and tell him as an 81-year old has-been he ought to be ashamed of harassing a 31 year old handsome bloke …..

J: Don’t overdo it, leave out the ‘handsome’ bit.

N: Yes boss.

J: Now get me a profiterole with whatever nasty coffee they have.

N: Hello, mamak, Nescafe dua, kueh pandan dua. Terimakasih

J: Kueh pandan? Bad show, old chap, you know I don’t take the local stuff.

N: Sorry boss, that’s all the sort of cakes they have.

J: Cancel that order then, I might as well leave now.

N: Where are you off to?

J: Singapore. I have an engagement. I’ll have my latte and croissant there.

J leaves immediately in his shiny limousine. N sits there for a while sipping the two cups of nescafe, and thought to himself: "What a f**king tough life. Once I had ot kiss the hands of that old man, now I have to kiss the ar$e of this bloody brat ... aiyoh, cari makan."

Waktu Senjakala

It was that time of the evening when the birds, ducks, geese and chickens had quietened down after their raucous chirping, quaking, squawking and cackling as they busied themselves to roost for the night. The sun had just dipped behind Bukit Bendara*, and twilight had long set in.

* Penang Hill

The smoke from burning sampah (rubbish) in the compound of a house rose slowly straight up, indicating the atmosphere was heavy and without a twitch of breeze. Apart from the smoke, everything in the kampong (village) appeared to be frozen still at that moment when day gave way to night but night hadn’t yet claimed her hold. It was then neither yang nor ying, a moment that Malays termed as senjakala (dusk).

The more superstitious kampong folks, especially the Chinese, believe that during this brief transition of time, a mysterious portal opens momentarily, allowing egress and ingress with the netherworld.

But a young lad of, hmmm, around 15 was seen walking up the dirt track of the hillside where his kampong was located. He had a travelling bag slung over his right shoulder. After two weeks outstation (in another State) during the school holidays he had returned home, to prepare for the new school term.

Tired after the long trip back by bus, ferry and then bus again, he trudged up wearily, with another two hundred metres to go before he reached his house. He was just about to pass the girls’ home. The girls? Just his kampong neighbours and closest friends. There were three sisters in that family of parents, granny and a 23-year old aunt, the younger sister of the mum.

Invariably, he looked at the house as he walked past it, and saw the aunt alone by the gates. She was dressed in that typical kampong evening wear, pajamas and face smeared earlier with liquid bedak but now hardened on her oval face. Bedak is a Malaysian powder that’s very popular in kampongs. When dissolved in water into liquid form, it would be applied on the face and body, possessing almost the properties of calamine lotion. Bedak has a pleasant cooling and soothing effect and perhaps served also as an anti-mosquito repellent.

The aunt smiled at him in that mysterious way that was sweet yet seemed sad. Naturally he smiled back at ‘Auntie’ as he had always respectfully addressed her. He liked ‘Auntie’ because though an adult she was very understanding to the teenagers. He called out: "Auntie, chea pah ar buoi?” in that timeless Chinese Malaysian kampong greeting of “Auntie, have you eaten well?” (or, "taken your dinner?").

All she did was continued smiling in that mysterious way without a word. He wasn’t surprised that she didn’t reply nor acknowledge his salutation, and accepted it as one of those given’s, where adults enjoyed that privilege of not being obligated to respond to teenagers or kids.

In another short five minutes he was home, greeted his family, provided a quick summary of his two weeks away, had a good kampong bath of well water in his sarong-ed bottom half, dined on mum’s great fried rice (leftovers from yesterday), and typically of kampong kids, scooted out of the house before he was asked to perform chores. It was by then tropical dark.

Being a wee fatigued he decided not to see his friends who would undoubtedly be at the marketplace but instead went to the house of the 3 sisters to regale them with his holiday adventures. They were delighted to see him though they appeared rather subdued, a vast change from their normal exuberant nature.

After the normal salutations with the parents and granny who were in the back of the house, he went back to the hall and asked Swee Lan, the eldest sister where was ‘Auntie’, as he couldn’t spot her anywhere. Three pair of young eyes stared at him angrily. He waited for Swee Lan’s response but the 3 girls continued to stare him down.

Somewhat intimidated he finally asked: “Ai, har mee soo?” (What’s the matter?)

Swee Lan was the first to speak up, and rather sternly too: “It’s not funny, you know.”

“Funny? What's funny?”

Suddenly the penny dropped for Swee Lan when she realised that the boy had been away for 2 weeks. Tears started to well in her eyes (same for the other two girls) as she said sadly: “Auntie was killed 7 days ago with her boyfriend. They were on his bike when a lorry smashed into them.”

Stunned! But … but … no, it just cannot be!

The boy’s mind raced back to just less than an hour ago when he saw ‘Auntie’ standing silently by the house gate, smiling so mysteriously at him.

Died seven days ago? Yet he did see her! Absolutely, affirmatively and undeniably he saw her!

This is a true story.

I was that boy.

Hang Jebat lives again, but ...!

Dr Azy Rahman has expounded in his article Neo-feudalism of the cybernetic Malays on the influence of the legendary Hang Tuah on the Malay psyche. I posted that in Malays' neo-feudalism hypermodern inner construct - excuse me while I untie my tongue.

Dr Azly said: “The concept of a hero in Malay society is enshrined in Hang Tuah, the most popular symbol of the warrior-class in Malay history; the good ‘polyglot’, the magical-mystical Malay hero who pledged blind loyalty to the Sultan. The image of the warrior-blind loyalist is well-inscribed into the literature and consciousness of the Malays”.

Note the word ‘blind loyalty’ and its derivative ‘blind loyalist’.

Dr Azly continued: “Today, enshrined, is the modern-day doctrine of allegiance to the ruler in the form of the Rukunegara or the ‘Principles of the Nationhood’. The myth of Hang Tuah, arguably, together with his friends Hang Jebat, Hang Lekir, and Hang Lekiu has been inscribed into the consciousness of the Malays and forms the foundation of the master-slave narrative”.

Well, yesterday, Dr Mahathir has in his lecture A dialogue with Tun Dr Mahathir organised by Malaysia-Today blog, stated the same thing. He said:

“Let me quote the story of Hang Tuah: Whenever the King gives an order, Hang Tuah and his brethrens would say, ‘mana titah, patih junjung’ (whatever you command, I shall obey) ….. That is why Hang Tuah killed his friends. He was too loyal …”

What Dr Mahathir meant of course was the ‘blind’ loyalty of Hang Tuah, who on the orders of the Sultan killed his best friend, Jebat. The story of Hang Tuah has not only been controversial but deeply disturbing because many readers, including myself, wondered how Tuah could kill Jebat, the very man who had defended him against a tyrant. And to make matters worse, Tuah did so on the orders of the tyrant.

But to an earlier generation of Malays - or according to Dr Azly, they had been brainwashed to believe - Tuah had been the epitome of that highly valued Malay characteristic, unimpeachable loyalty, whereas Jebat was the exact opposite, the treacherous rebel.

Tuah killed on the orders of his Sultan, no questions asked. Jebat, on the other hand, was pissed off with a tyrant who wanted to kill a loyal subject, but regicide, particularly of one's own, was a no-no in Malay culture. Therefore Jebat was a traitor and to be despised.

It first took Malaysia’s most foremost Malay intellectual Kassim Ahmad to smash the conservative mould of thinking in his university thesis “Perwatakan Hikayat Hang Tuah” (the characters in the story of Hang Tuah).

As Dr Bakri Musa, a Malaysian who's a regular columnist in Malaysiakini and one of my favourite writers, said:

“Kassim frontally challenged the orthodox Malay thinking on authority, and royalty in particular. According to Kassim, the real hero is not Hang Tuah, rather the hitherto presumed renegade, Hang Jebat. To Kassim, Tuah is the typical palace sycophant who willingly sells his body and soul to the sultan, a loyalty conveniently reinforced by whatever largesse the sultan could bestow.”

“Jebat is the rugged individualist, not awed by those who wield power. His loyalty is to institutions, not individuals. To Kassim, Jebat is the true hero, not the prodigal son, Tuah.”

“It is a conflict of commitment to principles and institutions represented by Jebat, versus personal loyalty as presented by Tuah. It is this universal conflict, concretized in the setting of a traditional feudal society, which makes Hikayat Hang Tuah such a powerful and enduring piece of literature.”

Back to Dr Mahathir – he sneered at the sycophantic phrase ‘kami sokong’ (we support), that ministers and numerous UMNO Division leaders (except for Seremban’s) extended so obsequiously to PM Abdullah Badawi during the Mahathir-AAB stoush.

“Every time I criticise them (the government) a little bit, you will see a small picture (of leaders in the newspaper) captioned, ‘Kami sokong, kami sokong’ (We support). It looks like a chorus line. They all act in unison.”

But he admitted during his time the praises and support he received were not always sincere. He said: “I used to receive that kind of ‘support’ … there are those who would kiss my hand … only now do I know that the ‘support’ was not that of quality …”

Dr Mahathir said: “Even during the (first prime minister) Tunku (Abdul Rahman)’s time, I was not very loyal person. I am loyal only to what you do, not what you are. Do the wrong thing and I won’t support.”

He’s a Hang Jebat then!

Remember that 3 weeks ago I posted A page from a woman's diary. In that diary the following words were written:

“Dad has gone into reactive overdrive by nature of his combative self. When he feels people are ganging up on him, his adrenalin flows, and he would react in an uncompromising straight line”.

“He’s a bit of a Jebat, the fearless rebellious one yet the loyal friend. That’s his second weakness, his enduring loyalty to his people, most of whom didn’t or don’t deserve his total support. In the end, his Tuah will entice Taming Sari away from him to use it against him”.

“Now, why am I talking Malay legends in reference to his present dilemma? It’s just a Malay Dilemma”

Hang Jebat lives again in Dr Mahathir, but will he be killed once again by the man he loves and supports? Because as the above 'diary' states, "In the end, his Tuah will entice Taming Sari away from him to use it against him".

Human Sacrifice in Tamil Nadu

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

A couple in Tamil Nadu State in India sacrificed a seven-year-old boy on the advice of a faith healer. The human sacrifice was to ensure the marriages of their five sons. The faith healer had recommended the sacrifice to the couple to ward off "evil spirits" which were making it difficult for them to find marriage partners for their five sons

The pair found the boy alone at his house, put him in a steel box and took him to a temple where one of their sons as well as the faith healer joined them in strangling the victim to death. The boy's blood was then sprinkled at their house.

Apparently human sacrifices are still offered in rural India where many people put faith in occult practices to ward off evil or gain prosperity. In Malaysia too we had a couple of cases of human sacrifice. One was a young Indian boy sacrificed to some spirits for 4-D forecasting- his head was decapitated; another was a foreign wife of a local.

Police arrested all four.

Shahirah Raja Bahrin Revisited

Two and a half months ago I wrote about the happy ending of Raja Bahrin’s daughter Shahirah, who met up with her mum Jacqueline Pascarl after a 14-year separation in The Betty Mahmoody of Malaysia!.

Today Anonymous left the following comments (unedited) under that posting:

I think I must be reading craziness. It is obvious that the MAN who wrote this piece is completly without a soul. If you think that Raja Bahrin is anything akin to Betty Mahmoody. Betty was a prisoner in Iran, her daughter was the property of her father...people are NOT property!!! Women and children are not property!! How dare you people respect a man who stole the children from their mother, how dare you call him a hero. If you think any God in any realm thinks that this was a righteous move you really need to check out what LOVE is, what God is. There is no God who would condone causing such pain to one individual women. SHame on you!

Well, I have been accused of many things, but this is the first time I have been told I am completely without a soul. I have also noted Anon’s comments have been littered with words like ‘soul’, ‘God’, ‘realm’, ‘righteous’, ‘LOVE’ (and in upper case too) so I replied as follows (unedited too):

You think Muslim men has no love for their children? You think that a western justice system that believes a child in most cases should go with the mother is always right?”

I wrote:
"Betty Mahmoody’s story, which many film and book critics advised us to take with a hugh grain of salt because it’s written by a woman who hated her Iranian husband and at the same time wanted to dramatise her book for sales, and therefore for us to keep a finger on the ‘Maybe’ button, relates her side of a broken marriage and the fight for custody of her daughter across international boundaries.”

Property of her Iranian father? Yes, but according to Betty Mahmoody's gospel.

Raja has been a father who saw a divorce agreement to raise his children as Muslims not fulfilled, which forced him to act with overwhelming odds against him. He raised his children with LOVE, as evidenced by their freedom to move around now they are of mature age. That is not to say the mum wouldn't have raised them with love too. But you have already excluded the Muslim man from those feelings and ability, believing they are all Ayatollahs. Even Ayatollahs are fathers with fatherly love.

I wrote:
"But seeing a well mannered and mature Shahirah on TV reunited lovingly with her mum (the love between them was evident on TV), talking sweetly and confidently without any bitterness, I have to say the credit must go to Raja Bahrin for bringing his kids up well without poisoning their minds and allowing them to still love and be re-united with Mum."

Did Betty Mahmoody achieve or enable that? So who is superior in higher values of LOVE and fairness, Raja or Betty?

Causing pain to such a woman? What about Betty Mahmoody causing pain to a father?

This was what I wrote:
"But the other side of the coin had her telling flagrant lies to dramatise and popularise her story. And I can bet there would be very few Americans, especially today, who would express their sympathies for a lonely father somewhere in Iran who would be missing and pining for his daughter."

The fact that I have to requote my posting to you indicates you have read without seeing, except with an impatience to strike out at the Muslim party. Shame on you.

Stole from their mother? Ah, so they were properties of their mum?

BTW, I am not a Muslim nor a Malay. I am a Chinese. I am not fanatically blind with hatred for Muslims.

Dr Mahathir is Enemy of My Enemy!

Politics make strange bedfellows. We see a pro-PKR website, our famous RPK’s Malaysia Today combining with a former UMNO politician Ibrahim Ali to organise a lecture delivered by none other than PKR’s Nemesis, the Grand Old Man (GOM) himself. The theme of the lecture was titled “Dialogue with Tun Dr Mahathir”.

And those attending were not only GOM’s stalwarts like former deputy home minister Megat Junid Megat Ayub and former New Straits Times editor-in-chief A Kadir Jasin but also top PAS leaders - Nasharuddin Mat Isa, Husam Musa, Mahfuz Omar and Salahuddin Ayub. I believe the DAP was also there.

In his lecture Dr Mahathir has for the first time targeted PM Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s son-in-law, Khairy Jamaluddin. Mahathir said with his usual caustic barbs:

“Sometimes we go over (to Singapore) to play golf and pat each other on the back over every little thing, then send the son-in-law ...”

“Now, I hear that (Khazanah) has gotten the services of certain ‘experts’. These ‘experts’ would give advice as to how to do business [...] These people have experience and education, such as degrees from Oxford University …”

“So these ‘experts’ are placed on the fourth floor [...] They seem to be more powerful than the fifth floor (Abdullah’s office).”

He received thunderous approvals for his hard hitting remarks. But since when has the GOM ever been not hard hitting?

During the lecture, there were times when he couldn’t finish what he had intended to say because he would be drowned out by roars of laughter and approvals in the packed ballroom of Hulu Kelang’s Century Paradise Club. Obviously Khairy Jamaluddin is not a popular bloke, and you know the old saying, "the enemy of my enemy is my friend".

Later on, during the question-and-answer session, Mahathir lamented that Khazanah Nasional, the government investment arm, had strayed from its original mission. DAP leader Ronnie Liu, who was part of the 500-strong crowd, said Mahathir well-received comments had referred to Khairy, who has been accused of meddling in government affairs like planting his ‘friends’ in the Prime Minister’s Department.

Khairy is married to Abdullah’s only daughter Nori. He’s a graduate of Oxford university and with the PM’s backing, is viewed as the country’s most powerful young leader, as well as a future PM, which he obviously aspires to.

Dr Mahathir’s comment about Khanazah was in reference to a suggestion that Khairy be appointed the chief operating officer of Khazanah. But young Khairy had instead joined an investment bank ECM Libra as a director. The company is owned by New Straits Times group deputy chairman Kalimullah Hassan, a close sidekick of Khairy.

Late last year, it was reported that Khairy had bought RM9.2 million worth of shares in the company. I believe there’s still a court case of libel between PAS Husam Musa and young Khairy pertaining to Khairy’s ability to purchase the company. Though Khairy has threatened to sue Husam, the whole affair seems to have died down, unless it's stil simmering in the lawyers' office.

Two years ago, young Khairy has rose unusually swiftly, in fact unopposed, to become No 2 in UMNO Youth two years ago, much to the uneasiness among a sizeable portion of UMNO grassroots. They alluded his meteoric rise to nepotism. Other candidates had to "make way" for him, which explains why he had been unopposed.

Witness Protection Programme - Too Glib, Too Dangerous!

Deputy Prime Minister Najib is now talking about a witness protection scheme for those who come forward with information for the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA). Najib said the most important thing would be for the information to reach the agency accurately.

“The people do not have to be afraid. Come forward and pass us the details. The agency will protect them and not leak out the source of the information.”

Earlier Pahang ACA director Abdul Rahim Mustakain had claimed that people were scared to give information as the agency did not have any witness protection programme. He said that anonymous letters from the public would not be enough.

There are a few issues here that I want to comment on.

For a start, the public has little faith in the ACA. If you do not know why, then you must be new to Malaysia. Despite the assurance of the ACA, how do we know that if we provide information or evidence about a very powerful person, our role and information would be kept highly confidential?

Leaving that aside, a witness protection scheme is meant to ensure the safety of witnesses who provide evidence or information to the ACA or police on crimes or corruption, where such involvement would endanger the witnesses. The threat to witnesses could be during two phases: (1) before and during the trial of the criminal, and (2) after the trial.

The first instance would during the period when the authorities first persuade the witnesses to cooperate with the investigation into (or the witnesses voluntarily come forward with information of) the crimes (including corruption) until the completion of the trial because for sure those criminals would be out to silence the witnesses. I imagine this must be what the DPM has in mind.

The second case would be to protect the witnesses from the members or families of the criminals wanting revenge. This is the trickier and more difficult component of the scheme, assuming that the DPM has even thought about this aspect.

The witnesses may require a new identity and re-location. In some cases re-location in a foreign country may even be vital, and this would require some form of mutual arrangements with those countries. Just last year, Britain wanted to re-locate to Australia two child murderers who had grown up in prison. Those two kids had battered a third smaller child to death at a railway track after cold bloodedly luring him to the secluded spot.

While it wasn't a witness protection re-location it has the same elements of consideration. Australians were up in arms against that re-location of whom they saw as potential murderers. Are those two already in Australia? The Australian public till today isn't any wiser.

Once, a bloke, who was the organiser of a tontine, was forced to scoot off from my village because the scheme collapsed. Let me digress for a while onto the Malaysian tontine scheme to make a point related to the witness protection scheme.

The Malaysian (predominantly Chinese) village-style tontine has been different from the Western version but it’s based on a combination of needs, greed and completely unregulated system, meaning it's illegal for a start. However, if properly run, it serves some limited social-economic value in villages.

As a very simplified example of the Malaysian tontine, let's say the scheme has a member ship of 24 – mind you, the more the merrier as the pool of money would be bigger. The basic subscription is, for simplicity sake, say RM20.

If one needs money, then one bids for the pool of RM480 by closed tender. Say if one is desperate, one puts in RM2 as the offer of monthly 'interest'. If that is the highest and winning ballot, then the successful person grabs the RM480 for perhaps the anticipated expenses of Chinese New Year or the kids’ school books or the approaching marriage of a daughter.

The person then pays RM2 extra for every participating member each month until programme ends, which is bloody usurious. The members who didn’t take the pool benefit by RM2 per month, not including subsequent bids. The majority of members had been women because those poor ladies had been the ones managing the household expenses.

Of course I have provided a very simplified example, where the ‘interest’ has been monumentally high (it's actually less than my example but still bloody usurious), but it serves to illustrate who benefits from the scheme and who has to bear the burden of 'interests'. The actual models may be far more complex with sums ranging of RM 20 per month to many hundreds.

The organiser gets a cut of the monthly proceedings for his administrative efforts in collecting dues and organising the monthly tender, etc. The scheme is liable to collapse if (1) the manager scoots off with the pool, or (2) the members who had already taken the pool renege on payments.

Back to that bloke who absconded. Those who don’t bid at all would benefit most but also be highly exposed. I am not sure of the exact reason why he had absconded other than the scheme failed.

The whole village was after his blood, except of course those who had already successfully made use of the scheme. Apparently he had organised several schemes going on at the same time prior to his ‘disappearance’. He was doing so for several years.

Three years later I spotted him with his children in Jitra, Kedah when I stopped to buy the village's famous goreng pisang (fried bananas). He was at the same stall, and when he saw and recognised me, his face went pale. The bloke stood rock still, like a deer caught in the lights of an oncoming car.

I didn’t do anything but ignore him, though he knew that I recognised him. Afterall his kids were my village mates, whom I play with and attended school together for many years. No, I didn’t even tell my mum or anyone I saw him – what’s the point of persecuting him any further when his self re-location to Jitra was already a punishment? But I have no doubt after I left he would be packing up rapidly to re-locate. What a traumatic experience for his family!

I provided this example to show that re-locating witnesses under the witness protection scheme has to be carefully and thoughtfully worked out, or it would be a disaster of life-and-death proportion.

The other aspect related to this is of course the re-location may be to the witness' disadvantage. The new location could well be in a place where one’s profession may not be needed or schooling facilities for his/her children are wanting, etc. What about re-location expenses in terms of housing, travel, and appropriate compensation or even life long pension if the necessary re-location proves to be most disadvantageous to the unfortunate witness, etc? Would a witness be willing to exchange a life among his/her family and friends in Penang for a new life in Sempurna, Sabah, without the comforting familiar environment and support?

Then the government would have to legislate to make it an offence for anyone to attempt to contact the witness or publish any details which may lead to disclosing his/her whereabouts.

As an example of why this is necessary, there was case in Australia, though nothing to do with a witness protection programme, where a man after winning AUS$30 million dollars in a lottery, wisely disappeared with his family for security reasons. But a newspaper which specialises in publishing titillating sensations hunted his whereabouts down and then published the details without any regard for his security. There was no law to prevent that.

Then the most vital issue of all would be the absolute security of the new identity and whereabouts of re-located witnesses. Who manages it? In the USA, I believe it comes under a special exclusive unit of the Justice Department. How far can one trust the Malaysian system?

It’s all well and good for the DPM to say glibly that witnesses would be protected but let’s see more details, provisions for the witnesses beyond just security, and who would be running the scheme? The programme is a bit more involved than just draping a flag over an Egyptian pyramid, when that latter didn't even succeed.

There's rape & there's rape!

Now this is interesting.

JAG, the Joint Action Group for Gender Equality, is up in arms against lawyers for their lack of gender awareness, as reflected in the Bar Council's stand on certain proposed Penal Code amendments. And what would those be?

Well, the Parliamentary Select Committee on the Penal Code and Criminal Procedure Code has proposed to table a new sub-section 375 (f) of the Penal Code, which states that a man commits aggravated rape if he has sex with a woman “with her consent, when the consent is obtained by using his position of authority over her or because of professional or other relationship of trust in relation to her.”

Blah blah blah & bloody blah!

In simple words, what it has said was, for example, if a secretary agrees to have sex with her boss, because he has hinted or even vaguely alluded that saying 'no' may jeopardise her job, that, according to the proposed amendment, is rape!

Another example of rape under this provision would be a woman agreeing to have sex with a bomoh (traditional medicine man) or medium because she has been intimidated with the supernatural or brainwashed into trusting the scoundrel and his nefarious acts.

Then there would be the doctor or psychologist who, while treating a patient, uses his professional authority to obtain her consent for sex with her.

JAG said the intention behind the sub-section is to protect women forced into sex by the use of non-physical elements such as the perpetrator’s authority over the woman, and thus has been deeply disappointed with the Bar Council’s complete lack of gender awareness.

The Council has objected to the proposed amendments because it has been concerned that the new sub-section of the Penal Code was way too wide.

But the Bar Council represented by criminal lawyer V Sithambaram explained it has been against the amendment because it was redundant. The exiting law already defines rape as sexual intercourse against a woman’s will. He reckoned the proposed amendment to the Penal Code had been designed to appease the women’s rights groups, who have been insistent on it.

He is worried that the new clause could be easily abused by women should a relationship turn sour.

What he meant was, for example, a boss and his secretary could initially have a genuine love affair where there was no coercion or any form of 'authoritative' pressure in their sexual relationship. Their professional relationship was just coincidental.

But what if the man subsequently changed his mind about the relationship and decided not to marry the woman? She could well blackmail the former boyfriend by threatening to use said subsection to aver she was ‘pressured’ into having sex with him? Or she could claim ‘rape’ as an act of spite.

There’s an old English saying that informs us “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”, which undoubtedly the Bar Council must have in mind.

Gulp, I wonder whether a woman could claim ‘rape’ on grounds she was ‘subconsciously pressured’ into having sex because she felt sorry for the poor pathetic grovelling blighter.

Bar Council president Yeo Yang Poh said the legal profession body wasn’t ignoring the seriousness of rape committed by a person in a position of authority to obtain sexual favours without genuine consent. But he added:

“We, however, find the wordings of the proposed definition maybe too wide and this may inadvertently capture situations that are not supposed to be covered.”

Yeo said the council did not oppose to the proposed definition per se but would like a review of the wordings.

Both JAG and the Bar Council have their grounds and concerns. What do you think?

MIC Election - More of Same Fare for Indians?

Today is the Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) party general election. Humpty Dumpty has already won a new term as the president. No one dared to challenge him, though a bloke, who only after falling out of favour with Humpty because of his support for Subramaniam, did a bit of grandstanding by wanting to challenge Humpty after nominations had long been closed.

The main battleground would see the tussle for the deputy president post between incumbent Subra, whom Humpty wants out, and Palanivel, the president anointed successor.

Some political observers say Subra is as good as finished, but Malaysiakini journalist Baradan Kuppusamy believed it's not that easy to get rid of the current deputy president. He warned that even if Subra loses this round, which he probably will because of the president’s campaign against him, Subra will indulge in his favourite tactic, that of waiting waiting waiting to catch the (elusive) monkey. Poor Subra has been doing that for almost 20 years, like forever, so I suppose we can call him Mr Waiting Forever.

Baradan wrote that challenger Palanivel has been campaigning on the line that his elevation to deputy president would ensure for the party a smooth leadership transition from Humpty to him. Palanivel naturally claimed he’s a hard worker and has done much compared to Subra, who naturally refuted the claim.

As another MIC observer, Dr P Ramasamy had said in Malaysiakini, the MIC party election is one without a development agenda. It’s about their choice between retaining an old horse and bringing in a new one.

I think Dr Ramasamy has been too kind by describing Subra and Palanivel as steeds, when MIC leaders in the way they had and are likely to serve their constituency as component members of the ruling Barisan Nasional, are more akin to cattle or sheep. But he is right in that the MIC party election carries no development agenda, but then it’s the MIC.

Baradan warned that a victorious Palanivel may not have the guaranteed position as Humpty’s anointed heir. The danger for him lies in the vice-presidential contest, in the person of S Sothinathan.

Sothinathan is currently the front runner for one of the 3 VP's positions. But he is viewed as Palanivel future rival and thus greatest threat, so there is already a covert campaign against him, to reduce the likely votes he would get so he won't emerged as the VP with the most votes.

The VP contest is riddled with back biting and probably back stabbing as well. The aim seems to be to ensure Sothinathan doesn't become too prominent to pose a future dangerous challenge to Palanivel. Now, who says the MIC doesn’t have strategic planning? Maybe Subra ought to consider linking up with Sothinathan, if he hasn't yet?

I wonder whether there will be any throwing of chairs today, which was a predominant activity in earlier years. The MCA members have since inherited that popular intra-party expression of overt support for their candidates.

But whatever the outcome of the MIC elections, I reckon it'll be more of the same for the long suffering Indian constituency.

Once upon a time the Chinese community enjoyed the benevolence of wealthy Chinese philanthropists. I am not sure what the situation for them in this respect is today, but what Indian Malaysians need are not politicians. What they need instead is a group of wealthy Indian philanthropists. Afterall, the richest Malaysian is an Indian.

The Indian community could do with these non-politicians who would take up the leadership for their community's welfare and contribute both time and money to ameliorate the Indian Malaysians' social and economic woes.

Cause of War

Immediately after 9/11 occurred, the inner circle of the Bush Administration went into conference.

Despite the lack of evidence that X-country was involved, one member urged that X-country be attacked. This was the same person who blamed X-country for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Centre.

The person obviously wanted it real nasty for X-country.

Who was this person?
Which country was X?
Who revealed all this?

“yo, thank you, ya mutherf**ker!”

It seems that KL-ites themselves agree with the Readers' Digest's survey that the people in their city are among the world's rudest.

Readers’ Digest had conducted a survey based on 3 points:

(1) dropping papers in a busy street to see if anyone would help;
(2) checking how often shop assistants said "thank you";
(3) and counting how often someone held a door open.

Mumbai won the gold medal while KL the bronze for rudeness. And guess who’s the most courteous?

Why, it’s none other than New York City.

I wonder whether the American magazine conducted the survey in Queens and Harlem? Those residents would certainly thank you, like “yo, thank you, ya mutherf**ker, for your wallet!”

The American survey showed the rudest cities were in Asia, where eight out of nine cities tested finished in the bottom 11. If the Japanese, Koreans or Chinese were to conduct a survey, based on the following 3 points:

(1) do people bow to each other when they meet or when they take leave of each other?
(2) do people open presents in front of the person who made the gift?
(3) do young people call those who are elder than them or of their parents’ peerage by their first (personal) names?

I wonder who would end up as the rudest cities in general, and finish in the bottom 10?

I remember an incident when I was in London. While queuing up for a bus I was nearly stampeded by rushing passengers who broke from the queue to board the transport. An old English gentleman tapped me on my shoulder and apologised, saying “Sorry about those Continentals; they aren't English, you know.”

Once I was in Doncaster, visiting a shopping centre in winter. Immediately after entering the mall, I held the entrance glass door open for an elderly lady who was just behind me. But after she entered, a stream of other people just stormed in without bothering to relieve me from holding the door. Most actually avoided my eyes.

Hmmm, maybe I looked like the shopping complex official door opener? But my host, who took me there, after having a quiet giggle, dragged me away forcefully. She said I could have been there all day if I wasn’t assertive enough, as people in that town would have taken advantage of my courtesy.

One day in Jakarta I was on a packed bus to Block M (Jakarta's equivalent of PJ), when I surrendered my seat to an elderly lady - no one had bothered to do so. Some of the elderly Indon gents were amazed at my very basic act of respect and courtesy, which most Malaysians (that I have been aware of) would have also done.

It became an open conversational piece on the bus, right in front of me. My Penang partner Rahman, who's one hell of a big extrovert just so happened to be with me. He seized the opportunity for a bit of nationalistic exhibitionism, going overboard with a 10-minutes oral dissertation of Malaysian male chivalry.

He sure lapped up the admiring looks, hey Man, meant for me. But everyone was smiling in a most friendly manner at me when we disembarked at Block M, but I only returned the smiles of you-guess-who.

When I did the same act of courtesy for a (40-ish) lady in Australia, she glared at me and refused my vacated seat, saying rudely "I don't need your seat, so sit down!" After I got down at my destination, Bob, my Aussie mate revealed that some Aussie women didn't take kindly to any old fashion chivalry because they felt those men were insulting their "equality".

OK, here is the part where I think sh*t of the Readers’ Digest survey. It placed Hong Kong as the most polite Asian city, which to me is the biggest bullsh*t I have ever heard.

I had several unpleasant encounters there with rude Honkies, probably among the rudest Asians, if not the rudest. Once I tipped a waiter HK$10, and to my shock, he sneered at me before crumbling and flinging the bill on my table, and then stomping off with a huff and a puff. Apparently, HK$10 wasn't enough.

In Beijing, while I hadn’t encountered any direct rudeness, I was surprised by a young sweet looking Chinese lady who asked me why I keep saying thank you to the shop assistants who were serving me, when I had been the customer. I smiled at her (I hope, because my smile sometimes come across to women as a lecherous leer) and said “thank you for telling me, thank you.”

I think I confused her. Probably she must be thinking that bloody Malaysian bloke didn’t understand English and the meaning of the term "thank you", yes?

Then, But Now ...?

When DPM Najib objected to Malaysians winning the world's bronze medal for rudeness, a Malaysiakini reader with the pen name of Meng commented:

"Don’t be in denial, Najib. Our education centres (universities) used to be one of the best in Asia. Our police force was one of the most disciplined 20 years ago. Our crime rate one of the lowest in Southeast Asia. Our people one of the most courteous."

Though I would argue against the methodology or even the scope of the Reader Digest magazine's survey which arrived at the abysmal finding (for us) that Malaysians are the world's 3rd rudest people, thus other than this, I have been struck by Meng's truth in reminding us of:

(1) UM being one of Asia's top university. Now ...?

Our only evidence had been to put up billboards and banners to try to convince ourselves we are still there as we were once upon a time.

(2) Our police being one of the most disciplined. Now ...?

Is this the normal Friday ha-ha we normally receive in our mailboxes?

(3) Our crime rates one of the lowest. Now ...?

Still that but only if we don't count snatchings, rapes, incests, murders, burglaries, acts of gangsterism like those perpetrated by loan sharks and some political parties, extortions by civilian and uniformed criminals ...

and may I add to Meng's list:

(4) Our ringgit one of the strongest. Now ...?

Compared to our natural-resource-less neighbour ........

(5) Penang was SE Asia's education centre. Now ...?

We have just started to wake up and bleat about Chinese student numbers falling and hope to form the region's educational hub.

I could take this train of thoughts even further by examining, for example, Penang's cleanliness, rivers and streams, beaches, gardens, security and safety, quality of hawkers' fare, standard of politicians, etc - note I rate hawkers' fare above politicians.

But now ...?

Miss Fong is wearing MCA's balls!

When a country has a differential system, whether it’s on fuel pricing, price of housing or a college education system leading to university admission, corruption and abuse are inevitable.

In the first case, that of fuel, we know and have heard of subsidized fuel being illegally “siphoned off” for profiteering. We are aware that housing discount for bumiputras have not benefited the official targets, the needy bumiputras, but only the big-timers who have been kindly “subsidized” by relatively poor non-bumiputra purchasers.

As for admittance into preferred university courses, well, yesterday I posted the views of a Malaysiakini reader in University Admission Figures - One Big Lie! Well, here's another.

Like other Malaysian annual events, the annual controversy over admissions to the country’s public higher education institutions (PHEI) has arrived, when dissatisfied unsuccessful candidates feel they aren’t Malaysians afterall.

DAP Youth has expressed its contempt for the currently-used "meritocracy" system, saying that it is not transparent enough since it is applied for two different examination systems. The higher education minister has been told to stop applying double standards in selecting the students.

Dap Youth’s deputy chief Fong Po Kuan (otherwise known as ‘thunder-voice’) said: “One better system should be implemented; either matriculation or STPM and the other one should be abolished.”

Sh*t! She's far too logical. Maybe that's why she's in the opposition.

Her discontent has to do with the fact that most bumiputera students qualify through the matriculation system while the bulk of non-bumis attempt to gain varsity admission through the STPM route.

Fong asked why the higher education ministry has been so reluctant to have a single syllabus under which all students could be graded by same examinations and compete for PHEI admission on an equal platform.

Why? She's damn bloody sneaky, 'cause she knows why!

She chewed the ministry for non-transparency over its course-matching criteria which has given rise to much dissatisfaction and disappointment among the students. That's known as the 'X' factor - you work out what 'X' stands for.

She declared (futilely, if I may add):

“The ministry should stop giving reason that students are not only graded by examination results but also by co-curricular achievements. Students who were not selected do not know the reason for their failure in not getting admission.”

“They should announce the cut-off points to avoid the ministry blaming students for making a mistake by applying for the wrong course.”

Fong said the ministry should also reveal the selected students’ grade points to allow those not selected a comparison.

See what I mean by her embarking on a futile mission.

Fong lectured the government that unfair polices would force good students to accept scholarships form neighbouring countries. She concluded that the government's campaign to welcome back Malaysian professionals from foreign lands will be a total waste of money and time because those professionals were not offered the place here in the first instance.

I wouldn't agree with that because there's one born every minute.

But the most impossible and hurting words from her has been to remind the MCA to challenge the higher education ministry’s non-transparent polices and ‘stop pretending to be like a hero’ by assisting the rejected students.

Because when the MCA looks at Fong, they would silently curse her for showing that she has somehow been wearing not only their pants but their balls as well.

Related:
Malay Engineers, Chinese Accountants, Indian Doctors

University Admission Figures - One Big Lie!

A Malaysiakini reader who called him or herself as Product of the System disputed the statistics that Higher Education Management Department director-general Prof Datuk Dr Hassan Said offered. I posted that in Malay Engineers, Chinese Accountants, Indian Doctors.

Product of the System averred that Prof Hassan Said’s presentation of the methodology of assessing one’s CGPA, co-curricular activities and point system has been nothing more than an annual UMNO sandiwara (theatrics or in this context, bullsh*t). It’s a show & tell produced, directed and edited by UMNO to fool the gullible Malaysian voter.

He or she claimed that it has been an annual ritual for the pro-BN media to publish statistics of successful applicants into the ‘crucial courses’ of medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, engineering and law, broken down into bumiputeras, Chinese and Indians, when those figures have been false.

He/she said: “Falsifying statistics are sometimes less indecent than concealing them. Hassan Said did not reveal the breakdown of successful applicants by their entrance route – STPM or matriculation. During the racial quota era, STPM applicants formed at least 40 percent of the student population.”

“In 2004 and 2005 – the era of pseudo-meritocracy, the number of STPM students gaining entry into UM medical school numbered only 36 and 17 out of 168 and 207 respectively. In other words, from a decent figure of 40 percent, the number of successful STPM applicants crashed to a mere 8 - 21% of the annual intake into UM medical faculty. It goes very much without saying who forms 90 percent of the student population - matriculation candidates.”

Therefore, for non-Malays the so-acclaimed “meritocracy” system was even worse than the “racial” quota system. I must say he’s not the first to point this out. I have met many academicians who told me this when the so-called “meritocracy” system was introduced. In other words, the UMNO government has no intention ever of allocating university places on merit. In reality, the authority has further increased the racial quota in favour of its social policy.

To summarise, Product of the System said the so-called "meritocracy" system has been an UMNO sleigh of hands, where there has been actually (1) less percentage of non-Malays being admitted to Malaysian universities, (2) the insidious use of the term "bumiputras" because in reality non-Malay bumiputras, mainly Sabahans and Sarawakians, are being denied the fair allocation they deserve, and (3) weak or substandard Malay students kept in universities for eons until they would eventually pass, thus denying able non-Malay students admission to universities year in and year out.

Read his full letter here for more detailed points.

Malays' neo-feudalism hypermodern inner construct?

Dr Azly Rahman, an academician who holds all sorts of mind-boggling degrees, writes regularly for Malaysiakini. He is notable for using frightening words in his essays that makes you wonder whether your education has been an utter failure, or you’re an intellectual pygmy, or you're suffering from ataxaphasia, or perhaps you have just overeaten more than your share of pulut-nasi-lemak-cum-banana-santan-curry-ish literature. You suffer hours or even days of slow literary digestion.

Anyway, I do read him mainly because I could do with some physical (not mental) exercises - his articles has me scurrying around for various dictionaries all the time. I gather from his string of articles he’s a closeted conservative though he berates (if I use this word incorrectly, well I am not Dr Azly Rahman, so do forgive me) his readers regularly for succumbing to feudalistic brain washing.

He believes that the wayang kulit display of the Ramayana epic or the makyong is a form of neo-feudalistic indoctrination (Jeez, I'm beginning to sound like him) of our minds to genuflect to Rama-like figures, namely kings and political rulers.

However, despite his fondness of stretching to breaking point the limits of my lexical command of the English language, I was attracted to a few paragraph in his latest article titled Neo-feudalism of the cybernetic Malays. Awesome title - see what I mean!

After perilously negotiating through frightening stuff like ‘a manifestation of this neo-feudalism hypermodern inner construct of the Malay’ and ‘the disposition of the neo-feudal Malay mentality that will require a Lacanian (postmodern psycholinguistics) analysis’ we finally and with immense relief arrived at:

In many an analysis of the transformation of the Malay society from the times of the Melaka Sultanate to the emergence of the Malay nationalism we find the conclusion of the idea of a good Malay subject is one who surrenders total obedience to his or her Ruler (the sultan or the Raja). The king is said to be ‘(Allah’s) representative on this earth’ and is thus bestowed with the Divine Rights.

Social status is calibrated based on the sophistication of the signs and symbols of the Malay sultanate. For example, royal awards are presented yearly to those who have demonstrated good service and relationship to the constitutional monarchical system. Upon receiving these awards, some recipients would even be given honorific titles. Many will use their honour to dishonourably gain economic privileges. The notion of the daulat or the ‘divine sanction’ still continues to this day.

The concept of a hero in Malay society is enshrined in Hang Tuah, the most popular symbol of the warrior-class in Malay history; the good ‘polyglot’, the magical-mystical Malay hero who pledged blind loyalty to the Sultan. The image of the warrior-blind loyalist is well-inscribed into the literature and consciousness of the Malays.

Today, enshrined, is the modern-day doctrine of allegiance to the ruler in the form of the Rukunegara or the ‘Principles of the Nationhood’. The myth of Hang Tuah, arguably, together with his friends Hang Jebat, Hang Lekir, and Hang Lekiu has been inscribed into the consciousness of the Malays and forms the foundation of the master-slave narrative.

Though he missed out Hang Kasturi, he seems to have a point somewhere among those awesome words. From the recent Mahathir-Abdullah stoush, we see daily obligatory public expressions of fealty by those who offered themselves as political serfs. Real hair-raising stuff that's just embarrassingly terlampau jeleh (overly obsequious).

Then we see worse, the opposite form of such behavioural construct ;-) of petty officials who think that as 'public servants' they entitled to treat the public as servants.

But sometimes I wish Dr Azly would just say something more succinct and pointedly, like “F**k those corrupt leaders, don’t let them shaft you and your minds”.

Then again, I suppose KTemoc’s language-contruct, unlike Dr Azly's filoselle lexiphanic proclivity, is but a mere sub-stratified deviant-variant that's pseudo-calibrated to the hypo-hoi-polloi-ish construct of deprived-neo-kampong social-linguistic culture that's prone to coprolalia inclination, perceived by neo-Ramayana-like personalities as stercorageous, and hyper-embrangling.

Have I been fustian and magliloquent enough to join Dr Azly's stature?

PKR leader: "Use ISA on Article 11 coalition"

Badrul Amin Baharom, a Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) supreme council member, former International Islamic University Malaysia lecturer, and a former ISA detainee, admitted that he called for the use of the draconian Internal Security Act (ISA) against the Article 11 coalition.

The Article 11 coalition has been conducting a signature drive and road shows on matters related to freedom of religion. Its forum in Penang was, however, disrupted by the Anti Inter-Faith Commission (Badai), including PAS youth members.

Last month Badai had formed a 200-strong protest group that had, through an aggressive protest in Penang, disrupted an Article 11-organised public forum to discuss freedom of religion.

Badrul said: “I told the crowd that those from Article 11, in discussing sensitive issues of religion, are trying to threaten social harmony.”

Well, he had no choice but to ‘fess up because his nasty comments during a ceramah in Kelantan were reported in PAS organ Harakah.

Harakah quoted him as saying that the ISA should be used on members of the Article 11 coalition because they were ‘dangerous and could threaten the faith of Muslims’.

I wonder whether this PKR bloke had been a former UMNO chap because his readiness to employ the ISA against a group he didn’t like seems to be a typical modus operandi of UMNO.

Badrul admitted that he had been speaking on Muslim discontent over the Article 11 coalition’s activities, but claimed that he had been quoted out of context. He now claims he would never support the use of the ISA on anyone, as it was against his personal stand and that of his party.

“That aside, I said that if the government was sincere in maintaining national security, it should use the ISA on these individuals.”

“But I meant it in a cynical way, addressed to the government.”

Do you believe him? I don’t because Badrul continued by saying:

“For the time being, we should wait for the situation to calm down. Later, we will try again (to hold discussions). The Article 11 coalition must learn not to be too aggressive, because that would be met by aggression.”

“… met by aggression?” With keris dripping with blood? This bloke has perhaps shown his colours.

And was the Article 11 coalition aggressive?

Malay Engineers, Chinese Accountants, Indian Doctors

If I examine the statistics for admission into universities' critical courses, I cannot but help notice, at least on the surface, the preference of the Chinese, in terms of numbers, for electronic engineering and then accountancy, and with medicine coming in third, when there was a time, in my granddad’s days, they would have preferred civil engineering.

I suppose they are being practical for the times, when the electronic world dominates, and civil engineers may not be so much in demand.

chart from Star Online

The Malays seem to share the Chinese preferences for electronic engineering and accountancy, though they have tucked into second place chemical engineering ahead of being a bean-counter. Relative to other degrees, their participation by percentage in electronic and chemical engineering approximate 10% above their average.

Comparatively, they don’t seem to like dentistry, and I wonder whether it's to do with the limited number of places for that degree, or they just don't want to spend their lives looking into other people's mouths.

The Indians are still going for their traditional preference, namely medicine. Like the other ethnic groups they too have decided to invest in electronic and chemical engineering. Though smaller in numbers to their enrolment for medical and engineering degrees, their presence by percentage in law is relatively high, assuming a humongous extra 100% to their average for other courses.

I have no hesitation in saying that medicine is definitely the top profession for Indians. I am not sure why Indians prefer medicine other than their community ‘look up’ to doctors. A dear friend of mine went to India for his (equivalent of) matriculation and then medical college.

He enjoyed himself so much that he forgot about his studies, and came back in disgrace without any thing to show for his ‘happy’ times there. Eh ... wrong, he did come back with a lot of medical and ‘Bai’ jokes.

His dad had put up mucho ringgits in high expectation of a doctor son, but the rascal let him down. Dad was broken-hearted.

Bastard told me what he actually did, cavorting in Simla and having wild parties in Mumbai. He even related funny tales of his surgical training where once he sliced off the penis of a cadaver the students were practising on and placed the appendage in a fellow female student’s handbag. Apparently cadavers were fairly cheap in India, but I wonder how the young lady must have felt when she dipped her hand into her handbag for her lipstick?

He revealed that in Indian medical colleges, there were professional 'patients', people who actually suffered from all sorts of strange diseases or complex ailments, that the university hired as 'examination models' to test their medical undergraduates' diagnostic skills. Those 'patients' knew the medical college system so well that they would, just before the college examination, contact and offer the students a complete list of their ailments for a sum of money, so that the examinees could astound their examiners with their Dr Kildaire-like 'knowledge'.

My happy-go-lucky pal even joined the Indian national cadet corp (something like our National Youth Service), where he had jolly good fun camping, marching, shooting, pissing and hiking all over, but no studying. There wasn't enough time for books or sometimes even attending classes, when there's so much fun to be enjoyed.

The never-say-die bloke eventually took up a different and, fortunately for dad, equally distinguished profession, which allowed him to indulge in his fun lifestyle. Nothing puts a good man down, as he has often preached to me. I spoke regularly with his dad over a nice tumbler of Chivas Regal or Glenfiddich, provided by Aneh (Big Brother, as the rascal liked to refer himself to me). Uncle finally realised his wish to be a mighty proud dad. I am glad for the old man.

If you remember, I did qualify my observation of the university admission figures with the phrase ‘at least on the surface’ because those statistics might not be reflecting the actual preferences of the students.

Higher Education Management Department director-general Prof Datuk Dr Hassan Said - note his title ;-) - commented on the Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA), which he said would be worth only 90% of the assessment points for entrance into a preferred course.

He said: “Those with a CGPA of 4.0 but scored zero marks in co-curriculum would lose out to a student with a CGPA of 3.6 who was active in hockey or badminton at state or country level. The latter would get more marks in total than the person who scored 4.0.”

“There were instances of students with a 4.0 CGPA not getting their first choice.”

Prof Hassan was speaking about the government’s decision to assess applicants based on both their academic achievement and co-curriculum involvement (the latter worth 10%) for this year’s public university intake.

On assessment of the latter criteria, the co-curriculum involvement, Prof Hassan said that only a student’s two highest scores from his involvement in associations, sports, uniformed units or national service will be taken into consideration. National service trainees received six points.

He advised that because of the new method, not every student with a CGPA of 4.0 who applied would receive a place in medicine.

Another evidence that supported my ‘at least on the surface’ remarks has been the case of Renuga Perumal, who scored 5As. She has been utterly disappointed that she was not given her first choice of pursuing law at UM, but instead was offered economics.

However, I must say I am disappointed not to see among the critical courses the contemporary important disciplines of environmental science or, even better, water management science.

Husam Musa: "I saved Mahathir's a$$"

PAS Vice President Husam Musa has been claiming a lot of things.

Bearing in mind he’s UMNO’s political foe, he seemed to know a lot about what’s happening in the top inner circle of UMNO politics. Of course he could have his spies or even disgruntled UMNO blokes reporting to him.

On the other hand, he could be receiving what the Russians called ‘disinformation’ or deliberate bullsh*t to cause confusion.

Husam has been the man who first raised the rumours that UMNO, under PM Abdullah’s urging, would expel Dr Mahathir from the party’s membership. Now, there is not even a squeak from UNMO about the status of the party’s éminence grise.

Notwithstanding the absence of drama, Husam remained steadfast in his conviction that there was such a move by Abdullah Badawi. He averred that the UMNO president couldn’t marshal unanimous support from the party’s Supreme Council to take disciplinary action against Dr Mahathir, and then kick the former premier out.

And according to Husam, Abdullah’s best effort out of all that sinister plotting had only garnered a pledge of support for his leadership as UMNO president and prime minister.

Either Husam is putting on his best spin for his false alarm, or he could actually be privy to the truth.

Husam has even gone on step further by claiming that his pre-emptive raising of the alarm of the plot by Abdullah Badawi to expel Dr Mahathir from the party had forced UMNO to change its initial plan. It would seem that some UMNO bigwigs had experienced ‘cold feet’ at the last moment.

Therefore he had saved Mahathir from being sacked.

Now, he said that UMNO must answer the ole man’s questions on the matter surrounding the half-bridge project to Singapore - on whether Malaysia has indeed offered sand and airspace to get Singapore to agree to the project and the actual cost after cancellation.

He also criticised the cabinet for not studying carefully the financial implication of scrapping the half-bridge project, judging from the way Abdullah answered queries on the issue last week.

Indeed, at a press conference last Friday, PM Abdullah Badawi was caught by surprise when he was told of the possibility that the government may have to pay RM1.12 billion after scrapping the bridge project, when the original cost of constructing the bridge was only RM1.113 billion.

If the figures are correct, it’s the worst scandal of mismanagement and idiotic decision-making ever in recent years, to pay more not to complete a bridge than to complete it. Surely this must go into the Malaysian Book of Records for sheer profligacy and stupidity.

Was the power-that-be caught red-handed by naughty dealings and thus panicked into such an inane decision. Husam said: “The costs that government has to pay is a big loss which reflects the cabinet’s failure to handle this issues carefully and prudently.”

In-f**king-deed!

Husam wants the government to also reply to Mahathir’s questions on Proton, including the sale of MV Agusta for one euro. He praised Mahathir’s role in bringing up the issues publicly, and demanded that the government answer them as they are of public interest.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Go .... Up!

From October, the price of rice will be more than what its now. Yes, it's going up like the price for fuel, which had triggered off the whole cost locomotion.

Meanwhile there are complaints that sugar is being sold beyond the ceiling price to small bakeries, smuggled out of the country, and sold on the black market since a month ago.

And isn’t it wonderful that five grocers from Ipoh, Cameron Highlands, Kuala Kangsar, Kampar and Sungai Siput have been found to be hoarding sugar? Two of the grocers have been fined while the others are being investigated under the Control of Supply Act 1961.

Grocers normally make money by selling stuff. We must ask ourselves why would they hoard things which is equivalent to not wanting to sell.

Indeed why would they be dabbling in the black market or hoarding?

The plain truth is because government controlled price is not realistic and causing traders to lose money. So they are resorting to survival tactics. And that’s what traders do.

Now, another piece of evidence in unrealistic and indeed unreasonable government price control has been seen in sugar manufacturers in Perlis and Kedah cutting down production by half since last month.

Ask ourselves who's the main culprit for this covert tactic?

When the government sets an unrealistic artificially low price for its own political protection, by forcing traders to absorb the losses, the black market thrives. So keep flogging the traders until morale improves.

And when it rains, it certainly pours, because the price of gas is also going up. Petronas has asked the government for a hike. I heard there's currently a 50% subsidy in gas so one may only wonder how much it'll go up.

So we have or will have prices of fuel, electricity, rice, sugar, gas all gone or going up, which means transportation cost will rise even higher, which means the prices of all goods would follow rapidly behind, including and especially our teh tarik.

Soon Malaysia won’t require the Russians to send our Bolehnauts into space, because we in Malaysia can make them rise as well, even into space.

Related:
(1) 2nd-hand Teh Tarik
(2) 2nd-hand Teh Tarik back again?

Cats versus Pigs - Which go first?

One and one-half years ago, blogger Aisehman raised the issue of pre-emptive and massive culling exercise of every single pig in our country, when he mentioned WHO raising the possibility that bird flu could mix with a virus carried by pigs, and give rise to another mutated and deadlier progeny.

He asked whether we should consider a total cessation of pig-farming activities, to of course prevent the feared pandemic. He is mindful of the adverse economic cost and cultural impact. He queried whether this might come about, and whether it would be worth the inevitable sacrifices?

I wrote in response:

My belief is that if we select pigs to purge completely from Malaysia, on the basis of viral danger to health, then what should we do about the current problem of Avian Flu?

This is the imminent danger rather than pigs. Does that mean we should also cull all types of fowls (and eggs), and ban Malaysians from indulging in their hobbies of keeping merbok, merpati and various other birds as pets?

The problem with the culling-elimination approach is that we will never ever see a satisfactory conclusion, even if we may end up shooting every bird that dares fly over Peninsula Malaysia, Sarawak and Sabah.

I pointed other viral-health issues in my posting The Pig on Noah's Ark, where I also wrote the following:

Cats are actually big culprits also in the transmission of diseases to humans. The house felines are very susceptible to avian flu virus, as the Eramus Medical Centre in Rotterdam has indicated. Besides avian flu, cats are also known to be susceptible to the SAR Virus.

This viral double jeopardy appears to condemn domestic cats as a real health menace. Some of my friends would be utterly devastated if each of their cute little kitty or pussy had to be immediately put down

What Aisehman has raised is a relevant and important health issue, but I believe the answer lies not in removing any particular species completely, but rather those conditions that promote the development and spread of a pandemic virus.

We can do this by developing and practising good personal hygiene, quarantine control, management of healthy and clean animal farming, and public education. Australia and New Zealand have these procedures and practices in place.

The USA, Canada and UK dealt extremely well with their respective BSE problem, which for the last had been in the magnitude of a national disaster. Their people and the Japanese and Europeans continue to enjoy pork, beef, lamb, fowls, etc without undue fears.

Yesterday the NST reported:

A cat has been found infected with the deadly H5N1 virus in Indonesia, in the first such case in the country.

Steven Bjorge, Medical Officer for Communicable Disease of the World Health Organisation said the cat was infected after having eaten contaminated birds.

“We have evidence from one cat in Indonesia that has already been infected by this virus,” he told Jakarta’s Foreign Correspondents’ Club.

Yesterday’s disclosure came just days after Indonesia confirmed its 38th death from avian influenza caused by the H5N1 virus, placing the country in second place behind Vietnam’s 42 deaths.

I hate to do it but nevertheless I am going to say: “I told you so about those cats!”

Now, do we want to launch a pre-emptive and massive culling exercise of every single cat in our country? Or, is the distinction of complete elimination through culling reserved for pigs only?

My Unforgettable Rubber Tapping Experience

I feel sorry for those poor rubber tappers on whom I blogged about in Malaysia's economic backbone - unappreciated & marginalised!, more so for their children as some rubber estates are placed fairly remote from decent schools and other facilities.

Rubber tappers are multi-ethnic in composition, though there is a greater number of Malay tapper-owners of small rubber plots of land, a few Chinese, and probably none or an insignificant number for Indians. The ratio of tappers-employees is probably in the reverse order. But the profession by virtue of its relationship with the plantations means in the general case a rather difficult life with few amenities, especially schooling for children.

When I was a young lad, I went to stay on a rubber estate somewhere in Perak during the school holidays to experience what it would be like. My uncle was an estate manager and welcomed my request to bunk at his huge bungalow during the two weeks’ school holiday.

After a couple of days of driving around the plantation with my Unc in his landrover, and visiting its various buildings, I was feeling bored after seeing the 12,176th tree, or was it 57, 902nd? I told Unc that I would like to accompany one of the tappers on his morning tapping. Hmmm, my latent socialist nature was already urging me to check out the harsh life of a rubber tapper at my tender age.

He looked at me with surprise, initially, and then broke into a grin but warned: “Are you sure?”

I replied in the affirmative, thinking I might have a go at milking the trees with my stupendous sizzling skill at slashing, slicing and slitting. Straightaway I fantasized impressing the tapper at how deft with a knife I could be, with my neat little penknife. One of my weaknesses, and I must confess I have many, has been allowing my imagination to run away at FTL (faster than light speed) once I have begun my fantasy.

My cousins who were there and knew something about estate life, declined to accompany me, with such alacrity that should have alerted me to what was in store, but then I was what the majority of my girlfriends had all along criticised me of – too bloody naïve.

Unc assigned me to a young lady instead of a man that I expected. She would call for me at 4-ish. “But Unc, don’t they tap in the morning?” He laughed and replied that it was 4-ish in the early morning, and not late afternoon as I had initially thought.

4 a.m? Gulp, what had I gotten myself into?

Anyway, she came for me very early the next morning (to me it was still ‘last night’), standing just below the verandah of Unc's bungalow. I recall she was all wrapped up from head to toe, though wearing pants. She stood there silently and patiently, waiting, I suppose, for me to descend down the few steps to be with her. All I could see, and barely too, were just her eyes. They seemed to smile at me, so I gave a tentative smile back in the dim light of the Bungalow’s porch. She uttered not one single word.

She naturally led the way, carrying a small oil lamp and various implements, which I had no clue what they were. I asked her in broken Cantonese why she didn’t carry an electric torch instead. She turned to look at me, held that look for a few seconds, again that piercing look from her eyes, as if she was wearing a wry smile, maintained her intimidating silence, and continued her walk. I felt I must have said the wrong thing, which of course I did. Electric torch for a rubber tapper? If I thought I was deft with a knife, I most certainly was daft with my suggestion.

By then, I was virtually half running just to keep up with her as she strode most determinedly towards wherever she was headed to.

By now, the plantation EWS (early warning system) hooted “intruders, intruders, intruders” – oh, by the way, that’s me and the lady tapper. Responding to the EWS, swarms of mosquitoes scrambled to intercept us. No, wrong, just to get me because either they recognised her or they didn't like me. Some did a couple of loops and barrel rolls while others did defying stunts, maybe to impress me, but all were angrily buzzing their intention to get KTemoc. They went into battle formation as they selected on their IR (infra-red) sensors which the Americans and Russians were to invent for their warplanes some years later.

I realised then why the lady tapper was wrapped up real tight. Even though I had long pants and long sleeves on, my head and neck and hands were unprotected. Some of those mossies pretended they were airline jets, circling over my head as if they were at Kennedy Airport on an early foggy morning. They were in tight formation, forming a black halo over my head, depicting me as a young Anti-Christ, a scene I am sure the director of Omen: 666 would love to have captured.

Zoom, a squadron of Aedes zipped in to attack my neck, while a wing of Culex flew low level to strafe my hands. I responded desperately by waving frantically at the black swarm, hoping I would hit some of them, or at least cause massive air collisions among the mossies. I slapped my own neck, barely killing any as those intrepid mossie fighters changed tactics by converting themselves into helicopters to hover undetected over various juicy morsels of my exposed body.

Before I could evolve any effective air defence tactics, I was distracted by a flight of Anopheles which zeroed in on my poor sensitive ears. Even as I tried to react to that sneaky assault, an air flotilla of Mansonia came for me, with all guns and rockets blazing away. Probably all 366 species of 20 genera of Malaysian mossies took part in Air Operations 'Get KTemoc'.

Oh, those nasty bitches – for those who don’t know, only female mosquitoes bite animals for their blood while the males are vegetarians, sipping the sap of plants –wimps! It’s not the bite that makes one itch but the saliva they inject into the penetrated skin. The saliva is teeming with digestive enzymes and anticoagulants, to enable your blood to flow freely so those teeny weeny vampires would enjoy their 'Bloody Mary' cocktails.

Apparently the first time a person is bitten, there is no reaction. With subsequent bites, the person becomes sensitized to the foreign proteins, and that’s when hell occurs. It seems with repeated bites, some people would become insensitive again, but I haven’t reached that stage that early morning.

That morning the plantation was alive not with the sound of music but frantic slapping. All creepy crawly denizens would have slithered away silently in utter disgust as one noisy KTemoc made his way through the lines of silent mocking rubber trees. “Hush” they seemed to say, in vain. Eventually I sort of surrendered to the aerial assaults and tried to concentrate on what was going on. The lady of course ignored me all these while as she went about her job.

I noted that she tapped the trees with such ruthless efficiency that I dared not impose on her my request to do some tapping. Using her tapping knife, she rapidly cut (sort of scraping away) the tree’s bark in a V-fashion, using yesterday’s and earlier cuttings as guidelines. Even as the latex started to flow down the V-cuts to a centre vertical cut that ended with a metal guide which drained the latex into a collection cup, she gave each clay cup a quick clean with a rag. Occasionally she came across a broken cup and replaced that with a new one which she carried in her bag strapped by her side.

Every now and then she would glance back to check whether I had abandoned her or was being swallowed up by a python. Again those mysterious eyes would stare at me with, I thought, great humour. Then she carried on.

From time to time she would adjust the wick of her crude oil lamp, just by using her fingers, to ensure there’s adequate lighting. She was so much the very example of sheer economical efficiency that I was intimidated into remaining silent, and not to attempt engaging her in meaningless chatter. Never was a movement wasted nor delayed, other than to check I still wasn't dragged away by a hungry tiger.

As I grew used to the mossies and the tempo of her activity, which to be frank had mercifully allowed me to catch my breath, I began to do what I do best, evaluate her … eh … physique, mind you, a completely scientific study to assess the correlation between the health benefits of her work regimentation and her ... eh ... muscular development. Despite her thick wrapped up she looked very trimmed and nice in all the correct places. I began to enjoy my sojourn with her.

After the tapping was done, a wee too soon I thought, she left me at the bungalow. Before she departed, she gave me her laser-like penetrating 'eyes special’ again. She hadn’t said a single word from ‘collecting’ to ‘depositing’ me back at the house. She left so suddenly that I didn't have the presence of mind to thank her.

I knew she would return to the trees later to collect the latex once the sun warmed everything up and stopped the sap from flowing. So I waited to catch her again, because I intended to follow her and this time, hopefully chat her up. But I waited forlornly because she must have taken a different and probably more direct route from her place, just a quarter mile away from Unc's bungalow, to her sector.

I thought I would never see her again or find out who she was – I was too shy to ask Unc. The evening before I left the estate to return to Penang, my Unc informed me I was invited to dinner by her family. After all the usual briefing from Unc on behaviour and manners, that the tappers were very simple but sincere folks, and not to criticise the food, he dropped me at her place at 4:45 pm and would pick me up in two hours time. Rubber tappers have their dinners and then would retire early because of their early work schedule at a most unearthly hour.

My thoughtful Unc provided me with two large bottles of Guinness Stout and a box of cream biscuits as gifts for her family. Her father was at the door to invite me in. They spoke Cantonese and Hakka, and I spoke Chiuchow (Teochew) and Hokkien, so I was a bit like a recently landed illegal immigrant asking rubber tappers for directions to Kuala Lumpur. But the dialects had some common words so I wasn’t entirely lost. I resisted the temptation to show off my versatility at Cantonese or Hakka obscenities.

As I entered her house, I saw her standing by the kitchen door, recognising her immediately by her mysterious eyes. The fact that she was the only one there besides her parents helped too. She was smiling a la Mona Lisa at me, this time with her sweet lips instead of her beautiful eyes. I kid you not, but to a 15 year old kid she was gorgeous. Her porcelain complexion (protected from the harsh elements, no doubt, by the wrapped up) stood in contrast to her rosy cheeks. She was the typical outdoor healthy big-bone tall Hakka woman. I eventually found out she was only 17, just an insignificant 2 years’ difference with yours hopefully.

Throughout dinner we exchanged love messages with our eyes, so I imagined, but yes, she did smile enchantingly and look at me frequently. I hope it wasn't to count the pimples on my face, or more probably the scars marks left by my vigorous scratchings at the mossie bites. Again, she didn’t say a single word. Oh, how I loved and still do the silent type. Wish my girlfriends had been like her.

Her dad and mum encouraged me to eat more of this and that. Their hospitality was truly the genuine kampong type, wonderful and warm. I conducted some polite conversation with her parents, assisted by comical hand gestures because of the barrier of 4 different and unshared dialects, and sneaked numerous glances at her. Each time I did so, I saw her smiling sweetly at me. I was rapt but alas, before too long, my Unc came for me.

Just as I was able to leave the house, she finally spoke to me, “Please come again”. When I heard her sweet musical voice for the first and only time, an excited chill shot up my back (I was falling in love) while I experienced stomach cramps (I was experiencing love-sickness at the thought of leaving her then).

I turned around to look at her, she with the sweetest smile and gorgeous enchanting eyes, and considered sweeping her flamboyantly into my arms for a deep passionate farewell kiss before I confessed eternal love for her, but all pathetic me did was to nod and mumble a confused thank you.

Sadly, we were but passing ships in the night. I never saw her again. I do think of her sometimes, especially when many many years later I drove by that plantation, thinking to myself that if only she had the opportunity to study, perhaps even go to university or whatever, she would have droves of men going after her. But undoubtedly she was doomed to a life of tapping rubber in a forsaken plantation somewhere in Perak, my mysterious Mona Lisa.

But wherever she is, I wish her all the best, and hope she would sometimes think fondly of that young bloke who did the crazy calypso slapping beside her one early morning.

OPS USIR - SARANAN

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INTEL: KEADAAN KURANG PUAS

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Will Muslims jump ship for kueh-mueh? (2)

With tongue-in-cheek I had titled my posting on the Kongsi Raya controversy as Will Muslims jump ship for kueh-mueh?

I didn’t expect the issue to be on the extreme side of passionate, where there are fears among some Muslims that the joint Malaysian style celebrations may lead to the corruption of the Islamic faith by stealth. They are worried that their faith could well be 'assimilated' into that of another, or vice versa. True to form, Harussani Zakaria, the Mufti of Perak, has been able once again to stimulate Muslims’ feelings about the Kongsi Raya concept, either one way or the other.

Thus far, I have deliberately kept non-Muslims views out of my posting because those would be too predictable. I won’t provide my comments yet, but offer some more of the Muslim views.

Last month the Anti Inter-Faith Commission (Badai), including PAS youth members, had formed a 200-strong protest group that had, through a fearsome protest in Penang, disrupted an Article 11-organised public forum to discuss freedom of religion.

The police was accused of siding with the protestors but it claimed that public order would be best served by ending the forum. It had been unusual for the police to side with the protestors considering their readiness to disperse the anti-fuel price protest rallies by use of draconian and violent means.

Anyway, Badai has voiced its disagreement with the Kongsi Raya, because the objection had been made by a competent religious person, namely the Mufti of Perak, based on strong evidence from the Quran and Hadith (Prophetic traditions). It didn’t elaborate on what evidence those had been.

Its chairperson Mohd Hafiz Mohd Nordin said: “Badai believes that national unity had existed and can continue in this country on the condition that followers of all religions respect each other.”

He didn’t explain who or which other religion had been disrespectful. I wish Badai could have been more kind by clarifying what its statement had been about?

Meanwhile, Malaysian Muslim Youth Movement (Abim) secretary-general Khairul Arifin Mohd Munir didn’t indicate whether it objected to or supported the Kongsi Raya event, but instead said it would like to see guidelines drafted so that the Islamic faith can be guarded while improving racial and religious tolerance. I read it as Abim supporting the event but not wanting to alienate the Muslims who have voiced their opposition or concerns.

But Nicholas Sylvester, a convert heading Islamic group JIM’s proselytisation wing, said Harussani or other muftis need to explain a bit more, so that Muslims can distinguish between celebrations that are religious in nature and those that are predominantly socio-cultural.

While Sylvester supports the call to review the practice of simultaneously hosting two or more religious celebrations, he said this should not apply to cultural events and social gatherings.

He cited the Chinese New Year celebrations as a non-religious celebration. In this respect, KTemoc recall a Chinese Muslim friend (whose family’s Islamic faith has been of a thousand-year vintage) celebrating Chinese New Year and was severely criticised by our Muslim boss for subscribing to pagan rites.

Sylvester said: “We’re not against open houses as it is encouraged in terms of visiting people and strengthening good relations.”

One of Malaysia’s intellectuals, Chandra Muzaffar, who is also president of the International Movement for a Just World, said that throughout the history of religions, there had been “custodians of the faiths claiming to defend the purity of the faiths”.

He said in many instances, such persons would adopt a position against any accommodation, or inclusiveness or universality.

Chandra pointed out that the Islamic religious scholars in Malaysia seem to more concern only with the superficial aspects of Muslim identity than most scholars in other countries. He averred: “It is important to remind ourselves that Islam’s splendour was its willingness to absorb other ideas while at the same time protecting the integrity of the faith.”

OK, I’ll welcome your comments but please keep them objective and civil. I know we can get heated up sometimes but let's play it cool.

Bush's Pandora Box

Are the Iraqis better today after the Americans had invaded their country?

Yesterday, around 40 people have been killed and more than 80 wounded across the nation. There were at least 4 car bombs and mortar attacks, most of them in Baghdad.

The worst was when a car bomb struck an Iraqi police checkpoint in al-Maalef district, a Shia area southwest of Baghdad, killing at least 12 people and wounding 38. Another targeting the Iraqi army and police killed 11 people.

Meanwhile, the USAF contributed to the carnage by bombing a house in Ibrahim Bin Ali district in north-eastern Falluja, a Sunni stronghold and scene of an earlier horrendous American attack. In the latest air strike, eight Iraqis, among them women and children belonging to one family, were killed and six others wounded on.

Malaysia's economic backbone - unappreciated & marginalised!

This is one of the reasons why the government has dragged its heels about registering the Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM). It’s not because the political party has a ‘pink’ hue but it’s the fear of the PSM forming plantation workers into unions, especially militant ones.

Arutchelvan, a labour right activist and also Parti Sosialis Malaysia pro tem secretary-general, told the press after the launch of an exhibition entitled "National Development: 150-year sacrifice of estate workers" in Central Market, Kuala Lumpur, that the plantation industry has become a breeding ground for poverty.

If conditions cannot be improved, and he lamented that the government seems uninterested, he believes that the industry should be closed down altogether.

He related how a rubber tapper is denied a fixed monthly wage, housing, health schemes and basic amenities such as schools, and makes just around RM325 a month based on the amount of latex the tapper could harvest. Even then the unfortunate tapper is subordinated to the vagaries of weather.

He said: “If the plantation workers don’t get anything out of the industry, why keep it around? It’s the end of the plantation era. Just shut the estates down and not make the workers suffer anymore. The land instead could be given to the workers and they can develop it themselves like the Felda and Felcra schemes.”

“The main shareholders in the large plantation companies are from the public sector and are owned by the government through investment arms such as Permodalan Nasional Berhad and Amanah Saham Nasional. This means the worker’s employer is the government.”

“Unlike normal jobs, a rubber tapper is not paid a monthly wage and they never know how much they will earn.”

“They are paid according to how much latex is tapped. If the weather is too hot, the latex dries up too quickly. If it’s raining, they cannot tap at all. They are subjected to conditions that are beyond their control.”

Ironically the rubber tapper is a skilled and hardworking specialist who gets up in the unholy early hours to tap his or her allocation of trees before the morning sun warms up and stops the flow of latex. An unskilled taper could damage the trees to the economic detriment of the plantation.

Despite being the backbone of the Malayan-Malaysian prosperity for the last 150 years through its rubber exports, the rubber tapper has not been fully appreciated and paid appropriately for his/her specialist skill.

In his/her profession, the tapper has to brave the mosquitoes and the dangerous denizens of the bush – from tigers to poisonous snakes, and in the earlier days, the communist insurgents. Yet he/she is treated as nothing more than cheap unskilled labour, virtually modern-day serfs, to ensure the owners maximize their profits.

Perhaps rather than call for the abandonment of the plantation industry, Arutchelvan would be more effective in calling on the tappers to seek other jobs. The cruel world of commerce works on the 'supply & demand' system, so with more tappers (of the younger generation) leaving for other professions, the importance and value of the remaining older tappers would be more appreciated by their employers, with an appropriate rise in salaries, maybe even fixed monthly ones.

For example, the bloom of the IT industry in the last decade or more has been of grave concern to the aviation industry as airlines are finding it more and more difficult to recruit aircraft maintenance technicians. IT is an easier, more attractive (to young people) and better paid profession than aircraft engineering. Today the airline industry is desperately wooing young men and women to take up a shrinking profession so vital to its continuing safe operations.

Americans Duped, Iraqis Paying Terrible Price

The carnage continues in Baghdad with 24 killed and 60 wounded today. The death toll for American soldiers now stands at 2500 and will undoubtedly pass this figure. The Iraqis suffered 20 times more, including women and children. The Bush Administration spent US$319 billion on the occupation in Iraq, on top of another 400+ billions since 2001.

US$800+ billion! What good the USA could have done with so much money, like medical research, aid to the poor of the world, science, environment, even rebuild New Orleans, etc. Instead they used it to kill Iraqis, Afghans and their own young men and women.

WMDs? Everyone, even those in USA, knows it has been one big fat lie.

Saddam Hussein’s link with al Qaeda? Proven to be another lie. The irony has been that, with Saddam out of the way, his enemy al Qaeda could infiltrate into Iraq.

Regime change? The USA supporting warlords in Somalia, (until recently) the brutal President Islam in Uzbekistan, the draconian regimes in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, etc.

Oil? The price has gone through the roof, with the Chinese and Indians now about to grab the lion’s share, already from Iran, and very soon one day from Iraq and Saudi Arabia too, as the Asian giants will offer higher prices that the Americans would be willing to.

Already, many western countries are now talking nuclear energy when once it would have been taboo – eg. Australia.

For Israel? Yes, that has been the real reason.

George Bush had been duped into removing one of Israel’s potential threat in Saddam Hussein and was about to rid the other one, Iran, when things didn’t work out in Iraq as the Americans had hoped.

Israel has been boasting of an oil pipeline soon from Mosul (Northern Iraq) to Israel, courtesy of their new partners, the Kurds.

Americans have paid a terrible price in money, lives, international goodwill, morale and and morality, for another country, Israel.

The Chinese believe that generally in a well-to-do family, where granddad had built up the family fortune from nowhere, all it would last is until the 3rd generation, before grandsons destroy that wealth and take the family back to square one.

The Bush family just needed two generations to take the USA back to square one in so many aspects. But the price for Iraqis has been far too terrible.

Should MAS cancel its Airbus 380 order?

Everyone knows Malaysia Airline System (MAS) has financial problems, which has been why it sold off its landmark MAS building. I wonder whether those South American paintings have been sold off yet?

I wasn’t surprised that MAS suffered the cash crisis. The airline has been abused in so many ways that it would have been a miracle to escape unscathed from its money problem.

There’s the alleged corruption of powerful people making MAS buy their equipment, securing its tenders but not delivering goods or services to specifications, etc.

The management has been pathetically poor performing and profligate in many ways. Some years ago, unprofitable routes were opened up everywhere without any concern for revenue consideration in the classic Malaysian attitude of “style mahu, kalah ta’apa”, with the inevitable humongous loss.

Then there have been just too many employees which in itself is not efficient. Ironically with the issue of MAS excessive staff, I have read at Jeff Ooi’s Screenshots the numerous complaints against an unresponsive MAS PR.

Passengers buggered around - which incidentally is not unusual with most airlines but in MAS case - were not responded to satisfactorily or just ignored - probably a sign of sheer arrogance in the belief that MAS was Teflon coated, at least within the domestic market.

Then there were pilots who ran off runways (Changi), hit passenger air bridges (Miri), got stuck in mud in India, hit a de-icing truck (Zurich), did not takeoff on time, etc. All those not only cause loss of operating revenue, less available aeroplanes to fly, increased insurance premiums but create a bad reputation for MAS.

To be fair to MAS, as the national airline, for years it had no choice but to operate and subsidise unprofitable domestic routes especially in Sabah and Sarawak, obviously at a constant loss. It had to play the role of a quasi public service airline.

This was the reason why the original Malaysian Airways and its successor Malaysian-Singapore Airlines (MSA) split up into MAS (initially an ominously named MAL) and SIA. The Singaporeans didn’t want to have anything to do with unprofitable Malaysian domestic routes. MAS has only recently divested itself of those routes to concentrate on the more profitable international flights.

Now MAS Employees Union (MASEU) has called on Penerbangan Malaysia Bhd to cancel its plans to buy the Airbus 380. The order for the aeroplane was made several years ago. Recently Airbus has announced a delay to the delivery due to electrical wiring problems.

MASEU said that although under the sale and purchase agreement Airbus will pay compensation for the late delivery, the matter has to be looked at from a wider perspective. MASEU gave several reasons why cancelling the order would enable savings to enhance MAS cash flow and be spent on the maintenance of its existing aircraft.

It’s not possible for laypeople like us to accurately say whether that would be a wise recommendation because we don’t have MAS operating data. But we need to be reminded of the fundamental fact that airlines are in the business of moving people around by air by the most economical means, for two reasons - to minimise cost and to maximise profits.

The Airbus 380 with its 500 plus seats would appear to support that. With one flight – thus, one set of crew, one load of fuel, one set of processing, and very very important, one approach into a modern airport where available slots at peak hours costs the world, that is if one can even get it - the Airbus 380 would provide the best returns.

This should be the case even with higher paid pilots and crew, higher fuel consumption per se - ‘per se’ in this case implies an A380 certainly burns more fuel and requires more cabin crew than a B747 if we chose to ignore the fact that it carries more passengers in only one flight with all the attendant savings I have mentioned above.

I wouldn't be surprised that the inevitable increased demand for airport landing and takeoff slots in the future will favour aircraft like the A380, for the simple reason that one of these brutes does the work of 2 B767 or 1.5 (as good as 2) B747's. Watch it when China's and India's airlines get steamed up as the two Asian giants utilise more of aviation the way the USA has had for the last several decades. Airports will be under more severe pressure of demand.

Having said that we don’t have MAS operating data, personally, I believe it would be short-sighted not to buy the A380. MAS would be left behind in the competition. Once an order is cancelled it would take several years after a new order to get a delivery. The modern version of the B737 has a long waiting list of around 8 years.

Indonesian VP Protects JI Spiritual Leader

What did I tell you about Indonesia's Vice President Jusuf Kalla being a hardcore conservative Muslim leader?

In the international fight against terrorism - of all denominations, not only those with an Islamist label - the international community has agreed to freeze and seize terrorists’ assets. The anti-terrorist strategy has been passed as UN Resolution 1267.

Controversial Jemaah Islamiah (JI) cleric Abu Bakar Ba’asyir, recently released after a 26-month imprisonment for approving the Bali suicide bombing that slaughtered more than 200 people, has obviously been linked with the terrorists who committed the evil crime, or he wouldn’t have been jailed.

So, accordingly his assets should be frozen and seized by the Indonesian government. The Indonesian Foreign Ministry supported the approach, stating it has an obligation to freeze Ba’asyir’s asesets. Well, it has to, if it wants to continue being a member of the international community and enjoy the benefits, or even avoid possible sanctions.

But Kalla dismissed the Foreign Ministry's promise. This means that the VP is virtually telling the world that Indonesia doesn’t want to comply with UN Resolution 1267. Kalla said that Ba’asyir's assets could not be frozen because they belong to a religious community. As mentioned, Kalla has very intimate relationship with Muslim organisations, and JI could possibly be one of them.

During the post-Boxing Day tsunami international relief effort in Aceh, Kalla was the Indonesian leader who issued a sudden order for all foreign aid workers to leave Aceh by a date that was extraordinarily premature given the amount of relief still needed then.

There was strong pressure from Indonesian rightwing Islamic organisations for the expeditious expulsion of western aid workers because of fear of Christian charities setting a foothold in that region. He was so paranoiac that he was willing to see the devastated region and its inhabitants live under appalling conditions than to permit the relief work to continue.

But eventually President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, without the obvious act of veto-ing his VP’s xenophobic order for foreigners to bugger off, allowed the foreign aid workers to continue their work through a series of ‘extensions’ (to save Kalla’s face), for the plain logical reason that Indonesia didn’t have the resources to do the urgent needful. Hundreds of thousands would have suffered intolerable conditions of non-existent medical, water, food, housing, etc amenities, if Kalla had his way.

What had triggered off the current Kalla recalcitrancy with regards to Indonesian obligations to UN resolution 1267, has been the Indonesian Foreign Ministry’s correct response to Aussie PM John Howard’s letter to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Howard reminded the President of Indonesia's obligations to freeze the assets, restrict the movements of and ensure an arms embargo imposed on Ba’ssyir.

The JI spiritual leader’s name is actually on the UN's terrorist list, so I am just wondering how Indonesia is handling this inconsistency, that of claiming it is a nation committed toanti-terrorism yet allowing an internationally-named terrorist to walk around free?

Australia has been absolutely pissed off with Indonesia's release of a man who approved the terrorist murder of many of its citizens including many women and children. Since his release, Ba'asyir has been making outrageous comments such as asking the families of Bali bombing victims to convert to Islam, praising one of the chief culprits Noordin Top as an Islamic warrior. and attempting to partially mitigate the evil of the bombers.

So far, the Indonesian president has remained silent a la the latest SE Asian fashion of being an ‘elegant’ leader. But in all fairness, working behind the scene has always been the Indonesian or Javanese way of sorting out differences among compatriots. He’s probably wondering how he can now undo his ultra conservative VP’s defiant statement, that has now placed Indonesia in an embarrassing position of being seen as a terrorist haven.

Will Muslims jump ship for kueh-mueh?

Harussani Zakaria, the Mufti of Perak, is known as an intolerant cleric and non compassionate cleric, for a man purportedly of God.

Early this year, in February he placed on his department website a poll asking visitors what to do with those who published the blasphemous caricatures of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). The online poll offered 6 answers, where one was "Hunt and kill them or launch war against them”.

OK, that was just a poll, which would have questions ranging through the entire spectrum of opinions, but we need to note the Perak Mufti has a notorious consistency in his intolerance. For example, he had advocated exiling people affected by HIV-AIDS to an island to live in isolation from society, even when we now have the medical knowledge to know that the terrible disease is not spread by air, water or normal contact.

Additionally, innocent people like medical professions or the police could be infected during the course of their duties. Society has the facilities and knowhow to attend to and mitigate the sufferers' ailments, instead of exiling the victims to an island.

A Malaysiakini writer wrote of the Mufti that "he has failed to display ‘ihsan’ or compassion, empathy and sensitvity ..."

The writer lamented that the Perak Mufti with his ignorant understanding of HIV/AIDS showed how shallow and inconsiderate he has been.

My sweetheart, Marina Mahathir, former president of Malaysian Aids Council, criticised the Malaysian government [indirectly her own father who was PM then] for failing to train the senior people in the religious establishment, like the Perak Mufti, on the issue of HIV/Aids.

But KTemoc Konsiders’ reader Rafeedah Bigburns went straight for the jugular, stating clerics like Harussani Zakaria couldn’t help but do what they do, probably because of their low IQ. They became clerics to escape a life of low level menial jobs, and “… lo and behold, once in the fold and attired in religious garb they instantly command the respect and reverence of the general public.”

Well, the controversial cleric is at it again, coming out to declare he is against the Kongsi Raya because such celebrations may threaten the faith of Muslims. He wants the government to review such gatherings.

The PM dismissed his call, saying Kongsi Raya’s are not religious celebrations so there shouldn’t be any question about the Islamic faith being threatened. He said:

"All these events are social in nature. At most, they will have dances and other cultural programmes. Never did we have programmes which can be considered as religious during such gatherings. These are not programmes which can weaken our faith and our belief."

What about PAS then?

It seems the Islamic party has come out with conflicting views. Deputy president Nasharuddin Mat Isa has stated that PAS is not in favour of Kongsi Raya. He felt that it could be considered syirik (blasphemous) from an Islamic point of view to pair a Muslim celebration with a non-Muslim one, and was concerned that such paired celebrations could affect a Muslim’s aqidah (faith)”.

He said: “Islam allows us to be friends with non-Muslims and respect people of other faiths. But we cannot compromise But we cannot compromise on our own faith.”

“But this does not mean that Muslims should not visit their non-Muslim friends during the festival or vice-versa. This is part of our culture and I see no problem. But let us do it separately from our own.”

However PAS national unity committee chief Mujahid Yusof Rawa said the mufti (of Perak) needs to address the demands and interests of the country’s pluralistic society.

He opined: “There needs to be some explanation based on the other bigger interests of unity, especially in Malaysia where we are multiracial and have different ethnic groups and faiths. That needs to be considered so as not to jeopardise the true meaning of Islam, which calls for racial unity and respect for one another.”

“I, for example, am a national unity committee leader. I can’t be expected to have non-Muslims come over only to my open house during Hari Raya. I also have to go to their open houses.”

“If a fatwa (religious edict) to that effect is put in place, will I be arrested (for visiting open houses)?”

Ros Ismail, a reporter for the Star Online asked: “Why should attending a Kongsi Raya celebration make me a murtad (apostate)?”

“A joint Chinese New Year-Hari Raya gathering, where I would probably eat an orange, a handful of peanuts and a biscuit or two, should not turn me into a traitor of the religion. But as it turns out, the ulamas are wringing their hands in worry that Muslims attending such events may go astray.”

“It seems to suggest that our faith in God is so fundamentally fragile that, on the slightest pretext, we can be persuaded to jump ship.”

“This is hurtful for those of us who remain solidly Muslim even as we listen to Christmas carols or indulge in mutton curry over Deepavali with friends of other faiths.”

I won’t quote the opinions of the non-Muslims on the Kongsi Raya yet, but what do you think?

JI Spiritual Leader to Aussie PM: "Convert to Islam"

The release from prison of Dr Azahari's spiritual leader, Abu Bakar Ba’asyir has been received with dismay by Australians, especially those whose loved ones were murdered in the Bali suicide bombing. Abu Bakar had given his approval to the bombing which killed 202 people, many of whom were Australians including women and children.

As if that was not bad enough, the spiritual leader of the Jemaah Islamiah (JI) called upon the families of the slaughtered to now convert to Islam. He said that conversion to Islam would give the bereaved relatives salvation and peace. He also told Australian Prime Minister John Howard to convert to Islam or face eternity in hell.

He said the families of the dead should understand that they were killed by bombs, not bombers, and that it was God's will.

Hmmm, so Abu Bakar is saying that God killed innocent 202 people. He's blaming God for his approval to the suicide bombers to kill and maim.

PM Howard was so indignant that he wrote to Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono that Australia is utterly disgusted by Abu Bakar’s insensitivity, and views with ‘hostility and disgust’ the release of the JI cleric from jail. That’s very very strong language in the world of diplomacy.

Australia also protested to the United Nations' World Food Program (WFP) over its use of a group co-founded by Ba’asyir, the Majelis Mujahidin Indonesia (MMI), to distribute 95,000 tonnes of food to survivors of last month's Java earthquake. The UN group said it has now cancelled its contract with the MMI.

In my earlier posting Dr Azahari's spiritual leader freed from prison tomorrow, I wrote:

Many Indonesian high ranking officials including very senior ministers are supportive of JI as a Islamic religious organisation rather than one of terrorism, hence Indonesia’s reluctance to label it as illegal.

Well, today Yusuf Kalla, Indonesia's vice president and a known conservative Muslim said that Ba'asyir is free to express his hardline opinions. He averred that authorities could not arrest Ba'asyir for ‘his thinking and opinions’. His insensitive defiant statement would undoubtedly add more fuel to Australian anger.

On the domestic front PM Howard is in damage control as Aussie families have raised their outrage with him, so he told Indonesia to understand Australia took the Abu Bakar Ba’asyir issue very seriously.

"It's an important issue currently in the relationship and the Indonesians must understand how deeply offended Australians are, particularly the relatives and friends of those who died in the Bali attack."

He informed the Indonesian president: "As you are aware, Mr Bashir's name has been added to a list of terrorists subject to a range of international restrictions ... including an assets freeze, restrictions on international travel and access to arms."

"We will continue to pursue with the Indonesian authorities the matters I raised with the Indonesian president."

But in reality, President Susilo can't do much as the Muslim cleric is so popular in Indonesia with powerful supporters right up to cabinet level. Abu Bakar Ba'asyir is so arrogant in his awareness of his popularity that he praised JI terrorist mastermind Noordin Top, who had killed, murdered and maimed throughout Indonesia, as an Islamist warrior

OPS USIR

>>>RAHSIA BESAR<<<
>>>UNTUK MATA SAJA<<<

DRP: A
KPD: J
S.KPD: K

OPS USIR
KEADAAN SEKARANG: BAHAYA
SEBAB DIKENALPASTI: FAKTOR ‘M’
STRATEGI: NEUTRALISASIKAN ‘M’

KAJI
1. SIAPA LAWAN - DLM/LUAR
2. SIAPA KAWAN - DLM/LUAR
3. FAKTOR KHAS - 'N'
4. PENGARUH S.I.P.U.T*
5. TINDAK PEMBANGKANG
6. TINDAK JIRAN

* penaruh/akibat Social, Industri-economi, Politik, Ugama, Tokoh2

TINDAK/AKIBAT
1. DIAM
2. LAWAN
3. SERAH
4. USIR
5. LAIN2*

* bahas secara lisan sj

SARANAN
1800 AHAD
TULIS HARAM

>>>PERLU TAHU SJ<<<

>>>MUSNAH LEPAS BACA<<<

Brilliant but Evil Social Engineering?

Malaysiakini reader, Ravindran Mailvaganam has cried out against the injustice to Indian Malaysians. He said that the Malaysian railways. so vital to the nation’s development, economy, and society was built by the manual labour of ethnic South Indians.

Yet despite the Indian Malaysians’ toil, tears and sweat, today he sees Indonesian immigrants being treated much better than these resourceful Indian community.

The Indonesians who could have just arrived yesterday would enjoy all the protection and indulgence of government agencies. Ravindran said these johnnies-come-lately would quickly acquire the so-called bumiputera status, conferring upon them entitlements to many state benefits while other non-Malay citizens - who can trace their domicile to several generations back and who pay much of the tax revenue - are denied.

He is stating what we have all known for years. But it still hurts to hear it.

Ravindran then draw on the example of Chin Peng.

He said Chin Peng “was an implacable anti-colonialist who led his cadres (mostly ethnic Chinese, although there were notable Malays among them) first against the Japanese Occupation forces then against the British when they returned after the war to reclaim their colony.”

Then Ravindran showed the contrasting treatment for Chin Peng versus that for his communist party comrade CD Abdullah.

He said “Chin Peng is today a persona non grata while CD Abdullah, a Malay who was his henchman is welcomed back into society. The condition of ethnic Indians is only a sliver better than Chin Peng’s.”

Again he said what we all know, that the managed influx of Indonesian (and in Sabah, Filipino Muslims) had been to reduce the percentage of the Chinese and Indian communities into minorities.

Maybe that’s why the Chinese who once made up nearly half the population of Malaya-Malaysia, are today only averaging around the mid 20-ish percentage. Even allowing for migration, and not many qualify to migrate, the drop in percentage has been rather startling.

Ravindran said that the managed migration of Indonesians has the objective of “reducing the ethnic minorities, especially the Chinese to statistically insignificant groups, politically and culturally. And history must be rewritten to accommodate the chauvinistic practice.”

He added “That is why Yap Ah Loy, the founder of Kuala Lumpur had his role in Malaysian history severely diminished. In a stage play, it would be equivalent of a nondescript porter.”

Now, isn't the Malaysian demographic massaging truly social engineering at its most brilliant evil?

UMNO to sack Dr Mahathir by Monday?

Looks like the proverbial may have finally hit the fan for Dr Mahathir. UMNO could sack him by Monday when its Supreme Council convenes.

It seems that PAS vice-president Husam Musa have received information on the 'jungle telegraph' that UMNO is planning to sack its former president. He further averred that the person who will propose the expulsion will be none other than “elegant” Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, in his capacity as UMNO president.

If Abdullah Badawi does that on Monday, it will confirm my description of him as the mailed fist in the velvet glove.

Dr Mahathir will at least have the distinction of being sacked from UMNO twice. It should go into the Malaysian Book of Records.

But will that stop him from speaking out? I doubt it. It may however render him liable to an invitation to Kem Kamunting, though at his age, it would be a dodgy proposition for the AAB government, unless they don't mind having blood of an 80-year old man on their hands.

It may also make the doctor liable to police charges of corruption, sedition and 'cruelty' (though to be fair, PKR has finally come out to deny making that police report).

Husam said if the information is accurate, it will prove that the AAB is highly intolerant of criticisms and reprimands. Of course AAB has been.

Or on the other hand, perhaps someone close to AAB may be running scared that with Dr Mahathir 'browsing' relentlessly, the truth is creeping closer.

Or, perhaps AAB is feeling the heat of Mahathir's criticism and unsure of his position within UMNO, fearing that loyalties within the party could currently be shifting, and anticipating a political coup d'etat pretty soon?

Husam said: “I am exposing this information because I do not want Mahathir to be sacked. Imagine if a person like Mahathir can face such action, what more ordinary citizens?”

What I will be interested in seeing, should what Husam predict come true, would be the stand of Najib in the UMNO Supreme Council on Monday morning.

As for the rest of us non-UMNO people, let's keep our heads down low. During such a time of rumours (this time made by PAS Husam Musa) my mum would be buying kiam hoo and mucho bee.

Related:
The Real Abdullah Ahmad Badawi

Israeli Army Admits Lying

When Israel tried to shift the blame to Hamas for the death of several Palestinians on a Gaza beach picnic last week that its artillery had slaughtered, thinking people would be willing to accept that lie. Israel had been demonising the Palestinians in general, and Hamas in particular, to prepare the outside world, especially Americans to readily believe the Palestinains are all terrorists.

But the Palestinians said OK, let’s asked for a UN investigation into the incident. 'Ere that could occur, Human Rights Watch, a US-based group, has already inspected the site of the explosion.

Marc Garlasco, a former Pentagon adviser who is now a military analyst with the group, said: "It is my contention that the most likely scenario is that Israeli shelling hit the area."

When asked about Israeli accusation that the blast was caused by a Palestinian mine, he said: "This is patently not the case. We are very certain that it is a 155 mm shell."

Kofi Annan also chipped to declare that the Israeli claims as ‘odd’. That's diplomacy for the Israelis lying.

After its denial of responsibility and accusation of Hamas were received with scepticism by the United Nations and elsewhere, and faced with such damning assessment by a neutral body, Israel has conceded that it might have been responsible for the Gaza beach deaths after all. It is now in full backtrack from its earlier attempt to blame Hamas.

But it still tried to put in a new slant. The military said that old Israeli ordnance could have killed the Palestinians, including an entire of five with three toddlers, last Friday. In other words it has said the explosions was caused by buried ammunition and not callous Israeli artillery firing. Do you believe them an iota?

The Israeli military and defence department have been lying through their bloody teeth for eons. As mentioned, their usual strategy has been their pre-emptive demonisation of Palestinians to demonstrate to its American sponsors that they have to deal with a people who are all bloody terrorists. I actually met an Israeli bloke who said these exact words to me.

They of course neglect to tell their American backers that they have been stealing Palestinian land and killing Palestinian children wantonly, through the callous attack on heavily populated Palestinian towns, just like the Nazis did to their European forefathers.

Remember in my posting Terrorist Midgets killed by Israeli Missile Strikes, an Israeli army spokeman had said:

"We have proceeded with detailed tests to get at the truth and it is clear that the certainty of responsibility by the Israeli army in this tragedy is diminishing more and more and that of the Palestinians increases."

Detailed test? Truth? Certainty of responsibility? You make your own judgement.

And remember what Israeli liberal newspaper Haaretz had said about the Israeli army whitewashing itself?

"The importance of the committee's findings are obviously mitigated by the fact that ultimately, the IDF is being cleared by an IDF investigation."

And remember what Ktemco said about Israeli military findings and justice, which I blogged in No Big Deal - Just Untermenschen.

Basically, don’t trust the Israeli military. They lie through their teeth.

Malaysia's Economic Pariahs?

Without any doubt the Indian Malaysians are today the most marginalised and deprived community in reasonably well off Malaysia. I blogged a wee bit on this in The Toddy Syndrome.

I have also lamented, in another posting Humpty Dumpty Bit Hands That Fed Him, that the MIC has done bugger all for the community it claims to represent.

All those fat cats in MIC have done thus far have been mainly to look after themselves, while their impoverished community fall by the wayside as Malaysia plods on, sometimes sprinting along, sometimes crawling along, but the Indians? … they have been left behind, mired in hopelessness and carrying the impossible load of despair.

Dr Mana, a Malaysiakini reader wrote in to reveal more of the MIC internal bullsh*t, as the battle between the president and his deputy wages on. What has been shocking about his revelation, wittingly or unwittingly, has been the sad fact that there is stark racism in MIC.

Well, the Indians in MIC be best warned on this before they next condemn UMNO.

In fact, the MIC has been cursed by many forms of racism. One is related to the obvious ethnic origin, like whether one is a Tamil (the principal group), Malayalees, Punjabis, Sri Lankans, Bengalis, etc. Dr Kana wrote:

“MIC should also not be seen as a party affiliated to only Tamil-speaking Indians or just for the Hindus. The new leadership should work towards making the party comfortable with all people of Indian origin irrespective of religion, be they Sikhs, Malayalees, Telugus, Ceylonese, Punjabis, Gujeratis, Sindhis, Pakistanis, Indian Muslims or other minorities. Garner their support and have their people represented in the party. Narrow politics based on sect, religion, linguistic differences or parochialism will not augur well for the MIC.”

In that statement, he revealed another form of bigotry, that of religious affiliation, whether an Indian is a Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, etc.

But the pits of Indian racism was exposed in an article by Malaysian veteran journalist Baradan Kuppusamy writing in Malaysiakini about the internal MIC manoeuvrings during its current party election campaign. He highlighted the case of MG Pandithan, the president of the Indian Progressive Front (IPF), who was formerly from the MIC.

Pandithan is a sworn enemy of Samy Vellu and, though seriously ill in hospital, continues to campaign against the MIC president. What has been sad about the whole sordid situation is the ugly business of the caste system that the Indians foolishly still subscribe to.

Pandithan is of the lowest caste. Once upon a time he would have been described as an ‘untouchable’ or the derogatory ‘pariah’. That term was euphemised by Mahatma Gandhi to ‘Harijan’ or ‘children of God’, based on the word ‘Hari’ being another appellation for Lord Vishnu.

But the caste itself rejected the term ‘Harijan’ as condescending and called themselves ‘Dalits’, meaning ‘The Oppressed’.

So Pandithan calls himself a Dalit and in fact chaired the first World Dalit Convention held in Kuala Lumpur in October 1998. Pandithan was then president of the World Dalit Association. He brought together Dalit leaders from all over the world, including India’s late bandit queen Phoolan Devi.

He says: “I am a Dalit ... we are the oppressed and the suppressed in the MIC and the community.”

Though he was ousted from MIC, his influence in the Indian community is obviously still significant because a stream of MIC brass had recently trooped in to visit him in hospital - separately of course.

They included his mortal enemy Samy Vellu, who had described him as a longkang politician, and Samy’s protégé Palanivel, and naturally the beneficiary of his anti-Samy Vellu campaigning, Subramaniam.

But the saddest part of all was while Pandithan was helping to get votes for Subramaniam, the latter was trying to put some distance between them. Baradan Kuppusamy attributed the seemingly strange reason to the MIC consciousness of caste. Upper caste MIC members would react badly if Subramaniam consorted with Pandithan, a Dalit. In fact, Subramaniam would lose votes.

Samy Vellu’s Tamil Nesan had exploited this Indian disgraceful discrimination by reporting that a Subramaniam victory would bring Pandithan in as Subramaniam’s successor as the next president of MIC. Baradan said Subramaniam was pissed off with that fabrication, but unfortunately for him (or maybe fortunately, because of his lack of courage) he lost some votes because of that.

Upper caste, my bloody foot. Those MIC leaders are no more than a bunch of pariahs, and I don’t mean that in a caste sense. They are just plain @rse-h*les.

But economically, how would we describe the status of the Indian Malaysians today? Have they, through pissed poor Indian leadership and government neglect, became Malaysia's de facto economic 'pariah'?

Terrorist Midgets killed by Israeli Missile Strikes

Israeli war planes fired several missiles at a van it claimed carried Islamist militants. Medics revealed that 11 people were killed, including two children. 42 others were woulded.

The high toll came about when Israeli fighter aircraft fired their missiles in densely populated areas. Their callous disregard for fatal harm to civilians has been an unrepentant show of arrogance despite the outcry over the deaths of seven Palestinians on a Gaza beach on Friday in an apparent Israeli shelling.

Aljazeera's also reported that among the dead, there were three members of al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of Islamic Jihad.

Palestinian witnesses said several missiles were fired at the vehicle. The second missile fired 2 minutes later killed two other people (probably the children). This occurred when a crowd had begun to gather around the scene of the attack. The reporter said an ambulance driver was among the dead.

In the meanwhile, an Israeli internal military inquiry has blamed Hamas for the death of the 7 people (including 3 kids) and 36 others wounded on a Gaza beach last week by Israeli artillery shelling, which I had blogged in Red Sand in the Promised Land.

This accusation of Hamas came after the Israeli military had earlier apologised for its disastrous targeting error. Not good to apologise – American Christian Right supporters, Israel's principal sponsors, may be revolted by killing of children. The Israeli inquiry said Hamas should be blamed for laying mines on the beach.

There you are, you have it with great authority that those Arabs are terrorists, unlike Israelis.

An army spokesman told the press proudly: "We have proceeded with detailed tests to get at the truth and it is clear that the certainty of responsibility by the Israeli army in this tragedy is diminishing more and more and that of the Palestinians increases."

Praise the lord, who is but One! With his blessings, the responsibility by his Chosen People will diminish to zilch, while that for the Palestinians, curse be unto those hewers of wood and drawers of water, will increase a zillion-fold.

But wait, another Israeli newspaper, the leftwing and more fair Haaretz carries a similar report, though it cautioned premature Israeli elation by the white-washing: "The importance of the committee's findings are obviously mitigated by the fact that ultimately, the IDF is being cleared by an IDF investigation."

My underlining & bolding above – isn't it so refreshing, revealing and reassuring to all of us that the Israeli military will, based on the findings of its own internal inquiry, clear its own killers of guilt and place the blame on its foe. C'mon, there’s no doubt Hamas has been guilty all along, as all Arabs ought to bloody automatically be. Anyway, it's meant for American readership, and f**k the rest of the world.

And regarding allegation of Israeli soldiers being wanton killers, please read No Big Deal - Just Untermenschen for an understanding of Israeli justice.

And bet you those two children slaughtered by the air missile strikes were undeclared adults, maybe terrorist midgets with nuclear war headed cruise missiles tucked away in their schoolbags.

Dr Azahari's spiritual leader freed from prison tomorrow

Australia is livid but there’s buggerall it can do, when Abu Bakar Ba'asyir is released tomorrow from prison, where he served his 30 months’ sentenced, though in less than that time because of the Indonesian practice of reducing sentences on auspicious occasions.

Abu Bakar is the spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiah (JI), a terrorist organisation that had conducted a series of suicide bombings in Indonesia, including twice in Bali. The first Bali bombing killed over 200 people, many of whom were Australian tourists including many women and children.

Only scumbags killed women and children.

JI is an affiliate of the terrorist al Qaeda. The West including Australia deem JI as a terrorist organisation and had tried but in vain to get Indonesia to so declare JI as such.

Many Indonesian high ranking officials including very senior ministers are supportive of JI as a Islamic religious organisation rather than one of terrorism, hence Indonesia’s reluctance to label it as illegal.

Abu Bakar was a teacher at an Islamic school right in the heartland of Javanese Indonesia, at Solo. He still insists he is just a simple preacher. He was sentenced and jailed for approving the Bali bombing, though a large number of more serious charges against him, including the planned assassination of former president Megawati Sukarnoputri, had been dropped.

During the Suharto regime, he sought refugee in Malaysia, and is believed to have set up a regional network of Islamic radicals that would later form the nucleus of JI. Abu Bakar has publicly voiced his support of Osama bin Laden though he claimed not to know the Saudi terrorist. Many including Australia and the USA are concerned his release may energize the region's small, radical fringe.

Australia had hitherto applied pressure on Indonesia not to grant clemency or reduce his sentence. Indonesia had acceded until Australia made a mistake in taking in West Papua refugees against the protestation of Indonesia. That’s when Indonesia (undoubtedly on the behest of those sympathetic to Abu Bakar) turned ugly and told Australia pointedly not to ever interfere with its planned release of Abu Bakar.

Australia's Foreign Minister has complied, putting on a brave face on its domestic front by spinning that the Indonesian authority will ensure Abu Bakar remains under close scrutiny. What he didn't tell the Australian public was the fact that many high Indonesian officials and politicians are sympathetic to JI.

Abu Bakar Ba'asyir walks completely free tomorrow, when there will be a hugh reception to welcome home the spiritual leader of JI. Several hundred of his supporters, mostly students bussed in from his Solo school, are expected at the prison gates to greet him.

Indonesia's State Intelligence Agency chief Syamsir Siregar said: "We hope Bashir, after he has been jailed, will regain his self-awareness and be willing to cooperate with us.”

Yeah, and pigs can fly.

Related:
(1) War of Dogs
(2) Unity in Diversity? – An Indonesian Worry<
(3) Azahari Husin - Doctor of Sufferings
(4) Dr Azahari Husin - From Fun Bloke to Murderous Terrorist
(5) Dr Azahari - from Mancester United to Jemaah Islamiyah

Suhakam shows why IPCMC vital

Here’s what the chairperson of the Malaysian Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) told the people those who went to complain about police brutality.

Suhakam needed more evidence before deciding on whether it should conduct a public inquiry into ‘alleged police brutality’ at a demonstration late last month. And according to him, the evidence would come from an internal police investigation into the matter.

Yes, I kid you not. Suhakam wants to wait for an internal police investigation into alleged police brutality before it would act.

Why then do we need Suhakam?

But wait, there’s more from chairperson Abu Talib. He said that Suhakam needed ‘credible’ evidence and testimonies from witnesses to determine if there was any ground for initiating an inquiry. He said the grievances expressed so far were ‘hearsay’ and ‘emotional’ rants from the injured parties and public.

So the complaints of the injured parties were hearsay? And those being bashed up by the police were emotionally ranting?

Well, in Abu Talib’s judgement, evidence and statements from the police investigation and witnesses would help to formulate the terms of reference of the public inquiry.

He said: “We need clear evidence that what is alleged in the memorandum can be supported by credible witnesses” presumably meaning the police?

He told Elizabeth Wong, secretary-general of the Human Rights Society of Malaysia (Hakam): “We cannot investigate every damn thing that you people want us to investigate.”

Of course not, especially when there are only photos and video clips to show FRU’s brutalities. We need the more reliable findings of the internal police investigation.

S Arutchelvan, Suaram secretariat member argued logically that investigating the truth behind the allegations of police brutality was exactly the mandate of the public inquiry.

He said: “We need the inquiry to find out the truth. If you don’t hold the inquiry, how would you know?”

Now, that sounds logical, though the chairperson firmly believed the findings of the internal police investigation would be more reliable.


Then he said something that the Suhakam chairperson seized upon swiftly: "If you are not interested to hold an inquiry, then we also are not interested in sitting here.”

To which Abu Talib said: “Then you're invited to leave.”

Hardly surprising when the 30-odd representatives then walked out of the room.

After the walkout, Arutchelvan dismissed Abu Talib’s statements as nonsense. He accused the Suhakam chairperson of insulting human rights organisations. He said: “There is no commitment on the part of Suhakam to hold a public inquiry. We don’t want excuses and we don’t want to hear any of this nonsense.”

Abu Talib described the walkout as “a demonstration of bias on the part of the parties”. He added that they were being unfair to the police.

All I want to say is thank goodness we have a brand new Suhakam under former Attorney General Abu Talib to look after police rights.

photos by Jeff Ooi of Screenshot

al Zarqawi kicked to death

There’s a lot of dodgy US accounts of the death of al Zarqawi. First, they said he was killed right away in the air strike, then they said he was still breathing and mumbling a few words before he expired. They even claimed to be resuscitating him to keep him alive.

Maj Gen William Caldwell, a US. military spokesman in Baghdad initially told reporters: "He was dead when we arrived there."

Then one day later he changed his story to Zarqawi was clinging to life when Iraqi and, later, American forces arrived at the scene of the bombing that killed him. Apparently when the Americans arrived, he was already restrained to a stretcher, tried to move but obviously couldn’t and mumbled something indistinguishable.

Caldwell said: "Everybody re-secured him back onto the stretcher, but he died almost immediately thereafter from the wounds he'd received from this air strike."

Note what he said, that Iraqi forces arrived before US troops.

However, Ali Abbas, a man living nearby the building bombed by the US airstrike witnessed how Zarqawi was killed. He said that Zarqawi was still alive when he was being evacuated by some locals from the house that was destroyed by US warplanes.

The Americans, and not Iraqi troops, arrived first, and finding Zarqawi still alive, assaulted him.

The Washington Post said Ahmed Mohammed, a local resident who rushed to the scene shortly after the bombs helped others pull Zarqawi from the rubble. Ahmad also said that when the US forces arrived, they took Zarqawi aside and kept asking him his name. When he did not respond, the soldiers kicked him and hit him until his nose began to bleed.

Besides Zarqawi, the air strike killed his spiritual adviser, Sheik Abdel Rahman, another man and three women. Initially there was a report that a couple of female children died but the Americans changed the story to 3 women instead. I suppose killing women doesn't sound as bad as killing kids.

Then the villagers of Hibhib, where Zarqawi was killed, said US forces had raided several other houses in the vicinity one day later, killing four people and wounding four others. Why, the Americans didn't respond nor explain.

About 4 miles away from where Zarqawi died US soldiers burst into a house in the early hours of around 4:15 a.m. The occupant, Ayad Abdul Hadi Hirmis al-Ibadi, said the American intruders hit him with their rifles and kicked him as he lay on the ground.

When his brother came to his aid, he was shot and killed. His father, who was on the roof of the house, was also shot and killed. His home was virtually destroyed, its walls blackened and pockmarked with bullet holes, its roof riddled with large holes. Ho hum, just some rag heads.

Colonel Fadhil Azzawi, chief of the Hibhib police force, said it was unclear why the Ibadis' home was targeted. He described the family as Shiite Muslims. Most of the insurgents linked to Zarqawi, who had called for a war against Shiites, are Sunni Arabs.

But the Americans obviously couldn’t distinguish a Shiite from a Botswanan, let alone a Sunni, nor would they be bothered. After all, they were all Arabs, weren’t they, including those women/female kids.

While very few would shed a tear over Zarqawi, a terrorist who was frown upon even by Osama bin Laden for the former’s loose cannon crazy car bombings of even Iraqis, the US unmitigated killing of women and children in the process of killing Zarqawi shows a callous disregard for innocent Iraqi lives by American troops. It's the usual collateral damage approach.

It’s hardly surprising that some of them had massacred Iraqi families including toddlers in Haditha a la My Lai. They have inherited the tradition of Wounded Knee, where they (US government) stole native properties and then had the US 7th Calvary massacred them, complete with a full inquiry and the usual and not unexpected full exoneration for the officer responsible for the slaughter.

It's the way of the American military.

p/s

The US 7th Calvary was decimated by the American natives at Little Big Horn.

Pitiful, Pathetic, Piffling PKR

Dr Mahathir is pissed off, while I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. And the cause of my tickled or aching ribs, and Mahathir’s annoyance?

Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) has lodged a police report against Dr Mahathir for being CRUEL, yes, cruel (zalim) to the Barisan National (BN) Government, to wit, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Now you know why I have a low opinion of PKR.

Let’s recall the life and career of PKR or Keadilan, as it was then called. Firstly, it started life as a one-issue party, to free Anwar Ibrahim. That’s fair enough because we all have a cause of sorts. If Keadilan’s cause was to free Anwar Ibrahim, then bravo to them. In fact, many people were sympathetic to that cause and flocked to its banner, making it virtually the No 1 opposition party.

PAS and DAP saw in the immensely popular Keadilan as a core for a combined opposition a la the 1969 Gerakan Party.

But somewhere along the way, that was before Anwar was released, it became subordinate to PAS, when ironically, as I just commented, Keadilan had been the leading opposition party, the leader of the pack.

I reckon it might have been due to Dr Wan Azizah’s inexperience but one could hardly blame her. However, its party leaders (ex UMNO, some of whom had already returned to UMNO), those advisors to Dr Wan Azizah, should take the major portion of the blame that allowed clever PAS to siphon off its leadership and some of its supporters until it became no more than just a subordinate appendage of PAS, in terms of direction, policy and presence.

A friend who was a PKR member related to me with much sighing that Keadilan had depended too much on PAS infrastructure and network to dare to stop its encroaching dominance. It came to a stage when PAS could veto the candidature of Dr Syed Husin for the Kota Baru seat, at that point demarcating clearly the role reversal for PKR (Keadilan), from primus inter pares (1st among equals) of the opposition parties to a mere subordinate of PAS.

We know that Keadilan’s initial popularity was in a large way influenced by a mixture of sympathy for Anwar Ibrahim’s incarceration and intense dislike for Mahathir’s style of government, even though Anwar had been part of that government.

In fact Anwar was on the eve of taking over from Mahathir when he made an error. Unlike Abdullah Badawi, he was too impatient and moved too soon against Mahathir. The saying that best describes his f**kup at the threshold of his premiership would be “There’s many a slip twixt the cup and the lip.”

But Mahathir was so unpopular that even Anwar’s UMNO-ness was forgiven. After the 1999 general election, either Mahathir decided that Malaysia would be safe in the hands of Abdullah Badawi, allowing him to retire, or he saw the writing on the wall, that he was the political magnetic pole that repulsed people/voters to Anwar’s opposite pole. He wisely left.

When one removes black away from what was thought to be white (because black makes almost everything white by comparison), the white wasn’t all that white. In Mahathir’s absence, the sympathy for Anwar evaporated. People began to recall who he had been, which party he belonged to, and what had been his track record. Even the late MGG Pillai, who wrote often for PKR, mentioned that at Anwar's level of UMNO leadership, he would have wallowed in the deeper end of the UMNO cesspool.

There was worse to come. Whatever was the deal (or no deal) that led to his release from prison, Anwar had since disappointed many of his erstwhile supporters who had dreamed of him leading PKR to greatness, even as an opposition party. That may explain why a marvelous man like Dr Syed Husin chose to merge his socialist party with Keadilan to form PKR. He too must have shared that dream; he too would now be regretting merging his party with Keadilan.

Immediately after his release, do you remember how his aides guarded and surrounded him like he was the absolute monarch of the nation at his house, Malaysia’s Buckingham Palace? And how Abdullah Badawi’s son-in-law made a seemingly visit of ‘homage’ to his ‘royal court’, though officially it was only to hand over a passport for Anwar Ibrahim.

Since then, Anwar Ibrahim has been playing coy about his rejoining UMNO. Initially he avoided giving an answer, but when he finally said he won’t rejoin, he would always add a caveat, a qualification, that seems to leave an opening for him, should he rejoin UMNO, to subsequently say that the ‘conditions’ that had made him say ‘no’ no longer exists.

I am not sure whether it has been the cleverness of Abdullah Badawi or his advisor (you know who) that kept Anwar Ibrahim at arms length yet never letting him lose too much hope (of rejoining UMNO), like a master angler playing a hungry toman or haruan. That brilliant tactic had been debilitating for Anwar's political standing, making him lose heart-broken supporters (who don’t want to see him back in UMNO but realises where Anwar's heart lies) and thus credibility.

His recent public campaigning for PAS in Pengkalan Pasir and PKR itself in Kuching produced non-rewarding outcomes, in reality disasters, signaling the so-called reformasi warrior had lost whatever luster he had as a vote winner.

Has this latest idiotic move by PKR, in reporting Dr Mahathir as being cruel to the UMNO Government (and thus the UMNO president) a desperate move to attract cheap publicity and arrest its flagging strength?

One could provide a variety of possible reasons for its action, but none would be complimentary to its credibility. Maybe PKR should now commit political euthanasia, while Anwar Ibrahim, who still retains his Datukship, continues his career and circuit speeches in the Western academia.

It’s agonizing for its erstwhile supporters and sympathizers to see PKR in political terminal illness, and its latest laughable/sorrowful antic has not help its pitiful, pathetic and piffling image. PKR should in fact report itself to the police for being cruel to its once-admirers.

Strange Scribblings found at Petronas Building

The following scribbling was found on a discarded crumbled note outside the Petronas Building. The wind must have blown it from a rubbish bin onto the lawn where I found it.
********

Elegant silence! Next they would be even saying Zen-like elegance from Fu Mountain.

Fu Mountain larn tooi, it’s more like Mah Fu Lat Mountain.

Of course he had to keep silent because he couldn’t f**king answer those questions. Who’s the sand master leading to the cancellation of the kiieow?

C.N.N.W.K (good ole Sam taught me this phrase)

Sekarang apa lah! Kena pay contractors RM730 million to cancel a RM1 billion bridge! And those stupid people think Sifu $ is prudent and thrifty, while I was profligate in my spending. At least with me, those who are now criticising me would have had a bridge. But with the Sifaat, apa ada?

Bike! – assets worth hundreds of millions of ringgit sold out for a couple of Euro. Who has benefited? Please tell me. Ooh, elegant silence. Pundeeh, T.N.S

And they complained about me. If not for me, those clowns would still be tapping rubber and fishing ikan gelama. Bloody ingrates.

Karn Nee Nay, that bloody Musang praised that Sifaat from Mah Fu Lart Mountain character for refusing to account for hundreds of millions gone to the wind, as the mark of a very good leader. I know that foxy bastard is getting his own back at me.

Then, even that Bai from the rocket company told me to shut up and not criticise $, when he, orang rocket, should be supporting my right to speak up. He hates me, that’s all. Has he lost his principle of freedom of speech in his turban?

Elegant eh! Bloody bugger has used his secret weapon against transparency and accountability. Why didn’t I think of this tactic before, but no use lah. Those people like the Bai would say I dare not answer, that I have something to hide. But with $, he gets away, and elegantly too. K.N.N.

K.N.N, M.K.H – I love these Chinese words, so appropriate for such depressing moments. I wonder what that Ling put in that tea he gave me when we were at U-TAR? Fit only for an emperor, he said. Didn’t know those Chinese emperors swear like a Penang Jetty stevedore, because ever since I yum that cha, I have taken to M.F.L, T.N.M.K.H, T.N.S, C.C.B, M.K.H. But my favourite when I think of that ‘elegant’ word is still Sam’s C.N.N.W.K.

And some bloody Arab bloke has the bloody nerve to comment that I was devoid of intellectualism compared to that treacherous chameleon, a hypocritical tok ampu himself.

Hey, f**ker, I am not an intellectual eh? Eat this 'Si monumentum requiris, circumspice.'

And if that pariah doesn’t know what that means, it's ‘If you seek his monument, look around you’.

Yah, all you f**kers, look bloody around you in Malaysia, and ask yourself who has done it for you all, you bloody ingrates? That ‘elegant' Zen Master from Mah Fu Lat Mountain, or that treacherous chameleon, or that black Musang, or Bai?

It has been me, I, moi, je, naan, nenu, aku, saya, wa, woh, ngo, limpeh, watashi, p’om, ich, and for those green turbaned hypocrites, ana, ana, ana.

I did it for everyone. I did it my way. Yes, I did it in my crude inelegant style. F**k you all, T.N.S

Gringo "World"(?) Series

This is a classic example of why the USA is completely out of touch with the rest of the world.

While the entire global population, save for said Americans, are engrossed with the leading sporting event of the world, the FIFA World Cup tournament, the United States is hardly aware of its occurrence, even though its national team is actually in the tournament as one of the strongest teams.

One US soccer fan said: “We had baseball, American football, basketball long before soccer and so they took a big share of big business. Unless there is big money in the game, soccer will just remain one of the many sports. But we are growing and one day we will be there.”

Maybe his analysis sums up the American approach to all things in life – is there money in it?

Just to demonstrate the katak di bawah tempurung mentality (= frog under a coconut shell = insular minded), a group of baseball fans outside New York Mets Stadium was asked: “What is the world’s most popular sport that is going on right now?”

Their immediate answer was “baseball, the World Series.”

The Americans have the thick-skin to title their American games participated by only American teams as 'World Series', but it does indicate the American worldview that they are at the centre of the universe, which extends to the south up to the US-Mexico border, to the north at the US-Canadian border, and by their mainland east and west coastline, with Hawaii and Alaska tucked away somewhere but protected by their massive naval fleets.

Until a decade ago, baseball as a game of some note was confined to the USA and Japan, the last principally because of US occupation of, and subsequently American presence and sporting influence in that country.

It might shock Americans to learn that in the eyes of the sporting world, baseball is pathetically insignificant or even ignored when compared to the 'beautiful game' of soccer - Americans won’t or can't call it football because their brand of football is where the players have to take numerous timeouts (breaks) to ask the coach in which direction they ought to be playing the ball to.

In the initial days when introducing football (or soccer) to the USA, FIFA was shocked when the American sporting entrepeneurs suggested a few changes to the game to assist its growth in popularity in the USA - namely, increase the width of the goal-mouth, and remove the off-side rule.

The Americans explained that their spectators didn't like games with small scores or worse, draws. They said they couldn't understand how Europeans could oohs and aahs a goal-less game. That mentality could explain why the fabrication of 'body counts' in the Vietnam War become a daily morning US military ritual in Saigon. Americans like to see a soccer game with scores like 157-129 - or body counts of "192 Vietcongs killed* in yesterday's bombing run over the Vietnam-Cambodia border."

* the counts were based on the probability of x persons being killed in y square miles when z tons of bombs were dropped

Unlike the rest of the world they don't and just can't see 'beauty' or 'poetry in motion' in dribbling, passes, dummies, etc.

Fortunately FIFA told them to f**k off with their rules-change suggestions and, if they want to play football, to join the rest of the world. Thank goodness for us that football was big enough with or without American participation, and thus safe from their crass influence, where we get to keep the beauty of the game unsullied.

Imagine, Netherlands beat Germany 157-129! Ayoyo, I squirm at that very thought of a football game producing that kind of crass scores. God, what stupid play would have been involved?

By the way, my Argentinean friend objected to my referring to citizens of the USA as Americans. He said the term 'Americans' cover the people of many North and South American nations like Argentina. So what do I call them?

He suggested ‘gringos’.

Likud & Hamas - an illict relationship

The Palestinians are about to have a monumental split, just what the Israeli doctor has ordered for the health of the Jewish nation.

While the legally elected government of Hamas has refused to recognise Israel, which I have gathered from several news sources, as a tactic to get the Israelis to move back to the 1967 borders, President Mahmoud Abbas (belonging to the rival opposition party Fatah) has ignored the constitutionally elected government by calling for a referendum on July 26. He wants the Palestinian people to vote on the question of recognition of Israel.

Hamas Prime Minister Ismael Haniyeh has warned the President that the referendum would cause a deep division among the Palestinian people that will take decades to overcome. Hamas MP Mushir Masri has dismissed the move as a sour grape coup attempt by Abbas and his Fatah faction.

"It is an attempt to create an uprising in the Palestinian lands and to move against what's legal. Moreover it's the announcement of a historic division and break amongst the Palestinian people and an escape from the reality of dialogue.”

"We are astonished at the attempt to recognise Israel and push people towards giving up their principles and rights."

But Abbas has been under enormous pressure from the Bush Administration to comply, that is, to force a de jure recognition of Israel over Hamas objection. Hamas is concerned that recognition of Israel at this stage will see the aggressive Israeli government refusing to move back to the 1967 borders as it had already indicated through its avowal to retain large Israeli settlements on Palestinian land in the West Bank, which unfortunately though not surprisingly has been approved by a biased President Bush.

The Israelis and their American sponsor, supporter and servant (all rolled into one) assessed that with a financially deprived Palestinian Authority, they would now find it easy to twist Abbas’ elbow into acceding to their bully boy tactics.

To be fair, Abbas is reasonably level headed and practical, but unfortunately he is not completely devoid of a conflict of interest because he is head of the Fatah party which lost the last election to Hamas. Obviously Abbas also wants to revive his party’s fortune, which had been viewed by Palestinians as corrupt and ineffective when compared to the clean and more caring Hamas.

And Americans and Israelis, particularly the former, just love to deal with corrupt Arab authorities. Money speaks, and the USA has money to shell out to brutal dictators like Saddam Hussein and a host of others stretching from South America across to Eastren Europe and the Middle East and right through to Asia.

When the US and Israelis intermittently released Palestinian tax revenue (collected by Israel at border points) and international funds to the Palestinian Authority they made much ado about such releases being made personally to President Abbas, to raise his stock among the Palestinian people.

Israel has also arranged for the supply of light weapons and ammunition to Abbas in order for him to cope with Hamas. It is only one of several surprise moves by both Israel and Abbas to isolate the ruling Hamas party. Amos Gilad, a senior Israeli defense official told Israel Radio:

"The arms supply will bolster Abbas in carrying out his brave decision to confront Hamas"

Not many people realise this, that it was Israel itself (or to be more precise, the Likud Party) which funded Hamas directly and indirectly over a period of years since the late 1970s. Several current and former US intelligence officials have confirmed this.

Tony Cordesman, one of the most experienced and reputable Middle East analysts for the Center for Strategic Studies said the Israelis had intended to use Hamas as a counterbalance to the PLO, Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Liberation Organization.

A former senior CIA official said that Israel's support for Hamas was a direct attempt to divide and dilute support for a strong, secular PLO by using a competing religious alternative, just as Israel is doing the exact opposite today.

The Israel-based Institute for Counter Terrorism showed that Hamas was legally registered in Israel in 1978 by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the movement's spiritual leader, as an Islamic Association by the name Al-Mujamma al Islami.

Paul Joseph Watson of Prisonplanet.com said the “objectives of Hamas dovetail with those of the Likud, no settlement at all costs. Whenever the prospect of a workable peace settlement between the Israelis and Palestinians arises, Hamas or one of their offshoots blows a bus, restaurant or a hotel to pieces. This gives Israel the justification needed to scupper any agreement and further entrench their occupation of disputed lands."

"All the outsider sees is carnage, death and a mainstream media that spins the issue so that these atrocities somehow represent the wishes of the Palestinian people.”

Read Watson’s article here about the link between Likud Party and Hamas, and the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, the man who would have brought peace to the Israeli-Palestine conflict, and who could have been responsible for his murder.

Years later, after the Iranian revolution when Islamic movements drew strength from the example of their Iranian (albeit Shiite) brethren, and when the Shiite Hezbollah demonstrated that they were able to resist effectively against Israel, the Israeli saw their sponsored and supported creation, Hamas, growing into a more frightening opposition than Fatah. Last year Israel murdered Hamas spiritual leader, the quadriplegic Sheik by missile attacks.

If now, more Israelis suffer because of Hamas abandoning the ceasefire that it had voluntarily observed for a year, because of the unmitigated slaughter of innocent Paletsinians by Israeli artillery, they would only be reaping the evil of the satanic seed sown by their Likud Party.

Likud of course still hasn’t learnt because it has now switched its support to Fatah. But the Palestinians are equally stupid to allow themselves to be manipulated by the Israelis, though can you blame them when even the most powerful nation in the world obeys a tiny little country like Israel.

PAS anak jantan to ape Palestinian tactics

Referring to the recent opposition-led protest rallies against fuel price and electricity tariffs increase, the PM said such activities were counterproductive to the nation’s and thus the people’s benefit, as those would disrupt business and adversely affect the economy.

He criticized in his inscrutable Fu Mountain style – basically low key a la ‘mailed fist in a velvet glove’ – the threat by PAS president Hadi Awang that he (the latter) would not stop party members from demonstrating, including throwing stones at the police.

Abdullah Badawi said: "This is bad advice. This should not have come from a party leader who should be advocating peace and security in the country. Why throw stones at the police?"

Earlier, Hadi Awang told a news conference after the PAS Muktamar (conference) in Alor Setar that street protests were the best way for the party to show its dissatisfaction with the government.

He said that if the police used batons, the demonstrators could retaliate by throwing stones found by the roadside.

PAS vice-president Mohamad Sabu wanted to escalate any confrontation with the police, by having ulamak to lead the crowd during street demonstrations. He reckoned there’ll be hell to pay if the police bashed any ulamak (Islamic leaders and religious teachers).

Hell to pay? Maybe not in the literal but political-social sense, but then, with most pronouncements from PAS, who knows?

Guess where he obtained his idea from? Yes, from the Middle East.

He said: “This is how the Hamas (Palestine) and Hisbollah (Lebanon) movements gain massive public support.”

“The public is not bothered when unknown youths get beaten up during the demonstrations. If Mat Sabu or (PAS youth chief) Salehuddin Ayub are harmed, people will say depa to memang lok lak (they are looney).”

I am not sure who he has referred to as looney? The police for bashing up the ulamak, or the PAS leaders for putting themselves in a situation where they get bashed up?

Maybe Tian Chua of PKR, who’s always getting bashed up by the police (except for the last rally) can provide some advice.

Then Mohamad Sabu raised the stakes by playing on the anak-jantan-ness (male pride) of any ulamak who may still be hesitant. He declared that if the men were afraid to take matters to the streets, then the Muslimat (Muslim women) in PAS would be ready for jihad (holy war).

He pre-emptively insulted the ulamak: “If you (the men) are afraid, you might as well wear sarong and stay home. Let the women fight your battle. We talk about struggle, but we are not willing to make the sacrifice.”

Nice tactic in a macho society - he sure knew which button to press. He added more spice to his call by ruling that women needn't seek their husband’s permission to be involved in jihad.

Maybe stirred by Mohamad Sabu's taunting, and to show he is an anak jantan, PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang hopped in to say: “I myself go down to the ground to hold demonstrations.”

But he spoilt his grandstanding somewhat by revealing why he’s not afraid: “Some of us even had tear gas in our eyes. But the police do not arrest us (the ulamak). The police tend to arrest the young ones. The police are considerate towards us (elderly ulamak).”

In that case, I believe the best solution for PAS would be to have only elderly ulamak rather than any young supporters in the rallies. That way, the rallies will be religiously Teflon coated. Mind you, having only all of PAS elderly ulamak may be a wee too tempting for the authorities - you know, all eggs in one basket?

Well, dear politicians, two wrongs don’t make one right!

Firstly, peaceful protest rallies are part and parcel of the democratic process. They shouldn’t even need a police permit so long as responsible organisers informed police well in advance so that traffic control management can be in place to avoid any public traffic disruption. The two parties could even discuss the optimum time for the protest so as to avoid peak hour traffic upheavals. The protest should never inconvenience the general public for that would be counter-productive to the political cause.

Malaysians protesting peacefully in public should be an accepted norm of our democratic society. There is no more communist threat to our nation, with the Last Communist existing only on celluloid. The PM who is also Internal Security Minister must restore full or at least maximum possible democratic rights and practices to Malaysians. Peaceful protest rallies, and not the UMNO type that aggressively disrupted Aptet II, have be one of these inalienable rights.

Restricting or prohibiting peaceful rallies by opposition parties through the illegal private use of public funded police force is not only undemocratic and UMNO-kiasu but engenders a police state, where the guards themselves may seize power from their masters (or political stooges). We have just witnessed the incipient stage of this dreaded possibility.

As for Hadi Awang, what he has threatened is terrible. Even if the police employed barbaric samseng (gangster) tactics to disperse and intimidate the rallies, he should advise his supporters to maintain the high moral ground as befitting sensible guidance by a leader of a political party, which aspires to be the alternative government.

By encouraging PAS supporters to throw stones, he would actually be falling into the police trap, where the oppressors would then seize the high moral ground and, worse, gain the legitimacy to physically restrain protestors, which may involve ‘very robust and extremely forceful’ means.

Hadi Awang, please do not try to imitate desperate Palestinians. What Arabs do are not necessarily the best solution for Malaysians, for the reason Malaysians are not Palestinians, and Malaysia not Palestine.

What we have is not a situation of foreign occupation and brutal oppression of our society, where we don’t have the necessary weaponry to battle foreign soldiers with guns, tanks and gunships. What we actually have here is a privileged class of Malaysians attempting to silence the rest of Malaysian society from criticising their bad policies and management. It is our nation’s internal problem and must be dealt with in a different manner, preferably through the ballot boxes.

While the Malaysian electoral process had suffered from gerrymandering, official bias from virtually every public department, misuse of public property for the ruling party’s advantage, etc, the fact that our society has continued to elect candidates from the opposition parties, and significantly in 1969 and 1999, presents hope for us.

And one last word to Mohamad Sabu – it’s better for Malaysian men to wear Malaysian sarongs rather than Arab garb. Apart from pride in our national costumes, it’s a more practical form of dressing for our hot and very humid environment. We aren’t in the very dry dusty dehydrating hot day-cold night climate of the deserts.

Please keep our affairs within a Malaysian context, and don't Arab-ise our society, culture and politics in a mindless fashion. You may even get some votes from the non-Muslims if you demonstrate your inclusive Malaysian-ness.

Uniformed Public Extortionist

An auditor, Chong Yaw Huei, suffered extortion of RM250. The extortionist? A police sergeant at the Sea Park police station.

Chong had parked his Proton Wira outside his house, when he found it was stolen one night. He made a report immediately. Two weeks later the insurance officer informed Chong that his car has been found and left at the Sea Park police station.

Chong, told the press: “I went to the station with an insurance claims adjuster and a mechanic from the towing company, but the sergeant refused to release my car.”

The mechanic then offered to pay the sergeant RM100, but was turned down, yet the sergeant refused to release the car. The mechanic told Malaysiakini that it was standard practice for investigating officers to receive between RM50 to RM100 before releasing stolen cars.

He added: “I don’t know why that sergeant did not want the money, he told me ‘saya bukan kuli, saya IO’ (I am not a labourer, I am the investigating officer), maybe he wanted more.”

Indeed he did.

Chong, though frustrated, went back to the police station on 2 days later with another mechanic who negotiated with the police sergeant until a sum of RM250 saw the car released.

Chong said that he intends to lodge a report with the Anti Corruption Agency (ACA). But will it be of any use, considering the police even dare threaten the PM and Malaysian public. The ACA would only act with approval from above.

Malaysiakini tried to get the Sea Park police station to provide its side of the story but its call to the station went unanswered.

Our publicly paid uniformed extortionist, but why should we be shocked.

Anwar Ibrahim: AAB must answer Mahathir!"

In my posting Sweet & Sour Po ..... litics I commented on how politics make strange bedfellows, when Tengku Razaleigh or as his affectionately called, Ku Li, once Mahathir’s bête noire could come out to defend the doctor’s right to criticise PM Abdullah Badawi.

I remarked that all it needs to complete the crazy sleazy world of Malaysian politics would be for reformasi champion, Anwar Ibrahim to speak up in support of Mahathir's right to criticise, but I was doubtful about that because I thought that would jeopardise Anwar’s chances to return to UMNO.

Well, let it not be said that KTemoc doesn’t admit his mistake, because I have to say I have been wrong, but only partially. Why only partially? Please read on.

Anwar Ibrahim has called on PM Abdullah Badawi to answer Dr Mahathir’s criticism of several issues that the current government has, in Mahathir’s eyes, badly managed. He wants Abdullah Badawi to respond to allegations concerning the economy, corruption (AP issue; multi-million ringgit Augusta bike sell-off for 2 Euro), the media and the judiciary.

Anwar said he wasn’t interested in personality issues such as Mahathir’s remarks about Abdullah Badawi being only his second choice.

He fired a salvo at Mahathir about the doctor’s complaint of being blacked out by the press, that the media was less constrained during his PM-ship or that the judiciary had more credibility then. Anwar said only ignorant people or those oblivious to the stark reality would believe so.

He commented on Abdullah’s current difficulties with Mahathir: “At least Abdullah has not been assaulted or stripped naked or thrown into jail. He should be thankful that he is now a prime minister. If he is still the deputy, God save him. Because then all the instruments of the government, the police, the judiciary and the media, will be used to hammer him without any possibility of defence.”

A bit of self-pity or self-martyr-ising here, though of course there is no denying Anwar had suffered. But one could comment that Abdullah has been smarter in waiting for Mahathir to exit before he started dismantling the ole man’s policies and projects.

Anwar said Mahathir is suffering from delusion about his stewardship of the country: “He is surrounded by tok ampu (apple polishers) who never tell him the real picture. That is why he never gets the real truth. In that sense, I pity the man.”

Hmmm, wasn’t Anwar Ibrahim once one of those tok ampu? Let’s just recollect what he said on 12 August 1998 during the opening of the Penang UMNO building. That was when UMNO rumours began to circulate of a rift between Anwar and Mahathir because of the belief that Anwar was going for broke for the presidency of UMNO:

"I have said this many times, but it has all been for nought, but right here in front of my Penang friends, I want to announce my full support and loyalty to Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamed for him to remain as party president."

"Dr. Mahathir is not a new leader. He has vast experience in all matters. If you compare me to him, I am just a student. I can never go against my mentor, much less my father. We may have some differences but it is impossible to believe that these petty differences will split us up. When it comes to important matters, including economic issues, we stand united."

Well, … mentor-student, vast experience in all matters and father-son ... what do we make of those sweet endearing words?

Anyway, let's leave Anwar to his own track record while we now turn to his full broadside on Abdullah Badawi. Anwar pontificated:

“Towards the end of Dr Mahathir’s premiership, the stable institution of the economy has declines adversely [...] there was a lack of confidence in governance, rampant corruption, widespread nepotism, decline in foreign investment. These are serious issues.”

“Unfortunately, under Abdullah nothing seems to change. There is no direction. Apart from impressive rhetoric and pronouncement, I see no implementation. So certainly the present condition is certainly not satisfactory.”

I did say I was “only partially wrong” because Anwar didn’t actually defended Mahathir’s right to criticise, as had Ku Li. Anwar used Mahathir’s criticisms of Abdullah Badawi as a vehicle to launch his own attacks on Abdullah’s performance.

Certainly an attitude that's quite different from when he was first released from prison. Maybe some promises had not been kept?

But, it’s once again vintage post-incarceration Anwar when he was asked whether he would be willing to sit down and discuss with Ku Li and, holy Moses and glory be, his Nemesis Mahathir about issues involving the Malays. Anwar first meandered around the query like the now-brackish Ayer Itam river, not really going anywhere.

He declared his interest was more focused on a wider cross section of the people, meaning of course the inclusion of non-Malays, his hopeful future constituencies. But when pressed, he didn’t reject the suggestion but instead said he would study any proposal forwarded to him.

He added: “For the people’s benefit, UMNO leaders must do the necessary to stop corruption, ensure a free media and continue the reform. If you have a problem with the agenda of the people, talk to them [...] this would be more useful.”

Very motherhood statements without even missing the good PR “for the people’s benefit” prefix, and more significantly, "UMNO leaders". Did he include himself?

What a politician, never ever closing the door to any options.

To the Anwaristas, sorry if I sound sceptical but alas, I have lost what little faith that I had in him.

Red Sand in the Promised Land

During the weekend holiday in northern Gaza, indiscriminate Israeli artillery firing have massacred Palestinian civilians having a picnic at a beach in Bait Lahiya, killing seven people, including three children, and wounding 36 others.

Five of those murdered were members of the Ghali family from Gaza. Besides the dead parents, Ali and Raisa, their 3 children aged one, three and 10 all died alongside.

1-year old, 3-year old, 10-year old kids!

Just like those poor Jewish children murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust in WWII. And who have been the modern day Nazis?

The barrage created a bloody carnage on the beach, scattering body parts all over. The sand of the Promised Land turned red on that Bloody Friday.

Ambulance ferried terrified crying children injured in the attack to nearby hospitals in Jabalya and Gaza City, where PM Ismail Haniya visited them.

President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the attack as the obvious, a bloody massacre. He said: "What the Israeli occupation forces are doing in the Gaza Strip constitutes a war of extermination and bloody massacres against our people."

He asked, probably in vain, the international community, including the US, Europe and the Security Council, to intervene.

There was deafening silence from the US State Department. After all, it was just bloody untermenschen (subhuman) Arabs being killed by their (the US') Masters, the biblical Master race.

UK Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said London was "deeply concerned by reports of the deaths from Israeli shelling of civilians, including children, on a Gaza beach".

"Deeply concerned"? What if it had been Palestinians killing Israelis?

In addition to the beach slaughter, the same Bloody Friday saw an Israeli air strike near Gaza City that wounded several Palestinian civilians. Palestinian officials said the air strike killed a man travelling in a car. Ah, just more subhumans.

The Israeli attack had the usual excuses that those were in retaliation for rocket firing into Israel. What they didn’t say was the rockets were being fired in retaliation for Israel's killing of Samhadana, a Palestinian government official. Samhadana and three others were killed in an Israeli air strike on a training camp. Israel of course said he was a legitimate target.

For several months, the Israelis have been pounding away indiscriminately at open areas such as fields and orchards in what it termed as an effort to prevent Palestinian militants using them to fire their rockets into nearby Israeli (stolen) territory.

But I reckon it has been an Israeli campaign of terror, knowing full well that innocent civilians would be killed. The aim obviously has been to send a message of intimidation to the Palestinians, just as it had been in the financial blockade of the Hamas government.

Another aim would be to provoke Hamas into retaliatory actions, so that the Israelis could point out to the world that the Palestinian terrorists are terrorising again, while for similar murderous actions by the State of Israel, those would by contrast be only security or pacification campaigns.

When a so-called State targets and murders another State's official as it wishes, without doubt an act of terror, and unsurprisingly minus any restraint or criticism by its principal supporter the USA, so-called paragon of democracy and due process, then we ought not to be surprised that the cycle of violence continues to be perpetrated.

If we traced the chicken & egg trail of violence, we can see that it all started with the Balfour Declaration, when the British, under the influence of the rich and powerful Zionist movement and with the support of a guilt-stricken Europe, took Arab land away to give to victims of European murderous oppression?

So now, the inevitable has come about - Israeli terrorism will undoubtedly provoke renewed Palestinian terrorism. Hamas' military wing has threatened to resume attacks on Israel in the wake of a series of massacres. The group has been observing a self-imposed ceasefire for more than a year.

BBC's Simon Wilson in Jerusalem said that, while there have been Hamas threats of responsing to other Israeli attacks in recent months, the latest announcement is significant because it appears on the official website of the armed wing of the group. Hamas' political wing hasn't yet made any comments.

WARNING: Criticisms* against Israel on the massacre will be deemed as anti-Semitism, and the critics as Dhimmis.

* "deeply concerned" is the maximum allowable before intruding into anti-Semitism

Related:
(1) Who is the terrorist?
(2) Who is the terrorist? (2)
(3) Who are the Untermenschen?
(4) No Big Deal - Just Untermenschen

Sweet & Sour Po ..... litics

Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah (Ku Li) supported Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s right to criticise PM Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s leadership.

Ku Li revealed that Dr Mahathir told him the doctor's unhappiness over the way Abdullah Badawi had managed certain issues like the AP scandal, which had threatened Proton, and the trade agreement with Japan which he felt would not benefit Malaysia.

However, Ku Li didn't mention the scenic bridge.

Ku Li said: "We spoke generally as one does when meeting an old friend. He is a man concerned about many things. He is the man who started Proton. He feels strongly about it. Rightly or wrongly, he has a right to air his views. Tun Mahathir is someone who never minces his words. If he has something to say, he says it."

Ku Li added diplomatically: "But, I’m sure Abdullah has his reasons (for pursuing certain policies)."

"Any rift will have an effect on the party and nation. Whether you like it or not, Dr Mahathir has been on the scene for more than 20 years, and has many supporters. Why are we fighting among ourselves? We must try to avoid (a confrontation) and resolve it so that we can move forward."

Ku Li couldn’t help criticising Abdullah Badawi’s lacklustre performance thus far:

"The mandate won by the Barisan Nasional in the 2004 general election made people optimistic about the future. Many statements were made by the leadership and expectations were high."

"But now, they think the economy is not moving forward. They are hoping things will improve. They had experienced a buoyant and vibrant economy before (during Dr Mahathir’s time). But this has not recurred."

Ku Li said everyone needed to co-operate to ensure the success of the 9MP.

So we have Mahathir’s original arch foe defending him, while Abdullah Badawi, once in Ku Li’s camp, had ignored Ku Li like the plague. Now, all it needs for the crazy sleazy world of politics would be for reformasi champion, Anwar Ibrahim to speak up in support Mahathir's right to criticise, but that of course would jeopardise poor Anwar's return to UMNO - better not, I suppose, and screw the principle of the freedom of expression.

Ain’t politics sweet and sour? I'll blog a bit more on this aspect shortly.

Beneath the buah cherry tree

The typical idyllic scene in an older part of Suburbia – a kedai kopi (coffee shop or in reality just a stall) beneath a Malaysian ‘buah cherry’ tree. The customers sit al fresco enjoying their coffee or tea, some nasi lemak, roti canai or kueh, and their favourite hobby, causal conversation.

Ahmad: Muthu, goreng pisang dua, kopi-oh kao
Muthu: OK – dei, you heard about the Australian bananas?
Ahmad: $15 per kilo, that’s almost RM40, like eating gold lah.

Leong: Heard Aussie crime gangs raid the plantations and make away with pisang to the tune of thousands of dollars.
Muthu: Here, crime gangs don’t bother with goreng pisang, they go straight to the Treasury.
Ahmad: And they have their own Treasury keys, or they do it through electricity, water, fuel, real koyak for us.

Muthu: Dei, pundee lah - time for a change of gomen
Ahmad: Leong, lu ai vote PAS boh?
Leong: Aiyah, kena potong, ai takut lah

Muthu: Woi, you can afford to lose some weight hehehe
Leong: Karn Neen Nare, kena that, cannot perform for weeks. If they do it wrongly, mampus lah
Ahmad: Dei, let’s be serious. Will Chinese vote for PAS?

Leong (in deep thoughts): Yeeee …es, maybe, I think, or maybe not. But PAS itself is confused, so why should I vote for its candidates if it can’t even make up its mind.
Muthu: About what?
Ahmad: Leong was referring to PAS’ shambolic confusion on the Chinese support it wants, needs badly before it can even challenge UMNO

Leong: Ya lah. Two factions in PAS now – one wants to open up and modernise, accept Chinese membership, but the other resists ‘religious’ contamination, though both are in agreement that Chinese support is vital for it to be a credible opposition.
Muthu: Same problem as the DAP then.
Ahmad: Slightly different, DAP is open to Malay participation but most Malays have rejected it. PAS, on the other hand, is half-hearted about opening up. But whichever way, that’s how BN continues to be in power.

Ahmad: Leong, what do you think of PAS' proposed associate memebership for Chinese?
Muthu: Associate?
Leong: 2nd class nia, just like UMNO's BN partners.

Muthu: So what’s going on in PAS?
Ahmad: I reckon the party seems to be retreating into conservative mood, based on the members' criticisms of some leaders.
Leong: PAS has been viewed as generally clean which most people like, but Chinese and Indians are still worried about Taliban-like actions once they are in power.

Ahmad: I disagree with the ‘clean’ bit because PAS’ refusal to support the IPCMC has been a major disaster. I am now concerned as to whether we can trust PAS. Once in power, it may be just another UMNO, using the police to suppress the others.
Muthu: What about PKR?
Leong: PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang, the one most reluctant to admit the non-Muslim Chinese into the party, has been using PKR as an excuse not to open the party to the Chinese.

Muthu: How?
Leong: It says it doesn’t want to poach on its multi-ethnic ally’s potential members.
Ahmad: So the Chinese who want to reject UMNO yet cannot accept PAS are in a political quandary. And PAS who needs Chinese votes but doesn’t want to accord them equal status as Muslims are caught in a similar bind.

Leong: Yes, especially in those constituencies where it'll be a straight fight between UMNO and PAS.
Muthu: Ahmad, who will you vote as your area is predominantly a Malay constituency.
Ahmad: Give me my goreng pisang first and I’ll tell you.

Muthu: Aiyah, lu kwai larn lah! Kong lah, kong lah.

A page from a woman's diary

Dearest Diary,

Tonight I don’t intend to write about myself. ‘Myself”? Have I truly ever? Being his daughter, somehow I have always felt obligated to write about highbrow stuff like women’s rights, the state of AIDs and the endless fight against ignorant prejudice about a disease that could have been inflicted through innocent blood transfusion. How I wish I could just pen my thoughts on dresses, shoes, that cute handbag I saw at the mall, or ….. but what’s the use.

It’s about Dad. People are so against him that we, his children, aren’t exempt from their hatred and vitriol. The ‘sins’ of a dad have been visited on his children. If I write about cosmetics or jewellery, people would comment that it’s typical of his daughter to be just a callous air head, but if I go for issues like AIDS and women's rights, they would claim I am acting above my intellectual level or getting too big for my boots.

My brother is a graduate of Wharton, but being his son, as far as some are concerned, he ought to be just a goreng pisang seller. Even if he is, people would accuse him of using rancid oil and lousy rotten pisang.

But that comes with the territory. Dad has been a one-man bulldozer in his drive to raise the standards and more importantly, the self esteem of the Malays. Many criticised his support for the award of a Datukship to an English Channel swimmer while he didn’t for the Chinese Malaysian who did better. But many don’t realise it’s not the feat itself but the urgent Malay need for self esteem that saw the young boy knighted. The Chinese teenager doesn't need to have his self esteem nurtured.

Oh, Dad might have gotten it wrong but that was what he lamented about at home.

Recently he feels depressed when he saw the treachery of those he had supported, sponsored and uplifted. He admitted to be a poor judge of men. Those whom he had supported and pushed upstairs would eventually turn against him.

Today his arch foe is a man whom he once loved like a son, and nurtured to be his political successor. When that fell through, the next successor on succession has rubbished his record, accusing Dad of squandering everything, while he himself has lined up a few choice mega-projects of his own. But the unkindest cut of all has been the lack of support, or even at the very least, silence of support from Uncle Zig Zag.

Dad has gone into reactive overdrive by nature of his combative self. When he feels people are ganging up on him, his adrenalin flows, and he would react in an uncompromising straight line.

He’s a bit of a Jebat, the fearless rebellious one yet the loyal friend. That’s his second weakness, his enduring loyalty to his people, most of whom didn’t or don’t deserve his total support. In the end, his Tuah will entice Taming Sari away from him to use it against him.

Now, why am I talking Malay legends in reference to his present dilemma? It’s just a Malay Dilemma.

Goodnight, dearest diary.
M

al-Zarqawi killed

photo from Sydney Morning Herald

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has been killed in a US air strike. His identity has been confirmed through facial features and fingerprints.

Zarqawi had been the al Qaeda leader in Iraq. His campaigns of killing had indiscriminately killed many innocent Iraqis which led to al Qaeda’s unpopularity in Iraq. Osama bin Laden virtually demoted Zarqawi's status in Iraq in recent times.

There’s great rejoicing in the camps of the Coalition of the Willing, and among Iraqi authorities. But the insurgency activities have been shifting gradually from al Qaeda initiated to the domestic variety where it's now more of a civil war than pure anti-occupiers. But the foreign troops are not completely exempted from attacks.

A Very Personal Pissed-Off Letter

Kepada

Yang Amat Ber …..(strikeout)
(strike out)
(strikeout)
(strikeout)

Dollah

We’ve been together for quite a while, so let’s cut out the sycophantic bullsh*t – we’ll leave the bodek-ing to our tambis. Besides this is a private and personal letter, unless your s-i-l opens your every mail.

And I am going straight to the guts of the matter as I did at the OIC conference when I called a spade a spade, what those pondan Europeans wanted to but dared not say out – that the problems buggered up by the Americans in the Middle East were all manipulated by people who don’t eat pork, and I am not referring to Muslims.

Karn Neen Nare, and excuse my Chinese profanity – I heard this while mingling with those Penang suckers who were bodek-ing me for increased allocation – but to the matter, you have been f**king sabo-ing me.

OK, go ahead and assume your stoic face like those Zen Masters from Fu Mountain, but listen me out. When I left, I handed over to you a kitty full of money and you have been badmouthing me to everyone that I left the house penniless with my profligate spending. Not only that, you koyak-kan my kiieow (you live in penang so you know what this means) in the south which could have developed up the place for increased economic activity. We could have screwed those kiasu bastards.

You put on airs about no more money so no-more-mega projects. Tighten up the belt and change lifetsyles and all the bullsh*t.

But why then do you go ahead with your PORRAH in the north. Yes, YOUR project! That Raja character published your private involvement on his website. Now I hear Tambi announcing a second link. So, no mega project anymore eh! My bloody foot and PORRAH to you too! Petlo-diam-as has billions so what are you talking about!

And that motorcycle company sold off – hundreds of millions for a couple of ringgit - what, do you think that compnay was kacang putih stuff? And no one knows who’s the buyer – un-bloody-traceable. What a coincidence that even before the “decision” to sell off was made, that “foreign” company was all setup and in position to buy it up. That was real Mah-Fu-Lart for all Malaysians!

Consider this as the first of my flying daggers.

Yours pissed-off

You-know-who

from the House of Flying Daggers

2 Knights & a Sweet Sexy Salsa Queen

In the chess domain, two world’s champions fought it out, not over the chess board, but with fisticuffs. And it’s all over another chess champion.

British chess grandmaster Danny Gormally, world’s No 6, punched Armenian Levon Aronian, world’s No 3, when he saw the latter dancing with his (so he thought) girlfriend, Arianne Caoili, the teenage Australian chess champion.

Caoili has been dubbed the ‘Anna Kournikova’ of chess. Born of a Dutch mum and Filipino dad, she’s really scrumptious, and I don’t blame Gormally for losing it when he saw his belle dancing the sexy salsa with Levon in a Turin nightclub during the World Chess Olympiad.

Gormally had been seeing Caoili and emailing her regularly, thinking he has check-mated his Filipino-Dutch Queen, but he hasn’t reckoned on a castling move which saw the Armenian Knight gyrating his pelvis against those of sweet sexy Caoili.

Zugwang - Castles toppled, Bishops diagonalised, Pawns hentak-kaki (marching on the spot), the King farted, Gormally bashed Aronian!

And the Queen? Caoili’s mum said that her daughter was totally surprised when Gormally punched Aronian.

She said: "She's salsa crazy and was probably dancing salsa and looking a bit sexy and that's why Gormally got upset. It could be jealousy or it could be that he was just a bit drunk and for whatever reason [he] decided to punch Aronian who happens to be the superstar and god-like figure in Armenia. Arianne was a bit scared and shocked and was wondering what was going on.''

But mum confessed that her daughter has become an ‘item’ with the superstar Armenian at the moment because he was such a 'lovely gentleman', which may explain why the Briton lost his cool for which his countrymen have been renown for.

After the punchup, Gormally left the Olympiad early of his own volition. He failed to deal with the Armenian's surprised en passe. He may face disciplinary action from the game's ruling body for the incident, which has sparked a feud between the English and Armenian teams.

Checkmate! Stalemate & oo la la Hot-mate!

Hey, come to think of it, I used to play draughts (with old bottle caps); besides I have been noted as a pathetic Pawn in the feminine world – do you think I could interest Caoili?

Dr Mahathir's Sexy Expression!

My dad used to say what Mahathir had said recently – 'half-past six', about things that were not done properly or not quite right. Well, it seems that there is a sexual connotation in that phrase.

A Malaysiakini reader calling him or herself Tiga Suku did a search of the origin of this phrase because he was quite intrigue by that expression, when he first heard Mahathir described Malaysia as a ‘half-past-six’ country.

He found it in The Double Tongued Word Wrester Dictionary, which describes itself as a "growing lexicon of fringe English, focusing on slang, jargon and more ...”. The tome describes the phase as what I know of it, namely bad, shoddy, or slipshod.

He also told us that The Coxford Singlish Dictionary described ‘half-past-six’ as half-baked or incompetent. The Dictionary went on to suggest that the term is actually a sexual reference to the angle of the dangle of the male organ.

As they used to say, “the angle of the dangle depends on the heat of the meat!”

It seems that ‘half-past-six’ symbolises a weak state of the dingaling, if measured against a vertically positioned body. Why not dormant rather than weak? You know what they say about "never awake a sleeping giant!"

Anyway, the Dictionary describes '3.15' or '9.45' is very strong! Indeed.

You know, I suddenly remember that poor girl who was embarrassed about explaining his boyfriend’s problem of erectile dysfunction (ED) to the predator-medium. I blogged on that unfortunate con in One Born Every Minute (3). She could have employed ‘half past six’ conveniently to explain her boyfriend's ED problem, without suffering the acute embarrassment. Alas, if only she had known of this dangling expression.

If indeed, according to The Coxford Singlish Dictionary, the term ‘half past six’ attributes its origin to a state of the male’s sexual failure, then does that mean we can’t use the expression to describe women's abysmal attributes or shoddy output?

Just imagine - a "Hey, bitch, you’re ‘half past six lah’" would have brought a swift retort of "Buster, try and get yours up first! Nah!" accompanied by the universal gesture of two-fingers at 9.15!

Maybe it would be best not to rile any local Amazons with this insulting expression.

The Coxford Singlish Dictionary has also claimed that it’s of Singapore origin. Tiga Suku asked whether Dr Mahathir could have picked up the expression during his university days in Singapore.

I can confirm that as an emphatic ‘NO’ because my dad had never ever been to Singapore all his life but had used that term rather freely, though fortunately never at me. In fact, it’s used commonly in Penang, among my father's generation.

Based on that, I would be bold as to say it’s of Penang origin, and f**k the Singapore’s claim. They are so kiasu so they appropriately deserve the label of ‘half past six’ ;-)

Singapore & US invade Malaysia?

In an earlier posting UMNO Youth Odd Man Out I lamented the striking absence of UMNO youth from the group of other BN Youths - namely, the MCA, Gerakan and even timid bodek-ing (brown-nosing) MIC, who had had enough of an insubordinate police force and came out of the woodwork to condemn the so-called law enforcers.

The police had objected to the IPCMC and disgracefully dared to make terrifying threats to allow crime rates to rise if the PM permits the IPCMC to be established.

A reader, Anonymous commented that UMNO Youth’s reason for ignoring the insubordination has been racial. He (or she) contended that UMNO youth needs the predominantly Malay/Muslim police to keep them in power.

So far so good. However I was somewhat bemused when he (or she) threw in the Singapore element.

He (I’m going to stop at this point from saying ‘or she’) reckoned UMNO Youth’s main worry had been on how to prevent the non-Malay population in Malaysia from supporting a Singapore armoured column if one advances into Malaysia to secure Singapore's water supply and create a land buffer for the island when the sh*t hits the fan between the 2 states.

Anonymous then explained why the government won’t use the army to prevent the non-Malay population from supporting the invading Singaporeans, because of the terrible May 13 experience. That's why the police force has been important to UMNO's scheme of things.

Then he escalated his theory by adding the US military into the already puzzling equation. He averred that good thing for the government about May 13, was that it was 1969 and not post September 11, 2001, or we would have seen Yankee troops landing at Port Klang in the guise of protecting democracy. That additional invasion would certainly have compounded the Singapore invasion.

I need to ask the following questions:

(1) Why would the non-Malay population support the Singaporeans, who look down on if not despised them?

(2) Why would the US military attempt to occupy our nation?

(3) What is a fully digital armoured column - his description of Singapore’s Armour Corp?

One Born Every Minute (3)

The Star Online reported that an 18-year-old girl slept with a bogus medium so that he could "transfer powers” that could cure her boyfriend of his sexual problems.

The girl sought the help of the medium after her 20-year-old lover developed erectile dysfunction. The medium convinced the victim that the only way to cure her boyfriend was by "transferring his powers” to her through sex.

OK, at this stage, what do you reckon she did?

As I have said, there’s one born every minute. Yes, she agreed to the medium’s recommendation to “transfer power” to her, which was not done just once but several times too. Meanwhile, boyfriend still couldn’t 'rise to the occasion' so the girl began to suspect that the “transference of power” was dodgy.

She ‘fess up to boyfriend that there was a transmission failure even though the “divine connection” was made.

We get the story from the usual source, the police, after the couple reported the matter. It’s the edited version of course. I imagine the uncensored version would be like the following, assuming they were Chinese:

Girl (embarrassed): Ee beh … eh … beh … (he can’t … eh … can’t)
Medium: beh hna mee (What’s he selling?)

The Hokkien word ‘beh’ can mean either ‘cannot’ or ‘sell’.

Girl (shyly): beh choe wah (can’t do it to me)
Medium: beh chwah? (sell paper?)

‘Choe wah’ (do it to me) pronounced wrongly with the wrong accent can sound like ‘chwah’ (paper)

Girl (exasperated): ee beh gnair lah – ee ae lan t’ooi beh gnair kee lai

(no translation required, and if you can’t understand, tough, you’ve miss the best part)

Medium (the penny dropped): ah, parng sim, wa ae thean t’ooi ae parng chor (oh, dinna ye fret, my heavenly wand can help)

Girl: lu ae thean t’ooi?
Medium: wah ae thean t’ooi see kau-teh-thean haw ae, chai boh? che t'ooi kau lart, ee ae lart parng kuai hor lu, lu pun ae khnee tnee ... eh ... hor lu ae tar-poh-peng-eu ae khnee tnee teng peng arn

I am not going to translate this last part - so now’s the time (and motivation) to get to know a Penangite, preferably a female one, to assist with the translation ;-)

Related:
(1) One Born Every Minute
(2) One Born Every Minute (2)

Datuk Criminals, Tan Sri Clown and Mr Opposiiton

I believe the only Opposition bigwig who was ever conferred royal honours by the King was Tan Sri Tan Chee Khoon. Perhaps it was because everyone liked him including the Perikatan (Alliance Party) or BN (Coalition Front).

I am talking about a man who had never ever resiled from his opposition credentials, so that qualification would leave out people like Lee Lam Thye and the various PAS big shots honoured variously by the sultans of the East Coast States.

Parti Reformasi Insan Malaysia (Prim) believed it’s time that the King honours Parliamentary Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang, perhaps if KTemoc may add, in the coming Merdeka honours. PRIM suggested that Lim be recognised for his efforts and commitment towards upholding the cause of democracy, justice, fair play and human rights.

And for a man who had served his nation as a loyal member of parliament for nearly half a century the minimum he should be honoured with should be at least the title of Tun.

Lim Kit Siang - malaysiakini photo

Prim pro-tem secretary-general P Uthayakumar said: “It is about time the government of the day displays magnanimity and rises above the narrow establishment political mindset and recognise the role of the opposition.”

“By honouring him with a ‘Tunship’ the leadership of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi would de departing from the conventional establishment mindset.”

Uthayakumar declared Lim as the single most significant opposition political personality whose contributions over the decades has kept democracy alive.

I support Uthayakumar’s proposal immediately when I cannot but help recall the many Datuks who continued to hold their titles while in prison for various crimes including murder. I support his proposal further when I recollect with repugnance the Tan Sri conferred to an UMNO-brown-nosing clown like Koh TK.

Go to any BN political party and spit, and you should consider yourself lucky enough to win 1st prize in any lottery draw if you miss hitting a Datuk, Datuk Seri or Tan Sri. Go to a ........

Hey, I could go on and on and on in this vein, with my memories of unjust & undeserved awards versus none yet for a man who has been consistently resolute and had spun the easy attractions of corruption. And let’s not forget Karpal Singh too.

All types of racism

In my posting IPCMC assumes racial hue I commented that that the police leaders have deliberately turned the IPCMC into an issue of racism. They had cleverly judged that by appealing to the ethnic instincts of UMNO or PAS, sweetened with the promise of police-backing for the party's politics, they could win political support for their insubordinate recalcitrancy.

Some malaysiakini readers noted how UMNO Youth was the odd man out when the other three BN Youth wings condemned the police for threatening to allow crime rates to increase. That UMNO Youth (and even PAS) has been been prepared to tolerate such unacceptable and disgraceful threats from the police force indicated a distinctively racial bias, that the unfettered powers of the police would be vital to its own political dominance.

In another posting PAS = Prinsip Absén Selalu, Anonymous criticised me for just commenting on PAS as a political whore when the more revealing issue has been the racist instinct of PAS. He or she said:

“PAS may claim to be a religious based party but time and again it has demonstrated such as in the sujiu controversy that it is first and foremost a Malay party with religion as a cloak.”

In IPCMC assumes racial hue reader bigjoe99 said “the question that begs to be answered is what issue does not have a racial/religious overtone in this country?” He believes that everything is racist because Malaysia is racist.

He reckons Malaysians “are bounded by only one issue - economic growth. Without it everything will fall apart.” bigjoe99 considers our greatest enemy is not any foreigner, but a prolong recession.

I believe bigjoe99 is quite right as UMNO's power play is not just about Ketuanan Melayu (Malay supremacy) per se, but more precisely Malay dominance of the economic cake. Ketuanan Melayu would then ensure UMNO cuts the cake. While that would once be understandable as the Malays had been economically backward relative to the Chinese, the last 50 years have seen only some selected Malay groups benefiting from the lopsided affirmative action.

Failure of the fair distribution of the cake would be conveniently blamed on issues such as, for example, companies 'unreasonably' demanding of applicants for jobs a Mandarin language proficiency.

The fearful thing is, as bigjoe99 warned, when we hit a bad patch of economic recession. Not only will we lose our sole bonding factor, but someone has to be sacrificed to the Gods of Appeasement to calm suffering kampong (village) folks – someone has to be blamed, someone has to be flogged until morale of the kampong folks improves.

But I need to be fair and point out something on racism – we ALL are racist because of a combination of our OWN prejudice and ignorance, coupled with the existing political/social/cultural system.

Once an Aussie Foreign Minister commented on many forms of Asian racism. According to him, the Japanese were ‘xenophobic’ racists, meaning they fear and/or hate anyone that’s not Japanese. Would this be similar to the white South African variety and their inability to deal with other ethnic groups like black Africans?

He went on to say Chinese were ‘supremacist’ racist, which is quite different from those white supremacists like the white South Africans or the Ku Klux Klan members.

So what is 'supremacist' racism?

The Chinese have always consider themselves as people of the Middle Kingdom, the centre of the world that's surrounded by barbarians.

Everyone else was a ‘devil’ which meant uncivilised rather than spooky. The Chinese would be quite happy to eat, drink and socialise with non-Chinese, and even allow their daughters to marry foreign devils because daughters do not contribute nor ensure the family line. But when it comes to their sons, whoa and belay any precipitious actions, dear sons, make sure you marry only Chinese, preferably of our own dialectal group.

Then there’s some orthodox Jews who practise 'religious' racism, where out there, there's a terrifying unclean horde of untermenschen, goyims and kushims.

I recall many years ago when I was a young teenager, I brought Olivia home, not to meet my mum, but to have a cuppa because on our return from our picnic spot, our path passed my house. Mum wasn’t in but a thousand busybodies living next doors were.

Olivia might not have been the most beautiful girl in the world but she certainly was one of the most beautiful. I had the great fortune that she liked me – hey, sometimes even losers like kaytee win ;-)

She was unusually striking in that her natural beauty was greatly enhanced by her sweet cheery smile. Even her beautiful eyes seemed to smile at you. She was absolutely gorgeous, BUT to those kampong busybodies she had one humongous flaw – she was Eurasian!

Needless to say, that evening, mum received a full debrief, chapter and verse on the Jezebel that I brought home. Stern and severe recommendations by those village bitches ran to several copious volumes. Mum looked at me worriedly, and said tentatively:

“Auntie X said you shouldn’t go out with a Eurasian. You know those Eurasians, don’t you? Auntie Z noticed that her eyes are really heow [lecherous]. She said that girl must be heow lah!”

Eurasian. Thank bloody goodness she didn’t use f**king Auntie X's words of ‘half-breed’.

I gave her my most serious disapproving look and said: “I hope so.”

Mum: “Huh? What? What are you hoping for?”

Me: “Her heow-ness.”

Of course all of these were in rapid Penang Hokkien.

Mum (stunned for a while) replied sternly: “Don’t be frivolous. These are serious matters concerning your future. You should be more respectful to your elders.”

Let’s say my conversation with mum ended up with me receiving a tight slap from angry her. But weren’t my village womenfolk and even Mum racists?

Hmmm, was the racism of my village womenfolk like UMNO’s or PAS’? Was it the supremacist, xenophobic, religious, economic type or just plain jealousy of an exceptionally beautiful 'outsider'?

Malaysian Professors sans PhDs

In my previous posting Mister Professor Doctor, I queried why university professors in Malaysia would insist on titling themselves as Professor Doctor So-and-So (apart from other titles and national awards) when only a person with a doctorate can be appointed a professor. Other Commonwealth professors don't bother with the relatively insignificant 'doctor'.

I jokingly asked whether those multi-titled academicians were scared that people might not know they have a PhD. I didn’t realise how close I had been to the truth.

Over at my other blogsite Boleh Talk Reader Malayan Tiger provided a penetrating insight into Malaysian Academia. He said:

“There is a good reason for the title Prof Dr and Prof. The reason being many 'Professors' in local Malaysian universities do not have a PhD but are promoted to Professors. To make this distinction, Professors who have completed PhD's make themselves known as Prof Dr so and so.”

“So the next time you see a Prof Dr, you know that particular person is a Prof with a PhD whereas a Prof So and So is a Prof due to a promotion and does not have a PhD.”

I am shocked that academicians without PhD could be ever promoted to professors! What are we trying to prove? That our universities are full of professors, when in reality there are just half-past six ones.

Then one Anonymous reader here at KTemoc Konsiders said:

“In Malaysia (or UK system in general) a professor does not necessarily has a PhD degree. Not like in USA where a professor is definitely a PhD holder (i.e. Dr.). That is why he put Prof. Dr. bla bla .”

I agree with his or her description of the US system but not so for his/her claim of the UK’s. According to Wikipedia:

“In the United Kingdom the Republic of Ireland and most Commonwealth countries (but not Canada, which follows the North American system), equivalently senior academics to assistant and associate professors are generally known as ‘Lecturers’, ‘Senior Lecturers’ and ‘Readers’, with professorships reserved for only the most senior academic staff.”

Thus unlike the USA or Canada, UK and other Commonwealth countries don’t have Assistance or Associate Prof, but ‘lecturers’ and ‘readers’. Therefore the Commonwealth system is even more stringent.

Now this is what Wikipedia says about the lowest of the 3 US professorships, the Assistance Professor (or the UK/Commonwealth equivalent of lecturer):

“… the entry-level position, for which one usually needs a Ph.D. or other doctorate, sometimes only a masters degree, … In some areas, such as the natural sciences, it is uncommon to grant assistant professor positions to recently graduated Ph.D.s, and nearly all assistant professors will have completed some time as Postdoctoral fellows.

my underlining & bold-ing

The standard is so high that the 3rd level of professorship, that of Assistance Professor or the equivalent of the UK’s ‘lecturer’ (not even yet a ‘reader’) has to be not only a PhD but one who is not a recent one, but additionally has “completed some time as Postdoctoral fellows.”

While there would of course be the rare occasions when just a Master could be considered for Assistance (not full) Professorship (equivalent to the Commonwealth 'Lecturer'), this would not be condoned in the natural sciences.

"A Professor in these countries holds either a departmental chair (generally as the head of the department or of a sub-department) or a personal chair (a professorship awarded specifically to that individual). In that sense, only full professors (North American style) are equivalents of professors."

So we can see that under the UK system, its Professor is the equivalent of the US (Full) Professor. There is no such thing as a person without a PhD becoming a professor. It would be impossible, except in Malaysia!

In fact Wikipedia goes on to elaborate that:

"The title of Professor is a great honour, normally reserved in correspondence to full professors only; ..."

My underlining – it then continues:

“… lecturers and readers are properly addressed by their academic qualification (Dr for a PhD, DPhil or MD, and Mr/Mrs/Miss/Ms otherwise).”

Therefore the new Vice-Chancellor of Universiti Malaya whose highest quals is only a Master, should by Commonwealth academic tradition be addressed as only Mrs, Miss or Ms.

How long do you think it'll be before she becomes a Professor?

Lim Keng Yaik: "Half the population not an issue!"

Here’s a man who’s completely out of touch with the common people.

Energy, Water and Communications Minister Dr Lim Keng Yaik today claimed that people have accepted the government's decision to increase the electricity rates by 12%. He even spun a thank you to them:

"On behalf of the ministry and TNB. I thank the people for accepting the increase and restructuring of electricity tariff.”

Lim KY is so thick-skinned that he obviously cannot feel the pains of the ordinary people.

It’s one thing to increase the tariffs because one have to (for whatever reasons – inefficient balls-up or unavoidable increase oil price for oil worldwide, etc) but it’s another to claim the ordinary people have accepted it.

He then went on to blame the DAP for harping on the government's decision to raise electricity tariff. But even as a spinmeister he is an abysmal failure because in the same breath he contradicted himself. He said the electricity tariff hike was not an issue as only half of the consumers would be affected by the increase.

So, even assuming his wild assertion has been true, what he has effectively said was that the other ‘half’ of the population affected doesn't matter? What an insensitive unfeeling idiot!

Yugoslavia No More - British Involvement?

Two weeks ago, in a referendum on its separation from Yugoslavia, the state of Montenegro saw just a slim majority of 55.5% of the population wanting independence. But 55% was what was just needed. It has now formally declared independence from its union with Serbia in a special session of parliament in the capital, Podgorica.

While some celebrated, needless to say, the other 45% of the population, mainly Serb ethnic groups, have been very unhappy. Correspondents say Montenegro is today a divided society, with a significant component of the population still backing the union with Serbia. It doesn't look good for its future.

Across the border, Serbian President Boris Tadic put on a brave face and sent a message of congratulation wishing the people of Montenegro ‘peace, stability and overall prosperity’.

He said that "Serbia will be the closest friend. I am in favour of preserving family, historic, cultural, economic and political ties, because they present an unbreakable bond between our two countries."

But Vojislav Kostunica, the Serbian prime minister, was less diplomatic, saying that the parting will be correct but not amicable. He rejected European Union (EU) offers to assist the two countries in a ‘velvet divorce’.

Next week Serbia is also expected to declare its own independence, finally bringing to an end the break-up of the six republics of the former Yugoslavia into six fully-fledged states. Though of course the question about Serbian province of Kosovo is yet to be decided.

The breakup has effectively turned Serbia into a landlocked nation without any direct access to the seas.

I wonder how much influence the British had asserted on the EU’s recommendation of a ridiculous 55% as the percentage allowing a breakaway from Yugoslavia. I believe the percentage is not only questionable for such an important issue but also will fail to provide for a healthy society, where nearly half of them still wants ties with Serbia for cultural, historical, ethnic and emotional reasons. I fear more trouble lies ahead, perhaps like ethnic Serbians demanding for a province of their own within Montenegro, meaning the small nation will fracture further.

Since Churchill's days, the British has always had a phobia or obsession about the Balkans, believing it is the soft underbelly to the European continent. But a strong Yugoslavia doesn't suit their perception of the 'soft' underbelly. It was none other than Tony Blair who ‘persuaded’ Bill Clinton to bring the powers of the USAF to intercede in the Kosovo conflict. Blair did so not out of concern for the Muslim Kosovans but for British strategic interests.

Had there been any British 'interference'?

IPCMC assumes racial hue

Three Youth groups of the Barisan Nasional (BN) condemned the police threats to the government on the matter of the IPCMC as unacceptable. The police had unbelievably threatened to allow crime to rise if the establishment goes ahead.

The MCA Youth had even demanded an apology from the police, which the latter had casually ignored. The reason for the police dismissal of the MCA Youth's demand will become clear shortly.

The following are two viewpoints of Malaysiakini’s readers on the Youths’ support for the IPCMC.

Idealist: Frankly, I welcome the statement made by these three BN Youth components. But without the participation from UMNO Youth, I doubt if the police would take it seriously. Worst still, these three BN Youth wings may soon realise they are too outspoken and idealistic, and eventually will have to retract their statement.

K Narayanasamy: It is very disturbing that the support for IPCMC and the opposition to it have a distinctive racial bias. The ruling coalition's racial partners show it very glaringly. As it may be considered very sensitive to discuss this further, you can make your own interpretations.

They have captured the crux of the whole matter succinctly. The IPCMC has been cleverly converted by the police into an issue with racial overtones. Obviously UMNO Youth has been convinced that the IPCMC, in posing a threat to continuing unfettered police powers, will in turn affect its own position of power, which is vital for its exercise of ketuanan Melayu (Malay supremacy).

It's not unlikely the other Youth groups in the BN may one day be forced to swallow their pride and retreat from their support of the IPCMC.

UMNO Youth and opposition party PAS have one thing in common - both are courting the police, attracted like flies to the enforcers' strategy of 'divide and conquer', which has been to divide the stupid power-crazy politicians and conquer, without those idiots' realisation, their political powers.

Why Datuk Bandar Honoured

PM Abdullah Ahmad Badawi ordered the Datuk Bandar (mayor) of KL, Ruslin Hasan to examine its approvals for development on slopes near Kampung Pasir, Hulu Klang.

Utusan Malaysia had expressed its surprise that ere the recent landslide resulting in a number of deaths had subsided, DBKL has approved more projects likely to be facing similar erosion problems.

But that’s precisely the standard and style that has earned its mayor the award of Panglima Jasa Negara (PJN) on the king’s birthday honours’ list.

Malaysia Boleh!

PAS = Prinsip Absén Selalu

DAP Lim Kit Siang had challenged Malaysia’s Islamic party PAS to unreservedly commit itself to the establishment of the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC). As I mentioned in an early posting IGP worried, PM wishy-washy, PAS whoring, PAS has been sneakily coy on the issue of the IPCMC.

What had occurred was when Lim Kit Siang noted PAS’ evasive stand in relation to the IPCMC, he asked PAS pointedly: “Is PAS for or against it?”

“The question is, which opposition would the police throw their votes in support if the IPCMC is set up, if all opposition parties are clear and categorical in their support for the IPCMC?”

“Is this the reason why recently, PAS’ stand on the IPCMC seemed to have become quite wobbly in the hope of benefitting from a police swing against the PM, Barisan Nasional and UMNO over the issue?”

Lim said all opposition parties, PAS in particular, must take a clear and unequivocal stand on the issue and stop the police from becoming a feral force.

As I noted, PAS deputy president Nasharuddin Mat Isa evaded the issue by declining to comment, when as a deputy president of a party that claims to be for justice and godly rule, he could have easily made a firm statement about PAS commitment to the establishment of the IPCMC.

Then PAS secretary-general Kamaruddin Jaffar spoke out in umbrage against Lim’s allusion to PAS prostituting itself in the hope of police support in the next general election.

Lim responded to Kamaruddin outroar: “Frankly speaking, I asked the question because I do not know what is PAS’ stand on the IPCMC. In fact, the party’s deputy president was also unclear as illustrated in the malaysiakini report.”

Lim then referred to the last parliamentary meeting, when PAS MPs had been conspicuously silent and absent in the push for the government to establish the IPCMC.

Maybe they were away discussing the misyar marriage proposal?

Lim continued: “Maybe this is why it’s quite impossible to search the Hakarah and PAS websites and discover any clear and categorical statement by the party leadership supporting the IPCMC although it was the centre of a prolonged national controversy in the past 12 months.”

“PAS should stop flirting with the reactionary police forces ... to gain political mileage at the expense of the prime minister and UMNO, as the IPCMC is a bigger issue than partisan politics or political gain.”

“I was most irritated by the game played by PAS leaders in refusing to express clear and categorical support for the IPCMC.”

As I have often remarked, silence provides an answer too, and PAS' silence or answer regarding the IPCMC is now quite clear. Well, looks like the party which has been claiming God is on their side has not been so godly in its principles. In fact, I did say that PAS is not above prostituting its principles in the hope of electoral gains. And with kaki kang-kang* too!

* legs spread wide open

whore of babylon - from Wikipedia

"The great whore that sitteth upon many waters: with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication." (Rev. 17:1-2)

We have known who the Malaysian ‘kings of the earth’ have been and are, and we now know who the whore is. Flirting eh!

And I suppose we the inhabitants of the earth would be made drunk with the anger at the treachery of her fornication.

Prinsip Absén Selalu - principles are always absent

Angry Spirits at Yogya, Occult Centre of Indonesia

The Indonesian Javanese who survived the recent earthquake in Yogya (city of Yogyakarta) and cowered under the still potential volcanic threat of Gunung Merapi, fear there could be worse to come. Yogya is so situated between the foot of the still-active Merapi volcano and the mystical Indian Ocean. They are not dismissing the threat of a tsunami.

As the BBC reported, the word tsunami has a special power in Indonesia these days. A year and half ago it was Aceh, so why not the island of Java today? Besides, the same huge offshore fault line runs all the way down the edge of the archipelago.

While those in Aceh who had suffered one of history’s greatest disasters in the Boxing Day tsunami attributed the devastation down to God’s will and perhaps punishment, the Javanese have a different belief to the recent calamities happening around them.

Java's famous Hindu Prambanan temple

As with most Javanese beliefs coloured by centuries of Hindu beliefs, there is much mysticism. The Javanese have recalled the legendary Queen of the South Sea. She is a beautiful creature dressed in green, who controls the nearby sea and sea bed.

She carries the title of Loro Kidul (Queen of the South Seas), or Kanjeng Ratu Kidul (Supreme Southern Queen), or sometimes Roro Kidul (The Southern Maiden). The Goddess of the Sea reigns, naturally, on the southern coast of Java. She has been the traditional protector of the Mataram Dynasty and its current descendants.

The Javanese believe she has the power to unleash a giant wave when she’s pissed off. But what has pissed her off?

Well, it seems that, by traditional belief, the Queen is married spiritually to the descendant of those ancient rulers She had been protecting, making her current spouse today's very mortal Sultan of Yogyakarta. The bloke in republican Indonesia is still revered by the local Javanese as right royalty. He is coincidentally the local governor.

Gunung Merapi on 04 June 2006 - Reuters photo

The Javanese believe the sultan has not been treating his wife with enough respect these days, thus making her mad. Added to the problem of Kanjeng Loro Kidul's divine ire, someone else is angry too, namely the giant who controls the nearby volcano, Mount Merapi. He is Kiyai Sapujagad, and related to Loro Kidul through his marriage to Her daughter.

Hope you have got the family tree all organised by now. Mum-in-law of the spirit of Gunung Merapi is the Queen of the Southern Oceans, while son-in-law of Kanjeng Loro Kidul is Kiyai Sapujagad, the guardian spirit of the volcano. It’s one mighty angry family.

Mind you, that's the simple version because the guardian spirits of Gunung Merapi vary, depending on locality. For example, on the volcano's northern slopes, it's mBah (Granddad) Petruk.

tumpengan ritual with nasi kunyit (saffron rice) to worship mBah Petruk of Merapi

But in the south, facing the ocean, the guardian spirit is our Loro Kidul's favourite son-in-law, Kyai Sapujagad. Other spirits believed to live in or guard the volcano include Nyai Kendit and Dewi Gadung Melati. You can say that there's quite a busy divine community up at the top of Gunung Merapi.

Java’s most famous local fortune teller, who goes by the most un-Javanese name of Madam Lauren, is predicting a massive eruption by mid-June. Why do the locals think that mortal hubby, the Sultan of Yogya, has not been fulfilling his spousal obligations?

Prambanan temple

The Javanese blamed the recent earthly instability on fast-paced modern lifestyle, and that the spirits have been warning residents to lead more simple lives. They reckon people (Javanese) are no longer living sedately, and becoming too preoccupied with worldly things.

Wignyo, a 47-year-old farmer from the village of Kaliadem on the southern side of the volcano said: "We can only surmise that we are being warned. We are used to earthquakes. It only surprised us for a brief moment."

Candi Lorojonggrang dedicated to Lord Shiva at Prambanan

Traditional Javanese beliefs said both Kanjeng Loro Kidul and Her fiery son-in-law Kiyai Sapujagad have protected Yogya, the main city in the region, and the surrounding area for centuries. These two powerful spirits have agreed to protect the royal house of Yogyakarta back in legendary times of the Mataram Dynasty (actually just 16 - 17th Century).

Kraton - palace of Yogya's Kings

In return for their protection, 10 generations of kings in Yogya, holding the title of sultans, are required to present annual offerings of clothes, tobacco, food and flowers, known as the Labuhan ceremonies, to both the spirits of the Southern Sea and Gunung Merapi.

mBah (Granddad) Marijan, the traditional spiritual keeper of Gunung Merapi said: "Javanese believers in spiritualism would see this as a signal, or you can also say a warning, from the Almighty. The problem is whether people understand this warning or not.”

Agustina Ismunjiah, an official guide for foreign visitors to the palace in Yogyakarta, known as the Kraton, added: “I believe that Merapi and the earthquakes are linked, that they are both warnings to the people."

"They are warnings to the people, so that they engage in introspection and review their relations with God, fellow human beings and the environment."

"The sultan has abandoned many of the old ways. The sense of being Javanese is waning."

For example, in accordance with Javanese traditional homage to the Spirits, thousands of pilgrims make offerings to honour Kanjeng Ratu Kidul on the nights before Tuesday and Friday Kliwon (2 sacred days in the 35-day Javanese Wetonan calendar), at the Parang Kusumo beach.

The Parang Kusumo was where Panembahan Senopati, the first legendary ruler of the Javanese Mataram Dynasty received a divine revelation at the southern beach of Parang Tritis (20 km south of Yogyakarta). There, he made an agreement with Kanjeng Ratu Kidul, where the Queen would always protect the kings of Mataram and its people from evil deeds in exchange for the spiritual marriage of every king of the Mataram dynasty to Her.

Panembahan Senopati

The stories of Panembahan Senopati are filled with tales of mystical power and occult feats - hardly surprising when Java was then under the powerful influence of Tantric Hinduism.

One legend surrounding him has it that Merapi symbolized the male world while the South Sea symbolized the female. Thus Merapi eruptions symbolize sexual intercourse between Panembahan Senopati and his divine spouse Ratu Kidul, which will bring wealth to the people. I suppose there's truth in this as the flowing lava would fertilise and enrich the hillside farming land.

His grandson (I think, as he’s the 3rd King of the Mataram Dynasty) Sultan Agung Hanyokrokusumo was the greatest king warrior in Java. Under his rule Mataram reached its peak, dominating most parts of Java. His grave in the hill of Imogiri is still visited by a lot of pilgrims, who believe in his sacred supernatural power.

The current ruler of the royal house of Yogyakarta, Sultan Hamengkubuwono X, does not hold royal status anymore but is still revered by local Javanese as royalty. Thus it was not strange he has been apppointed by Jakarta as the governor of Yogyakarta province as he commands local respect and loyalty. But can he afford to abandon his century-old obligation to heed the warning of his divine spouse and (through his spiritual ‘marriage’) his immortal son-in-law?

Farmer Wignyo has the last word. He cautioned that if people failed to heed the first warning, a second would follow: "It all comes back to us."

Related:
(1) Gunung Merapi - Destroyer of Civilisations
(2) Mysterious Worship of Gunung Merapi
(3) Earthquake hit Yogyakarta

Panglima's Galore

Guess who’s among the 20 people awarded the Panglima Setia Mahkota (PSM) which carries the title Tan Sri?

Deputy Inspector-General of Police Musa Hassan, the man who kept contradicting the DPM during the Squatgate scandal.

Yes, somehow the government saw fit that he deserves such a high award.

Then the Datuk Bandar (mayor) of Kuala Lumpur, Ruslin Hasan, the man responsible for his DBKL enforcement squads pulverising religious icons at Indian temples was also honoured by the King with the Panglima Jasa Negara (PJN).

The politicians receiving the PJN as well were Barisan Nasional Executive Secretary Yaakob Mohammad, MCA life members Lo Kong Boon and Tan Kim Leong, and People's Progressive Party vice-president S. Thulukanam.

Lollies for the faithful and the ........

Malaysian Sex Machines (2) - Bonking with responsibility

Dr Harlina Halizah Siraj women’s wing chief a Jemaah Islah (JIM) Malaysian sex machines is wrong. It’s not just about fulfilling the sexual desires of either or both spouses.

Technically, a misyar marriage is one in which a woman waives or suspends one or more rights to which she is entitled in view of the particular circumstances of her potential husband. It is not just a green ticket to bonk to one's satisfaction without any family responsibility. She asserted that all the other rules, principles, and obligations of marriage remain as obligations.

She provided an example where a financially independent woman may choose to forego the provision of a house, food and drink, or clothes from her husband which he is normally obligated to furnish.

She averred that’s such a situation is not unusual as it happens in many marriages from time to time whereby a wife sometimes uses her own money for basic necessities in order to free her husband’s resources for use on other expenses.

She was commenting on the widespread rejection of the proposal of Universiti Malaya's Prof Dr Mahmud Zuhdi Abdul Majid, who recommended more misyar marriages. The Prof has said that the difference between misyar and a polygamous marriage was that the husband did not have to provide money or clothing for his other wife but only be there to satisfy her sexual needs.

He recommended misyar marriage to overcome the rising number of unmarried divorcees and women. In fact Utusan Malaysia had quoted him saying that misyar marriages could also reduce the incidence of vice among Muslim women.

Subsequently, Prof Zuhdi asserted that he had never called for men to be absolved of their responsibilities, but merely that the women who are financially stronger than their husbands can waive the right to certain provisions pertaining to her own needs.

He expressed his belief that hubby must still provide companionship and family leadership while fulfilling his other responsibilities such as to his children.

In the aftermath of Prof Zuhdi’s proposal, a concerned Dr Syed Ali Tawfik Al-Attas, director-general of the Malaysian Institute of Islamic Understanding, wanted people to stop f**king around with the sacred institution of marriages. He was disturbed by the debates, which largely touched on the issues of sex and lust.

And indeed it had been – and for those people coming out after the authoritative slap down by the good doctor to provide clarifications is just too little too late! Why propose something that was quoted by Utusan Malaysia as a solution to reduce the incidence of vice among Muslim women, if it was not about SEX!

Dr Syed Ali Tawfik Al-Attas said: “We have to ask if the problem relates to Muslim women finding it hard to get married or the women choosing to be single? Then only can we start looking for solutions.”

“We have many unresolved issues affecting Muslims that we need to take care of, such as increasing divorce rates, truancy in schools and universities and girls excelling over boys in their studies.”

UMNO Youth Odd Man Out

The MCA Youth, MIC Youth and Gerakan Youth have all woken up to deliver a warning to the police on its threat to the government about the PM’s wish to establish the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC).

MCA Youth chief Liow Tiong Lai said it has been very unbecoming of the police to threaten to allow the crime rate to rise, or to vote for the opposition should the IPCMC be established.

He said: “It is wrong for government officers to do this, they should respect the government of the day. They are enforcement officers who must implement policies set by the government. Don’t even think about this kind of threat.”

Liow demanded an apology from the police. He declared his full support for the IPCMC.

He has been strongly supported by MIC Youth – and bloody FINALLY too, considering most of the victims of alleged police abuses had been members of the Indian community.

For some strange, stupid but undoubtedly sycophantic reasons, the MIC Youth had previously been opposed to the concept of the IPCMC, when one would imagine them, of all people, to be clamouring for such a body to investigate and check the alleged police abuses.

But the unprecedented and unmitigated threats by a public service had been the last straw that gave MIC Youth some balls and backbone to demand for a IPCMC that would accord some justice if not protection for the community they profess to look after.

MIC Youth chief SA Vigneswaran said the threats from the police suggested the need for the IPCMC: “From someone who supported the police and their opposition to the IPCMC, the latest step taken by the police actually made me speechless and disappointed. Nobody should hold the government to ransom.”

But MIC being MIC, Vigneswaran of course couldn't resist embellishing his declaration with a bit of bodek-ing (brown-nosing) by stating the bloody obvious, that the final decision would rest with Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Then, Gerakan Youth chief Mah Siew Keong said the wing had been deeply disappointed with the police threats. He averred:

“We cannot tolerate such statements and threats by police officers. We appreciate the contribution made by the police and the difficulties and challenges they have to go through. However, the police force should not impose any threat on public safety despite their stand to object the proposal on the setting up of IPCMC.”

“Public interest and national security should be upheld in order to maintain public confidence and accountability of the police force.”

Hmmm, I wonder what Gerakan No 1 Bodek-er Koh would say?

UMNO Youth leaders, who opposed the IPCMC, could not be reached for comment.

Mister Professor Doctor

A team from Kolej Universiti Sains Malaysia has discovered a third species of the world’s smallest fish (from the genus Paedocypris blah blah blah) in a peat swamp in the foothills of Bukit Bauk urban recreational forest.

Professor Datuk Dr Abdul Latiff Mohammad, who led the team said: "This discovery was the highlight of the Bukit Bauk expedition. We are confident this will attract biologists from around the world to do more research on the bio-diversity of Bukit Bauk."

This posting is not about the fish but about Abdul Latiff Mohammad’s academic title.

Not many realise that in university protocol the title ‘professor’ outclasses a mere ‘doctor’. A professor would normally be appointed from doctors. Usually in the west, it would be just Professor KTemoc or Professor Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Yet I see in Malaysian universities the insistence of many professors in including the title ‘doctor’ before their names, as if they are scared that people may not know they have a PhD.

It’s like a military commander titling himself Major General (once) Lt Colonel KTemoc.

General practitioners (MBBS) or doktor ubat, on the other hand, are really not academically entitled to be addressed as Doctors, though society has accorded them this title through common (rather than academic) usage. Afterall, they only have double bachelor degrees, but they are quite happy to call themselves Doctors rather than GPs.

But the real medical postgraduate blokes and lassies, for example the surgeons, who are entitled to be called Doctors insist on calling themselves Misters - hey, what do lady surgeons called themselves - Miss-es?

A surgeon friend explained that the rather common title of Mister remembers their history when the original surgeons were barbers. So for a surgeon, their career paths see them worked their guts out to be called Doctors, then worked harder to return to be Misters again.

In French it’s a different story of course, for the word ‘professor’ just means ‘teacher’ so when a French says he or she's a professor, don't get academically too excited. I wonder what title the French allow their PhDs to carry?

One Born Every Minute (2)

A 23-year-old housewife told her aunt about her marital problems. The aunt suggested she sought occult assistance from a bomoh, (Malay witch doctor) so together with her encouraging aunt, she went to the man’s house. Dr Red-Eye Toyol* said no worries, that he could solve her problems.

* see Return of the Red-Eye Toyol

He instructed her to wear just a sarong and lie on a bed in the treatment room. And to obtain the correct spiritual atmosphere the bomoh filled the room with kemenyan (incense) smoke. Then he brushed his body against hers, just as a warm-up because there's more to cum, eh I mean, come. He then fondled her.

She claimed that she initially resisted but heeding advice from her aunt not to, or even scream when the bomoh touched her, she submitted to his inevitable rape.

Later, the woman, feeling suspicious about the way she had been treated by the bomoh who used his ‘divine wand’ on her, told her husband about the incident, which led to her lodging a police report.

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry, that she subsequently felt ‘suspicious’ of the treatment.

Related: One Born Every Minute

Wish IGP was Japanese!

Even the powerful arrogant IGP realises by now he has gone too far, with blokes like KTemoc and a host of others instigating the PM to sack him. For a public service like the Police to defy the PM on the IPCMC for a start, then shamelessly admitting it was ensuring the BN’s stay in power, and finalising its unmitigated feral behaviour with a threat to vote the opposition and let crime rates soar, even the rubbery Malaysian boundaries of proprietary were exceeded many-fold.

The IGP is the No 1 person in the police. He is responsible for what the police do, and they have been doing f**king badly. Their controversies have not yet ended when they pulverised peaceful protestors in a so-called democracy. They viciously kicked a man who was already hammered down onto the ground by them.

photos by Jeff Ooi at Malaysiakini

So what did he do in the midst of a disgraceful unprecedented open revolt by his organization?

The same old f**king formula.

His investigations found, surprise surprise, that a corporal had uploaded the seditious, yes, SEDITIOUS document without consulting her superior. Not only that, the corporal admitted to it. She has been transferred to another section.

Any of you who are familiar with the management of organizational websites and the protocols of webmasters would puke to listen to his bullsh*t. A mere corporal loading up an outrageous threatening and SEDITIOUS warning to the elected government on to the Police official website, without an OK from her superiors?

What a lot of crock. What a most shameful and cowardly act to pile the blame on a defenceless woman corporal, who by virtue of her low rank remains denied of speech, defence and justice.

It has been the most cowardly exhibition of (lack of) officer quality. It was only the PM’s lack of backbone that he has been allowed to get away again.

But I suppose there’s no harm in that pathetic man bodeking (brown-nosing) the PM in the usual Malaysian way, in what he said:

“We never said we will or can ignore the Government. The Government has the final say in whether or not to set up the IPCMC.”

“I will leave it to the Prime Minister to decide. He had on many occasions mentioned that he has left it to the Attorney-General to study the matter before making a decision.”

“As far as I am concerned, there is nothing much that I can do now. I am so sorry for what has happened. I am personally most grateful to the Prime Minister for his caring attitude towards the force. He has done much and has provided us with much-needed logistics, housing and infrastructure, as well as for the welfare of our men. I really feel very sorry for what has happened.”

Utterly pathetic. He makes me sick. I wish he was Japanese – then he would know what to do with his dishonour.

My Lai, Fallujah, Haditha - USA's Slaughterings, Sins & Shame

Call me analytical or what, and I say this with a heavy heart, but last year on 08 August I posted Haditha another Fallujah?

I recall the tragedy of Fallujah as “a truly disgraceful exhibition of American military might used in the most barbaric fashion with nationalistic angry vengeance, unbecoming of any civilized nation. Many innocent women and children were killed, and homes of innocents were pounded to debris. Red Cross ambulances were prevented from rescuing any injured. A Marine cold bloodedly executed unarmed and wounded Iraqis in a mosque. All to satisfy a need for revenge.”

Based on the feral barbaric behaviour of the American military’s propensity to punish every Iraqi in sight in a particular area where Americans had been killed, without careful application of conventional rules of engagement or regard for the treatment of civilians under international laws, I had worried for Haditha’s citizens.

My concern was relevant vecause at that time a 1000-strong joint US-Iraqi force launched a third attack against the insurgents at Haditha. The US aim was to interdict the insurgents, meaning, seal off all entries and exits to/from the area, and finished those trapped within. The usual civilians including women and children would also be ‘within’.

Haditha!

On 21 March this year I sadly posted what I had feared all along, Another My Lai!. I referred to the morning of 19 November 2005 when the vehicle of a group of US marine troops was struck by a roadside bomb near Haditha. One man, Lance Corporal Miguel Terrazas died from that blast.

According to eyewitnesses and local officials interviewed by the Time magazine over a period of 10 weeks, the Marines sought revenge for their dead comrade by going on a bloody murderous rampage in the nearby village after the attack, killing 15 unarmed Iraqis in their homes, including seven women and three children [this figure has since increased to 24]. They then falsely reported the murdered villages were killed by unknown armed men.

Thanks to the report by Time magazine, and the reality that currently the Iraqi war has become extremely unpopular for Americans, President Bush has decided to add his concerns on the killings. He has promised to make public all the details of inquiries into the alleged massacre.

Now, other witnesses have come out to tell of four Iraqi university students in a taxi being summarily executed by US troops, despite pleas for mercy from the taxi driver.

Samir Sumaidaie, the new Iraqi ambassador to the US, after presenting his credentials to President Bush, told CNN that his cousin was unjustifiably murdered by US marines in his home in Haditha last July. He lamented that the US military had failed to adequately investigate his death.

When asked whether there was a pattern to the way marines operated in Haditha, Mr Sumaidaie said there might be and that he knew of a case where three unarmed youths in a car had been shot by US forces shortly after his cousin.

There are three issues for the Americans to resolve, namely (1) the truth of the massacres and those responsible, (2) the attempted cover up that led all the way to the top of the military, possibly at the Joint Chiefs level, and most important of all. (3) will those responsible/guilty be appropriately punished? Let's hope it won't be another bullshit Lt Calley-type gloved treatment for the Haditha murderers.

Mind you, if the war had gone President Bush’s way, he would have brushed the Time magazine report aside, probably forcing the ‘unpatriotic’ editors, like those at Newsweek related to the case of US troops desecrating the Koran, to apologize.

Mandarin masks "mei yu gongzuo"

Many bloggers have been pissed off with DPM Najib for having the double-face and double standards to criticise some in the private sector for discriminatory practice in recruiting only those who are proficient in Mandarin (the language, not the orange).

Not unexpectedly, they fall into two camps.

Camp 1 would demand of Najib to criticise the government’s own discriminatory recruitment practice as well.

Camp 2 attempted to discredit his criticism as misplaced by the argument that employers advertised for Mandarin speaking staff as a job-related requirement rather than for specific ethnicity.

I feel the latter presented their case in a better light. On the face of it, Najib has been incorrect to make such an accusation. As an example of his error, if one were to look at advertisements for some United Nations positions, specific language(s) requirements are stated.

But the problem with Najib’s allegation is not that he doesn’t know. Like all top UMNO policy pronouncements, there is a subtext to his statement.

He was putting on the best political spin in the light of unemployed graduates almost doubling from 45,000 in 2000 to 85,000 last year. Most of them are Malays, so bloody blame someone else. And who better than the good ole faithful Chinese punching bag. Yes, someone has to be the scapegoat, and Mandarin seems convenient as the whipping boy.

It’s the usual UMNO tactic.

In the old days, the Chinese would be dragged out to be flogged as unpatriotic potential communists, to divert attention from government failings.

Then, those China-peks would be sacrificed on the altar of Ketuanan Melayu (Malay supremacy) to ensure other wannabe leaders in the Malay community, like PAS or Semangat 46, were chopped down as unnecessary divisive forces in the face of a threat to Bangsa dan Agama (race & Islam). Long keris (Malay dagger), short keris, tebuans (hornets) and whatnot would be coopted into the distracting or more-Hang-Tuah-than-thou spin.

Oh, talking about that, remember May 13?

* mei yu gongzuo = no job