Silver blackens easily, Silver State more so

As a young boy I was given a silver chain by my uncle to wear my ‘siam-mah sampoh’ (Thai amulet) which I inherited from my paternal great grandmother, who hailed from Thailand.

Those of you who are from Penang, Kedah-Perlis, or Kelantan would have some idea of what the Phra Kring I wore was.

Well, I don’t anymore and one of the reasons was the silver chain kept turning black despite my regular cleaning. The black colour the chain assumed rapidly, even after the cleaning, was due to the reaction of the silver with my body sweat.

Silver has never agreed with me unlike for my cousin whose silver chain somehow shone beautifully.

Well, the Silver State has like my silver chain turned black too. In fact, the politics in that State is pretty rotten, and I blamed both Anwar Ibrahim and Najib Razak for their tit-for-tat froggy business which has brought about the nasty blackened state of affairs.

Anwar Ibrahim has always been a trouble maker, but many people (not me of course wakakaka) thought that perhaps his years in prison might have changed him completely from his old UMNO nasty self, making him the Great Reformer as he has been portraying himself.

But what did he do at the first opportunity he had post-incarceration?

Yes, he attempted to deform (note: not reform) the democratic process by seizing government through political defections. A black case of subversion of the ballot box. Yup, he is still his old UMNO self, trying to re-enact his 1994 froggie coup of Sabah.

His greater sin was to allow Najib Razak to upstage him in the sorry saga of fostering, encouraging and egging political defections. Even as a Deformer, Anwar couldn’t do the indecent job well enough.

And as an opposition leader (which Lim Kit Siang has to play, and with dignity, dedication and panache, in the frequent absence of the Great One) he couldn't even form a shadow cabinet.

What more as an alternative PM?

Najib? Well, he's UMNO, isn't he? wakakaka

Let’s move on to the State judiciary. There was this judicial commissioner in Perak who kept popping up everywhere and every time (even when it was said his contract had already ended) to frustrate State Assembly Speaker, Sivakumar during the attempted BN coup d'etat.

Then it was the High Court judge, Justice Datuk Balia Yusuf Wahi who saw fit to meddle with the State legislative, despite Article 72, Clause (1) of the Federal Constitution which clearly states: The validity of any proceedings in the Legislative Assembly of any State shall not be questioned in any court.

Highly respected (former) Judge NH Chan asked the rhetorical question: What do you call a judge who has defied the law of the land?

... provided with the suggested answer: A renegade judge?

So, with Justice Balia seeing fit to ignore a sacred cow of Westminster democracy, the separation of powers, he has now encouraged Gobind to challenge suspension in court, as reported by Malaysiakini.

Gobind, son of my hero Karpal Singh, had called Najib a ‘murderer’ during a parliamentary session. Despite my admiration and support for his father, I didn’t have any doubts that Gobind had gone too far, more so when he is a lawyer himself.

He was suspended from parliament for 12 months by the Speaker of the Federal Parliament. And quite frankly, even as a DAP supporter I reckon he deserves the suspension, though I wonder whether 12 months might just be too long.

It’s simply outrageous for anyone, even and especially a DAP MP, to accuse someone of being criminally this or that without a shred of evidence, under the sarong of parliamentary privilege.

I suspect poor Gobind had been, like many others including sweetie Hannah Yeoh, mesmerized by the miasmatic mist of malarkey.

While I am not too sure of the correctness in the process that led to Gobind’s suspension, which Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang termed as a ‘blatant case of abuse’ by a BN majority in Parliament ...

... I thought denying him his allowances and benefits as an MP was wrong as that would deny him the financial support to service his constituency as their federal parliamentarian.

Parliament should never punish the innocent rakyat regardless of the sins of their MP or ADUN.

Anyway, Gobind has now seen our great Justice Balia daringly intruding into Legislative territory hitherto forbidden to the Judiciary, and thought what’s good for the UMNO goose should be equally good for the DAP gander.

Let’s now see how the court weasels out of this one.

And I have finished this post without the need to even mention the Perak royalty ;-)