KTemoc Konsiders ........

Much ado about a 'shitty little country'

2012-02-02T11:18:00.005+08:00

Israel.

On the surface it seems to be a silly issue for UMNO (in the person of either Najib or more prominently, Dr M) and Anwar Ibrahim to be quarrelling over. In the acrimonious circumstances which always surround the question of Israel, it’s not a case of “Anything you can do, I can do better” but rather “Anything you did, I did (or will do) less (or not at all)”, wakakaka.

Once a French diplomat (to Israel) was caught unaware saying (to a friend) that Israel was just a ‘shitty little country’, much to the political embarrassment of his nation. But in the scheme of things global, he was actually correct. In terms of size, natural resources or strategic location, Israel shouldn’t matter much.

Then, why does such a ‘shitty little country’ exert disproportionate influence and effect on many nations, but notably those nations which have the majority of their population belonging in faith to one of the Abraham-ic religions, like the USA or Malaysia?

Well, I’ve actually provided the answer to that question, namely, it’s all about religion or political movements with a religious overlay, namely, Zionism*, fundamental Christianity and Islam.

* an Israeli initiated political movement which is to be differentiated from Judaism, where many (non Zionist) Jews do not support (Jewish and Christian) Zionists in wanting to have a State of Israel.

What then is the emotive-(including religious)-political significance of the State of Israel?

To Christian Zionists, that State signifies the return of the ‘Hebrews’ to the so-called Holy Land*, which in turn is a sign of Jesus returning soon – for more read this. Thus for Jesus' Second Coming, the land of the ‘Hebrews’ (read that as Israelis) must be defended regardless – in practical terms, with American arms, intelligence and total political support plus US$4 billion annually.

Last year, when the USA tightened its budget and trimmed down allocations for virtually every program affecting its citizens and institutions, only one allocation was exempted, and not only spared but bizarrely increased, namely aid for Israel. Such is the hold of a 'shitty little country' over the mighty USA.

* I wonder how a land can be deemed ‘holy’ when it has been the most blood-drenched piece of semi-desert estate in world’s history. Why would Jesus want to return there, a place of unbelievable violence for more than 3,000 years? Perhaps Christians should pray for Him to go to, say, New Zealand or Seychelles or Tahiti in his Second Coming.

To Israeli-Jewish Zionists, a religiously shackled USA is a wonderful God-given convenience, enabling them to manipulate and control a religiously blind, obedient but powerful USA to Israeli needs, to be exploited for all it is worth so as to facilitate their restoration of the Kingdom of their legendary King David, stretching from the Nile to the Euphrates – and with whatever it takes!

In this, former Israeli PM Ariel Sharon had openly boasted to his Foreign Minister Shimon Peres “Don't worry about American pressure, we the Jewish people control America." For more on Israeli control of the USA, read here.

Naturally, as Israel controls the USA through religion, it always vets any archaeological findings to ensure those do not undermine Christian faith. Politically and economically, it would not do to disprove Christian beliefs, which are the foundation stone of invincible and blind US support and aid for Israel, wthout which it cannot survive.

To the Muslims especially the Palestinians, the State of Israel means Nakba (catastrophe or cataclysm), from whence the Palestinians were driven from their homes by Zionist invaders. The geographical ethnic cleansing of Palestinian residency from the West Bank (Israelis' biblical Judea & Samaria) and Jerusalem to facilitate Israeli lebensraum including the Israeli complete occupation of their holiest city continues till today.

The above USA-supported Israeli persecutions, coupled with vested interests among some neighbouring Arab nations to ensure the Palestinians do not have their own independent republican State (which will be a bad example to the kingdoms of absolute monarchs), have placed them in their current ghetto-rized State-less status as Middle-East vagrants. The sad outcome of the Nakba is reflected in the lamentation of "When one doesn’t have anything, how then can one lose anything anymore?"

Thus, to UMNO and Anwar Ibrahim, Israel with its blood-soaked history of violence, hostilities, racial animosities and hatred, spilled blood and unfulfilled vengeance a la the viciousness and genocidal episodes of the Old Testament represents political opportunities to indict their political opponents’ lack of sympathy for their Muslim* Palestinian brethrens (or friendliness with Israel) as evidence of their lack of fitness or lack of worthiness to be leaders of Malaysia.

* there are Christian Palestinians as well.

Now, in Malaysia, with agama (religion) being one of the tripodal mantra of UMNO, this invariably means Israel and its persecutions of Palestinians are highly emotional issues. Thus, political support of the Heartland for a politician can be influenced by the perceived stand of that politician for or against Palestinians and/or Israel (and Jews*).

* unfortunately many Malaysians (not just Malays) are unable to differentiate between Jews and Israelis, or between Zionists (which include Israelis, Jews and Christians) and non-Zionist Jews, etc. To them, a Jew = Israeli = Zionist.

As mentioned in a previous post, Anwar Ibrahim has many close associations with leading political figures in the West, especially the USA. For example, one of his friends is Paul Wolfowitz, the former Deputy Secretary for Defence in President Bush’s Administration with very strong Israeli connections, and the man who strongly advocated an attack and invasion of Iraq when 9/11 happened, even though there was no evidence to link Saddam Hussein to the Twin Towers attacks.

In 2010, Anwar unusually joined an anti-Israeli demonstration outside the U.S. embassy in Kuala Lumpur, perhaps to disprove UMNO propaganda about him being an Israeli agent and Jew lover. He alleged there was ‘Zionist influence’ in Malaysia, and that Israeli agents had infiltrated Malaysia's security forces. Did he mean Apco Worldwide?

His anti-Zionist attacks shocked his American friends. Thus when he was subsequently in Washington, he sure as hell had a lot of explaining to do, including to House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman. Wolfowitz was the one who defended Anwar, stating: "What Anwar did was wrong, but considering that he's literally fighting for his life - physically as well as politically - against a government that attacks him as being a puppet of the Jews, one should cut him some slack.”

Presumably “cutting him some slack” means allowing Anwar some latitude in his politicking in Malaysia even if it requires anti-Israeli posturing, because the worldviews of the locals are very straightforward black and white.

I believe Anwar made a poor choice of words in saying in an interview with Wall St Journal that he supported "all efforts to protect the security of the state of Israel". Anifah Aman cleverly pounced on the (my) underlined phrase as Anwar supporting even Israeli mass military attacks on Gaza as exemplified in the barbarous and horrendous Operations Cast Lead.

Of course Anwar didn’t mean that but alas, the harm’s done.

Anwar is now striking back at Dr M for the latter's meeting with Yitzhak Rabin and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres in Paris on July 6, 1994. However I opine that international meetings between enemies or representatives of States with no diplomatic relations have not been not unusual in international forums or circles, nor should such be interpreted as the parties being pally buddy.

But for the life of me, I cannot understand why Najib’s government stupidly chose Apco Worldwide to be its PR agency, nor why the PDRM and the former IGP RMP selected an Israeli company to provide our men in blue with electronic equipment?

Nonetheless, UMNO obviously see great profit in tarring and feathering Anwar with an Israeli tag, while PKR have been correct in retaliating by highlighting Najib's connection with an Israeli Apco, but puhleeeze lah, ordinary Malaysians have had a surfeit of this bullsh*t, and are getting pissed off by the brouhaha over a ‘shitty little country’ when far more urgent and important issues affecting their livelihood, properties and future require urgent addressing by both BN and Pakatan.

A letter to Hasan Hau Siau

2012-02-01T21:14:00.003+08:00

Malaysiakini - Hasan: DAP will merge M'sia, S'pore into republic.

Dear Hasan matey,

I don’t mean to rebut your holiness wakakaka, but ~~when~~ if (wakakaka) DAP takes over Putrajaya, I’ve been reliably informed (wakakaka) it’ll do the following:

(a) It will remove graft, making this national ailment its No 1 priority task, which, I have been warned, may cause a number of cardiac arrests, however in the right places, wakakaka.

(b) It will prevent non-tendering tender of crony-tendering [I admit it’s a bit of a mouthful wakakaka] to ensure that government contracts will be tendered a la the current Penang system which incidentally has seen Malays win 70% of Penang public contracts, proving once and for all that Malays are very boleh, especially when cronyism has been removed from blocking their chances.

However, at federal level in the futuristic scene we are now painting, there’ll be a problem similar to what is now experienced in Penang – the Malay winners of 70% of the tenders/contracts won’t all be from UMNO nor from their non-Malay cronies, wakakaka.

(c) It will strengthen the sanctity of our system of constitutional monarchy to prevent disrespectful politicians from vilifying the Malay rulers from the sarung-ized privileges of Parliament, as happened on 10 December 1992 when (according to the Hansard) Dr Affifuddin Omar, an UMNO man from Padang Terap, no doubt given the imprimatur by his party leaders, said in Parliament:

"How can we continue to uphold rulers who are known to be robbers, adulterers, drunkards and kaki pukul (thugs)?" [...]

"They (the rulers) must be made to realize that they do not own this country. They are not Superman but placed on their thrones by the people. "The real power did not lie with them, but with us - the representatives of the people."

(d) It will protect the position and sanctity of Islam as the nation’s official religion to prevent what had happened during the most holy month (August) of Ramadan in 2010, when our society suffered the lamentable distinction of witnessing, during Ramadan fasting, an astonishing series of lies emanating from some UMNO-linked Malay institutes, as well as a sinister attempt by a Muslim leader allied to UMNO (wakakaka) propagandizing about a fabricated ‘new constitution’ that would disadvantage the Malay community (yes, again blasphemously during Ramadan).

Most of all it will impose the severest penalty for failed politicians who show no respect to their religious beliefs by shamelessly indulging in fabrications of international intrigues to deliberately harm the interests of others.

(e) Finally, before I cause any more heart fibrillations, it will, hopefully on my recommendations, appoint Datuk Paduka Marina Mahathir as Malaysia’s High Commissioner to the Republic of Singapore, assuming DYMM SPB consents to the appointment and the Datuk Paduka herself accepts the job. I have also been warned that this may cause some misogynists, if they haven't suffered cardiac arrests already, to bang their heads on the wall (I hope so wakakaka).

Yours in joyous wakakaka,

kaytee

Bangsa Ber-Pancawarna

2012-02-01T13:00:00.009+08:00

In Australia whenever I met someone new who is a fellow SE Asian, or even from the Far East, and reveal myself as a Malaysian, he/she would invariably exclaim in delightful admiration: “Oh, you guys can speak several languages!”

Though I’d smile, and not without some considerable pride at our Boleh-ness, perhaps the one sole qualification worthy of being proud about, I would at the same time quietly cringe at our notorious mastery of colourful profanities in at least half a dozen or more languages/dialects, way way before I came to know of some bloggers and blog visitors, wakakaka.

So as a nationality, we are if anything quite colourful, not least in the manner in which we love to generously lace our speeches with those multi-lingual and grossly obscene profanities and vulgarisms. Mind, we’d spew out our favourite lubricities, not merely as insults (though there have been lots of these), but as everyday usage in adjectives, adverbs and nouns in our conversations, and of course we would argue, only to emphasize and/or enhance the points we want to make.

Sometimes we even aver that in using the most colourful ‘F’ word, we had meant it in a complimentary way, like “God, she’s absoluetly f* beautiful” or in exasperated exclamations at our own predicaments or mistakes, like “Oh, now I’m truly f*”. Such is the versatility of the ‘F’ word that I need at least a whole post to demonstrate its wide ranging use, so I’ll stop its discussion here, reluctantly if I may confess.

In this, I wonder whether we are a wee like Australians who call their enemies ‘bastards’ but their closest friends ‘bloody bastards’.

But in further discussing the colourful nature of we Malaysians, I suppose we could perhaps start off with one of the tripods of our brand of democracy, namely, the judiciary.

The wonderfully remarkable Bench had demonstrated how they could turn black into white one day, and then white into black in another, as I had posted on 08 March 2010 in Federal Court ruling - black yesterday, white today.

Then I had written about the court declaring that Anwar's dismissal as DPM [by then PM Dr M] is lawful because according to our marvellous judiciary, the king, as a constitutional monarch, was required to act in accordance with the advice of the prime minister.

* above underlining and bolding/highlighting by kaytee

… while a mere month prior to this (yes, just around 30 days), the very same three judges who were also on the appeals bench to hear Mohd Nizar Jamaluddin’s appeal against the unconstitutional sacking of him as the MB of Perak and the associated appointment of Zambry Abd Kadir as the new MB by the Sultan of Perak, ruled that it was not necessary for a vote of confidence to be done in the state assembly as the Sultan can conduct his own inquiry to determine which party or coalition has the majority.

In other words HRH was NOT required to act in accordance with the advice of the menteri besar at that time, namely Nizar.

Yessirree, these three same judges - just as a reminder that they, together with two other, had just one month earlier, ruled the Sultan of Perak, even as a constitutional monarch, could ignore the advice of MB Nizar to dissolve the Perak Assembly – told us in a case of Anwar Ibrahim versus Dr M, that the Agong, as a constitutional monarch, was required to act in accordance with the advice of the prime minister (Dr M).

Either they were of a most forgetful nature (and to f* with stare decisis) or we could quote George Orwell who wrote in Animal Farm (Chapter 2, pg 11), that “Squealer could turn black into white” wakakaka. Now, didn’t/doesn’t that just confirm our affinity with colours and thus, our colourful nature?

Well, what next? Oh yes, there’s those Yellow Perils, our most feared fifth columnists, the local Chinese, who had often been accused of being red, wakakaka. Got it, yellow = red? wakakaka!

Of course I mustn’t let Pantai Remis assemblyman Nga Kor Ming get away with his disgraceful ‘metallic black person’ remark. But he had apologized though he bloody well watches his mouth.

I won’t go into the seditious BTN indoctrinations, the terrible Johor headmistress or the Interlok insults which raised our temperature to the upper red mark of the thermometer as these shameful black-marked issues have already been battered blue black in the various coverages on them. Nor would I mention those men in blue who should be wearing black arm bands for their questionable conduct and behaviour.

But in closing I should talk a bit about the red, green and white of ang pows, which incidentally translate into ‘red packets’ (red for luck, as it is an auspicious colour). Yup, we're now on the topic of Ibrahim Ali's peh-pow (white packets) which he doled out to his MCA-marshalled Chinese visitors during Perkasa Chinese New Year Open House.

Some like Kee Thuan Chye has latched onto Ibrahim Ali’s faux pas to give vent to their ire at the UMNO-Perkasa inconsiderate and very colour-conscious mentality against the 'nons', as may be read in his Malaysiakini article White ang pow: The state has failed us.

Kee does have a point because Malays in adopting the Chinese custom of giving out ang pow (lucky money) on festive occasions such as New Year and Hari Raya, are known to have used green packets, employing the Islamic colour to mask or modify the Chinese auspicious red, where red is often seen as either mainly Chinese or communist (or both wakakaka), though red happens also to be part of the UMNO colour - well, explain that! Anyway, it’s not as if the UMNO-Perkasa mob had been unaware of the colour significance of ang pow.

But quite frankly I am giving Ibrahim Ali the benefit of the doubt for his unthinking faux pas, in gifting peh-pows (white packets) during Perkasa’s Chinese New Year Open House. Those envelopes in a taboo-ed colour (white for death) were a definite no-no for Chinese on a supposedly auspicious occasion - white is very sial (unlucky, ill-omened) on Chinese New Year. I’d put it down as a monumental f* up by his aides and I would even stretch my neck out to opine it was not a deliberate oversight.

The Ibrahim bloke is quite a colourful personality, in fact so colourful he’s known to be a political chameleon, brown one day, green another, yellow sometimes and who knows, even white or black as the situation warrants, in the same variety of tones as possessed by many types of frogs, wakakaka.

But I do blame Collin Tiew, that MCA Sri Desa Branch Boss who collaborated* with Perkasa in the latter's Chinese New Year Open House, and then when the hot steaming poo hit the fan, denied in mealy-mouth fashion that he didn’t know this or that, in fact virtually everything, and that he was acting in a welfare capacity and not as a MCA member.

* in the very meaning of the word as known during WWII

He even daringly attempted a black-into-white transformation when he proclaimed 'I've been made victim of Perkasa CNY open house'. A$**h*le!

Chua Soi Lek has a lot of explaining to do regarding the cozy arrangements between Perkasa and one of his MCA branch chiefs.

Now, don’t tell me that Collin Tiew wasn't aware that the MCA had in recent times criticized Ibrahim Ali in his Perkasa role of vilifying Chinese Malaysians, and that the latter had unwittingly but uniquely unified the Chinese in MCA, Gerakan and DAP in opposing his insults & threats to the Chinese Malaysian community, …

… in exactly the same way as another ‘Ibrahim’, namely Anwar Ibrahim who, as Education Minister in issuing his unacceptable policy of appointing non-Mandarin trained headmasters to vernacular schools in 1987, had also uniquely unified Chinese Malaysians (MCA, Gerakan and DAP and Dong Jiao Zong), which then led to the launch of the infamous Ops Lallang.

I'm not sure whether it was true what I heard, that Anwar’s face had then turned white at his education ministerial ‘too clever by half’ policy which nearly conflagated the nation into red-tainted racial riots a la May 13, though I also heard Dr M patting him on his shoulder and coo-ing “Ta ape, jangan khuatir”, wakakaka.

Then was also when a young Najib believed that beneath Chinese yellow skins was red blood, but without realizing that red was in fact the universal colour of blood, including his, or for that matter, that of any race, nationality or creed, and even for those so-claimed blue blood!

With Ops Lallang, Najib’s face was a rosy pink like the cat which licked the cream because he was teflonized, while Lee Kim Sai, the MCA Youth Chief, saw his face turning black because he wasn’t, wakakaka, which explained why, just prior to the police dragnet, he was sent away to Australia for a facial.

We Malaysians are certainly a Bangsa berpancawarna - hope my Bahasa term is correct wakakaka.

Read also: Secret of Ang Pow’s

The price of race

2012-01-31T09:48:00.006+08:00

The Malaysian Insider - ‘Racist price list’ for golf membership sparks backlash.

On the surface of it, there is overt racism and thus discrimination on the basis of skin colour. But if we read more carefully, the Notice says “Membership for sale”.

As Megat Najmuddin Megat Khas, president of the KGNS said, the membership by racial quota has been fixed at 45% Malay, 35% Chinese and 20% Indians and Others (presumably Eurasian, Thai and Ang-mor) to ensure a decent racial mix. Re-sale of membership has to comply with maintaining the racial quota, meaning Malays may only sell to Malays, while Chinese and Indians may likewise sell to Chinese and Indians respectively. I have no problem with the club’s policy on this racial quota.

On the price list itself, one could argue that because memberships for Chinese and Indians are more limited at respectively 35% and 20% (or less), the private re-sale cost of membership in these rarer categeory would be far more expensive, explaining why Kandasamy's membership (limited to 20% or less) is sold at RM15,000 more than Ah Chong.

However, I cannot understand why an Indian has to pay RM60,000 to 80,000 while someone classified as 'Other', basically in the same category as Indians, can buy a membership for only RM40,000 to 50,000?

Now, this is sheer inexcusable racism, with the poor Aneh or Tambi getting the short end of the stick. This could f* translate into an Ang-mor paying a lower sum (by as much as RM20 to 30 grand) to secure a membership than Palannivel could. Explain this discrepancy! If this is not racism of the worst kind, what the f* is it then?

While the club committee and rules may not be directly responsible for the pricing of a membership re-sale, the sad differentiation tells us the country, one way or another, continues to reek malodorously of shameful racism.

Hokkiens' most important day of the year

2012-01-30T19:31:00.003+08:00

Tomorrow 31 January 2012, the 9th Day of the 1st Moon in the Lunar-Solar Calender (used by Chinese, Japanese, Koreans and Vietnamese), is the MOST important day of the year for Hokkiens. Indeed, it's far more important than even Chinese New Year's Day or any other day.

The Hokkiens believe it’s the day their ancestors were saved by the Lord of Heaven from genocidal massacre. Traditional Hokkiens around the world, especially in Penang and Singapore, will make votive offerings to Th’nee Kong (Lord of Heaven) in remembrance of their salvation.

In Penang the yearly pilgrimage to the temple of the Jade Emperor (Lord of Heaven) at Bukit Bendera has already begun.

For more details about the Hokkiens’ most important day of the year, read my KTemoc Kongsamkok post Hokkien salvation in sugar cane fields.

We both support Evil but .....

2012-01-30T08:25:00.004+08:00

The Malaysian Insider - Anifah: Malaysia does not support ‘all efforts to protect Israel’.

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 29 — Datuk Seri Anifah Aman insisted tonight that despite supporting a “two-state solution,” Malaysia has never supported Israel in its conflict with Palestine.

The foreign minister said this differed from Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that he “supports all efforts to protect the security of the state of Israel.”

“His statement clearly shows his acceptance and support for actions taken by Israel against Palestinians up to now.

“Actions interpreted as security measures by Israel include military attacks on Gaza causing the death of thousands of innocent Palestinians including women and children,” the Kimanis MP said in a statement sent to The Malaysian Insider.

Actually, both the Najib government and Anwar Ibrahim have taken the correct political-economic action, but one which real intention has not been announced, namely, to please the USA by showing Malaysia (or an individual) is showing due reverence to the USA’s master, Israel.

In reality, in the best case scenario, both Najib and Anwar don’t give two figs about Israel’s security, and I don’t blame them. But Israel in her evil draconian behaviour has become a useful issue in mainly Muslim Malaysia for Najib and Anwar to label each other as being disloyal to the ummah wahida, and thus less Muslim and therefore not worthy of being voted by the Heartland into office as PM.

Anifah is merely playing semantics in claiming BN's policy towards Israel is less dark (or obsequious) than Anwar Ibrahim's, though I have to admit he (Anifah) has done it rather well.

My personal take is that, as mentioned above, Anwar Ibrahim is beholden to his supporters in the USA and people like his mate Paul Wolfowitz. He has to play a hypocritical or 'political' game (the latter if we want to be kinder to him).

Najib's UMNO on the other hand have been outright hypocritical, because their condemnation of Israel, if at all any in recent times, is hollow in the shade of their own behaviour towards the non-UMNO people, especially the non-Malays.

As I had written in a post a year ago, titled Why 1Malaysia = 1Israel as follows [extracts only – see post for more]:

Israel has always been a hated entity for Muslim Malaysians, because Muslim Malaysians feel an obligatory if not sympathetic requirement to do so, to stand in solidarity with their Muslim brothers and sisters in Palestine. In recent years I have come to share this dislike of Israel though my reasons are more specific than being obligatory or just sympathetic. I have been utterly appalled by Israel’s blatant, unmitigated and feral racism.

Yesterday I posted … Neo-Nazis' 1935 'Nuremberg Laws' in Israel to highlight the Israelis’ neo-Nazism. Isn't it just ironical that the so-called children of the Holocaust behave towards the Palestinians in exactly the same manner as the Nazi oppressors had towards their European forefathers! ...

But don’t be surprised by the Israeli* savage and racist barbarism being similar to those demonstrated by the Nazis or white Afrikaans. One only has to open the Old Testament to read about the proclivity of their Israeli-Hebraic forefathers to murder, massacre and commit genocide against non-Hebrew tribes, to seize the latter’s land and property and take their wives and daughters as slaves. The Hebrews-Israelites-Judeans-Israelis all shared/share the national characteristic of evil barbarism.

* note that not all Israelis or Jews are racist

Naturally the Judean (Israelis) authors creatively put all those acts of atrocity as approved by God, in the same way as our Biro Tatanegara indoctrinators have creatively written to justify ketuanan Melayu, and that the other races as lesser beings, undesirable and unclean for Malaysia – thus we get the mata sepets and kaki botols, and 'sons of Chinese prostitutes' and 'Indians leashed by their wrist like animals'.

Ironically, for a government which tells the Muslim Malays that Israel is to be condemned for its persecutions and oppressions of Palestinians, it behaves in an almost similar manner as the Israelis – I've underlined the word ‘almost’ because to be fair, Malaysia is not yet as bad as the evil Israeli rightwing government. But we worry for the future.

Nonetheless it’s racist and plays on racist issues, to divide the people and conquer their support.

Maybe that’s why Anwar’s accusations of Najib’s 1Malaysia have struck at the very core of Najib’s (and UMNO's) heart, because it raises embarrassing questions about the parallel parochial policies of both 1Malaysia and 1Israel.

UMNO sinking feeling about unsinkable NFC

2012-01-30T00:03:00.009+08:00

Free Malaysia Today - Forget NFC, go for Mindef, says Zaid.

Zaid Ibrahim is of course absolutely correct, that the snout in the Defence trough is slurping up greedily by frightening billionS of ringgits, not just mere millions, as compared to mere cow feed.

However, as many, especially RPK, often said, politics is all about perception, and the NFC mess is certainly a political ‘steak’ that to the public is a far more juicier and easily identified scandal than the Defence Ministry questionable purchase of multi-billion dollar (not multi-million) Second Generation Patrol Vessels (SGPV) from Direction Technique des Constructions Navales (DCNS), the company which Malaysia also purchased the unsinkable Scorpene submarines – unsinkable because they won’t submerge in the first place wakakaka.

Because the PM has refused to, or couldn’t, or dared not sack Shahrizat immediately to put the matter to rest, it has become (for Pakatan) a Heaven-sent-come embarrassment against UMNO which the rakyat in the heartland can easily comprehend and tut-tut (or p'tui) in disgust, ...

Laksamana Hang Ahmad Zahid Hamidi

... whereas they (rakyat) won’t in the case of the SGPV because Laksamana Hang Ahmad Zahid Hamidi will chong them kau kau that it’s necessary to defend the Malays against unpatriotic 'elements' or the Nepali or Laotian Navy.

KD Ahmad Zahid Hamidi - RMN Scorpène-NFC class beef-submarines

Anyway, Zaid hit the spot when he declared: “It’s comical and unfair for some Umno leaders to ask Shahrizat to resign when they are all in the same pot.”

Is there political life for retired Hadi Awang?

2012-01-28T13:50:00.005+08:00

The Malaysian Insider - Hadi says may not contest GE13.

Of course Pak Haji has also voiced an alternative option, which is to contest either a federal or state constituency but not both as he currently represents.

So whether he completely stands down, voluntarily as he has declared, or takes up the election challenge to represent only a federal or state constituency, the reason behind his decision could be the waiting queue in PAS has grown far too long with consequential mounting pressure from within, stemming from the impatience of more ambitious members who are still waiting for opportunities to represent the party as candidates in state or federal elections.

In DAP, while Karpal Singh hasn’t offered to step down completely he has advocated the ‘either federal or state representation’ approach much earlier than Pak Haji, and not just for an individual but as a party policy. Karpal offered the reason that, compared to yester-years, the DAP today has more qualified candidates – a situation which no longer requires the ‘few’ to contest and on winning, hold both federal and state representations*.

* May I stress on the word ‘representation’ rather than ‘seats’, because DAP MPs and ADUNs must never get into their heads that on successful elections, they are ‘rajas’ seated on thrones to be worship, waited upon and ampu like the 15th Century Sultan Mahmud Shah. Instead they should wait upon (serve) the rakyat – ampu-ing the rakyat is optional wakakaka.

While I am not going to discriminate against old timers by proposing these senior politicians vacate their frontline political participations, which incidentally is far more honest, far more committed, and definitely less Machiavellian than ‘behind the scene’ political manipulations, I strongly support the one-constituency-only representation, and with no exception, not even for Lim Guan Eng.

Lim Guan Eng has been, is and will be a marvellous CM of Penang, and I strongly support him continuing in this public role. I’m not saying he doesn’t have a role to play in federal politics but I believe not to the extent of becoming a MP on top of his CM-ship.

No, there is no necessity for him to be also a MP just to continue playing a role in federal politics. He can do so, say, on identification and formulation of party vision, strategy directions, policy development and program implementations, within the party’s top council.

And best of all, by allowing someone else to stand in Bagan, he will be helping a new DAP MP develop and accrue experience in public representation, all for the improved strength of DAP and its future leadership (and make that person happy too).

Just remember, no person is indispensable (& forget about what other Pakatan parties do) so perhaps DAP should start practising it instead of just mouthing this maxim.

But what if Pak Haji Hadi Awang finds that PAS people take him on his first offer, to withdraw completely from active participation, and "terimakasih, Tok Haji, bye bye” him? wakakaka.

OK, he did say that he will use his time to campaign across the country to strengthen the party. But other than this, will there be ‘life’ for very senior politicians after they withdraw from frontline representation? Is going out to pasture the only recourse?

Because of the fragile (or euphemistically worded ‘loose’) nature of the Pakatan Rakyat coalition - and let’s not lie to ourselves that is not so and which will become even far more fragile if Pakatan wins the march to Putrajaya, when the 3 parties, like avaricious siblings warring for their individual inheritance after daddy’s demise, will battle each other for cabinet positions, etc - the coalition badly needs the stabilising hands of respected party veterans, especially personalities who are experienced, mature, cooperative, capable of 'give & take', and far sighted enough to want to keep their coalition cohesive and going in the right direction.

Senior veterans like Pak Haji Hadi Awang and, if they too want to retire (wakakaka), Tok Guru Nik Aziz, Lim KS, Karpal Singh, etc, can form a Pakatan Senior Consultative Advisory Council to provide advice and/or moderation on, or vet, joint vision, policies and programs, and importantly, arbitrate on Coalition internal disputes such as post election cabinet allocations and pre-election seat allocations (like stopping one component party from arbitrarily seizing 54 out of a State's total of 71 seats - WTF, I still can't believe in that grubby gluttonous greedy grab).

Older people are more likely to talk than thump tables, to see clearer and farther than just the selfish ends of immature ambitious noses, thus the Senior Consultative Council will provide steady ballast for the stability of the Pakatan ship, continuity of cooperative coalition leadership and maybe even a deterrent to the parochial interests of warlords.

And as Sara Teasdale wrote:

When I can look Life in the eyes,
Grown calm and very coldly wise,
Life will have given me the Truth,
And taken in exchange - my youth.

Yes, wise party veterans like Pak Haji Awang Hadi have a role to play in party politics, especially in presenting to younger members the Truth of politics required for our multiracial society.

New Quakers in Malaysia

2012-01-27T09:53:00.006+08:00

I am sure you have heard of The Renaissance Man of Asia, wakakaka.

But there is a real renaissance developing in DAP, a renaissance of awareness by independent minded Malaysians of all ethnic groups, but specifically and specially Malays.

The word ‘renaissance’ in this post means a renewal of interest, rebirth, revival and even vigor in the politics of DAP, in other words a political renaissance for DAP.

OK, ‘renaissance’ has been defined well and good, but pray tell what significance does it have?

If there is a renewal, it must mean there was something in the first place, something that existed long ago, but is now re-awakening, being reborn and revived. Basically, there were already Malay members in the DAP ages ago, people like Ahmad Nor, Che Rose, my Penang kinfolk Zulkifli Mohd Noor, and several others.

In other words, while DAP should be elated that high profile Malays like Aspan Alias, Mohd Ariff Sabri, Hata Wahari, Tunku Abdul Aziz, Zairil Khir Johari and others have joined the party to promote, project and push policies of good governance a la C.A.T, and justice and freedom for all, it must not forget those Malay pioneers in DAP, and not just the equally high profile ones like Ahmad Nor but also those old timers like my Penang larng Zul Noor and more so, those who valiantly struggled against the UMNO juggernaut in earlier years and even lost their candidate deposits, like Che Rose of Perak and company.

DAP, while cherishing the present members and nurturing the future ones, please remember and respect the party Malay pioneers.

Now having saluted the DAP pioneers, on to the current ‘renaissance’ - recall my recent post UMNO fears DAP beachhead where I narrated UMNO’s alarm of today's DAP to such an extent that it has now re-classified the Rocket Party as its principal foe, when once in its heydays of unbridled powers and take-Malaysians-for-granted arrogance, it sneeringly dismissed the DAP as only a kutu irritant and a MCA/Gerakan’s problem.

Now, it trembles in shock, anger and fear as it seeks to destroy the unprecedented DAP's beachhead in the heartland.

And as proof of this new UMNO fear, Aspan Alias wrote in The Malaysian Insider (TMI) that:

Khairy Jamaluddin, Ketua Pemuda Umno Malaysia, telah meminta DAP mengeluarkan senarai ahli-ahlinya dari kaum Melayu jika benar DAP sekarang sedang mendapat sokongan dari kaum Melayu.

[my translation, dodgy one lah wakakaka]: KJ, UMNO Youth Chief, demands that DAP releases a list of its Malay membership to prove it has the support of the Malays.

Khairy berkata setakat tiga orang Melayu yang menyertai DAP itu tidak melambangkan yang parti itu sudah diterima oleh orang Melayu.

[again my dodgy translation]: Khairy says 3 Malays joining DAP thus far don’t translate into the DAP being accepted by the Malays.

Aspan Alias (probably with a wry chuckle at the cacing called Khairy kena ABU (pun deliberatedly intended wakakaka) replied in the TMI’s article Khairy Jamaluddin: Musuh saudara dalam Umno, bukan DAP — Aspan Alias:

Saya tidak yakin kenapa penyertaan orang Melayu di akhir-akhir ini menjadi isu dari Sabah hingga ke Perlis.

[my very loose translation]: Why make such a Malaysian mountain out of a molehill about Malays joining DAP recently?

Aspan continued: Saya hanya hendak memberikan komen yang pendek terhadap cabaran Khairy ini dan saya rasa boleh memberikan jawapan kepada kenyataan Khairy itu kerana saya adalah salah seorang dari orang Melayu yang telah menyertai DAP baru-baru ini.

[kaytee’s translation]: I only want to provide a brief response to Khairy’s demand. I believe I can answer him because I so happen to be one of those who just joined DAP.

This was where Aapan drove the stake kau kau into the vampire's heart wakakaka.

Untuk pengetahuan Khairy DAP tidak membuat pengasingan ahli-ahlinya mengikut bangsa dan agama. Di dalam borang permohonan menjadi ahli tidak ada petak yang bertanyakan dari kaum apa pemohon-pemohon tersebut kerana sebagai sebuah parti yang memperjuangkan untuk semua tanpa mengira kaum dan budaya. Bangsa dan ethnik ahli-ahli tidak menjadi perkara penting.

[translation]: Khairy may wish to know that DAP doesn’t differentiate/segregate its members into classes in accordance with ethnicity or religion. The DAP’s membership application form doesn’t have a field [box] to indicate the applicant’s race, for the bloody* reason DAP is a party which represents and fights for all regardless of their racial origin or culture. The ethnicity of its members is no big deal.

* not Aspan’s word; just kaytee taking blogger’s licence to spice it up a wee bit wakakaka

Bravo Aspan, you have hit the DAP nail of steel squarely on its head ..... right into Vlad Dracul's black heart, wakakaka.

However, I have to admit Aspan’s brief to Khairy wasn’t brief at all wakakaka. He went on to advise Khairy to mind his own (UMNO) store, especially his own constituency in Rembau where there's trouble a brewing, instead of fretting over DAP’s Malay membership, hence his article's title of Khairy Jamaluddin: Musuh saudara dalam Umno, bukan DAP wakakaka!

But Khairy’s attempt to disprove Malay acceptance of DAP has unwitting reveal the deep fears of UMNO vis-à-vis the new kid in the (Malay) Heartland. They know the disciplined, ascetic-inclined and Spartanic DAP isn’t like other parties and thus difficult to attack with UMNO’s usual tactics of sex, sleaze and slime.

Thus UMNO quakes with fear.

Kiwi thanks

2012-01-27T09:52:00.008+08:00

Dearest Shahrizat, thank you sweetheart,

Your adoring supporters,
The New Zealand Cattle Farmers

Hmmm, does Daisy need a RM26,000 bra?

Related: The Malaysian Insider - Malaysia gives Kiwi beef halal thumbs up

Hang Tuah

2012-01-26T11:09:00.011+08:00

Hang Tuah may be a myth but Rosmah Mansor is certainly a legend!

- Docs, a Malaysiakini reader

The concept of, and desire for heroes represent universal values. Heroes may of course be mythical or actual historical personalities.

The female equivalent of a hero is heroine, though for some moronic perception of equality, some Americans (women I suppose) don’t like such feminine equivalents, for example, 'actress'. So for the last several years, we hear of Hollywood’s Academy Awards being given to, the sheer stupidity of the description, “Best Actor in a leading female role” instead of just “Best Actress”. Does anyone see any issue of gender bias in the latter? I’m all for gender equality but the Yanks have gone bloody mad.

Anyway, back to topic of 'hero in a leading male role' wakakaka - Australian comedian Paul Hogan, known for his popular movie ‘Crocodile Dundee’, once jokingly remarked that Australians are so hard up for heroes that they even make a horse, Phar Lap, into one.

So, do we Malaysians, in particular the Malays, feel the same way about Hang Tuah?

This bloke (Tuah) seems to pop up regularly, not so much in history or myth as in politics, though the most recent evocation of his name was by a historian, Professor Khoo Kay Kim.

The Prof raised Tuah’s name in the context of verifiable history. He was annoyed with non-scholarly infusion of myths and legends into Malaysian history as if those myths and legends were historical facts.

Myth or historical fact, Hang Tuah is course a Malay hero, probably the No 1 Dude in Malay culture, thus Prof Khoo’s assertion that Hang Tuah didn’t exist inevitably raises hackles for two reasons – I have just mentioned one, that of him stating Hang Tuah exists only as a character of fiction.

The second reason is an unfortunate one, he is Chinese (the Prof of course, though I’ll have something to say about Tuah being supposedly a Chinese) and Malays just don’t like non-Malays telling them their No 1 Hero is just a figment of their imagination.

Dr Azly Rahman wrote of the historical-cultural indoctrination of the Malays which began since the Malacca Sultanate, until their collective psyche, even until today, surrenders total obedience to the Rulers, believed to bestowed with Divine Rights - an indoctrination which was basically a master-slave narrative/relationship of the ruler and the ruled which must never be challenged.

Episodes such as Hang Tuah defeating his best friend and alleged arch traitor, Hang Jebat, invariably enhanced and fortified the indoctrination. Thus Tuah, by his unquestioning fealty to his liege Lord (despite the Sultan being a miserable tyrant who in the first place wanted Tuah dead, while best friend Jebat defended Tuah's honour) was designed to show the very epitome of the Malay hero, one totally loyal to his liege Lord regardless.

If Dr Azly’s opinion is to be accepted, then Tuah’s status (and belief in his existence) would have been further shored up by 500 years of the master-slave indoctrination of the Malays. Thus, I wasn’t surprised when Professor Emeritus Nik Hassan Shuhaimi Nik Abdul Rahman, president of the Malaysian Archaeologists Association, jumped up to defend the existence of Hang Tuah.

The Professor Emeritus informed that Tuah’s tomb lies in Tanjung Kling (in Malacca), which remains within (if any still exists) could provide DNA to confirm his factual existence.

I admit I am neither a historian nor a cultural expert, but I had always thought that Hang Tuah disappeared after he failed in his mission for the Sultan, namely, to convince Puteri Gunung Ledang to be the royal bride.

Apparently, being a loyal (and thus good) Melayu, he was so ashamed of his failure to his liege Lord that he chucked his keris, Taming Sari, into a river and swore only to return to Malacca if the keris floated up. Unfortunately for Malay-dom and our current debate on historical facts versus mythical legends, Gravity and Isaac Newton's apple prevented that, so poor Tuah walked off into the sunset, never to reappear.

However, fortunately for the Perak Sultanate, Taming Sari must have mysteriously floated up for one of their ancestors to retrieve and claim it as part of their royal heirloom, even today.

Apart from that mysterious tomb in Tanjung Kling, incidentally unnamed as admitted by the Professor Emeritus, even if a DNA check is permitted by Islamic religious authority (assuming the DNA check is not conducted by our world famed DNA experts wakakaka), how can we link the corpse’s DNA to someone to prove it’s Hang Tuah.

Surely, we aren’t going to check the DNA against some so-claimed descendant of Tuah, because if they’re indeed descendants of Tuah, then why are we still checking the DNA to prove Tuah existed as a historical person?

In case you don’t follow me, surely descendants of Tuah, being who they are, must have descended from Tuah. Can there be Tuah's descendants if Tuah didn't exist? It’s like saying we need to confirm whether Tun Razak existed by checking his DNA against those of his descendants, for example, Najib wakakaka.

In Peninsula Malaysia, it is highly sensitive to question Tuah’s existence because that challenges the very essence of Malay culture, unless of course it’s UMNO doing the questioning as it did in 1992 when it blasted the supposedly hallowed status of the Malay rulers to kingdom come, and in a middle-fingered gesture to those royalty, elevated Jebat from arch traitor to No 1 Hero, while relegating ultra monarchist Tuah into 5th place, I suppose, as a mere palace sycophant.

UMNO political needs are of course highly flexible where the bashed up rulers are now back in favour, and once again royalist Tuah is back as the hero while republican Jebat resumes his old role as a villain.

But the politics of Malaysia, infected adversely by lamentable racism and thus ethnic one-upmanship, have seen perverted delights and gleeful smirks among some non-Malays in asserting that Hang Tuah and mateys were imperial Chinese guards (even eunuchs) escorting Princess Hang Li Po during her stay in Malacca, when she was bestowed by the Chinese Emperor as a royal bride for the Malacca Sultan.

Even our dear RPK joined in recently, when he twisted the Chinese-Tuah kungfu sabre further in by suggesting that Tuah’s famed prowess in silat could well be some form of superior Chinese kungfu wakakaka.

I bet Malays’ ethnic pride would have taken a severe battering by such stories of their No 1 Hero being a Chinese and that Chinese kungfu was superior to silat. That's like Jews being pissed off with Sigmund Freud for telling them their greatest Prophet Moses was an Egyptian.

What next? That the famed Malay ethnic warrior Ridhuan Tee Abdullah is also Chinese? Wakakaka.

In the end, what does it matter, whether Tuah is a mere myth or actually a historical personality. Nations need heroes as centres of gravity for their esteem and national pride, and examples to emulate, so long as they aren’t horses wakakaka or a murderous, adulterous and utterly evil man like King David of Israel or equally murderous Adolf Hitler.

Next MB of Kedah

2012-01-25T09:09:00.003+08:00

Today is ‘Thinking-out-of-the-Box’ Day, otherwise known as ‘Big Spoon’* Day.

* Big Spoon = sh*t stirring – one needs a big spoon to stir well wakakaka

The ‘spoon’ for today is "Mukhriz Mahathir for MB Kedah" wakakaka.

And why not?

After all, Daddy was from there, though admittedly in 1969 Dr M lost his federal seat of Kota Setar Selatan to Yusof Rawa of PMIP (as PAS was then called) in the original ABU, no thanks to those bloody Chinamen who ABU-ed for PMIP instead of UMNO and left him with a bitter taste, which might have led to his quarrel with Tunku and his expulsion from UMNO.

Despite Kedah being his home state, Dr M was highly marginalized and deliberately ignored/boycotted by his erstwhile kutu-ampu’s (fellow Kedahans) during AAB’s premiership, this time no thanks to the famed ‘loyalty’ of UMNO members, wakakaka.

Anyway, as we know, Mukhriz is eyeing a future PM-ship. There have been rumours that, after the UMNO-initiated fall of Najib, he will be nursed by wannabe-PM Muhyiddin and Hishamuddin until he assumes the No 1 political position in Malaysia in accordance with UMNO’s 2nd Da Vinci code, namely the M-A-H-A-T-H-I-R code-legend, not unlike the now fulfilled R-A-H-M-A-N code-legend.

So the M-A-H-A-T-H-I-R code-legend will supposedly see the following PMs after Najib:

1 - Muhyiddin
2 - Ali Rustam - maybe, otherwise how the heck will we be able to satisfy the ‘A’, unless we insert Anwar here, wakakaka
3 - Hishamuddin
4 - A ….. dei, wait a minute, where’s the required ‘M’ for Mukhriz?

So maybe he is not destined to be a PM unless we revert to a second round of the R-A-H-M-A-N legend, so that, after Najib, we have as PM:

1 - Rustam - f* Muhyiddin, after all, if Ali Rustam was not deliberately sidelined in a pre-2008 party elections on cause of money politics, he would have become the DPM in 2008
2 - A = ??? Again, this ‘A’ is a bit of a buggeration. I am sure many in PKR believe it’s for Anwar wakakaka – maybe we can make Ali Rustam fill this slot again, wakakaka
3 - Hishamuddin
4 - Mukhriz
Etc etc

I’ve attempted toying with the R-A-Z-A-K code but I couldn’t fit dear Mukhriz in – mind you, it'll make most patriotic ~~sub~~surface-mariner Zahid Hamidi smile.

But I think a better bet for Mukhriz is to go for MB, to accrue experience and stature so that by the time he’s 50 to 55 he will be ready for federal politics and the premiership, …

… in the way RPK has proposed for Nurul Izzah, with a stint as DCM Penang, but not Selangor because Khalid Ibrahim claimed in 2008 that Selangor doesn’t need a deputy MB, principally because he didn’t want to offend PAS or HRH by having C-cube* Teresa Kok as deputy MB. So, logically, if Teresa could not, how could Nurul? Mind, there's mucho double standards and no assured logic in Malaysian politics.

* C-cube = Christian, Chinese, Charbor (female)

Besides, we know UMNO is currently not doing well at federal level so perhaps a managed hiatus in federal politics for Mukhriz may not be ill conceived.

Mind you, just prior to the 2008 GE, Mukhriz had wanted to represent Langkawi but was rejected by 85 out of 91 UMNO branches in Langkawi,even though Dr M was the man who did all he could for Langkawi and broke the 7-generation curse of Mahsuri for the Island.

But of course at that time, AAB and his 4th Floor Boys had their knives in Dr M, so per the renowned ‘loyalty’ of UMNO members, their loyalty went to ‘Siapa Raja’ and not who did what for them wakakaka. As Dr M himself often lamented, Melayu mudah lupa.

So poor Mukhriz stood in Jerlun which had been a very marginal seat for UMNO. He scrapped through.

But now no worries because AAB is out and Daddy is again back in vogue as the party darling, so it’s virtually guaranteed Mukhriz will be supported by 101% of any UMNO state constituency in Kedah. He will also, like Dad when he was PM, receive garlands as big as the Garden of Eden wakakaka.

Currently, given SAMM’s outrage and consequentially promised campaign against the current PAS MB, Azizan Abu Bakar, for his treacherous non-party line support of UUCA, and Chinese Kedahans’ dislike for same MB, there is a possibility that PAS may be voted out to an extent it loses majority rule in Kedah – for more, read Another Hasan Ali.

So if UMNO (forget about MCA and Gerakan, but don’t leave out MIC wakakaka) wins back Kedah, Mukhriz Mahathir could well be the next MB of Kedah.

A Hindu view - Rama from Buddha, or Buddha from Rama?

2012-01-25T09:08:00.001+08:00

Uthaya Sankar SB wrote an interesting article about the Ramayana in Free Malaysia Today titled Ramayana: Valmiki vs Hanuman, and in Bahasa too.

I enjoyed reading it but I need to correct him on one point, to wit, the 2nd of the following 2 paragraphs:

Sesungguhnya, Ramayana adalah epik India yang tersebar luas ke seluruh dunia, khususnya sebagai tindak balas terhadap penyebaran agama Buddha secara meluas semasa pemerintahan Asoka di India.

Apa yang menarik, penganut ajaran Buddha pula membuat sedikit pengubah suaian dan mengatakan bahawa Rama adalah inkarnasi Siddharta Gautama Buddha.

Uthaya Sankar has been completely incorrect in the above 2nd paragraph, that Buddhists claimed Rama was a reincarnation of the Buddha. One only needs to read numerous credible books on this issue and find it’s actually the other way around, of Hindus claiming that Buddha was an avatar of Vishnu (born as mortal Rama to destroy Ravana).

Besides, Buddhists have never associated nor linked their religious beliefs with/to Hinduism, whether of the Ramayana, Mahabharata or whatever version - Buddhist beliefs do not ever place reliance on God or Gods, as Hinduism does.

At that time, Buddhism was sweeping India (as aknowledged by Uthaya Sankar) where multitudes of Hindus were converting across to a caste-less, gentle and compassionate religion, as they would centuries later to an also caste-less Islam.

The Hindu clerics were sh*t scared (not unlike UMNO leaders today, wakakaka) of a tired but very caste-conscious Hinduism losing most of its adherents, so they preached falsely that Buddha was only an avatar of Vishnu, implying Hinduism still was THE only religion and Buddhism only a subset of it. And they succeeded in stemming the tide of Buddhist convertees.

UMNO fears DAP beachhead

2012-01-24T07:51:00.002+08:00

Lim Guan Eng and his Penang government, and not Khalid Ibrahim and the Selangor government, represent the greatest threat to Najib and UMNO, and therefore every attempt must be launched to destroy it, impossible as this task may seem.

In the immortal words of Cato the Elder, a Roman statesman, "Ceterum autem censeo, Carthaginem esse delendam" (Furthermore, I think Carthage must be destroyed).

Thus, to UMNO, in similar thinking, DAP in Penang must be destroyed ........ well, as much as is practically possible, given that an overwhelming majority of Penangites has rejected Gerakan and MCA parties as their political representatives.

Hence we have witnessed the relentless waves of terrible fabrications against Lim’s government in general, and Lim GE in particular, even down to the shameful sleazy salacious lies about his teenage son. Those fabricators surely threw their religious God-fearing beliefs and values out of the windows.

It has been anti-DAP carpet bombing all the way by both UMNO apparatus and affiliated bloggers (either sympathizing with UMNO or just being anti-DAP).

They have used not C4 but 'C3', namely, the alleged evils of Lim GE’s Christianity, Chinese ethnicity and Charborkooi (devil women) DAP colleagues, where the lies cover:

(a) Lim's alleged Christian evangelism and proselytizing,

(b) Lim's alleged ultra Chinese ethnicity, thus making him anti-Melayu in his governing of Penang, and depriving Penang Malays of their due rights and privileges, and

(c) by some bloggers spreading the net around the DAP wider than just Penang for the 3rd ‘C’, Charborkooi-ism, namely, the alleged evil DAP woman MPs & ADUNs in such personalities as Teo Nie Ching, Hannah Yeo, Teresa Kok, etc (who the bloggers take pains to point out, are not only Chinese Charborkoois but also the dreaded Christian evangelists).

But why has there been such an identification of the Penang’s DAP as its principal foe and the unprincipled, unceasing, unscrupulous campaign of lies against a political party which UMNO once sneeringly dismissed as a kutu irritant and only a MCA/Gerakan’s problem?

Is it because Lim’s Pakatan government in Penang is Chinese dominated? Or, has it been Lim’s C.A.T policy that’s embarrassing UMNO? Or, has either Koh TK or CSL, or both, been crying on Najib’s shoulders until the BN Chairman has to resort to the campaign to spare his shirt from those wet hot tears (and yucky, the discharges from runny noses, wakakaka)?

No, but I reckon it’s DAP’s beachhead in the heartland that’s terrifying UMNO.

Aspan Alias, Mohd Ariff Sabri (Sakmongkol AK47) and Hata Wahari have joined party VP Tunku Abdul Aziz and many other Malays in the DAP.

The three new DAP members are high profile political/journalist personalities once affiliated with UMNO, where all are formidable communicators with the last being a former Utusan Malaysia journalist. This constitutes a DAP's Normandy-like beachhead not just in UMNO's membership, but more terrifying for UMNO, the heartland.

Recently, a pro Pakatan (PKR?) blogger lamented on why Hata Wahari opted for DAP instead of PKR, but 'twas a rhetorical question it seemed because the same blogger evoked the possibility of Hata being put off by the PKR marginalization of Zaid Ibrahim. As Zaid had openly mulled prior to his decision, he did consider DAP but alas for him, opted for PKR instead.

But that Hata Wahari, a former Utusan Malaysia journalist and the former president of the National Union of Jorunalists (NUJ), has joined DAP has sent chills down UMNO’s corporate spine. Hata’s decision will be a force multiplier for DAP’s voice of C.A.T and good governance in the heartland.

And to prove this point, Aspan Alias has just penned Nak tengok Bersih, Cekap dan Amanah? ... ada di Pulau Pinang — Aspan Alias in The Malaysian Insider, where he wrote (extracts):

Kerajaan PR yang di tunjangi oleh DAP telah berjaya melaksanakan slogan Bersih Cekap dan Amanah anjuran Dr Mahathir itu. Walaupun kerajaan tunjangan DAP itu baru menghampiri empat tahun sahaja banyak dari apa yang dimaksudkan oleh slogan Bersih Cekap dan Amanah itu telah dapat dilaksanakan dengan sepenuhnya.

DAP tidak pandai untuk mewujudkan retorik dan slogan besar tetapi parti ini pandai untuk mencapai matlamat kepimpinannya iaitu pentadbiran yang Bersih Cekap dan Beramanah.

Bersih Cekap dan Amanah yang di wujudkan oleh Dr Mahathir ini di amalkan oleh DAP kerana DAP mengikut formulanya dengan betul.

Seperti kita menjawab soalan ilmu hisab kita mesti mengikut formula ilmu hisab itu. Jika kita hanya menghafal formula tersebut tetapi tidak mengikut formulanya dengan terperinci kita tidak akan mendapat jawapannya dengan betul dan tepat. Itulah sebabnya Umno tidak berjaya mendapatkan jawapan kepada soalan-soalan penting dengan betul kerana tidak mengikut formula yang mereka wujudkan sendiri itu.

Wakakaka, after rubbing UMNO’s nose into the ground about the DAP-led government of Penang successfully implementing Dr M’s concept of Bersih, Cekap dan Amanah after a mere 4 years, whereas UMNO only mouthed them (NATO – no action, talk only) for 30+ years, Aspan continued:

Kerajaan Pulau Pinang telah diperakukan oleh badan-badan penilaian antarabangsa sebagai sebuah negeri yang paling bersih dan beretika kepimpinannya. Pandangan ini bukan diberikan oleh saya atau sesiapa dalam PR tetapi oleh badan-badan penilaian antarabangsa yang terkenal di peringkat antarabangsa.

Banyak lagi yang dicapai oleh pentadbiran Lim Guan Eng tetapi satu soalan yang mesti diketahui umum kenapa PR Pulau Pinang berjaya melakukan segala-galanya ini.

Apa yang berjaya dilakukan oleh Lim Guan Eng ini jugalah janji-janji Umno sejak 30 tahun yang lalu tetapi tidak juga kunjung Berjaya.

Apabila PR Pulau Pinang berjaya melakukannya dalam tempoh kurang dari empat tahun ia tidak menyenangkan Umno pula. Daripada berlumba-lumba untuk menjadikan kejayaan kerajaan Pulau Pinang sebagai contoh yang patut diikuti, Umno dan BN mengambil sikap menafikan kenyataan yang jelas tentang kejayaan PR DAP itu.

And that’s why the DAP's beachhead in the heartland must be destroyed before it makes further inroads in making the rakyat realize that DAP is truly a multiracial party which can deliver its promises in a C.A.T fashion, and thus successfully secures the invasion of good governance.

Thus, to UMNO’s thinking, "Ceterum autem censeo, Carthaginem esse delendam" (Furthermore, I think Carthage must be destroyed) where it sees DAP as Carthage.

Hear, See and Say No Evil

2012-01-22T22:02:00.004+08:00

Malaysiakini's article 'Anything But Umno' rally disrupted, one injured reported:

According to Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram) executive director E Nalini (right), the ceramah was disrupted by several youths sporting T-shirts with BN and Umno logos.

"The ceramah was to start about 9pm last night. As we were driving to the hall, there were about six or seven men beating up a boy with sticks," said Nalini.

This was confirmed by ABU coordinator Haris Ibrahim, who added that one young man was taken to the hospital.

But Selangor police chief Tun Hisan Tun Hamzah refuted the allegations that a person was injured.

"Where got? Who told you?"

Someone replied: "Ananthan Kugan!"

"Hah, only one! Unreliable lah. It's just his words!"

"There was also Francis Udayappan."

"Err ... you bullshitting me? It's an offence to tell lies to the police. What's your name?"

"Teoh."

"Teoh what?"

"Beng Hock! And I was also accompanied by Aminulrasyid Amzah, Johari Abu Bakar and Ahmad Sarbani Mohamed."

Anyway, Gong Xi Fa Cai

AG's Appeal - "black as hell, dark as night"?

2012-01-21T18:10:00.004+08:00

RPK borrowed and paraphrased the opening phrase of a soliloquy in Shakespeare's Hamlet for the title of his latest post in his Corridors of Power column.

In To file or not to file, that’s the question, he reckoned the AG’s appeal against the dismissal of charges in the infamous Sodomy II case has to do with Najib’s kowtowing to pressure from UMNO hardliners to ensure his own survival as UMNO president.

Pakatan has obviously picked up on that suspicion, as reflected in The Malaysian Insider’s Najib ceding to Umno hawks over court appeals, says Pakatan.

I am not too sure about that, based on what I posted last week, namely Najib + Anwar versus Dr M?, where I referred to the writings of 3 other bloggers, namely RPK (quoting Haris Ibrahim), Mohd Arshad Raji and the blogger of Corrupted Barisan Nasional website.

Though the last two are pro Pakatan bloggers, the message in each either hinted or alluded to a deal done between Najib and Anwar Ibrahim which resulted in his Sodomy II charges being dismissed by the court.

The alleged deal was supposed to shore up Najib’s position in UMNO, specifically against Dr M's moves, which led the 3rd blogger to write:

The acquittal surprises many people – from opposition parties, Najib administration, former premier Mahathir and even Anwar himself.

But was Anwar really surprised with the verdict? For a person who was about 90% to be sent behind bars for the second time for the same sodomy charge, Anwar doesn’t seems to be the happiest person in comparison to his wife, daughters, the thousands cheering crowds and his buddies from the opposition parties.

But the question I have been asking has been: OK, if there is a deal, how in the world is Najib going to ensure Anwar fulfil his part of the alleged ‘deal’ once he’s released?

Mind you, just extending from that idle pondering, I wonder whether RPK and Pakatan might both be wrong to suggest that Najib had surrendered grounds to the ultras by allowing the Ag to appeal and continue with the mockery of the scandalous case.

Thus when I read Malaysiakini’s Anwar's sodomy acquittal a Pyrrhic victory, I wonder whether the ‘appeal’ has been to serve as a ‘Sword of Damocles’ over Anwar's head?

I know my God-fearing MBS headmaster used to tell me (reinforced forcefully with six strokes of his cane) that ‘idleness is evil’, but I still couldn’t but help having idle thoughts, that if Najib were to win big in GE-13, then the ‘Sword’ will be removed.

Perhaps Hamlet’s immortal words may not be the appropriate quotation for RPK to use, but rather the last two lines of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 147:

For I have sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright,
Who art as black as hell, as dark as night

... where, incidentally, it can also apply to the 3rd blogger’s claim in his post Anwar’s Acquittal – What Are The Hidden Messages? that ‘Big Mama’ was actually the one who prompted Najib into this action, wakakaka.

Another Hasan Ali?

2012-01-20T19:42:00.005+08:00

Earlier this month I posted Apple of discord by a rotten apple, referring to Hasan Ali for char-koay-teow-ing issues among Pakatan partners.

What had chagrined many Pakatan members and supporters had been the (then) Kemo Sabe deliberately stirring up things among Pakatan allies, in what they suspected was an UMNO plot to break up the principal threat to UMNO, with Hasan Ali as its more-than-willing agent provocateur.

I remarked then that unless PAS got rid of the enemy within, there should be exceptions to the ABU policy promoted by Brother Haris Ibrahim, as I considered Hasan Ali (had he remained in PAS, and thus the Pakatan he disliked) a far greater evil than an UMNO candidate.

He was poison.

But thank goodness PAS finally sacked him, much as I understand the party leadership was reluctant to do so because Hasan Ali has strong support from the hard line conservative (ulama) faction, many of whom still preferring the so-called ‘Malay unity’ with UMNO than an alliance with secular parties like DAP.

In that post Kemo Sabe, I mentioned " ... the Weltanschauung or worldview of many (though not all) PAS members is more about Malay interests rather than Islam’s per se, and PAS is a Malay (rather than Islamic) political party. Thus we shouldn't be surprised by people like Dr Hasan Ali."

"Even a certain remarkable Mufti (who cowardly put the blame for his seditious act on a woman when push came to shove) argued that “the Malays are special because they are related to Islam, unlike the Arabs even though Prophet Muhammad was descended among them” and “We must defend our [Malay] race” (rather than Islam). So much for a Mufti!"

You would imagine with Hasan Ali’s expulsion, we needn’t be concerned with question of exceptions to the ABU policy, but alas, life, especially political ones, isn’t meant to be easy.

We now have grave concerns with PAS’ Azizan Abu Bakar, the MB of Kedah, because of his stand on the University and University Colleges Act 1971 (UUCA), which is completely at odds with Pakatan policy - read Malaysiakini's We will reject you, students warn Kedah MB. where he has infuriated university students because he supported the suspension of 5 students for demonstrations, as the UUCA legislation allows.

Consider the following - Pakatan has promised to repeal the UUCA, PAS is a member of Pakatan, PAS is the principal Pakatan partner in Kedah, but its MB, PAS’ Azizan Abu Bakar supports the usage of the UMNO-legislated UUCA in the suspension of the five Kolej Universiti Insaniah (KUIN) students in his capacity as chairperson of the board of directors of the state-owned KUIN. WTF!

Unfortunately Azizan Abu Bakar has not been the cooperative member of Pakatan since PAS came into power in Kedah in 2008, going on his lonesome ways with his narrow-based conservative attitude which had at times jeopardized the interests of non-Malay Kedahans or that of another Pakatan-ruled State, like proposed logging in the water catchment areas in Kedah, from which Penang depends on its water supply.

While the water issue was a mere drop in the Pakatan scheme of things, his support of the UMNO’s oppressive legislation on university students’ activities, and thus the very freedom of expressions, is diametrically opposed to Pakatan policies. He is just another Hasan Ali!

Given the above, I am not sure about giving unconditional support to ABU, nor should Kedahans.

Sorrowful separation

2012-01-19T22:18:00.002+08:00

No politics today so something light for you at my other blog KTemoc Kongsamkok – see Bananas - the story, schooling, school sweetheart & sorrowful separation.

Parts of this post at KTemoc Kongsamkok appeared previously in two separate posts here, Ktemoc Konsiders, but I have included additional episodes of my experience. Also, in keeping with the fun and nostalgic story telling theme of KTemock Kongsamkok, I’ve deleted from the contents of the two earlier posts most of the political aspects as well as specific references to certain people in the socio-political blogging world, wakakaka.

Tri-Ancaman

2012-01-17T20:20:00.013+08:00

Many people have been concerned with PM Najib’s refusal to answer a question when he was at the Selangor Club recently. Najib went there to give a talk where he made a moving speech about Selangor Club being the birthplace of Malaysia, his father’s role … yadda yadda yadda …

Alas, for poor Najib, at the end of the speech he was ambushed by someone who asked him whether he (Najib) would ensure a peaceful handover if Pakatan wins majority rule in the next general election. Najib just walked away.

Personally, I thought the question was highly politicized and rather impolite, given the occasion of Najib's visit. Though we may want to see the downfall of the UMNO government, we normally don’t insult a guest of honour by telling him he’ll be a loser, and then to add insult to injury, ask him how he will receive the incoming government, wakakaka.

As Ecclesiastes 3:1 (KJV) tells us "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven".

But of course Najib could have, with a smile, said "yes, because Malaysia is a democracy", which would have quelled any subsequent concern. He didn’t.

Perhaps he was so outraged by the imprudent, impertinent and insolent question, given he was the guest of honour of the club, that he refused to entertain the question.

Or was he?

There have been suggestions that Najb’s subconscious (about what?) blockaded any answer from him, ironically implying Najib was being truthful (in refusing to make a diplomatic lie), wakakaka.

So, was Najib angry or truthful?

If the latter, then our grave concerns would be justified, especially if we remember that he had vowed to ‘defend’ Putrajaya to the ‘last stand’.

Shades of May 13, that sure as hell doesn’t sound reassuring for our peace of mind.

One of the fears that we have been harbouring since UMNO has been put on the back foot (of losing), has been the possibility of the losers resorting to undemocratic means. Their sinister motivation would be more of a compelling imperative to avoid legal prosecution rather than continue the looting.

The stories of post-WWII revenge killing of Japanese collaborators, in both Malaya and elsewhere, have been horrifying, and thus the consequences of revenge 'legal' prosecutions can be equally intimidatingly scarey to those guilty - the more guilty they are, the more they'll be quaking in their Testoni's and Berluti's, the more they are likely to resort to whatever means to avoid prosecution.

And we need importantly to bear in mind that in the ‘losers’ camp’ will also be some senior members of the police, civil service, etc, and god forbid, the military. And wasn't it Armed Forces chief General Zulkifeli Mohd Zin, who in August last year described four servicemen who confessed to marking thousands of postal votes in three separate general elections between 1978 and 1999 at army and air force bases across the country, as traitors for whistle-blowing (revealing all)?

Back in 1969, after May 13 Tun Razak considered imposing military rule, but he was advised by the Army Chief, General Hamid, not to do so because, in Hamid’s words, he (Razak) won’t be able to get back control of the land once the military was allowed to take over – such was the scrupulous and sterling apolitical quality and professionalism of our military senior officers in those days, when by lamentable contrast, the above mentioned Armed Forces chief had been disgracefully political and politicized.

But then, we have the abysmal example of the current Minister of Defence who has politicized the military through overt declaration of using the military against civil activities of the federal opposition – does that idiot know the roles of the army in peace time vis-à-vis internal/civilian affairs?

How we have allowed our civil and military servants to become so pathetic and unprofessional in their character, values and bahaviour!

But the above threat is only one of possible 3 confronting our nation. I wish to share my thoughts with you on the other two threats.

There has been an awakening of nationalism in Sabah and Sarawak that bodes no good for the continuing cohesion of Malaysia. Many are the people of the two Eastern States who are pissed off with Putrajaya for their treatment by a succession of patronizing and condescending PMs who viewed both States as only equal or even lesser to one of the 11 in Peninsula, when the constitutional fact of Malaysia has been one of a merger of Malaya (or the Peninsula), Sabah and Sarawak (and previously Singapore), and not of 14 states.

Thus, rightfully Sabah or Sarawak each should have status and the associated allocations & developments on at least a pro rata quantum to that for the entire Peninsula, but alas, these were not provided. Mind, Putrajaya has been concentrating most developments in its favourite Klang Valley, with some feeble efforts in recent times in the Johor Iskandar zone, so other Peninsula states especially those governed by Pakatan (Kelantan and Penang) have also been marginalised.

That an expelled Singapore (from Malaysia) is now doing great guns on its own has added to the 2 Eastern States’ chagrin in their perspective that “there, but for the curse of Syaitan, could have been us”, where 'Syaitan' of course is Putrajaya.

Putrajaya (and its predecessors) hasn’t helped ameliorate, but instead aggravated, the current mood in Sabah and Sarawak by its arrogance, deprivation of correct development funding for those two States, corruption, fostering of unpopular and corrupt local politicians who have misappropriated native lands and raped other resources, and the scandalous, insidious & treasonous socio-political engineering in Sabah. Today the two States are still relatively undeveloped, and their natives have hardly enjoyed the benefits of being bumiputeras.

Even though secession is prohibited by the Constitution, someone (obviously from one of the two States) wrote recently in Free Malaysia Today that since the federal government hasn’t abided strictly by the Merger Agreement, then both Sabah and Sarawak have equal rights not to abide by the constitutional prohibition of secession. Tit for tat!

Thus, the second threat to the nation is the potential for secession by the two Eastern States. It would hardly be surprising if that is the mood of the majority in Sabah and Sarawak who have felt they have been both cheated and marginalised by the federal government. They are very desirous of at least automony if not secession, to take charge of their own destiny (and wealth) as they can no longer trust nor want federal politicians to look after those for them. This may upset someone who hates the red dot in the south but the reality is that the Sabahans and Sarawakians want their respective States to be like prosperous and independent Singapore.

It's important that Pakatan takes note of the Sabahans' and Sarawakians' burning nationalistic aspirations, and try their utmost to accommodate their needs short of agreeing to secession, though I doubt this consideration will ever penetrate the skulls of leaders of one component party in Pakatan.

But we also need to be aware that two autonomous states separated from Peninsula by the vast water body of the South China Sea will be as good as two de facto secessions. Who do we blame for us arriving at this sad state? And my uncles in particular will be most upset, having served there in the military (with blood, toil, tears & sweat) during Konfrontasi and the communist insurgency.

We need to note that the world has witnessed several secessions in recent times in the former USSR, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Indonesia (East Timor), where some were peacefully achieved whilst others were blood-stained.

There are still threats of secessions from the people of the Canadian state of Quebec and Scotland (from Britain).

Should my fears be realized, I dread to see global intrusive interference in our national affairs, as was evident in Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan. However, if Najib plays footsie-tootsies with the West, as have the brutal Ali Abdullah Saleh of Yemen and the despotic King of Bahrain, then he will at least avoid the fate of Gaddafi, such would be the prostitution of democracy and freedom by the West, especially the USA.

Tri-Ancamam

(image borrowed from artist neonkitty9)

I have already mentioned the third threat in previous posts, but there is no harm including a brief reminder here.

Should Pakatan win majority rule in the next election and form government (assuming the first threat mentioned above doesn’t eventuate), and PAS decide that hudud shall be implemented regardless, then its ‘regardless’ will likely see it form an Islamic (unity) bloc with a by-then self serving UMNO and some elements in PKR, to by-pass DAP's objections in its implementation of its highest religious aspiration. And the DAP will be then become the opposition in like-fashion to Pairin's PBS in Sabah in 1994, courtesy of then-UMNO-DPM Anwar Ibrahim.

Obviously the last threat will be mainly the concerns of the non-Muslims. I qualify the preceding sentence with ‘mainly’ because there are some Muslims who will be equally concerned as well.

shortest story for monsterfella on (harapan) lompat BESAR by ? wakakaka

2012-01-17T07:00:00.007+08:00

916

Raja de ~~facto~~frog and its blue-~~eye~~skin boy

[p/s shortest possible lah, just 3 numbers, monster wakakaka, but with nice pretty picture, no 'nid' to read 'oso']

shorter story for monsterfella on cakap BESAR by small fella

2012-01-16T20:19:00.003+08:00

Malaysiakini - Liow: MCA ready to give Guan Eng run for money

Orang PP kata: "Saigoo barng guoik" (badak rindu bulan) wakakaka!

And now Guan Eng dares Tiong Lai, Yen Yen to contest in Bagan, wakakaka.

[p/s short enough, monster?]

short story for monsterfella on THICK skin fella about BIG missing money

2012-01-16T14:10:00.003+08:00

Bruno has urged me to keep my posts short and in kindergarten English for monsterball’s benefits. Okay, here it is:

The Malaysian Insider - ‘Corruption is like cancer’, Zahid Hamidi tells Ambiga.

Wakakaka – don’t forget he’s the man in charge of the ministry ~~purchasing~~buying armoured personnel carriers (APC), and who couldn’t explain the huge ~~discrepancy~~difference between the price of RM1.7 billion paid by DRB-Hicom for the APC and the RM7.65 billion paid ~~subsequently~~latter by the ministry for the same goods

~~Recall~~Remember also he was captain of DPM Anwar Ibrahim’s shock troop to ~~dislodge~~kick out Dr M from UMNO's No 1 post in 1998 through ~~accusations~~blames of Dr M’s alleged corruption and cronyism. Dr M ~~turned the table~~attacked back and showed a list of UMNO leaders’ family members and relatives who received favoured treatment from handouts.

On Dr M's list were names of Anwar Ibrahim’s and Zahid Hamidi’s families.

Najib + Anwar versus Dr M?

2012-01-15T11:41:00.006+08:00

You know, many people have not been satisfied with the judge's ruling on Anwar Ibrahim's sodomy trial, even though it had worked out in favour of Anwar ........ so it then seemed.

Thus I've collated some pieces of blog posts on this particular dissatisfaction to present them here for your considerations.

Just a week ago RPK posted What is the new political scenario going to be like now?, where he wrote:

In my hati kecik (small heart), I actually wanted Anwar to be sent to jail. Maybe this is for very selfish reasons -- and that is so that I can be proven right and Haris Ibrahim proven wrong.

You see; Haris received some very distressing information from his Deep Throats very high up in the government. And that information is that Anwar had made a deal with Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak. Anwar would be acquitted of the sodomy charge and in turn he would ensure that Pakatan Rakyat does not win enough parliament seats to form the next federal government.

How Anwar will do this was not revealed but if I had to mastermind something like that I would know exactly how to do it. And it would be so subtle that no one would smell a rat (and not by openly whacking Pakatan Rakyat or its leaders in the mainstream media, which is so obvious it would be the work of schoolboys).

Anyway, the only way Haris could be proven wrong with regards to the alleged deal between Anwar and Najib would be if Anwar were found guilty (though of course he can always appeal today’s decision and the Federal Court then overturns the lower court’s decision).

Granted the Prosecution too can appeal today’s decision and the Federal Court can find Anwar guilty and he can still be sent to jail at a later date. However, this can be the ‘back up plan’. In the event Anwar renegades on his deal, Najib can always take a second bite of the cherry.

But that is, of course, mere speculation and dependent on whether such a deal has, in fact, been made -- which my own Deep Throats tell me no deal has been made.

Invariably, I certainly believe my own Deep Throats, as I do not know who Haris’s Deep Throats are. Hence I told Haris that my Deep Throats tell me that his information is not correct, much to Haris’ relief (who also believe my Deep Throats as well).

When I read it, I suspected it as RPK’s backhanded way of telling us there was a deal done, by quoting Haris Ibrahim as the source though with him (RPK) dismissing that conspiracy theory, wakakaka.

I have to admit that initially I thought the conspiracy theory might be just a wee far fetched.

Then a few days after that, I read the post of Mohd Arshad Raji, a pro Pakatan blogger introduced to us on his blog mind NO EVIL as 'a retired army officer who believes in justice for all and hates liars and apple polisher, and (rightly) believes that all members of AF must be free of corrupt practises'.

His article, which caught my attention and made me re-think and thus reconsider what RPK had posted, was Why was Anwar really aquitted?

His post in full is as follows:

The judge gave a simple explanation that the DNA sample could have been contaminated. He could have come to this conclusion a long time ago and decided then that there was no case to answer. However, he did not do that and instead said that Anwar had a case to answer and hence the trial.

Remember also at one stage Anwar wanted the judge to be replaced because the judge had made comments that implied that Anwar was guilty. In any democratic country the case would have been thrown out based on the evidence presented.

Saiful even admitted that it was consensual sex so they change the charge. Saiful even had an audience with the PM to discuss this case – of course PM said he met Saiful to discuss about his scholarship!

Everything was pointing to a conviction by hook or by crook. Surprise, surprise the judge decided to acquit Anwar. What made the judge make a 180 degree turn around? Now, all the ministers and the good old Doc is saying, “there is no such thing as interference with the judiciary system”.

They must think we were born yesterday. Anwar was the biggest threat to UMNO and they are doing everything they can to hang on to power. So why was he acquitted?

So far I have not seen any pictures in the internet about the heavy presence of the FRU like they had the Bersih rally. I even got the impression that there was not much police presence. It is as if they knew that he was going to be acquitted.

I would guess that 90% of people would have thought that Anwar would have been convicted for a case that should not have gone to trial in the first place.

To me this verdict smells. What is the real answer why he was acquitted? Did Anwar do a deal? I am not debating the issue whether Anwar was guilty or not. To me the more interesting take from this is why was the decision so contrary to everyone’s expectation?

Let’s keep an eye on Anwar’s behavior from now onwards. Let’s wait and hear the things Anwar talks about from now onwards.

His first words after the acquittal was he is surprised and vindicated – “We have an agenda. Will focus on elections”. Hmmmmm.

Today I read Anwar’s Acquittal – What Are The Hidden Messages? at a blog called wakakaka Corrupted Barisan Nasional

Relevant extracts follow:

By now everybody in Planet Earth knows de-facto opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim, has been acquitted on a charge of sodomising his former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan in 2008. The acquittal surprises many people – from opposition parties, Najib administration, former premier Mahathir and even Anwar himself. But was Anwar really surprised with the verdict? For a person who was about 90% to be sent behind bars for the second time for the same sodomy charge, Anwar doesn’t seems to be the happiest person in comparison to his wife, daughters, the thousands cheering crowds and his buddies from the opposition parties.

[…]

The judge in delivering his short two minute acquittal verdict gave a simple explanation that the DNA sample could have been contaminated and hence he could not rely on the controversial DNA evidence submitted by the prosecution, before disappearing into his chamber as if he was constipated. This despite the fact that Justice Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah ruled back in May 2011 that Mohd Saiful was a “credible and truthful witness”. The furious Anwar and his legal team applied to replace the judge as he prejudged before the trial concluded. So, it was surprise that only now the same judge realized there was no case after all.

[...]

The answer: the acquittal verdict could be a last-minute decision. To get together the jigsaw puzzle, let’s revisit the past articles. This article “Resign Or Snap Election For Najib, Here’re The Reasons“, talks about the power struggle within UMNO between PM Najib and the 3M-Team led by his mentor Mahathir. Of course Najib didn’t resign nor call for a snap election because he found a temporary workaround – balancing the power by inviting a third force into the equation hence the article “Romance Of Three Kingdoms – Najib, Mahathir & Anwar“.

[...] yadda yadda yadda

Sensing Najib was dragging his feat in Anwar’s sodomy trial, Mahathir tried tostage a comeback by putting his hands in everything from political to economic issues. This put Anwar in high alert as in “Anwar And Opposition Are Worried – Mahathir Is Back” article. But it wasn’t only Anwar who was worried about Mahathir’s sudden active manoeuvres. Najib was equally worried that the old master tactician started gathering supporters openly especially from UMNO warlords. It seems there was silent power struggle as well as alliance talksamong three persons right to the moment before the judge announces the verdict – Najib, Anwar and Mahathir.

Maybe that explains the flip-flop about the police’s rally permit which demanded the sudden 10 conditions after granted it, not to mention the unexpected explosions plus the rush by the (reluctant) judge in delivering the verdict. Maybe someone very powerful inside UMNO tried to create havoc hoping to use it as weapon to gain absolute power and force PM Najib to resign. One has to remember Najib is still surrounded by many warlords who may be dropped as candidates in the next general election. With a last-minute secret alliance brokered between Anwar and Najib, Mahathir’s power is clipped and this provides a balance of power amongst them.

Wow, that's at least two pro Pakatan bloggers having the same suspicions as (from RPK's post) Haris Ibrahim's Deep Throats. If true, the happenings have more twists than Arumugum’s murukku.

Malaysian justice poked in the eye!

2012-01-14T12:38:00.001+08:00

Blogger uppercaise excoriates Defence Minister in his post Defence minister talks cock. Poke him in the eye.

uppercaise was furious with Ahmad Zahidi Hamid for his bullsh*t. In using the word bullsh*t I’m actually being far more generous than uppercaise who called Zahidi a liar, wakakaka.

He wrote: Ahmad Zahidi Hamid, the defence minister, talked poppycock on Monday about the mangled Engrish used on the ministry’s web site that featured “Clothes That Poke Eye”. He said the mistakes have been corrected.

In fact, no corrections have been done on the web site. At 5pm on Wednesday the two-word headline still says “Ethical Clothing” (instead of “Dress Code”). A notice still says “Translations are not available”.

Ahmad Zahidi was lying. Does Ahmad Zahidi or anyone in Mindef have eyes? Or have they all lost sight by being poked in the eye?

I am personally aware of the Malaysian Ministry of Defence (Mindef) using Mangrish (Malaysian mangled English) on its website, as I had on a couple of occasions accessed it for some information, only to encounter such horrors. They would be better off sticking to only Bahasa.

My uncles who were in the Malaysian military in the 60’s and 70’s told me of Malay generals and colonels who spoke English as if they had just stepped out of Eton, Sandhurst or Whitehall, or perhaps the officers mess of Her Majesty’s Coldstream Guards in Aldershot. “I say, old chap, jolly good show, what!”, wakakaka.

If those generals are still alive and read (or rather, 'see' because they won't be able to read) the Mangrish on Mindef's website , they would be squirming like cacing kena abu, but if they had already gone to a better place, their corpses would no doubt be rolling in their graves.

But alas, thanks to our remarkable system which has mangled, mutiliated and mafulat-ed the standards of education for half a century by a succession of UMNO education ministers who put their personal (political) self-interests above the needs of our students, we ourselves have arrived at a standard of English we once used to attribute to Thais, Indons and Cambodians.

And those Education Minister Wonders were the ones who frightened and drove Chinese parents into the welcoming arms of the delighted Dong Jiao Zong (Chinese educationists).

But this post is not about the lamentable education system where for example, Form V students could score A1’s in (I could never understand this) a ridiculous number of 17 subjects as if they were born with speed reading skills of the highest order and an IQ greater than Albert Einstein. One dreads to imagine the superficial coverage of those 17 subjects.

The issue here is related to the minister’s poppycock, to borrow that delightfully appropriate word from uppercaise. We can’t do much about UMNO politicians as it’s the nature of the beast to how-siao (bullsh*t) wakakaka, but we need to consider seriously the sad lack of professionalism observed in our BTN-ised civil and defence service staff.

If I may persuade you to recall what Dr M Bakri Musa wrote about the very recent and unexpected verdict on the Sodomy II case, in his article Hold the accolades published at Malaysia-Today, as follows (extracts):

Foreign governments too have been effusive with their praises. Some now brazenly call for Anwar Ibrahim to apologize for his earlier criticisms of the system.

Hold the accolades! This sordid trial reveals everything that is rotten with the Malaysian system of justice. This case should never have been prosecuted in the first place. That it was reflected the level or more precisely lack of professionalism on the part of these career prosecutors. As for the trial, there were many instances where the judge could have thrown the case out, as when the physical evidence was introduced. Now the learned judge used that as the reason for acquittal. [...]

There is only one possible redeeming value to Judge Zabidin continuing this trial in its squalid entirety, and that is to expose the pathetic lack of professionalism of not just the prosecuting team but also the other professionals involved. This included the police officers and crime investigators to the forensic scientists tasked with the crucial DNA analysis and the senior specialists who examined Anwar’s accuser.

“...pathetic lack of professionalism ...” of government professionals! Hell, should we even be calling them ‘professionals’ then?

But Dr Bakri’s description is spot on, and already shared by millions of Malaysians.

Just recall those half-past-six 'professionals' who had dealt with the mysterious (but then, perhaps not so ‘mysterious’) death of Teoh Beng Hock, yes, the MACC, Police, government employed pathologists, the inquest tap-dancing magistrate, members of the RCI and horror of horrors, the inquest government legal officer who claimed a person could strangle himself to death, though sadly he didn't show us that to its ultimate conclusion, wakakaka.

Now, do you know why Teoh BH’s family will never receive the justice that’s due to them?

I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever - Thomas Jefferson

Marking RPK's final assignment

2012-01-13T18:15:00.007+08:00

RPK shares with us his final assignment (maximum 1000 words) for his Oxford course in Philosophy of Religion. He selected the topic of What is a religion?

As usual, RPK has written well and in an interesting way, subtext included wakakaka. Yes, we could nitpick here and there but generally it flows well. However, there is a sentence that I believe won’t be accepted, that is, from an academic point. It’s likely to invite a red inked question mark (with lecturer’s comment: “you did not explain why!”) on the right hand margin of his paper.

I refer to the 3rd last paragraph which went as follows:

Had freedom of choice been allowed and had no one been forced to adopt the religion of his/her political masters, there is no guarantee that, say, Islam would be the dominant religion of the Middle East. Most likely the majority in the Middle East today would be Zoroastrians. The Nestorian/Coptic Christians plus the Jews of the Middle and Near East also faced persecution and were forced to embrace either Islam or the Roman version of Christianity.

The sentence is “Most likely the majority in the Middle East today would be Zoroastrians”!

In academic papers one can’t toss in an assertion like that without explaining why one believes so – in other words why does RPK claim such?

He could have stated, just as an example (with subtext included as well wakakaka):

Zoroastrianism was the state religion of Persia, which was the dominant superpower around 600 to 500 BCE, thus conferring enormous prestige on that belief and its practice.

symbol of Zoroastrianism

Zoroastrianism was not unlike the Abraham-ic faith which subscribes to monotheism. But Zoroastrianism did not support monasticism, which (based on our experiences) was a plus for the religion, because that would have omitted the most powerful but insidious element and its corrupting influence in any religion, the priesthood/monkhood wakakaka.

Without priests introducing their man-make (not God’s) laws of ‘prohibitions and punishments’, it would have kept the religion uncorrupted, simple and of love (rather than fear) and thus a joy to embrace.

There were two practices in Zoroastrianism which put it on par with the more atheistic Buddhism, namely, there was to be no proselytizing, which today would have prevented many heartaches in Malaysia, nor was slavery permitted, which would have made Malaysians more considerate, caring or at least careful of how they treat their Indonesian maids, wakakaka.

The no-slave policy was why Cyrus the Great released the First Diaspora Jews who were slaves in Babylon, from their Babylonian lords and allowed them to return to Judah.

Cyrus the Great

Bloke left such a lasting legacy on the Jewish religion through his Edict of Restoration, he is referred to by the people of the Jewish faith, as "the anointed of the Lord" or a "Messiah”, the only gentile so honoured by Jews as a Messiah, ever, and immortalised forever in the Bible.

"I will raise up Cyrus in my righteousness: I will make all his ways straight. He will rebuild my city and set my exiles free, but not for a price or reward, says Yahweh Almighty." - Isaiah 45:13, and

"In the first year of King Cyrus, Cyrus the king issued a decree: ‘Concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, let the temple, the place where sacrifices are offered, be rebuilt and let its foundations be retained, its height being 60 cubits and its width 60 cubits; with three layers of huge stones and one layer of timbers. And let the cost be paid from the royal treasury. ‘Also let the gold and silver utensils of the house of God, which Nebuchadnezzar took from the temple in Jerusalem and brought to Babylon, be returned and brought to their places in the temple in Jerusalem; and you shall put them in the house of God.’ - Ezra 6:3-5

Without Cyrus' benevolence there won't any 2nd Diaspora or Israelis in this world. I suppose this explains why Zionist Israelis today are the ungrateful feral beasts they have become for wanting to bomb Persia (now known by its modern name, Iran); maybe they want to erase a 2,500-year old I.O.U, wakakaka.

The Israelis’ ingratitude is exactly like that of their hero, the adulterous murderous King David who deliberately sent his most loyal general, Uriah, to the forefront of the battle to be killed because he (David) bonked Uriah’s wife and made her pregnant while the poor soldier was fighting valiantly for his King.

Beasts reward generosity and loyalty with adultery, murder and deaths!

Cyrus' tomb at Pasargadae, Iran

Cyrus the Great was a great bloke who respected the customs and religions of the lands he conquered (remember, no proselytizing permitted in Zoroastrianism). He founded the Achaemenid empire, which was very successful in its centralized administration that worked to the advantage and profit of its subjects.

History tells us that Cyrus is well recognized for his achievements in human rights, politics, and military strategy such that his influence is felt in both Eastern and Western civilizations.

Cyrus' Achaemenid Empire

Surely, with such a liberal religion under such an awesome and benevolent ruler, people of the Middle East, if they had the freedom of choice, would have willingly embraced Zoroastrianism, making the followers the majority in the Middle-East.

It would have screwed up RPK’s limit of 1000 words, but WTF, I enjoy helping him wakakaka.

Johor's silent Tionghua revolution

2012-01-11T13:58:00.002+08:00

Dear Olde (though not too old) Hishamuddin Hussein is on panic mode. Politically accident-proned, the Home Minister has a natural talent in offending the Chinese and Indians, so even he would have realized by now, the Chinese and Indians won't be too fond of him.

Because his federal constituency of Sembrong has 40% Chinese voters wakakaka, he has correctly assessed he'll be stuffed in the next general election.

Hisham’s fear has found firm grounds in The Malaysian Insider’s (TMI) latest report that In Johor, Chinese set to snub BN in polls.

According to TMI, Professor Abu Hassan Hasbullah of think-tank Zentrum Future Studies (based at UM) revealed that “… its end-of-year surveys have seen Johor Chinese catch up with and possibly overtake their northern kin in terms of backing PR. Opposition leaders in the state estimate that they won 55 per cent of Chinese votes in the last election but ….. support from the community has surged to close to 90 per cent.”

90%! Now, can you blame Hisham for his QD (quiet despair)? Wakakaka!

The Prof described the massive political swing as a “silent Tionghua revolution”.

According to the Zentrum survey, Chinese approval of Pakatan in Johor rose to 68% after the last election, and climbed further to 79 per cent in 2010. With the lastest figures, this could effectively enable Pakatan to pick up 15 federal and 30 state seats in Johor (compared to 1 and 6 respectively on 08 March 2008).

There are now rumours of Hishamuddin cabut-ing (scooting off) from Sembrong to Kota Tinggi. I hope he doesn't forget to take his keris along with him.

Chinese Malaysians, even Penangites, are by nature political conservatives, desiring political stability and economic prosperity, which has been why Penangites tolerated Koh TK and his spineless Gerakan Party for almost 40 years.

But among Chinese Malaysians, those in Johor are probably the most conservative, preferring to stick with Tunku’s Perikatan and subsequently Tun Razak’s BN even as late as 2008. Unlike their Penang counterparts, who swept away both ruling parties in 1969* and 2008, the Johoreans seemed to be far more tolerant of Perikatan/BN excesses and arrogance.

* just a note on someone’s assertion (which I read somewhere) that Anwar Ibrahim was responsible for the change of government in Penang on 08 March 2008, let me as a Penangite say that’s taking hero-worship too far. Sure, Anwar Ibrahim played a major role in inspiring the 2008 political tsunami, but Penangites always have their own political say, with or without Anwar, as demonstrated in 1969 when Anwar was a mere Muslim student activist of 22 years old. Penangites change government when they themselves wish, and not because of any particular person.

Now, an example of Chinese pragmatism - UMNO ultras, whenever it suits them, like to accuse their fave punching bag, the Chinese, of being biadap (ill mannered) to the Malay rulers. But as former UMNO bloger, Sakmongkol AK47 wrote (words to the effect), that’s nonsense because Chinese would be more than happy to do the contrary, like hormat, ampu and even bodek the sultans (including ministers & MBs) so as to be able continue their commercial-economic ways unimpeded.

Some Chinese businessmen have been known to chase after and even 'purchase' datukships, not because they want to be datuks per se but because the datukships give them access into privileged circles to canvas, conduct and cari-makan business deals.

In short, most Chinese Malaysians aren’t really all that interested in politics (whether of the Mahathir, AAB, Najib or Anwar's variety) so long as the political system allows them to work hard and prosper. But when they are forced into a corner, as they were in 1969 and 2008, where allegations of corruption against Perikatan and BN were just too overpowering to close one eye to, they would vote 'wisely'.

In the latter case, especially during AAB's time and continuing into Najib's premiership, UMNO and its apparatus like Perkasa and Utusan, plus a reborn Dilemmatic Malay, became a frightening bigoted monster which troubled many Chinese enormously. There was too much yang which unbalanced the Tao, that was, the commercial-enonomic Tao.

The other factor that would (and had*) agitate Chinese Malaysians is their children’s educational rights, or more correctly, their rights to good quality (high standard) education. Education has been a central pillar of Chinese culture for thousands of years, seen by the Chinese proletariat as a means (then, probably the only avenue) of breaking out of their labourer/working class lot.

* in 1987, the Education Ministry under Anwar Ibrahim appointed 100 non-Mandarin educated senior assistants and principals to vernacular schools, leading Chinese to protest against what they perceived as a deliberate tampering of their education standard. The Dong Jiao Zong (Chinese educationists) protest was joined by MCA, Gerakan and DAP. UMNO Youth, then under Najib with his blood-dripping keris, wanted to counter-protest. It led to the draconian Ops Lallang.

Because successive UMNO Education Ministers turned the national education system into the lamentable political football it became, and consequentially with perceived abysmal standards, Chinese gave up on that and quietly sought alternative streams, leading them to Chinese vernacular education (in pre-Merdeka days and even some years after that, the gold standard in education was English medium schools).

As we have just read, the Johor Chinese have reached their political breaking point. They want to send BN out.

If we remember an election truism in most democracies, voters generally vote a political party out of power rather than vote it into power. This translates into an incumbent political party or candidate losing, while the challenger becomes the winner by default. Thus, the Johor Chinese will focus on giving the BN a belting the latter long deserve.

And Pakatan will by default pick up BN’s lost seats – according to Zentrum, 15 federal and 30 state seats in Johor (compared to 1 and 6 respectively on 08 March 2008).

If we accept that, I just wonder which Pakatan component party will pick up the rewards.

I ask because 3 online news portal, Malaysiakini, Sin Chew and wakakaka Malaysia-Today have reported a rift between PKR and DAP over some seats, two of which I can name right away, Gelang Patah and Johor Jaya, both currently held by wakakaka, MCA.

It hasn’t help that the PKR Chair in Johor is Chua Jui Meng, a PKR newbie who was formerly from MCA. He is under pressure to show his stripes, and in like fashion to what Tian Chua had attempted in the past, likely at DAP’s expense.

PKR wants a monopoly on mixed ethnic constituencies (on whatever nebulous basis it has claimed) while at the same has been avariciously eyeing the attractive blue ribbon seats with Chinese majority. DAP which has traditionally contested in the latter type also wants a share of the far more numerous mixed constituencies.

Ironically, we saw a perverted version of this in the last Sarawak election where sore loser PKR groused about DAP staying safe in urban areas instead of venturing forth into rural constituencies, conveniently forgetting that it was PKR itself which unilaterally and pre-emptively grabbed 52 (subsequently 49) seats out of an available 71 in the Sarawak State election.

As I wrote in May 2011 in a post PKR's green-eyed monster:

….. a disgraceful petulant sour grapes merajuking Baru Bian … told The Malaysian Insider PKR wants DAP and PAS to prove they’re multiracial, but obviously targeting the DAP.

He claimed that PKR “...wants its Pakatan Rakyat PR partners to contest in ‘black seats’ in the next general election and dismiss the notion that they cannot cross the racial divide.”

He also told reporters that PKR “... could not continue shouldering the burden of contesting in BN strongholds alone."

Shouldering the burden of contesting in BN strongholds alone? My bloody foot, don't make my toes laugh!

This is the state head of a party who pre-emptively grabbed 52 seats without even a thought for its coalition allies in an unrealistic expectation PKR could be the winning PR member with the majority of seats, with him as CM wakakaka.

Here’s a case of a greedy gluttonous grabbing beast which had refused to share and ate more than it could practically swallow, and now blames DAP for its tummy ache. Padan muka.

Of course in Johor it sings a different tune where it sure as hell doesn’t want DAP to “...to contest in ‘black seats’ in the next general election and dismiss the notion that they cannot cross the racial divide”

or

that PKR “... could not continue shouldering the burden of contesting in BN strongholds alone."

Wakakaka!

Anyway, Johor PKR election director Steven Choong admitted that the State PKR and DAP people stopped discussing seats allocation since July 2011, with the matter now escalated to the Pakatan presidential consultative council.

Man man lai – Johor's 'silent Tionghua revolution' is not only among the voters, wakakaka!

Followers of religions

2012-01-11T07:37:00.002+08:00

Another light one for you at my other blog KTemoc Kongsamkok titled Religious divisions or divisive religions. It’s a rehash of 3 old posts in this blog, KTemoc Konsiders, which I have joined up together, updated and posted yesterday at my other blogsite.

As usual, it’s based on my personal experience wakakaka.

Sodomy II - the losers

2012-01-09T17:58:00.003+08:00

Thank goodness the Sodomy II trial has ended, not that I had dedicatedly followed its twists and turns through its long tortuous course. I have no interest in the private life of Anwar Ibrahim, alleged or otherwise - none of my business. It’s his politics, performance and policies that I keep an eye on.

Who then is the winner and loser of the trial's outcome?

I leave that to the experts though I do know of only one loser, the Bench!

Alas, very few Malaysians have faith in the independence and integrity of our judiciary, and can you blame the majority?

As the Court dismissed the charges against Anwar Ibrahim, the Pakatan ‘experts’ are already analyzing, now get this, WHY the court had not found him guilty, instead of expecting that the verdict was, as Karpal Singh predicted, a natural outcome for the prosecutor’s paucity of solid evidence.

Look, even Anwar Ibrahim himself was surprised by the verdict.

For an example of the deep set suspicion by many about the motives of the court, and by the alleged nexus, therefore of UMNO, see Charles Santiago’s Seeing through the shadow play where he wrote:

We all know that regimes use ‘bark on’ intelligence to manipulate long-term favourable outcomes. Today, we saw this unfold in Malaysia when Anwar Ibrahim was acquitted of a sodomy charge despite the fact that he will certainly continue to be a thorn in the side of the BN-led federal government.

Anwar's potential to embarrass government, coupled with its hysteria and fears, mean that the father of six would have been better off in jail or at least convicted of sodomy.

Whichever way the verdict had gone, no one in Pakatan would praise the independence and integrity of the judge, and even if one has, he/she would only grudgingly express sympathy for a ‘foolish’ judge.

In a letter to Malaysiakini titled Anwar's acquittal: Why? and What happens next? Abdullah Junid wrote:

Or it could just be that Justice Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah really decided to acquit Anwar based purely on the (suspect) evidence. If that's the case, the good judge is a very brave and hopefully not foolish man.
… indicating his disbelief at the judge’s ruling.

Also do note my underlining of the word 'Or' indicating the writer's afterthought as to what he had surmised in the first place, which was, '... the Najib administration either gave in to fear or grabbed a high-profile opportunity to put the opposition off-balance and earn PR brownie points on a global stage ...'.

Charles Santiago summed it up best by stating: Likewise they must understand that Malaysians will not translate Anwar's acquittal to mean the judiciary is independent. They can see through the shadow play by Najib to regain the confidence of the people.

Today's judgment is a victory for the people. It demonstrates the power of the people.

If I were to translate the above statement in the worst possible light, then Charles Santiago (bearing in mind I’m a DAP supporter) has virtually stated, unwittingly if I may add, the judge gave in to mob rule, and not because the prosecution failed to make a case against Anwar.

Of course I'm being devilish, as in playing the 'devil's advocate', wakakaka.

As I mentioned at the top: Alas, very few Malaysians have faith in the independence and integrity of our judiciary, and can you blame the majority?

Incidentally, because the expectation, especially by PKR, was for a guilty verdict which would have seen Anwar Ibrahim sentenced, many prematurely went berserk when RPK pronounced that Anwar would receive a fair trial.

But in spite of the court finding in favour of Anwar Ibrahim, given the dominance of conspiracy theories that the ‘not guilty’ verdict has been Najib’s conniving plot, there won’t be any relief for, let alone an apology to RPK wakakaka.

Thus a correction to what I had said earlier about knowing one loser; we could say RPK, like the judiciary, is also a loser, but by default. My advice to RPK is a quote by Pat Riley:

"You have no choices about how you lose, but you do have a choice about how you come back and prepare to win again."

The man who would be PM

2012-01-08T13:28:00.007+08:00

I gifted you the mortal world
To rule the lands and do as you please
And now you impious earth worm
You dare to claim your father's throne?

- Pretender To The Throne (opus I: The Usurper's Spawn)

Malaysiakini - If Ku Li can be PM, why can't I, jests Azmin

Anwar Ibrahim states that, should he be jailed after the 109 court verdict, Pakatan will have an interim prime minister until he (Anwar) is released by a Pakatan government.

Azmin Ali, when asked whether Tengku Razaleigh (Ku Li) will be headhunted to act as the interim PM, was reported to have ‘jested’ why shouldn't he (Azmin) be the interim PM?

May I just comment that I doubt he was jesting!

Just a reminder - this post is about Azmin Ali and not Anwar Ibrahim. However, in writing about Azmin’s ambition, it's not possible to avoid mentioning Anwar as well because really, without the latter’s unquestioning support and endorsement of Azmin, the question in Malaysian politics would likely have been: “Who in the world is this Azmin Ali?”

Anwar’s unreserved support of Azmin Ali is well-known to all, and thus I’m not revealing any State or PKR secret, nor am I bashing Anwar.

Azmin Ali’s ascendancy to become PKR’s No 2 has been charted by him personally (in this, he’s certainly ambitious) and endorsed unquestioningly by Anwar Ibrahim. Like a dodgem car, he had bulldozed both Nallakaruppan and Zaid Ibrahim aside in PKR party elections, naturally with the ‘help’ of Anwar and the inner coterie.

We have been told that in a PKR party election some years back, Anwar instructed Nalla not to contest the remaining VP position because the former wanted Azmin Ali to take up that post, a vital one for Azmin if he is to eventually ascend to the deputy presidency.

Naturally an outraged Nalla left PKR in acrimonious circumstances, not unlike Anwar himself when he was expelled unceremoniously from UMNO. Both felt a sense of grave injustice to their respective selves, perceived or otherwise. Given this, it's bizarre Anwar didn't consider Nalla's feelings, but then again, maybe not!

But I wasn’t surprised when the anwaristas pinned the label of traitor or UMNO Trojan Horse unjustly on Nalla, as they did REPETITIVELY on anyone who left PKR in unfriendly circumstances, usually in dispute or in disgust with Azmin Ali or/and Anwar Ibrahim.

It would not be too far-fetched to say, without that dictatorial and most un-reformasi marginalization, Nalla could well have been PKR’s No 2 today, what with the depth of the Indian ranks then in that party.

As for Zaid Ibrahim, I have always lamented his incorrect decision to opt for membership in PKR instead of DAP, but I suspect he wanted to provide himself as an alternative to Azmin, who was not well thought of by many in PKR but whose position has been so well entrenched because of his godfather’s favouritism.

As I had written in other posts, Zaid attempted to persuade, firstly, Khalid Ibrahim to go for PKR’s No 2 position, and then, when Khalid dared not challenge Azmin, encouraged Nurul Izzah to do so (a poor choice if I may say, because of her age, lack of seniority and inexperience).

Initially Nurul showed some interests, very much to Azmins’ alarm who ‘advised’ her not to because (the brazen hypocrisy of it all) people would ‘talk’ about her relationship with dad. She suddenly withdrew for reasons you may wish to speculate on. I would not be at all surprised to learn that Azmin is far far more favoured than her – no, most certainly not at all surprised!

Thus, when Zaid saw both Khalid and Nurul declining, he knew that unless he offered himself as a candidate for the No 2 position, Azmin Ali would have a free ride all the way to the top, and I mean the ‘top’ because we all know too well that Wan Azizah has been and still is a reluctant politician, thus making the PKR No 2 virtually the de facto president.

Obviously de facto-ism exists abundantly in PKR.

Azmin of course had long since seen Zaid as his most likely and dangerous opponent, a capable man of some standing, experience and competency who would be unlikely to stand aside for him (Azmin) on Anwar’s say-so.

From RPK’s Malaysia-Today - we read of the following in his post Denial:

PKR denies sabotaging Zaid Ibrahim in the Ulu Selangor by-election in spite of the reporters who leaked the story confirming that the doctored photograph of Zaid with the beer bottle was handed to them by Azmin Ali and not by Umno.

We’re also sadly aware of the scandalous shameful shambles that had been the last PKR party elections, which saw Azmin Ali established as the Deputy President of PKR.

In a post in December 2010, PKR without Anwar Ibrahim & Azmin Ali, I commented on a Malaysiakini news report titled 400,000 PKR members, where art thou? questioning the kosher-ness of PKR’s true membership figures, I wrote:

Questions have been raised about PKR’s real membership figures, especially as only 10% of the claimed 400,000 voted in the recent party’s election.

Prior to this MKINI report, a reason tossed about was that PKR had deliberately inflated its membership numbers to justify/stake its large share of the seat allocations among the three Pakatan component parties.

If that has been the case then PKR had fibbed to its Pakatan allies; if that wasn’t, then PKR has had an abysmal turnout for its party election, raising doubts about the legitimacy of Azmin Ali’s election as the new deputy president of PKR.

Out of 10% of the claimed 400,000 members who voted, Azmin only received slightly less than 20,000, a mere fraction (5%) of the total numbers.

Is 5% of membership support sufficient to justify his No 2 position in the party. With Dr Wan Azizah a known reluctant politician and a passive president (only in name), Azmin Ali is now virtually the leader of PKR, on the basis of the 5% members' support he received.

And even that 5% is questioned for being not kosher.

Because Azmin Ali has been supported, protected, endorsed and perhaps even pampered by Anwar Ibrahim for years, he usually got what he wanted. As Anwar has always supported him in what he desired, he would not be wrong in assuming he is Anwar’s natural heir.

But he should be mindful that impression is only good within PKR. Pakatan, unlike PKR, does not belong to Anwar. It’s not for Anwar to bestow his (agreed to) position in Pakatan to anyone in PKR, even and especially his blue-eyed boy, a junior within the Pakatan senior leadership ranks already packed with luminaries like the two Pak Haji's and various other personalities in PAS, and Karpal Singh, Lim KS, Lim GE and more in DAP.

To be fair to Anwar, I did read his response to a query about the 'interim PM" where he remarked that the next senior Malay Pakatan member is Pak Haji Awang.

However, Azmin Ali might be entertaining the fallacy that he automatically inherits Anwar’s position as Pakatan’s nominated PM in a Pakatan government, should Anwar be unavailable to take up that post.

I acknowledge that the current (lack of) political maturity among Malaysians won’t accept the idea of a non-Malay PM, thus it will be probably a PAS person who will most likely act as PM until Anwar is released by a future Pakatan government – note: I won’t go into ‘what if’ should PAS renege, which can be another post discussion.

While nothing in politics is impossible, I seriously doubt the PAS leadership will countenance an Azmin Ali’s presumptuously imperious expectation/demand to be interim PM (on behalf of Anwar Ibrahim).

2012 DAP

2012-01-08T09:33:00.004+08:00

Malaysiakini - Battle-ready DAP heads for the high seas

Today, the DAP holds it annual convention in Shah Alam. Last year on 04 September 2011 I posted GE 13 - Multi-ethnic crossroad for DAP where I wrote:

Since March 2008, Chinese-majority constituencies have become blue chips for Pakatan politiicans, providing much higher assurance of victory for them, regardless of whether they’re DAP Malay or Indian candidates, PKR and even PAS.

PAS in fact is banking on the Chinese factor for victory in many of its staked 70 federal seats for GE-13. Such is today's lamentable lot for Tunku's UMNO when the Chinese (even MCA members) see UMNO as its least desired or (as the case may be) most despised/hated political representative to an extent that they would be willing to vote for PAS instead.

In other words, the ABU doctrine!

It is also timely and with joyous reception that I read of DAP’s bold preparedness to allocate 10 of its blue-ribbon seats to its Malay members, to ensure the face of DAP, post-13 GE, will physically reflect the multi-ethnic character of the party.

The time has come for the DAP to stop worrying too excessively about potential frogs, provided of course the induction process of any new members have been carefully based (as best as is reasonably possible) on the candidates’ character, competencies and commitment to democracy, C.A.T and putting the rakyat first.

There can be no frog-free guarantee in any party – I won’t go into notorious examples to prove this point. Besides, it’s highly racist to presume that frog-ological proclivity are confined only to Malay candidates when we have witnessed shameless examples among non-Malay politicians, both in BN and Pakatan, even in the DAP.

Even if the constituency doesn’t have a Chinese majority, the more Chinese voters there are, the better the chances of victory for PAS and PKR candidates.

That has been why PAS, PKR and now even PSM are drooling for such Chinese-majority seats, traditionally DAP’s turf [...].

A very recent example of this ‘drooling’ over a blue chip seat has been being Dr Jeya’s ambit claim for Jelapang.

I also wrote:

Back to Zulkifli Mohd Noor and his important and very relevant wish to have Malay candidates contest under the DAP ticket in Penang, which I strongly support, having expressed so in my earlier post Gerakan & DAP – the missing songkok factor.

I’m going to be fair and very bold.

As the DAP has now come of age as a prominent political party, to the extent of striking cold fear into UMNO, which until recently had considered DAP only as a minor irritant and a MCA-Gerakan problem, it should stop putting the same candidate in both a federal and state seat.

Today, UMNO considers DAP (not PKR or PAS) as its principal political foe.

Its days as a minor party with limited choices of good candidates for federal and state parliaments are over. I’m thinking of Lim Guan Eng as MP in Bagan and ADUN in Air Putih, and Teresa Kok as MP in Seputih and ADUN in Kinrara. […]

Let’s start with sweetie Teresa. […]

…….. I believe Teresa will serve better by dedicating her exceptional ability to federal parliament, so I would like to see her surrender Kinrara to a new DAP candidate. To be fair to Teresa, while she was/is/will be virtually invincible in Seputih, I recall she expressed her surprise in winning the Kinrara state seat, thus I don’t believe she’ll demand to cling on as the candidate for that state seat.

Now the radical and far more important proposal!

Lim GE must decide whether he wants to continue being CM Penang, a job which he does very well, and whether he is confident he will continue to be one in 2013, which I personally believe he will.

Without being too presumptuous or arrogant, I forecast Lim GE will be CM of Penang for at least another 30 years. Penangites like political stability and in this, had kept Gerakan in power for nearly 40 years despite its abysmal performance during the last couple of decades. Thus, 30 years would be a fair and moderate expectation, of course with the usual conditions (eg. DAP doesn’t become another Gerakan, once the brightest and mightiest non-UMNO party but which sadly deteriorated like an unsalvageable opium addict into a useless and despised political entity).

If so, he must surrender his federal role as an MP and thus his constituency of Bagan to Zulkifli Mohd Noor [or another Malay party member]. I am sure Zul will become one of the several DAP MPs after the next GE election.

Thus I don’t support Karpal Singh’s statement that the DAP would be making an exception in this regard for Lim GE.

I want to see Zul in Parliament as one of DAP’s MPs, if not the first one. My Penang Larng (fellow Penangite) has my complete support.

On 11 Oct 2008 I posted Gerakan & DAP – the missing songkok factor where I wrote:

As a DAP supporter (but not member) I have urged the DAP to rethink its Malaysian Malaysia ideology, which is afterall a policy that had originated from Lee Kuan Yew’s PAP when Singapore was part of Malaysia, and to also reconsider its campaign to abolish bumiputra privileges.

I suggest that the DAP looks at three issues:

(1) develop a new political vision to replace its Malaysian Malaysia that will ameliorate the fears of the Malay.

And I am pleased it has!

(2) develop a fresh strategic policy to accept the NEP but one that will be managed fairly and exclusively for bumiputera interest. This does not in any way disregard the currently marginalized Indians or the less fortunate Chinese. Preserve the NEP exclusively for the needy Melayu and other bumis.

And may I add, our highly marginalized fellow Indian Malaysians deserve urgent rescuing from MIC.

Forget about Anwar Ibrahim’s claim that he would get rid of the NEP or that the policy has outlived its usefulness. […]

I personally believe that the NEP still has use for a large segment of the Malay and Sarawak/Sabah bumis. It’s the misuse of this apparatus for affirmative action that’s the problem, not the NEP per se.

(3) get rid of its socialist label* – most Malays don’t understand what it stands for, other than it must be a part of the Satanic communist diabolical plot.

* at least in its label if not in ideology

I wish DAP and its members, especially the “new ones”, a successful convention to come up with proposals, strategies and programmes so as to serve Malaysia and Malaysians even better in the years to come.

Just a name!

2012-01-07T14:45:00.000+08:00

Something light for you at my other blog KTemoc Kongsamkok – see What’s in a name! which is based on my personal experience wakakaka.

109

2012-01-06T20:16:00.004+08:00

Okay, out of respect for my blog visitor, very-senior-citizen monsterball, who has a meeting with a Bhikkhu, a Buddhist monk, I won’t attack Anwar until at least after Monday wakakaka. I don’t want to earn demerits (bad karma) for disturbing his mental tranquility which he requires (but given his intrinsic character, is unlikely to achieve, wakakaka) when he meets a member of the Sangha.

Instead, I would like to raise a trivia question, on whether this Monday should be numerically referred to as 109 or 901? I have read of both being used in the last few days.

By Chinese tradition and American dating convention, it would be 109, where the month precedes the date, like 9/11 (surely you know this one), or 7/7 (don’t know? See bottom for answer).

The Chinese Taiwanese celebrates their national day on 10/10 or Double-Ten. Officially Chinese Taiwan celebrates this day in commemoration of the start of the Wuchang Uprising on 10 October 1911, which led to the collapse of the Manchu Qing Dynasty and the establishment of a republican China on January 1, 1912, but I suspect the founding fathers of Taiwan (previously calling itself the Republic of China) must have chosen the Double-Ten date to provide those auspicious very ‘ong’ (lucky) number for maximum luck, while the mainlanders do it on 10/1.

For more of such numerological calendaring please see my KTemoc Kongsamkok’s post Secret Society of Handsome Chinese Cryptographers wakakaka.

Postscript

7-7 or 7/7 = London bombings in 2005

Apple of discord by a rotten apple

2012-01-06T11:39:00.004+08:00

As I have stated so often, I respect Haris Ibrahim very much. Currently Haris is pushing the current campaign mantra of ABU or ‘Anyone But UMNO’, urging the voters to vote for any candidate (from any political party) standing against an UMNO candidate in any federal or state electoral constituency.

However, as in any concept, policy or practice, there have to be exceptions. I do not apologise for raising this reminder, because of what I read in Malaysiakini’s Nik Aziz, Hadi for PM if Anwar convicted.

That pompous treacherous solar-powered Hasan Ali is at it again. At best I would say he’s sucking up to the two Pak Hajis, to ensure he retains a place in the list of PAS candidates for the next election, but I am not confident he is not, again, doing UMNO’s work again, by deliberately throwing into the Pakatan leadership ring, an apple of discord.

According to Greek mythology (from Wikipedia), Zeus held a banquet in celebration of the marriage of Peleus and Thetis, the parents of Achilles. However, Eris, goddess of discord was not invited (for she would have made the party unpleasant for everyone). Angered by this snub, Eris arrived at the celebration with a golden apple which she threw into the proceedings, upon which was the inscription καλλίστῃ (kallistēi, which meant ‘for the fairest one’).

Three goddesses claimed the apple: Hera, Athena and Aphrodite. They asked Zeus to judge which of them was fairest, and eventually he, reluctant to favour any claim himself, declared that Paris, a Trojan mortal, would judge their cases.

To cut the story short, Paris selected Aphrodite, who in turn blessed him with the love of the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen, who was the wife of Menelaus the Spartan King. Their adulterous elopement led to the Trojan War and numerous tragedies including the total destruction of Troy.

As I mentioned, there should be exceptions to any policy or campaign thrust. If PAS won’t get rid of Hasan Ali, then wherever he stands we must make an exception to ABU for he is the greater evil than an UMNO candidate.

Other possible exceptions to ABU would be his PAS pro-UMNO partner, Nasharudin Mat Isa, and also Zulkifli Noordin the Kulim Wonder, assuming he doesn’t stand as an UMNO candidate, and likewise our dear Ibrahim Ali.

Hasan won’t be able to stand as an UMNO candidate because his usefulness to UMNO is only valid if he remains in PAS to cause trouble among Pakatan. He'll be finished if PAS sacks him because UMNO will then not touch him with a ten-foot pole.

So, rather than ABU in his case, it should be ABHA – Asal Bukan Hasan Ali or Anyone But Hasan Ali.

How soon we forget, save for 3 good men

2012-01-05T21:48:00.002+08:00

On Christmas Eve, 24 December 2004 (before I started my own blog here), I published a post titled 3 American Heroes at My Lai over at my other (then shared) blogsite, BolehTalk.

The title of that post was unusual because, and I have to ‘fess up, I abhor, despise and would usually condemn the USA’s neo-colonial imperialistic adventures in Vietnam, and in various parts of the world such as Afghanistan, Iraq (Gulf War II) as well as its various intrusive avaricious meddling in the Middle-East and South America.

So it would require a fairly humongous sea-change-type of effort by those 3 American soldiers for me to deem them as heroes.

In that BolehTalk post, I wrote:

Thirty six years (by now, 44 years) ago in My Lai, one of the most shameful episodes in US military history occurred when around 60 American troops massacred 400 to 500 Vietnamese civilians, mainly women and children at My Lai. They raped, mutilated and tortured their victims during the bloody mayhem. The only man court martial-ed for this terrible atrocity was Lt William Calley. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murders but released 3 years later, when pardoned by President Richard Nixon.

But a few among the US soldiers did refuse to participate.

On that dark bloody day, a few good men stood out like bright shining stars, as heroes, true American Heroes.

This Christmas Eve, as we celebrate the birth of Jesus, we remember the Three Wise Men who came from the East to honour Christ. We should also use this special occasion to honour and remember the Three Good Men from America. I post this in deep respect of the three US Army helicopter airmen for their incredible bravery, human decency and honour in carrying out their duties as courageous soldiers on that fateful day at My Lai.

I salute Hugh Thompson, Lawrence Colburn and Glenn Androetta.

For the story of courage, please read here, here and here.

Today, RPK, once a hero to many PKR supporters, is considered by them as a 'zero', cast afloat on an angry roiling sea, facing character massacre a la My Lai from his very same but erstwhile PKR admirers.

These wonders have already made up their minds, all because RPK had the blooming effrontery to criticize their Icon. I’m a bit sick of their mindless anwarista-ish fanaticism.

But on this dark bloody moment for RPK, a few good men stood out like bright shining stars, as sane, balanced, moderate and fair heroes, true to their own perceptions.

While not necessarily agreeing with RPK’s opinions of Anwar Ibrahim, and even chiding RPK for what they consider as his intemperate and untimely attack on Anwar, they have struck a generally fair path. Their comments have been:

But whether Anwar is convicted or not, and whether or not RPK is in the pay or the thrall of the government, it seems to me that both of these controversial figures have played important parts, indeed starring roles, in awakening major portions of the Malaysian public to the perfidies of Umno/BN.

And now it’s up to every Malaysian to be sufficiently inspired and emboldened by these shining examples, however tarnished they now may be or possibly have yet to become, to stand up as leaders rather than just followers; as fighters for their principles rather than passive supporters of public figures.

The above was by Dean Johns in his column Principles beat personalities at Malaysiakini – incidentally, the article’s title is also indicative of Dean’s high level view of the imbroglio.

Then we have:

RPK, whom I continue to respect and love as a brother and friend, even though we may be diametrically opposed in specific instances - and to whom I will always be grateful for his magnificent role as a powerful galvanizer of political awareness - may have decided that Anwar Ibrahim is "morally unfit" to be appointed our 7th prime minister. He has every right to his personal opinion.

The above was by my matey (wakakaka) Antares in his post at his blog Magick River - poor Antares gets annoyed when I address him as ‘my matey’ wakakaka, and I do apologise if my brief extract of his post conveys any incorrect picture of his views.

But the most touching came from a man I truly admire. He wrote:

Many of you may already have forgotten why RPK and Marina are now in exile.

I’ve linked 3 posts below.

The first and the second I wrote in 2008, whilst RPK was detained in Kamunting.

The last, before he and Marina took flight to go into exile.

Please read them all. Read the comments too. Who knows, you might just be reading now what you wrote then.

Have we misrepresented ourselves to RPK?

If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom: and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that, too – W. Somerset Maugham

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends

Many of you appear to be of the view that RPK has betrayed us, and has sold out.

I think you premise this on his interview with TV3 last March and his latest interview with NST and Utusan.

I do not share this view.

Mine is premised on the man and Marina that I believe I have come to know.

We cannot both be right.

Let us all hope and pray that the error is yours and not mine.

You have my word, though, that should I discover the error to be mine, I will not hesitate to disclose all that I know to you.

Meanwhile, this divergence of view aside, we are all committed to see the end of UMNO and BN’s reign of tyranny and rape and plunder.

Let not this difference of opinion distract us from the work before us.

In my last post I had said that by God’s will, we will, together, plant love, tenderness and respect in this land of ours.

To those of you who believe that this man who once served us all so selflessly has, for whatever reason, left us, I urge you to let the process of planting love, tenderness and respect begin now.

If you truly believe this, rather than hate, pray that God returns RPK to our course.

Whilst I do not advocate this, if you must hate, save it for all that UMNO and BN do.

For me, I will pray that I will never ever have to say sorry to you for being wrong. You might want to add this in your prayers, too.

The above are extracts from Brother Haris Ibrahim in his post Oh Lord, how soon we forget! at The People’s Parliament blogsite.

Indeed, Brother Haris, how soon we forget! But obviously your sense of friendship runs deep and long like Antares' Magick River

I salute Dean Johns, Antares and Haris Ibrahim.

Deconstructing the Perfect Man

2012-01-04T22:18:00.004+08:00

Dr Azly Rahman, an academician who holds all sorts of mind-boggling degrees and sometimes writes for Malaysiakini, once propounded that the wayang kulit display of the Ramayana epic or the makyong is a form of neo-feudalistic indoctrination, the type that Hang Tuah suffered from and which Jebat gave two fingers to.

In his article for Malaysiakini Neo-feudalism of the cybernetic Malays he wrote:

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.

Modernizing it even further, can we say “the idea of a good Malaysian subject is one who surrenders total obedience to his or her political leader (the PM, MB or party leader)”?

Blogger Sakmongkol (Dato’ Mohd Ariff Sabri bin Hj Abdul Aziz) alluded to the modernized ‘expectations’ in a certain way in his post hutang UMNO pada budi orang Melayu.

Azly Rahman proceeded on to say:

But the problem lies not in the here and now but in the past; one that needs to be de-constructed and reconstructed. It lies in the Malay psyche. It lies in the notion of hegemony as it relates to political-economy of totalitarianism and controlling interests that continue to cement the master-slave narrative/relationship of the ruler and the ruled.

That master-slave narrative has become a technology of psycholinguistic control and institutionalised as ‘culture’. The Portuguese, Dutch, Japanese, and British colonialists succeeded because the fertile ground of the slave mentality is already prepared historical- materialistically.

We can see this mentality in the idea that Malay political leader must not be challenged (such as in case of the presidency of the Umno) and this is a manifestation of this neo- feudalism hypermodern inner construct of the Malay in the Age of Cybernetics.

Wakakaka, I know I know, good olde Azly Rahman has been 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, 500 years of such historical indoctrination have shown that Azly Rahman has been correct, in that Malays in general (& not excluding many other Malaysians) have inherited such a slave mentality or, in its modern and extreme form, slavish adoration of political leaders.

Substitute the word ‘UMNO’ with ‘PKR’ and we have the same stuff, that to PKR members, Anwar Ibrahim must not be challenged, because (to paraphrase Azly’s finding) “the idea of a good PKR member is one who surrenders total obedience to the Great One”.

Thus, except for many of those former members who left in utter disgust or were expelled for bucking the ‘inner coterie’, PKR members never ever question Anwar on, for example:

· The most un-reformasi promotion of frogs in Perak (prior to the drastic ricochet wakakaka)

· The most un-reformasi 916. When asked whether 916, had it been successful, would have been a total disrespect to the people’s democratic choice, many idol worshippers argued PKR couldn’t afford to wait until 2013 to replace UMNO, and thus the end (Anwar as PM) justified the means (including shameful frog-ological cheating of the voters, which of course they criticized most vehemently when Najib/UMNO was the proponent).

· The utter shameful frog-hunting expedition to Taiwan. Tian Chua fitted in but shame on Eli Wong for being party to it, though I didn't heistate to defend her on my blog during the period of her most trying times.

Let me pause here for a while and ask, do you PKR people still believe n reformasi?

OK, I bet your answer would be as above, that PKR can’t afford to wait until post-GE 13 to replace UMNO, and thus the end (to enthrone Anwar as PM soonest) justifies the means whatever these may be, even living in a world of self deception (about reformasi), by burying their heads in the sand like the proverbial ostrich and ignoring the most un-reformasi practices of their idol.

· His out-of-the-blue support of the implementation of PAS’ hudud. Of course I don’t expect the PKR Muslim members to question him on this but why were the non-Muslim members struck dumb during that time? Eli? Tian Chua? Sivarasa?

· His last minute and very personal selection of Loh Gwo Burne (who?) as PKR candidate for the federal parliamentary seat of Kelana Jaya. Loh’s perceived unsuitability as a federal MP led Haris Ibrahim to demand an explanation from Anwar Ibrahim for his (Anwar's) choice, which as with all such challenging queries to PKR, remained unanswered. Bloody great refomasi process.

· The questionable governance of PKR’s last party polls. Hell of a lot had already been written by Haris Ibrahim, (OK, let’s exclude RPK) and PKR’s own members (some still members like Chegubard and Mustaffa Kamil, while others had left) without the need for me to elaborate.

Instead ask Gobala, once chief bodeker of Anwar, Zaid Ibrahim wakakaka, Jenapala (who was marginalized like another Nallakaruppan), Jonson Chong, Chegubard (still in PKR and unlike Mustaffa Kamil, had refused a consolation prize of some party position, but recently backstabbed by PKR insiders), and earlier on, Johari Jasin, Abdul Rahman (membership No 3 and now in PAS).

But I’m sure, in accordance with PKR beliefs, each and every one of them was wrong, evil and a frog like RPK, unlike the precious pristine pure Great One.

I don’t intend to join RPK in commenting on the Haadyai video clip nor on the Sodomy II case, which incidentally brings me to RPK.

Now, while I sometimes don’t agree with RPK, I do with his recent criticisms (minus the Haadyai & Sodomy II incidents) of Anwar and Azmin Ali.

In fact RPK has been far more generous than I have been, in persuading Nurul Izzah to take over the reins (not 'helm', wakakaka) of PKR.

As RPK (and a sweetie once) said, one can be anti Anwar without being anti Pakatan or anti PKR. And I include myself in this group.

But alas, as Azly Rahman wrote, (as modified/modernized by kaytee) “the idea of a good PKR member is one who surrenders total obedience to the Great One” where total obedience also means defending him regardless.

Thus, leaving aside RPK's unauthorized comments on MCLM, I wasn’t surprised to read numerous and very venomous vilifications of him for his opinons on Anwar, while not one comment or query had been raised on Anwar’s credentials as a reformer and his performance in that respect, let alone his suitability as a future PM.

Very few bother to read what RPK said, about the danger of focusing on the personality cult of Anwar instead of policies of Pakatan as a future government (eg. where’s the bloody shadow cabinet? but day in day out, it's all about Anwar vs Najib & Najib vs Anwar - cukup lah!), ...

... leading to such moronic declarations, that if Anwar is jailed, PKR members will storm the barricades at Putrajaya to place Anwar there (of course made by a bloke whose political existence is dependent on Anwar Ibrahim's continuing political influence)

Look, let's consider RPK playing the role of deconstructing (wakakaka, Azly Rahman’s word) the Great Anwar Ibrahim a la what Kassim Ahmad did in his doctoral thesis 'Perwatakan Hikayat Hang Tuah'.

Hang Tuah was the very epitome of Malay heroic loyalty until Kassim Ahmad raised doubts on his iconic status in (circa) 1950.

Dr Bakri Musa commented on Kassim’s thesis as follows:

In it he challenged the traditional interpretation and made the hitherto hero Hang Tuah as nothing more than a palace hack, and elevated the anti-hero Hang Jebat as the true hero, willing to kill even the sultan in defence of honor and principles. Surely Jebat was the reformer wakakaka.

Similarly in studies on the Hindu saga, Ramayana, some modern scholars have questioned the true nature of the epic’s typified heroic Rama and his arch foe, the demonic Ravana. The scholars have considered reversing the roles and status of the two principal antagonists, something that would have been previously considered as an unimaginable proposition, namely, that Rama was a cad in many ways while Ravana was a chivalrous hero of sorts.

Some conservative Hindus may even take that proposition as blasphemous, not unlike conservative Malays on the role reversal of Kassim Ahmad’s Tuah and Jebat.

The studies have focused on what has puzzled Ramayana scholars throughout the centuries, namely, the inexplicable nature of the relationship between Rama and his wife Sita, specifically Rama's deplorable behaviour towards her.

Like Tuah, Rama was the hero of the saga, an avatar of Vishnu born on earth to save the world and the heavens from Ravana. Sita was his loyal wife. Together, with Rama's brother, Laksamana, the three left Ayodha on a pre-destined mission.

They went through trials and tribulation. In the course of their mission until their eventual triumphant return to Ayodha, Rama accused Sita twice of infidelity, even though she was innocent. Each time Sita was forced to prove her purity by ordeal.

But in spite of her repetitive demonstration of virtue, she was considered a tainted partner. Sita was never accepted by Rama as a loyal and full member of the Ayodha family.

Why did such a so-called righteous hero like Rama, ironically termed the ‘Perfect Man’, treat his partner Sita with such distrust, lack of respect and injustice, not once but on two separate occasions? By contrast, Ravana treated his hostage Sita with great respect and chivalry.

So, who's actually the hero and who's the villain in Ramayana? But first, do consider Azly Rahman's postulation about 'neo-feudalism hypermodern inner construct of believers'.

While I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that PKR people consider Anwar as the ‘Perfect Man’ wakakaka, why vilify RPK for his deconstruction of the Great One and his (Anwar's) alleged disrespect for reformasi, when the former had sacrificed so much (including the safety and welfare of his family) for the latter?

Even if RPK had gone over to bat for UMNO, so what! Assuming for a moment that's true, I believe no one more than RPK has earned that independent right to do so, after so many personal sacrifices for Anwar, without attracting such infantile venom.

After all, Anwar is no greater than Hang Tuah or Rama, though of course I could be wrong here wakakaka.

The RPK-Haris Ibrahim saga

2012-01-03T15:05:00.004+08:00

RPK & Haris Ibrahim - a great partnership in the newly formed MCLM but which future now holds a big question mark!

The Malaysian Insider (TMI) article MCLM president quits, says undermined by RPK reported that Haris Ibrahim tendered his resignation as president of the MCLM, after citing as reasons for his decision two of RPK’s recent and very damning interviews – see my previous post RPK amputates 'gangrenous' Anwar Ibrahim from Pakatan?

Brother Haris resigned as MCLM’s president because he has been terribly upset by RPK’s:

(1) unilateral assertion (meaning minus prior consultation & agreement with Haris & other MCLM office holders) that The Rights group (MCLM) is not a 3rd force and therefore would not contest the next general election, and

(2) remarks that ‘the Egypt-style people’s revolution was not an answer for Malaysia due to the delicate racial balance’ because according to RPK, “they (Chinese voters) don’t want Tahrir Square type of change”, saddening Haris because according to him “... my friend (Raja Petra) should continue to see us as Malays, Chinese, Indians, dll (others).”

The overall effect, according to Haris, has basically put a spanner in his (Haris’) ABU campaign.

I lament the end of a great RPK-Haris Ibrahim partnership in MCLM, a movement to promote good parliamentarians and parliamentary practice of first class Westminster-type democracy.

But is there any hope of salvaging the relationship and the impetus of MCLM?

Before I comment on that, let me provide my personal take on the two protagonists.

Let me start with RPK.

I came to know of (rather than ‘know’ per se) RPK in 2005 when I, influenced very much by Jeff Ooi's blogging, started blogging under the mentorship of my erstwhile partner, Mr X, at the BolehTalk blog.

Then, after I posted a piece critical of Anwar Ibrahim, much to the consternation of my partner and friends wakakaka, RPK contacted me by email with a brief message which I replied with courtesy and kept its contents confidential for the last 7 years. Thereafter we have had no further person-to-person contact.

Out of respect for confidentiality, as should be observed in any private correspondence, I have no intention of ever revealing that message.

As I had written before, cynical kaytee hasn’t been and isn’t exactly a bloke known to be particularly fond of RPK personally (I treat him with clinical neutrality), though of course I do admire, respect and am a wee envious of his creativity and ability to influence many politically.

But I do not always agree with his arguments, for example, those relating to his inflammatory Stat Dec and his take on Ombudsman. I’ve written several posts to disagree with the former – see my post RPK a willing captive in his statutory declaration and ...

... shot him down on the latter when sometime immediately after the March 2008 GE, he wrote about instituting an ombudsman (or committee) for the then 5 States under the DAP-PKR-PAS governments. But what took my breath away was his over-the-top proposal when he stated (for some obscure reasons):

“The Ombudsman must be above the Chief Minister and Menteri Besar. It must have the power and authority to summon even the highest man in the state to come before the committee for questioning on anything at all that may be perceived as wrongdoing, transgressions, deviations, etc. And the Ombudsman must have the power and authority to recommend the removal of any public servant or politician who may have committed a breach of discipline, even if he is the Chief Minister/Menteri Besar.”

I was totally flabbergasted by his remarks of "... above the Chief Minister and Menteri Besar ..." and the accompanying power-this and power-that for the proposed ombudsman.

I then wrote: This is going too far, putting an unelected person above the elected representatives of the people!

Mind, this seems to be a common problem suffered occasionally by very learned people, both in BN and Pakatan, where I'm more critical of the latter who promoted and supported frog-ology, yes, even a DAP sweetie like Hannah Yeo who broke my heart when she wrote in defence of Mr man man lai’s 916 attempted but failed coup d’état.

I wrote that having an Ombudsman establishment a la RPK’s proposal would not be unlike instituting the structure of the Iranian government, where the unelected clerical Supreme Leader and the Assembly of Elders in Iran can overrule decisions and policies of the elected President and the Majles (Parliament).

In my post I left a message for RPK to ‘keep my ombudsman steak medium rare please’ so as not to overcook the new (Ombudsman) meal by making him/her into a pseudo-Ayatollah with supra-constitutional powers over the people's democratically elected representatives – for more read my post Post election snippets (1).

Now you know why Karpal Singh is my spiritual leader in politics.

To summarize on RPK, I respect and admire him, but would accept his arguments only after I have personally analyzed their merits, unlike those who gushingly called him ‘The Great RPK’ or even fawningly ‘yang sangat mulia’ wakakaka when he sang songs they loved to hear, but alas, denigrated him as a ‘turncoat, traitor, UMNO paid bum, etc’ when he didn't.

As for Brother Haris Ibrahim, what can I say about this wonderful man, other than he is a sincere socio-political activist who’s brave, dedicated, self-sacrificing and straight talking – so straight that people could use his character to calibrate rulers.

Do you realize that I once disliked him wakakaka, much to the distress of my blogging matey, Lucia Lai of Mental Jog blog. Then one day, Haris wrote a piece titled Jambuism, and in that process, indirectly revealed to me his intrinsic character, as epitomised by his perception of God.

As I wrote in my response Omnia Vincit Jambuism:

Strangely (or should it be) for an atheist I find God’s judgement as presented by Haris very touching. If there is a God ;-), surely Haris’ version has to be the true one - One who is kind, just, loving, compassionate, humorous, and definitely One confidently above silly (human projected) petty nonsensical jealousy.

I am reminded of a quote by one of the Hindu Trinity, Krishna who said “Whoever you pray to, it is I who will answer”.

But the story of Jambuism also tells me a little about the author, and I now look at him differently. Yes, I now like him ;-)

Okay, now you know how my dice (for those two) would fall, but having said all these, my opinion on Brother Haris' complaints against RPK turns out to be a 50:50 split, as follows:

I support Haris in that RPK should not have arbitrarily decided on MCLM’s behalf (that it won’t contest in the coming GE) without prior consultation with Haris and other MCLM office bearers. In this, RPK has been arrogant and insensitive in ignoring that the president of MCLM possesses the right and courtesy to be consulted prior to such important public announcement.

However, on the second point vis-à-vis RPK’s remarks that ‘the Egypt-style people’s revolution was not an answer for Malaysia due to the delicate racial balance’ and that “... (Chinese voters) don’t want Tahrir Square type of change”, I support RPK.

Much as Brother Haris may be striving for the idealistic non-ethnic approach. and I truly admire him for this, I reckon RPK has been realistic in stating an important truth, that (reading beyond his straightforward statement of our ‘delicate racial balance’) the Malays, and not just UMNO Malays, are unlikely to accept any Tahrir Square type of revolutionary protests, regardless of the worthiness of the cause or even if PAS or Anwar Ibrahim organizes them, if they believe or are made to believe the Chinese are behind the revolt against the BN government.

And we know UMNO will present it as a violent Chinese (throw in the communist for good measure) coup d’état to overthrow and remove the Malays' sacred cow (removed a la NFC's management? wakakaka), namely their agama, raja dan bangsa.

Haven’t various UMNO people (including big names) already and repetitively primed the heartland on this 'threat', of the Chinese potential and aim to take over the country (and instal a Christian PM), preposterous as its likelihood may be?

Recalling my question: But is there any hope to salvage the RPK-Haris Ibrahim relationship?

The ball lies in RPK’s court, to apologize to Haris for not consulting him on saying MCLM will not field a candidate in GE-13.

RPK amputates 'gangrenous' Anwar Ibrahim from Pakatan?

2012-01-01T20:58:00.001+08:00

Ho ho ho ho ho.

Hello there, would that be Santa (Father Christmas), late by more than a week? Maybe his tardy arrival were due to some of his reindeers being made to disappear by a woman who had abracadabra-ishly changed them into condominiums? wakakaka.

No, it’s RPK with his political and personal dis-endorsements of the Great One, Anwar Ibrahim, much to the distress, disappointments and dismay of the PKR camp – see following at Malaysia-Today:

(1) Anwar morally unfit to become PM, says RPK
(2) ’Rights group not a third force’ - RPK
(3) RPK: There’s life after Anwar
(4) RPK: “Anwar may become irrelevant”
(5) RPK says confident Anwar man in sex video

Oh, how those anwaristas would love to mutilate, mangle and mafoolaat RPK wakakaka. Already the predictable, childish and zombie-like "RPK has been bought by UMNO" comments can be seen in a number of intercative online news media and blogs. Instead, I would advise those losers to wear sack cloth, powder themselves with ashes and wail for seven days and seven nights as per Esther 4:1 (KJV), with apologies to the author of the solar-powered King James version of the Bible for substituting Mordecai with ‘PKR’ wakakaka:

When PKR perceived all that was done, PKR rent his clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and cried with a loud and a bitter cry.

But other than the year being new, there’s nothing new in RPK’s views about Anwar. On 14 April last year (that is/was 2011), RPK stated more or less the same in The Malaysian Insider’s article RPK says Pakatan disunited, Anwar incapable to lead.

Then, RPK condemned Anwar for exactly the same things, broken promises, the disgraceful 916 undemocratic bullsh*t and most important of all, a lack of political and economic leadership, especially in a number of incidents in Selangor.

I blogged immediately after The Malaysian Insider’s article in a post titled RPK and the necessary destruction of Anwar Ibrahim? where I wrote:

We know that Anwar Ibrahim is NOT, repeat, NOT the reformasi champion he claims to be.

Recall, this has been the man (then DPM and director of BN elections in Sabah in 1994) responsible for the Great LEAP Forward in that State that year, when Pairin, leader of the party with the majority of seats from the election, went to the residence of the YDP Negeri to claim the CM post, and found that not only were the gates of the YDP Negeri's residence locked and closed to him, but that he had by then become the Opposition Leader, thanks to Anwar Ibrahim, Master of frog-ology.

Remember, this has been the man who wanted to be PM on 16 September 2008 with 82 federal parliamentary seats against AAB’s 140, and attempted to bully his mathematically-muddled claim through by nothing more than his hope for an encore of his dubious Sabah achievement, which, thankfully for democracy and the supremacy of the ballot box, proved to be a fantasy as surreal as some scenes in James Cameron's 'Avatar'.

And surely the most humiliating outcome for him (and embarrassing for Pakatan) from that shameful incident had been the rejection of his vainglorious and failed coup d’etat by none other than His Snooziness, the Sultan of Somnambulation. Even AAB could see through his cheap trick.

Reminder, this has also been the man who sent a team of frog hunters to Taiwan. Reformasi? Surely my good sir/lady, thou but jest! […]

….. Haris Ibrahim and Peter have formed the MCLM, with its first high profile task being to offer de-frog-itized candidates to PKR (but not DAP or PAS) for the next general election.

Why? Because they believe Anwar Ibrahim could no longer be trusted to lead the charge against BN nor to select good candidates to offer to the rakyat as their parliamentary representatives.

The way I’ve read it, Peter and Haris are both fed up with the political incompetency, insincerity and lack of will of Anwar Ibrahim, Azmin Ali and their innermost coterie to truly reform their party and run it as a model of democratic, just and transparent process, thus as the natural primus inter pares of Pakatan.

Instead, we've learnt those PKR leaders have been accused of stacking the odds in their personal interests, to shore up their own political positions, their fiefdoms, instead of nurturing true democratic conduct, and eliminating and removing genuine and legitimate dissenters within PKR. Yes, they’re light years from being political reformers where the only evidence of that so-called ideology or democratic process lies only with and in 9 alphabetical letters, r-e-f-o-r-m-a-s-i, that’s all.

Anwar Ibrahim, Azmin Ali and their innermost coterie belong better in UMNO, though some UMNO members might take umbrage at this suggestion.

Anwar Ibrahim is more than just ‘damaged goods’. As he’s a biological creature, let’s use the term that I believe Peter sees him as being. Anwar Ibrahim is now ‘gangrenous’ to Pakatan, and thus, must be amputated off before his presence poisons the entire body and life of the coalition.

Thus I do not see Peter, master of strategy extraordinaire, as having defected to the other side or being bought over by UMNO. I believe Peter sees the (political) destruction and removal of Anwar Ibrahim (and his like-minded coterie) as a necessary step to the continuing life of Pakatan and in its fight against BN.

Like Cato and his declaration of "Carthago delenda est" (Carthage must be destroyed), RPK believes in the necessary and total destruction of Anwar Ibrahim and inner coterie for Pakatan (Rome) to survive as a viable political alternative to the BN.

Malaysian of 2011

2012-01-01T14:35:00.003+08:00

Traditionally, around end of December each year, news media like to ‘roundup’ the year’s important headline-making news, while Time Magazine likes to nominate who it considers as the most significant news-making person or institution of the Year; and of course Playboy announces the Playmate of the Year wakakaka.

I prefer the latter, yes, I’ve to confess to having a wish to view Playmate of the Year wakakaka, but in this post I’ll forgo the girlie pictures and write on whom I believe to be the socio-political Malaysian of the Year 2011.

I reckon it’ll be boring to continue nominating RPK or Haris Ibrahim as they would have been nominated years before. Neither would I name Ibrahim Ali or Utusan Malaysia as newsworthy anymore as their strident shrill and sickening bigoted comments have become flat like an overexposed piece of keropok because of over airing wakakaka.

How about sweeties Ambiga Sreenevasan or Auntie Bersih? Both are wonderful sweethearts but I want someone more intriguing and who’s likely (has the potential) to make an impact on the political scene.

What about Dr Mahathir who in recent times has disappointedly been propounding the Chinese threat to Malays? I suppose he really meant the threats to UMNO-Malays rather than general Malays. No, not him!

Hmmm, I wonder whether Dr M has read a delightful summary of the year’s threats to Malays, in The Malaysian Insider’s piece MILF-PRON Special Report for 2011: Malays under threat, delightfully written by Yusseri Yusoff. Following are extracts of his article:

While Mahathir continued his series of warnings to the Malays by warning that the Malays could end up like the Palestinians who sold their own country out to the Jews, a new threat to the Malays reared its ugly head — Kentucky Fried Chicken could possibly be out of Malay hands.

Based on an unconfirmed rumour it was said that the majority owner of KFC in Malaysia Kulim Bhd could be sold off to a non-Malay company and therefore this would constitute a major threat to the ability of Malays to consume chicken fried in 11 secret herbs and spices.

The owners of Kulim Bhd Johor Corp denied the rumours. When asked whether they were the ones responsible for spreading the rumour the owners of the Radix Fried Chicken chain refused to comment They did however say that Radix Fried Chicken contained more that 11 herbs and spices as well as Tongkat Ali and quite possibly ginseng, for a stiffer fried chicken experience presumably.

Wakakaka, good one Yusseri, but sorry, no, you’re not my Malaysian of 2011 …

... and likewise nyet for Lim KS, Lim GE, Karpal Singh & his once-machai Dr Rama wakakaka, the Pak Hajis from PAS, or even the woman who made kerbau disappear by turning them into kondos, wakakaka.

Most certainly nyet also for Mr man man lai and his blue eyed boy and princess.

Neither would I consider blokes who used corrupt money/gifts to fly to Mecca to perform their Haj’s, or him who pompously claimed to be a solar-powered Malay saviour or his buddy who cowardly blamed a woman for his seditious sms-ed lies.

The man I have in mind is probably the most intriguing politician in Malaysia, a man (sorry ladies) who sits on the side of Coalition A, yet has been considered by/offered to Coalition B - in other words, he is seen as also ‘acceptable’ to side B.

Many have been the scenarios offered as to why he is the best UMNO candidate to head (not ‘helm’ for god’s sake, wakakaka), bizarre as it may sound, Pakatan Rakyat.

His principal proposer has been Dato' Mohd Ariff Sabri bin Hj Abdul Aziz who’s better known in the blogging world as Sakmongkol AK47, a blogger who’s generally unhappy with the way UMNO has gone songsang and grossly corrupt since its earlier nationalistic days. Incidentally, I read DAP has purportedly been headhunting Dato' Mohd Ariff Sabri.

By now, I’m sure you are aware I’m talking about Tengku Razaleigh, affectionately known as Ku Li, a once-powerful politician destined by his karma, kismet and mea-lee to sit by the sideline of power politics for the last 25 years, and make many Malaysians wonder whether, by a mere but treacherous change of tide of around 40-ish UMNO party votes, he was the best Malaysian PM we never had?

Now, intriguingly, the question is: could Ku Li be the best PM we will have?

I don’t propose to go into why Anwar won’t be PM (lots have already been written on it), while the proposed replacements for him are mere moronic fantasies of some diehard anwarista cultists. Nor will DAP accept a PAS PM and naturally, vice versa. Thus Ku Li’s potential as a unifying figure to head Pakatan (post a '2nd-time incarcerated' Anwar) grows more significant.

I believe DAP will accept him and PAS perhaps grudgingly so, after some hard considerations of realpolitiks and their wish to be in a cohesive Pakatan government. PKR may come to the party after much budak-type rolling on the floor cum heels thumping merajuk-ing by someone wakakaka.

But, like Empat Ekor, much as we know the probability of winning runs into odds of one in several million, you can never win unless you play (buy the ticket).

So, all the arguments for Ku Li by Sakmongkol or any of his staunch proposers will be bloody useless unless Ku Li actually joins Pakatan. He must make up his mind now or it'll be too late.

Nonetheless, his intriguing (3rd time I've used this adjective to describe him) middle-of-the road potential to head and present a strongly unified Pakatan in GE-13 stares at us in the face.

Ku Li has to be my (socio-political) Malaysian of 2011.

Nurul Izzah & Chegubard backstabbed by PKR insider!

2011-12-29T19:42:00.001+08:00

Extract from The Malaysia Insider (TMI) - Despite claims, Zaid says not rejoining PKR:

Datuk Zaid Ibrahim today denied rumours that he would be rejoining PKR, saying that allegations of discussions between him and Nurul Izzah Anwar on the matter were untrue.

The KITA president was responding to the contents of a letter being circulated on blogs, which alleged he had met the PKR vice-president to discuss his return to the Pakatan Rakyat leadership.

Before making any comments, please reflect carefully on what I wrote in January 2011, in a post titled The Poison within PKR - Part III wakakaka (extracts follows):

In spite of my hero Karpal Singh condemning Zaid, I have written in support of the latter – see my previous post Zaid Ibrahim - suffers no fool gladly.

When he was in PKR at the time leading to the party polls (before he tossed his hat into the election ring) Zaid Ibrahim was criticised for being erratic because one moment he said he would not challenge the deputy presidential post IF (initially) Nurul Izaah took up the challenge*, then (subsequently) IF Khalid Ibrahim did so, and the next (only when both Nurul and Khalid didn’t) he took up the challenge.

* Azmin Ali went into a panicky tizzy when Nurul casually mentioned her interests, and ‘advised’ Nurul against it because people would talk. Bet you Anwar had a few private words with Nurul

The standard anwaristas' cries against Zaid Ibrahim were his inconsistencies (in supporting Nurul, then Khalid, before standing as a candidate himself), and their accusations unimaginatively attacked Zaid for his lust for power.

But I didn’t see any inconsistency in Zaid’s manoeuvrings. In fact there was a very consistent objective in his support for firstly, Nurul, and subsequently Khalid Ibrahim, before he personally challenged Azmin Ali in the party election. That objective was to prevent Azmin Ali from coasting home on an Anwar-provided free ticket into the deputy president post. He wanted Azmin Ali stopped!

Yes, Zaid was invincibly against Azmin Ali, the man for whom Anwar Ibrahim instructed Nallakaruppan to stand aside in a party VP contest some years back, and which drove Nalla out of the party in angry frustration. Nalla would have easily won that VP position because of the strength of his Indian supporters in PKR.

Subsequently, Zaid resigned from PKR for what he saw as unacceptable, unsalvageable and unforgiveable dodgy party polling to ensure the election victory of a favoured son. And he wasn’t the only one to complain. In another of my January 2011 posts Gobalakrishnan leaves the poison behind I wrote:

So the virtually impossible has happened - Gobalakrishnan, once PKR’s chief bodek-er of Anwar, has resigned from PKR in disgust. Who would have ever predicted this prior to the recent party polls - a poll which had led many party stalwarts as well as notable and neutral socio-political observers to question the integrity of its process.

Silence from the party leaders, or their caught-with-pants-down inability to reply the challenges by the complainants have invited the inevitable destructive implosion.

And instead of pressuring the party leaders to be fully accountable, predictably, the moronic PKR fanatics lambasted Gobala as a snake, frog, UMNO-MIC mole, running dog and with various animal appellations. Will they do likewise to other complainants like Chegubard, Jonson Chong, Mustaffa Kamil as they did to Zaid Ibrahim, Gobala, Nallakaruppan, etc?

Read also Malaysia-Today’s The sour grapes syndrome where RPK wrote:

Whenever anyone resigns from PKR or Pakatan Rakyat, the opposition supporters always say it is because these people are ex-Umno or ex-Barisan Nasional people; so what do you expect? These ex-Umno or Ex-BN people are not reliable or honest and eventually they betray the opposition cause and go back to their old party, is the argument we are given.

Does this argument apply to all ex-Umno or ex-BN people in the opposition who are yet to leave the opposition to go back to the ruling party?

… ex UMNO and ex BN people like Chua Jui Meng, Saifuddin Nasution Ismail, Azmin Ali and wakakaka Anwar Ibrahim?

Anyway, Jonson Chong left just as did Zaid, Gobala and Nalla, and a host of others. Mustaffa Kamil was given a high party post, an act of mollification which incidentally Chegubard resoundingly rejected.

Given this background of unmitigated dissatisfaction, distaste and disgust with the EC-type party elections/management, signaling the utter corrupt rot in the party, do you think a man like Zaid Ibrahim, who could have remain within UMNO as a minister, would consider rejoining PKR?

TMI also reported that: Online portals and blogs including Malaysia Today have claimed the letter was written by Nurul Izzah’s political enemies within PKR following speculation that she would become PR’s future candidate for prime minister.

For more, see Malaysia-Today’s Nurul Izzah nafi surat beracun.

I’m not in the least surprised at the attempted backstabbbing of Nurul, considering someone in PKR recently framed Chegubard (Badrul Hisham Shahrin) with a falsified twitter. Someone is sh*t scared of Nurul becoming No 1. Oh, PKR is indeed a nest of vipers - the acorn hasn't far from the oak tree.

And just who would be Nurul's political enemies within PKR?

Just go through this post again and you should be able to find the answer.

Related:
(1) KITA - the example of Zaid Ibrahim
(2) Zaid Ibrahim - suffers no fool gladly
(3) Anwar & Zaid Ibrahim's - chalk & cheese
(4) PKR party election - the horror stories continue
(5) Gobalakrishnan leaves the poison behind

Kim Jong-Nurul?

2011-12-26T23:30:00.001+08:00

One of the most troubling observations of Malaysian politics is the cultism of personalities, such as Tun Razak, Dr Mahathir, Anwar Ibrahim and yes, on the opposition side, Lim Kit Siang and Pak Haji Nik Aziz, and subsequently (again but this time on the other side of the political fence) Anwar Ibrahim, wakakaka.

It's troubling because cultism often leads to what I term as ‘Kim-ism’, a word derived from the ‘Great Leader’ (wakakaka) Kim Il Sung, president of North Korea from 1948 to 1994. He was succeeded by his son Kim Jong Il (1994 to 2001), who in turn had been succeeded by his son Kim Jong Un.

Now, would it be wrong for leading politicians to be joined and/or succeeded by their sons/daughters, like Tun Razak was by Najib, Dr Mahathir by Mukhriz, Lim KS by Lim GE, Pak Haji Nik Aziz by Nik Adli (who had the misfortune to be detained for 5 years under ISA for alleged terrorist activities and membership in KMM) and Anwar Ibrahim by Nurul Izzah?

Shall I also add AAB by s-i-l KJ? wakakaka.

Externally, there’s our neighbour Lim Kuan Yew being succeeded by his son Lee Hsien Loong (with another PM Goh CT in between), Soekarno eventually by Megawati, and then there’s the ruling oligarchy of the Philippines which has kept the presidency principally among 3 families.

Even sweetest Aung Sung Suu Kyi is the daughter of Aung San, founder of modern Burma or Myammar.

Sons and daughters (and son-in-laws wakakaka) succeeding their fathers/mothers (and f-i-l) as political leaders are found everywhere, in the USA, Australia, etc and are particularly common in the States of the sub-continent such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

If these sons and daughters are qualified, capable, competent and experienced enough to be political leaders in their own rights, then why not?

But when a young brat is shoved upwards like Kim Jong Un, then it is ‘Kim-ism’. I personally believe Najib being made MB of Pahang at 21 years old was definitely an act of ‘Kim-ism’, though to be fair to him NOW, some 30 over years have since gone by, during which time he was exposed to a variety of political & ministerial positions before assuming the position of PM, not unlike PM Lee Hsien Loong of Singapore.

Najib certainly has the experience and exposure to be PM, thus we should no longer accuse him of benefitting from cultist promotion anymore, though whether he is/will be a good one remains to be seen ...

... which brings us to Nurul Izzah, the so-called Putera Reformasi and beloved icon of the anwaristas.

Many have been the times I read/heard of the preposterous proposals for Nurul to be nominated as the PM of a Pakatan-ruled Malaysia, in the event of the non availability of her father. Those proposals have been so unrealistically moronic, leaving me flabbergasted by the puerile mentality of those blind-as-bats idol-worshippers. Then I could only think of poor hard working, politically far superior Fuziah Salleh, who only lacks the (questionable) pedigree to be considered!

10 days ago, RPK made a far more reasonable proposal to chart Nurul’s progress upwards, one which appears to be practical and not unlike the one Lee Kuan Yew had done for his son Hsien Loong, where the Chosen One is incrementally exposed to various appointments and experiences before finally stepping onto the Hot Seat.

RPK wrote this in his post The need to chart Nurul Izzah’s career path. Some relevant extracts follow:

Nurul Izzah must first be groomed and trained for national leadership. In the next election she should contest a state seat, maybe in her ‘home-state’, Penang. Then, if she wins that state seat, she should be made one of the Deputy Chief Ministers, or at the very least a State EXCO Member (State Minister) of an important portfolio.

This will give her the opportunity to learn the ropes. Her job as a state minister would give her the experience she needs to eventually take on the task of a federal minister, or even as one of the Deputy Prime Ministers (assuming by then Malaysia has three Deputy Prime Ministers once Pakatan Rakyat takes over the federal government).

Furthermore, this will also allow Malaysians the opportunity to gauge her performance as a Deputy Chief Minister or a State EXCO member. [...]

Even if Pakatan Rakyat gets to win the next election and gets to form the federal government there is no problem with Nurul Izzah spending a stint in the state government before moving up to the federal government in the 14th General Election -- assuming, of course, Pakatan Rakyat wins the 14th General Election. By then Nurul Izzah will be about 40 or so and at just the right age to take centre stage in the federal government ... [...]

Just as my thought asked ‘why not Selangor State?’ I arrived at RPK’s explanation:

“And why Penang and not Selangor?” you might ask. Well, because Umno is saying that Penang is controlled by the Chinese and with Nurul Izzah as one of the Deputy Chief Ministers she can demonstrate that the Chinese do not control Penang and that Lim Guan Eng is not the dictator who runs Penang like it is his personal kingdom. Furthermore, Nurul Izzah would have no problems working with Guan Eng plus we Malaysians would not be losing any sleep wondering whether she would sell out the opposition and go join Umno. This would put to rest the ‘frog’ issue.

I opine very strongly that RPK’s explanation of why Penang and not Selangor for Nurul has been very poor and unconvincing. May I ask of him:

(1) Does this mean Mansur Othman as DCM Penang cannot 'demonstrate that the Chinese do not control Penang and that Lim Guan Eng is not the dictator who runs Penang like it is his personal kingdom', whereas by some magical man man lai power, Nurul can?

(2) Does that mean Mansur Othman, unlike Nurul, is a potential frog?

Let's be frank here Peter. I believe the real reason why you haven't proposed Nurul for the post of Deputy MB of Selangor (assuming all assumptions for this possibility can become true) is because you know that will embarrass PKR in the eyes of DAP, if we were to recall that Khalid Ibrahim fell so sharply and smartly in line with the ‘no deputy MB for Teresa Kok’ “requirement” because he didn’t have the balls and Pakatan heart to insist that she assumed that post – see my post on 24 March 2008 Khalid Ibrahim failed to show resolute leadership?

Thus proposing Nurul as a future deputy MB of Selangor can only bring that spineless acquiescence back into focus.

Peter, you should tell it like it is, rather than come up with such a pathetic excuse (and offend Mansur Othman in the process wakakaka). Sorry matey, you need an occasional rap on your knuckles.

So this is Christmas

2011-12-24T19:46:00.005+08:00

All of you, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Taoists, Bahais, etc, please see this video, the official one for John Lennon’s song titled "Happy Christmas (War is over)".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yN4Uu0OlmTg

There is no religious proselytizing message but instead a special question from John Lennon to us.

Really, it's the most meaningful and moving Christmas song that I, a former MBS student and Wellesley Church attendee, have heard. The accompanying video clip is an appropriate powerful enhancement of John's reminder to us, and just how so bloody applicable it is in today's world! One of the few songs that have moved me to tears.

And it may explain in some ways why he was on the FBI’s watch list.

Lyrics to his anti-war song

So this is Christmas
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun

And so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young

A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear

And so this is Christmas
For weak and for strong
For rich and the poor ones
The world is so wrong

And so happy Christmas
For black and for white
For yellow and red ones
Let's stop all the fight

A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear

And so this is Christmas
And what have we done
Another year over
And a new one just begun

And so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young

A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear

War is over over
If you want it
War is over
Now...

Undermining the pillars

2011-12-23T09:10:00.007+08:00

Last week, in my post Dr Hasan Ali a Kemo Sabe? I made mention of zakat, one of the 5 pillars of Islam.

According to the Quran, this (socialist) social-welfare fund is intended for acts of Islamic piety to support charitable programs for the well-being of less fortunate fellow Muslims. The aim is of course to promote and preserve social harmony between the wealthy and the poor, an equitable redistribution of wealth, and a sense of solidarity amongst members of the Ummah. And I enthused that according to the Quran, the recipients of zakat marvellously need not only be Muslims.

Yesterday I read in Malaysiakini about the Tithe funds (being) used to settle minister's legal fees.

Even as a non-Muslim I am sure the Quran did not have this purpose in mind when it declared the institution of zakat as one of the 5 pillars of Islam.

Yes, the withdrawn sum was repaid, but suddenly/coincidentally (shades of kuestionable kerbau-ish kondos) I recall a case several years ago, of a general manager of a company using company funds to buy shares for his personal ownership, of course with the intention of paying the withdrawn sum back to the company when 'his' shares made the expected profits. Unfortunately for him, a surprise audit discovered his misuse of the company funds for personal purposes, and he had to resign or face charges of CBT.

The Malaysiakini report stated that the … zakat (tithe) fund [was used] to settle advance legal costs incurred by Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Jamil Khir Bahrom and two others. The legal costs had been incurred when opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim named Jamil, Federal Territory Islamic Department director Che Mat Che Ali and its chief prosecutor Shamsuddin Hussain, as respondents in the politician's qazaf application.

Surely zakat has never been meant for such a purpose. I opine strongly that PM Najib must ask Jamil Khir Bahrom and the two senior public servants to resign for procedurally misusing the zakat, especially Che Mat who approved a withdrawal of RM63,650 from it.

And I do wonder about the Selangor case where the zakat collection and its use are now amazingly beyond the preview of the State legislative body, the Exco of democratically elected people’s representatives.

On a slightly separate issue, I also wonder about media reports of a few Muslims who would accept questionable all-expenses-paid trips to Mecca for them to perform the Haj, which conduct by every Muslim represents another pillar of Islam.

Is it halal (kosher) to accept dodgy money (of questionable provenance) and use it to perform the Haj?

An sms-ing Mufti didn’t realize how unwittingly correct he had been when he pompously declared that (words to the effect) unlike the Arab people of Prophet Mohammad (pbuh), Malays are far more special to Islam.

His ‘unwitting’ part is that he has correctly identified some of his Malay cronies as 'special to Islam' because they had, in using such monies to finance their Haj and telling outrageous lies to harm others, knowingly undermined the pillars of Islam a la the JKR-built MRR2.

Some 7,000 cracks were detected in 31 of the the MRR2's 33 pillars. Islam has only 5 pillars.

I wonder whether he will be sms-ing this to his buddy, the solar-powered saviour? Maybe they can blame it on the Christians, Chinese or Charbor (women), or Teresa Kok, Hannah Yeo and Teo Nie Ching wakakaka.

Malaysia's national flora & fauna

2011-12-22T18:49:00.007+08:00

National flower

National animal

National pest

Solar-powered agent provocateur

2011-12-22T08:49:00.003+08:00

An extract from from Malaysia-Today’s quote of The Star Online’s article Hasan: PAS has lost sight of the Malays:

(The Star) - Embattled PAS leader Datuk Dr Hasan Ali has continued his tirade against the party, saying that it has lost sight of the Malays since coming under the Pakatan Rakyat banner.

He said PAS had veered away from its fundamental role as a defender of Islam.

“In the rush to take over Putrajaya, we may end up forgetting our core group of supporters the Malays,” he said in an hour-long interview on TV3's Soal Jawab.

Here’s the solar-powered 'savior' of Malay Unity being confused between the supranational supra-ethnic supra-caste religion of Islam and the Malay race.

He was further quoted as saying: ….. a victory for Pakatan and by extension PAS in the next general election would be meaningless under the current arrangement if nothing was done to uphold the place of Islam, the Malays and the royal institution, three issues which he said formed the core of his political struggles.

Since he has shown no evidence to prove that Pakatan is anti Islam, anti Malays and anti-monarchy (all 3 issues are also UMNO-owned accusations against Pakatan), can we safely conclude he is another of the UMNO noises, albeit a solar-powered one?

Of course he won’t willingly leave PAS because he knows his usefulness to UMNO, like any solar-powered frogs, will be sub-zero the moment he steps into the UMNO shade.

So despite his mAjor disagreement with PAS' political objectives he steels his thick face to be extra thick-skinned and malu-lah, shamelessly stays back in PAS. I can only guess that by remaining in a party which he claims to have a meaningless political objective, he will be able to continue fermenting dissent in that party.

The Golden Calf?

2011-12-17T10:19:00.006+08:00

Malaysiakini - PAS declares 'war' against troublesome duo.

Hasan Ali and Nasharudin Mat Isa are the ‘troublesome duo’, said to be sowing/inciting dissent among PAS party rank and file, because in their troubled minds, PAS as a political party can no longer be trusted due to its alliance with non-Malays in Pakatan when it ought to be safeguarding Malay unity together with UMNO.

PAS insiders accused the two alleged sabotaging troublemakers of being sore losers, the former for losing his Selangor head position and the latter the deputy presidency to non-ulamak Mat Sabu in the last party election.

Politics and religion are very sensitive issues raising complex problems but alas, without objective or model solutions to refer to in order to address those problems.

When objectivity is absent, emotions supposedly carry the required answers, more acutely so when the brains behind the emotions are narrow, intolerant or even bigoted.

I suspect the emotions of Hasan Ali (sorry, can’t tell about Nasharudin) vis-a-vis PAS political status quo in Pakatan are based more on racial considerations than that of religious/righteous propriety. He probably sees things through Malay rather than Muslim eyes.

Between a non-corrupt (mainly non-Malay based) DAP and a corrupt (Malay-based) UMNO, which do you think he prefers as a political ally?

There's no need for us to answer as he has already made known his political position via his pronounced preferred and promoted UMNO-PAS (Malay) Unity.

It seems, like the ancient worshippers of the Golden Calf, he is prepared to lie down together with the cow-head people than with a clean non-corrupt ally of PAS.

(As for) those who took the calf (for worship), surely wrath from their Lord and humiliation shall overtake them, and thus do We recompense the devisers of lies - Qur'an 7:152

Village Ghost Busters

2011-12-17T10:18:00.001+08:00

Revised and posted an oldie, Village Ghost Busters at my other blog KTemoc Kongsamkok wakakaka.

‘Fatal Purity’ versus ‘Fatal Pomposity’

2011-12-14T23:01:00.012+08:00

I have criticised my hero, Karpal Singh, twice in my blog:

... once for calling for the death penalty for a demented Indian school bus driver who stopped his bus full of small little girls by the road side in an attempt at raping one of his wee passengers in broad daylight and in the presence of the other girls. Horrendous as the crime was, Karpal Singh shocked me with his demand for capital punishment for the culprit. For more read my last year’s post Overcompensating publicly for personal trials & tribulations, and ...

... a second time when he said (words to the effect) that Zaid Ibrahim cannot be trusted because of Zaid's looks – which to me was a bloody stupid statement.

I was wondering whether to criticise him a 3rd time for chewing Dr Rama up in public, but after assessing the whole situation* I decided Karpal has been absolutely right to do so.

* I trust those who have been criticising me for remaining silent in the issue of DAP’s warlords versus godfathers would appreciate that 2 factors have delayed this post, (a) lack of sufficient information previously for me to make an informed comment and, (b) there were other more interesting topics like a PAS wannabe Kemo Sabe wakakaka.

Now, why won’t I criticise Karpal a 3rd time?

* Note: I have commented adversely against Lim GE (for his opposition to use of nuclear power), Hannah Yeoh (for supporting 916), Perak DAP (for stepping on picture-poster of the frogs), Lim KS (for opening the royal Pandora box in Perak immediately after the 2008 election), etc. Only notable DAP bloke I haven’t criticised is former member Lee Lam Thye (another of my heros), wakakaka.

Initially I thought Karpal Singh was suffering from an idealistic affliction known as ‘fatal purity’, the title of a book by Ruth Scurr brought to my attention by my fellow Penang-lang and erudite writer, Dr Neil Khor, who in a letter to Malaysiakini used that title to describe Ong Tee Keat when he (OTK) was ousted by Chua Soi Lek.

Ruth Scurr’s book was on Maximilien Robespierre, known as 'The Incorruptible' during the French Revolution. Robespierre was such an idealist and frightening zealot during a most repressive period of the Revolution that he sent not only the French nobility to the guillotine but also many of his closest friends and associates, such was his fanaticism to democratic ideals.

Okay, there were far more complex issues affecting Maximilien Robespierre but in my brief and very simplified summary of Scurr’s story, I have made an attempt to draw parallels with Karpal Singh’s behaviour.

As I mentioned many times over, Karpal is the spiritual leader of the DAP, its secular equivalent to PAS’ Mursyidul Am.

He has never hesitated to chew the bottom out of violators of, or deviators from DAP’s ideology of democratic socialism. Some of the pelts hanging on his fence (ignoring BN people) were those of Anwar Ibrahim, Nga, and various other DAP leaders. His latest has been Dr Rama.

At the start I was annoyed with him for dressing down Dr Rama in public, but I soon understand that Karpal wanted to demolish any hubristic (and very damgerous) inclinations of some DAP leaders (not just Dr Rama) from becoming the type of warlords seen in MIC, MCA, UMNO and wakakaka PKR. They won’t be allowed to personally nominate their preferred candidates for elections, more so by unilateral public announcements (via the media), and assume that the party has to accept such fait accompli.

Karpal had to, was forced to publicly reprimand Dr Rama because the object lesson would send a clear message to all DAP regional and sectional leaders that the CEC is the only party body authorised to nominate party candidates for any election, nor would the DAP countenance (BN, PKR-type) 'warlords' telling some poor chaps or lassies to 'stand aside' from election to party posts so that the warlords' blue-eyed boys and gals could be guaranteed ascendancy to the party's upper echelon wakakaka. Like me, my hero is a 'process' person.

And that’s why in my eyes, Karpal Singh is the spiritual leader of DAP, a man who demands, ensures and safeguards party adherence to the ideals of democratic socialism. Otherwise, the party will become just another version of MCA, MIC or PKR.

As for ‘fatal purity’, certainly Karpal upholds ideological 'purity' but he hasn’t sent thousands 'fatally' to the political guillotine. Perhaps Dr Rama might be the first one wakakaka.

Dr Rama made a (excuse the pun) 'fatal' mistake in announcing (like a warlord) the names of some members whom he believed should stand as candidates in the coming election. What he ought to have done was to recommend those names to the CEC, but alas, he is relatively new in DAP and hasn’t quite understand the party can only remain true to and clean in its ideological pursuit if every member complies faithfully with party policies, procedures and process.

But having made a 'fatal' mistake (by party standards), he 'fatally' lacks the ability to swiftly address it. Instead he reacted with a pungent jab at Karpal as being a godfather.

Once the sh*t hits the fan, he made a feeble attempt to ‘half’ apologise to Karpal through vague acknowledgment of his admiration and thanks for his mentor (yes, Karpal was his mentor, having sponsored him into the leadership of the DAP), but like Erich Segal in his book ‘Love Story’, Dr Rama believes ‘love means never having to say sorry’ wakakaka, so he tap-danced around the ‘apology’ word, even defiantly saying he didn’t understand that word.

In defending himself he stated (words to the effect) that he wasn’t just an ordinary person (presumably meaning he is Penang's DCM II, and therefore shouldn't be required to apologise), a pompous declaration testifying to his underlying hubris. I believe such an overly proud man won’t be able to survive any loss of face, despite and in spite of the fact he was wrong to act like a BN/PKR-type of warlord in the first place.

I won’t go into the psychology of upper class Indians here but suffice to say that Dr Rama is probably a bloke who would rather ‘die’ than be humiliated as he believes he will be if he has to apologise for his 'godfather' insult to Karpal (and other senior DAP leaders like Chen Man Hin and Lim KS) and the improper and inappropriate announcement of his supporters’ names as candidates for the next election. Aiyoyo, how can he ever face his machais (acolytes) then?

And that’s why he has stated he is prepared to leave (be expelled from) the DAP (rather than apologise).

In many ways, Dr Rama is like his nemesis, Uthayakumar of Hindraf, both growing much bigger ‘heads’ than they had possessed when they started in the political business.

It’s a sad case of Karpal Singh’s ‘Fatal Purity’ versus Dr Rama’s ‘Fatal Pomposity’.

I hope the party’s committee handling the imbroglio can come up with a happy solution.

Dr Hasan Ali a Kemo Sabe?

2011-12-13T10:23:00.005+08:00

In late April this year, I posted Is Dr Mahathir a racist?, where an extract from it read:

….., ‘Malay unity’ was touted when the March 2008 tsunami hit Malaysia and dramatically changed the political landscape. UMNO obviously wanted & was desperate to split the Pakatan camp into Malays and non-Malays. PAS was immensely attracted to the clarion call for Malays from both sides of politics to unite to ensure the continuation of Malay supremacy in federal and state government.

In Selangor the sweetener for PAS was the MB’s post. Recall also the UMNO-PAS meeting at the Terengganu palace, though Nik Aziz stated that he was ambushed by UMNO. Indeed it was only Pak Haji Niz Aziz who put a stop to Pak Haji Hadi Awang and his deputy president Nasharuddin’s keenness to take up UMNO’s appeal for ethnic unity, before the Pakatan ship wrecked itself on hidden rocks by the lure of the siren song.

It’s not an unusual UMNO tactic when they are in political retreat, that of instigating fear among the Malays of the Chinese taking political control of Persekutuan Tanah Melayu, and hatred of same yellow skin peril by reminding the Malays of (true or otherwise) Chinese aggressive economic prowess, avarice, arrogance, rudeness and disrespect to the Malay rulers, etc. There's nothing like instilling a siege mentality a la Fort Apache. Dr Mahathir had taken this path several times.

What made me bring out the above again has been yesterday’s double-talk confession of Dr Hasan Ali who preened and pompously accepted the titillating bait of (UMNO-owned) Utusan Malaysia in conferring upon him the title of the 'saviour' of the Malay-Muslims – see Malaysiakini’s 'Saviour' Hasan to pursue PAS-Umno unity.

But why did I mention ‘double-talk’?

Dr Hasan declared "The very reason for my existence is to unite humans in the worship of Allah."

If so, why not say Muslim Unity or Human Unity?

Also, why did he assert that he would only cooperate with people who promote the interests of Malays, Muslims and the Malay royalty?

Islam is one of the greatest religions of the world, in fact a religion with a socialist bent, though many orthodox/conservative Muslims would baulk at the association of Islam with socialism.

But consider zakat, one of the 5 pillars of Islam.

Muslims consider zakat as an act of piety where they could show charitable concerns for the well-being of less fortunate fellow Muslims. The aim is of course to promote and preserve social harmony between the wealthy and the poor, an equitable redistribution of wealth, and a sense of solidarity amongst members of the Ummah.

Marvellously, zakat is not confined to only Muslims because the Quran indicates 8 categories of people (asnaf) who are qualified to receive zakat funds, namely:

(1) Those living in absolute poverty (Al-Fuqarā')
(2) Those who cannot meet their basic needs (Al-Masākīn)
(3) The zakat collectors themselves (Al-Āmilīna 'Alaihā)
(4) People who are non-Muslims, to show them the real spirit of Islam (Al-Mu'allafatu Qulūbuhum)
(5) People whom one is attempting to free from slavery or bondage. Also includes paying ransom or blood money (Diyah). (Fir-Riqāb)
(6) Those who have incurred overwhelming debts while attempting to satisfy their basic needs (Al-Ghārimīn)
(7) Those working for an Islamic cause (Fī Sabīlillāh)
(8) Travelers in need (Ibnus-Sabīl)

I wonder whether Category no 4 is ever practised in Malaysia, or for that matter, in any Muslim country.

But why ask about No 4 when we know from the recent accusations against alleged Christian missionary work in Malaysia, that prominent Malaysian Muslim leaders have condemned the zakat authority for neglecting the Muslim poor to an extent that the latter have become willing recipients of Christian charity and thus, by implication, insinuation and insidiousness, potential apostates because of Christian proselytizing.

Leaving that aside, let us turn to India, an ancient land, alas, cursed by the evil of its discriminatory caste system (all purely because of the accidental consequence of birth).

When Islam arrived in India, many Hindus swiftly embraced the great religion (remember: one with a fantastic socialist doctrine) to become Muslims in order to wonderfully rid themselves of their unfortunate unfair and undesired status as lower caste Indians (and that, only because of the accident in birth to certain families). They went from being pariahs to being members of the Ummah.

There is no doubt that Allah swt, being who He is, wants Islam to be a supranational religion, one above race, ethnicity, caste and skin colour.

But then comes along Dr Hasan Ali who promotes not just Muslim unity or Human Unity or Malaysian Unity, but specifically Malay-Muslim Unity, and the position of the Malay royalty, or even more specifically ...

... UMNO-PAS Unity!

I have written on the following observation several times before but I guess there’s no harm reiterating it, that ....

.... the Weltanschauung or worldview of many (though not all) PAS members is more about Malay interests rather than Islam’s per se, and PAS is a Malay (rather than Islamic) political party. Thus we shouldn't be surprised by people like Dr Hasan Ali.

Even a certain remarkable Mufti (who cowardly put the blame for his seditious act on a woman when push came to shove) argued that “the Malays are special because they are related to Islam, unlike the Arabs even though Prophet Muhammad was descended among them” and “We must defend our [Malay] race” (rather than Islam). So much for a Mufti!

Now, can anyone blame me for concluding from Dr Hasan’s political confession that he doesn’t care what the official PAS political ideology is, nor give a sh*t to the repetitive exhortations of Pak Haji Nik Aziz, PAS’ Mursyidul Am, to consider UMNO as PAS’ political enemy?

Of course I'm giving him the max benefit of the doubts, that he is truly devoted to UMNO-PAS unity and not because of the potential of becoming the future MB of an UMNO-PAS ruled Selangor.

Yes, he is basically saying he’s the Kemo Sabe (Lone Ranger) of UMNO-PAS Unity, and to f*s with PAS.

Does such a person deserve to belong to a political party like PAS which, like all political parties, has an official political ideology?

Only PAS can provide the answer.

And finally in closing, are you guys still holding on to ABU, especially those living in Gombak Setia, Selangor? Wakakaka.

PKR's Pariah-ish Preemptive Power-grab for NS?

2011-12-12T10:48:00.004+08:00

The Malaysian Insider's Pakatan aims for Negri, eyes PKR MP as MB reported:

Pakatan Rakyat (PR) is ramping up efforts to wrest Negri Sembilan from Barisan Nasional (BN) in the next general election, with its leaders saying the pact has identified Teluk Kemang MP Datuk Kamarul Baharin Abbas as frontrunner for the mentri besar post.

Even though TMI quoted its source as a “senior PR spokesperson” you can bet your bottom ringgit the conveniently anonymous spokesperson has been from PKR rather than PR.

It’s the usual and very regrettable PKR tactic of using the media to (so they wish) force a fait accompli on its DAP and PAS partners(?). It’s so bloody typical of their avaricious UMNO-like Taikoh wannabe mentality a la Sarawak and Perak all over again.

If we examine the current PR standing in the Negri Sembilan DUN, where the BN forms the ruling majority with 21 ADUNs, PR has 15 ADUNs in opposition, comprising 10 from DAP, 1 from PAS and only 4 from PKR.

Assuming both DAP and PAS retain the same winning seats (i.e. DAP = 10, PAS = 1) and PKR alone reaps the winning minimum swing of all 4 extra seats, the status will see DAP at 10, PAS 1, and PKR with 8. So why should the MB be from PKR? And mind, we are providing the maximum benefit of the doubt to PKR, by assuming DAP and PAS won't make any advance at all in the next NS state elections.

OK, perhaps PR may agree to a PKR person being the future NS MB of the state government as it did in Selangor, but why can’t PKR allow this to evolve from sincere, mature and confidential intra-PR discussions and negotiations? Why must PKR conduct selfish grubby preemptive strikes via the media on its partners?

And if PKR's argument is based on the requirement for the MB to be a Muslim, then we must wait to see whether there will be Muslim DAP ADUNs after the next election? Or, why can’t we nominate a PAS person as MB in the likes of my fave Nizar Jamaluddin?

Quite frankly, I am bloody sick of PKR's old ketuanan, kiasu and khianat-ish habit of bypassing intra-PR negotiations through use of the media to preemptively stake its claim on high powered political positions or committees. It's not a sincere but rather selfish and greedy member of PR and there'll come, must come a stage when DAP and PAS have to get rid of this untrustworthy partner ..... unless of course the sincere democractic elements in PKR make efforts to shed the party of its UMNO stripes (or leopard spots)*.

* I had written before, and very often too, that change in UMNO must come from within, thus similarly (wakakaka), change in PKR must likewise come from within. As an example, PKR members should pause and consider why Gobala, this once die-hard supporter of Anwar Ibrahim, almost of kamikaze-like dedication for the so-called Great Reformer wakakaka, has been attacking his once-idol with such ferocity that he was recently ejected from Parliament for doing so, rather than continue to deceive themselves blind by idiotically dismissing Gobala (and others) as a BN mole or Trojan Horse planted to destroy PKR from within. It’s up to the righteous elements in PKR to deal with this evil corroding poison within their party, that is, if they have the guts, sincerity and righteous belief in true democratic reforms.

Incidentally, in DAP's drive to recruit more Malay members, I urge the party to reconsider and change its policy of not admittedly anyone from a PR party, because I would like to see the DAP wooing and admitting Badrul Hisham Shaharin (Chegubard)) into its ranks, provided Chegubard is no longer a member of PKR.

Once a PKR supreme council member, Chegubard is not in the PKR upper echelon anymore. He’s certainly not in Anwar Ibrahim’s favour nor accepted with professional grace by Anwar’s inner coterie. Chegubard has been highly critical of Anwar and party’s kitchen cabinet, more so during and after the last PKR party polls where he (Chegubard) revealed many alleged untoward happenings during the polls.

Outraged by the alleged dodgy PKR party polling process, well-known writer Art Harun asked in an earlier post of his what does the 'K' in PKR actually stands for?

Art wrote: … When records show about 80 people in attendance and yet about 800 people voting, surely PKR could expect dissent and resentment from the candidates vying for posts. That is only to be expected.

To top it up, when party outsiders such as Haris Ibrahim could produce ballot papers issued for the party elections, one wonders whether Roy Hodgson is in charge of the ballot papers in PKR. […]

I don't know about how they feel and think. But frankly, in my perception, PKR is so full of crap than it would even dare to admit. And if the farce that PKR calls and labels as party elections is to be a yardstick of its ability to govern this country, I would rather vote for the Siberian Husky in front of my house. And by that, I don't mean to insult the dog.

Post-polling, there was an attempt to ‘mollify’ Chegubard with the post of deputy party sec-gen but he flicked that shallow and insincere appeasement off (there's another nastier word for "shallow and insincere appeasement" wakakaka).

In unequivocal rejection of that offer, Chegubard stated he would not back down from his vows to reform the party “despite attempts by certain quarters (wakakaka) to get rid of him and his supporters. The former PKR supreme council member admitted that he was feeling the pressure from PKR leaders who were unhappy with his vocal approach to rejuvenate democracy and transparency in the party".

Obviously, Chegubard has been and no doubt is still facing regular backstabbing from within his party.

If he is not on the PKR list for the next State and federal election, and he elects to resign from that party, DAP must take the initiative to recruit him. This man with his great values will be a tremendous asset to DAP.

Read also:
(1) PKR party election - the horror stories continue
(2) The Poison Within PKR
(3) The Poison Within PKR – Part II
(4) The Poison Within PKR – Part III

UMNO's unity lies with crooked bridge

2011-12-11T13:47:00.004+08:00

Remember my previous post Lost Opportunity?

Well, according to The Malaysian Insider, Johor Umno has called for the ‘Crooked Bridge’ to be revived.

I wonder whether Najib will seize on AAB’s ‘lost opportunity’ to re-engage with Anwar Ibrahim.

Mind, the political landscape has changed somewhat since April 2006 when I posted A Bridge Too Far - Anwar Ibrahim where I wrote of Anwar’s eagerness to offer his assistance to the AAB government, stating he (Anwar) could draw from his experience in the government, including as finance minister between 1993 and 1998, to resolve the crooked bridge affair with the Sing government.

Anwar had then stated: “I would not discount any possible meeting with Abdullah if he were to ask my views on the issues ... like the negotiations with Singapore on the bridge and even information on the negotiations with Indonesia on border issues.”

Anwar is now de facto leader of Pakatan with the potential to seize majority rule from UMNO in the next GE, though I personally have some qualms about its realization even if Pakatan indeed were to win the majority of federal parliamentary seats in the 13th GE.

I worry principally about the continuing cohesion of the loose alliance because of the greater potential for PAS to renege on its Pakatan partners in the name of Muslim Unity (with UMNO) and the prospect (quid pro quo) for implementation of hudud laws in Malaysia's legal system.

Back to Anwar - on his debit sheet, he is personally under imminent threat from the Sodomy II charge.

How will he see the account balance in his political favour should Najib indeed approach him to help solve the resurrected crooked bridge problem with the Sing people?

But in politics as in business (and Malaysian politics is also business), nothing is impossible. The Malays are true masters in the art of court intrigues with their unsurpassed centuries-horned negotiating skills, more so when there will be the attractive sheen of religious teflon coating. And with Ku Li's support, even royal blessings shouldn't be discounted.

I wonder how Najib, Anwar, Dr M (wakakaka) and Ku Li would each see the potential for ‘UMNO Unity’ (including ex UMNO men) in the opportunity presented by the resurrection of the crooked bridge issue?

Lost Opportunity

2011-12-05T17:20:00.002+08:00

Today my post is on lost opportunity. Obviously I’m talking about lost political opportunity. Another term for ‘lost opportunity’ would be ‘what if …?’

Probably the most known ‘lost opportunity’ would be that of Ku Li ‘losing’ by 43 delegate votes to Dr M in the 1987 UMNO party election. The accusations were rife about 78 branch delegates, unregistered with the Registrar of Societies and thus illegible to vote, allegedly voting and swinging the outcome in Dr M’s favour. Prior to the election, Ku Li was touted to emerge as victor.

Many have been the wistful philosophizing on ‘what if’ Ku Li had won and became PM of Malaysia 23 years ago?

I suppose his ‘victory’ would have screwed up the UMNO's Da Vinci Code(s) kau kau, because then the RA-H-M-A-N prophecy wouldn’t have been fulfilled wakakaka.

Yup, the UMNO’s Da Vinci Code would have gone R-A-H-R-M-A-N, with Ku Li as the 4th PM, and after him perhaps (we are now deep in Speculation Universe) Musa Hitam, Anwar Ibrahim and of course Najib (or even The Blue-Eyed Boy wakakaka).

Tantalizing thought, isn’t it?

But today’s post is about another, more recent, ‘lost opportunity’, for none other than AAB.

Imagine, he could still be PM today, having kept Pakatan at bay without the 2008 tsunamic disaster for BN.

And it had to do with the crooked bridge wakakaka.

If you recall, in my post Anwar Ibrahim - AAB: Encounter of the thirsty kind about a ‘chance’ (wakakaka) encounter between AI and AAB, the text went:

I’ve always believed that Anwar wants to return to UMNO – I still do!

In my post A Bridge Too Far - Anwar Ibrahim 3 years ago, Anwar eagerly offered (unsolicited) assistance to AAB on the crooked bridge business. I wrote:

Anwar has offered assistance to the government, saying he could draw from his experience in the government, including as finance minister between 1993 and 1998. That’s a fantastic CV, man.

Anwar continued: “I would not discount any possible meeting with Abdullah if he were to ask my views on the issues ... like the negotiations with Singapore on the bridge and even information on the negotiations with Indonesia on border issues.”

[…]

Mind you, Anwar assured us his offer does not imply a wish to rejoin UMNO - of course not! Everyone knows the UMNO-led government always gets ‘outsiders’ to negotiate with foreign governments on its behalf.

Alas for him, AAB snubbed him. To many UMNO insiders, Anwar was far too dangerous to allow too close, even for them. Mind you, they have had experience of the way he operated when he was their No 2.

But he’s still trying – his last chance, prior to his Nemesis (Najib) taking over the organization he wants to return to.

I wonder whether I ought to feel a lil' sorry for him, with him seeing the UMNO gates gradually drawing shut to him forever more?

Just imagine, if AAB had not snubbed Anwar, and cleverly invited the latter to handle the negotiations with Singapore and also allowed him to re-join UMNO, the following outcome could (I dare not claim ‘would’) have happened:

1) Dr M would have had an attack of apoplexy, especially when Anwar pinpointed him (Dr M) as the culprit for losing the negotiations to Singapore wakakaka.

Anwar said Dr M had only himself to blame for his pet project being scrapped. Anwar claimed he had been privy to information in the early stages of the project, and declared that Dr M made his first blunder when he sent former finance minister Daim Zainudin to negotiate with former Singapore PM LKY over the terms of the project.

He advised: “I would grant the criticism of many that negotiations with Singapore are not always easy. The solution therefore is to send competent people to negotiate. If you send semi-literates to negotiate, we will lose out in the negotiations” …

… wakakaka, because we have to conclude from such a statement that The Great Asian Renaissance Man must have considered Daim a semi-literate.

Whatever, AAB missed/lost the opportunity to use Anwar on the crooked bridge re-negotiations with Singapore to rub that painfully into Dr M’s face. I imagine Dr M would have gone bersek. Perhaps then with AAB at an one-upsmanship advantage, he might possibly have been able to confidently parry away the relentless persecutions by Dr M stemming from the latter's dissatisfaction with the crooked bridge affair.

2) Had AAB invited Anwar to re-join UMNO (a process which I had consistently asserted Anwar was very keen on, at least until Najib took over as party president), perhaps Pakatan might not have done that well in the 2008 GE. There’s no denying that without Anwar, Pakatan in its earliest days would not have remained reasonably cohesive as a formidable alternative to the BN.

3) By getting Anwar to re-join UMNO, there was of course a danger that Anwar might have taken over the party, but the reality was there was already too much of a time gap between the time of Anwar’s expulsion from UMNO and that hypothetical re-joining of UMNO when in His Magnificence's absence, many new powerful UMNO warlords have established party positions and would definitely not permit The Great One to regain his previous party status, as No 2 going on to No 1 wakakaka – such is the nature of the political beast (of any political party, not just UMNO).

Thus by engaging Anwar and allowing him to re-join UMNO, AAB would have made Anwar lose all his political credibility outside UMNO without any visible gain in UMNO, effectively neutering him as a credible political figure in Malaysia.

So, my speculative conclusion is that, had AAB had not lost the opportunity presented by Anwar’s keenness to ‘help’ (wakakaka) with the crooked bridge issue, he could have neutralised both Dr M and Anwar and thus possibly be still PM, without suffering the disastrous 2008 tsunami.

Perhaps his 4th Floor boys (s-i-l and son) should be blamed for his 'lost opportunity'.

Alas, I believe it was a monumental ‘lost opportunity’ in Malaysian politics on a scale as dramatic as that for Ku Li in the 1987 UMNO party crisis.

The Last Communalist?

2011-12-01T19:58:00.001+08:00

Scene: Aircon VVIP room, nasi kandar shop, Jalan Kerbau

Participants: Shop owner Maidin & VVIP Low Brow (LB)

*********************************************
Act 1

Maidin: Tan Sri, how about our kari sapi? The beef is of premium quality and very fresh, direct from NFC. And perhaps a glass of teh-tarik, made with fresh susu, also from NFC

LB: The susu bloody well be fresh; it's the least I expect from tits covered at 26,000 ringgit.

Maidin: Er … 26,000 ringg ….

LB: Never mind, get on with my order!

Act 2

Maidin returning to VVIP room with the ‘fresh’ sapi & fresh susu dish and drinks

Maidin: Er … Tan Sri, I hope you don’t mind if I boldly say that my members have been terribly disappointed that we haven’t had a senator appointed in the last exercise, more so when that non-Muslim Nallakarupan has been appointed as one.

LB: Well, give me some justification then to appoint you.

Maidin (smiling): Tan Sri, I know the DAP will be our main threat in GE13 …

LB (in bad mood): SO!

Maidin: We need a strategy to instill fear of the DAP in the heartland.

LB: What the f* kerbau @r$e do you think we’ve been doing at the assembly?

Maidin: Tan Sri, please permit me to say what we have done thus far is not enough - there's not enough hate-fear factor. We need to spread word that Ong Boon Hua has joined the DAP. That’ll surely …..

LB (cutting in rudely): Who the f* lembu tetek is Ong Boon Hua? [at same time, rolls eyes and thinks: f* unbelievable, 26,000 ringgit!]

Maidin: Tan Sri, he's Chin Peng – he has already been made into an object of hate for the heartland; his joining DAP should turn the heartland thoroughly against that party.

LB: Hmmm, I think you may have something there, Maidin my boy, but how the f* sapi sh*t can we get him to do that?

Maidin: Well, we can either publish the usual lies ... er ... I mean, propaganda, or … we can horse trade with Boon Hua.

LB (perplex): How … I mean the latter of course?

Maidin: Tan Sri, we offer him entry into Malaysia; he wants to go back to Teluk Anson … er … I mean Intan to die in his birth place.

Naturally, all this has to be done subtly, as if the DAP, drunk with arrogant expectation that Pakatan will form the next government, is sponsoring him with a condition that he joins the party – we can send our south Thailand experts to do the job, you know, the sex-video Trio.

We'll provide Boon Hua with an application form to join the DAP in Teluk Intan. Once we have the form filled up and signed by him, we'll publish it in UM. Then Karpal Singh and Lim Kit Siang can protest for all we care. And best of all, we needn't honour our pledge to Boon Hua, for the second time.

LB: Maidin my boy … er … I mean, Senator-in waiting Maidin, you have a winner there.

Maidin (warming up): And this is the clincher, Tan Sri. We'll also spread news that Brother Boon Hua has 'become' a Christian, having joined one of those evangelistic churches that two Chinese bloggers have been raving and condemning some DAP leaders for helping spread their proselytizing Christian faith.

All we'll need to do is just spread the word of Boon Hua’s conversion and those two bloggers, ironically with anti-DAP fervor as evangelistic as the Christian churches they've accused some DAP leaders of belonging to, will eagerly do the rest.

LB (smiling now): Good work, almost-Senator Maidin. Now, all we need is a catchy title or label to highlight the new campaign about that dreaded Communist Christian Chinese.

Maidin: How about “The Last Communist”, implying he was a communist, the last of his kind, because he has turned into an equally dreaded Christian, perhaps even with a solar-powered Malay language Bible?

LB: Absolutely NOT! I don’t want that loose cannon traitor Amir Muhammad coming back to kacau us.

Maidin: Okay okay Tan Sri, how about “The Last Communalist”, sending the message that though he’s Chinese, he, like the other DAP people, doesn’t want to recognize we are not the nonsensical Bangsa Malaysia but really ethnic-proud Malays, Indian, Chinese, etc like Kadir Jasin, Ridhuan Tee and you, Tan Sri?

LB (teasing): You left out ‘mamak’? He he he!

Maidin (thought of retorting sharply but thought better of that) smiles obsequiously.

Indonesians, Invidiousness & Idiots

2011-12-01T10:52:00.002+08:00

My matey Dean Johns reminded me of Indonesians’ dislike (or even hatred) of Malaysians in his Malaysiakini’s column which features Idiocy still rules, ok when he wrote:

Deputy Sports Minister Razali Ibrahim in his statement last week that the hostile reception given by Indonesian fans to Malaysian teams at the SEA Games in Jakarta was because “opposition leaders have been making a beeline for Indonesia to bad mouth our country”.

Of course, Razali Ibrahim's statement would be believable to only, in line with Dean’s theme for this week, his 'idiot' supporters.

Anyway, leaving the home ‘idiots’ aside, Indonesians’ (rather than Indonesia’s) dislike of and for Malaysians has been a long standing state of envy, with that feeling boiling at times over into sheer hatred. But in the final analysis it’s just plain envy of Malaysians’ more fortunate circumstances and affluent lifestyle, sometimes deteriorating into the more emotional ‘jealousy’ against anyone who’s Malaysian.

To put it in the pithy words of Pak Pandai ;-) it’s "Taikoh with a wee weenie being green-eyed about Adik with the humongous ‘adik’" wakakaka.

By population size, Indonesia is the world’s 5th biggest country after China, India, USA and Russia. It’s natural resources - oil, timber, minerals, agricultural land, fishery, its land and sea mass - and its human resource would make even the richest nation in the world easily envious of Indonesia, ...

... but – and as a salutary lesson to Malaysia – Indonesia has been buggered by corrupt leaders for 60 over years, since 1945, to such an extent that today its most notable (and probably, like the Philippines, biggest) export to the Gulf countries and, malulah, Adik Malaysia has been its women, to serve as maids to foreigners.

Malaysia is just a dozen years behind Indonesia in being her own master of affairs, though thanks to leaders like Tunku and the earlier PMs, may be said to be racked by corruption for a far shorter period than that suffered by our neighbour (even with the difference of 12 years taken into account).

Very much to Indonesians’ chagrin, Adik Malaysia, apart from emerging even stronger from the trials, tribulations and trauma of Konfrontasi, has been doing very much better. Thus, when Malaysia’s relative superiority in economy, affluence and lifestyle is realized by Indonesians, the fact becomes unbelievable, unbearable, unacceptable and, in moments of stress and national hurt (like when losing islands and badminton & soccer matches), would easily provoke them into hatred for those (in their troubled minds) adiks, the lil’ buggers living just north of equally puny lil’ Tionghua Singapore.

Years ago, when I was working in Java, Indonesia, I went to a ramshackle gymnasium for a workout, but wakakaka, mainly to ogle at the nona sweeties (nyonya in Indonesia means a married lady whilst nona is a maiden, thus fair game for blokes like kaytee, unless boyfriend is a silat harimau expert wakakaka).

An Indonesia colleague who had never been north of Java’s shoreline, asked me whether Malaysia possessed facilities like the ramshackle gym, in a condescending tone that left me in no doubt as to his believed superiority I came from a truly ulu (backward) country called Malaysia. The other Indon colleagues who had been to Malaysia were so embarrassed that they walked away immediately, but subsequently apologized to me for their mate’s ‘katak dibawah tempurung’ (frog beneath a coconut shell) mentality.

Just imagine how that tempurung-ed Indon would have felt if the facts about Malaysian-Indonesian relative lifestyle and affluence were made known to him? First, he would probably have rejected them in disbelief, then he would be enviously horrified, and finally he would be a green-eyed monster, perhaps even hating those bloody adik Malaysians.

Our Deputy Sports Minister Razali Ibrahim was thus not only peddling unscrupulous opportunistic political lies to his ‘idiot’ supporters but has been a far more ignorant idiot himself, not unlike that tempurung-ed Indon of my Java experience wakakaka.

Perhaps now would be a timely reminder of where we are going, by recalling that at a time when the only petroleum Malayans (and subsequently Malaysians) knew about was from the gas nozzles of Shell and Mobil petrol stations, Indonesia already had its monopolistic powerful Pertamina, headed by Army General Ibnu Sutowo.

Read this Wikipedia statement about Pertamina’s early history:

For President Suharto and other members of the ruling elite, revenue from Pertamina was "an ongoing source of funding" without accountability: "they ran this cash-cow into the ground, using it for both military and personal ends."

Historian Adrian Vickers describes the endemic corruption at Pertamina: At each stage of the transaction chain somebody was getting a percentage ...

In 1973, the government's ability to borrow money from overseas was constrained, and Pertamina was no longer providing revenues to the state. Instead, the massive enterprise turned out not to be making money, but compiling exponentially large losses. In February 1975, Pertamina could no longer pay its American and Canadian creditors.

Sounds familiar? … unless of course you want to be like what Dean Johns described so succinctly, an 'idiot'.

Politics - play safe, play the race

2011-11-26T14:03:00.002+08:00

Much as I may wish, I personally doubt Pakatan will form the next government, EVEN if it wins the majority of the seats in the next general election.

Huh? You may exclaim at kaytee’s strange assertion above.

For a start, I am troubled by many factors – UMNO’s advantage of incumbency, our remarkable EC and other state apparatus (which performance had been amply demonstrated in Perak, Selangor and during the earlier days of the Pakatan-governed Penang), increasingly royal political activitism, the judiciary, etc.

But the most worrying factor has been the centrifugal policies and behaviour of Pakatan itself.

We witnessed a sampling of this in the period of campaigning leading to the last Sarawak state election and its sour-grapes aftermath, PAS increasing reversion to its intrinsic hudud-inclined stripes, as well as in recent remarks by PKR leaders.

The new PKR ethnic hero is Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin, its Youth Chief, who has borrowed (or inherited) a leaf from his mother organization, UMNO Youth, by selling his and his party’s appeal on a Malaysian sure-fire best-selling platform, definitely one to warm the cockles of the heartland, namely, Ketuanan Melayu or Malay-supremacy.

While UMNO Youth under KJ has quietened down a wee bit (perhaps because KJ wants to present himself as a less crude and more cosmopolitan politician, or because UMNO Youth has already farmed out its brown-shirts and steel jackboots to Perkasa), PKR Youth has instead eagerly adopted its ethno-centric tactics.

The acorn sure as hell doesn't fall far from the oak tree.

According to Malaysiakini Shamsul Iskandar Md Akin called for a constitutional amendment to state that only a Malay can be appointed prime minister.

Jettisoning his party’s mantra of (wakakaka) reformasi, he justified his ethnocentric persuasion, stating: "The lack of such a constitutional provision allows irresponsible quarters to manipulate Malay anxieties about their future (should a non-Malay be appointed PM). This is because of the suspicions they have of those from other ethnic backgrounds. Such manipulation can cause them to feel unsafe and create tensions. This way, the Malays will always pin their hopes on these so-called Malay champions, who turn out to be the real enemies."

And he comes even complemented with a very supportive BN-type lapdog in the person of his deputy Chan Ming Kai, who stoutly defended his Taikoh’s siren call to the heartland.

The term ‘political prostitute’ was recently aired to pinpoint someone who was usually referred to by the 'whore’ synonym, but I wonder whether we can use this term, ‘prostitute’, as a verb (instead of a noun) to describe Shamsul’s racist proposal, .....

..... that in calling for a policy which is 180-degrees in direction to his party’s claimed ideology, he has 'prostituted' PKR’s credentials for rewards, to shore up his personal popularity (pre-election) as an ethnic warrior and his hope for heartland votes.

We also recall all too well The Great One’s support of Pak Haji Nik Aziz’s proposal to implement hudud in Kelantan. 'The Renaissance Man' became unashamedly 'The Reneging Man', all just for attention because at that time he was racked by anxiety over what he perceived as his diminishing relevancy as Pakatan’s de facto (wakakaka) leader and that of his party in the loose coalition.

Bigotry as a 'whatever it takes' justification to win seems to be a prevalent mentality in PKR, because I recall that in the immediate aftermath of the 2008 elections in Perak, its 'Lost Socialist' demanded, in most unexpected, unbecoming and unbelievable behaviour for a so-called ‘socialist’, that the State exco must be made up of an ethnic composition that was representative of the Perak population by ethnic percentage, meaning the PKR-PAS bloc (effectively PKR) ADUNs should get the lion’s share of the exco position.

So, with such an ethno-centric proclivity in PKR and an equally dismal religio-ethno-centric mentality in PAS, I doubt Pakatan will remain cohesive as an alliance to form a new government even if the component parties manage to resolve the pre-election division of parliamentary seats and win majority rule.

Dr Hasan (PAS Selangor) and the Mufti of 'Malay Unity' may yet realize their dreams.

Do not be surprised by the butterfly metamorphosing into a slug (caterpillar).

Dirgahayu Bangsa, Pordah anak Malaysia.

Dr Syed Husin, the Socialist who lost his way

2011-11-20T21:40:00.004+08:00

Tell me why I’m not at all surprised by the relevation of Ezam Mohd Noor that former PKR Deputy Chairman Dr Syed Husin had condemned Anwar Ibrahim and Azmin Ali in a private conversation with Ezam (when the latter was still in PKR).

Malaysiakini reported in its Syed Husin: Ezam's throwing up a smokescreen that (BN-appointed) Senator Ezam Mohd Noor, once the right hand man of Anwar Ibrahim (Azmin Ali being the left hand man wakakaka) claimed that … Dr Syed Husin had in frequent chats with him (Ezam) at a favourite restaurant in Petaling Jaya criticized Anwar and Azmin for what he (Syed) perceived as their lavish lifestyles.

Dr Syed defended his snide comments about The Great One and Blue-eyed Boy to MKIN as: “In general, I criticize any and everybody who offends against the unspoken rule against ostentation in their lifestyles. We are fighting for the have-nots in Malaysian society; it requires we be modest in our lifestyles.”

Dr Syed Husin explained that Ezam’s tattling was an attempt to distract from the motive behind Ezam’s departure from PKR, namely good old fashion ‘money’, by positing that he (Ezam) did so because of his dim view of the leadership of Anwar Ibrahim.

MKINI stated that Syed Husin expanded: “I know this is coming down to a ‘I said, he said’ sort of thing but if you look at page 157 of my book, you will find that Hishamuddin Rais says in a letter that he wouldn’t be surprised if Ezam leaves PKR. That letter was written in 2002.”

Whether Hishamuddin Rais was proven to be prophetic is besides the point, because it’s interesting to note Dr Syed hasn’t denied that he had criticized Anwar and Azmin for their lavish lifestyles.

Indeed, Dr Syed has been wise not to as it’s an open secret about the lifestyles of Anwar Ibrahim and Azmin Ali. As they say, “Once UMNO, always UMNO”.

In fact I would say Dr Syed rather than Ezam in attacking the latter for deserting PKR for money would be the one attempting to distract from the fact he held (maybe still does) a very dim view of the lifestyle and leadership of Anwar Ibrahim and his darling boy. Mind, this is not to say Ezam is an angel, but he is no better or worse than Azmin Ali, both being at one time or still, political praetorian guards of The Great One.

Dr Syed Husin was the leader of PRM, once a wonderful socialist like Dr Jeya of PSM until he (Dr Syed) wandered into a wrong camp, a camp with people used to opulent lifestyles totally in contrast to his socialist ways.

I used to respect Dr Syed, even after he led the PRM foolishly into PKR (when fellow socialist DAP would have been the natural choice). Maybe he was like Zaid Ibrahim, believing he could ‘save’ PKR? Who knows?

I admired Dr Syed even more when he graciously declined to accept the PKR’s candidature for the Kota Bahru parliamentary seat, following strong objections from PAS in the person of Pak Haji Nik Aziz. Probably Pak Haji objected to what he saw as a syaitan-ish pinko standing as Pakatan candidate in KB.

But alas, I shed a tear and lost my respect for Dr Syed immediately after his racially-oriented remarks/demands about the composition of the Perak exco following the Pakatan victory in March 2008.

That’s what mixing with the wrong crowd could do to a former socialist.

The 'K' factor

2011-11-17T07:13:00.002+08:00

Kerbau, korupsi, kronisme, keluarga, kondo, korek (Bukit Bintang, Jalan Sultan), kapal (ta’selam), kollapsing (stadium), krack-ed (MRR2, roof of Parliament building), kepala-sakit (for Auditor General), konstitutional (blasphemies), kurang konscionable (fabriKations), kowtim-ness (Indonesian ‘bisa diatur’) … etc etc etc.

The Malaysian K factor.

No doubt every country in the world suffers from corruption, but the difference lies in its degree. Today, Malaysia has reached the level of Zimbabwe, Myanmar, Pakistan and the Philippines of Marcos’ days and India of yonder years, etc.

How did we allow this to happen, when did it begin, but more importantly how can we stop it?

Hudud?

Just look at the corruption in Pakistan and other Middle-Eastern country where hudud is part of their legal system. No man, hudud won't the solution.

Look at that pimple on China’s backside, Hong Kong. Many don’t realize HK’s much vaunted ICAC was patented after Malaysia’s original ACA.

But today the Malaysian ACA or its new named MACC is an obscenity.

We were once the envy of many Asian nations but now, we have become the new laughing stock. Yes, we still have some fat to continue in our merry ways but these are running out soon, which may explain why we see an unrepentant horrendous frenzied scramble for the last dip of the snout in the public trough.

We badly need a modern-day Hang Jebat, one who is pure in his heart, brave and honest.

A tale of two sweeties

2011-11-08T17:07:00.008+08:00

... with apologies to Charles Dickens for misappropriating and paraphrasing the title of his Classic wakakaka.

Today I’m talking about the daughters of local politicians, not sons like Mukhriz, Lim GE, Lim Si Pin or Chua Tee Yong, or son-in-law like KJ wakakaka.

But for this post, I’ll limit myself to just two daughters of the two principal political antagonists Dr Mahathir and Anwar Ibrahim, respectively Marina Mahathir and Nuruh Izzah.

First of all, let me be truthful and declare my personal position, that I know Marina through blogging, but alas sob sob sob, not the latter sweetie.

I have also followed Marina’s activities in, firstly, her former role as the Head of Malaysia’s AIDS Foundation, socio-activist in women affairs, a socio-political blogger at her website Rantings byMM, and at her column in The Star, while I cannot but help hearing constantly from the avalanche of adulation, acclaim and accolades for Nurul by her devoted supporters wakakaka.

Marina is of course not a politician, unlike Nurul.

When I think of these two sweeties, I am reminded immediately of the biblical saying that the sins of the father will be visited upon their children for several generations …

Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me – Deuteronomy 5:9

And also from Isaiah:

I will even repay into their bosom, both their own iniquities and the iniquities of their fathers together – Isaiah 65:6-7

… which I opine is utter nonsense on the basis of logic, commonsense and secular justice.

Many of those I know dislike or at best, are suspicious of Marina because of their immense dislike, if not hatred, of Dr Mahathir – hence the biblical quote of 'sins of father visited upon the children' would be most appropriate in Marina’s case.

Okay, I’m sure by now, you would have got it that the “many of those I know” are Pakatan people wakakaka.

By contrast, to these same people, Nurul is virtually the equivalent of Virgin Mary, Jeanne d’Arc and Rosa Parks all rolled into one. They have even proposed (preposterously, if I may add) that should her dad be jailed for Sodomy II, she be selected as the Prime Minister of the new (hoped for) Pakatan government.

Now, I'm willing to accept Dr Wan Azizah as a substitute PM, but young Nurul ...? Puhleeeze lah, but then, such is fanaticism.

As if that was not enough, Nurul has also been conferred the title ‘Princess Reformasi’. That either implies her dad is the Sultan Reformasi wakakaka or worse (what I suspect), she is the PKR’s version of Nyai Loro Kidal, the anwaristas' Goddess of Reformasi, though quite frankly, there is nothing to substantiate or justify the bestowment of that title on her - please explain how she is Princess Reformasi? In fact, I believe Fuziah Salleh, the MP for Kuantan, has done far more as a PKR politician than Nurul.

Mind, I have nothing against Nurul. My criticisms above is directed not at innocent her but rather those mindless muddle-headed Myrmidons of PKR whose adoration, adulation and acclamation for her (because she so happens to be the daughter of The Great One) have been as amaurotic as the Graeae deprived of their sole eye.

There’s no doubt Nurul Izzah has a bright future as a politician. But I cannot bring myself to see her as (the preposterously titled) Princess Reformasi or, gawd, gasp, omigosh, the ‘PM anointed’ in the event her father is not available to head a Pakatan government.

Sorry, I don’t share such a moronic view which would be that exclusively of the anwarista cultists.

OTOH, whatever good Marina Mahathir might have done, they (as well as some UMNO-BN people too) would impute some ignoble motive on her part.

Sometime back, I read an article (somewhere) where the author aired his distrust of Marina’s motive in walking with Bersih 2.0, suggesting she possessed a secret agenda to infiltrate Bersih a la the Trojan Horse to destroy it from within. Well …

Then there were others who questioned her ’enjoyment of the privileges’ of being a PM’s daughter as if she could only be free of guilt if she had chosen someone else to be her parents. Such has been the stupidity of those mindless comments.

And incidentally did Nurul not enjoy the same privileges when Anwar was the powerful rightwing DPM from UMNO? Anwaristas' double standard?

Once when I voiced to an erstwhile (dear) friend wakakaka my admiration for Marina as an advocate for AIDS awareness through her sterling role as President of the Malaysian AIDS Foundation, I received from her a stupid sleazy sickening retort, a non sequitur and puerile revelation that Marina once wore mini-skirts.

Huh and f* cheh, as if that was her sin? Hey, I used to walk around naked, yes, naked … when I was three years old wakakaka.

The vicious malicious tattler backed off when I showed my disgust at such a gross grubby gossipy item. To be frank, I was outraged for two reasons, firstly, WTF has that got to do with her fantabulous role as an activist for AIDS awareness, and secondly (I have to admit) I was personally annoyed in missing seeing her in the mini skirt wakakaka. So I was suffering from mixed feelings, of both anger :( and frustration ;-).

It’s so typically the attitude of those who have been/are very anti Lee Lam Thye, where some PKR people hate this wonderful man who had done more for the common people of KL than they and their loud mouths could ever dream of achieving.

Lee LT is reviled by PKR people because of his post & non-political activities with some government agencies or projects. But the same fuckers remained like mutes when Anwar Ibrahim offered his (unsolicited) services wakakaka to AAB during the crooked bridge controversy – see my post A Bridge Too Far - Anwar Ibrahim.

What f* double-standard hypocrites, those anwaristas.

Today, Marina Mahathir has again shown her bravery, fairness and invincible justice for the underdogs when she stood up for the organizers of Seksualiti Merdeka, who have been mischievously libelled by the mainstream media with the usual msm lies, in their description of Seksualiti Merdeka as a ‘free sex festival’.

I was wondering how long before Marina’s public stand would shame a pro-hudud person to finally come out to declare his stand on Sexsualiti Merdeka, naturally all complete with ‘qualifications’ wakakaka.

[Footnote: when Eli Wong was under tsunamic attack (by the f* usual suspects) for the sins of sneaky shifty sleazy slug who took photos of her while she was innocently asleep, I learnt that a certain ‘someone’ in PKR had then wanted her out as she was seen as an ‘embarrassment’ to him – that f* spineless unconscionable coward]

UMNO's venom is spinach for 'Popeye' Lim GE

2011-11-01T21:28:00.004+08:00

When I hear such words and phrases:

• ‘Unity’ [as in Malay, Muslim unity],
• The Chinese or Martians will take over the country [though with nary a mention of millions of illegal Indonesians, Filipinos and Bangladeshis already allowed into our country],
• There will be a Christian PM,
• They will make Christianity the official religion of Malaysia,
• The communists are lurking behind every melati tree in Penang
• 2,500,000,000,000,000 Malay Muslims have been converted to Christianity,
• A Chinese CM is biadap towards the sultans
• Etc etc on such like threats to Malays and Muslims and their raja, agama & adat

I then know UMNO is in deep deep deep political trouble, and more so when Dr Mahathir, its greatest icon since (ironically*) Hang Tuah, has also joined in the scare-mongering, presumably with the ulterior aim of frightening the hell out of the Malays and nurturing an ethno-siege mentality in their psyche, to stampede them towards their only ‘hope’, namely UMNO.

* ironically because I believe Dr Mahathir like Dr Kassim Ahmad despises a palace sycophant like Tuah

As Samuel Johnson told us more than 200 years ago, patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.

Why has UMNO, in its current battle manoeuvres against Lim GE and DAP Penang, its threat in vogue, considered it has to resort to the ‘last refuge’, an unethical ethnocentric scare-mongering?

In the past, prior to 2009, UMNO had only considered DAP as a kutu Chinese-based party, a MCA problem and certainly not that of UMNO.

Indeed why has UMNO lately become more and more dreadful of a mere kutu Chinese-based party?

Hmmm …

Even a future hope like KJ has sadly succumbed to such shameless guttersnipe slandering. Actually, KJ’s action has shocked me more than any other UMNO sins. Sayang saja!

The latest incident against Lim GE has been by the Mat Rempits. Ayoyo ama, I wonder who in UMNO used to promote them?

Alas for UMNO, it seems Allah swt has not been kind on its actions against Lim Guan Eng.

The more UMNO attacks Lim Guan Eng, directly or indirectly (by persecuting Lim’s 16-year old school boy), by itself or through its agents, Malay and Chinese wakakaka, the more popular Lim becomes, much to the chagrin and anxiety of Penang’s Gerakan and MCA.

It is as if UMNO’s vile, vicious & vitriolic venom is some form of sweet succulent spicy spinach to ‘Popeye’ Lim, turning him super sexy and strong.

But the real answer is of course Penangites have been revolted and repulsed by the incredulous, indecorous, indecent, inexcusable, iniquitous lies propagated by pro UMNO bloggers and the head of UMNO Gelugor Division. Their outrage has been further fuelled by the obvious inaction of the MCMC and Police.

So, is it any wonder that members of Penang’s Gerakan and MCA have been banging their heads on the walls at UMNO’s continuing stupidity in making Lim more and more popular by attacking him with foul flagitious fabrications?

They have been made to vicariously bear the full brunt of Penangites’ contempt and anger for UMNO’s beastly barbarous bullsh*t.

And it’s not as if UMNO fails to understand Penangites aren’t like the good folks of the heartland, where non-heartland Penangites (whether of DAP, MCA, Gerakan or PKR affiliations) already dislike UMNO.

Mind, UMNO doesn’t care two f* about the Chinese and Indian Penangites leaning more and more towards Lim – these voters are known to be lost cause for BN. UMNO is petrified that Malay Penangites will continue swinging over to Lim’s DAP.

Thus UMNO attacks Lim with whatever it can ‘manufacture’ to ensure the heartland does not swing any further towards Lim and the DAP. In the process it knows it is destroying whatever faint hope Gerakan and MCA might have entertained.

Tough, just collateral damage for Gerakan and MCA. When the ship is sinking, it’s every rat for itself …

… which has been why I have often posted that the DAP is not the Gerakan or MCA’s greatest foe. UMNO, their so-called ally, is! wakakaka.

Unconstitutional royal intrusions

2011-10-30T19:41:00.007+08:00

I have dined with kings, I've been offered wings. And I've never been too impressed - Bob Dylan

I am more embarrassed than someone who claims he might be embarrassed.

It’s one thing for BN to accuse Pakatan politicians or pro-Pakatan supporters of lese majeste or being rude or unsavoury to royalty, but it’s another for constitutional monarchies to do that.

Has anyone ever heard or read of Queen Elizabeth chiding her PM, any politician or members of the public?

Wait, we needn’t go that far to a white man’s country. Let’s look at our neighbour Thailand. Her King (not the Crown Prince) is very much loved and revered monarch. Thais are the most ardent monarchists in the world.

And you may ask why?

Only once has the Thai King ever publicly taken side, even then in a subtle but effective manner, and for the good of the public.

Wikipedia has this to say:

In 1992, Bhumibol played a key role in Thailand's transition to a democratic system. A coup on 23 February 1991 returned Thailand back under military dictatorship. After a general election in 1992, the majority parties invited General Suchinda Kraprayoon, a leader of the coup group, to be the Prime Minister. This caused much dissent, which escalated into demonstrations that led to a large number of deaths when the military was brought in to control the protesters. The situation became increasingly critical as police and military forces clashed with the protesters. Violence and riot spread out in many areas of the capital with rumour on the rift among armed forces.

Amidst the fear of civil war, Bhumibol intervened. He summoned Suchinda and the leader of the pro-democracy movement, retired Major General Chamlong Srimuang, to a televised audience, urged them to find a peaceful resolution. At the height of the crisis, the sight of both men appearing together on their knees (in accordance with royal protocol) made a strong impression on the nation, and led to Suchinda's resignation soon afterwards.

It was one of the few occasions in which Bhumibol directly and publicly intervened in a political conflict. A general election was held shortly afterward, leading to a civilian government

Mind, when royalty embarrassed BN in Perlis and Terengganu in 2008, Pakatan supporters were being stupidly and prematurely silly in rejoicing at the unconstitutional intrusions (I blogged against those royal interference against the BN's choice of MBs - see below), but when the tables were turned in Perak, and lately in Selangor and Johor (admittedly suspected as at the instigation of BN), the laughs were on the other side.

Regardless of whether the unconstitutional royal intrusions were at the expense of BN or Pakatan, I have never rejoiced but would only lament.

And which has been why I have always reminded people that whatever we might think of Dr Mahathir, he did one really damn good thing during his premiership - he de-fanged the royalty. Bravo!

Related:
(1) Dangerous euphoria over 'political' royalty
(2) Rulers no 'Silver Bullet'
(3) Lim Kit Siang opened Royal Pandora Box?
(4) Royalty threatens constitutional crisis?
(5) The dangers of royal political activism
(6) Supremacy of the people's voice in democracy
(7) Bismarck: The king reigns but does not govern
(8) Dr Wan Azizah, rethink your promise of legal immunity for royalty!
(9) Tainted silver ain't no silver bullet

Putrajaya's 'dunno!'

2011-10-25T18:34:00.005+08:00

Q: Why is Professor Aziz Bari being investigated for lèse majesté for stating the Sultan of Selangor had intervened in an ‘unusual and inconsistent’ manner over the Jais intrusive raid of DUMC, when by humongous contrast, an UMNO person had sneeringly insulted Malaysian royalty contemptuously with the following words:

"How can we continue to uphold rulers who are known to be robbers, adulterers, drunkards and kaki pukul (thugs)?" [...]

"They (the rulers) must be made to realize that they do not own this country. They are not Superman but placed on their thrones by the people. "The real power did not lie with them, but with us - the representatives of the people."

M: I dunno anything about this, I mean the second case! But what I do know is I can charge you for sedition.

Q: Then, if there is no evidence to charge DUMC for allegedly proselytizing Muslims, how can JAIS barging into DUMC’s function be considered as justified?

M: I dunno anything about this! But let me say this again, I know I can charge you for sedition.

Q: Minister, explain the report that 240 foreigners were taken in buses to a resort near Putrajaya and given Malaysian citizenships.

HM (stroking his keris): I dunno anything about this!

Q: OK then, explain how a Bangladesh Prime Minister’s Office unit website has claimed that its citizens working in Malaysia have been asked to vote for the ruling Barisan Nasional government?

HM (about to draw his keris): I dunno anything about this!

Q: Why haven’t legal actions being taken against the 3 MACC officers whom the RCI reported as having driven Teoh Beng Hock to suicide?

M (representing someone): He dunno anything about this! He was in Mecca during the imbroglio.

Q: Minister, explain the huge discrepancy between the price of RM1.7 billion paid by DRB-Hicom for the APC and the RM7.65 biliion paid subsuently by Min Def for the same goods?

DM (from inside a APC): I dunno anything about this! But I want to remind everyone I’m the most patriotic Malaysian.

Q: Why wasn’t action taken against 10 errant contractors, who were awarded contracts by the Defence Ministry worth RM76 million, for their work delays despite being notified by the Auditor-General’s Office, and why were their contracts instead extended for an additional 6 months?

DM (now in another APC): I dunno anything about this! But I wish I’m in my submarine right now.

Q: Minister, are you denying that one of your family has been involved in the contract for the biometric system for voters?

[Grunts … then after long silence as if he was overworking his poor mind for an answer ... to deny ...]: I dunno anything about this!

Q: The World Bank has suspended financing of a RM9 billion Padma bridge in Bangladesh because of corruption in the bidding process; please explain why Malaysia has offered to finance the project?

Ex-M (firming down on his topi): Dei, I dunno anything about this!

Q: What is your opinion on the effect on Form 4 English-medium students when the government abolishes the PPSMI next year.

M (toothpick in mouth after a bah-kut-teh meal, mumbles): I dunno anything about this! But DPM promises there will be a ‘soft landing’.

Q: Why was a trading company paid RM9,805 for Tupperwares worth only RM4,221, and the PM Department accepted the trading company’s claim of that extra RM5,584 as transportation cost? RM5,584 as transportation cost for RM4,221 worth of Tupperware? Were the Tupperwares as big and heavy as Ayah Pin’s kettle?

M (drinking tea from a Noritake Bone China cup): I dunno anything about this!

The Muhyiddin Doctrine

2011-10-23T08:12:00.003+08:00

The Malaysian Insider - Muhyiddin: Guan Eng’s denial of sexual harassment by son ‘not enough’.

Muhyiddin Yassin has introduced a new legislative doctrine, of course only for DAP people, namely:

“THE ACCUSED IS GUILTY UNTIL PROVEN INNOCENT”

... while the irresponsible accusers get away scot free, with Rais Yatim's department pathetically acting dunno.

In Malaysiakini Muhyiddin was reported saying:

“Don’t blame anybody. However, it is the tendency of the opposition and Pakatan. When their have their own problems, they start to blame Umno.”

“However, if there is a fault, we have to find out what is the main cause.”

This man is either a moron or deliberately acting dunno that it had been UMNO bloggers like Papagomo and UMNO Gelugor’s Division Chairperson, Dr Novandri Hasan Basri, who fabricated the irresponsible shameful lies about Lim Guan Eng’s son. And don't forget too, our dear Oxford-graduate Khairy Jamaluddin had joined in with his pathetic tweet.

If we don't blame UMNO people, who then do we blame?

As for calling on Lim GE to report, who to report to, knowing full well that the police and Rais Yatim's department will act dunno too, though they were pretty f* fast in taking action against non-BN people like Prof Abdul Aziz Bari.

Such is sheer evidence of UMNO's insistent incessant incredulous attack on the DAP, reflected by Muhyiddin's shameful sickening statement, knowing that the police and media regulator will keep mum and take no action.

Mind you, a couple of Chinese bloggers also (independently) believe in the Muhyiddin Doctrine whenever DAP people, especially their principal target Lim Guan Eng, are involved.

Village memories (1)

2011-10-21T16:21:00.001+08:00

In my previous post 'How abolishment of PPSMI will affect you, by masterwordsmith', one Anon commented:

"... Those teachers who tried to explain their maths and Science lessons using English more often than not would find their rural students blinking away like stars. It is a case of 'chicken and duck talk'.”

Coincidentally, I have just Village memories (1) - ducks over at my other blog KTemoc Kongsamkok.

It’s all about 'chicken and duck talk' wakakaka.

Have a look as there'll be more birds than just chooks and ducks, yup, the species of birds that kaytee loves wakakaka.

How abolishment of PPSMI will affect you, by masterwordsmith

2011-10-21T10:13:00.004+08:00

From the blog of masterwordsmith.

********************************

Dear Students, Parents and Malaysians,

MALAYSIANS APPEAL TO THE GOVERNMENT FOR THE OPTION TO LEARN SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS IN ENGLISH (RETAIN PPSMI AS AN OPTION).

You would have heard by now that the teaching and learning of Science and Mathematics in English (better known as PPSMI) will be abolished in January 2012. The Parent Action Group for Education Malaysia (PAGE) has been in the forefront to champion the cause to maintain the policy for those who wish their children to learn these two (2) subjects in its lingua franca that is English.

Here is how the abolishment of this policy is going to affect you.

*******************************

For more of this important message ... read his post at masterwordsmith - unplugged.

UiTM going for Nobel Prize

2011-10-20T16:49:00.005+08:00

Yesterday I posted a depressing (for us Malaysians) Supremacists nowhere in top 400, where I lamented the most embarrassing fact that no Malaysian university had been ranked among the world’s top 400 universities, considering our UM was once one of the most lustrous pearls in Asian academic circle.

By contrast, that puny perspicacious pimple on China’s bottom, Hong Kong, has 2 among the Top 100 and a further 2 in the next 100 Best.

Hong Kong 4 – Malaysia 0.

Malu lah!

But wait wait – Oh Holy Kerbau, today I read the best news ever, c'est vraiment magnifique, ho liao loh, bloody bagus one, absolutely Boleh!

Bernama reports (and picked up by The Star) that:

Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) is aiming to produce the first Malay to win the Nobel Prize, through guidance and advice from renowned Pakistani scientist Prof Dr Atta-ur-Rahman.

Vice-chancellor Datuk Prof Dr Sahol Hamid Abu Bakar said with Dr Atta-ur-Rahman's expertise, the university would be able to achieve the target through scientific research and development.

Obviously it’s heartening news by Bernama, though I cannot help but wonder whether it has been prompted by my lamentations in yesterday’s post? Wakakaka.

But nonetheless, well aspired, Datuk Prof Dr Sahol Hamid Abu Bakar. Your vision certainly justifies your appointment as UiTM’s VC in 2010. Unlike your UM colleague, Prof Ghauth Jasmon who only aims to have UM within the top 100 universities in the world by 2015 and reaching the top 50 by the year 2020, you have boldly go where no Malaysian has gone before, by declaring a quark-ish quartile quantum leap into excellence and world fame for UiTM.

F* those university rankings. Now that’s real thinking out of the box. It’s worthy of Edward de Bono.

That’s the sort of Boleh attitude former PM Dr Mahathir spent billions and billions of ringgit on, as well as set up the Biro TataNegara (BTN), to nurture, nourish and (sometimes or most times) nurse his most favourite people into developing and possessing.

You would have undoubtedly made him proud today with your no-nonsense, no bloody f* around with mere sap sap suoi (trifling) bull like getting into the World’s Top 400 Ranked Universities, as your more conservative colleague at UM is doing – yea man, you sure go straight for the jugular of the ultimate excellence.

An analogy to your amazing aerodonetical aspiration for UiTM would be akin to abandoning the silly study of possible FTL (faster than light speed) technology and instead, jumping into (excuse the science fiction pun) the study of spacetime travel through Schwarzschild wormholes, yup man, to travel beyond ‘Known Space’, perhaps to the Andromeda Galaxy, a staggering 2.5 million light years away, but with worm-hole spacetime travelling technology, a mere teh-tarik (or roti canai) hyperspace jump away, as Malaysia's first cosmonaut would describe it.

But in the meantime, I wonder if we can persuade UiTM to do anything to help our brilliant FTL-thinking UMNO bloggers like papagomo and Dr Novandri Hasan Basri, the UMNO Gelugor Division Chief, who were caught in a collapsing Schwarzschild wormhole of their own making wakakaka.

Hmmm, I wonder which Malaysian university Dr Novandri Hasan Basri graduated from? UiTM?

Supremacists nowhere in top 400

2011-10-19T17:12:00.003+08:00

The Malaysian Insider - Falling UM standards sign of NEP failure, says Anwar.

Leaving Anwar Ibrahim aside wakakaka, personally I have nothing against educational affirmative actions for bumiputeras. In fact I support its true objectives and genuinely deserved recipients. But it should be affirmative actions that do not lower schools or universities’ standards.

Good affirmative actions should be, for example, providing to genuinely deserving recipients the best possible teachers/lecturers money can employ, extra tuition, top class facilities, perhaps longer terms in the students’ educational courses, good nutritional food, medical care, health support etc.

Instead, our Education authorities don’t believe in doing the hard yards, namely to raise bumiputera standards to world standards, but want results el pronto, even if the results won’t be substantive and only pseudo-achievements, basically handy ‘statistics’ to push around, like for example, University A has graduated 1,001 bumi medical doctors while University B has graduated 2,999 Malay PhDs ... but to what standards(?) and where any questioning of the program would be shouted at as anti-Malay!

How do they go about achieving such pseudo self-cheating results?

By lowering the standards, of course.

Meanwhile, over at the Centre for Policy Initiatives website, Pak Sako wrote about Freeing the Malays and Muslims from religious mind control, where he informed us that the current Malay-Muslim leaders sells the importance of racial and religious supremacy to the Malays-Muslims.

He explained: A set of underlying reasons drive these mentalities. Political motives aside, there is a historical fear of disenfranchisement; a concept of entitlement as an exclusive birthright; envy; low self-esteem; a craving for a source of self-pride; a fear of the new or alien; meekness; and narrow-mindedness.

And he mention the irony that: Supremacism is sold as the cure-all. But it only adds to the problem.

Indeed!

He then showed that far important issues like: Closing the gap with South Korea or Singapore at the top of quality-of-life indicators such as the UN Human Development Index is a minor national concern.

And sarcastically mentioned that those Malay-Muslim leaders leaders (presumably from UMNO): … are prouder to have been ranked by the Pew Forum’s Government Restriction Index alongside Saudi Arabia and Iran as world champions in constricting religious freedoms and other civil rights.

Thus, has it been any wonder that with such self-cheating, no Malaysian university was placed among the top 400 universities listed by The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2011 -2012?

Alas, according to above TMI article, Higher Education Ministry deputy secretary general Rohani Abdullah in response to the dismal rankings of our tertiary institutions said the things I don’t want to hear, that today Malaysia’s universities are not as highly ranked as other countries as the nation’s priorities do not match that of ranking agencies. She said that Malaysia was still struggling with providing access to higher education which made it a higher priority.

Pathetic excuse!

In fact Pak Sako stated: There is no commensurate effort to unleash the Malay mind and encourage the Malay person to seize the day, excel, question, take charge, propose or dissent. Political leaders and the religious bureaucracy do not favour this; an empowered people puts at stake their political influence and economic privilege.

The outcome is a large class of Malays that is averse to thinking, recoils from taking responsibility and content with following instructions. Ennui, the deep weariness and dissatisfaction stemming from mindless satiety and boredom, is a common affliction.

It is to this oppressive vacuity that the non-Malays are portrayed as ‘threats’.

Now, let’s leave aside universities of mighty Japan, emerging giant China, and technologically advanced South Korea, and look at the small red dot south of us otherwise known as Singapore (population 5 million?) and that pimple on China’s bottom, Hong Kong, yes, an island we used to look down upon (population 7 million, where 0.3 of which are Filipino maids wakakaka).

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2011 -2012 indicates that among the top 100 in the World:

• No 34 is University of Hong Kong
• No 40 is Singapore National University
• No 62 is Hong Kong University of Science & Technology

while at its next 100 top universities (ranking No 101 to 200):

• No 151 is Chinese University of Hong Kong
• No 169 is Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University
• No 193 is City University of Hong Kong

Oh boy, that Chinese ‘pimple’ has 4 universities in the top 200, 2 among the top 100 and another 2 in the next 100, while Singapore has 2, one in each succeeding 100 best. Mana universiti-universiti Malaysia?

Next, there is the QS World University Rankings 2011/2012.

QS had previously published the rankings together with The Times as a joint effort from 2004 to 2009, before they ended their collaboration in 2010. QS retained the original ranking methodology while The Times went on to develop a new one.

The following is the QS ranking for 2011/2012:

• No 22 is the University of Hong Kong
• No 28 is University of Singapore
• No 37 is Chinese University of Hong Kong
• No 40 is Hong Kong University of Science & Technology
• No 58 is Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University
• No 110 is City University of Hong Kong
• No 177 is Hong Hong’s Polytechnic University

This time Hong Kong has 5 among the top 200, with 3 among the 100 Best, while that red dot has 2 in the top 100. Mana universiti-universiti Malaysia?

Food for thought – now, who’s supreme?

In the end, Pak Sako proposed a blueprint to: motivate the Malays to take control of the wheels of their destiny. The immediate implications are for the Malays to free themselves from religious programming and assert their authority from the grassroots upward.

The prospect may be scary. But the old way of being led by the nose is destructive. The Malays should no longer remain as feudalistic subjects of the political and religious elite. The elite owe the Malays that dignity.

Severe Sever the ethnic & religion umbilical cords

2011-10-12T05:39:00.006+08:00

Mariam Mohktar wrote a piece in Malaysiakini titled Hindraf-Pakatan marriage of convenience? where she asked:

Should we wait another 54 years before we are given another golden opportunity to show unity and vote for change?

As we approach the final lap in the race towards Putrajaya, Pakatan Rakyat and Hindraf are having a lover’s tiff. Hindraf appears to be doing all the wooing whilst Pakatan is playing hard to get.

Mariam seems to have forgotten that Hindraf in the person of the Great Uthayakumar went around badmouthing and threatening Pakatan, demanding 15 federal seats and a larger batch of State seats from the coalition.

Mariam seems to have forgotten that Hindraf demanded these seats from Pakatan instead of BN, telling us Hindraf has been anti Pakatan rather than anti BN.

So, it’s nonsense to say Hindraf has been doing all the wooing, though it’s correct to say that Pakatan has had enough of the Hindraf threats to now justifiably ignore the Great Uthayakumar.

I don’t support political parties based on ethnicity or religion (sorry PAS), because such organizations marginalize (deliberately or unwittingly) the ‘nons’, whether the ‘nons’ are Malays, Chinese, Indians, etc or religion-wise, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus etc.

A recent classic example has been seen in PAS non-Muslim supporters now threatening to leave PAS because of Pak Haji Nik Aziz's arrogant intention to implement hudud in Kelantan regardless of the consequences to the adhesiveness of Pakatan.

Quite frankly, the worst in this regard have been PAS and UMNO, both of which, whenever the situations suit their political interests, would swing from being religious parties to being ethnic nationalists. The former couldn't make up its mind, allowing their true colours to emerge from time to time, while the latter has unscrupulously exploited the theme of the day.

Once upon a time, during the struggle for independence from colonial Britain, perhaps such ethnic-based organizations had their roles in bringing various ethnic groups together for a common cause, and subsequently to fuse their followers into a Malayan society. But their use-by dates are definitely over.

There shouldn’t be any more Hindraf, MIC, MCA, UMNO, PAS anymore. Much as I have been disappointed with Gerakan at least it has the option of being the multi-ethnic organization it used to be. Likewise with PKR, DAP, PPP, PSM, PRM and wakakaka PCM.

To ABU or not to ABU?

2011-10-09T12:30:00.002+08:00

There have been lots of promotion on the political mantra ABU (Anyone But UMNO). I believe this is dangerous not only for proper democratic process (thinking) but also limiting our carefully considered choices of good parliamentary candidates.

Just don't f* expect me to act like mindless Myrmidons!

Okay, there’s no denying UMNO is generally detested as an organization for its overtly racist propaganda, polemics and policies and its sheer sleazy sickening levels of corruption. But that does not mean everyone in UMNO is to be detested, like, for example, Ku Li.

In the next Selangor State Election, if I am a voter in the Gombak Setia constituency, I will in fact be thinking twice, nay, more times than just that, before I would even consider voting for Dr Hasan Mohamed Ali, the pro PAS-UMNO unity bloke who has, for non Muslims, a very intrusive islamic-inclined intent. Likewise with those PAS-PKR pollies obsessed with shafting hudud down our secular throats.

It doesn’t mean I will go ABH (Anyone But Hasan) but certainly I'd be regarding him as last on my list of preferred candidates. I’ll be looking very carefully and with great interests at the credentials of his opponents.

What about Mansur Othman then, the PKR bloke who is Deputy Chief Minister I of Penang, and who shamefully played on Malay fears (just like UMNO) by urging the state Malays to vote for PKR to ensure they have a significant representative voice in the Penang government …

… and in that process, declared very directly and effectively that PKR is a Malay party (not unlike its UMNO daddy), and thus not the multi-ethnic organization it claims to be, just in the same way as reformasi (political reforms) has never been its true ideology …

… and shame on those mute PKR non-Malay pollies like Tian Chua, Eli Wong & Sivarasa Rasiah, and their non-Malay PKR supporters for acting dunno about such a publicly voiced radical (nay, diametrically opposite) PKR policy. What's then the difference between them and those MCA/Gerakan/MIC sycophants like Liow ('my beloved PM') Tiong LIE, Koh TK and those must-I-come gang?

However, I’m prepared, just this once, to give the benefit of the doubt to Mansur, that he was pathetically posturing politically to pre-empt DAP’s spread into the heartland, but let me say, he was cutting it too f* thinly for our patience and acceptance.

But Dr Hasan Mohamed Ali? No way Jose, unless UMNO’s candidate is the absolute pits, more unacceptable that Hasan is.

So, f* ABU because in some cases, the BAU (stench) in Pakatan may be far too much to bear (to ABU), unless Pakatan takes precautions to UBA-h candidates like Hasan Ali and a few others.

I presume we have minds of our own, don't we? I certainly hope so.

Not a shadow of the shadow cabinet

2011-10-05T18:45:00.003+08:00

A year ago, on 04 Oct 2010, I posted Shadow Cabinet where I wrote:

Pakatan Rakyat presents itself to the Malaysian voters as the alternative government in waiting, yet it has been decidedly evasive about its alternative leadership in government, namely the shadow cabinet, giving mealy-mouthed excuses why it hasn’t ... or more correctly, won’t, can't, dare not!

The real answer why it hasn’t done so is the coalition fears the component parties won’t be able to agree to a distribution of ministerial portfolios.

My question to them is, if you can’t now, how would you be able to when you win the next general election?

And if you fear an inability to negotiate and compromise, then aren’t you just delaying the inevitable, the disintegration of the coalition on its very moment of victory?

… which could bring about what I dread and posted in Sex and a potential future for Malaysia.

I continued in that (last year’s) post:

Shouldn’t it be far safer to sort this unavoidable issue NOW rather than delay its inevitability? Quite frankly, I don’t consider you fit to take over the business of the government of the day if you cannot even resolve this power sharing now!

Then today RPK posted The point we are making where he also lamented on the missing Pakatan shadow cabinet.

Coincidentally, today as well, my matey Dean Johns, articulate columnist at Malaysiakini, explains why he has steadfastly hammered UMNO-BN regularly but not Pakatan, but grudgingly admits there’s one point about PR that has bemused him. He wrote:

But as I've written in my admittedly rare columns criticising Pakatan Rakyat, the fact that it still refuses, or at least fails to specify a shadow cabinet or concrete set of policies, leaves us lamentably short of reliable insight into both its intentions and its ability to achieve them.

In its continuing and obdurate refusal to establish a shadow cabinet, kaytee believes that PR is behaving like the proverbial ostrich, burying its head in the sand to pretend there is no obvious void in their credentials to take over Putrajaya.

But then, with PAS suddenly going feral in abandoning its so-called ‘welfare state’ policy and reverting to its previous desire to establish an Islamic State, a volte-face in fact catalyzed by Anwar Ibrahim’s support for PAS' proposal to implement hudud in Kelantan.

Anwar was of course worried he might not be PM in a PR victory because of a new and growing synergy between PAS and DAP which renders him and PKR more and more irrelevant, thus I believe he dropped the bombshell to deliberately split PAS and DAP, a schism he believes will restore his bridging role between the other two component parties and hopefully his primus inter pares status in PR.

Thus I wonder, in the midst of such coalition turbulence, just how PR would ever see the formation of such a shadow cabinet, let alone assume rule in Putrajaya.

Sex and a potential future for Malaysia

2011-10-04T18:15:00.007+08:00

Picture this scenario:

Assume the total Malaysian parliamentary seats remain at 222.

BN wins 100 seats in the election while PR reels in a majority of 122.

BN seats comprise UMNO’s 66 (including those in Sabah), MIC’s 1, PBB’s 25 and PBS’ 8.

PR seats comprise PAS’ 45, DAP’s 45 (including those in Sarawak and Sabah) and PKR’s 32 wakakaka.

PR forms the government.

Immediately PAS demands that Malaysia implements hudud fully.

DAP baulks, with Karpal saying “Over my dead body”.

PKR prevaricates as its 32 plus PAS’ 45 only amount to 77, well short of the majority of 113 (including an extra for the speaker). Someone tears his hair in frustration at the deadlock when all he wanted is to become PM with all the powers and trappings.

Why did I say 'PKR’s 32 seats' when there should be some of its non-Muslim MPs objecting to hudud, just like the DAP members? Hey man, this is a no-brainer as a mere 10 days ago I posted Anwar's Myrmidons mute and meekly spineless? wakakaka.

Anyway, do you think it’s possible that “Muslim Unity” (sincere or otherwise) will then prevail, with UMNO’s 66, PAS 45 and PKR’s 32 combining up to give the new coalition called the Malaysian Muslim Merger (MMM) a total of 143 and consequently, majority rule?

The Mullahs take over, with the concept of people’s representatives giving way to Allah’s representatives. The Council of Clerics abolishes western-style democracy as un-Islamic and against Malay culture and traditions.

Those nons in PKR immediately undertake circumcisions to further enhance their (already ball-less) reduced weight.

Anwar cries as he realizes again that there's many a slip 'twixt cup and lip in his wish to be PM when he is made Ambassador to Turkey and sent into de facto (wakakaka) exile, while Najib is made Ambassador to France but without diplomatic immunity, where the law there is waiting for him.

The DAP becomes a banned organization under the new theocratic state and its members are sent to work camps in Sarawak and Sabah.

RPK’s assurance that we can always vote out PAS if it implements hudud was met by thousands of whispered squeeky-voiced (ball-less) “I told you so!".

But where's the 'sex' promised in the post's title?

There's none but then, how else could I have attracted your attention! wakakaka.