This was what malaysiakini reported the police claiming of the Pantai Batu Buruk shooting incident in Kuala Terengganu.
FRU officer Azmi Hussein was set upon by a group of 20 men near the Permai Inn car park in the vicinity of the ceramah.
After being pushed to the ground and attacked by the crowd, Azmi drew his weapon and fired his weapon defend himself, following which the crowd dispersed and allowing the FRU personnel to escape.
As a result of that, however, two men from the group were hurt - one in his shoulder and another in his neck. They are currently undergoing treatment at the Kuala Terengganu Hospital.
According to Ayub, four police personnel were also injured after being attacked by the crowd.
Meanwhile PKR’s vice-youth chief Fariz Musa accused the police of violence. He even suggested that the police action were directed by certain leaders in UMNO Terengganu.
malaysiakini reported him saying: “Instead, chaos will occur every time the police intervenes, proving that it is the police who commit acts of provocation in order to sully the image of (PKR) and other opposition parties.”
Opposition Grand Olde Man Lim KS rubbed it in, stating: "The [budget] feel good factor was crashed within 24 hours by the police who shot live bullets at a crowd assembled for a ceramah given by (election watchdog) Bersih."
But BN MPs condemned Lim for defending the wrongdoers when the riot (was there one?) would not have happened if the organisers had followed the rules set by the authorities.
Was Lim exploiting the issue? Were the BN MPs in blind defensive mode?
Who attacked or defended blindly, along ideological lines?
I thus turned to Elizabeth Wong’s posting for more clues. Elizabeth commented on the Bernama report that: “At about 11.45pm last night, the officer Azmi Hussein, 29, was doing his duty near the Permai Inn car park when he was surrounded by 20 men who proceeded to threaten and assault him” by saying:
“Er. He’s FRU. But he was in plain clothes trying to infiltrate into the crowd. So he got found out. Whipped out his pistol.”
Now, you know kaytee – many times much to my buddies’ annoyance, I am always going off in a different direction to them ;-) so I want to analyze a bit more on Elizabeth’s comment on “… So he was found out. Whipped out his pistol.”
What happened when he was ‘found out’?
What made him ‘whipped out his pistol’?
Mind you, I am not condoning a police officer shooting at members of the public ..... unless of course he was forced to defend himself.
Was forced to defend himself?
Was he over reacting to some verbal abuses by some members of the crowd?
Elizabeth also commented on some video footages taken at the scene ‘evaporating’ mysteriously, stating:
“Where’s the footage, guys?”
“Police confiscated the tapes… but we collected some amateur videos from bystanders.”
Police scared like shit lar, otherwise why would they grab film footage?
On those limited information, I would conclude that yes, there was a crowd surrounding and menacing the police officer, but he had overreacted or was too trigger happy.
My reasoning is that if he was then in immediate danger, the tapes would have been made available. However, that is not to say he wasn’t in (eventual) danger – I know something about kampongs mob mentality, especially more so under a politically antagonistic situation.
But a police officer is trained to make that sort of judgment, as to whether he was in imminent danger or he could still manage that, by say, firing a warning shot harmlessly in the air.
Obviously this bloke was too gungho, too trigger-happy or too under-trained, too scared or too everything stated.
Or, maybe he did fire a warning shot in the air, or atempted to do so, but was such a lousy shot - not surprising when the professional competence of the police nowadays is considered dodgy.
But on the other hand, should we defend such mob mentality, where a police officer in mufti was threatened?
Just as I don't condone police officer shooting away as if they were terrified GIs in downtown Baghdad, I equally don't condone any members of the public threatening a police officer, regardless whether he was in plainclothes or uniform.
Monday, September 10, 2007
Sunday, September 09, 2007
30 days
30 days has since gone by, sometime ago
Millions of new lives have since joined us
While millions more have perished too
30 days of cold, silent, lonely emptiness
30 days a moon would circle Earth once
Many a tide rises and ebbs, many a shore
Sees billion grains of golden sand shifted
30 days of pounding, roaring, nothingness
30 days are what a woman needs to renew
A cycle as mysterious as time, which Eve
First knew of God’s harsh reproof, akin to
30 days of living in one's own purgatory
30 days give a long time in hell to reflect
On what might have been if mere words
Could be edited prior to angry outpouring
30 days to wonder why it could not be so
30 days of painful withdrawal symptoms
That hurt so badly in more than 30 ways
Missing someone special, giving one only
30 days of escalating excruciating agony
30 days make 1 month of an annual dozen
Soon it will be 300, 3000 days before long
No, time doesn't care it was only yesterday
30 days sweet love existed in each month
Millions of new lives have since joined us
While millions more have perished too
30 days of cold, silent, lonely emptiness
30 days a moon would circle Earth once
Many a tide rises and ebbs, many a shore
Sees billion grains of golden sand shifted
30 days of pounding, roaring, nothingness
30 days are what a woman needs to renew
A cycle as mysterious as time, which Eve
First knew of God’s harsh reproof, akin to
30 days of living in one's own purgatory
30 days give a long time in hell to reflect
On what might have been if mere words
Could be edited prior to angry outpouring
30 days to wonder why it could not be so
30 days of painful withdrawal symptoms
That hurt so badly in more than 30 ways
Missing someone special, giving one only
30 days of escalating excruciating agony
30 days make 1 month of an annual dozen
Soon it will be 300, 3000 days before long
No, time doesn't care it was only yesterday
30 days sweet love existed in each month
General election very soon
DAP secretary general Lim Guan Eng commented that the 2008 Budget points to elections.
Yawnnn ...
Mr Lim, please read my postings for 26 July, KTemoc predicts November General Election, and 01 August, November General Elections - More Indications.
I had also posted a letter to malaysiakini which was published as September orgy of celebrations, polls in November, on 31 July – the letter was basically a brief (and more couth) version of my 26 July posting.
Additionally, I disputed Star’s Wong Chun Wai’s argument against the likelihood of an election in November. He wrote that PM “Abdullah has two important dates on his diary. First is the Asean Summit in Singapore, where his presence is regarded as crucial, as the Asean leaders deliberate over adopting the Asean Charter."
"Equally important for Pak Lah is the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Uganda, to be held around the same time as Malaysia lobbies for the election of Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim to be the secretary-general, which would make him the first Malaysian to hold the post."
In my 26 July posting, I riposted that:
"As the Asean Summit, there has been precedence when Thai PM Thaksin didn’t attend one in 2005. If the Summit is at the end of November, then it’s gnam gnam (fitting nicely), with the leaders offering their congratulations to our PM. If at beginning of month, mou man tai (no problem)."
"The Commonwealth Head of States meeting is not important enough and AAB or even Najib could send a representative. In years, the Commonwealth has been losing its status in the eyes of some Asian-African nations. So I don’t see that as a hindrance for a November general election."
Then I revealed in the midst of that posting as a kaytee’s BREAKING NEWS that blogger The Malaysian posted Rais Yatim Withdraws From Commonwealth Sec-Gen Race. I Wonder Why. Indeed, many other bloggers asked why - well, it’s obvious, given the context of events and predictions.
To lend further credibility to kaytee’s prediction of a November general election, BN secretary general Mohd Radzi Sheikh Ahmad sent a letter, directing BN elected representatives and senators to update their bio-data with the coalition headquarters by June 21.
According to BN sources, an updated bio-data of candidates (and potential candidates) would be usually required at least three months prior to a general election. This would allow AAB, the BN chairperson, and the police to scrutinize the background of candidates, in particular those who have generated controversy.
The budget, as I a layperson see it, is a mix of incentives to boost the economy and to ameliorate the financial burden of the less well-to-do. It details a reduction in corporate tax, a home-financing scheme to ease the burden of home ownership through monthly deductions through the EPF, reduction in stamp duties, removing school fees, reduced costs for textbooks and school uniforms, etc.
It also provides RM6 billion to fight crime and increase which is principally a PR allocation to mitigate public anger at the government's mishandling of public safety and poor governance.
Then it avoids taxing more on alcohol and tobacco, and also avoids introducing the GST (which will affect mainly the poor).
I welcome the budget though I would like to argue against two:
(1) While popular with smokers, in the longer run, not taxing tobacco should impose heavily on our health system – in many ways, cigarettes are a greater danger than heroin or other drugs, because it kills not only smokers but innocent passive smokers (children) gradually and in a terrible way.
Thanks to the well-funded propaganda of the mainly western tobacco companies (those merchants of death) and the greed of local politicians, cigarettes have escaped being labelled as a dangerous drug, an insidious dadah (prohibited addictive drugs).
(2) The RM6 billion for the police force would come to nought if the IGP and many senior useless police officers aren’t made to leave, to allow a fresh corps of younger officers (preferably under the scrutiny of the now-unlikely IPCMC) to cleanse the rot within the RMP.
Anyway, expect a general election in November. I posted on 26 July that I reckoned “the general election will be in mid or late November when the schools close on 16 November. Maybe the election will be held on 18th or 25th November, both being Sundays where empty schools may serve as polling stations and teachers as extra recruited EC staff for the election.”
Yawnnn ...
Mr Lim, please read my postings for 26 July, KTemoc predicts November General Election, and 01 August, November General Elections - More Indications.
I had also posted a letter to malaysiakini which was published as September orgy of celebrations, polls in November, on 31 July – the letter was basically a brief (and more couth) version of my 26 July posting.
Additionally, I disputed Star’s Wong Chun Wai’s argument against the likelihood of an election in November. He wrote that PM “Abdullah has two important dates on his diary. First is the Asean Summit in Singapore, where his presence is regarded as crucial, as the Asean leaders deliberate over adopting the Asean Charter."
"Equally important for Pak Lah is the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Uganda, to be held around the same time as Malaysia lobbies for the election of Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim to be the secretary-general, which would make him the first Malaysian to hold the post."
In my 26 July posting, I riposted that:
"As the Asean Summit, there has been precedence when Thai PM Thaksin didn’t attend one in 2005. If the Summit is at the end of November, then it’s gnam gnam (fitting nicely), with the leaders offering their congratulations to our PM. If at beginning of month, mou man tai (no problem)."
"The Commonwealth Head of States meeting is not important enough and AAB or even Najib could send a representative. In years, the Commonwealth has been losing its status in the eyes of some Asian-African nations. So I don’t see that as a hindrance for a November general election."
Then I revealed in the midst of that posting as a kaytee’s BREAKING NEWS that blogger The Malaysian posted Rais Yatim Withdraws From Commonwealth Sec-Gen Race. I Wonder Why. Indeed, many other bloggers asked why - well, it’s obvious, given the context of events and predictions.
To lend further credibility to kaytee’s prediction of a November general election, BN secretary general Mohd Radzi Sheikh Ahmad sent a letter, directing BN elected representatives and senators to update their bio-data with the coalition headquarters by June 21.
According to BN sources, an updated bio-data of candidates (and potential candidates) would be usually required at least three months prior to a general election. This would allow AAB, the BN chairperson, and the police to scrutinize the background of candidates, in particular those who have generated controversy.
The budget, as I a layperson see it, is a mix of incentives to boost the economy and to ameliorate the financial burden of the less well-to-do. It details a reduction in corporate tax, a home-financing scheme to ease the burden of home ownership through monthly deductions through the EPF, reduction in stamp duties, removing school fees, reduced costs for textbooks and school uniforms, etc.
It also provides RM6 billion to fight crime and increase which is principally a PR allocation to mitigate public anger at the government's mishandling of public safety and poor governance.
Then it avoids taxing more on alcohol and tobacco, and also avoids introducing the GST (which will affect mainly the poor).
I welcome the budget though I would like to argue against two:
(1) While popular with smokers, in the longer run, not taxing tobacco should impose heavily on our health system – in many ways, cigarettes are a greater danger than heroin or other drugs, because it kills not only smokers but innocent passive smokers (children) gradually and in a terrible way.
Thanks to the well-funded propaganda of the mainly western tobacco companies (those merchants of death) and the greed of local politicians, cigarettes have escaped being labelled as a dangerous drug, an insidious dadah (prohibited addictive drugs).
(2) The RM6 billion for the police force would come to nought if the IGP and many senior useless police officers aren’t made to leave, to allow a fresh corps of younger officers (preferably under the scrutiny of the now-unlikely IPCMC) to cleanse the rot within the RMP.
Anyway, expect a general election in November. I posted on 26 July that I reckoned “the general election will be in mid or late November when the schools close on 16 November. Maybe the election will be held on 18th or 25th November, both being Sundays where empty schools may serve as polling stations and teachers as extra recruited EC staff for the election.”
Saturday, September 08, 2007
Pigs, politics, polemics, pollution, propaganda, profits
Friends who were initially delighted to read my Piggy politics and even A pig of a problem became less ecstatic with my A pig of a problem (2) with them expressing to me in private their great disappointment in A pig of a problem (3).
Oh kaytee, why aren't you supporting the pig farmers?
Well, kaytee did and still does - I support Malaysians including pig farmers and those residents who have to live next to pig farms. I won’t go at great length again into my thoughts as to solving the situation, except to summarise them as
(1) It’s easier to move the farms than housing estates - believe me, they can't co-exist side by side.
(2) The Malacca State government must provide compensation and a reasonable time for the pig farmers to move – and kaytee hopes ’completely’ out of Malacca – I believe Johore and Perak have better prospects for the farmers. Set them up in a zone that places a physical restriction to residential housing development so that such problems do not re-emerge in the future.
(3) I see the move as a case of ‘half glass full’ rather than a ‘half glass empty’ for the farmers who, hopefully with compensation (including some grants from government if the MCA can wing this) and investments from the private sector (if from Singapore, so what), will develop modern animal husbandry to avoid the old problems of intrusive stench and pollution of waterways.
In a malaysiakini report, DPM Najib urges peaceful solution to pig row. That's good but then what he said next wasn't quite spot on.
He averred the furore was not a racial issue, and that authorities in Malacca which ordered the mass slaughter were merely trying to curb environmental pollution.
Well, DPM, that would have been true in a more perfect world. You failed to fill in the missing pieces.
The fact has been a failed case of, to borrow a title off my blogging mate Darren Hsu’s last posting, A stitch in time saves nine.
Though Darren was discussing a separate matter, his idiom can apply equally to the saga of piggeries in Malacca.
If indeed the authorised max population of pigs were supposed to be 48,000 as the State authority claimed, why has the farming situation been allowed to run rampant unto 140,000 pigs?
Were the authorities totally incompetent, sleeping or had ‘closed one eye’?
'Close one eye'! - where after all one Malacca monkey had openly and defiantly claimed ownership to such an ideology!
Yes, bisa* diatur and semua beres pak has become bisa* odour and un-beres-ing pig!
* 1st bisa is in Indonesian language while 2nd is in Malaysian
Hardly surprising that when the ‘real people’ out there in the residential housing estates with ‘open eyes’ and alas for them, ‘open noses’, were moaning, nay, screaming blue murder about the awful stench (and mate, whether you’re Chinese or Muslims, the stench is non discriminatory and non racist, it’s terrible and it screws everyone up), the UMNO-led Malacca government panicked, especially with an election just around the corner.
So it did its Pontius Pilate act, and badmouthed the farmers as atrocious, avaricious, illegal and (of course for its UMNO constituency) the unstated but painfully obvious factor of a different ethnic group dabbling with al ‘haram’.
So, from there, unfortunate but predictable, the affair assumes a racial hue, euphemised as a pollution issue - both true but not, as the DPM had judiciously omitted, placed within the context of an incompetent, negligent and who-knows-what-else type of State government.
So what's new! Hey, there's always something new - yesterday there were accusations against tv3 for allegedly airing smelly stuff, that the pig farmers were throwing Molotov cocktails (petrol bombs) at enforcement officers.
The farmers were utterly stunned and outraged by the unfounded allegations. It stinks and it's not pig's waste.
They accused tv3 for alleged ‘misreporting and airing one-sided reports.’ There's no hiding their disgust and anger at tv3.
One farmer, Lim Oh Pah, said other television stations such as ntv7, 8tv and Bernama TV had allowed pig farmers to air their views but not tv3.
He demanded to know: “They (tv3) reported that the villagers used petrol bombs (during the standoff). I want to ask (tv3), where is the petrol bomb? Why wasn’t the footage shown?”
Cannot tell you - OSA mah!
Indeed, if any farmer had been stupid enough to recklessly chuck a Molotov cocktail at the enforcement troops, they would have been all bundled off to Tiong San by now, if not placed in Kem Kamunting!
Lim also showed examples of other tv3 reports which allegedly cherry picked on scenes to blacken the piggeries’ pollution record but without showing that numerous pig farms have upgraded their water filtration systems in accordance with government requirements.
OK, let's leave the poo flinging. The stench is just getting worse.
Being Malaysian is about learning how to cope with our multi-cultural, multi-religious, multi-ethnic society, a complex rojak which can be made to taste yummy if the correct ingredients are carefull added and mixed.
There has to be some ‘give and take’. No, don’t tell me that the UMNO people* has been ‘taking’ all the while, so why the hell should the ‘nons’ continue to give.
* to be fair to some UMNO members such as JB MP, Shahrir Samad, or KB's Zaid Ibrahim and a few others, they are OK sort of people, dragged along by the insatiable beast they are members of but have limited voice in
For a start, UMNO is UMNO, and as Abraham Lincoln said, “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.”
Let them be as they will eventually run out of credibility, and let’s deal with the real Malay-Chinese-Indian relationship, not one manipulated by UMNO.
We need to foster and nurture and protect our good relationship which has been soured by incidents such as the pig farms of Malacca. The pig farm is only one of such incidents.
Once the polemics of ‘not giving in even one millimetre of way’ set in, habis lah (it’s finished, kaput) the prospects of reasoning or even talking, which is essential for mutually beneficial negotiations and hopefully amicable settlement. Once aggravation takes root, all those negotiations and talking would automatically be thrown out of the window.
Let’s break out of that debilitating cancerous box of racist politics! Let us, as one sweetie said on Australian SBS TV (words to the effect), not allow politicians to keep us divided for their (those politicians’) own interests.
Compromise!
Compromise also requires that everyone allows the farmers time to gather their stocks and effects and migrate to a new piggery zone set in another State which can accommodate them without the threat of future residential developments encroaching once again upon their farming.
An impossible deadline like 21 September is unreasonable, intimidating and oppressive, and symptomatic of a panicking, unaccountable, arrogant and biased administration, one which has been demonstrating aspects of warlord-ism rather than democratic due process.
On the other side, the farmers should take a potential multi-billion dollar industry to another State and develop it with modern technology and the latest agricultural know-how to be the great national earner it can be. Government grants and investments (even from Singapore) should be solicited, promoted and wisely managed.
Let the other States and the Federal government reap their taxes on the potential multi-billion (and hopefully, ultra modern) industry.
Let Malacca be the State with no pig farm but which continues to generate the most number of Datukship’s, the latest of which was of Boleh-Bodek-ish proportion.
Oh kaytee, why aren't you supporting the pig farmers?
Well, kaytee did and still does - I support Malaysians including pig farmers and those residents who have to live next to pig farms. I won’t go at great length again into my thoughts as to solving the situation, except to summarise them as
(1) It’s easier to move the farms than housing estates - believe me, they can't co-exist side by side.
(2) The Malacca State government must provide compensation and a reasonable time for the pig farmers to move – and kaytee hopes ’completely’ out of Malacca – I believe Johore and Perak have better prospects for the farmers. Set them up in a zone that places a physical restriction to residential housing development so that such problems do not re-emerge in the future.
(3) I see the move as a case of ‘half glass full’ rather than a ‘half glass empty’ for the farmers who, hopefully with compensation (including some grants from government if the MCA can wing this) and investments from the private sector (if from Singapore, so what), will develop modern animal husbandry to avoid the old problems of intrusive stench and pollution of waterways.
In a malaysiakini report, DPM Najib urges peaceful solution to pig row. That's good but then what he said next wasn't quite spot on.
He averred the furore was not a racial issue, and that authorities in Malacca which ordered the mass slaughter were merely trying to curb environmental pollution.
Well, DPM, that would have been true in a more perfect world. You failed to fill in the missing pieces.
The fact has been a failed case of, to borrow a title off my blogging mate Darren Hsu’s last posting, A stitch in time saves nine.
Though Darren was discussing a separate matter, his idiom can apply equally to the saga of piggeries in Malacca.
If indeed the authorised max population of pigs were supposed to be 48,000 as the State authority claimed, why has the farming situation been allowed to run rampant unto 140,000 pigs?
Were the authorities totally incompetent, sleeping or had ‘closed one eye’?
'Close one eye'! - where after all one Malacca monkey had openly and defiantly claimed ownership to such an ideology!
Yes, bisa* diatur and semua beres pak has become bisa* odour and un-beres-ing pig!
* 1st bisa is in Indonesian language while 2nd is in Malaysian
Hardly surprising that when the ‘real people’ out there in the residential housing estates with ‘open eyes’ and alas for them, ‘open noses’, were moaning, nay, screaming blue murder about the awful stench (and mate, whether you’re Chinese or Muslims, the stench is non discriminatory and non racist, it’s terrible and it screws everyone up), the UMNO-led Malacca government panicked, especially with an election just around the corner.
So it did its Pontius Pilate act, and badmouthed the farmers as atrocious, avaricious, illegal and (of course for its UMNO constituency) the unstated but painfully obvious factor of a different ethnic group dabbling with al ‘haram’.
So, from there, unfortunate but predictable, the affair assumes a racial hue, euphemised as a pollution issue - both true but not, as the DPM had judiciously omitted, placed within the context of an incompetent, negligent and who-knows-what-else type of State government.
So what's new! Hey, there's always something new - yesterday there were accusations against tv3 for allegedly airing smelly stuff, that the pig farmers were throwing Molotov cocktails (petrol bombs) at enforcement officers.
The farmers were utterly stunned and outraged by the unfounded allegations. It stinks and it's not pig's waste.
They accused tv3 for alleged ‘misreporting and airing one-sided reports.’ There's no hiding their disgust and anger at tv3.
One farmer, Lim Oh Pah, said other television stations such as ntv7, 8tv and Bernama TV had allowed pig farmers to air their views but not tv3.
He demanded to know: “They (tv3) reported that the villagers used petrol bombs (during the standoff). I want to ask (tv3), where is the petrol bomb? Why wasn’t the footage shown?”
Cannot tell you - OSA mah!
Indeed, if any farmer had been stupid enough to recklessly chuck a Molotov cocktail at the enforcement troops, they would have been all bundled off to Tiong San by now, if not placed in Kem Kamunting!
Lim also showed examples of other tv3 reports which allegedly cherry picked on scenes to blacken the piggeries’ pollution record but without showing that numerous pig farms have upgraded their water filtration systems in accordance with government requirements.
OK, let's leave the poo flinging. The stench is just getting worse.
Being Malaysian is about learning how to cope with our multi-cultural, multi-religious, multi-ethnic society, a complex rojak which can be made to taste yummy if the correct ingredients are carefull added and mixed.
There has to be some ‘give and take’. No, don’t tell me that the UMNO people* has been ‘taking’ all the while, so why the hell should the ‘nons’ continue to give.
* to be fair to some UMNO members such as JB MP, Shahrir Samad, or KB's Zaid Ibrahim and a few others, they are OK sort of people, dragged along by the insatiable beast they are members of but have limited voice in
For a start, UMNO is UMNO, and as Abraham Lincoln said, “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.”
Let them be as they will eventually run out of credibility, and let’s deal with the real Malay-Chinese-Indian relationship, not one manipulated by UMNO.
We need to foster and nurture and protect our good relationship which has been soured by incidents such as the pig farms of Malacca. The pig farm is only one of such incidents.
Once the polemics of ‘not giving in even one millimetre of way’ set in, habis lah (it’s finished, kaput) the prospects of reasoning or even talking, which is essential for mutually beneficial negotiations and hopefully amicable settlement. Once aggravation takes root, all those negotiations and talking would automatically be thrown out of the window.
Let’s break out of that debilitating cancerous box of racist politics! Let us, as one sweetie said on Australian SBS TV (words to the effect), not allow politicians to keep us divided for their (those politicians’) own interests.
Compromise!
Compromise also requires that everyone allows the farmers time to gather their stocks and effects and migrate to a new piggery zone set in another State which can accommodate them without the threat of future residential developments encroaching once again upon their farming.
An impossible deadline like 21 September is unreasonable, intimidating and oppressive, and symptomatic of a panicking, unaccountable, arrogant and biased administration, one which has been demonstrating aspects of warlord-ism rather than democratic due process.
On the other side, the farmers should take a potential multi-billion dollar industry to another State and develop it with modern technology and the latest agricultural know-how to be the great national earner it can be. Government grants and investments (even from Singapore) should be solicited, promoted and wisely managed.
Let the other States and the Federal government reap their taxes on the potential multi-billion (and hopefully, ultra modern) industry.
Let Malacca be the State with no pig farm but which continues to generate the most number of Datukship’s, the latest of which was of Boleh-Bodek-ish proportion.
Friday, September 07, 2007
Ezam Mohd Noor's 'Gerak' renamed 'Gertak'?
Almost a month ago malaysiakini reported that Gerak will name 'corrupt' minister if PM fails to act.
Gerak is the ‘Democracy and Anti-Corruption Movement’, an anti-graft watchdog headed by Ezam Mohd Noor, once right hand man of Anwar Ibrahim.
He had threatened to name the cabinet minister whom he alleged has siphoned off RM30 million to clear his (the minister’s) personal debt.
I blogged on that in Gerak warns AAB - It'll name (alleged) corrupt senior cabinet minister.
I posted that Ezam threatened to make public those documents (made up of primary documents and not news paper cuttings) which would expose the corruption if PM AAB still won’t act after he (Ezam) sent a second memorandum. The second memorandum was supposed to be delivered to the PM a week after he (Ezam) had made that threat.
Well, as I said at the beginning, it’s almost a month now, so what has Ezam Mohd Noor has to say?
Diam saja (silence!)?
As one reader commented sarcastically and in fact rather correctly: “Just do it. Gertak* saje. As always.”
* make empty threats
Another reader, my Penang kinfolk, ali allah ditta, said in concert: “...but the problem here Ezam pun gertak saja...make noise & he shall be heard, EC is coming & he needs a seat (probably for UMNO). & remember the 4 kotak* he brags during the reformasi days..... gertak juga namanya bukan GERAK**.”
* box
** Looks like his organisation is Gertak (makes empty threats) rather than Gerak
Aiyoyo, Ezam Mohd Noor, benar kah … your ‘Democracy and Anti-Corruption Movement’ is now renamed Gertak?
Gerak is the ‘Democracy and Anti-Corruption Movement’, an anti-graft watchdog headed by Ezam Mohd Noor, once right hand man of Anwar Ibrahim.
He had threatened to name the cabinet minister whom he alleged has siphoned off RM30 million to clear his (the minister’s) personal debt.
I blogged on that in Gerak warns AAB - It'll name (alleged) corrupt senior cabinet minister.
I posted that Ezam threatened to make public those documents (made up of primary documents and not news paper cuttings) which would expose the corruption if PM AAB still won’t act after he (Ezam) sent a second memorandum. The second memorandum was supposed to be delivered to the PM a week after he (Ezam) had made that threat.
Well, as I said at the beginning, it’s almost a month now, so what has Ezam Mohd Noor has to say?
Diam saja (silence!)?
As one reader commented sarcastically and in fact rather correctly: “Just do it. Gertak* saje. As always.”
* make empty threats
Another reader, my Penang kinfolk, ali allah ditta, said in concert: “...but the problem here Ezam pun gertak saja...make noise & he shall be heard, EC is coming & he needs a seat (probably for UMNO). & remember the 4 kotak* he brags during the reformasi days..... gertak juga namanya bukan GERAK**.”
* box
** Looks like his organisation is Gertak (makes empty threats) rather than Gerak
Aiyoyo, Ezam Mohd Noor, benar kah … your ‘Democracy and Anti-Corruption Movement’ is now renamed Gertak?
Thursday, September 06, 2007
A pig of a problem (3)
Continuing from A pig of a problem and A pig of a problem (2) … based on a number of malaysiakini articles.
Politics is about perception. As always, where there are two sides in a standoff, there would be two main perceptions, plus a zillion minor ones.
Here, a note of explanation – ‘perception’ is not about logic or facts – that’s why it’s called ‘perception’.
One – the Muslims are damn pissed off with the unreasonable pig farmers who have subjected the unfortunate inhabitants living nearby to the farms to the horrible stench of piggy waste. And worst of all, it’s the stench of pigs – utterly outrageous to Muslims.
The issue of pollution to the waterways, though real, is merely additional ammo for the Muslims to fire at the pig farming. It's the terrible smell, sheer concentrated haram-ness, that tortures them!
Two - On the other side of the coin, the pig farmers and their supporters see the Malacca State government’s threat to forcefully cull their piggy assets as discrimination against Chinese.
Hey, maybe the Malays are jealous about their economic capability. Remember, it's 'perception'!
Before the Nipah virus wrecked havoc on the local pig industry, the pork business was understood to be worth RM2 billion per annum. With a noveau riche China, earnings from Malaysian pork exported to the world's biggest pork eating population could easily jump to a humongous US$2 billion, quite easily.
If only the government could invest in terms in modern pig farming, the problems raised against pig farming would disappear. But aiding pig farmers with government grants and training in animal husbandry may be just too impossible for the UMNO-led government to do - maybe PAS hopes for that to happen. But export earnings benefit everyone in the nation. US$2 billion isn't exactly ... er ... chicken feed, and that most certainly can continue to grow.
Then, the deadline of 21 September where nearly 100,000 pigs have to be moved inter-State, a massive logistic nightmare and perhaps an impossible target to achieve, is another indication of ethnic bias.
Behind all these ‘perceptions’, the more real issues of politics, incompetent town-urban planning, unsatisfactory inspections of all sorts (irrigation, agricultural, health, drainage, environmental, etc), corrupt (close one eye) officials, naughty farmers exceeding their quota of pig numbers (was there a limit in numbers?), avaricious Singapore investors (jolly good to have a convenient foreign element to blame), religious taboo, etc are factors that would be flung at the other party, to fortify one’s case against the other.
Hardly the sort of stuff and situation to support a Bangsa Malaysia!
One thing that kaytee has to say – and I don’t care whether you agree with me or not – I have been to some pig farms and I wouldn’t want to live near them, so on this I am with the affected people (whether Muslims or not) who have complained about the stench.
Pig farms and residential estates cannot exist happily together in close proximity, unless every resident there has a defective nose that can’t sense any odour.
The solution? Either the farms move or the housing estates move.
Commonsense will tell us which is the easiest. Who is right or who is wrong doesn’t matter anymore.
One must move and we all know it’ll be the pig farms because it’s the easier of the alternatives.
The mitigation to the removal of the piggery is the core factor, which up to now has been handled appallingly by the Malacca State government
It is incompetent, panicking and uncaring and in many ways, through its semi-samseng actions and callous pronouncements, has fortified the perception it’s biased.
Compensation, reasonable timeline, negotiations, consultations - rather than grandstanding threats and thuggish behaviour through the deployment of FRU, bulldozers and other paraphernalia of brutal enforcement that have become a standard expectation of UMNO-government sanctioned demolition actions - should be the correct government approach when handling tricky sensitive situations which involve religious sensitivity, different ethnicities, and people's livelihood..
Where there are illegal farmers, take legal action against them. Where there are legitimate farmers, respect their rights as citizens. Where those legitimate farmers have exceeded or violated the conditions of their permit, expose them with evidence and provide them with a reasonable timeline to conform.
These are the hallmarks of a lawful and accountable authority.
The trouble with UMNO politicians such as those heading the Malacca government is that very few people believe they are acting lawfully. Very few would trust them at all; most would prefer to side with the farmer, if not for the terrible stench and the haram-ness of pigs.
Related: Piggy politics
Politics is about perception. As always, where there are two sides in a standoff, there would be two main perceptions, plus a zillion minor ones.
Here, a note of explanation – ‘perception’ is not about logic or facts – that’s why it’s called ‘perception’.
One – the Muslims are damn pissed off with the unreasonable pig farmers who have subjected the unfortunate inhabitants living nearby to the farms to the horrible stench of piggy waste. And worst of all, it’s the stench of pigs – utterly outrageous to Muslims.
The issue of pollution to the waterways, though real, is merely additional ammo for the Muslims to fire at the pig farming. It's the terrible smell, sheer concentrated haram-ness, that tortures them!
Two - On the other side of the coin, the pig farmers and their supporters see the Malacca State government’s threat to forcefully cull their piggy assets as discrimination against Chinese.
Hey, maybe the Malays are jealous about their economic capability. Remember, it's 'perception'!
Before the Nipah virus wrecked havoc on the local pig industry, the pork business was understood to be worth RM2 billion per annum. With a noveau riche China, earnings from Malaysian pork exported to the world's biggest pork eating population could easily jump to a humongous US$2 billion, quite easily.
If only the government could invest in terms in modern pig farming, the problems raised against pig farming would disappear. But aiding pig farmers with government grants and training in animal husbandry may be just too impossible for the UMNO-led government to do - maybe PAS hopes for that to happen. But export earnings benefit everyone in the nation. US$2 billion isn't exactly ... er ... chicken feed, and that most certainly can continue to grow.
Then, the deadline of 21 September where nearly 100,000 pigs have to be moved inter-State, a massive logistic nightmare and perhaps an impossible target to achieve, is another indication of ethnic bias.
Behind all these ‘perceptions’, the more real issues of politics, incompetent town-urban planning, unsatisfactory inspections of all sorts (irrigation, agricultural, health, drainage, environmental, etc), corrupt (close one eye) officials, naughty farmers exceeding their quota of pig numbers (was there a limit in numbers?), avaricious Singapore investors (jolly good to have a convenient foreign element to blame), religious taboo, etc are factors that would be flung at the other party, to fortify one’s case against the other.
Hardly the sort of stuff and situation to support a Bangsa Malaysia!
One thing that kaytee has to say – and I don’t care whether you agree with me or not – I have been to some pig farms and I wouldn’t want to live near them, so on this I am with the affected people (whether Muslims or not) who have complained about the stench.
Pig farms and residential estates cannot exist happily together in close proximity, unless every resident there has a defective nose that can’t sense any odour.
The solution? Either the farms move or the housing estates move.
Commonsense will tell us which is the easiest. Who is right or who is wrong doesn’t matter anymore.
One must move and we all know it’ll be the pig farms because it’s the easier of the alternatives.
The mitigation to the removal of the piggery is the core factor, which up to now has been handled appallingly by the Malacca State government
It is incompetent, panicking and uncaring and in many ways, through its semi-samseng actions and callous pronouncements, has fortified the perception it’s biased.
Compensation, reasonable timeline, negotiations, consultations - rather than grandstanding threats and thuggish behaviour through the deployment of FRU, bulldozers and other paraphernalia of brutal enforcement that have become a standard expectation of UMNO-government sanctioned demolition actions - should be the correct government approach when handling tricky sensitive situations which involve religious sensitivity, different ethnicities, and people's livelihood..
Where there are illegal farmers, take legal action against them. Where there are legitimate farmers, respect their rights as citizens. Where those legitimate farmers have exceeded or violated the conditions of their permit, expose them with evidence and provide them with a reasonable timeline to conform.
These are the hallmarks of a lawful and accountable authority.
The trouble with UMNO politicians such as those heading the Malacca government is that very few people believe they are acting lawfully. Very few would trust them at all; most would prefer to side with the farmer, if not for the terrible stench and the haram-ness of pigs.
Related: Piggy politics
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
A pig of a problem (2)
Continuing from A pig of a problem …
Was I surprised to read malaysiakini providing an afternoon headline of State gov't adamant, ignores pig farmers' appeals?
Of course not!
That should be worth a few votes from the heartland, and if saudara MCA gets the full blast of the Chinese wrath, tough luck, Ah Ting shouldn't stay in the UMNO kitchen if he can’t take the heat.
And good olde DAP gets all the praises and gratitude from those pig farmers even as the MCA MLAs dashed around trying to cobble up some kind of compromise - well, they did delay the demolition squad from moving in, at least for another two weeks or so.
Now, who says the world has to be fair!
It’s my olde story of UMNO being the MCA’s worst enemy and the DAP best friend ;-)
The issue of pigs and pig farms is a very sensitive issue. On the Malay side, it’s quite obvious the majority don’t want the pig farms to be there, or anywhere in Malaysia.
Quiet frankly I don’t blame the average Malay. Pig farms stink, literally. And what visible benefit is there for the Muslims? Can’t eat it, can’t stand it, so why have it! And the religion says it’s haram.
Besides it's a walking lab for the worst form of viruses - never mind that Australian scientists had discovered that the flying foxes (keluang) are the carriers of the Nipah virus, and not those pigs (or Australian racing horses) who were merely victims. Why confuse a damn good prejudice with mere facts!
But leave all that aside - believe me, apart from being able to eat it, the Chinese feel EXACTLY the same as the Malays as far as living in close proximity with pig farms is concerned. If you have been near a piggery, you’ll understand why!
But pork is an intrinsic part of southern Chinese diet and culture. Some religious festivals require a roast pig; some need an uncooked one … so on so forth.
Many readers would raise the delights of bah-kut-teh as an example of the indispensability of pork. What would kwan loe meen be without char siew and siew yok?
And the most important thing that both the MCA and DAP are aware – oh, don’t forget the 3rd Chinese party who at times like this act dunno and pretend to be the multi-ethnic party that it really is not, the dear Gerakan – is that the fate of the Malaccan piggeries affects more than the pig farmers.
The Chinese community is silently watching to see how the MCA solves it – and the way it is going, from the malaysiakini headlines, it looks like the MCA is dead, as it was in the first place when the toll price shot up in KL.
Also read:
(1) MCA div leader: "We're as good as dead!"
(2) Stung by hornet, mute as only MCA can be
The Chinese community will perceive the loss of the pig farmers as their own, an example of the UMNO ruthless Islamisation program which has been and will be to the detriment of non-Muslim Chinese interests.
The Chinese who would be the first to avoid living near a pig farm themselves (if they can help it) won’t accept that pig farms and housing estates in Malacca can’t co-exist.
Of course as I remarked in my previous post, the Malacca State town-urban planning has been an outcome of sheer incompetence and probably corruption, to allow housing estates and pig farms to gather in close proximity until the stench of the piggeries could waft easily over to the horror of the estate inhabitants, many of whom are Muslims.
Then the unreasonable behaviour of the State authority in demanding nearly 100,000 pigs be shipped out by the 21st of this month, involving an impossible logistic of an average daily 6,000 pigs per day starting from NOW, is a typical example of total unaccountability, arrogance and discrimination.
And the Chinese will see the ‘discrimination’ as against them too!
Can we slaughter 6,000 pigs every day to sell? In Malaysia, only 7,000 pigs are consumed per day, and assuming for one instant that the distribution could be successfully conducted, this would mean that pork supply will double every day to send pork prices plummeting, affecting the livelihood of not only pig farmers but pork sellers.
And the Chinese will see the pig farmers and pork sellers’ loss, assuming that the 6,000 pigs are slaughtered every day, as theirs as well!
It’s precisely this unreasonableness of the Malacca State government that will make the Chinese think where they (the Chinese community) stand with an UMNO-led government – well, nowhere of course!
To be continued …
Was I surprised to read malaysiakini providing an afternoon headline of State gov't adamant, ignores pig farmers' appeals?
Of course not!
That should be worth a few votes from the heartland, and if saudara MCA gets the full blast of the Chinese wrath, tough luck, Ah Ting shouldn't stay in the UMNO kitchen if he can’t take the heat.
And good olde DAP gets all the praises and gratitude from those pig farmers even as the MCA MLAs dashed around trying to cobble up some kind of compromise - well, they did delay the demolition squad from moving in, at least for another two weeks or so.
Now, who says the world has to be fair!
It’s my olde story of UMNO being the MCA’s worst enemy and the DAP best friend ;-)
The issue of pigs and pig farms is a very sensitive issue. On the Malay side, it’s quite obvious the majority don’t want the pig farms to be there, or anywhere in Malaysia.
Quiet frankly I don’t blame the average Malay. Pig farms stink, literally. And what visible benefit is there for the Muslims? Can’t eat it, can’t stand it, so why have it! And the religion says it’s haram.
Besides it's a walking lab for the worst form of viruses - never mind that Australian scientists had discovered that the flying foxes (keluang) are the carriers of the Nipah virus, and not those pigs (or Australian racing horses) who were merely victims. Why confuse a damn good prejudice with mere facts!
But leave all that aside - believe me, apart from being able to eat it, the Chinese feel EXACTLY the same as the Malays as far as living in close proximity with pig farms is concerned. If you have been near a piggery, you’ll understand why!
But pork is an intrinsic part of southern Chinese diet and culture. Some religious festivals require a roast pig; some need an uncooked one … so on so forth.
Many readers would raise the delights of bah-kut-teh as an example of the indispensability of pork. What would kwan loe meen be without char siew and siew yok?
And the most important thing that both the MCA and DAP are aware – oh, don’t forget the 3rd Chinese party who at times like this act dunno and pretend to be the multi-ethnic party that it really is not, the dear Gerakan – is that the fate of the Malaccan piggeries affects more than the pig farmers.
The Chinese community is silently watching to see how the MCA solves it – and the way it is going, from the malaysiakini headlines, it looks like the MCA is dead, as it was in the first place when the toll price shot up in KL.
Also read:
(1) MCA div leader: "We're as good as dead!"
(2) Stung by hornet, mute as only MCA can be
The Chinese community will perceive the loss of the pig farmers as their own, an example of the UMNO ruthless Islamisation program which has been and will be to the detriment of non-Muslim Chinese interests.
The Chinese who would be the first to avoid living near a pig farm themselves (if they can help it) won’t accept that pig farms and housing estates in Malacca can’t co-exist.
Of course as I remarked in my previous post, the Malacca State town-urban planning has been an outcome of sheer incompetence and probably corruption, to allow housing estates and pig farms to gather in close proximity until the stench of the piggeries could waft easily over to the horror of the estate inhabitants, many of whom are Muslims.
Then the unreasonable behaviour of the State authority in demanding nearly 100,000 pigs be shipped out by the 21st of this month, involving an impossible logistic of an average daily 6,000 pigs per day starting from NOW, is a typical example of total unaccountability, arrogance and discrimination.
And the Chinese will see the ‘discrimination’ as against them too!
Can we slaughter 6,000 pigs every day to sell? In Malaysia, only 7,000 pigs are consumed per day, and assuming for one instant that the distribution could be successfully conducted, this would mean that pork supply will double every day to send pork prices plummeting, affecting the livelihood of not only pig farmers but pork sellers.
And the Chinese will see the pig farmers and pork sellers’ loss, assuming that the 6,000 pigs are slaughtered every day, as theirs as well!
It’s precisely this unreasonableness of the Malacca State government that will make the Chinese think where they (the Chinese community) stand with an UMNO-led government – well, nowhere of course!
To be continued …
A pig of a problem
Continuing from Piggy Politics, based on a malaysiakini news that tells us the Malacca State government has threatened pig farmers in that State to Send the swine elsewhere or they'll be culled.
Pigs are haram to Muslims because Islam says so. And when religion is involved, especially in Malaysia, the problem outgrows that prescribed by the religion itself because of (additional and probably more dominating)inter-ethnic acrimony, distrust and intolerance, a mix of emotions that’s not exclusive to Muslim Malays, but certainly whipped up by our dear wonderful politicians.
As I had blogged earlier in Piggy Politics, the vexed issue of pigs and pork have graduated from mere haram (forbidden or non kosher food) to an abomination, a far worse case of abhorrence than mere prohibited food.
Pigs, pork and piggeries are far less tolerated than samsu (alcohol) or other Islamic prohibitions - eg. gambling (our famous 4-Ekor), womanising, corruption, oppression ... etc. In fact, it's not only 'less tolerated', it's, as I mentioned, an abomination.
But let’s not hide from the fact that the ensuing stench from pigs’ waste is all overpowering, extremely unpleasant (especially at initial contact), and utterly offensive not only to Muslims but to anyone.
But because the stench is from pigs, the issue takes on a far bigger dimension than the assault on our olfactory senses. It could and has even summon religious emotions.
There were some attempts to justify the State government's intention to get rid of piggeries on environment grounds (and I support protecting our environment) but it's not only pig waste that's polluting the waterways but far more deadly stuff like toxic affluence and chemicals, which, like the haram samsu, gambling, cooruption and womanising, were ignored if not tolerated.
Pig's waste or stench can be managed by modern farming techniques but that's not the State Government's desired outcome - It wants to eliminate the existence of piggeries, for political reasons of course.
Likewise with anything that Islam doesn’t approve, like dogs where there is a ‘Pertandingan Menangkap Anjing Antara Jawatankuasa Penduduk’ organised by the Majlis Perbandaran Selayang – cash prizes are offered.
I have no complaints about rounding up stray dogs for disposal (did the Selayang authority mention 'strays'?), but what about stray cats? Cats actually are more dangerous to human beings for the dioseases they can pass on to us.
More than two years ago I had a bit of (blogging) fencing with Aisehman who raised an important health question, whether pig rearing should be completely banned and every pig culled because of the dangers of viral epidemic.
I countered with my question on cats and birds – the avian flu then posed and still does a far greater danger to human beings. Why don’t we then ban fowls and cats of any type?
Please see my posting Cats versus Pigs - Which go first?
Also please read Pig & Prejudice, with apologies to Jane Austen.
Anyway, if we can put all the emotions aside, we need to ask why we have allowed pig farms to pollute the waterways and the air, the latter through the offensive stench that is unmistakably piggy.
Let’s deal with the stench first.
Would it surprise us if we say that, save for a few exceptions, the majority of cases has been that urban development has encroached on pig farms, rather than the other way around.
When most of the pig farms were set up, they were in a remote part of the State. Inevitably urban development spread outwards and suddenly, hey, WTF is that pig farm doing there, just next to our housing estate?
That this has occurred has been a reflection of poor town planning. The authority should have catered for the avoidance of the farm, most unlikely of course, or removal of the piggery, but alas, it wasn’t done so because the authority either was incompetent or didn’t bother until the general election (or internal party election) approaches.
Do we for one moment imagine that piggeries can exist without some form of official or unofficial sanction or quiet (close one eye) tolerance? Whatever had been the cause(s) behind those sanctions are less important than the fact that (leaving aside the few illegal farms) those pig farms have a legitimate right to be where they are.
Now hear this - malaysiakini reported state Agriculture and Rural Development Committee deputy president Abdul Rahman Pali as saying the state government aims to only allow 48,000 pigs to be reared in the state as opposed to the estimated current number of 140,000 animals.
Of course less is better, but we need to ask Abdul Rahman how the State authority arrived at a figure of 48,000 pigs? I can see it’s coincidentally one-third of the existing piggy population, but where's the scientific or town planning or whatever study to support that figure.
Then Abdul Rahman said the state government has set a Sept 21 deadline for the pig farmers to export 92,000 animals to other states. That's just 2 weeks to go.
As was the case for last year, the Malacca government has a propensity to set impossible deadlines – what logistic nightmare are we talking here when the authority wants 92,000 pigs to be moved to another state within 2 weeks?
To be continued …
Pigs are haram to Muslims because Islam says so. And when religion is involved, especially in Malaysia, the problem outgrows that prescribed by the religion itself because of (additional and probably more dominating)inter-ethnic acrimony, distrust and intolerance, a mix of emotions that’s not exclusive to Muslim Malays, but certainly whipped up by our dear wonderful politicians.
As I had blogged earlier in Piggy Politics, the vexed issue of pigs and pork have graduated from mere haram (forbidden or non kosher food) to an abomination, a far worse case of abhorrence than mere prohibited food.
Pigs, pork and piggeries are far less tolerated than samsu (alcohol) or other Islamic prohibitions - eg. gambling (our famous 4-Ekor), womanising, corruption, oppression ... etc. In fact, it's not only 'less tolerated', it's, as I mentioned, an abomination.
But let’s not hide from the fact that the ensuing stench from pigs’ waste is all overpowering, extremely unpleasant (especially at initial contact), and utterly offensive not only to Muslims but to anyone.
But because the stench is from pigs, the issue takes on a far bigger dimension than the assault on our olfactory senses. It could and has even summon religious emotions.
There were some attempts to justify the State government's intention to get rid of piggeries on environment grounds (and I support protecting our environment) but it's not only pig waste that's polluting the waterways but far more deadly stuff like toxic affluence and chemicals, which, like the haram samsu, gambling, cooruption and womanising, were ignored if not tolerated.
Pig's waste or stench can be managed by modern farming techniques but that's not the State Government's desired outcome - It wants to eliminate the existence of piggeries, for political reasons of course.
Likewise with anything that Islam doesn’t approve, like dogs where there is a ‘Pertandingan Menangkap Anjing Antara Jawatankuasa Penduduk’ organised by the Majlis Perbandaran Selayang – cash prizes are offered.
poster thanks to Kean Jin
I have no complaints about rounding up stray dogs for disposal (did the Selayang authority mention 'strays'?), but what about stray cats? Cats actually are more dangerous to human beings for the dioseases they can pass on to us.
More than two years ago I had a bit of (blogging) fencing with Aisehman who raised an important health question, whether pig rearing should be completely banned and every pig culled because of the dangers of viral epidemic.
I countered with my question on cats and birds – the avian flu then posed and still does a far greater danger to human beings. Why don’t we then ban fowls and cats of any type?
Please see my posting Cats versus Pigs - Which go first?
Also please read Pig & Prejudice, with apologies to Jane Austen.
Anyway, if we can put all the emotions aside, we need to ask why we have allowed pig farms to pollute the waterways and the air, the latter through the offensive stench that is unmistakably piggy.
Let’s deal with the stench first.
Would it surprise us if we say that, save for a few exceptions, the majority of cases has been that urban development has encroached on pig farms, rather than the other way around.
When most of the pig farms were set up, they were in a remote part of the State. Inevitably urban development spread outwards and suddenly, hey, WTF is that pig farm doing there, just next to our housing estate?
That this has occurred has been a reflection of poor town planning. The authority should have catered for the avoidance of the farm, most unlikely of course, or removal of the piggery, but alas, it wasn’t done so because the authority either was incompetent or didn’t bother until the general election (or internal party election) approaches.
Do we for one moment imagine that piggeries can exist without some form of official or unofficial sanction or quiet (close one eye) tolerance? Whatever had been the cause(s) behind those sanctions are less important than the fact that (leaving aside the few illegal farms) those pig farms have a legitimate right to be where they are.
Now hear this - malaysiakini reported state Agriculture and Rural Development Committee deputy president Abdul Rahman Pali as saying the state government aims to only allow 48,000 pigs to be reared in the state as opposed to the estimated current number of 140,000 animals.
Of course less is better, but we need to ask Abdul Rahman how the State authority arrived at a figure of 48,000 pigs? I can see it’s coincidentally one-third of the existing piggy population, but where's the scientific or town planning or whatever study to support that figure.
Then Abdul Rahman said the state government has set a Sept 21 deadline for the pig farmers to export 92,000 animals to other states. That's just 2 weeks to go.
As was the case for last year, the Malacca government has a propensity to set impossible deadlines – what logistic nightmare are we talking here when the authority wants 92,000 pigs to be moved to another state within 2 weeks?
To be continued …
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Piggy Politics
The story of why pigs are haram (not kosher, that is, a forbidden food) to some religious groups may be found in an earlier posting Why Orthodox Jews Don't Eat Pork!
But apart from the religious origins, the vexed issue of pigs and pork have graduated from haram to abominable due to a contemporary mix of politics and ethnic divide.
It's hardly surprising that Malacca MB Ali Rustam has been attempting to remove pig farms from his State. Last year we saw an MB on steroids against pig farms giving a headache to his so-called partner, the poor MCA MLAs.
Today malaysiakini highlighted how pig farmers at Paya Mengkuang behaved as if under siege, and indeed they were, surrounded by none other than our uniformed men under orders from the Malacca State government to eliminate pigs and their farms.
malaysiakini wrote:
All roads leading into Paya Mengkuang - about 30 minutes’ drive north of Malacca city - were cordoned off by the police, isolating the village.
Fifty of the police personnel stood by in plastic-suits, waiting for the state government’s order to move into the pig farms to kill the animals.
About 100 anti-riot squad personnel were also on stand by.
Six excavators had been brought in to dig mass graves to bury the dead pigs while six police trucks including some with water cannon were stationed in the vicinity.
On the other side were the villagers - men, women and children forming a human shield at the main entrance to their farms. The barricade included a number of small trucks.
Well … though not quite Masada or Little Big Horn, there was a sense of fear, anger and eventually relief when the police were ordered (by whom?) to withdraw.
The Chinese pig farmers have invested hundreds of thousands in rinngit in their pig farms - they would certainly fight for their livelihood and lives. You can't just waltz in and remove that considerable investment without due compensation. That's like the Israelis and Americans demolishing Lebanese, Afghan and Iraqi villages without a damn care in the world, sending thousands of locals into ruin and despair.
As a non Muslim (that ‘non’ word again) I do partake of pork, though I don’t place great store on it as if it’s something I can’t do without. But properly cooked, it can provide great dishes.
However, I admit that pig farms are terrible in their capacity to assault our olfactory senses. I wouldn’t want to live next door to a farm. Once I was interested in a girl, who of course according to Murphy’s Law lived in a house next to a river, where there just had to be a pig farm located just across the river.
Alas, my hormornes demanded that I braved the horrible stench for a day or two, after which I became insensitive to the smell of porky’s yuckinessl
If Ali Rustam wants to reduce or even eliminate the existence of pig farms in his State, he must work out a compensation plan to motivate those farmers to move out.
But I wouldn’t be surprised at all if there was neither State compensation nor warning for the pig farmers. As I blogged last year in If only pigs can fly .....:
But regrettably the Malacca government, without any warning, has ordered the closure of all the pig farms in the state in a letter, which was only issued to farmers on March 1. The letter, from the state’s veterinary services department, gave the breeders just two weeks to comply.
The state government doesn’t care how those farmers do it but the 82 farms must be closed; so the farmers, for all it cares, can sell, shift the animals or use any means necessary to ensure that their farms are not operational and closed after the 15th of this month.
If only pigs can fly ..... though that's not what the paraphrased old Scottish saying actually means, I am sure the breeders would be happy to fly theirs off.
If those farms aren’t closed ordered by the deadline, they will be seized!
Rustam did set some conditions for not closing the farm - he demanded that the breeders convert the land use, submit the farm draft plans and building plans. But the farmers complained that the short notification [just a week left by the time the government notification letter arrived in their hands] makes it impossible for any farmer to comply.
It seems that the State government is determined to close or seize the farm, obviously by stealth, considering the unreasonable time given and the verbal promises and assurance by Rustam and state secretary Ismail!
But what about the centralised place that was earlier mentioned? Tough, the State government had not yet determined the location, and most probably never will. So, as far as the Rustam government is concerned, the pig breeders can get lost, or go organise a pig farming cooperative to apply for a place, or fulfil Rustam's 3 conditions. All these in 1 week! This time I say it in its intended meaning - And pigs can fly.
As for Rustam's or state secretary Ismail's promises made to the MCA exco members of not closing the farms, well, as we all know of politicians, promises have always been meant to be broken.
Remember Ali Rustam is the UMNO bloke who hasn’t been doing all that well in the UMNO hierarchy. If his Johor colleague was playing up the ‘pivotal race’ angle, I reckon Ali Rustam has been playing the ‘porky’ issue.
Now, wasn’t he the MB who took pains to honour PM AAB new spouse with a Datukship?
In Elegant Smile - Elegant Title - Elegant Hopes? I posted:
PM AAB’s wife Jeanne Abdullah has been conferred the Darjah Utama Negeri Melaka by Malacca Governor Tun Mohd Khalil Yaakob.
The honour from the state of Hang Tuah carries the title Datuk Seri Utama. Jeanne was awarded the title in a ceremony at Seri Negeri yesterday. There were more than 500 (presumably adoring oo-ing and ah-ing) dignitaries, including CM Mohd Ali Rustam and his wife Asmah Abdul Rahman at the ceremony. Hmmm, someone still (elegantly) hopes to be the come-back kid ... eh?
With any UMNO action, whether pigs, pivotal race or a student rapper, there’s always an internal UMNO political angle.
But apart from the religious origins, the vexed issue of pigs and pork have graduated from haram to abominable due to a contemporary mix of politics and ethnic divide.
It's hardly surprising that Malacca MB Ali Rustam has been attempting to remove pig farms from his State. Last year we saw an MB on steroids against pig farms giving a headache to his so-called partner, the poor MCA MLAs.
Today malaysiakini highlighted how pig farmers at Paya Mengkuang behaved as if under siege, and indeed they were, surrounded by none other than our uniformed men under orders from the Malacca State government to eliminate pigs and their farms.
malaysiakini wrote:
All roads leading into Paya Mengkuang - about 30 minutes’ drive north of Malacca city - were cordoned off by the police, isolating the village.
Fifty of the police personnel stood by in plastic-suits, waiting for the state government’s order to move into the pig farms to kill the animals.
About 100 anti-riot squad personnel were also on stand by.
Six excavators had been brought in to dig mass graves to bury the dead pigs while six police trucks including some with water cannon were stationed in the vicinity.
On the other side were the villagers - men, women and children forming a human shield at the main entrance to their farms. The barricade included a number of small trucks.
Well … though not quite Masada or Little Big Horn, there was a sense of fear, anger and eventually relief when the police were ordered (by whom?) to withdraw.
The Chinese pig farmers have invested hundreds of thousands in rinngit in their pig farms - they would certainly fight for their livelihood and lives. You can't just waltz in and remove that considerable investment without due compensation. That's like the Israelis and Americans demolishing Lebanese, Afghan and Iraqi villages without a damn care in the world, sending thousands of locals into ruin and despair.
As a non Muslim (that ‘non’ word again) I do partake of pork, though I don’t place great store on it as if it’s something I can’t do without. But properly cooked, it can provide great dishes.
However, I admit that pig farms are terrible in their capacity to assault our olfactory senses. I wouldn’t want to live next door to a farm. Once I was interested in a girl, who of course according to Murphy’s Law lived in a house next to a river, where there just had to be a pig farm located just across the river.
Alas, my hormornes demanded that I braved the horrible stench for a day or two, after which I became insensitive to the smell of porky’s yuckinessl
If Ali Rustam wants to reduce or even eliminate the existence of pig farms in his State, he must work out a compensation plan to motivate those farmers to move out.
But I wouldn’t be surprised at all if there was neither State compensation nor warning for the pig farmers. As I blogged last year in If only pigs can fly .....:
But regrettably the Malacca government, without any warning, has ordered the closure of all the pig farms in the state in a letter, which was only issued to farmers on March 1. The letter, from the state’s veterinary services department, gave the breeders just two weeks to comply.
The state government doesn’t care how those farmers do it but the 82 farms must be closed; so the farmers, for all it cares, can sell, shift the animals or use any means necessary to ensure that their farms are not operational and closed after the 15th of this month.
If only pigs can fly ..... though that's not what the paraphrased old Scottish saying actually means, I am sure the breeders would be happy to fly theirs off.
If those farms aren’t closed ordered by the deadline, they will be seized!
Rustam did set some conditions for not closing the farm - he demanded that the breeders convert the land use, submit the farm draft plans and building plans. But the farmers complained that the short notification [just a week left by the time the government notification letter arrived in their hands] makes it impossible for any farmer to comply.
It seems that the State government is determined to close or seize the farm, obviously by stealth, considering the unreasonable time given and the verbal promises and assurance by Rustam and state secretary Ismail!
But what about the centralised place that was earlier mentioned? Tough, the State government had not yet determined the location, and most probably never will. So, as far as the Rustam government is concerned, the pig breeders can get lost, or go organise a pig farming cooperative to apply for a place, or fulfil Rustam's 3 conditions. All these in 1 week! This time I say it in its intended meaning - And pigs can fly.
As for Rustam's or state secretary Ismail's promises made to the MCA exco members of not closing the farms, well, as we all know of politicians, promises have always been meant to be broken.
Remember Ali Rustam is the UMNO bloke who hasn’t been doing all that well in the UMNO hierarchy. If his Johor colleague was playing up the ‘pivotal race’ angle, I reckon Ali Rustam has been playing the ‘porky’ issue.
Now, wasn’t he the MB who took pains to honour PM AAB new spouse with a Datukship?
In Elegant Smile - Elegant Title - Elegant Hopes? I posted:
PM AAB’s wife Jeanne Abdullah has been conferred the Darjah Utama Negeri Melaka by Malacca Governor Tun Mohd Khalil Yaakob.
The honour from the state of Hang Tuah carries the title Datuk Seri Utama. Jeanne was awarded the title in a ceremony at Seri Negeri yesterday. There were more than 500 (presumably adoring oo-ing and ah-ing) dignitaries, including CM Mohd Ali Rustam and his wife Asmah Abdul Rahman at the ceremony. Hmmm, someone still (elegantly) hopes to be the come-back kid ... eh?
With any UMNO action, whether pigs, pivotal race or a student rapper, there’s always an internal UMNO political angle.
Tun Razak's Pandora Box
In malaysiakini, we hear former UMNO leaders, namely Dr Mahathir, Tengku Razaleigh, Musa Hitam and Anwar Ibrahim commenting on the New Economic Policy (NEP).
Our favourite online news portal headlined the article Nation's ex-leaders want NEP abuses to stop.
However, of the four, only Anwar Ibrahim who had supported the NEP in his UMNO days, now considered the NEP obsolete and, presumably, to be rid of.
But Musa Hitam, who sounded angry because the accusations against abuses of the NEP had carried a racist hue, provided a more realistic prognosis.
He told us point blank that with or without the NEP, there will be groups who would still get more than what they deserve, and he's right. 9.2 million times right!
He said: “At the moment, everything is blamed on the NEP. Every non-Malay says the government bocor (leaks) here, bocor there, corruption... Malay-lah. It’s a racist sort of thing. But my point is, you mean to say that if there is no NEP, it would not happen?”
Let's face it - we all know that some Chinese and Indians and others (non-Malay) in Sarawak and Sabah have benefitted obscenely from the NEP as well. However, Musa Hitam stressed that questioning the NEP should not be seen as questioning the special rights of bumiputeras under the Federal Constitution.
After the May 13 riots in 1969, then de facto leader ;-) Tun Razak, having seized power from Tunku Abdul Rahman, conceived of the NEP and implemented it the following year when he was already PM, purportedly to reduce income disparity among different ethnic groups.
The reality of it of course was directed for the benefit of principally the Malays, who had in the 1969 general election punished UMNO severely. Then, even young UMNO firebrand Dr Mahathir lost his Kota Selatan seat in Alor Setar to a PAS bloke.
Among the NEP targets was the magic 30% bumiputera equity, which we all know today had long been surpassed. The NEP also had a shelf life of 20 years but the policy continued after 1990 under a different name - the New Development Policy – which would go on until 2000.
Then, not unpredictably, a new National Vision Policy was set to be implemented between 2001 and 2010. By the Ninth Malaysia Plan, PM AAB dropped all pretences and revived the (already achieved) NEP targets.
The two principal reasons that kaytee can think of as to why the NEP, sneeringly referred to by many Malaysians as the Never Ending Policy, is continued, are:
(1) Greed which feeds on itself and cannot be satisfied.
In Greek, or if you like Greed ;-) mythology, when the 1st woman Pandora opened a pithos (container jar), which was booby-trapped by Zeus to punish man, she released all the evils of mankind— greed, vanity, slander, envy, pining.
Our favourite online news portal headlined the article Nation's ex-leaders want NEP abuses to stop.
However, of the four, only Anwar Ibrahim who had supported the NEP in his UMNO days, now considered the NEP obsolete and, presumably, to be rid of.
But Musa Hitam, who sounded angry because the accusations against abuses of the NEP had carried a racist hue, provided a more realistic prognosis.
He told us point blank that with or without the NEP, there will be groups who would still get more than what they deserve, and he's right. 9.2 million times right!
He said: “At the moment, everything is blamed on the NEP. Every non-Malay says the government bocor (leaks) here, bocor there, corruption... Malay-lah. It’s a racist sort of thing. But my point is, you mean to say that if there is no NEP, it would not happen?”
Let's face it - we all know that some Chinese and Indians and others (non-Malay) in Sarawak and Sabah have benefitted obscenely from the NEP as well. However, Musa Hitam stressed that questioning the NEP should not be seen as questioning the special rights of bumiputeras under the Federal Constitution.
After the May 13 riots in 1969, then de facto leader ;-) Tun Razak, having seized power from Tunku Abdul Rahman, conceived of the NEP and implemented it the following year when he was already PM, purportedly to reduce income disparity among different ethnic groups.
The reality of it of course was directed for the benefit of principally the Malays, who had in the 1969 general election punished UMNO severely. Then, even young UMNO firebrand Dr Mahathir lost his Kota Selatan seat in Alor Setar to a PAS bloke.
Among the NEP targets was the magic 30% bumiputera equity, which we all know today had long been surpassed. The NEP also had a shelf life of 20 years but the policy continued after 1990 under a different name - the New Development Policy – which would go on until 2000.
Then, not unpredictably, a new National Vision Policy was set to be implemented between 2001 and 2010. By the Ninth Malaysia Plan, PM AAB dropped all pretences and revived the (already achieved) NEP targets.
The two principal reasons that kaytee can think of as to why the NEP, sneeringly referred to by many Malaysians as the Never Ending Policy, is continued, are:
(1) Greed which feeds on itself and cannot be satisfied.
In Greek, or if you like Greed ;-) mythology, when the 1st woman Pandora opened a pithos (container jar), which was booby-trapped by Zeus to punish man, she released all the evils of mankind— greed, vanity, slander, envy, pining.
The NEP is like Pandora’s pithos (or ‘box’, as it’s commonly referred to). I don’t believe one can ever close it again.
pithos - Wiki photo
And that’s what Tengku Razaleigh wisely admitted. While he acknowledged that the NEP has been widely abused, and that people are very much against it, he said one has to be realistic that the policy will remain for another 50 years or more, because the consequences of doing away with the NEP completely would prove too difficult for the country. I believe there is a large grain of truth in that.But Ku Li called for the economic policy to be refined. In that same vein Dr Mahathir wants the implementation to be transparent, for example, as who gets what.
Kaytee believes that the NEP should be asset-tested. For example, why should very rich Malays receive a 7% discount on houses, resulting in every poor Indian and Chinaman buying a house paying 107% to subsidize each of those fat cats?
The NEP should not be confined to only one ethnic group. If an Indian rubber tapper and his family need support through the NEP, as a Malaysian he should also be a beneficiary of the affirmative action policy.
If the NEP's aim has been truly to reduce income disparity among different ethnic groups, then I would say it has been an abysmal failure for the highly marginalised Indians.
(2) Though the NEP target of 30% equity for bumiputeras had long been achieved and well surpassed, the wealth has accumulated in only a few privileged hands. This won’t do for those (equally 'privileged' newcomers) who haven’t had their decent share of the booty.
You can see the same mentality in the government bureaucracy, and why a former Deputy IGP has remarked that if there was a genuine anti corruption campaign against the police force, 90% of the officers would be sacked. Those guys would probably have rationalised that 'if the big shots can do it, why can't we?'
Even in corruption, it’s still leadership by example. And this is undoubtedly one of the main stumbling blocks to genuine reform as those already obscenely rich still wants more ... and more ... and more ... It's called 'Greed'.
Corruption is very difficult to deal with unless you have the correct leadership and the will to do so, and the correct policies, and most vital of all, investigative and enforcement bodies which are above reproach, which has been why I believe the No 1 priority is a reliable police force and ACA.
Please see my previous post KTemoc's No 1 priority - Fight crime! to understand why I have targeted the No 1 man of the police force as the linchpin of any effort to clean up the current rotten state of the country.
Monday, September 03, 2007
Pure Malay?
I love this letter to malaysiakini by Jamiliah Kassim titled These people are not pure Malays.
In the land where the terrible word ‘non’ is used regularly, even by the 'nons' themselves (like kaytee), to denote a second class citizenship, as in non-Malay, non-Muslim, non-bumiputera, non-UMNO, and last though not least non-sense, Jamiliah has upped the ante.
Jamiliah, asserting herself as an ‘anak Melayu jati’ (pure Malay) wrote (extract):
In recent years, we can see a lot of ‘non Malays’ appearing in Umno as leaders. By ancestry, these people are not pure Malays. They managed to change their identity by using Islam.
As an ‘anak Melayu jati’, I would like to voice out a grievance on behalf of our whole Malay community.
We know well that these people are not sincere in that they can even disregard and disrespect their ancestors and join the Malay race.
Their motive is to enjoy privileges of the Malays. And Umno doesn't bother to do much on this. We are desperate regarding this policy of simply allowing people to change their race through conversion to Islam and even offering citizenship to Indonesians who are later made bumiputeras as well.
Where is the standing of the ‘anak Melayu jati’ or ‘bumiputera’? Tell us where on this earth can a person change his or her race through religion except in Malaysia? It is ridiculous.
Wow … but who or what is a ‘anak melayu jati’? Is there such a person as a 'pure Malay'?
Jamiliah explained:The word ‘bumiputera’ is a combination of ‘bumi’ and ‘putera’ which should be construed as the ‘anak cucu’ to this land. Bumiputeras should be defined as: ‘Anak anak Melayu yang nenek moyang telah bermastautin di bumi Tanah Melayu sebelum kemerdekaan, biarpun agama yang dianuti bukan Islam’.*
* loose translation: Malays whose ancestors were domiciled in Malaya before Merdeka (Independence in 1957), even if their religion wasn't Islam
No more Johnny and Jeannie-come-lately ... eh? Though I am impressed by her '... biarpun agama yang dianuti bukan Islam’.
I am reminded of a former girlfriend who informed me rather arrogantly, when I first knew her, that she was ‘pure Sinning*, a Toisan nui of the nth degree of purity.
* one of the southern Chinese ethnic stock
Like all good bf I chatted up her mum to get on to her good side, and inadvertently found out that ‘Auntie’ was Cantonese – hahahahaha!
Her Royal Haughtiness, the Toisan nui was humiliated, and never quite forgive me for ‘accidentally’ discovering her mixed ethnic stock – oh yes, for that she 'punished' me severely at times, but it was rather enjoyable when I teased her as 50% Sinning – 50% Canto, and God alone knows how many of those percentages could have been of other ethnic stock, considering she has really large beautiful round eyes.
I suspect that Jamiliah is one of the following: (1) ........ (2) ........ (3) ........ - I decided not to jot down my suspicions ;-) you work it out yourself.
In the land where the terrible word ‘non’ is used regularly, even by the 'nons' themselves (like kaytee), to denote a second class citizenship, as in non-Malay, non-Muslim, non-bumiputera, non-UMNO, and last though not least non-sense, Jamiliah has upped the ante.
Jamiliah, asserting herself as an ‘anak Melayu jati’ (pure Malay) wrote (extract):
In recent years, we can see a lot of ‘non Malays’ appearing in Umno as leaders. By ancestry, these people are not pure Malays. They managed to change their identity by using Islam.
As an ‘anak Melayu jati’, I would like to voice out a grievance on behalf of our whole Malay community.
We know well that these people are not sincere in that they can even disregard and disrespect their ancestors and join the Malay race.
Their motive is to enjoy privileges of the Malays. And Umno doesn't bother to do much on this. We are desperate regarding this policy of simply allowing people to change their race through conversion to Islam and even offering citizenship to Indonesians who are later made bumiputeras as well.
Where is the standing of the ‘anak Melayu jati’ or ‘bumiputera’? Tell us where on this earth can a person change his or her race through religion except in Malaysia? It is ridiculous.
Wow … but who or what is a ‘anak melayu jati’? Is there such a person as a 'pure Malay'?
Jamiliah explained:The word ‘bumiputera’ is a combination of ‘bumi’ and ‘putera’ which should be construed as the ‘anak cucu’ to this land. Bumiputeras should be defined as: ‘Anak anak Melayu yang nenek moyang telah bermastautin di bumi Tanah Melayu sebelum kemerdekaan, biarpun agama yang dianuti bukan Islam’.*
* loose translation: Malays whose ancestors were domiciled in Malaya before Merdeka (Independence in 1957), even if their religion wasn't Islam
No more Johnny and Jeannie-come-lately ... eh? Though I am impressed by her '... biarpun agama yang dianuti bukan Islam’.
I am reminded of a former girlfriend who informed me rather arrogantly, when I first knew her, that she was ‘pure Sinning*, a Toisan nui of the nth degree of purity.
* one of the southern Chinese ethnic stock
Like all good bf I chatted up her mum to get on to her good side, and inadvertently found out that ‘Auntie’ was Cantonese – hahahahaha!
Her Royal Haughtiness, the Toisan nui was humiliated, and never quite forgive me for ‘accidentally’ discovering her mixed ethnic stock – oh yes, for that she 'punished' me severely at times, but it was rather enjoyable when I teased her as 50% Sinning – 50% Canto, and God alone knows how many of those percentages could have been of other ethnic stock, considering she has really large beautiful round eyes.
I suspect that Jamiliah is one of the following: (1) ........ (2) ........ (3) ........ - I decided not to jot down my suspicions ;-) you work it out yourself.
Which Islamic Party do we trust?
So malaysiakini informs us that the PM wants Muslims to strive for equality, democracy.
AAB told a forum on economic development that Muslim nations would see peace and stability only when justice and the rule of law were in place and women were fully empowered.
‘… justice and the rule of law …’ – hmmm …
He sang out that "Justice, the rule of law, participatory governance, respect for the rights of all, Muslims as well as non-Muslims, and women as well as men ... These were all hallmarks of Islamic governance and civilisation."
Well …
Continuing he admitted: "These virtues have dulled in parts of the Muslim world today. We will not become fully developed until we have restored them."
It’s well and good for AAB to sing those motherhood statements but … alas, what more can I say.
Oh, by the way a ‘motherhood statement’ is, according to the dictionary, a ‘feel good’ platitude, usually (and bloody frequently) uttered by a politician, about a worthy concept that few people would disagree with, but without any specified plans for realisation.
What about the other Malaysian Islamic party then?
PAS itself knows if it wants to be the ruling party it has to gain the trust and votes of the non Muslims. Its biggest boast thus far has been its tolerance of the Buddha statue in Kelantan.
Yes, in the past couple of years it has tried but each time when one imagined for an instant that it might just be succeeding the party would revert to its old misogynist intolerant blind self. It’s a party so prone to implosion. Such a shame, for I have PAS friends whom I respect greatly, like my brother mahaguru58.
Talking about its ‘blindness’ or in fact, I think would be better termed as, its lack of moral courage and religious conviction, let’s examine the case of the Mufti of Perak.
That man committed seditious action that nearly resulted in inter-religious inter-ethnic violence. And the cruel shame of this man, who is supposed to be a father figure among the Islamic community of Perak, had been his actions were based on a pack of nonsense. There wasn’t an iota of substance in his allegations which sent a mob to confront some unsuspecting Christians at a church, with nearly dire consequences.
He shamefully disgraced Islam. But he is still a state Mufti, can you beat that!
So did PAS as the so-called party that promotes Islam and its teachings and values take action to recommend to the Sultan of Perak that the man who shamed Islam be sacked?
No, it did nothing.
Instead when the FT Gerakan Party tried to do what no Islamic based party had bothered to do - in other words the Islamic parties, PAS and UMNO were condoning a blasphemous action by the Mufti - what did PAS do?
It attacked Gerakan, demanding that Gerakan stay out of an Islamic area, but forgetting of course that the person in the 'Islamic area' had initiated actions 'outside the Islamic area' that could have perpetrated violence on non Muslims. And it has been precisely that which rendered non Muslims every right to initiate action against the Mufti, since no Islamic party wanted to do it.
PAS showed its double standard when its FT acting youth chief Kamaruzaman Mohamad remarked, with great irony that he obviously didn’t realise:
“This is a sensitive issue among Muslims that can stir discord among various groups.”
"... stir discord among various groups ..."? Did he say that?
Yes, ‘twas exactly the Mufti who did that, nearly causing a racial religious riot with his irresponsible rumour mongering. And what did PAS do? Zilch, nada, zero action!
I had then blogged:
Why shouldn’t the Mufti be sacked for seditious agitation? And why hasn't PAS initiate the demand for that to preserve the whole matter within the Muslim community?
In the end, PAS is no better than UMNO, exploiting religion for its own grubby political benefit instead of seeing to the justice that Allah (swt) intends for the Muslims to practice.
If I am kind, I would just say that PAS’ stand is a case of not seeing the wood for the trees. But if I want to be nasty, I would declare it as not unlike the moral in my poem Magic of the 100th name of God, where God is incidental, but Man’s interest reigns supreme.
PAS had missed the greatest opportunity for it to show Malaysians that it is truly a God-fearing party, and would apply Islamic standards of justice, compassion and good governance without fear or favour.
Instead it succumbed to its blindness for rigid narrow parochial interests.
If Malaysia is an Islamic state, which Islamic party do we trust then?
AAB told a forum on economic development that Muslim nations would see peace and stability only when justice and the rule of law were in place and women were fully empowered.
‘… justice and the rule of law …’ – hmmm …
He sang out that "Justice, the rule of law, participatory governance, respect for the rights of all, Muslims as well as non-Muslims, and women as well as men ... These were all hallmarks of Islamic governance and civilisation."
Well …
Continuing he admitted: "These virtues have dulled in parts of the Muslim world today. We will not become fully developed until we have restored them."
It’s well and good for AAB to sing those motherhood statements but … alas, what more can I say.
Oh, by the way a ‘motherhood statement’ is, according to the dictionary, a ‘feel good’ platitude, usually (and bloody frequently) uttered by a politician, about a worthy concept that few people would disagree with, but without any specified plans for realisation.
What about the other Malaysian Islamic party then?
PAS itself knows if it wants to be the ruling party it has to gain the trust and votes of the non Muslims. Its biggest boast thus far has been its tolerance of the Buddha statue in Kelantan.
Yes, in the past couple of years it has tried but each time when one imagined for an instant that it might just be succeeding the party would revert to its old misogynist intolerant blind self. It’s a party so prone to implosion. Such a shame, for I have PAS friends whom I respect greatly, like my brother mahaguru58.
Talking about its ‘blindness’ or in fact, I think would be better termed as, its lack of moral courage and religious conviction, let’s examine the case of the Mufti of Perak.
That man committed seditious action that nearly resulted in inter-religious inter-ethnic violence. And the cruel shame of this man, who is supposed to be a father figure among the Islamic community of Perak, had been his actions were based on a pack of nonsense. There wasn’t an iota of substance in his allegations which sent a mob to confront some unsuspecting Christians at a church, with nearly dire consequences.
He shamefully disgraced Islam. But he is still a state Mufti, can you beat that!
So did PAS as the so-called party that promotes Islam and its teachings and values take action to recommend to the Sultan of Perak that the man who shamed Islam be sacked?
No, it did nothing.
Instead when the FT Gerakan Party tried to do what no Islamic based party had bothered to do - in other words the Islamic parties, PAS and UMNO were condoning a blasphemous action by the Mufti - what did PAS do?
It attacked Gerakan, demanding that Gerakan stay out of an Islamic area, but forgetting of course that the person in the 'Islamic area' had initiated actions 'outside the Islamic area' that could have perpetrated violence on non Muslims. And it has been precisely that which rendered non Muslims every right to initiate action against the Mufti, since no Islamic party wanted to do it.
PAS showed its double standard when its FT acting youth chief Kamaruzaman Mohamad remarked, with great irony that he obviously didn’t realise:
“This is a sensitive issue among Muslims that can stir discord among various groups.”
"... stir discord among various groups ..."? Did he say that?
Yes, ‘twas exactly the Mufti who did that, nearly causing a racial religious riot with his irresponsible rumour mongering. And what did PAS do? Zilch, nada, zero action!
I had then blogged:
Why shouldn’t the Mufti be sacked for seditious agitation? And why hasn't PAS initiate the demand for that to preserve the whole matter within the Muslim community?
In the end, PAS is no better than UMNO, exploiting religion for its own grubby political benefit instead of seeing to the justice that Allah (swt) intends for the Muslims to practice.
If I am kind, I would just say that PAS’ stand is a case of not seeing the wood for the trees. But if I want to be nasty, I would declare it as not unlike the moral in my poem Magic of the 100th name of God, where God is incidental, but Man’s interest reigns supreme.
PAS had missed the greatest opportunity for it to show Malaysians that it is truly a God-fearing party, and would apply Islamic standards of justice, compassion and good governance without fear or favour.
Instead it succumbed to its blindness for rigid narrow parochial interests.
If Malaysia is an Islamic state, which Islamic party do we trust then?
Saturday, September 01, 2007
Banana leaf war?
Seditious SMS-ing (no, this time not initiated by the Mufti of Perak), marginalised Malaysians, even 'forgotten' Malaysians, dengue fever killing 75 ... etc
Now, as if those weren't enough bad news, malaysiakini has alerted us to another annoying happening
It seems that an email by an anonymous writer, calling himself MJH, has warned Muslims not to patronise Indian restaurants because of the Hindu practice of sprinkling komiyal and bibuthi (both of yucky bovine origin) on the premises of newly-acquired property for purification purposes, blessings, and to ward off evil.
MJH also claimed that some Hindu-owned restaurants that practice the rite serve cuisine usually associated with Indian Muslim restaurants and use Malay-sounding names in order to 'confuse' and bring in Muslim customers
Wah, Hindu nak tipu buah mamak ka ... according to the Gospel by MJH lah.
MJH claimed to be a 'director' of 'Public Relations and Media Communications' division of the Muslim Consumers' Association of Malaysia (PPIM).
He (MJH) even said: "It is not the intention of PPIM to incite hatred among the various racial and religious communities in Malaysia."
Of course not, silly, it's just a matter of agama (religion or in the Malaysian context, Islam).
Indeed, MJH declared that the motto of "Muslim businesses come first" should be "our practice."
... and why should we be surprised!
When contacted, PPIM spokesperson Noor-Nirwandy Mat Noordin denied the group had ever issued such a statement or e-mail.
Noor asserted: "We do not even have such a division for 'public relations and media communications."
He was annoyed that the association's name had been used without authorisation, but that PPIM will not be lodging a police report on the matter.
Why, that’s nice – best policy is to just ignore that bovine rubbish, more commonly known as 'bullsh*t'!
Oh, talking about PPIM or the Muslim Consumers' Association of Malaysia, I seem to recall that its secretary-general, Maamor Osman, asked for the film Evan Almighty to be banned because he considered it as an insult to Islam.
The film was of course a comedy so naturally it’s scripted to be funny, but Maamor alleged the film pokes fun at God and the Prophet Noah.
But all’s well that ended well because Cultural Minister Rais Yatim torpedo-ed - hope Noah (pbuh) would excuse me, pun not intended - that proposal.
One sweet lady ;-) reminded me that the PPIM were the ones who complained about the ice cream cookies which purportedly had a cross on them. Ah, vigilant Islamic warriors - hmmm, I wonder whether those cookies were made by Christians or Hindus
PPIM has now somehow gained a naughty foothold on my recollection of such events that have been associated with intrepid but imprudent Islamic intolerance - oh dearie dearie me.
But thank goodness, it’s obvious they weren’t responsible at all for the latest email bullsh*t. Indeed, how dare that naughty MJH had dared misuse the PPIM’s name for a seditious act to incite either religious ill feelings or commercial sabotage of Hindu catering business.
Aiyah, too much blogging and suddenly I feel hungry and ready for banana leaf kari nasi lah! And maybe an ice cream cookie as dessert, and then a movie?
Now, as if those weren't enough bad news, malaysiakini has alerted us to another annoying happening
It seems that an email by an anonymous writer, calling himself MJH, has warned Muslims not to patronise Indian restaurants because of the Hindu practice of sprinkling komiyal and bibuthi (both of yucky bovine origin) on the premises of newly-acquired property for purification purposes, blessings, and to ward off evil.
MJH also claimed that some Hindu-owned restaurants that practice the rite serve cuisine usually associated with Indian Muslim restaurants and use Malay-sounding names in order to 'confuse' and bring in Muslim customers
Wah, Hindu nak tipu buah mamak ka ... according to the Gospel by MJH lah.
MJH claimed to be a 'director' of 'Public Relations and Media Communications' division of the Muslim Consumers' Association of Malaysia (PPIM).
He (MJH) even said: "It is not the intention of PPIM to incite hatred among the various racial and religious communities in Malaysia."
Of course not, silly, it's just a matter of agama (religion or in the Malaysian context, Islam).
Indeed, MJH declared that the motto of "Muslim businesses come first" should be "our practice."
... and why should we be surprised!
When contacted, PPIM spokesperson Noor-Nirwandy Mat Noordin denied the group had ever issued such a statement or e-mail.
Noor asserted: "We do not even have such a division for 'public relations and media communications."
He was annoyed that the association's name had been used without authorisation, but that PPIM will not be lodging a police report on the matter.
Why, that’s nice – best policy is to just ignore that bovine rubbish, more commonly known as 'bullsh*t'!
Oh, talking about PPIM or the Muslim Consumers' Association of Malaysia, I seem to recall that its secretary-general, Maamor Osman, asked for the film Evan Almighty to be banned because he considered it as an insult to Islam.
The film was of course a comedy so naturally it’s scripted to be funny, but Maamor alleged the film pokes fun at God and the Prophet Noah.
But all’s well that ended well because Cultural Minister Rais Yatim torpedo-ed - hope Noah (pbuh) would excuse me, pun not intended - that proposal.
One sweet lady ;-) reminded me that the PPIM were the ones who complained about the ice cream cookies which purportedly had a cross on them. Ah, vigilant Islamic warriors - hmmm, I wonder whether those cookies were made by Christians or Hindus
PPIM has now somehow gained a naughty foothold on my recollection of such events that have been associated with intrepid but imprudent Islamic intolerance - oh dearie dearie me.
But thank goodness, it’s obvious they weren’t responsible at all for the latest email bullsh*t. Indeed, how dare that naughty MJH had dared misuse the PPIM’s name for a seditious act to incite either religious ill feelings or commercial sabotage of Hindu catering business.
Aiyah, too much blogging and suddenly I feel hungry and ready for banana leaf kari nasi lah! And maybe an ice cream cookie as dessert, and then a movie?
KTemoc's No 1 priority - Fight crime!
Yesterday was a day of meditation for me, reflecting and focussing on peace. Kaytee is not an unreasonable man, and only wants his nation, our nation, to be a law abiding nation, meaning it’s not only the rakyat who should be law abiding but the leaders too.
Day before yesterday, in a moment of frustration I posted What would I say for Merdeka!, implying I, kaytee the aethist, would be more than ready to settle for an Islamic state in Malaysia if I can be confident that through obedience to Allah swt or God (and aren’t they the same?) we can and would rid our country of corruption, crimes and cronyism.
I had a day to think over, and still affirm to that. However … yes, a big big big however ... I am not even sure we have the leadership, the moral discipline and obedience to Allah swt or God, and the purity of our piety towards Him swt, nay, not in our current corp of political leadership on both sides of the fence, to purge our great country from the triads of corruption, crimes and cronyism.
It’s a long way to ... no, not Tipperary, but ... Utopia, so we need to settle for a more practical model.
Malaysia is not a bad country, much as I and you raved and ranted when we are angry at the ruling party's blatant disregard for law and order, at arrogant dismissal of due process and non transparent non accountability.
However, Malaysia is approaching the critical stage when it slides from being 'acceptable' to 'deplorable' to a state where the law of the jungle prevails..
Yes, we hear of seditious SMS-ing from malaysiakini, of an alleged impending racial riot down south. Perhaps mischief-making as an expression of hopeless frustration?
This time the police acted with alacrity and arrested some inciters, unlike their slothful stuporous conduct when the Mufti of Perak did the same seditious incitement.
Malaysian leaders, especially those of the ruling party, and not excluding some in opposition, are themselves not ready for democracy or democratic reforms. They still hold fast to the Hang Tuah era mentality, where the 'Sultan' could do what he likes, wants or wishes. To them, democratic process is a cussed western concept, something they have to pretend to follow, to exploit, in order to maintain their continued leadership. The rewards are obvious.
And we are much aware of Mao Tse Tung’s dictum that ‘power comes from the barrel of the gun’, and guess who has the ‘gun’.
So, as always, I am prepared to have half a loaf than none, half a glass of water is half full and not half empty, my three bowls of rice.
But we need some quid pro quo from the ruling party – we want crime to be the first to go!
The IGP has shown poor performance as the nation’s No 1 law officer, where crime rates have shot up to an all time high under his stewardship.
Notwithstanding his tenure as the IGP has been illogically, inexplicably and dodgily extended by the PM, he still must go.
We cannot live in a country where the law abiding citizens cower in constant fear of criminals, even foreign ones who roam the land as if they are in their fiefdom, perhaps even abetted by law officers under the employment of the Malaysian public.
We cannot have illegal visitors robbing and murdering our people. We cannot accept African visitors dragging innocent women away to serve as sex slaves for their beastly sexual gratification without the police apprehending them or ensuring justice is served.
We have become hostages of crimes in our own country. Where then and what use then, is having a police force?
The IGP must answer satisfactorily or go – the PM must make him!
Or, my vote goes to the opposition, any opposition party!
Day before yesterday, in a moment of frustration I posted What would I say for Merdeka!, implying I, kaytee the aethist, would be more than ready to settle for an Islamic state in Malaysia if I can be confident that through obedience to Allah swt or God (and aren’t they the same?) we can and would rid our country of corruption, crimes and cronyism.
I had a day to think over, and still affirm to that. However … yes, a big big big however ... I am not even sure we have the leadership, the moral discipline and obedience to Allah swt or God, and the purity of our piety towards Him swt, nay, not in our current corp of political leadership on both sides of the fence, to purge our great country from the triads of corruption, crimes and cronyism.
It’s a long way to ... no, not Tipperary, but ... Utopia, so we need to settle for a more practical model.
Malaysia is not a bad country, much as I and you raved and ranted when we are angry at the ruling party's blatant disregard for law and order, at arrogant dismissal of due process and non transparent non accountability.
However, Malaysia is approaching the critical stage when it slides from being 'acceptable' to 'deplorable' to a state where the law of the jungle prevails..
Yes, we hear of seditious SMS-ing from malaysiakini, of an alleged impending racial riot down south. Perhaps mischief-making as an expression of hopeless frustration?
This time the police acted with alacrity and arrested some inciters, unlike their slothful stuporous conduct when the Mufti of Perak did the same seditious incitement.
Malaysian leaders, especially those of the ruling party, and not excluding some in opposition, are themselves not ready for democracy or democratic reforms. They still hold fast to the Hang Tuah era mentality, where the 'Sultan' could do what he likes, wants or wishes. To them, democratic process is a cussed western concept, something they have to pretend to follow, to exploit, in order to maintain their continued leadership. The rewards are obvious.
And we are much aware of Mao Tse Tung’s dictum that ‘power comes from the barrel of the gun’, and guess who has the ‘gun’.
So, as always, I am prepared to have half a loaf than none, half a glass of water is half full and not half empty, my three bowls of rice.
But we need some quid pro quo from the ruling party – we want crime to be the first to go!
The IGP has shown poor performance as the nation’s No 1 law officer, where crime rates have shot up to an all time high under his stewardship.
Notwithstanding his tenure as the IGP has been illogically, inexplicably and dodgily extended by the PM, he still must go.
We cannot live in a country where the law abiding citizens cower in constant fear of criminals, even foreign ones who roam the land as if they are in their fiefdom, perhaps even abetted by law officers under the employment of the Malaysian public.
We cannot have illegal visitors robbing and murdering our people. We cannot accept African visitors dragging innocent women away to serve as sex slaves for their beastly sexual gratification without the police apprehending them or ensuring justice is served.
We have become hostages of crimes in our own country. Where then and what use then, is having a police force?
The IGP must answer satisfactorily or go – the PM must make him!
Or, my vote goes to the opposition, any opposition party!
Thursday, August 30, 2007
What would I say for Merdeka!
Were I to choose, were I to be asked
What I think of a malaysiakini report
Of Malaysia being an Islamic state, but
Where its leaders are free of corruption
Fine shining examples, paragons of virtue
A nation clean in every respect and aspect
Where no corruption would be tolerated
Where the police is trusted by its citizens
Where the rakyat has faith in its judiciary
And the head of the anti-corruption, yes
Is free of blemish like a cut blue diamond
I would say aye aye aye on Merdeka day
Were I to choose, were I to be asked
Would I could live in theocratic Malaysia
A country ruled by pious men of worth
Who do not hunt down worried women
Earning a pittance of RM300 per month
To fine them RM50 for forgetting to don
Their tudung to exemplify their superficial
Piety, which does not come from the heart
But from fear of zealots driven by power
Leaders who should be more concerned of
The stench of corruption than faint perfume
I would say ya ya ya on Merdeka Day
Were I to choose, were I to be asked
What Malaysia I want for the future
I would look to Heaven, for an answer
For hell on earth we have now, in this once
Paradise of us, raped by greedy charlatans
False impious messiahs, hungry maggots
Feasting on corruption, and unholy pillage
Raping the land and its forests, polluting
Its once pristine rivers, dirtying its air
Marginalising more of its weak and poor
Dividing its rakyat for the leaders' interests
I would say clean up all the rot for Merdeka
What I think of a malaysiakini report
Of Malaysia being an Islamic state, but
Where its leaders are free of corruption
Fine shining examples, paragons of virtue
A nation clean in every respect and aspect
Where no corruption would be tolerated
Where the police is trusted by its citizens
Where the rakyat has faith in its judiciary
And the head of the anti-corruption, yes
Is free of blemish like a cut blue diamond
I would say aye aye aye on Merdeka day
Were I to choose, were I to be asked
Would I could live in theocratic Malaysia
A country ruled by pious men of worth
Who do not hunt down worried women
Earning a pittance of RM300 per month
To fine them RM50 for forgetting to don
Their tudung to exemplify their superficial
Piety, which does not come from the heart
But from fear of zealots driven by power
Leaders who should be more concerned of
The stench of corruption than faint perfume
I would say ya ya ya on Merdeka Day
Were I to choose, were I to be asked
What Malaysia I want for the future
I would look to Heaven, for an answer
For hell on earth we have now, in this once
Paradise of us, raped by greedy charlatans
False impious messiahs, hungry maggots
Feasting on corruption, and unholy pillage
Raping the land and its forests, polluting
Its once pristine rivers, dirtying its air
Marginalising more of its weak and poor
Dividing its rakyat for the leaders' interests
I would say clean up all the rot for Merdeka
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
What is a BN politician?
Two crocodiles were sitting at the side of the swamp near the lake in Putra Jaya.
The smaller one turned to the bigger one and said, "I can't understand how you can be so much bigger than me. We're the same age, we were the same size as kids. I just don't get it."
"Well," said the big Croc, "what have you been eating?"
"Politicians, same as you," replied the small 'Croc.
"Hmmm, which type?”
“BN of course, those fat cats. What did you think ... DAP? Nah, they are too scrawny!”
"Well, where do you catch them?"
"Down the other side of the swamp near the parking lot by the Parliament House."
“Same here. Hmmm. How do you catch them?"
"Well, I crawl up under one of their Lexus or Mercedes cars and wait for one to unlock the car door. Then I jump out, grab them by the leg, shake the shit out of them and eat 'em!"
"Ah!" says the big crocodile, "I think I see your problem. You're not getting any real nourishment. See, by the time you finish shaking the shit out of a BN politician, there's nothing left but an asshole and a briefcase."
kaytee's note: thinking of sending this as a letter to malaysiakini ;-)
The smaller one turned to the bigger one and said, "I can't understand how you can be so much bigger than me. We're the same age, we were the same size as kids. I just don't get it."
"Well," said the big Croc, "what have you been eating?"
"Politicians, same as you," replied the small 'Croc.
"Hmmm, which type?”
“BN of course, those fat cats. What did you think ... DAP? Nah, they are too scrawny!”
"Well, where do you catch them?"
"Down the other side of the swamp near the parking lot by the Parliament House."
“Same here. Hmmm. How do you catch them?"
"Well, I crawl up under one of their Lexus or Mercedes cars and wait for one to unlock the car door. Then I jump out, grab them by the leg, shake the shit out of them and eat 'em!"
"Ah!" says the big crocodile, "I think I see your problem. You're not getting any real nourishment. See, by the time you finish shaking the shit out of a BN politician, there's nothing left but an asshole and a briefcase."
kaytee's note: thinking of sending this as a letter to malaysiakini ;-)
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
AAB's Islamic state or country - depends on your preference
Assalamualaikum, my fellow Malaysians.
Today, we are informed by malaysiakini that our dear PM AAB has declared our nation an Islamic state (or country?).
AAB replied in Parliament to a question by Opposition Leader, Lim KS that: “Malaysia is an Islamic state which is administered based on the principles of Islam and at the same time adheres to the principles of parliamentary democracy guided by the highest law of the land - the Federal Constitution.”
However, malaysiakini cautioned that AAB could have meant that Malaysia was an ‘Islamic country’ as opposed to an ‘Islamic state’ as his statement was in Bahasa Malaysia and ‘negara Islam’ could be translated into either, with 'Islamic state' meaning that all laws in the nation are based on Islamic principles, while 'Islamic country' merely indicates the fact that the majority of the people living in Malaysia are Muslims.
The recent proposal to replace 'common laws' with syariah laws by the Chief Justice, a person who couldn't even ensure his judges deliver their written judgements yet could somehow find time to indulge in tampering with a proven system, has added extra fuel to the issue - see Chief Justice adopting Syariah laws for civil courts by stealth?.
Needless to say, AAB's declaration today - basically contradicting his earlier pronouncement that Malaysia was neither an Islamic nor secular state - has caused quite a flurry, and depending on your politico-religious proclivity, you could be delirious with happiness (or frustrated with AAB stealing the thunder away from PAS), or scared, pissed, angry and whatever if you are a non-Muslim.
As I had blogged in The Debate on the Malaysian Islamic State almost 4 weeks ago, I read with regret in malaysiakini that the Islamic debate continues, in many ways ‘pursued’ relentlessly by the opposition parties, particularly the DAP.
Mind you I can understand why the DAP has done so, considering that recently DPM Najib had surprised us by declaring Malaysia an Islamic state (or country?) at an UMNO forum.
As I said, I personally don’t see any benefit in pursuing this line of argument, but then who cares about what kaytee thinks!
I also mentioned that the occasional invocation of this reminder (that Malaysia is an Islamic State) has become a convenient and regular UMNO political tactic to outflank PAS from making any significant inroads into UMNO’s constituency.
We also know that the election, as I forecast in:
(1) KTemoc predicts November General Election
(2) November General Elections - More Indications
… which would spurred UMNO, and now AAB, to push this 'Islamic state' (or country?) line even more.
Let me put it this way, if push comes to shove, AAB or Najib will ensure that UMNO says anything just to outflank PAS anytime than accommodate a strident demanding morally and legally correct DAP.
On this issue, it’s no longer about right or wrong – it’s about ‘might is right’ and UMNO, who has the 'might', is prepared to ride roughshod over non-Muslim feelings in order to survive its political future against PAS and PKR – and tough luck to its MCA and Gerakan allies – the MIC doesn’t matter anyway.
So, with the DAP pushing UMNO into a corner, we shouldn't be surprised at all that AAB has made this public declaration. It's the inevitable outcome of a combination of UMNO's political survival and AAB's Malay macho-ness.
Be angry, be riled, be pissed but that’s a fact of life. You don’t like it and neither do I, and we can vote against the MCA or Gerakan, but UMNO will nonetheless proceed down this path to its eventual win over its Islamic rivals.
I had blogged that non-Muslim Malaysians who encounter such UMNO assertions, would fall into mainly three groups:
(1) Those who know what UMNO was doing has been politics to neutralize a more frightening (to them) PAS.
(2) Those who won’t countenance any creative modification to the Constitution, that Islam is only the official religion in a secular Malaysia.
(3) Those who fall somewhere between groups 1 and 2, but who would speak out against the idea of Malaysia being an Islamic state because of the fear of ‘give one cm, they take one metre’ by the Muslims who assert such a State. They have seen the zealots gradually dominating the Islamisation program with greater zeal than is comfortable.
But in the end, did AAB mean Malaysia is an ‘Islamic state’ or Islamic country’?
The DAP will cry out it’s the former, while PAS will join MCA, Gerakan and MIC ;-) in saying AAB means the latter, for their own individual interests.
And PKR … ?
I really don’t know about what PKR will say about AAB’s declaration. Maybe its de facto leader is still weighing the pros and cons. Besides, he's busy with the Makkal Osai controversy.
May peace be upon thee, my brothers and sisters.
Today, we are informed by malaysiakini that our dear PM AAB has declared our nation an Islamic state (or country?).
AAB replied in Parliament to a question by Opposition Leader, Lim KS that: “Malaysia is an Islamic state which is administered based on the principles of Islam and at the same time adheres to the principles of parliamentary democracy guided by the highest law of the land - the Federal Constitution.”
However, malaysiakini cautioned that AAB could have meant that Malaysia was an ‘Islamic country’ as opposed to an ‘Islamic state’ as his statement was in Bahasa Malaysia and ‘negara Islam’ could be translated into either, with 'Islamic state' meaning that all laws in the nation are based on Islamic principles, while 'Islamic country' merely indicates the fact that the majority of the people living in Malaysia are Muslims.
The recent proposal to replace 'common laws' with syariah laws by the Chief Justice, a person who couldn't even ensure his judges deliver their written judgements yet could somehow find time to indulge in tampering with a proven system, has added extra fuel to the issue - see Chief Justice adopting Syariah laws for civil courts by stealth?.
Needless to say, AAB's declaration today - basically contradicting his earlier pronouncement that Malaysia was neither an Islamic nor secular state - has caused quite a flurry, and depending on your politico-religious proclivity, you could be delirious with happiness (or frustrated with AAB stealing the thunder away from PAS), or scared, pissed, angry and whatever if you are a non-Muslim.
As I had blogged in The Debate on the Malaysian Islamic State almost 4 weeks ago, I read with regret in malaysiakini that the Islamic debate continues, in many ways ‘pursued’ relentlessly by the opposition parties, particularly the DAP.
Mind you I can understand why the DAP has done so, considering that recently DPM Najib had surprised us by declaring Malaysia an Islamic state (or country?) at an UMNO forum.
As I said, I personally don’t see any benefit in pursuing this line of argument, but then who cares about what kaytee thinks!
I also mentioned that the occasional invocation of this reminder (that Malaysia is an Islamic State) has become a convenient and regular UMNO political tactic to outflank PAS from making any significant inroads into UMNO’s constituency.
We also know that the election, as I forecast in:
(1) KTemoc predicts November General Election
(2) November General Elections - More Indications
… which would spurred UMNO, and now AAB, to push this 'Islamic state' (or country?) line even more.
Let me put it this way, if push comes to shove, AAB or Najib will ensure that UMNO says anything just to outflank PAS anytime than accommodate a strident demanding morally and legally correct DAP.
On this issue, it’s no longer about right or wrong – it’s about ‘might is right’ and UMNO, who has the 'might', is prepared to ride roughshod over non-Muslim feelings in order to survive its political future against PAS and PKR – and tough luck to its MCA and Gerakan allies – the MIC doesn’t matter anyway.
So, with the DAP pushing UMNO into a corner, we shouldn't be surprised at all that AAB has made this public declaration. It's the inevitable outcome of a combination of UMNO's political survival and AAB's Malay macho-ness.
Be angry, be riled, be pissed but that’s a fact of life. You don’t like it and neither do I, and we can vote against the MCA or Gerakan, but UMNO will nonetheless proceed down this path to its eventual win over its Islamic rivals.
I had blogged that non-Muslim Malaysians who encounter such UMNO assertions, would fall into mainly three groups:
(1) Those who know what UMNO was doing has been politics to neutralize a more frightening (to them) PAS.
(2) Those who won’t countenance any creative modification to the Constitution, that Islam is only the official religion in a secular Malaysia.
(3) Those who fall somewhere between groups 1 and 2, but who would speak out against the idea of Malaysia being an Islamic state because of the fear of ‘give one cm, they take one metre’ by the Muslims who assert such a State. They have seen the zealots gradually dominating the Islamisation program with greater zeal than is comfortable.
But in the end, did AAB mean Malaysia is an ‘Islamic state’ or Islamic country’?
The DAP will cry out it’s the former, while PAS will join MCA, Gerakan and MIC ;-) in saying AAB means the latter, for their own individual interests.
And PKR … ?
I really don’t know about what PKR will say about AAB’s declaration. Maybe its de facto leader is still weighing the pros and cons. Besides, he's busy with the Makkal Osai controversy.
May peace be upon thee, my brothers and sisters.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Sexual predators
In malaysiakini today, the article on The ugly side of a beauty pageant tells of the exploitation of contestants who were allegedly treated like slaves and made to work like robots. They were not even provided proper food and accommodation.
One of the contestants claimed (and collaborated by two others) that the organisers made all the contestants work for 16 hours a day without payment throughout their three-week stay.
She averred: “The organisers got funding from different sponsors who want their products to be advertised by the contestants.
“So they get all these pretty young girls from all over the world who are so desperate to make it big in the modelling world and who are willing to do anything to get one of the titles, to advertise these products.”
A former beauty contestant told malaysiakini that 'sexual innuendos, insinuations and harassment' are common in such pageants.
She revealed: “These complaints rarely come out. I don’t know why. Maybe we have become used to this. As I see it, this business is just like a flesh trade. We are used in various ways, all in the name of (appreciating) beauty. In reality we are just made-up glamour dolls …”
Well, it’s not just contestants of beauty pageants who have been sexually harassed. In various organisations and government departments women have been and probably are still sexually harassed, with a few cases going on to rape.
Unfortunately, very few of these abuses have been reported. In Malaysia there is a an unfair social stigma attached to women who had been abused, as if they were the culprits rather than the victims.
Our terrible male macho ‘bocor’ and ‘gatal’ mentality believes that the women must have been the provocateur, the Delilah, the temptress to entice the poor innocent men into aroused attacks.
I have heard horror stories from my uncles and their friends who served in the Armed Services, of such incidents where sexual harassments and abuses were perpetrated on female members.
Even the Fourth Estate has its share of such cowards, people in senior positions who preyed on junior female staff members.
The elements are usually the same, namely, an unscrupulous predatory senior male staff member, a (usually new) junior female staff member, opportunity for the bastard, fear of dismissal by the victim or embarrassment at the likely social stigma or that no one would believe her (or want to believe her), and the worst, an apathetic attitude by those other staff members who know what had happened or even what's happening, but pretend not to, minding their own business to protect their own career.
The triple threats of social stigma, dismissal, or organizational ostracism (putting an end to career progression) have allowed those bastards to get away with all sorts of unmitigated sexual abuses or worse, even rape.
Some men (of a certain ilk) are more prone to abusing women sexually, thinking in their perverted minds that her smile had been an invitation for unrestrained rubba rubba, and even to take it far beyond.
And mind you, these are educated men in high position. The sad irony is that women are probably more likely to be safer with far more honourable hawkers, clerks or labourers.
One of the contestants claimed (and collaborated by two others) that the organisers made all the contestants work for 16 hours a day without payment throughout their three-week stay.
She averred: “The organisers got funding from different sponsors who want their products to be advertised by the contestants.
“So they get all these pretty young girls from all over the world who are so desperate to make it big in the modelling world and who are willing to do anything to get one of the titles, to advertise these products.”
A former beauty contestant told malaysiakini that 'sexual innuendos, insinuations and harassment' are common in such pageants.
She revealed: “These complaints rarely come out. I don’t know why. Maybe we have become used to this. As I see it, this business is just like a flesh trade. We are used in various ways, all in the name of (appreciating) beauty. In reality we are just made-up glamour dolls …”
Well, it’s not just contestants of beauty pageants who have been sexually harassed. In various organisations and government departments women have been and probably are still sexually harassed, with a few cases going on to rape.
Unfortunately, very few of these abuses have been reported. In Malaysia there is a an unfair social stigma attached to women who had been abused, as if they were the culprits rather than the victims.
Our terrible male macho ‘bocor’ and ‘gatal’ mentality believes that the women must have been the provocateur, the Delilah, the temptress to entice the poor innocent men into aroused attacks.
I have heard horror stories from my uncles and their friends who served in the Armed Services, of such incidents where sexual harassments and abuses were perpetrated on female members.
Even the Fourth Estate has its share of such cowards, people in senior positions who preyed on junior female staff members.
The elements are usually the same, namely, an unscrupulous predatory senior male staff member, a (usually new) junior female staff member, opportunity for the bastard, fear of dismissal by the victim or embarrassment at the likely social stigma or that no one would believe her (or want to believe her), and the worst, an apathetic attitude by those other staff members who know what had happened or even what's happening, but pretend not to, minding their own business to protect their own career.
The triple threats of social stigma, dismissal, or organizational ostracism (putting an end to career progression) have allowed those bastards to get away with all sorts of unmitigated sexual abuses or worse, even rape.
Some men (of a certain ilk) are more prone to abusing women sexually, thinking in their perverted minds that her smile had been an invitation for unrestrained rubba rubba, and even to take it far beyond.
And mind you, these are educated men in high position. The sad irony is that women are probably more likely to be safer with far more honourable hawkers, clerks or labourers.
God's American Prophet
"And when the LORD thy God hath delivered it into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword"
- (Deuteronomy 20:13)
Thought I might start with a wee Old Testatment comforting words on such a religious matter.
In my previous post Malaysian Christian Taliban? I expressed my shock at one Steve Oh making such a drastic attack in his letter to malaysiakini on a marginalised group, the gay community.
Oh had spat out venomously: "My second matter relates to the attempts to turn Christianity into some kind of gay circus. The apologists and ‘spinmeisters’ for a gay church paint those who oppose their heresy as unthinking, unkind and uncool Christians who don't know what they are opposing."
"... gay church ..."?
If Steve Oh had taken pains to read a malaysiakini news report on Ouyang Wen Feng, his so-called Christian eyes might have read that Ouyang "... hopes to become a member of the clergy in 2010 and plans to set up a Christian gay community by then."
That was that - (1) Ouyang wants to be a cleric, (2) he plans to set up a Christian gay community!
Steve Oh had allowed his narrow mind to leap to prejudiced conclusion that Ouyang wants to be a cleric only for gays. Well, balderdash, bullsh*t and bugger off. His invincible homophobia is in sheer conflict with Christian values, which he professed to be protecting.
It's people like Steve Oh who gives Christianity a bad Taliban-ish name. Yes, Taliban-ism is not just a monopoly of Muslim fanatics. Unfortunately religious extremism and intolerance exist in Christianity, Judaism (Rabbi Yousef Falay, Baruch Goldstein), Hinduism (whose fanatics burned alive an Australian Christian missionary and his children in a car in India), etc.
Back to Steve Oh's homophobia - In Australia, one of the most respected judges, a man held in high esteem and affection by the public, is Michael Kirby, who has been open about his homosexuality since 1999, when he outed himself in Australia's Who's Who by naming newsagent Johan van Vloten as his long-term partner.
Wikipedia has Judge Kirby saying: "The movement for equality is unstoppable. Its message will eventually reach the four corners of the world."
One of Kirby's most high-profile critics is Liberal senator Bill Heffernan, a close lieutenant of PM John Howard. In 2002, Heffernan used parliamentary privilege to accuse Kirby of trawling for rent boys. However, the evidence Heffernan produced to support this claim was swiftly discovered to be a forgery.
When Heffernan eventually apologised for these allegations, Kirby promptly responded: "I accept Senator Heffernan's apology and reach out my hand in a spirit of reconciliation. I hope my ordeal will show the wrongs that hate of homosexuals can lead to."
And I hope Steve Oh may regain his Christian tolerance and love that his Saviour had imparted to him through Christian teachings.
Also in my previous post on issue, I made the statement:
And I would tell Steve Oh to stop speaking on behalf of God, who incidentally has refused to talk to anyone since Yeshua ben Yusuf died on the cross for humanity, including unfortunately Steve Oh and his ilk.
Well, visitor Anon No 1 to my blog left a comment complaining that I overdid/sensationalise my criticism by describing Oh as a Christian Taliban, to which I replied:
The term Taliban has come to signify anyone religiously intolerant. KT doesn't like such intolerant bullies, regardless of their religious affiliation. So the tiltle is not sensational but rather, quite appropriate.
Then Anon No 2 (can't tell whether he/she is same Anon - doesn't matter) said: KT claims he/she doesn't like "intolerant bullies", but KT himself/herself insults Christian experience by claiming that God "has refused to talk to anyone" since the crucifixion. why can't KT practise tolerance before railing against others?
Well, Anon, according to Judeo-Christian beliefs, God only talks to/through his prophets – any Christian prophets since Christ?
But wait - actually I was wrong on two counts.
One, I was of course referring to the Christian world which I failed to qualify, though the title of my posting was clear it was about a Christian Taliban - I’ll come back to the Christian world shortly. In the Islamic world, the last prophet was of course Prophet Mohamad (pbuh) who came after Jesus Christ (peace also be unto his name).
Two, I could be wrong on a second count in suggesting that there were no more Christian prophet after Christ.
Actually there is one modern day prophet and he lives in the USA. His name is Pat Robertson, a Christian evangelist. Robertson tells his parish that God talks to him, regularly too, which I suppose makes him a modern day Christian prophet.
I don’t know how I could have missed him because I had blogged on him several times, as follows:
(1) Bush Condones US Talibans
(2) Evangelist called Prophet Muhammad a Robber & Brigand
(3) Christian Evangelist says "Kill Chavez!"
(4) Terrorist State Harbouring Terrorists?
(5) US evangelists: "Screw democracy"
There is an article in mediamatters.org/items/200501040010 (sorry, can’t give you the link in my usual way because I am using a friend’s PC and while I can google with it, I can’t open the google link except via the cached info). Anyway, here’s the cached article:
On the January 3 edition of Christian Broadcasting Network's The 700 Club, Reverend Pat Robertson, host and Christian Coalition of America founder, made predictions for the New Year based on what he said God told him during a recent prayer retreat.
Robertson said that God told him: "I will remove judges from the Supreme Court quickly, and their successors will refuse to sanction the attacks on religious faith."
Robertson also said that he "heard it from the Lord" that President Bush will have Social Security and tax reform passed and that Muslims will turn to Jesus Christ.
Robertson currently features on his official website, under the heading "Operation Supreme Court Freedom", a letter released following the June 2003 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Lawrence v. Texas that decriminalized homosexual sodomy.
"... decriminalized homosexual sodomy ..."? Good Lord (excuse my blasphemy), surely that will drive Steve Oh berserk!
In the letter, Robertson asked his supporters to pray for liberal U.S. Supreme Court Justices to retire: "Would you join with me and many others in crying out to our Lord to change the Court? ... One justice is 83 years old, another has cancer, and another has a heart condition.
Would it not be possible for God to put it in the minds of these three judges that the time has come to retire? With their retirement and the appointment of conservative judges, a massive change in federal jurisprudence can take place."
When asked to clarify his remarks, according to a July 17 Associated Press report, Robertson said that "he was not talking about any particular Supreme Court justices when he asked his television audience to pray that three liberal justices retire."
Robertson stated: "I don't care which three, I mean as long as the three conservatives stay on. ... There's six liberals, so it's up to the Lord." The AP also noted: "Justice John Paul Stevens was born in 1920 [making him 83 at the time of Robertson's remarks] and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had colon cancer surgery in 1999."
"... as long as the three conservatives stay on. ... There's six liberals, so it's up to the Lord ..." There you are - who says he is biased.
On the 700 Club broadcast, Robertson touted his 2004 New Year's prediction that President George W. Bush would win re-election by "a blowout" as an example of a past prediction that turned out to be correct.
On January 2, 2004, Robertson stated: "I think George Bush is going to win in a walk. I really believe I'm hearing from the Lord it's going to be like a blowout election in 2004. It's shaping up that way."
As Media Matters for America has noted, Bush's margin of victory was the smallest for a reelected incumbent president since Woodrow Wilson in 1916.
Other Robertson predictions have fared less well. According to a February 15, 1988, Washington Post article, Robertson said, "I heard the Lord saying 'I have something else for you to do. I want you to run for president of the United States.'"
The same article noted that during one campaign stop during the 1988 presidential race, Robertson stated: "This is where God wanted me to be. ... Here I am in New Hampshire, before a major primary."
He then said, "I assure you that I am going to be the next president of the United States," according to a February 15 Washington Post article. After trailing George H.W. Bush and Senator Bob Dole in the Republican primaries, Robertson's 1988 presidential campaign ended before the Republican convention.
A February 2004 article in Church & State magazine (published by Americans United for Separation of Church and State) noted several Robertson predictions that turned out to be false, including that Russia would invade Israel in 1982, and that there would be a worldwide economic collapse in 1985.
The article went on to mention that "In his 1991 book, The New World Order, Robertson predicted that U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller would be elected president in 1996."
Robertson's predictions for 2005:
The economy: "Again, 2005 is going to be a year of extraordinary prosperity for this nation and for CBN [Christian Broadcasting Network]. And I think the American stock market is going to surge upward, if I heard from the Lord. Again, ladies and gentlemen, don't go and buy stock on my recommendation, but that's what I feel in my heart. The Lord was saying it's going to be a super good year."
George W. Bush: "Well, the Lord has some very encouraging news for George Bush ... What I heard is that Bush is now positioned to have victory after victory and that his second term is going to be one of triumph, which is pretty strong stuff. ... He'll have Social Security reform passed. He'll have tax reform passed. He'll have conservative judges on the courts. And that basically he is positioned for a series of dramatic victories which I hope will hearten him and his advisers. They don't have to be timid in this matter because the wind is blowing at his back, and he can move forward boldly and get results."
Muslims and others turning to Jesus Christ: "In America, again if I'm hearing God right, we will see a tremendous incident of miracles in the year 2005. ... God's spirit is going to be moving in dramatic power around the world. And his spirit is going to be touching the hearts of many in the Muslim world and they will be turning to the gospel, to Jesus Christ. I think many of them already are, but this is going to be an acceleration that will really amaze the world. ... 'Revival will break out throughout the Muslim world, my [God's] truth will penetrate their hearts. The hold of that falsehood that has gripped them will be broken.'"
Terrorism and global security: "2005 will be another good year for the world. The terrorist threat will diminish. Nations will walk in peace, but it will be an illusion. The peril to Israel is greater now than it has ever been for she will be seduced into a false peace that will leave her vulnerable."
The Supreme Court: "The vendetta against religion in America is about to end. ... 'I [God] will remove judges from the Supreme Court quickly and their successors will refuse to sanction the attacks on religious faith.'"
I apologise for forgetting God's greatest Christian prophet ;-)
And if you think Pat Robertson is the only one devoted to God, think again because some Israeli military people believed in the Deuteronomic punishment for Palestinians
God related matter:
Let there by Darkness & Ignorance!
p/s Today I read that Mother Teresa had dark moments in her life which shook her faith in God - hmmm, I wonder whether she was exasperated with God for not striking down acharlatan prophet like Pat Robertson. ;-)
(1) Bush Condones US Talibans
(2) Evangelist called Prophet Muhammad a Robber & Brigand
(3) Christian Evangelist says "Kill Chavez!"
(4) Terrorist State Harbouring Terrorists?
(5) US evangelists: "Screw democracy"
There is an article in mediamatters.org/items/200501040010 (sorry, can’t give you the link in my usual way because I am using a friend’s PC and while I can google with it, I can’t open the google link except via the cached info). Anyway, here’s the cached article:
On the January 3 edition of Christian Broadcasting Network's The 700 Club, Reverend Pat Robertson, host and Christian Coalition of America founder, made predictions for the New Year based on what he said God told him during a recent prayer retreat.
Robertson said that God told him: "I will remove judges from the Supreme Court quickly, and their successors will refuse to sanction the attacks on religious faith."
Robertson also said that he "heard it from the Lord" that President Bush will have Social Security and tax reform passed and that Muslims will turn to Jesus Christ.
Robertson currently features on his official website, under the heading "Operation Supreme Court Freedom", a letter released following the June 2003 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Lawrence v. Texas that decriminalized homosexual sodomy.
"... decriminalized homosexual sodomy ..."? Good Lord (excuse my blasphemy), surely that will drive Steve Oh berserk!
In the letter, Robertson asked his supporters to pray for liberal U.S. Supreme Court Justices to retire: "Would you join with me and many others in crying out to our Lord to change the Court? ... One justice is 83 years old, another has cancer, and another has a heart condition.
Would it not be possible for God to put it in the minds of these three judges that the time has come to retire? With their retirement and the appointment of conservative judges, a massive change in federal jurisprudence can take place."
When asked to clarify his remarks, according to a July 17 Associated Press report, Robertson said that "he was not talking about any particular Supreme Court justices when he asked his television audience to pray that three liberal justices retire."
Robertson stated: "I don't care which three, I mean as long as the three conservatives stay on. ... There's six liberals, so it's up to the Lord." The AP also noted: "Justice John Paul Stevens was born in 1920 [making him 83 at the time of Robertson's remarks] and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had colon cancer surgery in 1999."
"... as long as the three conservatives stay on. ... There's six liberals, so it's up to the Lord ..." There you are - who says he is biased.
On the 700 Club broadcast, Robertson touted his 2004 New Year's prediction that President George W. Bush would win re-election by "a blowout" as an example of a past prediction that turned out to be correct.
On January 2, 2004, Robertson stated: "I think George Bush is going to win in a walk. I really believe I'm hearing from the Lord it's going to be like a blowout election in 2004. It's shaping up that way."
As Media Matters for America has noted, Bush's margin of victory was the smallest for a reelected incumbent president since Woodrow Wilson in 1916.
Other Robertson predictions have fared less well. According to a February 15, 1988, Washington Post article, Robertson said, "I heard the Lord saying 'I have something else for you to do. I want you to run for president of the United States.'"
The same article noted that during one campaign stop during the 1988 presidential race, Robertson stated: "This is where God wanted me to be. ... Here I am in New Hampshire, before a major primary."
He then said, "I assure you that I am going to be the next president of the United States," according to a February 15 Washington Post article. After trailing George H.W. Bush and Senator Bob Dole in the Republican primaries, Robertson's 1988 presidential campaign ended before the Republican convention.
A February 2004 article in Church & State magazine (published by Americans United for Separation of Church and State) noted several Robertson predictions that turned out to be false, including that Russia would invade Israel in 1982, and that there would be a worldwide economic collapse in 1985.
The article went on to mention that "In his 1991 book, The New World Order, Robertson predicted that U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller would be elected president in 1996."
Robertson's predictions for 2005:
The economy: "Again, 2005 is going to be a year of extraordinary prosperity for this nation and for CBN [Christian Broadcasting Network]. And I think the American stock market is going to surge upward, if I heard from the Lord. Again, ladies and gentlemen, don't go and buy stock on my recommendation, but that's what I feel in my heart. The Lord was saying it's going to be a super good year."
George W. Bush: "Well, the Lord has some very encouraging news for George Bush ... What I heard is that Bush is now positioned to have victory after victory and that his second term is going to be one of triumph, which is pretty strong stuff. ... He'll have Social Security reform passed. He'll have tax reform passed. He'll have conservative judges on the courts. And that basically he is positioned for a series of dramatic victories which I hope will hearten him and his advisers. They don't have to be timid in this matter because the wind is blowing at his back, and he can move forward boldly and get results."
Muslims and others turning to Jesus Christ: "In America, again if I'm hearing God right, we will see a tremendous incident of miracles in the year 2005. ... God's spirit is going to be moving in dramatic power around the world. And his spirit is going to be touching the hearts of many in the Muslim world and they will be turning to the gospel, to Jesus Christ. I think many of them already are, but this is going to be an acceleration that will really amaze the world. ... 'Revival will break out throughout the Muslim world, my [God's] truth will penetrate their hearts. The hold of that falsehood that has gripped them will be broken.'"
Terrorism and global security: "2005 will be another good year for the world. The terrorist threat will diminish. Nations will walk in peace, but it will be an illusion. The peril to Israel is greater now than it has ever been for she will be seduced into a false peace that will leave her vulnerable."
The Supreme Court: "The vendetta against religion in America is about to end. ... 'I [God] will remove judges from the Supreme Court quickly and their successors will refuse to sanction the attacks on religious faith.'"
I apologise for forgetting God's greatest Christian prophet ;-)
And if you think Pat Robertson is the only one devoted to God, think again because some Israeli military people believed in the Deuteronomic punishment for Palestinians
God related matter:
Let there by Darkness & Ignorance!
p/s Today I read that Mother Teresa had dark moments in her life which shook her faith in God - hmmm, I wonder whether she was exasperated with God for not striking down a
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