Hikayat Seri Rama in 5 scenes

Scene 1 - [Chua Soi Lek enters stage]

Seri Rama talks tough [also practise shooting an arrow at someone, so happens 'twas a DVD seller].

applause applause by Lagur-Katagina mob


Scene 2 - [Hishamuddin enters stage]

Hisham Rawana says Soi Lek Sri Rama has upset Umno Lankan leaders [tempted to wave his cakra but suppresses that urge]

boo’s by Lagur-Katagina mob


Scene 3 - [Lok Seng Kok enters stage]

MCA Lakshman fights back over ‘ketuanan Melayu Lankans’ and junior partner role

applause applause by Lagur-Katagina mob


Scene 4 - [Koh Tsu Koon enters stage]

Tsu Koon Siti Dewi backs Soi Lek Seri Rama in junior partner row
[keeps an eye on Rawana to see whether backing Seri Rama would be okay]

even Lagur-Katagina mob wakakaka


Scene 5 - [Ong Tee Keat enters stage]

Tee Keat Kumbakarna says Soi Lek Seri Rama backed ‘ketuanan Melayu Lankans’

50% Lagur-Katagina mob applause, another 50% boo


Meanwhile, Pak Haji Nik Aziz [in the audience] warns actors that Kelantan has banned the staging of the Hikayat Seri Rama.

PAS audience applause

Demi Wangsa?

Malaysiakini’s Anwar says again: No qualms with Lim as DPM reported: Anwar Ibrahim has stood by his earlier statement that a non-Malay, such as DAP advisor Lim Kit Siang, can be appointed the deputy prime minister if Pakatan Rakyat wins the next general election.

He said: "I want to ask: Why do we deny any citizen who has the ability and capability, including Lim, just because he is a Chinese? I cannot accept that.”

Anwar was responding to UMNO’s racist taunts that he was pro Chinese and marginalising PAS.

That Malaysian politics have come to a stage when the opposition leader has to defend the prospect of a Chinese being the DPM is truly sad, and an indictment on UMNO racism.

Once upon a time, so it was said, Tan Siew Sin, then Finance Minister, wanted to be DPM. But Razak denied him that, despite Tan being almost Malay. He was a peranakan but unlike Ridhuan Tee, carried himself as a Chinese Malaysian. Perhaps that worked against him.

However, Razak instructed the Armed Forces to accord Tan military compliments, meaning he was to be saluted. At that time, protocol required the military to salute only 3 civilians, namely, the PM, DPM and Defence Minister. So adding Tan Siew Sin to the list was a singular honour. But my Uncs, two of whom were officers, told me they (all officers), just to be on the safe side, saluted every minister, including Samy Vellu wakakaka.

In the meantime, our non-uniformed Wonder, Defence Minister Zahid, de Patriot extraordinaire, stated: I didn't mean to hurt non-bumi feelings, explaining his remarks in Parliament last month when he claimed the reason for low non-Malay numbers in the Armed Forces was Chinese and Indians were 'not patriotic enough'.

It’s race again. Of course the real reason is also racial, that it’s 'very difficult' for a non to get into the military, and when he/she does, to have a reasonably prospective career.

Not to be outdone, HRH the Sultan of Perak, probably the most educated royalty and one who had reached the highest judicial appointment in the land, stated at the launching of the state-level Ma'al Hijrah celebration at the Kolej Islam Darul Ridzuan hall that Malays who question special rights are traitors.

I won’t comment on the words of HRH, a most learned man. I leave that to Haris Ibrahim who posted his response in Ampun Tuanku, patek pohon derhaka.

The most succinct sentence in Haris' post has to be: I am saddened because the words attributed to my monarch suggest that His Royal Highness might have overlooked that he is monarch to all in his state, and not merely the Malays.

Like Haris, I am saddened by this continuous harping on race.

UMNO booting out MCA?

Well-known UMNO blogger Sakmongkol AK 47 otherwise known as Dato' Mohd. Ariff Sabri bin Hj. Abdul Aziz, the former ADUN of Pulau Manis, Pekan ( 2004-2008) wrote an interesting proposal in his post Give MCA the boot.

In brief, he is annoyed with MCA for not behaving like Gerakan, PPP or the other BN component parties who were/are all happy to have handouts from Taiko. I love his description of those fawning non-UMNO leaders, for example, "Koh Tsu Koon will be eternally grateful if he can have a safe seat. His loss of Penang has exposed the emptiness of his rule over Penang those years. These are the people who get wet dreams during daytime" wakakaka.

But the MCA caused him some grief. He lamented: The MCA would have none of that. They don't want UMNO to big-brother them. They want to decide equally. Chua Soi Lek's MCA flails against anything UMNO these days. Decision making at UMNO Supreme Council, the 30% wealth owned by Malays, but never on who owns the 70% wealth. Indeed with everything UMNO has accomplished, does and will do.

So why do we keep MCA around anymore? Send it to pasture and let's see what those MCA ministers without office and governmental power can do. Let's see what Ng Yen Yen can do in Raub or Leow the unhealthy health minister can do.

He also excoriated Liow Tiong Lai for failing as a Health Minister. Well, I have no quarrel with that but Dato’ should know that Liow calls Najib “our beloved PM” wakakaka, and no doubt Najib has a soft spot for Raja Bodek.

Anyway, I see two items in his article worth discussing, namely:

(1) His criticism of Chua SL attempting to question the 30% wealth allocated for Malays, but never on who owns the 70% wealth, and

(2) Booting MCA out from BN. He stated: Since the MCA cannot deliver anything to the BN, it should be let loose. Probably its time for UMNO and BN to cultivate allegiance with other Chinese centric parties. Or from the Chinese directly. They are a practical and pragmatic lot. Just show and implement what they want and MCA is irrelevant.

On his first point, I agree with him, but strictly on a qualified basis that if a proper, fair and equitable distribution of national wealth had been implemented, the Malays rightfully should get 70% and the others 30%.

But note my qualifications, “…proper, fair and equitable distribution of national wealth had been implemented …”.

The point is the above has not been achieved in the last 52 years of UMNO rule (let's not pretend it wasn't UMNO which ruled and is still ruling the country, all by itself). In the latter stages of UMNO's half century of rule, the government's policies on, and implementation in the distribution of national wealth was horrendously fraught with corruption!

Some would argue that more than 70% of the national wealth had already passed into or through Malay UMNO hands, though which particular pair or pairs of hands, well, we certainly need to ask? Would Dato’ Ariff enlighten us? After all, he is not a person who is unfamiliar with the lie[ooops, excuse my error] lay of Boleh Land.

Be that as it may, assuming hypothetically that 70% of the national wealth is in non-Malay hands, say, as examples, Vincent Tan and that bloke Liew, a developer who said the Chinese have benefitted enormously from NEP, we must then ask about their amazing good fortune to come into such wealth-making opportunities and indeed whether their affiliations have anything to do with it. C’mon Dato’, we aren’t kids who were just born yesterday and are still sucking mummy’s toes. We all know there's no such thing as a freebie in this world, and that applies as well to Vincent Tan.

Dato’, I am not supporting Chua Soi Lek in the least, but look, when he was posturing by saying things he believes would appease the Chinese voters, he actually made a motherhood statement. But like all motherhood statements, he spoke a truth where the solution may not be so easy nor likely to be achieved. Mind you, not that he really cares because as mentioned, he was merely posturing.

But to be fair to Chua, he has no choice. He knows he has to do something, anything, to be seen as ... well ... doing something or anything wakakaka, even if he has to offend UMNO, because the MCA is currently a walking dead. What is there for him or MCA to lose anyway? For Chua and his MCA, it's a case of do or die.

The reason non-Malays question the 30% for Malays is not so much they begrudge Malays receiving a fair share of the national wealth, but that this 30% represents an open cheque-book by stealth for UMNO leaders (not Malays) to plunder the national coffers.

The magic 30% has been why someone in Selangor received millions for not doing anything in a hospital project. It is also the magic that transformed a former railway gate guard into a powerful man, when he was alive, who could even own a palace, building it with all sorts of council rules being ignored or broken, and who opened satay shops in places where others couldn’t. Guess why someone could receive a RM700 million commission in a submarine deal when the Malaysian government could have save that by dealing directly with the French manufacturer?

It also explains why Malays in some parts of Kelantan still live in shacks with no electricity and young kids perilously cross broken bridges on a daily basis while on their way to school - Related: Kelantan's Bridges of Death - and the central government talks about RM5 billion ringgit building or spending millions so that a bolehnaut can live in space.



On his second point, personally I like to see UMNO kick MCA out. Maybe some good will come out for MCA members. As for Dato's suggestion that UMNO cultivates “allegiance with other Chinese centric parties. Or from the Chinese directly” well, here's what I think!

“Cultivating allegiance with other Chinese centric parties”! Oh oh Dato', did you mean the DAP that UMNO members have been accusing of being a solely Chinese party? Puhleeeze lah, surely not a sneaky attempt to enervate DAP a la what Tun Razak did to Gerakan in 1972? It'll be a mere swap of MCA for the DAP. I remember you mentioning this before, for UMNO to drop MCA and court DAP instead. Why Dato', I didn't know you're such an unfaithful flirt wakakaka. I am sure DAP people would say thanks but no thanks.

As for appealing directly to the Chinese, I believe developer Liew and Vincent Tan will give their maximum support wakakaka, but I’m not sure about the rest of the Chinese, people like Foong Ah See and brother Ah Man, who unlike Mr Liew (or probably Datuk or Tan Sri Liew) haven't benefitted from the NEP like he has - Related: 2 fallen by the wayside.

But Dato’ Ariff, you should remember (as I was informed) that there are some 60 federal seats in Peninsula, with Malay majority (hence to be likely contested by UMNO against PAS/PKR) but with significant number of Chinese voters. Alas, I know you won't like it but their polling outcomes may depend on the crucial minority Chinese votes.

Go ahead, I wish UMNO all the best.

Amnesia

From The Malaysian Insider, Najib warns of four BN diseases, stating that these would fuel hatred and anger against the government if ignored.

One was ‘amnesia’.

So Muhyiddin warned against amnesia,

and Hishamuddin reminded us against amnesia,

ditto with Chua Soi Lek - he warned against amnesia,

Me too me too, Koh Tsu Koon kong amnesia boe hoe ay,

Dei tambi, I am still president until midnight 05 December 2010, so Samy Vellu also warned against amnesia, …….. and so the boss’ warning was aped faithfully down the ranks.

Flash back - on 10 November 2007 Peaceful Bersih crowd at Masjid Jamek was tear-gas-ed.

Following that, the 08 March 2008 tsunami occurred.

Nearly 3 years later - on 05 December 2010, a peaceful Pakatan Rakyat rally at the Masjid Negara was tear-gas-ed.

Ooops, amnesia?

What next .... ok, use the 2007's example as a guide.

Sleeping with your employee

When one sleeps with an employee one not only breaches an important principle of ethical relationships but one becomes an interested party to the other's affairs and actions (by commission or omission) of the employee. From there, the spiral downwards grows more precipitous, more so when the employee becomes out of control.

This has been the relationship between UMNO and the Royal Malaysian Police. We have witnessed how previous IGPs could dare threaten a PM or act in recalcitrant fashion to the PM's instructions when these weren't to the Police liking.

The PM and and especially the Home Minister, both through complicit unethical relationships with the Police, have efffectively lost their powers to question, reprimand or sack the IGPs. They were instead forced to protect the IGPs.

This has also been the principal reason why the Police have never been properly investigated for unexplained deaths in police custody. In 2007 I posted the Most Dangerous Place in Malaysia when I mentioned:

Tan Sri Siti Norma Yaakob, the Chief Judge of Malaya, has expressed her deep concerns that 80 deaths in police custody occurred between January 2000 and December 2004 – that’s an average of 20 people dying per annum while in police custody, or almost a frightening 2 per month for 4 continuous years - but only 6 inquests, less than 10% of the deaths, were even held.

The Chief Judge has been troubled that in some instances, deaths occurred hours after detention. As an example, mechanic Alias Othman was detained at 10 pm on March 22 allegedly for causing a disturbance at a mosque in Bachok, Kelantan, but just a mere 5 hours later, he was very very dead. Siti Norma wants answers why so many people had died under such circumstances.

She demanded to know why police had seen it fit to decide that inquests were unnecessary in 22 cases of such deaths. ... In fact, the Criminal Procedure Code specifically makes it mandatory to have inquests into deaths under police custody.

Yet the IGP has not addressed this unacceptable omission, a violation of the Criminal Procedure Code. The IGP must be held responsible and accountable for his failure.

The IGP never was. See what I meant about sleeping with an employee?

Continuing with my previous post - Two years later we have a similar tragedy, the murder of A Kugan while in police custody.

In the midst of alleged police criminal act, with no less than the Attorney-General, Gani Patail classifying Kugan's death as murder, Malaysiakini reported in its Syed Hamid: Don't see criminals as heroes, cops as demons that the Home Minister had alluded to Kugan as a criminal.

Yes, Syed Hamid had the brazen cheek to contrast the late (murdered) Kugan as a criminal against the police (accused of causing his death) as heroes.

And trust the Home Minister not to understand that a man is innocent until proven guilty.

Wasn't his automatic defence of the police not unlike that of Hishamuddin Tun Hussein, the current Home Minister? It has been a very noticeable but unjustified trend by Police Ministers.

Continuing - De facto Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang was humongously incensed (and we share with him his outrage) at the shameless mindless insensible police minister in attempting to ameliorate the terrible circumstances leading to a death in police custody, which the normally recalcitrant AG had even been moved to officially classify as a murder.

In Malaysiakini Something wrong about Syed Hamid Lim blasted the Minister: "Malaysians, like people all over the world, do not regard criminals as heroes and the police as demons."

"But when a minister responsible for the police makes a shocking statement of this nature, it reflects that something has gone very wrong both with the police force and the home minister with regard to the most basic of government duties – to keep the people safe and to uphold law and order."

Then Lim said what I told a sweetie last night: "Even if Kugan was guilty of the crimes alleged, the police cannot take the law into its own hands and continue to pile up the shocking statistics of deaths in police custody."

Remember poor Francis Udayappan whom I blogged in Was Udayappan Beheaded After His Death? some two years ago?

He too died in police custody (notwithstanding police excuse that he had died while escaping).

On April 2008 I also blogged on Secret executions in Malaysia? where I commented:

… though I agree with the deputy IGP that technically there had been no secret executions, there were nonetheless killings in police custody.

What had occurred with some very very unfortunate people, particularly Indians, had been the suspected (maybe unintended but nonetheless terrible) manslaughter or even murder of several whilst they were brutalized in police custody.

And these horrendous alleged police killings are publicly known to be a frightening 80 people in a period of just over four years.

The RMP interrogators have a notoriety of beating up suspects severely and brutally, leading to a couple of deaths. That’s police draconian f*ups which would then be allegedly covered up by the police and their professional associates.

However these deaths in police custody are openly known and have been alleged by many as acts of police murders, which are yet to be satisfactorily resolved.

We most certainly need the IPCMC, but please, not a watered down version. Malaysiakini has reported on this issue several times over.

Well, Malaysia Insider reported in A mother shares Kugan family grief that Francis Udayappan’s mum, Sara Lily George attended Kugan’s funeral.

Francis Udayappan was only 23 when he died in police custody, whilst Ananthan Kugan was just a mere 22.

For Sara, it has been the most painful déjà vu to see yet another young man needlessly and criminally murdered in the Most Dangerous Place in Malaysia.

Thus it’s hardly surprising that Hishamuddin (and indeed, previous Home Ministers) would leap to the defence of the Police when reports critical of police conduct were raised, like the 17-fold increase in fatal police shooting since 2001.

Several other factors have contributed to this state of unhealthy relationship between UMNO Police Ministers and the Police, namely, the Asian attitude of ‘not breaking the rice bowls of orang kita’, and the increasing crime rates due to increasing police incompetence and unprofessionalism with a propensity to shoot recklessly (recent fatal examples: 14-year old Aminulrasyid and the Chinese noodles seller) and/or a casual callous and criminal attitude towards anyone considered a ‘suspect’.

Removing the last IGP, though far too long overdue, was nonetheless a reasonable start, but it’s not good enough. Firstly, no not the IPCMC yet, we need to purge the top echelon of the Police Force. Get rid of at least two top layers, with a promise or threat of more to go if the situation doesn’t improve. Then and only then, establish the IPCMC. Also establish an office of Police Ombudsmen in every state to allow for complaints against police to be heard at a venue independent of the authority.

However, I do not support the decentralization of the police force to state control. Haven’t we witnessed what have happened in Perak? If we have, how could we further enhance such questionable state misuse of the police? Places which have police under state control as in Australia and the USA have not seen the state police forces behave any better. In some cases, they’re likely to be more corrupt. In Australia, it's known that the federal police force is the least corrupt and the most professional.

What we need are a strong PM and a strong Home Minister to tame the ferocious beast in blue that has been allowed to escape the oversight of and control by the political masters, the people’s representative. We cannot condone, let alone promote, a pagar makan padi situation. That brilliant Malay saying in itself provides a picture of a very clear and present danger, a succinct and ominous warning, one which has already come true more than once.

Ironically, PMs Tunku and Razak’s strategy to prevent Malaysia from becoming a country ruled by a military junta, like most of its SE Asian neighbours, was by neutralising (or keeping in check) the power and threat of the Malaysian Armed Forces with a near equivalent power in the Police, in the formidable paramilitary Police Field Force and the once-inimitable Special Branch.

It’s ironical because today, for the PM and Home Minister to regain their control of what is basically a runaway police force, it may be necessary for the cabinet to use the armed forces, or threat of its use, to neutralize any recalcitrant or mutinous police reaction to the political attempt to regain rightful control and oversight.

Don’t imagine for one second that the police aren’t capable of mutinous intent because we had witnessed a previous IGP (not the last one) threatening the AAB-UMNO government that the police might not support the BN in the 12th election if the IPCMC was established, and even briefly flirted with PAS to intimidate UMNO.

The Police supporting UMNO in an election was outright and arrogant political declaration and a brazen violation of the police code of conduct (not that the IGP cared anyway), while flirting with another political party showed the IGP's recalcitrance and continued defiance.

At a lower level, we have also witnessed the last IGP threatening to let crime rates soar, and then at a subsequent occasion, to pull his men off the streets, when the police was criticised.

Alas, both IGPs were not sacked right there and then with the full force of the cabinet as they deserved. But then, how to when UMNO leaders were in bed with the police leaders?

No to hudud

Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iran, Somalia, Sudan (and Taliban-ruled Afghanistan) are (was) governed by the hudud, yet I can write about the horrendous iniquity of the legal system against some of its citizens.

Therefore I do not support PAS’ proposal to introduce the hudud should Pakatan come to power. What for, when such religious laws can only worsen the situation. I don't accept that Malaysia's secular civil laws have failed - it's not the laws but some of the judges. Those civil court judges are already bad enough so let's not make matters worse by having clerics as judges. They'll be insufferable and the pits, unimpeachable.

Hudud or for that matter, any religious laws, puts too much unquestioned power in the hands of clerics, who I have to say, aren’t exactly the sort of people given to compassionate considerations. The fine steel of laws must be tempered by the flexibility of commonsense, compassion and contextual considerations.

Clerics (particularly of the Abraham-ic religions) have demonstrated 3,500 years of consistency in their proclivity for harsh and unchallengeable punishments, knowing full well (to their secret glee) that they themselves are exempt from the draconian treatment they propose to mete out to others.

Some years ago in Australia, Rev Fred Nile, notorious for his anti Muslim stand, attempted to link the wearing of Middle-Eastern traditional robes and headscarves by Muslim women with terrorism. In the NSW State's Upper House he called for a ban on the traditional dress. That bigot claimed such Muslim apparel could be used by terrorists to conceal weapons and explosives. Thanks to secularism his proposal was rejected, and the beautiful part about Australia is that many Christians immediately came out to cheekily question his views on the dresses of Catholic nuns wakakaka. That shut that idiot up.

Apart from the bigoted hatred of people like Rev Nile, clerics are also not above lying too. Recall the Mufti of Perak who sent that seditious SMS, inciting Muslims to stop a false charge of Christian proselytizing Muslims at a church? Why wasn’t he punished for seditious religious incitements, with a high probability of inter-ethnic violence? Pity the Sultan of Perak didn’t send that Mufti off to Somalia.

Then there have been Christian preachers in the USA who incited violence against Muslims, or extreme rightwing rabbis against Arabs. In India, an Australian Christian missionary and his three little kids were burnt alive by Hindu fundamentalists on religious differences. How could they justify such blasphemic violence in the name of their Divine Lord? In Indonesia the police have detained Bashir Ahmad, a cleric alleged to be the spiritual leader of the terrorist group Islamiyah, responsible for indiscriminate killing of both Indons and foreigners with bombs placed in public places.

And it doesn’t help when Dr Wan Azizah told us recently that her hubby is God’s gift to humanity. My matey Dean Johns, a Malaysiakini columnist who normally respects the good lady was driven to lambasting her (very gently) to Spare us the godswallop [a pun on the word 'codswallop' which means rubbish or nonsense].

Dean succinctly informed her that: For a start, it's a bit presumptuous to speak on God's behalf when you couldn't possible have the slightest idea of the Almighty's thoughts, intentions, ideas or ideals.

Like clerics and their flocks in Pakistan, Afghanistan and similar earthly paradises who imagine that God demands the death penalty for those accused of adultery, blasphemy, apostasy or whatever else they deem terminally sinful.

Our local versions do too, that is, demand (purportedly in the name of God) the death penalty for those accused of adultery, blasphemy, apostasy or whatever else they deem terminally sinful, like abandoning babies born out of wedlock.

He continued, not sparing the Christians as well: Or potentates like the Pope, who claims to be God's earthly mouthpiece in making such preposterous pronouncements as his recent one that the use of condoms is now okay for male prostitutes to use to protect their clients against HIV infection, but still against divine law for the prevention of unwanted conception.

At the end of the day, can we all spare a thought for God, you know the McCoy, who’s mighty pissed off with all sorts of people for misappropriating use of his name for the last 3,500 years. In fact, he just informed kaytee to tell you guys and gals to cease and desist wakakaka.

PKFZ II?

Malaysiakini - Surprise over choice of new PPC head

Should the nation allow a MCA man near a port again?

The 'Bisa Diatur' Factor

Well-known UMNO blogger Sakmongkol AK47 or Datuk Mohd Ariff Sabri Hj Abdul Aziz (Pulau Manis assemblyman 2004-2008) wrote a good article in The Malaysian Insider titled Further notes on the 700MHz spectrum issue.

He lamented that MCMC* shouldn’t have given YTL the 700 MHz band for free when that facility could have been auctioned for a large sum. I agree with him.

* MCMC subsequently claimed YTL was only permitted hybrid communications (whatever that means)

However, where I disagree with him or, to be precise, where I need to call a spade a spade lies in his unhappiness with Lim Kit Siang for stating that if the Chinese dominated the economy it was the Malay leadership who allowed that to happened.

Datuk Ariff stated: This state of affairs is the result of those in power mostly Malays giving Chinese hongs the opportunities. But there’s the added twist. In the hands of these people, so claimed the triumphalist, they can become more competitive etc. The Chinese triumphalist is so oversensitive when criticized.

Datuk, while I’m not a smart person like you who knows lots about politics, economics and modern communication issues, I am aware of two pieces of locally-known knowledge, social-political-business folklore if you wish, that may be related to the 700 MHz spectrum controversy you raised as well as many other lucrative businesses that have gone to Chinese. For this discussion, let's leave aside those Chinese truimphalists. We can discuss that another time.

Yes, I still do recall one Chinese developer, Datuk or Tan Sri Liew (at that level, those Chinese towkays are usually Datuks or Tan Sris) who trumpeted openly, presumably to support PM Najib’s 1Malaysia and new economic policies, that the Chinese have benefitted humongously from the NEP or whatever.

Much as I want to inform Datuk or Tan Sri Liew (hope I have his name correct) I am not one of his Chinese who have benefitted humongously and he had no right to claim so on the behalf of Chinese Malaysians, I have to put my angry temptation aside and just say here, that therein in this Liew’s grandstanding broadcast lies the real story of the relationship between UMNO leadership (including Tun Dr Mahathir when he was PM) and Chinese towkays. The nasty word, I believe, is called cronyism. That’s the first known local folklore that I mentioned.

The second, still a popular, prevalent and pervasive folklore, though like most laypeople I can’t or don’t have the means and time to prove and thus must leave this to (no, not the MACC wakakaka) Raja Petra Kamarudin to expose for our knowledge, is the ‘Bisa Diatur’ factor.

‘Bisa Diatur’ is a beautiful Indonesian term that is even more powerful than our Malaysian 'Boleh', as it is endowed with characteristics that may be described as cheeky (or sinister, depending on our individual perception), and mysterious (or shady, again depending on our individual take). I suppose our local Chinese (Cantonese) would call it 'can kowtim one'.

What is it then? Think Vincent Tan and his recent failed (maybe only temporarily) attempt to secure a monopoly on sports gambling, and in the face of strong public opposition especially from the Penang (Pakatan) State government, his readiness to donate RM500 million to set up some kind of scholarship foundation. RM500 million is certainly no small lolly, but indirectly providing us a glimpse of the staggering and lucrative potential to be harvested from sports gambling.

Anyway, the point is he was provided the no-tender okay from the federal government (how? why?), before Najib found it politically too hot to handle and (temporarily?) withdrew or denied the licence was even promised to Vincent Tan.

We know that the lotteries and 4-Ekor business, apart from other monopolies or near monopolies with goldmine-like profits, have gone to Chinese cronies of UMNO leadership.

What I want to say is I support Lim Kit Siang’s erudite summarization of the unhealthy relationship between UMNO leaders and their Chinese cronies. It's not that UMNO leaders love the yellow skin a$$ of those Chinese towkays. In this world, nothing is free. There is a price or a ‘bisa diatur’ factor to consider. I’ll leave it at that.

Incidentally I heard there is a Chinese towkay nicknamed Datuk Roast Lamb who has been waiting patiently in the corner for Anwar Ibrahim to become PM wakakaka.

At the end of the day, it’s UMNO top leaders who want the relationship.

Did my son beg for mercy before being shot?

Malaysiakini photo

Malaysiakini’s 'Did my son beg for mercy before being shot’ reported (extract):

Norhafizah Mad Razali just cannot help thinking of her son's last moments before he was shot dead by police.

"I keep thinking what he was thinking, how he felt before the fatal shot. Did he plead for mercy? Was he crying in pain?" she said in tears, while her husband, Shapiei Zainal Abidin who in spite of his own wet eyes tried to offer comfort.

What can I say? How could I ever comfort you?

How would I even imagine your sorrows, the sorrow of a mother whose son was cut down in the flower of his youth, taken away from her without warning?

What does it matter to her who’s right or who’s wrong!

Gerakan & PKR - 40 years of Darkness?

Now that his funeral is over, I suppose we should remind ourselves of the legacy Lim Chong Eu and his 1969 colleagues had provided us 40 years ago. The Gerakan Party then (and I stressed on ‘then’ wakakaka) was the first non socialist party to come together with a brilliant multiracial (or no-race oriented) political party to defeat the Perikatan (Barisan Naisonal’s predecessor) in Penang.

Gerakan Party and its DAP, PPP and PAS allies (yes, PAS was part of the bloc that had an election understanding, though it was not a coalition in the mode of today’s Pakatan) overturned the Malaysian political world, where people saw the vulnerability of the Perikatan just a mere 12 years after Merdeka, perhaps in the same way many Asians saw the less-than-invincibility of the British after it was trounced drastically by the Japanese during WWII.

May 13 had to occur for a very shaken UMNO. Both Selangor and Perak were slipping through its hands. The inevitable, for these two states, as well as a Gerakan-turned-BN controlled Penang, to slip from BN hands had to wait for another 40 years.

Note: I have not mentioned much about Kelantan and Terengganu as control of these two states were generally within PAS’ reach and have certainly changed hands. As many suspect, the politics of Sabah and Sarawak had more to do with the UMNO central government keeping them out of Catholic hands and the threats of secession. Sabah’s Donald Stephens converted to Islam becoming (the late) Fuad Stephens but Joseph Pairin Kitingan and Sarawak’s (the late) Stephen Kalong Ningkan remained Christians.

The 1969-Gerakan and its allies DAP, PPP and PAS won handsomely on 10 May 1969 for two reasons, namely (no, it had nothing to do with Hindraf leading the way as hubristic Uthayakumar, bro & supporters would constantly us, wakakaka), namely:

(1) The voters (not just Chinese and Indians but Malays as well) were thoroughly fed up with the UMNO-led coalition of Perikatan, and ready for a change.

(2) The opposition had a no-split vote understanding. This was slightly different from the current vote ‘anyone except BN’ which developed into ‘vote Pakatan’, a frightening prospect for UMNO and its kutus.

After Lim Chong Eu took Gerakan into BN, the 1969 political supernova was followed by 40 years of weak opposition, played mainly by DAP and PAS.

Today, it’s easy to criticise Dr Lim for his action with the advantage of 40 years hindsight, as Terence Netto of Malaysiakini had done in his article He read the tides well, but not deeply. Dr Lim had to consider the well-being of Penangites in the wake of a horrendous May 13 and the very likelihood of a Perikatan federal government (running the emergency NOC) sabotaging his fledging government, as today’s UMNO is attempting ceaselessly to do to Lim GE’s Pakatan state government of Penang. The only difference is that today Lim GE has the advantage of living in a more globalised and ‘internationally smaller’ world and thus indirectly enjoying its ‘protection’.

OK, back to the last 40 years of Malaysia – The BN government with increasing oil revenue, profligate spending and unexplainable and obscene lifestyle by many BN leaders (leadership by terrible example) led to unfettered and deep rooted corruption. Everyone, from politician to policeman, wants not only to get rich but obscenely rich, and pretty pronto too. And why not for the poor mata-mata, when they could see plainly some fat cats living in palatial mansions, like a once railway gate keeper or a dentist?

When the law was found to be not suitable for UMNO’s requirements, it raped the Constitution at will, changing its Articles as and when it liked. Then, Lim Kit Siang’s greatest wish was humble, to only deny the BN its 2/3 majority so as to stop the violation of the Constitution. Today, Lim’s ambition has grown beyond the magic 2/3 majority.

The inevitable consequence of the 40 years of Dark Interregnum since 1969 witnessed continuous and increasing UMNO avarice, arrogance and aggression. Their political leaders rode roughshod over everyone including their non-Malay allies. Ketuanan Melayu UMNO was at its peak. MCA and PPP were figuratively ‘slapped’ more than once by UMNO. Kayveas and his PPP were personally and publicly humiliated by Ali Rustam. The voters were by then disgusted with UMNO and the silent and subservient MCA, Gerakan, PPP and MIC.

Thus the voters wanted to change the government.

At the same time, the opposition were ready with a political memorandum of understanding a la 1969, namely, not to split votes. The difficult job of seats sharing was nonetheless achieved, though recently doubts have been raised as to PKR’s real membership numbers.

08 March 2008 was exactly like 10 May 1969. Pakatan was the equivalent of Gerakan and its ‘friends’ of 1969 (DAP, PPP and PAS).

But what about the coming 13th general election? Can Pakatan maintain the two following factors, namely:

(1) The voters will be ready and want to change the federal government.

(2) The opposition has a no-split vote understanding.

Let’s discuss the second factor first. I believe it is achievable. In fact, it’ll be more than just not splitting votes as the several by-elections since 08 March 2008 have shown that the Pakatan allies could actually marshal votes for each other from their respective supporters.

The only spoiler to the no-split vote strategy will be mosquito parties like Uthayakumar's HRP. Yes, I believe they may deny Pakatan (especially DAP) a few seats. Mind you, HRP does not have the sort of numbers they imagine to be commanding as many Indians have already returned to the BN fold, wakakaka, so its deliberate intention to damage DAP's prospects may not be that effective or significant.

What about the first factor? Obviously we have been aware of Najib’s campaigning, though UMNO has been careful to assure its heartland it hasn’t abandoned its ketuanan Melayu policy by frequent spurts of bigotry, through its (pretend) maverick politician-leaders, civil servants and the insidious seditious Utusan and other mouthpieces.

On the Pakatan side, I see its Achilles heel, lamentably the fallout from the PKR's shameful scandalous party polls, where complaints against vote rigging were blatantly ignored while complainants were labelled as traitors. It took no meaningful or sincere actions until eons later for Anwar Ibrahim to come up with a promise to deal with each complaint, a promise of action grudgingly brought about by the very serious threat from the damage done to PKR unity, though I believe like his reformasi call, it’s nothing more than just lip service, again.

If one can forgive the second terrible trio of Dr Wan Azizah, Dr Syed Husin and Dr Molly Cheah, can one the principal terrible trio of Anwar, Azmin and Saifuddin?

Today PKR is a house divided, very very much divided. As Jonson Chong warned Dr Wan Azizah: If the president still does not take some serious action to remedy this situation, then I’m afraid the party’s days may be numbered with or without a new line-up. And let me unequivocally state that I am not addressing the de facto leader on this matter because I no longer recognise the validity of that position.

And as I wrote in my previous post: Jonson's last paragraph requires urgent attention but I doubt Dr Wan Azizah has the will, willingness and wibawa (authority) to take action.

Alas, PKR has proven itself to be nothing more than a cult party. I fear its effect on Pakatan will be the same as Gerakan joining BN in 1972. It may bring upon us another 40 years of Dark Age.

De facto, my foot! What about de facts!

Over the last few days I have been travelling around a fair bit. When I returned to catch up with the political news I wasn’t surprised at the deteriorating state of affairs in PKR, though I am disappointed, not so much for PKR itself but for Pakatan.

From the continuing horror stories, centered around the unbelievable denial mantra of its secretary general Saifuddin Nasution and the ‘ask me not, ask the Secretariat, 'coz I don’t know anything, I’m just a deer caught in the headlights of a car’ reenactment of Pontius Pilate by Molly Cheah, it would seem PKR is determined to show, at all costs, it is indeed the weakest link in the coalition.

In my last post PKR without Anwar Ibrahim & Azmin Ali I wrote: I reckon the scandal, complaints and questions over the recent PKR party polls have been a blessing in disguise because it means a significant number of PKR members and supporters might have woken up, realizing their messianic icon is not so reformasi-inclined as they had blindly and foolishly believe. This may spell a nascent willingness among PKR members to consider their party as one minus Anwar and Azmin.

We now have a serious complaint, out in the open, written by Jonson Chong and published in The Malaysian Insider as Lies, damn lies and stupidity. The article is produced in full below:

********

After my polite final appeal to the president of KEADILAN was ignored … No … actually she told us that the central election committee would carry out thorough investigations and that all candidates should stop using the media to criticise the party. Although that did not sit well with me I respected her wishes so much so that even when I withdrew from the contest for a vice presidential position. I did it quietly.

Indeed, I know some shrewder politicians ridicule me for not taking the opportunity to make a public statement. Well the rationale for me is simple. I quit because I found the entire party election to be such a disappointment and it completely lacked credibility. And it gave me neither profit nor pleasure in making the party look worse than it already was (For your information I tried contacting the president directly before I wrote my open letter to her).

Now I share my true feelings not because I want to embarrass the party but because I sense the presence of foolish arrogance in the voice of the party’s secretary-general. And I simply cannot remain silent in the face of bold-faced lies because I know it will eventually bring the party to its knees. Yes I am talking about his statements vis-à-vis the sacking of Jenapala.

Before I proceed, let me confess one thing I am no fan of Jenapala’s. At one point in time we were both deputy secretaries-general of the party and I came to realise that I did not like the way he expressed himself which is probably due to the way he thought. Anyway I digress.

Back to the current sec-gen of KEADILAN. He said that he welcomes the police to investigate the forgery of a letter sacking Jenapala purportedly signed by the previous sec-gen. For those who are unaware I served as the deputy to the previous sec-gen. Apart from opening the doors of the party HQ and computer servers to the friendly PDRM the current sec-gen also says that, “All we did was open our files and found the letter that Salehuddin signed. How am I supposed to know if his signature was forged?” Does he expect members supporters and the public to just accept this lame explanation and conclude all is well in the party.

Please allow me to share how the previous sec-gen would have handled things if this matter cropped up, i.e. whether Jenapala was actually sacked from the party. One. he would have asked the membership officer to check Jenapala’s membership status. Two, he would have asked me to scrutinise the central leadership council meetings’ minutes for the relevant decision. And three, he would have asked whether we issued a letter to inform Jenapala if indeed such a decision was made.

For me, just the stupidity of how this Jenapala issue was handled is enough to tell me that the judgement of the people who are purportedly in charge of the party are seriously impaired.

But what really sickens me to the core of my being is that I know for a fact that someone in the party HQ knows that the letter is a forgery. It was created to cover up an initial honest mistake made by somebody when they said that Jenapala was sacked in February 2009.

For your information, I was the deputy secretary-general charged with the responsibility to assist the disciplinary board in handling cases referred to them by the MPP. When the Jenapala matter first came up during the party election someone from the HQ called me to ask whether there was a letter sent to Jenapala to sack him. I said there isn’t such a letter and there never was such a decision to sack him. There was only a decision to sack him in principle if indeed it was found that he was involved in the formation of a new political party.

Then before I knew it I saw a letter with the previous sec-gen’s signature which was purportedly sent to Jenapala to sack him way back in February 2009. I was speechless.

I was speechless because there is no doubt in my mind that the letter is a forgery, and I am dumbfounded that they could resort to such a thing to cover up an honest mistake, for which they could have just humbly informed the media and move on.

Now, in light of the police report lodged by the previous sec-gen, this matter cannot be swept under the carpet anymore, especially not the way the current sec-gen attempted to do it. I’m amazed that he doesn't see the gravity of the situation.

I know, in politics perception is everything. But I also know, in a court of law evidence is everything. And when the judiciary is not on your side, it doesn’t even matter if they don’t have the evidence. All they need is a good reason to put you away.

If the president still does not take some serious action to remedy this situation, then I’m afraid the party’s days may be numbered with or without a new line-up. And let me unequivocally state that I am not addressing the de facto leader on this matter because I no longer recognise the validity of that position.

********

Jonson's last paragraph requires urgent attention but I doubt Dr Wan Azizah has the will, willingness and wibawa (authority) to take action.

It also took me a while to think of a title for this post! I hope Jonson doesn't mind my wee creativity wakakaka.

Related: Haris Ibrahim's Shielding fraud behind a Mahathir ouster clause?

PKR without Anwar Ibrahim & Azmin Ali

Malaysiakini - 400k PKR members, where art thou?

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

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

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

Out of 10% of the claimed 400,000 members who voted, Azmin only received slightly less than 20,000, a mere fraction (5%) of the total numbers. Is 5% of membership support sufficient to justify his No 2 position in the party. With Dr Wan Azizah a known reluctant politician and a passive president (only in name), Azmin Ali is now virtually the leader of PKR, on the basis of the 5% members' support he received. And even that 5% is questioned for being not kosher.

However, my post is not so much about the numbers per se, but the longevity of PKR as one of the Pakatan trio. In this, naturally I have to raise questions about Anwar, and since Azmin Ali is so closely tied in with Anwar, him as well.

Actually I didn’t plan to write my letter What of Anwar's less than admirable history in Umno?, to Malaysiakini, where I listed my reasons for not supporting Anwar Ibrahim. But I was compelled to by Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad's letter to Malaysiakini in which he responded to Dean John's criticism of the sad state of affairs in PKR. I was mentioned, which forced me to reply.

My main point in my letter to Malaysiakini was that I do not believe Anwar’s reformasi credentials or promise. Au contraire, I pointed out his 916 nonsense, that: To boast of an invisible force of 30 BN MPs defecting to his side was not only an outrageous affront to the supremacy of the Malaysian voters' decision but a hideous insult to democracy, exposing his reformasi as nothing more than a lip service sham.

The questions and complaints over his involvement in the recent party polls – see Zaid Ibrahim - suffers no fool gladly and PKR party election - the horror stories continue - have further fortified my poor impression of him, and now Azmin Ali as well.

Anwaristas and most of his supporters have been deceiving themselves by arguing that anyone, anything would be better than further enduring the UMNO-BN sh*t. Let me ask: aren’t Anwar Ibrahim and Azmin Ali also UMNO sh*t?

Changing an Anwar/Azmin-led PKR for UMNO is just changing sh*t. Then, some anwaristas, not accepting their icon is not deserving of our support, came along to say: Anwar sh*t is better than UMNO sh*t, and so the arguments continue on, along the line that Anwar, regardless of his faults and weaknesses, is better than any UMNO leader.

Having said all the above, I believe PKR can still be a good party, and Pakatan is worth voting for ... provided ... much as PKR anwaristas and other PKR supporters will undoubtedly condemn me, I have to agree with Zaid Ibrahim that for the good of PKR, Anwar and Azmin should leave PKR.

Of course that is unlikely to happen now because Anwar is so consumed about being PM, or failing that, to see Azmin as PM. They have a symbiotic relationship, which means they both see themselves as PM in the event of a Pakatan victory.

What then?

I am not sure I want to see either Anwar or Azmin as PM. Just imagine what they can do. It frightens me.

I reckon the scandal, complaints and questions over the recent PKR party polls have been a blessing in disguise because it means a significant number of PKR members and supporters might have woken up, realizing their messianic icon is not so reformasi-inclined as they had blindly and foolishly believe. This may spell a nascent willingness among PKR members to consider their party as one minus Anwar and Azmin.

The challenge to the Anwar-Azmin leadership have to, must come from within PKR, so as to save the party and preserve its useful role in Pakatan. PKR must and shall survive (better) without Anwar and Azmin. I’m really glad that Dr Syed Husin has left voluntarily; next should be Dr Wan Azizah as the poor long-suffering lady needs a good break. And so should the others like 'all complaints solved' Saifuddin, deer-like Dr Molly Cheah and the inner coterie of Anwar and Azmin.

The daughter Nurul seems a decent sort of sweetheart, honest, bright and promising as a politician. Maybe one day she’ll be the leader. Yes, PKR can survive, in fact better, as a party of young members and leaders – Nurul, Chegubard, Tian Chua, Eli Wong, Jonson Chong, etc. Maybe it's time to recruit people like RPK and Haris Ibrahim into the party fold.

It’s all up to you PKR members. Don't exist under the unfounded belief that Anwar Ibrahim (and symbiotically, Azmin Ali) is indispensable.

Perhaps it may not be remiss of Pakatan to put the trek to Putrajaya on hold and just focus on winning more federal seats and the new States of Perak, NS and Sarawak.

The next term, even in federal opposition, will provide the Pakatan leaders with more experience in being State ruling governments, and more importantly, the Malaysian civil service with sufficient time and exposure to an enlarged and enhanced Pakatan presence to realize the Malaysian political landscape has significantly and irreversibly changed, and to adjust to real Westminster democracy (and thus the possibility of a new federal ruling party, without harbouring any ethno-centric fears) and a return to its impartial professionalism.

And hopefully by then, Anwar and Azmin will no longer be in charge of PKR.

Don’t be dragged in by Anwar-Azmin’s obsession to race to occupy Putrajaya, regardless. Slow and steady wins the race.

PKR party election - the horror stories continue

Malaysiakini photo

Oh, oh, oh! More horror stories about the PKR polls from Badrul Hisham Shahrin, a popular personality better known as Chegubard. In a letter to Dr Wan Azizah (at her request), he accused Anwar of intervening in polls.

Chegubard told Dr Wan about Kota Marudu PKR Youth chief, Dr Jurin Gunsalam, who was informed by his division chief Anthony Mandiau that Anwar had instructed him who to vote for.

Chegubard also revealed that some candidates were allowed to contest even though their names were sent in after the deadline.

He stated: “When a verbal complaint was made to the election officer, the complainant was asked if he was a supporter of Badrul Hisham. A written complaint has since been ignored.”

He added that though the Tampin division had nominated him and running mate Chang Lih Kang, somehow that nomination went to their contenders, Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin and Khairul Anuar Zainuddin.

As with other polling complaints, his report too has thus far elicited no response.

His election agents reported the same mystery we've already heard, that the number of counted votes at a station were more than the actual turnout, which led Chegubard to remind us that in Kubang Pasu (see my earlier post Zaid Ibrahim - suffers no fool gladly), the number of counted votes was almost 3 times more than the actual turnout – UMNO, eat your hearts out!

Chegubard told us the same story, that the phantom votes were actually (indirectly) admitted by the election committee when they had to call a Zaid Ibrahim’s representative to negotiate on how to split the total votes wakakaka.

Indeed, Chegubard, I asked the same question too, namely what kind of solution was this? In fact let's go one step further, what kind of poll was this?

He gave us more horror stories about the polling in Teluk Intan and Sabah, where the actual turnout at Sandakan and Libaran was only about 200, and not the official figures of 898 in Libaran and 456 in Sandakan. Incidentally Azmin Ali was the winner where he ‘swept’ virtually (almost) 100% of the votes at Libaran, Sandakan, Tawau and Tenom.

Chegubard said the votes for Sandakan and Libaran were not tallied at the polling centre and, like at Kubang Pasu, the candidates' agents were not allowed to be present during the counting process wakakaka!

Remember in my previous post Zaid Ibrahim - suffers no fool gladly, I mentioned Jonson Chong writing to Dr Wan to audit just the Libaran polls. Now we know why. But I doubt Jonson is still holding his breath waiting for the okay from the party president.

Sabah party deputy chief Christina Liew said: "I checked with the headquarters and was told that they are currently investigating...I understand that the majority of the (complaints) have been lodged with the headquarters, although I don't know how long the probe will take."

Meanwhile at headquarters, Dr Molly Cheah, head of the JPP, the so-called central election committee was reported by Malaysiakini as reluctant to say yes or no to Christina Liew’s report that HQ was investigating.

But when MKINI pressed her, she said: "If Christina Liew says it's under investigation then it is under investigation." Wow! HQ investigating eh? No wonder Terence Netto (of Malaysiakini) described her llike a deer caught in the headlights wakakaka.

Chegubard said Dr Molly Cheah refused to confirm whether the number of complaints was 162, as claimed by Liew and deputy president hopeful Mustaffa Kamil Ayub. I wonder whether she pleaded doctor-patient confidentiality? Or just that she didn't know!

Chegubard sighed: “I am adhering to party discipline by using internal means to make this complaint (but) it is as if I have been pushed to the wall. As a member of Parti Keadilan Rakyat, I am seeking keadilan (justice).”

Keadilan (justice)? Hmmm, well-known journalist and lawyer Art Harun did ask in his post what does the ‘K’ in PKR stand for? I have an answer for Art, but why don't you guess! wakakaka!

Art wrote: I don't know about how they feel and think. But frankly, in my perception, PKR is so full of crap than it would even dare to admit. And if the farce that PKR calls and labels as party elections is to be a yardstick of its ability to govern this country, I would rather vote for the Siberian Husky in front of my house. And by that, I don't mean to insult the dog.

Meanwhile, at Haris Ibrahim’s blog, we hear and see more of the PKR party ballots arriving in Haris hands, leading an exasperated Haris to ask Is it pink ballot papers' week?

Well, then you wouldn’t allow these pink ballot papers into a surau, would you?

For more, see Haris latest post titled A Gopeng PKR member’s report on voting day which complements Chegubard’s horror stories.

Can we sleep soundly with so many phantoms?

Zaid Ibrahim - suffers no fool gladly

Impatient, arrogant, power crazy - harsh words - all directed at Zaid Ibrahim, the alleged desecrator of the Holy of Holies, the very person of Anwar Ibrahim.

To PKR supporters, criticizing Anwar Ibrahim, let alone asking the great one to leave PKR, is not a done thing. It’s akin to blasphemy.

Alas, instead of understanding why Zaid had gone super ballistic in his disdain of the de facto PKR leader and in general the PKR leadership clique, so as to be able to take stock of possible pre 13th GE weaknesses, no, Zaid was straightaway labelled as an UMNO mole, a Trojan horse, a snake, a frog, a running dog and every conceivable mammalian or reptilian creature that lives under the Malaysian sun, and beyond. These harsh, hostile and irrational treatments are reserved for anyone who dares to criticize the PKR icon, Anwar Ibrahim.

Anyway, what’s wrong with Zaid, as seen from my non-anwarista’s eyes wakakaka?

Years ago my class was taught by Mr Pillai, English teacher extraordinaire, about the idiom "don't suffer fools gladly". And another teacher, Miss Ong, our religious knowledge teacher revealed to us that the Mr Pillai’s idiom was a derivation from the sarcasm of the Apostle Paul as expressed in 2 Corinthians 11:19 (King James’ Version): “For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise.”

I suspect this to be the feelings of Zaid Ibrahim in his recent struggle with vested interests among some members of the PKR leadership. He was appalled by what he came to know of the PKR party polling process, that it was rigged, the polling officials lacked impartiality, and ballot papers were mishandled. He made his complaints, calling for the polls to be aborted and for the polling system to be reviewed. He wasn’t the only candidate to do so.

Despite hundreds of complaints from other PKR candidates and branches, the JPP, PKR election committee remained bizarrely silent. When Haris Ibrahim of the People’s Parliament blog, handed over a PKR ballot paper for the party's deputy presidential contest to Dr Molly Cheah, the chair of PKR JPP, she responded that was the first she knew about. But what has she done about that?

RPK praised Dr Molly Cheah as an honest person. I’m sure everyone agrees with that, but Malaysiakini journalist Terence Netto wrote about Dr Cheah’s cluelessness and lack of know-now in her role as the principal monitor of the PKR party elections. Her personal honesty was not enough. She should have taken a more assertive participation rather than (as we understand from Haris) leave it to the party secretariat to do her job.

Netto asked: ... what plans are there for the re-education of Dr Molly Cheah, the PKR lead election monitor, who was plucked from obscurity and named to her important role rather like one Fairus Khairuddin, who was similarly hoisted from nowhere and made deputy chief minister of Penang in March 2008.

... Her only qualification for the important post of chief election monitor seems to have been her friendship for Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, PKR president and fellow doctor. Cheah has no known track record in anything except general practice medicine.

In the event, when complaints about irregularities in the election process began to sweep in from the Zaid Ibrahim camp, Cheah was like a deer caught in the headlights: she simply had no clue about what was happening, not a very reassuring spectacle for a party with pretensions to take over Putrajaya.

Perhaps fence-sitting voters see in the saga of Cheah an uncanny prefiguring of what a PKR-led Pakatan government could be about: an apparition that wafts in and wafts out.

Anwar Ibrahim claimed that PKR had answered Haris Ibrahim’s query on the ballot papers. But Haris pointed out that the explanations by the party secretariat (mind you, not the JPP) did not answer how he (Haris) came to be in possession of the PKR ballot paper, regardless whether the ballot was 'old' or not. It was frighteningly available to Haris, a non-PKR member!

taken from Haris Ibrahim's blog

Yet PKR continued its blatant disregard for complaints and either dismissed them or claimed to have solved most.

It drove a PKR member, Jonson Chong, to write a personal letter to Dr Wan Azizah, the de jure president of PKR, appealing to her to at least allow an independent audit of a small sampling of the party electoral process, those of the Libaran branch, but alas, to no avail.

The PKR top leadership seems hell-bent on bulldozing the polls through to its conclusion, as planned, regardless of complaints from candidates (Zaid and Mustaffa Kamil), party members (Jonson Chong and other branch leaders) and independent observer (Haris Ibrahim).

In the face of such stonewalling, Zaid Ibrahim, the type who suffers no fools, had probably become more riled by the nauseatingly noxious noisome jeers from the anwarista praetorian guard. Did that egg him on to greater and more daring insults of the so-called refomasi icon? Who knows? It was the inevitable cycle of mutual insults which developed into a beautiful but highly destructive vortex.

So Zaid left PKR. What did you expect? To roll over on his back and accept the haram nonsense?

This was a man who resigned his ministerial post in protest against the use of the ISA against Teresa Kok and Raja Petra Kamarudin and a sweetie reporter, not one who had to be chucked out of UMNO screeching, screaming and taking to the streets. Zaid does not suffer fools gladly.

Of course it was to the relief of the Anwar-Azmin camp, and as the anwaristas would have exclaimed, good riddance to bad rubbish.

But everyone knows the PKR polling process was tainted. Haris Ibrahim questioned the party’s secretariat for running the show instead of the JPP. It would be akin to UMNO running the general election process instead of the Election Commission. Free-Malaysia-Today reported phantom voters in PKR’s Kelana Jaya division early last month. There was more, please read on!

Haris Ibrahim wrote in his post Indeed, who is lying of his informant telling him the PKR returning officer attending an election could manipulate the list of members, where if voter turnout was low, the numbers could be adjusted upwards with additional ballot papers dropped into the ballot box.

Haris also was informed by Rashid Azad Khan of phantom voters in Kubang Pasu, where Zaid’s polling agent reported that the voter turnout in Kubang Pasu was only 84, yet the result mysteriously showed Azmin winning with 80 votes while Zaid obtained 76, a total number exceeding the actual turnout by 72 votes. Shades of the phantom voters that PKR had blamed UMNO for!

Rashid also pointed out that there was a 30-minute blackout immediately after the election ended but candidates’ agents were not allowed into the polling room, at a time when the ballot boxes were still not sealed. He also mentioned an election officer was caught on camera wearing Azmin’s campaign badge, raising questions over the officials’ impartiality.

The gravest indication of the questionable polling process came to light after Zaid’s agent lodged a complaint on the extra 72 votes as well as his exclusion from the polling room during the blackout. Rashid Azad Khan said the party election monitor decided, probably in the face of such damning complaints, that the Kubang Pasu result should be a tie of 81 to 81.

Undoubtedly, in the annals of Malaysian election experience, it was an amazing, bizarre and unprecedented decision, where the election official not only raised the total votes cast to 78 above the actual turnout (instead of the earlier extra 72 votes), but could rule arbitrarily on a fairy tale result, from the earlier dodgy 80 to 76 to an outrageous fabricated nonsense of 81 to 81.

According to Haris Ibrahim, Rashid Azad Khan also confirmed that the Zaid team have evidence in hand of the fraud in Kubang Pasu and had communicated this to Saifuddin, the party's secretary general. Rashid says that Saifuddin promised to see them but has reneged on the promise to this day. Well, Saifuddin needn’t worry about his broken promised anymore now that Zaid has left!

The result of Azmin Ali becoming the new deputy party president is no doubt inevitable. But technically at this moment he isn’t yet as the polls hasn’t concluded. He’s only a party VP, yet at the Selangor party rally last night his face beams from the most prominent position in the giant poster on the main stage of the Shah Alam City Council auditorium. VP Azmin Ali occupied the central premier position, flanked by Anwar and I believe, Khalid Ibrahim.

Malaysiakini photo

Tell me, which political party in the world provides the leadership positon in a group poster to a mere vice president? Yes, only PKR!

It’s clear who will be is the real power in the party, and Anwar and Azmin don’t believe in being subtle anymore.

Impatient, arrogant, power crazy - harsh words – ask yourself who deserves them!

As blogger Aizuddin Danian, the blogger of Volume of Interactions wrote: ... the whole purpose of the elections was to reinforce the charade that PKR was not UMNO. In the perfect irony, the elections have shown everyone that PKR and UMNO are actually very much alike. From the heights of GE12 in 2008, the darling of the electorate everyone expected to make further inroads in GE13 is now being spoken of in cautious tones. The turnaround is almost complete, and instead of GE13 being the litmus test of BN's rule (as it should be), the people are now wondering instead if it would be better to use the next elections to show their displeasure at how poorly PR in general and PKR in particular have performed. How the tide has changed.

So ... was Zaid Ibrahim’s departure from PKR a case of good riddance to bad rubbish? Or, was Zaid Ibrahim the one who exclaimed “Good riddance to bad rubbish”?

How to cure the rot in public institutions?

Look at above photo. Note the face of the cop (second from left) holding the truncheon in readiness to bash an unarmed Tian Chua, who's already in the locking hold of a PAS AMAL man* another security personnel. I would say there was an element of aggression and hatred. Why did an unarmed Tian Chua trigger off such emotions in that cop?

* thanks to visitor Cadraver who wised me up as to the organizational identity of the security personnel holding Tian Chua back

The photo is 3 years old. It accompanied yesterday’s news that Tian Chua, Gobala and 15 others were acquitted by the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court from participating in an opposition (Bersih) organized rally on 10 Nov 2007, deemed by the BN controlled police as illegal assembly.

One may safely assume the cops looked upon Tian Chua and company as the enemy rather than just members of the Malaysian public in an, well okay, illegal assembly.

There has been this unfortunate lack of professionalism by the police in treating members of the opposition as such. Some MPs like Tony Pua were even manhandled by the police. Such treatment of the people’s representatives would have shocked any western democracy but here in Malaysia, it seems to be okay. The police don't even realize the serious enormity of manhandling MPs or ADUNs. They think they are above the law and only answerable to UMNO.

The reason is obvious, where the police and other public institutes consider themselves to be employees of UMNO rather than the public. 22 years of this indoctrinated impression have been the evil outcome of UMNO brainwashing of the public services. As the public services comprise in general personnel from only one ethnic group, the brainwashing has been fortified by disinformative propaganda designed to exploit ethnic fears.

I would not be at all surprised that most of the lower echelon police and pubic service staff aren’t even aware of their (suppose to be) impartial roles. We have witnessed the lamentable pro-UMNO conduct in the police, MACC and civil service

Do you remember that most biadap Penang State Development Officer who wasn’t even ashamed to attack CM Lim GE, at an UMNO gathering. Who in the democratic world would ever imagine the likelihood of a civil servant attacking an elected people's representative at a political gathering? Well, it happens in Malaysia!

He should have been sacked for violating at least half a dozen of the civil service codes of conduct, but disgustingly, the Chief Secretary defended his biadap-ness and instead blamed CM Lim. Both the Chief Secretary and that SDO aren't poorly educated lower echelon public service members, thus their civil service 'sins' have been all the greater. Their shameful lack of professionalism in their all too obvious political allegiance have been horrendously irreparable. The late Tun Ghazalie Shafie would have turned in his grave at their chowkana behaviour.

The so-called independent third branch of a democratic government, the judiciary, is also one of the most despised Malaysian public institutes, if not the most despised (since it is the last recourse for members of the public).

Thus when Malaysiakini released the news that the 17 protestors were acquitted by the court, the news portal’s column Vox Populi has this headline One swallow doesn't make a summer.

Obviously the readers reckoned such judicial decision would be the exception to the rule, a rarity. One reader wrote: The court is invariably under the thumb of the corrupt elites but in any organisation there is always a few noble characters. But in a system corrupt to the core, you can rest assure that judges like Jagjit will never make it to the Appeals Court and above.

While readers acknowledged the fairness of judge Jagjit Singh Bant Singh in dismissing the frivolous but potentially punitive charge for Tian Chua, Gobala and colleagues (for more of his judgement, see Malaysiakini’s Bersih rally: Two MPs and 15 others acquitted), the reference to his impartial judgement as a 'swallow not necessarily making a Malaysian summer' summarises the public general loss of confidence in the impartiality, integrity and professionalism of public institutes like the police, judiciary, MACC and the civil service.

22 years of rot will take a long time to cure.

Loh Gwo Burne & Gobala - one-term MPs?

Malaysiakini - Gwo Burne, Gobi not following Zaid

That Loh Gwo Burne became the PKR candidate for Kelana Jaya and eventually its MP had been a brilliant example of how Anwar Ibrahim treated (and seemingly still is treating) PKR like his personal fiefdom.

Can Anwar Ibrahim justify how he came to nominate Loh for the federal seat when there were more qualified and senior PKR members, more so when Loh was nominated just a week or so after he became a party member?

In February 2008 I wrote in PKR's Kelana Jaya sweetheart deal? (extracts):

Loh’s only fame (If you can term his coming to public notice that) was a Malaysiakini revelation of him as the bloke responsible for recording the controversial phone conversation of VK Lingam.

Here’s a person, who until the Lingam tape, was a PKR nobody but now suddenly being rewarded with the party's nomination for a parliamentary seat while hardworking, dedicated PKR member and a human rights lawyer, Elizabeth Wong, gets a state seat.

Yes, Elizabeth has been denied a parliamentary seat unlike HRH the Crown Princess and the Royal Video Cameraman, thanks to the de facto leader.

Now, Haris Ibrahim, PKR about Loh Gwo Burne’s nomination in PKR, why, why, why? He wrote:
I’ve had e-mails from Kelana Jaya registered voters asking this time and again. Why Loh Gwo-Burne?

He was unheard of until just before the Royal Commission proceedings began. There’s talk now about giving a protest vote to the independent, Billi Lim!

Have we missed something? Pray tell, PKR.
Indeed, but Haris should ask Anwar Ibrahim, not PKR because there are decent people in that party who are still furious with Loh’s nomination.

Tough luck for them in having a dict…. de facto leader.
Fortunately for Pakatan, Loh won. As they said, the tsunami would have swept a monkey holding a froggy toy into Parliament if it wore a PKR badge.

Strangely for a political nobody, Loh had recently supported Zaid Ibrahim rather passionately, to the extent of writing a letter to Malaysiakini lambasting Azmin Ali.

Now that Zaid has left and Azmin is about to become PKR deputy president and the real power, Loh is likely to find himself a one-term MP. Gobala is also at the short end of the stick for supporting Zaid. In these two, I feel Zaid has not done the right thing by them and his other supporters in not discussing with them his intention to quit.

Additional reading: Bahasa Mělayu - a letter to Yang Běrhormat

Lim GE konk-ed Kong CH

Malaysiakini’s Transport minister blasts Guan Eng for U-turn reported”

Transport Minister Kong Cho Ha criticised the Penang government today for its U-turn in lifting the stop work order on the Ipoh-Padang Besar Electrified Double Track Project (EDTP), blamed for the worsening floods in northern states. [...]

Kong said the state government should not have used the stop-work order as a cheap publicity tool, but instead should work with the federal government on mega projects that benefit the state and the country as a whole.

Isn’t that typical of an MCA minister towards governance and public accountability? Isn’t the PKFZ mess an outcome of a MCA minister’s poor monitoring?

All Lim Guan Eng wanted from MMC Gamuda was a letter of guarantee that it would reduce the impact of flooding caused by the rail double tracking (after the horrendous kedah experience) and that flood damage to the properties of Penangites must be compensated.

Kong should have insisted on that letter of guarantee in the first place and not leave it to Lim to do the necessary hard yards. But alas, Kong is MCA and that’s what you can expect of an MCA minister (probably with the sole exception of Ong Tee Keat).

UMNO to control MCA directly?

Senator Murugiah, formerly of PPP, now MIC by courtesy and love of Najib wakakaka, is no doubt crazy about the idea because it will keep him safe.

Liow Tiong Lai would probably support it; after all Najib is his ‘beloved PM’ and had together with Muhyiddin saved his MCA bacon wakakaka a couple of times. Yes, Liow is the deputy president of MCA but in actuality he's more or less in the same boat as Murugiah, very dependent on UMNO's protective blessings to survive.

Poor Ah Koon (Koh TK) may have mixed feelings; no doubt he will benefit from it as an UMNO fave but at the same time as the president of the Gerakan Party he may harbor some trepidations; anyway, as I often wrote about the once-(in 1969)-mighty Gerakan Party, it's so dead it's only respectful for me not to disturb the dearly departed.

Oh, what's all the above? I am of course referring to the UMNO-proposed Changes to BN's constitution (see Malaysiakini for more) which will transfer over to the BN chairman, effectively the head of UMNO, the hitherto-rights of the leaders of each BN component party to select their party candidates for the federal and state elections.

This is a far greater insult to the non-UMNO parties than what has been happening thus far in the BN process for selecting candidates for elections.

What’s the current process?

I wrote of this in many previous posts, of which the last was MIC fights back at UMNO, MCA ...? where I mentioned (extracts):

Basically all parties in an alliance or coalition [like the BN and Pakatan] are ‘equal’ though of course the bigger or more powerful party is accepted as the primus inter pares or ‘first among equals’ – note the term ‘among equals’.

… the federal and state seats are negotiated and then allocated – sure, there’s the usual pre-emptive strikes (like what PKR tried to do against DAP just before the 2008 general election), tradeoffs, stealing, cheating etc etc, but once a seat is allocated to Party X, Parties Y and Z have to butt out and mind their own business.

Unfortunately (for MCA, MIC, Gerakan – no point mentioning the mosquito parties) in BN, UMNO vets and approves the other parties’ candidates.

It’s such a shaemful indignity for MCA, MIC and Gerakan to submit themselves to this process where the UMNO chief has to give his nod. Look across to see how Pakatan manages it (mind you, not that Anwar wouldn’t love to exercise such control wakakaka).

A coalition is what it is, a grouping together of independent sovereign parties. For MCA, MIC and Gerakan to submit their nominated election candidates to the UMNO chief for his ‘yes’ indicates subservience. That’s why I have frequently pointed out that the BN is NOT a coalition but merely UMNO with several smaller branches having non-Malay members.

Now, as if that process was not enough, UMNO wants more. It doesn’t just want to okay the component parties’ choices but to select the candidates DIRECTLY.

As I mentioned above, the happiest bloke will be Murugiah because his recent acceptance as a MIC member (after being expelled from PPP) was only on the personal orders of Najib to Samy Vellu. Muruguah fears being left out by MIC in the party’s selection for the 13th GE. With Najib as UMNO chief and concurrently BN chief, Murugiah can be more assured of his nomination, if not as senator, then as a federal MIC (wakakaka) candidate.

Mind you, there’s precedence in UMNO directly picking a MIC candidate for an election. Remember the recent Hulu Selangor by-election where Muhyiddin directly picked Kamal (or Nathan, whichever name he prefers) over MIC’s choice of Palanivel as its candidate?

Then, the spokesman for Selangor MIC divisions, A Saktivel, bravely stated:

“It has never happened in history that a candidate not chosen by the party president is fielded. We don't want a candidate who is allowed to contest for the seat through the back door. This is about party dignity.”

"If MIC has no say in the choice of candidate, there's no point having MIC around. We will lose our face. We won't be able to face grassroots members."

Some lower echelon MIC leaders like K Alloo Pillai also warned that if Palanivel was not chosen as the BN candidate, fundamentally a blatant show of disrespect to MIC and its leadership, they would not go out to vote but instead boycott the by-election. Hulu Selangor MIC information chief Raily Muniandy threatened that all the party branches in the constituency will be closed.

I then wrote: Even though MIC is an @r$eh*le party he’s right. […] Accepting this as an UMNO prerogative would be the most shameful indignity that MIC will have to suffer in its 50 over years of history.

But in the end, what happened? MIC capitulated. That Kamal (or Nathan) won the by-election was not the point. The point is MIC was humiliated kau kau but, unlike Zaid Ibrahim, rolled over and quietly took the UMNO hefty kick to its party dignity and so-called sovereignty … proving the MIC is just a minor subordinate, not a coalition partner, of UMNO.

[Hmmm, I was wondering whether I should borrow Uthayakumar's most biadap word to describe MIC in its relationshp with UMNO?].

Anway, I had then suggested to Chua Soi Lek that the occasion (where UMNO usurped MIC's sovereign rights) should be an opportunity for MCA to demonstrate it has balls by showing solidarity with MIC and say, words to the effect, “If MIC’s preference is not respected, MCA will not support the BN candidate.”

I warned: Dei Chua, today it’s MIC, tomorrow it may well be MCA, and by the way, have a read of my other but related posts below - wakakaka!

(1) Liow Tiong Lai's godfather coming to save him?
(2) Najib and Muhyiddin fighting for Liow Tiong Lai

Well, it is about to happen to MCA too with the new BN proposed constitution.

A Malaysiakini source in BN (not UMNO of course wakakaka) lamented: "What's the use of being a party president then? It doesn't make sense. In that case, the president should just dissolve all the component parties and make BN one party.”

"The existing practice is for the party presidents to suggest their candidates, although the final decision is with the BN chief. But now this right is being taken away and all the power is given to one person."

Not just ‘one person’ but an UMNO person.

There are two sayings I wish to mention here as my ‘I told you so’:

“A stitch in time saves nine”, and

“Give him an inch [or centimetre] and he'll take a mile [kilometre]”.

and perhaps the famous statement by Pastor Martin Niemöller:

They came first for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for me
and by that time no one was left to speak up.