Malaysiakini columnist KJ John wrote All about grace or the art of graciousness, especially in politics.
He cited the post election speeches of John McCain and Barack Obama, and how these two Americans, once the electioneering was over, had America and unity in mind - when one made a gracious concessional speech whilst the other an equally gracious victory speech.
John also brought out two examples of local graciousness. He said:
“Grace is also when the government pays the ex-judges an ex-gratia payment for their wrongful dismissal and an error of judgment of the past leadership. The government of Malaysia showed grace and let us leave it at that.” […]
“It was graciousness, for example, for the Penang government to recognise the opposition leader in the state assembly and to pay that person a monthly allowance.”
Unfortunately we haven’t for we have continued debate on the ex-gratia payments. John also opined that the Penang opposition leader has, by refusing the legislated allowance for him, rejected his party’s role as the shadow/alternative government of Penang.
An unfortunate lack of graciousness but more importantly, an ignorance and neglect of the opposition role as a shadow government to challenge, check and counter the government plans, policies and practice.
kaytee must ask the UMNO opposition leader a question – where then would be your party’s obligation to your constituencies (the people who voted for you) and their (the voters') representation in the DUN?
Unless we show some graciousness in our own conduct towards politics, we shouldn’t dream of good democracy, let alone a 2-party system, where the politics can be robust yet without degenerating into hostility and ethnocentric animosities.
But with our ‘black or white’ mentality and proclivity for aggression, I don’t have much hope for a mature sense of balance in our political discussions and interactions.
Generally by adopting a take-no-prisoner approach to politics and the opposite side, we ourselves have become the prisoners of our own mental limitations and lack of graciousness.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Selangor DAP being prosecuted, and persecuted?
In Malaysiakini Charge against S'gor cabinet member 'politically motivated' Lim Kit Siang, the de facto Opposition Leader ;-) (he seems to be the leader pushing important issues in Parliament) has accused the Police of pursuing a politically driven prosecution of Ronnie Liu.
The authorities have even brought in the heavy guns to get Ronnie for a small charge of 'abetment in obstructing a Subang Jaya Municipal Council enforcement officer in closing down a hotel last year'.
Uncle Lim said: "The fact that they have assigned a senior DPP to (handle) this menial case reflects the kind of (political) weight they have placed on this case."
… and on an issue that’s one year old – sheeesh!
This has been on top of the harassment and ISA-detention of Teresa Kok, and on a slightly different issue, the bashing of Lau Weng San, ADUN for Kampung Tunku, who was assaulted and then arrested by the police in a recent anti-ISA rally - see Malaysiakini DAP duo allege rough handling by police.
The Selangor UMNO is certainly behaving like, to quote a Malay saying, a worm on hot ashes. As State opposition it’s squirming and wriggling because it can’t stand the thought of the PR ruling Malaysia’s premier State, Selangor - though of course the real 'premier' State, as almost everyone knows, is Penang ;-)
I am convinced there is a campaign and even conspiracy to destabilize and topple the current ruling PR – with a mix of attacking/harassing DAP members, enticing PAS’s ones (via the siren calls for pan-Malay solidarity) and a combination of both against PKR.
Mind you, these campaign nastiness' are comparatively mild to what they did in 1969 to prevent the DAP + Gerakan (loose coaliiton) from forming the State government – read The Real Cause of the May 13 Riots
Related:
Ku Li warned of May 13 again
The authorities have even brought in the heavy guns to get Ronnie for a small charge of 'abetment in obstructing a Subang Jaya Municipal Council enforcement officer in closing down a hotel last year'.
Uncle Lim said: "The fact that they have assigned a senior DPP to (handle) this menial case reflects the kind of (political) weight they have placed on this case."
… and on an issue that’s one year old – sheeesh!
This has been on top of the harassment and ISA-detention of Teresa Kok, and on a slightly different issue, the bashing of Lau Weng San, ADUN for Kampung Tunku, who was assaulted and then arrested by the police in a recent anti-ISA rally - see Malaysiakini DAP duo allege rough handling by police.
The Selangor UMNO is certainly behaving like, to quote a Malay saying, a worm on hot ashes. As State opposition it’s squirming and wriggling because it can’t stand the thought of the PR ruling Malaysia’s premier State, Selangor - though of course the real 'premier' State, as almost everyone knows, is Penang ;-)
I am convinced there is a campaign and even conspiracy to destabilize and topple the current ruling PR – with a mix of attacking/harassing DAP members, enticing PAS’s ones (via the siren calls for pan-Malay solidarity) and a combination of both against PKR.
Mind you, these campaign nastiness' are comparatively mild to what they did in 1969 to prevent the DAP + Gerakan (loose coaliiton) from forming the State government – read The Real Cause of the May 13 Riots
Related:
Ku Li warned of May 13 again
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Anti-ISA Candlelight Vigil 15 Nov 08 - Penang Esplanade
event: anti-ISA candle light vigil
date: 15 november 2008 (saturday)
time: 8.00pm
venue: esplanade [hah, many happy memories of my teenage years ;-) ]
chart supplied by my good matey Lucia Lai, Penang's most dedicated and sincere civic activist
I love her for her mateship and her good heart so if you guys are in Penang and don't turn up, you are gonna pissed me off ;-)
BE THERE! ;-)
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Cui Bono
Remember Ustaz Ramlang Porigi?
The junior mufti who claimed he was not political but yet, went on an extensive PKR campaign for Anwar Ibrahim against Saiful Bukhari Azlan, the alleged sodomy victim.
And what was Ramlang’s main point against Saiful?
My answer lies in what I had posted as Ustaz - Saiful's dodgy Arabic renders oath dodgy - wakakaka!
I wrote: During the swearing, Saiful mispronounced one of the Islamic words because he had it written down in Malay instead of Arabic.
Now, I would be hilarious over this point if I can be sure I won’t offend my Muslim friends. But I need to ask: would Allah (swt) have cared one iota if one of his creations had mispronounced an Arabic word in a supposedly serious undertaking, a sumpah laknat (swearing in the face of divine retribution)?
This is precisely the sort of irrelevant hair-splitting arguments which ignored the solemn religious nature of the oath-taking that trivializes the majesty of Islam – and, alas, it’s by a cleric.
I also asked in that post: Ramlang admitted he wasn’t the Imam Besar of the mosque or an ulama, yet he raised an issue of a mispronounced Arabic word, which we note that even the PAS ulamas didn’t raise ..... which has been why I reckon the ustaz has trivialized an oath taking.
But this seemed to be the straw PKR was looking for, given that Anwar Ibrahim had (embarrassingly for PKR) refused to take an oath he didn’t sodomize Saiful as alleged. If I recall correctly, the oath challenge was thrown into the arena by none other than the former Mufti of Perlis.
Do you think he would have done that if oath-taking wasn't allowed in Islam?
That wasn't unlike private detective Balasubramanian revealing to the press his SD, also at a PKR conference.
… and strangely, unlike Anwar Ibrahim who would have been accompanied by a battery of lawyers when he visited a police station, the day following the SC, Bala went alone, yes, alone to a police station (can you believe this was allowed to happen?) at the request of the police, where he submitted another SD reversing his original SD, and subsequently disappeared!
So, when Bala disappeared, who was blamed? Or, who would be blamed for Bala’s disappearance? Mind you, not just him but his entire family – that’s a whole lot of expenses, man. How can Bala maintain such an expense account without any income?
… and following Bala's mysterious disappearance, the question we must ask is cui bono?
Cui bono?
The junior mufti who claimed he was not political but yet, went on an extensive PKR campaign for Anwar Ibrahim against Saiful Bukhari Azlan, the alleged sodomy victim.
And what was Ramlang’s main point against Saiful?
My answer lies in what I had posted as Ustaz - Saiful's dodgy Arabic renders oath dodgy - wakakaka!
I wrote: During the swearing, Saiful mispronounced one of the Islamic words because he had it written down in Malay instead of Arabic.
Now, I would be hilarious over this point if I can be sure I won’t offend my Muslim friends. But I need to ask: would Allah (swt) have cared one iota if one of his creations had mispronounced an Arabic word in a supposedly serious undertaking, a sumpah laknat (swearing in the face of divine retribution)?
This is precisely the sort of irrelevant hair-splitting arguments which ignored the solemn religious nature of the oath-taking that trivializes the majesty of Islam – and, alas, it’s by a cleric.
I also asked in that post: Ramlang admitted he wasn’t the Imam Besar of the mosque or an ulama, yet he raised an issue of a mispronounced Arabic word, which we note that even the PAS ulamas didn’t raise ..... which has been why I reckon the ustaz has trivialized an oath taking.
But this seemed to be the straw PKR was looking for, given that Anwar Ibrahim had (embarrassingly for PKR) refused to take an oath he didn’t sodomize Saiful as alleged. If I recall correctly, the oath challenge was thrown into the arena by none other than the former Mufti of Perlis.
Do you think he would have done that if oath-taking wasn't allowed in Islam?
I had also wrote in The influence of the 'Oath' in Permatang Pauh:
I did a bit of research on the taking of oath by the Qu’ran, and these are what I have obtained:
(1) Scholars, looking at the fact that the Qur’an is also an attribute of Allah, considered an oath taken by the Qur’an to be valid.
Imam al-Haskafi (Allah have mercy on him), said in his Durr: “Kamal (ibn al-Humam, the great Hanafi Mujtahid) said: “Let it be known that the taking of an oath by the Qur’an is something that has become customary, thus it would be considered a valid oath.”
Allama Ibn Abidin (Allah have mercy on him) explained the above by stating: “This is based on the fact that the Qur’an is the Speech of Allah, thus it will be considered to be one of His attributes.” (Radd al-Muhtar ala al-Durr al-Mukhtar, 3/712)
Of course there are other scholars like Gus Dur who disagreed. And he has a PhD from Iraq.
(2) Swearing in the Quran as taught by Surah An-Nur is to swear 4 times in Allah's names, with the fifth invoking the curse of Allah if they tell a lie.
However, the surah specifically states that this kind of swearing is only when a husband is accusing his wife of adultery but can't find 4 witnesses; the oath is also used by the wife to defend herself.
Does this mean that the oath is a substitute for the 4 required witnesses?
But as I mentioned, even with a win and a seat in parliament, Anwar has to live with this accusation for the rest of his life … unless of course he becomes PM … or
…… now this has nothing at all to do with legality or law, but it’s about perception of morality through the eyes of the religious kampong people in the heartland, and in politics, perceptions are everything
…… he takes the oath to neutralize Saiful’s declaration to Allah (swt).
Malaysiakini was obviously right there when Ustaz Ramlang criticized Saiful and his imperfect Arabic pronunciation. The Ustaz said all these in a PKR press conference news, and Malaysiakini published the news item Ustaz puts BN campaign in tatters at the amazing time chop of 3:33 a.m!That wasn't unlike private detective Balasubramanian revealing to the press his SD, also at a PKR conference.
… and strangely, unlike Anwar Ibrahim who would have been accompanied by a battery of lawyers when he visited a police station, the day following the SC, Bala went alone, yes, alone to a police station (can you believe this was allowed to happen?) at the request of the police, where he submitted another SD reversing his original SD, and subsequently disappeared!
So, when Bala disappeared, who was blamed? Or, who would be blamed for Bala’s disappearance? Mind you, not just him but his entire family – that’s a whole lot of expenses, man. How can Bala maintain such an expense account without any income?
… and following Bala's mysterious disappearance, the question we must ask is cui bono?
Cui bono?
PABS gossip memo
Gossip memo for:
Protem President, PABS
I have come across a rumour currently doing the rounds. Some bloggers are grumbling about a certain blogger, one who likes to present himself as representing Malaysian bloggers ... wakakaka!
Oh, don't mind my guffawing - I am just tickled by the ludicrous thought of one individual representing all bloggers.
Mind you, to be fair to this blogger, his supporters used to think he did ... but now, many are having disquiet about his affiliations. You can catch drifts of this at Malaysiakini.
As one sweetie lamented, it had to take them so long to come to that realization - wakakaka!
On a separate matter, I heard on the grapevine that at this year's Bum night, roast lamb will be served again ... free of charge again ...
Hmmm, kaytee sedar ya dong, gratis adalah gratis, but can't we have a lil' imagination in the menu setting?
... or, maybe the kambing that'll be roasted could be the one sembelih in anticipative thanksgiving for a future leader's safe and comfy keeping and hopefully, ascendancy?
I suppose it makes good sense not to waste. In the current economic climate, one must save, save and save ... and invest, invest and invest in anticipation ... ;-)
Oh, on Bum night, I heard there'll be a word (or several) from theroast la.. sponsor ... and er ... don't forget the mint sauce - ya?
PABS lil' birdie ;-)
Protem President, PABS
I have come across a rumour currently doing the rounds. Some bloggers are grumbling about a certain blogger, one who likes to present himself as representing Malaysian bloggers ... wakakaka!
Oh, don't mind my guffawing - I am just tickled by the ludicrous thought of one individual representing all bloggers.
Mind you, to be fair to this blogger, his supporters used to think he did ... but now, many are having disquiet about his affiliations. You can catch drifts of this at Malaysiakini.
As one sweetie lamented, it had to take them so long to come to that realization - wakakaka!
On a separate matter, I heard on the grapevine that at this year's Bum night, roast lamb will be served again ... free of charge again ...
Hmmm, kaytee sedar ya dong, gratis adalah gratis, but can't we have a lil' imagination in the menu setting?
... or, maybe the kambing that'll be roasted could be the one sembelih in anticipative thanksgiving for a future leader's safe and comfy keeping and hopefully, ascendancy?
I suppose it makes good sense not to waste. In the current economic climate, one must save, save and save ... and invest, invest and invest in anticipation ... ;-)
Oh, on Bum night, I heard there'll be a word (or several) from the
PABS lil' birdie ;-)
Friday, November 14, 2008
Dr Mahathir a Malaysian Obama?
Obama, Obama, Obama – everyone (well, almost) is in love with Obama ...
… especially Malaysian opposition supporters. They want a Malaysian Obama.
Well, noted Malaysiakini columnist Dr Musa Bakri has penned his usual erudite column titled (hardly surprising) Note to a Malaysian Obama …
… in which he commented that our Malaysian society in many respects are far more accommodating of people who don’t look like you – for example, Obama whether he was called by his unusual (to Americans) name or 'George Washington', would still be to most Americans a black man.
… whereas (as Dr Bakri said) “… There are many children of Malay-Caucasian as well as Malay-Chinese and Malay-Indian marriages exhibiting very 'un-Malay' features. "
"Yet Malay culture has been very welcoming of them, unhesitatingly embracing them as Malays. This is not a recent phenomenon. I had many childhood friends and classmates who had distinctly Chinese or Indian appearances because of adoption or mixed marriages, yet they were all considered and treated as Malays."
"Why the children of mixed marriages between a member of the majority and a minority are not regarded as the majority in America, but they are in Malaysia, is an observation worth pondering. I am certain this is related to an underlying obsession with ‘racial purity’."
"On this point, as a Malay I am heartened that my culture is very welcoming of those who are adopted, from mixed marriages, and do not look like us, whatever that presumed ‘Malay appearance’ might be. We are, thankfully, not consumed with maintaining our ‘purity’.”
At this stage, do you agree with Dr Bakri?
Continuing, Dr Bakri said: “My view is that Malaysia already has her Barack Obama in Mahathir Mohamad. We do not recognise him as such because unlike in America where its Obama is considered a member of the minority, Malaysia’s majority Malays warmly and quickly embrace their Obama as one of their own.”
“Nor is Mahathir alone; earlier leaders like Onn Jaafar and Tunku Abdul Rahman also had mixed ancestry.”
“By biological heritage, Obama has equal claim to being black or white. Yet because of his unalterable physical characteristics, Obama is labeled black. Even if Obama were to resort to the miracles of plastic surgery, skin-whitening cream, and hair coloring and straightening a la Michael Jackson, which Obama does not, he would still be labeled black.”
“For contrast, examine the group portrait of Umno Supreme Council members. If they were to dispense with their songkok and Baju Melayu and instead put on modern attire, some of them could easily be mistaken as delegates from MCA or MIC, that is, until they open their big mouth and chant their chauvinistic slogan of ‘Ketuanan Melayu’!”
Of course when I hear the usual suspects disparage Dr Mahathir I feel sad that people attack the mamaks again a la Chinese saying: "Sweeping everyone down with one single bamboo pole!" – I have some very good friends who are mamaks so of course those insults against mamaks have been very hurtful ... and bloody racist.
Anyway, do you reckon Dr Bakri has been right, about Dr M being our Obama?
… especially Malaysian opposition supporters. They want a Malaysian Obama.
Well, noted Malaysiakini columnist Dr Musa Bakri has penned his usual erudite column titled (hardly surprising) Note to a Malaysian Obama …
… in which he commented that our Malaysian society in many respects are far more accommodating of people who don’t look like you – for example, Obama whether he was called by his unusual (to Americans) name or 'George Washington', would still be to most Americans a black man.
… whereas (as Dr Bakri said) “… There are many children of Malay-Caucasian as well as Malay-Chinese and Malay-Indian marriages exhibiting very 'un-Malay' features. "
"Yet Malay culture has been very welcoming of them, unhesitatingly embracing them as Malays. This is not a recent phenomenon. I had many childhood friends and classmates who had distinctly Chinese or Indian appearances because of adoption or mixed marriages, yet they were all considered and treated as Malays."
"Why the children of mixed marriages between a member of the majority and a minority are not regarded as the majority in America, but they are in Malaysia, is an observation worth pondering. I am certain this is related to an underlying obsession with ‘racial purity’."
"On this point, as a Malay I am heartened that my culture is very welcoming of those who are adopted, from mixed marriages, and do not look like us, whatever that presumed ‘Malay appearance’ might be. We are, thankfully, not consumed with maintaining our ‘purity’.”
At this stage, do you agree with Dr Bakri?
Continuing, Dr Bakri said: “My view is that Malaysia already has her Barack Obama in Mahathir Mohamad. We do not recognise him as such because unlike in America where its Obama is considered a member of the minority, Malaysia’s majority Malays warmly and quickly embrace their Obama as one of their own.”
“Nor is Mahathir alone; earlier leaders like Onn Jaafar and Tunku Abdul Rahman also had mixed ancestry.”
“By biological heritage, Obama has equal claim to being black or white. Yet because of his unalterable physical characteristics, Obama is labeled black. Even if Obama were to resort to the miracles of plastic surgery, skin-whitening cream, and hair coloring and straightening a la Michael Jackson, which Obama does not, he would still be labeled black.”
“For contrast, examine the group portrait of Umno Supreme Council members. If they were to dispense with their songkok and Baju Melayu and instead put on modern attire, some of them could easily be mistaken as delegates from MCA or MIC, that is, until they open their big mouth and chant their chauvinistic slogan of ‘Ketuanan Melayu’!”
Of course when I hear the usual suspects disparage Dr Mahathir I feel sad that people attack the mamaks again a la Chinese saying: "Sweeping everyone down with one single bamboo pole!" – I have some very good friends who are mamaks so of course those insults against mamaks have been very hurtful ... and bloody racist.
Anyway, do you reckon Dr Bakri has been right, about Dr M being our Obama?
Thursday, November 13, 2008
No, Anwar, not yet!
In Malaysiakini Liu wants court review of arrest warrant we read about the continuing police harassment of Selangor DAP ADUNs.
Can you imagine SEVERAL very brave police officers arrested DAP ADUN Ronnie Liu yesterday, based on nothing more than a report filed against him for allegedly obstructing Subang Jaya Municipal Council enforcement officers from carrying out their duties during an anti-vice raid on a hotel in Puchong LAST YEAR, yes, LAST YEAR.
Poor Liu was on his way to attend a state exco meeting when he was accosted. Despite his explaining to the officers that he would report to the nearest police station or to the Puchong police station after the exco meeting, the amazing men in blue couldn’t agree to the ADUN’s request ...
... no sirree, it was not possible to agree to an ADUN reporting to a police station on the same day after the exco meeting, though they could wait one blooming year to raise a dormant allegation against Ronnie to take him into custody.
Can you imagine SEVERAL very brave police officers arrested DAP ADUN Ronnie Liu yesterday, based on nothing more than a report filed against him for allegedly obstructing Subang Jaya Municipal Council enforcement officers from carrying out their duties during an anti-vice raid on a hotel in Puchong LAST YEAR, yes, LAST YEAR.
Poor Liu was on his way to attend a state exco meeting when he was accosted. Despite his explaining to the officers that he would report to the nearest police station or to the Puchong police station after the exco meeting, the amazing men in blue couldn’t agree to the ADUN’s request ...
... no sirree, it was not possible to agree to an ADUN reporting to a police station on the same day after the exco meeting, though they could wait one blooming year to raise a dormant allegation against Ronnie to take him into custody.
Wish the police could be as diligent in the still-unsolved cases of Nurin Jazlin Jazimin and Preeshena Varshiny. Maybe their diligence in their persecutions of opposition MPs and ADUNs haven't left them much time to solve those two murders?
But Ronnie has been lucky he wasn't punched in the face by the police like his DAP colleagues Lau Weng San, ADUN for Kampung Tunku ... whilst Tony Pua, DAP MP for Petaling Jaya Utara had his shirt torn and kicked in his stomach and leg (again by police).
As I blogged in Malaysian opposition politician's purple heart our police have shown abysmal disrespect for our elected (opposition) representatives, while the rare UMNO blokes who had been hauled in were pampered with nice nasi kandar.
Meanwhile, MCA continues in its usual centrifugal suicide as we have been told by Malaysiakini article Don't bluff me, Soi Lek warns. Team A and Team B are at it again, and we can only leave them to their post March lunacy.
Then I was delighted to read Death to capital punishment, written by my mate Dean Johns, hard hitting columnist at Malaysiakini.
My delight is more so after I had just posted State sanctioned slayings on Saturday. How can God fearing civilized people ever condone, let alone support the murder of another human being? Surely this must be one of the mysteries of humankind's f*ups.
OK, on to Penang - CM Lim GE has persuaded the Penang DUN to pass a bill which entitles the Opposition Leader to receive a salary of RM1000 (no chicken feed in these hard times) but alas, the bloke who is likely to be the beneficiary will be none other than Azhar Ibrahim (BN-Penaga).
In Malaysiakini Quit if appointed, 'shoot the reporter' Azhar told we are reminded that the bloke had been the bigot who suggested shooting Sin Chew Daily journalist Tan Hoon Cheng for reporting Ahmad Ismail's 'Chinese are immigrants' remark just prior to the Permatang Pauh by-election in August.
Jagdeep Singh Deo (DAP-Datuk Keramat) said the Umno politician should resign as he has tarnished the image of the position. That Azhar would heed Jagdeep is as likely as kayteemoc becoming an anwarista wakakaka.
Oh yes, I should say a few words about Anwar Ibrahim too. On Sunday Malaysiakini reported Anwar: Judicial renaissance? Not yet.
He was asked this after the court had ordered the release of RPK from detention under the ISA, and another court ruled in his (Anwar’s) favour, that his sodomy trial needn’t be transferred to the High Court.
Well, we need to understand his refusal to give an unqualified answer or approval because … wakakaka … his own sodomy trial isn’t over yet … but we may expect his judgement on the court after the court judges on his charge.
Incidentally, on the question of ‘not yet’, I suppose we can use his qualified statement on his so-called reformasi too.
As if his attempts at subverting the ballot box through his hype of 31 and the half past six’es 916, classic but shameful cases of boastful brazen bare-face hypocrisy, weren’t bad enough, he has persistently refused to take action against the Kulim thug.
There had been some 30% non-Muslims in Kulim who bought the PKR's campaign promise, as Haris Ibrahim pointed out to us. Hope they will remember what Zulkifli Noordin had done, and what Anwar has refused to do!
Surely Anwar's cakap ta’serupa bikin on his promise to discipline Zulkifli Noordin must demand from those of us who have been asked to believe his as-yet-to-be-evident reformasi a resounding “NO, not yet!”
Monday, November 10, 2008
Malaysian opposition politician's purple heart
wikipedia photo
President George Washington established the Purple Heart Medal as a badge of military merit. Along with the badge went the citation:
"Let it be known that he who wears the military order of the purple heart has given of his blood in the defense of his homeland and shall forever be revered by his fellow countrymen."
The award fell into disuse until it was revived in the 1930’s before WWII, where it was awarded to soldiers who were wounded in combat. The Purple Heart carries the image of George Washington as a mark of respect for the US President who established the award.
Apparently 500,000 Purple Hearts were prepared in anticipation of the expected casualties in the planned invasion of Japan. But due to the Japanese capitulation after Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed, those were obviously not required.
Even allowing for all the Purple Hearts awarded in the horrendous wars of WWII, Korea and Vietnam and all those grotty wars that Americans got themselves into since WWII, more than a hundred thousand medals are still available.
It is the only US military medal that doesn't require a recommendation for a soldier to win it; that soldier merits it by virtue of his or her wounds in combat.
In Malaysian politics, particularly opposition politics, a pollie is not considered kau liao (cukup mampu) or blooded ‘in combat’ unless he or she has been arrested by our dear men in blue, and preferably assaulted, or better still, detained for a decent period under the ISA.
Probably the DAP contributed most to such bloodying and ISA detention, with virtually its entire top echelon having makan nasi kari kosong kerajaan (ate government’s curry rice ... ;-) with or without eggs).
The award fell into disuse until it was revived in the 1930’s before WWII, where it was awarded to soldiers who were wounded in combat. The Purple Heart carries the image of George Washington as a mark of respect for the US President who established the award.
Apparently 500,000 Purple Hearts were prepared in anticipation of the expected casualties in the planned invasion of Japan. But due to the Japanese capitulation after Hiroshima and Nagasaki were bombed, those were obviously not required.
Even allowing for all the Purple Hearts awarded in the horrendous wars of WWII, Korea and Vietnam and all those grotty wars that Americans got themselves into since WWII, more than a hundred thousand medals are still available.
It is the only US military medal that doesn't require a recommendation for a soldier to win it; that soldier merits it by virtue of his or her wounds in combat.
In Malaysian politics, particularly opposition politics, a pollie is not considered kau liao (cukup mampu) or blooded ‘in combat’ unless he or she has been arrested by our dear men in blue, and preferably assaulted, or better still, detained for a decent period under the ISA.
Probably the DAP contributed most to such bloodying and ISA detention, with virtually its entire top echelon having makan nasi kari kosong kerajaan (ate government’s curry rice ... ;-) with or without eggs).
Karpal Singh, Lim Kit Siang, Lim Guan Eng, Teresa Kok, and some of their erstwhile colleagues have all made the roll of 'honour'.
Now, Malaysiakini in DAP duo allege rough handling by police informs us that Tony Pua, DAP MP for Petaling Jaya Utara and Lau Weng San, ADUN for Kampung Tunku, have both joined the ‘exalted’ ranks of politicians who have been arrested and assaulted by the police.
Apart from having his shirt torn, Tony was kicked in his stomach and leg. Lau was punched in his face despite informing the policeman he was an ADUN.
Now, Malaysiakini in DAP duo allege rough handling by police informs us that Tony Pua, DAP MP for Petaling Jaya Utara and Lau Weng San, ADUN for Kampung Tunku, have both joined the ‘exalted’ ranks of politicians who have been arrested and assaulted by the police.
Apart from having his shirt torn, Tony was kicked in his stomach and leg. Lau was punched in his face despite informing the policeman he was an ADUN.
Tony Pua - Malaysiakini photoOur police have shown abysmal disrespect for our elected representatives. The IGP should explain the thuggish conduct of his officer, especially calling to account the responsible officer, the CPO Selangor. Assaulting a Member of Parliament or an ADUN, the rakyat's elected representative, should be made a serious criminal offence.
Lau Weng San - Malaysiakini photo
But let’s leave those hoodlums in blue as they don’t and can’t earn our respect, perhaps our fear, but never our respect. So I won’t waste too much time lambasting them.
But our Tony and Lau have been bloodied ‘in combat’. They deserve the equivalent of the Purple Heart …
… which set me thinking – hmmm, what shall we call such an award, and should we have an equivalent of a George Washington type of image engraved on the medal?
I wonder whether you would agree with me if I title it Pingat TC (PTC) and adopt the face of a well-known personality in Malaysian politics as the iconic image to be set in the medal.
But our Tony and Lau have been bloodied ‘in combat’. They deserve the equivalent of the Purple Heart …
… which set me thinking – hmmm, what shall we call such an award, and should we have an equivalent of a George Washington type of image engraved on the medal?
I wonder whether you would agree with me if I title it Pingat TC (PTC) and adopt the face of a well-known personality in Malaysian politics as the iconic image to be set in the medal.
To know what is TC, please look at photo below - wakakaka!
photo from TC's blog
"Sedia untuk di hentam"
"Let it be known that he who wears the Malaysian Political Opposition order of the PTC has given of his/her blood in the defence of his/her constituency and shall forever be revered by his/her fellow countrymen."
Sunday, November 09, 2008
Bismarck: The king reigns but does not govern
Der Konig herrscht aber regiert nicht
(The king reigns but does not govern)
(The king reigns but does not govern)
- Karl Otto von Schonhausen Bismarck
On Friday Malaysiakini published Raja Nazrin: Rulers will not act on wrong advice.
Instead of rejoicing that we may be getting some so-called royal ‘check & balance’, au contraire I was filled with dread. I have not been impressed in the least by HRH's speech.
The democracy of Malaysia, warts and all, already has a system of ‘check & balance’, which admittedly didn’t work too well until recently, but then, when it didn’t work well, where were the royalty?
Why then is our democratic system of the tripartite ‘check & balance’ (executive, legislative and judiciary) beginning to awake from its Rip-Van-Winkle-an slumber?
Maybe AAB has loosened the shackles, maybe Anwar Ibrahim has provided the leadership, maybe the people have been sick of the arrogance of unfettered racism and the rampant exploitation of politics for reasons of individual avarice, and thus are more prepared to exert their voice, etc?
Whoever, whichever, whatever, our political reawakening and enjoyment of a more liberal political environment have been attained without any help from royalty! Not an iota! None whatsoever!
They were deafeningly silent when they should have spoken out, but now, like us they too are flexing their own Mahathirised-atrophied muscles in the changed socio-political environment, and reinventing their role in and relevance to society, to enhance their personal status and claw back their stripped down power.
Prior to the March election I believe the rakyat had actually lost confidence in the power of their own voices and votes (not daring to dream of the political tsunami to come), instead resorting in desperation to appeaqls and votive offerings to both God and any local messiah for political salvation.
Some saw the royalty as our political saviour, and went about promoting and egging the rulers to intrude into the political world to ‘rescue’ the people from Darth Vader. Alas, we should have been familiar with the story of Darth Vader, shouldn’t we?
Those royals were even considered as the ‘silver bullets’ to kill the UMNO werewolf.
Raja Petra Kamarudin (RPK) had been one of those ardent promoters of royal political interventionism. I wasn’t all that surprised that RPK had done so, he being a member of a royal family. In his writing, we read frequently of his (coincidental of course) slipping into exaltations of his granddad being Tun Raja (Sir) Uda, and boasting of his cousin the Sultan and his kinship with this and that royal house.
But where were the royalty when we needed them?
Some years ago the Perak Mufti had nearly caused an ugly incident of seditious proportion? Now that was a State religious issue, unlike this year's sacking of an insubordinate Director of JAIP by the Perak MB. So .....?
The general public in desperately clamouring for a political messiah had indicated their approval, prior to the general election, of royalty assuming a greater and more direct role in politics. I felt then the blog Malaysia-Today had promoted the royals beyond their constitutional role.
I have no doubt that those promotions of the royalty as potential political saviours had encouraged the royalty to begin exerting their powers, and in many incidents, in clumsy unconstitutional manner.
Their post election interferences by some Sultans were prime examples which regrettably many supported in glee, revelling in the embarrassment of an UMNO PM without realizing the more constitutionally-dangerous significance of those royal manoeuvres. I hate to use cliché but those silly sycophantic supporters couldn’t see the bigger picture.
In The dangers of royal political activism I wrote:
We shouldn’t rejoice that AAB had his ass whipped nicely by royalty because those royalty must not interfere with the decision making of the PM, the people’s choice of a national leader selected in accordance with our democratic process.
It’s hypocritical to talk about democratic process when we cheer processes that haven't been politically correct just because those processes have gone against a disliked person.
Another lamentable example had been the Perak Sultan's undermining of Perak MB Nizar’s authority by rescinding the latter’s sacking of the State religious director.
MB Nizar sacked the bloke because of his insubordination, his refusal to cooperate and work with the State elected government. How could a MB work with an insubordinate State civil servant, who incidentally has been a member of UMNO Parit Buntar, and no doubt been UMNO appointed and obviously UMNO-affiliated?
Nizar said: “Bagaimanapun kerajaan negeri terpaksa mempertahankan hak dan dasar yang diperjuangkan sepertimana yang disuarakan melalui manifesto Pakatan Rakyat pada pilihan raya lepas. Sikap tidak menghormati pendirian kerajaan oleh kakitangan awam sememangnya satu sikap yang tidak profesional, sedangkan semuanya telah termaktub dan ditentukan oleh Allah SWT.”
Publicly chopping the MB’s authority off at the knees, in a show of unnecessary but raw royal power play, the Prince (acting on behalf of the Sultan) justified his action on the fact that the Sultan as the religious head of the State had the royal prerogative on State religious matter.
That's true but unfortunately the sacking didn’t have anything to do with any religious issues or policies but rather a case of a civil servant demonstrating sheer insubordination to the MB by refusing to implement the State government’s directive.
Though the word ‘sacking’ had been used, in fact the MB had merely returned the civil servant to the State Secretariat, from where he had been on loan to run the State religious department.
But regardless of whether it was a case of insubordination by a civil servant or a MB committing a faux pas with a State religious issue, was there really such a need for HRH to publicly humiliate the new MB and undermine his authority as the State’s CEO? Surely a quiet royal word to Nizar and the MB would have been right royally apologetic (even if he wasn’t incorrect).
In Supremacy of the people's voice in democracy I wrote:
Karpal Singh had been absolutely correct for speaking out against royal interference with politics and political decisions and management. Even though the man was the director of a State religious department, his sacking was not related to religious matters but rather his political behaviour as a State public servant - certainly that would then be within the powers and right of the MB to dismiss him.
The MB and his exco has been elected by the rakyat and in a democratic constitutional monarchy, the voice of the people (expressed through their elected representatives) is supreme.
There were the usual politically motvated calls, no doubt from BN, to charge Karpal with lèse majesty.
But any royalty who brings him/herself incorrectly down into the political arena must be prepared to accept political criticism. Lawful political dissent and criticisms are the supreme right of the rakyat.
The royal person who wants to play politics shouldn’t expect to enjoy royal immunity from the laws (including a legal suit) or claim that those who criticise him/her have been guilty of lèse majesty, treason or affronting his/her royal person.
Yes, it was only the Lion of Gelugor who thundered against the royal interference, against their unconstitutional meddling in State politics. As mentioned, Karpal Singh was threatened for lèse majesty by the usual suspects. UMNO, already smarting after the March election, saw a malicious opportunity to attack Karpal and vicariously the DAP. Led by AAB, UMNO leaders demanded of the AG to charge Karpal Singh for sedition.
But the saddest part was that Karpal was alone in his courageous, constitutionally competent and correct chiding of improper royal interference in the state non-religious political management.
The normally verbose and bombastic Opposition Leader was strangely (perhaps not) silent, but more shamefully none of his DAP MP and (Perak) ADUN colleagues supported him. They must have been intimidated by sensitive issue of the position of the Sultan.
In the Malay world the Sultan holds a special place. If we remember the story of Hang Tuah and Jebat, Tuah was the quintessential loyal subject who remained loyal even to a tyrannical ruler, whilst Jebat the loyal friend of Tuah took up the cudgel of justice on behalf of a passive Tuah (passive to the Sultan’s unjust dictates) and became the notorious traitorous rebel, the wannabe Faisal bin Musa'id bin Abdul Aziz of the Malay world.
Mythical Jebat was deemed such a traitor that the first PM and ardent monarchist, Tunku Abdul Rahman, refused to have the Royal Malaysian Navy’s 2nd frigate named KD Jebat. He changed it to KD Rahmat.
I wrote 2 years ago in Hang Jebat lives again, but ...! (extracts follows):
Dr Azy Rahman has expounded in his article Neo-feudalism of the cybernetic Malays on the influence of the legendary Hang Tuah on the Malay psyche. I posted that in Malays' neo-feudalism hypermodern inner construct - excuse me while I untie my tongue.
Dr Azly said: “The concept of a hero in Malay society is enshrined in Hang Tuah, the most popular symbol of the warrior-class in Malay history; the good ‘polyglot’, the magical-mystical Malay hero who pledged blind loyalty to the Sultan. The image of the warrior-blind loyalist is well-inscribed into the literature and consciousness of the Malays”.
Note the word ‘blind loyalty’ and its derivative ‘blind loyalist’.
Dr Azly continued: “Today, enshrined, is the modern-day doctrine of allegiance to the ruler in the form of the Rukunegara or the ‘Principles of the Nationhood’. The myth of Hang Tuah, arguably, together with his friends Hang Jebat, Hang Lekir, and Hang Lekiu has been inscribed into the consciousness of the Malays and forms the foundation of the master-slave narrative”.
Well, yesterday, Dr Mahathir has in his lecture A dialogue with Tun Dr Mahathir organised by Malaysia-Today blog, stated the same thing. He said:
“Let me quote the story of Hang Tuah: Whenever the King gives an order, Hang Tuah and his brethrens would say, ‘mana titah, patih junjung’ (whatever you command, I shall obey) ….. That is why Hang Tuah killed his friends. He was too loyal …”
What Dr Mahathir meant of course was the ‘blind’ loyalty of Hang Tuah, who on the orders of the Sultan killed his best friend, Jebat. The story of Hang Tuah has not only been controversial but deeply disturbing because many readers, including myself, wondered how Tuah could kill Jebat, the very man who had defended him against a tyrant. And to make matters worse, Tuah did so on the orders of the tyrant.
But to an earlier generation of Malays - or according to Dr Azly, they had been brainwashed to believe - Tuah had been the epitome of that highly valued Malay characteristic, unimpeachable loyalty, whereas Jebat was the exact opposite, the treacherous rebel.
Tuah killed on the orders of his Sultan, no questions asked. Jebat, on the other hand, was pissed off with a tyrant who wanted to kill a loyal subject, but regicide, particularly of one's own, was a no-no in Malay culture. Therefore Jebat was a traitor and to be despised.
It first took Malaysia’s foremost Malay intellectual Kassim Ahmad to smash the conservative mould of thinking in his university thesis “Perwatakan Hikayat Hang Tuah” (the characters in the story of Hang Tuah).
As Dr Bakri Musa, a Malaysian who's a regular columnist in Malaysiakini and one of my favourite writers, said:
“Kassim frontally challenged the orthodox Malay thinking on authority, and royalty in particular. According to Kassim, the real hero is not Hang Tuah, rather the hitherto presumed renegade, Hang Jebat. To Kassim, Tuah is the typical palace sycophant who willingly sells his body and soul to the sultan, a loyalty conveniently reinforced by whatever largesse the sultan could bestow.”
“Jebat is the rugged individualist, not awed by those who wield power. His loyalty is to institutions, not individuals. To Kassim, Jebat is the true hero, not the prodigal son, Tuah.”
“It is a conflict of commitment to principles and institutions represented by Jebat, versus personal loyalty as presented by Tuah. It is this universal conflict, concretized in the setting of a traditional feudal society, which makes Hikayat Hang Tuah such a powerful and enduring piece of literature.”
And it was during Dr Mahathir’s PM-ship that Jebat was properly ‘rehabilitated’ as a heroic Malay warrior, where the RMN finally named a ship after the mythical admiral.
I heard also (please confirm if anyone knows, because I haven’t seen what was told to me) that in UMNO’s headquarters, the biggest room, the place of honour, is named after Jebat whilst the smallest room was allocated to the memory of Tuah.
If true, surely all these must have alarmed the Malay royalty. Furthermore, the growing republican movement around the world, manifested in dramatic fashion in Nepal, the last bastion of the Hindu God-King, must have added to their concerns.
So the recent royal ‘power surges’, in the face of a weak PM and the unjustified adulation of the Brigade of Lost Hopes, have been Ops Claw-back by the Malaysian royalty.
And guess what happened after MB Nizar succumbed to such traditional Malay royal psy-war and reinstated an insubordinate State civil servant?
The Prince Regent in a subsequent speech (3 months later in late July) attempted to change (by stealth) his justification for his royal interference from that of religious matters to administrative fairness.
I again blogged on that in Miscellanous - from reformasi to royalty based on a Star Online news article titled Rulers have special roles where I stated:
Highly admired Regent of Perak, once (prior to the March 08 election) touted as the ‘silver bullet’ to kill off the BN werewolf, told us yesterday that Malay Rulers are not decorative symbolic monuments who merely carry out ceremonial duties. Rather, they have roles in society, which means their views should not be taken lightly.
He then gave several examples of the royal righteous roles, one of which caught my eye.
HRH said of Nizar, the new MB, who sacked the state religious director without getting the Ruler's assent first.
HRH justified (or in kaytee’s reckoning, attempted to do so) his humiliation of Nizar, stating: “That is why the state government was asked to withdraw it!” because, according to his HRH, Nizar contradicted the principle of basic justice as the director had not done any wrong and was not given an opportunity to defend himself.
If you read my Supremacy of the people's voice in democracy I brought out HRH’s initial reason for rebuking and forcing Nizar to back down, on the grounds that the dismissed chap was a director of a State religious department, and the Sultan, as the State’s head of Islam, has his royal prerogative on all matters of State religion, including deciding who should be sacked or not sacked involving State religious issues.
And on those (religious rights) grounds, he revoked the MB’s decision in the dismissal.
[…]
[3 months later] HRH did not bring out the Sultan’s right as the head of Islam in revoking the MB’s decision to dismiss that insubordinate bloke.
That's right - that reason was totally absent! What HRH said was that MB Nizar contradicted the principle of basic justice as the director had not done any wrong and was not given an opportunity to defend himself.
So it has now been admitted by HRH that it was an administrative issue and not a religious one!
A case of basic (administrative) justice! And so, according to HRH, he had (on behalf of Papa) intervened to ensure there was basic justice.
What about the unacceptable issue of insubordination to the MB? And the subsequent public humiliation of a MB? Was there basic justice for MB Nizar?
Quite frankly, by raising the case again and changing HRH’s reason for revoking the MB’s administrative decision, the Regent has made his justification worse. [...]
I saw the whole series of royal interferences (Perlis, Terengganu, and Perak) as opportunities for flexing of their once-absolute-but-neutralised royal muscles after Dr M left the stage.
The royal humiliation of MB Nizar left me with a sour taste in my mouth. Silver bullet?
And since when has royalty assume the role of an administrative court in deciding State management fairness?
I had warned time and time again that the royalty had been the problem rather than the solution, and true to my words, the Kelantan Prince confirmed that by slapping the faces of his father’s non-Malay subjects, and his hurtful warning had recently been confirmed by the recent Rulers Conference, namely, the so-called ’social contract’ …
… which Royal Prof Ungku Aziz had already described as a non-existent ‘fantasy’ by some politicians. Well, the ’social contract’ has now been given real life by their royal/political imprimatur.
While the Sultans have a place under the Malaysian Constitution, they should be careful not to step down from their royal pedestal onto the grubby world of politics where they then draw justified criticisms unto their political (and not royal) persons.
And may I leave you with a statement by Ben Jonson in Explorata: Illiteratus Princeps ..
They say Princes learn no art truly, but the art of horsemanship. The reason is, the brave beast is no flatterer. He will throw a Prince as soon as his groom.
Saturday, November 08, 2008
Kreative Kaos with headlines
kaytee having a bit of (chaotic) fun with news headlines:
(1) Star Online - Council defers fatwa on yoga ...
... until its meditation on topic has been completed.
(2) Malaysiakini - Protest against anti-tomboy fatwa ...
... by ISA, the Independent S......s Association, who cried "Don't deprive us of our preference."
(3) Malaysiakini - Court frees ISA detainee Raja Petra ...
... and detains Raja Pundee who's too free with ISA.
(4) Star Online - Raja Petra surprised at being freed by High Court ...
... after everyone in PKR has been saying, especially recently, that the judiciary is corrupt and toeing the government's line.
(5) Malaysiakini letter - Bangsa Malaysia gets a push with Obama's win ...
... off the cliff?
(6) Star Online - MCA wants more young people to join party's Youth wing ...
... which is a revolutionary new MCA policy as hitherto membership had been restricted to only much older and very very mature age men.
(7) Malaysiakini letter - Obama wouldn't have made it in Malaysia ...
... is utter nonsense when it's well known that Obama has an Indonesian background (where with a blue IC, andBob's Bapak's your uncle).
(8) Malaysiakini - Feudalism: The son also rises ...
... could well be either a new or hitherto unheard of Middle-Eastern religion.
(9) Sydney Morning Herald - Palin denounces her critics as cowardly ...
... for cruelly but anonymously saying she did not know Africa was a continent, and not a country ... because she had once hunted moose in thatcoun... continent.
(10) Sydney Morning Herald - Iraq demands date for US withdrawal ...
... but Bush said "I rather the US stays on than allow young American sweeties to date strange Middle-Eastern men with names like O .. er .. sama."
(1) Star Online - Council defers fatwa on yoga ...
... until its meditation on topic has been completed.
(2) Malaysiakini - Protest against anti-tomboy fatwa ...
... by ISA, the Independent S......s Association, who cried "Don't deprive us of our preference."
(3) Malaysiakini - Court frees ISA detainee Raja Petra ...
... and detains Raja Pundee who's too free with ISA.
(4) Star Online - Raja Petra surprised at being freed by High Court ...
... after everyone in PKR has been saying, especially recently, that the judiciary is corrupt and toeing the government's line.
(5) Malaysiakini letter - Bangsa Malaysia gets a push with Obama's win ...
... off the cliff?
(6) Star Online - MCA wants more young people to join party's Youth wing ...
... which is a revolutionary new MCA policy as hitherto membership had been restricted to only much older and very very mature age men.
(7) Malaysiakini letter - Obama wouldn't have made it in Malaysia ...
... is utter nonsense when it's well known that Obama has an Indonesian background (where with a blue IC, and
(8) Malaysiakini - Feudalism: The son also rises ...
... could well be either a new or hitherto unheard of Middle-Eastern religion.
(9) Sydney Morning Herald - Palin denounces her critics as cowardly ...
... for cruelly but anonymously saying she did not know Africa was a continent, and not a country ... because she had once hunted moose in that
(10) Sydney Morning Herald - Iraq demands date for US withdrawal ...
... but Bush said "I rather the US stays on than allow young American sweeties to date strange Middle-Eastern men with names like O .. er .. sama."
Wednesday, November 05, 2008
US Presidential Elections - Looking at the loser
Finally and hopefully we see the last of those neocons – read Malaysiakini Obama chalks up historic win.
Congratulations to Barack Obama for being elected as the 44th President of the USA and the first black American to be Head of State of the most powerful nation on earth, a post which should never have gone into the hands of low brow moronic George W Bush.
Can you imagine that it was just slightly more than 50 years ago (Malaysia's age) that Rose Parks, an African American woman, was taken off to jail for refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white man. Today a black man is the President of that country!
I came across Obama’s name when my good mate, Dean Johns wrote of him in a Malaysiakini column some years ago, telling us he’s the man to look out for. If not for the fact that I had (always) eagerly awaited Dean’s weekly column, I would be none the wiser as to who the hell was this man with the strange name of Barack Obama.
Congratulations are thus in order too for Dean Johns for his foresight and aspiration for such a man to take over the reins of a nation which was once admired but under Bush-Cheney, feared and detested.
Dean wrote in his column again (article sent to Malaysiakini on eve of the US presidential election) on Obama titled Barracking for Obama.
The most descriptive paragraph in Dean’s column was “And the proposition that the dumb-as-dirt George Bush and his creepy VP Dick Cheney should be succeeded by the hopelessly hawkish ‘war hero’ McCain and the lipstick dipstick Sarah Palin is simply outrageous.”
I agree with Dean on almost every word save that part where he lambasted John McCain. Dean may disagree with me but that’s the strength of my friendship with Dean that we can agree to disagree without degenerating into a Bush-ite “Either you’re with us or against us”, or the equally acrimonious anwaristas’ cry of “You BN balls licker” (wakakaka).
Take it from me, the least hawkish person in any government as a rule would be the military man who has seen/experienced blood in combat (operative phrase being 'in combat') – example, Colin Powell!
I am convinced that John McCain is of the same mold.
While like Dean I had ‘barracked’ for Obama, I have been so bloody annoyed, out of a sense of fair play and outrage at the under-the-belt sniping at John McCain by another Malaysiakini columnist, W Scott Thompson, that I wrote a letter to Malaysiakini yesterday – and which I doubt would now be published as the events in the USA election may have rendered it slightly obsolete.
But let me present here what I had sent to Malaysiakini:
Dear Editor,
I am appalled by (Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy) Professor Emeritus W Scott Thompson attack on John McCain in his article 'Landslide' published by Malaysiakini.
While I share Professor Thompson's preference for Barack Obama as the future US President, his under-the-belt criticism of McCain has been most deplorable and smacked of the grubby style of the Swift Boats Veterans for Truth.
Thompson should be ashamed of himself for writing sneeringly of McCain as "a 'national hero' who supposedly had earned the presidency for five years squatting in a Vietnamese jail (heroism defined as endurance rather than courageous choice)."
If McCain was a war hero, it would not be because he was a POW, though he demonstrated his discipline and inner strength as a naval officer during his wartime incarceration. It would have to be his unstinting service to his country as a naval pilot who was prepared to conduct air operations 23 times (before being shot down) over North Vietnam, at that time one of the most heavily defended airspace in the world.
McCain was and is unlike President Bush and Vice-President Cheney, two of the most belligerent American leaders ever seen, but who both successfully avoided* the Vietnam War.
* Note not sent in letter - Cheny took 5 'deferments' from the Vietnam draft, yet he has been the most bellicose belligerent hawk in the Bush administration - earning him the dubious title of chickenhawk, a title used to criticize a politician, bureaucrat, or commentator who strongly supports a war or other military action, but has never personally been in a war, especially if that person actively avoided military service when of draft age.
We also need to note that McCain refused a North Vietnamese offer of early release in 1968, because it would mean him leaving before other prisoners who had been held longer. Such had been his sense of honour, sense of fairness and duty to his comrades that he was prepared to remain in the horrible POW camp for another 5 years before he was released in 1973 after the Paris Peace Accords.
But regardless of whether one wishes to remember McCain's duty to his country in war or his courageous endurance in the infamous 'Hanoi Hilton', Professor Thompson should hang his head in shame for employing the politically-motivated dismissive word 'supposedly', and for attempting to diminish McCain's war service by a pathetic hair-splitting re-definition of the 'heroism' attributed to the Republican presidential candidate.
Then, being the academic snob he must be, he contrasted McCain's Annapolis achievements (the US naval academy) against Obama's Harvard background. To borrow a leaf out of Thompson's book, that's like comparing the finest tempered steel against a fluffy quill.
But to be fair to Obama in the steel versus quill model, can there be a comparison between two vastly different items, each of relevant use in specific scenarios. Yes, it's like saying apples are superior to oranges!
One must remember that Republican John McCain defended Democrat John Kerry during the Swift Boats Veterans for Truth [SBVT] smear campaign through advertisements against the Democrat presidential candidate. McCain stated: "I condemn the [SBVT] ad. It is dishonest and dishonorable. I think it is very, very wrong."
Recently, McCain defended his presidential candidate rival Obama when a white Republican supporter alluded to the alleged Obama's questionable foreign allegiance. McCain chopped that bigoted suggestion down and spoke of Obama as a decent American citizen.
Professor Thompson should take note that while McCain might not have run the Harvard Law Review, he has time and time again demonstrated the finest example of his Annapolis training, that of honour (decency) and duty!
kayteemoc
Congratulations to Barack Obama for being elected as the 44th President of the USA and the first black American to be Head of State of the most powerful nation on earth, a post which should never have gone into the hands of low brow moronic George W Bush.
Can you imagine that it was just slightly more than 50 years ago (Malaysia's age) that Rose Parks, an African American woman, was taken off to jail for refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white man. Today a black man is the President of that country!
I came across Obama’s name when my good mate, Dean Johns wrote of him in a Malaysiakini column some years ago, telling us he’s the man to look out for. If not for the fact that I had (always) eagerly awaited Dean’s weekly column, I would be none the wiser as to who the hell was this man with the strange name of Barack Obama.
Congratulations are thus in order too for Dean Johns for his foresight and aspiration for such a man to take over the reins of a nation which was once admired but under Bush-Cheney, feared and detested.
Dean wrote in his column again (article sent to Malaysiakini on eve of the US presidential election) on Obama titled Barracking for Obama.
The most descriptive paragraph in Dean’s column was “And the proposition that the dumb-as-dirt George Bush and his creepy VP Dick Cheney should be succeeded by the hopelessly hawkish ‘war hero’ McCain and the lipstick dipstick Sarah Palin is simply outrageous.”
I agree with Dean on almost every word save that part where he lambasted John McCain. Dean may disagree with me but that’s the strength of my friendship with Dean that we can agree to disagree without degenerating into a Bush-ite “Either you’re with us or against us”, or the equally acrimonious anwaristas’ cry of “You BN balls licker” (wakakaka).
Take it from me, the least hawkish person in any government as a rule would be the military man who has seen/experienced blood in combat (operative phrase being 'in combat') – example, Colin Powell!
I am convinced that John McCain is of the same mold.
While like Dean I had ‘barracked’ for Obama, I have been so bloody annoyed, out of a sense of fair play and outrage at the under-the-belt sniping at John McCain by another Malaysiakini columnist, W Scott Thompson, that I wrote a letter to Malaysiakini yesterday – and which I doubt would now be published as the events in the USA election may have rendered it slightly obsolete.
But let me present here what I had sent to Malaysiakini:
Dear Editor,
I am appalled by (Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy) Professor Emeritus W Scott Thompson attack on John McCain in his article 'Landslide' published by Malaysiakini.
While I share Professor Thompson's preference for Barack Obama as the future US President, his under-the-belt criticism of McCain has been most deplorable and smacked of the grubby style of the Swift Boats Veterans for Truth.
Thompson should be ashamed of himself for writing sneeringly of McCain as "a 'national hero' who supposedly had earned the presidency for five years squatting in a Vietnamese jail (heroism defined as endurance rather than courageous choice)."
If McCain was a war hero, it would not be because he was a POW, though he demonstrated his discipline and inner strength as a naval officer during his wartime incarceration. It would have to be his unstinting service to his country as a naval pilot who was prepared to conduct air operations 23 times (before being shot down) over North Vietnam, at that time one of the most heavily defended airspace in the world.
McCain was and is unlike President Bush and Vice-President Cheney, two of the most belligerent American leaders ever seen, but who both successfully avoided* the Vietnam War.
* Note not sent in letter - Cheny took 5 'deferments' from the Vietnam draft, yet he has been the most bellicose belligerent hawk in the Bush administration - earning him the dubious title of chickenhawk, a title used to criticize a politician, bureaucrat, or commentator who strongly supports a war or other military action, but has never personally been in a war, especially if that person actively avoided military service when of draft age.
We also need to note that McCain refused a North Vietnamese offer of early release in 1968, because it would mean him leaving before other prisoners who had been held longer. Such had been his sense of honour, sense of fairness and duty to his comrades that he was prepared to remain in the horrible POW camp for another 5 years before he was released in 1973 after the Paris Peace Accords.
But regardless of whether one wishes to remember McCain's duty to his country in war or his courageous endurance in the infamous 'Hanoi Hilton', Professor Thompson should hang his head in shame for employing the politically-motivated dismissive word 'supposedly', and for attempting to diminish McCain's war service by a pathetic hair-splitting re-definition of the 'heroism' attributed to the Republican presidential candidate.
Then, being the academic snob he must be, he contrasted McCain's Annapolis achievements (the US naval academy) against Obama's Harvard background. To borrow a leaf out of Thompson's book, that's like comparing the finest tempered steel against a fluffy quill.
But to be fair to Obama in the steel versus quill model, can there be a comparison between two vastly different items, each of relevant use in specific scenarios. Yes, it's like saying apples are superior to oranges!
One must remember that Republican John McCain defended Democrat John Kerry during the Swift Boats Veterans for Truth [SBVT] smear campaign through advertisements against the Democrat presidential candidate. McCain stated: "I condemn the [SBVT] ad. It is dishonest and dishonorable. I think it is very, very wrong."
Recently, McCain defended his presidential candidate rival Obama when a white Republican supporter alluded to the alleged Obama's questionable foreign allegiance. McCain chopped that bigoted suggestion down and spoke of Obama as a decent American citizen.
Professor Thompson should take note that while McCain might not have run the Harvard Law Review, he has time and time again demonstrated the finest example of his Annapolis training, that of honour (decency) and duty!
kayteemoc
Apology to Vijay Kumar Murugavell
First, let me get this off my chest ;-)
I owe Vijay Kumar Murugavell an unreserved apology for an unwarranted chewing up of him for what was after all his satirical letter to Malaysiakini on the topic of the Eurocopter EC725 helicopter, which I had posted as the 3rd part of Billions - Anwar Ibrahim - Heli-bullsh*t.
I am not going to give bullsh*t excuses other than I should have read his letter more carefully than I did. I admit I zoomed in on just the few paragraphs of what I saw as nonsensical aircraft performances, and shot off from the hips, now realizing I shot my bloody foot instead when I lambasted poor Vijay – sorry mate!
Mind you, his “…flat screen TV's not to mention radar warning receivers, 20mm cannons, rocket launchers and machine-guns” weren’t too far off track as that’s what a Combat SAR heli would have – the flat screen TV being the ‘glass cockpit’ that pilots and aircraft engineers would be well familiar with.
I cannot deny I saw the ‘rear view mirrors’ which unfortunately I dismissed disdainfully as a description by a bloody ‘landlubber’ attempting to discuss nautical issues (the aircraft being a nautical craft of the air).
Okay folks, the laughs on poor red-faced kaytee, especially more so when I am a satirist myself, having written the following:
The Yum-Cha Chronicles:
(1) Apology - A letter to the minister
(2) Bloggers - A letter to the ministry
(3) Drama queens & kings wanted
(4) May 13 Book - a letter to the minister
(5) Appreciation - a letter to the minister
(6) Goblok to Golek - a letter to the minister
(7) MGR-ish makeover - a letter to a minister
(8) Bahasa Mělayu - a letter to Yang Běrhormat
(9) 'Convincibility' - A letter to Yang Amat Berhormat
The Bigfoot Chronicles:
(1) Encounter of the Furred Kind!
(2) Big Foot, Mak Yong & Bridges
(3) Parliament's Hantu - Ghost Buster Rejected!
(4) Bigfoot's Kow-Tim-Yee!
The KTemoc Carl Grimm* Children's and Household Tales:
(1) A Malaysian Fairy Tale - Princess & The Frog
(2) A Malaysian Fairy Tale (2) - Rumpelstiltskin
The Buah Cherry Tree Dialogues:
(1) Beneath the buah cherry tree
(2) Beneath the buah cherry tree (2)
(3) Beneath the buah cherry tree (3)
(4) Beneath the buah cherry tree (4)
(5) Beneath the buah cherry tree (5)
(6) Beneath the buah cherry tree (6)
(7) Beneath the buah cherry tree (7)
As a manja sweetie taught me, just ‘un’-do what you shouldn’t do, therefore I:
(i) Un-criticize Vijay (through this full page apology)
(ii) Un-carpet bomb Malaysiakini (wakakaka)
Hey man, it’s good to eat humble pie once in a while – pass the bloody tomato sauce please - wakakakakakakakakakkakakaka!
I owe Vijay Kumar Murugavell an unreserved apology for an unwarranted chewing up of him for what was after all his satirical letter to Malaysiakini on the topic of the Eurocopter EC725 helicopter, which I had posted as the 3rd part of Billions - Anwar Ibrahim - Heli-bullsh*t.
I am not going to give bullsh*t excuses other than I should have read his letter more carefully than I did. I admit I zoomed in on just the few paragraphs of what I saw as nonsensical aircraft performances, and shot off from the hips, now realizing I shot my bloody foot instead when I lambasted poor Vijay – sorry mate!
Mind you, his “…flat screen TV's not to mention radar warning receivers, 20mm cannons, rocket launchers and machine-guns” weren’t too far off track as that’s what a Combat SAR heli would have – the flat screen TV being the ‘glass cockpit’ that pilots and aircraft engineers would be well familiar with.
I cannot deny I saw the ‘rear view mirrors’ which unfortunately I dismissed disdainfully as a description by a bloody ‘landlubber’ attempting to discuss nautical issues (the aircraft being a nautical craft of the air).
Okay folks, the laughs on poor red-faced kaytee, especially more so when I am a satirist myself, having written the following:
The Yum-Cha Chronicles:
(1) Apology - A letter to the minister
(2) Bloggers - A letter to the ministry
(3) Drama queens & kings wanted
(4) May 13 Book - a letter to the minister
(5) Appreciation - a letter to the minister
(6) Goblok to Golek - a letter to the minister
(7) MGR-ish makeover - a letter to a minister
(8) Bahasa Mělayu - a letter to Yang Běrhormat
(9) 'Convincibility' - A letter to Yang Amat Berhormat
The Bigfoot Chronicles:
(1) Encounter of the Furred Kind!
(2) Big Foot, Mak Yong & Bridges
(3) Parliament's Hantu - Ghost Buster Rejected!
(4) Bigfoot's Kow-Tim-Yee!
The KTemoc Carl Grimm* Children's and Household Tales:
(1) A Malaysian Fairy Tale - Princess & The Frog
(2) A Malaysian Fairy Tale (2) - Rumpelstiltskin
The Buah Cherry Tree Dialogues:
(1) Beneath the buah cherry tree
(2) Beneath the buah cherry tree (2)
(3) Beneath the buah cherry tree (3)
(4) Beneath the buah cherry tree (4)
(5) Beneath the buah cherry tree (5)
(6) Beneath the buah cherry tree (6)
(7) Beneath the buah cherry tree (7)
As a manja sweetie taught me, just ‘un’-do what you shouldn’t do, therefore I:
(i) Un-criticize Vijay (through this full page apology)
(ii) Un-carpet bomb Malaysiakini (wakakaka)
Hey man, it’s good to eat humble pie once in a while – pass the bloody tomato sauce please - wakakakakakakakakakkakakaka!
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
Racial signs against road signs?
What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet
By any other name would smell as sweet
- W Shakespeare - Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)
In its article Malay NGO sues Penang over signboards, Malaysiakini tells us that Gabungan Graduan Melayu Muda (GGMM) or Young Malay Graduates Federation is a newly-formed Malay graduates non-government organisation (NGO).
Today GGMM’s launched its first action by filing a suit seeking a High Court injunction against both the state government and the Penang Island Municipal Council (MPPP) from erecting multi-lingual signboards for heritage-listed thoroughfares in old Georgetown.
In its suit GGMM claimed that the Penang State government in implementing the list of Penang heritage names on road signboards, has violated Article 152 of the federal constitution, which upholds the official status of Bahasa Malaysia.
Today GGMM’s launched its first action by filing a suit seeking a High Court injunction against both the state government and the Penang Island Municipal Council (MPPP) from erecting multi-lingual signboards for heritage-listed thoroughfares in old Georgetown.
In its suit GGMM claimed that the Penang State government in implementing the list of Penang heritage names on road signboards, has violated Article 152 of the federal constitution, which upholds the official status of Bahasa Malaysia.
Malaysiakini photo
When I look at the above example of what has been done by Penang, I don’t see any evidence of our national language Bahasa Malaysia being replaced or even relegated to an inferior position by non-Malay road signs, so do wonder how GGMM could allege Article 152 has been violated.It’s a shame that young graduates would indulge in such ethnocentric posturing rather than promote better relationship among the various ethnic groups.
Monday, November 03, 2008
Billions - Anwar Ibrahim - Heli-bullsh*t
Billion RM f*-up
Good bloke, our Tony Pua. He has put the spotlight on a couple of monumental (taxpayers funded) disasters.
Malaysiakini reported in Khazanah 'must explain' RM5bil loss that Tony wants some accountability from the Finance Ministry and government investment arm Khazanah Nasional regarding their involvement in Silterra Malaysia Sdd Bhd, a semiconductor wafer manufacturer.
Silterra posted a loss of RM1 billion last year. Did you guys get that?
It was 1 BILLION (not 'million') ringgit loss.
On top of that, Tony said that in the last 15 years or so (since 1994) Khazanah Nasional has dumped into Silterra an alleged Godzilla loss of RM5.17 billion – yes, BILLIONS.
And Pua went on to probe into the RM5 billion shoring up of Valuecap.
May I use a common expression of the African American to describe my astonishment at the magnitude of money gone to the winds?
Motherfucker!
Yes, which motherfucker has allowed the motherfucker loss to reach such Mount Meru* proportions?
* in Hindu mythology Mount Meru is 80,000 yojanas high, where 1 yojana is equal to approximately 13 km – where the hell is my Casio hand calculator!
Anwar Ibrahim
In the Star Online, my favourite pinup boy (some say kaytee indulges in sticking pins into voodoo dolls wakakaka) ;-) dear Anwar Ibrahim attacked the ketuanan Melayu ideology. He said that racial supremacy concept benefits and enriches only a small group of Malays, and was unacceptable.
Anwar went on to say that the larger community, Malays and Bumiputeras as well as Indians and Chinese should be helped, and not just a small elite group.
Good on you, Datuk Seri. You are on the right track as Opposition Leader - whether people agree with you or not is another story, but at least there's no more bullsh*tting 916.
Now there's still one small thing you can do to improve your image as a serious political reformer. I would like you to sort out that Kulim Wonder, A.S.A.P! Thank you.
When silence is golden
I refer to a letter to Malaysiakini titled Spinning around with the chopper deal submitted by Mr Vijay Kumar Murugavell.
He wrote about the Eurocopter deal where the following are extracts of his letter which I want to comment on:
Never mind that these helicopters were not workhorses but long range tactical copters.
Vijay, our elders have told us that sometimes it’s best to shut up and let people think you may be a fool rather than open your mouth and let them know you are one!
For a start, please explain what you mean by ‘workhorse’ and its difference with ‘long range tactical helicopters’?
Then he continued to enlighten us with his 'brilliance' on defence issues like:
Who knows, while transporting military personnel if war breaks out, there then would be no need to call for backup. After all, our country is vast and it would take forever for the Sukhoi jets to come to the rescue. So a copter can take on any threats head-on and independently.
I wonder what he meant by ‘when war breaks out, there would be no need to call for backup’?
And re ‘the vastness of our country’, did he mean that a Eurocopter can reach the troubled spot faster than a Sukhoi jet?
And what would the helicopter do then? Or, what can the helicopter do that a Sukhoi jet can't on reaching the troubled spot across the vastness of our country?
Wow, ‘so a copter can take on any threats head-on and independently’?
What was it that I said about our elders’ advice?
Then to ensure he bedazzled us with his grasp of international military affairs, he wrote:
We could also take advantage of its [he was talking about the Eurocopter EC725] long range capabilities and offer the Australians back-up support to patrol their coastline.
I hope the Australian Defence Minister or military brass don't read his recommendation, when Malaysiakini would then be guilty of murder for making them die from laughter ...
... However, one thing we may be sure about has been Vijay’s outlandish ability to tembak saja.
With such an appalling lack of knowledge about military aircraft and defence matters, I am amazed that Malaysiakini has allowed his letter to be published.
Malaysiakini ought to be carpet bombed for such a letter.
Good bloke, our Tony Pua. He has put the spotlight on a couple of monumental (taxpayers funded) disasters.
Malaysiakini reported in Khazanah 'must explain' RM5bil loss that Tony wants some accountability from the Finance Ministry and government investment arm Khazanah Nasional regarding their involvement in Silterra Malaysia Sdd Bhd, a semiconductor wafer manufacturer.
Silterra posted a loss of RM1 billion last year. Did you guys get that?
It was 1 BILLION (not 'million') ringgit loss.
On top of that, Tony said that in the last 15 years or so (since 1994) Khazanah Nasional has dumped into Silterra an alleged Godzilla loss of RM5.17 billion – yes, BILLIONS.
And Pua went on to probe into the RM5 billion shoring up of Valuecap.
May I use a common expression of the African American to describe my astonishment at the magnitude of money gone to the winds?
Motherfucker!
Yes, which motherfucker has allowed the motherfucker loss to reach such Mount Meru* proportions?
* in Hindu mythology Mount Meru is 80,000 yojanas high, where 1 yojana is equal to approximately 13 km – where the hell is my Casio hand calculator!
Anwar Ibrahim
In the Star Online, my favourite pinup boy (some say kaytee indulges in sticking pins into voodoo dolls wakakaka) ;-) dear Anwar Ibrahim attacked the ketuanan Melayu ideology. He said that racial supremacy concept benefits and enriches only a small group of Malays, and was unacceptable.
Anwar went on to say that the larger community, Malays and Bumiputeras as well as Indians and Chinese should be helped, and not just a small elite group.
Good on you, Datuk Seri. You are on the right track as Opposition Leader - whether people agree with you or not is another story, but at least there's no more bullsh*tting 916.
Now there's still one small thing you can do to improve your image as a serious political reformer. I would like you to sort out that Kulim Wonder, A.S.A.P! Thank you.
When silence is golden
I refer to a letter to Malaysiakini titled Spinning around with the chopper deal submitted by Mr Vijay Kumar Murugavell.
He wrote about the Eurocopter deal where the following are extracts of his letter which I want to comment on:
Never mind that these helicopters were not workhorses but long range tactical copters.
Vijay, our elders have told us that sometimes it’s best to shut up and let people think you may be a fool rather than open your mouth and let them know you are one!
For a start, please explain what you mean by ‘workhorse’ and its difference with ‘long range tactical helicopters’?
Then he continued to enlighten us with his 'brilliance' on defence issues like:
Who knows, while transporting military personnel if war breaks out, there then would be no need to call for backup. After all, our country is vast and it would take forever for the Sukhoi jets to come to the rescue. So a copter can take on any threats head-on and independently.
I wonder what he meant by ‘when war breaks out, there would be no need to call for backup’?
And re ‘the vastness of our country’, did he mean that a Eurocopter can reach the troubled spot faster than a Sukhoi jet?
And what would the helicopter do then? Or, what can the helicopter do that a Sukhoi jet can't on reaching the troubled spot across the vastness of our country?
Wow, ‘so a copter can take on any threats head-on and independently’?
What was it that I said about our elders’ advice?
Then to ensure he bedazzled us with his grasp of international military affairs, he wrote:
We could also take advantage of its [he was talking about the Eurocopter EC725] long range capabilities and offer the Australians back-up support to patrol their coastline.
I hope the Australian Defence Minister or military brass don't read his recommendation, when Malaysiakini would then be guilty of murder for making them die from laughter ...
... However, one thing we may be sure about has been Vijay’s outlandish ability to tembak saja.
With such an appalling lack of knowledge about military aircraft and defence matters, I am amazed that Malaysiakini has allowed his letter to be published.
Malaysiakini ought to be carpet bombed for such a letter.
Saturday, November 01, 2008
State sanctioned slayings
Even as you read this, it may well be that the 3 Indonesian Islamist militants who have been convicted over the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings that killed 202 people have already been executed.
The Indonesian government has already signed off the execution of bomber ringleader Imam Samudra and his two henchmen, brothers Amrozi and Mukhlas.
These three Jamilah Islamiah members were not the Islamic warriors they like to think they have been. They were nothing more than cowardly murderers whose victims were mainly women and children.
However, the dilemma lies not with Indonesia but with Australia which suffered the heaviest toll in the 2002 cold blooded murders.
Australia as a nation has abolished the death sentence and has frequently spoken out against man’s ultimate punishment, State sanctioned executions.
Yet in the pending execution of Samudra, Ambrozi and Mukhlas, the Australian PM, Kevin Rudd, has deftly tap danced away from the traditional Australian Labour Party ideological stand against the death sentence.
Kevin Rudd knows he wouldn’t survive politically if he speaks out against the death sentences of those 3 convicted Bali bombing murderers.
Is that then the Australian dilemma?
No, the dilemma lies in the unfortunate fact that a number of young Australian drug smugglers caught by Indonesian authorities are awaiting the death sentence as well, and Australia has appealed for their pardon.
Australian civil activists and even some Labour ministers have lambasted the Australian government for not being consistent on its stand against the death sentence, where it would seem to other nations (like Indonesia) that Australia would only protest against the cruel State sanctioned killings when Australian citizens were/are involved.
Some years ago, when an Australian drug smuggler, Nguyen Van Tuong, only in his early 20’s when arrested, was sentenced to death by the Singaporean government, then-PM John Howard refused, yes, refused to appeal for clemency though there was domestic urgings by churches and NGOs for the Aussie PM to make a personal appeal to his Singapore counterpart.
Howard refused to do so.
I thought he was hypocritical in stating that Australians were opposed to the death sentence, and that he believed Nguyen should not be executed because of his previous clean record and mitigating circumstances, and yet in the same breath, stating he won’t make a personal appeal for Nguyen.
Being a political animal, his decision was of course based on home politics.
Then, his far greater insincerity showed through, when to the horrors of those who had appealed, he added words to his refusal which were virtually fatal for Nguyen. Howard stated in unambiguous terms that Nguyen's execution would not hurt Australia's relationship with Singapore.
… which could only be read as an indirect message to Singapore to go ahead with the hanging of Nguyen. It was the final nail in Nguyen’s coffin.
Many Australians compared, or rather contrasted the Howard’s government’s disdainful and dismissive treatment of Nguyen Van Tuong with that of high support for Schappelle Corby when the latter was arrested by the Indonesian government for the same crime, smuggling drugs.
Three years ago in a post titled PM Howard Tiptoed Thro' The Tulips I wrote the following of Howard:
… he is however, is a very calculating politician who is very conscious and careful not to offend the more conservative elements of Australian public […]
Howard is very much governed by his perception of where the voters are, making him the most consummate politician, and possibly explaining why he continues as a popular prime minister for so long […]
Also read my Extracts from the ‘Death of Reason’!
Meanwhile in Malaysia, I was reliably informed ;-) that some Muslims don’t support the death sentence for Ahmad Najib Aris, the convicted rapist-murderer of Canny Ong Lay Kian. These people believe that a Muslim, regardless of his crimes, should not be executed for the mere death of an infidel.
We do not know yet the decision of the Federal Court in last month’s appeal by the convicted murderer-rapist, but I wonder whether Ahmad Aris will get away with his appeal on compassionate grounds that (I read this somewhere) he has children etc.
Should the Federal Court show compassion and commute his death sentence?
Please don’t answer … because I have the only answer for such a crime or any such crimes ...
... we must NOT impose a death sentence on anyone.
In this regard I had also protested against the execution of a Malaysian Islamist militant for treason. I had argued what value would there be to Malaysia in executing the man?
Similarly I would argue against the execution of Ahmad Aris. Yes, lock him up for life but do not debase ourselves by sanctioning his execution.
Apart from death being an irrevocable sentence, where we cannot make subsequent amends for mistakes in and by the legal process, there is also the question of values, of our humanity, of reverence for God’s creation.
Whether the murderer is a Muslim or non-Muslim, drug smuggler, Islamist bomber, American or Israeli uniformed massacrers, or the victims were Malays, Chinese, Indians, whites, blacks, whoever, my personal stand is to leave out completely the draconian brutal capital punishment.
For those religious, I say do not usurp God’s will and prerogative. For those secular minded, I say we must not destroy a human life for it only debases our humanity.
At a national level, it has to do with a nation having higher values and not subordinating itself to institutionalized murder. It has to do with our not stooping down to brutal punishment, which has been proven not to stop crimes. It has to do with our refusing to succumb to caveman's mentality, that silly ‘an eye for an eye’ because if we do, soon everyone in this world will be blind (if they aren’t already).
Please read my post on the death of Nguyen Van Tuong titled Not a Martyr, Not a Hero, but a Human Being which discussed people’s views that State sanctioned killings ‘diminish’ us.
In SE Asia, wealthy Singapore has, by the size of its population and number of executions, the highest execution rate in the world, exceeding even those of China or the USA. See also:
(1) In a Perfect Country!
(2) Home and Free
... whilst economically poor Philippines has (for the second time in 2006) abolished the death penalty. The Filipinos had actually abolished the death penalty before in 1987 but restored the sentence in late 1993 for heinous crimes such as murder, child rape and kidnapping. But it has taken the high path of morality again.
In this respect, John Howard, Kevin Rudd, especially George Bush, the Singapore government, and our own Malaysian government have all been failures.
Related:
(1) Forgotten But Unfortunately Not Entirely ...
(2) Sorry We Killed You
(3) Brotherhood of Death - Victims & Perpetrators
(4) Hot Babe: "No More Hot Seat!"
The Indonesian government has already signed off the execution of bomber ringleader Imam Samudra and his two henchmen, brothers Amrozi and Mukhlas.
These three Jamilah Islamiah members were not the Islamic warriors they like to think they have been. They were nothing more than cowardly murderers whose victims were mainly women and children.
However, the dilemma lies not with Indonesia but with Australia which suffered the heaviest toll in the 2002 cold blooded murders.
Australia as a nation has abolished the death sentence and has frequently spoken out against man’s ultimate punishment, State sanctioned executions.
Yet in the pending execution of Samudra, Ambrozi and Mukhlas, the Australian PM, Kevin Rudd, has deftly tap danced away from the traditional Australian Labour Party ideological stand against the death sentence.
Kevin Rudd knows he wouldn’t survive politically if he speaks out against the death sentences of those 3 convicted Bali bombing murderers.
Is that then the Australian dilemma?
No, the dilemma lies in the unfortunate fact that a number of young Australian drug smugglers caught by Indonesian authorities are awaiting the death sentence as well, and Australia has appealed for their pardon.
Australian civil activists and even some Labour ministers have lambasted the Australian government for not being consistent on its stand against the death sentence, where it would seem to other nations (like Indonesia) that Australia would only protest against the cruel State sanctioned killings when Australian citizens were/are involved.
Some years ago, when an Australian drug smuggler, Nguyen Van Tuong, only in his early 20’s when arrested, was sentenced to death by the Singaporean government, then-PM John Howard refused, yes, refused to appeal for clemency though there was domestic urgings by churches and NGOs for the Aussie PM to make a personal appeal to his Singapore counterpart.
Howard refused to do so.
I thought he was hypocritical in stating that Australians were opposed to the death sentence, and that he believed Nguyen should not be executed because of his previous clean record and mitigating circumstances, and yet in the same breath, stating he won’t make a personal appeal for Nguyen.
Being a political animal, his decision was of course based on home politics.
Then, his far greater insincerity showed through, when to the horrors of those who had appealed, he added words to his refusal which were virtually fatal for Nguyen. Howard stated in unambiguous terms that Nguyen's execution would not hurt Australia's relationship with Singapore.
… which could only be read as an indirect message to Singapore to go ahead with the hanging of Nguyen. It was the final nail in Nguyen’s coffin.
Many Australians compared, or rather contrasted the Howard’s government’s disdainful and dismissive treatment of Nguyen Van Tuong with that of high support for Schappelle Corby when the latter was arrested by the Indonesian government for the same crime, smuggling drugs.
Three years ago in a post titled PM Howard Tiptoed Thro' The Tulips I wrote the following of Howard:
… he is however, is a very calculating politician who is very conscious and careful not to offend the more conservative elements of Australian public […]
Howard is very much governed by his perception of where the voters are, making him the most consummate politician, and possibly explaining why he continues as a popular prime minister for so long […]
Also read my Extracts from the ‘Death of Reason’!
Meanwhile in Malaysia, I was reliably informed ;-) that some Muslims don’t support the death sentence for Ahmad Najib Aris, the convicted rapist-murderer of Canny Ong Lay Kian. These people believe that a Muslim, regardless of his crimes, should not be executed for the mere death of an infidel.
We do not know yet the decision of the Federal Court in last month’s appeal by the convicted murderer-rapist, but I wonder whether Ahmad Aris will get away with his appeal on compassionate grounds that (I read this somewhere) he has children etc.
Should the Federal Court show compassion and commute his death sentence?
Please don’t answer … because I have the only answer for such a crime or any such crimes ...
... we must NOT impose a death sentence on anyone.
In this regard I had also protested against the execution of a Malaysian Islamist militant for treason. I had argued what value would there be to Malaysia in executing the man?
Similarly I would argue against the execution of Ahmad Aris. Yes, lock him up for life but do not debase ourselves by sanctioning his execution.
Apart from death being an irrevocable sentence, where we cannot make subsequent amends for mistakes in and by the legal process, there is also the question of values, of our humanity, of reverence for God’s creation.
Whether the murderer is a Muslim or non-Muslim, drug smuggler, Islamist bomber, American or Israeli uniformed massacrers, or the victims were Malays, Chinese, Indians, whites, blacks, whoever, my personal stand is to leave out completely the draconian brutal capital punishment.
For those religious, I say do not usurp God’s will and prerogative. For those secular minded, I say we must not destroy a human life for it only debases our humanity.
At a national level, it has to do with a nation having higher values and not subordinating itself to institutionalized murder. It has to do with our not stooping down to brutal punishment, which has been proven not to stop crimes. It has to do with our refusing to succumb to caveman's mentality, that silly ‘an eye for an eye’ because if we do, soon everyone in this world will be blind (if they aren’t already).
Please read my post on the death of Nguyen Van Tuong titled Not a Martyr, Not a Hero, but a Human Being which discussed people’s views that State sanctioned killings ‘diminish’ us.
In SE Asia, wealthy Singapore has, by the size of its population and number of executions, the highest execution rate in the world, exceeding even those of China or the USA. See also:
(1) In a Perfect Country!
(2) Home and Free
... whilst economically poor Philippines has (for the second time in 2006) abolished the death penalty. The Filipinos had actually abolished the death penalty before in 1987 but restored the sentence in late 1993 for heinous crimes such as murder, child rape and kidnapping. But it has taken the high path of morality again.
In this respect, John Howard, Kevin Rudd, especially George Bush, the Singapore government, and our own Malaysian government have all been failures.
Related:
(1) Forgotten But Unfortunately Not Entirely ...
(2) Sorry We Killed You
(3) Brotherhood of Death - Victims & Perpetrators
(4) Hot Babe: "No More Hot Seat!"
Dirge of a Mongolian father
Star Online photoHow can it so?
He who defiled the body of my beloved
Has been freed, unpunished for his crime
As I had been reliably informed
My heart crushed
As I had been reliably informed it should
My tears flow
As I had been reliably informed they must
String him up
By a hyper-pious tree in the mango plain,
And another one too, as both ought to be
As I had been reliably informed
My anger explodes
As I had been reliably informed it should
My pains sharpen
As I had been reliably informed they must
Malaysian lawful process?
Oxymoronic dark humour? Aren't the SDs
Available as concretized absolute truths?
As I had been reliably informed
My frustration erupts
As I had been reliably informed it should
My beliefs shattered
As I had been reliably informed they must
So what if two are on trial
When they aren't the evil Duo drummed
Into my ears, mind, and expectations
As I had been reliably informed
My torment revolts
As I had been reliably informed it should
My sufferings scream
As I had been reliably informed they must
The Terrible Twins
Shattered Golden Beam in more ways than one
So he said that he said that he said & he said
As I had been reliably informed
My despair intensifies
As I had been reliably informed it should
My hopes destroyed
As I had been reliably informed they must
Related:
(1) Remembering Altantuyaa Shaariibuu
(2) Murdering Altantuyaa Shaariibuu Again
Poem inspired by Malaysiakini article Abdul Razak Baginda acquitted
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