Saturday, April 10, 2010

The disease of 'sehelai kain pelekat & RM100'

He was acquitted by an Australian State district court of currency regulation breaches involving more than 1.3 million Australian dollars, to wit, knowingly making a false currency report when entering Australia on 16 Dec 1996, and another of failing to declare currency when leaving six days later.

But a superior court subsequently ruled that the trial judge had made legal errors in directing a jury which acquitted him, which was not reported by Malaysian newspapers (and why should we be surprised by our mainstream media's omission?)

Luckily for him Australian law is such a person cannot be tried again on a charge of which he has been acquitted.

We’re of course talking about Muhammad Muhammad Taib (Mat Taib) who’s better known as Mike Tyson.

In an article in The Malaysian Insider today titled Mat Taib or bust for Hulu Selangor voters sweetie Clara Chooi wrote (relevant extracts only):

Barisan Nasional (BN) will cruise to victory if Tan Sri Muhammad Muhammad Taib is fielded as a candidate.

Interviews with the locals across the constituency the size of Malacca over two days, however, showed two glaringly significant trends: that voters on both camps, BN and Pakatan Rakyat, want Muhammad —or “Mat Taib” — as their MP, and that BN may face defeat if they put up Palanivel again.

Putting aside the views of cyber-cafe operator, Rozairi Mohd Zain, who said that he would look at the ‘skin colour’ of the candidate before casting his vote in the coming by-election, we even have a Chinese former DAP supporter (stress on 'former') who declared that Mat Taib is an ace.

So what do we have?

(a) a man who got away with false currency declaration in a foreign country by claiming he couldn’t speak or understand English, but subsequently found by a superior court that his acquittal was incorrect, and got away again by the legal technicality of ‘no double jeopardy’ (cannot trial a man twice for the same crime even if he is guilty)

(b) a man who needs to explain (if not to the Tax Office or the ACA/MACC, at least to us) how he came by those millions, ...

... yet is a man who is, according to sweetie Clara Chooi’s article, adored by all and sundry in Hulu Selangor, and would be a surefire walkaway victor if he stands in the coming by-election.

What does that tell you?

Again leaving aside people like Rozairi Mohd Zain who see the world through coloured lens, Malaysians in general, especially those of the earlier generations, don’t give a sh*t about corruption or corrupt pollies, or such stuff as accountability and transparency so long as they get some benefits, namely the sehelai kain pelekat and RM100 (allowing for inflation).

This has been why BN and in particular UMNO have been getting away with blatant corrupt practices for the past 52 years (and expect more years of such to come) as manifested in the overtly obscene ostentatious Bali Palace and the Satay Palace in Klang, ...


... and how 600 Janome sewing machines and even the arrogant boast of how 10 years of public works was compressed into one month won the day in the Ijok by-election in 2007.

Conclusion? Momentary syiok-ness followed by decades of marginalization are acceptable for some people - in fact they want more!

Will such an appallingly abysmal attitude prevail in the future, say in 2013?

12 comments:

  1. umni should let mahatir stand in Hulu Selangor if it is indeed so desperate

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  2. come on, how long you want to hype this issue? if he's acquitted and cleared, that means he's innocent and good guy lah. don use such accusation to continue taunting ppl, it's so silly. even the oppos leader was jailed for corruption, and sodomy (though he's acquited). even the lge was jailed for spreading lies! remember taib never masuk penjara, and that's australian court somemore!

    take cue on tan sri isa the ex mb. who won the election at bagan pinang! and it's a landslide, maj 5000+! even many ppl have no regrets voted for him! the same too with taib. i believe by fielding him in hulu selangor, he will definitely win. remember that mic is spent force, he lost once and he will lose again. you (and malaysiainsider) scared bn will win in hulu selangor, thus say bad things on taib. you know many malays and chinese made up large proportion there will swing votes to taib, just like bagan pinang! taib will repeat the same victory as bagan pinang, and bn will win, and pkr, pr days are numbered and zaid and cjm will beat chest regretting jump ship...

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  3. UMNO cannot represent BN in Hulu Selangor unless MIC allows it. If they take what is not theirs by agreement, it would be the end of the coalition. BN hangs on to its promise of kongsi kuasa. If you play by the numbers, MIC or Indians would never have any representation at all. And that would be tragic. If UMNO insists on the seat or any other seat that is not theirs by agreement, it will be an excuse for the non-malay supporters of BN to look the other way. When Noh Omar gave the speech the other day, many MIC,MCA and Gerakan members walked out. Maybe this will be a new trend until we hear something constructive.

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  4. dun they have appeal-courts for the prosecutors there !?

    just pay 10 or 20 juta from 'extra-special' draws or let him strike the super-jackpot TOTO for dat mic candidate ,
    kow-tim him lah !!

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  5. Bro

    Here's my comment from Kadir Jasin's blog at https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=22873867&postID=6378410878390971125.

    Nuff said!!:

    "Thus for me, Mohamad Taib is a suiatable Malay candidate for Hulu Selangor. At least we know who he was - the playboy who was caught not declaring cash in Australia -- and goodhearted man who is liked by all races." Oldtimer Esq.

    I can't believe what I just read. You mean you want an old corrupt MP as opposed to a young corrupt MP? Have you gone stark raving mad?

    How can you ask people to vote for a UM History graduate who lied in open court he could not speak english and bought million of $ of properties in Oz and NZ with cash he could not have saved from his salary?

    With views like yours, there's no hope for UMNO/BN whatsoever!!"

    dpp
    We are all of 1 race, the Human Race

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  6. perkasa or perkosa(?) said, " N-O ,
    tausa apologise ! "

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  7. pray let him be the calun then PKR will have BETTER chance !

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  8. Uncle Kau, Rozairi "skin colour" Mohd Zain, and the rest of the lot are either ignorant, wilfully ignorant or fucking stupid and pitifully short sighted. Wake the fuck up!

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  9. Hulu Selangor voter3:57 pm, April 11, 2010

    Why are you re-hashing old stories to run down Mat Taib.
    He's not contesting.
    Why don't you write about Palanivel. Go to the ground. You will see a lot of dirt on him.
    Donplaypuks
    I commented in Kadir's blog telling you to shut up.
    Don't talk if you don't know rots.
    Please refer to the rather long comments.
    We Hulu Selangor voters don't care what Mat Taib is.
    He brought developments to Selangor and he is good to us the kampung people.
    Dont be suprised that the spoilt votes will be bigger than the winner's majority.
    I am very sure if the candidate is Palanivel, he will lose.
    Who wants to vote a bag carrier of Ayoyo Samy????

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  10. Hulu Selangor Voter cakap betul.
    Lu undi di Hulu Selangor ke yang you jadi Palanivel campaign manager n?.
    iApa lu cakap ni. Apa sebab memburukkan MatTaib?
    Dia bekerja kuat untuk kami orang kampung. Masa susah, masa senang dia ada.
    Palanivel baru nampak muka masa Najib datang. Sekarang muka dia tak nampak sebab orang cakap Mungali atau Ramadan akan bertanding.
    Sekranya Palanivel jadi calon, kita tak keluar mengudi. Palanivel perlu undi Melayu untuk menang.
    Orang Indiapun tak suka sama dia.
    Podah chi.

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  11. hi ktemoc,

    it really doesn't matter if taib is fielded in hs or not. the fact is it took a political tsunami in 308 for pr to win with a mere 200 votes majority. so this time round bn can field a monkey and will still win because all these kampung folks like a few commentators here are only concerned about the developments and the hand outs in their kampung. call them selfish n ignorant but in reality this are the sentiments in a kampung. its human nature to want to feel good and nothing feels better than to be able to live the way they want for generations. if given a choice nobody wants to worry over whats going to happen to their children and their children's children.

    csl's recent win in the mca election just amplifies the fact the a leader's morality has nothing to do with his success as a leader. this is the kind of unique moral standing that we uphold here in malaysia and only in malaysia.

    the malays have a saying 'katak bawah tempurung'. i think its a bit too harsh because being under a tempurung means u are in darkness and u'll soon die of oxygen deprivation. the chinese has a similar saying which translates into katak dalam perigi. in a perigi u'll have a nice enclave to yourself and that beautiful sky the size of a perigi opening. unfortunately it is all u'll ever see. what can i say? malaysian kampungs have some really beautiful skies.

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  12. anon of 11:46 AM, April 12, 2010. most of your comments on what kampung people (of all ethnic groups) want are precisely what I've written: "Malaysians in general, especially those of the earlier generations, don’t give a sh*t about corruption or corrupt pollies, or such stuff as accountability and transparency so long as they get some benefits, namely the sehelai kain pelekat and RM100 (allowing for inflation)."

    But I disagree with your assessment of CSL's win that it was in the same light. CSL won because of a mere 900 MCA party delegates most of whom weren't even elected by the Chinese community, thus a fact which doesn't reflect the sentiments of those Chinese Malaysians who had an interest in MCA. Merdeka Centre's polling showed they supported OTK.

    ReplyDelete