Recently blogger Shuzheng wrote a letter to Malaysiakini titled 'Malaysian First' requires doing a Ridhuan Tee.
Obviously he is against Lim Kit Siang’s Malaysian First, going to the extent of accusing Lim of denying his ancestral roots.
He erroneously assumed the consequence of Lim’s proposal would be along his very narrow-minded logic, arguing the DAP leader’s espoused ideology of Malaysian First requires (his words) “... foremost, the subjugation of an existing culture, an individual identity, after which to be replaced by an indescribable unknown quantity, a closet of rejects all dissimilar in size, fitting nobody, and must be sliced up for stitching into a one-size-fits-all.”
Balderdash, and that's an Anglophilic word, old chap.
To him, Malaysian First is a “… 'beyond race' politics … conducted purely by the Chinese groups, DAP most fervently. It is so far the highest political expression to a cultural phenomenon, a whole 'pendatang' group ejecting its ancestry to take up – converting, actually – for another identity label ...”.
He likened Lim Kit Siang’s effort as similar to the ethnic-religious identity taken up by Dr Ridhuan Tee Abdullah but a whole lot less successful.
It’s hardly surprising and of course unfortunate that Shuzheng didn’t stop at his admittance of Lim’s Malaysian First as ‘beyond race politics’ but went on to make a preposterous assumption, driven by his insecure fears that Malaysian First-ers will have to abandon their Chinese ancestral heritage.
Now, where is the evidence or indication to support such a nonsensical claim?
In fact I now quote Lim Kit Siang’s media statement on 05 July 2010 (available on his blog) where he responded to a second challenge by DPM Muhyiddin to state whether he is a Chinese or Malaysian first, as follows:
I had already stated in Parliament that I am a Malaysian first and Chinese second. I am proud of my ethnicity but I have always believed that all Malaysians must rise above their ethnic, cultural, religious and geographic differences to seek a common bond with the Malaysian identity transcending all ethnic, cultural, religious and geographic identities.
That’s a political vision statement of the highest merit, akin to the “I have a dream” made by Martin Luther King Jr on 28 August 1963 during an era of seemingly impossible struggle for racial equality, and for an end to ethnic discrimination in the USA.
Lim’s openly asserted “…I am proud of my ethnicity …” shows either Shuzheng’s lazy scholarship or his malicious fabrication in accusing Lim of emasculating his Chinese identity and denying his ancestral roots.
Apart from the shameful lie about Lim Kit Siang, Shuzheng’s Taliban-ish obsession with force-feeding northern Chinese culture down the throats of Chinese Malaysians extends to the extreme, even to sneering at non-Mandarin dialects.
For example, in his blog he insisted that Teoh Beng Hock should be accurately addressed as Zhao Mingfu because Chinese names should only be, or would only be accurate in hanyu pinyin and not in what he described as mangled colonial Chinese Manglish. Maybe someone ought to inform Mr and Mrs Teoh, poor Beng Hock’s parents, of their effrontery in naming their son in Hokkien without consulting Shuzheng.
He reiterated his anti-southern dialect frenzy when he bemoaned that the surname Ean Hong in Ean Yong Hian Wah is nothing more than a form of heteronym bastardized by the colonial administration, when the correct pronunciation and spelling should be Ouyang, naturally in his prestige dialect of Mandarin and its written form, hanyu pinyin.
With such a lunatic puritanical cultural ideology I wonder whether Shuzheng employs chopsticks as his only cutlery during meals, while refraining from using non-squat WC?
Obviously Shuzheng would prefer that each ethnic group in Malaysia live in their fenced up socio-ethnic ghettoes, where Chinese Malaysians would dress up like Bruce Lee as seen in his film ‘The Big Boss’, speak only Mandarin and their names sino-nized and Mandarin-ized (or f* else - no more Teresa, Hannah, Helen, Susan or Lucia) and spelt, only where Romanization is required, in hanyu pinyin, use inked brush to write or its electronic form (inked brush wakakaka) to send emails, and …
… where the only religions permitted would be those indigenous to China, namely Taoism and Confucianism, while the foreign Christianity, Buddhism and Islam as well as southern Chinese cuisine such as Teochew char koay teow, Hokkien bah-kut-teh, Hainan chicken rice and kopi-aw-peng, and Canto sar hor fun would be forbidden, let alone Malaysian food such as nasi lemak and roti canai.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Lalang déjà vu
23 years ago on 27th October, the police rounded up 106 Malaysians and detained them under the ISA. The publishing permits of The Star, Sunday Star, Sin Chew Jit Poh and Watan were withdrawn.
All these came about following the questionable decision of an Education Minister to appoint around 100 non-Mandarin speaking senior assistants and headmasters to vernacular Chinese schools. The Chinese saw it as a deliberate attempt to dilute and then destroy vernacular education. Very harsh words were thrown around between UMNO Youth (then headed by Najib, today’s PM) and the Chinese based political parties (MCA, Gerakan and DAP) and some NGOs.
Guess who was then the Education Minister – wakakaka.
Anyway, racial tension rose swiftly to the red mark and the police, then reasonably neutral and independent under Tan Sri Haniff, proposed to cancel a mammoth UMNO Youth rally (in response to Chinese protest over the Education Ministry’s unprecedented action).
The police raised their mounting concerns over the staging of such a rally which would have sparked another May 13, at a time when the UMNO-Chinese war of words was further worsened by a Malay soldier who had gone on a killing rampage in the Chow Kit area, fatally shooting a Malay and two Chinese with his M16 rifle. We came to learn that he was struck with grief and insurmountable rage over the death (or murder) of his brother, a caddy at a golf course.
Apparently, local experts said the PM (guess who – wakakaka) agreed to the cancellation of the rally provided the principal Chinese leaders of the protest and some token Malays and even a few UMNO blokes (presumably those not popular with the top echelon of their party - wakakaka) were detained under the ISA, as an appeasement to the organizers of the UMNO rally.
Naturally under such a claimed arrangement, even with a redoubtable IGP, Tan Sri Haniff, there were the usual Teflon-ised exceptions – Najib was not touched at all while MCA Deputy President Lee Kim Sai was sent away, not back to China as per the wishes of Siti Inshah Mansor but to Australia for a ‘vacation’.
Apart from loss of Lee's been chooi or ‘face’, where Najib needn’t have to leave but he had to – yup, that’s the eternal story of UMNO and MCA - his other ‘loss’ was his Selangor Datukship, which under the instigation of UMNO Youth (Najib) was withdrawn by the previous Sultan. Then many Chinese had hoped Lee would be dignified enough not to re-accept it.
Flash forward 23 years, with 27 October just around the corner, and a police force now functioning as a direct tool of UMNO (note their harassment of DAP pollies like Tony Pua on a issue of policy debate conducted openly in the public arena), and the Malaysian Insider’s headlines recently reading MCA, DAP flay BTN, demand punishment for ‘racist’ official it’s a frightening déjà vu.
In 1987 Dr Mahathir had warned of the unacceptability of a Shaolin type gathering of Chinese leaders (MCA, Gerakan and DAP and some NGOs) at a Chinese temple to coordinate their protests against the provocative education decision. Shaolin Temple was famous as a centre of rebellion against the Manchu overlords.
Won't MCA and DAP attacking BTN deputy directy Hamim Husin today be seen as Shaolin-ish? wakakaka.
In the meanwhile, to add spice to the virtual ‘reenactment’, Perkasa is going after Wee Chee Meng while the police goes after Tony Pua and DAP colleagues.
As for the media, Malaysiakini needs to look over its shoulders because this time it won't be a very mute The Star that gets it.
That should buy the BN some extra time for the next general election.
All these came about following the questionable decision of an Education Minister to appoint around 100 non-Mandarin speaking senior assistants and headmasters to vernacular Chinese schools. The Chinese saw it as a deliberate attempt to dilute and then destroy vernacular education. Very harsh words were thrown around between UMNO Youth (then headed by Najib, today’s PM) and the Chinese based political parties (MCA, Gerakan and DAP) and some NGOs.
Guess who was then the Education Minister – wakakaka.
Anyway, racial tension rose swiftly to the red mark and the police, then reasonably neutral and independent under Tan Sri Haniff, proposed to cancel a mammoth UMNO Youth rally (in response to Chinese protest over the Education Ministry’s unprecedented action).
The police raised their mounting concerns over the staging of such a rally which would have sparked another May 13, at a time when the UMNO-Chinese war of words was further worsened by a Malay soldier who had gone on a killing rampage in the Chow Kit area, fatally shooting a Malay and two Chinese with his M16 rifle. We came to learn that he was struck with grief and insurmountable rage over the death (or murder) of his brother, a caddy at a golf course.
Apparently, local experts said the PM (guess who – wakakaka) agreed to the cancellation of the rally provided the principal Chinese leaders of the protest and some token Malays and even a few UMNO blokes (presumably those not popular with the top echelon of their party - wakakaka) were detained under the ISA, as an appeasement to the organizers of the UMNO rally.
Naturally under such a claimed arrangement, even with a redoubtable IGP, Tan Sri Haniff, there were the usual Teflon-ised exceptions – Najib was not touched at all while MCA Deputy President Lee Kim Sai was sent away, not back to China as per the wishes of Siti Inshah Mansor but to Australia for a ‘vacation’.
Apart from loss of Lee's been chooi or ‘face’, where Najib needn’t have to leave but he had to – yup, that’s the eternal story of UMNO and MCA - his other ‘loss’ was his Selangor Datukship, which under the instigation of UMNO Youth (Najib) was withdrawn by the previous Sultan. Then many Chinese had hoped Lee would be dignified enough not to re-accept it.
Flash forward 23 years, with 27 October just around the corner, and a police force now functioning as a direct tool of UMNO (note their harassment of DAP pollies like Tony Pua on a issue of policy debate conducted openly in the public arena), and the Malaysian Insider’s headlines recently reading MCA, DAP flay BTN, demand punishment for ‘racist’ official it’s a frightening déjà vu.
In 1987 Dr Mahathir had warned of the unacceptability of a Shaolin type gathering of Chinese leaders (MCA, Gerakan and DAP and some NGOs) at a Chinese temple to coordinate their protests against the provocative education decision. Shaolin Temple was famous as a centre of rebellion against the Manchu overlords.
Won't MCA and DAP attacking BTN deputy directy Hamim Husin today be seen as Shaolin-ish? wakakaka.
In the meanwhile, to add spice to the virtual ‘reenactment’, Perkasa is going after Wee Chee Meng while the police goes after Tony Pua and DAP colleagues.
As for the media, Malaysiakini needs to look over its shoulders because this time it won't be a very mute The Star that gets it.
That should buy the BN some extra time for the next general election.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Istana type intrigues
The Malaysian Insider - MCA, DAP flay BTN, demand punishment for ‘racist’ official.
If PM Najib doesn’t watch out, by the time he returns, Muhyiddin will be the puppet PM with someone pulling the strings.
While the two school principals might have been indiscreetly spontaneous in their racist outbursts, I doubt the BTN deputy director Hamim Husain would have dared, in the immediate wake of the school scandals, to act so unbelievably racist without a wink and a nod from above.
It’s obvious ‘someone’ is deliberately escalating the racial tension to either create another situation for a possible Ops Lallang 2 and/or perhaps even declare some form of national security emergency to delay the general election and buy time for BN, or to depose Najib off swiftly in the way AAB was deposed.
Once I was discussing Malay politics with a Chinese friend when he exclaimed how the Malay body politics was so full of intrigues, Machiavellian manoeuvrings and, contrary to perrenial Malay proclamations of how much they treasure loyalty, full of treachery.
Notable events would be the history of the Sultanates from early Malacca right down to present day Kelantan – and how Tun Razak conducted a coup d’etat against a broken hearted Tunku.
He then reminded me on how Dr Mahathir, one of the longest serving PMs and probably the most influential voice in Malay politics, was so effectively boycotted and marginalized by AAB’s 4th Floor boys and worse, unconscionably betrayed by a host of his erstwhile Kedah sidekicks (Baharum, Aroff, etc) who had benefitted during his reign and from his generous largess.
In other words there is no such thing as loyalty in Malay politics – that value perished together with Hang Jebat in the 15th Century.
He commented on how infantile Chinese body politics in this country is by comparison, and attributed the depth of Machiavellian Malay political manoeuvrings to their history of and experience in palace intrigues.
I protested that Chinese too had their share of palace intrigues, perhaps even of a worse kind, but he pooh-pooh-ed me off, saying the Chinese who migrated to Malaysia were the politically naive Southerners, basically peasants and not the more politically devious Northerners, who dominated royalty, court nobility and palace courtiers.
Chinese Malaysians are children of peasant stock? Wakakaka.
OK, back to Malaysia - I have to admit that for a while I thought Dr M would still hutang budi the late Tun Razak and thus tolerate if not mentor his son Najib to stay on as PM until the latter’s time for retirement, but now I wonder?
There's no doubt Dr M doesn't like the way Najib is going. Has he decided to get rid of the PM before the latter's politico-economic policies screw up the future for his son?
If that's the case, how long can Najib hang on?
If PM Najib doesn’t watch out, by the time he returns, Muhyiddin will be the puppet PM with someone pulling the strings.
While the two school principals might have been indiscreetly spontaneous in their racist outbursts, I doubt the BTN deputy director Hamim Husain would have dared, in the immediate wake of the school scandals, to act so unbelievably racist without a wink and a nod from above.
It’s obvious ‘someone’ is deliberately escalating the racial tension to either create another situation for a possible Ops Lallang 2 and/or perhaps even declare some form of national security emergency to delay the general election and buy time for BN, or to depose Najib off swiftly in the way AAB was deposed.
Once I was discussing Malay politics with a Chinese friend when he exclaimed how the Malay body politics was so full of intrigues, Machiavellian manoeuvrings and, contrary to perrenial Malay proclamations of how much they treasure loyalty, full of treachery.
Notable events would be the history of the Sultanates from early Malacca right down to present day Kelantan – and how Tun Razak conducted a coup d’etat against a broken hearted Tunku.
He then reminded me on how Dr Mahathir, one of the longest serving PMs and probably the most influential voice in Malay politics, was so effectively boycotted and marginalized by AAB’s 4th Floor boys and worse, unconscionably betrayed by a host of his erstwhile Kedah sidekicks (Baharum, Aroff, etc) who had benefitted during his reign and from his generous largess.
In other words there is no such thing as loyalty in Malay politics – that value perished together with Hang Jebat in the 15th Century.
He commented on how infantile Chinese body politics in this country is by comparison, and attributed the depth of Machiavellian Malay political manoeuvrings to their history of and experience in palace intrigues.
I protested that Chinese too had their share of palace intrigues, perhaps even of a worse kind, but he pooh-pooh-ed me off, saying the Chinese who migrated to Malaysia were the politically naive Southerners, basically peasants and not the more politically devious Northerners, who dominated royalty, court nobility and palace courtiers.
Chinese Malaysians are children of peasant stock? Wakakaka.
OK, back to Malaysia - I have to admit that for a while I thought Dr M would still hutang budi the late Tun Razak and thus tolerate if not mentor his son Najib to stay on as PM until the latter’s time for retirement, but now I wonder?
There's no doubt Dr M doesn't like the way Najib is going. Has he decided to get rid of the PM before the latter's politico-economic policies screw up the future for his son?
If that's the case, how long can Najib hang on?
Monday, September 27, 2010
Bananas 2 - The man who hates bananas
Continuing from my previous post Bananas where I wrote:
The sins of a non-Chinese educated Chinese must be exposed and punished, not unlike what someone (who knows, maybe a kinfolk of the Jiang Qing-ish headmistress) has been doing to Lim Kit Siang, Lim Guan Eng, Hannah Yeo and most of all, Josh Hong wakakaka.
Bananas must have their ‘yellow’ skins peeled back to expose their ‘white’ and thus non-Chinese core ........
I narrated how I became a banana when I could have well turned out to be either an amazing Teochew (Chaozhou) opera star, or alternatively I could have become a world renowned Chinese scholar famous for his love poems wakakaka.
And I did also threaten to reveal how a banana-hater woo-ed and stole my banana sweetheart from me. But before I come to that sly sneaky (but sweet to her) dog, maybe I need to share with you my thoughts on what is a banana because there exist several views on this quite common species of Chinese Malaysians.
Yellow on the outside means we’re Chinese but white on the inside, implies western (English) education, western values and even western habits. From here, further descriptions begin to vary, where those which blogger Shuzheng has adopted reach outrageous dimensions, alleging that bananas are all too ready to or even have disowned their Chinese heritage.
In a letter to Malaysiakini, Shuzheng accused Lim Kit Siang of wanting to “emasculate the Chinese identity and then subvert it by the replacement, 'Malaysian'” as in DAP’s Malaysian First concept. He then condemned Lim as someone who has jiancao chugen.
The Chinese proverb literally translates into ‘cut the grass by severing its roots’, asserting if one does so, the grass will sprout no more; it means destroying something totally and thoroughly by eliminating any of its potential for comeback.
Shuzheng used the proverb to lambast Lim for turning against his ancestral past.
Does Shuzheng make sense here, or has he allowed his invincible bias against DAP leaders who are Chinese, western educated and Christians, especially those of the sweet gender who have the brazen shame to marry a non-Chinese, and worst of all, if she is at the same time a sweet smart cutie wakakaka, to indulge in such histrionics?
Did he also refer to a Chinese idiom hao hua cha cai niufen shang (= sticking a good/gorgeous bloom on a pile of bovine poo, which means wasted beauty) when he excoriated DAP sweetheart Hannah Yeoh? Wakakaka again - he's just jealous of Hannah's husband.
Let’s see where my personal experience as a banana has taken me.
One morning, a few years after I left for good the private Chinese school because of the Jiang Qin-ish headmistress, I met sweet Dimpled Cheeks in Paya Terubong – she was then thirteen, 2 years younger than me. More gorgeous than ever, she was unfortunately accompanied by her parents, obviously a Sunday family outing to the Ayer Itam village market.
I thought her dimpled cheeks grew more rosy, probably flushing on seeing me, the dungu for whom she wrote those sweet innocent words, mind you, just to improve my Mandarin ;-) I suppose she must have regretted her sweet innocent impetuosity.
At that particular moment three short lines from Li Bai’s Changgan Song sprang to my mind:
At fifteen, my face lit up
in your company, I was willing
to have my ashes mixed with yours
Li Bai was China’s greatest poet and a Godzilla boozer. For years, under the influence of one of my uncles, I tried to imitate Li Bai’s lifestyle (the boozing part) until I found out he drowned in a vat of wine. Mind you, it was not a bad way to go wakakaka.
Of course I couldn’t read much Chinese save a few words, like those three which Dimpled Cheeks wrote for me ;-), but I could learn/absorb Chinese tradition, culture, myths and folklore and history from my elders. Being banana was never a socio-cultural disadvantage though of course we can always do better.
An uncle was good enough to buy me the English versions of the 300 Poems of Tang Dynasty and various other classics, including the Big Four – Romance of the 3 Kingdoms, Water Margin, Journey to the West and Dreams of the Red Chamber. But damn, Unc refused to let me have a copy of the Plum in the Golden Vase because I was then not yet an adult :(
I observe Chinese festivals, and at mum’s insistence (just to please her when she was alive) religious or traditional rites.
For example, I celebrate mid Autumn festival, CNY, Chap Goh Meh, and all the festivals that Penangites love, and even (for moi, an atheist) religious ones like 7th Moon (Ghost) festival and its saucy Koe Tai (Ge Dai) wakakaka, the very stern Kew Ong Eah birthday rites and the trek up cheng ji chan (1,200 steps) to the 9-Emperor Gods’ temple on the hill, various Tua Peh Kong birthday celebrations in Penang and the inevitable Teochew operas.
When I was in Malaya, I observed (together with my mum while she was alive) Cheng Beng, visiting and cleaning my grandparents’ and father’s grave. In Penang, one cannot but help know when Cheng Beng arrives because the Angsana blooms would be scattered all along Scotland Road and Western Road. The Angsana trees (Pterocarpus indicus) are known as pokok sena in Malay.
Penangites called the magnificent golden blooms Cheng Beng hua or flowers of Cheng Beng. The name also carries an ominous significance as the blooms on the roads during or after rain had proven to be perilously slippery to motorcyclists, like kaytee in his younger days.
I have no doubt Lim Kit Siang and his son and families (notwithstanding their Christian faith) observe and celebrate at least the non-religious Chinese customs, culture and traditions as well. So how dare Shuzheng make such outrageous MCA-Gerakan-ish claims that Lim Kit Siang has deliberately destroyed his Chinese roots and heritage?
Mind you, I can tell you why he did so. Shuzheng has been fond of putting words (of his slanted choosing and perception) into the mouths of his various Nemesis’s. He also does this by grasping on flimsy straws and extrapolating them along the gutter-route of his prejudice. That is his weakness, borne by his illiberality, twisted animosity and lazy scholarship.
He hates Lim and son so much that he has even turned his take on Teoh Beng Hock’s so-called ‘final note’, a document of questionable provenance, into a blame game, of course with Lim Kit Siang as a target – that’s his sickness but in doing so, he may have, either unwittingly or deliberately, given the MACC comfort.
I was prepared to accept his bilious eccentricities in attacking Christian Chinese DAP leaders as just a bias, but in exploiting the tragedy of a young man for his own base motives, Shuzheng has crossed the last line of decency. His talent in penmanship has degenerated intovindictive malicious pomposity.
Yes, I know a few Chinese educated may sneer at or look down on bananas, but none has ever shown the degree of hatred and the guttersnipe tactics as Shuzheng has done to Lim KS, GE, Hannah Yeoh and other Christian Chinese DAP leaders, and Josh Hong.
Just wondering, had Josh Hong spurned him?
F* Shuzheng, let’s return to someone pleasant, like my memories of sweet Dimpled Cheeks. I thought of her at the market, then a sweet 13. If I could turn the clock back to then, I would dedicate 3 of Du Mu’s lines on Parting to her:
Slender, supple, she’s just thirteen,
The tip of a cardamom bud
In early spring
In my next posting I’ll talk of my banana love, and how Lee Lam Thye (yes, the former DAP pollie whom many of you hate) ‘introduced’ us, not that Tan Sri Lee even knows about that wakakaka.
The sins of a non-Chinese educated Chinese must be exposed and punished, not unlike what someone (who knows, maybe a kinfolk of the Jiang Qing-ish headmistress) has been doing to Lim Kit Siang, Lim Guan Eng, Hannah Yeo and most of all, Josh Hong wakakaka.
Bananas must have their ‘yellow’ skins peeled back to expose their ‘white’ and thus non-Chinese core ........
I narrated how I became a banana when I could have well turned out to be either an amazing Teochew (Chaozhou) opera star, or alternatively I could have become a world renowned Chinese scholar famous for his love poems wakakaka.
And I did also threaten to reveal how a banana-hater woo-ed and stole my banana sweetheart from me. But before I come to that sly sneaky (but sweet to her) dog, maybe I need to share with you my thoughts on what is a banana because there exist several views on this quite common species of Chinese Malaysians.
Yellow on the outside means we’re Chinese but white on the inside, implies western (English) education, western values and even western habits. From here, further descriptions begin to vary, where those which blogger Shuzheng has adopted reach outrageous dimensions, alleging that bananas are all too ready to or even have disowned their Chinese heritage.
In a letter to Malaysiakini, Shuzheng accused Lim Kit Siang of wanting to “emasculate the Chinese identity and then subvert it by the replacement, 'Malaysian'” as in DAP’s Malaysian First concept. He then condemned Lim as someone who has jiancao chugen.
The Chinese proverb literally translates into ‘cut the grass by severing its roots’, asserting if one does so, the grass will sprout no more; it means destroying something totally and thoroughly by eliminating any of its potential for comeback.
Shuzheng used the proverb to lambast Lim for turning against his ancestral past.
Does Shuzheng make sense here, or has he allowed his invincible bias against DAP leaders who are Chinese, western educated and Christians, especially those of the sweet gender who have the brazen shame to marry a non-Chinese, and worst of all, if she is at the same time a sweet smart cutie wakakaka, to indulge in such histrionics?
Did he also refer to a Chinese idiom hao hua cha cai niufen shang (= sticking a good/gorgeous bloom on a pile of bovine poo, which means wasted beauty) when he excoriated DAP sweetheart Hannah Yeoh? Wakakaka again - he's just jealous of Hannah's husband.
Let’s see where my personal experience as a banana has taken me.
One morning, a few years after I left for good the private Chinese school because of the Jiang Qin-ish headmistress, I met sweet Dimpled Cheeks in Paya Terubong – she was then thirteen, 2 years younger than me. More gorgeous than ever, she was unfortunately accompanied by her parents, obviously a Sunday family outing to the Ayer Itam village market.
I thought her dimpled cheeks grew more rosy, probably flushing on seeing me, the dungu for whom she wrote those sweet innocent words, mind you, just to improve my Mandarin ;-) I suppose she must have regretted her sweet innocent impetuosity.
At that particular moment three short lines from Li Bai’s Changgan Song sprang to my mind:
At fifteen, my face lit up
in your company, I was willing
to have my ashes mixed with yours
Li Bai was China’s greatest poet and a Godzilla boozer. For years, under the influence of one of my uncles, I tried to imitate Li Bai’s lifestyle (the boozing part) until I found out he drowned in a vat of wine. Mind you, it was not a bad way to go wakakaka.
Of course I couldn’t read much Chinese save a few words, like those three which Dimpled Cheeks wrote for me ;-), but I could learn/absorb Chinese tradition, culture, myths and folklore and history from my elders. Being banana was never a socio-cultural disadvantage though of course we can always do better.
An uncle was good enough to buy me the English versions of the 300 Poems of Tang Dynasty and various other classics, including the Big Four – Romance of the 3 Kingdoms, Water Margin, Journey to the West and Dreams of the Red Chamber. But damn, Unc refused to let me have a copy of the Plum in the Golden Vase because I was then not yet an adult :(
Dreams of the Red Chamber
Though I struggle somewhat with Mandarin, I speak other forms of Chinese, Hokkien and Teochew, and some naughty-saucy Canto words, and gasp occasionally Mandarin too - so, how to 'emasculate' the Chinese identity?I observe Chinese festivals, and at mum’s insistence (just to please her when she was alive) religious or traditional rites.
For example, I celebrate mid Autumn festival, CNY, Chap Goh Meh, and all the festivals that Penangites love, and even (for moi, an atheist) religious ones like 7th Moon (Ghost) festival and its saucy Koe Tai (Ge Dai) wakakaka, the very stern Kew Ong Eah birthday rites and the trek up cheng ji chan (1,200 steps) to the 9-Emperor Gods’ temple on the hill, various Tua Peh Kong birthday celebrations in Penang and the inevitable Teochew operas.
When I was in Malaya, I observed (together with my mum while she was alive) Cheng Beng, visiting and cleaning my grandparents’ and father’s grave. In Penang, one cannot but help know when Cheng Beng arrives because the Angsana blooms would be scattered all along Scotland Road and Western Road. The Angsana trees (Pterocarpus indicus) are known as pokok sena in Malay.
Penangites called the magnificent golden blooms Cheng Beng hua or flowers of Cheng Beng. The name also carries an ominous significance as the blooms on the roads during or after rain had proven to be perilously slippery to motorcyclists, like kaytee in his younger days.
I have no doubt Lim Kit Siang and his son and families (notwithstanding their Christian faith) observe and celebrate at least the non-religious Chinese customs, culture and traditions as well. So how dare Shuzheng make such outrageous MCA-Gerakan-ish claims that Lim Kit Siang has deliberately destroyed his Chinese roots and heritage?
Mind you, I can tell you why he did so. Shuzheng has been fond of putting words (of his slanted choosing and perception) into the mouths of his various Nemesis’s. He also does this by grasping on flimsy straws and extrapolating them along the gutter-route of his prejudice. That is his weakness, borne by his illiberality, twisted animosity and lazy scholarship.
He hates Lim and son so much that he has even turned his take on Teoh Beng Hock’s so-called ‘final note’, a document of questionable provenance, into a blame game, of course with Lim Kit Siang as a target – that’s his sickness but in doing so, he may have, either unwittingly or deliberately, given the MACC comfort.
I was prepared to accept his bilious eccentricities in attacking Christian Chinese DAP leaders as just a bias, but in exploiting the tragedy of a young man for his own base motives, Shuzheng has crossed the last line of decency. His talent in penmanship has degenerated into
Yes, I know a few Chinese educated may sneer at or look down on bananas, but none has ever shown the degree of hatred and the guttersnipe tactics as Shuzheng has done to Lim KS, GE, Hannah Yeoh and other Christian Chinese DAP leaders, and Josh Hong.
Just wondering, had Josh Hong spurned him?
F* Shuzheng, let’s return to someone pleasant, like my memories of sweet Dimpled Cheeks. I thought of her at the market, then a sweet 13. If I could turn the clock back to then, I would dedicate 3 of Du Mu’s lines on Parting to her:
Slender, supple, she’s just thirteen,
The tip of a cardamom bud
In early spring
In my next posting I’ll talk of my banana love, and how Lee Lam Thye (yes, the former DAP pollie whom many of you hate) ‘introduced’ us, not that Tan Sri Lee even knows about that wakakaka.
Friday, September 24, 2010
Bananas - The story, schooling, sorrow & stolen sweetheart
Being Teochew my dear (now-departed) mum decided in my tender years I should be formally educated in the Teochew language in addition to the national school education I was already receiving.
Maybe she wanted me to sing Teochew opera songs along with her; she crooned those – narrating bits and pieces of China’s classical history - when she was happy, which alas was seldom.
Maybe she wanted me to reply for her those Teochew letters from one of her cousins who was always appealing for money, yes, from my mum who was as poor as a church mouse after my father’s sudden death.
Whatever her reason was, she soon discovered that there was no Teochew school in Penang. There were private tutors but we sure couldn’t afford their fees. I was thus spared a possible career as an actor in Teochew operas which one of my ex’s told me I was most suited for … er … as the villain who was eventually executed by the Emperor … gulp.
Informed by one of my uncles that one could still learn to read and write Chinese in a Mandarin school, she packed me off to one (a private establishment) after my Unc offered to pay the fees, though she did still try to push for the Teochew private tuition; but my Unc told her private tuition wasn’t as good as regular schooling. Besides he was paying the bill so the matter was settled. But as usual, my mum couldn’t resist giving me a final blistering glare as if I was the cause of her losing out in the Teochew vs Mandarin bout.
If anyone was born to be an arch-scapegoat, c’est moi!
So in the morning I went to Methodist Boys’ (Primary) School while immediately after that I joined the private Chinese school. Of course, given the travelling time between schools, I would always be late for the afternoon session, and without lunch too other than a hastily gobbled cheap pow or an equally cheap eu char koay.
Being late for class didn’t go well with any headmistress of Chinese schools, let alone the one I had acquired. She already hated people like me, a Chinese sent by his parents to a national type school in preference to a Chinese one – well, ‘twas not my mum’s decision but my late dad’s.
She demanded to know why I hadn’t abandoned my main (national type) schooling so as to be on time and full time at her school. Being a wimp, I remained silent to her relentless inquisition which of course infuriated her even more. My sin as a student in a national type school cum my stoic demeanour earned from my new headmistress also a blistering glare for what she perceived as my insouciant treachery to Chinese culture.
I didn’t really enjoy Chinese classes, more because the school put me in a very junior standard to enable me to catch up with the Mandarin, where I then had to sit through English, maths and Malay, etc lessons that were some years behind my standard in Methodist school. Boring.
However I sat next to a cute dimpled sweetie who took pains during any spare time to tutor me in Mandarin while I helped her with maths and English and of course some Malay. Alas, this was unfortunately at a time when I wasn’t yet keen on the fairer gender – that’s the story of my life, wrong place at the wrong time :(
Several months down the track, on one fine day, spoilt somewhat by the lesson being taken by the headmistress herself (she still laser-ed me regularly with her accusative looks), Sweetie decided to advance my Mandarin lessons – Chairman Mao’s Great Leap Forward, so to speak.
Dimpled Cheek pushed a piece of paper to me, on which I saw three Chinese characters. I recognized two (mind you, not that I could write them yet).
The first one looked like a ‘J’ combined with several criss-crossed strokes slashing the ‘J’ horizontally and slantwise a la Zaitochi – it was a ‘wo’ or ‘I’ (moi). The second one looked rather complicated so I skipped it for a while. The third was easy, a sloppy ‘T’ plus some other strokes, which I worked out to be ‘ni’ or you.
So it was ‘wo’ – something – ‘ni’. I looked at her to see whether she was offering any help but she just smiled in that sweet mysterious Mona Lisa manner. I glanced back at the middle character again and thought it looked like what my Unc once taught me. Wellllllll ..... could it just be ..... but no, surely not .....?
Wrapped in deep thoughts on the mysterious Chinese character I didn’t observe that the headmistress was coming my way like a steam engine. She had spied Sweetie smiling at me while I was doing a Rodin. I was rudely brought back to earth when she snatched the piece of paper from my hands.
When I looked up into her eyes, I realized how those crypto-Jews and crypto-Muslims in Spain must have felt when confronted by Tomás de Torquemada, the Catholic Church’s Grand Inquisitor.
During the auto-da-fé, she accused me, a national school degenerate, of writing love words to an innocent young Chinese educated lassie. I decided to remain silent as I could see she was all worked up and determined to punish me, and any explanation would have been futile. Besides, I did like Dimpled Cheek, mind you just platonically, so I wasn’t going to dob on her. And of course there was that rebellious streak in me ;-)
The sins of a non-Chinese educated Chinese must be exposed and punished, not unlike what someone (who knows, maybe a kinfolk of the Jiang Qing-ish headmistress) has been doing to Lim Kit Siang, Lim Guan Eng, Hannah Yeo and most of all, Josh Hong wakakaka.
Bananas must have their ‘yellow’ skins peeled back to expose their ‘white’ and thus non-Chinese core.
Jiang Qing ... er ... I mean ... the headmistress wrote to my mum about my ‘sins’, for which I was given a severe belting plus an earful of how undedicated and ungrateful I was, to waste good Unc’s financial support.
Much as Unc continued to have confidence in me and urged me to continue, I decided I had enough of the Chinese Ilse Koch and left my Chinese education behind, which has been why I became a banana.
In my next episode on ‘Bananas’ I’ll reveal how one sly sneaky dog, who claimed he despises bananas, secretly and sweetly stole my banana sweetheart from me ... ;-)
Maybe she wanted me to sing Teochew opera songs along with her; she crooned those – narrating bits and pieces of China’s classical history - when she was happy, which alas was seldom.
Maybe she wanted me to reply for her those Teochew letters from one of her cousins who was always appealing for money, yes, from my mum who was as poor as a church mouse after my father’s sudden death.
Whatever her reason was, she soon discovered that there was no Teochew school in Penang. There were private tutors but we sure couldn’t afford their fees. I was thus spared a possible career as an actor in Teochew operas which one of my ex’s told me I was most suited for … er … as the villain who was eventually executed by the Emperor … gulp.
Informed by one of my uncles that one could still learn to read and write Chinese in a Mandarin school, she packed me off to one (a private establishment) after my Unc offered to pay the fees, though she did still try to push for the Teochew private tuition; but my Unc told her private tuition wasn’t as good as regular schooling. Besides he was paying the bill so the matter was settled. But as usual, my mum couldn’t resist giving me a final blistering glare as if I was the cause of her losing out in the Teochew vs Mandarin bout.
If anyone was born to be an arch-scapegoat, c’est moi!
So in the morning I went to Methodist Boys’ (Primary) School while immediately after that I joined the private Chinese school. Of course, given the travelling time between schools, I would always be late for the afternoon session, and without lunch too other than a hastily gobbled cheap pow or an equally cheap eu char koay.
Being late for class didn’t go well with any headmistress of Chinese schools, let alone the one I had acquired. She already hated people like me, a Chinese sent by his parents to a national type school in preference to a Chinese one – well, ‘twas not my mum’s decision but my late dad’s.
She demanded to know why I hadn’t abandoned my main (national type) schooling so as to be on time and full time at her school. Being a wimp, I remained silent to her relentless inquisition which of course infuriated her even more. My sin as a student in a national type school cum my stoic demeanour earned from my new headmistress also a blistering glare for what she perceived as my insouciant treachery to Chinese culture.
I didn’t really enjoy Chinese classes, more because the school put me in a very junior standard to enable me to catch up with the Mandarin, where I then had to sit through English, maths and Malay, etc lessons that were some years behind my standard in Methodist school. Boring.
However I sat next to a cute dimpled sweetie who took pains during any spare time to tutor me in Mandarin while I helped her with maths and English and of course some Malay. Alas, this was unfortunately at a time when I wasn’t yet keen on the fairer gender – that’s the story of my life, wrong place at the wrong time :(
Several months down the track, on one fine day, spoilt somewhat by the lesson being taken by the headmistress herself (she still laser-ed me regularly with her accusative looks), Sweetie decided to advance my Mandarin lessons – Chairman Mao’s Great Leap Forward, so to speak.
Dimpled Cheek pushed a piece of paper to me, on which I saw three Chinese characters. I recognized two (mind you, not that I could write them yet).
The first one looked like a ‘J’ combined with several criss-crossed strokes slashing the ‘J’ horizontally and slantwise a la Zaitochi – it was a ‘wo’ or ‘I’ (moi). The second one looked rather complicated so I skipped it for a while. The third was easy, a sloppy ‘T’ plus some other strokes, which I worked out to be ‘ni’ or you.
So it was ‘wo’ – something – ‘ni’. I looked at her to see whether she was offering any help but she just smiled in that sweet mysterious Mona Lisa manner. I glanced back at the middle character again and thought it looked like what my Unc once taught me. Wellllllll ..... could it just be ..... but no, surely not .....?
Wrapped in deep thoughts on the mysterious Chinese character I didn’t observe that the headmistress was coming my way like a steam engine. She had spied Sweetie smiling at me while I was doing a Rodin. I was rudely brought back to earth when she snatched the piece of paper from my hands.
When I looked up into her eyes, I realized how those crypto-Jews and crypto-Muslims in Spain must have felt when confronted by Tomás de Torquemada, the Catholic Church’s Grand Inquisitor.
During the auto-da-fé, she accused me, a national school degenerate, of writing love words to an innocent young Chinese educated lassie. I decided to remain silent as I could see she was all worked up and determined to punish me, and any explanation would have been futile. Besides, I did like Dimpled Cheek, mind you just platonically, so I wasn’t going to dob on her. And of course there was that rebellious streak in me ;-)
The sins of a non-Chinese educated Chinese must be exposed and punished, not unlike what someone (who knows, maybe a kinfolk of the Jiang Qing-ish headmistress) has been doing to Lim Kit Siang, Lim Guan Eng, Hannah Yeo and most of all, Josh Hong wakakaka.
Bananas must have their ‘yellow’ skins peeled back to expose their ‘white’ and thus non-Chinese core.
Jiang Qing ... er ... I mean ... the headmistress wrote to my mum about my ‘sins’, for which I was given a severe belting plus an earful of how undedicated and ungrateful I was, to waste good Unc’s financial support.
Much as Unc continued to have confidence in me and urged me to continue, I decided I had enough of the Chinese Ilse Koch and left my Chinese education behind, which has been why I became a banana.
In my next episode on ‘Bananas’ I’ll reveal how one sly sneaky dog, who claimed he despises bananas, secretly and sweetly stole my banana sweetheart from me ... ;-)
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Datuk Roast Lamb
The Malaysian Insider - Anti-Zaid blog up to down him.
Datuk Zaid Ibrahim’s detractors have set up a blog aimed at attacking the former Umno man as an “outsider” bent on destroying PKR. The blog called “Save PKR – do not allow outsiders destroy the party” at antizaid.wordpress.com saw its first entry on Saturday just as the hotly contested race kicked off with divisions nominating.
This blog was born out of the intention to save PKR from being destroyed by a person sponsored by greedy and voracious businessmen. [...]
One entry posted yesterday appeared to harp on how Zaid still trailed behind vice-president Azmin Ali, another lead contender in the deputy presidency race, in his tally of nominations from the divisions. It claimed that the nominations tally showed that members still loved the party.
I cannot help laughing when I read the statement “a blog aimed at attacking the former Umno man as an ‘outsider’ bent on destroying PKR”.
Who do you think these detractors are or were? Wakakaka.
Not that I want to take sides but at least Zaid came into PKR after he had resigned from his position as a minister – how many in PKR can say that?
Then I became attracted to the accusation “…sponsored by greedy and voracious businessmen.”
Have you eaten roast lamb?
Now if you think kaytee has done a non sequitur, I raise the ‘roast lamb’ bit because it may explain who one of this ‘greedy and voracious businessmen’ (not my words but those of PKR) could be.
Once upon a time a Datuk sponsored two roast lambs at a bloggers’ event. It was around that time I came to know my dear Penang friends Susan Loone and Lucia Lai, and also Howsy, Chris Chew, Jamal, and an interesting lady called Jed Yoong ;-)
Wow, sure takes me back quite a fair bit.
That generous bloke became known as Datuk Roast Lamb wakakaka.
I was then new to the bloggers’ world and politics, and was informed that Datuk Roast Lamb was (perhaps still is) a strong supporter of He-who-walks-on-water (though today his heels are a wee wet wakakaka).
One night I heard on the grapevine that the Knight of the Roast Lamb, yes our Le Chevalier de L'agneau de Rôti wakakaka, was attempting to arrange a reconciliation reunion between two people who once were seen as father and son but who subsequently became bitter enemies.
Apparently the Datuk is now not seen as the confidante of He-who-walks-on-water, as he has assumed the role of a ‘greedy and voracious businessman’.
I hate to say this because you guys will blame me for attacking He-who-walks-on-water again. That bloke (He-who-walks-on-water) should have done something to stop this nonsense of a PKR blog set up to attack a PKR leader, but then he has been notoriously known to overly favour his blue eyed boy. Don’t believe me? Just ask Nallakarupan who was instructed not to contest a VP position in PKR so as to enable blue-eyed boy to waltz in.
That’s why PKR is so f* up by this group of former UMNO blokes.
And confidentially speaking, I suspect that may be why DAP and PAS are playing footsies with each other beneath the Pakatan table, much to sweetie Helen Ang’s consternation wakakaka because they cannot depend on PKR to play the bridging role if Anwar Ibrahim were to be removed from the political landscape.
Datuk Zaid Ibrahim’s detractors have set up a blog aimed at attacking the former Umno man as an “outsider” bent on destroying PKR. The blog called “Save PKR – do not allow outsiders destroy the party” at antizaid.wordpress.com saw its first entry on Saturday just as the hotly contested race kicked off with divisions nominating.
This blog was born out of the intention to save PKR from being destroyed by a person sponsored by greedy and voracious businessmen. [...]
One entry posted yesterday appeared to harp on how Zaid still trailed behind vice-president Azmin Ali, another lead contender in the deputy presidency race, in his tally of nominations from the divisions. It claimed that the nominations tally showed that members still loved the party.
I cannot help laughing when I read the statement “a blog aimed at attacking the former Umno man as an ‘outsider’ bent on destroying PKR”.
Who do you think these detractors are or were? Wakakaka.
Not that I want to take sides but at least Zaid came into PKR after he had resigned from his position as a minister – how many in PKR can say that?
Then I became attracted to the accusation “…sponsored by greedy and voracious businessmen.”
Have you eaten roast lamb?
Now if you think kaytee has done a non sequitur, I raise the ‘roast lamb’ bit because it may explain who one of this ‘greedy and voracious businessmen’ (not my words but those of PKR) could be.
Once upon a time a Datuk sponsored two roast lambs at a bloggers’ event. It was around that time I came to know my dear Penang friends Susan Loone and Lucia Lai, and also Howsy, Chris Chew, Jamal, and an interesting lady called Jed Yoong ;-)
Wow, sure takes me back quite a fair bit.
That generous bloke became known as Datuk Roast Lamb wakakaka.
I was then new to the bloggers’ world and politics, and was informed that Datuk Roast Lamb was (perhaps still is) a strong supporter of He-who-walks-on-water (though today his heels are a wee wet wakakaka).
One night I heard on the grapevine that the Knight of the Roast Lamb, yes our Le Chevalier de L'agneau de Rôti wakakaka, was attempting to arrange a reconciliation reunion between two people who once were seen as father and son but who subsequently became bitter enemies.
Apparently the Datuk is now not seen as the confidante of He-who-walks-on-water, as he has assumed the role of a ‘greedy and voracious businessman’.
I hate to say this because you guys will blame me for attacking He-who-walks-on-water again. That bloke (He-who-walks-on-water) should have done something to stop this nonsense of a PKR blog set up to attack a PKR leader, but then he has been notoriously known to overly favour his blue eyed boy. Don’t believe me? Just ask Nallakarupan who was instructed not to contest a VP position in PKR so as to enable blue-eyed boy to waltz in.
That’s why PKR is so f* up by this group of former UMNO blokes.
And confidentially speaking, I suspect that may be why DAP and PAS are playing footsies with each other beneath the Pakatan table, much to sweetie Helen Ang’s consternation wakakaka because they cannot depend on PKR to play the bridging role if Anwar Ibrahim were to be removed from the political landscape.
No more Indonesian maid please
The Malaysian Insider - Indonesia bans maids from leaving for Malaysia:
Indonesia’s Labour and Transmigration Minister Muhaimin Iskandar today announced that prospective maids from the country would be banned from leaving for Malaysia until the Indonesian government could assure them of their safety He said the move was being taken in response to the case where an Indonesian maid was allegedly abused by her employer in Penang on September 13.
I fully support the Indonesian Minister's announcement. In fact I suggest that Malaysia completely stop recruiting maids from Indonesia or for that matter, anywhere.
Firstly, many Malaysians cannot handle the responsibilities of being employers of maids. Many are real bastards and bitches. Those found guilty of abusing maids should be punished to the full extent of the law.
Secondly, I don’t want to see the country overrun by foreign workers, like hedonistic Kuwait and many Gulf nations have been. There is a security problem.
If young couples with children both want to work, then they should leave their kids at care centres manned by Malaysians.
Indonesia’s Labour and Transmigration Minister Muhaimin Iskandar today announced that prospective maids from the country would be banned from leaving for Malaysia until the Indonesian government could assure them of their safety He said the move was being taken in response to the case where an Indonesian maid was allegedly abused by her employer in Penang on September 13.
I fully support the Indonesian Minister's announcement. In fact I suggest that Malaysia completely stop recruiting maids from Indonesia or for that matter, anywhere.
Firstly, many Malaysians cannot handle the responsibilities of being employers of maids. Many are real bastards and bitches. Those found guilty of abusing maids should be punished to the full extent of the law.
Secondly, I don’t want to see the country overrun by foreign workers, like hedonistic Kuwait and many Gulf nations have been. There is a security problem.
If young couples with children both want to work, then they should leave their kids at care centres manned by Malaysians.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Nazri Aziz - PM's Chief Head Kicker
Malaysian Insider's photoNazri Abdul Aziz, Minister in Prime Minister's Department, is, to say the least, a most controversial character.
I used to call him the PM’s chief head kicker (during AAB’s reign). Nazri was like a Transformer unleashed when he attacked Dr Mahathir. He has done it again to protect Najib and the PM’s 1Malaysia.
Even Sakmongkol (Dr Mahathir’s supporter) grudgingly conceded his admiration for Nazri’s head kicking style, though he (Sakmongkol) couldn't resist sneaking in a shot at Najib at the same time .
Nazri is disliked for many pronouncements e.g. calling Dr Pornthip a liar.
Today, coincidentally after I published Hats & responsibilities, which discusses Dr Mahathir’s lamentable final reversion to his Malay Dilemma’s days and attitudes, and through that, his continuous undermining of Najib’s various attempts to win back the support of the nons, Nazri wrote an open letter to Awang Selamat, shooting down one of Utusan’s foremost bigoted demagogues. I admire what he wrote.
Nazri said in his parting shot at Awang Selamat: “And yes I am a Malaysian first and Malay next. Does any bigot have a problem with that?”
I wonder whether Nazri had also intended a non too subtle message for DPM Muhyiddin, the one who’s 'a Malay first and then only a Malaysian'.
Muhyiddin has also been perceived as dodgy in his support of the PM’s policy, and more aligned with Dr Mahathir, the patron saint of Perkasa.
As I said, Nazri is not known as the PM’s head kicker for nothing.
Now, many of you may not remember there’s also a decent side to Nazri Aziz. For a start, he is against capital punishment when most in his party including Sakmongkol support the death sentence.
Really, I can never fathom the mentality of educated people who supports state murder ... yup, because that’s what capital punishment is, murder sanctified by man-made laws. This is where Asians (e.g. China, Singapore, Malaysia, and even Buddhist Thailand) and some states in the USA are zillions of civilised miles behind (western) Europe, Australia and Kiwi-land.
Then at a time when Eli Wong of PKR was running through a rough patch because of an unconscionable, unethical and unscrupulous bastard, Nazri had actually stood up to console and support Eli while the weaselling spineless PKR leadership was still vacillating. Even MCA’s Chew Mei Fun spoke up for Eli.
Nazri had then said: I sympathise with the executive councillor, this thing should have not happened as she is the people's representative and she had been performing her duties.
Therefore, to foil what she has done for the community in this manner is not good. But I hope her spirits (remain strong) and she will not bother about what has happened.
For more of the story, read my post UMNO's Nazri supports Elizabeth Wong, PKR's Khalid Ibrahim equivocates.
I had then lambasted Khalid Ibrahim, writing: For f* sake, just look at what Nazri Abdul Aziz of UMNO had said, in stark contrast to your beating around the bush and preparing the grounds for Eli's dismissal (or forced resignation).
May I remind you again that Nazri is UMNO, you are PKR and Eli is PKR!
Gawd, gasp, omigosh (Eli's lovely expressions), what a f*up party PKR is!
To echo Sakmongkol’s words, Looks like "... Najib needs more people like him [Nazri] in the Cabinet after all. If Najib is wimpish he needs others to provide him with the sinews to his bones."
We may not like Nazri for some of his statements, but I have to salute him for standing up to bigoted demagogues like Jabba the Hutt and Awang Selamat.
Hats & responsibilities
A man who wears two hats has greater difficulty in stating his position than one who wears only one.
If a man wears both the UMNO president hat as well as the PM hat, and faces the twin and competing problems of ketuanan Melayu polemical demands and loss of support from the nons with the consequential probability of losing power in the next general election, how would or should he strategize out of this dilemma?
Sure, he can tap dance but that’s not going to work – not in a world where unedited information flows to all via the Internet and a hungry opposition stands ready to replace him. How does he answer to both sides? Ops Lalang II?
We leave this man to work it out, and go to the man who once wore both the UMNO president hat as well as the PM hat though now wears neither, but chooses to wear a new hat, that of the ethnic warrior. It’s full reversion to the beginning of the circle he started in his political career.
He doesn’t carry the responsibility of the man who wears two hats so he feels unfettered and free to give full rein to his preference. He’s back to his once blinkered views.
Leaders like to leave the political stage in a burst of glory, but though he had left he still wants his burst of ethnic glory. Sayang saja!
If a man wears both the UMNO president hat as well as the PM hat, and faces the twin and competing problems of ketuanan Melayu polemical demands and loss of support from the nons with the consequential probability of losing power in the next general election, how would or should he strategize out of this dilemma?
Sure, he can tap dance but that’s not going to work – not in a world where unedited information flows to all via the Internet and a hungry opposition stands ready to replace him. How does he answer to both sides? Ops Lalang II?
We leave this man to work it out, and go to the man who once wore both the UMNO president hat as well as the PM hat though now wears neither, but chooses to wear a new hat, that of the ethnic warrior. It’s full reversion to the beginning of the circle he started in his political career.
He doesn’t carry the responsibility of the man who wears two hats so he feels unfettered and free to give full rein to his preference. He’s back to his once blinkered views.
Leaders like to leave the political stage in a burst of glory, but though he had left he still wants his burst of ethnic glory. Sayang saja!
Friday, September 17, 2010
'Hearts with hair' at Banting
Tonight I skip politics and Harry Lee Kuan Yew and instead go over to Hairy hearts, to make a mention of the horrendous cases of cold blooded murder in Banting.
One phrase jumps at me – sim snair mor.
In Penang Hokkien it means literally ‘the heart grows hair’ or more appropriately ‘the heart with hair’, a Chinese idiom meaning the owner of the heart has no moral qualms or conscience, implying he is totally ruthless and evil, and of course 'cold bloodedly monstrous'.
In Australia, the most horrendous series of murders was known as the Backpacker murders or sometimes the Belanglo Forest murders, where the crimes were committed. But the culprit was a serial killer, a psychotic murderer targeting backpackers or hitch-hikers.
From reports thus far, mostly by the Star Online, the Banting murders seem to be about unscrupulous profiteering.
And it’s not about a sole murderer but a group of murders.
It’s the most horrific series of murders (yet to be proven of course) I have heard ever committed in Malaya.
That’s all, because words fail me by this stage.
One phrase jumps at me – sim snair mor.
In Penang Hokkien it means literally ‘the heart grows hair’ or more appropriately ‘the heart with hair’, a Chinese idiom meaning the owner of the heart has no moral qualms or conscience, implying he is totally ruthless and evil, and of course 'cold bloodedly monstrous'.
In Australia, the most horrendous series of murders was known as the Backpacker murders or sometimes the Belanglo Forest murders, where the crimes were committed. But the culprit was a serial killer, a psychotic murderer targeting backpackers or hitch-hikers.
From reports thus far, mostly by the Star Online, the Banting murders seem to be about unscrupulous profiteering.
And it’s not about a sole murderer but a group of murders.
It’s the most horrific series of murders (yet to be proven of course) I have heard ever committed in Malaya.
That’s all, because words fail me by this stage.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Truth behind expulsion of Singapore from Malaysia
While I respect Lee Kuan Yew for his intellect, leadership and astute management of Singapore into what the Island State is today, a 1st World nation of immense wealth, I don’t his egotism.
I was also very much disappointed to discover in his autobiography his coo-ing over an honours award (The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George) by the Queen of Britain. My esteem of him immediately took a dive on learning that this near superman could/would even be thrilled by a mere meaningless trinket handed down to a former colonial by a foreign monarchy.
So … he is not the complete super great man after all.
LKY, the egoist he is, regaled us via the New York Times on how different things might have been if “the Tunku had kept us together”, referring to the expulsion of Singapore from Malaysia – yup, ‘twas expulsion and not separation - Malaysiakini Terence Netto agreed on this fact in his article Two different versions of Singapore's expulsion.
LKY pontificated: “Well, first I regret having been turfed out of Malaysia. I think if the Tunku had kept us together, what we did in Singapore, had Malaysia accepted a multiracial base for their society, much of what we’ve achieved in Singapore would be achieved in Malaysia. But not as much because it’s a much broader base. We would have improved inter-racial relations and an improved holistic situation.”
“Now we have a very polarised Malaysia, Malays, Chinese and Indians in separate schools, living separate lives and not really getting on with one another. You read them. That’s bad for us as close neighbours.”
While there’s much truth in what he said in the second paragraph, I doubt keeping Singapore in Malaysia would have the outcome LKY claimed in the first paragraph, but then it’s his usual ego talking.
There was a different and perfectly good reason for Tunku Abdul Rahman to expel Singapore from the Malaysian union just a mere two years after its formation, a merger which led to both Konfrontasi with Indonesia and an acrimonious relationship with the Philippines. The former wanted the entire Kalimantan Island, while the latter wanted Sabah.
The truth of the root cause for Singapore’s expulsion was in fact LKY the politician. There’s never any doubt LKY was super intelligent, a double starred first class honours from Cambridge. But one can only be too clever by half in a Malayan environment because the style of his assertive and aggressive politicking didn’t go down well with Malay culture and its more genteel style of politics. Tunku was also aware of his covert (though well-known) intention to replace MCA in the Perikatan (the BN’s predecessor coalition).
The Malay right wingers were getting so heated up with LKY that Tunku thought a cooling period, via a ‘temporary’ expulsion of Singapore, would be good for everyone.
Tunku imagined that Singapore outside of Malaysia would be so helpless alone by itself that LKY would come crawling back, begging to be let in again, though this time on Tunku’s terms. That was Tunku's plan.
When LKY had no further choice but to accept the expulsion he actually broke down during a televised press conference, stating emotionally:
"For me, it is a moment of anguish. All my life, my whole adult life, I ... I believed in Malaysian merger and unity of the two territories. You know that we, as a people are connected by geography, economics, by ties of kinship ... It broke everything we stood for ....... "
But LKY, despite his initial consternation over the expulsion, did not fall to pieces. Au contraire, he must be admired for his resolve to stay out, stay steadfast, strategize and systematically develop Singapore into a prosperous nation.
To be frank, if LKY (and Singapore) was allowed to remain in Malaysia, May 13 would have happened much much earlier.
But it must be said that Penangites (then mostly Chinese) didn’t take well to him. He must have imagined he could win over the predominantly Chinese Island State in his 1964 campaign but in many ways, he was a lot like Anwar Ibrahim, an interesting political curiosity but not well trusted. His PAP campaign turned out to be a flop in Penang.
Actually LKY wasn’t all that popular in Singapore too because prior to Malaysia, he was outflanked and would have been outvoted by the pro-communist Barisan Socialis.
We are told that 35 of the 51 branches of PAP and 19 of its 23 organising secretaries went over to the Barisan Sosialis. His government lost a couple of by-elections to the Barisan Sosialis, and was near to monumental defeat.
LKY quickly seized on Tunku's concept of merger for Singapore, Malaya, Sabah and Sarawak as a successful campaign to remove British colonialism (a popular factor with Singaporeans), and with that, to defeat the Barisan Socialis.
In other words it was the concept of Malaysia which saved him from being trounced by the pro-communist party, and possibly being reduced into a political nobody. What a frightening thought for Malaysia if the communists had taken hold of Singapore, when there was a pro communist Indonesia under madman Soekarno.
To be continued ...
I was also very much disappointed to discover in his autobiography his coo-ing over an honours award (The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George) by the Queen of Britain. My esteem of him immediately took a dive on learning that this near superman could/would even be thrilled by a mere meaningless trinket handed down to a former colonial by a foreign monarchy.
So … he is not the complete super great man after all.
LKY, the egoist he is, regaled us via the New York Times on how different things might have been if “the Tunku had kept us together”, referring to the expulsion of Singapore from Malaysia – yup, ‘twas expulsion and not separation - Malaysiakini Terence Netto agreed on this fact in his article Two different versions of Singapore's expulsion.
LKY pontificated: “Well, first I regret having been turfed out of Malaysia. I think if the Tunku had kept us together, what we did in Singapore, had Malaysia accepted a multiracial base for their society, much of what we’ve achieved in Singapore would be achieved in Malaysia. But not as much because it’s a much broader base. We would have improved inter-racial relations and an improved holistic situation.”
“Now we have a very polarised Malaysia, Malays, Chinese and Indians in separate schools, living separate lives and not really getting on with one another. You read them. That’s bad for us as close neighbours.”
While there’s much truth in what he said in the second paragraph, I doubt keeping Singapore in Malaysia would have the outcome LKY claimed in the first paragraph, but then it’s his usual ego talking.
There was a different and perfectly good reason for Tunku Abdul Rahman to expel Singapore from the Malaysian union just a mere two years after its formation, a merger which led to both Konfrontasi with Indonesia and an acrimonious relationship with the Philippines. The former wanted the entire Kalimantan Island, while the latter wanted Sabah.
The truth of the root cause for Singapore’s expulsion was in fact LKY the politician. There’s never any doubt LKY was super intelligent, a double starred first class honours from Cambridge. But one can only be too clever by half in a Malayan environment because the style of his assertive and aggressive politicking didn’t go down well with Malay culture and its more genteel style of politics. Tunku was also aware of his covert (though well-known) intention to replace MCA in the Perikatan (the BN’s predecessor coalition).
The Malay right wingers were getting so heated up with LKY that Tunku thought a cooling period, via a ‘temporary’ expulsion of Singapore, would be good for everyone.
Tunku imagined that Singapore outside of Malaysia would be so helpless alone by itself that LKY would come crawling back, begging to be let in again, though this time on Tunku’s terms. That was Tunku's plan.
When LKY had no further choice but to accept the expulsion he actually broke down during a televised press conference, stating emotionally:
"For me, it is a moment of anguish. All my life, my whole adult life, I ... I believed in Malaysian merger and unity of the two territories. You know that we, as a people are connected by geography, economics, by ties of kinship ... It broke everything we stood for ....... "
But LKY, despite his initial consternation over the expulsion, did not fall to pieces. Au contraire, he must be admired for his resolve to stay out, stay steadfast, strategize and systematically develop Singapore into a prosperous nation.
To be frank, if LKY (and Singapore) was allowed to remain in Malaysia, May 13 would have happened much much earlier.
But it must be said that Penangites (then mostly Chinese) didn’t take well to him. He must have imagined he could win over the predominantly Chinese Island State in his 1964 campaign but in many ways, he was a lot like Anwar Ibrahim, an interesting political curiosity but not well trusted. His PAP campaign turned out to be a flop in Penang.
Actually LKY wasn’t all that popular in Singapore too because prior to Malaysia, he was outflanked and would have been outvoted by the pro-communist Barisan Socialis.
We are told that 35 of the 51 branches of PAP and 19 of its 23 organising secretaries went over to the Barisan Sosialis. His government lost a couple of by-elections to the Barisan Sosialis, and was near to monumental defeat.
LKY quickly seized on Tunku's concept of merger for Singapore, Malaya, Sabah and Sarawak as a successful campaign to remove British colonialism (a popular factor with Singaporeans), and with that, to defeat the Barisan Socialis.
In other words it was the concept of Malaysia which saved him from being trounced by the pro-communist party, and possibly being reduced into a political nobody. What a frightening thought for Malaysia if the communists had taken hold of Singapore, when there was a pro communist Indonesia under madman Soekarno.
To be continued ...
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
'UMNO' in strife
There’s a favourite local political saying, more of a sneer really, that you can take some people out of UMNO but you can’t take UMNO out of them. It applies to some PKR leaders who are currently indulging in notorious UMNO dirty party politics. I heard there was even a “20 dalil kenapa Zaid Ibrahim tidak boleh menjadi PKR No 2”.
Even Zaid has been compelled to come out to say: “If PKR members are happy with the 'reformasi' leaders, they should choose those from the 1998 period to lead. If they believe that all the party's problems stem from Umno's inventive 'Trojan horse' meddling, then they should choose the current 'new' line-up to lead.”
Well ….
Just as Penang UMNO has asked Gerakan to surrender all the seats it contested in 2008 to MCA and MIC wakakaka, if PKR cannot sort out its internal party problems, then it too should surrender all the seats it contested in 2008 to DAP and PAS, and yes, PSM as well!
Meanwhile the other UMNO wakakaka is also in turmoil. Utusan Malaysia has even rebelled against Najib, the UMNO President. The UMNO mouthpiece is supporting Jabba the Hutt much to the chagrin of Nazri Aziz. Nazri of course has always been against Dr Mahathir. They mutually hate each other so I wasn't surprised by the recent fireworks.
UMNO blogger Sakmongkol AK47 who once sneered at Jabba the Hutt as someone striving to get back into UMNO by acting the ultra ethnic warrior has now supported the Hutt. Sakmongkol is a devotee of Dr M who has openly backed the Hutt (or the Hutt is fronting for him?) so the AK47 reversal hasn’t been so surprising.
There seems to be a sharp shrill and strident escalation in Dr M, Jabba and Sakmongkol’s politicking against what they see as Najib’s inclination to be liberal. Jabba claimed UMNO is now under Chinese control – maybe he means …….. wakakaka. But I wonder how Najib is faring ;-)
So while the twins of UMNO and the ex-UMNO faction of PKR are indulging in Tuah-Jebat-ish back stabbing, and Gerakan was slapped kau-kau by Penang UMNO, MCA Chua Soi Lek has certified UMNO as not racist. 9% dropping liao lah! And recall, he was recently interrogated by the police on the basis of a Perkasa report.
All DAP and PAS have to do for a while is to stay still and let the other side fight it out.
Even Zaid has been compelled to come out to say: “If PKR members are happy with the 'reformasi' leaders, they should choose those from the 1998 period to lead. If they believe that all the party's problems stem from Umno's inventive 'Trojan horse' meddling, then they should choose the current 'new' line-up to lead.”
Well ….
Just as Penang UMNO has asked Gerakan to surrender all the seats it contested in 2008 to MCA and MIC wakakaka, if PKR cannot sort out its internal party problems, then it too should surrender all the seats it contested in 2008 to DAP and PAS, and yes, PSM as well!
Meanwhile the other UMNO wakakaka is also in turmoil. Utusan Malaysia has even rebelled against Najib, the UMNO President. The UMNO mouthpiece is supporting Jabba the Hutt much to the chagrin of Nazri Aziz. Nazri of course has always been against Dr Mahathir. They mutually hate each other so I wasn't surprised by the recent fireworks.
UMNO blogger Sakmongkol AK47 who once sneered at Jabba the Hutt as someone striving to get back into UMNO by acting the ultra ethnic warrior has now supported the Hutt. Sakmongkol is a devotee of Dr M who has openly backed the Hutt (or the Hutt is fronting for him?) so the AK47 reversal hasn’t been so surprising.
There seems to be a sharp shrill and strident escalation in Dr M, Jabba and Sakmongkol’s politicking against what they see as Najib’s inclination to be liberal. Jabba claimed UMNO is now under Chinese control – maybe he means …….. wakakaka. But I wonder how Najib is faring ;-)
So while the twins of UMNO and the ex-UMNO faction of PKR are indulging in Tuah-Jebat-ish back stabbing, and Gerakan was slapped kau-kau by Penang UMNO, MCA Chua Soi Lek has certified UMNO as not racist. 9% dropping liao lah! And recall, he was recently interrogated by the police on the basis of a Perkasa report.
All DAP and PAS have to do for a while is to stay still and let the other side fight it out.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
9/11 - the Malaysian connection
An @r$eh*le from Florida had threatened to burn copies of the Quran to mark the event of 9/11. He refused to heed advice and then appeals from American leaders including the military chief of the American forces in Afghanistan not to do so for fear of Muslim backlash against Americans, especially US troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.
In the end he backed off – initially claiming he obtained a quid pro quo from the Muslims not to build a mosque near the so-called ground zero of 9/11, the destroyed Twin Towers, but when his claim was repudiated, he then switched to saying ‘God’ had wanted him to stop.
Regardless of his divine connection and by-then totally discredited threat to burn the Quran, or for the matter, the fallout from his earlier threats, the @r$eh*le in reality had already achieved his objective, of gaining the necessary notoriety for his own agenda (or interests) ...
... in the same way the instigators of the Prophet Mohamed caricatures had succeeded in their deliberate provocation of Muslims and Arabs by publishing the cartoons. Horrified by the violent Muslim protests, Europe stopped its annual financial sponsorship (Euro 700 million) of the Palestinians. The losers were the Palestinains; the winners? ... you work it out!
Because of these outrageously provocative incidents and the continuous circulation of Muslim-bashing material on the web, many westerners have come to believe that ALL Muslims by nature are violent, in exactly the same way many Americans still believe George Bush’s exploitative nonsense that the perpetrators of 9/11 committed that act of terrorism killing more than 3,000 people for no other reason than they hated America’s ‘freedom’. Some even continue to believe in Tony B-Liar’s lie that Iraq’s WMD could be delivered to London in a mere 45 minutes.
So we have the sinister convincing the naïve, a bad combination that had led to the illegal invasion of Iraq which saw the killing of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, 4400 plus American troopers and other participants among the Coalition of The Killing.
Many Americans aren’t even aware of their country’s rapacious foreign policy and actions, where the USA has also been sponsoring, supporting and succouring dictatorships around the world, for its own ends.
You are likely to see blank stares of disbelief from these naïve Americans when you inform them that 9/11, evil as it was, had been political retribution for the evil their country had been and is still committing in the Middle-East. As an American joke about their air force recruitment had said: “Join the air force to see strange lands and strange people, and bomb the hell out of them!”
The sinister lies, the naïve listens and believes!
Likewise in our once-fair land, Malaysia.
We have our equivalent of the a$reh*le who threatened to burn copies of the Quran to remember 9/11. Here we have an opportunist, Malaysia’s foremost political frog, who has willingly taken up the role for the big movers behind the scene, as a so-called ethnic warrior frightening the sh*t out of the Malay community that they will lose everything to the Chinese Malaysians unless they marshal around some people who can protect their interests, the very people who had been cheating them like George Bush cheated the American people, and B-Liar cheated the British people, except Bush and B-Liar did it for only 8 years while these people in Malaysia had done it for at least more than 25 years.
The sinister lies, the naïve listens and believes!
Any interest of the Malays the so-called ethnic-warrior will be protecting would be only his.
9/11, 513 – same tactics, same old lies, same innocent people killed, same evil fat cats profited or will profit.
In the end he backed off – initially claiming he obtained a quid pro quo from the Muslims not to build a mosque near the so-called ground zero of 9/11, the destroyed Twin Towers, but when his claim was repudiated, he then switched to saying ‘God’ had wanted him to stop.
Regardless of his divine connection and by-then totally discredited threat to burn the Quran, or for the matter, the fallout from his earlier threats, the @r$eh*le in reality had already achieved his objective, of gaining the necessary notoriety for his own agenda (or interests) ...
... in the same way the instigators of the Prophet Mohamed caricatures had succeeded in their deliberate provocation of Muslims and Arabs by publishing the cartoons. Horrified by the violent Muslim protests, Europe stopped its annual financial sponsorship (Euro 700 million) of the Palestinians. The losers were the Palestinains; the winners? ... you work it out!
Because of these outrageously provocative incidents and the continuous circulation of Muslim-bashing material on the web, many westerners have come to believe that ALL Muslims by nature are violent, in exactly the same way many Americans still believe George Bush’s exploitative nonsense that the perpetrators of 9/11 committed that act of terrorism killing more than 3,000 people for no other reason than they hated America’s ‘freedom’. Some even continue to believe in Tony B-Liar’s lie that Iraq’s WMD could be delivered to London in a mere 45 minutes.
So we have the sinister convincing the naïve, a bad combination that had led to the illegal invasion of Iraq which saw the killing of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, 4400 plus American troopers and other participants among the Coalition of The Killing.
Many Americans aren’t even aware of their country’s rapacious foreign policy and actions, where the USA has also been sponsoring, supporting and succouring dictatorships around the world, for its own ends.
You are likely to see blank stares of disbelief from these naïve Americans when you inform them that 9/11, evil as it was, had been political retribution for the evil their country had been and is still committing in the Middle-East. As an American joke about their air force recruitment had said: “Join the air force to see strange lands and strange people, and bomb the hell out of them!”
The sinister lies, the naïve listens and believes!
Likewise in our once-fair land, Malaysia.
We have our equivalent of the a$reh*le who threatened to burn copies of the Quran to remember 9/11. Here we have an opportunist, Malaysia’s foremost political frog, who has willingly taken up the role for the big movers behind the scene, as a so-called ethnic warrior frightening the sh*t out of the Malay community that they will lose everything to the Chinese Malaysians unless they marshal around some people who can protect their interests, the very people who had been cheating them like George Bush cheated the American people, and B-Liar cheated the British people, except Bush and B-Liar did it for only 8 years while these people in Malaysia had done it for at least more than 25 years.
The sinister lies, the naïve listens and believes!
Any interest of the Malays the so-called ethnic-warrior will be protecting would be only his.
9/11, 513 – same tactics, same old lies, same innocent people killed, same evil fat cats profited or will profit.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Selamat Hari Raya
to all Malaysians. Drive safely, be kind and courteous to everyone. Smile - you may borrow and use my wakakaka if you like ;-)
And particularly for Muslims, you're blessed for your observance of faith and self discipline during the month of Ramadan.
And particularly for Muslims, you're blessed for your observance of faith and self discipline during the month of Ramadan.
Sunday, September 05, 2010
MCA Chua SL cast Namewee to the wolves
The Malaysian Insider’s Kit Siang claims double standards in Namewee, school principals cases reported (extracts):
Lim Kit Siang put more pressure on Datuk Seri Najib Razak today to act against racism by comparing the swift action against controversial rapper Namewee to inaction over two school principals who allegedly uttered racist remarks. […]
Lim disagreed with MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek’s statement that the party would support any action taken by the government against Wee. Does this include action under the Sedition Act or other capital offences. How can the MCA leadership with four ministers in the Cabinet take such an irresponsible position giving a blank cheque to racists and extremists to set the agenda as to the punishment that should be meted out to Meng Chee.
“Isn’t this a gross abdication of responsibility in government?” he said.
So it seems that MCA President Chua Soi Lek has assured the UMNO-led government his party would support any action taken against Wee Chee Meng (Namewee). Does that imply he agrees with UMNO's strident call for Namewee to be punished for his ‘crimes’.
Has Chua ascertained what actually have been Chee Meng's crimes?
Flashback - Wee posted a YouTube rap song to criticise two school principals for their alleged overt racism against their pupils. It was reported that one of these so-called school principals had told her Chinese students to go back to China while sneering at her Indian students as dogs leashed by their Hindu amulet wrist strings.
There is no doubt a leitmotiv in this form of racism. Remember Najib's former aide who preached that Chinese women are prostitutes and Indians beggars?
'Leitmotiv' in this context means the theme (of racist vilifications against Chinese and Indians) keeps recurring, is often repeated ... and by some UMNO and pro UMNO people. One can only surmise that for these people there has been a common indoctrination program of hate against the Chinese and Indians.
Given this, we shouldn't be too surprised that thus far these two alleged racists have had no action taken against them other than sweet supportive/protective statements from the Education Director-General. The DPM heel-dragged his way through the disgusting shameful and seditious issues by forming a panel to investigate into those alleged seditious crimes.
And we know that panels and committees can be convenient tactics for delaying, avoiding, diverting away the unpleasant arrival at the truth for the 'chosen ones', a truth that seditious crimes had been committed with the natural consequences being at least the dismissal of the two as unfit persons to be teachers. Yes, we have to be realistic and not expect punishments such as jail terms for them.
Now we are informed by Lim Kit Siang that the Education Department has passed the issue (another time wasting tactic) to the Public Service Department (PSD). The PSD in turn said that a show cause letter would be issued to the Kulai school principal if she had indeed uttered derogatory remarks at her students.
Note:
(a) the delaying tactic of passing the issue from department to department,
(b) the Education Department which was supposed to have completed the so-called investigation, on passing presumably the finding to the PSD, now sees the PSD saying it would issue show cause letter ... NOW GET THIS F* BULLSHIT ... if she had indeed uttered derogatory remarks at her students.
... if she had indeed ... can mean only one thing, neither the Education Department nor the PSD knows nor wants to know, or pretend they don't know, whether she made the racist comments, despite and in spite of numerous police reports being made against her.
Nah, why should we be surprised. Don’t worry Siti Inshah, a promotion for you is just around the corner.
Lim Kit Siang lamented in frustration: Three weeks have passed since the incident in Kulai on August 12. Is it so difficult to establish the facts and the truth of the incident?
Yes, but only if it means a 'chosen one' would be punished.
Meanwhile, without any delay, Namewee was hauled over the coals, first by the police for 3 hours, then by the MCMC for over seven hours.
So Chua Soi Lek, without checking out the facts on the Namewee issue, you were so keen to ampu your boss that you abandoned Chee Meng, an anti-racist socio-political commentator, to the UMNO-led government for punishment.
It’s like a votive sacrificial offering during the seventh moon period of the lunar calendar. And you wonder why only 91% of Chinese Malaysians consider you NOT fit to be a leader of the community.
NAH! We’ll be waiting for you in the next GE.
Lim Kit Siang put more pressure on Datuk Seri Najib Razak today to act against racism by comparing the swift action against controversial rapper Namewee to inaction over two school principals who allegedly uttered racist remarks. […]
Lim disagreed with MCA president Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek’s statement that the party would support any action taken by the government against Wee. Does this include action under the Sedition Act or other capital offences. How can the MCA leadership with four ministers in the Cabinet take such an irresponsible position giving a blank cheque to racists and extremists to set the agenda as to the punishment that should be meted out to Meng Chee.
“Isn’t this a gross abdication of responsibility in government?” he said.
So it seems that MCA President Chua Soi Lek has assured the UMNO-led government his party would support any action taken against Wee Chee Meng (Namewee). Does that imply he agrees with UMNO's strident call for Namewee to be punished for his ‘crimes’.
Has Chua ascertained what actually have been Chee Meng's crimes?
Flashback - Wee posted a YouTube rap song to criticise two school principals for their alleged overt racism against their pupils. It was reported that one of these so-called school principals had told her Chinese students to go back to China while sneering at her Indian students as dogs leashed by their Hindu amulet wrist strings.
There is no doubt a leitmotiv in this form of racism. Remember Najib's former aide who preached that Chinese women are prostitutes and Indians beggars?
'Leitmotiv' in this context means the theme (of racist vilifications against Chinese and Indians) keeps recurring, is often repeated ... and by some UMNO and pro UMNO people. One can only surmise that for these people there has been a common indoctrination program of hate against the Chinese and Indians.
Given this, we shouldn't be too surprised that thus far these two alleged racists have had no action taken against them other than sweet supportive/protective statements from the Education Director-General. The DPM heel-dragged his way through the disgusting shameful and seditious issues by forming a panel to investigate into those alleged seditious crimes.
And we know that panels and committees can be convenient tactics for delaying, avoiding, diverting away the unpleasant arrival at the truth for the 'chosen ones', a truth that seditious crimes had been committed with the natural consequences being at least the dismissal of the two as unfit persons to be teachers. Yes, we have to be realistic and not expect punishments such as jail terms for them.
Now we are informed by Lim Kit Siang that the Education Department has passed the issue (another time wasting tactic) to the Public Service Department (PSD). The PSD in turn said that a show cause letter would be issued to the Kulai school principal if she had indeed uttered derogatory remarks at her students.
Note:
(a) the delaying tactic of passing the issue from department to department,
(b) the Education Department which was supposed to have completed the so-called investigation, on passing presumably the finding to the PSD, now sees the PSD saying it would issue show cause letter ... NOW GET THIS F* BULLSHIT ... if she had indeed uttered derogatory remarks at her students.
... if she had indeed ... can mean only one thing, neither the Education Department nor the PSD knows nor wants to know, or pretend they don't know, whether she made the racist comments, despite and in spite of numerous police reports being made against her.
Nah, why should we be surprised. Don’t worry Siti Inshah, a promotion for you is just around the corner.
Lim Kit Siang lamented in frustration: Three weeks have passed since the incident in Kulai on August 12. Is it so difficult to establish the facts and the truth of the incident?
Yes, but only if it means a 'chosen one' would be punished.
Meanwhile, without any delay, Namewee was hauled over the coals, first by the police for 3 hours, then by the MCMC for over seven hours.
So Chua Soi Lek, without checking out the facts on the Namewee issue, you were so keen to ampu your boss that you abandoned Chee Meng, an anti-racist socio-political commentator, to the UMNO-led government for punishment.
It’s like a votive sacrificial offering during the seventh moon period of the lunar calendar. And you wonder why only 91% of Chinese Malaysians consider you NOT fit to be a leader of the community.
NAH! We’ll be waiting for you in the next GE.
Saturday, September 04, 2010
Nah! All Eyez on Namewee
The Malaysian Insider - Namewee grilled by Internet regulators.
Wee Weng Chee, better known as Namewee, a Malaysian socio-political rapper with the usual rappers' proclivity for using effing words in their work, posted a video clip rapping the knuckles (excuse the deliberate pun) of Siti Inshah Mansor, (supposedly) a principal of a school and those of another alleged bigot in Kedah from the same, once noble, profession.
The rapper’s rhythmic chant lambasted the teachers for their unwarranted, unmitigated and unacceptable racist diatribes against their young innocent charges.
Nah! Suck on this - one of the alleged racists, Siti Inshah, has been openly treated with kid gloves by the authorities (including the DPM and the Education Director General) while her critic, Namewee, has since been hauled over the coals by both police and the media watchdog, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), for daring to post a video clip criticising her.
Those who had been conspicuously silent on the racist spew of the principals suddenly woke up to join in the angry chorus against Wee - the PAS MB of Kedah and the usual suspects in miscellaneous UMNO bodies, etc.
The PM made a half hearted statement against racist slurs (presumably about the two principals but on this I've to say we weren't/can't be sure at all) but came out remarkably energised against Namewee.
Leng chai Khairy, who has in recent times been attempting to present himself as a 'liberal' lamentably jumped on the anti-Namewee bandwagon. Lim Kit Siang sent leng chai's justification for doing so bouncing off like the Michelen Man.
Wee was also resoundingly disowned by MCA – well, he’s lucky MCA information chief, Loh Seng Kok didn’t call for the stripping of his citizenship – for more of Loh's recent fascination with citizenship, see Overcompensating publicly for personal trials & tribulations.
Nah! We shouldn’t be surprised at the authority's double standard treatment of the villains and their critic as this is after all Malaysia where our national slogan has been and presumably still is Malaysia Boleh (Malaysia can or Malaysians can do) ...
... where alas, in this and many other cases, the inspiring slogan has now become a stigma instead, meaning the Malaysian authority and/or some public bodies would do the illogical, illegal, unjust, unfair and all that's representative of the dark side of the Force.
According to The Malaysian Insider, Wee was asked by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), Malaysia’s media watchdog, to go to its headquarters to give a statement on the video clip.
Malaysiakini reminded us that this was the second time this week that Wee has been questioned over the video, having spent three hours with the police on the night of Merdeka Day, giving his statement at the Taman Tun Dr Ismail police station.
The Malaysia Boleh spirit was evidently in abundance during the taking of a 'brief statement' at MCMC. I shall point out two examples, namely:
Firstly, the so-called 'brief statement' at MCMC took more than seven hours, yes, an amazing marathon-ish SEVEN hours, on a video clip which didn't last for even 3 minutes. There were also four police officers there, perhaps to catch what they might have missed in an earlier 3-hour session on Merdeka Day.
More than SEVEN hours! Was the MCMC attempting to outdo Leo Tolstoy, by writing the Boleh equivalent of War & Peace?
It’s a bloody miracle Namewee didn’t jump out of a 14th floor from some building. After more than seven hours of interrogation I would!
Incidentally, Tolstoy’s War & Peace has been recognized as one of the greatest work of fiction - it would not be surprising in the nature of our Boleh spirit to outdo Tolstoy wakakaka.
Secondly, leaving aside the authority's kid gloves treatment of the two unbelievable and unspeakable school principals, have we seen mainstream media like Utusan and its other UMNO-linked media been similarly interrogated for their constant flow of bigoted seditious and inciting bile?
Nah, ‘twas only a rhetorical question!
I put the top down, now it's time to floss my shit
Keep your head up kawan, make these motherfuckers suffer [...]
I live the life as a rapper, kawan, until the day I die
Live the life as a boss playa {All Eyez On Me}
(with apologies to Himes, Tyruss; Jackson, Johnny; Shakur, Tupac; Pennington, James)
Wee Weng Chee, better known as Namewee, a Malaysian socio-political rapper with the usual rappers' proclivity for using effing words in their work, posted a video clip rapping the knuckles (excuse the deliberate pun) of Siti Inshah Mansor, (supposedly) a principal of a school and those of another alleged bigot in Kedah from the same, once noble, profession.
The rapper’s rhythmic chant lambasted the teachers for their unwarranted, unmitigated and unacceptable racist diatribes against their young innocent charges.
Nah! Suck on this - one of the alleged racists, Siti Inshah, has been openly treated with kid gloves by the authorities (including the DPM and the Education Director General) while her critic, Namewee, has since been hauled over the coals by both police and the media watchdog, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), for daring to post a video clip criticising her.
Those who had been conspicuously silent on the racist spew of the principals suddenly woke up to join in the angry chorus against Wee - the PAS MB of Kedah and the usual suspects in miscellaneous UMNO bodies, etc.
The PM made a half hearted statement against racist slurs (presumably about the two principals but on this I've to say we weren't/can't be sure at all) but came out remarkably energised against Namewee.
Leng chai Khairy, who has in recent times been attempting to present himself as a 'liberal' lamentably jumped on the anti-Namewee bandwagon. Lim Kit Siang sent leng chai's justification for doing so bouncing off like the Michelen Man.
Wee was also resoundingly disowned by MCA – well, he’s lucky MCA information chief, Loh Seng Kok didn’t call for the stripping of his citizenship – for more of Loh's recent fascination with citizenship, see Overcompensating publicly for personal trials & tribulations.
Nah! We shouldn’t be surprised at the authority's double standard treatment of the villains and their critic as this is after all Malaysia where our national slogan has been and presumably still is Malaysia Boleh (Malaysia can or Malaysians can do) ...
... where alas, in this and many other cases, the inspiring slogan has now become a stigma instead, meaning the Malaysian authority and/or some public bodies would do the illogical, illegal, unjust, unfair and all that's representative of the dark side of the Force.
According to The Malaysian Insider, Wee was asked by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), Malaysia’s media watchdog, to go to its headquarters to give a statement on the video clip.
Malaysiakini reminded us that this was the second time this week that Wee has been questioned over the video, having spent three hours with the police on the night of Merdeka Day, giving his statement at the Taman Tun Dr Ismail police station.
The Malaysia Boleh spirit was evidently in abundance during the taking of a 'brief statement' at MCMC. I shall point out two examples, namely:
Firstly, the so-called 'brief statement' at MCMC took more than seven hours, yes, an amazing marathon-ish SEVEN hours, on a video clip which didn't last for even 3 minutes. There were also four police officers there, perhaps to catch what they might have missed in an earlier 3-hour session on Merdeka Day.
More than SEVEN hours! Was the MCMC attempting to outdo Leo Tolstoy, by writing the Boleh equivalent of War & Peace?
It’s a bloody miracle Namewee didn’t jump out of a 14th floor from some building. After more than seven hours of interrogation I would!
Incidentally, Tolstoy’s War & Peace has been recognized as one of the greatest work of fiction - it would not be surprising in the nature of our Boleh spirit to outdo Tolstoy wakakaka.
Secondly, leaving aside the authority's kid gloves treatment of the two unbelievable and unspeakable school principals, have we seen mainstream media like Utusan and its other UMNO-linked media been similarly interrogated for their constant flow of bigoted seditious and inciting bile?
Nah, ‘twas only a rhetorical question!
I put the top down, now it's time to floss my shit
Keep your head up kawan, make these motherfuckers suffer [...]
I live the life as a rapper, kawan, until the day I die
Live the life as a boss playa {All Eyez On Me}
(with apologies to Himes, Tyruss; Jackson, Johnny; Shakur, Tupac; Pennington, James)
Friday, September 03, 2010
The quiet RM40 million loss
Malaysiakini - 'Shocked to learn Realmild shares belonged to Umno'.
When I read the above MKINI article I asked myself “How ah? RM40 million gone into the longkang just like that!”
MKINI reported:
Former Penang Malay Chamber of Commerce chairperson Abdul Rahman Maidin told the commercial division of the High Court in Kuala Lumpur today that he had to bear losses of RM40 million for the 7.101 million shares he purchased in Realmild (M) Sdn Bhd, which were said to belong to Umno. [...]
… sometime at the end of 2001, he was instructed by then Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad to transfer all the Realmild shares in his name to Syed Anwar Jamalullail, without any consideration, and that he resigned from the two companies on Jan 8, 2002. [...]
… “I undertook the acquisition of Realmild shares purely from a corporate and commercial standpoint. I raised funds for this exercise through my personal financial means, without any assistance from any political entity.”
Rahman said he informed Mahathir that he had paid RM40 million for the purchase of the Realmild shares.
“He (Mahathir) told me there was no reason why I had to pay the money when the shares never belonged to the individuals concerned as they belonged to Umno. Therefore, he said, no payment will be made to me because the shares always belonged to Umno.”
So … poor Abdul Rahman Maidin had to suck it and see his RM40 million gurgled its lonesome way into the WC bowl.
RM40 million gone just like that – wah, even the [deleted] would be green with envy at the ease of the ... er ... ‘transaction’.
RM40 million! I still can’t get over it – ‘tis a princely sum, nay, an Emperor’s ransom (and let me remind you, at 2002's value) that millions and millions of Malaysians will never dream of seeing, let alone have … and he just accepted that humongous loss ... quietly.
Asked why he didn't take any action?
“... I did not want to do anything that would implicate the premier. That is why I did not want to proceed with any further action. I would rather take a loss.”
Good boy.
When I read the above MKINI article I asked myself “How ah? RM40 million gone into the longkang just like that!”
MKINI reported:
Former Penang Malay Chamber of Commerce chairperson Abdul Rahman Maidin told the commercial division of the High Court in Kuala Lumpur today that he had to bear losses of RM40 million for the 7.101 million shares he purchased in Realmild (M) Sdn Bhd, which were said to belong to Umno. [...]
… sometime at the end of 2001, he was instructed by then Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad to transfer all the Realmild shares in his name to Syed Anwar Jamalullail, without any consideration, and that he resigned from the two companies on Jan 8, 2002. [...]
… “I undertook the acquisition of Realmild shares purely from a corporate and commercial standpoint. I raised funds for this exercise through my personal financial means, without any assistance from any political entity.”
Rahman said he informed Mahathir that he had paid RM40 million for the purchase of the Realmild shares.
“He (Mahathir) told me there was no reason why I had to pay the money when the shares never belonged to the individuals concerned as they belonged to Umno. Therefore, he said, no payment will be made to me because the shares always belonged to Umno.”
So … poor Abdul Rahman Maidin had to suck it and see his RM40 million gurgled its lonesome way into the WC bowl.
RM40 million gone just like that – wah, even the [deleted] would be green with envy at the ease of the ... er ... ‘transaction’.
RM40 million! I still can’t get over it – ‘tis a princely sum, nay, an Emperor’s ransom (and let me remind you, at 2002's value) that millions and millions of Malaysians will never dream of seeing, let alone have … and he just accepted that humongous loss ... quietly.
Asked why he didn't take any action?
“... I did not want to do anything that would implicate the premier. That is why I did not want to proceed with any further action. I would rather take a loss.”
Good boy.
Thursday, September 02, 2010
We want 'old' police force please
From Star Online:
... Ismail Omar, 57, who will take over as the Inspector-General of Police from Sept 13, has vowed to give his best to improve the police force and take it to greater heights.
Errr ... no need lah for 'greater heights' - just give us back the old police force that existed during the days of Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak and Tun Hussein Onn please.
... Ismail Omar, 57, who will take over as the Inspector-General of Police from Sept 13, has vowed to give his best to improve the police force and take it to greater heights.
Errr ... no need lah for 'greater heights' - just give us back the old police force that existed during the days of Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak and Tun Hussein Onn please.
Untuk agama?
The doctoring of a photo to show Lim Guan Eng performing a Muslim ritual slaughter of) a cow (left photo) instead of the real participant, Nazir Jamaluddin (right photo), is shocking, not so much for the attempt to cast the DAP CM of Penang in the worst possible light in Muslim eyes, but more for the lie about an Islamic religious rite during the holy month of Islam.
Untuk agama?
Do I need to say more about those responsible?
Untuk agama?
Do I need to say more about those responsible?
Wednesday, September 01, 2010
The 'dirty' business of menstruation?
Great stuff! As an ignorant male I’ve just learnt a few stuff about menstruation, yup, the women’s period, menstruation, a word that Hishamuddin Tun Hussein didn’t have the guts to lay out in plain language.
From Susan Loone's (now defunct) blog: Fong refuses to contest in the 2008 General Elections – accusing DAP of “development of internal party events in the DAP Perak over the last few years as well as currently” made it “impossible for me to continue serving effectively, efficiently and wholeheartedly. Under such circumstances and in the best interest of all concerned, I have arrived at this unavoidable and difficult decision”.
Our dear Minister, who has a natural flair for putting his foot into his own mouth every time he opens it, had condemned Serdang MP Teo Nie Ching (DAP) as too ‘dirty’ to enter a surau (mind you, at the invitation of the mosque authority) to present some money to her constituency.
Everyone knows what he meant by the label ‘dirty’ though of course we wonder how he (Hishamuddin, scion of an illustrious family) knew Teo was then having her period– no no, no thank you please, I don’t want to know how Hishamuddin knew.
There seems to be a fascination by UMNO pollies for the subject of menstruation. Do you recall the Bocor-ites?
The notorious one-eye arsehole bloke from Jasin and his fellow bocor-ite Bung Mokhtar Radin harassed DAP MP Fong Po Kuan by uttering sexist remarks of the bocor kind in Parliament, which led me to post MP's menstruation mesmerised motherless monkeys [well, Martin Jalleh, guess who's still King of alliteration? wakakaka].
Fong Po Kuan, the fiery 'xiao la jiao' (little chillie padi) MP from Batu Gajah - she left politics in Perak on a note of acrimonious parting where she was said to be at odds with the Ngeh/Nga cousins
From Susan Loone's (now defunct) blog: Fong refuses to contest in the 2008 General Elections – accusing DAP of “development of internal party events in the DAP Perak over the last few years as well as currently” made it “impossible for me to continue serving effectively, efficiently and wholeheartedly. Under such circumstances and in the best interest of all concerned, I have arrived at this unavoidable and difficult decision”.
But the DAP mollified her she stood in Batu Gajah and won for a 3rd time with 70.95% of the votes. She left frontline politics after her 3rd term to support her husband (also DAP) in Johor. I miss her.
I then wrote: Both slimy sexist simians did not deny making the unbelievable comments.
Sadly, no lady MP from the Barisan Nasional protested against their unparliamentary intrusive insults. [...]
But when Fong, the lady directly insulted by those crude crass comments called for a motion under the Standing Order 26 (1P) to refer the two BN MPs to the Committee of Privileges, predictably Speaker Ramli Ngah Talib dismissed the motion.
This was what renowned Malaysian philosopher Dodgee Dimsum ;-) had to say about the DAP insensitivity for making mountains out of ‘puddles’ -
read Apology - A letter to the minister.
And do also read my June 2007 post Bocor business - AAB misses the whole point.
As mentioned, menstruation is more commonly referred to as ‘monthly period’. It seems it’s governed by the lunar cycle, which may explain why it makes some UMNO MPs mad (lunatic, you know, from the word ‘lunar’).
Apparently, in Mayan mythology, the Moon Goddess (Po) slept with the Sun, one sizzling hot stud, so they say. When her dad found out about the illicit gambol, he killed her (as usual, like in the case of the ‘baby dumping’ scandal, the bloke got away) - I was assured no stone was thrown during the execution.
The blood she shed was the origin of menstruation. Her blood was considered evil because she was disobedient, not unlike Eve and her predecessor Lilith.
But there’s more – Mayan myth has her menstrual blood stored in 13 jars, enough for several generations of Hishamuddin to comment on.
This is the part which Malaysians like – the first jar’s blood was transformed into creatures such as snakes and insects like scorpions, centipedes, and not forgetting UMNO's favourite pets, the tebuans. ‘Twas also the source of the original poison and diseases – we may take it that Malaysia's Jabba the Hutt was created from there. Sorcery was associated with the blood in the first jar – maybe that’s how Hisham knew about Teo’s ‘dirty-ness’?
However, some jars also hold medicinal plants, but I suspect most of these plants are growing in Columbia, Myanmar, Afghanistan and Turkey.
The thirteenth jar is the lunar jar, from which the Moon Goddess was reborn alongside many lunatics who have since been obsessed by the bocor business.
Unfortunately most religions consider menstruation and its blood unclean. Chief among these religions are Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Shinto-ism and even Jainism.
Only Buddhism and Sikhism don’t give a rat’s fart care about menstruation or the consequential blood.
In Theravada Buddhism, menstruation is viewed as "a natural physical excretion that women have to go through on a monthly basis, nothing more or less". Guru Nānak condemned the practice of treating women as impure while menstruating – good onya, Guru.
We know that every human being, except those descended from slugs, was born bathed in menstrual blood.
Unlike the ‘dirty’ blood which Hisham knew Teo was excreting, corruption, lies and racism are not dirty in Malaysia. Whoever considers racism as ‘dirty’ are racists themselves.