Serendipitous twice over

If you’re wondering about the title of today’s post please be patient and read on.

However, before I come to this lovely word, I have to start off with yesterday’s TMI’s article DAP leader refutes Kelantan land-for-Perak MB deal.

Most Malaysians, meaning both BN and Pakatan people, supporters and everyday politically neutral Malaysians, are all fully aware that as the deadline for GE-13 approaches gradually but inescapably, BN is desperate and gloomy about its chances in the polls. And when we talk about BN, we’re actually referring to UMNO as BN’s other component parties are either in a moribund state or has no meaningful voice in the alliance, or both.

In times of desperation, desperate measures could and in all probability would be called upon. That’s understandable but what isn't has been the fact that some equate ‘desperate’ measures as inclusive of ‘dirty’ measures involving unscrupulous actions. 

Mateys, there's an ethic Grand Canyon between being 'desperate' and being 'dirty'.

Grand Canyon

As I opined in a previous poll, UMNO knows that for its own ‘national security’, a three-layered defence would be best, namely, (a) political appeals and threats, (b) the EC and other UMNO-affiliated government machinery, and (c) lastly but not least, when winning at polls even with assistance of the second layer of defence is assessed as not possible, rolling out the tanks 'to deal' with any threat to its ‘national security’, meaning, its continuing political dominance.

When the tank drivers and their boss will subscribe to a Malaysian Tian An Men Dataran Merdeka show of force is of course a RM64 million question.

Is that Tian Chua? wakakaka

Anyway, let’s get down to just its first layer of defence. Its ‘political appeals and threats’ could and most certainly would include fabricated lies about its opponents, essentially ‘dirty’ measures. 

In this, its sheer unmitigated unconscionable and unscrupulous bastardy of common decency was witnessed in the cruel cooked up concoctions about Lim Guan Eng’s 16-year old son, still a school student, showing there was no limit to the depth to which it would willingly plunge down into for even meagre political gains of a short term nature.

So it was hardly surprising that last Thursday Mohd Khusairi (BN ADUN for Slim) alleged in the Perak state assembly that DAP Perak Chief Ngeh Koo Ham (ADUN for Sitiawan) and cousin Nga Kor Ming (DAP ADUN for Pantai Remas) had been awarded a multi-million ringgit piece of land in Gua Musang by the PAS state government of Kelantan as a quid pro quo for agreeing to the appointment of PAS’s Nizar Jamaluddin as Perak MB after the 2008 general election.

Ngeh Koo Ham

Ironically it was the MCA-controlled Star Online which reported the original sales and purchase agreement of the land by Upaya Padu Plantation Sdn Bhd (in which Ngeh and Nga were investors) was signed on 03 May 2006, 2 years prior to the 2008 general election.

That could only mean two possibilities – (a) PAS and DAP could read the tea leaves or, in Malaysian context, the kopi p’oh (spent grounds of brewed coffee) to foretell the political future, or (b) Mohd Khusairi has been slanderous in his allegations (with the advantage of hindsight of a post-March 2008 Perak when Nizar Jamaluddin became MB for a while).

Now, I know that PAS has been capable of a number of supernatural stuff - like cursing its enemies wakakaka, where some of its members had not been above consulting Indonesian bomohs on their election chances wakakaka, and the party’s Mursyidul AM (spiritual leader) in the 2004 election campaign promising privileged access to Heaven for those who voted for PAS wakakaka - but I wonder whether any of its members can read the future.

is it solar-powered? wakakaka

And if they can't or couldn't, then what does that mean of Khusairi’s allegations? Tsk, tsk, tsk! Just like the fabricated sleaze of Bukit Gelugor Umno division chairman Novandri Hasan Basri, whose blog I regret to say, has been linked by a sweetie blogger I once admired and considered my friend. Tolong lah sayang, jaga standards!

Ngeh stressed that the deal was kosher as “The Inland Revenue Board is aware of this transaction So is the federal government. The federal government even gave out a loan as the project is for the good of the country.”

Apart from the purchase of the land being two years ahead of the 08 March 2008 GE and the victory of Pakatan in Perak, and a transaction legally and properly recorded, with even a government loan issued for its purchase and proposed project, there is another factor that places Khusairi’s reckless allegations on very thin ice, and don’t we know in the heat of Malaysia that thin ice would melt mighty fast, and it has, wakakaka.

Everyone who has been keeping abreast of our remarkable politics since GE-12 knows that Nizar Jamaluddin became the MB of Perak in March 2008 even though he was from the smallest component party of Perak’s victorious Pakatan coalition.

Nizar Jamaluddin

And he only became so because the Sultan’s son as the Regent of Perak selected him from the Pakatan list of candidates for MB.

Actually Pakatan initially offered Ngeh Koo Ham for the MB post. The DAP was Pakatan’s component party which won the most number of state seats in Perak thus it was a coalition privilege he could at least place the first stake for the appointment.

But alas, Ngeh’s nomination was rejected because he was/is Chinese and like Teresa Kok in Selangor, was deemed as not ‘qualified’ to head the state’s exco (or state government cabinet) or in Teresa’s case, be No 2 in command.

sweetie Teresa Kok
Chinese, Christian & Chabor (female)

It was doubly disappointing because until the subsequent constitutional brouhaha in Perak, HRH was looked upon with much admiration and respect as a well-educated, learned, highly professional and broad-minded person, who had risen to the very top of the judiciary, and thus would be a very enlightened ruler. Many had hoped he would set the golden age precedence of having a non-Muslim become his state menteri besar (MB).

But as we know, that was not to be.

So Pakatan offered instead a bloke from the component party with the 2nd most number of ADUNs, namely Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi from PKR.

Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi

Bloke was once a postman before becoming a businessman – maybe he was inspired by the success of, who knows, say maybe, a railway gate keeper becoming a powerful and most successful business man, wakakaka.

We'll have more of the remarkable Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi of PKR shortly, who if I may remind everyone, was nominated by PKR to be MB of Perak, wakakaka …

… which brings us to that lovely word, 'serendipitous', an adjective from its noun form 'serendipity'.

Okay, just what does 'serendipity' mean?

According to the dictionary, serendipity means, within the context of my post, “the faculty of making fortunate discoveries by accident” or if we like, a happy accident or pleasant surprise. In 2004, a British translation company voted it as one of the ten English words most difficult to translate.

According to Wikipedia, 'serendipity' was first used by a bloke named Horace Walpole who was the 4th Earl of Oxford and the youngest son of British PM Robert Walpole. He was a most learned person, known as an art historian, man of letters (meaning, in his days, an intellectual), antiquarian and politician, and even in his 18th Century period, suspected of belonging to the LGBT group.

Horace Wadpole

He was the author of the often used epigram "This world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel".

In 1754 he wrote a letter to Horace Mann, a British diplomat he met and befriended in Rome, to advise that he formed the word from the Persian fairy tale The Three Princes of Serendip, whose heroes "were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of".

The Three Princes of Serendip

Apparently the etymological source for Serendip, an old name for Sri Lanka, was from the Arabic word Sarandib, which surprise surprise (before our local Arabs go into orgasm, wakakaka) was taken from the Tamil word Seren deevu which turn came from Sanskrit Suvarnadweepa (golden island), as indeed had the words agama, bangsa, raja and negara, wakakaka.

Sri Lanka

Okay, that’s enough explanation and background history of the word 'serendipity' or ‘happy accident’ and its ensuing adjective 'serendipitous'.

The explanation given for HRH’s choice of Nizar Jamaluddin of PAS to be MB of Perak was that Ngeh being a Chinese could not be considered while Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi of PKR had only a MCE certificate. Nizar is of course an engineer and thus better (academically) qualified to be the MB.

We need to note that both father and son HRH's are very well educated people, with the son the holder of a doctorate, so in a sense HRH’s (the son) selection of an engineer over a MCE holder should not be surprising.

But I also want to point out that Australia’s former Treasurer (and a bloody good one too) and probably its most visionary PM and today an often invited speaker on its intellectual circuit, Paul Keating, left school at 15 to become a clerk, political research assistance and band manager, before becoming a politician. 

Paul Keating

So one shouldn't snobbishly dismiss people with minimal education as unsuitable to be a political leader  Look, the other side of the coin shows that we have ministers who hold doctorates yet can’t even manage a civil and decent debate.

Some people (still) angry with HRH because of his involvement in the notorious constitutional issue in Perak had insinuated a Kallisti motive in his son’s choice of Nizar Jamaluddin.

Whatever, that’s where the word 'serendipity' kicked in, and if I may say so, twice over, wakakaka.

Firstly, we were introduced to an amazing man, Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin, who I may daringly say, is by far the most popular PAS politician to non-Muslims, at least on the Pakatan side.

When Nizar was nominated by PAS to stand in the Bukit Gantang federal by-election I had posted:

Nizar Jamaluddin

UMNO has been attacking Nizar, who’s standing as the PAS candidate for the by-election in Bukit Gantang federal constituency.

Ironically the non-Malays, particular the Chinese are almost all (except BN people) supporting the PAS candidate – hmmm, we certainly have come a long long way.

But the Malays (leaving out pro-UMNO people) are a bit more cautious. Malays hold their Sultans in very high regard, so UMNO has been playing hell with Nizar’s court language of ‘mohon patih derhaka’ which is a polite way of telling the Sultan that he (Nizar) disagreed with the Sultan’s demand that he quit his MB post.

Nizar Jamaluddin

It’s noted that while Nizar won that by-election there was a slight swing back to UMNO. Maybe UMNO’s incessant out-of-context play on, and deliberately-literal interpretation of, Nizar’s polite use of the word ‘derhaka’ (i.a.w court lingo) had worked, ...

... though some Malay friends have disagreed, advising that since that Perak coup, many Malays supporting Pakatan (or against UMNO) have had a mental revolution a la Dr Mahathir of December 1992, which if true, represents a monumental watershed in some Malays’ attitude.

Dr Mahathir

And sadly, what more could we say that’s not already said about HRH and the Perak constitutional debacle. Ironically once one of the most admired man in our nation, many of us now have second or different thoughts about him.

Justice NH Chan
famous for paraphrasing Shakespeare
 "There's something rotten in the House  of Denmark"
referring to the High Court's commercial division in Wisma Denmark
in the Ayer Molek case

Former Justice NH Chan has written volumes on HRH’s hubristic show of pretend-power (Justice Chan's very word), his unconstitutional dismissal of MB Nizar which incidentally has been a view supported by many including the royal 'dentist' (wakakaka) Dr Mahathir, and for going against his own advice contained in his book ‘Constitutional Monarchy, Rule of Law and Good Governance in 2004’ that ...

... no sultan or agung had withheld consent to dissolve legislative body, except in Kelantan in 1977, and who also reminded us ...

... 'Under normal circumstances, it is taken for granted that the Yang di-Pertuan Agong would not withhold his consent to a request for dissolution of parliament. His role is purely formal'.

I would not be very far wrong in saying his actions might have lent belief to the BN that its grubby grim grab for power has been legitimate. But sadly, in the weeks that followed the BN coup d’état, despite many imploring HRH to send the decision back to the people of Perak (meaning, have a new state election), he remained silent, ignoring the voices of the rakyat.

And perhaps we should all recall Martin Luther King's words that "A time comes when silence is betrayal."

Martin Luther King Jnr

Be that as it was/may, Nizar represents the future of Malaysian politics, a man I have touted as a potential PM. He is the icon of Islamic values but minus the P-3 baggage of prohibit, persecute and punish.

Now, no one expects PAS to abandon its Islamic ideals, but if it as a party moves towards the objective of introducing Islamic values (that of care, compassion and non-corruptibility) without the medieval out-dated code of prohibition, punishments and, by its ‘lil Napoleons, persecutions, I see a bright future for PAS as a role model in Malaysian governance.

Nizar has been observed as politically dexterous, handling the issue of religion cleverly, where some PAS members, especially its Youth Wing, have been an embarrassment to their own party, by ayatollah-ishly loud-mouthing and/or shafting down non-Muslims' throats their Islamic morality laws in Pakatan controlled states, and by their perennial misogynistic campaigns against female entertainers or non-Muslim social events.

PAS Youth has been against a non-Muslim social event, Valentine's Day

On such issues, while as MB Perak, Nizar had correctly stressed that the affairs of the state comes first ahead of his obligations to his party, that he was not a MB of PAS, but a MB representing PR and the people of Perak. Well said, Nizar.

But alas, Nizar is only a junior bloke in PAS hierarchy and the party is still hell-bent (excuse the unintentional pun) on converting Malaysia into some form of Arab-ized Taliban-ish State. So I'll take a rain check on PAS in the meantime.

But back to point, regardless of whether the selection of Nizar as MB Perak had been due to his superior professional qualifications or as some have alleged, a Kallisti manoeuvre, his introduction to us, especially to non-Muslims, could be seen as serendipitous, to wit, a pleasant surprise (or a happy accident).

Now, didn't I say that the 'serendipity' (or 'serendipitous') word would kick in twice over? So what’s the next serendipity after the fabulous discovery of Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin?

Serendipity Beach, Noosa, Australia

Let’s return to that PKR man who would have been MB Perak (at least for a while) if HRH Jnr hadn't intervene.

Wakakaka, yes, the most remarkable Yang Berhomat Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi, ADUN for Behrang!

Yes, this bloke could have been MB instead of Nizar.

But when that amazing frog, Nasarudin Hashim, UMNO to PKR to UMNO ADUN for Bota in Perak did his amazing revolving-door stunt to the shock of an initially jubilant then mournful Anwar Ibrahim who had initially and exhilaratingly proclaimed his defection to PKR as one which “... reflected the sentiments of his voters, namely the Malays in his constituency ... as the beginning of a new wave”, guess who jumped on that return-to-daddy bandwagon (or gravy train) wakakaka.

Yes, none other than PKR once-anointed MB-to-be for Perak, Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi, wakakaka.

And he took along with him Osman Jailu and with that, enabled the BN coup d’état. 

 Perak DUN Speaker Sivakumar dragged out forcefully by BN apparatchiks

I don’t suppose Anwar would have considered those defections as  “... reflect[ing] the sentiments of their voters, namely the Malays in their constituencies ... as the beginning of a new wave”? wakakaka.

But in retrospect, hadn't HRH Jnr’s refusal to consider Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi’s candidature for the MB appointment been also serendipitous?

As I said, ‘twas serendipity twice over.

And if you don’t want to thank HRH Jnr, so be it, as the wonderful outcomes of his two decisions would be considered serendipitous, that is, happy accidents rather than being deliberately planned for the results.