Ugly ferocious beast in Malaysia

Foo Voon Kong holding photo of his wife Pua Bee Chun shot dead by police

The Malaysian Insider - Man says cops shot his wife after car chase, demands explanation

Pua Bee Chun, a 22-year-old housewife, was killed by police in a similar scenario as suffered by Aminulrasyid Amzah. Her death by trigger happy police has been the latest in a string of unexplained or innocent deaths caused by police.

14-year old Aminulrasyid Amzah

Just recently we read of the horrifying death of C Sumugaran who was reported beaten by several men allegedly including police members. His corpse was found handcuffed and with turmeric powder smeared on his face, a description consistent with the alleged brutalities prior to his demise.

These have not been rare occurrences but rather the rule to the exception, with Indians bearing the brunt of alleged police brutalities or police crimes.

fz.com reported that C Sugumaran's ... case is but the latest in a long line of deaths in custody highlighted in the media. In its written answer in parliament, the Home Ministry stated that there have been a total of 156 deaths in police custody from 2000 to February 2011.

C Sugumaran

More than half or a whopping 85 cases have been classified under 'No Further Action'. Twenty-nine cases are still under investigation.

In 2007 I posted: Tan Sri Siti Norma Yaakob, the Chief Judge of Malaya, has expressed her deep concerns that 80 deaths in police custody occurred between January 2000 and December 2004 – that’s an average of 20 people dying per annum while in police custody, or almost a frightening 2 per month for 4 continuous years - but only 6 inquests, less than 10% of the deaths, were even held.

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

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

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

And that's how we came to know of names like A Kugan, F Udayappan, etc. Their troubled souls still cry out for justice. But how to achieve justice when you have blokes like the former Home Minister Syed Hamid who didn't understand the fundamental principle of criminal laws that a person is innocent until proven guilty. The mafulat moronic minister alluded to A Kugan, a police detainee, as a criminal - see Syed Hamid: Don't see criminals as heroes, cops as demons.

(Then) Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang was unsurprisingly incensed by the shameless mindless insensible police minister's stupid attempt to diminish the terrible circumstances leading to Kugan's death in police custody, which the normally recalcitrant AG had even been moved to officially classify as a murder.

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

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

Then Lim roared: "Even if Kugan was guilty of the crimes alleged, the police cannot take the law into its own hands and continue to pile up the shocking statistics of deaths in police custody."

The current Home Minister is not any better.

Each time a death occurred (other than that for Aminulrasyid Amzah) the investigation would closed with NFA (no further action). And even in Aminulrasyid's case, the policeman found guilty of his death was subsequently released on appeal.

Using the example of Teoh Beng Hock's bullshit case (MACC is the same as PDRM as it recruits its officers from the police), that a young father-to-be on the eve of his wedding, and who rang his best man to remind the latter of the wedding the following day, was found to have "committed suicide", we may be excused for predicting the equally ludicrous, that the investigation into the shooting of Pua Bee Chun will find her "rushing forward to deliberately intercept police bullets which were fired in a safe direction" and that C Sugumaran "went into an epileptic fit leading to his death while helpful policemen were attempting to save him by applying turmeric powder which has anti-epileptic properties".

And each time the public frustration grows at the total non accountability of the police, there would be another call for the IPCMC (Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission) to be established, but as usual none would be forthcoming.

The above leitmotiv is as equally frustrating as that against the very obvious and total non accountability of deaths in police custody.

Of the last three former IGPs, we have one who punched Anwar Ibrahim in an eye. Regardless of his claims that Anwar was verbally and insultingly provocative, the No 1 policeman should not have behaved like a thug, and indeed he went to prison for his crime.

Then we had one who was allegedly involved with Triad members. The No 1 policeman allegedly in cahoots with gangsters? Mind you, lately I heard he was cleansed, rinsed and canonized to become one of the 3 G-D's of Truth, one-third of the new Timurthi.

But I opine the most terrible former IGP was the one, a civil servant, who in 2006 mutinied against the elected PM of Malaysia.

AAB was the PM who promised to establish an IPCMC, but his efforts were threatened and undermined by former IGP Mohd Bakri Omar. Bakri Omar openly defied the PM.

Bakri's arrogance and defiance knew no bounds when he insubordinately sabotaged the PM’s IPCMC, by appealing directly to several UMNO backbenchers and some PAS MPs, of course after he had demonstrated his Islamic credentials with his policewomen tudung fait accompli., a precursor of recent PAS' intrusion into the lives of non-Muslims.

I am not sure what was it that those UMNO MPs saw or heard that convinced them to back the IGP against the PM in rejecting the IPCMC.

On 30 March 2006, then Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang made a press statement: As the Prime Minister had publicly made a commitment to accept the Royal Police Commission and establish the IPCMC, Bakri has committed the grave offence of insubordination and defiance of authority of the Prime Minister in publicly declaring that the police had rejected the IPCMC proposal and 24 other proposals.

The acceptance or otherwise of the IPCMC and the other 24 other proposals of the Royal Police Commission is a policy issue to be decided by the Prime Minister, Cabinet and Parliament and not by the police or any government department or service, unless Malaysia has become a police state.

If Bakri is not prepared to accept the authority of the Prime Minister, Cabinet and Parliament to decide on the policy issue on the IPCMC and the other Royal Police Commission recommendations, then the only honourable way out for him is to resign as IGP to express his opposition and not to be guilty of insubordination by wearing the uniform of the IGP to openly go against the authority of the Prime Minister and Cabinet – setting a dangerous precedent undermining the important principle in a parliamentary democracy that the public service, including the police, must be subject to civilian oversight, accountability and authority.

WTF, nothing happened. Additionally when Bakri Omar left, he left with FULL HONOURS and the blessings and grateful thanks of PM AAB. And you wonder why the police know they are teflonised.

AAB praised Bakri Omar, at an event to honour Bakri, as one of the most efficient leaders who brought the police force to greater heights.

When I read that I puked.

Wasn't this the IGP under whose tenure saw some of the worst police excesses, including abuses, corruption and numerous deaths in custody.

See my previous postings of police abuses:
(1) Malaysia's own Abu Ghraib
(2) Police Inquiry to chase trees & not see woods
(3) Shoot the Messenger!
(4) Bald & Naked Truth of Malaysian Police
(5) Most Dangerous Place in Malaysia!

Then see my analyses of the terrible RMP and its hopeless head, the IGP:
(6) Problem of the Royal Malaysian Police
(7) Police leopard in 'appropriate attire'!
(8) KTemoc's advice to Police
(9) Axe the clueless IGP!
(10) IGP versus PM
(11) Lim KS to PM: "Gotta Guts to Gut IGP?"

Wasn't this also the IGP who proselytised his non-Muslim female police officers by forcing them to wear the tudung on parade, very much against their constitutional rights, on the baseless argument that it’s merely for uniformity, when turbaned Sikhs in the RMP have for decades not appeared out of place with their non-Sikh colleagues nor were non-Sikh police personnel required to wear turbans for ‘uniformity.

See: (12) Policewomen forced to wear tudungs on parade!

That’s the quality of the former IGP – he couldn't even bullsh*t convincingly. But this was the IGP who exploited an Islamic apparel purely for political reasons, to curry favour with the UMNO and PAS MPs so as to ‘soften’ them up to take his (IGP) side against the IPCMC.

This was the IGP who breached every civil service procedures by openly and unashamedly turning the police force into a politically oriented service in telling UMNO MPs that if the IPCMC was established, the police couldn't ensure the BN’s position in power.

See:
(13) Police undermined PM's decision
(14) Siapa Raja? (2)
(15) Royal Malaysian Police Warns UMNO!
(16) Wish IGP was Japanese!

But the most disappointing factor that has emerged from the PM’s totally unjustified praise of this unmitigated poor performing mutinous so-called civil servant, a man who had on a number of occasions actually and publicly defied and gone against the PM/Internal Security Minister, a man who had led the RMP into the deepest reaches of dark dungeons, had been the indication that AAB had no real interest or lacked the will or backbone to change the ugly ferocious beast that was and still is the Royal Malaysian Police.

Bakri Omar had the additional notoriety of arrogantly refusing to reply to a complaint by and a request for a meeting with the Bar Council over a case of police abuse of lawyers, despite the Council having written to him three times.

Then Bar Council VP Ambiga Sreenevasan highlighted the case of lawyer S Bala, who was detained by police while attempting to attend to his client at the Petaling Jaya police district headquarters. She reminded police that their interference into legal representation of a detained person is a serious matter. 

Which police force of a western democracy dares to detain or even be rude to a lawyer attending to his client in police custody, an offence which would have seen the police officer involved sacked.

Ambiga had then warned: “The public can say that if even a lawyer is subjected to this (abuse of power), what more the ordinary citizen?”

“As far as the Bar Council and members of the Malaysian Bar are concerned, the IPCMC is the answer to this problem as investigations will be carried out quickly and they will be done in a transparent manner.”

But the IGP didn't give two hoots to the requests by the Bar Council for a meeting on this issue of police abuse and interference in due process of the law. It was precisely this sort of arrogant non-accountability by a public servant that showed the police believe they could get away with anything, and they have!

AAB was of course a coward and spineless PM, allowing that mutinous IGP to defy his prime ministerial authority.

Now more than ever before, we need not just an IPCMC but a truly effective one, meaning not one manned by UMNO ministers or apparatchiks, cronies or tame retired judges or senior servants.

Najib could well win the day if he immediately establishes the IPCMC.

But it's also true that the police have been terrified of the IPCMC to an extent that the previous IGP, Mohd Bakri Omar, had the unmitigated nerve to exceed public service ethical boundaries in a private briefing for UMNO (and some PAS) members of parliament to 'persuade' those ‘Yang Berhormats’ into rebelling against the PM on the IPCMC bill.

I believe there may be only one way to cut through the police manipulative barricades against the establishment of the much-needed IPCMC, unpleasant and unpalatable to many of us as this would be.

It's a sort of trade off where we have to compromise away from the ideal, and inform the police that a new IPCMC bill will not only contain a due process for police appeals but also a clause where the IPCMC will not investigate any alleged police conduct prior to the gazetting of the bill.

In other words, there will be a general amnesty for all police misconduct prior to the establishment of the IPCMC a la the South African 'Truth' Commission.

That may assure the police that the IPCMC will not be an apparatus to seek vengeance for past misdeeds, and may help persuade them to come to the party for a modern police system.

Unless we trade that off, the IPCMC will never see the light of day, no, not with a PM who like AAB lacks the backbone to bring it about. Yes, some damn rats will slip through and the aggrieved families of victims like Kugan, Udayappan, etc won't be happy or even agree, but we will at least have the IPCMC for the future, and most importantly, for the children of Malaysia.

It is not a perfect world, but half a loaf would be better than none.

Addendum 01 Feb 2013 - Malaysiakini published my letter on this subject which it titled Excessive and outrageous killing by the police

Sandiwara of a python

Sandiwara of politics?

You know, when I read in Malaysiakini that Nasha [has been] booted from PAS' syura council and the ensuing rejoicing among many Pakatan people, notably from PKR and DAP, I sighed and shook my head lamentably because they obviously didn't notice what has been involved - namely, that Nasharudin Mat Isa has ONLY been removed from the party's Majlis Syura ... and not booted out from the party itself.

Perhaps their rejoicing has been premature. I'll give my take shortly after we recall why he has been removed from PAS Majlis Syura.

Malaysiakini reported (extracts):

Nasahrudin & Najib in Mecca

Nasharudin was once a leading figure in PAS until news reports claimed that he was trying to convince party leaders to forge closer ties with arch-rivals Umno due to religious reasons, instead of secularist DAP and PKR.

On several occasions, Nasharudin had attempted to drive a wedge between PAS and its Pakatan Rakyat allies, such as by claiming that DAP had prayed for the formation of a Christian state after the Sarawak state election in 2011.

Irking party members further was Nasharudin's apparent cosy ties with Umno. He had accompanied Prime Minister and Umno president Najib Abdul Razak abroad a few times, most recently to Gaza.

(left to right) Palestinian PM Haniyeh, Najib, Nasharudin

Look, I opine if it had not been Nasharudin it could and would have been Hasan Ali, Zulkifli Nor, or a host of other PAS blokes who prefer to be pally buddy with their political foe, UMNO, rather than their mainly non-Malay political ally DAP (or PKR, but definitely the former), so there's no point in blasting Nasharudin because that would not help understand where he has been coming from.

To understand the mentality of Nasharudin and people of his ilk, it may be helpful if we pull up the UMNO Ketuanan Melayu mantra of raja, bangsa, agama dan negara.

Note that I have place negara last as it's my personal belief very few of the UMNO or PAS worry about it, unless they can argue that negara refers to an only UMNO-Malay country.

Okay, maybe if pressed, they would probably rationalize that once the first three, namely, raja, bangsa dan agama have been duly defended and upheld, negara would automatically be taken care of.

We could argue over this all day until Shahrizat's missing cows do the impossible and come home, and still won't agree. Anyway, I opine the so-called Ketuanan Melayu struggle is all about power and its control, and of course the associated and most important privileges and benefits that come along with it. Only in the most exceptional circumstances would UMNO's Ketuanan Melayu be really about bangsa.

Examining raja, bangsa dan agama, this mantra can be further reduced or crystallized into just one word, either bangsa or agama because for a Malay-Muslim, these two factors are indivisible.

What about raja then? In my opinion, raja and the sanctity of the institution would be an intrinsic component of Malay culture and Malay psyche, and again cannot be separated from bangsa.

Thus UMNO can yell bangsa or if it likes, agama, though currently the latter has assumed far greater importance than the former because (a) it demonstrates to the Heartland that UMNO is (still) the intrepid defender of Islam, (b) it allows UMNO priests to issue fatwas to its political advantage, and (c) it drives a lovely wedge between PAS and DAP, or even PAS and Anwar because the latter's stand on the Allah word has deeply riled many PAS people.

Incidentally, on this I must compliment Anwar for assuming a firm Pakatan approach than his usual tap dancing self.

* in case some of you may question why I compliment Anwar on this when I have been consistently against the Christian Church using the Allah word. And that's because they are separate issues.

My stand against the Church has been based on my belief (or suspicion) that the Church's arguments has been obdurately implausible and thus indefensible (and I provided all my reasons for my stand), whereas my compliment for Anwar on the same issue has been about his firm stand on an already agreed Pakatan policy even though I personally disagree with that policy.

I suspect PAS' volte-face has been due to one of two reasons, or even both - it fears that as an Islamic party it's losing grounds as well as its Islamic credentials to UMNO on the Allah word controversy or it has been a coup d’état by its party's Majlis Syura (many of its members other than perhaps Pak Haji Nik Aziz have been uncomfortable working with a secular DAP), or both.

Even PAS party president Mat Sabu has no choice but to toe the Majlis Syura line, whence he did a belakang pusing on the use of the Allah word by the Church, a 180-degrees departure from his earlier stand which indicates an ominous portent of things to come if Malaysia is ever ruled by PAS.

I had warned in my post PAS - from Progressive to Pythonic that once Malaysia has been established as an Islamic State, we can forget about Westminster democracy, where any of its pseudo-democracy and associated institutions under Islamic rule will automatically come under the control of a supreme, non-questionable, non-challengeable (a la the fatwas of the Kedah MB), and totally dictatorial religious Majlis ...

... and as mentioned by RPK in his post Friday prayers are NOT compulsory, said the Mufti, the process in an Islamic environment is not democratic and not questionable even by logic, reason, precedent or rules. 

But the Malay nationalists in PAS (and that's who some of them really are), much as they believe in bangsa, can only scream agama because politically it has only the religious warrant, unlike UMNO which can switch flexibly (or unscrupulously) from bangsa to raja to agama to negara and even to 1Malaysia as its clarion call of the day without any qualms or embarrassment, wakakaka.

Yes, more than a few PAS members possess a similar belief in UMNO's Ketuanan Melayu because the ethnocentric Devil is still ensconced in our political-social-cultural DNA.

To remove or defeat it, we will require (a) sterling leadership and example like those exhibited by Brother Haris Ibrahim and I believe too, Zaid Ibrahim, and of course DAP leaders, (b) social re-engineering to purge and cleanse our attitude from the corruption of BTN type ideology promoted during the Mahathirism era, (c) education a la 'Saya Anak Malaysia', (d) official enforcement a la Aussie-Kiwi political administration where public institutions, NGOs and the press would pounce promptly on racism, bigotry and ethnic-prejudice and make mincemeat of people like Pauline Hanson and Ibrahim Ali, and (e) time.

I use the example of Australia's Pauline Hanson and Malaysia's Ibrahim Ali to show two very different types of prejudice, where I opine that of the former is real deep-seated bias due to ignorance (and perhaps incurable), while the latter is opportunistic due to sly intelligence, wakakaka.

Indeed, the ethnocentric Devil in PAS is more lamentable than that exhibited by Ibrahim Ali who is just opportunistically bersandiwara-ing.

As I wrote in my 2010 post Malaysian meaning of 'gratitude':

... we know Ibrahim Ali is a political survivor par excellence, a cheen chnea ch'am* carma† chameleon, and thus we know that his personal interests [is] khusus untuk numero uno, ... [...]

* cheen chnea ch'am is Chinese for bloody pitiful or terrible, wakakaka
† for 'cari makan', an abbreviation coined by A Samad Said

If Pakatan becomes the ruling party one day, Ibrahim Ali will be there beside the new Pakatan PM singing a new song titled ‘Reformasi is for me’; if PAS assumes power, Ibrahim Ali will replace the Kulim Wonder as the No 1 Islamic warrior of Malaysia, and in the unlikely event of DAP becoming the ruling party, Ibrahim Ali of course will be in astronaut costume, helmet and all, to show he’s an ardent rocket jock wakakaka.

Ibrahim Ali, the Malaysian 'Rocket' jock, wakakaka

Alas, I wish Nasharudin was just carma, but the probability is high he is not, but belongs to the group of PAS who believe in Malay unity with corrupt people rather than clean ones, for the reason that the former are Malays while the latter, clean as they may be in politics, governance and public accountability, aren't 'clean' in an ethno-religious sense and therefore not worthy to be allies of PAS.

Nasharudin Mat Isa has considerable strong support in his party, and I suspect that his removal from the party's Majlis Syura is only a temporary measure, at least until GE-13, to neutralise the embarrassing revelation of his overtly anti-Pakatan conduct and his obvious proclivity for Malay Unity and alliance with UMNO to keep Muslims out of power. I forecast he'll be 're-nominated' back into PAS Majlis Syura after GE-13.

His wish may yet be realized, for I recall that Harun Taib rather arrogantly warned DAP in May 2012 that the Malaysian legal system will have Hudud if PAS wins more seats than allies in violation of its agreement with other Pakatan allies. So there's a lot more than just sandiwara-ing in PAS - and it's called treachery.

With much hubris, Harun Taib had declared to NST that the implementation of hudud was 'inevitable', saying “If we have enough majority, if PAS is stronger than our allies, we will implement… even if not with the current partners we have in Pakatan… may be there will be other pacts that will lend us their support”.

Okay, it's known that PAS aspired to embrace hudud, but has that been a Pakatan agreement?

Far more worrying had been Harun Taib’s insinuation that PAS would renege on any Pakatan pre-election agreement (as seen in its betrayal of Pakatan's agreed PM-anoint) and implement hudud regardless, once it believes it has the upper hand, and where necessary, will do so in a pact other than Pakatan ..... meaning??? 

Meaning, to me, that would be the python that will drop down from the ceiling fan - see my post PAS - from Progressive to Pythonic to understand my concerns with PAS' shifty shifting stand.

Thus UMNO and (some in) PAS share the mantra of raja, bangsa dan agama, though for PAS, it would only voice agama but which would be synonymous with bangsa (and raja).

And that brings us to Harussani, the priest who I suspect, unlike other priests who claim to have a direct line to the Almighty, could also SMS or be SMS-ed by the One above.

I'm sure you still remember that disgraceful SMS case which ended up in a coward shifty shifting the blame on to a woman, which nevertheless saw him subsequently receive the award of a Tan Sri.

He has just issued a fatwa that Muslims allowing non-Muslims to use the Allah word would be considered infidels - see Malaysiakini's Muslims become infidels if they let others use 'Allah'.

Now, would a priest issuing a ruling or decree that the Friday congregational prayers are NOT compulsory make him an infidel? See RPK's post Friday prayers are NOT compulsory, said the Mufti.

Would a priest blaming someone for his lying mistake make him an infidel? See my post Perak Mufti pointed at Raja Sherina.

Raja Sherina

Shortly after that SMS wildfire fabrication, SIS programme manager Norhayati Kaprawi said: “This is not the first time the mufti has made careless statements and allegations.”

She cited a number of previous statements made by the mufti, including in February [2006?] where he claimed that between 100,000 and 250,000 Muslims had renounced Islam.

She added: “To date, he has not been able to substantiate these claims, except to merely state that these were obtained from ‘reliable sources’.”

I once wrote of him: Incidentally, HTF did he became a Tan Sri when he was the man responsible for nearly causing religious-racial violence through a seditious SMS in 2006 ...

... and worse, when the sh*t hit the fan he blamed the whole seditious crime on a woman. F* pathetic!

Sherina, believe me, it's for Islam that you take the fall for me

Anyway, in that irresponsible seditious scandal of the wildfire SMS, FT Gerakan asked for the priest's sacking.

Guess who came to his rescue? UMNO?

No, it was PAS.

As I posted in BolehTalk's PAS not seeing woods for the trees? in April 2007:

In PAS: Gerakan biadap I discussed PAS’ anger at the FT Gerakan’s resolution calling for HRH Sultan of Perak to sack Harussani Zakaria as the State Mufti for inciting religious agitation and hatred, with potential dire consequences.

PAS told Gerakan to stay clear of Islamic areas, the sole prerogative of Muslims.

I raised the query as to the total absence of any move by Muslim political groups*, both in government or PAS, to call the seditious Mufti to account. The Mufti is a well-known for his extreme right wing views but his latest folly had been very dangerous to public security. He is a threat to society with his recklessness and irresponsibility.

* NGO Sisters in Islam was the brave exception

And disgustingly, he didn’t even have the backbone of his religious conviction because when it was a case of accountability's push becoming a shove, he blamed a woman to avoid answering for his own responsibility for the lie.

But the FT Gerakan has now back off from the resolution, claiming it was only a personal view of Gerakan FT chairperson Dr Tan Kee Kwong. The Star has also clarified that it carried an erroneous report. Obviously the Barisan Nasional has kicked into play Ops Retreat as Islamic issues could well be damaging to UMNO’s battle for the Malay heartland in the coming general election.

Dr Tan in defiance of Gerakan demanding his resignation for accepting
a job with the Selangor government to head a task force on land issues.
Tan sneered “If they sack me, the public is not going to like it."
"But if they don’t, Umno is going to be very upset with them” wakakaka

But PAS sensing it has a political winner intends to draw out the issue for as long as possible and for every sweet drop of political propaganda, calling for the FT Gerakan and Dr Tan to retract the resolution and issue an open apology.

So it's hardly surprising that PAS FT acting youth chief Kamaruzaman Mohamad said the party would still press for Tan to retract his remark despite the clarification by the Star.

He stated: “Whether or not the call came from a resolution or Tan is now irrelevant. The remark should not have been made. He has no entitlement to that remark.”

He also made a police report.

Now, this is where PAS showed its double standard, Kamaruzaman, with great irony that he obviously didn’t realise, remarked:

“This is a sensitive issue among Muslims that can stir discord among various groups.”

"... stir discord among various groups ..."?

Yes, but what about that Mufti who nearly caused a racial riot with his irresponsible rumour-mongering?

Why shouldn’t he be sacked for seditious agitation? And why hasn't PAS initiate the demand for that to preserve the whole matter within the Muslim community?

In the end, PAS is no better than UMNO, exploiting religion for its own grubby political benefit instead of seeing to the justice that Allah (swt) intends for the Muslims to practice.

If I am kind, I would just say that PAS’ stand is a case of not seeing the wood for the trees. But if I want to be nasty, I would declare it as not unlike the moral in my poem Magic of the 100th name of God, where God is incidental, but Man’s interest reigns supreme.

That's the democratic (or lack of) credentials of PAS where it blindly supported a man just because he's a Muslim but who has been a seditious trouble maker and who was a coward as well for shifty shifting blame on to a woman.

blind support, wakakaka

Such blind support for an unworthy bloke can only spell trouble for a Malaysia we hope will be a democratic one. Ironically, it's not unlike the blind support of Zionists and the Christian Right for an oppressive neo-Nazi Israeli government. 

And that's the so-called democracy we'll likely get from a PAS-led government, without even taking its hudud legal system into consideration yet.

And hasn't it been divine-decreed padan muka for PAS when in mid November 2012 the SMS Priest had the thick hide to pontificate about the what should be done or not done by Muslims (did he exempt himself?) and then accused Pak Haji Nik Aziz of being slanderous for branding UMNO as apostate?

No no, stay out of Muslim affairs, I don't care if he has been seditious
or has blamed a woman for his irresponsible reckless remarks

And on this note of divine-decreed padan muka, I say Amin to the sandiwara of the pythonic PAS in removing Nasharudin from its Majlis Syura ...

... in the same way as I did to its wet dreams of 'electing' Hadi Awang to be Pakatan's PM-anoint and its treacherous intention to implement Hudud after it uses Chinese support to win its way into federal rule.

Go on, eat the apple, it'll be good for democracy,
& I 'promise' I won't bite you, wakakaka

Race in politics, politics in race

I have just read P Gunasegaram's article Who will win GE13? in Malaysiakini. He has very methodically, and I believe quite logically, laid down his points which argue that it will be a tough struggle for Pakatan to secure a majority of federal seats in Peninsula to claim rule after the election.

But he said it's tough though not impossible, using the March 2008 results as indicative of Pakatan achieving the 'impossible'.

But he cautioned that it will likely be a very close call, where in such a situation, every single vote will count, more than ever before in Malaya/Malaysia's 55 years' history as an independent nation.

Malaysian politics is the story of politics of race or, if you like, race in politics. Unfortunately we can't escape racial discussions in politics because in truth we haven't yet possessed adequate thrust (or trust) and thus the required escape velocity to overcome its powerful gravitational pull, which compels us into more mundane Earthly understanding of its issues.

One insight Gunasegaram shared with us in his article has been that the Chinese vote bank is more or less already owned by Pakatan, and thus any further increase in Chinese support will likely not be as dramatically significant as it had been in 2008.

Whatever moderate gains Pakatan will further obtain from the Chinese in GE-13 will probably be in some MCA-held seats in Johor.

Also, rumours have it that Hishamuddin Hussein will be changing his seat for another as 40% of the registered voters in his current constituency of Sembrong are Chinese, so that could well be a pending Pakatan seat.

Of course there may be gains in additional Chinese-majority seats in Sabah and Sarawak, but I'll leave this sector to better informed people to enlighten me.

One glaring omission in Gunasegaram's article has been the Indian factor in Peninsula. Remember how Uthayakuamar and his supporters and sympathizers kept telling us it was the Hindraf-galvanized Indian mass that enabled Pakatan to achieve its 2008 election wins, ...

... and how he would withdraw that Hindraf-ized Indian support for Pakatan if the coalition doesn't listen to and accept his HRP's several demands, one of which had been the right to contest in 7 parliamentary seats and 16 state seats without Pakatan's participation, based on a Free Malaysia Today's report on 14 September 2011 titled HRP demands 23 seats from Pakatan.

The seven parliamentary seats he wanted were:

(1) Padang Serai (Kedah) currently held by Gobalakrishnan, formerly PKR,
(2) Batu Kawan (Penang) currently held by Dr Ramasamy (DAP)
(3) Ipoh Barat (Perak) currently held by Kulasegaran (DAP)
(4) Kota Raja (Selangor) currently held by Siti Mariah Mahmud (PAS)
(5) Teluk Kemang (Negri Sembilan) currently held by Kamarul Baharin Abbas (PKR)
(6) Cameron Highlands (Pahang) currently held by Devamany Krishnasamy (MIC), and
(7) Tebrau (Johor) currently held by Teng Book Soon (MCA).

Now, hasn't Uthayakumar just been the brightest spark in the class in asking Pakatan to meekly surrender 5 of their federal seats for his HRP to contest in GE-13, with 3 of the 5 seats held by his fellow Indians?

Surely this calls for a re-reading of my post Malaysian Racism & The 3 Baskets of Crabs at my other blog BolehTalk, wakakaka.

The 16 state seats he wanted were Bukit Selambau and Lunas (Kedah), Prai and Bagan Dalam (Penang), Buntong and Hutan Melintang (Perak), Port Dickson and Jeram Padang (Negri Sembilan), Tanah Rata and Ketari (Pahang), Puteri Wangsa and Tiram (Johor) and Sri Andalas, Ijok, Seri Setia and Bukit Melawati (Selangor).

You can work it out how many of those seats are currently held by Pakatan. Help you with a couple: Khalid Ibrahim holds Ijok, wakakaka, and Dr Ramasamy holds Prai, wakakaka again.

What do you reckon Pakatan would have told him? Maybe something like this:

You claimed to have gifted mandores
In 2008 with a Hindraf blank cheque
Now you want us to be like whores
To give in and lie down on our back

Perhaps mandores we may well be
Though if you expect us to give in
To demands so big-headedly crazy
Tambi, we'd be committing a big sin

Wakakaka, and I am not sure whether Uthayakumar is still insisting on these 23 seats.

But anyway, back on track, I wish Gunasegaram had analysed the Indian factor in his article.

On one hand people like Uthaykumar claimed that it had been Indian support that enabled Pakatan to win such a big victory in 2008, and should that be true, then given recent analyses that about 80% of Indians have returned to the BN fold, what does that spell for Pakatan other than big trouble.

On the other, which I am inclined towards, yes the Indians did contribute to the Pakatan victory in 2008 but they weren't the most impactful force behind the tsunami sweeping our political landscape. 

In arguing against the theory of Hindraf being the principal winning factor, I drew comparison to an earlier tsunami in 1969 when Hindraf was not even in existence (and Anwar Ibrahim was a youngish 20 something) yet which saw BN's predecessor, Perikatan (Alliance) lost humongously.

Gerakan celebrating its 1969 victory
Syed Hussein Alatas with pipe, his arms around Lim Chong Eu

I stated that the Pakatan victory in 2008, as the victory for the loose informal pact of Gerakan-DAP-PPP (including even informal associate PAS) in 1969, happened because many voters had had enough of BN and respectively Perikatan, and were prepared to change, and not because of any particular NGO. It calls into question the theory of Hindraf being the primary earth-shaking force in March 2008.

Assuming my belief is correct, and if the majority of Indian voters will be supporting BN in GE-13 as they traditionally have (yes, the Indians have been BN's 'fixed deposit'), there may be some adverse effect for Pakatan but certainly not to the extent Mr Gloom & Doom has been threatening the Pakatan 'mandores', wakakaka.

Najib's real 'fixed deposit', wakakaka

We also need to remember that Hindraf had not been an exclusive Uthayakumar's one-man effort but which saw front line participation by DAP members, one of whom, M Manoharan, is an ADUN who won Kota Alam Shah seat while he was behind ISA lockup as a Hindraf leader. So not all Hindraf supporters would necessarily boycott Pakatan.

It's also significant to note that Manoharan won in a Chinese majority seat, defeating the BN Chinese candidate by a resounding majority of more than 7500 votes in a constituency of only 26000 voters. Thus it's likely the DAP brand rather than Hindraf label that had enabled Manoharan to become an ADUN in Selangor.

Manoharan

So I personally believe the Indians supporting BN, while certainly not favourable to Pakatan, will not have that drastic effect as threatened by a crab (in a basket, wakakaka).

Leaving aside the Sabah and Sarawak factors, and let's not deny they will be very BIG factors, the fight in GE-13 which will produce big earth shaking results in Peninsula will be for the hearts of the Heartland.

This is certainly the belief of RPK as enunciated in his post Why is Dr Mahathir such an idiot?, a title which belies the political shrewdness of the former PM.

as if saying "up yours, you mongrels" wakakaka

RPK wrote (extracts only):

The only thing that can save Umno would be the Malay votes -- that determine roughly two-thirds of the seats in West Malaysia.

And that is why what they are doing/saying is not to win the hearts and mind of the Chinese and Indian voters. It is too late to win the hearts and minds of the Chinese and Indian voters. They need to win the hearts and minds of the Malay voters. And to do that they need to do and say what they are currently doing and saying. 

While this may upset the Chinese and Indians, who are not going to vote for Umno anyway, it pacifies the Malays. And it is the Malays they want to pacify, not the Chinese and Indians, who have made it very clear they are not going to vote Barisan Nasional or Umno come hell or high water.

And that may be why they had released the hounds of hell to 'threaten' to seize and burn bibles, to assure the Heartland that UMNO is their defender of Islam.

Maybe we have been syiok-sendiri-ishly mistaken (kidding ourselves) about UMNO being a divided house, when in fact they are playing Sun Tze's 'inflict injury on oneself to win the enemy's trust', where Najib by pretending to be 'injured' from UMNO intra-party fighting, lulls his enemy into relaxing his guard since he longer considers Najib to be an immediate threat.

Thus, perhaps Najib plays being the victim of ultra rightwing forces within UMNO in a manmanlai hope to secure as many Chinese and Indian sympathy votes as possible, or convince Chinese and Indians to 'help' poor Ah Jib Gor against UMNO rightwing forces, for as Gunasegaram mentioned, every vote will count, ...

c'mon MCA and Gerakan, own up, which one of you organized this, wakakaka

... while his UMNO colleagues (or sifu, wakakaka) assures (and secures) the Heartland that all's well and eight bells under a Hang Tuah-ish UMNO, though Najib couldn't help but also sneak in a visit to Gaza, just to shore up his Islamic-Muslim pro-Arab credentials, wakakaka.

If so, then it's a brilliant pincer attack which would have earned the admiration of the Carthaginian general Hannibal (or at least his soul).

Hannibal

Hannibal conducted such a pincer attack at the Battle of Cannae in 216 BCE to defeat the Romans, which military historians considered to be the first successful execution of the movement and one of history's greatest battlefield manoevres.

Battle of Cannae

Anyway, a week ago Debra Chong of The Malaysian Insider further illuminated our understanding of race in politics with her article For Pakatan, Election 2013 not a stroll in the park. She informed us about a Merdeka Centre survey which polled the preference of virgin (first time) voters, providing findings as follows:

(a) Najib's popularity rating was recorded at 49% of polled sample, consisting of:

• 64% Indians approval
• 60% Malay approval

Alas, the article was less clear on the approval of Chinese virgin voters for Najib, stating instead that 60% of them were upset with poor Najib.

But I don't believe this can be directly translated into 40% Chinese virgin voters approving or liking him, wakakaka. That's the danger of misinterpreting survey results though a news article, unless the actual report is thoroughly examined. Thus I don't how many percent of Chinese first time voters approve of Ah Jib Gor but I dare say not many, wakakaka.

The 40% or 4%? wakakaka

(b) BN approval rating was only 41%, supporting the argument that Najib is far more popular than his team. Maybe his Sun Tze-ing has paid off, wakakaka.

(c) Now this aspect of the survey is far more important. It's about what the first time voters consider as important issues, which obviously will influence their voting preferences.

The survey said the young Chinese were most concerned about corruption, while young Malays were about race and religion. Alas, this may upset Uthayakumar but the TMI article didn't say anything about Indian concerns.

If the Chinese sampling expressed they were most concerned about corruption, guess who then will they be voting for? Wakakaka.

But the most illuminating revelation from the survey has been that of half of the first-time (Peninsula) Malay voters polled. These virgin voters said they would no longer swallow scaremongering about their racial position being encroached upon by other ethnic groups, BUT they would still want to see politicians debate Malay and equality rights than talk about living costs or corruption ...

... which is the same as saying they are still very concerned about their rights and religion than cost of living or corruption, etc.

Does this mean they are more likely to continue swallowing the UMNO-Perkasa propaganda of the Yellow Peril being at the gates and breaking them down, in spite of their claim not to swallow cock & bull story from a bloke like Ibrahim Ali or numerous other UMNO mouthpieces?

And gnam gnam, we see a current exploitation of this concern as reported by TMI's article Friday sermon: ‘Enemies’ of Islam staking claim over ‘Allah’ to confuse Muslims where JAKIM told Muslims that "... being too open-minded and allowing Islamic rights to be abused by other religions was a dangerous act."

Oh dear oh dear, oh dearie me, the UMNO onslaught of Goebbels-ism is relentless.

Okay, so Dr Mahathir has got it right, and I suppose PAS too doesn't want to lose out on the Heartland votes. Thus screw the concerns of the Chinese.

But I opine there is a difference between UMNO and PAS vis-à-vis Chinese voters in GE-13.

UMNO knows it can no longer rely on or expect Chinese votes and has factored out any hopes for them. If Najib can manmanlai a few here and there, fine, those will be bonus points but not crucial to its election strategy.

But I understand PAS is dependent on these Chinese votes in, I was told, about 60 federal constituencies, where Chinese have traditionally not supported the Moon Party, but who it hopes this time, with the help of PKR and especially DAP, to manmanlai into voting the party through to Putrajaya.

If such is the case, then it is PAS rather than UMNO which is caught between the (Cina) Devil and the Deep Blue Green Sea.

But I doubt Uthayakumar will help them with his Hindraf force, wakakaka.