To Damascus

Once he was the ultimate anwarista, though not a violent one, au contraire a very refined gentleman, believing in the idealism of reformasi and in the World's Greatest Leader who like Moses would lead Malaysians out of the wilderness, a wilderness which the World's Greatest Leader himself was heavily involved in its creation.

Few could see the ironical duplicity of the World's Greatest Leader who wallowed for 16 glorious years in the cesspool of power without showing an iota of reformist proclivity, yet when expelled from that cesspool due to internal power struggle, metamorphosed overnight into the World's Greatest Reformer - and most certainly not our subject today, the once ultimate anwarista.

Whenever kaytee questioned His Most High and Almighty Brahma (the god with 4 faces, one for each constituency), the ultimate anwarista would plaintively cried at my blog "Why do you hate us?" 

Actually he was quite sincere in his bemusement, thinking how could it be possible for anyone not to believe in our Malaysian pseudo-Moses.

I once wrote/confessed that despite our gap in political leanings, at least vis-a-vis the pseudo-Moses (wakakaka) I like him, no not Moses wakakaka but the once ultimate anwarista.

He has been and still is a nice earnest young man who was sincere in the politics he believed in, and in the man he reckoned would delivered on 916 ..... 

..... and such was his faith in the pseudo-Moses that he (and sweetie but then-silly Hannah Yeoh) actually supported the 916 Deformasi, a classic case of a notorious attempt to oppress the supremacy of the ballot box, which was masked, packaged and spun away convincingly as a greater good for the rakyat, as we are still hearing today on the malodorous Kajang Conspiracy, one sadly and disappointingly coming out of the mouth of Rafizi Ramli, who I will treat from now on with a Pordah!

The once-ultimate anwarista, once fearing that his wonderful Great Leader might even be assassinated, had written rather appealingly:

One controversial option to forestall any such drastic measures by the powers-that-be is for Malaysians to push for a change of government – either by crossovers, or calling for a snap general election, a potential last resort for BN, which is good for democracy, but unlikely to forestall the ruling coalition's demise.

He like sweetie silly Hannah Yeoh couldn't understand why AAB with 140 parliamentary seats won't give way to the Great Leader with 82 seats, or to call for another election immediately after 05 March 2008. Maybe both didn't do well in mathematics at school though graduating brilliantly from universities.

Yes, he was justifying and asking the public to support the insidious political frog-hunting which the World's Greatest Political Reformer had successfully demonstrated as his specialty in Sabah in 1994, when he turned Pairin from democratically elected CM into opposition leader with just a few croaks, yes, that disgraceful deformasi subversion of the ballot box to seize power via the grubby back door.

He apologetically rationalized (perhaps attempting to fool his own conscience and values): While less than ideal, these remain some of the few ways we can avoid a descent into chaos and desperation within BN, and by extension within Malaysia.

How did he (and Hannah Yeoh) ever come to support the most defomasi 916 when both are known to good clean earnest young people?

I have to refer to the fave author of the Great Leader for a quote to explain, as follows:

... Hie thee hither, that I may pour my spirits in thine ear, and chastise with the valour of my tongue all that impedes thee from the golden round ... (Shakespeare's Macbeth 1.5.25-28)

In those lines we are told that the ambitious Lady Macbeth, who wants to be Queen, said the above to persuade her husband to ‘rise above his goodness and accept her evil ways’ if he wanted to succeed.

Were they both so spellbound as to ‘rise above their goodness and accept the Great Leader's evil ways’ in order to get rid of the UMNO-led government?

There have been times I felt sad that a bright young man (and a bright young woman like Hannah Yeoh) could be so easily bewitched by a snake oil salesman who will promise anyone anything so long as it serves His Brahma-ic Majesty to ascend the political throne.

Last night while sipping my wine and browsing through Malaysiakini I gasped and nearly allowed my wine glass to slip through my trembling hands when I read of the once-ultimate anwarista doing what I thought was virtually impossible, his road to Damascus recorded in script.

On the road to Damascus it was revealed what I must do.
On the road to Damascus I saw evil I must undo.

- Kathleen a Nazarene [2 line extracts]

Hallelujah! And please ring all the temple bells.

So I invite you to please read Malaysiakini's The dearth of transparency and democracy in PKR, the story of Nathaniel Tan's 'Road to Damascus'.

As some of you may not have access to worthwhile Malaysiakini, I'll take the liberty of producing some extracts of Nat's writeup, as follows:

For years I defended Anwar Ibrahim. For years I defended PKR. I defended and I defended, until the day came where it became impossible to defend the indefensible. [...]

Many people are throwing about words like ‘tactics’, ‘strategy’, ‘Mahathirism’, ‘racial and religious incitement’, ‘strengthening Pakatan Rakyat’, etc, etc.

I’ll spend a few words on all those later, but for my money, they have nothing to do with the most important implication of what is going on.

To me, the real problem pivots on how Anwar and his associates are running PKR in a manner that is completely bereft of transparency, accountability and democratic principles.

Let’s carry out a simple thought exercise: How did the decision to carry out the Kajang plan come about?

I don’t know, do you?

Many have speculated (myself included), many claim it happened one way or another, but the truth is: nobody outside the nebulous ‘inner circle’ has any idea.

That's the 'inner coterie' in PKR, the most supreme of supreme kitchen cabinet in that party.

PKR has a large supreme council that is mostly democratically elected, and a smaller political bureau. Can we say with confidence that members of both were given an opportunity to voice their opinions, much less be made fully aware of what was going on? Are there official minutes perhaps, that we might refer to?

Beyond PKR, there are the leaders of PAS and DAP, and there are the representatives of the Selangor State Assembly - all democratically elected as representatives by party members, and by the rakyat.

How many of them had a say in the decision that would so heavily influence who would be the number one person in the Selangor state government? Were there broad consultations among party leaders, elected representatives, and (God forbid) the rakyat? Or was it presented to the world as a fait accompli?

The day Lee Chin Cheh resigned his seat in Kajang, someone theoretically in the top 10 ranking of PKR leaders messaged me, saying: “I guess I’m always the last to know. Sigh”

If he/she is the last to know, what more the rest of us?

This is the latest - and by my reckoning the last straw - in a culture of cloak and dagger politics within PKR that for too long now has circumvented transparency and democracy in favour of whispered deals made in backrooms that no one is privy to.

I suppose it was stupid of us to expect democracy from a party whose ‘de facto leader’ has no democratic mandate whatsoever.

Hallelujah again!

These issues have not been the focus of public attention, but in my mind, the implications of this style of politics continuing to spiral out of control is the most significant factor in the entire crisis. [...]

I won't say 'I told you so' to Nat Tan, for nothing now can equal his hurt at the ultimate betrayal ... of his innocent idealism in believing in refomasi.

But there's more in the Malaysiakini article which I won't extract any further as Steven Gan may not be too happy.

You know, once a famous American said wisely:

You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.

Gong Xi Fa Cai, Nat, see John 8:32.

And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

GONG XI FA CAI

Wishing all Malaysians a happy, safe and healthy Year of the Horse - Keong Hee Huat Chye - Kong Hei Fatt Choy!

Kajang Sate

The word 'sate' in my post title is not an Indonesian spelling for 'satay' but an English word, pronounced as 'seyt'. It means 'to fill to excess; surfeit; glut'.

Perhaps a better equivalent word would be 'satiate' which means 'to supply with anything to excess, so as to disgust or weary', wakakaka, and I'm sure by now you get my 'sate' stick vis-a-vis Kajang.

In my previous post The Chaos that is PKR I wrote that Lee Chin Cheh of PKR has by his totally indefensible and unwarranted resignation from being ADUN for the Kajang state constituency (N25) betrayed kau kau the Kajang voters' trust, confidence in and expectation of him.

Bloke was elected by Kajang-ites to be their state representative, their 'voice' in the Selangor DUN (state parliament), just a mere 8 months ago. Now he has abandoned them.

Kajang is just a first step in our quest towards world domination

As Azmin Ali said, you Kajang-ites should be 'GRATEFUL' a world class
politician like Anwar Ibrahim sees fit to step into your satay town

To those 19,571 people who voted for us in May 2013, well don't change now
or you'll all look bloody stupid, and will also show your 'UNGRATEFULNESS'

And just for what did he resign and mess up the political peace and tranquility of Kajang?

For the personal interests of some PKR warlords!

Yes, I view Lee's politically drastic move, a gross betrayal of Kajang-ites, had been just for the personal ambitions and gratifications of PKR warlords! His party! A party affair! F**k the rakyat!

Look mateys, everyone knows that Lee's resignation has been related to PKR's intra-party political-fratricidal internecine feud between Khalid Ibrahim and Azmin Ali.

The bull about Lee's resignation from and Anwar Ibrahim's contesting of the Kajang state seat that comes out from PKR mouths have been of brain-baffling balderdash poppycock, indeed of Gargantuan proportions, .....

..... telling and expecting us, like country bumpkins who naively believe in our leaders, to swallow the bull dust that PKR, by resigning from the Kajang state seat and then re-contesting that same seat, will (perhaps by the combined power of Odin, Zeus and Osiris) strengthen or save Pakatan in Selangor (both versions exist), prepare Pakatan for Putrajaya, promote international investment (WTF then has Anwar been doing as Selangor's economic advisor?), prepare Pakatan from Armageddon when Mahathir ousts Najib, resurrect the Dodo bird, Formosan clouded leopard and Tasmanian tiger, and allow us to contact the ghosts of Nelson Mandela, Princess Diana and Mat Kilau for 4-Ekor (the last will definitely be a fave with Chinese voters in Kajang, wakakaka).

go on, punt on 916
I know 916 is bull to Malaysians but then poo can be fertilizing.
Some people have even congratulated the 'cleverness' of the Kajang betrayal
as a brilliant move to distract from the Allah-word issue
which proves some people will not only swallow bull dust
but acclaim its fragrant sweetness

wakakaka

And I've to say I'm disappointed with and ashamed of Rafizi Ramli, a man with the talent and potential to be PM one day, for being part of this PKR selfish self-interest self-gratifying circus.

The thing is and let's not pretend we don't know it, we were spared all these PKR bullsh*t until, yes, UNTIL someone was knocked out of PKNS, and this is a time-mark fact!

But even then, that was only a much latter event to earlier attempts to fill Khalid shoes which were far too big for the Døkkálfar Dwarf.

There has been even a tale (visit Malaysia-Today and read this) about someone 'martyring' himself (of a contrived kind of course, wakakaka) so as to bring the feud to a ferocious boil and exert pressure on Khalid Ibrahim.

The Kajang manouevre is just but another step in this pressure on Khalid Ibrahim.

Even Lim GE and Hadi Awang were left out in the cold, indicating it has been/is solely a PKR game, an intra-party power struggle, where for someone to achieve his wet dreams, a lot of people including Pakatan allies and especially the Kajang voters have been, are and will be f**ked around kau kau.

PKR treats me like mushroom,
you know, keep me in the dark and feed me 916 (bullshit)

After reading RPK's THE IMPENDING SELANGOR CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS and of the sleaze it tells us, it sh*ts me that DAP Selangor is still supportive of the machinations of PKR's inner coterie. What's f**king wrong with you Tony Pua?

But in contrast to DAP, I am glad that PAS has drawn a line in the sand with respect to Anwar's antics.

To be frank I don't believe Anwar Ibrahim really wants to be MB of Selangor. As I mentioned in my previous post The Chaos that is PKR that:

Anwar Ibrahim is a big-time politician who yearns for, seeks out and can only thrive in big-picture politics at either the national (federal) or international level.

To use an analogy, this man is a big shark of the high seas and not an ikan keli swimming in a longkang. You can't put him in a padi irrigation canal or a home-type fish tank and then expect him to flourish.

aiyah, Kajang is so ikan bilis satay to me
but when I'm deprived every teeny weeny lil' bit counts

If I believe Anwar doesn't want to be MB of Selangor, then WTF is it all about?

Now, notwithstanding his declaration that he won't go for the MB post (or PAS will be mighty pissed off before the by-election, and we can't have that, can we?) there are 3 possibilities following his Kajang move and hope-for victory in the by-election:

(i) Ousts Khalid Ibrahim by Taichi* or Shaolin, becomes MB and promotes Azmin Ali to deputy MB, with the latter effectively the de facto MB running Selangor, all but in name (of MB), while Mr Manmanlai swims away to the high seas of national-level and international politics.

* see my post The Tai Chi Master

(ii) As an ADUN or even exco member but PKR de facto leader, breathes down heavily on MB Khalid Ibrahim's neck, somehow promotes Azmin to be deputy MB with same subsequent happenings as above, and possibly with Khalid Ibrahim as the Malaysian version of the Japanese enthroned Emperor of Manchukuo.

(iii) Oust Khalid and install Azmin as MP, and to f**ks with PAS and you-know-who!!!

To summarize, all these brouhaha and gross insult to Kajang-ites by PKR have been to serve one PKR leader, and he is NOT Anwar Ibrahim! Even the Great One must serve him!

And that is why someone has been smiling like The Cheshire Cat!

"I'm afraid I have to expel a rather ferocious hairball"
(you know, the bloke who doesn't like combs, wakakaka)

I predict that PAS will break away from Pakatan if Khalid Ibrahim is forced out from his state appointment and the PAS' candidate Iskandar Abdul Samad doesn't get to replace him as MB. This is the line I mentioned that PAS has drawn in the sand for Anwar to see .....

..... and we have arrive at such a stage because of the personal interests of one bloke (not Anwar).

There's an English proverbial rhyme about 'For Want of a Nail' that may in a certain way suit this stupid sorry saga with the potential to disintegrate Pakatan, if amended to read 'For want of commonsense'.

But given that it may possibly affect PKR internally and Pakatan generally, perhaps it may be timely to instead quote extracts from the Poetic Edda referring to Ragnarok, the Armageddon of Norse mythology, which informs us of the parlous state of humanity, especially among family members, in the aftermath of the gods' (or PKR warlords') final battle:

Brothers will fight

and kill each other,

sisters' children

will defile kinship.

It is harsh in the world,

whoredom rife

—an axe age, a sword age

—shields are riven

—a wind age, a wolf age—

before the world goes headlong.

No man will have

mercy on another.

..... and won't that just make UMNO happy because the lamentable thing about the current poisonous state of affairs in Parti Kaos Raka (PKR) is that it may infect Pakatan Rakyat.

Putrajaya my bloody foot, lu taan koo koo ler!


Addendum (30 Jan 2014):

BolehTalk - Kajang folks, be bloody grateful!

The Chaos that is PKR

Let's leave the pigs, pork and kangkung of Pet of the God Seth the Lord of Chaos aside for a while and venture into Selangor where a different darker ancient history of Chaos exists wakakaka and which is currently in turbulent truculent turmoil.

First, read TMI's:

(a) Kajang assemblyman says his resignation will strengthen Pakatan Rakyat and

(b) PAS, DAP lawmakers split on PKR candidate for Kajang by-election

It's all good and well for Lee Chin Cheh to say his resignation as ADUN for Kajang is for the good of Pakatan Rakyat and would strengthen the coalition's position in Selangor ... but hasn't he by his unjustified action messed around with the Kajang voters' trust in him, having elected him as their representative just a mere 8 months ago. 

In the final analysis, what is really the purpose of his politically drastic move, if not for just the personal ambitions and gratifications of PKR warlords!

Let's not mince words in that Lee's resignation has quite a bit to do with PKR's difficulties with Khalid Ibrahim as MB and the latter's intra-party feud with Azmin Ali.

While I don't trust Azmin Ali an iota, I have to admit that the other party, namely Khalid Ibrahim, has not been politically as snow white as we might have wished for, though he is certainly still popular with the public, the very opposite of his bête noire, wakakaka.

From my personal perception, Khalid Ibrahim has gradually metamorphosed from being a not-very-politically-conscious MB (which was both his weakness and his strength) to being a MB who, alas, believes he is answerable to only one person, ...

... and that person is not Anwar Ibrahim wakakaka or Dr Wan Azizah or the collective ADUNs of Pakatan, the representatives of the rakyat of Selangor.

I sense that somehow, perhaps in his business-corporate success for the state in amassing huge amount of assets and his consequential new-found 'enlightenment' wakakaka, he unconsciously became detached from the body politics proper - see my post Royal president Khalid Ibrahim?

In that post, I discussed how Khalid was right royally (wakakaka) chewed out by Gobind Singh Deo for saying he the MB 'listens to criticisms from the people more than from party leaders and politicians'.

Gobind said Khalid had made a 'very serious statement, which may have serious consequences', referring to Khalid's pompous but incorrect understanding of the parliamentary process, where ADUNs, the rakyat's elected representatives, rather than his so-called and totally unspecified 'people', should be listened to, at least officially.

Gobind then twisted the Westminster doctrinal knife into Khalid a bit more by adding that 'Khalid must not take things for granted. I ask him to respond and clarify matters', wakakaka!

In my post Killing Khalid softly ..... I wrote:

Incidentally, Khalid is, as I was informed, currently riding high in HRH's estimates, which may explain what I perceive as his lack of usual deference to his old sponsor, Anwar Ibrahim, wakakaka, and his unusual arrogance towards other Pakatan component parties. Nowadays he is seen to be MB-ing with an unusual blustering confidence. For more, read Selangor saga shows PKR's ketuanan mentality?

And that may explain what I wrote in my post Khalid Ibrahim in political peril? in which I quoted Anwar saying (only as claimed by an unnamed PKR source who you all know, wakakaka):

“I am not in a position to defend the MB anymore. There is no discussion, no consideration, he thinks it is his state, he is in control.”

“No one knows his stand, he does not refer to anyone, no one knows ... So we have a problem.”

“There is no discussions on the water issue. I do not know (about it), I have to read the papers (to keep track of developments).”

“The Allah issue also, I do not know anything about it until today. Nothing!"

If the above have been true, then Anwar has effectively withdrawn his support for Khalid Ibrahim, a man he had personally persuaded to leave the corporate world to join his PKR.

While not denying that Khalid Ibrahim has to an extent been politically naive and as Gobind Singh Deo took pains to point out, pompously incorrect in his more recent mindset, he is in the end not a bad bloke or MB.

Anwar Ibrahim counselling him would have been the more appropriate and better course of action, but then PKR's aim seems more to remove him from the MB position than to make him a better MB. It's a bloody waste of talent but that's the dirty-ness of intra-party politics, more so than the inter-party variety, where domination (and taking sides) beats talent anytime.

sorry lah, have to support him, that bloke, hope you'll understand

wakakaka

Thus Khalid's rather abrupt loss of support from Anwar depicts (most lamentably) the real power in PKR ..... as was also hurtfully discovered by Zaid Ibrahim, Ezam (once AI's right hand man), Kalla (once AI's best buddy), Gobala (once AI's most devoted supporter), Jeffrey Kitingan, etc etc etc, showing that being AI's whatever-man won't save the person once the real Force in PKR decides on his or her fate!

With Anwar's withdrawal of his support, Khalid's political position has turned fatal. So it wasn't surprising to read TMI informing us that The Star has reported Khalid agreeing to resign as the MB in the near future, and is expected to announce his decision on Wednesday (tomorrow?).

Whatever, the depth, degree and direness of the unmitigated acrimony in PKR's internal feud have been such that the party couldn't even wait until Khalid Ibrahim makes his announcement to exit the political arena, but has taken the drastic action of persuading Lee to resign from his Kajang state seat ..... without an iota of respect and consideration for the people of the Kajang state constituency.

Alas, impatience has been a notable and sad element in PKR's leadership, one which I opined had lost Anwar Ibrahim his prime-ministership on the very eve of his ascendancy - see my post The torment and impatience of Anwar Ibrahim.

I just hope for Pakatan's sake this current and unjustified impatience to hasten the ouster (and perhaps even humiliation) of Khalid Ibrahim by having Lee resigned so as to facilitate a new PKR candidacy for MB will not cause PKR another humongous loss.

It's of course too much to dream of getting the member for Bukit Antarabangsa to resign instead, wakakaka, which would probably have brought greater peace and stability to PKR and thus to Pakatan.

Now, if Anwar Ibrahim is as rumoured slated to stand for election in Lee's vacated state seat, and he subsequently wins and is then nominated by Pakatan to be the new MB of Selangor, his candidacy may well encounter problems with HRH as he is not a Selangorean (as neither is Azmin Ali).

I'm not sure about the constitutionality of such a requirement for a MB of a sultanate state to be a person born in that state, but I reckon it might be a political-state convention, perhaps imposed for decades by the HRH of every sultanate state. Perhaps our constitutional expert Prof Bari may have something to say on this.

But even if there's nothing in the state or federal constitution to require this, HRH may play mighty hard ball as we witnessed previously in both Perlis and Terengganu post 2008 elections, and in the process perhaps shake up and/or destabilize the Pakatan state government.

It has been popularly touted that Dr Mahathir had de-fanged the rulers, but lately the rulers have, like lizards do with their lost tails, regrown their fangs as well as claws, wakakaka.

So can Anwar (or Rafizi Ramli) bulldoze his MB candidacy through despite possible objection (rejection) by HRH? That would be something to see, wakakaka.

Secondly, let me just say this (again as my personal opinion): I don't believe Anwar Ibrahim will make a good MB as both his personal character and his ambitions don't equip him well to handle small-picture politics, and small-picture politics is what a MB of a state will be involved with.

Anwar Ibrahim is a big-time politician who yearns for, seeks out and can only thrive in big-picture politics at either the national (federal) or international level.

To use an analogy, this man is a big shark of the high seas and not an ikan keli swimming in a longkang. You can't put him in a padi irrigation canal or a home-type fish tank and then expect him to flourish.

He will get bored with the administration of state issues and in all probability, hand over his MB duties to 'someone' wakakaka - perhaps all very gnam gnam for a party that indulges in de facto-ism, wakakaka.

Okay then, the other PKR name being touted to replace Khalid Ibrahim as the MB of Selangor is whiz kid Rafizi Ramli. I opine Rafizi will not be a good choice as he is:

(a) far too important to be tied down with the issues of one state when he is more useful and required at federal level politics as we have been fortunate to witness, all to Rafizi's credit and growing reputation (he is a likely future PM, more so than the putative Princess Reformasi). Being required in both federal and state roles (the latter as a very involved state MB) will be too much of a burden for young Rafizi and will also dilute his input at both levels, and

(b) far too young and junior compared to some senior and very capable PAS ADUNs like Saari Sungib, who told TMI that PKR cannot ignore PAS and DAP on Lee's replacement as the choice will affect the Selangor Pakatan government, more so if Lee's replacement will be proposed as the new MB.

No doubt this has been a subtle warning from PAS that it too can exert its equal claim to the MB-ship, and that's not an unfair ask as PAS after all has 15 ADUNs compared to PKR's 14 (now 13).

Will PKR's arrogant heedlessness of PAS' interests in Selangor be the beginning of a centrifugal effect on the future of Pakatan? It has the makings of an UMNO wet dream, wakakaka.

PKR's disregard of PAS' feelings about fair and equal (time) share of Selangor's MB-ship, has in many ways been due to its ciri2 ketuanan yang menonjol (wakakaka). Yes, PKR has an outrageous sense of proprietorship on the MB's position when PAS could well equally exert its claim/share of that position - see my post Selangor saga shows PKR's ketuanan mentality? wakakaka.

Now, of the three Pakatan partners, DAP has been rather (unusually) quiet and passive in this affair, merely saying Lee's resignation and thus replacement is up to PKR, which of course is correct on an inter-party basis.

But one cannot help but wonder whether DAP's seemingly meek nod to Lee's unnecessary resignation - when Khalid may be about to exit from the political arena (I doubt very much a man like him will want to remain as a PKR backbencher) - also extends to any PKR proposal for one of its ADUNs to be the rumoured new MB, whether this be Anwar, Azmin or Rafizi (aside from HRH's approval)?

Again I wonder whether it's due to its lack of preparedness or even keenness for a PAS ADUN to become the new MB for Selangor, unlike its implicit acceptance of Salahuddin Ayub's designation as the Pakatan 2013 MB of Johor but which expectation didn't materialize as UMNO managed to hold on to that state.

The 2008 case in Perak was different because it didn't have much of a say in the selection of the state MB when it was presented with the state regent's (Raja Nazrin) choice of Nizar Jamaluddin as a fait accompli, but which however proved to be delightfully serendipitous.

In the current religiously inflammable brouhaha, I wonder whether DAP is musing (hypothetically speaking of course, wakakaka): 'WTF, none of our Selangor ADUNs can be the MB, and as PKR will probably provide religiously the less difficult (new) MB, let's back and accept the PKR's candidate notwithstanding its annoying ketuanan nature. It'll be the lesser of two evils.' [wakakaka].

... unless HRH shocks all of us by declaring DAP can nominate a non to be MB, wakakaka. Now, won't that just put the cat among the pigeons, wakakaka.

Finally, in this perhaps somewhat (I concede) arrogant Pakatan-centric discussion, we may have forgotten that BN is hardly likely to stay out of the by-election for the Kajang state seat which must be held within 60 days of the EC being informed of Lee's resignation.

Last year, Lee obtained 19,571 votes to defeat his clansman Lee Ban Seng of BN who received 12,747 votes, with a winning majority of 6824. It's certainly a daunting majority for BN to overcome but what if BN poured all its resources plus plus (wakakaka) to achieve a moral* victory, then how many more PKR ADUNs will have to resign until PKR's Chosen One can win in the by-election?

* Pakatan holds 44 of the 56 Selangor state seats so a loss in Kajang won't change the Pakatan state government but will inflict enormous loss of morale among Pakatan people and provide a boost for UMNO and Najib.

Najib is known for his far greater cunning than anyone in PKR, inclusive of the Døkkálfar Dwarf wakakaka, and thus always poses a clear and present danger to Pakatan as he did some years ago in Perak. Why provide an opening in Kajang for him? 

Addendum:

(1) TMI - Barisan will contest in Kajang by-election, says Muhyiddin

(2) TMI - I don’t know what’s happening in Selangor, says Guan Eng

(3) FMT - PAS mahu tuntut kerusi MB jika Khalid turun - wakakaka!

(4) MKINI - PAS sees red, Youth mulls Kajang polls boycott

Pet of the God Seth

Once upon a time (wakakaka), long long long ago, indeed very very long ago, more than 6 thousand years ago, way way before 4000 BCE, in the ancient land of Pharaonic Egypt, someone was found guilty on a mistaken identity or by association.

That someone was a pig! And he was found guilty of being an animal that was sacred to Seth, the Lord God of Chaos, Confusion, Storms, Wind and Desert, among other things.

Not exactly a nice bloke, so no one dared to mess around with him or his sacred animals, among which was the hippopotamus, which was at times mistaken for poor piggy and which was why piggy got itself elevated to being Seth's sacred animal.

Thus the ancient Egyptians won't eat piggy, and so the Hebrews, who adopted many of ancient Egyptian customs like circumcision, matriarchal lineage, written script* and of course monotheism, also adopted the no-pork eating observation.

* while the general scholarly position thus far has been that the Hebrew script came from the Phoenicians, some have asserted that it was from the ancient Egyptians, who possessed three types of scripts, namely hieroglyphs, hieratic and demotic.

In a delightful book titled In the Devil’s Garden: A Sinful History of Forbidden Food Stewart Lee Allen the author informed us that:

Historians fancy the notion that Jewish pig phobia stems from their stint as slaves in Egypt during the time when the cult of the god Seth held pigs to be exalted beasts.

This may also explain the curious reports that certain Jewish cults used to have secret pork feasts once a year. According to scholar Frederick Simoons, when Seth was overthrown, his beloved spareribs became taboo for Egyptians, save for a yearly feast held at the full moon, a habit some Jews might have picked up.

Why the full moon? Because the original sacred animal was not the pig, but the similar-looking hippo, which according to ancient Egyptian belief, lived on the Moon. Hippos live on the Moon? Well, yes; the idea is that while some Pharaoh was meditating on the full moon reflected on the Nile, a hippo emerged from the reflection ...

I wonder whether by chance Islam had adopted Judaism's dietary restriction on the pig? If so, I again wonder whether the above discussion on Judaism could in some ways provide some background 'for' (not 'to') the several brouhaha's today, about:

(a) the rather sad attention-seeking pair, the bah-kut-teh Alvivi sweethearts, and

(b) the current topic on the Malaysian version of New York Times showing pig faces in a photo being blacked out - see Malaysian Printer Blacks Out Faces Of Pigs On The Cover Of The New York Times.

original photo

Malaysian edition photo

In the past we discussed other piggy issues, as follows:

(1) Pig & Prejudice
(2) Piggy Politics
(3) A pig of a problem (2)
(4) A pig of a problem (3)
(5) Pigs, politics, polemics, pollution, propaganda, profits
(6) Pigs: "Stop misusuing us for your sinister religious agenda!"
(7) Cats versus Pigs - Which go first?

and

(8) BolehTalk's The Pig on Noah's Ark.

In the wake of spicy stir-fried chillie-belacan kangkung, where PKR pollies showed they are as defiant as Fr Lawrence Andrew, wakakaka, but sadly without giving a thought to the ordinary people who may become collateral damage to their hubris, I would imagine pigs, pork, piggery and pai-kuat-cha* would right now be marvellous material for politics, politicians and processed prejudice!

* that's in Canto, and is better known in Hokkien as bah-kut-teh

We have already discussed above why the ancient Hebrews and their descendants the Israelites, Judeans and Jews, won’t eat pork, that it's all because of an Egyptian god named Seth which was represented by a hippopotamus or a pig! Many Hebrews had adopted the worship of Egyptian gods.

Indeed, we are informed by Professor Baruch Halpern, who holds the Chaiken Family Chair in Jewish Studies, in his book David’s Secret Demons: Messiah, Murderer, Traitor, King, ...

... that the Hebrews had other gods beside Yahweh, including his consort Ashtoreth, though no deeply religious Jew or Christian is likely to accept Halpern's revelation, in the same manner no devout Christian would ever believe Jesus was married even though he was a rabbi, where only a married man could be a rabbi.

Ashtoreth

Thus, we shouldn't be surprised about the Hebrews and Israelites worshiping many gods including Egyptian ones like Seth.

Regarding the above, 2 Kings 23:11-14 (KJV) tell us about King Josiah's action:

11 And he took away the horses that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entering in of the house of theLord, by the chamber of Nathanmelech the chamberlain, which was in the suburbs, and burned the chariots of the sun with fire.

12 And the altars that were on the top of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord, did the king beat down, and brake them down from thence, and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron.

13 And the high places that were before Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had builded for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Zidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the children of Ammon, did the king defile.

14 And he brake in pieces the images, and cut down the groves*, and filled their places with the bones of men.

* the word 'grove' in the Bible means a wooden image, or a pillar representing Ashtoreth, a sensual Canaanitish goddess (and said by Professor Baruch Halpern to be the consort of Yahweh), probably usually set up in a grove

Ashtoreth

Incidentally, Josiah was notorious as the Taliban-like King of the Judeans. He became so after his high priest Hilkiah 'accidentally' (wakakaka) found a scroll known as the 'Book of Laws of Yahweh by the hands of Moses' while clearing the temple's treasure room which apparently had laid untouched/unseen for eons (wakakaka), until of course Hilkiah by chance 'came across' it (wakakaka).

The scroll was 'claimed' (wakakaka) to have been handed by Moses over to Joshua before the latter invaded Canaan.

Apparently the scroll threatened the Judeans with divine calamities if its laws were not followed, and a worried Josiah went about smashing everything up including altars and worship established by his ancestors including Solomon. His fave actions were executing priests (of course not those allied to Hilkiah, wakakaka) and exhuming dead ones so as to burn their bones - he was one frightening Taliban-ish freak. He effectively started a new extreme form of Judaism.

King Josiah and his Judeans, the original Talibans

But he was killed by Pharaoh Necho II when the latter went to support the Assyrians against the Babylonians. Josiah under the incorrect assessment that the Egyptians were weak tried to stop them at Megiddo. Apparently Necho gave Josiah a strange message via an envoy (2 Chronicles 35:21):

"What have I to do with thee, thou king of Judah? I come not against thee this day, but against the house wherewith I have war: for God commanded me to make haste: forbear thee from meddling with God, who is with me, that he destroy thee not."

Josiah refused to give way, and was killed by the Egyptian. The reason the Judeans gave for his death was that he ignored god's instructions as provided by Necho II. This was the strangeness I mentioned in Necho's message to Josiah: "... for God commanded me to make haste: forbear thee from meddling with God, who is with me, that he destroy thee not."

Pharaoh Necho II

Now, which or whose god was it that Necho mentioned, the Egyptian god or the Judean's Yahweh, or were they the same god for both?

Anyway, one could argue that the trouble started when Noah took on board a pair each of pigs, rabbits, camels, hares, etc. But one can't help but wonder why in the first place would god allow these non-kosher (haram) creatures to embark on the ark? You tell me!

This brings us finally to Malaysiakini's Netizens greet censorship of pigs with dismay.

I don't know whether to be amused by or annoyed with some of the comments regarding the blackening out of the pigs' faces, such as (just a small sampling):

"Later, people would accidentally eat pigs because they don’t know how pigs look like, ain’t it?"

"Like cats, pigs too have the right to have their photos taken to show their cuteness."

"Take it in good faith. The pig’s face is censored because it does not want its identity to be exposed. Privacy must be respected, even that of animals."

"Pig’s faces go censored. This is belittling God’s creation. Pigs are God’s creation too!"

Some of those comments were made by Malays (Malay names anyway), and there's even one which blamed PKR, wakakaka, as follows:

"It takes one of the online portals to play up the babi issue and voila! People will forget about the Japanese flag stomping. Well played."

Frankly, was there even a necessity to comment on the silliness or over-cautiousness of the local publisher of the New York Times? Somehow I find the reactions to that silliness perhaps even more silly. There's a Penang saying about this: Chnea paah boe soo choe! (translated loosely, it means 'aren't there better things to do?')

But I think the current political climate is indeed what we fear, where anything on the other side that now moves, breathes, or even stay still to play dead, will be hentam kau kau for political gains [sigh], so kangkung move aside please.