Raja Bodek of Manchuko takes bus ride

A few days ago, my Penang kinfolk, Akhbar (no last name please) wrote to me – yes lau peng yu, I haven’t forgotten nor ignored you – I had a bit too much on my hands then.

Akhbar questioned Raja Bodek’s too-ready acquiescence to AAB’s awarding of the Penang non-transport system to RapidKL - sheesh, he virtually stumbled forward to kiss the hands of the Sleeping Non-Beauty, as Akhbar named the later.

It seems that Raja Bodek abdicated his authority as well as abandoned his promise to representatives from Citizens for Public Transport (Cepat) at a meeting last year that the new tender for bus operations in the state would be opened to local operators.

Hardly surprising for a tok ampu like Raja Bodek, but blame Penangites for being idiots in voting for him - BTW, I'm a Penangite too and very ashamed of my Island kinfolks for supporting Raja Bodek - but if they come to their senses, they may yet have a second chance, pretty soon.

He was said to have requested for RapidKL to take over the bus services. As Chubby Checker said: "How low can you go!"

Akhbar has been pissed off because Raja Bodek had acted as if Penang does not have the expertise to run the bus business profitably.

Once upon a dignified time, long before Raja Bodek appeared on the scene (of course), Penangites ran four bus services that served the Island effectively. Many old-timers mourned the disappearance of the Green, Blue, Yellow and even the plodding Beige.

Save OurSelves (SOS) secretary Ong Boon Keong said RapidKL’s entrance exposed the weakness and cringe of the Raja Bodek's party in the state government, whom most Penangites know to be nothing more than just a puppet administration dancing to the UMNO strings.

Ong said sadly what Akhbar had lamented: "When the state government can't do its job, it gives up its control to the federal government. It's a total surrender of the Penang people's right to control and operate their own transport system."

Ong "We have given up state control over the sewage system, water supply and now buses" while of course, Raja had long given up control of his ... er ... dhoti (cawat).

But Akhbar smelled a rat besides a cringing giant-keris-waving Raja. He even paraphrased Shakespeare’s Hamlet by stating: “Hey, I smell something rotten in the state of Penang.”

He asked some pertinent questions:

1. Who will they be buying the buses from? Would it be, for example, M-trans, a Scomi subsidiary?

2. If so, is the Raja Bodek’s ‘request’ for RapidKL to take over a ‘bunga emas’* set-up?

* a traditional tribute by a subordinate ruler to a superior ruler

In other words, was Raja Bodek trying to please ‘someone’ to protect as well as consolidate his iffy position in view of the coming elections?

Could it have been a trade-off with Taikoh* to preserve his Manchuko-ish throne?

you tell me if it's not Raja Bodek minus glasses

Wiki photo of ruler of Manchuko

Akhbar also wondered about the federal financing of RM50 million for the RapidKL takeover including the monorail project? Bruder, don’t forget the beneficiary of PORR as well?

Since Akhbar had paraphrased Shakespeare's Hamlet, let me paraphrase King Henry II's words: "Who will for me vote out this obsequious puppet?"

Giving away Penang's family jewels

I have blogged on the fears of many (Chinese) Penangites that the next UMNO CM will be from UMNO.

UMNO has cleverly employed the old British colonial strategy of ‘divide and rule’ against Gerakan and MCA, allocating state seats to the BN component party that would each be less than UMNO’s in Penang. A wee gerrymandering didn’t go amiss either.

But hey, what’s there to fear about something that could happen when it has already happened – I am referring to the CM’s post being already occupied de facto by UMNO, because Raja Bodek is nothing more than a pathetic ponen patung (p**f*er puppet) – Jeez, I have exceeded my usual standards of using three descriptive words starting with the same letter whenever I am mad.

Take a look at the Penang family jewels (including Bodek's personal ‘family jewels’), which have being given away, yes, given away (not sold) to mostly UMNO-linked companies (information courtesy of the DAP via malaysiakini). Penangites, read and weep:

(1) Tanjung Pinang Development, an UMNO-linked company, has reclaimed 392ha in the Tanjung Tokong coastal area. The area would be turned into a new township over the next few years. Guess who gets the lollies?

(2) A 13.2ha plot of reclaimed land was given for free to IJM Bhd to develop a new residential-commercial hub, which will house condominiums and a Tesco hypermarket, in Jalan Udini, about 500m from the Penang Bridge. For free? Were we Penangites ever asked?

(3) The proposed Penang Outer Ring Road (PORR) concessionaire, Peninsular Metroworks Sdn Bhd, has been bestowed the rights to reclaim 100ha sea land along the Gurney Drive coastline. Also see also my previous posting Who benefits directly from PORR?

(4) Besides reclaimed land, an existing Penang Development Corporation-owned 300ha land in Batu Kawan was gifted to Abad Naluri Sdn Bhd, another UMNO-based company.

Lucky Abad Naluri sold half of the land to the Penang Turf Club for horse training and racing development. But who was the bloody tooth-less fairy? And people, 'fairy' is a correct description of the scum who has, in the words of Penangites, sng-keh-hoi.

So what’s left for the poor Penangites? According to the DAP’s state secretary Danny Law Heng Kiang, the state government is estimated to have only 80 ha of land on the island and 2,000 ha on the mainland for development purposes.

He lamented that as a state which faces severe land scarcity, Raja Bodek sits quietly while UMNO-linked companies have been gifted with reclaimed land, when those assets should have been developed for new townships to cater for the housing needs of the middle and lower income groups.

I haven’t included number (5) to the list of Bodek-ish abominations but you can guess what it is – clue, the missing No (5) is not a political but a religious abomination. Still clueless? Please read on.

This posting is for mob1900 who wrote and illustrated so succinctly about such an Indecent Betrayal that I was compelled to reconsider the question of Chastity belt - perhaps a use for it afterall?

Related:
A willing captive of UMNO?