Are some Malaysian employers mongrels?

You ain’t nothing but a hound dog, crying all the time
You said you was high classed, that was just a lie
You ain't never caught a rabbit and you ain't a friend of mine

- originally by Elvis Presley, now by Anwar Ibrahim to Khairy Jamaluddin

Hardly surprising that malaysiakini didn’t report this one, what with all the hi-profile news about (1) Anwar Ibrahim wanting to sue Khairy Jamaluddin for calling the former an agent of the Jews and (2) Information Minister Zainuddin Maidin stunning the Malaysian blogosphere by cooing a sweet ‘forgive and forget’ regarding Negarakuku rapper Wee Meng Chong – Zam said that Malaysians (meaning UMNO) should be magnanimous in accepting Wee’s apology about his MTV-style online video which mocked the national anthem – Uncle Zam said Wee’s faux pas was due to the latter’s ignorance

No, it was an al Jazeera report yesterday that again reminded us how bloody cruel some of us Malaysians have become.

Another Indonesian maid, Parsiti, alleged that her employer started kicking and beating her with a cane in May, just one month after she came to Malaysia. Parsiti revealed that her employer had kept her a virtual prisoner, apart from installing a closed-circuit television camera in the house to monitor her.

An Indonesian embassy official confirmed that Parsiti has swollen lips and a bruise on her left thigh.

Parsiti was so traumatised by the alleged physical abuses that she made a desperate escape from her employer’s residence. She climbed through the window of the 22nd storey condominium in Kuala Lumpur but had to be rescued by from the high ledge outside the 17th floor when she was stuck there. It was fortuitous a neighbour had spotted her climbing down from her employer’s apartment and alerted a security guard.

She is the second case of such a dramatic desperate and dangerous escape from an alleged abusive employer. A couple of months back, another Indonesian maid, Ceriyati Dapin, made the same form of escape by climbing out of the window of her employer's 15th floor apartment with a rope made of towels, sheets and clothes. You would have thought such escape aids were only in movies.

Irene Fernandez, director of Tenaganita, a migrant workers rights group based in Malaysia, said such incidents were ‘happening too often’. She accused the Malaysian and Indonesian governments of being indifferent to the plight of Indonesian maids who were getting a raw deal compared with Filipino domestic helpers.

But let’s leave aside the apathetic governments - ho hum, what's new.

Instead we need to ask ourselves: what sort of abuses would have driven these maids, working in a strange land, to such desperate measures to escape their employers? What sort of people are we Malaysians to treat our servants so cruelly as if we are some medieval feudal lords with sway of death or life over our 'slaves'?

If the above allegations are indeed true, I as a Malaysian feel terribly ashamed that we are a bunch of, no not hound dogs, but plain mongrels - pariah dogs to ill-treat a worker in such a draconian way because she so happened to be a foreigner.

MCA revamp - give us 'values' and not just 'faces'

Duke Ai: "May I ask what is the art of government?" Confucius: "The art of government simply consists in making things right, or putting things in their right places. When the ruler himself is 'right,' then the people naturally follow him in his right course."

- Confucius, Book of Ritual 27

In its news item, MCA on makeover mission before election, malaysiakini discussed the internal problem of the Barisan Nasional's Chinese-based party playing ‘musical chair’.

When Ong Ka Ting took over as president 5 years ago, he set a two-term policy as public office holders for MCA representatives to prevent monopolisation of the ministerial jobs by only a few incumbents. This seems encouraging though kaytee believes merely replacing old for new may in some ways be counterproductive to a political party building up a pool of ministerial or parliamentary experience.

The better aim should be to remove deadwood rather than replant a growing tree, unless of course the entire tree is already deadwood ;-)

Ong’s overt aim has been publicised as bringing in new blood to rejuvenate the party. The other possible and related aim could be to motivate new talents into the party, by holding out the prospects of ministerial positions for new and successful candidates. Afterall which bright spark wants to join a party to be just political secretary or economic advisor to a deadwood?

In the malaysiakini article about the MCA in serious overhaul mode, as demonstrated by the recent recruitment of new political (hi-profile) faces plus Ong’s latest speech touching on ‘retiring with honour’, the veterans have obviously been the targets of Ong’s renewal policy.

While his hint of ‘retiring with honour’ may have been meant as a polite warning to veterans to voluntarily retire or be axed as election candidates, the veterans may not be so accommodating as olde mangy lions still have some teeth left – ‘tis the old story of numero uno. People are reluctant to surrender their hold on power, and the accompanying benefits.

But I believe the more important issue for the MCA, a party both despised and (yet) needed by the Chinese Malaysian community, is not so much changing faces, but changing values.

The MCA leadership should set the correct example (perhaps even indirectly to their more aggressive and avaricious UMNO partners), for a return to Confucian values of propriety, integrity, honour and true public service – ideal goalposts, but nonetheless necessary in a Malaysia currently suffering from the serious affliction of rampant and uncontrollable corruption.

Once we heard of 'leadership by example' – which reminds me of a story told by my uncle, who was in the armed forces. According to unc's tale, one senior officer believed that ‘leadership by example’ consisted wholly of wearing nicely ironed uniform, short haircut and well polished shoes, but who indulged in disgraceful behaviour unbecoming of an officer, committing acts that by universal military standards should have seen him court martialled and cashiered, meaning dishonourably discharged.

Indeed the ideals of 'leadership by example' are not merely cosmetic but of proper behaviour and conduct which meet expectations of Confucian dimension.

Mind you, Confucian values do not prevent a man from accumulating honest wealth – oh, did you catch the key word in that statement?

When a leader lives beyond known means and in highly ostentatious style, it’s provoking to the people at the lower rungs. If a senior elected representative lives a life style like a pre Independence Indian maharajah, when everyone knows he was just a former junior public servant, how would that then (negatively) 'motivate' the ordinary policeman, immigration, custom or public service officers?

Hey, what’s good for the kepala (head) surely must be also good for the ekor (tail)!

And worse, how can the kepala now moralise to the ekor not to be corrupt?

The MCA may not be able to convince or influence its other BN partners, but if it wants to regain the respect of the Chinese Malaysian community, the party has to adopt those ancient Confucian values - rather than just fiddle around with faces.

Hmmm, am I p*ssing in the wind?

Gerak warns AAB - It'll name (alleged) corrupt senior cabinet minister

In my previous post Hishamuddin Hussein - Others can't do what he did drawing from a malaysiakini report that UMNO Youth warned bloggers they’re being watched I mentioned the incongruity and hypocrisy of UMNO Youth boss, Hishamuddin Hussein warning bloggers “that freedom has its limits and we will not tolerate those who touch on the issue of national stability, harmony, …….. “

I also said not to bother about the two cases sugegsted as triggering off Hishamuddin’s grandstanding declarations, as they (the bloggers) were never the issues.

However, what I didn’t mention were that the issues were publications aired by bloggers (and not the rap version of the national anthem). Those worrying-to-UMNO issues were allegations of unbelievable corruption by RPK in his Malaysia-Today.

While the ‘heartland’ has been fairly reliable, UMNO is anxious that one too many exposé may swing the Malays constituency a wee over to PAS or worse, deny its intention to annihilate PKR once and for all, perpetuating the political life of someone’s ;-) (see, I’m mellowing here).

As if those were not enough, malaysiakini informs us that Ezam Mohd Noor chairperson of Gerak (Democracy and Anti-Corruption Movement) has shown he may be losing his patience with an AAB. The latter has been in his usual mode of elegant silence.

malaysiakini reported that “... last month, Gerak handed a 632-page report – accusing an Umno senior cabinet minister of criminal breach of trust – to the Prime Minister’s Department. The evidence included police reports lodged by a public listed company director in 1998. Gerak said it took six months to compile the evidence ... the watchdog will also reveal documentary evidence to substantiate its claim, including police reports and statements from the Malaysian Companies Commission.”

“Last month, Ezam said he did not forward the documents to the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) because he had ‘problems’ with former director-general Zulkipli Mat Noor.”

Wise man!

But Ezam stated: “The prime minister might be too busy or he just doesn’t have the political will to act on the allegation.”

It’s no wonder that Gerak is frustrated with the government’s muted response to the allegation. Ezam threatened that if AAB still doesn’t act after a second memorandum to be sent to the PM Department next week, he (Ezam) will make public those documents (made up of primary documents and not news paper cuttings).

... assuming he isn’t by then detained for ........ (fill in blank).

Hishamuddin Hussein - Others can't do what he did

malaysiakini reported that UMNO Youth warns bloggers they’re being watched ;-)

None other than keris (and kungfu sword) waving Hishamuddin Hussein, UMNO Youth Chief, is pressing for regulatory control over Internet bloggers following two widely publicised cases – don’t worry what those two cases are, because they were never the issues, no matter what Hishamuddin said.

General election is near and the usual stunts a la keris waving have to be conducted to shore up his and his party’s survival.

Because ... get this ...

Hishamuddin unbelievably (but then again, maybe not) said: "Umno Youth warns that freedom has its limits and we will not tolerate those who touch on the issue of national stability, harmony, cultural values and the personality of national leaders."

It would have been hilarious if it wasn’t so pukish.

The boss of UMNO Youth and his keris waving stunts, and with his members from time to time making seditious racist utterances like ‘wanting to bathe the keris in Chinese blood’ has told us he won’t “tolerate those who touch on the issue of national stability, harmony ...”.

Political grandstanding would have been accepted, and laughed off as a norm in the period before the election but when such grandstanding carries threats, warnings, (and on previous occasions) racist comments, these are actually acts of destabilization.

But it’s not that Hishamuddin doesn’t know or doesn’t care, or isn’t aware that regulatory control over Internet bloggers is an impossibility. He deems it essential to his own interests to grandstand anyway. His words will warm the cockles of the heartland – that has been the aim.

If only ...

In the Star Online Sunday Metro, there’s a lovely article titled The cartoonist’s ‘mini zoo’, which carries a special meaning for me.

It’s in the subtext that strikes a chord in my heart.

While the feature tells about a boy’s keenness in his hobby of keeping many pets, even exotic ones, the real story (for me anyway) shows a supportive father, one who shares his son’s interest and obviously to some extent, pampers the young lad.

I didn’t have such a supportive father. In fact mine was against pets or anything he reckoned a young boy shouldn’t be wasting his precious time on.

For my father, idleness is next to evilness.

Leaving meals, ablution, bodily constitutional and sleep aside (and those must only be at approved or reasonable times), I was expected to be always doing something productive, in accordance with his assessment of course.

Even before I reached 5 to 6 years old, I wouldn’t be tolerated sitting around doing nothing, or worse, engaged unproductively in activities like making idle chitchat or looking at comics (neighbour's), and no, there was no such thing as a TV in my house.

To be more precise, there were only 2 choices available to me – school homework or be employed on some form of chores detailed by him.

Of course he set a good example – he was a very hardworking and diligent person both in the office and at home. But to be honest, somehow that didn’t quite inspire me, if you know what I mean – bearing in mind I was a very very young laddie then.

Many were the times, without any warning, he came suddenly on to me, demanding to know what I was doing. Unlike today’s children I didn’t have the nerve to pretend that I was about to embark on some homework, and so invariably ended up weeding the garden, sweeping, cleaning, watering his fruit trees, disposing of the garbage or performing a zillion other tasks that 6 year old kids like me hated.

Hmmm, I wonder what he would have made of stuff like Playstation 2 if he were still alive.

My father didn’t understand or know of positive motivation like praises or encouragements, but he knew plenty about negative reinforcements –no, let’s not discuss that ;-)

But stuff like keeping pets was a no-no. On top of his stern Spartan-like approach to and in life, he was a staunch Buddhist who believed that animals (he couldn’t differentiate between traditionally domesticated pets like goldfish and wildlife like birds) must not be restrained by man, especially young boys – he felt that was cruel.

One day he found out I kept a goldfish behind the outdoor toilet (we were living in a kampong where we used the typical dunny (toilet some distance from house). He didn’t say a single word to me but summoned my mum whence he then issued an instruction for me to release my pet into the nearby village stream.

I tried desperately, with tears in my eyes, to explain to mum that the goldfish wouldn’t survive the predators in the stream like eels, turtles and the larger fish.

But HE had spoken and HE should be obeyed.

Thus I read the article with a certain feeling – that if only things were different. But ;-) we move on, though with always an eye cast towards the past ... as if hoping ... alas (sigh).

Sex slavery in Penang - Police & Immigration 'dunno'?

I read the ‘NBC’s grim tale of sexual slavery in Penang’ as highlighted by malaysiakini with both shame and rage, that today in 2007, with just 20 days to go to our 50th Merdeka celebrations, our country, my Island, has been involved in such an inhuman crime.

Think, if someone were to peddle our loved ones - sisters, daughters, relatives, friends, neighbours - as sex wares for the gratification of strange men, how would we feel!

But the evil that exists in our country is not only in the sex slave trade per se (what a F-word, ‘trade’), but the complicity of our official guardians – the immigration and police officers.

Read this, an extract in the malaysiakini article:

The 30-minute ‘Dateline’ programme detailed the dark web of collusion between the Malaysian law enforcers - the police and immigration officers - and the human traffickers.

“The State Department says that human trafficking and the sex trade it fuels are rampant here. Yet in all of 2006, not a single trafficker was prosecuted,” said Dateline correspondent Chris Hansen.

One victim, Anna, told Dateline that she went to Malaysian immigration authorities for help, a top official there advised her to “go back to work” and called her traffickers.

“I want them to help me - to rescue me - so I can go back Philippines,” she said.

According to Anna, some of the Malaysian police and immigration officials were clients of the clubs where she worked and helped themselves to the girls.

Dateline also revealed that Malaysian officials were notorious for turning a blind eye to trafficking.

“So much so that when victims like Anna show up looking for help, they are often brought up on immigration charges,” it said.

The article goes on to show the sleazy, shameful, sinful and criminal association between the merchants of evil and the Malaysian police.

This has come on top of the Malaysia-Today series of articles by RPK describing senior police officers in alleged cahoots with criminals. The AG may have cleared whoever but we don't consider it kow-tim yet.

And while there may be some honest and dedicated policemen in Malaysia, the rot has set in so deep that, as one says, it takes just one rotten apple to compromise the whole barrel.

I am sure that AAB, Johari Baharum, the IGP, ACA and the AG will do their usual wonderful ‘thing’ – semua bongkam, semua bersih, semua beres.

Ya Pak, semua busuk!

Are Malaysians blindly hypercritical?

In my previous posting Has government been incorrect in selecting candidate for judge's position? which discussed a malaysiakini news item titled Rulers reject PM’s choice for top judge, I wasn’t surprised to see my good mate kittykat46 making his usual no compromise comments against the government ;-)

I had cheekily, and also on principle, questioned Jeff Ooi’s remark in his blog on the same matter where he asked: “I wonder Parliamentary Democracy [is] still relevant and [in] existent in Malaysia? Is there a separation of power where the three pillars of parliamentary democracy, namely the Legislative, Executive and Judiciary, are to operate independent of each other?”

“By allowing the PM, who is the head of the Executive, to nominate a member of the Bench as the third highest position in the Judiciary, will the nominated Judiciary officer be made beholden and subservient to the Executive?”

In other words, while I do share kittykat46’s distrust of our government, I disagree with Jeff’s thrust against the process where the PM (or the government of the day) nominates the candidate for the judiciary post. It’s the prerogative of the Executive in most Commonwealth countries and the USA, a process inherited from the British judicial system.

On theory such an executive right in appointing a judge to a senior position should not and usually would not jeopardize the separation of powers so dear in a democratic system. Certainly the government of the day would exploit the retirement or death of a senior judge* to nominate a member of the bench whom it reckons has either conservative or liberal views.

* of the High or Federal Court, depending on which country it is, as the term High and Federal have different status in different countries

In most cases, those judges, once confirmed in their appointments have an independent view of their own and are not that easy for the government to influence. Admittedly the Malaysian bench of recent years has lost much of our respect, though we are pleased to see a recent wee awakening.

The process is not incorrect; the material could be better!

And that’s what Jeff or the law fraternity should be looking at. Admittedly the damn difficulty is the whole affair is shrouded in secrecy where the public doesn’t even know who’s the candidate, and good lord, Malaysians hate surprises in such areas – for example, last year we witnessed a case where a 22 year old sweetie was appointed as a magistrate, when at that time she hadn’t even received her degree – see my post Yang Arif Muda. Now that's the sort of candidate we can certainly questioned.

Much as we detest the government (or rather, the ruling party) we need to be very careful not to be plain negative about everything and become unconstructive.

I am prepared to acknowledge that the government has done some good though more bad, and likewise with the DAP, which I admire for their courageous puritanical no-nonsense (and humourless - hahaha) approach but which sometimes annoyed me for their pedantic pettiness.

We cannot see Malaysian politics in just plain black and white, or we’ll end up as another form of what we have criticised as the ‘sokong’ brigade.

Let me provide an example of how we Malaysians have become hypercritical without discrimination.

OK, in today’s malaysiakini, I read of a Tamil school using a shoplot in Lukut, Negeri Sembilan as its official building for the last 15 days while awaiting for a land grant from the government. It goes on to say the location earn curious disbelieving glances from onlookers.

Why?

Have Malaysians seen schools in Hong Kong? Some over there don’t even enjoy a shoplot on its own, but are located on the umpteenth floor or floors of a multi storey building, sharing the same building with cinemas, whatever parlours and restaurants.

On the other hand, our Tamil school, with only 60 students from primary one to four, and six teachers, has four classrooms all fully air-conditioned, yes, fully air-conditioned. It uses a nearby field for assemblies and physical education classes, something which some HK schools don’t even have.

I would say it’s not too bad for the 60 students studying in air-conditioned comfort rather than be in a steamy mosquito-infested broken down shed on the edge of a rubber estate.

Sure, a typical standalone school building on a nice plot of land would be ideal but the Tamil school problem in many cases lies in the dwindling numbers of students. Its other problem is the lack of support from the MIC and Indian philanthropists, by comparison to the Chinese case.

Let’s not just condemn the situation for the sake of condemning. In many respect I dare say the students in the shoplot school may be better off than some other Tamil school students elsewhere.

It’s true we are fed up with the BN or more correctly UMNO-led government but at the same time we need to be more discriminating in our criticisms of the government, or even any particular political party.

Has government been incorrect in selecting candidate for judge's position?

Just a couple of days ago malaysiakini carried the news of the Conference of Rulers rejecting the government’s choice for the position of chief judge of Malaya. By judiciary protocol, the chief judge is ranked No 3.

Actually malaysiakini obtained the news from the Singapore’s Straits Times. The latter reported that last month the Conference of Rulers had asked PM AAB to reconsider the government’s candidate for the No 3 judiciary spot.

‘Reconsider’ is of course polite language for saying FO to the government’s choice.

malaysiakini said it’s rare for the Conference of Rulers to reject the PM’s choice, and may kaytee add, especially more so on such a difficult judicial matter. Other than the legal fraternity and opposition politicians and perhaps some NGOs, most people wouldn't have the faintest as to who is what and how is whom.

Incidentally, the Singapore Straits Times also reported that AAB was believed to have met the Perak’s Sultan Azlan Shah, one of the senior members of rulers conference. In case we have forgotten, the Sultan was Lord President in the 80's. A trivia - when he was judge, he presided over a case involving a Crown Prince of a certain state, who subsequently became a Sultan too. It was then rumoured no other judge had the guts to take on that case.

Maybe the Sultan and AAB met to discuss hockey only? The Sultan is a keen hockey lover and one of the 3 lifetime presidents (or some other high title) of the International Hockey federation, an extremely rare honour.

But Jeff Ooi of the DAP posted on his olde Screenshots a query on a post titled A serious joke?

Jeff commented: “I wonder Parliamentary Democracy [is] still relevant and [in] existent in Malaysia? Is there a separation of power where the three pillars of parliamentary democracy, namely the Legislative, Executive and Judiciary, are to operate independent of each other?

By allowing the PM, who is the head of the Executive, to nominate a member of the Bench as the third highest position in the Judiciary, will the nominated Judiciary officer be made beholden and subservient to the Executive?”

Well, I am not a law exert by any means, in fact far from it, but I seem to recall someone once telling me that in both the Commonwealth and USA, the appointment of a judge is the prerogative of the Executive. This approach has been inherited from the British.

As Judge Michael Kirby of Australia, (an open gay but) one of the most respected and admired judge stated: “Appointment to the Bench was in the gift of the elected Executive Government of the day. A principal political officer would make the eventual proposal (in England the Lord Chancellor; in Australia usually the Attorney-General). The decision to appoint or not, or to select amongst candidates, would be made by the Cabinet of politicians, usually in the midst of other pressing political business. Once the new appointee was chosen, his or her name would go forward to the Queen, the President or a Vice-Regal representative for formal confirmation. That was it.”

In some Commonwealth countries, which haven’t brought Mother England’s judicial system wholesale, they introduced a Judicial Service Commission which sees the involvement of “representatives of the legal profession and of the judiciary to temper the judicial appointments of the politicians.” [quote also from Judge Michael Kirby]

I ask the following at the risk of being condemned as a pro government supporter or worse, a cybertrooper ;-)

But, where is it that the government’s recommendation has been procedurally incorrect? How has this government recommendation been not in accordance with known Commonwealth practice in judicial appintments? Maybe Jeff Ooi may care to elaborate.

In fact, Western countries like Australia and the USA used every opportunity to put judges known to have either conservative or liberal leanings. The opportunity would only present itself when judges retire during a particular government’s rule. So, if a judge retires during Bush or John Howard’s government, then the appointment may be expected to be a candidate with conservative views, and vice versa.

This is accepted by both sides of the political fence. And there would be the usual pro and con comments from the media, law fraternity, etc, but that's democracy.

The problem with our Malaysian government is that it is so distrusted that its selections of candidates have been and are always viewed as dodgy - even correct procedures are deemed as suspicious. But let us not get carried away by our own bias and indulge in off track arguments.

Friendship

Friendship should be more
Than just a fragrant bloom
Glorious only for a while
Its fragrance soon a memory
And when the flower fades
Dispersing its fallen petals
Blown astray by nothing
More than a gentle breeze

A friendship should be
Like the sturdy Angsana
That lines Scotland Road
Deep rooted and steady
Holding fast its own self
Even in strongest storms
Anchored by affection
And deepest sincerity

I like ours to be like that
Yes, storms may break
The odd branch or two
But I know true bonds
Will hold our friendship
Steadfast as an Angsana
Allowing renewed growth
To continue in strength

50th Merdeka - Shall we fly the flag then? (2)

These few days we have read several depressing news items in malaysiakini which collectively have cast a dark cloud over the coming 50th Merdeka celebrations.

Today’s malaysiakini headline yells out at the incestuous relationship in the Port Klang Free Zone project where billions, not mere millions, were involved.

Such inbreeding seems to be the hallmark of our public funded projects. Trust our system to suffer from all the disorder of inbreeding such as reduced fertility, increased genetic disorders, lower birth rate, higher infant mortality, slower growth rate, smaller adult size, loss of immune system function, etc.

OK, translate that into national development of industry, agriculture, trade, education, etc. No wonder we fear globalization. But we have cause to because in today’s economic and financial world, no nation, least of all Malaysia, can afford to be an island.

We suffer from gross and rampant corruption involving not minnows but huge sharks. But by a wave of a magic wand, regardless of ownership of said wand, the fairy godfather in drag had sprinkled stardust over a pile of stinking faeces to make it appear snow white. The stench remains though.

As Dean Johns, columnist in malaysiakini stated in his article Khairy spanks the monkeys, young ambitious Oxford educated Khairy Jamaluddin, UMNO Youth No 2 and fortunate SIL of the PM, should “... get[-] down off his high horse and set[-] to work shovelling a half-century of accumulated crap out of the BN stables. Or employing his keris in some worthy cause like hunting down the packs of predators and scavengers that have lived far too long off the fat of the land by preying on the Malaysian body politic. Or chasing away the herds of swine that are forever falling over each other in their efforts to keep their filthy snouts in the public trough.”

Instead, the young bloke wanted to punish bloggers-monkeys by taking action against one so as to intimidate the others.

Is this then the Oxfordian's priority or sense of urgency for our national interests?

And to add rancid santan (coconut milk) on top of all the glamorous poo, we get this statement from Norza Zakaria, UMNO supreme council member and 'buddy' of SIL. He crooned:

“His English is immaculate, his (thought process shows) he has lots of creativity (and) his assumptions about the (grassroots are) very contemporary - these are the things that (make him) beat the rest, whoever you name. “So out of the few...people that you rely on to become future (leaders), who would you pick? Put aside (the fact) that he is the prime minister’s son-in-law - of course, you would pick Khairy.”

I'll pick a monkey anytime.

Then, our dear Deputy Internal Security Minister Mohd Johari Baharom, who just had corruption allegations against him dismissed by the wonderful brilliant but strangely now-quiet-as-a-mouse AG, has called for police action against a Malaysian-student rap singer for ‘allegedly’ insulting the national anthem.

For goodness sake, what about those allegations of corruption at the highest level, including police officers having assets running into unexplained millions, and alleged consorting of police and crime bosses.

Again, where's the priority?

And which is more important to national interest? The insult to the national anthem by a young student through youthful expression, or the insult to justice, public governance and due process by the multitude of alleged corruptions involving top officials, unexplained deaths in custody, unfettered and publicly demonstrated UMNO racist conduct?

Oh, don’t forget too those two grubs indulging in their slimy sleazy sniping at women for having monthly ‘leaks’, in total insult to their own mothers, forgetting where they emerged from – hmmm, maybe from under a rock like the slugs they are? And mind you, they did that in Parliament.

All these nonsense from our so-called 'leaders'.

Shall we fly the flag then?

Related:
50th Merdeka - Shall we fly the flag then? (1)

God's wrath on Earth

Yeah, am still not so hot after yesterday, so just a quick post – nothing political (maybe tonight). Like the Angsana tree hit by a terrible storm, I need some time to recover.

Here’s another tale from kaytee's childhood days at my other blog KTemoc Kongsamkok titled The day we felt God's wrath on Earth.

Difference between Shiok & Song

Quiet blogging day for me – am recovering from a terrible headache – after I came back from work I was hit on the head, badly. But I am okay now.

But if you’re interested in Penang style Hokkien, here’s a post over at my other blog KTemoc Kongsamkok titled Lu Bay Song Wah Shiok Ee Aar?

I explained the difference between two very special Penang Hokkien words. Enjoy.

Will Ong KT become MCA greatest leader?

Sim Kwang Yang, another of my faves at malaysiakini wrote The Chinese dilemma Pt 1: Clash of the titans? where he discussed the possibility of MCA President Ong Ka Ting contesting in the Bukit Bintang constituency.

That will be akin to Ong entering the DAP’s hor siew or tiger’s lair.

In Chinese parlance, when one enters the tiger’s lair, it means that one has move into the heartland of the enemy. The danger is real and imminent.

Bukit Bintang has been the heartland of the DAP party, where once Lee Lam Thye, champion of the common people, particularly the locals regardless of race, won the seat in election after election with quite obscene majorities, sometimes well over 10,000!

If any MCA members wanted to commit political suicide, or were picked by the party’s leader for political sacrifice or oblivion, then they would stand in Bukit Bintang (BB) against invincible Lee. I wonder whether those former MCA candidates were awarded the party’s equivalent of the SP for gallantry, or they were laughed at (by their own party) for being sacrificial lambs?

As we know, BB sits right at the heart of the nation’s capital. As Sim wrote: “It is a small area of high population concentration, embracing many of the old streets and back lanes that make up the traditional KL Chinatown. Ever since independence, it has always been a DAP stronghold.”

A bit of gerrymandering here where the pro DAP voters (thus lost to the BN) were compressed like sardines into one constituency.

What had brought up the rumours of Ong Ka Ting standing there in the coming election had been a front page report by the Oriental Daily on July 29.

Sim said: "Since then, the Chinese press and the Internet have been flooded with endless comments and analysis on this revelation. The front page story has not been denied or confirmed by the MCA, although there is no shortage of response from both sides of the political divide, treating the suggestion as a kind of interesting possibility.”

“ A prominent commentator and a known MCA member opined that the news could have been leaked deliberately by the think-tank buried deep within the inner sanctum of the MCA headquarters. It is a tactical move targeted at testing public opinion on the issue ... It is also probably designed to redirect public attention back to MCA offensive in their media war with their arch nemesis, the DAP.”

[...]

“In any case, for those familiar with the perennial rivalry between MCA and DAP, the story that Ong Ka Ting may move from his safe but mixed seat somewhere in Johore to the overwhelmingly Chinese constituency of Bukit Bintang makes a lot of sense.”

The MCA has always been laughed at by Chinese because throughout our political history, especially since 1969, very few MCA members dared to stand in Chinese-majority constituencies for fear of being annihilated by the DAP.

Most of the fault for their unpopularity with the Chinese has been UMNO’s doing, where the senior partner of the BN (and formerly Perikatan) had regularly undermined the MCA’s standing in the eyes of the Chinese community.

Examples may be found in the bigoted comments during the last UMNO general assembly, Hishamuddin’s keris waving and marginalisation of Chinese educationists Dong Jiao Zong, KJ’s accusation of the Chinese having sinister intention against the Malays, DPM’s declaration of Malaysia as an Islamic State by the DPM, etc, and with UMNO expecting the MCA to be silent like a mute or even to support Ah Hnia (big brother).

As I have blogged often before, MCA’s greatest foe (in terms of undermining its political credibility) is UMNO and not the DAP.

And UMNO wants it that way too, to keep a MCA nicely bonsai-ed. Its bonsai-ing tools are in fact the DAP and the Gerakan Party.

If Ong Ka Ting does stand in BB and pulls it off (not just scrapping through but winning with a respectable majority) he will be the greatest MCA president ever, with his name immortalised in Chinese Malaysian history.

There has been such a precedent, when Lee San Choon confronted DAP’s Dr Chen Man Hin in another (then) DAP stronghold of Seremban. I posted Stung by 'hornets', mute as only MCA can be over at BolehTalk where I stated:

"… apparently Lee San Choon chose to leave the MCA with flair, by doing something which no MCA leader had ever dared do - he deliberately moved into Seremban, a DAP stronghold, to confront DAP strongman Dr Chen head on in the general election."

"Some said Lee did that just to thumb his nose at UMNO's leadership as if saying "Look, the MCA could win without hiding behind UMNO's sarong", perhaps in repudiation of the oft-remarked sarcasm (sometimes by UMNO members) that MCA candidates couldn't win in Chinese-majority constituencies and require Malay support to get into parliament or state assemblies. Of course Lee won and then resigned from politics for good."

If Ong takes up the challenge he could be, as I said, a legend, even gradually becoming invincible in his own right like a Lee Lam Thye, because BB is far more of a tiger's lair than Seremban ever was.

And it’s quite do-able, because he isn’t likely to face another Lee Lam Thye. On top of that, Sim wrote that “die-hard support for the DAP in Bukit Bintang has been waning in recent decades for various reasons. In the last general election in 2003, fighting a little-known lady candidate from the MCA, Fong Kui Lun scrapped through with a razor thin margin of over 300 votes, after many recounts!”

Sim also said: "Ong’s problem is one of legitimacy in his capacity as the leader representing the interest of some five or six million Malaysian Chinese. ........"

"Ong’s public persona can be described as nondescript at best. He is a pale shadow of his predecessors, his greatest claim to fame being the forgettable slogan for “life-long learning”. (What do you expect from a teacher turned politician?)"

"But if and when Ong decides to contest in Bukit Bintang, he would be on course for a re-engineering of his public image. He would be seen as a man of courage and principle, ready to take the risk of losing in an opposition stronghold, proving the point that a top MCA leader pursues public office and power not for the sake of self interest, but for the sake of increasing the strength and meaning of Chinese participation in government within the BN framework of power sharing."

"... The opposition party claims that, if the MCA leaders continue to win on the strength of Umno and MIC support in constituencies with a significant Malay and Indian presence, then the MCA cannot be said to represent the aspirations of the Chinese. Worse still, the MCA will have to kowtow to Umno forever, because their electoral success depends so much upon Umno domination of Malay politics throughout the Peninsula."

"By going into Bukit Bintang, Ong Ka Ting will end once and for all this talk of MCA being cowardly self-promoting opportunistic politicians. A battle to settle the issue of who will genuinely represent Malaysian Chinese will then begin."

Ong's moment of glory awaits him. Will he dare do it, to become the greatest MCA leader there ever is?

Chinese regard for AAB plummeted due to KJ?

Josh Hong, one of my favourite columnists in malaysiakini wrote Talent time in Malaysian politics where he discussed the vogue phenomena of the new young guns of politics, Tony Pua and Jeff Ooi of DAP, Vincent Gu of MCA and of course none other than our very own UMNO lang chai, Khairy Jamaluddin or KJ, the world’s most famous son-in-law.

I am only going to quote an extract of Josh’s damn good article, the part pertaining to KJ, as follows:

After all, the Chinese have seen their rights eroded, their position having regressed dramatically since the tragic May 13 Incident of 1969. The minority syndrome of the Chinese living in a country that is slowly but firmly ditching its secular outlooks is too marked to be overlooked.

Whenever they see Khairy Jamaluddin, the egoistic Oxford-graduate whose ambitions are undoubtedly pitched high, the Chinese cannot help yearning for a talented youngling of their own.

As I have often blogged, one of the central pillars of Chinese culture is education – my aunts and mum bombarded my cousins and me during my school days with tales of the poor son of a wretched farmer studying diligently by candle light in a deserted haunted house, and then going on to pass the Imperial exams brilliantly to become the highest level of Mandarin in His Imperial Majesty’s Kingdom as well as winning the devoted affection of the Emperor’s daughter.

... obviously to motivate and inspire us. Well, it worked for KJ but alas, I doubt AAB has any more daughters.

Yes, Chinese do admire a scholar, but somehow I don’t believe this extends to young KJ, because in another malaysiakini article, the blame for Chinese Malaysians' low regard for AAB’s leadership, as found in a recent survey, has been attributed to a series of incidents including the remarks made by DPM Najib, keris cum kingfu sword waver Hishammuddin Hussein and his deputy, the one and only KJ.

KJ came to Chinese notice sometime in August last year when Chinese newspapers published news of KJ alleging the Chinese community would capitalise on UMNO's weaknesses. See my post Did Khairy Jamaluddin bad-mouth Chinese community?

As we know, the sorry saga ended up with an immortal line from Erich Segals’s ‘Love Story’ being paraphrased as ‘UMNO means never having to say sorry’.

Was/is KJ then a bigot, the typical UMNO extreme right racist?

He himself denied that, saying his best friend is a Chinese.

I actually believe him because his accusation of the Chinese community capitalising on UMNO's weaknesses came shortly after his unexplained and embarrassingly 9.2 million strokes of luck, which I blogged in 'Lucky' Khairy Jamaluddin.

‘Twas the typical UMNO masking exercise in classical Sun Tzu fashion – ‘feint towards the east, act in the west’, a distraction to hide your intention or action.

Hmmm, maybe they studied Sun Tzu in Oxford? Can Tony Pua confirm?

Water, God, House of God & the Police

Hmmm, so water is God’s gift!

malaysiakini reported that six religious groups including Abim, the Archdiocesan Office for Human Development (AOHD), the Buddhist Missionary Society of Malaysia (BMSM) and the Council of Churches of Malaysia (CCM) signed a joint declaration that:

“Water is God's gift to people, it is essential for life and belongs to everyone. People should enjoy this right without discrimination”.

I wish they would leave out the part about God. I am just surprised that the Buddhist Missionary Society of Malaysia would sign such a statement. Perhaps they did it in support of the importance of life-giving water rather than belief in an Almighty?

And the term ‘Buddhist Missionary’ is really an oxymoron.

But other than that, I support their declaration.

The seminar was originally to be held at the National Mosque but police after having approved the meet, revoked it. Didn't I say something about leaving religion out of such an important event? Once religion is involved, certain people would become terribly territorial.

The organisers had to move the event to the National Union of Bank Employees’ (NUBE) headquarters in Brickfields

Election - MCA & the Chinese

On the basis of a poll conducted by the Merdeka Center, and summarised in a table below by malaysiakini, it would seem that by the next election the opposition will be in power - mind you, that's kaytee's reading of the survey response as depicted in the table.

I have to admit I am not sure how to interpret the figures. For example if you look at the row for Chinese support of the opposition, it works out to a total of 127% - 62% indicate they will vote for DAP, 23% for PAS (surely this figure has to be ludicrous - sorry, my PAS pals), and 42% for PKR.

Maybe there are more Chinese among the voters than is 'humanly' possible? Could it be that there many Mr Walker's - you know, that bloke with a wolf named Devil ;-)

Hmmm, very unusual for Chinese Mr Walker's

malaysiakini table

Then, if I add up the figures for the bottom row, that for 'national average' up, the total is a staggering 82% support for the 3 opposition parties combined. Wow, the BN with only 12% left will be surely toast.

Before anyone breaks open the champers or goes into political orgasmic ecstasy, kaytee must qualify that I am reading the figures in a probably simplistic manner, being the simple bloke that I am.

OK, here's the damper, to cool you excited people down. The survey also said that PM AAB still has overwhelming support, though that has dropped from an all time high of 91% in November 2004 to 73% in June this year. His support is mainly from the Malays (and predictably the Indians - Samy Vellu must be doing a damn good job).

Leaving Samy and the Indians aside for a while, with the solid support coming from the Malays, don’t expect him to be a PM for all Malaysians during this crucial period leading to the general election.

Assured of favourable indications from the heartland, AAB and UMNO would have believed that the BN, with a virtually guaranteed bundle of seats from Sabah, can form majority government, which is really what matters. This supports my earlier prediction that the election will be held early before Malay support could slip away. Yes, I am looking at Novermber 2007 when the school holidays begin.

This may also explain the DPM playing the 'hard cop' with the not-so-strange declaration of Malaysia as an Islamic State, while AAB played the 'soft cop' in stating that Malaysia is neither a secular nor a theocratic state - see malaysiakini.

Significantly AAB stated that ambiguity in Penang over the weekend, hmmm, perhaps at the beseeching of a MCA. The grapevine has it that the MCA wants more time to prepare for the election, not surprising given the polls whopping 62% support for the DAP.

Now would this figure be reliable, given that in Malaysia the Chinese are quite suspicious of such pre-election survey, and also notorious for playing their voting preferences pretty close to their chest. But nonetheless, whether spurious or otherwise, 62% is still significant and quite frightening for the MCA.

This sets me thinking - could it be that Wong Chun Wai's article in the Star Online titled Some way to go before the polls, which I referred to in my previous posts (just below) predicting an election early next year, had been more of an attempt (by MCA) to indicate to or influence UMNO that would be the better (and preferred) date?

For discussions on why November elections, see my earlier posts:

(1) KTemoc predicts November General Election
(2) November General Elections - More Indications

OK, so we still come to the Chinese, the ethnic group which may (or may not) pull a few surprises a la 1969.

The Chinese, having realised that AAB isn’t afterall the reincarnation of Judge Bao Gong that MCA had in 2004 averred him to be, are now less enchanted with the PM and his leadership. Only a shocking 8% Chinese believe he has kept his 2004 promise - hardly Bao Gong material.

Right, but more importantly, what about the '3 bowls of rice'.

The survey also indicates that the 3 major ethnic groups, by 45% Indians, 44% Chinese and 24% Malays, agreed that the “the problems of the sluggish Malaysian economy can be addressed if there were more leaders from the opposition.”

This is great news for the 3 main opposition parties. But I predict that notwithstanding this polled support for the opposition, the Chinese will apply the Penangites' formula of sending the DAP to federal parliament to make noise, while voting the BN in at home to ensure favourable funding for state development. Oh, did I leave out PKR? Sorry, just lump it together with the DAP then.

According to the malaysiakini table, it would appear that PKR with 31% support has a slight overall lead ahead of the DAP (30%) and PAS (27%). This is actually the most interesting part of the statistics.

The PKR’s 31% support versus the DAP’s 30%, with the first having a fairly balanced support across the 3 main ethnic groups (25%, 42%, 26% - you don’t need me to tell you which is who, do you?) while the 2nd (DAP) enjoys a spread of 8%, 62% and 33% support, seems to indicate a PKR renaissance of 1999.

It’ll be interesting to see how the PKR and DAP can come to some amicable arrangement sharing out the seats to avoid split votes among the opposition parties. Remember Taiping, which means double bad news for poor marginalised Kayveas.

But as I mentioned, in Malaysia stats are stats only, with the real figures only known on post-poll counting. That would be the ultimate survey!

50th Merdeka - Shall we fly the flag then? (1)

From malaysiakini:

27 days to 50 years as a sovereign nation, and what has Malaysia to show?

Well, we are just about to see senior citizens from Bukit Jalil estate – citizens who have made homes out of houses given to them more than 50 years ago when they were brought in to work as rubber tappers – being evicted.

A man or woman’s home is his/her castle, and the grim face of DBKL is staring down at the senior citizens’ ‘castles’ without an iota of compassion, but with tools of demolition at the ready.

One of those unfortunate residents, Nyanameh recalled she arrived at Bukit Jalil 40 years ago with her husband as young labourers soon after Merdeka ('Merdeka', what’s this word again?).

Senior citizen Nyanameh - malaysiakini photo

She lamented: “For years, I have worked on this estate tapping rubber. My children grew up here. Now they can just easily tell us to leave. Where can we go?

Got that? ‘Now they can just easily tell us to leave’! Yes, on this 50th year of our nation’s supposed independence from oppression! WTF can I say!

She was fatalistic yet defiant, stating: “They want to break down my house, let them break it. I will stay right here. I’ve been staying here up to now, (this house) is mine. Are they going to give me a house?”

“When I die, I’ll die here. If they break my house (down next week), I’ll build it again once they leave.”

DBKL in typical city-hall mentality quoted the Emergency (Essential Powers) Ordinance 1969 averring the residents are squatters. And if we remember their Hindu temple smashing proclivities, we have to fear not only for the claims of those residents but for their physical safety as well.

For more of DBKL's typical attitude towards 'some' of our citizens, please read:
(1) DBKL smashed statues of Hindu gods!
(2) DBKL staff armed with WMD - Legal?
(3) Another Hindu Temple in KL Smashed!

Dear olde city-hall has demanded that the residents vacate their houses by next Wednesday. The 'or else' is ominously implicit.

The residents are naturally infuriated at being classified as squatters, and demanded that they be treated fairly and accorded their rights as rightful owners of the houses, their castles. They are not obdurately against development per se, but would want to see reasonable compensation for abandoning the houses that have been their homes for over four decades.

One resident, retired army corporal Balakrishnan Kunjoo said poignantly:

“The country has been independent for 50 years, but residents of Bukit Jalil estate are yet to be free.”

Shall we fly the flag then?

PABS calls on Government to embrace bloggers

PABS takes a look at the letter column of malaysiakini, and discovers a couple of letters criticising the government for its anti bloggers attitude.

One example is Faizul Zainol’s For every fallen blogger, two will rise up. He wrote:

“The reason why people believe in alternative media more than mass circulation media is simply because the mass circulation media refuses to carry both sides of the story. People are not out for blood when they criticise politicians or those in power - why wouldn't we be happy if those in power are indeed accountable, responsible and competent?”

“The point is, the government is quick to lay blame on bloggers as liars, and doubly quick at investigating them, while, on the other hand, it takes forever to probe alleged embezzlement of public funds and other wrongdoings by those in power.”

... so on so forth, with Faizul concluding that “...every fallen blogger, there will be two to replace him.”

As Faizul had also said in his letter, bloggers in general are responsible citizens.

I agree.

Other than those active in, or allied, affiliated and aligned with political parties, socio-political bloggers use their websites to express their perception, their feelings, and their opinions on politics, public governance, performance (of ministers and public servants) and promises (by ministers, fulfilled or otherwise).

One and one-half years ago, I posted Are Bloggers & their Readers indulging in Graffiti? where I stated (some extracts):

Many bloggers and participants who post their comments on the blog may not be aware that a large number of them have been actually indulging in graffiti-like activities. Now, most of us are aware that graffiti, as we understand the term, are symptoms of rebellious protestations or uninhibited expressions of energetic individuals, who might have acted alone or as a pack, in deep cover or in semi-open defiance.

Energetic people, mostly youngsters, vent their pent-up emotions, frustrations, or even artistic aspiration spiced with a touch of rebellion or defiance, on such painted expressions. Some authorities have wisely recognized the graffitists search for 'canvases' to express their creativity. Those authorities have cleverly chosen to 'go to the mountain' by installing special graffiti walls and areas in towns and cities. These are subtle channeling, rather than control, of youth's powerful energy into harmless exhibits.

Of course, blogging has since then taken a big step into the political world. The opposition parties have been faster in embracing the new media, perhaps because they were/are denied access to the government linked mainstream media.

Disgracefully, the ruling party has in the main neglected this new 21st Century medium of public communication – a reflection of their staff incompetence and/or complete arrogance in believing they have absolute control of the media.

When they eventually stumbled onto the existence of the Malaysian blogosphere, and realized that the voice of public dissatisfaction is loud and clear on the Web, (apart from giving thanks to god that their heartland is still pretty devoid of Internet-capable PCs/laptops) they reacted with typical Nazi-like behaviour, heavily with unrestrained force – hauling webmasters in for hours, if not days of interrogation. OK, they have the police at their beck and call.

But how will such acts of intimidation curb the voice of the dissatisfied?

As I had posted: Sure, bloggers can be a pain in publishing information that the authorities may not wish to be released to the public, but unless a government has something to hide, the advantages of blogging to the government is far greater than its disadvantages.

Thus, if carefully streamed and tolerated, graffiti activities can be a useful means of moderating and calming the sometimes overpoweringly exuberance of our more energetic citizens.

Instead we see UMNO/government (really there is no difference here) adopting a negative approach in what RPK of Malaysia-Today had alleged as using paid cyber-sabotaging-hoodlums to plant poisonous seeds in targeted blogs so as to subsequently refer to those grafted seditious comments as ‘justified’ cause to suspend a blog or detain the blogger.

Then my previous posting added: Unfettered protestations of idealism, freedom of expressions, unrestricted space to be creative, unique, individualistic, independent from control and even a need for anonymous recognition - these are the raison d'êtres of graffiti. Therefore, any attempt by authorities to heavy-handedly control or restrict these activities would result in the graffitists going underground and behaving in more extreme and undesirable fashion.

No, not yet Amen as I haven’t finished ...

In America, Daily Kos is an active leftwing blog that has campaigned very effectively in an attempt to end the US involvement in the Iraqi war, and woe betides any politician in their target. Daily Kos is also a fund raiser for politicians of their choice, with many rightwing pollies feeling the painful impact of Kos' funded campaign for their opponents.

It has been reported that last year, Daily Kos raised and directed funds to no less than 20 Democratic House challengers, who were initially discounted by the party. Half of them came home winners, with several near-miss winners.

So presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, who had been targeted by Daily Kos because of her earlier support for the war in Iraq, has decided that she wants to embrace the scary blog rather than fight (futilely) against it.

Apart from her, those attending the Kos convention will include Barack Obama and former VP candidate John Edwards. In fact almost all the Democratic presidential candidates will be courting the Kos people at the convention.

In like fashion, I would encourage the government to embrace the Malaysian socio-political bloggers. Provide them with easily accessible and correct information, for a dearth of such information would be precisely what would lead to rumour mongering, speculations and salacious, scurrilous, smearing ‘mythology’.

Of course, don’t expect all of them to fall into line to vote for the ruling party, but no blogger would then be able to accuse the government, especially its Information Ministry of draconian Goebbels-like nonsense.

As for the Allblogs*, apart from their high profile visit to the de facto leader of an opposition party, its protem chairperson alluding to support for the PPPA and some of its protem committeee members' preference for registration of only identity-revealed bloggers as members of its association, I wonder what else can it do to protect bloggers and promote blogging, as its committee had envisioned.

Perhaps it protem deputy president Jeff Ooi, also of the DAP, can shed some light - mind you, not on what the DAP would do, but what Allblogs intends.

* Allblogs is not to be confused with the different but excellent BUM committee who organized a great social at the LVK

Not guilty, we're British!

Well, here’s British bullsh*t at its best.

During the height of the 2005’s subway bombing in London, over-gungho and totally reckless British Met police cold-bloodedly executed Jean Charles de Menezes. The innocent Brazilian electrician was shot seven times in the head by police despite not offering any resistance when apprehended.

He was pushed to the ground by a policeman and straightaway MURDERED!

Finally after two years of investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), the British example of our proposed IPCMC, the inquiry has found that a senior police officer knew of the mistake, but deliberately kept the information from his superiors and misled the public.

Al Jazeera (using an Agencies news source) informed us that ‘... the report added that there were serious weaknesses in the police action and said that de Menezes was not given the proper chance to protest his innocence in the moments before he was shot dead.’

‘"The IPCC investigation team understands that Mr de Menezes did not refuse to obey a challenge prior to being shot and was not wearing any clothing that could be classed as suspicious," the report said.’

That, my friends, has been the sum of the findings - oh my mistake, yes of course, the IPCC also cleared Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan Police commissioner, of any misconduct - presumably its main objective.

And anyway, what was the penalty for the senior police officer?

He was criticised.

Good lord, that's far too severe!

And get this: ‘Last year, prosecutors decided that no individual officer involved in the shooting should face criminal action over the incident itself, but that the London force should be prosecuted as a whole under health and safety laws. The trial is due to start in October.’

' ... no individual officer involved in the shooting should face criminal action over the incident itself.'

Jolly good bloody show, old boy – yes, it may not be cricket, old top, but Queen & country you know, just show those dagos the stiff upper lip! We're British!

The Debate on the Malaysian Islamic State

I read with some regret in malaysiakini that the Islamic debate continues. This time the non-Muslim side is crowing and patting the back of Bernard Dompok, the Minister in the PM’s Department, for rejecting the government’s (or UMNO’s) stand that Malaysia is an Islamic state.

Personally I don’t see any benefit in pursuing this line of argument, though I can understand why.

The debate is not new but recently DPM Najib Razak resurrected the controversy by echoing former PM Dr Mahathir in averring that Malaysia is an Islamic state.

The history of this debate stemmed from an UMNO or Dr Mahathir’s political manoeuvre to outflank PAS. The latter had been and still is using Islam and the promise of an Islamic State to win the Muslims over to its political banner. Basically, what the Grand Olde Man did was to tell the Malay-Muslim heartland that Malaysia is already an Islamic State, and therefore PAS has been whistling naught in the air.

I don’t believe he had meant for the gradual transformation of Malaysia via an Arab-isation program that is so apparent in this country. Rais Yatim is one of those few ministers (perhaps the only one) who dare to place Malay culture above an Arab one, of course without disregarding Islam at all.

But when one unleashed certain forces one might well find out that one could be hard put to keep those forces under control. And so it has been.

The occasional invocation of this reminder (that Malaysia is an Islamic State) has become a convenient UMNO political tactic to keep PAS from making any significant inroads into UMNO’s constituency.

Non-Muslims who encounter such UMNO assertions fall into mainly three groups:

(1) Those who know what UMNO was doing has been politics to neutralize a more frightening (to them) PAS.

(2) Those who won’t countenance any creative modification to the Constitution, that Islam is only the official religion.

(3) Those who fall somewhere between groups 1 and 2, but who would speak out against the idea of Malaysia being an Islamic state because of the fear of ‘give one cm, they take one metre’ by the Muslims who assert such a State. They have seen the zealots gradually dominating the Islamisation program with greater zeal than is comfortable.

The recent spate of apostasy and body claim controversies and the cringing civil courts haven’t helped curb their growing fears.

People in Group 3 feel that if they don’t speak out against the claim of Malaysia being an Islamic State, the Islamists will intrude into their rights more and more.

Examples of non-Muslims feeling their rights have been infringed by the Islamisation advances are as follows:

(1) The recent arrest of a Chinese couple for alleged kissing and hugging in a public park – the truer story would probably turn out to be an off duty cop being very naughty on some other business, and using the indecent behavior allegations as a vindictive accusation. Though one could argue that it was an alleged act of indecency (devoid of religious connotation), nonetheless the charge has been based on Islamic values, with the authority idiotically charging the non-Muslim couple.

There was another similar case in Ipoh .... for crying out, Ipoh ... a predominantly Chinese city!

(2) From my elders – once upon a time, only the Malay Regiment conducted doa on parades; then several years ago, some (either) ambitious or religious chap extended that doa (Muslim prayers) on parade to military units not wholly Muslim, like the Navy and Air Force.

Now, how would the non-Muslim officers feel? This was exactly what had happened in schools when a certain bloke was Education Minister! The word is the draconian PROSELYTISING of non-Muslim students!

My very senior neighbor told me that he witnessed some embarrassing moments when a joint Malaysian-Indonesian exercise started with a parade where the Indonesians refused to participate in the doa during parade. Eventually it took a very diplomatic Indonesian general to save the situation (due to Malaysian inconsideration) by instructing his men to ‘behave like polite guests’ a la ‘when in Rome, do as Romans do’.

(3) The recent imposition of Islamic headgear on female police officers by the former IGP who tried to score political points in the midst of the IPCMC campaign. He claimed the bull-reason of uniformity when for decades, Sikh members of the RMP had donned their turbans, even on ceremonial parades, without being out of place or lacking uniformity with their non-Sikh colleagues.

I could go on and on, and though I am one of those in Group 1, I feel that Group 3 has a valid point, because if one stays silent, well … ‘give one cm, they take one metre’.

Damansara Utama - A Bridge Too Far for MCA?

Once again we read of a potential parachutist in malaysiakini. But this time the person is from the MCA.

Victor Gu, a former ntv7 Mandarin news anchor as well as host of the popular game show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire (Chinese version), is another high profile bloke like Jeff Ooi. Jeff has just joined the DAP. And like Jeff, Victor is another party come-lately, having just joined the political party of his preference in early July 2007.

Needless to say MCA top leaders have been ecstatic with their star-quality catch while the mud-sloggers are mighty pissed off, because word has it that 30-year old Victor has been slated by Ong Ka Ting to contest the Damansara Utama state seat in the coming elections.

I blogged in Jeff Ooi - The challenge for the DAP about a political party’s dilemma, on how to balance the need of the party in choosing high profile parachutists as election candidates versus the equal need to consider the morale and continued support of the less well known loyal supporters who have sacrificed time and effort to the party and who expect selection themselves in due course.

In Victor Gu’s case, party sources revealed, hardly surprisingly, that some grassroots and youth leaders have voiced their unhappiness at Gu’s as-yet unannounced selection to contest Damansara Utama. Society normally doesn’t condone queue jumping, even when the party president has backed Gu’s candidature.

Ong’s reasoning is as I discussed in my previous posting, that the MCA needs high profile star quality young professional as candidates to compete with the DAP.

Well, Chinese are not known for being Hang Tuah-ish subservient to party leaders, so Ong's insistence on Victor Gu as the candidate may well be resisted and indeed sabotaged. One reason or excuse given by the grassroots is that an untested Gu may not be able to retain the seat which has been under MCA’s control since 1999 after wrestling it from the DAP.

Gu of course came out in damage control mode, blaming the media (most of the Chinese ones are generally linked to the MCA anyway) for spreading rumours about him and his entry into MCA.

malaysiakini reported him as insisting he had never received any offer from the party to contest in the elections.

He said: “Until now, I have not received any offer and hence, I never think about being a candidate.”

Take it from me, when a potential political candidate says that, assume the opposite.

Indeed he continued by saying that all PJ division members whom he met have warmly welcomed him into the party and "some even sent me text messages expressing their willingness to co-operate with me." ;-)

Then he added that MCA Youth chief Liow Tiong Lai had also attended the launch of MCA's public speaking youth speakers team, proving that MCA youth leaders were okay with him. Wow!

Well, Victor has learnt fast with his politico-speak. He is certainly politician material.

Reminder: While airborne troops have been used in daring tactical moves as shock troops, they have to be quickly relieved by the conventional ground forces such as infantry and armour, because they would be lightly armed and have minimum equipment.

Without expeditious backup they might be annihilated by the enemy troops after the shock entry. The story of ‘A Bridge Too Far’ by Cornelius Ryan provides a stark example of the British airborne debacle in WWII.

If the grassroots do not support Victor Gu as the candidate for the next election, Damansara Utama may well be a bridge too far for him and Ong Ka Ting.

Help - have you seen Madeleine McCann?

The girl in the photo is Madeleine McCann. She is only 4 years old.

She was abducted on 3 May 2007 from her hotel in Praia da Luz, Portugal.


If you see her or have any information about her whereabouts, please contact the nearest police station, or alternatively the UK Crimestoppers on +441883731336 if you're outside UK.

For more information see Missing Madeleine, the official website to find her.

UPDATE on 03 August 2007:

In Britain thousands of yellow ribbons tied in the home village of Madeleine McCann have been taken down amid concerns they are attracting grief tourists.

Villagers say Rothley's main square has become a morbid visitor attraction since they made it the focal point for their collective fears for the little girl.

Now 13 weeks since her disappearance in Portugal residents of the Leicestershire community want to restore some degree of normality and the McCann family has agreed.

The world's media descended on the village after the four-year-old was abducted from her holiday home in the Portuguese resort of Praia da Luz on May 3.

The town square became the centre of attention with messages and cuddly toys left and ribbons of hope tied to railings around its war memorial.

I am going to let this post go from the top position as well; besides the evidence seems to point to Portugal and Northern Africa as the likely places for her recovery, if at all possible. My thoughts continue to be with her parents.

Jeff Ooi - The challenge for the DAP

The hottest topic in the Malaysian blogosphere is the question of Jeff Ooi becoming a politician, a case confirmed by malaysiakini recently.

An issue raised has been how the DAP grassroots (not the party’s top leaders) would view Jeff’s parachuted entry into immediate consideration – c’mon, let’s call a spade a spade and cancel that word ‘consideration’ – selection as a party candidate for the coming general election.

I have partly commented on this issue in the blog of Susan Loone, my PABS co-founder.

A political party such as the DAP obviously looks for high profile personalities to stand as candidates, to attract voters. It’s not an unusual practice throughout the world. But such parachuted recruits have been much to the chagrin of the mud-sloggers, those who struggle their way up the branch ladder, sometimes only after years of dedicated hard work and sacrifices.

Invariably some of the grassroots, especially those who have political aspirations of their own, will feel bypassed, jilted, or even betrayed.

On theory, a party has a greater chance of winning a seat if its candidate is high profile and well liked - these two qualities are not automatically synonymous. But of course the public wants to know whether the candidate is clean and perceived as being able to deliver.

Does Jeff Ooi satisfy these qualities? He is certainly well known in the online world (through malaysiakini) and of course the Malaysian blogosphere as a blogger big on public governance, consumerism and media affairs.

On the question of whether he is well liked would depend on his visitors’ perception. A blogger is never that conceited as to imagine that people visit his/her site because they like him/her.

Jeff does have an abrasive style as a blogger but that’s his personality and his concerns with, for example, ‘hijackers’, visitors who attempt to change the thread of discussion to fit a covert agenda. However, as a politician, he cannot afford that anymore if he wants to be seen as the people’s man. But it’s up to him, and whether he can adapt quickly to the real world of ‘cause and effect’ where he can’t just delete an adverse public perception or admonish an aggressive or uncooperative member of the voting public.

But is Jeff well- known by the ordinary non-Internet savvy public, people like my mum, aunts and their mahjong kakis? That will be the challenge for Jeff and the DAP, to translate the reputation of a well known blogger into an image of that nice capable bloke from the Rocket.

Back to those poor dedicated mud-sloggers - a party is also aware that to merely reward the old faithful’s with selection as election candidates may be good for party morale but not necessarily brilliant for winning as many seats as possible.

Winning as many seats as possible is not just to make an impact in parliament but necessary to convey an image to the public as a credible party to the public - basically to show it’s not a pathetic one or two seat party, which is important for future elections.

I can only point to the PKR and PPP as poor examples of this perception. At least the PPP can sulk behind the BN sarong, though we must ask for how long more?

The downside of selecting only parachuted high profile personalities like Jeff or that PKR bloke for the Ijok by-election is that it would, must antagonise long time party faithful’s, especially those ambitious ones - ask Nallakaruppan.

The BN has the remedy of rewarding ’selection-jilted’ party faithful’s with choice appointments, while our opposition leaders can only offer consoling words, which may sometimes be not enough. And internal sabotaging would occur, which if not remedied well could see the disintegration of a party - oh, do you guys any party in mind as an example of this?

‘Tis a difficult juggling act for the leaders to strike a happy balance between their elite airborne troops and their less glamorous infantry in their combat operations. Yes, it’s a tough call for the party generals.

Related:
Jeff Ooi - right move from Gerakan to DAP?

AG - millstone around government's neck in election?

A couple of days ago I posted Corruption allegations - AG more like Defence Attorney?

‘Twas based on a malaysiakini report that Mohamad Ramli Abdul Manan, a former Sabah ACA chief who whistle-blew on the alleged corruption and alleged sexual abuse committed by the former ACA boss, stated the AG and the man he cleared, said former ACA boss Zulkipli, were good mates when they were both serving in Sabah.

Ramli reminded us that in March he had stated the AG, Gani, should not be investigating Zulkipli’s case. This is the common known provenance to avoid the issue of conflict of interest, and did not necessarily suggest any sinister outcome.

Unfortunately Gani himself chose to ignore the case of conflict of interest in clearing Zulkipli of the alleged corruption and sexual abuse.

As I remarked, this is not to say that Gani was incorrect, but in a fully transparent and accountable democracy, a situation of perceived (only perceived and not necessarily real) 'conflict of interest' would automatically taint his clearing Zulkipli of the alegations.

Why in the world would the nation’s No 1 law officer allow himself to be seen in such bad light, where now, and unfairly to Zulkipli, his pronouncement are viewed with skepticism, suspicions and sneers.

Additionally Gani had the unmitigated audacity to usurp the PM’s authority in instructing the ACA to cease investigations into the IGP’s alleged corruption.

Again Gani didn’t do the IGP any favour because there is now also a perception, perhaps wrongly, that his precipitous and unauthorized actions were driven by sweetheart considerations rather than proper investigative outcomes. It has also become a gross injustice to the IGP’s case.

So it has been hardly surprising that after Lim Guan Eng, the DAP secretary-general, asked Gani to make public the investigation papers into both Zulkifli and Musa Hassan, to prove that a thorough probe was conducted in accordance with the principles of integrity, transparency and accountability, we hear from malaysiakini that Transparency International Malaysia, an anti-corruption watchdog, has demanded full public disclosure of the basis for the government’s (meaning Gani Patail’s) dismissal of corruption allegations against said two officials.

All these are reflections of public concerns and perceptions that the government has not been acting properly, in fact, rather dodgily, and all these have come about because the AG has not conducted himself above reproach.

Regardless of whether public criticisms of his bizarre actions are valid or otherwise, I believe that we cannot afford to have the nation’s No 1 law officer not knowing simple principles of public governance like ‘conflict of interest’ and what the lines of communication exists for the ACA. The latter also reflects indirectly on his own lack of understanding of what his functions and authority as an AG are, and their limitations.

Quite frankly, in any democracy, he should resign for his lack of knowledge or/and bizzare actions, or the PM should ask for his resignation, or even sack him.

With an election just around the corner, the BN cannot afford to have him still as the AG. The opposition will be using these public ‘perceptions’ with much glee if the PM condones such inexplicable conduct by his AG.

November General Elections - More Indications

Contrary to the views of experts such as Wong Chun Wai of the Star Online, and indeed the reported advice of DPM Najib Razak by malaysiakini, I had blogged that the general election will be held in November this year rather than early next year.

I gave my reasoning in my post KTemoc predicts November General Election on 26 July 2007.

Three days later malaysiakini also posted my letter September orgy of celebrations, polls in November, basically a brief (and more couth) version of my posting.

To summarize my reasons, the 50th Merdeka celebrations will lead into two months of feel-good happenings/events for the public, with the usual array of pork barreling handouts topped by an expected pre-election budget full of delightful goodies.

The BN also hopes that an early (snap) election will deny the opposition sufficient time to re-group, strategize, prepare and implement whatever plans they may have, especially when a PKR is in disarray and whose main policy seems to be only about an alleged Najib personal association (through Razak Baginda) with the late Altantuyaa Shariibuu - so what, the average person/voter may well ask!

Today, malaysiakini provides further indications that my predictions may be realised.

It seems that BN secretary general Mohd Radzi Sheikh Ahmad had sent a letter, directing BN elected representatives and senators to update their bio-data with the coalition headquarters. Mohd Radzi wanted returns from the recipients by June 21.

Well, according to BN sources, an updated bio-data of candidates (and potential candidates) would be usually required three months prior to a general election.

This is to allow AAB, the BN chairperson, and the police to scrutinise the background of candidates, in particular those who have generated controversy. Hmmm, how about those two disgusting Bocor-ites?

Well, there’s this month August, then September and October (3 months gnam gnam) before the November school holidays start. Usually in Malaysia, general elections have traditionally been held during school vacation periods so that the school buildings may be used as polling stations and the teachers possibly engaged as Election Commission staff to support the balloting process.

The letter requiring the BN candidates’ personal details has fuelled speculation that a snap polls will be called soon.

Yok Hoong, a visitor to my post predicting the November elections left a comment about Najib’s heads up to BN component party leaders about the general elections being held in early 2008:

“red herring by Najib? and if they think the fallout of the sub-prime loans in US may hit local stock market, bet the election may even be earlier than your prediction. imagine the stock market tanks and billions of wealth are wiped off and the economic indicators are blinking red alert. it will be suicidal then to hold an election, isnt it.”

Well, I can't comment on Yok Hoong's comment as I am not an economic expert. But other indications are all there for a November election. And, don’t be surprised if it’s even earlier.