The man who wants to be PM at any cost

Free Malaysia Today (FMT) – Anwar in ‘secret’ talks to lure MIC leaders

PETALING JAYA: Opposition Leader and PKR de facto chief Anwar Ibrahim has stepped up efforts to woo MIC leaders to join the opposition party.

To this end, the former deputy prime minister held a “secret” meeting with several MIC national and division leaders at the PKR headquarters at Tropicana, Damansara, yesterday afternoon, sources claim.

If the claim is true and the leaders decide to switch camp, then it would be a bitter blow not only to the largest Indian-based political party in the country but also to the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) government.

Wakakaka, once again the sound of musical ribbit .. ribbit .. ribbit .. ribbit .. ribbit will ring in the halls of PKR Headquarters. The frog master is at work again.

But the best part is not so much in Anwar’s encouraging, egging and entreating MIC to jump, but in its aftermath when anwaristas will spin, twist and warp their blinkered mind to justify their iconic Lord Brahma's favourite activity, and argue that their idol is not an unrepentant deformasi defector deity a la 1994 Sabah and wannabe 916, but working towards a more democratic society wakakaka.

I have read many of their bullsh*t and eagerly await any new innovative scatological excuses.

But seriously, can’t Anwar Ibrahim just carry on with the Pakatan campaign without inviting such flotsam into the coalition? Let me answer that wakakaka.

No, he can't because it's in his nature wakakaka.

Isn’t it bad enough, when he was kicked out from UMNO, that he brought his UMNO faction across?

What next, MCA, Gerakan, PPP, and more UMNO?

And before we know it, gasp, gawd, omigosh, hey hey hey hey, it’s BN Mark II (and out with DAP) with a new PM wakakaka.

Chandra Muzzafar's silos

In a letter to Malaysia-Today titled by RPK as Electorial politics and education, Dr Chandra Muzzafar wrote about the centrifugal forces of vernacular schooling. He commented succinctly:

If a Chinese Malaysian can pursue his entire education in Chinese, from primary to university level, how much exposure would he have to Malaysian students and teachers from other communities? 

How would this affect his attitude towards, and outlook on, the other? What would be his notion of a Malaysian identity? 

Thus he believes that the role of Bahasa as the national language for all Malaysians must be reconsidered, reinstated and reinforced.

Many do not have issues with his views which are good, except that I believe he missed mentioning a few matters which are related to the drift of the Chinese away from National type schools. These would be:

(1) The politicizing of the national education system by successive UMNO-monopolized Education Ministers which severely enervated the standard of the National Education System to a state of moribundity, from primary schooling right up to, and especially in universities. Many horror stories on this lamentable state have already been written, and repetitively too.

I have also explained in many posts on why the majority of Chinese who used to send their children to English medium schools in the earlier days of Merdeka gave up, yes that's the word 'gave up', on national type schooling because of the mentioned politicizing by UMNO Ministers and the consequential dropping of standards.

(2) What had Dewan Bahasa & Pustaka done in the last half a century to ensure we have the proper books for our students, where we then needn't rely instead on what non-Malay parents viewed as printed bigotry like Interlok?

(3) Just recall those BTN-ized teachers and school principals. Would any non-Malay parents want to send their children to schools staffed with such bigots?

However, to be fair to Dr Muzzafar, he did propose brilliantly:

To become national, the Bahasa Malaysia based school has to emerge as the school of first choice for all Malaysians. Its quality has to improve significantly. Bahasa Malaysia, English and other languages should be taught well. This also applies to other core subjects such as Mathematics, Science and History. 

Parents will also be impressed by the school if student discipline is strictly enforced within a caring environment. Competent, dedicated teachers would be the essential pre-requisite for such a school system. They should not just impart knowledge and skills but also try to mould the young under their charge into honest and trustworthy human beings. Teachers should treat all students, regardless of their backgrounds, with fairness and a sense of justice.  

The national school teaching community should be much more multi-ethnic and multi- religious than what it is today. More non-Malays and non-Muslims should be appointed as School Heads and Senior Assistants. At district, state and national levels, the education office or department should reflect the multi-ethnic composition of the nation. 

Qualified Dayaks and Kadazans should be given administrative roles outside Sarawak and Sabah.  

What this means is that within the three component elements of the education system --- administrators, teachers and students --- ability should be recognised and rewarded. 

It is only when the education system is perceived to be promoting ability and excellence that parents will have the confidence to send their children to the national school. 

At the same time, the national school should extend a helping hand to the disadvantaged student, irrespective of cultural or religious affiliation.

I support him in all his above recommendations.

(3) But let us also review Dr Muzzafar’s succinct comment of “How would this affect his [Chinese] attitude towards, and outlook on, the other? What would be his [Chinese] notion of a Malaysian identity?”, where I wonder why Dr Muzzafar has made this educational observation, and a very relevant observation, in isolation?

What about commenting on society's larger aspects such as, for example, the downstream receptacle for the products (or graduates) of our educational system, like in the staffing in the Malaysian Civil Services, Armed Forces, Police Force, educational institutions including VC’s and senior deans of universities? Okay, for the moment let’s leave aside organizations such as Petronas which are totally unaccountable to all save the UMNO PM.

I won’t comment on the intake of affirmative institutions such as MARA, but then what about the intakes for universities (e.g. UiTM?), the hope of many Chinese and Indian families for their children, given their socio-cultural aspirations? This issue has been the source of annual disputes between the non-Malay communities and the government, and further bitter cause for the Chinese and Indian communities to seek out non-national educational resources?

Aren't these ‘unmentionable’ mentions already the silos in Malaysian society that Chandra Muzzafar worry about, and which he opined (correctly if I may point out) that Chinese education will create?

Malaysia's 'Panca' Silos 

Of course we must not dismiss Dr Muzzafar’s observation on the centrifugal potential of vernacular education just because most Pakatan supporters see him as an UMNO voice. He has raised a very relevant concern. But if he is concerned about society's silos, then let's go about smashing all of them up, and not just cherry pick one.

My point is that if the quest or objective is for national unity then we should not just assess the Chinese educational push in isolation. The Chinese wish for mother tongue education has been the consequence of a combination of inter-related factors, namely (just some examples):

(a) the Chinese socio-cultural reverence for education for more than 2000 years because it represents hope for their children’s future,

(b) UMNO bastardization of educational standards leading to Chinese abandonment of a pathetic system,

(c) Chinese perception of marginalization by the UMNO-led government in virtually all aspects of Malaysian life which has convinced the community to go it alone, etc.

We have to deal with all these and not just the Chinese vernacular educational wish alone, and unless we do so, no Chinese parent will ever see Dr Muzzafar’s point, nor will Dr Muzzafar’s wish for national unity be ever achieved with just a good national type education system when the so-called Malaysian society is not Malaysian at all but Muhyiddin’s ‘Malay UMNO First’.

Najib's necessary reincarnation of Mao Zedong

The Malaysian Insider - Nazri tells why pandas will be placed in Putrajaya.

Minister Nazri Abdul Aziz said:

We appreciate the panda bears because they symbolise the close relationship between Malaysia and China.

That many would poke delirious fun at Najib’s invitation to name the giant pandas is an indication of the acute aggravated acrimony existing in Malaysian politics.

why can't our politics be more civilised like this? wakakaka

No matter how innocuous or trivial a subject that such an invitation is about, so long as it’s from the ‘other side of the political fence’, that invitation would be whacked kau kau. And why should we be surprised when a senior PKR leader set a mean and lamentable example by showing his gleeful rapture in bringing about an early termination in the tenure of Rosmah Mansor as Chancellor of UNISEL, a mere honorary post of non-political significance. Such a political pygmy.

But both sides of politics, with some exceptions in Karpal Singh, Lim Kit Siang, Zaid Ibrahim, Dr Jeya, Nizar Jamaluddin, etc, have been equally guilty in being mean rather than meaningful. Looks like we won't be ready for two-party politics for a bloody long long long time.

Some accuse Najib of American presidential style pomposity when he previously invited the Malaysian public to name his household cat as if they would be interested in the way Americans are in the personal bit and pieces of the First Family, including the breed and name of the presidential dog.

Then there was that ‘First Lady of Malaysia’ (FLOM) title which riled many Malaysians. Maybe Najib should sack his American-Israeli PR firm/advisors.

Nonetheless, Minister Ng Yen Yen acclaimed the giant pandas* would pull in tourists especially from Singapore and Indonesia (virtually ignoring more friendly Thailand), while the DPM went on virtually an orgasmic exultation of Chinese investments and Sino-Malaysian cooperation in the fields of telecommunications, transportation, construction and steel manufacturing under the country's Economic Transformation Programme, and for Malaysia to sell halal products to the 25 million.

Lately, he has back-pedalled on his 'no more independent' Chinese schools, wakakaka.

Red Panda

* and we should refer to these black & white animals as giant pandas or panda bears (Ailuropoda melanoleuca, or black and white cat-foot), because the word panda as used in encyclopaedias refers to another unrelated creature, usually known as the red panda (Ailurus fulgens, or shining-cat) which looks like a Malaysian musang or an American racoon but is not related to them

Red Panda

No doubt the Education Minister would soon follow Yen Yen’s example and enthuse about the likelihood of educational standards improving because our students will then be able to distinguish black from white without a BTN-indoctrinated teacher telling them which is what, wakakaka.

And with Ng Yen Yen also revealing that the female panda to be on loan is already fertile I wouldn't be in the least shocked if the Health Minister will sycophantically attribute her pregnancy to ‘our beloved PM’ (now now, don’t be naughty, I didn't imply in any way what you’re wildly imagining wakakaka).

Because China provided these giant pandas (on loan for 10 years) to some foreign countries, these offers have become known as China’s panda diplomacy, where the names of these pandas could even and have been proven to be politically sensitive.

For example, when China first offered Taiwan a breeding pair in 2005 with the names of tuan tuan (not ke-tuan-an Melayu wakakaka) and yuan yuan, the previous DPP government of Chen Shui-bian (who's incidentally now in jailed for corruption not related to the giant pandas wakakaka) opposed the offer because the Chinese words tuan yuan meant ‘reunion’. Chen was virulently anti-reunion with Mainland China.

So his government sabo the importation kau kau by refusing to issue the permits for the entry of the giant pandas into Taiwan, on the bullsh*t that the local zoos did not meet facility and resource requirements for the proper care and rearing of the animals.

But subsequently the more diplomatic and less confrontational Kuomintang Party came into power in 2008 and accepted tuan tuan and yuan yuan.

But to understand why the giant pandas are coming, and why Najib had requested for them from Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao during his visit to Nanning in April, we need to go back some 43 years, to that dreadful day, 13 May 1969.

Virtually all of us know what happened on that evening, and the subsequent existence of a humongous division between Malay and Chinese Malaysians. Then after June (or was it July) that same year, the Indians were equally traumatized after a mini May 13 in Setapak.

My Uncle who lived through the riots told me a semi-tragic semi-humorous story. When May 13 occurred, one of his Indian friends lambasted him with an indignant and very nasty “You Chinese are troublemakers!” But after the Setapak incident less than two months after May 13, that same friend told him in the same outraged voice “Those Malays are troublemakers!”

My Uncle grinned as he told me he truly struggled to resist taunting that Indian friend with a sarcastic riposte that “No, it’s you Indians who are the real troublemakers”, mind you, just to tease him for his reckless accusations.

Anyway, immediately after May 13, the Chinese harboured hurt, angry and irreconcilable emotions, sometimes expressed openly but often subtly. Chinese boycotted their favourite foodstuff like durians, satay, nasi lemak, nasi Padang, petai, ulam, etc (I would have starved had I been party to the boycott), and warned their community (the women) from wearing sarung kebaya which pissed off my mum and her friend because they wore only Straits (nyonya-type) sarung kebaya when going out, even to the local market, and always sarung at home.

I heard from my uncles that many Chinese trading middlemen stopped giving out informal loans (cash advances) to their mateys, the Malay farmers, fishermen, etc, while some Chinese transport operators also missed out services to Malay kampongs and the rural areas (not sure whether they were just afraid to go into the Heartland or boycotting the Malays).

When Parliament resumed sittings in 1971 and PM Razak brilliantly created the Barisan Nasional (BN) to minimize politicking (with only DAP wisely refusing to join) but which became an alliance that eventually enervated Gerakan and PPP to what they have sadly become today, and effectively made UMNO irrefutably the numero uno bar none in that coalition.

The PM knew he had to reckon with the coming general election in 1974 as he saw the principal problem, the likely lack of Chinese support for BN, one which his son as PM would face 38 years later.

Razak wanted the Chinese to once again support his government as they had Tunku’s Perikatan (Alliance) until 10 May 1969. But how, after the socio-ethnic devastation of 13 May 1969, with Chinese Malaysians coming out all battered, shattered, and ill-tempered?

‘Twas not so much the pogrom per se against the Chinese (though there was that too) because overseas Chinese all over the world have had pogroms against them from time to time.

The Chinese were totally pissed off with the stories circulating among their community, one what they believed (regardless of whether true or otherwise), of the government's deliberate withdrawal of the ‘neutral’ Sarawak Rangers and Federation Armoured Car Regiment from their support of the Police in riot control in KL, and their replacement with Royal Malay Regiment soldiers.
Pogrom is a word of Yiddish-Russian origin, a vocabularied development testifying to the regular persecution of the Jews in Europe (particularly in Russia, Poland, Germany, etc).

Likewise the overseas Chinese, also a race unfortunately and frequently bashed around by the majority ethnic groups in various countries, have such a tragic word to describe the regular anti-Chinese pogroms. That word is p’ai-hua meaning ‘The Driven Out’.

Incidentally, now that we have mentioned p'ai hua, 'someone' (wakakaka) who was once in UMNO, wakakaka again, was very vocal in telling his Heartland crowd that the Chinese could bloody balik Tiong Sun (go back to China).

Anyway, back to the story - once again, Razak struck brilliantly. After analyzing what he believed would show Chinese Malaysians he wasn't anti Chinese per se, in 1974, just prior to the general elections, he did the unprecedented (at least in SE Asia without waiting for Taikoh Indonesia) by establishing diplomatic relations with Communist China.

His BN party ensured that the photo of him shaking hands with Mao Zedong was prominently and repetitively shown up to the general elections.

38 years later, his son as PM faces the same problem of a disenchanted if not hostile Chinese community in Malaysia. Even if Mao Zedong was still alive for a few photo ops with Najib, today’s Chinese Malaysians wouldn't really be interested in that Chinese leader, nor would they be in Hu Jintao.

Gong Li

Kaytee was rather keen to propose Gong Li wakakaka, but alas, she has gone from China to (initially) being a Singaporean wife to now becoming, as widely reported, John Cusack’s girlfriend, so her connections with China has become somewhat tenuous. And Zhang Ziyi, as the ex girlfriend of an American Jew, will be too hot a potato for UMNO or for that matter, PKR, wakakaka.

Zhang Ziyi

Anyway, our cat loving PM must have decided that a modern day equivalent of Mao Zedong would be the lovable cute giant pandas, everyone’s favorite animal. By emulating his dad’s clever pre-election campaign gimmickry, in using a Chinese icon (Mao updated to or reincarnated as Po the Kungfu Panda wakakaka) to win back Chinese voters, he hopes to repeat his father’s 1974 election success.

Po, the Kungfu Panda

And I've heard that more than 60 federal seats in Peninsula have significant Chinese voters which could decide the election outcomes in those constituencies, and which are and will be threatened by PAS and the UMNO … oops sorry wakakaka … Malay section of PKR.

And just in case Chinese Malaysians are too dumb to take up his hints, wakakaka, Bernama informs us that there is currently a Malaysia-China People's Friendship Photo Exhibition (12 to 30 June) at … guess …. wakakaka … yesirree … Wisma MCA, Seri Pacific Hotel, UKM and Sin Chew Daily, where among the exhibits, the famous Razak’s 1974 election campaign photo would be shown, of Najib’s father shaking hands with Mao and Chou, ...

Tun Razak with Chou En Lai

... and naturally also of son Najib and Chinese PM Wen Jianbao.

But I'm sure Najib doesn't want the following photo wakakaka.

The political assassination of Rafizi Ramli?

P.100 Pandan; N.21 Chempaka, N.22 Teratai

Pandan - a six letter word which will mean political death for one of two excellent politicians.

We have been astounded, nope more than that, flabbergasted actually, to read that Rafizi Ramli, PKR’s rising star, has been nominated to stand in that federal constituency against local hero Ong Tee Keat, a six term MP there (including Pandan’s former constituency title as Ampang Jaya) - see PKR’s Rafizi to face Tee Keat in Pandan for GE13 at Malaysia-Today.

Against the tide of the 2008 tsunami, Ong emerged winner in that general election with a healthy majority, and even more amazing, despite two of the state seats within Pandan going to Pakatan. That's who Rafizi will be going against!

Anyway, Rafizi has been endowed with intellectual brilliance, scoring exceptional academic and professional achievements, which means he possesses solid underpinning knowledge for life’s tussles. And he demonstrated this quality in his ingenuity in digging out the NFC scandal where he exposed questionable practice and expenditure of NFC money by its top management, and in those revelations, succeeded in damning more than senior UMNO minister from palace to cowshed wakakaka.

Ong Tee Keat is no less capable, being known as a gifted writer, indicating he has scholastic competencies, an accomplishment valued traditionally as a virtue by Chinese. Ong had actually won several literary awards for his articles. He wrote as a columnist for Sin Chew Jit Poh for nearly a decade. He quitted a lucrative engineering career to participate in politics.

Like Rafizi (or on political seniority, Rafizi is like him) Ong is renowned for his exposure of corruption and inappropriate conduct.

In 2002, when he was MCA Youth chief, he condemned MCA party leaders for acquiring Nanyang Press Holdings Bhd.

Then in September 2006, as deputy minister for higher education, he did it again, exposing alleged embezzlement of funds meant to repair and upgrade vernacular schools. Investigation (by JKR officers) spurred on by Ong’s revelation showed that refurbishment works carried out on SJK(C) Kung Yu in Muar, Johor, was only about RM3,000 worth when the allocation was ten times larger, at RM30,000.

In other words, 90% of funds went missing and was never explained nor accounted for, and which then-Education Minister (not Higher Education Minister) Hisham had strenuously denied was embezzled. Then-DPM Najib conveniently dismissed discussion of that inconvenient 'fact', the missing RM27,000, on the moronic argument that Ong had not passed that issue to the correct Education Minister, namely his cousin Hisham. I bet Ong didn’t do so because it would not only be the 90% funds disappearing but that ‘fact’ as well wakakaka.

When told to apologise to Hisham for incorrect communication protocol, Ong refused, which then forced his minister to apologise on his behalf (without Ong's agreement wakakaka) to save face for Hisham and Najib wakakaka.

does that look like OTK's finger?
 wakakaka

Okay, so Ong f* up the communication protocol, but then, was he praised for his exposure of corruption? Wakakaka, Ong was instead censured by the UMNO-dominated Cabinet (where MCA ministers sat in total silence) for speaking out on what ACA should have been investigating.

He was also the Transport Minister who ordered a Price Waterhouse Cooper investigation into the scandalous PKFZ runaway costs. Once again UMNO (and this time, MCA as well) was pissed off with Ong, as I had posted in UMNO prefers Ong Tee Keat out? 

A sign of this was when Ong, then head of UMNO's supposed chief ally, was besieged by his detractors, like Kuala Dimensi Sdn Bhd's (KDSB) CEO and Bintulu parliamentarian Tiong King Sing (also BN Nasional Backbenchers Club Chairperson) who launched a suit against Ong for the latter’s outspoken and transparent handling of the PKFZ issue. UMNO unusually remained (maybe gleefully) silent.

When Ong Tee Keat counter-sued Tiong for alleging that he (Tiong) gave RM10 million to Ong for party activities, a suit in fact supported by the MCA central committee, CSL criticized Ong “for dragging the party into a legal battle over his personal problem".

In its unusual silence, UMNO showed its obvious dislike of Ong Tee Keat.

So Rafizi and Ong are both corruption-fighters. But I would place Ong on a much higher pedestal because he spoke out against his own MCA and BN ally UMNO, showing he doesn’t tolerate nonsense, even from his side. Rafizi of course did a good job on NFC but that’s against an enemy camp and required less or even little courage. I would have admired Rafizi more had he spoke out against several recent cases of PKR’s alleged dodgy-ness or even the process of its last party polls. But alas, he didn't.

Be that as it may, it would be a pity to see one of them ousted from active politics (at least for the next five years).

Ong is no doubt facing more opponents than just Rafizi in GE-13. He has mucho enemies in UMNO and MCA, especially the latter, some factions of which I suspect would be prepared to lose Pandan just to see Ong disappear. The possibilities for his candidature in Pandan are as follows:

• Straight fight against PKR’s Rafizi, or
• 3-cornered fight against Rafizi and an MCA man [whether Ong stands as an MCA candidate or Independent] placed there as a ‘kacau’ factor

However, given that Ong is probably the strongest BN candidate for Pandan, and Najib is desperate to not only win in GE-13 but also win big, he may swallow his dislike for Ong and endorse the man as the BN candidate and perhaps even warn the MCA off.

Ong has the advantage of incumbency, local popularity and a reputation as an anti-corruption crusader (at least among the Chinese). Last year, I posted that in a survey just prior to the last MCA presidential challenge, the Chinese community had overwhelmingly voiced their preference for Ong Tee Keat to head MCA, but alas, it was just a survey which involved only the Chinese community. The majority of the MCA central delegates chose CSL, … perhaps now realizing that decision was at their own political (though not economic) peril.

Rafizi of course enjoys growing popularity for Pakatan, especially among the younger set, and his own personal profile as the Giant Lembu Killer.

finger licking good? wakakaka

But I wonder, just only wonder you know, idly mulling so to speak, whether like poor Ong, Rafizi too has musuh dalam selimut for him to be nominated for a very dangerous encounter with equally popular Ong Tee Keat, who had as a political novice in 1989 taken the scalp of renowned Malay giant, Harun Idris (yes, that former MB of Selangor) who stood as a candidate in Ampang Jaya for Semangat 46?

Why can’t an important asset like Rafizi Ramli be nominated for, say, Kelana Jaya, now occupied by wakakaka Loh Gwo Burne? His BN opponent will probably be MCA’s Loh Seng Kok who was not nominated for 2008 GE because he had offended UMNO ... and yes, PAS wakakaka ... see MCA MP warned by UMNO and PAS! and 50 UMNO Youths Threatened MCA MP! ...


... but which turned out to be a blessing in disguise because he avoided the humiliation of being trashed by PKR’s Anwar’s personal last minute candidate, his clan man Loh Gwo Burne wakakaka.

aiseh wakakaka

Now, Rafizi Ramli is not only an important asset but potentially a future PM of a Pakatan government, say in about 15 years time.

Best of all, unlike others in his party wakakaka, he is at present not encumbered with the millstone of corruption allegations. I hope he maintains his political and personal administrative hygiene. His few deficiencies, if at all we can even call them deficiencies, would be his relatively young age (like Nurul Izzah), 'in-ness' with Anwar’s inner coterie (which leads us to suspect he is also another UMNO wolf in PKR sheep’s clothing), and ...

... his lamentable and total silence on allegations of corruption, impropriety and frogological misdemeanours in his party. This deficiency is in total contrast with Ong Tee Keat’s blunt and honest straightforwardness, a virtue that my fellow Penang larng Neil Khor had described in a brilliant letter to Malaysiakini as ‘fatal purity’, implying Ong hadn’t and won’t spare even his friends and party colleagues if he believes they’re corrupt, as observed in his very public stand against MCA’s purchase of Nanyang Press Holdings, the alleged embezzlement of schools’ renovation funds by Hisham’s Education Ministry officials and the PKFZ scandal. 'Twas a 'purity' that has proven to be 'fatal' to himself as a leader in MCA.

Notwithstanding Rafizi’s silence on many of his own party’s questionable conduct, he is not just a rising star but will one day be undoubtedly a supernova. He’s most of all a Melayu and a very very bright one in a land where 60% of the population are Melayu, in other words a man accepted and destined to be PM or at least the powerful Finance Minister.

Again I ask, why is this most valuable of PKR assets assigned to such a dangerous stand-off against Ong Tee Keat? I’m inclined to believe Ong will win the Pandan federal constituency in GE-13, as he had in the last 6 GE including 2008, and with that, sayang saja, Rafizi will be cold storage for 5 years, unless someone conks off to provide a by-election for PKR to claim as its due.

Why, why, why ... such a stupid assignment?

Okay, I’ll be more blunt, who in PKR pre-nominates candidates for constituencies? Who has stupidly (or maliciously) nominated Rafizi for Pandan?

Can I offer a suggestion, that Rafizi be given Kelana Jaya or Bandar Tun Razak or any other PKR seats which will be more safe?

Don’t do him in?

Corruption below the wind

Scene 1 (reconstructed): Land below the wind, February 1994

Joseph Pairin Kitingan, leader of PBS, was elated. His party won the Sabah state election by 25 seats to 23, a majority of 2. He drove to the Yang DiPertua Negeri’s (YDP) official residence to report to YB that he has the confidence of the majority of the Dewan Undang2 Negeri (DUN).

He was a bit miffed when he found the gate of the YDP’s residence locked. I bet the guards there, when queried, were less responsive than Emperor Qin Shi Huang's terracotta warriors.

Not too long after, he found that, thanks to the Director of BN election campaign (by BN tradition, the Deputy President of UMNO and BN), he was no longer the CM-designate but instead the opposition leader, with his PBS holding on to only 23 seats.

Thanks to Anwar Ibrahim, then Deputy President of UMNO/BN and PM of Malaysia, a new political term was born, ‘frogs’.

Scene IIa & b: Taiwan and KL, September 2008

916! Failed attempt but nonetheless an attempt at déjà vu-ing Sabah's February 1994. Even a disgraceful trip to Taiwan was conducted.

Need I say anymore?

Scene III: Perak (Ipoh), January 2009

The Great One acclaimed the defection of Nasarudin Hashim (ADUN for Bota, Perak) from UMNO to PKR as a change of allegiance which:

“... reflected the sentiments of his voters, namely the Malays in his constituency ... as the beginning of a new wave."

New wave my foot, but sweet justice prevailed where Anwar was to be very shortly punished by that very 'new wave', which swung the other way. In a way, it was fitting retribution for his frogological sins of 1994 in Sabah. Unfortunately in Perak in 2009, he dragged DAP and PAS down with him.

The fact was UMNO had deeper pockets, pockets which he had enjoyed when he was in UMNO, but which was used against him and Pakatan in Perak in 2009. 

Scene IV: The past week

I was infuriated when I read The Malaysian Insider's (TMI) headlines Despite defection letdown, PKR focuses on change in Sabah.

Despite defection letdown? Letdown?

WTF? How could failed political defections be considered as a let-down for a political party which dares to declare its reformasi credentials? PKR should have rejected that description by TMI.

If we have any sense of democratic values, we should instead be exclaiming Alhamdulillah, Hallelujah, Kamsiah Thnee Kong, Shiva Bhagawan Ki Jai, Namo Kuan-say-im Por-saat and for atheists like me, Bloody Marvellous News!

Let-down or no let-down, failed or successful attempts, we have been once again assaulted by news and revelations of that most undemocratic practice and worse, acceptance by many, of political leaders seeking defections, again and again and again ...

I know I'm not the only one pissed off with this sleazy sickening sinister underhanded politics, and I dearly love to paraphrase what King Henry II said in 1170: "Will no one rid us of these troublesome politicians?"

Defection!


Doesn't association with the word say all about the much touted but blasphemed reformasi of Anwar Ibrahim?

Doesn't association with the word say all about the much touted but beguiling changes in Anwar Ibrahim (from his UMNO self)?

Pordah!

It infuriates me not so much because the leopard has shown time and time again, within and outside UMNO, that he cannot change his UMNO spots. It infuriates me because there are people (I'm not talking about anwaristas because they ARE the converted) who still believe this person is our only political hope. Well ........

As Brother Haris Ibrahim said, we should not so much ABU as ABC (Anything But Corrupt) - see his post I said speak up, not talk c@#k!  over at The People's Parliament where he wrote (in reference to corruption allegations against Azmin Ali and his inability to answer to those accusations, and Anwar Ibrahim's silence):

I cannot speak for the rest of you, but I do not think that we are a nation devoid of men and woman of unquestionable integrity such that even as we work to rid ourselves of this most foul and corrupt regime that now sits in Putrajaya, we must resort to replacements who cannot assure us that they are better. 

I deserve that much. 

You do, too. 

Let’s not short change ourselves.

Indeed!

Incidentally, do you know Tian Chua wakakaka? Of course most of us do. Tian Chua was previously known as a wannabe martyr, putting himself in situations where he was jailed, both in Australia and Malaysia. No doubt as a young idealist, he joined Suaram and various international human rights and political movements.

I had then deemed him as somewhat an eccentric wannabe martyr but basically a nice guy, though some years ago one of my girlfriends told me she disliked him for unnecessary physical confrontations with the Police (hence the title ‘wannabe martyr’), though to be fair to him, in those earlier days (prior to his PKR membership) he hadn’t gotten around to biting policeman yet wakakaka.

Now, see what TMI has written about him in Despite defection letdown, PKR focuses on change in Sabah:

When contacted late last night PKR vice-president Chua Tian Chang who is said to be the pointman for the defections …

WTF, “…who is said to be the pointman for the defections ….”

What has happened to that nice though eccentric wannabe martyr, a Suaram warrior who has now been described by TMI as being involved in political defections, a sinister sickening subversion of the supremacy of the ballot box?

How are the mighty fallen ........! – 2 Samuel 1:27 (KJV)

Tian Chua is Hakka, but if he understands Penang Hokkien (or get someone to translate for him if he doesn’t) this is what I would describe of his transformation from his former self to his current PKR personality, ‘Ch’arm mm tio larng’.

If you understand what I have just written in Penang Hokkien then you will know why I've brought in Tian Chua’s case in this post, but if you don’t, then my translation of that Penang dialectal phrase for you is ‘Mixing with the wrong company’, and you know who I meant by the ‘wrong company’.

And when one is with the wrong company, and/or supporting same (obdurately and deliberately disregarding clear & present evidence) then one is likely to have suffered from or would eventually suffer (and accept) the contagious corrupt compromise and subversion of democratic practice, process and principles.