Marginalization of Indians - the true story

FMT - Indians: A lost cause?

Ali Cordoba's article is full of passion and frustrations about the lost cause for the Indians.

Kaytee too has written a few posts in sympathy with the plight of most (though not all) Indian Malaysians, as follows:

(1) The Toddy Syndrome
(2) Malaysia's Economic Pariahs?

Okay, pray tell me, what's the difference between the Indians and Chinese, when both communities have been equally marginalized one way or another by UMNO policies for the last 40+years (since 1970, after May 13)?

Let's not split hairs by arguing that the Indians have been far more marginalized because if we are honest, we would remember there were none so marginalized than the 'new village' Chinese during the 1st Emergency (1948 to 1960) and the 2nd Emergency (also known as the Communist Insurgency War 1968 to 1989).

Chinese forcefully moved to new village

Chinese new village or prison?

Chinese new villagers' rationed food

Yet in general, ignoring isolated cases like multi billionaire Ananda Krishnan and well performing Indians of relatively small groups in professions like lawyers, doctors and military senior officers, etc, the Chinese have since done far better than the Indians.

Could it be due to their respective leadership? Well, in BN we have MCA and MIC, two of the original three original ethnic political parties, so tell me who has been the better representative? Wakakaka, though to be fair, MCA in its earlier years was not without merit in securing citizenships for many Chinese.

Then, could it be the relative population size, where the Indians are only 10% of Malaysia's population while the Chinese, originally at 50% (or even more, wakakaka) have now dwindled down to 28 24% or less through a combination of outward migration of Chinese and inward immigration (legal or otherwise, wakakaka) of neighbouring Muslims ('neighbouring' extends as far as Cambodia, Bangladesh, and even Pakistan)?

Perhaps the answer can't be found in Malaysia, not even with Waytha Moorthy fasting to gain acceptance of his Hindraf blueprint for Indians. Hindraf has been far too unreasonable in its quest for anyone to take it seriously or with goodwill. Take for example one of its 18-points demand, namely:

(18) A minimum of 20 Opposition members of Parliament are elected exclusively by the Indian Community to represent their interest at the highest political level and also as a Parliamentary Democracy check and balance and the same is safeguarded and entrenched into the Federal Constitution and which is to be increased proportionately with the increase in Parliamentary seats.

What kind of democracy or bullsh*t system will that be? I can only think of one word - racist!

Instead of attempting to overcome the evil that is racism, which no one would deny is prevalent in Malaysia especially the worst kind, institutionalized racism, Hindraf has instead jumped on the racism bandwagon by attempting to carve for itself and the people it claims to represent a cosy racist ghetto ...

... and I wouldn't be surprised if it expects its members to play the role of the so-called minimum 20 Opposition MPs.

Look at the DAP.

Contrary to criticisms and even abuses from jealous detractors, including the mandore-rizing big-headed one, DAP has the most number of Indian MPs and ADUNs without that preposterous Hindraf demand, more than MIC and all Indian-based parties combined could put together, and if you wish, please include PKR Indian MPs and ADUNs as well among the non-DAP group, including erstwhile PKR member-Anwar devotee, Gobala wakakaka.

Despite losing one Indian (Punjabi) ADUN sometime ago to seasonal tadpole metamorphosis, the DAP nationwide still have:

7 MPs

Karpal Singh, Professor Rama, Kula, Manogaran, Charles Santiago, Gobind Deo, John Fernandez

11 ADUNs

(in NS) S Veerapan, K Arumugum, P Gunasekaren, (in Penang) Professor Rama again, Jagdeep Singh, Tanasekharan, R Sanisvara Rayer, (in Perak) A Sivaesan, V Sivakumar. A Sivasubramaniam, (in Selangor) M Manoharan, and 

1 Senator

S Ramakrishnan

And that's why Indian leaders will succeed in DAP to the benefits of all Malaysians including Indians whilst Waytha Moorthy will end up like his brother who has been ignored for his jealous accusations of DAP Indian MPs and ADUNs being mandores and his wasteful and unproductive ethno-centric high drama.

Worse, what if the DAP Indians with their political experience and sense of confidence in their success stories participate in and dominate the Hindraf wish-for 20 MP positions?

Will Hindraf then seek an amendment to its No 18th point to specify that Indian politicians from the DAP, PKR, MIC, Gerakan, PPP and various other kutu Indian-based parties cannot participate for the 20 exclusive-to-Indian seats?

Ali Cordoba wasn't helpful to the Indian cause when he wrote: Gone are the days when the Alleycats dominated the Malaysian music charts, gone are the local Indian heroes in the local television programmes, and the innuendo continues. There’s no great Indian political leader left in the country, perhaps due to desertion of the Indian cause.

Instead of wallowing in self-pity, why didn't he ask about Ananda Krishnan, easily among the top three richest men in Malaysia (at one time he was touted as the richest - maybe he still is)?

What about businessman Tony Fernandes?

Just have a look at this Wikipedia page listing well-known Malaysian Indians List of Malaysian Indians which by the way includes Dr Mahathir and Anwar Ibrahim, wakakaka (though not Zambry Abdul Kadir, wakakaka again).

Two happy 'Indians', then there was one

wakakaka

If it's Indian Malaysian singers and actors Ali is after, there are tons of them including Guy Sebastian, a past winner of Australian Idol and currently a top personality in Australian entertainment industry.

Lamentably Ali Cordaba's article even posed questions like, just an example: Or is it that, with the stringent Malay-Chinese dominance, the Indians are being sidelined for good in local politics, thus affecting the community’s quest for survival in modern Malaysia?

... which straightaway (and shamefully)  demon-izes even the Chinese as politically dominating, instead of posing a positive question like: How did the Chinese do it? Surely we Indians can do the same.

As I mentioned, his article has been both passionate and expressive of frustration but unfortunately has also bought into a deplorable self-pitying victim-hood for the Indians, a state of mind not unlike a debilitating poisonous morass from which the deprived Indians, if they were to believe that's their irredeemable fate, will find difficulty climbing out of.

Once I published a post titled Hated by Indra which included extracts from a 1993 novel by Martin Booth titled ‘The Iron Tree’.

The story centred around an Irish Catholic priest in China of yonder days (1900). I came to the page which described the priest strolling along a road beside the river that flowed past Wuchow, the village he was stationed at. He saw Chinese coolies (labourers) hauling blocks of stones from a barge to the town. These were the lines I was drawn to:

The blocks were several feet square and each took two men with a substantial bamboo pole slung between their shoulders to lift it. These pairs of men struggled up the steep bank with the blocks, their breath coming in starved gasps by the time they reached the road, their horny bare feet kicking up dust as they staggered off into the town.

Pausing for some minutes, I watched the procession, wondering what life expectancy might be of these near-slaves. They could not be able to look forward to long lives and it was of no surprise to me the British had found it so easy to addict the Chinese to opium. Anyone with such an existence would want frequent release into a better world. [...]

Such was the lot of many Chinese in a China of earlier days, as would have been the lot too for many Indians in India.

But look at China and India today, bearing in mind India has been touted as the world's biggest democracy with all the attendant politically assured freedom of choice. Take just one example - their respective performance in the 2008 Olympics, which I believe had the Indian PM commenting angrily on what was wrong with India (1 gold, 2 bronze, total 3 medals, overall position 50th) when China could emerge top nation in the Games (51 gold, 21 silver, 28 bronze, total 100 medals, overall position 1st).

Yes, we need to ask why?

In my post Hated by Indra I also wrote:

I return to Martin Booth’s most observant two sentences of “They could not be able to look forward to long lives and it was of no surprise to me the British had found it so easy to addict the Chinese to opium. Anyone with such an existence would want frequent release into a better world.”

Thus to seek release into a 'better world', the deprived Chinese of yonder years went for opium, while their Indian counterparts went for toddy (and in some cases, ganja). I fear that even today some poor Indian Malaysians are still going for toddy.

Seven years ago I wrote The Toddy Syndrome where I stated:

Probably the most deprived and marginalized ethnic group in Malaysia, a land of bountiful plenty, is the Indian community. […]

The typically hard working but unskilled Indian struggles at the lower scale of employment, earns enough to live from hand to mouth day to day, has no or little after-hours amenities, has many children as a result of their sole entertainment (not unlike Chinese farmers in remote rural areas), at the end of work dashes off to the local ‘pub’ for several tin mugs of watered toddy, gets himself pissed drunk to blank out his agonizing frustration, apprehension, worries, physical/mental pain, hopelessness and anger at his-fate-decided-by-the-gods. [...]

The evil toddy ... has become the straw to hang on for many socially-drowning Indians. Its devastating effect produces the syndrome, but the disease is hopelessness in an increasing competitive world that is rapidly leaving many Indian Malaysians behind.

So Aneh, what have you done for your Indians instead of reading about Ali Cordoba questioning or suspecting even the Chinese (together with the Malays) for their stringent dominance of politics to the disadvantage of Indians.

Continuing, I wrote: Their children are born into immediate disadvantage. Their community is looked down upon. They are assigned ownership of Malaysian crimes which cannot be attributed to foreign migrant workers. They have become the debris, flotsam and garbage of Malaysian society.

Such is the unhappy lot of the chronic poor, impoverished people who would be exploited for the economic and sensual gratification of the ruling class and the rich. […]

Where was and is the Indian leadership? How did Uthayakumar, a professed Indian leader, deal with this other than to deeply offend the very people who could (or even might already) have helped. Has any senior politician from BN or Pakatan taken heed of Waytha Moorthy's self-sacrificial fasting?

As I suspect that the answer to the Indian Malaysian problems might not be found in Malaysia, let's look at India.

One only needs to read Aravind Adiga’s Man Booker Prize winning book 'The White Tiger’ to realize the evil of class-caste exploitation and persecutions in India, the world’s [so-called] biggest democracy.

And that is precisely the problem at the heart of the Indian Malaysians' lost cause.

No society has been more affected by class oppression than Indian society, made worse by its religious sanctified caste system.

But thousands of years of religious and societal indoctrination have convinced the lower caste, despite their modern education, to meekly accept their man's (not God's) assigned positions.

I recall an Indian friend, a Dalit*, who lamented he couldn't marry the woman he loved (and who loved him too) because she was from a higher caste.

* 'untouchable' or 'pariah' in the Indian caste system, but subsequently euphemised by Mohandas Mahatma Gandhi into Harijans (children of God). But the caste refused to accept even that and called themselves Dalit, which means 'The Oppressed'.

I looked at him in shock and asked why in today’s world he and his sweetheart would even accept such nonsensical social discrimination. All he did was to moan and groan and cry out in despair that it was impossible to break free from the shackles of the Hindu caste system.

Lamentably he was a willing captive of an evil system. Of course with such an attitude, he didn't marry her.

There is no greater evil for Indians than their caste system, especially one instituted and sanctified by so-called religion.

Aeons ago, people in a society were divided into different groups according to their varna (colour), and thus was borne the caste system.

There would still be those who defend the caste system by arguing the system was established after working out the complementary needs of society, which is pure grade bull dust.

Read my 2008 post Cast not thy untouchable shadow on doctors to know why the above pro-caste spin is pure bull dust.

You would discover to your horror the sheer utter iniquity and unmitigated evil of the Indian caste system, when a young woman and her baby perished because doctors ignored their Hippocratic oaths and refused to touch-treat them for no other reason than they were Dalits.

Naturally (or coincidentally) those who originally established the caste system and those who continue to defend it were/are placed at the top as the Brahmanic class. And when such a caste system has been hereditary-based, it was/is racist.

The divisive and oppressive protocols of the caste system are deep rooted in the Indian psyche, as was in the case of my Dalit matey, more so when it has been supported strongly by religious figures who even politicized it, for example (a quote): Swami Vivekenanda (1863–1902) ... argued that the revitalization of India could only occur if people returned to the Aryan virtues found in Vedic texts. Attributing Aryans with distinct physiological attributes, he strongly favoured the maintenance of racial and caste divisions.

Holy sacred bull dust!

Closer at home, in 2006 the disgraceful apartheid-like consciousness nurtured by the Indian caste racism was exposed in 2006 in an article by Malaysian veteran journalist Baradan Kuppusamy writing in Malaysiakini.

He revealed how MIC's internal party manoeuvrings were governed by caste during its 2006 party election campaign and highlighted the tragic case of (the late) MG Pandithan, then president of the Indian Progressive Front (IPF), but who was formerly from MIC.

What was sad had been the ugly business of the caste system discriminating against Pandithan because he was from the lowest caste, the Dalit.

Pandithan

Though he was ousted from MIC, his influence in the Indian community was so strong that a stream of MIC brass trooped in to visit him when he was hospitalized - separately of course, wakakaka, because few in MIC, especially those from the so-called higher caste, liked to be seen visiting ... gasp ... an 'untouchable' or 'pariah' which if we remember, was what a Dalit was originally called.

His visitors included his mortal enemy Samy Vellu, Palanivel (then Samy’s protégé), and naturally the (then) beneficiary of Pandithan's anti-Samy Vellu campaigning, Subramaniam Sinniah (or S Subramaniam).

But the sad part of all was while Pandithan was helping to get votes for Subramaniam, the latter was trying to put some distance between them.

Baradan Kuppusamy attributed the seemingly strange behaviour of Subramaniam to the MIC consciousness of caste. Upper caste MIC members would react badly if Subramaniam consorted with Pandithan, a Dalit.

Upper caste, my bloody foot. Those MIC leaders were no more than a bunch of pariahs, and I don’t mean that word in a caste sense. They were just plain @rse-h*les.

Naturally Samy Vellu’s Tamil Nesan exploited this disgraceful caste discrimination by reporting that a Subramaniam victory would result in Pandithan, a Dalit, becoming Subramaniam’s successor as MIC president.

Baradan said Subramaniam was pissed off with the fabrication, and unfortunately for him (or maybe deservedly because of his lack of moral courage) he lost some votes because of that.

S Subramaniam
is his political career now a closed chapter?

From this recollection, please tell me what sparkling leadership could the marginalized Indians ever expect from such crass caste-conscious politicians?

And perhaps from this, we are just beginning to obtain a nasty glimpse of the why's, how's and what's that has resulted in the abysmal lack of advancement of a large sector of the Indian community in the last 50-ish years, while their non-Malay companions, the Chinese Malaysian, have in general managed to stay ahead of them.

Perhaps Ali Cordoba should have borne in mind the Indian subconscious, a psyche internalized by caste indoctrination for thousands of years, when he decided to write on the issue of skin colour, as follows:

... the Indian woman ..... added that she was not working in a sane or fair environment, where some of her colleagues would at times behave like bullies or show disdain for her colour and creed.

It was never safe for an Indian, man or woman, she added, to hold a job in Malaysia because of the ostracism against Indians and people of her pigmentation, which she would insist included the Africans and even other Muslims who are not Malays.

As mentioned, Ali Cordoba needn't look elsewhere or any further than the 3000-year old Rig Veda to know who first discriminated against some Indians because of their pigmentation, and who had imbued them deeply with a crushing caste-class conscious cringe about the colour of their skin and the fate of their births, specifically:

Rig Veda III.34.9 - He gained possession of the Sun and Horses, Indra obtained the Cow who feedeth many. Treasure of gold he won; he smote the Dasyus [dark skinned people], and gave protection to the Aryan color;

and

Rig Veda IX.73.5 - Blowing away with supernatural might from earth and from the heavens the swarthy skin which Indra hates.

Indra who hates swarthy (dark) skins

I opine the Indian caste system with all its prejudices, racism and consequential oppression prevents or doesn't encourage true leadership, philanthropy or compassion for the poor and highly marginalized Indians, hence the community's marginalized predicament as compared to, say, the Chinese.

I've used the word 'sad' more than a few times in this post to describe my feelings about the wretched and oppressive caste system, but surely the most sad of all must be that many Indians who, like my Dalit matey, have been and are willing captives to an ancient evil that discriminates against them for no other reason than the accident of their births.

Thus, in my opinion, seeking remedy from Indian-based political parties won't be the solution. To address their multi-millennium-old problems, the Indians need a multiracial party like the DAP or the PKR (though Nallakaruppan and Gobalakrishnan won't agree to the latter, wakakaka).

But look, if the Indians don't like Uthayakumar's mandore-parties, namely the DAP and PKR, why not ask Dr Mahathir or Anwar Ibrahim for help? Afterall, Wikipedia categorizes both of them as famous Indian Malaysians, so remind them of this, wakakaka.

Once Brahmin brothers (a la Kaurava or Pandava, wakakaka)
but what now? Osiris and Seth, wakakaka again

And being Muslims I am sure they wouldn't and shouldn't be concerned about caste, though alas (or Allah swt) I have come across a Mauritius Indian Muslim who boasted to me he's a Brahmin and that his Dalit boss dared not look at him directly in the face.

Well ........ Millions and millions of Indians embraced Islam in order to liberate their caste-oppressed lives and I had this haughty hubristic hifalutin (so-called) Muslim telling me what a proud Brahmin he (then) was.

Wasn't that pure testimony to the pervading insidiousness of the Indian caste system?

MCA - its final struggle

Malaysiakini's Soi Lek to resign if Tee Keat fielded reported:

MCA president Dr Chua Soi Lek is said to have told the party's central committee meeting yesterday that he would resign if the BN fields arch-rival Ong Tee Keat in the Pandan parliamentary constituency.

Quoting sources, China Press today reported that, apart from Ong, secretary-general Kong Cho Ha and vice-president Ng Yen Yen(right), are not on the list of MCA candidates for the impending general election.

Ong Ka Chuan, former secretary-general and elder brother of former president Ong Ka Ting, will not be asked to defend the Tanjung Malim parliamentary seat.

As for Chua himself, a minister before he stepped down in 2008 due to a sex scandal, the Chinese daily claimed that he will contest but that the seat has yet to be revealed.

Let's leave his threat to resign aside for a few seconds and assess the alleged intentions of MCA (meaning CSL) to drop Kong Cho Ha and Ng Yen Yen out in GE-13. I have to acknowledge these would be bloody wise moves as the two MCA ministers are smelling badly like decomposing rats in a sewer.

can become tourist guide mah
wakakaka

Naturally the Ong brothers have been CSL's intra-party enemies so dropping Ong Ka Chuan is a no brainer in the same way as had been his publicly voiced decision, though by indirect inference, to drop Ong Tee Keat when he named Gary what's-his-name as the MCA choice for Pandan.

Internal party strife has been the malaise that has stricken MCA for eons, in a way unlike other political parties' internal strife, even that as acrimonious as UMNO's Mahathir (now Najib) versus Anwar. While other parties seem to emerged from their intra party struggles more or less without much loss of strength, MCA has through its regular fratricides become incrementally weaker and consequentially politically less relevant.

Chua Soi Lek has shown his mean spiritedness in taking action to marginalize Ong TK when the latter is the most popular MCA politician, probably the only one, among Chinese Malaysians.

He has the unmitigated effrontery and outright hypocrisy to tell Chinese Malaysians they would suffer representation in the cabinet if the DAP replaces MCA, yet he wants to deny the Chinese a politician they respect and support and, if I may state again at the risk of sounding like a stuck gramophone record, probably the only MCA politician who's respected and supported by the Chinese community and the only MCA politician likely to win in GE-13 and, if BN wins majority rule, a place in the cabinet.

Yes, Chua Soi Lek has been a bloody hypocrite in his warning to Chinese, because even if his warning were true, he has directly attempted to destroy the only likely MCA representative in a future BN cabinet. Soi Lek talk cock one lah!

In other words, Chua Soi Lek is prepared to destroy MCA by denying the party and their Chinese supporters the latter's preferred choice of candidate and thus their only likely MCA representative in a BN cabinet, all because he, Chua Soi Lek, personally fears Ong TK challenging his party position at some future stage.

Maybe this is a typical story of Malaysian party politics, that of self before party.

Chua Soi Lek may be a wee presumptuous in wanting to contest a seat himself (as the MKINI report stated). He should realize that being supported by the majority of MCA central delegates doesn't translate directly into support by the majority of the Chinese community.

Previously a Merdeka survey (I think) had indicated the Chinese community wanted Ong Tee Keat to be the MCA president, and not him - an indication that the Chinese community don't think like the wheeling and dealing MCA central delegates.

There could be a consequential fallout on his attempt to marginalize Ong TK, where he has undoubtedly antagonized the Chinese community which still support Ong TK.

Now, assuming the MIKINI report has been from a reliable MCA source, he has painted himself into a corner where he would have to resign if Najib announces Ong TK as a  direct BN candidate a la MIC's Kamalanathan in Hulu Selangor.

If he does there won't be a single tear shed. But I hope he will do the right thing in his final act as MCA party president and indeed resign gracefully.

Alas, some PKR supporters have asked him to withdraw MCA from BN and join Pakatan, which I opine has been a stupid moronic and imbecilic suggestion. We want MCA to stay in BN so that it can be clinically, completely and crushingly destroyed in GE-13.

[Note: Ong TK won't be affected as it's likely he will be a direct BN candidate, wakakaka].

However, should Chua Soi Lek heed and take up those anwaristas' suggestion, please PKR, he is all yours like CJM wakakaka. After all, your party is a renown taxi sapu.

Another Kongsamkok story

Just posted a no-politics piece titled Village memories 2 - fussy orders over at my other blog KTemoc Kongsamkok wakakaka.

GE-13 - snakes galore

Kacang ready? Fried chicken wings ready? F&N ready? Then sit down, relax and read. It's one of kaytee's tng k'ooi (chong hei, long winded) post, wakakaka.

There is a terrible so-called joke in Malaysia of a blatantly racist nature that has been rendered for decades, openly in earlier years but more restrictively in recent ones.

It's about a snake and a person of a particular race, with the thrust of the so-called joke on the alleged treacherous character of the race of the person, and not so much the person per se, hence it should be recognized for its blatant racism.

The so-called joke would only be a joke among the teller and the selected listener (both could be of Race X or Race Y, or one of Race X and the other Race Y), usually with the story told in the absence of the victimized race (Race Z), but sometimes as an in-your-face insult deliberately in the presence of a person or persons of Race Z. It reeks of damning blind prejudice, one of a sweeping nature, without any shred of evidence as to its justification or veracity, as all racist insults or jokes would be.

The racist insult would usually be posed as a rhetorical question (meaning no answer is required from the listener as the answer is implicit in the question) asking: What does one do when one sees a poisonous snake and a person belonging to Race Z?

I came to hear of this (let's not pretend it's a joke - it's bloody not - but just a) racist demon-ization or insult in KL where I first started working after school. Now, could this be because Penangites in my days weren't aware of or didn't favour this particular racist demon-ization? Well, I don't know.

Additionally, in Chinese culture the snake is not viewed in the same way as the Judeo-Christian religions see it as a symbol of evil, treachery, wickedness, slyness or untrustworthiness.

And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou [art] cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel - Genesis 3:14-15 (KJV)

But to the Chinese, the snake has been perceived as a creature of wisdom, with people born in the Chinese year of the Snake believed to have the potential to be great thinkers as well as endowed with wisdom and sagacity.

Some famous people born in the Snake year were Kang Xi of the Qing Dynasty, who ascended to the Chinese throne when he was 7 years old and died in 1722 after ruling China for 61 years, making him the longest reigning monarch in Chinese history, and Abraham Lincoln, Mohandas Mahatma Gandhi, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Alfred Nobel, and Chou En Lai.

Sob sob, no, kaytee wasn't born in the year of the snake.

As a kid, I recall my mum and lady friends talking about the Year of the Fire Snake in 1977(?) as a wonderful year for girls to be born, as she would be beautiful, charming and clever, and would make a lovely, wise and good wife like Bai Suzhen, the immortalized Madam White Snake of Hangzhou in the 7th Century. Since then I have been seeking a sweetie born in 1977, wakakaka.

Madam White Snake (Bai Suzhen) in the battle with Fahai

My mum's belief was not so unusual as I read somewhere that in Japan (which borrowed or adopted Chinese culture and folk beliefs and therefore the Chinese would share many same cultural beliefs), Japanese paying a woman a compliment on her beauty would say: "My dear, you are a real snake".

Now, that's not the sort of sweet nothing one could whisper to a Western woman. The equivalent in modern western language should be "My dear, you are real foxy!", but which in turn would be an insult to Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese women implying they're huli jing (vixen demons) thus evil, lecherous and demonic, wakakaka. Yes, a clash of civilizations!

Apparently, those born in the Snake year are not people who can be easily ignored - wakakaka, we'll come to this aspect shortly. They possess an irresistible personality which has been described by some Chinese astrologers as charmingly 'bewitching' or 'beguiling'. Snake people (male and female) are reputed to have an insight on their sweeties' desires, and known as experts in the art of seduction gasp.

So back to my post topic - Thus I doubt the racism we mentioned at the beginning would have its origin among Chinese. But that doesn't mean it was not from Chinese MALAYSIANS. After all we Malaysians of all races are among the world's most lamentably vile, vitriolic and vicious racists. I believe the 'snaky' racist story or insult originated in Malaya but definitely not from Race Z, wakakaka. It's likely to have been coined by either Race X or Race Y.

In true life ophidian stories (of Malaysian origin), I read about three cases of snake versus man, with snake winning one (but losing in the end), man winning one, and a draw.

The first was a Chinese bloke who went to her betrothed's house (in the boondocks) to discuss wedding arrangements. While there, he nipped off to the back for a quick dump (or so he thought), but then didn't return. After the alarm was raised and a hastily assembled search party went looking for our missing future bridegroom he was found almost completely swallowed by a huge python (just his legs sticking out of snake's mouth). Unfortunately for him, he must have encountered the hungry snake while on his way to the outdoor WC. Naturally the python was massacred.

The second was a Malay rubber tapper who like Ah Chong above was attacked by (also) a hungry python who had serious ambitions about lunch. Pak Cik struggled with the coiling reptile and was about to lose the battle when a nearby Mak Cik (incidentally his Mak Cik), having heard his cries, came to his aid with a machete. When Mak Cik got mad (or frightened for her man) 'twas no match lah. Snake inevitably was sashimi-ed by her Zatochi-ish swirling whirlwind of parang slashes.

The two snakes above were boa constrictors, better known as the infamous and most dangerous Malayan reticulated pythons which would sneak up silently or drop suddenly from above on their victims and constrict them to death by asphyxiation rather than the incorrect belief of the constrictions crushing their bodies, bones and all.

Perhaps this may explain why I titled one of my previous posts PAS - from Progressive to Pythonic, suggesting death of secular democracy and its freedom by a sneaky silent and sinister hudud-ish constrictions, asphyxiating secular Constitutional rights and non-Malay cultural practices and traditions like the saucy koe-tai, wakakaka.

koe-tai, wakakaka

Third case was also a Pak Cik who was bitten by a snake of unknown species. Pak Cik chased snake who wisely disappeared. Newspaper reported Pak Cik swearing eternal enmity with snake and vowing to get the slithery sneaky snaky one sooner or later. I wonder what would have been the outcome of that vowed vendetta?

In Penang Hokkien, the word for snake is chua, wakakaka ...

... which brings us after my tng k'ooi (chong hei) meandering above to two Chua's, namely our once favourite martyr-wannabe but now PKR-snaky Tian Chua and also PKR-snaky Chua JM.

Please note, as they're Chinese, their 'snaky' attributes should be viewed favourably as positive values of their character, like those of Abraham Lincoln or Mohandas Mahatma Gandhi, wakakaka.

In a previous post PKR and its arrogant tokong I wrote:

The truth is that PKR (if we leave out the PRM component) has been KeADILan has been UMNO. It undeniably possesses UMNO genes and characteristics but it claims to be multi-racial, a claim somewhat discredited by Anwar Ibrahim's poor treatment of many of its erstwhile Indian members who left in droves - now, if they hadn't, would Azmin Ali have a chance of becoming party deputy president and eventually party president?

So while the ex-UMNO members represent the core of PKR and dominate party policies and decision making, and precisely because of all these, the nons want so desperately to demonstrate their relevance in the party.

And, hey hey hey, there's the PKR Chinese faction, with its unspoken faction leadership reputed to have been assumed by Tian Chua.

Tian Chua is of course not his birth/legal name, which is Chua Tian Chang. It's obvious he has clung on to his Aussie-given name.

Western nations have this (culturally) bad habit of westernizing Chinese names by relegating the Chinese surname to being the last name (where the western surname stands), thus Chua Tian Chang became Tian Chang Chua, and under the Western-Christian naming concept, which has First name (Personal or as Malaysians know it, Christian name), then Middle name, and finally Last name (or Surname), Tian was believed to be his 'First' name, thus Tian Chua, not unlike Elvis Presley from Elvis (1st name) Aaron (Middle name) Presley (last name) wakakaka.

Hmmm, I wonder what his parents or siblings call him? Probably Chai or Chang.

For more of Australian (western) mangling of Chinese names, please read my post What's in a name! wakakaka.

And I wonder what role/status former MCA man Chua Jui Meng has in PKR, and what threat he poses to the current leadership of Tian Chua? But sorry, thus has to be another story.

[for CJM, see further down]

Anyway, long before the current 'Lim GE is an arrogant and cocky tokong' brouhaha, courtesy of PKR's Mansor Othman wakakaka, Tian Chua had been well aware that his Heavenly Snake faction in PKR might not have a role at all, or at best only a token one, if Anwar Ibrahim were to see DAP as the Pakatan component to be given responsibility for Chinese and Indian majority constituencies.

Tian Chua's fear has now crystallized into reality and thus become a current contentious issue within PKR, as reported in the Malaysia Chronicle’s MUTINY IN PKR: Anwar under fire for "betraying" members over seats. I'll discuss this further in a while.

Oh, BTW, I was told by a friend that Tian Chua has mucho influence in Malaysian Chronicle, wakakaka.

Thus, prior to 2008, in order to prevent such a terrifying Pakatan status quo (of Anwar accepting DAP as the Pakatan component party to be given responsibility for Chinese and Indian majority constituencies) from setting in to the disadvantage of the Heavenly Snake faction, he and his cohorts had the treacherous habit of making pre-emptive strikes against DAP in seat allocations, by making unilateral media announcements of seat allocations for Pakatan (not PKR) which strangely, if you believe in coincidences wakakaka, usually favoured PKR.

Of course those 'unilateral' announcements meant that DAP leaders would, after reading the morning news, invariably exclaim 'WTF!' wakakaka.

Alas, despite all its pre-emptive strikes, the general success (or lack of) by PKR in elections has been noticeably inferior to DAP , especially in Sarawak, and coupled with the avalanche-like dominance of DAP in Penang DUN, have dampened their (Chinese) members' confidence severely, thus it was hardly surprising these PKR members in Penang desperately sought Mansor Othman's assurances that he would not relinquish any of PKR's seats allocated in 2008, even the ones they lost, to DAP.

The Chinese PKR faction’s fears have been realized today, following news of Anwar's agreement with DAP that Karpal Singh's party will contest in the federal seats of Bentong (Pahang) and Gelang Patah (Johor).

The latter constituency was eyed by Chua Jui Meng, a born-again Christian who had shed off his MCA skin (ecdysis, wakakaka) to be born again as a PKR VP. But he wants a seat to get back into the game just in case Pakatan wins GE-13, and he thought his ticket into parliament and a possible ministerial position (Health? wakakaka) was to be Gelang Patah.

In an earlier post Treachery in Johor? my hero Bhai Karpal said what I've been saying all along about Chua Jui Meng (CJM) - see The Malaysian Insider's Karpal says Jui Meng’s intentions ‘suspect’ in Johor DAP-PKR spat.

Chua JM had a tussle with DAP Johor chief, Dr Boo Cheng Hau, precisely because of Gelang Patah. And not only that but Dr Boo had accused Chua JM of organizing an underground campaign against the DAP in Johor.

Alamak, I am beginning to see Tian Chua-ness in him. Maybe both are snakes of the Eden rather than Hangzhou variety, wakakaka.

For that, Bhai mauled Chua JM badly as he roared: “The credibility of Chua Jui Meng is suspect. His long sojourn in the MCA and by extension in the Barisan Nasional (BN), his unsuccessful attempt in 2004 at the MCA presidency and his obvious overzealous enthusiasm to regain a seat in Parliament certainly exposes a credibility problem which may appear to consume the better part of his intellect.” 

Ouch and bloody ouch!

The Malaysian Insider reported: ... an unimpressed Karpal told Chua that a politician who “deserts his own political mother” could not be regarded with approval or pride.

He said that if Dr Boo’s allegation that Chua has been the “black hand” behind a campaign against DAP in Johor were true, the latter must be checked in his tracks as soon as possible.

“An in-depth inquiry ought to be launched to determine who are behind the ‘vicious anonymous attacks’ against the DAP and also determine the ‘black hand’ behind these attacks,” Karpal said.

“The assertion by Dr Boo cannot be dismissed out of hand in the interests of the Pakatan Rakyat (PR). 

In riling the Johor DAP, perhaps Chua JM could have misread Anwar's appointment of him as the head of PKR’s campaign in Johor to be the head of Pakatan's campaign in Johor, wakakaka, thus believing he could ride roughshod over Dr Boo. Instead he had a rocket up his ....., wakakaka.

Don't you think he and Azmin Ali share similar mistaken belief in over-fantasizing their party positions as Pakatan positions, wakakaka - thunderous applause please, wakakaka again.

In another post Fixed deposits? What interests? I wrote of Chua JM as follows:

I am reminded he was once in MCA, and while we shouldn't hold that against him as we shouldn't hold an UMNO past against Anwar, there are conditions for excusing his MCA background, equally as there would be for Anwar Ibrahim's UMNO lamentable track record.

For Chua JM, his move to Pakatan would have been more credible (like Zaid Ibrahim's) if he had left when he was still in power, such as in a party or/and ministerial position, thus indicating his preparedness to sacrifice his power, position and privilege because of his repentance in being a part of an ineffectual MCA leadership or recognizing the BN's general poor performance in governance, transparency and accountability.

He only joined PKR after he lost his bid to be a deputy president of MCA, very much like another sour grape, Anwar Ibrahim, who crooned reformasi only after he was kicked out of UMNO but not while he was in that party for 16 years, ...

... unlike Zaid Ibrahim who voluntarily resigned from his ministerial post under the AAB government to leave UMNO so as to come over to Pakatan.

Remember I had very recently wrote of Anwar as someone so obsessed with the PM-ship that he would do anything, repeat 'anything', to get that position. Ignoring other methods, the most obvious path is to win GE-13.

I suspect and I believe I won't be too far off, that Anwar would have reckoned the DAP brand rather than PKR symbol is more likely to win in some federal seats that were eyed by the Heavenly Snake (Chinese) faction in PKR as their due rights or rewards. Thus Anwar has agreed to DAP contesting in those seats as a more assured prospect to his chances of becoming PM.

Touch luck for the PKR Chinese, coz' Anwar has to look after numero uno, wakakaka.

Is it then any wonder that the Malaysia Chronicle, in sympathy wakakaka with the PKR Heavenly Snake faction, reported:

Disgruntlement within PKR, simmering for months now, has erupted over party adviser Anwar Ibrahim's alleged betrayal of "long-standing" members, dropping them after having indicated they would be selected to contest at the coming general election.

That is what some upset PKR members are claiming. Their complaints and views if not treated with respect can cause a really serious rift in the PKR party and derail its recent resurgence and return to the top spot in the Pakatan Rakyat hierarchy.

"This is a most unpleasant situation with racial overtones. Not all who have been dropped are Chinese but most are Chinese. The Malays in PKR are now also very concerned. Who will be next?" a PKR insider told Malaysia Chronicle on strict conditions of anonymity.

Dear PKR Malay members, don't worry lah about the suggestion that Malays in PKR would be threatened by Anwar's Nalla-fication (wakakaka) and Gobala-fication (wakakaka) of the PKR Chinese (unless of course you PKR Malays are from Team W, wakakaka), because it's just a furphy from PKR's Chinese snaky hissing about their own problem.

Anyway the Malaysian Chronicle report (or the PKR Chinese faction, wakakaka) sounded a warning to Anwar as follows:

Johor PKR, for one, has no intention of letting Anwar get his way without a fight. It is understood that Johor PKR political bureau has called for an emergency press conference at 10am on Monday (March 18) at their office in Bandar Baru Uda, Johor Baru.

They are expected to announce their stand on the "seats allocation" matter. Not only DAP but Anwar can expect to get a real peppering.

Perhaps, it is time for the PKR adviser to come down to earth and realize that his greatness came not only from God but from millions of unseen Malaysians who supported him in good faith and without condition.

Anwar should remember that his multiracial credentials, in particular over the past 4 years, were built largely by minority groups such as the Chinese, Indians, Dayaks and KDM, who were fed up with the Umno-BN and willing to fight for change behind his banner.

To treat them shabbily and discard them now that his goal of becoming the next Prime Minister is in sight would not only make a hypocrite of what he stands for but invite well-deserved criticism and retribution.

Can we then expect 3-corner fights (BN, DAP, PKR) in Johor seats like Gelang Patah to the delight of another chua (snake) wakakaka.

By the by, did I ever mention about the nest of vipers that is PKR? wakakaka