Acceptance over Tolerance : The severed head of sacred cow.

By Augustine Anthony

I must thank a local TV Channel for reminding me about the 8 values of 1 Malaysia in their talk show on the 52nd Merdeka Day with Lee Lam Thye (Tan Sri) and Dr. Chandra Muzzaffar as their guests.

Something that one of the hosts said attracted me more than all other insignificant murmurings and mutterings. The body languages of everyone present seem to suggest that one of the 8 values and that is “Acceptance” as opposed to tolerance should be the new approach that all Malaysian should embrace.

A quick check on the prime minister’s website 1Malaysia.com reveals the following:-

“ACCEPTANCE

On the importance of acceptance over tolerance

I think there’s quite a big difference between the two (tolerance and acceptance). I think when you say you tolerate, you don’t quite like it, but you accept it because you have no choice.  But if you  talk  in  terms of  acceptance, it indicates a state of mind that you are embracing something positively. I think it’s important for us to migrate from this  concept of mere
tolerance to acceptance. Acceptance  in the sense that you are ready to  accept things. If you’re willing to accept things, if  you embrace things willingly, then I think your capacity  to   look   at  things  in  a  more   positive  manner  is  much  better  than  mere tolerance.”

I am afraid the prime minister though in his heightened consciousness and sharpened conscience endeavors to rebrand and promote a new culture but the prime minister too must understand that there cannot be a universal and total substitute for tolerance by acceptance.

The complexity of a multicultural society complicates the usage, performance and spirit of words and phrases. Some areas are best tolerated as gray area rather than accepting it and we must allow time with an honest reflection to device a mechanism in which there will be mutual respect for each other.

So when the prime minister said that “
I think when you say you tolerate, you don’t quite like it, but you accept it because you have no choice.
” perhaps the prime minister had not considered that it is only a state of physical appearance by a deceptive mental projection that reveals a false sense of visual manifestation of “no choice” and any person who observes the physical state would appreciate and understand that there exists a revolting energy vibrating around the person who is in a state of tolerance and given time this energy would eventually translate into a combined, cumulative and potent force that may translate into mental and physical force sufficient to rebel against the elements that breaks the threshold of tolerance.

The simplistic interpretation of acceptance over tolerance opens up a plethora of colliding questions that touches on personal values on the sophisticated debate between Fate and Freewill.

I can, for now accept something as fate, that a child in birth must meet death in old age but this does not mean that I must sit and accept everything that happens to me that brings me unhappiness and this is where I would like to exercise my freewill to tolerate it for a time until it reaches a critical point of unacceptability in which I must make choices in life to confront it.

I can accept that people kill animals for food but as it is not within my powers to prohibit   the killing of animals for sporting purposes like the slaying of bulls by matadors, I can only tolerate it and at the same time display my displeasure in such a way that one day we may reach a critical mass of people to implement an outright prohibition of killing of animals for sporting events.

But my value of killing of animals for a certain purpose may collide with a vegetarian who for now may tolerate killing of animals for food and may engage in the same process above to attain a critical mass for change but until then he too can only tolerate.

Now it brings me to this final analysis of acceptance over tolerance.

Am I now supposed to sit back and accept the conduct of some individuals parading a severed cow head with blood splattered all around it?

No matter how I look at it, either from a religiously sensitive issue to cruelty to animals, one thing is certain and that is, I cannot accept this despicable act. And as it is not within my power to act against the people involved in this uncouth behavior, I could only tolerate it and translate my unacceptability into writings that may eventually draw like minded people into a critical mass that can demand change for mutual respect.

A state of acceptance may give rise to a phenomenon where the strong and powerful are likely to abuse the weak and meek and the weak and meek can do nothing but accept this predicament.

However an environment where there is mutual respect may promote a society in which the strong and powerful are just and fair whilst the weak and meek are protected and secure.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 31 August 2009, 3:24 pm and is filed under
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Malicious website spreading lies

A new website reported Karpal ‘unconscious but in stable condition’ in Penang home. Rubbish! Just spoke to Karpal in KL.

08/31/2009 05:27 PM

                This entry was posted on Monday, 31 August 2009, 5:44 pm and is filed under
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The Myth Of A Moderate Malaysia

By
Sadanand Dhume, 08.31.09, 12:00 AM ET | Forbes

Canings, cows’ heads and ethnoreligious apartheid.

If you’re looking for an image that captures the conflict between fervent Islam and basic human decency, look no further than the Malaysian city of Shah Alam, about 15 miles west of Kuala Lumpur.

On Friday, a group of about 50 men, agitated by plans to relocate a 150-year-old Hindu temple to their neighborhood, made their feelings clear by staging a protest march from a mosque to a government building. Amidst the usual cries of “Allahu Akbar” and “takbeer,” the protesters deposited the freshly severed head of a cow–an animal sacred to Hindus–before the building’s gate. The group’s leaders made threatening speeches and, perhaps caught up in the spirit of the moment, hammed it up for the cameras, stepping and spitting on the cow’s head. The police–who have been known to arrest people for such crimes as attending a candle light vigil or wearing black in support of the opposition–stood by and watched.

Ironically, those scanning the globe for a Muslim-majority country that inspires neither dread nor despair often alight upon Malaysia. Until a few years ago, the Southeast Asian nation boasted the world’s tallest building, the iconic 88-story Petronas Towers. Powered by electronics, palm oil and petroleum, Malaysia is the world’s 20th-largest exporter, ahead of Sweden, Australia and India. Per capita income, about $14,000 in purchasing parity terms, is about the same as in Argentina. Apart from the obvious prosperity of downtown Kuala Lumpur, the casual visitor notices the comforting trappings of a British colonial past–a parliament, a judiciary, a professional police force.

But most strikingly, Malaysia (along with next-door Indonesia) can claim something increasingly rare in the Muslim world: a large non-Muslim population. About four in 10 Malaysians are Buddhist, Christian, Hindu , Sikh or Confucian. (By contrast, Turkey, the poster-child for an Islam at peace with the 21st century, is 99.8% Muslim.) Recognizing the power of this statistic in our multicultural age, Tourism Malaysia promotes the country’s allegedly harmonious blend of Malay, Chinese and Indian communities with an odd but nonetheless catchy slogan: Malaysia, Truly Asia.

The reality, of course, is a lot less sunny. Unlike neighboring Singapore, which shares the same colonial past and ethnic mix–albeit with a Chinese rather than a Malay majority–Malaysia has rejected secularism in favor of a kind of ethnoreligious apartheid that belongs more in a medieval kingdom than in a modern democratic republic.

In Malaysia, Islam is the state religion. Higher education, the bureaucracy and vast swathes of the economy are operated as a kind of spoils system almost exclusively for Malays, whom the state defines as Muslim. Race and religion determine everything from your odds of getting into medical school to the amount you’re expected to put down for an apartment. The conversion laws, based on sharia, bring to mind the Eagles’ classic “Hotel California”: You can check in (to Islam) any time you like, but you can never leave.

Over the past 30 years, encouraged by the government and influenced by the Middle East, Malaysia’s growing prosperity has gone hand-in-hand with a heightened piety. But instead of making the country more humane, this has had the opposite effect. Friday’s protest was part of a larger pattern. A 32-year-old Malaysian Muslim model, Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, faces a sharia-prescribed caning, suspended at the moment on account of Ramadan, for the crime of drinking a beer. Muslims have been barred from a Black Eyed Peas concert next month sponsored by Guinness. Two years ago, a Muslim-born woman, Lina Joy, failed in her famous eight-year quest to convert to Christianity to marry the man that she loved. (Interfaith marriages are forbidden.) In another high-profile case, Revathi Masoosai, a practicing Hindu, was forcibly separated from her husband and infant daughter and sent to a religious re-education camp after it was discovered that technically she had been born a Muslim.

Taken together, these cases illustrate two issues–both central to the debate about Islam and modernity–that Malaysia is struggling to come to terms with. Can a Muslim majority live with a non-Muslim minority as equals, or must the former be explicitly dominant–in law as well as in day-to-day life? And can Muslims reconcile piety with a culture where the rights of the individual (say, to order a beer) are given precedence over communal beliefs?

To be sure, not all Malays, perhaps not even a majority of the sharia-minded, approve of the acts of boorishness committed in the name of their faith. Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak has ordered police to take action against the Shah Alam protesters, and members of parliament have cut across racial and party lines to condemn the incident. The English-language Malaysian blogosphere is alight with outrage, much of it Muslim. Nor are questions about secularism and individual rights absent in non-Muslim societies. In recent years, thuggish Hindu groups have developed a penchant for roughing up women in bars and castigating young couples for the high crime of celebrating Valentine’s Day. America has yet to come to terms with a woman’s right to an abortion.

Nonetheless, only in Muslim-majority lands are religious bigots given such broad leeway by their secular co-religionists. An Indian feminist is apt to laugh in the face of a pious Hindu who tells her that gender relations need to be ordered by the ancient laws of Manu. In America, the so-called new atheists–most prominently Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins–don’t need to think twice about ridiculing religious beliefs or savaging the most powerful priest or pastor. But in Malaysia, as elsewhere, secular liberals tend to tip-toe around Muslim religious sensibilities. They wield the word “un-Islamic” as an insult rather than as a compliment. Unless this changes, unless Malaysians can find a way to treat Islam like any other set of ideas, scenes like those in Shah Alam on Friday aren’t about to disappear.

Sadanand Dhume is a Washington-based writer and the author of My Friend the Fanatic: Travels with a Radical Islamist (Skyhorse Publishing, 2009).

                This entry was posted on Monday, 31 August 2009, 3:15 pm and is filed under
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Voters Drawing the Line

By M. Bakri Musa

In the heyday of UMNO the joke was that the party could field a dog as an election candidate and it would still win. The party leaders must still harbor that delusion for in the recent Permatang Pasir state by-election they fielded a disbarred lawyer. This time however, voters wisely drew the line at the dog.

The surprise was not that Rohaizat Othman successfully hoodwinked UMNO leaders to secure the nomination rather how easily those senior leaders were taken in by this shyster.  Now that their candidate has been thrashed, those UMNO leaders were belatedly bemoaning the fact that their chosen man had been less than truthful to them. That is the quality of UMNO top leadership, folks!

Even after the sordid details of the man’s sleazy professional past and checkered personal life had surfaced, UMNO leaders still vigorously defended their choice. They had the nerve to suggest that those critics were trying to smear the UMNO candidate.  Those UMNO leaders obviously did not realize that their man was already soiled.

Reflection on Muhyiddin

Consider UMNO Deputy President Muhyiddin Yassin’s comments.  He went to great lengths defending the integrity of his party’s standard bearer.  He likened the Bar Council’s sanctions as nothing more than a traffic violation!  I recognize that traffic in Malaysia is terrible, but really!  I wonder what it would take to be branded a crook and thus be disqualified by Muhyiddin’s reckoning.  I am making a huge assumption here, that is, the man has some standards.

            A commentator in the mainstream media reported that Muhyiddin was apparently livid on hearing the details of Rohaizat.  Only his severe poker face belied his anger, so she claimed.  If Muhyiddin was truly angry he sure did not reveal it in his actions; he was ‘gung ho’ right to the end.  That commentary revealed more about the writer – ‘sucking up’ to Muhyiddin so early on.  She should try a better excuse next time.

            It is a recent tradition with UMNO that its deputy leader be in charge of by-elections.  This Permatang Pasir election was the first to be under the direct leadership of Muhyiddin.  Hence his comments and actions bear scrutiny.

            Muhyiddin’s decision to continue with Rohaizat’s candidacy despite all the revealed blemishes says volumes on the judgment as well as ethical standards of Muhyiddin.  Not to scare readers, this character is also Deputy Prime Minister, and going by our recent history, he could very well be Prime Minister one day.

            If a two-bit disbarred country lawyer could easily dupe Muhyiddin, imagine him as Prime Minister negotiating with his counterpart across the causeway on selling our precious fresh water, or his participating in crucial international treaty conferences!  That is a scary thought.

            The brief Permatang Pasir election campaign revealed more than we ever wished to know about this crooked lawyer and his equally slimy personal life.  While Rohaizat was disbarred by the Bar Council, he could still practice in the Sharia court.  This is the same court that recently sentenced a young mother to be whipped for drinking beer.  That should tell us something of the ‘Islamic’ (at least the Malaysian variety) standard of ethics.

            To me, the Permatang Pasir campaign revealed more about UMNO, specifically its culture and top leaders.  What has been revealed should scare all Malaysians who are concerned with our nation’s future.

            Muhyiddin’s ethical blind spot was disturbing enough.  More reprehensible was his performance during the campaign.  He fell into the predictable pattern of past ambitious UMNO leaders-in-waiting.  There he was, freely and irresponsibly playing up the race card, eerily reminding me of Najib’s and Hishammuddin’s brandishing of their kerises.  Aspiring UMNO leaders like Muhyiddin have this primitive urge to display their chauvinistic manhood during tough election campaigns.  That is their culture.

            Unfortunately, as the party still garnered over a third of the votes (presumably Malay votes), UMNO leaders will continue with their bigotry.  Now they are blaming non-Malay (specifically Chinese) voters for abandoning Barisan.

UMNO of The Future

To be sure there were a few – very few, in fact only two – UMNO leaders who spoke out against Rohaizat, and did so early.  Mahathir wondered out loud whether a liar could be a people’s representative.  Tengku Razaleigh was much more forceful, “… UMNO is projecting the image that it lives by a different moral code from the rest of Malaysia.”

            “Either that, or this is the best we can do,” he continued.  Indeed!

            Alas, both Mahathir and the Tengku represent UMNO’s past.  To gauge UMNO’s future, look at the leaders of its Youth and Puteri wings.  They not only endorsed Rohaizat but aggressively campaigned for him.  I would like to ask UMNO Youth leader Khairy Jamaluddin specifically whether he feels that a disbarred lawyer and a man who lied about his wife is a worthy representative of UMNO.

            The situation with UMNO Puteri is even more interesting.  I wonder how those pretty young girls in their distinctive pink baju kurong feel about campaigning for a man who took a second wife secretly, and then lied about it publicly.  The Puteris’ stand-by-your-man stance may be praiseworthy in other circumstances but not when your man is a cheat and a crook.  Instead of campaigning for him, Puteri members should be contacting the second wife to see whether her man had been providing for her.

            The Permatang Pasir by-election could have been a splendid opportunity for UMNO to shine if only their leaders had been smarter and pursued a radically different tack.  Imagine if upon knowing the sordid details of Rohaizat, UMNO leaders publicly admitted their mistake and demanded their candidate withdraw on pain of being expelled from the party.

            Yes that would give PAS a walk-over, but that would not have changed the end results.  Besides, UMNO had done this a few months earlier in the Penanti by-election.  Think however, the message the party and its senior leaders would have sent to their members and Malaysians generally, and the impact that would have on all.  UMNO would have won a great moral victory.  As it is, UMNO lost the election as well as the moral high ground.  The party had set a new low on what is acceptable.

            Judging from the post-election comments by UMNO leaders, from Najib Razak and Muhyiddin on down, UMNO has yet to learn this pertinent lesson from this latest debacle.  The party still harbors the delusion that even its flawed candidates could still win.

            The next time around expect UMNO to reach even lower to a new bottom in their search for talent.  I must admit it would be difficult to find someone more unworthy than a disbarred lawyer.  Trust me however, UMNO will find one.

                This entry was posted on Monday, 31 August 2009, 3:20 pm and is filed under
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Bumpy stretch ahead for Malaysia

By
Cheong Suk-Wai | Singapore Straits Times

AUG 29 – In early May 1969, Australian anthropologist Clive Kessler rode his motorcycle through Kelantan hamlets for 30km to the nearest telephone box. He then called his parents in Sydney and told them: “You’re going to hear about trouble in a few parts of Malaysia in the next few days, but not where I am.”

Sure enough, Malaysia’s bloodiest civil strife erupted. Dr Kessler, who was then there to observe Islamist politics, had predicted it in an article he wrote to the press and in an interview he gave the Times of London in April 1969.

Now 67, the emeritus professor of sociology and anthropology at the University of New South Wales in Sydney has been a Malaysia watcher for more than 40 years and published prodigiously on it, including two books.

He had taught at the London School of Economics (LSE) and then Columbia University in New York city from the late 1960s till 1980. In that time, he worked closely with such lions in his field as LSE’s Maurice Freedman and Raymond Firth as well as Princeton’s Clifford Geertz.

He got in touch with me initially about my published review of his compatriot Anthony Milner’s book, The Malays. In the review, I had wrongly attributed to Dr Kessler the view that if the Malay cannot make something of himself, he will try to bend others to his will. Dr Kessler was gracious about my unwitting error and we got to talking about Malaysia in Subang Jaya, Selangor, at the tail end of his two-month sojourn there recently.

You call yourself a cautious progressive. How far do you think Malaysia has come since 1969? Malaysia has achieved a huge amount.

Kessler
: That’s undeniable. Yet, it could have done much more and much better. It’s moved to a safe mediocrity.

How much are the 1969 race riots responsible for that?

Kessler
: I’ve never liked calling what happened in 1969 “race riots”. Of course there was inter-ethnic mayhem but it was a symptom of something larger – a regime crisis.

The problem was more than Malay poverty, disadvantage and resentment. It was the credibility of the political order that had produced, or failed to remedy, that sense of Malay marginalisation.

The New Economic Policy (NEP) was to remedy that, and had to be justified in terms of the “special position” of the Malays. But with the return of electoral politics in 1970, powerful populist demands grew for the NEP’s continuation, which was then used to justify the expansion of the notion of Malay rights and further entrenching of strong government.

Why are Malaysians marching in the streets these days?

Kessler
: They want a different kind of politics. They want to say this post-1969 political dispensation is exhausted, that it’s being increasingly held together by intimidation and manipulation and even force, and that the Internal Security Act is central to that.

What’s gone wrong, really?

Kessler
: The problem these days is that the United Malays National Organisation and the whole state fashioned in its image can be seen as a glove made to fit one hand – Umno’s – and not even its fingers work together. It lacks clear, convincing authority at the moment.

Why is that?

Kessler
: There is no simple answer. In many ways, the transformation of Malaysian and, in particular, Malay society, was the work of Umno itself. But it could not acknowledge and embrace the changes that it had itself unleashed with its policies. It was unable to loosen up its own political structures and approach.

What was so interesting and moving, yet also frightening, about March last year was the eruption of the various social changes unleashed by Umno for which the political system had itself become a strait-jacket. So these changes simply burst through and broke it.

How much needs to be fixed?

Kessler
: I am no prophet. I do not underestimate the difficulty and complexity of its problems. Its leaders are not delusional when they say things could go badly and if they do, society could turn upon itself.

At any time, Malaysia is subject to two inverse dynamics. First, continuing economic growth that is dependent on maintaining civil peace. Second, civil peace that is dependent on the continuation, or continued expectation of, uninterrupted economic development. If either cycle goes wrong, trouble is conceivable.

Malaysians are largely peace-loving, so how conceivable is that?

Kessler
: Malaysia’s got the basis for progress and prosperity. But the basic problems of social cohesion, social and political accommodation and political trust, persist.

Why is that?

Kessler
: It goes back to the fundamental contradictions in Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s Vision 2020, which was not an architect’s blueprint from which to build but an amalgam of mutually incompatible elements.

It offered the image of an economically and technologically modern society, but failed to recognise that you cannot simply create a modern economy with modern technology and keep everything else pretty much unchanged.

So what has to change?

Kessler
: You need a modern pluralistic society of independent autonomous and active citizens – and a government that can accept rather than feel threatened by their vitality.

Why has Umno been slow to change?

Kessler
: It has wanted to keep the political world of deference, obedience, favour-seeking and gratitude.

Are you hopeful for Malaysia’s future?

Kessler
: I’m not as hopeful as I used to be. Where I come from, it’s pessimism and anxiety, not football and cricket, that are the national sports. Malaysia is now on a complicated course, and it is at a particularly bumpy stretch of the road.

Serious roadworks are needed along the way. I am not sure that the vehicle that the people are travelling in is well maintained and still suitable to get them through all that they face. – Straits Times

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 1 September 2009, 12:09 pm and is filed under
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Tolerance..

By
Hussein Hamid

You will never know what it is like to be discriminated against because you are rich or poor or because of your colour, race or religion until you have experience it your self. I was in London in the 60’s and London then still had pockets of areas where you would be treated differently because you are Asian. You will be waiting to be served at these places and you will be ignored until the ‘white’ have been served first. You would go look at a flat that you saw advertised in the local papers and be told that “it is taken”. Invariably we Asians found ourselves living in houses where there were other Asian tenants.

We Asian in turn used to mock the blacks and called them “Gagak” or crows and the whites we sometimes called them “Babi”. In one memorable episode me and some friends were on the London bus and we were referring to the gentleman in a bowler hat sitting behind us as “Babi this and  Babi that”…Then as his stop came he stood up behind us with his briefcase and umbrella and politely told us “ Tolong beri laluan ini Babi nak jalan”. He must have been one of those colonial masters that came to administer Malaysia.

My unpleasant experiences in London with discrimination, however slight, made me realize that it was unpleasant to be discriminated against – for any reason. Coming back to KL around the early 70’s brought me head on with the ‘bumiputra’ and NEP situation that gave so much hope and expectations of good things to come for us Malays, regardless of our standing in life. My memories of these times are a bit hazy but one experience can capture the essence of those times. At the apex of my time doing “Project Acquisition” I had two penthouses costing me RM30 thousand a month, two Generals and back up staff under my payroll.
A Filipino maid to cook and take care of the two penthouses. To get to see me you would have to go through the two Generals and assorted staff and it would cost you at least RM$100,000 to get to the top penthouse where I was staying to talk ‘business’ with me. I am relating this with no intention to glorify what I was doing – only what was possible in those times if you dare to take the risk and if you had the right connections and was savvy enough to use them to your advantaged. This alone can be another story for me to tell !!

Now back to discrimination. In Australia ‘equal opportunity’ is not just a buzz word. We have the Equal Opportunity Commission.

What the Commission do:

The Equal Opportunity Commission has two major roles. The first is to encourage recognition and an understanding of the principles of equal opportunity. Laws alone do not end intolerance, prejudice and discrimination in our community – so education is a vital part of the Commission’s function.

The second is to provide a means of redress to individuals who allege unlawful discrimination.

When I apply for a job in Australia there is no place in the application form for me to tell them my race, my religion and even my gender. I do not have to tell them my age – nothing that will allow them to know that I am any different from any of the other applicants – except that I am qualified to do the job I applied for. Can you have any idea what it does to me  – to know that I will be assessed only on my ability to do the job? It liberates my soul and it goes a long way towards making me have affection for this country that I now live in.

Equal Opportunity for all in Malaysia does not mean that the Malays will not be able to work in Chinese companies because it can be used as an excuse by the Chinese to hire only their own race. It does not mean that Indians cannot find work in the Civil Service because their mastery of Bahasa is not as good as the Malays, or that the Chinese young will not be able to get into the Instutuitions of Higher learning because their Bahasa is not good enough – all these things might happen – but more important is that we will all have to raise our game to the level needed to live in a country where Equal Opportunity is a given right to everyone. When that is in place then time will find us all living together with great affection for this country of ours call Malaysia.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 1 September 2009, 11:55 am and is filed under
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He looks like KPI Minister, sounds like KPI Minister but is he KPI Minister?

In his first National Day message, the Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak called on Malaysians to “repair the bridges and tear down the divisive walls” that exist among the races.

Najib blamed “opportunistic people” who had exploited the friction among the people to cause the bridges, which were painstakingly built by the nation’s founding fathers, to become shaky.

Najib has hit the crisis of nation-building in Malaysia on the head, except that he is still in denial as to the “opportunists” who have been most guilty of undermining nation-building efforts – when the culprits are to  be found within the Barisan Nasional and not outside.

For instance, will Umno leaders particularly Deputy Prime Minister and Deputy Umno President Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin be prepared to respond to Najib’s National Day call and apologise for erecting divisive walls and damaging bridges resulting in greater national divisions and heightened racial and religious polarization after the March 8 general elections last year and in particular in the five months of Najib premiership with its 1Malaysia slogan?

In the past five months, Muhyiddin has not come across as a Deputy Prime Minister for all Malaysians. Instead, the image he had built up is that he is only Deputy Prime Minister for UMNO and Barisan Nasional members and supporters – the most divisive personality in the Najib administration!

One outcome of the such opportunistic erection of walls and damaging of bridges particularly in the first five months of Najib’s premiership is the shocking, outrageous and unprecedented cow-head sacrilege two days before National Day last Friday enacted in the public in Shah Alam in the very presence of the police, who had hitherto acted with lightning speed against peaceful and unprovocative participants of candlelight vigils protesting against injustices!

The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Tan Sri Dr. Koh Tsu Koon said yesterday that Barisan Nasional leaders who uttered words or did anything that could be interpreted as not in line with the 1Malaysia concept by the people should make an apology.

Will anybody listen to Tsu Koon? Is Tsu Koon prepared to present a report to Cabinet listing out the Umno and Barisan Nasional leaders guilty of building walls, damaging bridges and  raising greater racial and religious polarization and to ask them to make public apologies for  violating Najib’s 1Malaysia motto?

May be it is unfair to pose such a question, when Tsu Koon had just suffered the ignominy of a public loss-of-face with another Minister appointed as KPI Minister – former MAS CEO Idris Jala.

Tsu Koon’s discomfiture can be described in Lingamite terms: “He looks like KPI Minister, he sounds like KPI Minister, but is he KPI Minister?”

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 1 September 2009, 2:02 pm and is filed under
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Perak State Assembly

Live updates
@limkitsiang

 01:45 PM

Perak State Assembly 2nd Sept at Hotel Heritage adjourned sine dine

01:44 PM

Adun Sungai  debated. Motion amended 2include demand 4immediate release of 7 arrested n t contract for IGP Musa Hassan should not be renewed

01:41 PM

Emergency motion 2 condemn police highandedness hotly debated. Among speakers ADUN lubok merbau, pokok assam, teja, hutan melintang, canning

12:59 PM

One of the 7 arrested K Ananthan DAP Chairman Lok Lim Garden suffers ashmatic attack. Being sent to Ipoh GH

12:31 PM

Assembly adopted report of Public Accounts Committee. Now debating report of Privileges Committee.

11:51 AM

Pantai Remis Assemblymen Nga Kor Ming moving urgent motion to condemn police highhandedness

11:49 AM

Speaker Sivakumar now convening State Assembly meeting at Hotel Heritage, Ipoh

11:21 AM

Pakatan Rakyat ADUNs arriving at Hotel Heritage for the stymied State Assembly on doctrine of necessity. Agent provocateurs in the crowd

10:58 AM

Police used excessive force. Keshvinder was pushed 2the ground. His head swollen n having fainting spells. Ambulance taking him to hospital

Tree State Assembly March 3 as reqd by law

10:36 AM

7 people arrested – three Assemblymen,one photographer and three members of the public

10:28 AM

Perak Speaker Sivakumar annced that Perak State Assembly will convene at Heritage Hotel at 11.30 am

10:23 AM

Also arrested DAP Malim Nawar Assemblyman Keshvinder Singh PKR Simpang Pulai Assemblyman Chan Ming Kai n Nanyang Siang Pau photographer

10:20 AM

DAP Perak State Chairman Assemblyman Sitiawan Ngeh Koo Ham arrested by police at Democracy Tree for trying to get to Perak State Assembly

08:12 AM

All this 2forestall holding of Perak Assembly by Speaker Sivakumar within 6 months of Democracy

08:09 AM

After 9 pm last nite, SUK area plastered w court order prohibiting any gathering within 30m radius from SUK perimeter from 1am to 11 am tmr

08:00 AM

After arrival 2nd water cannon,barbed wires unrolled at sidewalk from mamak restaurant. Metal barricades blocked the T junction from D-Tree.

07:58 AM

FRUs arrived in 5 trucks 2 jeeps n big water cannon several unmarked carks (SBs?)

07:55 AM

Police presence building up since 615 am all access roads Perak State Assembly cordoned off. 6 police trucks 1 van parked near DAP office

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 2 September 2009, 10:38 am and is filed under
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The 42 MACC Panel members should meet in emergency session on whether Ahmad Said is fit and competent to continue as MACC Chief Commissioner or they should call for his dismissal

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Chief Commissioner Datuk Seri Said Ahmad Hamdan has shown himself to be completely callous and heartless over the mysterious death of Teoh Beng Hock who went to the 14th floor  MACC headquarters on July 16 to co-operate with its investigations but ended up as a corpse on the fifth floor.

Ahmad Said told Sin Chew
 that he had been informed that there had been ten cases of people investigated by Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) who threw themselves off  from high-rise buildings since the establishment of ICAC and there was nothing he could do if people investigated cannot withstand the pressure.

The implication of Ahmad Said’s statement is crystal clear – he is blaming Teoh’s death on suicide for being unable to withstand the pressure of investigation by the MACC, seeking justification in the alleged ten cases in Hong Kong of people “throwing themselves off high-rise buildings” following ICAC investigations.

Ahmad Said should confirm whether there had been ten suicide cases of persons investigated by ICAC in Hong Kong, giving the circumstances surrounding each such suicide – as it will be the height of irresponsibility on Ahmad Said’s part if he is unable to back up his claim.

Furthermore, out of these 10 suicide cases in Hong Kong, how many of them were suspects and how many were witnesses – as MACC had been at pains to declare that it was taking a statement from Teoh as a witness and not as a suspect.

If Ahmad Said cannot substantiate his claim of ten cases of suicide over Hong Kong’s ICAC investigations, he should apologise for making an irresponsible claim.

In trying to absolve all MACC responsibility for Teoh’s death, Ahmad Said is showing  utter contempt for widespread public concerns about MACC’s Gestapo operations and  interrogation techniques, as well as showing no sense of remorse or compassion whatsoever for Teoh’s death and the bereavement of Teoh’s family.

Ahmad Said should also explain why MACC is so irresponsible as to put out two theories of Teoh’s death – that he committed suicide or he was murdered by people other than MACC.

The 42 MACC Panel members should meet in emergency session on whether Ahmad Said is fit and competent to continue as MACC Chief Commissioner or they should call for his dismissal.

Furthermore, the 42 MACC Panel members cannot continue to be indifferent to the betrayal of the MACC statutory objectives to declare an all-out war against corruption as intended by Parliament as the present MACC  had embarked instead  on an all-out war against Pakatan Rakyat as catspaw of Umno/Barisan Nasional  in the grand conspiracy to the topple the Pakatan Rakyat Selangor State Government.

                This entry was posted on Wednesday, 2 September 2009, 12:19 pm and is filed under
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Hishammuddin’s defence and justification of cowhead demonstration equivalent to his insensitivity in wielding the keris at Umno Youth General Assembly

Utterly incredible!

Datuk Seri Hishamuddin Hussein as Home Minister has done the equivalent of wielding the keris at the Umno Youth General Assembly for three consecutive years as Umno Youth leader which had been accepted by Barisan Nasional leaders as a major factor in the political tsunami of the March 8 general election last year!

It would appear that Hishammuddin is determined to make another unforgettable contribution which would ensure that the uncompleted political changes in the political tsunami of the March 8 general last year could be fully accomplished in the next general elections.

Yesterday,
Hishammuddin usurped the roles of the Attorney-General and the police to defend and justify last Friday’s cow-head demonstration in Shah Alam
, totally insensitive to the insult and profanity of such an act of sacrilege to Hindus in the country.

It is sad and tragic that in his obsession to defend the Umno role in the cow-head demonstration and to further the Umno/Barisan Nasional agenda to weaken and topple the Pakatan Rakyat Selangor State Government, Hishammuddin is oblivious that what he was discrediting Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s 1Malaysia motto by  aggravating  the polarization of Malaysians along both race and religion lines.

This is because Hishammuddin is demonstrating that what we have in Malaysia is not 1Malaysia but 2Malaysia – where there is one law for Umno and their supporters and another law for the rest.

Would any Malaysian wonder what would have been Hishammuddin’s reaction, based on his  truculent and aggressive  responses to peaceful protests against arbitrary police arrests or for the repeal of the Internal Security Act, if the act of sacrilege had been against Islam?

Hishammuddin is doing a great disservice to his portfolio as Home Minister when he tried to champion those responsible for the cow-head demonstration and made them into heroes when they had given Malaysia a “black-eye” in international society with the adverse world media reporting on the outrage.

Hishammuddin’s defence and championing of their cause will give Malaysia another international “black-eye”.

Can the Cabinet rein in Hishammuddin from another major blow to Najib’s five-month-old 1Malaysia policy?

Are the  MCA factions of Ong and  Chua, the MIC factions as well as the Gerakan, capable of temporarily burying their hatchets to unite to convene a Barisan Nasional Supreme Council meeting to  deplore Hishammuddin’s defence and justification of the cowhead demonstration and to demand that Umno politics must not be allowed to intrude and prevent the law from taking its rightful course or to discredit Najib’s 1Malaysia policy?

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 3 September 2009, 10:26 am and is filed under
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Vision 2020…not bloody likely!

By
Hussein Hamid

Mahathir unveiled the Vision of 2020 plan for Malaysia in 1991. Malaysia was to become an industrialized nation and be considered a high-income economy. Najib refined (that is double speak to mean ‘no can do lah’) that vision: “It is clear that our Vision 2020 objective has to be refined to remain viable,” Najib said. “Being richer alone does not define a developed nation. There are important social and quality-of-life measurements that must be factored in when considering our objectives and successes.” Malaysia needs to “redefine and recalibrate” how and when it will achieve Vision 2020, Najib told reporters after the speech. That doesn’t necessarily mean a change in the timeline, he said.

I would have agreed with him in principal had he not put in the “that does not necessarily mean a change in the timeline” proviso. I am no economist but let us just use common sense to look at realities.

Let us look at the differences between salaries earned, the cost of a vehicle and a house between 1973 and 2009.

YEAR

increase

1973

2009

1.3 liter Japanese Car

7,000

60,000

8.5

Double Story House

45,000

300,000

6.6

Engineer Salary

1,000

2,000

2

It is the same story when you compare salaries of shop assistants, office staff, factory workers and a whole range of other workers and professional. I have used these 3 items a house, a car and salary earned as a measurement of the country’s performance for the past 35 years to gauge our standard of living. There is little difference in salary between 1973 and 2009 – and yet our purchasing power is vastly different. While the starting income for a newly graduated Engineer between 1973 to 2009 has only doubled – the cost of a car has increase 8.6 times and that of a house 6.6 times.

Fast forward to today.

Ask the kids working at McDonald how much they were being paid per hour? RM3.00 per hour x 8 hours = RM24 per day. Working 25 days a month means they get RM600 per month.

In Australia my daughter works part-time during her University days at Gloria Jeans Coffee. She is paid Aud$14.00 per hour x 8 hours a day =Aud$112 a day x 25 days = Aud$2,800 per month.

(@ RM2.92 per = One Aud Dollar x Aud$2800 = RM8176 per month).

My daughter earns 13.6 times more that the girl at McDonalds in Malaysia.

Our Government lays claim to the fact that Malaysia will be a developed country 2020? A high income country? Let us look further.

2005 Financial Times Figures

GNP per Capita in US Dollars.

USA

US$35,400

United Kingdom

US$25,510

Singapore

US$20,690

Australia

US$19,530

Malaysia

US$3,540

The above figures are the 2005 Financial Times figures for GNP per Capita in US Dollars – a measurement of developed country by income measurements.

Malaysia’s GNP per Capita US$3540. Malaysia a developed country by 2020? Not likely. This is a really sad story and a worrying trend is it not?

The Ringgit is sliding further and further under Barisan Nasional. To compound the effect of inflation, the Ringgit has depreciated greatly against ALL major currencies. The real income of most Malaysians has moved backwards. This is why many Malaysians suffer under the petrol hike. The root of the problem is that our real incomes have shrunk in the face of inflation and a depreciated currency. Malaysians have not been spoiled by subsidy but are unable to move out of the time lock of stagnated and depreciated incomes. If you compare the per capita incomes of Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea they are a few multiples of ours although at independence all these countries were on the same economic level as Malaysia .

What has gone wrong? Were we not once the rising star of East Asia? A country rich in natural resources with the most promising potential?

What happened?

Massive Corruption for one! Plundering of our precious resources, wastage of funds for huge non-economic projects, anti-public interest deals with politically-linked companies and passing-of-the-buck to the man in the street. I repeat – passing of the buck to the man on the streets!

Four decades of a mismanaged NEP where education, economic and employment policies defined by race without the necessary checks and balances ensured that meritocracy took a back seat.

Our university standard has declined and today our best and brightest youths emigrate to escape the racial inequality and instead now contribute to the economies of foreign lands.

The reputation of our judiciary which was once held in high esteem worldwide has sunk so low that foreign investors now insist on arbitration in Singapore in case of any dispute.

We also have a slew of oppressive laws such as the ISA, OSA, University and University Colleges Act and Printing Presses and Publications Act (PPPA) which all stifle free speech and are designed to keep the ruling parties in power.

We have become less attractive to foreign investors and now lag behind our neighbors in Asean for foreign direct investment. Even some corporations who have established themselves here are moving out. All the economic and social malaise cannot help but affect the value of our currency. The strength of a country’s currency is after all, a reflection of its fundamentals. Furthermore, Bank Negara has a policy of a weak Ringgit to help exporters –  never mind the burden on the common folk. The government is pro-corporation, not pro-Rakyat.

While the poor and middle-class are squeezed, an elite group gets breathtakingly rich. We have the distinction of having the worse income disparity in Asean. A re-distribution of wealth is under way from the poor and middle-class to a select group of politically-connected elite. The end result of this re-distribution will be a small group of super-rich while the majority are pushed into poverty and the middle-class shrinks. This is what happens when the rich gets richer and the poor get poorer.

There is much that is wrong with Malaysia. The responsibility for pulling the country backwards can be laid squarely at the door of the ruling regime – Barisan Nasional. It is BN’s mis-governance, racial politics and culture of patronage and greed which has seen the country regress economically and socially. We seem to be sliding down a slippery slope, further down with each passing year of BN’s rule. Another five years of BN rule and we’ll be at Indonesia ‘s standard under Suharto. Another 10 years and we’ll be touching the African standard.. What a way to greet 2020. Is there any hope for Malaysia?

Faced with the reality that BN will never change, many Malaysians desperate for change turn their eyes to Pakatan Rakyat.

Pakatan Rakyat has promised to treat all races fairly, to plug wastage, fight corruption, reform the judiciary and make Malaysia more competitive. But some have questioned whether we can trust Anwar Ibrahim and his loose coalition of disparate parties. The question is not whether we can trust the opposition but whether we can afford not to in view of our state of affairs.

                This entry was posted on Thursday, 3 September 2009, 9:11 am and is filed under
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First five months of Najib’s “1Malaysia. People First. Performance Now” slogan ends with MACC and Malaysian Police neck-to-neck as to which key national institution has lower public confidence and esteem

Yesterday morning, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Deputy Chief Commissioner Datuk
Abu Kassim Mohammad was the special guest of the Star online live chat
.

During Abu Kassim online chat, the newspaper carried an online opinion poll which produced the following results at 12.30 noon before it was taken off line:

1. How would rate the MACC’s performance so far in fighting corruption? (
image
)

Good – 3%

Fair – 0%

Poor – 98%

2. Should MACC only ‘interview’ suspects during office hours? (
image
)

Yes – 79%

No – 6%

Depends on the situation – 15%

3. How would rate the MACC’s handling of Teoh Beng Hock’s case? (
image
)

Good – 0%

Fair – 4%

Poor – 96%

4.Should it be made compulsory for lawyers to be present, …(
image
)

Yes – 83%

No – 6%

Depends on the situation – 11%

It is tragic and pathetic that the first five months of the new Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s  “1Malaysia. People First. Performance Now” slogan is ending (as today marks Najib’s full five months as Prime Minister) with two key national institutions, the MACC and the Malaysian Police, neck-to-neck as to which organization has lower public confidence and esteem!

In the last week of July, the Home Ministry website carried an opinion poll whether the people felt safe, with the following results:

97% or 9,729 out of 10,060 respondents felt unsafe because of the high crime rate, with only 1% or 89 respondents felt safe and 2% or 242 respondents in the “uncertain” category.

95% or 8,883 out of 9,319 respondents felt that the safety of the people was not guaranteed as compared to 3% or 248 respondents who felt it was still guaranteed, with 2% or 188 respondents in the “uncertain” category.

94% or 8,743 out of 9,261 respondents felt that government had not done its best to ensure that the safety of the people was at the best level with 2% or 185 respondents felt that the government had done its best, and 4% or 333 persons “uncertain”?

It has been announced today that Tan Sri Musa Hassan’s contract as Inspector-General of Police has been renewed for another year although for the first time in the nation’s history, there had been an unprecedented nation-wide opposition to the second extension of Musa’s tenure as IGP.

It would appear that it is the very proof of failure to carry out the fundamental policing duties with 97% of the respondents in the Home Ministry poll felt unsafe at the high crime rate in the country and 94% of the respondents felt that the government had not done its best to ensure the safety of the people which are the key factors resulting in Musa’s favour and advantage, resulting in another year extension of his tenure as IGP.

By these same perverse standards, a MACC which is unable to command the confidence of 98% of the people to effectively combat corruption  is the very MACC which is defended to the hilt by the Najib government.

With another one-year extension for Musa despite his abysmal performance, with 97% of the people who felt unsafe and 94% unconvinced that the police had done its best to protect the people’s safety, and a MACC where 98% lack confidence eight months after its establishment to replace the Anti-Corruption Agency, there appears to be no hope for any reforms to  both institutions unless there is a total change of the federal government in the next general elections!

                This entry was posted on Friday, 4 September 2009, 4:20 pm and is filed under
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Politicians are rats from gutter. And people?

By Augustine Anthony

I remember watching a movie sometime ago in which two friends were engaged in a conversation of a peculiar topic. The woman comes from an ideal family as opposed to the man who is from a family that has gone through indescribable hardship.

In the conversation the woman poses a question to the man,

The woman: 	If a wolf enters a house of a farmer and takes the farmer’s child away into the woods and eats up the child, do you think the wolf is bad?

The man: 	The answer depends on the question asked. Since the question is about the character of the wolf, you need to be a wolf yourself to get the right answer.

Perhaps in law one will call this a subjective test rather than an objective test as absolute certainty in human affairs is an unreliable guide thus a dangerous master.

The perception of many, that an alarming number of politicians from the ruling Barisan Nasional Coalition are corrupt beyond redemption is no longer uncommon. However the aftermath of the March 2008 General Election has added an unfortunate and unexpected twist to this stigma associated with the ruling Coalition. With power now concentrated in the hands of Federal Opposition Coalition in some states, even Pakatan Rakyat politicians are now being called the same devils in different cloaks.  Loosely we have often heard the phrase “they are politicians and all politicians are the same”.

When my article
Acceptance over Tolerance – The severed head of sacred cow
, was published in limkitsiang.com, below is what at least one reader commented (in verbatim),

#24 by asra on September 1st, 2009 02:16

“Uncle Lim,

I am suprised why  are you working closely with PKR. Everyone  knows they are former UMNO members who  are  frustrated  because  their  leader  Anwar  was  sacked. Anwar when he was in UMNO was also corrupted what  assuarance  do  we  have that he  wont be the same. When anwar was in UMNO he too made  statements  about  championing  the  malays.  Are we assured that we are going to have a real 1 Malaysia  if anwar comes into power. You politicians are all the same because of power you guys can do anything. Make me sick.”

But it had taken a long period of  reflection and an  honest search from within to understand and admit that the fault lies in people  as much as the politicians for having participated in the evolution of a system of governance that is veering out of its original axis of doing good for all.

As long as we have people who are unscrupulous opportunists roaming and seizing every advantage to enrich themselves in every unethical way possible, a  government no matter how upright, will find it very hard indeed to implement effective policies for the good of all.

For as long as there are  people who are prepared to sell their sacred constitutional rights  of voting for   even  the smallest amount of money, we will continue to see the proliferation of these politicians that our society so often despise.

The allegations of vote buying are rampant during elections and just imagine if all Malaysians are prepared to say ‘no’ to every inducements or vote buying tactics of politicians desperate for votes to secure an election victory, I am sure all of us will have the peace and security of knowing that our parliament will be filled with only honest politicians.

I had been in the company of politicians and I really do not envy the term “Yang Berhormat” as it comes with an assortment of crippling demands and expectations, principal amongst them is the expectation of a sizeable group of people, that all politicians are Santa Claus except that Santa Claus is for Christmas season but politicians are for all seasons.

I have watched politicians in market coffee stalls with the intention of meeting people perhaps to resolve their problems and surrounded by a continuous stream of people. These people order food and drinks, enjoy it and in between rant and rave about all the woes in the country and leave the table but leaving behind the bills for the politicians to pick up.

I have heard politicians’ telephone ringing and yes! It’s another wedding and the third in a week and it must be attended together with a wedding gift befitting of a politician. Is it part of the requirement that politicians must attend every wedding in their constituency? Try saying “I can’t” and watch the withering of the politician’s reputation.

I have seen the invitation cards of social clubs, societies and various organizations where the politician is given the honor to cut the ribbon and yes along with the honor comes the expectation of donation that befits the guest of honor.

I have seen how politicians quiver with uneasiness when some charity dinner organizers call them up to sponsor dinner tables and there are  charity dinners everywhere nowadays.

In a month the politicians are confronted by unimaginable financial expectations ranging from donation to temples, providing transportation to children going to school, tuition fees , footing the electricity and water bills, paying car loans of defaulters, even providing personal loans and what not, expected out of  politicians’ own pockets.

These are the expectations of the ordinary simpletons who are voters but the appetites of those at the higher levels are somewhat much more voracious and sophisticated.

Many politicians who had entered politics with ideals, had experienced the terrible realities of life as politicians, with  some having to live with accusations of corruption to survive the end game whilst others had become very bitter with what had become of them.

There are many outstanding people with a great sense of honor and integrity with a decent lifestyle and financial means which is enough only for their family. These people are great assets to the nation but they usually refuse to enter politics as they are conscious of the fact that there are always people out there who will feast on their flesh and suck on their marrow leaving an empty bone for none to pick.

Politics had become a money game. It is a lonely and desolate road for honorable men and principled politicians. The one with plenty to throw is the toast of the town. No wonder there are people who shamelessly admit that their entry into politics is for business opportunities. In order to throw money to the demanding people, one needs to make the money first. Questionable land acquisitions that displace many poor people to the easy money making prospects in the import of luxury vehicles through AP’s are things that we have heard so often. With this mindset flourishing unsuspectingly, service to self rather than service to the nation is prioritized.

Thus the culture of materialism is imbued as the blue print of the nation. Children nurtured by parents with virtues and characters of intrinsic value and appeal consider politics as gutter and politicians as rats that ply the gutter.

Educationists, teachers, doctors, lawyers, engineers, architects, accountants, other professionals and many social workers including people who are invaluable assets to the nation and who are fit to step into the shoes of politicians had been trampled in the stampede for material prosperity at the expense of values and virtues and they had now rebranded their service to public as members of non governmental organizations, writers and bloggers.

A small number of politicians who steadfastly hold on to their values, principles  and ideals are maliciously scorned by powerful but unethical information channels and brutally spurned by a sizeable misled population and some  were even  forced to endure incarceration then, and still face the same threats and constant harassments from state sanctioned bodies.

The new breeds of politicians have now succumbed to the evils of their masters. Their evil masters are none other than the people with insatiable demands and needs for all the material comforts here and now, potentially leaving nothing for the future generations.

The politicians, who are unable to satisfy the needs of these unreasonable people either give up their service to the nation or give in to corruption, the very trait that they must avoid at all cost.

A deep sense of sadness engulfs watching people entering politics to serve the nation but slowly caving in to every undesirable qualities known to man just for their very survival as  politicians who are now  twirled  in the whirlpool  of demands by  the people.

With corruption setting in, there is plenty to throw to the ever craving people but with a devastating chain reaction in which the people in power have the opportunity to take plenty more of what should rightfully be the treasures of the nation for the future generations.

Now the nation is confronted with a deeply disturbing question. Are we prepared to engage in excessive and unwarranted enjoyment now and permit our children and grandchildren to carry the cross for our sins?

The cravings of the people for today’s needs and the cravings of the corrupt politicians to hoard the intended reserves of the future generations are not creating a symbiotic and synergistic environment for the prosperity of the nation but for a sure paralysis of the very fabric of our society.

All is not lost. We can still reverse this destructive process.

We can start by treating politicians as policy makers or lawmakers in its strict sense and stop treating them as Santa Claus.

We should be demanding honesty, integrity and competency. We should not be seen either directly or by subtle means demanding handouts that may place financial burden on these politicians or compromise their position of power and authority.

Nobody is infallible and  we all know that and  can accept that, however for every mistake made we should demand accountability (which simply means acceptance of the mistake and taking responsibility for it) instead of demanding political patronage that will keep us silent and contented.

Many politicians are now at the crossroad between personal honesty and the preservation of their political positions but we do need the modern day Gurkhas in politics too, politicians who are brave enough to confront the people and tell them that the country had come to what it is now not because of the misdeeds of the politicians alone but of the misconducts of the people too.

Nation building is not only the job of politicians but of the people too. None should shirk their responsibilities. Educating people to have a sense of personal pride right down to paying for their own cup of coffee is the real challenge that confronts the successful future politicians. The measure of success will greatly depend on how pleasing the tone of the message in its transmission is and how widely it is accepted.

                This entry was posted on Friday, 4 September 2009, 12:42 pm and is filed under
Augustine Anthony
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Arrest and prosecute Hishammuddin for his provocative press conference statement defending the cowhead sacrilege

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak yesterday reminded Muslims to avoid condemning or insulting other religions and the followers in their actions, but instead follow true Islamic teachings by respecting other religions.

Najib should first direct this advice and reminder to Umno Ministers and leaders at all levels as they have proved to be the greatest threats to inter-religious goodwill, harmony and understanding particularly in the five months of Najib’s premiership.

To set a good example that the Najib administration does not condone or countenance Umno Ministers or leaders setting the bad example of offending other religions and their followers, the Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein should be arrested and prosecuted for his provocative press conference defending the cowhead sacrilege on 28th August  which marred the 52nd National Day celebrations three days later.

The Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has directed independent news portal Malaysiakini to remove the video footages of Hishammuddin’s media conference defending and justifying the cow-head sacrilege for being “provocative” which contain “offensive contents with the intent to annoy any person especially Indians” and  liable to offences under Section 211/233 of the Communication and Multimedia Act 1998 with a penalty on conviction to a fine up to RM50,000 or a jail sentence.

The other video footage MCMC wanted Malaysiakini to remove was on the cow-head demonstration and sacrilege in Section 23 of Shah Alam.

If a video footage carrying Hishammuddin’s media conference defending and justifying the cow-head sacrilege is liable to a criminal offence for being provocative and offensive to other religions, isn’t Hishammuddin even more guilty of such an offence  and before any action is contemplated against Malaysiakini, action should have been taken against Hishamuddin first?

Would Hishammuddin be arrested and prosecuted for his utter insensitivity in defending and justifying the cow-head demonstration and sacrilege before any other action is contemplated against the media for reporting Hishammuddin’s press conference?

The Attorney-General Tan Sri Gani Patail has ordered the police to investigate further into the cow-head sacrilege. Will the police extend such an investigation to include Hishammuddin’s offensive and insensitive press conference?

Although Hishammuddin later backtracked from his press conference stance defending the Shah Alam protestors, his subsequent statement that the police should proceed with investigations and to bring to court those who brought the severed cow-head in the protest, Hishammuddin’s change of stance is only  relevant as a plea for mitigation and cannot be a defence to the offence for which MCMC is acting against Malaysiakini.

If Hishammuddin has committed an offence, would the Attorney-General decide whether the Home Minister should be prosecuted and would the police arrest the Home Minister, especially as the Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Musa Hassan has just got another renewal as IGP for another year on Hishammuddin’s recommendation  despite strong and the most legitimate grounds of opposition?

Malaysians and the world are shaking their heads in disbelief at the depth that institutional good governance has sunk to with  the country reaching  the lowest level of public confidence in the independence, professionalism and integrity of the key national institutions in the country.

The MCMC warning to Malaysiakini to remove the two provocative videos, one on the offensive and insensitive cow-head protest and sacrilege and the other on Hishamuddin’s press conference defending and justifying the cow-head sacrilege, remind Malaysians of the previous outrage when Sin Chew reporter Tan Hoon Cheng was detained under the Internal Security Act in September 2008 for reporting the offensive and provocative speech of Umno Bukit Bendera division chairman Ahmad Ismail on the Chinese in Malaysia as “penumpang” while Ahmad Ismail got away completely scot-free for his offensive and provocative remarks!

Is Malaysia changing for the better or getting worse?

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 5 September 2009, 11:26 am and is filed under
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Cows galore!

by
Art Harun

Sept 4

The contents of my stomach flew out of my mouth onto the floor after reading Minister Datuk Seri Hishamuddin Hussein’s apparent defense of the cow-head demonstrators yesterday. Before I had finished wiping it, I was hit by another nausea inducing curve ball in the form of Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir’s statement supporting Hishamuddin’s.

Apparently now an offence should not be prosecuted if such prosecution might cause “further unrest”. Yes folk. It is the fasting month. Quite obviously, to certain Muslims, when food and drink are not consumed, blood circulation would be affected thus preventing the supply of oxygen to the brain. The result is calamitous. And not to mention rambunctiously funny.

Mukhriz must remember that when his father, Tun Mahathir Mohamad charged Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim for a cooked-up offence circa 1997-98, 100,000 people came out on the street. What do you call that? Peace and tranquillity?

People resting? Or was that “unrest”? So, please answer this. Since when has an offence not become prosecutable for fear of an unrest? No wonder that guy from Penang who called the Chinese and Indians “pendatang” was not charged. That would have caused unrest too, huh? I think I should speed up my invention of a talk cock eater.

As events would have it, while I was spraying Febreeze on my carpet — to clean out yet another puke after that statement — my stomach churned again.

This time from Minister Hishamuddin’s statement that those responsible for the cow-head demonstration should be charged in Court. I then felt faint. Everything went black. My head was spinning. I blacked out. Apparently I suffer from U-turn phobia.

Speaking of U-turns, guys and gals, you all would remember Minister Rais Yatim’s internet filter debacle. One minute he wanted to filter the internet and was driving 200 mph in his Proton Perdana to Filterville.

The next minute he made a U-turn, Of course, to the delight of all and sundry. Not after the whole world had read about the earlier decision though. The World – 1, Malaysia – 0.

Then His Royal Excellent I-have-changed-my-mode Minister announced that the Black Eyed Peas concert in Malaysia was only allowed for non-Muslims. Again, Minister Ng Yen Yen of the Tourism Ministry was so thankful for the wholly free publicity that Malaysia was having world wide. It looked like Ambassador Todt would be out of job soon, if our Government continues at this rate. The World – 2, Malaysia – 0.

Of course, a couple of days later, when the anger caused by the first announcement had barely subsided, the decision on the BEP concert was reversed. Now Muslims can go. I thought the news page I was reading did not upload completely. Because I was dead sure there must be a catch right? Like Muslims can go but shall be confined to a male and female-only areas on the roof of the stage or something. And they shall not dance. And Fergie must wear only batik baju kurung with a slit of not more than 2 inches in length. But no, there weren’t such limitations. Phew…. Anyway, by this time, the World led by 3 to Malaysia 0.

Apparently this is getting to be some sort of a tradition. This U-turning aka flip-flopping like some penguins walking on ice while wearing diving foot wear. Flip, flip. Flop. Like that. Flip, flip, flip. Flop. You get what I mean.

Before this, of course when Teoh Beng Hock was found dead at MACC’s office, our DPM quickly said there will be no Royal Commission. About three days later, a Royal Commission was duly established. The World – 4, Malaysia – 0.

Before that there was the issue of teaching Maths and Science in Bahasa Melayu aka Bahasa Kebangsaan aka Bahasa Malaysia aka Bahasa Baku and back to Bahasa Melayu. Flip and then flop. U-turn.

Ahah. Now His Excellent Minister Refined Rais is thinking of imposing conditions on ASTRO, contrary to the license being granted to Astro all these while. OSK has warned that this might have a negative impact on foreign direct investment.

Of course it will. Who in his or her right mind would want to come and invest in Malaysia if the parameters within which his or her business is to be carried out cannot be ascertained with certainty? The World – 5, Malaysia – 0.

But the one which stole the thunder form everything else was His Excellent former Minister -We-Have-Erections-Once-Every-Five-Years Zainuddin Mydin. Singapore was “sacked” from Malaysia because of Lee Kuan Yew’s  Chinese-centric mantra. As if now, all Chinese Malaysians who are perceivably critical of the Government could be herded onto an island — ala the stray dogs in whatever pulau recently — and left to become cannibals out of hunger.

Of course, he had to leave the best for last. Yes. Singapore apparently has a third world democracy with a developed world mentality. Malaysia on the other hand has developed world democracy but a third world mentality. Mr Ex Minister, a democracy, unlike sex, does not have many positions or level. Either you have it or not. You do not have a doggie style democracy, a reverse cow gal democracy or whatever. Just plain democracy.

As for third world mentality, well, you can add Mad Cow disease to that as well. But it is not common among all Malaysians mind you. It only afflicts some people. They know who they are. The World 6, Malaysia 0.

Then, yesterday, TLDM received its first ever, ever, ever submarine.

The World 6. 1 Malaysia.

Syabas.

                This entry was posted on Saturday, 5 September 2009, 9:49 am and is filed under
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Dream of a sincere merdeka

By
Azly Rahman

Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains – Jean Jacques Rousseau

There is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents – Thomas Jefferson

Malaysia is approaching its 52nd birthday. But it is middle age characterised by bipolarism, schizophrenia and illusions of grandeur. How did we get to this stage? And how do we de-evolve?

In essence, we are a troubled nation, hyper-modernised by half-baked sense of democracy, paying lip service to the idea of a civilised society and insincere in our pledge to create equal opportunity for all.

Consider the latest problematic phrases we are living with: The Perak Fiasco, 1BlackMalaysia, One Too Many By-elections, 100 Arrests, and A Troubled Monarchy. Then there is also the mysterious death of Teoh Beng Hock, the caning of Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, and the Ramadan drama of the cow-head protesters.

These and many other issues are unresolved. The essence of these lies in the erosion of virtue. At all levels of governance, we have lost all sense of spiritual control; our institutions eroded by our addiction to corruption.

In the words of the Chinese revolutionary leader Chairman Mao Zedong, we are living in interesting times in which our lives are fragmented by sound of and fury of the race-based and hate-mongering ideological system we have build since half a century ago.

We no longer have virtuous leaders in our political system. We have many who are corrupt to the bone and in their souls, interested only in plundering the national wealth in order to survive the next general election. And we continue to breed new leaders who think that politics is about buying votes and selling the nation.

Virtuous leaders are made and not born. They are created out of good religious/moral upbringing and a clear sense of altruism – prioritising needs, not wants, and certainly not greed.

It is no longer clear what the country is governed – in the confusion over the meaning of religion and of culture, and how a combination of both can be lethal to this already mentally troubled country approaching its 52nd birthday.

Leaders in our midst are plagued with scandals of material and moral character, some amounting to billions of ringgit, and many no longer are ashamed to use the state apparatuses to advance their own political agenda.

Virtue lies in all religions

Virtue must be internalised. In the interesting times we live in, virtue must be installed and institutionalised. Without virtue, the poor will steal from the rich and the rich will steal from the masses.

Virtue lies in all religions and philosophical systems. Even if one does not believe in God and its existence, one can be as ethical and virtuous as defined by Plato, Socrates, Pythagoras, Buddha, Lao Tzi or Einstein.

Master Kung (Confucius) often talks about the breeding of the ‘chuan tze’ or ‘the gentleman’ and the importance of respect. The ‘Bhagavad Gita’ speaks of the beauty of the self and for one to follow dharma. Islam speaks of the beauty of the self in relation to its contribution to a peaceful and just society. Sufism, Buddhism, Jainism, Hassidism, and many a path to deeper spirituality promote the development of the ‘just and virtuous self’.

But we are living in a world designed by greedy human beings who themselves do not know their own true nature.

We spend time either making ends meet or making our millions multiply. We keep making decisions that alter and transform the economy and impact the lives of millions who are at the disposal of those who own the means of economic and intellectual production. With our wealth, we oppress each other as we build oppressive institutions of power and control.

We have created a matrix of complexities and a rat race of no winners.

Our society seems to be heading towards destruction. The seeds are rapidly germinating.

Sometime ago we saw even the Malaysian police force threatening ‘to vote for the opposition’. We are now puzzled: who do the police serve? Who will protect the citizens then? Do we then need to set up a non-partisan or a neutral police force?

We are also seeing public universities becoming more and more politicised. There is no virtue in the way they are run. Our public universities, paid by the taxpayers of all races, are serving the interests of the political parties of the day.

Our vice-chancellors are not elected from the pool of experts from other races although our student population is of a multi-racial mix. The concept of ‘affirmative action’ that emphases policies to promote diversity is almost non-existent. There is no virtue in such a practice in our public universities.

We are seeing people getting edgy and agitated – higher crime rate, more robberies, snatch thefts, hideous crimes related to merciless kidnapping, our youth of all races getting high on all kinds of depressants and stimulants that all religious upbringing has taught us to avoid.

Virtue is eroding even at the highest level of public office. We set up all kinds of bodies to combat corruption. But what has been the success rate so far if we are still trapped in a complex political-economic system that is producing more and more creatures of greed that plunder the nation’s wealth.

‘Virtue’ itself is a corrupted word these days. People are finding it difficult to be virtuous. They want to be pragmatic and rational economic beings that rationalise everything in the name of profit, at the expense of the moral development of the generation we are to leave behind.

Society becomes more endangered when all sense of idealism is pushed aside, allowing politics of rationalisation to rule. In Malaysia, the situation of the erosion of ethics and virtuosity is even worse when all acts are dictated through the influence of the politics of identity and hideous ethnocentricity.

The continuing issues of succession plaguing the leadership of the major components of all the ruling parties, for example, reflects a virtue-less leadership. It even reflects the system of dictatorship and authoritarianism that we have allowed to take root in all parties.

We are seeing the development of another dangerous excess of authoritarianism – the development of political dynasties. We continue to see this culture in the Malay, Chinese, and Indian political parties as well.

Are we a republic of virtue?

We spend too much time politicising everything and less time educating. If all that energy is used to design a better system of participatory democracy and philanthropy, and to reach out to other ethnic groups to collaborate in solving the issue of poverty, we, as Malaysians, will become a miracle nation.

Poverty is not the problem of Indians or Malays or Chinese – it is the problem of humanity. Today in Malaysia we are even seeing more and more highly educated people trapped in the idea of ketuanan/arrogance of this or that race. From the lower classes of society to the uppermost class, the message is the same: racism and race-based politics must be maintained.

Prejudice must be protected. Hatred must be harnessed. War is peace. Hate is love. Freedom is dangerous. We live in a world of Doublespeak, as the theme of George Orwell’s novel 1984 would suggest.

We need to bring back ‘virtue’ to the forefront of our political philosophies and into our economic paradigm, and next use it to design a virtuous foundation of our economic system. From a virtuous foundation we will then see a healthier characterisation of how we design and reorganise our lives as economic beings.

How do we even begin creating a republic of virtue if we do not yet have the tools of analysing what a corrupt society is and how corrupt leaders are a product of the economic system created to reproduce more sophisticated forms of corruption?

We must engineer a revolution of our very own consciousness. From the revolution in our minds, we move on to the revolution of our consciousness, and next to our collective consciousness. Gradually, as we realise that a better collective consciousness can be created, we will be aware of the oppositional forces that are making real human progress disabling.

We must now become makers of our own history and help others do the same. We must first learn to deconstruct ourselves and draw out the virtue within ourselves, even if the process can be terrifying. We must then each create a manifesto of our own self and de-evolve from then, until we tear down the structures within and outside of ourselves and reconstruct the foundations of a new republic.

We have never been independent. Malaysian has replaced the British colonials with its little brown brothers who are more sophisticated, as a result of the latter’s education and socialisation into becoming better and more apologetic masters of modern-day totalitarianism. This is the our gift of Independence – on a silver platter. As Albert Memmi the Algerian thinker and psychiatrist would say, the colonized has become the colonizer.

In 2009, we will have become ‘independent’ for more than 50 years. Are we a republic of virtue? Are we emotionally stable enough to be one? Only by going back to the politics of virtue and sincerity can we survive this long and difficult road of Malaysian evolution; a road that is paved with good intentions but patrolled by predators of the poor and those pushed to the peripheries.

May we have an interesting Merdeka. And may we be more sincere.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 6 September 2009, 1:56 pm and is filed under
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Holy cow! Minister defends protestors!

  By
Kee Thuan Chye

WHAT a farce the cow-head incident is turning out to be. The handling of the case so far demonstrates clearly that all that talk about 1Malaysia is mostly cow pie.

Firstly, the police have been slow to act. They concluded their investigations last Tuesday and handed them over to the Attorney-General. Now we have to wait further for the august A-G to decide whether action will be taken. In this regard, one can’t help but be reminded that nothing has yet come out of the V.K. Lingam case – so long after the Royal Commission of Inquiry ruled that there were grounds for the A-G to take action.

Secondly, Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein goes out of his way to meet with the protestors, the very people who had committed what is apparently a seditious act by bringing a cow’s head to their protest and spitting at it and kicking it. All because they didn’t want a Hindu temple to be relocated in their area of residence in Shah Alam.

Would Hishammuddin have done the same if it had been Hindus protesting against the relocation of a mosque in their housing estate? Imagine what the reaction of the authorities would have been if that had been the case.

What’s worse, after the meeting, he spouted the most diabolical doublespeak and politicospeak when he told reporters that the protestors could not be blamed as “they had no intention at all” to invoke racial sentiments or cause tension. He even said they felt victimised. He defended their illegal protest (they had no permit) by saying they kept the number of protestors to a small number.

Well, Minister, some people have been arrested for protesting in an even smaller number.

As expected, he blamed the Selangor Government, saying it had made “a poor decision” in relocating the temple. And then he made a statement that he should from now on be forever held accountable for: “In this day and age, protests should be accepted in this world, as people want their voices to be heard. If we don’t give them room to voice their opinions, they have no choice but to protest.”

Well, that’s straight from the Home Minister’s mouth, folks. Public protests are A-OK. So keep your water cannons and whatnot at home, cops.

To cap it all, Hishammuddin said this was not the first time an animal’s head had been used in a protest. He revealed that there was a time when a pig’s head, wrapped in an Umno flag, was thrown into Umno’s headquarters.

This is most disconcerting, especially coming from a Minister who is charged with ensuring peace and harmony in the country. What was he trying to imply? Yes, he was exonerating the cow-head protestors, but wasn’t he also sneakily trying to blame another community by bringing up the pig’s head? If so, isn’t that mischievous? And, surely, he must be aware that two wrongs don’t make a right. So why bring up the earlier wrong to justify the cow-head one?

All this clearly shows that there are still 2Malaysias, and that in word and deed, our national leaders affirm that. But Malaysians today are surely aware of that. When the double standards are so blatantly applied, the aggrieved parties will certainly take note.

This can’t be good for Prime Minister Najib Razak who is trying hard to win non-Malay hearts and minds with his 1Malaysia slogan (I say “slogan” because that’s just what it is so far – full of words and little action). The cow-head incident would have set his efforts back substantially. Hindraf will surely be mobilised more purposefully and Hindus will rally behind it.

What also begs the question is why contradictory signals are being sent out by the ruling party. The PM says one thing, his deputy says the opposite. In the past few months, as Najib was promoting 1Malaysia, Muhyiddin Yassin has been playing to the Malay gallery. He called Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim a traitor to the Malay race; defended an article in the Malay press calling on the Malays to stop being cowards and rise up; and on the same day that the 1Malaysia logo was publicly unveiled, he asserted that Umno would fight to the last drop of blood to protect Malay rights.

Meanwhile, race-baiting goes on almost daily in the Malay mainstream media, concerted in its aim to threaten, frighten and divide. That these media organisations are owned and controlled by Najib’s own party underscores the conundrum. The messages sent out by these media organisations and the messages he himself is sending out are totally at odds with each other. Whom are we to listen to? Whom are we to trust?

Is there a game plan behind it all? Are we the rakyat mere pawns in the game? When the game is over, will we be played out?

* Kee Thuan Chye is the author of March 8: The Day Malaysia Woke Up, which just won 3rd Prize in the Popular Readers’ Choice Awards. It has also been translated into Chinese.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 6 September 2009, 11:48 am and is filed under
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RCI to conduct no-holds-barred probe into RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal to unearth all abuses of power and cbt even at Cabinet level

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak said the Cabinet will discuss the ramifications of the RM12.5 billion Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal on Wednesday and decide on the next course of action on the PKFZ “mother of all scandals”.

Yesterday,  Najib was briefed by the Transport Minister, Datuk Seri Ong Tee Keat, the PKFZ Task Force headed by its chairman, lawyer  Vinayak Pradhan and the police on the PKFZ scandal.

Firstly, why was the police at the briefing. Secondly, why wasn’t the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) involved in the briefing, although various reports of financial improprieties had been lodged as far back three years ago if the Najib administration is serious about wanting to uphold integrity and good governance?

Although there is now finally admission that the PKFZ scandal is not only a “can of worms” but a “swamp of crocodiles”, the whole story of the “mother of all scandals” have yet to be unearthed.

For instance, from the comments of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC)  Chairman Datuk Seri Azmi Khalid on its inquiry into the PKFZ scandal, it would appear that the PAC is leaning towards putting the blame of the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal purely on the  Port Klang Authority (PKA) level, in particular the former PKA chief executive officer Datin Paduka O.C.Phang for “very weak” management but is not prepared to probe to a higher level to ascertain the extent of ministerial or Cabinet responsibility.

It may be understandable why Azmi does not want the PAC to probe into the degree of ministerial and Cabinet culpability for the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal as he was himself a member of the former  Cabinet which took the decision in July 2007 on a RM4.6 billion bail-out of he PKFZ scandal by giving  retrospective approval for the four illegal Letters of Support unlawfully issued by the two former Transport Ministers, Tun Dr. Ling Liong Sik and Tan Sri Chan Kong Choy which had landed the government and the country in the “mother of all scandals”.

However,  this can be no excuse why a full and comprehensive probe into the PKFZ scandal should stop at the level of the PKA and that of the PKFZ turnkey contractor,Kuala Dimensi Sdn. Bhd (KDSB) and not go higher to ministerial and Cabinet levels.

This is the reason why I had objected to Azmi chairing the PAC probe into the PKFZ scandal as there is a clear case of conflict-of-interest in his former role as Minister involved in the Cabinet decision in July 2007 on the RM4.6 billion bailout of the PKFZ and his current role as the PAC Chairman heading the inquiry into the PKFZ scandal.

What is needed is a  no-holds-barred inquiry into the RM12.5 billion PKFZ scandal to unearth all the abuses of power and criminal breach of trust not just at the PKA and PKFZ levels but all the way to  Ministerial and Cabinet stages right from the beginning of the sorry saga of the PKFZ scandal a decade ago when the PKFZ proposal was first mooted with  Liong Sik as the Transport Minister under the premiership of  Tun Dr. Mahathir.

This can only be done by a Royal Commission of Inquiry  into the PKFZ scandal and this is one of the decisions which the Cabinet should take on Wednesday.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 6 September 2009, 11:41 am and is filed under
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UMNO or Three Stooges? Who will u Vote?

By
Hussein Hamid

Over the weekend I have been doing a bit of thinking after watching Malaysiakini video “
Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein’s Press Conference 2nd Sept 2009
” on youtube re the cow-head incident in Section 23. According to Din (let me just call Hishammuddin that -his name is to long to have to type out every time I need to refer to him – and anyway he is younger then me!). According to Din the organizer of that cow-head demo was sitting to his right and to his left. Now if that is not tacit support to what they have done – I do not know what is. You can even see one of the organizer sitting on Din’s left nodding in agreement to what Din was saying.

In a not too veiled a threat to Pakatan Rakyat, Din said that if he wanted to he could take advantage of the situation to create “
huru hara
” in Selangor. For those unfamiliar with that term – think Charles Manson and think “helter skelter”…and think UMNO..put them altogether and you have an idea what ‘
huru hara
’ means!

He also made a direct reference to me…well okaylah if you want to be technical  –  to all those using  cyberspace and internet to comment on the situation.  He said that the three stooges  – he, Rais and Nazri have requested (can also mean instructed or ordered but here again let us not get too technical!) the IGP, AG and the Suruhan Jaya Multi Media  “
untuk membantu supaya bila kita ambil tindakan nanti ada bukti dan satu case yang kukuh supaya bila di bawa ka mahkamah dia (we blogers) takkan lepas dari gegamman kita
”. Guys you better stay clear of those tentacles – once caught “
Tiada maaf bagi mu
”.

Right now all the arsenal available at UMNO’s disposal are focused on eliminating  the opposition – in this case Pakatan Rakyat. UMNO are using the most canggih – most sophisticated and state of the art GPS system available to make sure that they hit the target…but still having problem. Aisehman if the USA cannot find Osama after all this time what hope does UMNO have in targeting Pakatan Rakyat? But I think there is one thing UMNO and Barisan need to understand.

At the next General Elections it is not Pakatan Rakyat that is going to vote.

It is the Rakyat.

So if you think you are going to get to lengthen your stay in government by putting all the Pakatan Rakyat leaders in Jail – under ISA – then you have to think again. Read my lips.

It is the rakyat that is going to vote.

You can put away ten or twenty of Pakatan Rakyat leaders under ISA. You can put all of them under ISA. If the alternative to UMNO is The Three Stooges  we will vote the Three Stooges!

How many Rakyat are you going to put away so that they cannot vote to put UMNO out? Ops Lalang saw 106 persons under ISA. You know that now you are not going to get away with putting that many people away in one go under ISA – not this time! So even if you put 106 Rakyat away under ISA you know that is not going to make a difference to what is going to happen to UMNO.

So think again. Putting Pakatan Rakyat leaders or anybody under ISA is just going to make us more upset – not angry yet…just upset. Putting Anwar on trial again also upset us. Setting your Pemuda UMNO goons on a defenceless old man call Karpal outside Parliament also upsets us. We get angry when you keep instructing PDRM to hit us when we demonstrate against the ISA. We get angrier every time PDRM extort money from us – and that happens on a daily basis. Every injustice, every corrupt official, every less then honest judge…all this makes us angrier. We get mad when one of us get killed while under your custody.  So tell me how are you going to calm us down and get us on your side?

Try doing the right thing. No more corruption, No more greed. No more doing things your way – but then we know that is not going to happen. Anyway you look at it you do not have a hope in hell of going past the next General Election – short of declaring an Emergency and declaring Martial Law. Methinks Najib does not have the balls to do that.

There is World Opinion that will be against that move and more important there are enough Rakyat in Malaysia to make sure that that will not happen. There is such a thing as “Public Opinion. It is held in reverence. It settles everything. Some think it is the voice of God” Mark Twain.

                This entry was posted on Sunday, 6 September 2009, 11:04 pm and is filed under
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Cow-head protest sacrilege – Hishammuddin just does not get it

Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein protests too much. He said he has evidence that the cow-head protesters involved both members of the Barisan Nasional (BN) and the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) parties of PKR and PAS.

Hishammuddin just does not get it – that he is accused of double police standards illustrated by the instant police arrest of 16 persons for peaceful candlelight protest at Dataran Merdeka in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday night while cow-head protestors are still scot-free 10 days after the Shah Alam sacrilege.

Hishammuddin’s latest claim that the cow-head protestors come from both Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat parties, which is not proven, does not answer the charge that the Home Minister and the Police had failed their most elementary duty of being independent, impartial and professional in discharge policing duties which is not influenced by any personal, party or political bias.

Why is the Police still tip-toeing over the cow-head protest in Shah Alam on August 28, which not only put Malaysia in the dock of world opinion with adverse international media reports scaring off intending investors with the spectre that Malaysia is on the verge of greater racial and religious polarisation and intolerance, but spoilt the national mood for the 52nd National Day celebrations three days later.

Is this because of Hishammuddin’s earlier defence and justification for the cow-head protestors?

Can Hishammuddin and the Police explain why they had no time for niceties when arresting 16 peaceful candlelight protestors at Dataran Merdeka on Saturday night as compared to the kids-glove “special treatment” for the cow-head protestors, enjoying immunity and impunity for their deplorable action in the past 10 days?

If Hishammuddin is right that the cow-head protestors come not only from Barisan Nasional but also from Pakatan Rakyat, then all those guilty of the religious sacrilege to Hinduism which is a sacrilege to all religions in plural Malaysia, then let actions be taken against all the culprits concerned!

                This entry was posted on Monday, 7 September 2009, 12:50 pm and is filed under
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