Sunday, June 29, 2008

Damn the dams


Bakun Dam - RM16 billion and rising: Sime Darby declines stake

Sime Darby has wisely decided to pull out of holding a stake in the Bakun Dam via Sarawak Hidro. Neither is it interested in holding a stake in the laying of cables under the South China Sea from Sarawak to the peninsula, which would make it the longest undersea cables in the world. The whole project stinks right from day one. They are building this huge dam in Sarawak, and they realise they don’t need the electricity. So they want to transmit it to the peninsula. But wait a minute, the peninsula already has a 40 per cent reserve capacity and TNB is even paying the IPPs for electricity it doesn’t need.

So what to do? They get polluting aluminium smelters to suck up the electricity from Bakun.

But Sime Darby obviously realises that the project is unviable and unprofitable - and would rather stick to the construction work. Has this anything to do with the extensive logging in the Bakun catchment areas that has threatened the viability of the project? (See “New doubts over Bakun Dam“) Or the serious doubts over the feasibility of the undersea cables and the likely risks and loss of power?

And now there are suggestions that TNB might take up a stake - and pass on the burden to the Malaysian public?

And that’s not all, they are building even more dams in Sarawak like there is no tomorrow. Make hay while the sun shines.

Let’s see, you have currently:

Batang Ai Dam 108MW
In the pipeline:

Bakun Dam 2,400MW
Limbang Dam 160MW (completion 2012)
Murum Dam 900MW (2013)
Under study:

Baram Dam 1,000MW
Balleh Dam 900MW
Smaller dams in Miri and Limbang division.
Coal power plants proposed:

Mukah (Phase 1) 270MW
Mukah (Phase 2) 300MW
Belingian 600MW
Merit-Pila 1,200MW
But wait a minute, Sarawak only needs 750MW right now - and it already has a capacity of 900MW. What the…!

Read more here

So...this is Malaysia !!!

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

It takes two hands to clap

The Muslims can regard the non-Muslims as brothers and sisters fighting for a common cause -- a better Malaysia for the future generations -- or they can continue shouting that non-Muslims should never be taken as friends.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

A couple of years ago I wrote about how Islam spreads hate. I do not mean, of course, Islam the religion. I am talking about the Islam practiced by the majority of the Muslims. Understandably, this article of mine met with negative responses from most Muslims -- and silence from the non-Muslims who knew better than to engage in what might be viewed as anti-Islamic rhetoric.

Let us imagine this scenario. A Muslim walks past a church or temple and he or she hears the blaring PA system and the priest inside screaming that Islam is a fake religion, that Prophet Muhammad had been deceived by Satan into believing that God is sending down a new religion from heaven, that the Quran is man-made and not from God and a creation of deviants years after Muhammad had died, that Muslims are mistakenly following the religion of the devil, that Muhammad in fact never existed, that Islam is part-Hindu and part-Zoroastrian and that all the rituals and beliefs are borrowed from these two religions, and so on and so forth.

Yes, I know what the critics say about Islam and the above is but some of what they say. But let us say that a Muslim walks past a church or temple and this is what he or she hears. Can you imagine the backlash? Would Muslims remain quiet and tolerate what they would view as insulting and slanderous to Islam? Certainly not and be prepared for blood on the streets, the result of the most brutal retaliation you can ever imagine.

But no, no church or temple would dare do such a thing. No priest would dare declare the Muslims as enemies who must be exterminated. No priest would even consider asking his congregation to declare war on Islam and Muslims. It is just not on. And the people of the other faiths just can’t understand why this same thing is not taboo to the Muslims.

We talk about multi-culturalism. We talk about racial harmony. We talk about inter-faith tolerance. But that’s all we do. We talk. We do not demonstrate that we really mean what we say. We do not walk the talk. Instead, Muslims would not hesitate to declare that those not of the Muslim faith can never be taken as friends of the Muslims. If they are not friends then what are they? The opposite of friend is enemy. Sure, we do not quite say that they should be regarded as the enemy. This is a crime under Malaysia’s Sedition Act. We just say that they should not be taken as friends. This is not seditious.

Then we talk about wanting a new opposition coalition called Pakatan Rakyat. We talk about seeing a strong opposition finally emerging in Malaysia. We talk about our dream of a two-party system in Malaysia. We aspire for check and balances in the way this country is run. And we know that this can only be achieved if and when all the races in Malaysia unite. So we call for all the races to unite. But we look down on the other races and declare that non-Muslims can’t be taken as friends.

Muslims are beginning to look like hypocrites. To the non-Muslims we say, “Let us unite for a better Malaysia.” Amongst fellow Muslims we say. “The non-Muslims can’t be taken as friends.” We think that the non-Muslims do not know this. The truth is, the non-Muslims do know but they are hoping that in time the first statement will override the second statement and that Malaysia will eventually become a true multi-racial country.

8 March 2008 was just the beginning of the wide chasm between Muslims and non-Muslims becoming closer. It is closer. But it is not closed. And the ‘closeness’ is only temporary. It is only for the next four or five years until the next general election. It can get closer still and eventually the chasm is removed totally or it can revert to what it used to be before 8 March 2008.

The choice is not really with the non-Muslims. They are the minority and minorities do not have too many choices. The choice is with the Muslims. The Muslims can regard the non-Muslims as brothers and sisters fighting for a common cause -- a better Malaysia for the future generations -- or they can continue shouting that non-Muslims should never be taken as friends. And the choice the Muslims make will determine the outcome of the 13th General Election, whenever that is going to be held.

This is our last chance. We can either move forward in the spirit of a New Malaysia and with all Malaysians united. Or we can revert to what it used to be -- a Malaysia divided by race and religion. No, the non-Muslims would never say nasty things about Islam, the Quran, Prophet Muhammad or the Muslims. They know it is suicidal to do so, as time and time again that has been proven. It is time that the Muslims too mature and look at the reality of the world today. It takes two hands to clap. And unless the Muslims too raise their hands there will be no clap. That is the long and short of the whole thing.

*************************************************

The sermons of hate from my childhood have been silenced

Dr Khalid Salem Al-Yabhouni

One of my earliest memories from boyhood is being taken to the mosque by my father to attend Friday prayers and hear the sermon. Friday, to the Islamic faith, is of great importance for it's symbolic significance - the first mosque was built on Friday - and for the Quranic injunction that instructs Muslims to attend the mosque and heed their prayers:

"O ye who believe! When the call is proclaimed to prayer on Friday (the Day of Assembly), hasten earnestly to the Remembrance of Allah, and leave off business (and traffic): That is best for you if ye but knew," - Holy Quran 62:9

The Friday sermons, so I was taught in my Islamic studies classes at school, should be a kind of forum where an informed Muslim can enlighten the people from the pulpit about the concerns of life and the afterlife. The issues that the sermons address could be religious, political, social, economic or personal if need be. And they should follow the Prophet's example and last from 15 to 20 minutes.

That's what we were taught at school, certainly. But what I remember from attending those mosque sermons with my father was very different. The sermons we used to listen to then almost always dealt with political issues, and only very rarely with others matters such as religious rites, or moral issues. I suppose it is true that all the political sermons we heard led children like myself to begin thinking about political affairs early on in life - which in itself is no bad thing. No, the problem was not the subject matter but the tone that the imams invariably used: they were always angry.

The usual style of delivery would be for the imam to begin quietly and then progress, getting louder and louder until he was screaming into the microphone. The blaring voice of the imam would shake not just the foundations of the mosque but the foundations of all the listeners, too. At the very top of his voice, he would invariably threaten fire and brimstone, impending punishment and distant reward for all the worshippers. Finally, his voice hoarse from the shouting, the imam would conclude by cursing the enemies of Islam - as defined by his own personal criteria. It was impossible for anyone, young or old, not to be deeply affected by such a performance.

For the first 20 or so years of my life, sermons of this type were my weekly religious staple, until I left Abu Dhabi to study abroad. My first stop was Kalamazoo, a small town in the state of Michigan in the United States, where I went to study at Western Michigan University. My subjects were comparative politics and comparative religions - which gave me the opportunity to understand my own religion and the religions of the world in a more academic manner.

I began visiting churches and other religious centres, and went to services to learn about the different faiths at first hand. In none of them, regardless of denomination, did I hear the preacher cursing others and praying for their destruction. In none of them did I hear the preacher shouting at the top of his voice into a heavily-amplified microphone. The religious ceremonies that I attended were quiet and peaceful, the priests and preachers serious but calm in their demeanour - and all were most welcoming.

I did find, however, that the mosque in Kalamazoo was just like those I had left behind in Abu Dhabi. The imam would curse and scream and promise punishment and impending doom. My most embarrassing experience was when some American students wanted to come with me to listen to the sermon at Friday prayers. The imam, in his usual manner, cursed them roundly in Arabic and I had to translate what was being said to my fellow students.

After completing the introductory courses on the major religions of the world, such as Hinduism, Christianity, Buddhism and Judaism, I began an intensive study of the Islamic faith in all its subdivisions so that I could begin to understand my own religion more fully. Eight years have passed since then and my studies continue, but I now believe that the manner in which the sermons were made when I was a boy and in America does not conform to what the Islamic faith preaches.

Ever since the September 11 attacks of 2001, the mosques in the United Arab Emirates have been brought under the direct supervision of the Ministry of Islamic Endowments and Religious Affairs and under the direction of enlightened religious leaders. Now, the sermons are considerably more humane and deal with issues that are of immediate concern to the worshippers. Where, in the past, politics took precedence in the mosque, today, religious, social, and humanitarian matters have a significantly greater importance. Political issues are still discussed, but only if there is religious clarification needed on them. Today, the ending of the sermons are also vastly different. Now, they always finish with prayers for the well-being of all mankind and to ease the hardships of all.

I am happy that my sons and the sons of my sisters and brothers living in the more enlightened UAE of today will not be exposed to the angry, vengeful face of the imams I remember from my childhood. Instead, they will discover the humane and tender face of the Islamic ideal that was lost but has now found its place again.

Dr Khalid Salem Al-Yabhouni is a political analyst and researcher
http://1426.blogspot.com/2008/06/sermons-of-hate-from-my-childhood-have.html

Source : Malaysia-Today

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Nightmares in Bolehland

Sub judice my foot! Before the Mongolian murder trial even began, the Attorney-General himself had publicly declared that there were only three people involved in the murder - Abdul Razak Baginda and two members of the Unit Tindakan Khas (Special Action Squad) assigned to Najib Razak as bodyguards. Isn't that "sub judice" to the max? The BN seems to have adopted former PM Mahathir's infamous modus operandi of accusing everybody else of being a liar and opportunist except himself.

The Altantuya murder trial, even more so than the grotesque Anwar Trial nine years ago, has worn out the public's patience with the rusty grind of ill-fitting wheels that passes for Malaysian justice. Not a single person I know has the slightest confidence in the impartiality of Attorney-General Gani Abdul Patail - or the presiding judge hand-picked to play his part in the charade. Nor does anyone (apart from, of course, his political masters in Umno) believe for a moment that Inspector-General of Police Musa Hassan is worth a single cent of his salary. Indeed, the general perception is that both the A-G and the IGP work exclusively for Barisan Nasional and not on behalf of the Malaysian public. As such, we find ourselves in a total quandary where there is no longer any authority figure or public institution that can be relied upon to do its work independently and effectively.

Imagine a situation where a young woman has been abducted and gang-banged. Finally, she manages to free herself and escape. Her friends take her to the nearest police station to lodge a report - and there, to her utmost horror, she finds the same gang that just raped her standing behind the counter, smiling smugly in their uniforms and eager to take her report. Well, that's more or less the nightmarish predicament Malaysia is in right now.

The devastating information presented in Raja Petra Kamarudin's June 18th statutory declaration at the Kuala Lumpur High Court reveals that there was indeed a military intelligence report delivered to the Prime Minister of Malaysia who, at the time, also served as Home Minister. RPK does not indicate when this military intelligence report might have been submitted to the PM - but he states unequivocally that the report was subsequently handed over to the PM's son-in-law, Khairy Jamaluddin, "for safekeeping."

What does all this imply? What are the broad ramifications of this truly mind-boggling development?

Let's connect a few dots so we can step back and look at the ugly picture that emerges. The background to Altantuya Shaariibuu's gruesome abduction and murder can be traced to the Defence Ministry's shopping spree over the last few years that resulted in the acquisition of Scorpene (2) and Agosta (1) submarines and 18 Sukhoi SU30MKM jetfighters. Abdul Razak Baginda, the main accused in the ongoing Altantuya murder trial, is a close friend of DPM and defence minister Najib Razak. Razak Baginda is - or was - a consultant to the Defence Ministry and also doubled as a purchasing agent and high-level negotiator via his private limited company, Ombak Laut Sdn Bhd, whose subsidiary, Perimekar Sdn Bhd received a record-breaking RM534.8 million commission on just the submarine deal alone. (Perimekar Sdn Bhd is jointly owned by Lembaga Tabung Angkatan Tentera, Boustead Holdings Bhd, and KS Ombak Laut Sdn Bhd.)

Abdul Razak Baginda's sworn affidavit, filed on January 5th, 2007, named Altantuya Shaariibuu (alias Aminah) as Razak Baginda's mistress. As she was reportedly conversant in several languages, including French and Russian, it can be surmised that she might have come in handy as a paid interpreter at negotiations between the Malaysian Defence Ministry, Perimekar, and the French and Russian manufacturers. She accompanied Razak Baginda during his stay in France to conduct the negotiations - and it has been established that Defence Minister Najib Razak was also in France at the time (June 2005) and handed out jackets sponsored by Perimekar Sdn Bhd to Malaysian submariners undergoing training at the Brest naval yard. On June 11th, 2005, Najib Razak gave a press conference after visiting the site where the Scorpene submarines were being built. This indicates that the Defence Minister took a personal interest in the French submarine deal and it's unimaginable that he would not have been in contact with his purchasing agent, advisor and negotiator, Abdul Razak Baginda (who would have had Altantuya in tow). In effect, Najib's vehement insistence that he never met "the Mongolian woman" rings particularly hollow - and even more so when Altantuya's friend, Burmaa Oyunchimeg mentioned during the trial that she had seen a photograph of Altantuya dining with "the two Razaks." In short, we detect an extremely high possibility of untruthfulness in the Defence Minister's public denial of any personal acquaintance with the murdered Mongolian.

Malaysia's first Scorpene sub, KD Tunku Abdul Rahman, launched 23 October 2007 by Rosmah Mansor at the DCNS dockyard in Cherbourg, Normandy, France.

We are also inevitably drawn to the conclusion that astronomical amounts of kickback payments were involved and that "the Mongolian woman" may have been privy to the financial arrangements behind the Defence Ministry's shopping spree in Europe - at least circa June 2005. Could there have been the added bonus and titillation of some fun and games when negotiations were transferred from boardroom to bedroom? Dare we say it... a ménage à trois? If that was indeed what happened in France in June 2005, it would explain the subsequent wrath of Rosmah Mansor, official wife of the Defence Minister and DPM.

Jealous rage and power are a lethal combination - as we have already witnessed in another high-profile murder case, unsolved since 2002, involving Siti Hasleza Ishak, second wife of a member of the Perak royalty. There are many more unsolved murders involving pretty women: take the 2003 case of Noritta Samsudin (left) whose cellphone records were conveniently erased although rumors persist that she had called some extremely powerful politician on the night she was murdered.

So what we have before us is a deadly and scandalous combination: corruption of the first magnitude, sexual peccadilloes, betrayal, blackmail, harassment, intimidation - and finally abduction, possible torture, and cold-blooded murder ending with the body getting blown to a million bits with military-grade explosives. RPK's statutory declaration names three others present at the crime scene: Rosmah Mansor, Lt. Col Aziz Buyong (an explosives expert with the Defence Ministry's engineering corps), and his wife Norhayati (a Defence Ministry employee who also happens to be Rosmah's aide-de-camp). In every instance, the Defence Ministry is implicated, as well as police personnel assigned as bodyguards to Najib and Rosmah - and everybody knows who the Top Dog is at the Defence Ministry.

Some folks play high stakes poker, willing to risk everything to get where they want to go - in this case, the very highest rung of power in the country.

There is absolutely no way that Abdul Razak Baginda and the two accused UTK cops (Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri and Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar) could have accomplished the crime and the subsequent (albeit clumsy) cover-up without help from the highest echelons of power. Not even DSP Musa Safri (Najib's ADC) would have the necessary clout to order immigration records deleted so that there would be no traces of Altantuya and her cousin's arrival in Malaysia.


Then we have the blatant interference of the Attorney-General who replaced the trial judge and prosecution team under outrageously suspicious circumstances - and the dramatic resignation of Azilah's lawyer, Zulkifli Nordin, who publicly stated: "There were serious attempts by third parties to interfere with the defence that I proposed."

RPK alleges that the PM and his son-in-law have read the military intelligence report and are therefore accessories after the crime in that they have all this while been withholding crucial evidence for their own political advantage.

No wonder the BN-owned media have been absolutely mute over RPK's bombshell declaration!

In other words, if RPK is as "reliably informed" as he claims to be, he has just indicted the entire Malaysian government for various jailable offences - and under ideal circumstances we ought to be seeing on TV the arrest of everybody from the PM and his son-in-law, defence minister and DPM Najib and his wife Rosmah, the Attorney-General and the Inspector-General of Police (for aiding and abetting a variety of serious crimes). Even without the anticipated crossovers, BN is dead meat. In any case, nobody in their right mind will accept Najib Razak as Malaysia's next prime minister. The only way he could rule the country would be by martial law - and that would spell ABSOLUTE AND IRREVOCABLE DISASTER for our beloved nation.

But will BN leave the stage without fussing and fighting and resorting to the ISA? RPK took pains to add in his declaration that a ruler had been briefed on the sordid details of the Altantuya murder and was fully in the know. We can only surmise that he was referring to his cousin, Sultan Sharafuddin of Selangor, who was subjected to an abusive phonecall about a month ago - according to an RPK blogpost on Malaysia Today - from none other than Rosmah Mansor! Now that was a really smart move, RPK. Because, when push comes to shove, we may have to call upon Royal Intervention to protect the nation from the vicious Crime Syndicate that has taken over the reins of government.

It's High Noon at the Not-So-OK Corral that Malaysia has become. We watch with bated breath as the showdown begins between those of us who love the country - and those who love only their own power and privilege, which they have abused for far too many decades.

Source: Magickriver

Monday, June 23, 2008

Malaysian Deputy Premier’s Wife Linked to Murder

An influential Malaysian blogger alleges that Najib’s wife was present when the Mongolian translator was murdered in 2006

One of Malaysia’s most prominent bloggers, in an explosive statutory declaration to a Malaysia court, has alleged that the wife of Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak as well as a Malaysian Army officer and the officer’s wife were directly involved in the murder of Mongolian translator Altantuya Shaariibuu on October 19, 2006, and that people at the very top of the Malaysian government are aware of the fact.

The declaration, by Raja Petra Kamaruddin, who edits the web publication Malaysia Today, has been ignored by Malaysia’s government-linked mainstream media. However, it threatens to finally break open the case. Even if it doesn’t, it adds considerable chaos to the country’s political mix. The Barisan Nasional, the national ruling coalition, is reeling from the loss of its two-thirds majority in March elections.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, taking the brunt of criticism over the loss, has already promised to step down at some future date to cede the premiership to Najib. District elections are due in July in the United Malays National Organisation and there are suspicions that the verdict in the Altantuya murder trial is being delayed until the elections are completed.

Raja Petra wrote that Najib’s wife, Rosmah Mansor, and Acting Colonel Aziz Buyong and his wife, Norhayati, Rosmah’s aide-de-camp, were present at the scene of the murder and that Aziz Buyong was the individual who placed C4 plastic explosive on Altantuya’s body and blew it up. Both Najib and his wife have repeatedly denied any involvement in the case although top society in Kuala Lumpur has been buzzing for months with rumors of their complicity.

Shaariibuu was executed by two shots to the head and her body was blown up with military explosives in a patch of jungle near the suburban city of Shah Alam. One of Najib’s closest friends, Abdul Razak Baginda, once the influential head of a political think-tank, and two of Najib’s bodyguards, Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri and Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar of the elite Unit Tindak Khas or Special Police Action Unit, have been the subject of a marathon murder trial that got underway more than a year ago.

Neither Najib nor his chief of staff, Musa Safri, has been questioned nor summoned as a witness despite the fact that Baginda in a sworn statement in November 2006 said he had contacted Musa for help in dealing with Altantuya, his jilted lover. That has raised widespread suspicions that the court – prosecution, defense and judiciary – have all been struggling to keep the case under wraps. It has been subject to numerous delays for reasons that are unclear.


Raja Petra himself is due to go on trial in October on sedition charges that were filed against him for writing an article titled “Let’s Send Altantuya’s Murderers to Hell” and accusing Najib, his wife and others of complicity in the murder. He amplified the statement considerably in his statutory declaration, made last Wednesday, in which he also said that Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had been a full report by military intelligence on the involvement of his deputy premier’s family. Badawi gave the intelligence report to his son-in-law, Khairy Jamaluddin, for safekeeping, according to Raja Petra’s statement.

Raja Petra, a member of the Selangor royal family, also wrote that one of the country’s sultans had been given a full report on the matter. He didn’t identify the sultan, but that raises additional implications, presumably that there is at least one member of royalty who can back up his declaration, which was not made under oath, if he is subjected to additional charges over the matter.

From the time Altantuya’s body was discovered, there has been widespread suspicion that not only figures at the top of the government were involved but that the 28-year-old translator and mother of two may have been involved in a much bigger controversy than a jilted relationship. She made several trips to Kuala Lumpur to attempt to confront Baginda, at one point standing in front of his house and screaming “Razak, bastard, come out.” The last time she was seen alive was again in front of his house, when she was bundled into a car and taken away.

She accompanied Baginda to France when he was involved in negotiating the purchase of two Scorpene submarines and a used Agosta submarine produced by the French government through a French-Spanish joint venture, Armaris, for the Malaysian defense ministry, which was headed by Najib as minister. The submarines were bought through a Kuala Lumpur-based company, Perimekar Sdn Bhd, which at the time was owned by yet another company called Ombak Laut, which was wholly owned by Abdul Razak Baginda.

The €1 billion (RM4.5 billion) contract to buy the submarines was non-competitive and netted Perimekar €114 million. Although Najib has sworn an oath to Allah that he had never met the woman, he was in France at the same time one of his best friends was there, dealing with matters over the submarine. A cousin of Altantuya’s testified at the trial that she had seen a picture of Najib together with the dead woman, but she was quickly hushed up by both defense and prosecution lawyers about the matter.

Altantuya, by her own admission in a letter discovered after her death, wrote that she had been blackmailing Abdul Razak, presumably to keep his family from finding out about their relationship. But in his cautioned statement to the police, Baginda said he had already informed his family of the relationship and said she was pressuring him for US$500,000. Her father, Setev Shaariibuu, a psychology professor in Ulan Bataar, has said she was killed because she “knew too much,” although he has never elaborated on that statement.

Given the close relationship between the two men, and that Najib was reported as presenting jackets made available by Perimekar to the submarine crews training in France, and that Altantuya was along with Baginda, it is difficult to believe they had not met.

It is also difficult to believe, given the wealth of published reports, plus the fact that Azilah Hadri, and Sirul Azhar Umar, were members of Najib’s own bodyguard unit, that neither Najib nor Musa has been questioned about how the bodyguards came to be involved in allegations of Altantuya’s murder.

There have been many other discrepancies as well. Prosecutorial setbacks over the course of the trial have endangered the case. Sirul’s purported confession has been thrown out. The prosecution has attempted to impeach one of its own star witnesses, Rohaniza Roslan, a 28-year-old policewoman and Azilah’s girlfriend. Rohaniza said she had seen the victim bundled into a red Proton car and taken away. Later, in court, she said she had been “tortured and coaxed” by police interrogators into signing that statement and offered a version of events that differed considerably from her statement.

“The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, the Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor cannot remain silent on the latest bombshell,” wrote Lim Kit Siang, leader of the opposition Democratic Action Party. “The credibility and legitimacy of the Abdullah premiership and government will suffer a mortal blow if Abdullah, Najib and Rosmah remain silent on Raja Petra’s bombshell allegations.”


Source : Asia Sentinal

So...this is Malaysia !!

Sunday, June 22, 2008

Sleeping on the job

Pak Lah : Bekerjasama Dengan Saya Saya Tidur , Anda Kerja


Pak Lah Kaki Tidur, Batuk & Tersasul


Pak Lah Menggatal Ala Islam Hadhari


Do We Want To Tidur?


1999 Dr.M Bohong 2004 Pak Lah Bohong 2008 Khairy Bohong


So...this is Malaysia !

The true colours of Umno. Ahem..No..!!

Can Malaysia do with these leaders of this calibre?

Kerishamuddin


Racist in our midst



We will 'use' the keris again. It should not be 'desensitised'. And why we should we be apologetic?



And he is the Minister of Education. Parents ! Watch out !!

So...this is Malaysia !!

All Malaysians have special rights

Posted by Super Admin
Wednesday, 28 May 2008


These days, the idea of Ketuanan Melayu is going bankrupt, sinking with the bahtera merdeka. It works only for Malay robber barons who wish to plunder the nation by silencing the masses and using the ideological state apparatuses at their disposal.

Dr. Azly Rahman dr.azly.rahman@gmail.com
http://azlyrahman-illuminations.blogspot.com/

"Therefore, the rakyat must unite and never raise issues regarding Malay rights and special privileges because it is quid pro quo in gratitude for the giving in of citizenship (beri-paksa kerakyatan) to 2.7 million non-Malays into the Tanah Melayu federation....Thus, it is not appropriate for these other ethnic groups to have citizenship, only (later) to seek equality and privileges," said Tengku Faris, who read from a 11-page prepared text.

As a Malaysian who believes in a social contract based on the notion that 'all Malaysians are created equal', I do not understand the 'royal statement'. I have a view on this.

If it comes from the Biro Tatanegara (BTN), I can understand the confusion. But this is from a royal house.

This statement was valid 50 years ago, before Independence. This is an outdated statement that is not appreciated by the children of those who have laboured for this nation.

I believe we should look forward to institutionalising 'special rights for all Malaysians'. The word 'special' is in itself special. Culturally it can either denote an enabling condition or a disabling one.

In the study of religion, one is bestowed a special place for living life well or for doing good deeds. In educational studies, 'special education' caters for the needs of those with a disabling physical, emotional or cognitive condition.

In all these, 'special rights' are accorded based on merit. One works hard to get special offers and into special places.

In the doctrine of the 'divine rights of kings', one's special right is the birthright. Louis XVI of revolutionary France, Shah Jehan of Taj Mahal fame, Emperor Hirohito of Japan, Shah Reza Pahlavi of Revolutionary Iran, King Bumiphol Adulyadev, and the sultans of Melaka were 'special people' who designed institutions that installed individuals based on rights sanctioned through a 'mandate of heaven'.

Such people use specialised language to differentiate who is special and who is not. Court language is archaic, terse, meant to instill fear and to institutionalise special-ness.

The language of the street or market is fluid, accommodating, meant to instill open-ness and institutionalise creativity at its best and further development of the 'underclass' at its worst.

This continuum of language, power, and ideology is characteristic of histories of nations. In Malay history, istana language is enshrined in the hikayat and in Tun Seri Lanang's Sejarah Melayu. Street language used in Malay folklore and in bawdy poems, pantun and stories of Sang Kancil.

Class consciousness, many a sociologist would say, dictates the special-ness of people across time and space. Historical-materialism necessitates the development of the specialised use and abuse of language. One can do a lot of things with words. Words can be deployed to create a sustainable and profitable master-slave relationship.

A better argument

Let us elevate the argument so that we will have a better view of what race, ethnicity, nationalism and cosmopolitanism means.

I propose we review what "special rights of the Malays" mean in light of 50 years of Independence and post-March 8, 2008.

I agree we must give credit to those working hard to "improve the psychological well-being of the Malays" and for that matter for any race to improve its mental wellness. This is important. This is a noble act.

The question is: in doing so, do we want to plant the seeds of cooperation and trust - or racial discrimination and deep hatred? Herein lies the difference between indoctrination and education.

These days, the idea of Ketuanan Melayu is going bankrupt, sinking with the bahtera merdeka. It works only for Malay robber barons who wish to plunder the nation by silencing the masses and using the ideological state apparatuses at their disposal.

In the case of the BTN it is the work of controlling the minds of the youth. Its work should not be allowed any more in our educational institutions. It is time our universities especially are spared counter-educational activities, especially when they yearn to be free of the shackles of domination.

Over decades, many millions of Malays and non-Malays have not been getting the right information on our nation's history, political-economy, and race relations. History that is being shoved into us or filter-funnelled down the labyrinth of our consciousness is one that is already packaged, biased, and propagandised by historians who became text-books writers.

History need not be Malay-centric. Special rights for all Malaysians should be the goal of distributive and regulative justice of this nation, not the "special rights of a few Malays". History must be presented as the history of the marginalised, the oppressed and the dispossessed of all races.

We toil for this nation, as the humanist Paramoedya Ananta Toer would say, by virtue of our existence as anak semua bangsa ... di bumi manusia. Malaysia is a land of immigrants.

In this regard we can learn from the former British colony called America. Whatever its shortcomings, it is a land of immigrants and is still evolving. A black man or a woman can become president. This is what America conceives itself to be and this is what Malaysian can learn from. Can a non-Malay become prime minster if he/she is the most ethical of all politicians in the country?

No one particular race should stake a claim to Malaysia. That is an idea from the old school of thought, fast being abandoned. Each citizen is born, bred, and brought to school to become a good law-abiding and productive Malaysian citizen, is accorded the fullest rights and privileges and will carry his/her responsibility as a good citizen.

That is what 'surrendering one's natural rights to the state' means. One must read Rousseau, Locke, Voltaire, and Jefferson to understand this philosophy. A bad government will not honour this - and will fall, or will sink like the bahtera merdeka.

The history of civilisations provides enough examples of devastation and genocide as a consequence of violent claims to the right of this or that land based upon some idea of 'imagined communities'. We must teach our children to make a history of peace among nations. This must be made into a new school of thought: of 'new bumiputeraism' that encompasses all and does not alienate any. Life is too short for each generation to fight over greed.

The eleventh hour of human existence and our emergence in this world has brought about destruction as a consequence of our inability to mediate differences based on race, colour, creed, class and national origin. Each ethnic group thinks that it is more socially-dominant than the other. Each does not know the basis of its 'self'. Each fails to realise its DNA-make up or gene map.

Life is an existential state of beingness, so must history be conceived as such. Nationalism can evolve into a dangerous concept - that was what happened to Europe at the brink of the two World Wars. It happened in the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, and in Indonesia when Suharto fell.

I argue that we must evolve in the historical presence of historical constructions. The past and the future is in the present. Let us no argue any more over this or those rights. Let us instead treat each other right.

Source : Malaysia-Today

So...this is Malaysia !!

While Malaysia fiddles, its opportunities are running dry

Michael Backman
November 15, 2006

MALAYSIA'S been at it again, arguing about what proportion of the economy each of its two main races — the Malays and the Chinese — owns. It's an argument that's been running for 40 years. That wealth and race are not synonymous is important for national cohesion, but really it's time Malaysia grew up.

It's a tough world out there and there can be little sympathy for a country that prefers to argue about how to divide wealth rather than get on with the job of creating it.

The long-held aim is for 30 per cent of corporate equity to be in Malay hands, but the figure that the Government uses to justify handing over huge swathes of public companies to Malays but not to other races is absurd. It bases its figure on equity valued, not at market value, but at par value.

Many shares have a par value of say $1 but a market value of $12. And so the Government figure (18.9 per cent is the most recent figure) is a gross underestimate. Last month a paper by a researcher at a local think-tank came up with a figure of 45 per cent based on actual stock prices. All hell broke loose. The paper was withdrawn and the researcher resigned in protest. Part of the problem is that he is Chinese.

"Malaysia boleh!" is Malaysia's national catch cry. It translates to "Malaysia can!" and Malaysia certainly can. Few countries are as good at wasting money. It is richly endowed with natural resources and the national obsession seems to be to extract these, sell them off and then collectively spray the proceeds up against the wall.

This all happens in the context of Malaysia's grossly inflated sense of its place in the world.

Most Malaysians are convinced that the eyes of the world are on their country and that their leaders are world figures. This is thanks to Malaysia's tame media and the bravado of former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad. The truth is, few people on the streets of London or New York could point to Malaysia on a map much less name its prime minister or capital city.

As if to make this point, a recent episode of The Simpsons features a newsreader trying to announce that a tidal wave had hit some place called Kuala Lumpur. He couldn't pronounce the city's name and so made up one, as if no-one cared anyway. But the joke was on the script writers — Kuala Lumpur is inland.

Petronas, the national oil company is well run, particularly when compared to the disaster that passes for a national oil company in neighbouring Indonesia. But in some respects, this is Malaysia's problem. The very success of Petronas means that it is used to underwrite all manner of excess.

The KLCC development in central Kuala Lumpur is an example. It includes the Twin Towers, the tallest buildings in the world when they were built, which was their point.

It certainly wasn't that there was an office shortage in Kuala Lumpur — there wasn't.

Malaysians are very proud of these towers. Goodness knows why. They had little to do with them. The money for them came out of the ground and the engineering was contracted out to South Korean companies.

They don't even run the shopping centre that's beneath them. That's handled by Australia's Westfield.

Next year, a Malaysian astronaut will go into space aboard a Russian rocket — the first Malay in space. And the cost? $RM95 million ($A34.3 million), to be footed by Malaysian taxpayers. The Science and Technology Minister has said that a moon landing in 2020 is the next target, aboard a US flight. There's no indication of what the Americans will charge for this, assuming there's even a chance that they will consider it. But what is Malaysia getting by using the space programs of others as a taxi service? There are no obvious technical benefits, but no doubt Malaysians will be told once again, that they are "boleh". The trouble is, they're not. It's not their space program.

Back in July, the Government announced that it would spend $RM490 million on a sports complex near the London Olympics site so that Malaysian athletes can train there and "get used to cold weather".

But the summer Olympics are held in the summer.

So what is the complex's real purpose? The dozens of goodwill missions by ministers and bureaucrats to London to check on the centre's construction and then on the athletes while they train might provide a clue.

Bank bale outs, a formula one racing track, an entire new capital city — Petronas has paid for them all. It's been an orgy of nonsense that Malaysia can ill afford.

Why? Because Malaysia's oil will run out in about 19 years. As it is, Malaysia will become a net oil importer in 2011 — that's just five years

away.

So it's in this context that the latest debate about race and wealth is so sad.

It is time to move on, time to prepare the economy for life after oil. But, like Nero fiddling while Rome burned, the Malaysian Government is more interested in stunts like sending a Malaysian into space when Malaysia's inadequate schools could have done with the cash, and arguing about wealth distribution using transparently ridiculous statistics.

That's not Malaysia "boleh", that's Malaysia "bodoh" (stupid).

So...this is Malaysia !!

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Kuala Lumpur the Abnormal City

Posted by St Low
Wednesday, 18 June 2008

The problem lies not just with the city and the city planners but also with it's inhabitants.

It’s easy to blame everybody else, particularly Dewan Bandaraya Kuala Lumpur (DBKL) and the government for problems faced by Kuala Lumpur, especially the perennial problem of traffic

congestion.

People in the city are not civic-minded; they park their vehicles everywhere, even in the middle of the road, just so they do not have to walk a little to go to the shops, etc.

And the government can never make it right. Everything they do, or had done or tried to do to make life in Kuala Lumpur better will definitely be met with rejection. And they have found this to be especially true in the last general election when they lost many more votes than before especially in areas where stiff action had been taken to make cities cleaner and more comfortable.

There are just too many illegal activities in the city, and to wipe them off will cause the government to be less popular.

The people have been taught the culture of blaming others and not themselves. Many have become lawless and engage in illegal activities. And they become some of the major reasons why there is no peace in the city.

And for the authorities to act against these illegal activities, the people must bear with them to see their efforts come to fruition and not express their discontent by not voting the government in again when elections come around.

Yes, there are many selfish people in the city who care only for themselves and not for the city itself and the others who also live there.

There are many people who want to conduct their business activities illegally and in their own way turn every pavement, sidewalk and terrace house into their godown, store rooms and restaurants or sundry stores.

The roads are too narrow and the new town centers are poorly designed, causing traffic congestion. Garbage collection is collected irregularly and is poorly done, so there are garbage dumps everywhere especially during long weekend breaks and other public holidays.

Blame all these on the authorities?

Try and blame the inhabitants of the city for a change. What have they all done to deserve the city they live in?

If they are too careless and neglectful, and do not contribute by keeping their areas clean, then they should not blame others if bigger problems arise in the form of traffic congestion or a dirty environment.

To blame just the government and especially DBKL for neglect and inefficiency is wrong. The authorites can only do so much. But, if the city-dwellers, especially those who are affected do not welcome it, then there is not much the government can do to the city to make it a nice place for everybody else.


Little things have a tendency to collect and become bigger. And a big issue or problem faced by the city is traffic congestion. There is no one reason or factor that causes this, and there is no one way that it can be solved altogether.

The traffic congestion in Kuala Lumpur is abnormal for a city of its size. This is because Kuala Lumpur itself is not a normal city. There is no other city of its size in the world which has similar traffic problems.

The early administrators of Kuala Lumpur mostly lived within walking distances to the city center which was in the Mesjid Jamek and Jalan Melaka areas, and further up to Jalan Petaling. Only a few vehicles and ox-carts and horses could be seen travelling or parked on the roads.

However, since the early 1970s when our politicians started to dream of turning what seemed to be a well-planned city into a bigger city with more tall buildings and shopping complexes or hotels and office buildings, that everything turned haywire.

Life in Kuala Lumpur was not what it was supposed to be anymore. And the city started to deteriorate, and the nature of its well-balanced life changed for the worse.

This, unfortunately, can be manifested by the traffic congestion that can be seen today.

Kuala Lumpur has now ceased to become a real city in the right sense of the word. It is now no more than a huge shopping and office complex with most of the major hotel chains operating in it.

Hardly anyone actually lives in the city. Many high-rise apartment buildings in the city center had been demolished as they have been deemed to be ‘eyesores’, and in their places now stand much taller buildings meant only for commercial purposes like offices and hotels.

Unlike much bigger cities such as London, Tokyo, New York City and Paris, people actually live in them, and they can just go down the elevators to shop and walk a short distance to a cinema without even having to take the bus or taxi or subway.

In Kuala Lumpur on the other hand, people have been relocated outside the city. Kuala Lumpur has no place for dwellers; only shoppers, office workers and tourists.

And because of this there is a tide of people flowing into the city in the morning to get to work; and later in the evening the tide reverses with the same people stuck in traffic in every mode of transportation trying to return home, often reaching their houses late at night and having just enough time to sleep before having to wake up early the next morning to repeat the performance.

Therefore, the greatest mistake made by the authorities since the early 1970s is to relocate the inhabitants and demolish their living quarters in the city and replacing them only with tall buildings meant for commercial purposes which are dead after office hours.

In other cities, these buildings are still lit as they are also apartments for those who live there. So, many of them do not have to travel much or take public transportation to go to work. They just need to take the elevator to go to their offices or in other cases, take a short walk and they can get inside their offices.

Kuala Lumpur has been developed by leaps and bounds to turn it into a so-called modern mega-city but no thought was put in to maintain it's soul. Having more office buildings or parking lots will not ease traffic congession. We need more living spaces.

Forget about developing Pudu Jail. Turn it into a park. A new high-rise building in the already congested Jalan Pudu/Jalan Bukit Bintang area will bring more traffic there.

Even recently built buildings such as the Selangor and Malayan Mansions are now being threatened with extinction. In their place, taller commercial buildings are planned. Here, thousands of people have lived and it had created a life of its own, unique to the city, like a living museum. All that it needs is to be upgraded and not demolished.

Our authorities seem to think that tall buildings tend to give a good impression that our cities are modern. But, what they do not seem to realize is that with each tall building, the traffic flow will be affected, as these buildings attract people like magnets.

Big shopping complexes or hotels and offices are the real culprits in that they attract traffic congestion and especially if there is an event happening that attracts hundreds and possibly thousands of people or guests.

Smaller shopping complexes do not have the prestige which bigger ones have, but they do not result in congestion of people and traffic.

In Bombay, Madras and Calcutta or Old Delhi, people have not much use for public transportation because they live and work right in the city. Few have to travel into the city to go to work like what is happening in Kuala Lumpur. As such, traffic congestion in these much larger cities is noticeably less.

There is even less need to own personal vehicles.

Many people in big cities like those in Tokyo, New York or London do not even own cars because they have no need to do so although they can afford to.

Here in Kuala Lumpur, not owning a car means that someone is poor. So everybody will try to own at least one. Also, because of the atrocious public transportation and the fact that they have been relocated to living outside the city centre, owning a car is a must so they may be able to commute to their offices and for shopping.

Because everything seems to have been stacked into Kuala Lumpur, it appears to be a city where it is always trying to please everybody. And as a result it suffers as nobody gets pleased.

There must be a total freeze on the development of available land in Kuala Lumpur for commercial buildings. No more new hotels or shopping and office complexes. New ones must be located outside the city in new lands so that the traffic flow will be more varied.

New areas can be developed in the area from the city to KLIA which is now wide open space.

If I can advise the authorities who are now keen to solve the traffic woes in Kuala Lumpur, it would be this: Forget about minor solutions; try to find the major ones as have been described above.

The bus lanes are illogical to say the least as these buses will be clogged again at places where there are no special lanes for them. In the mean time, the roads affected with the introduction of these lanes will be narrowed and thus clog other vehicles who are making way for these buses to run. And the LRT dumps commuters onto streets with no sidewalks for them to walk on and if there is it will be taken up by illegal traders parking their stalls or motorists parking their cars indiscriminately.

Kuala Lumpur has been destroyed, save for some old buildings. And with its destruction and unplanned or misplanned reconstruction, comes traffic congestion. Traffic and pedestrian flow in the city have been left in total disarray, as a result.

Where can one walk at ease or sit on benches on the sidewalks in Kuala Lumpur like one can do in Oxford Street in London, or Park Avenue in New York City, or the Ginza in Tokyo?

By Mansor Puteh

Source : Malaysia-Today

So...this is Malaysia !!

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Get me to the church on time

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin



I’m getting married in the mornin’!
Ding dong! The bells are gonna chime.
Pull out the stopper!
Let’s have a whopper!
But get me to the church on time!

Get Me To the Church On Time: music by Frederick Loewe; lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner.

My mother’s name is Barbara Mabel Parnell. A couple of years after World War II she became a Muslim and adopted the ‘Muslim’ name Bariah Kamarudin. Kamarudin is of course my father’s name while the ‘maiden’ name Bariah was suggested by Tengku Ampuan Bariah Terengganu who was in England then with the late Sultan of Terengganu (then the Raja Muda of Terengganu) and father to Malaysia’s current Agong. You could say Tengku Ampuan Bariah Terengganu, who is my father’s cousin, ‘named’ my mother (and they have the cheek to say I would have the gall to insult the Agong who is sort of my second-cousin by marriage).

About 25 years or so later, my wife too became a Muslim. She was informed by the then Grand Imam of the National Mosque (Masjid Negara) that she can retain her original name, Mable James Anthony Lee. The wife of Raja Adnan Raja Abdullah, the one-time Deputy Director of the Special Branch and my brother’s father-in-law, suggested my wife take a ‘Muslim’ name and she proposed the name Marina. So my wife became Marina Lee @ Mable James Anthony Lee.

My sister, Norita, married an Englishman but he retained his English name when he converted to Islam in front of Pak Abas, my Tok Guru from Terengganu who is also one of the PAS grassroots leaders and the ‘strongman’ of Kampong Kolam in Kuala Ibai, a PAS stronghold on the outskirts of Kuala Terengganu which Umno has never been able to conquer.

When my mother first stepped foot in Malaysia a year before Merdeka, my father’s relatives were delighted that my father had married a ‘Mem’, a novelty in those days, and that she had ‘masuk Melayu’. My mother would indignantly correct them by saying that she ‘masuk Islam’, not ‘masuk Melayu’. She had become a Muslim, not a Malay, and she was proud of her Welsh heritage.

Malays have this misconception that if you become a Muslim then you have become a Malay. And they would refer to converts as mualaf, in particular Chinese converts. It is peculiar they do not regard Indian converts as mualaf but Indian Muslims. Why are Chinese mualaf while Indians are Indian Muslims and Caucasians ‘masuk Melayu’? Did I not say that the Malay mind is a very weird thing?

I made about nine or ten trips to China from the early- to mid-1990s and have toured the remotest parts of China where Malaysians have never been before. Some parts of China that I visited the people there have never seen a Malaysian in their entire life or know where Malaysia is (and they were surprised that Malaysians look like Mat Salleh). And there are many Muslim restaurants even in these remotest parts of China so food, therefore, was no problem.

There are probably around 110 million or so Muslims in China spread out all over the country with the majority in the four autonomous regions. Beijing has a whole street of Muslim restaurants and the variety is so exciting because it is almost like a gourmet’s United Nations. In the rural areas the choices are not that varied and it is very difficult to detect which are halal restaurants and which are not. But if you ask the locals they will be very happy to point to the right restaurant and only on entering the restaurant will you know that they are Muslim-owned from the verses of the Quran adorning the wall.

The oldest mosque in China is in Canton which was built 100 years after the birth of Islam. On the outside the mosque looks like a Chinese temple complete with moon-gate entrance and all; but once inside there is no mistaking that it is a mosque.

What awed me was that the Muslims I met speak Arabic and when I told them that I do not speak Arabic they were very surprised. They asked me whether I can read the Quran and when I replied that I most certainly can they were perplexed. They wanted to know how I can read the Quran when I do not speak Arabic. And when I replied that I am just like 99% other Malaysian Muslims who read the Quran without being able to speak Arabic, they shook their heads in disbelief at this demonstration of Malaysia Boleh.

Yes, Chinese Muslims are mualaf as far as Malays are concerned. But the Chinese were already Muslims 700 years or so before the Malays when the Malays were still Hindus, Buddhists or worshipped trees in the jungles. And the Chinese Muslims speak Arabic while most Malays, save a handful, do not. And Malays look down on Chinese Muslims as second-class Muslims. Much the Malays do not know outside their very small world.

In an article called ‘Si Binatang Raja Petra Jantan Jalang Biadab’ that was published in an Umno website, they asked this question:

Masihkah Raja Petra ke Gereja lagi menemani isteri? Nak tanya Raja Petra, apa agama isterinya sebenar? Nak tanya saja.

This is another peculiar trait of the Malays. They are very concerned about what religion you profess. They demand to know if you are a Muslim or Kafir (infidel). They treat this as their right to demand you inform them of your religion. Muslims are good people because Islam is the true religion and is above all other religions which are considered false. So they must know if you are a Muslim or Kafir so that they can gauge whether you are a good or bad person. “Islam adalah agama suci yang kita pegang,” said this same article in that Umno website.

This high and mighty attitude make Malays very arrogant and they carry this holier than thou chip on their shoulder. Non-Muslims should not take offence though because they are not the only target of these people. Muslims like me who they view as not ‘true’ Muslims also suffer persecution.

Malays want to dictate what kind of Muslim you should be and if they discover through an anonymous SMS that you are in the process of leaving Islam they will rise in anger and demonstrate their displeasure, even if it is not true. Heaven forbid you leak that you are really leaving Islam. You will face the full wrath of the Malays. And if for one second they suspect that you are not their type of Muslim but of a different ‘sect’ they will come down hard on you. You must not only be a Muslim but you must be their type of Muslim as well. That is the Malay mind.

It is quite pathetic really and I sometimes do pity Malays who spend their whole life preoccupied with finding out what type of Muslim you are and whether you have secretly left Islam rather than worry whether they could instead be deviant Muslims. They of course assume and insist that they are following the correct Islam and if they differ from you then you, and not them, are the deviants. They will not accept the possibility that you are right and they are wrong. They are most definitely right and you are most certainly wrong.

Let us look at a hypothetical situation. Say you walk into a mosque on a Friday and shout, “The Bible is the true Holy Book and the Quran is false” or “Jesus is the Son of God and Muhammad is a fake”. This will be just like walking into a Manchester pub wearing a Liverpool jersey. Rest assured you will not walk out of that mosque in one piece. Okay, now say you protest when Malays declare the Bible false and that Jesus is not the Son of God. The Malays will argue that they are allowed to say this because Malaysia is a Muslim country.

See this e-mail which was published in The People’s Parliament to demonstrate what I mean:

Most of my friends are Malays and through them I learnt the language. I feel that I’ve a certain bond with them, until the topics of Malay privileges and Islam are discussed. I usually just listen and do not put my two cents because I’m usually the only non-Malay. From their discussion, I’ve come to understand how they view the non-Malays. Generally, we should never question their privileges as we should be grateful that we still get to retain our Chinese names, surnames, Chinese schools etc. We should never complain. And they have no qualms criticizing Christianity to my face, e.g., the Bible is corrupted through many translations, comparing against the Koran being “suci” as directly from God.

I’ve always wondered what made them feel so special that they can criticize but we do not dare in their face. Now I understand that no matter how they wronged other races, they are somehow protected – e.g., the May 13 incident. I think the govt owes the families of the victims an apology. Because of that tragedy, the Chinese generally think that Malays have the tendency to be violent; and the Malays think that they have the upper hand as they can threaten the Chinese into silence. I’d be grateful if you would share your thoughts and view on what I’ve said.

Okay, another hypothetical situation. Say you repeat this same thing in England, which is not a Muslim country but a Christian country. Will it then be considered allowed? No, of course not! The Muslims will still protest and hold demonstrations. The bottom line is, Muslims are allowed to whack others but others are not supposed to whack Muslims. And this is the Malay mind as well. So Malays, like these Umno types, resent anyone whacking them, their party, Ketuanan Melayu, the New Economic Policy, and anything at all considered ‘sacred cows’. But they can scream, even in ‘sacred’ places like Parliament, that Islam is the religion of this country, the Malays own Malaysia, and if the non-Malays or non-Muslims do not like this they can leave the country and migrate to another country.

Malays can give Qurans to non-Muslims but non-Muslims who give Bibles to Muslims must be sent to prison. Non-Muslims can convert to Islam in droves but even if just one Muslim leaves Islam there will be blood on the streets. Malays can label DAP as racist but if the Chinese label Umno as racist they will make a police report and charge you under the Sedition Act and try to take away your citizenship as well. Malays can question as to whether you have left Islam and have become a Christian and now go to church but you must never question the Malays as to whether racial discrimination goes against Islamic teachings and whether both the Quran as well as the Prophet’s last sermon lie testimony to this.

Malays are very concerned about whether you pray, how you pray, whether you believe in God, whether you really think that Prophet Muhammad is the true Prophet, and so on. Once you pass all these ‘tests’ of the articles of faith with flying colours this will make them very happy. Their happiness rests with you being a Muslim and the type of Muslim that they approve of on top of that. Okay, so you drink, gamble, have sex with another man’s wife, visit the brothel once a week, and, to top it all, take bribes from Chinese contactors, pig farmers, brothels, illegal gambling outlets, drug haunts, etc. That is okay. The Malays will not demonstrate on the streets because of all this. But if you go to church, notwithstanding that you lead the life of Mother Theresa, then God have mercy on your soul. What bad you do is not important. Whether you share their same belief is.

And this is why that particular Umno website is very concerned whether I still follow my wife to church. That is the most important thing in the world to them and the entire future of this country and the fate of future generations depend on them knowing this most crucial piece of information. Oh, by the way, more than 90% of those in our police lockups are Malays. And 90% of those Malays in the lockups are there because of drug related offences. And 70% of those who are inflicted with AIDS are Malays. And 90% got AIDS because of their drug habit. And this has been going on since the 1970s. And states or areas that have the highest incidences are the predominantly Malay states or areas. But none of these people go to church. They don’t even go to the mosque, temple or synagogue. So of course the Umno website does not worry about them. It is when they go to church that the Umno website will start getting very concerned. That and only that is what matters.

PM: We are thankful to Sarawak



An Extract from NST Online

KUCHING: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi last night thanked the people of Sarawak for supporting Barisan Nasional in the March 8 general election.

Speaking at the Gawai Dayak open house in Petra Jaya, Abdullah said the support was the reason why Sarawak was given the extra RM1 billion for rural development.


“The strong support was a signal to the government that the people (in Sarawak) want BN to form the government and enjoy continued development

"And it is, therefore, the duty of the government to give the higher allocation."

The Gawai Dayak open house was his second visit to the state in four days.

It was during his visit on June 10 that he announced the extra RM1 billion allocation that would go to speed up the electrification programme of the rural areas and the building of more schools.

The Gawai Dayak drew a larger than expected crowd to the open house, which showcased the culture and traditions of the races in the state.

This year, for the first time, the open house showcased those of the minority groups like the Lun Bawang, Bisaya and the Penan.

The 6,000-seater stadium was packed and among the crowd were foreign journalists.

Sarawak's head of state Tun Abang Muhammad Sallahuddin Abang Barieng and his wife also attended the event.

Bravo! Thank you for your generosity. But wait, it smells like shit !

Thankful to Sarawak? No !! Not all in Sarawak support the BN.

The PM should have been more specific. He should mention and thank the simple ignorant rural folks of Sarawak who are easily psyched and won over during election time with the simple goodies (read:miserly handouts) distributed by the government. Small grants, a new generator,a few chickens and pigs, a hundred ringgit per family, maybe a crate of beer.... Then, see you again at the next election.

He should also not forget to thank the thousands of die-hard loyal postal voters in many constituencies who throw in their full (100 %) support behind the BN candidates.



Saturday, June 14, 2008

You eliminate the plague by killing the rats

Posted by Super Admin
Saturday, 14 June 2008


No, don’t end subsidies. End wastages, high administrative costs and corruption. Then we will be able to afford subsidies, just like the other countries that also have subsidies can. And this is what we want Tengku Razaleigh and Anwar to talk about.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

The country will go bankrupt if the government continues giving out subsidies, says Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah. I suppose this is a statement of support for the recent increase in the price of petrol and a vote of no confidence on Anwar Ibrahim’s pledge that Pakatan Rakyat will reduce the price of petrol if or when it comes to power.

I do not quite agree with Tengku Razaleigh’s statement or with what Anwar Ibrahim has pledged. First of all, for Anwar to say that the petrol price should not have been increased is easy. We don’t want to know about what should not have been. We want to know what should be.

Can Anwar please table his economic blueprint so that we can see what he has up his sleeve? Malaysians no longer want to buy this ‘vote me in first and then I will show you how I can do it’ -- or what the Americans would label as ‘read my lips’ rhetoric.

Read my lips: there will be no petrol price increase after the 8 March 2008 general election. Read my lips: I am not going to call for a general election soon and Parliament is not going to be dissolved tomorrow. Read my lips: I did not use the rakyat’s money to buy a RM200 million Airbus. Read my lips: my son’s company, Scomi, did not get RM1.5 billion worth of contracts from Petronas. Read my lips: I am not getting married to Jeanne Danker. Read my lips: I do not have a house in Perth. Read my lips: I am not involved in the Iraq Oil-for-Food scandal. Read my lips: Najib Tun Razak is my successor. Read my lips: Anwar Ibrahim is my successor and I am not going to sack him in three days’ time and do you need me to kiss him in public to prove it? Read my lips: only three people are involved in the Altantuya murder. Read my lips: the Royal Commission of Inquiry will wrap up the Lingam Tape scandal before you can finish screaming mala fide. Read my lips: I will not be challenging Ghafar Baba for the Umno Deputy Presidency. Read my lips: I am not rejoining Umno even if I die and am reborn and I will remain in Semangat 46 until the day I die like Tunku Abdul Rahman and Tun Hussein Onn. Read my lips: Malaysia did not physically lose RM30 billion in the currency speculation fiasco and it is only a paper loss. Read my lips: Raja Petra was not detained under the Internal Security Act, as I did not sign any detention order. Read my lips: Raja Petra was detained under the Internal Security Act for planning to bring in M16s, Molotov Cocktails and grenade launchers to start an armed revolution.

Nope, no more read my lips rhetoric please. We have had enough of all this over the last 50 years. What we want now is for you to put your money where your mouth is. ‘Show me the money’, the Americans would say. Yes, money talks, bullshit walks -- and bullshit is what has been dished out these last 50 years. It is time everyone come clean and put their cards on the table, face up. We want to see what hand they are playing with. Do they have a full hand or is this mere poker playing?

There is nothing wrong with subsidies. America subsidises its agriculture until sometimes you make more money not planting anything, which helps control the price of farm produce. Japan subsidises exports until it is cheaper to buy a Japanese camera in Kuala Lumpur than in Tokyo. Britain subsidises education for its citizens by charging the foreign students high fees.

How do these countries do it without going bankrupt, if subsidies are supposed to make a country go bankrupt? Britain, for example, has the best education system in the world -- and that is why foreign students do not mind paying high fees to receive a British education, thereby making it possible to subsidise local students. But then Britain’s universities are not headed by BTN operatives whose main function is to brainwash Malay students into believing that Malays own this country under the Ketuanan Melayu concept while the ‘immigrant’ Indians and Chinese should be reminded that they are ‘guests’ of this country and if they don’t like it they can go back to India or China.

That is why students flock to Britain in spite of the cost. And that is why Britain can subsidise its citizens. You can’t get these foreigners to come to Malaysia even if it is free. Hell, you can’t get them to come here even if you paid them, don’t talk about free. It is the quality and not the cost or subsidies that count. If you are able to offer quality education like Britain, the cost does not matter and locals can be subsidised from the fees the foreign students pay. So we have to look at the system. We solve the system and the rest automatically solves itself.

Malaysia’s problem is corruption. We spend double what we should because of corruption. Corruption, not subsidies, is what is killing this country’s economy. Corruption, not subsidies, is what is bankrupting Malaysia. Hundreds of billions has been wasted over the last 51 years since Merdeka. These hundreds of billions, if it had been put to good use, could have done a lot for this country. Today, we talk about ending the subsidies because we no longer have any money. But we no longer have any money not because of the subsidies but because of the corruption.

Just add it up. The amount is astronomical.

In the early days, we used to spend RM1 on administration and RM4 on development. And this was when we did not have any money. Yet we could still allocate 80% of the country’s expenditure to development, as modest as it may have been. Today, after 50 years of ‘progress’, we spend an estimated RM8 on administration and only RM1 on development. The Malays call this ‘mahal tali dari lembu’ (the rope is more expensive than the cow).

Out of a workforce of 10 million or so, 1.1 million-1.2 million work for the government. This means about 5% of Malaysians work for the government. And why is that? Just go into any government department and see for yourself why. No one is working. Everyone is just sitting around doing nothing. And if you disturb their peace by going to a government office to ask for something just see the fuck face they give you. They forget that we are paying their salaries and that they work for us. We are not disturbing them by going to a government office. It is their job to serve us.

Indonesia, which has ten times Malaysia’s population, has only twice the number of civil servants. Granted things are a bit slow in Indonesia. But considering their very underpaid civil servants and understaffed civil service that would be unavoidable. America, which has about the same size population as Indonesia, has only twice the civil service. Going by Malaysia’s ratio, America should have a civil service of 15 million instead of just four million.

We spend RM10 billion to develop Malaysia and another RM90 billion on administrative costs and ‘leakages’. That is how we spend our RM100 billion. And that is why we have no money. So herein lies the problem. Solve this problem and we will have more money for other things, subsidies included.

No, don’t end subsidies. End wastages, high administrative costs and corruption. Then we will be able to afford subsidies, just like the other countries that also have subsidies can. And this is what we want Tengku Razaleigh and Anwar to talk about. Don’t say ‘read my lips, no more subsidies’. Instead, say ‘read my lips, no more wastages, high administrative costs and corruption’. That is what we want to hear Tengku Razaleigh and Anwar say. And if Tengku Razaleigh and Anwar don’t understand what I am talking about, then step aside and let me show you what I mean. But be prepared for a ‘blood bath’ because only a ‘butcher’s knife’ can achieve the results.

Sigh….I just love the way Iran solved its serious corruption problem in 1979. They lined up 10,000 corrupted civil servants and shot them all. No more corrupted government officers, no more corruption. How I wish I had been born in Iran instead of England. I would have had a great time in 1979. Sigh…..

Orignal Post & Comments Here

Hara-kiri: Dr M’s many missed chances

Posted by Super Admin
Saturday, 14 June 2008


Mahathir suggested that the Japanese would have committed hara-kiri had they been in Abdullah Badawi's shoes in the wake of the BN's loss of five states to the Pakatan Rakyat and of its two-thirds majority in Parliament. But, as Tota observes, the former premier himself missed many opportunities to commit hara-kiri in the wake of the numerous scandals that plagued his 22-year administration.

ALIRAN

Dr. M carried his Look East Policy too far when he suggested that the Japanese would have committed hara-kiri (suicide) had they been in Abdullah Badawi's shoes after allowing the BN to lose five states to the Pakatan Rakyat and its two-thirds majority in Parliament. Dr M must really hate him to draw such a comparison as taking one’s own life is shirik – an unpardonable sin in Islam.

But during his long tenure of 22 years as PM, Mahathir himself missed plenty of opportunities to commit hara-kiri. There were financial and political scandals which resulted in huge losses of public funds. No future leader will come anywhere near the number of scandals that occurred owing to his political and financial mismanagement – the BMF scandal, the EPF scandal, the LME scandal, the Mas/Tajuddin scandal etc. If Dr. M had any sense of accountability that he now demands of Abdullah Badawi, he was qualified to commit hara-kiri many times over.

The first three Prime Ministers were lawyers and, by and large, acted true to their oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution, but in the hands of Dr. M the Constitution became a mere piece of paper to be shredded at his autocratic will. My Hindu friend tells me that the Tamils have a saying: What do you expect if you give a beautiful garland to a monkey?

Hara-kiri, many times over

Dr. M recklessly and ruthlessly amended the Constitution many times to centralise power in his hands. He destroyed the independence of the judiciary and the EC, undermined the print and electronic media and trade unions, and appeared to influence the ROS. Armed with draconian laws such as the ISA, the OSA, the UUCA and the Printing Presses and Publications Act, he literally turned a democratic state into a virtual dictatorship. Dr. M qualified for hara-kiri on each if not on all these counts.

His 1983 Constitutional amendments taking away certain powers of the Agong and his brother rulers and his highly disrespectful, indeed crude, utterances against the rulers were more than seditious. I have no doubt that the rulers would have wished that this troublesome politician would commit hara-kiri so that the `gangrene’ in the body politic of the nation would be removed once and for all.

Dr M’s 1988 Constitutional amendments literally put paid to the secular democratic nature of the country and opened a Pandora’s Box, releasing grave ethnic and religious problems that continue to fester to this day. Dr. M again qualified for hara-kiri for this.

Under his administration, the gerrymandering of electoral boundaries ensured that the rural heartland held the bulk of the ballots. To make certain that it remained so, his administration fed largely Umno political propaganda through the government-controlled print and electronic media. He blocked the sale to the public of both Harakah and the Rocket. Though BM is the official language, his Ministry tried to deny Aliran a permit to publish in Malay. His strategy of keeping the Malays largely ignorant of the issues to better manipulate and exploit them worked till he quit. For this, he should have committed hara-kiri.

While he was frequently castigating the Malays for their subsidy mentality and warning them if they did not change their mentality, they would move from crutches to wheelchairs, he knew that as long as they ate off his hand, they would not bite it. The end result of this despicable trick is a weakened Malay race, educationally, socially and economically. It is apparent that an inferiority complex plagues many Malays from working and succeeding on par with their non-Malay brothers and sisters of which they are really capable. Dr. M qualifies to commit hara-kiri for the present condition of the Malays.

Dr M’s government was well known for corruption, cronyism and nepotism. He appeared noble when he said that he would not permit his children to seek political power as long as he was PM but he had no qualms when his government enriched them with preferential share allocations, APs etc. One GLC even appeared to bail out one of his children when his business venture foundered and it was saddled with debt. Cronyism produced a class of greedy and grabbing Umnoputras. Umno leaders at all levels masqueraded as champions of race and religion and thus enriched themselves at the expense of a very spiritual and trusting Malay populace. Surely this should qualify Dr. M for hara-kiri.

The saga of Dr M’s sins has not ended. A judge has come out with information not only on Dr M’s interference with the judiciary but also his alleged warnings to several judges at a boot camp. More and more of his political and administrative crimes will be dug up as time passes, providing more opportunities for Dr. M to commit hara-kiri.

I really would recommend a waist-deep hole dug at Dataran Merdeka for political rogues who should be made to stand in it for people to stone the devil.

Read Comments Here

Our Malaysia, Our Folly

It is high time that we face up to the fact that Malaysians are paying the price for their folly, and more distressingly, their vanity.

We were fools for believing in political rhetoric that left us divided, distrustful and wholly vulnerable to exploitation. We were bigger fools for having allowed our vanity to persuade us to that cause. As we clamoured and argued amongst ourselves about not very much to begin with, the Government we should have all been watching like hawks – for which government is it that has been capable of refraining from giving in to temptation – was on a frolic all of its own.

I drove into Putrajaya this morning. Once again, I was reminded of the colossal waste of money that Putrajaya was and continues to be. Leave aside the fact that most of us go to Putrajaya not because we want to but because we have no choice. Consider instead how much it cost us. Some speculated, almost reverentially, that it had cost some RM4 billion, a fearful sum beyond imagination. Some said it was far less, others insisted it was far more. Last month, under pressure from a more sizeable opposition presence in Parliament the Prime Minister disclosed that it had cost the nation to date a staggering RM11.83 billion

The Malaysian experience does not allow for any justification for that sort of expenditure. Rural and urban poverty is still a reality just as not having meaningful access to electricity and water is in some parts of the country. Those of us lucky to have access to these utilities are obliged to pay dearly for the privilege, just as we do for a range of other services. Our public healthcare and education systems need a major overhaul to get them to even acceptable levels and so on and so forth. The average Malaysian spends a great deal of time worrying about the fact that there is not very much left over at the end of the month and what that means.

The potential real development and essentials, from schools to dialysis machines to vaccines, that RM12 billion could buy is mind-boggling and the Government spent it all on Putrajaya. Did we need it? I do not think so but then, judging by the pontificating we have been hearing as of late, it would appear that the Government considers an ivory tower a prerequisite to it being able to function.

We are not without blame. We were stakeholders in the Government we voted in, it is what we allowed it to become. We let ourselves be seduced by its pied-piper tune of race and religion, privilege, supremacy and power sharing, stability and prosperity. We clapped our hands gleefully as it stroked our collective ego, some would say lobotomized us, with Malaysia Boleh.

Worlds best, truly Asia, everyone loves us. We are Malaysian.

We cheered as we were told that we were sending a Malaysian into space, even though it was costing a us a great deal of money, directly and indirectly – there were submarines in the mix, after all – and even though we really did not need a man in space, particularly one who was interested in making teh tarik and playing congkak.

We cheered as the petro-ringgits were spent as if they were going out fashion on the trinkets for us, and the big ticket items for a small elite. We cheered as we were told, over and over again, that we were the finest at this and the greatest at that, even as standards across the board were declining rapidly. University ratings, corruption and rule of law indexes, we slid down all of them without discrimination. Did we care? Apparently not, like that Emperor with his new clothes we were more interested in the lies.

The reality is that the Government does not have an explanation for the use of the billions of ringgit of oil revenue that has been generated since 1974. Though some of it has been ploughed back into the nation, a great deal of it has been applied without thought to the future or has been allowed to dissipate through unaddressed corruption, cronyism and sheer incompetence in an orgy of reckless and unnecessary spending. As the Malays say, bagai kera dapatkan bunga.

The question is what do we do about it now that rocketing crude oil prices have allowed us to see how mismanaged this nation has been, still is.

The veil has been lifted. As we stare out at the approaching storm clouds, we must be resolute, firm in our understanding and belief that inflation and hardship do not recognize race and religion, they cut into all of us. And we must recognize that it only as a united force, as Malaysians, that we can do what it is that needs to be done. Demanding our just dues.

Original Post and Comments Here

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Munirah Bahari...what a pea-brain !

Thursday May 22, 2008


School Uniforms Sexy, Says Group


KUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysian group condemned the uniform worn by girls at government schools, saying it encouraged rape and pre-marital sex.


“The white blouse is too transparent for girls and it becomes a source of attraction,” National Islamic Students Association of Malaysia vice-president Munirah Bahari said in a statement.


“It becomes a distraction to men, who are drawn to it, whether or not they like looking at it,” she said, calling for a review of uniform policy so that it did not violate Islamic ideals.


In multicultural Malaysia, home to majority-Muslim Malays as well as ethnic Chinese and Indians, female students at government schools have a choice of wearing a white blouse with a knee-length skirt or pinafore.


They may also wear a “baju kurung” and a headscarf is optional for Malay students.
Munirah said that “covering up” according to Islamic precepts was important to fend off social ills, including “rape, sexual harassment and even premarital sex.”



“This leads to babies born out of wedlock and, to an extent, even prostitution,” she said.


“Decent clothes which are not revealing can prevent and protect women from any untoward situations,” she said, suggesting that girls wear a blouse of a different colour or with an undergarment.


However, the girls themselves also came in for criticism, with the association saying that some used the white blouse to lure men.


“This is the source of the problem, where we can see that schoolgirls themselves are capable of using this to attract men to them,” Munirah said.


“This could see them getting molested, having premarital sex and all sorts of things.” – AFP


Read Post & Comments Here

Of Racism And Discrimination

What else does the government want from us?

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

We, Malaysians, are a bunch of jokers

Posted by Din Merican (June 6, 2008 )

Joke, Jokers and Joking!

by Ahmad Mustapha Hassan

Ahmad Mustapha Hassan Writes On The Lingam Tape and Says That You Can Joke With Some People Some Of The Time But You Cannot Joke With All The People All The Time.

Everything is a joke according to some Malaysians. They go through no entry signs and say that the sign is a joke. You ask how the Police Force is performing and the answer will be that the Police are a joke. And if you confront a ‘mat rempit’ and ask why he put up such a stupid act that endangers not only himself but also other innocent people Answer will again be that it is all a joke. ‘Saja Seronok’, meaning it is all done just for fun.

This culture only emerged a couple of decades back. Previously, it would be a sin and a crime to treat things as jokes. This was so when I was a child. Nobody dared to treat anything as a joke. Things were serious and proper.

I believe it is the frustration in facing the current malaise in the Badawi administration that resulted in the birth of this negative culture. The Government does not take things seriously and the Prime Minister is a big joke himself and so his Islam Hadhari.

The administration is more concerned with creating their own bunch of cronies and flatterers. The leadership enjoys having jokers around.

The leadership feels this can be an anecdote to their inability to forge a united Malaysian nation and also to cure all the social ills facing the nation. By creating divisions, they feel their presence will forever be needed. The jokers can provide entertainment to a frustrated the nation.

Another aspect is the lack of creativity in the leadership. And thus the leadership becomes too engaged in this pastime to compensate for their intellectual deficiency. Everyone is trying to entertain everyone else. Even our honorific awards are becoming one big national joke (watch June 7, 2008 national award ceremony on television).

We take the ‘UMNO’ general assembly as a case in point. Due to lack of positive brain power, the ‘kris’ was used as a symbol of manhood and courage. After this show of socalled belligerence, the stand up comic, Hishamuddin Tun Hussein Onn would then take over the proceedings of the assembly.E ach speaker would try to outdo the other in coming out with hilarious and so-called witty comments and flattering pantuns.The leadership was entertained and so were the other participants. Serious talkers would be out of place in such a gathering.

This assembly has become an annual comical affair. Poking fun has become a kind of national pastime. Everybody had a good laugh; everybody gave loud clapping and everybody roared with heartiest laughter while they spend their lunch time and evening doing big deals with hardpressed businessmen.

Once this culture emerged, it then took strong root especially with the UMNO Malays. And they did sometimes forget where they were. So they also tried to play jokes in Parliament. The leaking of the Parliament roof was equated with some crude remarks. Again the joking trait seemed to have no boundaries.

Parliament too had become a theatre for vulgar and dirty jokes. Recall the “bucor” remarks by that despicable Barisan Nasional Parliamentarian from Kinabatangan, Sabah. And the jokers were UMNO Malays and fortunately enough not from the opposition political parties. This culture was, however, peculiar to UMNO politicians as it was seldom found among the non-Malays. That is most telling.

The latter are more serious in the performance of their duties. They may be construed as being colourless. One should know where and when to be serious, not joke all the time. Things should not be lumped together all over the place and all the time. There is a time and a place for everything.

Jokes would be much appreciated in pubs and drinking bars. At these places politics and religion were taboo. These are places for relaxation and light conversation. These are places to let one’s hair down. And so jokes will be much appreciated. The jokers in Parliament should dispense their witty remarks at these watering holes.

Not being serious and joking most of the time only showed that some people were suffering from some kind inferiority complex. Not being able to come to par socially and economically even with affirmative action being lavishly accorded to them ,these UMNO politicians would try to overcome the sense of guilt by creating jokes; and these jokes were usually at the expense of those who have achieved economic success on their own steam.

So when the Government set up a Royal Commission to look into the Lingam tape episode, many took this Commission to be a joke. The main actor in the tape even told the Commission that the character in the tape “looks like him and sounds like him” instead of either confirming or denying that it was him. This is some kind of a sick joke.

Once this tempo was set by the main actor, others too followed. They simply treated the Commission as a joke. Vincent Tan, the tycoon in the corridors of power, also played to the tune of the principal actor. He thought he was being very clever in taking such a posture. Tunku/Teuku Adnan Mansor too played his role in concert with Vincent Tan and Lingam. When it came to the turn of Dr. Mahathir, he conveniently chose what to remember and what not to remember. I have this feeling, that all felt that they were taking part in some kind of comedy.

But now, the last laugh is with the Commission. The Commission members did not treat the whole thing as a joke. This was a serious affair. The credibility of the judiciary was at stake. They did what they had been entrusted to do. They came out with a report that caused the various actors in this episode to lose their appetite for jokes.

Malaysians must not treat every single thing as a joke in order to cover up their weakness or embarrassment. They should not feel that they were above the law and that they could treat all and sundry with laughable contempt.

This high and mighty attitude was due to their being close to the seat of power. But the occupant of that seat had already vacated the place in 2003, and he himself was also implicated in this incident. Vincent Tan was all smiles in appearing at the hearing of this Commission and thought himself to be very clever in acting the way he did.

‘You can joke with some people some time but you cannot joke with all the people all the time.’ Wealth and position did not merit the kind of attitude that should be shown to a Royal Commission set up to determine the authenticity of the Lingam tape.

Each and every one that was connected with the tape was duty bound to tell the truth to assist the Commission in coming to a truthful conclusion. That it did come out with its much awaited report was very commendable, especially in an a environment that was treating the whole exercise as a matter to be taken lightly.

Now the Commissioners knew that the whole affair was no laughing matter. But in Malaysia, there always emerges some wise character who would throw a damper on what the Commission wants done. The Deputy Prime Minister, Najib Razak opined that investigation may not mean prosecution!!

But there are agencies of the government that will look into the findings of the Commission, and why not just allow them to do the needful. The ball is in Badawi’s court, not in the hands of Gani Patail, the Attorney-General to commence investigation on the former Prime Minister, Vincent Tan, V K Lingam and the two former Lord Presidents, Eusoff Chin and Ahmad Fairuz.

Original Post & Comments Here