Malaysia’s Bakun Dam : A Monument To Corruption ?

Source : Malaysia Chronicles

(AFP) - The multi-billion-ringgit Bakun dam in Sarawak, already condemned as a catastrophe for the environment and the tribal people, is now battling suggestions it could become a giant white elephant.

The dam, that will eventually submerge an area the size of Singapore, is finally nearing completion after suffering a series of setbacks and delays since its approval in 1993.

 

 

But at the last hurdle the project has stumbled again, with delays in winning the state government's permission to begin the flooding process and no takers yet on purchasing its hefty 2,400 megawatt output.

With ambitious plans for an undersea cable to feed Bakun's electricity to the Malaysian peninsula now abandoned, the Sarawak government is the only feasible buyer - leaving it with a very strong hand.

Negotiations not going smoothly

Negotiations with the dam developer Sarawak Hidro Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of the national finance ministry, have reportedly been tough.

"It's a case where the owner of the project is naming an asking price that is very different to what the buyer would want," said Wong Chew Hann, an analyst at Malaysia's top bank Maybank.

Add caption

"I understand there's quite a huge mismatch," she said. "I'm not sure what they've incorporated into the pricing, but the cost of the project has gone up so much since it was started."

As well as the cost of construction, there is the expense of compensating tribal people for their forced relocation from ancestral lands, and suppliers affected by the long delays.

"So the question is, are you going to incorporate all the compensation costs in the tariff price?" said Wong.

With the indigenous people from the Bakun catchment area long since resettled and its valuable timber resources long since felled, the dam has been ready to be flooded since April.

The state government had delayed permission, saying it was still evaluating river levels and the impact on boat transport.

A Sarawak minister reportedly said last week that the necessary permit has been granted, denying both that it had been used as a bargaining chip to lower the tariff and that Sarawak was facing an energy glut.

Not held to ransom

Sarawak Hidro managing director Zulkiflie Osman played down suggestions that he has been held to ransom by the state government.

"Both parties are working together and want it to be settled amicably, with a tariff acceptable to both parties," he toldAFP, adding that he expected to strike a tariff deal before December.

The next of Sarawak's mega-dams, the Murum, which is being developed by the state government, is due to come on line in 2013 but Osman said he was convinced the state authorities will not bypass the Bakun in favour of its own project.

Alongside the power purchase negotiations, the federal government is also said to be discussing selling the entire Bakun facility - built at a reported cost of RM7.3 billion - to the state government, but pricing and finance problems have emerged.

Star daily reported in July that the federal government was seeking RM8 billion while the state government offer was just RM6 billion.

The Bakun's output far exceeds existing energy needs in Sarawak, a relatively undeveloped state, and is mostly destined for industrial users such as aluminium smelters, but these are still on the drawing board.

"The main problem is that currently there is no demand for such a big capacity yet, and in order for Sarawak Energy to purchase the dam they would need adequate funding," said an analyst with a major research house.

"The banks would ask for some kind of feasibility study, and as there is no real demand yet this project risks becoming a white elephant," said the analyst, who declined to be named.

Newspaper reports have questioned how the federal government can ever hope to recover the huge amount of money it has sunk into the project.

'Non-starter'

"Marred by too many disagreements, the RM7.3 billion project could very well turn out to be a non-starter," Star said last month, adding that with both the Bakun and Murum dams online there would be a "very real possibility" of a power glut.

Transparency International has labelled Bakun a "monument of corruption" in Sarawak, a state that has been ruled for three decades by the formidable Chief Minister Taib Mahmud (right).

There has also been fierce criticism over the botched relocation of 15,000 indigenous people, who have made an unhappy transition to life in drab resettlement areas.

Baru Bian (left), chairman of the opposition party Keadilan in Sarawak, said the Bakun project was designed purely to profit cronies, and not planned in the public's interest.

"The dam is a waste of public funds, it's not necessary, and what is paramount is that it is disturbing and disrupting the lives of the natives and the environment - the trees and the forests."

- AFP

UMNO & the average Malay : is the party still relevant?

Source : Malaysian Chronicles
Cheong Suk-Wai

(Straits Times) - It used to be that whenever it came to election time in Malaysia, the country’s ruling party Umno would gets its community development workers to fan out to all the hamlets on bicycles and on foot to take the political temperature and assure villagers that Umno was the best doctor for them, taking care of their births, deaths and everything in between. But then village youth began migrating en masse to towns from the 1980s and Umno lost these rural forts.

Malaysian sociologist Maznah Mohamad recalls Umno’s women telling her how urban folk would shoo them away and even hurl insults at them if they tried to woo them. Dr Maznah, 54, notes wryly: ‘You can’t go knocking on doors in, say, Subang Jaya. People will just chase you away. There’s no community spirit in such neighbourhoods. Anyway, they’re urbanised, so why would they need you to help them?’

An alumna of Macalester College, Stanford University and the University of Malaya, Dr Maznah knows a lot about such matters, having studied Malays in general, and Umno in particular, in her 27 years as a don in Penang’s Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM).

She retired from USM in 2006, and has since been a visiting senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore’s Asia Research Institute. Her husband, Dr Johan Savaranamuttu, is a visiting senior research fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies here. They have two children.

She spoke to The Straits Times recently about her country’s New Economic Model (NEM) and where Umno stands today:

Who is the average Malaysian Malay today?

He is male, Muslim and has an excess of rights and privileges without too much responsibility, for he benefits from what I call a vulgarised affirmative action policy formally known as the New Economic Policy (NEP).

Why ‘vulgarised’?

Simply because it has veered from its original aim and has metamorphosed into a scheme that equalises rewards rather than opportunities… After a while, even a conscious policy like that is not necessary because it assumes its own dynamics – like people from the same ethnic group drawing their own (into workplaces), so you don’t even need racial quotas… But it is difficult to undo a policy that’s so entrenched.

So life is good for the average Malaysian Malay?

Besides NEP rights, Malaysia’s Islamic laws today are biased towards male rights, such as polygamy and the unilateral right to divorce. Even Jakim, the Department of Islamic Development, has had to set up a RM15 million (S$6.4 million) fund to assist single mothers who have not received maintenance from their children’s fathers. This is not good because the state picks up after these errant males… The average Malay male is treated with kid gloves.

Why so?

Well, there’s really a lot of disjuncture in the system. The (average Malay) has all these rights and privileges, but for a Muslim man who’s poor, that’s where the problem starts: Psychologically, he might think that he’s powerful and head of the household but, realistically, he’s not able to maintain it… That’s why you find many among them just leaving the family. You also have Muslim wives who earn a lot more than their husbands, yet are forced to be obedient and subservient. There is this whole entrenchment of a kind of politics and culture that does not actually assess (Malays) realistically.

So what is Umno’s attraction to them these days?

The attraction in joining Umno today is still that it’s a sure ticket to a plum appointment or business contract because there isn’t anything idealistic in Umno today. Sixty years ago, it was about wanting to help the Malays but that is not so today because Malay rights and privileges are already guaranteed in the Constitution… If Umno pays you RM300 a month to deliver letters to its branches, that’s enough to pay, say, the loan on your motorcycle. So Umno is more like a job than a party at the end of the day.

Which begs the question: Who wouldn’t want to join it?

Well, those who don’t need to, don’t have to, right? Also, those who join the opposition Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) have an idealism that has trumped even material benefits.

That puts Umno in quite a spot, surely?

Exactly. Umno’s lifeblood has been helping the Malays get to a certain level. So if the Malays are backward and not able to catch up, Umno would then be forever relevant… But now, what other language can Umno use?

So why are its leaders saying the NEM must replace the NEP?

In a way, it’s the right moment to do so because, on the one hand, Prime Minister Najib Razak isn’t exactly all that strong because he hasn’t gone through the baptism of elections and was endorsed by Umno when it was at its weakest. On the other hand, you have a growing Malay middle class that is clamouring for reform. This convergence of the weak and the strong makes Malaysia ripe for the NEM.

Having said that, it’s a misnomer to call the NEM a model. It’s really just a government wish list. Nevertheless, it’s going to provide a platform for some very important talking points.

How fresh are these points?

There are three which have not been stated explicitly before: The first links corruption to the faltering economy; before, corruption was there but it wasn’t considered a moral evil… But now the NEM has made that connection, albeit with the fancy-sounding term ‘rent-seeking in economic practices’. The second is trying to get rid of affirmative action, using the code phrase ‘affirmative action that is friendly to market policy’ – which is an oxymoron, right? The third – and this is very important – is how they’re going to stimulate the economy by bringing back ‘talented Malaysians’ which, again, is a code phrase for non-Malays… I don’t know if that’s possible under the present circumstances, but at least they’ve identified that as what they’ve to do. So let’s give them the benefit of the doubt.

These three things are good because a good policy has something which people desire commonly. So the NEP was very successful because it was made out to be something that could prevent future ethnic conflicts and also eradicate poverty – and who could quarrel with that?

But hasn’t the NEP rendered Malaysians uncompetitive?

Yes, but it never hurt the economy – until now – and so Umno became complacent and mixed up short-term necessities with long-term realities.

Can Umno change?

The only way it can change is if it loses… That’s because nothing has changed in Umno, not even its rhetoric. Has money politics changed? No. Histrionics? No. Keris-waving? No.

Is this Umno’s darkest period yet?

There are two ways of looking at it. If you view it in terms of election performance, Umno did very badly in 2008. But if you’re looking at Umno versus PAS, Umno is still ahead of PAS by a long shot. In Umno’s worst years, 1969 and 2008, it won 35 per cent of the parliamentary seats. PAS’ best year was 1999, when it won just 14 per cent of the parliamentary seats. See the gap?

So who or what is Umno’s biggest threat now?

Fence-sitters. The 2008 election was really about them; a lot of seats were won very narrowly and that was when the fence-sitters mattered.

Hard talk

SOCIOLOGIST Maznah Mohamad is an avowed feminist known for her incisive and perceptive views. Here she is on:

What the average Malaysian Malay wants out of life

‘Nothing much, really – well, except maybe pride and dignity – because he has too many rights and privileges but too few responsibilities.’

Malays and affirmative action

‘Many Malays increasingly do not feel comfortable about continually receiving handouts – unless they have political ambitions, then it’s tied to that.’

How she feels about being Malay

‘In Malaysia, it is about being inadequate culturally; in Singapore, it is about being inadequate professionally. So Malays like me feel neither here nor there.’

How she lives with that

‘Actually, I’m quite comfortable because it’s good to be in a category where you’re able to confuse people.’

1Malaysia

‘Umno doesn’t want to promote a Malaysian Malaysia because that’s associated with the People’s Action Party. And then you have this peach of a slogan which means the same thing.’

The ruling coalition

‘They’re pandering to race and religion and people don’t need that. They need good food, good jobs, good education, good transport and good health.’

Former Malaysian premier Mahathir Mohamad

‘He was neither maverick nor Machiavellian; he was actually mainstream. He did bring radical change with Vision 2020 and he tried to create a Bangsa Malaysia. But he wasn’t forceful enough…and instead perpetuated race-based politics.’

The opposition Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR)

‘Many of its members were from Umno and so expected the same gravy train to come their way. But they’ve waited and waited and PKR is still not the government, so you can expect them to leave it.’

Malaysia’s future

‘We can still go out for hawker food; it doesn’t matter that the buildings are falling apart.’

——-

Dr Maznah Mohamad – PROFILE


Dr Maznah Mohamad joined Asian Research Institute (ARI) of the National University of Singapore (NUS) as a Visiting Senior Research Fellow in 2006. Concurrently, she is a Visiting Senior Fellow at the Southeast Asian Studies Programme, NUS.


Before joining ARI, she taught at the Universiti Sains Malaysia and also held a visiting chair appointment (ASEAN and International Studies) at the Munk Centre for International Studies, University of Toronto.


Dr Mohamad obtained her Ph.D. in Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Malaya and her M.A. in International Development Education at Stanford University. She also holds a Bachelors degree in Sociology (cum laude) from Macalester College.


Maznah’s publications include, The Malay Handloom Weavers: A Study of the Rise and Decline of Traditional Manufacture (ISEAS, 1996); Risking Malaysia: Culture, Politics and Identity (co-edited, Penerbit UKM, 2001) and Feminism and the Women’s Movement in Malaysia (co-authored, Routledge, 2006). She has also published articles on Malaysian politics, Islam, democracy and human rights.

“Namewee Is A Uniting Factor”

Mariam Mokhtar

Friday, 03 September 2010 08:56

COMMENT If Namewee (Wee Meng Chee) is prosecuted for his music-video, then two mixed messages are being sent out by the government: The first is that the authorities practise double-standards. The second is that it was only because of Namewee's 'intervention' that the government sat up and took racism seriously.

On Wednesday, it was reported that the rapper was being investigated by the police for sedition. Various ministers and a menteri besar also want Namewee punished for his controversial video.

In the first place, Namewee made this clip because of the government's slow response to tackle effectively the latest racist incident. It appears that we are now united, against racism.

Far from being seditious or racist, Namewee has done the job of the government in exposing all that is 'ugly' about us.

Just over two weeks ago, the Johore school headmistress featured in Namewee's clip made serious, humiliating and crude remarks to non-Malay students in her school.

The prime minister, who coined the term 1Malaysia, took two weeks to make any comment regarding this issue. In the meantime, the damage became magnified.

Finally, Najib said that when it came to racism, he wanted 'zero-tolerance' and a 'swift response' to people who made racial slurs.

It appears that the prime minister has fallen at the first hurdle. There was not a quick, speedy response, as promised. It took him a very slow two weeks before issuing a statement.

For another, why has the police investigation been allowed to drag?

But let us imagine that for one moment, it was a non-Malay school head who had uttered derogatory remarks about her Malay pupils and told them to 'pergi balik bawah tempurung' (return to your place beneath your coconut shell) or that the tudung worn by the girls was only to cover-up their 'bad hair-do'.

Wisdom and tolerance

I need not mention how the Malay community, egged on by the Ketuanan Melayu clowns, would react by picketing, protesting and practically foaming at the mouth.

If anything, the Johore school incident proved that the non-Malay community has shown extreme restraint and should be commended for their wisdom and tolerance.

The shame is that few Malays voiced their objections to the disgusting remarks of the Malay school-heads (both in Johore and Kedah). Where are the voices of condemnation for these racist rants? Are they afraid of pilloried by members of their own community? Or have they no principles? And lack a conscience?

Namewee is reacting to the slow response of the government to tackle racism. Hence, it is the government who has failed the Malaysian public. It is Namewee who conveyed the important message to Malaysians, in an entertaining way via his Youtube clip, that 'racism sucks'.

To date, what is the progress into the school-head investigation? How long does it take to get eye-witness statements?

People forget that Namewee is a rapper. He produces videos and music videos. Rap music may glorify violence, misogyny, drug abuse and homophobia. Profanity and vulgar language are common.

Like it or not, rap or hip hop, is the language of the young these days. With rap, he has managed to engage with the young, to 'say 'no' to racism'. Any parent of a teenager will know what I am talking about. The songs teenagers listen to these days, often colour the air-waves blue.

One can only imagine Namewee's rage at the slow official response to tackle racism.

It is the same fury that overcomes us when we are lectured by our political masters to do, think and talk '1Malaysia' but then discover to our shock, that some ministers do not practise it.

Admittedly, Namewee is simply expressing his anger and frustration in creativity and music, just like Eminem or Jay-Z.

It is highly unlikely that our aging ministers will understand nor appreciate rap music.

Namewee is the perfect entertainer and has sound business acumen. Sometimes, to shock may even sell more records. He has gained increased publicity for himself being enterprising.

Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin adopted a different spin on Namewee's questions: "You tak baca? Siapa buat Malaysia kaya?" (Don't you know? Who made Malaysia prosperous?). Khairy assumed that Namewee suggested the 'Malays played a minor role in Malaysia's economic growth'.

Khairy is possibly wrong and as far as can be ascertained, Namewee wasn't alluding to anything.

Namewee posed an open-ended question. However, political personalities are already scoring brownie points by insinuating various things.

Namewee was wrong to be abusive – even I would balk short at such behaviour. But Namewee speaks for all those who suffered that day in school and for the people in Malaysia who care.

Maybe if the authorities had been swift in their response, Namewee would not have had the reason to come up with this clip.

The more potent danger

Actually, Namewee has done the job of the government much better that the government itself. It has given prominence to racism issues in a creative way and made us take a stand against racism. If not for his Youtube, clip, would we have taken as much attention? The problem is that the authorities have 'lost it'.

When Dr Chua Soi Lek criticised Namewee and said, "Freedom of expression should come with responsibility to consider sensitivities towards other races and religions", he forgot that it was the two school principals who ignored sensitivities and caused a furore.

And instead of the school principals being censured, it is Namewee who is allegedly being charged with sedition. Namewee's clip was crude and coarse, but not racist.

This young disgruntled Malaysia's response to racism has been blown into something of a racial firestorm. That is the more potent danger.

It seems that when you scratch beneath the surface, 1Malaysia is unraveling faster than a knitted jumper. One person condemns an irresponsible racist head, and the so called defenders of the race, react like beasts unleashed, and all for the wrong reasons.

Namewee has talent. He engages with the young via his rap music and lyrics. He should be nominated for a role in the Ministry for Information, Communications, Cul ture and Arts, to promote racial unity and other Malaysian issues.

Far from creating disharmony, Namewee has united us against racism. He at least has the courage to tackle racism in his own entertaining way.

Source : The Malaysian Mirror

We, the Non-Malays

3 May, 2010

By Eunice Ong

Revisiting the topic of Malay rights from one side of the fence but in view of all.


We (and when I say we, I mean the non-Malays) often complain of the different privileges received by the different races. We condemn frequently organisations such as PERKASA, the “Ketuanan Melayu” mentality, and all the privileges that we see our Malay contemporaries get. We express disgusted disapproval of the inequality.


We whine that Malay is the national language and Islam is the national religion as opposed to our preferred language. Ah! We can also go on about how much sacrifice it is to go to a halal restaurant, because you have a Malay friend with the group.




So, one day say, the Prime Minister tells us that he has the mandate from the Malays and wants to negotiate a compromise. Mr. PM will ask of our dissatisfaction, and we will give him a long list: we want our children to be admitted to all public universities, we want to be given more business licenses, we want to either take away the Bumiputera discount or get the same discount, we want to be given the privilege to buy special shares so as to earn money, and the list goes on.


Mr. PM says, “Fine, we can come to a compromise and I can agree to at least half of your requests, but will you agree to give up vernacular schools and make our education system a one-school system?” Funnily enough, before he can explain how the individual vernacular language will be taught as an elective subject in all schools (private or public) and that it will eventually delete one of the many causes of racial disunity, the strongest protesters of that proposal will be the same persons who claim injustice in the first place.


If change is indeed a goal, there are sacrifices we have to make. We can argue until the cows come home that we are giving up our right to learn our mother tongue and our roots, but we are Malaysians and it is about time we should start acting like Malaysians. Our roots are all here in Malaysia, not in China or India. Do we really expect them to give up what they have been enjoying for more than five decades in the name of change without us making an effort at the same time? If we do, how then can we advocate for fairness?


As many would remember telling me in their wisdom to look at the big picture, and the big picture here is that giving up vernacular schools will mean lesser racial disunity. The usual trend is that the cliques are racial based and that barrier is language. Really, be honest, you would have used the excuse of not being able to have more friends of other races because of language. I have that problem.


The big picture is that if we can accept each other, we can learn from each other and the troubling PERKASA will not exist to protect the rights of the Malays.
The big picture is that there is hope for change.

Source : Loyarburok.com

Sodomy 2 & the UMNO mentality

By Kenny Gan, Guest Writer

While we watch astounded at Umno’s audacious attempt to ram a crumbling sodomy case through court with questionable legal maneuvers that no fair court would tolerate, we are left wondering at the mentality behind Umno. 

Is Umno aware that the world is watching and a conviction that turns Anwar Ibrahim into a victim of political persecution would be more damaging to BN than a free Anwar or a tottering MCA and a near-defunct MIC combined?

What could possibly drive Umno to undertake this risky misadventure when retribution from a public backlash is staring at them in the face? 

No government which has to face elections will do what Umno does. Sodomy II is more in tune with a military dictatorship like Myanmar or a banana republic like Zimbabwe rather than a modern democracy like Malaysia (or pseudo-democracy if you want to nitpick). 

To understand why this circus trial is going on we must delve deep into Umno's mentality. The first characteristic of Umno's mentality is that it is infantile. To a young child the present eclipse the future in importance. It is pointless to bribe a little child to give up something in his hands for something better in future. 

We can see Umno's infantile mentality clearly in the Perak power grab. It will not give up the immediate prize of Perak even if threatened with the loss of Federal power in the next election. Hence the incarceration of Anwar is an immediate benefit which outweighs any thoughts of future repercussion. 

The next characteristic of Umno may be aptly termed "the monkey mentality." Kampung boys will know how to catch a monkey by drilling a hole in a coconut just large enough for its hands to go through. Some food is place inside preferably under the watchful eyes of the simians and the coconut left alone. The curious monkey reaches into the hole to grab the food but is unable to withdraw its hand while grabbing the food. The monkey can then be approached and captured as it will not let go of the food no matter what threats it faces. 

Again in the Perak power grab we can observe this monkey mentality in Umno. Against the on slaughter of negative public opinion Umno will not let go of Perak by calling for new state elections. Similarly now that its paws have grasped hold of Anwar it will not let go no matter what dire consequences looms ahead.  

Yet another characteristic which we are all familiar with is arrogance. This is the arrogance which can only come from ruling unbroken for more than 50 years, winning election after election and steamrolling the opposition. Umno thinks it can ride the tide of negative public opinion generated from the backlash of jailing Anwar. After all it has never lost a general election with its awesome money, machinery and media. 

This arrogance also spills over into disdain for the intelligence of the people. The public are taken as gullible fools who will believe whatever they are told and who will not delve into details. They will be told to "respect the decision of the court" and "Anwar was given a fair trial and had many lawyers defending him" or Mahathir's own favorite, "the judge wrote a judgement running into hundreds of pages." What else do the people want? 

Yet another characteristic is just sheer incompetence. With Umno just like the country it governs, meritocracy has taken a backseat. The ones that rise to top are hardly the smart and intelligent ones or the popular ones in touch with the grass roots who can gauge the sentiment of the people. They are the political street fighters, voter buyers, cable pullers and the children of those in power. Umno is not only incompetent to pull off a complex conspiracy, it is also incompetent to do a cost-benefit analysis and is out of touch with the grass roots. 

The tight conformity within Umno where no disagreement or dissent is tolerated with respect to the top leadership helps to keep an eerie silence from middle and low ranking leaders who can see the ill-advised foolishness of Sodomy II but are unable to speak out or sound a warning. The component parties are just too castrated to act. 

Umno also exhibits an ossified mind which is unable to update its thinking to the present. The days when the government-controlled the flow of information via the mass media and use it to mould public opinion is over with the rise of the alternative media. 

Education is more widespread now and more people are concerned about social justice than ever before but to Umno they are still dealing with kampung folks concerned primarily with bread and butter issues. The use of old style campaigning strategies in by-elections is a product of Umno's ossified mind. 

Umno may be deluded into thinking that it has been done before so it can be done again. What they did not take into account is the vastly changed socio-political circumstances between 1998 and now. The opposition is much stronger, online penetration is at least 16 times more and voters are more demanding of good governance. 

Even then in the general election of 1999, Mahathir's cruel treatment of Anwar caused Umno's Malay vote share to collapse to 49% and it was the minorities which saved him. The minorities will not be so favourable to BN now. 

Will Umno come to its senses and pull back from the brink? Or will it go all the way and jail Anwar? We have to wait and see but don’t hold your breath for Anwar’s acquittal.

Source & Comments : Malaysia Chronicle

I scratch your back. You scratch mine.

This is the Prime Minister of Malaysia speaking. Can you believe it?

Najib campaigning at Sibu by-election : “lu tolong wa. wa tolong lu”

So shameful. Isn’t that bribery or corruption? But, like it or not, this is Bolehland. Where anything is possible. This speech must go down as of the best ever from Bolehland and should be endorsed in the Bolehland Book Of Records.

So…is this really the Prime Minister of Malaysia?

How you wish there were no heaven and hell

Saturday, 20 June 2009 16:15 Sheesh! So not only will you not go to heaven if you support Barisan Nasional. You will also not go to heaven even if you support PAS. This is because PAS is also involved in an un-Islamic system of government. PAS is as un-Islamic as Umno or Barisan Nasional is. NO HOLDS BARRED Raja Petra Kamarudin Mad fish?: scientist warns that farmed fish could be a source of mad cow disease Jeremy Hance, news.mongabay.com June 17, 2009 In a paper that shows just how strange our modern world has become, Robert P. Friedland, neurologist from the University of Louisville, warns that farmed fish could be at risk of Creutzfeldt Jakob disease, or Mad Cow Disease. Currently, farmed fish are fed cow by products—a food source they would never find natural environment (unless society started dumping cow carcasses in oceans or lakes). Friedland and co-authors raise the issue in the Journal of Alzhemier’s Disease and call on food regulators to ban feeding cow bone or meat to farmed fish until it can be determined if the practice of feeding fish cow-parts is safe. “We have not proven that it’s possible for fish to transmit the disease to humans. Still, we believe that out of reasonable caution for public health, the practice of feeding rendered cows to fish should be prohibited,” Friedland said. “Fish do very well in the seas without eating cows.” Mad Cow Disease is a fatal disease that can be contracted by eating parts of a cow infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). After an outbreak in Britain due to infected beef, 163 people died. “The fact that no cases of Creutzfeldt Jakob disease have been linked to eating farmed fish does not assure that feeding rendered cow parts to fish is safe,” warns Friedland. “The incubation period of these diseases may last for decades, which makes the association between feeding practices and infection difficult. Enhanced safeguards need to be put in place to protect the public.” Along with cow, farmed fish are also fed significant amounts of antibiotics to keep them disease-and-parasite free. Farmed fish pose additional health hazards due to the possibility of mercury contamination. http://news.mongabay.com/2009/0617-hance_madfish.html ************************************************* So there you have it. You thought that by avoiding beef and by just eating fish you can avoid being inflicted with Mad Cow Disease. Then you suddenly wake up one morning and a scientist or doctor tells you that you can still get Mad Cow Disease by eating fish, not to mention mercury poisoning. So what do you do? You become a vegetarian. But just as you thought you are now safe and will live to a ripe old age of 100, another scientist or doctor tells you that the vegetables you are eating have been sprayed with insecticide to prevent plant pests from attacking them. And these insecticides can’t be washed off even if you soak the vegetables for hours before cooking them. No wonder the vegetables looked so perfect and when you buy your vegetables you always choose the most perfect looking ones and avoid those that look like they have been attacked by plant pests. Now you find out that the more perfect they look the more harmful they actually are. Okay, I have a solution, you may think. I will grow my own vegetables in my garden plot and will make sure that they are not sprayed with anything harmful. I will also rear my own chickens and goats and feed them with natural food that do not contain any chemicals. This will ensure that only the safest food gets into my belly. That will offer me the guarantee that I get to eat only contaminated-free food. Then a Blogger starts writing articles telling you that the food you are buying and eating may be medically safe, but they are not halal. They are still ‘contaminated’ with elements of haram. “How can they be haram?” you argue. You never touch anything that does not have a ‘halal’ sticker on them. But lo and behold, you suddenly discover that the halal turkey costs more than the turkey that does not have a halal sticker on them. You then ask the turkey supplier whether this is a conspiracy to discriminate Muslims. Why is the halal turkey more expensive than the non-halal turkey? The turkey supplier then whispers a little secret into your ear. They have to pay the people who issue these ‘halal’ stickers under-the-table money. Yes, that’s right. Those Muslims in white robes and skullcaps take bribes. You have to bribe them to get them to certify your turkey as halal. If not they will not give you permission to stick those ‘halal’ stickers onto your turkey. So now you avoid halal food altogether. Instead of buying your food from the halal section of the supermarket you buy them from the non-halal section. The turkey, chicken, lamb and beef mixed amongst the pork, ham and bacon is more halal than those sold with ‘halal’ stickers on them. Okay, they may not have been slaughtered the ‘correct’ way, but at least they are not ‘contaminated’ with bribery, which is worse than eating ‘not properly slaughtered’ meat. You want to be a good Muslim. You want to avoid anything that is considered haram from ever touching your lips. You avoid food that will endanger your health because Islam is against you doing anything that endangers your health, smoking included. You also avoid food that is considered haram from the Islamic perspective. So you avoid food that have ‘halal’ stickers on them knowing that the supplier has to bribe the government officers to get this halal certification. You are a good Muslim. So you are now assured of going to heaven. To strengthen your case when you one day die and finally get to meet your Maker, you do not drink or gamble as well. You lead a very pious life. But hold on a minute. You work for the government. And the government taxes gaming and liquor. And this money is used to pay your salary. So you are actually ‘eating’ haram money, money procured from taxes on gaming and liquor. Furthermore, according to one-time Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, 90% of the personal and private businesses taxes is paid by the Chinese. And the Chinese are involved in all sorts of non-halal businesses. They run lotteries and gambling outlets. They run bars, pubs, nightclubs and discos. They run brothels, massage parlours and karaoke centres that are actually fronts for the ‘China Dolls’ racket. They run banks, finance companies and money-lending businesses. You name it and the Chinese run it. And all these are haram according to Islam. And they pay taxes on all this and this tax money is used to pay the salaries of the government employees. Sheesh, what do you do now? There is only one option open to you. You resign from the government and run your own but small business. You set up a driving school. But none of your students pass their driving test. They will never pass unless you pay the Road Transport Department tester a bribe, the usual under-the-table money. So you will have to bribe the tester or else none of your students will pass their driving test and you will eventually have to close down because no one will come to your driving school any longer. So you close down your driving school and open a tuition centre instead. But you can’t get a licence to operate a tuition centre unless you also pay a bribe. Okay, forget about the tuition centre. You will instead set up a small stall selling cakes and nasi lemak. But you can’t get your hawker’s licence unless you also bribe the local authorities. Sheesh, forget about the whole thing. You decide to go back to your kampong to become a padi farmer. Your late father left you a piece of land, which he used to grow padi on. It has of course been neglected all those years because you chose to work for the government instead of becoming a padi farmer. Now you decide to grow padi on that neglected land. You also sell your house and car and surrender your credit cards to avoid having to pay haram interest on your loans and credit cards. You will become a true Muslim by just planting padi. You apply for fertilizer from the government but are told you need to become an Umno member to qualify for fertilizer aid. If not you will have to buy your own fertilizer from the Chinaman supplier and that would mean your production cost would be too high. The only way to keep your cost down would be to get a fertilizer subsidy but you must first become an Umno member. Furthermore, you need to sell your padi to Bernas and they will pay you a low price if you do not pay the purchasing officer a ‘commission’ and show him your Umno membership card. It troubles you that you must become an Umno member to get government subsidies. It troubles you even more that you must bribe the purchasing officer to get a fair price on your padi. Your late padi-farmer father once told you that you must support PAS if you want to go to heaven. Now you have to become an Umno member to get the fertilizer you need for your padi field. And you still can’t escape bribery even as a padi farmer. Will that mean you will be going to hell instead? Lo and behold, the Deputy Prime Minister said you could still go to heaven even if you vote for Barisan Nasional. You need not vote for PAS to go to heaven after all. Barisan Nasional too can help send you to heaven. You just pray that it will be later rather than sooner. Halleluiah! Your soul has been saved. You can now safely become an Umno member to get your fertilizer and still go to heaven. You need no longer support PAS. Allah is most kind and merciful after all. Then you discover something most depressing. The Westminster form of government and western-style parliamentary general elections are not Islamic after all. The so-called western concept of democracy is an un-Islamic concept. There are no such things in Islam. Islam does not choose its leaders in this manner. This is most depressing. Islam says you are not supposed to choose kufurs, mushriks, fasiks and whatnot as your leaders. And in the Westminster system of general elections the worst kind of people are elected as the country’s leaders. You are supposed to choose noble and pious people as your leaders. The current system allows only slime-balls and scumbags into office. Sheesh! So not only will you not go to heaven if you support Barisan Nasional. You will also not go to heaven even if you support PAS. This is because PAS is also involved in an un-Islamic system of government. PAS is as un-Islamic as Umno or Barisan Nasional is. Aiyah! So better you don’t become a member of any political party. And better still, you don’t vote as well. But if you don’t then you are allowing bad people to get into power. By doing nothing you are aiding and abetting sin. So you must do something. But what can you do? Every option available to you is haram and un-Islamic. What a dilemma! The whole problem is you were born a Muslim. No, the real problem is you were born, full stop. If not then you would not be faced with any dilemma. This is actually the REAL Malay dilemma. You can never be a proper Muslim in this modern world, especially not in Malaysia. You start to wonder what it was like in the old days before we saw ‘progress’. You always suspected that progress is bad for you, especially as far as your soul is concerned. Source : Malaysia Today