Russian Solution To Somali Pirate Problem

End of problem! Amazing video! Reverting to anti-piracy laws of the 18th and 19th centuries.













Court held on the High Seas: Russian navy captures Somalian pirates

This videotape shows Russian Navy commandos on a Somalian pirate ship shortly after the pirates had captured a Russian oil tanker.

The Euro Union navy that patrols these waters would not interfere because they feared there could be casualties.

All explanations are in Russian with a single exception of when a wounded pirate says something in English and the Russian soldier says "This is not a fishing boat.”

All conversations between the commandos are in Russian. If you don't understand Russian, the pictures speak for themselves.

The soldiers freed their compatriots and the tanker.

The Russian Navy Commandos moved the pirates back to their own (pirate) ship, searched the pirate ship for weapons and explosives, and then they left the ship and exploded it with all remaining pirates hand-cuffed to it.

The commandos sank the pirate ship along with the pirates and without any court proceedings, lawyers etc. That is, they used the anti-piracy laws of the 18th and 19th centuries where the captain of the rescuing ship has the right to decide what to do with the pirates. Usually, they were hung.

From now on, Russian ships are not likely to be targets for Somalian pirates.

Tok Guru And The Mamak

When did the Indian choose to become a Malay ar?

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I didn't ask to be born Malay, says Nik Aziz

(Bernama) - PAS spiritual leader Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat said today that he did not ask to be born Malay.

The Kelantan Mentri Besar added that it was only by coincidence that he was born in this country.

Nik Aziz said that it did not matter what community he was born into as long as he was a Muslim.

He was responding to a statement by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad that he should be grateful for being born Malay because this meant that he would be Muslim.

Nik Aziz said that all races were the same, and what made a person special was that he was a Muslim.

He said that he was striving for Islam as a religion of moderation and was opposed to extremism which contradicted Islam.

Being Chinese In Malaysia

Got this off the Net; it sounds about right...read for yourself. It seems to me this would also be what most sensible Malaysians want.

What do the Malaysia Chinese want?

Every time the Barisan National gets less than the expected support from Chinese voters at an election, the question invariably pops up among the petty-minded: Why are the Chinese ungrateful?

Utusan Malaysia a piece that asks: “Orang Cina Malaysia, apa lagi yang anda mahu?” (Trans. Chinese of Malaysia, what more do you want?)

Normally, something intentionally provocative and propagandist as this doesn’t deserve to be honoured with a reply. But even though I’m fed up with such disruptive and ethnocentric polemics, this time I feel obliged to reply – partly because the article has also been published, in an English translation, in the Straits Times of Singapore.

I wish to emphasize here that I am replying not as a Chinese Malaysian but, simply, as a Malaysian. Let me say at the outset that the Chinese have got nothing more than what any citizen should get. So to ask “what more” it is they want, is misguided. A correct question would be, “What do the Chinese want?”

All our lives, we Chinese have held to the belief that no one owes us a living. We have to work for it. Most of us have got where we are by the sweat of our brow, not by handouts or the policies of the government. We have come to expect nothing – not awards, not accolades, not gifts from official sources. (Let’s not lump in Datukships, that’s a different ball game.) We know that no Chinese who writes in the Chinese language will ever be bestowed the title of Sasterawan Negara, unlike in Singapore where the literatures of all the main language streams are recognized and honored with the Cultural Medallion, etc.

We have learned we can’t expect the government to grant us scholarships. Some will get those, but countless others won’t. We’ve learned to live with that and to work extra hard in order to support our children to attain higher education – because education is very important to us. We experience a lot of daily pressure to achieve that. Unfortunately, not many non-Chinese realize or understand that. In fact, many Chinese had no choice but to emigrate for the sake of their children’s further education. Or to accept scholarships from abroad, many from Singapore, which has inevitably led to a brain drain.

The writer of the Utusan article says the Chinese “account for most of the students” enrolled in “the best private colleges in Malaysia”. Even so, the Chinese still have to pay a lot of money to have their children study in these colleges. And to earn that money, the parents have to work very hard. The money does not fall from the sky.

The writer goes on to add: “The Malays can gain admission into only government-owned colleges of ordinary reputation.” That is utter nonsense. Some of these colleges are meant for the cream of the Malay crop of students and are endowed with the best facilities. They are given elite treatment.

The writer also fails to acknowledge that the Chinese are barred from being admitted to some of these colleges. As a result, the Chinese are forced to pay more money to go to private colleges. Furthermore, the Malays are also welcome to enroll in the private colleges, and many of them do. It’s, after all, a free enterprise.

Plain and simple reason

The writer claims that the Chinese live “in the lap of luxury” and lead lives that are “more than ordinary” whereas the Malays in Singapore , their minority-race counterparts there, lead “ordinary lives”. Such sweeping statements sound inane especially when they are not backed up by definitions of “lap of luxury” and “ordinary lives”. They sound hysterical, if not hilarious as well, when they are not backed up by evidence. It’s surprising that a national daily like Utusan Malaysia would publish something as idiosyncratic as that. And the Straits Times too.

The writer quotes from a survey that said eight of the 10 richest people in Malaysia are Chinese. Well, if these people are where they are, it must have also come from hard work and prudent business sense. Is that something to be faulted?

If the writer had said that some of them achieved greater wealth through being given crony privileges and lucrative contracts by the government, there might be a point, but even then, it would still take hard work and business acumen to secure success. Most important, it should be noted that the eight Chinese tycoons mentioned in the survey represent but a minuscule percentage of the wider Chinese Malaysian population. To extrapolate that because eight Chinese are filthy rich, the rest of the Chinese must therefore live in the lap of luxury and lead more than ordinary lives would be a mockery of the truth. The writer has obviously not met the vast numbers of very poor Chinese.

The crux of the writer’s article is that the Chinese are not grateful to the government by not voting for Barisan National. But this demonstrates the thinking of either a simple mind or a closed one.

Why did the Chinese by and large not vote for BN? Because it’s corrupt. Plain and simple. Let’s call a spade a spade. And BN showed how corrupt it was during the campaign by throwing bribes to the electorate, including baiting Chinese.

So, what’s wrong with not supporting a government that is corrupt? If the government is corrupt, do we continue to support it?

To answer the question then, what do the Chinese want?

They want a government…

a. that is not corrupt;

b. that can govern well and proves to have done so;

c. that tells the truth rather than lies;

d. that follows the rule of law;

e. that upholds rather than abuses the country’s sacred institutions.

Because BN does not fit that description, the Chinese have learned not to vote for it. This is not what only the Chinese want. It is something every sensible Malaysian, regardless of race, wants. Is that something that is too difficult to understand?

Some people think that the government is to be equated with the country, and therefore if someone does not support the government, they are being disloyal to the country. This is a complete fallacy. BN is not Malaysia . It is merely a political coalition that is the government of the day. Rejecting BN is not rejecting the country.

A sense of belonging

Let’s be clear about this important distinction. In America, the people sometimes vote for the Democrats and sometimes for the Republicans. Voting against the one that is in government at the time is not considered disloyalty to the country.

By the same token, voting against UMNO is also voting against a party, not against a race. And if the Chinese or whoever criticize UMNO, they are criticizing the party; they are not criticizing Malays. It just happens that UMNO’s leaders are Malay.

It is time all Malaysians realized this so that we can once and for all dispel the confusion. Let us no longer confuse country with government. We can love our country and at the same time hate the government. It is perfectly all right.

I should add here what the Chinese don’t want:

a. We don’t want to be insulted,

b. We don’t want to be called pendatang

c. We don’t want to be told to be grateful for our citizenship.

We have been loyal citizens; we duly and dutifully pay taxes; we respect the country’s constitution and its institutions. Our forefathers came to this country many generations ago and helped it to prosper. We are continuing to contribute to the country’s growth and development.

For too long, the MCA has not spoken up strongly enough when UMNO politicians and associates like Ahmad Ismail, Nasir Safar, Ahmad Noh and others before them insulted the Chinese and made them feel like they don’t belong. That’s why the Chinese have largely rejected the MCA. You see, the Chinese, like all human beings, want self-respect. And a sense of belonging in this country they call home. That is all the Chinese want, and has always wanted. Nothing more.

"To sin by silence when we should protest makes cowards of people” - Emily Cox

"All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them" - Walt Disney

The Number, 27 Again.

No this time it is not about Jeannie but RPK. Read the Malaysian Civil Liberties Movement (MCLM) manifesto that was unveiled yesterday. I believe Raja Petra devised it and it contains a mere 27 words. 27 words that will change the country!

“End the marginalisation of all human beings, by seizing federal power through the 13th general election and, through the 13th federal government, implement the Rakyat Reform Agenda”.

The Mad Hatter Stuck At 6.00

You may or may not agree totally with this one from Malaysiakini:

Mahathir - a moderate Muslim Machiavelli
Tom Plate Feb 7, 2011

You could love him or hate him but ignore him you could not.

Hardly a month would go by without some new initiative launched, the grandiose master plan tabled, new policy proffered. Say what you will about Mahathir Mohamad – may it be positive or negative – Dr M was a political phenomenon.

Even back in America, on the West's self-absorbed media radar screen, traces of Mahathir would surface from time to time. During the Silicon Valley revolution in the 90s, it caught Malaysia's PM making the West's money rounds, peddling his multimedia super-corridor like some software salesman.

During the Asian Financial Crisis, he positioned himself as the 'Conscience of the East', berating Wall Street (and sometimes baiting the Jews) for its destructive “shorting” attacks on his region's currencies. And within Malaysia itself, of course, Mahathir's name became synonymous with controversy and contradiction.

But outside the country, his legacy will increasingly be viewed in the context of the 'Clash of Civilisations' issue that seemingly has replaced the old Cold War as the chief obsession of the West.

This is a main theme of my new book 'Conversations With Mahathir Mohamad', the second volume in the 'Giants of Asia' series (next up: another controversial former prime minister, Thailand's Thaksin Shinawatra).

The question of legacy is important because history may well decide to downplay Mahathir's serious flaws and rhetorical excesses and in the final analysis, position him as one of the late 20th century's most important Muslim leaders. History may well decide that Dr M was a notably successful modern moderate Muslim Machiavelli at the very time the rise of the al-Qaeda was so unnerving to the West.

In the United States, you see, when the label “Muslim” is used, it tends to invoke flaming skyscrapers toppled to the ground. Jihads, however obscurely aimed or ambiguously intended, make Americans jittery. In fact, much of the US nation continues to suffer from a post-911 traumatic stress syndrome. So today Muslims will not likely get picked up on the media radar screen over here unless they're creating a clear and present danger.

But most Muslims go about their daily business like the rest of us – raising families, holding onto jobs, trying to make their way through life's ups and downs. What's especially lost on the West is the track record of those gifted, moderate Muslims whose records of accomplishment remain below our radar precisely because their moderation seems so categorically un-newsworthy.

Turning fundamentalism on its head

It is this larger and grander story of the mainstream Muslim that the West fails to absorb. The extraordinary Machiavellian tricks of the moderation trade that are required of a Muslim leader needing to keep his political balance while guiding the nation economically are hardly any less spectacular for their complexity than a complex terrorist plot. Moderation in the pursuit of a better life for all is no vice – and its achievement is clearly a notable virtue of governance.

But Mahathir, in my conversations with him, was in aggressive denial about his moderation. In fact, to his face, it will get you nowhere to call him a “moderate.” He doesn't like it and in fact he will deny it.

To deflect any suggestion that his brand of Islamism is anything but tough-minded and Quran-pious, Dr M will insist his true religion is Muslim fundamentalism at its most intelligently fundamentalist. And so may no “ultra” Muslim - no pure-as-the-driven-Islamic-snow mullah - be given reason to depict him as some softie that's been genetically re-engineered into some Western secular poodle.

Malaysians of course understand that Dr M is nothing if not clever. And thus its longest-running PM (1982-2003) turns “fundamentalism” on its head by insisting that, fundamentally, Islam is moderation itself. “So, I adhere to that teaching - become a Muslim fundamentalist, and Muslim fundamentalism must let me be moderate,” he told me, rather cleverly - but not, I think, insincerely.

More than verbal wordplay animates the good doctor. I am convinced, after the intense conversational sessions for the book, that his international pacifism (he is virtually anti-war) arises from his own personal philosophy – and from his public insistence of Islam as a powerfully peaceful religion.

Accordingly, I became convinced that his occasional resort to domestic repression - via the invocation of Malaysia's internal security laws - was in fact painful and aberrational, not at all joyful.

Yes, it is fair to say that he was not adverse to resort to hard power - though in his conversations with me he expressed deep remorse over handing the police so much power at times. But he admitted that every resort to repression was probably a symptom of failure. (It is not hard to believe that somewhere in his heart, he harbours the wish that the Anwar Ibrahim mess has been handled differently - and better.)

It was certainly illuminating when I asked him about Machiavelli's famous dilemma - Whether it is better for the Prince to be loved or feared. His response was quite different from that of Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew.

The subject of my first book in the Giants of Asia series ('Conversations With Lee Kuan Yew') said that, if he had to choose, he would choose fear over love. But Mahathir's choice was - rather unabashedly expressed - to want to be loved.

But will the average Malaysian believe this? Not being the average Malaysia, I have no idea. But when he answered this way, I no more doubted the sincerity of his answer than the sincerity of LKY's.

A man of contradictions

Yes, Mahathir is a man of contradictions. And especially for the sympathetic Western journalist, the effort to scope out this complex Machiavellian Muslim was made much more difficult by his troubling - and dreary - attacks on Jews and Israel, just about whenever he needed someone to blame with whose demonisation his constituency would have no special quarrel.

But he jabbed at this convenient punching bag too much, whatever the demands of domestic politics. So is he in fact an anti-Semite?

It was difficult, sitting in his stratospheric office in Petronas Tower One, or in his Perdana Foundation crib in Putrajaya, to imagine this clever, sophisticated man as out-and-out anti-Semitic. Others share this doubt, too.

Consider the judgment of former Asian Wall Street Journal editor Barry Wain, in his rigorously detailed, scholarly bestseller 'Malaysian Maverick' (2009): “…Almost no one who knew him well or observed him at close range for any length of time believed he was anti-Semitic.”

That Mahathir resorted to seemingly anti-Semitic language proves to me not that he has anti-Semite sentiments but that he was a Muslim Machiavellian. He used whatever tools, rhetorical or whatever, he could get his hands to keep his people and his party with him - and his country moving forward.

The bottom line is that Mahathir's 22-years of moderate Muslim Machiavellianism left behind a country far more developed than it was in 1982 when his reign began. His successors are now notably hard-pressed to maintain the same pace.

They also seem hard-pressed to keep Malaysia as calm and productive. Dr M himself expresses enormous satisfaction that, during his time, all more or less remained quiet on the ethnic and religious tension front.

He imagines that he helped position the country somewhere between Turkey, on the one hand, and Iran on the other. That made great sense. It's doubtful that a rigidly secular governance approach would work for Malaysia, or that a purely Islamic Republic of the Iran variety would be remotely good for it.

Malaysia, for all its problems, is admired internationally precisely because of its moderate Muslim modernisation. Can anyone imagine Malaysia erupting in the manner of Egypt? Certainly it could not have happened on Dr M's watch.

Construct this notion in another, even more provocative way: Can anyone imagine Egypt coming to a stop, as it has this past week, if its leader these past decades had not been the clumsy Hosni Mubarak but the clever Mahathir Mohamad? This is the implicit thesis of my new book 'Conversations With Mahathir Mohamad', and it offers significant international implications.

It is time for Malaysians to give this devil his due.

Professor TOM PLATE is author of 'Conversations With Mahathir Mohamad', just published by Marshall Cavendish, and is the newly appointed distinguished scholar of Asian and Pacific Studies at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. He is a veteran American journalist whose regularly syndicated columns on Asia, since 1996, have appeared in newspapers around the world. The next 'Giants of Asia' book will focus on Thaksin Sinawatra, until the 2006 coup in Thailand that country's longest running democratically elected prime minister.

Dr Mahathir's View, Dr Dzul's View. But What Do Most Malays See?

Why do I get the feeling that more and more people just want Dr Mahathir to shut up? More often than not, he now sounds like a small kid throwing tantrums but he is actually a senile, cantankerous old man bent on seeking lost glory. We seem to be getting a peek into what will be considered his legacy in the ensuing pages of history...it does not look as good as he may want it. Are his patients or is it patience that is running thin?

Please read:

Mahathir’s intriguing rhetoric of Malaysia-belongs-to-Malays

FEBRUARY 5, 2011 by Dr. Dzul
* Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad is a member of Pakatan Rakyat’s secretariat and MP for Kuala Selangor. * The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist first posted in The Malaysianinsiders.

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FEB 4 — You have asked me to write on a difficult subject and answer a thorny question especially coming close to a general election and after the defeat in Tenang.

It’s alright with Tun Mahathir and for that matter even with PM Najib.They could say the darnest things and yet could later turn and twist to escape unscratched and invariably scot-free. Not with us, lesser mortals, we will be criminalised especially by none other than people like you, the media.

I will say my piece, nonetheless, without fear or favour again. This is the most dangerous part of it. On the back of a perceived dwindling of the Malay support, my audacious attempt at taking the bull-by-the-horn type of response might not concur well with conventional Malay wisdom in politics.

Being very objective, as I usually do, I’ve no qualm to again concur with anyone, that this nation, originally, has a lot more to do with Malays more than Indians or Chinese.

Since time immemorial, Western chroniclers have described this part of the world as Malay Archipelago while the Greek geographers, dated a lot earlier, described the Peninsular Malaya as the Golden Chersonese as gold is found here to this day.

That is as much as I would like to talk about the “Malayness” of this beloved country of ours at this critical juncture of our much embattled nation. Going beyond, which I very well could do, will embroil me in an unending claims and counter-claim, a debate I don’t wish to be part of.

But the most paradoxical thing about this debate is “Why Mahathir is insisting on this dialectic or divide, when he should be openly supporting Najib, ostensibly his protégé, on his 1-Malaysia rhetoric”.

This is the crux of the matter, the bone of contention and the climax of hypocrisy of the living Umno elites namely the combination of Najib and Mahathir!

Frankly, this is their drama or soap-opera in securing power and putting the Pakatan at bay. It’s a double-game of sort, a double-speak in its highest order. It is simply a case of downright greed – wanting to eat the cake and keeping it. It might have worked before, during lesser enlightened time of the Old Politics, but no longer now under the rubric of the New Politics!

Mahathir’s rhetoric that this country belongs to the Malays ie others are less-than-equal as Malays are more-equal-than others, ensures Umno will endear and entrench further the ‘gullible’ Malay support.

Meanwhile Najib’s 1-Malaysia is meant to hoodwink the ‘gullible’ Chinese and Indians (of MCA-Gerakan and MIC members and well-wishers respectively) into believing that they are equally Malaysians, as this country also belongs to them, apparently oblivious of the fact that are relegated as ‘second-class’ in the strictest sense of Mahathir’s worldview.

What a farce and a hypocrisy!

Be that as it may, PAS/Pakatan is not into such game and publicity stunt.

I for one, would like to believe that the issue of the special position of Malays and the (natives) bumiputera of the states of Sabah and Sarawak, must be read together with equal emphasis, with the legitimate interests of other communities ias enshrined in the Article 153 of the Federal Constitution.

That’s perhaps the greatest safeguard for all! Pakatan and PAS have no problem with that at all. In all conviction, this has become one of our ‘cardinal’ pillars of our Common Policy Framework (CPF). That’s the greatest security to Malays while simultaneously upholding the legitimate rights of all races.

Malays must not succumb into Umno’s machination that Pakatan would forsake their special position for fear of the DAP and the other ethnic groups. Umno is evidently preying on Malays’ fear.

Yes, we are also unlike Umno in the BN, acting as Tuan and Boss to others and at whims and fancy, dispensing orders for others to toe their line. On the contrary Pakatan’s CPF, achieved through consensus, upholds the cardinal articles of 153, 152 and article 3, without much qualms and misgivings by all our partners. Being a member of the Secretariat, I say it again in full conviction and earnestness. I see the undivided commitment and relentless effort by all.

Back to the argument, it is all the better, as it’s the ordained role of the Constitutional Monarch, who must see to that all these communities be accorded their special position and interest, as it is the responsibility of the yang DiPertuan Agong as enshrined in the article 153 of the FC.

It is my conviction that only in a government that is committed to a fair play, that encourages the true spirit and practice of Equality, that respect affirmative actions where it is deemed necessary on a needs-basis (and not abusing it), that is foremost in enhancing true entrepreneurship and competitiveness and debunks all forms of race-base politics and religious bigotry, will we actually see the uplifting and realising of the bigger agenda of genuine reform and nation rebuilding in a complex plural society like ours.

It is ingrained in the rhetoric of Mahathir’s Malaysia-belongs-to-Malays that has in fact encouraged the racial slurs of politicians and a few Umno-inclined bureaucrats alike. It is this ‘supremacy (Ketuanan) worldview’ that continues to disable Najib’s 1-Malaysia and triggers its penchant for flip-flopping, hence making it sounds shallow and hollow while stifling genuine reform and change in this nation.

The rakyat must be single-minded on debunking hypocrisy and in not allowing unscrupulous double-speaking and self-serving politicians, both past and present, from both divides, to further divide us in any divisive diabolical design of race-based politics, religious bigotry, rampant cronyism and endemic corruption and wasteful extravaganza that we could ill-afford.

Isn’t Mahathir-Najib’s Umno creating the very thing they purport to fear? That is creating ‘divisive’ plans and sustaining power through well contrived divisive strategies. Isn’t that the accusation of Mahathir and Najib towards Tok Guru Nik Aziz and Anwar of dividing the Malays?

What has changed in 1 Malaysia, fellow Malaysians?

Attitudes And Fortitude

M Bakri Musa wrote: Malaysia in the Era of Globalization #51 Chapter Six: Malaysia: Assets and Liabilities. Enhancing Special Privileges.

Do click on the link to read the article.

The article was forwarded to one of the e-Groups I moderate by a member, "X" who is a retired senior officer in the armed forces. The following was the exchange which is the subject of the blogpost title, "Attitudes And Fortitude". Some parts have been removed for privacy reasons.

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Comment 1 (From Y, a senior government servant):

"Abang X,

This may sound like preaching but being very familiar with the communication laws (I was actively involved in their drafting and passing by Parliament), I want to remind members of the list that forwarding any material on line that is seditious in nature is a very serious offence, and it opens us all to the possibility of prosecution for participating in the propagation of seditious material. As such, I would like to state that as a list member, I disassociate myself completely from the material written by one Bakri Musa which ended in my inbox unsolicited.

Regards, Y"

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Comment 2 (From me as e-Group Moderator)

"Dear Y,

Thank you for the warning. I think we shall put a caveat in the e-Group web-page which is along the lines of your statement: “As such, I would like to state that as a list member, I disassociate myself completely from the material written by one Bakri Musa which ended in my inbox unsolicited.”

Hopefully that would provide some form of blanket immunity or panacea to members of the e-list. Personally, I hate to see freedom of speech being stifled in the name of sedition or fascism being cloaked in nationalism. There are opinions that the Sedition Act should be repealed.

Regards.

Cheah
Moderator"

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Comment 3 (From X)

"Dear Y & Cheah,

There is a clear escape clause for the elist which states " If it is offensive to you, then don't continue reading it".

Admittedly, I am on the distribution list of Dr. Bakri Musa. Today, the draconian Sedition Act is with utmost vulgarity and cowardice is thrown at me. Why did they not throw the shit at me when my life was "dihujung senapang" against the militants of the CPM, the enemy in the Congo, the Indons in Konfrantasi and the the PGRS in Sarawak? Do you, Y, by any chance believe that I have lost the conquest of fear? I have not lost my balls. The Sedition Act was a Colonial invention, and we are rather happy to perpetuate its backward and barbaric nature. That was how we had Tunisia and currently Tahrir in Egypt.

I remain,

Agi Idup Agi Ngelaban."

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Comment 4 (From me)

"Dear X,

Thanks for reminding us of the escape clause which I put in 8 years ago when I started this e-Group. Knowing the nature of (---), it was necessary. The following is the exact notice:
 
The rule of thumb is:
 
“if it is offensive to you, then don’t continue reading it”
“if you think it will offend most people here, then don’t post it”
 
Sort of looks like an irresistible force meeting an immovable object doesn’t it? Well it did not prevent us from being classified as “Adult Category” by Yahoo [I still blame (--) for this :o)] but life in here goes on.
 
Perhaps our eminent member here, the journalist (--) would like to share his opinion on the subject."

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Comment 5 (From Z, a Malaysian living in Singapore)

"Many decades/centuries ago, when religious groups were running the show at different corners on this earth, they also passed law such as death/jail for questioning “god” or the religious rituals or law (which were enacted to either keep the area of control in order OR to protect certain corrupted leaders)

One will see more laws will the ones in power are threatened."

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Comment 6 (From X)

"Dear Z,

In Malaysia, there is the actual Sedition Act which the civil servants as sycophantic mercenaries proudly amplified from what was inherited from the Colonial British. They automatically become immune to this barbarism coz they protect each other (re: Syed Hussein Al-Attas, Sociology of Corruption).The other phenomenon is that everything is seditious if you criticize Islam, including the use of Allah by non-Muslims or pray for your departed at the Tugu Negara.

My job, for the best part of my life, by blood and sweat was to ensure that Malaysians had a good sleep every night. Funny about life!? Some of us who carried weapons for the Country were better schooled and had better education that the Chief Secretaries of the Gormen. It tickled us when two of us - Tan Sris (--) and (--) were made Chief Secretaries. Civil servants shud not shake in their pants in fright that there is an anti-BN ghoul behind each tree in Malaysia. There is a factor in leadership called moral courage."

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Comment 7 (From me)

"Hear! Hear!"

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

Comment 8 (From Y)

"Hi Cheah and Abang X,

Your suggestion below might work but I'm not a lawyer so I don't know if it will.

But the other suggestion in another email to merely say 'delete if offensive' will not work in the case of seditious material especially against rulers.

I have read all the other 'hangat' responses as well and understand that people have varied feelings towards all happenings around us. Nonetheless, regardless of how one feels about certain situations, the law on online communication is what it is and the laws on rulers' rights also is what it is and still prevails.

Chatting over a drink or in one's home is one thing but forwarding such material online and the discussion of such privileges does render the sender/forwarder open to prosecution in this country.

It is of course every reader's choice to continue forwarding. I am merely protecting myself and tried to share some information that I happen to know. No one is obliged to follow it. As I said, I'm not preaching. Its everyone's choice if you wish to do first-hand research on the other side of prison walls.

Rgds, Y."

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Comment 9 (Also from Y)

"Abang X,

Pls read my final response to Cheah. Its as clear as clear can be. No one disputes your heroism and sacrifice just like that of every individual who helped this country develop one way or another, including even thru the exchange of emails such as these. Neither is there yet a perfect law in the world.

But one lives by rules until the rules change, then we live by those rules until they change and so life goes on.

Salam, Y."

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Comment 10 (From X)

"Dear Y,

I have taken the trouble to send Bakri Musa's article to my (--) colleague, and senior lawyer, Datuk (--) for his learned view if the ingredients of Musa's article contain any seditious part or parts. I have read it three times and could not find any seditious inclusions in it. I cannot understand how anyone can be spooked by it. They are all well considered propositions for a better Malaysia. Making royalty more acceptable to the rakyat is surely not seditious!!

Rithuan Tee bin Abdullah writes vicious anti-national postings, pro-Islam, pro-Perkasa, and BN in Utusan. There has been no redress of wrong. Blardy double-standards.

Btw, Dr Bakri Musa is a medical specialist and a prolific writer. He was MCKK."

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

Comment 11 (From Y)

"Hi Abang X,

Sabar ajelah. Many worse things in the world to worry about. Happy holidays. Y."

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Ends

Who Is This Guy, Capt. Iskandar Dzulkarnain?

Embarassing indeed! What is Mahathir today? Is the Mahathir of today the reason even his outspoken daughter Marina has become rather muted in cyberspace of late? Has a father's latest stance become indefensible even for his own daughter? Please read:

What an Embarrassment

Today, you are championing Malay Rights. You are angry that Non-Malays are questioning these rights. You are also angry that Malays themselves are questioning these so-called Rights. You want the other races to acknowledge that the Dominant Malays are the rightful heirs to this country called Malaysia. What an embarrassment to us Malays.
By Capt.Iskandar Dzulkarnain

Tun Dr Mahathir was Prime Minister of Malaysia for 22 years. All of us lived under his leadership during his tenure, and many of us have come to admire him and regard him with our deepest respect, for what he has done for the country. The Galleria Perdana in Langkawi is testimony to his achievements.

His Vision 2020, the Look East Policy, the Multimedia Super Corridor, the Internet and his efforts to industrialize the country has brought countless prosperity to our nation. We look upon him as the most successful leader since our nation's independence.

Lately, we see a sudden about turn to his speeches and rhetorics. Many who listened with interest to his sermons, is alarmed at the vast distortion of everything he has tried to impress upon us in the past. He is beginning to sound incoherent, with a tinge of cynicsm. The great empire you built in the last 22years is slowly unravelling, crumbling, torn assunder by the words that spews forth from your mouth. Everyone, who knows you in the past, is becoming dissapointed in what you hold dear to.

At your age, we expect the Grand Old Vizier with bottomless wisdom, intellect, and wide political experience to advise us, and tell us where we went wrong, and to correct us. To bring continuous change, to unite us, and to tell us that we are all Citizens of this great nation, to warn us of the pitfalls of racism, corruption and to protect this country from tearing itself apart.

Lately, many of your speeches has been met with apprehension, and later with disgust as you keep on levelling criticism on the different races. Even Singapore was not spared. Your latest speech that Malaysia belongs to the Malays, that Malays think 1Malaysia is about abolishing vernacular schools, and that Chinese and Indians think that 1Malaysia means abolishing Malay Rights, is really hurtful and hard to swallow. I really wonder what is going through the mind of this once Great man?

Today, you are championing Malay Rights. You are angry that Non-Malays are questioning these rights. You are also angry that Malays themselves are questioning these so-called Rights. You want the other races to acknowledge that the Dominant Malays are the rightful heirs to this country called Malaysia. What an embarrassment to us Malays.

What special rights are you talking about? If the Malays have benefited from it, and given us a window of opportunity, and an edge over others, why has the Malays not advanced any further? All these years, the bragging and the promises about Special Rights has only led us to acknowledge that it is only a big pie in the sky.

Through 3 generations, we have come to accept that we are all Malaysian Citizens, and everyone is equal to everyone, and now we find out that we indeed do have Special Rights accorded only to us, and not to the others. We must also fight for our Rights and not let the other community take it away from us. But what are these Rights??? If we had Special Rights, why are the Malays still lagging behind? Did anybody actually accorded the Malays these Rights in the past? Did the Malays reject these Rights, so much so that they are now living in utter poverty? Can someone start going around and bestow this Rights upon us right now? When are we going to get these Rights? As far as we know, we never had any Rights!!! Ony the Chinese and Indians think we have Special Rights.

Most Malays don't give two hoots about Tanah Melayu, Ketuanan Melayu or Special Rights, because it does not exist. We also got bored waiting for these rights to be transfered to us. We just want a decent life, job, a brighter, predictable future. And the Right to practice our Religion free of encumbrance. We are a loosely knitted race that comprises mixed Javanese, Sumatran, Indian, Hunanese, Thai, and Middle East blood bound together by our Religion Islam. And yet in the INTERLOK novel we branded other communities as Pariahs.

And if there is a Special Right, I think I would want to have the Right to mingle freely with our Chinese and Indian friends, step into a church and listen with interest to their choirs singing Christmas Carols, drop by a Chinese temple, and observe the monks chanting their mantras, or to an Indian Temple to see how they worship. And to drop by the Pub, for a glass of cold Coke, withourt feeling a little peculiar. I want the right to tell all our fellow citizens that we do not harbour any ill will against them, that we are just like them and that we will always stand by them.

22 years in power, and yet so many of our kin still live in misery. We are not asking for utter riches, just a decent life, but many Malays still lives in utter misery, and in such contrast to the Super rich UMNOPutras. And in the last election, many Malays were abandoning BN in droves, and now the ruling elite are not confident any more of retaining their power and has started to take drastic measures to regain their support.

Lastly, keep this in mind. There is no racism in Malaysia. 99 percent of Malaysians are not racist. We are too busy living our lives than to check on our neighbours. It is the one percent who is desperately clinging on to power, bent on staying, and who will do anything at any cost,even selling their souls to the devil, that is causing all this ruckus about Racism in this country. The one percent of Malays, Chinese and Indians who are about to be given the boot are shouting Ketuanan Melayu and Ketuanan What not!!

Malays, in their right minds are not going to support this bunch of losers. That is why they say that the Malays are split between UMNO and PAS. And the blame was put on poor old Nik Aziz, who became the scapegoat for splitting the Malays.

They really must go!

Pre-CNY At Sham's Sanctuary Last Weekend

Tiger Putera Colonel Mike Naser and His Merry Men again organized a wonderful weekend of camaraderie, food and drink at Ulu Langat last week (Friday 28th to Sunday 30th January). OP Syam and wife Annie were as usual, wonderful hosts at Sham's Sanctuary. 

This time around there was a difference; Saturday (29th January) lunch was at the Veg Fish Farm Thai Restaurant (a couple of reviews here, and here) nearby and we were supposed to be joined by more than 20 other people.

The 18 year old restaurant was a surprise; I had not heard of it before even after having lived in the Ampang area for more than 20 years! It is definitely well-worth a re-visit. We ended up with almost 30 people for lunch that day including 3 Female Tigers; Liz Tan, Liew Suet Fun and Chris Cheng.

Photos of dishes at Veg Fish Farm Thai Restaurant courtesy of the stated bloggers: