The Nocturnal Mind

If Beer Be The Food Of Life; Drink On!

2012-01-28T12:08:00.000+08:00

Beer Glorious Beer!!!

10 Surprising Health Benefits of Beer

Beer drinkers rejoice: Your favorite brew may be healthier than you think.

For years, wine drinkers have indulged without guilt, reveling in the news that red wine can help protect against heart disease. Recent research shows that beer can also be good for what ails you, from reducing risk for broken bones to helping warding off diabetes and mental decline. It can even increase longevity, a large study suggests.

However, the key to tapping into beer’s benefits is moderation, meaning just one 12-ounce beer per day for women and two for men. Heavy drinking ups the threat of liver damage, some cancers, and heart problems. Bingeing on brewskis can also make you fat, since a 12-ounce regular beer has about 150 calories, while light beer has about 100.

Here are 10 surprising—and healthy—reasons to cheer about your next beer.

1. Stronger Bones

Beer contains high levels of silicon, which is linked to bone health. In a 2009 study at Tufts University and other centers, older men and women who swigged one or two drinks daily had higher bone density, with the greatest benefits found in those who favored beer or wine. However, downing more than two drinks was linked to increased risk for fractures.

For the best bone-building benefits, reach for pale ale, since a 2010 study of 100 types of beer from around the word identified these brews as richest in silicon, while light lagers and non-alcoholic beers
contained the least.

2. A Stronger Heart

A 2011 analysis of 16 earlier studies involving more than 200,000 people, conducted by researchers at Italy’s Fondazion di Ricerca e Cura, found a 31 percent reduced risk of heart disease in those who quaffed about a pint of beer daily, while risk surged in those who guzzled higher amounts of alcohol, whether beer, wine, or spirits.

More than 100 studies also show that moderate drinking trims risk of heart attacks and dying from cardiovascular disease by 25 to 40 percent, Harvard reports. A beer or two a day can help raise levels of HDL, the “good” cholesterol that helps keep arteries from getting clogged.

3. Healthier Kidneys

A study in Finland singled out beer among other alcoholic drinks, finding that each bottle of beer men drank daily lowered their risk of developing kidney stones by 40 percent. One theory is that beer’s high
water content helped keep kidneys working, since dehydration increases kidney stone risk.

It’s also possible that the hops in beer help curb leeching of calcium from bones; that “lost” calcium also could end up in the kidneys as stones.

4. Boosting Brain Health

A beer a day may help keep Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia at bay, researchers say.

A 2005 study tracking the health of 11,000 older women showed that moderate drinkers (those who consumed about one drink a day) lowered their risk of mental decline by as much as 20 percent, compared to non-drinkers. In addition, older women who downed a drink a day scored as about 18 months “younger,” on average, on tests of mental skills than the non-drinkers.

5. Reduced Cancer Risk

A Portuguese study found that marinating steak in beer eliminates almost 70 percent of the carcinogens, called heterocyclic amines (HCAs) produced when the meat is pan-fried. Researchers theorize that beer’s
sugars help block HCAs from forming.

Scientists also have found that beer and wine contain about the same levels of antioxidants, but the antioxidants are different because the flavonoids found in hops and grapes are different.

6. Boosting Vitamin Levels

A Dutch study, performed at the TNO Nutrition and Food Research Institute, found that beer-drinking participants had 30 percent higher levels of vitamin B6 levels in their blood than their non-drinking
counterparts, and twice as much as wine drinkers. Beer also contains vitamin B12 and folic acid.

7. Guarding Against Stroke

Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health found that moderate amounts of alcohol, including beer, help prevent blood clots that block blood flow to the heart, neck and brain—the clots that cause ischemic stroke, the most common type.

8. Reduced Risk for Diabetes

Drink up: A 2011 Harvard study of about 38,000 middle-aged men found that when those who only drank occasionally raised their alcohol intake to one to two beers or other drinks daily, their risk of developing type 2 diabetes dropped by 25 percent. The researchers found no benefit to quaffing more than two drinks. The researchers found that alcohol increases insulin sensitivity, thus helping protect against diabetes.

9. Lower Blood Pressure

Wine is fine for your heart, but beer may be even better: A Harvard study of 70,000 women ages 25 to 40 found that moderate beer drinkers were less likely to develop high blood pressure—a major risk factor for
heart attack—than women who sipped wine or spirits.

10. Longer Life

In a 2005 review of 50 studies, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported that moderate drinkers live longer. The USDA also estimates that moderate drinking prevents about 26,000 deaths a year,
due to lower rates of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes.

These benefits appear to apply in other countries as well, with an earlier study reporting that, “if European beer drinkers stopped imbibing, there would be a decrease in life expectancy of two years—and much unhappiness.”

Awesome: Protest Against New Internet Laws Shows Quick Results

2012-01-21T10:19:00.006+08:00

Stop Online Piracy Act and/or Protect Intellectual Property Act (SOPA and/or PIPA). I can only imagine what some imagination can do to drive Bersih 3.0 and ABU in Malaysia. Thanks Lita for this Rachel Maddow Show heads up.

CNN: SOPA and PIPA postponed indefinitely after protests

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- When the entire Internet gets angry, Congress takes notice. Both the House and the Senate on Friday backed away from a pair of controversial anti-piracy bills, tossing them into limbo and throwing doubt on their future viability.

The Senate had been scheduled to hold a proceedural vote next week on whether to take up the Protect IP Act (PIPA) -- a bill that once had widespread, bipartisan support. But on Friday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he was postponing the vote "in light of recent events."

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives said it is putting on hold its version of the bill, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). The House will "postpone consideration of the legislation until there is wider agreement on a solution," House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith said in a written statement.

The moves came after several lawmakers flipped their position on the bills in the wake of widespread online and offline protests against them.

Tech companies, who largely oppose the bills, mobilized their users this week to contact representatives and speak out against the legislation. Sites including Wikipedia and Reddit launched site blackouts on January 18, while protesters hit the streets in New York, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C. Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) drew more than 7 million signatures for an anti-SOPA and PIPA petition that it linked on its highly trafficked homepage.

The tide turned soon after the protest, and both bills lost some of their Congressional backers.

"I have heard from the critics and I take seriously their concerns," Smith said Friday in a prepared statement. "It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves."

PIPA and SOPA aim to crack down on copyright infringement by restricting access and services to sites that host or facilitate the trading of pirated content.

Backed by media companies, including CNNMoney parent Time Warner, the bills initially seemed on the fast track to passage. PIPA was approved unanimously by a Senate committee in May.

But when the House took up its own version of the bill, SOPA, tech companies began lobbying heavily in opposition -- an effort that culminated in this week's demonstrations.

Reid hinted that PIPA may not be dead yet, saying: "There is no reason that the legitimate issues raised by many about this bill cannot be resolved."

Meanwhile, alternative legislation has also been proposed. A bipartisan group of senators introduced the Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade Act (OPEN) on January 18 -- the same day as the Wikipedia site blackout.

Among other differences, OPEN offers more protection than SOPA would to sites accused of hosting pirated content. It also beefs up the enforcement process. It would allow digital rights holders to bring cases before the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), an independent agency that handles trademark infringement and other trade disputes.

California Republican Darrell Issa introduced OPEN in the House, and Oregon Democrat Ron Wyden introduced the Senate version. OPEN's backers had posted the draft legislation online and invited the Web community to comment on and revise the proposal.

Soon after SOPA and PIPA were tabled, Issa released a statement cheering "supporters of the Internet" for their protest efforts.

He wrote: "Over the last two months, the intense popular effort to stop SOPA and PIPA has defeated an effort that once looked unstoppable but lacked a fundamental understanding of how Internet technologies work."

Anonymous strikes back after feds shut down piracy hub Megaupload

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- In one of the U.S. government's largest anti-piracy crackdowns ever, federal agents on Thursday arrested the leaders of and shut down Megaupload.com, a popular hub for illegal media downloads.

Hours later, Megaupload's fans turned the table on the feds. "Hacktivist" collective Anonymous said it set its sights on the U.S. Department of Justice and apparently knocked the agency's website offline.

"We are having website problems, but we're not sure what it's from," a DOJ spokeswoman told CNNMoney.

The DOJ website glitches came soon after various Twitter accounts associated with Anonymous took aim at the agency.

Anonymous's favorite weapon for these attacks is what's called a "distributed denial of service" (DDoS) attack, which directs a flood of traffic to a website and temporarily crashes it by overwhelming its servers. It doesn't actually involve any hacking or security breaches.

"One thing is certain: EXPECT US! #Megaupload" read one tweet from AnonOps that went out mid-afternoon.

One hour later, the same account tweeted a victory message: "Tango down! http://universalmusic.com & http://www.justice.gov// #Megaupload"

It was the largest attack ever by Anonymous, according to an Anonymous representative, with 5,635 people using a networking tool called a "low orbit ion cannon." A LOIC is software tool that aims a massive flood of traffic at a targeted site.

Universal Music's website also went down Thursday afternoon. The music company had been locked in a legal battle with Megaupload over a YouTube video that featured many of Universal Music's signed artists promoting Megaupload's site.

The websites of the Recording Industry Association of America and Motion Picture Association of America went down Thursday afternoon as well. On Twitter, AnonOps -- one of the main communications channels for the leaderless Anonymous collective -- took credit for the crashes.

An RIAA spokesman confirmed that the organization's website was intermittently offline. But he cast the attack as a minor hiccup.

"The fact that a couple of sites might have been taken down is really ancillary to the significant news today that the Justice Department brought down one of the world's most notorious file sharing hubs," he said.

By Friday morning, all but one of the subjects of Anonymous' attack were back online -- including the FBI's website, Warner Music Group and the U.S. Copyright Office. Only Universal Music remained unavailable, as the company took the site down for "maintenance."

A piracy crackdown: The Anonymous attack came soon after the DOJ announced the indictment of seven individuals connected to Megaupload for allegedly operating an "international organized criminal enterprise responsible for massive worldwide online piracy of copyrighted works."

Authorities said the operation had generated more than $175 million in illegal profits through advertising revenue and the sale of premium memberships.

According to the indictment, Megaupload, which launched in 2005, was once the 13th most visited website on the Internet, serving as a hub for distribution of copyrighted television shows, images, computer software and video games.

The site's popular MegaVideo subsidiary was widely known in tech circles for its copious selection of pirated content, including recent movies and episodes of hit TV shows.

Four of those indicted were arrested Thursday in Auckland, New Zealand, at the request of the U.S. Three others remain at large.

The individuals indicted are citizens of New Zealand, Germany, Slovakia and the Netherlands. No U.S. citizens were named. However, Megaupload has servers in Ashburn, Va., and Washington D.C., which prompted the Virginia-based investigation.

To shut down Megaupload, federal authorities executed 20 search warrants in eight countries, seizing 18 domain names and $50 million worth of assets, including servers located in Virginia, Washington, the Netherlands and Canada.

The news comes as lawmakers have turned their attention to anti-piracy legislation. Protests erupted both online and offline this week against two bills currently under consideration in Congress: the House's Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Senate's Protect IP Act (PIPA).

The bills are aimed at cracking down on copyright infringement by restricting access to sites that host or facilitate the trading of pirated content. But the legislation has created a divide between tech giants, who say the language is too broad, and large media companies, who say they are losing millions each year to rampant online piracy.

RPK the Benedict Arnold? Think Again.

2012-01-06T23:04:00.006+08:00

Having met RPK fleetingly on a few occasions, I cannot claim to know him personally. I probably know his wife better if only for the couple of conversations I shared with her about her role as spouse and soul mate of the man that is RPK.

RPK's latest shenanigan has invoked much anger among those who hope for positive political and social change in Malaysia. I think this is mainly out of fear and uncertainty that somehow his latest tirade will upset the apple cart and consequence in BN renewing its mandate. For all we know, this might well happen.

However, I would rather think that RPK has up the ante for Anwar and PKR for all their transgressions and omissions since March 2008. Anwar has not shown himself to be a visionary leader that we yearn for but continues to play on opposition sentiments for ABU-BN. PKR in turn remains haunted by controversy and that hard-to-shake, "party of BN also-rans" label. But notice that RPK is just training his guns on only Anwar, PKR and Selangor with nothing on PAS, DAP nor Kelantan, Kedah and Penang.

What RPK said in the last few days is nothing new and I dare say they are even things that are at the tongue tips of many of Anwar’s PR colleagues. My observation is premised on the fact that no one from PAS or DAP has weighed in with violent defence of Anwar against RPK’s allegations. The silence reverberates.

How has RPK raised the ante for Anwar and PKR? Well, for starters Anwar (and I mean also PKR) can no longer be passive and merely depend on sentiments to drive their political ambitions forward. I heard Anwar's speech at the Kelana Jaya Stadium rally the few days before what was to be All Frogs Day on 16th September 2008 and went away wanting. Anwar remains the same Anwar today.

It is ok to continue hammering on BN faults but the chameleon that is Anwar has never cast in stone exactly what he will do to make Malaysian society truly plural, inclusive and progressive. In most of his speeches he has not even emphasized the ideals and commitments of the PR Buku Jingga which at the end of the day is all too easy to subvert. Have all PR component parties reaffirmed their commitment to Zaid's (well, there are those who say it is his) Common Policy Platform? All it needs is for a split in PR for things to revert to BN style race politics. Go ask the likes of Hasan Ali and Nasharuddin Mat Isa. There are no concrete plans but mere rhetoric. Google and prove me wrong.

Second is that he has openly brought Anwar’s image down a few pegs and made Malaysians confront the real possibility of Malaysian opposition politics without Anwar. Suddenly, other options become realistic if not more palatable. Is Anwar really the only "semen-ting" factor (pun intended) uniting PR component parties?

Thirdly, RPK has taken the “Anything” in Anything But UMNO-BN (ABU-BN) and made us think deeper; are we to accept just anything? Anwar whether he likes it or not will need to show us that anything really means something. The 100-Day Buku Jingga reform timeline or nothing! Can the nation survive another five years of pedantic reform initiatives? PR must tell us what will be done exactly before we cast our votes to give PR two-thirds majority.

Just remember that PR parties resoundingly adopted the civil society crafted document, The People’s Declaration (The People’s Mission and The People’s Plan) as its joint manifesto for GE12. What has happened till now? Much of it has become the Buku Jingga; it appears branding is just as important in politics as in marketing. The credits are now different.

Ask who actually drafted the People’s Declaration. It was probably not just one person and you can bet your last dollar that RPK and Haris Ibrahim were not too far away!

With all the recent controversy that surrounds accusations of RPK doing a Benedict Arnold I would like to recall the writings of RPK that had nothing to do with politics but on a value system he personally and strongly professes. You can check out the archives of MT for them. Whatever you may think of him, I am still convinced RPK remains a decent human being.

Sparking A Shift?

2012-01-04T17:27:00.003+08:00

Update; 27th January 2012:
This was in the Malaysian Insider - Kit Siang: More Malays will join DAP

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 26 — Lim Kit Siang predicted that the Malay influx into DAP will continue, in spite of the party being branded “Chinese chauvinist” and anti-Malay.

Anticipating already the wrath of Barisan Nasional’s (BN) key leaders — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his deputy Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin in particular — over his prognosis, the DAP veteran forewarned them today that “no force in the world” could stop Malays flocking to DAP.

“Let me inform the Umno leaders that this is the tide of the times and no force in the world can stop more Malays joining up with other Malaysians from other ethnicities in DAP to build a common destiny as Malaysian citizens for future generations of Malaysians,” he wrote in a statement here.

The Ipoh Timor MP then cited examples of DAP’s latest members — well-known Malay opinion leaders like former Utusan Malaysia journalist Hata Wahari and bloggers Mohd Arif Sabri and Aspan Alias, all of whom recently announced their loyalty to the largely Chinese-dominated party.

“Umno Youth leader Khairy Jamaluddin was sufficiently upset at Malays joining DAP as to even come out with a public statement,” Lim (picture) scoffed.

He stressed that since DAP’s formation more than four decades ago, the party had always been committed to its multiracial cause and had always been the forerunner of the 1 Malaysia policy, just recently mooted by Najib when he became prime minister in 2009.

DAP, added Lim, had never been anti-Malay, anti-Islam or anti-Malay Rulers and was merely labelled as such due to the “political insecurities of Umno leaders”.

“They (Umno) have subjected the DAP to an unrelenting assault with lies and falsehoods — as in the irresponsible exploitation of the 3R cards of race, religion and raja Melayu against the DAP by both Najib and Muhyiddin at the recent Umno general assembly,” he said.

To prove DAP’s multiracial stance, Lim pointed out that the party had never before been hauled in to face the Registrar of Societies for violating Section 2A (1) of the Societies Act 1966, which prohibits organisations from violating the Federal Constitution.

“DAP will be celebrating our 46th anniversary on March 18, and during the four-and-a-half decade of our struggle, DAP had never been once asked by the Registrar of Societies to show cause why we should not be deregistered for opposing or undermining the fundamental features of the Constitution, whether with regard to Islam as the official religion or the system of constitutional monarchy,” he said.

********************************************
I have followed Dato' Ariff Sabri's blog Sakmongkol AK47 since its inception and I dare say his move to DAP was not unexpected. This guy is no pushover and can be considered a great coup for DAP. However, the more crucial question would be why did he not move to PKR instead? The answer to this is as relevant to the changing mindset of many intellectual Malays as it is to the nature of the PKR beast today. More non-PKR and non-PAS Malays who clamor for change should consider following Sakmongkol AK47's lead.

The DAP in turn should not go to town with this latest recruitment but just maintain its characteristic bland, no-nonsense approach to nation building. In any case, this article by Dato' Ariff is as good a write-up as any on the DAP.

Malays should not fear the DAP

I am not going to respond to the xenophobic responses around news that Aspan Alias and Sakmongkol are about to join DAP. No explanation will be able to change preconceived biases. So why bother? So we are about to join or have joined DAP.

The DAP is a democratic party committed to the rule of law, good governance and good government. It abhors corruption and abuse of political office. To me those are attractive propositions. UMNO on the other hand has turned its back on these. It harps only on one primal worry of Malays- when UMNO is threatened it shares the threat with Malays at large. So a threat to UMNO is translated mindlessly into a threat to Malays as a whole. Nothing can be farther from the truth. That is how UMNO has approached politics in Malaysia basically- make its fears public, make the gains private for selected Malays within UMNO.

I have only one message to that- those salad days and that halcyon period are over.

UMNO is trapped by its own successes. Indeed its supporters and leaders assume ownership of the wrong things and end up digging in to support the wrong choices.

My answer is, if we do indeed change our political vehicle that is what we are actually doing. Don’t read our move as blasphemous or treasonable. The DAP is more relevant and functional in achieving a more democratic and abuse-free society. As a Muslim, we are changing wadah not aqidah.

So, I thought it would be more substantive to answer my critics by writing an article, why shouldn’t Malays embrace DAP politics? That’s the only way to dominate and conquer your fears.

How has DAP politics been inimical to the general political health of this country? Can any DAP Chinese leader be a PM when it’s contesting only at most 50-55 seats? Can any DAP non Malay leader harbor the dream of becoming a PM in a country dominated by Malays? Has the DAP threatened the institution of Malay rulers? DAP has never done that or will not be mad to countenance such rebellious idea, but UMNO on the other hand has insulted the Malay rulers way back in 1998 constitutional crisis. Can we reasonably accept the allegation that the DAP is instrumental in claims that Malays are being converted into Christians when most DAP members are not themselves Christians? We have to do better than that to take Malays as imbeciles. Only UMNO seems to do that.

But DAP is Chinese chauvinist party and anti-Malay. I will answer by examining the deeds rather than slogans. When I was an ADUN in the Pahang Legislative assembly ( 2004-2008) I have never heard the lone DAP member ever speak about anti Malay themes. He spoke about abuse of power, about mindless spending, he spoke about maladministration. The first book Lim Kit Siang writes that I read was Time Bombs in Malaysia. After that I read so many books written by Kit Siang that touched on the Maika Scandals, the BMF financial scandal and so on. If we are honest enough, we have to admit, the issues raised were never about one race dominating the other but were always about the abuses of those in power, corruption, and a continuous attack on policies that are ruinous to this country. So we are going to oppose Kit Siang on the basis of the fact that these things are spoken of by a Chinaman?

To the Chinese UMNO is also a chauvinist Malay party except, their leaders can be easily bought. The Malay will sell all to abandon their cause. Er…correction, the UMNO Malay, I mean.

I would also like to respond by saying- why Malays should consider joining DAP en masse. It’s a party committed to democratic principles and rule of law. I can only imagine, so many can prosper under a regime of freedom of speech within DAP. I can speak on the plight of the displaced and disowned Malays with more energy than allowed of in UMNO. The interest of Malays can be fought of on any political platform other than UMNO. That is what UMNO fears. Its monopoly is broken.

So the past week I have had many friends calling me asking whether it’s true I am joining DAP? Some folks in my hometown, Pekan refer to me now as Dato DAP. I find the responses somewhat amusing and comical.

There was a comment reminding me and Aspan as to who started May 13? The thrust of that reminder is to remind us; of his and others belief that DAP started the May 13 incident.

Ok, you want to play ball, we play ball too. Since you want to know, what if I say Tun Razak allowed it to happen because the ensuing troubles would give him an excuse to kick out Tengku Abdul Rahman? The point is, there was no single contributor to the May 13 incident. But I would place some blame on Tun Razak who as Home Minister allowed things to degenerate. He allowed it so that a proclamation of emergency can be made.

Finally, let me deal with certain responses from certain pro UMNO bloggers. The chief spokesman is of course that paid lackey and buffoon of a regurgitating machine. He does nothing but regurgitate material passed on to him by his paymasters. The material he writes and posts therefore emits the strong smell of vomit. The owner of the lard layered brain does what he does best- spewing personal attacks. And so he invites comments from likeminded mental gnomes to do what he has orchestrated.

Why the paranoia? If we are not good, failed ADUN, bankrupt politicians, it will be cinch for any winnable UMNO candidates to beat us. So, it’s no cause of concern or a sleep depriver. But please remember to stop telling lies about us so that we can promise not to tell the truth about you.

I see a sense of hopelessness. They cannot attack our nationalist credentials because we are as Malay as they are too ( to some we are , in fact more Malay in appearance and in thinking) – so they do what they do best. Attack me on the personal side. No big deal. My advice to these UMNO bloggers is simple. Please stop telling lies about me, and I promise not to tell the truth about you people. And telling the truth about you people includes telling the truth about top UMNO leaders including the PM who is Pekan UMNO division head.

If we are so easily beatable, then why all the fuss? We can’t do damage to invincible UMNO. We on the other hand, see UMNO as the party before, presently and forever stealing, pillaging and ruining the country.

2012

2012-01-01T00:38:00.002+08:00

Another day, another year...and some say, heralding a new age of human awakening and consciousness.

Voters' Guide To Ballot Box Decisions.

2011-12-15T12:47:00.000+08:00

Cukup lah! Enough is Enough! This set of videos from The People's Parliament needs to be watched by all Malaysians before we decide whether enough is enough or we want more of the same. Please circulate.

IMHO, LOL, LMAO, and All That Shit...BTW BRB

2011-12-12T14:50:00.000+08:00

This says it...

Checkmate!!!

2011-11-23T02:40:00.002+08:00

Making sense of nonsense
by Mohd. Kamal bin Abdullah

So, YB, are you going to now issue a statement saying that you made an error and that only anal and oral sex are crimes whereas gay relationships are not a crime according to Malaysian law? And if people live together as gay couples and only kiss, hug, touch, rub against each other, masturbate each other, but as long as there is no anal or oral sex, then the government can’t do anything about it?

NO HOLDS BARRED
Raja Petra Kamarudin

Malaysia Today: First of all, Yang Berhormat, thank you so much for agreeing to this interview.

Yang Berhormat: I am always happy to talk to the media, even opposition media like Malaysia Today, which never reports the truth and always twists and distorts what we say.

MT: Well, YB, we are here today so that you can clarify what you actually said and which you claim has been misreported. You can also take this opportunity to clarify government policy and clear whatever misconceptions or wrong perceptions the public may have. And I promise you, YB, Malaysia Today will report exactly what you said without any editing.

YB: Thank you. That is very comforting to hear. First of all, I want the readers to know that I never said that homosexuality is against the Federal Constitution. I said it is against the law.

MT: Yes, that is now very clear. In fact, earlier today, Malaysia Today published your clarification and rebuttal. So we are not really as unfair as some allege, YB.

YB: Good. And thank you. At least Malaysia Today allows both sides of the story, not like some other opposition newspapers that only report bad things about the government.

MT: Actually Malaysia Today is not a newspaper and neither is it opposition owned. Malaysia Today is a sounding board for Malaysians to express their unhappiness with both the government and the opposition. Anyway, that is not the point, YB. What we want to talk about today is your statement regarding homosexuality being against the law. You quoted the section of the law regarding sodomy. It talks about sodomy, not about homosexuality. That section of the law does not say that homosexuality is a crime. It only says that sodomy is a crime.

YB: It is automatic. If it involves homosexuality then automatically it involves sodomy.

MT: But, YB, that section of the law also makes it a crime for a husband and wife to have anal sex. So heterosexual anal sex also attracts a 20-year jail sentence, even if it is between legally married couples. Why did YB not also stress on this fact: that husbands and wives can also get sent to jail, not just homosexuals?

YB: We are not concerned about married couples and what they do in the privacy of their bedrooms. We are only concerned about what homosexuals do in the privacy of their bedrooms.

MT: But that is beside the point, YB. It is still the law that married couples who indulge in anal sex can be sent to jail for 20 years, until such a time that this law is amended and stipulates that anal sex is a crime only for those who indulge in same-sex relationships.

YB: How can we control what married people do in their bedrooms? It is impossible to monitor what people do in the privacy of their bedrooms.

MT: Yet the government wants to monitor what non-married people or gay couples do in the privacy of their bedrooms. How are you going to do this?

YB: Well…I….I….

MT: Never mind, YB. Let’s move on. The law says that anal sex is a crime. It does not say that homosexuality is a crime. What happens if two people of the same sex live as husband and wife but they do not indulge in anal sex? How can you arrest and charge them?

YB: How can they live together but not have sex?

MT: They can always indulge in oral sex, YB.

YB: You mean they live together as a married couple and just talk about sex? I don’t believe that.

MT: No, YB, I don’t mean oral sex as in talking about sex. I mean….well, you know YB…..lick, lick, suck, suck.

YB: Oh, that oral sex! Oral sex is also a crime. It is also punishable by 20 years jail, even if between husbands and wives.

MT: Okay, YB, you may be thinking of homosexual relationships as just being between two men. What if the homosexual relationship is between two women? Are you still going to say that it is a crime since there is no sodomy or anal sex involved? And take note, YB, that section of the law you are talking about makes it a crime to indulge in anal sex, not to be a homosexual.

YB: Well, if it is two women, then they probably have oral sex. So that means it is also a crime.

MT: So, it is the sex act that is the crime then. Being homosexual or living as a gay couple is not a crime. Is that right, YB?

YB: Well….yes, that is right.

MT: So, YB, are you going to now issue a statement saying that you made an error and that only anal and oral sex are crimes whereas gay relationships are not a crime according to Malaysian law? And if people live together as gay couples and only kiss, hug, touch, rub against each other, masturbate each other, but as long as there is no anal or oral sex, then the government can’t do anything about it?

YB: Well…I…..I….

MT: Never mind, YB, let’s move on. Let us now talk about non-Muslims, in particular Evangelists, preaching or propagating Christianity to Muslims, which has been an issue of late.

YB: Yes, according the Constitution that is wrong. So the government can take action.

MT: Okay, agreed. According to Article 11(4) of the constitution, it says: “State law and in respect of the Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur and Labuan, federal law may control or restrict the propagation of any religious doctrine or belief among persons professing the religion of Islam.” But what about if that person may have been born a Muslim but he later leaves Islam. That means you are technically no longer propagating to Muslims but to ex-Muslims.

YB: There is no such thing as ex-Muslims. Once you are born a Muslim or you convert to Islam then you are a Muslim forever until the day you die.

MT: But what are the criteria to be a Muslim?

YB: I don’t understand.

MT: Is it not compulsory that you believe in one God, Allah, and accept Muhammad as the last Prophet, the Quran as God’s word, and the belief in the Afterlife, and so on? And if you reject this doctrine then your akidah would be demolished and you would cease to be a Muslim?

YB: Yes, your akidah is important in Islam. If your akidah is defective then you are no longer a Muslim.

MT: So, if a Muslim says he does not believe that Muhammad is the last Prophet or he says he doubts that the Quran is from God but was in fact written by Muhammad’s people then he ceases to be a Muslim since he no longer has akidah.

YB: Yes.

MT: So where is the crime then if the Evangelists preach or propagate Christianity to these people since technically they are not Muslims any longer?

YB: Well….I….I….but still we can’t allow it. They may be ex-Muslims according to Islam but we still regard them as Muslims and will arrest them and send them for religious rehabilitation to try to bring them back to the right path.

MT: So the government regards them as non-Muslims or ex-Muslims but will not allow them to be non-Muslims or ex-Muslims and will arrest them and rehabilitate them and that is why Christians can’t preach to them or propagate Christianity to them?

YB: Yes, that is correct.

MT: Thank you, YB. We hope with this clarification Malaysians can now better understand how the mind of the Malaysian government works.

Who Dares Wins?

2011-11-08T04:37:00.002+08:00

See the look on Ambiga's face in the photo below. It was in Malaysiakini: "Police question Ambiga on Seksualiti Merdeka". The look alone says it all.

Police questioned former Bar Council president Ambiga Sreenevasan for up to half-an-hour today over her involvment in the Seksualiti Merdeka 2011 programme.

Four officers from Brickfields police station went to Tenaganita’s office in Petaling Jaya at 4.05pm, where Ambiga was present, to take her statement.

The Bersih 2.0 chairperson had been invited to officiate the programme, originally scheduled from Nov 9 to 13.

Present at the office were Tenaganita executive director Irene Fernandez (above, in red), Maria Chin Abdullah and one of the Seksualiti Merdeka organisers, Pang Khee Teik.

Marina Mahathir, daughter of former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, was also present in a show of support.

“Have we no shame in this country (to persecute the LGBT community)? Please show some caring for them,” Ambiga (left in photo, with Marina) told the media.

She also urged the mainstream media to report accurately on the issue.

Marina officiated event two years ago

Pang (photo below) said he handed over a letter for Inspector-General of Police Ismail Omar after his statement was recorded.

"We're seeking an audience with the IGP to clarify our objectives and to explain that we're not doing what the media claims we are," Pang said.

Marina, in expressing her support for Seksualiti Merdeka, said the festival was aimed at defending fundamental human rights.

"Two years ago I officiated at this event, without any problem. It only seeks to educate the marginalised community about their legal rights," Bernama quoted Marina as saying.

Seksualiti Merdeka is an annual festival celebrating the human rights of people of diverse sexual orientation and gender identity, organised by a loose coalition of NGOs, artistes, activists and individuals.

The festival programme includes forums, talks, workshops, book launches, an art exhibition and stage performances.

Meant to educate the LGBT community about its rights, the festival had been organised annually since 2008 without incident until now, its fourth instalment.

To live and love without fear

This year’s theme was to be ‘Queer Without Fear’, to “...highlight how homophobia and transphobia have negatively affected and continue to affect the lives of untold numbers of Malaysians who are discriminated against, and persecuted”, because of their sexual orientations and gender identities.

“It is our firm belief that all Malaysians have the right to live and love without fear,” say the organisers on the event website.

However, due to a sudden uproar against the event whipped up by certain Malay and Islamic NGOs, police banned the event and the organisers have since cancelled the week-long programme.

Arguing that sexual minorities are citizens too and have rights, just as any other Malaysian, Seksualiti Merdeka organisers have, in an earlier statement, said: “The false allegations and ill-intended remarks made to incite hatred against us are completely unjustified.

"They have further marginalised a group of Malaysians who have long suffered severe marginalisation in society."

J.J.'s Oktoberfest

2011-10-14T20:46:00.002+08:00

We were at COBRA Club last week and JJ was in The Star newspaper, Metro Section today:

They were doing the "Chicken Dance"...like this You Tube video:

Deficiency In Intellectual Honesty

2011-09-20T04:06:00.002+08:00

Courtesy of Malaysiakini:

Deficiency in intellectual honesty

AB Sulaiman
Sep 19, 11
12:43pm

COMMENT The collective Malay mind has been featured by conformity and guided by the collective or group mentality, where individuals are extorted to conform to group norms.

If the group will says something is white, then white it is; if it says turn left then turn left it is. There is otherwise no disagreement, no doubt, and no inquiry. There is no desire for intellectual honesty.

Something major is happening in this landscape. Its beginning could be since the time Malaysians have been privy to the Internet and social media like Twitter and Facebook. These modern channels have been tearing open and emancipating this mentality.

I relate a recent case by going back to Sept 13 when the venerableUtusan Malaysia printed six caricatures depicting the 'cruelties' of the communists in Malayan history. The cartoons were drawn by a retired cartoonist or illustrator Hamzah Mohd Amin and designed to expose 'communist cruelty' to ordinary people.

Among the most controversial of his artwork is a depiction of slant-eyed men in tan-coloured uniforms, waving weapons and forcing a group of Malay-looking (therefore Muslim) people to eat pork.

My point is that Hamzah's artwork reflects the prevailing conventional wisdom:

That the communists were Chinese;
The communists were also terrorists;
That the Chinese communist terrorists had committed various atrocities to the peace- loving Malay and Muslim community; and
There is no tolerance for the views of others.

"Today's generation does not know the hardships of life during the communist era. I worked to create the drawings a few weeks ago, so that they will be able to picture the cruelty of the communist and why we hate them," he was quoted as saying.

"Through the drawings, I hope that they will realise the cruelty of the communists and learn from it.”

The message in turn was clear enough: The standard stereotype that the communists were inflicting untold cruelty on gentle and pious (Malay-Muslim) citizens. The communists were taken as wholly Chinese: so hate the Chinese! Hate the communists! Also, wake up Malays and defend your agama, bangsa dan negara against the marauding Chinese and communists!

It's all hogwash of course. But until the recent past such sentiments were in vogue.

Not this time. Indeed this time around the messages conveyed by the series of cartoons received critical comments from the public. I take the liberty to quote some responses published in the 'comments' column in Malaysiakini.

'Anak Sabah1' chided the cartoonist: Hamzah, why don't you spend time drawing pictures of BN's corruption that will affect the future of your children? There are better ways to earn a living than working with Utusan to spew lies and affect your soul.

'Black Mamba' in turn challenged the notion that only the communists were cruel: Caricatures can be drawn too on how Altantuya was C4ed, how TBH was thrown down, how Kugan was tortured to death and how that Malay boy in Shah Alam was sprayed with bullets, Francis was thrown into Klang river, all these acts carried out by our uniformed men.

He ended with the telling statement: 'As if our government is not cruel.'

On the same wavelength 'Clean&Clear' stated: Yes, as a Malaysian Chinese, I am aware of the atrocities committed by the Communists and the hardships we had to go through. BUT, the cartoons above definitely have a racial overtone depicting as if the Communists were all Chinese and the victims were all Malays. We, Malaysian Chinese also fell victim to the Communists cruelty. So, it's NOT just one race that is the casualty during the Emergency period.

It's regrettable that the writers write behind some pseudonyms. But I share their sentiments and feel free quoting them virtually ad verbatim and inclusive of the emphasis. Thank you guys, whoever you are.

Personal viewpoint

The important point to note though is that Hamzah does not get away with his caricatures without any critical comment from the public; a case not at all possible a few years back.

I interpret this fresh new wind as akin to the changing of the baton from the old conforming to new inquiring era, from acceptance to analysis, from group demands to individual views.

Another tsunami-size status quo-breaking case is raging the same landscape right now. It came in the form of a fairly innocuous statement made by Mat Sabu about what is known as the Bukit Kepong incident.

According to the history books, policemen were defending a police station against attack made by a group of insurgents back in 1950. Apparently the policemen and some members of their families were killed. To historians the policemen were the heroes for defending the country against the communist insurgents, while the attackers were villains.

Mat Sabu, an up and coming PAS bigwig, claimed otherwise. To him the policemen were guarding the security line of the British colonial government and the attackers were akin to freedom fighters who wanted to see the end of colonial power. He was saying this in a most casual coffee shop-chatter way.

He was airing an alternative and personal viewpoint, different from the old established collective one.

But this off-the-cuff point had been taken as though he had committed the most dastardly crime like say having murdered 50 innocent people, or taking a billion ringgit in corrupt money, or surrendering some islands to foreign governments. The newspapers have been full of stories of how traitorous this Mat Sabu has been.

This was also the time when suddenly people from all over the country came up with many tales of how cruel the communists had been (similar to Hamzah's perception) and that treasonous people like Mat Sabu should be stripped of his citizenship.

All this happened when some spin-doctors, perhaps to curry the favour of the government, were going for the big kill to discredit Mat Sabu.

But when some more rational members of the public began to question the spin-doctors' over-reaction they saw one flaw in the attacking arguments: that the episode happened in 1950 while this country had its independence in 1957. So chronologically and technically it could just be possible for the unfortunate policemen of Bukit Kepong be the colonialists' agents. Mat Sabu might just have a point!

Kee Thuan Chye a noted author and social commentator (Malaysiakini, Sept 16) made some telling remarks about this case: 'The spin against Mat Sabu has gone out of whack. His (opponents) have even extrapolated the meaning of his remarks to imply that he does not appreciate the sacrifices of the police and the armed forces. This is certainly not true. There is no such implication.'

All for truth

Sensing this possible embarrassment the spin-doctors went into another offensive. This time it was on the ground that the country was not really colonised by the British that they came only to administer the country.

Professors Khoo Kay Kim(right) and Zainal Keling for example came up with the contention that in effect Malaya was never colonised by the British but instead were 'administrators'. In other words the policemen were loyalists and nationalists of the Malay sultanate.

There was confusion galore. And this part is easy to understand: if the country had not been colonised by the British why have we been celebrating Independence Day on Aug 31 every year since 1958?

But the people saw through this ruse. Their recently emancipated mind began to see that the whole episode has been a case where 'history is written by the victors' i.e. by the ruling coalition.

It thereby appears that the government wanted Malaysian history to be written to conform to their designs and agenda. This is translated to highlighting what is good for them while ignoring what not. Forget the facts and evidence, go for the tapestry that we have designed, they seemed to be saying.

But the people would rather go for intellectual honesty. In history they go for the facts and evidence. As to whether these are good or bad does not matter, so long as it is the truth.

And this new era has allowed the people to say so. One platform for expressing this new sentiment was in the form of a forum organised by the Kempen Sejarah Malaysia Sebenar (KSMS) on Sept 15.

Here Hishamuddin Rais, a noted social activist, aired the alternative view that there is no such thing as history being written by the victors. He claimed that in the case of the Malay society the people were 'lazy' as writers so they had Malay history written by others.

Or that they wanted history to be written with their perception and agenda in mind. Forget the truth, forget the facts and evidence, just write what we want you to write, they seemed to have directed textbook writers to do.

Kee had said something similar: 'This is not unexpected. Our leaders have been twisting things to suit their political agenda for decades. And historical facts are not spared.'

In other words intellectual honesty is gravely deficient in Malaysian history.

So where do we go from here? For this I come back to KSMS. This is a civil society movement set up by concerned groups and individuals who are aware that the History textbooks in secondary schools have been doctored (i.e. modified, altered) so much from its original version of 30 or 40 years ago - in other words they contain history as seen in the eyes of the ruling coalition, paying little due regard to the accuracy of facts and evidence.

KSMS feels the time is due for a thorough rehash, a thorough rewrite, a thorough re-introduction of intellectual honesty and factual integrity to our History textbooks. This as good a starting point as any. I am happy to say that I am closely associated with this movement.

AB SULAIMAN is an observer of human traits and foibles, especially within the context of religion and culture. As a liberal, he marvels at the way orthodoxy fights to maintain its credibility in a devilishly fast-changing world. He hopes to provide some understanding to the issues at hand and wherever possible, suggest some solutions. He holds a Bachelor in Social Sciences (Leicester, UK) and a Diploma in Public Administration, Universiti Malaya.

"Undilah" Tapi Undi Siapa?

2011-09-17T00:04:00.003+08:00

Sublime yet not so sublime. Or maybe sublimely blatant would be an apt oxymoron to describe the message of Pete Teo's "Undilah" video. Yah, we know we must daftar sebagai pengundi and then actually go mengundi when the time comes. Most of us don't really need a video to remind us, so what gives? This video clearly tells us:

This country faces obvious problems; need not elaborate
The country needs us; there is a need for change
Vote for change
If we fail, we are still Malaysians anyway

What is Wee Ka Siong doing in the video? I suppose he is part of that factor which makes the message sublime.

A Grandmother And Her Granddaughter

2011-09-14T00:31:00.034+08:00

June 1998

My mother will be having her birthday for the twentieth time next year. No she is not twenty years old come February next but will be 80. That comes with being born on 29th February! Krystyn is 24.

Yesterday, Krystyn went out with her grandmother on one of their now regular jaunts to Tesco. They are two generations apart and I would not say they are best of pals in the sense of the word. But they enjoy a very good grandmother-granddaughter relationship that only really blossomed after Jeannie's passing more than 4 years ago. Cantonese speaking Krystyn is also her grandchild who is most Chinese in her ways compared to the rest who are essentially "yellow on the outside, white on the inside" bananas.

June 2011

These days there is even no need for me to be within their communications loop and my mother hardly ever needs to phone me anymore. She is comfortable getting Krystyn to drive her around when she needs to and Krystyn has no qualms doing so. I believe she has come to terms with the fact that Krystyn is already a young woman in her own right. It is through Krystyn and JJ today that my mother can truly appreciate Jeannie's upbringing of her grand children and indeed understand Jeannie better; they are unmistakably Jeannie's children.

Krystyn on the other hand can learn a lot from her Ah Mah especially about household stuff and in filling blanks about things past in this Cheah family. The current main tutorial seems to be in the art of fresh grocery shopping. Just to indicate how proficient my mother is, based on weight estimation alone, Krystyn related how she required and selected 5 kilos of cucumber (to make acar awak for a friend) at Tesco yesterday. She picked the cucumbers into three plastic bags and when Krystyn took them to the weighing counter to pack, one was exactly 2.0 kg, another 1.80 kg and the other 1.20 kg = 5.0 kg! That kind of kung fu is not acquired overnight...just imagine the level of knowledge and proficiency that comes with more than 60 years cooking experience.

Early 1950s?

Life is a cycle and renewal comes with succession. Recently, my mother has been handing to Krystyn custody of some of her simple, yet cherished possessions...old photographs, recipe books, etc. I would rather see this in the good light of acceptance and reconciliation with life.

From Malay Dilemma To Malaysia's Dilemma

2011-09-08T15:40:00.002+08:00

This article by Reuters reads like a "State of the Union" address or in our case, a "State of the Dominion" address! It is worth reading.

A Malaysian ethnic Chinese closes the door of a temple in Kuala Lumpur July 5, 2011.

MALAYSIA’S DILEMMA
JULY 2011 REUTERS Special Report

The man who made Malaysia part of the “East Asia Miracle” with a massive inflow of foreign direct investment doesn’t think much of it today. Mahathir’s thinking is at odds with government policy. But it gets to the heart of a debate over the future of the former emerging market star now in danger of becoming an also-ran, stuck in the dreaded “middle income trap” and plagued by racial divide.

FLYING THE MALAYSIAN FLAG: Jasmit Kaur and daughter Manishajeet wear headbands depicting the Malaysian national flag during National Day celebrations, marking the 53rd anniversary of country’s independence, in Kuala Lumpur August 31, 2010.

Malaysia ’s dilemma: Can it reform and discriminate? By Bill Tarrant PUTRAJAYA, MALAYSIA, July 7

Dr. Mahathir Mohamad sits at a vast desk cluttered with work, hands clasped before him and looking at his visitors with a slight smile.

Dr. M, as he is popularly known, was prime minister of Malaysia from 1981 to 2003, the first commoner to ever hold the post in a land with nine sultans. His demeanor suggests the country physician he once was, ready with a frank diagnosis—and in his first interview with the foreign media in five years, he doles out prescriptions for what ails his nation.

The man who made Malaysia part of the “East Asia Miracle” with a massive inflow of foreign direct investment doesn’t think much of it today. The former miracle economy, now a muddle, needs a new policy direction, he says in his office in Putrajaya, the administrative capital he built on old plantation land in the 1990s.

“We should not be too dependent on FDI anymore,” says Mahathir. “We’ve come to the stage when locals can invest. They have now the capital. They have the technology. They know the market. And I think they can manage big industries.”

His thinking is at odds with government policy. But it gets to the heart of a debate over the future of Malaysia, a former emerging market star now in danger of becoming an also-ran, stuck in the dreaded “middle income trap.”

Foreign investment has been dwindling since the onset of the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis. Capital outflows have even exceeded inflows in four of the past five years. This has been accompanied by an alarming “brain drain” of emigres voting with their feet against Malaysia’s prospects.

Malaysia is counting on foreign investment to provide a quarter of the investments needed to fund projects under its “Economic Transformation Programme,” which aims to turn the country of 28 million into a fully developed nation by 2020.

That comes to an average of more than $11 billion a year, compared with an average of $3.1 billion since 1997—by any measure an ambitious target.

The challenge is vastly more complicated by the exodus of talent that hits directly at Malaysia’s aspiration to become a high-income nation focused on knowledge-based industries.

LIGHT MOMENT: Ethnic Malays and an ethnic Indian leave office after work in Putrajaya outside Kuala Lumpur in this January 3, 2007 file photo.

“For Malaysia to stand success in its journey to high income, it will need to develop, attract and retain talent,” the World Bank said in a March report. “Brain drain does not appear to square with this objective: Malaysia needs talent, but talent seems to be leaving.”

The rise of China and India in the region has overshadowed the export-dependent “Tiger Cub” economies of Southeast Asia, all struggling with their own reforms. Thailand has been at a dangerous political impasse for six years. Indonesia is consistently ranked as among the world’s most corrupt countries. The hilippines is battling long-running insurgencies.

Yet Malaysia does not compare well with its peers in the eyes of investors. A March report by Bank of America Merrill Lynch ranked Malaysia the second least popular market after Colombia among global emerging market fund managers and tied with India for least favourite among Asia-Pacific managers.

A chief difficulty is the nation’s balky affirmative action programme.

Ethnic Chinese account for most of the brain drain. The reason 60 percent of them gave for why they moved out of the motherland was “social injustice”, a World Bank survey says.

They are referring to the “Bumiputra” (sons of the soil) policy that discriminates against Chinese and Indians, who account for a third of the population, in favour of majority Malays for all kinds of things—places in universities, jobs, shares in companies, home mortgages, government contracts.

The government acknowledges the policy has been widely abused, with Malay front men offering their names to Chinese businesses to obtain government contracts, an arrangement known as “Ali Baba”, after the character in Arabian Nights who gains entrance to the treasure cave of the 40 thieves with the magic words “Open Sesame”.

Prime Minister Najib Razak has launched a new edition of the policy called the New Economic Model that is meant to correct the inequities, mainly by making preferences need-based and not race-based. But as the World Bank report noted, “limited headway has been made on this front.”

It is certainly not popular with the rank and file Malays in Najib’s UMNO party.

Making significant reforms to the system is crucial to Malaysia’s aspirations, but any rollback of privileges for the majority is a big political risk for any government that tries it.

It is the Malaysian dilemma.

THE IMPOSSIBLE GAME

Idris Jala, the minister in charge of greatly boosting investment and wooing back emigres under the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP), calls it the impossible game.

He is an unlikely character in the Malaysian Cabinet, a Christian from the Kelabit tribe in Sarawak on Malaysian Borneo who spent most of his career running companies, including the Malaysian unit of Royal Dutch Shell and Malaysia Airlines.

“I am a true believer that real transformation goes hand in hand with the game of the impossible,” Idris says in an e-mail interview. He sets impossible targets, is “very directive” and pushes his team constantly “to do the right things, but differently” until they are finally “one step ahead of you”.

“When you do transformation, you cannot achieve big results by democracy,” he notes.

The ETP aims to attract 1.4 trillion ringgit ($466 billion) by 2020 in a dozen broad industries. Only 8 percent of that will come from the government, which has long dominated the economy, either directly or through government-linked firms. Idris disclosed to Reuters that foreign investment will account for 27 percent of the total.

He wants to climb the value ladder in the targeted industries.

Take birds’ nests, for example. Nests made with the saliva of swifts have been collected for centuries from huge limestone caves in Idris’ home state of Sarawak to make the most expensive soup on earth. Processing them would give Malaysia a bigger chunk of a global market worth $3.3 billion, he said.

Foreign investment will also provide many of the 3.3 million jobs that will be created under the ETP, whose over-arching goal is to raise per capita income to $15,000 from $6,700 in 2009.

A challenge will be to upgrade skills in a labour force long geared to basic manufacturing and plantations, attract foreign talent, and try to reverse some of the “brain drain.” About 700,000 Malaysians work abroad.

A new agency called “Talent Corporation” has been given this task, offering tax breaks for Malaysians to return home and easing visa restrictions for foreigners.

But the shift from low-cost manufacturing and plantations to more knowledge intensive work needs to take place in an environment where creativity and freedom of inquiry can flourish to draw talent and investment. The Malaysian model of ethnic preferences has not been conducive to that.

MEGA-PROJECTS

Mahathir remains a towering figure. In public forums and in his blog, he is a scourge to the government of the day, influential, for instance, in forcing the early retirement of his anointed successor, Abdullah Badawi. But while he’s a critic of his successors, he is a strong defender of the Malaysian system he built.

Mahathir came to office as the foremost champion of Malay privileges. Under his administration, the “Bumiputra rules” led to a mingling of politics and business that largely benefited a coterie of Malay and Chinese businessmen.

Huge government building projects kept the contracts flowing and the political machine running. Mahathir says as much in the interview, citing the slowdown in big projects as the reason for the steady attrition of Chinese support for his successors in office.

“What is happening is the Chinese feel that in the economic area, the business area, they are not receiving the kind of benefits they got during previous times,” he said. “The moment I stepped down, all the projects were stopped ... When you stop big government projects, a lot of people—well, their businesses will go down.”

In March, Mahathir published an 809-page autobiography, “A Doctor in the House.” His main motivation in writing it was “to make corrections of the opinions and the accusations that were leveled at me”— especially that he systematically undermined the judiciary.

It is the biggest stain on his record. He authorised the arrest of his deputy and heir apparent, Anwar Ibrahim, on sodomy and corruption charges after the two men fell out over how to handle the Asian financial crisis. The trial was denounced in and out of Malaysia as a farce that called into question the rule of law.

The financial crisis and Anwar’s conviction marked a watershed. Foreign investors became wary about Malaysia, and a country once a haven for foreign investment was shunned.

“Ten-twenty years ago, Malaysia was it,” said a regional president of a European-based distribution company. “But then came 1997 and the rule of law was exposed for what it was. We once looked at Malaysia for a regional headquarters but rule of law and the bumi policy made us choose Singapore instead.”
Mahathir retired in 2003, but Malaysia has yet to inspire confidence again. Economic growth has fallen along with investment, averaging 4.6 percent in the decade that ended in 2010 from an average 7.2 percent in the 1990s.

“FOR MALAYSIA TO STAND SUCCESS IN ITS JOURNEY TO HIGH INCOME, IT WILL NEED TO DEVELOP, ATTRACT AND RETAIN TALENT ... [IT] needs talent, but talent seems to be leaving" World Bank Report Released in March

FIELD OF CYBER DREAMS

Putrajaya is a monument to Muslim Malay culture. Graceful minarets and gleaming blue domes dominate the skyline and a bridge across an artificial lake was inspired by the famous one in Isfahan, Iran. More than 90 percent of the residents are Bumiputras.

Across Putrajaya lake from Mahathir’s office is a curious community of knowledge workers called Cyberjaya. The town is a place where the contentious “bum rules” do not apply.

Cyberjaya (cyber success) is home to about 500 IT companies and two universities. It has a daytime population of 41,000 but only 14,000 fulltime residents sleep there overnight. This town is filled with futuristic-looking buildings but has few residential neighbourhoods and little in the way of amenities, not yet anyway.

Cyberjaya was one of Mahathir’s last big projects. It was to be Malaysia’s answer to California’s Silicon Valley, the key difference being this one would be a ready-made town, built on old plantation land, in hopes technology innovators would come.

Cyberjaya offers foreign investors a waiver of the “Bumiputra” rules that require equity stakes and employment for ethnic Malays. It also guaranteed the Internet would not be censored, in a country that kept the media on a tight leash.

Cyberjaya was part of a grand plan toavoid the emerging market middle income trap Malaysia was falling into because it could no longer compete for manufacturing jobs, especially with China.

Then the financial crisis hit and Mahathir’s response spooked potential investors. Blaming Jewish conspirators for the crisis, he imposed capital controls to stop short-selling of the ringgit. Anwar was arrested the day after that.

Some $30 billion in portfolio investment fled Malaysia in 1997; most of it has yet to return. Key foreign investors scrapped plans for Cyberjaya and for years Malaysia struggled to woo them back. The effort now appears to be bearing fruit.

Last October, Hewlett Packard launched a multi-purpose client servicing center in Cyberjaya, the single biggest investment by a technology multinational in Malaysia. HP said it would provide 4,000 jobs. It joins Dell, DHL, IBM, Fujitsu, Nokia and DoCoMo among others in the 29-square-kilometre town.

Since 2009, Cyberjaya has attracted 7.12 billion ringgit in investment, compared with a total of 4.62 billion ringgit in the previous 11 years.

Success has given Hafidz Hashim, managing director of Cyberview Sdn Bhd, the town’s developer, a new problem.

“Entertainment,” Hafiz said when asked what his “citizens” want the most. He is known as “the mayor of Cyberjaya because his company acts as both builder and city manager.

More than half the projected investment over the next three years will be for residential property, Hafidz said in an interview. Cyberview has already built a community center and clubhouse and plans to build a huge entertainment complex, along with more shops and restaurants.

It is far from Malaysia’s answer to Silicon Valley, though. Cyberjaya is home to server farms, data storage facilities and client service centers, the low end of the Internet economy. There is little in the way of R&D underway.

Arvin Singh, 22, has just quit his job at the HP plant because he was “constantly doing the same thing over and over again” and not growing on the job. Most of his co-workers were content to remain in this “comfort zone,” he said.

“But one must constantly work to expand one’s knowledge,” Singh says, adding he plans to study overseas to get further qualified.

Hafidz said one of his biggest challenges is meeting the skills companies in Cyberjaya need, and which Malaysia’s education system is not providing. He has set up a “Knowledge Workers Development Institute” where companies can send workers for training, and on-the-job training programmes.

Cyberjaya’s success after a sputtering start has inspired similar projects in the country.

The most ambitious is one emerging just north of Singapore called Iskandar Malaysia. It will eventually be a metropolis three times the size of Singapore with theme parks, international schools and colleges, hotels and hospitals, a movie studio, a financial centre and luxury homes. It has attracted $23 billion in promised investments, nearly half from overseas.

Iskandar is one of five “economic growth corridors” Malaysia is developing with incentives to foreign investors. They are, in effect, investment zones ring-fenced from the mainstream economy where business and politics have long entwined.

FEAR FOR FUTURE

Months after Mahathir took power in 1981, a Malaysian Chinese banker packed up his family in the southern city of Johor Bahru and moved to Singapore. He had grown uneasy about the future as Mahathir took an increasingly interventionist approach to the economy and ramped up the affirmative action policy.

Those uncertainties have only increased for a Chinese community that abandoned the ruling National Front coalition in the 2008 general election and are now deserting the country in ever mounting numbers. The World Bank said the Malaysian diaspora has quadrupled over the past three decades.

“People are unhappy about the way the (policy) has been exploited, the way it has degenerated into some kind of apartheid policy,” said the banker, who requested only his surname, Lee, be used.

“They say come back, we’ll give you tax breaks. But when you move back, you’re not talking just about your career, but your children’s future. And it’s this perception of uncertainty that holds them back. They feel the society they have moved to is more assuring that the one they came from.”

Lee’s son, a medical doctor, said the overseas Malaysian Chinese community has now become anxious about the growing force of political Islam. Last year, 10 churches and two mosques were desecrated after a Malaysian high court ruled Christians could use the word Allah for God in their literature.

“A lot of people are now worried about a hyper-religious government taking power, and then all that they worked so hard for goes up in smoke.”

Kalimullah Hassan, former Group Editor of Malaysia’s pro-government New Straits Times publications, understands their anxiety.

A Bumiputra himself, Kalimullah worries about the emergence of right-wing politicians trying to win back Malays, nearly half of whom voted for a multi-ethnic opposition coalition headed by Anwar Ibrahim in 2008.

“To unite the Malays, they raise the bogeyman—other races, specifically the Chinese and foreigners who are supposedly out to displace the Malays in their own homeland – and in doing so, they’ve upped the ante in race relations,” Kalimullah says.

The politics of patronage is no longer working because there isn’t enough largesse to spread around in a country whose population has nearly tripled since 1970 and with capital inflows and growth slowing, Kalimullah says. What Malaysia needs now more than ever is the meritocracy Prime Minister Najib has proposed in his New Economic Model. Otherwise its human capital will be stunted, he says.
“In the mid-to-long term, Malaysia is going to be left further behind by a world which has already realised that human capital is its greatest asset.”

Piece by piece, Malaysia builds new metropolis by Singapore
By Xue Jianyue ISKANDAR, MALAYSIA, July 7

"SINGAPORE INC. HAS BEEN CAUTIOUS ABOUT INVESTING IN JOHOR" Song Seng Wun Regional Economist, CIMB Research

Like a giant Lego project, Malaysia is assembling the pieces of an investment zone that is destined to become a metropolis about three times the size of neighbouring Singapore.

An area of mostly rubber and oil palm plantations covering 2,217 square km (855 square miles) in the southern state of Johor is being turned into international schools, hospitals, hotels, theme parks, luxury homes and a financial district.

One of the first pieces of the development, appropriately enough, is a Legoland theme park. Due to open next year, it will offer 40 interactive shows and rides, along with 15,000 giant lego models of famous buildings. It will be the first of three planned theme parks in Iskandar Malaysia, named after the late sultan of Johor.

Launched on Nov. 4, 2006, Iskandar is one of five “economic growth corridors” Malaysia is developing over the next decade. They are part of an “Economic Transformation Programme” that aims to propel Malaysia into a fully-developed nation by 2020 by lifting per-capita incomes to $15,000 from $6,900 in 2009.

“At the moment, manufacturing contributes 70 percent of the region’s economy,” said Ismail Ibrahim, chief executive of the Iskandar Regional Development Authority (IRDA). “We hope upon reaching maturity at 2025, the main contributing sector would be the service sector.”

Far from being a rival to Singapore, Iskandar is courting investment from the rich city-state just across the Straits of Johor. Incentives include corporate and personal income tax breaks, and exemptions from the so-called “bumiputra rules”—foreign investors are allowed to own 100 percent of their businesses, with unrestricted hiring of foreign “knowledge workers”.

Like different coloured Lego blocks, Iskandar will feature various zones—financial, creative media, tourism, education and healthcare in the service sector; electrical and electronics, petrochemical and food processing among others in manufacturing.

It had already attracted RM 69.43 billion ($23 billion) in promised investment by last December. About 38-39 percent of that sum has been “realised”, Ismail told reporters in May.

Iskandar is targetting another RM 13 billion annually and a total of RM 73.3 billion over the next five years following the completion of key infrastructure, education and tourism projects by next year. Foreign investment has accounted for about 41 percent of the total so far.

Improving relations between Singapore and Malaysia are key to the Iskandar investment climate as the island state is expected to be the single biggest investor in the development.

Singapore left the Malaysian Federation in 1965 and ties since then have hit many a rough patch. But last year they signed agreements to settle long-standing issues, including railway land bisecting Singapore owned by Malaysian rail operator Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM).
CIMB research regional economist Song Seng Wun said that Singapore’s private sector companies have been the biggest and oldest investors in Johor, but what was missing was strong participation from government-linked companies.

SEEING THE FUTURE: Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak looks at model of future
development of Kuala Lumpur city. REUTERS/Stringer

“Singapore Inc. has been cautious about investing in Johor,” Song said. “They are taking it one step at a time, looking for policy consistency from Malaysia and Johor, and observing how Singapore and Malaysia work together on transfer of railway land and other previous agreements.”

Britain’s Newcastle University Medical School is one of six colleges planned in an “Educity” complex in Iskandar, and will admit its first batch of students later this year. British boarding school Marlborough College will open this year, as well.

A 355-acre (144-hectare) financial district will host corporate office towers, premium hotels, high-end residential properties, premium retail complexes and luxury service apartments.

Malaysia is also aiming to get a piece of the growing Asian film production market with the new Pinewood Iskandar Malaysia Studios, a joint venture between Malaysia sovereign wealth fund Khazanah and Pinewood Shepperton, the British film studio behind the Batman and James Bond movies.

Khazanah will also work with Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings to develop a wellness township in Iskandar, offering medical facilities, holistic health services and alternative medical treatment.

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW with DR MAHATHIR MOHAMAD, former Malaysian Prime Minister on the racial divide in the country

DR MAHATHIR MOHAMAD: Former Malaysia’s Prime Minister smiles as he speaks to Reuters during an interview at his office in Putrajaya outside Kuala Lumpur May 4, 2011.

“YES, IT’S WORSE NOW. DURING MY TIME, I COULD RELY ON CHINESE SUPPORT FOR MY PARTY . NOW THE GOVERNMENT IS THREATENED WITH LOSING CHINESE SUPPORT

Malaysian Chinese have stopped supporting the government because they no longer feel they are getting their share of projects, former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad said.

The former prime minister looked back on his two decades in power in a May interview at his office in Putrajaya, the showcase administrative capital he built in the 1990s and one of the “mega-projects” that helped define his regime.

Chinese and Indians make up a third of the population but have become increasingly unhappy about an official policy that discriminates against them in favour of majority Malays.

“Yes, it’s worse now,” Mahathir says of the racial divide in Malaysia. “During my time, I could rely on Chinese support for my party. Now the government is threatened with losing Chinese support.”

He noted that his government two decades ago bowed to Chinese demands to have their own schools taught in the Chinese language, and said it showed how accommodating it was to minority races. “Despite having a national (Malay) language, they don’t teach in the national language. They can’t speak the national language.”

But he acknowledged that having separate schools had become a major factor in the racial divide.

“We would like them to come to national schools. We even suggested you can have your Chinese school, you can have your Tamil school, but why not put all three schools on one campus? So they can eat together, they can play together, and each gets to know that in the real world they have to interact with different races. But the Chinese say no. They say if you do that, we won’t support the government.”

Mahathir also ensured Chinese support by doling out government contracts to them and their Malay partners, which critics said encouraged corruption and cronyism. Mahathir’s successors shelved big projects to pare down a widening fiscal deficit, at the cost of Chinese votes, Mahathir said.

“For some reason or another, the moment I stepped down, all the projects were stopped ... When you stop big government projects, a lot of people, well their businesses will go down.”

THE SUN SETS near the Petronas Twin Towers (C) and Kuala Lumpur Tower (L) January 19, 2009.

DON'T DEPEND ON FOREIGN FUNDS

"We should not be too dependent on FDI anymore. We’ve come to the stage when locals can invest ... And I think they can manage big industries" Mahathir Mohamad

The man who made Malaysia part of the “East Asia Miracle” with a massive inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) doesn’t think much of it today.

“We should not be too dependent on FDI anymore. We've come to the stage when locals can invest. They have now the capital. They have the technology. They know the market. And I think they can manage big industries.”

Mahathir published an 809-page autobiography, “A Doctor in the House”, in March because he felt “the need to make corrections of the opinions and the accusations that were levelled at me”.

The accusation that grated the most, he said, was that he undermined the judiciary. The criticism is rooted in a 1988 amendment to the constitution that transferred powers over the judiciary to parliament. It essentially emasculated judicial independence, and allowed him to get judicial backing for his political manoeuvres from then onward.

Dr. Mahathir could not disguise his contempt for lawyers.

“A doctor wants to find out about the truth of his patients so he can identify a treatment. A lawyer wants to get his client off the hook. And even if he knows the client is guilty he is going to find ways and means of getting him off the hook.”

Imagine...

2011-08-20T01:29:00.005+08:00

There is hardly any way to prepare for this. Is this the true End of Days predicted for 2012?

This series of videos should be able to show us in some clarity what the world is abuzz about:

The US Debt:

How the US Dollar will collapse:

Imagine if all currency becomes worthless overnight...what do you have left to barter with?

On a lighter yet serious note:

Islamofascism - A New Buzzword? Listen To Tarek Fatah

2011-08-14T03:42:00.004+08:00

Tarek Fatah on Islamofascism. Spend 15 minutes please. Then read RPK's latest posting below.

In other words, we have no say in the matter. Allah will decide when the time is right and whether it will happen or not. Allah will decide whether you are born a Muslim or born a kafir (infidel). Allah will decide whether you become a sinful Muslim or a good Muslim. Allah will decide whether the sinful Muslim finally repents and becomes a good Muslim. Without Allah’s will, nothing will happen.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Demos in Selangor and Penang to show support for Jais

(The Star) - Demonstrations were held in Selangor and Penang in support of the Selangor Islamic Affairs Department (Jais) operation during a multiracial dinner at the Damansara Utama Methodist Church (DUMC).

A group calling itself Gerakan Anti-Murtad (Anti-Apostate Movement) would lodge a police report in every district of Selangor so that investigations could be carried out against the DUMC, said spokesperson Datuk Zulkifli Noordin.

The Kulim Bandar Baru MP said this after Friday prayers at the Sultan Salehuddin Abdul Aziz Shah mosque in Shah Alam yesterday.

Also present were Senator Mohamed Ezam Mohd Noor, PAS members and the movement's supporters.

Ezam said the movement had nothing against non-Muslims, but would wage war against those “who were rude and who tarnished Islam”, including by burning down online news portals.

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

You will notice one thing about the Malays-Muslims. They are very preoccupied with getting non-Muslims to become Muslims. And they are paranoid about Muslims renouncing Islam.

Maybe what happened at the DUMC did happen. Maybe the allegations are true. I was not there but I have been told that the allegations are not entirely false. Nevertheless, I go by what the Malays would normally tell me.

If you ask a ‘sinful’ Malay why he does not stop his gambling and drinking and womanising and go to Mekah to repent and to perform the pilgrimage, he would reply, “Allah belum gerak hati lagi.” This translates to ‘Allah has not moved my heart yet’.

When a non-Muslim becomes a Muslim, the Malays would say, “Allah buka hati dia.” And this means Allah has opened his or her heart (to become a Muslim).

If you ask an ustaz (religious teacher) why Allah made only 20% of the world Muslim while 80% are non-Muslims, and why did Allah not make 100% of the world Muslim, the ustaz would reply, “Only Allah knows.”

In short: this is all Allah’s will and Allah could make you Muslim or He could make you non-Muslim and it is up to Him to open your heart to receive Islam or to repent your ‘evil ways’ and go to Mekah to perform the pilgrimage.

In other words, we have no say in the matter. Allah will decide when the time is right and whether it will happen or not. Allah will decide whether you are born a Muslim or born a kafir (infidel). Allah will decide whether you become a sinful Muslim or a good Muslim. Allah will decide whether the sinful Muslim finally repents and becomes a good Muslim. Without Allah’s will, nothing will happen.

Now, that is a most interesting concept. This means I may be born a Muslim but be born a bad Muslim because Allah has not opened my heart to become a good Muslim. This also means, later on in life, Allah may open my heart and I will see the error of my ways and repent to become a good Muslim.

Then again, Allah may will it that I be born a non-Muslim and, later on in life, convert to Islam when Allah opens my heart to Islam. Or, Allah may never open my heart and I may die a non-Muslim like 80% of the population of the world.

The crux of this whole issue is Allah decides and wills it and what happens (or does not happen) can never happen without the will of Allah. And only when Allah wills it or opens our heart will we see something happen -- and not otherwise and not before that.

Okay, based on this ideology, what about when someone is born a Muslim and later leaves Islam? Could this ever happen if Allah does not will it? Would it not be Allah who opens your heart to make you leave Islam?

Everything that happens is the will of Allah and everything you do is because Allah has moved or opened your heart into doing it. So, when you leave Islam is this not also Allah’s doing?

This is the confusing part about the argument on the will of Allah. You will never be born a Muslim without Allah deciding this will happen. You will never convert to Islam without Allah deciding this will happen. When you decide to leave Islam does Allah not also have a say in the matter? Is this not His will?

As I said, Malays-Muslims are preoccupied with non-Muslims becoming Muslims and paranoid about Muslims leaving Islam. So we now have a Gerakan Anti-Murtad (Anti-Apostate Movement) organising demonstrations in the Pakatan states to protest those leaving Islam.

I am not so concerned about Muslims leaving Islam because if it is true that nothing happens without the will of Allah then no Muslim can ever leave Islam unless Allah wills it. What I am more concerned about is Munafiq(hypocritical) and Fasiq (sinful) Muslims.

Why don’t these people also launch a Gerakan Anti-Munafiq dan Anti-Fasiq (Anti-Hypocrites and Anti-Sinners Movement)? We should perang (declare war) on Muslims who kill, rape, rob, steal, cheat, swindle, abuse their power, lie, and do all sorts of evil things that give Islam a bad name.

We should not worry about the quantity. After all, 80% of the world is non-Muslim anyway. We should worry about the quality. We do not want Muslims who have no scruples, compassion, honesty, ethics, values, etc. We want Muslims who demonstrate the ideals and ethics of Islam. We want Muslims who demonstrate what a good Muslim should be like. We want Muslims who show what a good Muslim is so that we can be proud of Islam.

That should be the perjuangan (struggle) for Muslims.

Mummy's Boys

2011-08-13T20:57:00.029+08:00

JJ 4-Eyes

2011-08-13T02:10:00.003+08:00

JJ finally joined the 4-eyed brigade; mild but still... Too much face time with computer screen probably.

Check out his blogpost:

http://jiejuan.blogspot.com/2011/08/never-knew-this-day-would-come.html

Prince Cheah

2011-08-13T01:43:00.011+08:00

HRH Prince Cheah turned 11 on 27th July. His cake? A slice of Mille Crepe from Food Foundry.

Most dogs will rush to eat the cake rather than pose for a photo first. But then, most dogs are not like Prince who does not think he is a dog and justifiably so!

Luis Alberto Suárez

2011-08-13T01:10:00.005+08:00

Where can Luis Suarez take Liverpool this season? Nowhere...if the defensive leaks are not plugged.

Eh? Apa Ini?

2011-08-09T14:58:00.005+08:00

A direct salvo aimed at Najib? IJ is obviously the driving force behind Najib's transformation plans and implementations.

Pot calling kettle black? I can hardly make sense of Idris Jala's PowerPoint slides myself but Khairy Jamaluddin who makes some sense this time, what track record has he got? Does this dispel rumors which were floating around when Sleepy Head was PM, that KJ was behind Air Asia? Well, maybe not. So many questions these days with nary a straight answer.

This was in The Malaysian Insider.

Khairy questions Idris Jala’s track record

By Shannon Teoh

August 09, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 9 — Khairy Jamaluddin ridiculed today Datuk Seri Idris Jala’s track record during his tenure as Malaysian Airlines Bhd (MAS) boss as well as the minister in charge of Putrajaya’s Performance Management and Delivery Unit (Pemandu).

The Umno Youth chief posted on micro-blogging site Twitter that “running a beleaguered premium flag carrier needs more imagination than being able to give a slick ppt presentation or unbundling its assets.”

“I think one of Idris Jala’s best career move was leaving MAS to become Minister. He didn’t actually need to run MAS beyond ‘turnaround’,” the Rembau MP added, referring to questions raised over Jala’s record as MAS chief executive.

The imminent share swap between the national carrier and thriving budget airline AirAsia has cast the spotlight on Jala’s four years at MAS.

After being appointed to the position by the Barisan Nasional (BN) government in 2005, he implemented a turnaround plan from a nine-month loss of RM1.3 billion in 2005 to a record profit of RM850 million in 2007.

But Khairy’s (picture)tweets today reflected criticism levelled at the minister in the Prime Minister’s Separtment, that he achieved healthy figures through asset stripping, a strategy that he has repeated as part of the administration’s Economic Transformation Programme (ETP).

The ETP, which aims to double per capita income by 2020, will see “non-core” government and government-linked-company assets being divested, a move some say reflects the Treasury’s need for additional cash.

“While we’re on IJ, Pemandu officers should not be briefing re latest NKRA KPIs. Should be the Ministers. Accountability. Pemandu unelected,” Khairy said, an apparent reference to criticism that Jala’s unit has taken over operations in the Najib administration.

He also said that as Jala could not save MAS operationally, the government should not rule out any candidate to take over as chief executive from Tengku Datuk Azmil Zahruddin, who replaced Jala in 2009.

“Can’t rule anyone out. Even pilots,” he wrote.

The state-owned airline has already had two rights issues since Jala took over, raking in RM1.6 billion in 2007 and RM2.67 billion in 2010 to fund its operations and fleet purchases.

Industry experts said that a further injection of cash will not save MAS as “operational fixes” are required.

Most recently, it recorded a first-quarter net loss of RM242.3 million against a profit of RM310.6 million in the same period a year ago.

Brilliant On Brilliance

2011-08-06T21:42:00.001+08:00

A brilliant comment by MN Taib in my Tigers EGroup about that 8TV advertisement. Please read:

Tigers,

As Paddy Nordin said that the advert from Grand Brilliance was really stupid (Grand brilliance, my ass). What is even more stupid is making mountains of Pamela Anderson's tits, as it were. Utusan Malaysia is making a racist "pig's b'fast" out of it. We are, today, in a hysteria mode, and it does lower the morale of those who believe that the Malaysian plural society is a fait accompli.

The JAIS raid accompanied by the PDRM was the height of stupidity. It was impulsive, like a drunk from Ole Scool Pub in Jalan Gasing. The OCPD who approved the allocation of his policemen to the task must be mad. No research was done, and only to discover that the dinner was for a HIV/AIDS charity.

Episodes like the above are very divisive for our interaction in the multi-religious milieu that we live in.

These unfortunate blunders emanate from Dr. M's and DSAI's ill-conceived "penerapan nilai-nilai Islam" - It drove the Malays retrogressively way back beyond Siput Sarawak, Saloma, Kasmah Booty and Romai Noor. There's so much asininity, and lack of thinking. Everything the Agama people does is reaction. We now have a parallel civil service of the offices of Agama Islam and the civil service based on the old Brit system. The Agama officers are flexing their muscles, and as I see it, nobody has the moral courage to discipline them. The efficiency of our civil service is eroded by the lack of understanding of the English Language. Have you heard of the expression, " buta huruf"?

Anyway. I shall carry on as usual with my Christmases and New Year celebs, and I shall osculate lovingly the bird that stands under my mistletoe.

The Weak Should Not Fast?

2011-08-05T11:02:00.006+08:00

I do not know if this video is now banned but since it is freely available on You Tube, I suppose banning it would be as silly as airing the advert in the first place. But one never knows for sure these days.

Anyway, as I have said before, if there are more Muslims like Art Harun there would be more Muslims. In his latest blogpost he says everything I wanted to say on the matter. Please read:

Syabas 8TV!

By now, many of us would have been aware of the “public service” advertisements which have been pulled out by 8TV.

For those who have not seen it yet, the awesome “public service” advertisements could be accessed via a Malaysian Insider report yesterday.

It is amazing that some people could take leave from their intelligence in full public view nowadays. And we seem to be doing it with the consistency of Datuk Nicole Davids in the squash courts. Syabas.

The thing which struck me was the nonchalant attitude shown by Media Prima chief operating officer Ahmad Izham Omar when the advertisements were creating a storm in cyberspace yesterday. He was reported as saying, on his twitter account:

“Chill guys. Don’t overthink the ads. Its written, produced and directed by a multi-racial team. If you overanalyse, anything will be bad.”

As a media man, he should know that a message driven public service advertisement would at some point of time be dissected and analysed by the very target of those advertisements. And when the advertisements turn stereotyping into an art, surely they will touch on raw nerves.

One does not have to “overthink” about those advertisements to find them offensive and insensitive. The fact that it was produced by a “multi-racial team” does not negate the somewhat insidious stereotyping contained in the advertisements.

The advice to “chill out” was, to me, even more insulting than the advertisements themselves.

Speaking of insult, I am sure many Muslims would find those advertisements insulting as well. How weak are we, Muslims? We would be breaking fast when we see other people eat or drink? Or we would be having a hard-on at a pasar Ramadhan when we see girls in sleeveless tank top showing their arm pit eh?

The ritual of fasting is meant to cleanse not only our physical body but also our soul. We are supposed to be humbled by the experience of fasting. We are supposed to learn the sufferings of those who are not as lucky as we are, those who do not have food and drinks like us day in day out throughout the year as opposed to only 30 days or so a year.

Why are we so weak so much so that we have to ask people of other faith not to drink or eat in front of us? For God’s sake, the Prophet and his followers fought the Badar battle on the 17th day of Ramadhan in the year 624. And here, now in 2011, we seek the non-Muslims’ understanding not to eat in front of us in Ramadhan. Awesome.

I just love seeing how the Chinese-looking girl was portrayed as a greedy person trying to make a pig out of herself with all the food. If 8TV crew could go to one of those hotels which serves the RM100++ buka puasa buffet, perhaps they would see that Muslims too put mountainous amount of food on their plate too which at the end is not consumed.

There are many messages which could be delivered during Ramadhan. Messages about how we all should be moderate in our buka puasa meals; about how we all should not forget the sufferings of those in poverty and those children who have to work on the streets of Chow Kit to fend for themselves; about how we all should not just think that Ramadhan is all about avoiding food and drink in day time; about how we should all strive to respect each other, to treat each other with good manners and in civility; about how we should all detoxify our soul from greed, corruption, intoxication with all things materials etc etc.

Instead we chose to demean our neighbours and friends with insensitive and almost senseless stereotyping this Ramadhan. Just a few days ago I remember our Honourable Prime Minister preaching for acceptance instead of tolerance. What have the people at 8TV learned from that exhortation?

Well, the advertisements have been pulled out. The chief operating officer of Media Prima had reportedly said:

“Ok guys. We’re pulling out the ads. Thank you very much for your concern.”

He followed up by asking:

“And now to more important things... Does a horn section sound better with 4 trombones? Or would just 3 trombones be enough?”

Yes, life goes on, isn’t it? There are much more important things in life.

As for the horn section with 3 or 4 trombones, I would surely hope 8TV is not going to air a programme on it. Because I fear they might just go and inspect some horns on some cars and air their findings.

Poker: Deuce Trumps Royal Flush?

2011-07-27T09:32:00.000+08:00

Read below, Martin Jalleh's response to the following by Raja Nazrin. It appears that it is Perakians who should be told the real story.

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

Nazrin: Rulers must be told the real story

The Raja Muda of Perak, Raja Nazrin Shah, said today rulers should not be shielded from the truth and must be told the real story.

In addition, rulers should never be surrounded by people with personal interests who are willing to use them as tools.

"Rulers must have advisers who are sincere, sensitive to the people's needs and bold to state the truth," he said at 'Wacana Ilmu Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) on the theme 'The role of Malay rulers in nurturing unity' in Shah Alam.

Raja Nazrin said rulers should be willing to accept the fact, no matter how bitter, as justice could not be uphold without the truth.

"Rulers can't play a meaningful role if they are given a rosy picture. The false impression is unfair as they will be denied the right to conduct their responsibilities fairly."

Raja Nazrin expressed fears that shielding rulers from the truth would separate them from the people, making it difficult to address integrity, statehood, loyalty and unity.

"Exploiting sentiments is easy as the people easily fall for promises. The prescription can only heal if the syndrome is identified.

"It is unwise if the nation and people choose to reject reality, blurring the vision on the real reasons that affect unity."

Raja Nazrin said stiff political competition had exploited sensitive religious and racial issues and dissatisfactions of the people.

No one party is right all the time

"In all conflicts, no one party is right all the time and no one party is wrong all the time.

"The methods to achieve total victory by beating foes have cast aside good manners, customs, morals and religious elements."

He also feared that the rising political temperature would turn dreams of unity into a nightmare, adding that there should be a neutral, credible and acceptable institution to lower this.

It was important for rulers to not only be above political polemics but also have the trust and responsibility of ensuring peace and harmony.

"Rulers must use wisdom to calm situations, but they do not have a 'magic lamp' to keep unity, especially when the situation has become chaotic."

Raja Nazrin said the role of rulers was to give advice privately, so that this was not misinterpreted as directly interfering with the administration.

"The credibility of some national instruments require a recovery of perception and need improvements in line with the current world dynamics to restore confidence in the people."

Raja Nazrin said unity would not be achieved in an unstable and immature political climate post the 12th general election, with calls for reality checks and demands for change.

"Unity requires a willingness to sacrifice, accept defeat willingly and celebrate victory with humility," he added.

- Bernama

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

Of Raja Nazrin, Real Stories & Regal Rhetoric

Raja Petra has told us his “real story” to the above questions. It has something to do with your succession to the Perak throne and also to save the financial empire of one of members of your royal family. Is RPK’s story accurate? Will you tell us the “real story”?
By Martin Jalleh

Your Royal Highness (YRH),

Recently, during a talk themed: “The role of Malay rulers in nurturing unity” held in Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) in Shah Alam, YRH declared that “rulers should not be shielded from the truth and must be told the real story”.

May I, with due respect to YRH, tell you the truth that many of us (especially those who are sons and daughters of Perak) find it very hard to believe that you meant every word that you said during the talk. Some, in responding to the article highlighting your talk, have asked you to “walk the talk”!

Much as we would really like to consider what you had proclaimed as “rare wisdom” from a ruler and intellectual, very unfortunately, the tragic manner in which the Perak royal family handled the Perak Constitutional Crisis (PCC) reduces your speeches to mere “regal rhetoric”.

You were so very right when you said that “rulers should never be surrounded by people with personal interests who are willing to use them as tools”. If only the Perak royalty had displayed and determinedly demonstrated such astuteness during the PCC!

It was the public’s perception that His Royal Highness (HRH) Sultan Azlan Shah had allowed himself to be surrounded by the PM and his cohorts and to be used as a political tool. HRH also denied the ousted Perak MB Nizar Jamaluddin of an audience at a very crucial point.

By writing this open letter to you I run the risk of Umno or Perkasa members making police reports against me but I am confident enough that YRH will not allow these elements to make use of you, as they have so often and unashamedly done so, out of political expediency.

To confirm the hypocrisy of the Umno elite, you should consult your royal colleague and veteran Umno leader, Tengku Razaleigh, who during the height of the PCC strongly suggested that it is Umno who has harmed the Malay rulers more than anyone else!

In sharp contrast to your professed openness, Umno, through the Attorney-General’s (AG’s) Chambers has gone to extremes to do the opposite. Take for example the AG’s appeal against a High Court’s decision to acquit Karpal Singh of a charge of sedition against the Perak Sultan.

Unbelievably the DPP told the Court of Appeal that: “People have the legal right to take Sultans to court but to speak openly of it is seditious…as this would inflame the sentiments of laymen who did not have a good grasp of the law”!

Understandably, the AG and his Chambers are suspected of suffering from the inflammation of the brain, which in many respects is as bad as “yellow fever”.

Bitter & Brutal Truth

YRH, you stressed that: “Rulers should be willing to accept the fact, no matter how bitter, as justice could not be uphold without the truth”? Logically, you would need to be willing to accept the fact, no matter how bitter, that hardly anyone takes you seriously these days.

Public sentiments for HRH Sultan Azlan Shah are the same. Perakians had placed their hopes high on HRH – whom they had held in high regard. But he seemed to be swayed by Umno’s political subterfuge and scheming. Public perception of his impartiality plummeted thence after.

YRH so rightly pointed out that: "In all conflicts, no one party is right all the time and no one party is wrong all the time.” HRH Sultan Azlan Shah (a former Lord President though he was) was wrong in his personal discretion and his straying beyond his parameters of power during the PCC.

No one presented the brutal and bitter truth so honestly, clearly and professionally than respected retired judge N H Chan who bravely declared that HRH had “sidestepped” provisions of the Perak Constitution and made a “fatal error”.

YRH also very accurately pointed out in your talk that: "The credibility of some national instruments require recovery of perception and need improvement in line with current world dynamics to restore confidence in the people."

During and after the PCC, key democratic institutions were manipulated by the powers that be to contain, cripple and crush legitimate dissent. They degenerated to the point that the public no longer trusted them. This was especially true of the judiciary.

The judiciary sunk so low during the PPC, as to allow itself to be intimidated, its independence and impartiality interfered with, and its integrity reduced to ignominy. Today the reputation of the judiciary or whatever is left of it, has been sullied irreparably.

Very ironically on 31 Oct. 2007 I had in an Open Letter thanked HRH Sultan Azlan “for portraying the truth about the state of the country's judiciary and your accompanying clarion call for major reforms in the judiciary…”

I wrote: “Today, we have become a laughing stock. We are second to none when it comes to kangaroo courts and court jesters like the de facto Law Minister. The judgments of our courts are often quoted in political satire and online comic scripts.” Nothing has changed still then!

Just as the “credibility of some national instruments require recovery of perception and need improvement”, I am sure you will agree that the credibility of the royalty also requires recovering of perception and regaining public confidence!

Perhaps, YRH, this can only happen if the people are told the “real story”. Just as the rulers need to be given the true picture, the public also needs to hear the “real story” to make a wise and good decision in the next General Elections.

YRH, please tell us the “real story” on why was there such an undue and indecent haste by HRH to dismiss the leader of a popularly elected coalition? Why was there such an unholy haste to recognize and install and swear in a government against the expressed wishes of the people?

Raja Petra has told us his “real story” to the above questions. It has something to do with your succession to the Perak throne and also to save the financial empire of one of members of your royal family. Is RPK’s story accurate?

Will you tell us the “real story”?

Who Creates Such Videos?

2011-07-24T13:07:00.001+08:00

I wonder who is the creative brains behind videos like this one. There seems to be more and more out in cyberspace and some of them are really well put together. It cannot be from just one source and if it really is not then I cannot imagine the groundswell. Perhaps BN can come out with rebuttal videos which are virtually non-existent now and yet they are aware they lag behind in cyber war. Porn excluded, what would be in such videos?

Dato' Dr. Ambiga Sreenevasan: Rule of law, rule by law

2011-07-24T04:54:00.003+08:00

Barely a week after Najib went to London to see the Queen who was so elegantly dressed in yellow, and after he said British PM, David Cameron was briefed by him about the true intentions of Bersih, Dato' Ambiga becomes Dato' Dr Ambiga in Exeter, UK. What are our former colonial masters thinking?

Bernama, quoting Najib reported that: Cameron was also briefed that Bersih’s real aim was not to press for electoral reform as professed but rather to portray the Malaysian government in an autocratic light in order to wrest power from an elected entity.

The prime minister ended by saying that he had stressed the Malaysian government always upholds the principles of democracy and has never cheated in a general election because those held in Malaysia are free from fraudulent practices.

This is one of eight recipients of the US Secretary of State “International Women of Courage” Award in 2009. This is the woman whom Anwar WILL TELL to cancel the Bersih 2.0 rally on 9th July. This is the woman who has shown more gumption, courage and leadership than Najib and any PM wannabes today. Najib doesn't seem to have much luck with women does he? Imagine if Dr Ambiga is ISAed or EOed for being Bersih.

The following was the acceptance speech delivered by Datuk Dr Ambiga Sreenevasan upon her conferment with the Honorary Doctorate Of Laws, University of Exeter. Read it and know:

Rule of law, rule by law

By Ambiga Sreenevasan

I urge you to use this arsenal of knowledge and your passion for justice to fight for those who are downtrodden.

You have already heard of the events of July 9th in Malaysia. Whilst it brought out the worst in some, it brought out the best in others and this is where our hope lies.

JULY 23 — Good Morning! Chancellor, vice chancellor and graduating students.

It is so good to be back!

I am deeply moved by the conferment of this honour upon me. That it comes from my alma mater is especially significant for me. That it comes at this time is almost providential, for it allows me and all lawyers to reflect on our roles in the societies we live in.

For this honour and this moment of reflection, I extend my grateful thanks to the Council and Senate of the University of Exeter.

Tired of injustice and oppression, people the world over are crying out for truth, goodness, justice and universal love and understanding.

The events in Malaysia over the past six weeks culminating in the rally for free and fair elections on the 9th of July, has taught me so much more than I could have ever learned in the last 30 years as a practising lawyer.

My team and I faced first-hand the full force of the unleashed power of the state, and I realised then the importance of the independence of the Institutions of government, particularly the judiciary, to check such abuses of power.

I also realised how real and present the absence of the Rule of Law can be.

In countries where the Rule of Law reigns strong and true one probably does not even talk about it. But in countries that veer towards Rule by Law, talking about getting back to the basics is crucial.

In many countries, Rule by Law is reflected in the existence of repressive laws that violate the fundamental rights of its citizens. One example of this is preventive detention laws that lock people away without affording them the basic right to a trial. There are many examples of such oppressive laws worldwide and they are not confined to underdeveloped or developing countries.

As lawyers, we are in a unique position. Our years of legal study and practice teach us to see and appreciate the fundamental role that the Rule of Law plays in guaranteeing that the state governs its citizens in a just and democratic manner.

Who better to remind those in power of their responsibilities to their citizens than lawyers trained in understanding the difference between “Rule of Law” and “Rule by Law”?

Our role as lawyers must therefore extend far beyond traditional legal practice.

Here, I make no reference to rules, guidelines, documents, or declarations. My only reference point is our conscience. Can we as lawyers, ever sit back and watch the erosion of fundamental liberties of the people around us and do nothing? Clearly, silence in these circumstances, is not an option.

When I graduated from this university about 30 years ago, things were of course very different. Today the Internet and social media has empowered people with a continual flow of unfiltered and up-to-date information. No longer can the manipulation and control of information be effectively used by those in power to suppress either thought or action.

You are in a world where you know instantly of injustices taking place in any part of it. In this global village drawn together by so many factors, we are one. We can reach out to each other using these new means of communication and we owe it to each other to stand together for what is right.

You may say, “But I studied law to be a solicitor or barrister and to earn money for a decent standard of living”. There is nothing wrong with that, I assure you. I run a commercial litigation practice in a partnership of four where we also do public interest litigation. The two can co-exist quite comfortably.

The point I make is this.

You are graduating from one of the best universities in the country if not on the planet! You are special. And you are now a proud member of an army of people that is equipped with all that is necessary to both practise law and to fight injustice.

I urge you to use this arsenal of knowledge and your passion for justice to fight for those who are downtrodden.

You have already heard of the events of July 9th in Malaysia. Whilst it brought out the worst in some, it brought out the best in others and this is where our hope lies.

There were some in government who opposed the methods used to shut us down. Even doctors left their comfort zones to speak up against injustices. And of course there were the lawyers and the independent media who stood on the side of truth and justice.

However, the real heroes of that day are our friend and supporter Allahyarham Baharuddin Ahmad who paid the ultimate price in fighting a noble cause, the six members of the Socialist Party of Malaysia who, as we speak, sit in solitary confinement under preventive detention laws and finally the brave people of Malaysia who overcame their fear of intimidation and harassment to uphold their fundamental rights.

With all my heart I dedicate this honour you have bestowed upon me to them.

Today: Malaysia vs Liverpool FC

2011-07-16T11:00:00.005+08:00

UPDATE: Malaysia 3 Liverpool FC 6 on a level playing field. I think everyone is happy with this result. It is good to know Malaysia can score three albeit against leaky Liverpool and that Liverpool can score 6 without Suarez albeit against Malaysia.

Malaysia has obviously improved and we now wait to measure against our ASEAN neighbors. I believe we are now on par with or even better than the likes of Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Myanmar and Singapore. The team seems to have found new confidence. Time for the whole nation to get behind our national team again. Hopefully, we will get to see our team play in the usual royal yellow and black stripes jersey again soon.

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

Versus

It's "Negara Ku"

and "You Will Never Walk Alone"

...sounds like Bersih to me!

Yellow. Unggun Bersih - A. Samad Said

2011-07-16T10:22:00.004+08:00

The winds of change fanning the bonfires of dissent...

Unggun Bersih by A Samad Said

Unggun Bersih

Semakin lara kita didera bara—
kita laungkan juga pesan merdeka:
Demokrasi sebenderang mentari
sehasrat hajat semurni harga diri.

Lama resah kita—demokrasi luka;
lama duka kita—demokrasi lara.
Demokrasi yang angkuh, kita cemuhi;
suara bebas yang utuh, kita idami!

Dua abad lalu Sam Adams berseru:
(di Boston dijirus teh ke laut biru):
Tak diperlu gempita sorak yang gebu,
diperlu hanya unggun api yang syahdu.

Kini menyalalah unggun sakti itu;
kini merebaklah nyala unggun itu.
24—25, 6.11. A. SAMAD SAID

Yellow - Coldplay

Look at the stars
Look how they shine for you
And everything you do
Yeah, they were all yellow

I came along
I wrote a song for you
And all the things you do
And it was called 'Yellow'

So then I took my time
Oh what a thing to've done
And it was all yellow

Your skin, oh yeah, your skin and bones
Turn into something beautiful
D'you know? You know I love you so
You know I love you so

I swam across
I jumped across for you
Oh what a thing to do
'Cause you were all yellow

I drew a line
I drew a line for you
Oh what a thing to do
And it was all yellow

Your skin, oh yeah, your skin and bones
Turn into something beautiful
D'you know? For you I bleed myself dry
For you I bleed myself dry

It's true
Look how they shine for you
Look how they shine for you
Look how they shine for

Look how they shine for you
Look how they shine for you
Look how they shine

Look at the stars
Look how they shine for you
And all the things that you do

The Voice

2011-07-16T09:15:00.001+08:00

Just listen and know you have a voice...

The Voice - John Farnham

We have
The chance to turn the pages over
We can write what we want to write
We gotta make ends meet, before we get much older

We're all someone's daughter
We're all someone's son
How long can we look at each other
Down the barrel of a gun?

Chorus:
You're the voice, try and understand it
Make a noise and make it clear
Oh-o-o-o, whoa-o-o-o!
We're not gonna sit in silence
We're not gonna live with fear
Oh-o-o-o, whoa-o-o-o!

This time
We know we all stand together
With the power to be powerful
Believing, we can make it better

Oooooooh,
We're all someone's daughter
We're all someone's son
How long can we look at each other
Down the barrel of a gun?...

You're the voice, try and understand it
Make a noise and make it clear
Oh-o-o-o, whoa-o-o-o!
We're not gonna sit in silence
We're not gonna live with fear
Oh-o-o-o, whoa-o-o-o!

{Instrumental[Bag Pipes(Tin Whistle)]}

Ooooooh
We're all someone's daughter
We're all someone's son
How long can we look at each other
Down the barrel of a gun?...

You're the voice, try and understand it
Make a noise and make it clear
Oh-o-o-o, whoa-o-o-o!
We're not gonna sit in silence
We're not gonna live with fear
Oh-o-o-o, whoa-o-o-o!
(repeat until end of song)

The Great Malaysia Cleanliness Contest; Here Are The Winners.

2011-07-14T09:33:00.002+08:00

I got this in an e-mail today. It may have been from someone's blog or something but it sure does summarize Bersih related events in the last three weeks:

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

Date: Tue, 12 Jul 2011 22:24:19

Bersih 2.0 Rally, Here Are The Winners (Photo)

Delete names/addresses of incoming emails before on-forwarding.
Many thanks.

Hi,

The Malaysian government considers BERSIH as dangerous, thus the huge clampdown. They even use excessive force to prevent citizens who just want a fair and clean election to air their views. Definitely, they are not listening and would not listen. This is how corrupt and desperate the regime is. They even declare it as illegal. How can seeking a fair and clean election be illegal? See how peaceful the other rallies around the world are. In Malaysia, the government is adamant to use force and thinks that they own the country. They have definitely overstayed their welcome.

BN does not own the country but the people. It only confirms that this government is not in favour of a clean and fair election. The struggle continues and the people would surely win.

Watch out for comments from Ng Yen Yen and Chua Sui Lek http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/bersih-2.0-seriously-hurt-economy-says-soi-lek (If he does not have anything good for the Malaysian Chinese, its better for him to keep quite). Can you like them?

Bersih 2.0 Rally, Here Are The Winners (Photo)

My driver was anxiously telling me how he evaded the road block on his way to pick me up at the airport, on the eve of Bersih 2.0′s July 9 rally. Before I can start telling him about my trip to Hong Kong and the wonderful foods that I had, he told me not to worry because he would use another route to send me home. Obviously he wasn’t listening and didn’t care about my Hong Kong trip and who could blame him when almost every Tom, Dick and his dog were affected (and excited) about the Bersih 2.0 rally, one way or another.

It seems the Malaysian police received tips that thousands of stubborn supporters would somehow invade the capital city Kuala Lumpur from the country’s international airport, hence the road-block – how stupid can that be. I told my driver I was thinking about staying put in Hong Kong to help the number (of Bersih 2.0 Hong Kong version) since Kuala Lumpur was literally paralysed due to the police lockdown as if the city was infected by some sort of virus. But my driver saidthe most electrifying moment only happen in the city so I should come back to experience it, whatever that means.

I didn’t give much hope that the Bersih 2.0 would be any success compared to the first version although I did write about the unexpected turn-out due to PM Najib Razak’s own stupidity -repeating the history and in the process giving free but valuable publicity to the Bersih 2.0 rally. And the most terrifying moment in the entire political life of PM Najib emerges – a united estimated 50,000 Malaysians regardless of ethnic, religion, age, wealth and whatnot took to the streets of Kuala Lumpur in defiance of the government ban, hand-in-hand. If I were Najib Razak, I would be constipating, knowing my throne is slipping away.

If there’s one army that you can’t defeat, that army would be these 50,000 united citizens who came out arming with nothing more than their determination and spirit in demanding for a simple request – a fair election. For once, they’re united for a single cause. You can’t help but shed tears watching how peaceful and the close comradeship demonstrated by these people in helping each other – against the brutality of the police. Unlike Bersih 1.0, this round of rally triggered international attention when Malaysians from around the world; from Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Australia, Taiwan to as far as United States, Canada, France and Switzerland joined forces in the rally.

Bersih 2 - Portland, USA

Bersih 2 - Paris, France

Bersih 2 - London, Britain

Bersih 2 - Ottawa, Canada

Bersih 2 - Hong Kong

Bersih 2 - Taipei, Taiwan

Bersih 2 - Perth, Australia

Bersih 2 - Adelaide, Australia

Bersih 2 - Melbourne, Australia

Bersih 2 - Canberra, Australia

Bersih 2 - Osaka, Japan

Bersih 2 - Geneva, Switzerland

Bersih 2 - Washington, USA

Arrogance is addictive, so I suppose PM Najib felt how his predecessor, former PM Abdullah Badawi, was feeling when Badawi thought he was invincible when confronted with peoples rally back in 2007. If only Najib took the different route and allows these people to march peacefully and hand-over whatever their petitions to the King, he would not have to worry about the post-rally effects now. With a record-breaking 1,667 people arrested, including 151 women and 16 children, 1 death due to tear-gas paid by taxpayers money and international coverage from CNN to Al-Jazeera on police’s brutality, Najib administration should be shivering in fears instead of still boasting about his ability to mobilize so-called 3 million UMNO members for a similar rally.

Now that the rally is over and the government-controlled media started spinning stories in an attempt for damage-control, who’re the winners and losers post Bersih 2.0 rally? As expected both Malaysian Government and Bersih claim victories. Maybe it’s true that there’re no losers and everyone is a winner.

First Winner – Bersih 2.0

Obviously Bersih (Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections) is now a well-known household brand name synonym with “Fair and Clean”. You can bet your money that if you register this name as a political party and put a donkey as the candidate, you will win the seat with handsome majority (grin). Forget about Najib’s pea-size brain cousin, Home Minister Hishammuddin, who declared Bersih as an illegal organization. The fact that the King agreed for an audience with Bersih representatives means Bersih is recognized as a coalition of 62 NGOs whose interest was purely in promoting democracy and free and fair elections in Malaysia.

Bersih 2.0 chairperson, Ambiga, was right when she said Bersih was not about her or any other political parties. Bersih was about the people, the voice of rakyat for a fair election.

Second Winner – Ambiga Sreenevasan, Bersih chairperson

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and first lady Michelle Obama present give away Secretary of State’s Award for International Women of Courage to Malaysia ‘s Ambiga Sreenevasan (Malaysian Bar Council) at the State Department in Washington

Ambiga, a Malaysian lawyer who served is the President of the Malaysian Bar Council from 2007 – 2009, became one of the eight recipients of the 2009 Secretary of State’s International Women of Courage Award in 2009. She is perhaps widely known as the lawyer who stood in the controversial religious case for Lina Joy in her apostasy case. From being attacked in a racial slur by Perkasa as a dangerous Hindu woman to SMS death threat and the call to revoke her citizenship, this woman gains the respect of many for her perseverance.

However she was taking a huge risk when she said she will cancel the rally should she be ordered to do so by the King as it was public knowledge that King’s scripts were normally drafted by Najib administration beforehand. The event sent many in the Bersih committee in disarray and divided over the next course of action should the King were to be on Najib’s side. It was a brilliant tactical move by Najib (or rather Mahathir?) nevertheless in trapping Ambiga who is a political novice. Fortunately, the King granted her an audience, indirectly recognized Bersih as a coalition despite Najib’s cousin declaring it as an illegal movement.

The King neither asked Ambiga to cancel nor endorse the rally but advised both Bersih and Najib administration to negotiate. Needless to say, the arrogant Najib refuse to entertain the King’s advise as it would be seen as losing face to Bersih. Now, Ambiga is an asset whom opposition party (and Najib? Nah!) can recruit as a credible candidate for the next general election.

Third Winner – Opposition parties

As I’ve blogged earlier, when the opposition parties were searching for the next weapon to keep the momentum alive ahead of a snap election speculated to be called anytime soon, Najib foolishly presented them with one. The opposition parties would not have the best platform to swing the fence-sitting voters over to their camp if Najib didn’t show his arrogance by threatening Bersih with the silliest accusation – working with communists and arresting people who wear yellow shirts. He should have engaged Bersih with the objective of locking out opposition parties from riding on the wave of Bersih’s rally.

Thanks to police’s brutality in firing tear-gas directly at innocent crowds, the opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim was himself injured while another was dead and you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to find election campaign bullets. If opposition parties were to probably lose Selangor and Kedah while maintaining Perak states if a snap election were to call this year, the same cannot be said now post Bersih rally. Should Najib allows the rally to proceed, his administration may be able to regain its two-third majority.

Fourth Winner – Mahathir Mohamad

Despite low-profile, this former dictator was the person pulling strings from behind in his attempt to dislodge Najib in favor of deputy PM Muhyiddin. It was not a surprise that Mahathir was the person who almost checkmate Bersih Ambiga when the King was dragged into the crisis. How Mahathir wished the King was the Sultan of Pahang, Perak or Johor. Nevertheless damage has been done and if history were to repeat itself, Najib will most unlikely able to reclaim two-thirds majority in the next general election hence Mahathir’s ambitious plan to install his son as the deputy Prime Minister looks bright.

Fifth Winner – deputy PM Muhyiddin

Compare to Najib, Muhyiddin is more cruel, decisive and dirty (politically) – something that former dictator PM Mahathir possess. Mahathir can almost swear Muhyiddin looks like him when he was his age. The only thing Mahathir need to do now is to assure Muhyiddin will keep to his promise to warm up the premier seat for his own son after a single term. What Muhyiddin needs to do now is to keep low profile and pour more kerosene into the fire in the hate-Najib campaign, quietly. As long as he can proves that he’s as loyal as a dog to Mahathir, his key to the premier throne is assured.

Sixth Winner – Police

That’s right, the police force is the winner and is proven during the rally. The police succeeded in doing all the dirty works commissioned by Najib administration through his cousin, Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein. And as a reward, top guns such as IGP (Inspector General of Police) Ismail Omar, deputy IGP Khalid Abu Bakar, City acting police chief Amar Singh, Selangor police chief Tun Hisan and others who carried their duties“faithfully as instructed” are assured of their next promotion (or contract extension).

As a bonus, the police has also done the Najib administration proud by firing and attacking Tung Shin Hospital, a clear breach of Geneva Convention. When not even the United Nations dare to attack hospitals in compliance with Geneva Convention, which was used by dictator Colonel Gaddafi to cowardly hide in Libyan hospitals, Malaysia police under the instruction from Najib administration were happily spreading rounds of tear gas into the civilian hospital. How difficult for the police to deny this – just blame it on the wind and the science of physics that carried the bullets and tear gas into the hospital compound (*grin*).

Malaysian police was so successful in their crackdown against the rally that the whole capital of Kuala Lumpur was literally turned into a ghost town. Intimidation, bullying, threats, roadblocks and brutality against their own citizens were carried out flawlessly and systematically. Police’s dedication would literally make you cry as they comb almost each and every hotel in the city, looking for prospect demonstrators. If only they’re as hardworking in looking for criminals.

But above all, the Malaysia police should be congratulated for striking a very high success rate of arrest when 1,667 people were arrested during the “illegal rally” – that’s a whopping 27.78% success rate out of 6,000 demonstrators as claimed by the IGP. Malaysia now has another commodity for export. Bet Colonel Gaddafi would pay top money to engage Malaysian police services.

Seventh Winner – Brave-heart Shop Owners

Just like Warren Buffett’s stock investing quote – Be Fearful When Others Are Greedy and Be Greedy When Others Are Fearful, only a handful of shop owners opened their business during the rally and as a reward, they enjoyed fantastic business and profit. Others who blindly believed the government’s fear propaganda shutdown their businesses. Strangely despite all the chaos and havoc projected by government-controlled media, not a single shop owner complained of looting or property damages.

In actual fact, if the people were to allow rally peacefully, the tens or probably hundreds of thousands of these “visitors” would bring roaring businesses to all the shop owners. It would be a carnival-like party or festival.

Eighth Winner – Najib Razak

Despite criticisms, Najib is one of the biggest winners here. Maybe it was true that he cowardly tried to fly out of the country before the Bersih 2.0 rally but fortunately his wife Rosmah Mansor stopped him from doing so. Now that the rally was over and with an estimated 50,000 people took to the street, he can spin the story that Bersih 2.0 was a failure as it couldn’t get the promise 100,000 or 500,000 people. In contrast, he can easily mobilize 3 million UMNO members, if he wanted to. He can also be assured of undivided police support should he decide to declare emergency in order to stay in power, in case the opposition managed to win with simple majority in the next general election.

He was particularly proud on how he skillfully cheated Ambiga’s Bersih 2.0 that the government would provide a stadium for them to shout and scream from day to night, only to flop and claim he didn’t promise the Merdeka Stadium but other stadium elsewhere. Ambiga and his team were given the run around and that was so funny. This whole rally also presented Najib with a very important platform -survivability stress test; in the event of an internal power struggle within his own UMNO party. He may be stupid but not his Imelda-Marcos wannabe wife, Rosmah Mansor.

The police backing, army support under his buddy Defence Minister, ability to defy King’s instruction and whatnot would guarantee his premiership.

Heck, so what if it’s the King who can only declare emergency, constitutionally speaking? In this case study, obviously Najib administration asked the King to fly kite, literally, when it defied the Highess instruction to negotiate with Bersih. Najib can declare one (state of emergency) himself even if the King refuses to, and will literally get away with it. That was what the Royal Malay Regiment, Federal Reserve Unit (FRU) and the police Army Unit and Air Wing joint-exercise right before the rally was all about.

In reality, Prime Minister of Malaysia is the most powerful person in the country, provided you’ve the right backing from the police and army forces, which Najib has at the moment. That was why his most trusted lieutenants were entrusted with the portfolio of Home Minister and Defence Minister. Together with his Finance Minister post, Najib is almost invincible. If I were Najib, I would dissolve the Parliament and call a snap election this week.

With only 50,000 against you but more than 28,000,000 people supporting you, what are there to worry about, Mr. Najib Razak?

Other Articles That May Interest You …

Article taken from FinanceTwitter - http://www.financetwitter.comURL to article: http://www.financetwitter.com/2011/07/post-bersih-2-0-rally-here-are-the-winners-photo.html

Betrayal of the highest order - Using unacceptable force on unarmed citizens

Najib, you had hoped, you and your minions, that the atrocities committed against ordinary, decent and innocent people would bring them to their nadir – their worst moment, their moment of least hope. But it’s backfired on you.

It is your nadir, Najib. Not ours. The more abuse you allow hurled at the rakyat who want a good government, the more those divisive slurs, the stronger the rakyat become. The more you allow freedom of speech and action to be stifled, the more they will speak out and do what is necessary for oppression to end.

Ethnic groups are coming together like never before. People are closing their eyes to status, race and religion and opening their hearts to one another. They have learnt to trust again, realizing the real party that has been shredding the fabric of unity and respect all this time. The walls you allowed to be erected are fast coming down.

The internet blossoms now with new and fervent writers, many of them so young, whose openness, passion, steadfastness and writing gifts this nation should be proud to acknowledge and applaud.

Freedom has finally found its voice. Courage has finally found its people.

Everywhere, people are awakening – teenagers, adolescents, young and old. I keep hearing of 18-,17-,15-year-olds wanting to step forward. They have found new dreams. They see in the distance the fruition of a better country and are willing to give their all for reforms to be birthed.

It will come – a free and fair country – where we can stand tall among the nations and know there is a future for all.

And that glorious future can include you, Najib – if you can get out of your time warp and Hitlerian mentality, and get Perkida, Wataniah,   Mat Rempit army, Perkasa, silat groups etc to see reason.

You know, I went to court the other day about 8.30am, to give support to Murugan – the ‘last man’ standing. I was surprised at the number of Malay youths present at the complex, almost a hundred, I would say. They were giving support to the Datuk T trio, holding placards which proclaimed they loved them. Love porno-video makers?

I could not stay for Murugan’s session which was rescheduled to take place at 11.30 am. I walked out of the court complex at about 11am and saw those youths still there, a few possibly even as young as 13 or 14. They were standing around, sitting on the steps, doing nothing. I also saw ‘a sea’ of gleaming motorbikes in the parking lot.

I wanted to ask some of them why they weren’t in school or college or working at that hour. I looked at one youngster, wondering whether it was he I should speak to. He looked back at me, and there was something in his eyes that made me keep my silence.

That day I had many troubled thoughts. All I could think of was the waste – the waste of young potential, the brainwashing of gullible minds, perhaps even the poison of money doled out?

Why have these youths been brought down to this state of idleness?

Who in the end will rescue our young Malays from their wayward ways and dependency syndrome and give them something fresh and real and true to hold on to, something that will help them gain self-respect and esteem and worth?

Truly, no one has done a greater disservice to the Malay community, damaged the young, fed them insecurities, robbed them of self-esteem and self-respect than those who want an eternal perpetuation of their own position and power.

Please let our young grow before it is too late and they lead permanently damaging lives.

I am sure there are some   people in the police force, on the bench, in the MACC, in SB,etc. whose conscience bothers them – because they see the atrocities and think they cannot do anything. They are decent, they understand and want a better nation but they live in straitjackets, needing their jobs.

The time is now, if they should ever want things to get better. There is a choice, albeit a hard one. To say, ‘No more’…or continue to be dominated and be devalued as people, having the humanity in them slowly stripped away.

Najib, you bungled big-time. All you should have done was agreed to the Bersih rally, the Perkasa rally, the Khairy rally – because that is democracy, never mind the purposes of each.

Instruct that each march occur at different times, and don’t forget Bersih set their date and time and venues before the others. Have the police on hand to protect the marchers and apprehend any agent provocateur bent on disturbing and disrupting the peace, and when July 9 comes to an end, positive things would have been said about you. And you would have taken that first small step towards redemption.

Instead, you get the police to carry out your unreasonable orders and they get the bad name. I feel sorry for the police, so many good people there having to do bad things for you.

I’ve ceased being angry with you, Najib. I’ve ceased feeling disdain for Khairy, Hishamuddin, Rais, Muhyddin, Mahathir, Ibrahim Ali, Nazri and others recruited to spread hate and cause fear.

Why? We often hear this saying, “If you do the same thing over and over again, and expect different results, that’s insanity.”

Look at where our nation has been heading down the years? See what you have been allowing – directly or through your minions! The rakyat are bullied, threatened while you just rail and rant. The rakyat are constantly intimidated while you twist innocent words and actions, having the media print falsehood to raise the racist and religious temperature to new obnoxious highs. You allow the police to arrest Bersih individuals for merely wearing those t-shirts but Umno and Perkasa with their threats of violence, bloodshed, arson and unlawful behaviour get off scot-free.

And now, what is most incomprehensible is that in your total fear of the rakyat whom you are required to defend and protect, you make Yellow, the colour of royalty, a kotor concept.

You do these over and over again and yet expect different results? You do these over and over again and think somewhere along the way people will grow to respect and love you, obey and applaud you? If that isn’t insanity, what is?

You have a choice. Call off your police and FRU and the army and SB. If they have orders to shoot, the bloodshed that flows is not that of an enemy of the state but of innocent people who want a future for our country, the citizenry of this country! That is betrayal of the highest order!

Why is it so difficult for you to comprehend that Bersih 2.0 is not about taking over government but about free and clean elections? That is so clear. The more you resist, the more we suspect so much of unethical moves are being done in preparation for GE13 and so now because you are being stalemated you have to resort to bestial and barbaric ways. Thus the fury.

In days of yore, many kings walked out of their palaces to sit in the public square to meet their subjects, hear cases and deliver judgment. That has drastically changed today. Walls and guards keep people away from their King and walls and guards keep their King inside.

Subjects want to meet their Ruler. Subjects want to hand over important matters for the Ruler to consider. Kings are not just figureheads. They have a crucial role to play in nation-building. And no one has the right to stop subjects who want to appeal to their King.

Najib, you may go on in this incomprehensible, reprehensible way. That’s your choice. But in the end there is always the day of reckoning for each of us –   each of us have to be finally accountable to our Creator.

For now, as July 9 looms, know that people are not afraid.

Here is a likely scenario I hope you will read and think through with compassion:

In his little village, 75-year-old Pak Mat rises from his prayer mat and steps out onto the veranda. He looks out to a dawn that is breaking and reflects on the significance of the day. In a few hours he will be there to march for free and fair elections. .

Mak Su joins him and he sees the tears before she hastily wipes them away. “Don’t go,” she says imploringly. “What if they beat you up, break your legs, detain you…?”

“I have to,” he replies sombrely. “It’s gone too far. If I don’t do something now, there’ll be no hope for our country and our children’s future. It is my duty to stand up against all the wrongs.”

Pak Mat slips into the bedroom where his five-year-old grandchild sleeps. He brushes the little one’s cheek gently with a feathery kiss and hurries out to the veranda again.

He puts on his sandals , picks up his walking stick and looks at Mak Su. She is weeping.

“What if they shoot you … what if you are killed?” she says brokenly, her weeping giving way to heart-wrenching cries.

Pak Mat takes his wife’s hands in his, and with hope and faith in his heart says, “I will be back. God is on our side.”

We have to remember people like Dr Jeyakumar and all the others who have so bravely stood up for BERSIH.

The heart of a gentle person - Dr Jeyakumar

I am writing this urgent letter to all Malaysians to be aware of the suffering that all the 6 PSM members are going thru . Isolated from loved ones and family they will have to beg to go to Toilet , or shave or bathe and hence the mental torture starts .I am writing on behalf of Dr Jeyakumar as I am a part of his family .I hope and trust that the family members of the others will start writing too to urge people not to stand for the utterly stupid charges against the 6 .If in fact there was a T shirt or poster of " former " CPM leader Chin Peng , how is it wrong . ???

The National Libraries and most libraries in Universities have many books on communism for reference and reading . There are even books with his pictures as well as other involved in the struggle at that time. Is Hishamuddin going to remove all reference books in all the libraries ?? Is he going to have all the Librarians arrested or having reference material on communism ??

Hishamuddin calls the Bersih Rally illegal and as such justifies the wearing of bersih T shirts illegal also and had the 30 peole arrested . If so , the Perkas rally and UMNO Youth rally was also illegal , can we assume as such that wearing Parkas shirts and UMNO Youth Illegal . Hishamuddin is the most shameless politician for using such a stupid comparison . He takes us ordinary Malaysians as stupid but we have to show his in a clear, non violent and reasonable way that we will not accept this action .

Dr Jeyakumar

I know Dr Jeyakumar personally . His father is also a doctor. Let me first tell you some childhood stories that will capture your imagination of this simple yet strong willed but gentle person .

1st personal story

In his teens One day he went to to town to buy some items . He simply wore slippers and told his mum that he will be back later .A few hours later he called and asked his mum to please come and fetch him back . His mum was busy and asked him to take the bus but he pleaded with her to just come this time . She relented and went to pick him up and found him without slippers !!! standing on the inside of the pavement in a shop away from the heat of the midday sun .

Looking relieved he quickly jumped into the car . People had been staring at him whenever they passed by and wondering what was wrong with this boy . In the car he explained that he saw an old man shuffling about without slippers and could not stand it anymore and just gave him his own slippers to walk .

Only after doing that he realised that the pavement was very hot and couldn't walk to the bus stop and also was receiving strange stares from passerby and decided to call his mother.

Such is the heart of this gentle man who has been arrested by Hishamuddin and the police saying he is a communist and was carrying Bersih T shirts

2nd personal story

When he was in University Malaya he constantly involved himself in the plight of the estate workers . I know personally of how he started tuition classes in many estates from sg Siput to BUTTERWORTH for poor students during his semester breaks. His legacy still continues till today with Indian students still sacrificing their important time during their breaks to tutor underprivileged students in estates till today .

When he became a doctor , he requested his posting to be in Sarawak interior where many places had no electricity and reachable by boat to treat orang asli and start education programmes for kindergarten aged children . He stayed for many ,many years in Sarawak doing selfless work among the poor and destitute .

Such is the heart of this gentle man who has been arrested by Hishamuddin and the police saying he is a communist and was carrying Bersih T shirts

3rd personal story

Once when I was in Ipoh few years ago ,way before he became Member of Parliament (and like David beating Goliath - won the Parliamentary seat from Samy Velu) saw me and asked me if I was free . I replied that I was and and in the night approx 9 after he had finished his hospital rounds picked me up and we drove many miles and reached a large squatter area . The old blue rickety Volkswagon tumbled and tossed in the uneven mud road and there were no streetlights at all and we ere driving in the dark .

After a long time we reached a broken down hut and inside was an old Indian lady on a makeshift bed . Dr Kumar listened for a long time to her crying and after sometime he gently talked to her and gave her some painkiller injections and she soon slept off . On the way back he told me that she was in the end stage of her cancer and was dying and in so much pain . He made this trip twice or 3 times a week as she could not come to a hospital for pain medication . I sat quietly reflection how much just one person can do and how we who are so blessed do so little .

Dr Kumar is my cousin and I am proud to know him . !!! My relationship throughout the years have enriched me tremendously. I hope that reading this that you will not believe the lies that the mainstream newspapers is trying to tell you .

All of the 6 deserve our support and love - more so at this time , This is my simple testimony . I am sure that many, many more people will be able to share more experiences that they have had with Dr Kumar .

His gentle heart , his ready ear for listening even to the smallest complaints . I am enraged that they have locked him up without his seeing his wife and son and parents and friends. It is said that he is in solitary confinement . His 19 year old son who was also on the bus was arrested with him and kept in the lock up .

Please read and pass to friends if you can . Remember - All it takes for Evil to Triumph is for good people to do nothing !!

Proud to be his friend,

Christopher

Hey! when did people like Dr Jeyakumar become a communist? I thought COMMUNISM is long gone. Even the USSR no longer exist. Just imagine how out of touch with reality they are and they have no better reason.

4th Year

2011-07-12T20:46:00.009+08:00

Exactly four years have passed Darling.

"The ultimate goal of all souls appears to be the desire to seek perfection and conjoin with the Source that created them..."

Click to play.

The Deafening Sound of Silence

2011-07-12T05:41:00.005+08:00

This post might as well be titled, “Klueless In KL” and a previous post here entitled, “Najib In Deep Shit! Site Gone Viral” might as well be called, “Malaysia in Deep Shit! Our PM is Najib!”

So much has been posted online about Saturday’s Bersih 2 rally and the truth is well documented by all the videos, photos and personal accounts. The mainstream media really out did itself this time and editors must still be feeling dizzy from all the spin. Pro-BN bloggers were also working overtime and they must have thought it would be a turkey shoot when the government “declared” open season on Bersih 2.0! Their bonuses would have come early this year.

In the aftermath, we see our PM making all sorts of fallacious statements in the media, participating in a walkabout (he did TAR Road and Masjid India; both not Bersih 2.0 hotspots) and in his “Majlis Penerangan Perdana”. After all that, he calls for the so called “silent majority” who did not attend the rally to voice their support for his government! Boy, are we in deep shit. Only 6,000 attended the Bersih 2 rally!

It was obvious no effort was spared in trying to derail and demonize the Bersih movement before 9^th July and the purported memo has too many markings of a BN “black-ops” for it to be a fake. Moreover, we have witnessed all the efforts preceding 9^th July and they appear to have come from that playbook. Res ipsa loquitur.

Alas. Mistakes compounded mistakes and hatchet man cuz, Kerishamuddin unleashed the PDRM on all he could catch, using all sorts of trumped up reasons. This culminated in the brutal attacks on peaceful and unarmed Malaysians - Bersih 2.0 marchers at the rally on Saturday.

One cannot help but wonder who Najib’s political strategists and advisors are, as he continues to shoot his own foot before putting it in his mouth. Now, if the advisors who are supposed to ensure his political survival are goofballs, then what about his economic advisors? Ultimately the buck stops with Najib and man! We ARE in deep shit! He is our Prime Minister!

Well Mr PM, you did ask the silent majority to speak up and perhaps you could not stand the deafening silence. By what logic did you draw the conclusion that if they did not march then they support you? Anyway, you are getting your wish Mr PM sir! The "silent majority" is now shouting loud and clear. Go check out the two-day old Facebook Page, “100,000 People Request Najib Tun Razak Resignation”; at last count about 156,000 people are baying for your head! Since you said only 6,000 attended the Bersih 2.0 rally then the 150,000 must be part of your “silent majority”.

There are those who say Najib’s albatross is women. Well, if this be true we can already see who the women in his life are. More importantly, he seems myopic about a diminutive woman who may have sparked a revolution; Ambiga Sreenevasan! Thousands more will "attend" or re-live that 9th July rally over and over again through internet videos and photos. The 13th GE is your call Najib...keep up what you are doing.

Proper Propaganda

2011-07-12T00:37:00.009+08:00

As some of us have heard before, this is how they do it. But voila! Now there is an internal memo as proof pulak! Make sure you watch the video below and see some of the consequences of such a memo:

Bersihkan yang Kotor!

This was in Malaysia Today:

Purported anti-Bersih script surfaces online
By Yow Hong Chieh
July 11, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, July 11 — Popular website Malaysia Today today leaked what appears to be a letter from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) with guidelines on how to demonise Bersih in the run-up to last Saturday’s rally.

The letter, ostensibly issued on June 17 and signed by national communications head Jalil Hamid, said such treatment was necessary because the rally “will certainly go beyond issues of fair and free elections” to inflation, Teoh Beng Hock and even the controversial Lynas plant.

Attempts by The Malaysian Insider to contact Jalil and other senior press officers of the prime minister’s department were unsuccessful.

“The protest, if not countered, could undermine the government, the economy and national security. This note sets out the policy guidance and the do’s and don’ts in managing the issue,” the guideline released by Malaysia Today this morning read.

In the guidance note, it states it was written up following an Umno political bureau meeting to discuss Bersih and was also circulated to bureau members, the letter said.

In it, the PMO reminded media outlets to discredit Bersih and its leaders as “a group of politicians and politically-inclined individuals who lack credibility” and to stress that the rally was an “illegal assembly”.

Bersih was also to be painted as a front for the opposition or foreign agents as well as an attempt by opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to find an undemocratic and unconstitutional “shortcut to Putrajaya”

Usual “attack dogs” like Ibrahim were to be shunned in favour of newer faces. — file picMedia were told to highlight stories of how businesses, tourists and ordinary people would be affected; question Bersih’s funding; target Anwar, Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan and “budak suruhan DSAI and tali barut DAP” (Anwar and DAP’s lackey) Mohamad Sabu; and use file photos of Ambiga with opposition leaders to highlight their close association.

The press were also instructed to use fewer old faces like Datuk Zulkifli Nordin and Datuk Ibrahim Ali as “attack dogs” in favour of fresh Barisan Nasional (BN) Youth leaders and non-governmental organisations; mobilise friendly bloggers; and play up images of ugly street demonstrations in other countries.

The do’s and don’ts detailed were:

* [The home minister, Inspector-General of Police, Deputy Inspector-General] and Internal Security and Public Order Director are to brief media editors at KDN (Home Ministry). The meeting was to reinforce the branding as “perhimpunan haram” (illegal assembly), and that Bersih is an unlawful organisation and the perpetrators are out to create chaos.

* KDN, which has jurisdiction over all print media, needs to exert its authority in ensuring the press toe the line.

* Confine politicians to just making political statements. Let the police do their job.

* PDRM can start calling up Bersih organisers based on the hundreds of police reports lodged so far.

* Encourage the use of third party validators.

* Pre-empt chaos and disorder (fear paradigm). The “show of force” by Umno or silat groups well before July 9 may be imperative to deter demonstrators.

* The soundbytes in our favour MUST come from across the country and across the ethnic lines. The soundbytes should not just be confined to the Malays or those residing in the Klang Valley.

* We must not allow the rally to be exploited by international elements.

* As a pre-emptive measure, the authorities should stop the launch of Perhimpunan Bersih 2.0 scheduled for June 19 at the Chinese Assembly Hall. Likewise, a related Perkasa event called “Lawan Perhimpunan Bersih” at the Sultan Sulaiman Club on the same day should also be halted.

* [EC] should counter Bersih demands for free and fair elections by highlighting the various initiatives it has undertaken so far. Use the highly successful Sarawak PRN as its model. It should not meet up with Bersih people.

The letter said the goal of the exercise was to neutralise opposition noise, reinforce the view that public sentiment is not with Bersih and the opposition, send a strong message that the government is in full control of the situation and avoid adverse impact on investor confidence in Malaysia.

Bersih claimed a turnout of 50,000 for Saturday’s street demonstration, which went ahead without police permission after protracted negotiation with the authorities.

The coalition of 62 NGOs took to the streets despite previously accepting Najib’s offer to move the street rally to a stadium, after the government refused to allow the gathering to take place in Stadium Merdeka

OUR "HEROIC" MEN IN BLUE! WATCH THIS VIDEO AND KNOW THE TRUTH. Now I know how pigs are given a bad name. It's a bum rap!

Najib In Deep Shit! Site Gone Viral!

2011-07-11T23:55:00.011+08:00

This Facebook Page "100,000 Request Najib Tun Razak Resignation" has gone viral and the "Likes" rate of increase has gone crazy!!! Look at the screenshots I captured over 15 minutes. My first screenshot was at 11.12 pm and the figure was 146,610. By 11.20 (8 minutes later) it was 147,078. Look at the 15 minute mark (11.27 pm) - it was 147,558!!! 948 "Likes" in 15 minutes!

Can't resist another screenshot coming up at 11.50 pm (38 minutes mark). Wow!!! 148,750! 2,140 in 38 minutes. Najib, it is obvious nobody is fooled by your two-faced character and bold-faced lies.

If this is not writing on the wall, then what is? Click on the images to enlarge.

Anyway, watch these two video clips. In the first Najib refers to Anwar and I must say I tend to agree with him. The second video shows Najib in typical UMNO fashion. I wonder why his colleagues behind him don't seem all that convinced this time.