Arrow And Partridges

Have been watching a downloaded TV series called "Arrow" lately:

A star in the series is one, Katie Cassidy which made me wonder about another Cassidy whom she slightly resembled; David Cassidy of popular 70s TV series, The Partridge Family. As it turns out, Katie Cassidy is the daughter. Back in the day, David Cassidy was a rave with teenage girls and a favorite pin-up boy. The following that Google found makes me feel real old!

David Cassidy:


Partridge Family Pilot (1970):


David Cassidy today:

Professor Dr Azmi Sharom Being Crystal Clear

BFM 89.9: Dr Azmi Sharom, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law, University Malaya, talks about the social contract, the concept of Ketuanan Melayu and the need for more freedom of speech in public universities. He is also the President of the UM Academic Staff Union.


http://bfm.my/assets/files/MarketWatch/2010-09-14_CA_AzmiSharom.mp3

Invictus

I watched live on TV, the dramatic 1995 Rugby World Cup final between the victorious South Africa Springboks and the New Zealand All Blacks. It was a fairy tale come true for the Boks and at the time, no country needed to win the Webb Ellis trophy more than South Africa. Mind you, it was indeed a very strong field in 1995; holders Australia had not lost a match in the preceding 12 months, England and France were always a threat and the Jonah Lomu powered All Blacks was the in-form hot favorite!
I clearly remember thinking then that the Bokka story would make a great movie. This morning, 14 years later I found out Clint Eastwood's new movie "Invictus" is that movie. The film is a look at the life of Nelson Mandela after the fall of apartheid in South Africa, during his term as president, when he campaigned to host the 1995 Rugby World Cup event as an opportunity to unite his countrymen.

Invictus, a Latin word meaning unconquerable, undefeated, is also the title of a short poem by the English poet William Ernest Henley. It is the title of the movie because of the fact that Mandela had the poem written on a scrap of paper on his prison cell while he was incarcerated.

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

Invictus, the movie has it that Mandela gives the "Invictus" poem to Springbok captain, Francois Pienaar, before the start of the Rugby World Cup. In reality, however, Mandela actually provided Pienaar with an extract from Theodore Roosevelt's "The Man in the Arena" speech from 1910. The following is an excerpt:

"...It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat..."

...next is to watch the movie!

Now Will The Fat Lady Sing?

Kudos to the handlers of MACC. This bird is a good start but will it sing if not in captivity? Bail should be set at at least RM10,000,000 for a start.

This from the Malaysian Insider:

Former PKA general manager, two others arrested

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 10 — Datin Paduka O.C. Phang, a former general manager of the Port Klang Authority (PKA), and two others were arrested by police today in connection with the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) scandal.

They were picked up in a joint operation between police and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

It is understood that they will be charged in a Klang court this afternoon.

MORE TO COME

Nice Touch Asri!

Today, former Perlis mufti Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin was charged in the Gombak Syariah Court here with teaching without a permit. He was charged under Section 119 of Selangor Islamic Administration Enactment and expectedly he pleaded not guilty. However, if convicted he can be fined up to RM3,000 or imprisoned up to two years.

But there is more than meets the eye. Who or what is actually on trial here?

This is a case between the country's powerful traditionalist ulamas and Muslim Malaysia's more progressive preachers. It will be watched closely by Muslims in the country many of whom feel (albeit mostly privately) that the government's policy of "penerapan nilai-nilai Islam" over the last three decades has given rise to many religious bodies wielding unjustifiably huge powers over their daily lives. The chastising of Muslims for practising yoga and girls for adopting tomboyish looks, comes to mind.

Could this case be signalling a watershed?

This was in today's Malaysian Insider.

Asri: I will continue preaching

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 18 — Former Perlis mufti Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin said he will continue preaching and campaign for the abolishing of the law that requires preachers to get certification from the state.

“Times have changed, if I cannot teach the usual way, I can go to the Internet or I can go to the newspapers,” said Asri, who was charged this morning in a syariah court for preaching without a permit.

“Whenever I have the chance to speak on Islam I will do so, if they stop me then maybe I won't mention the word Islam,” he said.

Earlier, he pleaded not guilty to the charge. He was charged under Section 119 of the Islamic Administration of Selangor which carries a fine of up to RM3,000 and imprisonment of up to two years.

“This will not stop me from delivering the message... they think this is a small matter, they think they can just stop people from teaching, but for me this case is very significant,” Asri told reporters outside the court.

The controversial scholar was arrested by the Selangor Islamic authority (Jais) some two weeks ago while giving a private lecture at a friend’s residence in Ukay Heights.

Asri, who was a university lecturer until his appointment as Perlis mufti in 2006, is noted for his unconventional interpretation of Islamic principles which often contradict government-endorsed doctrines.

He continued to be an influential Islamic scholar after ending his service as the Perlis mufti late last year.

Various leaders from both sides of the political divide, including former premier Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, a known supporter of Asri's, have condemned the arrest.

Several Selangor Pakatan Rakyat (PR) lawmakers also attempted to condemn Asri's arrest at the state legislative assembly but the Selangor executive councillor in charge of Islamic affairs Datuk Dr Hasan Ali defended the action taken by Jais.

This morning, dozens of people accompanied Asri to the courtroom. Former Perlis Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim was also present.

Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah For PM

The title of this post has two meanings. The first refers to the following message from TRH about the TBH tragedy which the PM should take heed. If the PM continues to do nothing and still allows his spin factories to spew shit, he might one day wake up to find "TRH for PM" a reality.

This TRH message closes the door on any justification that the government may be tempted to hide behind to conceal any truths. The question remains; will he close the door on PKR too? After all, he had a front row seat when we saw the original UMNO Lama implode 2 decades ago to be replaced by Mahathir's party, UMNO Baru. Please read:


Please Discuss
by Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah

Mr Teoh Beng Hock’s death marks a watershed in the attitude of the public towards their government. The government has plumbed a new low in loss of credibility. Many people have come up to tell me in anger or despair that they feel their country has gone off the rails. People who previously considered themselves apolitical have been roused into active engagement.

There have been too many deaths under custody. But this death is particularly disturbing because Mr Teoh died after interrogation by a specially commissioned watchdog agency, inaugurated with fanfare last year by the outgoing administration. The very agency set up to combat the abuse of power has become in the public eye a symbol of the abuse of power.

Mr Teoh was a mere witness. He was questioned about the possible misuse of funds by his employer, a state assemblyman, to buy flags for the last Merdeka celebrations. The sum in question was RM2,400. He was questioned for eight hours through the night. He was found dead the following day outside the MACC’s headquarters.

Mr Teoh, 30, would have registered his marriage last weekend. His fiancée is two-months pregnant.

If the Perak debacle reminded us of the importance of the Constitution, the death under suspicious circumstances of Mr Teoh Beng Hock has brought home in a heart-wrenching way how much we need our public institutions to be independent and law-abiding. A shocked public is demanding answers, and rightly so.

Questions about how Mr Teoh died cannot be shut down with the usual warning that it is “liable to confuse the public” because the public is already confused. We are confused about how an idealistic young man with everything to live for can enter the headquarters of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission as a witness one day and be found dead outside the next.

Questions about the death of Mr Teoh cannot be swept aside with the paternalistic instruction to “leave it to the authorities to investigate,” because the death of Mr Teoh appears to be just the result of “leaving it to the authorities investigate.” It is precisely the independence of the investigating authorities that people are questioning.

Questions about the death of Mr Teoh cannot be suppressed with the warning “not to speculate” when the investigating authorities were apparently able to prognosticate, ahead of their own investigations, that foul play was not involved, and some leaders appear to have special knowledge that Mr Teoh jumped to his death of his own accord.

Questions about the death of Mr Teoh cannot be evaded with the low tactic of racializing the issue because the death of Mr Teoh touches us all as citizens, brothers and sisters and fathers and mothers. None of us wants to live under a government apparatus that cannot be trusted to be independent and to tell the truth.

Questions about the death of Mr Teoh cannot be suppressed with authoritarian prohibitions because they are about the integrity and independence of institutions that belong to the people. Those ministers who talk down to the people may have forgotten who put them into government and pays their wages, and whose questions they were put there to ask. And to answer.

To ask such questions is not to “politicize” the issue but to exercise our ownership of an issue that touches each and every one of us as citizens: our basic institutions are rotted out, and we are headed down the path of a failed state.

It is our right and indeed our duty as citizens to keep asking questions when someone dies under circumstances that put the entire government under a shadow. As we ask these questions let us accept our joint responsibility to push uncompromisingly for an overhaul of the key institutions that have rotted through under exactly the kind of authoritarianism that would prohibit discussion of the circumstances of the death of Mr Teoh Beng Hock.

UPDATE: 4.18 PM

As reported in The Malaysian Insider

Why I shall not be accepting Zaid’s offer

JULY 22 — I am honoured that Datuk Zaid Ibrahim should speak so highly of me, and consider me worthy of national leadership. He invites me to join PKR, and to dissociate myself from a party which he now finds fascist and racist.

I am under no illusions that Umno is bound for destruction on its present course. Neither do I hold unrealistic expectations about the possibility of reform when the rot has gone so deep.

I offered myself for the Umno presidency last year on an agenda of thorough-going reform. I proposed a complete democratisation of Umno by opening all positions to election by every ordinary member and abolishing quotas on candidacy. I said Umno must do this to be consistent with the principle of democratic governance demanded by the Federal Constitution. Every member’s vote must count, and every member must be free to offer himself for leadership. I was stopped by the quota system that I opposed.

I am the last person to entertain illusions about the ease of reforming Umno. The party that I joined half a century ago as an idealistic young man has indeed lost its soul. It has become corrupt, this corruption has weakened it, and as it grows weaker it is tempted more and more to fan racial feeling and abuse public institutions to maintain power. This is a death spiral.

I am aware of Umno’s weaknesses. I have not failed to point them out from a sense of loyalty to the cause for which Umno was formed in 1946, a cause which our present corruption betrays.

I am not in Umno because I “harbour hope of saving Umno” in its present incarnation. I remain because the cause for which Umno was formed, and the principles which guided its promotion, has not gone away just because we have lost our way 60 years later, and they need to be upheld.

The high principle of Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak and Tun Ismail, their devotion to nationbuilding, their incorruptibility, their sense of fair play and their devotion to duty, exemplified for me as a young man the meaning of this cause, and how it could be both Malay and Malaysian, nationalist and cosmopolitan, traditional and contemporary, at one and the same time.

The Malay cause was not premised on an eternal zero sum game between the native and the immigrant. We meant to build a nation united by a prosperous, confident and enlightened Malay community, not a permanent state of divide and rule by political lowlife. We meant to foster Malay leadership worthy of national leadership, and we looked to our common future as Malaysia rather than to our past as people accidentally brought together by colonial history.

So much is ideal. Yet it is important that we hold up ideals in today’s moral chaos. The future of our political system lies in a healthy, competitive democracy. If so, whether or not it looks realistic right now, we shall need a reformed incarnation of this nation’s most important political party. The Umno ideal which I embraced half a century ago has a role to play in the future we hope for.

A second reason I shall not be accepting Zaid’s kind offer is that things have deteriorated to the point that party affiliation is really not the issue anymore. The issue is how we are to save our country.

Our major public institutions and our political system have degenerated to the point that the public no longer trusts them. A democratic system of government cannot function below a certain threshhold of public confidence. The suspicious death of Teoh Beng Hock under the custody of a watchdog body reporting directly to a prime minister who has his own public confidence issues may have pushed us below that threshhold.

What we must do now goes beyond political parties. We need the rakyat to rise up to claim their institutions, and demand that our public institutions are answerable to them. We must wake up to our sovereignty as citizens, reclaim the constitution which constitutes us as a nation and guarantees our rights, and demand a comprehensively reformed government to restore public confidence. We must do this before it is too late.

UPDATE 23rd July

I like this response from steadyaku47:


Why I will not be accepting Ku Li’s decision to not accept Zaid’s offer…

With respects Sir your personal want’s matters not at a time when the country requires your guidance and wise counsel. We have need for an elder Statemans to sit within our midst to ensure that the path we take is the right one. We have need for a voice of reason to take us on a ‘steady as she goes’ course as Pakatan Rakyat sails into uncharted waters not knowing what it will encounter in the need to ensure good governance of our country in the days to come. Who else will do that for us? Who else will have that strength of character to stand up against the likes of Anwar, Tok Guru. Kit Siang and Kapral if not you Sir? Who else will not turn and run when push comes to shove in the hurly burly of the ‘take no prisoners’ politics of UMNO? Who else but you Sir.

I am past listing the litany of abuse and deceits of UMNO. I am past trying to understand the stupidity of those in power to constantly abuse the trust we have place in them. I am past being angry at the audacity of those whom are sworn to protect us continue to time and time again, do us harm and cause heart aches to those whose love ones have died in custody.

Let me not belittle our call to you Sir by equating it to a call to National Service. As you said the situation we have now transcends party politics. Will you then Sir, rise above party politics and lead us for as long as you physically can and then we will allow you to retire with the thanks of a grateful nation and its people….and if it does any good at all Sir, this heartful plea comes from a Budak Kolet despairing of what our country has become.

Michael "Morphing" Jackson

Some creative guy in cyberspace made this video using morphing software but his caption at the end says it...

Michael Joseph Jackson (29 August 1958 – 25 June 2009)

Michael J is no more. He was the original "Phenom" [with due respect to the original Ronaldo (no not Cristiano)] and at the height of his popularity, was the most well-known person on Earth. Today, the day of Michael Jackson's passing CNN and most other major news networks have been running non-stop specials on him and his legacy. Yet most people should be ashamed for the hypocrisy just because he has died; why must his achievements (some say greatness) only now over-shadow the negative publicity aspects of his life? Not too long ago many were calling him a host of names...wierdo, whacko, psycho, pedophile, plastic man, etc. and he was the brunt of so many jokes.

Being almost of the same age as Michael Jackson, I watched the Jackson 5 on the Andy William's Show in the early 70's and was always aware of Michael Jackson throughout his career, yet at his mid-90s live concert in KL, I got Jeannie a near front-row ticket but was not interested enough to attend. It was the most memorable of the numerous concerts she had ever attended, even since. I am not a MJ fan but an admirer of his obvious talents.

I think most of us should look within and remember how we have judged him; make his sudden demise a lesson in humility. I like this song:



and...



REST IN PEACE MICHAEL JOSEPH JACKSON