Big Pete - The Man Himself

Saturday night - the first Citizen Think Tank series was held at a restaurant in Kelana Jaya, with the main speaker himself is none other than Raja Petra Kamaruddin, the website owner of Malaysia Today. Of course, most think that he is the best person to kick off the series which discusses social political stuff in Malaysia.

Right now Citizen Think Tank is conducting a review of the top Members of Parliament in Malaysia with reviews from citizens. It is the intention of knowing the MPs deeper and perhaps influencing the mindset of voters who only wants what is expected from the MPs promise and manifesto.

I was excited to get to meet the man in person after a missed attempt during the BUM gathering in May that I got a permission to have a picture with him and a copy of The Khairy Chronicles - a collection of articles of S.I.L written by the man himself. Of course there's dinner there fit for a king..ha!

Zakir, you may know him as BigDogDotCom or Biggum Dogmansteinberg wrote highlights of the talk by Pete, as close friends would call him:

Malaysia Today editor, Raja Petra Kamarudin urged the DAP to work with the Malays, not against them, if they really want to get things done and corrected. He made this call at the Citizen Think T@nk Talk Series I “Walk The Talk”, which was held on Saturday night, at Widuri Restaurant, Aman Suria, PJ Utara. Raja Petra’s talk was focused on the Oppositions’ current situation and flaws. Slightly over 100 attended, of which almost 80% of them were of Chinese ethnicity. He gave an analysis of the political situation, past and current and also the electoral system, which had been and still is not too favourable for the Oppositions. He explained in details how the Oppositions failed co-operate and work together, time and again. Although they have a common enemy since the Gagasan Rakyat, formed in 1990 and after Semangat 46 was dissolved and members brought back into UMNO, Barisan Alternatif, formed in 1999, but they have very conflicting goals and destinations. They also attracted different segment of voters and the failure of a formidable working formula practically cost the Oppositions to gain substantial grounds, each time there is an election, be it by-elections or the general election. There are cases where members of the Oppositions’ coalition got into a three cornered fight against the BN, even when they agreed not to. Seats allocation is something the Oppositions never managed to resolve. Raja Petra also admitted that the UMNO and Barisan Nasional (BN) at the moment are too powerful. When Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi took over this country through a seamless and smooth transition of power on 31 October 2003, within six months he managed to get BN win 90% control of the Dewan Rakyat. This was the biggest mandate BN ever achieved since it was formed, August 1973. He also explained that the Malays ratio within the population had grown from slightly over 45% in 1957 to 60% in 50 years. According to him, within the next 50 years, the Malays would be more than 80% of the population. He also said that the people could petition the HRH Malay Rulers for electoral reforms but doubt the petition could achieved substantial grounds as it had been done before. The ruling ‘power-share’ government of the day is too powerful and will remain powerful as the power base of the majority of voters is actually expanding. Therefore, he stressed that it is important that the DAP shed its ‘Chinese chauvinism’ and change strategy to work with the Malays instead. The only way whatever the grouses and dissatisfaction of the DAP supporters and sympathizers can only be met by DAP cooperating with the BN to create a ‘Unity Government’, because as is, the Malays would never support the DAP to gain substantial position in the Parliament, let alone enough power to form even a simple majority government. As is, Raja Petra explained, the Oppositions will never get anywhere. At best, PAS will only be able to get 25 seats, DAP 20 seats and PKR (doubtfully), 5 seats. In total, 50 seats against BN’s 169. BN will still be in power with over 75% control of the Dewan Rakyat, well in the comfort zone of the 2/3 majority to get things done through the Parliament. The fact that more than 150 of these constituencies are in Malay majority areas, will make the Oppositions’ position far worse. This is because the needs and requirements of these rural majority voters are far different from the middle-class and internet savvy voters of the urban and suburban constituencies. He came to terms that whatever things that needed to be corrected, fixed and change, must be done through the Prime Minister, which is almost ‘carved in stone’ for the UMNO leaders. Therefore, it is important that DAP shed its chauvinistic policies and approaches and instead sought a compromise to work as part of a ‘Unity Government’, as once Tun Abdul Razak Hussein managed to form with Oppositions like PAS and Gerakan getting involved, as well as the minority parties of Sabah and Sarawak, as a solution to propel economic development after the bloody 13 May 1969 racial riots.

At the end, there was Q&A and there was also his conviction of Rothschilds sponsoring and engineering the Three World Wars (written in a military blueprint by Albert Pike) - with the third coming soon. See his article, The Synagogue of Satan. Finally, there was also some sort of invitation to guests to provide reviews of the MPs that they are assigned to. As for me, I won't be revealing who they are, but a hint though: they are quite prominent.


Of course, I thought I would be meeting him just that once, but I didn't know I would ran into him again! Yes, again! The very next day.