When The Outcast Is Ultimately Proven Right

Utusan has put up a two big cover pages in succession with a different Islamic scholar but each of them declares that it is forbidden to support DAP save for the exception of MCA and MIC. According to their demented logic, DAP doesn't recognize Islam’s pre-eminence. But then again, DAP has repeated so many times that it recognizes that Malaysia is a secular nation with Islam as the official religion. I don't recall having seen such logic as defined in either the holy books but as someone who has a rough idea - that logic absurd and non-existent.

Misinterpreting that phrase will get you into tons of headaches and confusion. This is apparently the intended goal that is indirectly intended by UMNO with some of those clerics quoted of saying that. The religion is already been used as a political tool now by UMNO as what PAS did many years back. This is already, out of control religious interference into the system of administration.

When Lim Kit Siang famously hammered Barisan in the early 90s over the Bank Bumiputra scandal in Hong Kong, many of those accused him of being all sorts of time - like naughty, chauvinist, a foreign power instrument and attempting to undermine a Bumiputra institution. This was not very well known outside the Parliament circles and was kept under wraps in order to keep people in the dark, but when with the power of Internet, people have started to ask questions about that the government finds it hard to keep in tabs. Seems that the skeletons in the closet have come out to haunt politicians in this time period for their mischief.

A pity that there are still a portion of Malaysians who do not use their brain to think, when they are presented with such statements above, or they could have forgotten of what happened the other way round almost a dozen years ago. In 2001, when Dr. Mahathir famously declared that Malaysia is an Islamic state, none of UMNO's partners dare to have the "testicles" to rebut that statement in contrary to what was written in the Constitution nor what was affirmed by the first three Prime Ministers.

During the two years leading to the 2008 general elections, many of us have repeatedly whacked MCA and MIC for not doing their job right and rather becoming a running dog for UMNO. Why this happened and why that 2001 incident happened all ties up to one common reason: they would be whacked one way or another in a subtle way. To this day, the big partners MCA and MIC have yet to recover to the level of respect they wanted. Instead, every time people like Chua Soi Lek talks trash on television on main print, everyone will really say something that is not going to stand well with those two parties.

While Barisan attacks the opposition for doing what is right, they are actually selling out the country by failing to control illegal immigrants to come in, amassing the mass riches for themselves while claiming to protect the Malay race from everything, and claiming to represent the people but actually doing things opposite that put ordinary people in misery. So much of being cheated of false promises more by the party that rules for 55 years and not the opposition who has yet be given the chance to demonstrate their ability to run in national scale.

There are people who had the foresight and are concerned that the interference from the church or the religion would put a damp to the country's stability and confusion in administering the law and system, since religious law differs in various aspects in contrast with the secular law.

As what RPK said recently, "Eventually, Christendom saw the separation of church and state. But this did not happen overnight. It took more than 1,000 years for that to happen. Islam, however, although it took the same route as Christianity to spread, did not go the same route of separation of church and state, as Christianity had."

I previously touched about Kemal Attaturk in my previous posting, a reminder to PAS. I said:


The one that is closest to the situation of secular / hudud law is Kemal Ataturk's implementation of Turkey. It fascinates me that he had a clear firm hand that religion should be kept out of every day administration, even though he himself is a Muslim. To his mind, there is a certain believe that the Ottoman law and sex segregation prevented social interaction between men and women - required to further advance the country.

Here, Raja Petra also mentioned another point about Kemal Attaturk:

No doubt Islam had Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the Father of Modern Turkey, the seat of the Ottoman Empire, who attempted to impose the separation of church and state. Atatürk, however, although viewed as a reformist by those from the west, is viewed as a traitor by most Muslim scholars. In fact, people like the PAS President, Abdul Hadi Awang, label Atatürk as an apostate and one of Islam’s greatest traitors.

The notion of separation of church and state is not an acceptable concept in Islam. And any ‘true’ Muslim would agree with this. To disagree would make you a deviant Muslim or a Muslim who is defying God’s command and who is violating the Qur’an.

Fine, maybe separation being unacceptable is what makes people unhappy about, but in the modern times, it is no longer putting too much stock into the religion. It is as what Darwin or that mutant En-Sabah-Nur (Apocalypse) used to say "only the strong in the chain will survive". In this case, Malaysia can't survive the harsh realities of the outside modern world if we have people like those two ulamaks, and other people who seem to look at the angle of religion as threatening their own race. 

Kemal Attaturk and Lee Kuan Yew are the two notable figures of the 20th century whom I noted that attempted to prepare the country to face the harsh realities of the outside world, in the level of the great empires of the 20th century like America, Europe, Russia and even China. And they have eventually succeeded in doing so. While doing that, they (Attaturk in particular) are branded traitors to their religion by many naysayers. Ultimately, they were right in the end.

There are also several literary references where the character branded the outcast by a society ultimately wins on the long run and eventually proven right. You can take the Weasley family - proven right to the end despite branded as a blood-traitor (the love of other levels of society rather than their own) or even Batman, once considered as a outcast but proven to be savior at the time of desperation.

When that day happens what will then happen to those who hold power but proven wrong? Whine and say that the society has lost direction? They are not likely to make an apology or neither they are unwilling to take the reality that is now.

There would be a day where the talk of religion as politics will not save a country or the world from the disasters to come. There are many things in the world that knows no religious boundaries so if that is the case that many of us know accept that, shouldn't we all be branded as apostate or deviants like what people like Hasan Ali or Ridhuan Tee would call?

Finally, let's go back to the DAP question. What will the two ulamaks say if they were eventually proven wrong? DAP wouldn't go as far as having 1/3rd of representatives in Parliament so they can never call their own shots at everything. The party only wanted to uphold what was already established as the nation's foundation stone. That's all that is. Speaking of which, the two ulamaks never mentioned of ridding of corruption. It simply implies of following false prophets and tells people to continue the culture of Ali Baba, patronage and bribing. What's wrong is halal now it seems.

People have called others who don't share their ideals as "infidels" or called countries like Britain as "infidel country" but yet they have conducted themselves better with minimal level of corruption - which adheres to even Islam and other religion core principles. But then these people are committing tons of acts that Islam forbids. Who's the loser eventually? Who's eventually proven right? It's the moment when those people who found themselves on the wrong end that I really wish to see, especially of those two.

A Pity For The Succumbed and The Indoctrinated

“In our style of writing, we have fact, spin and — one more — blatant lies. From the point of psychological warfare, let’s not follow ‘blatant lies’, let’s not write lies.

“Spin we can; no matter how we spin a certain fact to be biased in our favor, that’s okay."

-- Zaini Hassan

I had a feeling from the beginning of why Utusan Malaysia would come out with news that were colored with their own facts. The whole idea was meant to manufacture people's (since they claim to be the leading newspaper for the Malays), especially those in the civil service consent and opinion that the opposition especially the DAP will tend so spoil the country if they happened to take over Putrajaya someday or so. When this was reported in an online newsportal a few days ago, it confirmed not just my suspicions but others who may have the same thinking as I do.

If you notice carefully, among the parties co-organizing that event that day, one of them is the BTN (National Civics Bureau). For decades, the agency has been involved in brainwashing many people to believe of certain things that are in fact bogey man in nature. With that statement above, it seems not hate but a pity for many of those who read that paper (among the MSM-based papers) have been mislead and brainwashed indirectly by not just the party that claims to represent the Malays but an agency that is out to implant hate among other people.

In short, the thrall and the toxic indoctrination has extended its tentacles to its people especially those who are naive and those who are alive prior to the 1969 riots. 

Lately, the Najib administration had a multi-prong approach moves including attempts to recapture Selangor, enticing youth support and putting all those propaganda-oriented ads everywhere (billboards, trains, buildings, etc..). People at times may feel fed up and a well mature, knowledgeable person would know that this whole thing uses people's money (but they think it's their own money) for this big amount of publicity.

Yesterday at KLCC's park, there was the 1M4U event thing there. Spotted on the podium among them was Najib, his cousin Hishamuddin and Shabery Cheek. There's something that I felt irked by that event. It's not the turnover that I aimed to point out. There's a banner for example above. It's somewhat reminded me of Batu Caves or having seen that being pasted in every KTM Commuter caboose there. Looking at the phrase, "I M 4 U" sounds like a  man being worshiped as a god or something.

Looking at the crowd, I felt a tingle of uncertainty. The "One" thing that is the prefix of his 1Malaysia campaign thing often points me to the "One World Government", "One World Order", secret organizations that conspiracy theory buffs would often talked about. In fact whenever we do or trade, there are things that are indirectly, unknown to us point to that hidden things mentioned. When McCain and his partner came to visit Najib in Kuala Lumpur recently, some people like myself would think that visit is a secret message or a reminder sent by the cabalists to him.

It can be very dangerous at times to use that One prefix to everywhere in life.

I'm For You - would be better if it's I Am God.

I wondered for a fact whether these people and participants have been ordered to come here or whether if there are people among the congregation who support it but unaware that they are supporting things that they are really against of. Can you imagine dozens of buses and police security vehicles lining up within the vicinity of KLCC yesterday? I also wondered whether if these people could be either be brainwashed into believing non-existent things. In the last few posts, I have often brought out the phrase of "believing that elephants can fly" and related some example.

I guess the first guess was right. The Milo Suam blog has released a leak circular letter with an order to get 10000 people minimum to fill in the KLCC esplanade. (See entire post here)

Call it paranoia or insomnia, but having seen the crowd there by myself, I keep wondering whether they, being potential first time voters would make a first-time and only mistake that would condemn themselves, their future and their generations to come into more misery.

And when you realize that you've made a mistake, you lament that it's already too late to reverse it.

Call it a pity for those who succumbed to temptations and brainwashed to accepting falsehoods by people, politicians and parties who claimed to be omnipotent.

The Missing Piece of The Puzzle

Today, both Malaysian Human Rights Commission (SUHAKAM) and the Hanif Panel have kicked off their inquiries into the alleged violence committed by the police on the BERSIH 3.0 rally last April.

Malaysiakini reported testimonies from witnesses including the military-grade barbwire nearly slicing off a participant's ear as well as a bystander being dragged into a headlock.

Meanwhile, The Malaysian Insider reported of the Hanif Panel covering areas of the city where the violence between protestors and the police happened on that day. They'd also be visiting the detention center in Jalan Semarak later on.

Here we are we have a lot of eyewitness accounts saying that the police usually acted outside their norms. Journalists were assaulted with their equipment destroyed by some of the officers. Even some of the participants who do no harm and were inside restaurants were also not spared from police violence. Similarly, as in the second round of the rally, the police have also reacted unprofessionally and in a hostile behavior towards the public.

However, it was exaggerated and worse than the second rally. Why was this happening?

However, this piece of information, were if it is revealed could have shed light to everything on that day.

In mid-May 2012, RPK, wrote in "The IGP must fall on his sword" said:

Then, on 28th April 2012, all hell broke loose. The police violence in Bersih 3.0 was as bad or worse than in the Bersih 2.0 rally. What happened to the ‘go by the book’ and the ‘absolutely no violence’ instruction from the Prime Minister?

The IGP crawled back to Najib’s office with this tail between his legs and sheepishly told the Prime Minister that he had lost control of the police on that day.

What happened? What made the police go berserk?

It was because of the rumour, the IGP replied. There was a rumour circulating amongst the police that three police personnel had died, killed by the Bersih protestors. Hence the police were outraged and were out for revenge. They no longer could control the police personnel on the ground.

This is it - that's the reason it went from bad to worse - a lot of beatings, a lot of gas round fired, etc.. in other words the chief has lost control of the situation. In the evening, after 6 p.m on that day, there were tweets from people speaking of the rumor of three police officers dead. 

However, this critical piece of information and the missing piece of the puzzle was never revealed / withheld to the public. Surely, it is meant for one reason: to keep the police image intact since it faced tons of criticism, brickbats and accusations from the public and the opposition. Then again, eyewitness accounts mentioned of how at times the officers on duty that day speak out of emotions rather than in professional conduct. As a witness said, "Why are you running away? If you have guts come and face us. Stand and fight."

Isn't that equivalent to gangster talk? 

If that missing puzzle piece would have been revealed, it would have altered the outcome. It would have exonerated the public from being the chief culprit of the Bersih 3.0 violence. It would also have shed more light for both Suhakam and the Hanif panel in their investigations. Why keep on vilifying the public whereas the public carried no harm, guns or tools of violence on that day itself?

Let's put this in parallel.

The Los Angeles 1992 riots happened following the acquittal of the four police officers responsible for the beating of the recently-deceased Rodney King. Had there been information or admission that shed the light of the incident, there would not have been such incident. King would not have been vilified (in the context of the case related to that) and there would not be any losses on that three dark days of the city.

Whether it got revealed or otherwise, it led to the resignation of LAPD chief, Daryl Gates because as the chief he failed to control his subordinates. Likewise, it should happened here right? 

At What Real Cost?

The top brass of Barisan Nasional has been running around the country and giving all sorts of promises, splashing goodies around to the people in exchange for requesting them to give support in the next general elections. I was already certain that the general election would be somewhere around in November mainly because this takes into account of how the possible feel good hype that would be elicited from the people after the 2013 budget announcement, and the incentives that could be offered in conjunction with the Haji and Deepavali holidays. Analyzing on people sentiment, the ruling coalition is likely to count on the Malay votes (if you can understand their psyche, mindset as well) and the roller-coaster mindset of the Indians which can go up and down depending on the situation that arises that involves their society.

It is unlikely that they would wait until after Chinese New Year because the situation seems not well to them. It has already been established that most of Chinese are dead-set to vote for the opposition. The one thing that many in the top brass may find it hard to comprehend even including UMNO's partner, MCA is perhaps of the level of maturity, awareness and the mindset of the Chinese community in comparison with the other races of the Malaysian community. It is already noted that the level of support is very low that UMNO has already given up any big chance to regain support from the Chinese.

From the tone of what I am to present:

Sounds like I am talking race comparison.

Sounds like I am looking down at other people.

Sounds like I am talking race stuff. 

Sounds like I am screaming "I'm better than you." 

But out of here, there is a question that I wish to bring out especially at the naive and those who find it hard to believe in it. There's not much need for me to harp on the racial, royalty and religion thing as it is not my forte to talk about nor to those who are looking more bigger issues than those three that merely scratch the surface.

Recently there have been speeches from the big brass like (e.g Mahathir, Muhyiddin, Rais Yatim, Najib) calling for Malay unity, general unity, demands for gratitude to the ruling party, you help me I help you things in particular. They shout non-stop almost every day of "vote for us to keep the country stable." These leaders imply that the country would collapse if they do not hold on to their power on and on. And on prime time television, the party-owned private channels in particular are playing propaganda ads as to push for more support -no thanks to their infinite amount of resources, so as they perceived. But then again it's already almost 60 years they are in power, yet they are found to be caught with misconduct in almost every aspect of the country administration.

Some people have been asking why most of the Chinese community and the well-educated middle class have already no longer willing to stick to the convention and decide to go for something totally different and out of the box. The country's running old men have been calling and accusing some of them as creating a revolution and scream of instability if there's a change of guard in the country. Contrary to that, there's actually no such unusual effect happening since this scenario often happens in other countries. There's nothing to be excited about and to cheer about it. And as to allow me to answer that, it comes to one high probable reason: if you can understand the saying of "survival of the fittest" then perhaps it can answer that solution above. People have started to get past the "must feed me" thing and use other means to achieve success in live.

So why does the mainstream media seem to glorify the government although they are clearly have committed some gross misconduct? One thing is for sure, they are now lagging in support and are trying to drum up support way to the finishing line sometime around next year at most.

I appreciate some of the writings written by some of my friends that when being conveyed their own people which describes of how people are being mislead over the promises made by the present government of the day only to see what was promised being denied claiming of no such claim. Note that the present opposition has not at once run as the government of the day so it is not right to compare their track record because we didn't give them the chance to demonstrate their capabilities.

I also appreciate that through their writings that their people have started to acknowledge their mistakes and have started to wake up. However my only question to them would be on what about those who are still unwilling to correct their mistakes and stand for the coalition that has committed many misdeeds and gross misconduct? And what about those who are going to be ultimately mislead?

Here's one example of a person being ultimately mislead: Recently the man who accused Mat Sabu on the Mat Indera case has already admitted to the court that he made a police report based on the Utusan newspaper report. It was already proven that Mat Sabu did not utter or say anything that is referred to Communism in his series of public speeches. The man has then admitted to this and has asked the Sessions court in Penang to drop the case. This means that the man was a victim of misleading by the spin by the media - the spin that the government of the day, the present ruling coalition wishes to show it to the mass people.

Sure, it is still their right to decide. You can't obstruct them from making their choice. At what cost in exchange for your vote for them?


Okay, you would accuse me as another person dead set on going against the coalition party. I have my own set of reasons behind it. Any well educated, matured person can think of it. And if people ask me whether I am taking the risk to go and do something unconventional, the answer is yes. It's like making an unusual bet of (e.g a Double 0 in roulette, Snake Eyes for dice craps, etc..). Let's face it that the fate and future of the country is not decided by the handful of people nor just the minority of the Malaysians but the majority of people that forms the big part of the Malaysian society - but the problem is of being too simple-minded.

And allow me to fill in the blanks for you, o'naive and unbeliever ones for the question above:

1. You are actually acknowledging that flocks of sheep fly in the sky and monies fall from the trees.
2. You are condemning your future generations and your country to remain mundane until the point we're all gone and after say another 100 years of independence.
3. You show yourself that you're chickening out with no guts to think out of the box and vs convention.
4. You are actually saying that up becomes down, black is white - what is illegal is legal and vice versa.
5. You are saying that you don't really believe the real warnings - not by those who claim to say it's okay for now -  until it is too late to go back because you got complacent subsequently. The Greece scenario is a case in point.

You Only Need Another 15 Or More

Political analyst Wong Chin Huat's summation that for every one rural vote, represents six urban votes is correct given that it is based on how the constituent areas were drawn. Some small, some are big, while some are separated from the previous deliniation exercise. It is no doubt that 33.8% votes for BN at least is enough for them to form a federal government with a minimum of 112 seats.

"Something is seriously wrong when you can win 50.4 per cent of Parliament with just 18.9 per cent of the votes." Chin Huat said.

I once lamented that the rural people do not know the cost and the price they will pay if they still vote for a government known to have bad conducts.

Penentration of rural voting is quite hard. This is not because people do not trust alternatives like BN.

It's simple because many are illiterate. Even if they talk, but yet they are not able to get to know the parties well. They are merely given cash goodies and told to vote for the "dacing" (read BN). Therefore, talk about corruption, cows, Felda, Scorpene submarines that the big three men Anwar, Lim Kit Siang and Hadi Awang don't really work 100% at all. It will take a long time to cure this syndrome because in the next 10-20 years, many would have already been dead. There's not really much things we can work on, unless you fight fire with fire. Here, the urban minorities have to do a little more work to reach out the rural areas.

In the States, people who are based in major cities like New York and Los Angeles are the ones that reached out to the people in the mid-west / center America to let them know of

Previously, Lim Guan Eng spoke of winning at least another 15-20 parliamentary seats in the next GE. I was pretty skeptical at the beginning because it assumes that PR is able to defend their previous winning successfully. Many fence-sitters (i.e those who did not register as voter previously) are not aware of the unexpected success that there could be higher chances of defending and winning a few more seats. With more legitimate (not the foreigner for citizenship) voters being registered in the EC, the forecast results based on the 2008 statistics is not really relevant already.

Guan Eng's estimation of at least 15 is quite modest in estimation and target. It's not that hard to win. They can take 5 more parliamentary seats out of each of the 3 states in the Southern Peninsular: Negeri Sembilan, Melaka and Johor. Pahang can also be a bonus, give or take 3 more due to the Lynas issue. Negeri Sembilan is in deep trouble, Johor and Melaka will start to see more penetration by PR. If some of the DAP veterans are moved back to Johor, then the chances are MCA is likely to be finished almost entirely.

Actually, winning big for PR is a dream big goal, but to go for that at this point of time is too unrealistic because they cannot match the BN's warchest of between RM 600 million to RM 1.7 billion. However, adding another 15-30 more to their PR parliamentary pocket can cause some ripples and unprofound effects to the East Malaysia partners. You have to remember that Sabah and Sarawak are actually kingmakers (with their local parties there), not fixed deposits, mind you. Sabah and Sarawak's way of thinking is not the same as people in Peninsular.

As for the profound effect of what might happen, I let figure it out.

When Bumpkins Are More Than Intellectuals

There was a mob of UMNO-affiliated people who assaulted students at the Merdeka Square in the early hours of the morning. Not only I got pissed, but it turns out that Malaysia is churning more bumpkins then intellectuals. The bumpkin syndrome is obviously the opposite of progression and churning of intellectuals. It's not just that mob group but some politicians and grassroot members across parties on both fronts.

These bumpkins have been lately making immature statements. You got Azwanddin Hamzah declaring war on LGBTs at the expense of paying more attention to those that involve greater sins. You got PERKASA saying that APs are exclusively for Bumiputras only at the expense of equal playing field. Ahmad Maslan calls students as opposition tools And of course, the ringleader behind the early morning incident is the same fat asshole that was at the Asalkan Bukan UMNO event in Jalan Kebun in Klang.

Malaysia is in the state of disarray largely because many of its ruling leaders and politicians are bumpkins, despite having education certifications. Those of people who managed to watch the Parliamentary proceedings would at times have noticed that there are MPs who make immature statements. And our education system, emphasizing only on passing exams, teaching children to obey without questioning at all turns out to be creating more bumpkins instead of what the real world careers demand: thinking and creative people. There are some who have managed to get past it, which I am happy to say it. But many still have yet to do so. In school, children are not even taught of proper financial education, save for the "save for the rainy day" thing and the basic money management skills. Any economist would tell you to do the "let the money make money for you", but few know it. That's why UMNO-men keeps harping on "if PR does this then the country would go bankrupt" bogeyman thing.

Anyhow, today in light of the PTPN protest issue, my opinion is that the PTPN is mismanaged. It should have been done properly and the issue of "interest" from money is also another bone of contention to deal with. Since the fund is used by everyone, it is against the Muslim religion to have riba or interest out of it. It's considered as a sin right? If the claim that whatever profit gained from the interest amount to paid back is given to the alleged cronies in private colleges, then I supposed that there is a legit reason for kicking up the bucket to fuss about.

Out of those who don't really agree about protesting PTPN, the big percentage of it are those who blindly follow (aka, bodek) those who simply outright say no. In other words, you follow the fool and like them start to have foam in their mouths. A quick study of their characters too can tell them whether they are bumpkins (narrow minded) or otherwise.


Let me make one thing very clear. All those names (e.g Ibrahim Ali, Azwanddin Hamzah, Zahrain Hashim, etc..) I have mentioned are not the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree, if you know what I mean. They are the opposite of intellectualism. If you have any opportunity to personally interact with them you will come to the conclusion that they are country bumpkins. They are very narrow-minded and shallow in thinking

- Human Rights and Fundamental Liberties For Idiots, 16 April

Can you count around how many politicians currently part of the running government of the day can fall under that category above. Today, you have seen a few apart from Ibrahim Ali, like Sri Gading's Mohd Aziz, Khaled Nordin, Hishamuddin "Kerisman" Hussein and Ahmad Maslan (all Johoreans) making bumpkin-grade statements. It's a pity that many of the grassroot followers couldn't even establish the line between right and wrong. They just a product of the education system as to study hard and excel in exams, not to think out of the box and be given the creative freedom whenever they can.

Why do you think that there's more than half of people who didn't even reach up to the degree level?

Sometimes, what people from opposition say are by point right that Malaysia's brain drain still goes on and on no matter what programs and initiatives launched including TalentCorp. I can't really think of anything more than seeing the country going in groundhog mode with bumpkins running the show and the many Pak Pandir antics calling a day's work.

I Would Love Being A Commissar

Once in 1941 from Operation Barbarossa, the Russians were starring at the blink of defeat with Nazi Germany's blitzkrieg tactics hitting them hard. Adolf Hitler turned against his one-time ally Stalin and like Napoleon was hoping to run over the Eastern front. Hitler tried to fight in two fronts and on the east end, it failed because like the 1812 invasion, the cold weather in Russia had sapped their morale, depleted their supplies and resulted in the number of casualties. Background aside, the Russians had no other choice but had to put a hard stop on the line of retreating and retaking back their territories occupied by Germany.

It is a very hard thing to do for Stalin but to issue the infamous order #227, called the "Not One Step Back" (Ni Shagu Nazad) order at end of July 1942. Basically, the main idea states that you are not allowed to fallback or retreat unless there is permission to do so. Failure to do so means you are branded a traitor and will be shot by a political officer called the commissar. In the battlefield, there will be 1 to 3 penal batallions (comprising of soldiers with disciplinary problems) for each front. The penal batallions form the first line of attack. At the back of each front would be the blocking detachment comprising of commissars. Turn back you will be shot.

Both measures were cited in the preamble of the order as having been successfully used by the Germans during their winter retreat.

If you have watched documentaries or watched the Jude Law / Joseph Fiennes movie, Enemy at The Gates, it surely would make sense and the idea.

From the start way before the official announcement of Bersih 3.0, I have already began to guess how people from both sides (those who agree and disagree) who react to this and what are the possible titles that the mainstream media would likely use to villify Bersih for what they want to do. And of course, if you recall previously as in June 2011, Najib media's advisers, led by TV3 CEO Ahmad Farid Ridzuan have been advising a bash-them-till-you're-dead campaign against the "fair and clean agenda", utilized by RTM, Utusan. Bernama, The Star and even their Media Prima-owned channels. The number arrested only 9 July 2011, 1700 approximate for a non-violent offence is somewhat an outrageous thing that maybe Najib realized that he was misadvised by those who were hellbent on putting minorities into prisons.

If anyone has studied Boolean algebra or familiar with the basic if-else coding blocks in programming, you would clearly understand that even the government claims to have addressed 7/8 issues it still counts as a fail condition. e.g (if demand >= 8 then (do success scenario) else sayFail(bersih)). One of the demands there got shot down, the minimum 21 days campaign period is somewhat tied to the demand for free and fair media access. One logical reason of not giving them 21 days is indirectly, it gives voters more time for second thoughts of voting the same party over and over again.

What is very humourous about this matter of Bersih 3.0's announcement is the reaction more from those who don't really agree. True, it's okay to let them talk but I find very humorous at times. For example:

Wan Ahmad Omar: They should be patient... they say they are smart but they are close-minded... what they are doing is rushed, hasty and troublesome to people, The EC has not even come out with any statement, we will study the proposal and come out with an official reply later.

Bung Mokhtar: It's the opposition’s tactic is to attack the government from the streets

Problem is they are too slow. Some things can be done in the space of few days. Why want to drag? Then you got Ibrahim Ali saying that all of the Bersih committee  should be put into Sedition Act; Ahmad Maslan saying that it's always opposition's fault this and that. All the time the other side is blamed while they fault is on themselves. Wait till one Friday where Jakim-issued sermons are read in mosques where they could be say trash material about Bersih is sin, etc..The list of excuses can go on and on including the excuse of damaging buildings and money, whereas event like that can be a firesale if you take it in a positive way.

There are maybe a handful of tweets or arguments I observed that don't really give the proper logic to back a person's disagreement to Bersih. Some are personal-oriented attacks in contrast to arguments of fighting a cause. Mostly these arguments are from those people who are still willing to be enslaved by the neo-feudal mindset who keeps believing the superstition, mumbo-jumbo things or they are yet to be enlightened. 

Here you are, you have the opportunity to proof to yourself and others that you have the guts to translate your cause into action. After all, every religion encourages its people who practices its faith to move forward in time. Why want to dwell back longer? 

I can see those kind of people thinking like a Provisional IRA member where they want a zero opposition while if they lose one bit, they scream capitulation and start scoring own goals. I have written this in my previous posting entitled The Fear of Capitulation. It obvious isn't it? If these measures are implemented, then the number of seats that Barisan in particular as of now will be chipped off by another 30 to 40 percent and they could be screaming "hilang kuasa" like a person in dementia.

In metaphor to what I'm talking, they represent people instead of walking forward, they walk backwards. 

The "Not One Step Backwards" Stamp

If this is still Russia in World War II, these people and apologists (para pengampu dan pembodek) would have been lined up in the front and made to move at the German firing range. If they refuse to do so but to move back, they would have been lined up and shot by the blocking detachment. 

If there is such scenario above, I love to be a commissar and even would volunteer to do the shooting and execution. Bang bang bang. Butter-up boys bewarned.

When Owners Barreling At The Front of The Door

It's the Scolari case over and over again 5 years ago. I was counting on the case where Villa-Boas would be fired at the end of the season as what happen to Carlo Ancelotti but it happened prematurely, with barely 2.5 months towards the end of the season. This assumes that the club has been knocked out of European football but still having to play the remaining Premier League games and continuing their FA Cup challenge.

The problem is that Roman Abramovich is a living example of people in the football industry that is barreling at the front door. No patience. Many failed to see the need to understand long term of having a great depth of squad before mounting a challenge of trophies. Instead, the approach was the opposite - buying great players at the start hoping to go past the post instantly. There have been a few clubs that really actually understood the value of long-term projects, like Man Utd and Everton. These are clubs that show the close and strong relationship with manager and the chairman; there's an acknowledgement of making a good team will take years on. It took Alex Ferguson 6 years to win his first Premier League trophy, 12 years to win his first European Cup. (they came agonizingly close to final in 1997 when they lost to Dortmund in both legs in semis)

By this barreling at the front door attitude, Abramovich had to spend millions to compensate Villa-Boas (28 months remaining of the 3 year contract). And it is 8 managers in 9 years, average of one per season. It's similar the rich mega-spending club in Russia, or a few clubs where the owner attempts to interfere with the manager's work on team selection, thus the manager will be complaining about how he's unable to have autonomy on work. Abramovich is not the only person or parties that adopt this attitude. Fiorentino Perez's first spell at Real Madrid was also case in point. His mistake was not to keep Vicente Del Bosque while at the club even if Del Bosque won 2 European Cups in the space of 3 years (2000 and 2002) and then going through lots of coaches. Fabio Capello's second stint at the club lasted only a full season, having left even if the team won the league trophy. Sates the club and fans satisfaction of winning trophy, yet being unappreciated and get thrown out? It really scratches my head really.

It's more frequent to see this problem and attitude of the owners / fans in Middle East football. Take Saudi Arabia for instance, where a coach's job hangs on the balance in no more than a dozen games unless the team either qualifies for the country-level continent competition. If one condition is not met, expect the man to be shown to the door. For the owners, their nigh-infinite amount of money from oil can be splashed in bringing in coaches here and there as they please. But it will be the squad that will suffer for each coach has a different way of traning and strategy and thus the struggle to adapt to the system desired. Until today most Arab-club owners and FAs still barrel in front of the door, impatient, expecting a magic pill to happen.

Still it's not as severe as in Brazil's famous Dance of the Coaches syndrome - coaches go in and out after a few games within a season. Much of it is because of intense fan pressure and owners' impatience - even a slight setback in form a league game defeat means of people taking offense and unable to accept it. In fact, it can - if overuse - drive players and coaches mad as hell. Can you imagine, like in 2002, at the end of the first month of the Brasilla state championship that 12 coaches were replaced? In Brazil, coaches are made scapegoats and if a team is elbowed, the coach gets it first.

Abramovich never has the passion of the game. His is strictly on the business and expecting the magic pill with no patience and no finesse. The passion component is missing and will never happen with his impatience and barreling at the front of the door. Only crazy money can really tempt a potential coach into joining Chelsea. A coach potential coach offered to join Chelsea should first hand know the history of the club of the last 10 years before taking the risk. Otherwise, it's best to snub any offer Abramovich would offer and let him keep searching and searching around. Then we can see who's laughing the last.

The Green Ultimatum, Anti-Lynas KL Protest

Kuala Lumpur today was also another location for the simultaneous Green Gathering in protest against the Lynas Rare Earth Plant in Kuantan. The KL leg was held this morning from 9.30 a.m to noon at the Maju Junction mall. For the people who were unable to go to Kuantan due to amount of time required or other priorities, the location and alternative event serves to cater their show of solidarity of support and express their mass disapproval of having a rare-earth plant without proper measures to isolate wastes.

Around 1000 people turned up today at the venue, occupying both sides of Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman. Many of those who were present are the young generation. There have been constant shouts and cheers on anti-Lynas and whenever passing motorists honked to show support to their cause, they cheered as well. Two MPs were present, Charles Santiago from Klang and Dr. Dzukefly of Kuala Selangor. The protest duly ends at 12.30 pm with people dispersing as planned and there have been promises from the crowd to show up in a similar roadshow event in the future.

Here are some of the selected pieces of photos that I've taken on the ground. There were some incidental reactions from passing motorists that it is also included as well.

According to Malaysiakini, there were around 15 thousand in attendance in Kuantan. However, the police downplayed the size and said only 3 thousand. (from Bernama but information used could be the early hours info). One thing caught my interest was an ultimatum delivered by the organizing chairman of Stop Lynas Wong Tack. This is what he said in The Malaysian Insider:

“The whole nation has risen up. We cannot accept this kind of destruction to our country. It is very clear. How much louder do you want us to scream? When are you going to care about the people’s concerns?” he told reporters after the rally at Padang MPK 4 here. 

“We want a decision to be made in 24 hours, or else our committee will start immediately on a bigger demonstration... to make sure either we bring down Lynas or bring down this government. You change your decision or we change you.”

The movement has given the Najib administration 24 hours to respond. So far at around 5 pm, it looks like the Najib administration is going to ignore the demands, claiming it is still safe. I am quite certain that they are unwilling to cancel it because they are in desperation of money (a reason) and you must understand that there's big corporation control over the government decision making as well. Some in the party who has extreme views may see it as a challenge to the party's omnipotence. Definitely we are likely to see another round of protests soon.

It is also noted that many who turned up (as mentioned earlier) are the young generation. Rather than having the "Stop Lynas Save Malaysia" become merely words and slogan, the action must be translated into votes in General Elections. This means that there is a need to take the initiative to become a voter and turn the slogan to "Anything But UMNO". United Malays National Organisation is still having a chokehold on the naive, ignorant and low-knowledge people. The uncles and aunties in rural and otherwise will ultimately be the ones that will be selling the future generations away if they persist on ignorance or refusal to acknowledge the dangers that are to come.

Additional Material:

1. More photos taken on the ground

2. MobTV's news video coverage

3. Free Malaysia Today's report

There's More Than Just What Petra Says Plainly

I had seen many people who have either bashed or expressed total frustration in light of Raja Petra's (RPK) interview with the New Straits Times early this week. He did underline that he would only grant interviews if any media is willing to take word by word (whatever is said from his mouth), not twisted or manipulated by any other means apart from him. And when this was published in the papers, people and the now opposition, Pakatan Rakyat keeps bash him left and right since to them, Pete was considered a double-dealing son of a bitch, to an extent PKR Sec-Gen called him a blogger hired by UMNO.

First thing, I wanted to retrace some history way back.

Frankly speaking, since I started writing in 2007, right after I started having my own internet connection and the confidence to write and blog, I started to love the present habit of cussing and whacking United Malays National Organisation kingdom come for their shear arrogance and blunders. I got to admit that it happened when I started reading his series of things he writes in both columns, and then later during the Permatang Pauh by-election, the funny writings of Hishamuddin Rais even raised my anger up and along the way I started to feel cynical about that damn bloody political party. Along the way, I wanted to meet the man in person so whenever there were any functions or parties just to say how I really enjoyed reading his material, that has occasionally full of wit and sarcasm at times. 

And so by chance, I was invited to some soirees / parties / dinner by a mutual friend that from that on, I happened to have some encounters with the man himself. At times the group of people had some food, listening to some interesting things he had to say and it was kind of interesting and great to remember some moments. This went on until the last time I encountered him in person was during the 2009 New Year's party (he remarked how I was so hungry that I was eating my meal that mad, as I just finished work late) - the next month he left - as I learned of what could happen had he not left. At least from meeting a part of the man's personality can show what's said plainly and what's said indirectly.

In the last three months (or you can go back further if you want), Petra keeps quoting things from Sun Tzu's Art of War. The first chapter alone had a few things that were quoted. For instance, 1:18-22 says:

All warfare is based on deception. #

18

The truth of this pithy and profound saying will be admitted by every soldier. Col. Henderson tells us that Wellington, great in so many military qualities, was especially distinguished by "the extraordinary skill with which he concealed his movements and deceived both friend and foe."

19

Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near. #

20

Hold out baits to entice the enemy. Feign disorder, and crush him. #

All commentators, except Chang Yu, say, "When he is in disorder, crush him." It is more natural to suppose that Sun Tzu is still illustrating the uses of deception in war.

21

If he is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him. #

22

If your opponent is of choleric temper, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant

Here we are right now.

If Pete quotes things like that above, then I was certain that there is a definite hidden reason of why he would eventually do the interview with News Straits Times in Singapore. The interview, having read most of it is a duality in nature. 

It can be a real weakness in Pakatan Rakyat. Many have forgotten that a party can function well with stinging and nudging criticism even from their own supporters. As if a person is walking on a tight beam, a hand counterbalances the other hand and if the other hand is not put out, a person is high likely to fall off balance. PKR is always since the last three years remain the weakest link of the coalition, particularly because it still carries the relics of the UMNO mentality. And if you are in the party, you will need to understand (read: sizing) the clear relationship between Azmin and Anwar during their heydays in the Finance ministry. While some ex-UMNO men have already turned into a new leave, there are still things that are remain the same as the opposite.

I don't want to repeat or summarize whatever Petra has said in the papers. Of course this has given the UMNO-owned media ammunition to whack the opposition again and again, resulting in many of fans calling him a sell-out. There are people who have tried to tell you of holes in your turf, but you turned them away. There are people who are offering help to make it better, but you turn them away. There are people who want to air grievances to alternate media to let you know, but you don't bother...so where can the people turn to, huh?

But along the way, if you can picture how an pro-UMNO supporter (we're referring to the butter-boys as a case in point) think and feel with that you would notice how some things that Petra quoted from Sun Tzu comes into the fore.

No sooner later when he did say in "Which Category Are You In?", where he did pointed out that "I expect to get whacking", I have a good idea and a reason why Pete would be up to that. If I am to look at the opposite of the coin, there's a feeling and false sense of relief. The underlying theme in the game of poker is deception. It's really up to us to use our heads well and think where the game of politics is like cards on the table. Wellesley, the 1st Duke of Wellington was also noted to be a master of the game to outsmart his opponents including Napoleon, which was why he was an integral person in fighting the Napoleonic Wars.

Until today I didn't really buy into the feeling of others about the man their idol double-crossing and selling himself out to the enemy. For instance, I read a few comments in Facebook of some people expressing their disgust and they being let-down from the event. Or even someone, like Paula, (a.k.a Masterwordsmith) whom I've met many times before was giving an interesting expression of frusration title a few days ago - "Why....RPK?". So it turned out to say there are some people who don't really understand clearly what's the intended statement, apart from you need to maybe read a few rounds to get the drift and the other meaning, if you're aiming for the advance level of mindset thinking.

The enigmatic Snape, from the Harry Potter series was also a clear literary case study of a character playing both sides of the game with deception. But along the way it has an ugly side of making your friends feeling cheated and unhappy along the way. Since Pete has made it clear from the beginning, then I don't have anything to whine about but at least can figure a few ways to pick up from the trail here. 

I've repeated many times that I am no fan of Anwar Ibrahim although there are things in Pakatan that I like about. But right now, I am in very sarcastic and cynic mood to see how UMNO, their partners, party-related NGOs, Perkasa, Braheng Ali making a fool of themselves with their almost immature nonsense statements and blunders. True, we got to move on and Petra's statement indirectly nudges everyone to go on the goal of Anything But UMNO. At Melewar last month, the message relayed was not to be afraid of BN or UMNO but to bury them 6 feet under. 

Since these mob groups spend their money like if it's nobody's money but theirs, we might as well ask them to pay us up to $50 million if the lose in the GE, ain't so?

This Is Not Democracy. It's Dictatorship

"This is not democracy. It's dictatorship. I am the law." - Herman Boone, Remember The Titans

Remember the Titans was one of my favorite sports-themed movies where in the first part of the film, Coach Boone (Denzel Washington) was saying that line above to his team before they started pre-season training of college football. The line held me dearly and after reading through quickly the first reading text of the Peaceful Assembly Bill, I see that things are getting from bad to worst.

From my several observations these new measures seem to imply that we are no longer heading towards democracy and in the line of the real reform that Najib Razak was promising about. Instead, it was heading towards the other end, turning it into a police state. Think of the whole idea as the Big Brother system, which is actually happening right now. Everything you wish to do, has to be done way ahead, one month ahead. According to the draft, there are 8 conditions that must be fulfilled by any organizer before a permit can be issued. And to make it worse, the police, with its given powers will ultimately say either yes or no and like a dictator, their word is law.

Remember that not all human conventions and declarations mentioned in the UN Human Rights charter. So far, Malaysia only ratified two. They are articles against discrimination of women and another for children. But others were never ratified at all. In fact, Malaysia especially United Malays National Organisation has not acknowledged and even ratified the Human Rights Declaration. This is why till today there is still detention without trial, cases of third-degree interrogation in police stations resulting with people dead in custody, cops refusing to accept the IPCMC recommendations (see Malaysiakini's Dzaiddin Recommendations Ignored) and even people / authorities responsible for beatdowns walking away scott-free.

One paragraph from the Bar Council's statement can say how bias the tone can be in setting up:

This Bill, like section 27 of the Police Act, vests wide powers in the police, who are empowered to impose restrictions and conditions, and to disperse assemblies and arrest participants. The police’s past consistent and atrocious conduct in suppressing assemblies shows that it is crucial that the police change their mindset and abandon the culture of impunity in managing freedom of assembly. In other jurisdictions, the power to impose restrictions and conditions vests in the local authority or a procession commission.

The summary is that the bill is merely separating Section 27 of the Police Act out and making it as an independent act. Nothing more. Same wine, different bottle like the replacement to the ISA.

It is natural to see street protests everywhere throughout the world. To forbid such thing is to suppress people dissatisfaction when they are unable to voice through channels or all avenues of venting their problems have been exhausted. If you say no to protests, how can you answer the question of why the Bolshevik Revolution happened more than 80 years ago or why is there the phenomenon of Occupy Wall Street? You can't go against the nature. But the caveats, drawbacks and everything seem to point for one reason - an ulterior motive, I would say. As Aspan, my friend said sometime back, change is natural, no one can run away from it. (see here)

The powers vested to the Home Minister, the custodian of the bill in adding / subtracting prohibited places coupled with the discretion by the police in approving the permit or otherwise can be considered as dictatorship. So whoever says that Malaysia is a democractic place now seem to have been misled by those claims as it is actually more or less a guided-democracy and slowly heading towards a failed state.

The Bersih 2.0 rally has already terrified many people in pro-government, particularly those who screamed most - from United Malays National Organisation. The biggest fear, and the main factor of motivating them to clampdown is the fear that it could alter the existing political landscape. That's it and that's the main reason. Altering the political landscape means they ultimately end up playing second banana and losing the power they have been holding for the last 55 years. Otherwise, what could explain why have some people became paranoid with unfounded things, figments of their own imagination like Ibrahim Ali? 

Who actually came up with the bulk of those things? AG? Cabinet? Nazri alone? Main party? Najib alone? 

This is one of the "projek pembodohan" that is in the play. Many people saw this as an insult of intelligence from Najib thinking that the conditions and laws drafted in this bill will make people happy, but many think otherwise. It's not surprising that we can see many "butter boys" and "pembodeks" that will say sweet and nice things of the bill tomorrow in the papers and the online mainstream press. In fact I am ready to see it coming and it's likely that many naive people will fall for it, in the process become a bonsai plant.

I would like to repeat this question again. Can anyone of you imagine if you are among the 30000 people that ended up in prison for doing something that is part of your basic human right, doing something of a crime that is not written in stone or doing something that is morally right but considered wrong by the oppressors?

The Question That Was Never Answered

I have refrained from talking over the matters of the apostasy or the recent sexuality issue over the past few weeks because there is nothing much to say about apart from reading things of one party bashing the other party left and right that everyone has been talking about via press conferences, press releases and so forth. In fact, what Raja Petra wrote two days ago in his Cure The Cause, Not Symptoms piece actually underscores what I have been trying to say about in regards to the two problems above.

Most of you are focusing on and talking about the symptoms of the problem. All the comments you post are about the signs of the disease. And all your suggestions are about trying to cure these symptoms rather than getting to the root of the problem, the cause of the disease.

What both of them share in common is this both things: first, we Malaysians are very much of busy bodies in minding people's personal affairs and privacy until we have totally forgotten of the bigger problems we have. And then when disaster strikes, only we start to realize that we have been giving ourselves the wrong priorities. If people do not believe of the more bigger and evil problems at now, it is only after disaster that people would realize eventually. By that time, though it would already have been too late as a blot of oil / ink will have spoil the container of milk. I suppose this is already ingrates part of our local culture and while this is done, it also serves as a distraction to cover up bigger problems we should know about, not of keeping in the blue.

I am sure that many of us have seen how people react to the alleged apostasy case in the DUMC or the Sexuality Merdeka festival in a very nervous, kan cheong manner. There are people who claimed to be pious and deeply religious opened their mouths and screamed that apostasy is not allowed and those who did it should be punished..bla.bla..bla. Likewise those on the moment the Sexuality fest gets covered in the press, zealous people started screaming of why is there gays and lesbians in Malaysia, where there should not be one.

Equally the same thing as those who scream about is about the high handed actions by the authorities on those involved. For example, our number 2 cop immediately declares a ban on the Seksualiti festival and Hassan Ali for instance wanted the apostasy thing to be declared as a criminal offense outright not to mention on the extremes of those who wanted people involved in this to be stripped of citizenship and so forth.

Surely along the way, as I recalled these lines by Raja Petra: 

What happened to live and let live? And why must everyone live according to your value system?

The trouble with both Christians and Muslims is: 1) they always think they are right and everyone else is wrong; 2) they always think they are pious and take on a righteous attitude; 3) they refuse to live and let live and everyone must live according to their standards; 4) they do not tolerate differences of opinion and regard those who disagree with them as the enemies of Christianity/Islam.

-- Small Things For Small Minds

No matter the claim of how pious people claim to be or the big mouth small brain thing, there's a question that people ought to answer but to this day remains unanswered: Why or What made would a person want to do that?

I once asked this question way long back when I said that there are flawed policies introduced because there is a lack of understanding of the human psychology there. If I am to ask you a question in that context, maybe I can ask you questions like why is online piracy still rampant or why is still vandalism on the phone booth? These kind of questions can go on and on. But we still have yet to give an answer.

Occasionally, I would come across or listen to replies with the phrase "God willing", or  "God wills it" if you put it that way.  In the context of the apostasy, is that problem happening because a person feels that God wills them to do it that thing? It can be that way or, as what Dr. Mohd Asri said before, was this alleged problem happening because we have been ignored by those from our own religion that we have no choice but to look for help from others not in our religion? What must be addressed if the answer is either one of the two above?

The basic foundation of any religion is that any religion actually does not force their ideals on to others. It just answers what the Small Things excerpt said above. Compulsion is a no no, so to speak. So, when I thought of the aftermath of the Himpun rally, which drew only a meager 5000 people, I was asking myself, are those people really got a big mouth but a small brain?

On to the Sexuality Merdeka thing. As what Marina Mahathir said in reply to the detractors, the goal was to help and educate those groups of people that have been discriminated or having problems in the context of the law, not to promote it as what the detractors have alleged. Why are they behaving or What made them to do it was never answered before the open their mouths. And so, when Ambiga, Maria or Marina responded back to the allegations made by TV3 or Ibrahim Ali, they are unable to respond to the three women. Now do you notice that a big mouth but a small brain like those two will put you in a hesitant result?

I know there are people who would not take kindly to such opinion and critique, insisting that what they see of the religions are right. But we got to ask ourselves first and put ourselves in the A.A mode before you start doing rash things like the persons would announce, okay? If you are able to provide a very very good answer (carved to stone grade) to those above, you then have a likelihood of curing the cause.

Note: see also Let's Get This Straight

Looking Back: Bar Council Forum 9 August 2008

This cable was written by then U.S Ambassador to Malaysia James Keith in 2008, in view of the incident of the "conversion to Islam" forum held at the Bar Council. At the very last minute, Ambiga, then Bar Council president decided to put a stop to the forum after the intervention and plea by Pak Lah.

From Wikileaks:

The Malaysian Bar Council attempted to hold a forum, entitled "Conversion to Islam," at their national headquarters on August 9.  Included in the forum was a panel discussion of two high profile conversion cases involving the difficulties faced by non-Muslims in conversion cases related to religiously mixed marriages. 

A hostile crowd of about 500 protesters assembled in front of the building, including representatives from the Pan-Malaysia Islamic Party (PAS), Anwar Ibrahim's People Justice Party (PKR) (including a Member of Parliament), the United Malay National Organization (UMNO), and Muslim-based NGOs. A group of protesters led by Peninsular Malay Students Federations (GPMS) Vice-president Jais Abdul Karim and PKR MP Zulkifli Noordin stormed the building shortly after the forum began. Police at the scene made no attempt to stop the protesters, but actually escorted them inside, where the demonstrators disrupted the proceedings, using racial epithets and other derogatory language and forcing Bar Council President Ambiga Sreenevasan to close the forum. Police did not make any arrests of the protestors, but have announced that they are investigating the forum's organizers.

Police at the scene made no attempt to stop the protesters, but actually escorted them inside, where the demonstrators disrupted the proceedings, using racial epithets and other derogatory language and forcing Bar Council President Ambiga Sreenevasan to close the forum.  Police did not make any arrests of the protestors, but have announced that they are investigating the forum's organizers.

Conclusion excerpt:

The response to the Bar Council forum has illustrated the Government's willingness to utilize religious sensitivities and tensions for political gains.  The involvement of party members from PAS and PKR show the fragile nature of the Opposition's coalition and the potential for UMNO strategists to continue exploiting the coalition's lack of cohesiveness, especially along religious and racial lines.  

Full cable excerpt can be read at: Malaysia Today (here) 

Perhaps some of the pics taken below on that day can allow us to revisit that very day itself.

The Overprotectiveness of PAS

In light of the statement that Elton John is performing in Malaysia, PAS has been making statements of popular singer figures coming in to Malaysia and perform for the past all these years as somewhat promoting the "western culture that is wrong (in their definition)" among youngsters here. Elton John is not the only one that is also the target of PAS Youth, but past figures including Gwen Stefani for instance and a few others. To most people including fans in the world, the adjective of gay as what Elton John publicly declares is eclipsed by his popularity in pop culture given by his array number of hit songs / music that was performed in over more than 30 years.

What I am trying to point out is that PAS is in this case over protective of the people. It is like a overbearing mother who tries to keep a child inside a shell although it clearly defies the nature of curiosity inhabited in each and everyone of us. What is also underscored by their actions is that PAS still has yet to let people able to make their own decisions and having them to use their own discretion. This in one way is best to encourage people to think for themselves, not to show that "I know best, and I do it for you" thing.

To say that this is from the western culture is not entirely accurate. It is actually part of the capitalism culture - to make money, profits from it. Famous people come and perform here because of the demand from fans, with firsthand knowledge of how popular they themselves are. Simply use this on the Far Eastern artists that come here to perform. Aren't they on the same capacity as these famous artists do, until to the point where PAS has to bark up on that?

It is best for PAS to say "I let you decide" but they should not have a strong hand of intervention on this case. The more positive statement that they might say is "Look, we don't really encouraged you to get spoiled by their rowdy behavior but you make the final choice".  What PAS do not understand that many youngsters are willing to pay extra money, like in Singapore dollars to go down the causeway to watch their favorite concerts, if there happens to be none performed in Kuala Lumpur. Since having performed here is cheaper than going down (considering the cost of food, travelling and lodging, not to mention the high exchange rate between the hosting currency vs our currency).

It's very hard to see a celebrity coming down once in a blue moon to perform here. To shoo a famous person off, in spite of noble intentions and despite a person with a famous popularity and reputation is to give a slap as the first impression on the artist performing here. As the saying goes, people don't forget on how you make them feel, even though they may forget and forgive what you would do to them. So, the real bottom line is that PAS Youth in particular should start moving away from its overprotective attribute of themselves and encourage people to let them think.

If it is not already enough with our present education system which churns out people to think and behave like a robot instead of encouraging a creative and inquisitive mind who is able to make better judgements and learn more by its curiosity. This culture, with the ulterior being to prevent a person to go rocking the boat because of the curiosity nature (a.k.a suppression) has stop here, if Malaysia wants to have a level up in its society, since we still have many lazy and submissive natives around.

PAS should go around and ask everyone, not just their own Malay youths on whether they like for instance Elton John music or they like people to come here or not. This is not the 1980s, but we're in the 21st century. Already PAS has taken a lot of brickbats from its hudud saga and they should not give more info for the enemy to hit them with such kind of issue. Aren't they aware of traps to make people's support for them to wane already?

Budget 2012: Fishing Like The Grecos

On Budget 2012, I was more interested in the number and the nature of the points that will be announced that are in individual basis, that is things that will affect on the individual capacity such as income tax reduction, or relief and so forth. By the end of the announcement at around 6 p.m, I made a rough count of 20 points that were mentioned in the budget. However, seeing how it was listed down, I have to say that it won't help much for a working professional, with just a few years out of the university life and into the real working world.

There were a few measures that can relate to the scenario above like allowing the First Home Scheme cap to go up to RM400K and compelling the employers to pay 1 more percent to their share of the monthly EPF for those earning less than RM5000 per month. The problem is, these measures are more or less plugging one hole but they overlook the other holes that have to be plugged. 

To elaborate in the context of the two cases above, the house example poses problems for people particularly in the Klang Valley. For instance, where can we find and buy houses / apartments that fall in the maximum cap of RM 400K? Secondly, even if the scheme supports it, do we have the means to repay the entire housing loan in the longest loan period of 30 years? Many of us do not have the understanding of what Kiyosaki said in this kind of case before that a property purchased with a bank loan is not an asset. It is a liability and it will be until it is cleared. In the space of 30 years, coupled with yearly interest, the debt incurred will also be passed to the children as well. In fact when they are born, they owed government money because of the way the people's money was misused!

Compelling the employers to pay 1 percent more on EPF doesn't really solve the problems. It in fact gives more problems to employers. This is already in addition to the standard corporate tax of 25% that they have to pay. Asking employers to pay extra without something to compensate in the process is hurting business more, which based on the speech text, Najib doesn't seem to anticipate this problem here. How will business do if this measure eats more to the current operational cost? This is what some people running a business would be complaining about. And when the business doesn't do well, there can only be either three options: retrenching workforce, wind up the business or move the business to somewhere else.

Having counted the number of measures (snapshots in particular), a quarter of the measures listed are aimed at civil servants (e.g, mandatory retirement, increment of salaries, bonuses, etc). Then there are also one-off payments for ex-military personnel, book vouchers for university students, vouchers for primary / secondary students, annual increment of pension by 2%, what more? It's easy to imply that these things are more for fishing the support of civil servants, rural area folks and those in the low-income bracket for they form the big core number of support (in vote translations) for Barisan Nasional of course. This has already raised many doubts and nay says from economists, educated people with financial understanding, opposition party people that budget won't do good.

As if it is meant to entice support from civil servants and the shoring up of support of the BN butter-up boys, the budget is not to changed and reshaped the entire nation's present economic structure but just to inject crack drugs into its financial nervous system. When Najib said that the present forecast GDP was would be less than 6%, he in fact a shot himself in the leg. As it was commented during Budget 2011, in order for the ETP to work, the annual GDP will have to be at least 6% or more from the inception period until to the end of the ETP timeline program which is in the few years. But with the present crisis in America and Europe, it is quite hard to maintain that forecast. 

And of course, the snapshots of the Budget doesn't show real reforms and restructuring. There is nothing new actually in what was announced. Some of the measures are considered recycled. They were once mooted in the last decade but because of opposition from the employers and the fallout of the Asian Financial Crisis 1997, some of the things were dropped originally.

When it comes to retirement, what is the actual ratio of retirement of people in private sector vs people in the government sector? If the incentives mentioned above are meant for those in civil service and those in the retirement, those in the private sector will start to ask where is the sense of fairness missing out. This would definitely spur the anger of why a person at the same age but working in the different sector gets more money to retire than those who work in private sector but get less retirement money. Was this never considered at all when putting the action plans of the budget into paper?

The formula of spending more and more stimulus measures to boost the economy could no longer work unlike in the 90s, in which Dr. Mahathir is famous for. This Keynesian concept is already ineffective, since as it was proven in America, the stimulus package that Obama signed has still yet to convince Americans, with the number of unemployed still around 5 million nationwide. 

I was constantly saying in the last few days that Budget 2012 is fishing the civil servants and the low-level supporters like the Grecos do. Greek is already facing towards default and need of bailout because of the attitude of the previous government. Two causes have been identified behind their problems: one, the mismanagement and overspending of their coffers by the previous government and secondly, the high number of civil servants, although it already is a surplus to what is needed to run the government departments. Malaysia is in the direction towards the similar disaster, although many politicians like Najib and Muhyiddin showed the attitude of dismissing what is forthcoming in years to come. 

The budget presentation is like injecting a booster. This means every time a booster is injected, like a drug, people start to crave more and more until they cannot stop. Why the youngsters in Britain and why people there riot in Tottenham a few months ago was simply because they were angry that they could not be fed with various measures usually the British government would provide them. When they don't give, they start doing violent things. If you put it in the way of not giving the drug to the person who has been addicted to it, you would see the strange behavior of a subject involved.

Will Malaysia become like Britain and Greece? Yes. In the years to come, with too many civil servants surplus to what is needed and the attitude of expecting yourselves being spoon feed all the time. These measures of introducing GSTs, (for example) are unknowingly what the economic hitmen would tell the Najib administration with a hidden agenda: to rob and cheat the country of the money. And it can be like the Indonesian scenario again. 

We have to relook at the Budget snapshots and ask whether if it will help people in long term. There's absolutely none that addresses the reforms and provides outlines of long term problem solving. If for some reason you notice that there's something not right with the Budget (like not much help) but yet you still support them, then I do not have any other answer to explain the reason apart from the answer of "you got conned and duped".