Liberalism Is Mentioned In Vision 2020

Politicians and even ministers from the both sides have lauded the Sabah-born federal Minister, Joseph Kurup whom on last Friday have brought a long-awaited proposal to remove the "race" field seen in most official forms as an indirect effort foster unity among Malaysians. You can read last Friday's article here.

As far as I recalled, this "race" field is no longer a required field in Singapore on most official forms except on certain scenarios, for instance a Chinese translator. The Singapore Manpower has clearly specified that if there is a need to require the "race" field, clear and sound reasons are required to be given prior to the potential candidates for the job, lest to invite trouble of law from the Ministry itself. This practice has already been in place for many years though.

Two weeks ago, a group of people lodged a police report in response to the Malay NGO's chicken slaughter and slap offer gathering held at Jalan Tun Perak at the Brickfields police station. When submitting their report, they requested to have the race code replaced with "Anak Bangsa Malaysia". Although the computer form doesn't allow them to change, the police officers in charge of report taking that night were gracious enough to allow them to make that amendment. This was  documented in Haris Ibrahim's account here.

Muhyiddin Yassin responded that the idea will have to be presented to the Cabinet for consideration, while right-wing Malay NGO Perkasa's Ibrahim Ali has rejected outright, reasoning that it is equivalent to removing Malay privileges. You can read Ibrahim Ali's response here.The next day, ISMA, in addition to Perkasa showed signs of opposition to the idea, according to them inviting liberalism.

Do you think that Kurup's idea is likely to go through? High probability of no likely.

However, the "Mudah Lupa" syndrome rears its head here, not just the majority of Malays, but most of us Malaysians as well.

Looking back at a math's exercise book that I kept at home that states about the Vision 2020, the liberal society was listed as one of the nine challenges in facing 2020. This is what is said about Vision 2020's fifth challenge: (from Ministry of Education's website)

MEWUJUDKAN MASYARAKAT YANG LIBERAL DAN BERTOLAK ANSUR, DI MANA MASYARAKAT PELBAGAI KAUM DI MALAYSIA BEBAS MENGAMALKAN ADAT, KEBUDAYAAN DAN KEPERCAYAAN AGAMA MEREKA DAN PADA MASA YANG SAMA MELETAKKAN KESETIAAN MEREKA PADA SATU NEGARA.

We are six years away from 2020. Considering how the social-political-economical level in Malaysia, it is unlikely we can reach the target. In other words, we've broke the set philosophy that was set. The one who came out with this concept is none other than Perkasa's patron and ex-PM, Dr. Mahathir himself. 

The question, has Perkasa and ISMA as well as other NGOs involved in the Malaysian human-rights arena forgotten about this thing before shooting their mouths? To say no, implies that they are rejecting what the old man is outlined about the concept in 1991. At that time, it's about 30 years away. We're six years from the deadline - where are we now?

If Kurup's suggestion gets a go ahead and becomes a new law due to popular support from people from all races, from both sides of political divide, who is it that is going to die from it? It can be definitely assured that the races in the world will never go extinct at all despite various threats. Do bear in mind that any Constitution amendment that involves the main religion do require participation from the "Council of Rulers" even it has been passed in Parliament, so there's no way to be cowed by an non-existential threat.

Religion's Loss In Sense of Loving, Sharing, Caring and Forgiving

Early this year, the Brits are given a slight rude awakening with the unearthing of more historical findings of the famous King Richard III. The king’s identity was confirmed by the scientists of the Leicester University following the skeleton’s discovery at the car park in August 2012, buried by the Greyfriars after the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. Following the confirmation, things started to show up such as the artistic impression of the church prior to the Dissolution of the Monasteries, graphic visuals of how the Tudor propaganda vilifies Richard via Shakespeare’s play and of the indication by art experts pointing that a well-known portrait of the monarch that has the slightest signs of biasness.  Since then, there has been hardly of the play being performed. People are starting to see a different angle to the history that was shown to them more than 500 years after that series of events.

If that's what happened about Richard III, why not Chin Peng? After all, the existence of Internet has allowed users to look for alternate information to what is found the present books available in the market or at our home shelves.

There has been an admission by the English and the historians that the 1948-1960 communist insurgencies led by Chin Peng against the British have accelerated plans for independence by 10-12 years. Had Japan was not A-bombed at the end of WW2, Malaya would have been declared independent on 17 August 1945.

I can understand that many of us, especially those who were born pre-Merdeka are quite scarred by the horrors inflicted by the faction that was led by the man himself that it is quite hard to forgive such person and to move on. In fact the emotion before the moving on stage is the difficult part for most of us.

There is a sense of inconsistency where JI terrorists originally from Malaysia like Noordin Mat Top were allowed to be buried back home while just because Chin Peng is not a Malay or just because the name strikes prominently in the Malaysian history that politicians, government and people have started to get too emotional until the point they lose their marbles and the logic to think properly that they outright said no way Jose on bringing the remains back.

I was watching Hanipa Maidin’s speech on the Legal Profession Act amendment a few days ago and at one point, he was describing of how our authorities and sometimes leaders tend to act very emotionally rather using their heads to think properly under a very calm state of mind. No doubt this is exactly why the Malaysian society has still yet to match with their counterparts in the first-world countries, socially speaking.

Every religion in the world actually emphasizes on loving, sharing, caring and most important of all forgiving. Instead, most of the preaching now no longer emphasizes on that but instead merely points on sin, legal, not legal and most important of all, heaven and hell. Every Friday, there are news articles that shares what Jakim tries to talk during their Friday sermons. The texts are prepared by them, and imams are not given the free reign to decide whether to use their own sermon or to use the prepared text sermon.

The late Sultan Idris Shah of Perak wrote three days before his death that the religion has lost its allure and has the need to show the love and caring attitude (love thyself and thy neighbor mantra) rather than scaring the people with things that are sinful or talking just of heaven and hell. Turns out he’s right - that after nearly three decades since his passing things have taken a turn or the worst.

History has often shown by number of cases and scenarios that most of the Christian missionaries are much more successful than their Muslim counterparts. It is largely attributed to the approach that they undertake. It is noted that most Christian missionaries adopt the community service method and show them of how they can help the community there and how the community can help them in return. This would be in far contrasting with the more hardball approach that the Muslim missionaries would adopt. 

Further reading: RPK’s article The Approach (6 Feb 2013)

Towards Merdeka, JAKIM’s controversial sermon has painted an impression that vilifies the non-Bumiputra. And to add more insult, JAKIM seems to paint itself as someone who has a direct divine communication with God with so many recent non-sensical statements. They may have forgotten while they keep fingering other people as their worst enemies in the name of religion, it is they themselves that they are not aware of, as of one finger forward, three finger backwards.

So what’s the point of writing this? I am trying to say that despite all of Chin Peng’s atrocities during the communist insurgencies; it would be a rather less messy and let the wounds heal by letting his ashes being interred back in Sitiawan. Why would the authorities and UMNO in particular want to scream around and flog a dead horse that is called Chin Peng whereas there’s a more pressing national situation that would be addressed? Are they implying that as in the Spartacus movie they are like what Crassus would react and feared of Spartacus even after his death? Are you saying that a whole city fears just one man?

History is not always 100% accurate, as what the further discoveries surrounding Richard III has shown us. The Malaysian history as what we’ve learnt in the school books isn’t always accurate. UMNO and the police have already shot themselves in the foot by highlighting one man by the name of Chin Peng. On the other side of the coin, this has instead increased the curiosity of knowledge-seeking people that wants to see more of the history than what it was written on the surface. In fact what is written in the history books in school is just a scratch on the surface.

The society controlled by old men is somewhat driving many people towards mundane and in fact getting more people lazy and being manipulated. The internet, on the positive side has instead shed more light to what was hidden from the surface of the Malaysian history that we have known about.

The Myth of The Lazy Native Still Lives

Utusan last Sunday have attacked again the Chinese, warning them that the community stands to lose much by voting the opposition in the recent general elections. It is indirectly part of a series of attacks meant to alienate and hurt the community by the conservative and the extremist side of UMNO who still today are unable to understand why the community behaves differently from their expected follow the herd mindset. This is more of brainwashing those who have not been enlightened by the actual truths and misleading them into believing that one community is behind all the problems. This is however in contrast with the so called "call of reconciliation" that Najib makes weeks before.

The present set of problems faced by the country matches the hypothesis that I made a that there isn't going to be substantial changes despite promises by Najib. It's likely that it would be more or less a status quo with nothing to change more to appease the rural folks. One year ago, I have written my concerns in a posting detailing that it is high likely that the chances of change of government is unlikely because of one main factor excluding the gerrymandering factor: Malay votes. 

My view is that the cost of BN's win is acceptable but morally hollow. In the long run the ruling government will start to feel alienated with many voting for a refreshing change but with the smaller number of people were the eventual ones who decided on them forming out of  the new cabinet / government.

Base of the mindset and psyche of the Malay community, there are still those who are unwilling to change out of fear, uncertainty and victims of the fear mongering as well as the laziness of their attitudes / spiritual mentality. In the 1970s Mental Revolution analysis report, as again I've repeated over and over again:, the negative perception of the Malay community that many observers including former colonial masters noted is as follows:

1. Not truthful with themselves

2. Unpunctual

3. Looking for a quick buck using any means necessary sans hard work

4. Fatalistic attitude - always saying it is the fates of God vs working hard to decide their own fates

5. Spending very lavishly including having big feasts despite not having the sufficient budget to do so.

6. Getting emotional and sentimental too easily resulting in the inability to think logically and rationally.

7. Education that encourages submissive attitude with taking everything in without reasoning / questioning why.

As emphasized again, the scathing remarks no longer confines to one single race, but instead has already extended to every Malaysian, given that the limited scope referred by the analysis was made more than 40 years ago.

Let's put the first point above as example. Two days ago, Utusan has published a front line article saying that prices of cars have reduced between 2 to 11 percent on selected brands and models. Yesterday, car manufacturers, Volkswagen and Peugeout have denied this stating that the price still remained the same and not the one that was reported in the papers. Thus, was Utusan writing on their own imagination? And if people were expecting for a car reduction of 20% approximate across the board while it doesn't seem to happen now, it shows how the government is insincere. The real solution is to deduct a portion of the excess tax.

Utusan claims that the Chinese are emotional and greedy. However, by using the Revolusi analysis it is actually most Malays, they themselves included are actually emotional and greedy.

While the reasons of the voting trend for certain states like Kedah, Negeri Sembilan and Teregganu were known, and explained and understood to me by certain people who are familiar with politics, other states however do not have that factor applied in this reasoning, but instead, the ignorance is bliss attitude still adopted by many of these people will eventually prevent Malaysia from reaching the idealized Vision 2020 that Dr. Mahathir wanted more than 20 years ago. 

Many ministers in the government over the more mature world would definitely quit on admittance of committing a malpractice in government administration out of their sincerity. Sincerity is a key issue that is taught in each religion across the world. But not in Malaysia. Ministers, even committing physical assault, and other practices in conflict of interest will never sincerely quit because of the fear of humiliation and trend of Malaysian obsession with personalities over national interests.

The most often answer of why people in Singapore or other first world countries are socially more successful in every aspect is because of the emphasis of real nation building, with emphasis of religion factor out from day to day affairs. Some critics say that Turkey is like Malaysia today, but with one main difference: religion factor is out of the nation governance aspect.

The New Economic Policy could have made many Malay and Bumiputera people richer by the time the original program period ended in 1990. Instead, there are still 40% of 29 million Malaysians are in the poor class catergory, while many are still unable to get a better pay with the salary market still stagnant. Had the policy got executed perfectly minus loopholes, we would have seen many people driving better cars, say Mercedes, got better houses with the percentage of the poor reduced to around 5%. Instead, we are still seeing situation of the 80s despite better facilities and improved technology.

Criticism is very essential in every religion. Absolute control is equivalent to a man trying to play God is against the mission of man in the world. 

Menang tersorak, kampung tergadai - merely to hold on to 56 years of power, they unadmittingly brought in foreign workers from other states to vote in areas (videos recorded and put up on Youtube /facebook to prove it) at the expense of forsaking the national sovereignity. And when the disaster strikes, as what I have said sometime back, many people would eventually realize, but it will then be too late and the cost learnt from the disaster would be very very expensive and painful.

A Promise That Is Warm As A Fowl's Manure

One of the views that were shared by the Dutch, English and even the Portuguese on the natives of the land from the 16th century until now is still relevant today and it has still been proven that the myth of the lazy native still exists. Negative perceptions, describing about the natives have been documented by an UMNO research paper in the early 1970s entitled the "Mental Revolution."

Of course, I definitely would like to find time to comment on why majority of Malaysians are still unwilling to change, apart from a few identified factors that have been identified that have been commented by other people such as from the election campaigning perspective and the mindset of people in certain states, but given that this piece has been written at a public location, I might find some time to comment on one attribute that is hindering overall national progress.

The negative view that was given by our then colonial masters to describe the attributes of the Malays was that the Malays have the tendency to make promises as describe by the Malay idiom "hangat-hangat tahi Melayu" or the translation in English would be "as warm as the fowl's manure". What it means is that once it has been promised, a party would do it well at the beginning but efforts undertaken by them would be diminished in the subsequent period / years after the original undertaking. And given of the latest case of car price talk, I felt it is appropriate to frame that problem to the issue just as to state my point.

Out of the desparation to get it's diminishing urban and possibly a certain small percentage of rural support, BN added in at the very last moment of one of the PR's manifesto cases to be implemented, which was the gradual reduction of the car excise tax. Base on the parliamentary-seat results of the election, it seems that together with the die-hard old timers that refuse to change, many fence sitters fell for that promise.

So we thought that we could see the same thing that PR promised that BN would do before the year is over that they would reduce the car prices. After all, one of the problems that many people face is replacing their worn and torn cars that have aged more than seven years for newer and more efficient cars. To compound the existing problem, the car insurance premium has gone up by another 15% across the board. It means that more people face problem with the money in the pockets since you need to have an insurance before you are allowed to renew your vehicle road tax. 

Presently, things are not going well. And from what Tok Pa said about only reducing car prices by 2017/2018 at most, as what Tony Pua said in his letter in Malaysiakini, it is indirectly signalling to the lower-level people in particular to forget about buying newer cars. But hold on, didn't Najib Razak promised about reducing car prices in stages? 

Excerpt from Malaysiakini and Bernama

“As promised, car prices will be reduced in stages until 2017. Insya Allah, I will ensure that every promise is fulfilled." - Najib on 28 May

 
"Car prices will not be reduced (at one go). Prices will be reduced in accordance with market forces" - Mustapa Mohamad on 28 May

Sounds contrasting isn't it? Now it's almost a month since the general elections and the new cabinet has been sworn in the presence of the King, so where's that happy hamper that every car buyer is waiting for? 

Maybe to show that promise is a equivalent to an Indian capati, I would suggest people who are buying a new car to pay according to the actual price minus the additional excise tax. You are already paying for service and import tax already together so why pay extra when that money has been found to be misused? Let's give an example: a Mazda 3 selling at RM 100K, 1.6 is actually selling at RM 56K, with import and service tax included, and insurance counted in. $44K balance should been used to pay as a deposit for an average apartment in Kuala Lumpur that sells around RM 450K.

Motor scrapping and old motor exporting is actually a lucrative business, especially that Africa now needs a lot of those vehicles for those poor natives to afford it so, I don't see why there are more excuses of not reducing car prices except to enrich the fat cats whose income "solely" depend on those exorbitant cash.

So it seems that people who voted for BN have either been mislead about that promise or are actually as what Mental Revolution said: not truthful of themselves. If any of the people that belongs to the latter, there's something wrong with the logic. Why pay two times to buy one car whereas you can actually use the extra money for investment, or for those young and working professionals use it as deposit to buy a new house to stay? I just would hope that whoever defends BN with such crazed would suddenly rant about having a hard time of getting one car like that when you don't earn that much money as the rich would do and yet being willing to be manipulated by the wily old man Mahathir for his own personal ends indirectly.

I am sure many nay sayers would definitely come out with the conventional argument of "closing off one source of income" with that excise tax, but since Proton is still yet to perform at the satisfactory level on their own despite plenty government assistance, stripping them of the assistance would psychologically get them to think and work hard on putting their foot on their own on the global level. There are some of us who would gape in awe over shiny and prestigious cars that our Singaporean friends drive into the country but yet showed their other side of themselves by defending what is illogical and incorrect without being honest with themselves.

What Tok Pa said about that matter is exactly the problem that our previous English colonial masters described of the natives: promises as warm as a fowl's manure. In plain English, it is called as not walking your talk, since Tok Pa is part of the current incumbent government. But that commentary was written over 100 years ago, still relevant but it no longer confines to just one race of people in Malaysia but instead everyone of us.

Excerpt of Tony Pua's letter in Malaysiakini:

Umno president, Najib Abdul Razak announced that, if the BN is returned to power, it would “revamp the National Automotive Policy to gradually reduce car prices by 20-30 percent and increase the competitiveness of the national cars”.

Yesterday, however, International Trade and Industries Minister Mustapa Mohamed - who is in charge of automotive policies - announced that car prices will only be reduced after another five years and not in the near term.

In effect, the BN government is telling Malaysians that they can stop dreaming of cheaper cars for the next five years, and if car prices drop at all, it will be after the 14th general election.

It's The Karma Thing

I knew and anticipated that there will come a day that a non-Chinese person could approach me and either start asking questions of why like other Chinese people I went against convention, or voting for opposition; or an extremist right-winger will start a tirade of insults of being ungrateful to what the country has done if by chance seeing this. Of course you don't see much of this on a public area unless you invite the attention of other curious by-standers there. Any well open-minded layman who has a greater understanding of the current political scenario and the aftermath of last week's general elections would clearly know a few reasons why this would happen.

While the dust from the election has yet to settle down, Najib has more problems within his own turf rather than giving more insulting speeches on the outside. He had to sing to the tune of his own party's conservative members, extreme radicals and even to the tone set by his own party's mouthpiece. There's a big possibility that he'd end up like Pak Lah in 2009 by Mahathir because he had scored below the number that Pak Lah did in 2008 and he didn't get back Selangor as he had promised before. 

The voting trend has driven many of the extreme right-wingers into emotional frenzy that as characterized by the "myth of the lazy native" that as such they could not have the capability to think out of the box, open minded and often prone to the desires to commit acts that are considered violating their own religious creed. It makes sense that when the Islamic scholar, Dr. Asri said that they are committing an illegal act by committing racism. Another characterization of the "myth of the lazy native" is that rather than admitting their own faults, they would also blame their failures on other parties, such as calling DAP a racist whereas they, UMNO themselves are actually committing racism with their own concept of Malay Supremacy.

Judging by statements from various UMNO-aligned leaders and even their own newspapers, it seems that those statements confirmed those characteristics defined. The clear case of example is that of Ali Rustam who lost both state / parliament seats and instead starts blaming people voting for opposition for being ungrateful. That is why until today, they will have a hard time to understand why other people thinking patterns don't go in line with their own way of thinking and culture.

Everyone has his own limit, and there will be a point that the people would be force to go to the extreme for they would no longer defend themselves by doing nothing.

If you remember that every year, the Muslims and Indians usually have around 2-5 days break for their festivities, whereas the Chinese, from the start of the new year can have business breaks up to 15 days (those following the Chinese tradition very closely), resuming after the Chap Goh Mei day.

Do you remember that any naive people would have been told that the Chinese control the Malaysian economy? The percentage still remains at the high margin as of today.

Let's assume, that given of the current political scenario that the Chinese have absolutely enough of the tirades of the extremists who keeps blaming them for all their problems. Say during Chinese New Year 2014 or maybe anytime before / after, everyone decided not to do business for 15 days as a gesture of protest. Everyone, not just the Chinese will suffer and the daily Malaysian economy gear will come to a screeching halt. Everyone will definitely suffer just because of the big mouths but small brain of those people.

By the way, Nazri Aziz seems to do a "cakap tak serupa bikin" thing, indirectly singing to the tune of the UMNO grassroots. The Malaysiakini video had him saying that Mahathir is the father of racism, giving the impression that he too will not like racism, but the latest statement tends to paint the picture that everything has to be in the mould of UMNO Baru's ideals. A very clear-cut example of "Melayu mudah lupa" thing I'd say!

And let's say that if I say the same similar thing, will our Malay friends feel upset as well? Again it goes back to the different levels of thinking that each race has. However, Nazri's comment doesn't carry much weight unlike my thought that the nation cannot progress more if the majority (read Malays) do not have the necessary mindset to carry themselves up.

And in case if you have forgotten some eyewitness accounts have indicated that the prices of certain goods have gone up including bread, RON 97 petrol price without any announcement and even despite denials from the Domestic Consumer Affairs ministry. If some of you have voted to BN because of the 1Malaysia brand that Najib sells, get ready to dread for Najib might not survive by year's end - thus in the end you get cheated for your blind support.

We tend to forget the concept of karma, "what goes round comes around" and we are now seeing how UMNO is behaving in national scale compared to what happened in state scale 5-years ago. While the opposition has been constantly making tirades everywhere, even before 2008, because of their role as opposition in state-levels, BN has never been accustomed to that role before and the moment they became state-opposition, they make more complains than ever, even accusing the incumbent state government for their own mistakes committed before then. I am not very surprised of the reaction of some politicians would have said statements such as "I am closing down support centres, now your problem is not mine" or even in reference to Ahmad Said, "I am not going to send any development officers / build new houses in areas won by Pakatan" out of the grudge of no support." Any keen eye observer would notice that this kind of politicians should have been out rather than put them in like Johari Ghani in Titiwangsa.

If race is no longer part of the factor in the election, it is actually a horizontal divide between the ruled vs the ruling elite and the poor, middle-class combined vs the elite rich, as well as the rural vs urban. Unfortunately, since most seats are won from the rural areas, it shows that the rural class has yet to demonstrate their courage to change and sincerity. Recently, there have been several tweets that I stumbled on Anwar Ibrahim's tweet account from people who have finally admitted that they have been victims of misinformation / mislead that they have offered their profound apologies for their mistakes to the person.

So thus, if one is open minded enough, the real fight, the horizontal divide in Malaysia in the big picture is actually the ruled vs the UMNOputras, simply to say that even Malays also form the bottom 40% of the poor and marginalized of the 29 million Malaysians. However, Wednesday's Kelana Jaya stadium gathering has yet to show sufficient number of non-Chinese participants (still at 20%) 

In the end, it is the normal people like us that have to judge for yourselves and think bigger.

Rest Assured Hudud Won't Happen, Mathematically

It's already three weeks that I have not written anything in here. I have been in a roller coaster state (emotionally up and down) that I didn't have the feeling to write the things in mind. In fact this has been one of those things that I've tried to say. Given of the MCA chest-thumping antics yesterday, I am certain that I am not afraid and certain that hudud implementation won't be happening in decades to come or not at all. It's just the same thing as UMNO would tell the Malays as this as the boogeymen to the Chinese.

Apart from that issue above that the MCA (Porn Star and co) keeps screaming about, they don't really talk substance such as governance. All the time they talked about defending the Chinese - but against who really? Communism is no longer in Malaysia for many decades. World War II was over for close to 70 years - so absolutely nothing but to scare people out of the blue. So I heard that when MCA decides to follow suit as UMNO of sacking alleged party saboteurs in the general election, it gives the same body language as with UMNO: they are not confident of their own party members.

The porn star by the name of Chua Soi Lek and his entourage of stooges remains ridiculed, while they keep flogging the dead horse because even if they talk about the dangers or so, they are actually and will still remain stooges of the big brother lynchpin of UMNO. Given of the Chua's relationship with Muhyiddin being boss-bagmen since the latter's days as Johor MB, it is no doubt that this eventually be what will it be even if the Chinese were swayed by tempting words to support them.

But that thing above is not important and I just want to get straight to the point that nobody has to be afraid of their boogeyman talk of hudud thing. 

By virtue, any amendment to the Federal Constitution requires 148 parliamentarians (out of 222) to say yes to a motion of amendment. However, for cases involving religion and royalty matters specified in the constitution, the number of yes hands is not 148 - but 168! 

In other words for special matters, 75% majority is required in the house. But this is only the first hurdle in amendment. Based on probability, it is not likely to happen. Even if PAS and UMNO MPs were to jointly agree to that, the number of Malay MPs from across the board can hardly touch 148 of them if they are to change Common Law to Islamic Shariah law. If you are to do a national level referendum, many people including Malay folk themselves do not seem agreeable to using Shariah law in entire national scale. 

Suppose if the motion overcomes the first hurdle, the second hurdle requires that the motion must be eventually agreed by the council of rulers.  (Majlis Raja-Raja Melayu). From the way it goes, they too are unlikely to agree to the idea taken into consideration that there are 11.5 million non-Muslim Malaysians young to old age that are living in this country.

Some of us brought up this matter in a casual manner with other MCA members (sans top brass) that if a person is well familiar with the Federal constitution, the dream of implementing hudud in the nationwide scale is mathematically impossible. By action it is quite tough to do whereas claiming by mouth seems to say otherwise. 

So therefore, people simply don't need to worry of having that for this might not happen maybe in the next 3-4 decades to come. In other words, MCA simply talks trash on the hudud, just like telling ghost stories to people who are naive.

LGBT's Numero Uno Question Remains Unanswered

If a student is taught to identify signs that a person is a gay / lesbian or otherwise - that is a wrong way of teaching people. It is also a wrong way to solve a problem because it is the matching pattern that is included there is not specific in nature. Putting that in will not solve the problem because the causes of this problem does not lie on just one source, but most of the sources are naturally exterior factors. Interaction with people is dampened or severely limited by the taboo that might go irrelevant as society ages.

The V-neck and sleeveless clothes is not really an appropriate symptom of someone being a gay or something for it can also represents a fashion trend. To augment the inappropriate diagnosis, V-neck jumpers form part of the school uniform for schoolchildren in other countries, including UK. Anyone who have seen the movies featuring schoolchildren in the UK will notice that this is a norm, with nothing unusual in nature.

Why or what makes a person behaving like an LGBT still remains unanswered until today despite all the broohahas from people and scum like Puad Zakarshi. 

The answer to that is a secret and a private matter that only the person themselves would only answer and know about it.

Most of the LGBT things that surfaced in a person generally happened at the approximate range of at around the end of the teen years and mostly a person goes that at adulthood. The most notable factor that can put them into that would be the present society pressure where these people are totally ignored, despite crying out for attention and the need to help. If these people were not helped but instead alienated them more and more, then we are no better than the Nazis or the KKK clan that discriminate people. 

Just because of one dominant religion, people that are under that religion are subjected to huge amount of pressure that touches and invades their privacy from various moral quarters while others who are citizens of the same country and yet they are given a different treatment or let off without a warning. The apostate and this LGBT is similar in problem dealing except that the latter is bigger in scope.

Malaysia claims that it respects the human rights as defined in the UN charter. However, if examined closely, it only respects and ratified certain clauses of the human rights charter for example for women and children. But the rest of it were never ratified. Why would there be cases of death in custody or assaulted while being detained by the police and etc..? Why would there be space for idiots to talk that these kind of LGBT people should be chucked aside like trash? If UN human rights watch, assuming they are doing their job happens to do the job - thousands of letters including suspension from the council - could await Malaysia should they have ratified the human rights charter in entire but yet violating it.

What kind of people are actually worst of the lot? People who committed various atrocities like murder or robbing against people who have decent proper conduct  and courtesy but may or may not be LGBT? So what the hell is this Muslim lawyer talking trash about?

These practices are actually demonstrating hypocrisy but more importantly, activities committed by a person are actually in private and not required to be known by the moral police. It actually allows a person to make their own choices and choices that are made will only be answerable to God himself when man and woman stood before the presence at the end of their lives. Therefore, it is wrong for those people and parties to act as if they represent God. 

Who are they to interfere with personal lives of people's privacy whereas on the other hand if the same is done on them at an alternative scenario they would scream? It's their own business, not yours, not Puad's, not those Malay NGOs who have been questioning Ambiga recently on the same matter.

I once was told the reason why one of my uncles decided to become a pastor after being in an engineering profession for almost 10 years. He once said he felt a "calling from God" to go full time and minister. The phrase "calling from God" has actually piqued in me in wondering whether this could be one of the reasons why there are people who would decide to become LGBT. Supposed if you asked someone the question and he / she said of a calling from God then what will you do then? Chuck them into a hole or beat them up like a vicious criminal who have just killed an innocent victim - all that falls under the religious fanaticism?

Supposed if someone like Puad who screams of LGBT problem happens to eventually learn in someday in future that his child / grandchild admits or declares that he / she is one of those under the LGBT - what will he then say except to put his palm in his face? Anything will come around sooner or later as what most religions or people who are aware of this would definitely acknowledge? At that point of time, I would rather not hear a rambling from a demented old man who could be shell-shocked to see a kin of his doing what he's stamping at this time. 

Having this kind of measure to fight the problem is actually making the society more naive and mundane not to mention a weaker way of life compared to interacting with more people to get more exposure and self-discovery along the way. Puad should have spend time understanding the problems with real people that deal with this issue including psychologists / psychiatrists rather than basing this whole problem on the religion scholars as it is not addressed in a realistic and hands-on manner. 

I admit that as another friend shared my view, the present government is run by too many incompetent people who have too many titles but yet can't even think big. And if you look at the cabinet composition structure - the present cabinet - there are mostly formed of people who are from the south. The idiom "gone south" could also be coincidental - things have gone haywire in Malaysia. How funny.

The famous American Reverend / human rights activist Jesse Jackson recently made one simple statement that actually solves it all, rather than impeding on other people's affair like it's someone's grandfather's business: "If you don't believe in it, then don't do it." It's an elegant statement yet a simple straightforward solution to the problem.

Addendum (from RPK's My Beliefs are My Business)

Why are the Malays so kaypoh? Why are they so concerned about what other people believe and don’t believe? Even if Ambiga believes in the tooth fairy or Father Christmas or whatever that is her business. Malays should take stock of their own beliefs and do some soul searching as to whether what they believe in are fact or fiction.

That is the trouble with most Malays. They like to jaga tepi kain orang lain. Just so that Tengku Amalluddin Sani Raja Ahmad Sufian is aware, I too am a strong supporter of LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) rights. I too, just like Ambiga, believe that LGBTs have a rightful place under the Malaysian sun. That is my right to believe what I believe.

What's Next for Rafizi After N.O.W?

Now that N.O.W, Rafizi Ramli's pet project is up, the next thing I can think of in regards of Rafizi Ramli is to rethink of contesting in Pandan and fall back to a safer spot.

I once managed to have a short time with Rafizi one night in Gombak - unfortunately the talk was cut short of his appointment elsewhere. Rafizi can be a nice chap, as what I hear what other people would say about him. Surely his reputation has shot up after a blitz of exposes involving the LRT extension project and the big talk of the town: the NFC cow scandal.

A few months ago, Rafizi spoke about contesting in Pandan against MCA's Ong Tee Keat. I, together with a few people have certainty to say that regardless of political affiliations, Superman OTK is a very popular figure in Pandan and the only way for OTK to lose is if there is sabotage from his own party, MCA. In 2008, former MTUC president Syed Shahir contested in that area but Ong won with a neither big nor small majority of 3000 votes.

The doubt I have is that Pandan may not be that feasible contrary to what Rafizi thinks.

The much more better alternatives is either in Kelana Jaya or in Petaling Jaya Selatan.

I've been overhearing some random people on the ground talking about how they are unhappy with the performance of either Hee Loy Sian or Gwo Burne which is in contrast with Tony Pua's performance. If what the people on the ground say the same thing as my first thought of both of those MPs, it would be a good idea to have them replaced with Rafizi and Syed Shahir. It's just not that both of them have a better chance of winning. It's the matter of problem solving most common issues that a Member of Parliament can do in those areas. 

MCA contests in both areas as the statistics speak for themselves.

Gwo Burne and Loy Sian won with a medium-range size majority of 3000-5000 votes.

It's likely Donald Lim in PJ Selatan and someone else if neither Lee Hwa Beng nor Loh Seng Kok would be up again in Kelana Jaya. In 2008, MCA was whacked almost kingdom come in the entire GE. People have seen that party, then run by the Ong brothers becoming more and more a mere stooge to United Malays National Organisation.

It looks like Rafizi and Syed Shahir stands a better chance in those areas. The population of voters there are a mix proportion of races. Ominous rumors of the incumbents in those areas being dropped over their performance is likely to be fact later on. Being a PKR candidate stands to have a good chance to contest in that area given of the good mix-proportion of people vs other areas.

I wonder how does it sound if Rafizi goes to contest there? Perhaps PKR doing some ground work there would be more appropriate rather than branding some unknown guy like me as talking something I am not appropriate to talk about? There's still time, at most up to 8 months left before reaching the full term where an election must be called.

Tee Keat is likely to have a few additional issues to deal including from within the party. We do not know whether there will be attempts to sabotage him or possible bickering by UMNO against MCA over the scenario of refusing to hand over the seat to their candidate. It's best to leave it untouched on Pandan for sometimes there's something that can be discovered while an infighting is happening.

Merdeka: Past Anti-Colonial Heroes Forgotten

In secondary school we are used to be taught to know the whose-who of the anti-British colonial heroes who have fought to free their states from colonialism.

Notable figures that we would encounter during our history lessons include:

Tok Janggut.- Datuk Bahaman. - Mat Indera - Datuk Maharajalela - Dol Said - Mat Kilau and you can name a few more if you wish to add to the list.

Every year we celebrate Merdeka on 31 August. But it seems that the amount people showing support towards it seems dwindling year to year. Despite the present government's call of raising flags everywhere, not many people seem to do that.

Everywhere you go and see Merdeka banners and so forth, it often shows the pictures of our Prime Ministers from Tunku up to Najib right now?

What about those people, those who shaped the events that are pre-cursor towards the 1957 independence? 

Those freedom fighters above fought against the English colonial system in Malaya. What motivates them is the sanctity of their race at stake. Another reason is because of the absurd number of taxes that milks them of their hard earned wealth that they made at that time.

That's why people like Tok Janggut or Mat Kilau fought against the English at that time. And we don't even see their faces / caricatures nor their names everywhere right now. Instead we only see faces of Onn Jaafar all the way to Najib Razak and only BN everywhere.

Have seen any of those freedom fighters whenever we set foot into the city at all? None whatsoever.

Some think BN is godsend - handed over by the colonial English to only one party to run the nation forever. That is already breaking the spirit of democracy. Independence in Malaysia contrary to what is claimed was achieved via bloodshed.  There are left-wing organizations that have fought for independence including AMPAJA, PUTERA, API and other organizations. Yet, until today, they were sidelined, not recognized for their contributions towards nation building.

Instead, these organizations were declared illegal by following the aftermath of Malayan Union and banned, with its leaders either fled to Indonesia / Thailand or arrested and jailed. 

The sad thing is that these past people were never recognized nor appreciated. Instead, we were showed to only five figures throughout these many years. 

If including these people into there, at least people will start to know more of those since the 19th century that have fought against the English in Tanah Melayu. I wonder whether should Pakatan takes over the country will they see the neccessity to recognize the unsung heroes or just continue to ignore them at their own peril. 

The other reason not many people are keen to celebrate Merdeka is the excessive amount of propaganda material. These kind of materials have been broadcasted almost three prong via print media, video projection, and television as well. As what I've said just now, it merely drills the point that only one organization - United Malays National Organization is a godsend from the English that everyone must recognize the figures in the organization - not even the anti-colonial heroes.

If these unsung anti-colonial heroes are not recognized via remembering them for independence, then what is the point of having to learn those people in History classes back in school then? Doesn't it make sense right?

Take a look at the American Independence. Every prominent figures, in addition to George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Paul Revere or etc..have played big or small but vital roles in the American Revolution against the English. Even if it's already 236 years since July 4 1776, they are still remembered today. 

It's those that are sidelined that being put into question.

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?