King Bhumibol Adulyadej meets a well-wisherHe was born on the 5th December 1927 in Cambridge, Massachusetts and his name was written only as ‘Baby Songkla‘ on his US birth certificate as his parents had to await for an auspicious name from King Rajadhipok (Rama VII). Eventually, a name was given – Strength of the Land, Incomparable Power (Bhumibol Adulyadej).
King Bhumibol became the world’s longest serving monarch by chance. King Rajadhipok abdicated in 1935 making Bhumibol’s brother Ananda Mahidol (Rama VIII) the King of Thailand at the age of nine. The throne was thrusted upon him when Ananda was found dead with a gunshot wound in the Grand Palace in 1946.
Under military rule, Bhumibol was nothing more than just a constitutional monarch with very little role to play. That changed in August 1957 when Sarit Thanarat and the Royalists seized power from Plaek Phibunsongkhram. From then on, Bhumibol strived to make the Royal family relevant to the people of Thailand once again and Sarit assisted in making Bhumibol the ‘Development King‘. Bhumibol embarked in rural development projects especially in areas then controlled by the Thai Communist Party. He was always seen with his second daughter, Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn who would help take down notes during visits to the rural areas.
Although his subjects are required to not stand or walk any taller than the King, even prostrating at official occasions, Bhumibol would always sit on the same level with the peasants he visited – a gesture that allowed his subjects to open up to him about their problems. It is such gesture that not only made him most revered by the Thais, but made the Royal institution relevant in the eyes of the people too.
In later years, Bhumibol’s role would slowly be taken over by Princess Sirindhorn making her the more favourable heir to the Chakri throne than her elder brother, Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn.
Vajiralongkorn may well be succeeding Bhumibol but whether he would have the same touch as his father had with the subjects remains to be seen. He must now shine on his own and not be overshadowed by the legacy created by his father and sister Sirindhorn. The Thais would now be looking up to him as Rama 10.
And for the Thais, they have lost the only King they have ever known in their lifetime, and an excellent one too – a gift from God, they say.
Rest well, King Bhumipol Adulyadej. Rao rak Nai Luang.
I was in stitches when I read Mahathir’s latest posting ‘Pentadbiran Kuku Besi‘. He wrote as if he had never oppress the people during his 22 years as the Premier. He is fortunate that the Internet was still in its infancy and was only introduced to the masses in the mid 1990s, and Google only came online using its own domain on the 4th September 1998, two days after Anwar Ibrahim was sacked from all government posts as well as from UMNO. Prior to that Google was hosted under stanford.edu. Not many of those below the age of 35 could remember the oppression Malaysians were subjected to.
And what has Mahathir written this time?
1. When receiving the membership form to join Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia, some say that they have been threatened by UMNO dan Najib’s government.
2. Various threats were made including not being able to receive BR1M, expulsion from UMNO, removal from Government and government agencies posts, not being given contracts, scholarships would be withdrawn or not given, banks will demand for earlier payments or not give loans.
3. But they prefer to be oppressed knowing, that with their participation in PPBM and vote for it in GE14, the country would enjoy better benefits.
“Rasa Utara” a restaurant chain serving, in my opinion, less-than-delicious food, now has taken up advertising spaces on Mahathir’s blog
4. They say that despite the pressure they would still join PPBM. And they would attempt to get more Bumiputeras including UMNO members to join PPBM.
5. The struggle to them means the willingness to face hurdles. The struggle is meaningless if it is just a walk in the park.
I am quite perplexed by this statement. Do people who want to join Pribumi actually make prior announcement to UMNO that they would be joining Pribumi? Or would they just fill in the membership form and submit to Pribumi without bothering to inform UMNO?
As far as my memory serves me, not one person has ever announced his or her joining another political party unless it is arranged by the receiving party for publicity. And likewise when the situation is reversed. So, why would there be threats and so on if no one knows of their intention?
In reality, millions of Opposition supporters continue to form lines just to collect BR1M handouts. Students continue to enjoy their scholarships despite going on the street to demonstrate against the oppressive government that continues to give them monthly scholarship money. And perhaps about 50 percent of civil servants who support the Opposition still continue to go to work and none have lost their job or got demoted for doing so.
And many merit-less Bumiputera contractors still get government contracts despite supporting the Opposition.
Expulsion From UMNO
This is the other reason for me to laugh out loud. If you are already a Pribumi, why bother about being expelled from UMNO? You cannot have the cake and eat it too!
6. Verily Najib is also desperate to break my spirit. Not only have my police escorts been withdrawn but now even my officers and cooks are being transferred. All my associates are being harrassed and threatened by the Inland Revenue Board especially those who have businesses. If all taxes have been paid there will be additional taxes imposed on them.
For those uninformed, the Office of Tun Dr Mahathir is under the purview of the Prime Minister’s Department. This means, the administration, staffing, budget and others come under the administration of the Prime Minister’s Department. In short, the salaries of the staff of the Office of Tun Dr Mahathir come from the Prime Minister’s Department.
Who is the Prime Minister? (CLUE: HE IS NOT A KUTTY)
Among the agencies under the Prime Minister’s Department (see No.49)
Isn’t it the prerogative of the Prime Minister’s Department to transfer in or out, any personnel from any of the agencies under its purview, also accord, reduce or withdraw any privileges given using the budget of the Prime Minister’s Department?
There is an old adage: don’t bite the hand that feeds you.
Even if there are Mahathir’s associates who are being harrassed by the Inland Revenue Board it could mean that previously they were only paying so much in the form of sales and services tax (SST) when under Mahathir and could no longer under-declare their earnings and have to pay higher taxes under the Goods and Services tax (GST) scheme introduced under Najib. All those who used to cheat the government and the rakyat of their earnings previously are now caught with their pants down!
7. Proton people are not allowed to speak to me, and my business associates are not allowed to approach Proton. It is Najib’s intention that Proton goes bankrupt and can be sold to foreigners for cheap.
8. My name can no longer be associated with Proton. Proton will be sold 100% to foreigners so the nationa car industry would be decimated. Only imported cars will be allowed to be sold in Malaysia. Nothing that I started will be allowed to exist. Let the local industries fail as long as Najib is satisfied.
Proton. A company that was set up in 1983 to start the national automobile industry.
After 33 years and 2.8 jmillion cars sold, Proton is still a non-government-linked company that still needs the assistance of the government even with the protectionist policy that the government had set. For 33 years the government has given Proton RM13.9 billion assistance in the form of grants and forgone taxes just to assist Proton to become independent . Yet, due to porr management decisions, the sale of Proton-made cars dropped from approximately 215,000 in 2011 to 102,175 in 2015 – an average sale of 8,514 units per month. At the end of March 2016 Proton still had about 30,000 units of cars lying idle and unsold!
With that, Proton once again asked for assistance from the government led by Najib Razak so that 12,000 Proton employees and 50,000 employees of the various Proton vendor companies do not lose their job. In your opinion, is it right for the government to use taxpayers’ money (using the favourite Opposition catchphrase) to assist a handicapped company?
Well, in the end Najib Razak’s oppressive government agreed to help Proton for the sake of the 62,000 odd direct and indirect employees by giving a RM1.5 billion soft loan.
And who is the owner amongst owners of this severely handicapped company that has no shame asking for help from Najib Razak’s oppressive government?
List of owners of Proton Holdings Berhad
Which Bangladeshi is that whose name is at the top of the list who said that his name can no longer be associated with Proton but got the RM1.5 billion injection from Najib Razak’s oppressive government? Does it make sense for the government to pump in more money into Proton just to kill it? Why bother spend even a single Sen if you do not want it to work out? And how can he say that Proton people are not allowed to speak to him? Isn’t he one of the owners?
…and businessmen associated with me can no longer do business with Proton…
By this statement, is this a form of admission that Mahathir has been giving his cronies contracts from Proton? Does this have any role in making this company severely handicapped?
9. Verily, many Malaysian are afraid of trouncing by Najib’s government. This is Najib’s democracy.
10. I will not give up and I believe Malaysians have the will to topple Najib’s iron fist government. They are not afraid. The more the pressure the more the hatred they have for Najib and his government. All are ashamed of the P.M. who has been accused and believed by the whole world to have siphoned billions of the rakyat’s money.
11. The rakyat and I are aware of the intention of the new security law. It is not about foreign terrorism because we have adequate laws for that. Its intention is to break the struggle against Najib.
12. This law that was never assented to by the Yang DiPertuan Agong and the Malay Rulers accords Najib the power to declare security areas and with that anyone could be held in detention without trial. This is worse than the ISA.
13. If anyone is killed, be it a member of the security forces or the civilian, there will not be any inquest (a magistrate’s examination into the cause of death) held. And family of the deceased will not be able to bring the matter to the courts to seek justice.
14. Actually laws like this cannot be passed without the signature of the SPB Yang diPertuan Agong. But Najib is not one who cares for the law or its regulations. He is the PM and believes that he has immunity from prosecution. His pet the Attorney-General will make sure of that.
15. These are all signs that there is no more democracy in Malaysia. There is only an iron-fisted rule, a dictatorship.
16. The rakyat will protest the destruction of democracy in this beloved nation through a legal process. InsyaAllah the rakyat’s determination will see to the end of Najib’s wrong-doings.
The National Security Council Act that was recently passed was drafted to enable all assets under the various government agencies to be unified under one command that is the National Security Council. It is not just for use in response to terrorist acts but also in times of disasters. We have seen how poor the inter-agencies coordination was during the floods of Kelantan, Pahang and Terengganu. The main reason for this weakness was the absence of a unified command to coordinate efforts using assets of the various government agencies.
The power to declare security areas is not something new. Under Section 31 of the Police Act, 1967, designated police officers have the power to instruct any person to stay indoors while Section 3(1) Public Order (Preservation) Act, 1958, gives the power to the Minister of Home Affairs to declare whichever area that in the view of the Minister should be declared as a security area. However, Section 18 of the National Security Council Act, 2016 gives this power to the Prime Minister and no longer the Minister of Home Affairs to declare security areas AS ADVISED BY THE COUNCIL. This means that the Prime Minister CANNOT declare any security area unilaterally. Is this not better than ONE person making all the decisions without weighing all the inputs from practitioners who are more well-versed in the matters of national security?
Do not equate the power to declare security areas to the power to declare an emergency which remains the power of the Yang DiPertuan Agong, not the Prime Minister’s, nor is it the power of the National Security Council.
And Mahathir should not pay dumb – he is the person who destroyed democracy; even the powers of the Yang DiPertuan Agong to pass or not a bill of law was removed by him and caused the bills that affect other than the power to declare an emergency, the Institution of the Rulers, the position of the Bumiputera and Bahasa Malaysia, to pass without having been assented by the Yang DiPertuan Agong.
Mahathir should realise, he is living in sunset. Enough of lies.
SeaDemon Says 
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