BN – Page 7 – SeaDemon Says

April 28, 2015

Marital Rape: Congrats To Allah’s Soldiers

Much have been said about sex in Islam lately, from both Muslims and non-Muslims alike. This came about when Yeo Bee Yin, the state assemblywoman for Damansara Utama championed a campaign on rape awareness with the tagline, “Without her consent, it is rape. No excuse.” This is seen by some as an attack on Islam where there is no such thing as marital rape. No, there is no such thing as a marital rape in Islam, but there are guidelines on the sexual relationship between husbands and wives. The Quran has more than 20 verses outlining the dos and don’ts between husbands and wives. While the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) has been quoted as saying that a wife has to submit to a husband’s sexual needs even while they are riding the back of a camel as mentioned by the Mufti of Perak, Islam recognizes the women’s need for love, affection and foreplay. Imam Ibn al-Qayyim reported in his famous “Tibbun Nabawi” that the Prophet (pbuh) forbade in engaging in sexual intercourse before foreplay (al-Tibb an-Nabawi 183, from Jabir ibn Abdullah).

The issue above has caught the attention of many up to the point that non-Muslims are ridiculing Muslims and Islamic practices on the social media. What drove Yeo Bee Yin, a Christian with known affiliation to the National Evangelical Christian Fellowship, to come up with such a campaign tagline is beyond me. A simpler “Protect Women From Rape“, or “Say No To Rape“, or “Women Expect Men To Protect Them From Rape” would have been more acceptable, instead of creating the perception that Muslims are barbarians whose main reason of existence is to be able to cum as many times as they can in a day. Perhaps, in her subtle way, Bee Yin was trying to undermine the sanctity of Islam as the Religion of the Federation as stipulated in the Federal Constitution of Malaysia. I will let you decide that on your own. Maybe Bee Yin et al should also highlight what else God had said about sexual intercourse and how barbaric a religion can be:

1. For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. (Remember women, you are your husband’s property)

2. Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love.

3. Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. (So, wives should not say no to sexual advances by the husbands).

4. The sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine (if you follow this, no semen would have penetrated by 4cm).

5. If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them. (Death to gay men).

6. Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man by lying with him. But all the young girls who have not known man by lying with him keep alive for yourselves. (Young girls? Is this Islamic? Oh, but Muhammad married a child!)

Now from which verses of the Quran did I pick those up?

1. 1 Corinthians 7:4

2. Proverbs 5:18-19

3. 1 Corinthians 7:5

4. 1 Timothy 1:10

5. Leviticus 20:13

6. Numbers 31:17-18

Perhaps the Christian Evangelists want to have a look at their own ~~backside~~ backyard first before commenting on others’? Once that is done then Bee Yin can again congratulate Allah’s soldiers.

STOP USING RELIGION TO MASK YOUR POLITICAL AMBITIONS, YEO BEE YIN!

April 27, 2015

Survey: Najib, Mahathir and the 1MDB

I created a survey last week just to find out what people think of the Najib-Mahathir spat regarding the 1MDB affair. The following are the results:

Q1: How do you perceive the 1MDB as?

58% said that it is a scheme that will bring trouble to us all

41% said that it is a good scheme that is badly executed

1% said that 1MDB would benefit the rakyat

Q2: Did Najib asnwer all Dr M’s questions?

79% said NO

20% said SOME

1% said YES

Q3: Does Dr M have the right to question Najib?

97% said YES

3% said NO

Q4: What should Najib do regarding the 1MDB?

52% said he should step down

27% said he should step aside while investigation is being conducted

5% said he should disregard all criticisms and carry on

17% did not agree with any of the above

Q5: Would BN lose more seats in the next general elections because of 1MDB?

70% agreed absolutely

23% somewhat agreed

6% said BN would remain with the same number of seats

1% said BN would gain more seats

Q6: Whom would you support?

95% Dr M

5% Najib

Q7: 1MDB would:

52 % said drag the nation down

47% said benefit only those with interest in 1MDB

1% said benefit the country

The Respondents:

37% of the respondents are aged between 36 to 45; 31% are aged between 46 to 60; 29% are between 21 and 35; 5% are 61 and above.

Demography:

39% of the respondents are from Selangor

30% are from Kuala Lumpur

5% each from Sarawak and Johor

4% are Malaysians living abroad

3% each from Perak, Putrajaya and Pulau Pinang

2% each from Kedah and Pahang

1% each from Melaka, Kelantan, Terengganu, Sabah, Negeri Sembilan and Perlis

Labuan did not register any response

The Overseas Respondents:

Of the 4% Malaysians living abroad:

36% are currently in the United States of America

23% are currently in Singapore

4.5% each from Saudi Arabia, New Zealand, Australia, United Kingdom, France, Indonesia and the Republic of Korea

9.5% took the survey from unknown locations

February 9, 2015

The Bittersweet Alliance – Part 1

The philosopher Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás or George Santayana once said that those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it. The recurrence of history is part of life’s cycle, but always in different forms. Those who do not remember how certain historical lows were handled are bound to make even bigger mistakes.

Recently, there was a furor following the statement made by UMNO’s Ismail Sabri , the Agriculture and Agro-Based Industries Minister, asking consumers to boycott greedy Chinese businesses. While it is normal to hear the communal-party-disguised-as-a-non-communal-party DAP lashing out at Ismail Sabri, the call by MCA’s Youth Chief, Chong Sin Woon, for the sacking of Ismail Sabri did not go down well with UMNO and 92 Divisions of the latter rallied behind Ismail asking for Sin Woon to be sacked instead.

While I refuse to indulge in a debate over what was said by Ismail Sabri, there is a need for consumers to boycott profiteering businesses who whine about high cost of fuel and pressured the government to allow them to increase the price of their services, but refused to lower prices when the price of fuel has gone down by half. What I am more interested in is the bittersweet alliance between UMNO and MCA, and how history is repeating itself.

While the movement for the independence of Malaya had started decades before, there was no cohesion between races. In 1946 when the Malayan Union was formed, the republican-in-nature Partai Kebangsaan Melayu Malaya (PKMM) and the non-Malay Malayan Democratic Union (MDU) were quick to support the formation. The PKMM, a spin-off from the Batavia-leaning KMM of Ibrahim Yaacob, was all for a Malaya not ruled by the Malay Rulers, while the MDU liked the idea of automatic citizenship (read more in Seademon’s The Road To Merdeka: Persekutuan Tanah China ) for the immigrants. On 1st March 1946, more than 40 Malay organisations met up and 41 decided to form the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) to champion the Malay rights. The Malays were then a minority in his own land, poor, sidelined from economic development, health care and formal education. With the help and encouragement of the then-British High Commissioner, Sir Henry Gurney, the Malayan Chinese Association (MCA) was formed on the 27th February, 1949. Gurney aimed at winning the allegiance of the Chinese community away from the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) (Colonial Office Record 537/773(1) Memorandum by Henry Gurney, 28th January, 1949).

There was apprehension and distrust between the Malays and Chinese. The alienation of the Malays by Chinese mining tycoons and rubber estate owners, followed by the preference of the Japanese of the Malays over the immigrant Chinese, and this in turn followed by retribution against the Malays by Chinese sympathizers of the CPM after the Japanese surrender have had contributed enormously to this animosity between the two.

It was since 1950 that Henry Gurney had wanted to introduce some form of democracy to Malaya through elections to satisfy the public’s hunger for democracy versus the communist’s way of winning self-government. Alas, he was only a High Commissioner and still had to go through the true rulers of the Federation of Malaya – The Malay Rulers. So, during the 10th Malay Rulers Meeting on the 22nd and 23rd February, 1950, Gurney presented his recommendation, only to be met with reluctance of the Malay Rulers. In the minutes of meeting, the Sultan of Kedah stated his reservation:

“The most important prerequisite for democracy is education. Without enlightened public opinion a democratic system of Government will be liable to unsteadiness or even confusion and chaos. One danger is that it may be transformed into a single party government through a few skilled electioneers working among the apathetic population and this will work towards dictatorship.” (Colonial Office Records 537/6025(1))

The Malays, as mentioned above, were left behind educationally and may not know what is best for them. For the same reason the PKMM and MDU were in full support of the Malayan Union four years prior to this event. And whatever the outcome, the Malays would have ended up the biggest losers if no one champions their rights. Noted William L Holland in “Nationalism in Malaya” (WL Holland, 1953):

“There was already Malay discontent in the pre-war period over the poor economic position vis-a-vis the Chinese and Indians. Malay peasants and fishermen, noted S.H Silcock and Ungku Aziz, were dependent on Chinese middlemen while Malays worked as messengers in offices where Chinese and Indians were clerks.”

The phrases made bold above by me, still holds true today and became the basis of Ismail Sabri’s main grouse against profiteering businessmen.

Gurney had to bring about some form of democratic self-rule that would benefit all races. Separately he discussed on numerous occasions with both MCA and Dato’ Onn and impressed upon them that self-rule would only happen if there is a closer relations between the communities (The Making of the Malayan Constitution, Joseph M Fernando, 2002, Page 15). Gurney was all for the promotion of Sino-Malay talks to tackle long-term problems. Gurney minuted the following:

“The outstanding issues at that stage were citizenship and the economic backwardness of the Malays. The Chinese leaders sought a more liberalised citizenship than those contained in the 1948 Federation of Malaya Agreement. Onn meanwhile , had approached the Colonial Office to secure financial assistance for the Malays.” (Colonial Office Records 537/773(1))

Onn Jaafar, however, was more open towards a better relationship between the Malays and other races if UMNO was to achieve the long-term ambition of self-governing the nation. In the UMNO annual general meeting in Arau, Perlis, on the 28th May 1949, he said in his speech:

It is absolutely important for the Malays to obtain closer ties with the other people in this country. It is time for us to take the view wider than the kampung view. I ask of you, which will you choose, peace or chaos, friendship or enmity?” (Straits Times, 29th May, 1949)

It was at this meeting that UMNO had agreed to accept non-Malays as associate members. Two years later, in June 1951, Onn went a step further by proposing that UMNO should open its doors to the non-Malays, and that UMNO be renamed the “United Malayan National Organisation.” While the top echelon of the party was supportive of this idea, the grassroot felt it was too radical. The bitterness resulting from the years of resentment and occasional interracial violence were too new for them to accept the non-Malays into their political fold. As a result, Onn left UMNO to form a new party called the Independence of Malaya Party (IMP) despite Gurney’s insistence that the former should remain in UMNO. Onn gambled that UMNO would fall apart and would rally behind him. Instead, UMNO rallied behind its new leader, Tunku Abdul Rahman, who sought to retain and strengthen UMNO’s communal organisational structure. The Tunku also threatened to expel from UMNO any member that joins or had joined the IMP (Straits Times, 18th September, 1951).

The MCA meanwhile remained a loose association of both “neutral” Chinese and the hardcore sympathizers of the CPM. Gurney had felt that the MCA had not gained much support from the Chinese community and the CPM sympathizers especially to help bring about a speedy end of the First Emergency. The Perak MCA Chairman, Leong Yew Koh, wrote to Cheng Lock on 1st June, 1950:

“Although the Perak MCA membership is 40,000 strong, the branch is a mere basin of loose sand.” (Tan Cheng Lock Papers, ISEAS Singapore, Folio IX)

Cheng Lock was quick to suggest that the MCA should become more political in order to better represent the Chinese:

“The MCA should not exist only for the limited, though vital, purpose of the meeting the emergency. It is a living institution which should consolidate itself on a strong and broad democratic foundation, in order that it may be ready to play a part in Malaya of the future as well as the present.” (Colonial Office Records 1022/176)

Thus, the stage is set for two political giants to go against each other for political power, after which we will see whether it was the Tunku or not who played the pivotal role in making the alliance between UMNO and MCA come true.

Stay tuned.

January 23, 2015

The Drama King

The Malaysian Indian Congress (MIC) which is a component party of the ruling Barisan Nasional is at loggerheads with the Registrar of Societies as the latter had detected irregularities in the MIC party elections. As such, the RoS had instructed the MIC to hold another party elections or something to that effect. The party’s President, G Palanivel has thus far disobeyed the RoS instruction.

Enter the party’s Secretary-General, Kumaar Aamaan, who some say is the illegal Sec-Gen given that the RoS did not recognise the party elections thus rendering all appointees illegal. He went to the RoS office and went on a hunger strike:

He also declared that he would fast until his last breath:

Then he said because of his hunger strike, he received a death threat:

Now, why would anyone bent on dying for his cause feel threatened by a death threat? It does sound funny, doesn’t it?

I really think he was feeling very hungry at that point:

And just as I thought he would sit there through the weekend in front of the RoS office, all skin and bones, came the shocking news:

SAY WHAT???? You said you were going to fast until your last breath! Are you hungry?

That is the Drama King who has turned the much-respected MIC into another lawless DAP. If you think that that’s funny, wait until the next bomb I am about to drop:

WHERE ARE THOSE BN PEOPLE WHO MADE SO MUCH NOISE ABOUT THE DAP DISOBEYING THE INSTRUCTION FROM THE ROS LAST YEAR? WHY HAVE THEY ALL GONE SILENT?

Now you may laugh and wonder.

January 22, 2015

The Final Curtain?

Another former Minister has spoken out at Najib Razak’s apparent use of Anwar Ibrahim to attack his opponents. Former Minister, Sanusi Junid, has hinted that if Najib does not step down now, UMNO and BN will suffer.

Anwar, who has been in TV3’s bad books, and who also issued a general ban on broadcast journalists from that station to cover any of his or PKR’s events, has been given full attention by the station to lambast Najib’s opponents within UMNO.

Najib, who took over the helm of both UMNO and BN from a weak predecessor, is seen by the public as a weaker Prime Minister. That the BN fared as bad as or worse than GE12 in the last general elections says a lot about his leadership. While he does try to have a hands-on approach on many things which is good, his policies and decisions made seem to lack any prior thoughts, begging the public to ask if it is really Najib’s consultants who do the thinking while Najib just read the scripts and smile or frown as directed.

I, for one, don’t give much thought on the political squabbles. I am more concerned with those who incessantly try to run down the country; but this latest tiff between Najib and his critiques started off with the 1MDB fiasco, and it seems that someone has unearthed the leadership’s Pandora Box.

Who after Najib is none of my concern. Whoever commands majority support of UMNO with the blessing of the component parties in BN should be able to lead. However, the UMNO tradition (budaya) of never to shine before your leader does ought to be done away with. I was told that during the recent floods, although the Deputy Prime Minister was in town while many including the Prime Minister were away shopping or golfing abroad, the former did not act swiftly until instructed to do so. How true this is, I don’t know but if so, it truly is damaging that you cannot decide as a Deputy Prime Minister on behalf of the Prime Minister who was away golfing. “Mana boleh! Ini budaya UMNO!” said the person to my father when asked why did the Deputy Prime Minister not act since the Prime Minister was on holiday abroad.

Najib could easily have called for an impromptu press conference to announce that the DPM was to head the disaster management team while he had to golf with Obama to discuss pressing matters. There was a whole army of foreign press there that he could have used to convey the message to worried Malaysians, but he did not. Was he waiting for his consultants to come up with a script and a set of more acceptable wardrobe?

It was equally bad that (I’m very sure it was his consultants who prepared this line) Najib made only the home and business insurance issue as THE reason for not declaring an emergency in the flood-stricken states. There was a bunch of other stronger reasons that could have been used, but maybe his consultants thought it was best to use the insurance issue as that was more personal for flood victims. Well, it backfired. Miserably! Adding insult to injury, the disaster-relief operation was like a dumbstruck Medusa. Every agency was doing its own thing with no clear command and control until much later. Given that the head of the National Security Council is an administrator rather than a field man, and has had no experience managing disasters, with the Prime Minister being abroad, things did not move as they should have.

Anyway, I have digressed from the issue of Najib’s quarrel with his detractors. But I think Najib’s continuous display of dishing out half-baked policies and display of desperately holding on to the Premiership simply means that he is no Tun Razak, who was brilliant in character and leadership that even political dinosaurs like Lim Kit Siang misses him, and Dyana Samad remembers Tun Razak’s superb leadership although she was still swimming inside her father’s balls when the Tun died.

UMNO needs to evolve and revamp itself in order to stay relevant in the next general elections. But first, it needs a serious change in leadership.

December 8, 2014December 8, 2014

The Malay Sybarites

This is a bit overdue. With all the “bangang” accusations being thrown to and fro between pro-UMNO bloggers (I was made there are several camps with different paymasters) and the independent pro-BN bloggers, I decided to hold the issue for a while until things have quieten down. I am not exactly a pro-BN blogger, nor do I have any love for the opposition and their loose coalition, nor that I am a paid blogger as I have never had to use political connections to feed my family in any way whatsoever. I am the simple nine-to-five, salary-earning employee who watches what goes on around him and voices out once in a while when things are not right. The “bangangs” then would be those who are chosen by the rakyat to govern on the rakyat’s behalf yet think they can do no wrong and are above criticisms.

The reason for the title above is because people don’t find it bordering on racism if I bash the Malays. Malay-bashing, in Malaysia, is not racist at all and outsiders (non-Malaysians) are often invited to bash the Malays as well. Furthermore, being a Malay, it would make me a racist to bash those from my own race. However, be advised that while what I will write will orbit around the title above, with a broader mental horizon you would be able to see that what follows may also apply to other races. Of course, to maintain a non-racist post, I shall name my victims collectively as the Malays.

Like it or not, the UMNO of today is a far cry compared to the UMNO people of my age or older were. I touched on how the late Tun Razak was when it came to shouldering the responsibilities the post of Prime Minister burdened him with. In my opinion, UMNO was and is still regarded by those who join it as a platform to make money on the pretext of helping the Malays. Mind you, the same phenomena also exists in other political parties on both sides of the fence. You would not have seen this in the initial phase of the Barisan Alternatif; you’re seeing this now in the Pakatan-ruled states. The saying “power corrupts” still holds true.

When one joins UMNO (or any other political party for that matter), it is almost always on the invitation by someone who already is a member. The new member will first be introduced to the introducer’s circle of “friends” who will have a Padrone, who is either the Branch Head, or the Deputy Branch Head. Then comes the need to champion whoever the Padrone is in order to put him in place, and make sure the Padrone’s people fill up as many committee posts as possible. This is then replicated at the Division level. Getting into the Division’s Padrone’s good books allows one Branch Padrone to solicit small contracts as a Bumiputera Class ‘F’ contractor, which job then gets sub-contracted to (almost always) a non-Bumi contractor. This simply means that at times, a non-Bumi contractor will become a project-financier, or finance the bid for contracts that are meant for Bumiputera contractors simply because the Malay contractors are a lazy lot and all they want is big bucks for less or no work done. So, for those who whine about inequality, please bear in mind that the Bumiputeras are only allocated 30 percent while the non-Bumiputeras have 70 percent to grab. Demographically, 61.4 percent of the population are allocated 30 percent of the opportunities to make wealth while the other 38.6 percent (of which the Chinese make up 24.6 percent) have the 70 percent opportunities to make wealth.

You see the above also happening in the Pakatan-run states albeit with different mechanisms. Same goal, nevertheless.

Money begets power, and with every party election, more money has to be made in order to retain the power and position to make money – and this is true on both sides of the political fence. Hence, you see absolute nepotism in parties like PKR and DAP, while cronyism remains rife in other political parties. You have cronies becoming CEOs of important companies; young brats who cannot even make proper presentations. Then you have the opposition condemning such arrangements as being non-ethical when they themselves do it in government machineries in the states that they control. What makes it worse are those who continuously condemn the government in public and on social media, yet thrive on servicing government contracts.

Political parties and members no longer lead the monastic way of life as how the political parties and members were back in the 1950s, 1960s and the 1970s. The uplines, if you must, live lavishly, while their downlines slog to maintain this while trying to earn some crumbs for themselves as religious acolytes would. I don’t know how UMNO, or any other political party went down the drain this way, but this greed must have predicated on a system that was created perhaps in the late 1980s. I have not made any mention of PAS because PAS is in a league of its own, abusing religion for its own survival as if it exists to represent God on Earth.

How do we change all this? In my opinion it would take a miracle for this to change. As long as the young idolise their sybarite leaders, this country will continue to slide into the cesspool of failed nations. Perhaps, changing the system would help arrest the rot, but it would take political will to effect change. And that is where we need miracles!

June 23, 2014June 23, 2014

Ephialtes of BN

If you have watched the movie “300” and are familiar with the Battle of Thermopylae, you would know that for two days the Spartans held off the Persian army under Xerxes bravely; that is until a farmer called Ephialtes of Trachis showed Xerxes of a mountain path that would bring the Persian army behind Spartan lines. Trapped, the Spartans fought to their death and gave the Persians a pyrrhic victory.

Ephialtes found notoriety as one of the greatest traitors in the history of mankind, and as usual: history teaches us nothing.

Sometime late last week, a former BN Parliamentarian gave a speech to a group of possibly drunk lawyers and their clients during the latter’s firm’s cocktail cum dinner event I was told by one of the attendees. In his fear-mongering speech, he spoke against Barisan Nasional. In the words of my friend who attended the event:

He is a perfect candidate for the Pakatan Rakyat who can work from inside the Barisan Nasional to push as many people as possible to the PR side.

Apparently, under the guise of the National Unity Consultative Council, this BN-appointed member spoke about HIS middle-ground approach that really is the Pakatan Rakyat’s approach, damaging BN’s effort in reaching out to people “on the other side.” He made fun of JAIS on the confiscated-Bibles issue as well as the Barisan Nasional that night.

For me, this politician is a well-known Judas Iscariot, another famous traitor, who has both feet firmly planted on the PR side, leaning with one finger to hold his weight on the BN side, yet refuses to leave BN despite being rejected by both the voters of his constituency and losing his position in his own UMNO homeground.

For whatever reason that Najib continues to keep this rat, I am truly baffled; but even rats are known to have brought mighty airplanes down.

February 6, 2014

Populism Does Nothing

Yesterday, Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced that there will not be any toll rates hikes for 2014. To BN supporters, this is a form of a coup de grace to the speculation made by the Opposition that there would be a toll rates hike. As a sacrifice, the government will have to fork out RM400 million to pay the toll concessionaires.

If I may shoot the euphoric atmosphere down, the announcement does not guarantee that there would not be a hike post 2014, and road users such as I will still have to grind our teeth in expecting the imminent.

The move, to me, is just another attempt at improving the government’s popularity rate especially that the support for Najib Razak’s government is at its lowest I was told. In short, this is another short-sighted and myopic plan to win the people’s support.

What the Najib government may not realise is that only people in Kuala Lumpur live having to pay toll commuting to work or to get from one point to another on a daily basis. Using RM400 million of taxpayers’ money for the benefit of only nine percent of the population has to be one of the silliest plans ever. People in Perlis, Sabah, Sarawak hardly pay any toll.

How the RM400 million would probably benefit all is by pumping the amount into fuel subsidies which would have made more sense to a layman like me. I spend RM600 on an average month on petrol. I just wish Najib would kick his useless advisers out for daring to even suggest such a stupid scheme.

September 5, 2013

Malaysia: Fatigue At 50

Photo by Patrick Coston

As Malaysia approaches its 50th year, I cannot help but think that while being in its infancy this nation is ageing far too fast and is fast being tired of itself. The cohesiveness of its people in the run up to the events on the 31st August, 1957 and 16th September, 1963 is fast coming undone. Many a times have I written on how far more cohesive we were immediately after the 13th May, 1969 tragedy than we are now, despite claims of how far more mature we are in the political sense. That may be true, but we behave like immature kids behaving like we are politically mature.

Elements once found destructive, such as Communism, is now being looked up to. A few days ago, left-leaning students were audience in a forum that had a former member of the all-but-defunct Communist Party of Indonesia, and students were seen wearing t-shirts glorifying Tan Malaka, a Marxist who once lived in Indonesia. To add insult to injury, Karpal Singh has also been reported as supporting the move to allow former leader of the Communist Party of Malaya, Chin Peng, to return to Malaysia. Of course, humanitarians would argue that there is nothing wrong with allowing an octogenarian back to the land he was born in, and liberals would think the same. I hope these same people would also condemn Israel for still hunting former Nazis and tell the people of Cambodia they should forgive the Khmer Rouge.

For whatever reasons too did the police not act previously on criminal elements. The removal of the ISA and the Emergency Ordinance rendered the police virtually helpless in its fight against crime, let alone be able to maintain peace and order and breathe at the same time. Kudos to the good teamwork of the present Inspector-General of Police and the new Minister of Home Affairs. We have not seen this kind of teamwork since the days of Tun Dr Ismail – Tun Salleh, and Tun Ghazali Shafie – Tun Haniff days.

I have read comments from politicians from both sides of the political fence who are against giving the police emergency powers and say that the police should learn from their British counterparts on how to police the law without having firearms. Britain, for those who did not study geography, is an island, unlike Malaysia that has land borders with neighbours. A simple ferry or train ride from the European continent requires passengers and luggages to be scanned. My former college mate who is now a Chief Inspector in the Thames Valley Police lamented how he sometimes wish he was given a gun, especially in the wake of the two incidents where two women constables were gunned down by armed criminals. Imagine our police fighting crime with porous borders.

The introduction of the proposed Criminal Prevention Act should hopefully allow the police to conduct interdiction strikes on hardcore crime gangs. This Act will allow the police to hold criminal elements for up to 70 days pending trial. I have not seen the draft in full but I am sure it will uphold the rights of those who want peace.

Was there political interference in the police’s operations before the new Minister and Inspector-General came into office? I would leave that to the former Inspector-Generals to answer. But I know a gangster was awarded one of the highest Federal titles. How his name had made it through police vetting definitely puzzles me.

I know for sure there are politicians from both sides of the political fence whom have been seen with criminal elements, and photographs of these politicians meeting with criminals exist. These are prominent politicians and I know the police has full knowledge of this. Whether their presence with the criminals is for political or for personal reasons, only they and the police can answer this.

Former IGP Tun Haniff Omar once remarked that the BERSIH rally had communist elements involved. I would not be at all surprised if there are members of the CPM whom have made it into political parties, as they did before 13th May, 1969. Today, we have former police Director of CID Tan Sri Zaman Khan saying that an ex-convict who was a triad chief is also holding a lower office in a political party in Penang (NST, Nation page 25, 5th September 2013).

I particularly like Ben Tan’s article “Youth gangs today lack ‘basic values’.” (NST, Comments page 18, 5th September 2013). Ben, NST’s Johor bureau chief wrote:

GANGSTER’S LIFE: The members just crave money and power.

Ironically, the same can be said of the young politicians mentioned above, and of most politicians too. I certainly hope the Home Minister will give all the support the police needs in making this nation a safer place to live in.

At 50, Malaysia is already more divisive than it should be. Political fanatics are to be blamed. With the underworld and subversive elements making a breakthrough, it will not be long before our children begin to face the mistakes we have all made. Criminals, subversive elements, politicians with links to the underworld should never be allowed to represent the people of Malaysia, and I urge the Malaysian people to reject them and reject those who protect them. If we don’t, we won’t see Malaysia living past 100.

May 20, 2013May 20, 2013

Moving On

When the late Tun Razak saw a swimming pool at a friend’s house, he thought he should have one constructed at his official residence, Seri Taman, located on Venning Road (now the Tun Razak Memorial on Jalan Perdana). He asked his friend how much did it cost to get it built and was told something to the region of RM26,000, well within his budget. Since the “Seri Taman” belonged to the government, he had to go through the Public Works Department, more known here as the JKR (Jabatan Kerja Raya). He gave the JKR the contractor’s details for them to get a quote.

When the JKR came back with the quote, he had the shock of his life: in excess of RM100,000! He immediately told them to get another quote. The final quote was at RM56,000. Still higher than the quote he received directly from the contractor. He never got the swimming pool built. As the Prime Minister, he could easily have asked the JKR to pick up the tab, but as a man with integrity, he did not.

The late Tun was very careful when it came to spending money, personal and the government’s. He did not come from a rich family and was always aware of his origin. What the story above tells us is that when one mentions corruption and kickbacks in the government, one should be able to distinguish between the government machinery and the political party that forms the executive branch of the government. It also tells that although he was the Prime Minister, he did not abuse his position, something not many politicians let alone Ministers can brag about nowadays.

While the Barisan Nasional has formed the Federal government and in all but three states, it has failed to wrestle Selangor and Kelantan from the clutches of the Pakatan Rakyat. This despite the feel good reports that were given to the so-called BN War Room by the respective state’s BN leadership. For some weird reason, BN has fallen yet again to feel-good reports as it did in 2008. This is actually as bad as the one in 2008. Factions in Selangor and Perak were not checked, candidates were put based on how well they can talk (and in the case of Shah Alam, what the person has on Anwar Ibrahim) rather than what the ground feels like or prefer. Some were moved from where they were strongly supported, to a seat that they are not familiar with, or voters not being familiar with them (as in the case of the former DUN Anggerik assemblyman being contested at DUN Batu Tiga and lost). In that sense, Selangor BN lost twice: the seat contested, and the seat it held previously, in a classic case of Pakatan Rakyat killing two birds with one stone.

The Pakatan Rakyat had had a good running in the cyberworld; they made full use of blogs and SMS in 2008, and then Facebook and YouTube for 2013. BN, with the various internet media units was never able to keep up with the allegations thrown. There was no strategy employed by the BN team. UMNO in particular, had groups of bloggers reporting to various people. It is no guess what these people they reported to wanted, other than the recognition by Najib. Pakatan had one strategic director: all came from him. Some would blog allegations (offensive), while the rest would be on the defensive; all structured and “think” in unison.

BN’s on the other hand had everyone on both the offensive and the defensive. When one person blogs about an issue, everyone else jumps into the bandwagon either re-writing and re-phrasing the first blog, or outright Copy and Paste, or the lazy ones would just have a catchy headline and paste the URL of other blogs to read about the issue.

But never do I see people answering to allegations made by the Pakatan bloggers save for some who are not part of the BN cyberwarriors’ teams! I blame this on the “strategists” these BN cybertroopers report to, and also their lack of knowledge on institutional memory as well as current affairs. Not one person from the BN cyber units dared engage people on the issue of Budget Deficit, Economics, History, Law, Constitution etc. Most are contented with ridiculing Pakatan and their figureheads while fighting for ratings using scandalous headlines and sometimes even add scandals of artistes in their blogs just to keep their ratings up!

In short, BN failed to manage the perception of voters, especially the younger ones by not fully utilising the world wide web. No one wrote about how BR1M for example is good, not as a political tool, but in spurring economic activities. All I see written about BR1M is it is a gift from BN and the rakyat should appreciate it. Well, they should put themselves in the shoes of the voters: the voters turned and said it is their money anyhow so why is BR1M a gift?

The other reason of course is the Chinese swing (since they cannot accept the term “Tsunami”). For the past three elections it took me less than twenty minutes from parking my car at 9am, to casting my votes, to starting my car again. This time around, it took me more than two hours! And all around me were faces of Chinese people I never knew lived in my neighbourhood! Let us face the fact that the Chinese have found a bargaining chip in the Pakatan Rakyat. I think Annie’s summed it up real good.

Having won five states in 2008 which we all know was beyond the expectation of the then Barisan Alternatif, the Pakatan Rakyat representatives went on a spree of ceramahs virtually every night since March 2008 until the 2013 elections. This is because they were not sure of repeating the same success, and had to win the perception of the people. And it is probably because of that they did not focus so much on work, but rather on roadshows. Penang, while managed to reduce its debt, saw a substantial increase in deficit, and decrease in investment (BN/UMNO cybertroopers, please learn here):

All the Pakatan Rakyat-controlled states have formed their respective government which means that all have accepted the results of the GE13, save for Anwar Ibrahim and his band of “boys” who still harp on the fact that the Pakatan Rakyat had won the popular votes. Well, that may be true but this is not a reality show. The formation of the government follows a set of law – the one with the most electoral votes forms the government!

Else, would the Pakatan Rakyat want to concede defeat to a government formed by UMNO alone? UMNO as an individual party won 29.3% of the popular votes, and on its own won 88 electoral votes! DAP came in second very far behind with only 15.7% popular votes and only 38 seats! Maybe Anwar would like to see an UMNO-DAP coalition government instead! How much did PKR get?

Remember, in Malaysia, Parliament is not paramount; it is the Constitution that makes Parliament! Therefore, respect the Constitution and move on, or find another country that employs popular votes to live in!