Oliver Beware, Fagin Has Risen from the Dead!

Dickensian stories are being played out on the Malaysian stage – Genting Highlands Arena of Stars often reprises OLIVER - THE MUSICAL for Malaysian audiences the majority of whom I suspect have not even read any of Charles Dickens' original stories. The paying crowd comprises, my guess, a big section of the people who pay some RM50 to RM150 and come from families deemed to have “arrived” and want the pleasure to be handed down on a silver platter.

But there is another type of Dickensian “reality” shows played out in real life, in real time, NOT by stage actors or actresses, but on the strets around Bukit Bintang which boat several 5-star and eluxe hotels within a stine-thow, and along Chow Kit, where the hotels are less glitzybut noen the less vibrant and kicking. Remember the 26 children aged one to 16 taken off the strets in Kuala Lumpur reported in the Malaysian newspapers with pictues yesterday?

Desiderata wondered aloud whether it’s a Delightful Woe or a Woeful Delight …the short is reprised here:

In-Between-Delight-&-Woe
(Remember, CHIAROSCURO?)

SAVED: 26
BEG-AND-SELL ALIEN KIDS

The Malay Mail page 1 headline summarises a story that can be a Woeful Delight or may be a Delightful Woe?:{}

“They (the 26 kids) came from Thailand, Myanmar and Vietnam. They made their living on the streets by selling overpriced chewing gum and begging for donations purportedly for a madrasah. They were aged between one and 16. Twenty-six of them were rescued by police in Ops Bersih on Saturday.”

These modern Olivers might not have an unrelated Fagin to answer to, but they go home to fathers, mothers or guardians from foreign countries who find Malaysian streets a stage where each and everyone must all play a part, like what the Bard famously said.

What's troubling Desiderata is that there are many more Fagins out on the Malaysian stage.

Digressing a bit, but later I'd bring thee back to the stage connection, let's detour to this morn's newspaper highlights, both page 1 leads in The Star and theSUN, and I refer mainly to the latter (my 30sen copy and not the frebie from 7ELEVEN!):

'Fair deal' pledge

headlines the heart-warming assurance by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi who again assured "Malaysians of all races that they will be fairly treated under the New National Agenda and the 9th Malaysia Plan".

Speaking after a BN Supreme Council meeting that discussed the NNA. he said it is not the government's plan to stop the growth of any group.

He also briefed party leaders on the Malay Agenda and the New Economic Policy (NEP) that was raised during the UMNO general asembly and caused some reaction from other communities.

UMNO Youth head Datuk Seri Hishamuddin explained his NEP revival proposal and UMNO Wanita chief Datuk Seri Rafidahj Aziz explained the Approved Permits (AP) issue.



DESIDERATA's UPDATE: In the weeklong Politics-Free Party at Desi's Place, I kept to my pledge NOT to post anything touching on POLITICS; so I strolled around fellow bloggers haunts like JeffOoi, MackZulkifli, and at Aizuddindanian.com (Volume of Interactions), and at the founder of PPS site's I posted this Comment on his post on Hisahamuddin's wielding "The Racist Keris" incident on te UMNO Youth stage at the PWTC:

""""Aiz: Second your views.

Maybe the current UMNO youth chief learnt from his predeccessor who is now the DPM, esp brandishing the keris.

I don't know, after 30 years of the NEP, leaders can't see the world has changed, has moved on -- Globalisation, Competition, (esp Two Sleeping Dragons having Awakened, India and China), Age of Information and the Internet, and our leaders are preaching 2020, but still Thinking backwards to the 1970s-1990s! To Hishamuddin Hussein and his Turks (or is it turkeys?), my parting words: Think Global, Not Local, THINK NEEDS, NOT RACE, as dear Aiz has wisely discerned, and I heartily concur.""""

Dear "Pak Lah", as Mark Antony said of "Brutus" in Julius Caesar, I echo, with some apologies for plagiarising Shakespeare:


But Pak Lah, we all know he is an honourable man
And I, I don't doubt any of his Brutus' nobility
But what about the rent-seekers, the Ali-Babas
Will they continue to hide under the Bumiputera blanket
Will they join thee in forsaking the subsidy and free-ride mentality?

Dear Pak Lah
I know thee as a honourable Prime Minister
I'm not so sure of thy underlings
Raping the hills, the oil and freloading on the AP band
Stashing away in safes overseas, or Alice's Wonderland
Or blatantly expose their colours at CasinoRoyale flings

I rest my case
Mr Prime Minister, mdern Brutus one o a kind
I pray for thee, I have your noble intentions in mind
I won't judge in haste
But I still sleep not in peace


DESIDERATA'S CONCLUSION: With the Rent-seekers who sell their APs for a quick kill, and the other UMNOputras who seek Bumiputera shares when they already "have arrived" (going away for European and American holiddays every semester break) -- aren't we seeing the Modern Fagins rising from Diskensian 1800s tombs to make stooges of Modern Olivers? There are a lot of Olivers in the kampong, new villages, and squatters settlements just within the 5-km radius of the Petronas Twin Towers and Bukit Bintang Walk ...

Will Malaysians also remember them in your prayers? No, I don't mean the mean Twisted Faggots, just the runaway, beat-up Olivers and Olivias!

Do I invite those at the Arena of Stars and the annual PWTC Great Hall fiesta audiences to join me and Oliver, begging "Can I have more?"


PS (added at 2.41pm): After strolling to http://aisehman.org, I recopied one comment to Aisehman's post asking Readers to contribute 10 questions to be forwarded to Khairy Jamaluddin for comment:

""""Your boss Hisham recently said that the Bumi share ownership today is about 19%; another UMNO stalwart Shaberry Cheek stated that in 1985 itself, 15 years after NEP started, the Bumi stake had been raised from a low level (single digit, don't have the exact figure now)in 1970 to about 19%.

(1)So in percentage terms; the Bumi stake has stood STILL at 19%, yes no doubt on an expanded cake, but nevertheless, still no dynamic progress has been made (contrasted with initial 15 years).

(2) My postulation is that Hisham, your Big Boss, did not quote a figure based on collated statistics;; or reliable methodology to measure whatever that reflects the "reality" of this Bumi corporate equity in percentage terms. By this I mean UMNO Youth has created a FICTION in order to justify its call to "revive the NEP".

Please confirm if (1) or (2) is valid.

If (1) is valid, how would continuation of a policy that has proven to be a failure (otherws\ise no dynamic progress from static 19% in last 20years?); OR

If (2) is valid ie Hisham quoted a fiction, If my postulation is correct, how about you erasing the fiction and taking over UMNO Youth chieftaincy NOW?""""