when I belatedly have time to re-read Rockybru's post, quoting another Blogger matey I've grown to hold in high esteem RPK or Pete to his close buddies who unfortunately COULD NOT make it to the recent BUM2009 which I organised in my capacity as Chair (as also BUM2007 and BUM2008 which featured Raja Petra Kamarudin as highlight and helped pull in the numbers!).
I have to interrupt my promised series on "Dr Mahathir continues to beguile(III) ..." because there is a connection between what I'm belatedly featuring today with what I'm going to write about as a wrapup to the Dr Mahathir series.
Minus RPK, Tun Dr Mahathir became the last-minute confirmed HIGHLIGHT SPEAKER on May 16 BUM2009 OC claimed Bloggers' Event of the Year at the Lake View Club, Subang Jaya; this was a surprise Speaker who said Yes just 24 hours before the D-Day and could be swung because of the networking of Rockybru aka Ahirudin Attan, also Interim President of the National Alliance of Bloggers (All-Blogs)on which I think RPK had prematurely pronounced its "RIP". Be that as it may suggest these two principal players in Blogosphere seemed to have parted ways,IF I INFER FROM RPK'S POST quoted by Rockybru, and it tells me one lesson: In blogosphere, as in politics, THERE ARE NO PERMANENT FRIENDS OR PERMANENT ENEMIES, ONLY PERMANENT INTERESTS. And I'm sad to conclude, from RPK's obsefvation, (LOVE OF) MONEY IS THAT ROOT OF ALL EVIL as implied by the phrase he used: " ...Bloggers who were enticed by money and ‘sold out to the other side’"and "I asked the Datuk to inform Mahathir that JJ had offered to buy me off. "
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From rockybru's blog,reprised without his permission because isuch SHARING HAS IMPLICIT APPROVAL AMONG BLOGGERS OF GOOD FAITH:):
Monday, May 11, 2009
RPK the enemy?
A lot of growing up to do
Posted by admin
Monday, 11 May 2009 00:46
We carry no grudge against those Bloggers who were enticed by money and ‘sold out to the other side’. In that same spirit they should not grudge those of us who refuse to accept the money and chose, instead, to remain anti-establishment. That is no reason to declare war on us and to suggest that our life should be ended with a bullet in the head.
NO HOLDS BARRED
Raja Petra Kamarudin
Uthayakumar and YB BABI! Cancerous cells that will destroy the country!
Barking Magpie
I cannot help noticing the similar arrogant and defiant pose of Uthayakumar made to the public upon his release from detention, which is quite similar to that of YB BABI's!Like two cancerous cells that will destroy this once sanctified body called Malaysia, the only way for the country to prevent it from being totally terminally ill is to destroy such cancerous cells from the beginning. It appears as though the government is weak and giving in to an act of terrorism!May be we should follow the way of Sri Lanka in waging war against groups and individuals who are bent on trying to destroy the natural order of this country.To quote Chris Hedges in his book who said that "war sometimes is a force that gives us meaning". Yes, that meaning means peace from blackmail, threat and a disrespect to all things that made up this country to what it is today.May be we need that war in Malaysia just to show us again what is the true meaning of a peaceful co-existence. War to prevent anyone from trying to manipulate the people into doing something horrid such as disrespect to the existing institutions, may be we all need to be taught a lesson on the true meaning of the word peace! It appears in Malaysia that we need war to obtain it! When all else failed!What say you Brother Uthaya and YB BABI! Are you ready, really ready for it?
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Out-manoeuvred and ill-prepared, Perak DAP and PKR resort to tyranny
A Voice
In a nutshell, the fiasco in Perak was mainly due to the ever defiant and ungentlemenly conduct of Nizar, his puppetmaster Nger, Perak DAP and PKR, and Pakatan Rakyat as a whole.They defied all court orders, palace ruling and prerogative, and assembly conduct conventions. Worse still, they persistently lie and spin fact for their political expediency.
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Those are the comments from just two Umno Bloggers -- the first by Rusdi, Najib’s man, and the second by Salahuddin, Mukhriz Mahathir’s man.Actually, I know both quite well. I have gone out with them and even paid for their food and drinks more than once. The same also goes for Zakir, ‘Rocky’, Aspan, Ron, and many others -- all Umno people. These people, as far as I am concerned, are my friends -- fellow Bloggers. Unfortunately, to these people, I am the enemy.We became friends back in 2006 when Malaysia Today hosted the first dialogue with Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad at the Kelab Century Paradise. I invited many PAS, DAP and PKR leaders and supporters to this event and the hall overflowed with guests. There was standing room only and many could not even get into the hall and had to stand outside.It was simply overwhelming and the turnout was far higher than expected. After the dialogue we had tea and cakes and the opposition leaders joined Mahathir in the VIP room. I had to stand outside to guard the door as so many were trying to push their way into the VIP room to shake hands with Mahathir. I was worried someone may try to harm him and it became a security nightmare for me.Finally, I told the guards to just block everyone from coming in and if anyone wants to get in then ask me first. I then stood guard near Mahathir, ready to dive forward in the event someone makes a move on him or something like that. Sheesh, I thought to myself, you mean I got to go like this; taking a bullet or knife on behalf of Mahathir?I suppose, since I had invited Mahathir, then it is my responsibility to guard his security. Unfortunately, I overlooked that point because I did not expect such a large crowd. I thought it was going to be a small and controlled affair. I did not expect so many people, in particular from the opposition -- and many leaders amongst them on top of that. And I did not expect that so many would try to push and shove their way into the VIP room to shake hands with Mahathir.Anyway, everything went fine that day in mid-2006 and nothing untoward happened, thank God. If not I would have probably been arrested as the mastermind behind the plot to assassinate Mahathir.After that first event I travelled to Kedah, Kelantan and Johor (twice) to attend functions where Mahathir was speaking. I even got sprayed with some chemical at the Kota Bharu airport the day that PPP Kelantan leader sprayed Mahathir. I also attended all the functions at the Perdana Leadership Foundation in Putrajaya, one at University Malaya, plus a few more in hotels all over Selangor and Kuala Lumpur. I must have attended more than a dozen Mahathir functions all over Malaysia and video-recorded the entire lot.I also attended Mukhriz Mahathir’s and Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah’s functions and video-recorded them as well. When Mukhriz launched a blood donation drive at the Kampong Baru mosque I contacted YB Ronnie Liu and asked him to arrange a group of DAP people to go there to donate blood. Although it was a last minute arrangement, and in spite of it being an Umno Youth and Mukhriz Mahathir event, Ronnie managed to mobilise a small group of DAP people (all Chinese of course) to go to the Kampong Baru mosque to donate blood. This is the way we do things. While they call Anwar Ibrahim BABI, we do not call Mahathir, Pak Lah, Najib or Muhyiddin the same. I might disagree with Umno but I am civil enough and know how to maintain protocol. Even whenever I meet Mukhriz, who is younger than me, I walk over to him and give a small but courteous bow when I shake his hand. I do not allow him to walk over to greet me. He stays put. I make the move.I have met Khairy Jamaluddin face-to-face only once. But when he walked in I stood up. He is younger than my daughter so I really need not have done that. But I stood up anyway when he walked in and offered him a chair. And I did not sit down until he sat down first.I am talking about how I treat my ‘enemies’. Am I being stupid here? Why do I waste my money buying dinner and drinks for people I oppose and then follow people like Mahathir all over Malaysia when he is the cause of all my problems and he was the one who ordered my arrest and later detained me without trial?When Rusdi phoned and said that Rosmah wants to meet me I agreed. My wife dropped Rusdi and me off in front of Najib’s house and came back two hours later to fetch us. But when Rusdi asked me to ‘name my price’ to stop writing about Najib and Altantuya, I went to meet Mahathir to complain about it and thereafter cut off all my links with Rusdi.Later, I received a phone call from Sufi, Mahathir’s aide, who said that JJ contacted his office to ask for my phone number. Sufi wanted to know whether I have any objections for my phone number to be given to JJ. I asked Sufi why JJ wants to contact me but he did not know. Anyway, I agreed and now, of course, we know why JJ wanted to contact me.I, again, complained to Mahathir through a certain Chinese Datuk. I asked the Datuk to inform Mahathir that JJ had offered to buy me off. He called back a few days later and told me to not have any more dealings with JJ. That, I was told, were my ‘instructions’.We may disagree with the government. We may even be bitterly opposed to the government and work relentlessly to bring it down. But we are also civil about it and will never regard ‘the other side’ as lepers whom we should distance ourselves from. All they need to do is phone and we will agree to meet up anytime, any place. That has been proven time and time again.But that is not how they treat us. Rusdi suggests, in his posting above, that we are cancerous cells. Cancerous cells need to be destroyed and that is basically what he means -- that we must be destroyed. There are other Umno Blogs and websites that suggest I should suffer a bullet in the head for what I wrote with regards to the 7 May 2009 skirmish in the Perak State Assembly. Others want my citizenship withdrawn and that I should be thrown out of the country. Yet others feel the court made a grievous mistake in freeing me from ISA detention in November last year and that I should be re-detained and locked away in Kamunting till the day I die.They want to put a bullet in my head while I stand guard over Mahathir to ensure that no one puts a bullet in his head. The fact that I invited Mahathir to the function, so I am therefore responsible for his safety, is not an issue. I am not head of security in this country. But I took it upon myself to be responsible for my ‘guest’. Hey, I even asked my wife to allow the Special Branch officers into the hall when she tried to deny them access. Never mind, I told my wife, they have a job to do, let them come in. You should have seen my wife’s ‘long face’. She was pissed with me.If I had written in Malaysia Today that a certain Umno leader or Blogger should be shot, within 24 hours there would be numerous police reports made against me. In fact, over the last two months, there have been about half a dozen new police reports made against me. The most recent was two days ago when I wrote about the Perak State Assembly fiasco.More than two years ago, these Umno Bloggers called for a meeting at the National Press Club (NPC). The purpose of the meeting was to form a Bloggers union or association. Amongst those who attended this maiden or ad hoc committee meeting were pro-Mahathir Umno Bloggers, pro-Najib Umno Bloggers, pro-Tengku Razaleigh Umno Bloggers, pro-Pakatan Rakyat Bloggers, and Bloggers in the civil society movement or Reformist category. I would like to believe I am in that last category.The idea was actually mooted by Dr Mahathir. He felt that Malaysian Bloggers should form an umbrella body so that the so many Bloggers from all sides of the political divide could unite under some sort of national organisation. That reminded me of how Umno was formed back in 1946 when the so many different Malay-based societies, associations, movements, and so on, formed a national body called the United Malays National Organisation.Sufi was also present as a sort of ‘representative’ of Dr Mahathir. It was proposed that I head this new union or association but I declined and proposed that Rocky should instead head it. I was, however, prepared to back him up and help with whatever needed to be done. The Bloggers union went on to set up the Blog House at Bukit Damansara.We were, of course, from different political leanings. But we thought that, as Bloggers, we could leave our political differences aside and come together under one umbrella in spite of our political differences. It puzzled most people how we, known opposition supporters or political activists, could play footsie with those hardcore Umno people.I suppose we were either naïve in thinking that the Umno Bloggers would be able to set aside our political differences for the common good of the Blogging community or we were suckers in not seeing that this move was not so much to unite the Bloggers as much as it was to ‘rope in’ the Bloggers.Anyway, we still maintained our ‘independence’. We never expected the Umno crowd to turn opposition. But they expected us to turn pro-government. Some, of course, who were initially anti-establishment, eventually turned pro-government. And, inevitably, the Bloggers union broke up with the pro-government crowd on one side and the anti-establishment Bloggers on the other. Then the pro-government Bloggers started attacking the anti-establishment Bloggers although we did not retaliate in kind.Today, there is no longer any Bloggers union. And the target of attack of the pro-government Bloggers is the anti-establishment Bloggers. They whack us to kingdom come every opportunity they can find.Rusdi wants to declare war on us. He wants the government to do to us what the Sri Lankan security forces are doing to the LTTE. But that is just it. We anti-establishment Bloggers are not like the LTTE. We do not bomb and shoot and burn. But they would like to bomb and shoot and burn us. And they would like to put a bullet in my head as suggested by one Umno Blog.These people have a lot of growing up to do. Have they not heard of freedom of expression and association? That is not a crime that warrants the issuing of a death sentence fatwah. That, in case many do not realise, is what the Federal Constitution of Malaysia guarantees us.We carry no grudge against those Bloggers who were enticed by money and ‘sold out to the other side’. In that same spirit they should not grudge those of us who refuse to accept the money and choose, instead, to remain anti-establishment. That is no reason to declare war on us and to suggest that our life should be ended with a bullet in the head.
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