People's Parliament's Take on DSAI-Zulkifli-Noordin...

Desi enters the commentary and debate with reluctance, and it's also because of what Raja Petra Kamarudin wrote about the episode relating to the recalcitrant PKR MP for Kulim Bandar Baru, starting another controversy in his lodging a police report again fellow PR MP (from PAS) Khalid Samad because of opposing stands on the use of the term "Allah" issue.

Let me start from a comment I just posted at Haris Ibrahim's blog on this episode and its related events/commentaries.

"ylchong Says: Your comment is awaiting moderation.
January 31, 2010 at 2:50 am

Hey, many of non-PKR members speak from a theoretical perspectoive, adding speculation to innuendoes and rumours that don’t help the Agenda for Change or Oppoisition cause.
Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim/DSAI spent six years in jail on what many of us believed was conviction on trumped up charges. He knew how rotten UMNO had fallen and so he divorced from UMNO to enhance PKN-PKR founded by his wife Datin Wan Azizah.
Now DSAI is facing a REPEAT (remember de javu?) of what got him into jail away from politics, and here socalled supporters for CHANGE/Reformation to overthrow the evil BN-UMNO government are adding fuel to fire to indulge in non-production speculation and innuendoes to hurt DSAI’s fight to remain free to prepare Pakatan Rakyat for GE13 — if you people can’t help his cause, at least pray for him to remain strong instead of pouring cold water. This guy need aall the spiritual strength to fight the UMNO regime known for its CRUL AND ILLEGAL WAYS OF DEMOLISHING THIE ENEMIES — forgetten about Salleh Abas’ sacking, VK Lingam, Eusoff Chin, Teong Beng Hock already?

I’m going to share a personal case of referencing a party activist — let’s call him AA — to PKR Hq for action — I accompanied 2 AA’s victims, ch=eated of RM2,000 minus RM1,000; the other of about RM20,000. After due process by the Disciplinary Committeee, this AA was warned to behave himself. At least he had to remove the pictures of party leaders, including DSAI and Wan Azuu=izah on his four-wheeler, and now he has quietened down and no more going around Seremban town “conning” more victims, or has he? I’m citing this case that even for a lesser known PKR member (not a wakil rakyat), IT OULD BE DICFFICULT TO BUILD A CASE TO HAVE AA SACKED, what more when Zul Noordin is an MP!
Cheers, Stay the course, YL, Desi

PS: I apologise if I had written a longish comment, and if I did digress, my repentance is I’ll pray hr=ard to recruit more of you non-members to join PKR so that you know better the challnenges facing a political party 10 years old compared to its rivals of 40-50 years or more…

DESIDERATA: To be continued...

Taking a breather to laze by sunshine and sea -- or should it read the Other way, sea and sunshine? -- Desi cometh back from PD to resume this post a day later by a Cut&Pastry, from fellow Blogger called Pak Sako. I am assuming I have got his AP; otherwise, I will gladly do other community service in penance (I realised I used another word wrong above, " ", but what's writ remains in cyber space so we shall not desecrate the first rites! If you no understand mubo-jumbo, blame it on tuu mush tehtari'!:)

Thursday, January 28, 2010

On giving Zulkifli Noordin the sack: the value of measured decisionmaking

Although I have views to share on various recent events and issues, I have been occupied and have not been able to blog.

But I shall take a moment to comment on the Zulkifli Noordin matter.

Zaid Ibrahim is of the view that Zulkifli Noordin should be given the boot, and the sooner the better. Personally, I concur. The person in question has breached party and coalition lines by taking undiscussed renegade action against a coalition member.

The public's disappointment over the PKR leadership council's decision to give the disciplinary committee up to one month to decide on Zulkifli Noordin's position is understandable. I too was expecting a more forthright handling of the issue by PKR. However that was not to be.

Haris Ibrahim, for example, laments over this lack of decisiveness and its political cost to PKR and Pakatan Rakyat as a whole. Yes, I believe there could be a political cost. But there are political costs either way.

I now speculate on and rationalise why PKR did what it did. There could be valid reasons. It could be possible that the political cost of taking this path is lower.

While a rapid sacking of Zulkifli Noordin could signal to the public that PKR is capable of rapid and decisive action, I believe there is merit in taking the current approach of going through the due party processes, such as submitting Zulkifli Noordin to the disciplinary committee prior to what could be an inevitable execution.

Remember that Anwar is the de facto leader of the party, not the official leader. Most importantly he is not and should not be seen as the dictatorial hand of PKR: enemies might politically exploit this impression. Moreover, if PKR is what it really stands for, then this sort of dictatorial rule is not in keeping with PKR’s stated culture of consensus and democratic decision-making. Anwar therefore should be and should be seen as a leader who promotes and abides by this culture of consensus and one who is able to give the subject fair hearing and a chance to have a say.

After that, the party could proceed to expel Zulkifli Noordin.

This is precisely the move that I (would like to) believe Anwar has taken.

And I believe there is virtue in taking this route.

First, it defuses any possibility of sensationalising Zulkifli Noordin’s expelling and turning him into a martyr and giving him the opportunity to garner more support than he deserves. By taking this route, we dampen any possible gains that Zulkifli Noordin could make, put him to shame for his poor actions and then sack him without fanfare. Second, there is also value in retaining the freedom to produce the trump card at will. Instead of letting their hand be forced (to immediately sack Zulkifli Noordin), Anwar and PKR are choosing the option to deploy this trump card by their own will at a strategic moment. Third, party decisions must at least appear to be as if they were made after having been given due consideration, not as if they were made spontaneously or haphazardly. I'm sure Machiavelli, Sun Tzu and Kautilya alluded to such things in their respective magnum opuses.

Of essence here is speed, as is the view of our honourable prime minister ("Speed is the new performance benchmark"; The Malaysian Insider). Thus the disciplinary committee should not wait for the tail end of the one month it is accorded to convene and decide. It should display vigorous dynamism. It should get going and pass its judgement as soon as possible.

The single notable drawback to all this is that the public may lack the patience to attempt to comprehend the subtleties of decisionmaking, and it is often tricky for political groups to explain such strategies to the public without being seen as verbose, cunning, or laying bare their strategising to rival political groups.

In the meantime, let us sit back and watch how it all plays out. As a French diplomat once noted, between a crisis and a catastrophe, we might as well have a glass of champagne.

→ 12:51 PM

In Limbo, That's When Your Friends Are Most

NEEDED!

mGf buddies around me for the past few weeks KNOW what I'm inti-MATE-ing. Here. Hear.

As for those knot in-the-no, it's okay. You can guess. Esp you who art loaded and wear a Guess watch, a Guess handbag, and even a Guess girlfriend. Hope she's knot around your neck though.

Desi's in limno, and Chubby Checker and wanGOoDfriend who could go about 12 inches below the bar had migrated to the US of A. I feel so lonesome I could cry, we used to whine in the Lake Gardens the second most favourite song; the most of Hank Williams Jnr was Your Cheatin' Heart. Yes, we as teenagers were more American than Chinese or Chinoserie Malaysia.

Thanks mateys to those who are within hand's out reach. Or within shoutin' reach. Okay, even those based over the se7en seas, within heART's reach.
Take carezse, GodBless.:) -- YL, Desi

give me SANITY...

Malaysia has become a mad mad world
A Charming bud of mine says
The leaders do things which they shouldn't
Then don't do things they should

So I ask of these pemimpin
Give us the Rakyat Sanity
No pads,
just simple honesty do good
as a goodnurse should
Otherwise, go pimp thyself
not OUR country

a GOoD leader
tries best to
heal the body mind and soul

So give us back our sane world
we ask not of our leaders to be
saints
we ask of them to be decent
gift us back our sanity
without the pads.

Many Malaysians hate former PM Dr Mahathir,...

BUT NOW HE'S CITIZEN biasA, treat him as any other individual Malaysian citizen -- let him rant and rave, the same right as all bloody bloggers including the wan called Desiderata and DPP! I mentioned DPP as he played host to me at RSC yesterday, and luckily two SHC diplomates separated us, or this Guest could have reached out for his neck when he waved off Dr M every time I mentioned him when the subject of 911 came up...:( But I forgave him after downing all the rich foods -- seldom Sundae cometh around so early, in mid-week, and payday is still long long way away like ***Tipperrary. ON ***, Desi knows more about American history than Chinese or Malaysian -- don't blame him, blame his teachers for using English classes to talk about George Washington, Abe Lincoln and making us memrise THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS; if the right spell is "Gettysberg", at least I got 90% right eh! Many of you blardy graduates now have not even heard of GeettyThee~~OoouchOfHear!:(

So where was I?

Okay, back to that 911 video Dr M referenced. I sat through 150minutes of the Video -- so Dr M being the messsenger boy here, has a point.
There are rgounds to believe the CONSPIRACY theories put forth -- NOT by Dr M, but by several researchers and writers of the great US of A!

When I viewed the tape four days -- yeah, sei-loh! WHY the blardy hell so late one? -- ago, FOR THE FIRST TIME, I learnt there was a THIRD tower -- referenced in said Video at Tower 7, my fave number! -- which went down on 911 in the year 2001. In most of us Ignoramuses, the image carved forever in our minds was that only TWO +++WTC TOWERS -- each hit by one cvommercial airliner minutes apart -- went down! If you have to ask, +++ stands for World Traddde Centre withoiur the P for Putra OK!

Now be a GOoD boy, surf to cedet's blog and spend the next/sext one-and-half-hours viewing the Conspiracy Theorists evidence and opinions.

I am another messenger boy, DON'T SHOOT ME! Don't shoot Dr M either -- he is still a source of enterttainment with some IQ:)... I don't get paid for writHing this post --either by SB, CAI or FIB!:(:(:( Or the Perdana Leadership Foundation:(!

PS: Quoting VOLTAIRE:

"I may disagree with what you say but I will defend, to the death, your right to say it." This is a reminder to fellow BUMmers especially a potential BUM2010 Chair as a motto we have been adopting and PR-ing at BUM2007, BUM2008 and BUM2009!:):):)

This is of interest and concern to Awe Serembanites!

Reproduced with assumed AP from wangsamajuformalaysia.blogspot.com:) YL, Desi

What you can do with RM38mil in N. Sembilan?

Author: Lee Wee Tak | Posted at: Monday, January 25, 2010 |

Perbadanan Kemajuan Negeri Negeri Sembilan (PKNNS) has been a major shareholder in PK Resource Berhad, a company listed on the Bursa Saham Malaysia.

According to Bursa Malaysia records, as at 15 June 2001, PKNNS held 21,357,000 shares representing about 18.7% of the Company’s 114,035,500 issued and paid up ordinary share capital. PKNNS has maintained more or less the same shareholding level from 2001 till 2007.

Things became fast moving and interesting in 2007. Suddenly, a long term strategic investor in PKNNS did something significantly different.

On 26 April 2007, PK sold its subsidiary, Emerald Spirit Sdn Bhd (ES) to Gen Glamour Sdn Bhd. GG paid a total of RM49.3 million either by way of subscribing to share capital of ES or assuming the liabilities of ES

ES owns and runs the Allson Klana Resort in Seremban. (It boasted the biggest resort swimming pool in Malaysia when it was first completed, me thinks)

The disposal by PK was approved by the Foreign Investment Committee on 16 May 2007 subject to certain conditions.

Amazingly, 2 days later, on 18 May 2007, PK made an announcement to the stock exchange that PK and GG agreed to a waive a term in the sales and purchase agreement that required PK shareholders to approve the sale of ES by PK to GG.

“With reference to the announcements made on 3 May 2007 and 26 April 2007 pertaining to the above subject heading, the Board of Directors of PK Resources Berhad wishes to further announce that the parties to the Subscription Agreement dated 26 April 2007 have, on 18 May 2007, agreed that the Conditions Precedent in respect of the Company's Shareholders' Approval as stated in the said Agreement and any provisions related thereto be waived.”

Why the rush and did this violate the provisions of Companies Act, 1965 and interest of the shareholders, like PKNNS?

One would expect a strategic investor would be hopping mad if he or she was by-passed when the company they invested in did a deal behind their back. So what's PKNNS gonna do?

On 23 August 2007, PKNNS exchanged 11,551,000 PK shares it acquired to obtain 5,474,407 ES shares from GG. On 19 November 2007, PKNNS exchanged its remaining 10,070,000 PK shares with 4,772,512 ES shares owned by GG

This is the site to view the shareholding change.

Note the prefectly matched disposal and acquisition between PKNNS and GG Sdn Bhd


The cost of PK shares to PKNNS was RM38,917,800 and according to the valuation approved by the Menteri Besar of Negeri Sembilan, the worth of ES shares acquired was RM17,296,000 – a loss of RM21.6 million! (source: audited accounts of PKNNS for the financial year ended 31 December 2007)

PKNNS has given up a strategic 18.96% hold in a listed company that has diversified interest in property development, education services, quarry, operation of golf and country club and landscaping in exchange for a mere 22.75% shareholding in a sdn bhd which sole assets was a resort in Seremban.

Based on the audited accounts as at 31 December 2007 of PK and ES, the net assets of PK and ES were RM558million and RM45million respectively. Had PKNNS not made the share exchange, PKNNS would have a holding of 18.96% in PK which amounted to RM105.8million but instead it ended up with a mere 22.75% in ES which was about RM10.3million.

A reasonable man who wonder about the following:

1) What is the rational for giving up so much to gain so little?

2) Did PKNNS, with its responsibility to uphold the economic well-being and development of the state of Negeri Sembilan, taken sufficient due care to consider the viability of this corporate exercise, e.g. payback period, return on investment etc?

3) Given the short time frame (GG acquired the shares in May and concluded the exchange with PKNNS took place within 6 months), did the Board of Directors of PKNNS performed a proper due diligence to ensure the economic interest of the state and rakyat been properly protected? (normal corporate exercise takes months or even a year before it can be completed)


Here are the answers given by the Menteri Besar of Negeri Sembilan during the DUN sitting in October, which revealed and justified very little or a lot, form your own opinion:

"i. ...pihak PKNNS mempunyai satu matlamat iaitu untuk menjadi sebagai pemegang saham minoriti dari 19% di dalam PK Resources Berhad ke 22.75% di dalam Emerald Spirit Sdn Bhd..."

"ii pembelian dan penjualan saham-saham berkaitan telah melalui proses kelulusan serta penilaian yang sewajarnya telah dibuat dari segi ekonomi, kewangan dan lain-lain secara terperinci dengan mengambil kira fakta impak. Kajian telah dibuat dan taklimat sewajarnya telah diberikan kepada Lembaga Pengarah di dalam membuat keputusan yang bijak untuk bergabung dengan agensi kerajaan Negeri yang lain untuk menguasai pegangan dalam Syarikat Espirit Sdn Bhd"

My own conclusion is

1) What good does it bring to become a minority shareholder in a sdn bhd? You are under the thumb of the majority shareholder

2) First time I hear someone's ambition to become a minority shareholder in a sdn bhd, is that a good investment objective?

3) Any financial consultant with a wee bit of experience would wonder who was the valuer; who did the financial appraisal of the investment and result of the appraisal; who gave the briefing (taklimat); how come a financial due dilligence worth tens of millions can be concluded so fast; who were in the Lembaga Pengarah that voted for the transaction?

DESIDERATA: Next the MB may want to conduct an "auction" of the sports field of KGV School, Seremban eh?

from gnustiy.blogspot.com, have a snippet!

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

1Malaysia: The Way I See It

I walked into Maybank, City Square today and saw this eye-catching yellow flyer:

Dividen + Bonus 8.55%

urging investors to invest in this fund. Pretty enticing until I saw that it is ASB (Amanah Saham Bumiputera). The country is practically giving out cash generously, too bad we Malaysian Chinese and Indians don't get to enjoy this benefit because it is only for 1Race.

This is 1Malaysia.

Posted by Gnu at 11:31 PM 0 comments Links to this post

Sunday's rumination -- from STEvE OH

That small "v" is for vicTORY, hopefully, for rightminded Malaysians wherever you find them, be it Down Under or in the Jungle where the lion or tiger reigns supreme. I have been reading Seteve Oh's writings from copiasia.net days, and recently had the privilege of meeting him in PERSON. Over the phone he sounded so Mat Sallehish I was half surprised at the bookj signing at One Utama that here was a very Chinese looking fellow -- a bit modddish like from the Beatles era, very outspoken showing his overseas-education and oversaes residence -- still very Malaysian in outlook and temper.

Here's something worth my ER's while to reflect on, coied from malaysia-today.net -- this beaut, lazy, hazy, macey, lacey Sundae, be it furong or mantin or perth or wollonggong...:)

Malaysia faces its own credibility crisis

GUEST COLUMNISTS

Saturday, 23 January 2010 Super Admin

Recent tax hikes including new taxes like the GST are but a desperate attempt to plug the leaks in the national coffers. It will become exceedingly difficult for any country to sustain economic growth and finance its economic plans unless it manages to create the conditions that attract investments and create employment from new jobs and industries.

By STEVE OH/MySinchew

I write in response to your Opinion article The Third Way.

Thatcherism was the natural response to decades of socialist policies that threatened to make her country economically sluggish. It worked to a degree.

The British social welfare state had become costly to run and the solution was to make governance more cost-efficient by privatization of nationally owned enterprises. It was the golden era of privatization and what writers described as "classical liberalism" but such terms are meaningless to most people except the economic purists who like to pigeon-hole people and policies into neat ideological boxes.

But I can appreciate the need to make governments more efficient.

As a young auditor then in charge of the audit of the British Railways Southern Region in London, I saw the folly of a system that created inefficiency and the sight of several idle workers standing beside one or two that were actually doing the work because of the quirky ways of trade unionism that prevented workers from doing something not prescribed in the agreements that unwittingly made them unproductive.

In essence Thatcherism, according to her Chancellor of the Exchequer Nigel Lawson, was "free markets, financial discipline, and firm control over public expenditure, tax cuts, nationalism, Victorian values", privatization and a dash of populism." Thatcher was foremost in dismantling the tight control of trade unions. It was her courage in introducing unpopular measures that gained her the reputation of "Iron Lady."

Malaysia desperately needs an "Iron Leader" to install policies that will help the country instead of the flawed policies of the past that has seen the country's development unfairly skewed and resulting in social disunity and political backwardness.

Her ideas were compared then to similar policies adopted in other English-speaking nations in the late eighties and nineties, for example, America's Reagonomics, New Zealand's Rogernomics and Australia's Economic Rationalism, though Australia was then governed by a supposedly socialist Labour government. Many of their policies were unpopular but they did bring about the economic benefits of tax and other reforms.

In the UK the Labour governments of John Major and Tony Blair pursued with Thatcher's policies and there is little to distinguish between Australian Paul Keating's Labour policies in the and Liberal John Howard's when they were in power respectively and today it is folly to subscribe to any particular model for its sake except the one that works for the county.

In Malaysia we know that its economic policies are fraught with shortcomings, constraints and contradictions and the drop in foreign direct investments and capital outflows from the country should sound the alarm bells.

Recent tax hikes including new taxes like the GST are but a desperate attempt to plug the leaks in the national coffers. It will become exceedingly difficult for any country to sustain economic growth and finance its economic plans unless it manages to create the conditions that attract investments and create employment from new jobs and industries.

While Malaysia is not hampered by trade unionism some government programs exacerbated by corruption evident by cost blowouts have resulted in wastage of public funds and questionable expenditure. There is much that can be done to improve accountability.

Liberalising the media, enactment of protection for whistleblowers, changes to the Official Secrets Act etc are helpful measures but may not be politically acceptable to the incumbent administration. Ultimately it is the political will to face the music that makes for good governance but that is unlikely to happen in Malaysia with the present government. KPIs and all that technical stuff are useless without the political will to make the hard decisions.

It is difficult for any system to change when one political party has been in power for so long.

China in the eighties under the visionary Deng Xiaopeng pursued a radical policy of private enterprise which unshackled his country's precipitous dependence on failed state-owned and state-run businesses. When the deadwood in the system was removed it ushered in a new era of positive economic outcomes that continues till now and recently the Chinese government has had to use monetary policy to curtail its accelerated growth to curb inflation and prevent the economic bubbles.

His famous "don"t care what cat it is as long as it catches mice" saying has encapsulated China's economic miracle.

It provides a lesson for Malaysia's administrators who insist that the cat must be of a certain colour and pedigree even though it fails to do the job. Until there is a management by results system in place and meritocracy is restored in the public and private sectors Malaysia risks becoming a mediocre nation like the Philippines that was the brightest economic star in the region in the 50's and 60's before it suffered decades of corruption under the Marcos regime and became a basket case.

Malaysia too will suffer the same fate, as its population grows, the economically productive emigrate, and the country's public institutions succumb to further corruption, unless it gets serious about the country's interests before political interests, and brings about serious reforms.

Instead of OneMalaysia perhaps the focus should be on FirstMalaysia.

Whether it is the Keynesian economics of huge government spending and unbridled money supply or Thatcherism which tried to reverse the ills of big government, the fact is only two years ago the world saw the Great Financial Meltdown. All our economic wisdom could not protect us from human greed.

All the emphasis on religion is worthless until faith is seen in works that produce tangible benefits for the nation. Politicians have much to answer for playing with fire in manipulating religion and race and using hype to deceive the public. The fruit of failed government policies is seen in a society that still sees mobs taking to the streets to intimidate others and who resort to firebombing and other acts of terror.

The Global Financial Crisis was really the American Financial Crisis--the result of unbridled greed of those who bled the system and the gullible and vulnerable public. Looking at the root of the problem perhaps it"d be more accurate to describe it as the American Moral Crisis. But the masters of hype can be duplicitous about the truth.

Malaysia faces its own Credibility Crisis.

No one doubts that when America sneezes the rest of the world catches a cold but in the interest of truth one needs to point the finger at the American system and way of life itself which allow Americans to live beyond their means and affect the rest of the world when things go awry.

Surely American national interest must also consider the global interest, if America is willing to go to war in some foreign country to protect it but not worry if its actions at home will affect the countries that depend on it.

The conviction of Bernard Madoff for fraud, the former Chairman of the NASDAQ Stock Exchange, who could not account for the missing $65 billion from client accounts was the pinnacle of Amercian greed, and it could only happen in America, in terms of the magnitude of the sum involved.

But in fairness the American way is still the best way because it is democratic and has the uncanny ability to right itself when the American ship wobbles in rough seas. In grappling with its problems in a democratic way and upholding the rule of law, proves that the country is mature, fair, and willing to admit its mistakes.

When President Barrack Obama recently admitted losing touch with the American people after the Republicans won a key senate seat that was held by the late Democrat Ted Kennedy it proved the American way is admirable when leaders admit mistakes instead of blaming others.

However differently you frame or name a principle or idea, you can"t avoid doing the right things if you want the desired result that is fair and good for the country as a whole. It is the missing ingredient in the Malaysian recipe. It is in not taking heed of the critics that enlarges the Archilles heel of the politicians.

For many years the book The Malay Dilemma provided the politicians with the ammunition to shoot at critics and opponents of its discriminatory policies and its untested claims were accepted as the truth. It took twenty two years for its author to publicly lament he failed to change his people despite doing his best to help them. But to his detractors, those of his race, it was the author who failed not the people.

The Malaysian Maverick, a recently released book on Malaysia but unofficially banned touches on the lost billions but more than that were the lost opportunities to turn the nation into a first-world country if only greed had not hijacked public policies that engendered a system of political patronage, cronyism and corruption that festers until today.

Malaysia is a unique country with peculiar problems but they are not unsolvable or are they all that difficult to resolve. What is missing is integrity. There are many capable Malaysians who can do the job but they are shut out because of the system of cronyism that breeds corruption which is incompatible with a "clean, efficient and trustworthy" system. We saw how honest judges were victimized in 1988 when the judiciary was hijacked by the executive.

The truth is the problems are nothing compared to what some other countries face and sadly many of the problems are the result of gratuitous and often unfair politicization and appear self-generated by an administration that tries to control everything when it should focus on doing the right thing.

Take the Allah saga as an example. After all the trouble the latest decision is to allow Christians in Sabah and Sarawak to use the term Allah. It is back to square one--almost. But why even bother to rock the boat in the first place? What good has the banning done for the country or anyone?

Malaysia does not need another slogan or new economic fad.

It only needs to do what is right and good for the people. There are many capable Malaysians who can help the nation. It is not short of ideas but those in power lack the moral will to resist the temptations and do what is good. Corruption is like the strangling fig tree that has taken root in the country and threatens to strangulate it.

Corrupt politicians are like strangling figs and the challenge is to not let them take root in the host tree which is the country's administration. Malaysia desperately needs leaders who are decent men and women of integrity and intelligence, who know and understand the times and hear the cries of the people, and will act fairly and expeditiously to restore the integrity and efficacy of governance.

Malaysia simply has to follow the Right Way--which requires its leaders to do what is right and for the right people to take charge. It is time for the clean and competent to take over if they can get into power and for the country to stop running a one-legged race, which seems to me is what OneMalaysia seems to convey.

(STEVE OH is the author of ***Tiger King of the Golden Jungle-Tkotgj.com.)

Quiz with a tantalising prize follows...

Q: Who said the following:

"And, to make matters worse, there are those in the Pakatan Rakyat state government who are Umno’s moles or Trojan Horses. These people intentionally do things that hurt Pakatan Rakyat. And these moles or Trojan Horses are in PAS, PKR, as well as DAP."?

DESI: The prize for guesiing right is a date at the besta tehtarik in Furong and kambing along Paul Street - be dare at 10AM tiomorrow and it's endless rounds of tehtarik, but show me evidence YOU ARE A REGISTERED VOTER! There is no such thingy as a FREE LUNCH or tehtarik in Malaysia. "Hot kari with kepala ikan yu at Kamunting anywan?"


************************ ANSWER to the abovce Q comes in at 6.00pm today after my tehtari' wit' a bunch of hardUP Furongknights who laze by day and philosophise on why there are enough stupid Malaysians who vote BN every 4/5 years for the past 50 years and then Komplen against the Gomen:(
Gawd save Malaysians from themselves/damnedsells!
I:
S:
A:@3.42PM.

**********************************

I.S.A.

(or I Say Amen)

When you play Politics

You must master double speak

And watch out for the nemesis

Lest thou be trodden sick and weak

Linger a while

the opposition will attack you

Smile

It's all part of the Game

Linger more than a w'ile

When comrades hug you, kiss you

They honey you

Set thee for The Sting

Then say your prayers

knightly, nightly, frighfully

That thy mother's Angels watch o'er you

I do that too, yes, I do

"O' Lord Almighty, protect me from all evil

The Opposition enemy I can handle

It's the Devil from within I shudder!"

I:

S:ay

A:men

But the *AP is that Archangel in disguise

You saw Him attired in Dunhill shirt and tie

Then in the Steal of the night

They come for you

Chanting the internal Security Act

And a thousand "Amens"

Can't secure you.

*************************** UPDATEd @5.59PM:)

ANSWER to the Quiz Q:(

Raja Petra Kamarudion or RPK or Your Fave blogger for all times:)

From malaysia-today.net...

Fiddling while the state burns

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Thursday, 21 January 2010 Super Admin

Maybe Anwar is troubled with the move to send him to jail on a fabricated charge of sodomy, and now for being the 'mastermind' behind the church attacks as well. In that case take sabbatical leave and go solve your personal problems first. And after your personal problems have been solved then come back into active political life.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Move to topple Selangor MB intensifies

Free Malaysia Today

Several turncoats and pro-Barisan Nasional elements in the Klang Municipal Council are setting the stage to discredit Selangor Menter Besar Abdul Khalid Ibrahim and topple him soon.

In their attempt to pull the rug under Khalid’s feet in his Kuala Selangor PKR division, 13 of the 16 elected division committee members resigned and his division deputy, Arshad Abu Bakar, claimed yesterday that they included the youth and wanita chiefs.

Quietly, the Klang Municipal Council also moved in to demolish the north Klang taxi stand early Wednesday morning even without endorsement from the Menteri Besar, while the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission has turned the pressure on Pakatan Rakyat elected representatives over minor graft reports.

At a press conference yesterday, Arshad told reporters that PKR’s Kuala Selangor division had lost confidence in Khalid’s leadership but Khalid dismissed Arshad’s claim and said the division had not been disbanded.

Khalid said their resignations were expected because they were originally Umno members who had joined PKR and were now jumping back to Umno.

“The claim of loss of confidence is nothing unusual,” Khalid said. “Perhaps the statement was written by Umno for him to read.”

Arshad claimed that the three remaining elected committee members in the PKR division were Khalid, Faridah Abdul Rahman and himself.

He said the 13 committee members and division youth chief Nazarudin Darmawan and Wanita head Fauziah Sulaiman resigned from their posts between November last year and last Monday.

Arshad claimed that Khalid had failed to lead the division, which had not had its committee meeting in 14 months and did not take the initiative to strengthen the party despite many cases of non-Malay members quitting the party.

After yesterday’s state executive council meeting, Khalid, however, said the status of the division remained unchanged as there was no meeting held to disband the division.

“The election to choose a new committee will be held in March. That is why some want to quit their posts,” he said, adding that it was better for those who were not in tune with the party to resign.

Khalid said there were only 100 PKR members in Kuala Selangor in early 2007 and the number had now increased to 3,000.

He said it was better for the pro-Umno members to leave now than wait until the next general election.

It would be easier for PKR to manage the party without those who were not interested in the concept of Pakatan Rakyat, he added.

Kapar MP and PKR supreme council member S. Manikavasagam said what happened in Kuala Selangor PKR division was a part of an effort to dislodge Khalid from the mentri besar’s post.

He said the demolition of the north Klang taxi stand on Wednesday was carried out by Klang Municipal Council workers quietly in the wee hours.

Manikavasagam said the local councils in the state were currently being used as catalysts to discredit the mentri besar and the Pakatan Rakyat state government.

*************************************************

As the Malays would say: leteh nak cakap (tired of saying it).

Many grumble that I keep repeating myself. They say I keep writing about the same thing over and over again. Well, if you keep doing the same thing over and over again then how can I help not writing about the same thing over and over again?

I keep repeating that only 50% of eligible Malaysian voters come out to vote while 25% stay home and do not vote and 25% do not even bother to register as voters. I have been saying this for more than ten years since 1999. Okay, maybe since 1999 the numbers have increased from eight million to ten million to 12 million, and whatnot. But the percentages still remain 50% vote and 50% do not vote, with half that 50% not even registered as voters.

So what do I do? Say “malas nak cakap” and stop talking about it? Or, as what many accuse me of doing, I go on and on like a broken record until you all get so tired of my nagging that you go out and register as a voter just to shut me up?

Tian Chua of PKR thinks I am fantasising when last year I said Umno has targeted January 2010 to grab back Selangor. Tian Chua said this could never happen. Well, they also said I was fantasising about Umno about to topple the Pakatan Rakyat Perak state government through defections. I personally spoke to Anwar Ibrahim who spoke to Lim Kit Siang and they assured me that that lady is ‘under control’ and the ‘slight problem’ about her not getting a Camry had already been settled.

Then what happens?

Back in the old days it was “a horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!” Today, it is “a car, a car, my pussy for a car!”

At least the two Malay defectors from PKR had a ‘legitimate’ reason for defecting. They were caught on camera bonking two ‘China Dolls’ in a hotel room. With that testimonial to their name they would be most sought after in Umno where your rise up the political ladder depends on your sexual prowess. But to defect because you were not given a car is just too petty.

If I were to say that Chinese are very petty they would whack me for generalising. So I will not say that…and I didn’t, right?

And I keep repeating that in the Pakatan Rakyat-ruled states the tail wags the dog and not the other way around. Again, many would say I sound like a broken record. But how to not sound like a broken record when after I keep repeating this they still do not do anything about it? The state civil service is sabotaging the Pakatan Rakyat state governments. They do things that hurt the Pakatan Rakyat state governments but still nothing is done about it.

Perak fell because the State Secretary plus the entire state machinery and the Malaysian Police Force worked against Pakatan Rakyat. And in Selangor the same thing is happening. The Pakatan Rakyat state government decides one thing and the civil service does the opposite. And what is the Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim doing about it?

I am very tempted to use a four-letter word here but I have been advised not to because there are those below the age of 18 who also read Malaysia Today.

And, to make matters worse, there are those in the Pakatan Rakyat state government who are Umno’s moles or Trojan Horses. These people intentionally do things that hurt Pakatan Rakyat. And these moles or Trojan Horses are in PAS, PKR, as well as DAP.

Remember a few days after the 8 March 2008 general election when I wrote an article about the ‘Unity Government’? I got whacked good and proper for this article and some even accused me of being a Barisan Nasional mole. Okay, I admit, I was just throwing the cat amongst the pigeons, like I always do, to trigger a reaction. Call it playing the role of the Devil’s Advocate if you wish.

But I had already got wind early in the day that Umno and some people in PAS were engaged in secret discussions to explore the possibility of PAS leaving Pakatan Rakyat to team up with Umno to form the state governments in Perak and Selangor. Umno even offered PAS the position of Menteri Besar in these two states and, to sweeten the offer further, Umno even agreed to implement Islamic Laws in these two states.

And I got this from someone very high up in Umno who admitted that he was the key man in the negotiations. And if I can get the IGP’s police officers to report to me how difficult would it be to get key people in Umno to also report to me? Yes, I’m boasting…so what? This is not the time to demonstrate humility. This is war. And in war anything is fair game.

This secret negotiation was at first denied of course. But later Nizar Jamaluddin, Khalid Samad and some other key PAS leaders admitted that it was true and that some leaders in PAS were working on the others to try to convince them to agree to the deal. Tok Guru Nik Aziz even mentioned these people by name and urged them to leave PAS and go join Umno.

Because not many, but only some, were agreeable to the deal, it did not happen. At least there are still many in PAS who are principled enough to not sell their souls. If not, by mid-March 2008, Umno-PAS would have been sworn in as the Perak and Selangor state governments. And Pakatan Rakyat (with only DAP and PKR remaining) would have been reduced to the opposition in these two states.

Do you know that the day they found Teoh Beng Hock’s body sprawled outside the MACC building was the day MB Khalid Ibrahim was supposed to have been arrested for corruption? Fortunately for Khalid Ibrahim and Pakatan Rakyat, the controversy of Teoh’s death forced the MACC to abort the exercise.

You could say that Teoh saved the Selangor government of Pakatan Rakyat. His death gave Pakatan Rakyat extended time. In that sense Teoh is actually a hero and the saviour of the Pakatan Rakyat Selangor state government. He died so that Pakatan Rakyat could live.

We must always remember Teoh for this. He died for his state. And that is more than what I can say for millions of other Malaysians who would not even dare risk their job in the interest of doing the right thing. Teoh sacrificed his life. We will not even sacrifice the money in our pocket. And we call ourselves patriots and loyal sons and daughters of Malaysia.

And these ‘patriots’ and ‘loyal’ sons and daughters of Malaysia would not even ‘suffer’ that small inconvenience of coming out to vote or to register as voters. Is one hour of your precious time too much to sacrifice? That is all it takes, one hour to go and register as a voter once in your life and to come out to vote once every four or five years.

Please stop posting comments praising me and calling me a hero and whatnot. I am tired of such postings. The next time you do this I am going to delete the posting and block you from ever posting again. And if you paid RM10 for the right to post comments in Malaysia Today, send me your back account details and I will refund you your money with interest.

I don’t need your RM10 if all you want to post are comments praising me. Instead, go do your duty. Go get as many Malaysians as possible to register as voters. And convince them to not waste their vote. Come out and vote on Polling Day. Who they vote for is their business but just make sure they are registered to vote and will come out to vote.

Registering as a voter is your constitutional right. But voting is not your right. It is your duty. So exercise your right and fulfil your duty.

Can we organise a demonstration in front of the Selangor State Secretariat building? Or organise a demonstration in front of PKR’s head office at Merchant Square in Jalan Tropicana Selatan 1, Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

No, this will not be an anti-Umno or anti-Barisan Nasional demonstration. This will be an anti-PKR demonstration. Since MB Khalid Ibrahim is from PKR, and the adviser to the Selangor State Government, Anwar Ibrahim, is also from PKR, then we should target PKR. So let’s organise an anti-PKR demonstration in front of either the Selangor State Secretariat building or PKR’s head office at Tropicana.

We, the people, are the boss! We voted for Pakatan Rakyat, which enabled them to form the state government. So we tell them what we want. They do not do what they like. They do what we demand. And we demand that all this shit comes to a stop. Let us demonstrate our unhappiness about what is going on in Selangor.

Selangor is under attack. And Pakatan Rakyat fiddles while the state burns. It is time the people showed Pakatan Rakyat that we can no longer tolerate all this nonsense. Where is Anwar Ibrahim? He took over as the so-called adviser to the Selangor state government weeks ago but what has he done other than fly all over the world meeting religious scholars and delivering keynote addresses at international conferences?

If Anwar wants to play the role of ‘international statesman’ then that is well and fine with me. I have no problems with that. But then give up the position of adviser to the Selangor state government because he is never around to do the job and Selangor is drifting rudderless. And anything that drifts rudderless sooner or later gets stranded on the rocks.

Maybe Anwar is troubled with the move to send him to jail on a fabricated charge of sodomy, and now for being the 'mastermind' behind the church attacks as well. In that case take sabbatical leave and go solve your personal problems first. And after your personal problems have been solved then come back into active political life.

You can’t allow your personal problems to affect your performance at the expense of the voters who voted Pakatan Rakyat into office. And your performance is certainly shoddy indeed. This is a violation of the trust the people put in Pakatan Rakyat.

The people voted for change. They voted for a better government. But all they are getting is the same old shit.

Yes, I am repeating myself. But can I help not repeating myself when after saying the same thing over and over again nothing changes? Selangor is the jewel in the crown. So Umno will leave no stone unturned in its effort to get back this jewel. And what is Pakatan Rakyat doing about it? They are fiddling while the state burns.

Enough said!

I sometime support UMNO leaders...

like Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah when they are rational, thoughtful and Malaysian first, second and last.

From razaleigh.com, belatedly; still it's better later than never!


Tengku Razaleigh’s official weblog

Malaysia’s regime crisis, race politics and the kalimah Allah issue*
with 7 comments

The centre of gravity of global economic activity has been moving eastwards towards Asia for quite some time now. The present global financial crisis has accelerated that process.
Asian economies, led by China, seek to spur domestic demand and increase intra-regional trade. As the global appetite for treasuries and US equities decreases, it is likely that large flows of risk capital will start moving to emerging markets again over the next six months. The main destinations will be India and China, but the countries of Southeast Asia are also set to benefit from these flows of global capital to the extent that they have an economic story to tell. The two top performers are going to be Indonesia and Vietnam. Indonesia, the new “i” in BRIIC, has a market-size, natural resources and liberalisation story while Vietnam has a large and industrious labour force that is skilling upwards rapidly. The Philippines and Thailand, despite political worries, remain relevant for their large domestic markets while Singapore, as the financial hub of the region, benefits from any increase in regional economic activity. This year also sees the full implementation of AFTA and the signing of more regional FTAs. We can be cautiously optimistic about the basis for growth in trade and investment.
I mentioned the major Asean countries but not Malaysia in my list of investment destinations. That is because Malaysia has fallen off the map for much foreign investment. With neither the cost and scale advantages of Vietnam and Indonesia nor the advanced capabilities of Singapore, Malaysia is firmly caught in a middle-income trap and appears to have fallen off the radar screen of foreign investors. It might seem puzzling that this country, sitting at the heart of Southeast Asia, blessed with extraordinary natural, cultural and human capital, and once a beacon in the developing world, has become irrelevant.
I want to discuss how this happened, and reflect on what this story might teach about larger issues of common concern. Other members of Asean might be concerned that a country that was once at the forefront in spearheading regional initiatives is at a crossroads over its own future.
The general election of March 2008 was a watershed in Malaysian politics. The ruling Barisan Nasional coalition lost its accustomed two-thirds majority in the Parliament, and lost five states to the opposition, including the economic backbone states of Selangor, Perak and Penang. Compared to the ebb and flow of power in other parliamentary democracies, you might not find this a remarkable development. Against the backdrop of Malaysia’s political history, however, the entire political landscape had changed overnight. Gone was the invincibility of Umno, the Malay-based party that has dominated Malaysian politics since independence. The political credibility of Umno/BN had been more than just a set of racially-based political parties. Over its decades of ascendancy, history had been re-written, mythology created, and the party abolished and reinvented to reinforce the necessity and inevitability of a government led by Umno.
The formula of communal power-sharing that the Barisan Nasional and its predecessor were built on had started life as a political accommodation, a nation-building compromise, a way-station on the road to a fuller union of our citizens. Fifty years later it had ossified into the appearance of an eternal racial contract, a model replicated at every level of national life. The election results plunged this model, and the regime built upon it, into crisis.
The people are often ahead of their government. They are interested in more things than identity politics. Unable to respond to the reality that the BN formula is broken and the people want more than ethno-religious politics, the ruling party appears to be reacting by digging itself deeper into narrow racial causes with no future in them. This desperate response is self-defeating in a cumulative way. As Umno is rejected by the voters, party members pursue racial issues more stridently. They think this will shore up their “base”. They are mistaken about the nature of that base. As they do so, they become more extreme and out of touch with ordinary voters of every race and religion whose major concerns are not racial or religious identity but matters such as corruption, security, the economy and education.
Umno’s position in the present controversy over the use of the term “Allah” by non-Muslims is an example. In a milestone moment, PAS, the Islamic party, is holding onto the more plural and moderate position while Umno is digging itself into an intolerant hardline position that has no parallel that I know of in the Muslim world. Umno is fanning communal sentiment, and the government it leads is taking up policy lines based on “sensitivities” rather than principle. The issue appears to be more about racial sentiment than religious, let alone constitutional principles.
In a complex multiracial society a party and a government whose primary response to a public issue is sunk in the elastic goo of “sensitivities” rather than founded on principle, drawn from sentiment rather than from the Constitution, is already short of leadership and moral fibre. Public life is about behaving and choosing on principle rather than sentiment. Islam, in particular, demands that our actions be guided by an absolute commitment to justice for all rather than by looking inward at vague “sensitivities” of particular groups, however politically significant. It is about doing what is right rather than protecting arbitrary feelings. If feelings diverge from what is right and just, then it’s time to show some leadership.
“Sensitivities” is the favoured resort of the gutter politician. With it he raises a mob, fans its resentment and helps it discover a growing list of other sensitivities. This is a road to ruin. A nation is made up of citizens bound by a shared conception of justice and not of mobs extracting satisfaction for politicised emotional states.
As a mark of our decline, at some point in our recent history the government itself began to speak the language of sensitivities. In the controversy over whether Christians are allowed to use the term “Allah” the government talks about managing sentiment when it should be talking about what is the right thing to do. This is what government sounds like when a political system and its leadership have come unstuck from the rule of law. It goes from issue to issue, hostage to the brinksmanship of sensitivities. Small matters threaten to erupt into racial conflict. The government of a multiracial society that cannot rise above sentiment is clearly too weak or too self-interested to hold the country together. It has lost credibility and legitimacy. The regime is in crisis.
The deterioration of our political order did not happen overnight or in isolation. It is part of a more general pattern of the decline of democracy and the rule of law in many newer democracies. Many post-colonial societies that began with democratic institutions saw democracy collapse afterwards into dictatorship. I can think of Nigeria, Pakistan and Kenya, for example. What has not been said is that underneath the appearance of continuity, and over two decades, Malaysia has quietly undergone the same process. There has been, beneath the surface, a decisive rupture with the federal, constitutional and democratic system upon which we were founded, and which alone confers legitimacy. What replaced it was an authoritarianism based on personality. Policy was set according to personal whims of the leader, which is to say that in areas such as the economy and foreign affairs, the country was run according to the personal enthusiasms and pet peeves of individual leaders.
Power was consolidated and constitutional government turned back. The result was a recession to authoritarianism and the centralisation of power, abetted by the corruption of the ruling party. The ideology of the ruling party, which had combined Malay nationalism with an overriding national concern, was vulgarised into an easily manipulated politics of group resentment.
Umno started in 1946 as a grassroots-based party that commanded the idealism of my generation. After 1987 it was transformed into a top-down patronage machine. Party membership became a ticket to personal gain. The party attracted opportunists and ne’er do wells while good people stayed away in droves. For any organisation this is a death spiral.
The challenge of Umno and of Malaysia today is not simply reform but restoration, not simply democratisation but re-democratisation. This is because we are not building from scratch but trying to recover from the decline of once-excellent core institutions.
There are regional implications to Malaysia’s crisis. The formation of the Federation of Malaysia in 1963 precipitated a regional conflict to which, in part, the formation of Asean in 1967 was meant to be a solution. Now in a clear sign of the erosion of the rule of law, agreements that structured state-federal relations over matters such as the distribution of the petroleum revenue are casually ignored. Malaysia is a federation of sovereign entities, but one of the consequences of authoritarianism has been that it has come to be run habitually as a unitary state. We have to learn again how to be a federation.
Let me try to draw some conclusions:
Shortcuts in governance may appear to work for awhile, but they wreak long-term havoc on the institutional capability of a nation. Short-term boosts to the economy are difficult to evaluate when 40 per cent of the national budget come from a single source which does not report financial details either to the public or to Parliament.
What is clear is that there is no secure basis for long-term growth without a return to strong institutions, transparency and good government. The challenges of economic development, nation-building and institutional integrity are linked, more so in a complex country like Malaysia.
The success of Asean collaborative measures depends on the core countries taking a lead, and it is in everyone’s interest that these countries have strong democratic institutions and the rule of law. When countries lack good governance and transparency, domestic economies falter, domestic politics goes from crisis to crisis, and the country turns inwards and away from engaging constructively with the real world and with their neighbours.
The economic success of Asean economies up to the Nineties was based in part on the superiority of their institutional frameworks to those of Eastern Europe and South America. In the early days, Malaysia and Singapore played leading roles in Asean. Of late, Malaysia’s role has diminished, while that of Indonesia has grown. It is no accident that this is the result of successful reform and democratisation in Indonesia and the failure so far of any such process in Malaysia. Over the longer term, reform and democratisation must go hand in hand for there to be sustained economic development.
The present Prime Minister has made some helpful gestures towards liberalising the economy and pursuing more multiracial policies. These initiatives, however, must do more than skim the surface of what must be done. Malaysia is in need of fundamental reform. The reforms we need include, at minimum:
a. An overhaul of the party system which rules out racially exclusive parties from facing directly contesting elections. This will inaugurate a new era of post-racial politics.
b. The restoration of the independence of the judiciary and the freedom of the media.
c. An all-out war on corruption, the root of all the evils in nation-building and economic development.
The greater economic collaboration we aspire to in Asean requires that we pay attention to the internal conditions in each country that make it possible. We need to place the promotion of governance and institutional reform on the Asean agenda. I hope this is a matter you see fit to take up.
*Speech delivered by at the ISEAS Regional Outlook Forum 2010 at the Shangri-la Hotel, Singapore on Jan 7.
Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)
Restoring Confidence (ASLI speech)
AKHIRNYA…Terjemahan “God” Sebagai “Allah” Dibenarkan
No Title
The King, Unity, Solution, Bloggers, Freedom, Opinions and Responsibility

You can't eat your POPiah!

The thought police officer is on his rounds
The "Allah" issue has his every second worth in pounds

He checks out the hawker centre
The ah soh and ah sook nod their heads in reverence
You don't want to make an enemy of the TPO
"Gawd morning sir, gawd morning sir!"

Wantan mee is Okay
TPO downs one plate without paying
A nod of approval from him is worth a plate of gold
So what's a free meal for a TPO so bold

Then TPO sees the sign "RM2 for POPiah"
"That's no-go, NO-GO!"
Ah Soh pops her eyes wide
TPO's disapproval means her woe


You can't use this word POPiah
It offends all males who are father to a child
You can't swallow a father whole
How can auntie be so bold?

DESIDERATA: So from that night onwards, Ah Soh has to replace the nomenclature of popIAH
for her humble servings of RM2 to "Flour Koww", for RM2.20.
(The price increase of 10percent takes care of the TPO's consideration to allow
Ah Soh to continue her trade.:(
Thanks to be God, Ah Soh whispers to her ancestors up there, there are such kind thinking police officers around!
I:
S:
A: men...

PS: "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." - Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

PS2: Desi stole this from donplaypuks.blogspot.com, and in returning an unsolicited favour/flavour, the Antam above is indeed dedicated to this fellow BUMmer who is generous with words, in spirit, body and soul. Gb:)

To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.
A robin redbreast in a cage
Puts all heaven in a rage......
- Willam Blake

******************************************************

The following is a GOoD update from an email from bud named mei:) Thanks, Sieh sieh, TERIMA kasih!:):):)

MALAYSIA’S JOKE OF THE YEAR

A man came home from work and his children ran to him and called out ‘Ayah! Ayah!’. His neighbor got very upset and said to him, “Can you please tell your children not to call you ‘Ayah’?” The man asked, “Why?” The neighbor retorted, “Because my children call me ’Ayah’ too. They might get confused and mistake you to be their father.”

from rationality.net, for sweets:)

I'm taking "long" leave
to ponder
to wander
to wonder

whatever
Gb:) mGf

The Desiderata of Happiness and other favorite poems:

Contrary to common belief, the poem "The Desiderata of Happiness" was not the product of folklore, it was written by the German-American publisher Max Ehrmann in 1927. The poem is now in the public domain.

The poems "Man Never Grows up" and "A smile Costs Nothing" inspire tranquility.

These simple poems are my favorite travel companions. They have stood the test of time and have stood me well throughout many decades. I have framed them and they hang in my study. I hold them dear. I cannot help being moved by them because they hold such eternal, but simple, truths.

Above All: Keep Life simple ! Enjoy Every Moment!

Desiderata

GO PLACIDLY AMID THE NOISE AND THE HASTE, AND REMEMBER WHAT PEACE THERE MAY BE IN SILENCE.

As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and ignorant; they, too, have their story.Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexations to the spirit If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater or lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in you own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you for what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals and everywhere live is full of heroism. Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment, it is as perennial as the grass. Take kindly the council of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful.

Strive to be happy.

Max Ehrmann, 1927
(Slightly modified by
The Iconoclast)

Peace

Man never grows up,

he only grows older,

losing on his way

the happiness

of seeing a butterfly

on a blade of grass

and shedding

the simple smile

and simple honesty

of childhood. . .

carrying with him

the loneliness and fear,

the insecurity and rivalry

that clouds his days

with discontent.

Yet, there are still

a few among us

who walk with peace;

having neither envy

nor anger;

neither fear of death

nor hunger for wealth,

who live out their years

with a calm smile . . .

untouched

by the brutal hunger

of other men !

_________Tom Weber