And I couldn't resist extending one Tiger a welcome. I use "him" because often times, animals still display a sense of honour, like thieves. But recently a human sub-species called politikus, in the most developed prescinct called Klang, in the sole developed state in NegaraKu called Selangor, had proven themselves believers of the Law of the Sub-Terrestrial Jungle. Even the wolves and tigers and elephants are above this level of extra-terrestrial hooliganism.
And the state chief is chiefest hooligan of them all.
And I'm in awe because at the federal level, the Chief CEO by his inaction beyond a mere tap on the wrist, falls back into half-stupour, and announced grandious multi-billion ringgit plans in Johor. What these gigantuan sums would attract are more of the sub-species like the three Datuks, Zak, ... & .... (I won't dignify them with names because that would be an injustice and insult to my friends in Animal Kingdom, wouldn't It?)
:
:
Okay, after a long rambling Intro, let's go to a Trailer, cun?
Actually that was a superfluous question; afterall, it's My Blog and I can do what I want, even bordering on Plagiarism; witness now:
Today is a special Sunday; besides Inter:Lude, you get this!
V for Vendetta: V'm Vurprised Vit Vis Vot Vanned Vin Valaysia!
OKay, lest I land up in court because some lundun-based guy is itchy for Money, Honey, the above is best seen in wideHousescope at the Cinematheque furthest you, because you don't want to be seen having SpecialBrunch@howsy.blogspot.com on the Saturday, March 18, 2006.:( God look after thee, and Me, and Nicole, and Mimi. I.S.A:....
:
:
I'm again revisited by the The Beauty of blog-writHing -- in the still of the serene night (is 'serene' reduntant to still?), whence Another penny fell from heaven. And my following day's quota is partially met, like last night (I wanted to use 'lust' for last, but that would be nigh plagiarism of a guy I know too well, which actually is not good. Familiarity breeds contempt, hence I believe this conversationist hides under a pennama called some blardy goodfellow. Do you take His word he's one?
"Desidedata. Sorry to deviate from the your blog topic. Hmm, actually, I am coming close to plagiarism here!!!__________________________________________
(Interruptus by Desi: Because he's first timer here, I allowed his THREE xxclamation marks as in my Desiderata.English, that would be transgression. If Malaysians can make do with te transgressions by Zak & Co, I guess my ER would mind a mild one from this RGF!)
______________________________________________
"Do not make personal attacks or mock any particular individual. This is the advice of Umno deputy president Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak to members.
"Other than that,the delegates are allowed to bring up issues or matters close to their hearts at the discretion of their respective divisions.""
Excerpt lifted from The Star 5 November 2006.
Based on DPM's past words and deeds, I would not be surprised if a certain ethnic group or a defunct political ideology is cast as the cause of all of UMNO's self-inflicted woes this coming November. Which, incidentally reminds of a Story.....
***Once a Tiger cub strayed away and ventured into a herd of Elephants. Unfortunately, the cub being small and all, was trampled in a stampede. Soon after a Jackal found the body of cub and immediately informed the parents.
"I have terrible news. Your son is lying dead in the field." the Jackal said.
"How did it happen? Who did this? I will never rest until I have my revenge!" roared the father Tiger.
"The Elephants did it." answered the Jackal. Quite startled by the Jackal's reply, the Tiger paced back and forth for a few minutes, growling and shaking his head.
"No! you are wrong," the Tiger said at last. "It was the Goats who murdered my Boy!"
And, at once the Tiger bounded down the hill and sprang upon a herd of Goats gazing in the valley below, and in a violent rage killed as many as he could in revenge.***
(Freely adapted from a retelling by William J. Bennett)
--
Posted by Robin Goodfellow to desiderata-ylchong at 11/05/2006 10:04:26 AM ""
Earlier in the week, I had promised to discuss the issue of Plagiarism, which my ER must have become half-expert by now after the wide-ranging debate on Blogsworld spakred by The Taiko@Screenshots. I won't re-visit all the rants and runs and re-runs and also-rans because I deem 90% of them just that: RANTS. Worse yet, some took potshots at the poor guy in the centre of the controversy, and along the way, hit him below the belt, and also some barbs at Singa-pore. Yes, the Land of Lions! And you know why?
All because a fellow Malaysian Brendan Pereira had served time working for the Singapore's Straits Times. Do you want to condemn hundred thousands fellow Malaysians who cross the Causeway every day to earn a decent wage, my CONversationists dare?
And do you also condemn all overseas resident Malaysians working as expatriates in the United States (like Sdr Dr Musa Bakri in the US; or Howsy serving Dim Sum shoppe in London's chineserie shoppe to pay for his post-grad studies, or another mGf "Jonathien Livingstone Seagull" Mei in Belgium on a busman's holiday to expand her horizon?
And the most Venomous criticisms come from people hiding behind Anonymous ... Now I hope you can undersatnd a little more about my Rant yesterday reprised from AllOfHelen?
Okay, back to Sunday's Inter:Lude on Plagiarism ~~
I'll start from the beginning, from the friendly Wikipediathe free encyclopedia:
Mitch Albom
Mitchell David Albom (born May 23, 1958 in Trenton, New Jersey) is an award-winning American sportswriter, novelist, newspaper columnist for the Detroit Free Press, syndicated radio host, and TV commentator. He is a graduate of Akiba Hebrew Academy, Brandeis University, and Columbia University. Before becoming a journalist, Albom was briefly an amateur boxer, nightclub singer, and pianist.
Albom wrote the best-selling book, Tuesdays With Morrie (1997). After being featured prominently in Oprah Winfrey's Oprah's Book Club, the book sold exceptionally well, and Oprah Winfrey produced a television movie adaptation for ABC starring Hank Azaria and Jack Lemmon. The television movie adaptation of Tuesdays with Morrie was the most watched television movie of 1999 and won four Emmy Awards. Albom has another book – the New York Times best-seller, The Five People You Meet in Heaven (2003). It sold very well, although some have criticized its sentimentalism. It also was turned into a television movie for ABC, starring Jon Voight, Ellen Burstyn, Michael Imperioli and Jeff Daniels.
His most recent book is titled For One More Day, published on September 26, about a son who gets to spend a day with his mother who died eight years earlier.
Some respected book reviewers fault his work for being overly sentimental and for lacking enduring qualities.
Sports Columnist
Albom first gained fame as a sports columnist for the Detroit Free Press newspaper. Between 1985 and 2000 Albom wrote several sports column each week, as well as a general commentary column on Sundays. Currently his columns appear on a sporadic basis.
From the start his columns were noteworthy for their excellence, depth, and breadth. They covered sports but often used it as a springboard to discussions of broader issues of life and character.
Each year his sports columns were entered in the Associated Press Sports Editors contest. Albom competed against columnists at newspapers with a circulation above 250,000. All entries are judged anonymously. Preliminary judging is done by more than 90 sports editors, then senior news executives at papers throughout the United States make the final awards. The judges change each year.
Albom is the most decorated winner in the history of the contest. Between 1985 and 2000 Albom won first place in column writing thirteen times, and between 1991 and 2000 he won first prize in feature story writing seven times.
*****CONtroversy
Albom was the center of a journalistic controversy in April 2005. His column on April 3 described former Michigan State University Spartans Mateen Cleaves and Jason Richardson cheering Michigan State University at a Final Four game against North Carolina on April 2. However, he later announced that this was not true: the players were never at the game.
Upon an internal investigation, the Detroit Free Press explained that Albom's column was written based on interviews he'd had with the two players the week prior to the game. They had both expressed plans to be at the game but were unable to attend. Albom did not have an opportunity to omit this in his column, however, because the deadline for the Sunday column was April 1 - the night before the actual game. The newspaper declared that disciplinary actions would be taken. Some publicly called for Albom's resignation.
Mitch Albom stirred controversy once again in an October 2006 column in which he dismissed allegations that Detroit Tigers pitcher Kenny Rogers had used pine tar in the palm of his pitching hand by stating he had 'shaken Kenny Roger's hand after the game and there was not sticky substance on it'. A New York Times Sports Writer pointed out several days later that Kenny Rogers is a left handed pitcher (most people shake hands with their right hand)."
And from www.regrettheerror.com is extracted the following:
And here is Albom's mea culpa, which ran the day before the editor's note:
To our readers: I made an assumption in a column this past weekend. It was a bad move. In a column written Friday for our Sunday newspaper, I assumed that what I had been told by Mateen Cleaves and Jason Richardson had indeed happened, that they had indeed flown to the Final Four, sat in the stands together rooting on Michigan State in Saturday's game. That was their plan. Both told me so in separate interviews. Because the column had to be filed on Friday afternoon, but appeared on Sunday, I wrote it in the past tense, as if it already had happened.
While it was hardly the thrust of the column -- which was about nostalgia and college athletes -- it was wrong just the same. You can't write that something happened that didn't, even if it's just who sat in the stands. Perhaps, it seems a small detail to you -- the players still love their teams, they are still nostalgic, they simply decided not to go after the column had been filed -- but details are the backbone of journalism, and planning to be somewhere is not the same as being there.
So I owe you and the Free Press an apology, and you have it right here. It wasn't thorough journalism. While our deadlines would have required some weird writing -- something like, "By the time you read this, if Mateen and Jason stuck to their plans, they would have sat in the stands for Saturday's game" -- it should have been done. We have high standards at this newspaper, and I have high standards for myself. We -- the editors and I -- got caught in an assumption that shouldn't have happened. It won't again. Thanks"
April 13, 2005 at 08:00 AM in Major Errors, Newspapers | Permalink
DESIDERATA:
Which shows the occupational hazards of Journalism. We have had Orbituaries of living personalities being "aired" before time when "mock practices" were inadvertently broadcast so that even the "deceased" heard the news of his/her own death. So what else is new/s?
The important thing is that Mitch Albom did Apologise for his errors.
And generally, readers are forgiving.
Okay, now to the Root of the Debate!
I Cut&Paste from some Blogger's (I think), who also C&P from the Internet, I surmise, who must have got permisssion to circulate it freely, I presume. Anyway,I reiterate here that Desiderata-YLChong is a non-profit proposition. I presume I am not that famous to receive a suit for Plagiarism, so here it goes, i all its naked glory:
Published: September 10. 2006 3:00AM
Nation/World
MITCH ALBOM:
Remembering the day before the day
Email this Print this BY MITCH ALBOM
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
Tomorrow, we remember.
But today, we lament.
Tomorrow, Sept. 11 -- the five-year anniversary -- we see the deluge of grizzly images, we hear speeches from politicians, we make vows to avenge those who perished, we make grim promises to fight on in the war on terror.
But today is just as sad an anniversary. Today, in some ways, aches even more.
If Sept. 11 was the day we never saw coming, Sept. 10 was the day we will never see again.
And we miss it terribly.
We miss when you could pull up at an airport without bracing for a military exercise.
We miss when toothpaste was not considered a weapon.
We miss when the most well-known Muslim names in America were professional athletes.
We miss when a "cell" was a biological term.
We miss when politicians didn't make you feel that you're one of us or you're one of them.
We miss when one party didn't call the other party cowards and consider that a foreign policy.
We miss Sept. 10.
The tragic reminder
We miss when going to New York City meant a mandatory trip to a Broadway play, not a mandatory trip to a large, sad hole in lower Manhattan.
We miss when seeing someone reading the Quran didn't make us nervous.
We miss when we actually celebrated how free and open our borders were.
We miss when Al-Jazeera was just another TV channel we'd never heard of.
We miss when we saw war crimes and said, "Our soldiers don't do that," instead of, "Well, look at what the other guys do."
We miss when Islam was just another religion in the world.
We miss when pilots used to let kids come up to see the cockpit.
We miss when movies would open with shots of a skyline and two giant blue towers.
We miss when we never thought of sending anthrax through the mail, or lighting a shoe on fire, or putting explosives in sports drink bottles.
We miss simplicity.
We miss Sept. 10.
A troubled future
We miss when "jihad" was a foreign word.
We miss when belts could stay on.
We miss when we didn't war amongst ourselves over a war somewhere else.
We miss when we thought paying for gas was just an expensive habit, not a means of enriching our enemies.
We miss when we spoke to our Arab neighbors and didn't hear a voice in our heads whispering, "I wonder whose side they'd be on?"
We miss when you didn't have to show ID for everything.
We miss the feeling that there wasn't a large cloud hanging over our future, and our children's future, and our grandchildren's future, a feeling that nothing could be trusted, that you were never really safe, that this enemy which is only too happy to die for its cause wants to make sure we go first -- and this enemy is not going away.
We miss sleeping soundly.
We miss not being so smart.
We miss our naivete.
We cry on Sept. 11.
But we miss Sept. 10.
Yes, as a form of "tit for tat, butter for fat", I'm also plugging for Mitch:Contact MITCH ALBOM at 313-223-4581 or malbom@freepress.com. Order tickets for the charity launch of Albom's new novel, "For One More Day," at 248-433-1515 or ticketmaster.com. The Sept. 27 event at Fox Theatre features Tony Bennett, Hank Azaria and Joe Dumars. Tickets are $40 and include an autographed copy. www.freep.com/mitch.
Okay, to the lamb chop proper!
Brendan Pereira on Monday: How dearly we miss June 6
30 Oct 2006
Brendan Pereira
WE never saw June 7 coming. Sure, there were whispers that he was not happy with the way his successor was running the country; with the way ministers and business friends were not returning calls.
But no one saw June 7 coming. That was the day Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad accused the PM of stabbing him in the back; of reversing his policies; of cancelling projects, including the half-bridge to Singapore. He attacked with the ferocity of a street fighter and suggested that Abdullah was the second choice for the top job in the country.
He wanted to know why Tengku Mahaleel Tengku Ariff was no longer running Proton, why development in Putrajaya had slowed down. He wanted to know why the person he left in charge of the country was no longer dancing to his tune.
Looking back, that was the day when he crossed the line. History records these watershed events because they change the mood of the country, pit kin against kin and dominate the landscape.
If June 7 is the day we never saw coming, June 6 is the day we will not see again for a while. And how we miss it.
We miss going to lunches or dinners and just shooting the breeze, instead of spending hours dissecting the latest tirade and figuring out why power is so hard to let go.
We miss those days when people didn make you feel that youe one of us or youe one of them.
We miss the time when "half-past six" was used in a moment of levity between childhood friends.
We miss the time when exclusive interviews about Malaysia on CNN, BBC, CNBC or Bloomberg were about the country and its prospects, not about a political sideshow.
We miss when a can of aerosol can was not considered a weapon.
We miss the days we watched leaders in other countries slug it out in public and said: "At least our leaders don do that."
We miss when we didn war among ourselves over a war being waged by an individual.
We miss when we spoke to a friend and didn hear a voice in our heads whispering: "I wonder whose side he is on?"
We miss when peace talks referred to discussions between the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lanka government or between the warring factions in Palestine.
We miss the feeling when there wasn a cloud hanging over the political landscape, and a feeling that no words or explanations can be a balm to this festering sore.
We miss the days when the mention of Dr Mahathir name unleashed a vision of a leader handing over power at the peak of his powers, not a mental picture of someone seeking to bring down someone in power.
We miss the days when the prime minister had to defend his policies, not parry personal attacks.
We miss when a volley referred to a sweet left foot strike by Wayne Rooney, not a barb fired across the bow by the former PM against his perceived enemies.
We miss when we spoke of a legacy in glowing terms not with a sense of doom.
We miss when the world looked at us with pride and wondered why other young countries could not have a smooth change of guard.
We miss when Dr Mahathir spoke like a statesman.
We miss the time when we did not have to rake up our dark past and remember stories of former prime ministers taking on incumbents. Tunku Abdul Rahman and Tun Hussein Onn deserve their rest and place in history.
We miss the days when the battle lines were clear -- government versus opposition.
Yes, we miss June 6.
DESIDERATA:
I think Brendan's wirting clearly showed that he ADOPTED the style that Mitch used in his comparison of September 11 and the Day Before. The local 911 was equivalent to a fromer Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's June 7's Face-Off with Prime Minister Pak Lah (which I have written about in a ongoing series... so I don't wish to bore my ER what it;s about. If you still wonder aloud what it's about, please continue with your Rip van Winks Okay! You might even be better for it!:).
Brendan's act would have been excused if he was an Honourable Schoolboy like in our school days making speeches or debating based on the well quoted Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, or even Shakespeare's "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears..."
Oh, no -- this is one top Editor of an UMNO-controlled organ who is the cynosure of many loaded eyes, especially hailing from UMNO which is now famous by its top leaders' admissions and convictions, is just filled with Money-Politicking so much so the Crocodiles from Lake Titiwangsa have come ashore and lurking at every nook and corner of some royal towns. But another species including some famous Bloggers have also entrenched themselves into UMNO politics, which is inevitable as some benefited from the Olde Regime, and others are left out in the Nu'e Regime. Changing of the guards, and the majority of the electorate remain as spectators at the Sandiwara going on on the PWTC Stage, which will reach another climax come November.
Perhaps, some of these Bloggers need to be reminded of the concept of Ad Hominem logic that Y&A johnleemk articulated so well ... if you don't know where, I'm not going to tell you because sometimes Ignorance is bliss.
Yes, another blogger mGf @xpyred.textfiend.net has a good write on same subject; just an extract, from: ~~
"monsterblog naysayers and ‘out-ing’ people
Dismissing someones opinion, argument or statements on the basis that they work for the ‘evil empire’ or NST, TNB or Monsterblog is wrong. It is a fallacious argument to say:
1. She works for TNB.
2. Therefore her arguments are suspect.
That’s faulty reasoning, and the fallacy is, in general form, an ad hominem, and more specifically, poisoning the well. It’s intellectually dishonest, at least, to refuse to engage a person’s arguments on the basis of their affiliation with anyone or anything.
:
:
:....(Go and read the rest, for your own education if not elevation.--Desi)"
AM I digressing? Or you want Desi to provide te relevance and context? No, I won't insult my EsteemedReaders' intelligence.
One parting shot:
To err is human, To forgive divine.
I'm also reminding myself on this Good Sabbath Die.because you never know when your Maker is going to tap of thy shoulder and say: Let's go and meet those Eight people in Heaven! Seven is Desi's fave number; Eight is all the Chinoserie's.
I borrow from a Conversationist's views at JeffOoi's Screenshots; I only wish the writer Legal Beagle could identify himself/herself after reading this so that I could propelry acknowledge her succinct and ariculate input... A sincere request which can be considered also rhetorical in tat I would respect the writer if he/she wants to remain merely a penname in blogosphere.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~From LegalBeagle's~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"This is a very difficult and nebulous area - establishing plagiarism these days is hard because wholesale plagiarism is rare these days. In an academic context, plagiarism usually refers to lifting or copying of other people's work - such as journal articles and scholarly works - without attributing it correctly. In artistic plagiarism, it could relate to style, or perhaps sentence structure, or a certain way of expressing things. The case of the Harvard student, Kaavya Viswanathan, who was accused to plagiarism of another author's work, for her own book is a good example. In that instance (check the Harvard Crimson for the comparison) the plagiarism was quite clear when the comparisons were done because whole sentences, down to structure were lifted.
The focus of plagiarism (whether academic or creative plagiarism) is not that you copied it, but that you passed it off as your OWN. So, using that as the context...
In defense of Brendan Pereira, it could be said that his op-ed was 'inspired by' the piece by Mitch Albom and that he merely copied certain 'style' attributes of the piece. Perhaps he was on a deadline and 'inadvertantly' recalled the style of the piece and thought it would work.
Or perhaps he was just plain lazy - which is usually the reason why people plagiarise. And it might have just been that he thought - it's such an obscure article, in a paper probably no Malaysian reads - who's going to know? (another typical thought that plagiarists usually comfort themselves with)
Here's the difference: Smart writers don't plagiarise, they 'pay tribute'. It is true that when you want to steal, steal from the great masters. But smart writers steal and make it better, so the work eventually becomes their own. (think Tarantino). Copycats only know how to lift something, without making it better or truly their own.
Pity he forgot to add the bit about 'tribute' and 'inspired by'. Because that would have made it clear he was a smart writer, instead of a hack.
In a time when we're busy trying to make examples of wrongdoers and the people at the top are trying to restore wrecked values, nothing could do more for the credibility of the NST as a publication, and the profession of journalism in this country, which is not above stealing from the Internet (even the Star has done so) and badly written stories, than for Brendan Pereira to be SACKED. Like the NY Times sacked Jayson Blair, who fabricated stories.
And so...with apologies to Mitch Albom and regards to Brendan Pereira:
I miss the days when newspapers understood the meaning of investigative journalism, rather than the language of advertising dollars.
I miss the days when I looked forward to reading the newspaper, rather than regarding it as a waste of money and kitty litter tray liner at best.
I miss the days when integrity was the hallmark of a journalist, and sensationalism was something that came out of the pages of The Sun (UK).
Oh wait a minute...there never were such days. Ever.
Posted by: LegalBeagle
DESIDERATA:
As I wrote earlier, the important thing is that Mitch Albom did Apologise for his errors.
And generally, readers are forgiving.
Would Brendan also tender an apology?
"To be or not to be? " That's the question.
If I did not attribute where this came from, would Desi be guilty of Plagiarism. Your Call, mGf...
Because always remember, this is a very thin, gray line.
It's a sad development in media, and bloggers should not behave like Wolves and Tigers rushing into the slaughter house baying for blood.
Everyone's blood is commonly red.
My own verdict on Brendan's endeavour is that he's guilty of recklessness in failing to at least say "I'm inspired by Mitch Albom's write etc, etc ....". On the charge of Plagiarism, it's a dicey decision at best, which means I sit on the fence, and return a "hung" verdict.
As a fellow writer, I would be heartless to add on to any more pain after all the uncalled and ungrounded gore and condemnations (some just one-liners with no grounds to support their findings of guilt! WHICH I DETEST as in my discourse with fellow conversations, I have always demand that one gives Da Rationale, mousey-one also can!)
At the end of the day, I learn that in Criminal Law, what little I know OK! ~~ they teach you a concept called mens rea (the motive for a crime or offence) in relation to the finding of guilt.
Is there mens rea in Brenda's case?
Only the writer himself, Brendan, and his God, however he deems Him to be, will kniow the Truth, the absolute truth. I give Brendan the benefit of the doubt there was no mens rea in his October 30, 2006 piece.
Would someone be wishing that October 29 would pass by him once more?
I think the best person "to make a judgment call on Brendan's piece whether it be Plagiarism or Not" is Mitch Albom himself. I believe a person who erans B&B through wordsmithry will be also a humanist at heart. I know at heart Mitch'd be forgiving, as I deciphered from his Tuesdays With Morrie (on which I did a three-piece rumination, did I?) -- as long as Brendan swallows his pride and does an Apology along Mitch's line as captured at www.regrettheerror.com, Yes?
PS: I would myself forward this piece to Mister Mitch Albom and await his reply, even it is from Heaven. Or Healthlah.
Sunday, November 05, 2006
Saturday, November 04, 2006
Plagiarism and wolves baying for blood
Desi has been a li'l playfool in advising some Young&Articulates, especially those feminine ones from some Oz bundocks or Jinjang Croc Dundee Village, to be XXtra carrefol when venturing into B'g, B'd Koala Lumpu because an unwitting Red Riding Hood may just become food for Da Wolf in Branded Attire.
Likewise, in Blogosphere nowadays, some wolves are baying for blood whenever the slighest opportunity arises to fell a fellow ascribe, whether online or in print.
For the Record, I reproduced from The Star this hot issue which throws up some mighty good examples of whtt's hinted in my Intro. But don't mind Desi if you rule me Our Of Ordere, okay, but WTF***s, this is MY Blog.
But before that, just to tell you why desi's in battle-weary gear this afternoon, I do a Cut&Paste about wolves in blogosphere who do a Hit&Run under the cloak of Anonymity. I smell blood. I can't draw but I give these scoundrels gore. Some Awe.
Peace to the Rest!
From allofhele.blogspot.com~~
"**
Anonymous said...
i was draw in to your blog when i read rojak blog, you know what, there always people like you, who make comments like this - is speaking chinese lower your staus quo ? bark bark bark, while actually deep down inside, it is you yourself who felt shameful to be chinese, the whole blog show nothing but a materialistic, western kow tou sarong party girl who will migate the first chance she ever have or the country is in chaos.
3:33 AM
silverstar said...
dear anonymous
there will also be ppl like you who post his/her own shit only because he/she has nothing better to say (but i believe you're a guy)
oh you seem to have special power eh cos only by reading this blog, you already knew how to read the blogger's mind or charater, well if i can read yours, i'd say you seem to have serious problem, maybe tokking from your own experience eh, maybe a gal dumped a jerk like you for someone better (who just happened to be a westerner?)
and by the way if you've got balls, don't just use anonymous
8:58 AM **"
I added my piece of mind to Anon which I reprised from Helen's -- Will this amount to Plagiarism?
"desiderata said...
silverstar:
Can I lend you my sledgehammer to pound the Anonymous summore until he shows his blardy face. I agree it's 99% a He; the other 1% is for allowance for the in-between. Your theory about being illtreated by SPG who left him for a gwailo is also about 99% right; being a leftist myself, such Anon I've met many times lah inblogsworld. They are NOT even proud of the name their Mama/Papa went through great labour of at least nine months to give him, so let's give him a decent burial here with "R.I.H.P." (Rest in Hell Permanently)
PS: Sorry dear hoRst Helen, I just had to put in 3sen more for a shining star!:)
(Cos I had suffered similar fate like you before from BlogsCowards...)
8:49 PM "
For Desi's take on Brendan Pereira's much maligned Plagiarism alleged offence, I may serve up as Inter:Lude if I sirvive the sext 24. Otherwise, please say some kind words in thy good heart for me, will you?
I don't need to hear from you. For those ER with whom I connect, I can feel you.
Saturday November 4, 2006
BBC defends report on editor
KUALA LUMPUR: The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) said its report on the controversy surrounding the departure of New Straits Times Group Editor Brendan Pereira is “entirely legitimate.”
“We are aware of the New Straits Times’ feelings regarding our report on their editor and his planned departure. We feel it was entirely legitimate to report on the controversy surrounding the departure of their aforementioned editor.
“We are currently considering our formal response to the New Straits Times,” a BBC spokesperson said yesterday in an e-mail response from London.
The NSTP on Friday demanded that the BBC immediately retract an online story on Pereira ending his term of service.
It threatened to sue the BBC if the story on Pereira was not retracted. It claimed that the BBC journalist had made no attempt to contact the NSTP to check the “veracity of his story.”
The BBC journalist, Jonathan Kent, in an online article on the BBC website entitled Malaysia Editor in Plagiarism Row, had written that Pereira was stepping down amidst allegations that he plagiarised the work of an American journalist.
The journalist said the similarities between Pereira’s recent article and that of the American journalist were “striking.”
He wrote that Pereira had told the BBC that his departure had been agreed with the paper two weeks before the publication of the controversial article.
The NSTP chief executive officer Datuk Syed Faisal Albar said in an article carried by the newspaper on Friday that Pereira’s article was clearly not plagiarism.
DESI: The highllights (italised or Bolded thus) are Desi's. More blood and gore will be shed, and Bloggers are now entrenched among the protagonists or as bit players. I'm still ass=piring for Max Ehrmann's status, and more enriching if possible, on Hollywood's Trail. But if some of my poems show similar strains to Max's songs, would thou please not label me a Plagiatist. Copycat will do as I say, sometimes I venture out into Seremban's dark alleys and see a Chelshire cat chasing some rats ... Oh, sister Helen cometh to the rescue by adding the ending para, Cun?
Likewise, in Blogosphere nowadays, some wolves are baying for blood whenever the slighest opportunity arises to fell a fellow ascribe, whether online or in print.
For the Record, I reproduced from The Star this hot issue which throws up some mighty good examples of whtt's hinted in my Intro. But don't mind Desi if you rule me Our Of Ordere, okay, but WTF***s, this is MY Blog.
But before that, just to tell you why desi's in battle-weary gear this afternoon, I do a Cut&Paste about wolves in blogosphere who do a Hit&Run under the cloak of Anonymity. I smell blood. I can't draw but I give these scoundrels gore. Some Awe.
Peace to the Rest!
From allofhele.blogspot.com~~
"**
Anonymous said...
i was draw in to your blog when i read rojak blog, you know what, there always people like you, who make comments like this - is speaking chinese lower your staus quo ? bark bark bark, while actually deep down inside, it is you yourself who felt shameful to be chinese, the whole blog show nothing but a materialistic, western kow tou sarong party girl who will migate the first chance she ever have or the country is in chaos.
3:33 AM
silverstar said...
dear anonymous
there will also be ppl like you who post his/her own shit only because he/she has nothing better to say (but i believe you're a guy)
oh you seem to have special power eh cos only by reading this blog, you already knew how to read the blogger's mind or charater, well if i can read yours, i'd say you seem to have serious problem, maybe tokking from your own experience eh, maybe a gal dumped a jerk like you for someone better (who just happened to be a westerner?)
and by the way if you've got balls, don't just use anonymous
8:58 AM **"
I added my piece of mind to Anon which I reprised from Helen's -- Will this amount to Plagiarism?
"desiderata said...
silverstar:
Can I lend you my sledgehammer to pound the Anonymous summore until he shows his blardy face. I agree it's 99% a He; the other 1% is for allowance for the in-between. Your theory about being illtreated by SPG who left him for a gwailo is also about 99% right; being a leftist myself, such Anon I've met many times lah inblogsworld. They are NOT even proud of the name their Mama/Papa went through great labour of at least nine months to give him, so let's give him a decent burial here with "R.I.H.P." (Rest in Hell Permanently)
PS: Sorry dear hoRst Helen, I just had to put in 3sen more for a shining star!:)
(Cos I had suffered similar fate like you before from BlogsCowards...)
8:49 PM "
For Desi's take on Brendan Pereira's much maligned Plagiarism alleged offence, I may serve up as Inter:Lude if I sirvive the sext 24. Otherwise, please say some kind words in thy good heart for me, will you?
I don't need to hear from you. For those ER with whom I connect, I can feel you.
Saturday November 4, 2006
BBC defends report on editor
KUALA LUMPUR: The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) said its report on the controversy surrounding the departure of New Straits Times Group Editor Brendan Pereira is “entirely legitimate.”
“We are aware of the New Straits Times’ feelings regarding our report on their editor and his planned departure. We feel it was entirely legitimate to report on the controversy surrounding the departure of their aforementioned editor.
“We are currently considering our formal response to the New Straits Times,” a BBC spokesperson said yesterday in an e-mail response from London.
The NSTP on Friday demanded that the BBC immediately retract an online story on Pereira ending his term of service.
It threatened to sue the BBC if the story on Pereira was not retracted. It claimed that the BBC journalist had made no attempt to contact the NSTP to check the “veracity of his story.”
The BBC journalist, Jonathan Kent, in an online article on the BBC website entitled Malaysia Editor in Plagiarism Row, had written that Pereira was stepping down amidst allegations that he plagiarised the work of an American journalist.
The journalist said the similarities between Pereira’s recent article and that of the American journalist were “striking.”
He wrote that Pereira had told the BBC that his departure had been agreed with the paper two weeks before the publication of the controversial article.
The NSTP chief executive officer Datuk Syed Faisal Albar said in an article carried by the newspaper on Friday that Pereira’s article was clearly not plagiarism.
DESI: The highllights (italised or Bolded thus) are Desi's. More blood and gore will be shed, and Bloggers are now entrenched among the protagonists or as bit players. I'm still ass=piring for Max Ehrmann's status, and more enriching if possible, on Hollywood's Trail. But if some of my poems show similar strains to Max's songs, would thou please not label me a Plagiatist. Copycat will do as I say, sometimes I venture out into Seremban's dark alleys and see a Chelshire cat chasing some rats ... Oh, sister Helen cometh to the rescue by adding the ending para, Cun?
Two views, and Desi is caught in the middle
This morning's Inbox Emails contain one familiar name ~~ Sdr Dr Bakri Musa based in California has kindly sent Desi the following, his latest precious thoughts. I'm reprising it in full but I stress that though Desi's thoughts coincide with many of Bakri's viewpoints, the good doctor's opinions stated within are entirely his, and his alone.
The reason for the foregoing Intro will reveal itself if my ER exercise Patience, which I have always preached is a Virtue to be prized, just as good writes like the following, and off course, Desi's sometimes!(can't do it from the pulpit on Sundays, hence ...). Ooops, an early CON BF this morn -- which is bright and shiny -- maketh Desi go off the highway sometimes. But knoweth thou that when the good Lord favours thee, one finds the rarest gems along the byways, nooks and corners of Seremban, like sighting an Alley cat in heat chasing the scurrying rats -- to let off steam or what? Breakfast, that's mighty universal at this time of day.
So I give thee a highly committed writer on the Malaysian landscape, the big picture along with the wild, mild and high, shy things going on within:
Lead! Or Get Out of the Way
by M. Bakri Musa (www.bakrimusa.com)
Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi should quit whining. Lead, or get out
of the way! He has had three years to make up his mind. If there is
any jantan (male) left in UMNO, this is the brutally frank message he
needs to deliver to his leader.
There is a place for loyalty to the leader, but not at the price of the
followers being led collectively over the cliff.
The singa (lion) in UMNO is long gone; the kittens have taken over.
Their meows would be heard loud and clear (and incessantly too!) only
when they run out of milk. The ginger has also been long uprooted from
UMNO garden. What we have instead are Bell peppers; colorful but
pepper only in name, it spiciness long ago bred out of them.
At the upcoming UMNO General Assembly, expect effusive choruses of
praise and an orgy of adulation for the leader of the day. In
spectacle, it would not match what the North Koreans regularly put on
for their dear Leader, but the exuberance of the glorifications and
the superlatives used would; their intensity matching the desperation
of the speakers in being beholden to their leader.
Abdullah's sycophants have already bestowed him with the glorified
title of Father of the K-Economy,whatever that means. I suggest he
be adorned with a more appropriate appellation, Bapak Tanah Kayangan! (Father of Fantasyland!)
Obscenely generous money politics and political patronages have
effectively emasculated UMNO. To be sure there will be plenty of
gaily-attired putris (princesses) gracing the gathering. They will add
color to the otherwise dull background, but nothing more. As for the
putras (princes), they will be dozing off, having spent their late
nights with the Mat Rempits terrorizing the streets and neighborhoods
with their motorcycles.
I long for brave souls along the fashion of the late Sulaiman Palestin. He never hesitated to challenge even the most esteemed leader. If he were alive today, he would courageously introduce a "No Confidence" resolution at the Assembly. Even if it were not successful, it might
just prove to the needed shock for Abdullah to come out of his slumber.
The man has been daydreaming for too long.
Pathetic Performance with Mahathir
Abdullah's performance after (and also presumably during) his
one-on-one meeting with his predecessor was pathetic. If Abdullah
cannot stand up to Mahathir, how on earth can we expect Abdullah to
look after the nation's interests in even tougher negotiations with
foreign leaders?
Mahathir effectively reduced Abdullah to an errand schoolboy guilty of
being delinquent in his homework and now has to write down a hundred
times, "Imust pay attention to my work and not doze off!"?
According to Abdullah, Mahathir did most of the talking. Abdullah by
his own admission was too polite to interfere. Touching! According to
Mahathir (and Abdullah corroborated this), he brought up the very same
issues he had been harping on for the past few months.
Abdullah does not need to listen to the details again; presumably he
had heard them before and would by now be ready with the answers and
rebuttals. Malaysians and the world have certainly heard Mahathir's
litany of complaints. What he and we needed were answers. Yet there
was the sorry sight of Abdullah pleading for more time! If Abdullah
does not get it by now, he never will.
What Abdullah should have done when Mahathir began to repeat what he
had said many times before was to stop him cold and assert, "With due
respect Tun, I have heard them all before, and many times over. Let me
address them one by one!" With that, effectively take over the
meeting. Then we would know who was in charge!
After the meeting, Abdullah should have called for a press conference
and publicly invited Mahathir to join in. That of course would take
confidence and leadership, the very qualities so clearly lacking with
Abdullah.
Instead it was Mahathir who gave not one but two press conferences to
let the public know what transpired between them. Abdullah was reduced
to whining and complaining that Mahathir was spewing venom. He took
solace behind the protective but ineffectual barks of his ministers and
spinmeisters.
Abdullah forgot that the issues Mahathir raised are also very much in
the public mind. He owes Malaysians, not just Mahathir, an
explanation. Whining, maintaining an elegance silence, or asking his
surrogates to answer for him merely exposes Abdullah's lack of
engagement. What we have in Abdullah is not a chief executive but a
pseudo sultan, and not a very regal one at that. Malaysia already has
nine sultans; it does not need a tenth.
During this past Ramadan, Abdullah was busy being an imam, dispensing
homilies and delivering sermons. Again, Malaysia has no shortage of
imams and khatibs, what it needs desperately is a chief executive.
The Issue is Abdullah's Leadership
Mahathir has long retired as Prime Minister; his legacy is for
historians to dissect. Abdullah is a significant part of that legacy.
At issue here however is Abdullah's leadership, or lack of it. He
hides his inability to make the tough decisions by rationalizing that
he leads through consensus. That has long been the excuse of the
indecisive.
Mahathir singled out Kalimullah Hassan and Brendan Pereira for their sinister influences on Abdullah. Mahathir is being kind to Abdullah. In my view, Abdullah's faults and weaknesses are his own making. If he
had guts, he would have long ago fired the two, not for their presumed
bad advice but for their juvenile commentaries, blatant plagiarisms,
and inability to stem the declining readership of the once proud The
New Straits Times. If the two cannot even run their paper, how can
they presume to know how to run the country?
When the issue of conflict of interest with his family's businesses
arose, Abdullah at first denied it. When confronted with the facts, he
did not deny the business dealings rather that he did not know about
them! He should have been embarrassed by his ignorance; instead he
used it as a pretext! Now that Mahathir had brought the issue directly
to him, Abdullah's latest excuse was that Mahathir's sons too were
involved in the past. Soon Abdullah will exhaust his explanations.
Instead of seeking solutions, Abdullah grabs at excuses. Since his
advisors and those on the infamous fourth floor have not offered him
any, I will offer my solution on avoiding future potential conflicts of
interest.
Henceforth, any family member (spouse, sibling, children, in-laws) of
the prime minister, minister, or any senior government official doing
business with the government would have their contracts and bids
subjected to a post-decision independent review by a commission to be
headed by a former senior judge. That body would have court powers to
subpoena witnesses and records. Its deliberations would also be open
to the public. Details like the companies' capabilities and
principals, as well the bids of other competitors, would be examined.
Let the sunshine in; that is the only effective way to disinfect the
current cesspool that is the government's procuring process.
Related to the issue of conflict of interest is the increasing private
use of public assets by Abdullah and other leaders. The Prime Minister
is treating the government's luxurious corporate jets as his private
limousines. Someone in Parliament ought to inquire whether the Prime
Minister and his adult children and in-laws reimburse the government
for using the jet on their recent umrah. When President Bush uses Air
Force One for his campaign, his party had to reimburse the government
for the non-official use of the plane.
If we do not make an issue of such abuses at this early stage, it would
not take long for more egregious patterns to emerge. Soon you would
have some sycophantic politicians suggesting that Sri Perdana be deeded
to Abdullah.
Abdullah constantly decries about Malaysians having First World
facility but Third World mentality. The government's fleet of
corporate jets is certainly First World, but its current users are not.
Abdullah should draw up clear guidelines of when and under what
conditions can members of his family (as well as other leaders) partake
in business relationships with the government, as well as when public
assets can be used for private purposes. That would go a long way
towards satisfying Mahathir as well as other Malaysians.
DESIDERATA:
Please note that the Highlights in Bakri's essay (THUS italised or Bolded) are Desi's. When Commenting, and for this instance, I need my dear ER to have an ID to which I can link to a webpage/site even it's a penaname like Anak Merdeka as I believe for national issues, opinion-makers should stand proud and tall on their views. Otherwise, just shut up! After a few days, I will forward the feedback to the original writer Dr Bakri for his information, which is following simple courtesy, of course, something that I subtyly preach from this abode but which is open to ALL COMERS except for some APs whom I have identified. AP refers to ASgent Provocateur and this species exists in every country, including dear NegaraKu.
ENJOY THE DISCOURSE WHILE WE CAN!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Other Viewpoint comes from one of the names mentioned by Dr Mahathir and referred to in Bakri's article. I had "filed" this p[iece for some days, and feel it's apt and appropriate to run along as a conpanion piece to provide what I deem a Clash of Ideas. This is fundamentally te sort of discourse envisaged in the quoted dictum that follows by my dear friend from another era whose presence is still very much in the air, fresh and breathable OR venomous and you have to hold thy breath.
"I may disagree with whay you say but I will defend, to the death, your right to say it." ~~ VOLTAIRE
Sunday Column:
It’s the time of the year to reflect and think right
29 Oct 2006
by Kalimullah Hassan
------------------------------------------------
Having the family around is the best part of celebrating Hari Raya.
THE thing about Hari Raya or Chinese New Year or Christmas or Deepavali is not so much that we celebrate it.
It’s that we celebrate it with the ones we love and with friends and family.
And these are times when we set aside recrimination, unkindness and rage, and seek understanding, friendship and love.
Therefore, it is quite an empty feeling when such joyous occasions are spent away from home.
Imagine, no balik kampung, no reunion dinner, no busying around the kitchen tasting the rendang on the eve of festivities and no family and friends to hug and wish.
It’s easy to feel sorry for yourself at times like this. But heck, it happens and we live with it. Doesn’t make us feel better, but we live with it.
Almost five of my last six weeks have been spent in Britain on personal commitments. But I was luckier than most that I spent my first ever Hari Raya Puasa away from home, in London, with my eldest daughter and son-in-law.
Of course, there was hardly anything in London that would remind us that it was Raya but we counted our blessings that we could visit a nephew and have some ketupat and ayam rendang.
It has not been a bad five weeks. Met new people, made new friends and best of all, I got a break from Kuala Lumpur. I repeat, Kuala Lumpur.
Raya in London was on Monday, a day earlier than Malaysia. It was a cold morning. The expected call from home came.
As is the tradition, we sought each other’s forgiveness for mistakes and transgressions the year past.
It is through this that as we grow older, we learn to be more patient, more forgiving of each other’s weaknesses and more appreciative of each other’s kindness.
And then, my wife told me that I had been mentioned on television. What now, I asked.
I guessed right. Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had gone on another tirade, supposedly against those whom he believed, or was led by those around him to believe, were undermining him or his vision for the country.
(It’s our country, too, but I suppose we have less proprietary rights than others.)
Of course, the major part of the now familiar invective was aimed at the government, in particular Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, a man too nice for his own good.
Members of Abdullah’s administration, like his trusty deputy, Datuk Seri Najib Razak (after a long time, we now have a prime minister and his deputy who work well together), and Datuk Seri Rafidah Aziz were not spared either.
Even the late Datin Seri Endon Mahmood, a kind, good woman loved by those who knew her, was not spared Dr Mahathir’s wrath.
"On the eve of Raya?" I asked.
Yes. But I was not going to allow this to spoil my day. Not this time.
After all, Dr Mahathir has called others worse names.
When he was prime minister, until he retired almost exactly three years ago, Dr Mahathir was blunt, abrasive, never mincing words.
Sometimes, you do wonder whether in this age, we have discarded decency and no longer have the generosity of human spirit. Surely there is a time and place for everything?
At one time or another, Dr Mahathir had praise for some people, like his former deputies.
After all, it was he who chose them. (Abdullah subsequently won his own five-year mandate from the people of Malaysia — the biggest in Malaysian history — in 2004. But does the democratic process matter?)
When Dr Mahathir changes his mind about them, he reviles them in his trademark acerbic language. And whenever he changed his mind, the country was asked to take sides.
It's me or him. Divisive? Or just Mahathirian politics?
Rafidah was one of his favourites. So was Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar. They have both fallen by the wayside, as have many others.
The question does arise that in his 22 years as prime minister, he could have sacked any one of those ministers or menteris besar he now disparages.
Why didn’t he do it? Why now, when he defended people like Rafidah vigorously before?
His black book list is long. Najib, Hishammuddin Hussein, Annuar Musa, Shahidan Kassim, Tajol Rosli, Lim Keng Yaik, S. Samy Vellu …
In his time, he berated his party members and the Malays for their supposed inability to compete, to change, for being lazy and for being ungrateful. (Remember Melayu Mudah Lupa?)
Then, people took it as the frustrations of an elder who wanted the best for his people.
In his time, he had some harsh, certainly undiplomatic comments to make about other world leaders. But people accepted it because they took it as views of a leader who wanted his country to stand up to the rest of the world.
But have not greater things been achieved through diplomacy rather than name-calling and hurling insults? Remember Gandhi?
In the end, you realise that not many people meet Dr Mahathir’s high standards of perfection. Perhaps he benchmarks others to his own perceived standards of himself.
But sadly, the Almighty did not make us all like him. Dr Mahathir has to accept that. But he cannot.
It’s a free country. Or is it?
That same freedom may not have been accorded to others in another era. But then, what do I know?
For example, Dr Mahathir says that the Press was free and independent during his time.
Sure it was. Editors were removed "by management" or resigned to take on "better" jobs.
In the NST, after he became prime minister, there was a string of editors replaced until the "right" candidate was found.
Since that "right editor" was found, the "free and independent" NST — which Dr Mahathir today despises because it’s "no longer free and independent" — saw its place of pride as the country’s top newspaper for 133 years erode.
And erode. And erode.
You ask yourself: What’s the problem with Malaysians? Don’t they like a free and independent media?
Sure the media was free.
The Star, which was clearly sympathetic to Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and (Tun) Musa Hitam in their near razor-close attempt to unseat Dr Mahathir in 1987, was closed down the same year together with Sin Chew Jit Poh and Watan.
But it had nothing to do with their alignment in 1987, I am sure. They were a threat to national security, it was said then. Sure.
Of course, we are supposed to believe that The Star is no longer the newspaper it was in the 1980s because it chose to be that way, not because it feared antagonising powerful politicians.
And Dr Mahathir has told us that during his tenure, he never did any favours for his children and they never got any government help.
Using this argument, he takes issue with others involved in business, like Abdullah’s son, lawyer Kamaluddin Badawi, and insinuates that they succeeded because of political patronage.
But Cambridge-educated Kamaluddin started business when his father was a politician sidelined in the early 1990s, about the same time as Dr Mahathir's children.
So we are led to believe that Dr Mahathirs three sons, without a helping hand from the government their father headed, became successful businessmen because of their business acumen, hard work and ability to spot opportunities.
They have done well, thats for sure. A truly inspiring story of how they battled against the odds without any help from their father.
But others, if we are to follow the argument, only did well in business or their careers seemingly because "they are connected". They could not have done it otherwise. Right?
Dr Mahathir also argues that his children were not involved in politics because it would seem an unfair advantage, their father being prime minister and all.
Wasnt Datuk Mokhzani Mahathir Umno Youth treasurer when his father was prime minister? Yes, but he was appointed to the post by then Youth head Datuk Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
Just like how Khairy Jamaluddin entered politics when current Youth head Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein appointed him to the wing’s executive committee when Abdullah was Dr Mahathir’s deputy.
Wasnt Mokhzani also Kedah Umno treasurer and Merbok Umno Youth head? Yes, but he was there "despite" his father being Umno president and prime minister.
Therefore, if we follow the argument, Khairy Jamaluddin made headway in politics because of his father-in-law, and not because he had any potential or leadership qualities. Right?
It’s sad then that other Malaysian politicians did not follow Dr Mahathir’s example.
Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik should have barred his son Hee Leong from MCA politics; Dr Lim Keng Yaik his son in Gerakan; Lim Kit Siang and Karpal Singh their sons in the DAP, unless, of course, the sons made it on their own merit.
Well, we learn new things all the time.
DESIDERATA:
I'm again reprising Kalimullah's article in full but I stress that again, though some of Desi's thoughts may coincide with the writer's viewpoints, the newspaper columnist's opinions stated within are entirely his, and his alone. Again, the highlights -- italised or bolded -- are Desi's.
I do not know Kalimullah Hassan personally though our paths might have crossed in the small world they call journalism. Of course, I have heard much about him -- who in Blogsworld has not must have been a Rip van Winkle, which actually can be a blessing sometimes! -- and I follow his Sunday columns, not devoutly but as a media person in his pursuit of media personalities. THat's instinctly a writer's trail, iif you jknow how to read in between the lines. I assume many don't exercise their minds hard enough to be able to, hence DDC is thrown in to wake thee up from half slumber. Or is it drunken stupour?
See, Desi can be ascerbic too. No, he won't graduate into Venom, not nyet!
Now I hear some ER whisper: Okay, Desi/YL, what's your stand on the above topic?
My answer my friend can both be a long, or short one, depending on where you came/come/are coming from.
It's the sum total of my thoughts from the heart, tempered with a poetic licence, some journalism restraints, and legal constraits, and hopefully, sensitised with humanity? (that's for my ER to judge!) that I have put forth in the past one year and eight months at Desiderata-YLChong, and previously at other forums which some nosey*uckers like Howsy are trying to desiphere. Keep on, mGf, you aren't seen the daylight of Desi miss lead ing thee up the path of Eve's Gardnern. No, not nyet unlike thy family's name be associated with that of Paulo Coelho who has touched the Soul of the World.
The reason for the foregoing Intro will reveal itself if my ER exercise Patience, which I have always preached is a Virtue to be prized, just as good writes like the following, and off course, Desi's sometimes!(can't do it from the pulpit on Sundays, hence ...). Ooops, an early CON BF this morn -- which is bright and shiny -- maketh Desi go off the highway sometimes. But knoweth thou that when the good Lord favours thee, one finds the rarest gems along the byways, nooks and corners of Seremban, like sighting an Alley cat in heat chasing the scurrying rats -- to let off steam or what? Breakfast, that's mighty universal at this time of day.
So I give thee a highly committed writer on the Malaysian landscape, the big picture along with the wild, mild and high, shy things going on within:
Lead! Or Get Out of the Way
by M. Bakri Musa (www.bakrimusa.com)
Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi should quit whining. Lead, or get out
of the way! He has had three years to make up his mind. If there is
any jantan (male) left in UMNO, this is the brutally frank message he
needs to deliver to his leader.
There is a place for loyalty to the leader, but not at the price of the
followers being led collectively over the cliff.
The singa (lion) in UMNO is long gone; the kittens have taken over.
Their meows would be heard loud and clear (and incessantly too!) only
when they run out of milk. The ginger has also been long uprooted from
UMNO garden. What we have instead are Bell peppers; colorful but
pepper only in name, it spiciness long ago bred out of them.
At the upcoming UMNO General Assembly, expect effusive choruses of
praise and an orgy of adulation for the leader of the day. In
spectacle, it would not match what the North Koreans regularly put on
for their dear Leader, but the exuberance of the glorifications and
the superlatives used would; their intensity matching the desperation
of the speakers in being beholden to their leader.
Abdullah's sycophants have already bestowed him with the glorified
title of Father of the K-Economy,whatever that means. I suggest he
be adorned with a more appropriate appellation, Bapak Tanah Kayangan! (Father of Fantasyland!)
Obscenely generous money politics and political patronages have
effectively emasculated UMNO. To be sure there will be plenty of
gaily-attired putris (princesses) gracing the gathering. They will add
color to the otherwise dull background, but nothing more. As for the
putras (princes), they will be dozing off, having spent their late
nights with the Mat Rempits terrorizing the streets and neighborhoods
with their motorcycles.
I long for brave souls along the fashion of the late Sulaiman Palestin. He never hesitated to challenge even the most esteemed leader. If he were alive today, he would courageously introduce a "No Confidence" resolution at the Assembly. Even if it were not successful, it might
just prove to the needed shock for Abdullah to come out of his slumber.
The man has been daydreaming for too long.
Pathetic Performance with Mahathir
Abdullah's performance after (and also presumably during) his
one-on-one meeting with his predecessor was pathetic. If Abdullah
cannot stand up to Mahathir, how on earth can we expect Abdullah to
look after the nation's interests in even tougher negotiations with
foreign leaders?
Mahathir effectively reduced Abdullah to an errand schoolboy guilty of
being delinquent in his homework and now has to write down a hundred
times, "Imust pay attention to my work and not doze off!"?
According to Abdullah, Mahathir did most of the talking. Abdullah by
his own admission was too polite to interfere. Touching! According to
Mahathir (and Abdullah corroborated this), he brought up the very same
issues he had been harping on for the past few months.
Abdullah does not need to listen to the details again; presumably he
had heard them before and would by now be ready with the answers and
rebuttals. Malaysians and the world have certainly heard Mahathir's
litany of complaints. What he and we needed were answers. Yet there
was the sorry sight of Abdullah pleading for more time! If Abdullah
does not get it by now, he never will.
What Abdullah should have done when Mahathir began to repeat what he
had said many times before was to stop him cold and assert, "With due
respect Tun, I have heard them all before, and many times over. Let me
address them one by one!" With that, effectively take over the
meeting. Then we would know who was in charge!
After the meeting, Abdullah should have called for a press conference
and publicly invited Mahathir to join in. That of course would take
confidence and leadership, the very qualities so clearly lacking with
Abdullah.
Instead it was Mahathir who gave not one but two press conferences to
let the public know what transpired between them. Abdullah was reduced
to whining and complaining that Mahathir was spewing venom. He took
solace behind the protective but ineffectual barks of his ministers and
spinmeisters.
Abdullah forgot that the issues Mahathir raised are also very much in
the public mind. He owes Malaysians, not just Mahathir, an
explanation. Whining, maintaining an elegance silence, or asking his
surrogates to answer for him merely exposes Abdullah's lack of
engagement. What we have in Abdullah is not a chief executive but a
pseudo sultan, and not a very regal one at that. Malaysia already has
nine sultans; it does not need a tenth.
During this past Ramadan, Abdullah was busy being an imam, dispensing
homilies and delivering sermons. Again, Malaysia has no shortage of
imams and khatibs, what it needs desperately is a chief executive.
The Issue is Abdullah's Leadership
Mahathir has long retired as Prime Minister; his legacy is for
historians to dissect. Abdullah is a significant part of that legacy.
At issue here however is Abdullah's leadership, or lack of it. He
hides his inability to make the tough decisions by rationalizing that
he leads through consensus. That has long been the excuse of the
indecisive.
Mahathir singled out Kalimullah Hassan and Brendan Pereira for their sinister influences on Abdullah. Mahathir is being kind to Abdullah. In my view, Abdullah's faults and weaknesses are his own making. If he
had guts, he would have long ago fired the two, not for their presumed
bad advice but for their juvenile commentaries, blatant plagiarisms,
and inability to stem the declining readership of the once proud The
New Straits Times. If the two cannot even run their paper, how can
they presume to know how to run the country?
When the issue of conflict of interest with his family's businesses
arose, Abdullah at first denied it. When confronted with the facts, he
did not deny the business dealings rather that he did not know about
them! He should have been embarrassed by his ignorance; instead he
used it as a pretext! Now that Mahathir had brought the issue directly
to him, Abdullah's latest excuse was that Mahathir's sons too were
involved in the past. Soon Abdullah will exhaust his explanations.
Instead of seeking solutions, Abdullah grabs at excuses. Since his
advisors and those on the infamous fourth floor have not offered him
any, I will offer my solution on avoiding future potential conflicts of
interest.
Henceforth, any family member (spouse, sibling, children, in-laws) of
the prime minister, minister, or any senior government official doing
business with the government would have their contracts and bids
subjected to a post-decision independent review by a commission to be
headed by a former senior judge. That body would have court powers to
subpoena witnesses and records. Its deliberations would also be open
to the public. Details like the companies' capabilities and
principals, as well the bids of other competitors, would be examined.
Let the sunshine in; that is the only effective way to disinfect the
current cesspool that is the government's procuring process.
Related to the issue of conflict of interest is the increasing private
use of public assets by Abdullah and other leaders. The Prime Minister
is treating the government's luxurious corporate jets as his private
limousines. Someone in Parliament ought to inquire whether the Prime
Minister and his adult children and in-laws reimburse the government
for using the jet on their recent umrah. When President Bush uses Air
Force One for his campaign, his party had to reimburse the government
for the non-official use of the plane.
If we do not make an issue of such abuses at this early stage, it would
not take long for more egregious patterns to emerge. Soon you would
have some sycophantic politicians suggesting that Sri Perdana be deeded
to Abdullah.
Abdullah constantly decries about Malaysians having First World
facility but Third World mentality. The government's fleet of
corporate jets is certainly First World, but its current users are not.
Abdullah should draw up clear guidelines of when and under what
conditions can members of his family (as well as other leaders) partake
in business relationships with the government, as well as when public
assets can be used for private purposes. That would go a long way
towards satisfying Mahathir as well as other Malaysians.
DESIDERATA:
Please note that the Highlights in Bakri's essay (THUS italised or Bolded) are Desi's. When Commenting, and for this instance, I need my dear ER to have an ID to which I can link to a webpage/site even it's a penaname like Anak Merdeka as I believe for national issues, opinion-makers should stand proud and tall on their views. Otherwise, just shut up! After a few days, I will forward the feedback to the original writer Dr Bakri for his information, which is following simple courtesy, of course, something that I subtyly preach from this abode but which is open to ALL COMERS except for some APs whom I have identified. AP refers to ASgent Provocateur and this species exists in every country, including dear NegaraKu.
ENJOY THE DISCOURSE WHILE WE CAN!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Other Viewpoint comes from one of the names mentioned by Dr Mahathir and referred to in Bakri's article. I had "filed" this p[iece for some days, and feel it's apt and appropriate to run along as a conpanion piece to provide what I deem a Clash of Ideas. This is fundamentally te sort of discourse envisaged in the quoted dictum that follows by my dear friend from another era whose presence is still very much in the air, fresh and breathable OR venomous and you have to hold thy breath.
"I may disagree with whay you say but I will defend, to the death, your right to say it." ~~ VOLTAIRE
Sunday Column:
It’s the time of the year to reflect and think right
29 Oct 2006
by Kalimullah Hassan
------------------------------------------------
Having the family around is the best part of celebrating Hari Raya.
THE thing about Hari Raya or Chinese New Year or Christmas or Deepavali is not so much that we celebrate it.
It’s that we celebrate it with the ones we love and with friends and family.
And these are times when we set aside recrimination, unkindness and rage, and seek understanding, friendship and love.
Therefore, it is quite an empty feeling when such joyous occasions are spent away from home.
Imagine, no balik kampung, no reunion dinner, no busying around the kitchen tasting the rendang on the eve of festivities and no family and friends to hug and wish.
It’s easy to feel sorry for yourself at times like this. But heck, it happens and we live with it. Doesn’t make us feel better, but we live with it.
Almost five of my last six weeks have been spent in Britain on personal commitments. But I was luckier than most that I spent my first ever Hari Raya Puasa away from home, in London, with my eldest daughter and son-in-law.
Of course, there was hardly anything in London that would remind us that it was Raya but we counted our blessings that we could visit a nephew and have some ketupat and ayam rendang.
It has not been a bad five weeks. Met new people, made new friends and best of all, I got a break from Kuala Lumpur. I repeat, Kuala Lumpur.
Raya in London was on Monday, a day earlier than Malaysia. It was a cold morning. The expected call from home came.
As is the tradition, we sought each other’s forgiveness for mistakes and transgressions the year past.
It is through this that as we grow older, we learn to be more patient, more forgiving of each other’s weaknesses and more appreciative of each other’s kindness.
And then, my wife told me that I had been mentioned on television. What now, I asked.
I guessed right. Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had gone on another tirade, supposedly against those whom he believed, or was led by those around him to believe, were undermining him or his vision for the country.
(It’s our country, too, but I suppose we have less proprietary rights than others.)
Of course, the major part of the now familiar invective was aimed at the government, in particular Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, a man too nice for his own good.
Members of Abdullah’s administration, like his trusty deputy, Datuk Seri Najib Razak (after a long time, we now have a prime minister and his deputy who work well together), and Datuk Seri Rafidah Aziz were not spared either.
Even the late Datin Seri Endon Mahmood, a kind, good woman loved by those who knew her, was not spared Dr Mahathir’s wrath.
"On the eve of Raya?" I asked.
Yes. But I was not going to allow this to spoil my day. Not this time.
After all, Dr Mahathir has called others worse names.
When he was prime minister, until he retired almost exactly three years ago, Dr Mahathir was blunt, abrasive, never mincing words.
Sometimes, you do wonder whether in this age, we have discarded decency and no longer have the generosity of human spirit. Surely there is a time and place for everything?
At one time or another, Dr Mahathir had praise for some people, like his former deputies.
After all, it was he who chose them. (Abdullah subsequently won his own five-year mandate from the people of Malaysia — the biggest in Malaysian history — in 2004. But does the democratic process matter?)
When Dr Mahathir changes his mind about them, he reviles them in his trademark acerbic language. And whenever he changed his mind, the country was asked to take sides.
It's me or him. Divisive? Or just Mahathirian politics?
Rafidah was one of his favourites. So was Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar. They have both fallen by the wayside, as have many others.
The question does arise that in his 22 years as prime minister, he could have sacked any one of those ministers or menteris besar he now disparages.
Why didn’t he do it? Why now, when he defended people like Rafidah vigorously before?
His black book list is long. Najib, Hishammuddin Hussein, Annuar Musa, Shahidan Kassim, Tajol Rosli, Lim Keng Yaik, S. Samy Vellu …
In his time, he berated his party members and the Malays for their supposed inability to compete, to change, for being lazy and for being ungrateful. (Remember Melayu Mudah Lupa?)
Then, people took it as the frustrations of an elder who wanted the best for his people.
In his time, he had some harsh, certainly undiplomatic comments to make about other world leaders. But people accepted it because they took it as views of a leader who wanted his country to stand up to the rest of the world.
But have not greater things been achieved through diplomacy rather than name-calling and hurling insults? Remember Gandhi?
In the end, you realise that not many people meet Dr Mahathir’s high standards of perfection. Perhaps he benchmarks others to his own perceived standards of himself.
But sadly, the Almighty did not make us all like him. Dr Mahathir has to accept that. But he cannot.
It’s a free country. Or is it?
That same freedom may not have been accorded to others in another era. But then, what do I know?
For example, Dr Mahathir says that the Press was free and independent during his time.
Sure it was. Editors were removed "by management" or resigned to take on "better" jobs.
In the NST, after he became prime minister, there was a string of editors replaced until the "right" candidate was found.
Since that "right editor" was found, the "free and independent" NST — which Dr Mahathir today despises because it’s "no longer free and independent" — saw its place of pride as the country’s top newspaper for 133 years erode.
And erode. And erode.
You ask yourself: What’s the problem with Malaysians? Don’t they like a free and independent media?
Sure the media was free.
The Star, which was clearly sympathetic to Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and (Tun) Musa Hitam in their near razor-close attempt to unseat Dr Mahathir in 1987, was closed down the same year together with Sin Chew Jit Poh and Watan.
But it had nothing to do with their alignment in 1987, I am sure. They were a threat to national security, it was said then. Sure.
Of course, we are supposed to believe that The Star is no longer the newspaper it was in the 1980s because it chose to be that way, not because it feared antagonising powerful politicians.
And Dr Mahathir has told us that during his tenure, he never did any favours for his children and they never got any government help.
Using this argument, he takes issue with others involved in business, like Abdullah’s son, lawyer Kamaluddin Badawi, and insinuates that they succeeded because of political patronage.
But Cambridge-educated Kamaluddin started business when his father was a politician sidelined in the early 1990s, about the same time as Dr Mahathir's children.
So we are led to believe that Dr Mahathirs three sons, without a helping hand from the government their father headed, became successful businessmen because of their business acumen, hard work and ability to spot opportunities.
They have done well, thats for sure. A truly inspiring story of how they battled against the odds without any help from their father.
But others, if we are to follow the argument, only did well in business or their careers seemingly because "they are connected". They could not have done it otherwise. Right?
Dr Mahathir also argues that his children were not involved in politics because it would seem an unfair advantage, their father being prime minister and all.
Wasnt Datuk Mokhzani Mahathir Umno Youth treasurer when his father was prime minister? Yes, but he was appointed to the post by then Youth head Datuk Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
Just like how Khairy Jamaluddin entered politics when current Youth head Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein appointed him to the wing’s executive committee when Abdullah was Dr Mahathir’s deputy.
Wasnt Mokhzani also Kedah Umno treasurer and Merbok Umno Youth head? Yes, but he was there "despite" his father being Umno president and prime minister.
Therefore, if we follow the argument, Khairy Jamaluddin made headway in politics because of his father-in-law, and not because he had any potential or leadership qualities. Right?
It’s sad then that other Malaysian politicians did not follow Dr Mahathir’s example.
Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik should have barred his son Hee Leong from MCA politics; Dr Lim Keng Yaik his son in Gerakan; Lim Kit Siang and Karpal Singh their sons in the DAP, unless, of course, the sons made it on their own merit.
Well, we learn new things all the time.
DESIDERATA:
I'm again reprising Kalimullah's article in full but I stress that again, though some of Desi's thoughts may coincide with the writer's viewpoints, the newspaper columnist's opinions stated within are entirely his, and his alone. Again, the highlights -- italised or bolded -- are Desi's.
I do not know Kalimullah Hassan personally though our paths might have crossed in the small world they call journalism. Of course, I have heard much about him -- who in Blogsworld has not must have been a Rip van Winkle, which actually can be a blessing sometimes! -- and I follow his Sunday columns, not devoutly but as a media person in his pursuit of media personalities. THat's instinctly a writer's trail, iif you jknow how to read in between the lines. I assume many don't exercise their minds hard enough to be able to, hence DDC is thrown in to wake thee up from half slumber. Or is it drunken stupour?
See, Desi can be ascerbic too. No, he won't graduate into Venom, not nyet!
Now I hear some ER whisper: Okay, Desi/YL, what's your stand on the above topic?
My answer my friend can both be a long, or short one, depending on where you came/come/are coming from.
It's the sum total of my thoughts from the heart, tempered with a poetic licence, some journalism restraints, and legal constraits, and hopefully, sensitised with humanity? (that's for my ER to judge!) that I have put forth in the past one year and eight months at Desiderata-YLChong, and previously at other forums which some nosey*uckers like Howsy are trying to desiphere. Keep on, mGf, you aren't seen the daylight of Desi miss lead ing thee up the path of Eve's Gardnern. No, not nyet unlike thy family's name be associated with that of Paulo Coelho who has touched the Soul of the World.
Friday, November 03, 2006
Charade and Facade
Maybe a Merdeka 50th Anniversary Year-Long Parade of Tragedy?
Today the Charade on the PWTC Stage -- which mGf Howsy terms a Sandywara -- continues with a Twist. A development reminiscent (Check sperring wilya, Helen!) of PAS' embrace of former PM Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is re-enacted by, surprise! SITprise! former DPM and chief nemesis Sdr Anwar Ibrahim!
Which again proves the applicability of the axiom that:
IN POLITICS THERE ARE NO PERMANET FRIENDS OR FOES.
Only that FORTUNES AND INTERESTS are constantly changing.
Witness from The Star, page N4:
FACADE1:
Nation
Friday November 3, 2006
Anwar invites Mahathir to advise the Opposition
By R.S.N. MURALI
KUALA TERENGGANU: Former deputy prime minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has ironically come to the defence of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Anwar said Umno leaders were forgetting Dr Mahathir’s immense contributions.
He also invited the former prime minister to serve as adviser to the Opposition.
The Parti Keadilan Rakyat adviser said: “Despite my differences with Dr Mahathir, I pity him somewhat, as he is being rebuked and criticised by Umno leaders who had once honoured him.
“He had led the country for 22 years and contributed immensely to the country and now it looks like Umno leaders are forgetting his contributions.
“I am not supporting him but he should be accorded respect as a former premier.”
On his invitation to Dr Mahathir to be adviser to the Opposition parties, Anwar said: “I might have been mistreated in the past and could have had differences with him, but this will not be a hindrance.
“As long as he is a citizen, I respect his views, and any attempts by him to join the Opposition will not be blocked by me,” Anwar told reporters after a PKR Hari Raya gathering at Pekan Batu 6, Kuala Nerus, here yesterday.
He acknowledged that the leaders of Opposition parties had to reach a consensus before Dr Mahathir could be appointed adviser.
However, Anwar did hit out at Dr Mahathir for labelling the country a “police state” under Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
“He is now swallowing his own bitter pills, as he had once run the country in such a manner,” Anwar added.
DESI: mGf looking over my shoulder whispers:
HE WHO IS MY ENEMY'S ENEMY IS NOW MY FRIEND.
WE EVEN CAN BECOME SLEEPING PARTNERS.
This mGf is a businessman, and is therefore a man of the world.
HIS words are Sientimes quotable.
Just don't charge Desi for Plagiarism for quoting him!
PS: UPDATE Nov 4, 2006 @1.29PM after sighting a clarification from Special Assistant to Sdr Anwar, Nik Nazmi's press statement in Bahasa Malaysia that follows~~
"Ke Arah Memperkasakan Agenda Malaysia BaruIsu Mahathir: Penjelasan Sebenar
November 03rd, 2006 | Category: Anwar, Media, Pakatan BA, KeADILan
KENYATAAN MEDIA
Saya ingin menjelaskan laporan media mengenai komen Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim mengenai Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohammad semalam.
Ketika sebuah sidang media dijalankan di Rumah Terbuka Pemuda Keadilan Terengganu, seorang wartawan bertanya apakah pendapat Datuk Seri Anwar sekiranya Tun Dr. Mahathir memohon untuk menyertai Pembangkang.
Datuk Seri Anwar menjawab bahawa di sebalik perbezaan peribadi mereka, bekas perdana menteri tersebut sebagai seorang warganegara Malaysia yang bebas, mempunyai hak untuk menyertai mana-mana parti politik.
Ini konsisten dengan komen-komen Datuk Seri Anwar sebelum ini sejak bermulanya krisis politik antara Tun Dr. Mahathir dan Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi bahawa Tun Dr. Mahathir mestilah diberikan hak mengkritik kerajaan tanpa mengambil kira motif bekas perdana menteri tersebut.
Datuk Seri Anwar turut mengingatkan Tun Dr. Mahathir bagaimana Tun mentadbir negara ini apabila bekas perdana menteri tersebut menganggap Malaysia ‘negara polis’.
NIK NAZMI NIK AHMAD
Pembantu Khas
Pejabat Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim
nik.nazmi@aicassociates.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Charade1 from PWTC
Dr M to remain as advisor
KUALA LUMPUR: Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad will remain as advisor to several government agencies, including Proton and Petronas, despite calls by some quarters within Umno for him to be removed from these posts.
Datuk Seri Abdullah Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said the Umno supreme council had taken note of the request from Kedah Umno but decided to let Dr Mahathir stay on as advisor.
The Umno president said this to reporters after chairing a supreme council meeting yesterday.
:
:
:
Charade2 from the PWTC:
Zakaria finally quits
SHAH ALAM: Port Klang state assemblyman Datuk Zakaria Md Deros has finally decided not to continue as Klang municipal councillor.
In a statement released around midnight, Zakaria said his decision not to accept nomination was made following Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's advice yesterday.
“I thank the trust given to me in allowing me to serve the council all this while,” said Zakaria, who had served as a councillor in the Klang Municipal Council (MPK) for more than two decades.
:
:
:
DESI: Dear Mr Prime Minister, with his dubious record pertaining to his Integrity, Acccountability and Responsibilty -- character traits which you stress in your Manifesto, yes? -- how can it be TENABLE for Zakaria to remain as a State Assemblyman?
OR mayhaps, three years down the road as PM you finally admit It's An Impossible Dream? In which case, maybe would you consider giving Sdr Anwar a chance to prove himself?
While I allow Pak Lah to sleep on the job and perhaps, have another Sweet Dream -- now that Anwar is embracing Dr Mahathir, which is quite a risky proposition, IMHO! -- let's see if our counry can look forward to celebrating 50th birthday with gusto...
Finally, as Malaysia promotes 2007 as Visit Malaysia Year, will the next feature become a regular feature of the year-long Parade till Augusut 31, 2007 to greet our Visitors?
Becuase to citizens of NegaraKu, it has become a regular news break in our dailies while the monkeys, donkeys and lembu dan One-Eyed Zackos and Two-Eyes-Closed CEOs do a song and dance in rehearsal for the Big Day.
Yes, from The Star,(Yes, they are pretty good at Crime coverage, although lagging in the Political front, but my ER know Why..., don't you?:), Page N3:
Hubby’s life snatched away
JOHOR BARU: A security supervisor was killed when he tried to stop thieves from snatching his wife’s handbag in Jalan Tebrau.
Bahari Yahya, 45, was fetching his wife home on his motorcycle when the thieves tried to snatch Julaiha Bujang’s bag near the Pandan wholesale market on Tuesday.
He kept on riding and the thieves, realising they could not get the bag, kicked Bahari’s motorcycle causing the couple to fall.
Bahari suffered a fractured skull and died at the scene in the 9.30pm incident.
Julaiha, who had 15 stitches on her face, said the thieves seemed to have acted out of anger when they kicked the motorcycle.
“My husband had just picked me up from the Causeway as I work in Singapore,” said the factory worker, adding that taxi drivers who saw the incident took both of them to the Sultan Ismail Hospital.
“We were on our way back home when two men suddenly came alongside our motorcycle and one of them tried to snatch my handbag.”
Julaiha said she lost a loving husband and caring father to their four children, aged between two and 19.
“When I am at work, my husband would come back during his lunch break to cook for the children,” she said.
She said it was the second time that she and her husband had fallen prey to snatch thieves. They escaped unhurt in the earlier incident.
Johor Baru (South) OCPD Asst Comm Shafie Ismail said police had set up roadblocks to track down the suspects.
He urged those with information to contact the police hotline at 07-2212999 or the nearest police station.
Tiram assemblyman Maulizan Bujang said it was a shame that people could resort to such measures to steal – causing a person’s death.
DESIDERATA:
It's high time the Royal Malaysian Police Force be beefed up and given a desrerving pay rise. So far, the new IGP has impressed with some innovative measures:
* Getting ranking officers to join the Mata-mata patrolling the streets;
* Doing away with Road-blocks during festive seasons;
* Reducing the response time for any 999 calls to FIVE MINUTES (from the curent 12?)
* RE-assigning all the OCPDS in Selangor/FT, for better enforcement (Desi geives benefit od the doubt to the Police Top Dog-lah that's the sole and main reason, although...)
A parting request to the Prime Minister, cun?
+ Yes, how about speeding up that IPCMC fomration, Pak Lah.
Today the Charade on the PWTC Stage -- which mGf Howsy terms a Sandywara -- continues with a Twist. A development reminiscent (Check sperring wilya, Helen!) of PAS' embrace of former PM Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is re-enacted by, surprise! SITprise! former DPM and chief nemesis Sdr Anwar Ibrahim!
Which again proves the applicability of the axiom that:
IN POLITICS THERE ARE NO PERMANET FRIENDS OR FOES.
Only that FORTUNES AND INTERESTS are constantly changing.
Witness from The Star, page N4:
FACADE1:
Nation
Friday November 3, 2006
Anwar invites Mahathir to advise the Opposition
By R.S.N. MURALI
KUALA TERENGGANU: Former deputy prime minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has ironically come to the defence of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Anwar said Umno leaders were forgetting Dr Mahathir’s immense contributions.
He also invited the former prime minister to serve as adviser to the Opposition.
The Parti Keadilan Rakyat adviser said: “Despite my differences with Dr Mahathir, I pity him somewhat, as he is being rebuked and criticised by Umno leaders who had once honoured him.
“He had led the country for 22 years and contributed immensely to the country and now it looks like Umno leaders are forgetting his contributions.
“I am not supporting him but he should be accorded respect as a former premier.”
On his invitation to Dr Mahathir to be adviser to the Opposition parties, Anwar said: “I might have been mistreated in the past and could have had differences with him, but this will not be a hindrance.
“As long as he is a citizen, I respect his views, and any attempts by him to join the Opposition will not be blocked by me,” Anwar told reporters after a PKR Hari Raya gathering at Pekan Batu 6, Kuala Nerus, here yesterday.
He acknowledged that the leaders of Opposition parties had to reach a consensus before Dr Mahathir could be appointed adviser.
However, Anwar did hit out at Dr Mahathir for labelling the country a “police state” under Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
“He is now swallowing his own bitter pills, as he had once run the country in such a manner,” Anwar added.
DESI: mGf looking over my shoulder whispers:
HE WHO IS MY ENEMY'S ENEMY IS NOW MY FRIEND.
WE EVEN CAN BECOME SLEEPING PARTNERS.
This mGf is a businessman, and is therefore a man of the world.
HIS words are Sientimes quotable.
Just don't charge Desi for Plagiarism for quoting him!
PS: UPDATE Nov 4, 2006 @1.29PM after sighting a clarification from Special Assistant to Sdr Anwar, Nik Nazmi's press statement in Bahasa Malaysia that follows~~
"Ke Arah Memperkasakan Agenda Malaysia BaruIsu Mahathir: Penjelasan Sebenar
November 03rd, 2006 | Category: Anwar, Media, Pakatan BA, KeADILan
KENYATAAN MEDIA
Saya ingin menjelaskan laporan media mengenai komen Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim mengenai Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohammad semalam.
Ketika sebuah sidang media dijalankan di Rumah Terbuka Pemuda Keadilan Terengganu, seorang wartawan bertanya apakah pendapat Datuk Seri Anwar sekiranya Tun Dr. Mahathir memohon untuk menyertai Pembangkang.
Datuk Seri Anwar menjawab bahawa di sebalik perbezaan peribadi mereka, bekas perdana menteri tersebut sebagai seorang warganegara Malaysia yang bebas, mempunyai hak untuk menyertai mana-mana parti politik.
Ini konsisten dengan komen-komen Datuk Seri Anwar sebelum ini sejak bermulanya krisis politik antara Tun Dr. Mahathir dan Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi bahawa Tun Dr. Mahathir mestilah diberikan hak mengkritik kerajaan tanpa mengambil kira motif bekas perdana menteri tersebut.
Datuk Seri Anwar turut mengingatkan Tun Dr. Mahathir bagaimana Tun mentadbir negara ini apabila bekas perdana menteri tersebut menganggap Malaysia ‘negara polis’.
NIK NAZMI NIK AHMAD
Pembantu Khas
Pejabat Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim
nik.nazmi@aicassociates.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Charade1 from PWTC
Dr M to remain as advisor
KUALA LUMPUR: Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad will remain as advisor to several government agencies, including Proton and Petronas, despite calls by some quarters within Umno for him to be removed from these posts.
Datuk Seri Abdullah Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said the Umno supreme council had taken note of the request from Kedah Umno but decided to let Dr Mahathir stay on as advisor.
The Umno president said this to reporters after chairing a supreme council meeting yesterday.
:
:
:
Charade2 from the PWTC:
Zakaria finally quits
SHAH ALAM: Port Klang state assemblyman Datuk Zakaria Md Deros has finally decided not to continue as Klang municipal councillor.
In a statement released around midnight, Zakaria said his decision not to accept nomination was made following Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's advice yesterday.
“I thank the trust given to me in allowing me to serve the council all this while,” said Zakaria, who had served as a councillor in the Klang Municipal Council (MPK) for more than two decades.
:
:
:
DESI: Dear Mr Prime Minister, with his dubious record pertaining to his Integrity, Acccountability and Responsibilty -- character traits which you stress in your Manifesto, yes? -- how can it be TENABLE for Zakaria to remain as a State Assemblyman?
OR mayhaps, three years down the road as PM you finally admit It's An Impossible Dream? In which case, maybe would you consider giving Sdr Anwar a chance to prove himself?
While I allow Pak Lah to sleep on the job and perhaps, have another Sweet Dream -- now that Anwar is embracing Dr Mahathir, which is quite a risky proposition, IMHO! -- let's see if our counry can look forward to celebrating 50th birthday with gusto...
Finally, as Malaysia promotes 2007 as Visit Malaysia Year, will the next feature become a regular feature of the year-long Parade till Augusut 31, 2007 to greet our Visitors?
Becuase to citizens of NegaraKu, it has become a regular news break in our dailies while the monkeys, donkeys and lembu dan One-Eyed Zackos and Two-Eyes-Closed CEOs do a song and dance in rehearsal for the Big Day.
Yes, from The Star,(Yes, they are pretty good at Crime coverage, although lagging in the Political front, but my ER know Why..., don't you?:), Page N3:
Hubby’s life snatched away
JOHOR BARU: A security supervisor was killed when he tried to stop thieves from snatching his wife’s handbag in Jalan Tebrau.
Bahari Yahya, 45, was fetching his wife home on his motorcycle when the thieves tried to snatch Julaiha Bujang’s bag near the Pandan wholesale market on Tuesday.
He kept on riding and the thieves, realising they could not get the bag, kicked Bahari’s motorcycle causing the couple to fall.
Bahari suffered a fractured skull and died at the scene in the 9.30pm incident.
Julaiha, who had 15 stitches on her face, said the thieves seemed to have acted out of anger when they kicked the motorcycle.
“My husband had just picked me up from the Causeway as I work in Singapore,” said the factory worker, adding that taxi drivers who saw the incident took both of them to the Sultan Ismail Hospital.
“We were on our way back home when two men suddenly came alongside our motorcycle and one of them tried to snatch my handbag.”
Julaiha said she lost a loving husband and caring father to their four children, aged between two and 19.
“When I am at work, my husband would come back during his lunch break to cook for the children,” she said.
She said it was the second time that she and her husband had fallen prey to snatch thieves. They escaped unhurt in the earlier incident.
Johor Baru (South) OCPD Asst Comm Shafie Ismail said police had set up roadblocks to track down the suspects.
He urged those with information to contact the police hotline at 07-2212999 or the nearest police station.
Tiram assemblyman Maulizan Bujang said it was a shame that people could resort to such measures to steal – causing a person’s death.
DESIDERATA:
It's high time the Royal Malaysian Police Force be beefed up and given a desrerving pay rise. So far, the new IGP has impressed with some innovative measures:
* Getting ranking officers to join the Mata-mata patrolling the streets;
* Doing away with Road-blocks during festive seasons;
* Reducing the response time for any 999 calls to FIVE MINUTES (from the curent 12?)
* RE-assigning all the OCPDS in Selangor/FT, for better enforcement (Desi geives benefit od the doubt to the Police Top Dog-lah that's the sole and main reason, although...)
A parting request to the Prime Minister, cun?
+ Yes, how about speeding up that IPCMC fomration, Pak Lah.
Thursday, November 02, 2006
For the record: two media related events
DESIDERATA has always followed events on media and the media personalities involved on the Malaysian scene with specail interest. Two noteworthy events/personalities are hereby placed On The Record for the moment as I don't wish to rush into any Commentary. Maybe I'll re-visit this Sunday as an Inter:Lude. Don't know nowadays, writing on anything telated to Malaysian media sucks in the sense it leaves a "bad taste" in the mouth. And I plan to enjoy my CON BF till eternity if my body can lust the pace my spirit tends.
02/11:
Malaysian Editor Caught in Plagiarism Row Resigns
By Jonathan Kent
BBC News
The editor of Malaysia's newspaper, the New Straits Times, is to step down amidst allegations that he plagiarised the work of an American journalist.
Brendan Pereira's recent column has quickly become the target of internet commentators who urged him to quit.
Local websites have placed his column alongside another by the award-winning Mitch Albom of the Detroit Free Press.
The similarities were striking. Whole paragraphs in Mr Pereira's work mirrored Mr Albom's earlier piece.
'Major scalp'
It has been a clash between the old and new media about the basic standards of the profession.
On Monday, Mr Pereira published the column under the title "How Dearly We Miss June the Sixth" - a comment on the on-going row between Malaysia's prime minister and his predecessor that began in earnest on 7 June.
On Tuesday, local websites placed the column alongside another by Mr Albom.
His column, "Remembering the Day before the Day", was published on 10 September and mourned the changes wrought by the 11 September attacks.
On Wednesday night, the New Straits Times announced that Mr Pereira was to step down as editor.
However, he will officially remain in his post until the end of the year. No reason was given.
Mr Pereira told the BBC that his departure had been agreed with the paper two weeks before the publication of the controversial article.
The New Straits Times is owned by the political party of the prime minister.
Malaysia's broadcasters and newspapers are closely controlled by the government and no mention of the scandal has appeared in print.
However, the government has promised not to censor the internet and it appears that Malaysia's online watchdogs have claimed their first major scalp.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Two versions of a court case involving a former Malaysian journalist, now writer-cum-dramatist THOR KAH HOONG -- one from The NST, and the other from The Star.
First, from The NST, and Desi wishes to stress that "the order of appearance does not in any way indicate my judgement of superiority in content".
‘Drama queen’ sparks high drama in court
02 Nov 2006
Sharanjit Singh
GEORGE TOWN: There was high drama at the Sessions Court yesterday when a journalist and a lawyer locked horns over the term "drama queen".
At one point, an exasperated British Broadcasting Corporation correspondent Jonathan Kent said lawyer Gan Teik Chee’s overly-dramatic behaviour in court could describe the term.
"This is exactly what a drama queen means. He is doing exactly what the definition of a drama queen is," he told judge Mohd Rosli Osman.
His comment, after a particularly intense line of questioning by Gan that included hand gestures, had most of the spectators in stitches.
Kent said that he did not mean that Gan was homosexual.
His explanation was in apparent reference to the primary point of contention in retired lecturer Edward Dorall’s suit against bookstore owner and columnist Thor Kah Hoong.
Dorall had sued Thor for referring to him as a "drama-queen-lecturer" in an article in The Star newspaper in June 2004.
In his statement of claim, the former academician had said that Thor had committed libel as he had written the article with malicious intent.
He is seeking general damages, costs and further relief for losses and injury to his character, credit and reputation.
Thor, in his defence, denied malicious intent and said Dorall had deliberately misinterpreted the word "queen" out of context for the purpose of instituting the suit.
He claimed the suit was frivolous and mischievous, had no basis in law and fact, and was an abuse of court process.
(The Cambridge International Dictionary of English describes "queen", among others, as a slang term used to describe a homosexual man, especially an older person, whose manner is noticeable and artificial.)
The three-hour proceedings were in English probably because Kent was a Briton.
Earlier, Gan had posed several questions over 90 minutes to Kent on the definition of the term and if it had homosexual connotations.
Kent, a defence witness, repeatedly answered that the Oxford Advanced English Dictionary defined "drama queen" as an overly dramatic person.
To Gan’s question on whether he was aware that Longmans English Dictionary stated that someone described as a "drama queen" could be a person with homosexual tendencies, Kent said he was not aware.
He said he would stick with the Oxford Dictionary definition which was "a more definitive point of reference".
At the outset, Gan had asked Kent if he was aware of the fact that there was something called Malaysian English.
"Yes. I know. It’s called Manglish. I am actually a student of Manglish having served in Malaysia for the past four and a half years.
Kent said the term Manglish was used as a joke and referred mainly to slang.
Thor told the court that he did not think describing a person as a "drama-queen" was in any way libellous or defamatory.
"I think it just means an over-emotional, excitable person who makes a mountain out of a molehill.
"I definitely would not sue someone for calling me a drama queen even if it was done in public."
Thor said being called a drama queen was not necessarily a negative thing as it was sometimes good for people involved in theatre to be excitable and emotional.
Thor was represented by Cecil Rajendra. The court will hear submissions on Dec 18.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Star's print copy was read by Desi who had hoped to "Copy&Paste" from te web edition. So I urge my ER to exercise some patience as I seem to be cock-eyed today from staring too long at the wrong objects on the PC screen, and can't spot that web item. If any kind soul sees it, please C&P and send it to Desi, cun?
UPDATE@9.05AM the day after:
From a good sama-ritan in the steal of the night, as he/she does not wish to be a Drama King/Queen like Desi!~~
"**
Anonymous said...
As requested.
Here you go old boy.
Great blog, a daily dose of goodness.
Can't find your email address, so posted this as a comment.
"THE STAR- COURTS
Thursday November 2, 2006
Description not intended to defame ex-lecturer, court told
By PRISCILLA DIELENBERG
PENANG: A newspaper columnist told a Sessions Court here that there was nothing libellous or defamatory about describing a retired university lecturer as a “drama-queen-lecturer”.
Thor Kah Hoong, 56, also a bookstore owner, testified in his own defence yesterday that the term “drama queen” had been in use for years, and in no way was there any imputation that Edward Dorall, 70, was a homosexual.
“I cannot imagine why I would think he is a homosexual. I have met his wife a couple of times and have had no cause to think so,” said Thor.
“My understanding of drama queen is an overemotional excitable person who makes a mountain out of a molehill.
“If someone called me a drama queen, I may protest jokingly and say I am a calm person but I won’t feel there is a basis for a lawsuit.
“I do not write Manglish, I write English. Assuming that I referred to him as a drama lecturer, I would have written it as ‘queen-drama-lecturer’ and not ‘drama-queen-lecturer’. It's a totally different thing,” he said.
Dorall had filed a defamation suit against Thor as the author of an article which appeared in The Star on June 29, 2004.
He originally also named as defendant Star Publications (M) Bhd as the publisher and printer of The Star but both parties reached a settlement in the case in April.
He said he suffered losses and injury to his character, credit and reputation. He is seeking general damages, costs and further relief.
Cross-examined by Dorall’s counsel Gan Teik Chee, Thor said he did not intend to defame Dorall but agreed that ordinary regular readers of his column could not say what was in his mind.
Judge Mohd Rosli Osman fixed Dec 18 for mention."
1:32 AM **"
PS: Thanks to Anon again with two tehtarik.
Now someone can volunteer to be my sexcretary, remind Desi of the next time you spy the hearing date/s, Righto!
02/11:
Malaysian Editor Caught in Plagiarism Row Resigns
By Jonathan Kent
BBC News
The editor of Malaysia's newspaper, the New Straits Times, is to step down amidst allegations that he plagiarised the work of an American journalist.
Brendan Pereira's recent column has quickly become the target of internet commentators who urged him to quit.
Local websites have placed his column alongside another by the award-winning Mitch Albom of the Detroit Free Press.
The similarities were striking. Whole paragraphs in Mr Pereira's work mirrored Mr Albom's earlier piece.
'Major scalp'
It has been a clash between the old and new media about the basic standards of the profession.
On Monday, Mr Pereira published the column under the title "How Dearly We Miss June the Sixth" - a comment on the on-going row between Malaysia's prime minister and his predecessor that began in earnest on 7 June.
On Tuesday, local websites placed the column alongside another by Mr Albom.
His column, "Remembering the Day before the Day", was published on 10 September and mourned the changes wrought by the 11 September attacks.
On Wednesday night, the New Straits Times announced that Mr Pereira was to step down as editor.
However, he will officially remain in his post until the end of the year. No reason was given.
Mr Pereira told the BBC that his departure had been agreed with the paper two weeks before the publication of the controversial article.
The New Straits Times is owned by the political party of the prime minister.
Malaysia's broadcasters and newspapers are closely controlled by the government and no mention of the scandal has appeared in print.
However, the government has promised not to censor the internet and it appears that Malaysia's online watchdogs have claimed their first major scalp.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Two versions of a court case involving a former Malaysian journalist, now writer-cum-dramatist THOR KAH HOONG -- one from The NST, and the other from The Star.
First, from The NST, and Desi wishes to stress that "the order of appearance does not in any way indicate my judgement of superiority in content".
‘Drama queen’ sparks high drama in court
02 Nov 2006
Sharanjit Singh
GEORGE TOWN: There was high drama at the Sessions Court yesterday when a journalist and a lawyer locked horns over the term "drama queen".
At one point, an exasperated British Broadcasting Corporation correspondent Jonathan Kent said lawyer Gan Teik Chee’s overly-dramatic behaviour in court could describe the term.
"This is exactly what a drama queen means. He is doing exactly what the definition of a drama queen is," he told judge Mohd Rosli Osman.
His comment, after a particularly intense line of questioning by Gan that included hand gestures, had most of the spectators in stitches.
Kent said that he did not mean that Gan was homosexual.
His explanation was in apparent reference to the primary point of contention in retired lecturer Edward Dorall’s suit against bookstore owner and columnist Thor Kah Hoong.
Dorall had sued Thor for referring to him as a "drama-queen-lecturer" in an article in The Star newspaper in June 2004.
In his statement of claim, the former academician had said that Thor had committed libel as he had written the article with malicious intent.
He is seeking general damages, costs and further relief for losses and injury to his character, credit and reputation.
Thor, in his defence, denied malicious intent and said Dorall had deliberately misinterpreted the word "queen" out of context for the purpose of instituting the suit.
He claimed the suit was frivolous and mischievous, had no basis in law and fact, and was an abuse of court process.
(The Cambridge International Dictionary of English describes "queen", among others, as a slang term used to describe a homosexual man, especially an older person, whose manner is noticeable and artificial.)
The three-hour proceedings were in English probably because Kent was a Briton.
Earlier, Gan had posed several questions over 90 minutes to Kent on the definition of the term and if it had homosexual connotations.
Kent, a defence witness, repeatedly answered that the Oxford Advanced English Dictionary defined "drama queen" as an overly dramatic person.
To Gan’s question on whether he was aware that Longmans English Dictionary stated that someone described as a "drama queen" could be a person with homosexual tendencies, Kent said he was not aware.
He said he would stick with the Oxford Dictionary definition which was "a more definitive point of reference".
At the outset, Gan had asked Kent if he was aware of the fact that there was something called Malaysian English.
"Yes. I know. It’s called Manglish. I am actually a student of Manglish having served in Malaysia for the past four and a half years.
Kent said the term Manglish was used as a joke and referred mainly to slang.
Thor told the court that he did not think describing a person as a "drama-queen" was in any way libellous or defamatory.
"I think it just means an over-emotional, excitable person who makes a mountain out of a molehill.
"I definitely would not sue someone for calling me a drama queen even if it was done in public."
Thor said being called a drama queen was not necessarily a negative thing as it was sometimes good for people involved in theatre to be excitable and emotional.
Thor was represented by Cecil Rajendra. The court will hear submissions on Dec 18.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Star's print copy was read by Desi who had hoped to "Copy&Paste" from te web edition. So I urge my ER to exercise some patience as I seem to be cock-eyed today from staring too long at the wrong objects on the PC screen, and can't spot that web item. If any kind soul sees it, please C&P and send it to Desi, cun?
UPDATE@9.05AM the day after:
From a good sama-ritan in the steal of the night, as he/she does not wish to be a Drama King/Queen like Desi!~~
"**
Anonymous said...
As requested.
Here you go old boy.
Great blog, a daily dose of goodness.
Can't find your email address, so posted this as a comment.
"THE STAR- COURTS
Thursday November 2, 2006
Description not intended to defame ex-lecturer, court told
By PRISCILLA DIELENBERG
PENANG: A newspaper columnist told a Sessions Court here that there was nothing libellous or defamatory about describing a retired university lecturer as a “drama-queen-lecturer”.
Thor Kah Hoong, 56, also a bookstore owner, testified in his own defence yesterday that the term “drama queen” had been in use for years, and in no way was there any imputation that Edward Dorall, 70, was a homosexual.
“I cannot imagine why I would think he is a homosexual. I have met his wife a couple of times and have had no cause to think so,” said Thor.
“My understanding of drama queen is an overemotional excitable person who makes a mountain out of a molehill.
“If someone called me a drama queen, I may protest jokingly and say I am a calm person but I won’t feel there is a basis for a lawsuit.
“I do not write Manglish, I write English. Assuming that I referred to him as a drama lecturer, I would have written it as ‘queen-drama-lecturer’ and not ‘drama-queen-lecturer’. It's a totally different thing,” he said.
Dorall had filed a defamation suit against Thor as the author of an article which appeared in The Star on June 29, 2004.
He originally also named as defendant Star Publications (M) Bhd as the publisher and printer of The Star but both parties reached a settlement in the case in April.
He said he suffered losses and injury to his character, credit and reputation. He is seeking general damages, costs and further relief.
Cross-examined by Dorall’s counsel Gan Teik Chee, Thor said he did not intend to defame Dorall but agreed that ordinary regular readers of his column could not say what was in his mind.
Judge Mohd Rosli Osman fixed Dec 18 for mention."
1:32 AM **"
PS: Thanks to Anon again with two tehtarik.
Now someone can volunteer to be my sexcretary, remind Desi of the next time you spy the hearing date/s, Righto!
I am petitioner no. 137
I just signed on at petitionspot.com.
I urge you to visit.
And sign on if you agree.
Don't sign if you disagree; then please Comment here giving your rationale, Mousey-one oso cun.
~~ DEsi @2.15pm
It's the economy, stupid!
Created by Raja Petra Kamarudin on November 1st, 2006 at 3:21 am AST
The ongoing tussle between Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and ex-Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad seems to have distracted everyone from the more important issue and what is really at stake here. As one American President once said, "It's the economy, stupid!"
We, the Malaysian public, urge the Prime Minister to refocus and address what is crucial and important to most Malaysians: solving the problem of the economy -- which is going to get worse over the next two years with Globalisation and the FTA looming over the horizon.
What is the point of an NEP when 100% of zero equals zero? Enlarge the cake first before talking about how to share the cake. That is what needs addressing more than squabbling over who gets what."
I urge you to visit.
And sign on if you agree.
Don't sign if you disagree; then please Comment here giving your rationale, Mousey-one oso cun.
~~ DEsi @2.15pm
It's the economy, stupid!
Created by Raja Petra Kamarudin on November 1st, 2006 at 3:21 am AST
The ongoing tussle between Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and ex-Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad seems to have distracted everyone from the more important issue and what is really at stake here. As one American President once said, "It's the economy, stupid!"
We, the Malaysian public, urge the Prime Minister to refocus and address what is crucial and important to most Malaysians: solving the problem of the economy -- which is going to get worse over the next two years with Globalisation and the FTA looming over the horizon.
What is the point of an NEP when 100% of zero equals zero? Enlarge the cake first before talking about how to share the cake. That is what needs addressing more than squabbling over who gets what."
TRUTH and Half Measures
mGf SeeFei from Solomon Islands -- seeking wisdom dare? -- gives hi-praise to Desi via Comments which I feel "undeserved". Is he a Malaysian so cheesed off by the monkeying and donkeying around (another mGf based in lundun says it's aAnimal House here!) that he can only find peace on a desolate island/s? 4f, this is a rhetorical question as in Thinking Allowed at Desi's, OK!
Reprising in full becos it's good to hear some trumpet sound!~~
"i read Sun for 5 days when i was in KL. no such expose leh! maybe not so much when i was there!
but really, trail blazing news reporting cause money & life, who want to do? some wretch life from the underclass?
it is a chicken & egg problem. guess ppl r too comfy to really want to hear the truth and realllly take action.
hence i salute desi the truth seeker for the good job in this blog.
syabas DESI!
By See Fei, at 9:18 PM "
SeeFei, the TRUTH I seek is as a WRITER, just that, nothing more, I hope my training as a journalist, now put to use as a Blogger, will help me see through the fog and mist -- yes, half truths thrown up as The Truth -- and using my skills of wordsmithing, I can crystallise some issues to be seen as what they are in essence. No, I can't tell you the Truth because it's finally the Readers themslves who must come to a coclusion themselves, hence I deem them Esteemed as God gave everyone a Unique Mind -- to use their beautiful mind.
Don't get caught on in half truths, outright red herrings and downright lies.
In the city nooks and corners lie may wolves, hence I always warn those Red Riding Hoods from outskirts to wlays beware the Urbanites Dress'd in Branded Attire. Especialy those who wear PraVda and Datuk and Tan Sri labels in front of their small names.
Me, call me Desi, or Chong, or YL, will do. As long as you pick up the tehtarik bills by the Furong rodaside.
So SeeFei, w'ile I enjoy seafood at Jalan Alor very much, I do turn red indian red, then finally lobster red when I am caught in such situations as suddenly someone makes a remark wrt Desi that makes him blush like a young maiden at her wedding chamber awaiting the first byte on the entrance of her enchanted prince. No, Helen I'm NOT writHing Mills&Boon stuff, DEsi's just doin' ketchUP on his 'ollywood trail, long negelectd.
Okay, on turning lobster red... hence, I I don't play professional Poker, though I poke a li'l with young nephews and nieces, and conTEMpores during CNY so that the brain cells are exercised annually on the Probability Theory. If you don't know what PT is, don't learn -- it does more harm than good... TRust me, I 'rite this from XXperience.
BUT my dear EsteemedReaders must get it out from your old, young and not-so-young heads that "Wisdom does not automatically come with age". No, wisdom comes with "discerning learning" and I believe, a humble mind in that as one learns more about the world, one knows indeed how little one knows about the uinverse, and hence remains a humble servant of the Almighty, however you deem Him to be. One of my mGf, Young&Articulate johnleemk can be wiser than many olde foolfs of so-called journalists that even at the peak of their careers, some top Editors still write their opening paragraphs with grammatical errors. When you get "shit" as first servings, do you wish to continue with more PR sheets? Then they give you liberal does of "I and my Tan Sri friend, ..." --
Fundamental Journalism rules will tell you that you don't use the First Person in writing unless the circumstances were so special, like having lunch with President Bush, or then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew or onecuponatime Chairman Mao or stillupontedime Castro or ...First Lady, I was going to say Nicole but I think I'll stop here in case someone yells CheongHee...hehehe.
Hey, you want names, I mean the recalcitrant EICs? Please get an archive copy of the RM1.20 papers and probaility theory will tell you by Narrowing it down to the GEIC, your chances of spotting good examples are now having of odds of 50-50 in their Commentaries.
And what's that got to do with my topic this morning?
TRUTH? And Half Mesaures.
I'll leave some news headlines for you to ponder before I continue...LATER, INsya-Allah.
APPLICATION: Selangor Badminton Association (President - Datuk Zakaria Mat Deros)
APPROVAL: PKNS Land Committee (Chairman - Datuk Zakaria Mat Deros)
KUALA LUMPUR: The Selangor Badminton Association applied for a piece of land which was approved by the Perbadanan Kemajuan Negeri Selangor. Nothing wrong with that.
Except that beleaguered Klang municipal councillor Datuk Zakaria Mat Deros is the SBA president and chairman of the PKNS land committee which approved the application.
Zakaria, it appears, is a magnet for controversy.
:
:
:
Faizal repents, gives up Klang council post
KLANG: Datuk Zakaria Mat Deros is stubbornly holding on, but his fellow councillor has decided to resign.
Faizal Abdullah, who was the third councillor to have built his house without proper approval from the Klang Municipal council (MPK), was called to see Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Khir Toyo yesterday.
Faizal immediately decided to take the advice of his "boss" and resign as councillor for the 2006-2008 term.
:
:
:
DESI: The TRUTH of the matter is that a person CANNOT resign from a post (of Councillor) or a profession (of a Prostitute) is he has not been sworn in as a Councillor, or he has not entered the oldest profession and declared it in his income tax returns.
The TRUTH of the matter is that FAIZAL did not give up something which is NOT in his possession, so he did not "sdacrifice" anything as a show of his repentance.
Half measures refer to the CEO acting in cahoots -- a Kill Toyol campaign going on orchestrated by the Opposition, did I hear? -- calling on these three errant "Councillors" to resign for almost finishing erecting manisions without building plans approvals and putting on a Sandiwara with tear-jerkers (Zakaria dan famili) and seeming sacrifice-humility (starring Faizal). Let's now await the grand entrance of Mazlynoor Abdul Latiff.
Meanwhile, I call on Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to enforce FULL MEASURES, vis:
(1) Issue Show-cause Letter to the Selangor MB
for his inept and irresponsible administration
and closing BOTH EYES to all the shenanigans
involving his State Assemblyman and town councillors
(2) Maybe advise the Sultan to dissolve the present
Dewan Undangan Negeri and hold "fresh" elections
to seek a truly "democratic renewal of mandate"
from The People, For the People, By the People
of Selangor.
(3) Decalre that Selangor has not attained "Developed Nation"
status as self-proclaimed by recalcitrant CEO who does not
follow universal and world-renowned standrads of what
"Developed Nation" status constitutes and entails.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now for some Rumination allthough it's not Sundae, because to get there -- V2020 remember -- you have to have a Developed Nation Mentality in tandem with Developed Nation Infrastructure, te alatter of which we already can stand proud of -- even by small minds' standards, for we have "small" houses that stand four-storey high.
From Screenshots who quoted from Malaysiakini.com for which I don't have a subscription, and for reasons best known to myself and no one else although hinted at to a few mGf. Is young johnleemk so "siscerning" that he knows more than I do? Read his Conversation at JeffOoi's pertaining to some fellow conversationists' calls to get an MKini subscrition if they wanted to know more. Desi also does that sometimes, asking you blardy miserly readers to spend 30sen at SEVEN11 for theSun or RM1.20 for alternative MSM, not that I get 30% conmiss..., but at the end of the day, I wish ALL the mass media to thrive, even if they be headed by a moronic GEIC.
November 01, 2006
Equity: 'Bumi hit 33.7% a decade ago!'
The Rakyat have asked PM Abdullah Ahmad Badawi -- rather politely as they didn't revolt -- the government's methodology in measuring Bumiputra equity under NEP. No answer so far.
Meanwhile, Malaysiakini reports that a university research paper has found that the NEP target of 30% bumiputera equity ownership had been achieved -- at par value and not market value -- about a decade ago in 1997!.
"SOURCE: Malaysiakini November 1, 2006
The research was conducted in 2002 by Universiti Malaya academician Dr M Fazilah Abdul Samad, and it was based on a 10-year analysis of bumiputera equity ownership between 1988 and 1997 of public listed companies on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange (KLSE), now called Bursa Malaysia.
It found the bumiputera equity ownership target was exceeded in 1997 when it hit 33.7%, comprising bumiputera corporate equity ownership of 30.6%, and individual bumiputera share ownership at 3.1%.
Two weeks ago, Abdullah reiterated the government's official-speak that the country has yet to achieve the 30% bumiputera equity ownership target, relying on figure calculated by the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) that is based on the par value of shares of 600,000 registered companies.
Get a Malaysiakini subscription to read the details.
Let's hope the PM rebutts ASLI-CPPS with EPU's methodology before he tries this one.
There has been wealth creation. The question is: Where has the money gone?
Posted by Jeff Ooi at 07:27 PM | Permalink | Conversations
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
LAST, but not least, I caught up with Y&A a month-plus late to "reprise" on an important topic.
His writing below is PROOF that wisdom does not come with age; this guy is blardy 16-going-on-17, and pretends he's in Desi's class, but how can/do you fault him?
Thoughtless Mind Ad Hominem: How Malaysians Lose the Plot
Written by johnleemk on 2:43:31 pm Sep 14, 2006.
Any observer of intellectual debates, whether on blogs, in newspapers, or between prominent Malaysians, can hardly fail to notice the frequency of ad hominem responses, particularly when foreign-residing Malaysians are involved. This isn't a good thing.
Take a look at any argument among Malaysians about politics where a foreign-residing Malaysian has given his views, and one thing becomes painfully obvious: Malaysians can't resist presuming that the views of Malaysians who don't happen to live here anymore are worthless, and ought to be given short shrift. In particular, this applies when said foreign-domiciled Malaysians are being critical of their home country, or when what is said is simply unpalatable. As one such criticism states, "Just stay away, do not confuse the laymen like us and make it more difficult for us to have a decent plate of nasi lemak in the mornings of tommorrow and day afters."
The reason for the prevalence of this argument is obvious. Malaysians seem to think that anyone not living here would be wholly unacquainted with the nuances and peculiarities of Malaysian life. As such, any criticism or advice from these people would be imperfect at best, and thus ought not to be heeded.
The problem with this approach is that it overlooks some basic problems with its conjecture. Someone born and bred in Malaysia can hardly be completely unfamiliar with the situation here. Yes, things change over time - but how much change can occur in the span of half a decade? A decade? Two decades? Quite a lot - but at the same time, perhaps not much. In either case, it seems irrational to dismiss out of hand any criticisms of a Malaysian living overseas.
Another approach is to imply these people have been corrupted by the Western values of the countries they have taken up residence in, or simply do not love their country. This certainly has some prima facie grounds; many Malaysians living overseas do tend to be more liberal, or in some cases, spiteful. It is not uncommon to run across inane tirades written by people with little better to do than smear mud across what little good name Malaysia has, and cook up conspiracy theories on the flimsiest of evidence.
The spiteful rants masquerading as thought-out criticisms are worthy of being ignored. They can contribute little, if anything, to a discussion of Malaysian politics or society. The problem that arises is that some people seem to categorise all liberal-minded Malaysians, and all criticisms of Malaysian society/government in general, under this label. As stated by one "vincent" in the first document linked to earlier, "what do you plan to achieve by telling the whole world what you fear about your ‘beloved’ homeland?"
The answer is simple. By constructively criticising the state of affairs in Malaysia, and comparing them with that of other countries, we develop a point of reference for ourselves that allows us to gauge our situation relative to other countries and peoples. Of course, some of the things liberals enjoy criticising will strike us as petty and unworthy of comment. Certainly, I've found many proposals of theirs to be unsuited for the situation here, and far too idealistic to ever be practically implemented in the present social climate.
Still, the freedom of expression granted legally by our Constitution and in practice by the Internet means that we shouldn't shut these people up. As long as their agitation does not rise to levels that pose a threat to Malaysian stability, there is no reason to abridge freedom of speech. It is better to have a little too much freedom than too little (although then again, this tends to be the kind of liberal statement that throws some conservatives into a mini-frenzy).
The last argument we will examine today is also from "vincent": "Malaysians living overseas have no right to complain about things going on at home, because if they really did care about things back home, they would be here like the rest of us trying to fix the leaking roof." In other words, put your money where your mouth is and practice what you preach.
While this certainly is a good exhortation, it has no impact whatsoever on the quality or credibility of the criticism being addressed. Whether one is willing to stand up for what one believes in has no direct effect on whether one's beliefs are right or wrong. The only impact it has is on the reputation of the fellow who is being critical. Even so, this rebuttal still fails to account for other possible reasons one might remain overseas. One might have established a family there already; one may still be studying; it is possible one is on bond due to past scholarships. It is unfair to expect such people to return home just so they can practice what they preach.
The more greyer fields are where we have people content to remain overseas, with little intent of ever returning to Malaysia. Such people can't be condemned outright - there must be a reason they still cling to their blue ICs and red passports. And even if they have given up Malaysian citizenship, they still remain inextricably bound to Malaysia by their heritage. It would be unfair to expect these people not to pass comment on a country they have cultural and emotional ties with.
In the end, these three defences for ad hominem attacks on criticisms of Malaysia share similar loopholes. The first is the fact that any ad hominem argument is a logical fallacy and is inadmissible in any real debate. The second is that foreign views are never entirely subjected to the attack of being unreliable. It is only foreign criticism that feels the brunt of such attacks.
Malaysians are eager to lap up any praise in store for us. We don't mind making comparisons with other countries, as long as these comparisons are sure to be favourable for us. (Look! We're ahead of Ghana!) And if someone from overseas, Malaysian or otherwise, has anything good to say about us, we don't mind. It's only when people start pointing out the pimples on our face and the scars on our body that we get irritated.
One counter-argument is that praise is fine, as long as foreigners don't take credit for it, while criticism is not because "Complaining just means that you want someone to fix that problem so your life would be nice and dandy when you do decide to return one day."
The issue with this response is that it assumes it makes sense to cut off your nose to spite your face. If you see a problem, you should shut up because telling other people about it would bring you personal benefit? (Even if these other people would also benefit were the problem fixed.) Somehow that isn't very logical. In the first place, the underlying foundation of today's global economy is that greed is good. Self-interest is the only reason anything gets done. Perhaps you're a socialist, but even so, would it make sense for someone who sees a problem not to tell anyone about it in a socialistic economy? I doubt so.
In the end, all we can say is that criticisms of Malaysia by foreign Malaysians are not deserving of outright dismissal. If there are issues with their credibility, there will be enough holes in them for them to be rebutted without hitting below the belt and attacking the loyalty, work ethic, or honour of those criticising.
All software code © John Lee Ming Keong 2005 – Armageddon. The copyright to anything else on this website belongs to their respective author(s) or creator(s) unless otherwise stated. All trademarks are property of their respective owners. See also credits, legal disclaimer and our privacy policy.
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PS@1.45pm: I forget to visit this Y&A regularly because he locates at some funny host so difficultg to remember --johnleemk@iroatm.cjb.net --so don't blame Desi for posting something 1-1/2 months old. Still, it's a Gem comapred with the 90% crap I glance at EveryDay at many blogs. You may retort, if they are "trash", why bother? Hey, the answer is that If I don't glance, I can't decide if it's trash or cash, okay! AD hominem ... understand this term well. GO and thank mGf, he may be leaving Malaysian shores soon; Get to know him-lah, especially you pretty Y&A, you may have here a GOoD Catch. Jest Remember Desi's 30%!:)
Reprising in full becos it's good to hear some trumpet sound!~~
"i read Sun for 5 days when i was in KL. no such expose leh! maybe not so much when i was there!
but really, trail blazing news reporting cause money & life, who want to do? some wretch life from the underclass?
it is a chicken & egg problem. guess ppl r too comfy to really want to hear the truth and realllly take action.
hence i salute desi the truth seeker for the good job in this blog.
syabas DESI!
By See Fei, at 9:18 PM "
SeeFei, the TRUTH I seek is as a WRITER, just that, nothing more, I hope my training as a journalist, now put to use as a Blogger, will help me see through the fog and mist -- yes, half truths thrown up as The Truth -- and using my skills of wordsmithing, I can crystallise some issues to be seen as what they are in essence. No, I can't tell you the Truth because it's finally the Readers themslves who must come to a coclusion themselves, hence I deem them Esteemed as God gave everyone a Unique Mind -- to use their beautiful mind.
Don't get caught on in half truths, outright red herrings and downright lies.
In the city nooks and corners lie may wolves, hence I always warn those Red Riding Hoods from outskirts to wlays beware the Urbanites Dress'd in Branded Attire. Especialy those who wear PraVda and Datuk and Tan Sri labels in front of their small names.
Me, call me Desi, or Chong, or YL, will do. As long as you pick up the tehtarik bills by the Furong rodaside.
So SeeFei, w'ile I enjoy seafood at Jalan Alor very much, I do turn red indian red, then finally lobster red when I am caught in such situations as suddenly someone makes a remark wrt Desi that makes him blush like a young maiden at her wedding chamber awaiting the first byte on the entrance of her enchanted prince. No, Helen I'm NOT writHing Mills&Boon stuff, DEsi's just doin' ketchUP on his 'ollywood trail, long negelectd.
Okay, on turning lobster red... hence, I I don't play professional Poker, though I poke a li'l with young nephews and nieces, and conTEMpores during CNY so that the brain cells are exercised annually on the Probability Theory. If you don't know what PT is, don't learn -- it does more harm than good... TRust me, I 'rite this from XXperience.
BUT my dear EsteemedReaders must get it out from your old, young and not-so-young heads that "Wisdom does not automatically come with age". No, wisdom comes with "discerning learning" and I believe, a humble mind in that as one learns more about the world, one knows indeed how little one knows about the uinverse, and hence remains a humble servant of the Almighty, however you deem Him to be. One of my mGf, Young&Articulate johnleemk can be wiser than many olde foolfs of so-called journalists that even at the peak of their careers, some top Editors still write their opening paragraphs with grammatical errors. When you get "shit" as first servings, do you wish to continue with more PR sheets? Then they give you liberal does of "I and my Tan Sri friend, ..." --
Fundamental Journalism rules will tell you that you don't use the First Person in writing unless the circumstances were so special, like having lunch with President Bush, or then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew or onecuponatime Chairman Mao or stillupontedime Castro or ...First Lady, I was going to say Nicole but I think I'll stop here in case someone yells CheongHee...hehehe.
Hey, you want names, I mean the recalcitrant EICs? Please get an archive copy of the RM1.20 papers and probaility theory will tell you by Narrowing it down to the GEIC, your chances of spotting good examples are now having of odds of 50-50 in their Commentaries.
And what's that got to do with my topic this morning?
TRUTH? And Half Mesaures.
I'll leave some news headlines for you to ponder before I continue...LATER, INsya-Allah.
APPLICATION: Selangor Badminton Association (President - Datuk Zakaria Mat Deros)
APPROVAL: PKNS Land Committee (Chairman - Datuk Zakaria Mat Deros)
KUALA LUMPUR: The Selangor Badminton Association applied for a piece of land which was approved by the Perbadanan Kemajuan Negeri Selangor. Nothing wrong with that.
Except that beleaguered Klang municipal councillor Datuk Zakaria Mat Deros is the SBA president and chairman of the PKNS land committee which approved the application.
Zakaria, it appears, is a magnet for controversy.
:
:
:
Faizal repents, gives up Klang council post
KLANG: Datuk Zakaria Mat Deros is stubbornly holding on, but his fellow councillor has decided to resign.
Faizal Abdullah, who was the third councillor to have built his house without proper approval from the Klang Municipal council (MPK), was called to see Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Khir Toyo yesterday.
Faizal immediately decided to take the advice of his "boss" and resign as councillor for the 2006-2008 term.
:
:
:
DESI: The TRUTH of the matter is that a person CANNOT resign from a post (of Councillor) or a profession (of a Prostitute) is he has not been sworn in as a Councillor, or he has not entered the oldest profession and declared it in his income tax returns.
The TRUTH of the matter is that FAIZAL did not give up something which is NOT in his possession, so he did not "sdacrifice" anything as a show of his repentance.
Half measures refer to the CEO acting in cahoots -- a Kill Toyol campaign going on orchestrated by the Opposition, did I hear? -- calling on these three errant "Councillors" to resign for almost finishing erecting manisions without building plans approvals and putting on a Sandiwara with tear-jerkers (Zakaria dan famili) and seeming sacrifice-humility (starring Faizal). Let's now await the grand entrance of Mazlynoor Abdul Latiff.
Meanwhile, I call on Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to enforce FULL MEASURES, vis:
(1) Issue Show-cause Letter to the Selangor MB
for his inept and irresponsible administration
and closing BOTH EYES to all the shenanigans
involving his State Assemblyman and town councillors
(2) Maybe advise the Sultan to dissolve the present
Dewan Undangan Negeri and hold "fresh" elections
to seek a truly "democratic renewal of mandate"
from The People, For the People, By the People
of Selangor.
(3) Decalre that Selangor has not attained "Developed Nation"
status as self-proclaimed by recalcitrant CEO who does not
follow universal and world-renowned standrads of what
"Developed Nation" status constitutes and entails.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now for some Rumination allthough it's not Sundae, because to get there -- V2020 remember -- you have to have a Developed Nation Mentality in tandem with Developed Nation Infrastructure, te alatter of which we already can stand proud of -- even by small minds' standards, for we have "small" houses that stand four-storey high.
From Screenshots who quoted from Malaysiakini.com for which I don't have a subscription, and for reasons best known to myself and no one else although hinted at to a few mGf. Is young johnleemk so "siscerning" that he knows more than I do? Read his Conversation at JeffOoi's pertaining to some fellow conversationists' calls to get an MKini subscrition if they wanted to know more. Desi also does that sometimes, asking you blardy miserly readers to spend 30sen at SEVEN11 for theSun or RM1.20 for alternative MSM, not that I get 30% conmiss..., but at the end of the day, I wish ALL the mass media to thrive, even if they be headed by a moronic GEIC.
November 01, 2006
Equity: 'Bumi hit 33.7% a decade ago!'
The Rakyat have asked PM Abdullah Ahmad Badawi -- rather politely as they didn't revolt -- the government's methodology in measuring Bumiputra equity under NEP. No answer so far.
Meanwhile, Malaysiakini reports that a university research paper has found that the NEP target of 30% bumiputera equity ownership had been achieved -- at par value and not market value -- about a decade ago in 1997!.
"SOURCE: Malaysiakini November 1, 2006
The research was conducted in 2002 by Universiti Malaya academician Dr M Fazilah Abdul Samad, and it was based on a 10-year analysis of bumiputera equity ownership between 1988 and 1997 of public listed companies on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange (KLSE), now called Bursa Malaysia.
It found the bumiputera equity ownership target was exceeded in 1997 when it hit 33.7%, comprising bumiputera corporate equity ownership of 30.6%, and individual bumiputera share ownership at 3.1%.
Two weeks ago, Abdullah reiterated the government's official-speak that the country has yet to achieve the 30% bumiputera equity ownership target, relying on figure calculated by the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) that is based on the par value of shares of 600,000 registered companies.
Get a Malaysiakini subscription to read the details.
Let's hope the PM rebutts ASLI-CPPS with EPU's methodology before he tries this one.
There has been wealth creation. The question is: Where has the money gone?
Posted by Jeff Ooi at 07:27 PM | Permalink | Conversations
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
LAST, but not least, I caught up with Y&A a month-plus late to "reprise" on an important topic.
His writing below is PROOF that wisdom does not come with age; this guy is blardy 16-going-on-17, and pretends he's in Desi's class, but how can/do you fault him?
Thoughtless Mind Ad Hominem: How Malaysians Lose the Plot
Written by johnleemk on 2:43:31 pm Sep 14, 2006.
Any observer of intellectual debates, whether on blogs, in newspapers, or between prominent Malaysians, can hardly fail to notice the frequency of ad hominem responses, particularly when foreign-residing Malaysians are involved. This isn't a good thing.
Take a look at any argument among Malaysians about politics where a foreign-residing Malaysian has given his views, and one thing becomes painfully obvious: Malaysians can't resist presuming that the views of Malaysians who don't happen to live here anymore are worthless, and ought to be given short shrift. In particular, this applies when said foreign-domiciled Malaysians are being critical of their home country, or when what is said is simply unpalatable. As one such criticism states, "Just stay away, do not confuse the laymen like us and make it more difficult for us to have a decent plate of nasi lemak in the mornings of tommorrow and day afters."
The reason for the prevalence of this argument is obvious. Malaysians seem to think that anyone not living here would be wholly unacquainted with the nuances and peculiarities of Malaysian life. As such, any criticism or advice from these people would be imperfect at best, and thus ought not to be heeded.
The problem with this approach is that it overlooks some basic problems with its conjecture. Someone born and bred in Malaysia can hardly be completely unfamiliar with the situation here. Yes, things change over time - but how much change can occur in the span of half a decade? A decade? Two decades? Quite a lot - but at the same time, perhaps not much. In either case, it seems irrational to dismiss out of hand any criticisms of a Malaysian living overseas.
Another approach is to imply these people have been corrupted by the Western values of the countries they have taken up residence in, or simply do not love their country. This certainly has some prima facie grounds; many Malaysians living overseas do tend to be more liberal, or in some cases, spiteful. It is not uncommon to run across inane tirades written by people with little better to do than smear mud across what little good name Malaysia has, and cook up conspiracy theories on the flimsiest of evidence.
The spiteful rants masquerading as thought-out criticisms are worthy of being ignored. They can contribute little, if anything, to a discussion of Malaysian politics or society. The problem that arises is that some people seem to categorise all liberal-minded Malaysians, and all criticisms of Malaysian society/government in general, under this label. As stated by one "vincent" in the first document linked to earlier, "what do you plan to achieve by telling the whole world what you fear about your ‘beloved’ homeland?"
The answer is simple. By constructively criticising the state of affairs in Malaysia, and comparing them with that of other countries, we develop a point of reference for ourselves that allows us to gauge our situation relative to other countries and peoples. Of course, some of the things liberals enjoy criticising will strike us as petty and unworthy of comment. Certainly, I've found many proposals of theirs to be unsuited for the situation here, and far too idealistic to ever be practically implemented in the present social climate.
Still, the freedom of expression granted legally by our Constitution and in practice by the Internet means that we shouldn't shut these people up. As long as their agitation does not rise to levels that pose a threat to Malaysian stability, there is no reason to abridge freedom of speech. It is better to have a little too much freedom than too little (although then again, this tends to be the kind of liberal statement that throws some conservatives into a mini-frenzy).
The last argument we will examine today is also from "vincent": "Malaysians living overseas have no right to complain about things going on at home, because if they really did care about things back home, they would be here like the rest of us trying to fix the leaking roof." In other words, put your money where your mouth is and practice what you preach.
While this certainly is a good exhortation, it has no impact whatsoever on the quality or credibility of the criticism being addressed. Whether one is willing to stand up for what one believes in has no direct effect on whether one's beliefs are right or wrong. The only impact it has is on the reputation of the fellow who is being critical. Even so, this rebuttal still fails to account for other possible reasons one might remain overseas. One might have established a family there already; one may still be studying; it is possible one is on bond due to past scholarships. It is unfair to expect such people to return home just so they can practice what they preach.
The more greyer fields are where we have people content to remain overseas, with little intent of ever returning to Malaysia. Such people can't be condemned outright - there must be a reason they still cling to their blue ICs and red passports. And even if they have given up Malaysian citizenship, they still remain inextricably bound to Malaysia by their heritage. It would be unfair to expect these people not to pass comment on a country they have cultural and emotional ties with.
In the end, these three defences for ad hominem attacks on criticisms of Malaysia share similar loopholes. The first is the fact that any ad hominem argument is a logical fallacy and is inadmissible in any real debate. The second is that foreign views are never entirely subjected to the attack of being unreliable. It is only foreign criticism that feels the brunt of such attacks.
Malaysians are eager to lap up any praise in store for us. We don't mind making comparisons with other countries, as long as these comparisons are sure to be favourable for us. (Look! We're ahead of Ghana!) And if someone from overseas, Malaysian or otherwise, has anything good to say about us, we don't mind. It's only when people start pointing out the pimples on our face and the scars on our body that we get irritated.
One counter-argument is that praise is fine, as long as foreigners don't take credit for it, while criticism is not because "Complaining just means that you want someone to fix that problem so your life would be nice and dandy when you do decide to return one day."
The issue with this response is that it assumes it makes sense to cut off your nose to spite your face. If you see a problem, you should shut up because telling other people about it would bring you personal benefit? (Even if these other people would also benefit were the problem fixed.) Somehow that isn't very logical. In the first place, the underlying foundation of today's global economy is that greed is good. Self-interest is the only reason anything gets done. Perhaps you're a socialist, but even so, would it make sense for someone who sees a problem not to tell anyone about it in a socialistic economy? I doubt so.
In the end, all we can say is that criticisms of Malaysia by foreign Malaysians are not deserving of outright dismissal. If there are issues with their credibility, there will be enough holes in them for them to be rebutted without hitting below the belt and attacking the loyalty, work ethic, or honour of those criticising.
All software code © John Lee Ming Keong 2005 – Armageddon. The copyright to anything else on this website belongs to their respective author(s) or creator(s) unless otherwise stated. All trademarks are property of their respective owners. See also credits, legal disclaimer and our privacy policy.
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PS@1.45pm: I forget to visit this Y&A regularly because he locates at some funny host so difficultg to remember --johnleemk@iroatm.cjb.net --so don't blame Desi for posting something 1-1/2 months old. Still, it's a Gem comapred with the 90% crap I glance at EveryDay at many blogs. You may retort, if they are "trash", why bother? Hey, the answer is that If I don't glance, I can't decide if it's trash or cash, okay! AD hominem ... understand this term well. GO and thank mGf, he may be leaving Malaysian shores soon; Get to know him-lah, especially you pretty Y&A, you may have here a GOoD Catch. Jest Remember Desi's 30%!:)
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
From Other Press
After DaSien which gives you FICTION, let's get back to Reality.
NON-FICTION from theSun Letters column today; then followed by an editorial from Sin Chew Daily, as quoted/summmarised by TheStar. Desiderata-YLChong is doing It as a community service, just as my fave radio station -- Light&Easy -- often does promoting Laughter is the Best Medicine, then badgering Desi's ears with some Prescrition bad-engrish madIson!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The road not taken in Nanyang sale
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nation
Tuesday October 31, 2006
China’s business prospects attract investors
BUSINESSMEN from Malaysia had invested in China for a long time because of abundant opportunities there, said Sin Chew Daily.
In an editorial, the paper said Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, when he was the prime minister, had defended the businessmen who invested in China because he was aware of the better opportunities there.
This was because most businesses in Malaysia were given to bumiputras, the paper added.
It said China was an obvious choice for Malaysian Chinese when the Chinese government was opening up its economy.
The paper added that the Chinese from both sides shared similar language and culture.
“Initially, it was not smooth sailing for the Malaysians. They too suffered losses. Only after much perseverance were they later able to taste success,” said the daily.
It stressed that the Malaysians remained loyal to their country despite investing in China, rebutting Dr Mahathir’s claim that local Chinese businessmen were unhappy and would not vote for the ruling Barisan Nasional at the next general election.
On another matter, all the major Chinese dailies continued to give prominent coverage to the Datuk Zakaria Md Deros saga.
In its commentary, Sin Chew Daily said the issue showed that politicians could misuse their power and that money politics was getting worse.
“If not for the Sultan of Selangor, the matter might have been swept under the carpet,” it reported.
It called on the Government to have a system to check such problems from recurring, and for state assemblymen and councillors to submit a report of their financial standing upon being elected or appointed.
“Assemblymen and councillors should also reveal how they had accumulated their wealth,” it said, adding that there were politicians who often used their political strength and connections to obtain contracts.
NON-FICTION from theSun Letters column today; then followed by an editorial from Sin Chew Daily, as quoted/summmarised by TheStar. Desiderata-YLChong is doing It as a community service, just as my fave radio station -- Light&Easy -- often does promoting Laughter is the Best Medicine, then badgering Desi's ears with some Prescrition bad-engrish madIson!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The road not taken in Nanyang sale
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nation
Tuesday October 31, 2006
China’s business prospects attract investors
BUSINESSMEN from Malaysia had invested in China for a long time because of abundant opportunities there, said Sin Chew Daily.
In an editorial, the paper said Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, when he was the prime minister, had defended the businessmen who invested in China because he was aware of the better opportunities there.
This was because most businesses in Malaysia were given to bumiputras, the paper added.
It said China was an obvious choice for Malaysian Chinese when the Chinese government was opening up its economy.
The paper added that the Chinese from both sides shared similar language and culture.
“Initially, it was not smooth sailing for the Malaysians. They too suffered losses. Only after much perseverance were they later able to taste success,” said the daily.
It stressed that the Malaysians remained loyal to their country despite investing in China, rebutting Dr Mahathir’s claim that local Chinese businessmen were unhappy and would not vote for the ruling Barisan Nasional at the next general election.
On another matter, all the major Chinese dailies continued to give prominent coverage to the Datuk Zakaria Md Deros saga.
In its commentary, Sin Chew Daily said the issue showed that politicians could misuse their power and that money politics was getting worse.
“If not for the Sultan of Selangor, the matter might have been swept under the carpet,” it reported.
It called on the Government to have a system to check such problems from recurring, and for state assemblymen and councillors to submit a report of their financial standing upon being elected or appointed.
“Assemblymen and councillors should also reveal how they had accumulated their wealth,” it said, adding that there were politicians who often used their political strength and connections to obtain contracts.
If things ain't goin' right...
Blame it on the whether!
From the Star, an olde record playin' it again, like Desi advised: PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM!
"As time goes by" for olde times' s(H)ake in Casablanca.
Councillor Faizal also blames it on his architect
KLANG: It is the architect’s fault.
Faizal Abdullah, a councillor from the Klang Municipal Council, gave the same excuse as his fellow councillor and Port Klang state assemblyman Datuk Zakaria Md Deros for building a bungalow without obtaining prior approval from the local authorities.
:
:
A third Councillor in similar bind, Mazlynoor Abdul Latiff, offered that "Everyone is also doing it!"
I think he forgot his architect's name, so Everyone is more convenient. One mGf who is a reporter and stays in the royal city is servicing his bank loan for a single-storey terraced house for some two decades now is definitely NOT doing it!
Does my friend have a case for defamation, any loyar buluk out here who won't be blamed for giving wlong advice?
Then when a group of DAP and PKR supporters led by DAP Sec-Gen and outspoken lwayer-Assemblyman Teng Chang Khim (who suffered a slap at the hands of that Zakaria idiot!) held a peaceful protest in front of Zakaria's mansion, the latter's henchmen said THE OPPOSITON IS BEHIND ALL OF ZAKARIA'S TROUBLES.
From The People's Paper yesterday, doing some KetchUp as usual~~
Klang Umno backs chief, blames Opposition
KLANG: The Klang Umno division rallied behind its chief Datuk Zakaria Md Deros with a show of support and loyalty, claiming that he had been “sabotaged” by the Opposition.
“The entire thing is the work of the Opposition to discredit him. The only thing wrong here is the non-submission of building plans, that’s all,” division information chief Shoimi Shafie told pressmen at 6.45pm yesterday after the division held an emergency meeting.
Those who attended the meeting at the division’s headquarters in Pandamaran included division deputy chairman Datuk Mazlynoor Abdul Latiff, division Wanita chief Senator Datin Paduka Norhayati Onn Ismail and acting Youth chief Zainuri, who is Zakaria’s son.
:
:
DESI: These UMNO guys normally pick on DAP as the blaming stone of First Resort -- which is quite luxurious really, like a "small" house of four-storey ala Zakaria ala Mazynoor ala Faizal ala ....... (Let's fill up the rollcall as things develop slowly but surely in sole Developed State in NegaraKu, eh?)--
They dare not blame It on PAS because the latter will call on fiery Hell and burning brimstones on these cowards who believe they are Jaguh kampong and king of all they survey, therefore can build, and build, and build...
With impunity. Until Citzien Nades and citizen Keen?Ken write about their glorification.
And the Sultan steps into the terortry, and these cowards are terrified, OR ARE THEY?
"To be or not not to be, that's the question."
Desi doesn't really know the relevance or significance of this Shakespearean quote.
THINKING ALLOWED (ala JeffOoi whom I've not been quoting much nowadays, I don' know why. Do you?): But what the hella, Jaguh New Village must show off some metal/mettle wat!
When the Haze ("Smog" is actually the right word, but if you're a leftist like Desi, Haze is oso cun.For the proper understanding of the word 'cun', please consult Helen. WE don't want any fracas arising from misUNDERstanding of English blogspiak, do we?) hit NegaraKu recently and many fellow Malaysians looked across the Straits of Malacca -- that's the supposed direction of the smokers! -- an Indon diplomate wisely cracked (words to similar effect, okay, not verbatim because my memory bank is not rich:(~~
When we exported Oxygen to you, you did not say thanks. Now we export Carbon Dioxide (plus some monoxide and trioxide?), you guys blame IT on us. Please kneel and pray-lah, such is an act of God.
Sounds familiar, right?
One local miniSTER said similarly way back when some highlands suffered serious landslides to close off stretches of highways, he proclaimed, and no one can rebut his heavenly wisdom: IT's an act of GOD!
So when you drive at night straight into a manhole, uncovered, exposed, OBseenly, and you slowly climb out muddied like a ghost from your Mrercedes Benz, DON'T BLAME THE LOCAL AUTHORITIES FOR NOT PUTTING UP ANY PROPER BARRIERS AND/OR FLASHING HAZARD WARNNING LIGHTS.
It's an occupational hazard for driving a small car in a small road in a developed State called Selangor, where SemuaNya Okay!
PARTING SHOT: When fellow Bloggers meet with Writer's Block, WHO or/and WHAT do you blame, my dear EsteemedReaders, please shAre truthfoolly.
As for Desi, I swear it's mainly that I got up on the right side of the bed. I'm a leftist, you see.
OR it's that time of the month. PERIOD.
From the Star, an olde record playin' it again, like Desi advised: PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM!
"As time goes by" for olde times' s(H)ake in Casablanca.
Councillor Faizal also blames it on his architect
KLANG: It is the architect’s fault.
Faizal Abdullah, a councillor from the Klang Municipal Council, gave the same excuse as his fellow councillor and Port Klang state assemblyman Datuk Zakaria Md Deros for building a bungalow without obtaining prior approval from the local authorities.
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A third Councillor in similar bind, Mazlynoor Abdul Latiff, offered that "Everyone is also doing it!"
I think he forgot his architect's name, so Everyone is more convenient. One mGf who is a reporter and stays in the royal city is servicing his bank loan for a single-storey terraced house for some two decades now is definitely NOT doing it!
Does my friend have a case for defamation, any loyar buluk out here who won't be blamed for giving wlong advice?
Then when a group of DAP and PKR supporters led by DAP Sec-Gen and outspoken lwayer-Assemblyman Teng Chang Khim (who suffered a slap at the hands of that Zakaria idiot!) held a peaceful protest in front of Zakaria's mansion, the latter's henchmen said THE OPPOSITON IS BEHIND ALL OF ZAKARIA'S TROUBLES.
From The People's Paper yesterday, doing some KetchUp as usual~~
Klang Umno backs chief, blames Opposition
KLANG: The Klang Umno division rallied behind its chief Datuk Zakaria Md Deros with a show of support and loyalty, claiming that he had been “sabotaged” by the Opposition.
“The entire thing is the work of the Opposition to discredit him. The only thing wrong here is the non-submission of building plans, that’s all,” division information chief Shoimi Shafie told pressmen at 6.45pm yesterday after the division held an emergency meeting.
Those who attended the meeting at the division’s headquarters in Pandamaran included division deputy chairman Datuk Mazlynoor Abdul Latiff, division Wanita chief Senator Datin Paduka Norhayati Onn Ismail and acting Youth chief Zainuri, who is Zakaria’s son.
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DESI: These UMNO guys normally pick on DAP as the blaming stone of First Resort -- which is quite luxurious really, like a "small" house of four-storey ala Zakaria ala Mazynoor ala Faizal ala ....... (Let's fill up the rollcall as things develop slowly but surely in sole Developed State in NegaraKu, eh?)--
They dare not blame It on PAS because the latter will call on fiery Hell and burning brimstones on these cowards who believe they are Jaguh kampong and king of all they survey, therefore can build, and build, and build...
With impunity. Until Citzien Nades and citizen Keen?Ken write about their glorification.
And the Sultan steps into the terortry, and these cowards are terrified, OR ARE THEY?
"To be or not not to be, that's the question."
Desi doesn't really know the relevance or significance of this Shakespearean quote.
THINKING ALLOWED (ala JeffOoi whom I've not been quoting much nowadays, I don' know why. Do you?): But what the hella, Jaguh New Village must show off some metal/mettle wat!
When the Haze ("Smog" is actually the right word, but if you're a leftist like Desi, Haze is oso cun.For the proper understanding of the word 'cun', please consult Helen. WE don't want any fracas arising from misUNDERstanding of English blogspiak, do we?) hit NegaraKu recently and many fellow Malaysians looked across the Straits of Malacca -- that's the supposed direction of the smokers! -- an Indon diplomate wisely cracked (words to similar effect, okay, not verbatim because my memory bank is not rich:(~~
When we exported Oxygen to you, you did not say thanks. Now we export Carbon Dioxide (plus some monoxide and trioxide?), you guys blame IT on us. Please kneel and pray-lah, such is an act of God.
Sounds familiar, right?
One local miniSTER said similarly way back when some highlands suffered serious landslides to close off stretches of highways, he proclaimed, and no one can rebut his heavenly wisdom: IT's an act of GOD!
So when you drive at night straight into a manhole, uncovered, exposed, OBseenly, and you slowly climb out muddied like a ghost from your Mrercedes Benz, DON'T BLAME THE LOCAL AUTHORITIES FOR NOT PUTTING UP ANY PROPER BARRIERS AND/OR FLASHING HAZARD WARNNING LIGHTS.
It's an occupational hazard for driving a small car in a small road in a developed State called Selangor, where SemuaNya Okay!
PARTING SHOT: When fellow Bloggers meet with Writer's Block, WHO or/and WHAT do you blame, my dear EsteemedReaders, please shAre truthfoolly.
As for Desi, I swear it's mainly that I got up on the right side of the bed. I'm a leftist, you see.
OR it's that time of the month. PERIOD.
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