My Blue H'aven was born four years ago.
Swept in by Shakespearean words amidst dark clouds of low ambitions
An aching writer's burden such
Must let go of caution and partake on Malaysianatemptations
Malaysia's enmeshed in intrigue
Of actors -- political knaves and masters
Engaged in debauchery
Of a nation's blessed resources
Ah, NegaraKu is Bolehland unique
Masquerading as human endeavours worthy of a nation's recognition
Lofty plaques of honourable mentions in the nama of meritocracy
But no one from the international arena has even
Heard of a Nobel laureatte from Malaysia
We paint visionary roadmaps
Striken across the Puterajaya skyline
And when lightning opens up the skies
It rains prancing monkeys and leaping frogs
And mousedeer waching from the deforsted terrain
Of mimicking ministers who mouth human wisdom
Borrowing from cavemen's sounds and animal
Noises
Yes, it's times of change
Four years after one Ides of March
And I still don't know
If Malaysia does have a national roadmap
And a functional Parliament and State legislatures
Whilst the actors, politicians and knaves
Continue their acts of mini zoo residents
Monkeying around
While the skies open up
raining cats and dogs
monkeys and frogs.
Sons of actirs, politicaisn and knaves...
Clowns and Toadies too.
Just get of their way
Lest they knock you off the mindscape
And bury you on an Ides of March
Seven days AFTER THE FATEFUL MARCH THE EIGHT
A nation steeped in a tradition of mediocrity
And the Leaders proclaim pride of Vict'ry
"Ours in a success story!"
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Friday, March 13, 2009
WHY Najib Tun Razak Must Be Stopped...
FROM BECOMING PM
By Kim Quek
13 March 2009
Minister Nazri Aziz’s barefaced denial of any wrongdoing by the Attorney -General and Inspector-General of Police in Anwar Ibrahim’s "black eye" case in the face of incontrovertible evidence is an affront to common decency and an insult to the people’s intelligence.
Answering a question in Parliament on Mar 11, Nazri said the then Anti-Corruption Agency (now the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission -- MACC) had completed the investigations and concluded as early as September last year that both AG Gani Patail and IGP Musa Hassan were innocent of Anwar’s written complaints of fabrication of evidence. If that is the case, why didn’t the AG’s chamber use this conclusion to counter Sessions Court Judge Komatty’s decision to reject AG’s request to transfer Anwar’s sodomy trial to the High Court on ground of AG’s entanglement in the black eye case? Shouldn’t the prosecutors have used the AG’s “confirmed” innocence as the perfect argument in the first instance, instead of fighting doggedly from one court hearing to another just to ensure that Anwar’s trial could be taken away from Komatty and transferred to another judge in the high court?
Coming on the heels of a spate of daring and shameless breaches of the Constitution and the laws beginning from the illegal power grab in Perak, this Nazri move to cover up for AG and IGP is perceived as the latest manifestation of a new pattern of lawlessness demonstrated with increasing boldness and arrogance by practically all the institutions of state that include the Election Commission, police, judiciary, prosecutors, civil service and MACC.
GLIMPSES OF THE NAJIB ERA
It is no coincidence that this new phenomenon of crass contempt for the rule of law only cropped up after Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi passed on the effective running of the country to prime minister-in-waiting Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak at the beginning of this year. Let us take a brief look at some of these events.
On Feb 3, the Election Commission illegally usurped the authority of the Speaker of Perak state assembly to reject the resignations of Pakatan Rakyat (PR) assemblymen Jamaluddin Radzi and Osman Jailu, and refused to conduct by-elections in their respective constituencies.
The next day, Najib suddenly appeared in a press conference with four so-called ‘defectors’ from Pakatan Rakyat, after more than one week of cloak-and-dagger political machinations of “mysterious disappearance, hopping, double-hopping, kidnapping and bribery”. Najib claimed that Barisan Nasional (BN) had the majority to rule Perak with the assembly tied at 28 vs 28 with ‘3 friendly independents’, though the resignations of these ‘3 independents’ had already been accepted by the Speaker.
On Feb 5, after granting an audience to Najib and assemblymen supporting BN, the Perak Sultan ‘ordered’ via a press statement Menteri Besar Nizar Jamaluddin and his Cabinet to resign. But Nizar declined to resign on the ground that he had not lost the support of the majority of assemblymen and instead, he re-iterated his request for the Sultan’s consent to dissolve the state assembly for a fresh election to resolve the political impasse.
The next day, the Sultan appointed a new Menteri Besar, Zambry Kadir.
Meanwhile, Mentri Besar Nizar (who has not resigned to this day) and his Cabinet were physically evicted by the police from the state government building, almost immediately after the Sultan ‘ordered’ Nizar’s resignation on Feb 4. However, Nizar and his State Executive Councillors have continued to carry out their duties, initially at the official residence of Mentri Besar, and later at another office after moving out from his official residence.
While both Nizar and Zambry and their respective Cabinets have been functioning in parallel, a number of suits and counter suits have been filed between the two camps to claim legitimacy of government.
THE TREE OF DEMOCRACY
Confrontations between the two camps came to a head when the Speaker V Sivakumar called for an emergency sitting of the assembly to be held on Mar 3, which was rejected by Zambry as ‘unlawful’. On the eve of the meeting, a circular appeared in the Secretariat Building to say that entry to the building (where the State Assembly is housed) would be closed the next day. And Perak Chief Police Officer Deputy Commissioner Zulkifli Abdullah warned that no one, including assemblymen, should gather at the building, upon advice by the pro-BN Assembly Secretary Anton Sabri that the emergency session was ‘invalid’.
The Speaker, however, warned that neither CPO Zulkifli nor assembly clerk Anton should try to thwart a legitimate sitting of the assembly duly convened by the Speaker, as any such attempt would be deemed a breach of Section 124 of the Penal Code, an offence punishable with seven years of imprisonment.
On the morning of Mar 3, PR assemblymen were denied entry to the State Assembly by a barricade of riot police under the command of Ipoh OCPD Asst Comm Azisman Alias who warned the assemblymen to disperse on pain of arrests. Also physically repelled by a group of rowdy BN supporters who threatened violence, the assemblymen retreated to a rain tree nearby, where the emergency sitting was formally convened by Speaker Sivakumar. This rain tree has since been celebrated and commemorated as the “Tree of Democracy”.
In this melee, a series of breaches of law were committed by public servants – State Secretary, police, Assembly Secretary – who failed to maintain neutrality and non-partisanship in politics in the current power struggle between PR and BN:
Pro-BN State Secretary Rahman Hashim for illegally giving order to seal off the State Secretariat Building .
Pro-BN Assembly Secretary Anton Sabri for usurping the authority of the Speaker to interpret the laws governing the state assembly.
Pro-BN CPO Zulkifli Abdullah for illegally deploying his force to thwart a legitimate assembly sitting based on his ridiculous decision to accept the word of the assembly clerk instead of the rightful authority which is the Speaker.
All three have breached Section 124 of the Penal Code.
All three are guilty of political partisanship, in violation of the civil service code to maintain political neutrality and their vows to uphold the Constitution.
SHAMEFUL COURT SCENES
On the same day of the assembly under the rain tree, the tussle for power between PR and BN took place in another arena – the Ipoh High Court, where Judicial Commissioner Ridwan Ibrahim granted an order whereby Speaker Sivakumar “is restrained from convening any unlawful meeting purporting to be a meeting of the Perak state legislative assembly.
I regret to say that J C Ridwan has brought disrepute to the judiciary due to multiple irregularities as well as hollowness of substance of the order. In the first place, when he gave the judgment on Mar 3, his tenure as judicial commissioner (a probation judge) had already expired (on Feb 28) and hence the court hearing was unlawful. (Subsequent belated renewal of Ridwan’s contract could not validate his judgment, as at the material time when the judgment was made, Ridwan’s status as judge had lapsed.)
Second, he illegally barred Sivakumar’s lawyers from representing him and instead assigned the assistant state legal adviser Zulkarnain Hassan to represent him without his consent. This is a ridiculously unjust imposition on Siva, as the state legal adviser Kamal Shahid is in the enemy camp, not only representing Zambry in a Nijar vs Zambry suit, but has also been publicly named by Nizar as one of the five architects who plotted the fall of PR in Perak. Besides, Siva had never authorized or talked to Zulkarnain.
Third, J C Ridwan’s refusal to hold the hearing in open court on such an important case of public interest was unreasonable and smacks of suspicious intent.
Fourth, Ridwan gave his order in unacceptable haste, having deliberated for only 10 minutes on a 90 minute submission by Zambry’s lawyers without Siva’s participation. Since this is a case which might be argued for having infringed on the constitutional principle of separation of powers, it is not possible for Ridwan to do justice without hearing the full arguments on these constitutional aspects from both parties and without him deliberating fully over the issues raised.
As for the substance of Ridwan’s order, he only prohibits unlawful meeting. Ridwan’s logic is puzzling. If a meeting is unlawful, it is null and void. Is there any necessity to prohibit it then?
Sad to conclude, what we witnessed in the Ipoh High Court, is a fumbling probation judge who, in his over-eagerness to comply with the wishes of BN, has transgressed fundamental justice. One may ask, why should the court have assigned such an important case to such an inexperienced probation judge (whose tenure had lapsed to boot), if there was no evil design? This is but one of many examples that our judiciary continues to be mired in a state of utter impairment.
CONTINUING SABOTAGE
While these debacles in Perak are going on, relentless sabotage has been carried out against the PR governments in Kedah and Selangor. These are in the form of harassment on PR assemblymen to defect or to quit, with bribery and threats and even sexual scandal.
In Kedah, various PR assemblymen reported offers of millions of ringgit to hop party. Notably, assemblyman Arumugum was so severely harassed with bribery and threats that he resigned his seat and escaped with his entire family to India to avert possible damage to his party. These incidents have been repeatedly reported to the police and MACC, but no effective action has been taken.
In Selangor, MACC chief commissioner Ahmad Said Hamdam openly and dubiously accused Mentri Besar Khalid Ibrahim of abuse of power over the petty issues of maintenance of his personal car assigned for official use, and the distribution of 46 cows to the poor during an Islamic festival, after a swift investigation; while shamelessly kept mum over numerous reports of multi-million rinngit corruption cases against BN leaders which have been left idle for years without any action. PR Assemblywoman Elizabeth Wong was harassed to resign her seat after her semi-nude picture secretly snapped during her sleep was exposed in BN-controlled media.
Though the suspected culprit was known, the police made no effort to bring him to book.
These blatant double standards practised with increasing frequency and vulgarity by law enforcing agencies, judiciary and prosecutors, and their overt political partisanship have disgusted the public and caused the popularity of BN in general and Najib in particular to plunge. But instead of making reforms to salvage public support, UMNO has pursued the opposite course of lawlessness and repression under the de-facto leadership of Najib.
Little wonders that the people are increasingly apprehensive whether Najib will bring the country to a state exceeding the darkest days of Mahathirism, now that they have seen the reckless destruction of political tranquility in Perak under PR’s exemplary rule of racial unity and clean and pro-rakyat government.
THE ALTANTUYA CURSE
On top of these worries is the curse of Altantuya’s murder which hangs over Najib’s head like a Damocle’s sword. Najib should realize by now that no matter how many times he swears he is innocent, he could not possibly have cleansed himself of this taint, unless and until he and his aide-de-camp Musa Safri are subject to a proper investigation and exonerated by a court of law perceived as just and fair (not the present court).Now that Najib is about to take over the baton of premiership from Pak Lah, we may ask ourselves the final question: Do we want to see a Malaysian prime minister dashing around the international arena with the Altantuya tag hanging on his neck, as world leaders could not possibly be unaware of this Altantuya taint?
By Kim Quek
By Kim Quek
13 March 2009
Minister Nazri Aziz’s barefaced denial of any wrongdoing by the Attorney -General and Inspector-General of Police in Anwar Ibrahim’s "black eye" case in the face of incontrovertible evidence is an affront to common decency and an insult to the people’s intelligence.
Answering a question in Parliament on Mar 11, Nazri said the then Anti-Corruption Agency (now the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission -- MACC) had completed the investigations and concluded as early as September last year that both AG Gani Patail and IGP Musa Hassan were innocent of Anwar’s written complaints of fabrication of evidence. If that is the case, why didn’t the AG’s chamber use this conclusion to counter Sessions Court Judge Komatty’s decision to reject AG’s request to transfer Anwar’s sodomy trial to the High Court on ground of AG’s entanglement in the black eye case? Shouldn’t the prosecutors have used the AG’s “confirmed” innocence as the perfect argument in the first instance, instead of fighting doggedly from one court hearing to another just to ensure that Anwar’s trial could be taken away from Komatty and transferred to another judge in the high court?
Coming on the heels of a spate of daring and shameless breaches of the Constitution and the laws beginning from the illegal power grab in Perak, this Nazri move to cover up for AG and IGP is perceived as the latest manifestation of a new pattern of lawlessness demonstrated with increasing boldness and arrogance by practically all the institutions of state that include the Election Commission, police, judiciary, prosecutors, civil service and MACC.
GLIMPSES OF THE NAJIB ERA
It is no coincidence that this new phenomenon of crass contempt for the rule of law only cropped up after Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi passed on the effective running of the country to prime minister-in-waiting Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak at the beginning of this year. Let us take a brief look at some of these events.
On Feb 3, the Election Commission illegally usurped the authority of the Speaker of Perak state assembly to reject the resignations of Pakatan Rakyat (PR) assemblymen Jamaluddin Radzi and Osman Jailu, and refused to conduct by-elections in their respective constituencies.
The next day, Najib suddenly appeared in a press conference with four so-called ‘defectors’ from Pakatan Rakyat, after more than one week of cloak-and-dagger political machinations of “mysterious disappearance, hopping, double-hopping, kidnapping and bribery”. Najib claimed that Barisan Nasional (BN) had the majority to rule Perak with the assembly tied at 28 vs 28 with ‘3 friendly independents’, though the resignations of these ‘3 independents’ had already been accepted by the Speaker.
On Feb 5, after granting an audience to Najib and assemblymen supporting BN, the Perak Sultan ‘ordered’ via a press statement Menteri Besar Nizar Jamaluddin and his Cabinet to resign. But Nizar declined to resign on the ground that he had not lost the support of the majority of assemblymen and instead, he re-iterated his request for the Sultan’s consent to dissolve the state assembly for a fresh election to resolve the political impasse.
The next day, the Sultan appointed a new Menteri Besar, Zambry Kadir.
Meanwhile, Mentri Besar Nizar (who has not resigned to this day) and his Cabinet were physically evicted by the police from the state government building, almost immediately after the Sultan ‘ordered’ Nizar’s resignation on Feb 4. However, Nizar and his State Executive Councillors have continued to carry out their duties, initially at the official residence of Mentri Besar, and later at another office after moving out from his official residence.
While both Nizar and Zambry and their respective Cabinets have been functioning in parallel, a number of suits and counter suits have been filed between the two camps to claim legitimacy of government.
THE TREE OF DEMOCRACY
Confrontations between the two camps came to a head when the Speaker V Sivakumar called for an emergency sitting of the assembly to be held on Mar 3, which was rejected by Zambry as ‘unlawful’. On the eve of the meeting, a circular appeared in the Secretariat Building to say that entry to the building (where the State Assembly is housed) would be closed the next day. And Perak Chief Police Officer Deputy Commissioner Zulkifli Abdullah warned that no one, including assemblymen, should gather at the building, upon advice by the pro-BN Assembly Secretary Anton Sabri that the emergency session was ‘invalid’.
The Speaker, however, warned that neither CPO Zulkifli nor assembly clerk Anton should try to thwart a legitimate sitting of the assembly duly convened by the Speaker, as any such attempt would be deemed a breach of Section 124 of the Penal Code, an offence punishable with seven years of imprisonment.
On the morning of Mar 3, PR assemblymen were denied entry to the State Assembly by a barricade of riot police under the command of Ipoh OCPD Asst Comm Azisman Alias who warned the assemblymen to disperse on pain of arrests. Also physically repelled by a group of rowdy BN supporters who threatened violence, the assemblymen retreated to a rain tree nearby, where the emergency sitting was formally convened by Speaker Sivakumar. This rain tree has since been celebrated and commemorated as the “Tree of Democracy”.
In this melee, a series of breaches of law were committed by public servants – State Secretary, police, Assembly Secretary – who failed to maintain neutrality and non-partisanship in politics in the current power struggle between PR and BN:
Pro-BN State Secretary Rahman Hashim for illegally giving order to seal off the State Secretariat Building .
Pro-BN Assembly Secretary Anton Sabri for usurping the authority of the Speaker to interpret the laws governing the state assembly.
Pro-BN CPO Zulkifli Abdullah for illegally deploying his force to thwart a legitimate assembly sitting based on his ridiculous decision to accept the word of the assembly clerk instead of the rightful authority which is the Speaker.
All three have breached Section 124 of the Penal Code.
All three are guilty of political partisanship, in violation of the civil service code to maintain political neutrality and their vows to uphold the Constitution.
SHAMEFUL COURT SCENES
On the same day of the assembly under the rain tree, the tussle for power between PR and BN took place in another arena – the Ipoh High Court, where Judicial Commissioner Ridwan Ibrahim granted an order whereby Speaker Sivakumar “is restrained from convening any unlawful meeting purporting to be a meeting of the Perak state legislative assembly.
I regret to say that J C Ridwan has brought disrepute to the judiciary due to multiple irregularities as well as hollowness of substance of the order. In the first place, when he gave the judgment on Mar 3, his tenure as judicial commissioner (a probation judge) had already expired (on Feb 28) and hence the court hearing was unlawful. (Subsequent belated renewal of Ridwan’s contract could not validate his judgment, as at the material time when the judgment was made, Ridwan’s status as judge had lapsed.)
Second, he illegally barred Sivakumar’s lawyers from representing him and instead assigned the assistant state legal adviser Zulkarnain Hassan to represent him without his consent. This is a ridiculously unjust imposition on Siva, as the state legal adviser Kamal Shahid is in the enemy camp, not only representing Zambry in a Nijar vs Zambry suit, but has also been publicly named by Nizar as one of the five architects who plotted the fall of PR in Perak. Besides, Siva had never authorized or talked to Zulkarnain.
Third, J C Ridwan’s refusal to hold the hearing in open court on such an important case of public interest was unreasonable and smacks of suspicious intent.
Fourth, Ridwan gave his order in unacceptable haste, having deliberated for only 10 minutes on a 90 minute submission by Zambry’s lawyers without Siva’s participation. Since this is a case which might be argued for having infringed on the constitutional principle of separation of powers, it is not possible for Ridwan to do justice without hearing the full arguments on these constitutional aspects from both parties and without him deliberating fully over the issues raised.
As for the substance of Ridwan’s order, he only prohibits unlawful meeting. Ridwan’s logic is puzzling. If a meeting is unlawful, it is null and void. Is there any necessity to prohibit it then?
Sad to conclude, what we witnessed in the Ipoh High Court, is a fumbling probation judge who, in his over-eagerness to comply with the wishes of BN, has transgressed fundamental justice. One may ask, why should the court have assigned such an important case to such an inexperienced probation judge (whose tenure had lapsed to boot), if there was no evil design? This is but one of many examples that our judiciary continues to be mired in a state of utter impairment.
CONTINUING SABOTAGE
While these debacles in Perak are going on, relentless sabotage has been carried out against the PR governments in Kedah and Selangor. These are in the form of harassment on PR assemblymen to defect or to quit, with bribery and threats and even sexual scandal.
In Kedah, various PR assemblymen reported offers of millions of ringgit to hop party. Notably, assemblyman Arumugum was so severely harassed with bribery and threats that he resigned his seat and escaped with his entire family to India to avert possible damage to his party. These incidents have been repeatedly reported to the police and MACC, but no effective action has been taken.
In Selangor, MACC chief commissioner Ahmad Said Hamdam openly and dubiously accused Mentri Besar Khalid Ibrahim of abuse of power over the petty issues of maintenance of his personal car assigned for official use, and the distribution of 46 cows to the poor during an Islamic festival, after a swift investigation; while shamelessly kept mum over numerous reports of multi-million rinngit corruption cases against BN leaders which have been left idle for years without any action. PR Assemblywoman Elizabeth Wong was harassed to resign her seat after her semi-nude picture secretly snapped during her sleep was exposed in BN-controlled media.
Though the suspected culprit was known, the police made no effort to bring him to book.
These blatant double standards practised with increasing frequency and vulgarity by law enforcing agencies, judiciary and prosecutors, and their overt political partisanship have disgusted the public and caused the popularity of BN in general and Najib in particular to plunge. But instead of making reforms to salvage public support, UMNO has pursued the opposite course of lawlessness and repression under the de-facto leadership of Najib.
Little wonders that the people are increasingly apprehensive whether Najib will bring the country to a state exceeding the darkest days of Mahathirism, now that they have seen the reckless destruction of political tranquility in Perak under PR’s exemplary rule of racial unity and clean and pro-rakyat government.
THE ALTANTUYA CURSE
On top of these worries is the curse of Altantuya’s murder which hangs over Najib’s head like a Damocle’s sword. Najib should realize by now that no matter how many times he swears he is innocent, he could not possibly have cleansed himself of this taint, unless and until he and his aide-de-camp Musa Safri are subject to a proper investigation and exonerated by a court of law perceived as just and fair (not the present court).Now that Najib is about to take over the baton of premiership from Pak Lah, we may ask ourselves the final question: Do we want to see a Malaysian prime minister dashing around the international arena with the Altantuya tag hanging on his neck, as world leaders could not possibly be unaware of this Altantuya taint?
By Kim Quek
Thursday, March 12, 2009
My Heart is A-Flutter...
a BIG surprise may yet take place in the next 14 days to checkmate an ambitious old gun from UMNO from the CEO's office. Perhaps this gun should join his brother in helming some listed Companies to prevent them from listing, or from de-listing. I don't know if this is possible. "This" can refer to Either ...Or...Your take.
Meanwhile, to put in context, I'm Cutting&Pasting from malaysia-today.net what I believe is the most hopeful article I have yet read in the past few weeks. I was geting despondent, so wit' this art from Raja Petra Kamarudin, this thing called Hope springeth again eternal.
14 days is a long time in politics
Posted by admin
Wednesday, 11 March 2009 02:10
The Federal Constitution merely states that the Agong shall appoint the Prime Minister from amongst a Member of the House who, in Tuanku’s opinion, commands the confidence of the majority of the Members of the House. It says nothing about the Prime Minister having to be the President of Umno or the Chairman of Barisan Nasional.
THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
Raja Petra Kamarudin
Moreover, Mr. Najib brings to the job much political baggage. In particular there is the case involving an adviser to Mr. Najib of a Mongolian woman who was shot and blown up with specialized C4 plastic explosives in Malaysia in 2006. The adviser, the woman’s former lover, was cleared of ordering her death in a protracted court case that drew harsh public criticism and left vital questions unanswered. Two members of an elite police bodyguard unit assigned to Mr. Najib, who were asked by the adviser to “do something” about the woman because she was blackmailing him, have to answer murder charges. The adviser said he had contacted the two policemen through Mr. Najib’s aide-de-camp, and one of them, a chief inspector, testified that the aide-de-camp had instructed him to help the adviser.Before the adviser was charged, Mr. Najib sent a text message to a lawyer representing his adviser saying that the adviser “will have to face a tentative charge but all is not lost,” according to a transcript of their exchanges. One of the country’s most popular bloggers and online journalist-editors, Raja Petra Kamarudin, faces sedition and libel charges after allegedly implicating Mr. Najib and his wife in the killing. Although Mr. Najib has denied ever knowing the victim, taking the unusual step of swearing his innocence in a mosque, he has been unable to stem an avalanche of gossip, speculation and serious analysis, much of it circulated on the Internet.Mr. Najib also has long been embroiled in allegations of corruption in the purchase of big-ticket weapon systems during his two lengthy terms as defense minister (1990-95, 1999-2008; he retained the defense portfolio after becoming deputy prime minister in 2003), when he drove an aggressive military modernization program. According to Foreign Policy in Focus, a Washington-based think tank, foreign arms manufacturers use well-connected Malaysians as lobbyists, paying them commissions of 10% to 20% to win contracts. Malaysia’s political opposition says much of the money goes to people closely associated with UMNO, including Mr. Najib’s contacts, though the police and anticorruption authorities have not investigated particular cases to the satisfaction of complainants.For example, the 115 million euros “coordination and support services” payment for Malaysia’s purchase in 2002 of two new Scorpene and one reconditioned Agosta submarine for 1 billion euros was paid to Perimekar Sdn. Bhd. Perimekar at the time was owned by a company called K.S. Ombak Laut Sdn Bhd — later by two other companies as well — which was in turn owned by Abdul Razak Abdullah Baginda, the Najib adviser who stood trial for abetting the murder of the Mongolian woman. The Defense Ministry denied paying a commission and said Peremkear was awarded a genuine contract to support the acquisition of the submarines.Najib's Challenge: Clean up UMNO by Barry Wain, Far Eastern Economic Review (http://mt.m2day.org/2008/content/view/19043/84/)
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What a day to have lunch together. On a day when Najib is announcing his staggering RM60 billion stimulus package, Abdullah has lunch with Anwar.I haven’t seen Abdullah looking so relaxed and cheerful for a long time. Click here to have a peek. (http://shamsuliskandar.wordpress.com/2009/03/10/pm-abdullah-dan-dsai-makan-tengahari-untuk-keamanan/)According to PKR Youth chief Shamsul Iskandar in his blog, both leaders were invited by Al-Fadhil Tuan Guru Syeikh Mahmud Al-Majzubdi (better known as Tok Ayah) for the Maulud Rasul celebrations at the Madrasah Nurul Iman, Hulu Langat in Selangor.Anwar says people are reading too much into the encounter. But hey, it’s not everyday the PM and Anwar have lunch together; so tongues are bound to wag.Anyway, 49 per cent of over 5,000 respondents to the poll on this blog think that Abdullah will remain as PM after March while only 11 per cent of you think Najib will take over. Let’s wait and see what happens.Anwar-Abdullah lunch fuels speculation by Anil Netto (http://anilnetto.com/malaysian-politics/anwar-abdullah-lunch-fuels-speculation/)
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It is roughly two weeks to go before the coming Umno General Assembly. Two weeks is 14 days and 14 days is a long time in politics. Anwar went from becoming the successor to Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to a sacked Umno member in only three days. And about two weeks later be found himself in jail facing a possible nine criminal charges, seven which were later dropped after they secured a conviction on the first two, which attracted a total jail sentence of 15 years.Can Najib Tun Razak still make it as Prime Minister at the end of this month? There is no doubt he will become the Umno President, mainly because he will win uncontested and anyone can win in a walkover. But this does not mean he will also become the Prime Minister because there is no law that says the Umno President must also become the Prime Minister.Tun Razak, Najib’s father, became Prime Minister while Tunku Abdul Rahman stayed on as the Umno President. Dr Mahathir stayed on as Prime Minister after Umno got deregistered and the MCA President, Ling Liong Sik, took over as the Barisan Nasional Chairman. For all intents and purposes, Dr Mahathir was an independent Member of Parliament and a man with no party for that brief period of time until the new Umno called Umno Baru was registered.The Federal Constitution merely states that the Agong shall appoint the Prime Minister from amongst a Member of the House who, in Tuanku’s opinion, commands the confidence of the majority of the Members of the House. It says nothing about the Prime Minister having to be the President of Umno or the Chairman of Barisan Nasional. For that matter, Ibrahim Ali, the sole independent Member of Parliament, can become Prime Minister if at least 112 of the 222 Members of Parliament support him as Prime Minister -- heaven forbid.And do at least 112 of the 222 Members of Parliament want Najib as the next Prime Minister come end of this month? Okay, maybe SOME of the 65 Umno Members of Parliament from Peninsular Malaysia do. And maybe SOME of the 13 Umno Members of Parliament from Sabah do as well. But that makes only 78 Members of Parliament who want him as Prime Minister -- assuming ALL 78 Umno Members of Parliament from Peninsular Malaysia as well as Sabah are unanimous in their support for Najib.And this is only if we assume that ALL 78 Umno Members of Parliament are unanimous in their support for Najib. From what I have been told, at least 20 are with Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Amongst these 20 are of course Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, Khairy Jamaluddin and Abdullah Badawi himself. So there is no way Najib can get the unanimous support of all the 78 Umno Members of Parliament. At best he can get the support of only 58 Umno Members of Parliament. This means Najib is still short of 54 Members of Parliament.But then, can Najib afford to get the support of only 112 Members of Parliament? What if one were to get a heart attack while playing badminton and dies, or his/her nude photographs or sex video suddenly appeared on the Internet and he/she is forced to resign, or something like which is so customary nowadays. Then Najib would be left with only 111 Members of Parliament against 111 who are against him. This would result in a hung Parliament and Najib would find himself as the Prime Minister with the shortest term in Malaysian history.No, a figure of 112 is just too close to the bone. Najib would need at least 130 to 140 to be home with a comfortable margin. And that means he cannot depend solely on the Umno Members of Parliament. Umno alone can’t give him the numbers. Umno has only 78 while just 58 are with him. He also needs the 30 non-Umno Members of Parliament from Sarawak and the balance 11 from Sabah plus the 20 from MCA, MIC and Gerakan as well.Najib is banking on full support from Umno. He can of course get full support from the 2,500 or so Umno delegates who will be attending the Umno General Assembly in about two weeks time. But not all the 2,500 Umno delegates are Members of Parliament. Only 78 are while just 58 are with him. Najib has far from secured the job of Prime Minister of Malaysia whatever the outcome of the Umno General Assembly.Ali Rustam will win the Umno Deputy Presidency and Najib’s cousin, Hishammuddin, is going to lose the Vice President’s post, while Khir Toyo will become the Youth Leader. Najib is going to automatically become the Umno President only because no one is able to challenge him. But he is going to be isolated and surrounded by those who are not aligned to him as far as the other Umno positions are concerned.If Najib is assured of becoming the Prime Minister then he can be guaranteed the support of the non-Umno Barisan Nasional Members of Parliament from MCA, MIC, Gerakan, Sabah and Sarawak. He will of course not get the support of the 83 Pakatan Rakyat Members of Parliament. But he has a chance of getting the support of the 61 non-Umno Barisan Nasional Members of Parliament.This, however, will depend on whether he is assured of becoming Prime Minister. People have a habit of supporting the winner. If you are winner everyone wants to be associated with you and wants to become your friend. No one, however, wants to become associated with a loser. And unless Najib can show he is a winner and not a loser he will not be guaranteed the support of the 61 non-Umno Barisan Nasional Members of Parliament.Abdullah Badawi has more or less resigned to the fact that by 1 April 2009 he would be sent into retirement. He has even bought an iPhone, which he intends to use to communicate with his grandkids. Does he even know how to use that very complicating iPhone? Not yet, but since he will soon be retiring he has plenty of time to learn how to use it and then spend hours chatting with his grandkids. Hell, he may even set up his own Blog and Facebook since he would not have much work come 1 April 2009.His wife, Jeanne Danker, is also looking forward to retirement. This simple lady does not enjoy the limelight of ‘First Lady’ and will not miss life in Seri Perdana. She would rather spend her time with her husband and kids. But she abhors the thought of handing this country over to Najib. And Abdullah Badawi’s kids share Jeanne’s view. They are not opposed to Abdullah Badawi retiring. They are opposed to the idea of Najib taking over with the porky Rosmah Mansor gracing the halls of Seri Perdana as the ‘First Lady’ and ‘Queen Elizabeth’ both rolled into one.They say there is no such thing as hell on earth. But then these people have not imagined life with Rosmah Mansor calling the shots as to how this country should be run. In fact, it would be more like run into the ground with her at the helm. And this is also the view of the Agong.No doubt Malaysia is a Constitutional Monarchy and the Agong ‘shall act on the advice of the Prime Minister’ -- and ‘shall’ has been wrongly interpreted as ‘must’. But there are certain things that the Agong does not act on the advice of the Prime Minister and instead uses his own discretion. And one of these things is with regards to the appointment of the Prime Minister who in Tuanku’s opinion commands the confidence of the majority of the Members of the House.We have seen, of late, the Rulers exercising their discretion in the appointments of the CEOs. Perak, Selangor, Terengganu and Perlis are examples of this. The Rulers and not Umno decided on who should lead the states. The recent Perak crisis, where the state changed hands from Pakatan Rakyat to Barisan Nasional, is yet another case in point. The Rulers have the power to decide and they have not backed down from exercising this power. And the same applies with regards to the appointment of the Prime Minister.Anwar Ibrahim’s meeting with Abdullah Badawi yesterday laid the foundation for cooperation between Pakatan Rakyat and some dissenting voices in Barisan Nasional who feel Najib should not be the next Prime Minister. With the 83 Pakatan Rakyat Members of Parliament and another 20 from Umno that makes 103 in all. So all they need is another nine to deny Najib the job of Prime Minister. And MCA has 15, MIC 3, Gerakan 2, Sarawak 30, while the non-Umno Members of Parliament from Sabah come to another 11. Getting just nine from amongst that large group of 61 is not that difficult.Anwar Ibrahim may never become Prime Minister. But even if he does he is still the lesser of the two evils compared to Najib as far as Abdullah Badawi is concerned. And as far as Anwar is concerned, whether he becomes Prime Minister or not is not the key issue at the moment. What is would be that the Prime Minister must not be Najib. So even if all that Anwar achieves in the end would be for Abdullah Badawi to stay on, that too would be the lesser of the two evils in Anwar’s book.Abdullah Badawi may have to keep his iPhone in the box awhile longer. He may not have the time to learn how to use it after all. Many are bent on assuring that Najib never takes over as Prime Minister. And if the new Prime Minister is not going to be Anwar, then Abdullah Badawi would have to instead stay on for some time to come. And if this happens then I will personally go to meet Abdullah Badawi to help him with his iPhone. Hell, I might even buy one myself so that I can learn how to use it before I go teach Abdullah Badawi how to use his.
Meanwhile, to put in context, I'm Cutting&Pasting from malaysia-today.net what I believe is the most hopeful article I have yet read in the past few weeks. I was geting despondent, so wit' this art from Raja Petra Kamarudin, this thing called Hope springeth again eternal.
14 days is a long time in politics
Posted by admin
Wednesday, 11 March 2009 02:10
The Federal Constitution merely states that the Agong shall appoint the Prime Minister from amongst a Member of the House who, in Tuanku’s opinion, commands the confidence of the majority of the Members of the House. It says nothing about the Prime Minister having to be the President of Umno or the Chairman of Barisan Nasional.
THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
Raja Petra Kamarudin
Moreover, Mr. Najib brings to the job much political baggage. In particular there is the case involving an adviser to Mr. Najib of a Mongolian woman who was shot and blown up with specialized C4 plastic explosives in Malaysia in 2006. The adviser, the woman’s former lover, was cleared of ordering her death in a protracted court case that drew harsh public criticism and left vital questions unanswered. Two members of an elite police bodyguard unit assigned to Mr. Najib, who were asked by the adviser to “do something” about the woman because she was blackmailing him, have to answer murder charges. The adviser said he had contacted the two policemen through Mr. Najib’s aide-de-camp, and one of them, a chief inspector, testified that the aide-de-camp had instructed him to help the adviser.Before the adviser was charged, Mr. Najib sent a text message to a lawyer representing his adviser saying that the adviser “will have to face a tentative charge but all is not lost,” according to a transcript of their exchanges. One of the country’s most popular bloggers and online journalist-editors, Raja Petra Kamarudin, faces sedition and libel charges after allegedly implicating Mr. Najib and his wife in the killing. Although Mr. Najib has denied ever knowing the victim, taking the unusual step of swearing his innocence in a mosque, he has been unable to stem an avalanche of gossip, speculation and serious analysis, much of it circulated on the Internet.Mr. Najib also has long been embroiled in allegations of corruption in the purchase of big-ticket weapon systems during his two lengthy terms as defense minister (1990-95, 1999-2008; he retained the defense portfolio after becoming deputy prime minister in 2003), when he drove an aggressive military modernization program. According to Foreign Policy in Focus, a Washington-based think tank, foreign arms manufacturers use well-connected Malaysians as lobbyists, paying them commissions of 10% to 20% to win contracts. Malaysia’s political opposition says much of the money goes to people closely associated with UMNO, including Mr. Najib’s contacts, though the police and anticorruption authorities have not investigated particular cases to the satisfaction of complainants.For example, the 115 million euros “coordination and support services” payment for Malaysia’s purchase in 2002 of two new Scorpene and one reconditioned Agosta submarine for 1 billion euros was paid to Perimekar Sdn. Bhd. Perimekar at the time was owned by a company called K.S. Ombak Laut Sdn Bhd — later by two other companies as well — which was in turn owned by Abdul Razak Abdullah Baginda, the Najib adviser who stood trial for abetting the murder of the Mongolian woman. The Defense Ministry denied paying a commission and said Peremkear was awarded a genuine contract to support the acquisition of the submarines.Najib's Challenge: Clean up UMNO by Barry Wain, Far Eastern Economic Review (http://mt.m2day.org/2008/content/view/19043/84/)
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What a day to have lunch together. On a day when Najib is announcing his staggering RM60 billion stimulus package, Abdullah has lunch with Anwar.I haven’t seen Abdullah looking so relaxed and cheerful for a long time. Click here to have a peek. (http://shamsuliskandar.wordpress.com/2009/03/10/pm-abdullah-dan-dsai-makan-tengahari-untuk-keamanan/)According to PKR Youth chief Shamsul Iskandar in his blog, both leaders were invited by Al-Fadhil Tuan Guru Syeikh Mahmud Al-Majzubdi (better known as Tok Ayah) for the Maulud Rasul celebrations at the Madrasah Nurul Iman, Hulu Langat in Selangor.Anwar says people are reading too much into the encounter. But hey, it’s not everyday the PM and Anwar have lunch together; so tongues are bound to wag.Anyway, 49 per cent of over 5,000 respondents to the poll on this blog think that Abdullah will remain as PM after March while only 11 per cent of you think Najib will take over. Let’s wait and see what happens.Anwar-Abdullah lunch fuels speculation by Anil Netto (http://anilnetto.com/malaysian-politics/anwar-abdullah-lunch-fuels-speculation/)
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It is roughly two weeks to go before the coming Umno General Assembly. Two weeks is 14 days and 14 days is a long time in politics. Anwar went from becoming the successor to Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to a sacked Umno member in only three days. And about two weeks later be found himself in jail facing a possible nine criminal charges, seven which were later dropped after they secured a conviction on the first two, which attracted a total jail sentence of 15 years.Can Najib Tun Razak still make it as Prime Minister at the end of this month? There is no doubt he will become the Umno President, mainly because he will win uncontested and anyone can win in a walkover. But this does not mean he will also become the Prime Minister because there is no law that says the Umno President must also become the Prime Minister.Tun Razak, Najib’s father, became Prime Minister while Tunku Abdul Rahman stayed on as the Umno President. Dr Mahathir stayed on as Prime Minister after Umno got deregistered and the MCA President, Ling Liong Sik, took over as the Barisan Nasional Chairman. For all intents and purposes, Dr Mahathir was an independent Member of Parliament and a man with no party for that brief period of time until the new Umno called Umno Baru was registered.The Federal Constitution merely states that the Agong shall appoint the Prime Minister from amongst a Member of the House who, in Tuanku’s opinion, commands the confidence of the majority of the Members of the House. It says nothing about the Prime Minister having to be the President of Umno or the Chairman of Barisan Nasional. For that matter, Ibrahim Ali, the sole independent Member of Parliament, can become Prime Minister if at least 112 of the 222 Members of Parliament support him as Prime Minister -- heaven forbid.And do at least 112 of the 222 Members of Parliament want Najib as the next Prime Minister come end of this month? Okay, maybe SOME of the 65 Umno Members of Parliament from Peninsular Malaysia do. And maybe SOME of the 13 Umno Members of Parliament from Sabah do as well. But that makes only 78 Members of Parliament who want him as Prime Minister -- assuming ALL 78 Umno Members of Parliament from Peninsular Malaysia as well as Sabah are unanimous in their support for Najib.And this is only if we assume that ALL 78 Umno Members of Parliament are unanimous in their support for Najib. From what I have been told, at least 20 are with Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Amongst these 20 are of course Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, Khairy Jamaluddin and Abdullah Badawi himself. So there is no way Najib can get the unanimous support of all the 78 Umno Members of Parliament. At best he can get the support of only 58 Umno Members of Parliament. This means Najib is still short of 54 Members of Parliament.But then, can Najib afford to get the support of only 112 Members of Parliament? What if one were to get a heart attack while playing badminton and dies, or his/her nude photographs or sex video suddenly appeared on the Internet and he/she is forced to resign, or something like which is so customary nowadays. Then Najib would be left with only 111 Members of Parliament against 111 who are against him. This would result in a hung Parliament and Najib would find himself as the Prime Minister with the shortest term in Malaysian history.No, a figure of 112 is just too close to the bone. Najib would need at least 130 to 140 to be home with a comfortable margin. And that means he cannot depend solely on the Umno Members of Parliament. Umno alone can’t give him the numbers. Umno has only 78 while just 58 are with him. He also needs the 30 non-Umno Members of Parliament from Sarawak and the balance 11 from Sabah plus the 20 from MCA, MIC and Gerakan as well.Najib is banking on full support from Umno. He can of course get full support from the 2,500 or so Umno delegates who will be attending the Umno General Assembly in about two weeks time. But not all the 2,500 Umno delegates are Members of Parliament. Only 78 are while just 58 are with him. Najib has far from secured the job of Prime Minister of Malaysia whatever the outcome of the Umno General Assembly.Ali Rustam will win the Umno Deputy Presidency and Najib’s cousin, Hishammuddin, is going to lose the Vice President’s post, while Khir Toyo will become the Youth Leader. Najib is going to automatically become the Umno President only because no one is able to challenge him. But he is going to be isolated and surrounded by those who are not aligned to him as far as the other Umno positions are concerned.If Najib is assured of becoming the Prime Minister then he can be guaranteed the support of the non-Umno Barisan Nasional Members of Parliament from MCA, MIC, Gerakan, Sabah and Sarawak. He will of course not get the support of the 83 Pakatan Rakyat Members of Parliament. But he has a chance of getting the support of the 61 non-Umno Barisan Nasional Members of Parliament.This, however, will depend on whether he is assured of becoming Prime Minister. People have a habit of supporting the winner. If you are winner everyone wants to be associated with you and wants to become your friend. No one, however, wants to become associated with a loser. And unless Najib can show he is a winner and not a loser he will not be guaranteed the support of the 61 non-Umno Barisan Nasional Members of Parliament.Abdullah Badawi has more or less resigned to the fact that by 1 April 2009 he would be sent into retirement. He has even bought an iPhone, which he intends to use to communicate with his grandkids. Does he even know how to use that very complicating iPhone? Not yet, but since he will soon be retiring he has plenty of time to learn how to use it and then spend hours chatting with his grandkids. Hell, he may even set up his own Blog and Facebook since he would not have much work come 1 April 2009.His wife, Jeanne Danker, is also looking forward to retirement. This simple lady does not enjoy the limelight of ‘First Lady’ and will not miss life in Seri Perdana. She would rather spend her time with her husband and kids. But she abhors the thought of handing this country over to Najib. And Abdullah Badawi’s kids share Jeanne’s view. They are not opposed to Abdullah Badawi retiring. They are opposed to the idea of Najib taking over with the porky Rosmah Mansor gracing the halls of Seri Perdana as the ‘First Lady’ and ‘Queen Elizabeth’ both rolled into one.They say there is no such thing as hell on earth. But then these people have not imagined life with Rosmah Mansor calling the shots as to how this country should be run. In fact, it would be more like run into the ground with her at the helm. And this is also the view of the Agong.No doubt Malaysia is a Constitutional Monarchy and the Agong ‘shall act on the advice of the Prime Minister’ -- and ‘shall’ has been wrongly interpreted as ‘must’. But there are certain things that the Agong does not act on the advice of the Prime Minister and instead uses his own discretion. And one of these things is with regards to the appointment of the Prime Minister who in Tuanku’s opinion commands the confidence of the majority of the Members of the House.We have seen, of late, the Rulers exercising their discretion in the appointments of the CEOs. Perak, Selangor, Terengganu and Perlis are examples of this. The Rulers and not Umno decided on who should lead the states. The recent Perak crisis, where the state changed hands from Pakatan Rakyat to Barisan Nasional, is yet another case in point. The Rulers have the power to decide and they have not backed down from exercising this power. And the same applies with regards to the appointment of the Prime Minister.Anwar Ibrahim’s meeting with Abdullah Badawi yesterday laid the foundation for cooperation between Pakatan Rakyat and some dissenting voices in Barisan Nasional who feel Najib should not be the next Prime Minister. With the 83 Pakatan Rakyat Members of Parliament and another 20 from Umno that makes 103 in all. So all they need is another nine to deny Najib the job of Prime Minister. And MCA has 15, MIC 3, Gerakan 2, Sarawak 30, while the non-Umno Members of Parliament from Sabah come to another 11. Getting just nine from amongst that large group of 61 is not that difficult.Anwar Ibrahim may never become Prime Minister. But even if he does he is still the lesser of the two evils compared to Najib as far as Abdullah Badawi is concerned. And as far as Anwar is concerned, whether he becomes Prime Minister or not is not the key issue at the moment. What is would be that the Prime Minister must not be Najib. So even if all that Anwar achieves in the end would be for Abdullah Badawi to stay on, that too would be the lesser of the two evils in Anwar’s book.Abdullah Badawi may have to keep his iPhone in the box awhile longer. He may not have the time to learn how to use it after all. Many are bent on assuring that Najib never takes over as Prime Minister. And if the new Prime Minister is not going to be Anwar, then Abdullah Badawi would have to instead stay on for some time to come. And if this happens then I will personally go to meet Abdullah Badawi to help him with his iPhone. Hell, I might even buy one myself so that I can learn how to use it before I go teach Abdullah Badawi how to use his.
Monday, March 09, 2009
To mark March 8, 2008 first anniversary -- One Day Later
Sometimes Desi goes over his own archives,and is amazed by some writing that he has forgotten authoring. I call this state of affairs Sweet Memory Lapse:); others call is Dementia Descending:):); you can call it anything butt bullshit!:(
March 8, 2009 passed Desi by because I was indeed running around helping a friend fulfill a March 17, 2009 DEADline. We are both MSM former journalists, so we are used to death threats and deadlines -- we take the former lightly, we take the latter dead seriously, so should it be deadly serious?
As I was saying, I was pleasantly surprised -- like a peasant tasting his first french toast wit' THREE layers of Skippy's PN butter! -- when I re-read this entree... WITH SLIGHT AMEDMENTS LIKE CARING 4TYPOS:(
PS: I plan later to add a new stanza to wit, OUT or INsyaALLAH!
Saturday, June 28, 2008
The mountain from afar
crisp air
sunny rays peepin through de clouds
of cottony blue, white and grey
i look towards the beckoning green canopy
mount furong looks breathy from afar
i stand in the valley of seremban
starting a hike of hope and breakaway
from a jungle of politcians shouting at the top of their VOICES
sweetmelody to shouters' ears
jarring to the enforced audience
almost four -- Sei in kantonis -blardy months after march 8
the chorus is still out of harmony
the conductor looking Hi&LO for his baton
the orchestra seems just imported from Great Britain
out of tune, out of mind
the mountain looks serene
Parliament House inhabitants sound a gaggle of geese
i reach the top
it's heavenly up hear
you Politikus wake up
the world is slipping us by
as you writHe in your whirlpool of self-interest
among slithery mobs of dfferent hues
but within still little mounds of cow dung
duck's tales and bull shit
i'm goin' to the mountain top
for a breather away from the din and meanness
of meanness behind that handshake
and artificial s-mile-s
mounted on mounds of dung, well-lined coattails and bullshit
of the sub-human species of Homo sapiens
we lovingly call YB ...Yang Bullshitter
PS: Composed in a moment of madness that cometh quite often post-March 8; mayhaps NegaraKu is becoming a semi-asylum,or a jungle of treehouses fool of cuckoos?slithery rattle-snakes
posted by desiderata on June 28, 2008
PPS on March 9, 2009:
March 8, 2009 passed Desi by because I was indeed running around helping a friend fulfill a March 17, 2009 DEADline. We are both MSM former journalists, so we are used to death threats and deadlines -- we take the former lightly, we take the latter dead seriously, so should it be deadly serious?
As I was saying, I was pleasantly surprised -- like a peasant tasting his first french toast wit' THREE layers of Skippy's PN butter! -- when I re-read this entree... WITH SLIGHT AMEDMENTS LIKE CARING 4TYPOS:(
PS: I plan later to add a new stanza to wit, OUT or INsyaALLAH!
Saturday, June 28, 2008
The mountain from afar
crisp air
sunny rays peepin through de clouds
of cottony blue, white and grey
i look towards the beckoning green canopy
mount furong looks breathy from afar
i stand in the valley of seremban
starting a hike of hope and breakaway
from a jungle of politcians shouting at the top of their VOICES
sweetmelody to shouters' ears
jarring to the enforced audience
almost four -- Sei in kantonis -blardy months after march 8
the chorus is still out of harmony
the conductor looking Hi&LO for his baton
the orchestra seems just imported from Great Britain
out of tune, out of mind
the mountain looks serene
Parliament House inhabitants sound a gaggle of geese
i reach the top
it's heavenly up hear
you Politikus wake up
the world is slipping us by
as you writHe in your whirlpool of self-interest
among slithery mobs of dfferent hues
but within still little mounds of cow dung
duck's tales and bull shit
i'm goin' to the mountain top
for a breather away from the din and meanness
of meanness behind that handshake
and artificial s-mile-s
mounted on mounds of dung, well-lined coattails and bullshit
of the sub-human species of Homo sapiens
we lovingly call YB ...Yang Bullshitter
PS: Composed in a moment of madness that cometh quite often post-March 8; mayhaps NegaraKu is becoming a semi-asylum,or a jungle of treehouses fool of cuckoos?slithery rattle-snakes
posted by desiderata on June 28, 2008
PPS on March 9, 2009:
A 1,000 apOLOGIES for too much C&Pastrying...
But it's better to "borrow" some flowers of wisdom than display one's own vain attempt at clear thinking. I always strive to originate some pieces, but we all have our downtimes. Especially when one had to run around to do the "needful" playing diplomat, DAN cari-cari makan-makan, the former role I learnt about two decades ago. I wanted to test if that fine art of doing the cocktails circuit is still wit' Desi -- we will be able to tell when BUM2009 cometh around. The latter role sees Desi supplementing a writer's mousey plain bread&butter wit' some Kaya!
Please keep Saturday, May 16, 2009 FREE >>> No, the Event -- some arrogant ones claim it's gonna be the Bloggers' Event of Da Year! -- is not free of charge, but vvvvvvve of BUM2009 Organising Committee will keep the Entrance charge as low as possible, like at BUM2008's RM50 per person. Of course, it's FREE for our esteemed speakers, and some VIP Guests who cometh with a small ***donation:) And that's where ***Desi's diplomatic skills cometh in BIG!:) Doing some self-trumpeting, surf to: bum2008-desiderata.blogspot.com NOW!
So meanwhile, while I hone my PR skills in more ways than one, please share this well writ piece for Rumination. I know many are R&R on this "holy"day, you can do more than Rest&Recreate! Mondaes are not blue when you put on your thinking cap. Even non-French.
Many srtreams lead to one river; many rivers lead to the Ocean, and Desi's humming UNCHAINED MELODY. I wonder if I'd meet that Lady in Red at the Butterfly Valley? If you do not understand even 30% of what's written so far, it's alright. You call on sisdar at allofhelen.blogspot.com -- she may oblige if you sing her praises; I get lots of past&PRESENTries from this sweet Ipohlang! And her significant other, John:):) That's the whole purpose of writHing a Blockedpost -- first and foremost, Entertain myself; if my ER are enterained, that's a BONUS!
BN has its work cut out
KUALA LUMPUR, March 9 – Yesterday marked the first anniversary of Malaysia’s historic 12th general election, when Malaysians voted in the opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR) in five states and denied the ruling coalition Barisan Nasional (BN) its customary two-thirds parliamentary majority.
The results were hugely unexpected, with many marking PR because they wanted a different government. Others did it because they wanted to register protest votes to teach BN a lesson about what they perceived to be arrogance.
BN obtained 51.5 per cent of the popular vote, but only 49 per cent in the peninsula – a result subsequent surveys revealed voters could live with in spite of having the untested coalition rule in Kedah, Perak, Penang and Selangor, the last two being the jewels in the crown. Kelantan had already been under the opposition control.
A year is too short a time to judge the new state governments, especially when politicking reigned. But in the main, most seem willing to give PR the benefit of the doubt, believing them to be more sincere about good governance despite their lack of experience.
Since then, two by-elections have been held, both won convincingly by PR. Another three next month could prove even more telling.
Indeed, BN’s reluctance for fresh elections in Perak – the state it retook on the defection of three assemblymen from PR who turned “friendly” independents – despite the present constitutional impasse which has crippled the state administration underlines its fear of facing the electorate now.
“The chances are that we (BN) will lose badly in Perak,” was the frank analysis of Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, a former finance minister and member of Umno, the dominant party within the BN coalition. “That seems to be why they are reluctant to have the Sultan dissolve the assembly.”
A year down the road, things are very different in BN and Umno in that Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak is already in the driver’s seat, taking over most of the duties that will be officially handed to him by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi later this month under a transition plan brokered after BN’s disastrous showing last year.
It is also very different in that if the economy was slowing last year, it was at least still growing. But a recession now beckons, with last year’s 4.6 per cent growth a distant memory, replaced by warnings the current slump will be deep and long.
If Abdullah was largely perceived as an inept finance minister, Najib’s turn at handling the portfolio will be closely watched.
That he has to deliver while fighting political fires on so many other fronts is far from reassuring.
After an initial six months in treasury, Najib will now have to demonstrate he has the plans and wherewithal to, if not arrest the decline, at least cushion some of the pain and to galvanise the people. To do this, he needs to inspire confidence.
This he can do by unveiling policies that demonstrate he understands the problems facing the economy along with a blueprint of how he proposes to overcome them.
The second stimulus package to be unveiled tomorrow could offer some clues as to whether he is on the right track.
A year after his coalition’s disastrous performance at the polls, BN’s popularity hasn’t improved.
At the moment, its best bet appears to be blunting simmering resentments by demonstrating it has the ability to make the economic crisis less stressful for all. – Business Times Singapore
Please keep Saturday, May 16, 2009 FREE >>> No, the Event -- some arrogant ones claim it's gonna be the Bloggers' Event of Da Year! -- is not free of charge, but vvvvvvve of BUM2009 Organising Committee will keep the Entrance charge as low as possible, like at BUM2008's RM50 per person. Of course, it's FREE for our esteemed speakers, and some VIP Guests who cometh with a small ***donation:) And that's where ***Desi's diplomatic skills cometh in BIG!:) Doing some self-trumpeting, surf to: bum2008-desiderata.blogspot.com NOW!
So meanwhile, while I hone my PR skills in more ways than one, please share this well writ piece for Rumination. I know many are R&R on this "holy"day, you can do more than Rest&Recreate! Mondaes are not blue when you put on your thinking cap. Even non-French.
Many srtreams lead to one river; many rivers lead to the Ocean, and Desi's humming UNCHAINED MELODY. I wonder if I'd meet that Lady in Red at the Butterfly Valley? If you do not understand even 30% of what's written so far, it's alright. You call on sisdar at allofhelen.blogspot.com -- she may oblige if you sing her praises; I get lots of past&PRESENTries from this sweet Ipohlang! And her significant other, John:):) That's the whole purpose of writHing a Blockedpost -- first and foremost, Entertain myself; if my ER are enterained, that's a BONUS!
BN has its work cut out
KUALA LUMPUR, March 9 – Yesterday marked the first anniversary of Malaysia’s historic 12th general election, when Malaysians voted in the opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR) in five states and denied the ruling coalition Barisan Nasional (BN) its customary two-thirds parliamentary majority.
The results were hugely unexpected, with many marking PR because they wanted a different government. Others did it because they wanted to register protest votes to teach BN a lesson about what they perceived to be arrogance.
BN obtained 51.5 per cent of the popular vote, but only 49 per cent in the peninsula – a result subsequent surveys revealed voters could live with in spite of having the untested coalition rule in Kedah, Perak, Penang and Selangor, the last two being the jewels in the crown. Kelantan had already been under the opposition control.
A year is too short a time to judge the new state governments, especially when politicking reigned. But in the main, most seem willing to give PR the benefit of the doubt, believing them to be more sincere about good governance despite their lack of experience.
Since then, two by-elections have been held, both won convincingly by PR. Another three next month could prove even more telling.
Indeed, BN’s reluctance for fresh elections in Perak – the state it retook on the defection of three assemblymen from PR who turned “friendly” independents – despite the present constitutional impasse which has crippled the state administration underlines its fear of facing the electorate now.
“The chances are that we (BN) will lose badly in Perak,” was the frank analysis of Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, a former finance minister and member of Umno, the dominant party within the BN coalition. “That seems to be why they are reluctant to have the Sultan dissolve the assembly.”
A year down the road, things are very different in BN and Umno in that Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak is already in the driver’s seat, taking over most of the duties that will be officially handed to him by Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi later this month under a transition plan brokered after BN’s disastrous showing last year.
It is also very different in that if the economy was slowing last year, it was at least still growing. But a recession now beckons, with last year’s 4.6 per cent growth a distant memory, replaced by warnings the current slump will be deep and long.
If Abdullah was largely perceived as an inept finance minister, Najib’s turn at handling the portfolio will be closely watched.
That he has to deliver while fighting political fires on so many other fronts is far from reassuring.
After an initial six months in treasury, Najib will now have to demonstrate he has the plans and wherewithal to, if not arrest the decline, at least cushion some of the pain and to galvanise the people. To do this, he needs to inspire confidence.
This he can do by unveiling policies that demonstrate he understands the problems facing the economy along with a blueprint of how he proposes to overcome them.
The second stimulus package to be unveiled tomorrow could offer some clues as to whether he is on the right track.
A year after his coalition’s disastrous performance at the polls, BN’s popularity hasn’t improved.
At the moment, its best bet appears to be blunting simmering resentments by demonstrating it has the ability to make the economic crisis less stressful for all. – Business Times Singapore
Sunday, March 08, 2009
Please visit razaleigh.com and hear some statesman...
speak, from the heart of an almost Prime Minister. NegaraKu would certainly have become a better state had this prince been not "played out" -- et tu, Brute! -- by an ambitious minsiter later rewarded as Deputy PM.
Two bytes I received for CON BF desserts, hope you do. Yes, I do find the servings lifting sin such sombre Malaysian times:
razaleigh.com
Tengku Razaleigh’s official weblog
tear gas for schoolteachers
with 15 comments
I just got back from Gua Musang only to hear news of what happened to the thousands of GMP (Gerakan Mansuhkan PPSMI) demonstrators as they marched peacefully toward the Istana Negara. I am astonished at the way they have been treated. Was it necessary to tear gas Malay teachers and linguists, and a 76 year-old national laureate?
This government appears to be no longer capable of dealing with the rakyat without the use of force. This comes at the end of a week in which the Executive Branch has violated fundamental principles of the Constitution, and deployed the instruments of state against elected representatives of the people. A government sworn to uphold the Constitution now tramples upon it, and sets itself against the rakyat it was elected and appointed to serve.
Umno is utterly alienated from its meaning, purpose and spirit. No longer the party of the Malay schoolteacher but of the power that directs water cannons and teargas at them. No longer the grassroots party of the Malays, but of opportunists who hide behind the Rulers while they fan hatred between the people.
Written by razaleighhamzah
March 7, 2009 at 8:58 pm
Posted in Umno, rule of law, rulers
cascading illegality
with 48 comments
(updated)
The BN’s takeover of Perak has set off a chain-reaction of illegality which has left Perak quite possibly without a legitimate government. One of our most prosperous states has been reduced to a failed state.
One lie leads to many lies. Each bad action leads to a cascade of follies. Particularly when the lie or violation concerns something very basic. This is a principle we teach our children. It is a simple but universal truth now being demonstrated in Perak.
With each violation the sense of decency and restraint and the habits that bind us to the Constitution are loosened. The confidence in the rule of law that makes civilized life possible is diminished.
Laws are invisible things. They exist only when they are understood and observed. When the government of the day ignores foundational principles such as the separation of powers, the Constitution becomes a dead piece of paper. But the Constitution is not just any law. It is the set of laws that founds our nation, defines its basic principles, guarantees our individual rights and prescribes the structures, duties, and powers which make a national community possible. It is the foundation and source of the legal authority underlying the existence of Malaysia.
Those who so blithely ignore the Constitution for political ends are quite literally wrecking the foundations of this country to further their own interests.
This must stop.
The constitutional situation in Perak gets murkier by the day, with egos and reputations entrenched in hopeless positions. There is a simple and graceful way to clarify the situation definitively: return to the sole source of legitimate government, the will of the people as expressed through free and fair elections. Barisan might wish to show some magnanimity and confidence in calling for this.
DESIDERATA, not with 100% altruotstic iontent or content:), recommends you surf to cpiasia.net for aMore exquisite writes, not just from Tengku Razaleigh, but other eminent Malaysians like former Justice NH CHAN and leading academicians like Dr Lim TG and Dr Azly Rahman. If thou art a Blogger, is your writing among the featured? Go find out himself, you lazy BUMmer! -- YL
Sampling:
Highligted Article
Tengku Razaleigh: Calls for fresh polls in Perak
Why did he think elections weren’t called? “The chances are that we (the BN) will lose badly in Perak,” said the Kelantan prince. “That seems to be why they are reluctant to have the Sultan dissolve the assembly.”“This is not good and I fear for the future,” continued Tengku Razaleigh. “I have no claim for the throne anywhere so I can be frank but I would like to see the monarchy strong. It’s unfortunate that it happened the way it did in Perak. But still it depends on what he (the Sultan) will do next.”
Read more.....
Unity Government
by Tengku Razaleigh
The results of the last elections speaks of the rakyat’s desire for change, but for peaceful change led by a government that has the confidence of the people. They ask for a halt to the thievery and social rot of corruption, they seek unity and peace, a brighter future for their children and tangible improvements in their lives.The BN is unable to address such needs amidst the historic challenges of this time, but neither is the Opposition which, although it has some capable people, is a raw, tenuous association of ideologically opposed parties often bound by little more than their opposition to BN.
Read more.....
MP Jeff Ooi on...Go back to the people... and now Chin Peng
Bloggers Buzz
Written by Jeff Ooi, Screenshots
Thursday, 05 March 2009 08:44
http://www.jeffooi.com/2009/03/go_back_to_the_people.php
If law experts' contradictory views are taken as a bellwether, even the legal fraternity has no clues as to how the constitutional crisis in Perak should play out.
[ Read here (Tommy Thomas), here (Dr Shad Salem Faruqi) and here (Dr Mohammad Agus et.al.) ]
In the opinion space, The Nut Graph carried an article from the Centre for Independent Journalism that laments on the suppression of debate on the conduct of the royal families, notably the one in Perak. The same article was re-posted in the official website of the Malaysian Bar Council.
Read more...
Ucapan YAB Tan Sri Dato’ Abdul Khalid Ibrahim
Announcement
Written by SElangor MB's Office
Thursday, 05 March 2009 08:00
Ucapan YAB Tan Sri Dato’ Abdul Khalid Ibrahim pada Taklimat Penstrukturan Semula Air kepada YDP Majlis Perbandaran dan Ahli Majlis pada 3 Mac 2009 di Dewan Jubli Perak Shah Alam.
Two bytes I received for CON BF desserts, hope you do. Yes, I do find the servings lifting sin such sombre Malaysian times:
razaleigh.com
Tengku Razaleigh’s official weblog
tear gas for schoolteachers
with 15 comments
I just got back from Gua Musang only to hear news of what happened to the thousands of GMP (Gerakan Mansuhkan PPSMI) demonstrators as they marched peacefully toward the Istana Negara. I am astonished at the way they have been treated. Was it necessary to tear gas Malay teachers and linguists, and a 76 year-old national laureate?
This government appears to be no longer capable of dealing with the rakyat without the use of force. This comes at the end of a week in which the Executive Branch has violated fundamental principles of the Constitution, and deployed the instruments of state against elected representatives of the people. A government sworn to uphold the Constitution now tramples upon it, and sets itself against the rakyat it was elected and appointed to serve.
Umno is utterly alienated from its meaning, purpose and spirit. No longer the party of the Malay schoolteacher but of the power that directs water cannons and teargas at them. No longer the grassroots party of the Malays, but of opportunists who hide behind the Rulers while they fan hatred between the people.
Written by razaleighhamzah
March 7, 2009 at 8:58 pm
Posted in Umno, rule of law, rulers
cascading illegality
with 48 comments
(updated)
The BN’s takeover of Perak has set off a chain-reaction of illegality which has left Perak quite possibly without a legitimate government. One of our most prosperous states has been reduced to a failed state.
One lie leads to many lies. Each bad action leads to a cascade of follies. Particularly when the lie or violation concerns something very basic. This is a principle we teach our children. It is a simple but universal truth now being demonstrated in Perak.
With each violation the sense of decency and restraint and the habits that bind us to the Constitution are loosened. The confidence in the rule of law that makes civilized life possible is diminished.
Laws are invisible things. They exist only when they are understood and observed. When the government of the day ignores foundational principles such as the separation of powers, the Constitution becomes a dead piece of paper. But the Constitution is not just any law. It is the set of laws that founds our nation, defines its basic principles, guarantees our individual rights and prescribes the structures, duties, and powers which make a national community possible. It is the foundation and source of the legal authority underlying the existence of Malaysia.
Those who so blithely ignore the Constitution for political ends are quite literally wrecking the foundations of this country to further their own interests.
This must stop.
The constitutional situation in Perak gets murkier by the day, with egos and reputations entrenched in hopeless positions. There is a simple and graceful way to clarify the situation definitively: return to the sole source of legitimate government, the will of the people as expressed through free and fair elections. Barisan might wish to show some magnanimity and confidence in calling for this.
DESIDERATA, not with 100% altruotstic iontent or content:), recommends you surf to cpiasia.net for aMore exquisite writes, not just from Tengku Razaleigh, but other eminent Malaysians like former Justice NH CHAN and leading academicians like Dr Lim TG and Dr Azly Rahman. If thou art a Blogger, is your writing among the featured? Go find out himself, you lazy BUMmer! -- YL
Sampling:
Highligted Article
Tengku Razaleigh: Calls for fresh polls in Perak
Why did he think elections weren’t called? “The chances are that we (the BN) will lose badly in Perak,” said the Kelantan prince. “That seems to be why they are reluctant to have the Sultan dissolve the assembly.”“This is not good and I fear for the future,” continued Tengku Razaleigh. “I have no claim for the throne anywhere so I can be frank but I would like to see the monarchy strong. It’s unfortunate that it happened the way it did in Perak. But still it depends on what he (the Sultan) will do next.”
Read more.....
Unity Government
by Tengku Razaleigh
The results of the last elections speaks of the rakyat’s desire for change, but for peaceful change led by a government that has the confidence of the people. They ask for a halt to the thievery and social rot of corruption, they seek unity and peace, a brighter future for their children and tangible improvements in their lives.The BN is unable to address such needs amidst the historic challenges of this time, but neither is the Opposition which, although it has some capable people, is a raw, tenuous association of ideologically opposed parties often bound by little more than their opposition to BN.
Read more.....
MP Jeff Ooi on...Go back to the people... and now Chin Peng
Bloggers Buzz
Written by Jeff Ooi, Screenshots
Thursday, 05 March 2009 08:44
http://www.jeffooi.com/2009/03/go_back_to_the_people.php
If law experts' contradictory views are taken as a bellwether, even the legal fraternity has no clues as to how the constitutional crisis in Perak should play out.
[ Read here (Tommy Thomas), here (Dr Shad Salem Faruqi) and here (Dr Mohammad Agus et.al.) ]
In the opinion space, The Nut Graph carried an article from the Centre for Independent Journalism that laments on the suppression of debate on the conduct of the royal families, notably the one in Perak. The same article was re-posted in the official website of the Malaysian Bar Council.
Read more...
Ucapan YAB Tan Sri Dato’ Abdul Khalid Ibrahim
Announcement
Written by SElangor MB's Office
Thursday, 05 March 2009 08:00
Ucapan YAB Tan Sri Dato’ Abdul Khalid Ibrahim pada Taklimat Penstrukturan Semula Air kepada YDP Majlis Perbandaran dan Ahli Majlis pada 3 Mac 2009 di Dewan Jubli Perak Shah Alam.
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
They did it under a tree...
What tree? RAINTREE.
Where? PERAK.
Who? Some so-called Perakian wakil rakyat.
When? Yesterday (when some non-Beetles did not attack the Tree:)
WHY?
Ah, that's for you to figure out. Desi will be back to help my lazy BUMmer readers, still esteemed, desipher the Why(s) and Wherefore(s)... For Oliver/Olivia twisties visiting MBH, you are allowed to ask for more... or aMore!
Stay tuned...
Where? PERAK.
Who? Some so-called Perakian wakil rakyat.
When? Yesterday (when some non-Beetles did not attack the Tree:)
WHY?
Ah, that's for you to figure out. Desi will be back to help my lazy BUMmer readers, still esteemed, desipher the Why(s) and Wherefore(s)... For Oliver/Olivia twisties visiting MBH, you are allowed to ask for more... or aMore!
Stay tuned...
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
Strange goings-on .. Desi's kambing's missing!
Sometimes I hear strange "V"oices; or rather I read them. Hear's one intriguing "V"oice calling out from the Bricks on de Wall. It's blardy steaming hot inside -- I'm going ooouch to look for my kambing missing; wall's iceSream anywan? -- Midnight Voiz calling... to meet at Lingam's at 3.30PM.bring along your Pt or AuKad, OK! I'm bloke:(
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
Some strange development going on in UMNO, who do you call?
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Ghostbuster? These evening an SMS came in to notify of a staggering revelation press conference at One World Hotel, Bandar Utama at 1 pm Tuesday March 3rd.Only last Sunday, this blogger came across a strange revealation. Pak Lah's last day is supposed to be on March 31st and Najib should assume Prime Ministership on April 1st. One staff from Jabatan Perdana Menteri met could not confirm his last day on the job.But that suspicion was short-lived. Pak Lah made a statement late Sunday afternoon itself to announce power transition is as planned. The story of unity Government proposed by Haji Hadi could be dismissed and Rafidah reportedly did so.However, Pak Lah had not mentioned of any specific date. Words are PM Department is trying to arrange the swearing at the Istana for April 15th but had bring forward the scheduled swearing in to April 5th, two days before the triple by-election on April 7th.Then Monday, PM Department announced the appointment of Dato Abdullah Mohd Zin, former Minister in-charge of religous affair as Adviser for Religous Affair to PM.This got political pundits wondering all evening. Why would the PM with less than a month left be announcing a new appointment? A safe assumption is that it is at the request of incoming PM, Najib.The press conference Tuesday will be a curious one.It is a PC by a group of UMNO leaders led by Dato Kadar Shah, who made a ACA (now MACC) report on outgoing PM for "money politics" last year. Kadar is seen as aligned to Tengku Razaleigh.Sources informed that the press conference is to announce their move to seek a court injunction to delay the 2009 UMNO General Assembly and party election till all the reportedly more than 1,000 complain made to the party's Disciplinary Committee is attended to. The UMNO GA is scheduled for end of this month for the 24th-28th.Only few months ago, a complainant who brought his issue to court was sacked by the party as per the party constitution. Are these leaders risking themselves be sacked by the party?This development is strange.This group of UMNO leaders have been critical of Pak Lah. Are they now seeking for Pak Lah to remain and deny Najib the Prime Ministership post? Or are they doing it for Ku Li? Or perhaps a private effort of concerned UMNO members.Do you call the Ghostbuster?UMNO Secretary-general, Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Mansor was reported requesting MACC to investigate all allegations and charge anyone involved in money politics before March 24th GA. If a candidate was charged after being elected, it will cause a severe embarassment on the party to remove or suspend the person and leave the post vacant.We shall await the press conference announcement for further revelation. Will this be a repeat of UMNO's past judicial encounter in 1988 or poll struggle of 1999?* Updated: 9:20 AM
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
Some strange development going on in UMNO, who do you call?
.fullpost{display:inline;}
Ghostbuster? These evening an SMS came in to notify of a staggering revelation press conference at One World Hotel, Bandar Utama at 1 pm Tuesday March 3rd.Only last Sunday, this blogger came across a strange revealation. Pak Lah's last day is supposed to be on March 31st and Najib should assume Prime Ministership on April 1st. One staff from Jabatan Perdana Menteri met could not confirm his last day on the job.But that suspicion was short-lived. Pak Lah made a statement late Sunday afternoon itself to announce power transition is as planned. The story of unity Government proposed by Haji Hadi could be dismissed and Rafidah reportedly did so.However, Pak Lah had not mentioned of any specific date. Words are PM Department is trying to arrange the swearing at the Istana for April 15th but had bring forward the scheduled swearing in to April 5th, two days before the triple by-election on April 7th.Then Monday, PM Department announced the appointment of Dato Abdullah Mohd Zin, former Minister in-charge of religous affair as Adviser for Religous Affair to PM.This got political pundits wondering all evening. Why would the PM with less than a month left be announcing a new appointment? A safe assumption is that it is at the request of incoming PM, Najib.The press conference Tuesday will be a curious one.It is a PC by a group of UMNO leaders led by Dato Kadar Shah, who made a ACA (now MACC) report on outgoing PM for "money politics" last year. Kadar is seen as aligned to Tengku Razaleigh.Sources informed that the press conference is to announce their move to seek a court injunction to delay the 2009 UMNO General Assembly and party election till all the reportedly more than 1,000 complain made to the party's Disciplinary Committee is attended to. The UMNO GA is scheduled for end of this month for the 24th-28th.Only few months ago, a complainant who brought his issue to court was sacked by the party as per the party constitution. Are these leaders risking themselves be sacked by the party?This development is strange.This group of UMNO leaders have been critical of Pak Lah. Are they now seeking for Pak Lah to remain and deny Najib the Prime Ministership post? Or are they doing it for Ku Li? Or perhaps a private effort of concerned UMNO members.Do you call the Ghostbuster?UMNO Secretary-general, Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Mansor was reported requesting MACC to investigate all allegations and charge anyone involved in money politics before March 24th GA. If a candidate was charged after being elected, it will cause a severe embarassment on the party to remove or suspend the person and leave the post vacant.We shall await the press conference announcement for further revelation. Will this be a repeat of UMNO's past judicial encounter in 1988 or poll struggle of 1999?* Updated: 9:20 AM
BUM2009 Making Headway to Starter's Blog!
ONE RECENT SUNDAY for lack of something more stimulating to ruminate on, Desi wrote:
TEAser Sundae Offering: BUM2009 in the making...
and something's brewing in SoPo Blogosphere so BIG you can rest assured BUM2009 will be fully booked a week or two before COB. Meanwhile, a BUM2007 and BUM2008 star attraction makes interesting reading, published by a mainstream media paper, so who says without a doubt it's 100% justification to have MSM completely boycotted? And did you notice there is a SCHISM -- ah, Desi likes strange words! -- between once lovers in SoPo blogosphere? Is there no room for ameliorated love affairs -- maybe Valentine can help shoot its Cupid's arrows at SoPo*Phere? (The * stands for Blogo ok!:( Questions, questions, questions: Ah, these are some of the issues to be taken up -- mayhaps -- at BUM2009; art thou kambing? I heard that Three lambs are following Mary around at the vicinity of the Lake View Club...
:
:
:
********************** meanW'ILE, hear's aMore education! ******************
Home The Blogs The Corridors of Power
RPK takes on...everybody
IF YOU WANNA BY BEE-SYBODY some aMore...:) -- Desi, March 3, 2009
*********************************
So on a kaypohish vein, on Tuesday March 3, 2009 -- which is Boycot MSM die, if you still remember! Me, I am wit' MORRIE aMore! -- Hear's to The Starter's Blog for BUM2009!
Rockybru, being All-Blogs Interim Council Prez, and I have agreed to lead in organising BUM2009, gathering a band of Bloggers in their intrepid individual capacities -- in association with the Centre for Policy Initiatives (CPI) second time around.
Date: Saturday May 16, 2009
(Traditionally this Annual event is to be held -- in the minds of the Initiators -- in May as World Press Fredom Day falls in this poetic month, and desi has that bent!:) Surf to bum2007.wordpress.com and bum2008-desiderata.blogspot.com for the history...)
Venue: That Club in SJ somewhere where the lambs are roaming free and plenty until they land up at Warren Buffet's table, and Desi&Co aren't no vegans! Cyber hooligans to some ministerial minds, or vagabonds to others more poetic, and yet more likely "unemployed" writers, in some Menteri's eyes again! -- some even Jamesy mayhaps! --but all APs are catered
for.
Organising Committee BUM2009:
Most of the familiar faces in BUM2007 and BUM2008 OCs will be back --they aweways come back for more, like Oliver/Olivia twisties -- and as OC chairman, Desi has invited a few Blogger mateys to join the bandwagon to spread the weight around -- on a slimming diet, anyone?
Adieu PS:
So dear ER, Stay tuned for MORE ON BUM2009, this coming Sundae, InsyaAllah!
TEAser Sundae Offering: BUM2009 in the making...
and something's brewing in SoPo Blogosphere so BIG you can rest assured BUM2009 will be fully booked a week or two before COB. Meanwhile, a BUM2007 and BUM2008 star attraction makes interesting reading, published by a mainstream media paper, so who says without a doubt it's 100% justification to have MSM completely boycotted? And did you notice there is a SCHISM -- ah, Desi likes strange words! -- between once lovers in SoPo blogosphere? Is there no room for ameliorated love affairs -- maybe Valentine can help shoot its Cupid's arrows at SoPo*Phere? (The * stands for Blogo ok!:( Questions, questions, questions: Ah, these are some of the issues to be taken up -- mayhaps -- at BUM2009; art thou kambing? I heard that Three lambs are following Mary around at the vicinity of the Lake View Club...
:
:
:
********************** meanW'ILE, hear's aMore education! ******************
Home The Blogs The Corridors of Power
RPK takes on...everybody
IF YOU WANNA BY BEE-SYBODY some aMore...:) -- Desi, March 3, 2009
*********************************
So on a kaypohish vein, on Tuesday March 3, 2009 -- which is Boycot MSM die, if you still remember! Me, I am wit' MORRIE aMore! -- Hear's to The Starter's Blog for BUM2009!
Rockybru, being All-Blogs Interim Council Prez, and I have agreed to lead in organising BUM2009, gathering a band of Bloggers in their intrepid individual capacities -- in association with the Centre for Policy Initiatives (CPI) second time around.
Date: Saturday May 16, 2009
(Traditionally this Annual event is to be held -- in the minds of the Initiators -- in May as World Press Fredom Day falls in this poetic month, and desi has that bent!:) Surf to bum2007.wordpress.com and bum2008-desiderata.blogspot.com for the history...)
Venue: That Club in SJ somewhere where the lambs are roaming free and plenty until they land up at Warren Buffet's table, and Desi&Co aren't no vegans! Cyber hooligans to some ministerial minds, or vagabonds to others more poetic, and yet more likely "unemployed" writers, in some Menteri's eyes again! -- some even Jamesy mayhaps! --but all APs are catered
for.
Organising Committee BUM2009:
Most of the familiar faces in BUM2007 and BUM2008 OCs will be back --they aweways come back for more, like Oliver/Olivia twisties -- and as OC chairman, Desi has invited a few Blogger mateys to join the bandwagon to spread the weight around -- on a slimming diet, anyone?
Adieu PS:
So dear ER, Stay tuned for MORE ON BUM2009, this coming Sundae, InsyaAllah!
Monday, March 02, 2009
Desi PG to Dereliction of Duty..
at his cyber-abode called My Blue H'aven:(
Punishment sought: can I have one slice of kambing rose nombor 3 LESS at BUM2009?
Meanwhile, someone I would be seeing lots -- writing to&fro like email and SMS as BUM2009 organisation gets underway soon -- is All-Blogs Interim Council Prez we call rockybru, so hear's his latest Offering I presume he won't mind my C&Pastryng!:)
Monday, March 02, 2009
Khalid says he's the better man
By Ahirudin Attan aka rockybru
Is he, really? During his first meeting with bloggers yesterday, Khalid Ibrahim looked a little worn. It has been a trying 12 months since Pakatan Rakyat trounced Barisan Nasional during the 12th General Elections in March 2008 to take over the governing of the country's richest State. It's a first year scarred by scandals, unfortunately - assemblywoman Elizabeth Wong's semi-nude pictures and his own run-in with the empowered Anti-Corrution Commission are two of the latest ones.Some of the bloggers who attended yesterday's meeting were pro-Pakatan individuals and, by their own admission, remnants or by-products of the Reformasi movement of a decade ago. They gave some good pointers for Khalid, and I was left wondering why the MB has not recruited them to sit on his think-tank. There were no Umno/BN bloggers but the MB's office invited several lawyers, personal bloggers, and three bloggers who used to serve the mainstream media: A. Kadir Jasin, Nuraina A. Samad, and I. Yunus Said, formerly a Berita Harian boss before he went over the TV3, was present but he represented TV Antara, a pro-Pakatan (but NOT Selangor state-owned as earlier reported, my apologies) tv company.Of course, bloggers aren't bloggers if they aren't critical. Nat Tan complained about the lack of achievements and vision ("What is this state government doing that is different from the last goverment?), Haris Ibrahim likened Khalid's government to a "headless chicken", and Patrick Teoh wondered why there were still pot holes on his road and said the lady at the local council counter was still not smiling. Fahmi Fadzil suggested that the State Government use statistics [quarterly economic growths, forecasts, etc] to inspire the rakyat's confidence.A Kadir Jasin asked about the latest in the "car and cows" scandal. Read h e r e.I asked Khalid how he'd summarize his first year at the helm. I was hoping he'd focus on the economy. Last Friday, the MoF Najib Tun Razak announced 2008's final quarter's growth of 0.1 per cent, the lowest since 2001. The global eocnomy is buckling. Khalid, however, was still very much in the "politics" mode. He did speak of higher FDI into Selangor in 2008 and a program to deal with retrenched workers but very little besides those (and I did tell him, too, that if his government wishes to take any credit, it should do so only for FDI brought in 18 months since it took over Selangor because that is normally how long it takes a foreign investor to decide on any new investment). Still, Khalid said: "Looking back, I can say I am better than the previous MB".I remember in 2003, as Editor of the Malay Mail, I once sat at the same table in the dining hall of of the Selangor MB's Official Residence. Khir Toyo was the MB and we (the newspaper) and the Selangor State government were at loggerheads over the Ulu Kelang Recreation Club: the Malay Mail was defending the field against a hostile takeover by some developers who claimed to have the MB's support. In the end, Khir Toyo did the right thing and as a result the UKRC field is still there today. Buit he still went on to lose the State last year.If it's left to me, there would be a lot of red ink in Khalid Ibrahim's report card for his first year in office. And in the comment box, I'd write: Room for improvement. But certainly I won't write him off yet because it is too early to do that.By the same token, I am not ready to agree with him that he is better than his predecessor at this point. Khalid needs to get down to some serious work, especially with the economic storm that's coming to hit all of us, to be the better man.And before that, he will have to worry about passing the car and the cows test first.p.s. The dialogue lasted about two hours but there were many of us. I was given the assurance, however, that your questions and views here and in the previous thread here will be conveyed to the Menteri Besar for his action/consideration.That goes for your Soalan untuk Khalid, too, Shamsul.
at 12:07 AM
Punishment sought: can I have one slice of kambing rose nombor 3 LESS at BUM2009?
Meanwhile, someone I would be seeing lots -- writing to&fro like email and SMS as BUM2009 organisation gets underway soon -- is All-Blogs Interim Council Prez we call rockybru, so hear's his latest Offering I presume he won't mind my C&Pastryng!:)
Monday, March 02, 2009
Khalid says he's the better man
By Ahirudin Attan aka rockybru
Is he, really? During his first meeting with bloggers yesterday, Khalid Ibrahim looked a little worn. It has been a trying 12 months since Pakatan Rakyat trounced Barisan Nasional during the 12th General Elections in March 2008 to take over the governing of the country's richest State. It's a first year scarred by scandals, unfortunately - assemblywoman Elizabeth Wong's semi-nude pictures and his own run-in with the empowered Anti-Corrution Commission are two of the latest ones.Some of the bloggers who attended yesterday's meeting were pro-Pakatan individuals and, by their own admission, remnants or by-products of the Reformasi movement of a decade ago. They gave some good pointers for Khalid, and I was left wondering why the MB has not recruited them to sit on his think-tank. There were no Umno/BN bloggers but the MB's office invited several lawyers, personal bloggers, and three bloggers who used to serve the mainstream media: A. Kadir Jasin, Nuraina A. Samad, and I. Yunus Said, formerly a Berita Harian boss before he went over the TV3, was present but he represented TV Antara, a pro-Pakatan (but NOT Selangor state-owned as earlier reported, my apologies) tv company.Of course, bloggers aren't bloggers if they aren't critical. Nat Tan complained about the lack of achievements and vision ("What is this state government doing that is different from the last goverment?), Haris Ibrahim likened Khalid's government to a "headless chicken", and Patrick Teoh wondered why there were still pot holes on his road and said the lady at the local council counter was still not smiling. Fahmi Fadzil suggested that the State Government use statistics [quarterly economic growths, forecasts, etc] to inspire the rakyat's confidence.A Kadir Jasin asked about the latest in the "car and cows" scandal. Read h e r e.I asked Khalid how he'd summarize his first year at the helm. I was hoping he'd focus on the economy. Last Friday, the MoF Najib Tun Razak announced 2008's final quarter's growth of 0.1 per cent, the lowest since 2001. The global eocnomy is buckling. Khalid, however, was still very much in the "politics" mode. He did speak of higher FDI into Selangor in 2008 and a program to deal with retrenched workers but very little besides those (and I did tell him, too, that if his government wishes to take any credit, it should do so only for FDI brought in 18 months since it took over Selangor because that is normally how long it takes a foreign investor to decide on any new investment). Still, Khalid said: "Looking back, I can say I am better than the previous MB".I remember in 2003, as Editor of the Malay Mail, I once sat at the same table in the dining hall of of the Selangor MB's Official Residence. Khir Toyo was the MB and we (the newspaper) and the Selangor State government were at loggerheads over the Ulu Kelang Recreation Club: the Malay Mail was defending the field against a hostile takeover by some developers who claimed to have the MB's support. In the end, Khir Toyo did the right thing and as a result the UKRC field is still there today. Buit he still went on to lose the State last year.If it's left to me, there would be a lot of red ink in Khalid Ibrahim's report card for his first year in office. And in the comment box, I'd write: Room for improvement. But certainly I won't write him off yet because it is too early to do that.By the same token, I am not ready to agree with him that he is better than his predecessor at this point. Khalid needs to get down to some serious work, especially with the economic storm that's coming to hit all of us, to be the better man.And before that, he will have to worry about passing the car and the cows test first.p.s. The dialogue lasted about two hours but there were many of us. I was given the assurance, however, that your questions and views here and in the previous thread here will be conveyed to the Menteri Besar for his action/consideration.That goes for your Soalan untuk Khalid, too, Shamsul.
at 12:07 AM
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Those who sin'Along wit' Desi...
You know I do sin' -- in the toilet or in rooms where you drop that "i".
Cowboys' numbers and cowgals' laments are my forte -- they bring out tears in her eyes, and as a gentleman, you get that golden, or Ag, chance to kiss the salty H2O off her cheeks. First timers don't do it rightAway or wrongDway on the eyes becuse that would cause the ripples to run into a torrents. You don wanna bystanders -- or voyeurs -- think you broke her heART, do you. (Some evilminded wans would even think 'This bastard broke her bank!')
Now I just came off Mat Salo's short story -- and so I pen something more creative than usual. Yes, it's based on a cowpoke's heart-broken ditty... Doeth anyone of my ER still remember
Johnny Horton's
The Mansion You Stole?
The mansion I own has captured your heart
You said it was love dear but you lied from the start
I wanted true love but you wanted my gold
Someday you'll be sorry for the lies that you told
You've stolen my heart and you cheated on me
But someday my darling I know that you'll see
A house without love can make you so cold
And you will be lonely in the mansion you stole
I started my real cowboy adventure/abencha if you remember Enid Blyton's with JACK SCHAEFFER's "Shane", both booked and movie-ed. Now if you think High Chapparal was oldie, then Shane was Jurassic. Like Desi as a nu'eshound. There was even a theme song:
+++ To be cuntinude...
Cowboys' numbers and cowgals' laments are my forte -- they bring out tears in her eyes, and as a gentleman, you get that golden, or Ag, chance to kiss the salty H2O off her cheeks. First timers don't do it rightAway or wrongDway on the eyes becuse that would cause the ripples to run into a torrents. You don wanna bystanders -- or voyeurs -- think you broke her heART, do you. (Some evilminded wans would even think 'This bastard broke her bank!')
Now I just came off Mat Salo's short story -- and so I pen something more creative than usual. Yes, it's based on a cowpoke's heart-broken ditty... Doeth anyone of my ER still remember
Johnny Horton's
The Mansion You Stole?
The mansion I own has captured your heart
You said it was love dear but you lied from the start
I wanted true love but you wanted my gold
Someday you'll be sorry for the lies that you told
You've stolen my heart and you cheated on me
But someday my darling I know that you'll see
A house without love can make you so cold
And you will be lonely in the mansion you stole
I started my real cowboy adventure/abencha if you remember Enid Blyton's with JACK SCHAEFFER's "Shane", both booked and movie-ed. Now if you think High Chapparal was oldie, then Shane was Jurassic. Like Desi as a nu'eshound. There was even a theme song:
+++ To be cuntinude...
Thursday, February 19, 2009
RPK's warning ... Pakatan Rakyat, Take Heed!
I am reprising an important article written by Raja Petra Kamarudin at his portal, malaysia-today.net which carries a FAIR WARNING. Desi adds that sometimes the danger from within is greater from your enemies' outside.
Are Kedah and Selangor next?
Posted by admin
Sunday, 15 February 2009 09:40
“What is worrying is that the fall-out of this crisis is sullying the reputation and credibility of many legal and constitutional institutions while the root cause – the despicable phenomenon of party hopping – remains unaddressed.” - Dr Shad Faruqi
THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
by Raja Petra Kamarudin
Dr Shad Faruqi (read his article below) gives his opinion on what many now perceive as a Constitutional Crisis in Perak. Call it a constitutional crisis or a political crisis if you want, but Perak is not the only state that is going to fall to Barisan Nasional. Kedah and Selangor may be next on the cards.Five Pakatan Rakyat State Assemblypersons from Kedah have already met the higher echelons of Umno and have given their undertaking to cross over en bloc once the numbers enable Barisan Nasional to form the new government in Kedah. RM100 million has been allocated to the Kedah exercise and those crossing over are going to be well rewarded.In Selangor, Hassan Ali has been promised the post of Menteri Besar if he can convince enough of his people to join him in crossing over. This is of course further to the millions he and his gang are going to receive. So far he has only two from PAS and another two or so from PKR who have agreed to join him. So he will need a couple more to finalise the plan.Rest assured it is all about power and money. Hassan Ali wanted to be the Menteri Besar of Selangor way back in 1999. The only problem is that in 1999 the opposition did not win Selangor. He still wants to be Menteri Besar. And if crossing over to Barisan Nasional with enough of his supporters to enable Barisan Nasional to form the new Selangor government is what it takes, then that is how he will do it as long as he can become Menteri Besar.Even Hee Yit Fong, the State Assemblywoman who had been with DAP for 20 years, crossed over for money. She has thus far received RM15 million from Vincent Tan of Berjaya fame. She will probably be paid another RM10 million once the dust settles. It seems she needed the money to bail out her husband who was heavily in debt. This was the same situation with Lee Lam Thye who was forced to leave DAP so that he could bail out his wife from her gambling debts. Barisan Nasional, of course, helped settle all his wife’s debts once he ‘abandoned his cause’ and turned pro-establishment.When we told Pakatan Rakyat that Perak was going to fall, they replied they have things under control. Now we are telling them that Kedah and Selangor too are in a precarious situation and they had better do something about it. Please don’t tell us you have everything under control and then, a few weeks down the road, we see these two states go the way of Perak. Anyway, while Pakatan Rakyat figures out how to defend Kedah and Selangor from the RM200 million onslaught by Barisan Nasional, read Dr Shad Faruqi’s take on the Perak crisis.
************************************************
Legal turmoil over Perak defectionsReflecting On The LawBy SHAD SALEEM FARUQI, The StarTHERE is a constitutional impasse in Perak. The descent into naked and unprincipled struggle for power was triggered by the defection of a Barisan Nasional Assemblyman to Pakatan Rakyat and an immediate four-stroke counter-punch by the BN.What is worrying is that the fall-out of this crisis is sullying the reputation and credibility of many legal and constitutional institutions – the Sultanate, the Election Commission, the Anti-Corruption Commission, the public prosecutor and the police. Despite this damage, the root cause – the despicable phenomenon of party hopping – remains unaddressed. Let’s examine some of these issues.Defections: The “right” to switch parties in midstream is based on Article 10(1)(c) of the Federal Constitution which guarantees freedom of association.However Article 10(2)(c) permits Parliament to restrict this freedom in the interest of security, public order and “morality”.In the 80s the governments of Kelantan and Sabah passed anti-hopping laws to curb this right on the ground of morality.However, in the Nordin Salleh (1992) case, the Federal Court declared that the anti-hopping law was unconstitutional on two grounds. First it was passed by the wrong legislature. Second – and this was most unconvincing – that the term “morality” does not cover political morality.I believe that party hopping by an Assemblyman after his election on a party ticket amounts to a fraud on the electorate.There are three possible ways of taming this turpitude. First, a constitutional amendment to Article 10 by a bi-partisan two-thirds majority should be attempted.A second way could be for Parliament to enact an ordinary Anti-Defection Law and to enforce it immediately.If and when the law is challenged on the Nordin Salleh precedent, vigorous arguments could be proffered to invite the Federal Court to overrule its prior, indefensible ruling.One possible way of expediting the overruling of this bizarre decision is for the King to refer the issue to the Federal Court under Article 130 to seek an advisory opinion on the interpretation of the word “morality” in Article 10(2)(c).A third way of enacting an anti-defection law would be to promulgate an Emergency Ordinance under Article 150. In the case of Stephen Kalong Ningkan (1968), the Privy Council ruled that “emergency” includes “collapse of civil government”.Without doubt, defections bring about the collapse of civil government and an Emergency Ordinance would be legally, morally and politically justifiable.Resignation letters: The legality of the undated resignation letters from the two Pakatan Rakyat defectors is at the heart of the constitutional imbroglio in Perak.The Speaker of the Perak Assembly accepted the validity of the letters and issued a notice to the Election Commission. In favour of the Speaker’s view, it can be stated that in the UK it is part of the privileges of parliament to determine questions relating to casual vacancies in the House.The decision of the House is generally regarded as final. Also, Article 35 of the Perak Constitution permits a member of the Assembly to resign “by writing under his hand addressed to the Speaker”.The problem is that the two hoppers denied that they wrote to the Speaker. There is also a relevant judicial decision. In 1982 the validity of open-dated resignation letters was rejected by the High Court in the Sarawak case of Datuk Ong Kee Hui v Sinyium Mutit.In the light of this decision and the denial by the two defectors, the Election Commission had some basis to make up its own mind and to declare that the seats had not fallen vacant.Perhaps the safest thing was to seek a quick Federal Court decision on the interpretation of the Perak Constitution. The Perak Constitution in Articles 63-64 admirably provides for such a course of action. Regrettably, the parties to the dispute and the Sultan did not adopt this course of action.Dissolution: Under the Federal and state Constitutions, the Sultan has an undoubted discretion, guided by his own wisdom and the broader interest of the state, to refuse a request for premature dissolution. We have examples from Kelantan and Sabah where such requests have been refused.Confidence of the Assembly: Having been appraised that Pakatan Rakyat had lost the confidence of the Assembly, Tuanku Sultan was faced with many difficult choices. First, he could have prorogued the Assembly pending a court decision on the validity of the hoppers’ resignation letters and the question of vacancies.Second, he could have asked the antagonists to face the Assembly and prove their support in accordance with usual parliamentary traditions. I am of the view that if an Assembly is in session, or can be quickly brought to session, it is its right to determine the question of confidence and no one should usurp this power nor should factors outside the Assembly be taken into consideration in determining the question of confidence.Article 16(6) of the Perak Constitution is not crystal clear as to how it is to be determined whether the Mentri Besar has ceased to command the confidence of the majority of the members of the Assembly but there is a 1966 Sarawak judicial decision in Stephen Kalong Ningkan v Tun Abang Hj Openg Tawi Sli that the Governor cannot dismiss a Chief Minister unless he is voted out by the Assembly.In Perak, however, Tuanku took it upon himself to shoulder the lonely burden of determining who commanded confidence of the assembly. He took pains to interview all four defectors and to hear out the Mentri Besar and Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak more than once.The Sultan paid heed to the EC decision that there were no vacancies. Undoubtedly he was also influenced by the Speaker’s threat that the Speaker would not allow the defectors to enter the Assembly to participate in the confidence vote.Dismissal of Mentri Besar: The Constitution of Perak in Article 16(7) states that a member of the Executive Council other than the MB shall hold office at the Sultan’s pleasure. This implies that an MB cannot be dismissed except by a vote of no confidence in the assembly.The problem is Article 16(6) states that if an MB loses confidence then he has two choices. First, advise dissolution and second, if that request is denied, then resign. There is a lacuna in the law. What if an MB loses the confidence of the Assembly, is denied dissolution, but refuses to step down?Can the Sultan dismiss him? It is submitted that life is always larger than the law. There are always unchartered territories. If an MB who has lost confidence, and is refused dissolution, is shameless enough not to walk away, then the Sultan would be justified in dismissing him, Article 16(7) notwithstanding.But in Perak this was not the case. The question of losing confidence was not constitutionally investigated. There are many triable issues and the courts must accept the gauntlet.Treason: Opinions are being expressed that to defy the Sultan and to threaten to go to court for defence of one’s legal rights amount to treason and a ground for deprivation of citizenship. There are fundamental misunderstandings here.From day one of Merdeka, the King and the Sultans were open to civil suit for their official actions. They were only immune personally. In 1993 even the personal immunity was taken away.In sum it is not a violation of the Constitution to resort to the courts to seek an authoritative opinion on one’s rights and duties. Where else does one go, what else does one do, if one has a claim?Dr Shad Faruqi is Professor of Law at UiTM.
Are Kedah and Selangor next?
Posted by admin
Sunday, 15 February 2009 09:40
“What is worrying is that the fall-out of this crisis is sullying the reputation and credibility of many legal and constitutional institutions while the root cause – the despicable phenomenon of party hopping – remains unaddressed.” - Dr Shad Faruqi
THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
by Raja Petra Kamarudin
Dr Shad Faruqi (read his article below) gives his opinion on what many now perceive as a Constitutional Crisis in Perak. Call it a constitutional crisis or a political crisis if you want, but Perak is not the only state that is going to fall to Barisan Nasional. Kedah and Selangor may be next on the cards.Five Pakatan Rakyat State Assemblypersons from Kedah have already met the higher echelons of Umno and have given their undertaking to cross over en bloc once the numbers enable Barisan Nasional to form the new government in Kedah. RM100 million has been allocated to the Kedah exercise and those crossing over are going to be well rewarded.In Selangor, Hassan Ali has been promised the post of Menteri Besar if he can convince enough of his people to join him in crossing over. This is of course further to the millions he and his gang are going to receive. So far he has only two from PAS and another two or so from PKR who have agreed to join him. So he will need a couple more to finalise the plan.Rest assured it is all about power and money. Hassan Ali wanted to be the Menteri Besar of Selangor way back in 1999. The only problem is that in 1999 the opposition did not win Selangor. He still wants to be Menteri Besar. And if crossing over to Barisan Nasional with enough of his supporters to enable Barisan Nasional to form the new Selangor government is what it takes, then that is how he will do it as long as he can become Menteri Besar.Even Hee Yit Fong, the State Assemblywoman who had been with DAP for 20 years, crossed over for money. She has thus far received RM15 million from Vincent Tan of Berjaya fame. She will probably be paid another RM10 million once the dust settles. It seems she needed the money to bail out her husband who was heavily in debt. This was the same situation with Lee Lam Thye who was forced to leave DAP so that he could bail out his wife from her gambling debts. Barisan Nasional, of course, helped settle all his wife’s debts once he ‘abandoned his cause’ and turned pro-establishment.When we told Pakatan Rakyat that Perak was going to fall, they replied they have things under control. Now we are telling them that Kedah and Selangor too are in a precarious situation and they had better do something about it. Please don’t tell us you have everything under control and then, a few weeks down the road, we see these two states go the way of Perak. Anyway, while Pakatan Rakyat figures out how to defend Kedah and Selangor from the RM200 million onslaught by Barisan Nasional, read Dr Shad Faruqi’s take on the Perak crisis.
************************************************
Legal turmoil over Perak defectionsReflecting On The LawBy SHAD SALEEM FARUQI, The StarTHERE is a constitutional impasse in Perak. The descent into naked and unprincipled struggle for power was triggered by the defection of a Barisan Nasional Assemblyman to Pakatan Rakyat and an immediate four-stroke counter-punch by the BN.What is worrying is that the fall-out of this crisis is sullying the reputation and credibility of many legal and constitutional institutions – the Sultanate, the Election Commission, the Anti-Corruption Commission, the public prosecutor and the police. Despite this damage, the root cause – the despicable phenomenon of party hopping – remains unaddressed. Let’s examine some of these issues.Defections: The “right” to switch parties in midstream is based on Article 10(1)(c) of the Federal Constitution which guarantees freedom of association.However Article 10(2)(c) permits Parliament to restrict this freedom in the interest of security, public order and “morality”.In the 80s the governments of Kelantan and Sabah passed anti-hopping laws to curb this right on the ground of morality.However, in the Nordin Salleh (1992) case, the Federal Court declared that the anti-hopping law was unconstitutional on two grounds. First it was passed by the wrong legislature. Second – and this was most unconvincing – that the term “morality” does not cover political morality.I believe that party hopping by an Assemblyman after his election on a party ticket amounts to a fraud on the electorate.There are three possible ways of taming this turpitude. First, a constitutional amendment to Article 10 by a bi-partisan two-thirds majority should be attempted.A second way could be for Parliament to enact an ordinary Anti-Defection Law and to enforce it immediately.If and when the law is challenged on the Nordin Salleh precedent, vigorous arguments could be proffered to invite the Federal Court to overrule its prior, indefensible ruling.One possible way of expediting the overruling of this bizarre decision is for the King to refer the issue to the Federal Court under Article 130 to seek an advisory opinion on the interpretation of the word “morality” in Article 10(2)(c).A third way of enacting an anti-defection law would be to promulgate an Emergency Ordinance under Article 150. In the case of Stephen Kalong Ningkan (1968), the Privy Council ruled that “emergency” includes “collapse of civil government”.Without doubt, defections bring about the collapse of civil government and an Emergency Ordinance would be legally, morally and politically justifiable.Resignation letters: The legality of the undated resignation letters from the two Pakatan Rakyat defectors is at the heart of the constitutional imbroglio in Perak.The Speaker of the Perak Assembly accepted the validity of the letters and issued a notice to the Election Commission. In favour of the Speaker’s view, it can be stated that in the UK it is part of the privileges of parliament to determine questions relating to casual vacancies in the House.The decision of the House is generally regarded as final. Also, Article 35 of the Perak Constitution permits a member of the Assembly to resign “by writing under his hand addressed to the Speaker”.The problem is that the two hoppers denied that they wrote to the Speaker. There is also a relevant judicial decision. In 1982 the validity of open-dated resignation letters was rejected by the High Court in the Sarawak case of Datuk Ong Kee Hui v Sinyium Mutit.In the light of this decision and the denial by the two defectors, the Election Commission had some basis to make up its own mind and to declare that the seats had not fallen vacant.Perhaps the safest thing was to seek a quick Federal Court decision on the interpretation of the Perak Constitution. The Perak Constitution in Articles 63-64 admirably provides for such a course of action. Regrettably, the parties to the dispute and the Sultan did not adopt this course of action.Dissolution: Under the Federal and state Constitutions, the Sultan has an undoubted discretion, guided by his own wisdom and the broader interest of the state, to refuse a request for premature dissolution. We have examples from Kelantan and Sabah where such requests have been refused.Confidence of the Assembly: Having been appraised that Pakatan Rakyat had lost the confidence of the Assembly, Tuanku Sultan was faced with many difficult choices. First, he could have prorogued the Assembly pending a court decision on the validity of the hoppers’ resignation letters and the question of vacancies.Second, he could have asked the antagonists to face the Assembly and prove their support in accordance with usual parliamentary traditions. I am of the view that if an Assembly is in session, or can be quickly brought to session, it is its right to determine the question of confidence and no one should usurp this power nor should factors outside the Assembly be taken into consideration in determining the question of confidence.Article 16(6) of the Perak Constitution is not crystal clear as to how it is to be determined whether the Mentri Besar has ceased to command the confidence of the majority of the members of the Assembly but there is a 1966 Sarawak judicial decision in Stephen Kalong Ningkan v Tun Abang Hj Openg Tawi Sli that the Governor cannot dismiss a Chief Minister unless he is voted out by the Assembly.In Perak, however, Tuanku took it upon himself to shoulder the lonely burden of determining who commanded confidence of the assembly. He took pains to interview all four defectors and to hear out the Mentri Besar and Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak more than once.The Sultan paid heed to the EC decision that there were no vacancies. Undoubtedly he was also influenced by the Speaker’s threat that the Speaker would not allow the defectors to enter the Assembly to participate in the confidence vote.Dismissal of Mentri Besar: The Constitution of Perak in Article 16(7) states that a member of the Executive Council other than the MB shall hold office at the Sultan’s pleasure. This implies that an MB cannot be dismissed except by a vote of no confidence in the assembly.The problem is Article 16(6) states that if an MB loses confidence then he has two choices. First, advise dissolution and second, if that request is denied, then resign. There is a lacuna in the law. What if an MB loses the confidence of the Assembly, is denied dissolution, but refuses to step down?Can the Sultan dismiss him? It is submitted that life is always larger than the law. There are always unchartered territories. If an MB who has lost confidence, and is refused dissolution, is shameless enough not to walk away, then the Sultan would be justified in dismissing him, Article 16(7) notwithstanding.But in Perak this was not the case. The question of losing confidence was not constitutionally investigated. There are many triable issues and the courts must accept the gauntlet.Treason: Opinions are being expressed that to defy the Sultan and to threaten to go to court for defence of one’s legal rights amount to treason and a ground for deprivation of citizenship. There are fundamental misunderstandings here.From day one of Merdeka, the King and the Sultans were open to civil suit for their official actions. They were only immune personally. In 1993 even the personal immunity was taken away.In sum it is not a violation of the Constitution to resort to the courts to seek an authoritative opinion on one’s rights and duties. Where else does one go, what else does one do, if one has a claim?Dr Shad Faruqi is Professor of Law at UiTM.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Living Dangerously...
And there is always a price to pay for it! Politicians pay a heftier price -- quite righty so because their remuneration is also higher than most commoners, no?
Selangor State Exco Elizabeth Wong is now paying a heavy price for it -- and the trauma continues until the "final" fate is sealed as her "offer to resign" means she has bought herself some time. Is is negative time? Or is it positive? Only she knows. Maybe God too, if you believe in One. If not, do I care?
Others who have paid a price for having lived dangerously, in the same class or league of Elizabeth Wong, but arguable of different degrees, and of course, varying in details.
* D P Vijandran, a once rising MIC Youth chief, felled by the famous -- or if you must hold the opposing view, infamous -- video sex-tapes. He continues to practise law despite clearly having acted as some sort of porn-star, but he god/got away, with a little help from his friends at the AG's office?
** Dr Chua Soi Lek, an almost MCA President brought down -- by internal party goons ambitious for his Post? -- by another confessed sex-tape. But the former Health Minister survived his own party elections, becoming a Deputy and now doing a fox-trot with his Chief for a Ministerial (missionary?) position. Can he overcome his flirting with the first round of living dangerously. time will tell.
PS: ++ A former MCA chief, now a TUN!, says it's actually "OK" (acceptable) for sex escapades as Dr Chua found himself so cozy with, but then "Don't get caught!" was his slimy advice. I guess this philosophy applies to CORRUPTION by MCA goons too?
*** PKR Kedah State Exco and State Assemblyman V. Arumugam resigned just recently as Bukit Selambau State Assemblyman. His "crime" was alleged "bigamy" -- an offence for non-Muslims in NegaraKu -- and flaunting the unofficial wife at a State function, according to the grapevine?
Desi will stop his narration at case number four, and if other SeteemedReaders careth to add to this list of Hall of Fame/INfamy, please use the Comments channel! ~~ TQ you, Desi, knottyaSsusual
**** Ah, one who got away, FOUR in Kantonis sounds like Sei, often expressed as "SeiLoh! Sei-liau-liau! " I think he's waiting furiously in the wings to become a CEO!
Remember Ziana Zain?
Remember Port Dickson?
NO? You can't remember?
Then you aren't Desi's matey, go away!
I am not a grad from INTI, so I can't be intimate with Thee, can I?
YL, Desi, knot....
Selangor State Exco Elizabeth Wong is now paying a heavy price for it -- and the trauma continues until the "final" fate is sealed as her "offer to resign" means she has bought herself some time. Is is negative time? Or is it positive? Only she knows. Maybe God too, if you believe in One. If not, do I care?
Others who have paid a price for having lived dangerously, in the same class or league of Elizabeth Wong, but arguable of different degrees, and of course, varying in details.
* D P Vijandran, a once rising MIC Youth chief, felled by the famous -- or if you must hold the opposing view, infamous -- video sex-tapes. He continues to practise law despite clearly having acted as some sort of porn-star, but he god/got away, with a little help from his friends at the AG's office?
** Dr Chua Soi Lek, an almost MCA President brought down -- by internal party goons ambitious for his Post? -- by another confessed sex-tape. But the former Health Minister survived his own party elections, becoming a Deputy and now doing a fox-trot with his Chief for a Ministerial (missionary?) position. Can he overcome his flirting with the first round of living dangerously. time will tell.
PS: ++ A former MCA chief, now a TUN!, says it's actually "OK" (acceptable) for sex escapades as Dr Chua found himself so cozy with, but then "Don't get caught!" was his slimy advice. I guess this philosophy applies to CORRUPTION by MCA goons too?
*** PKR Kedah State Exco and State Assemblyman V. Arumugam resigned just recently as Bukit Selambau State Assemblyman. His "crime" was alleged "bigamy" -- an offence for non-Muslims in NegaraKu -- and flaunting the unofficial wife at a State function, according to the grapevine?
Desi will stop his narration at case number four, and if other SeteemedReaders careth to add to this list of Hall of Fame/INfamy, please use the Comments channel! ~~ TQ you, Desi, knottyaSsusual
**** Ah, one who got away, FOUR in Kantonis sounds like Sei, often expressed as "SeiLoh! Sei-liau-liau! " I think he's waiting furiously in the wings to become a CEO!
Remember Ziana Zain?
Remember Port Dickson?
NO? You can't remember?
Then you aren't Desi's matey, go away!
I am not a grad from INTI, so I can't be intimate with Thee, can I?
YL, Desi, knot....
Monday, February 16, 2009
An impending doom, but Malaysians must act!
Message from Dr. Lim Teck Ghee and Dr. Azly Rahman
Announcement
Written by Centre for Policy Initiatives
Monday, 16 February 2009 13:37
We are posting here RPK's message to Malaysians. We appeal to the Government not to use the ISA again on RPK. We appeal to all fair minded Malaysians - especially those members of our elites - to urgently raise their voices and concern so that RPK is not deprived of his freedom and the tragic outcome predicted below does not come about.We appeal to the international community to express their solidarity with the country's foremost dissident and to ensure that he is not incarcerated once more on political grounds. Please disseminate RPK's letter as widely as possible.
*********************************************
http://mt.m2day.org/2008/content/view/18155/84/
Written by Raja Petra Kamarudin
16th February 2009
Tomorrow, I will probably be detained under the Internal Security Act. Anyhow, before we talk about that, let me start by giving you my prediction for the two by-elections scheduled for early April.
In 2004, BN won the Bukit Selambau state seat with a majority of 7,695 votes and in 2008 they lost it with a majority of 2,362 votes. (See the chart below). In the coming by-election, I forecast a voter turnout of around 26,000 and a majority of 3,500-4,500 for the opposition.For the Bukit Gantang parliament seat, in 2004 Barisan Nasional won with a majority of 8,888 and in 2008 it lost with a majority of 1,566. (See chart below). This time around, the voter turnout will be roughly 42,000 and the opposition will win that seat with a majority of 5,000-8,000 votes.Okay, I am forecasting this even before I know who the candidates are. Well, I have no choice.
On Tuesday, 17 February 2009, the Federal Court is due to hear the appeal against my release from Internal Security Act detention and I really do not know what the outcome is going to be. Chances are, I have but 24 hours left as a free man and if I do not write this article today I never will. On 7 November 2008, the Shah Alam High Court ordered my release from detention. The government has appealed this decision although it did not see the need to appeal the decision of the Shah Alam High Court acquitting Abdul Razak Baginda of the charge of murder without his defence being called.I was in court last week to witness the performance of the three judges and what I saw did not give me much confidence. First of all, we asked for a quorum of seven judges, or at least five. But the court turned us down and fixed a quorum of only three judges. And two of the three judges appear to be hostile towards us from the word ‘go’. It looks like my fate has been sealed even before the case goes to court.Anyway, I know for a fact that it was not Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi who ordered my detention. He was not even aware I had been detained. The order came from Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and since I am bent on making sure he never becomes Prime Minister on 1 April 2009 I really do not blame him for wanting to get me out of the way.
My friends and family want me to leave the country and to seek political asylum in another country. They feel I can still continue with the struggle in a foreign land. But I am against that as much as my wife pleads that I consider this. I am no quitter and I do not run. I shall stay and fight till the very end even if that is the last thing I do.If I have to lose my freedom so be it. That is the price we pay for opposing the powers-that-be. But I shall not go quietly or make any deals to secure my release with those who walk in the corridors of power.I was given an option. Take the money and become rich or go to jail.
I refused the money and instead chose jail. This is my choice and no one can convince me to do otherwise. No doubt I will have to pay for this and it will be a heavy price that I shall have to pay. But this is the price of the struggle and the price does not come cheap.I shall not submit. I shall resist till the end. I stand on right and I oppose what is wrong. Amar makruf, nahi munkar, as Islam would say.
We must uphold right and oppose wrong. That is not only the Islamic way but also the way of all religions. And even atheists believe in this, so you need not believe in God to subscribe to the concept of amar makruf, nahi munkar.Over thousands of years countless people have met their deaths just because they stood on the side of right. What I have chosen to do has been done by so many who are now nameless and faceless. So it is nothing so special that I do which has not been done before.My resistance will continue. But I will have to continue my resistance behind the barbwire fences of the Kamunting Detention Centre.
It will now be up to you, those who are free, to continue where I left off. My resistance, however, will have to take on a new form. I will no longer be able to write or speak at ceramahs. My voice has now been silenced. But I can still speak the words of silence, which will be my new form of resistance.I shall no longer open my mouth or utter one word during my detention. I shall maintain the silence of a mute person. I shall not sign any documents of the so many documents that they make you sign when under detention. My signature is not going to be placed on a single shred of paper.By doing so would mean none of my family members or lawyers would have access to me. Yes, that is the price I shall pay for ‘not cooperating’. I know this and I am prepared for it.I shall refuse all medical treatment and visits to the hospital. I shall refuse to accept any food and water supplied by the Kamunting authorities. I shall refuse to leave my cell or to meet any of the prison authorities.
In short, I shall shut myself out from the world and keep to my own world of my eight feet square cell. This action will mean I shall survive at the most seven to eight days. By the end of that period I shall be dead. I am prepared for that. They plan to imprison my body for the rest of my life. But I shall release my spirit from my body and will again be free. They can keep my body and they can do whatever they want with it. But they will never be able to keep my spirit. I shall separate my spirit from my body and deny them the pleasure of incarcerating me.
This is a decision I have taken and no one can make me change my mind. And this is probably the last article of mine that you shall read if they send me to Kamunting tomorrow. Keep the struggle going. I shall no longer be able to join you in that struggle. The work is far from finished. This country needs major political, economic and social reforms. The next two years are going to be most trying years indeed. And expect a snap general election within 18 months of Najib taking over if he does take over on 1 April 2009.
I lay down my life for this nation of ours called Malaysia. I will sacrifice myself for the sake of the struggle. There is very little left I can give at this point of time other than my life. For those who stood by me all these years, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I go with a heavy heart. But my heart is heavy only because I have but one life to give.Death is not the end. Death is but the beginning. It is the beginning of a new journey that none of us can escape and will one day embark upon.
It is not something to be sad about. It is something to rejoice. Please continue your struggle to make Malaysia a better place for our future generation. This country belongs to them and it is for them that we struggle. For some of us, our time is already almost up. We do not have many years left. Many have gone before us. Many friends who started out with us in 1998 are no longer around. But they left this world in the hope that one day Malaysia will be the country that we dream it would be. And that, too, must be our dream.
I pray and hope that the Putrajaya Federal Court will uphold the decision of the Shah Alam High Court to free me from ISA detention. But if it reverses that decision then we must be prepared for that as well. And if the Federal Court does what I fear it will do, goodbye Malaysians, my comrade-in-arms.
We shall meet again, one day, although not in this world but the next.
Announcement
Written by Centre for Policy Initiatives
Monday, 16 February 2009 13:37
We are posting here RPK's message to Malaysians. We appeal to the Government not to use the ISA again on RPK. We appeal to all fair minded Malaysians - especially those members of our elites - to urgently raise their voices and concern so that RPK is not deprived of his freedom and the tragic outcome predicted below does not come about.We appeal to the international community to express their solidarity with the country's foremost dissident and to ensure that he is not incarcerated once more on political grounds. Please disseminate RPK's letter as widely as possible.
*********************************************
http://mt.m2day.org/2008/content/view/18155/84/
Written by Raja Petra Kamarudin
16th February 2009
Tomorrow, I will probably be detained under the Internal Security Act. Anyhow, before we talk about that, let me start by giving you my prediction for the two by-elections scheduled for early April.
In 2004, BN won the Bukit Selambau state seat with a majority of 7,695 votes and in 2008 they lost it with a majority of 2,362 votes. (See the chart below). In the coming by-election, I forecast a voter turnout of around 26,000 and a majority of 3,500-4,500 for the opposition.For the Bukit Gantang parliament seat, in 2004 Barisan Nasional won with a majority of 8,888 and in 2008 it lost with a majority of 1,566. (See chart below). This time around, the voter turnout will be roughly 42,000 and the opposition will win that seat with a majority of 5,000-8,000 votes.Okay, I am forecasting this even before I know who the candidates are. Well, I have no choice.
On Tuesday, 17 February 2009, the Federal Court is due to hear the appeal against my release from Internal Security Act detention and I really do not know what the outcome is going to be. Chances are, I have but 24 hours left as a free man and if I do not write this article today I never will. On 7 November 2008, the Shah Alam High Court ordered my release from detention. The government has appealed this decision although it did not see the need to appeal the decision of the Shah Alam High Court acquitting Abdul Razak Baginda of the charge of murder without his defence being called.I was in court last week to witness the performance of the three judges and what I saw did not give me much confidence. First of all, we asked for a quorum of seven judges, or at least five. But the court turned us down and fixed a quorum of only three judges. And two of the three judges appear to be hostile towards us from the word ‘go’. It looks like my fate has been sealed even before the case goes to court.Anyway, I know for a fact that it was not Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi who ordered my detention. He was not even aware I had been detained. The order came from Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and since I am bent on making sure he never becomes Prime Minister on 1 April 2009 I really do not blame him for wanting to get me out of the way.
My friends and family want me to leave the country and to seek political asylum in another country. They feel I can still continue with the struggle in a foreign land. But I am against that as much as my wife pleads that I consider this. I am no quitter and I do not run. I shall stay and fight till the very end even if that is the last thing I do.If I have to lose my freedom so be it. That is the price we pay for opposing the powers-that-be. But I shall not go quietly or make any deals to secure my release with those who walk in the corridors of power.I was given an option. Take the money and become rich or go to jail.
I refused the money and instead chose jail. This is my choice and no one can convince me to do otherwise. No doubt I will have to pay for this and it will be a heavy price that I shall have to pay. But this is the price of the struggle and the price does not come cheap.I shall not submit. I shall resist till the end. I stand on right and I oppose what is wrong. Amar makruf, nahi munkar, as Islam would say.
We must uphold right and oppose wrong. That is not only the Islamic way but also the way of all religions. And even atheists believe in this, so you need not believe in God to subscribe to the concept of amar makruf, nahi munkar.Over thousands of years countless people have met their deaths just because they stood on the side of right. What I have chosen to do has been done by so many who are now nameless and faceless. So it is nothing so special that I do which has not been done before.My resistance will continue. But I will have to continue my resistance behind the barbwire fences of the Kamunting Detention Centre.
It will now be up to you, those who are free, to continue where I left off. My resistance, however, will have to take on a new form. I will no longer be able to write or speak at ceramahs. My voice has now been silenced. But I can still speak the words of silence, which will be my new form of resistance.I shall no longer open my mouth or utter one word during my detention. I shall maintain the silence of a mute person. I shall not sign any documents of the so many documents that they make you sign when under detention. My signature is not going to be placed on a single shred of paper.By doing so would mean none of my family members or lawyers would have access to me. Yes, that is the price I shall pay for ‘not cooperating’. I know this and I am prepared for it.I shall refuse all medical treatment and visits to the hospital. I shall refuse to accept any food and water supplied by the Kamunting authorities. I shall refuse to leave my cell or to meet any of the prison authorities.
In short, I shall shut myself out from the world and keep to my own world of my eight feet square cell. This action will mean I shall survive at the most seven to eight days. By the end of that period I shall be dead. I am prepared for that. They plan to imprison my body for the rest of my life. But I shall release my spirit from my body and will again be free. They can keep my body and they can do whatever they want with it. But they will never be able to keep my spirit. I shall separate my spirit from my body and deny them the pleasure of incarcerating me.
This is a decision I have taken and no one can make me change my mind. And this is probably the last article of mine that you shall read if they send me to Kamunting tomorrow. Keep the struggle going. I shall no longer be able to join you in that struggle. The work is far from finished. This country needs major political, economic and social reforms. The next two years are going to be most trying years indeed. And expect a snap general election within 18 months of Najib taking over if he does take over on 1 April 2009.
I lay down my life for this nation of ours called Malaysia. I will sacrifice myself for the sake of the struggle. There is very little left I can give at this point of time other than my life. For those who stood by me all these years, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I go with a heavy heart. But my heart is heavy only because I have but one life to give.Death is not the end. Death is but the beginning. It is the beginning of a new journey that none of us can escape and will one day embark upon.
It is not something to be sad about. It is something to rejoice. Please continue your struggle to make Malaysia a better place for our future generation. This country belongs to them and it is for them that we struggle. For some of us, our time is already almost up. We do not have many years left. Many have gone before us. Many friends who started out with us in 1998 are no longer around. But they left this world in the hope that one day Malaysia will be the country that we dream it would be. And that, too, must be our dream.
I pray and hope that the Putrajaya Federal Court will uphold the decision of the Shah Alam High Court to free me from ISA detention. But if it reverses that decision then we must be prepared for that as well. And if the Federal Court does what I fear it will do, goodbye Malaysians, my comrade-in-arms.
We shall meet again, one day, although not in this world but the next.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
TEAser Sundae Offering: BUM2009 in the making...
and something's brewing in SoPo Blogosphere so BIG you can rest assured
BUM2009 will be fully booked a week or two before COB.
Meanwhile, a BUM2007 and BUM2008 star attraction makes interesting reading, published by a mainstream media paper, so who says without a doubt it's 100% justification to have MSM completely boycotted?
And did you notice there is a SCHISM -- ah, Desi likes strange words! -- between once lovers in SoPo blogosphere? Is there no room for ameliorated love affairs -- maybe Valentine can help shoot its Cupid's arrows at SoPo*Phere? (The * stands for Blogo ok!:(
Questions, questions, questions:
Ah, these are some of the issues to be taken up -- mayhaps -- at BUM2009;
art thou kambing? I heard that Three lambs are following Mary around at the
vicinity of the Lake View Club...
********************** meanW'ILE, hear's aMore education! ******************
Home The Blogs The Corridors of Power
RPK takes on...everybody
window.google_render_ad();
RPK takes on...everybody
Posted by admin
Friday, 13 February 2009 18:34
Instead of toeing the Pakatan line by harping on themes that questioned the Barisan Nasional’s takeover, he highlighted the Pakatan's flaws and weaknesses in Perak that had led to its downfall.
THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
By NJ AHMAD, The Malay Mail
LIFE is never dull in the SoPo Blogosphere when you have its most famous denizen around – the always-controversial and almost-iconic Raja Petra Kamarudin blasting at full speed and living on knife’s edge. Let’s not get into the back-stabbing.
In the space of less than a week, the man with the country’s most well-known initials, RPK, has shocked and astounded detractors and ardent admirers alike by coming out in support of Perak’s Sultan Azlan Shah, criticised his own supporters, derided the top Pakatan Rakyat leaders and calling for their replacement, challenged a renowned lawyer, spotlighted a triad boss, and made insinuations against various judges and ministers in the process.
The amazing thing is that the 58-year-old Raja Petra did all these while also facing court cases that could see him being incarcerated for an unknown number of years ahead. And this might even happen before February ends, if things go badly against him.
On the national political front, Raja Petra had previously been content to be among the supporting cast of Pakatan since the Shah Alam High Court ordered his release from ISA detention last Nov 7.
Last month, he was the most illustrious member of a group of Barisan Rakyat bloggers who set up camp to help the Pas candidate win the Kuala Terengganu byelection.
He was also in Ipoh on Feb 5 to lend support to the Pakatan, which had just lost control of the Perak State government.
But this secondary mode changed from last Saturday onwards when Raja Petra made a posting that created shockwaves in Blogosphere – especially among the Pakatan leaders and supporters. Instead of toeing the Pakatan line by harping on themes that questioned the Barisan Nasional’s takeover, he highlighted the Pakatan's flaws and weaknesses in Perak that had led to its downfall.
However, it was Raja Petra’s defence of Sultan Azlan – and denouncing those who had blamed the ruler – that had created the biggest wedge with many of his previous supporters. Personal attacks and malicious accusations against him soon poured in at his ‘No Holds Barred’ blog in online news portal Malaysia Today (http://mt.m2day.org) and at other blogs.
In the past, Raja Petra had usually chosen to ignore these; perhaps because of his realising the futility of responding to all the negative statements and speculations that celebrities have to live with. But there was one instance this week where he lashed back at a comment by a reader:
“Mendela, (Nickname of a commentator) I should punch you in the face for suggesting that I ‘sided’ with the Sultan and Umno because of my court cases next week. I am made of better stuff than you suggest. I bet you would never make that statement with your name and address below it. So who is the chicken, you or me?”
So what’s happened to this symbol of the anti-establishment, and whose name is also synonymous with the word “blog” among those who neither write nor read them?
Something that he wrote at the very beginning of his post might actually explain it: “Well, that is because I sudah menyampah.” According to the dictionary, it is a feeling that ranges from mere “dislike” to a venomous “hate”. It is safe to say that Raja Petra’s feelings for Pakatan – and especially towards its leaders – is at the moment stronger than just dislike.
Last Tuesday, a daily reported that he has called for Pakatan de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang and Pas president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang to resign; saying that the three were out of touch with the people and that they were responsible for the loss of Perak.
This report led to another round of posts on blogosphere; including at Lim Kit Siang’s blog (http://blog.limkitsiang.com) and former Malay Mail editor Ahirudin Attan’s Rocky’s Bru (http://rockybru.com.my).
Ignoring the frenzy of incensed comments from blog readers sympathetic to Pakatan, Raja Petra had also taken on prominent lawyer Datuk Muhammad Shafee Abdullah. Last Monday, he published a post concerning a police report allegedly made by one Low Siew Ley in Subang Jaya over a land deal.
Raja Petra has had to attend court hearings throughout the whole of this week. The Federal Court will decide on a cross-appeal by the government against the High Court decision that had freed him (postponed to Feb 17). Shafee’s civil suit lodged against him last year is also scheduled for an inter-parte hearing on Feb 23.
He is also facing a sedition charge at the Petaling Jaya Sessions Court.
But these had not stopped the apparently indomitable Raja Petra from taking on yet another issue and powerful figures with his post last Wednesday titled “Heavenly King: The Story of Kuala Lumpur’s Boss of Bosses”. This is about Datuk Koo Tee Yam @ Ah Lek, who was arrested and detained under the ISA for alleged criminal activities and apparently “mysteriously” released after being detained for a second time.
Love him or hate him but one thing’s for sure – when Raja Petra writes, a good many people will read. Such is the RPK’s reign in the SoPo Blogosphere.
BUM2009 will be fully booked a week or two before COB.
Meanwhile, a BUM2007 and BUM2008 star attraction makes interesting reading, published by a mainstream media paper, so who says without a doubt it's 100% justification to have MSM completely boycotted?
And did you notice there is a SCHISM -- ah, Desi likes strange words! -- between once lovers in SoPo blogosphere? Is there no room for ameliorated love affairs -- maybe Valentine can help shoot its Cupid's arrows at SoPo*Phere? (The * stands for Blogo ok!:(
Questions, questions, questions:
Ah, these are some of the issues to be taken up -- mayhaps -- at BUM2009;
art thou kambing? I heard that Three lambs are following Mary around at the
vicinity of the Lake View Club...
********************** meanW'ILE, hear's aMore education! ******************
Home The Blogs The Corridors of Power
RPK takes on...everybody
window.google_render_ad();
RPK takes on...everybody
Posted by admin
Friday, 13 February 2009 18:34
Instead of toeing the Pakatan line by harping on themes that questioned the Barisan Nasional’s takeover, he highlighted the Pakatan's flaws and weaknesses in Perak that had led to its downfall.
THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
By NJ AHMAD, The Malay Mail
LIFE is never dull in the SoPo Blogosphere when you have its most famous denizen around – the always-controversial and almost-iconic Raja Petra Kamarudin blasting at full speed and living on knife’s edge. Let’s not get into the back-stabbing.
In the space of less than a week, the man with the country’s most well-known initials, RPK, has shocked and astounded detractors and ardent admirers alike by coming out in support of Perak’s Sultan Azlan Shah, criticised his own supporters, derided the top Pakatan Rakyat leaders and calling for their replacement, challenged a renowned lawyer, spotlighted a triad boss, and made insinuations against various judges and ministers in the process.
The amazing thing is that the 58-year-old Raja Petra did all these while also facing court cases that could see him being incarcerated for an unknown number of years ahead. And this might even happen before February ends, if things go badly against him.
On the national political front, Raja Petra had previously been content to be among the supporting cast of Pakatan since the Shah Alam High Court ordered his release from ISA detention last Nov 7.
Last month, he was the most illustrious member of a group of Barisan Rakyat bloggers who set up camp to help the Pas candidate win the Kuala Terengganu byelection.
He was also in Ipoh on Feb 5 to lend support to the Pakatan, which had just lost control of the Perak State government.
But this secondary mode changed from last Saturday onwards when Raja Petra made a posting that created shockwaves in Blogosphere – especially among the Pakatan leaders and supporters. Instead of toeing the Pakatan line by harping on themes that questioned the Barisan Nasional’s takeover, he highlighted the Pakatan's flaws and weaknesses in Perak that had led to its downfall.
However, it was Raja Petra’s defence of Sultan Azlan – and denouncing those who had blamed the ruler – that had created the biggest wedge with many of his previous supporters. Personal attacks and malicious accusations against him soon poured in at his ‘No Holds Barred’ blog in online news portal Malaysia Today (http://mt.m2day.org) and at other blogs.
In the past, Raja Petra had usually chosen to ignore these; perhaps because of his realising the futility of responding to all the negative statements and speculations that celebrities have to live with. But there was one instance this week where he lashed back at a comment by a reader:
“Mendela, (Nickname of a commentator) I should punch you in the face for suggesting that I ‘sided’ with the Sultan and Umno because of my court cases next week. I am made of better stuff than you suggest. I bet you would never make that statement with your name and address below it. So who is the chicken, you or me?”
So what’s happened to this symbol of the anti-establishment, and whose name is also synonymous with the word “blog” among those who neither write nor read them?
Something that he wrote at the very beginning of his post might actually explain it: “Well, that is because I sudah menyampah.” According to the dictionary, it is a feeling that ranges from mere “dislike” to a venomous “hate”. It is safe to say that Raja Petra’s feelings for Pakatan – and especially towards its leaders – is at the moment stronger than just dislike.
Last Tuesday, a daily reported that he has called for Pakatan de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang and Pas president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang to resign; saying that the three were out of touch with the people and that they were responsible for the loss of Perak.
This report led to another round of posts on blogosphere; including at Lim Kit Siang’s blog (http://blog.limkitsiang.com) and former Malay Mail editor Ahirudin Attan’s Rocky’s Bru (http://rockybru.com.my).
Ignoring the frenzy of incensed comments from blog readers sympathetic to Pakatan, Raja Petra had also taken on prominent lawyer Datuk Muhammad Shafee Abdullah. Last Monday, he published a post concerning a police report allegedly made by one Low Siew Ley in Subang Jaya over a land deal.
Raja Petra has had to attend court hearings throughout the whole of this week. The Federal Court will decide on a cross-appeal by the government against the High Court decision that had freed him (postponed to Feb 17). Shafee’s civil suit lodged against him last year is also scheduled for an inter-parte hearing on Feb 23.
He is also facing a sedition charge at the Petaling Jaya Sessions Court.
But these had not stopped the apparently indomitable Raja Petra from taking on yet another issue and powerful figures with his post last Wednesday titled “Heavenly King: The Story of Kuala Lumpur’s Boss of Bosses”. This is about Datuk Koo Tee Yam @ Ah Lek, who was arrested and detained under the ISA for alleged criminal activities and apparently “mysteriously” released after being detained for a second time.
Love him or hate him but one thing’s for sure – when Raja Petra writes, a good many people will read. Such is the RPK’s reign in the SoPo Blogosphere.
As Tears Go By ... Ooops, As Time Goes By ...
Do you remember Casablanca?
You don't? That's good, becasue you're very young. TOO YOUNG, to be in love. So Yesterday's VD did not bug you!
You did? That's also very de GOoD, because you're very romantic. A little olde maybe, but still YOUNG AT heART.
Yes, Desi spells heART this way because you put on a s-MILE at whatever age thou ART, and mastery of this ART keeps Thee young. You don'tneed to be a doctor -- or rocket scientist -- to know this!:)
So for those stillchasing that ROMANCE defined by Valentine's Day, take tour sweetheart to Morocco, find that bar in Casablanca; learn to play the piano and tenderly hold your loved one in thy arms, and sing along:
A kiss is just a kiss
A sigh is just a sigh
The fundamental things apply
As time goes by
************************* meanW'ILE , hear's some education ***************
Kisses unleash chemicals that ease stress levels
Buzz Up!
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Print
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID,
AP Science Writer Randolph E. Schmid, Ap Science Writer – Fri Feb 13, 6:22 pm ET
Reuters – A couple dances and kisses inside a heart shaped made from candles during a flash mob ahead of Valentine's …
CHICAGO – "Chemistry look what you've done to me," Donna Summer crooned in Science of Love, and so, it seems, she was right. Just in time for Valentine's Day, a panel of scientists examined the mystery of what happens when hearts throb and lips lock. Kissing, it turns out, unleashes chemicals that ease stress hormones in both sexes and encourage bonding in men, though not so much in women.
Chemicals in the saliva may be a way to assess a mate, Wendy Hill, dean of the faculty and a professor of neuroscience at Lafayette College, told a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science on Friday.
In an experiment, Hill explained, pairs of heterosexual college students who kissed for 15 minutes while listening to music experienced significant changes in their levels of the chemicals oxytocin, which affects pair bonding, and cortisol, which is associated with stress. Their blood and saliva levels of the chemicals were compared before and after the kiss.
Both men and women had a decline in cortisol after smooching, an indication their stress levels declined.
For men, oxytocin levels increased, indicating more interest in bonding, while oxytocin levels went down in women. "This was a surprise," Hill said.
In a test group that merely held hands, chemical changes were similar, but much less pronounced, she said.
The experiment was conducted in a student health center, Hill noted. She plans a repeat "in a more romantic setting."
Hill spoke at the session on the Science of Kissing, along with Helen Fisher of Rutgers University and Donald Lateiner of Ohio Wesleyan University.
Fisher noted that more than 90 percent of human societies practice kissing, which she believes has three components — the sex drive, romantic love and attachment.
The sex drive pushes individuals to assess a variety of partners, then romantic love causes them to focus on an individual, she said. Attachment then allows them to tolerate this person long enough to raise a child.
Men tend to think of kissing as a prelude to copulation, Fisher said. She noted that men prefer "sloppy" kisses, in which chemicals including testosterone can be passed on to the women in saliva. Testosterone increases the sex drive in both males and females.
"When you kiss an enormous part of your brain becomes active," she added. Romantic love can last a long time, "if you kiss the right person."
Lateiner, a classical scholar, observed that kissing appears infrequently in Greek and Roman art, but was widely practiced, despite the spread of skin disease at that time by facial kissing. And there was a potential for social faux pas by kissing the wrong person at the wrong time.
Overall, the science of kissing — philematology — is under-researcherd, Hill concluded.
___
On the Net:
AAAS: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/ap/ap_on_sc/storytext/sci_romance_unraveled/30961060/SIG=10ljfoc99/*http://www.aaas.org
Related Searches:
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Video: Honey, I love you with all my medial insula AP
**********************************
LYRICS FOR ''AS TIME GOES BY''
This day and age we're living in
Gives cause for apprehension
With speed and new invention
And things like fourth dimension
Yet we get a trifle weary
With Mr. Einstein's theory,
So we must get down to earth at times
Relax relieve the tension
And no matter what the progress
Or what may yet be proved
The simple facts of life are such
They cannot be removed
You must remember this
A kiss is just a kiss
A sigh is just a sigh
The fundamental things apply
As time goes by
And when two lovers woo
They still say, I love you
On that you can rely
No matter what the future brings
As time goes by
Moonlight and love songs
Never out of date
Hearts full of passion
Jealousy and hate
Woman needs man
And man must have his mate
That no one can deny
It's still the same old story
A fight for love and glory
A case of do or die
The world will always welcome lovers
As time goes by.
You don't? That's good, becasue you're very young. TOO YOUNG, to be in love. So Yesterday's VD did not bug you!
You did? That's also very de GOoD, because you're very romantic. A little olde maybe, but still YOUNG AT heART.
Yes, Desi spells heART this way because you put on a s-MILE at whatever age thou ART, and mastery of this ART keeps Thee young. You don'tneed to be a doctor -- or rocket scientist -- to know this!:)
So for those stillchasing that ROMANCE defined by Valentine's Day, take tour sweetheart to Morocco, find that bar in Casablanca; learn to play the piano and tenderly hold your loved one in thy arms, and sing along:
A kiss is just a kiss
A sigh is just a sigh
The fundamental things apply
As time goes by
************************* meanW'ILE , hear's some education ***************
Kisses unleash chemicals that ease stress levels
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By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID,
AP Science Writer Randolph E. Schmid, Ap Science Writer – Fri Feb 13, 6:22 pm ET
Reuters – A couple dances and kisses inside a heart shaped made from candles during a flash mob ahead of Valentine's …
CHICAGO – "Chemistry look what you've done to me," Donna Summer crooned in Science of Love, and so, it seems, she was right. Just in time for Valentine's Day, a panel of scientists examined the mystery of what happens when hearts throb and lips lock. Kissing, it turns out, unleashes chemicals that ease stress hormones in both sexes and encourage bonding in men, though not so much in women.
Chemicals in the saliva may be a way to assess a mate, Wendy Hill, dean of the faculty and a professor of neuroscience at Lafayette College, told a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science on Friday.
In an experiment, Hill explained, pairs of heterosexual college students who kissed for 15 minutes while listening to music experienced significant changes in their levels of the chemicals oxytocin, which affects pair bonding, and cortisol, which is associated with stress. Their blood and saliva levels of the chemicals were compared before and after the kiss.
Both men and women had a decline in cortisol after smooching, an indication their stress levels declined.
For men, oxytocin levels increased, indicating more interest in bonding, while oxytocin levels went down in women. "This was a surprise," Hill said.
In a test group that merely held hands, chemical changes were similar, but much less pronounced, she said.
The experiment was conducted in a student health center, Hill noted. She plans a repeat "in a more romantic setting."
Hill spoke at the session on the Science of Kissing, along with Helen Fisher of Rutgers University and Donald Lateiner of Ohio Wesleyan University.
Fisher noted that more than 90 percent of human societies practice kissing, which she believes has three components — the sex drive, romantic love and attachment.
The sex drive pushes individuals to assess a variety of partners, then romantic love causes them to focus on an individual, she said. Attachment then allows them to tolerate this person long enough to raise a child.
Men tend to think of kissing as a prelude to copulation, Fisher said. She noted that men prefer "sloppy" kisses, in which chemicals including testosterone can be passed on to the women in saliva. Testosterone increases the sex drive in both males and females.
"When you kiss an enormous part of your brain becomes active," she added. Romantic love can last a long time, "if you kiss the right person."
Lateiner, a classical scholar, observed that kissing appears infrequently in Greek and Roman art, but was widely practiced, despite the spread of skin disease at that time by facial kissing. And there was a potential for social faux pas by kissing the wrong person at the wrong time.
Overall, the science of kissing — philematology — is under-researcherd, Hill concluded.
___
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Video: Honey, I love you with all my medial insula AP
**********************************
LYRICS FOR ''AS TIME GOES BY''
This day and age we're living in
Gives cause for apprehension
With speed and new invention
And things like fourth dimension
Yet we get a trifle weary
With Mr. Einstein's theory,
So we must get down to earth at times
Relax relieve the tension
And no matter what the progress
Or what may yet be proved
The simple facts of life are such
They cannot be removed
You must remember this
A kiss is just a kiss
A sigh is just a sigh
The fundamental things apply
As time goes by
And when two lovers woo
They still say, I love you
On that you can rely
No matter what the future brings
As time goes by
Moonlight and love songs
Never out of date
Hearts full of passion
Jealousy and hate
Woman needs man
And man must have his mate
That no one can deny
It's still the same old story
A fight for love and glory
A case of do or die
The world will always welcome lovers
As time goes by.
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