Monday, February 28, 2011

Is Malaysia The Same As Egypt,Tunisia And Libya?

Hantu Laut

The answer is definitely
NO!

There are serious flaws in this writer's exposition and I have to accept with bemused resignation that she was no student of history and did absolutely no research before putting her opinion to the pen.A good writer but succumbed to unfounded and excoriating oppositions propaganda and disinformation.One should write with the head not the heart.

Apart from no allowing street demonstrations, for all intents and purposes, Malaysia is still a very democratic country and adopts a capitalist approach to its economy.It has never failed to call a general elections when it's due.The ISA may be a necessary evil due to the delicate nature of our ethnic composition.

Just for the heck of it, let's compare those Arab countries with Malaysia,

Let us start with Tunisia, how it became a sovereign nation and how the leaders came to power.

Tunisia gained independence from France in 1957 as a republic led by its first President Habib Bourguiba.In March 1975 the Tunisian National Assembly voted Bourguiba president for live.In November 1987 he was toppled by Ben Ali in a coup d'etat.Ben Ali started off good but eventually became a dictator and had 24 years of uninterrupted rule. The country have known only two leaders over a period of 54 years and both ruled the country with an iron fish.

Though, all came from the same ruling party, Malaysia have had 6 prime ministers over the same period.

By comparison Tunisia is considered a poor country with GDP of US9500.00 against Malaysia's US14700.00.About 8-10 percent of Tunisians live below the poverty line but are better off than their Egyptian counterparts because of its smaller population.

Egypt gained independence in 1953.Egyptians have known only 3 presidents up till today.They were Nasser, Sadat and Mubarak.The first president Mohammad Naguib was only in office for 16 months when the country got rid of the monarch and declared itself a republic.

Some 30 percent of Egyptians live below the poverty line earning less than US$60.00 a month and live in abject poverty, with limited food supply, poor and overcrowded housing and inadequate access to clean water, good quality health care and education.If you live on that kind of wage you have two options, you either become a beggar or a thief.

Very few Malaysians earned less than US$200.00 a month.

With a population of 80 million against 28 million for Malaysia it is not belittling to say the Egyptian economy is in a shambles because of improbity, Egypt's GDP is below that of Malaysia.Egypt's per capita for 2010 stood at US$6200.00 against Malaysia's US$14780.00

Libya is not even worth to put a comparison to. Its mainstay is oil and the small population gave it a false per capita GDP reading as most of the oil revenue go to corruptions, mainly the pockets of Gaddafi, his family and his cronies.

After disposing King Idris in a coup d'etat in 1969 Muammar Gaddafi, a captian in the army with his junior officer co-conspirators abolished the constitution and made Libya a republic.

Gaddafi
has ruled the nation with blatant disregard for human rights ever since.

Libya has a per capita of US$13800.00 and if anyone believed it is fairly distributed to the population than they should decry the revolution and go out and save Gaddafi.

What does it tells you?

It tells you many crucial things about Malaysia, that it is still a democratic country and to a great extent practising free market economy.That's why you have many billionaires, millionaires and significant middle class in the country.Unlike, the Arabs, no leaders or prime ministers had or ever attempt to abolish or abrogate the constitution to deprive the basic human rights of its citizens.It also shows that Malaysia has, over the years, executed sound economic policies that have given it moderate economic growth.It may not be the best in the region but it is better than many other countries.We are ranked 30th in the world's GDP ranking.Not too bad for a small nation of 28 million.With the new economic reforms we should do better.We have one of the lowest below the poverty line.Only about 5 percent of Malaysians live below the poverty line according to the CIA Factbook.

Corruptions, should be our main concern, this is where we should spare greater effort to combat the sickness .Though, I agree with her on the worrying degree of corruptions in the country I don't believe that there would be less corruptions with Pakatan taking over the helm.Many politicians in Pakatan bound for the higher office are cut from the same cloth.


She wrote "Najib is in denial for there are many similarities between the two countries. The Egyptians were fed up with the repressive rule of Hosni Mubarak. The reasons for their dissatisfaction were mainly financial. They were angry with life in the autocratic police state, of poor living conditions, economic stagnation, unemployment, corruption and abuses by the police"

I have done business with that region for almost 20 years.

No! Malaysia do not have the same similarities as those godforsaken places.


This one is even more idiosyncratic, political backwashing from a flat in London.


Everyone wants Taib out but would he flutters and falls?


Not likely, he would lose some seats to the oppositions but he and the BN should prevail to rule Sarawak again.

Friday, February 25, 2011

Gaddafi's Hallucinogenic Pills,Rotten Cheese And Sour Grapes

Hantu Laut

In a desperate attempt to justify his genocidal action against his own people Gaddafi has found a new bogeyman..........the abominable Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaida....and this moron thinks the Western powers are going to be assuaged by his delusional claim of fighting Al Qaida.



In a rambling call to the state TV station he said the rebels are "loyal to bin Laden ... This is al-Qaida that the whole world is fighting against, Qaida militants are "exploiting" teenagers, giving them "hallucinogenic pills in their coffee with milk, like Nescafe,"

This man who has suffered "delusion of grandeur" for a long time has some nasty things swimming in his bloodstream is now taking ecstasy pill, rotten cheese and sour grapes and is a complete schizophrenia.........voices in his head telling him to mercilessly kill his own people, and..

....save Libya.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

One Man's Loss Is Another Man's Gain

Hantu Laut

A little unexpected but Zaid should not rejoice. Politics is a hard ball.

Nibong Tebal MP joins Kita

PETALING JAYA: The People’s Welfare Party (Kita) welcomed its newest member today, Nibong Tebal MP Tan Tee Beng.

Speaking at a press conference here, the former PKR MP, flanked by Kita president Zaid Ibrahim, said: “I believe Kita can bring meaningful changes to the nation.”

Last year, Tan quit PKR after facing the party’s disciplinary board for openly criticising Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng.

Tan said that he was courted by various parties including Barisan Nasional during his tenure as an independent lawmaker but he was looking for a party that promoted fairness, equality and transparency.

“And in Zaid, I see a man consistent in promoting truth and unity,” he added.

Asked whether he had informed fellow independent MPs from Konsensus Bebas, of which he is a member, Tan said it was not necessary to inform them.

“They are not my parents. The group came about for us to share a platform to help one another as we lacked resources,” he explained.

‘He’s not a political frog’

Meanwhile, Zaid said that he was glad that Kita was able to attract young leaders into its fold despite being a fledgling political outfit.

“It is a bold move by Tan to join us as he believes Kita is the party of the future,” he added.

The former law minister, an ex PKR member himself, hoped that more people, including aspiring MPs and state assemblymen, would join Kita.

“We are open to anyone who has the nation’s interest at heart. Since we are a new party, we have no baggage and cronies with us,” he said. Read more.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

‘DAP knows Teoh committed suicide’

Independent MP Wee Choo Keong claims this prompted DAP to withdraw from the royal commission of inquiry.

KUALA LUMPUR: DAP has chosen to withdraw from the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into Teoh Beng Hock’s death because it knows he committed suicide, claimed an independent MP today.

Wee Choo Keong alleged that DAP “inside sources” informed him that Teoh, a former DAP political aide, had killed himself and was not murdered.

“According to my sources, DAP is afraid of the RCI’s outcome, because they know about this case,” the Wangsa Maju MP told a press conference at the Konsensus Bebas office here.

“They knew this was a case involving suicide,” added the former DAP and PKR member.

Asked if Teoh’s family might have known about his alleged suicide, Wee replied: “I don’t know about the family. But the DAP side knew about it. Otherwise, why did they pull out?”

On why DAP would withdraw from the inquiry when its leaders, including Lim Kit Siang, were pushing for it, Wee said: “Perhaps DAP did not expect the government to go ahead in setting up the RCI to look into Teoh’s death.”

Wee’s startling revelation comes amid the ongoing inquiry to establish Teoh’s cause of death, after an inquest held into the case saw the coroner ruling out both suicide and homicide.

Teoh was found dead in July, 2009, after being interrogated overnight by Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) officials at Plaza Masalam in Shah Alam.

Citing a lack of confidence in the RCI, both the Selangor government and Teoh’s family pulled out from the inquiry.Read more.

People's Power:Who's Next ?

Hantu Laut

It started most unexpectedly in Tunisia that dethroned Ben Ali's 24- year rule , spilled over to Egypt that forced out Hosni Mubarak's 30 year totalitarian regime.Spread like wildfire to Yemen, Bahrain and Libya which have not flared up completely but are likely to end up in the same fashion.

The waves of people power that first engulfed Tunisia seemed contagious to spread even more.

Libya, the most unexpected, is on the verge of collapse that will see the longest serving Arab despot exiled or dead.A leader with a penchant for Bedouin tents, heavily armed female bodyguards and blond Ukrainian nurses had mind-caged his people for over 40 years under rule of fear.

US President Ronald Reagan called him a "mad dog" and bombed Libya in 1986 in retaliation of the West Berlin disco bombing by Libyan agents that killed 2 American servicemen and a woman and wounding 200 others.Subsequent event, the tragic bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland that killed 270 people linked to Libyan agents. The US accused Gaddafi of sponsoring terrorism and got the UN Security Council to pass trade and economic sanctions on Libya.Sanction was lifted in 2003.

Libya, is now a war zone of civil unrest that have turned bloody with Gaddafi using the might of his military to crack down fiercely on demonstrators against his 42-year despotic rule.Over 500 civilians have been killed by the army and forces friendly to him.

In pure desperation to hang on to power Gaddafi even deployed fighter jets and helicopters to strafe protesters and civilian population.Two of his pilots refused to obey the order defected to Malta with the jet fighters and the pilots seeking political asylum.Obviously, he wanted to inflict maximum collateral damage to scare the population.

The current trouble in Libya seemed imminent that Gaddafi days are numbered.He has resorted to excessive violence and bloodshed to stay in power.He vowed to fight to the end and die as a martyr.A tyrant or despot is more befitting of him.Killing your own people to preserve yourself does not make one a martyr.

He appears to be losing support of his army.Of the 45,000 strong regular army only about 5000 are still loyal to him.It was reported that he has ordered oil sabotage by blowing up pipelines to the Mediterranean.He may be copying Saddam's scorch earth policy when the Iraqi army exited Kuwait.

The story is the same wherever you go in the Arab world, despotic rule and leaders taking liberty of the nations wealth and couldn't care two hoots about the people and nation.

A new awakening is hitting the Arab world where tyrants, despots and dictators ruled with impunity, disenfranchising the people, looting the country's wealth without any remorse and sense of shame. In the name of the religion they have suppressed the people, stole the nation's wealth and ravaged the country.

Spontaneous uprising to centuries of suppression in the world of despotism and primeval feudalism. Brutal leader who ruled by fear and violence and run the country as their own business empire, enriching themselves and their families.From Morocco spanning the Arab countries of Northern Africa to the Middle East the story is the same.Brutal and greedy leaders who overstayed their welcome.

Bahrain, is ruled by the Sunni Al Khalifa royal family. A shimmering hatred against the ruler by the majority Shia population has now boiled over. Saudi Arabia, ruled by the Al Saud royal family, the most repressive regime, rife for political change, is sitting nervously not knowing when it will be their turn.

We have seen it in the Philippines, we have seen it in Indonesia, we have seen it in the Arab world.

People's power! Who's next?

Also read:
How Qaddafi Lost Libya

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Kill Gaddafi!

Hantu Laut

Typical Arab dictator's bullshit......find a bogeyman for all the troubles.

To divert attention and he thinks the world is stupid to believe him, Gaddafi has made Israel the source of his trouble, foreign forces out to topple him.

This biggest and longest plunderer of Libya has sent his army to kill peaceful protesters and his son promised a bloodbath, to spill Libyan's blood on the street if they did not stop the protest against his father.



Gaddafi will die at the hand of his own people.Unless, he escaped, he will be killed by his own army.

Prominent Sunni thinker Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who is considered the spiritual leader of the global Muslim Brotherhood movement called for the assassination of Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi during an interview with Al-Jazeera news network. "Whoever can kill Gaddafi should kill him," he said, "Whomever can shoot him should, in order to liberate the people from the evilness of this crazy man."

Gaddafi has deployed fighter jets and helicopters to bomb protestors and snipers to pick out targets on the streets.Two Libyan air force jets defected to Malta and asked for political asylum saying they were ordered to bomb protesters.

The end is near for Muammar Gaddafi and I hope the same for all Arab despots who have ravaged the people and milked the country dry.

Arabs Revolution:Gaddafi hits with deadly force

Libya's official news agency blames Israel for unrest, as security forces attack protesters.

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has unleashed a bloody crackdown against pro-democracy protestors seeking his ouster, killing dozens of people in only four days of protests.

On Sunday, the unrest spread to capital Tripoli from the eastern port city Benghazi.

Libyan Internet activists have denounced the international community's failure to act over the "massacres" in Libya.

The Cairo-based Arab Organisation for Human Rights has decried the use of violence against the protestors in Libya and called for an international investigation. The Vienna-based Friends of Humanity said the Libyan regime's onslaught was tantamount to "war crimes".

There are conflicting reports on the death toll but it is generally believed to be in the hundreds now.

Human Rights Watch reports that 173 people had died prior to Monday. The London-based private newspaper Libya Al-Youm quoted a local doctor as saying that 285 people died in the eastern city of Benghazi alone.

Some 300 people have been killed in Benghazi, the country’s second largest city, witnesses told Al Jazeera by phone.

The crackdown by Gaddafi, who has ruled Libya since 1969, threatens to make the revolt the most costly in terms of human lives and bloodshed in the wave of demonstrations sweeping across the region for greater freedoms.

Gaddafi, trying to stave off the fate of the presidents of Tunisia and Egypt who were removed from power after facing similar protests, has resorted to much harsher military tactics than those used in uprisings in neighbouring Egypt or Tunisia.

His tactics include cutting off food, fuel and medical supplies as well as electricity to revolting cities. The regime also cut off most communications to try to make sure the unrest does not spread to other cities. But the move failed to prevent protests erupting in capital Tripoli on Sunday.

Pan-Arab news outlets report that Gaddafi's troops have used live ammunition and heavy military equipment such as anti-tank missiles in Benghazi. Late on Sunday fierce clashes were being reported in Tripoli.

Libya Al Youm reported on its website on Sunday that the regime was using "heavy weapons" and shooting at random. Read more.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

The Shaming Of Malaysia

Hantu Laut

In Sabah, we have many Filipinos and Indonesian domestic help but you hardly hear of any case of abuse against these poor and helpless people.The sickness seems to be peculiar to Peninsula Malaysia.

Second-Class Citizens?

By Irwin Loy

The Diplomat

Faced with a shortage of domestic help, Malaysia has been turning to Cambodia to find workers. Many, though, aren’t receiving what’s promised.

The wound over Lay Limheang’s left ear has healed into a coarse, bulbous lump. But she says it’s the scars you can’t see that trouble her most now.

There have never been many options for women like her in this small village in central Cambodia: make your living in the fields, or head to town and get a job at the factory.

Limheang chose the latter. But she found she could barely make ends meet working for $80 a month, so in 2009, she quit her job and moved to Phnom Penh to train as a live-in housemaid.

By that September, she was starting a new life in Kuala Lumpur. She had spent months learning how to cook and clean. But within weeks, battered, penniless and holding no passport, she says she was praying for an escape.

Malaysia is facing what’s been described as a crisis over its foreign domestic workers: there just aren’t enough of them. Now, Malaysia has turned to countries like Cambodia to fill in the gap. And with its burgeoning population—disproportionately young, unskilled and underemployed—it seems like a natural fit.

Almost overnight, the number of women leaving Cambodia to work in Malaysia has skyrocketed, but the crucial regulations and oversight meant to keep the women safe haven’t kept pace. At best, the industry’s harshest critics say, foreign maids in Malaysia are treated like second-class citizens and denied minimum labour rights afforded to other workers. At its worst, the job can become a form of modern-day debt bondage.

For Lay Limheang, the problems started within weeks of arriving in Malaysia. The agency that trained her had provided her courses in basic English—she learned the words for different kinds of food and household objects, as well as some simple commands. But the couple she was placed with didn’t speak English.

‘My boss asked me to bring her some vegetables, but I couldn’t understand what they said. They were speaking Chinese,’ she says. ‘So they slapped me.’

She claims the abuse became progressively more frequent—and more violent.

‘I was so scared whenever my boss came home. I just expected that I would be hurt again,’ Limheang says.

She’s far from alone in making such claims. In 2009, Indonesia—the main supplier of Malaysia’s estimated 300,000 foreign domestic workers—imposed a moratorium barring new maids from heading to Malaysia, following a string of high-profile abuse cases. The two sides have yet to reach a new agreement despite continued negotiations on wages, mandatory days off and other benefits. Many of Malaysia’s basic rules under its Employment Act that cover rest days, work hours, termination, holidays and maternity leave explicitly don’t apply to foreign maids, known as ‘domestic servants’ under the law.

Meanwhile, the number of Cambodian women working in Malaysia has jumped dramatically. Last year, Malaysia issued 28,561 work visas to Cambodians, according to statistics provided by the Malaysian Embassy in Phnom Penh. More than 24,700 of those were given to domestic workers. That figure is almost five times the total number of visas issued just two years earlier.

At the same time, the number of recruitment agencies operating in Cambodia has taken a corresponding leap. These have established loose networks of agents paid to recruit potential employees from villages throughout the country.

Yu Khorn is one of them. Shirtless and sweating in the afternoon heat, he parks his motorbike beside the family’s cows.

He says he was paid $90 a month to recruit women from the surrounding villages. ‘I learned how to convince people. How to speak to people,’ Khorn says. ‘You tell the women, “You don’t have to worry about supporting your families. The company will take care of it.”’

He pulls out a pamphlet that he says he gives to prospective recruits. Young women are pictured grasping fistfuls of US dollars. ‘Two years = $3,500,’ the pamphlet declares. Work 3 years and earn $5,600. Four years gets you $7,800. The minimum wage at the closest factory here is $61 a month.

‘I have a chance to help people in my community,’ Khorn says, pointing toward a large wooden house down the path. It towers over most others in this village. The woman that owns it, he explains, worked in Malaysia for two years. When she returned, she was rich enough to build it.

But authorities in the surrounding commune say they are alarmed by the number of middlemen who have started operating in the area in the last 18 months. Some of the more destitute villages have proven to be fertile grounds for recruitment. In one village alone, 30 women have signed on to what local police chief Hun Miera believes is an uncertain future.

‘These people don’t have legal protection when they leave. Anything could happen to them,’ he says.

But more and more women have still been willing to take the risk.

‘The people are very poor. They only have one way to make income: by farming,’ he says. ‘The crops weren’t good this year, so they’ve become poorer. So they look to Malaysia.’

A few kilometres away, the flattened dirt road gives way to a muddy, uneven path. The houses here are noticeably more basic than in neighbouring villages—thatched leaves for walls, or uneven wooden planks badly in need of replacement.

This, local officials say, is one of the poorest villages in the commune.

Ein Chhunly sits on a slatted bamboo bed perched over the mud, explaining why most of the women in the village have asked her about sending their daughters off to Malaysia.

‘There isn’t much, here,’ she says with a shrug. ‘There’s not a lot of work.’

Chhunly says an agency pays her to recruit local women. On behalf of the company, she promises the parents 50 kg of rice and the equivalent of $125 in cash up front—a gift, she says. If the women make it to Malaysia, they can earn up to $285 each month.

To many of the parents here, the offer is difficult to turn down. Chhunly says she has referred at least 20 young women herself. Even her two daughters, who struggled to save any money while working at the factory, left last year.

She expects many more will follow in their footsteps—if they return with good news.

‘A lot of people are interested in going,’ she says. ‘But they’re waiting for my daughters first.’

And that’s what worries critics of the industry. Labour rights groups say they’re observing a new trend: women have started complaining of ill treatment, either in Malaysia, or during the training process at home.

Adhoc, a local human rights group, is handling more than 50 new cases from workers who have returned from Malaysia, says Lim Mony, the head of its women’s programme. Some have claimed they were raped while on the job.

Another non-governmental organization, the Community Legal Education Center (CLEC) saw its first domestic worker client last year. Now the group is advising more than 20 women who have claimed various forms of abuse or mistreatment.

‘We think it’s a serious problem,’ says Moeun Tola, who heads CLEC’s labour programme. He says many women don’t understand that the money their families initially receive for signing up—what they see as gifts—must actually be worked off. So do the costs of medical tests, visa applications and other expenses. In the end, many of his clients say they go months on end without seeing a single dollar.

Once there, workers have complained that they have few options if they are abused. They say company representatives rarely, if ever, visit the employers’ homes.

‘There’s no protection,’ he says. ‘It’s not just about giving people jobs. There should be someone that inspects the homes regularly to make sure the workers are alright.’

The rapid growth in demand for domestic workers has also left authorities in Cambodia—and the industry itself—struggling to keep up. Read more.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Dissolve The Royal Commission

Hantu Laut

Environmentalists all over the world including the UN, WWF and many others lauded the government decision to scrap the coal power plant in Sabah.The oppositions have their own stories.

Instead of lauding the State and Federal government they think the smart thing to do is to ridicule the decision, which actually make them looking more stupid.

DAP's MP for Kota Kinabalu Hiew King Cheu said it was an election ploy while another political donkey Jeffrey Kitingan said it could be temporary and likely to be reinstated after the general elections.

Across the South China Sea in Tanah Melayu the oppositions made a mockery of the Royal Commission by urging the Teoh's family to withdraw from the hearing.

PM Najib has gone out of his way to appease the family by appointing the Royal Commission and the opposition is using delaying tactic in the hope of using the controversial issue as a battle cry for the general elections expected anytime soon.

Than there is the sodomy case of Anwar Ibrahim using the same delaying tactic for political mileage.Delayed many times without probable cause. The judge should not be intimidated and should proceed with the case to its finality.

The PM should give the family of Teoh an ultimatum, participate or the government will dissolve the Royal Commission.

The opposition's ploys are wasting court's time and taxpayers money .

We have had enough of this unpalatable circus.

With oppositions like this who needs a new government.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Singapore Malay families seeking economic refuge in JB

I have been coming across several Malay families who are renting out their HDB flats or even selling their HDB flats and living in Johor Bahru and commuting to Singapore. Each family had the same reason to give. They are unable to afford the cost of living in Singapore.

PROFILE OF MALAY FAMILIES SHIFTING TO JB

A few days ago, a friend of mine who is a senior professional in logistics industry claimed that around 40% of the Malay despatch riders live in Johor Bahru. However I am unable to verify this. However when I asked others in logistics industry, they did agree that there are large number of families, where the breadwinner works as a despatch rider, have indeed relocated to JB due to cost pressures in Singapore. These despatch riders earn less than $1000 per month and they are unable to cope even when they have two children.

It does not seem to be the case that all the families that shifted are having a single income earner. There are indeed families in which both the couples are working and yet they are unable to afford to live in Singapore. The few families that I managed to talk to have a household income of less than $2000 a month. They shared with me that given the high costs they face which come along with work e.g. lunch meals,
transport, clothings etc etc they are left with little to afford the other family expenses such as grocery, electricity etc.

Another group of Malay families who make up this trend of Malay families shifting to JB include those who are unable to service their HDB loans. Apparently some of these families are having problems paying their HDB mortgages and out of desperation not to loose their HDB flats they rather rent it out and shift to JB.

The last group of Malay families that I came across are those who faced life shocks such as retrenchment, illness etc and they were unable to ride through the financial turblence that came along. Hence they shifted to JB to keep afloat.

CAN MALAY PAP MPS AND GOVERNMENT RELATED MALAY AGENCIES SOLVE THIS?

I am inviting, not challenging, all 12 Malay MPs who repeatedly claim they are leaders of Singapore Malays along with their associated Malay agencies to do an assessment of the situation and resolve it by facilitating the Malay families to return to Singapore.

These families are almost like economic refugees seeking refuge from astronomical costs in their homeland. LKY not too long ago asked if Malays will share their last grains of rice with non-Malays in Singapore. I am sure these Malay families may not be able to do that since they are not even located in Singapore and secondly they unlikely to have any last grains during such catastrophic moments. My question is if LKY will share his current godowns of rice supply with these Malay families in current normal circumstances?

Malays in Singapore are repeatedly questioned on their allegiance and fidelity to the nation. Stop asking what they will do for the nation. Lets ask what the nation did for these Malay families in desperate circumstances.

The PAP Malay MPs constantly claim the Malay community have progressed under their leadership. Well at no time in history before 1959 was there ever a moment during which significantly number of Singapore Malay families had to seek economic refuge in Johor.

No where in first world do you see the poor in one country running to the next to commute to work to save costs. US costs are much higher than in Canada and Mexico, yet the poor communities along US borders dont commute from Canada or Mexico to save costs.

This essentially is not really a Malay community problem. If not for the language issues, I am sure many other Indian and Chinese families who are stuck in similar circumstances will also be commuting from JB. This problem is essentially the failure of:

1) fiancial security mechanisms in Singapore
2) elected MPs
3) community agencies such as MUIS, WAREES, MENDAKI etc that sit on large amounts of community endowments but yet not expend for those stuck in rainy days
4) government agencies whose role is to help such families

Temasek

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Who Is The Lair ?

Hantu Laut

Who is the lair, Tun Dr Mahathir or the intolerable Mr Lim Kit Siang? Read what former IGP Tun Hanif Omar says here.

Mahathir wasn't lying when he says the police, on security reason, decided to arrest those troublemakers to save the nation from another tragedy.Anwar could have put the record right but for political expediency he wouldn't.

Do you want this kind of people to rule this country lying through their teeth just to score brownie point with voters.

Ragtag And Bobtail

Hantu Laut

There must be jinx in Sabah PKR or just the idiosyncrasy of the leadership that most Sabahans could not stomach.

Thoughtless and unkind remarks seemingly peculiar with people from the other side can be very upsetting to the generally affable Sabahans. We have no chips on our shoulders!

PKR leaders, not even yet in power, were already worse than UMNO leaders when it comes to dealing with Sabahans.They just couldn't get their act together.They already have the who's master and who's servant mentality much to the agony of Sabahans.

Choosing the party chief in Sabah could just be a simple democratic process, let the divisions elect their chief without any interference from the Peninsula.Unfortunately, masters want none of this, they want someone they can control.

The case of Pajudin Nordin clearly showed that Anwar and now his wife have no principle whatsoever. Instead of defending their decision and the person they have appointed they submit to the rumbling on the ground and simply removed the person they appointed in the first place.

More trouble in Sabah PKR here.


Maybe, Zaid Ibrahim's Kita or Raja Petra's MCLM should come and fill the void in the Sabah opposition front.

Zaid hasn't got the stamina yet.MCLM, is a good idea of a third force, but there is a serious hitch, RPK is running his political oufit by remote control which will suffer broken radio wavelength from time to time and getting the right candidate might pose a problem.




So! Who is this Haris Ibrahim?

Other than being a blogger and a lawyer his background is misty.Not all lawyers make smart politician and not all lawyers are smart.

At present, the oppositions in Sabah and Sarawak are 'ragtag and bobtail'.

Only DAP has better chance to grap a few seats.

The oppositions, lots of talks but fragmented and discordant.

Looks like Putrajaya stays an elusive dream in the oppositions' camp.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Insidious Coal Power Plant Off - Great Day For Sabah

Hantu Laut

After so many years of tug of war between environmentalists and the people in Tenaga who couldn't care less about the welfare and health of the people of Sabah giving us a raw deal, we persevere in fighting for our rights for a clean environment.

Today, Sabahans stand proud that they have won the battle.

Chief Minister Musa Aman has declared that the coal powered plant is off.The chapter on the insidious proposal is closed and buried forever.

Many thanks to Chief Minister Musa Aman and the state government.

The full story here.

Taib smirks, Sarawak seethes

Free Malaysia Today

The white rajah of Sarawak was full of sarcasm when he professed concern for the fate of the Chinese community in the state. Taib Mahmud said he was a bit worried that the urban Chinese voters would pick the opposition to bark at the government. By not playing his game, he explicitly issued them a dire warning: “Voting the opposition means no government support… the areas lost by the Barisan Nasional-led government may not get anything.”

The overweening chief minister even predicted that the BN would be able to win the coming state election. The old man who has been around for the past 30 years thinks the vast, resource-rich state is a hereditary possession. The whole world knows he is a fabulously wealthy man who wields enormous power and who would use his treasure chest to bury his political foes. But history can repeat itself.

Just across the border, Sabah was once ruled by a chief minister dubbed “dirty” Harris. Harris Salleh was, like Uncle Taib, an arrogant and a blustering bully. For almost 10 years, he ruled the impoverished state with hardly any opposition. Then out of Tambunan came an unknown Kadazandusun paramount chief named Joseph Pairin Kitingan. At first, he was in the same party as Harris. Soon he became disillusioned with Harris’ Berjaya and began to oppose its policies and its abuses of power. Big-headed Harris could not stomach opposition from within his own ranks and soon Pairin was forced to quit Berjaya. But hubristic Harris had sealed his own fate.

Pairin became an independent and challenged the ruling party to stand against him in the seething battleground of Tambunan. Haughty Harris took the bait – and lost despite employing an arsenal of dirty tactics. Blinded by power, “dirty” Harris hit the roof and punished the people of Tambunan in a senseless act of vengeance: he deprived them of badly needed development funds. As a result, the Tambunan folk had to live through years of hardship.

But Harris miscalculated in his gamble. The Tambunan people did not buckle under these harsh conditions. They rallied around the banner of a new movement called Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) led by Pairin. When the next state election came, PBS, now the opposition front-runner, was ready to face Harris and his dirty band of followers. PBS fought hard for change and against the excesses of the ruling party. In a last desperate throw of the dice, Harris lost the whole state. The “noxious weed” was uprooted. It was sweet victory for the resilient people of Tambunan.

Will this momentous, historic event be repeated in Sarawak? Taib also threatened to deprive the Chinese community of development funds if they dare throw their lot with the opposition. He even brandished the now reviled line used ignominiously in the 2008 campaign: the government will not be able to help the Chinese community if “there was no effective Chinese representation in the government”. In that another remarkable upheaval, the government’s bluff was called.

But over the years Sabah has been politically emasculated. The scene has now shifted to Sarawak and Uncle Taib is also playing dirty. In fact, his game is dirtier than Harris. His rule is longer than Harris and he exercises absolute power. He controls almost every facet of life in Sarawak. He is not satisfied with what he has done, telling the people he is still looking for ways to develop the state – and pour more money into his bank. Nothing gets pass him without his imperious nod. All his partners in the coalition approach him on bended knees and “protestations of inviolable fidelity”.

He distributes his largesse (huge government contracts) to his supporters, cronies and family members without open tender but throws crumbs to the hungry, toiling natives. His vast business empire was built without breaking a sweat while Sarawak descended to the status of the fourth poorest state in the country despite having ample natural resources. When Sarawak goes to the polls soon, the power of money will no doubt come into full play. But the rumblings in the state against the leader are growing louder. Continue reading.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

John Malott: I am Nobody's Pet

Hantu Laut

John Malott strikes back with threat of libel action against anyone who labelled him Anwar's pet.

The full story here.His rendition of Malaysia's evil regime here.

What is a pet?

As we all know it primarily refers to domestic or tamed animal kept for companionship or pleasure and treated with care and affection.

My pet dog is called 'Tiger' and another one less a pet is called 'Blackie' (with no offence to coloured people) it's just the colour of its fur.

English is a wonderful language a single word can carry as many as a dozen different kind of meanings.Sometimes, from the sublime to the ridiculous, it is, but still the most sought after language.

Can John Malott be called a pet of Anwar Ibrahim or the other way around? Is Anwar his pet and demolishing the Najib's government is his pet project?

So, let us examine what a human pet entails.

1.Noun - a person treated with special favor, esp. in a way that others regard as unfair.

2.Adjective - denoting a thing that one devotes special attention to or feels particularly strongly about or denoting a person or establishment that one regards with particular favor or affection.

Of course, there are the other 'pet' that only affected humans........offended at being slighted which was what John Malott probably suffering from..... indigestion brought about by the article written by Rachel Motte and the ripple effect her article created in Malaysia.

What do you call a person, time and time again, supporting the same person and constantly attacking a duly elected government adversarial to his pet project?

Would a 'lapdog' be more appropriate?

Dunno!

As a matter of fact, I have downloaded Rachel's article earlier but did not get to publish it.

Are there element of libel therein? With the exception of calling him 'pet' most of what she wrote were already in public domain.The terrorist link with the Muslim Brotherhood have been mentioned in many publications.

Would NST and Utusan apologise to him or take the bull by its horn?

Let's wait and see whether the threat of libel would materialise and which jurisdiction he would use. Certainly not the Malaysian judiciary because it's corrupt and controlled by the executive as portrayed by Anwar and his ilk.

I expect NST and Utusan to defend the fort


We may not like what Malott wrote about Malaysia but asking him to be banned from entering the country is showing political immaturity.

Minister in the PM's Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz will be proposing to the cabinet that Malott be banned from entering Malaysia.I hope the cabinet wouldn't be that foolish to accept his proposal.

What the point of the ban he can write about Malaysia from any where around the world.


Monday, February 14, 2011

Malaysia Getting Election Fever?

Sarawak assembly should be the last big one before national snap polls later in the year

Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud Friday is expected to call for the dissolution of the East Malaysian state's assembly, according to local media.

The polls, which must be held in prior to the expiry of the state assembly's term in July, have long been regarded as a precursor to national elections, which must be held before the end of 2013 but are expected sooner to give Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak another five-year term in office. Much depends on the prevailing atmosphere once the Sarawak elections are held, along with a continuing series of by-elections brought on by heart attacks, scandals, defections and other political problems.

By rights the 74-year-old Taib, who has ruled Sarawak for 30 years, should face the strongest challenge of his career, if not the threat of criminal investigation, although the political wisdom is that his Parti Pesaka Bumiputra Bersatu Sarawak can be expected to pull out a victory over the Chinese-dominated Democratic Action Party, with or without him.

Over several months last summer, a Sarawak-based NGO called the Sarawak Report issued a series of exhaustively detailed reports documenting through officials records in the United States. Canada and the United Kingdom Taib's vast personal holdings, including a Seattle, Washington home for which he appeared to have paid US$1 to a company to which he granted lucrative timber concessions. The stories, reprinted by Asia Sentinel, can be found here, here, here, and here.

News reports over the past several months have quoted sources within the Barisan Nasional as hoping Taib would step down because of the scandals attached to his name and that of his family. The Sarawak Ngo's reports included repeated requests to Malaysian authorities to investigate what appeared to be 30 years of looting the state for its timber and other natural resources. However, nobody ever answered the NGO's requests for a probe of Taib's immense overseas assets. It is clear that the national government values the political security it gets out of Taib's Sarawak political apparatus over any questions of integrity.

Although some observers expect early national elections as well, sources within the United Malays National Organisation, the country's biggest ethnically-based political party, told Asia Sentinel that Najib would prefer to hold off national elections until later in the year to allow the economic stimulus from a panoply of economic projects to kick in, including the beginning of construction of highways, a mass rapid transit system for Kuala Lumpur, a 100-storey office building and other projects.

Malaysia's politics have been tumultuous for almost three years, since the opposition Pakatan Rakyat troika of parties broke the 50-year two-thirds stranglehold on the Dewan Rakyat, or national parliament, by the Barisan Nasional, the national ruling coalition. The heart attack death on Feb. 10 of Zaharuddin Abu Kasim, a Pahang state assemblyman representing UMNO, clears the way for the 16th by-election since national elections stunned the Barisan Nasional in 2008 national elections.

The opposition continues its precarious hold on more than a third of the Dewan Rakyat. But how long that will continue is not known. While the most recent by-elections have mostly gone to the parties that held them previously, the percentage of votes going to the Barisan have steadily gone up.

Certainly Najib has a tailwind from a strengthening economy and a perception that he is an activist, compared to his predecessor, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. His personal approval rating remains extremely strong at 69 percent according to a Merdeka Center poll which was released on Christmas Eve, despite long-running allegations of massive kickbacks paid on defense purchases when he was defense minister, not to mention widespread continuing questions over complicity in the 2006 murder of a Mongolian translator, Altantuya Shaariibuu, the jilted lover of his best friend, Abdul Razak Baginda. Even among ethnic Chinese, Najib's approval rating remains a strong 54 percent.

UMNO, however, enjoys no such cushion. Polls show approval of the political party at just 22 percent after a vast number of scandals demonstrating the lips-and-teeth relationship of successful Bumi businessmen to the party. Only 6 percent of Chinese place any trust in the party. It is thus questionable at the moment whether UMNO could win back the Barisan's two-thirds majority. The two other main parties in the Barisan coalition, the Malaysian Chinese Association and the Malaysian Indian Congress, may be in even worse shape, given huge scandals in both.

To prime the economic pump, Najib has allocated nearly RM100 billion (US$32.8 billion) to a series of ambitious projects under his 10-year Economic Transformation Program. The total ETP, as it has become known, is estimated to cost a whopping RM443 billion. But there are deep concerns about the ETP from a lot of different angles, including whether the spate of enormous projects might drive up the economy initially, but could result in overinvestment followed by prolonged periods of low investment and low growth.

For instance, there is apprehension among analysts whether Kuala Lumpur needs another skyscraper, especially one that will be 100 storeys high and built by the government. The iconic twin towers have been largely filled by Petronas and other government offices. Former Prime Minister Mahathir, who built them, has expressed concern in his blog, Che Det, whether the proposed one is viable. Real estate analysts fear a coming property glut.

The other concerns revolve around who will get the contracts to build the projects. Far too often, government contracts have provided a cornucopia of goodies for what has become known universally as the UMNOcrats. At least 23 of Malaysia's biggest companies have been vehicles for UMNO to siphon off vast amounts of money as Mahathir's plans to industrialize the country went awry. Read more

Valentine:No Skin Off My Nose

Hantu Laut

Happy Valentine!

Do not join the rank of the ignorant louts.

Yes, Valentine has its root in Christianity but it is no more a Christian celebration, nor does it encourage vices or sexual liaison.

Her knowledge of history, if anything to go by, is pathetic.Her fallacy of composition is reprehensible.

Vices are not just the domain of Christianity, vices have large following in every religion including Islam.

It is fine for her to tell Muslims not to celebrate Valentine Day but to mislead her followers by making up her own version of history is absolutely disgraceful.

She portrayed Christians as being licentious and immoral.


Below, is a video of a sermon by Ustazah Siti Nor Bahyah urging Muslims not to celebrate Valentine Day as it is considered haram in Islam.

I will not disagree with her on this but why desecrate another religion to prove a point?




First she mentioned about the Romans worshipping the Goddess of Love and related that to Christianity.The religion was not yet born at that time.

Pre-Christian Rome practised polytheism.Christians are monotheists and worship only one God.Than she went on to say Saint Valentine helped in the invasion and downfall of Cordoba.Wonder which history book she read?

Saint Valentine existed around AD 269 and Islamic Spain or Cordoba was between AD 711-1492.There was a gap of almost 500 years between the two.The last Islamic rule of Cordoba was the Almoravid Era between 1030-1130 and then, thereafter, a period of decline ending in 1492.

Not likely that the dead Saint Valentine rose from his grave and helped the Christians to capture Cordoba.

In spite of her pitiful knowledge of history this lady has huge following on facebook.
She has more followers than Anwar Ibrahim and his wife Wan Azizah put together.
Also read:

Malaysian Muslims warned against Valentine's Day



Sunday, February 13, 2011

Malaysia's Unhealthy Lawmakers Dropping Like Flies

Hantu Laut

Another lawmaker bit the dust triggering the 16th by-election.My deepest condolence to the family.

Malaysia will soon go down in the "Guinness Book Of World Records" as the country with the most lawmakers dropping like flies.

Eating unhealthy food and unhealthy lifestyle are major causes of heart problem.

Beware of the nasi lemak (I like them too but my wife a health freak, so no nasi lemak in the house) and food cooked in santan, they are killers, if taken frequently, very popular in the Peninsula.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

The Egyptian Lesson: Malaysia Beware!

Hantu Laut

Power of the Internet which have either been largely ignored or curtailed by tyrannical governments had been instrumental for the Egyptian uprising.

Social media do not topple nasty regimes but activists can use it to mass mobilise people on to the ground by harnessing the power of social media such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and blogs.The main stream media do not have the speed and reach as effective as these social media.

The Egyptian uprising was started online by Google 30-year old executive Wael Ghonim who used Facebook as his platform.

Wael was arrested and detained for over a week but later released. He is now considered a hero in Egypt.He could have been killed if the Army had been brutal in supporting Mubarak.The Army eventually came to their senses that they can't kill millions of Egyption on the streets and demanded Mubarak's resignation.

The White House is now in a quandary, they have supported this tyrant for too long, the next leader may not be as friendly.

Egypt <span class=


As news of the protest spread it triggered off a wild fire harnessing all available social media primarily Facebook,Twitter and YouTube. Facebook was the biggest contributor among the three.

The Egyptian government eventually shut down the Internet hoping that the trouble would go away which by then was too late as the news had travelled the length and breadth of the nation.It had no choice but to restore the Internet or lose favour with its Western allies particularly the U.S.

The Malaysian March 2008 General Elections where the BN was almost routed losing 5 states and its two-thirds majority was a stark reminder of the power of the Internet.In the Malaysian case the media support was mostly by bloggers and to lesser extent YouTube.Social media such as Facebook and Twitter are just as potent, fast and effective but was not as popular then.

The BN government is still living in a state of denial that the alternative media had played an effective role in diminishing their grip on political power. They still depend on the MSM which have seen most circulation declining as more and more people used the Internet to source their news.

During the untenable tenure of Pak Lah the most damaging to the ruling party was Malaysia Today, a blog with huge following run by the politically incorrigible Raja Petra Kamaruddin.He provided the most effective arsenal in the opposition's war chest.The government credibility was so low at that time even the untruths became the truths to his followers.He was a kind of Julian Assange on a smaller scale publishing sensitive documents on his blog on government's wrongdoings. He is still a wanted man in Malaysia.

The BN won the recent 3 by-elections which has put them back in the comfort zone and a state of complacency.Instead of embracing the Internet and use it as an effective weapon to their advantage they are now busy trying to pass a law to curtail the free flow of information.It would be the greatest folly if such law is passed and is likely to backfire on them.

There will not be massive protest on the Egyptian scale in Malaysia but there will be substantial cyber war during the 13th General Elections.

There will be hundred of thousands of blogs, Facebook and Tweeters they have to deal with in the event of a showdown.


It's about time the government embrace the Internet instead of looking at it as its enemy.



Egyptian Pharaoh Dethroned, What Next For Egypt?

Hosni Mubarak: Egyptian 'pharaoh' dethroned amid gunfire and blood

Critics said the president would never leave voluntarily but few political rights and falling prosperity forced an end.

    Husni Mubarak

    Hosni Mubarak's presidency was born amid gunfire and bloodshed and ended in an equally dramatic fashion. As vice-president, Mubarak was sitting next to Anwar Sadat on 6 October 1981 at an army parade in the Cairo district of Nasser City when soldiers with Islamist sympathies turned on their leader, pouring automatic weapons fire into the reviewing stand. Sadat was killed outright. Mubarak narrowly escaped. Eight days later, he was sworn in as Egypt's third president.

    That Mubarak should be ejected from the job he has held for nearly 30 years is, with hindsight, hardly a surprise. It had become clear to Egyptians and the world in recent years that even at the age of 82 he regarded the presidency as his by right, hence his nickname of "pharaoh" – and that he would not quit voluntarily. As the crisis overwhelmed him, he said he had had no intention of standing again in September. Few believed him. Others assumed he planned instead to install his second son, Gamal, in a dynastic succession.

    Mubarak's attitude to his people was by turns paternalistic, aloof and repressive. Though he claimed to love his fellow Egyptians, he did not trust them, maintaining the harsh emergency laws imposed after Sadat's assassination throughout his reign. Leading an unswervingly secular, pro-western regime, he demonised even moderate Islamist parties and made of the Muslim Brotherhood a bogeyman with which to scare the Americans.

    Yet, in rare interviews he implied that he believed he held some sort of divine mandate, that he ruled through and by God's will. After he survived an attempt on his life by Gema'a Islamiya (Muslim Group) terrorists in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in June 1995, one of up to eight attempted assassinations over 30 years, he returned to Cairo proclaiming that God had saved him through an act of divine providence, as in 1981.

    Imperious, abstemious (he does not smoke or drink), and intensely private, he suggested Egyptians were lucky to have him in charge. Without him, he said repeatedly, there would be only chaos. And this claim to ensure stability was, in truth, his entire electoral manifesto.

    Yet mixed up with his vague sense of God-given power and obligation was a strong strand of regal hubris, bordering on self pity. "I've only had three months' holiday in my 56-year career," he told a television interviewer in 2005. "I've been doing hard labour for 56 years and it's all for Egypt." He never cried, he said, he never despaired, and he never allowed himself to be provoked. Influenced perhaps by his military background, he clearly saw such emotional repression as a virtue.

    Speaking this week, Mubarak returned to his favourite theme of self-sacrifice. As hundreds of thousands of demonstrators demanded he follow Tunisia's Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali into exile, he insisted he would serve Egypt until his last breath. "This dear nation ... is where I lived, I fought for it, and defended its soil, sovereignty and interests. On its soil I will die. History will judge me like it did others." Talking to ABC television last week on Thursday,he repeated his life-long, heart-felt mantra: that, if he left, chaos would descend.

    For all his vanities and inadequacies, Mubarak's early achievements were significant. To the turmoil that followed Sadat's death, he brought a steady hand and, at a moment of great peril, held the nation together. Confronting the ostracism of Egypt by Arab and Muslim countries following Sadat's 1979 peace treaty with Israel (the Arab League decamped from Cairo to Tunis in disgust), he worked assiduously to restore relations, finally succeeding by 1989 with all but the rejectionist leaders of Tehran.

    In 1990-91, he opted to support the American-led Operation Desert Storm to eject Saddam Hussein's forces from Kuwait, thereby cementing Egypt's new relationship with Washington and obtaining in return a $20bn write-off in debt. And faced by an upsurge in destabilising, jihadi violence in the 1990s, whose targets included Egypt's vital tourist trade, he fought back with calculated ferocity at a time when the US and Britain were still living in blissful ignorance of the gathering Islamist storm.

    Most important of all, at least from the western point of view, Mubarak maintained the peace, albeit a cold peace, with Israel and he fortified the US alliance. There was no repeat of the 1973 war with Israel, in which Mubarak, himself a former Soviet-trained fighter pilot, had distinguished himself as air force commander. There was no question of Egypt slipping back into Moscow's embrace, as in the time of Egypt's first president, Gamal Abdel Nasser.

    Mubarak was, by training, a stolid soldier and by instinct, a simple nationalist. Not for him Nasser's pan-Arabist romanticism. Not for him the showy extravagance of Sadat. In charisma, he was wholly lacking. Imagination was not his strong suit. His only political agenda was to maintain calm and maintain power. And that made him a reliable if limited ally.

    Mubarak received billions in American military aid, equipping and rewarding the army and its commanders, on whom his power ultimately rested. In recent years he proved a willing partner in Washington's endless search for an Israel-Palestine settlement. But for many Palestinians, and particularly Hamas, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, his pro-American stance was a galling betrayal. When Israel attacked Gaza in 2008-9, for example, he allowed Israeli bombers to over-fly Egyptian territory.

    In terms of the broader region, Mubarak maintained close ties in later years with fellow Sunni Muslim rulers in the Gulf and, despite attempts at reconciliation, remained strongly at odds with Iran over its nuclear programme and its involvement in Lebanon, Syria and Palestine. As the Arab world's most populous and influential country, Egypt under Mubarak saw itself as a natural leader in the face of Tehran's expanding ambitions. In this it was egged on by the US.

    Now, with Mubarak gone, the US and Israel face a more uncertain strategic reality, and not just in regard to Iran. Whoever leads Egypt in the longer term is unlikely to be as biddable as his fallen predecessor.Read more.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Valentine Day:Licentious Christians

Hantu Laut

Some people think they are holier than thou.This is most unnecessary.

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 11 — Both the city Islamic Department (Jawi) and Selangor Islamic Department (Jais) have banned Muslims from celebrating Valentine’s Day, calling it a Christian tradition in a Friday sermon delivered in mosques today.

Valentine’s Day falls on February 14, next Monday, and generates revenue for restaurants, hotels and retail businesses.

“It is celebrated in many ways, starting with greeting cards, flowers and dance parties. In fact some celebrate it with a date which would eventually lead to illicit sex,” said the sermon prepared by the Selangor’s Islamic authority.

“Clearly the celebration is not part of Islamic teaching, it violates the syariah and contradicts the universal code of ethics,” it added.

Citing the Catholic Encyclopaedia, the sermon claimed Valentine’s Day is celebrated to honour a Christian priest who was imprisoned in Rome for his belief and remembered for his love letters addressed to the daughter of prison official.

“Clearly the celebration of Valentine’s Day is related to the incident, so as a Muslim who believes in Allah and accepts Muhammad as the messenger, is it appropriate for us to celebrate Valentine’s Day?” said the sermon.

Jais pointed out that there were 257,411 births out of wedlock between 2000 and 2008, and blamed Valentine’s Day celebration as one of the causes.

“Therefore every Muslim, especially teenagers, must abandon the tradition of celebrating Valentine’s Day, which was meant to corrupt the Musim community,” it said.

“Remember that the Jews and Christians would continue to deceive Muslims. They will do everything undermine the Muslims’ belief and personality,” said the sermon.

Jais also called on the media and social networking sites not to promote Valentine’s Day.

Valentine’s Day, an annual commemoration of love and romance, and is celebrated the world over on February 14, but a 2005 religious ruling by the National Fatwa Council said the celebration has Christian elements and the “practice is mixed with immoral acts contradictory and forbidden by Islam.” Read more.

Yes! Kill Valentine Day

Hantu Laut

Though it has its root in Christianity and been around for yonks I don't think Valentine Day has any more religious significant as much as Father's Day, Mother's Day, Secretaries Day and litany of other foolish days of celebration manufactured by the hospitality industry.

I have never celebrated Valentine Day and have no wish to as I find it rather bemusing that one have to pick this particular day to express one's love to the other person.We can express our love and affection to the person whom we love anytime of the year.Valentine Day, like any other, is purely commercialised, the day the hospitality people want to take money out of your pocket.

For those who are ignorant and still symbolises it with Christianity be rest assured it has been removed from the Roman calender of saints in 1969 by Pope Paul VI, though religious observance is still permitted it has lost its Christian analogy.

There was no romantic element present in the early medieval biographies of these Christian martyrs and if you don't already know there were three different St Valentine ambiguously linked to Valentine Day and none of them has a lover.

Apart from the name nothing is known about Saint Valentine except one of them was buried on the
Via Flaminia on February 14.Due to uncertainty of its origin the Roman Catholic Church decided to have it removed from religious observance.

If ignorance is bliss than I don't blame PAS Youth of becoming self appointed morality police and Jakim for wanting to kill Valentine Day.

Muslim couple are prohibited from expressing love and affection as long as they remained unmarried.Even if you are married you can't express them in public places, our love, basically, is relegated to the bedroom, or, if you are unmarried, in some lair away from the probing eyes of the 'morality police'.

Yes, go ahead kill Valentine Day, we would have less unwanted babies ?

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

UMNO Member Crowned Sultan Of Sulu !

Hantu Laut

A joker! a con man! a lunatic! delusion of grandeur! or all rolled into one...... a mad man?

Ex ISA detainee and active UMNO member Datu Mohd Akjan was crowned the Sultan of Sulu in a ceremony held at Kota Kinabalu witnessed by about 60 equally mad Tausug people some claimed to have come from the royal palace of the Sultan of Sulu. This is third such claim by competing parties.

If he truly has a sultanate why not hold the ceremony in Jolo, the capital of Sulu? Is there still such a kingdom? The Malaysian government should depot him back to his heavenly kingdom.

Akjan is an active UMNO member who was once arrested under the ISA for masterminding the distribution of fake IC to illegal immigrants mostly of his kin.He rose to prominence during former Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi tenure and was awarded a Federal project worth MR250 million to build GOF (General Operation Forces) headquarters in Sabah. The project fell by the wayside and has been abandoned since then.

With a typical bumiputra's rent seeking mentality he immediately sold the project to a Chinaman's company, collected some commission, bought 2 Ferraris, offered one to Siti Nurhaliza to entice her to marry him but was shunned by her and blew the rest of the millions, courtesy of Pak Lah, in less than 2 years.

Sabah's Head of State is already a Tausug.Is Akjan trying to send a message to the Malaysian government?

What is UMNO going to do about this? Will Sabah UMNO pay allegiance to the
Agong or to this imposter?

Have a good laugh mate!.Sabah UMNO has many of this kind of joker mostly from the same region.Make one of them a chief minister and see how the flood gate from the Sulu Sea will be made wide open.


The 13th General Elections is not going to be plain sailing if Najib continue to drag his feet on reforms.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Lee Kuan Yew's Chinese Excellence And Malay Paradox

Hantu Laut

Reported in the Straits Times, Feb 7th:

BY THE time Singaporean kids start Primary school, one in four are myopic. One in two Primary 6 pupils are myopic and towards the end of their teenage years, four in five 18-year-old males are myopic - and the trend is believed to be similar for females.

These alarming statistics has earned Singapore the unofficial title of one of the most myopic nations in the world. Ophthalmologists in Singapore cite genetic and environmental factors as the reasons for such high rates of myopia - or short-sightedness - in Singapore.

Also, Singaporeans' lifestyle which usually involves near-work activities such as watching television and using the computer for prolonged periods of time, contributes to soaring rates of myopia here.

Amy Chua had better described the Chinese gruelling parenting for excellence in her book "The Battle Hymn Of The Tiger Mother" which not only exist in the Chinese American families but among most Chinese Diaspora worldwide and I say Singapore should take distinction in this obsessive compulsive parenting.

My ten-year stay in Singapore where my children were educated have witnessed how parents particularly mothers pressured their children to reach academic excellence with almost zero tolerance.It's all work and no play for many Singapore's children.

A sore pimple in the Malay Archipelago, this 704 sq. kilometer (1/3 reclaimed land) nation outshone its bigger neighbours in academic and economic excellence.

The man who almost single-handedly transformed this tiny island nation into an economic powerhouse that have put bigger and more resourceful nations to shame had also created an ophthalmic nightmare and a society of rat-racers.

Political correctitude is not in his vocabulary.If success breeds arrogance than Lee Kuan Yew has it all and his cut is often the deepest with little attempt at diplomacy even when dealing with his bigger neighbours.

Lee is not an enigma, is not a person who generally expressed himself in metaphorical or allegorical language, he often spades in ethnicity and the genealogical trees that makes him looked like a consummated racist.He spares no time for turkeys.He has paid tribute to the minority Sri Lankan Tamil in Singapore and agonised the Malays at home and across the Malay Archipelago.

His diatribes had angered and caused much discomfort to his neighbours.

The Malays, particularly across the causeway have taken great exception to some of his salvos.

Here, a worthy read on Lee Kuan Yew and the Singapore Malays.


Also read:
Dr M:Kuan Yew just a 'mayor'

Monday, February 7, 2011

Ten DAP Leaders Jumped To BN In Sabah

TAWAU -- Sabah Pakatan Rakyat endured another round of shock today when ten Tawau DAP leaders including publicity chief James Leong Yun Fui (picture) have quit and joined Gerakan, a Barisan Nasional (BN) component party.

This came barely twenty four hours after Pakatan coalition partner, PKR's Sabah chief, Pajudin Nordin threw in the towel before joining UMNO.

The resignation of the DAP leaders was announced by Gerakan vice-president Liew Yun Fah at a Chinese New Year open house here today. The group handed their Gerakan membership application forms to Sabah BN chairman and Chief Minister Musa Aman who passed them over to Liew.

Leong said they had lost confidence in the party leadership who were only good at talking and incapable of delivering their promises.

He said only BN was capable of bringing development to the people via the 1Malaysia concept introduced by Prime Minister Najib Razak.

Musa said the resignation of DAP leaders proved that the opposition had failed to solve the people's problems and rendered them irrelevant to Sabah.

He was confident that more DAP leaders and members would leave the party to join BN component parties.

Meanwhile, Liew said the resignation was a positive sign that BN could recapture Sri Tanjung state seat from DAP.

He said the Chinese community had realised that only BN could bring them development and champion the people.

The series of resignation would have dealt Anwar Ibrahim with a major setback, and may signal a crisis within the coalition rife with infighting and now face a crisis of confidence. The loss in the Tenang by-election have prompted the national pakatan leadership into some deep soul searching but a solution to stem the haemorrhage is nowhere in sight.

Pakatan leader, Wan Azizah has been tasked to reverse the tide but currently may have to contend with the excuse that a little blood-letting from within its fold may indeed be good.

Malaysian Mirror

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Yes! Mr Specious Anwar Can Kiss Putrajaya Goodbye

Hantu Laut

"Pajudin will not last long either. The rebels will continue to demand an acceptable replacement and Pajudin is far from being acceptable to PKR statewide membership" .......extracted from my previous post "Who Is Pajudin Nordin? The Final Curtain For Sabah PKR"

"You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time." Abraham Lincoln.

Sooner or later your lies will catch up with you.

Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman (right) seen here shaking hands with ex-Sabah PKR chied Pajudin Nordin who has abandoned the Pakatan Rakyat party and joined Umno. — Bernama pic
Sabah Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman (right) seen here shaking hands with ex-Sabah PKR chied Pajudin Nordin who has abandoned the Pakatan Rakyat party and joined Umno.

Yes! Anwar can kiss Putrajaya goodbye.Story here.

Photo taken from BarkingMagpie

Only Sabahans can teach this man a lesson.

Anwar! Do us a favour, leave us Sabahans in peace, just do the right thing, close down Sabah PKR.

It's a reflection of your poor leadership.

Friday, February 4, 2011

Egypt: Dangerous games

The machinations of the Mubarak regime could yet see much more blood spilt in Cairo.

The Guardian,

Blood is not the ideal lubricant for the orderly transition which all political forces in Egypt claim to want. Nor is deceit. Yet there is a clear danger of more of both as the regime in Cairo wriggles and manoeuvres for advantage. They may understand on one level that things cannot go on as they did before, but on another, some of them at least are acting as if outflanking their opponents is the main objective. There is also evidence, in the shape of a worsening of the conditions under which foreign journalists have to work, that they want to do it without the international press at their elbow.

Much of this manoeuvring centres on the physical possession of Tahrir Square. The passionate advocates of immediate change in Egypt have already been pushed out of part of the square by violent pro-Mubarak demonstrators. Now, in addition, they face the more insidious prospect of being "persuaded" out of this symbolic place by the argument that what they are doing will lead to dire consequences for the livelihood of ordinary Egyptians.

The new prime minister, Ahmed Shafiq, yesterday apologised for the violence in the square on Wednesday and said it would not be repeated. But he did so in a way which not so subtly equated the two sets of demonstrators, while laying on the anti-Mubarak side the responsibility for the deterioration in the country's economy. Vice-president Omar Suleiman did the same in an interview in which he recounted his attempts to conduct a dialogue with political parties and spoke of the length of time needed to make constitutional changes. The game here is an obvious one: paint the country as more or less equally divided and in need of arbitration and reconciliation, make economic normalisation the immediate priority, and draw out the political process.

One does not have to believe that every pro-Mubarak demonstrator is a thug or a plainclothes policeman to understand that equating the two sides in this way distorts reality. And, while arguments about Egypt's economic plight or the need to observe legalities cannot be dismissed, they are no substitute for creating the trust necessary if there are to be real negotiations about the country's future. Read more.

The Economist:The regime sends in the thugs
Maimi Herald:Egypt's Islamists, caught off guard by uprising, still defining role

Wednesday, February 2, 2011