Why I Stayed - A Profundity

Here is why I stayed — John Rahman

May 28, 2011

MAY 28 — I shall start with a story of hope.

Two, actually.

I had an ex-colleague who runs a car wash business in one of the most ulu places in Peninsular Malaysia. It’s a simple business, so simple that his wife just sits under a tree all day long collecting money and supervising some school kids they employ to do the dirty work. He keeps his day job while earning a cool RM7,000 side income every month.

In my skyscraper of an office now, an old makcik pushes around a shopping cart (probably nicked while the guards at the nearby hypermarket weren’t looking!) filled to the brim with knick-knacks, kacang, muruku and stuff. She comes by once a week and without fail, my colleagues and I will stock up on junk food to munch on while working. Based on sales on our floor alone — okay, maybe we are gluttons! — but we estimate she profits around RM50 per floor, and with well over 50 floors in the building, she must earn at least RM2,000 a week (tax free!).

We can complain about spiralling cost of living, but these are ordinary people taking full advantage of the abundance of opportunities in Malaysia to earn a living. This is the land of opportunity. If an illegal immigrant can come here and earn a living, justly or not, there is no reason why a person like me, born and bred in this environment, with ample knowledge of how things work — for better or for worse — cannot make it big.

I shall say this, whether or not people choose to leave the country is entirely up to them. Everybody has their own dreams and ambitions, and if migrating overseas takes you closer to those dreams, so be it. But do not give excuses to justify you leaving. You don’t need an excuse, certainly not a bad one, to pursue your life-long goals.

You do not need to blame the crummy education system — it is crummy, but it is an education system we all grew up with and I would like to think that a lot of us turned out fine.

You can’t blame racism or glass ceilings because everyone honest enough to admit will tell you that glass ceilings exist EVERYWHERE. The current debate over the “tradition” of Europeans as the de facto head of the IMF should tell you more than you need to know about glass ceilings.

All those crummy reasons don’t hold up because while Malaysians are busy flocking to Singapore, Singaporeans are busy flocking elsewhere too. That is where the whole argument falls apart. Do we see some green pasture across the straits that the Singaporeans don’t see? And do the Indonesians see something green about KL that we don’t?

My friends, this is the age of globalisation. Borders between countries are blurring. This is not like the time where miners came to Malaya from China with the sole purpose of better economic prospects. Today, there are Malaysians working in Sudan, Dutchmen working in Nigeria, Americans working in Siberia. Do you think these people are where they are because of some misguided notion that these places are better than their homeland? No, people work where they work and people build a home where they do because this is where life takes them.

When addressing his own country’s emigrant issue, Rajiv Ghandi once said: “A brain drain is better than a brain in the drain.” That we, as Malaysians, are deemed capable enough to be able to work anywhere in the world is a clear indication of our talents. And whether the people migrating will choose to admit it or not, these are talents nourished by the foundations we built for ourselves while growing up on the streets of KL, Ipoh and JB.

I can go on and on about how I want to change this country, how I want to make a difference. That is all true, but that is also secondary. People can claim that they are leaving because of better prospects, a more comfortable life. That is probably true as well, but still a secondary issue.Read more.

(Drove from KK to Sandakan yesterday and Sandakan to Lahad Datu today.My last trip on these roads was 3 years ago and I cursed every mile of the way how we had been had.Today, the road conditions have degenerated so badly your car could be your very coffin.Maybe, the PM,CM and all the ministers should board 1BUS and see how wonderful their trip would be on Sabah's hellish roads, just waiting to maim or kill you.

Not only the Federal Minister of Health should resign, the Minister of Works should also resign.Sabah, by rights should have dual-carriageways linking East and West and North and South.

On my way to Tabin Wildlife Reserve.Will have lots of photos, probably too busy, no politics, no posting, just enjoy God's gifts to mankind, nature and tranquility of the jungle - Hantu Laut)

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib: The First Muslim Leader to Declare Suicide Bombing Contrary to Islam

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib: The First Muslim Leader to Declare Suicide Bombing Contrary to Islam

Najib Razak, the Prime Minister of Malaysia, gave a speech at Oxford last week that should have grabbed the eye of every policymaker, every columnist, and every pundit concerned with the clash between the West and radical Islam. It was not a recitation of hoary platitudes; it was a unique and wonderful thing, the first time a Muslim leader did not merely hedge and equivocate about “Islam means peace,” or “Islam does not abide terror,” or any of the other dozens of things Muslim leaders all too often say in front of Western audiences, only to attempt to appease their populations at home with the usual train of death-to-Israel, death-to-America, glory-in-martyrdom talk in a language American reporters can’t follow.

It was a great speech, precisely because it got down into specifics.

Read more.

Myth Busting:Are Malaysian Elections Rigged?

Hantu Laut

PAS, promised 100,000 strong show of force for its Bersih rally expected to be held on July 9 in Kuala Lumpur.

What do they want?

According to APANAMA here they want fair and free elections.

This political meandering to fool the people that our elections are not fair nor free is one big lie and has become a myth.

It coming from PAS is more difficult to understand because they claimed they are guided by Islamic teachings and they knew fully well what they claimed is not true and a big lie to hoodwink the people and to gain unfair advantage in the elections yet these holies of holies are prepared to discard the Islamic principles and joined hands with what they used to call the infidels for political gains.They are infidels if they joined with UMNO but are not if with PAS.

Only if you are a matter-of-factly a stupid person would you believe in such absolute rubbish and believe in all the other lies perpetuated by Pakatan Rakyat to demonise the government purely to rouse the people up and spread ill-will against the government just to gain the extra mile.

Sadly, Malaysian is not a thinking society and like the cows would rather use their herd instinct than rationalise with logical and plausible reasoning whether what they were told are true or not.

Should they believe in people like Anwar Ibrahim,Azmin Ali,Lim Kit Siang, Karpal Singh,Hadi Awang and the whole lot of the political chain gang which had only one mission....... by hook or by crook.......... to topple the BN government.

Have the Malaysian elections been truly rigged by the BN?

Let's open the history book and see for ourselves whether these bunch of liars are telling the truth.Everything stated here are on records and can be checked for accuracy.

If there were blatant cheating and our elections were rigged how come:

1.The first period of PAS rule in Kelantan lasted 18 years (1959-1978).

2.After losing Kelantan to BN for 12 years PAS regained the state in 1990.

3.Pas has won Kelantan in every consecutive general elections in 1990,1995,1999,2004 and 2008.

4. Pas won in Trengganu twice (1959-1962 and 1999-2004)

Other very pertinent and material cases that burst the myth that our elections have always been rigged are shown below.

1.In 1969 DAP won 13 MP seat and 31 State Assembly seats and Gerakan in the opposition then also made major gains.The victory march by DAP culminated into the deadly May 13 race riot.

2.The lost of federally backed Berjaya in Sabah in 1985 to newly-born PBS. The Mahathir's sink and swim with Harris Salleh misadventure that left Berjaya with an embarrassing 6 out of 48 seats and PBS won the day with simple majority and played out USNO of its promise to form a coalition.The once powerful and feared Harris lost his seat to an unknown giant-killer.They could have rigged the elections to keep themselves in power. Even the irascible and powerful Harris didn't have the guts to do it and he could if he wants to.

3.In 1999, the BN suffered the lowest win (with exception of the Alliance 1969 lowest performance) with PAS taking 27 parliamentary seats, DAP 10 and PKR 5 in a loose alliance called Barisan Alternatif.PBS in Sabah won 3 seats.Did Mahathir rigged the elections to reduce his majority in Parliament?

4.In 2004 while PAS and PKR suffered major setback DAP collected 12 parliamentary seats.

5.In the 2006 Sarawak State Elections DAP showed its best showing collected 6 out of 12 seats it contested.

6.The biggest setback suffered by the ruling BN was 2008, a fairly strong earthquake that almost toppled the BN government.The oppositions coalition under Pakatan Rakyat made major gains, capturing 5 states and denied the BN of its two-thirds majority and subsequently won most of the by-elections.BN could have rigged the elections to give them the two-thirds majority that they have always enjoyed. Did they?

7.In 2008 Anwar Ibrahim stood in the Permatang Pauh by-election, won handsomely and returned to Parliament as leader of the oppositions.If what the opposition claimed is true why the government did not rig the by-election of its most feared and hated man?

8.In the recent Sarawak State Elections DAP captured 12 seats and PKR 3 seats giving the opposition coalition 15 seats in the Sarawak State Assembly.

Do I need to go on to convince you what the oppositions claimed is a myth and pack of lies?

I really don't know why am I doing this for free.It should be the BN inglorious bastards who should be out there talking to the people instead of sitting in their comfort zone and counting their takings for the day.

Najib vs. Anwar: Epic Battle

Monday, 23 May 2011

Such good friends

Wikileaks cables detail a struggle Najib has won so far

Hidden in thousands of pages of US diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks and made available to Asia Sentinel, is a years-long battle for Malaysian political primacy between Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim.

It is a battle that Najib appears to have won, at least for now, having been named prime minister while an embattled Anwar remains in the dock, fighting charges that he sodomized an aide.

The cables, more than 900,000 words long and covering 15 years from 1993 to 2008, depict an Anwar who from the start saw Najib as a danger to him personally. He was in frequent touch with US Embassy officials, warning constantly that Najib was the perpetrator of a long series of corrupt acts in the procurement of defense equipment and that he was a danger to the exercise of democracy.

Equally, the cables depict an American legation determined to avoid becoming ensnared in Malaysian politics by taking sides. Christopher LaFleur, US ambassador from 2004 to 2007, wrote in a July 31, 2007 cable to US Army Gen. George W. Casey that “Malaysia is important to us because it is an economically successful, stable, predominantly Muslim country that, over the longer term, may be able to support us more strongly in places like the Middle East… The overall tone in Malaysian-American relations has improved considerably since Abdullah Badawi became Prime Minister in late-2003, and we seek to translate this into substantive improvements. Bilateral relations eroded under Abdullah's vituperative predecessor Dr Mahathir Mohamad, but Abdullah brought with him a friendlier style and an interest in projecting a more moderate image, both for himself and for his country. “

The embassy, however, watched closely as Anwar forged an unwieldy opposition coalition from the Islamist Parti Islam se-Malaysia, the Chinese Democratic Action Party and Anwar’s own Parti Keadilan Rakyat, made up largely of urban Malays.

From the time Anwar was released from prison after a 1999 trial on what were widely seen to be bogus charges of corruption and sexual deviancy, the cables show a United Malays National Organisation paralyzed by inaction and led by an ineffective Abdullah Badawi while opposition forces raise enthusiastic crowds of tens of thousands of cheering spectators demanding political reform.

The need for Anwar’s crucial leadership of the awkward coalition is underscored by a Feb. 23, 2007 cable signed by LaFleur. “PAS valued Anwar as the ‘bridge’ between the non-Malays especially the Democratic Action Party (DAP) and PAS, and as a name-brand figure able to attract voters,” La Fleur wrote.

PAS elders, he wrote, found it impossible to communicate with the DAP and other non-Malay parties. He quotes Azizan Abdul Razak of PAS saying that PAS and DAP were “like chickens and ducks, feeding at the same trough, but unable to talk to one another.” Anwar was seen as the only one who could blunt the “ruling National Front juggernaut.”

Anwar, LaFleur wrote on July 17, 2007, was concentrating his attacks on then Deputy Prime Minister Najib as a way to “open up fissures in UMNO middle ranks that will give him other opportunities.”

As pressure continued on the ruling coalition, Anwar led enthusiastic rallies all over the country, culminating in the March 2008 national elections that ended the Barisan Nasional’s 50-year two-thirds hold on parliament. The cables in general seem to indicate a sense of growing panic and paralysis on the part of Barisan leaders, particularly in UMNO, and a desire to drive Abdullah Badawi from the premiership to make way for Najib. Anwar compounded the fears by displaying an eight-minute videotape of a prominent lawyer, VK Lingam, apparently telling a Supreme Court judge to fix key appointments in the government’s favor, thus spurring a royal inquiry into judicial corruption.

According to Ambassador James Keith, who succeeded LaFleur in July 2007, UMNO leaders worried “about Anwar's drawing power on the streets. That Anwar and other opposition leaders proceeded successfully in the face of PM Abdullah's personal warnings should bolster the opposition's resolve and embolden them to plan further events.“

After Anwar returned to politics by taking back his Penang parliamentary seat in a by-election, it was only a matter of time before UMNO replaced a faltering Abdullah Badawi with Najib. As Mahathir goaded Najib to act in April 2007, Anwar was telling the diplomats that his opposition coalition “had a ‘realistic’ opportunity to topple PM Abdullah's government by bringing over 30 or more BN MPs for a no-confidence vote in Parliament,” Keith wrote.

All of that was brought to a halt on June 30, 2008,when former aide Mohamed Saiful Bukhary Azlan, charged that he had been sodomized by Anwar, a case that goes on to this day. The charges brought the opposition’s momentum to a halt.

On July 23, 2008, apparently aware that this second sodomy arrest was being viewed skeptically by the international community, Malaysian Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar assembled a flock of foreign diplomats to give them the government’s view.

According to a cable on that date signed by Keith, Syed Hamid dismissed claims of conspiracy, defended the police handling of the case and emphasized that Anwar was “being treated fairly.”

“The Government of Malaysia is becoming aware of the negative impact the Anwar case has had on its international reputation and is acting to change the negative foreign perceptions,” the cable read.

“Today's briefing was an attempt by the GOM to influence the diplomatic community, counter Anwar's own messaging the day before, and work against critical international media attention.”

Read more.