BUZZ OFF ! MAHATHIR.

Hantu Laut

The ex-Prime Minister, Tun Mahathir Mohammad appears to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds. He is now a fifth columnist within is own party.He behaves more like the opposition but insisted his heart is still in UMNO.He accuses his successor of economic mismanagement, nepotism, cronyism and corruption. His determination to force out his embattled successor, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi whose popularity has nosedived due to failure to keep his pre-2004 election promises to eradicate corruptions and bring about some semblance of decency to the administration, may help the opposition deny the BN a two-third majority at the forthcoming polls.

The insidious roots of corruption took form and grew to detestable height during Mahathir's tenure as prime minister. Although Mahathir himself may not be directly involved in corruption, little was done during his time to control it and stop the abuses by ministers, senior civil servants and party officials. Due to highly stimulated economy with credits due to his efforts that speadheaded the nation into becoming one of the largest trading nations and help elevated the per capita income of the people and taking the nation nearer to its goal of a developed nation. With massive public sector spending on development projects , corruption and political patronage became the order of the day.

Mahathir, revered by some and feared by some, must have synthesized Niccoloi Machiavelli's principle of 'it is more secured to be feared than to be loved' into his management philosophy.A Machiavellian philosophical view that any evil action can be justified if it is done for a good purpose.

During his time, ministers, top civil servants and those within his political circle feared him.The more sins they have, the more fearful they were of him.He kept his eyes closed but kept his nose and ears closer to the ground on their corrupt practices and would use it as a weapon as and when needed. Anwar Ibrahim was a casualty of the wrath of Mahathir's resentful dislike for disloyalty.

Mahathir is down but he is not out yet.He has one last mission. To get rid of Badawi as Prime Minister, even at the expense of UMNO losing more seats to the opposition. He really doesn't care as long as Badawi is out of the picture.His disdain for Abdullah has made him acrimonious, irrational and full of contradictions.He probably forgot that he ran this country for 22 years with nothing less than an iron-fist.

He said it was wrong for Abdullah to put the Hindraf's activists under ISA. Didn't he throw more people in prison under ISA during his time? His Operation Lalang in October 1987 arrested 106 opposition leaders and social activists and revoked the publishing licenses of two dailies, the Star and Sin Chew Jit Poh.He had thrown more political opponents in prison using the ISA than all previous prime ministers.Although two wrongs don't make a right, Mahathir should be the last person to make such condemnation against his successor.It's a case of the pot calling the kettle black. He also made it clear that he only intended for Abdullah to stay one term and suggested he should stand down.He contended that the ever popular Najib was to take over from Abdullah. Najib denied of having any knowledge of such arrangement and Abdullah has come out and said there was no such gentlemen agreement.

The ex-PM seemed to have a short memory and forgot that Najib almost lost his seat in the 1999 general election. He won by a slim majority of 240 votes against PAS candidate Ramli Mohamed.The poor showing by BN in that election was due much to Mahathir's unpopularity at that time.There was high probability that Najib could lose his seat if Mahathir have stayed on for the 2004 general election. PAS would have re-captured Trengganu and made inroads into Pahang, Kedah and Perlis.

His falling out with Abdullah was not so much due to Abdullah's incompetence but was more due to the dumping of his pet projects by Abdullah. He was sore and angry as Abdullah had probably promised to continue the projects but reneged on the promises.

The straw that broke the camel's back was the stoppage of the crooked bridge and Abdullah's friendly relations with Singapore, which had testy relations with him during his time.

Following his recent heart operation, Mahathir is again rejuvenated and back on his feet and continue with his demolition expedition against Abdullah.

Abdullah may not be the best man for the job, seemingly weak, indecisive and out of touch with the masses. What Malaysians inherited in the form of Abdullah's poor leadership was due to bad judgement on the part of Mahathir. He overrestimated the capability and loyalty of Abdullah. If Abdullah had carried out all those he promised him, Mahathir will have no problem with him.

It's time for Mahathir to leave the political stage and leave Abdullah to his own devices.Let the people decide whether they want him or not.

You have had your time, Tun. Please,buzz off !

Malaysians Are Not So Stupid After All.

The dumbest quiz answers, ever

31 January 2008, 13:32

By Paul Majendie

London - Question: What was Gandhi's first name? Contestant's answer: Goosey Goosey.

Warning to all those know-alls who shout at the television screen when contestants offer dumb answers to blindingly obvious questions - one day that could be you.

From regional radio shows to "Who Wants To be a Millionaire?" and "University Challenge," people make fools of themselves - as Internet site www.jumpingjacksbar.com found in collating some of the worst howlers.

Here are leading contenders for the "Dumb Down" gold medal:

Presenter: What happened in Dallas on November 22, 1963?

Contestant: I don't know, I wasn't watching it then.

Presenter: Which American actor is married to Nicole Kidman?

Contestant: Forrest Gump

Presenter: In which country is Mount Everest?

Contestant: Er, it's not in Scotland is it?

Presenter: Name a film starring Bob Hoskins that is also the name of a famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci

Contestant: Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Presenter: In which European city was the first opera house opened in 1637?

Contestant: Sydney

Presenter: How long did the Six-Day War between Egypt and Israel last?

Contestant: (after long pause) Fourteen days

Presenter: Where did the D-Day landings take place?

Contestant: (after pause) Pearl Harbor?

Presenter: What is the currency in India

Contestant: Ramadan

Presenter: Johnny Weissmuller died on this day. Which jungle-swinging character clad only in a loin cloth did he play?

Contestant: Jesus

Taken from the Independent

Just for the fun, try it, be honest and see how many right answers you can get.You can leave your answers in the comment box.

For the dumbest, the morons and those with idiotic tendency, the answers are in the comment box.

Badawi's State Of Euphoria

Hantu Laut

30 January 2008

It’s whistling past the graveyard to think that Malaysia is going to escape a US downturn unscathed Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is probably wrong if he is as confident as he says he is that that Malaysia is positioned to avert any negative fallout from a threatened US recession by virtue of trade with the rest of Asean, which on its surface outweighs that of the US. Following the Davos conference in Switzerland, the prime minister pointed out that 86 percent of Malaysia's GDP is domestically generated and added: "This has become one of our economic strengths (as we are no longer acutely dependent on external trade), and these strengths have come from the policies that we have drawn up and implemented, which are far-sighted.” The speech and figures, probably prepared for him by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, are hardly realistic. While the Malaysian economy has been robust over recent years, his boast that the country is immune from a US recession is incorrect. There are direct and indirect elements that can make a US recession contagious, not only to Malaysia and other countries in Asia. Using data from Malaysia’s state-owned External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE), the US is still Malaysia’s biggest trading partner, with total trade of MR170.80 billion in fiscal year 2006. In 2006 Malaysia exported RM589 billion to all markets. Almost 77 percent came from manufactured products, 62 percent of that from electronic items. The small domestic market would not be able to consume excesses from a contracting export market. The major manufactured products for export, especially electronic and electrical products, are not suitable for domestic use. What are Malaysians going to do with a few billion dollars worth of unsold semiconductors, computer chips and other high-technology products? In the same year, export trade with Asean countries was RM154 billion. It is safe to assume that more than 60 percent of exports to Asean countries went to Singapore. Malaysia’s trade with Singapore was MR146.9 billion, making it the second largest trading partner after the U.S. With the exception of Thailand, trade with other Asean countries was insignificant. Lumping Singapore together with other Asean countries to show market diversification is self-deceiving and unjustified. Being the second largest trading partner and for the sake of clarity, Singapore should be classified individually. There also seems to be a great discrepancy between MATRADE figures and those given by an independent body SUITE101.com, which quoted Bridgesingapore.com, usembassy.com and the CIA World Factbook as its sources. The data shows Singapore's total trade with Malaysia in 2006 was US$77 billion. Taking an exchange rate at a constant US$1.00 - RM3.40, trade with Singapore was a whopping RM262 billion, not the RM146.9 billion MATRADE uses, making it the biggest trading partner, bigger than the US. Was the huge difference a result of under- and over-invoicing? It's difficult to say which figures were correct. This can only be established if the external trade corporation were to openly dispute the figures from the other sources. The majority of exports to Singapore are re-exported, with a big portion going to the US. In 2006, Singapore re-exported S$204 billion out of total exports of S$432 billion. Singapore exports have weakened over the past few months, signalling slower growth in 2008. Abdullah Badawi's assurance that trade with other Asean countries outweighs that with the US thus doesn't hold water. The biggest single entity in the Asean region is still Singapore, as has always been the case. It will continue to be Malaysia's biggest trade partner for a long time to come. A recession in the U.S would bring reduced volumes of purchases and falling prices which will subsequently affect Singapore's imports from Malaysia. Another motivating factor for Malaysian exporters to use Singapore is the practice of under-invoicing, in which certain amounts of export proceeds are retained in Singapore. (Many Malaysian exporters use this facility to keep some funds outside the country. Similar practices have been carried out by log exporters from Sabah and Sarawak, using Hong Kong as their base. With millions stashed overseas, some Malaysian companies from Sarawak have become the biggest loggers in the world, partly financed by the Malaysian Inland Revenue Department, in the form of tax evasion.) As a financial center, Singapore provides a wide range of financial products and services. An established importer/exporter in Singapore need not deposit any form of security or cash to the bank to open letters of credit if he has an acceptable L/C from his overseas buyer. The bank will usually back out another L/C to the supplier based on the original L/C. Lots of business is transacted this way with exporters in Malaysia and Indonesia. Singapore will thus continue to play a major role in Malaysia's export trade due to two factors. Its efficient ports, higher frequency of ships visiting and its status as a financial center make it cheaper and faster to transact business and ship cargoes to practically any destination. Singapore’s status as an entrepot, with Malaysia as its industrial and resource hinterland, distorts the trade figures that give Asean its trade pre-eminence over the consuming west. Not recognizing that, and not acting on it, spells trouble for Malaysia and its economy.

Correct,Correct,Correct

Hantu Laut

"Correct,correct,correct" and now it's "Looks like me, sounds like me".

Can you get anyone with worse antics than this slithering sycophant,a Mr Tag Along and a denizen of the legal fraternity with a magic wand that can influence the appointment of judges.He was so powerful he can actually tell the ex-Prime Minister who to appoint to the bench.

In the controversial video tape he described the ex-PM as "Being the old man, he is 76 years old, he gets whispers everywhere, and then you don’t whisper, he get taken away by the other side. But, now the PM is very alert he because every time he gets letters from Tan Sri Dzaiddin, he calls Tengku Adnan, he says discuss with Vincent, come and discuss".

Who is Vincent? Was he a special rapporteur officially appointed by the government to advise the ex-PM on appointment of judges?

If what he said about the ex-PM was true, than it is most disgraceful and a shocking news to the nation.Judges are appointed to dispense justice to all and sundry and not to be subservient to anyone in particular.Judges have no masters,they are masters of their own .They are expected to adhere to the rules of justice and listen to their conscience, not to anyone else including the Prime Minister.

Was Vincent Tan a close confidant of the ex-PM? It looked obviously so, if we go by what that bragging power brokering creep revealed in the video.For the ex-PM to tell Tengku Adnan to discuss state matters of the highest importance with a man who has nothing to do with matters of government, one can only assume such relationship did exist, unless, that slimy bragging creep was name-dropping just to impress his audience.

It was no coincidence that in 1993, Lingam was Vincent Tan's lawyer in a law suit against M.G.G.Pillai, a journalist who has since died.Tan brought a defamation suit against him and was awarded a substantial amount, unprecedented in the legal history of defamation suits in this country.It was also no coincidence that the damages awarded by the Federal Court was presided over by a team of judges headed by Eusoffe Chin.

In the latest episode, the 'Correct,Correct,Correct' and 'Looks like me,Sounds like me' has manifested into 'I cannot recollect'.

He told the commission."Without looking at the video, I cannot recollect the occasion. After looking at the video, I do not recollect. It has happened so long ago. Looking at the video, there is bottles of wine, whiskey or brandy and 7-Up. I would have had one too many drinks. That was a drinking session, a celebration, a party. I must have had one too many (and) it is more than six years ago. I cannot remember".

"It looks like me. You can ask the question 100 times, I will still give you the same answer".He must have assumed every members of the commission are idiots, to be able to take this kind of crap coming from him, a man void of any dignity and shame.

This legal clown has turned the commission into a circus and tried to fool everyone with intoxicated lapse of memory as his excuse not to remember whom he spoke to on the phone.

This fool and his folly will eventually put a noose around his own neck.A shameless and stinking piece of crap,undignified and fits for the sewer.

Is this the kind of man some of our judges and leaders kept company with?

LATEST FROM LINGAM'S COURTROOM ANTICS.

Now he admits being a bullshitter and a braggart.He is king in his own house and can talk whatever rubbish he wishes.Below are some of his oratorical skills.

1.“I can choose whatever topic I like. I can even pretend to talk to President Bush if I like,”

2.“That (conversation) was in my house. That was in the privacy of my room. My house is my castle. I am the king there. I can talk whatever rubbish in my house as long as I don’t get drunk outside and misbehave,”

3.“Even if I did say it and I am sorry to use this word but I was bullshitting and bragging,”

4.“No, no, no, my learned commissioner, you didn’t get me right. I said it looks like me, it sounds like me. I didn’t said it’s not me. I don’t want to say it’s 100 percent me because the authenticity of the clip has to be established,”

5.“The tickets are separate tickets with separate number. They were just stapled together and anybody can staple them [...] I don’t know who did it, I have not seen it, you have to call the maker who did it,”

6.“I changed my prepaid numbers very often when I lost my mobile phone. I also change my house phone number very often because there are many prank calls to me and my maid at late hours,”

Read Sophie's World anecdotal story on this.