Hantu Laut
In Malaysia the changing political landscape has brought, out of the wood works, an assortment of political wannabes.If Charles Dickens had his 'Tale Of Two Cities', we have our 'Tale Of Two Princes'
From ex-politicians,ex-prisoners to vengeful bloggers, happy gays,politico whores and lately crown princes, all dishing out samplings of their political thoughts, some with disastrous results.
Sometimes, you can see where good and bad genes will take you to.
The Perak Crown Prince Raja Nazrin in his keynote address at "Prospects and Challenges for Nation-building" conference in April 2007 said all Malaysians are equal under the law and stressed the importance of defending the integrity of the Federal Constitution.
“Malaysians of all races, religions, and geographic locations need to believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that they have a place under the Malaysian sun. Only when each citizen believes that he or she has a common home and is working towards a common destiny, will he or she make the sacrifices needed for the long haul.”- Raja Nazrin
This voice of moderation and reasonableness can only be appreciated by those who stand for equality and freedom.
The latest addition to the long list of political wannabes is the Kelantan Crown Prince who made a dreadful speech and a battle cry for the preservation of ketuanan Melayu and Malay rights and privileges.
Tengku Faris who apparently is still living in the past and share the same wavelength as those in UMNO said the recent elections results shows that the Malays are being challenged and non-Malays should not question Malay rights.
He said “Therefore, the rakyat must unite and never raise issues regarding Malay rights and special privileges because it is a quid pro quo in gratitude for the giving in of citizenship (beri-paksa kerakyatan) to 2.7 million non-Malays into the Tanah Melayu federation.Thus, it is not appropriate for these other ethnic groups to have citizenship, only (later) to seek equality and privileges,”
My goodness where have this guy been all these years.Didn't he know it was not only the non-Malays that wanted change, a big segment of educated and sensible Malays wanted similar change to escape from the corrupt and feudalistic UMNO regime.The ordinary Malays know ketuanan Melayu, the NEP and the Malay special rights (whatever it was)are the preserves of the top echelon in UMNO and their cronies.The Malays in the streets, if they are lucky, will only get the crumbs.
Should the prince adds insult to injury by reminding the non-Malays that they don't belong here in the first place and should be grateful that the Malays had benevolently given them citizenship.
As much as the Indians and Chinese were migrants,so were many Malays.Just take a good look at most of the leaders in UMNO, which one of them you can deservedly called true Malays.Those with ancestry from Indonesia would probably came closest to being called Malays.One that crosses my mind would be Khir Toyo, because of his Javanese ancestry.What about people like Mahathir,Abdullah Badawi,Syed Hamid Albar,Hishammudin Hussin Onn,Mohd Nor Yaakub and thousands if not millions like them in this country with mixed parentage.Mahathir is not even a Malay name, translated in Urdu or Hindi it would mean "Great Arrow". Badawi and Albar are Arabic names.
What about people like Raja Petra Kamaruddin,Karim Raslan,Kam Raslan,Diana Yusof,Maya Karin and the likes of them who by conventional definition would normally be categorised as Eurasians but would also be Malays by definitions in the Constitutions.Are they less privileged than the Malays.
At least Raja Petra didn't hide his true roots and had openly declared his mixed ancestry.Unfortunately, not all so-called Malays are proud of their mixed parentage and tried to hide it due to insecurity.Why should the Malays be more privileged than others?
The prince and the perpetrators in UMNO forgot that this is no more Tanah Melayu, this is now a nation called Malaysia.It is a federation of states, including Sabah and Sarawak and belong to Malaysian of every race, colour and creed.
If there is such thing as ketuanaan Melayu, what are the status of the people of Sabah and Sarawak, are they reduced to being colonies? The two states joined Malaysia as part of a sovereign nation and share the same status as any other state in the Peninsula.
The BN suffered badly at the polls due to the same reasons, ketuanaan Melayu,special rights and privileges for the Malay and discrimination and marginalisation of the other races.Harping on the same issues would drag UMNO deeper into the quagmire.
If Ghandi,Martin Luther King and Nelson Mendela didn't fight tooth and nail to bring changes to their people, do you think those in power would willingly give them the freedom ?
When the British gave independence to Malaya it was on conditions that the other races be made citizens and to be given equal rights as the Malays with the exceptions of certain protection accorded to the sultans and certain privileges for the Malays.When Sabah and Sarawak joined Malaysia the same conditions apply.Walloping a big slice of the economic cake for few individuals wasn't one of them.
Now, the smart prince is helping to rub salt into the wound.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Murdering The English Language
Hantu Laut
How many languages are there in the world ? It is not an easy question to answer. The 'Cambridge Encyclopedia Of Language' puts it at a hypothetical figure of between 3,000 to 4,000, but estimates have varied from 3,000 to 10,000. In Papua New Guinea alone there are an estimated 800 over languages spoken by small pockets of inhabitants scattered all over the island archipelago without any contact with other tribes and the rest of the world until recent times. Deep in the Amazon there are possibilities of people and languages not yet discovered by the outside world. Than there are dead and semi-dead languages like Latin and Sanskrit, not spoken but are still, in varying degree, used in writing. The world of flora and fauna for some unknown reason seems to prefer Latin to name species of animal and plant. Most works of science also used Latin for their nomenclature.
The only language that came close to be universally spoken and had become lingua franca in many parts of the world would be English. It is also a language that had been slayed, stolen, borrowed, bastardised and occasionally murdered. It has also borrowed much of its vocabulary from other languages.
It is probably the most inconsistent language in words and grammar. Same word and spelling can carry as much as 5 to 6 different meanings and are completely unrelated. Words of same spelling can sound differently to carry a different meaning. For the uninitiated the pitfalls are aplenty.
In some part of the world where the country was once colonised by the British and where the local inhabitants found English too intimidating and hard to digest, they have cleverly made a potpourri of the language........strange as it may be but Melanesian Pidgin, which is a concoction of English and local language is the lingua franca in Papua, Soloman Islands and surrounding islands in the South Pacific. English is the official language but only spoken by 1%-2% of the population.
In the Soloman if somebody tells you "I go swim", he is telling you he is going for a shower. If he says "I malis" he means "I am lazy", so buzz off don't ask him to work or he may decide to "kill you".Don't panic he just want to whack you in the face and not literally kill you.
Pidgin is also getting popular in Singapore and Malaysia especially with the younger generation, Singlish in Singapore and Manglish in Malaysia.
In Singapore if Ah Beng tells you are "all fart but no shit" don't get offended.It is not about shit or fart, he is just telling you that you are full of empty promises and if you want to know who Ah Beng is, see below.
"An unsophisticated Chinese boy, usually Hokkien. Stereotypically, he speaks gutter hokkien and likes neon-coloured clothes, spiky, moussed hair and accessories such as handphones or pagers, all of which are conspicuously displayed. He also likes to squat, even when a seat is available.
So you see English can be creolized to form pidgin andemic to a country, community or region.
Most European languages have their form of pidgin spoken in their ex-colonies.The French, Spanish and other Europeans all have their form of Creole, mostly mixed with African languages in parts of Africa and the West Indies. Creole spoken in Jamaica would be entirely different from Creole spoken in Mauritius.
In Malaysia and Singapore we have our own bastardised English. It is quite common for people to mix English with Malay or Chinese.There is nothing wrong using it in casual conversation but putting it in writing is ........not good lah! and shouldn't be encouraged bah!.It is also common to hear politicians in Malaysia speaking English at official functions sprinkled with Malay or Chinese words when they couldn't find the English version of the word.
The Singapore government discourages the use of Singlish as it believes in the need for Singaporeans to be able to effectively communicate with the other English users in the world.The government runs the "Speak Good English Movement" to empahsise the point.
In Malaysia the standard of English has dropped to such an appalling level it got the government worried and decided to bring back the use of English in Maths and Sciences in all schools. The degradation of the language was due to inconsistency in the education policy that changes every time a new minister is appointed to the Ministry of Education.
The Malay language being vocab poor didn't have its equivalent of scientific terminology. The Dewan Bahasa and Pustaka had been slow in converting scientific terms from other languages to Malay.It is also lacking in etymological research.
I have been beating around the bush a bit too long. Let's get to the point now.
The purpose of this writing is that I received an email a few days ago from some unknown person with an attachment which makes interesting reading. The letter which I believe is a poison-pen letter aimed at a lady working in Sabah Foundation who claimed to be a confidante of the Chief Minister and name dropping his name to bully other employees.
Needless to say the letter could have been written by someone who pretended that his or her English is poor to hide the true identity or it could be a fact that her grasp of the language is actually what she had claimed it to be, that she is a product of a local university and apologised for her bad English.
Below is copy of the letter:
KAWAN YAYASAN SABAH
Kita kawan of Yayasan Sabah staff an ex-scholars of YS and not happy with what we hear from them. We want to help our friends end their suffering. Lot of staff complained they scared of one lady in charge of Human Resources Division. She was CM confidential secretary before and close to him and use his name all time to get advantage. She use her position to threaten people and use CM to get many advantage for herself. She say CM trust her and use CM name to bully staff and outside people. Why this happen for so long? Itu pengarah very week bah and not competent too long in the job and do not want to work hard because long retired from government. English say "retirement mode" dan sifat tak mengambil berat tentang management Yayasan Sabah ketara sangat sebab dia jadi "yes man" to this lady-'defecto direktor'.
Dia orang punya strategi ialah tindas orang yang pandai (buat keja) dan kasih naik pangkat orang yang tak pandai atau tak cukup qualification. Ini adalah "rule by fear" contohnya; Encik Alex Suinggi admin manager telah diganti oleh si Encik Johnny Billy. Yang sekarang memerah kontraktor- kontraktor atau supplier Yayasan Sabah.
Recently a new organization structure was announced by the Pengarah. My friend in YS showed me the new organization structure but seem not endorsed by the Board of Trustees and the Pengarah acting without authority from Board of Trustees again. They told me that the lady designed the organization chart with the Pengarah and few close staff and implement immediately without discussing with management. She promoted herself to Senior Group Manager without any letter of appointment without any endorsement from Board of Trustees. The management staffs very demoralised and demotivated now and we want to help them.
Kami tunjuk organasasi structure YS yang baru to our friend who have Phd in Management Orginazation in UMS and he laugh. He has not seen such kind of structure before. He says this is against management princip and for Yayasan Sabah must keep the social side and corporate side different entity according to the YS encatment. Both have different roles and objectives. Social is to help people and corporate to make money for social. Combine the two makes it difficult for corporate to succeed. Also social managers are not trained or have experience to run business. Also the corporate entities have their own Board of Directors and CEO so why should they report to Human Resource. It is against company regulation as Board of Directors are accountable for the company operation and not this lady.
With many workload for her as Senior Group Manager failure will come very quickly. My Phd friend also confused whether secretariat is a divison? and why give equal status in the chart. For example Transport Division who have 5 operating companies reports to YS Senior Group Manager of Financial Services & Investment and the same status as YS Investment Committee Secretariat. Very confusing. His opinion that the new organization structure make the Senior Group Manager lady more powerful but can she telan all these things? In the end she cannot perform and efficiency suffer and people blame YS for poor performance. People already complain of poor service from her division, Sometimes takes three months to make a decision. We wonder why this lady was promoted over the Group Manager such as Forestry. Forestry contribute over 70% of YS Group profits but the Group Manager of Forestry now hold a lower rank to the Senior Group Manager of Human Resource s.
We hear the lady is already busy with Hotel and Convention Centre, the new Kenigau Handicraft Centre, the Women Conference, the CEO Conference, and banyak other projects. Not much time spent on human resources activities to support the organization. Also she has most number of staff in YS. These projects involve a lot of money and resources and not helping the people of Sabah directly. She uses these things to make herself look good so that CM promote and Puji her. CM already give her pangkat ASDK in 2006 and JP in 2007. Do not know what she do to deserve this title except angkat kaki CM. She tell staff close to her, now she aim for Datukship and become Pengarah of YS by 2009.
People tell us these conferences lose money and very few international participants attend. Many local participants from the government agencies and NGOs forced to pay and attend just to make up the numbers to make her look good. Last year there was so much noise in the local newspapers about some London investors interested in building hotels and convention centre. YS Staff told us some RM 300,000 was spent to entertain them and the state cabinet was asked to attend luncheon and dinner with them. What happened to these London investors? It seems that there are so many abuse of power by this lady. She travels to London, Brussels, Egypt, Korea first class to do other things not connected with her work and direct responsibility and for what?
If you care about the welfare of all the good people in YS who are long suffering please help. Do not let her destroy Yayasan Sabah. People are scared of her. She is already featured in Malaysia Today and famous. Click on Hajjah Rosmawati Lasuki and you will reach the website and article about her.
All has been said is the truth and anybody can investigate. English saying the truth will prevail. Sorry for my poor engish as I am product of local university. Hope everbody understand our concern.
How many languages are there in the world ? It is not an easy question to answer. The 'Cambridge Encyclopedia Of Language' puts it at a hypothetical figure of between 3,000 to 4,000, but estimates have varied from 3,000 to 10,000. In Papua New Guinea alone there are an estimated 800 over languages spoken by small pockets of inhabitants scattered all over the island archipelago without any contact with other tribes and the rest of the world until recent times. Deep in the Amazon there are possibilities of people and languages not yet discovered by the outside world. Than there are dead and semi-dead languages like Latin and Sanskrit, not spoken but are still, in varying degree, used in writing. The world of flora and fauna for some unknown reason seems to prefer Latin to name species of animal and plant. Most works of science also used Latin for their nomenclature.
The only language that came close to be universally spoken and had become lingua franca in many parts of the world would be English. It is also a language that had been slayed, stolen, borrowed, bastardised and occasionally murdered. It has also borrowed much of its vocabulary from other languages.
It is probably the most inconsistent language in words and grammar. Same word and spelling can carry as much as 5 to 6 different meanings and are completely unrelated. Words of same spelling can sound differently to carry a different meaning. For the uninitiated the pitfalls are aplenty.
In some part of the world where the country was once colonised by the British and where the local inhabitants found English too intimidating and hard to digest, they have cleverly made a potpourri of the language........strange as it may be but Melanesian Pidgin, which is a concoction of English and local language is the lingua franca in Papua, Soloman Islands and surrounding islands in the South Pacific. English is the official language but only spoken by 1%-2% of the population.
In the Soloman if somebody tells you "I go swim", he is telling you he is going for a shower. If he says "I malis" he means "I am lazy", so buzz off don't ask him to work or he may decide to "kill you".Don't panic he just want to whack you in the face and not literally kill you.
Pidgin is also getting popular in Singapore and Malaysia especially with the younger generation, Singlish in Singapore and Manglish in Malaysia.
In Singapore if Ah Beng tells you are "all fart but no shit" don't get offended.It is not about shit or fart, he is just telling you that you are full of empty promises and if you want to know who Ah Beng is, see below.
"An unsophisticated Chinese boy, usually Hokkien. Stereotypically, he speaks gutter hokkien and likes neon-coloured clothes, spiky, moussed hair and accessories such as handphones or pagers, all of which are conspicuously displayed. He also likes to squat, even when a seat is available.
So you see English can be creolized to form pidgin andemic to a country, community or region.
Most European languages have their form of pidgin spoken in their ex-colonies.The French, Spanish and other Europeans all have their form of Creole, mostly mixed with African languages in parts of Africa and the West Indies. Creole spoken in Jamaica would be entirely different from Creole spoken in Mauritius.
In Malaysia and Singapore we have our own bastardised English. It is quite common for people to mix English with Malay or Chinese.There is nothing wrong using it in casual conversation but putting it in writing is ........not good lah! and shouldn't be encouraged bah!.It is also common to hear politicians in Malaysia speaking English at official functions sprinkled with Malay or Chinese words when they couldn't find the English version of the word.
The Singapore government discourages the use of Singlish as it believes in the need for Singaporeans to be able to effectively communicate with the other English users in the world.The government runs the "Speak Good English Movement" to empahsise the point.
In Malaysia the standard of English has dropped to such an appalling level it got the government worried and decided to bring back the use of English in Maths and Sciences in all schools. The degradation of the language was due to inconsistency in the education policy that changes every time a new minister is appointed to the Ministry of Education.
The Malay language being vocab poor didn't have its equivalent of scientific terminology. The Dewan Bahasa and Pustaka had been slow in converting scientific terms from other languages to Malay.It is also lacking in etymological research.
I have been beating around the bush a bit too long. Let's get to the point now.
The purpose of this writing is that I received an email a few days ago from some unknown person with an attachment which makes interesting reading. The letter which I believe is a poison-pen letter aimed at a lady working in Sabah Foundation who claimed to be a confidante of the Chief Minister and name dropping his name to bully other employees.
Needless to say the letter could have been written by someone who pretended that his or her English is poor to hide the true identity or it could be a fact that her grasp of the language is actually what she had claimed it to be, that she is a product of a local university and apologised for her bad English.
Below is copy of the letter:
KAWAN YAYASAN SABAH
Kita kawan of Yayasan Sabah staff an ex-scholars of YS and not happy with what we hear from them. We want to help our friends end their suffering. Lot of staff complained they scared of one lady in charge of Human Resources Division. She was CM confidential secretary before and close to him and use his name all time to get advantage. She use her position to threaten people and use CM to get many advantage for herself. She say CM trust her and use CM name to bully staff and outside people. Why this happen for so long? Itu pengarah very week bah and not competent too long in the job and do not want to work hard because long retired from government. English say "retirement mode" dan sifat tak mengambil berat tentang management Yayasan Sabah ketara sangat sebab dia jadi "yes man" to this lady-'defecto direktor'.
Dia orang punya strategi ialah tindas orang yang pandai (buat keja) dan kasih naik pangkat orang yang tak pandai atau tak cukup qualification. Ini adalah "rule by fear" contohnya; Encik Alex Suinggi admin manager telah diganti oleh si Encik Johnny Billy. Yang sekarang memerah kontraktor- kontraktor atau supplier Yayasan Sabah.
Recently a new organization structure was announced by the Pengarah. My friend in YS showed me the new organization structure but seem not endorsed by the Board of Trustees and the Pengarah acting without authority from Board of Trustees again. They told me that the lady designed the organization chart with the Pengarah and few close staff and implement immediately without discussing with management. She promoted herself to Senior Group Manager without any letter of appointment without any endorsement from Board of Trustees. The management staffs very demoralised and demotivated now and we want to help them.
Kami tunjuk organasasi structure YS yang baru to our friend who have Phd in Management Orginazation in UMS and he laugh. He has not seen such kind of structure before. He says this is against management princip and for Yayasan Sabah must keep the social side and corporate side different entity according to the YS encatment. Both have different roles and objectives. Social is to help people and corporate to make money for social. Combine the two makes it difficult for corporate to succeed. Also social managers are not trained or have experience to run business. Also the corporate entities have their own Board of Directors and CEO so why should they report to Human Resource. It is against company regulation as Board of Directors are accountable for the company operation and not this lady.
With many workload for her as Senior Group Manager failure will come very quickly. My Phd friend also confused whether secretariat is a divison? and why give equal status in the chart. For example Transport Division who have 5 operating companies reports to YS Senior Group Manager of Financial Services & Investment and the same status as YS Investment Committee Secretariat. Very confusing. His opinion that the new organization structure make the Senior Group Manager lady more powerful but can she telan all these things? In the end she cannot perform and efficiency suffer and people blame YS for poor performance. People already complain of poor service from her division, Sometimes takes three months to make a decision. We wonder why this lady was promoted over the Group Manager such as Forestry. Forestry contribute over 70% of YS Group profits but the Group Manager of Forestry now hold a lower rank to the Senior Group Manager of Human Resource s.
We hear the lady is already busy with Hotel and Convention Centre, the new Kenigau Handicraft Centre, the Women Conference, the CEO Conference, and banyak other projects. Not much time spent on human resources activities to support the organization. Also she has most number of staff in YS. These projects involve a lot of money and resources and not helping the people of Sabah directly. She uses these things to make herself look good so that CM promote and Puji her. CM already give her pangkat ASDK in 2006 and JP in 2007. Do not know what she do to deserve this title except angkat kaki CM. She tell staff close to her, now she aim for Datukship and become Pengarah of YS by 2009.
People tell us these conferences lose money and very few international participants attend. Many local participants from the government agencies and NGOs forced to pay and attend just to make up the numbers to make her look good. Last year there was so much noise in the local newspapers about some London investors interested in building hotels and convention centre. YS Staff told us some RM 300,000 was spent to entertain them and the state cabinet was asked to attend luncheon and dinner with them. What happened to these London investors? It seems that there are so many abuse of power by this lady. She travels to London, Brussels, Egypt, Korea first class to do other things not connected with her work and direct responsibility and for what?
If you care about the welfare of all the good people in YS who are long suffering please help. Do not let her destroy Yayasan Sabah. People are scared of her. She is already featured in Malaysia Today and famous. Click on Hajjah Rosmawati Lasuki and you will reach the website and article about her.
All has been said is the truth and anybody can investigate. English saying the truth will prevail. Sorry for my poor engish as I am product of local university. Hope everbody understand our concern.
UMNO Supreme Council To Decide Who Should Be PM ?
Hantu Laut
Has the badly battered Pak Lah comes to his senses ? He has indicated handing over power to his deputy Najib Tun Razak without giving any time frame on the transition of power.He only hinted he may hand over power to Najib and said he would discuss the matter with his deputy.
I wouldn't at this juncture take that hint as a promise, which was probably uttered just to cool down the harangues coming from increasing number of UMNO divisions for him to make an exit.
A hint is not a decision or a promise.
With a track record of having sailed close to the wind I hope Pak Lah is not waiting to see which way the wind blows and again changes his mind when the opportune time comes.
Abdullah has, by his own admission, blamed himself as one of the factors for BN losses. It sounds a bit strange that he said it now instead of at his valedictory speech. Most leaders would make such admission and seek apology from the nation on the day he steps down.It's certainly sounds weird to incriminate yourself and still carry on as Prime Minister.
In a smooth transition of power or demise of the Prime Minister or President, succession traditionally goes to the deputy. In a political turmoil, which is what UMNO is facing now, it would be best not to use the conventional method of succession.
It is not that Najib is less capable but he may not have the majority support of the rank and file in the party. The best possible way for a stable leadership is to allow the Supreme Council members to decide among themselves who should take over as prime minister.
The Supreme Council is representative of the voices of the rank and file and its decision to appoint the most suitable person among them as prime minister wouldn't be admonished by the members.
It wouldn't be fair to condemn Najib at the moment and before he takes over the helm and proved himself worthy of the position. Although there have been implications to Najib's character, most were mere allegations and nothing have been proven on his relationship with the murdered Mongolian girl, mistress of his close associate Razak Beginda who is now languishing in jail out of sheer arrogance, greed and stupidity.
Like most animals at the top of the food chains, humans behave the same way when they are at the pinnacle of power, some obviously think they are untouchable and can get away with murder.
If Pak Lah hands over only the PM post and retains the UMNO President post until the UMNO Elections in December than the possibility of Najib being challenged would be fairly slim.Should he hands over both positions before the party elections and Najib didn't fare well during the short period the likelihood of him being challenged would be pretty good.
Although nothing proven, the rumours of shady dealings in military contracts have stained his image and could become a liability to him at party elections.His opponents could use it as campaign materials to discredit him.
Likely candidates to challenge Najib would be Razaleigh or Muhyiddin that is if Pak Lah kept his promise and actually give up his posts as PM as well as UMNO President sooner than later.
Has the badly battered Pak Lah comes to his senses ? He has indicated handing over power to his deputy Najib Tun Razak without giving any time frame on the transition of power.He only hinted he may hand over power to Najib and said he would discuss the matter with his deputy.
I wouldn't at this juncture take that hint as a promise, which was probably uttered just to cool down the harangues coming from increasing number of UMNO divisions for him to make an exit.
A hint is not a decision or a promise.
With a track record of having sailed close to the wind I hope Pak Lah is not waiting to see which way the wind blows and again changes his mind when the opportune time comes.
Abdullah has, by his own admission, blamed himself as one of the factors for BN losses. It sounds a bit strange that he said it now instead of at his valedictory speech. Most leaders would make such admission and seek apology from the nation on the day he steps down.It's certainly sounds weird to incriminate yourself and still carry on as Prime Minister.
In a smooth transition of power or demise of the Prime Minister or President, succession traditionally goes to the deputy. In a political turmoil, which is what UMNO is facing now, it would be best not to use the conventional method of succession.
It is not that Najib is less capable but he may not have the majority support of the rank and file in the party. The best possible way for a stable leadership is to allow the Supreme Council members to decide among themselves who should take over as prime minister.
The Supreme Council is representative of the voices of the rank and file and its decision to appoint the most suitable person among them as prime minister wouldn't be admonished by the members.
It wouldn't be fair to condemn Najib at the moment and before he takes over the helm and proved himself worthy of the position. Although there have been implications to Najib's character, most were mere allegations and nothing have been proven on his relationship with the murdered Mongolian girl, mistress of his close associate Razak Beginda who is now languishing in jail out of sheer arrogance, greed and stupidity.
Like most animals at the top of the food chains, humans behave the same way when they are at the pinnacle of power, some obviously think they are untouchable and can get away with murder.
If Pak Lah hands over only the PM post and retains the UMNO President post until the UMNO Elections in December than the possibility of Najib being challenged would be fairly slim.Should he hands over both positions before the party elections and Najib didn't fare well during the short period the likelihood of him being challenged would be pretty good.
Although nothing proven, the rumours of shady dealings in military contracts have stained his image and could become a liability to him at party elections.His opponents could use it as campaign materials to discredit him.
Likely candidates to challenge Najib would be Razaleigh or Muhyiddin that is if Pak Lah kept his promise and actually give up his posts as PM as well as UMNO President sooner than later.
Friday, April 11, 2008
Pak Lah In A Pressure Cooker
Hantu Laut
Pressure is mounting on Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to give up the PM's post.This time the call came from home, from 20 divisions in Johor UMNO. It wasn't a direct call for him to resign but they urged him to take a sabbatical and let DPM Najib takes over for a while to cool down the very overheated resistance to his presence as prime minister.
Not invited to the meeting were 6 divisional heads who also happened to be ministers in the Federal cabinet. They were Hishammuddin Hussein,Shahrir Abdul Samad, Khaled Nordin,Syed Hamid Albar,Muhyiddin Yassin and Dr Abdul Latiff Ahmad.
The meeting was held at the residence of the Menteri Besar Abdul Ghani Othman and the absence of the six divisional heads/ministers and Tourism Minister Azlina Othman and Deputy Minister of Human Resources Noraini Ahmad clearly shows the party is divided on the issue.Those in Pak Lah's cabinet do not want to be seen as traitors although many discreetly wanted him to go and go quickly.
More and more dissenting voices are now coming out from the rank and file.It's apparent that Pak Lah is now confronted with bigger domestic problem within the party.The pain in the neck Mahathir has achieved the objective of destabilising him. The darling of the 2004 Elections is now the most hounded man in the country.
How did Pak Lah's fortunes decline in such dizzying speed ? He is probably the only prime minister who had become unpopular in the shortest span of time. Even the cold-blooded Mahathir managed to retain power for 22 years and didn't go through such agonising moment of embarrassments. There was no spontaneous call for him to step down. Malaysians generally have a love and hate relationship with him. Members of UMNO either despise him in silence or had high regard for his leadership. He is also an enigma and can be full of surprises which kept his enemies in awe or in fear. He has managed to keep his opponents and distractors at bay through fear or favour.
When Abdullah took the helm from Mahathir he was seen as a god-fearing, clean and amiable man. His Mr Clean image and amiability strengthen by his promise to clean up corruptions was the drawing power to his massive electoral victory in 2004. Unfortunately, he failed miserably in his promise and continue to make mistakes without any attempt to correct it. He behaves like a minor thinking making promises is a game that you need not play by the rules. His natural disability of making correct statements when addressing the nation has put him in a bad light and demolished his god-fearing image. His inconsistency and contradiction are appalling.
When he was asked about his son's business and whether he has used his influence to help bolster the son's business he responded by saying that his son doesn't do business with the government and almost all his business were with foreign companies outside the country.He probably didn't realise that many people knew most of his son's businesses are with Petronas overseas operations. When he was asked to confirm the rumour that he is getting married to Jean Danker, he replied in the negative and shocked the nation when he got married a few weeks later.
Like the weather he is notoriously fickle and his state of the art fickleness was played out when he stated in no uncertain term that Parliament wouldn't be dissolved yet to make way for elections, and pronto !.......he dissolved Parliament the next day. The people were horrified in disbelief that a prime minister of a nation can make such infuriating blunders. His series of political blunder leaves a lot to be desired.
Abdullah is not made of grits and guts, he can easily give in to threats and demands.It was not untrue when Mahathir accused him of ignoring some of the candidates recommended by menteri besar and chief ministers.There were no discussions held between him and the menteri besar/chief ministers on changes he made to the list. He unilaterally took the decision to replace it with candidates of his choice.
His handling of the recent controversy with Sabah clearly shows he can buckle under pressure.The rumblings in Sabah BN necessitates him to make a journey there to meet Sabah leaders and he met the leaders separately instead of as a coalition group.He has made certain promises which Sabah BN hopes he will make good.
The appointment of Pendikar Amin Mulia as Speaker of the Dewan Rakyat is most puzzling.There are many elected member who deserved to be given that position instead of Pendikar who is not even an elected member. Pendikar is an UMNO divisional head of a very small community of people called the Iranun, a name changed by him from Illanun which is a connotation for pirate. Pendikar is well known for his abrasiveness and threatening manner, a kind of uncultivated Long John Silver.
Pendikar, Salleh Said Keruak,Amir Kahar Mustapha,Yusof Yacob and Ghafur Salleh were dropped by Chief Minister Musa Aman.Ghafur managed to wriggle he way back in through his connection with a Sabah businessman who has strong link with Syed Hamid Albar who talked Abdullah into putting Ghafur back on as candidate.
Pak Lah has also promised to give more ministerial posts to Sabah which means he has to create new posts just to fulfill that promise, a reversal of the scrapping of a few ministries when he announced his cabinet line-up.
Although Pak Lah is not an evil man and has been quite liberal in his ways, his lack of leadership and inconsistency has made him very unpopular.
Will he survives till the UMNO General Assembly in December ?
Johor, Sabah and Perak have the biggest number of divisions in UMNO. Losing the support of these three states would spell trouble for Pak Lah.
Pressure is mounting on Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to give up the PM's post.This time the call came from home, from 20 divisions in Johor UMNO. It wasn't a direct call for him to resign but they urged him to take a sabbatical and let DPM Najib takes over for a while to cool down the very overheated resistance to his presence as prime minister.
Not invited to the meeting were 6 divisional heads who also happened to be ministers in the Federal cabinet. They were Hishammuddin Hussein,Shahrir Abdul Samad, Khaled Nordin,Syed Hamid Albar,Muhyiddin Yassin and Dr Abdul Latiff Ahmad.
The meeting was held at the residence of the Menteri Besar Abdul Ghani Othman and the absence of the six divisional heads/ministers and Tourism Minister Azlina Othman and Deputy Minister of Human Resources Noraini Ahmad clearly shows the party is divided on the issue.Those in Pak Lah's cabinet do not want to be seen as traitors although many discreetly wanted him to go and go quickly.
More and more dissenting voices are now coming out from the rank and file.It's apparent that Pak Lah is now confronted with bigger domestic problem within the party.The pain in the neck Mahathir has achieved the objective of destabilising him. The darling of the 2004 Elections is now the most hounded man in the country.
How did Pak Lah's fortunes decline in such dizzying speed ? He is probably the only prime minister who had become unpopular in the shortest span of time. Even the cold-blooded Mahathir managed to retain power for 22 years and didn't go through such agonising moment of embarrassments. There was no spontaneous call for him to step down. Malaysians generally have a love and hate relationship with him. Members of UMNO either despise him in silence or had high regard for his leadership. He is also an enigma and can be full of surprises which kept his enemies in awe or in fear. He has managed to keep his opponents and distractors at bay through fear or favour.
When Abdullah took the helm from Mahathir he was seen as a god-fearing, clean and amiable man. His Mr Clean image and amiability strengthen by his promise to clean up corruptions was the drawing power to his massive electoral victory in 2004. Unfortunately, he failed miserably in his promise and continue to make mistakes without any attempt to correct it. He behaves like a minor thinking making promises is a game that you need not play by the rules. His natural disability of making correct statements when addressing the nation has put him in a bad light and demolished his god-fearing image. His inconsistency and contradiction are appalling.
When he was asked about his son's business and whether he has used his influence to help bolster the son's business he responded by saying that his son doesn't do business with the government and almost all his business were with foreign companies outside the country.He probably didn't realise that many people knew most of his son's businesses are with Petronas overseas operations. When he was asked to confirm the rumour that he is getting married to Jean Danker, he replied in the negative and shocked the nation when he got married a few weeks later.
Like the weather he is notoriously fickle and his state of the art fickleness was played out when he stated in no uncertain term that Parliament wouldn't be dissolved yet to make way for elections, and pronto !.......he dissolved Parliament the next day. The people were horrified in disbelief that a prime minister of a nation can make such infuriating blunders. His series of political blunder leaves a lot to be desired.
Abdullah is not made of grits and guts, he can easily give in to threats and demands.It was not untrue when Mahathir accused him of ignoring some of the candidates recommended by menteri besar and chief ministers.There were no discussions held between him and the menteri besar/chief ministers on changes he made to the list. He unilaterally took the decision to replace it with candidates of his choice.
His handling of the recent controversy with Sabah clearly shows he can buckle under pressure.The rumblings in Sabah BN necessitates him to make a journey there to meet Sabah leaders and he met the leaders separately instead of as a coalition group.He has made certain promises which Sabah BN hopes he will make good.
The appointment of Pendikar Amin Mulia as Speaker of the Dewan Rakyat is most puzzling.There are many elected member who deserved to be given that position instead of Pendikar who is not even an elected member. Pendikar is an UMNO divisional head of a very small community of people called the Iranun, a name changed by him from Illanun which is a connotation for pirate. Pendikar is well known for his abrasiveness and threatening manner, a kind of uncultivated Long John Silver.
Pendikar, Salleh Said Keruak,Amir Kahar Mustapha,Yusof Yacob and Ghafur Salleh were dropped by Chief Minister Musa Aman.Ghafur managed to wriggle he way back in through his connection with a Sabah businessman who has strong link with Syed Hamid Albar who talked Abdullah into putting Ghafur back on as candidate.
Pak Lah has also promised to give more ministerial posts to Sabah which means he has to create new posts just to fulfill that promise, a reversal of the scrapping of a few ministries when he announced his cabinet line-up.
Although Pak Lah is not an evil man and has been quite liberal in his ways, his lack of leadership and inconsistency has made him very unpopular.
Will he survives till the UMNO General Assembly in December ?
Johor, Sabah and Perak have the biggest number of divisions in UMNO. Losing the support of these three states would spell trouble for Pak Lah.
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