Pride Goes Before A Fall

Hantu Laut

The Hebrew proverb "pride goes before a fall" warn a person that pride will cause one to fall or fail.It can also mean that you have too high opinion of yourself or your abilities and something will happen to make you look stupid.It is now a commonly used English idiom.

History has shown that many world leaders had gone down or lost their lives due to pride.Shah of Iran, Marcos of the Philippines and Suharto of Indonesia are just a few of those that have been booted out for having overstayed their welcome.

If anything can go wrong,it will.Murphy's Law.

For the past five years everything have gone against Pak Lah.Some are beyond his control but more are of his own doing.

Sometimes, fate has a strange way of warning us that we may not be suited in what we are doing and the signals maybe subtle in the earlier stage but would become more audible and visible as we keep ignoring it.

The most crucial moment of his entire life will be decided in the next few weeks whether he should hang on to his pride and sees the end of UMNO political hegemony or make a personal sacrifice to save the party.

The voices of dissent is getting louder not only from the oppositions but also from within his own party.It would be perilous to UMNO to maintain the status quo.

Only Pak Lah can decide which direction he wants to go and time may not be on his side.

Malaysia’s political saga deepens

By Edward Russell | 18 September 2008

With the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition's first defection, opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim’s threats to form a new government gain strength.

While Malaysia’s opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim failed to fulfil his promise to form a new government this week, the country’s first ever coalition defection has improved his chances of success. Wednesday’s walk-out by the Sabah Progressive Party from the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition guarantees that the country’s six-month long political limbo will continue.

The decision by the Sabah Progressive Party’s two parliamentarians to leave the coalition is an unprecedented move in Malaysian politics. No member of the ruling 14-party BN coalition has ever defected in the coalition’s 39 years of leadership.

Wednesday’s move is the latest in a series of political blows to BN’s leadership since the coalition lost its two-thirds majority in the March 8 elections.

So far, the country’s economic indicators have remained strong and according to Bank Negara Malaysia, Malaysia’s central bank, the ringgit closed up less than 1% against the dollar at M$3.4470 on September 17. As of August 29, the latest available date, Bank Negara had M$400.2 billion ($122.6 billion) in foreign reserves.

But observers argue that a prolonged lack of political certainty will not go unnoticed.

Standard & Poor’s equity research vice-president and head of research, Lorraine Tan, says that while the rating agency believes Malaysia is “fundamentally attractive”, the continuation of political uncertainty is “weighing on sentiment (and) raising risk perception”.

Since the beginning of Malaysia’s political woes, the business community has indicated its desire for the government, regardless of party, to continue with its current policy mix.

“Businesses [in Malaysia] want stability, including political, economic and medium- to long-term guarantees,” explains Standard & Poor’s analyst Takahira Ogawa.

In the second quarter, the latest period for which numbers are available, the country's GDP grew 6.3% year-on-year to M$188.8 billion ($54.66 billion). However, in July year-on-year industrial production growth slowed to 1.8% from 2.2% in June. At the same time, the consumer price index rose to 8.5% year-on-year from 7.7% a month earlier. Read more.........

Desperate Times,Desperate Measures

Hantu Laut

In a desperate attempt to bolster his crumbling credibility Anwar Ibrahim is trying to do the impossible and the unconstitutional, demanding emergency session of Parliament without showing any proof of his support of simple majority of the house to pass a vote of no confidence against the prime minister.

This is unprecedented and not likely to happen.If he has the majority support than he can wait for Parliament to be back in session to carry out his constitutional rights or alternatively go to the Agong with his list of names.



Of course the Agong would either want to meet those MPs personally or ask for sufficient documentary proof to convince him to the best of his judgement that Anwar has the support.

Anwar, if you have, prove it to the nation, we the people will support you.If you don't have, please, just shut up!

A Living Dog Is Better Than A Dead Lion

Hantu Laut

Anwar drumming of taking over the government by 16 Sept had come to naught.He hasn't got enough frogs required to make his dream come true. From 'prime minister in waiting' to 'prime minister' no more.A fine performance that ends on a sad note.

How he managed to hoodwink the people into believing his story is just incredible.Now that he had failed the many datelines he gave, I find it even more incredible that many Malaysians are still in a state of stupor.

His charisma and hypnotic power are his greatest assets.His smiles and grins are captivating and are facades of his sinister motives.His hurried and uncontrollable desires to attain the highest realm of power is axiomatic to his downfall.

In spite of his repeated failures to capture the government as promised many are still infatuated and felt he had been treated unfairly and,therefore, deserved sympathy and support.His support extends beyond the borders of Malaysia making the skeptics uneasy and suspicious of his source of political funding.He is the darling of the Western media.Almost every major newspaper and magazine in the West painted a rosy picture of his imminent triumph in taking the government.

Anwar has it all.He has everything going in his direction after the recent general elections but his impatience and greed for power will again kill his chance to be prime minister.He didn't have the patience,perseverance and hardiness of the leaders in DAP and PAS who had travelled the long haul and are quite happy to have taken the 5 states as a gift from God.They know if they can administer the 5 states well the payoff would be in the next general elections.

Anwar is like a lion laying in ambush waiting for his victims' weak moment to pounce on them. In 1998 he contemplated  overthrowing  Mahathir after the 1997 financial meltdown that hit many Asian countries including Malaysia.Due to the financial crisis he deemed Mahathir vulnerable and conspired to takeover the premiership.Unfortunately, Mahathir was a polish and better politician than him.His sacking and imprisonment might have been his own undoing.

Although the elections are over his political campaigning is not. He sees Badawi an easy meal and goes on an incessant campaign to weaken the BN government.His constant reminder that he has the 'number' is a psychological warfare to cause a split in the BN.He has succeeded to a small degree, the withdrawal of SAPP and threat of the same from Gerakan.

His request to meet the Prime Minister for smooth transfer of power and to show him the list of defecting MPs was mere rhetoric to fool his supporters and set a trap for Abdullah.The PM was right not to meet him.Why should the PM meet him if he has sufficient number of MPs supporting him.He can assemble those MPs and go public and make a formal announcement.He can than go see the Agong and seek his consent to do what is right under the Constitutions.

There is nothing Abdullah can do to him once he and all the MPs backing him have made the public announcement.The excuses and fear he expressed were for the consumption of his supporters to get them riled up as he had done before.

He who rouses a sleeping tiger exposes himself to danger. No matter how hard one tries there is a limit to one's patience.Abdullah has been extremely patience with the endless mudslinging,name calling and racial slur expressed in many anti-government blogs that has raised racial tension to a worrying level. His patience is running out and for good reasons.

It is not Abdullah that is going to drag this nation to the quagmire.It is Anwar, he is turning this nation into a country in African  where no government is safe from predators who covetousness eventually destroy the nation.

Abdullah has said he is a threat to the economy and a possible threat to the safety of the nation.Of course his supporters would not agree, only an independent person can see where the nation had become a casualty of his perennial politicking.

I used to sympathise with the man when he was thrown in prison and believe his version of the story but since his release and return to active politics I am beginning to see his true colour and am not giving him the benefit of the doubt this time.