Malaysia's Killing Season.

Hantu Laut

The killing season is here again.Every festive season Malaysians would go on a rampage on the nation's highways killing and maiming themselves and other road users.

The Asia-Pacific region has the highest road fatalities in the world taking 44 percent of the world total where only 16 percent of the total world vehicles are found.Malaysia gets top marks for this shameful state of affair.It has got the highest fatalities per capita in the world.Certainly, not something to be proud of.

If Malaysians work as aggressively as they drive, this country would have a quantum leap in its economic development and we need not wait until the year 2020 to be a developed nation.Unfortunately, many Malaysians are only aggressive at the wheels but not at the workplace.

It has become part of their daily ritual to break the law whenever the 'mata-mata' is not around. The car instead of being a vehicle of convenience had become a vehicle of death and destruction.

In Kota Kinabalu, about 2 weeks ago, three doctors were killed and one seriously injured when the car they were in slammed into the back of a bus, overturning the bus and killing one passenger.

Speeding, overtaking using road shoulder to beat the queue, overtaking on double line,jumping the red light and other breaches of the law are common occurrences on Malaysian roads.

If stupid is too harsh a word to describe Malaysian motorists sense of road courtesy than stupid it would be.It is common for Malaysians to give way to those that break the law, the queue jumpers.Try queue jumping in the West, you'll swear by your grandmother's grave that you wouldn't do it again.

Another cause of fatalities are overloading, especially in small towns and rural areas.

A while ago, two Kancils collided head on, there were 15 passengers in the two cars.In this recent accident where 4 people were killed, there were 6 passengers in a Proton Wira.How the hell can you accommodate seven people in a Kancil?

It's about time the government enforce strict adherence that vehicle can only carry the maximum number of passengers specified by the manufacturers and makes it illegal to exceed the allowed limit.

Poor maintenance is another death call for Malaysian motorists.Some can afford to buy the car but have not enough money to maintain it thus jeopardising its road worthiness.

Adding to the problem is wrong enforcement by the police.Police mount regular road blocks not to educate motorists on the needs to observe the law and drive safely or check the road worthiness of the vehicles, they are only interested in checking 'road taxes', whether paid or not.

Every festive season the police would also dispatch hundreds of policemen to have their 'Ops this' and 'Ops that', to try reduce fatal road accidents but these "Ops" have turned out to be an exercises in futility.In its current "Ops Sikap" the death toll to date stands at 28 deaths out of 938 accidents.

The source of this tragic situation are no other than the driving schools and JPJ (Road Vehicle Dept).Bad schooling and corruptions.

A complete overhaul of the driving schools in this country and wiping out corruptions within the department responsible for issuing driver's licence are long overdue.Those who failed their tests and pay 'coffee money' through their tutors to get their "KOPI O" licences are the bad drivers and are more likely to be involved in accidents.

Good driving habits start at school, therefore, it would be good idea if the name and permit number of the driving school be registered on the driver's licence to enable the authorities to identify the bad apples.Driving school that produced high accident rate among its students should be struck off.

Related articles(updated):Shock for motorists using emergency lane

The Jihad Against the Jihadis

How moderate Muslim leaders waged war on extremists—and won.

By Fareed Zakaria | NEWSWEEK

Published Feb 12, 2010

From the magazine issue dated Feb 22, 2010

September 11, 2001, was gruesome enough on its own terms, but for many of us, the real fear was of what might follow. Not only had Al Qaeda shown it was capable of sophisticated and ruthless attacks, but a far greater concern was that the group had or could establish a powerful hold on the hearts and minds of Muslims. And if Muslims sympathized with Al Qaeda's cause, we were in for a herculean struggle. There are more than 1.5 billion Muslims living in more than 150 countries across the world. If jihadist ideology became attractive to a significant part of this population, the West faced a clash of civilizations without end, one marked by blood and tears.

These fears were well founded. The 9/11 attacks opened the curtain on a world of radical and violent Islam that had been festering in the Arab lands and had been exported across the globe, from London to Jakarta. Polls all over the Muslim world revealed deep anger against America and the West and a surprising degree of support for Osama bin Laden. Governments in most of these countries were ambivalent about this phenomenon, assuming that the Islamists' wrath would focus on the United States and not themselves. Large, important countries like Saudi Arabia and Indonesia seemed vulnerable.

More than eight eventful years have passed, but in some ways it still feels like 2001. Republicans have clearly decided that fanning the public's fears of rampant jihadism continues to be a winning strategy. Commentators furnish examples of backwardness and brutality from various parts of the Muslim world—and there are many—to highlight the grave threat we face.

But, in fact, the entire terrain of the war on terror has evolved dramatically. Put simply, the moderates are fighting back and the tide is turning. We no long-er fear the possibility of a major country succumbing to jihadist ideology. In most Muslim nations, mainstream rulers have stabilized their regimes and their societies, and extremists have been isolated. This has not led to the flowering of Jeffersonian democracy or liberalism. But modern, somewhat secular forces are clearly in control and widely supported across the Muslim world. Polls, elections, and in-depth studies all confirm this trend.

The focus of our concern now is not a broad political movement but a handful of fanatics scattered across the globe. Yet Washington's vast nation-building machinery continues to spend tens of billions of dollars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and there are calls to do more in Yemen and Somalia. What we have to ask ourselves is whether any of that really will deter these small bands of extremists. Some of them come out of the established democracies of the West, hardly places where nation building will help. We have to understand the changes in the landscape of Islam if we are going to effectively fight the enemy on the ground, rather than the enemy in our minds.

Once, no country was more worrying than bin Laden's homeland. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, steward of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, had surpassed Egypt as the de facto leader of the Arab world because of the vast sums of money it doled out to Islamic causes—usually those consonant with its puritanical Wahhabi doctrines. Since 1979 the Saudi regime had openly appeased its homegrown Islamists, handing over key ministries and funds to reactionary mullahs. Visitors to Saudi Arabia after 9/11 were shocked by what they heard there. Educated Saudis—including senior members of the government—publicly endorsed wild conspiracy theories and denied that any Saudis had been involved in the 9/11 attacks. Even those who accepted reality argued that the fury of some Arabs was inevitable, given America's one-sided foreign policy on the Arab-Israeli issue.

America's initial reaction to 9/11 was to focus on Al Qaeda. The group was driven out of its base in Afghanistan and was pursued wherever it went. Its money was tracked and blocked, its fighters arrested and killed. Many other nations joined in, from France to Malaysia. After all, no government wanted to let terrorists run loose in its land.Read more.

Anwar's Dilemma

Hantu Laut

In my article here I predicted more departure of PKR's MP.

Malaysian Insider today reported that 5 more PKR's MPs are expected to leave the party.

Loss of confidence in Anwar Ibrahim's leadership and him sucking up to Lim Guan Eng's political antics has been the main reason for the dissatisfaction among PKR elected representatives.

A defining moment for PKR.The turmoil would continue and depletion of its lawmakers is expected in the coming months.Total of 10-12 MPs are expected to leave the party.

These are people hurriedly picked to contest in the March 2008 General Elections without vetting their credentials to determine suitibility to the job. A good number have no political experience and were the results of indiscriminate selections.

Leadership develops over time.Those accidentally thrown into the limelight without any trait of leadership in them will find themselves in a quandary, not knowing what to do.

Desperate to cling to the coalition and not wanting to upset the other coalition partners Anwar has allowed people like Lim Guan Eng free rein and ignored his own MP's dissatisfaction and unhappiness.

Leadership not salesmanship is what a good leader needs.

Update:
Also Read:Khalid Ibrahim talked cock.

Malay Racial Identity Fear

Allah row reflects Malay racial identity fear

By Vaudine England
BBC News, Kuala Lumpur

Some have questioned whether faiths can peacefully co-exist in Malaysia

Malay, Chinese and Indian Malaysians, thrown together by a colourful past, have often managed a mutual accommodation of each other's different faiths and cultures.

But the recent argument over the use of the word "Allah" has provoked strident - and divergent - views both within the Muslim community and outside it.

So too has the labelling of Indian and Chinese Malaysians as "pendatang", or immigrants, by a senior ruling party member, Nasir Safar.

He lost his job as adviser to the Prime Minister Najib Razak 12 hours later.

Meanwhile, the cancellation of a concert by US singer Beyonce, the arrest of young unmarried couples for "close proximity" and the caning sentence given to a mother for drinking beer have all attracted international attention.

Such rows call into question whether Malaysia is a state in which different races and faiths live in equality and comfort with each other, or whether the country is becoming more conservatively Muslim at the expense of others.

Change of direction

The results of the 2008 elections ramped up the tension.

The ruling coalition still won, but with a much reduced majority in the worst result in 50 years.

Many Muslims were angry non-Muslims were allowed to refer to God as Allah

Norani Othman, a professor at the Institute of Malaysian and International Studies (IKMAS) at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, says that after independence, there was a national emphasis on consensus-building and equality.

That was adapted, after race riots in 1969, to more overtly pro-Malay policies.

As Muslim nations around the world struggled to modernise, yet not lose touch with their traditional roots, the influence of Islamist parties expanded.

In Malaysia, that pitted the ruling United National Malays Organisation (Umno) against the Islamic Party of Malaysia (PAS) with the result that the 1980s saw a deliberate process of Islamisation.

What were once affirmative action policies geared to help Malays "catch up" with other Malaysians became policies enshrining Malay primacy or ascendancy, and being Malay meant being Muslim.

Institutions deemed to conform with Islamic principles and values were created - Islamic banks, Islamic insurance, Islamic university - there was even talk of "Islamising knowledge".

The list of matters judged to be under the jurisdiction of Islamic laws has expanded over the decades.

Just as the so-called race riots of 1969 were in fact a sign of systemic breakdown, as Australian academic Clive Kessler argues, so do the current tensions pose a direct challenge to Malaysia's founding aspirations of a diverse and democratic nation, argues Prof Othman.

Malay-ness

The trend, she says, is clear: "It is one of a steady increase in religious authoritarianism and intolerance, emanating from many key sectors and influential levels of Malaysian Muslim society."

National citizenship training has sparked recent controversy, with some critics saying it was contributing to an apparently unstoppable rise of race and faith-based exclusivity.

Participants report they are told that the only thing left for the Malay community is power, because they are a majority, and that any loss of power could mean they become something like an American Indian in their own country, one source said.

Shoring up that power involves "the projecting of the Other, the non-Malay, as always conspiring or wanting to take over", she said.

That siege mentality is expressed in the claim that non-Muslims using the word Allah might convert Muslims - even when figures suggest that Islam is the fastest growing faith in the country.

A new group called Perkasa - meaning strengthen - is avowedly pro-Malay. Critics call it chauvinistic.

Its founder, Ibrahim Ali, says: "If the Malays are not happy, then it will become a problem."

Rising stars such as Idris Haron, MP for Melaka and a member of Umno's Supreme Council, has supported party colleagues who describe non-Malays as "immigrants".

"Yes the fundamental structure of the country is race-based," says Mr Haron.

"It is the Malaysian way of life that a Malay must be a Muslim," he says - and that Malays are rightfully "the top priority when it comes to political development".

Mr Haron argues that the Chinese and Indians in Malaysia live far better than they would in other countries, thanks to Malay tolerance and generosity.

One Malaysia?

But the determination of one's rights according to one's race and religion profoundly worries not only Malaysia's many more liberal minds - it bothers the strategists behind the ruling coalition too.

They know that loyal non-Malays no longer see them as representative of a pluralist centre of Malaysian life.Read more