The Man Of Many Faces

Anwar, Najib Vie for International Cred

Written by Gopal Krishnan

FRIDAY, 02 JULY 2010

Facing challenges at home, Najib attempts to repair his overseas image to match the opposition leader's Since becoming prime minister, Najib Tun Razak has faced serious challenges at home in trying to rebuild the image of his ruling Barisan Nasional coalition amidst the schisms and controversies that have afflicted the three main coalition parties. His task of strengthening and revitalising his coalition has been made much more precarious by the political pressure he has been subjected to by the Anwar Ibrahim-led opposition. While trying to keep up his political momentum at home, Najib has been trying to also juggle the task of rebuilding his image on the international stage, especially vis-à-vis that of Anwar, who continues to enjoy the international image of both a moderate Muslim and an opposition figure who has been grievously wronged by two trials regarded overseas as trumped up in the attempt to drive him from politics or worse. And if recent events are any indication, as in the domestic controversies that have off-and-on gripped Najib’s government, Anwar is not likely to cede much ground on the international stage either. Anwar’s international reputation and credibility, particularly in the West, were cemented during his days as finance minister much of the 1990s, which culminated in his falling-out with the former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. Back then he quickly came to embody the image – at least among those sympathetic to the so-called Washington consensus - of a moderate with a learned appreciation of the intricacies of maneuvering through an international financial crisis. Between his release from prison in 2004 and winning his current parliamentary seat, Anwar Ibrahim reaffirmed his ties and visibility abroad. Perhaps this was to be expected given he was forbidden by Malaysian law from immediately jumping back into the political fray and running for office. The period coincided with lecturing stints at Georgetown and Johns Hopkins Universities in the US and Oxford University in the UK, not to mention that they took him to familiar locales (especially Washington, D.C.) and among some friendly circles. It was also during this period that Najib’s star within Umno was on the ascendency. By the time the 2008 general election rolled around in March, then-prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was already mired in a serious internal political struggle within Umno and the political assault from Mahathir did not help Badawi’s attempts to move Umno and the country beyond the politically crippling grip of the former premier, who rarely passed up an opportunity to indulge in Washington-bashing; or for that matter, being his prickly self toward the West. To be sure, most of this sentiment was tailor-made for domestic political consumption. As the handwriting on the wall for Abdullah Badawi became apparent following the Barisan’s meek performance in the 2008 general election, Najib, the prime minister-in-waiting, also found himself in the dubious position of being propped up by his political mentor and anti-Washington demagogue, Mahathir. Already having been embroiled – and internationally tarnished – by allegations over the gruesome murder of Mongolian translator Altantuya Shaaribuu in 2006 by two of his bodyguards and by allegations of corruption over the purchase of French submarines, Najib’s close political links to Mahathir may have helped consolidate his political stake within Umno, but it would be safe to say it hardly helped to make Najib a sweetheart in either Washington or other western capitals. In an effort to improve his overseas image and to seek to blunt Anwar’s, Najib even before he took office had the government contract with the international public relations powerhouse Apco at a cost of RM28 million That has backfired to some extent through Anwar’s and the opposition’s allegations that Apco also does work for the Israeli government. It is against this backdrop that there was much hullaballoo made in the state-controlled media of Najib’s ‘Kodak moment’ during his meeting with President Barack Obama during the nuclear security summit in Washington, DC in April. While it symbolized Najib’s stepping out on his own on the international stage – and out of the shadow of his anti-western political mentor – it arguably enabled the prime minster to appear, after all, less a novice, at least vis-à-vis Anwar, especially in Washington. Piggy-backing on this encounter with Obama, the prime minister’s wife, Rosmah Mansor, too was the beneficiary of some apparent international notoriety as she was honored with the International Peace and Harmony Award. Given some of the critical coverage that the prime minister’s wife had attracted in the alternative media, such international exposure for the couple – at least on the home front – helped provide a favorable narrative internationally. For his part Anwar, having become embroiled in another sodomy trial, has been diligent about helping to keep some of the international community’s attention on Najib’s government by stressing the issue of political persecution in Malaysia. This is evident in how his legal team has sought to portray the sodomy case. Continue reading.

MAS Explained

Hantu Laut

MAS has responded to the seemingly "near miss" I witnessed on my flight between Labuan and Kuala Lumpur.

RVSM of 1000 is really not too far to get optical illusion of the distance of the moving object.The original RVSM was 2000 feet for FL290(29000 ft) to FL410(41000 ft) but was reduced by ICAO to 1000 ft and implemented between 1997 and 2008 over the world's various airspace.

MAS explained.

We refer to your blog post above regarding your flight experience on MH2609 from Kota Kinabalu with a stop over at Labuan en route to Kuala Lumpur dated 29 June 2010.

Thank you for raising your concerns. For your information, all our aircraft are equipped with the Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS). This system functions to detect any aircrafts that is within a flight path of our aircraft.

It’s a mandatory rule by the Department of Civil Aviation that the TCAS system on the B737 aircraft must be functioning before any flight.

We have found that the incident to which you refer to did not trigger any TCAS warning. This indicates that the other aircraft was too far away and therefore did not trigger the TCAS warning.

In addition, Malaysia Airlines strictly adheres to the Required Vertical Separation Minimum (RVSM) airways which dictate 1000ft minimum vertical separation between 2 aircrafts on opposite direction.

Should there have been an incident, the pilot is mandated to file an Air Safety Report (ASR) with our Flight Operations Safety Department within 24 hours.

As there was no incident, the operating Captain of the flight did not file any report. The Captain is a senior and experienced pilot who is also an Authorized Examiner by the Department of Civil Aviation.

We would like to assure you that the safety of our passengers is our top priority. In everything that we do, there is absolutely no compromise on safety.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely,
Captain Mohamed Azharuddin Osman
Director of Operations
Malaysia Airlines

July 2, 2010 6:50 PM

MAS Aircraft "Near Miss" Civil Aviation Should Investigate.

Hantu Laut

Our flight MAS MH2609 that was supposed to depart Kota Kinabalu at 4.10 p.m. was delayed for about 25 minutes. The stopover at Labuan for 30 minutes was the result of my carelessness for not reading the fine prints.Didn't notice the tiny (#1) print just below the particular flight indicating 1 stop over when I booked online.As time was of constraint did not bother to change the flight.MAS must have learned from insurance companies how to trap its costumers what they see is not what they buy.

I have been here many times but Labuan has never been my favourite town.It simply has no real attractions, no sensuality, no colour. It's a real dump, pallid and charmless, where only cheap cigarettes, cheap booze, honky-tonk bars and cheap sex the only attractions.No bona fide tourist in his right mind would go to Labuan.Its history of being a colonial outpost in days bygones left no visible relics whatsoever.

I expected the flight from Labuan to Kuala Lumpur to be quite empty and even told my wife to reassure her.This is one of the few times I hated myself for being cocksurely wrong.The almost endless stream of people boarding the plane was enough to amuse my wife that a few hours ago was fuming mad that she has to be on this plane.It amused her because I was wrong.It was packed like sardines.

The flight took off smoothly although there were low clouds everywhere during the ascend.

Almost 50 minutes out of Labuan and looking out of the window I told my wife how beautiful those clouds were adorned with reflection of the setting sun giving them a golden tinge.Flying in westerly direction we were actually chasing the sunset. Good God! Next moment, another jet plane, much smaller than the Boeing 737 that we were on passed split second just below the wing tip of our plane going in the opposite direction.

It gave my wife and I the biggest jolt of our life and we exclaimed so loudly we actually woke up our fellow passenger in the next seat.Being frequent flyer and knowing some aviation rules I know that was almost a disaster.I hope I was wrong in my assumption.

I hope the captain of MAS flight 2409, if he is aware of the near miss or close call, unless his radar did not pick up the other flying object, has lodged a report with the Civil Aviation Department to investigate.It happened at about 6.45 p.m. on 29 June, Labuan to KL Flight MH2609 and the other aircraft looked like a private jet.

A near miss, a close call or near collision are terms used when aircraft passed each other too close for comfort.

Commercial airliners are considered dangerously close if they are one mile apart.A quarter of a mile apart or less is a "near miss" and more or less on a collision course and what we saw was pretty pretty close. Normally, three miles is the minimum separation in some airspace.

(I have reported by email the incident to the DG of the Department of Civil Aviation to determine whether the incident has been reported or was I wrong in my assumption what construes a 'near miss' ?)

Unfortunately, the email bounced back.

Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:

azhar@dca.gov.my

Technical details of permanent failure:
Google tried to deliver your message, but it was rejected by the recipient domain. We recommend contacting the other email provider for further information about the cause of this error. The error that the other server returned was: 550 550 5.7.1 Message rejected as spam by Content Filtering. (state 18).

For some unknown reason many government department's email seems to behave rather strangely and are difficult to get through.

Kami Melayu Tak Kow Tow,Kau Tau ?

Kami tak kow tow, kau tau?

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Art Harun

To all Singapore Malays, I am writing this to tell you how lucky we all are in Malaysia. You think you all are so great, you sure have not seen how greater we, Malaysian Malays, are.

What you think? You think Johor Bharu is a place full of thieves, kidnappers and gangsters don’t you? Well, I wouldn’t blame you. Because that is what your ex-Prime Minister cum your Senior Minister cum your Minister Mental said. He did not like Malaysia because he was jealous of our success, peace and tranquility. And so he said that in an affidavit in a court proceeding. As Singapore Malays, you of course have to kow tow to your Supreme Leader and so you agreed with him, in’it? In’it?

I am sure you don’t really agree with him but you cannot say so, in’it? Because you can’t really say anything in Singapore, especially when what you wanted to say would go against what your Supremely Total leader said, in’it? Can you?

Well you know something? We Malaysian Malays can say anything we like. Of course we cannot insult Islam lah…kalau insult Islam we kena lah. But a bit only lah, not like you all in Singapore. We would only be detained without trial under the Internal Security Act. Then most probably we would have to leave Malaysia and live elsewhere. But you see, we don’t have to kow tow like you all. That’s the point, get it?

Hmm…do you know that Kia has launched a new car? Yes. It’s called Kia Soo. LOL!!!

Allow me now to continue to write in proper Queen’s English. Because my Singlish attempt in the foregoing paragraphs is really pathetic, as you could see. That is because we Malaysian Malays are taught Maths and Science in proper English. Because of that, we Malaysian Malays are so proficient in English although we are not as good as you are in Maths and Science.

The purpose of my writing this letter to you is to tell you that we, the Malaysian Malays, do not have to kow tow to anybody. We are the best Malays in the whole world. The luckiest Malays in the whole world. And the most successful Malays in the whole wide world, including the cyber world. Any other Malays, from any other country, or part of the world (including the cyber world), are just not as good or successful as us, the Malaysian Malays. They are simply at the tenth place out of ten. We, the Malaysian Malays, for your information, occupy the first nine places. That is how good we are.

I tell you what. We have a Malay astronaut. Here he is known as AngkasaOne. We even have a reserve astronaut. He is also Malay. He is known as AngkasaTwo. Don’t ask me why we mix a Malay word for “space” with an English word for the first two numbers to call them two astronauts. Perhaps that is because we want to impress that we are taught Maths in English. Yes, that must be it. Now, you all in Singapore do not have any AngkasaOne do you? See? We are better than you. And we do not have to kow tow to anybody.

We also swam across the English Channel, fully protected from jelly fish in a cage. And we have a Datukship for that. You all Singapore Malays got like that one ah? Mana ada? Of course later they was a Chinese boy who swam without the protective cage and even much faster than us the Malaysian Malays, but he did not get Datukship, you see. So we are better. And we did that without having to kow tow to anybody. You all. You kow tow also cannot do like that one, for sure (my Singlish is getting better, eh?)

Than we also have many big Malay businessmen in Malaysia. Our national carrier, MAS (not Malay Airline System, it’s Malaysia Airline System, mind you), was owned by a Malay. He made MAS the best. And one of the biggest. So much so that when he left, MAS was in such a solvent state that it could spend RM1.55 million to buy some paints in various colours splashed over some white canvas and put them in the Chairman office. And we did it without having to kow tow to anybody, kau tau?

We also have Malay businessmen who built highways from the north way up to the South. Now, had your government agreed, we would have extended that highway to your small ciku state via a second causeway. But true to your kiasu attitude, being jealous of our success and achievements (especially because we have several excellent national cars and the fact that we now have not one, but two, submarines – which mind you, can now dive in tropical waters – and also the fact that we run the “hottest race on Earth” – which is to be renamed “the monsoon-est race on Earth” – once a year), your government don’t agree to that proposal. But we always have a way. We will build a crooked and very scenic bridge on OUR side. Padan muka you all! We cannot build a straight bridge, we would build a crooked one.

More on the hottest race on Earth. We know you all are envious of our F1 Circuit, which is the best in the world (in 1999 that is). You all are so envious with this circuit. That we know. You all don’t have enough land and therefore you can’t build one. You also cannot have a F1 circuit race unless you want the F1 race to be held underwater.

So you have a street F1 race. Street race! Hah! In Malaysia, we Malaysian Malays do that every night. We call ourselves Rempits. Congratulations! You have turned the F1 drivers into Rempits! And to be different, and to kow tow to Europeans fans, you have to hold the race at night. In Malaysia, we do not kow tow, okay. Unlike you. Racing at night and on the street. Cheh!

Back to the highways. Yes. That was done by us, the Malaysian Malays. Look at how successful the highways, as a business, are. I know. In other countries, like yours, highways are built for logistical purposes but here, let me remind you, highways are primarily for business and investment purposes. As you can see, we, the Malaysian Malays are inventors of new businesses. And to top it all, even when the highways are raking it in, in terms of toll collections, our government would compensate the highway company in the hundreds of millions. And we do that, my little Singapore friends, without kow tow-ing to anybody. Nope. No kow tow, kau tau?

We, the Malaysian Malays are the masters. We excel in every fields of business. In constructions industry, we obtained contracts recently for the construction of the new palace. Not only that, we even managed to negotiate with the government, whose allocation was initially RM400 million, to increase the cost to about RM800 million. Now tell me. Can you, Singaporean Malays, do that? No way towkey.

And at international level, we managed to be an agent who put up the deal to for the Malaysian government to buy submarines. And we earned, I am told, about RM500 million for that. You think it is easy to buy submarines? No it is not I am telling you. There must be an agent to put up the deal. The government cannot just take up the phone and tell the submarine manufacturer that it wanted 2 or 3 submarines. Or ask 4 or 5 manufacturers to come for presentations and choose one of them to supply the darn submarines. No. The government needed us, the Malaysian Malays to be the agent. And of course, we do that without kow-tow. We do not have to kow tow, get it?

You all Singapore Malays, you can do like that ah? Sure kenot. You all are losers. I am sure you all supported England the other night, didn’t you? 4-1. Bumbling kow-tow-ing idiots! Golden generation konon. If that was golden, than I wonder how brass looks like!

You all have Perkasa or Gertak or not? Ha…got or not? You see, we Malaysian Malays are so lucky. We have Perkasa and Gertak to look after our rights and entitlements. That is why we do not have to kow tow to anybody like you all. We know our rights man. Our Constutilation. Yes. Our rights and entitlements are all mentioned in the Federal Constitulations. Our supremely brave and intellectually inclined leaders or Perkasa and Gertak have read them. And we believe what they say too. That is why, we do not have to kow tow to anybody. Kau tau? Continue reading..