Breaking News:Sabah Deputy CM Peter Phang Quits LDP

Hantu Laut

Sabah Deputy Chief Minister Peter Phang quits LDP as its departure from BN has been long expected over the Mazu issue.

More to come.

What I wrote on August 24th

Dompok is drumming up supports for himself and his party and may leave the BN just before the next GE because he thinks the BN will lose the next general elections.He is keeping his option open.On the same wagon is LDP, walking the political tightrope.

Tony Blair's Memoirs Describes Brown As Having "Zero Emotional Intelligence"

Hantu Laut

Lee Kuan Yew has it, Bill Clinton has it and Tony Blair has it. We are still waiting for George Bush.

Looks like George is not a writer but he can always employ a ghost or settled for an authorised biography.

Tony Blair book describes Gordon Brown as 'maddening'

Tony Blair has reportedly described Gordon Brown as "difficult, at times maddening" in his memoirs, being published on Wednesday.

He told the BBC Mr Brown could also be an "immense source of strength" but that Labour lost power because it "backed away" from further reforms.

Mr Blair also writes about his "anguish" over the Iraq War, but says he did not regret the 2003 invasion.

He also reportedly writes about his concerns over his own drinking habits.

The Daily Telegraph, which has seen a foreign language copy of the book - which is being published at 0800 BST - says he describes drinking a gin and tonic or whisky before his evening meal, then having several glasses of wine.

The book, which took three years to write, focuses on his time spent in Downing Street.

Brown tensions

In his book, Mr Blair also described Mr Brown as a man who possessed a significant power base within the party and media, a position which would have made it difficult to sack him as chancellor.

Mr Blair said: "Was he difficult, at times maddening? Yes. But he was also strong, capable and brilliant, and those were qualities for which I never lost respect.

"When it's said that I should have sacked him, or demoted him, this takes no account of the fact that had I done so, the party and the government would have been severely and immediately destabilised and his ascent to the office of prime minister would probably have been even faster."

Mr Blair also said he could not prevent his chancellor moving from No 11 to No 10 Downing Street.

During his BBC interview, Mr Blair said his relationship with Mr Brown was "frankly hard, going on impossible" but that "for large parts of the time we were in government, he was an immense source of strength".

He added that, when Mr Brown was chancellor, "people maybe over-estimated his capacity to be prime minister" but then during "the last three years, when he was prime minister, people maybe underestimated his strengths".

In extracts released to the Guardian in advance of publication, Mr Blair said Mr Brown's time as prime minister "was never going to work" partly because the former chancellor had "zero emotional intelligence".

Mr Blair has previously announced he is to donate his book's advance payment - reported to be £4m - plus all royalties to the Royal British Legion.

He told the BBC's Andrew Marr he had decided to make the donation to a fund connected to the Armed Forces before he had "written a word".

"I wanted to indicate my sense of respect and the honour in which I hold these people, that I regard as out on the front line of the biggest security threat we face in the world today," he said.

Mr Blair also insisted leaving Saddam Hussein in power would have been a "bigger risk" to security than removing him.

'Sense of sadness'

He acknowledged that "we did not anticipate the role of al-Qaeda or Iran" in planning for the aftermath of the conflict, which saw bloodshed continue long after the defeat of Saddam's regime.

He spoke of "anguish" which "arises from a sense of sadness that goes beyond conventional description or the stab of compassion you feel on hearing tragic news".

"Tears, though there have been many, do not encompass it.

"I feel desperately sorry for them, sorry for the lives cut short, sorry for the families whose bereavement is made worse by the controversy over why their loved ones died, sorry for the utterly unfair selection that the loss should be theirs."

However, he insisted removing Saddam Hussein was the correct decision.

"On the basis of what we do know now, I still believe that leaving Saddam in power was a bigger risk to our security than removing him and that, terrible though the aftermath was, the reality of Saddam and his sons in charge of Iraq would at least arguably be much worse."

He also told Andrew Marr he "can't regret" the decision to invade Iraq in 2003, for which he takes responsibility.

When asked about his feelings on the conflict, he said: "How can you not feel sorry about people who have died? You would be inhuman if you didn't think that."

Drinking habits

Mr Blair went on to say in his BBC interview that it was "wholly unacceptable for Iran to have nuclear weapons capability" and that military force should be used against them if necessary, to prevent their nuclear programme from creating weapons.

The former prime minister will be out of the UK on publication day, attending the opening of Middle East peace talks at the White House in Washington in his role as an envoy for the "Quartet" of the United Nations, Russia, the United States and the European Union.

BBC political correspondent Ross Hawkins said Mr Blair described in his own words "the Gordon curse" after years of rumours and suggestions that the two men had a tempestuous relationship.

Mr Blair's former press chief Alastair Campbell said revelations Mr Blair took to drinking whisky, gin and wine every night "genuinely surprised" him.

He said: "I don't think I've ever seen Tony the worse for wear through drink, ever. I think what he says in the book is that there were times when he felt he was using it as something of a crutch."

You can watch Tony Blair's interview with Andrew Marr on BBC Two on Wednesday 1 September at 1900 BST.

BBC

Sabah PKR's stumbling block - Anwar Ibrahim

Joe Fernandez

Tuesday, 31 August 2010 21:28

COMMENT The flip-flops in the continuing saga of Sabah Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), a troubled chapter, should come as no surprise to anyone who knows party advisor Anwar Ibrahim.

Anwar has a long history of unfulfilled pledges in Sabah. This is a history which began with his entry into Umno in 1984. He stepped up his reputation further when the Barisan Nasional (BN) overthrew the Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) government a month after state elections in 1994 with the elaborate promise of “Sabah Baru” (new Sabah) in 100 days.

The sole exception, pledge-wise, is the appointment of Kota Kinabalu division chief Christina Liew Chin Jin Hadhikusumo as the Sabah state deputy chief late last year as part of a peace plan. For this, credit must go to party president Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, who is close to Liew. The rest of the plan is in ruins, thanks to Anwar, the only stumbling block.

Anwar is a political animal who does not say what he means and does not mean what he says. It’s for no reason that Umno, his old party, has labeled him a political chameleon. What benefit he gets by adopting this mindset is beyond anyone’s comprehension. Anyone would like to know where he or she stands vis-à-vis another. Those who don’t subscribe to this ethic would soon be history as any good businessman would swear.

This is something to be said in favour of former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad who is no doubt a hardcore racist. He leaves no one in any doubt what he stands for and never hesitates to let the other person know where he stands with him (Mahathir).

Anwar, however, is no Mahathir despite the fact that the latter is an original political animal. He lacks the flexibility and resilience of the older man.

So, it’s highly unlikely that 12 senior party activists – 11 Dusuns, 1 Barunai – currently facing a one-year suspension will have their punishment reduced upon appeal. The sentence for their involvement in the aborted formation of Parti Cinta Sabah (PCS) will stand undiminished and perhaps even enhanced to push Sabah strongman Jeffrey Gapari Kitingan to his limits. This will take his 12 disciples out of the running for the divisional elections slated for Sept 18 and 19, if not the party altogether.

The likely result, even in the event their sentences are not enhanced, will be the inevitable departure of the 12 from the party.

Any discussion on a new deal struck between Anwar and Kitingan on the fate of the 12 would be an exercise in utter futility even if it doesn’t fuel polemics. If the recent history of the written peace plan is any indication, the new verbal deal is as good as dead.

The PKR advisor virtually called Kitingan a liar yesterday. This was after the latter apparently pre-empted the reneging on their secret deal on the 12. He prematurely disclosed the 12-9 = 3 formula for the resolution of the crisis i.e. nine of his 12 men to have their sentence substituted by warning letters. The remaining three would have their suspension reduced by half and backdated to Jan 4, the date when the PCS application was officially withdrawn, according to what the Registrar of Societies reportedly told PKR.

Anwar has capitalized on Kitingan’s pre-emptive strike to entertain his inner circle with his own take on the 12-9 = 3 formula i.e. all 12 to be suspended but can appeal. The sentence on the three principal office-bearers of PCS would stand and take them out of the running for the Sept 18 and 19 polls. The other nine would be eligible. Their sentence would be back-dated to Jan 4 and reduced sufficiently to enable them to stand for the polls next month. This can be seen as another of Anwar’s fairy tales if his rubbishing of Kitingan’s take on the formula is any indication.

Kitingan and Anwar, it is clear, have been talking past each other for a very long time. This is very likely to continue and end in even more broken pledges to test Kitingan’s patience to the limits of human endurance. Sabah rights, the Malaysia Agreement, the Tambunan Declaration, the 20 Points and autonomy are yet to enter the PKR Constitution despite many promises.

The Sabahan, as a member of the majority local community, sees himself as the rightful ruler of his state, an idea which is anathema to Anwar who is Umno unreformed, unrepentant. Mahathir may have taken Anwar out of Umno but no one can take the Umno out of him. He stands for Malay Muslim political supremacy in Sabah as well and justifies this on the grounds that “the Muslims are now in a majority in the state”.

This may be true if one includes the illegal immigrants with MyKads who have entered the electoral rolls as Malay Muslims. Besides, Sabahans now number only 1.5 million while the foreigners including illegal immigrants have eclipsed them at 1.7 million.

So, Anwar’s idea for the immediate future seems to be to make full use of Kitingan for his hidden agenda in the state while stringing him along until he has no further use for him. The PKR supremo figures that ten parliamentary seats from Sabah and an equal number from neighbouring Sarawak, both through Kitingan if he remains politically naïve and trusting long enough, will help put him firmly in the saddle in Putrajaya in 2013.

How going from the frying pan (BN) into the fire (PKR) benefits Sabah and Sarawak is anyone’s guess on the other side of the South China Sea.

PKR, and by extension Pakatan Rakyat – despite DAP and Pas having some saving graces – will be another, certainly more degenerate, version of Umno and BN. There’s still the possibility of making BN and Umno see reason especially in Sabah and Sarawak. The same cannot be said for Anwar given his dubious track record.

The writing is on the wall. Long before push comes to shove, Kitingan will leave PKR for his own political vehicle as his people have already been long demanding. In that case, BN will win once again in Sabah and Sarawak but by default if Anwar doesn’t give way to him in the seats that he wants. The question of BN giving way to Kitingan’s new political vehicle does not arise.

Joe Fernandez

Tuesday, 31 August 2010 21:28

He could also return to PBS, which he co-founded in 1984 with his elder brother, especially if the latter becomes Chief Minister once again to complete Musa Aman’s – another Dusun -- term. This is the hottest topic in Sabah today. If Joseph Pairin Kitingan becomes Chief Minister of Sabah once more, even if just for the run-up to 2013, the BN will win the state with a landslide. Not a single KadazanDusunMurut vote will go to the opposition.

The return of the KDM to the BN will make it extremely difficult for the Dayaks in neighbouring Sarawak to abandon the ruling coalition at this juncture. The Dayaks are looking to the Kitingans for their political lead as they lack leaders of similar calibre, the continuing polemics on them notwithstanding.

Malaysian Mirrior

Thinking About Singapore

Written by Our Correspondent

Tuesday, 31 August 2010

An associate who recently was required to spend a day in Singapore on a business trip became so irritated by the smug attitude of the island republic's officials, taxi drivers and others that it gave rise to this rumination. In 1985, the satirical novelist Kurt Vonnegut published an odd novel, Galápagos, the story of band of humans on a nature cruise who are shipwrecked on a remote fictional island in the Galápagos chain after a financial crisis has wrecked the global economy. They arrive on the island of Santa Rosalia just in time to become the last remnants of mankind when a virus attacks the ovaries of all the world's women, making them infertile. The Santa Rosalia band, isolated from civilization by 1,000 kilometers of open South Pacific water and still able to breed, become the last people on earth. It was on the 19-island Galápagos chain, of course, where the naturalist Charles Darwin formulated his 1859 theory, On the Origin of Species by watching and recording the way finches' bills changed shape as the weather in lean or fat years made food more or less abundant. Some Galápagos birds even cease flying but become superb swimmers because fish forms their diet. In Vonnegut's fable, over the next million years Darwin's theory of natural selection favors those who can swim the fastest. The descendants of the Santa Rosalians thus devolve gradually into a species resembling seals, with flippers and rudimentary fingers. Their snouts evolve into beaks with teeth adapted to catching fish. Since a streamlined head means they can swim faster, their brains eventually shrink as their heads change shape. Hisako Hiroguchi, an ikebana teacher, ultimately gives birth to Akiko Hiroguchi, a child born with fur covering her entire body. Evolution is on the way. The species has evolved – devolved in fact – into one that has little need for thought as long as its constituent members can swim fast and catch fish. Throughout the novel, Vonnegut blames the human brain for the existence of the crisis that has wrecked the global financial system. According to an analysis of the book, Vonnegut, who died in 2007 just before the current financial crisis began to take on an uncanny resemblance to his book, believes that "only a complex brain such as ours can change its opinion of the value of a currency so rapidly and let these opinions control our actions, which have real-life consequences." Vonnegut, an astonishingly inventive but famously slapdash novelist, produced a considerable flock of books as strange as Galápagos, but many of his fabulist concoctions came dangerously close to a later reality. What if today there existed a hermetically sealed tropical island whose citizens, fed only what their leaders, a dynasty of Chinese mandarins, want them to hear? The English language, taught only by natives who learn it from others on the island, starts to evolve into a strange crackle. As their leaders become more distrustful of the outside world – surrounded by a Muslim sea – they evolve newer and better ways of keeping outsiders out and controlling the way the insiders think. They lose their ability to cope not only with Asia but anywhere else in the world. In places where people chew gum, argue with the government, take risks, misbehave and occasionally display rule-breaking creativity, the aversion to the unruly would be a major disadvantage. No taxi driver lets his passengers out in defiance of the double yellow line, nor, when the howls of drivers behind him grow to a deafening roar, does he step out of the car and scream, "Aw, go **** yourself!" The island's leader first tries to control population through mass sterilization programs, causing the birth rate to fall precipitously as 30 percent of child-bearing women are sterilized in an attempt to "raise the quality of the population." His efforts go too far, with the result that the island's birthrate refuses to rise back to replacement levels. The leadership brings in hundreds of thousands of mainland Chinese – fortunately already trained in obedience by the Communist Party. Then scientists at the island's Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology help to collect tissue and DNA samples from 10,000 species of animals. They begin to reconstruct the evolutionary history of the human and other vertebrate genomes and soon discover that they can change the direction of human development. Because smaller humans take up less space, birth rates no longer need be cut drastically. But nonetheless, the island can grow geographically – by a third, through dramatic environmental intervention. An increasingly uneasy society begins to worry more and more about outsiders, frisking and X-raying passengers on the way into the island, becoming the first society in Asia to do so. Erroneously given to believing their leader's eugenics theories have made them smarter than any other society, they approach education as a technological tool rather than as a means of enlightenment. Subsequent attempts to legislate innovation into the society go nowhere. The population go about their lives seeking merely to get as comfortable as possible. Countless attempts to foster creativity meet with frustration. Paralleling Vonnegut, there is a global financial crisis. The rest, as they say, is history. It doesn't take a million years. They may even be able to catch fish in Orchard Road.

Asia Sentinel