The Egyptian Lesson: Malaysia Beware!

Hantu Laut

Power of the Internet which have either been largely ignored or curtailed by tyrannical governments had been instrumental for the Egyptian uprising.

Social media do not topple nasty regimes but activists can use it to mass mobilise people on to the ground by harnessing the power of social media such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and blogs.The main stream media do not have the speed and reach as effective as these social media.

The Egyptian uprising was started online by Google 30-year old executive Wael Ghonim who used Facebook as his platform.

Wael was arrested and detained for over a week but later released. He is now considered a hero in Egypt.He could have been killed if the Army had been brutal in supporting Mubarak.The Army eventually came to their senses that they can't kill millions of Egyption on the streets and demanded Mubarak's resignation.

The White House is now in a quandary, they have supported this tyrant for too long, the next leader may not be as friendly.



As news of the protest spread it triggered off a wild fire harnessing all available social media primarily Facebook,Twitter and YouTube. Facebook was the biggest contributor among the three.

The Egyptian government eventually shut down the Internet hoping that the trouble would go away which by then was too late as the news had travelled the length and breadth of the nation.It had no choice but to restore the Internet or lose favour with its Western allies particularly the U.S.

The Malaysian March 2008 General Elections where the BN was almost routed losing 5 states and its two-thirds majority was a stark reminder of the power of the Internet.In the Malaysian case the media support was mostly by bloggers and to lesser extent YouTube.Social media such as Facebook and Twitter are just as potent, fast and effective but was not as popular then.

The BN government is still living in a state of denial that the alternative media had played an effective role in diminishing their grip on political power. They still depend on the MSM which have seen most circulation declining as more and more people used the Internet to source their news.

During the untenable tenure of Pak Lah the most damaging to the ruling party was Malaysia Today, a blog with huge following run by the politically incorrigible Raja Petra Kamaruddin.He provided the most effective arsenal in the opposition's war chest.The government credibility was so low at that time even the untruths became the truths to his followers.He was a kind of Julian Assange on a smaller scale publishing sensitive documents on his blog on government's wrongdoings. He is still a wanted man in Malaysia.

The BN won the recent 3 by-elections which has put them back in the comfort zone and a state of complacency.Instead of embracing the Internet and use it as an effective weapon to their advantage they are now busy trying to pass a law to curtail the free flow of information.It would be the greatest folly if such law is passed and is likely to backfire on them.

There will not be massive protest on the Egyptian scale in Malaysia but there will be substantial cyber war during the 13th General Elections.

There will be hundred of thousands of blogs, Facebook and Tweeters they have to deal with in the event of a showdown.

It's about time the government embrace the Internet instead of looking at it as its enemy.

Egyptian Pharaoh Dethroned, What Next For Egypt?

Hosni Mubarak: Egyptian 'pharaoh' dethroned amid gunfire and blood

Critics said the president would never leave voluntarily but few political rights and falling prosperity forced an end.

Hosni Mubarak's presidency was born amid gunfire and bloodshed and ended in an equally dramatic fashion. As vice-president, Mubarak was sitting next to Anwar Sadat on 6 October 1981 at an army parade in the Cairo district of Nasser City when soldiers with Islamist sympathies turned on their leader, pouring automatic weapons fire into the reviewing stand. Sadat was killed outright. Mubarak narrowly escaped. Eight days later, he was sworn in as Egypt's third president.

That Mubarak should be ejected from the job he has held for nearly 30 years is, with hindsight, hardly a surprise. It had become clear to Egyptians and the world in recent years that even at the age of 82 he regarded the presidency as his by right, hence his nickname of "pharaoh" – and that he would not quit voluntarily. As the crisis overwhelmed him, he said he had had no intention of standing again in September. Few believed him. Others assumed he planned instead to install his second son, Gamal, in a dynastic succession.

Mubarak's attitude to his people was by turns paternalistic, aloof and repressive. Though he claimed to love his fellow Egyptians, he did not trust them, maintaining the harsh emergency laws imposed after Sadat's assassination throughout his reign. Leading an unswervingly secular, pro-western regime, he demonised even moderate Islamist parties and made of the Muslim Brotherhood a bogeyman with which to scare the Americans.

Yet, in rare interviews he implied that he believed he held some sort of divine mandate, that he ruled through and by God's will. After he survived an attempt on his life by Gema'a Islamiya (Muslim Group) terrorists in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in June 1995, one of up to eight attempted assassinations over 30 years, he returned to Cairo proclaiming that God had saved him through an act of divine providence, as in 1981.

Imperious, abstemious (he does not smoke or drink), and intensely private, he suggested Egyptians were lucky to have him in charge. Without him, he said repeatedly, there would be only chaos. And this claim to ensure stability was, in truth, his entire electoral manifesto.

Yet mixed up with his vague sense of God-given power and obligation was a strong strand of regal hubris, bordering on self pity. "I've only had three months' holiday in my 56-year career," he told a television interviewer in 2005. "I've been doing hard labour for 56 years and it's all for Egypt." He never cried, he said, he never despaired, and he never allowed himself to be provoked. Influenced perhaps by his military background, he clearly saw such emotional repression as a virtue.

Speaking this week, Mubarak returned to his favourite theme of self-sacrifice. As hundreds of thousands of demonstrators demanded he follow Tunisia's Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali into exile, he insisted he would serve Egypt until his last breath. "This dear nation ... is where I lived, I fought for it, and defended its soil, sovereignty and interests. On its soil I will die. History will judge me like it did others." Talking to ABC television last week on Thursday,he repeated his life-long, heart-felt mantra: that, if he left, chaos would descend.

For all his vanities and inadequacies, Mubarak's early achievements were significant. To the turmoil that followed Sadat's death, he brought a steady hand and, at a moment of great peril, held the nation together. Confronting the ostracism of Egypt by Arab and Muslim countries following Sadat's 1979 peace treaty with Israel (the Arab League decamped from Cairo to Tunis in disgust), he worked assiduously to restore relations, finally succeeding by 1989 with all but the rejectionist leaders of Tehran.

In 1990-91, he opted to support the American-led Operation Desert Storm to eject Saddam Hussein's forces from Kuwait, thereby cementing Egypt's new relationship with Washington and obtaining in return a $20bn write-off in debt. And faced by an upsurge in destabilising, jihadi violence in the 1990s, whose targets included Egypt's vital tourist trade, he fought back with calculated ferocity at a time when the US and Britain were still living in blissful ignorance of the gathering Islamist storm.

Most important of all, at least from the western point of view, Mubarak maintained the peace, albeit a cold peace, with Israel and he fortified the US alliance. There was no repeat of the 1973 war with Israel, in which Mubarak, himself a former Soviet-trained fighter pilot, had distinguished himself as air force commander. There was no question of Egypt slipping back into Moscow's embrace, as in the time of Egypt's first president, Gamal Abdel Nasser.

Mubarak was, by training, a stolid soldier and by instinct, a simple nationalist. Not for him Nasser's pan-Arabist romanticism. Not for him the showy extravagance of Sadat. In charisma, he was wholly lacking. Imagination was not his strong suit. His only political agenda was to maintain calm and maintain power. And that made him a reliable if limited ally.

Mubarak received billions in American military aid, equipping and rewarding the army and its commanders, on whom his power ultimately rested. In recent years he proved a willing partner in Washington's endless search for an Israel-Palestine settlement. But for many Palestinians, and particularly Hamas, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, his pro-American stance was a galling betrayal. When Israel attacked Gaza in 2008-9, for example, he allowed Israeli bombers to over-fly Egyptian territory.

In terms of the broader region, Mubarak maintained close ties in later years with fellow Sunni Muslim rulers in the Gulf and, despite attempts at reconciliation, remained strongly at odds with Iran over its nuclear programme and its involvement in Lebanon, Syria and Palestine. As the Arab world's most populous and influential country, Egypt under Mubarak saw itself as a natural leader in the face of Tehran's expanding ambitions. In this it was egged on by the US.

Now, with Mubarak gone, the US and Israel face a more uncertain strategic reality, and not just in regard to Iran. Whoever leads Egypt in the longer term is unlikely to be as biddable as his fallen predecessor.Read more.

Valentine Day:Licentious Christians

Hantu Laut

Some people think they are holier than thou.This is most unnecessary.

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 11 — Both the city Islamic Department (Jawi) and Selangor Islamic Department (Jais) have banned Muslims from celebrating Valentine’s Day, calling it a Christian tradition in a Friday sermon delivered in mosques today.

Valentine’s Day falls on February 14, next Monday, and generates revenue for restaurants, hotels and retail businesses.

“It is celebrated in many ways, starting with greeting cards, flowers and dance parties. In fact some celebrate it with a date which would eventually lead to illicit sex,” said the sermon prepared by the Selangor’s Islamic authority.

“Clearly the celebration is not part of Islamic teaching, it violates the syariah and contradicts the universal code of ethics,” it added.

Citing the Catholic Encyclopaedia, the sermon claimed Valentine’s Day is celebrated to honour a Christian priest who was imprisoned in Rome for his belief and remembered for his love letters addressed to the daughter of prison official.

“Clearly the celebration of Valentine’s Day is related to the incident, so as a Muslim who believes in Allah and accepts Muhammad as the messenger, is it appropriate for us to celebrate Valentine’s Day?” said the sermon.

Jais pointed out that there were 257,411 births out of wedlock between 2000 and 2008, and blamed Valentine’s Day celebration as one of the causes.

“Therefore every Muslim, especially teenagers, must abandon the tradition of celebrating Valentine’s Day, which was meant to corrupt the Musim community,” it said.

“Remember that the Jews and Christians would continue to deceive Muslims. They will do everything undermine the Muslims’ belief and personality,” said the sermon.

Jais also called on the media and social networking sites not to promote Valentine’s Day.

Valentine’s Day, an annual commemoration of love and romance, and is celebrated the world over on February 14, but a 2005 religious ruling by the National Fatwa Council said the celebration has Christian elements and the “practice is mixed with immoral acts contradictory and forbidden by Islam.” Read more.

Yes! Kill Valentine Day

Hantu Laut

Though it has its root in Christianity and been around for yonks I don't think Valentine Day has any more religious significant as much as Father's Day, Mother's Day, Secretaries Day and litany of other foolish days of celebration manufactured by the hospitality industry.

I have never celebrated Valentine Day and have no wish to as I find it rather bemusing that one have to pick this particular day to express one's love to the other person.We can express our love and affection to the person whom we love anytime of the year.Valentine Day, like any other, is purely commercialised, the day the hospitality people want to take money out of your pocket.

For those who are ignorant and still symbolises it with Christianity be rest assured it has been removed from the Roman calender of saints in 1969 by Pope Paul VI, though religious observance is still permitted it has lost its Christian analogy.

There was no romantic element present in the early medieval biographies of these Christian martyrs and if you don't already know there were three different St Valentine ambiguously linked to Valentine Day and none of them has a lover.

Apart from the name nothing is known about Saint Valentine except one of them was buried on the Via Flaminia on February 14.Due to uncertainty of its origin the Roman Catholic Church decided to have it removed from religious observance.

If ignorance is bliss than I don't blame PAS Youth of becoming self appointed morality police and Jakim for wanting to kill Valentine Day.

Muslim couple are prohibited from expressing love and affection as long as they remained unmarried.Even if you are married you can't express them in public places, our love, basically, is relegated to the bedroom, or, if you are unmarried, in some lair away from the probing eyes of the 'morality police'.

Yes, go ahead kill Valentine Day, we would have less unwanted babies ?