Taib smirks, Sarawak seethes

Free Malaysia Today

The white rajah of Sarawak was full of sarcasm when he professed concern for the fate of the Chinese community in the state. Taib Mahmud said he was a bit worried that the urban Chinese voters would pick the opposition to bark at the government. By not playing his game, he explicitly issued them a dire warning: “Voting the opposition means no government support… the areas lost by the Barisan Nasional-led government may not get anything.”

The overweening chief minister even predicted that the BN would be able to win the coming state election. The old man who has been around for the past 30 years thinks the vast, resource-rich state is a hereditary possession. The whole world knows he is a fabulously wealthy man who wields enormous power and who would use his treasure chest to bury his political foes. But history can repeat itself.

Just across the border, Sabah was once ruled by a chief minister dubbed “dirty” Harris. Harris Salleh was, like Uncle Taib, an arrogant and a blustering bully. For almost 10 years, he ruled the impoverished state with hardly any opposition. Then out of Tambunan came an unknown Kadazandusun paramount chief named Joseph Pairin Kitingan. At first, he was in the same party as Harris. Soon he became disillusioned with Harris’ Berjaya and began to oppose its policies and its abuses of power. Big-headed Harris could not stomach opposition from within his own ranks and soon Pairin was forced to quit Berjaya. But hubristic Harris had sealed his own fate.

Pairin became an independent and challenged the ruling party to stand against him in the seething battleground of Tambunan. Haughty Harris took the bait – and lost despite employing an arsenal of dirty tactics. Blinded by power, “dirty” Harris hit the roof and punished the people of Tambunan in a senseless act of vengeance: he deprived them of badly needed development funds. As a result, the Tambunan folk had to live through years of hardship.

But Harris miscalculated in his gamble. The Tambunan people did not buckle under these harsh conditions. They rallied around the banner of a new movement called Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) led by Pairin. When the next state election came, PBS, now the opposition front-runner, was ready to face Harris and his dirty band of followers. PBS fought hard for change and against the excesses of the ruling party. In a last desperate throw of the dice, Harris lost the whole state. The “noxious weed” was uprooted. It was sweet victory for the resilient people of Tambunan.

Will this momentous, historic event be repeated in Sarawak? Taib also threatened to deprive the Chinese community of development funds if they dare throw their lot with the opposition. He even brandished the now reviled line used ignominiously in the 2008 campaign: the government will not be able to help the Chinese community if “there was no effective Chinese representation in the government”. In that another remarkable upheaval, the government’s bluff was called.

But over the years Sabah has been politically emasculated. The scene has now shifted to Sarawak and Uncle Taib is also playing dirty. In fact, his game is dirtier than Harris. His rule is longer than Harris and he exercises absolute power. He controls almost every facet of life in Sarawak. He is not satisfied with what he has done, telling the people he is still looking for ways to develop the state – and pour more money into his bank. Nothing gets pass him without his imperious nod. All his partners in the coalition approach him on bended knees and “protestations of inviolable fidelity”.

He distributes his largesse (huge government contracts) to his supporters, cronies and family members without open tender but throws crumbs to the hungry, toiling natives. His vast business empire was built without breaking a sweat while Sarawak descended to the status of the fourth poorest state in the country despite having ample natural resources. When Sarawak goes to the polls soon, the power of money will no doubt come into full play. But the rumblings in the state against the leader are growing louder. Continue reading.

John Malott: I am Nobody's Pet

Hantu Laut

John Malott strikes back with threat of libel action against anyone who labelled him Anwar's pet.

The full story here.His rendition of Malaysia's evil regime here.

What is a pet?

As we all know it primarily refers to domestic or tamed animal kept for companionship or pleasure and treated with care and affection.

My pet dog is called 'Tiger' and another one less a pet is called 'Blackie' (with no offence to coloured people) it's just the colour of its fur.

English is a wonderful language a single word can carry as many as a dozen different kind of meanings.Sometimes, from the sublime to the ridiculous, it is, but still the most sought after language.

Can John Malott be called a pet of Anwar Ibrahim or the other way around? Is Anwar his pet and demolishing the Najib's government is his pet project?

So, let us examine what a human pet entails.

1.Noun - a person treated with special favor, esp. in a way that others regard as unfair.

2.Adjective - denoting a thing that one devotes special attention to or feels particularly strongly about or denoting a person or establishment that one regards with particular favor or affection.

Of course, there are the other 'pet' that only affected humans........offended at being slighted which was what John Malott probably suffering from..... indigestion brought about by the article written by Rachel Motte and the ripple effect her article created in Malaysia.

What do you call a person, time and time again, supporting the same person and constantly attacking a duly elected government adversarial to his pet project?

Would a 'lapdog' be more appropriate?

Dunno!

As a matter of fact, I have downloaded Rachel's article earlier but did not get to publish it.

Are there element of libel therein? With the exception of calling him 'pet' most of what she wrote were already in public domain.The terrorist link with the Muslim Brotherhood have been mentioned in many publications.

Would NST and Utusan apologise to him or take the bull by its horn?

Let's wait and see whether the threat of libel would materialise and which jurisdiction he would use. Certainly not the Malaysian judiciary because it's corrupt and controlled by the executive as portrayed by Anwar and his ilk.

I expect NST and Utusan to defend the fort

We may not like what Malott wrote about Malaysia but asking him to be banned from entering the country is showing political immaturity.

Minister in the PM's Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz will be proposing to the cabinet that Malott be banned from entering Malaysia.I hope the cabinet wouldn't be that foolish to accept his proposal.

What the point of the ban he can write about Malaysia from any where around the world.

Malaysia Getting Election Fever?

Sarawak assembly should be the last big one before national snap polls later in the year

Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud Friday is expected to call for the dissolution of the East Malaysian state's assembly, according to local media.

The polls, which must be held in prior to the expiry of the state assembly's term in July, have long been regarded as a precursor to national elections, which must be held before the end of 2013 but are expected sooner to give Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak another five-year term in office. Much depends on the prevailing atmosphere once the Sarawak elections are held, along with a continuing series of by-elections brought on by heart attacks, scandals, defections and other political problems.

By rights the 74-year-old Taib, who has ruled Sarawak for 30 years, should face the strongest challenge of his career, if not the threat of criminal investigation, although the political wisdom is that his Parti Pesaka Bumiputra Bersatu Sarawak can be expected to pull out a victory over the Chinese-dominated Democratic Action Party, with or without him.

Over several months last summer, a Sarawak-based NGO called the Sarawak Report issued a series of exhaustively detailed reports documenting through officials records in the United States. Canada and the United Kingdom Taib's vast personal holdings, including a Seattle, Washington home for which he appeared to have paid US$1 to a company to which he granted lucrative timber concessions. The stories, reprinted by Asia Sentinel, can be found here, here, here, and here.

News reports over the past several months have quoted sources within the Barisan Nasional as hoping Taib would step down because of the scandals attached to his name and that of his family. The Sarawak Ngo's reports included repeated requests to Malaysian authorities to investigate what appeared to be 30 years of looting the state for its timber and other natural resources. However, nobody ever answered the NGO's requests for a probe of Taib's immense overseas assets. It is clear that the national government values the political security it gets out of Taib's Sarawak political apparatus over any questions of integrity.

Although some observers expect early national elections as well, sources within the United Malays National Organisation, the country's biggest ethnically-based political party, told Asia Sentinel that Najib would prefer to hold off national elections until later in the year to allow the economic stimulus from a panoply of economic projects to kick in, including the beginning of construction of highways, a mass rapid transit system for Kuala Lumpur, a 100-storey office building and other projects.

Malaysia's politics have been tumultuous for almost three years, since the opposition Pakatan Rakyat troika of parties broke the 50-year two-thirds stranglehold on the Dewan Rakyat, or national parliament, by the Barisan Nasional, the national ruling coalition. The heart attack death on Feb. 10 of Zaharuddin Abu Kasim, a Pahang state assemblyman representing UMNO, clears the way for the 16th by-election since national elections stunned the Barisan Nasional in 2008 national elections.

The opposition continues its precarious hold on more than a third of the Dewan Rakyat. But how long that will continue is not known. While the most recent by-elections have mostly gone to the parties that held them previously, the percentage of votes going to the Barisan have steadily gone up.

Certainly Najib has a tailwind from a strengthening economy and a perception that he is an activist, compared to his predecessor, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. His personal approval rating remains extremely strong at 69 percent according to a Merdeka Center poll which was released on Christmas Eve, despite long-running allegations of massive kickbacks paid on defense purchases when he was defense minister, not to mention widespread continuing questions over complicity in the 2006 murder of a Mongolian translator, Altantuya Shaariibuu, the jilted lover of his best friend, Abdul Razak Baginda. Even among ethnic Chinese, Najib's approval rating remains a strong 54 percent.

UMNO, however, enjoys no such cushion. Polls show approval of the political party at just 22 percent after a vast number of scandals demonstrating the lips-and-teeth relationship of successful Bumi businessmen to the party. Only 6 percent of Chinese place any trust in the party. It is thus questionable at the moment whether UMNO could win back the Barisan's two-thirds majority. The two other main parties in the Barisan coalition, the Malaysian Chinese Association and the Malaysian Indian Congress, may be in even worse shape, given huge scandals in both.

To prime the economic pump, Najib has allocated nearly RM100 billion (US$32.8 billion) to a series of ambitious projects under his 10-year Economic Transformation Program. The total ETP, as it has become known, is estimated to cost a whopping RM443 billion. But there are deep concerns about the ETP from a lot of different angles, including whether the spate of enormous projects might drive up the economy initially, but could result in overinvestment followed by prolonged periods of low investment and low growth.

For instance, there is apprehension among analysts whether Kuala Lumpur needs another skyscraper, especially one that will be 100 storeys high and built by the government. The iconic twin towers have been largely filled by Petronas and other government offices. Former Prime Minister Mahathir, who built them, has expressed concern in his blog, Che Det, whether the proposed one is viable. Real estate analysts fear a coming property glut.

The other concerns revolve around who will get the contracts to build the projects. Far too often, government contracts have provided a cornucopia of goodies for what has become known universally as the UMNOcrats. At least 23 of Malaysia's biggest companies have been vehicles for UMNO to siphon off vast amounts of money as Mahathir's plans to industrialize the country went awry. Read more

Valentine:No Skin Off My Nose

Hantu Laut

Happy Valentine!

Do not join the rank of the ignorant louts.

Yes, Valentine has its root in Christianity but it is no more a Christian celebration, nor does it encourage vices or sexual liaison.

Her knowledge of history, if anything to go by, is pathetic.Her fallacy of composition is reprehensible.

Vices are not just the domain of Christianity, vices have large following in every religion including Islam.

It is fine for her to tell Muslims not to celebrate Valentine Day but to mislead her followers by making up her own version of history is absolutely disgraceful.

She portrayed Christians as being licentious and immoral.

Below, is a video of a sermon by Ustazah Siti Nor Bahyah urging Muslims not to celebrate Valentine Day as it is considered haram in Islam.

I will not disagree with her on this but why desecrate another religion to prove a point?




First she mentioned about the Romans worshipping the Goddess of Love and related that to Christianity.The religion was not yet born at that time.

Pre-Christian Rome practised polytheism.Christians are monotheists and worship only one God.Than she went on to say Saint Valentine helped in the invasion and downfall of Cordoba.Wonder which history book she read?

Saint Valentine existed around AD 269 and Islamic Spain or Cordoba was between AD 711-1492.There was a gap of almost 500 years between the two.The last Islamic rule of Cordoba was the Almoravid Era between 1030-1130 and then, thereafter, a period of decline ending in 1492.

Not likely that the dead Saint Valentine rose from his grave and helped the Christians to capture Cordoba.

In spite of her pitiful knowledge of history this lady has huge following on facebook.
She has more followers than Anwar Ibrahim and his wife Wan Azizah put together.
Also read:

Malaysian Muslims warned against Valentine's Day