Why Should Foreigners Care Who Wins the White House?

By Anne Applebaum

“Is this presidential election really the most important in our lifetime?” That was the question asked, in so many words, by a concerned Brit at a discussion in London a few days ago. His words were directed at Larry Sabato, the American political analyst, whose countenance had been beamed onto a screen in a conference room like some giant electronic guru. Sabato didn’t blink. “This presidential election,” he replied, “is definitely the most important since 2008.”  

Appreciative laughter followed, but the audience wasn’t entirely satisfied. For the British—as for most other Europeans, and indeed most other foreigners—that aspect of this election is extremely hard to understand. Is the 2012 presidential race “important”—that is, will it mark a momentous change in American foreign policy and American attitudes toward the world—or will its result make no difference at all?

The source of the confusion is clear. Shards of harsh rhetoric from this nasty campaign do drift across the Atlantic, and many Europeans are aware that some Americans think Barack Obama is a Marxist-socialist bent on destroying America, while others think Mitt Romney is a vulture capitalist who will rob the poor to feed the rich. The British in particular like to “ooh” and “aah” over the stacks of cash Republicans and Democrats are spending in the apparent belief that the outcome matters a great deal.Read more.

I Just Met A Very Racist Chinese !

Yesterday, I arrived KLIA from KK and my wife from Phnom Penh, after visiting our daughter and grandchildren there.My wife's plane arrived 20 minutes earlier 
but she said she would wait for me so we can take the same taxi to our hotel.
Read more.

Dont Be The Cow That Plough The Bog

Hantu Laut


This country moving towards becoming a truly Islamic state is looking brighter than ever if Pakatan win the Federal government in the 13th GE (General Elections).

That's why PAS is adamant with their plan to implement hudud, they know it's a matter of time before they get what they want. On the other hand DAP ......was it miscalculation or deception? 

DAP thirst for power have made their leaders hammy actors lying to their community with complete disregard of the community cultural and religious practices.

DAP has assured the non-Muslims, particularly the Chinese, that hudud can never be implemented in this county without their blessing and those of the other non-Muslim MPs. 

This, looking at the probables, is wishful thinking.

Can Muslims garner two-thirds in Parliament?

I believe they can.

They now have, if my guesstimate is not wrong, between 136 - 140 Muslim MPs. The magic number, the DAP perceived elusive target of 148........ the trigger off point needed to amend the Constitution is only short by a hair's breadth.  The number would increase if DAP fields Muslim candidates in the 13th GE, which they have promised to do without realising the repercussions of its deception.

They can get the numbers and hudud can become a reality in Malaysia and it will not be PAS that will call the shot. It will come from UMNO MPs  throwing their supports behind PAS to spite the non-Muslims. They have more to gain by supporting hudud than opposing it. The extra numbers will come from DAP itself, by way of Muslim candidates fielded by them.

There is a Malay saying "alang-alang mandi biar basah" which will make UMNO MPs throw their support for hudud to teach  Pakatan supporters a lesson they will soon learn not appropriate in a pluralistic society.

Buying and selling of politicians in this country is no F-Word, as can be seen by recent events. 

Anwar Ibrahim, the purveyor of good moral values with his constant histrionic outbursts against corruptions, has inducted many ex-UMNO politicians into the "Pariah's Hall of Fame". See who are the people he collects to join him in his crusade against corruptions ? 

As abominating as it can be, there will always be the opportunistic ones who are prepared to sell their souls to the devil.

It will not be too difficult to get a few non-Muslim ass-kissers to join in the fray for hudud.

Do you want to be cowed into believing that hudud is not possible or you want to be the cow that refused to plough the bog?

Mitt Romney:A Looming Spectre Of New World Order

Hantu Laut

At a fund raising organised by his friend Marc Leder, presidential candidate Mitt Romney shared his thought about the 47% Americans likely to vote for Obama. 

This is what he said "All right -- there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that, that they are victims, who believe that government has the responsibility to care for them. Who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing." 

Mitt Romney, as I have said in my tweet earlier is not a truthful person, he is what he is, playing the devil's advocate.

He is cut from the same cloth as George Bush...... rich and not care a hoot about the less fortunate American people. 

Romney said he has written off that group of voters as he would never be able to convince them to take personal responsibility and care of their lives, not depend on the government too much. 

Mitt Romney mindset is no different from that of Bush. He'll take the same hawkish policy and will widen the budget deficit by increasing military spending and bring back a pugnacious foreign policy that could bring the US into possible arm conflicts with Iran, directly or indirectly, North Korea and high diplomatic tension with China.

He has accused Obama of China coddling and failure to take retaliatory action against China, accusing China of unfair trade practices, theft of intellectual properties and currency manipulator.

Romney's tit-for-tat foreign policy will return the US back to the Bush era of global geopolitical instability. 

China's naval expedition in the East and South China Seas and her overlaying claims over islands and waters of the Spratly, which have similar claims by five other nations is cause for concern.

China's PLA Navy, which used to play second fiddle to the PLA Ground Force has undergone rapid modernization and is now the second largest navy in the world after the US and is moving fast towards becoming a blue-water naval force causing rising fear in Washington.

As a non-American citizen my big concern is not the US domestic policy but its foreign policy that can change global peace and effect countries in non-aligned pacifist region, particularly, Southeast Asian countries. 

The dispute between China and Japan over the Diaoyu/Senkaku islands was one that came nearest to blow.

Diplomatic relations between the two countries has soured to such extent that two top Chinese officials.....Central Bank Governor Zhou Xiochuan and Finance Minister Xie Xuren failed to show up at the IMF and World Bank annual meetings in Tokyo last Friday.The crisis has exacerbated to more than the eyes can see....a diplomatic snub and rising tension.

As Republican president, Mitt Romney may  return to the Bush's years of belligerency, and high probability of new hotspots in the Asia Pacific region , particularly, in the East and South China Sea. The Chinese have been adamant to exert its sovereignty over islands and waters of the Spratly.

At Tuesday debate, Romney was asked by a voter, who said she was undecided, because she is disappointed with the lack of progress in the last four years.She said she attributed much of America's economic and international problems to the failings and missteps of the Bush administration.She also said, Romney being a Republican, she fears a return to the policies of the Bush's years, should Romney win the election.

I was not wrong when I first raised the issue in my post "The US Kickass Foreign Policy And China"  before others expressed the same fear of this new kid coming on the block and a looming spectre of a new world order.

Phnom Penh