Morsi Defies Military's Ultimatum

His fate hanging in the balance, embattled President Mohammed Morsi vowed not to resign Tuesday, hours before a deadline to yield to the demands of millions of protesters or see the military suspend the constitution, disband parliament and install a new leadership.

The Islamist leader demanded that the powerful armed forces withdraw their ultimatum, saying he rejected all "dictates" – from home or abroad. Outside on the streets, the sense that both sides are ready to fight to the end sharpened, with clashes between his supporters and opponents that left at least 23 dead, most of them in a single incident of fighting outside Cairo University.

In an emotional speech aired live to the nation, Morsi, who a year ago was inaugurated as Egypt's first freely elected president, pledged to protect his "constitutional legitimacy" with his life. He accused loyalists of his ousted autocratic predecessor Hosni Mubarak of exploiting the wave of protests to topple his regime and thwart democracy.

"There is no substitute for legitimacy," said Morsi, who at times angrily raised his voice, thrust his fist in the air and pounded the podium. He warned that electoral and constitutional legitimacy "is the only guarantee against violence."

Morsi's defiant statement showed that he and his Muslim Brotherhood are prepared to run the risk of challenging the army. It also entrenches the lines of confrontation between his Islamist supporters and Egyptians angry over what they see as his efforts to impose control by his Muslim Brotherhood and his failures to deal with the country's multiple problems.

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On Jews and Justice

Hantu Laut

Taking respite  from the unpleasant world of politics. 

Below is a short,  somewhat facetious composition from Kirk Douglas on racism, or rather anti-Semitism he experienced when he was a kid. 

I guess not many people know he is a Jew and his real name is Issur Danielovitch, later changed to Izzy Demsky and later legally changed to Kirk Douglas.

He is now 97 years old and have stopped making movies.

On Jews And Justice

Kirk Douglas

I was six-years-old when I had my first contact with anti-Semitism. I came home from school one day with a bloody nose, crying to my mother -- "Yanak hit me!"

"Why?" my mother asked.

"He said I killed Jesus Christ."

"What? You killed who?"

"I didn't kill him. I don't even know who he is."

My nose stopped bleeding and soon I was playing again with Yanack as if nothing had happened between us. It wasn't his fault, because that was what he had been taught to believe by his father. And come to think of it, it wasn't Yanack's father's fault either because he'd certainly been taught the same thing by his father. Maybe none of them could read, because if they had actually studied their New Testament, they would have learned the truth: that the Romans were the ones who crucified Jesus. Only the Romans had the right of public execution. The Jews were a tiny people subject to the laws of the Roman empire.

Rodgers and Hammerstein dealt with the subject of learned prejudice when they wrote the highly successful musical comedy South Pacific. South Pacific was a hit on Broadway but when they started the tour in the Southern states they ran into trouble. The state of Georgia introduced a bill outlawing South Pacific because it contained "an underlying philosophy inspired by Moscow." The claim was based on one song, "You've Got to be Carefully Taught." Here are the lyrics:

"You've Got To Be Carefully Taught" (Lyrics from South Pacific)

You've got to be taught to hate and fear,
You've got to be taught from year to year,
It's got to be drummed in your dear little ear,
You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a diff'rent shade,
You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught before it's too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate.

The Southern legislators maintained that this "song justifying interracial marriage was implicitly a threat to the American way of life." Rodgers and Hammerstein fought stubbornly against them and the song stayed in.

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Anwar Beware Egypt:No More Rallies Please

Hantu Laut

The Arab countries are not yet ready for an open, modern and democratic society. They need "iron fist in a velvet glove" regime to maintain political stability.

The Arab Spring applauded by the West as the way to go for greater freedom and democracy have brought more harm and miseries than good to the Arab world. Regime change through violence and bloodshed is catalyst for more regime change through violence and bloodshed. 

Those "who live by the sword, die by the sword"and Egypt is glowing for another regime change that may lead to full scale civil war if the government can't smother the violent uprising.

Scores of Egyptian have been killed in violence demonstrations and a bigger and bloodier days are expected as the country fell into chaos with clashes between pro and anti-government factions. 

The core of discontent is President Muhammad Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected president. With just 30 months in office the people have grown tired of his incompetence. The country's economy is in shambles, in chronic state of stagnation and Mr Morsi is more interested in pursuing his Islamic agenda.

Before the general elections Anwar Ibrahim had mentioned a number of times of a Malaysian Spring for regime change. His refusal to accept the result of the elections is cause for concern. His gatherings of Blackout 505 rallies purportedly against electoral frauds were covers of more sinister plot.

Malaysians are still level-headed and peace loving, but Anwar should not push his luck and persist with his rally that could end up a putsch. 


Protesters torched Muslim Brotherhood headquarters.

Read more in the Telegraph and in the Economist:

A Dangerous Silence

There is no concealing the disappointment felt by many of Aung San Suu Kyi’s supporters around the world in the face of her failure to denounce the attackson Burmese Muslims by members of her own community, the Buddhists who constitute more than 90 per cent of the population.

Burma opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi waves to supporters after she attended a ceremony to mark her 68th birthday at the headquarters of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party Wednesday, June 19, 2013, in Yangon, Burma. (Khin Maung Win/AP)

Perhaps she couldn’t stop it, people say, but at least she could have taken a stand. She is seen as the teacher, the mother of her nation; moral rebirth has been at the centre of her mission ever since she signed up with the democracy movement; her most influential essay was titled A Revolution of the Spirit. How can she possibly stay silent as Muslims are slaughtered?

The first attacks came in June 2012, just as she was embarking on her first trip abroad in 24 years. A young Buddhist woman in Arakan state, which borders the overwhelmingly Muslim nation of Bangladesh in the west, was raped and murdered by two Muslim men. In retaliation, a group of non-Muslim men stopped a bus and killed the Muslims on board, and the spiral of murder quickly got out of control. There were many victims on both sides but the Muslims were in the majority. Many thousand lost their homes and were resettled in squalid temporary camps.

Another, even more serious wave of attacks came in October. Unlike June’s events, these were initiated by the majority community and closely co-ordinated, as a recent investigation by Human Rights Watch explained in detail (http://www.hrw.org/features/burma-ethnic-cleansing-arakan-state). And although there have been no recent attacks as vicious or widespread as October’s, the fire has not burned out. Instead it has spread across the country. And still Suu Kyi holds her tongue.

How are we to explain it?

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