Who do they think they are fooling?

 by Howl Pillai

We are now being told that there is tolerable repression and there is intolerable repression. Like good cholesterol and bad cholesterol not all repression is bad.

Libyan repression is intolerable. Bahraini repression is tolerable. The US Fifth Fleet using Bahrain as its base is purely co-incidental. Syrian repression is intolerable and a sufficient cause for regime change but Yemeni repression is tolerable and a sufficient reason to give them time to work things out themselves.

Likewise the Egyptian fight for democracy is a cry for freedom but Saudian protests against repression being stamped out harshly is all about ‘maintaining stability in a key region of the world’. Yes the world relies on Wahhabi repression to crush dissent in the Gulf so that oil can keep flowing to the industrialised World. That such repression is carried out by the very guardians of the Holy Places of Islam is never put under the microscope. Surely The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia more than any other country, has a moral responsibility to be a force for good in the region given its religious credentials.

Clearly then, first comes oil and then comes morals. And then comes the Arab League. The shameless Arab League! Gaddafi is now being saddamised and Libya will soon be iraqised. Surely the Arab League is not daft enough to believe that a no fly zone can be established without the violence of arms. No race with any self respect or dignity should condone the violent killing of its civilians by inviting others to do the job. And that brings us closer to home. First come votes and then come morals. And then comes the dirty tricks department. Someone has been invited by our ‘Arab League’, whoever that may be, to carry out a political assassination. Our version of domestic regime change.

No air strikes needed here. Just sex please. We are Malaysians. And everyone now already an expert on the anatomy of the arse. It started with “Sodomy”and then came its unexpected sequel “The Return Of Sodomy”. The one-man Anwar regime refused to lie down and die. Then strangely, two weeks ago excerpts from the doctor’s memoirs mentioned with pusillanimity that four women were offered and Anwar picked two. That was some turn around if you know what I mean. At about the same time the judge in “The Return of Sodomy” throws out DNA evidence obtained unlawfully. Then the Sarawak state elections. And that which is unlawful can be procured! Both call-girls and elections!

There are good sex shows and there are bad sex shows. Or more accurately there are well-intentioned sex shows and there are ill-intentioned sex shows. We had an MCA good sex show with good intentions a year or two ago. And now  a bad one with ill-intentions  like in Sri Carcosa yesterday. My! My! We are a liberal lot indeed. No one will be persecuted for screening pornography.

And mystery too! A shy Datuk! An Omega watch! The procured services of an East Asian lady of the night who is capable of operating in the morning as well! At least as reported in the Press. Notice that Mongolians are not generally referred to as East Asians even though they look like Japanese, Chinese or Koreans. The mystery deepens. Keeps the Rakyat engrossed and titillated. Distracted even. Meanwhile millions are pumped into Sarawak.  

Then very quickly, in the days ahead she will become Chinese. The message to the Malay masses: Now watch this Opposition Melayu give away an expensive Omega to this Ah Moi....He will sell out the Malays to the Chinese. The bastard!

And to the Chinese voter, the message: See this Melayu. He pays for sex using our hard earned money. You can’t afford an Omega. How come he can? The bastard!

And to the Indian voter, the message : See the Melayus and Chinese are enjoying. Only 21 minutes and she can get Omega watch.You  work all day for nothing. The bastard!

Very clever! Like the Arab League. If they get Gaddafi,  it is not us Arabs who did it. So what is next?

Sex always sells. Like sex with a minor. He gave her imported chocolates.

What a shame!

Forget the video, focus on Sarawak!!!!!!!!!

Sarawak. Who stole our Oil? why are we the richest and yet the poorest?

I think we should forget the video, I think we should now focus on Sarawak, because believe me all Malaysians know this is a BN set up to take the focus away from Sarawak, many will openly say so, some the UMNOPUTERAS in particular, the dead NST, the Berita Harian and Utusan will also be harping on this issue, and if they go too far, lets do the next best thing dump the press, the NST is as good as dead, the news stands tell the story, but anyone else trying this should also be dumped.

This is a BN strategy, they are so afraid of Anwar, they would have killed him earlier like Marcos did Aquino.That thought ran down the mind of Mahathir, but that would have had Mahathir thrown out instantly, so he did the nest best thing, he declared him a homosexual and got the sister of his confidante to vouch for that. That's what you call, "Doctored in the House."

Mahathir Mohammed shudders of the thought that Anwar may get even with him if he comes to power, but small men think small and what else can you expect of a small mean man  like Mahathir. he gives himself too much prominence,

"Doctor in the House" even his memoirs lack originality, "Doctor In The House" is a British Television comedy and you can even take that comedy more seriously then the "recalcitrant."

Incidentally this video looks like it was "Doctored in the House."  How timely.

Najib is afraid that Anwar will send him to Mongolia, that is unbearable, Anwar says this at his rallies every now and then to poke fun at Najib, now he (Najib) has frequent nightmares and  Rosmah.finds it difficult to sleep as a result.

Speaking about Rosmah I received an anonymous call today telling me that this Datuk T is Rosmah's friend, and has done her many favour, but I do not give credence to anonymous callers, will that caller call me and give me his name and some evidence, I promise not to reveal his identity, or else this blog is asking you to  remain silent forever, we do not print wind news, if you know what I mean.

Anwar has gone to report  to the Police not the best thing to have done.

I asked that question before when Chua Soi Lek was captured on video, who shot the video?

Till today the police force has not identified that person or persons.

That is the crime, no matter who is on the other end, the question is who shot the video, that person is a criminal, and that requires urgent investigation by the police.

When a Minister can be filmed, and even if in the ridiculous situation that the head of the opposition got filmed in the act, it is a breach of National security, unscrupulousness will prevail and a lot of things can go wrong in government if these people can be blackmailed, and what other reason can be the motivation of such filming.

The Attorney General has to consider taking Datuk T to task for attempted blackmail or for that matter blackmail itself, he has asked the person in the video ( Anwar as revealed in Malaysiakini today) and his wife to quit politics or he will ..........does that not amount to blackmail?

I think making a police report on Anwar's part was a big mistake, now they'll look for more DNA they fumbled in  the Saiful case they want his DNA now in this case they coudl very well ask for his DNA too to determine it is not him, and use that to trap him in the Saiful case this is a huge fix up.

The people do not get fooled so easily especially by fools, you can't fool all the people all the time BN, and your game is up.

I hope they do not use JBP to investigate this case, no other Indian or Christian please, use a Malay and a Muslim, we have had enough of this.

In Sodomy 1 it was Augustine Paul, in Sodomy 2 it is Jude Blacious Pereira so that the sins do not fall on a Malay or a Muslim?

No more games no more fix ups and we are not going to fall for it.

LET THE SARAWAK CAMPAIGN BEGIN!!!!!!

Related articles

• Malaysia's Anwar says police stripped him (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• The Challenge is On Sarawakians (cramminus.wordpress.com)
• Malaysia's Anwar offended by 'degrading' stripping (sfgate.com)
• Arrogant First Lady could turn nation against Najib | Free Malaysia Today (melakatoday.wordpress.com)
• Comparing Malaysian Leaders with the Dictators and ex-Dictators of the Arab World... (cramminus.wordpress.com)
• The Arrogance at its Best! (feedsblogger.wordpress.com)
• Whistleblower film incriminates Sarawak Chief Minister (yubanet.com)
• PRESS DIGEST - MALAYSIA - March 21 (reuters.com)

Doctored in the House

Image via Wikipedia

Top opposition MP caught on video for having sex with East Asian woman. Years ago a top Muslim BN MP was alleged to have been caught in Port Dickson did it make a difference? Oh yes it did he is so high up the heirachy today no one can touch him, a former minister of health was caught on video too, today he is the President of the second largest component of the BN, the MCA. Does it make a difference? Indeed it does at least our own history says so.

"All that glitters is not Gold."

Now with TV and computers even the "Recalcitrant" has said that you can make the unreal seem so real, so do not believe everything you see on TV, especially when it is found by a person who can call in the press and refuse to identify himself. and only wants to be identified as Datuk T, reminds me of Mr. T is this the cheap imitation we see on the Panasonic advertisement.

This Datuk claims that he went to the hotel   to the room used by a  top Malaysian opposition  politician, on the instructions of the politician, to look for his watch which this politician allegedly left behind in the hotel room where he is alleged to have been engaged in sexual activities with an "East Asian" woman when  he stumbled on the video.


His fumbling stumbling story as reported in the Star:;

“As I could not find the watch on the table, I searched for it behind the dresser. I was shocked to find many strands of wires behind the dresser.On close inspection, I found four well-hidden CCTV cameras, I tried to open the two dresser drawers and found one was locked. I prised open the locked drawer using a sharp object. I found an active CCTV recorder. I disconnected the wiring and took the recorder out of the hotel,’’ he said, adding that no one had the recording except him."

Is he claiming that he broke in and entered and stole the recorder from the hotel room?

Then can I claim that the video belonged to one Datuk Z, and he  too knows that person to whom he  lent all these equipment to, its is his  personal property and, Datuk T  in having prised open the drawer and taking it  has stolen property that  belongs to Datuk Z?

Oh come on please! how incredibly ridiculous  can it get?

Remember Saiful going to Najib's house for a scholarship?

This has UMNO written all over it although I am told this Datuk T could be a Chinese.

The East Asian woman could we take a closer look, she could be the lady who has been making false accusations against Anwar since Sodomy 1, that lady looks very looks very East Asian if you mean oriental, I am not saying it is her I am saying we need to see the video to ascertain if it could be her.

Then again I am worried is this an East Asian, as in Indian or an Oriental Asian as in the case of the Asians from the Far East, it seems as confusing as Datuk T himself.

This Datuk seems to be a close confidant of this opposition politician, he was supposed to be someone who was trusted or at least that is what he made this top opposition politician believe, now is this guy trustworthy? Let the facts speak for itself.

Well this is not the first case involving top politicians, a top UMNO politician was allegedly  caught for Khlwat  with a popular Malay lady in Port Dickson some years ago, that politician is now so high up the hierarchy he can't be touched.

Then there is the case of the Doctor, not the recalcitrant, this is a Chinese Doctor, the former health Minsiter who was forced out of his post only to return as the President of the  second largest coalition partner of the BN the MCA.

So what does that tell us, that those caught for sex offences in the BN get more powerful, sex is a political Tongkat Ali to them.

Oh please come out of this, it looks so much like it was "Doctored in House."

SPIN DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE!

Our  house the Dr. Stole

 By Howl Pillai

We got it  all wrong again !  Now even a houseman can tell that millions in this country are sick and tired, as the Doctor should have been  in the Hospital and the Rakyat in the House.

 After all it is our House,  and to think our only living ex -PM stole our Dewan Rakyat from us! 

In response you say, “What about Abdulla Badawi ?” 

No! No! No!,  he is not really an ex –PM, he is more correctly our axed Prime Minister, axed by the ex -PM. 

Come to think about it, the ex -DPM of black eye fame was also axed by this ex –PM,  and so too Musa and Ghafar, ex -DPMs,  were also axed by this ex -PM. 

Notice how  the current PM is trying his best to axe for good the ex – DPM, most Malaysians believe  the ex -PM is also behind this. 

Malaysian politics as you can see, is full of axes and exs. 

Occasionally a keris shows up out of the blue, this happens when someone or other announces he wants to be PM and in the fullness of time, an ex -PM himself,  well that is another story altogether.

So do ex-ercise ex-treme  caution when reading the Doctor’s memoirs, be also on the look out for events that have been conveniently axed or "can't remember", plenty, including the “Poison” label.

Next note that survey after survey shows that Malaysians are notoriously poor readers, at the rate of 50 pages per year, most Malaysians will take all of 17 years to complete this 843 page book, and since it is the older folk who have reportedly bought the book, many will die while reading it.

Poor souls! If you have aged parents or elderly neighbours  do them a favour, tell them to stop reading it. 

And we all know life here is full of ironies, here is the doctor who pushed through the change in the medium of instruction in our schools and universities from English to Bahasa Melayu against all good advice and  today millions of Malaysians cannot string together a proper sentence in English let alone read a passage in his memoirs with full comprehension, that means they are “misunderstanding” all the time. 

One of these days an MP will say that to reduce the ironies of our life, we must cut back on foods containing iron. Did you not notice our ministers often say ‘they have been misunderstood’ whenever they run into trouble ? 

Now you know why! The Doctor will no doubt claim the same  when his memoirs are attacked for political lying. How convenient!

And yet more ironies abound. The translation rights of the book into Bosnian, Albanian, Chinese (via the Peoples Republic Of China) and Bahasa Melayu are being negotiated. 

We gave the Bosnians a big hand in their hour of need, so Bosnian is understandable.

Albania is best remembered for its late Communist dictator, Enver Hoxha who ran his country to ground,so Albanian is also understandable. 

Chinese is also perfectly understandable, both the PRC and Malaysia have a similar agenda - keeping the Chinese population under tight control.

BUT, yes, but, translation into Bahasa Melayu ? It beats me and it should beat you ! Why did this advocate of all things Malay not write his memoirs in Bahasa Melayu ? Not your mother tongue? Proud of being Malay? Come, Come.....Why not call it “Doktor Dalam Rumah”?. Then we can ask : Rumah Siapa ? I am waiting with glee for the BM version!

And then there is this matter of what he would have done if he had declared himself PM -for -Life in 2004. A half dozen nightmares come to mind............

1) In a move to try and win the pissing war with LKY, the crooked bridge would have been built. Promptly he will call it the world’s longest crooked bridge and leave you wondering how a crooked bridge is actually measured. Crookedly?

2) The Third Link to Penang, a bridge to Pangkor,  and three  even longer bridges to Tioman Langkawi and Sumatara would have been built or plans laid out for them. The cronied- classes will find all this a mouth watering prospect. Some will choke on their own saliva and die. Their companies will be compensated handsomely for ‘loss of potential income’ ala our expressways contracts.

3) He would have raised enough funds with strings attached all the way to the purses of his kuncus and kakis to undertake the mother-of-all mega projects, cutting the Isthmus of Kra. He will insist the peninsular be henceforth be called Pulau Melayu disproving the adage that no man is an island! At his suggestion the new seaway’s official name -The Malaysia Boleh Canal.

4) He would have switched us back to English. Now millions of school children will compulsorily read his memoirs which by now has replaced “Interlok” as our officially doctored national text! What else ! Millions will also score a doctored “A” in this subject - a requirement for entry into our local universities. Meanwhile this flip-flopping between BM and English will help us understand with unsurpassed clarity the double talk of our politicians. Sampler : “I say man. Why you no undi me? You already take my money which I also first first take from you. If you ta’ vote me bruder, you mampus you know! “.

5) He would have pushed us hard (pun not intended) to achieve a population of 70 millions. This so that we can buy or use national cars, national buses, national motorcycles, national bicycles, national yachts, national trains, national ships, national planes, national laptops and a host of other ‘national gadgets and appliances’. Perhaps even national hand phones.  By now all Matsushita plants have been relocated to Vietnam and elsewhere. We will be staying in shoddy crony built national homes (notice we are getting there now....). Meanwhile the national car power window problem persists and manhole covers still cannot sit flush and level  with the road nationwide!

6) On account of such policies there is widespread opposition to his rule. From time to time he hands over power temporarily to the IGP. The IGP in turn launches in succession “Ops Rumput”, “Ops Belukar”, “Ops Semak” and “Ops Hutan”. The deforestration of the land is nearly complete. Even the tough lallang grass is hard to find. Green NGOs across the globe raise a stink. The Doctor goes on national TV and says he will safeguard the independence of the country at all costs. Meanwhile a few thousand citizens languish in Kamunting  under ISA. It includes a few bloggers, standup comedians, satirists and cartoonists. All ‘anti- national elements funded by foreign parties jealous of our success’. Huh!

On account of these events and changes, the Doctor would declare that “Vision 2020” be pushed back to 2040. Henceforth the national vision will be officially called :”ADJUSTED VISION 2040”!

We must all be thankful that he spent the last 8 years in semi-retirement writing up his version of his history ! Enough is enough!

TO PALANIVEL: A NOTE ON THE INDIAN QUESTION

 
Throughout history there have been rump states.

A quick tour of modern rump states - Serbia after the breakup of Yugoslavia; Russia after the demise of the USSR and Pakistan after the creation of Bangladesh. 

Older historical examples are Poland and Cambodia, Poland , painfully sandwiched between a powerful Czarist Russia and an aggressively militaristic Prussia was repeatedly partitioned ( the Austro-Hungarian Empire was also complicit ) until it ceased to exist as a State by 1795. 

Closer home, the Khmer Empire, ascendant in Southeast Asia for half a millennium from about 800 CE was gobbled up from the east by an expansionist Vietnam and from the west from by a fast rising Siam, the Cambodia you see today in maps is a rump- a mere shadow of its once territorial and cultural might. 

All that is history. 

The question to ask now is whether you can have a rump people within a modern state ?

The Jews of Europe post  WW II come to mind, fifteen million or more were  wiped out in the period 1933 -1945, millions more fled or were dislocated, the  Nazi ‘Final Solution’ was preceded by the European ‘Jewish Question’. 

Now in Europe Jews are found in thriving or not so thriving pockets - 300 000 in UK and 500 000 in France are notable, surviving or existing or prospering they are never liked or loved except perhaps as individuals.

Greeks and Armenians living in Turkey today are also rump people.

In 1453, the Caliph having conquered Constantinople  invited the Armenians to stay and help in the development of an expansionist empire, the community brought skills that were unique- in finance, trading and services that helped build a vast empire straddling Asia and Europe, they numbered in the millions then and their churches were numerous. 

Modern Turkey is the successor state of a genocidal Caliphate, the Armenians were all but wiped out between 1890 and 1914, and  today they number some 50 000 with their own schools and newspapers and count for nothing in the national life of Turkey.

In Malaysia  a rump people exist. 

They are called Malaysian Indians. 

How these Malaysian Indians  ended up as ‘rumps’ can be debated endlessly, these people are themselves keenly aware of their ‘rumpness’ though they have not been able to apply a label to their predicament,  I am merely the label supplier. 

What more clear proof of their rumpness than when eminent persons of patently  Indian origin denounce their ethnicity for another, or when community leaders urge poorer sections of them to return to the impoverishing jobs of their grandfathers in the estates.

I will leave it to a Pole and a naturalised British citizen and a giant among twentieth century writers, Joseph Conrad to ‘speak’ on behalf of these people  but, before that, allow me to state that this rump people in Malaysia are sandwiched between two powerful peoples- one a political giant and the other an economic one.

In 1918,  Conrad very eloquently  addressed the pain, agony and deliverance of the once rump state, Poland in the same year by writing “A Note On The Polish Question”,  I am struck by the similarities and lessons it holds for the rump Indian people in Malaysia.

Here are selective excerpts from his note:

“....for at that time Poland was perfectly defenseless from a material point of view, and more than ever, perhaps, inclined to put its faith in humanitarian illusions...”

“ The strength arrayed against her was just overwhelming”

“Thus even a crime may become a moral agent by the lapse of time and the course of history. Progress leaves its dead by the way, for progress is only a great adventure. It is a march into an undiscovered country ; and in such an enterprise the victims do not count”

“....the claim of the spoliators who by a strange effect of an uneasy conscience, while strenously denying the moral guilt of the transaction were always trying to throw a veil of high rectitude over the crime”

“What was most annoying to their righteousness was the fact the nation, stabbed to the heart, refused to grow miserable and cold”

“Since that time we have come to be regarded simply as a nuisance. It’s very disagreeable”

“The spirit of aggressiveness was absolutely foreign to the Polish temperament”

“Given the wrong, and the apparent impossibility of righting it without running into risks of a serious nature, some moral alleviation may be found in the belief that the victim had brought its misfortunes upon its own head by its own sins”

“On simple matters of life and death a people is always better than its leaders because a people cannot argue itself as a whole into a sophisticated state of mind out of deference for a mere doctrine or from an exaggerated sense of its own cleverness”

“There is nothing on earth that turns faster on its pivot than political idealism when touched by the breadth of practical politics”

“It was the idea of delivering the victim with a kindly smile and the confident assurance that “it would be all right” to a perfectly unrepentant assassin”

“....and also the fact that for better or worse it was impossible to get rid of it again except by the unthinkable way of another carving, of another partition, of another crime”

“Therein lies the strength and the future of the thing so strictly forbidden.....of the Polish independence expressed in a Polish State. It comes into the world morally free, not in virtue of its sufferings but in virtue of its miraculous rebirth and of its ancient claims for services rendered to Europe. Not a single one of the combatants of all the fronts of the world had died consciously for Poland’s freedom...”

No Mr. Palanivel! No! A thousand times I say No! 

Neither going back to the estates nor migrating to the towns and cities of this prosperous land is the solution to the Indian Question if either is done without self respect and dignity.

They  must embark on a new journey of self reliance.

They  must once again function as individuals and not as a community holding a collective begging bowl called MIC, for the sake of the community throw away that begging bowl you hold in your hand, for on it is a plea carved in shame, “Please Help Us”. 

No one, no race, no government must redeem the Malaysian Indian, the Indians must be the instruments of their own redemption, then like Conrad, they  too can say with pride, “we have saved ourselves from our ‘rumpness’:”

“And its just as well! Providence in its inscrutable way has been merciful ; for had it been otherwise, the load of gratitude would be too great, the sense of obligation too crushing, the joy of deliverance too fearful for mortals....”

Japanese Tsunami, Malaysian Tragedy and Asian Opportunity

Image by tdietmut via Flickr

I am holidaying in India, my wife just received an sms saying BBC has announced that after the explosion in the second nuclear reactor in Japan there is a danger of some fallout in the Phillipines, I switched on the BBC and hardly saw any mention of any such thing, they were only talking about the immense losses suffered by Japan and the the fact that the Bank of Japan has pumped some few trillions into the economy, to get things started.

There was also the news of the team from China going into Japan to help and that India would be sending blankets to Japan, absolutely no news about any nuclear fallout affecting Phillipines or Malaysia as the sms had suggested.

I move down to the business centre and get on the internet and even as I am writing one person from Malaysia sends me an sms, it says and I'll give it to you word for word, "There was  a nuclear blast 4.30 p.m. Sunday in Fukushima Japan. If it rains today or in the next few days, do not go under the rain. If you get caught out, use a an umbrella or raincoat even if it is only a drizzle. Radioactive particles which may cause burns. alopecia or even cancer, may be in the rain. Reaching Malaysian shores by 5 pm today. Stay in the house."

"Experts say a disaster on the scale of Chernobyl in the 1980s is highly unlikely because the reactors are built to a much higher standard and have much more rigorous safety measures." From the BBC


As far as I can safely say there is no immediate danger even to Japan, the problem is well being taken care of, that was the news I heard this morning before leaving Cochin for Quilon, and now at Quilon at the hotel after surfing the web and all news channels all I can say is some Malaysians need to grow up.


I do not blame those who sent me the sms, I sometimes do the same knowing it could be the wrong message, then I go out and check if it is right, in situations like this its better to be safe the sorry, but to the scum who begin such irresponsible romours they need to be arrested and charged with romour mongering.

The earlier message also asked everyone to stay indoors, this is a great Malaysian tragedy, shouting wolf,  creating romours, what happens when the real thing happens, and the greater part of the tragedy is that this speaks volumes about the credibility the Malaysian Press and Government has with the people.


I go into the Malaysian press pages  to see what's going on and find out that the UMNO owned Berita Harian has come out with a cartoon on the tsuanami, and has issued an apology after being criticized, but what would one expect of an UMNO owned Malay publication anyway? Had it been something about interlok or about the Indians or Chinese in Malaysia you could well forget the apology, it has happened time and time again,  this country in the past, Japan is different but I shall not get into this at this time.

Of course, all Malaysian are deeply moved by this disaster in Japan, I think in the midst of all this China's response is timely, China must put all its differences with Japan aside and take a lead role in assisting Japan at this time - both China and India needs to come out and proactively take a lead role here.

China and India with their advances in nuclear technology should send in their experts to assist Japan here, in doing so Asia will be seen as actively capable of  looking after Asian issues, and that will bring Asians closer together, this is an opportunity for Asian bonding, so that we can be free of interference of other powers that have managed to divide us for so long,  so well.

Japan has always aligned itself with the west, an initiative by both India and China and other Asian countries like  South Korea and Taiwan will be the opportunity this great disaster could present Asia as a whole, and bring Japan back to Asia so that it aligns itself with Asians first then with others.

That the Japanese people will come out of this disaster and regain their place as a world economic power is a forgone conclusion, but  that they should do it with more Asian involvement is a necessity, so Japan can break loose of the noose placed around its neck since the end of world war two and be totally Asian again.

Asia must reclaim Japan, and Japan must come back to Asia.

Related articles

• Japan earthquake causes risk of meltdown at nuclear reactor (sheffnersweb.net)
• So you want Japan to be a true Asian business hub? (search.japantimes.co.jp)

Gaddafi's next move

Saddam promoting women's education and literacy 1970's

Is Gadaffi Being Saddamed?
by Toffeesturn

Is Gaddafi making his move, that is the question on the lips of many especially  the Americans and the British.

Well of course that is what Whitehall wants and so too the White House, and the way they look at that "move"  is for Gaddafi to move out.

Tehran on the other hand and so too  China, Russia and even some of the NATO nations woudl like to see Gadddafi retain his grip in Libya at least for the interim.

The Arabs are a different breed, and again although from the same breed the pedigree changes depending on the part of Arabia they come from, their religious inclination, their political beliefs and the type of Arabs they are it is a mixture of all these that is an Arab and you have as many mixtures as you have Arabs, that's how complex the Arab problem is.

When the mixture differs you know what you are looking at, there are so many and they are all,  almost all, ferocious, and Sadam Hussein recognised that a long long time ago.

Giving democracy to an Arab is akin to giving durians to the English and forcing it down their throats and telling them go ahead eat this, it is after all the "king of fruits, "  for  want of putting it mildly.

All said Arabs are Arabs, and Arabs and democracy only makes the entire Arab world crazy, so in a nutshell they can't have democracy, less we have a crazy republic, and that is something we would not want from the Arabs of all people and  if you know Osama bin Laden, you'll know what I am getting at.

Iraq was a prosperous and progressive nation under Sadam Hussein, people from all over the world worked and did business in Iraq, it was a Middle Eastern Power, and had a stabilising effect on Middle Eastern politics, Iraq prospered because Saddam realised that democracy would never work in a country like Iraq, not with his Arab brethren, not with him, and not especially in a country where religious tensions amongst the two rival Islamic sects ran so high on the one hand and that both these groups could at any time get into loggerheads with the Christians and peoples of other religions, there was a Kurdish problem to manage too, so he ruled it the way an Arab nation had to be ruled, the Baath Socialist way, and I hope at least in hindsight people will admit that  it was indeed  the best way, especially looking at Iraq today.

Both Gaddafi and Saddam promoted equal rights in their respective countries, women were given positions in the administration and the army long before any other Arab nation even thought of doing so. Why even Gaddafi's personal bodyguards are women, and both these leaders  brooked no religious intolerance in their respective countries.

When  Iraq took over Kuwait,  after all an Arab State (which historically was part of the Babylonian Empire, until some white man gave it some boundaries) the entire World took on Iraq and interfered in what was  internal Arab affairs.

Saddam did not have the 'Monroe Doctrine' or its equivalent  with which he could legitimise this takeover and prevent outsiders from interfering in Arab affairs,  if Iraq had gone for Israel it would have been a different proposition, this was an Arab state,  but  when Iraq went to war with Iran earlier, many of those countries that had gone to Iraq over its take over of Kuwait supported Iraq, that's how world leaders play marbles.

The interest is always oil and the means to control this commodity, that is what the powers from  Whitehall the White House are keen on  nothing else, and if that means killing Arabs so be it, after all they are only Arabs.

An embarrassed English government has also admitted to having interfered with the internal affairs of Libya, and even the Libyan rebels knew what was good for them and turned down the offer, they have learned their lesson from Iraq.

All of Arabia is aware of what happened in Iraq and they do not want it in their land, they too yearn for happiness like everyone else, but this prolonged ill treatment and deprivation of the Arab by the West using some Arabs has resulted in a sense of hopelessness  which makes many of these people turn to the likes of Bin Laden and his band of merry men for hope and salvation.

Gaddafi keeps telling the world that the day he leaves Libya or is moved out, the Taliban will be on the door steps of Europe and he is not wrong, because Libya will again be reduced to another Iraq with tribal wars and tribes being forced to take sides in the conflict.

Libya will then be ripe for Taliban picking, and lo and behold on the shores of the Mediterranean, you'll find parked an organisation (THE AL QAEDA)  whose time would have come, is that what Europe wants?

Well if that is what Europe wants that is what Europe will get, be forewarned, the signs were there before the Gulf war of what would happen in Iraq, the world was lied to, and see what is happening in Iraq today, it will happen in Europe, and the springboard will be Libya.

In the Libyan scenario the better option is for all parties to get together and negotiate a settlement with Gaddafi still in for the interim, this should be under the auspices of the United Nations and not the Americans, or the Russians, nor the Chinese or the British, the UN will not be out of choice there is India and France to oversee such a truce, failing which the world may force  Gaddfai to play his last card, and that is an all out purge of those who oppose him, should that fail he will make his next move whatever and wherever  that may be and pave the way of a glorious Al Qaeda  entry. An Entry into Europe.

Move aside Charles Martel, Bin Laden has come and the new battle of Tours is about to be begin.1279 years after yours.

History does repeat itself, but we never learn.

Related articles

• Why the US must not intervene in Libya | Stephen Kinzer (guardian.co.uk)
• Analysis: West wins some backing for Libya zone, needs more (reuters.com)
• Libya is a conundrum made in hell - or rather Downing Street | Simon Tisdall (guardian.co.uk)
• Murders Continue in Libya As the Arab World Looks on Silently (desertpeace.wordpress.com)

The Road to Egypt

Will Egypt happen here?

An ex-PM and the PM have answered with an emphatic No!  And  I cannot agree more.

Of course it will not happen here. Our power elites have not quite ruined the country like the Egyptian ruling classes have. 

Why have their power elites scored higher than ours on “national ruination”? There are a dozen reasons for it.

First, the Egyptians have had more time, on a historical timeline they are really oldies as old as the pyramids. 

We are just young chicos if not chicolingams (these latter ones are very  small Lingams  that make judges look like even smaller pricks) when it comes to history. Mere new kids on a new block. 

All the same we will get there there one day. Any evidence for it?

Look at some of our ancient politicians....they have been around for some time now and saying and doing the same old things. At least one of them sounds like the mummy of a once powerful Pharaoh come to life again! And also, we are still merrily re-writing and revising even our recent history. At last count Yap Ah Loy, Hang Tuah and Parameswara have been reduced to historical footnotes. Really, can you make Tutankhamen a mere footnote of history and get away with it?

Second,  a very long time ago they  mastered the art of picking the pockets of the poor masses and kept at it without let up. How else can you explain the Great Pyramid of Cheops, or the Temples of Abu Simbel,  Hatshepshut  and Luxor  while we are stuck with only the Twin Towers? 

Well we are learning. Notice that  thousands of students  were flown back from Egypt at the height of the crisis. What were they studying there? Mummification ? Agriculture ? Sand Castle Engineering? Pyramid Scheming? Your guess is as good as mine!

Third, they have traditions and cultural practices much older than ours like ‘baksheesh’. Literally it means a present or gift  and just like us, if not more , they are proud of their “kebudayaan”. 

Someone defined baksheesh as : “remuneration and lavish bribes, rudely demanded but ever so graciously accepted in return for little or no services rendered .” And as far as I know there isn’t  an Egyptian Anti-Baksheesh Commission, but then again perhaps all matters baksheesh come under the purview of  the Egyptian Ministry of Culture and Performing Arts which is something we should also consider. As I said, I think they are way ahead of us on the learning curve.

Fourth, they have simply gone ahead and stolen more, without restraint, without fear. 

Now you know why some countries are addicted to ‘Emergency Rule’. Egypt was for a long time to single party politics. 

If we want to become as corrupt as Egypt we must first destroy the Opposition and  declare a state of emergency,  here, it now looks like  a work-in-progress.  One day we may get there. Then the real stealing can begin. 

You will be surprised how many in Egypt joined in on the gang bang of the nation’s coffers! That is why I am not keen on the slogan “1MALAYSIA”. It may become just the right excuse for all of us to unite to the last man, woman and child to  plunder and pillage this land of ours.”Satu Malaysia, Satu Kali Hentam”?

Fifth, their corruption operates at a ruthless level, that even James Bond will be traumatised.

There is no quantum of solace when it comes to diddling the State of its dues.  Where do you think Ruby the Heart Stealer got her initial training ? Their corruption is of the ‘starve the masses kind’. No quarters given.  Only your pants will be spared  minus the pockets. And  cronyism and nepotism there are on steroids, all bulked up. 

However  over here the face of corruption is gentler. The “sama-sama” type. We are all in it together! Haven’t you noticed that every year corruption is becoming more inclusive even as we become more racist?

Sixth, their Rate Of Rip-off (ROR) exceeded the rate at which wealth was being created. The trouble with the World Bank and the IMF is that they do not hold any ‘kursus’ on newly coined topics like ROR for corrupt leaders. Any  smarty-pants  corrupt leader worth his subsidised salt should know that ROR must keep pace but never exceed wealth creation. By this reckoning Hosni Mubarak  is daft. We have smart leaders don’t you think!

Seventh, Egypt’s industrial sector is largely state owned. In all likelihood they have many more GLCs than us. Imagine the bailouts. Think of many Sand Darbys running around in Egypt. And if they hide behind a pyramid of losses who will know? Remember there are many pyramids there. And don’t forget pyramids have four sides. So Egypt simply needs Jews, Chinese and other entrepreneurs and risk takers like the desert thirsts for water. 

We made our choices a few hundred years ago. For the Egyptians this is a tough call. The last time they got Moses and his gang over, they left in haste after throwing some pox around and fled to no-man’s land after parting the waters of the Red Sea. If the waters are parted again,  Sharm el- Sheikh will lose its charm and chic and tourists will never return to “-el-”, if you know what I mean!

Eighth, notice that they are masters at religious hypocrisy. How else can you explain them getting away with stealing from their co-religionists? They have the Islamic Brotherhood and we have PAS. The former is banned and many of its membership jailed  whilst PAS sits proudly in our Parliament.  Why do you think we put them there in the tsunami of 2008? Thank God for that! 

Ninth, they don’t have oil to get their hands all greasy.  Not only do we have oil but it is “off budget” as well. As I said we are very clever. Now no one knows how much money we make from oil barring a select few. And these poor Egyptians, they even chose the wrong palms.....they get the date and we get the oil palm. With these two oils around our power elites don’t have to pick the Rakyat’s pockets all the time for now. They just pick Petronas’ pockets!

Tenth, they have a bloated civil service that does nothing. We have a bloated civil service that does something. And that makes all the difference! 

As a reward, ours is over-paid and as punishment  theirs is underpaid. Their civil servants are  out on the streets demonstrating whilst ours is out on ‘kursus’, meetings, seminars, ‘attending to officials’ or having the fourth coffee break of the working day.

Eleventh, they have only the Suez Canal as testament to their involvement in global trade. But we have Singapore linked to us via a causeway that narrowly escaped becoming a crooked bridge. Notice Singapore’s GDP just overtook ours this year. Do Egyptians have neighbours like ours ? Israel, Libya, Sudan..... Clearly we live in a better neighbourhood. And the important lesson to learn from all this is that with regard to neighbours, never let your leaders get away with  building crooked bridges of friendship. It will come back to haunt us all.

Twelfth, their education system produces graduates like the desert needs sand. Many are from non-technical disciplines like religious studies. And by law every Egyptian graduate must be given employment. We ? We don’t need the law to force our hand. Like the Nike advert, our politicians  just do it ! Now we have an  800,000 strong civil service!

There! I told you there are a dozen reasons for it ! The real question to ask is not whether Egypt will happen here but to ask, “Why the fear if they are not coming here ?

I think the fear is, we are going there!

PUTTING UP A FRONT.

Image via Wikipedia

By Howl Pillai
 Introduction
Chief Great-Tinpot  runs a tinpot party which if it were a country will surely be called the "Republic of Banana Rajahs". This is not being outlandish. Consider this : We have a thriving 'pisang rajah' industry. And when you offer bananas as big as rajahs you get monkeys as big as maharajahs. Now Chief Great Tinpot wants to be Chief-for-life and problematically for us, a few afterlifes as well. In the interim, Chief Dear Tinpot,his son, is being groomed for high office. And Chief Great-Tinpot keeps deferring the date for his arduous, once in a lifetime journey to what can only be the Indian equivalent of Mt Kumgang. Once there he plans to sip 72 teh-tariks everyday served in freshly cut crystal goblets.And in between sips he will summon his minions and lesser chiefs at random to pay him homage. Anyone who does not comply is sacked and then told he is too small to talk. "How bizarre,how bizarre", you mumble in disbelief.

PUTTING UP A FRONT

But it is true that political monsters like Chief Great-Tinpot are not born. They are made. Made by the Front. More specifically by the entity behind the Front.

We should have in hindsight stuck with "Perikatan" or "Alliance". Afterall it was "Alliance" that gave us Glorious Merdeka ! An alliance is an agreement among parties in furtherance of a common cause. Now see what happens when you tinker, chop and change with names and ideas as important as this one. Really we must have gone 'bananas' to have agreed to a name change like 'Barisan Nasional' in place of the "Alliance". Sure, "Barisan Nasional" sounds and feels more formidable than its predecessor. But from the beginning it had an inherent problem in translation in more than one sense. Later, self-serving politicians would capitalise on this defect. In its short form, the Coalition became "Barisan". In English that translates as "Front". There, now you have it !

For close on four decades we have all had to put up with a Front. A Front, the likes of which  was never seen before in this fair and lovely land that is trully, Trully Asia ! A national Front that was politically sophisticated and devilishly clever. We were not even aware for a long time that we were indeed putting up a Front. At least prior to March 2008. Then a mirror held to our face reflected a ghastly apparition that clearly was not us anymore.

Now it suddenly dawned upon us all that we were  creatures of a Front organisation set up and controlled by another entity. And for a good part of those four decades Chief Great-Tinpot served as an excellent Front-man.

The Front-masters were happy with him. Even jubilant. At last a Front-man of the right calibre. Nevermind that with every passing year the  Chief's girth approached that of King Henry the Eighth. In him his mentors had a Front-man for the long haul--obedient, ambitious and greedy. And later, with the passing years even the skeletons in his closet would 'put on weight'.

Early in his career he was tacitly made to understand that he could self-deal on the side. The Front would provide cover and stand by its  Front-men. This was a perk and a promise made to all the chiefs, both Indian and non-Indian, both big and small, in the Coalition, but the cover came with a price. They had to deliver the 'goodies'.

Now with Indians, Chief Great-Tinpot knew that delivering the 'goodies' was always dicey and difficult. For every Indian was a potential renegade. Give him a voice and he will shoot his mouth. Give him a pen and he will write. Give him an opinion and he will split it into hairs.Give him a whole party and he will break it up into pieces and factions. And so Big Chief sat on the wall, pondered a while and came up with a simple solution- Exterminate all the other Indian Chiefs ! He wiped out the chiefs of the 'Cheyenne', 'Sioux', 'Pawnee','Mohawks','Mohicans', 'Crow', 'Navajos','Choctaws', 'Blackfeet', 'Bigfeet' and other tribes too many to mention.

Soon after the completion of the merciless campaign of elimination he declared himself the 'Embodiment of all the Indian Tribes'. Then he was able to safely deliver the 'goodies', which are actually little slips of paper which Indians were told to mark "X" against a perfectly balanced ancient weighing scale which looked suspiciously Indian in origin. In return, Chief Great-Tinpot brought from the Front, news of war victories and of a substantial 'war booty' that was soon to be shared with all the Indians. The weary foot soldiers of the Indian Tribes cheered lustily and pledged to support and to sacrifice for the Front in the 'battles' yet to come.

Ah ! This Front was indeed a very clever one ! In a way, and we must be honest about it ,we were happy putting up a front. In other countries this process is called propaganda. In these parts it is called National Unity. But alas ! The 'war booty' was not shared with the Indian tribes as promised. Instead the Front delivered a much reduced portion directly to Chief Great-Tinpot who kept it all for himself as in many a previous occasion. A grizzled old warrior who had fought in many a 'goodies' campaign bristled with anger and expressed his disgust at this latest double cross, spitting out some half-chewed tobacco: "I never thought I would see this day. The Front that we knew in the past is now an affront to us.When I die bury my heart at Wounded Pride by the shade of those old rubber trees!". Another old warrior chimed in :" As for me just bury me down by the river in my ancestral village of Empty Stomach".

Thankfully, no nation and no tribe can put up a front forever. The charade had to end someday. And when Chief Great-Tinpot lost the Battle of Snail River in March 2008, the Front was exposed! And the tribes rose to a man in classic disunity as in the days of yore and bayed for the blood of the Great-Tinpot who is now  chief in all but name.  

Perhaps what did not work for BP in the Gulf of Mexico may work for us here- topkill. After that the Indian must learn to vote with unabashed self-interest. Lets stop putting up a front!

Umi to vie for Wanita UMNO Top spot

Umi Hafilda the "political actress par excellence" who almost single-handedly saved Mahahtir in 1997, by getting Anwar off his back and implicating her own brother in the process, and whose influence in Merlimau needs to be carefully gauged must be surely having her sights  for the Wanita UMNO post as Sharizat and even Rafidah of past would not have been able to match her effectiveness, or so  it seems.
 
The Star in a report carried on 6 March  stated, "Ummi Hafilda Ali still has the ability to make waves wherever she appears. Love her or hate her but you cannot ignore her." she has stories, and a lie told often enough gets to be perceived to be the truth, a Hitler philosophy practiced so well by someone so close to her i do not need to mention him here.

For a woman of such "substance" to UMNO, UMNO can't afford to ignore her capabilities or she may do the next best thing squeal on UMNO at the next General Elections.

Word has it that she has been contacted by a  former UMNO strongman to do just that with a promise of great rewards if she delivers the humiliation to Najib, Mahathir and the rest, and she has the capability of doing so, but the question is will she? Or even, can she?

The UMNO script written for her which she used at Kerdau is;  " I still have several things to disclose, if he still accuses me of taking money, conspiracy and so forth, I'll have no qualms in exposing him."

There must be a scriptwriter or scriptwriters whose job it is now to write Umi's speeches for the General Elections that is why she says, " I still have several things to disclose...."

Being the younger sister of PKR deputy president and Anwar's closest aide, UMNO found her the right target to say things about Anwar to get him convicted by the infamous justice Augustine Paul, and now in the face of the uncertainties that plague the calling for  the next General Elections,  Kerdau and Merlimau, UMNO  were  testing grounds by  trying Umi Hafilda and it seemed to have paid handsome dividends.

It is not Malay to go public and condemn one's own brother, why amongst the Malays this is almost totally unheard of. why did Umi decide to do just that? What was her motivation, or better still what was the power of the force that made her do it, and come back and do it again. Normally at this stage it should have been let bygones be bygones.

Umno must have a very strong hold on this woman, what it is for the moment can only be reduced to roumer but whatever it is she is willing to wreck her brothers entire career send him to the gallows for all  she cares and be faithful to UMNO for some reason other then all those 'noble' reasons she talks about.

Is she doing this out of her own free will, or is it being done because she is being blackmailed? Maybe a lie detector test may shed some light, although  that can't be taken to be conclusive.

Any woman who says such things about her brother will weep for two reasons, one it is the truth, if it is, consider this,  does she so easily take the rostrum and do it?

Or,  could it be that she hates herself for doing so and has no alternative but to do so, because she is being blackmailed?

Mahathir claimed that he believed her when she began to cry, but he did not believe Lee Kuan Yew when he cried on the separation of Singapore, so why believe this lady, because that was the best opportunity he had to give a reason of belief, and we all know Mahathir's excuses of convenience, after all Anwar was not helping him to help his sons out of the huge financial mess of 1997 that they had got into.


Was Umi crying because she was to tell lies about hurt elder brother? anwar was nobdy but her brother was now brought int the fray and she was destroying him, could that be  the reason of her tears?

Although Umi harbours great plans for UMNO positions both at wanita and at the executive council, she actually has no power to move in because the powers that be here are the ones that seem to have the control over her, and Sharizat can rest peacefully for the time being at least, because in politics, and especially UMNO politics, things can change course and an ambitious Muhyuddin,  Khairy Jamaludin  and the Mukhriz Mahathir could play the card to get back into power with a lucrative deal for Umi Hafilda at the end of it all.



Umi on the other hand has to be mindful, this is UMNO and there are lessons, Altantuya Shaaribu for one.