There is a virtual media blackout and the focus is exclusively on Najib.
On directives, a smattering has been offered to Muhyiddin but it has to be exercised with great caution and the media are to be selective about what and how to report his activities.
Chua Soi Lek has been moved to the opium room, he is to sit in the darkness of the opium dens contemplating his next moves for the General Elections, save from hidden cameras, whist he will be given a peek or two in the media.
MIC will remain in the doldrums, and can only appear with Najib or appointed UMNO men who will speak on their behalf, MIC by itself can do nothing only UMNO can, that is the message and it applies to MCA too.
Hishamuddin is to be totally blacked out, he tends to throw the spanner into the works by exposing his level of intelligence, so in order to save the blushes his mouth taped, and Nazri has been appointed as limited spokesman, whilst Rais has been asked to go into virtual retirement his usefulness or rather uselessness has been served.
It is a high level hardcore campaigning that has begun, it's focus is on Najib and Najib alone, it is a kind of "Rosmah Strategy," in which one must be able to read between the lies, as is usually the case.
The Indian Promise
In his Deepavalli campaign and part of his "Nambekei Campaign" he lined up the present and past MIC top brass to ensure the Indians that the Condo project by dolomite Industries next to Batu Caves would be halted to save the caves and the Sri Maha Mariaman temple.Let us now read between these lies.
Way back in the 70's the same firm that has been given the approval to build the Condo by the previous BN government, was amongst others including the JKR who had quarries that were blasting the rock in the area, the other being the Kennison Quarry.The Dolomite blasting site was a mere 500 meters or so from what is called the dark caves.
To better understand what we are talking about, Batu Caves was the name given to a whole formation of caves in the area, which includes the Temple cave, the dark cave, the Sakai cave, the Museum cave, the Fallen cave and the Quarry cave.
The Sakai cave and the Quarry cave are known to be completely destroyed.
The amount of money reportedly paid to the Selangor (BN) Government at that time by the two Quarries (that was in 1970's) was 300 thousand pounds annually, yes Sterling Pounds and not ringgit.
In the mid 70's Shahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) initiated a save the "Save Batu Caves Campaign" which was almost immediately supported by the Malaysian Nature Society, The Environmental Protection Society and the Batu Caves Protection Society which the then BN state government of Selangor actually treated with disdain and were hardly concerned about.
They were totally indifferent to these groups and yet some members of the Batu Caves Protection society who have claimed to have fought hard at that time pretend not to know the real problem today and support the BN Government who are the actual culprits behind the condo project.
In 1978, as usual at the eleventh hour the Ministry of Science Technology and environment submitted an urgent report to the Selangor Government warning that serious damage would berfall the caves if immediate action was not taken as cracks began to appear in the caves.
Sometime in 1980 two years after that report was sent to the Selangor (BN) government the blasting was ordered to come to halt in June, albeit after prolonged delays, and with damage already in place, more cracks on the caves and stalagmites had come falling down the action was deemed to have been unnecessarily delayed.
Later despite this damage, the Selangor (BN) government of the time after having ordered the quarries to cease operations by June of that year gave them an extension to December 31st for reasons that the infrastructure for the new sites given to these quarries were not in place.
The BN Governemtn was not bothered about the Hindus and their interests, the quarries brought in more money probably and although this is National Monument it seemed to be of no significance, it could be come crumbling down and they would not care the damn and this attitude was publicly displayed by the Selangor State (BN) Government.
The BN State government's arrogance has been long forgotten but let me take all of you down memory lane again and refresh your memories, the then Chariman of the Selangor State (BN) Government's Batu Caves Committee Sabaruddin Cik in response to the protest of the NGO's urging the State government not to extend the blasting deadline had this to say, "the members of the Save Batu Caves Campaign can jump from an aeroplane, sleep on the road, slaughter goats or do anything but the State (BN) Government will stand firm on its decision." This was the disdain with which the BN government of Selangor treated the Hindus and the Batu Caves, it would at a later stage in its history manifest this again in the destruction and desecration of temples in the state.
Today this same man who as Deputy Prime Minster did not lift a finger whilst the Selangor Menteri Besar of the time the infamous Khir Toyo went about breaking and desecrating Hindu Temples,and whose government was responsible for the award of the condo project is promising the Indians that "if" they vote the BN inot power, he'll make sure that the condo project is scrapped.
Why the "if"? Is he really sincere?
Do the Indians make the majority of the voting population in the state?
How can the Indians and in particular the Hindus (as there are Muslims, Christians and Sikhs among the Indians) ensure a BN victory?
Can't he as Prime Minster use his powers to save a "National Monument" right now?
Why wait till the elections are over and set it as a condition on a minority to win the state for him?
Where is the sincerity if there must be a condition?
Even if Barisan wins the state which is almost an impossibility, will he say that it was not won on Indian vote alone and let the condo project continue?
Can't he also claim the Indians voted against him? You can do anything with a minority, and the Indians are a minority who this BN government nevver treated well at all.
Where is the Nambekei?
Can this man be trusted?
What we know that he as Prime Minster has the powers to stop the project iimediately as it poses a great danger to a National Monument, declared such under the third Malaysia plan.
Indians will be really foolish to vote the BN there is no sincerity at all.
What agreement the Selangor government had with Dolomite and Kennison is anybody's guess, all papers were taken out of the State Government building before the handing over of power and we all know that.
More importantly
Save for the Temple in the caves, which is sacred to all Hindus in the country and many Taoists and Buddhists, it is is also a big draw for Tourists, in fact the biggest tourist attraction in the KL Selangor region because of this Temple, this cave is a national monument that status was granted these caves in the Third Malaysia Plan.
It is also home to the maxburretia a rare and beautiful palm found no where else in the world but on these limestone hills, and at least two Hoya Occulasa an ornamental house plant including 175 other species that can only be found in such limestone hills. It is also common knowledge the caves are home to bats and snakes of various kinds and yet the BN Government has not been really bothered about it, in fact they even did not bother about the sanctity of the Temple having attacked the HINDRAF members who sought refuge there and that attack was given tacit support of the MIC at that time.
Today the same BN government who approved the Condominium project with the full knowledge of its MIC members who sat at the various meetings are pointing the finger at Pakatan Rakyat.
Those are the lies about the Batu Caves, there is no real motivation for the MIC to ask Najib to put a stop to the destruction of this Temple first, on the grounds that it is sacred to the Hindus, secondly and yet importantly to them and all Malaysians, on the grounds that it is a National Monument which gives him Najib the power to intervene, so why the "If."
Now all that is not at all important to the MIC and the BN, what is, are their seats in the Selangor State assembly that is all the MIC and the BN are interested in, nothing less, nothing more and therefore the MIC supports the Najib's "If."
"IF" is found only in the dictionary of fools, are all Indians to be made fools of?
The All Important Lynas
Why has Najib shied out of the Lynas project.Has he or Rosmah got a vested interest in that project?
Are there other Malaysians who are not supposed to be named involved in that project?
Why is such a project that has absolutely no benefit to this nation being given so much?
Can other Malaysians who will benefit from this project, have such interest registered it registered in a separate country to avoid detection?
There are just too many questions to be asked of a government who seemingly sells the souls of its people for material gain.
Lynas will operate in Malaysia on a prolonged tax holiday in spite of the fact that no other country in the world would want to have this plant in their territory, even Australia that is now suffering job shortages does not want it there, although they have vast tracks of uninhabited land and the raw material on their own home ground they'll not do it even if it were for premium tax benefits the kind that they'll get from no other operations to relieve their governments of their respective revenue burdens.
Why then is Malaysia granting Lynas the opportunity to operate this rare earth plant that is proven to be dangerous, here on a tax holiday after we have suffered the consequences of such operations in Bukit Merah?
The Philippines will not have it, Indonesia will not have it both countries have islands that are free in which they could site this plant, but in Malaysia boleh lah, because we have got Barisan Nasional, they'll sell kit and kin for their own benefit and we have seen that time and again.
We have the distinct advantage or should I say the disadvantage of having had first hand experience of what this does from the Bukit Merah project in Perak that is indeed a distinct advantage when it comes to even thinking of putting up such a plant, but our authorities have just decided to go ahead, the gains to them are many although Malaysians in general will have very little to benefit.
Even China which is the world largest producer of rare earth has warned the world that is going to drastically cut down its production, in fact China is scaling it down as it now sees the ill effects of the project and even in that nation now the effects are being seen and the people are revolting only that all such news have been blanked out.
China will scale down to the extent that they will have sufficient only for domestic industry demand, this means that all foreign countries that have been dependent on China will have to look elsewhere.
Will Lynas now double or even triple its capacity to dope with the China vacuum to our detriment?
The waste product that comes out of processing rare earth are the dangerous material, we do not have rare earth here in Malaysia, it is abundant in Austrailia, it is a source of great revenue, the Australians are laughing, they are going to sell the rare earth to us and we are going to carry the risks and the burden.
The burden is exposure to radiation to our citizens, what will happen to all our tourists resorts in Pahang and the East Coast?
What will happen to life in the East Coast itself?
Are there any traceabilty systems put in place to ensure that all the biproduct or rather waste are sent back to Australia?
And how can that be when Australia has declared that it will not allow this material abck to their respective countries?
If it is not going to be stored in Malaysia are we going top be party to a clandestine effort to have it sent to a poorer third world country in retuned for some form of bribery to its ministers?
If it does not pose a risk or danger as we have been told so many times have Najib, Mahathir, Muhyiddin, all the UMNO, MIC and MCA exco use it as building material for the homes of their own children.
Will they dare do that to prove to us that the material is not dangerous?
The people of Pahang have been crying out, to this government.
Theirs is a BN Government in the state, they have been crying out to Najib who is from Pahang too.
Najib has not dared go and meet them, and the only reason one can see is because the interest groups in this Lynas project have already collected their dues from the interested parties in advance, they have all been committed to this project in one way or another, there seemingly is no turning back.
Few Malaysians if any, will want to work on this project when they see how it will affect their lives, then these positions will be filled with more foreigners.
Those who work there and continue to, even after discovering the hazards will do so out of sheer desperation. Now is this how we want to treat our people?
The Company will not be paying taxes when it should be paying compounded taxes for such a project, but even with that we should be saying "No Thanks."
So what is the benefit of this dangerous Lynas plant?
Now are there Malaysians of sufficient influence who are to be beneficiaries of this project?
The answer can only be a resounding, Yes!!!.
Is the leadership of UMNO or for that matter Barisan Nasional aware of who these people are?
The answer is yet another resounding, Yes!!! It is people - most probably from their very own ranks.
Given all the hazards such a venture will subject the citizens of this country to, and given the fact that this government is totally indifferent to the desperate calls of its own people it can't be any other way.
There must be personal and vested interests of groups or individuals aligned to the Barisan Nasional with this Lynas project it can't be any other way.
Raub's Gold Mine
Raub is the other case, it has been suffering in silence.
Will Najib go to Raub, will he meet with citizens who live next to the Gold mine, or will he allow the interested parties to twist the arms of the poor who live there.
I went there I saw for myself what is happening there, some of them are so scared to speak, they have been intimidated and they have told me so.
Both Kuantan and Raub are in Pahang - Najib's home state, he pretends nothing is wrong, and he allows it to happen, can a man who does not even care for his own home state care for the country?
Should we always wait to see and regret in hindsight, remember what Sababruddin Cik said in Selangor at the height of the Batu Caves campaign, rememebr Mahathir Bin Mohammed defending the Bukit Merah Rare Earth project, where he sent his own people to the slaughter so to speak, the profits probably far outweighed the lives of the poor people of Bukit Merah and remember that most of them were poor Chinese.
So Chua Soi Lek come out of your opium den, or are you going to tell the people of Kuantan and Raub "if the MCA wins all will be right?" is that to be the condition or are you convinced all is right with the Lynas plant, will you use the the used material which is deemed to be dangerous to build homes for your children?
I'll not bet on that, after all you are from MCA.
As one of my Chinese friends so rightly put it, "the entire MCA General Assembly was directed towards UMNO," it was so glaringly shown there that MCA are nothing but servants of UMNO, serving the interests of the UMNO warlords.
Remember Memali, Mahathir created it and blamed Musa for it. Memali was not in Johor, it was in Kedah, he was born in Kedah the son of a man of Malabari origins from India, he could not and refused to empathize with this group of rural Malays, see what is happening to the Penans in Sarawak, is it the work of people who care?
Whilst UMNO reigns supreme betraying its trust given by the Malays all these years, where UMNO elite have taken all the benefits for themselves and the MCA and the MIC follow suit leaving parties like the Gerakan to look like orphaned children they are neither here nor there, they may mean good but their association with the "Scoundrels of Malaysian Politics" the BN has placed them in that category and they consequently have lost the trust of the people now it seems the whole of BN is driving in that direction.
Winning Elections using imported "Manthram"
This is a time tested strategy of many in UMNO and Najib's today UMNO is no different, unknown to many staunch UMNO members who are staunch Muslims this practice goes on.
You do not win elections by the use of black magic imported from Kerala by one of your cronies.
Although the use of manthram was a method practiced by many UMNO men including one who thought he would be resurrected after being chopped up by local a lady Bomoh and two of her followers, there have been others who for a long time now have been importing this from South India.
The manthram I am referring to has nothing to with Hinduism or any other religion, it is purely a form of Indian Witchcraft shunned upon by peoples of all religions in India.
Ask the Malaysian Hindus and they'll tell you that the biggest and strongest "manthram" comes from Kerala, it is supposed to be very powerful, and it is said that a Malaysian Christian Indian - a close confidante of the very unpopular spouse of a very senior minister is out there bringing back this portions for his mentor with whom there is a huge joint business project at hand.
Both the spouse of the senior minister and this businessman have many common traits they share besides just this manthram and their new business venture.
The project that will be shared with this spouse of the minister and this Malaysian Indian manthram man is apparently part of the big allocations meant for Bumiputras. She, not having the expertise, plus the lack confidence that her husband will not be around in power for long, has decided to share this with the big Indian businessman who is also the defacto manthram man, after all he knows the source manthram so for her its a case have manthram will do.
What was promised to the Bumiputeras in the NEP and subsequently after the NEP, is and always has been actually grabbed UMNO elite, leaving the crumbs for a newly created middle class Bumiputeras who drive around in Honda Accords and BMWs but who can ill afford even its maintenance leave alone the petrol, they are the real poor who have to look rich on empty pockets, I am sure if they read this they will realise it.
The removal of English as the medium of instruction in schools where even English teachers can't speak the language well was done to keep the Malay masses ignorant, and together with the control of the Malaysian mass media they'd be able to control these Bumiputera masses who would subsequently keep them in power.
With that ignorance they can continue to manipulate the Malays the way they have always done, and the assurance being able to continue to manipulate the masses is there in the Malaysian education system today.
The inability to address the question of vernacular schools, and its purpose, the hindrance such schools pose towards national integration 55 years after Independence is a planned objective of this government, it is in dividing the nation that they will rule, so a recent call for a rebirth of our Merdeka is not too wrong.
Surely in the next 45 years we should be able to come together as one people and one nation regardless of race or creed, we must identify as Malaysians and surely too we can't do this with he BN or with UMNO for that matter.
That is a quality I see among Malaysians of all races who are outside the confines of this BN framework and its mindset.
Today 55 years after independence the greatest majority of the "have nots" in the Malaysian populace are the Malays and the other Bumiputeras, it is only lip service that is paid to them, all the allocations meant for their betterment has been channeled to make multi - millionaires and multi billionaires of the selected few children of top ministers and their cronies as can be clearly witnessed, one has even been voted to be awarded the businessman of the year by UMNO.
Whist these elite become rich at the expense of the masses any attempt to ask for better and more meaningful minimum wages is being touted as "detrimental to national productivity which will scare away foreign direct investment" by this BN government, when the real detriment to national productivity in this country is the widespread "corruption, nepotism and cronyism" the very issues for the incarceration Anwar Ibrahim if you remember well.
Yet with all this, this government led by Najib is going around this country with its slogan of "Janji di tepati," and the people influenced by state controlled media are beginning to believe it.
What the last elections proved is that Malaysians can't be easily fooled, the question is are they going to be this time around?
The mass media has been ridiculed, no one believes them anymore, their political pages are shunned, by the very people who buy the papers, the big Deepavalli campaigning will be followed by a big X'mas rally where he will play Santa Claus he has the body to play that role and an even bigger Chinese New Year campaign where Najib probably dressed as a Mandarin will hand out the RM500/- Ang Pows to the Chinese shunning Muhyiddin's call for earlier elections in December, paving the way for elections in early or mid March.
Note dressing up like Sanata Claus may make him beholden to some Christains, but will drive Ibrahim Ali on a rampage and things may get worse it he dresses up as a mandarin.
