TREASON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The minister of Governemnt of Najib Tun Razak  has committed Treason of the highest order by looking to give "safe passage" as the less intelligent minister of Home Afairs put it, to the armed men who claim to be from the "Royal Sulu Army" who landed in Sabah and then took over a whole village and pronounced they were not going back, warning the people not to drive them out.

 Al Jazeera reports today that no one is allowed near the village, the Al Jazeera reporter who attempted to get near was detained by the police for six hours and he has reported that the Prime Minister is handling the issue.

 How many Sultans are there claiming the rights of being the Sultan of Sabah, today's Star reports that  a 45 year old businessman  Datu Abdul Rajak Aliuddin has now proclaimed himself the Sultan of North Borneo


He has been detained and charged for burning the Sabah flag, and raising a  flag of the Sultanate of North Borneo a grave offence indeed, but compared with what the invaders are doing  his is a petty offence.

We have a group of between 100 to 200 armed men in military fatigues claiming to be from the Royal Sulu Sultaanate holed up in the seaside village of Tanduo on the East Coast of Sabah. These men came in armed and remain armed and our security forces are "negotiating" with people who have literally declared war on the nation.

What is there to negotiate with invaders, what are the grounds for negotiations, they should be treated as invaders and flushed out by the full power of the military.

Why are the Police handling this case when in the first place it should be the Army?

FMT  reports that the Army has been sidelined in this issue. Why should that be the casewhen it is an invasion we are dealing with?

What is the use of purchasing armaments for billions of ringgit, making money in the process and then allow invaders privileges that even Malaysians do not have.

Any Malaysian trying that will be tried and if found guilty sentenced  to death for, treason, for possession of dangerous weapons, and even for an uprising against the King and country and these people, foreigners  can circumvent all that because Najib wants to talk. Foreigners are more important than us.


These men in every sense of the word are invaders,  they have  invaded that part of our sovereign territory, and Hishamuddin is now arranging "safe passage" for them back to where they came from, he seems to abetting them, are there hidden issues that prevents this government from acting.

Truly less intelligent

We are told they are not from any militant group, and that is extremely hard to swallow when they land on your shores with machine guns fixed to their boats, forcefully take over a village we are told they,  "are not militants,"  but rather a group loyal to the Sultanate of Sulu, then it must be an act of  war by the Sulu Sultanate agaisnt our sovereignty, and if that is the case Hishamuddin, the Minister Defence and the prime Minster are either totally ignorant of what they are doing or are in some way compromised here and for that reason cannot act as must be normally done.


This  action by the Governemnt of  najib Tun Razak will set dangerous precedents for others to follow, in the face of a real enemy they are being cowed down to sit down and talk wit the enemy and the enemy is making monkeys of Malaysians.

Hismauddin has warned the people not to spread talk about compromising the safety of the people of Sabah, what nonsense, does he not realise that that is exactly what he and the Government  is doing najib is doing?


There seems to be an issue where the UMNO led Malaysian governemtn is compromised on this issue and that is the reason why it is being treated such.

 Malaysians are only too aware of  the covert  operations that goes on between the Sultanate and the Malaysian Government behind the back of the Philippine government, we are aware that some of the people of this  Sultanate are already Malaysian citizens, one in particular worked at San Miguel in the Philippines and claims that through his efforts managed to secure One billion dollars of Halal food exports to the middle east for San Miguel, this individual would later join a very notable Malaysian organization's  marketing team and refers to one of our former Prime Minster's as "Uncle *^%*&#@%."

Now this same uncle claims he did not know anything about the blue identity card scandals in Sabah.

Getting away from this Uncle and nephew thing,  I'd like to focus on the less intelligent of the species we have parked in such an important portfolio in the Malaysian Cabinet - Hishamuddin Hussein Onn, now it loos like the PM has joined his ranks too.

Should not the PM have taken responsibility here? This is no ordinary matter for the incompetent police force to deal with and why has the PM decided to go dancing and doing Lo Sang instead of placing the top most priority here?

Their attitude here implies that if there is an attempt to invade this country, they'd just surrender and ask of safe passage to a third country, or even as many of their fathers did with the Japanese - become collaborates for a price to live here happily ever after, or be granted safe passage and for one of the biggest crooks who sat in the Malaysian Parliament - it will be Spain or Argentina where he owns considerable property held by "front" persons.

Now this less intelligent of our species found it fitting to say, “there's nothing special or political" about Xenophon’s case.

If there was nothing special or political why did you have to detain a senator of a friendly nation, a 'Senator" not a drug dealer,  at the airport and have him so unceremoniously deported?

Hishamuddin was reported to have said, “There is no political element behind the detention. I believe the detention is in accordance with the law.”

Whilst he was saying that the Director General of the Malaysian Immigration Department  Alias Ahmad is reported to have told a local daily, that the name of this senator "popped up"in the department's blacklist of prohibited individuals.

“Prohibited immigrants are also those who could cause disorder in the country," this is the view of the Director General of Immigration in the country, he is a senior officer of the Ministry of home affairs, and now I'd like to ask him what about armed intruders who claim the be from the Armed forces of a Sultan of a neighboring state, which of the two are more dangerous.?

Was the Australian senator Xenophon armed with machine guns, did he hole himself up at one of  the terminals in our airport? Did you have to call the Australian Government to  assure them that you'd arrange "safe passage" for him?

That the armed men in Sabah are a definite threat to the security of Sabah is a foregone conclusion, they have to be deal as invaders, the army should use its full might and drive them out and if any are taken prisoner to be treated accordingly, but the exercise must be a lesson to other nations not to fool around with our sovereignty.

During his visit here as a member of a fact finding mission in April of 2012, Australian Senator Xenophon and a seven member foreign delegation who were here on the invitation of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, visited Nazri at Parliament house he raised the following issues;

The discrepancies in the size of electoral constituencies which range from just less than 2,000 to as high as 100,00 in others.

The mission also raised concern that there is access to media is imbalanced between the opposition and government parties this includes radio and television and the local dailies.

The short campaigning time for the parties outside the government.

When asked if the mission are acting on opposition complaints, Xenophon said that the information was collected from public domain and that the mission comes with goodwill to hear all sides of the story.

"I cannot stress enough that we come as friends of Malaysia... Friends tell each other the truth," Senator Xenophon was reported to have said.

This man who cam as a friend was seen as a danger to the state, that is what on would gather after reading the statements of the  Director General Of Immigration.

Now the Sabah Police chief on the other hand tells us this about those armed friends who took over a village in Sabah, ""Based on intelligence sources, they are not from a militant or terrorist group. They are supporters of the Sulu Sultanate and I hope, and pray, that they can be deported soon," 

The police chief went on to say, "We have told them we cannot entertain them because they chose the wrong platform to voice what they want."

Why does this Police chief  take such a  conciliatory  against these armed militants,  "soldiers loyal to the Sultan of Sulu," Hamzah Taib need to explain to Malaysians and especially the people of Sabah his attitude to this whole case. Is he saying he recognises the claims of the Sultan of Sulu?

Hishamuddin should  stop threatening Malaysians by warning them not to spread "false  information" when in fact a comparison of these two cases will prove otherwise, it is he who seems to be giving us,  "false information."

These armed men who breached the sovereignty of this nation first by coming into our territorial waters without authorisation, heavily armed, and claiming territory form where they did not want to get disturbed, are being seen as meek and humble souls whilst a Senator from a friendly nation is seen as threat to our security.

The act by this government is bordering on Treason!!!! they are entrusted withth4e responsibility of ensuring that such acts are dealt with in accordance of our la w and international law and that they have failed to do.

TREASON!!!!!

Najib Going Mad

Screening May 13th film an act of desperation by a mad man.

Nero was referred to as a mad emperor, this blog carried an article about "Najib a Nero of sorts" and it has been proven to be right, the screening of the May 13th film on Najibs' orders is the an act of utter desperation by a truly mad man.

It seems that surely but slowly Najib Abdul Razak is going  mad, we saw it at the Psy concert in Penang where even though the crowd said NO!!!! to him when he asked them if they' wanted BN he continued asking the same question, and when he said   "Janji di? the crowd responded -  "Chapati!!!!" instead of BN's "Tepati," and yet he went on to ask another two more times, he is desperate and he is now being driven to do all kinds of nonsense and  I smell the hand of the architect of May 13th Mahathir Mohamed behind this latest diabolical scheme of his to pent up racial tensions.

Najib ordered the screening  of  a film on May 13th - Tanda Putera a slanted version of the happenings of that day in History  to FELDA settlers.

As is always the case with UMNO historians, they come out with a version to make the wicked look good and the victims look wicked. We've seen that once too often in the Teoh Beng Hock, Kugan and subsequent cases.

We've seen that in the rewriting of the history of Melaka, where Parameswara becomes a Muslim Prince, when in fact he was Hindu, and is given a different name, Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat are now turned into legends when it is discovered that they were Chinese just like Hang Li Po whose well is a tourist attraction in Melaka to this day.

Make no mistake, May 13th 1969 is well recorded but  like all other forms of Malaysian history it is rewritten by UMNO to justify their causes and make excuses for their misdeeds and it is these excuses that were shown in this film to the FELDA settlers and one asks why?

It is the truth that the  violence of May 13th had taken place on the instructions of Abdul Razak,  the then deputy PM of the country  and the father of Najib Razak, whilst the  physical execution of the same was carried out by Harun Idris the Menteri Besar of Selangor together with the aid of the Military on the instructions of the Abdul Razak who was also the Minister of Defence then,  whilst the real architect of this was Mahathir bin Mohammed.

Yes it was Mahahthir who was fanning racial discord in the country at that time, with his group known as the ultras. In fact during the 1969 elections he stood against Yusof Rawa from PAS and in the campaigning period he specifically told the Chinese who went to attend his ceramah not to vote for him as he would not represent them or their rights in Parliament although he stood on an Alliance ticket and the Alliance at that time was made up of UMNO, MCA and MIC, but no MCA man had the guts to tell him off, just  like it is  today with this screening of a lop sided version of May 13th and the MCA just accepting it,  this is the clearest indication that they are nothing but a group of stooges of UMNO just awaiting rich rewards for themselves and  for  which they'll sell the entire Chinese community.

To place the blame on the Chinese for May 13th  is a fabrication of the truth, (MCA has refused to deal with it) the defeat dealt to the then Alliance Government in the 1969 elections where for the first time they lost their two thirds majority was so humiliating that Razak had to go for a mega racial clash to unite the Malays and shut out all opposition.

Following that defeat and before the may 13th clashes Tan Siew Sin the MCA president at that time had declared that the MCA was pulling out of Government, he probably realised the folly because all the Chinese in the country had rejected the MCA, and I think the time has come for it to happen again.

After May 13th Razak suspended parliament and established the National Operations Council, in which he was supreme leader, a foreign reporter who interviewed him and asked him how it felt  like to be a dictator was thrown  out of the country and banned from returning, that reporter was Alex Josey and if my memory serves me right he was from the BBC. Alex Josey witnessed may 13th live in Kuala Lumpur.

The country only got a government of sorts after he convinced Lim Chong Eu of the Gerakan to cross over and join what he called the Barisan Nasional, others that followed suit were SP Seenivasagam who with his brothe, DR Seenivasagam (who had died earlier) formed the backbone of the PPP and were a party to be reckoned with in Perak.

Dr. Tan Chee Khoon, Ahmad Boestaman, of Gerakan then moved out of Gerakan and formed Pekamas and remained in the opposition, Lim Kit Siang was one of those who refused join Razak he was detained under that famous act called the ISA.

After the cross over the PPP never made it back - Malaysians hate traitors, and we are seeing a semblance of some in the MCA today, you do not have to teach the Chinese how to treat traitors they know best.

Nothing can justify May 13th it was the work of Razak and now his son is showing his fathers true colours by screening this with FELDA settlers in what is seen as move to pent up racial sentiments. One can  only hope and pray  the FELDA settlers are more matured than to fall for this diabolical scheme to pent up racial sentiments,  for if that happens this country will be ruined forever, it may even prompt foreign intervention, and we may lose  some of our biggest trading partners as a consequence.

Now do you see the sandiwara of Najib's son learning mandarin, he should be learning the Uzbek language instead. Wasn't this the PM who only days ago told the Chinese  that his son learnt Mandarin so he can be closer to you and  understand the Chinese better?  Now witness for yourselves the lies that he will tell you,  he will go to any extent just to get what he wants and Deepak has told us that.

China is a huge trading partner of Malaysia, such actions will not go unnoticed, and the consequences can be very bad for economic relationships between both countries.

Najib had always had this streak in him he was aided by Muhyiddin at the rally held in KL where he is alleged to have  raised a Keris and threaten to spill Chinese blood,  prior to the operations lallang carried out by Mahathir Mohammed again, after which the - that time  Star (Not owned by MCA then) had its publishing license suspended.

You'll notice that Mahathir has  a hidden hand in all these racial cases,  and Najib and his family have that violent racial streak in them. Mahathir knows how to use Najib and he is using him extremely well, this senile old man thinks he can get away with everything.

MCA has a huge responsibility here, and rather than pulling wool over peoples eyes with Hudud they should address this issue in no uncertain terms, but of course the interests of the Chinese community is not the interest of MCA, that is not what MCA politics is about an I am surprised over all these that there are still Chinese who do not see it or just refuse to see it for their own benefit,   their only interest is to sell the interest of the Chinese Community in this country for the Ringgit's and contract that UMNO gives them in return.

The alleged throwing of pork into the mosque in 1969 was an excuse that never happened, it was tried again and the prime suspect was again a former Menteri Besar of Selangor at the height of the Allah issue if you remember, one Ustaz even came out and warned the people not to react saying it could be the work of a Muslim, and I am sure that Ustaz was not from UMNO or the BN, but to this day our efficient police force have yet to arrest anyone in connection with that, their efficiency I suppose is measured by their willingness to turn a blind eye when it comes to UMNO or Barisan people, for which people in custody could die and they will be given all the protection, including the stopping of a  foreign pathologist of repute from performing autopsies to determine the cause of death.

This is UMNO in its element, but today it can't  use these  scare tactics to intimidate the people, the Malays in PAS and PKR will protect us, many in the armed forces and police do not subscribe to this behaviour of the government and they are losing patience too.

Abdul Razak went to China to establish diplomatic relations after the May 13th racial clashes to try and appease the Chinese at home,  only because he knew what he had done would never ever be forgotten by Malaysian Chinese, he wanted to neutralise the mischief he had done, and it has not, forgiven maybe, but forgotten no never ever many Chinese paid with their lives then on may 13th 1969.

This diplomatic relations could take a turn for the worse and the Prime Minisiter had better be forewarned, he is like a small boy playing with fire and I am most certain he is being instigated by a senile old idiot whom we all know,  and who should  instead of wallowing in politics prepare his death bed. He needs the mercies of Allah for all his misdeeds.

Now Najib starring at an elections defeat frantically  resorts to this, Malaysian of all races should stand up against him, and his cronies.  Is this better than Hudud???? The fear put in all of you by Chua Soi Lek.

Rememebr that PAS cannot go it alone on Hudud, they require a two thirds majority, and that they will not get, it is being used as a scare tactic, that is all the BN knows, this May 13th film, the PAS Hudud and what next.

MCA Chinese should join ranks with the opposition and give up racial politics, discard the MCA,  see yourselves as Malaysian first the way the Pakatan parties do,  do not let your greed for contracts and other monitory gain make you sell out your own brothers and sisters.

Reject the likes of Chua Soi Lek, the likes of Ng Yen Yen people driven by greed rather than service to the nation and its  people. Reject fence sitters like Ong Ka Teng, he can't expect the better of two worlds, at the same time the Indians should reject the MIC and Najib's new toy HINDRAF.

Racialism is engrained in the very fabric of the BN and all its parties, let this be the lesson, reject them outright now and let us begin anew a new Malaysia where all Malaysians can stand proud of his/her own homeland.

Long Live Malaysia, and Long live Malaysians. One people one destiny and let no one ever deny us that.

The Day Before Polling Day

 By Howl Pillai

The campaign period has ended. At last the political guns have fallen silent except for the few that deem themselves above the election laws of this land. It is now the day before the polls.

Here I am at home. A modest terrace house in the suburbs of this wealthy capital city. It had taken me all of twenty five years to settle the mortgage on it. That is a lot of sweat and tears. And much effort and even more of toil.

Five years ago I concocted a name for this city which I still think is entirely justifiable: “Aku-curi Lu-apa-hal”. It had a nice ring to it and besides it reflected the political ethos of the land. “Kuala Lumpur”, or Muddy River Mouth does not compare well to “I Steal, What’s Your Problem”.

I have decided not to switch on the TV today, on the eve of the polls, or tomorrow. Likewise I will skip the newspapers which some of you may recall, predicted a landslide the last time around in 2008. They missed out on the  political Tsunami that followed. And besides, we may commit political suicide because of a deliberate misprint on their part.

Instead I have before me a few sheets of plain white A4 paper and a pencil.  And I am sober, unemotional. I can see clearly. I can hear even better. I can remember all the yesterdays as if they were todays. And I am now in a reflective mood. Meditative even. Polling day can wait for now.

And now, by the clear light of the new day I begin the task of putting together a list. A list of the hundred most vile and obnoxious politicians of the land. The time passes quickly and I am almost done!  It is a surprisingly easy thing to do!  I have before me now the names of the infamous Centurions of this land!

I study it carefully. There is a method to my madness. I must now break this list up into five sub-lists for even the vile and obnoxious can be categorised and classified. My! My! Now comes the difficult task!  But I am up to it. The key is to be magnanimous, to be fair in my judgement. I must not be influenced by fear or favour. Like some judges.

On the first sub-list are the names of the twenty politicians who should be sent to Jail  after the elections for stealing the wealth of the nation. They will surely rave and rant that the trial was not impartial. And then we the Rakyat will respond with one voice:  You were the ones who wielded the knives that emasculated the judiciary!

On the second sub-list are the twenty politicians who should be sent to the Zoo after the elections.  And they will plead that they were merely mouthing the party ideology.  And then we the Rakyat will respond with one voice:  You were the political animals whose emotions and reason were dominated by the most base and wild instincts!

On the third sub-list are the twenty who should be sent to work in the Circus after the elections. And they will wail and cry out loud that they were merely court jesters. And then we the Rakyat will respond with one voice:  You were the political clowns who put the nation to shame with your childish antics!

On the fourth sub-list are the twenty who should be sent to the city’s Brothels after the elections. And in high indignation they will say they were only politicking. And then we the Rakyat will respond with one voice: You were the political prostitutes who besmirched the good name of this land!

And of the last remaining twenty names on the master list, I see again the name that keeps appearing on every other sub-list. That was no surprise to me for his character is as stubborn as his name. Now I must devise the punishment to fit the crime of this last lot, still unrepentant, still obnoxious, still vile.

I can think of no better punishment than to paint this last lot white and send them on a one way ticket to Zimbabwe to be dealt with by Robert Mugabe. And the Chef-de-Mission of this delegation is the politician whose name stubbornly appears on every sub-list. On overdrive now, he will scream his lungs out that he was not a rabid racist but a raving nationalist.

And we the Rakyat will respond with one voice: It is you who made racism, nationalism, stealing, clowning, political demagoguery and prostitution interchangeable in this land, damn you!

I will be extra careful who I vote for this time around! Won’t you?

Gong Xi Fa Cai the Snake hisses

To all Chinese readers, correction to all Malaysian readers and especially those of Chinese origin Gong Xi Fa Cai.

We will determine all the good things this year  in the ballot box, i ti snot written in the stars, it is in your minds, your hearts, and your hands  when you cast that all important vote.

Focus on the long term your children and their children and their children's children matter, don't base your vote like the MCA china man who things of no one but himself and sell the interest of our children's children vote wisely and drive out this Barisan Nasional government, Neo Nazis like Mahathir Mohammed so that all of us together can stake claim to this beautiful country and build it together as the best country in the world. 

Believe me the only way to do that is to kick the corrupt UMNO led BN out, the party that is now sen to be bringing in foreigners and making Bumiputeras out of them  keeping the rest of us marginalized. let us put things right let us make Malaysia one our Malaysia and ensure that everyone regardless of race or creed will be looked after. let us make that resolution this Lunar  New Year.

This Lunar New year is a celebration for all Malaysians that is how it was and the likes of Mahathir took it away, we celebrate each others festival, and this man of Indian origin will be attending reunion dinner with his in laws.

The Psy concert

The Colors this Chinese New Year are  Red and Yellow, but this year because of the environment we have added green and all Malaysian especially those going to the Psy concert have to wear any or all three of these colors, it has very special significance to UMNO and the BN so do so.

Hey Penang we are counting on you, do this and do this good, give Najib a rousing welcome in the colors, let him know what we think, if you can have some placards with the picture of Altantuya Shaaribu and Teoh Beng Hock please carry them too, after all Mongols too celebrate the Lunar new Year, so spare her a thought and if you carry a placard there Najib and especially Rosmah may spare her a thought too, something they have not done or, is she occupying their  thoughts day and night.

I am told that Rosmah will be accompanying the PM there, so carrying   pictures of expensive rings and expensive handbags will do some good too, Rosmah just loves those things the more expensive the better, and if any of you are daring enough present her with a picture of Altantuya Shaaribu, she will be greatly touched I am told, she may even weep. ( I can imagine the touching scenes)

The turnout in Penang may well set the tone for the next elections, send Chua Soi  Lek a message, let UMNO know that we do not trust him or his MIC cronies, at the last GE Penangites sent a message to the BN and UMNO in particular get out of Penang, show them nothing has changed.

You Penangites have a saying, "Penang leads" now show the rest of the country that that is not just a saying.

I know it may be too much to ask as the New Year is around, but if every Penangite going to the show made that possible, only wearing the colors  this would set the tone for the General Elections in this Year of the Snake.

Gong XI Fa Cai

May the new year bring all of us good cheer (defeating BN), health, wealth and happiness. 

Caesar crossed the Rubicon an act of insurrection.
Mahahtir Mohammed crossed the line, when he tried to  further downplay the role of the Tengku - "the father of the nation" and accuse him of selling the country.  An act of insurrection? No even  worse than that.  
This  staunch disciple of Heinrich Luitpold Himmler  of the Third Reich -  Mahathir Mohammed bears a strange resemblance of his master and has all the makings of a Neo Nazi.

Lying in State

By Howl Pillay

We were brought up not to speak ill of the dead. At home and in school. We were taught that we must have the courage to say our peace; not excoriate the dead long after they are gone. It is a sign of cowardice even. Restraint and respect for the departed is a sign of civilised behaviour. At times we fail the test. Our conscience pricks us. And it hurts. We learn. The next time around we desist from such behaviour. And we are on the road towards building a civil society.

Surely building a civil society is not about monumental buildings or grand projects. Or of grabbing the wealth of the rich and stealing from the poor in the name of governance. It is about a scrupulous adherence to the rule of law. It is about men and women behaving in a civil manner in the simple things they do everyday in their everyday lives. It is about politeness; about grace; about fairness. We hold our tongue and our horses, especially when we hold the reigns of great political power. Truly great men are humbled by that experience. They are transformed by it. After retirement they retreat to within themselves to better understand themselves and the people they governed; to acknowledge their mistakes and their weaknesses.

And the exemplariness of their life carries a message for future generations; a message that acts as a light and a lamp to guide us in our journey to the better place we seek. These are the Lincolns, the Rizals, the Ho Chi-minhs, the Tunku Abdul Rahmans, the Kartinis, the Gandhis, the Mandelas of history. Lincoln’s Emancipation Speech will serve as an inspiration for as long as there are enslaved people; Rizal’s incredibly courageous farewell message to his people written on the night before facing a Spanish firing squad and smuggled out, hidden in an old lamp, “Mi Ultimo Adios” is the proud patrimony of every Filipino; Ho Chi-minh’s words, deeds and steely courage inspired the Vietnamese to defeat two Western powers and unite a country after thirty years of war and sacrifice and yet he died as poor as a Vietnamese church mouse; and Kartini’s educational endeavours on behalf of girls and women in her country is still honoured and her birthday is celebrated by two hundred and fifty million Indonesians as Kartini Day and school children solemnly pledge to continue her legacy every year. And what more need we say of Tunku Abdul Rahman who forged a nation and a people out of lands divided by race, religion, creed and colour and that were ruled as a colony for hundreds of years, without shedding a drop of blood.    

But the minds of the unscrupulous leaders, the incorrigible ones, the recalcitrant ones are different. They turn up the volume of politics and fill it with racial hatred and tension. They invoke ancient animosities and stoke the flames of religious intolerance to achieve their own ends. They hit out at all and sundry; they trash their rivals; they conveniently forget; they selectively remember and they humiliate those who have the courage to stand up to them. They piss and puke on the graves of others who had come before them. They rave and they rant; they twist and turn until all meaning is rendered meaningless. Like questioning the place in the sun of those who built this nation through hard work and sacrifice. And they enrich themselves at every opportunity for their greed is insatiable. It is they, who through their speech and deed come closest to making the dead turn in their graves.

And they are not content doing the dirty work of dirty politics when in office. They continue with the same after leaving it. And they do it with even more vehemence and venom. Old habits indeed die hard. But still we who are civilised know that it is wrong to wish the death of another. A no-no-no! And so we take our unconscious thoughts with us to bed. And in sleep they become our dreams and nightmares; often forgotten on waking and if remembered, often nightmarish. But at rare times they wake us up, imbued with the rare persistence of dream memory that is as clear as day.......

A long line of men and women are streaming past a bier. And the line stretches back miles to some unknown place like ants streaming out of an undetectable hole in the ground. And yet more people are waiting patiently in groups and clusters both large and small in the streets of the capital. They speak in quiet, dignified whispers. And soldiers guard the dead man, the ‘great man’, heads bowed. I walk, unhurried looking for the end of the line. I must not jump the queue; I am part of building a civil society. And then out of the blue I spot an old friend. We exchange greetings politely. All his life he spoke of his disgust for the man now lying in state. I am puzzled. I ask him, in a whisper, why is here. And he whispers back:

“To make sure he is really dead”.

A nod of my head, and I continue. I have walked hardly a hundred meters when yet again I see an old friend from my Uni days; a journalist once who gave up writing on anything at all after the newspaper he worked for was closed down by this ‘great man’. Again we exchange greetings. He shakes my hand vigorously, like he is energised and happy. I say to him that he was the last person I expected to patiently wait his turn to pay his respects to this man. He suppresses his laughter before whispering:

“I will bow low before him so that I can see from close quarters how a mouth can fallen silent forever”.

I look at his now sad face and move on looking for the end of the line. The sun is beating down mercilessly. And yet no one is complaining. They quietly sip cold water from bottles, holding handphones and wearing earplugs. The umbrellas are out. Someone calls out my name. I scan the line of people just ahead. I see a smiling face. Why, yes, it belongs to an old buddy, a good friend in school. A colourful character who became a successful businessman only to lose it all when the rules of the game changed forever during the tenure of this ‘great man’. He never forgave him or his Cabinet. I ask him why. He says with a smile:

“I want to hear the silence of a heart that had no conscience”.

In a daze now, I walk on wondering whether it could have all been different. Lost in  thought, I stumble into the queue. A woman stretches out her hand that stops me from falling. And then she says quietly: “Well, well, well! What a coincidence! Fancy meeting you here!”. Brenda, my ex-boss was a dynamic lady who quit working at forty five, at the prime of her career. She had enough putting up with ‘twenty two years of his government’s interference’. I ask her why. And she says, cursing under her breath:

“I want to see the ears that never heard the pain of ordinary people or listened to anyone”

I can hardly take one more step. Then I hear a familiar voice. I look up. Its my English teacher from my school days. Yes, he is an old man now, all white and grey. And pale and frail; a ghost of a man. I pick up enough courage and ask him why. He says with a mischievous glint in his eyes:

“Don’t worry about me. Just remember the thing I told everyone of my students in school: You will be judged by not what you say but by what you leave behind. And never spit on the dead!”

I know it is all a dream! For when he dies, as we all will, he will be wrapped in white and tightly secured in accordance with the tenets of his faith. My four friends who came to me in my dream will not see his face, his ears, his mouth or hear his heart not beat anymore. He will lie in state: and for once the ceremonies he is honoured with will match his character! But as always with him, the real lie will accompany him to that other place, shrouded and secure!

That incorrigible man!