Do the job

Hey, where did this Tengku come from? Razaleigh Hamzah I mean. Yes, I have heard of him. He was a in very public spat with Dr M when he tried to wrest fro him the UMNO presidency in 1987, some 20 years ago. Now, as the Chinese saying goes the "East Mountain has risen again" and he wants to challenge Dr M's successor, Abdullah Badawi for the UMNO presidency (again) and become Prime Minister. Apparently his backers are the rejects in Abdullah Badawi's new Cabinet. Come on, many of these rejects have served for long periods of time in Cabinet, and if they are not wanted this time around, they should just 'fade away'. Some period of reflection may be in order why they were dropped.

Instead, I heard that they are trying the back door through the old man, Tengku Razaleigh. He is 71 this year. The last thing that Malaysia needs now is a disunited BN - not after it fared so poorly in the last elections. So not only does AB have to contend with Anwar Ibrahim,who is threatening to further reduce the BN's majority through enticements to defect, he also has to watch his back for would-be assassins from within his own people. How the political situation has deteriorated. It is perhaps at such times that people's true colours are revealed. Never mind that you have been working with a person for years, and have been 'pal-ly' all this while, even to the extent of shedding tears in public. Some people cannot see beyond their own interests at the interests of the people and the nation. Is it any wonder that the people have rejected the status quo and demanded change? Yet there are some who are living in self-denial, and I am not surprised because that has been the case for too long. AB shouldn't be too nice a guy. He must remember that he was put there to do a job. And this being his last term as PM (he wouldn't want to continue this - its just not worth it, really), he should do what needs to be done and then hand the hot potato to his deputy, Najib Tun Razak. Then history would remember him more favourably.

UMNO should close ranks and give their leader the support that he needs, not hack him down at the next opportunity. 

Imitation Kings

Is there a conspiracy between father and son? We know that Dr Mahathir has long wanted Ahmad Badawi (AB) to hand over the PM'ship to his deputy, Najib Tun Razak. He said that he had wanted Ahmad Badawi to just serve one term, hinting of such a private 'gentlemen's' agreement when he first chose Ahmad Badawi to succeed him. This sounds awfully like what actually happened in Britain, where Tony Blair, the former PM, reportedly made a pack with the current PM, Mr Gordon Brown, to hand over the premiership after an agreed period. Well, how original of Dr. M, to borrow the story from his former colonial masters and make it his own!

Why does Dr M want Ahmad Badawi to be gone? It is said that Dr M was immensely displeased that AB cancelled many of the mega-projects, including the fantastic crooked bridge that was planned to replace the Singapore-Malaysia Causeway, that he, Dr M, had put in place while he was PM. This is probably true. I do not know if this also includes AB successfully repairing the sour relationship between Singapore and Malaysia during Dr M's time. If so, then Dr M is being very mean, to both AB and Singapore.

But it appears that this pattern of imitation runs in the family. Freshly minted MP, Mukhriz Mahathir (MM Jr) is echoing his father's long-standing call for AB to step aside as PM. He has gone to the extent of circulating a letter to the top people in UMNO calling for AB's resignation. Hmmm...sounds awfully familiar when one recalls the flurry of letters before Anwar Ibrahim was sacked and thrown in jail. The reason given now is not the mega-projects or Singapore. MM Jr is so freshly minted that he has no other credibility except that he is Dr. M's son. But he is nevertheless imitating some nations where, when the election result is less than ideal for the sitting government party, the leader - the PM - resigns to take responsibility. An example will be Japan, which has serial examples of PM's resigning due to unfavourable election results. It is their symbolic version of hara-kiri. MM Jr must be fascinated by this ancient Japanese practice to want to have it imitated in UMNO politics. Or is it opportunistic plagiarism? Whatever it is, it appears that MM Jr has become Dr M's surrogate. We had hoped that MM Jr would establish his own credentials and come into his own as a politician and leader. If his approach today is representative of his thinking - one of imitation and duplicity - then he has lost the people and allied himself with the cronies of Dr M's time, which is not surprising.

What a waste for a young and freshly-minted MP!

See also: UMNO Youth mulling action against MM Jr

Chance to change

Come to think of it, PM Abdullah Badawi should shake Anwar Ibrahim's hands as a gesture of gratitude for having 'humiliated' him in the last General Elections. For without him and the loose opposition coalition's success in wresting 4 states from the BN, Abdullah Badawi would not have been able to get rid of some dead wood in his old Cabinet and given him a chance today to reform his government, particularly those at the highest levels. I can imagine that all components parties in the BN will now be less quarelsome when it comes to the allocation of cabinet posts. Abdullah Badawi has a great opportunity to put good people in the proper places so that it would be easier for him to forward his agenda of fighting corruption and nepotism. He should stay put with the old gang left by his predecessor, Dr Mahathir.

The question is, would he do it? Or is his weakened authority and credibility going to force him to accept Tom, Dick and Harry that his stronger 'colleagues' in the BN, like Najib Tun Razak, and conceivably Mukhriz Mahathir, have in mind? If he cannot exert his authority, or what is left of it, in gathering a good team around himself - people who are interested in serving the country rather than themselves - then he may as well retire from politics today.

For clearly the next 5 years cannot be more of the same. Yes, he has articulated his position through the Wall Street Journal partly to calm the financial markets, but talk is still talk. Would he walk the talk, for example, in fighting corruption, which he listed as his third objective in the statement to the WSJ? We know he said that 5 years ago, but didn't follow up with enough concrete action to fulfill that promise. What gives anyone any confidence that he can do better in the next 5 years? Hopefully the factor will be the absence of imcompetent former ministers and leaders who may be more interested in building themselves palatial homes in an exclusive suburb in the capital city of Kuala Lumpur or fattening their Swiss bank accounts, if any exists. With a chastened BN, there is opportunity to do the right thing and not the old thing.

Hopefully, Ahmad Badawi will not fail his people this time. Or are the knives already out for his head?

Humble pie around the table

The writing was already on the wall. Riots, running inflation, perceived injustice suffered by the Indians, corruption at the highest places, religious bias in favour of the state religion, Islam, in a supposedly multi-racial multi-religious country - the results of the Malaysian Election are hardly unexpected, except the scale of the upset. Upset is perhaps too tame a word to use. Some called it a tsunami that knocked the incumbent BN off their pedestal, forcing them to eat humble pie this time around. The Barisan Nasional (BN), the ruling coalition led by PM Abdullah, lost a total of 5 states - Kedah (the home state of former PM Mahathir), Penang (the home state of sitting PM Abdullah Badawi), Selangor, Perak and Kelantan (retained by PAS). The BN even lost to lawyer Manoharan, a candidate who is still incarcerated in Malaysia's prisons under the Internal Security Act. Can it be any more humiliating than this? And for the first time perhaps, a blogger, Jeff Ooi, won against seasoned politicians.  

And they failed to retain their two-thirds majority. I don't understand why the two-thirds is a factor in the first place. Sure it allows the government to change the Constitution, but does anyone want to change the Constitution? Two-thirds is an important and indicative target because it shows the total confidence that the electorate has in the ruling party - confident enough to allow them to change the Constitution at will. But that confidence is no more.

Many of the bigwigs in BN either lost their seats or were returned with reduced majorities. For all the hype surrounding Khairy Jamaluddin, UMNO's Dpy Youth Chief, he won by a slim majority of 5,746 votes. The previous BN candidate had won by a margin of 18,656 in 2004. People just aren't comfortable with this young man. His work is cut out for him once his father-in-law exits the political stage sooner rather than later. 

Probably the only consolation the BN got was DPM Najib Razak's overwhelming victory in Pekan, Pahang - polling an increased 26,464-vote majority - in a constituency that he has held since he was 22 and before that, his father, Malaysia's second PM, Tun Abdul Razak. What can be said perhaps is that the electorate has kept faith with its favourite political family. Now, there is more reason for PM Najib to claim the Premiership from Abdullah Badawi, notwithstanding questions over his alleged involvement in the murder of Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu. This case will now probably never see the light of day.

And of course, Malaysian's heeded their former PM Mahathir's instructions - dump Samy Vellu. Ironically, Mahathir is probably now a very happy person. First, he isn't the PM that suffered such as stunning loss. People apparently still listen to him. He will probably see PM Abdullah Badawi stand aside in favour of DPM Najib - something he has been very vocal about. His son, Mukhriz Mahathir won in Jerlun, Kedah, which used to be part of Kubang Pasu where his father was MP for 3 decades.

Anwar Ibrahim is probably also a very happy man. Both his wife and daughter won their Permatang Pauh and Lembah Pantai parliamentary seats respectively. Wan Azizah Ismail polled a vastly improved majority over her last election. Although Nurul's majority margin was only 2,895, she was up against a formidable and proven opponent. She wasn't even expected to win.

In hindsight, Mahathir should also take responsibility for this huge setback. He said Samy Vellu had overstayed his welcome, but he had kept him as a government Minister for all those many years he was the PM. The corruption, the rot, did not start with Abdullah Badawi. Mahathir may or may not be corrupt, but as the PM, he didn't have a hoot of an idea how to resolve the problem. History will have many negative things to say about the Mahathir years which may have contributed to today's sorry state of affairs.   

Truly, the political landscape has changed drastically with this latest elections. One only hopes that the BN will pay more attention and gain a greater urgency in resolving problems that have been festering for years.

Get this guy

Yes, the Malaysia elections campaigning are in full swing now. But Singaporeans, unfortunately, cannot care any more. It has greater problems in its back yard - looking for a dangerous terrorist which it inexplicably allowed to escape.

So till we find the *sob*, I'll have to give the electioneering a miss. Just don't keep your guard down during this time, my dear neighbours. Malaysia is nearer than any other country to Singapore. And it'll be a good place to run to because everybody is engrossed in the elections to care about an escaped convict from the island of Singapore - those incompetent, err, better not say.

Keep an eye out for Mas Selamat Kastari, will ya? He looks like this. Well, no, don't vote for him! When you see him, send him to the Singapore Prison Island, yah? Tolong, not to the Malaysia Parliament, ok? And pronto, please. Reward? Here's the reward.

Mat Selamat Kastari

p.s. Of course, if Malaysia wants him, it can keep him for good. Just down mix him up with those Hindraf political detainees. This guy is a real criminal.

Elect the Blogger

The temperature is hotting up, not only in Kuala Lumpur, but elsewhere throughout the Peninsula and East Malaysia. PM Badawi disssolved Parliament on 13 February 2008, paving the way for a General Election in March 2008.

Significantly, at least one prominent blogger - Jeff Ooi - is getting into the fray and putting himself up for election. He wrote:

But the call of national duty is definitely prompting me. I need to do what I wanted to do in JEFF 4 MALAYSIA campaign, and I have made some details here, to explain the mission. The state Election Manifesto, which I helped draft, will be release at the right time. I am certain that talk is cheap and beyond being a blogger, I need a legislator role to speak up for Malaysians!

Well, as a fellow blogger, I wish him well. As a foreigner, I'd stay neutral in the contest. But it seems that he does need a lot of campaign contribution and the amount he has received so far is paltry. Perhaps the rest of Malaysia's bloggers are not too enthused that one of their own is putting himself forward for national duty?

Visit his Blogsite and his Election Site to find out more.

Indiscrete conversation

Would you believe, after viewing this video, that Mr V.K. Lingam was drunk? He sounded perfectly, though damningly, sound and sane to me. But of course Mr Lingam is a lawyer, so I wouldn't be surprised with his explanation for an incident that has brought out the political knives in Malaysia today. This video is the subject of an ongoing Royal Commission of Inquiry whether judicial appointments had been unduly influenced by Mr Lingam's and perhaps others' effort since 2001. But of course, Dr Mahathir claims that all judicial appointments made during his tenure of office as PM was solely by him, taking into account the feedback and advice of various people.

You be the, ahem, judge, whether Lingam was drunk or not.

Bedroom Politics

Malaysia seem to be having a love affair with videography.

I found it odd that Dr Chua Soi Lek had admitted to being the man in the now notorious sex video showing a man and a woman having sex in a hotel. According to some people in his hometown of Batu Pahat who had seen the video (circulated by some unknown persons or parties), they couldn't even make out that the male in that video was Dr Chua! That being the case, the smart thing for Dr Chua to have done was to deny everything. But Dr Chua prefers to be honest, which is not a bad thing, though his romping in bed with a woman not his wife was a case of bad judgment, and doing so in a hotel which had such lax security was a bad choice of location to have his night of pleasure.

It would appear that there is one sure way of causing the downfall of any rival in Malaysian politics, or anywhere else for that matter. If Dr Chua, who by any measure, is a successful man - he is a medical doctor, a No. 2 man in the dominant Chinese political party, the MCA and married with 3 kids - can be brought down so easily by a moment of indiscretion, anybody is fair game. And this has been going on for some time now. The most famous of these is the former Deputy PM, Mr Anwar Ibrahim, who was convicted of sodomy with his driver, although the veracity of the Court's judgment remains suspect to this day. But it doesn't have to be true, making it look convincing is enough to push one off the edge into political oblivion. This is what people mean when they say that politics is a dirty game - for how many otherwise effective leaders have not had their nights in the bedrooms of a woman not their wives? Plenty. John F. Kennedy, Thomas Jefferson, François Mitterrand, Bill Clinton (well, sort of), Napoleon Bonaparte, etc. are some of the more famous ones. All of these, except JFK, completed their terms in office, though.

While the verdict is still out on the performance of Dr Chua as an MCA leader and Health Minister, it is unfortunate that he was honest about it - unfortunate for his political career, but it was probably a good thing for him to be honest about it.

I wonder if there is a budding film industry in the making in Malaysia.

Race Riots Irony

Malaysia and Singapore has lived in irony since 1964. Why so? Because in that year, two race riots occurred in Singapore - one in July and a second in September. Singapore was then a part of Malaysia. While Malaysia's then DPM Tun Abdul Razak blamed Indonesia and the Communists for these disturbances, Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew and some foreign observers blamed Malay supremacist, Syed Jaafar Albar and some elements of the ultra-nationalist faction of UMNO.

History followed up these disturbances with yet another riot, this time in Malaysia, on May 13, 1969. Historians have judged that these 1969 riots were connected to those of 1964, and the reasons for them were similar - conflict between the Chinese and Malay races. Malaysia has sought to solve these problems all these years by implementing its Bumiputra policy - the policy of affirmative action (i.e. positive discrimination) in favour of the majority Malay race. Everything seemed to have been settled, with relative peace for 40 years, until just a few weeks ago, following on demonstrations to protest corruption in government at the highest levels. This time, the minority Indians (mostly Tamils) took to the streets to vent their frustration at the Bumiputra policy which has prevented the race from moving on and up in the Malaysian economy. This is 1964 and 1969 all over again, except it is now an India-Malay conflict.

All of which goes to show that the Bumiputra policy has been an abject and total FAILURE. All these many years, the UMNO and the Malays have been pulling wool over their own eyes and assumed that their Bumiputra policy had been the magic bullet that has brought about peace and harmony. So proud are they of this policy that, 40 years after it was started, they still claim that it has not fulfilled its objectives. The Malays just want their privileges to continue on and on. But who are they kidding? The recent show of anger from its minority Indian race demonstrates that Malaysia is no nearer resolving the problems that first exploded in 1964. That all this while, the Malays and UMNO have just been sitting on a time bomb which they hoped has stopped timing. How wrong they were and how wrong they still are now.

Unless Malaysia addresses the discrimination that is the Bumiputra policy, Malaysia will not move a single steps towards long term peace and harmony. The volcano will erupt again.

Hindraf Rally Reports

Winter of discontent

This year, the 58th UMNO General Assembly meeting was reportedly tame - in comparison to last year's, where the Malay delegates, led by Tun Hishammuddin, wielded the Kris with much bravado. Was this a sign of the times? Malaysia's economy reportedly grew by 6.1% so far this year. Though lower than Singapore's expected 7.9%, it is still an achievement.

Wither the discontent, which exploded into mass demonstrations against the government in the streets of KL? Government sanctioned mass media are not reporting fully on it, so new media has taken over. You want the news about this demonstration? Read online newspapers and blogs. You want to look at pictures or better still, videos? Look at Youtube with the word 'bersih'. Truly the government is losing its battle of the minds. Gagging the official media is no longer effective. Malaysia can't control new media, unless it shuts off access to the internet, as governments in China and Myanmar are fond of doing from time to time.

I am not a political scientist to offer a reasoned analysis on the situation in Malaysia today. But it is clear that the administration of Abdullah Badawi is facing myriad problems. The biggest of these is the still smoking gun of judicial bribery brought to prominence by Anwar Ibrahim. He must really really hate the judiciary because he must have felt it the height of injustice when he was sent to jail for the charge of sodomy (subsequently overturned) and bribery/corruption (which has prevented him so far from seeking a seat in Parliament). Now that the video tape he released about a senior lawyer bribing a top judge has been acknowledged to be genuine, the ball is on Badawi's administration to appoint a royal commission to look further into the allegations. Badawi, it appears, is still dragging his foot on this. What is he worried about, unless the allegations are true? Lawyers subsequently staged a demonstration about the video tape's implications of complicity and injustice at the very citadel of justice. Truly, Malaysia' judiciary is now in tatters. How the mighty have fallen.

The word 'elections' has been on the mouth of many Malaysians for some time now. The elections process has often been viewed as not that clean in Malaysia. Out of nowhere, the people marched in KL under the banner 'bersih' or 'clean' where they demanded for clean elections, which is expected sometime early next year, and clean systems of government. The government's response - water cannons and news blackout.

Meanwhile in the Hague, Malaysia's lawyers are trying their level best to lay claim to a piece of rock in the South China Sea, called Pedra Branca (or Pulau Batus Puteh as the Malaysians prefer to call it). The protogonists? None other than the red dot of a nation far larger in size to Pedra Branca, on its southern tip that Malaysia unceremoniously ejected from its territories 42 years ago - Singapore. From the evidence and arguments presented so far, it appears that Singapore has a stronger case.

This is truly the winter of discontent in Malaysia. Hopefully it does not signal the winter of Badawi's political career. Why do I hope so? Because he has been good to and for Sinagapore.

Karang Guni nation

I heard, don't know if it is true, that Russia is prepared to sell Malaysia the Soyuz spacecraft that its first angkasawan, Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, made history in.

Now what would Malaysia do with such as spacecraft, I wonder?

It can't launch it into space itself as it does not have the know-how nor the infrastructure to do so itself.

It doesn't have a viable space industry that would benefit from the design technology of the space craft.

However, it can keep it in a space museum, I suppose. A space museum is not difficult nor too costly to set up. All proud Malaysians will make a bee-line for the exhibit in order to to inflate their chests once more. The Malaysia government can collect entrance fees to recoup the money it would have to pay for this piece of immobile technology (i.e. it will never fly again).

Well, I don't know if Russia is making this a gift, or if it is selling it at a discount for goodwill purposes or what. But it does seem to me that if Russia is willing to unload this spacecraft, they consider this spacecraft as having reached its useful lifespan.

In other words, its ready for the Karang Guni man to collect it. Will Malaysia want to be the Karang Guni nation?

Out of this world

Literally, as a Malaysian angkasawan, a Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, sometime model, flew aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft with a Russian and an American on board to the International Space Station on 10 Oct 2007.

The fare for this single return trip? A reportedly $24M (that's US$, I think). This was the deal that Malaysia made with Russia to take a space tourist, err...its first angkasawan, to outer space. His most significant space experiment to date is to fast (it is still Ramadan) and eat ethnic Malay food (sans Durians) on board a spacecraft. But of course he has more serious experiments to conduct during the 9 days he will be on board the ISS. Details of these experiments have yet to be reported.

Well, Malaysians should be proud of the occasion. Many nations would have wanted to join the outer space club. Malaysia has done it. But last heard, traveling into space is going to be a common thing. Already, the following five tourists have flown to and from the International Space Station on Soyuz spacecraft*:

1. Dennis Tito (American): April 28 - May 6, 2001
2. Mark Shuttleworth (South African / British): April 25 - May 5, 2002
3. Gregory Olsen (American): October 1 - October 11, 2005
4. Anousheh Ansari (Iranian / American): September 18 - September 29, 2006
5. Charles Simonyi (Hungarian / American): April 7 - April 21, 2007^[10]

Dr Muszaphar is but the 6th person that Russia's space program has benefited from. What can we expect of future developments in the space programme in Malaysia? Now I don't mean to be sceptical, but I would expect zero development without the help of the Russians. And why would the Russian's want to spend time developing Malaysia's space programme? Simple, either Russian Roubles or Malaysian Ringgit - millions of them.

That's almost like extorting money from the poor Malaysians for a brief moment in the Sun. It goes beyond asking whether it is worth it. It begs the question whether it is at all meaningful. It would be, if the space programme in Malaysia can develop on its own steam in the long run. But if the effort is like the bumiputra policy, which is entirely within the control of the government and has been around for over 30 years and is still not considered completed, then its space programme would not amount to much in any meaningful timeframe either. Another example is Malaysia's troubled national car project.

If this analysis is correct, then Malaysia's latest space adventure is a real waste of money, not just $24M of it. Saddled with Russian aircraft, it will have to pay Russia millions more to maintain them over the life of these aircraft - say 20 years? I wonder if Malaysia has stepped into space or into a black hole?

* Source: wikipaedia

Changing places

I think there is something wrong with a witness protection programme when it involves defacing the witness. That was exactly what the Cabinet Minister Nazri Aziz said when he tried to draw the whistleblower of the now notorious video clip of a senior lawyer's smoking gun conversation with a senior judge out into the open. To me, it seems that the whole judiciary in Malaysia is all messed up. What kind of justice can you get nowadays in Malaysia? You'd better not get caught and charged in court. The best thing would be to buy off the cop with a couple of hundred ringgit. At least for Singaporens, that's an immediate 50+% discount.

But back to the issue of the whistleblower. The Minister's offer of defacement of the witness, err, sorry, that's plastic surgery to hide the identity of the witness, is preposterous. It is not obvious that one would want to change his/her face just so that the incompetent Malaysia police and judiciary can claim credit for solving a case. This a lifetime identity altering thing. I like the face I was born with. It resembles my father/mother/siblings. It is a family thing. You ask me to change it? For what? If the police cannot guarantee the effective protection of its citizens beyond plastic surgery and a change of identity, then why should anyone want to come forward. Is this not a tacit admission by the Minister of the incompetence of the police and the state's inability (or is it unwillingness in this case?) to protect those who step forward?

Whoever it is, I think the powers that be are out to hantam you. Be forewarned.

Free Burma