Corruptor Free

Dr M is playing catchup. After Lim Guan Eng suggested offering money to whistle blowers for exposing corrupt practices, Dr M suggested in his blog that the Malaysia law should be amended such that it punishes the corruptee (those that gain from the corrupt act, i.e. receives the benefit in cash or kind) but look the other way on the corrupter - he who offers the benefit in cash or kind).

That doesn't sound fair. You forgive the person who initiates the corrupt act - the tempter, but screw the temptee? This won't stop corruption. It will do the opposite - increase it. Because the corrupter knows that whatever he does, the law will protect him, or at least look the other way. The temptee, will, of course, get his just desert by being locked up and/or de-cashed. Whether the Malaysia Polis throws away the key I leave it up to them ($$$ *wink* *wink*).

But on further thought, Dr M is probably doing Singaporeans a favour, seeing as how Singapore motorists, for example, routinely offer $50 Sing dollars to Malaysia traffic policemen for overlooking whatever motoring misdemeanor they may or may not have committed on Malaysia roads. We all know this is common. My friend did this once and I was in that same car. Now I don't have that sense of guilt anymore.

Hmmm...I think I am wrong about Dr M all this while. As a Singaporean, I support his proposal, I salute him. Majullah Singapura!

Crooked once more

Malaysian politics is complex, yet simple. There is probably a lot more wayang behind the scenes even as Najib Tun Razak is trying to get a grip on loyalty within UMNO, fire-fighting local quarrels (e.g. Terengganu), paring the Opposition PKR and considering some Johor political bigwigs' suggestion of resurrecting the crooked bridge idea across the Johore Straits hatched during Mahathir's reign as supremo.

The simple part? Najib appears to be beholden to Mahathir. He appointed Mahathir's son, the worst loser of the UMNO Youth contest, to a deputy Minister of International Trade and Industry. Mahathir appears to be cashing in his other chips early. He probably wants the crooked bridge project back on the table after unceremoniously being dumped by former PM Abdullah Badawi, much to the delight of the Singaporeans, who prefer things to be straight and clear.

But unfortunately, the crooked bridge proposal just wouldn't go away and alleged crooks like Najib Razak may, naturally, build it. If it is realised, it will stand as an infamous symbol of stupidity and waste by the Malaysian government. That will be Dr M's ultimate legacy to the country. Well, frankly, if he doesn't mind the infamy, the waste of the people's (from both sides of the Causeway) time and money, and the derisive laughter of the international community for generations to come, he and his cronies can go ahead and build their half of the bridge, however crooked.

The Win

Friend, Malaysians, Countrymen, today we come together to pronounce the end of the Mahathir Dynasty with his son, Mukhriz Mahathir's loss to Mr Khairy Jamaluddin for the post of UMNO Youth Chief. It was a surprise win, given that sentiment has been against Khairy's father-in-law, Mr Abdullah Badawi (AB) since UMNO's crushing loss in the elections last March. The in-coming PM, Mr Najib Razak has been replacing AB's people in government over the last couple of months, perhaps in an effort to erase anything connected to AB in the new Administration. So one would reasonably expect Mukhriz to win, or at least come in second. He came in last. Poor chap.

So things are not to be. With Khairy the Youth Chief, it is now more difficult to shake aways AB, much to the chagrin, no doubt, of Dr M and his son.

The politics, if it is not already tumultous over the last couple of years, is set to retain its suspense into the Najib administration.

Crime and High Office

One of the saddest things leading up to the takeover of the PM'ship of Malaysia by Najib Razak is the cloud of suspicion that the next PM of Malaysia is a crook and, possibly, a murderer.

Talk has been swirling for so long about this that it seems like fact in the minds of many. So far, talk has been hush hush. Spoken behind closed doors, in coffee-shops, at dinners, people are saying that Najib Razak is complicit in the murder of Ms Altantuya Shaaribuu, the stunningly beautiful Mongolian Model. Nevermind that his friend, Abdul Razak Baginda, has been 'cleared' of any wrong doing in the same case by the Malaysia Courts.

Hidden things can never remain hidden forever. Malaysia's former defacto Law Minister, Mr Zaid Ibrahim said a PM must be "beyond reproach in his dealings, both official and private..." and has asked the Malaysia King to reject Najib Razak as PM. Zaid Ibrahim has no proof. Nobody, it appears, has. Otherwise Najib would long have been dealt by the Courts, or would it? Even if there were proof, would it make any difference to prosecute him, given that the Court prefers to look the other way, as in the case of Abdul Razak Baginda?

The problem is Najib Razak is letting this thing fester. Sure he asks, "Where is the evidence?", and unless someone has concrete proof of his wrong doing, he is innocent. As they say, one is innocent until proven guilty. But for someone aspiring to high office, absence of proof is just not enough, as Zaid Ibrahim suggests. A person who aspires to the top post of the land must be beyond reproach. There should never be a shadow of a doubt. Yet the situation now is - many have doubts. So to begin with, Najib Razak does not have the moral authority. Sure he has lineage and politics behind him, but these count for little ultimately in forging a good leader, someone who commands the trust of the electorate. If Najib Razak is clean, he should make a concerted, deliberate effort to show, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that he has nothing to do with the model's murder. It is not up to him. As the incoming PM, he owes it to the people, the rakyat, to show that the next PM of Malaysia is not a crook.

Unless, of course, he is ...

Pax Malaysiana

Well now, some Malaysian love their language, Malay, so much that they are calling for the return of the teaching of Maths and Science in Malay. It was only 6 years ago, in 2003, that Malaysia recognised that its graduates were facing a lot of difficulties when they try to go up the educational ladder - because all they knew was Malay Science and Malay Maths, that the government switched the language of instruction back to English.

Now, the same issue is being raised amidst the political and economic turmoil gripping the nation. I wonder why? A distraction a la "wag the dog"? I think these Malay demonstrators are ultimately doing themselves a dis-service. They are displaying how insecure they really are. They want their children, ultimately, to be crippled when and if they advanced through the educational ladder. For countries like Singapore, which boasts a strong educational system, these subjects are done only in English. How are they ever going to fit in, even if their grades say they can? Their grasps of the English language will be so poor that these educational institutions will not even take them in.

Which leads to the next question. Is it because the government wants to stifle the non-Malays from ever moving up in the world, if not out of the country? Well, to be fair, the government is resisting this, so it isn't a government conspiracy, if there were any at all. Let's hope that, for the progress of Malaysia, people proposing the Malayanisation of all things Malayan do not succeed.

This is one area that I agree with Dr M. But would people listen to him today?

Corrupt to the core

The Malaysians are at it again. Photos of a semi-naked Ms Elizabeth Wong, the Honourable opposition MP from Anwar Ibrahim's PKR party, has been circulated, leading to her resigning her Selangor state Cabinet post and assembly seat. The last time a similar thing happened was when Mr Chua Soi Lek resigned his posts because he was caught on video in a hotel room engaged in activities with a person not his wife.

Since when has the naked form of a person, man or woman, proved incompetence on the part of the person? Don't we ALL have "private parts", which, if you are not aware, play important roles in keeping use alive and propagating the human race? What is there to be ashamed of if these parts are publicly displayed, especially when it is done so without the person's consent? I would like to let Ms Wong know that there is no wrong, no shame and certainly no dishonour in it, except among those who are prudes and among people - enemies - who would want to bring a person down, politically or otherwise.

Unfortunately, in Malaysia, that's how its appears the dominant UMNO wants to play politics. Anwar is already on video accusing the UMNO party of playing dirty politics. And he would be the one who has a certain 'authority' on this because somebody did him in in dirty fashion more than 10 years ago.

If politics is going to be conducted in this fashion in Malaysia from here on in (remember, just a few weeks ago, certain MPs defected to BN in Perak state, leading to a change in government of sorts). It is difficult to imagine that some political force is not behind all of these. And these forces appear to be quite powerful, and rich too, for who would want to defect, or show 'embarassing' photos' if there is not some financial incentives to do so. And who would want to part with their money if that somebody is not enriched by somebody else in some significant way?

Is Malaysia now so corrupt to the core?

Standing the law on its head

Malaysia has been mired in controversy over the last couple of months. And it didn't begin with the dominant UMNO losing 5 Malaysia States in the last election. Of particular note is the murder of Mongolian model Altantuya Shaaribuu, who was blown up by explosives. One of the accused, Abdul Razak Baginda, has been acquited. Abdul Razak has 'high powered' connections and some are saying that that is why he got acquitted.

On the other hand, the 2 police officers who remain in the dock have just about been convicted of the murder because, according to the prosecution, the 2 policemen have not been able to prove "beyond reasonable doubt" that they did not commit the murders.

Well, I am flabbergasted. The established rule is that the prosecution must prove beyond reasonable doubt that the 2 policemen (the defendants) did committed the murder, and not for the defendants to prove beyond reasonable doubt that they did not. The judge will hand out his verdict on 9 April 2009, but if it agrees with the convoluted and unprecedented arguments put forth by the prosecution, then I'd be floored totally.

One wonders where Malaysia prosecution lawyers were trained. I only hope the learned Judges do the right thing and throw out the case because the prosecution does not seem to have proved beyond reasonable doubt their case.

See also: Mongolian model shot and blown to bits

Boycott Man

Malaysia's Dr Mahathir Mohammad is bankrupt.

Before anyone sues me for lies and defamation, let me clarify. He is bankrupt of ideas, of constructive suggestions that will solve problems and not exercerbate them. In response to the conflict between Israel and the Hamas in the Gaza strip just this past week, Dr M suggests that the world boycott all American made products, including Coca-cola, as well as the US currency. Didn't we last hear him suggest to the world to boycott Netherlands products for screening a film that criticized the Holy Quraan, the holy book of Islam? It would appear that boycotting is the Mahathir way.

In the war between Israel and the Lebanese back in 2006, Dr M also called for the boycott of the US currency.

Back in 1997, Dr M suggested that ASEAN should boycott ASEM because ASEM insisted on banning Myanmar from its dialogue. In 1998, Dr M boycotted the APEC. His alternative to the APEC, the East Asia Economic Caucus, had received lukewarm response.

Here is the boycott man spieling his brand of geopolitical strategy:

Fatwa or Dudwa?

I cannot help but feel that the Malaysia National Fatwa Council are making a laughing stock out of itself. Well, no, not just this Islamic authority, but the nation's authorities as well. What is the occasion of this farce, you ask?

The Malaysia National Fatwa Council have just issued a fatwa that all Muslim cannot practice yoga, the ancient art of meditation originating from Hinduism. Just days later, Ahmad Abdullah Badawi. outgoing PM of Malaysia and a Muslim Scholar, contradicted (or should I say, refined) the fatwa by saying that yoga is ok, but not the chants that go with it. And because each Malaysian state is autonomous in adopting fatwas, everybody else is having second thoughts about taking this fatwa seriously. There are even some Muslims who have said openly that they will not abide by it, simply because they have practised yoga for ages and derived benefit from it without their Islamic faith being adversely affected.

What kind of fatwa is this, which can be followed willy-nilly and interpreted differently by different Muslims? The problem is, the Fatwa Council can't rescind a fatwa, nor, in this case, enforce it. Some people now have mud on their faces, which makes them look like clowns. This will be comical, except that we are talking about very serious people.

See also: Dhimmi Watch

See also Singapore Islamic Religious Authority's more sensible stand on this issue

Dog for dinner

Nothing much, it would appear, has changed where the Malaysia Polis are concerned. 10 years ago, they arrested Anwar Ibrahim and gave him a wacking in jail that the Inspector General of Police was sacked and jailed himself - because he was the one doing the wacking.

10 years hence, Teresa Kok reports that she was fed dog food when she was in police detention under the Internal Security Act (ISA). Well, that's the talk going around Malaysian blogs nowadays. How different is this compared to Anwar's wacking. Nothing much. It shows that the Malaysia Polis still have no respect for the law. They are ready to take the law into their own hands and interpret it any way they feel like it. Clearly, after so much promise that came with Abdullah Badawi's government eight years ago, nothing much has been done to wipe out corruption in the Polis force. And just when something is being attempted, the corruption fighter, Law Minister Zaid Ibrahim, has quit his post. The corrupt elements in dirty Malaysia have triumphed yet again.

I hear people sharpening their knives. The corrupt have better get out of town. History shows that people can be fooled some of the time, even most of the time, but certainly not all of the time.

Suicide in the making

It would appear that the Malaysia government is doing all the wrong things to keep Anwar Ibrahim from grabbing power. Today is the self-imposed September 16 deadline when Anwar is supposed to replace the incumbent government by garnering enough defections from the ruling party to form a simple majority of MPs in Parliament. Whether this will happen today remains to be seen.

But whatever the outcome, the incumbent government seem to be giving a leg-up to Anwar towards his goal. First, in a childish move, it sent its MPs to Taiwan on a study trip in an attempt to thwart the deadline for the takeover (it would appear that the government really believes that Anwar can do it). Then in the latest move, it arrested three Malaysians under its draconian Internal Security Act (ISA) laws - one is an opposition MP, Ms Teresa Kok, another a Sin Chew journalists, Ms Tan Hoon Cheng, who by all accounts, was just doing her job, and third, the irascible Raja Petra Kamaruddin who has fired so many poison arrows at high government ministers that it was only a matter of time that he got 'done in'.

This has backfired on the government. Malaysian are even more convinced that they have the wrong people in government. Its erstwhile Law Minister, Zaid Ibrahim, has resigned in protest over the use of the ISA. So now there is even more reason for incumbent BN Ministers and MPs to defect to the Pakatan Rakyat - Anwar's platform for taking over the Malaysia government. Truly, if this happens, a large part of the fault must lie squarely on the incompetence, childishness and wrong-footing of the government - people like Najib Razak and Said Hamid Albar doing more of the dancing.

Amazingly, it would appear that the greatest source of support for Anwar's planned coup is the BN government itself. UMNO itself is now racked by disagreements and infighting, with Muhyiddin Yassin calling for Abdullah Badawi to step down sooner rather than later, and Najib Razak wavering in his support for AB. Hishammuddin Tun Hussein, the Education Minister, is reportedly against the use of ISA on the Sin Chew reporter. It is now clear that Ms Kok's alleged wrong-doing that led to her arrest has been denied by the party whom she had allegedly wronged. It is clear that the Home Ministry acted without much thinking in the ISA arrests. How can such a sloppy government continue to govern?

Is there any hope anymore for the BN? It would appear that Anwar will get his way without him lifting a finger anymore.

That pesky bloke

Malaysia is going from bad to ridiculous. The government actually spent taxpayers' money to send tens of its MPs (from Sabah and Sarawak) and a few others on the Peninsula to Taiwan this week so that they can learn how to farm their lands better? And why didn't they just wait for the visas from China, which was their original intended destination? I suppose that we will be hearing more from government about plans to upgrade their agricultural programmes in months to come, or will it all be forgotten because this is really a government-funded holiday for its law-makers, to keep them from defecting?

Well, it is clear to all but the Malaysian government that this is to thwart Anwar Ibrahim's claim that he will take over the government on 16 Sep 08 when some government MP will walk over to his political party to execute the coup de grace to Abdullah Badawi's government. It is sad that the sitting government in Kuala Lumpur can be scared by the wayang that Anwar has been waging these past months. If it can move the government to waste taxpayers' money without him lifting more than a finger, that's an admission that Anwar deserves a greater role in government, for after all, those in government look like ants trying to run away from Anwar's poke.

And I suppose that the situation has deteriorated to such an extent that Dr M feels compelled to enter the fray again to take charge of the country and rid the country of pests like the PKR and Anwar. What Malaysia needs to get rid of a pest is to get a bigger pest. Don't hold your breadth now, Malaysia. There is a battle royal coming up real soon...in your very own backyard.

Shown the behind

Censorship is the prerogative of the sitting government, so the Malaysian government has every right to censor web sites that are spewing forth pornographic, obscene or libelous content. And so the Malaysia Today web site has been blocked. Netizens and free speech advocates are up in arms over it, reminding the government of the promise it made to the world that it will not censor the internet when it first set up its very ambitious MSC project.

But of course, the Malaysian government cannot be bound by its commitments, particularly when those commitments were made during somebody else's watch, especially when that somebody has already resigned from the political party under which he was PM and is basically acting as a lone opposition figure - opposition to the PM, i.e.

It is naive of anybody to think that a government can be held by its words, particularly where politics (and perhaps pornography) is concerned. Practically, it isn't an issue anyway because the web site that is being blocked has been mirrored and is still accessible. If the news had not broke, you'd think nothing out of the ordinary has taken place. That's the real power of the internet - it just cannot be controlled, at least not in the long run. So for the M'sian government to have done what it has done - blocking Malaysia Today's web site - shows how helpless it really is. Far better to leave it alone than to have its behind exposed, as in this instance.

Punch and counter-punch

Things are coming to a head in Malaysia. Anwar Ibrahim has just been arrested for alleged sodomy (i.e. homosexuality) with a young 23 former volunteer at his political outfit. People are wondering why he was taken to the hospital when a swap of the saliva is sufficient to provide material for determining one's DNA. But I suppose that, going by Malaysian government doctors, you need a specialist to extract the DNA sample 'properly'. You need even to go to the hospital to do it, and I suppose, it had to be a government hospital. No, a General Practitioner (GP) will not do, and much less a police with a mouth swap in his hands, although this is widely practiced elsewhere in the world. I suppose that the Malaysian government wants to uphold the highest standards as they will be accused of un-professionalism when and if Anwar is convicted of sodomy - again. So that's why the government steadfastly refuses to acknowledge the medical report filed by a GP at a private hospital that reportedly stated that Saiful, the accuser, showed no signs of being violated in his private parts - a necessary condition for his accusation of sodomy by Anwar to stand.

I suppose all these started with the opposition gaining a spectacular victory in the last GE in March, where the opposition came 30 seats shy of unseating the incumbent government. With Anwar promising to really unseat the government by September 2008, things couldn't lie still. Real or not, Anwar got slapped with the sodomy charge, which if convicted, would guarantee that he will stay out of parliament for another 10 years. A punch must be met with a counter-punch. Najib was then accused of sleeping around with a murdered Mongolian model, whom he claimed never to have met - in spite of circumstantial evidence that showed he was probably doing a Pinocchio. Curiously, the lawyer who made the charge recanted almost the next day and went missing. Then the government grabbed Saiful and put him under police protection and quickened the pace of charging Anwar for sodomy. They knew that was the most effective and legal way of silencing Anwar, at least in Parliament, if not in public. But truth be told, the Malaysia Police do not have much credibility in the eyes of Malaysians, or foreigners for that matter.

Now, Anwar is trying to beat them all by running for election in the ward vacated by his wife. Many believe that he will win, even if he were arrested and sits in jail during campaigning. A duly elected Indian MP still sits in detention under ISA laws. But Anwar will still be denied if the charge of sodomy is carried, unless a Member of Parliament carries immunity for this type of 'crime'.

What next?