SYABAS, PAS & PAKATAN RAKYAT!!! :-)

VICTORY IS SWEET!

TAHNIAH KEPADA YB WAHID ENDUT!


GO, PAS, GO, COLLECT RM300! HEHEHE ;-)


[Photos courtesy of Malaysiakini]

In Response to the lovely Lisa Lee

Early this morning a very charming blogger left this comment on my blog after I had gone to bed. She made some pertinent statements about Malaysian politics that prompted me to respond at length. I feel this exchange deserves to be upgraded to a blogpost in its own right rather than left in the comments section... (thanks for inspiring this post, Lisa :-)...

Lisa Lee said on Jan 17, 2009 @ 4:32 AM MYT:

Honestly, I do wonder if BN will ever lose control? Because the livelihood of many will be affected. Peace and harmony is my hope for Malaysia.

The thought of BN losing may impact so many people and for this reason, I hope peace prevails. Desperation sets in and who knows what may happen.

Having said that, I hope that Pakatan Rakyat would be a strong cohesive Opposition. Maybe not take over in this sitting but next election, consolidate their hold in Malaysia.

I do hope that Malaysia will be like USA (Democrats vs Republicans) and England (Labor vs Conservative) - in a sense that we will have a strong two party system to have the check and balance there.

Can you share your views on this? I like to learn from you. TQ :)

My dear Lisa,

Imagine you're a princess adopted as a baby by pirates who slaughtered your parents, ransacked the palace, and set themselves up as the new government of the land. They spared your life because you were cute and harmless and posed no threat to them (even pirates must have some vague memory of almost-forgotten human feelings). In fact, the pirate king saw that you were destined to blossom into a true beauty and fancied he could acquire royal status by marrying you once you were of age.

In other words, you grew up knowing no other authority apart from this band of brigands who began to dress quite well and were soon able to pass themselves off as "respectable folk." Nobody dared inform you who your real parents were and as time passed you came to regard the pirate king as a beloved uncle and trusted him implicitly. After all, he did possess a sort of rakish charm and was actually quite a clever chap (though some might call it "rat cunning"). He told you stories about how he had heroically rescued you from the evil clutches of an ogre and now you owed your life to him and were duty-bound to wed him.

One day, walking through a forest, you chance upon a humble cottage and out of curiosity decide to find out who lives there. As you approach the cottage, the front door swings open and a smiling old man steps out to offer you a cup of tea. You accept and soon find yourself engaged in deep conversation with this mysterious hermit of the woods, who reveals the truth of what happened to the land when you were just a newly born.

The old man shares with you a secret that forever changes your destiny. He was the loyal adviser to your biological parents, the King and Queen of this land, who were cruelly murdered by the marauders. He managed to escape the massacre and fled to the forest along with a handful of others who have long awaited the day you were old enough to rule the land as the rightful Queen. For years this band of survivors have lived in hidden caves, dreaming of the day when they would be strong enough to reclaim the land and liberate it from pirate dominion. He concludes by asking you if you are ready to take your place as the leader of these true patriots who desire to see the end of pirate misrule and justice restored.


Now, this is your current dilemma, Lisa. Having known no other form of government apart from the piratic (and parasitic), can you remember what true leadership is all about? Pull the wool from your eyes and you will see that for decades the Barisan Nasional has attracted mostly those seek to aggrandize and enrich themselves at the expense of the land and of the people. They care little for the sufferings of the common folk and even less for the health and well-being of the land itself, having inherited the rapacious tendencies of their pirate ancestors who understood only rape, pillage and plunder.


In the name of greed, these self-serving parasites continue to destroy the landscape through mining, logging and insensitive "development." They support those who share their own destructively uncreative urges - namely, ruthless businessmen with megalomaniacal tendencies - while suppressing, through barbaric and repressive laws, all those who desire to see the wealth of the land equally and wisely shared.

In effect, dear Lisa, the simplistic scenario I have outlined is a parable for the sort of misgovernance we have been subject to on this planet for countless generations - a top-heavy Humpty-Dumpty sort of power structure wherein the most aggressive and unprincipled amass the greatest amount of wealth and then proceed to hijack the processes of government via almost absolute control of the mass media, education and financial systems, even religious institutions (I mean especially!).

However, the time has come for those who truly love the land - and I mean Planet Earth - to reclaim our sovereign power as conscious individuals, liberating ourselves from generations of inherited robotism (living our lives according to factory defaults) and fatalism (believing it is our lot to suffer in this "vale of tears").

We must think globally (nay, universally) and act locally. So in Malaysia our foremost duty as true patriots is to remove Barisan Nasional completely from power - because they have abused the power entrusted them for too many generations.

In the most basic terms, BN must not retain control of the police force, the national purse, and the mass media. Those are the mechanisms by which they have ruled us through fear and greed - a powerful combination of intimidation and bribery. Any population subject to such misgovernance eventually becomes infantilized, demoralized, and dehumanized.

Ultimately, we shall be turned into a nation of human robots while our energy and spirit are vampirically depleted by an elite cabal of demonically possessed humans devoid of compassion and empathy... UNLESS we succeed in booting out these piratic and parasitic entities and replacing them with open-minded, open-hearted leaders who genuinely believe that being a public servant means precisely that - you serve the public, not private interests!

There isn't a single individual in Umno/BN I can name as somebody I love, respect and trust.

On the other hand, there are many in the various component parties of Pakatan Rakyat I wholeheartedly applaud and support in their candidacy to lead and govern. Among these I would unhesitatingly name Anwar Ibrahim, Wan Azizah, Mat Sabu, Azmin Ali, Syed Husin Ali, Sivarasa Rasiah, Tian Chua, Chegu Bard, Elizabeth Wong, Khalid Ibrahim, Guan Eng and Kit Siang, Karpal Singh, Teresa Kok, Teo Nie Ching, Charles Santiago, Tony Pua, Hannah Yeoh, Tok Guru Nik Aziz, Abdul Hadi Awang, Husam Musa, Mohammad Nizar, Mohd Prasad Hanif, Dr Nasir Hashim, Dr Jeyakumar Devaraj, and S. Arutchelvan (I may have omitted a few others but these are the ones that immediately spring to mind).

Apart from the professional politicians, we now have the Barisan Rakyat - a loose coalition of public intellectuals and true patriots led by none other than Raja Petra Kamarudin consisting of popular figures (mostly bloggers and columnists) like Haris Ibrahim, Bernard Khoo, Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, Art Harun and Azmi Sharom; and politically aware citizens like Vijay Kumar Murugavell, Duke Cheng, Ee Chia, Danny Chua, Boom and Rodi, and countless others (including myself). And, don't forget, there are outstanding political figures like Zaid Ibrahim and Din Merican who will certainly play a significant role in reshaping the new Malaysia once the country is free of this stubborn and debilitating disease called BN.

Lisa, the only people who will be terribly upset when BN loses control of the police and Petronas are an overfed coterie of fat-cat capitalists who have enjoyed more than 30 years of monopolistic access to the nation's resources and established huge empires based on political patronage. The competent managers amongst them will be able to adapt and continue doing well under a new government - so long as they genuinely serve the public good. Those who have corruptly made their money as crony rent-seekers will either be allowed to retire in comfort (if they donate a fair portion of their ill-gotten gains to charity) or face a therapeutic spell in prison.


When Pakatan Rakyat takes over as government, it will not exactly be a one-party management. Since Anwar invited DAP and PAS to join PKR as equal partners, there will effectively be at least three different political ideologies - many more if you include a few independent parties from Sabah and Sarawak, plus the remains of Gerakan and PPP - working together (preferably in perfect harmony and hopefully with minimal friction) towards one common goal - the rescue of Malaysia from the economic and ethical doldrums and the creation of a healthy national ethos in which every citizen regardless of skin color, culinary preferences and creed can at last feel a sense of belonging - and therefore a sense of authentic pride.

It remains to be seen whether Umno will survive as the Opposition. Without its reactionary and dangerous Ketuanan Melayu agenda - and suddenly deprived of the chance to carry on robbing the nation - these descendants of pirates will almost surely disintegrate as a political party. Those individuals amongst them with any intelligence and ability whatsoever will swiftly realize that the horse is DEAD - kaput, finito, expired - and proceed on foot till they reach the next oasis where they will rest and reassess their lives and, insyallah, come to their senses and become decent human beings.

No, Lisa, we don't want Malaysia to become like America or Britain where the illusion of democracy, not the real thing, prevails. We don't want a Tweedledum and Tweedledee type of two-party system (like the Donkey and Elephant parties or the Tories and Whigs). In fact, we don't want to be obsessed with government and politics any longer than we need!

What we want is a clean, efficient administration that will work quietly and with minimal histrionics to ensure that everyday life just keeps getting easier and pleasanter for more and more of the population. Ultimately, the government of a country ought to be just like the plumbing in your house - we don't want to be distracted by it or even notice it. A properly designed plumbing system carries out its functions unobtrusively, without complaint, and with negligible maintenance problems. Indeed, the plumbing in a well-built house ought to last at least a hundred years!


With government out of the way and internalized, we will at long last become a nation of self-governing individuals with nothing to stop us from each fulfilling our true destinies as free citizens and achieving our maximum potential as evolving humans.

And, take my word for it, Lisa dear. It's NOT going to take another two generations. Perhaps two terms under a new, enlightened government!

JUST DO IT, KT!

DO IT FOR MALAYSIA!

DO IT FOR YOUR CHILDREN & GRANDCHILDREN!

HELP BOOT BN OUT OF POWER!

THANKS! :-)

LET'S ABOLISH BN ALONG WITH THE ISA

LET FREEDOM RING!
Prayers for the Release of all ISA Detainees

at Subramaniam Temple, Kerling, Selangor
10 January 2009

Music courtesy of INNER SPACE
Shot & Edited by ANTARES

THERE IS NO JUSTIFICATION FOR DETENTION WITHOUT TRIAL!

This Has NOTHING To Do With Religion!

From Malaysiakini, 13 Jan 2009

I was absolutely flabbergasted when I read this report in Malaysiakini a few minutes ago. This can't be happening, I thought. It's certainly one of the most absurd - nay, insane - things I've come across thus far outside of Nigeria, Somalia, and Saudi Arabia.

Don't these blithering idiots realize: CORPORAL PUNISHMENT IS A MILLION TIMES MORE "SINFUL" THAN DRINKING BEER?

Can't stand the taste of beer myself but I have lots of friends of all colors and creeds who drink - and not one of them is remotely a "bad" person just because they enjoy a couple of beers.

What's going on here is the ugly face of a dying patriarchy, trying to scare people into obedience to benighted, irrelevant, meaningless and barbaric laws invented by the falsely pious for the sole purpose of controlling others.

The question that springs to mind is this: if we're going to practise "tough love" in the interest of running "a tight ship" - then why not cane those found guilty of wilfully destroying the environment for private profit? Or those who have been caught demanding kickbacks and bribes? These are far more serious crimes, with long-term negative consequences that affect the entire nation.

Beer-swigging Muslims are in the same category as pot-smoking teenagers. They number in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions. There aren't enough canes to go around if we're going to start caning every "offender." The National Fatwa Council could advise all Muslims who prefer to imbibe Al-Kohol rather than Al-Koran to keep a cane handy with which to flagellate themselves when they go home. Nevertheless, I think the hangover from overindulgence suffices as punishment.

Every Muslim on this planet has a sacred duty to speak out and defend the honor and integrity of his or her faith from being so hideously besmirched by fundamentalist bigots and time-warped fanatics such as those who advocate corporal punishment for activities some people deem pleasurable and which don't actually cause any harm to anybody (except to their own health if done in excess).

The worst disease plaguing humanity has always been the deformed consciousness of rabid control freaks who hide behind the façade of "morality" in their obscene lust for power over others.

I'd rather be in the company of a boisterous platoon of beer-drinkers than spend even one minute with any human whose worldview resembles that of a Spanish Inquisitor.

May God in her wisdom terminate once and for all the bloodlines of these hypocritical killjoys - unless their children end up marrying Germans.

So be it!


I know it's another nine months to Oktoberfest but after reading that ludicrous news report I just have to soothe my nerves with some gratuitous images of buxom beer-swilling Bavarian beauties. Prost!

How Will the World Respond to Israeli Crimes in 2009?

The Guardian (U.K.) published this photo of a young girl who was found in the rubble of her destroyed home after an Israeli air strike on a house in Zeitoun. (Photograph: Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images)

Israel has used white phosphorus bombs on the civilian population since the beginning of their aggression against Gaza. This is a war crime, one which has been witnessed by millions of people watching television coverage from Gaza since December 27. Oddly, CNN's military expert, Brig. Gen. David Grange (ret.), failed to mention Israel's use of white phosphorus although CNN has repeatedly played video clips of the banned weapon exploding over Gaza. White phosphorus burns flesh - without stopping - as long as oxygen is present. Grange admitted that he had worked closely with the Israeli military.

"The Israeli army is cowardly, attacking worn-out, innocent people while they claim that they are defending their people. I call on the people of Israel to stand up against that government; to demand, to put a hand on their hearts and look at their children; and I call on the world to stop this madness." - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez

President Hugo Chavez sets an example by expelling the Israeli ambassador from Venezuela

By Christopher Bollyn (Journaliste Sans Frontières)

As Israeli planes, tanks, and artillery bombarded the homes, schools, mosques, and medical clinics of the Palestinian refugees of Gaza, the Venezuelan government took a stand against the Zionist aggression. On January 6, the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry sent a telegram to the Israeli mission in Caracas informing Ambassador Shlomo Cohen that he was persona non grata in the Bolivarian republic. Shlomo and his cohort of six at the Israeli mission were banished and given 72 hours to leave Venezuela.

Venezuela issued a statement calling Israel's operation in the Gaza Strip a "flagrant violation of international law" and "state terrorism."

"For the reasons mentioned above, the government of Venezuela has decided to expel the ambassador of Israel and part of the personnel of the Embassy of Israel," the statement read. The expulsion of the Israeli mission is the result of Israel's brutal aggression in the Gaza Strip, which President Hugo Chavez characterized as "genocide."

"The holocaust - that is what is happening right now in Gaza," Chavez said in televised comments on January 6. "The president of Israel at this moment should be taken to the International Criminal Court together with the President of the United States." The president of Israel is Shimon Peres, who has a long history of weapons smuggling and false-flag terrorism (at least as far back as the Lavon Affair in the early 1950s). Peres is also the chief architect of Israel's illegal nuclear arsenal.

The extreme suffering of the Palestinians of Gaza is generally not known or understood in the West, thanks to the censorship of the Zionist-controlled media. Refugees from the Zionist ethnic cleansing of 1947-48 comprise more than 75% of the Palestinian population of Gaza Strip. Due to the Israeli blockade since 2007, imposed by Israel against the elected Hamas government, the population of Gaza is near starvation.

The Venezuelan response is correct and proper. The criminal aggression against the defenseless population of Gaza demands a strong response from the leaders of the world. The Israeli government headed by Ehud Olmert and Shimon Peres has amply demonstrated its utter disregard for international law and world opinion. There should be more national leaders like Chavez expelling Israeli missions. What does the global campaign against terrorism mean if Western nations coddle a terrorist regime like that of Ehud Olmert?

There is certainly more than enough evidence for Western nations to call for Ehud Olmert and his cronies to be arrested for war crimes, as has been done with the former warlords of Serbia and Croatia. Israel belongs to many European organizations and should be treated like any other state. When Serbian forces attacked civilian populations, Serbia was attacked by NATO. Serbian tanks were struck and Belgrade was bombed. Why is Israel treated differently? Why isn't Israel forced to comply with international norms and law, as every other nation is? The Zionist state's egregious criminal acts cannot be allowed to pass without punishment.

Having studied the history of the Zionist movement in Palestine for more than three decades, I have seen Israel commit many criminal atrocities like the current aggression in Gaza Strip and have read about many other crimes, including genocide, going back to the 1940s. Anyone born before 1970 has been able to witness similar Israeli war crimes on television, such as the aggression against Lebanon in 1982 and the massacres in Sabra and Shatila camps, the Israeli massacres at Qana (Cana) in 1996, and again in 2006, and the flattening of the Jenin refugee camp in April 2002. Like the current Israeli onslaught against the defenseless population of Gaza, these events clearly involved serious war crimes in which senior Israeli politicians and military officers were culpable. In some of these cases the same people, such as Olmert and Peres, have been involved more than once; they are, in fact, repeat offenders of the most serious war crimes - but have never been held accountable.

No Israeli, in fact, has ever been held accountable for war crimes in an international court. While special international tribunals have been established to investigate and prosecute war crimes in Nazi Germany, the former Yugoslavia, and Africa, there has never been an international tribunal dedicated to prosecute Israeli war criminals. If there had, we probably would have avoided 9/11 and certainly would have prevented the carnage in Gaza today. Proper and non-selective enforcement of international law is essential for world peace. It would have checked Israeli ambitions and protected Israel and the world from the war criminals that control the Zionist state today.

Obama is tight-lipped about the Israeli aggression against the civilian population of Gaza. Will he demand an investigation of Israeli war crimes?

Obama with Olmert in July 2008. Will President Obama investigate Olmert's secret visit to New York City on September 10-11, 2001?

The United States is Israel's essential ally and supporter. President George W. Bush has been a devoted Zionist and has never honestly addressed the Palestinian plight. President-elect Barack Obama was elected on a shallow one-word platform - "change." Does "change" under Obama mean the U.S. government will call for an international investigation of the Israeli war crimes being committed in Gaza? That would be a real change.

Obama has been very tight-lipped on the crisis in the Middle East. He commented for the first time on the Israeli offensive in Washington on January 6, saying that "the loss of civilian life in Gaza and in Israel is a source of deep concern to me, and after January 20 I'll have plenty to say about the issue." The question is how many more lives will be lost in the meantime.

This girl was injured on January 6 when a U.N.-run school was shelled by the Israelis.

As Obama was holding his tongue on January 6, Israelis shelled a U.N.-run school where Palestinians had sought refuge from the fighting, killing at least 42 civilians and injuring 55 others. The Israeli military said its soldiers had fired in "self-defense" after Hamas fighters had launched mortar shells from the school. This appears to be another Israeli government lie.

The United Nations has opened 23 of its schools as emergency shelters for the 1.5 million residents of Gaza, who are prevented from leaving the territory. The Gaza Strip is often called the largest open-air prison in the world. By the night of January 6, the number of displaced Palestinians flooding into the schools had reached 15,000.

The people of Gaza are treated like prisoners and are not allowed to leave the territory although there are check points to Israel and Egypt. How can this be accepted in the 21st Century? Why are the people of the Holy Land forced to suffer so?

This is certainly not the first time Israeli forces have intentionally massacred refugees seeking shelter in U.N. camps and facilities. On 18 April 1996, for example, an Israeli artillery assault on the U.N. camp in Qana (Cana), Lebanon, killed 106 Lebanese civilians and left at least 116 injured.

John Ging, the head of the U.N. agency that runs the schools, UNRWA, told BBC World television on January 7 that the Israeli military's claim that it had been fired on from the school was "categorically untrue." The school, Ging said, had been under UNRWA control the entire time. Ging and the U.N. agency is demanding an investigation to find those accountable for the 97 Palestinians who were killed and injured in the attack on the school.

"I am appealing to political leaders here and in the region and the world to get their act together and stop this," Ging said, speaking at Gaza's largest hospital. "They are responsible for these deaths."


Dr. Bassam Abu Warda, director of Kamal Radwan Hospital, spoke about the injuries of the civilians from the U.N. school: "The wounded arrived with multiple fractures, ripped stomachs, amputated limbs," he said. "The bodies were ripped apart."

"I saw a lot of women and children wheeled in," said Fares Ghanem, a hospital official. "A lot of the wounded were missing limbs and a lot of the dead were in pieces."

Majed Hamdan, an AP photographer, rushed to the scene shortly after the attacks. He said many children were among the dead: "I saw women and men — parents — slapping their faces in grief, screaming, some of them collapsed to the floor. They knew their children were dead. In the morgue, most of the killed appeared to be children. In the hospital, there wasn't enough space for the wounded."

He said there were marks of five separate explosions, all in the same area outside the school. At the time of the attack, people were standing in a crowd outside the gate of the school, where hundreds of families had sought shelter.


The Israeli attack on the U.N. school came only hours after an Israeli missile struck a residential area in al-Bureij refugee camp, injuring seven U.N. workers in a nearby medical clinic. The day before, January 5th, an Israeli airstrike on a U.N. school in Gaza City had killed three members of a family. CNN reported on January 7th that at least 5 ambulances had been shelled, a war crime Israeli forces have committed since at least 1982.

"There's nowhere safe in Gaza. Everyone here is terrorized and traumatized," Ging, the top U.N. official in Gaza, said after the first strike on the U.N. school that killed three people.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called the attacks on the schools "totally unacceptable." This should mean that these heinous war crimes will be investigated and the guilty brought to justice. This should mean that Israel's illegal 18-month blockade of the Gaza Strip, an act of aggression, and its flagrant use of white phosphorus bombs on the civilian population will also be investigated and punished. Finally, this should mean, after six decades of egregious Zionist crimes going unpunished, that an international tribunal for Israeli war crimes will be established.


With the Zionist-controlled governments of Britain and the United States having veto power on the Security Council, the chances of a U.N. special tribunal being seated to investigate Israeli war crimes are very slim, a situation which allows Israel to commit war crimes with impunity. But the times - and attitudes toward Israel - are clearly changing.

Evidence of Israeli involvement in 9/11 and the global economic crisis has seriously eroded support for the Zionist state around the world. People around the world are starting to feel like Palestinians. As the protests against the Israeli assault reveal, the world is being split between the people who demand peace and justice and the Zionists, who demand security for their belligerent and rapacious tribe.

The Zionist enterprise has clearly failed. Without constant stealing, begging, and bribing, Israel would be nothing but a failed state. Born in the sin of genocide and the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, Israel has completely failed, after six decades, to make peace with its neighbors. Israelis live in stolen homes and sell the stolen fruit from the orchards of stolen land. The rightful owners of Palestine are the people of Gaza, the West Bank, and the Palestinian refugee camps across the Middle East. This is the simple truth. Without justice for the Palestinians there will be no peace in the Middle East. The Israelis have to learn to live with the Palestinians - not instead of them - in Palestine. The Palestinians are very kind and civilized people. The Israelis could benefit from living with them and learning from them. The Palestinians are, after all, the people of the Holy Land.

The Zionist ideology prevents Israelis from living in peace with the Palestinians - the people of the Holy Land. History has shown that such artificial and criminal regimes cannot last long. How can any enlightened human being support a racist ideology like Zionism [or Ketuanan Melayu - ed]?

The days of the Israeli apartheid state are numbered and it will pass, just like the other monstrosity created by the communist Jews of Russia, the Soviet Union. One of the signs in a recent protest said, "Cleanse the world of Zionism." This sign does not reflect radical thinking but a logical and rational understanding of the real problem in the Middle East. The answer to the Palestinian problem has never been a two-state solution. The solution is one state in which all men are equal. How could an American president, especially a black man, support anything else?



Christopher Bollyn: investigative journalist who has worked for the American Free Press and publishes articles on the 9/11 scam.