

[Forwarded by my daughter Belle]
The people of Perak today said a resounding NO! to Najib's evil scheme to steal the state of Perak from right under their feet, with the connivance of Sultan Azlan Shah. Between 3,000-6,000 Perakians showed up to express their anger and disappointment at the uncouth way popular Mentri Besar Mohd Nizar Jamaluddin was dismissed and locked out of his office.



A totally inauspicious installation ceremony, boycotted by all the Pakatan Rakyat state assembly members.
As usual, the Umno/BN regime's only response was to teargas the protesters, even though they were assembled in the compound of the Ubudiah Mosque. Nine people were arrested in the melee that erupted within view of the palace gates. Earlier, official limos arriving for the installation of BN's hand-picked Mentri Besar, Zambry Abdul Kadir, were greeted with loud jeers and thumbs-down gestures. A limo bearing the Perak royal insignia was reportedly pelted with stones. Some protesters attempted to block the official motorcade by lying across the road but were forcibly removed by the police.
Like father, like son. Najib's father staged a coup d'etat against a popular prime minister in 1969. It cost several hundred lives but the new Umno regime founded on blood became a "Second Reich" and lasted till 8 March 2008 when it would have been decimated at the polls were it not for postal and East Malaysian votes. It appears now that Najib, son of Razak, is set on initiating a "Third Reich" to resurrect a moribund Umno and protect himself against potential criminal charges ranging from massive corruption to complicity in cold-blooded murder.
I read the above report in Malaysiakini with growing admiration and respect for Perak Mentri Besar Mohd Nizar Jamaluddin's courage, integrity and mental clarity in the face of grave adversity.
From all reports Mohd Nizar has shown himself to be an effective and generally well-received Mentri Besar, one that most Perakians have come to love and trust in the ten months since he first took office.
As things stand, Najib Razak's acute fear of losing power has jeopardized our hopes of a peaceful transition from Umno-style "guided democracy" to full-fledged participatory democracy via constitutional means. This man is completely devoid of ethical principles, has shown no respect whatsoever for public opinion, and is clearly unfit to become our next prime minister.









Nurin Jazlin Jazimin was only eight when she went missing on the night of August 20th, 2007. Twenty-six days later a young girl's naked body was found stuffed into a gym bag and dumped outside a shophouse. DNA tests indicated that the dead child was indeed Nurin. The cruel, perverted manner in which the child was molested and killed traumatized the entire nation. Apparently, Nurin's abductors had violated her with such vicious force, the poor child suffered internal hemorrhage from a ruptured rectum and succumbed to bacterial infection.
Like everybody else, I was deeply troubled by reports of Nurin's disappearance and the nightmarish manner in which she was murdered. And, sadly, Nurin just happens to be the most sensational case in recent years of child abduction, rape and murder - perhaps because she looked so utterly adorable. Everybody saw in Nurin a vision of their own precious and beloved child. To me, Nurin was the perfect symbol of the whole country - a beautiful, innocent soul with infinite potential, embodying all the exotic charm and irresistible allure of the Orient, and carrying the great hope in all our hearts for a wonderfully bright and joyful future.
Nurin's dad, Jazimin Abdul Jalil, buries another dream; meanwhile, criticized for his incompetence, Police Inspector-General Musa Hassan threatens to charge Nurin's parents with "negligence."
DEAD OR MISSING, PRESUMED DEAD: what's the link between sexual repression and child murder-rape?
Every one of us is guilty of murdering Nurin who keeps quiet and shrugs whenever an unjust law is legislated into being by myopic, pusillanimous, self-serving parliamentarians - laws like the Internal Security and Police Acts that allow the State to arrest, torture and detain political dissenters without habeas corpus and forcibly disperse peaceful public gatherings.
In a nation where a grown man or woman can be accused, publicly humiliated, subject to a mock trial and sentenced to nine years' jail for allegedly indulging in consensual anal or oral sex - but fabricators of evidence with evil and malicious intent are promoted to top positions in government where they are given the power of life or death over others - there is little chance of survival for the beauty, truth, and innocence that Nurin symbolized.
Just knowing that millions (perhaps even billions) of ringgit have been squandered to prop up this grotesque travesty of human decency, truth and justice makes me shudder. And whenever I hear people robotically sing the praises of our "great" former leader, Dr Mahathir - the man who gave us Putrajaya, the Petronas Twin Towers, and massive delusions of grandeur, in exchange for the nation's soul - I make it a point to take a dozen deep breaths... access my genetic archives... reclaim my divine heritage... and declare to the entire cosmos...
This was three days after the momentous general election that dumped BN out of the Perak government, and brought a Pakatan coalition into power, albeit with a slim majority of five seats.
“I was promised RM50 million in return for my services and told that I would be allowed to allocate (part of) the money (to the assemblypersons) as I wished.”
Lowering the Umno flag... for the last time?