A tribute to Raja Petra Kamarudin

Petra survives the bad press

By JOCELINE TAN (TheStarOnline)

Raja Petra Kamarudin made his name championing the reformasi cause in cyberspace. But he has fallen out big-time with Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and, more stunningly, has become quite chummy with Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

RAJA Petra Kamarudin has had an image makeover. He has dumped his Che Guevara-like beard for a clean-shaven look, his long hair has been replaced with a buzz-cut – what his barber called the No. 2; No. 1 is shaved even closer to the scalp – and the pipe was nowhere in sight.

Dressed in a grey print shirt and slacks, he looked every inch the middle-class resident of the gated community where he and his wife Marina Abdullah live in Sungai Buloh, Selangor.

Man of many labels: Raja Petra has been called a maverick, loose canon, hired gun, ultra-liberal and he doesn’t give a hoot.“It was too hot with the long hair especially under a helmet,” he said.
The black beret was still around though and he kept it on throughout the interview.

Raja Petra is, of course, the man behind malaysia-today.net, one of the most established news portals on Malaysian politics and issues. But he made his name via an earlier portal, freeanwar.com, which as the name suggests was aimed at promoting Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s release.

The freeanwar site closed down when Anwar was freed by the courts in September 2003. By then, Raja Petra, who had predicted Anwar’s release two weeks earlier, had launched malaysia-today.

Since then, he has gone from being an Anwar supporter to falling out big-time with Anwar and the Parti Keadilan Rakyat people.

“He has been attacking us and Anwar. That’s bad,” said Keadilan information chief Tian Chua.

Apparently the Keadilan leadership is still upset with Raja Petra for the stories he has spun about Anwar wanting to rejoin Umno, that Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s son-in-law Khairy Jamaluddin would arrange it and that Anwar would then vie to be Prime Minister with Khairy as his deputy.

“It’s all totally untrue, and it was very discrediting for Anwar. Anwar is staying put in Keadilan but for one whole year, we had a hard time explaining to our supporters,” said Chua.

Raja Petra had also claimed that Khairy wanted to be Prime Minister by 40, which those familiar with the technicalities of Umno politics would know is impossible but the notion was so romantic that some people just wanted to believe it.

Last year, he caused a stir when he hosted a forum for Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to air his quarrel with Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Even though Raja Petra and Keadilan had gone their separate ways by then, party leaders fumed over the fact that Raja Petra would work with the man he had vilified more than anyone else in his websites.

Since then, he has been labelled a maverick, loose canon, opportunist and even hired gun.
Raja Petra is cool about all the name-calling. He has not survived all those years of living dangerously, including an ISA arrest, without strong nerves and a thick skin.

“I don’t care. I’m not a Keadilan member, what do I care what they say? They don’t pay me. It’s up to me what I want to do and they can say what they like,” he said.

Besides, as he pointed out, it is not as though he has been grovelling at Dr Mahathir’s feet. He had apparently lectured the former premier on press freedom and democracy.

“Our first meeting lasted two hours and he complained about the Government and how he was denied space in the media. I told him he was telling me what I had been saying all the time when he was the PM.

“He told me he had a dirty mouth and that he could not keep it shut. I told him, that makes the two of us. We are two loose canons, well, maybe more like machine guns.”

There is obviously a symbiotic thing going on there.

Dr Mahathir is a maestro at using the media and he sees Raja Petra’s portal as a means to an end. Raja Petra, on his part, freely admits that Dr Mahathir’s controversial image brings in the visitors to malaysia-today.

“It’s like selling a product. Who’s going to read malaysia-today if it’s not controversial? I am not apologetic about it.”

Raja Petra, 56, is no johnny-come-lately in politics.

His interest in politics began in the mid-1970s when he and Marina moved to Terengganu where they owned a noodle factory.

He was soon moving around in PAS circles there and got to know the party leaders so well that he performed his haj with PAS president Datuk Seri Hadi Awang.

He stood out with his mixed parentage (his father was Malay, his mother Welsh and his uncle the late Selangor Sultan) and most of all, his gregarious and garrulous nature.

He is not exactly an intellectual but he is certainly part of the Malaysian intelligentsia, someone who is interested in and thinks about issues. Whether or not one agrees with what he thinks is, of course, another matter.

And because of PAS’s then cosy relations with the Muslim Youth league Malaysia or Abim, of which Anwar was president, Raja Petra found himself co-opted into Abim activities.

He was part of the Abim campaign that helped Anwar secure his Umno Youth and then vice-president posts.

But when Anwar decided to go for Umno deputy president in 1991, he decided he had had enough.

“I felt Anwar was taking a different road. Umno had changed him, he was seeking power for the sake of power.”

In 1994 he moved back to the Klang Valley where for several years he wrote columns for The Star on cycling and motorbiking (he still owns two Harley-Davidsons).

When PAS’s Harakah began its English section, they invited him to write for them.

He actually had little sympathy for Anwar when he was sacked. At the height of the reformasi protests, he was motoring all over Europe with his wife.

“I thought, to hell with politics. That was how detached I was from the whole thing.”

He only started working with the Keadilan people when Anwar’s trial began because, like many people, he was disgusted with the proceedings. The rest is history.

Raja Petra is known as Peter to his family, RPK to his political and web associates, and Pet in his SMSes.

But as one regular visitor to the site said: “Some of the stuff there, it’s like the The Da Vinci Code book. Bits of facts here and there held together by fiction. But it’s good reading.”

That is probably what his most successful series of articles known as The Khairy Chronicles was – a clever weaving of fact and fiction.

The articles, since compiled into a book, are full of cryptic, fanciful and cliff-hanging twists and turns about the supposed life and politics of the Prime Minister’s son-in-law.

Yet, Raja Petra has never once met nor spoken to Khairy.

Khairy’s opinion on this was suitably ironic: “The central character in the book has the same name as me. The photograph on the cover strikingly resembles me. But the stories inside have nothing to do with me. It is full of lies.”

Raja Petra is recalcitrant about the things he has written on politics and people. He said he is writing about things the mainstream media is unwilling to go into.

That may explain why the malaysia-today portal ranks among the top 10 political sites in the country in terms of hits – it gets some 1.5 million hits a day.

Like him or hate him, one has to admit that Raja Petra has his sphere of influence. The old look: Raja Petra complete with beard, long hair, beret and pipe.

Quotes from RPK:

1. I told you so! - No Holds Barred and The Corridors of Power.

2. They are using us (Malaysia Today) as prostitutes, if you wish - referring to UMNO infightings during a speech on the freedom of expression.

3. Yes, I appear a tough no holds barred kind of person with a hard heart. In reality I share my soft heart with my feline friends - regarding the demise of his pet cat, Blackie.

and many more...

A more therapeutic word than Patrick Teoh's 'niamah'

For 'niamah', please visit http://niamah.blogspot.com

Hidup Penang!!!

Penang boy made Toronto councillor

By FOO YEE PING (Source : Star Online)

NEW YORK: A Penang boy is now a city councillor in Toronto, creating a record of sorts as the first Malaysian-born to hold such a post in Canada.

Lee Chin, a 53-year-old former IT consultant, was elected to the post two months ago and is one of the 44 city councillors in the Toronto city council.

He is now representing about 70,000 residents of Scarborough-Rouge River for a four-year term.

“It is an honour. I feel good about it because I have put in a lot of time and hard work on community work,” he said in a telephone interview from Toronto.

His parents, who are still residing in Penang, were very excited for him, he said.

Lee went to Canada at the age of 18 to study engineering. His first job was with IBM as a field engineer and later he moved on to other postings before going into politics.

“I have always been a community advocate,” he said, adding that he wanted to correct social and economic injustices.

For instance, he said he had worked to improve the system of property assessment and helped to lower property taxes for local house owners.

His last trip to Malaysia was about a year ago.

“I still have many relatives and friends there,” he said.

Lee remembers his childhood days; how he would cycle around the island which had so much greenery then.

“The greenery is still there, but not in George Town,” he said, laughing.

Lee is married with two children, aged 20 and 23.

By the way, he isn’t your typical Penangite. He is a Toishan, not Hokkien.

Penangite comments: I am a Toishan too!!! Bangganya!!! Toishan Ningyang Wui Kwon in Penang will be proud of this achievement.

Bloggers United

Thanks to Sheih of KickDeFella. This logo is cool. No Fear. Haha, reminds me of Fear Factor, and when the last participant wins the competition, the host says 'Congratulations!!! Fear is not a factor for you!' I urge all bloggers to do the same as well (by highlighting this logo in their blogs). Freedom of expression in the cyber space is probably the only way we have to learn about alternative views and hidden conspiracies in both the government and opposition parties...we support what is right and we despise what is wrong, regardless of political parties. Hopefully, we can make Malaysia a truly ideal nation with peace&goodwill. God bless Malaysia.

Education system and good parenting down the drain

From TheStar online, Saturday January 13, 2007

Schoolgirls competing to be No.1 in sex game

A group of female students in a secondary school in Johor Baru are said to be competing among themselves to be the one with the highest number of one-night stands, Nanyang Siang Pau reported.

Each of the 10 students in the group, aged between 13 and 15 years old, would fork out between RM50 and RM100 to be in the game.

The student with the highest number of sex partners within a month would get a “reward”, which ranged from between RM500 and RM1,000, said the report.

Usually, a student would need between 13 and 15 sex partners to claim the “reward”.

It was learnt that the school had expelled some students involved in the activity, but the report added that it was still going on.

Penangite comments: I have no comments, what I can only say is WOW!!!

Remember remember the reformer's words...

Anwar Ibrahim: “My political agenda is clear”
AsiaViews, Edition: 49/III/Jan/2007

MALAYSIA’S former Deputy Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, 59, was back visiting Indonesia last week, warmly welcomed by colleagues and admirers here. He met with intellectual Adi Sasono, businessmen Abdul Latief and Chairul Tanjung, and even Vice President Jusuf Kalla. He arrived at the Al-Azhar University in Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta, to strong applause from its academic community.

He looked fresh, his demeanor was open and friendly. Arriving late at the Sultan Hotel for an interview last Monday, he delivered his apology with a touch of humor. “My apologies, I had to do my hair first. Even men have male menopause,” he told Tempo reporters Bina Bektiati, Akmal Nasery Basral, Ahmad Taufik, Faisal Assegaf and photographer, Hendra Suhara. He modestly asked not to be called by his honorific Datuk. “Don’t call me Datuk, Anwar is fine,” he said.

You recently announced you will be taking part in the 2008 general elections.

I’m not nominating myself. I am only using my rights as a citizen after my deprivation following my release from prison.

What do you mean?

After my release, I was forced to lecture at Oxford and now at Georgetown University. I am doing this because I was restricted, I could not work and I could not enter campuses [in Malaysia]. Yet, I love to teach. So, I accept invitations to be a speaker at conferences.

So, what is it that you are seeking?

Under the current government of Pak Abdullah [Badawi], the system has not changed—it is still the same as during the Mahathir era, particularly since there is now racial and religious tension. The economy is uncertain. The corruption index, press freedom and direct foreign investment are down. This is what I want to focus more on [if elected prime minister].

What would be your agenda?

Economically, we must be more competitive and accept globalization. Right now we are behind China, India, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan in terms of technology and better salaries. Yet, we have smart people in the country as well as outside. They are from different races: Malay, Chinese and Indian. Why not pick the intelligent ones to head the universities in Malaysia? Don’t expect good results if you pick heads of political party branches.

What about the political arena?

Human rights violations must be stopped. The Internal Security Act (ISA) must be withdrawn. The press must be free, the justice system must be reformed and the anticorruption body must be independent. It is not true that corruption has been eradicated. In the 1960s, Hong Kong was rife with corruption, but now it’s one of the cleanest societies in Asia.

You are thinking of returning to politics, so you have not been traumatized [by the experience]?

In fact, I think about it seriously, but I never think about retreating. So long as I am convinced that truth will win, I will play a role to the best of my ability.

You certainly look ready to do so.

It’s part of the political process. What I will do is to be active with my colleagues in carrying out a special agenda by applying clear political ethics. It will not form an alternative party, but an alternative agenda on reforms. I am very determined about this. Whether we can attract the elite and professional groups, and the people at large, we will have to see. It’s too early to give an aswer right now.

Are you keeping it secret?

It’s not secret. There is a time when we must be quiet. In the past, I tried the soft approach to the point of making excessive compromises. Today, I choose to follow a clear agenda.

Are you convinced you will win?

We can only try and pray, God willing, particularly with help from friends in Indonesia.

If you win, what will you do about Indonesia?

Indonesia is an important sub-regional force. We should be cooperating closer on political-economic and security issues. Problems like terrorism must be resolved rapidly and convincingly.

Will you return to UMNO?

My friends invited me back to UMNO, but I am not pleased with the party. It is too corrupt.

What is actually going on in UMNO?

UMNO has reached the point of corruption, the party has become very feudal. There has never been any discourse on how to stamp out corruption. But there are a lot of people who like Mahathir’s loud statements [frequently attacking Prime Minister Badawi], because not everyone dares to speak his mind.

Now it seems that Badawi is restricting Mahathir’s moves. What is your view on this?

I don’t agree with the way Abdullah Badawi is attacking and blocking Mahathir. As a citizen he has rights. But when Mahathir declared that Malaysia has become a police state, that there is no free press, and he was treated very badly, he was unable to respond and defend himself. This is ironic and laughable. Didn’t Mahathir do the same thing in the past?

How do you position yourself in the conflict between these two people?

Mahathir once met with Abdullah. He brought a tape recorder and quietly recorded Abdullah’s statement, “Let us not quarrel, otherwise people will not like you, and the same goes for me. The one person to benefit from all this would be Anwar,” he said. After that friends called me up and said that I should be grateful to Mahathir (laughing).

Are you ready to join up with Mahathir again?

As a matter of principle, no.

There are reports, however, that you offered Mahathir an alliance to oppose Abdullah Badawi?

That was something twisted by The New Straits Times. Their reporter asked me whether I was willing to accept Mahathir as an advisor to the opposition. I replied: “Is there an offer?” He replied: “What if there was?” And I responded: “Has there been an answer?” The reporter asked again: “But if all the opposition want to nominate him, what would be your opinion?” I said: “It depends on the opposition, but I am not too happy about it. Mahathir has some explaining to do, because he’s to blame for what happened in Malaysia, from the elections, to [the lack of] free press and a corrupt justice system, even to blaming George Soros for the monetary crisis. But it was his children who ruined everything.” No, I am not willing to join forces with him.

You are still bitter about Mahathir?

I am no angel. Al Gore once asked me whether I could ever forgive Mahathir. I said, if he did me wrong, I forgive him. But if he stole from the people, he must give it back. That’s another problem. I am not a people’s representative who could make such a decision. But Mahathir himself always feels he is in the right. He feels the country’s economic foundation is sound. He said he never gave his kids and his family anything, that they never involved themselves in politics, that the press under his government was sufficiently free, the police never oppressed the people, and so forth. I think Mahathir has a major psychological problem. (At the time Anwar Ibrahim was tried in court in 2000, Al Gore, who was then the US Vice President, said that the government had abused the standards of international justice. Mahathir retorted strongly by saying that Al Gore’s statement was proof of ‘international interference.’—Ed.)

Have you spoken to Mahathir since you were released?

Not yet. We have never met. But when we do, there would be no problem. I will greet him with “Assalamualaikum, how is your wife?”

Have you ever contacted him by telephone?

No.

During Lebaran?

No. I was never invited and I did not invite him. It doesn’t bother me. No problem.

You mentioned there was religious and racial tension in Malaysia. Can you explain?

The last racial tension happened in 1969. Since then, the government’s socio-economic policy was aimed at improving race relations. But lately, the religious issue has come up again. The extremist Islamic groups are hard-liners. In my view, they should not be like that. Meanwhile, the liberals are not showing a tolerant attitude either.

What would be an example of such intolerance?

I recently attended a dialog forum among Muslims. The liberals said they would only participate if the discussions were held in English. This does not make sense. How will that affect the clerics and religious leaders present? That was not good.

What about the extremists’ hard line you mentioned?

On the macro level, I agree in principle that Muslims can choose a number of regulations, including Shari’a. But it cannot be used to force other people [to adhere to it]. I am a tolerant Muslim, I value diversity and a multicultural and multi-religious environment. Meanwhile, among the non-Muslims, there is a feeling that the new laws or regulations are aimed at forcing them to bow to Islamic rules. So the result is a problem of perception.

Is it true that this tension worsened because the Malays were given [extra] facilities?

Yes, that was the result of the New Economic Policy. Last year, I proposed that the New Economic Policy be replaced with a Malaysian Economic Agenda. But then I was accused of being anti-Malay, pro-Chinese and a traitor. Actually those who rejected this agenda were the middlemen who profited from the New Economic Policy. The policy reportedly was aimed at benefitting the Malay people, but in reality those people ransacked the country in the name of that policy. They are the robbers who enriched themselves, their families and their cronies. The implementation of the New Economic Policy cost us tens of millions of dollars.

Isn’t there anything positive about that policy?

One positive result was social and educational mobility, and a reduction in poverty. But should poverty reduction be implemented through a tough racial policy? I say no. The policy must be transparent. I agree with the basic premise to help the poor and the marginalized, who are mostly Malay Muslims. But that policy, according to the Chinese and Indians, discriminates against them.

But aren’t the Chinese and Indians more economically advanced?

Yes. The fact is that the Chinese are much better off than the Malays. But they still perceive themselves to be marginalized.

How did that economic distortion emerge?

The Chinese are ahead not because of economics. They are industrious people. They are capable of coming up with economic programs and projects on their own, not dependent on anyone. But the rich ones, like the financiers, have been manipulated by the ministers and the cronies. Ultimately, this became the justification to be on the side of the common people. I am a Malay and I don’t want to sacrifice the interests of the Malays. But as a Malay and a Muslim, I don’t want to do anything that is unjust to other people.

What is the government’s role in these tense times?

The government is currently weak because of corruption and they don’t dare to initiate any changes. Malaysia is losing its competitiveness. Foreign direct investment here is less than in Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam. This doesn’t make sense because we have never been behind since 1957. We are losing because at the end of Mahathir’s rule, government agencies were ruined. The police, the justice department, representative councils and anticorruption organizations were restricted. Then came Abdullah Badawi, but his government is weak and is unable to make it right.

Is this caused by Badawi’s weak leadership?

It’s not just about leadership, there is an overall weakness. This can be seen in the reaction towards Mahathir’s charges that Abdullah is corrupt and a liar, that Badawi’s son got a huge project and his son-in-law was in control. It was only after some weeks that Abdullah came out to deny the statement, declaring it to be libelous. He insisted the projects were offshore. But a week later, he had to clarify his position on television. He said, “It is not proper for Mahathir to make that statement. I respect him as a former leader. He has done a lot service. It’s true that I gave projects to my children, but not much. Not as much as Mahathir himself.” In my view, that is a dangerous response. From the legal point of view, that constitutes a crime.

What do you think about terrorists in Indonesia, who turn out to be Malaysians, like Dr. Azahari and Noordin M. Top?

Pak Jusuf Kalla once jokingly chastised me: “Dont export your terrorists to our country.” As neighboring nations, we need to intensify our antiterrorism cooperation. The case of Noordin and Azahari shows that Malaysia is not free of the problem. The Malaysian government must keep on monitoring the situation, not waste their time monitoring me.

What about the war against terrorism according to George W. Bush?

I don’t agree with that because Bush’s approach is unclear, no direction and full of bias towards developing countries, specifically Islamic countries. He doesn’t help at all. In fact, he has angered everyone. If any groups are involved, we must be firm, but with an approach that will solve the situation, not complicate it.What do you think about the controversy over the new palace?
Actually, the Malaysian people are not making an issue out of it. People are upset because of the high cost. And I agree with the people.

Can the monarchy in Malaysia survive in this day and age?

If the monarchy becomes institutionalized, I don’t think there would be a problem.


Answers by: Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim

Place & Date of Birth: Penang, Malaysia, August 10, 1947

Education: University of Malaya -Malay studies

Organization Affiliations:

President, Persatuan Kebangsaan Pelajar Islam Malaysia (1968-1971)(Malaysian Islamic Students Association)
President, Majlis Belia Malaysia (1971)(Malaysian Youth Council)
Founder & President, Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia (1982) (Malaysian Islamic Youth Association)

Political Career:

Joined UMNO (1982)
Minister of Culture, Youth & Sports (1983)
Minister of Agriculture (1984)
Minister of Education (1986)
Minister of Finance (1991)
Deputy Prime Minister (1993-1998)

Professional Career:

Visiting Professor, Oxford and Georgetown University, USA
Special Adviser to the People's Justice Party (Parti Keadilan Rakyat)

Waiting On the World to Change

Political and Philosophical Enlightenment

Ethics is basically morality, to put it in a simple way. But can ethics go hand-in-hand with politics? Politics is science. That is why there is a course called political science which you can study academically. Well you can also view politics in terms of art. They say medicine is the art of science. Can politics be the science of art? First of all, is there such thing as a science of art?

I am sure most of you know the book called ‘The Art of War’. It is written by a Chinese war strategist named Sun Tzu. So may I modify a little bit of his title and it becomes ‘The Art of Politics’. But politics is science. However, the art of science is medicine. So it should be ‘The Science of the Art of War/Politics’. I know this may sound confusing but since the art of war/politics can be studied objectively, thus it becomes a science subject.

But the political science subject is actually deemed ‘useless’ in the real world. You don’t need to practise what you learn. In other words, you don’t have to study political science to know or to get involved in politics. You want obvious proof? All our ministers are not political science graduates. They are doctors, lawyers, engineers, economics, Malay and Islamic studies but NEVER political science grads. Those who have political science degrees can become their political secretaries only, doing the work behind the scenes but never in the frontline. Do you people notice that?

Sometimes, I wonder why people who graduated in political science don’t end up as frontline politicians. Why must politicians still be doctors, lawyers and other professionals? Weird! Doctors be pure doctors la! Lawyers be pure lawyers la! Why political science grads cannot become politicians? Now, don’t come and tell me KJ did politics, philosophy and economics (PPE) and yet he is a politician today. Did u see the word ‘economics’ in his course? PPE is not political science although it has the word ‘politics’ in it. They are separate courses anyway.

Okay, today let’s get academically inclined. Let us get intellectual. Let us put on our thinking caps. Let us be enlightened. Let us be Voltaire and Jean Jacques Rousseau. Men are born free, and yet everywhere he goes, he is in chains. Sounds familiar? Freedom comes with rules and responsibilities. Hari ini marilah kita belajar mengenai tokoh-tokoh berikut:

François-Marie Arouet (21 November 1694 – 30 May 1778), better known by the pen name Voltaire, was a French Enlightenment writer, essayist, deist and philosopher.
Voltaire was known for his sharp wit, philosophical writings, and defense of civil liberties, including freedom of religion and the right to a fair trial. He was an outspoken supporter of social reform despite strict censorship laws in France and harsh penalties for those who broke them. A satirical polemicist, he frequently made use of his works to criticize Christian Church dogma and the French institutions of his day. Voltaire is considered one of the most influential figures of his time.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1712 – July 2, 1778) was a Genevan philosopher of the Enlightenment whose political ideas influenced the French Revolution, the development of socialist theory, and the growth of nationalism. Rousseau also made important contributions to music both as a theorist and as a composer. With his Confessions and other writings, he practically invented modern autobiography and encouraged a new focus on the building of subjectivity that would bear fruit in the work of thinkers as diverse as Hegel and Freud. His novel Julie, ou la nouvelle Héloïse was one of the best-selling fictional works of the eighteenth century and was important to the development of romanticism.

Philosophy
Nature vs. society

Rousseau saw a fundamental divide between society and human nature. Rousseau contended that man was good by nature, when in the state of nature (the state of all other animals, and the condition humankind was in before the creation of civilization and society), but is corrupted by society. This idea has often led to the attribution to Rousseau of the idea of the noble savage an expression first used in by Dryden in The Conquest of Granada (1672). Rousseau, however, never used the expression himself and it does not adequately render his idea of the natural goodness of humanity. Rousseau's idea of natural goodness is complex and easy to misunderstand. Contrary to what might be suggested by a casual reading, the idea does not imply that humans in the state of nature act morally; in fact, terms such as 'justice' or 'wickedness' are simply inapplicable to pre-political society as Rousseau understands it. Humans there may act with all of the ferocity of an animal. They are good because they are self-sufficient and thus not subject to the vices of political society. He viewed society as artificial and held that the development of society, especially the growth of social interdependence, has been inimical to the well-being of human beings.

Society's negative influence on men centers, in Rousseau's philosophy, on its transformation of amour de soi, a positive self-love, into amour-propre, or pride. Amour de soi represents the instinctive human desire for self preservation, combined with the human power of reason. In contrast, amour-propre is artificial and forces man to compare himself to others, thus creating unwarranted fear and allowing men to take pleasure in the pain or weakness of others. Rousseau was not the first to make this distinction; it had been invoked by, among others, Vauvenargues.

In "Discourse on the Arts and Sciences" Rousseau argued that the arts and sciences had not been beneficial to humankind because they were not human needs, but rather a result of pride and vanity. Moreover, the opportunities they created for idleness and luxury contributed to the corruption of man. He proposed that the progress of knowledge had made governments more powerful and had crushed individual liberty. He concluded that material progress had actually undermined the possibility of sincere friendship, replacing it with jealousy, fear and suspicion.

His subsequent Discourse on Inequality tracked the progress and degeneration of mankind from a primitive state of nature to modern society. He suggested that the earliest human beings were isolated semi-apes who were differentiated from animals by their capacity for free will and their perfectibility. He also argued that these primitive humans were possessed of a basic drive to care for themselves and a natural disposition to compassion or pity. As humans were forced to associate together more closely by the pressure of population growth, they underwent a psychological transformation and came to value the good opinion of others as an essential component of their own well-being. Rousseau associated this new self-awareness with a golden age of human flourishing. However, the development of agriculture, metallurgy, private property, and the division of labor led to humans becoming increasingly dependent on one another, and led to inequality. The resulting state of conflict led Rousseau to suggest that the first state was invented as a kind of social contract made at the suggestion of the rich and powerful. This original contract was deeply flawed as the wealthiest and most powerful members of society tricked the general population, and thus instituted inequality as a fundamental feature of human society. Rousseau's own conception of the social contract can be understood as an alternative to this fraudulent form of association. At the end of the Discourse on Inequality, Rousseau explains how the desire to have value in the eyes of others, which originated in the golden age, comes to undermine personal integrity and authenticity in a society marked by interdependence, hierarchy, and inequality.

The Social Contract

Perhaps Rousseau's most important work is The Social Contract, which outlines the basis for a legitimate political order. Published in 1762 it became one of the most influential works of political philosophy in the Western tradition. It developed some of the ideas mentioned in an earlier work, the article Economie Politique, featured in Diderot's Encyclopédie. Rousseau claimed that the state of nature eventually degenerates into a brutish condition without law or morality, at which point the human race must adopt institutions of law or perish. In the degenerate phase of the state of nature, man is prone to be in frequent competition with his fellow men while at the same time becoming increasingly dependent on them. This double pressure threatens both his survival and his freedom. According to Rousseau, by joining together through the social contract and abandoning their claims of natural right, individuals can both preserve themselves and remain free. This is because submission to the authority of the general will of the people as a whole guarantees individuals against being subordinated to the wills of others and also ensures that they obey themselves because they are, collectively, the authors of the law.

While Rousseau argues that sovereignty should be in the hands of the people, he also makes a sharp distinction between sovereign and government. The government is charged with implementing and enforcing the general will and is composed of a smaller group of citizens, known as magistrates. Rousseau was bitterly opposed to the idea that the people should exercise sovereignty via a representative assembly. Rather, they should make the laws directly. It has been argued that this would prevent Rousseau's ideal state being realized in a large society, though in modern times, communication may have advanced to the point where this is no longer the case. Much of the subsequent controversy about Rousseau's work has hinged on disagreements concerning his claims that citizens constrained to obey the general will are thereby rendered free.

Source : Wikipedia

Dear all, we really need more of these people in the rakyat AND government of our beloved Malaysia. We need more Voltaire’s and Rousseau’s. Can we make it? Where are we heading? Forward? Backward? Left? Right? Or no direction at all? Fikirkanlah…*enlightenment*

Sembang Mother Nature

Save our Malaysian environment.

I, penangite, though may be interested in politics, I am a self-confessed environmentalist. Yes, I love Mother Nature. I love Greenpeace. And for those of you who like to pollute our earth and destroy nature’s flora and fauna, fuck off! But I love to drive my car anywhere I like and please don’t ask me to stop driving my car just because it expels a lot greenhouse gases. You think I don’t want to drive a hybrid/electric car? Expensive ok? I don’t have the money to buy those type of cars. If I do, I sure will buy environmental-friendly cars. After all, they do look cute too. Maybe in future the price of electric/hybrid cars will drop but not for now. Maybe until most of our earth are polluted like dunno what shit baru the price of those cars will be as cheap as Kancil/Kelisa.

I hate over-excessive developments. I hate to see Karam Singh Walia reporting about pencemaran and exploitasi tanah and pembalakan haram everytime I turn on Bulletin Utama TV3. The less he uses his peribahasa, the better is it for our environment. Coz every peribahasa signifies one case of environment destruction. Unless he fails to record the rest which are still tersembunyi. Stupid developers. A bunch of no-brainers. All want $$$$ only, idiots!! Hey money can be earn elsewhere la, no need to build so much buildings, you can make money by recycling, do you know how much sampah we produce a day? There was once a report that Malaysia’s rubbish can stand as high as KLCC twin towers for how many years im not sure. So reuse, reduce and recycle!!!

Instead of fighting among each other in politics, better fight to save our earth la, bodoh! You wanna fight among each other until somebody else die also never mind, but pls conserve our environment first. Then you can go blow up someone else. Our Malaysian rivers are seriously the yuckiest in the world. Sungai Juru and Sungai Klang? Yucks!!! Simple stuff also cannot do, wanna have ‘first world mentality’. Dreaming..zzzz…. Clear our rivers, you bunch of idiot politicians. Spend so much on Malaysia Eye, spend so much on Visit Malaysia 2007, hey my foot la..if tourist come, I bring them to Juru River is it okay?i show them KLCC, Mid Valley, Putrajaya, The Eye, everything nice la..then I bring them to Sg. Juru as their last destination before they return to KLIA for departure?

Seriously, I am going to do that if I have any foreign visitors. Let them leave with a taste of Kemalaysiaan. Then last but not least, I tell them the water that they drink actually comes from these dirty rivers which has been processed and ‘safe’ to drink. Make them tension. Ok, tats a bit too much. But I’ll tell them that the seafood they ate earlier receives the outflow from these rivers. Now, this is the truth. Sg Juru flows out to Tambun area (seafood restaurants area), Sg Klang flows to Port Klang (also seafood restaurant area). So much of our standard of water quality. Selangor is a negeri maju by now. Selangor Maju 2005. But you go to Shah Alam, some of the water pipes when u open the taps, the water is yellow in colour and it taste like iron. Its so damn ‘tasty’ I tell u. I am ashamed as a Malaysian. I don’t know where to put my face if a tourist tells me about this. Shit!!!

Catch-22 situation for Anwar Ibrahim

In his interview with Prof Don Emmerson of Stanford Uni, Anwar only mentioned that he is 'not prepared' to rejoin UMNO. He never curse and swear that he will not join UMNO forever. So this simply means there is a possibility, however small for him to rejoin UMNO. He is, by all means, in a catch-22 situation. He can't run as an MP or get involved in politics for now,not until at least March 2008 due to the court rule. Will pak lah make the GE b4 march08 or will he wait for anwar to come back? we'll have to wait and see. for now, najib and hisham wont let anwar in for sure. the two are Dr M's camp.

anwar's hope is now pak lah&khairy. why do u think KJ went to meet anwar at his hse in bukit damansara to pass him his passport so tat he can go Germany to sort treatment for his slipped disc? wat did both of them talk about? a deal perhaps? or just a wish of selamat jalan? well, for sure, the govt can send a low-ranking immigration officer to pass anwar his passport, but why the son-in-law of of our PM must see him personally? wayang kulit and sandiwara again? anwar knows this,but he never reveals the contents of the meeting.but KJ has stated in UMNO assembly youth speech tat anwar used to be the richest UMNOputra. so many contradictions. all conspiracies. i guess we can only wait until 2008 to see the facts. but 2007 can well be starting to show signs and symptoms already..hehehe..

right now, anwar is commited to the reform agenda by keADILan.but if he rejoins UMNO,wat will happen to his supporters who is loyal to adil?then he sure will bubarkan adil and bring all his konco-konco to return to umno,just like Ku Li bubar S46 and rejoin UMNO. Pairin also bubar PBS and join BN. do u think anwar can reform UMNO if he becomes PM?i think it wont change much,it'll still be the same thing as u say, UMNO is very much ketuanan melayu,so wat will happen to anwar's credibility then? ppl will say "apalah anwar ni, cakap tak serupa bikin, say wanna commit himself to reform agenda but in the end also rejoin UMNO wat..."

Pak Lah also came in with fresh, clean pledges, but today is he any better? its still the same. its the system, not the leaders. no matter wat pak lah says, he is still bounded by the malay supremacy concept.he wants to have IPCMC, IFC etc, but even the police and malays rejected it.if he goes ahead to implement them,he sure got no place to sit as PM. the malays wont support him.tats the harsh reality. the only way for UMNO to be defeated is a straight fight with PAS. keadilan dare not put a calon at batu talam, why? coz they know the chances of PAS winning is higher. even when anwar was sacked, PAS hijacked anwar's case and win t'ganu, keadilan only won 1 seat and tat also in its permatang pauh strongbase. only 1 and many of them lose their deposits coz of split votes wif DAP.

bottomline, BN is too powerful since merdeka. i agree with u that we need to have a strong opposition but the leaders are not even coming together?I have never seen Anwar and Kit Siang standing side by side and speaking before lately. Anwar alwiz wif PAS ppl,then how the chinese are going to support keadilan? they see 'bulan' also they wont vote coz islamic state.if tats the case then anwar/keadilan must forgo PAS and merge wif DAP. so at least the malays can vote for adil and chinese vote for dap. PAS can still have its straight fight with UMNO in majority malay areas. im not sure if tats the best way we have but currently tats the obvious choice we have, unless anybody got a more creative and also REALISTIC option.

-comment by penangite on free lunch 2020's post 'Will ANWAR go back to UMNO'-

Doctrine of Separation of Powers

Dear Penangite,

It is amazing how many theories you have already come up within a few days.

As a citizen, you have every right to question and speculate; however, in Malaysia questioning state actions by ordinary citizens is merely “sembang kedai kopi” and doesn’t go any further than that no matter how legitimate or publicly relevant they are. There are some however have taken a step further by making efforts through alternative media and by protesting in public; this method is more effective in the sense that they get more publicity, however the state will almost always turn a deaf ear to it rendering all their efforts useless.

Then there are some among us who realize that perhaps joining dissenting voices of the opposition political parties is the most effective method of getting answers from the state for these legitimate questions. However, BN's political monopoly means that nothing great can be achieved on that front either; occasionally, we see the opposition cornering the government by creating huge public outcries; one fine example would by DAP MP Teresa Kok's famous disclosure of the Squatgate Scandal. But unless you can pull a stunt like that, the state would not give a damn.

This is just as far as the rakyat can go in questioning the government of its actions.

Now, here is the critical question that we should all be asking ourselves??

How did this happen? We are a democracy, aren’t we? We have general elections every 5 years, which is reasonably fair and free. In a democracy, the government serves the rakyat; government is by the people and for the people. If they screw up, we question them and they owe us explanations. However, in this country, the government do not owe us any explanations. It takes a hugely influential figure such as former PM Tun Mahathir to demand explanations before they even move an inch, and even that they do out of fear of political repercussions from the scathing attacks, not out of moral or legal obligation to the rakyat.

We claim to be a vibrant democracy however we are hardly near what a democracy should be like. In a true democracy, the people constantly keep the government in check. And by the people I mean, just about anybody who can influence the rakyat with their ideas, politicians, academicians, social activists, environmentalists, religious leaders, novelists, actors, anyone, as long as their ideas resonate with that of others. In the US, an independent council, Kenneth Starr, led a private investigation, which led to disclosure of President Bill Clinton sex scandal, which resulted in Clinton’s impeachment. Last year, we watched how a private initiative by a group of ordinary Americans into the Iraq War scandal challenged the Bush administration and affected the US mid term elections.

Why aren’t we seeing this democratic culture in Malaysia; true, our democracy is not exactly a carbon copy of the US, we inherited ours from the British. However, other Commonwealth countries that also followed the British have vibrant democracies, what happened to ours??

We have a constitution that guarantees freedom of speech for the people and which also provides means by which the govt of the day can be kept in check. The constitution, the supreme law of the land, emphasizes the rule of law, that no one is above the law, whether you are of the ruling party or of royal blood. This keeps the govt in check and prevents the excesses of power that we are seeing today.

So, what went wrong? Ok, one might say that our lack of a strong and credible opposition might be the cause. But is it really? Is it true that a government, which controls the house of parliament, could rule the country as it pleases and avoid being held responsible for their actions by the people? That seems to be the scenario in Malaysia today, but is it truly the cause or something else must have gone wrong?

If it was the cause, then the so-called constitution that guarantees us freedom must be a pretty crappy one.

This is a matter of opinion though, but I do not think that the people who sat down 50 years ago to plan the future of our nation screwed up. They did their best and came up with a written social contract, the constitution, that they hoped would ensure that we never deviated from the path that was set, a path towards a free, tolerant and respected nation even if the ship had to change captain after every generation.

However, things did not go according to plan. The ship was hijacked by an ambitious captain who believed only in doing things his way. I do not once question his motives; he only had the best interest of the ship and crew in mind. However, he was a Machiavellian, he believed the end justifies the means. He was shrewd and always found his away around any obstacle that stood in front of him.

The constitution was cleverly constructed with foresight and has its means of ensuring the interest of the nation and people and was never compromised. One of the hallmarks of the constitution was the doctrine of separation of power among three key independent institutions, the judiciary, the legislative, and the executive. These three institutions act independently to keep check and balance.

The ambitious captain saw this doctrine as a major obstacle. Being a Machiavellian, he had his opponents who were constantly challenging him through the three bodies. He being the captain had complete control of one body, the Executive and substantial control of the other, the Legislature as his ruling party made up more than 2/3rd's of it. The judiciary however was completely independent as it was meant to be. Such is the beauty of our constitution; it’s a regulating authority unto itself. All three arms check on each other so that it doesn’t overstep its constitutional mandate.

One common misconception among people, and myself as it was the impression that my Sejarah textbook gave me, is that the bodies are exclusive and have specific duties. Like the Executive tadbir negara, the Legislature gubal undang-undang and the Judiciary mentafsir and melaksanakan undang-undang. This is not entirely true, it’s an oversimplification. The task of governing the country is not exclusively the Executive’s but shared by among all 3 bodies. In parliament, legislators can question, debate and reject government policies and the judiciary can intervene and rule government policies as illegal or unconstitutional if it deems it as such.

The judiciary of Malaysia during when our ambitious captain took the helm was truly special. Many analyst claim it was one of the best in the whole Commonwealth; brave and independent. The government was repeated challenged; for example in the Bank Bumiputera takeover by Petronas scandal and a few others when the government attempted to crackdown on the print media.

The captain was understandably frustrated, and thus in 1988, the judiciary was attacked and the Chief Justice Tun Salleh Abbas and two other Supreme Court judges were removed. The captain clipped its wings and it was no longer able to function freely. The constitution that had safeguarded judiciary was amended and that was the infamous amendment to Article 121(1) that gave the judiciary right to review state actions. The effect of the amendment is that Judiciary was suborned to Parliament. What happened to the doctrine of separation of power? It was no more!!!

The judiciary was controlled by Parliament and Parliament by the Executive. In effect, the Executive now controlled them all (BN had 2/3rd's majority in Parliament giving them full control). That instant, the captain was suddenly almost a dictator free to do anything, uninhibited. How clever...

This had disastrous effect on the nation; in fact I think almost every single thing that is wrong in this country was somehow linked to the 1988 Judiciary crisis. I don’t have the time to explain all of them now; there are too many things. But for example, the media lost its freedom of speech protection guaranteed by the constitution and was under absolute state control turning it into a BN propaganda machinery, corrupting the minds of Malaysians until today. It gave the state absolute control over the academic institutions of the country; curtailing intellectual freedom in the name of political interest which has resulted in UM’s drastic drop in ranking of the top universities in the world and last year falling out of the top 100.

Corruption spiralled out of controlled, opposing figures were brutally suppressed, dissenting voices were sent to Kamunting, and we slowly became what we are now today, a police state.

Today we watch in horror as a toothless judiciary fail to act to protect our rights as witnessed in the tale M.Moorthy’s widow who was denied her fundamental basic citizenship right of seeking legal remedy.

We have no mechanism of check and balance anymore. The state acts on our behalf and does what it think is right and we have got to accept it. If AAB thinks that Islam Hadari is best for us then we must accept it. We can disagree with him but we know who has the final say. Of course, we have our ballot box, but the absence of a credible opposition means that Malaysians are left with no choice.

One man’s folly and greed for power, costs us dearly. Every one of us is paying the price for it today. Even he is, as evident in his public ranting last year. We say our politicians are corrupted, police is corrupt, this agency, that ministry, all corrupt. Speak is all we can. We have lost the mechanism of check and balance. Few years back I heard opposition leader Lim Kit Siang calling for the rakyat to vote opposition so that BN can be denied 2/3rds majority in parliament. We have all been reduced to such a pathetic state that we now have to vote opposition not because they are a better alternative to the government but just because we need some sort of a body to check on a government that rules with no regard to the law and public opinion. At least then, Parliament would have the teeth to act as a watchdog on our behalf. I think at the moment, this is the only realistic strategy that we have, unfortunately.

Thanks for reading. I just wanted to share a thought.

Regards,
-Skeptic-

Nicol Ann David - truly National Treasure

First of all, I want to express my heartfelt appreciation to Raja Petra Kamarudin for linking my blog to Malaysia Today. It is special to me. I believe he acknowledges my work and thus, a big thank you to RPK again. I have always enjoyed reading his articles. I enjoy reading them now and expect more interesting creative juices from him in the future. Today, Sembang Coffee Shop would like to discuss about a young penangite girl.

Yes, our lovely world number one in Women’s Squash, Ms Nicol Ann David. And she has been defending her World Number One since she won it. Never drop to number two and then one again. Consistently number one. I think one of our badminton players was world number one before, no? But was it only for a while, I am not too sure about that. I guess our badminton squad has something to learn from this young sportswoman. Why Malaysia is so poor in sports. Our football team cannot even beat Iraq. For our own information, Iraq is now a war-torn country. I always find it ironic while we enjoy peace and stability here in Malaysia, Iraq can beat us although Sunni and Syiah and Baathist people are fighting. Making it worse, US and UK armed forces are there. But their sportspeople can win medals in international games, Malaysia can’t? WTF!!!

But amidst all those lost of hope, there is still a beacon of hope. God has been kind to us. God still gave us a jewel. God still gave us a chance. God still believes in us. Nicol David was given to us so that Malaysia can still proudly say at least we still have a world number one in squash. Thus, this is my topic today, Nicol Ann David – truly the national treasure. She is much more valuable than the whole rizab negara we have. How much ar? Billions of ringgit? Do you think pride can be bought by money? Hey, I believe there are many countries out there which are ready to poach Nicol anytime. World number one wor…who doesn’t want? Consistent some more. But despite all that she still stays loyal to Malaysia. She still represents Malaysia. She can always migrate to another country or represent another country. But her parents are here, her sisters are here, her family is here, her relatives, her friends, her social circle, her environment. Can you buy that with money? She wears the Jalur Gemilang on her headband or her outfit every time she plays for Malaysia. Can you imagine her wearing a Singapore flag on it instead? Think and see.

Nicol is our heroine indeed. Look at her awards. Look at her trophies. Look at her collections. Look at what her coach says about her. Look at how she responds with humility and what a low-profile personality she carries. There was once I remember she was criticised due to her lack of focus in training and hanging out too much with people but today, she proved her critics wrong. Hey, it is normal for teenagers to hang out ok? Even the youth can hang out. As long as you as don’t deviate too much and lose total focus on your aim, you should be fine. Those critics must think that she is a robot. Hey, people need to rest la, people need to enjoy la, and people need time out for themselves okay? Today she is world champion, anybody want to say anything bad about her? Go ahead. You all only have yourselves to laugh at. And by the way, I won’t be shocked to see critics coming up again if she happened to drop in the world rankings. Stupid critics!

I saw in a news report that she was awarded a condominium unit costing some RM300,000? The penang government should give her a bungalow instead. And don’t come and tell me giving her a big mansion would cause her to slack and deteriorate. Only a stupid idiot would do that. Yeah, you wanna compare with the Thomas Cup Winners in 1992 being given lavish prizes and then slack after that? Then you are an idiot. It is the badminton training system which causes the problem. Why do I say so? 1992 until 2007, are the players still proud of Thomas Cup? There are no shining players now. So it is not the reward problem but the management system. Hello, she is the world number one okay and she is a non-bumiputera. I think Rachel Grinham and other female players got a better pay than her, what do you think? But then again, we don’t go for cash or materials only, right Nicol? Yeah, I am proud of you. We, penangites and Malaysians are forever proud of you (those of us who see true merit of your struggle and dedication of course). Manage Nicol properly with the right technique and I am sure she will be number one for some time..hmmm..actually for quite a long time..how old is she? 24 is it? Kudos Nicol! All the best to you =)

Batu Talam By-Election

so who do u think will win the Pilihanraya Kecil Batu Talam? I'll give u a hint. according to reports, BN will be headed by chief campaigner UMNO Deputy Youth Leader Saudara Khairy Jamaluddin. obvious enough? ok, this is meant to be a short post,hehe.

Khidmat Negara my foot!!!

Why national service (NS) should be abolished

Sometime ago, due to the rape/molest case of a NS trainee in Terengganu or sumwhere, MP Batu Gajah Ms Fong Po Kuan (who is also my good friend who brought me to Dewan Rakyat for proceedings in September 2006) suggested that NS be abolished due to its causing more harm than good. In fact, the intention of NS is good. I admit the objectives are good and beneficial for the nation. Even my cousin who was chosen to join NS claimed that NS was indeed a good experience after 3 months he was in camp. Im not sure if he really puji NS coz it was a ‘defense mechanism’ or he was sincere. But I certainly hope he was sincere in his thoughts. Defense mechanism can be put in a layman’s term as ‘praising sumthing when u have no choice but to conform to it’. Tats just one example of the many types. Ok, I hope u get the idea, u can go internet and read about it, after all its in wikipedia and there is a list of mechanisms u can read about but im not going into all that. But he did admit that NS gave him the chance to meet lots of girls!

Okay, today we see reports about the bus fiasco. Thousands of trainees were left stranded coz no buses were able to pick them up. As a result, poor parents who drive afar just to send their poor kids to the pick up point were frus. Obviously who is not frus, if im the parent..i’ll definitely shout NIAMAH!!! (adapted from niamah.blogspot.com owned by Patrick Teoh). Hey even if im the trainee..waste my time la..i can watch TV or sleep at home more la..NIAMAH!!! ok tats not about it, some time ago, there was this proposal for trainees to shoot firearms, wtf??!! And then parents can choose to either approve or disapprove thru official letters. And then TV3 and all other news stations proudly show some interview that the kids were delighted by the shooting sessions, all races got interviewed, I saw a few Malays, one Chinese and one Indian were asked about how they felt..ok..i admit..shooting is a good experience. U can alwiz shoot and misfire at ur lawyer fren (haha!! Sounds like the vice-president of USA). Anyway, this handling of firearms is premature and a total waste of resources (i.e. bullets which can be expensive if fired continuously). It looks like the govt has too much bloody money to spend on this whole NS to inculcate the so-called patriotism. I tell u today that thanks to NS, my cousin who is a guy, now got all the contact numbers of the girls in NS and thus, can alwiz hang out wif them and lepak at MidValley and KLCC anytime, makes sense??!! So much for “NATIONAL SERVICE”. NS to seek out guys and gals got la..niamah!! how good!!!!!

Najib under pressure

Okay, first things first. NS is under PLKN. Lee Lam Thye is the program chairman. I tell u tats just a show. Many ppl said tat Tan Sri Lee was a good politician in Bukit Bintang when he was DAP member but now he ‘has been bought over by BN’. And thus the govt respects him for his charitable and social activism. Okok, I acknowledge that Lee is a veteran who deserves some form of respect but tats just a small story. PLKN was not the brainchild of Lee. It was the brainchild of sumone higher. Yes, PLKN is directly under the management of the Defense Ministry and who is the Honourable Minister? Sorry, no prize for guessing it right but I just state his full credentials here. It is YAB Dato’ Seri Mohamad Najib bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak. Yes the son of our 2nd PM of Malaysia. BTW, Najib was shown cooking porridge or some food in Johor for the victims when the whole cabinet had gone missing during the floods. But this NS was alredi ‘diilhamkan’ when Dr M was still the PM. But I dunno whose idea was it, regardless, I think it is a stupid crazy idea. Now this plan has been backfired. Look at the amount of problems appear year in and year out. They say they will curb the food poisoining, they will curb the ‘gatal’ trainers, they will curb the inefficiencies, they will haul detractors and charge them in court and so on and so forth??!! Ya rite!! And now the bus problems?? So are they still gonna say ‘we will curb this problem to prevent it from happening again in future’??!!! niamah!!! Obviously they NEVER LEARN FROM HISTORY. Bahlul!! Kepala hotak bangang sial mangkuk hayun punya respon dari otak udang belaka!

Why is Najib then under pressure as I put in my heading? Well, many reasons. He alredi has pressure coming from Dr M to challenge Pak Lah. He alredi got the ‘green light’ from Dr M to do that. But of coz to jaga periuk nasi and seeing wat happened to anwar, wud he dare? So he pledged his support and loyalty and urge the rakyat to back Pak Lah immediately when Dr M initiated his attacks making headlines such as “Dr M : Pak Lah not my first choice as PM, it was Najib”. And he has KJ to deal with. As stated earlier, KJ is now messing up wif Khir Toyo’s administration, he is actually testing the waters. AS free lunch commented that he should mudslinging the ‘big shots’ like Tun M, Najib, Ling Liong Sik, Samy Vellu etc. my advice is, u just wait and watch as the drama unfolds. Don’t ever think that KJ does not dare to touch Najib. In fact as stated in the Khairy Chronicles in M’sia Today, KJ has appointed all his men in the DPM’s office and has been his eyes and ears ever since. So Najib’s hands are tied figuratively speaking. He is in a dilemma, he is stuck in the middle. That is why I believe the DPM, whoever he is in this country is never safe. Do u know that the post of the DPM is not even clarified in the Constitution. It only mentions the PM post and barisan cabinet which consists of Ministers. So basically the executive branch is PM + Ministers only (no DPM). But well, u can argue that Dr M was a DPM b4 and today he succeeded Tun Hussein. Ok, but what we are looking here is during Dr M’s era when he has ‘lost’ so many deputies. First was Tun Musa Hitam who declares that since he cannot work with Dr M and there can only be one captain of a ship, he quitted. Then come Tun Ghafar Baba, whom was challenged by Anwar and then stepped down in favour of young blood. Then Anwar was sacked. Later, after some long time without a DPM, finally Dr M appointed Pak Lah. And even now he disagrees wif the way pak lah is managing the country. It seems to be very hard to satisfy the Grand Old Man. But bottomline, he wants Najib to take over as PM.

I may generate some conspiracy theories here but I think that this bus fiasco has more to it. It is not just a normal bus fiasco. And it involves a lot of buses and trainees. Something must have gone wrong somewhere. Somebody must have known those buses are ‘illegal and unsafe’ to ferry our ‘remaja aset negara’. Coz they cud not compromise on the safety of our children. And can u smell who is behind all these? Who wud wanna give Najib a bad name. do u know tat the failure of the first phase, NS has not even started, already got problems at the pick-up points really tarnish najib’s image. And wat more wif his close aide, top govt-linked political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda who was arrested for the Mongolian Model murder, the last thing he needs to hear is this stupid NS glitch. Btw, I like that Razak Baginda fella, when he gives interviews in TV, he speaks good and analyses well, okay, I admit at that time, I wanna be sumone like him, in fact I want a job at the ISIS or MSRC. For those of u who dunno wat is ISIS, it is International Strategic and International Studies and MSRC stands for Malaysian Strategy Research Centre, a govt-linked think-tank, in fact both are but the MRSC is headed by Razak Baginda. ISIS is now headed by Dr Mohamad Jawhar Hassan. Before that, ISIS if im not mistaken was headed by the late Dr Noordin Sopiee (who wrote a one whole spreadsheet article in NST to condemn Al Gore’s scathing remarks on APEC dinner which obviously left Dr M pissed as the host of the dinner –fyi, NST was spreadsheet format b4 they became like thestar). Oh yeah, I still remember that article which occupy one whole page..it goes like:
________________________________________________________________________
This is a public statement from a normal citizen,

Mr Gore should not have left the dinner immediately after his inconsiderate, rude speech. He should have head straight for the airport and leave this country immediately.

A Malaysian,
Noordin Sopiee

I didn’t have the source but u can certainly dig out NST’s archives. But it surely sound like that. Fyi, Tan Sri Dr Noordin is orang mahathir. And banyak lagi orang Dr M. ok looks like I have deviated. Alrite, back to najib. He is squeezed tightly in between now. He has been quiet recently. He has never commented on the arrest of his analyst. He has been issuing ‘neutral statements’ regarding the floods and other issues. I did not see the vocal najib I used to see in the perhimpunan agung when he was just elected as DPM and he did made a promise that he wont ‘menyerang dari belakang’. Obviously tat had the UMNO audience laugh (obviously they were laughing coz of the reference to Anwar’s sodomy case). True enuff, until today, he hasn’t ambush from behind. He hasn’t attack from the back even though he has been instigated by Dr M. even Dr M has kinda gave up on him alredi, Dr M said in an interview, “Whatever that happens, it is something which happens to him (Najib), not to me.” Meaning Dr M is no longer in the scene and it is entirely up to Najib now to make a move. But Najib has not make any move, well, not showing signs of it publicly at least, maybe he got his own underground plan en-route to the UMNO elections but can he even survive b4 this coming general election?? We just wait and see. Many people think Najib is the next in line coz he is the ‘most senior’ and ‘most experienced’ and ‘most qualified’ man to succeed Abdullah. Yea? U think so? There are many more equally capable ministers should Najib ‘screw up’. Abdullah has alredi commented in public that Muhyiddin is ‘doing a good job’ as Minister of Agriculture and Agro-Based Industries and Tan Sri Muhd Muhd Taib ‘deserves to be a Senator’. What does that sound to u, my readers? A better way to put it would be Abdullah prefers Muhyiddin to be DPM as stated by RPK in the delaying of naming the DPM until Dr M steps in to announced ‘he was glad that AAB appointed Najib, that sort of caught AAB of guard and by the time it was too late to do anything but to let Najib in’. And Muhd Taib? Is he going to replace Khir Toyo by becoming the Selangor MB again? Hey, rmbr that he used to have the Brisbane case but Dr M rescued him out and now he is loyal to pak lah (i.e. the govt of the day) and he gets everything back. Wow, smart man!! But hmm..looking back again..wat is smart? This is politics right? Im not surprised tho..

In conclusion, after revealing all the ‘scandals, scams and controversies’, I still think that the NS shud be abolished!! C’mon guys, there are many other ways to promote patriotism. If got poor gals got harassed, raped, molested due to the service, it is alredi a failure. Ya u can argue, kerana nila setitik rosak susu ‘setong’, no more belanga, we cannot scrap the NS based on a few ‘isolated’ incidents. Hey got students die due to infections sumore ok?! Ur talking about ppl’s lives here. Young ppl whom are required to contribute to our beloved Malaysia and yet ur making them suffer. Hey btw, I wonder got any anak menteri who are sent to NS? Or they make sure they screen thru the list to ensure no anak menteri involved coz as u know, they damn rich right? They after SPM send their children overseas to study Alevels and all that. Got ka? Pls readers help me find out ya and I really respek sama itu menteri, good example of cakap serupa bikin!! Ya la..u also can argue that since msian roads are dangerous for motorists so we abolish all the roads. Bangang betui!! This NS has more cons than pros ok. Roads have more pros than cons. This NS is a total waste of tax-payers money or whatever money la. It is a waste of time!! 3 weeks also not that bad, 3 mths is bullshit!! In the end u think all the NS trainees will stay in Malaysia and help develop Malaysia? Some will also migrate wat, some will also betray Malaysia, some will keep kutuking Malaysia, some will turn to criminals, some will be ‘playboys’ coz know many girls alredi maaa…duh!!! Hello, Malaysia is not Singapore ok? And S’pore NS style is certainly different from ours. If u wanna do NS the right way, do it right. Don’t say it is NS and say our version is not like s’pore type, wat utter bullcrap. It is doing more harm than good now. Parents sent kids to pick up point – hey are those in PLKN gonna reimburse their petrol? Petrol mahal now ok?!! NIAMAH!!!!!! Govt MUST control the inflation instead of waste money on this!

I had enough! Don’t u?

The story of MyTeam

Why is MyTeam successful?

PETALING JAYA: National team captain Mohd Kaironnisam Shahabuddin has signed up with Premier League outfit UPB-MyTeam for the new season that kicks off on Dec 22.

The 27-year-old defender was previously with Super League side Petaling Jaya Municipal Council (MPPJ) who were banned by the FA of Malaysia (FAM) from the M-League in September.

Other seasoned players in the team are former Selangor striker Harris Safwan Kamal and goalkeeper Faizal Abdul Rashid; and Negri Sembilan's striker Mohd Nizaruddin Yusop and defender Yosri Dermaraju.

Their Croatian coach Bojan Hodak have signed up compatriots Mijo Dadic, a defender and Marin Mikac, a former national Under-21 striker as the foreign players.

Ten of the players were identified through the MyTeam television reality show while three were retained from UPB, who played in the Premier League last season.

Club president and team manager Khairy Jamaluddin said yesterday that expectations would be kept low for their debut season.

“The team is a blend of experience and enthusiasm,” he said when announcing the team.

“Based on the dedication and determination displayed by the players, I am optimistic that we can emerge as a competitive team over the next few years.”

“What is important is that we lay strong foundations for future sustainability. We have seen many clubs come and go. We hope that we are here to stay.”

In their seven friendly matches so far, MyTeam had beaten teams like Malacca, Kuala Lumpur, and Negri Sembilan. Their only loss was to the national Under-21 team.

Extra news...with Jason Lo (DJ and Rock Guitarist of Old Newspaper/Paper Lama song)

At this point of the interview, Lo mentioned MyTeam, and he became more animated as he talked about it.

“MyTeam was created by me and Khairy Jamaluddin – he is an old friend and we go back a long way. I was driving to work one day, and it hit me like a lightning bolt. I called Khairy – who is on the FAM (Football Association of Malaysia) board and told him we were going to every state in Malaysia. I wanted to run trials, find the best amateur football team and then play the Malaysian national team.”

Lo eventually was given a chance to present his idea to FAM, which was eventually accepted, and the subsequent television series and football match turned out to be a resounding success.

“We had 20,000 people for the trials and 60,000 packing the stadium when the match was played.”

How does Lo explain why MyTeam achieved the success that it did?

“Everyone loves a Cinderella story, and that’s what MyTeam offered on a plate.

“For example, our team captain was a boat driver who plied his route every day from Kuala Trengganu to Pulau Perhentian. We went to his hometown to interview his parents and colleagues, and that was the beauty of it.

“To me, it was never a football programme really, but a people programme. It was branded in such a way that it did not belong to any corporation or association, but belonged to the viewers instead.”

For Lo, the MyTeam experience was a personal milestone, not only because it indulged his love of football, but for what it brought to other people as well.

“It is all about belief, really. People do not believe in their dreams anymore. But in a few short months we gave the team a chance to live a dream. We brought them to Old Trafford, and they had the chance to play on that ground with people like Brian McClair and Dennis Irwin. It is something that the players and I will re-live for the rest of our lives.”

While football remains one of Lo’s passions, music is still the one thing that is closest to his heart.

“I have always loved football and Chelsea, but music is my first love. I have always wanted to do music. But these days it has kind of extended into a hobby because you need to survive. The idea was to have a successful business built around the music that provided funds to do our music.”

Lo explained that he still has musical ambitions to fulfil. “I dream to be the first Malaysian to have a number one hit on the Billboard charts. The second is to play at Wembley and finally, to make 20 albums in my lifetime.”

He realises that his goals will not be easily achieved, and he has to build his way up to achieve his ambitions.

“The only way to get to the stars is to walk – there are no rockets,” Lo stated.

Whatever transpires in his career, Lo will always have a positive outlook on life, it seems.

“What is important is not that I have achieved those goals but that I have done everything I can. Success is achieved when you reach a point, looking down from a mountain of achievement and realise you are not on the ground any more. Even if I have not reached my goals, hopefully I can say I came close to it.”

Source : TheStar Online Archives

A New Paradigm Shift to CoffeeShopTalk

Khairy Jamaluddin – The Special K

First of all, do forgive my lousy grammar, punctuation and spelling. I just wanna get the message across to my readers and if they understand everything I wrote, it should be good enough. Somebody from somewhere in the blogosphere (sorry, im just lazy to quote the source, as u can see, I have too many links in my blog) gave this gelaran to KJ, the special K, not Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho as he is the Special One, erm by the way, if im not mistaken, KJ is a Man Utd fan. But im a Liverpool fan! Haha! To readers, may I inform u in advance that this is not an anti-KJ or anti-anybody’s article or blog. This is just an objective review from what I have observed through the mass media in Malaysia and abroad, which includes blogs, international news websites and local forums etc. in fact I do not hate KJ, I admire him for certain things he managed to demonstrate indirectly to those who ‘can pick up the subtle signals’. Anyway in my ‘trilogy’, I said that Khairy has a potential to climb up the political ladder, and I still believe so. Okay, maybe due largely to his father-in-law’s influence as stated in his wikipedia page but that’s not the issue to be discussed now, in fact, that’s kinda normal for any aspiring politician to play ‘pull strings’ tactics to reach the pinnacle of the nation’s administration. Okay, im gonna break this article into paragraphs since ‘freelunch’ suggested me to break articles up so that one need not squint one’s eyes.


The spotlight on Selangor MB

First of all, I wanna talk bout the MB of Selangor. As u all know, he is Khir Toyo and lately he has alwiz been the target of TV3. I mean, why wud a menteri besar who is the ketua BN selangor wud kena from Sri Pentas who is also media kerajaan BN? Sounds weird rite? Obviously sumbody is ‘cucuk-ing’ or ‘poking’ khir toyo (ok I feel its not tat nice to call him Toyol, tats bad ok..ppl shud stop perli other ppl’s name..apparently his dad’s name is joyo but then got mistake when daftar his name..so ended up khir toyo). Anyway tats not important. Wat I wanna stress here is that Media Prima is behind all these, and who is behind Media Prima? Ur right, the special K. hmm..now..put on ur thinking caps, why wud TV3 allow so much exposure on the illegal clearing of virgin forest of selangor only but other states not so much coverage. In fact almost everyday for the past few months or so, sure got news on selangor, be it logging, or sumthing to do wif pollution (JAS Selangor) and a lot of other things which im sure u know better. I read from forum kmu tat the Bulletin Utama TV3 at 8pm even showed on air an interview whereby the resident actually scolded khir toyo ‘pukimak’ but TV3 didn’t censor it, why??!! Isn’t it obvious??

Infighting within UMNO

Yes indeed now we know better and have a clearer picture of why khir toyo is the target. Haha. Hmm..but of coz there is a deep and long history into all these issues. Its not just the surface we see, we must also do a bit more exploration. In fact there are probably many more things which u and I don’t know but well, like I said, this is what I observe and analyse so if anyone of u guys can come up with better or perhaps more accurate stuff, go ahead and leave me comments. Okok, see..deviate again!! Right, the history. Yes, infighting within UMNO. As u can see, during the last UMNO elections, if im not mistaken, PM Abdullah was the incumbent and not challenged and so was DPM Najib. Okay, fair enough but the 3 vice president posts are up for grabs..so the results were Muhyiddin Yassin, Isa Samad and Ali Rustam. (Isa Samad later became the scapegoat for money politics and was removed). Okay, also fair enough la..actually got story about tat la whereby in NSembilan Dato Seri Mohamad bin Hj Hasan who is also KJ’s fren is coming up (b4 this Mohamad was like the director of some Cycle and Carriage company, sell cars like MerzBenz I think)..but tats not our focus. Ok then come to members of supreme council (Majlis Tertinggi UMNO), guess who got the highest vote among the I dunno how many ahli MT’s are there..25 or 26,not sure (eh, I check umno-online.com under organisasi, apparently 37 la)..but guess who?? Yeah, its Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Khir bin Toyo, YAB Menteri Besar Negeri Selangor, who is a dentist by profession. He has the highest votes (by money or by charisma it doesn’t matter) but he has the strongest support among the UMNO youth. He was even once seen to be a challenger to Hishammudin Tun Hussein (currently UMNO youth chief) becoz he’s the president of some belia organization and kind of like got strong akar umbi support but he didn’t bertanding against Hisham for Ketua Pemuda post but terus bertanding post MT.i guess both are Dr M’s men la..so win-win situation ler…hmm...hebat..not bad..now he get the highest vote so at least he can ‘show’ Hisham tat ‘I have the highest votes, man!’ and ‘Hisham, u won uncontested, ha ha, no thrill!’. Sumthing like tat, imagine urselves, this is just my hypothesis. I personally dun quite like Khir coz he seem korup, I studied in shah alam b4 and its very dirty and full of dengue cases and pollution, only the roads leading to istana and the posh places of bungalows are well maintained. Just go to section 16, 17, 18 and 25 and check out the longkang, I think u can see thousands of larva nyamuk and other ‘magnificent’ insects or animals (big rats!!)

New paragraph, haha! So right..khir toyo is put into power by the Old Man, Tun Dr Mahathir. Dr M apparently likes him in person and so he chose Khir to be selangor MB much to everyone’s surprise because he wasn’t in the front line of ppl expected to be MB at tat time. Anyway, he got the job and has been holding it since despite intense pressure from KJ and the gang. KJ has tried all sorts of way to expose Khir’s misdeeds thru TV3 and yet somehow, Khir is still strong. There can be only two possibilities, either he is really strong on the ground or ‘money politics’, well, I give u the benefit of the doubt to decide. Basically, I have a feeling tat KJ thinks KT (huhu, both also start wif K wan..wat a coincidence) is a threat to him or is a menace coz KJ memang dislikes those people brought up under Dr M’s rule. From wat I see, he doesn’t seem to like old farts like Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik, S Samy Vellu, Lim Keng Yaik and others whom he (and yeah, we, the younger generations) believe that its time for them to berundur to give chance to new fresh young blood whatever u call it. There are even rumours that the coming general election, pak lah is going to drop all the old ministers or those align to Dr M and replace wif young faces below 50 yrs old? Is tat possible? We just wait and see wat happens then. Speculate too much also no good. We just observe and analyse. So bottomline, KJ vs KT = intense battleground, to be continued in 07.

The Exchange featuring Dato’ Chua Jui Meng and Khairy Jamaluddin

Remember some time ago these two politicians were guests for TV3’s business program The Exchange? Regardless of whatever ppl’s perceptions are, I still think both of them are good frens. At that time, Chua is going for the MCA Prez Post, a head on battle wif OKT. As u can see, OKT is LLS’s Team A prodigy. CKC is LAL’s Team B prodigy. So that time, following Dr M’s ‘advice’,fuyooo, advise, actually I rather take it as a ‘directive’, who dares to go against Dr M??!! gila ka?? Hantam lu baru tahu..Anwar pun kena ‘black eye’, dun play play man!! So OKT and CKC got their posts today, actually same thing la..different leaders only, still got team A team B la..ok la..maybe not so intense but still got..say only unity..but a split was and is and will be a split. Agree?? Ok, my theory is KJ likes CJM. C’mon, if u dun like a person, who u bring him for a TV3 interview??!! Wud KJ invite Khir Toyo for a TV3 interview to brush off allegations regarding the MB or to discuss anything? Of coz not!!!!!!! So tats wat I think, KJ being a young malay breed of Oxford grad who doesn’t like old farts to stay long long and longer at the helm like LLS who now pass on to OKT, so he dun like team A. so he like team B. and the reason is to shoot up CJM’s popularity. If CJM goes for the interview, it wud be a boost for KJ as well and CJM and seen as ‘CJM being accepted by UMNO’ or sumthing like tat. Smart way of using the media BUT unfortunately, OKT still wins in the end coz majority Chinese dun really watch TV3 wan. They watch other channels like NTV7 and 8TV (more Chinese/Japanese/Korean drama’s ma…hehe)This is another classic more or less about the same example of KJ vs KT issue.

Rumours of meeting between KJ and Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu

I read this from sumwhere. Apparently rumours have it that KJ actually went to meet former CM of penang, Tun Dr Lim. We all know that Dr Lim is a maverick politician who actually developed penang into wat it is today. Most penangites claimed that it was due to Dr Lim and not so much of Dr Koh. Anyway, I think Dr Koh is a bit soft, and as a leader, u shud have charisma..maybe like Anwar..the Chinese type of Anwar. Never mind, at least Dr Koh is a smart Ketua Menteri, a Princeton product and a Mr Nice Guy (another one of coz is PM AAB, also proudly from penang..yeah!! im a penangite ok?! huhu) who starts his speech wif 4 main languages, namely Selamat Sejahtera, Hello, Ni Hau Ma, Vanakkam. Standard ‘unifying’ introduction and yeah, his speech is not bad..perhaps need a bit of boost of fiery substance. Okok, go back to main issue! So KJ asked Tun Lim, what Tun Lim wanna do wif penang since he’s no longer in power, Tun Lim said must build a casino is Pulau Jerjak to attract tourists and of coz gamblers to drive penang’s economy. Coz right now, there is not enough attraction to penang besides the northern beaches but also getting more polluted nowadays. So one of the most effective ways is to open casino, if this news is true, I wud agree wif Tun Dr Lim as well. I mean, look at Genting!! Perfect example, and not S’pore is inviting genting to open another casino in Pulau Sentosa, Uncle Lim and Son are happy happy rite? Can make more business, who dowan la??!! So there was this proposal to buka kasino in penang which of coz was shot down in the end by the PM AAB himself coz it seems tat its not favourable among the Malays and this wud further damage the Islam Hadhari concept put forward by pak lah himself, anyway I dunno the details but it is logical to think of it based on wat I have observed. Anyway, KJ is doing good for our country’s economy la!! (regardless of the commission he masuk but still…jobs will be created and pulau jerjak (PJ) will be like Genting Highlands!! Imagine PJ once used to be a place for ‘leprosy ppl’…why not??!! It is a good idea to make PJ the northern tourist destination for gambling. Kerajaan also can collect cukai from the casino operator, so overall good for economic growth ya?

Media Prima (MP) and Champions League (CL)

Alrite, I think this is the last poragraph for now, but there may be more, if anyone of u like to add or comment. Basically in 2006, the UEFA CL matches were shown on all 4 MP owned stations namely TV3, NTV7, 8TV and Channel9. Now, again, who controls MP? For ur info, MP is alredi the largest media conglomerate in Malaysia now. History has it that whoever controls the media, controls the government machinery and the people’s minds. Last time during Dr M’s rule..where got live football on ALL four channels simultaneously sumore wan?! And KJ being Man U fan? Oh btw, he did admit that ‘saya ni memang gila bola’ when they cakap bola interview after TV3 Nightline some months ago when he was still bandaged due to his fall from a horse sumwhere in Mt Kiara Equestrian Club or so..but he memang hurt his arm and was sent to damansara specialist centre, I think so la..anyway not important..so if all these are true, then Thank You KJ for bringing live football for us, we Malaysians, who cud not afford Astro, speaking of Astro, even Astro also NEVER SHOW all 4 live matches serentak man…espn also kalah…Media Prima hebat..i admit I was impressed..ok..altho some may say they used Astro to show UMNO GA Live wif kerismuddin and all that but dun show live on RTM1 and 2 or even any of the MP channels..ok tats politics alrite..im talking about football now and we sure have KJ to thank for this. Also, now Air Asia is flying high in the sky and they even have a plane called Red Devil..promote habis habis AirAsia kat Old Trafford…now u see.. datuk tony fernandes, a successful CEO, I also think he is KJ’s friend. Whatever it is, thumbs up to MP for showing LIVE ALL MATCHES..THEY SHUD SHOW MORE EPL MATCHES. Probably then nobody wud subscribe to astro alredi..hmm..then kenot also la..coz Maxis’ owner needs to do business also..and a good fren of government leaders. Tan Sri Ananda Krishnan must be frens wif the past and current Prime Ministers in order to sustain a healthy business climate. The bottomline is if u wanna do business in a country, u must have good PR and good rapport wif its leaders. Simple as ABC and 123. Okay, I shall stop!!

Last but not least, there are many other personalities like Datuk Patrick Lim Soo Kit who is called Patrick Badawi by Dr Mahathir. But all these Equine, Monsoon Cup and Batu Kawan development projects have all been highlighted by Raja Petra in Msia Today so im not going into those details..u can read urself. Not to mention MyTeam (more details in Aisehman.org) in Msian Soccer League which is propagated by KJ based on the interview after Nightline which I have mentioned earlier. Okay, thanks for reading, that’s all for now kayz… cheers evribadi!!! I hope u peeps are entertained by what I have written so far. Welcome to my world of “intellectual discourse and constructive criticisms”..hahaha.. btw, I took this phrase from Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, my all time fav charismatic leader. Tun Dr M is my visionary leader. Pak Lah is my ‘Nice Guy’ Leader and KJ is certainly my ‘hero’!! hidup KJ!!! Liverpool v Man U in Final of CL 2007 possible? Haha, I love CL (memang ada standard!!!!)

N.B. Those morons out there pls dun insult other ppl’s name for instance calling Khir Toyo as Khir bin Toyol and Khairy as Beruk Hitam. I mean, there are other more gentle and subtle ways of calling ppl wurt..rite? and M Kayveas used to call Kit Siang and Po Kuan monyet in parliament. That is also a fucked-up thing to do, its insulting the good name of the House!!

Okok…im really gonna FULLSTOP! PERIOD FINISH END END END END END….DOT -_-“

Reasons Why It’s Great To Be Malaysian

in true merdeka spirit of 50 yrs anniversary of Malaysia's independence in the year 2007, here are some reasons why i think it’s awesome being malaysian.

pisang goreng
diversity
bangsar
pasar malams
bulan ramadhan food markets
easy let-offs when committing road crimes
getting a driver’s license is easy
you can be ignorant and no one would think that’s weird
you can speak bad english and no one would think that’s weird
being able to say lah!
open houses
starhill
movies here are released on time
good clubs
good indie music scene
good jazz scene
booming performing arts scene
curry puffs and onde-onde
bargaining
cheap taxi fare
air tebu + coconut flesh
lotsa public holidays
entertaining conflicts between prime ministers
entertaining members of parliament (close one eye ok)
free wifi in starbucks
char siew pau
air asia
we can brag about our totally cool island getaways
as well as the towers that used to be the tallest building in the world
traffic jams that facilitate long conversations
mamaks that open round the clock
teh tarik that does not cost rm3
chatty cabbies
sun and rain
cheap electronic stuff in low yat plaza
pirated dvds
carmen soo
golden screen cinema’s caramel popcorn
KLIA
dear thelma
pretty saris in jalan tar
coliseum
ang pau
cool nights
cameron highlands strawberry milkshake
melting pot of races and cultures
MPH
kit kats hidden in ice cream cones
good raves
petaling street hokkien mee
laidback attitudes
carding is almost unheard of
dota culture
ramli burgers

and many more made-in-malaysia products...

(something cool about malaysians : they know the exact age gap between siti nurhaliza and datuk k, the entire background of datuk k’s previous marriage and even the exact age of his kids from his first marriage.. but they dont know that pluto is no longer a planet. and then when people try to tell them, they dont believe.)

source : Quaintly