UMNO'S HOUSE OF HORRORS (Part Two)

SHAHRIZAT LAUNCHES A MAMAK-STYLE JIHAD!

From Malaysiakini: "Wanita Umno has reportedly declared a "jihad" or holy war to prevent opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim returning to Parliament in a by-election this month.

"It is a jihad because this individual should not be given the chance to destroy the country's political stability and prosperity," women's wing deputy chief Shahrizat Abdul Jalil said, according to The Star newspaper.

Shahrizat, a former cabinet minister, lost her seat in Parliament to Anwar's daughter Nurul Izzah in landmark March elections that handed the opposition unprecedented gains against the ruling coalition.

"If we allow him to lead the country, he would lead us to destruction," she said as she launched the women's wing campaign for the Aug 26 by-election in Anwar's home state of Penang.

Oh, Shahrizat, Shahrizat! It saddens me to hear you say such horrible, wicked things about my esteemed friend Anwar Ibrahim. The only time I recall meeting you was at the launch of the last KL International Litfest. Remember what I told you? "Shahrizat, you're the only BN minister I don't mind being photographed next to!" I thought you were intelligent and charming and your kids were beautiful and friendly. But how I can maintain those positive feelings towards you now that you've revealed your true colors? You're just another corrupt and misguided Umno hypocrite. If you had any foresight or wisdom you would have quietly hopped over by now, instead of going down with the KD Umnoputra. I know Abdullah Badawi was very nice to you after you lost your parliamentary seat to Anwar's astoundingly attractive daughter, Nurul Izzah - he kept you on the Umno payroll and made sure you still earned a big fat salary as Ng Yen Yen's stand-in.

It's quite clear now you're only in politics for the money and false glamor. If you were sincere about serving the rakyat you'd have considered joining DAP, PKR, or even PAS! Umno is the party that has very nearly destroyed Malaysia through systemic corruption, unmitigated greed and total abuse of power - and a large portion of the credit for that goes to your Supermamak former PM!

Those of us whose perceptions haven't been clouded by BN's sleazy largesse view Anwar Ibrahim as the nation's best hope at this juncture for genuine reform. There isn't a single Umno politician we can trust to do what's required. 

Zaid Ibrahim made a feeble attempt to overhaul the judiciary and was instantly shot down by his Umno colleagues. Shahrir Samad no longer inspires at all. Indeed, Shahrir is now the Umno ghost that talks utter cock which nobody even bothers to quote. You were perhaps the last hope for Umno - and now you've blown it with your despicable misuse of the word "jihad"! It reveals how shallow, self-serving and narrow-minded your understanding of Islam actually is.

Well, the upside of it all is that we can now torpedo the Umno flagship without having to worry about collateral damage - because the sinking vessel is transporting nothing but soiled goods anyhow.

Action stations! Fire one! Fire two! Fire three!

[First posted 16 August 2008]

Rafizi Ramli ~ A shining star in the fast-changing firmament of Malaysian politics

I don't particularly like attending weddings and funerals, even though I appreciate that these are significant rites of passage for most humans. All non-human life-forms generally mate and expire without undue ceremony - and I prefer to align myself with non-human life-forms, simply because I don't detect too much hypocrisy and pretense among them.

Some wedding invitations I cannot refuse, for various reasons - and there are times when one is compelled to formally send off a beloved friend or relative on his or her further adventures. Well, one of the rare weddings I did attend last October was when my dear friend Fi-Sha married Rafizi Ramli.

I had met Fi-Sha during the Hulu Selangor by-election in April 2010 when she came to KKB to observe the proceedings. It was an instant soul connection between us. I found her beautiful and honest beyond words and completely uncontaminated in essence. We chatted often via email, SMS and facebook, and enjoyed a long chat over tea after an evening at the theatre. Her openness, empathy and vulnerability were not only endearing but made me feel very protective towards her. So when she announced that she was engaged, I felt compelled to run a check on her future mate.

PKR director of strategy Rafizi Ramli

One look at Rafizi Ramli's face was all it took to convince me that theirs was destined to be a very auspicious union - one that would ultimately influence the future of Malaysia in a truly positive way. My instincts were confirmed when I finally met Rafizi Ramli on his wedding day and congratulated him on his exquisite taste in women. I also met members of both families and found them perfectly charming and befriendable - the sort of authentic, uncorrupted Malaysians with core values intact who would do their country proud simply by being themselves.

Fi-Sha and Fizi (as she calls him) looked absolutely resplendent at the wedding reception - a very homely and modest affair attended by close friends and family. I whispered to Fi-Sha: "Now you're in for it. One of these days your hubby will be a key figure in the new government, and you'll have your work cut out keeping him grounded, sane and on track."

Disgraced Wanita Umno Chief
Shahrizat Abdul Jalil

It didn't take long for Rafizi Ramli to hit the headlines. His spectacular exposé of the grotesque and almost comical RM250 million National Feedlot Corporation fiasco involving Wanita Umno chief Shahrizat Abdul Jalil and her immediate family gripped the attention of the entire country - and Rafizi's calm and lucid revelations presented over a series of well-attended media conferences lent his shocking accusations irrefutable credibility.

Malaysians have almost become unshockable when it comes to political scandals. What gave an incisive edge to Rafizi's investigation into the NFC scam was the thoroughness and detail of his probe. Of course, a whistleblower or two was involved - otherwise it would have been well-nigh impossible to produce incontrovertible documentary evidence of such shameless financial wrongdoing.

In the following weeks and months it appeared that Rafizi Ramli was on a roll and rapidly warming to his new-found role as Umno's can (of worms) opener. Even as BN was forced to make a big show of arresting and charging Shahrizat's husband Mohamad Salleh Ismail with multiple counts of CBT and misappropriation of funds, Rafizi launched a full-frontal assault on the biggest target of all - crime minister Najib Razak himself who, doubling as finance minister, was shown to have personally manipulated the outcome of an "open tender" exercise in favor of a golfing crony's bid.

Needless to say, BN's knee-jerk reaction was to order Rafizi Ramli arrested on a spurious charge of breaking some banking secrecy law. This is akin to arresting a kid for unlawfully peeping through a keyhole (and infringing on some minister's privacy) when he reports a brutal murder in the bedroom. In this instance, a murder was committed, for sure - the cold-blooded murder of the public's confidence in the BN regime.

Umno crime minister & finance minister(!)
Najib Abdul Razak

By heavy-handedly tampering with routine administrative procedures to ensure that public projects are competently, effiiciently, cost-effectively and - most importantly, safely - implemented, Najib Razak and his cohorts in crime are not only committing massive fraud, they are also endangering the lives of commuters by allowing a dishonest and inexperienced operator to engineer and construct a railway extension at grotesquely inflated cost.

Almost overnight, Rafizi Ramli has joined the ranks of the most electable young candidates in Malaysian politics. My heartiest congratulations and thanks, Fizi!

Once more with feeling... ABU!

ATOM HEART MOTHER ~ Pink Floyd (Farewell, Shahrizat!)

Atom Heart Mother is the fifth studio album by English progressive rock band Pink Floyd, released in 1970 by Harvest and EMI Records in the United Kingdom and Harvest and Capitol in the United States. It was recorded at Abbey Road Studios, London, England, and reached number one in the United Kingdom, and number 55 in the United States charts, and went gold in the U.S. in March 1994. A re-mastered CD was released in 1994 in the UK, and in 1995 in the US.

This was the first Pink Floyd album to be specially mixed for 4-channel quadraphonic sound as well as conventional 2-channel stereo. The SQ quadraphonic mix was released on LP in a matrix format compatible with standard stereo record players. There was also a release of the quadraphonic version in the UK in fully discrete 4-channel form on the "Quad-8" format, a 4-channel variant of the stereo 8-track tape cartridge.

The original album cover, designed by art collective Hipgnosis, shows a cow standing in a pasture with no text nor any other clue as to what might be on the record. Some later editions have the title and artist name added to the cover. This concept was the group's reaction to the psychedelic space rock imagery associated with Pink Floyd at the time of the album's release; the band wanted to explore all sorts of music without being limited to a particular image or style of performance. They thus requested that their new album had "something plain" on the cover, which ended up being the image of the cow.

Storm Thorgerson, inspired by Andy Warhol's famous "cow-wallpaper," has said that he simply drove out into a rural area near Potters Bar and photographed the first cow he saw. The cow's owner identified her name as "Lulubelle III."

[Source: Wikipedia]