Martin Jalleh on Nazri the Incontinent Nazi

NAZRI PLAYS-PLAYS AND POOH-POOHS IN PARLIAMENT!

by Martin Jalleh

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz, has a very long tradition of treating parliament as his personal playground where he proudly leaves a trail of his political pooh behind.

When he fails in an intelligent debate in parliament or when an answer deserts him, leaving him dumb, he dishes out a diatribe, creates a dramatic diversion or distraction, and/or goes into a delirium.

Nazri acts tough, talks and thinks as though he is the PM, or he knows everything, threatens and taunts those who stand up to him, throws a tantrum together with some theatrics when things don’t go his way.

Past and present Speakers or their deputies have always given the Minister full and free access to the House to go into a fit or a frolic or to flaunt his foolishness according to his whim and fancy.

Nazri's rewriting of history on 6 November 2008 adds to the list of growing examples of the Minister treating the House as a place where he “play-plays” by being provocative and pokes fun at serious issues.

He told Parliament that former Lord President Salleh Abas and other senior judges involved in the judicial crisis 20 years ago were not “sacked” but had their "services terminated early". Yet, in September 2006 he had himself taken part in a ‘1988 Judicial Crisis - To review or not?’ forum attended by 1,000 people who had heard him defend the sacking of the judges!

Karpal Singh (right) insisted that action be taken against Nazri for allegedly lying to the House. The latter in a press conference conceded making a mistake, adding he had no intention of misleading the House. But Nazri refused to explain in nor apologise to Parliament, where he first made his infamous revelation. Telling the press would suffice! For the first time, a press conference took precedence over Parliament!

Karpal persisted. Deputy Speaker Wan Junaidi (below, left) waved his wand and everything was back to square one. Gobind Singh told Wan that his decision was very wanting. He got suspended for two days. Nazri get off scot-free – to nurture more nonsense.

Nazri said Gobind was suspended “because he challenged the decision of the speaker. The reason why you don't see us (BN MPs) get suspended is because we don't go against the decision of the speaker". Since when has the Speaker decided against a BN MP over a controversial issue?

Nazri has many fans and followers amongst the BN MPs, the latest being Tajuddin Abdul Rahman (Umno-Pasir Salak, left) whose sexual innuendo remarks in parliament were recently revealed and who called a DAP MP “bloody bastard” but escaped punishment (rings a bell?).

A glance at Nazri’s track record and tales (in italics) – a major part of which I have highlighted before and condensed here below – will show that the Minister overseeing parliamentary affairs has in fact in the recent past mislead and made a mockery of Parliament, with the Chair condoning his monkeying around.

2004: Nazri Bulls and Blunders

May: Suhakam’s report is never meant to be debated in Parliament. Nazri was wrong. It is a legislative requirement for Suhakam, a creation of Parliament, to submit annual reports to Parliament so that its findings can be debated and its recommendations deliberated on.

2005: Nazri Bluffs and Bullies

April: The Cabinet’s plan to form a select committee on water privatization was dropped because the King wanted water privatisation to be in place by the end of the year. Lim Kit Siang (LKS) told Nazri not to drag the King into the issue and added that “…the Royal address is the policy pronouncement of the government of the day”.

April: Bibles in Bahasa Malaysia cannot be circulated in the country as this could be seen as an effort to spread Christianity among the Malays….the prohibition had been in force since Independence and was in line with the Constitution (Star, 13.04.05). A week later the PM said that there was no such ban.

June: Nazri shouted racist and bloody racist at DAP MP M Kula Segaran 41 times. His “racist” fit which the then Speaker deemed fit to allow, was intended to divert attention from a dispute involving two government backbenchers!

Sept: If every issue raised requires a select committee, then perhaps we also need to discuss that former Communist Party of Malaya secretary-general Chin Peng is DAP’s Father of Independence.— This was Nazri’s childish response to LKS’s suggestion of the setting-up of three new Parliamentary Select Committees.

2006: Nazri Barks and Boasts


March: Nazri branded DAP MP Teresa Kok an Islam hater after she questioned the directive that all policewomen must wear the tudung during official parades. Teresa protested. However the then Deputy Speaker merely told the minister that the remark was unnecessary.

June: Nazri told parliament: There is no basis for the allegation of corruption in the judiciary as contained in a letter written by former High Court judge Datuk Syed Ahmad Idid… the case has been investigated by the Government, the ACA and the AG.

Syed Idid replied that the allegations were “never really investigated”. This was confirmed by a former AG Abu Talib Othman who added that “on the other hand, the poor judge who wrote it was investigated”!

July: The presence of foreigners, including those with IMM13 documents, does not cause social, security and economic problems in Sabah. A leader of the Sabah Progressive Party (then a part of the ruling coalition) accused Nazri of being ignorant and said “it would be better for him to keep his mouth shut….”

July: The Government is satisfied with the ACA’s performance. Param Cumaraswamy a former TI Malaysia president pointed out: “It is not the satisfaction of the Government that the ACA is handling its responsibilities effectively that matters. It is the satisfaction of the public that matters most.”

July: The ACA is free to act on its own. In 2003, when he (who was then Entrepreneur Development Minister) was under investigation for corruption, Nazri had said that he would advise the Cabinet to replace the then ACA Investigations Director with whom he had a war of words with!

Sept: You are just jealous because I am standing! – Nazri told wheelchair-bound Karpal Singh who had urged the Deputy Speaker to restrain the minister as he had “gone crazy” by racing through the text of his 80-page winding-up document, refusing to allow any interjections for clarification.

The Deputy Speaker later said that Nazri’s remarks were “improper” – without making a ruling that the remarks be withdrawn!

2007: Nazri Goes Berserk

March: The government is not prepared to study and research current election laws or revamp the Election Commission (EC) because in the past 50 years we have not revamped any ministry. This was Nazri’s response to then EC chairman’s call for an independent commission to oversee changes in the election laws and regulations.

March: I think these NGOs are stupid... We don’t need another system, independent inquiry and all that. Nazri dismissed calls by rights groups for an independent inquiry into the graft and sexual assault allegations against then ACA director-general Zulkipli Mat Noor

And so for the first time in the country’s history we had the police investigating the (then) chief of the ACA and at the same time the ACA investigating the top police officer of the nation -- and the Attorney-General deciding later that both were clean! The whole world was laughing at the government’s stupidity.

April: It's like ants attracted to sugar… Malaysians leave to make money but they will return. You don’t have to press the panic button yet. This was Nazri’s response to LKS’s concern over the alarming migration trend. He forgot that his boss had in 2004 offered a host of incentives to lure an estimated 30,000 of Malaysia ’s graduates working overseas to return home. Pak Lah panicked?

May: Bernard Dompok’s resignation was influenced by Lim Kit Siang. Dompok resigned as the chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Integrity because he had disagreed with Nazri over the committee’s scope of duties. Dompok’s reply to his colleague: “It’s a cheap shot!”

May: “...they should not apologise to Fong or the DAP for their remarks. – Nazri came to the defence of the two MPs who had made sexist remarks following Fong Po Kuan’s observations of leaks in the Parliament building.

June: Singapore is not a real country, it is a small island. Singapore’s population is just three to four million and there are no opportunities for corruption, unlike in our country. Nazri’s inference of larger countries being more prone to corruption and smaller countries being less corrupt was wrong.

June: Malaysia will never develop as long as we have people like Lim (Kit Siang). All these (corruption allegations) are lies. Why are you so stupid? Where are the allegations? You have no brains. Stupid, stupid, stupid...! Nazri turned nasty in a heated exchange with LKS (left).

The then Speaker said that he could not cite Nazri for using unparliamentary language because “such language was used all the time”. Grinning like a school bully having his last say, Nazri added to his string of “stupid” salvoes: "OK, tidak cerdik (not smart) then. It’s like stupid too."

Aug: The then Chief Justice (CJ) Ahmad Fairuz had advocated the abolition of Common Law, and replacing it with an Islamic legal system. Nazri denied on behalf of Fairuz, in Parliament, that Fairuz had made such a proposal. LKS provided Nazri with a newspaper tape transcript as proof. He played down its significance, claiming that the CJ was pressed by reporters to offer his opinion!

Aug: When Karpal Singh revealed the name of a Federal Court judge who had not written judgments in as many as 35 cases (in response to the then CJ’s challenge to show proof) Nazri declared: "The writing of judgments was not the only criterion to promote judges”!

Aug: When the country did not have a Chief Judge for eight months, Nazri insisted that there is no law that says the Chief Justice cannot act as the Chief Judge of Malaya”. The Bar Council showed him that he was wrong!

Aug: There's no need for such a judicial commission (in charge of judicial appointments) as there is no crisis in our judiciary... No crisis, no problems. I don't see any scandal. These are all efforts by the opposition to create distrust and erode public confidence in the judiciary. This was in sharp contrast to Sultan Azlan Shah, who later expressed his grave concern over the “disquiet” about and “serious criticisms” against the judiciary at the 14th Malaysian Law Conference.

Sept: ... the lawyers' march was "unbecoming." (On 26th September, 2,000 lawyers walked to Putrajaya to submit a memorandum on judicial reform to the PM.) It was in sharp contrast to Bar Council president Ambiga Sreenevasan’s statement: “We are walking for justice, we want judicial reform. Lawyers don't walk every day. When lawyers walk, something is wrong.”


Oct: Whistleblowers in the Lingam Tape scandal could be protected under the Witness Protection Bill tabled recently in Parliament. — Nazri later admitted there was no such bill and blamed his press secretary for failing to issue a clarification to the media!

Nov: ... it would be pointless to try and understand the reason behind the rally as the brains of opposition members do not function well…the wires in their heads are severed. I don’t understand why they claim that the EC is unfair.

Nazri was commenting on the march on 10 November of 40,000 people to submit a memorandum calling for electoral reforms to the King. Ironically, a few weeks earlier, Nazri had told opposition MPs in parliament “not to get over-excited about the ‘independence’ of the EC, when it does not exist."

Nov: “Don’t try to drag the King into this. The King and the people are behind us. They (the opposition) are afraid to face the next elections. If you’ve no courage, don’t become a pondan (wimp).” If there is anyone who has tried to make use of the King it is Nazri himself (see above)!


2008: Nazri Brays Brazenly

May: "The government did not order the commission. We merely told them there were concerns about the legal implications and it could create problems later." Nazri blamed the EC for the last-minute decision to cancel the use of indelible ink in the March polls. The then EC chairman had said it was a Cabinet decision.

Nazri also told parliament that no action would be taken against those who had lodged police reports saying that indelible ink was being smuggled into the country during the last general election... because they have believed the rumours they heard were true!

June: The Barisan Nasional Backbenchers Club (BBC) was upset with Nazri for branding it childish and gangster-like for removing a barricade at the Parliament lobby put up to ban reporters from the lobby.

I am expecting the BBC to recommend to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to sack me as a minister. If they dare not do that on Monday, then shut up and don’t talk anymore – Nazri lambasted the BBC chairman.

Oct: The government does not have a problem with setting up the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) but there is “strong evidence” that certain quarters disagreed with the proposal.

Nazri was responding to LKS’s query as to why the IPCMC was not established although the IGP had said that the police would agree if the government insisted on it. When a PAS MP questioned Nazri on who these “certain quarters” were, Nazri evaded the question and took a dig at PAS instead.

Misfortune

It is very obvious that the Minister in the PM’s Department who is also the overseer of parliamentary affairs and the de facto Law Minister, is a misfit in Parliament and an unmitigated mistake to the country.


As a loudmouth and loose cannon, Nazri would no doubt take Bolehland to greater heights in hype, hypocrisy and of course, hysterics and histrionics in Parliament!

The public cannot be blamed for its increasing perception that the Speaker and his deputies have been blind, biased, beholden to the Umno-dominated Government and begging and bending backwards to do its bidding. They have allowed Nazri to get away with impunity whilst appearing to be impartial.

Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz should be included in the posse who will mount up and ride into the sunset together with the soon-to-be-retired PM.

Martin Jalleh
4 November 2008

RPK, Jo Kukathas & Kee Thuan Chye with Riz Khan on Aljazeera

Part One

Part Two

Raja Petra Kamarudin (blogger), Jo Kukathas (actress/director/playwright), and Kee Thuan Chye (actor/playwright/director/editor/author/social commentator) chat with Riz Khan on Aljazeera. Broadcast live on 3 December 2008.

Dean Johns: BN'S LOSE-LOSE SITUATION

I always look forward to what Dean Johns has to say about Malaysian politics - not only because we both seem to have pretty similar views on most subjects - but because he writes fabulously well and never fails to provide a few good chuckles. I'm cloning his latest column for the benefit of those who, for one reason or another, have yet to subscribe to Malaysiakini (Steven Gan, hope you don't mind my doing this for the public good :-)...

BN's lose-lose situation
Dean Johns | Dec 3, 08 10:51am

Since the so-called ‘tsunami’ swept away its two-thirds parliamentary majority and control of five states in the March general election, Barisan Nasional has clearly been faced with the imperative to reform itself or die.


So I’ve been increasingly puzzled to see no sign of improvement. Even Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s single token progressive move, the inclusion of law-reform zealot Zaid Ibrahim in his cabinet, has come to nothing. And populist posturings by minority coalition parties like Gerakan and the PPP have been routinely spurned.

So what’s been BN’s problem that it can’t change even for its own self-preservation? For months I put it down to stupidity, pride and pure bloody-mindedness. But I’m not so sure any more. Now I’m starting to suspect that BN simply doesn’t know which way to turn, as it’s realised that, as damned as it is if it doesn’t reform, it’s equally damned if it does.

If it doesn’t repeal the Internal Security Act (ISA), for example, or at least ‘amend’ the accursed thing as the PPP and MCA are pathetically proposing, the BN government will become even more unpopular.

And if it does do away with the ISA there will surely be more and more vigils, rallies and other public gatherings in protest against the government’s numerous other iniquities.

If it doesn’t stop misusing the Official Secrets Act (OSA) to cover-up its financial finagling and corrupt collusion with crony contractors and government-linked companies, the people will increasingly suspect it of conspiring to defraud them.

And if it does ever decide to go easy on its use of the OSA and behave with more transparency, its activities will be exposed as the can of worms that they evidently are.

And this lose-lose situation applies similarly to reform of any or all other aspects of the Barisan Nasional administration, including the judiciary, the police and the rest of the civil service.

If BN heeds Malaysians’ call for an attorney-general who honours his oath of office and deals with cases without fear or favour, the first case the new AG should bring would be against Gani Patail for tampering with evidence in the 1997 Anwar Ibrahim sodomy trial.

Any new attorney-general worthy of his office would also immediately call a halt to the clearly questionable trial of the Altantuya murder suspects and order a complete re-investigation of the crime, if necessary by Interpol or some other independent, international agency, thereby possibly revealing high-level BN involvement in ordering the killing and trying to conceal it by expunging the victim’s name from immigration records.

Time to listen to the people

If the BN government instituted a truly independent Anti-Corruption Agency, it would trigger investigations of current and former cabinet ministers, hundreds if not thousands of civil servants at all levels, and countless local-government appointees and officers.

Revolutionising the Royal Malaysian Police Force would uncover the reasons for failing to combat the spiraling rates of crime, especially those crimes committed, aided and abetted by the police themselves, ranging from wholesale corruption to deaths in custody and protection of drugs and vice syndicates.

Heeding the people’s call for free media would quickly unleash a storm of fearless investigative reporting of the BN government and its administration, and finally open Malaysians’ incredulous eyes to the appalling state of their "democracy" as a result of half a century of BN misrule.


Free news media would also shed some much-needed light on the true state of the Malaysian economy, which the government continues to claim is healthy, despite the crash in exports and plunges in the prices of commodities including palm oil as a result of the economic recession that’s impacting virtually every other country around the globe.


Reformation of the electoral commission would virtually ensure a victory in the next election for an opposition no longer unfairly disadvantaged by wildly gerrymandered electorates, suspect postal voting, officer-supervised voting by the police and armed services, and highly-suspect electoral rolls.

And of course reform of the elections within BN’s own component parties, like Umno with its notorious and now apparently traditional system of bribery euphemised as "money politics", might bring some new blood and even reformers into positions of influence in the coalition.

So it’s clear that, as poisonous to BN’s prospects as lack of reform will someday surely prove, any genuine reform would very likely be even more damaging to its grip on power, and sooner.

The only hope BN has of staying in power and out of jail a little longer is to keep doing what’s kept Abdullah in the premiership for the past five years: forever promising reform and then failing to deliver.

Though I see that as he waits to succeed Abdullah as PM, Najib Abdul Razak has started work on a strategy of denying that there’s a need for reform. Claiming recently that Malaysia’s crime rates are lower than those of Japan and Hong Kong, he called for a change in public perception of the police force.

The trouble with that concept, however, is that the public perception of Najib is even less positive, if possible, than of the police whose image he’s at pains to try and promote.

In fact many if not a majority of Malaysians see Najib as a living symbol of all they loathe about BN. So that his proposed elevation to the premiership, far from saving BN from its lose-lose situation, will only serve to change things from Abdullah to even worse.

RPK: ISLAM & THE MALAY PSYCHE

Malaysia-Today editor Raja Petra Kamarudin talks about Islam and the Malay psyche at an anti-ISA forum on December 1st, 2008. Raja Petra argues that detention without trial is against Islam but yet many Malays especially those in Umno support the ISA. He also focuses on issues that conflict with Islam but are practised by the hypocritical Umno/BN government.

Bravo, Pete! Simply brilliant lecture, great to see you in such excellent form :-)

Just for laughs, take a look at this video from Malaysiakini showing a bunch of Umno-sponsored pro-ISA protestors who assembled outside the Bar Council even as the Anti-ISA Forum was in progress...


How low can you go, Umno?

[This blogpost was inspired by a visit to Haris Ibrahim's People Parliament where I first viewed the RPK lecture. Thanks, Haris, you're really doing a magnificent job, bro! ]

Happy Blogday, Magick River!

STAY TUNED, FOLKS...




AND THANK YOU FOR THE WONDERFUL SUPPORT!


FROM NOW ON THIS BLOG IS JUST GOING TO GET SEXIER ;-)

A Musical Interlude Amidst The Explosions

"A Hiding Place for the Moon" - an original song by Antoine Dufour on his CD Existence available at http://www.candyrat.com, Amazon, and iTunes.

Antoine Dufour (born in L'Épiphanie, Quebec) is a French-Canadian acoustic guitarist currently signed to CandyRat Records. Dufour started playing guitar at the age of fifteen. He went on to study at the CEGEP in Joliette, where he listened to the music of Leo Kottke, Don Ross, and Michael Hedges at the behest of his teacher. Since then, he has gone on to place second at the 2005 Canadian Guitar Festival's Fingerstyle Guitar Championship and first place in the 2006 competition. He also placed third at the 2006 International Finger Style Guitar Championship in Winfield, Kansas.

Dufour has released three solo albums to date: Naissance, Development, and Existence.

[Discovered this consummate guitarist-composer through pure serendipity!]

WAY TO GO, RPK! :-)

Malaysiakini.tv, 28 Nov 2008

"We're going to give them a hard time, and we're going to send them packing. They have absolutely no case against me. You follow this case, and you watch how we demolish them piece by piece and strip them naked." - Raja Petra Kamarudin

"The only way to deal with the spineless and corrupt is to confront them without hesitation or fear!" - Om B. Udsman

RPK has the last word on FATWAHS!

Raja Petra Kamarudin is no mere journalist. His mental clarity and moral courage effectively make him the Conscience of the Nation. In his youth he may have been a bit of a hotheaded hellraiser but today, at the mature age of 58, he has come fully into his own as a Community Elder - somebody whose advice and opinion is well worth considering. With the added bonus of his royal pedigree, which adds a certain amount of clout to his proclamations, RPK's perspective on issues that concern the nation cannot be taken lightly, ignored, or suppressed (as the home minister and attorney-general are desperately trying to accomplish on behalf of their boss, Mr Pink Lips of "I never met the Mongolian woman" fame). Today on NO HOLDS BARRED, RPK presents his level-headed, no-nonsense view on the National Fatwa Council and their compulsion to fatuously fatwa the most trivial matters, blatantly ignoring what's truly important for the continued well-being and future health of the Ummah...

Raja Petra Kamarudin | FATWAHS GALORE

In time, these great Islamic empires became so corrupt that they eventually disappeared from the face of this earth. What we see in the Middle East today is the residual of the once great Islamic empire from the Golden Age of Islam.

Aiyah, so many people phoned me to ask why I have not written about the current fatwah controversy. People seem to have the impression that it is my duty to talk about everything under the sun. I think enough people, right up to the Sultans and Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, have touched on the matter. Do you really need me to also offer my two cents worth?

I suppose I can’t run away from my ‘duty’ of also whacking the issue seeing that I have been ‘officially’ labelled as an insulter of Islam. People just expect me to put my foot in my mouth on any issue involving Islam. Anyway, here goes.

I have no problems with the Fatwah Council or religious bodies coming out with fatwahs. It is not like anyone would follow them anyway. It is just an exercise in hot air as far as I am concerned. I mean, take the many ‘fatwahs’ already passed by God and cemented in the Quran for eternity. Do Muslims really take heed over what has been forbidden by God?

I remember a talk that Sheikh Imran Hosein once gave in Kuala Lumpur about ten years ago on the subject matter of riba' or usury. We published his lecture into a booklet and distributed it free to all and sundry.

Sheikh Imran said that, according to the Prophet Muhammad, there are 80 levels of usury, bribery being just one of them. And the sin of the lowest level of all, said Sheikh Imran, tantamount to the sin of sexual intercourse with your own parent.

Can you imagine yourself having sex with your father or mother? Well, the sin of the lowest level usury is the same as the sin of sex with your own father and mother. And bribery is not the lowest level yet. So the sin of bribery certainly ranks higher than the sin of sex with your own mother or father.

Is there a fatwah on bribery? Do you even need a fatwah from the Fatwah Council or any religious body when God has already issued His ‘fatwah’? A man-made fatwah would be unnecessary and redundant. A fatwah can never make bribery more haram than it already is. And that is probably why no one sees the need for coming out with another fatwah.

But this does not stop Muslims from taking bribes. Considering that more than 90% of Malaysia’s civil servants are Muslims, and bribery is most rampant amongst the civil service, this would mean the Muslims are the most corrupt lot, at least as far as Malaysia is concerned.

Look at Umno. Even Tun Dr Mahathir laments about corruption in Umno. They call it ‘money politics,’ of course, but this is just corruption by another name. And are not all Umno members Muslims (except for maybe some from Sabah)? Umno is actually very concerned about the matter and can’t quite figure out what to do. Even the most corrupted Umno leaders are concerned about it. When the crooks worry about the spiralling crime rate then rest assured the problem is very serious indeed.

Sure, ban yoga for all I care. After all I do not do yoga and it does not really affect me personally. Even ban lipstick and high heels as well if that makes us more Islamic. Have separate checkout counters for men and women and ‘his’ and ‘her’ swimming pools. These, to me, are small potatoes. But while we are at it can we also issue fatwahs and ban the more serious practices that ail the Muslim community? Can we ban corruption?

I don’t see how yoga, lipstick and high heels can weaken the ummah (community). I don’t think Muslims will convert to Hinduism or Christianity because of yoga, lipstick and high heels. But corruption can destroy the ummah. And most Islamic communities have collapsed because of corruption.

Muslims are fond of talking about the ‘Golden Age of Islam.’ Yes, at one time, Islam was a great empire. But it no longer is. And why is that? In time, these great Islamic empires became so corrupt that they eventually disappeared from the face of this earth. What we see in the Middle East today is the residual of the once great Islamic empire from the Golden Age of Islam.

And that is why the 'fatwah' from God, as related by the Prophet, says that bribery is one of the 80 levels of riba’ and the sin of the lowest level of riba’ tantamount to the sin of sex with your own parent. And this is more disastrous than yoga, lipstick or high heels.

Muslims have to get their priorities straight. Sure, come out with fatwahs if need be. But let these fatwahs be about what really ails us and not about some minor issue that was not really a danger to the ummah in the first place.

Armain Carlier, my one-time business contact from Schlumberger, related a story about how he went to Iran many years after the Iranian Revolution. He was there to visit their partner and to see how their joint-venture factory was getting along. It had been years since anyone from Schlumberger had visited Iran and they did not know even if the business was still in operation.

He was surprised when their Iranian partner handed him a cheque for the profits they had made over all those years. He thought the factory no longer existed, let alone was still making a profit. And he never expected Schlumberger’s Iranian partner to be so honest as to hand Schlumberger’s share of the profits over to him.

Carlier was so impressed and said that Islam must be a great religion if its people can be so honest. Yes, that is the example of an un-corrupt Muslim, which impressed even a non-Muslim like Carlier. And this should be the target of the Fatwah Council and religious bodies, to indoctrinate Muslims into becoming honest and un-corrupt.

So carry on fatwahing. I have no problems with that. It is just that maybe we should put yoga, lipstick and high heels way at the bottom of the list of items to be banned. Corruption should be the first target. That hurts us more than yoga, lipstick and high heels. That was what saw the end of the Islamic empire. That was what caused the extinction of the Golden Age of Islam.

And this fatwah fiasco has raised another problem. It has set the Rulers and religious authorities on a collision course. Will we now see a turf war between the Rulers and the religious authorities?

The outcome of all this is going to see one party embarrassed, either the Rulers or the religious authorities. And would this not be embarrassing for the Malays as well? And, in the meantime, corruption prevails. It is getting from bad to worse. And no one wants to come out with a fatwah on this.

THOU SHALT NOT YOGA? Whaddafatwa...... is this the Umno Inquisition?

Walksi just posted a side-splitting brain-gratifying analysis of the national fatwa epidemic. I suggest you read it at his blog, myAsylum.

Having viewed this classic Monty Python skit Walksi posted, I just had to treat myself to a few more - and do you the favor of providing a YouTube link where you can spend a very flatulent afternoon revisiting some unforgettable moments in Advanced Pythonology.

And just for good measure, I feel it's high time Malaysia had its own Ministry of Silly Walks...

Thank you, Hindraf, for Makkal Sakthi!

LET'S MAKE IT HAPPEN!

[Images collected from various sources. 14 April Freedom Rally pics courtesy of TV Smith]

THE SAD SAGA OF RAJESWARI MURUGIAH: view this powerful short documentary on a Malaysian citizen who was wrongfully detained for 11 months because she lost her identity card and couldn't recall the number. From Malaysiakini.tv, 24 Nov 2008