Those who wield the ISA are the REAL terrorists! (reprise)

"Prisoner of War" - courtesy of Capt. Mike McGrath, USN (Ret.)

IT's INCOMPREHENSIBLE to me why anybody in their right mind and senses would endorse a piece of legislation as abominable, barbaric, cruel, and patently tyrannical as the Internal Security Act 1960.

According to Wikipedia, the original Emergency Regulations Ordinance 1948 was enacted "following the proclamation of an emergency by British High Commissioner Sir Edward Gent. It allowed the detention of persons for any period not exceeding one year. The 1948 ordinance was primarily made to counter acts of violence and, conceivably, preventive detention was meant to be temporary in application. The emergency ended in 1960 and with it ended the powers contained in that ordinance... The power of preventive detention was, however, not relinquished and, in fact, became an embedded feature of Malaysian law."

"Solitary Confinement" - courtesy of the Burlington County Prison Museum

In the first place, you can't arrest, torture, imprison or destroy an idea or vision - and those are the most dangerous threats to the status quo. You can arrest, beat up, attempt to brainwash, or burn at the stake someone who speaks of freedom, justice and truth - but his or her ideas will remain elusive, floating around freely in the collective psyche, ready to infect any number of human agents, regardless of artificial boundaries, beyond the confines of space and time.


The most you can achieve - if you happen to be an egoically insecure, pathologically paranoid, and pathetically ham-handed panjandrum (someone like Lord Farquaard in Shrek, perhaps, or Hishammuddin Hussein the Malaysian home minister) - is to force the subversive idea underground, where it will hibernate during the long winter of public discontent, only to germinate anew at the first signs of spring. And, because ideas are deathless and indestructible, and totally unbound by spacetime considerations, they invariably triumph over those who desperately cling to power and privilege.

Let's deconstruct the flabby reasoning that underpins the wicked and repugnant ISA.


The British Military Administration of Malaya found itself at odds with the Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA) at the end of the Japanese Occupation in September 1945. The MPAJA consisted mostly of hardcore members of the Malayan Communist Party (MCP) which had been on the scene, though not legally recognized, since 1930. Taking its cue from the Singapore-based Nanyang Community Party, the MCP's operational front was linked with the growth of trade unions. When the British refused MCP members who had fought a guerrilla war against the Japanese a well-deserved political stake in Malaya, the MPAJA became the Malayan People's Anti-British Army (MPABA) and continued their armed struggle, this time against the British Military Administration. That was when the Emergency Regulations Ordinance was introduced, which later became the Internal Security Act.

The Communist bogeyman was a Frankenstein's monster created in the secret laboratory of the New World Order Illuminati - an elite cabal of high-ranking Freemasons who, for centuries, have plotted totalitarian control of the planet and all her inhabitants by staking out monopolies on energy, mass media, education and religious indoctrination via mafia-like control of national governments.

Just as parents are in the habit of using scare tactics to control their kids' behavior, invisible governments have always relied on the formula whereby they create a problem that causes the masses to react in fear; and then offer the solution "for their own protection." For a classic study of this devious methodology, research Operation Gladio. More recently, the 9/11 atrocities served as a cover for the oligarchs to step up and accelerate the New World Order project.

The proverbial man-in-the-street is deliberately kept too busy dodging potholes, bad drivers, snatch thieves and collapsing banks to take time out, climb a hill, look around, and see the big picture. So, for generations, we have been told to watch out for those evil Communists. Now that the Soviet Union no longer exists and China has become more capitalist-than-thou, the puppet masters have come up with a convenient new bogeyman - the Islamofascist Terrorist! In Malaysia, we have an even scarier bogeyman called the Anwarista - somebody determined to remove Umno from power and implement genuine reforms!

HOW DOES ONE CREATE A BOGEYMAN?

First you pick a bunch of oppressed and underprivileged youth. They could be underpaid migrant workers or slum kids from broken homes or hotheaded young fanatics from a religious school with a huge chip on their shoulder. Then you recruit them, feed them well, and convince them the only way they will ever see justice in this world is through violence and armed revolution - and those who get killed fighting for their religion go directly to heaven. (Problem is, this sort of bogeyman won't cut it in Malaysia - so our local version is invariably "a threat to stability and national security" because he or she insists on organizing "illegal assemblies," forcing the police to set up roadblocks and teargas the protestors, which causes tempers to rise and is generally bad for the economy, not to mention "Malaysia's image.")

Some say the most successful recruiters for Palestinian suicide bombers happen to be Mossad agents who speak fluent Arabic and pose as jihad leaders linked with Al Qaeda (which is itself a bogeyman created and sponsored by the CIA).

In effect, the bogeyman serves one essential purpose: to disempower people through their own fear. And why would anyone wish to disempower the rakyat? Very simple: it's so much easier to steal from right under the noses of a fear-enfeebled rakyat, trembling in its own soiled pajamas. With enough control of the mass media, any government with larcenous intentions can put their victims into a hypnotic trance, paralyzed and powerless to act or retaliate while those in high office steal their children's futures. Indonesian housebreakers and robbers employ a low-tech version of this technique - they call it pukau.

I believe it was Osho (the erstwhile Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh) who remarked that Capitalism and Communism are two ends of the same stick. To begin with, if you have no capital, what are you going to share with your neighbors? So, just like breathing in, we must go through a capitalist phase wherein we accumulate energy, knowledge, knowhow - and then, just like breathing out, we share it with our community - and from the word "community" comes the word "communist." So what's the big quarrel between Capitalism and Communism? A mere distraction from the psychic warfare that continues to rage between Prometheus the Titan and Zeus the Olympian (known to the Hebrews as Yahweh and to the Romans as Jove).

Here's an interesting footnote on Prometheus extracted from my book TANAH TUJUH: Close Encounters with the Temuan Mythos:

Prometheus: in Greek mythology a first-generation god (or Titan) of Fire and Intellect, who returned the gift of Fire to Mankind (which Zeus the second-generation Olympian had withheld) - and for that was chained to a rock and his liver devoured by an eagle every day. Every night, the liver would regenerate and Prometheus would come back to life, only to have the eagle eat his liver all over again, and so on, ad infinitum.

(It's less gory, but a lot scarier, when you approach this mythic morsel as a giant metaphor for compulsory reincarnation: Prometheus is the Soul, the rock is the physical world, the liver represents a lifetime, and the eagle is the emblem of Higher Authority or Spiritual Law. As a symbol, the eagle is interchangeable with the Indonesian garuda, the Chinese phoenix, the Mexican quetzal, or the Russian firebird, which represents Eternal Return. And Prometheus, the Fire-Bringer, is often identified with Lucifer, the Light-Bringer.) From the 'Management' point of view, Prometheus is a subversive element - but 'Labor' would see him as a cult hero, a freedom fighter, a System-bucking Little Red Robin Hood...

What happens to Capitalists who decide they've "worked hard" for their wealth and refuse to reinvest it in their own communities, preferring to hoard it all in Swiss banks and offshore accounts? Well, too much of a good thing invariably turns toxic and corrupts the soul. So be warned, all you Rockefellers, Rothschilds, and nouveau-riche Umnoputera: an excess of power, wealth and privilege will definitely be the death of you - and all the nasty laws you use to keep the rakyat fearful and ignorant.

[First published on this blog 12 November 2008]

Mei's excellent letter to Malaysiakini

This letter from a Malaysiakini subscriber named Mei was published August 7th, 2009. I think it deservcs as wide an audience as possible...


POLITICS OF FEAR WON'T WORK ANYMORE

I read with utter disgust that the BN government is considering net censorship. Isn't this absolutely contrary to the commitment that Mahathir gave when he was trying to lure investors into the MMSC?

The man is not even dead and you are telling me that his word is not even worth the paper he has put his pen to? And why? Because we cannot have full-blown democracy?

Look, you are either a democracy or you are not - you cannot do democracy half-way. If you are a dictator, or aspiring to take the country to such lows, at least have the guts to admit that and not hide behind rubbish like we need to be protected from ourselves.

We are 52 years old, not 12! If the memory of the bloody 1969 racial riots WAS strong in Malaysia, it is because the BN government wanted it that way, they deliberately kept it that way and milked it for as long as they could.

They encouraged the rakyat to remain fearful and mystified because they know that in making the facts known, they will not be able to hold it over the rakyat any more.

I grew up in the midst of the "riots" and whilst I remember them and I know of families who have lost family members, the fear lingered only for as long as the facts behind them remained unknown.

Now that the mystery has been removed, a lot of that fear is gone and I'm better able to relate to and learn from it - you fear the unknown, you learn to deal with the known.

The need to preserve peace between the races commonly invoked by the government? It is the government that is driving the wedge between the races.

I spent my childhood under a government whom, I think, really had the good of the nation at heart, under leaders who really did love us, and the country, in a way.

I grew up in the era where we - my Malay, Indian and Chinese friends - were truly friends and we did things together, we lived together, we played together, we ran the hills together, we snatched at fallen durians together, we ate together, albeit from our different plates because we knew enough about each other to be aware of and respect our differences, and we were not pre-occupied with looking for these but rather our commonalities and most of all, we did not spend the days tottering at the edge of suspicion and always trying to second-guess each other.


The country must survive? Aren't BN getting a little presumptuous here? This has nothing to do with the survival of the country but everything to do with the survival of BN and the BN is NOT the country!


The country will survive, there will be life after BN - probably a better one than what we have now and if we don't give it a go, we would never know, would we?

IBRAHIM, THANKS FOR PRODUCING SUCH FINE OFFSPRING!

[From Aljazeera]

My 1-minute review:

Khairy was his usual arrogant, overbearing, smug, cold-blooded and utterly obnoxious self.

Denison came across as sympathetic and reasonable but totally impotent.

Zaid is looking better and better by the minute. Let's be thankful for some clarity, compassion and genuine intelligence in our midst.

Fauziah Ibrahim is simply SMASHING! What a woman... WOW!!!

The Rabid Face of a Fucking Inquisitor

Hasan Ali, Selangor PAS Commissioner

SELANGOR PAS: BAN ALCOHOL IN MUSLIM AREAS
Malaysiakini | August 4, 2009 | 1:57pm

Selangor PAS wants the Pakatan Rakyat state government to implement a blanket ban on the sale of alcohol in all Muslim-majority areas.

Speaking at a press conference in Shah Alam, Selangor PAS commissioner Hasan Ali said the proposed ban will only concern Muslims and not impinge on the right of non-Muslims to consume alcohol.

Asked if the move would be unfair to non-Muslims living in Muslim-majority areas, the PAS leader said they would just have to travel further to get the beverages.

Hasan also called on the state government to switch the portfolio of DAP exco member Ronnie Liu, who has "meddled in Islamic affairs."

He said Liu, who oversees local councils, had misunderstood the ban and therefore overstepped his jurisdiction.

"We are disappointed when certain quarters intervene in our initiatives to control the sale of alcohol among Muslims," he added. [Source: Malaysiakini]


Hasan Ali could be Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, Christian... any religion at all, makes no difference whatsoever. He would still be a Goddam Red-Faced Control Freak, hellbent on minding other people's business. Because that's how he gets his rocks off - exercising power over others.

People like Hasan Ali have long been a scourge on human freedom and joy. To call them Wet Blankets or Spoilsports is too lame. Anal Retentives comes a bit closer. People like Hasan Ali are busting full of shit because their anuses are waaaaay too tight for anything to pass through except noxious gases.

I don't drink (well, very rarely anyway). If alcohol were to vanish off the face of the earth, I wouldn't notice. So this rant has nothing to do with defending the rights of those who enjoy a beer or two - or even a whole bottle of whisky. I'm just cheesed off that idiots like Hasan Ali are allowed to bring everybody down with their toxic hypocritical crap. It's evolutionary retards like him who sit in judgment of unmarried mothers and young lovers caught in the bushes by the fiendish religious police (what an absolute contradiction of terms!)

Hoy, Hasan Ali! Go ahead and believe whatever you like... but please keep your repugnant beliefs to yourself, instead of trying to ram them down everybody else's throats like some asinine Ayatollah.

Why don't you return to Umno and team up with your mentor, the jerk with two Muhammads in his name? You'd be doing us all a big favor, especially PAS.

I strongly suspect you're an Umno undercover agent and saboteur. The Pakatan Rakyat state government is busy fighting off scurrilous attacks led by Najib and Khir. You couldn't have picked a worse moment to spread more anxiety and suspicion amongst the non-Malay voters that PAS, just like Umno, is incapable of change. With "friends" like you and Ibrahim Ali and that silly Zul Noordin, who needs political enemies?

Folks like you will NEVER - I repeat, NEVER - make it through the frequency gates of paradise. Because the only talent you possess is to create a living hell on earth.

With apologies to the late Frank Zappa: "Heya, Hasan! Stick a finger up your ass and sniff it for Harry Belafonte!"

COULD THIS BE YOU? (reprise)

Who is this faceless person? He or she is someone who's inclined to remark:

"I make it a point to remain neutral, I steer clear of politics, don't believe in getting involved. Anyway, politics is a dirty game and politicians are all the same, you can't trust them!"

If you do a little probing you'll discover that this faceless person just happens to work in his or her father's construction firm, which recently secured a RM288 million contract from the education ministry to build six new primary schools.

Or perhaps he or she recently took out a loan to puchase a RM6 million home in an exclusive suburb and really cannot afford to be edged out of a prestigious RM750,000 a year job as regional investment manager of a bank with close family ties to the finance minister. Besides, it would take another 30 months to finalize payments on the Ferrari which, unfortunately, spends too much time adorning the front porch.

The faceless one could also be an ambitious filmmaker who recently submitted a synopsis for a spectacular RM15-million docufeature on Vision 2020 and is awaiting the green light from the PM's department to begin storyboarding the project - with a juicy RM5 million advance.


In effect, any of the hypothetical situations I outlined above would be sufficient reason to NOT rock the boat of business-as-usual and wish for regime change - unless, of course, it's the gradual variety and takes another couple of generations to materialize (which, I suppose, is more than enough time for some folks to grab everything they can and skedaddle out of here).

Having given the matter a fair amount of thought, I've concluded that those who support the Status Quo must somehow have learnt to filter out "inconvenient truths" that might cause them to feel some unease about propping up a cruel and criminal administration.

The first "inconvenient truth" that comes to mind about the Umno/BN regime is its insistence on heavy-handed policing of political dissent via a plethora of archaic and repressive laws - the most medievally grotesque being, of course, the Internal Security Act.

It would appear that those who continue to endorse the ISA do so out of fear - mainly, fear of losing access to ill-gotten gains which translates as "special privileges" and "racial supremacy."

Such a stance is absolutely unjustifiable and reveals abysmal upbringing and hooliganistic attitudes. It cannot and must not be tolerated - or the result will be precisely the terrible situation we are in right now.

It's positively obscene that 13 months after Anwar Ibrahim lodged a formal complaint against the Attorney-General and the Inspector General of Police with the Anti-Corruption Agency, both these men are still holding their posts.* They really ought to be made to take temporary leave of absence to facilitate thorough investigations into the very serious charges they face, namely, falsifying and fabricating evidence with which to convict Anwar Ibrahim in 1998 of sodomy charges. The fact that the PM and the entire Cabinet have kept mum about this scandalous state of affairs speaks volumes about their complicity in serious criminal abuse of power.

[*In March 2009 it was announced in Parliament that the ACA, newly incorporated as the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission, had cleared both Musa Hassan and Gani Patail of falsifying evidence during the 1998 Anwar trial. In the light - or darkness - of recent traumatic events, I doubt anybody will believe anything the MACC says!]

Wherever one goes in Malaysia, the coffeeshop talk indicates that more than 90% of the population are unhappy with how the Altantuya murder trial has been misconducted from the outset - especially at the investigation stage.

Clearly, the entire government is in collusion on the cover-up - and we can only speculate that this is because many shared in the colossal "commissions" paid out to private companies every time the erstwhile defence minister went shopping for new equipment and ordnance.

Police harassment and intimidation of candlelight vigilers demanding abolition of the ISA; the arrest of a small group of citizens (including a 6-year-old girl) who were merely attempting to present a greeting card to the prime minister; and the more recent debacle involving a cycling campaign to publicize social injustices put the Royal Malaysian Police in a pathetic and despicable light. Under IGP Musa Hassan's questionable leadership, the police force has descended to the absolute nadir of its credibility, integrity and professionalism.

It appears that the police have been instructed to stoke public resentment till it erupts into street violence - which would be exactly the pretext Umno/BN needs to introduce rule by jackboots, truncheons, teargas and mass detention without trial.

When the CIA sponsored the 1973 rightwing coup in Chile that caused popularly elected socialist president Salvador Allende to be assassinated in his office, what followed was 17 nightmare years of rule by fear during which more than 2,200 people died at the hands of Augusto Pinochet's secret police and at least 30,000 were tortured.

We certainly do not wish such a tragic scenario upon ourselves. And that is why we cannot allow anybody who endorses tyrannical laws like the ISA, the Publications and Printing Presses Act, and so on, to continue holding power.

If you happen to be in business, do everything you can to avoid getting entangled financially and immorally with the Umno/BN regime. If one of your parents happens to be engaged in dubious business deals with the evil Umno/BN empire, speak your mind fearlessly; tell them what they are doing today is actually destroying the future for you and that you are shocked by their apparent lack of ethical principles. Have the moral courage to reject any further financial help from them and declare that you would rather live honestly on less than endure the degradation of your spirit.


To all senior police officers in PDRM: I strongly advise you to withdraw your support from a morally deformed power structure. My friend Johnny Goh was due for promotion within the Special Branch in 1998; but, disgusted with what he saw around him, he wisely opted for early retirement. With his savings, Johnny started a modest stationery business. Today, Johnny and his beautiful family are thriving well and he has also taken on the job of Commissioner of Oaths - a responsibility he carries out with dignity, integrity and in the spirit of community service. You can tell at once by looking at him that Johnny Goh is a man at peace with his conscience - because he made the right decision at a time when a tyrant was actively corrupting a large section of the police force to serve his own devious agenda.

Even if it means making do with less for a while, your conscious decision to cease cooperating with evil and tyranny will stand you in good stead after the fall of the Umno/BN regime - which will occur much sooner than anyone might dare expect. Those who choose to make a stand NOW for what they feel is right will be marked as honorable individuals deserving of leadership positions in the overhauled and restructured police force.

The rest who spinelessly carry out orders they know are detrimental to their own pride in their profession will find that when the wheel of fortune turns - as it must and very soon too - they shall find themselves at the end of the line where they will no doubt be given a chance to begin anew... but from scratch!

[First published on this blog 17 December 2008]

THE INEVITABLE DISSOLUTION OF A CORRUPT AND EVIL REGIME...

Mother Earth is rapidly ascending to a subtler level of atomic frequency and will NOT support any lifeform that is not in its full integrity.

Najib Razak and his Umno/BN regime are obviously NOT in their full integrity. Their malignant scheme to parasite off honest, decent citizens is DOOMED TO UTTER FAILURE.

PEOPLE OF MALAYSIA, YOU ARE THE CHANGE YOU HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR! BLESS YOU ALL AND YOUR BEAUTIFUL RAINBOW CHILDREN WHO WILL BUILD A GLORIOUS NEW MALAYSIA IN FREEDOM, JUSTICE AND TRUTH.

[Street action pics courtesy of Malaysiakini]

Swami Beyondananda on "Godless Capitalism" and Banana Republicans

Notes From the Trail
July 29, 2009
___________________________________________________

Close Encounters With a "Republican"
or...
My Personal Introduction to Godless Capitalism

by Steve Bhaerman

I recently had a close encounter with a "Republican."

I put quote marks around the word for two reasons. First, because the man used the word to describe himself. Second, because I'm old enough to remember when Republicans were more than the top-hatted guy from the Monopoly game or Mr. Potter from "It's A Wonderful Life." They were the pillars of small town communities, and in larger cities - like New York - they were honest, racket-busting counterparts to the corrupt "political machines" run by the Democrats. They personified noblesse oblige, expressed in the Gospel of Luke as:

"From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded."

No, this guy wasn't that kind of Republican. He could best be described as an Enron Republican. Like the Enron energy traders who took joy in the pain of grandmothers gone bankrupt, here was a guy without an ounce of noblesse, nor a smidgeon of oblige. He cheerfully presented himself as a pure "Darwinist."

I first encountered this brand of "Republicanism" while watching the Republican convention in 2000. A descendant of Theodore Roosevelt was being introduced to talk about preserving the environment. A group of "Republicans" from Texas hooted and booed him, in utter disregard and disrespect. Anything that didn't pad their personal bank accounts had no value.

Trudy and I met our "Republican" friend on a walk through a nearby neighborhood. We stopped to admire a huge oak tree right by his house. This was a relatively new subdivision, where fortunately the old trees had been left standing. It was close to dusk, and the crows had gathered over his house, squawking and fussing.

"I hate the crows," he volunteered. "They crap all over everything." He was a pleasant, clean cut guy in his late 30s, and we began a conversation. There were two homes for sale on the street, and he told us they were foreclosures. He had no sympathy for the foreclosees. "It's survival of the fittest," he said. "They obviously didn't have what it takes."

He, on the other hand, had been smart enough to buy gold. He had figured out that he could buy up to $20,000 worth of gold through his business each year (as a nontaxable business expense), then sell the gold at a profit to local coin stores. "Why do you think there are so many coin stores in this town?" he winked. "It's certainly not because we have a lot of coin collectors."

He then went on to lay out his complete Darwinist case for how life on the planet works. "It's the law of the jungle. It's me or you. That's life, and that's that." He was absolutely convinced that he was absolutely right. His well-rehearsed argument had the veneer of sophistication, and he had the "science" to back it up. When I suggested that Darwinism has been modified - if not debunked - by the latest science showing that an organism's "fitness" is ultimately determined by its "fittingness" (how well it fits into an environment), he dismissed this as "a belief" that he simply doesn't believe.

The Golden Rule? There have been a minority of people who've suggested this throughout history, he told us, but they're "just plain wrong." Remember how the right wing used to rail about "godless communists?" Well, here was an honest-to-badness godless capitalist. He reminded me of Jeffrey Skilling, former CEO of Enron, who considered Richard Dawkins' book The Selfish Gene, as his atheistic Bible. Skilling would actually announce that the bottom ten percent of producers at Enron would be fired each month, and each month he would follow through. This created a fiercely competitive, cutthroat attitude in his sales people - the same trait they would need to ruthlessly screw the marketplace.

It's not clear exactly when Ayn Rand supplanted Abe Lincoln as Republicanism personified, but this passage must be duly marked if we are to understand American and world politics properly. Enron Republicanism is now the official operating system of empire. While the Olympia Snowes and Arlen Specters might seek to soften and mitigate it, while Obama speaks of hope and being "all in this together," the godless god of the power of money now forces all knees to bend.

The good news in this bad news is that more and more "conservative" religious folks are seeing the contradiction. As author Paul Ray suggests, a major realignment is already taking place, as evidenced by the shift of many social conservatives to Obama in the 2008 election. Of course, that raises the question ... whither (or more accurately, wither) the Democrats?

While individual Democrats and even Democratic Party caucuses have attempted to stand up to the power of big oil, big pharma, big banking and agribusiness, the Democratic Party as an entity has shown no willingness to make the transformational changes necessary. They are simply here to soften the blow of pure, brutal capitalism, to be "not as bad as the other guys," and to ultimately be the final resting place for progressive votes.

This distinction is important for the same reason that I am putting heart and soul into launching the Department of Heartland Security. I would have to describe my neighbor's "Republicanism" as heartless. Cheerfully heartless, but heartless nonetheless. This gentleman had no use whatsoever for any form of nurturance, which he thought of as weakness. When I suggested that in an emergency he would help a neighbor, he looked at me funny.

What's even more insidious about this heartlessness - some might even call it borderline sociopathy - is that its perpetrators represent it as "natural." Adding injurious insult to insulting injury, these folks have sought to convince the rest of us that their "inhuman nature" is the true human nature. Of course they lie. Why wouldn't they? You can read this astute article on the Great Tax Con Job by Thom Hartmann, to see how this self-serving mind set is used to convince us that our self-interest is aligned with those of the predators.

So, what is to be done? First, we must understand that what we call "human nature" is a choice. At the effect of invisible programming, we may not realize we have a choice. However, as we awaken - individually and en masse - to see how we have been and are being manipulated (and even more importantly, how we've bought in to the manipulation), we can choose one or the other. Science is now showing us that much of what we dismiss as "human nature" is really human nurture (or, too often, lack of such), learned behaviors that can be unlearned and replaced.

In this awareness, we can see clearly how those who benefit from heartless exploitation would want to convince the rest of us that we are just like they are, only not as skilled. Along with the awareness, there is one remedy: Heartfulness.

In this global local community where - like it or not - we are all in this together, our task is to bring together the coherent forces of heartfulness, of love, sanity, and nurturance for mutual benefit, and to proclaim that we choose to put "human" in human nature. As Heartland Security officially launches some six weeks from now, we hope to facilitate putting this new world view into practice to "weave a web of mass construction."

And how about our "Republican" friend? So secure in his certainty, so convinced his view of nature is correct, he couldn't see his relationship with the web of life his world view threatens. It was beyond his imagination that the crows who plagued and taunted him were trying to tell him something. Native American lore associates the crows with "natural law." Their caws had no effect. Here was someone who staked his claim through unnatural law, and didn't even know it.

And yet...

We had been talking for nearly a half hour when the man's wife emerged from the open garage. "Hey," she told him, "we have company. Remember?"

"My in-laws," he explained. And as she took him by the arm and trundled him back into the house, he turned to us a bit wistfully and mouthed the words: "You are much more interesting."

... and Speaking of Heartland Security

What if ...

... all facets of a healthy world - physical, economic, political and planetary - were woven together into one community that strengthened and empowered each and all?

... there was an effortless and obvious way for individuals to match their mission and talents with the needs and desires of a growing "global local" community?

... a new healthy and sane economy was being born, and anyone with value to offer could become a part of it, and flourish?

... a worldwide, non-coercive moral authority was emerging based on the virtues and "heart core" values that 90% of humans share?

... all this was being done in the spirit of joy, play and humor?

What if we shifted the attention, energy and resource from "homeland security," and focused on Heartland Security instead?

This is exactly what is happening now ... and you are invited to become a part of it. If you'd like to find out more, please respond to this post and put "Heartland" in the subject line, and if you haven't already done so, join the Heartland community here.

It's free.

Swami’s 2009 State of the Universe Address
Department of Heartland Security Blog

Put an end to tyranny on 1 August 2009!

Najib: ISA rallies pointless

Rahmah Ghazali July 31, 2009 | 7:46pm

The two ISA demonstrations planned for tomorrow are pointless since the government is already in the process of reviewing the security law, said Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak today.

He also said the rallies will not bring about any benefit.

"The most important thing is for them to give their ideas and feedback on how the government should improve the Act.

"Demonstrations will not solve any problems," he told reporters after chairing the Umno supreme council meeting at the party headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.

Tomorrow, two groups - one opposing and the other supporting the ISA - will take to the streets in Kuala Lumpur.

The Abolish ISA Movement (GMI by its Malay abbreviation) and Majlis Permuafakatan Ummah (Pewaris) have separately said they would go ahead with their gatherings despite stern police warnings.

Starting today, the police have also set up roadblocks at major traffic arteries throughout the Klang Valley towards Kuala Lumpur ahead of these two mass rallies. [Source: Malaysiakini]

HEY, JIBBY! YOU AND YOUR CRIMINAL AND TOTALLY CORRUPT REGIME ARE WHAT'S TRULY POINTLESS... INSTEAD OF SHOOTING YOUR PINK-LIPPED MOUTH OFF, WHY DON'T YOU DO THE NATION A FAVOR AND SHOOT YOURSELF IN THE ANUS? THANK YOU!

Photomontage courtesy of Mowadana (modified by Antares)

Such a sick, twisted mind our pathetic pink-lipped crime minister has! He thinks tomorrow's protest is against the ISA! The obnoxious ISA is merely symbolic of a repressive regime, you pompous poltroon. What the rakyat are really protesting is... YOU! We don't accept or acknowledge YOU, Najib Abdul Razak, as the leader of the nation. You were NOT elected by the majority of the voters - only by 190 corrupt Umno division chiefs (and a few retired but still evil Umno warlords) who pushed you into power so they can continue to plunder the wealth of the country and rape the environment and behave as if they are God's gift to Malaysia.

The sooner you get the message, the better for all of us. Don't waste OUR money on your expensive spin-doctors, Jibby. Can you hear the rakyat sniggering and/or cursing every time you appear in the news? Nobody loves you except your mama - and she's long dead. Your fat witch wife doesn't really love you. She only used you to climb the social ladder and taste the worldly power she craves. The moment you're out of office, she will treat you worse than a pack mule. It's written on her face.

And by the way, Jibby, please tell your beloved cousin the homo minister... he'd better keep a tight rein on his Rottweilers in Blue. If any of my buddies get hurt or arrested tomorrow... there will be VERY NASTY KARMA multiplied by 100,000 on your receding hairline. I'm dead serious, bub. You bunch of braindead twits in Putrajaya have no clue what hideous danger you are putting yourselves in. When the voodoo that keeps you in power backfires.... boy, I would HATE to be in your skin!

IGP, AG, Homo Minister... RESIGN or be BOOED & BOOTED OUT!

Detainee dead, family suspects foul play

Andrew Ong | Malaysiakini July 28, 2009 5:05pm

A woman has disputed the official account of her brother's death, who died in police custody at the Sentul police station on July 16.

According to the police, R Gunasegaran, 31, had died from a drug abuse.

His sister, R Ganga Gowri, 32 (right), disagreed with this version in her police report today in which she alleged that he may have died after being assaulted.

This was claimed by three witnesses who were said to be detained in the same lockup with Gunasegaran, she stated in her police report.

In view of this, Ganga Gowri is urging the authorities to perform a thorough and transparent investigation into the allegations.

She is also demanding that hospital authorities release the autopsy report if there is one, and for the police to initiate an inquest.

She was speaking at a press conference, organised by lawyer Haris Ibrahim and attended by six other lawyers.

"These (witnesses) are very afraid. They do not wish the authorities breathing down on them and shall remain anonymous.

"Should there be a transparent inquest, I have been given assurances that these people will surface," said Ganga Gowri's counsel M Visvanathan.

Visvanathan, said the witnesses alleged that Gunasegaran died within two to three hours of his arrest at about 7.30pm.

He added that the witnesses said that Gunasegaran was kicked in the chest, hit with a hose and a piece of wood.

However, Ganga Gowri had not examined the body for wounds, which is still at the Kuala Lumpur General Hospital mortuary.

Body still not claimed

She will not claim the body until a post-mortem and toxicology report is released.

Visvanathan said that although the standard practice by the authorities is to release the reports after two months, this had to be changed.

"It is insane to have the family claim the body and perform funeral rites and then wait for the post-mortem report, say for instance if the body had evidence of an assault whilst in detention," added Haris.

Haris said the police should be fair and kind to the family of the deceased and allow them access to the reports in order for them to request for a second independent autopsy if necessary.

Bar Council Human Rights Committee chairperson Edmund Bon said there appears to be inconsistencies in the way the government deals with custodial deaths.

He said it was only with sufficient public pressure, where full blown investigations will be carried out, such as in the case of DAP political aide Teoh Beng Hock, who incidentally was found dead on the same day as Gunasegaran.

He urged the government to heed repeated request by NGOs and civil societies for the establishment of a Coroners Court as magistrates conducting inquest, were not sufficiently trained in this area.

Police chief promises action

Meanwhile, KL police chief Muhammad Sabtu Osman said that the police will investigate the matter thoroughly to find the truth.

"We cannot let this matter just like that. We will investigate thoroughly," he told reporters.

He added the police will have a look at the report lodged by the family.

"We will take action against any person found to have been involved in the detainee's death, even if it involves my personnel," he added.

[My response: DON'T TOKKOK, JUST SHOOT YOURSELF IN YOUR FAT POLICEMAN ARSE!]

Since 19 October 2006 - the day Altantuya was abducted by Najib and Rosmah's UTK bodyguards, cruelly tortured, murdered in cold blood and blown to bits with C4 - Umno/BN has been on a downward spiral to HELL.

Are we going to go down with this bunch of emotionally retarded jackbooted hooligans?

NO FUCKING WAY! PEOPLE, TIME TO SHOW THEM THE BOOT!

"The rakyat has lost faith in the BN."

Malaysiakini readers respond to Najib's announcement of a Royal Commission of Inquiry on MACC interrogation methods and a Court Inquest into the "sudden death" of Teoh Beng Hock...

What is the PM's role in this 'witch-hunt'?
July 24, 09 12:56pm

On Cabinet approves royal commission:

GH Kok: The cabinet has finally agreed to set up the royal commission of inquiry. However, as I have expected, the terms of reference of the commission falls far short of what is needed.

As reported in the media, the royal commission is to "look into the MACC's investigative procedures and to determine if there were any human rights violations when Teoh was being interrogated." Well, this is the very least that the royal commission should do but this is surely not enough!

We want to know who gave the instruction to the MACC to launch a witch-hunt against the Selangor Pakatan Rakyat government that triggered a chain of events that led to the torture and death of Teoh Beng Hock.

We know that the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission reports directly to Prime Minister Najib. We want to know what role the prime minister played in this witch-hunt.

We want the head of MACC to take the stand and answer these questions: who instructed him to start hounding the seven Pakatan Rakyat Aduns (state reps)? What instructions did they give him? What did they ask him to do? What did they ask him to find or fabricate as the case may be? What compelled him to order his officers to raid the Aduns service centres, take away files from the district offices, pull up mosque officials in Puchong for questioning, interrogate for eight hours a Kajang municipal councillor, interrogate an Adun's assistant for four hours, and finally cause the death of a courageous young man?

We, the people, want to know the truth. We want to hold the person, at the top of the chain of command, fully responsible for this entire witch-hunt. If it is necessary in order for us to get to the top person responsible, we should offer some immunity to those at the bottom who willingly provide us with the information.

The offer is open. It will not be over until it's over ... royal commission or not!

Richard Teo: Umno's exit from the seat of power has been expedited. This will be BN's last walk in the corridors of power. The events of the last few days have taken a pivotal turn and Najib could be the shortest-term Umno president to be the prime minister of Malaysia. Thanks to MACC which made all this possible. The groundswell of anger and bitterness at the institution which acted in a manner to topple the Pakatan Rakyat government was overwhelming.

People who have unwaveringly supported the BN government have now decided at last that we need a change in order to reform. It has become obvious that BN's 50 years of being in the government has corrupted all the institutions which form the pillars of a democratic nation.

Finally, the act that MACC did was an act that will finally nail the coffin of the BN. The only way BN can reform is to exit from the seat of power and to spend sometime to reflect on its past mistakes. And with some wisdom and past experience, maybe it can make a comeback at some later date. Farewell BN. We expected you to go after March 8, but we didn't expect it to be so soon.

A Concerned Malaysian: I think the people of Malaysia want JUSTICE to be done to be done for the late Teoh Beng Hock and not a mockery.

I seriously hope that the government will re-examine the royal commission's terms of reference. Although we may have not known Teoh but as a human person who has feelings, we feel very much for what has happened. People all around are very angry and unhappy with what is happening in Malaysia not just in Teoh's case but also in the case of Kugan where justice was not done.

The rakyat has lost faith in the BN. We hope that all those who have been responsible in the death of Teoh will be brought to justice.

JR Lee: Most Malaysians waited patiently for the cabinet to announce the setting up a royal commission to investigate, inter-alia, the death of Teoh Beng Hock. But we were shocked when the cabinet announced that the death of Teoh will not be investigated by the royal commission but only by an inquest headed by a magistrate, a very much lower authority.

Why the discrepancy? Why Teoh's death is not investigated by the royal commission? This is typical of a conspiracy to cover-up. It is definitely against the 1Malaysia principle of 'People First, Performance Now' promulgated by the PM.

It is blatantly clear that it is not 'People First' as Malaysians seeking for the truth wants Teoh's death investigated by the royal commission and the cabinet is also not performing what Malaysians expecting them to do.

The PM is not walking the talk, he is talking more of his walk and expect all Malaysian to believe him!

Bear in mind that Teoh was only a witness to an alleged crime and he lost his life in the hands of MACC. Just imagine if he was a suspect to an alleged crime.

Adcin: The royal commission announced by Najib may on the surface of it look like a smart move by our leader. It buys time for the government and it hopes that the public will move on and pass it all off as some unfortunate accident, when the anger subsides.

The experience of the royal commission on the Lingam tapes must have given heart to them. Except for some jokes at Lingam's expense and a ring tone composed in his honour, absolutely nothing of substance was ultimately achieved.

However they did not realise that they lost a lot of public confidence and in the end votes in the general election.

There will be no jokes this time for Teoh's commission, and the longer it drags on, the worse the effect will be on the government. There are no points that can be won or made for the MACC and their masters. The royal commission may buy some time and even protect some parties, but in reality it is a slow death for Najib and his BN.

We should be happy because all it needed was for Najib to cut to the chase, apprehend and castigate the offenders and revamp the MACC to be more accountable and transparent.