IT WASN’T JUST A TSUNAMI, IT WAS A TECTONIC SHIFT!

During the months leading up to Malaysia’s 14th General Election, I was often asked, “Who do you think will win, what’s going to happen?”

My response would be: “Anything is possible these days. I’m not a prophet.” Sometimes I would add: “If BN remains in power, your children will probably have to migrate. Najib will see to it that all opposition is systematically eliminated. Guan Eng will be found guilty and sent to jail, along with Rafizi, Tony Pua, and anyone who poses a threat or even asks too many questions. Kit Siang they will probably not dare imprison, but they might find a way to accelerate Mahathir’s demise. Najib and Rosmah have committed too many crimes to take any more chances, so this could be the final election.”

I felt, on the whole, emotionally disengaged from the political drama. I continued to monitor developments via online news portals (haven’t been subscribed to newspapers since the late 1980s or early 1990s) and was dumbfounded whenever I saw Najib’s paid apologists attempt to blinker voters to the serious damage his rogue regime had inflicted on the rule of law and all decent values. How could anyone possibly take on such a hideous task as to serve as a professional wormtongue to such a debauched, degenerate kakistocracy? Surely it can’t just be for the money, these people must be morally (or amorally) aligned with the power elite. They must all be suffering from Terminal Cynicitis with their unshakeable faith in Might as Right.

May 9th, 2018, was like any other day for me. I got out of bed in the late morning as usual, ignoring politicians’ pleas for voters to get to the polling stations early. Had a leisurely brunch then drove 13 minutes to the secondary school where I was registered to vote. It was a sunny blue-sky day and I felt totally at peace within and without. When I got to the polling station, there was hardly a crowd and  and when I entered the classroom for my voting stream, I was the only voter. I was in and out in less than 3 minutes. On my way out someone wearing an EC pass greeted me – a local guy helping with the logistics. He said something like, “What do you think?” I replied, “Things need to change!” – and he smiled.

When I got back to my car I remembered the BN flag I had impulsively ripped from its pole on my way out of the village. I had tucked it under my seat and wondered what I should do with it. I decided to stop by a public trashcan, stuff the flag inside and snap a photo. Back home I set fire to the BN flag, watching with grim satisfaction the plastic melt into a toxic looking residue. Just casting my one vote for Pakatan Harapan somehow didn’t feel like it was enough, so I was compelled to perform this private ritual and photograph it. Posted both images on my facebook timeline with the caption:

Sometime in the late afternoon, I heard a large tree crashing down in the distance. About an hour later my wife rushed into my study and broke the news that somebody had died. She was rather incoherent so I went out and checked with our neighbor Nuak from whom Anoora gets all the local gossip. “Anoora says there’s been a death in the village, what happened?” Nuak said it was Ali Juhri, the Indonesian contractor married to a local who lived up the hill. Apparently, the tree I had heard falling had killed him.

Amidst the excitement of Election Day, the freak accident that killed Ali didn’t fully register. I decided to go to his house and ascertain what had befallen him. As I approached the steep road leading to Ali’s house, I found the road blocked by police cars and an ambulance. Half the village was gathered there, including the Batin (headman). I recognized the ambulance attendant as the same guy who had removed the stitches from my son’s surgery wound last year. We had a chat and he told me Ali had recently bought a chainsaw and decided he would cut down a big tree and get some timber to build something around his huge compound. Too bad he ran in the wrong direction as the tree came tumbling to the ground and got pinned underneath. They were waiting for the police forensics team to arrive and photograph the body in situ before removing it. Not much I could do except go home and monitor the election results as they came trickling in.

Ali’s dramatic demise somehow felt like an omen. I had heard from another Indonesian guy married to a villager that Ali Juhri had been a covert agent of Jakim (the Islamic Missionary Institute), working through Jakoa (the Orang Asli Development Agency) who had over the years helped to recruit converts for which he was financially rewarded and given many perks. Since 2010 there had been a record number of Temuan converts to Islam. It was quite a contrast to see village kids gleefully frolicking naked in the river one day and demurely covered up the next on their way home from school.

These were some of the disturbing signs of an insidious psychic and cultural colonization of the down-to-earth indigenous soul that has been the primary focus of the Barisan Nasional government since the 1990s. In the words of an academic dissertation by Alice Nah published several years ago, the Umno-led government felt compelled to systematically assimilate all indigenous pagan tribes into mainstream Malay-Muslim culture, in order to legitimize their own spurious claim to indigeneity, at the same time reinforcing their demographic and political dominance.

On a macro scale this is pretty much what befell Barisan Nasional in the wee hours of May 10th as it became clear that their 61 years of political hegemony had finally ended. The very earth had cracked open and swallowed them up. Or, to return to my earlier metaphor, the monolithic tower they had erected to aggrandize and gratify their own inflated egos (not to mention their atavistic robber-baron ids) had collapsed on them, crushing their megalomaniacal dreams of Heute die Welt, morgens das Sonnensystem ("Today the world, tomorrow the solar system!").

[To be continued...]

THE NEW AG'S THOUGHTS ON 1MDB & ITS PERPETRATORS

Newly appointed Malaysian Attorney-General Tommy Thomas

By Tommy Thomas
July 26, 2016

The might of the most powerful nation in the world has been brought to bear to investigate, uncover and institute legal proceedings to forfeit assets purchased through money stolen from proceeds of bonds sales by 1MDB.

The combined efforts of three US agencies, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), with the assistance of law enforcement agencies in other countries, have produced the most complete, holistic picture of the great fraud perpetrated by Jho Low and his co-conspirators to defraud the people of Malaysia of billions of ringgit ultimately belonging to them.

The 136-page, 513-paragraph ‘Verified Complaint for Forfeiture in Rem’ is a tour de force. The people of Malaysia, suffering under a state of powerlessness and helplessness, owe an immeasurable debt to the sterling work carried out by truly independent institutions in the United States.

As a long-time critic of US domestic and foreign policies, I pay tribute to their selfless work in exposing the greatest robbery in modern times; what is the Great Train Robbery of the 1960s compared to 1MDB!

The fact that the US initiative is brought by its newly established ‘Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative’ is significant. Thus their complaint asserts that Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak is a kleptocrat, a term that was only coined in the late 1990s to describe African dictators like Joseph Mobutu, Sani Abacha and Robert Mugabe plundering their own countries.

More than US$3.5 billion in funds belonging to 1MDB were stolen, and the US complaint seeks the forfeiture and recovery of more than US$1 billion in assets purchased from that stolen money. It represents the largest single action ever brought by the Kleptocracy Initiative.

The serious allegations against Najib, his stepson, Riza Aziz and Jho Low for their corrupt dealings have shamed our nation. Through their action, Malaysia has joined the ranks of the most corrupt nations in the globe.

One could not have a more succinct description of the corrupt practices engaged by these persons than what the Complaint states in Paragraph 6:-

“1MDB was ostensibly created to pursue investment and development projects for the economic benefit of Malaysia and its people, primarily relying on the issuance of various debt securities to fund these projects. However, over the course of an approximately four-year period, between approximately 2009 and at least 2013, multiple individuals, including public officials and their associates, conspired to fraudulently divert billions of dollars from 1MDB though various means, including by defrauding foreign banks and by sending foreign wire communications in furtherance of the scheme, and thereafter, to launder the proceeds of that criminal conduct, including in and through U.S. financial institutions. The funds diverted from 1MDB were used for the personal benefit of the co-conspirators and their relatives and associated, including to purchase luxury real estate in the United States, pay gambling expenses at Las Vegas casinos, acquire more than US$200 million in artwork, invest in a major New York real estate development project, and fund the production of major Hollywood films. 1MDB maintained no interest in these assets and saw no returns on these investments.”

A close reading of the comprehensive document will indicate that the draftsmen had access to thousands of incriminating materials, hardly surprising considering the reach of the FBI and IRS when the US dollar and their banking system are used for nefarious purposes. Further, the paper trail would have been immensely damning.

From their advanced state of knowledge, as demonstrated by the exhaustive nature of the civil complaint, it is only a small step for the FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ) to next take, that is, to institute criminal proceedings against the persons referred to in the complaint. Such criminal proceedings cannot come soon enough for all right thinking persons.

Clare Rewcastle-Brown, intrepid reporter (pic: Malaysiakini)

The US government complaint completely vindicates the brave reporting of Clare Rewcastle-Brown and the Sarawak Report, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, the Edge led by its intrepid editor Ho Kay Tat and P Gunasegaram in KiniBiz. So too the public statements of Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Tony Pua, Lim Kit Siang and Ambiga Sreenevasan.

They have been unfairly demonised by the Malaysian Establishment, for speaking the truth and an apology is due to them. And Malaysia owes a great debt to Clare Rewcastle-Brown for her single-minded investigative journalism of the very highest standard.

Because the complaint is in effect a history of the fraudulent dealings undertaken by 1MDB, under the control of Najib and Jho Low from the time of its birth, it should be read carefully. No summary can do justice to its detailed narration: the primary document must be reviewed.

I propose to focus on the role played by Najib and the corrupt practice of his step-son, Riza. But before I do so, mention must be made of the Verification by Robert B Heuchling, Special Agent, FBI which appears at the last page of the complaint. He has signed the complaint, thereby confirming the veracity of its contents under the penalty of perjury, and goes on to state that he has had access to files, records and information supplied to him by law enforcement officers.

This signifies personal responsibility on the part of Heuchling, establishing that he is satisfied with the truth of the matters complained of. Thus, it would be foolhardy for anyone to simply dismiss the complaint as a political document by a foreign agency wishing to undermine the Najib administration.

NAJIB ABDUL RAZAK

A minor criticism can be levelled against the complaint: its failure to actually name Najib Abdul Razak. The obvious inference is that it was a political decision not to shame a sitting prime minister most friendly to USA and its president. But the legal draftsmen, no doubt irritated by such political constraint to their freedom to plead in the manner of their choosing, make it crystal clear that Najib is “Malaysian Official 1”.

Thus, Paragraph 28 states that Malaysia Official 1 “is a high-ranking official in the Malaysian government who also held a position of authority with 1MDB”. At all material times, Najib is, and was, the prime minister, finance minister and chairperson of the advisory committee of 1MDB. No other member of the government held such triple functions, a fact expressly recognised in Paragraph 39 of the complaint.

Just in case any reader of the complaint has any difficulty in recognising Najib as Malaysian Official 1, it would be removed by reading the very next Paragraph, that is Paragraph 29 (indeed, the juxta-positioning of the 2 paragraphs is itself instructive). Riza Aziz is described as “a relative of Malaysian Official 1”. Riza is the stepson of Najib, and is not related to any other personality directly, indirectly or remotely involved in the 1MDB scandal.

In such circumstances, it is absolutely pointless for Najib and his loyal, diehard supporters to claim that because he is not named in the complaint, it does not refer to him. Indeed, the complaint cannot properly be understood in its entirety, unless one understands Najib’s dominance over 1MDB, as was the political and business reality.

The first reference to wrongdoing on Najib’s part appears in Paragraphs 99 to 102. Paragraph 99 states that US$20 million was transferred between February and June 2011 into Najib’s now notorious personal account with AmBank, Kuala Lumpur, from monies stolen from 1MDB. Paragraph 102 states that this was the same AmBank account which received US$681 million in March 2013.

The second corrupt action involving Najib is referred to in Paragraphs 178 and 193, Paragraph 178 states that 1MDB bond proceeds were diverted from their intended purpose for the personal benefit of among others, Najib, which further evidences “a misappropriation of public funds”. In the case of Najib, Blackstone in that transaction transferred at least US$30 million to his Ambank account: see Paragraph 193.

The third reference to corrupt monies received by Najib can be found in Paragraph 229 which states that during a five-day period in March 2013, US$681 million was transferred from the Tanore account to Najib’s AmBank account, from which US$620 was returned to the Tanore account in August 2013.

What happened to the difference of US$61 million, is not mentioned in the complaint. Thus, it is clear that at least a total of US$731 million was received by Najib in his Ambank account.

Paragraph 238 is critical. It explains why creditors were prepared to purchase bonds issued by 1MDB, which is a company with a paid-up capital of just RM1 million, but able to issue US$3 billion worth of bonds in March 2013 (to give just one example of such a bond issue). That is because Najib, as finance minister, signed a letter of support on behalf of the government of Malaysia.

Regardless of the title of that document, effectively the government was guaranteeing repayment if 1MDB defaults. Najib was not only prepared to risk injury to Malaysia’s sovereign immunity by being sued in the Courts of England, but more importantly was also undertaking to pay tax-payers monies from the Consolidated Fund, if 1MDB defaults.

In so signing the letter of support, Najib was placed in a terrible conflict of interest position: his interest as a beneficiary of corrupt monies overriding his duty as a public servant elected to protect taxpayers’ money.

The complaint also focuses on the offering circular, leading to the issue of 1MDB Bonds. Paragraph 242 states that the offering circular was misleading because it failed to disclose that Najib “would receive hundreds of millions of dollars from the proceeds of the bond sale within days of its closing”.

Paragraphs 259 to 264 deal with a subject familiar to Malaysia: the title to this part of the complaint reads: “US$681 million was transferred from the Tanore Account to an Account Belonging to Malaysian Official 1”. Paragraph 259 simply states:

“Shortly after proceeds of the 2013 bond sale were diverted to the Tanore Account, US$681,000,000.00 was sent from the Tanore Account to a bank account belonging to Malaysian Official 1.”

No guesses needed that this official was Najib, (and no other person). According to Paragraphs 248 and 249, Eric Tan Kim Loong, a close associate of Jho Low, was the sole authorised signatory to the Tanore Account, but in March 2013 1MDB Officer 3 was given signing authority on the Tanore Account through a Power of Attorney.

Thus, although Paragraph 262 pleads that RM620 million was returned by Najib to the Tanore Account, it does not mean that Najib could not have had access to it, thereafter, since the Tanore Account was controlled by Jho Low. What is clear is that the monies were not a gift from the Saudi royalty, but proceeds from bonds issued by 1MDB, which means 1MDB must repay them. And if 1MDB cannot, Malaysian taxpayers will.

The allegations levelled against Malaysian Official 1 in these paragraphs of the complaint are most grave, and indicate a pattern of systematic corruption, while holding the most important office in the state. Again, there is absolutely no doubt that although these paragraphs do not expressly name Najib, it is impossible to think of any other individual fitting the role.

RIZA AZIZ

What has so far received far less publicity is the corrupt monies received by Najib’s stepson, Riza. It is a classic case of a kleptocrat in charge of the nation’s treasures plundering them for the benefit of a close relative. Again, Najib placed himself in a conflict of interest position.

Paragraph 120 of the complaint begins the case against Riza. It states there that shortly after receiving proceeds of the two 2012 bond sales from 1MDB, US$238 million was transferred to a Singapore bank account belonging to Red Granite Capital, a BVI entity owned by Riza.

Jho Low & Riza Aziz, would-be Malaysian Gatsbys (pic: FreeMalaysiaToday)

About US$100 million of this money was used to purchase luxury real estate in the US and UK for Riza’s personal benefit, and about US$64 million to fund his movie production company, Red Granite Pictures. The scheme to defraud 1MDB of US$238 million is explained in detail from Paragraphs 202 to 219.

Riza Aziz also transferred some US$41 million from the sum of US$238 million to be applied to defray gambling expenses incurred in the Venetian Casino, Las Vegas by Jho Low, Eric Tan and himself (Riza): see Paragraph 220 and 226. The final corrupt dealing by Riza was his purchase of the Qentas Townhouse in posh Belgravia, London for £23 million: see Paragraph 492.

Unprecedented, shocking, massive, brazen, blatant: one soon runs out of words to describe the scale and magnitude of the corrupt actions of the wrong-doers. How those who designed, devised and implemented these dastardly deeds thought they could escape in the modern, borderless world is itself mind-boggling.

PROCEEDINGS IN MALAYSIA

Why were similar proceedings not instituted in Malaysia? After all, Malaysia is the natural jurisdiction since the company in question, 1MDB, is incorporated and carries on business here. Najib, Riza and Jho Low are Malaysians. So the nexus to Malaysia is greater than anywhere else.

Is it not embarrassing for the attorney-general of Malaysia to be reminded by his counter-part in the United States, under whose leadership the complaint was brought, that stealing from public funds by Najib is a criminal offence under Malaysian law. Thus, in Paragraph 499, seven separate offences under our Penal Code are listed as being violated: three provisions under the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) Act are also identified in that Paragraph.

Bank fraud is a crime under at least three provisions under the Penal Code, as we are reminded in Paragraph 500. And the entire world knows about the universal application of Anti-Money Laundering Legislation (like AMLA) across the globe; a consequence of 9/11. And yet no criminal proceedings have been commenced in Malaysia!

Former deputy prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin and former attorney-general Gani Patail will testify as to what happened to them a year ago when they tried to act against Najib. Unfortuately, the late Kevin Morrais’ role in the 1MDB scandal has never been publicly clarified, and remains a matter of rumour and speculation.

A climate of fear has enveloped all the senior office-holders of the major institutions of the nation. MACC, the inspector-general of police (IGP) and Bank Negara have gone silent. The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has been disbanded, and the auditor-general’s report has been marked an official secret.

Because 1MDB was the company which directly suffered losses worth billions of ringgit, they should have filed civil recovery actions against persons like Jho Low and Najib, who were supposed to look after their interests but in fact were plundering it. Since the wrong-doers are still very much in control of 1MDB, it is not surprising that the company has not complained, much less resorted to litigation against anyone.

Litigation by other parties have so far been unsuccessful. I should disclose that I was part of the legal team that acted for some of the opposition parties and personalities when they sued Najib and 1MDB last July upon discovery of the US$681 million being credited into his personal account at Ambank.

The civil suit was summarily struck out as being wholly without merit, although all the contentions therein, based principally on the Sarawak Report and Wall Street Journal, have been corroborated by the US complaint.

NAJIB MUST RESIGN

It is now abundantly clear that Najib Abdul Razak has long forfeited his right to remain in office as our prime minister. The documentary evidence, which cannot be denied, is overwhelming. US$731 million of corrupt money was credited into his personal account, and his stepson received US$238 million. In the eyes of the world he is a kleptocrat, and cannot stay in office. He must resign immediately.

THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL (REVISITED)

The root of all evil isn't MONEY, contrary to popular belief. It's JEALOUSY. How so? Consider the greatest of all possible evils - MONOTHEISM - as expressed in the utterly psychotic statement: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me, for I am a jealous god." You may substitute "goddess" for "god" and the results are equally abysmal.

Just ask yourself this: if you were indeed the One and Only Deity in Existence, would you be constantly looking over your shoulder in anticipation of rivals or threats to your Absolute Status? In Barbara Hand Clow's nebulous tome, The Pleiadian Agenda, I was struck by a powerful quote attributed to the Prophet Isaiah: "Monotheism breeds fanatical anthropocentrism, which eventually destroys Earth." How absolutely and tragically true.


Such a jealous, spiteful, insecure, and vengeful deity can only engender generations of jealous, spiteful, insecure, and vengeful humans. The Old Testament records the first instance of murder in the story of Cain and Abel. The archetypal case of sibling rivalry wherein a deity plays favorites with two brothers over their ritual offerings and arouses a jealousy so intense it leads to fratricide. Fast forward to Abraham and his sister-wife Sara, whose greed and jealousy result in the unjust expulsion of Hagar, the servant who bore Abe his first-born son, Ishmael. Behold, the remote descendants of Ishmael (generically known as Arabs) to this day continue to be cruelly treated by the remote descendants of Sara's freak-birth progeny, Isaac (generically known as Jews)!


My wife of 23 years, Anoora, is a real cutie... except when possessed by the demon, Jealousy. This demon she inherited from her mother, whose emotional insecurity was pathological to the degree that it drove two previous husbands to drink, distraction and, eventually, divorce.*

Jealousy is in itself a self-fulfilling prophecy, in that the person you proclaim to love - and whose exclusive devotion and sexual attention you demand - invariably begins contemplating the pleasures of strange flesh as soon as nagging suspicion begins to rear its ugly, deformed head.

I can happily swear eternal allegiance, affection, and friendship to anybody who has won my heart... but to insist on exclusivity seems to me the epitome of insanity. Imagine vowing to eat at only one restaurant your entire life. That's an insult to FOOD!

The crux of the problem is that monotheistic religions have programmed their followers into believing there is only ONE way to be married, and only ONE interpretation of wedded bliss - and that's MONOGAMY! (Okay, so Islam and Mormonism allow polygamy - but only on strictly patriarchal terms wherein a well-to-do man can have several wives/concubines but a woman can't have several husbands/toyboys. Pathetically dickheaded, if you ask me.)

My own parents were married for more than 60 years... but Dad probably had that many lovers on the side (and Mum quite a few too, though far more discreetly)... and most folks do indulge in a fair amount of "illicit" (read "unlicenced") sex, only problem being they have to be hypocritical and sneaky about their behavior - instead of being good-humored, honest, and open-hearted about their own testosteronal or pheromonal propensities. Of all the women I've known, perhaps only two or three were virgins before they met me - but I've certainly loved and cherished the others no less, and enjoyed them all the more for their sexual experience and emotional maturity.


I'm convinced that if POLYAMORY was included as another way to explore LOVE and HARMONY, the world would blossom into a spiritually wholesome and truth-valuing place - where deceit, hypocrisy, guilt, and vindictiveness cannot flourish, and destructive jealousy will be seen for what it is: an emotional disease!

As I approach my seventh decade in human embodiment, I feel sufficiently seasoned to declare myself a pantheistic pansexual. That's right, folks: everything and everybody is actually quite edible if your perception is pristinely unclouded.


_____

*Since this essay was first posted, a whole lot has changed with regard to Anoora. In January 2013, with the help of two masterful emotional healers, I was able to clearly visualize the source of my wife's insane possessiveness: it was a demonic entity, an etheric fungus, tightly wrapped around her lower spine, feeding off her negative emotional discharge and her addiction to drama. It had become an integral part of her being and had to be gently detached with psychic surgery. Since then, Anoora has become far more cheerful and open to befriending most women who visit - well, at least 80% of the time!

[First posted 10 November 2009]

Excerpts from Matthew's Message received by Suzanne Ward on 16 May 2018

With loving greetings from all souls at this station, this is Matthew. Let us begin with a reader’s comments about a topic that several others have questioned:

“North Korea’s former peace gestures never came to anything. Analysts I’ve heard don’t expect that pattern to change. I’d like to know Matthew’s perspective.”

Analysts derive a situation’s likely outcome by looking back at history, and for millennia that worked. It no longer does. All third density patterns that once well served the peoples as learning and growth experiences have become obsolete, and that includes assessing a developing situation based on the past. Change throughout your world is soaring on wings of accelerating vibrations, and this is without precedence in your recorded history. Talks about the reunification of North and South Korea will move forward, albeit in fits and starts if egos arise, and families separated decades ago will be reunited. Peace processes in all areas of conflict will be getting underway incrementally—countries where many still are working on karmic lessons will be the laggards in ending the battling—and history will be relegated to the past where it belongs.

“Please ask Matthew what the United States’ withdrawal from the multinational agreement with Iran portends for world safety."

We feel that the threatening rhetoric from Iran will give way to reasoning minds in that country because the other nations in the agreement are honoring it and global respect for the United States has greatly diminished. But if Iranian “hard-liners” do choose to speed development of nuclear weaponry, it will be to no avail. As vibrations on the planet keep rising, all nuclear weaponry will be destroyed and nuclear power abandoned—both emit the low vibrations that cannot exist in the astral planes where Earth is heading.

“My question is in regard to the asteroid, Apophis, that is said to pass by Earth in 2029 and 2036. The asteroid trajectory has been tracked to hit the Earth. I have heard of multiple timelines/possibilities as well. Please ask Matthew to address this issue.”

We have addressed the same catastrophic prediction about other asteroids, comets, Nibiru and “Planet X.” Our answer is the same and so it shall remain if other fear-based predictions pop up: NO astral body will collide with Earth. The planet’s destiny is the return to its original paradise self.

“Am I putting the pieces together correctly—are we living all our lifetimes at the same time?" 

Yes, in the continuum they all are happening at the same time, but only in the highest vibratory planes does each personage have conscious awareness of all the others, and not simultaneously. Experiencing every one of the personage lifetimes in the same moment would be akin to watching 1,000 movies on that many screens - it would be overwhelming. However, all lifetimes are known at soul level - that is what enables information to be revealed in past-life regression sessions and psychic readings, if such are accurate. And, the more you evolve, the more often you consciously connect with other personages in experiences you now think of as déjà vu.

"I recently read that the rate of autism in the 1980's was 1 in 10,000, now it is 1 in 68. The rate of Alzheimers and mental decline seems to have soared off the charts as well. Can Matthew please address these issues?"

Almost all diagnoses of autism are wrong. The symptoms these young children present are similar to that very rare condition, which is chosen in the soul contract and is part of the family’s pre-birth agreement, but they are caused by toxins in vaccines that severely damage brain cells. We honor the physicians who have publicized the dangers of vaccines in reports on the Internet and in clinical papers that are far more widely read and given more credibility than our numerous messages that include the same alerts. It is heartening indeed to see that more and more parents are heeding those physicians’ advice to forego the inoculations routinely given to infants and toddlers.

One more word about vaccines. The first were developed with good intention, but the dark ones saw that what were meant to prevent disease could be adulterated to spread it instead, and that is what they did. And, as years went by, numerous kinds of vaccines were concocted expressly to cause whatever conditions were claimed they would prevent.

Although genetic predisposition to Alzheimers and other forms of dementia cannot be discounted, the decline in mental faculties is greatly exacerbated by chemicals in food, fertilizers, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, chemtrails and other pollution in your air, water and soil; and individuals whose immune system has been weakened are considerably more susceptible than those with more robust immunity. Chemicals also compound the condition of children diagnosed, correctly or incorrectly, as autistic.

Knowledgeable healthcare specialists can suggest nutritious diets, proper supplements and mental exercises that can ameliorate the toxins’ effects and perhaps even reverse some of the brain damage they caused. Rising vibrations will reduce the symptoms of all mental and physical conditions, and eventually the civilization will reach the state of consciousness in which no form of dis-ease exists.

"There seems to be growing internet chatter that the corporate or maybe the centuries-old cabal is being dismantled? That we are in the darkest hours of this holocaust we are in right now. Can Matthew speak to that?"

Suzanne Ward

Long before a secret group was labeled cabal or Illuminati, elitists, Shadow Government, New World Order or some other designation, the masses lived under the control of recognized groups - Khazarians, Vatican hierarchy, Viking warriors, dynasties in the Far East, European royalty—and “dark hours” abounded throughout those centuries. Many of you lived during those times and experienced extreme hardships, but you don’t remember, so happenings today may seem like the darkest hours not only for people in the United States, but around the globe.

However tumultuous the world may seem as the civilization is being released from long, long ages of virtual captivity, only the cabal is in its darkest hours: They are furious that their international network is being dismantled and they fear what will become of them when justice systems no longer are under their collective thumbs and they are held accountable for their crimes against humanity.

Suzanne Ward © 2018

www.matthewbooks.com

Tunku Vic ~ tribute to a true prince among men (revisited 6 years later)

Y.M. Tunku Aamash bin Tunku Adnan (6 June 1954 ~ 27 May 2012)

Tunku Vic relaxing at his beach house in Port Dickson

The original Prince Charming, Vic ~ a good friend to all!

27 May 2012 was another of those days I found it impossible to get out of bed. There were no visitors, so I was able to indulge myself. By the time I finally forced myself out of bed it was already 4PM - I broke my own record for sluggishness!

First word I heard about the sudden departure of my friend Tunku Vic was from Bernard Khoo's Zorro-Unmasked blog (Bernard himself checked out 4 April 2014, we suspect to party with Vic and another beloved friend, Jane D'Cruz who left 4 days after Vic). I was stunned, to say the least. Last time I saw Vic was on 28 December 2011 in Port Dickson, at a grand beachfront birthday party he kindly hosted for Mary Maguire. He was in top form, beaming good vibes and making all his guests feel relaxed and welcome. We didn't converse much on that occasion. We rarely have to. Tunku Vic of the Negri Sembilan royal house is a soul-brother - and one of the few royals who carries his lineage with dignity, intelligence, wit, wisdom and integrity.

I first got to know Vic through RPK, one of his childhood buddies. Vic really loved RPK and was extremely supportive throughout the trials and tribulations of the maverick Blogger King. When RPK was miraculously released from Kamunting on 7 November 2008, a maroon Rolls-Royce was waiting outside the Shah Alam Court to whisk RPK and his wife Marina directly to a big celebration hosted by Tunku Vic.

Subsequently I kept bumping into Tunku Vic and his exquisite consort Tengku Sharifah Mahiran (a princess from Perlis so friendly and unassuming she insists on being addressed by her nickname, Ms Mo) at various by-elections and every time there was an Abolish-the-ISA candlelight vigil or an event like the Bar Council's Walk for Liberty. These were true aristocrats who felt strongly about restoring civil liberties, human rights, and social justice to Malaysia. They were appalled by the corrupt practices and heavy-handed injustice of the Umno/BN regime - and were unafraid to show their support for the rakyat.

This is why the untimely demise of Tunku Vic is a deep personal loss to me, as well as a major loss to the entire nation. I didn't know that Vic had been diagnosed with leukemia some weeks ago. At some level Vic probably suspected his days were numbered but, stoically, he never once displayed the slightest signs of anxiety - at least not in public - and was irresistibly charming, good-humored and warm every time we had a chat.

Vic, I do wish I had been informed that you were ready to leave. I would have liked to hold your hand and bless your generous heart for showing us what being a true aristocrat is really all about. 

May your ongoing adventures be endlessly joyful. Your friends and family, and all your descendants, will remember you with pride and profound love.

[First posted 27 May 2012]

A terribly Messy Kerismas for Umno (revisited)

Umno is still trying to pin the blame for the bloody 13 May 1969 episode on the DAP (in other words, the Chinese). Notwithstanding widespread reports that machete-wielding, black-clad berserkers donning red headbands were brought in and out of Selangor in army and police field force lorries, there is no doubt that the authorities could have ended the violence within 48 hours - instead of allowing the carnage and tension to drag on for weeks - if they had had the political will to do so...

A few years years ago a young friend shared with me his unease about the next general election. "I have a gut feeling Pakatan Rakyat will win and Umno will stir up trouble," he said.

If he was hoping to get some reassurance from me that nothing so horrific could possibly happen, he would have been disappointed. My response was that the signs were clear - Umno knows it has reached the end of the line, but it refuses to get off the gravy train.

Fat man in a red suit not always Santa Claus!

Ever since Razak Hussein took over the reins from Tunku Abdul Rahman in the grim aftermath of May 13, Umno has been gorging itself off the fat of the land, riding on the NEP and an outrageous array of Ketuanan Melayu (Malay Supremacy) policies.

No need to go over soggy, rank-smelling ground. Umno's sins are legion, and an inordinate proportion were obviously perpetrated under Mahathir Mohamad's 22-year-tenure. Umno should have died and been buried in February 1988 - but Mahathir was way too ruthless and nipped in the bud an attempt by two former prime ministers to establish an "Umno Malaysia" without him.

It was all about the money then - and even more so now. When so much money is involved, the worst traits tend to emerge. Umno in general - and Najib Razak in particular - are in dire straits. They can see the bold graffiti on the wall: the younger, street-savvier generation of Malays are no longer inclined to be whipped into a mindless frenzy by issues of race, religion and royalty. They are far more interested in freedom and social justice.

Umno's support base has been reduced to just a small band of rowdies and bullies - many of them moonlighting as policemen and goons-for-hire. Even its rural voter base of FELDA settlers can no longer be taken for granted - their children are beginning to wake up to the fact that they have been systematically robbed by smooth-talking Umno warlords who claim to have the Malays' interests at heart.

Is the army behind Umno? It's safe to say that the top brass are behind Najib. As defence minister for two terms, Najib had ample opportunity to line the pockets of high-ranking officers and make sure their retirement benefits were well taken care of. However, if the army is called out in the event of a national emergency, the rank-and-file troops may be disinclined to open fire on multiracial crowds for fear of injuring their own friends and relatives.

Alice slays the Jabberwocky of race-based politics

The Bersih 2.0 Rally for free and fair elections put to rest the specter of May 13.

That was its greatest achievement. After that pivotal date, Malaysians are uniting against corruption, social injustice, and demanding their civil liberties. While Umno and its fascist offshoots Perkasa, Isma, Pekida, (and a purulent plethora of ostensibly "Islamic" agencies like Jakim and Jais) remain mired in the ugly rhetoric of race, religion and royalty, everybody else has moved on.

So, even if Umno attempts to revive its May 13 scenario after it loses the next election, it can only send a few hundred rempit into the streets to create an atmosphere of tension. Nobody else will be provoked to join the fray. You can't start a full-scale "race riot" without participants. What can the rempit do except burn a few cars and overturn some trash cans?

Everyone who isn't still in a cultural trance or living beneath a coconut shell knows what sort of dirty tricks Umno is capable of and is unlikely to fall for any race-based sandiwara  it attempts to stage, post GE14. Even if Umno's armed thugs manage to inflict injury on a few hapless bystanders - the rest of the population will take cover and refrain from retaliating. How long can a bunch of mindless thugs roam the empty streets before they tire of their aimless rampage?

The SupremeTransformer, 1Nazjib

Sure, Najib can twist the Agong's arm and declare a national emergency... but such a desperate ploy can only backfire on his corrupt regime. No nation can maintain a state of emergency for more than a few weeks. And then what?

Without people going about their everyday business, everything grinds to a halt. This would be akin to a massive hartal (general strike) which some of us have been trying to organize - only this time the hartal would be thrust upon us by an evil and massively unpopular regime that has just lost an election. Well, if such a situation arises, it would only prove beyond any shadow of doubt that Umno/BN has lost its legitimacy - and even if it seizes this opportunity to arrest and imprison all Opposition leaders, activists and bloggers, it will only be signing its own death warrant.

So let's put it this way: should we continue voting Umno/BN just because we fear the dire consequences if we don't? Or should we pit our fearlessness against Umno/BN's fear? 

I'm willing to concede that we may have to embark on a national reconciliation exercise - the way it was done in South Africa during the tenure of F.W. de Klerk, when many police officers received formal pardons in exchange for their confessions and corrupt ministers were let off if they agreed to return a fair percentage of their ill-gotten gains to the national treasury.

CHEERS! HERE'S TO A BRAND NEW BEGINNING IN 2018!

Cartoon by Edward Koren/New York Times

[First posted 24 December 2011. Reposted 24 December 2013, 24 December 2014 & 24 December 2015]

Amina Describes Her Ordeal (Reprise)

On 8 November 2006 The Star headlines read: "Bone fragments of model found on hill." Eleven years down the line the key figures behind the gruesome murder of Altantuya Shaariibuu have yet to be investigated for their complicity in this high-profile crime of mind-boggling proportions, involving billions of ringgit worth of military spending and kickbacks - and implicating those now enthroned in the highest positions. Not only is the Malaysian government guilty of a massive cover-up, so also are all of us who choose to ignore the rotting elephant carcass in our living rooms....

[From a statutory declaration dated 1 July 2008, signed by Balasubramaniam a/l Perumal, private investigator...]

On Oct 19, 2006, I arrived at Abdul Razak Baginda’s house in Damansara Heights to begin my night duty. I had parked my car outside as usual. I saw a yellow Proton Perdana taxi pass by with three ladies inside, one of whom was Amina. The taxi did a U-turn and stopped in front of the house where these ladies rolled down the window and wished me ‘Happy Deepavali.’ The taxi then left.

About 20 minutes later the taxi returned with only Amina in it. She got out of the taxi and walked towards me and started talking to me. I sent an SMS to Abdul Razak Baginda informing him “Amina was here.” I received an SMS from Razak instructing me “to delay her until my man comes.”

Whist I was talking to Amina, she informed me of the following:

i) That she met Abdul Razak Baginda in Singapore with Najib Razak.

ii) That she had also met Abdul Razak Baginda and Najib Razak at a dinner in Paris.

iii) That she was promised a sum of US$500,000.00 as commission for assisting in a submarine deal in Paris.

iv) That Abdul Razak Baginda had bought her a house in Mongolia but her brother had refinanced it and she needed money to redeem it.

v) That her mother was ill and she needed money to pay for her treatment.

vi) That Abdul Razak Baginda had married her in Korea as her mother is Korean whilst her father was a Mongolian/Chinese mix.

vii) That if I wouldn’t allow her to see Abdul Razak Baginda, would I be able to arrange for her to see Najib Razak.

After talking to Amina for about 15 minutes, a red Proton Aeroback arrived with a woman and two men. I now know the woman to be lance corporal Rohaniza and the men, Azilah Hadri and Sirul Azahar. They were all in plainclothes. Azilah walked towards me while the other two stayed in the car.

Azilah asked me whether the woman was Amina and I said “Yes”. He then walked off and made a few calls on his handphone. After 10 minutes another vehicle, a blue Proton Saga, driven by a Malay man, passed by slowly. The driver's window had been wound down and the driver was looking at us.

Azilah then informed me they would be taking Amina away. I informed Amina they were arresting her. The other two persons then got out of the red Proton and exchanged seats so that lance corporal Rohaniza and Amina were in the back while the two men were in the front. They drove off and that is the last I ever saw of Amina.

I don't know where they are taking me. At first I thought they would take me to the police station and question me, but we seem to be going away from the city. Maybe they are taking me to the airport and throwing me out of the country. More than half an hour later the car enters a gated driveway leading to a double-storey bungalow in a big garden. It's a very quiet area and I have no idea where I am. I feel very worried about the situation, but I try my best to look calm.

One of the men tells the lady something in Malay and she nods and returns to the car. The men then push me inside the house and force me to go upstairs. I am beginning to feel frightened, because this is definitely not a police station. What will they do to me?

One man opens a bedroom door and the other pushes me inside. I fear they may try to rape me as we appear to be alone in this big house. The men ask me for my handbag and they take away my watch, cellphone and jewelry. Then they push me inside a big empty wardrobe and shut the door. It is very dark and musty inside and I hear a key turning in the wardrobe door. I hear the men's voices discussing something, then they leave the room, and I am alone in the total darkness. I can hear my heart pounding very loudly. The sound of traffic from a great distance tells me we are quite far from the city.

I have no sense of time. I may have dozed off after an hour, I can't be sure. My stomach is growling, so it must be long after dinner time. I feel stiff and uncomfortable and my bladder is ready to burst. Amy must be wondering why I am not back at the hotel yet. I hope she will call Ang to enquire about me at the police station. That Razak is a coward. He dare not face me. Instead he has asked the police to kidnap me....

There are voices in the room and a key turns. The wardrobe door opens and I see several figures as my eyes adjust to the light. They are wearing black hoods and I can see only their eyes - but two of them are women. I am dragged out roughly and pushed to the floor. Now I am really scared. These people are dangerous, they are not behaving like police officers at all, more like members of a secret society.

While one of the hooded men lifts me off the floor, the large woman is shouting angrily at me, calling me all kinds of names. Suddenly she steps forward and slaps me very hard across the face - again and again and again - while my arms are held tight by the men. Tears sting my raw cheeks and I tell her stop but she keeps hitting me and spitting in my face.

She calls me a dirty prostitute and says I deserve to die. I don't know who this woman is but she is totally crazy, like a demon. Sometimes she shouts at me in English and then she says something in Malay. The other woman steps forward and tears the front of my dress with great force. She pulls off my bra and gags me with it, and then she yanks down my panties, so they are around my ankles.

The men push me to the floor and take turns raping me. One tries to sodomize me but gives up and forces himself into my mouth instead. I bite him and he screams in pain and hits my head very hard, till I almost lose consciousness. This is a horrible nightmare. It can't be happening to me! Who are these insane people? They can't be policemen! They are monsters! I can hear the large woman laughing like a witch...

Suddenly I am looking at the scene from somewhere above. My body is badly bruised and almost numb with shock. It's a strange feeling, to feel so detached from my body. I feel no anger. Only sadness and pity for my attackers who are so depraved they are no longer human. I know I will never see my family and friends again, because these people intend to kill me.

I am back in my body and it hurts all over. The woman is mercilessly beating me with a cane and kicking me while the others stand back. She keeps whacking my genitals until I feel nothing... then I am thankfully out of my body again.

I watch my unconscious body being carried downstairs. They tape my mouth shut and tie my hands and feet tight with plastic rope. Then they throw me into the back of a 4-wheel-drive and slam the door shut. The vehicle drives off, followed by two other cars.

After a long time the 4-wheel-drive stops and a few people climb into it. The road is very bad and bumpy but I am hovering close to my body, observing everything that happens. There is no more sound of traffic. We must be in the jungle somewhere because all I can hear are insects chirping loudly, and heavy breathing as my body is placed on a stretcher and carried by two men along a jungle path.

When they finally stop and put down the stretcher I hear the woman's voice again. Cold water is thrown on my face and I return to my body with a jerk. Slowly I try to open my eyes but I can't focus on anything because it is very dark, except for the flashlights carried by a few of my abductors. The woman's voice is very close to my ear as she hisses: "So long, Amina. Lovely to meet you at last. Have a pleasant journey." She laughs grotesquely and rips off the tape covering my mouth. "I want to hear you scream. Do you have any last words... dear Amina?" She has removed her hood so I can see her face. It's a very cruel face indeed. The others are not wearing hoods but I don't know who they are. The large woman is obviously their boss.

Out of the corner of my eye I catch the metallic gleam of a gun near my face and I know this is the end of my story. I gather my strength and say as calmly and clearly as possible, so they will hear every word: "You are evil people. I curse you forever. You will never know peace again." I feel myself transforming into a mother wolf, ready to pounce in defence of her cubs...

Then I hear a click and there is blinding flash. I am floating ten feet above my twitching body. After a while I see someone attaching something to my now lifeless body. I cannot believe they intend to blow up my corpse with explosives, so nobody will ever find my bones!


I look up and see a beautiful blue sky. The sun shines brilliantly over the distant mountains. I can hear voices singing in overtones the ancient melodies of the great steppes where my ancestors hunted and fought their battles. Suddenly I am flying like an eagle over the rugged landscape that feels so familiar. I am free as a bird and I am home at last.

[First published 19 October 2008. Reposted 8 November 2011 & 19 October 2014]

ANWAR: A MAN OF EXTRAORDINARY DESTINY (updated & expanded)

It never ceases to amaze me when perfectly intelligent folk keep parroting unoriginal notions acquired from coffeeshop gossip and loose talk over a few beers. How many times have I been told by those supposedly in the know that “Anwar can’t be trusted. He’s a chameleon.”

Dammit… look at that bunch of utter nincompoops strutting around the corridors of power today: anal-retentive Umno stereotypes like Najib Razak, Zahid Hamidi, Nazri Abdul Aziz, Tengku Adnan, Hishammuddin Hussein, Noh Omar, Khairy Jamaluddin… DO YOU TRUST THESE CREATURES? They can’t even speak in public without sounding like robots or reading from scripts! Anwar is human and passionate and you can sense a burning intelligence in his eyes.

Okay, back in the mid-1970s when I first read about this hotheaded leader of ABIM (Muslim Youth Movement), I went ho-hum. Back then Anwar Ibrahim was your archetypal ethnocentric nationalist sporting the mujahideen goatee - but at least he was outspoken on issues affecting the rural poor, and that got him into jail. Seeing his leadership potential, Mahathir persuaded Anwar to join Umno and got him spewing forth the expected foam about bangsa and ugama. I confess that in 1989 I actually did a caricature of him and labeled it "Anal Ibrim" little suspecting that within a decade Anwar would be plagued by that very word. And I'm still troubled by a rumor I once heard, naming Anwar Ibrahim as the minister who came up with the wicked idea to convert the dysfunctional Jabatan Hal Ehwal Orang Asli (Orang Asli Affairs Department) into a tool for converting the Orang Asli to Islam and assimilating them into the Malay mainstream.

Well, I don't know if there's any truth to that accusation - but even if it were true, that was back in 1990, and the man has suffered six years in prison for that reprehensible gaffe. You could say Anwar has paid all his karmic dues. Let's delete Anwar's slightly murky past when he was Umno deputy president and Dr M's hand-picked protégé, and take a closer look at what happened around the time of the currency depreciation in mid-1997. A bunch of young Turks in Umno were pushing Anwar to the forefront as a potential heir to the throne, goading him to attack Mahathir on the corruption front, the old man's weak underbelly. The Mamak didn't like that one bit - and neither did his former finance minister, Daim Zainuddin. Anwar was given the option to hand in his resignation - or face extreme vilification and political damnation.

Anwar, unlike other DPMs, refused to yield to Mahathir’s awesome might and megalomaniacal ego. Anwar fought back when he could have cut his losses by taking up a diplomatic or academic post abroad, returning quietly to the Umno fold a few years later like Musa Hitam.

On September 2nd, 1998, Anwar Ibrahim underwent a radical transformation from Umno bigwig to political renegade - he literally took on the mantle of a messianic cult hero when Malaysia urgently required one. I’ve watched him closely since his sacking and subsequent arrest - and he has performed impeccably as a spiritual warrior and icon of righteous resistance. Over six years of incarceration Anwar maintained his dignity, focus, perseverance and humanity - and that’s when the beautiful, strong women in his life rose to the occasion.

No man who has seen his wife and daughter go through so much on his behalf would ever behave like a male chauvinist pig; he would have a healthy respect for the feminine principle. This is what I see in Anwar and that is why I have publicly hailed him as Malaysia’s best hope at this critical juncture in our political evolution.

Anwar has every quality that marks him as a man of extraordinary destiny. I trust him as much as I trust myself - and because I fear him not, I would walk up to him and tell him to his face if ever I felt he was turning into a tyrant. As a former victim of Dr M's tyranny, Anwar would never want to go down that ignominious road.

In 2001 while overnighting at a friend's house, I flipped through a copy of Anwar Ibrahim's Asian Renaissance I found in his library. Anwar came across as somebody I could imagine having a damn good conversation with on a one-to-one basis. But what most impressed me and turned my views around on politicians in general and Anwar in particular - was the bibliography at the end of the book which listed - among a broad spectrum of classics including the sublime poetry of Rabindranath Tagore - the Tao Te Ching. Now, anybody who can claim to have read that supreme masterpiece in pithy, organic wisdom is welcome in my household anytime. And if he decides to run for high political office, I'd put my money on him. These are no ordinary times we are living in. Successfully navigating the uncharted political seas immediately ahead calls for an extraordinary helmsman - one who has survived the worst storms!

[Here's an inspiring perspective on Anwar Ibrahim by Charles R. Avila that was uploaded 11 June 2008 on Din Merican's blog.]

APPENDIX A

Wednesday, 30 July 2008

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
Malaysia Today

At 2.30pm on Wednesday, 25 June 2008, Senior Assistant Commissioner (SAC) II Mohd Rodwan Mohd Yusof met Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan in room 619 of the Concorde Hotel in Kuala Lumpur. Prior to this secret meeting, Rodwan and Saiful spoke on the phone at least eight (8) times.

Three days later, at 2.00pm on 28 June 2008, Saiful went to see Dr Mohamed Osman Abdul Hamid of the Hospital Pusrawi to ‘complain’ that he had been sodomised by ‘a very important person’ and that he wished to lodge a police report. The doctor, however, found no traces or evidence that he had been sodomised and suggested, for purposes of the police report, that Saiful go to a government hospital.

Who is Rodwan, other than the fact that he works for the IGP and is known as the police chief’s bagman and go-between with the organised crime syndicate that controls all the drugs, prostitution, loan-sharking and gambling rackets? Well, read the following archived reports to get a better understanding of this scumbag and slime-ball named Rodwan. Maybe then you can understand why he met Saiful in a hotel room three days before the sodomy allegation against Anwar Ibrahim exploded.

APPENDIX B

This comment was posted 30 July 2008 on Susan Loone’s blog:

Susan,

I would like to write the following statement in the name of GOD whom I believe.

I am a government doctor in the rank of consultant working in Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKL). I know personally the doctors who examined Saiful on that day - 28 June 2008.

The so-called medical report mentioned in the NST is a fabrication or imagination by the UMNO paper. There is no such medical report submitted to the polis yet.

When examining Saiful, the specialist could not find any signs of Saiful being sodomised. Saiful was very cheerful, unlike real sodomised patients who will usually be very sad and disturbed.

Saiful was subsequently admitted to the ward and observed for a day. He was completely well in the ward and not emotionally disturbed.

Thanks.

[First posted 30 July 2008]

We can only conclude, in view of Umno's psychopathological obsession with anal sex as a means of destroying Anwar Ibrahim's personal reputation and political career, that the Ketuanan Melayu party is possessed by far more dangerous demons - and is collectively a smellier asshole than Saiful Bukhari Azlan.

[Last posted 17 January 2012, reposted 22 March 2014 & 12 April 2016]

Anwar Ibrahim on the Spirit of Liberty (reprise)

[First posted 23 November 2009 and more relevant than ever!]


Anwar: We need substantive change

Terence Netto
November 22, 2009
1:25pm


Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim told a Pakatan Rakyat seminar yesterday on the two-party system that Malaysia must move from the forms of representation to the substance of democratic experience to give validity to the nation's founding constitution.

Speaking to several score leaders from PKR, PAS and DAP, the component parties of Pakatan, at the seminar in Kuala Lumpur organised to infuse them with a sense of mission, Anwar held that the country's democratic beginnings were not sustained because of servile subscription to certain shibboleths.

One was that its racial diversity was potentially explosive and the other was that the need for rapid economic progress was touted as incompatible with democracy.

pic courtesy of penangtalk.com

"Our diverse ethnic make-up, rather than an asset, was treated as a powder keg that could be ignited by the slightest spark," he said.

He said this manipulated fear of the country's social fragility was compounded by the perception that "economic development was not compatible with the freedoms that have been established in other democratic nations."

He said delusive beliefs led politicians to give free rein to "greed and avarice and not what Vaclav Havel (right) described as a heightened responsibility for the moral state of society."

Havel was the Czech playwright who figured prominently in his country's break with its communist past in 1989 and became president shortly afterwards, a modern epitome of Plato's ideal of the 'philosopher-king' that held philosophers as best equipped to rule a country because of their passion for truth and justice.

Of course, these notions are scoffed at by the hardnosed, realist school of leaders who think of politics as offering success only to those skilled at deploying the wiles of a fox and the strength of a lion.

That period is over

Anwar said the period was over when the notion held sway that Asians had a cultural predisposition to such values as social order, deferred gratification, and respect for hierarchy, in preference to the cacophony of democratic dissent.

He said this was the pet theory of a cadre of Asian authoritarians whose influence had waned. In any case their theory has been deflated by Asian intellectuals like Nobel laureate Amartya Sen (left) who has cogently argued that there was nothing intrinsically Asian about a preference for social conformity over democratic individualism.

Sen posited the contrary view that freedom and democracy are vital factors in wealth creation and social advancement in Asian societies.

Once again Anwar aired his opinion that while the Western world had established strong institutions of democracy, they held no monopoly on its underlying principles.

He reiterated that the theories of liberal democracy's progenitor John Locke were adumbrated by the principles laid down in Prophet Muhammad's Last Sermon, to wit, the sanctity of contracts and property rights, racial equality and women's rights.

These principles were upheld as the higher objectives of Islamic Law by the Andalusian legal scholar, al-Shatibi, in his treatise, maqasid al-Sharia, which sanctify the preservation of religion, life, family and wealth.

Anwar again claimed that the philosophic antecedents of the Enlightenment principles of Locke and Montesquieu that seeded the flowering of democratic government in the West could be found in the the Last sermon and the maqasid al-Sharia.

He said there was a discontinuity between Malaysia's beginnings as a constitutional democracy and its subsequent experience as a nation as its rulers deviated from the original spirit of the Constitution.

"The upshot is that Malaysia's experience as a pseudo democracy has been an utter disaster. A nation blessed with vast wealth and a people with the ability to learn and excel have been left in the lurch by decades of failed policies. Hope in a brighter future has been snuffed out by the blunt instrument of state power and the cancer of corruption," claimed Anwar.

Pakatan has a special responsibility

He said the impetus given to the two-party system by the results of the general elections of March 8, 2008, would be lost if the main values of the democratic societies are not fortified. These were liberty, social pluralism and political constitutionalism.

"The intent of these values and the institutions that mediate the relationship between the citizen and the government is to guard against the exercise of tyranny," he said.

Anwar said an independent and free judiciary, a free press and a legislature that applied moral precepts to its output, are vital to the mediation of the relationship between government and the citizen.

He proposed the concept of democracy articulated by the political scientist Ian Shapiro - that it is "an ideology of opposition as much as it is one of government" - as an animating principle for the two-party system.

"Yet we would be in a state of self-deception, however, if we pinned the hopes for healthy democracies on just one of its attributes," said Anwar.

He said free and fair elections in which all parties are allowed to compete on a level playing field and unobstructed governance by those elected by voters were the other attributes of a vibrant two-party system.

Anwar said all these features were envisaged by the country's founding constitution but the sum of subsequent deviations – 700 amendments to be sure – eventuated in the contorted construct Malaysians are faced with today.

He said the Pakatan coalition had a special responsibility to nurture the new consciousness that has emerged in Malaysian society after March 8, 2008, to "retrieve, revive and reinvigorate the spirit of liberty, individualism, humanism and tolerance" that was the underlying spirit of the founding constitution.

[Read the complete transcript of Anwar's excellent speech here.]