To Moon's 42nd spin around the Sun...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DEAREST MOON!

Clown vs Clown ~ by Ismail Dahlan

Written by Ismail Dahlan, Malaysia Chronicle

Reading one of the mainstream media newspapers today, we came across an intriguing comment by Nazri Aziz, the Parliament and Miscellaneous Affairs Minister, where he had said that Ibrahim Ali was a clown.

It was very strange because we had always thought that Nazri was a clown. Could there be two of them? Is there some deep-seated professional rivalry between these two clowns? Is there no honor among clowns?

We have always liked clowns, and when we were a little older and could understand them, comedians. Yet we had had no inkling that Ibrahim Ali was a clown. All this time we had considered him to be merely a racist demagogue and ignored him.

Now we are informed by no less than a Minister that he is a clown, and this is a Minister who should know. Could this really be true? We were determined to investigate.

We first used that foremost investigative tool, and googled him. We could find few references to him as a clown, though it is clearly not the first time that he is being called that. However we find that he is often referred to as a frog. Could it be that there is such a thing as a clown frog? It was most mysterious.

Studying a photo of him, we find he looks entirely human. There is some resemblance perhaps, but surely no one would be so mean as to call him a frog just because he looks a little like one. His political history however was more illuminating; it showed him jumping from Umno to Semangat 46 to Independent to PAS to Independent.

The initials of the parties he has joined, since Malaysians are fond of using initials to identify the next Prime Minister, are USIPI. Using a complex mathematical formula, we derive that the next party he will jump to will start with D.

Going through the list of political parties, we find that the party that starts with D is DAP. So! Ibrahim Ali is going to join DAP next.


This, we assume, is because they have announced that they will be giving seats to Malay candidates. And they have been winning elections. While Ibrahim Ali needs to win the next election, which won't happen if he stands as an independent. No other party will touch him, but the DAP is desperate for Malay members, and Ibrahim Ali is desperate to win. It is a perfect match!

After more painstaking investigation, of which details we will spare you, we came to the following conclusions. Nazri is right, Ibrahim Ali is a clown, but he is a sad one. Nazri is without doubt also a clown, but he has the edge over Ibrahim Ali, as he is part of a circus.

And with Samy Velu not around to threaten his position, Nazri will continue to be the clown-in-chief, until he is defeated, in Padang Rengas, which, thankfully, may be soon.

~ Malaysia Chronicle

You'll never look at a tree the same way again...

In honor of Bob Dylan's 70th solar orbit

"Best thing you can do for someone is to inspire them." ~ Bob Dylan

Who says Dylan only knows 10 chords on the guitar? :-)

Yo te saludo y aplaudo, Evo Morales!

Bolivia Set to Pass Historic 'Law of Mother Earth' Which Will Grant Nature Equal Rights to Humans

Written by Keph Senett
With the cooperation of politicians and grassroots organizations, Bolivia is set to pass the Law of Mother Earth, which will grant nature the same rights and protections as humans. The piece of legislation, called la Ley de Derechos de la Madre Tierra, is intended to encourage a radical shift in conservation attitudes and actions, to enforce new control measures on industry, and to reduce environmental destruction.


The law redefines natural resources as blessings and confers the same rights to nature as to human beings, including: the right to life and to exist; the right to continue vital cycles and processes free from human alteration; the right to pure water and clean air; the right to balance; the right not to be polluted; and the right to not have cellular structure modified or genetically altered. Perhaps the most controversial point is the right "to not be affected by mega-infrastructure and development projects that affect the balance of ecosystems and the local inhabitant communities".

In late 2005 Bolivia elected its first indigenous president, Evo Morales. Morales is an outspoken champion for environmental protection, petitioning for substantive change within his country and at the United Nations. Bolivia, one of South America's poorest countries, has long had to contend with the consequences of destructive industrial practices and climate change, but despite the best efforts of Morales and members of his administration, their concerns have largely been ignored at the UN.

In 2009, directly following the resolution of the General Assembly to designate April 22 "International Mother Earth Day," Morales addressed the press, stating “If we want to safeguard mankind, then we need to safeguard the planet. That is the next major task of the United Nations”.

A change to Bolivia's constitution in the same year resulted in an overhaul of the legal system - a shift from which this new law has sprung.


The Law of Mother Earth has as its foundation several of the tenets of indigenous belief, including that human are equal to all other entities.

"Our grandparents taught us that we belong to a big family of plants and animals. We believe that everything in the planet forms part of a big family," Choquehuanca said. "We indigenous people can contribute to solving the energy, climate, food and financial crises with our values."

The legislation will give the government new legal powers to monitor and control industry in the country.

"Existing laws are not strong enough," said Undarico Pinto, leader of the 3.5m-strong Confederación Sindical Única de Trabajadores Campesinos de Bolivia (a group that helped draft the law). "It will make industry more transparent. It will allow people to regulate industry at national, regional and local levels."

[Read the whole inspiring story here!]

The Lethal Aftermath of Fukushima

Helen Caldicott: prophet of doom or solitary sane voice in a world gone mad with money, money money?

[Brought to my attention by George Lau]

The Lies behind Lynas: an excellent letter from the founder of Malaysia's Green Party to the Australian High Commissioner

May 22, 2011

H.E. Miles Kupa
Australian High Commissioner
Australian High Commission
6 Jalan Yap Kwan Seng
50450 KUALA LUMPUR

Telephone: 2146 5555
Fax: 2141 5773

Your Excellency,

We, concerned citizens of Malaysia, are of the understanding that Lynas Corporation has made one or more payments to the Malaysian Government.

We suspect and fear that this has somewhat helped to fast track the Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (LAMP) approval process - without public knowledge and through a very loose Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) despite a complex and hazardous project.

Under Malaysia's Official Secrets Act, we will have little, if any, hope of getting any truth out of our Government, even though this matter is of utmost national interest.

In the interests of both Malaysia and Australia, both Lynas and our Government should be transparent about the approval process.

As Australia has been a strong advocate of good governance and is committed to stamping out corruption, we call upon your good Government to compel Lynas Corporation to adhere to its stated value of honesty and transparency to reveal the deal it has struck with the Malaysian Government and also to make all payment records public. This is of interest not only to all Malaysians but also to the Australian shareholders of Lynas Corporation.

We trust that the Australian Government is committed to protecting the good name of Australia and will not risk one corporation's headlong quest for profit, at the expense of the health of Malaysians and the local environment, to tarnish the good reputation of Australia.

We therefore urge the Australian Government to investigate Lynas Corporation for any possible wrongdoings in its dealings with the Malaysian Government. We were appalled and disgusted to learn that Lynas Corporation had offered a job to the soon-to-be-retired Director-General of the Malaysian Atomic Agency Licensing Board (AELB), Yang Berbahagia Datuk Raja Abdul Aziz Raja Adnan, by his own admission. I am sure you will agree with me that such an offer is tantamount to fair dinkum conflict of interest, collusion and corruption.

Thank you,

Azlan Adnan
Founder, Green Party of Malaysia

Correspondence Address:
Letter Box 20, Wisma Chartis
99 Jalan Ampang
50450 KUALA LUMPUR
Malaysia

Fax: +603-7732 3300
Web: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6850526636
Email: harithabhoomi.malaysia@gmail.com

Please add YOUR voice to the SAVE MALAYSIA! STOP LYNAS! campaign by signing the petition and writing to the Australian High Commissioner, c.c.'ed to online and print media.

Thank you!

MEMORANDUM TO THE GOVERNMENT & PEOPLE OF AUSTRALIA

Save Malaysia Committee
B-6 Taman Tunas Manja,
Jalan Air Putih, 25300 Kuantan.
Pahang Darul Makmur.

Date: 20/05/2011

HIS EXCELLENCY
AUSTRALIAN HIGH COMMISSIONER TO MALAYSIA
KUALA LUMPUR

Your Excellency,

RE: LYNAS ADVANCED MATERIAL PLANT (LAMP) NOW UNDER CONSTRUCTION IN GEBENG, KUANTAN, MALAYSIA

We the residents of Kuantan, Pahang, Malaysia are extremely concerned over the proposed construction and operation of the above plant.

It is common knowledge that:

1) LAMP will be processing rare earths oxide which contains Thorium.
2) Thorium is a known radioactive material.
3) The mineral monazite which contains the Thorium is mined at Mount Weld in Western Australia and will be shipped to Kuantan, through Freemantle Port for processing at LAMP.

As your country is the originator of this dangerous material it is only right that your country must take responsibility for its presence here in this country.

We are not convinced by the assurances of LAMP, (and others allied to their cause), that the LAMP is safe. If it truly were so, surely then your country should readily keep that industry within its borders, or at the very least, be prepared to take back the waste ( which contains the deadly thorium). But your country has flatly refused to take back their own waste. Source: The Star (12/04/2011, Pg. N.23)

Malaysians have had experience with Thorium, in the Bukit Merah plant in Ipoh, Perak. The consequences of that fiasco are still continuing. Children born deformed or retarded are still alive but unable to articulate their plight while some have lost their lives to cancer.

LAMP claims that their plant is totally different from that of Bukit Merah facility and that the levels of radioactivity is very low. But we remain unconvinced, nor are we prepared to experiment with our health and lives and those of our future generations.

We the residents of Kuantan, appeal to your higher values and call upon you , to do all that you can, to stop the shipment of this Thorium containing material from your country.

Surely, your country being a respectable member of the international community would not allow an International Convention to be flouted or circumvented.

Your Excellency, we the people of Kuantan do not want, in our midst LAMP and for that matter any other company that produces any form of radioactive material.

Your Excellency, does it not seem unconscionable to you that ore containing this radioactive material should be shipped 4000km from your country to Malaysia for the monetary gain of LAMP while the people of Kuantan are left to face the long term effects of the obnoxious waste?
This Thorium waste, as your Excellency would already know, is radioactive and has a ½ life of 14 billion years. Thus, for generations to come , we the people of Malaysia will be exposed to the risks of radioactive contaminations.

Your Excellency, this Movement, is inspired by the most lofty ideals - that of human lives and health. We are resolved to continue our struggle to safeguard our air, water and soil from LAMP’s (and others’) deadly wastes. The vast majority of Malaysians share our mission. We again exhort you, to do all that you can, within your power to stop the dangerous ore from leaving your own shores.

We trust you understand and share our concerns. Many Australians in fact, already do, as the Internet reveals.

Mr Robin Chapple, MLC, Member for the Mining and Pastoral Region is “deeply worried” as expressed in his media release dated 13/04/2011.

I annex a copy of the release downloaded from the internet, for your further reading.

I trust that you will act as a good citizen of the world, and of Australia in particular.

Yours sincerely,
Vincent Jiam

(Hand phone: 016 931 8081)
Chairperson, Save Malaysia Committee

Bored with your job? Try a new career!

If you're sick to death of desk jobs, consider a career in the circus as part of a flying trapeze act!

The money is good - and more so the rousing applause. And as the job requires you to be perfectly fit at all times, you save on paying for a gym. Workout for free while working for top wages. Accommodation, food and transport provided. What better way to see the world?

After a 3-month probation you qualify for star billing!

FREE! LIFE INSURANCE UP TO $5 MILLION!!!

[Forwarded by George Lau]

FULL MOON RISING

Come on, baby, be my buddy

It's the Buddha's birthday!

I'd rather be a nudist

Than a buddhist

On the Buddha's birthday!

HAPPY AWAKENING, PLANET EARTH!

How To Get A Guy To Notice You While You're Having Sex With Him

Better than the Sunday Funnies.

[Brought to my attention by Lesly Leon Lee]

Hugo's YouTube Picks of the Week

Wowie Zowie! How do you like them apples? Islamic Rap! Will it catch on in Malaysia?



Found these phunky vids via rapper extraordinaire Hugo Farrant's Facebook updates and had a blast, Thanks, mate! :-)

Last photo taken with my dad....

This was at my niece Candy's wedding in Singapore, April 2004. Six months later, on 14 October 2004, my dad breathed his last as the sun rose and he was getting sponged down by three nurses. Just one day before, his 11th great-grandchild, Hana, was born to my #1 daughter Moonlake and her husband Dr Ansgar Cheng.

My dearly beloved dad, Lee Hong Wah, was born 1 May 1916 and would have celebrated his 95th solar orbit today.

Last year I wrote a short, sweet tribute to him. If you missed it, go here.

ZEITGEIST ~ Moving Forward 2011

This is a 161-minute long video. You may opt to download it and watch uninterrupted at an opportune time. Or view it directly on YouTube. Whatever you choose to do, don't dismiss or ignore it...

Thank you, Peter Joseph. Thank you, Jacque Fresco. Join the Zeitgeist Movement!

Oneness ~ The Movie!

[Brought to my attention by the delectable Christy Tice]

Lady Baba meets Lord Greystoke III...

I only just viewed this third and final episode of Lady Baba's amazing adventures in Hulu Selangor... and was thoroughly thrilled, not least because I'm in it! :-)

Check out the first two episodes...

Dead aliens from the ocean depths...

Strange-looking, rarely-sighted marine creatures found washed up along the coast of Japan in the wake of the violent earthquake and tsunami of 11 March 2011...


[Forwarded by Olivia de Haulleville]

HAPPY RESURRECTION, FOLKS!

Limit them to two terms! Here's why...

Curtis & Leroy saw an ad in the Starkville Daily in Starkville, MS. and bought a mule for $100.The farmer agreed to deliver the mule the next day.

The next morning the farmer drove up and said,"Sorry, fellows, I have some bad news. The mule died last night."

Curtis & Leroy replied,"Well, just give us our money back."

The farmer said, "Can't do that, sorry. I went and spent it already."

They said, "OK then, just bring us the dead mule."

The farmer asked, "What in the world ya'll gonna do with a dead mule?"

Curtis said, "We gonna raffle him off."

The farmer said, "You can't raffle off a dead mule!"

Leroy said, "We shore can! Heck, we don't hafta tell nobody he's dead!"


A couple of weeks later, the farmer ran into Curtis & Leroy at the Piggly Wiggly grocery store and asked,

"What'd you fellers ever do with that dead mule?"

They said,"We raffled him off like we said we wuz gonna do."

Leroy said, "Shucks, we sold 500 tickets fer two dollars apiece and made a profit of $898."

The farmer said,"Good Lord, didn't anyone complain?"

Curtis said, "Well, the feller who won got upset. So we gave him his two dollars back."

Curtis and Leroy now work for the government.

They're overseeing the Bailout Program.


Limit all politicians to two Terms.

One in office.

One in prison.

[Forwarded by Olivia de Haulleville]

Aminah Dastan: grown up and ready to fly!

Believe it or not, Aminah Dastan is Malaysian. Of Afghani-Irish parentage, Aminah grew up in Malaysia. I met her on Tioman Island when she was all of 12 and her brother Salim, 10.

Salim is a consummate musician in his own right - plays darabukka, djembe, guitar, keyboards and has composed musical settings for his beautiful sister.

Both moved to Dublin a few years ago but return often to Malaysia. Aminah's brilliant and exquisite debut album, Caravan Trail, was produced by Mike Bloemendal in 2004. No longer available in the shops, but you can download from Itunes, Rhapsody, Napster, Emusic, GroupieTunes, or Amazon MP3.

Look forward to seeing you again soon, dearest Aminah! Come jam at the River!

Oil palm will lead to widespread ruin

Millions of acres of healthy rainforest have been logged, displacing and destroying the livelihood of thousands of indigenous people. All for what? Apart from timber profits, corporations with political connections are recklessly planting oil palm, hoping to cash in what was, for a while, a boom market.


This is what has caused Sarawak to lose almost 90% of its prime forest during Taib Mahmud's 30-year tenure as chief minister.


Once destroyed, the rainforest will never again be the same. In their rampant greed, these ecocidal speculators are wiping out what took nature more than 130 million years to grow. They may reap massive profits in the short term, but how long will the palm oil bubble last before it bursts?

KFC to stop using palm oil
(7 April 2011)

KUDOS TO KFC! Fast food chain KFC is to stop frying chicken in palm oil. The company says it is removing the vegetable oil from deep fat friers to gain a "double benefit" by reducing climate change and heart disease.

Used widely as a cooking oil, palm oil employs hundreds of thousands of people in developing countries but has a poor health and environmental record. Forests in Indonesia and Malaysia have been cut down to make way for plantations and the oil is high in artery-clogging saturated fat.

From this month KFC will use high oleic rapeseed oil at its 800 outlets in UK and Ireland, at an estimated cost of £1m a year.The move will cut levels of saturated fat in its chicken by 25 per cent, according to the company. Mark Bristow, head of KFC food assurance said: "Switching to high oleic rapeseed oil means not only can we offer our customers the benefit of reduced saturated fats, but the assurance we're doing everything we can to lessen our impact on the environment."

KFC added: "The global expansion of the palm oil industry has been a contributor to the destruction of tropical rainforests and peat lands to make way for palm oil plantations, which has inadvertently caused large amounts of greenhouse gases being pushed into the atmosphere." KFC will still use palm oil in fries, buns, tortillas and hash browns, but said it had begun talks with suppliers aimed at getting them to switch to alternatives or source only sustainably-certified palm oil.

Since the The Independent disclosed palm oil's role in deforestation two years ago, many retailers and manufacturers have agreed to buy supplies certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil. Campaigners want the European Union to force food firms to list palm oil as an ingredient because it is often listed as 'vegetable oil' on packs. Click here to read about Call4.org's campaign to press for palm oil legislation.

BAH! BAH! BAH! BAH! BAH!

I cannot believe anybody would actually vote Taib Mahmud back in power. Especially the people of Belaga who have been impacted by the catastrophic Bakun Dam - how come they voted BN? Can't just be due to postal votes... which have been used time and again by the Election Commission to stave off outright defeat for BN. These people in the longhouses must be braindead from watching too much TV3.

The Election Commission must be completely revamped before the next election - but how? Unless Bersih 2.0 organizes another mammoth rally with 500,000 on the streets.

In any case DAP did tremendously well, winning 12 seats out of 15 contested; and it's a pity that Alice Lau couldn't dislodge BN's Wong Soon Koh in Bawang Assan.

Congratulations, DAP!

A real Pity PKR didn't do so well in the rural seats. Baru Bian as the new chief minister of Sarawak would have been something worth celebrating.

UBAH! UBAH! UBAH! UBAH! UBAH!

Let this be our battlecry!


PEOPLE OF SARAWAK, GO OUT EARLY TO VOTE.

IT'S YOUR SACRED DUTY
TO GIVE TAIB MAHMUD &
HIS CORRUPT BN CRONIES...

THE BOOT!

Agi Idup Agi Ngelaban!

ABC News ~ THE FIGHT FOR SARAWAK

People of Sarawak, Free Yourself from the Clutches of The Beast!

Last days of the vampire kings on earth

The Times on the "Rape of Borneo"

The negative karma of ill-gotten gains

BRUNO MANSER: Tribute to an Ecowarrior

Malaysia's 7th prime minister (updated)

[This was originally posted 12 November 2009. Much has changed since then and I have added fresh commentary in green. However, one thing hasn't changed: I remain convinced that Anwar Ibrahim deserves our wholehearted support and that he is still Malaysia's best hope at this point. I believe that Anwar is the only leader that can drive the final nail into the coffin of Mahathirism - the cynical, twisted, materialistic ideology that got the nation bogged down in the deep shit of devious divisiveness.]


Like millions of other Malaysians I was looking forward gleefully to witnessing a Pakatan Rakyat government installed in Putrajaya after 16 September 2008 - with Anwar Ibrahim as our sixth prime minister.

Sixth... or seventh... it doesn't matter. I remain convinced that Anwar has the necessary experience to steer the nation clear of some treacherous reefs looming ahead.

Some of my friends say they would rather see Zaid Ibrahim (right) as PM. I'm a great admirer of Zaid Ibrahim and have no problem seeing him become prime minister one of these days.

[Well, this no longer holds true. Zaid Ibrahim has, by his own actions, disqualified himself from consideration as a trustworthy leader. He has revealed himself as egotistical, petty-minded and vindictive. Worst of all, he now enjoys the tacit support of BN and many believe he was an Umno mole all along.]

For that matter, Nizar Jamaluddin has also been described as prime minister material - but before he stands a chance of being appointed to the nation's highest office, his political party will have to shed some of the theological deadwood it is currently burdened with.

[It was reported yesterday that Hadi Awang bumped into Najib on the Sarawak campaign trail and hugged him warmly. That not only gives me the creeps, but I worry about PAS leaders like Hadi Awang, Nashrudin Mat Isa and Hasan Ali who seem unable to resist Umno's horny pheromones.]

In any case, so long as Anwar Ibrahim is in good health and willing to take on the responsibility, I would still prefer that the PM's job go to him. Not only does he have 16 years' experience under his belt as part of the Umno/BN regime under Mahathir, but he has also been initiated into the shadow side of power. Anwar has an intimate understanding of how precarious and illusory worldly power and status can be, having been at the receiving end of Mahathir's gross abuse of power back in 1998.

I'm convinced that anyone who has survived such a nightmarish ordeal would have learned to cherish the true meaning of freedom and justice.

Nurul Izzah Anwar, a member of parliament at 28

Apart from Anwar's phenomenal charisma as an orator and political reformer, he is supported by the magnificent Wan Azizah whose compassion, dignity and strength stand her in excellent stead as a prime minister's wife the entire nation can wholeheartedly love and respect. Not only that, their beautiful daughter Nurul Izzah has proven her mettle as an articulate, intelligent and plucky leader and has all the qualities necessary to someday become Malaysia's first female PM. (Not that I'm in favor of political dynasties - but being born into a political family does provide a strong foundation for handling the stresses and strains of leadership.)

More than a year after Anwar's abortive 916 plan to take over the reins of government, the political situation is totally bogged down in sinister intrigue while outrageous shenanigans continue to be perpetrated with impunity by the Umno/BN regime under Mr Pink Lips (right) - the crime minister appointed by 190 Umno division chiefs - and endorsed by the Malay rulers and the Bumoid Kakistocracy aka the Corporate Umnoputra.

A few of my moneyed friends have expressed their reservations about having Anwar Ibrahim as PM. Some parrot Mahathir and Daim Zainuddin's heavy hints about Anwar's cozy ties with key agents of the New World Order cabal and their Zionist banker connections. They're wary of the fact that Anwar is respected by well-known Neocons like Paul Wolfovitz and has access to a global network of influential names in academia and the mass media. Unlike Najib, Anwar Ibrahim doesn't have to pay millions to some Jewish PR agency to have the international media paint a rosy image of him as a leader.

Umno apologists just don't get it. These so-called Zionist plutocrats - men like George Soros (left), the Rothschilds, and the Rockefellers - admire intelligence and statesmanship and, of course, they are constantly trying to recruit new blood into their ranks. If they have indeed been courting Anwar, it simply means they believe Anwar is well worth luring into their inner circles - just as they at one time invited the likes of Lee Kuan Yew and Mahathir Mohamad to participate in closed-doors Bilderberg conferences. In the geopolitical arena one has to acknowledge that power has been jealously guarded for countless centuries by a secretive elite via interlocking fraternities like the Freemasons, Knights of Malta, and the Rotarians. The heads of these fraternities are members of even more exclusive and secretive mystical orders with names like the Priory of Sion, Opus Dei, the Bavarian Illuminati, and Ordo Templi Orientis.

Their deadly grip on power appears indomitable and absolute. But that's merely an illusion. Truth is, the cracks have become huge enough for new reality options to hatch from within these occult power centers.

David Mayer de Rothschild (born 25 August 1978), adventurer & environmentalist

As always their own descendants - the children and grandchildren of Evelyn Rothschild and David Rockefeller, for example, will break the family mold and mutate in ways unforeseen. Like a tower struck by lightning, the entire edifice of hereditary power and wealth will quickly crumble as the New World Order manifests as something its original planners would never in a million years have imagined possible.

[In any case, linking Anwar with the Zionist-Illuminati Cabal no longer makes sense in view of Najib and Rosmah's expensive affair with the Zionist-owned public relations firm, APCO Worldwide, which is being paid hundreds of millions to repair Najib Razak's severely tainted public image and puff up his international standing. APCO's specialty appears to be keeping tinpot despots in power.]

As a brilliant and charming deputy prime minister cum finance minister, Anwar had apparently attracted the attention of these global powerbrokers. Perhaps he had been emboldened by their tacit support to make his power play against the recalcitrant Mahathir in mid-1997 - which triggered a vindictive and violent reaction from both Daim Zainuddin (above, right) and Mahathir who represented the vested interests of the Umnoputra elite that had burgeoned during Mahathir's 22-year premiership.

Those who had grown fat in the mid-1980s and early 1990s from Mahathir's largesse were naturally incensed by what they perceived as Anwar Ibrahim's impatience and impertinence. He had to be forcefully put down as an example to other would-be upstarts within the ranks of Umno. This explains the ferocity and sheer viciousness of their attack against Anwar in 1998. [And why they decided to dust off the sodomy script and whack him again with it in June 2008... and when that plot laughably fizzled out, they fished out that dubious "Datuk T" sex video.]

Reformasi 1998, Indonesia, brought down Suharto

It was nothing less than a political crucifixion. Just as two thousand years ago the entrenched Jewish priesthood and the obese merchants in Palestine were terrified of the master Yeshua's populist message of reform and renewal - the feudal power establishment in Malaysia was severely rattled by the close proximity of the same groundswell of massive rebellion that swept Suharto and his dynasty from power right next door in Indonesia.

Reformasi 1998, Malaysia: Anwar calls for Mahathir's resignation

The Umno old guard isn't quite dead yet. Mahathir still growls as he paces and prowls in growing frustration, watching Umno warlords repeatedly shoot themselves in the foot and dig themselves deeper and deeper into their own graves. Quietly monitoring the political shifts since 8 March 2008 from his invisible vantage point, former finance minister Daim Zainuddin makes hardly a sound - but he has been busy behind the scenes, doing whatever he can and must to thwart Anwar's ambitions to become PM.

As for the Malay rulers, they have been compromised - particularly since the mid-1980s - by their immersion in entrepreneurial pursuits - an unhealthy trend that escalated following Mahathir's usurpation of their traditional authority. Few of them have any head for business, so they are largely dependent on a shadowy cadre of Umnoputra tycoons and the fly-by-night financial adventurers who serve as their advisors and proxies.

This is certainly an untenable and unwholesome situation. The royal houses must decide very soon whether to throw their lot in with the collapsing Umnoputra house of cards - or to discreetly extricate themselves from further involvement in the sordid world of business - a realm where their royal stature is susceptible to being irreversibly tarnished and brought into severe disrepute. They cannot carry on dabbling in business, getting entangled in constant conflicts of interest or risking legal action when their enterprises go bust - and yet expect the public to shut up and keep paying their royal allowances.

I was telling some friends recently that the political atmosphere during the Mahathir Era was horribly stifling, especially after 1986 when his power faced serious challenges. But, strangely, things feel even worse today - not necessarily because Najib is crueler and more ruthless than his cynical puppetmaster - but simply because the Internet can now reveal the full extent of Umno/BN's criminal mismanagement, complete with charts and tables and long lists of figures.


Thanks to the emergence in Cyberspace of loose cannon maverick royals like Raja Petra Kamarudin - whose access to "official secrets" and whose ability to expose and destroy the rogue regime we call Umno/BN (along with all who stubbornly cling to their ill-gotten gains and their obscene privileges) should never be underestimated - those of us who genuinely love this country still have many strategic options apart from migrating.


As RPK has so admirably shown by positioning himself out of harm's way and continuing to fire salvo after salvo at the fortress of the Wicked Queen, it's futile trying to scare bloggers into silence. You can haul up and question a few - but at what cost to your expensively tailored international image? And for every Malaysian-based blogger who gets intimidated into silence, a hundred outspoken bloggers based abroad will emerge to carry on the information war.

[RPK launched the Malaysian Civil Liberties Movement as a "Third Force" when he realized that Anwar Ibrahim had his own way of doing things that didn't always coincide with RPK's strong opinions. These two men are extremely charismatic but very different in temperament. Anwar is a natural-born fiery orator, diplomat and political strategist; while RPK enjoys the role of flamboyant revolutionary and gunslinging political Paladin, six-shooters blazing from both holsters. RPK has never run for political office and remains fiercely independent in his championing of justice. However, what troubles me is that RPK maintains an affable, hand-kissing relationship with Dr Mahathir and recently met with Sanusi Junid, who was sent to the UK as Dr M's emissary to persuade RPK to disassociate himself from Anwar Ibrahim. RM10 million was dangled as a carrot. RPK says he turned it down, even though he was momentarily tempted.]

One of the perks of amassing a vast fortune is to be admired and applauded wherever you go. However, if your reputation sinks to the level of infamous rogues like Robert Mugabe, Augusto Pinochet, Ferdinand Marcos, Slobodan Milošević, General Than Shwe, Kim Jong-Il, Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney... you'd probably be wishing you could have been half as talented as Michael Jackson instead... or twice as dead.