ZAID'S THE MAN!

Zaid Ibrahim (courtesy of The Nut Graph)

On 18 March 2009 Zaid Ibrahim addressed the Rotary Club of Kuala Lumpur. His clear-headed, no-punches-pulled speech greatly impressed me and deserves to be revisited - particularly now that Zaid is poised to become the new MP for Ulu Selangor...

"If truth be told, Najib can't be PM"
Zaid Ibrahim | March 18, 09 1:51pm

Full text of former law minister Zaid Ibrahim's hard-hitting speech at the Royal Rotary Club of Kuala Lumpur on 18 March 2009.

This is the second time I have been invited to address a Rotary Club. Thank you for the honour. Given the times we live in, perhaps it might be appropriate for me to speak about the leadership transition that has been foisted upon us Malaysians.

I say ‘foisted’ because neither me nor anyone in this room had any role or say in the choice of the person who will lead Malaysia next. We were mere bystanders in a political chess game. And yet the transition is a subject of great consequence to the nation, one I would say is of great national interest.

Leadership is definitive; the individual who assumes the mantle of leadership of this nation, whomever that may be, is one who for better or worse will leave his mark on us. His will be the hand who guides us to greater success, or possibly gut-wrenching disaster.

Save for the dawn of Merdeka, never in the history of this country has the choice of prime minister been so crucial: Malaysia is in crisis. We are facing tremendous economic challenges with unavoidably harsh socio-political consequences. Our much undermined democracy is once again being assailed by those who would prefer a more autocratic form of governance.

Our public institutions are hollowed out caricatures, unable to distinguish vested party interests from national ones, unable to offer the man in the street refuge from the powerful and connected.

Our social fabric that took us from colony to an independent nation and on through the obstacles of nation building has reached a point where it sometimes feel like we are hanging on by a thread. This is the Malaysia we live in.

PM’s resignation ill-fated

This is the Malaysia which Abdullah Ahmad Badawi leaves behind. Our prime minister will resign later this month - an ill-fated decision. I say ill-fated not because he has been a great prime minister and we would lose irreplaceable leadership, that is regrettably not the case as all things said and done Abdullah could have done much more for Malaysia.

Rather, I say that his resignation is ill-fated because his departure will expose the country to forces which may take us down the road of perdition faster than ever. Much has been said of Pak Lah being a weak leader. However, what his critics have not adequately addressed are the consequences of replacing him as prime minister with the anticipated incoming president of Umno, Najib (Abdul) Razak.

It is an undeniable truth that the average Malaysian is anxious about the anticipated transition. Many would prefer it did not happen.

There are two reasons why this is so. The first has to do with the reasoning underlying Umno's demand for the transition itself. The second has to do with Najib personally.

We must recall that after the 2008 general election - a great success for the nation but a fiasco for Umno – one of the chief complaints by the powers-that-be within Umno was that Abdullah’s feeble leadership led to the concept of Ketuanan Melayu being challenged and ultimately undermined.

His critics also lashed out at him for the latitude given to civil society, a move which they believed weakened a key aspect of Umno's political leverage. It followed in Umno's mind that in order to regain lost ground, it was necessary to reassert its ideology with greater strength.

There was nostalgia for Mahathir's heavy-handed style of leadership and a return to the times when the party cowed many into subservience and submission. The conservatives in Umno yearned for a return to Mahathirism, hoping that it would become a cornerstone of the leadership transition plan. There has been much speculation and punditry on whether a return to the Mahathir era would be good for Malaysia.

Difference between then and now

Let me offer some of my own insight to this debate. The major difference between then and now is this: in most instances, Mahathir was harsh and dictatorial if he believed it was good for the country. But an authoritarian style of government under anyone else would be dictated by the need for self preservation and very little about the country’s interest.

The evidence is all around us. After March 8, (2008) when the prime minister ceased being the home minister, the threats of reprisal have escalated and a climate of fear re-cultivated. The detention of Raja Petra Kamarudin, Teresa Kok and Tan Hoong Cheng exemplify this turn for the worse, this appetite to use the sledgehammer.

The shameful power grab in Perak and wanton disregard for public opinion over how BN wrested control of the silver state make many people shudder at the prospect of a return to the dark days. If that was not depressing enough, we have had to bear witness to the police and the newly-minted Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) displaying their allegiance and support to the BN when all we needed and craved for were honest brokers.

It stands to reason that in the mind of the average Malaysian, having suffered a significant loss last March, Umno is on a rampage to regain what it lost by any method available and the man who is expected to lead it to victory is the man who succeeds Abdullah: Najib (Abdul) Razak.

A prime minister must have the confidence of the majority of the rakyat. In order for this to be the case, his integrity must be beyond question; not only must he be such a person character, he must be seen to be such a person. The office of prime minister is one of great trust, he who holds that office cradles the nation in his palms.

For this to be the case, there cannot be anything in the mind of the greater public that, correctly or otherwise, associates him with matters of criminality, wrongful action, improper conduct or abuses of power. In short, he must be beyond reproach in his dealings both official and private.

Without intending any accusation, it is regrettable that in the collective mind of the rakyat, Najib is not such a person. If a referendum were to be conducted on the subject or if the prime minister was to be elected directly by the rakyat, I do not think Najib would succeed. The reason for this is obvious: the rakyat has doubts, fuelled by the unanswered allegations against him and his unwillingness to confront these allegations.

It is not a mere trifle in the minds of the rakyat that despite a direct challenge from a member of parliament in the august House recently, the deputy prime minister remained silent, not even denying the implicit accusation made against him and demanding that it be repeated outside the chamber in the tried and tested method of refutation employed by parliamentarians throughout the world.

It has not assisted the cause of the incoming prime minister that the MP concerned was suspended for a year on a motion tabled by a fellow minister without the member having been afforded an opportunity to defend his position.

Evidence of SMS text-messages

Consider this. Commissions were paid to an agent for the procurement of submarines through the Defence Ministry, Najib (then) being the defence minister. It is unthinkable that he had no knowledge that the agent was his adviser and aide, Abdul Razak Baginda. The commission paid out was exceedingly large, in excess of RM500 million.

The defence minister was dutybound to direct enquiries to see if there had been any impropriety in the way the contracts were awarded when news of the commission surfaced; after all the price of the submarines would be considerably lower without the need for such commissions.

Taxpayers, you and I, have paid for those submarines at a price that in all probability factored in the commission. Taxpayers are yet to be told of an inquiry let alone the result of such an inquiry.

Consider the Altantuya Shaariibuu affair. A young woman was brutally murdered, her corpse destroyed by explosives.

These explosives are not the usual type of explosives, yet no inquiry was held to determine how they were available to these killers. Those accused of her murder are police officers serving in the Unit Tindakan Khas, a highly specialised unit who amongst other things serve as bodyguards to the prime minister and the deputy prime minister.

Amidst evidence that the accused were employed to protect the PM and the DPM, they were directed to (Abdul) Razak Baginda through the aide of the deputy prime minister. Amongst other things, we have heard of the senior investigating officer admitting that the deputy prime minister was an important witness and yet no statement was taken.

It is not unreasonable to think that this is irregular, more so when evidence of SMS text-messages from the deputy prime minister concerning material matters have surfaced. The text-messages cannot be ignored, proverbially swept under the carpet.

Even if they do not establish - or are not capable of establishing - any culpability on the part of Najib, these issues must be addressed.

The air must be cleared, it is thick with accusations and doubts which can only undermine the office of the prime minister if he were to assume it. The deputy prime minister's cause has not been aided by the fact that charges were preferred against (Abdul) Razak Baginda only after public outcry, the manner in which the prosecution was conducted and the decision of the High Court acquitting (Abdul) Razak Baginda not having been appealed.

Power grab an unmitigated disaster

The Perak affair was an unmitigated disaster for the nation. It is no secret that Najib led the charge there and is still overseeing matters.

In the minds of Malaysians, Perak is synonymous with the deputy prime minister. They now equate him with the high-handed tactics that were employed to seize power, tactics that included the disappearances of the three crucial assemblypersons and the blockading of the legislative assembly by the police.

In doing so, they equate the DPM with the hijacking of democracy, the only persons saying otherwise being those persons who have associations with Umno. In their minds, no responsible leader would allow for the undermining of the institutions of state and the constitution of this nation.

They ask, rightly so, whether this is the kind of leadership that Malaysians can expect from Najib when he becomes the prime minister.

With all of this, and more, how are we not to feel anxious? How are we to sleep peacefully at night? I know that I cannot. The situation is desperate and the air is pregnant with tension. We need the state of affairs to be resolved in a way that is in the best interests of the nation and the rakyat.

To an extent, this is a matter for the Barisan Nasional. I urge its members to put politics aside and think things through. We all want a better future, a safer and more prosperous life for our children, all of them, a Malaysia where our children can reach for the stars with the certainty that there is nothing to stop them from being the Malaysians they want to be.

Let the king be kingmaker

I do not believe that the Barisan Nasional will do what is necessary. Politics has a tendency of making those who embrace it cynical. The answer lies elsewhere, with His Majesty the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.

In this case, His Majesty plays the role of ‘kingmaker.’ The discretion to appoint the prime minister who succeeds Abdullah lies with His Majesty. Though His Majesty is required under the constitution to appoint the person who commands the confidence of the majority of the members of parliament, it is a matter for His Majesty's judgment.

Never before has such a heavy burden been laid on His Majesty to make a brave and correct choice.

For King and country, I urge His Majesty to take into consideration the prerequisites to appointment and the concerns of the rakyat. There is no constitutional obligation on His Majesty to appoint the president of Umno as the prime minister. There are still well qualified members of parliament from Umno who can be appointed PM to bring us back from the brink.

Malaysia needs someone whom the rakyat can throw their weight behind without reservation. Someone they can trust and respect. Someone who has no scandal to distract him and thereby gain respect from the international community.

These are difficult times and be prepared for worst times to visit us. Malaysia needs a leader who will unite the country in the face of the adversity. Divided, we are weak. I am loath to say it, but for the reasons I have set out am compelled to say that Najib will most certainly divide us and in doing so, will nudge us closer to the edge.

Some of you may say that all efforts to promote the national interest are at this stage an exercise in futility. If truth be told, I am tempted to slip into cynical hopelessness too. I am fighting the temptation to give up for one simple reason: Malaysia and all that it represents. This is a blessed country, a country too valuable for us to turn our backs on.

No more Thatcherist policies!

I have a single-mother friend who works hard to earn RM3,000 a month. She rents a tiny apartment for RM550 and doesn't own any vehicles. Her monthly traveling expenses fluctuate between RM150-220. On top of her own household expenditure she pays her 70-year-old mother a monthly allowance of RM350. She also has to repay an old credit card debt dating back years, which leaves her with just enough to scrape by each month.

Doesn't her mother qualify for welfare, I ask her. Yes, but the amount on offer is RM100 a year. That might have been worth something 50 years ago.

My friend is just one among millions of working Malaysians who can barely make ends meet in a world of shrinking job opportunities and ballooning inflation. There's absolutely no way she could ever aspire to become a BN minister and gain access to virtually unlimited unofficial "commissions."

This is essentially how a feudalistic rightwing economy is structured. The greatest number support with their blood, sweat and tears a tiny, privileged and utterly spoilt handful who think nothing of squandering millions just to boost their own inflated egos and play the ketuanan game to the hilt.

Mahathir turned Umno into an ultra-racist party driven by arrogance and greed. He created and befriended tycoons and developers while completely overlooking ordinary citizens. In England this kind of economic policy was dubbed Thatcherism.


It's time for a radical swing to the left. We desperately need an economic policy that truly serves the public - not just private capital interests. The longer Umno remains in power, the harder life will get for the majority of the working class.

Extravagant monuments to megalomaniacal egos - coupled with unabashed looting of the public purse by the ruling elite and their capitalist cronies - have brought Malaysia close to moral and financial bankruptcy.

The only route to salvation lies in banishing Umno/BN from power. Next week, the campaign for Ulu Selangor begins in earnest. A defeat for Pakatan Rakyat would mean almost certain doom for the rakyat's aspirations. A triumphant BN will continue working around the clock to sabotage, undermine and buy over weak elements from the political opposition - until it regains its two-thirds majority in parliament.

If that happens, Umno/BN will be in a position to ensure that a tsunami like the one on 8 March 2008 will never again happen. They will risk worldwide criticism and ostracism by imprisoning key opposition leaders and silencing the critics. Malaysia will become an undisguised police state and potential wealth-generators will migrate in droves, leaving the rest of us to fester in a political backwater akin to Burma and Zimbabwe.


Voters of Ulu Selangor, it's our sacred duty to whack the shit out of Umno/BN on April 25th.

WHY NAJIB HATES ANWAR

Courtesy of MediaRakyat (18 March 2010)







BECAUSE NOBODY IN UMNO (APART FROM KU LI) CAN COME CLOSE TO ANWAR!

TIME TO KICK SOME BN ASS!

Those of you who have been following this blog for a while will probably have observed that I haven't been addressing political issues - at least not in my characteristic swashbuckling style - since I returned from an unplanned pilgrimage to the Sungai Buloh hospital in early January.

This isn't because I fear for my personal safety at the hands of an enraged Rais Yatim (right) - the irascible Information, Communications and Culture with a reputation for threatening bloggers with "stern action" - (which makes him sound like a closet pederast, if you happen to be familiar with nautical terminology).

Nor is it because I have given up the battle against BN's 53-year misrule. On the contrary, I'm as determined as ever that before too long all decent folk will be celebrating the installation of a Pakatan Rakyat federal government; the abolition of archaic oppressive laws; an exhaustive reform of the deformed police force, judiciary and civil service; and the flowering of a more democratic, more open and far more just new era in the nation's evolution.

The real reason I've taken a break from writing acerbic commentaries on the political scene is that I was enjoying a period of expanded consciousness that afforded me an eagle's eyeview of events occurring on multiple levels on this planet - and beyond. In effect, my focus was on the macro rather than the micro - and, besides, there are already enough political commentaries appearing on a daily basis on various blogs and news portals.

Unlike Raja Petra Kamarudin (left) - arguably the best-informed, most audacious political analyst and catalyst Malaysia has ever produced - I have little or no access to juicy gossip from within the corridors of power. At this juncture I can only repeat what I've been saying for the past few years (in fact, my entire adult life): Banish Umno/BN from power... or migrate!

I'm too long in the teeth to start all over again in a different country. So I have no option but to dig my heels in and contribute what I can towards the political sea and sky change that's long overdue.

I keep bumping into friends with rightwing views who stubbornly cling to the spurious notion that it's safer to support the devil you know - rather than risk an unknown quantity like Pakatan Rakyat taking over the reins of power. Such unimaginative perceptions are so tedious and tiresome to my ears I can hardly be bothered to argue with them.


However, all those who endorse the status quo are invariably from the comfortable upper middle class who made their pile during the Mahathir era. They were very much part of the rapid material growth Mahathir envisaged as crucial to his ambition to be leader of a "developed" nation and founder of a powerful political dynasty. For this segment of society, authoritarian and repressive governments are acceptable simply because they can maintain, by force if necessary, a degree of political stability. They know that obnoxious laws like the ISA and the Police Act against "illegal assembly" do not apply to them - only to rabble-rousing idealists and the long-suffering underclass.

Well, I am neither a rabble-rousing idealist nor a member of the oppressed underclass - but I cannot lend my support to authoritarianism of any stripe, especially when it's heavily laced with the grossly insensitive patriarchal bias that invariably accompanies a rapacious ecocidal agenda.

Najib's regime, taking a cue from the cynical and Machiavellian Dr Mahathir, is undeniably an authoritarian one with a patriarchal underbelly. It attempts to pump itself up through systematic propaganda (courtesy of public relations consultant APCO Worldwide) combined with brute force (courtesy of the Royal Malaysian Police and the Anti-Corruption Commission). It's above all an irredeemably corrupt and cynical rightwing fascist regime bereft of ideas and utterly indifferent to the population at large - except when elections are called and they need to go around buying votes and bribing constituents with baubles and instant projects.

(Pic by Ginie Lim)

On March 26th Anwar Ibrahim was the star speaker at a rally in Kuala Kubu Bharu to inaugurate the "Save Malaysia" campaign. There may have been as many as 10,000 people from as far away as Rawang and Tanjong Malim filling the KKB mini-stadium - and a tangible excitement rippled through the crowd when Anwar arrived, just before 11pm. It was the sort of thrill you might expect to feel at a rock concert just before the band takes its position on stage and the show's about to kick off.

Note the unsmiling guy on the right. Is he SB or Umno? (Pic by Ginie Lim)

Earlier the crowd had shown mentri besar Khalid Ibrahim a very warm welcome. It was obvious that the people genuinely like the new chief minister; their applause was spontaneous and wholehearted.

The moment Anwar took his place at the lectern he had the crowd eating out of his hand. He was in great comedic form as he took swipes at Najib's bungling attempts to continue pulling the wool over the sheeple's eyes.

It was impossible not to wish that I could fast-forward to a much more open-ended and promising future with Anwar Ibrahim securely installed as a prime minister we can sincerely love and respect - and Pakatan Rakyat forming the federal government with a comfortable majority in parliament.

Meanwhile, there's a significant by-election coming up in Ulu Selangor and I shall be forced to stick my nose back into the political stew and ensure that those Nazi wannabes in Umno/BN lose this one big time.

'Save Malaysia': unprecedented turnout at the KKB Mini-Stadium (pic by Ginie Lim)

Exclusive Interview with Malaysia's Opposition Leader

A Truly Wonderful Victory For Justice!

This despatch just arrived in my inbox. It's such a hard-won victory I decided to blog it immediately. Fantastic work, Harrison Ngau!

Victorious Kayan plaintiffs from Long Teran Kanan with lawyer Harrison Ngau (in dark suit)

Borneo natives win class action suit against Malaysian oil palm giant

Controversial IOI group loses 12-year legal battle as Sarawak court declares its land leases "null and void"

MIRI, SARAWAK/MALAYSIA - More than twelve years after going to court, the Kayan native community of Long Teran Kanan on the Tinjar river in the Malaysian part of Borneo have won an important legal battle against the Sarawak state government and IOI Pelita, a subsidiary of the controversial Malaysian oil palm producer IOI.

In a judgement delivered earlier this week, the Miri High Court declared the land leases used by IOI "null and void" as they had been issued by the Sarawak state government in an illegal and unconstitutional way. According to the Borneo Resources Institute Malaysia (BRIMAS), the court granted Long Teran Kanan headman Lah Anyie and his community compensation for the damage done by IOI to their land. The case had been handled by Miri-based lawyer Harrison Ngau.

Last December, a BBC News investigation had uncovered that vast tracts of former rainforest were being bulldozed in the disputed IOI operations area and had found "a scene of absolute devastation: a vast scar on the landscape". Local landowners had complained that their paddy fields and fruit trees had been destroyed by the company.

Courtesy of www.dangngo.com

Court decision discredits Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO)

The Court decision also discredits the so-called Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) which, according to IOI, had found in a probe that the company "had acted responsibly for the management of land in Sarawak". IOI, a palm oil producer serving markets in 65 countries, is a leading RSPO member. Last month, a Friends of the Earths report presented evidence that IOI was responsible for large-scale illegal and unsustainable activities in the Indonesian part of Borneo.

The Bruno Manser Fund welcomes the Miri High Court decision and expects IOI to stop its jungle clearance activities and move out of the disputed lands in the Tinjar region with immediate effect.

[Source: Media Release from Bruno Manser Fund, Switzerland]

FURTHER BACKGROUND:

The end of the jungle?

Borneo tribes 'driven from land'

20 QUESTIONS ON 2012

Get the answers direct from Eden Sky at:
20 QUESTIONS ON 2012

Meanwhile, here are some thought-provoking quotes from panelists at an upcoming Prophets Conference called 2012: Tipping Point...

"The purpose of the Maya coming to this planet was very specific: to leave behind a definite set of clues and information about the nature and purpose of our planet at this particular time in the solar system and in the galactic field." — José Argüelles

"Please take the growing crisis very seriously and realize that the time for sacred action has come. Plunge deep into sacred practice so that you can connect with the eternal within you and remain calm and joyful and full of passionate compassion through all the shatterings to come." — Andrew Harvey

"Humanity is facing unprecedented, evolutionary changes. It is amazing - out of the famous Mayan prophecy has come the indication that we are facing the end of this world as we know it and the beginning of the new world of 2012. What vision of the future, of the new world, might we see so that we can place our attention upon this vision as a strange attractor to carry us through this critical time?" — Barbara Marx Hubbard

"2012 is definitely not just about one day in 2012; it is about a sea change that probably won’t bear fruit for many decades. But I believe that 2012 could be seen by future historians as a temporal marker of a great renaissance that will raise a submerged continent of consciousness that has been suppressed by Western science and culture." — John Major Jenkins

"One of the predictions concerns how we’re going to have seven days of darkness. When this takes place, a lot of people that don’t have a spiritual basis are going to go nuts. I have been assured that this will not be the end of the world. It really means, according to the Maya, that the earth is going to go through a period of gestation and enter into a new period. I saw in a vision that we’re going to have two suns. We need to get ready." — Flordemayo

"As we complete this apocalyptic passage, we will conceive ourselves, increasingly, as fractal expressions of a unified field of consciousness and sentient aspects of a planetary ecology - the Gaian mind - that is continually changed by our actions, and even our thoughts." — Daniel Pinchbeck

"We have indeed entered a critical time in human history. A tsunami is rapidly building on the horizon. Every person on earth is connected like never before, through the Internet and cell phones. Most of us have come to understand that we are perched on a shore that is threatened by a mounting wave of economic and environmental disaster." — John Perkins

"We live in a provocative, evolving time that promises to impact how we live together on the planet, how we continue as a species, and how we understand ourselves in relation to a larger universe... this is the time to remember how to live in ecstatic relationship with natural forces." — Llyn Roberts

"Today we find ourselves wandering disconsolately between two worlds — one dying and the other struggling to be born. On the one hand, the spiritual and intellectual certainties of the past no longer command our allegiance. On the other, the promises of a more integral worldview, a cosmology of tomorrow — one based on a deeper relationship with nature and with the larger cosmos — require of us a leap of faith few are as yet willing to take. With the future of the human spirit and the future of the planet hanging in the balance, we have no choice but to embrace courage, imagination, and our deepest inner resources." — Richard Tarnas

"Now, we are in those days when many people are talking about 2012: and some of them don’t see the positive side of the Prophecies because they are looking only at the surface of the Prophecies and not at the deeper meaning of the Prophecies." — Miguel Angel Vergara

This Week's Recommended Reading

It's been a beautiful, mellow, sunny weekend full of delightful visitors and music - interspersed with a bit of political excitement when Anwar Ibrahim came to Kuala Kubu Bharu with a large contingent of Pakatan Rakyat leaders to kick off the Save Malaysia campaign on 26 March - and drew a fantastic turnout (estimated at 5,000 by Malaysiakini but local opinion has it there were nearly 10,000).

I haven't spent much time at the computer except to keep tabs on current goings-on. There were four items that caught my attention and which I would like to alert you to by way of recommended reading...

THE PERKASA DISTRACTION

The politics of exclusion is making a return, pushing back against the rising tide of inclusiveness that has spread to both sides of politics.

Later this week, a politician who famously earned himself notoriety by being labelled The Frog for his willingness to switch sides will position himself in the cat-bird seat, as the spearhead of a resurgent Malay rights movement.

There is little doubt that Ibrahim Ali and his newly-formed and speedily-registered Perkasa, with Dr Mahathir Mohamad lending his imprimateur, and the Mahathirian old guard in the likes of Aziz Shamsuddin, Sanusi Junid and others gathering around it, will have some apparent clout and the ability to dominate headlines.

But at what price to national cohesiveness?

[Read the rest here.]

MALAYSIA MUST END ABUSE OF MIGRANT WORKERS

Drawn by promises of jobs in Malaysia, thousands of men and women from Bangladesh, Indonesia, Nepal and elsewhere in the region pay substantial sums to recruitment agents. Once they arrive, they find that much of what their agents told them about their new jobs is untrue. Malaysia’s economy depends on the labor of migrant workers yet the government effectively criminalizes them.

[Read the rest here.]

APCO & NAJIB: Beneath the veil of public relations

By Tian Chua

Next Tuesday, March 30, Barisan Nasional parliamentarians will be gearing up to crucify Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim for his comments on Apco. The MPs might think that they are doing the BN government a favour by defending Najib and his high-flying consultancy company.

In the minds of most BN lawmakers, defending the government is equivalent of defending the country. By the same logic, people who criticize the government are simply traitors to Malaysia.

I would like to invite my friends from the other side to think harder, and look harder. In fact, it does not require a lot of effort to find out the connection between Apco and Israel.

[Read the rest here.]

REDEFINING MORALITY

By Raja Petra Kamarudin

"I really don’t care what your ethnic background is. I feel that whatever race we field in this coming by-election is not important. What is important is that it should be a female candidate. Yes, a woman, and not because I love women even though it is true I do. It is because women and not Indians are the neglected lot (and certainly not Malays as PERKASA alleges)."

[Read the rest here.]

British Parliament: "Quit harassing Anwar and the Opposition!"

Jeremy Corbyn met Anwar Ibrahim on Friday, 19 March; while more Members of Parliament signed the EDM last Tuesday.

MALAYSIA AND ANWAR IBRAHIM
15.03.2010

Labour MP Jeremy Corbyn submitted the following EDM (Early Day Motion) to the British Parliament on Monday, 15 March 2010, and it was passed.


That this House recognizes Malaysian Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim's contribution to promoting democracy in Malaysia and peace and understanding between the Muslim world and the West; is deeply concerned at the charges laid against Anwar Ibrahim and that his current trial flouts international standards of fairness and adherence to the rule of law; notes that this trial resembles the one he faced in 1998 in which the conduct of the judiciary was condemned by Malaysians and by the international community; further notes the renewed exhortations by international human rights organizations including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch and prominent leaders from Commonwealth nations including the Right honourable Paul Martin of Canada and the Right honourable Michael Danby and 59 other elected representatives of Australia for the Malaysian government to drop the charges against Anwar Ibrahim; and calls on the Malaysian authorities to bring an end to the harassment and persecution of members of the political opposition.

Not such a good year for the Tiger...

AFP/Getty Images

Find out more about the Tiger Blogfest 2010 here!

Mahathir the Snake Oil Salesman

MALAYSIAN MAVERICK: Mahathir Mohamad in Turbulent Times - Barry Wain's revealing study of Dr M's 22-year term as Malaysian prime minister was published in 2009 by Palgrave Macmillan. The first shipment of the hardcover edition was detained in December 2009 by the home ministry when it arrived in Port Klang.

More than three months later, no formal announcement has been made as to whether the book is banned in Malaysia. As a result local booksellers have held back on ordering the title in case the home ministry confiscates all copies, as it is wont to do with any literature deemed embarrassing to Barisan Nasional.

A group of dedicated souls have now begun to upload in pdf format low-quality scans of Barry Wain's highly readable and well-researched book. This makes the material accessible to anyone with an internet connection, even if it unfortunately deprives the author and publisher of some revenue.

I have just skimmed through Chapter Five of Malaysian Maverick and can attest to the robust quality of Mr Wain's research and the lucidity of his writing style. Barry Wain has done us all a magnificent service by publishing this important work which effectively deconstructs the demiurgic façade carefully and cynically built up by Mahathir's professional spin-doctors.

It only takes a few paragraphs to show up Dr M for what he essentially is - just another snake oil salesman with a terminal case of megalomania, in vigorous denial of his own dark and dangerous side.

Of course, Mahathir couldn't have singlehandedly destroyed the nation's moral core - he was more than ably aided by the archetypal Mafia don, Daim Zainuddin, who subsequently served Mahathir as finance minister.

The first shipment of Malaysian Maverick was finally released by the home ministry a few months after being impounded and copies are currently available at major bookstores.
____
Barry Wain is a writer-in-residence at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore. An Australian journalist who has lived in Asia for 38 years, he is a former editor of the Asian Wall Street Journal. He is currently working on a thematic treatment of Southeast Asia since World War II that will draw heavily on his extensive reporting in the region.

Get ready to explode when Umno implodes!

Najib was in France a few months ago on undisclosed business. Upon his return the media briefly carried reports of a memorandum of understanding signed with the French government to purchase a multi-billion-ringgit nuclear reactor - along with a French technical team to supervise its installation, operation and maintenance. Thereafter, nothing more was heard about this insane and wasteful scheme. Malaysia sits just above the Equator and enjoys all-year-round sunshine. The obvious way to go is solar, augmented by wind and wave power. Why did Najib agree to such an expensive and dangerous nuclear project (when we have trouble operating even a telephone company and a train service)? Was his arm twisted by the French - who surely are in possession of "sensitive" documents that could undermine his position as crime minister and land him in jail? I don't have time to write an original piece today, so I'm recycling a play review written in August 2003 which concerns Malaysia's secret aspiration to become a nuclear power... scary, huh?



AN UTTERLY HYSTERICAL BLAST!
Antares is radioactivated yet again by Huzir Sulaiman’s masterpiece, ATOMIC JAYA

Since March 1998 when Atomic Jaya first opened at the original Actors Studio Theatre (now reclaimed by the primordial ooze), too many things have gone badly for the world. So when something bucks the global trend of failure, destruction and disaster - when something goes very well indeed – it’s a call for huge celebration and rejoicing.

A sure sign that something is going very well indeed is when you see nothing but cheerful faces leaving their seats at intermission, and there are far more grins than frowns at the end of the show.

Okay, there were THREE members of the audience who made a major show of not enjoying one of the finest satires I’ve seen staged anywhere. Someone whispered that they were from City Hall, there to monitor the performance for offensive, subversive, or pornographic content. After the recent fiasco over its ill-advised attempt to ban the Instant Café Theatre from the city of KL (thanks, Mr Mayor, for speaking out on behalf of good sense and reversing the ban; I insert a round of applause for that silver lining on an inquisitorial dark cloud), it’s understandable that City Hall would be feeling defensive.

Keeping sewers clean, streets swept, and petty traders on their toes isn’t quite as glamorous or exciting as intimidating the fancy-talking faggoty arty-farty fringe. However, what one person labels “offensive” another calls “hilariously honest.” You have to really hate how you look to object so strenuously to your own reflection. Art’s primary function is to reflect our lives. Everyone ought to know that. Certain artistic approaches may work more like distorting mirrors but being able to laugh at your own comical aspects means your ego is healthy and comfortable with itself.


True art is subversive, reclaiming for the individual the power the State constantly attempts to steal. If art is subservient rather than subversive, most likely it’s mere corporate propaganda. And in response to the question of what constitutes “pornography,” all I can say is: “Honi soit qui mal y pense.” Evil to whomsoever thinks evil.

Enough! We won’t allow City Hall to steal the show, no matter how badly it wants in on the limelight. I want this to pass as a review, not just a rave. So how did I like Atomic Jaya’s new incarnation?

Enormously! The original version was more or less a 14-character monodrama: a litmus test of any actor’s ability, agility and nerve, sort of like tightrope-crossing Niagara Falls on a unicycle. This Checkpoint Theatre production features Claire Wong and Huzir Sulaiman on a breezy tandem ride through Bolehland – with crisp digital images meticulously crafted by director Casey Lim and flashed on a paper screen as a kinetic backdrop (the state-of-the-art, high-resolution Panasonic projector produced startlingly clear images). It also has Fahmi Fadzil playing a double rôle as a canteen makcik and patriotic singer.

While the original version was supercharged with manic intensity and a stark, dark surrealism, this new production heightens and broadens the comedy, thus increasing its entertainment value without detracting from the script’s satirical incisiveness. And in any case it’s doubly pleasurable to watch two consummate performers tackle the main characters instead of one.

What gives Atomic Jaya a solid core of substance beyond the guffaws, sniggers and belly laughs is the play’s underlying seriousness as anthropological commentary. The fact that it opened in Kuala Lumpur on August 6th – on the 58th anniversary of Hiroshima, when 80,000 human lives were destroyed by an atomic bomb dropped by the United States Air Force, followed by another over Nagasaki three days later which decimated horrific thousands more – was a grim reminder to us all that we’re still living under a nuclear sword of Damocles (not “umbrella” as some may pretend).

The mind-boggling insanity of squandering trillions on an ongoing program of Mutual Assured Destruction – instead of redirecting every available resource towards the alleviation of suffering caused by simple lack – has its roots in the malignant human ego when it takes on exaggerated nationalistic proportions. Can the laser surgery of sharp-tongued humor excise the tumor of ruinous pride and megalomaniacal ambition? Perhaps not, but weapons-grade satire produces a chain reaction of transcendental consciousness among those it infects with despair-banishing mirth. And even the deadliest strain of militant pomposity cannot withstand well-aimed ridicule, though it will try its damnedest to outlaw and suppress it.

On the strength of the three or four plays (and one short film, That Historical Feeling by the prolific Huzir Sulaiman) in which I’ve seen Claire Wong act, I’d place her amongst the top ranks in both hemispheres. The precision, sensitivity and vitality she infuses into each rôle makes her - like Jo Kukathas, who created the original characterizations - an extraordinary shapeshifter.

Who can forget her Dr Saiful from UKM (“Oh, you are discussing philosophy. Very interesting. For example, ‘Men are from Besut, Women are from Dungun.’ I also like philosophy.”)? Or her thumb-twiddling malapropic minister (“Why should we import the highly enriched Iranian? We already buy the Persian carpet and the Persian cat from the Iranian so they become highly enriched at our expense.”)?

In two seconds flat she visibly gained 200 pounds as former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright: “We have the might, and we have the right, and we will not hesitate to fight for the right to our might, and our might alone. Ask not what your country can do for you; rather, ask what our country can do to your country.”

But as nuclear physicist Dr Mary Yuen, Claire Wong was 100% the real McCoy. No problem passing her off as a Chinese Catholic girl from Ipoh who just happened to idolize Lord Rutherford, Niels Bohr, Erwin Schrödinger, Max Planck, Albert Einstein, and the entire subatomic pantheon.

Huzir Sulaiman was in top comic form as General Zulkifli (with his classic Napoleon Complex and unforgettable lines like, “I want to get to the bottom of this matter. Until the bottom is reached, the top cannot be happy.”); and the excitable Delhi Polytechnic graduate, Dr Ramachandran (“If you vant to take yumbrage, make sure this taking of yumbrage is correct and prahper. Yumbrage simply cannot be taken at vhim or vhimsy. You vill vaste the yumbrage.”)

He had a spot of trouble getting an exact fix on the extremely sleazy Mr Bala, and his Otto (the low-grade European) could have been further fine-tuned; but he outdid himself as a whole stream of newsreaders from the BBC, CNN and RTM – and as a police officer addressing a group of protestors (all 7 of them) with a loudhailer: “This is an illegal assembly. I order you to disperse. This is your first warning. Tangkap mereka semua.” An immortal characterization in only four lines.

Noraini, the canteen operator at Syarikat Perniagaan Atomic Jaya Sdn Bhd, was played in drag by Fahmi Fadzil (left) who turned in a laudably restrained performance. Fahmi also did a superb job as a nattily besongkoked patriotic song-rendering robot, as instant palm trees waved in the electronically generated background.

Director Casey Lim’s wizardry with digital design is matched by a fine intuition for injecting just the right symbolism with almost subliminal subtlety.

The choice of a solitary hibiscus flower (Malaysia’s national emblem) as central motif was an inspired one. Closeups of the stamen evoked understated phallic imagery and mimicked the mushroom cloud that would later dominate the entire backdrop with chilling effect. From nationalistic egocentricity to testosteronal displays of potency – just by changing camera angles on a hibiscus flower – pretty neat!

When all the elements of a play work together so efficiently (and with such apparent effortlessness) to produce an aesthetically satisfying synergetic gestalt, we are reminded that Creation is infinitely wise and perpetually self-perfecting. So what if the country or even the whole goddamn planet is temporarily in the hands of Sharkey and his perception-challenged henchmen? The vision quest only makes sense and carries any value if it bears the ring of truth – and Huzir Sulaiman’s Atomic Jaya rings true for me.

[ATOMIC JAYA was restaged in October 2008 by students of Sunway University College under the direction of Chee Sek Thim.]