Swami Beyondananda’s State of the Universe 2015

Cosmic Comic Pundit Swami Beyondananda Calls for Evolutionary Upwising

“Either we will have an awakening, or there will be a wake.”  ~ Swami Beyondananda

Greetings, Mirthlings!

Welcome to the state of the Universe — which is of course, everchanging, same as always.

Here we are once again in the here and now, just like last year at this time.

So … are you finally ready to live in the now?

Good.  We have been waiting for you.  What took you so long?

With time rapidly becoming a thing of the past (the calendar’s days are numbered, you know) people are living in the now like never before. Listen, I know. I was a futurist in a past life. But now, I have no time for time. I am living all the time in the Timeless Now. I think they call that All-Timers.

Meanwhile, here on Earth — or as it is known throughout the galaxies, the Comedy Channel — a critical mass of the heretofore uncritical masses are awakening to a serious truth.  There’s something funny going on.

Take politics — please.

America’s two political parties spent $4 billion on the last election and it worked — the American people were soundly defeated.  Once again the Golden Rule was overruled by the rule of gold, and the Constitution overrun by the prostitution.  The result is government in greedlock and rule by a one-party system where we the people haven’t been invited to the party.

We don’t exactly have a name for this new system, although I think Futilism describes it pretty well.  Thanks to government for hire, voting has devolved into an act of futility.  Whether we vote Democratic or Republican, we seem to end up with Dempublicrats running things.

Now some mystics — pessimystics they are called — would look at this shituation and see a glass 95% empty.  As an optimystic I take the exact opposite position. I see a glass 5% full.

Yes, there is good news.

An evolutionary upwising is afoot, and left and right are coming front-and-center around a new common sense consensus.

In Colorado and now two other states, this has meant legalizing cannabis.  So what does this mean, other than in the Mile High State you can now legally get a mile higher?  For one thing it means a blooming economy selling transcendental medication.  Science is now finding that humans have THC receptors in the part of the brain called the “hippiecampus”.  When this area is stimulated, people see farce fields and laugh at invisible jokes.

There’s an old saying — and I know it because I myself made it up many lifetimes ago — the truth shall upset you free.  Once again in 2014, inconvenient truths exposed convenient lies. For example, now everyone knows our government is spying on us, and Public Enemy Number One appears to be none other than — the public.  Maybe the NSA needs to be balanced out by another three-letter organization, the ICU — Independent Citizens United, where citizens who intensively care about the rule of law can say, “I see you” and begin to oversee what we have until now chosen to overlook.

From Monotheism to Stereotheism, and a REAL Conspiracy

There was another sign of the upwising in 2014.  Pope Francis took a stand for social justice, making the Catholic Church more non-dominational.  And boy, are those purebred dogma breeders upset!  It just goes to show that maybe you CAN teach an old dogma, new tricks.

Maybe monotheism is evolving into stereotheism, where the same truth comes from multiple speakers, in many different languages, and some with no language at all.

After all, there is no harm in harmony, and no sin in synergy.  And in the end, every dogma must answer to the same Master.  Maybe if religions evolve in this way, John Lennon could imagine “no religion too” becoming “all religions true.”

And for those of us who want peace in the Middle East?

Let us first try peace in the Middle West.  A first step is to quiet our own barking dogmas, and listen to the silence.  Instead of just following the herd, follow the unheard … right into your own heart.  Imagine, Americans from all tribes coming into the same space of silence, and breathing together.  Now that would be a REAL conspiracy, and could expose and help us overgrow the con’s piracy we have now.

The evolutionary upwising calls on people everywhere to rise above the identity issues that each side serves up as dogma chow, and instead focus on the identical issues we face now — like being passengers and crew on Spaceship Earth, citizens and denizens of Gaia.

So, come on you Gaians!

Time to show your species’ pride.  And time to evolve from children of God to adults of Good.  Yes, I know.  We are collectively in this awkward tween phase called addled-essence.  Our essence has been addled by obsolete myth-conceptions.

A Three-Step Plan to Launch the Upwising

So, how do we un-addle our essence?  How do we launch this upwising to turn the funk into function, and leave the junk at the junction?

I’m glad I asked that question.

I have created a three-step program that is mathematically proven to work four times faster than 12-step.

If we want to have an upwising, we must wake up … wise up … and show up.

We must wake up to the awful truth and the awesome opportunity.  Yes the world is in serious condition, largely due to our conditioning to be serious.  Seriously.

And if the problem is serious, then the solution has to be humorous, right?  So we wake up laughing as we recognize that we’ve been running around in circles, chasing our tales.  These tales usually tell us that happiness is somewhere “out there”. It’s a sure sign of the upwising when those who’ve been in hot pursuit of happiness get struck by enlightening and realize, “Gee, I must have run right past it.”

And in this moment of fool-realization, we fully realize our foolishness and laugh in our own face.  This is called self-facing laughter, and it helps us illuminate our world from the inside out.  People ask me all the time, “How can I uplift humanity?” I take one look at their doomy and gloomy expressions and I say, “You can begin by uplifting the corners of your mouth in a smile.” When you feel the levitational pull giving you a natural face-lift, you are literally overcoming gravity.

Hearty laughter brings us from the static of the head to the ecstatic of the heart, and we take the second step to upwising — we wise up loving.  It has been said that the more we expand our hearts the less we will need to shrink our heads.  Beliefs lie in our head, love lives in our heart.  So … are you going to believe those lies?  Or live that love?  When you sacrifice being happy for being right, you know what they call it?  Smartyrdom.

With laughter and love helping us wise to the occasion, we take the third step.  We show up, living and giving.  Each of us has been given a special gift, just for entering.  So you are already a winner.  We are all here to let our light fully shine — the enlightened ones call this full-filament.  It is true that the unexamined life is not worth living, and equally true that the unlived life is not worth examining.  To “show up” means to live life fully, and foolly, laughing all the way.  Make a bucket list of all the undertakings you wish to undertake before being overtaken by the undertaker.  Express your unique love in the world, and make your life a work of heart.

Bring your gift to the party, and show up for the greatest show on earth — REALITY!  You know, reality.  That’s reality TV without the TV.  What a movie we’re in!  A cast of 7 billion, and all of humanity is in the hero’s role.  And the whole world is on the edge of its seat.  Will we achieve critical mass before we reach critical massacre?  Will there be an awakening, or a wake?

As the great baseball player / philosopher Willie Mays once said, “That’s what we’re going to play the game to find out.”

I end this 2015 State of the Universe with good news.  When it comes to transformation, we have all the time in the world. And that time is now.

May we wake up laughing and leave laughter in our wake.

© Copyright 2015 Steve Bhaerman.  All rights reserved.

If you’d like to wake up laughing, why not enroll in the Wake Up Laughing class?

Swami Beyondananda is a noted social uncommontator and spiritual political pundit (If anyone punned it, Swami punned it first) and is the alter ego and brainchild of author and humorist Steve Bhaerman.  Steve and Swami can be found at www.wakeuplaughing.com and on Twitter @swamibe.

THE GOD OF NO MERCY (revisited)

A 45-minute documentary on Lee Kuan Yew, the founding father of modern Singapore and one of the world's remaining political strongmen. The film was seized by government officials (on orders of the home ministry) when it premiered at a private screening on 17 May 2008. Directed by Seelan Palay.

After viewing this well-researched and passionately produced doco on Singapore's Mr Hyde side, and figured it was high time Malaysians took a good hard look at the unwholesome aspects of Singapore's toy-townish tinsel and glitter image - especially those who express envy when comparing per capita incomes.

While Lee Kuan Yew's 31-year iron-fisted authoritarian rule - which, in truth, never ended since he created an advisory post for himself as "Minister Mentor" to the government - facilitated a prosperous, efficiently managed city-state whose dynamic economic growth far outshines all its Asean counterparts, Singapore's impressive status as a developed nation has been attained at an extremely high cost to other far more important human values.

Values like the ability of its citizens to think and feel and act freely and independently - rather than behaving like well-disciplined ants in a high-rise, multi-tiered, 24/7-monitored colony. Indeed, anyone who has seen The Matrix will easily identify with the predicament of the protagonist Neo after he swallows the Red Pill and begins to see beyond the glossy façade of life in the gigantic discount emporium that represents Singapore's public image.

Seelan Palay exposes the cold-blooded, ruthless cruelty with which Lee Kuan Yew systematically destroyed his challengers, detractors and rivals in order to establish the Lee Dynasty, propped up by an obsequious bureaucracy of well-paid mandarins - while keeping the lower echelons of society eternally chained to a relentless and soulless economic juggernaut.

I'm reminded of an excellent joke I once heard wherein a foreign tourist visits a Chinese temple in Singapore dedicated to two deities, female and male. The tour guide explains that the Chinese strictly adhere to the concept of balance symbolized by the Yin-Yang. Pointing to the female deity statue, the guide says: "That one Goddess of Mercy, Kuan Yin... and over there the God of No Mercy, Kuan Yew."

It would appear that a very large worm has begun to turn in Singapore and a new generation of civil society activists has arisen who are demanding an end to Singapore's oligarchical plutocracy, modeled after the dystopian society portrayed in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner.

Radical change is definitely in the air, on both sides of the Causeway!

[First posted 28 June 2009]

DEVAN NAIR'S LETTER TO LEE KUAN YEW (DATED 8 JULY 1988)

Is this how you plan to rule the country, Mr Najib? (yet another reprise)

[Reposting for the fifth time. That Pink-Lipped Poltroon and his Witch-Queen with the Toxic Hairdo are rather dense, it appears, as are all their pompous, parasitic ilk...]

AT GUNPOINT.....?

How long before your hand gets tired?

You won't get any sleep at night...

You'll be much too stressed to service your voracious wife.

She'll soon be sending for some toy boys...

Isn't this a much nicer and healthier option? You have enough cash stashed away to live in the lap of luxury the rest of your lives... far, far from your political foes in Malaysia!

THE LIE WE LIVE ~ a short film by Spencer Cathcart

Published on 27 Jan 2015

Exposing the truth about our corrupt world and what humanity has become.

This is a short documentary film I made and wrote questioning our freedom, the education system, corporations, money, the American capitalist system, the US government, world collapse, the environment, climate change, genetically modified food, and our treatment of animals.

My name is Spencer Cathcart and if you want to contact me email freshtastical@gmail.com

Reproduced directly from Malaysiakini as a public service... shame on you, Najib!

11:19AM Feb 14, 2015

By John R Malott

The world, in unison, slams the Anwar verdict

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COMMENT Many Malaysians have commented on the speed with which the government responded to the Federal Court's verdict last Tuesday, in which the jurists found Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim, guilty of sodomy and sentenced him to five years in prison.

Less than 20 minutes after the chief justice announced the court's decision, an official government statement was sent to the media, both Malaysian and international. For a government whose usual response is either "elegant silence" or to send out short and callous "tweets" about important and highly-charged topics (like the fate of the victims in the Malaysia Airlines crashes), this was indeed remarkable.

In its "defence", the government said that it had prepared two different statements, depending on which way the verdict went. We did the same thing when I was in the US government, so I will accept the government's explanation at face value. But that does not excuse the content of the government's statement, which was seriously flawed.

Let's take a look at the government's claims. First came the assertion that:

"The judges will have reached their verdict only after considering all the evidence in a balanced and objective manner. Malaysia has an independent judiciary, and there have been many rulings against senior government figures."

But does the world believe that Malaysia has an independent judiciary, and that the court was balanced and objective?

The court's decision was immediately criticised by the governments of the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Germany, and Switzerland, among others, as well as the European Union.

The embassies and high commissions of these countries sent observers to cover Anwar's trials over the past many years. They all concluded that the verdict raised major questions about the independence of the Malaysian judiciary.

Likewise, respected international human rights organisations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the International Federation for Human Rights said the same thing.

The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and the Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU) also condemned the court's verdict.

Especially telling were the comments of Mark Trowell (left), a Queen’s Counsel who represented the IPU, LAWASIA, and the Law Council of Australia. He said the decision of the Federal Court "was unconvincing and lacked a detailed analysis of the facts."

Further blasting the court, he said that "in reaching these conclusions, the court rejected or ignored the evidence that raised serious doubts about the reliability of so-called independence evidence and the credibility of the complainant."

In the most damning statement of all, Trowell said, "If the court had proper regard to the facts and the law, Anwar Ibrahim should never have been convicted."

As for the ICJ, it said, "Anwar Ibrahim should never have been investigated, charged with, tried, let alone convicted of and sentenced for such charges."

World press, too, speaks out

Some of the most prestigious publications in the world, such as theWashington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and the Economist also have spoken out.

The Washington Post wrote in an editorial, "The criminal case used to imprison Mr Anwar, who has been one of the foremost advocates of liberal democracy in the Muslim world, was as morally reprehensible as it was farcical...

“The case against him was thin enough to be dismissed by a court in 2012. That Mr Najib's government managed to have that decision reversed by an appeals court and upheld by the Supreme Court demonstrated only that Malaysia still lacks an independent judiciary."

Calling the verdict ‘Malaysia's Anwar shame,’ the Wall Street Journal said, "Umno's decades-long vendetta against Mr Anwar has brought discredit on Malaysia's government and political culture. It is likely to accelerate the ruling party's loss of support from a maturing population repulsed by such dirty tricks. Prime Minister Najib Razak's failure to call an end to this farce is a stain on his legacy."

In describing the verdict, Murray Hiebert at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC, which normally is sympathetic towards Malaysia, told a German television network that "it's pretty much a travesty of justice and an attempt to sideline an opposition politician who has been challenging the ruling party in recent years."

Josh Kurlantzick of the Council on Foreign Relations, without doubt the most prestigious foreign policy institute in the United States, tweeted that "any belief in Najib Razak as some kind of reformer should now be fully and totally extinguished."

And Dan Slater, a Southeast Asia specialist at the University of Chicago, told the Toronto Globe and Mail newspaper in Canada that when the government decided to appeal Anwar's acquittal in the High Court, the government's actions became "nothing better than a witch-hunt."

Fabrication of evidence

So here's a question for the public relations masters in Putrajaya.

You can claim that "Malaysia's judiciary is independent" until you are blue in the face. But can you name one foreign government, one international human rights organisation, one international newspaper, one foreign think-tank, or one overseas academic who agrees with the decision - and who concurs with your assertion that the verdict was the just conclusion of an independent judiciary?

I don't think so.

But I am also sure that you are now coming up with more multi-million dollar proposals for the government to try and sway world opinion. Save your money. Remember all the wasted dollars you spent on Jack Abramoff, Apco, FBC Media, and Paul Stadlen. They all failed totally to achieve their paid objectives.

The government's press release then went on to say:

"The police report against Anwar Ibrahim was brought by a private individual - Anwar's employee and personal assistant - not by the government. As the victim of a serious sexual assault, he had every right to have his case heard in court."

Yes, it is true that the initial police report was filed by Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan, but only after he had met with Najib and wife Rosmah Mansor, as well as the infamous police official from Sodomy I, Mohd Rodwan Mohd Yusof.

We know about Najib and Rosmah, but just to remind everyone about Rodwan - according to a Malaysiakini report in 2008, in the 1998-1999 trials, Anwar experienced the phenomenon of fabrication of DNA evidence.

We had senior assistant commissioner (SAC) Rodwan illegally removing DNA samples from forensic custody. In cross-examination of the prosecution's witnesses, it was exposed that DNA taken from blood samples was planted on the infamous mattress.

When confronted with this fact, the prosecution amended its charge and persuaded the late judge, Augustine Paul (who was later promoted to the Federal Court), to expunge the entire DNA evidence from the record, preventing Anwar Ibrahim's lawyers from responding.

Back to the present.

Even after Saiful, a college dropout, met with the then deputy prime minister and filed the police report, it was up to the government to decide whether to file charges against Anwar. So from that moment forward, it was the government's case, not Saiful's.

And when Anwar was acquitted, it was the government that decided to file the appeal, not Saiful. At that point, it was clear, as Professor Slater of the University of Chicago said, that the government was on a "witch-hunt". They were once again determined to remove Anwar as a force in Malaysian politics.

Saiful as the victim?

The government's press release also calls Saiful "the victim of a serious sexual assault."

But wait a minute - wasn't the charge "consensual sex"? And didn't attorney-general Abdul Gani Patail just say that the reason Saiful also was not charged for consensual sex was because he had turned state's witness and agreed to testify against Anwar?

So if it was consensual, why does the Prime Minister's Office call Saiful a "victim" of sexual assault?

If you say that Saiful (right) was assaulted, then we are back to square one - the government's original and totally unbelievable claim - that a young, strong, strapping man was raped time and time again by someone who was 40 years older than he was - but somehow was never able to escape. Baloney.

Finally, as I wrote this, I saw that the Federal Court's written judgment has now been released. They said that the testimony of distinguished DNA experts like Dr Brian McDonald and Dr David D Wells was not credible.

But they said that Saiful was a credible witness. They chose Saiful over these distinguished Australian academics.

And then I remembered Saiful's alleged affair with the deputy public prosecutor during the course of the trial.

When others talked about Saiful's affair with the government prosecutor, they asked, did it compromise the government? Did they share legal information during their pillow talk?

I see it in a different way.

I think about the fact that Saiful was engaged to another woman at that time. He had promised to marry this young woman. And yet he betrayed her and engaged in an affair with another woman, who was on the prosecuting team.

To betray your fiancée, the woman you promised to share your life with, the woman you said you loved and promised to marry, means that you are a liar and a cheat. It means that you are deceptive and your words cannot be relied on.

And Saiful was doing this - lying and cheating - at the exact moment the trial was being conducted, when he was testifying. And yet the Federal Court called this liar and this cheat a "credible witness."

Is it any wonder the world doesn't believe a word that the Malaysian public relations machine and the Malaysian courts are spitting out these days?

---

JOHN R MALOTT is former United States ambassador to Malaysia.

THE STORY SO FAR... (revisited)

Legends, myths and folk tales live forever in our genetic memories - because they carry great lessons that impact on our everyday lives. Look around, folks, you're living in the midst of an unfolding epic drama...

JOHN THE BAPTIST is a prophet in the tradition of Elijah who lives a simple, ascetic life, preparing candidates for the kingdom of heaven by baptizing them in the river Jordan. He announces the coming of a great Master who will save humanity and redeem us from darkness and moral degeneracy.

John does not belong to the conservative Jewish sect known as the Pharisees, who venerate the Torah (akin to the Koran) and the Talmud (akin to the Hadith), and value outward piety in daily life; nor does he belong to the Sadduccees, an urban elite sect (akin to Mahathir's Melayu Baru) with a more sophisticated understanding of the outside world and who have embraced Hellenistic (secularist) lifestyles and values. John is more aligned with the Essenes (akin to the Sufis), a mystic sect that teaches conscious union with the Paraclete (or Holy Spirit).

As he isn't part of any institutionalized priesthood, John the Baptist answers only to himself and his God. He preaches to all who will listen and fearlessly criticizes the liars and hypocrites who compromise their ethical values in exchange for petty favors from the corrupt and decadent court of Herod Antipas (right), puppet King of Galilee and vassal of the Roman Occupation Government. John openly denounces the moral degradation that has overtaken his beloved land and accuses Herod Antipas of transgressions against the law.

As the traditional "Voice in the Wilderness," John the Baptist's rantings against the government are tolerated as the mutterings of a madman. However, after Herod Antipas abandons his official consort and marries his sister-in-law Herodias - an ambitious, heartless woman who some suspect poisoned her own husband - John the Baptist condemns their liaison as an unholy one, thereby angering the witchy Herodias. To pacify her Herod Antipas orders the arrest of the wild prophet and throws him in prison.

At the royal marriage feast, Herodia's voluptuous daughter Salome (left) dances for the court and so delightful is her performance that the King drunkenly announces that she can demand whatever reward she desires. Salome consults her mother, who suggests that she asks for the head of John the Baptist.

Nonetheless, John's earthly mission has already been accomplished. Prior to his arrest, incarceration and beheading, he had recognized and identified The One who will save the people from eternal enslavement to the forces of evil - indeed, Ha Adon Yeheshua Ha Mashi'akh or long-awaited Messiah - and baptized him in the living waters of the river Jordan. The young Master Yeshua's encounter with his shamanic initiator, John the Baptist transforms him into The Christos or Anointed King.


Yeshua emerges from his full immersion in the Jordan reborn as The Christos, awakened to his own earthly mission, even as a voice from heaven resounds in his head: "You are verily my Sun in whom I am so well pleased!"


John the Baptist is widely acknowledged as a Man of Godly Wisdom and his naming of Yeshua as The One facilitates the Master Yeshua's mission of awakening the people.

Traveling from village to village to explain his vision of humanity's New Dawn, Yeshua amasses a following that grows by the day. Few can resist his penetrating intelligence and charisma, his aura of nobility and innate leadership. The Galileans are convinced that the King has finally returned to reclaim his Heavenly Kingdom on Earth.

However, obstacles abound on the road to Glory, Kingdom and Power...


The Sadduccees fear radical change, having adapted nicely to Roman Occupation and invested their lives in mercantile activities, they cling anxiously to the Status Quo and speak of compromise, patience, reconciliation with Herod, and appeasement of Rome, lest turmoil descend upon the nation.

The Pharisees and Scribes, on the other hand, realize that the Return of the King could result in a diminution of their worldly authority and wealth; possibly total loss of their powers and privileges, gained at the expense of the ignorant masses. For generations they have toiled under the yoke of Roman Occupation, learning to serve time and their own self-interest. Now, along comes a visionary from out of the blue whose impassioned talk of the Kingdom of Heaven sends shivers of incomprehension through their weakened spines. They are being asked to make a leap of faith into uncharted territory, to live by aspirations long forgotten and ideals long forsaken... never before has a crisis of such magnitude befallen the nation!

Can this Miracle Worker, this self-proclaimed Messiah, this uncrowned King be trusted? Will he lead us to the Promised Land at long last... or to Damnation and Ruin?

This is a story that has been told and retold throughout the ages. The plot remains the same, as do the key characters. What changes are the time and place, the costume and set design. And, as always, how the story ends - whether in tragedy or triumph - is entirely in our own hands.




[First posted 25 September 2008. Reposted 9 January 2014 & 23 December 2014]

Abdul Razak Baginda on Malaysiakini (flashback to 20 November 2008)

Malaysiakini, 20 Nov 2008

What did Razak Baginda accomplish with his first press conference since his acquittal on 31 October 2008? I viewed this video a couple of times and came to certain conclusions after carefully observing his facial expressions and the timbre of his voice.

First conclusion: his press statement was from the mind, not the heart - except when he expresses gratitude for the support of his family. There was very little that was sincere or spontaneous about it, and reading from a prepared script certainly did not help his image. Damage control for Najib and Rosmah - and the political status quo - that's what Razak Baginda's press conference was mainly about.

His self-conscious references to Allah and Prophet Muhammad were specifically intended to project the image of a man who has grown "closer to God" because of his ordeal. Any gain in spiritual consciousness is hardly apparent in Razak Baginda's energy field - he comes across as just another arrogant, half-baked, self-serving businessman who knows exactly whom to curry favor with in Umno.

No doubt Baginda and Najib may have developed a genuine friendship in the course of their professional relationship, because they are similar in many ways. Both view themselves as cosmopolitan alpha male members of an elite, well-educated class of "global Malays" (more comfortable thinking and speaking in English, but they know how to accentuate their Malayness when it suits them). Both come across as fairly glib and accustomed to living privileged lives in the corridors of power - but both are pretty bad actors and should fire their scriptwriters immediately.

Baginda's main agenda, as I mentioned, is obviously to absolve Najib and Rosmah from any involvement with Altantuya's abduction and grisly murder, while attempting to regain a measure of sympathy for himself. He does so by lashing out viciously at bloggers who have kept the story on the radar screen, though he's careful not to name anyone. He keeps using the word "truth" ("The truth is the truth and nothing can ever change the truth!") - meaning the official version of the truth which (like 9/11) doesn't quite hold together as a scenario - but nevertheless must immutably remain "the truth" (for otherwise too many extremely large heads will roll!)

WHAT'S THE OFFICIAL VERSION OF THE TRUTH?

Najib never once met "the Mongolian woman." Altantuya was NOT involved in the French submarine deal even though she has been reported by reputable sources to have been engaged as an interpreter by Baginda's company, Perimekar Sdn Bhd. The RM534.8 million commission Perimekar received was absolutely routine and aboveboard. Razak Baginda ended the affair with Altantuya but she continued to harass him for money, and that's why she flew all the way to Malaysia with her cousin and another friend, hired a private investigator to track Baginda down, and demanded USD500,000. No immigration records were ever deleted - and even if it happened, it was purely an accident. Baginda was introduced to the two UTK personnel, Azilah and Sirul, by Musa Safri (Najib's security aide) who then conveniently vanishes from the story.

The fact remains: Altantuya was last seen alive by P.I. Balasubramaniam in front of Baginda's residence in Damansara. The private investigator testifies that Azilah arrived in a car with another man and a woman (presumably police officers) and ordered Altantuya to leave the scene with them. It's perfectly plausible that Baginda really had no idea what the UTK personnel were planning to do with Altantuya. It's also reasonable to say he had no authority over the UTK officers and therefore was not directly involved in the murder. So the glaring question that begs to be answered is:

WHO ORDERED ALTANTUYA KILLED?

There can be only three people who might have done that. The first is Musa Safri, if only because he has the authority to issue orders to the UTK officers. However, he had no personal motive to destroy Altantuya. He would just as gladly have instructed that Altantuya be detained for questioning and then forcibly put on the next flight to Mongolia. The second, of course, is Najib Razak - because he wanted to help his friend and business colleague Baginda out of a tight spot. However, I doubt Najib would jeopardize his promising political career by deliberately getting implicated in cold-blooded murder. Which leaves the third person, Rosmah Mansor, who has no official position in the government but who is widely rumored to call the shots in the Najib household. Rosmah may never have met Altantuya either - and the only reason she might have wanted to see her dead would be because her husband did, in fact, have an affair with "the Mongolian woman" whose continued presence in the country was also a grave threat to her husband's political ambitions.

I'm willing to concede that despite his clear complicity in Mindef wheelings and dealings, Abdul Razak Baginda doesn't look the bloodthirsty type and would have balked at ordering anyone killed. He was at his wits' end and didn't know how to deal with this very determined woman. It's in the public record that Razak Baginda engaged the services of P.I. Balasubramaniam (left), hoping to intimidate Altantuya and persuade her to leave him alone. However, things got a little messy and murky when Bala's assistant got too friendly with the Mongolian ladies. When Altantuya lodged a police report against Razak Baginda at the Brickfields police station, the situation became critical - and that's when Baginda broke the bad news about Altantuya to Najib and Rosmah.

Here are more glaring questions that remain unanswered: Why did the Attorney-General publicly announce that only three people were involved - Razak Baginda, Azilah and Sirul? Why did he replace both the prosecuting team and the presiding judge at the last minute? How was the crime discovered in the first place? Knowing Razak Baginda's close friendship with Najib, wouldn't the defence minister have been an obvious target of police questioning - especially since the UTK personnel involved were his personal bodyguards? Why did the PM not instruct his deputy to take temporary leave of absence to facilitate a thorough probe into the whole complex affair? Why did the trial judge, Zaki Yasin, shoot down Karpal Singh's petition for new evidence to be included without giving it due consideration? And why did both the prosecution and defence teams appear so eager to gloss over "embarrassing" testimony, e.g., when Burmaa Oyunchimeg (Altantuya's cousin) stated that she had seen a photograph showing the deceased dining with two Razaks?


And why would Balasubramaniam be prompted to issue such a detailed statutory declaration implicating Najib - and then withdraw the allegations within 24 hours?

WHERE IS BALA AND HIS FAMILY - AND WHY MUST HE GO INTO HIDING?

When amateurs attempt to deny, cover up, or obfuscate, they invariably bungle. Razak Baginda's greatest blunder at the press conference was to include this totally lame endorsement (and I quote in full):

"I have known [Najib Razak] for quite a while. I would say this, he would make a good prime minister. I have known him over the years and he is a well-read person. We had countless talks about books, I would exchange books, he would lend me books and he sometimes took my books. If there are things he is impressed about, we would discuss it. He is aware what is going on in the world. Intellectually, he is not bad and I say he would make a good PM."

Najib Razak's ambition to become PM is seriously jeopardized by the dark cloud of suspicion that persists in hanging over his head in connection with Altantuya's gruesome murder. No matter how often and how vehemently Najib denies knowing "the Mongolian woman"... no matter how many Korans he swears upon... and no matter what any of his loyal supporters say about his innocence... the public will not be convinced unless several things happen, namely:

1) The Attorney-General is sacked for criminal abuse of power and replaced with somebody credible. Abdul Gani Patail (left) was assigned to fix Anwar in 1998 and he did so willingly and without conscience. That's how he got promoted to AG.

2) The Inspector General of Police is sacked - for the same obvious reasons.

3) Balasubramaniam a/l Perumal reappears to explain his vanishing act and is recalled as a key witness in the Altantuya trial.

4) The home minister identifies the person(s) responsible for deleting Altantuya's immigration records and discloses where the order came from. Furthermore, he withdraws his appeal against Raja Petra Kamarudin's release from Kamunting. The vigor with which RPK has been persecuted suggests that the entire top Umno leadership is involved in the Altantuya cover-up.

5) Azilah and Sirul are ordered to reveal their faces in court.

6) Najib and Rosmah instruct the AG's Chambers to withdraw the defamation and sedition charges against Raja Petra so that they can initiate libel suits against the blogger for publicly accusing them of direct involvement in Altantuya's murder.

These are the minimum conditions required to clear Najib Razak and Rosmah Mansor of suspicion once and for all. I am willing to bet my tenuous credibility as a despised blogger who trades in innuendo and insinuation that not a single one of these conditions will be met.

[First posted 20 November 2008]

Walt Disney, a closet Pythagorean?

Azly Rahman on the metaphysics of blogging (repost)

ZEN AND THE ART OF BLOGGING
Azly Rahman | Malaysiakini | 11 May, 09 11:57am

When I was growing up, I wanted to be Grasshopper, the character in David Carradine's TV series Kung Fu.

Grasshopper was a child imbued with immense interest in learning about what life means and how to create himself. The conversations between the master and the student intrigued me.

My interest in the philosophy of martial arts, drawn from the teachings of the masters of the Shaolin Temple, led me later in life to also study Oriental Literature and Philosophy, reading great works such as The Dream of the Red Chamber, The Tale of Genji, and The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon.

I watched numerous kung fu movies and wanted to also be like Bruce Lee, the man who synthesized Western and Eastern philosophy into an avant-garde form of martial arts.

Reading Buddhism in one of those periods of my spiritual enrichment and encountering works such as Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and The Dancing Wu Li Masters, I found the idea of deconstructionism and the psychology of awareness even before I plunged into the study of social semiotics in my years in New York City.


Zen Buddhism's most famous advocate in the West is Richard Gere, the American actor who is deeply involved in the campaign for a free Tibet. Gere often speaks with the Dalai Lama in making the world aware of the persecution of the Tibetans by the Chinese government.

Awareness is a key principle of the teaching of the Buddha. Siddhartha Gautama is a quintessential example of a human being who discarded the garment of nobility and elitism and came down to earth and explored the bare nakedness of alienation and dehumanization.

From a prince to a pauper he evolved, in the final days transformed into a philosopher. His struggles against the demons called Mara and his exploration of the self as the powerful cause and effect of existence itself - and how wisdom like pearls will emerge out of deep meditations on the fate of humanity - all these have become a life history example of how one can be at peace and harmony with the universe.


Cyberspace is a world of Maya with Mara shooting arrows at the enlightened ones. One has to be a Shaolin master in order to fight these demons and to continue to evolve into wise individuals.

Paid cyber-troopers in the Malaysian Mahabharata of this millennium is a feature of this perpetually fragmented world. The industrial model has collapsed. The Malaysian monarchical state is in trouble. The Perak plague is a beginning of the Balkanization of this Asian despotic state we are attempting to reconstruct.

Fight the demons

In cyberspace, bloggers are playing the art of making others aware of issues and in the process hopefully imparting wisdom. Bloggers are artists practising the art of harmonizing truth, realism, and activism.

Truth and falsehood multiply endlessly in cyberspace. At the center of the personhood of the blogger lie awareness and the Zen-ness of the master's craft. It is the awareness of what to do with truth and falsehood and the subjectivities and reflectivities in between that determine whether the blogger is fighting the Maras the Buddha fought, or has become one of the Maras.

In cyberspace, bloggers are educating, whether it is education for peace or for war. The more popular the blogger, the greater the impact of the message. The blogger is a weapon itself - in the whole enterprise of waging war or waging peace.

In the political scene, Malaysia is being deconstructed by bloggers. It is a natural progression of the anarchic nature of the Internet. No politician is safe. You can neither run nor hide in cyberspace. It is a Matrix of the Maya world we inhabit; a world of the Maras that attacked Buddha and of the masses that stormed the Bastille.

Malaysia will continue to be destabilized by bloggers - for the better - in her evolution towards the establishment of a just republic or a republic of virtue as the French ideologues of the 18th century would say.

Politicians and pirates of the Malaysian Caribbean, ones who stole from the poor to give to the rich, are in constant fear of bloggers - especially of the Zen bloggers. The Zen blogger, like the messiah on twitter is one who does not speak ill of others in cyberspace but makes people ill by invading the inner spaces of those who abuse power and by oppressing others.

Like a Rumi poem, the Zen blogger takes the middle path in spreading a message of peace through deconstructionism. But deconstruct, the blogger must. Through right thought, right action, right conduct, and right blogging, the blogger must make others aware of what life ought to be. In Malaysia, what ought to be has become what we are wrought to be. This means we have evolved from a nation of tolerance in the 1970s to a nation of totalitarianism in the 21st century.

Like the Wu Li masters and Little Grasshopper, the blogger must know how to dance when given a sword. Like Bruce Lee, he must know how to harmonize the philosophies and create a lethal art of war in his or her work in waging peace.

Only when blogging is an art and science of educating for peace and not a dance of death in Dante's Inferno - not when bloggers can be bought and sold for millions of ringgit by owners of the production of falsehood - we can see the Zen and the art of blogging at play.


Bloggers must journey into the self and fight the demons within. You must, as the Sufi teachers would say, be skilled in journeying from the levels of Shariat, Tarikat, Hakikat, and Makrifat - the levels of outer and inner consciousness that define the harmonious self.

For, essentially, as bloggers we answer to our inner conscience. And ultimately, we are a republic unto ourselves, in a world in which the state is still a necessary evil.

Bloggers - beware and be aware.

[First posted 12 May 2009]

In Search of the Historical Jesus ~ 49-minute BBC documentary

[First posted 2 January 2014]