Ijok: Strings after gempur

The results have been announced. Behold, a two hundred increase in majority votes. The Barisan cheers have erupted. Moist Lips and Sleepy Hollow and Dark-to-Light are busy congratulating each other and thereafter patting their own backs, as strange a behaviour as it may be.

Half-the-Value has shown he's worth twice the price. That Car Thing will say he burned rubber at Batang Berjuntai. A merry Son-in-Law can now dismount from the uncomfortable kapcai. The photoshoot's done. A job well done.

And the carnival shall leave Ijok. And all shall be quiet at the Markas and the Bilik Geraks.

We have here a gentleman winner in Parthiban. A good guy, say many Ijokians. A wonderful smile that makes many a mother wish her daughter would snag. A legendary son who provided for his siblings, and educated himself via the Malaysian dream.

But wet blankets such as me have never been happy with fairytale endings per se. Happily ever after? Really, for that we have to turn to the yet-to-be-inked storyboard.

Of how a good man becomes a puppet - a morbid Pinnochio in reverse. As the strings are tied, one thread at a time, from favours owed leading to tonight's victory, of beholdenship and masters and servants.

Yea, the story will unfold in quiet Ijok away from the pesky eyes of unemployed women or bloggers. A string for Moist Lips, another for Sleepy Hollow, two for Half-the-Value, another two for Dark-to-Light... and on and on the parts of the body of this scholar gentleman shall be divided among his power investors. And the strings shall tug and slack in a strange Ramayana, and his legs will kick, and his head nod, and there'll be loud choruses along with "three bags full". And he will be rewarded, why even loved.

But the heart remembers. It will remember of a cloudy evening, April 28, before the announcement and the euphoria, when he was a truly good man with a brilliant smile. And most of all, it will definitely remember this: free will.

All the best, Parthiban. Sincerely. I pray it's just the sour grapes oozing from my pores.

Ijok N11(a) - BN's moral territory

While the physical boundary of Ijok (N11) is amply defined and understood, the moral boundary of the existing ruling party is another story. For three by-elections now, BN has rapidly revealed new territories south of Moral.

Much has been documented by independent observers but the full terrain has not been charted; all we know is there's a string of caverns - running from Batu Talam through Machap and Ijok - covered in slime. By the time we understand its features, we'd have seen the true face of Ugly.

Expedition KeADILan dropped anchor for two weeks over at Ijok and through its lens we record the caves are deeper, the smell fouler. And bats. Thousands of 'em. Whirling, screeching, and flinging water bottles. But there's a culture to all this, a primordial technology called 3G - greed, gangs and gempur.

And then there's the fourth. You see, a revised national almanac lists today as being All Souls Day in Ijok; at the polling stations, the fourth G is believed to emerge - ghosts, with an X factor.

This much I have surmised. The south of Moral is an ecosystem of reptilian values.

I've seen enough money pumped into this quiet charming town to make Dubai envious, heard a moist-lipped DPM tell lies, read of a self-appointed World Information Minister zamming BBC for biased reporting. I've seen high-ranking police officers shamelessly shutting down Opposition ceramahs, seen low-ranking Umno hooligans shamelessly decked in Zakaria shades.

I have not seen grace.

The good ship KeADILan has to be commended for helping to reveal the deeper nature of the coalition that has ruled us for 50 years; the BN party which could have chosen to go the loftier north, chose instead the bowel route.

No matter how Ijok's story ends later today, by my reckoning the Opposition has already won big-time. Winning Ijok will only be a bonus to the eventual BN thrashing that is to come in urban districts at the General Elections.

A snake in DPM's clothing

It's confirmed - Politics and power make you stupid. Najib, Deputy Prime Minister, is proving that he is a bit thick up there for assuming that the people can't see through snake-talk and hogwash.

Today's headline in The Star:
DPM: Fighting corruption a national mission
KUALA LUMPUR: Fighting corruption remains a national mission and the Government is all out to eradicate graft.
“Some people might be quick to say that the Government is not serious in fighting corruption or that the Prime Minister is the only person speaking on this subject,” said Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.
“But let me remind everyone that this is not just the agenda of the Prime Minister. The Cabinet is firmly behind him on this,” Najib said in his keynote address at the third anniversary of the National Integrity Plan (NIP) and Integrity Institute of Malaysia.

And yet a day earlier, in TheSun:
Najib announces RM3.5m for mosques, suraus, schools in Kg Jaya Setia
BATANG BERJUNTAI (April 23, 2007): The Barisan National (BN) is leaving nothing to chance in Kampung Jaya Setia within the Ijok constituency.
Yesterday, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak announced a special RM3.5 million allocation from the Prime Minister's Department for seven mosques, 16 suraus and six schools for the constituency.
"Although there has not been any request for these but we feel that we need to do this as a sign of the BN's commitment," he said during a ceramah in Kampung Jaya Setia.


**Duhh. This guy's a sad case. One of a pack of them up there in Bluffsville, Putrajaya.

Ain't the first. Won't be the last. It's become so commonplace nowadays, these two-faced declarations, the only way to shut them up is to kick them out. With nice steel-toed construction boots. Simple as that.

The Wall to fair elections

It'll do the system a whole lot of good if the Elections Commission was given a solid kick in its butt to do its job.

The body today stands as a shameless shell, fit only to conduct the barest logistics of running an election. The more important role - as guardian of the principles of the democratic process - it turns its back. It has forsaken its Constitutional role. There is enough evidence in the three by-elections - Batu Talam, Machap and now, Ijok - to show yet again that the EC is nothing but a carapace to propagate the misdeeds of the ruling BN party; it is a token billboard to declare that there is such a thing as fair elections on this land. We may suffer from the Mudah Lupa Syndrome, but three abusive jolts in a row? This we must never forget nor let go.

Bribes are bribes, no matter how you approach it. Just because it's a by-election and a hundred streetlamps emerge in a couple of days when none was erected in the decades prior - that's a bribe. When RM36 million worth of development suddenly gets poured into a constituency because there's a by-election - that's a bribe. When you get RM200 on the very morning of the by-election, that's a frigging bribe.

Any Commission proudly fulfilling its duty would have put a stop to this nonsense. But pride, here in sycophantsville Malaysia?

Forget about the rants in the warongs and coffeeshops, forget about the rants in cyberspace. It doesn't give a hoot about what you think. It only listens and acts according to who's up there, never down. Which is a bad, bad mistake in the longer term. We've reached the apex of the longer term; it is now.

I believe a crippling protest is what's needed to shove these idiots to kingdom come. Reform has to happen institution by institution and the EC is ripe for a solid structural makeover given the topicality and relevance to our everyday lives. 100,00 strong, why 200,000 strong, assembling peacably and without arms at its den in Putrajaya.

Peacably and without arms but with a clear message - have balls; you're serving the People, not be a stooge.

Machais rule!

This picture in The Star on Wednesday speaks volumes. Minister in the PM's Dept Nazri Aziz and Minister of Works Samy Vellu in front of a passive Chief Justice - that's Law and Order for you.

It was the handing over of the new KL courts over at Jalan Duta. While it may seem innocuous, this protocol shot captures the scary scenario clouding our land.... the Executive runs just about everything in this country. Everybody else, even if you represent the third equal arm of government, are expected to only stand and watch.

The mountain

BN won handsomely at Machap. It was a 4,000+ majority, in results very similar to 2004, the Year of the Promise. Can you handle it?

Plainly speaking, the Opposition was whupped good despite their coordinated venture. Despite employing new technologies (they have a blog), cranking out a full-on series of ceramahs by Opposition heavyweights, and house-to-house canvassing. It didn't matter that case after case of govt abuse was voiced by the opposition; didn't mater if MIC thugs pounded on a couple of DAP folks. Didn't matter that the charismatic Anwar pitched in his support to huge ovations the night before.

What matters: Hakka karaoke, free food, badminton stars being forced to do exhibition games, fresh tarred roads, a new park, millions of ringgit of projects (more promises) and the trusted Payung coming to town on voting day allegedly handing out cash. As a recipient told a DAP crew (as reported by Malaysiakini) upon emerging from the Payung's ad hoc disbursement outpost: "...Biasalah."

At the end of the day, with a shedding of 481 votes compared to GE2004, it wasn't even a dent on BN's performance. It meant that for the people of Machap, the Promise is getting along just fine. Like the nine-day fiesta of songs, gifts and a twirly Payung spinning out red and teal-coloured ringgit.

Me, i'm disappointed. Downtrodden. And i'm not even active in politics.

See, despite what the pundits say, Machap may be rural but it isn't exactly backwater rural or inbreeding country. It's less than half an hour from Melaka city; close enough to the Kelang Valley. They have cars and bikes, handphones and Astro. Many of Machap's sons and daughters have basic if not tertiary education, and ought to be able to carry a proper dialogue. In other words, Machap is just about your typical west coast constituency from Pontian to Kepala Batas with a mix of villages capped with a small town.

And so, as a wonderful test case, the opposition channeled its firepower over nine days in an express education on the misdeeds of the ruling party. It seemed the mood was bouyant. Perhaps the message was getting through.

Machap Demokrasi! And at the end of the day, DAP's Liou polled 1,542 votes. That's about a fifth of total votes. That's status quo.

And that's what scares the woolies out of me. The results clearly show there's a whole big, fat population out there who are willing to go with the status quo.

And here we are battling for the return of local council elections, for safer neighborhoods, for stern action against cronyism. We lash out against corruption and toll hikes, and idiot ministers who want to carve their dominance into our space and lives. We ask for justice served, and integrity restored. And we think we make progress.

But we look up... and all we see is the steep, craggy incline of Mount Status Quo. *Gulp*

A wish at dawn, April 12

Good Luck, Opposition. Even as the sun rises this morning, your dew of persistence shall remain. Will the Xs be inked on the Rocket's box this Machap day? That's quite out of your hands now, we know. Seems like nobody's giving you much of a chance.

But take heart. You fought the good fight, fought as warriors. Fought even as the BN mudslide of bribes - fresh paved roads, free land, free food, new park, badminton treat - predictably came rumbling to sweep you away. But you held firm. And you made them quake.

Thank you for reinforcing certain perspectives. For proving yet again that the Elections Commission is a piece of shit which failed in its fundamental role as guardian of fair elections. That it went to sleep while pathetic vote-buying ran rampant under its nose.

Thank you for pounding the noses of those arrogant, patronising nation-breakers; for calling them on their clear misdeeds; for giving them a hard time.

But most of all, thank you for being. Here, there and everywhere.

Welcome to the Iskandar Development Region

Those folks selling the IDR have their work cut out for them.

Pamphlets and media pompoms can only go so far; ultimately for the international audience, the best gauge is track record. Has the govt been governing? Are we a society with scruples? Are monkeys up there in the tree-tops (which is pretty) and not in offices and limos (which is ugly)?

Here's one for the record: 95 Singaporeans who own houses in a residential neighborhood in JB may lose their homes. These human beings had believed their families will move into a posh gated community complete with a swimming pool and tennis courts. So the pamphlets had promised. And so they drew out their life savings and banked in on the songs of birds in good ol' Jay-Bee.

Singapore newsportal Asia One reports:
Retired teacher Maimonah Mohamed is in danger of losing the home she bought in Johor Baru (JB) nine years ago.

Despite a six-year legal battle, she and her husband Ahmad Ahsan may lose her terrace house in the Taman Permata residential estate after a JB high court decision to allow the bank to auction off her home.

A similar fate also awaits 94 other Singaporean-owned units in the estate, many of the them owned by retirees who have paid for the houses in cash, often with their pension money, according to a report in The Sunday Times today.


The report does not elaborate how many Malaysians have been affected but rest assured our flers were equally hit.

The article reveals that the taman's developer, Focus Development Sdn Bhd, folded in 2000 without completing the project. All 136 houses had been built but not the common facilities such as the clubhouse and pool. Neither was there power supply nor roads. AmBank took over the project in 2001.

Now if that wasn't bad enough, the buyers later discovered their payments had gone into the errant developer's pockets and not to the bank, which Focus Dev. had secured a loan using the land as collateral. Despite the setback, the home-buyers collectively foot in another RM350,000 to get the main road and utilities on-site. They wanted their birdsongs and they will work at it.

But genuinely wanting a home and working at it isn't enough. They never had title deeds bearing their name. Last week, the state high court ruled that AmBank has the right to auction off the houses. No background was given in the report about the people behind Focus Development.

I fear they're out there somewhere, walking free, monkeys in pinstripes, talking the talk and selling nightmares in glossy pamphlets.

Fly-by-night developers are just one teeny blip in the radar of poor governance and administration in the land. Along with carjacking, snatch-thefts and corruption, such news get the highlights south across the Causeway.

And until episodes such as this are dealt with sternly, the Iskandar Development Region is as good as a lallang field three times the size of Singapore.

And you're certainly not helping it by leaving such news out of our mainstream media.