Jeff Ooi - bold gold

Pressed for time but i just have to say this. Go Jeff Ooi!

It is NOT a loss for blogosphere, despite the number of naysayers. If anything, it may well spur a March of Rights into the halls of Parliament. My only wish is to see more such people of calibre step up and purge the rubbish that is the AAB govt.

Wanna, Nades? You'd make Azalina's day.

Remember this:

"We are doing this as part of Visit Malaysia Year," she decreed and challenged this writer to stand for elections if I didn't agree with her - before the microphone was ceremoniously taken away from me.

- Citizen Nades
The Sun, May 25

Chapter 3: An appointment in hell

You sense the raging breath. Raja Petra Kamarudin will not go down quietly. Correction - he will not go down, period.

And the clowns in Umno better watch out. The Anak Raja Bugis spills the beans on Umno's info chief Muhamad (x2) Taib, the man who made a police report on Malaysia Today, and marinates the serving with bile only hell hath the stomach for. Thank God, the ex-Selangor MB can suddenly choose to not fathom English again, else he'd be pissing in his pants.

i started off reading Malaysia Today as a huge sceptic. The exposes seem way reckless and unfounded; more like a National Enquirer on Malaysian politics. Statements were made without much proof and overall it sure seemed like RPK was headed for lots of legal trouble. i'd imagine he would have been sued down to his last follicle. i didn't wish to see it, but i was sure the day would come when the gaffe politicians in this country, the Joharis, Musas, KJs, why even the Najibs and AABs would drag the man to court.

Widespread lies have to be dealt with sternly if the fine reputation of these 'leaders' are to be maintained. Otherwise, their work will be hampered. These personalities are the country's stewards. i would even say it is then their responsibility to take legal action in order that the rakyat's trust remain unshaken.

But it hasn't happened.

Despite the seemingly outrageous slander on many of these prominent leaders including the Prime Minister and DPM, nothing has happened. It would've been an easy target. Raja Petra writes lucidly unlike those political commentaries in the mainstream media. No read-between-the-lines stuff. Just bang-bang and bang. If he had crossed the line, it would have been an open and shut case in court. Clearcut.

Yet nothing. Even yesterday morning's police report made by Muhamad (x2) was over the alleged denigration of Islam and the Agung in Malaysia Today. C'mon now, RPK's given bolo-punches at the fella in the Prime Minister's seat on so many occasions, yet they choose to report on a grey-area item instead. If anything, that's the picture of a very desperate Umno.

Overall non-action, elegant silence, whatever - and specifically this episode - only reinforces the opinion i have about Raja Petra Kamarudin after the earlier months of sceptism. Over time and by the inductive process, i have actually come to believe the gist of what this man writes.

Unless of course Muhamad (x2) Taib chooses to challenge via the courts the latest flurry hurled his way. Otherwise, Mr ex-MB, it's you on the bus on a non-stop trip to hell. Raja Petra's hell.

Chapter 2: Raja Petra

Just as Nathaniel Tan is beginning to catch his breath, the fight to close the minds of the Malaysian people has shifted gears. A police report has been filed by Umno's Information chief Muhammad Muhammad Taib on the "sensitive" writings of uber-Malaysian blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin.

The report cites that Raja Petra has been writing stuff which insults Islam and the Agung. Reports Malaysiakini:

Taib told reporters later that the report was regarding remarks published on the website on July 11 and several other articles.

He claimed that the postings and articles were disrespectful to the King and Islam. According to him, they had the potential to create unrest in the country and strike fear in the people.

“The reports contain criminal elements which could incite anyone and cause fear. Maybe these people (bloggers) had forgotten that Malaysia is a country with many sensitivities,” he said.

i am puzzled and amazed.

i follow Malaysia Today closely; been reading their stuff for the past two years now. Raja Petra writes exclusively in English (although he also features guest columnists and articles in Bahasa Malaysia). Although it hasn't been established, there's a high chance the articles in question are in English.

Now, in 1998, this Muhammad Muhammad Taib fella told a Brisbane court that he doesn't understand English and on those grounds, he was acquitted on charges of false declaration.

What can i say? All hail Muhammad Muhammad Taib's English tuition teacher! All hail the ex-Selangor MB who can now not only understand English, but fully empathize with the written content. Next, he'll be crittin' Shakespeare.

Free Nat Tan, free this bridge builder

Nathaniel Tan, social activist and blogger, was detained Friday by a hide-and-seek Malaysian police. The following day, he was secretively hauled to the Magistrate Court and is now serving a four-day remand to "assist" police investigations on internet-related affairs. The Official Secrets Act has been bandied about.

This entire episode smacks of deceit, discrimination and despotism.

We are governed by fools. The price is proving costly.

If the measure of any entity is about where it stands compared to its perceived potential, then i'll say this: The Abdullah Ahmad Badawi government is a dismal failure.

We could be world-beaters; we have geographical advantage (look at the map and understand how strategically-placed we are in nature's scheme of land and seas). We have minerals and ancient forests of untapped treasures, we have sunshine and rain, we have salt, fruit and rice. We speak the languages of four-fifths of the world's population. We were tutored in a system of governance and logistics, and inherited a formidable education system. In other words, we had software. One of the best in Asia.

Even today we have DNA - brilliant minds, nimble bodies, stout will. Mongrel breed. Cross-pollinated. We have ready builders. Bridge builders.

Yet despite all this, we are stunted as a nation. Far short of potential. We're a molehill trying to pass off as Olympus through propaganda pipes. And this is the ultimate failure of government, nothing else. We may be Malaysia, but we are atomic, not a compound. Not even an alloy. Not near forged steel. And they like it that way. Shred the fabric, strike fear, protect the hood. Divide.

Nathanial Tan decided to stand against such shit. He wants to build bridges. In his mind's eye, he sees a Malaysia fair and true; as fair and true to their dictionary meanings, and as fair and true to the understanding of those with virtue. Unlike many who slither and slide in government, you know he has a calcium-rich upright spine. For some twisted reason, this is not a desirable trait.

Of the millions of lines written, and comments left behind by readers in hundreds of local blogs which are more scandalous and cause for serious concern, they picked on Nat.

They hauled his mortal bones and ran off. You may say that for quite a few hours he was technically kidnapped; friends, family and feisty gf were given the fright of their lives by the elusive cops that Friday evening. His whereabouts were not divulged by the authorities. There remains a grave air of uncertainty about his immediate fate because of the continuing cruel and unnecessary reticence on the part of the supposed vanguards of peace and order. Whatever happened to basic rights?

But you can't put a good man and his fraternity down. Not till hell freezes over.

i do not know if we've hit the bottom. All i know is we shall continue to stand for principles. Because it is principles which will stand; eons after the Abdullah Ahmad Badawi government has crumbled and recorded as the period when true bridges were forcedly left unbuilt and Malaysia was an archipelago of divided islands in the fearsome Osa-Isa sea.


graphics: courtesy Mob's Crib

Cosmic...

“I see (Samy) in the form of Lord Krishna. You (Samy Vellu) know what the people need. You know what the people want.”

- MG Pandithan, president of the Indian Progressive Front (IPF), at the party's congress today. It is reported that Pandithan is sick. With such quotes, I do not for a moment doubt that.