cookie-cutter comments

I can’t get this past my head, so forgive me for sounding quite contrarian: the DAP must learn to be tyrannical to itself. I mean look at it this way: the DAP, whether we wish to believe represents the aspirations of Malaysians for a democratic state, must learn in my opinion to engage in selective tyranny, especially with itself.

We have here a political party run by personalities and not ideals, in my opinion: it’s all been trench-fighting, tossing diatribe after BN’s diatribe. All this is fine, I suppose, and some would say necessary: our political climate is such that with BN’s overwhelming majority in parliament, any incident not turned into a national issue is a lost opportunity.

Well and good. We have had demogogues, with LKS being the most prominent - this in itself is not wrong, I believe, because this in itself reflects necessity. But when you have a party, country or company run by a personality playing the by-lines and blowing up issues, you can’t afford to be seen as tardy in your own backyard. [more..]

LKS feels people in some quarters are “shooting the messenger” when the plain truth of the matter is, this should’ve been expected. This doesn’t make it any less wrong, of course, but I get the feeling that he’s reacting in the wrong way: defensively. By that I mean, by merely countering the claims made in the media, especially here, in a Berita Harian article.

We all know it’s political opportunism since the whole incident has left a very bad taste, but more: I think we should focus on the fear apparent in this recent UMNO offensive. When the government itself doesn’t know what it was doing when the ear-squat incident exploded on the scene, even supporters of UMNO would trust it less and less. And now the situation is one in which the victim is Malay: whatever we may say about race, imagine how this gets played out in the average Malay voter’s mind.

The government is clearly in trouble. [more..]

This book caused a bit of an uproar among my colleagues a few months back when it first came out. A lawyer friend recommended this book to me, and it didn’t take me long to buy and read it.

It retailed at RM 38.00 at the Popular Bookstore, but is worth much more for various reasons. I wanted to jot down some thoughts chapter by chapter, since I thought this was worth doing, but I think it would be better if people bought the book and read it, then come up with their own judgements about his arguments.

Firstly, a note on copyright: should the publisher wish that I remove the picture, I will do so.

Secondly, I think I can only make general comments on the substance of the book, rather than examine some of the arguments closely since that would be contrary to the ’spirit’ of the book; it’s not an academic treatise, and I don’t think it pretends to be one. [more..]

It’s probably the impulse to keep private things relating to the family just that: private. Sometimes what’s worse is not actually being poor, or dysfunctional, or broken; sometimes what’s worse is being thought as such by your neighbours.

I notice how this infects alot of Malaysians. There’s probably nothing wrong with keeping what concerns a family within the family; outsiders really have no business with our own internal squabbles, do they?

All the secrecy, however, breeds a few things: a desire to be perceived as ‘normal’ or ‘with it’; an excuse to silence dissenting voices; and the assurance that if things really are going wrong, the family gets to solve it their own way.

That’s what probably motivated our Deputy Internal Security Minister to tell off potential tourists, though I cannot be sure; we could describe this whole incident as one man suddenly having his authority questioned in a land where he and his ilk have control over everything. [more..]

Blogsome was down and I feared… (cue drama)!

Anyway, a bit of Pengkalan Pasir confusion. At 8.46pm I get a Star/Maxis sms, as follows:

“6/12 BN’s Hanafi Mamat has won the Pengkalan Pasir seat by a 133-vote majority.”

Then, later at about 9.47pm, I get this:

“6/12 BN has unofficial 129-vote majority in Pengkalan Pasir. There will be automatic (sic) recount at 10am tomorrow as margin is less that 2% of voter turnout.”

Should we wait or start waving white flags?

Section 12 of the Amnesty International report has a series of recommendations for the reform of the Police in Malaysia, starting right at the top with calls for the reform and/or repeal of restrictive laws that help maintain the oppressive regime perpetrated by the police.

Let’s suppose, for a while, that the general reasons for the continued oppression by the police is a function of a lack of transparency and the overt threat of force against citizens.

This overt threat of force is maintained by, among others, the ISA and the various emergency laws still in effect in Malaysia. There is also no oversight, and/or no avenues provided for legal representatives and/or NGOs, for repressive practices such as torture or ill-treatment. [more..]

Just considering some things, more speculation and nothing concrete. I’ve been thinking about the current police abuse situation and trying to piece together some events that have occurred. I make some general statements, true, but more in the vein of speculation, so forgive me if I offend.

1. Playing Kingmaker
The by-election in Pengkalan Pasir. According to this post and a Malaysiakini report, Anwar Ibrahim is out playing Kingmaker for a PAS candidate. It sounds strange, or does it? Maybe it doesn’t. It allows En Anwar a way out of his own political desert, it makes dead certain he won’t be wandering about for 40 years. The problem with Kingmakers, I gather, is the fact that if they themselves do not have solid footing, their dependence on their favoured’s largesse tends to be precarious. Imagine campaigning for everybody and discovering all of them to be sharks in disguise, unless, that is, he’s sure about his ability to appeal to the masses: harried ex-PM-designate and now demagogue. This will be very interesting to watch.

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With respect to political alternatives and manifestos, a copy of the same has been posted on the Keadilan website with reference to our discussion yesterday over here. The response from PKR is fantastic, and goes that much further to educating interested netizens about alternatives available to us.

Check it out and mull over the proposals. They are as concrete as is reasonable, with the promise of newer policy directions on the way.

I was quite surprised about what the PM said. The link to the Bernama article is here. PM Abdullah believes that “development policies like the New Economic Policy (NEP) remain relevant as long as the economic disparity between races exist in the country.” Now, this is all well and good, I suppose. A general statement like that could mean a variety of things, with nothing specific really said. A good opening, I’m sure. And then he says this:

He said the income gap between Bumiputeras and non-Bumiputeras remains wide where for every Ringgit earned by a Bumiputera, a non-Bumiputera earns RM1.80.

“The implementation of NEP cannot be seen as a racial issue,” he said in his written reply at the Dewan Rakyat sitting here, Wednesday.

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And the grand answer to that is: “I don’t know”. This afternoon while juggling several assignments, I began wondering about this while reminiscing about some heated arguments I’ve had with Singaporeans over the usefulness of an opposition party in parliament: what really is the use of an opposition party? You know the host of answers to these, which basically boil down to one or more of the following:-

1. As a check and balance to Big Brother
2. To present an alternative solution to issues
3. To represent minority interests (huh.. if at all)
4. To present a veneer of the democratic process…

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Looks like Dr Ongkili’s getting a bit more careful with his comments. The Star ran a story today about students from, apparently, other universities who are encouraging the wearing of the tudung in the IIU to be optional. The link to that article is here. Dr Ongkili says:

He said the IIU, as an Islamic university, made the wearing of tudung as part of its dress code during graduation ceremonies and on campus.

“Because it is a university ruling, students have to adhere to it as a matter of procedure and discipline.

“They were aware of this requirement before they chose to study in IIU,” said Dr Ongkili.

And it’s something I’ve said here yesterday also. It’s only logical, and questions of “multi-ethnic” sensitivity are best asked of universities which purport to be “public” in the sense that they hold no specific faith-based or ethnic-based agendas. No offense to LKS per his blog post , but I must humbly disagree.

I wanted to write some thoughts down about Ops Lalang, today being its anniversary. I find I can’t say anything that hasn’t already been said by those more able and closer to the events of those days. It’s been about 18 years since Ops Lalang by my reckoning. I was barely a teen and only interested in badminton and comics from the Sunday Star, which was I noticed it missing at the time.

I don’t know if the memory of Ops Lalang remains a rallying point for anti-ISA activists, or just plain normal folks who think giving the government the wherewithal to lock you up without question is wrong. Do Malaysians even bother, these days?

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t remember Ops Lalang at all. It just doesn’t form part of my memories of those days. I wasn’t as obsessed about politics then as I am now, I suppose, and more’s the pity. It became a non-event for me, and straddling as I am between a generation that grew up under the spectre of the ISA and a generation that grew up on a staple diet of MTV music videos, I find my position in the larger scheme of things rather disturbing.

I suppose old events fade like a bad stain over time: a residue of memory lodged deep in the collective consciousness, but slowly fading like a candle burning down to its roots. Here’s to the 106 arrested and held without recourse to the most basic of rights. I just hope more people would remember.

Tired but happy today.

On a whim, I invited my father along for a trip up to Mersing on-the-job. Not very professional, yes, but he wasn’t around for the meetings and such. It was a strange feeling, since this was the first time he decided to follow, and I had a few moments of doubt as I was reversing out of the house.

My father’s one of the old-timers we talk about, either in derision or awe. A repository of historical events having witnessed history in the making in the heart of our country. Over beers and cigarettes, we would sit ourselves down and talk about the ‘State of the Union’, discuss politics and how things have changed. Today was no different, and it was speckled with anecdotes about the past, as seen through his eyes.

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LKS has a post about the perils of speaking SMS’d English, but starts off with a wild foray into the inner mechanics of editorials on the NST. You can check out LKS’s opinion of the offending piece here.

Personally, I absolutely love that editorial to bits. I didn’t catch it today in my print copy of the NST, foregoing it in the rush of things, so I’ll have to thank LKS for saying something about it. I’ve been watching local blogs one by one say something about LKS’s call for an emergency meeting to discuss the separation of powers. On the one hand I wondered if it was just sensationalist politics, but apparently LKS feels deeply about it — and so we all should because, nominally speaking, a separation of powers is the best bet against Big Brother’s encroaching influence.

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The NST characterization is telling: “The Rafidah Show “, it’s proclaimed. Well, I suppose it wasn’t an unfounded fear, as the wayang kulit gets underway. The first few pages are dedicated to parliament goings-on today, with the promise of an interview with Rafidah Aziz in tomorrow’s NST. I don’t know if I’m looking forward to it, and I wonder how long it will take before everything blows over.
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