The Truth in Politics

The recent revelation by the independent MPs, namely Zahrain Mohd Hashim from Bayan Baru and Zukifli Noordin from Kulim have shown Malaysian that how dirty our politics can be and why we need to clean up our politics as such unethical political maneuvering by our politicians will only cause damage in the long run for our country.

Claims recently made by Zukifli that he had been offered a reward enough to shake one faith to implicate our Prime Minister and his wife with the murder of Altantuya and to link the son of a minister for murder should be taken seriously.

Irrespective of who's right, we can know for a fact that one side, whether opposition, the government or Zukifli Noordin himself is maneuvering this malicious act. Some quarters claim that Zulkifli was paid by BN to divulge such false information to discredit Anwar and the opposition while some assumed that such act did take place and the opposition like should be reprimanded, while others might assume that Zukifli himself is doing this malicious act. Only God knows which one is true and which one is false.

As a concerned citizen however, I believe that such remarks shouldn't be taken lightly by either side of the political divide, especially the opposition as this could really damage their credibility, as some opportunist just want to use it as a political ammunition without really having any interest in finding the truth and fixing it accordingly as mere politicking about it won't solve anything, only by having an investigation and taking stern action will it benefit the nation in the long run.

Why should such act be taken seriously?, some might ask as this is part and parcel of politics and it's the job of politicians to defend themselves against such attacks.

Well to answer this question will require us to delve into human nature where we are prone to believe the sensational albeit untrue facts rather than the ones that are true but plain, so the law must take corrective measure in not allowing the wrong information to cloud the judgement of the people by preventing and punishing quarters who are spreading them in the first place.

Secondly, such move may invite more of such malicious attacks against individuals or groups and this will unjustly damage their credibility not to mention we are possibly politically rewarding the mastermind of such move instead of punishing them as a deterrence to others. This will lead to a state where making malicious statement will be a norm in our politics which will only create a political atmosphere full of such sinful act that will in the end precedes real issues that require our attention like poverty, unemployment and so on.

My only way as a normal citizen to rectify this sinful act is by promoting the need by Malaysians to embrace a new kind of politics where we demand the truth and any force trying to deny us such truth should be eliminated as it's our right as a citizen to know the truth. The first step would be to allow independent inquiry about all the cases and scandals that are full of discrepancies such as the Altantuya murder, the Anwar sodomy case, Kugan case and so on.

The reality is despite going to the court, the public trust on our courts are low thus whatever the judgement, the truth will not surface, rather more discrepancies will surface such as government meddling in court affairs and so on. Even in developed countries, such inquiry is a norm, so it should be the same here if we aspire to be one. Laws that are preventing such information to be publicise must also be reformed to allow a certain degree of it to be publicise for the sake of public interest.

In conclusion, Malaysians must now make the tough decision of which story to believe out of no real concrete facts, just mere hearsay from dubious press be it new or old as the real truth is conceal from us. Only when the truth is revealed, only then can we make informed decisions and demand the right action to be taken against the individuals involved in spreading malicious lies so that our politics will be less evil than it is now clean from malice that are preventing us from tackling real issues.

To achieve that we must free and empower the bodies that play a huge role in allowing the truth to reach the public mainly the media and courts not to mention other bodies like the NGO Transparency International and so on from the shackles that prevent them from doing their job effectively. Just as the saying goes " the truth will set you free", the same goes for a nation" the truth will also set a nation free".

Badminton and Malaysia

First of all, congratulations is in order for Datuk Lee Chong Wei in his success at winning the prestigious All-England Championship, a tittle that's usually compared to the Wimbledon crown in tennis. Malaysians of all races and religion should celebrate and savour this moment as that victory truly add to the meaning ''Malaysia Boleh!" that has been a mere slogan for sometime except in the squash arena, thanks to another Datuk, Datuk Nicol Ann David. With the win, I hope that it will rejuvenate the slogan to be more than a mere slogan, a slogan that will spur Malaysians irrespective of what field to go for the distance for the sake of our country.

Badminton has been the sport for Malaysia even before Merdeka when Malaya won the inaugural Thomas Cup back in 1948. Since then, Malaysia has won the tittle 4 times the last being in our own country in 1992. I am a passionate believer that this sport can play a vital role in nation building if it is treated as more than just a sport, rather an integral part of being Malaysian just like Football to the Brazilian and Baseball to the Americans( called the great American past time there).

First of all, Badminton, or any other sports for that matter, is good for the participants as it promotes good health and can build a person character and traits like teamwork and the fighting spirit that sports cultivate in the participants. Badminton and other sports can be used also as a weapon against the many social ills afflicting our youths like vandalism, being ''Mat Rempit" and so on.

Having a healthy nation that have good traits is good for the country, so sports especially Badminton should be encouraged by the government. Redirecting the youths to more meaningful activities are central to creating a world class youths for nation building and this can be achieved through sports like Badminton.

Besides that, Badminton has been our nation's way at internationalising the name Malaysia in the global stage. With greater success in the sport, Malaysia's name will be better known and this will always beat the unusually expensive promotions that the government conducts to make Malaysia world known by hiring top Public Relations consultants to boost our image in the world, not to say we shouldn't engage them at all but rather we should also use our athletes to be our ambassador to the world.

Furthermore, Badminton can also be used as a tool to integrate the races in our country together as our nation has produced Badminton great from all races such as Datuk Lee Chong Wei who is a Chinese, Misbun Sidek a Malay and Punch Gunalan an Indian, but all of them compete under one flag and that's the Malaysian flag and they all work together either as team mates or as a coach. This can be prime example of all the races working together for the sake of our country, overcoming obstacles together.

It must be remember that all the races played an important part in our nation success in the Thomas Cup either as a player, coach or supporters, but we all cheered and supported our team through thick and thin, the success in 1992 lay proof of that as one can see in the stadium where all Malaysians disregard their colour and unite to support our national team to win the tittle.

Finally, Badminton can also teach it's citizens the meaning of being patriotic to the country. The players in the 1992 gave their best for the country, although they were all handsomely rewarded in the end, it must be remembered that Badminton unlike Tennis or Golf, is not a high paying sport but our team continue to serve their nation despite the low pay and at times difficult moments like overcoming from an injury and all.

In the end of the day, what the players want are the opportunity to sing the national anthem as they put their hand on their chest as the Malaysian flag is being hoisted above other flags as they have done the nation proud by becoming the champ representing the country, that's all that matters. For the supporters, all we want to see is that our country emerge the champ beating other nation, having the bragging rights to call our country Malaysia the best. That's all.

We can also learn from the patriotism from other countries such as how the China Badminton team and it's citizens will always stand up and sing patriotically to their national anthem but the same can't be said for Malaysians. So we inculcate that same spirit shown by the Chinese in all Malaysians as the patriotic spirit towards one country is key for the nation sovereignty.

In conclusion, BAM must play their role not only to develop the sport but rather integrate the sport into nation building with the government cooperation of course. By doing so, not only that Malaysian will have more success in the sport but Malaysia will also gain in other ways like enhance racial unity, stronger patriotic feeling of Malaysians and so on. My final wish is that more success will come for Malaysian in Badminton or any other sports for that matter so that we can all be proud of these nations of ours. MALAYSIA BOLEH!

Independent MPs

I'm writing commenting on recent events where few PKR MP's left PKR and declared themselves independent MPs. I'm not happy with that particular development,however they say every cloud has a silver lining, I think I might be seeing the silver lining here even though preferably, I would like if they join back PKR as they have been elected on that particular party banner in the first place.

It's good for democracy when we have voices not being blocked by any party guidelines and so on, so I'm hoping that these independent MP's( there're 5 of them not linked to any party), can play that role of being the unfiltered voice of the people in Parliament as that role couldn't be played by other MP's due to constraints put forth by their political masters.

Some of these people can be considered a political maverick such as the fiery Datuk Ibrahim Ali, Zulkifli Nordin, and Zahrain Hashim who we should expect to be vocal on may issues affecting the rakyat albeit it may be restricted to their narrow political beliefs like Ibrahim Ali on his position of Ultra Malay or Zukifli Nordin on his conservative Islam stand.

I'm calling on these people to bring up all issues, rather it's the government wrongdoings or the opposition as only then can Parliament inform the people adequately on which side is better to govern. The media from both side should listen to them although it might be painful especially for PKR and Pakatan Rakyat's media but they can offer both side a wealth of information regarding the weaknesses of both the government and opposition, just like the revelation of Zukifli Nordin on the role and power of these little pharaohs in PKR that's undermining the democracy within the party.

This feedback can be used to rectify the weaknesses of BN and PR coalition, whether it concern party matters or state-national issues not to mention an independent barometer by the public to measure the two coalitions.

They can also be the voices of NGO's, Think Tanks or academic institutions whose information concerning Malaysia may not make it to the Parliament due to lack of political connections, they have findings going against the political masters or parties and so on. I heard that Zukifli Nordin is mulling the move of associating himself with an NGO whereas Ibrahim Ali is already the head of a Pro-Malay NGO called PERKASA.

This will allow greater participation of the people in the democratic space which will allow more ideas and suggestion to flow unfiltered to be considered by Parliament which if done properly without restriction from both sides, will be good for the country.

In conclusion, I hope that despite it being sad for me to see that our elected representatives have such a disrespect towards the trust given to them by the voters, I believe that if their are sincere in their justification of leaving the party for reasons that they feel are intolerable, then they should strive to better serve the people now since there's nothing to hinder them from doing so right now, no party restrictions and so on, they are free to do whatever necessary for their constituents, their values or beliefs and the country.

The people will know whether they are real fighters or mere talkers, it's time for them to be subjected by the ''talk the talk, walk the walk'' test as if you want to talk the talk, you've got to walk the walk. So to those independents MP's, I've heard a lot of talk, now's time to walk. So independents MP's, you all better start walking.

Fianlly, I would expect Zahrain and Tan Tee Beng to fight and contribute in the battle against dictatorship and abuse of power in Malaysia just like they did with Lim Guang Eng in Penang, Zukifli Nordin to fight for Islam and Ibrahim Ali, to fight for Malay rights irrespective of which party is doing the misdeed on those issues. I'll expect them being vocal, taking necessary action, contributing to these cause beyond just mere lip service and shouting slogans so on. It might be a blessing in disguise for everybody these MP's left( Ibrahim Ali is an independent from the very beginning), I don't know, only time will tell.

Ku Li And The Opposition

Veteran politician Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, from my point of view, is suffering from a mental condition called nostalgia, so to speak. He said recently that he remained loyal towards the party struggles despite his many criticisms leveled at the government.

I empathise with him, as only he knows how painful it's having spent his whole lifetime contributing to UMNO and it's struggle, sacrificing a lot of things along the way, only to see the party deviates from it's original struggle when the party was formed in 1946.

Despite offers for him to join the opposition rank, he refused, believing that UMNO might one day change and be the UMNO it once was, so he stuck his believe with the party despite incredible odds stacked against his believe. First let me say here and now, the old UMNO is not coming back. The old UMNO for the average Malays, the farmers, teachers and other noble but underpaid and under respected jobs have been replaced by the new UMNO, the professionals UMNO, more notably elite Malays UMNO.

The desire to serve the Malay interests that is the main reason for the party formation, are gone, exchanging such interest is monetary gain and so on. What's left is the symbols and their slogans about Malay struggle and so on, but the true meaning of such symbols and slogans are long gone inside the hearts and minds of many of UMNO's party members.

So, for Ku Li, who wanted a party to serve the average Malays, the best equivalent is PKR or PAS, although they don't chant Ketuanan Melayu or other similar Malay struggle chants, they are helping ordinary Malays and Malaysians in their struggle by giving them a voice that they lost. For example, PKR social welfare programmes such as the giving of monetary aides to university students and so on are proof of my claim.

While BN and UMNO are busy enriching their cronies with tenders and projects, it's this two party that's going down to the people and giving their rightful stake towards the richness of the the country and state which benefit the majority Malays without sacrificing the rights of other races. Case in point the privatisation of SYABAS in Selangor, where only a few cronies benefit from it, PKR together with PAS and DAP are correcting this inequity by subsidising the water and even offering to nationalise SYABAS so that the people of all races in the state can enjoy lower water price. The average Malays benefited from low water price without affecting the non-Malays, not to mention even the non-Malays are enjoying such benefit.

Aside from that, the Malays are now not the same Malays pre-Malayan Union that warranted the establishment of UMNO, Malaysia is not the same as Malaya then too. Many of the problems facing our country require for all the races to sit down together and reach common ground. The old way of separating like that of BN will not work anymore as such practice will only be a fertile ground for race and religious extremist as such system will surely reward them compared to a multi-racial party like PKR and DAP.

Simply giving the Malays more help and aide won't work anymore, rather it will only bring the Malays down into a state of complacency and entitlement like where the Malays are right now, while the Malays deprive the non-Malays of an opportunity to further advance themselves. UMNO forte along the years was just that, give the Malays more help and more aides which in the economic sector primarily benefited their cronies, but know it requires a different more comprehensive kind of a solution.So Ku Li should know that for him to serve the Malay and Malaysian interests simultaneously, the opposition is the right platform for him.

Finally, in addition to that, as a modern society, we Malays and Malaysians alike require more openness and freedom that UMNO, due to it's conservative stand, may not be willing to give. Such freedom like the freedom of speech and association have been long been deprived by the government in order that their political ideology remains the ruling and accepted ideology.

Rules such as ISA had been misused to make sure such freedom is curtailed. Malaysians want to be included in the shaping and creating of our national agenda, thus we must be allowed to speak up and associate ourselves with groups in order to better advance their views and beliefs although it may go against the government agenda and political stand.

Pakatan Rakyat seemed more incline to give us such rights, but UMNO so far have been supporting for restriction of them. So it is wise for Ku Li to adhere to this societal demand and to do so means him joining the Pakatan fold.

In conclusion, would like to join in the fray of many opposition supporters in reinviting Ku Li to the opposition side where his ideals and that of Malays and Malaysians can be better served so that his experience and values will further strenghten the opposition in their ability to serve the people and nation, and hopefully form the government and undue the many wrongs of the current government for the sake of all Malaysians, past, present and future generations.

Illusions and Politics.

Of late, the BN camp had use the large turnout of the people to the open houses that the party organize as a barometer that the people have return to their fold. As a personal observation, this may or may not be true but one thing for sure the turnout cannot be a trustworthy indication of public support as many factors could be concluded for the turnout, one being that Malaysians love food, especially free ones( hahahahaha).

Trying to create a parallel between public support of the government and number of people attending such open houses will only create an illusion that will bring not only the government into a state of disillusion, the people too are also beginning to be disillusioned by this and more.

Besides the open houses, the mainstream media had feed us with among others, the tea party with the PM which including to NST attracted more than 1500 people, creating a state of illusion that the PM is popular and is close to the Rakyat.

Well nothing wrong with the invitation I guess, but assuming that the PM is popular and is listening to us will only be known by future events like the General Election or in a smaller scale, by-elections and whether he's truly close to the rakyat will be determine by the subsequent policies he will introduce, whether or not it is people or political friendly. By policies, I mean real policies not mere slogans like 1Malaysia which is not back thus far by a real change in policies governing our country.

Then we have the invitation to write a letter to the PM on racial unity in these country which again might create the illusion that the PM is actually listening to us and value our feed back.

Again, we can only find out whether or not the PM truly treasure our opinions if there's a significant shift in our policy concerning racial unity as one can truly speculate the contents of such letters will surely include the need to reduce or stop completely racial politicking which is an essential element of UMNO poltical amno, the need to curtail the misuse of religion to political mileage which as recent development clearly shows, another UMNO modus operandi when it's Youth Wing organise protests nationwide on the use of the word Allah by non-Muslims to paint itself as the true fighter and protector of Islam and to stop mainstream media such as Utusan to incite racial hatred of the Malays towards their non-Malays countrymen.

Only when the PM actually put a stop towards all these practices or at least try to incorporate some of our more realistic feedback in these practices, then he's listening to us as if not, then the PM action in inviting us to write to him is only a public relations practice aimed at giving the impression that he's listening to us, when in actual fact he's not, deceiving us all the way.

Finally, with the PR coalition in shambles due to infighting, misunderstanding and disrespect towards each other, some UMNO and BN supporters have assumed that the people are tired of these and will automatically go back in supporting the BN, it might be true but not to the extent that they believe as most of opposition supporters are staying put and claim that such infighting is part and parcel of politics and that will not effect their determination to see a more democratic, inclusive,racial blind Malaysia that is govern by corrupt-free, transparent and accountable government as advocated by the opposition if they are elected to govern Malaysia with some state governments run by opposition showing just that.

In the end of the day, what counts is the performance of BN against Pakatan Rakyat, that will be the deciding factor by the people on who to vote for.

In conclusion, it's wise for the government to learn form the Pak Lah administration failure of separating between the reality and the illusion created by Pak Lah political team that used the media to create such an illusion that it tricked the creator of the illusion themselves into believing that their own illusion aimed at deceiving the public was indeed the reality when in fact it was mere news spinning and media propaganda all the way. They woke up in March8 the hard way, they say history repeats, well I'm banking on that adage to be true so that BN and UMNO will wake up from their dreams to shockingly find out that they're in Pakatan Rakyat ruled Malaysia.

Justice For Everyone And Everywhere Is The Responsibility Of All

As the tittle stated above clearly shows, this article is about justice, not the typical notion of justice which involves courts, jurisdiction, laws and so on but it refers to justice in itself. Justice is beyond courts,jurisdiction and laws although they have a role to play in the delivering justice to the people.

Having said that however, we Malaysians must be aware that in the process of delivering justice, the system that ensure such delivery takes place is often tampered with by invisible hands that have their own agenda. Past cases can back my claim such as the unfair sacking of the then Chief Justice Tun Salleh Abas and the Linggam scandal that our judicial system is a mess and cannot be relied upon to deliver justice.

So, we as Malaysians should take heed on the admonition of the Chairman of The US Senate Foreign Committee, Senator John Kerry that Malaysia must ensure a fair trial for Anwar which he is entitled to as a Malaysians and a human being. The same goes with the issue of 50 Australian MPs who decried that Anwars trial is a mere political ploy to bring about his downfall, a sentiment shared by many including Malaysians, me myself included.

However the opposite happened when a group of people led by Khairy BN Youth and Ibrahim Ali Perkasa when amok infront of the Australian High Commissioner, telling them to respect our laws and not interfere with Malaysians internal matters.

In should be reminded as "Melayu Mudah Lupa'', that Malaysia had partake in many issues outside of our internal sphere like the Palestinian cause, Myanmar Military Junta atrocities and even cut diplomatic ties with South Africa due to their Apartheid policy. We did it because we want to have a foreign policy that are based on good conscience and moral values that we hope to spread in the international community whether or not the role we played was big or small nor did it brought the desired outcome or not.

We aspire to be a good member of the international community so when we see injustice, we act in whatever way possible to mitigate the injustice suffered by our fellow man and woman despite it being in some other country outside of our border as it is the right thing to do as a fellow human being.

So, Malaysians shouldn't buy into the argument that this foreign countries are meddling in our internal affairs, trying to challenge our sovereignty and if one is jingoistic trying to colonise us, rather we should evaluate the logic of their move as a concerned global citizen and put ourselves in their shoes as their action towards us is also our action towards other nation suffering from injustice. We should know that their action was simply a friendly advice.

We should protect our sovereignty however we must first know what is sovereignty in the first place and do not mix them up with international community playing a role in the spread of justice for everyone everywhere.

In conclusion, Malaysians must ensure that our government give a fair trial towards Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and that the court is impartial to the fact that he is the opposition leader. At stake is not only our international stature in the world eyes, but more importantly the already damaged credibility of our justice system that many Malaysians believed is bias and is a weapon used by the government to ensure that their rule continues by hook or by crook that in their of the day will only deny Malaysians their entitlement towards justice and fairness that are necessities for a society to function in a civilised manner that we Malaysians deserve to have. It's a basic right and not a privilege, thus we are denied that right, it's within our rights as humans to fight for it at all cause until that right is given, not only for the present but also future generation.

Pakatan Rakyat and Criticism

I'm writing this with the feeling that my belief that there's an alternative politics in Malaysia might be just an idealistic thinking based on empty hope with no concrete chance of materialising in the near future. That's as optimistic as I can be without being naive. Why the sudden feeling is caused by recent events unfolding in the Pakatan camp that's showing signs that probably there's no "good politics", just bad ones, that Pakatan are just like BN with another name.

Firstly, I will touch on PAS and the developments in Kelantan. The recent resignation of Ariffahmi from kelantan Menteri Besar Incorporated as CEO after criticism on the handling of project Bazar To Guru which cause the state to pay compensation amounting to RM23 Million to a private company showed me that nepotism, cronyism and incompetence are alive and well in Pakatan.

It's to be noted that Ariffahmi is the son-in-law of the Menteri Besar Nik Aziz,( isn't that nepotism)so what's the difference with that of Khairy Jamaludin during Pak Lah's tenure as PM, the opposition did used him to highlight nepotism in the BN camp. Then, there's the cronyism part when someone by the name of Nudin Awang who is said to be a company director which gained from Timber contracts from the state, that he supposedly almost sponsor a Haj trip for Nik Aziz.

Isn't just like the days of Pak Lah where those close to him will benefit economically, so what is Pakatan doing to differentiate themselves from BN, so far from their actions they are showing that they are just like BN.

Then we'll go to DAP and access Lim Guang Eng's stewardship of the state. It's learnt to my dismay that he's chairing the tender board in the state, therefore he will have plenty of say which company receives what projects. Isn't that the same with BN, when the minister or some big guns have a say on which company receives what projects. To make it worst, he's has shown a lack of openness as any criticism will be followed by denial and branding of ''UMNO mentality" and so on.

If I remember correctly that is painfully similar to how UMNO reacts to criticism. Where's the change?

Finally, to PKR, Anuar inability to silence Zukifli is because of his political value to the party was similar to the act of UMNO not taking tough action against Ali Rustam and fielding Isa Samad in the Bangan Pinang by-election. PKR claimed lack of political will on behalf of UMNO to take such action and now, are they going to do the same thing, are they lacking the much needed political will as they seemed to shout reform and reform requires a lot of political will as backlash from those comfortable with the status quo is expected.

So if they are the same with UMNO in their level of political will, can they bring the much needed reform? I doubt it.

In conclusion, all the component parties in Pakatan must buck up or face the possibility of being a '' one term wonder" as Lim Kit Siang puts it. Focus now must be differentiating themselves from BN which requires them to behave differently in a positive manner. They must show the willingness to risk political backlash for the sake of the country not to mention except personal pain especially when it comes to dealing with family and friends in politics.

Only when they can show me that willingness, then I can believe that this is indeed ''Change We Can Believe In" quoting from Obama's campaign slogan. I'm an Optimist, I believe that one day I'll be writing to say that " Yes We Can"( again Obama's slogan), until then, good luck my beloved country.