Restore Our Parliament's Supremacy And Dignity

I have to write this article after seeing the symbol and function of democracy here in Malaysia being attacked. It was attacked by madness, incompetence and abuse of power by the speaker and the majority. The speaker has suspended the Opposition Leader and 3 others from Parliament for 6 months. All of these started with the issue of Anwar exercising his rights by bringing up the link between APCO and the Israel regime.

The issue got worse with the handling of the case by The Special Rights and Privileges Committee chaired by the speaker himself which denied Anwar a chance to defend himself from the suspension. The decision was also made without evidence from the Opposition on the viability of Anwar's statement.

Firstly, this is not the first time that Parliament under the speaker, caused an uproar. MP from Puchong Gorbind Singh Deo was suspended in Parliament for 1 year for bringing the Altantuya murder case in Parliament. I believe that the Parliamentarians, as representatives of the people have the right to ask question they deemed important for the public. The case of APCO, which consults the government on enhancing its image and the murder of Altantuya, obvious these two cases are of public interest.

It is the duty of Parliamentarains to act as an representative amd indirect informer to the people about the ongoings of the country. But the government decided not only to keep it in the dark, they also punished severely those who talked about it even in the hallowed halls of Parliament. How can a government claimed itself to be transparent and accountability when we the people don't know what's going on and whose accountable?

Secondly, diverting from the APCO issue, our Parliament must be given independence from the executive branch. The Parliamentary allocation is given from the federal government to the Parliamentarians through the party branches instead of Parliament to the parliamentarians. This creates the current situation where constituencies under BN are given allocation while PR constituencies are left to fend for themselves.

Therefore, voters who voted for PR collectively in a constituency will be punished with no development at worst, while at best the PR elected representatives can't decide how the area is to be developed when federal agencies will do the development work themselves. This is mockery of our Democratic practice when voters will be punished for not voting the government.

I believe it is time Parliament is empowered with the right to disburse allocation to all MPs equally where they are given a fair amount of freedom to decide on how the money is to be spend.

Furthermore, the cabinet here in Malaysia is very powerful where they made most of the decision. This is in sharp contrast with the US where the President must even get the consent of the Congress on the choice of cabinet ministers to the Supreme Court Judge Leader.

The Congress can even have a committee hearing on the conduct of the President like the one that happen to President Clinton involving Monica Lewinski case and President Richard Nixon in the Watergate scandal.Such hearing can even lead to the President being impeached.

It would be ideal for Malaysia to see the power of the cabinet limited by the giving more power to the people through the Parliament. As a result, Parliamentary Committee in Malaysia is either as powerful or slightly less powerful than those in the US.( The Parliamentary Committee should at least has a representative from the Opposition, if not equal representation for it to be fair)This will allow Parliament to curb excesses by the government, may it be excesses in executing its power or otherwise or even vice versa where the government is granted more power for a specific puropse.

Finally, it is desirable for the Parliamentarians not to be just legislators, but be involved indirectly in policy making instead of the current practice of the bureaucrats doing the policy work. They should at least be allowed to make contribution in any policy with the help of the bureaucrats. For example, the Senate Committee of Banking and Finance in US will call anybody it deemed necessary to testify on the bailout of the financial Sector due to the Economic Crisis in 2008 where recommendations will be made for serious consideration for the President and his team.

This should be advocated as the bureaucrats have no mandate from the people and are not answerable to the people. Here in Malaysia, some civil servants put too much loyalty to the government over the people, thus despite their incompetence, they are given top post in the government. If Parliament can rein in this practice by giving consent or rejecting the appointment of MACC Chief or Inspector General of Police, that will enhance their performance and loyalty to the people.( Again voices of the Opposition must be heard for this to work effectively).

In conclusion, is time the government add meaning to their Slogan of 1Malaysia, Rakyat Didahulukan, Pencapaian Diutamakan whcih means people and performance are of importance. One way this can be realised is giving power to the people and Parliament is where this power should be placed being the function and symbol of people sovereignty( Keadaulatan Rakyat).

Reform in our Parliamentary system must be carried out so the voices and aspiration of the people can be heard and realised and no one, including the speaker, should be allowed to stop it as only then can we, the people, be truly sovereign. Only then we will be treated in the manner that we deserve.HIDUP RAKYAT!

Real Ketuanan Melayu!

The Ketuanan Melayu issue certainly got the headlines currently with a few quarters calling an end to it like for it to be'' di bakul sampahkan"(thrown in the thrash) while others defended it. There are various reasons for these people stating their stand but my view is that what's more important is not the slogan but rather the actual state of the Malays in this country.

I will let the opportunistic politicians to fight for Ketuanan Melayu for it to stay or be replaced as deep down I'm convince most of them are uninterested about the real issue here and the Malays must survive and thrive regardless.

Firstly, the reason I state that this slogan is irrelevant is because you can yell and shout this slogan all you want, but the malaise of the Malays stays. The Malays will still be drivers, sewage workers and other low-paying jobs with or without the slogan. So, if one truly care about the Malays, I will rather ask all of us to focus on solving the problem of the Malays as with "Ketauanan Melayu", we are still the lowest in terms of income compared to other races, highest drug addicts and many more things that will shake any illusions about us being ''tuan".

If one is to study history of the dominant races like the Greeks, Romans, Jews and so on, they all don't rely on slogans to be successful, some of them are even a minority in the country. What brought them there is through instilling of values like love of knowledge, hard work, curiosity, emphasis on one survival and so on.

For example,the Greeks, enquiry into nature brought them the gift of philosophy that created a comparative advantage for them against other races as they use philosophy to create better individuals, society and country. Therefore, their advantage lies in their minds, not sloganeering. The way they carry themselves and govern themselves brought the Greek civilisation as the best in the world at one time, and all of these are because of their minds.

So the Malays, for them to be uplifted, must be willing to change their behaviours and more importantly, their thinking and start to act like a ''tuan" by instilling some good values and behaviours instead of behaving like a ''tuan" wannabe but incapable of showing their worth as a ''tuan".

Secondly, the slogan has long been misused by certain quarters calling on for the Malays to be protected as ''tuan" with economic benefits while the same quarters work with their non-Malays counterpart to ''steal" the so-called economic benefits for themselves. Many of these Ali Baba businessesman make millions doing nothing just because he or she is a Malay with contacts to the powers that be that can give him or her lucrative contracts.

I believe that is unethical as the ones deserving that contracts are the hardworking Malays despite the lack of the right know-who. These heinous act is protected under the guise of ''Ketuanan Melayu" and Malay poverty but the rich Malays and their rich non-Malays partners are the ones that gains the most.

Furthermore, it has also been misused by politicians who yelled the''Ketuanan Melayu" slogan for their political gain while using that as a way to excuse their corrupt practices, abuse of power and incompetence in governing. Some of these politicians even sell out to the Malays when they themselves are Ali Baba businessman or acted in ways similar to it. The Malays deserve better politicians representing them, but their fear of the other race due to the influence of these politicians cause them to be shackled by these phony ''pejuang melayu".

Real Ketuanan Melayu can only happen when the shackle is broken and the Malays are truly free from them and their patronage. For that to happen, Malays must first start to be independent and stop the dependency on the entitlements that they give to gain the support of the Malays as the entitlements as a whole pale in comparison to the riches, influence and power they receive.

Finally, I have never been a fan of symbols, illusions and superficiality. I prefer functionality as it is real and long lasting. The Malays are known for their obsession for symbols. Why else there are so much fuss about the waving of the keris being questioned or the fact that some suggest ''Ketuanan Melayu" to be deposed.

History can show how the colonial master made use of the Sultans in ceremonial function to trick the Malays into the illusion of power when in fact the colonial powers are the ones who have the real power. The Sultans acted merely as a symbol for the Malays to feel good. Hundreds of years later, one can wonder whether we truly has change as based on many events on how the Malays behave, the answer is unfortunately, no.

In conclusion, let us ignore these polemic of ''Ketuanan Melayu" and focus on solving the problem the Malays truly has like rampant corruption among the politicians, lack of economic power and so on. Values also must be instilled for the Malays. In my view, the most important value is making education important in the Malay mentality beside from the usual hard work, perseverance and so on.

If we are focus in solving our problems and instilling good values, then maybe we can truly live the ''Ketuanan Melayu" slogan no matter who is ruling the country or no matter where we are in the world without kidding to ourselves as the ''Ketauanan Melayu" in us are not superficial, rather they are real ''Ketuanan".

The Lack of Dignity and Honor Among Present Leaders

Great leaders are important to the development of nations and its people. Therefore it is essential that Malaysians are wary of the lack of quality leadership here in this country especially among the Malays.

One can wonder what happened to the golden age of Malaysia where Malaysia is filled with great leaders like Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Tan Cheng lock, Tun V. Sambathan and other giant personalities of Malaysian where their places are waiting to be filed be other capable leaders. Unfortunately, presently, the same can’t be said.

One possible reason for the lack of good leaders presently is the lack of good virtues among the present leaders that used to be the hallmark of leaders in Pre-Independent leaders. One of the virtues that I would like to touch is showing dignity and honor in ones conduct. Present leaders trade dignity for power and positions where as the older generation leaders tend to be more mindful of dignity and honor as it reflect their self-worth.

One example would be the corruption case of former Selangor Menteri Besar Dato Harun Idris corruption case where despite being offered to be sent to UN to escape from the charge, Dato Harun insisted on facing the trial as it is the honorable thing to do that resulted him being jailed. He made a mistake and accepted responsibility for it as that what leaders with dignity and honor will do.

Presently however, despite some leaders being caught for corruption red handed, they refused to take responsibility for it and serve the punishment. Just look at the corruption cases involving the last UMNO elections where certain personalities caught for money politics remained in their positions without doing the right thing like what Dato Harun did. They are more concerned about power and positions instead of honor and dignity.

Another example is the unfair sacking of Tun Salleh Abbas, where some of his colleagues like Supreme Court judge, the late Tan Sri Azmi Kamaruddin, show great honor and dignity and defended their boss despite the circumstances they face as they where later suspended. They are willing to risk their positions for the sake of upholding justice in which they are entrusted to do as judges. Upholding their oath and duty as judges are more important than their positions.

The same can’t be said with the current judiciary with the Linggam Tape scandal, not to mention the public perception of the judiciary being corrupt. Some of the personalities involved in the Linggam Tape scandal including judges that even serve as Chief Justice didn’t even apologize or show remorse publicly for their actions. They should at least preserve whatever dignity and honor they have left and apologize for the injustice that occurred due to their action.

In developed countries like US and Japan, public official who don’t perform or they were involved in an unethical act will step down for the sake of preserving their honor and dignity. For example, even the President of USA, Richard Nixon step down as President after the Watergate scandal involving a break in of his political party rival office by Republicans.

In Japan, a lot of ministers even Prime Ministers have step down to preserve their honor and dignity. Japan former finance minister even step down just because he appeared drunk in one press conference eventhough he actually was affected by medicine he took.

Here in Malaysia however, many underperforming ministers are still unashamed with their incompetence and unethical act, even worst, they will get upset if they are dropped from the cabinet. They don’t care about other things except their power and positions despite them being there are detrimental to the people well being.

Finally, the current leaders want positions but not the responsibility that comes with it. Older generation leaders are the ones who what we call ‘’Leaders Without Title” as they don’t care about position but instead focus on enhancing the well-being of the people by serving them.

Ghaffar Baba, the former Deputy Prime Minister is great example where he served the people despite not been given an important ministerial position before becoming Deputy Prime Minister( even then his portfolio is still not that important compared to other Deputy Prime Miniters) despite being elected as Vice-President of UMNO with the highest votes at one time.

That never deterred him from serving the people as his duty id to serve other not his self-interests as it an honor to serve the ‘’rakyat” compared to serving one-self. This important leadership trait is absent in the current leadership and most probably future leadership if nothing is done to instill in them such a trait.

In conclusion, we as Malaysian must instill in others and ourselves especially our leaders to take care of our dignity and honor above anything else. We must make it part of Malaysian culture just like the Japanese where the person dignity and honor is worth that person life, not power of positions.

The Malaysian public must be willing to think and act likewise in their everyday dealings especially in their voting exercise as by doing so can Malaysia be clean of politicians who are unhonorable that have no dignity despite their race, political affiliation and others. When we can carry that out only we will good leaders that we deserve. Remember, ‘’People Get The Leaders They Deserve”.

Merdeka, National Integration and Polarization.

Last month, our beloved nation turned 53 years old. The watershed date of August 31st marked the occasion where on that very date, 53 years ago, our nation achieved it’s independence from the British.

It was an important event for our nation however, aside from having a free nation, our nation building stalled there as many of the problems facing us as a nation then remained with us now at best, at worst things are actually better of than compared to now, economic consideration aside. One of the main hindrance of national integration in our country is the state of polarization among the races that persisted from pre-independence until now, 53 years later.

Most of the way things were then, remained now despite we achieving independence like the social order that caused polarization during the colonial time due to the divide and rule policy they used against us. It's ironic then that now, the same policy is still in force and are administrated by our own government now claiming it as ''acuan sendiri".

An example of such problem in national integration among the different ethnic groups, we remain as divided as a nation despite being together for a long time. The Malays, Chinese, Indians and East Malaysians have their own communal interests at heart instead of having the Malaysian interest. Efforts in integration have been hampered by those yelling racial supremacy and racial togetherness.

Our Deputy Prime Minister Muhyidin Yassin himself led the charge of ethnicity over nation when he proclaimed he is a Malay first, Malaysian second. Many of our top leaders when press whether they are Malaysians first, either decline to comment or claim that they identify with their race first. That shows what we are having here is not nation building but ethnic ‘’building’’ within these nation which is not the effective way to go.

Having touched the issue of separation among the races among the leaders, let us look at among the common people. We remain as polarized as ever as we can see we are separated in different sector or groups.

The public sector consist of mainly Malays and the private sector is dominated by the non-Malays. In education, many Malays will go to national schools while the non-Malays will go to their respective vernacular schools and when they go to pursue higher education, majority of the Malays will be in public universities or colleges and most non-Malays will be in private ones. There are also specific industries which are race-dominated like the Chinese in the car workshop business.

Even when we are born, we are already divided into the Bumiputera and non-Bumiputera with each group having different benefits from the other. So it’s difficult to have a common interest and values, an essential ingredient for nation building, when we are polarized like this.

Furthermore, our political and social system are designed to ensure the continuation of such polarization as any effort to change the way things work by any means will most likely have serious consequences on the individual or group that are doing so. We have laws such as the Seditious Act and Internal Security Act to stop anyone from preaching against the current norm as they are deemed to sensitive and can disrupt the harmony among the races.

So we swept the problem of national integration under the carpet and assume ignorantly that there is no conflict among the races despite the writing on the wall such as the Namewee video clip, the Hindraf condemnation of the Malays and the “pendatang” tag given to the non-Malays by the Malays. Anyone caught questioning it will be incarcerated so the norm with it’s many problems persists.

We live in a nation of make believe where national integration is only manifested in the many commercials where we ‘’makan’’ together despite mentally and emotionally there is some serious discontent among us and there is now way of solving it as we are deemed to sensitive based on the absolute discretion of the powers that be.

In conclusion, as stated above, we are independent but we have not build our nation state(Negara Bangsa) of Malaysia where we our salience and loyalty is to the nation and not race, instead we have in Malaysia, many states with different interests competing with each other, each placing their interests above the interest of the nation as a whole. What we have is instead, a ‘’ state-nation”.

Therefore in conjunction with the 53 years of our nation’s independence, let us ‘’ask not what our nation has done for us, but ask instead what we have done for our nation”. That famous remark by President Kennedy is the cure to our cancer as many of our leaders are asking what their community deserves from the nation as being the sons of the soil ( Bumiputera), being a small minority, being the largest economic contributor and what not, instead of what the communities should do for the nation as a whole.

Let us change our paradigm and think as a Malaysian and what we can do for our nation so that we can put our past and self-prescribed sensitivities behind and begin the construction of our nation state where we all belong irrespective of our differences. That is my dream, and I think it should be part of the still non- existent Malaysian dream.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY MALAYSIA!...:)

Stop Race Politics!

I am deeply disappointed by the actions of some politicians and the mainstream media in politicizing in a racial manner the Friday prayer sermon in Penang which some quarters claimed that the name of the Yang Dipertuan Agong had been replaced with that of the CM Lim Guang Eng. The state government has deny this allegation but the issue is still being politicised.

In this holy month of Ramadhan, why are there individuals who are miss using the sanctity of religion for their political gain. Statement made by Datuk Zahid Hamidi is uncalled for as instead of investigating the matter, some quarters prefer to politicised it out of proportion.

It must be remembered by Malaysians especially Muslims that slander in Islam is worst than murder, therefore, if the allegation happens to be untrue, one is committing a sin worst than murder. This allegation if not properly handled, might lead to religious and racial uproar in this mentally-induced racial and religious hyper-sensitive nation that can disrupt the harmony between the races.

This is not the first time such racialisation of an issue is being done nor will it be the last if we continue to reward race politics and racist politicians. This issue is worst as aside from race, it also involved religion.The issue of Hindraf, the cow head protest and so on is the result of practising race politics

The only way to move beyond all this is by the electorate to reject race politics as it does more harm than good, it creates disunity and takes our attention away from the real issues of the day like the menace of corruption, the inequity in economic distribution between the rich and the poor and so on.

If this trend continues, then there is the possibility that another May 13 might create havoc in this beloved nation of ours. Let us be responsible Malaysians and reject any politicians with such tendencies in all elections, be it national elections or party ones.

Failure to do so, as a result will lead to extremist force taking over the country. Look at the public support of Perkasa among the Malays, and how politicians for both side of the divide that is empty content wise but due to wilingness to be ''pejuang bangsa"(race warrior, in other words, racist to an extreme) is going up the ranks.

We certainly don't want such people to lead or be influential in managing this nation, thus before it's to late, let us do something. Moderates politicians that are trying to bridge the divide like Zaid Ibrahim( Malay-Non Malays) and Khalid Samad( Muslims-Non Muslims) require our strongest support as they are being attacked by Ultra Malays and Muslim conservatives respectively. We need such politicians to lead and influence the direction of this nation, not racist demagogues in Perkasa and so on.

The sanctity of religion and race must be protected and not be miss used as a divisive tool to enhance one's salience to a political party so that votes can be gained. The practice of such politics is irresponsible. A more humane alternative is to vote based on humanistic values such as empathy towards the ''others" and try to understand their rights, religion and culture. Lets us create a Malaysian society where one can live in harmony, individually and collectively where one is not punished because of his or her identity.

Let us strive for Martin Luther King's speech where he talked about his dream for his nation,
'' I have a dream, that my four little children will live in a nation where they will not be judged by their colour, but by the content of their character".

Here in Malaysia, such word such echo in our hearts and mind as here, we are not judged by our content of character, but by our colour instead. Let us stand up and be counted to stop such practices, let us vote based on character and not colour.

Let us vote for the party that have the right values to guide our nation forward in a way that will not dampen our spirits and not the party that fight for narrow racial interests that create a society that is racist instead of a humanist society. Let us vote for the party with the best ideas for the nation and the ability to implement it well, not the party that talks of race supremacy or race solidarity.

In conclusion, we must demand the end of racial politics and ask instead for real issues-based ones-politics based on things that truly matter for our nation like the nation economic state,(sharing fairly of our nation wealth),social state(the polarisation among the races) , education state( is our education system producing the right human capital to steer this country in the 21st century) and many more.

The first step is for Malaysians to demand for such practice by at least using the ballot box, other measures that can help is the public advocation of such politics and for research on the subject to be conducted and information gained to be disseminated to the general public. We can only clean up our country if we clean up our politics and so let the'' Gotong Royong" begin for a cleaner politics that will lead us to a cleaner Malaysia.

A New Dawn for Malaysia's War Against Corruption?

The PKFZ(Port Klang Free Trade Zone) project fiasco continues to dominate the headlines when former MCA President and Transport Minister, Tun Ling Liong Sik was charged in court for misleading the cabinet about the said project. Personally I'm shocked that the government is taking such action but obviously they did and congratulations to them in having the guts to do so. For the first time in a long time, a big wig is charged in court for something, by Malaysian standards, it's a revolution indeed( a Tun some more). We all know that corruption is Malaysia's number 1 enemy, so this is our biggest attempt in attacking this enemy.

However, before we jubilate and celebrate this milestone in the battle against corruption that, thus far has been won by the corrupt over the people of Malaysia until this happened, I would like to remind all of us that the battle is not over yet, let alone the war. Past battles had shown us that the corrupt are not so easily defeated to warrant a premature celebration. Memories of the Lingam and the judiciary case, Eric Chia and Pewaja case and many more that the prosecution and justice system failed to nail should remind us of how the battle is far from over.

Just like Napoleon in the Battle of Waterloo who mistook a group of army approaching the battlefield as his reinforcement, which in actual fact happened to be his enemy Blucher leading the Prussian army, we should also be wary and not be disillusioned by this case until it is truly over and those guilty is charged.

I would not like to think the government of BN-prosecution team as an ally in the war against graft until they prove that they are worthy of being so as they might be reinforcement for the corrupt to blind Malaysians into thinking that the war is turning in our favour when it's not, worst is the opposite,just look at what happened to Napoleon( with the help of Blucher, Wellington defeated Napoleon in that battle that completely ended Napoleon's career and his dream of conquering Europe).

Excuse me for being cynical but after so much hope are dashed in the past, one will naturally behave in that manner. Nonetheless, I'm still hopeful that this might not be the'' same old, same old" story, but until the outcome of the case is determined, let us focus on other battles in this war against corruption.

Firstly,they are many corrupt individuals in government as we speak. One good example is Malacca Chief Minister Ali Rustam who the UMNO Discipline Council found guilty of money politics in the last UMNO General Assembly Election. So while the trial of Ling proceeds, we the public should increase the pressure on the government to act against such people and not be satisfied until corruption is at the minimum level in this country(if possible zero-corruption).

Besides that, to ensure continuation and acceleration of such act against graft, the public should demand the MACC, the country graft busting agency, to be fully independent from the control of government to avoid the interference of political power in the war against graft.

It will be tough for the agency to fight graft effectively if the government can decide the fate of it's agents and bosses, so by doing what is said, the political constrains that the body faces will be lightened as they don't need to answer to anybody except the people, thus enabling them to arrest, prosecute and charged anybody involve in corruption despite their political power or influence.

Furthermore, Malaysians must also ensure that the system that this country uses such as the government way of awarding contracts are corruption prove as at this moment, there are still many discrepancies in the way they do so such as the Defense Ministry way of paying commissions on equipment purchases( I'm not asking the ministry to divulge the military intelligence, just the tender process and whether there is a need for a middle man, if so, the selection process of such middle man) and so on as according to the Auditors General Report on the government, more than a billion are lost in government operations that shouldn't be lost.

In conclusion, as we observe the outcome of this case, our mind must not lose it's focus on other corrupt activities at large irrespective of who is committing it and how large it is, as corruption is corruption no matter how large the sum involved. One must remember the wise word from scholar Syed Hussein Alatas that" corruption is the mother of all sins as it is the enabler of other sins",thus corruption shouldn't be taken lightly.

The battle rages on in this war against corruption, some have suffered in the war while others are still suffering but I call on Malaysians not to rest until the war is over and winning a battle is not winning the war, but winning the war itself.

There are many battles ahead that must be won in order for Malaysians to finally slay corruption and win the war against corruption for the sake of a just and fair Malaysia that corruption inhibits for us and the future generation. As one of the famous saying in World War 2
"Your Country Needs You", are Malaysians responsible enough to answer the call? Time will tell.

The Real Anwar Ibrahim

Of late, the blogersphere has been buzzing about the so called ''chameleon", on how he is an American agent, Islamist radical, martian and what not. I think that Anwar is missunderstood, locally and internationally, of course the local mainstream media bias against him is one factor, coupled with the western media cynicism about him due to his Islamist ties, what we have is a man with great intentions but missunderstood by many.

Firstly, Anwar is not an blind ally of the west, we can see it from his support of the western-perceived terrorist group Hamas. In the west, Hamas is labeled as a terrorist organization where as in the Muslim world, Hamas is seen as a group of freedom fighters fighting for their rights as Palestinians to reclaim their lost land that the Israeli regime occupies currently.

Besides that, respected counter-terrorist expert Ilan Weinglass claimed that Anwar has ties with the Muslim brotherhood which is said to have members like fame Ulama Yusof Qardhawi which of course is an Islamist. Anwar even supports Iranian nuclear ambitions which the west and the Isrealis are vehemently against.

Anwar is also a close friend and supports Turkish PM Erdrogran who himself has attacked Israel a few times recently. So, from the above arguments an many more, he is not a an American puppet or agent as some politician claimed as branding Anwar as such is only a political ploy by his detractors to cut his appeal among voters especially Malay Muslim.

Having said that however, he is not an Islamist cup of tea either, as he also has ties with a few ''non-friendly" to the Islamists allies in the west. The architect of the Iraq war, the neo-conservative Paul Wolfowitz is a good example that will send shivers to his Islamist allies. He worked with Wolfowitz as Chairman of the Foundation of the Future where he served as chairman. The foundation is created to promote democracy, transparency and popular political participation( I didn't like the sound of the last one) in the middle east.

He was also involved in other bodies like the NED( national endowment for democracy) and International Crisis Group which in some cases can be viewed by the Islamist conservatives as an attempt to realign the Islamic values that accept liberal western concepts like secularism, freedom and so on thus a treat to conservative Islam( in the west it can also be called extremist Islam or radical Islam). So calling him a radical or extremist wouldn't fit in the picture too, as his above work contradicts the extremist and radical beliefs thus how can one call him as such when obviously he clearly is not.

My analysis of Anwar and a sentiment shared by many including the Foreign Policy Magazine is that he is a unique moderate individual who is able to bridge the gap between Islam and the west, even the east and the west. Many leaders seemed to prefer to play it safe by choosing one side and demonising the other, as they say, those in the middle will only get trampled by two fighting sides, but Anwar showed courage in this case by trying to be the mediator of the two worlds.

Not many leaders in this world have an understanding of Islamic principles and Western principles or Western principles and eastern principles which Anwar has, so he is in a position to be the bridge between the two civilisations, thus creating not a world in which one dominates with hegemony, but a world with the two civilisation living side-by side enlightening each other, creating the best of both worlds so to speak.

Thus he is accorded a ranking in the 30s by the magazine of world thinkers that is shaping foreign policy and world affairs. A clash of the two civilisations will only create disasters for both sides as can be seen in Bush war on terror where innocent civilians end up becoming the victim, so Anwar has a unique leadership role in this world to prevent such clash from occurring.

That is why he continues to be courted by western leaders and Islamist leaders alike, despite what is said about him by people suspicious of him, from Western nations to eastern ones as he can offer them the other side of the story like how the Islamic countries should embrace democracy and how the west should not fear Islam( Islamophobia) as the religion is peaceful in nature.

In conclusion, while Anwar's work should be commended as a great commitment for the future of this planet, it must be noted that despite all that, some in the west and in the Islamic world might not be to fond of the two worlds co-existing thus he might end up failing to prevent the clash of civilisations. Worst than that, he might unknowingly be missused by some extremists and western imperialists for the race to create a new world order in which winner takes all.

Anwar must be cautious of such event occurring as failure to do so will lead to the sancity of Islam as religion and sovereignty of nations to be destroyed or it will lead to extremists elements taking over the moderates ones on this earth thus creating havoc to mankind. His success will lead to a greater world where as his failure will lead to a destroyed one.

I wish him the best in his pursuit and may Allah S.W.T guide him on his journey which filled with trials and tribulations at home and abroad, of course, all great struggles will involve such elements, but the task of a great leader is to lead fellow man through such trials and tribulations so that they can create a greater world for all man.

Links
Him being an extremist or a radical-http://newledger.com/2010/07/unholy-alliance/
Him being an American agent or involved in western activities-http://asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2596&Itemid=178
(ps, there are many such links, type Anwar and NED and googled it for example, I just picked a few that have been making headlines in the blogersphere.)

Malay Unity?

Recently, many quarters are calling for Malay unity among the largest race in Malaysia, citing failure to do so might lead to the Malays being weak and vulnerable, thus allowing ''others" to take advantage of them. This siege mentality, from my point of view, is the very reason why the Malays are left in the current state that they are suffering from. It is this mentality of the Malays, that they are under siege, that they justify the act of their''protector" despite it being unjust or unlawful.

First of all, for the sake of discussion, for Malay unity to come to fruition, they must be an underlying value(s) that unites and binds all of us, this value(s) must be able to precede other values including political ideologies and so on. With no doubt is better if it is a positive value rather than a negative one. Now in our present state, the Malays lack this much needed value. Assuming that PAS and UMNO unites and creates another entity, without values, the combined entity is useless as history had shown in the 70s when the two joined hands under the BN. It was a failure.

The secular nationalist and the Islamist values that UMNO and PAS holds respectively pitted one against another and that coupled with distrust and so on lead to the break up. Furthermore, their core voters consist of the same group, the Malays, thus fueling further competition.

A second assumption I would like to make is that if the two party joined hands again, it will create a political context in which the largely Malays( UMNO and PAS), VS the largely Non-Malays( PKR and DAP), this will only lead to a hegemony in our political space and extremist in both group will prosper which is not good for Malaysians in the long run. Malay supremacy can be pushed to an extent where is damaging for the country race relations as there is no way MCA or MIC can stand up to UMNO and PAS no matter how strong they are.

A hegemony political space will lead to the creation of a hegemony government that will implement policies that are hegemony in nature. Plural Malaysia will not prosper if a hegemony Malaysia emerges, rather the effect is rather destructive than a constructive if one is to use the Malaysia's point of view than a Malay one.

Furthermore, in an event that this new combination is not performing in the interest of the Malays as the propagators of Malay unity hope it would, they will no check and balance from the microscopic context of Malay politics. The Malays will be trapped and be forced to support this new entity irrespective of whether they are performing or not( look at the state of reliance of the Malays to UMNO now, the reliance will be bigger if the party will merge or join hands with PAS) with no alternative for the Malays.

To me it is not upliftement of the Malays if UMNO merges with PAS, rather it is the opposite. I would prefer the Malays unite not under a combination of political parties, rather unite under common values and principles irrespective of political inclination( like in the west how they unite in upholding principles of freedom, human rights and democracy).

The Malays will be better of that way as politicians can't misuse Malay unity for the sake of personal or political gain not to mention it will lead to a well served Malays as politicians from both side of the divide will compete to serve the Malays for votes thus leading to a better served Malays.

In conclusion, I would encourage for the Malays to dissemble the siege mentality and think progressively about this PAS-UMNO merger of sort as it will not really help the Malays, rather it will only make the problem worse. In my opinion, for the Malays to be uplifted, the Malays themselves must take action that uplift themselves, than the politicians will must likely follow suit.

As reminded many times here, real change happens from the bottom-up and not the other way around thus for the Malays to be better of, we must look at ourselves and make improvements on us rather than rely solely on the politicians who most of them have their own political agendas to fulfill.

Remember what history had taught us before, when the Malays rely solely on the the Sultans or other leaders, we end up losing more than we gain( many states in Malaysia were lost this way, just look at Perak) but when we as a people unite, even the mighty British concurred with us( the rejection of Malayan Union), please remember that when considering UMNO-PAS unity and Malay unity.

Genuine or Cosmetic Change?

I'm have no idea what proper tittle should be given for this article so I decided to simply write Genuine or Cosmetic change as the title for this article as from my point of view, many of the so called ''change" advocated by the politicians in these country are cosmetic in nature and not genuine change which Malaysians really need right now.

I would like to comment on the effort of Malaysia's political parties, in trying to win votes from voters, have done some pretty remarkable things considering their past histories and so on in changing themselves.

Firstly, the fact that PAS is considering to field a non-Muslim in an election is pretty remarkable. This move is testament to PAS effort to reach out to the non-Muslims voters, further distancing themselves from the hardline Islamic image that they have been perceived by many non-Muslims voters. This should add meaning to PAS creation of the PAS supporters Club which they establish to bring PAS closer to the non-Muslims voters as members now may be chosen to contest for office despite the fact that the club has no full membership status and are not allow to vote in party election.

Then there is the effort by DAP to invite Malays to join the party. The party had set up a new exclusively Malay branches and they are also trying to recruit them in existing branches. The appointment of Tunku Abdul Aziz, the former head of Transparency International Malaysia as the party's vice chairman is testament to DAP's effort in bringing the party closer to the Malays after long being perceived as a Chinese chauvinist party.

Despite all that, the party must do more to shed it's anti-Malay image and the appointment of Tunku Abdul Aziz as Vice Chairman of the party while it helps, will not bring much change of perception among Malays of DAP as Tunku is not rely an influential Malay figure that can help court the Malays to join or vote DAP.

Finally,there's the recent move by UMNO in publicizing the entrance of 40 young Ulama's into the party in which Najib, the UMNO President himself was there to receive their memberships. The move can be seen as UMNO's way of boosting is Islamic image after long being seen as a secular party especially to the Islamist. Even former Perlis Mufti, Dr Asri name appeared although he didn't enter UMNO. This will probably help UMNO steal some votes from is traditional nemesis PAS especially the moderate Islamic-conscious Malays.

In conclusion, I would like to remind all parties that although these changes are a welcoming sign, I am also fully aware that our politicians are masters at making cosmetic changes in order to gain votes. I am not implying that these changes are cosmetic in nature as these moves are a good first step for the respective party. The benefits that awaits them are huge, the political gains aside.

PAS can formulate policies that are Islamic while taking into account the non-Malays feedback and ideas, not to mention a perfect way to have a two-way communication between PAS and the non-Malays in explaining issues associated with the party like the extremist image and so on.

We can learn from Prophet Muhammad S.A.W never alienates the non-Muslims in his administration as they views and concerns are always taken account to in his administration thus creating an inclusive society that unites all Muslims and non-Muslims alike, so there is no reason for PAS not to try to emulate Prophet Muhammad S.A.W in their approach in handling the non-Muslims.

DAP can be really aspire for Malaysian Malaysia with the inclusion of the Malays in it's party struggle rather than judging by the current make up of the party of non-Malays Malaysia or worst, Chinese-Malaysia. The party can push the concept and it's democratic socialist principles higher if the Malays are in DAP so that the party can be more inclusive thus hopefully can be accepted by the Malays at least to a certain extent.( I would like to add that I am against communal politics as it's overshadowing progressive politics where issues that bring us progress like economy, education and so on are at the forefront not race.)

Finally, UMNO can certainly gain by the influx of Ulama in the party as they can suggest how to incorporate Islamic principles in it's political struggle and the administration of the state and federal government. UMNO can be Islamic to the core( not being an extremist, but truly practicing Islam) and not simply pretending to be Islamic as some of it's politicians are trying to do.

The incorporation of Islamic principles can hopefully help UMNO tackle corruption, fund mismanagement, lack of integrity and many moral issues the party and the government that the party led are having problem in solving.

It's struggle to up lift the Malays can also be boosted by applying Islamic principles and values like amar marauf nahi mungkar( the Malays are not criticism friendly as it's often regarded as "biadap'' nor are the Malays the type to offer criticism as it will be called "jaga tepi kain orang" despite the criticism is to invite to do good deeds and avoid evil ones.) and many others.

The developments are certainly a positive one, let us see whether it is purely cosmetic change for political gains or a genuine reform for the betterment of the party's ability to serve the people. They can fool us once, but not twice, unless we are fools, if that is the case, I will offer my deepest regret and sympathy to our fate as a people of a nation where, despite being fools we are either unaware of how foolish we are or simply too ignorant to enlightened ourselves. May God help us if that is the case as fools are powerless to create positive changes for themselves, let alone for society as a whole, so God is our only hope then.

A Reformist

I'm called to write this as recent and past events had shown me that the word reformist is often misused by certain quarters to gain political popularity for their own political agenda. The event, the recent one where UMNO's Youth Chief Khairy Jamaludin claimed that he and Prime Minister Najib are reformist which strucked me as a surprise as how can the prestigious tag ''reformist'' bestowed by history to man and women who change the course of civilization, the likes of Lenin, Gandhi,Jefferson, Elanor, Catherine The Great be simply referred to any Tom, Dick or Khairy( or is it Larry?).

First of all, reformist must bring about real change in a society that, the change itself so powerful that it can overcome a political or economical structure lasting for thousand of years, it can inspire people to throw away common beliefs and wisdoms and accept and new way of thinking and behaving, thus rewriting the social and political landscape.

Lenin is an example of a man who achieved this feat. He overturned the thousand years old Tsar regime which before this is an institutional structure of the Russian society, the old established economic structure of peasants who worked for aristocratic landowners or later capital owners for as long as the Russian society existed also didn't escaped his reforms where they were finally freed from the chain that locked them to the aristocrats as the nation strive for a society without class. Calling Lenin a refomist might be an undersatement as the proper tag should be a revolutioner, as some may consider a reformist as tame if compared to revolutioner, but from my thinking, one must be a reformist first then move on to the next level of revolutioner, thus there's a refomist in Lenin before he move up to being a revolutioner that he is. Khairy, who is a smart guy can evaluate whether such feat is comparable to his or Najib's achievement, but my view is that both of their work combined can't match Lenin's feat.

Mahatma Gandhi is another reformist. Before him there's an India, divided along the lines of religion, race, language and so on and then there's the empirial British who colonized them benefiting from this division which they manipulated well by using the divide and rule way of administration. Beside the already prevalent division, there exists a mental barrier inside all Indians at that time that independence is impossible as the British is unbeatable. Despite all that, Gandhi managed to unite the nation, against all odds, introduce a concept of non-violence resistance which is a revolutionary concept used by other great leaders like Marthin Luther King and Nelson Mandela. He managed to discard the commonly held beliefs at that time that the British are unbeatable and India can't gain independence from them which by discarding such beliefs lead to the independence of India movement where although the other nationalists of the time are calling for the picking up of arms and riffles to fight against the colonialist, Gandhi insisted in non-violence resistance thus going against the tide of the time.

Unfortunately for the self described reformist Khairy and his boss, not only they are advocating more of the same, like they are advocating the continuation of the social order that existed during the British colonial period here with policies that divides rather than unite us, but they are doing so by way of force, manipulation, deceit, using sedition to scare the different races and so on, thus automatically tarnishing the word'' reformist'' by describing himself and his boss as one.

Finally, there’s an act of changing the social landscape to a positive one. That, to my thinking is the major aim of a reformist. In both the example given, there's a change in the social landscape, for Russia, it ended the aristocratic grab of the wealth of the nation where all Russians can better enjoy the wealth of the rich country irrespective of class and for India, despite their differences, they all unite as Indians and gained independence, but nothing can compare to the feat that Nelson Mandela achieved when he ended apartheid in South Africa. Years of slavery and colonialism didn't stop the country that he lead to embrace the whites as their own where together they are joining hands to build a better nation for all of them so that the next generation can enjoy the effort of their forefathers irrespective of their race. The dark past are buried as they toiled for a brighter future.

Here in Malaysia, the past still haunts us, just look at the May 13 incidence as a case in point where instead of burying the dark past and working together for a brighter future like the South Africans are doing, we are living in the dark past, denying ourselves a brighter future thus passing the darkness to future generations. Real reformist will not sit down and let this happen, but UMNO which the party that Najib leads and Khairy belongs are ensuring that the dark past is forever with us so that their party will continue to be relevant to Malays who are scared that the siege by the ''others" will lead them in a state of diaspora thus ensuring the continuation of the party's rule of this country.

In conclusion, it's best that Khairy reexamined his statement and make correction to it as by my thinking, there's absolutely no way that he and his boss can be called a reformist, however for Khairy, he is still young and is not too late for him to change his ways and work towards reforming this country so that he can be called a reformist by his countrymen and who knows, maybe by mankind themselves just like the likes of the heroes mentioned above. Only time will tell if that will happen or not.

Real and Rhetorical Change

The theme of change seems to be the main ethos in the Malaysian political landscape since the March 8 General Election Tsunami. I am of the view that although once popular from Barack Obama's campaign slogan of '' Change'' to Pakatan Rakyat's reformasi, the credibility of the word has since diminished. We can see that in the US today despite some major changes, there are still partisan politics not by-partisan politics that Obama advocated, lobbyists and wall street remained influential over main street and so on. The campaign glitter had somewhat faded, and Americans are now facing reality once again.

Malaysia political landscape also was mesmerised by this word. Anwar mobilised the masses into believing that the Pakatan Rakyat is the agent for change with Reformasi being the theme of the opposition thus leading the opposition to it's best General Election performance.

UMNO, realising the power of that word also joined the bandwagon with slogans like UMNO Mampu Berubah and so on. The government itself introduced the Government Transformation plan and so on indicating change. But lets face it, after more than 2 years can we still believe in the word ''change"?

The reality is much of our politics are still the same. Despite the introduction of 1Malaysia, race still dominates the political landscscape. Just look at how issues are played by both side of the political divide, we will see the dominance of race. Just to prove my point, just pick up a copy of Utusan, the newspaper which is UMNO controlled and you will see how everything is racialised.

Look at what certain statement by non-Malays Opposition members and you will noticed immediately how race was the reason for such statement. So the change that many hope for, the change that wll bring an end to communal politics seems to be nothing more than an empty hope.

Then we look at cronyism and nepotism, are they getting worse or better, well whatever the answer may be, they are still alive and well, both in the ruling and opposition sides. Just look at the Selangor state government owned sand mining company KSSB where there's a discrepancies involving it's management of funds. So the knight in the shining armour in the opposition that the people who voted for them saw turned out to be a disappointment for them.

The issue of corruption remains prevalent. Despite the fact that MACC was given much needed power boost by the government, until it's a fully independent body, it will not be an effective graft busting agency. Just look at it's handling of the PKFZ Scandal, Lingam case and so on.

In conclusion, the real change that the people yearned are not coming anytime soon based on current trend. The reality is just as President Obama said during his campaign, real change occurs from the bottom up and not the other way around. So, if we want real change,the people must be involved irrespective of political leanings and so on. We have seen how the NGO movement in Malaysia has created change for what they represent. Just look at Hindraf and Perkasa to name a few. It's time Malaysians take part in the way the country is governed as only that can make real change happen and not just ''change'' as a mere political rhetoric.

The Jewish Factor

I was surprised by the recent development in Malaysian politics involving our politicians and the Jews. Who would have thought that despite our nation's stand against the the Jews-Zionist network and Israel, our politicians from both side of the political divide seem to be well linked to them despite they themselves claiming the other of either being close to the Jews or being a Jewish agent.

Firstly, we look at the opposition leader, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's Jewish link which include Paul Wolfowitz among others, the architect of the Iraq war, not to mention he also close with many American politicians whom we can't fully trust due to their believe in the American agenda such as free-trade and Pro-Secular stand not to mention their own personal links with the Jews.

This stand and many others propagated by America are not necessarily bad, but it must be done by ourselves as a sovereign nation that we are, molding such values and principles based on our culture and capabilities as our survival is at stake, so such move require deliberate design so as it can co-exist with our nation's core values and so on. We have seen the fate of countries who embrace democracy and free-trade blindly that cause damage rather than progress to nation such as Russia after the collapse of Soviet Union and so on.

Then we have our Prime Minister whose association with the firm that have links to the Jews, APCO, that created a stir in Parliament when the opposition leader raise this issue that lead to some quarters calling him to be referred to the Parliament's special rights and privileges committee for him to be suspended. APCO is said to be link with the Jews helping dictators improve their image so that their abuse towards the people won't affect their image among their people and the international community.

Don't get me wrong, but if they are efficient at doing their jobs, then go ahead, hire them, as rightly or wrongly, human nature is as such that image counts, it' true in economics, politics and so on. So the move will benefit the country with improve confidence in our economy and government from local and foreign investors, than I don't really see the problem as long as our stand on the Palestinian occupation by Israel stays.

Now, is it wrong for them to befriend or hire personalities or firms with links to the Jews? I think it's okay if we have the right intentions to do so. Again, our hatred and skepticism of the Jews and the western figures that are linked to them or simply attached to the western agenda have been used by our politicians to forward their political agenda.In the end, real issues like corruption and incompetence will be buried under the issue that is least important to our nation's progress like ties to the Jews and west. Of course we must be wary of them and their imperialist agenda, but not to the extent of xenophobia.

The reality is that we are using and consuming a lot of Jewish or Jewish link items such as McDonald's itself. We are using their know-how like ideas in economics, management and so on. We must remember that they(Jews and whites) are willing to embrace other ideas and ideals such as during the Islamic Civilisation when they without shame studied our ideas and ideals whilst improving it along the way. They are willing to work with us, use our institutions to forward their ideals. So now we must do the same so that we can progress just as they did then.

In conclusion, Malaysians especially the Malays must be willing to learn from the Jews and the west. Look at their positive traits, apply it appropriately and improve it, that's how we progress unless we are happy and being backward until the end of time, which, will make it easier for the reasons we fear them to become the reality of the day, so the only answer is to learn from the outside world to strenghten our economy, politics, culture, military and so on to avoid the said fear from becoming a reality.

Morality and Politics

The recent events unfolding in our political landscape serve as a clear indication of lack of morality among all quarters in our political circle. Morality while varies in it's importance to individuals as morality is subjective to the respective individual such as what can be perceived as an immoral acts to some like the issue of abortion and gender change may seem like a norm or human rights to others.

Having said that however, the importance of moral values, or a moral compass to be exact in individuals especially those eyeing public office cannot be misconstrued as unimportant as this should guide the individual and the public in assessing his or her character in the performance of the duties entrusted to them by us.

The first big event that shock me to a certain extent is the MCA Presidency victory by former Health Minister Dr Chua Soi Lek despite him being involved in a sex scandal which video was an eye sore to some and entertainment to many speaking with candour if I may as that the reality we are dealing with here.

It surprises me as I believed that Ong Ka Ting should be the winner as despite claims of cronyism which involve his brother, Ong Ka Chuan and the fact that he's the leader in MCA when MCA suffered a massive loss of Parliamentary seat in the last General Election which can't be blame solely on him rather the behaviour of UMNO, which I think was the major reason MCA suffered such loss and not so much of Ong Ka Ting's failure to steer the party. Nonetheless public figures like Dr Mahthir all call for the results to respected as the delegates have chosen their man despite it being a reflection of how they feel about Dr Chua's immoral act.

The second event regards the Hulu Selangor's by election where some in UMNO Selangor made a suggestion in nominating former MB Tan Sri Muhammad Muhammad Taib which again surprises me as he was involved in a case involving currency irregularities amounting to 3.8 million in Australia. He's was found innocent simply because he claimed he didn't understand English and so couldn't understand the rules and regulations. Then he lied to his royal highness the Sultan of Selangor about his marriage with his highness daughter.

So with such a character of his, it surprises me as to why some in UMNO Selangor is suggeting him rather than someone with better character and moral values not to mention possibly younger except possibly that he can probably guarantee and win for UMNO. So, now winning is indeed everything even though you put crocks and criminals in office or the state legislative assembly.

To be fair however, such act is nothing new in Malaysians politics as a whole, as we can see from the case of Bukit Lanjan assemblywoman Elizabeth Wong whose pictures and videos of her sleeping wearing only some sort of gown circulated on the web believed to be taken by his boyfriend which happened to be in her bedroom while she's asleep despite the fact that they're not married. PKR didn't take any action so the precedence in morality failed to be set up as there's nothing much PKR or Pakatan can say about Dr Chua when they themselves failed to act on Elizabeth Wong.

In conclusion, it's up to the public now to enforce moral values to our politicians by punishing them through rejection of not only the individuals, but also the party so that they will get the message that Malaysians want a morality based society and we demand them to give it to us eventhough it means political liability for them as only with morality in center stage in our government can it be spread across to other sectors in Malaysia and since politicians control the government, it's with them that this morality issue should begin with. If we the public act, we can give birth to a Malaysia that is a moral based society that we can all be proud of.

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.

Purification of PKR

Recently, as a PKR supporter, one cannot help to notice that PKR is in no shape to head the coalition that governs the country. The party seems to be in a state of disarray, confused and losing confidence in the leadership and the party's struggle. Recent outburst by it's MPs like Zukifli Noordin and Zahrain Hashim is prime example of the state PKR is in right now. Rumours have it that later is said to have some MPs to back him in supporting BN so that the BN will regained the 2/3 majority in Parliament allowing them to make constitutional amendments as it pleased.

Based on my personal observation, the main reason for the party current state may be because of the mixed political struggle that the members are carrying out. As we know, PKR mainly consist of UMNO, ABIM( Angkatan belia Islam Malaysia), PRM( Parti Rakyat Malaysia) former members and the liberal/reform minded individuals.

The wide array of political ideologies in PKR can be seen as UMNO beliefs in Malay agenda, ABIM beliefs in an Islamic agenda, PRM beliefs in Socialist agenda and of course the liberals/reformist belief in liberal and reform agenda. So the former members are bringing their former party's struggle inside PKR causing such friction to take place which lead to PKR's current state of disarray causing confusion on what PKR trully stands for.

My suggestion is that PKR purify itself by firstly:

1)Informing all members at all levels about what PKR truly stands for. It's primary objective must be communicated to it's members so the will know where PKR is taking them.
2)The struggle of their former party should be discarded and replaced with that of PKR. Failure to do so will lead to punishment.
3)Candidates that represent the party struggle should be fielded in elections, not the individuals that still carry their former party's ideology.
4)Just like a corporation must have a corporate culture, PKR should strive for one as the party's lack of it is causing cultures from their members former parties to take hold causing PKR to behave like UMNO and the rest, rather than having a distinctive code of behaviour that can be indentifiable and represents the party.
5) New members must be informed of what PKR stands for before admission and trained mentally and emotionally to breath the struggle of PKR.
6)Members who refuse to adhere to the party's struggle should be sidelined or kicked out.


That's the only way PKR can produce leaders that can carry out the party's struggle. Simply saying PKR is for reform is not enough anymore. Reform is such a subjective word. It has many meanings such as reform to a more hardcore malay nationalistic stand, Islamist reform and so on. So elaborating on what reforms PKR is fighting for will be essential for the party as it gives leaders, members and voters a sense of direction by identifying themselves to the party.

However, it's essential that PKR remain a party that beliefs in diversity in thought and action, meaning that despite your ideological leaning being difference from that of PKR, the party will still welcome you and value your input but you must respect the position of PKR as a whole so that PKR will not be heavily bias towards it's struggle to the extent that they become a radical party such as UMNO and their Malay Supremacy struggle.

By weighing in different views and courses of action, PKR will remain a party that strive for moderation despite having an ideology as a guideline to the party's struggle so that it's beliefs, actions and policies can be accepted by all Malaysians regardless of political beliefs and social positions.

Fianlly, I hope that PKR can settle this major problem besetting them so that the confidence of the members and voters not only in PKR but also Pakatan Rakyat can be restored. Only then can PKR talk about genuine reform in a clear cut manner without subjecting themselves to inhibition due to the concern of possible reactions from members and voters as members and voters know what to expect from the party. The call of Reformasi must go on nonetheless, as touted by many PKR and Pakatan Rakyat leaders ''Perjuangan Mesti Diteruskan", and by that I hope that indeed that is the truth.