I provide the photo. You do the caption. Best caption wins… nothing. Yet.
JJ: May I?
Obama: NO! Don’t you dare! *covers*
ps: TCMPCC sounds good. LOL!
Sarawak is a strong fortress of the establishment, Barisan Nasional. Heck, Sarawak (together with Sabah) saved BN from embarrassment last General Election by giving them enough seats to rule this country. BN already lost in Peninsular at that time judging from the popular votes BN 48% – 52% PR, the sentiment had switched to Pakatan Rakyat.
People of Sarawak are still immune to the change happening in Peninsular, and from the most recent by election held after the GE at Batang Ai, Pakatan Rakyat still has a lot of works to do in order to make wave in Sarawak. BN retained Batang Ai seat when its candidate Malcolm Mussen Lamoh, defeated PKR’s Jawah Gerang with an increased majority. Yes, increased majority. Pakatan Rakyat’s campaign for that by election is a total disappointment. I couldn’t even understand for what reason they chose Jawah Gerang as candidate in the first place. I wrote this in my previous post,
Why lah PKR chose Jawah Gerang as its candidate? This guy was the state assemblyman for the area for a freaking 5 terms! 20 over years! And we shall have him to bring ‘change?’ Niamah!
Nevermind that, we are now holding our breath over the latest political center of attention, Sibu. This seat is very important for both BN and PR. Why? Anyone who wins this seat, can confidently say it may have a greater, better chance to fare well in the coming state election and general election.
BN needs to win this seat to maintain its grip on its ’strong seat’ and to send a message to all Malaysians that it is making a comeback under the new political master and all the promised changes, mantras, KPIs, KRAs have struck a chord of acceptance among Malaysians.
PR needs to win this seat to make inroads to Sarawak. A win in Sibu will change everything. It will change the perception among people that only BN is the one and only choice for them. The perception that BN is mighty and will not lose. Just like before GE 2008, people thought it was impossible for BN to lose. People could not accept that change is possible. Who would have thought that BN would lose its 2/3 majority?
Before all this, every by election was won by BN easily without much sweat. No more of that, we have to make people understand change is a good thing. The elected party will work harder to earn its worth. We should not give our votes easily, make them beg if necessary. Just think, before all this happened, did BN ever talk about change? About reform? And now their leaders are talking about change and reforms. Most still remain rhetoric but that is a start, to acknowledge the need for change and reform.
I am not a political analyst, I am not somebody to reckon with in politics, I am not someone with plenty of experience in politics, I am not even a member of any political party. But I have few things to say Pakatan Rakyat leaders if they want to have better chance of winning the Sibu seat, this coming by election.
1) Tone and direction of the campaign. Please don’t campaign like how you campaign in Peninsular. It doesn’t work. Forget about condemning Umno, MCA, MIC. When in Sarawak, talk about the component parties here. SUPP, PBB. Why talk about Umno? The party does not even operate in Sarawak. People here cannot relate to that.
People here most probably don’t find Umno so much a threat. Most threats are from the local parties, local leaders here. Better talk about Taib Mahmud. Or talk about Alfred Jabu ak Numpang. James Jemut Masing. George Chan. Robert Lau has passed aways, not so good to talk about him and he is very much loved figure among the locals when he was alive. Better, forget about condemning other parties if you can manage.
2) Please don’t make the campaign into another ‘condemn Barisan Nasional and its evil doings’. Have some class. Try to change the way you campaign. Some opposition parties have been campaigning that way since their existence, they know nothing but to whack, whack, whack and whack BN all the way.
People already know all the good things and bad things about BN. Talk about what Pakatan Rakyat can offer. Make it a campaign on ‘what Pakatan Rakyat candidate can provide as a representative of the people, the need for check and balance, what are the good things PR has carried out as a state government in Penang, Selangor, Kelantan, Perak (er….), Kedah.
3) Talk about issues that have immediate and obvious effect to the locals. Sorry but the political reality is, locals here cannot relate to Altantuya, TBH, PKFZ. So, touch on LOCAL ISSUES. Corruption cases, dirts by LOCAL LEADERS. Address the urgent, immediate problems of the locals. Local issues like flooding, land titles.
4) Work with local leaders. Let them take the stage. If possible use local dialects to engage the locals. In a predominant Iban crowds, find some Iban leaders to talk. Or speak some stammering Iban words. It will do wonders.
That is enough for now, I guess. All the best for the by election!
I was in KL for the weekend. After breaking up many promises to go and chill out with my friends on the other side (so sorry peeps for that!), finally I made a last minute decision to go. Booked my ticket on Thursday and flew down on Friday evening. I am glad I made it to KL because I had the chance to attend few very important tweetups, meeting old friends – especially my lovely comrades from Facebook, and hanging out with many new friends from Twittersphere.
I touched down at LCCT around 7.30pm, took a bus to KL Sentral which took me an hour to reach there. Another 10 mins wasted to find a cab. First cab asked for RM35, I told him to go back and sleep, then I went to the roadside and managed to catch a macha. We had a good chat about Sarawak (after he learned that I am a Sarawakian), tuak, toddy, samsu and a little bit on politics. I was heading to Rocket Cafe to attend a tweetup with Lim Kit Siang. Tony Pua was there as well. I was late, reached there around 9pm and luckily I just missed the session about half an hour.
Teeetup with Lim Kit Siang and Tony Pua
The tweetup make-up is a very multiracial one, something different from the usual DAP organised gatherings I have been to. In fact, Vijay whispered to me halfway during the tweetup, “Hey Bong, you know this is the first gathering I’ve been that I see so many races, normally.. majority Chinese and few Indians, very seldom got Malays. Tonight we have so many”.
Many questions and comment were raised during the tweetup. Questions on Lim Kit Siang’s call for boycott during the swearing in ceremony in Perak post GE 2008, September 16 and many more.
I had the chance to ask few questions and make some comments on the image of DAP as a multiracial party hampered by its inability to get the right mixture of members and leaders to reflect a true multiracial party. Many other tweeples jumped in and gave their comments on how DAP is still perceived among Malays as a Chinese party. Something need to be done to change this perception.
Lim Kit Siang gave a good answer on this. He pointed out that in principle, DAP never close its door to any Malaysian, be it Malay, Chinese, Indian etc. The party does not limit any Malaysian of any race and religion to join the party. He then mentioned some prominent Malay leaders in DAP – a well-known Malay, MP Ahmad Nor, who was its vice-president until his death in 2003, Tunku Abdul Aziz the current party vice-president as an example of DAP multiracial and open to all. approach. It’s wrong to say that the DAP is not interested broadening its appeal to the Malays.
But DAP has difficulties to attract other races especially Malays because there are so many other parties to choose from and most of the time being an opposition party doesn’t help. Malays can choose from Umno, Gerakan, PPP then only PAS, PKR and lastly DAP. For those who are pro-opposition, before PKR was formed they would choose either PAS or DAP but now they can choose PKR.
Hmm, for me I personally feel the problem with DAP trying to attract Malay members is that DAP does not have enough specifics in their programmes or policies for the Malays as a specific community. How DAP is going to assist the Malays in their development, what kind of policies DAP has for them. Reaching out to the Malays is different from reaching out to the Chinese and Indians and other Natives for that matter. Religion is one crucial factor.
Another issue brought up was on the dissemination of information to the ground. DAP specifically or Pakatan Rakyat (PR) in general could have done many good things but all this good news are not delivered to the right people due to the distortion, manipulative and blackout in mainstream media. This problem is also related to the previous question and comments where DAP is perceived as a Chinese party when DAP has always been multi-racial in its composition and outlook.
PR also does not have an official one stop centre’ for all the news, press statements, commentaries on policies and current issues, blogs for its leaders, members and supporters. Independent or alternative media who are pro PR like Malaysia Today and Malaysiakini are not enough. TV Selangor is a good example on how Pakatan Rakyat can use it to present PR’s side on any story and issues of current interests, offering counter-statements, interviews on various issues and showing all the good works carried out by PR. Heck it even has live parliamentary session, something Malaysian cannot get from RTM channels or any mainstream electronic media.
I also commented on the cooperation between Pakatan Rakyat parties – PKR, DAP and PAS where PR still does not portray itself as a coalition with united voice when you have situation where PAS will take lead on a certain issue, DAP will take lead on another issue. I suggested that for DAP to portray and show that it is a party who is after Malaysians’ interests, it should always go to the front.
Tony Pua replied “Let’s say for an example, on the Allah issue if DAP was the first to go out and say ‘It is okay for the Christians to use the Allah word’ and then PAS followed after that, how people would think? How the Muslims would think? Don’t you think Umno and BN would jump to the opportunity to say PAS ‘ikut telunjuk’ (PAS is DAP’s puppet)? That is why for certain issues, we find it is better for us to sit back and let other parties take the lead.
Valid point, which I gave my next comment ‘Then, to avoid such problem, giving impression to the people out there on the disunity of PR parties, of who’s taking the lead and who’s taking the back seat, shouldn’t Pakatan Rakyat issue some sort of joint-statement when dealing with an issue? That way, no question of each party issuing its own statement or the possibility of contradicting each other. It is also more difficult for PR detractors to accuse any party of being submissive to other party. Any statement or comments coming from other PR leaders or parties after the official statement are considered as just personal opinions/views since the official stand has been made.”
Hmm….
Too bad, time was running out and the only reply I got was “Well, that’s an idealistic thinking”. Hmm….
Tweetup at The Reef, TTDI
A friend was waiting for more than 15 mins downstairs for me and Vijay to go for another tweetup at The Reef, TTDI. So after we took some group photos, we left for The Reef. I was so happy to meet up with the regular tweeples in person – @Asohan, @orangasle, @feistyflo (Thanks for inviting me cayang hahaha!), @zeffri (and his lovely wife), @IcedNyior, @thechannelc (she left without saying goodbye! Easier to sneak out than saying goodbye eh??), @sureshdr, @rachelweiyi, @iemzhar, @JcrT, @auzani (he came a bit late after). Sorry if I miss out your name, writing this off the top of my head.
Had so much fun, gyrating to the 80’s tune. We even made a toss to #yorais! We were so loud and at one point chanting “U2, U2, U2″ asking for songs from the band to be played. Too bad, our requests were ignored.. huargghhh! Nobody was taking photos of the tweetup, I think @IcedNyior took some and twitpic-ed it, may need to check her tweets for the photos. We adjourned to the mamak opposite the bar and I had my sleep around 4.30am. I was staying at D’aman Ria, the place where I stayed when I was working in Klang Valley. Thanks CM for opening the door at 4am LOL!
To be continued… (Next post - fish head noodle, Kanna Curry House farewell lunch and Teh Tarik Tweetup with Anwar Ibrahim)
I thought I would slow down writing on socio-political issues since I jumped on the Twitter bandwagon and spending most of my time there on such issues, but I need to pen down more than 140 characters for this particular issue.
Remember the covert mission by two Al Islam journalists who went undercover to spy on Catholic church by pretending to be Christians and taking part in its rituals – receiving and spitting out the Holy Communion wafer for photographs – believed to take place somewhere in April 2009? Malaysians were only made aware of such unethical and insensitive actions of Al Islam journalists after a police report were made in July 2009 after an article titled “Tinjauan Al Islam Dalam Gereja: Mencari Kesahihan Remaja Murtad” was published in the May 2009 issue of Al Islam magazine.
In the latest development, our very wise and forward thinking Attorney General has decided to let the two Al Islam journalists of the hook, without any reason given for such decision. So he is playing judge as well, deciding whether criminals can be let free or not, eh?
The duo were then investigated under Section 298A (1) of the Penal Code for causing disharmony, disunity or feelings of enmity, hatred or ill will, or prejudicing the maintenance of harmony or unity, on grounds of religion.
It was reported yesterday that the Dang Wangi district police headquarters, through the officer in charge of the case, had sent a letter to the complainant telling him that the AG’s office would not be pressing charges.
No reason was given for the decision.
Well, guess who came to the AG’s rescue for his decision? Khairy Jamaluddin, Umno Youth chief, who also happened to be the first Malaysian Muslim politician to condemn the action of the two irresponsible Al Islam journalists when the issue came out.
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 26 — Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin (picture) said today the Attorney General’s decision to let two Al-Islam magazine journalists off the hook for allegedly desecrating Catholic Communion hosts should not matter so long as the magazine has “learned its lesson from this episode.”
Allow me to use famous point-form blog writing style ala Che Det here.
1. Stupid reason for not prosecuting.
‘So long as the magazine has learned its lesson from this episode‘ is one of the most stupid reason for not prosecuting.
What kind of signal the government is trying to send out? That rule of law can be undermined by politics? This episode happened way before the cow-head incident (happened in September 2009), churches arson attacks (happened early of January 2010) and pig head incident (happened end of January 2010).
When it happened, no swift and immediate action was taken, apart for the usual condemnation by politicians and promises to investigate the matter. Because of the efficiency of such inaction by the government and the authorities, it gave some sort of blessings for more untowards incidents to happen after, which we witnessed.
2. Lackadaisical action by the government and authorities in dealing with ’sensitive’ matters like this.
Lackadaisical action by the government may have led to a perception that certain groups of people with vested interests and subversive tendencies have the immunity to carry out their despicable acts to disturb the peace and harmony in the country.
When the ‘cow head incident’ took place, the government and the authorities took the ‘cow head incident’ played down the incident, taking it lightly and were even seen to show some support and sympathy for that provocative, senseless and insensitive action (Hishammuddin ‘Keris’ Hussein even went to defend cow head protester!). Malaysians couldn’t help but to think that those people had the blessings of someone or some groups with the required political clout to protect them.
Thanks to many sensible Malaysians who made it clear that such nonsense and ineptitude cannot be tolerated. Had it not been for the public outcry over that heinous behaviour, those responsible would not have been charged in court. Even that has been rather slow and lacked the urgency or importance for a highly-sensitive provocation with seemingly religious overtones.
3. Missed the train? Get on a plane, chap!
In few Twitter exchanges with Khairy Jamaluddin – @khairykj regarding his comments over AG’s decision, he explained that his comments were in the context of now, as we have missed the train.
@bongkersz Perhaps, but the train has left the station on ‘taking action’. Tensions must be eased first. 3:36 PM Feb 26th via UberTwitter in reply to bongkersz
Well, if I miss the train, I’ll be sure to take a plane to catch up, or at least give chase and not letting the train goes without me. To be honest, Malaysians are sick of inactions over matters like this, not the timing of such actions to be taken. Also interesting to note, this argument by Khairy.
He, however, argued that the decision may have been reached to “balance out” the racial and religious tension caused by the “Allah” row in a bid to prevent further unease.
Funny, because these two journalists were investigated under Section 298A (1) of the Penal Code for causing disharmony, disunity or feelings of enmity, hatred or ill will, or prejudicing the maintenance of harmony or unity, on grounds of religion. Now, instead of using available laws provisioned to take care of offences that will jeopardise harmony or unity, we should ‘let go’ to get the same result – maintain harmony and unity? Aiseh, this is so confusing..
“I don’t want to speculate on the reason..but there are things that you can take to court and others best to leave it to other sensible ways for solution,” Khairy said.
Letting them off the hook is a sensible way of solution? This ’sensible’ solution is to please few stubborn extremists or the many good Muslims and Malaysians? Are we going to sacrifice the rule of law under the pretext of maintaining peace and harmony at the mercy of few troublemakers? What, they got the AG (government, police and KJ) by the balls now? Malaysian is held hostage by these crooks?
Many good Muslims out there would see the wrong committed by these two journalists and to press charges would bring satisfaction to many. (except for people like Ibrahim Ali) Give Malaysians more credits, they are wiser now and united to crush any element of chaos and destruction to their peaceful and harmonious living.
4. Glaring inconsistencies
Why we are letting some people off the hook for major issues, but calling heads for minor issues? Why the cow head protestors are charged but the two Al Islam journalists not? Would there be a lesser sentence meted out for the cow head protestors later if they are found guilty, because this is their first offence and they have learned their lesson well? Just recently, Malaysians were mind-fucked by this piece of news:
Man who raped minor gets sentence reduced
SEREMBAN: A 32-year-old odd-job worker had his jail sentence for raping a minor reduced by 10 years, after the High Court here took into consideration that he was a first-time offender and had cooperated with the police.
WTF is that?
Oh, I think Gunasegaran of The Star should use such argument over his caning article episode. Home Ministry is considering to take action against The Star and Gunasegaran for sedition (see what I said about inconsistencies?) so maybe Gunasegaran should say he has learned his lesson too. For greater impact, Khairy Jamaluddin can help to put out a good word for him and The Star too.
We cannot, in any way compromise the security, peace and harmonious living of the Malaysian community. We must reject those who use it to gain political superiority and power. Anything that threatens these vital requirements for a progressive and tranquil way of life should be dealt with swiftly while imparting a strong message to the perpetrators of the severe consequences of their actions.
The government has to set strong examples that Malaysians do not condone any disruption to their normal way of life, so enjoyed and valued for a nation of great hope. The right decision must be made in a swift and consistent manner.
ps: Of course, I am writing this with the assumption the rule of law still has meaning here. *chuckles*
Quoting Pete Teo in his reply to me when I tweeted that I was going to write this entry to highlight the inconsistencies of the government in dealing with Al Islam issue.
Consistency? That assumes the rule of law still has meaning here. Rule by cabalistic fiat is the new byword.
Have a great weekend peeps!
