PWTC Raya Open House - Actual Story in Pics

UMNO’s cowardly media campaign against HINDRAF.
So visiting the PM on a Hari Raya (Eid) is a grave sin committed by HINDRAF. An act of betrayal and insult to the Islamic religion – the masterminds should be arrested under the ISA or prosecuted under the existing Laws - so say the Malay extremist and fundamentalists organisations. Cabinet Ministers claim HINDRAF was extreme in barging into the PM’s open house and presenting a memorandum. Their seditious criticisms’ were carried out by the none other than the UMNO controlled daily Utusan and TV3.

So it was a grave sin. I challenge these fools to obtain evidence from over 30 odd TV crews and pressmen (both local and International media) and the numerous Police Special Branch units who covered , recorded and filmed the entire episode to make public their recordings so that the whole world could see the foolishness and low mentality of Malaysian politicians and their UMNO coolies who stir up racial sentiments for their own political survival.

There is no doubt that whenever there are serious problems within UMNO, the best solution (idiotic though) is to stir racial tension among races. UMNO creates problems and misleads the public with the strength and might of their media.

Let us see the pictures below which our supporters recorded.

It is for you to judge whether HINDRAF presence at PM’S OPEN HOUSE IS as an INSULT TO ISLAM ?

This card is interpreted by the Cabinet Ministers as memorandum. I wonder if they know what they are talking about. The simplest greeting card prepared by a 6 year old with the help of adult to express the feeling of HINDRAF supporters to the PM-And this is interpreted as an insult to the Islamic faith???

“Salam Aidilfitri,
Semoga di hari mulia ini YAB akan diberkati rahmat Tuhan dan membebaskan semua tahanan ISA dan mendengar rintihan masyarakat India di bumi tercinta Malaysia.
Maaf Zahir batin”


The above wordings meant as follows,


“Happy Eid,
May in this auspicious day the Almighty bless you Mr PM and may you release all ISA detainees and hear the tears of the Indian community in this beloved Malaysia.
Seek Forgive and Forget"

So the above were interpreted as extreme by UMNO Ministers and their coolie NGO’s ??





Hey look onto the eyes of these kids. Don’t you see excitement and hope in their eyes. Excitement and hope that they are part of the change that are about to happen in the history of Malaysia. Look at this on the
above kid. Isn’t this “look Of hopes”??




Hey you came with hope too. You look so excited!! To see the PM eh!!!
You sure the UMNO Ministers have the intelligence to understand this ?? careful you might be termed extremist!!!.



The excitement of signing the card for PM!!!

The future generation taking part in today’ s campaign.



They came in hope but then came the naughty uncles to snatch the Raya (Eid) cards away. Apparently it contained “seditious materials” and its contents were a Threat to National Security!!!!!!!!!!

Poor Hindraf parent tried their best to rescue the creative greeting card made by the children.

The end product of the card and the disappointed fathers- children in tears and sadness.


How do we explain to them??????




HINDRAF well wishers queued accordingly contrary to what UMNO claims Under watchful eyes of police.



Contrary to media report HINDRAF supporters never went 4 the food but queued orderly to greet the PM

Now let us see how the Police are comfortable with HINDRAF


Hey everyone look comfortable.


Well looks like HISHAMUDIN & MRS never had problems with HINDRAF wishes. All in Good Aidilfitri spirits.



Pak Lah & Najib never had any problems RPK supporters wishing them. No insult to Islam!!!!!!!



MRS HINDRAF and Vwaishnawi wishes the PM and Najib looks on with all smiles. Sorry folks photo not clear.
Pak Lah accepted the wishes with smile and open heart. Najib is surely delighted!!!!!
Now now!!

You see the Naughty uncle is not happy with the appeal to PM and is pulling away MRS H .


In the meantime HINDRAF BABIES are awaiting their turn behind patiently. They look serious as they know they have an important task of delivering a clear message for their uncles to be released.
sorry folks! That’s the best we could get of the kiddies on camera with the PM. There were lots of pushing by the naughty uncles which prevented us from getting more photo shots.





Mission accomplished. Message and wishes
Delivered to PM Personally.

HINDRAF’s sincere wishes to PM is manipulated as using kids for political purpose and insulting Islam by NGO’s linked to UMNO.
THEY COULD USE THE ENTIRE MEDIA TO TARNISH HINDRAF BUT THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES.
HINDRAF WILL NEVER GIVE UP.
OURS IS JUST AND DEMOCRATIC STRUGGLE.
THE NEO PASSIVE DEMOCRATISATION "REVOLUTION" BEGINS

The third force in Malaysian politics

By Wong Chin Huat, The Nut Graph

THE "third force" seems to be a phrase that is capturing the imagination of political parties and civil society.

Instead of joining the Barisan Nasional (BN) or the Pakatan Rakyat, why can't a party find its own niche and survive? Why can't it struggle independently and choose to cooperate with the two larger players on its own terms?

In other words, why not become a king-maker and make the best of it?

Take a look at the offers made to East Malaysian politicians (still paltry, but nevertheless the most generous since 1963), and it is easy to understand how good it is to be a king-maker if you cannot, or do not, want to be king.

National two-partyism

In Germany, the Free Democratic Party (FDP) was the indispensible junior partner in the coalition government during the greater part of the 1960s until 1982. While the larger Christian Democratic Union-Christian Socialist Union and Social Democratic Party fought to take the lead, they couldn't do it without the FDP's support.

In Britain, the centrist Liberal Democratic Party (Lib Dem) is always the beneficiary when voters get disillusioned with both the Conservatives on the right and Labour on the left. While the Lib Dems have never surpassed the Big Two in terms of votes, they have grown substantially at the local level.

Has there ever been a success story of a third force in Peninsula Malaysia? The answer is no. Technically, you must have a second force before you can have a third. We have had only brief periods of national two-partyism — around 1990, 1999, and now in 2008.


Tan Chee Khoon founded Pekemas after he got
disillusioned with Gerakan, which he also co-
founded (Source: Academy of Medicine of
Malaysia)

Before 1990, DAP and PAS were very much the second force in their respective strongholds: the urban seats for the former, and the Malay heartland for the latter. The third force — whether it was the late Tan Sri Tan Chee Khoon's Parti Keadilan Masyarakat Malaysia (Pekemas), or Datuk Mohamad Nasir's Barisan Jama'ah Islamiah Se Malaysia (Berjasa) — never won in more than one election. Others, like the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Parti Hizbul Muslimin Malaysia (Hamim), and even the respectable Parti Rakyat Malaysia (PRM) fared even worse.

Berjasa is perhaps the best example of what can happen in third-party dynamics. The fallout between Kelantan Menteri Besar Datuk Mohd Nasir and party president Tan Sri Mohd Asri Muda in the late 1970s resulted in the former setting up Berjasa as a splinter party. It chose not to join the BN, but would cooperate with Umno in attacking PAS.

While the strategy caused great damage to PAS in the 1978 state election, Berjasa's success only lasted one election.

Spoiler alert

Why was Berjasa's success so short-lived? The simple answer is that at the local level, the third party acts as a spoiler, not a king-maker, under the First-Past-the-Post electoral system.

Since there is only one winner, every vote for the third or fourth candidate would be wasted. Rational voters therefore abandon third candidates, no matter how good they may be, preferring to support the lesser evil between the top two. Hence, you cannot be a king-maker at the national or state level unless you become the first or second force at the local level.

And the national or state scenario may in turn change the local scene. Even Berjasa, though strong at the local level, got winnowed in Kelantan. It seems there was room for only one Islamist party, and the religious voters chose PAS over Berjasa.


It makes sense for Yong Teck Lee's Sabah
Progressive Party to pull out of the BN but
not join the Pakatan Rakyat (Source:
pilihanraya.com.my)

So, pulling out of the BN but not joining the Pakatan Rakyat makes great sense for Yong Teck Lee's Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP). If it contests the seats previously contested by its erstwhile non-Muslim BN partners, it stands a good chance to garner most of the anti-BN votes.

Even if the DAP and Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) join the fray, they will likely be seen as spoilers, since they have relatively weaker organisational capacities in East Malaysia.

Any East Malaysian party that leaves the BN can count on riding on the anti-BN wave. This is why crossovers or pullouts will eventually happen before the next elections as long as Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim still wields influence.

The BN parties will all be tempted by the advantage of being the first to leave the BN — whether they end up joining the Pakatan Rakyat or not — and expanding their territories at the expense of other parties.

The same may not be said about Umno's partners in the peninsula, namely Gerakan and the MCA.

Let's say an independent Gerakan or the MCA appears as the third force between the Pakatan Rakyat (namely DAP or PKR) and the BN (whether represented by Umno or some non-Malay proxy). It is still quite unlikely that voters — especially non-Malays — will choose them over the Pakatan Rakyat.

It is clear that the next general election will be about whether to end the BN/Umno's rule. So why should you waste your vote on a party — even if it is successful — to make the outcome even more uncertain?

The way out

Gerakan and the MCA have only two viable choices — stay with the BN or join the Pakatan Rakyat. Unfortunately, neither option is currently attractive.

Since non-Malay voters will be set to throw Umno out, if these parties were to stay with Umno, they would get thrown out, too. However, if they joined the Pakatan Rakyat, they may not be given good seats. After all, would the DAP be so kind to return currently held seats in Penang, Perak and Selangor to Gerakan and the MCA?


Can Gerakan save Umno?

For Gerakan, there is one more option — join PKR en bloc and get seat allocations as a faction. For the MCA, this option is almost nonexistent as its leaders and members who are accustomed to monoethnic politics may feel very out of place in multiracial PKR.

So, what should Gerakan and MCA do? Reforming themselves is pointless unless they can also reform the BN. The next elections will effectively be a national referendum on the survival of the BN — and how many non-Malays would vote to keep Umno and the BN in power?

Therefore, these two parties have to forget about being the third force. Their best bet is to give Umno and the BN an ultimatum. If Umno is forced to oblige, they can claim credit and arrest the attrition of support. If Umno refuses or even runs amok, they will become martyrs and have better bargaining power when they join the Pakatan Rakyat.

For their own self-interest, their wish list should include local elections. Given the relatively mono-ethnic electorate in most municipal jurisdictions, non-Malay voters can then feel free to divest between the DAP/PKR and the MCA/Gerakan without worrying that it would result in an Umno-dominated council.

Umno also stands to gain by introducing local elections, since Malay voters in the Pakatan Rakyat-held states can feel secure in splitting their votes between Umno and PKR/PAS without worrying that Malay representation in government will be weakened.

But can Gerakan or the MCA make such a bold decision? Will they dare to save Umno and the BN with this extreme measure? Only time will tell.

A political scientist by training and a journalism lecturer by trade, Wong Chin Huat uses the Federal Constitution as his "bible" to fend off the increasingly intolerable evil called "state".

Pemimpin Pakatan Rakyat bertemu bincang opsyen baru bentuk kerajaan

Pemimpin-pemimpin Pakatan Rakyat mengadakan mesyuarat di ibu negara malam ini, dipercayai untuk membincangkan opsyen-opsyen baru bagi merealisasikan usaha membentuk kerajaan baru persekutuan.

Mesyuarat itu, yang diadakan kurang seminggu sebelum Dewan Rakyat bersidang, berlangsung di kediaman Ketua Umum Pakatan Rakyat, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

Pertemuan itu dihadiri oleh Penasihat DAP, Lim Kit Siang dan Setiausaha Agung PAS, Kamaruddin Jaafar.

mStar Online dimaklumkan, Anwar telah mengadakan pertemuan dengan Presiden PAS, Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang semalam, dipercayai mengenai isu yang sama.

Pakatan Rakyat yang terdiri daripada Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), DAP dan PAS telah meletakkan sasaran 16 September lalu untuk mengambil alih kerajaan pusat dengan membawa masuk ahli-ahli Parlimen Barisan Nasional (BN).

Sebelum ini Anwar mendakwa mempunyai bilangan wakil rakyat BN yang mencukupi untuk tujuan tersebut tetapi tidak membentuk kerajaan pada tarikh tersebut.

Pada 16 September lalu, Anwar berkata, pemimpin Pakatan Rakyat mahu menemui Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi dan membincangkan peralihan kerajaan secara aman dan lancar.

Permintaan itu telah ditolak. Malah permintaan Pakatan Rakyat supaya sidang khas Parlimen pada 23 September juga ditolak Abdullah.

Tengah hari tadi, Anwar ketika ditemui di Mahkamah Sesyen Kuala Lumpur berkata, beliau akan menemui pemimpin-pemimpin malam ini bagi membincangkan beberapa strategi baru termasuk membawa usul undi tidak percaya di Dewan Rakyat.

Pada Isnin ini Anwar selaku Ketua Pembangkang akan membahaskan Bajet 2009.

Dalam pada itu, Dewan Rakyat belum menerima sebarang usul undi tidak percaya, yang luas diperkatakan ketika sesi sidang Parlimen lalu.

mStar Online difahamkan, sehingga semalam Parlimen tidak menerima sebarang usul daripada mana-mana pihak termasuk pembangkang.

"Tak ada apa-apa usul yang cuba dibawa setakat sekarang. Saya fikir ada usul undi tak percaya terhadap Perdana Menteri, mungkin tak timbul lagi sekarang," kata sumber.

Bagaimanapun katanya jika pihak pembangkang ingin membawa usul undi tidak percaya seperti mana yang dihebohkan, mereka boleh berbuat demikian sehari sebelum Parlimen bersidang.

Perkembangan Di Kompleks Mahkamah Jalan Duta, KL

Kemaskini Secara Langsung Perjalanan Sebutan Kes DSAI Daripada Kompleks Mahkamah Jalan Duta, Kuala Lumpur

9.00 pagi: Penyokong Pakatan Rakyat kelihatan telah berada di Kompleks Mahkamah Jalan Duta, KL. Dianggarkan ratusan penyokong dan wartawan daripada dalam & luar negara sedang menanti kehadiran Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. Turut kelihatan pimpinan KeADILan dan Pakatan Rakyat.

9.50 pagi: Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim kini dalam perjalanan ke Kompleks Mahkamah Jalan Duta daripada Mahkamah Sesyen Petaling Jaya untuk menemui Raja Petra Kamaruddin di sana.

10.50 pagi: Datuk Seri Anwr Ibrahim dan Datuk Seri Wan Azizah Wan Ismail tiba di perkarangan mahkamah, dikerumuni oleh wartawan dan juga para penyokong yang menanti dari pagi.

11.05 pagi: Perbicaraan kini dimulakan.

Will Abdullah do the right thing today?

The moment we've all been waiting for. In October 2003, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi reported for duty to Malaysians as their fifth PM. It started very well and then things started to fall apart quickly. For the nation, that is.
Today, after more than a year of pressure, Abdullah must decide whether to listen to the wishes of the masses or the insistence of his handful of advisers., If he listens to Umno grassroots and Malaysians in general, he will make an announcement later today that he does not intend to defend his Umno presidency and will allow a power transition to take effect.

If he listens to son, son-in-law, Kalimullah Masheerul Hassan and a few other usual suspects, this man will insist that he is still needed by this nation and will therefore defend his presidency at all cost and continue to be Prime Minister of Malaysia.

And there's nothing WE can do about it.

Read also RIP, Islam Hadhari by Farish Noor
Abdullah to defend post, hears A Voice
Sheih says he will make peace with Pak Lah and not kick de fella if (...) in I am no King, I am just the last pawn
rocky's bru

Rest in Peace, Islam Hadari

By Farish A. Noor

Observers of Malaysian politics both at home and abroad have already begun to write the political obituary of the country’s embattled Prime Minister, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. While the global economy goes into a tailspin and markets across Asia tumble on an hourly basis, Malaysians seem more engrossed in the country’s on-going political drama that has turned into a comical farce of near-epic proportions: The fate of Prime Minister Badawi hangs in the balance as rival contenders for the coveted post of leader of the UMNO party and Prime Minister of Malaysia come to the fore, ranging from his current deputy Najib Razak to even veterans like Tengku Razaleigh whom many had written off years ago.

To be sure, the immediate verdict on Badawi’s period of rule will not be a pleasant one. The picture that is being painted at the moment is that of a less-than-rosy canvas, and the list of Badawi’s failings is as long as it is impressive. The man who started with such promise, and who promised so much to the electorate, may well end up in the history books of Malaysia as the one who lost it all.

When he came to power in 2004 Badawi scored the highest mandate in the history of Malaysian politics. Not a single leader before him, not even the country’s founding father Tunku Abdul Rahman or Mahathir Mohamad, had ever managed to win such a huge share of the public’s votes. Yet following the elections of March 2008, he has earned himself yet another honour, this time being the leader who lost the most votes, seats and state assemblies in the history of Malaysia.

Badawi’s great promise (which turned into an even bigger disappointment) was his claim to be a reform-minded leader who seriously wanted to reform the institutions of power in the country. His attempts to deal with corruption, abuse of power by the police, lack of transparency in governance and the judiciary, all earned him the approval of the Malaysian public and managed – temporarily – to sap away support from the opposition parties too.

Yet by 2006 it became clear that Badawi had bitten off more than he could possibly chew and the signs of institutional inertia were plain to see: His reform gestures were not well met by the police in particular, whom for a long period were given a free hand to operate during the days of former PM Mahathir. Despite talk of anti-corruption, few cases of high-level corruption were brought to court (compared to neighbouring Indonesia where even high-ranking members of the Suharto family have been brought to book.)

But it is in the area of Islam, or rather normative Muslim religiosity, that Badawi failed the most. Badawi’s trademark project was the Islam Hadari programme that he hoped to launch in the country. ‘Islam Hadari’ was, from the outset, a state-sanctioned and state-sponsored exercise in social engineering, at a somewhat crude level. Its aims were simple: To open the way for a modern and relevant interpretation of Islamic laws and norms that would help galvanise society to think of religion in a dynamic and contemporary mode, in keeping with the modern age we live in. It promoted the notion of gender equality, and insisted that Islamic practice can and should be used as a vehicle for social advancement, capacity building and individual empowerment. The key ingredient in this formula was knowledge and exposure to new ideas.

Yet anyone with even the most shallow understanding of Malaysian society would realise by now that engineering a society and trying to make Muslims modern and progressive cannot ever be a top-down process, anymore than a slave master can teach his slaves how to be free. The prevailing values and norms of Islamic praxis in Malaysia, like in many Muslim countries today, remain conservative and even reactionary in many quarters.

Thus while Badawi the leader preached open-mindedness and called on his fellow Muslims to think and live in the modern age, he underestimated the extent to which his own efforts would be foiled by the very same conservative Muslims who manned the religious institutions of power in Malaysia’s vast Islamic bureaucracy. The irony of the situation was as pathetic as it was comical at times: Foreign scholars like Karen Armstrong were invited to conferences on Islam in Malaysia while her books were banned; and throughout the years of Badawi’s feeble leadership scores of other books on Islam and religion were banned as well. How, pray tell, does one open up the minds of Muslims when they are not allowed to read anything in the first place?

It has to be said however that Badawi was not entirely at fault here as he was attempting a reform of Islam while battling on several fronts. On the one hand he had to deal with an unco-operative Islamic bureaucracy that paid little attention to his own reform initiatives, some of which were indeed laudatory. On the other hand he also had to deal with opposition from the Malaysian Islamic party that took an even more conservative stand and whom simply dismissed Islam Hadari as a ‘deviant’ idea. Yet this is the same Islamic party that in 2001 valorised the Tabiban as ‘true Islam’ and their ‘brothers’. To make things worse Malaysia’s stifling race-based communitarian politics made it even more difficult for discussion on Islam to take place in the public domain without it bring racialised and used as a political toy by all the communitarian parties in the country.

Half a decade on, it would appear that Badawi’s days are drawing to an end, and with that Islam Hadari as well. In the years and decades to come, future historians may be kinder to Badawi who may be remembered as the man who tried to reform Malaysia but failed, and whose failure was due to the rot and inertia that had settled in the very same corridors of power that he walked. But perhaps the biggest loss for Malaysia in the long run will be the demise of Islam Hadari as a project that was never really understood, unfairly criticised, crassly instrumentalised and ultimately cast into the dustbin as just another item in the long train of baggage left behind in the wake of Badawi’s exit from power.

Malaysians believe BN's ethnic management key to stability

By Shannon Teoh

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 8 - Two-thirds of Malaysians polled in a recent survey agree that the Barisan Nasional (BN) method of managing ethnic diversity is a key factor in political stability.

A survey by the Merdeka Centre also revealed that 55 per cent of Malaysians it surveyed agreed that BN represents the voice of all ethnic communities and is the best platform for inter-ethnic cooperation and power-sharing.

The survey also suggested Malaysians polled were evenly split when it came to the question of whether BN should become a single multi-racial party.

A total of 51 per cent agreed that BN should become a single party while 42per cent disagreed.

"It reflects that when BN was strong and united, we were politically stable. There was peace and we all made a good living and it helped grow the economy and kept everyone happy," Labis MP Chua Tee Yong said.

Across the board, Chinese and Indians were not as supportive of BN while Bumiputeras, including those from East Malaysia, were happier with BN.

"It shows that BN is not a total disaster. If the majority of one community says it is still a working solution, you can't totally chuck it out," political analyst Khoo Kay Peng offered.

"The problem is they've taken racial politics to an extreme where the other communities are consistently disagreeing.

"Since BN sells on racial consensus it is a big problem even though you are still workable now because it means the slide will continue and boil over resulting in the Chinese moving to other parties."

However, Pulai MP Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed said that this was only natural as Bumiputeras, being the majority community, must take the lead in any change.

"Bumis believe that the BN model is correct and any positive reform in ethnic relationships must start with them. And once these changes are in place, then the Chinese and Indians will return to the fold."-malaysiainsider

Despite surging support, Abdullah will not defend Umno presidency

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 8 - A frenzy of meetings in his office yesterday, a chain SMS and support from an unlikely source have convinced many people that Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi will change his mind and signal his intention to defend his party president's position.

Such is the speculation that even Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak's camp sent out feelers to find out if Abdullah had a change of heart about stepping down as party president and prime minister in March, as prescribed by a transition plan.

A few corporate captains, who have been moving closer to Najib since the transition plan was endorsed a fortnight ago, also sought to hedge their bets by touching base with those in Abdullah's circle.

The Malaysian Insider has learnt that Abdullah is still going to announce that he will not defend his position after briefing the Cabinet and Barisan Nasional Supreme Council.

He feels that the support that he has received in the last few days and reports from the ground confirm what he has suspected - that the "groundswell'' against him was manufactured by senior party leaders.

But he has told aides and party officials that a battle for the top position will leave Umno badly scarred and in a weak position to fight off the Opposition challenge.

Yesterday, there was intense pressure on him to contest the top post in Umno.

An uninterrupted stream of visitors - including Umno division chiefs, party operatives and his staunch supporters - met him at his office in Putrajaya to persuade him to stay on, arguing that he would be able to get the 58 nominations to defend the president's position and have a good chance of defeating Najib or any other challenger.

Some of them were motivated by self-interest, fearing that his retirement would mean the loss of a benefactor and protector in the Umno election season. Others were troubled by the manner the transition plan was cobbled together by Najib and others on the supreme council and the willingness by some party officials to blame Abdullah for everything that has gone wrong with Umno and Barisan Nasional.

A text message has been going around urging his supporters to gather outside his official residence at 8am to provide him with moral support as he heads off for his weekly meeting with his ministers. It noted that Abdullah’s hesitance to commit to any decision despite being pressed by reporters on Monday and Tuesday was a sign that he was staying on.

Adding more fuel to speculation was a statement by the Kuala Kedah division Datuk Seri Syed Razak Syed Zain that his division intended to nominate Abdullah and Najib for the top two positions in the party.

He added that if Abdullah decided not to contest, he would leave it to the delegates to decide who to nominate. This was a factual and purely innocent statement which was interpreted by political pundits as an indication that Abdullah had informed divisions that he would accept nominations.

Sources told The Malaysian Insider that Abdullah made up his mind not to contest last Friday after seeking the counsel of his closest aides, friends and supporters. He did not give reasons why he accepted the March transition plan but seemed determined not to be remembered as the man who destroyed the party for his own interest.

That view is likely to hold sway over any other emotions and arguments today.

Government is crumbling, but the Opposition is stumbling

(malaysiainsider)OCT 8 - Delmonico's, near Wall Street, is a bit like 'The Restaurant at the End of the Universe' in Douglas Adams' book of the same name. Get a window seat there right now and you can watch the universe end while you await your steak. But if you fancy tamer fare then try a restaurant in Kuala Lumpur. Get a window seat there now and you'll be entertained by the end of the Malaysian Government.

The death throes of Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi's Government are fascinating. Like someone who cannot swim but who has just been thrown overboard, Abdullah is grabbing at anything to try to save himself. So far, he's gone for that developing-world tool of choice: jailing dissenters. That's a pity because these days Malaysians are more sophisticated than that.

In the past few weeks, an Opposition politician has been arrested under Malaysia's outdated Internal Security Act, which allows for detention without trial, legal counsel, the right to defend yourself in court, or the presumption of innocence until proven guilty.

The politician, who is ethnically Chinese, was detained for inciting religious and racial tension. Apparently she complained about excessive noise from a mosque in her constituency. That is not a race or a religious issue; it is a planning issue.

Similarly, a journalist was arrested under the ISA for accurately reporting the racist remarks of a member of the ruling party. Essentially, she was arrested for being a good journalist, something in short supply in Malaysia. The party official was not arrested, although he was suspended.

A blogger was arrested for apparently exhibiting the Malaysian flag on his website upside down. I kid you not.

But perhaps Abdullah's saddest misstep has been the arrest of Raja Petra Kamarudin, who runs the hugely popular Malaysia Today website, which exposes wrongdoers in public life and provides a forum for robust political debate otherwise denied to Malaysians.

On September 23, Syed Hamid Albar, the Home Affairs Minister, signed the order for Raja Petra's detention without trial for two years. The order can be renewed indefinitely. Ostensibly, Raja Petra, a Muslim, was arrested for posting blogs that belittled Islam. The reality of course is that Raja Petra had belittled the Government. No longer can he post blogs that challenge the Government and blow the whistle on corruption and other wrongdoings on the part of Government officials.

Raja Petra appeared in court on Monday on a separate sedition charge. He was handcuffed, which is apt: you can't write if you're handcuffed.

Raja Petra knew that he could well be arrested and yet he continued. This sort of selflessness is all too rare in Malaysia.

Even Mahathir Mohamed, Malaysia's previous prime minister - who incidentally will be speaking at a seminar at Melbourne University on Saturday - has criticised the recent ISA arrests as unnecessary and excessive.

Perhaps such arrests are warranted in a country dangerously on the edge of racial and religious meltdown. But Malaysia is not.

The truth is, the Malaysian Government is the biggest source of ethnic and religious tension in Malaysia. It has an interest in constantly harping on about race, using imagined communal tensions as an excuse for its use of the ISA, to control the media and, above all, to head off threats to its own power. The race issue is manipulated not to protect Malaysians from each other but to protect the Government from opposition.

But the cracks are showing. Malaysia has never had a government this unpopular. Abdullah has said that he will leave office early but he refuses to resign. Najib Tun Razak, his deputy, is congenial enough but he is no leader. And then there's Anwar Ibrahim.

Anwar is offering himself as head of an alternative government, but he is proving to be politically incompetent. He announced that the Government would fall on September 16, because by then he thought he'd have the numbers - enough MPs prepared to leave the Government and join the Opposition. The day came and nothing happened. The golden rule of politics? Don't telegraph your punches, just punch.

Anwar has a lot of baggage too, so, at a time when Malaysia needs clever leadership more than ever, the sad choice is between who stinks less. - The Age

Berakhirnya sebuah teka teki....

Menjelang pengumuman penting Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi esok nampaknya teka teki bagaikan sudah berakhir.Semua indikasi sejak mesyuarat Majlis Tertinggi UMNO pada pagi 26 September memutuskan hendak menangguh pemilihan parti ke bulan Mac tahun depan jelas menunjukkan Perdana Menteri tidak akan mempertahankan jawatannya sebagai Presiden UMNO.Cuma apa yang semua orang nantikan sekarang ialah kenyataan rasmi Abdullah yang dijangka akan dibuat selepas beliau mengadakan pertemuan dengan para pemimpin parti komponen Barisan Nasional jam 3.30 petang esok.Ia dikatakan platform yang paling sesuai bagi Perdana Menteri melabuhkan tirai itu.Walaupun kedengaran desas desus mengenai gerak politik belakang tabir untuk meminta Abdullah tetap mempertahankan jawatannya namun Agendadaily difahamkan beliau sudah set dengan keputusannya. KLIK PADA TAJUK UNTUK LAPORAN LANJUT.-7/10/2008 --------------------- Jawatan Ketua di 94 Bahagian UMNO jadi rebutan Biarpun Perhimpunan Agung Umno ditunda dari Disember ini ke Mac tahun depan, bahangnya tetap terasa menjelang persidangan perwakilan bahagian yang bermula Khamis ini, lebih-lebih lagi kerana urusan pemilihan menjadi agenda utamanya. Perkembangan ini bukan sahaja menarik minat 3.3 juta anggota Umno, malah dalam tempoh sebulan yang ditetapkan bagi bahagian mengadakan mesyuarat masing-masing, rakyat keseluruhan akan turut mengikuti pertandingan jawatan ketua di 94 bahagian daripada keseluruhan 191 bahaguan Umno di seluruh negara. KLIK PADA LINK INI UNTUK LAPORAN LANJUT - 7/10/2008 -------------------------- Timbalan Presiden UMNO: Angin sedang bertiup ke mana? Makin hari makin banyak perkembangan menarik timbul diketika semua orang sedang menanti pengumuman rasmi Perdana Menteri Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi mengenai kedudukan beliau sebagai Presiden UMNO sebelum 191 UMNO Bahagian di seluruh negara mula bersidang selama sebulan hujung minggu ini.Paling mengejutkan tentulah kenyataan Ketua UMNO Bahagian Pulai, Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed Ahad menawarkan diri untuk jawatan Timbalan Presiden UMNO.Soalan yang terus berlegar apakah anak kepada bekas Setiausaha Agung UMNO Tan Sri Mohamed Rahmat ini yang berusia 42 tahun ini benar benar serius atau ia sekadar satu kenyataan simbolik untuk gambarkan hasratnya tentang perlunya parti itu meremajakan dirinya selari dengan tuntutan politik semasa. KLIK PADA LINK INI UNTUK LAPORAN LANJUT.-6/10/2008

Allow me to hypothesize with you this week.

Let us, for arguments sake, say that those detained under the ISA are treated in a manner that leaves much to be desired. Assume that they are subjected to tactics of intimidation and coercion, either through interrogation or carrot-and-stick strategies that leave them mentally traumatized. At the whim of those who are in charge of them, they could be kept in solitary confinement for prolonged periods, denied visitation rights, be given food that could not in any way (and I do not mean any disrespect to the egg or those who eat it) be described as wholesome or nutritious or given amounts so meager that health and strength are affected. As a consequence, those detained are suffering.

Would that be torture? For those of you who say ‘no’, would it instead amount to cruel or inhuman or degrading treatment? For those of you who still say ‘no’, what if I were to add that those detained have not been found guilty of any crime and, in fact, those who have been and are serving prison terms, are treated better? Would it make a difference?

A theorist would have answered that the treatment described would by any standard have amounted to torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. This would have been reinforced by his (or her) belief that the detention was unlawful for having been occasioned without due process.

I share that view; in the presence of such factors it could be reasonably concluded that detainees are being subjected to some form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, if not outright torture. My view, like that of the theorist, would be supported by a number of international human rights instruments including the Convention Against Torture and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. These instruments and commentary collectively say that subjecting a detainee to intense mental stress, through sleep deprivation or prolonged solitary confinement or food that was inedible or lacking in nutritional value, is arguably torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

On the other hand, a Malaysian diplomat or administrator, the hypothetical Government Man, would in all probability answer that there is no question of the treatment being torture or anything else offensive. How could it be, he would ask, when there is no law in this country that says these things amount to torture? After all, he might add with a conspiratorial wink, the Federal Constitution does not say that these things could not be done, just as it does not mention democracy.

Trying to argue the point further, one might point to the fact that Malaysia is a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council. In this capacity, Malaysia sits at the core of the international human rights system. Surely, by virtue of its appointment as such, Malaysia is morally bound to live up to the expectations of the international community?

The government representative might give this some thought, or pretend to, and then, with a sigh of regret, say that Malaysia has not ratified any of the international treaties that proscribe torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. And, he might laughingly add that if one wanted to consider international expectations, why not take into account the kind of things that the United States has done in Guantanamo Bay and Abu Gharib?

Saving the best for last, one could then point to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which also prohibits this kind of treatment. Malaysia has adopted and re-adopted the UDHR in one form or the other so many times over the years that it must have a bearing.

Shrugging, he would say somewhat condescendingly that the declaration is just that, a declaration. It has no binding effect. For that, one needs to ratify a treaty and, as has been explained, Malaysia has not ratified any such treaty. That the role of the UDHR has evolved over time and that in having become a cornerstone of the human rights system, it has gone far beyond being merely a statement of aspirations would not appear to strike the Government Man as a factor worth troubling over.

Much has been said about Guantanamo Bay and Abu Gharib. Questions have been asked as to how the United States, a party to the CCPR and the Torture Convention, could have allowed for this. Some with influence have argued that the treaties only apply to the “territory” of the States. Such sophistry is a hallmark of the political underpinnings of the human rights system, a tried and tested way for states to avoid playing by the universal rules.

Malaysia is no exception. When inconvenient, it has rejected the United Nations processes, in particular its human rights system. Over the years, we have heard of how we have distinct values of our own because we are Asian or that as a Muslim country, the governing paradigm is the syariah, in response to queries as to why international norms are not being met. These responses have bordered on the ridiculous; these alternative value systems do not lend themselves to cruelty and injustice any more than any other system does.

The refusal by the Government of Malaysia to ratify any of the major human rights treaties, in particular the Torture Convention and the CCPR, cannot be justified. The only inference that can be drawn is that the Government of Malaysia does not want to be constrained by these instruments.

We do not need the Government Man to tell us why.

(Malik Imtiaz Sarwar is counsel to Raja Petra Kamarudin who was detained under the Internal Security Act on 12th September 2008. He is the President of the National Human Rights Society and blogs as ‘Disquiet’ at www.malikimtiaz.blogspot.com)

Altantuya’s father wants justice for RPK

Altantuya Shariibuu’s dad, Stev, has emailed me his statement (through his lawyer in Mongolia) regarding RPK’s trial and detention under the ISA. The image above is his own handwriting. The translation copy I receive in his mail says:

I understand, Mr. Raja Petra has good personal character and has a good reputation and runs humanitarian activity.

I understand that the below issues were directly connected with murder case of my daughter:

- Who did arrange visa issue for my daughter while she visited in French?
- Who was attending in the trip to French and what did they do?

If it could make clear those issues, they would understand every thing. Why is there so much force and influence in the case? Because there was a serious issue. Thus they destroyed my daughter.

Unfortunately, they pressed down Mr.Raja Petra’s statement. I think this issue needs to get attention from international human right organizations.

He (RPK) shouldn’t be a victim of politic for justice. It would be justice if they release Mr.Raja Petra.

As we are, all Mongolian worry for him and his justice, we lack of information on truth and situation.

Signed:

Mongolian citizen:Shaariibuu Setev
06.Oct.2008

I am also sending this information to my friends in the media and bloggers. Hope this letter can be distributed for RPK’s sake.

Susan Loone’s blog carries a message that was emailed to her by Altantuya’s father, Shariibuu Setev.

Bangsa Malaysia observing RPK trial

Rakyat@Work shares with us his experience at the RPK trial today. It was the people who were there who caught his attention:

Day Two: arrived at about noon; court hearing began at 12.30pm till 1.30pm; already drizzling then. Met two interesting true supporters.

A man told me he left home very early to ensure he gets a seat for he is committed to follow through the entire case.

Very early means reaching the court house before 8am? I simply asked him about the jam.

He replied, not really a problem ‘cos he came by bus.

Bus? Where from?

From Seremban! And this is his secound day here.

That blew me away. Wow.

Then another chap joined us and told us there was another fellow yesterday who came from Malacca!

Man, thats what I call Yes! Action Supporter!

Here’s the deal, people: Another lawyer (who took leave) amongst us is such a darling. He will drop by to ensure seats in court are never empty. Should there be people who need it, he’ll gladly give up his seat and come back later just in case there are not enough supporters! Can you beat that? I tell you people. We never know what kindness is all about. I’m humbled by this experience.

This case may take us right through Thursday or even Friday. I urge all of you - just take two hours off, come and lend your support. We take turns to make sure RPK is never short of friends ‘when in need’.

This is truly One Bangsa thing. No worries about T-shirts. You’ll find one once you’re there. History in the making. Be part of it for RPK, family and your next generation’s sake.- Anilnetto.com

VIDEO: Prosecution’s bid to transfer case is “baffling”: Anwar

Emerging Trend in Trafficking Tribal Women

By Baradan Kuppusamy

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 7 (IPS) - An emerging trend in the trafficking of tribal people, mostly young girls, is raising concern among government officials, rights organisations, migration experts and human rights lawyers.

Increasingly, tribal girls in the region are duped and trafficked from their villages to regional capitals like Singapore and Kuala Lumpur to work in brothels and massage parlours that attract well-heeled locals as well as tourists.

‘’The trafficking of tribal people is on the rise across the South-east Asian region,’’said Irene Fernandez, executive director of Tenaganita, a leading Malaysian NGO that tracks trafficking of women to Malaysia from across the Asia Pacific region.

‘’It is a most heinous crime because tribal girls are duped into believing they are getting high-paid office and home jobs, but are forced into prostitution,’’ she told IPS.

Not only are tribal people from the region trafficked to Malaysia, the country’s own Penan, from the interiors of Sarawak state, and the Orang Asli tribal groups in peninsular Malaysia are trafficked internally and exploited.

Outsiders, including workers, miners and others, also visit the villages to sexually exploit young tribal women, researchers told IPS.

‘’It is their poverty, dislocation and vulnerability that makes the tribal easily exploited,’’ said a Malaysian researcher with the Penan people who declined to be named. ‘’The government is totally unresponsive...it is total neglect of indigenous people.’’

‘’They give lip-service whenever the issue makes the headlines, but after that the indigenous people are left to the mercy of the traffickers,’’ Fernandez said.

The case of five young Naga tribal women from India’s north-east, who were trafficked from their village to Singapore and later moved to Malaysia and forced to work as sex slaves, has highlighted the plight of tribal women uprooted from their villages and trapped in Malaysia, a country generally hostile to migrants.

The five women are now housed in a half-way centre and the Indian High Commission here is making arrangements to send them home.

Commission counselor Sudhir Kumar Mehrotra told ‘The New Straits Times’ daily on Sep. 29 that the women from the Zeliangrong Naga tribe were promised lucrative jobs but were duped and forced to work as bar girls and prostitutes in nightclubs in Singapore and Malaysia.

‘’We have information that as many as 150 women from Manipur, Assam and Nagaland have been duped and forced to work immorally in this region,’’ he said. According to Mehrotra, the Indian government is concerned and investigating the people involved and the routes taken to curb the emerging trend in the trafficking of tribal people.

Poverty among the tribal people in places like Manipur state’s backward Tamenglong district, where parents place their hopes on agents to secure jobs for their daughters, is fueling the trade, human rights lawyers said.

According to migration experts, trafficking of tribal girls is widespread within India but because of the great demand in South East Asian capitals traffickers are beginning to traffic them outside India in the hope of making a fortune.

‘’Tribal people are rare in these capitals and there is a rising demand for them in many brothels and massage parlours in the region because of their rarity,’’ said a migration and HIV expert with a regional NGO.

‘’The flesh trade is always looking out for new victims,’’ he said, declining to be identified so as not to annoy regional governments. ‘’Trafficking of tribal people is common in India and blatantly carried out despite all the laws against it. But with the heightened push and pull factor the victims are surfacing outside India.’’ 

‘’We must take note and act speedily before the number of trafficked women rises dramatically,’’ said the HIV expert, adding that what was needed was for the Indian government to work closely with its counterparts in the region to stop the trend.

He said tribal people forced into sex work are especially vulnerable to sexually transmitted infections, including HIV and unwanted pregnancies, because of lack of quality information and language barriers.

The sex trade is also seen to be shifting from the main capitals of the region to towns and even villages because of the spread of wealth and transport facilities.

‘’You can find foreign women trafficked to even remote towns because of rising demand, expanding wealth and minimal supervision by police and other enforcement agencies,’’ said Fernandez.

‘’Here [remote areas] the scene is much more sinister, it is more hidden and curbing the exploitation is much more challenging,’’ she said. ‘’We are afraid the remoteness of the scene would make it that much more difficult to curb the problem.’’

Unlike drug trafficking where penalties are high, it is an easy walk for human traffickers with the authorities prepared to pocket part of the profits and ‘’close an eye’’ to trafficking crimes in their midst.

Although Malaysia has tough new laws to curb trafficking, few people are ever booked for the offence of trafficking.

Tribal people trafficked to Malaysia face insurmountable hurdles, said Fernandez. ‘’They stand little chance of returning home, let alone make the big money they have been promised when they were lured from their village and forced into prostitution,’’ she told IPS.

‘’We have to stop them from leaving their villages by addressing issues of poverty, human rights and legal protection against exploitation,’’ she added.

India’s National Commission for Women, the All-India Christian Council and the Northeast Support Centre have called on the Malaysian High Commission in New Delhi to seek help in checking the trend.

BARISAN NASIONAL LEADERS TO KNOW PM DATUK SERI ABDULLAH'S TRANSITION PLANS TOMORROW

The Barisan Nasional Supreme Council Meeting which will take place tomorrow at 3.30pm at the Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC) in Kuala Lumpur where Prime Minister and BN Chairman Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi will brief Barisan Nasional component leaders on the leadership transition plan.

Will PM Datuk Seri Abdullah call it quits tomorrow?

A song from 'Clash: ‘Should I stay or should I go?’

Longer wait for Anwar in Sodomy II

Anwar speaks to the press during a break in court proceedings.
UPDATED
By Debra Chong
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 7 — Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim will have to wait until tomorrow at least to find out if his Sodomy II trial will be heard in the Sessions Court here or transferred to the High Court.

This morning, Sessions Court judge S.M. Komathy Suppiah dismissed the prosecution's preliminary objection, filed at the last court hearing on Sept 24, stating that the lower court judge had no authority to hear the defence's objections to the transfer.
She also dismissed the prosecution's application for a stay for a higher court to revise her decision on the preliminary objection.

"The crux of the matter now is whether the certificate of transfer is valid or not," junior deputy public prosecutor Shamsul Sulaiman told The Malaysian Insider.
Anwar's trial has been fraught with all sorts of technical objections since Day 1 when the prosecution, led by senior DPP Datuk Yusof Zainal Abiden, filed an application to transfer the case to the KL High Court, on the grounds that the case held significant public interest.
In turn, Anwar's defence team, led by Sulaiman Abdullah, challenged the prosecution's application on grounds that the certificate for transfer had been signed by the Attorney-General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail, who had been told by the prime minister not to get involved in any way with the case.

After a lengthy debate today between the two parties, Komathy decided on a short recess and summoned them to her chambers.
Upon her return at 12.32pm, she announced that she would hear the defence's arguments against the validity of the certificate of transfer signed by Gani Patail after lunch.
When court resumed at 2.44pm, Sulaiman took to the floor and submitted that the certificate was invalid because it bore the signature of Gani Patail who had been publicly disqualified from getting involved in the case by no less than the prime minister himself.

He brought up Anwar's recent affidavit, filed on Sept 9 this year against Gani Patail, whom he claimed had planted false evidence in his Sodomy I trial 10 years ago, to show "there is bad blood between the A-G and DSAI" as Anwar was referred to in the above-mentioned affidavit.
"Can the court clearly say that the A-G is free from any malice against DSAI?' Sulaiman asked.
Sulaiman also referred to several news sources such as the national news agency Bernama, the New Straits Times and international wire agency Associated Press (AP) which carried the news reports quoting the prime minister's declaration.

At 4pm, Sulaiman requested that he be allowed to continue elaborating on his objection disputing the certificate of tranfer's validity tomorrow.
Judge Komathy allowed the request. The prosecution's arguments will be heard once the defence completes their submission and after the attorney-general files an affidavit explaining his responsibility to sign the certificate of transfer.

However, this does not signal the end to the long series of objections. The defence may be allowed to rebut the prosecution's objections, Shamsul pointed out.
In the courthouse lobby on the ground floor, Anwar noted that he was "bored by the attitude of the prosecution."

He was earlier observed fidgeting while seated inside the dock, constantly tapping at his BlackBerry mobile phone and turning around to chat with his wife and supporters in the gallery.
Asked to elaborate how he felt at the growing number of delays over his trial which have impacted on his takeover plan, the opposition leader smiled, shrugged and said "there is nothing much to add except to be patient."

Anwar was charged with committing unnatural sexual intercourse with his former aide Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan under Section 377B of the Penal Code on Aug 7. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years' imprisonment.

Anwar says those who use ISA not fit to rule

UPDATED
By Debra Chong
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 7 — Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said today he believes that Malays or Muslims who use cruel laws against Hindus are not qualified to rule the country.
He also accused the Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia newspaper of twisting facts to spark off hatred of the Malays for Hindus.
The issue at hand, he said, was the use of the Internal Security Act, which Anwar described as a cruel law.
"We as Malays, as Muslims, if we show cruelty to Malays or to Hindus, such a Malay is not qualified to rule the country,"he told reporters today.
He added: "You can take that down, Utusan Malaysia."
Anwar was on his way out of the KL court complex when he was asked to comment on the move by representatives of the Hindu Rights Action Front (Hindraf) in presenting a memorandum calling for the release of those detained under the ISA to the Prime Minister at his Hari Raya open house last week.
"The issue is not any protest by Hindraf. The issue is the cruel ISA. It is a gross injustice.
"Those detained under this cruel law must be released. I stand on that principle," said Anwar.
He called for the immediate and unconditional release of the Hindraf five and Malaysia-Today news portal editor Raja Petra Kamarudin.
Asked what he thought of the speculation that Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi would not defend his Umno presidency, he said he did not believe a government or an Umno led by Datuk Seri Najib Razak would be any better.
He said he did not believe that BN would be able to garner more support or credibility under Najib.
"We are talking about a system tainted by corruption. It is important that we continue to call for reform and change," he said.
He pointed out that regardless of Abdullah's decision tomorrow, it would not impact Pakatan Rakyat's plans and that the triparte opposition leaders were having another discussion on the matter later today.
Asked for an update on the Barisan Nasional lawmakers whom he had allegedly convinced to cross over, he said: "It is a non-issue. They have given me their support and have not reneged on the agreement."

National service or national slaughter?

By Hafidz Baharom, The Nut Graph

(Source: scottthong.wordpress.com)

I HOPE everyone has had a wonderful holiday. I wish everyone Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri. Please forgive my transgressions as I offer forgiveness, too.

While we're all still probably feasting on Aidilfitri specialties, I'm sure Jane Lim's family is not exactly in a celebratory mood. If you missed the news on 23 Sept 2008, Jane's family is adamant about not sending her to national service camp because their son, Ricky, died nine days after completing his three-month national service on 6 Sept.

According to Ricky's parents, their son had complained about the camp's hygiene and yellowish water supply.

National Service Department director-general Datuk Abdul Hadi Awang Kechil has said the department has no authority to exempt 17-year-old Jane from national service because of her brother's untimely death.

Right to worry

But parents do have a right to worry about their children's security within the national service programme, especially since the programme has not been without incident since its inception four years ago.

For example, on 28 Feb 2004, a 17-year-old female trainee was reportedly raped in a car by one of the trainers from Merang Camp in Setiu.

Never mind war — our National Service trainees are dying at
camp (© Jafaris Mustafa /Dreamstime)

There have also been four incidents of mass food poisoning in three separate camps over the years. In 2005, in the Port Dickson camp, trainees and instructors, numbering 60, were afflicted with food poisoning. On 30 Dec 2007, trainees in a camp in Penang also suffered from food poisoning.

In the most recent case, Kem Barracuda in Terengganu reported that nine trainees had fallen ill due to food poisoning on 23 May 2008. Six days later, the number had grown to 67 people from the same camp.

Other cases, reported in the media, are as follows:

11 May 2008: Too Hui Mun, 18, complained of stomach difficulties that turned out to be caused by a colon infection. She's the 16^th person to perish during National Service training.

3 Sept 2007: Mohamad Rafi Ameer, 18, had a fever and a swollen leg after falling during his training stint. An International Herald Tribune report suggests negligence on the part of camp supervisors.

18 Jan 2007: Iliameera Azlan, 17, died due to breathing difficulties. According to Bernama: "Iliameera reportedly did not wake up at 5.30am as required, and when found at 6.30am having breathing difficulty, the instructor of the camp rushed her to the hospital. She is believed to have died on the way to hospital."

Please note that the camp waited an hour after roll call at 5.30am before finding her.

9 May 2004: T Saravanan, 18, from Taiping, Perak drowned while swimming with another 40 trainees.

In-camp fights

The most stunning case of death in a national service camp occurred on 22 April 2006 when Haziq Jaafar, 17, died after getting into a fight with another trainee.

What were they fighting over? A cigarette.

(© sxc.hu)

It would seem that both the Tak Nak campaign and the checks for contraband in national service camps failed to prevent Haziq's untimely death.

Pardon me, but all these reported cases demonstrate that "encouraging unity" and "training NS students for emergencies" are merely rhetoric.

In another story of the national service's failure to encourage "unity", an all-out brawl erupted between 50 trainees in a camp close to Kluang on 10 Aug 2008.

What caused the brawl? Teasing.

According to press reports, when the teasing intensified, chairs were tossed and fists flew - something I think we've seen happen in the MCA once.

A National Service first-day cover produced by Pos Malaysia
in 2004 Worth the deaths?

So what exactly was the purpose of National Service, to begin with?

According to their website (and my translation capabilities), the objectives are:

• To increase youths' patriotism
• To foster racial unity and national integrity
• To build positive character through good values
• To encourage volunteerism
• To create a young generation with physical and mental prowess, and self-confidence.

I will not be overly pessimistic, but I would like to ask those parents who support national service whether such objectives are worth the sacrifice of 16 lives?

And for those who have yet to send their kids off, and for taxpayers who are single and are not even thinking of procreating, is the RM600 million spent in 2007 for national service a good investment?

Would people agree with the huge investments needed if they knew just how much it was costing tax payers? According to the Auditor-General, national service shirkers and rigid contracts have caused the government losses of up to RM110.1 million from 2004 to 2007.

The Auditor-General also found that the Beringin Beach camp was unsuitable because of flooding during high tide. But didn't anybody notice this before? And how was that possible?

For the Wawasan camp in Sabah, camp operators told the audit team it was difficult to obtain fresh fish for the trainees' menu, but the audit team found it otherwise at the Kota Kinabalu market. Does this mean that these camps would rather lie about why the food isn't fresh and risk food poisoning than feed trainees properly?

The Auditor-General's report also found that t-shirts, track pants, baseball caps and sports shoes supplied under contracts worth more than RM41 million were of low quality.

That's not all. There are also cases of illegally built camps.

(Source: uncyclomedia.org) Sacrificing our youth

What all these show is that in the haste to implement the national service programme, we have sacrificed the lives, health and safety of our youths; lost a couple of billion ringgit; and may even have flouted the rule of law and ignored the need for transparent governance.

While I admit that the thought of getting our youth to be patriotic (or subservient, depending on one's perspective) may be a good idea, I, for one, see this programme as nothing more than a farce to allow opportunists to make money at the expense of trainees' safety and lives.

If, indeed, cronies and lobbyists of the current government are making money from national service, then this government may be as guilty as the American government in sending their citizens to perish in Iraq for oil and profit.

If that were the case, national service, in my opinion, could be deemed as "national slaughter".

---

Ahmad Hafidz Baharom is a paradox. He's an anti-smoking chain smoker, an environmentalist who leaves his office lights on, a centrist who's a lalang, and a twenty-something yuppie who dreams of being a slacker. Basically, he's a lovable moron.

Fellow Malaysians, this is what we are up against, hired writers/apologists for a discredited regime

This sort of writing or writer/blogger should not surprise us. They litter the media landscape in our country. It reminds me of the heydays of the Cold War when the CIA used novelists, academics and journalists to spread the word. Stalin and Hitler too did the same thing when they temporarily held the reins of power. It is happening now in our country under a discredited UMNO-led Barisan Nasional Government.

The difference, as I see it, between these guys and their hired hands, and our propagandists or so-called psy-war specialists/experts is that the latter are less sophisticated and subtle. We can identify their motives the moment we finish reading just a few words since what they put out in the public domain comes through as clearly loud and blatantly insulting.

What surprises a naive guy like me, though, is that there are people who are willing to sell their integrity for money and promise of favors, like someone I know as an acquaintance who desperately harbours dreams of returning to a major newspapers as its chief group editor, if Najib Tun Razak becomes Prime Minister.

It is, therefore, important that we read views and reviews with a critical eye, use our ability to think and reason, and exchange information among ourselves, exercising utmost care. There is so much gubberish, like this one for example, out in cyberspace, print media and the air waves, that we need to be careful. —Din Merican

Unraveling the RPK Mystique

Much has been said about the ISA detention of Raja Petra Kamarudin. Over the past decade, the 58 year old has emerged from obscurity to become a sort of cult figure for some Malaysians, and his detention has become a cause célèbre for “the quest for justice and inequality.” RPK is also perceived by many to be some sort of figurehead and rallying point in their opposition to the UMNO-led Barisan Nasional coalition that has governed the country since Merdeka 51 years ago.

Who are these RPK supporters?

Do they truly represent the Malaysian social milieu? Well, they themselves certainly feel that way. A browse through RPK’s Malaysia Today portal would give that impression. The lively postings allude to a sense of inevitability in the socio-political evolution of this country, where some sort of People’s Power movement, indeed an alternative irresistible political force, would sweep through Putrajaya to obliterate and replace the current ruling oligarchs with an “enlightened” administration driven by the mantra of Ketuanan Rakyat.

READ MORE HERE: http://dinmerican.wordpress.com/

Abdullah last acts as PM - reach out to Hindraf supporters and stop excoriating Hindraf

I am taken aback by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s comments yesterday concerning Hindraf, which Utusan Malaysia used in its front-page headline: “Kecewa sikap Hindraf: Penyokong buat bising, enggan bersalam dengan TPM, Menteri – PM”

In the past few days, Hindraf has come under intense attack, with even MIC leaders like its President Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu and Secretary-General Datuk Dr. S. Subramaniam joining in the Hindraf-bashing.

Tomorrow, Abdullah would most probably be announcing that he would not be defending the post of Umno President in the March Umno General Assembly.

Whatever his announcement, among Abdullah’s last acts as Prime Minister should be to reach out to the Hindraf supporters to end the status of Malaysian Indians as a new underclass instead of excoriating and demonizing Hindraf.

Abdullah should initiate this healing process which is an important integral part of Malaysian nation-building, to end the marginalization of the Malaysian Indians in their own country – just as a similar healing process must also begin to address all other marginalized Malaysians in the country, particularly in Sabah and Sarawak.

There can be no better start to this “healing process” than for the Cabinet tomorrow to release the Hindraf Five from Internal Security Act – making Deepavali this year a most significant and memorable one in making all Malaysians, regardless of race or religion, feel proud again to be sons and daughters of the nation.