Dark Night Rising?

April 3rd 2009. Remember the date.

Straw clutching, jaw clenching, palms upward in prayer and all other physical mannerisms that were symbolic of HOPE for the last couple of months have evaporated. Malaysians from all walks of life have breathed a collective sigh of resignation.

"It's over", "Gone la", "We're screwed/fucked" "From the frying pan into the fire" (thanks Suppy) are being heard all over the country today.

Black shirts, blouses, skirts and pants are the order of the day.

You'd think we're a nation in mourning for the loss of a great mahatma-esque leader. BUT we're not. We're actually 'celebrating' the inauguration of a brand new Prime Minister.

What's so negatively depressing about this? I'm too drained to repeat the whole story, but suffice to say, today our generation has witnessed first-hand a sad state of affairs. A state of affairs where the bad and evil and corrupt get rewarded.

Let me take a breather to collect my thoughts.....

Long Layoff

My humble and sincere apologies to my two loyal readers.

I haven't posted much here for more than a couple of months now. Wasn't writer's block. Neither was it for lack of anything to write about. Couldn't quite put my finger on why, until yesterday when I was speaking to a friend. Then it hit me.

I mostly write about the stupid and utterly ridiculous things happening here in Malaysia, right? So there should have been multiple postings daily, right? Well my friend and I discovered that therein lay the problem; over the last few months, the number of stupidities spewed and done by our "leaders" were happening faster and with more frequency than I could write about.

If I can post one blog a day, they come up with three dumbass actions in a day. If I can do two, they do five. When I push myself to post three times a day, they they come up with ten, and with relative ease at that. It's like as if "dumbass" is as natural as breathing for these jokers. So every time they open their mouths to breathe, they spew stupidity.

Okay, enough of me speaking like a Malaysian politician - my other reason for not posting as often as I would have liked is related to "hours". I'll probably talk about that some other time. Promise!!

Mail your MP

Amongst all the hue and cry over the detention and incarceration of Raja Petra Kamarudin, and the other ISA detainees, most of us seem to be trying too hard to think of what we can do to solve the issue. In itself, these attempts by us need applause. Yes, we’re all outraged at yet another travesty of justice by our BN boys. In our anger, outrage and frustration, we seem to be tying ourselves in knots thinking up the perfect response.

But maybe a slight pause will give us a simpler perspective.

What are we fighting for? Petra? Hindraf 5? It shouldn’t be. We should be fighting tooth and nail for that dastardly Act to be completely abolished instead of for individuals. Only then can we make sure that in future no more Petras or Theresas or anyone for that matter will be put away without a chance to defend themselves.

Instead of coming up with all sorts of outlandish plans, can we try something simpler? Why not put pressure on your MP? Email him or her constantly. Harass her or him relentlessly. Let him or her know that you, one of his or her constituents, has got an issue and you would want him or her to bring it up. Bring it up where it matters; in parliament.

If you’re not sure how to go about contacting your MP, kindly clink on the link below or cut and paste the link below into your browser.

http://www.parlimen.gov.my/eng-DewRakyat_AhliDewan_2.php

Once you've gotten your MP's attention. let them know in no uncertain terms that they had better bring up your concerns to Parliament. The result of not doing so would be disastrous to them.
Another suggestion I would like to make (but this one’s more directly linked to Petra) is for the Muslim leaders to come out truthfully and acknowledge that the articles that Petra wrote has got none of the elements the authorities are accusing them of having. Come out and say that on the contrary, the articles highlighted the beauty of Islam. This is what Petra was doing. We need the religious big shots – hey Nik Aziz, where are you la? – to come out and say that there’s nothing wrong with the articles and that Islam is NOT insulted in any way and that Syed Hamid and the police don’t know what the hell they’re talking about.

ISA…..WTF?

So this is the strategy or gameplan for the endgame huh? Get everyone who opposes them, dump them in Kamunting and go on patting themselves on the back that everybody in the country is happy with them. WTF!!!

Well it is a hugely dangerous endgame these boys from barisan have decided to start. It’s not only dangerous for them, but can have dangerous repercussions and ramifications for the country as well. You see, some of us can see right through their freaking lies and double speak as easily as we can see through mosquito netting.

The endgame strategy being played out is simple. It is to antagonise the Chinese. Stir them. Raise up their “hungry ghosts”. Make the Chinese lose it. Once they’ve lost it and take to the streets, the wizened old sages masquerading as the leaders of this country will declare a nationwide emergency to “protect the wishes – and safety - of the majority”.

Hey, psst…. Syed Albar, you really think we’re dickheads like you and your ilk ah? PTUI!!! Podah!! Let me tell you a secret. This is not 1969. It’s 2008. If you and your Barisan buddies could get your heads out of Saiful’s ass for a couple of minutes, you’ll probably realize that.

Okay, before anyone starts accusing me of jumping the gun here, let me explain. But before I explain, you explain to me the REAL purpose behind the ISA arrest of Teresa Kok and especially Tan Hoon Cheng. Tell me the REAL purpose for the show cause letters to Sin Chew and theSun. WTF??

Yeah, WTF….what did Tan Hoon Cheng do? Her freaking job! Just imagine you’re a postman delivering mail to hundreds of households who depend on you for their mail. You deliver this one envelope that has Urusan Seri Paduka Baginda printed proudly on it and the cops come and bust you for that and dump you in freaking Kamunting. I’m sure that’d make your day wouldn’t it? Well, that’s exactly what Tan was doing. Her bloody job. She’s a reporter. She reports. She’s not a producer or director to produce or direct. What she saw, she reported. Full stop. Nothing less or nothing more.

What really irks is that the bloke who created, produced and directed the story gets off literally scot-free, but the one who reports it get tucked away in some god forsaken place. WTF??

And what about theSun? What sensitive issues did they manipulate and highlight? Samy Vellu’s fucking of the Indians who he was supposed to take care of? Khir Toyo’s raping of playing fields and fondling of any piece of land that caught his eye? WTF is wrong with highlighting these issues?

See what I’m getting at? Our highly intelligent leaders have decided that the best or only recourse available to them is to re-use a trick that succeeded way back in 1969. Create the problem, suggest the solution and become the savior. Sound familiar? Despots the world over and throughout history have used this method to keep themselves in power or to strengthen their grip on power. From their myopic viewpoint which is probably partially blocked by Saiful’s rectum, they fail to see that this ploy only works with uninformed or disinterested citizenry. Unfortunately for the despots in Malaysia, WE MALAYSIANS have awakened. We are very interested and we are very very informed. We have opened our eyes and have seen these power crazy bastards for what they really are - selfish pariahs who’ll sell their own mothers to a pimp if it gets to keep them in power.

And if they’re hoping to get a reaction from the Chinese, or the Indians or Malays for that matter, this will be it. We will stand before you hand in hand and shoulder to shoulder not as Malays, Chinese or Indians but as Malaysians and we’ll fight you until there’s none of us left standing. If you want to attack the Chinese, you’ll have to get through us Indians and Malays first. If you want to attack the Indians, you’ll have to get through us Malays and Chinese first. If you want to attack the Malays, you’ll have to get through us Chinese and Indians first. Get the message?

Let me conclude by repeating what Raja Petra said to those who still want to play the racial game in Malaysia; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!

If you choose to ignore the warning and continue doing what you’re doing, and something happens to you, please don’t say WTF!!

The truth, the whole truth & nothing but the truth

It’s a long established practice in courts all over the world to place your left hand on a holy book – in most places, the bible – and swear that you are telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God. Apparently doing this automatically makes you immediately lose all pretensions and speak only the truth, whole truth and nothing but the truth. Bullshit!!

Hardcore criminals will place their hands on any book – Bible, Quran, Bhagavad Gita – and say whatever bullshit they need to say just to get their ass off scot-free. Jack The Ripper’s not going to admit killing all those he killed just because his hands are on some holy book, if he’s got some means of escaping punishment. The only dudes who actually brag about their kills are those who know they’ve got no chance of escaping punishment or the really psychotic sickos.

Now if you not a really psychotic sicko or whatever you’ve done is still open to debate, I’ll bet my bottom dollar that you will also place your hand on any holy book I put in front of you and declare your innocence. You will swear on your God. You will swear on your mother’s grave or your kid’s head. You will swear on your stained underwear if you have to. The simple reason for this is there’s no one to challenge you on what you’re swearing. Your God is not going to. Your dead mother can’t, her grave can’t speak.

Okay, swearing on one’s holy book is all about post-mortem retribution, you say. Who gives a rat’s ass about how your god retributes you after you’re dead and gone. It’s while you’re here is when you’ve caused the damage. That damage could ruin generations. Is your god going to retribute you or your entire generation?

So by swearing on the Quran, has Saiful convinced me that he is telling the truth about being sodomised? Not a chance in hell. The only thing he has successfully done is proven to me how lightly he takes his religion and his belief.

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The outpouring of sympathy, empathy and support Saiful received upon his swearing ceremony was in itself worthy of an Olympic athlete. If only more Malaysians would support our sports and sportsmen and women like this, I’m sure Malaysia can produce our own Phelps and Lin Dans in the mould of Datuk Nicol. But that’s beside the point.

There was this little cicakman who, in his eagerness for Anwar to take up the Quran, said that settling this the legal way was not good enough. Wow! Imagine that. Using the legal route is not the best way to get justice, fairness and equality it seems. All you need is a holy book.
Holy cow! All the printing presses better get prepared for the avalanche of holy book orders soon.

Then there was the PM. He’s like this guy who’s learnt something new and thinks no one else knows it so he wants to show it off. The only problem with that plan is that most folks heard about reverse psychology while he was having one of those snoozes he’s now famous for. He goes around making speeches and in the course of these speeches, inserts quotes like, “it’s up to Anwar whether he wants to swear” and “Saiful’s got nothing to do with PP by-election”. Wow!!

Golden Silence

Silence is Golden. Really? What the heck does that mean? Sometimes silence can speak volumes more than even the most vocal or vociferous voice. So is silence good or bad? You have the bible that advises that a non-reply, ie. silence, can calm down an angry man. Then you have an old saying in Tamil which, when translated, means silence equates to agreement. So what the bloody heck is silence anyway? Is it the absence of sound? Or is sound the absence of silence?

Does silence mean you’ve got nothing to say or you don’t know what to say? Or does it mean you have something to say but would rather not waste your time and energy saying it? Or does silence carry a different meaning in different scenarios? What the bloody freaking hell does silence mean?

Forgive my preoccupation with silence but there’s a whole load of it happening around that’s causing me to wonder “what the f#*k is going on here? “.

A teacher in a government school verbally abuses a bunch of students by calling them and their ancestors all kinds of derogatory names. Yeah, a bunch of angry parents gathered and made some noise and protested. They were definitely not silent. But the response from the people in power has been deafeningly silent, don’t you think? I’ve definitely missed their voices. Voices that are normally blabbering incessantly about one thing or the other under the sky have suddenly become conspicuously silent.

Heck, latest on the grapevine is that the said teacher has been silently transferred to a supposedly better school, nearer to her home and whatnot. Was she given an increment or pay rise for indirectly promoting ketuanan “of-a-certain-race”? Who knows? What I know is that in her letter of transfer, the reason given had no inkling of any disciplinary action. Everything is so silent.

In another incident, a bunch of screaming, foaming at the mouth folks violently disrupted a scholarly gathering of people seeking to find a solution to a pressing national issue. And holy mackaroli, would you believe it, the violent protestors were actually escorted into the building (yes, the gathering was held INSIDE a private building) by the police? Yup, the same police who sprayed water cannons and tear gas at a previous group of protestors. I guess it all depends on who’s protesting, isn’t it?

Anyway, apart from our future PM wannabe, Najib, there’s been an absolute and total silence from all other leaders regarding this incident. Actually, come to think of it, even Najib should have just shut the fuck up instead of breaking his silence and further confirming his stupidity. His comment tried to shift the blame for the entire fiasco onto the organizers.
The only voices that could be heard in the aftermath of this were from the ordinary folk. Loads of us were critical of the storming invasion and violence and language used by the protestors. Dozens of NGO’s and other significant individuals are making statements. However, there was not a word of condemnation or otherwise from any leader, government or opposition. A very elegant silence is being maintained, but is that what is required at this point? What’s your stand on this, Mr Prime Minister Badawi? What’s your stand on this, de facto opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim?

The most recent news in theSun today is of a 10 year old boy being tortured Nazi style by our boys in blue. What the fuck? Aren’t our cops who are supposed to be protecting and upholding the law, aware of the law? Don’t they know what to do when investigating juveniles? Well, that’s beside the point of this post. Will there be a golden silence on this issue as well by those in charge? Or will heads roll?

Looking and judging by past and present happenings, I won’t be really looking forward to any noise about this. I would just settle for someone telling me which category of silence this silence will fall into.

Damn Funny Wei....

Came across this article written by Dr Farish Noor and published around the blogs. I think it's an excellent piece of writing which uses humor to pin prick the shallowness of the incident that preceded it.

Read it, laugh til your stomach hurts, then read between the lines for the not-so-hidden message. If you've got even a streak of bigotry in you - racial, religious, or whatever other form - then it's possible the message might just whizz over your head. But within that bigoted frame, if even an ounce of humanity or conscience is evident, Dr Noor's commentary will hit you like a slap in the face.

Enjoy.

No, this 'Babi' will Not 'Balik Cina'

I have just read the reports on the internet about the goings-on that led to the disruption and early closure of the public forum organised by the Bar Council on Conversion in Malaysia over the weekend.

Apart from the other rather offensive remarks that were featured in the various reports that I read, I also chanced upon a rather curious revelation: Apparently during the commotion caused when some of the so-called 'defenders of the faith' had entered the room where the forum was being held, there were calls for a certain 'Babi' to 'Balik Cina'.

Now I have checked and double-checked all the photos that are available on the internet and have seen no image that corresponds to the 'Babi' in question. Therefore for the sake of academic consistency and objectivity, I am compelled to ask the Bar Council this: Was there a pig in the auditorium where the forum was held? And if so, how could the Bar Council invite a pig to attend a forum that was open primarily for Malaysian citizens (who are overwhelmingly human, as identity papers and passports have not been issued to pigs or any other non-human species as far as I know.)

Furthermore I need to ask how the demonstrators knew that the pig (if one was present) was of Chinese origin? Did it carry a Chinese passport, and if so, why was it in KL when the Olympic games were being held in Beijing and the world's attention was focused there?
(*ed. I can only assume that this was a rather anti-social pig from China who had come to Malaysia to avoid the throngs of tourists who have overtaken Beijing, which would be a sensible thing that I would have done myself, so I confess to having sympathy with this mysterious invisible pig.)

Lest there be any offence to pigs from China, I would like to remind the demonstrators who made that remark that there are enough pigs in southeast asia and that pigs are, in fact, a native species in the region (including Malaysia). To ask this mysterious pig to 'Balik Cina' was therefore offensive to say the least, as it overlooks the fact that it could have been a local Malaysian pig and therefore has every right to be in Malaysia. Though what it was doing at the bar council's forum is anyone's guess.

Here are some categories of local pigs (genus: Sus, subfamily species: suinea (Latin)) that have shared our very same bumi for centuries:

In Malaysia we have the babi hutan, babirusa (genus: Babyrousa) and wild boar (genus: Sus Scrofa) that have been long-time residents of the peninsula. In Indonesia, there are also many types of local pigs such as the Sulawesi Babirusa, the Warty pig of Sulawesi (genus: Sus Celebensis), the Timorese Warty Pig (Genus: Sus Timorensis) and the Javanese Warty hog (Genus: sus Verrocosus). In Vietnam there is of course the Sus Bucculentus, otherwise known as the Indo-Chinese warty pig, while in the Philippines there is the local Sus Cebifrons that hails from the Visa yas Islands.

So how dare some people go around making wild allegations about the alleged foreign citizenship and/or origins of a pig that may or may not have been present at the Bar Council forum? To assume the foreign identity and origin of an individual merely on the basis of appearance and behaviour would reek of the highest form of prejudice, and points only to the ignorance of those who simply do not know: PIGS are not foreign to Malaysia or Southeast Asia. They are as localised and normalised as Durians and Corruption in this country.