Merdeka 曖昧

It’s His Majesty King’s Birthday today. A day when most Malaysian regard as just another public holiday (less so now that Saturday is already an off-day for many, holiday or not). To promote a healthy discourse on public affairs, I would like to discuss the pros and cons of absolute monarchy vis-a-vis constitutional monarchy, and what day would it be more appropriate than today?

In Australia, there was a “Republic Referendum” in 1999, in which the public was asked whether the Governor General (Queen’s representative in Downunder) should be replaced by a Parliament-appointed President. It was rejected with the ‘no’ side receiving 54.4% of the vote.

That scares the house of Windsor tremendously. At any given time, the percentage of opposers of Monarchy in UK is about 25%, plus or minus, thus seeing 45.6% of Australians requesting a republic is indeed frightening.

Constitutional Monarchy, as we know, checks the power of the government. As in Malaysia, the appointment of Prime Minister is one of King’s discretional power, eventhough conventionally he would choose the head of parliamentary majority. But there’s no law barring the King from choosing, say, YB Ms. Fong Po Kuan or YB Datuk Seri Semi-Value (Perak Boleh!), as long as the appointee is elected into the House of Commons.

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KLCC, 28 Mei - Cikgu Badrul Hisham Shaharin, Timbalan Ketua Penerangan Angkatan Muda, Kak Nora, aktivis Reformasi, Ronnie Liu, Setiausaha Perhubungan NGO DAP, Dr. Wardah Abdullah, AJK Lajnah Pengguna PAS Pusat dan Salahuddin Ayub, Ahli Parlimen Kube Keghie dan Ketua Pemuda Pas antara 20 orang termasuk 2 wanita (Kak Nora dan Wardah) yang ditahan polis dalam tunjuk perasaan membantah kenaikan harga minyak dan tarif elektrik di KLCC tadi.

Protes di KLCC tadi adalah yang terakhir daripada siri protes kenaikan minyak yang dinamakan “Protes Sampai Turun“, menurut penganjurnya, Dr. Hatta Ramli.

Dua orang penunjuk perasaan mengalami luka parah, termasuk Amran Zulkifli, 38 yang dipukul pengganas Unit Simpanan Persekutuan (FRU) di bahagian kepala dan Lim Ban Teng, 24, bendahari Pergerakan Demokratik Belia dan Pelajar Malaysia (Dema) yang mengamali fracture di tangan kanan.

Amran telah dikejarkan ke Hospital Pusat Rawatan Islam (Pusrawi) dekat sini oleh mereka yang baik hati.

Ketua Polis Dang Wangi, ACP Kamal Pasha mengesahkan 18 orang ditahan, termasuk dua orang wanita. Mereka ditahankan di Balai Polis Hang Tuah a.k.a. Penjara Pudu.

Bantahan yang disertai 2000 orang menurut laporan Harakahdaily, dan, 500 orang menurut Malaysiakini itu bermula dengan lancar. Menurut little bird kita, blogger Eva, bilangan pnunjuk perasaan hari ini jauh melebihi demonstrasi terdahulu pada 10 Mac lepas.

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Photo copyright: Malaysiakini

Pas, Keadilan, DAP and PSM together with Non-Governmental Organizations will hold a big scale demonstration and protest against the recent extraordinary fuel hike, as well as the impending electricity tariff hike effective 1 June, at 10am, 28 May 2006, KLCC (facing Jalan Ampang).

All are welcome. Let’s exercise our freedom of assembly as guaranteed by UN UDHR and Federal Constitution to speak up against injustice and mismanagement of the country by the Barisan Nasional (BN) regime.

Queen-controlled DPM Datuk Seri Najib tells us to change our lifestyle, let’s tell them, we want Regime Change!

For more info, please visit Fuel Hike Protest blog by Dr. Hatta Ramli, and don’t forget to download Fuel Hike issue leaflet (pdf, 3 MB).

To see more photos of the previous fuel hike protest on 6 March 2006: (more…)

We have discussed the ban on Laki-laki Komunis Terakhir in our entry dated 14 May, 2006, Laki-Laki Komunis Terakhir and my proposal, in which we suggested the ban be put to a nationwide referendum, which would be preceeded by a nationwide screening of that melo-drama-documentary that prepares voters for the referendum.

Today, new development takes place. Minister of Homely Affairs, Datuk Seri Radzi Sheikh Ahmad, who happens to be also Umno Secretary-General, announced that the issue would be brought up to Umno Supreme Council meeting in June.

According to him, the excuse for him to exercise his discretionary power in banning the movie, which was approved by Censorship Board and Special Branch, was “Umno members’ sentiment during Umno’s 60th anniversary in the month of May“.

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DAP won 6 seats, namely Pending, Batu Lintang, Kota Sentosa, Bukit Assek, Kidurong and Meradong. Keadilan Supreme Councillor Dominique Ng Kim Ho was elected in Padungan, while Engkilili went to SNAP. All 8 seats won at the expense of SUPP. Also, an independent candidate has won in Nyemah.

All the opposition wards fall within urban limits. As Advisor of Sarawak Solidarity Front (BBS), former Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Daniel Tajem pointed out, it is indeed ironic that, those who benefitted the most under BN’s “Politic of Development” rejected BN the strongest, while areas that have never gained anything under BN’s “Politics of Development” instead voted favorably for it.

~ Full story to follow ~

The Ninth Sarawak State Election is approaching. Nomination has taken place last Tuesday, seeing all seats apart from 2 being contested.

Keadilan, Sarawak National Party (SNAP) and Malaysian Dayak Congress (MDC) have formed a Sarawak Solidarity Front (BBS). Thanks to an election pact, BBS components and DAP will not fight against each other, as disclosed by Wan Zainal, Keadilan Sarawak Liaison Chief in a press conference that I’ve attended, on Dec 23, 2005 in Hotel Istana, KL, on the sideline of 2nd Keadilan National Congress.

Meanwhile, Pas is also given a seat to contest in Beting Maro, and surely we must thank them for saving Keadilan from one more defeat. Maybe we don’t need to go that far, but a blogger just told me, “Hope they hilang deposit!”

So what’s the focus for this election? When we asked ourselves the same question prior to Pengkalan Pasir by-election last year, I knew what we want. We have to defend Malaysia’s only non-BN state government, which was a difficult challenge, given Pas’ mediocre track record, but we wanted to choose the lesser evil, and the keyword was “Democracy”. What about this time?

Sarawak politic is a battle without ideology. For ages we’ve seen BN legislators of different camps, usually divided along ethnic lines, fighting against each other for larger share of cake, in the forms of government construction contract or logging consessions, among others. The Ming Court Power Struggle Affair had nothing to do with democracy, mind you.

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Few days ago, I chatted with Rajan Seri MENJadi-jadi, and this flee habitually turn our conversation into a brainwashing segment.

As usual, I would defend my stand, that is, equality for all regardless of ethnicity or faith, a state where the government does not ill-treat anybody. As expected, he advocates a system where a particular religion, not yours, not mine but his, is above everyone else. In his words, “There must be someone to dominate.”

He still cannot differentiate treating all faith communities equally from rejecting faiths altogether. He claimed that a secular system (any system that’s not dominated by his religion) is doomed to fail.

He also questioned why Christian laws (what he labelled as Christian Hudud ) can be enforced in Vatican and nobody is complaining, but when Muslims want to implement Islamic laws, people around the world make noise.

When I pointed to him that people are not opposing Islam per se, but rather, the elements of torture within Hudud, just like they too oppose to death penalty and caning of our British common law, he vomited his shit of the day, “Hudud is not torture.”

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Sejak lama lagi susah payah aku carikan gambar bulatan menara jam yang berdekatan warung keluarga makwe aku kat Kota Bharu tapi tak bertuah… Pagi tadi baru je ku bangun, ternampak Yahoo Messenger tengah blinking. Mestilah ini angkara pembuat kacau terunggul negara, Rajan Seri tu yang sering MENJadi-jadi. Aku malas nak layan dia. Tapi, selepas meneliti mesejnya, aku betol-betol hairan. Wow, nampaknya cacing holier-than-thou ni ada sesuatu yang ingin dikongsikan… Fotopages Kak Wina.

Wan Shafarina atau Kak Wina yang menampilkan dirinya sebagai “an0th3r bl0gg3r 0n th3 n3t” merupakan salah sorang teman blogger yang paling awal ku kenal. Mungkin kerana tekanan kerja, belajar dan jaga babies, Kak Wina kian tercicir dari blogging. Kadang-kala tiga bulan pun tak tulis entry baru, suatu fenomena ini kekal sampai saat ini. Yang saya syukur, Kak senantiasa melawat blog terpencil ini dan tidak kedekut berkongsikan pandangan yang bernas mengenai perkembangan semasa.

Kak Wina dah pecatkan bosnya kat UIA (di mana mereka yang minati Mim Alif Wau Ya hidup dalam sengsara) dan kini bertugas sebagai seorang programmer dekat Ministry of Entertainment (MOE), Putrajaya. Jika korang tak puas hati atau mempunyai sebarang pertanyaan mengenai entertainment programs, jangan korang segan untuk tujukan kepada Kak.

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After all, director Amir Muhammad’s latest silver screen hit, “Laki-Laki Komunis Terakhir” (The Last Communist) has been hit by Berita Hairan before it could hit the silver screen.

As reported in the New Streets Times, Censorship Board approved it, Special Branch (SB) of Royal Malaysian Police, that had suffer heavily during liberation war of Malayan people against colonial masters and colonial puppets Communist insurgency has also approved it. The dissappointed SB dude even said the melo-drama-documentary is a bit boring.

Yet, thanks to Berita Hairan’s manipulation, his honourable Minister of Homely Affairs, Datuk Seri Radzi Sheikh Ahmad through his discretionary power banned the much awaited film.

Everyone lamented the decision as at best unwise and at worst, crazy. But let’s not forget, long before the production of this film kick started, Umno Youth had already wanted to ban the film. Under Khairy’s skippership, you need not watch it and understand its content, if something really needed to be banned. Masa itu emas.

But all that is history. Today, I have a profound suggestion that will settle this issue once and for all.

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Temasek, some call it $ingapore. Where East meets Wests. From Kuala Lumpur, it’s just a handful of hours by train. There are two points where the tracks of Keretapi Tanah Melayu Bhd (KTMB) and $ingapore Mass Rapid Transit (SMRT) meet, one near Kranji, another near Buona Vista.

I lived in a nice HDB block some time ago in Holland Village, overlooking the meeting point of two tracks. All the housemates except one are / were bloggers, including Pui, Finicky Feline and her sis. We constantly enjoyed the music of metal wheels running on the tracks, day in day out. At some point, it became part of your life.

Somehow, I missed it dearly, now that we are further a bit from the tracks.

Pretty blogger Siti Fadilah Omar, a sweet pramugari in Valuair and runner up of FHM’s Heartland Honeys 2003, has a nice picture of where KTM meets MRT in Holland Village. It has been syndicated in KTMRailwayfan’s gallery too

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Reader Johnleemk has given an interesting comment on our previous entry, Why Keadilan : Bridging the Gap Towards Opposition Unity,

Keadilan is very much Malay-based, and from what I’ve seen, it’s basically a Ketuanan Anwar party. Some of the crap I’ve seen from Anwar worshippers is really disgusting - lamenting that there’s no hope for the opposition if Anwar goes to the other side, bla bla bla.

Keadilan has as much trouble winning over the Chinese and Indian voters as DAP does winning over the Malay voters. These two parties would be better off if they merged and created a real multiracial party.

For the first statement, yes, we do not agree with personality cult too. Do you think we worship Anwar ? Yes, many supporters are here because of Anwar. However, instead of idolising Anwar, they are here because they are convinced that if even a Deputy PM could be tortured in that way, it would be meaningless to support BN anymore ! It is more about injustice rather than personality. Even Pas and DAP have agreed to nominate Anwar as PM, instead of Haji Hadi, Nik Aziz or Kit. But that don’t make them Anwaristas I suppose ?

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Pengkalan Pasir by-election is coming. BK Ong of Malaysian Voters’ Union (Malvu) will turun padang to campaign too ! Malvu is neutral but pro-democracy. In this by-election, they will observe closely the violation of election laws by both (or all three) sides, record and document them.

Some violations have already been taking place. Posters are up everywhere before nomination day, with Annuar Musa greeting constituents Happy Aidilfitri and such. And according to the police they have dispersed quite a number of ceramahs that were held without approved permit.

Frankly, as a democrat, I am against restrictions on freedom of expression, so these limitations on posters or public seminars are quite unproductive, as it only fuels the government’s suppression of our freedom of expression.

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Pilihanraya kecil pertama selepas Pemilihan Umum 2004 akan diadakan di N 12 Pengkalan Pasir, Kelantan, berikutan pemergian Ahli Dewan Undangannya Wan Abdul Aziz Wan Jaafar yang menang dengan majoriti tipis iaitu 55 undi. Pencalonan dan undian dijadualkan pada 27 Nov dan 6 Dis masing-masing.

Apakah tema utama pilihanraya ini? Itulah soal yang sering kita pertimbangkan sebelum kita bicarakan cerita ini. Apakah ia suatu pertarungan di antara Islam Hadhari dan Hadhariah Islamiyah ? Ataupun pertandingan mengenai pembangunan “jasmani” atau “rohani” (in a very generic sense) ? Ada juga yang melihat pilihanraya kecil ini sebagai pertempuran di antara Anuar Musa dan Husam Musa demi trofinya iaitu jawatan Menteri Besar Kelantan. Jadi, macam manakah patut kita menganalisa perkembangan ini ?

Yang jelas, keputusan pilihanraya kecil amat berkemungkinan menjejaskan kestabilan kerajaan negeri Pas, yang akan tinggal dengan majoriti cuma 1 kerusi di DUN jika BN menang, iaitu 23 : 22. Jika seseorang ADUN Pas malangnya dibeli dan kataki ke parti rasuah, Pas bahkan seluruh golongan pembangkang akan menerima padah.

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I am not sure if Sdr Anwar Ibrahim is a party member. Some say yes, some say no. Miss Jasmine of Batu Service Center claimed that his membership number is 1. He’s barred from holding any political office, so instead he was crowned as the party advisor.. What I wish to ask is, whether he’s an asset or liability for the party.

Again, the views are split. Supporters claim that he is a charismatic leader with overflowing intelligence and fantastic leadership skills. People now blame Datuk Seri Abdullah’s fruitless war against graft on his lack of leadership. Khairy might look like a maverick but is far from being well-accepted especially by the heartlanders. Just to prove my point, do you think there would be a reformasi of the same size, had Datuk Seri Najib, the Umno politician said to maintain the biggest networking, been dismissed the way Anwar was ?

Apart from that, supporters also refute Umno’s accusation that we are inexperienced in administrative matters by claiming that we have, as party advisor was part of the government. And it is exactly this “experience” that backfire on us.

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Reformasi that started in 1998 has waken up a lot of apolitical or self-denial Malaysians. The so-called ruling elite’s dirty conspiracy on politican opponents has opened the eyes of Malaysians, many of them who had used to all kinds of ill-treatments and discriminations.

However, due to the ideological differences which refrained the 2 major opposition parties from joining force, they painted themselves into a corner and failed to live up to the expectation of many. Thus, the rotten beyond repair ruling party could stay in the throne election after election eventhough their administration is mediocre.

While Pas might be the best choice for some, upholding God’s words according to their interpretation with little consideration of the real Malaysian context, together with their proposed legal system that infringes human rights and civil liberty have shun the support from many. The occassional protest vote against Umno (as in 1999) should never be taken as an approval of their policies, and the outcome of hijacking it (as in 2004) has been proven fatal.

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Deeparaya is, as far as I am concerned, a basi issue. Our societies are plagued with so many illnesses. In the name of Islamic state, dissidents are detained without fair trial. Corruption is rampant be it in Kuala Lumpur or Kota Bharu. God’s name is hijacked to further one’s political ambition. A municipality can be declared an Islamic city without meeting the criteria of a city. Even Khairy also wore something like a rosary while making his rounds in Pasir Mas. Combining the names of 2 festives, for most of us, is really trivial.

Rajan Seri Mohd Elfie Nieshaem Juferi (MENJ), my good friend, has explained to me the background of his entry, which basically can be applied to all entries in his blog:

1. The blog is solely for the consumption of Muslims. Therefore if non-Muslims come to visit it and feel uneasy, it is not his problem. It is your problem because you idiots failed to understand his version of true Islam.

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Politician, political observer and award-winning journalist, James Wong Wing On, with many feathers in his cap, for instance ex-Political Secretary for Opposition Leader, Member of Parliament for Kampar 1990-1995, ex-Senior Staff Writer of Sinchew who was the receipant of Malaysia Press Institute (MPI)’s Excellent Journalist Award for 1998 and 1999, just to name a few, and currently Chief Analyst of Malaysiakini’s Strategy Analysis Malaysia, has begun to chronicle his exciting life and sharp opinions through blogging. Selamat Datang ke dunia blogging !

Two distinctive blogs he has established. First, Freedom in Solidarity, contains a huge collection of many photographs, old and new, mostly about people and places he has visited while carrying out his assignments as journalist or politician. From Kampar to Kathmandu, from Manila to Muscat, his footprints can be traced.

Accompanying each picture is a caption, from which the background story of the story would be told. One may get a glimpse into the thoughts of this man, on worldly issues ranging form Operasi Lalang to Vietnam War and CPM’s violent armed rebellion which he passionately romanticised as campaigns “to liberate our land from fascism and colonialism”.

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