Merdeka Thoughts

The good news is, fewer Malays are taking Utusan Meloya seriously. Their sales have dropped and they are making losses - to the tune of RM11.05m!

Perhaps I shouldn't be surprised as Uppercaise mentioned it about 3 years ago.

My respect to the Malays for not putting up with crap.

But we still need to tackle the issues with East Malaysia and the Orang Asal.

It's a long journey ahead, folks. But we'll make it.

Dei Tamby!

OK, this isn't a Deepavali post.

But it's directed at Najib, who is superb at dealing with foreign media and politicians, but hopeless at dealing with his own countrymen, from his own party to the voters who can't wait to get him and his party out.

I mean, look at how he and Amanpour are cosied up together like BFFs. Seriously. That woman needs a social life.

To make matters worse, he claims to be protecting the marginalised. Who? The majority.

Ahem. Yes. The majority.

Obviously, the minority can take care of themselves, which is why he casts a blind eye at the Penans, who have their homes torn down and their land deforested. And their women raped.

He's too busy taking care of the marginalised majority.

Oh yeah, he sings to the gallery. He says what the western world wants to hear. He waxes lyrical about moderation and the Muslim world.

Dei tamby. The western world isn't voting for you. They really don't give two fags about you. All they want is the oil you can supply and the money you have.

Malaysians can't stand you.

You have never been able to persuade us of your sincerity, because you simply have NONE.

"Malaysia Stands To Gain From TPPA"

This is priceless:

Concerns that the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) will be disadvantageous to Malaysia are largely misplaced as negotiators will certainly safeguard the country's economic and trade interests during the trade talks.

If you're wondering where that came from, it was taken from the frivolous rag known in these parts as the New Straits Times.

Now just about everyone knows that when the NST publish anything, they are almost certainly lying.

They just can't help themselves. If you asked them a straight forward question like what two plus three was, they'd feel compelled to lie and say any other number than five.

In this case, it's not so much a case of lying. There are plenty of lies in the rest of the article should you have the poor sense and judgment to read it seriously (you may, of course, read it for comic value).

What was striking is that NST attempts to convince readers that Malaysian negotiators sent by the Malaysian government would have the capability to protect our best interests.

To begin with, the government is only interested in what it can gain for itself. Further to that, it is full of rank incompetents who joined the civil service because no one else would consider employing them.

They are in no position to safeguard anything, not even a coop of chickens.

NST should read aloud what it writes. Only then will it realise what baloney really sounds like.

P.S. You may find this interesting: NST Fell For It

Malaysia And America

It is no secret that the American government has somewhat unconventional torture methods when dealing with potential or suspected terrorists.

Guantanamo Bay is probably the most famous holding centre.

But what is truly surprising, is the Malaysian government's involvement in detaining suspects in collaboration with the CIA.

The BN government has always been very vocal in opposing Washington, mostly in attempts to posture before the predominantly Muslim public.

Every time there is an issue regarding Palestine in particular or Islam in general, there is a public demonstration (this time, without the tear-gassing and chemical-laced water being sprayed all over the participants) outside the American Embassy.

It is no secret that the average Malay Muslim does not like the US and is not keen on cooperating with the Americans.

In fact, the most common (and possibly effective) form of smear campaigns in Malaysia is to associate any organisation or person with the Americans.

Anwar Ibrahim was accused of being an American spy, when he met William Cohen (U.S. Secretary of Defense). Subsequently the accusation was toned down to being just a "tool of America to gain control over Malaysia".

Anwar did get to turn the tables when he linked APCO to Najib's 1Malaysia slogan. Which goes to show that America and its support of Israel is a rather sensitive topic in Malaysia.

More recently is the accusation of Suaram, Lawyers for Liberty (LFL), the Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) as well as news portal Malaysiakini as being tools for foreign hands to destabilise the Malaysian government.

This came about because the US-based National Endowment for Democracy (NED) has provided funds for those NGOs.

The allegations are ludicrous, but they are useful as smear campaigns, especially for those who don't bother to check the facts.

So for all the smearing that the BN government of Malaysia does against the USA, it is actually in cahoots with them.

The irony.

The Muzzled Media Appeared Completely Ludicrous

I meant to get online and blog about recent events a lot earlier than this. However, I have been following up on the shenanigans of the ruling coalition UMNO, and its pathetically sorry machinery.

First up, I have to apologise for my incorrect assessment of the goons who call themselves the Malaysian government in assuming they would be less brutal in dealing with the public.

Seriously, I thought that they would have learned from past experience, but really, these guys are beyond teaching. Someone ought to send them out to green pastures and put a big sign out in the animal farm (or National Feedlot, if it hasn't been closed down yet) to warn against mad cow disease and foot & mouth.

Or in this case, foot IN mouth -- a phenomenon that they have single-handedly elevated into an artform.

You think I'm being unkind? Overly harsh? Mean?

Let's examine the evidence.

1. Nick Xenophon is an Australian senator. Against his better judgement, he decided to observe the BERSIH 3.0 rally in person. He had no idea what he was in for -- he got tear-gassed and witnessed rampant human rights abuses. Consequently, he spoke out against it. So the government-owned mainstream media was tasked to vilify him. Sorely lacking in ideas, they wrote blatant lies about him by switching words -- effectively putting his life in danger.

We hope he takes them to task (he has mentioned suing them). They offered a weak and insincere apology, but this is what puts him and consequently BERSIH 3.0 and the Malaysian protestors squarely on higher moral ground, in that they had to be falsely vilified to be seen as wrong.

2. BBC was outraged that its news reports were doctored and censored by Astro. The agreement between BBC and any broadcaster is that the full report should be aired in its entirety. Astro, the Malaysian satellite broadcaster, firmly breached this agreement when they removed certain sections. Instead of hanging their heads in shame, Astro claimed to be disappointed that BBC failed to understand their 'situation' as they were 'merely complying with local regulations'. Oh really?

3. BBC wasn't the only news channel to be offended. AlJazeera is appalled to discover news reports were also similarly doctored and censored by Astro, particularly because it showed excessive use of force by the police against demonstrators and damage of equipment belonging to sympathetic journalists.

And Malaysia calls itself a democracy? How could the government expect to be taken seriously when they resort to outright lies and manipulative attempts to spin the truth?

I do take exception to that, but not as much as to the Malaysians who are still bleating in weak protest against the mainstream media, saying that they have the right to speak out against tyranny.

I cannot understand why one would waste one's breath. The government-owned mainstream media deserve neither the time of the day nor any rebuttals. They are a waste of paper, airtime and energy. Heck, they are parasites; pimping oxygen.

So if you find yourself compelled to explain why you went out to protest on the 28th of April 2012, please do me a favour: DON'T.

Just do the right thing and ignore the mainstream media.

Related: Astro, give some respect to your customers please!

Orwellian

It was a good friend from Australia who pointed out this article in the Malaysian Insider: Facebook, Twitter foster national security threats, say police

You really should read the whole article, but I shall reproduce an excerpt here to give you a flavour of what is being preached to the masses:

Internal security and public order director Datuk Salleh Mat Rasid said the Internet posed a challenge to the police as it allowed people “to know what was going on in and outside the country”.

This would encourage those who have been “influenced by liberal thinking” to replicate locally what was happening in other countries, Utusan Malaysia quoted him as saying today.

This is positively Orwellian. You would think it is something new and original but George Orwell described it in his book 1984 very succinctly.

To summarise, it is the policy of control by propaganda, surveillance, misinformation, denial of truth, and manipulation of the past.

The question is, why do people not grow alarmed at how blatantly those in power are trying to control us?

Here's why. Read this bit from the UK's Daily Mail about the Malaysian student in the Tottenham Riots.

And he was also critical of the police. ‘The police in Malaysia would have taken action sooner,’ he said.

‘Your police let it grow and grow until it was out of control. I don’t understand why people were allowed to run riot and rob in that way.

'Here in Malaysia the police can catch you and grab you if you do something wrong. But in Britain it seems that you cannot.’

Malaysia’s government is known for being authoritarian, but Mr Rossli said: ‘After this happened, people asked Ashraf why he went outside when there were riots and he replied, “Because in Malaysia we are always free to walk outside”.

'We have a tough government in Malaysia, but when something like this happens, they take action. They don’t let it get out of control. The streets are safe.’

You and I know that this is a load of hogwash. Pure rubbish. Unadulterated garbage. Utter crap. Pristine bullsh!t.

In Malaysia, we aren't always free to walk outside. We can get beaten quite severely by the police.

Ask peaceful candlelight vigil participants that have been rushed by the police and arrested.

Evidently, the police CAN catch and grab you even if you DON'T do anything wrong. The streets are NOT safe, thanks to the police.

And when an event like ABU (Anything But UMNO) takes place and gangsters try to wreak havoc and intimidate innocent civillians, the police are nowhere to be found. Ask anyone who has been for the ABU event in Klang.

But not everyone knows, because not everyone WANTS to know the sordid truth about the Malaysian government.

Ignorance isn't always bliss.

Certainly not when it becomes so easy to spot the government as a fascist regime.

Using Money To Buy Votes

Bernama never fails to amuse.

There have been countless instances of BN cheating -- politicians and party workers blatantly giving money to buy votes.

In fact, there is a Malaysiakini video of Najib telling the voters of Sarawak that they will get their perpetually flooding drain fixed only if they voted for the BN candidate.

All this while, when BN was ruling the state they did nothing. But when they needed the votes, they promise the sky and the moon.

And yet, when DAP gives money to every child born, they claim that it is a case of vote-buying.

Doesn't that smell of an acute case of pot calling the kettle black???

Bernama Caught Lying Blatantly

The words of a government scholar in Perth:

“They totally changed and added stuff that we never said. And the whole thing was done before the speech … I feel it is rather silly and unnecessary,” he said.

“They… put in quotes that we actually did not say and altered our words. We did not say anything bad so I don’t see why they needed to do that.”

You're probably wondering what this is all about.

It all started when the Malaysian Students' Council of Australia held a dinner for PM Najib Razak at the Pan Pacific Hotel in Perth last Saturday. Also invited were the students sponsored by the Public Service Department, Mara and Petronas.

Before PM Najib Razak even made his speech, the students were asked to write down their comments. Bernama took these comments and changed them to make them sound like they were praising the PM's speech. These comments were published in a Bernama report/article.

Now these students hadn't even *heard* the speech yet at this point, so it is irregular that they be asked to write down their comments.

I derive only one conclusion from this: The mainstream media has gone FROM spinning the news to give it a biased slant TO outright lies.

Reated: Student denies praising PM’s speech in Australia

Straight From The Horse's Mouth

A lot of people would ignore this bit of news.

It does sound like the typical mainstream media spin, which it tries to be. However, it gives some precious gems of information - quite unwittingly, I wager.

What I learned from this article by Bernama:

1. BN is extremely worried - to the extent of hiring bloggers to counter-attack the rising public sentiment against BN and by their own admission, it is not working!!!!!!

2. A lot of people are going online for information rather than sticking to the conventional news on TV, radio and print media. It shows that BN has totally lost credibility.

3. The urban-dwellers are being enlightened and in turn enlightening the folks back in the kampungs. This means the message is actually being carried across and the rural folks do not have the same perception of the government as they used to.

4. BN acknowledges that the July 9 rally was a huge blow for them.

BN does give some really good advice though: "In this age of information, people must train themselves to think and analyse before actually accepting the information presented to them."

I'm so glad that so many people do think and analyse - which is why they have rejected BN.

Media Campaign Against BERSIH

From Human Rights Watch:

(Bangkok, June 30, 2011) – The Malaysian government should immediately end its crackdown on the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections (Bersih) and release everyone arbitrarily detained for involvement in its activities, Human Rights Watch said today. Police should return all Bersih-related materials confiscated during the past week and cease pursuing spurious criminal charges, including sedition and “waging war against the king,” against peaceful political activists, Human Rights Watch said.

On June 29, 2011, police raided Bersih’s office at the organization Empower, arresting seven people and confiscating computers, office equipment, Bersih literature, posters, and t-shirts. According to the inspector general of police, Tan Sri Ismail Omar, 101 people have been arrested on various charges in the past five days for promoting what he termed an “illegal assembly,” namely Bersih’s planned march in Kuala Lumpur on July 9.

“The Malaysian government’s crackdown on an electoral reform group shows utter disregard both for free expression and for the democratic process,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Governments that elected Malaysia to a second term on the UN Human Rights Council might feel duped.”

The Malaysian government, instead of responding substantively to Bersih’s eight-point electoral reform program, has begun an apparent campaign to discredit the coalition and to scare off Malaysians who had considered participating in the July 9 march.

A campaign to discredit the BERSIH coalition? How, you may ask.

Answer: The mass media.

With the Bersih 2.0 rally just around the corner, the authorities have launched a media campaign to label the rally as an illegal gathering to the extent that TV stations are required to submit daily reports detailing their news coverage on the rally.

Daily reports detailing their news coverage on the rally!!!

Forget other events that deserve the publicity - the BERSIH rally must be of top priority to be smeared.

Bernama Has A Bizarre Sense Of Humour

The guiding light of the true journalist: accuracy.

Now this is ironic because Bernama almost NEVER reports any bit of news accurately, at least where politics is concerned.

And a priceless gem from the PM:

He said while the internet made it easier than ever to get a story out first, it also made it easier than ever for the readers to know of a journalist who did not get it right.

"It allows them to rapidly check facts, analyse claims and decide for themselves about the truth of the matter.

"And once your readers decide that your reporting is not accurate and cannot be trusted, you will find that they very quickly cease to be your readers at all," he said at the National Press Club (NPC)-Naza Awards 2011 here Monday night.

I guess they have already deduced why no one reads The Star and New Straits Times anymore :-)

Mainstream Media Dizzy About Crime Rate

Click on image to enlarge

Bernama and The Star cannot agree.

Both claim that the crime rate has dropped, but they cannot agree with each other on whether the public perception of the police force has improved or not.

Bernama has Muhyiddin complaining that the public is still not convinced.

Meanwhile, The Star, in a fit of optimism thinks that public perception of the police force has improved.

Seriously, how could public perception of the police force improve when
a) kidnapped children have not been found?
b) police stations in dodgy parts of town are closed down because it is deemed "too dangerous for the policemen"
c) there are so many deaths in custody
d) even the acid-splasher who made numerous visits hasn't been caught

How could people take the police force seriously when it busies itself instead with investigating the personal life of Opposition politicians?

Stories Start Here

It just occurred to me that the Australian tabloid's tagline was "Stories start here."

I figured Utusan Malaysia should have adopted that tagline long ago, since most of the ruckus and fiascos in Malaysia are cooked up by them in an attempt to stir up religious and racial discontent.

In fact, I'm already anticipating upcoming headlines:

ORANG MUSLIM TERPEDAYA OLEH SESETENGAH KAUM SUPAYA MEMINUM 'BEER HALAL'

(Muslims cheated by certain factions into drinking beer)

A huge picture of a bunch of Chinese men sitting around a table with beer bottles will be displayed to give a meaningful hint.

Ridhuan Tee will be moaning about the "keruntuhan moral" (moral degradation) and "gejala social" (social vices) that the ultra-kiasu are propagating against "us Malays".

Then Utusan Malaysia will proceed to claim that the Chinese (presumably after drinking their non-halal Tiger beer) have taken over all the scholarships of Malay children and left the Malay children on the street, destitute and without future.

So far, Utusan Malaysia has been quiet about Lynas because they have been expecting their share of the spoils from the Malaysian government.

But if public sentiment against it spills over, they will somehow spin it to say that the ultra-kiasu have:

a) taken away all Malay jobs, so new ones have to be created, even if they involve dangerous, radioactive material.

b) that it was the ultra-kiasu (the Chinese) who sealed the deal between Lynas and the Malaysian government. In fact, you will probably see a Chinese dude miraculously appear to be the scape-goat.

Oh yes, this is Utusan Malaysia - where wild stories get started.

Turncoats And Village Idiots

Before you get to the proper content of this entry, I would like to put out a disclaimer that this is not one of those "nation-building" type of posts that I am always being asked to write.

I'm not good at writing those types of posts, to be honest. The "nation-building" posts are always hopeful, inspiring and forgiving of the simple-minded of this world.

I don't suffer fools gladly. I believe fools are fools, not because they are victims of their circumstances, but because they willingly parade their ignorance instead of using that vital bit of grey matter that hides abashedly somewhere in their skulls.

Today, I am annoyed. Pretty annoyed, actually.

I was told a couple of days ago about vicious comments flying around at The People's Parliament. I forgot about it until today, when I read Farida Ibrahim's piece called When good people, petrified, swallow poison and stumbled upon some of those comments.

In the beginning, some of those comments amused me. It was like reading satire or a spoof of what might have once been serious.

Only after scrolling down for a bit did I realise that some of those fools pimping the oxygen in this part of the world were serious in their opinions.

The overriding opinion appears to be that Haris and RPK have become turncoats and are under BN's payroll. This is a result of RPK's ill-advised interview with TV3 which resulted in a mega-spin by the mainstream media.

It was such a spin that there are still tornados ravaging Kansas and New Mexico as a result of the vortex caused by this.

I am not going to go into detail on what RPK said and what he didn't. Malaysians with a reasonable level of intelligence may find it beneficial to read this for some comprehension of the subject matter at hand.

Those who are more self-effacing (and have plenty of reason to be) should refrain from tainting that link by clicking on it. In fact, I don't even know what you're doing on my blog.

I digress. Back to Haris and RPK.

The point is not whether Haris and RPK are upright, morally-conscious men. The point is whether what they are saying is agreeable and if it makes sense.

From the beginning, I have noticed that the focus of both men revolve around the rights and needs of the people, the citizens. They have held up to standards basic human rights and have fought consistently against tyranny.

Perhaps the only thing I do not see eye-to-eye with them is the issue of HINDRAF (or Human Rights Party or whatever it is they call themselves these days). I felt that HINDRAF had legitimate issues.

From what I recall, Haris and RPK both felt that the approach - somewhat communal in nature - was wrong. Yet, in some cases, I recall Haris rallying to HINDRAF's cause. This is a marked difference from Ahiruddin Attan of Rocky's Bru, who ran HINDRAF down as a worthless cause when they had the massive protest on 25th November 2007.

Of course, back then the gullible masses dove like lemmings off the cliff to agree with Rocky and vilify HINDRAF. Rocky was the icon back then. Today, most people are aware of his ulterior motives and his allegiance to his real boss - BN.

The very heart of the problem is that Malaysians are unable to understand issues. So what do they do? They create icons and idols whom they agree with wholeheartedly and unreservedly.

RPK and Haris became one of those icons. When what they said did not match the script that the public had mentally written out for these two, public anger and distrust was unleashed against them.

We have a deplorable standard of education which had steadily deteriorated, to add salt to injury. Also, when the education system was introduced to Malaysians by the British, the unspoken command was that students should learn and absorb, but not question.

Things have changed in education systems throughout the world to encourage critical thinking. Heck, forget critical thinking. Just plain simple thinking would suffice, but unfortunately Malaysians are not even capable of that.

Books and magazines are one of the tax exemptions. But I don't think Malaysians read much, because comprehension is evidently not one of their strong points.

To Give Or Not To Give....

... the statement that the police and embassy are supposedly after.

Click on image to enlarge

I love it when the mainstream media contradicts itself.

They really can't decide if he's given the statement or not. Bear in mind, The Star published its article just 19 minutes before I captured it.

What Is Platform.AM?

Platform.AM atau Platform Anak Muda (Youth Platform) is organising a protest against the media that promotes the dirty, hateful and biased politics.

Date: 16hb April 2011, Saturday
Time: 3:00pm to 6:00pm
Venue: Masjid Jamek and the rest of the country

But it's not exactly a protest (in the conventional sense) - more of a flash mob.

You don't know what a flash mob is? I didn't either, until I read THIS. It was carried out in the UK and it got some attention.

It sounds like a flash of fun-meets-civic-duty. Social activism is actually getting exciting these days.

Go to their website to find out what else you can do.

In The Eyes Of The World

There is a very fine line between staying credible and becoming ridiculous. But our favourite news agency has tottered over the edge after spinning itself dizzy.

It began with reporting Old Nyanyuk's "woes" as described in his delusional autobiography.

Apparently, Old Nyanyuk finds himself nursing a grudge against Anwar for making him look bad with his internationally publicised sodomy charges.

Now, this is rich, considering Anwar got himself imprisoned for a few years, had his reputation smeared, his eye bruised and bloodied, and his career in tatters.

The charges? The act of sodomy between two consenting adult males? How could that be anything but a personal matter??

Is it not convenient that those charges came at a critical moment when Old Nyanyuk found himself potentially ousted from office by a then strong contender?

With these charges being of such a private nature, could there really be impartial, unbiased rulings with untampered evidence?

The very act of imprisoning Anwar is criminal. And yet, they talk about joining the International Criminal Court.

Mongolian models have been blown up with C4 explosives and no one charged for the crime but two commandos with no clear motives - how could it even begin to be credible?

We have a monstrous record for deaths in custody. Citizens are dying in the brutal hands of the police, the very people supposed to be protecting them. It is truly shocking.

With our human rights record: abusing participants of street protests, tear-gassing them, spraying them with chemical laced water and beating them among other things, how could we as a nation be seen by the world as anything but overrun by despots?

This news agency either has a grim sense of humour or a severe lack of comprehension.

The Chinese-And-Indians-Getting-Richer Spin Again!

If BTN is the main course and Interlok is dessert, then this is the aperitif.

The six o'clock news this morning was broadcasting this bit of info.

And then the NST took over with its spread.

The Chinese and the Indians are taking over the wealth of Malaysia, it seems to be imploring the Malays.

But while an exclusive group of Malaysians are indeed getting wealthier, the average Malaysian is still struggling to make ends meet - battling the traffic to work every morning and paying off bills and loans.

That is the reality.

1Malaysia Hypocrisy

It couldn't get more retarded than this.

They think unity can be achieved merely by posing for shots of them tossing yee sang together.

From NST

This is the very height of the 1Malaysia hypocrisy.

Spare us the public relations shots. Good governance and eradicating corruption would impress me more.

Egypt Solidarity Rally In KL

A bunch of Malaysians held a solidarity rally outside the US embassy today and also demanded that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak do as most of Egypt says: resign.

As with all public rallies and protests in Malaysia, a police helicopter hovered inconspicuously over the rally participants.

But the helicopter was the mildest thing there. The despotic BN regime, wishing to quell any form of democracy, sent in the heavily armed FRU complete with batons, shields and tear gas rifles.

The whole shebang.

It didn't intimidate the rally though. Apparently there was the obligatory memo to hand over to Washington to tell Mubarak to quit immediately, which they did.

"The Egyptian people deserve a regime change. Egyptians deserve their freedom, the right to self-determination and the right to build their own future."

So do Malaysians, actually.

True to Malaysian form, it was a peaceful protest. But for good measure, the riot squad sprayed their Chinese New Year blessings of chemical-laced water from the water cannon on the rally participants just as the crowd was breaking up.

The Star, being the political slave that it is, had to claim, of course, that the seven men were arrested for unruly behaviour - apparently they had thrown bottles and hard objects.

What lies. Eye-witnesses like PSM's Arul have reiterated that the police violence was unnecessary. "The people were going home after a peaceful rally when police fired the water cannon."

I also wonder what The Star is trying to imply with the "bottles" comment. It has not escaped my notice that there are very few bottles in Malaysia. Soft drinks come in cans and plastic bottles these days.

Only liquor tends to come in bottles. Is The Star trying to imply that the PAS-organised rally was full of drunkards? Is The Star stooping so low by attempting to tarnish the conservative Muslim image?

"TAKE BEER" (a mockery of "takbir") is such a UMNO-BN trademark.

Oh yes. Malaysians deserve a regime change and everything else the Egyptians deserve.