Comments on: SOLIDARITY: Burma (2); Petronas Money Helps Buy Burmese Bullets

By: Selective amnesia and selective pacifism « Foggie Ramblings

Selective amnesia and selective pacifism « Foggie Ramblings — Wed, 21 May 2008 12:24:39 +0000

[...] Wanna know what Petronas have been up to in Sudan and Burma? Well, go here, here, here and here. And while you’re at it, why was our “beloved” Dr.M quiet when our [...]

By: partnervermittlung thailand

partnervermittlung thailand — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 13:40:15 +0000

very nicely done article, thank you.

By: Satya

Satya — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 09:01:16 +0000

By: Satya

Satya — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 04:07:10 +0000

seriously, i didn’t know how to face my burmese friends after reading about petronas’ connections with the junta. the thing is, we the rakyat, have received benefits from petronas as a whole (even if many so-and-sos have actually pocketted a lot fo the money). especially right after the ‘97 economic crisis. petronas is said to be pretty much the only thing that managed to get us back up on our feet without IMF aid. well, surprise, surprise! ‘97 is when petronas’ relationship with the junta started. anyway, the point is, that we malaysians have benefited from this blood money. we HAVE to get petronas to stop dealing with myanmar, while this issue is still hot.

i was also reading up on where the myanmar junta get their arms from. that china was a supplier was something you’d guess even before seeing the facts. india supplies them some of their tanks too, in a bid to counter china’s regional influence. but here, to me, was the real shocker. the blood money given to them by petronas, was used by the burmese junta to buy singapore-made m-16s and bullets, to shoot the monks.

http://www.ibiblio.org/obl/reg.burma/archives/199510/msg00015.html (may be outdated, but it details china’s arms dealings with the junta, and how they’ve turned to singapore, among others, to diversify their sources)

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22085187-2703,00.html (on india’s arms sales to myanmar)

[ GhL ] : Nice job researching the blood money background. The extent of Singapore’s involvement in supplying arms to Burma surprised me.

Besides Burma, Petronas is chummy with some of the most reviled regimes in the world, including Sudan and Chad. Of course, they’re not the only oil-and-gas company to befriend pariah regimes in order to secure access to natural resources, but Petronas being in our own backyard, we need to expose the connection. I haven’t found the latest figures, but Petronas’ contribution to the Burmese junta’s coffers must be in the region of USD 1 bil by now, hardly chump change in a country with a severely-underdeveloped economy.

In 2006, petroleum export revenues accounted for over 40% of Malaysia’s GDP and the figure is rising: a damning indication of Malaysia’s overdependence on petroleum revenues and the anaemic state of other sectors of the economy. Industry experts estimate that by 2011, plateauing/declining production and increasing consumption will result in Malaysia becoming a nett importer of petroleum; in other words, we will lose 40% of our GDP almost overnight, and have to spend additional money to procure petroleum from elsewhere.

My own analysis is that this is one of the factors driving the Badawi administration’s panic-driven rash of ‘magic bullet’ economic corridors in the blind hope that these will magically reinforce the Malaysian economy overnight (but perhaps I give too much credit to Badawi – the Corridors may be nothing more than crony vehicles after all). Of course, economic restructuring requires a good deal more than fancy launching ceremonies and grandiose speeches.

By: Scott Thong

Scott Thong — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 08:28:45 +0000

Some of the Zombietime photos, censored with yellow boxes to reduce the goriness levels. What the Pattani terrorists did is still evidently gruesome.

http://scottthong.wordpress.com/2007/09/28/photos-of-brutally-murdered-victims-of-the-southern-thailand-pattani-insurgency/

[ GhL ] : Hello again Scott. As horrifying as the pictures are, I’d leave the photos uncensored myself. The horrible truth needs to be faced. Thank you, I think I will be writing a follow-up post on this topic soon.

The ugly fact is that throughout human history, more death and destruction has been unleashed on fellow human beings in the name of religion than for all other reasons combined.

By: Kavilan

Kavilan — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 02:23:27 +0000

they wouldnt protest when peace-loving monks are shot and beaten, but readily make a big commotion about the Palestine-Israel issue when Condoleeze Rice came over… Regional discrimination???

[ GhL ] : Palestine-Israel is a fashionable cause for wannabes (who have nothing to do with the regional conflict) to instantly improve their ‘Islamic credentials’. Burn a US flag, and shout a few anti-Semitic slogans, if you have a gun shoot it in the air… suddenly you’re a hip Islamist.

It’s kind of like Paris Hilton’s dog-in-a-bag.

In addition to performing the above monkey antics (except shooting), Khairy Jamaludin recently made one of his most stupid remarks to date when he accused Anwar Ibrahim of being “a puppet of the CIA and Jews”. I won’t even bother to comment on that.

By: Scott Thong

Scott Thong — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 00:16:06 +0000

Let’s play spot the difference:

Religious people in Myanmar do not like the government’s policies. They protest peacefully and are met with disproportionate force by the army.

Religious people in Thailand’s south do not like the government’s policies. They begin a reign of terror, butchering anyone who doesn’t support them, and respond to both government retribution and reconciliation with more and worse violence.

Warning: extremely graphic photos.
http://www.zombietime.com/thai_jihad_photos/

[ GhL ] : Thank you, Scott. There is some evidence that the terrorists may have bases or are obtaining logistical support from the border areas of northern Malaysia. Of course, instead of investigating, the government automatically denied such a thing.

Warning to readers: the photos in the link above show graphic violence and are extremely disturbing.