SEPT 15, Kelana Jaya: The Beautiful Face of Malaysia

This is the second Merdeka. I will always regret that I was overseas and could not be at Kelana Jaya stadium last night.

I am a cold, cynical character these days, but I nearly wept when I saw these photos of the rally last night. Kudos to TV Smith, who took this wonderful, wonderful series of photos. One day, these photos will become as iconic as the photo of Tunku Abdul Rahman in 1957.

We are so accustomed to seeing the ugly face of Malaysia that we have almost forgotten what the beautiful face looks like.

These are photos of hope, of faith, of love, of pride.

This… is what the beautiful face of Malaysia looks like.

[ All photos by TV Smith.  Please visit his/her blog ]

The beautiful face of Malaysia

True muhibbah - not BN's fake freak show

Meet Bangsa Malaysia

The Great General - Lim Kit Siang

Anwar - the charismatic leader of Pakatan

FREE RPK; FREE TERESA KOK! Solidarity Vigil 15 Sept

MALAYSIA DAY CELEBRATION AND SOLIDARITY VIGIL TO PROTEST AGAINST THE UNLAWFUL DETENTION OF RAJA PETRA KAMARUDIN, TERESA KOK AND TAN HOON CHENG UNDER THE ISA.

Location: Kelana Jaya Stadium

Date: Monday 15 Sept 2008

Time: 8:30 pm.

Speakers: Lim Kit Siang, Anwar Ibrahim, PAS representative

Inquiries: 03-7885 0530,03-7885 0531

(Event information from DAP Malaysia website)

UMNO FASCIST MOTHERFUCKERS START OPS LALANG II. YOU, UMNO, HAVE GONE TOO FAR.

UMNO Fascists . 12 Sept 2008

[ UPDATE ] 20081306 . 0140

HARI MALAYSIA / ISA SOLIDARITY VIGIL:

Kelana Jaya Stadium . Monday 15th September 2008 . 8:00 pm.

From Haris Ibrahim of the People’s Parliament:

“…People, do not play into the hands of the authorities.

Let’s not knee-jerk.

If we are going to do any vigils or peaceful demonstrations, let these be planned.

Will keep you posted on these, if any.

What I can tell you is that Pakatan Rakyat is holding a Hari Malaysia celebration on 15th September, 2008 at the Kelana Jaya stadium to commemorate 45 years of the formation of Malaysia, since 1963. The even starts at 8pm.

We are going to utilise that event to show solidarity with RPK.

I will try to get more details of that event and update all of you when I can.

Meanwhile, please start an sms campaign. Please send out the sms below. Can someone do translations in BM, Tamil and Mandarin, please? Send it in and I will put it up.

‘RPK detained under ISA. Pls come to Kelana Jaya Stadium 8pm 15th September, 2008 to show solidarity for RPK’.

…”

[ UPDATE ] 20081306 . 0130

This fascist action is clearly premeditated.

RAJA PETRA ARRESTED UNDER ISA. REMOVE UMNO-BN NOW!

[ NEWSFLASH ]

Raja Petra Kamarudin has just been arrested under the ISA. According to the Malaysiakini report, the police sent 10 men to his house at 1.10 pm to arrest him.

So, the racist thug Ahmad Ismail gets away with nothing but a light slap on the wrist, while Raja Petra who regularly exposes the UMNO-BN regime’s crimes is arrested under the ISA — because they do not want him in open court where his testimony could bring down so many of the ruling elite.

We all knew how weak and foolish Badawi was, but even I didn’t expect him to be so stupid as to arrest Raja Petra under the ISA.

Or is Badawi so weak now that he cannot even control his own Home Minister?

It does not matter.

If anyone still had any doubts about whether Pakatan Rakyat should take over the Federal Government, here is your answer now.

IT’S TIME TO ACT, ANWAR. REMOVE  UMNO-BN NOW!!!

Post-Permatang Pauh: Thoughts for Merdeka 51

Reeling from the humiliating defeat in Permatang Pauh, a desperate UMNO is pulling out all the stops to act against anyone it thinks is a threat to its survival – and it’s beginning to attack  Malaysian cyberspace.

They have now instructed the MCMC – Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission – another running dog statutory body – to block all Malaysian internet access to the Malaysia Today website. The original website is no longer accessible from Malaysian ISP’s. The new alternate website is here: http://mt.harapanmalaysia.com/2008

In doing so UMNO is tacitly acknowledging that Malaysia Today – run by Raja Petra Kamarudin – has done enormous damage to UMNO-BN, by publishing incriminating documents, news and insider revelations about the corrupt inner workings of UMNO. With an estimated readership of 1.5 million, Malaysia Today and Malaysiakini are the two foremost independent news portals in Malaysia and wield enormous influence, as witnessed in the build-up to the March 8 political tsunami.

The person most likely behind the current assault on Malaysia Today is Najib Tun Razak, who has gone from PM heir-apparent to a political pariah, hounded by the ghosts of Altantuya, defence kickbacks, his 1987 ‘we-will-bathe-the-country-in-Chinese-blood’ keris-waving stunt, the intimidation of PI Balasubramaniam (in relation to the Altantuya case) and attempted intimidation of Dr. Mohd. Osman (whose refusal to ‘amend’ his leaked medical report is a pain in the arse for the Sodomy 2 conspirators) and many, many other scandals.

“Who Wants to Be a BILLIONAIRE?!?!?” – Ghostline Edition

Tuan-tuan dan puan-puan,

Welcome to this week’s edition of ‘Who Wants to be a BILLIONAIRE?!?!?!”, with our guest contestant Tan Sri Datuk UMNO bin Barisan.

Welcome back to the show, Tan Sri Datuk. Listen carefully. This week’s billion-ringgit question is:

“In Malaysia; when your house is on fire, what is the CORRECT thing to do? Do you…”

A. risk your life to rescue the banknotes you hid under your mattress;
B. set fire to your neighbour’s house;
C. shoot the person who tried to wake up the kampung by shouting “Api! Api!”; OR
D. all of the above.

This is a very special question, Tan Sri. ALL the answers are correct. But only ONE answer is correct correct correct!

For ONE… BILLION… RINGGIT… What is your answer?

Excerpt from the Malaysian Insider, full article is at:

http://themalaysianinsider.com/mni/media-on-the-mat-for-leaking-out-report.html

Media on the mat for leaking out reportKUALA LUMPUR, May 16 — The fallout from the Royal Commission report on the V.K. Lingam video scandal has claimed its first victim – the press.

Police reports were today lodged against the Berita Harian, New Straits Times and The Star by the Prime Minister’s Department for breaching the Official Secrets Act and publishing excerpts of the report before the Cabinet ruled that it could be made public.

The Malaysian Insider has learnt that commission members, ministers and Umno politicians have been upset with several newspapers for breaking the embargo on the explosive report which confirmed what Malaysians long suspected – that the appointment of judges during the Mahathir era was manipulated by individuals close to the then prime minister.

…

(with apologies to Comedy Court)

Merry Kerismas! Samy Gets a Big Cheer

Below: the Seminator ain’t gettin’ the love this Christmas but he did get his own reality TV show on live ASTRO broadcast at the Aatam 100 Vagai talent show in Penang on Sunday night (23 Dec). A salute to the audience who finally decided they’d had enough, and told Samy to vamoose in no uncertain (and I hear, some unprintable) terms.

So much for continuing to fool the people regarding the real status of MIC. I’m guessing it’s no presents for Minister for Misinformation Lord Zam Zam Alakazam bin Maidin either, because this is one he didn’t see coming and it was live.

1 down, 196 more BN MP’s to go.

Yes, The Chinese Are Short-sighted and Selfish: The Difficulty with the Chinese Vote

This was originally posted as my comment in response to the post “Are the Chinese Short-sighted and Selfish? Pt. 1” on Sagaladoola‘s blog. Sagaladoola hits the nail on the head with his frustrated post, making reference to this article. I strongly recommend reading Sagaladoola’s post before this to better understand the difficulties facing the Malaysian opposition and civil society in overcoming the paranoia, inertia and apathy of Malaysian society in general.

The following is my reply to Sagaladoola (with a few new insertions):

I’m Chinese myself, and with much frustration, I’d have to agree with you: the Chinese community are by and large, fundamentally selfish and shortsighted. More than any other community, the majority of Chinese are driven more by personal fears and incentives than by the greater issues – the result of pragmatism tending towards the mercenary.

The Malaysian Chinese are basically divided into 3 camps: the dedicated opposition camp; the BN government sycophants and mercenaries; and the kiasi/kiasu/kiachenghu/bochap (afraid to die/afraid to lose/afraid of the govt/just don’t care about anything outside their ricebowl) paranoid-apathetic camp – which makes up the majority.

As the article mentions: while there is widespread discontent amongst the Chinese, it is still an open question whether this will translate into opposition votes at the next election, especially if there is a danger that some foolish auntie’s shopping trip might be jeopardised by ‘instability’. This chronic myopia (willingness to sacrifice their rights for false short-term promises of stability) is what allows UMNO to keep playing the race card to bully the docile Chinese back in line.

I run into enormous resistance in the form of paranoia, inertia and apathy when trying to raise political awareness even amongst my own family and friends (who mostly fall into the paranoid-apathetic camp).

In this coming election, I believe the Chinese vote will be decisive. From my observations: PAS and Keadilan together will be able to secure a significant block of the Malay vote – at least 33% = 20% of total votes by proportion. The Indian vote is gone to the opposition I’m sure, which gives another 8%. That’s a min. 28% in the bag, with potentially more from the Malay bloc.

That leaves the Chinese with a critical 25% vote block. From this, at least 5% are hardcore opposition and can be relied on to deliver the votes. 5% are mercenaries and will vote BN.

The remaining 15% will decide the popular vote. Unfortunately, this is the paranoid-apathetic camp.

The Chinese vote will be decisive in the upcoming election. We must capture this block, or risk losing the reform momentum built up so far.

No more sitting on the fence, my Chinese compatriots. Wake up, it’s time to make a choice.

The activists and citizens out there on the streets are fighting for the rights of all Malaysian citizens. Last I checked, ‘Malaysian citizens’ means you and me too. The street protests are happening because there is simply no other way to get through to a regime so bloated on its own corruption and hubris that it cannot or will not hear any dissenting voices. And I will point out that every single recent street protest has been well-disciplined and peaceful right up to the point when the police initiated unprovoked attacks on the peaceful protestors. The real criminals and ‘terrorists’ are the ones in uniform, not the civil protestors.

Statements like ‘Indian grievances are none of my business’ and ‘the BERSIH protests are inconveniencing me’ are criminally stupid and selfish things to say. Nobody WANTS to protest on the streets; they protest because they have no choice. If you truly believe the BN propaganda then you deserve to live under the boot of UMNO-BN.

You can decide to vote for the BN menagerie and live on under the false pretence of stability, hoping every day that your UMNO masters will deign to throw you another table scrap, while your rights are slowly torn away from you and cancerous corruption consumes the country;

OR, you can decide to throw out the whole festering, irredeemable mess that is the UMNO-BN regime. Cut down the BN regime at the next election, and rebuild a country where all are equal, and the institutions of the country exist to protect, not oppress, the people. Bring in fresh, honest blood to rebuild and reinvent the country. Malaysia is a country rich with talent, it’s just not in UMNO-BN;

The choice is literally in your hands, and you need to decide, NOW.

What’ll it be?

Police to Block Solidarity Vigil for ISA Detainees, Again

Malaysiakini reports that the police are cordoning off Dataran Merdeka and have issued warnings to prevent citizens from attending the above silent, peaceful candlelight vigil for the 5 HINDRAF leaders now under ISA detention. The vigil is scheduled for tonight, at 8 pm.

The UMNO-BN government’s response was to be expected, of course.
Well, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, this is what I have to say. Make sure you pass the message to your attack dog Musa Hassan and your lapdog Johari Baharom.

It is our fundamental and inalienable RIGHT as free citizens to peaceably assemble and to voice our concerns without interference from the state. We as citizens have never relinquished the right to public assembly; instead, the state has illegally misappropriated our right by ‘giving’ the police the power to ‘approve’ public assembly.

Listen well, Abdullah.

I do not recognise the authority of the police or the state in this respect. And neither do an increasing number of citizens in Malaysia.

In every single one of the previous civil protests, the violence was instigated and initiated by the police, not the citizens who participated in the protest. In fact, I am glad to see how disciplined the civil protestors have been, whether they be from HINDRAF, BERSIH, the Bar Council or otherwise. It is the PDRM that has proven to be lacking in discipline and professionalism, shirking their professional code to act as the thugs and enforcers of your shoddy regime.

And now you send your attack dogs in uniform to once again bar the people from peacefully assembling in solidarity with the HINDRAF leaders you unjustly detained under the ISA, an obsolete and draconian law that should have been expunged from the Constitution decades ago.

Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, I have no respect whatsoever left for you. To address you by your birth name is a courtesy I do not intend to maintain much longer.

You are a failed leader of a failed government, trying desperately to protect a festering mess of failed policies.

I no longer recognise you as the Prime Minister of Malaysia. You are not fit hold the post. Nor do I recognise your Cabinet of fools, imbeciles and bigots.

You forget, Abdullah, that *I* am your boss. I am one of the rakyat, and the rakyat are very angry.

(click for larger version)

[ some components of the poster above were sourced from The People’s Parliament. ]

Merry Kerismas! Greetings from Bolehland

Seasons greetings from Bolehland! Above: Santa Dollah takes a break from doling out the Kerismas goodies.

Another quality product from Ghostline Industries Tidak Berhad, inspired by the brilliant poster below from Malaysiakini: