Walk With Audra; Walk With Rocky

Tomorrow (Wed 5 Sept), two blogger comrades and their partners will be in separate court proceedings:

[ 1] The first proceeding concerns Allied Martster a.k.a. Tony Yew’s better half Audra Denise Atkinson, a former Chief Stewardess with Malaysia Airlines who is fighting an unfair dismissal case against her former employer. Apparently, MAS’ grounds for dismissing her were because she became pregnant with her third child and thus violated a clause in her employment contract (apparently standard for air stewardesses) that she would be dismissed if she became pregnant. Audra’s case will be heard at the Industrial Court in KL.
As I mentioned in my earlier comment on Haris Ibrahim’s post: in the US, this clause alone would be sufficient grounds for a class-action gender-discrimination lawsuit against MAS, and I hope that other MAS cabin crew will also make a stand against this sexist employment policy.

Haris summarises Audra’s case in more detail here. Tony’s own (legally-limited) post is here.

[ 2 ] The second proceeding concerns Ahirudin Attan a.k.a. ‘Rocky‘. I have no information on the proceeding at this time but I assume it is in connection with the lawsuit filed by New Strait Times Press earlier this year against Rocky and Jeff Ooi for allegedly libellous comments (they were NOT). FYI, Jeff and Rocky’s legal defence team is led by Malik Imtiaz, with Haris Ibrahim assisting.

Rocky’s case will be heard at the High Court (if I’m not mistaken).

More info on the real story behind the lawsuit against Jeff and Rocky at Walk With Us. Click on the January archives.

IMPORTANT: For legal reasons (potential subjudice), please do not comment on the court proceedings on either Tony’s or Rocky’s blogs, but do feel free to send them expressions of your support or show up at court if you can spare the time.

Audra, Tony and Rocky, we walk with you (even if only in spirit).

Port Klang Board Game: Counting Vested Interests

Smell that rotting smell? That’s the REAL reason Wee Meng Chee was so heavily persecuted.

From Malaysiakini, a summary of blatant corruption and conflicts of interest in the Port Klang debacle. Here’s a game for us all: draw an organisational chart of the parties involved in PKFZ and count how many conflicts of interest you can find. It’s infuriating family fun! Suitable for ages 2-102.

More soon.

When Smoke and Fire Don’t Coincide

It’s strange, smoke and fire don’t always coincide in Malaysia.

You may see a lot of smoke, but the fire is elsewhere.

First, referring to my previous blog post on the ‘Taliban wannabes’:

There is a difference between satire and issuing a physical threat. Anyone who cannot understand the difference has no business talking politics — or being in government. When Namewee made ‘Negarakuku’ he was satirising the sorry situation in Malaysia. While his satire may have offended some sensibilities, what he did was a form of civil protest and was not a threat. In contrast, the homemade Taliban/Islamic Jihad-style ‘terrorist’ video threatening Namewee with harm ‘for insulting Islam’ upon his return to Malaysia is nothing but an amateurish and thuggish attempt at criminal intimidation. Perhaps — as some people have suggested — it was nothing more than 4 stupid punks pulling a stunt, but to threaten religious violence is not only illegal, it is extremely irresponsible and sets a dangerous precedent.

If it is attention and a rush that these 4 retards are seeking, I suggest that they aspire to something higher: they could take a flying leap off the skybridge at KLCC to verify the height of the buildings for themselves. Or dive into the garbage compactor in Semenyih; once recycled and composted, they may be of use to society as fertiliser.

The real problem is that the inspiration and impetus behind these 4 retards came from high up in the UMNO-BN government, from the hypocritical UMNO-BN ministers and MP’s who deliberately hyped the issue with racist and religious rhetoric in order to distract the public’s attention from the far more insidious scandals below:

(poster by mob1900)

The Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) debacle: RM4.6 bil taxpayers’ money is to be used to bailout the project, which has blatant corruption dangling from every corner. Read the Malaysiakini article here:

msk-070810-blood-runs-deep-in-troubled-pkftz.pdf

Transport Minister Chan Kong Choy — caught in the public crosshairs — has conveniently fallen ill and fled overseas to recuperate on MC.

———————–

M for Merdeka: What Are We Really Celebrating?

Well, it looks like I’m flying the flag after all, but with a difference.

Today is 31st August 2007, the 50th anniversary of Malayan Independence, and almost 44 years since the Federation of Malaysia was formed. Today should have been a meaningful day.

And it is, but not in the way it should be.

Today, millions of flags large and small are flying throughout the country this week, ostensibly to mark a great day in the history of Malaysia: the 50th anniversary of independence.But what are we really celebrating? What are all those flags flying for?

Institutionalised racism, rampant corruption, criminal incompetence, backdoor theocraticisation and emerging fascism?

Taliban-wannabes (follow up on MyAsylum’s post)

CALL FOR CITIZENS’ ACTION

[ Video DELETED ]

This video was spotted at myAsylum. Thanks for posting the alert.

Congratulations, UMNO, look what you’ve created. A bunch of (in myAsylum’s words) Taliban-wannabe-retards threatening Namewee with harm upon his return to Malaysia.
I have more acid words to describe them, but they are unprintable.

Feel good now, all you UMNO wankers, Nazi Aziz in particular? Go home and jerk off to this video.

This is Merdeka, UMNO-style.

This nauseating video post will be up for 48 hours only for public information purposes, following which this filth will be deleted.

The Hollowness of Symbols: Why I Won’t Be Flying The Flag

One of my oldest, closest friends mocked me and some other friends today, for the fact that we are planning a Merdeka Day gathering, outside Malaysia, no less. Gathering and singing Negaraku to mark Merdeka Day is, in his opinion, the lamest thing to do.

Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t me he was mocking, and it wasn’t Merdeka or the anthem he was mocking;

It was the futility of clinging to a symbol that no longer represents what it once stood for, and his contempt comes out of enormous disillusionment and rage, not disrespect.

Let me be frank: I agree with him.
Symbols mean very little to me.

The national flag, the anthem, the Rukunegara. All these mean little to me in truth.

They are nothing but a colourful graphic, a reasonably dignified musical piece and a well-written list of aspirations and commitments; they are nothing but hollow symbols, if you strip away the original meaning. And that is exactly what UMNO-BN has been insidiously doing for so many years.

What does mean a lot to me is on the ground. Where it’s real.

Can I talk to my Malay neighbour without the awkwardness that comes with “talking to the enemy”? Can I stop myself from reacting negatively if in future my daughter says she’s dating a Malay or Indian boy?

Bangsa Malaysia: The Event (Pt 1)

[ photo above courtesy of TV Smith, via MageP’s Lab. Original poster art by mob1900 ]

Someone at the forum last night (Jordan I think) quoted:

it is better to light a candle, than to curse the darkness.

And that is what we did last night, at the Bangsa Malaysia Merdeka forum and gathering:

We lit a candle. We took a small step. Forward, mind you.

That’s a direction we haven’t tried in a long time.

What did last night prove?

Bangsa Malaysia Merdeka

BANGSA MALAYSIA MERDEKA

A gathering of concerned citizens to remember

the original meaning and objectives of independence and nationhood;

A celebration of multiculturalism and independent-thinking civil society;

and a sincere hope that this country will not go to the dogs.

 

Stand up and be counted as one whose colour does not matter,

but whose voice does.

 

 

 

poster by mob1900

 

 

M for Merdeka; V for Vendetta

One of the most memorable films I have seen in recent years is the noir political graphic-novel adaptation ‘V for Vendetta‘ (2005), directed by the Wachowski brothers and starring Hugo Weaving and Natalie Portman. For those who haven’t seen it, the story is set in the UK of the near future, where a fascist government has taken over the United Kingdom and controls every aspect of the lives of its citizens. Like the earlier black satire ‘Brazil‘ (1985) directed by Terry Gilliam (which I will write about in a future post), the arrogance of the government is such that it believes it can even control the thoughts of its citizens by controlling and ‘spinning’ the flow of information — literally writing and re-writing the flow of history — to suit its political purposes.

UMNO Fascism: A Checklist

Dear readers,

You all know the disturbing pictures above. For several years now I have been referring to UMNO-BN’s increasing tendency towards inciting racism and suppression of dissent as ‘fascism’ and ‘UMNO Nazism’, and the tendency has become even more pronounced with recent actions such as UMNO Youth’s continuous racist threats (abetted by the crony-collaborator-lapdogs in BN, particularly the MCA and MIC), government impunity from wrongdoing and media suppression over the Islamic State debate and the ‘Negarakuku’ controversy.

Gestapo cum Waffen SS Chief Nazri ‘The Nazi’ Aziz

What is fascism?

Several days ago, I came across the reader Frank&Honest’s post in Jeff Ooi’s ‘Screenshots’ blog here, which refers readers to an article written by Dr. Lawrence Britt. Dr. Britt’s article gives a clear, point-by-point definition of ‘fascism’, which gives us a checklist to measure how much UMNO-BN has moved towards fascism and totalitarianism. Dr. Britt’s article can be found here.

I reproduce Frank&Honest’s post (and his follow-up post) and the article by Dr.Lawrence Britt in full below, and will post my point-by-point response to this later: