Malaysia Fear-no-more (part I)

I was there at the Bersih 2.0 rally. I was attacked by tear gas, sprayed with water cannon, chased by FRU personnel. But alas I am fear-no-more.

In hindsight, I can see very clearly how pervasive and all-encompassing the propaganda of fear has been against the Bersih rally. The constant arrests of activists relating to Bersih, army rehearsal with banners saying “Disperse, or else we will shot”, the “third line of defense” declaration, weapon cache “discovered” by the police, and all sorts of thinly veiled threats from the government and pro- government right wing groups.

The all out intimidation and psychological warfare unleashed by the government was sickening and nauseating to the utmost degree. I was so turned off that I did not hesitate for a single moment when I was invited to join a small group of friends to participate in the Bersih rally. Despite all the fear drilled into my consciousness I knew that I had to do something. I knew that Malaysia is in real danger of descending into a police state if the people do not put a stop to it.

We anticipated that KL will be completely barricaded, so we book some hotel rooms in KL for Friday night to make sure that we won’t get locked out of the action. But our little group got more and more un-nerved as the day approaches. We took all sorts of extreme precautions – including purchasing new handphones, new prepaid SIM cards, and we would not exchange our new phone numbers with each other over the phone. Yes – we were paranoiac. The fact that we have some recognizable faces associated with a NGO weighted heavily on the group.

Our horror story begun to intensify tremendously soon after we checked into the hotel on Friday evening. Our group leader received a very strange phone call after we can back from dinner.

 “Is Mei there?” a voice asked.

“No”.

“Your friend Mei from Singapore is in trouble. Can you come down?” the voice said.

“I do not know of such person.” Somehow somebody thought that one of us was from Singapore. Of course our leader was not so naive.

The phone call got everybody very uneasy. Then around mid-night we got winds that the police have started raiding hotels. Now everybody is getting really nervous. We were told not to put the “Don’t disturb” sign on our doors – and we should never answer the door.

The next morning proved to be even more unnerving. One of our group member pointed out that seated next to our breakfast table was two personnel from the Special Branch. It was obvious from the type of boot they wore and their crew cut hair, she said. Everybody was a nervous wreck by then. We decided to erase any trace of evidence that can link us to the Bersih rally. No salt, not even face towels, and we made up stories why we were in the same hotel together. Our leader even told us that if decided to pull out, we should not feel that we have failed.

I am telling you all these so that you can get a sense of the type of pressures that one has to endure in being associated with anything that is perceived as being remotely anti-government. It takes a lot of courage to be in the forefront of change. Amiga, and indeed the whole Bersih committee, deserve every bit of recognition for their courage.

I was quite nonchalant about all these intimations nevertheless, much to the annoyance of my wife. I had my reasoning and perception of the situation. My reasoning was that firstly we have not committed any crime. If we were to be harassed by the police, I do not even feel that there is any need for us to explain ourselves. Doesn’t the constitution guarantee our freedom of movements?

What annoyed my wife most was that I could not care less to lower my voice. I continue to blare with my booming voice. I discussed passionately and openly with our group members about the crisis the world is facing and the future of Malaysia. I had no concern that whatever I said could be misconstrued as being seditious (whatever it means). I have deep faith that true sincerity, with no hatred and no negativity, has the power to touch another heart. So what if the Special Branch personnel are spying on us? I wouldn’t mind at all - if that is way for our plights to get across to the government.

But fundamentally I don’t think the police can do anything to us. There is no ground for the police to harass us is one thing. More importantly there is little value for them to harass us, and I don’t think they have the man power anyway. We as individuals are simply too small and too insignificant to have an impact on the rally.

The total deployment of the police force, together with the plain cloth police and Special Branch personnel that do not care to cover themselves are totally irrational. The massive display of force can make it inconvenient for people to get into KL, but there is no way for the police to prevent an individual from entering and remaining in KL, apart from a court order. The government did manage to obtain the court order to restrain 91 people from entering KL, but that is already making the government a laughing stock in the eyes of the people and the international community.

It is all about intimidation. That’s the only logical conclusion I can reach. But logical reasoning is one thing. It took a lot more to alleviate the fear drilled into our emotional brain through decades of propaganda. It wasn’t until the rally begun with explosive suddenness that my fear was shattered with with the suddenness of being woken up from a bad dream.

Middle East Fever Hits America!

85,000 - 100,000 people marched to the street in Madison, and students are walking out in many parts of the country. You don't get to see news like that in CNN. The mainstream media in US are sanctioned. News in US are not free, it is not any better than Malaysia.

What is it about?

Michael Moore in Madison, Wisconsin on March 5, 2011:

"America is not broke. Not by a long shot. The country is awash in wealth and cash. It's just that it’s not in your hands. It has been transferred, in the greatest heist in history, from the workers and consumers to the banks and the portfolios of the uber-rich ... The only thing that's broke is the moral compass of the rulers. And we aim to fix that compass and steer the ship ourselves from now on." –

Contrary to what those in power would like you to believe so that you'll give up your pension, cut your wages, and settle for the life your great-grandparents had, America is not broke. Not by a long shot. The country is awash in wealth and cash. It's just that it's not in your hands. It has been transferred, in the greatest heist in history, from the workers and consumers to the banks and the portfolios of the uber-rich.

Today just 400 Americans have the same wealth as half of all Americans combined (note: it is more like 60% in reality).

Let me say that again. 400 obscenely rich people, most of whom benefited in some way from the multi-trillion dollar taxpayer "bailout" of 2008, now have as much loot, stock and property as the assets of 155 million Americans combined. If you can't bring yourself to call that a financial coup d'état, then you are simply not being honest about what you know in your heart to be true.

And I can see why. For us to admit that we have let a small group of men abscond with and hoard the bulk of the wealth that runs our economy, would mean that we'd have to accept the humiliating acknowledgment that we have indeed surrendered our precious Democracy to the moneyed elite. Wall Street, the banks and the Fortune 500 now run this Republic -- and, until this past month, the rest of us have felt completely helpless, unable to find a way to do anything about it.

I have nothing more than a high school degree. But back when I was in school, every student had to take one semester of economics in order to graduate. And here's what I learned: Money doesn't grow on trees. It grows when we make things. It grows when we have good jobs with good wages that we use to buy the things we need and thus create more jobs. It grows when we provide an outstanding educational system that then grows a new generation of inventors, entrepreneurs, artists, scientists and thinkers who come up with the next great idea for the planet. And that new idea creates new jobs and that creates revenue for the state. But if those who have the most money don't pay their fair share of taxes, the state can't function. The schools can't produce the best and the brightest who will go on to create those jobs. If the wealthy get to keep most of their money, we have seen what they will do with it: recklessly gamble it on crazy Wall Street schemes and crash our economy. The crash they created cost us millions of jobs.  That too caused a reduction in tax revenue. Everyone ended up suffering because of what the rich did.

The nation is not broke, my friends. Wisconsin is not broke. Saying that the country is broke is repeating a Big Lie. It's one of the three biggest lies of the decade: 1) America is broke, 2) Iraq has WMD, and 3) The Packers can't win the Super Bowl without Brett Favre....

So how do we make this happen? Well, we do it with a little bit of Egypt here, a little bit of Madison there. And let us pause for a moment and remember that it was a poor man with a fruit stand in Tunisia who gave his life so that the world might focus its attention on how a government run by billionaires for billionaires is an affront to freedom and morality and humanity....

More here:
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mike-friends-blog/america-is-not-broke



Make sure you watch Michael Moore speech. The youtube clip was viewed 500,000 times. It was simply WOW. Anwar Ibrahim would never be able to deliver a speech like that. Anwar is the lesser evil compared to BN - but he is very much a player within the system of power and greed. The current political/economic system simply needs a complete overhaul. Period.

A different type of leadership has to emerge for humanity to have a tomorrow. It will emerge. The signs are all over the wall. The question whether we will wisen up and assume the necessary discipline to make the inevitable transformation as painless as possible.


"  Only everybody-all-at-once can change the current chaos."   - Adi Da

Are we in for another May 13?

I was furious and alarmed by the news that 3 churches were being fire-bombed over the Allah issue. I was not angry at the Muslims. No – I don’t believe that Muslims are behind the bombing.

There were a lot of hot air, a lot of rousing speeches surrounding the Allah banning issue – as if the whole Muslim world were mightily offended and up in arms against the recent court ruling that non-Muslim can use the word Allah. There were even threats of a massive demonstration, which the Prime Minister and the Home Minister deemed justifiable (see Malaysiakini).

But whatever happened to the demonstration? As reported in Malaysiakini - only a few dozen here and there participated in the demonstration. It was really pitifully small compared to a ceramah by Dato Sri Anwar Ibrahim. So where were the angry Muslims?

From the onset – the Allah issue was artificially drummed up. The Christian Church had used Allah for over 50 years in Malaysia. Has anybody heard of a single incident of a Muslim gotten confused, doped, cheated, confounded, mislead over its use? Were there any cases of police reports regarding this BEFORE the Home Ministry brought up the issue?

Apart from a handful of UMNO politicians and pro-Barisan Nasional NGO’s blowing a lot of hot air, PAS president Nik Aziz as well as many learned and revered Muslim authorities have already expressed their views that Allah should not be ban for non-Muslims.

It was completely obvious to me that right from the beginning there was never a religious or racial issue. I had thought that with PAS and Pakatan Rakyat standing firm on the side of reason nothing much would come of it.

The arson attacks on 3 Churches came as a complete surprise to me. I was terribly angry – not with the Muslims. I never believe that religious motives were behind this whole saga. My anger was towards Prime Minister, the Home Minister and the many politicians from Barisan Nasional for irresponsibly stirring up racial sentiments out of a non-issue.

The arson attacks are so out of proportion that one could not help but suspect some sinister agendas behind the scene. I don’t want to make any conjecture least I got hauled up with sedation charges. Is this going to lead to another May 13 or land Malaysia into military rule? I don’t’ believe so, although I don’t rule out that some really sick and really powerful people may be plotting something of such nature.

Put it this way. Malaysia is in deep problem right now. Our social, political, economic and judiciary systems have been in rapid decline. We simply could not afford a major disruption of such nature. I believe that the Christians and other non-Muslims have enough good sense that they will not react with violence. I believe that the Pakatan Rakyat state government and many good people in the police force are doing what they can to maintain peace. I believe there are enough good people with good judgments working hard to prevent more violence from happening.

This is a shameful day for Malaysia indeed. This incident is going to put Malaysia in the spotlight of the world media for the wrong reason. It makes a complete mockery of Najib’s 1Malaysia initiatives. It deals another blow to Najib, who is already suffering from major credibility problems.

Every cloud has a silver lining. Despite the constant drumming of politically motivate racial rhetoric; we have seen many voices of moderation at work as well. One lesson we can learn from this saga is that we don’t have racial problems as such. All racial tensions are stirred up intentionally to serve the interest of a few people in power.

This is a time of reflection and reconciliation. It is touching to see PAS and a few Muslim groups kick into action right away to raise fund to rebuild the churches that suffered damage from the attack. This is the most significant inter-faith cooperation that I witnessed in Malaysia. This is the type of spirit that we need to rebuild our beloved country from the ashes.

A Million Dollar Question Regarding the Allah Saga

I have been keenly watching the unfolding saga regarding the Home Ministry of Malaysia banning the Christian for using the word Allah to refer to God in its publications in the Malay language. I believe that many Malaysian are stirred up one way or another by this saga. But my interest is more on the sheer amount irrationality and idiocy displayed by the many parties directly or indirectly involved in this issue. Please, before you curse me to hell, allow me to qualify what I mean by this statement.

Firstly, I don’t intend to start a theological debate. I am simply not qualified for it, and furthermore many highly qualified people have already expressed their highly informative views.

Now let's begin from the very beginning. Why did the Home Ministry raised this issue in the first place? Culturally and historically Allah has been used by Christian in Malaysia as the Malay translation for God for decades. It is also the case in Indonesia, the country with the highest Muslim population.

The Home Ministry’s reason for doing so was that the use of Allah by the Christians would ‘confuse’ the Muslim. But was there any actual complains, any police report, that anybody actually got confused, mislead, tricked, duped or deceived by this particular translation of God? Was there any evidence of Muslim got converted to Christian because of it?

Should we investigate the validity of the claims by the Home Ministry before we start throwing daggers and shooting machine guns at each other? I have been patiently monitoring the development of this saga, and as far as I can tell, there is no evidence whatsoever of this claim. Despite the highly emotional and explosive rhetoric by various ‘authorities’, I have not seen anybody producing a single piece of evidence to substantiate this particular claim by the Home Ministry.

Of course now that I have raised the question, the 'authorities' can always fabricate all sorts of 'evidences' to substantiate this particular claim by the Home Ministry.

In other words, this is a completely non-issue. But yet certain parties are already threatening to detonate nuclear bombs on each other. Do you see how absurd this situation is? I have patiently waited until the point of views of the various parties has more or less completely surfaced before writing this article, so that the reader can see how ridiculous this whole saga is.

Ok, the nuclear bomb is only a figure a speech. We are not really about to spill blood over this non-issue. I don’t think Malaysians are so crazy yet. But look at how the politicians, almost exclusively from Barisan Nasional, and state owned media is playing up the public emotion over this.

What is the true motive of the Barisan Nasional government in stirring up public emotions over a non-issue? This is the million dollar question.

Now I got your attention. Don’t you feel ridiculous that Malaysian are spending so much time and energy over a non-issue while the whole country is plaque with political/economic instabilities and engulfed in scandals of epic proportions?

Do I need to remind you the twelve billion ringgit PKFZ fiasco, the missing Jet Engines and whatnots from Royal Air Force of Malaysia, the special task force and body guard of the (then) Defense Minister implicated in murder with military C4 explosives, Sodomy II, constitution crisis in Perak,…

How about the GST, the declining economy, declining competitiveness, depleting oil reserve, depleting natural resources, raising prices of sugar, flour, petrol, …
Have you wondered how we are going to pull through all these? Have you wondered whether the Barisan Nasional government is able to lead us out of this quicksand? Why did the Home Ministry stirred up such explosive racial tensions over a non-issue while ignoring the real issues under its jurisdiction like police corruption, police brutality and sky rocketed crime rate?

You see, if you ask the right question the answer stares right at you face. I don’t want to elaborate further here least I got haul up with sedation charges. But I trust that you know what I mean.

Cool it, my Muslim and Christian brothers and sisters. Please ignore the unscrupulous bigots and politicians and recognize that this is a non-issue. Malaysia is in real crisis. Let's not fool ourselves. Our quality of life has degraded tremendously over the recent years. We will continue in this free fall unless we learn to cooperate and work together regardless of race and religion.