Another Brick in the Wall

TV3 News yesterday evening gave coverage to a press conference by Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin after chairing the Cabinet Committee on Foreign Workers and Illegal Immigrants’ in Putrajaya yesterday. He announced the ban on foreign workers in fast-food outlets.

Having expressed our view [read back here] to limit the opening hours for mamak shops to reduce dependence on foreign labours, the news was of particular interest to us. Muhyiddin should insist on mamak shops be included as fast food outlets.

These Indian nationals have made tons of money by exploiting cheap Indian national workers, contributed to foreign exchange outflow for too damn long and lead to unfair competition to other local truly Malaysian food outlets. Not to mention, the social problem created by the social change brought by these mamak eatery shops.

With too many neo-liberal policies from Putrajaya, which is reversing nation building, this policy announcement is a gasp of fresh air. There must be more serious effort to insist on keeping Malaysian jobs for Malaysians.

For that matter, include also home, properties and subsidies.

Ban

Although it was relevant news, only the following NST report is found on google at Malaysian Digest:

Foreign Worker Ban In Fast-Food Outlets

PUTRAJAYA: AS the number of locals interested in working in the fast-food industry picks up, foreign workers are relegated to other sectors.

For this reason, the Cabinet Committee on Foreign Workers and Illegal Immigrants agreed yesterday that all fast-food and similar concept restaurants must give priority to hire locals.

"The operators are not allowed to hire foreign workers because many locals are keen to work in fast-food restaurants.

"The growing interest among local job-seekers can be attributed to the less demanding cooking skills needed in fast-food outlets.

"The skills needed in these outlets can be learnt," said the committee in a statement issued after its meeting chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin yesterday.

In this respect, the jobs at such outlets had attracted many locals, including youths, school-leavers and university students, who wanted to earn extra pocket money and gain work experiences, either as part-time or full-time employees.

Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry's communication unit had defined a fast-food outlet as a business facility preparing fast-food services, such as McDonald's, Burger King and KFC. This classification does not apply to food-and-beverage outlets that hired waitresses, such as Kopitiam or Starbucks.

On Dec 27, 2011, the government had announced that it would allow foreign workers to be employed as croupiers, newspaper vendors, grass-cutters as well as house and vehicle cleaners.

They could also be employed by workshops. They are also allowed to work in mining/quarrying, mangrove-logging, food beverage businesses and fast-food sector.

The sub-sectors relaxed for their employment are scrap metal, cargo-handling, welfare home, spa/reflexology, hotel, golf caddy, laundry, barber, goldsmith, wholesale as well as retail and textile business.

The committee had also decided to extend the Bangladesh government-to-government mechanism to be used by the Sarawak government to fill the vacancies in the palm oil sector.

"The decision is based on the positive impact when the mechanism was executed in Peninsular Malaysia.

"It is capable of overcoming issues in hiring foreign workers, including in their entry method, security and health screening between both nations," it added.

The committee urged employers who had claimed that they were cheated by agents and middlemen during the recent 6P programme to come forward to the Home Ministry's one-stop centre.

New Straits Times taken from Malaysian Digest

'Tin kosong'

Birthday bash: Who paid?

The last part of the report was rather discomforting.

In August last year, prior to the UMNO party election, Home Minister, Dato Ahmad Zahid Hamidi announced a government to government effort to bring in 1.3 million Bangladeshi workers for the oil palm industry.

He must thank his lucky star because it was party election season and he has got his campaign on the right track. However, his disappearance during New Year's TURUN demonstration, no action on his syiah accusation of Mat Sabu, and his birthday bash last weekend is not endearing him with bloggers.

No more giving 'amaran' but he beginning to be seen as a "Tin Kosong."

Having 1.3 million Bangladeshi is a crazy notion. When it was known that there a million Indonesian. legal and illegal, working in Malaysia, there was alarm of security issue. Now it is 1.3 million Bangla Deshi.

Bangladeshi is not exactly as industrious as Indonesian and not suited for plantation life.

Not exactly blaming it on Zahid, however rumours heard earlier that the number of Bangladeshi workers is actually 2 million and some hanky panky going on.

Hopefully there is genuine attempt to cut out middlemen exploiting these poor workers and treated in such a inhuman working condition as reportedly claimed in this NST report here.

The issue of special IC must be properly explained and not become another source of political spin of Bangladesshi voting in a general election.

Our eyes are on Zahid ever since his Ministry announced that foreigners can work as security guard by merely passing Bahasa Malaysia certificate. [Read here]

It is, as if the Prime Minister aspirant, was insensitive to the family of late Ambank officer, Norazita Abu Talib and had forgotten that there was statement emanating from his Ministry that other than Gurkhas, no foreigners are supposed to be security guards.

The root of the murder allegedly lies in the problems created by GLC owned Banks and Muhyiddin's Ministry of Education. [Read here.]

In-coherent

The manner the private sector are hiring foreigners, from the fields to the cushy CEO offices, seemed to indicate a chaotic and incoherent policy.

Since the leadership is aspiring for a New Economic Model and high income economy, the country is supposed to move up the value chain, industries and businessman investing in machineries, equipment and improve processes to increase productivity per worker.

An epitiary (hopefully the right term) production outfit only need 20 trained staff to run a factory in Singapore. That should be the way to get Malaysians to be interested in manufacturing, agriculture and etc.

But the feudel thinking chap ayam politicians goes around saying Malaysian are pampered and lazy.

Instead, the country is still in a mental time warp for cheap labour production by bringing in foreign workers.

This is third world chinky and chinky copycat business model based on exploitation, tax evasion, cheating, and underworld money laundering. [Read back "Crime pays"here.]

Government should be more thorough on the cost and benefit of foreign labour in each sector.

The mamak shop and the likes are fine example in the abuse of foreign labours that does not serve to add more to economic productivity of the country. The cheap labour models allows them to sprout all over the place, compete to make rental high and rake in money like water with long hours, high volume and high margin.

As we had argued before 24 hour opening are not productive social habit to the population. No major cities of developed nations have shops open to late 11 PM and eateries go 24 hours. No labour supply can sustain such economic activities but through importing of foreign labour.

Foreign labour is unfair to the local labour market due to two tier wages and racial discrimination.

Employers must learn from developed nation to harness and cater to untapped labour and expertise from part-timers, students and mothers returning to the employment market.

At the other end of the pay scale, it is puzzling to see the type of foreigners being roped into GLC and corporate top management.

We tend to take in rejects and failures and shower them with high pay, perks and expatriate lifestyle just because they are "orang putih" and speaks English with slangs the bosses are hoping to be able to emulate. Fine example is the 'orang putih kulit gelap' former MAS Chairman Tan Sri Munir Majid.

They are usually the unemployable in their own home market or unqualified. In other words, 'dah tak laku'.

There must be a sincere assessment on the added value of these overpaid "orang putih" and their so-called expertise.

In a case, a friend told us that he did work for McKinsey & Co for RM20,000, yes the PEMANDU consultant, and he found out that the same work was merely given a touch-up, some powerful powerpoint prresentations and paid RM100,000 by Dato Omar Ong and Dato Idris Jala's PEMANDU.

During Idris Jala's stinct and Munir's chairmanship at MAS, they brought in three "orang putih" which till today were laughing stock of the staff.

The "orang putih" slang only fooled the colonised mind of Board of Directors (including Munir and San Francisco bound Idris) and politicians but not the technical and managerial staff aware of the shortcoming and act put up by these "orang putih."

"Orang putih" description should not be limited to Eurpoeans, Americans and Oceanics but colonised minded Malaysians to over awed with Mat Salleh and their ideas that they could not differentiate between the leaves and trees. PEMANDU and the neoliberals fit in that description.

For more than 55 years, Malaysia is an independent nation. Our psyche is so f#ck@d up colonised that we are proud whenever to get praises from World Bank and IMF.

Our Whass App groups was buzzing all morning on talks that two Ministers will tender their resignation and the announcement be made on Monday.

Two names were widely bandied around. One is the Minister for Domestic Trade and Consumer Affair, Dato Hasan Malek.

He came under fire from bloggers and social media ever since he made the comment to switch to other food when chicken prices spiked.

He became known as Menteri Chap Ayam and a photoshop version of a Chap Ayam sardine had his face replacing the sardine picture.

Ever since he has been under close scrutiny.

That comment profilerated into many versions of the same joke.

One cartoon in a mainstream newspaper recently shows a schoolboy complaining of expensive canteen food. The canteen operator suggested he go to another school canteen.

Hasam Malek comes from Kuala Pilah, Negeri Sembilan. The frank, straightforward and rhyming nature of the Negeri Sembilan dilect adds a touch of comedy to their spoken words.

In the midst of his comedic popularity, Hasan Malek was invited to appear in a TV show. He should have been advised by his press secretary not to accept it. Not knowing any better or the natural affinity for politicians to want public attention, Hasan Malek appeared on Maharaja Lawak.

Maybe by the time he realised he was on a comedy show, it was too late. It only enhance his comedic image.

Then came the price rise and nearing the TURUN new year protest, Hasan Malek was reported to have said that there is no complain to the price rise because his received Ministry received no complains.

Not quite a clever remark.

He does not realise that his Ministry is seen as ineffective in controlling the indiscriminate price hike by scrupulous retailers and wholesalers that filing a complaint is commonly viewed futile.

Few days ago, Hasan Malek said his Ministry will established a PEMIKIR group to synergise and develop new ideas to help the Ministry function effectively.

When the public is critical of PEMANDU and their exorbitant lab and consultancy bills, it was raining criticism. That statement is an insult because it means the top civil servants in the Ministry could not synergise and think that it need outside help.

It is repeatedly displaying Hasan Malek as a verbally incompetent Minister. Could a politician be so?

The problem so far, the Ministry looks like not to be monitoring the blog and social media comments on the Minister and gauging public perception of himself. There have been no correction or explanation coming from him or his officers for his comedic comments.

This morning, the following was circulating:

Our Whass App groups wished it was him.

Then came a denial reported in BNBBC website here.

When it comes to his position as Minister, Najib's man, Hasan Malek is pretty damn fast to reply or deny. If his willing to kiss the Prime Minister's hand like a serf to his lord manor, he must be quite sure he is safe.

There is another rumour going around that PM will do a cabinet reshuffle. Hopefully not.

At the rate Najib kept failing in his appointments, he better not. The bad thing is he could not dismiss any of the incompetent and LGBT ones. He piles up rubbish around him.

Heard Dato Dr Jamaluddin Jarjis is lobbying to be Minister in charge of TERAJU.

Oh boy ...Putting this anak orang Kamping Dulang, Pekan turned feudel Obama Lord of Rompin as Minister for TERAJU, it is no help.

As a Minister for TERAJU, he will turn the Malay and Bumiputera into his Rompin serf of Orang Asli and UMNO supporters. He expect the Malays to wait for him outside his hotel room while he sleeps.

TERAJU will be another JHEOA.

JJ is too arrogant to listen and understand the Malay and Bumiputera grouses and too consume to have things his way. He should not be given Minister status and an office in PM Department. Too much a self serving business opportunist to be involved in public service.

Quite sure he will get someone to call. One can sense it when one get incessantly repeated calls from same unknown numbers.

For JJ to Minister for TERAJU, it means he will be subservient to the Minister for PEMANDU. Interestingly, the other name being bandied around to resign is PEMANDU CEO and failed turnaround manager of MAS, Dato Idris Jala.

His PEMANDU outfit is getting a lot of brickbats from the public.

PEMANDU officers seconded to GLC are involved in corruption and ridiculous schemes. They lack any sense of decorum in dealing with Government and are too proud and brash.

Lab idea is not received well to Government servants. It is not just about turf war but Government data are brazenly laid out to bare and confidential materials are demanded to be revealed to unqualified public.

PEMANDU staff are exorbitantly paid and given too high ranks in the Government structure. Their works are shabby and reckless.

The whole idea of conceiving something within a short time frame of their lab and so-called having all stakeholders involved at one go is ludicrous.

So far Idris Jala has not denied he is resigning.

For quite a while, we have heard of his plans to privatise PEMANDU and become an external consulting group to Government. This is dangerous considering the data and materials in their possession.

Close PEMANDU but no officer should be allowed to take anything out. Every material taken must be recorded and any material used after their PEMANDU days will open them to legal prosecution.

Information just received said PEMANDU have pre-prepared for that eventuality. "They" have rented office space at Mid Valley.

Some PEMANDU officer have spoke openly of it somewhere. Me not telling where.

Idris preaching his ETP nonsence like an evangelical pastor

Not long after Dato Najib took office, he took in the failed Turnaround Manager for MAS, Dato Idris Jala.

Initially, it was thought to appease the Sarawakian before he was given the boot. But no, he was given a prominent role to so-called turnaround the economy with a program called ETP using an outfit called PEMANDU.

Immediately, the Communications graduate from USM masquarading as an oil and gas expert and turnaround specialist did a PR exercise by giving a shock treatment exercise to say government will be bankrupt.

With his expertise acquired from Shell, he displayed a series of presentation to give the simplistic picture of the state of economy.

In his presentation, he displayed this cluster graph typical of Boston Consulting Group:

Using the graph, he moved on to say that the solution is to:

In which he later presented various ideas like NKRA, NKEAs and EPPs.

However, back then when we heard his presentation, we were sceptical because the man couldn't turnaround the revenue of MAS and lied in his last announced profit results.

His idea of turnaround at Shell Bintulu is only the textbook approach of retrenching staff in the thousand without thoroughly understanding the process flow and business issues.

Now it was revealed that Idris Jala is not trained in economics or business but his first degree at USM was communication, thus the label of chief powerpoint officer of PEMANDU.

There were few major flaws in NKRA, NKEA and EPP together with the high income economy he was developing.

By the way, the New Economic Model was about improving efficiency in output in our economic activities. But, not the ludicrous idea of making income as an exogeneous variable to endogenoeus variable of economic activities and GDP.

Let's leave aside this part. It is too academic and heavy to debunk Idris simplistic world socio-economic order but go into another of Idris's simplistic solution.

To do that he proposed the neo-liberal proposal as whispered into PM's ears by Dato Omar Ong.

The idea of going aggresively into the neoliberal proposal of rationalisation of subsidy originated from them. It is not so much of Husni as we had criticised before.

When Husni met the press to brief them of an impending fuel hike on the ground of rationalisation of subsidy, one excuse he used was to direct wasteful and unproductive subsidy spending to more productive development spending.

It sounds logical to prioritise to building more roads in Sabah, and schools in the interior of Sarawak.

Perhaps, issuing the 5th telecommunication lesson with ready business from Ministry of Education when existing infrastruture already exist and only needs upgrading for less amount is part of it. Off course not, it is just us being cynical to Gelagat Anwar blog that is getting ridiculous with the spinned accusation by the day.

It is great that Bigdog highlighted here that the government's operating expenditure is more than 80% of budget.

What this implies is that government has not been channeling money to development but taking the neoliberal privatisation model which conveniently used PFI with funding from EPF and raised borrowing using government guarantee.

No wonder Idris claimed government was borrowing too much.

Idris conveniently did not raise about government's bloated OPEX. But merely zeroed in on the annual subsidy bill of about RM40 billion currently which takes up about 16% of our RM264 billion budget for 2014.

He wanted to sing the blues but the rakyat will be the one to feel the blues.

Whilst, Idris carries on to champion a pro-corporate and pro-MNC economic model which include championing for TPPA. The Malay usually call such people of humble begnning as orang tak sedar asal usul (someone with no conscience of his roots and beginning).

This messed up financial position of government must have been inherited by Najib from Pak Lah's days, but Najib will get the blame.

However Najib is not doing much to address it.

The rakyat could see that Najib announced the asuterity drive in a hurry because tun Dr Mahathir wrote something. This blog had wrote about it since September and October even listing 60 measures to cut wastages and corruption.

The 11 austerity drive is a lame effort and obviously is not thought through. Immediately upon his announcement, our economic Whasapp group was laughing their head off.

Based on budget of about RM200 billion, the austerity drive was estimated to reduce expenditure by 2%. But at RM264 billion for 2014, it is hardly a dent. Not to mention the unrealistic nature of certain measures.

Yet one PMO press officer was going around sending messages to give the 10 day old austerity measures a chance. Did this guy finished his degree before becoming a reporter?

Najib may have inherited this mess but he just made himself in a deeper mess with the jet issue.

No amount of explanation by Dato Shahidan or PMO press release or a character atttack on Dato Kadir Jasin can help the public perception building up that Najib is wasteful and oppulent in his spending of public money.

If bloggers have been skirting the blame to the Punahsihat, how much longer can they do so when Najib is insistent on keeping them all. Din Turtle has an article here posted yesterday.

Recently, Turkey Prime Minister came in the Turkish national airline.

Bigdog highlighted Birish Prime Minister travelling on Virgin Air. Was informed by a walking encyclopaedia aviationist that only the Queen has a private jet albeit a small one and she owns it. [Read Bigdog's series on the private jet issues here, here, here, here and here]

This blog did not criticise Datin Seri Rosmah for use of government jet when the debacle arise. Unless someone allowed and Shahidan claimed it is cabinet approval, why blame her?

She has no power and authority.

This time around no excuses or explanation can convince the rakyat for the fleet of 7 private jet, maintenance bill of RM188 million, use of a luxurious leased replacement for the under repair plane, and not to mention the millions travelling expenses to bring the 20-30 people entourage from PMO at every overseas trip.

Some does not have any purpose or role or even take notes or prepare reports for such trip but merely joy ride.

No answer will be acceptable to the rakyat whose got their purchasing power diminished by 20-30%.

For that matter, publish a picture of Kadir Jasin naked with his alleged mistresses and his bank accounts for that matter. Learn from the Anwar experiance. His message to question wastages is valid and public will accept.

Malaysia is rich as Tun Dr Mahathir said sceptically but we cannot be wasteful. Reiterating our earlier exertion in a past posting.

Overheard Tamrin Ghaffar chatting recently at a restaurant on the PM's official residence utility bill.

The annual electrcity bill is RM2.2 million, and water is RM330,000, which comes out to slighty more than about RM200,000 a month. He claimed that Zoo Negara with all the tiger, elephant and badak sumbu has only a water bill of RM10,000 a month.

So he continues, whose the badak sumbu at the PM's official residence that is using up so much water?

The 11 austerity drive was obviously a rush job to answer to Tun Dr Mahathir's blog post [read here].

It shows a Government that is beginning to show they think they know everything but could not think of something so basic. When suggested, they have an obtuse attitude and ignored it?

Upon the announcement, a former Statistics Department boss and an economics minded Engineer in our Whass App group notice the austerity drive hardly saved any more than 2%. Then, everyone of us realised that wasteful PEMANDU remained untouched.

Dato Najib was reported by NST to say Malaysia cannot afford to derail from transformation agenda. It shows he is still plain stubborn and insistent on using the wasteful PEMANDU-like consultant approach. [Read NST here]

Wasteful

Former JPA scholar and now with PEMANDU, blogger Goh Wei Liang tried to explain PEMANDU side of the story in September [read here]. Commendable effort to defend his employer but ensuing news reports only proves PEMANDU is wasteful spending which should get the axe immediately.

For one, PEMANDU had went beyond their term of reference as highlighted by Goh when Dato Idris was assigned to solve the kalimah Allah issue with East Malaysian. There is more on that issue but let's leave it at that.

Secondly, PEMANDU are doing work beyond their area of expertise and term of reference. No need to elaborate further. TST ... tahu sama tahu.

Lastly, even how Goh tried to explain, PEMANDU is an "outside consultant" incorporated into the government structure.

Using Goh's Opex figures, it is still an additional RM139.3 million of wasteful spending on consultancy when there are EPU and other existing Ministries and agencies already in place and with in-house expertise in their areas of specialisation.

PEMANDU are being paid exorbitant salaries [read The Malay Mail Online here] and yet money is spend on consultants and Government insist in keeping the allegedly bloated civil service. [Read The Malay Mail Online here.]

Goh claimed the RM139.3 million include consulting fee but in a The Sun report [read here], Idris revealed that the budget for PEMANDU was RM729 million. "Kementeriaan Idris Jala" has a budget allocation of RM12 billion.

Another point Outsyed the Box raised back in October 2013 was that government budget increased by mere 11.5% but Prime Minister's Department budget "meletup" by 13%. [Read his comments here]

Opposition will have a field day to say that the rakyat's subsidy is being slashed for this failed turnaround manager with a degree in communications to spend and enjoy himself.

Predictable

Most of what PEMANDU does was to tell the time from their watches but in a so-called new ways but still the same time.

Worse still, without any understanding on how organisations operates, they insist the time to be read their way and change be done as though it is as simple as raising their hand to read the watch.

PEMANDU is not merely just a monitoring and performance enhancement agency but is doing everything Dato Najib likes them to do including solve the kalimah Allah issue with east Malaysian before the election.

It has become a behemoth megalomaniac of power and greed without any sense of preportion and protocal. Husin Lempoyang and Bigdog could be just kidding about Kangkung but that is the predictability of PEMANDU and Government's operation.

PEMANDU people are being "parked" in all GLCs and Government agencies. These young punk Cinabeng, Marimutu and Melayu Liberal are flexing their power to be corrupt and taking opportunity out of their position.

An example, Dr Emir Mavani is getting income by sitting on the board of seven private companies as pointed out by Dr Ong Kian Meng [read The Malay Mail Online here] and taking the discount from selling oil pam to China pig rearing company.

By now it is already news that FGV is embarassingly suing United Pontian Plantation. Kena tipu by DAP.

More on consultants....

Corruption conduit

In November, Najib answered in Parliament to say that government spent RM7.2 billion for consultancy for 2009-2013. [read The Malay Mail Online here]

He explained that it included necessary consultants, architects, valuers etc in construction and development.

It should help downplay the amount being paid to foreign consultants. By right, this should not be included.

For that cheap trick of covering up, we are exposing something suspicious and hanky panky going. Hope MACC and Task Force should read this.

The biggest item in construction is the new extension of PUTRA train extension project which cost RM35 billion. Obviously, the design, and related planning work involves outside consultants.

For train projects, our insider which was involved said there is supposed to be a checking consultant hired. A consultant to check on another consultant. Would a lawyer or accountant squell on another fellow lawyer or accountant?

But that is the practise so live with that.

One checking consultant is HSSI, which is infamous among the construction industry players as allegedly the conduit for corruption and commission taking. To some, HSSI means Hanya Sama Sikh dan India to describe the sub-continental flavour of the company.

HSSI allegedly gets paid 2% of project size which is over the regular rate of 0.5% or a sliding scale as a project gets bigger. To add to that, they are being paid upfront of RM150 or other source say RM120 million.

Stubborn

Don't question my Omar Kangk-Ong

Not only is PEMANDU getting a budget or in control of RM12 billion of budget and consultants are conduit for corruption or so-called political fund which does not necessarily reach the political parties, the major point is Najib does not intend to stop.

In Britain, Whitehall is under scrutiny for spending more than £500 million on consultancy. [Read BBBC News dated August 13 2013 here.]

While in the Eire Republic, Irish Water is being queried by the Public Accounts Committee for spending €50m spent on consultancy fees. [Read Evening Echo January 10 report here.]

In Malaysia, there are too many runaway gravy trains in government, agencies and GLCs spending wasteful consultancy fees but with no purposeful existence and genuine accountability. Many unnecessary agencies and government outfit like EPU's implementation arm, Talentcorp and many more are being established which only increase government spending.

Since the existence of consultants, the annual financial reports look nice and very much like corporate annual reports but missing the essential economic data as one former ISIS Director used to complain.

Government are emulating the practise of public companies of not disclosing details and giving cliche press release with hardly any relevant information divulged.

This reminded us to the days of Pak Lah's premiership.

He had used Rancangan Malaysia ke 9 or RMK9 to the hilt to delay party election, political propaganda to redirect all problems and give false hope to rakyat and business community. The public are saying Najib is being another Pak Lah and someone like JJ would try to use the same ploy to save the PM.

For the 11th RMK, will the consultants be the one to prepare?

It would be inconceivable that EPU and the whole government machinery which had successfully drew out some 10 RMK be left and be given to consultants, specifically foreign consultants.

Gloating

Time to gloat.

Back in September when yours truly suggested Dato Husni Hanazlah that government cut leakages in government expenditure due to corruption and wastage, we backed our claim to offered him to provide a list of 100.

He asked to name one and PEMANDU was immediately mentioned. [Read here.]

When Auditor General report was released, we compiled a list of 60 within two hours to prove the point. [Read here.]

Surely government can provide a list of more than 11 major areas for austerity drive. Initially, only 9 areas was proposed but raised to 11 to suit Dato Najib's lucky number.

Unfortunately it was not well received by the public. An officer briefed the Prime Minister and he blindly said it openly that is well received. Looks like another repeat of "Everything is okay, boss" that almost lost his seat in Pekan.

Such officer should be sacked but there are still others going around asking support on the basis of it is only 10 days thus give it a chance. He must be thinking the public is equally as stupid as he is.

Najib must open his eye and not be taken by the comments from novice Ibdillah and always with an ulterior motive Khairy on bloggers.

If a party loyalist like Wan Azri [read here and here] is indirectly questioning the Prime Minister, do admit that he is doing a lot of wrong things that the groundwell is getting frustrated.

There is so many cautions or reminders were told to the PM, but many former leaders, elder politicians and distinguished people have grown frustrated. He just wouldn't listen.

Lucky for us, we have heard some of them grumbled. As one more experienced, they can see the negative impact coming from some of his intended or announced plans. Some see a better way of addressing it.

In this blog, we have raised many issues with regard inflation and other impending problems. Quite sure there are people in the authority are reading and monitoring this blog.

If opposition members of Parliament read and tried to get in touch with us on certain issues, it is only ego that is holding back members of the cabinet or Prime Minister's staff from appreciating the issues raised.

Legacy dream

The "kangkung" predicament the Prime Minister is in now should not be blamed on the market or opposition. He should have anticipated it when he made all his big ideas and transformation plan in to create his legacy.

He should have learn to do his work as a Prime Minister first and understand thoroughly the nature of his work before having such loft idea of a legacy as written by Prof Dato Haji Khairul Anas.

Not sure which University he taught before to earn him instant Professorship. And we are not to comfortable to call him Haji upon knowing his inclination tend to be in sync with COMANGO.

Since it first became economically viable as a nation, Malaysia had survived on an economic model of cheap labour and government suppliment the rakyat's livelihood by keeping inflation low through various means including price control and subsidy.

After a while, it is untenable to maintain the cheap labour model. Thus government wish to embark on a new economic model which essentially was to go for more economically efficient sectors. Planning the change is one thing but managing the change is a bigger task.

Inclusiveness?

New economic model entail three major characteratics i.e. high income, inclusiveness and sustainability. What happened to NEM?

Currently, the government seemed dead set to only pursue for high income. Groups like Perkasa are asking and pursuing as to what happened to inclusiveness?

Why the need to take in Chinese Managers from outside into Petronas just for the sake of taking in Chinese while the Malays already giving long years of dedication to the company are being systematically thrown out?

Where is the inclusiveness when only Chinese dominate the economy while other races are to feed on the bread crumbs?

The state of economy, education, property ownership, and employment of the Malays are in bad shape as so-called laisser faire or market economy, reverse discrimination, no political will on the government and power at be, and opportunism including organised crime are marginalising the majority of the population.

While Malay is still taking charge of government, they are being systematically discriminated to the interest of capitalism and international MNC interests. Imagine the plight of the minority races and Pribumiof Sabah and Sarawak?

Where is the inclusiveness of the new economy being bandied around as the solution to our economic woes?

Sustainability?

Talk of sustainability, we have reminded of the need to identify new economic sector that will provide leading sector to carry the economy. It is not sustainable to keep relying on domestic spending. Household debt is at a scary height of almost 85%.

Agriculture growth rate is capped by acreage and type of crops. Land is increasingly become scarce.

We talked about services economy and property but on what underlying platform is the economy relying on? See the video below and ask yourself can we be comfortable with financial and financial related services:

It makes no sense for an economic development in which it is to sell these product to foreigners as what is happening rampantly in Iskandar Malaysia, Penang and Klang Valley.

While foreigners investment are welcome with red carpet, property prices sky rocketed to beyond the affordability of the locals or at least the majority of the population. On the other hands, it is puzzling and mind boggling that we week foreigners to but our properties and our investment houses and corporations are channeling money abroad in London properties.

It is pointless to pursue high income when our economic growth is at a paltry 5% for over a decade in which a sharp rise in inflation will wipe out the growth. More so with an economy dependent on domestic spending.

Shocking the System

While it is not realistic to spend some RM45 billion of our budget in subsidy, it is ridiculous and stupid to see that wiping of our budget of subsidy by 2019 as stated by Dato Idris Jala is the answer.

If Idris had learned economics, or at least basic economics, he would have learned that one should avoid trying to creatie shock to the system.

Creating shock is easy in the manner he claimed Malaysia will be bankrupt in 2019 is easy but knowing the extent of it's impact and later addressing it is difficult. The devaluation in ringgit in 1998-200 and the ensuing economic crisis should have openned his eyes and heart.

For us to dream of high income, one should have high growth first before the benefit can be distributed as income.

Creating KPI and all those mumbo jumbo seemed to improve the top lot as their salary spiked into 5 to 6 digits a month, while the lower to middle class has to struggle with the inflationary effect of trying to slash subsidy in one go.

Not only owning basic homes is beginning to be beyond the means of normal Malaysians, living is a struggle to. The middle class may be spending as usual with their credit cards and packing fast food joints, but soon reality will bite.

Now that we just realised that the government budget is 83% opex, not the usual 40:60 proportion of development:management, it shows too much government wastages.

Late than never

After the election manifesto and one after another of price hikes, it is rather late but still cost of living need to be addressed.

Tan Sri Muhyiddin has made an announcement yesterday and all Ministers will go down to the ground to understand the rakyat's problem with the perspective Ministries.

Surely the JPM Minister on Ugama and the Foreign Minister have to be exempted.

It should have been Najib to announce and show he is sincerity but he didn't. Is Najib too afraid of another Kangkung again?

Shouldn't all this be explored and thought through first before embarking on those lofty ideas and policies? Shouldn't the Finance Minister understand all the impact of his policies before embarking on it?

There are many more "I told you" we wish to repeat but this one is important to be repeated.

We have written before that the PM cannot be hold the voluminous task of Prime Minister and Finance Minister. Dato Najib must give away the Finance Minister to a suitable economically trained and knowledgeable in finance and business.

If he continues to be stubborn, he could lose the PM post and his party will not have a replacement for him. He will be remembered as the N in RAHMAN and cursed for making the majority lose the stewardship in a country of their heritage.

If he does not buck and become decisive, some rakyat wants him out in six months. To some it is too late as there will be a system breakdown. For start, listen to right advise and good ideas.

He should have sacked his advisers and incompetent officers after the election but he was too stubborn. If he survived the six months, the challenge is still in winning GE14.

Last week, there was talk of Deputy Minister for Education, YB Kamalanathan being punched.

Our initial reaction was to wonder whether Kamalanathan got himself misquoted and mistakenly committed to say something before knowing the full picture again.

In the heat of the toilet canteen debacle and other mini controversies Kamalanathan had immersed himself into, we never had any doubt of him. He is not someone with bad or racist intentions. Just new to public office.

It seems the punch is real. It missed his face and hit his neck. This time Kamalanathan did not get punched for saying something wrong but for the incompetence of civil servants and their system and attitude of arrogance of an UMNO member.

Arrogance

The matter is simple.

An UMNO youth member in his area was just employed as a teacher but got posted in Johor Baru. That is like what? 5 hours drive from Hulu Selangor.

The chap had his father, a known UMNO member and activist in the area to meet Kamalanathan to seek help for a transfer. As told to us, Kamalanathan said he will try to help.

Naturally and we would do the same, he said and that UMNO member should understand that he has to go through the process as per the system put in place by civil servants. That is how government and companies work but through a set of strictly determined procedures.

It seemed the father could not take the carefully qualified words of Kamalanathan and wanted an absolute guarantee. He became persistent and probably insisted that Kamalanathan helped his son jump the queue.

Malaysians have the tendency to expect their family or friends in high places or wakil rakyat or in Kamalanthan's case, a Deputy Minister to flex their muscle and bypass procedures as practised by civil servants for their benefit.

They refuse to be believe that a Deputy Minister must adhere to procedure. Since Kamalanathan and MIC is a minority and UMNO and Malays holds his political faith in Hulu Selangor, they expect him to abuse his position for their sake.

Those are the days of our father-in-law in which to get an international passport, one need to know and insist on doing it through an orang dalam. Those days are gone and these days it is a simple as going through the queue at the Immigration counter.

Most politicians and wakil rakyat face the daunting dilemma of satisfying expectations of their supporters and party workers and setting the example to adhere to rules and procedures. So they normally try to work up a good relationship to avoid being in that terrible spot.

The UMO youth's father may have got repetitous that Kamalanathan politely asked him to excuse himself so he can attend to other scheduled matters. Some people could be so sensitive to wrongly interpret any tone of seriousness as shooing him away.

It could have been wrongly or simplistically conveyed to the son that he got the impression that Kamalanthan had been rude to his father or had turned arrogant since becoming a Minister. In a meeting with the local UMNO, which the young teacher attended, he tried to take matters in his own hands.

Quite sure many politicians had to face with that difficult situation. Lim Guan Eng is reknown to avoid meeting disgruntled subjects and chicken out from meeting angry constituents. But, he can be a rascal.

When he become brave, he becomes bold to the extent of lying and fabricating accusations. A recent example is how he react to call the Penang opposition in the State Assembly as racist for merely asking if there such plan to turn Pulau Jerjak into an island dedicated to a Chinese diety.

This is not defending a BN Minister. Should it happen to an opposition politician, it cannot be rationally accepted to get physical.

Supposedly the matter between Kamalanathan and the disgruntled party is settled. The young teacher's father had apologised. UMNO Secretary General had wrote an apology to Kamalanthan and a disciplinary enquiry is in the process.

Hopefully it does not stop Kamalanathan from continuing to be an obliging MP.

As far as we see, Kamalanathan had been professional and fair in his conduct. He cannot deny other more deserving teachers the transfer just to appease his political constituency. They too are his constituency of teachers.

It puzzles us as to the moral standing of one undeserving to be addressed as Chegu Bard to see the incident as humourous and something worthy of ridicule:

Is this the behaviour of aspiring future leaders of our country?

Incompetence

Our parents are teachers too.

Mother had always been a teacher in the government school throughout her working life and twice extended as "consulting" teacher till late age of 60. Father was a teacher but later became government servant. In his spare, he still teach classes and kuliah.

Our family had to move twice from our hometown to Johor Baru and after 15 years return back to our hometown. In both the two occasions of transfer, mother could get her transfer in sync with father's own transfer.

This is in the 60s and 70s when there is no computer. Everything is done on paper and typed using manual typewriters. The two transfers could be done seamlessly without a hitch.

Recently a government officer seeked our help to get a transfer for his teacher wife in Kuala Selangor so that she could join him in Kota Kinabalu. He was transfered there from Kelantan to KK.

Since they got married for three years and now have two kids, they have never lived under one roof. She had applied three times and made two appeals to join him in Kelantan but was turned down.

Perhaps Kelantanese have a tendency to prefer to return to their PAS-ruled state than live elsewhere. So she had to compete with the more deserving ones or those longer on the queue. This time around our friend realised that the e-Tukar system shows more than 300 teachers in Sabah applying to return to Semenanjung.

The officer identified few schools in the vicinity of his new assignment are short of teachers. To seal his chances, he asked for our help. We did helped in whatever way we could with the consideration that it must be done in accordance to procedure.

Alas it was rejected again.

So for that UMNO youth member to behave in such manner it is unbecoming of an activist in a political organisation. Compared to that young couple, he only worked for a year. For him to expect that his wishes be met is at his commend, it is unrealistic. Shouldn't he sacrifice himself demi rakyat didahulukan?

Quite sure it happens with other political parties. We are hard and strict with our own children than the children of other families. It applies to the party we support.

If that UMNO youth member bother to find out, there are cases of Indian teachers from Hulu Selangor and presumably MIC members who are working elsewhere. They had to wait for 15 years before their application for transfer is granted.

It is ridiculous to wait that long but that is the way it is. The reason made known to us for the rejection of our friend's wife transfer was because there are 20,000 applications to deal with. But sorry, we cannot buy that.

Don't tell us that the same number of staff and same set of procedures and red tape from the 60s and 70s is still in use. With more schools and teachers and the advent of office automation and computers, the same procedures cannot be in use and end up piling up into 20,000 outstanding cases.

Assuming we are wrong and it is only 2,000, that is still too much cases intentionally delayed or KIV. Ministry Directors, and officers must be too lazy to clear their work. They may have not be bothered to improve and update the system to meet the growing needs.

The civil servants screw it up, Minister get the punch and ruling party (BN or PR) get the blame from voters.

When the government leadership push these civil servants to buck up, they react by voting the other side. It seemed ironical for them to not agree and support the system and policies they are part of.

After getting even with the political master, they are back to their normal complacency and incompetence. Voters throw out the government for the mistake of the civil servants. An example of the sequence of events making a full cycle is in Kedah.

If the Government leadership refuse to repair damage from bad decisions, abolish bad policies and continue with wasteful new establishments like PEMANDU, it is a different issue.

Wishing Kamalanathan and Hindu followers a spiritual Thaipusam.

* Edited 3:40 AM

Pardon us for reminiscing of our days studying in the US.

Back then, we had a bad habit of watching The Tonight Show with the late Johnny Carson. 11 PM Eastern time is break time. Study continues or sleep after the show.

The host, Johnny Carson (and sometimes David Letterman as substitute host) was noted for his jokes on current event. He would make fun of the President and politicians based on recent comments and incidents. And he takes potshot at both sides of the political divide and more.

Such jokes made of politicians and government are so often that politicians from both ruling and opposition party took it in good humour. Even then President, the late Ronald Reagan was never affected by such parody.

The kangkung parody done by the pro-opposition supporters should not have been made too serious by PKR's Penang state assemblymen, Prime Minister and his supporters. Take it in good spirit.

Admittedly the pro-opposition supporters have got him on this one just like the cow scandal of NFC on Dato Shahrizat Jalil. Dato Najib must admit that they have got their message through to the people.

Najib should have been a sport to not be angry or Ayahanda Perdana Menteri akan dijual. Take it in stride and with good humour.

If it is a parody on the PM, PKR's state assemblyman for Penang should have kept it strictly as a parody. Not turn it into an insult and ridicule of the PM. Keep it respectable.

They shouldn't be disrespectful of Royal Prof Ungku Aziz by creating a fake twitter account and attribute a critical poem to him. Quite sure Dato Samad Said knows that is irresponsible.

So the rally in Penang today and press statements by various UMNO groups and leaders have it's basis.

As for Najib, hope he admit that he had 'kangkung'-ed himself by being smitten with the dogmatic and unrealistic thinking of Dato Omar kangk-Ong.

He further confirmed the perception that he is not sufficiently hands on with his flip-flop decisions or not sufficiently firm for being easily threatened by demands from minority groups. The public thinks he is clueless when he spoke of forming a lab to look into people's cost of living after having it as part of his manifesto.

By being angry and hopefully not taken with the kaki bodeks doing the predictable rally of support in Penang, it is not improving confidence in him. Such old school actions only erode the respect and confidence of his leadership into 'kangkung di tepi paya.'

Such non-thinking action and display of anger will be seen as silly.

All he need to do is to get properly respectable and experienced advisers. Stop making more fundamental mistakes to avoid fulfilling the doom prophesies of him.

If Najib is smart and bold, he can use wit and humour to get himself out of it. However, he need to be more genuine in his effort to understand the common rakyat. All he need to be is to be himself and look sincere. He does not need to say he also eats kangkong.

Remember history Dato Seri.

Pak Lah's fall begins the moment he announced that dreadful 78 sen hike in petrol prices. With the significant rise in practically everything at one go, he should anticipate the rakyat's reaction and sentiment when their pocket is compromised.

That is why Ronald Reagan's successor, George Bush said, "The lifestyle of the American people is not negotiable."

If Ronald Reagan is in Najib's shoe, he would just smile and laugh. His reaction would be to say, "That's a good one. Should get a job with Mel Blanc to write scripts."

Then say something humourous like, "I got your message clear. Appreciate that it was only kangkung and not kangkang. Then my political career would be compromised."

Allow the audience to laugh for a while than say "As Prime Minister ..." but pause to allow them to silent.

Then repeat it again.

"As Prime Minister, I have to consider not just the affair of the nation but should have thought about the impact on the people."

No no ... not good. PM should not be too quick to apologise. It shows weakness.

"As Prime Minister, I have to look into all aspects. If we were to spend too much on subsidy, we can run out of money in the long term. Then, all of us will become 'kangung di tepi paya.

"Not just me."

Hopefully the audience laugh.

"We have look into all aspect in the impact of huge subsidy bill.

"PKR's Agenda Malaysia Manifesto did touch on this before they changed it to Buku Jingga."

That throws the book back at them.

"We believe it is within tolerance if we spend wisely.

"We hear the rakyat message and will turun padang to see and hear you all out. We would like to hear your complains and suggestions. We also take cognizance of the view that there are wasteful establishments like PEMANDU, Talentcorp, Teraju, Khazanah, 1MDB, etc.... that should be closed."

We doubt he will admit that he made mistakes with those outfits but he should end at "wasteful establishments" and full stop.

"We seek the people's support, feedback and suggestions on how to address this matter together. On top of that we will refine the high income economy model within the perspective of inclusiveness and sustainability of the New Economic Model that had not be spoken much lately.

"If the Malaysian people have to cutback, all other parties, be they leaders, or government, or GLCs and so forth must be more prudent. They must stop being oppulent and wasteful. Be more effective in their spending. Thank you."

Najib should take in good humour and not get angry or try to be serious in explaining his position. It only take a bit of wit. So don't be stiff.

He does not need thousands to rally to show support. The rakyat would not care and they know it is staged. It only perpetuate the 'kangkung'message.

UMNO members should emphatise with the hardship that rakyat had to undergo than try to win the heart and favour of the PM with such rally.

We know some UMNO do emphatise.

Some UMNO members have been disappointed with PM for his electoral candidate lists, cabinet membership and cai selection for UMNO office bearers. Many UMNO veterans questioned the harphazard ways the country is being governed.

They see every other things are not going right and things are looking chaotic.

At this juncture, UMNO leaders should be selfless and be rakyat didahulukan. Being angry will not help but only worsen things.

Japanese immigration barred entry to Malaysia's opposition leader, Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim at the Tokyo Kansai Airport this morning and had him return back to Kuala Lumpur immediately.

As one backed by the American, he would not have expected a strong American allies like Japan to refuse him entry. Naturally, the American blueboy is fuming mad and one would expect him to blame others but himself.

Below is an image of Anwar's social media posting trying to explain his version of the incidence before it is publicly known and give rise to speculation that will tarnish his reputation:

He is being denied entry by the Japanese authority but why must Foreign Minister Dato Anifah Aman owe him an explaination ?

Does he have a diplomatic passport to provide him immunity from any offense made in the past to disallow him entry?

We were with friends when the news broke to us. One friend speculated that he may have wrongly filled the entry form to state the purpose of entry as "liwat" instead of "lawat". Off course, he was kidding.

Taken that it does not make sense to deny him entry for the 1999 conviction now. Since his release after serving time for the offense of abusing his power, he has entered Japan on three occasions since.

So what is the thing Anwar described as "because of the latest report" possibbly in 2013?

He was acquited from the sodomy charges and will only face the appeal this year. Recently, he ws acquited also from the charge for participating in the illegal assembly Bersih 2.0. It is not likely for any offenses in Malaysia.

So ... what did he do when he last entered Japan in 2012? The Japanese should know better about what happened.

Will Anwar own up to his own misdeed? No ... it is most unlikely to ever happen.

Foreign Minister, Dato Anifah Aman issued a statement to rebut the blame-others-but-himself accusation by Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim for Japanese authority's refusal of entry to him. He denied neither making any report to the Japanese on Anwar nor influenced the Japanese authorities.

Wisma Putra did nothing.

Anifah may have consulted the Japanese because he claimed the Japanese refused his entry on the ground that he is deemed as "undesirable".

For someone with a long series of sexual conquest, on both sides of the gender divide, it must be hurtful on his ego to be described such. Desirous Anwar had alleged to have done a facelift to be desirable, politically.

The NST Online report below:

20 January 2014| last updated at 06:06PM

Anifah: Japan considers Anwar "undesirable"

By Rozanna Latiff and Adrian Lai | news@nst.com.my

KUALA LUMPUR: Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was denied entry into Japan, as he was considered an "undesirable" person under the country's immigration laws.

Foreign Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman said under Japan's Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act, the Japanese government had the right to deny entry to any person that had previously been convicted and imprisoned of any crime in Japan or in any other country.

"The Japanese government can deny entry to anyone who they find undesirable, and they are under no obligation to explain to us further why they have decided to do so," he told a press conference today.

Anifah also denied Anwar's allegation that Wisma Putra had a hand in barring him entry into Japan.

"It's unthinkable... the idea that I might have any influence over what the Japanese government does," he said.

Anwar was stopped by immigration officials from entering Japan after landing at Narita International Airport yesterday morning.

Agenda Daily quoted Anifah's words in Malays to turn the table against Anwar:

"Kalau benar saya boleh halang Anwar masuk Jepun, saya Menteri Luar paling hebat...".

"Mungkin ada kaitan dengan isu dalaman Jepun, seperti undang-undangnya... saya pun tak tahu bila Anwar ke Jepun, daripada saya tulis surat untuk halang Anwar, banyak lagi perkara lain yang saya boleh buat...".

Another news report by The Star here.

Table turning on Anwar

Anifah still sounded fairly diplomatic. Unlike his boss, if Anifah could do it his firm and decisive ways, we believe he would have said something more drastic on "undesirable".

One Japanese source described to us that in the the past, the procedure is for the Kuala Lumpur Japanese Embassy to issue a Visa and a special notice is sent to the Japanese Immigration.

Ever since Malaysians are exempted from applying for Visa in July last year, the power to allow entry lies with Immigration. They may have collected information from publicly available sources, including possibly from the Internet record.

Since Anwar has a criminal record, it is only expected for him to be denied entry. However, let us await official statement from the Japanese Embassy to confirm.

In FMT here, Anwar described the affair as "inconceivable" for "one of the world’s leading democracies to take this unprecedented action." Perhaps so, since Japan is a country rich in culture but is a fairly liberal and free society from the western sense.

Anwar see it as inconceivable for a regular player like himself and playing the field from both end deemed undesirable.

To save him from further embarassment, he had the no shame Latheefa Koya to issue a statement and substantiated with Karpal Singh's. But, it adds to nought because both are playing to a typical Anwar tune of blaming it on Putrajaya and government.

If Anifah is really powerful, he would have banished Anwar from Malaysia and not just deny him entry into Japan.

There could be implication from this incident to be denied entry from an important country like Japan. Imagine him as Prime Minister denied an official visit to Japan. There is political and economic implication there.

Sushi in nori seaweed roll and wasabi

If PKR had much fun with Dato Najib for his kangkung statement, what do we make out of this? Anwar did not make any statement on nori seaweed roll or wasabi, but Anwar's political reputation have been sushi-ed by the Japanese.

State governments of Selangor and Penang and PKR must be thinking of doing a demonstration in front of Japanese MNC owned factories and offices nationwide to protest this embarassment on their Great Leader.

Are we to expect the two states' official Camry cars be sold and replaced by Mercedes similar to Guan Eng's model?

It is always others' faults

After Dato Anifah Aman's explanation, the Japanese Embassy issued a statement. An extract from AFP as found on China Post here reads as follows:

... embassy official Tomoko Nagai said that while Japan last year lifted a requirement that Malaysians obtain visas to enter the country, Anwar is still required to have one due to his past criminal record.

She said Anwar did not apply for a visa, as he had for previous visits.

“Japan could not consider a special arrangement for Anwar since we did not receive any prior application for a visa,” she said.

Anwar could not immediately be reached for comment.

More on it in The Malay Mail Online here.

Anwar made a statement. With the benefit of hindsight (term used merely coincidental), he spin it to blame the Japanese. Never his fault.

The Malay Mail Online reported:

Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said his staff had made the relevant enquiries about his entry requirements to Japan and that they were not told he needed a special visa. — Picture by Choo Choy May

Malaysia

Japan did not inform me of ‘special permission’, says Anwar

By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal
January 21, 2014

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 21 — Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said today he was not informed of the need for “special permission” to visit Japan, after its embassy said this was why the opposition leaders was prevented from entering the country last week.

Anwar added that his staff was also not informed of this requirement when they contacted the embassy here to find out whether he needed to apply for a travel visa, just as they did for his previous visits to Japan.

“Our office inquired about what was needed in order for me to travel to Japan. I was only told I need not apply for a visa, nothing else,” Anwar told The Malay Mail Online in a telephone interview today.

“Previously I only applied for visas, and I had no problems at all. I was there last year,” he added, saying he was “shocked” when he was denied entry to the country upon landing at Narita international airport.

Read further in Malay Mail Online here.

Since the new ruling is already in place in June last year, it is unbelievable for the Japanese Embassy to not know or was still confused with the new ruling for ex-convict like Anwar.

The excuse from Anwar must have came late after all information are already in thus it enabled him to craft a good excuse and spin.

Shamsul Iskandar calling friends to attend and back-up his 12 people boycott Japan rally

Otherwise, AMK Youth Leader, Shamsul Iskandar would have mentioned it in his memorandum submitted to the Japanese Embassy earlier yesterday during the rally to boycott Japanese good.

His memorandum merely mentioned of the human rights to travel between state as stated in article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Same line as Karpal Singh and Latheefa Koya.

Read in FMT here.

It is hilarious to see Sam calling for the boycott of Japanese product.

In our previous posting here, we mentioned of Latheefa Koya and Karpal Singh making a fool of themselves for the incident being kid around as Anwar mistakenly filling in "meliwat" instead of "melawat" in the entry form for purpose of entry.

Lim Kit Siang also made a fool of himself to call on Japan to make an apology for the snub on Anwar. However he put the responsibility of Putrajaya to make such demand. [Read Malay Mail Online here.]

Still a cheap spin to past the buck to Putrajaya. Only the gullible and young buy-in to such shallow propaganda trick which could be made use further to blame on Putrajaya.

Still the biggest idiot must be DAP's Nga Kor Meng:

The fact to the matter, Anwar owes an apology to the Japanese as mentioned by Dato Hamzah Zainuddin and Dato Zulkifli Nordin. [Read Utusan Malaysia here]

That Anwar will never do especially after he has spin it to blame the Japanese.

He does not have power in his hands and yet he can never be truthful, honest and righteous. Imagine when he is PM, will he bother to listen? Will he be someone responsible who owns up to his words and commitment?

Commitment is another difficult area for Anwar to walk the talk.

For those that was around and still remember his days as Minister, they know he can talk but when it comes to working, he is still a bigger kangkung who plants he roots by any longkang and nside any kangkang .

At least, Dato Najib still listen. He only forgets and need to be reminded and threatened, at times loudly.

Update: 10:30 PM

In the latest development, Anwar confirmed he is neither blaming Putrajaya nor Wisma Putra. So who is he blaming? Surely not himself.

Hear his PC below:

To unspin Anwar, he is not a political detainee but convicted for abuse of power and sodomy.

If he did not accused Putrajaya or Wisma Putera, who does he meant as "hidden hands"? His only mortal enemy is the government, the Barisan Nasional government. Neither the Japanese nor the western power.

Anwar was reported by The Malay Mail to have asked his staff to clarify on the visa requirement. It is him admitting that he knows about the procedure before. So why raise about human rights and claim of being accepted as a political detainee in other countries?

The embassy have returned back to his office to know when did his staff and whom did they contacted as to enquire about the new rule. Anwar's replied to say he is not pursuing the matter any further. Does he?

Knowing the Japanese as being efficient and able to determine whether his office staff actually did enquired with embassy, Anwar is avoiding the embarassment of being caught lying.

Always the liar.

During the general election campaign in May last year, a blogger up north revealed a blurred video of Nurul Izzah in a past fling with her former lecturer. [Read this blog commentary here and various links]

The dude must be a political novice.

He failed to read that the Dato Mustapha Ali's sex video expose did not get the desired impact. Public had to much sexual exposes. What more a blurred video that did not convincingly identified Nurul. Only those in-the-know knew it was genuine.

Applying her genetically inherited deft political touch, Nurul appeared at Lembah Pantai in crocodile tears. She got the sympathy to swing the undecided votes her way. Raja Nong Chik looked a villain in which she was no victim when she made the terrible slander of corruption.

The Star and Agendadaily revealed yesterday of Nurul Izzah's application for divorce at the syariah court yesterday. The innocent looking compulsive liar denied in her twitter reply and to The Malay Mail Online. In Malaysiakini, she said as though she and husband are trying to workout their marriage.

This is a private matter but for lying, no amount of cutie tears will save her this time. For what PKR leaders done to others, blogger Flying Kick here see it as necessary tic-for-tac. This crocodile is for skinning.

Lied

Blogger Pena Minang revealed in their blog the following public documents:

It is just typical of Nurul who not only inherit the political deft touch of his father but also the bad habit of lying.

Husband and Nurul putting up an act

It is partly the long years of sympathy for this child fighting for her father's release from prison. Nurul has a fair complexion, which may have come from her mother's believed to be Korean gene, that made her attractive to the public.

She have been parading herself with the image of a young mother.

It gave Nurul the opportunity to get away with false accusations and bizarre slanders like Kedai 1Malaysia, Tawau radar system, airport maintenance contract, submarine, special branch and not the last, corruption allegation made against Raja Nong Chik.

Public figure

If Dato Chua Soi Lek can gentlemenly come out in the open and admit to his video philandering and honourably resign, Nurul should not lie and beat about the bush on her failing marriage. She should just admit it and hopefully, the public would leave her alone.

As a public figure and an MP, it is not her to determine what is private and public but her supporters and adoring fans. Now that she lied, she is game animal to be hunted.

Husband still gave face to wife in last election

In December last year, one blog named Selangor Chronicle here had wrote of a MP was having an extramarital affair. However, the article had intentionally or unintentionally wrote that the affair is with another MP.

Nevertheless, the commentators could guess and may have heard the same rumour. Probably, the commentators may have read a May 2012 posting by The Unspinners here suspicious of the closeness of Nurul and Tian Chua.

The blog was commenting on Raja Petra's expose of Tian Chua impregnating the daughter of an opposition leader. They revealed Nurul's marriage was already rocky.

In December, the same blog was playing up the story by Selangor Chronicles but still no names mentioned. [Read here and here]

Whether it is Tian Chua or not, it is not confirmed and does not matter now.

When the blogs were playing up the story, one blogger APA posted an interesting posting of an Indonesian by the name of Anas Alam Faizil. No relation to Professor Datuk Haji Khairul "Anus".[Read here]

Does he look the same as this dude below?

As told to us by a source, he had accompanied Nurul to Japan and abroad several times with the knowledge of her family but kept a family secret. Yes, Japan.

Anwar and his family has lots of secrets which is too bizarre to be told and will never be believed by the public. This is one.

APA's info and ours has similarity.

Anas is a Jakarta born Malaysian and in his early 30s. He is an upstream oil and gas project management professional and currently pursuing a doctoral degree.

He is the founding CEO of Teach for the Needs (TFTN), and co-founder of BLINDSPOT and Bantah TPPA. Nurul attended and spoke at several Bantah TPPA event.

He enjoys travelling, obviously.

A passionate reader of history, philosophy, politics, economics and thought. Interest in socio-economic issues including education, poverty and public policy with an emphasis on efficient use of petroleum resources, inequality, and inclusiveness.

That is a trophy and ideal husband for aspiring politicians like Nurul.

Condemned

Nurul and her husband at the last Raya open house in her 'kawasan'

There is a hadith that says that a woman who seeks divorce will never "smell heaven".

Maybe Nurul is not a conventional woman and Islam liberal and plural since she believes in giving priority to the right of Muslim to convert out of Islam than safeguard a Muslim brother or sister's akidah. She is not likely to believe in such hadith.

However, Muslims at large believed that divorce is halal act cursed by Allah. A high number of her constituents are Muslims.

Her service record is pathetic but she managed to get around come election by parading herself as a young mother and daughter victimised allegedly by political prosecution. While at the same time, she employ aggressive campaign tactics like sabotaging a low cost housing programs for the poor.

No more same trick

Nurul studied Chemical Engineering before switching to Electrical Engineering. Did she met Anas in Chem. Engine. class?

How will it look on her to be out there as a politician allowed on her husband's pemission but took opportunity philandering with other man?

For trying to lie her way, Nurul has to answer or get kangkung-ed for her philandering.

Since getting kangkung-ed by pro-Pakatan Rakyat's cybertroopers, Anwar's denial of entry into Japan hogs the Internet.

To return the favour, pro-UMNO cybertroopers churned out their version of kangkung style animations using Japanese TV characters cartoon Doraemon and superhero ultraman.

It is no God's blessing yet but a relief till the price hike problem is addressed convincingly. The one Dato Najib need to convince is the public and not what the "penerangan" people or cybertroopers. Najib has to have deliverables and not cliche like "kangkung pun turun harga."

The archaic "Rais Yatim" ways of communication by "penerangan" hardly convinced the more learned public these days.

Cybertroopers is best on the attack then on the defense. They should seize it and let UMNO fend for themselves. After all, it is Azmin through The Star that did this number on Nurul. Furthermore, it is public document.

Regina Lee did a manouvre on the Allah name issue through her boss, Khairy Jamaluddin to put the issue back into play.

Perkasa's Secretary General, Tuan Syed Hasan Syed Ali ticked off Khairy for meddling in area outside his purview. [MI reported here] He reminded the Pemuda UMNO Chief that he showed more concern for the torched chapel in Kuala Lumour than masjids and suraus desecrated by pig's head and content.

He rebuke Khairy's claim that the Allah issue is resolve. To refresh the memory of many, Syed Hasan vehemently opposed to the 10-point solution initiated or perhaps instructed by PM upon Dato Idris Jala to the point of threatening to withdraw his membership from UMNO.

It is unimaginable that a communications graduate of USM that passed off as an oil and gas man, airline turnaround and now a mouse trying to repair a pumpkin as in the government was assigned o address a social dispute.

A little bird alerted that the comments by Khairy was at the initiative of his press secretary, Regina Lee. She manouvred to leak a sensitive information still at cabinet discussion.

After speaking at the 16th Malaysia Strategic Outlook Conference 2014 in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, a reporter from The Star asked for Khairy view on the currently quiet issue on the use of Allah by churches.

Conveniently, Regina's husband, Teh Eng Hock wrote three reports for The Star. He broke "Khairy: Seizure of bibles by Jais is a state issue" and "Explain 10-point solution in detail, Selangor state councillor tells Putrajaya" for Thursday and "Cabinet decides that seizure of Bibles by Jais a state issue" for Friday publication.

That sets off a string of other reports on the same storyline by other media on and off-line. See google here.

It is obvious that Regina knew of the cabinet discussion on the Allah issue and tipped off the husband that cabinet wanted to stick to the 10-point agreement made by Idris Jala. The little bird information indicate Regina Lee has an ulterior motive and interest to reheat the issue.

There may have been discussion mentioning that Islamic matters is the purview of the state but not necessary to pass the buck back to the state religious authority which is within the control of the evangelist backed DAP and Melayu liberal of PAS and PKR.

However, Khairy justified by saying the 10 point agreement cannot supersede state law. He did not realise that Regina had manipulated his nature to seek attention and bask in glory to her cause.

There should be reason why there is no official announcement coming yet. Khairy simply bypass the PM for his selfish interest.

Syed Hassan was justified to tick off Khairy for meddling in the affair of other Ministry and in this case, the issue is under the jurisdiction of the Prime Minister's Department.

Khairy should stick to answering why our sepak takraw team lost to Vietnam and South Korea?

It is the purview of Dato Najib or Dato Gen (R) Jamil Khir to speak with authority on the issue.

Even Dato Subramaniam strangely acknowledged it when for some unexplained reason he too wanted to be the spokesman on Allah issue.

If cabinet intend to stick to the 10-point agreement, it would seem cabinet succumbed to the church argument to use the 10 point agreement as their basis.

The church had initially claimed the seized bible was meant for Sabah and Sarawak. It had the name of Allah used, thus state law and court order supersede the 10 point agreement. See the seized bible below:

In the heat of issue on the seizure of bibles by JAIS and Dato' Marina Mahathir's support, the Christian grew bolder to insist on distributing the Malay bibles with Allah name in Selangor too.

However, there was few problems with Idris Jala's brokered agreement.

The letter was sloppy written with the reference of PEMANDU and Najib's name was merely written as Dato Sri Najib. Totally unbecoming of someone with corporate CEO experiance and degree in communications.

The letter basically allowed for Bibles in Malay to be used, printed and distributed all over Malaysia. However there is a limitation in which Bible in Malay or other native language using Allah as God will be subjected to court order and religious state laws.

Najib may have not properly read the letter and understood the implication of Idris Jala's drafted letter. It did not mention Malay bible is only restricted for Sabah and Sarawak or Allah name be allowed in Sabah and Sarawak.

Idris Jala had insidiously kept it silent and Najib "chimply" signed.

Few had complimented Khairy for mentioning that the 10 point agreement should not supercede state law and court orders but that only came about after much complain and feedback from Muslim NGOs.

One source with a certain religious authority informed that Dato Najib had consulted reknown Islamic scholar, Professor Dato Syed Naguib Al Attas on the Allah issue and he clarified to the Professor that the 10 point agreement should not supercede state religious enactment.

The barring of the use of Allah and 40 other Islamic terms by other religion was passed by the Penang state assembly by Lim Guan Eng-led DAP government in 2010. Yet Guan Eng had instigated the Christians on Christmas Day 2012 on the use of Allah for churches. He is conveniently keeping quiet.

One possible reason Najib did not make any official statement yet is the impending Federal Court appeal by the Christian group and the court date will be on March 5th. Tens of thousand o if not hundred thousand NGO supporters is expected to be at Putrajaya's Court.

Regina's manouvre will incite restlessness on the part of Christians and Muslims. It serve to maintain the momentum of the Allah issue towards the Sarawak state election in which DAP is openly inciting religious sentiment.

They experimented it in the Sibu by-election in 2011. They hope to gaining ground on the Barisan Nasional fortress in the interiors by inciting the Muslims in Peninsular for the Sarawakian Christians to response electorally.

It will put pressure on the Selangor religious authority. JAIS have not bbeen getting the support from the PAS politicians although the PAS exco member on religion had acknowledge that they have done their work accordingly.

The video above explain.

Dr Mahathir was right to wonder as to why do they still do not understand Malay. Allah is not god in Malay but tuhan.

The Indonesian version of the Bible was intentionally translated wrongly to evangelise the Muslims. Contextualisation approach in Indonesia had been a successful formula to convert the Muslim Malays.

For 500 years of European colonisation, they had never been succcessful to evanglelise the Malay. Read Agendadaily here.

The Christian evangelist not only wanted to deviate the Muslims, but there is more greed at stake behind DAP's evangelical manouvre. As for pro-evangelical Regina, it proves the earlier allegation that she will leak information forsake of her political agenda.

The story by alternative news portal and also picked by foreign news portal is churches defying ban order to use Allah in churches in Semenanjung. [Read MI here and MM here]

Regina Lee's tip-off written in our previous posting had right out churches criticism of the 10 points agreements and turning the table back from Selangor to Putrajaya. [Read MI here, MM here and here, and MD here]

Her church should seek for her instant elevation to sainthood for her insidious manouvre because provocative banners with messages "Allah is great" and "Jesus is the son of Allah" sprung up outside churches in Penang.

Pictures of banners outside Church of Assumptions at Lebuh Farquhar, St John Britto Catholic Church in Sungai Pinang, Immaculate Church of Conception, Pulau Tikus and Victory Lutheran Church, Gelugor on the Internet.

As of writing, no news is found of the incident except for Anil Netto's blog here. The staunch supporter of Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim dispelled it as the work of "mischief makers". He reported the one outside the Church of Nativity in Butterworth was removed by the church.

However, the churches well coordinated defiance and statements does not give much credibility to the attempted denial by Anwar's dedicated spin master. Supposed it is the work of "mischief makers", who could it be?

Before speculating who intend to invoke such provocative act on the Peninsular Muslims, Apanama's posting here of Zakir Naik's view on the Allah name issue in Malaysia should be understood. An extract below:

Every main religion mentions God as Allah somewhere in their holy scriptures and books. It's not exclusive to the Quran.

To a certain small group, from among the hundreds of sects of Christianity, that demands the term 'Allah' in their Malay holy book, he sets a condition.

He says Isa the prophet (Jesus Christ) cannot be God because he cried out to Allah when put on the cross.

"Kristian Sesat"

The new argument promoted by the church and pro-church side is that Islamic law and Sultan's edict cannot be applied on non Muslims thus no interference on the way of worship of the non Muslims.

However, still in question is whether the worship or ritual of the non Muslims are actually their practise and in this case, their worship or ritual may have encroach into the constitutional rights of Muslims. The Muslims rights have been conceived into laws.

Blogger Azeeza Abdullah wrote in her blog here of a former Catholic but has embraced Islam from Sarawak. The Sarawakian described Christians wanting to use Allah in bible as "Kristian sesat" and Christians will not want to use Allah in their prayers.

He viewed current happenings as merely a ploy by DAP to use religion for their politics. DAP is uninterested in the religion of the Prime Minister as long as it is not a Muslim and their agenda is only socialism ala Singapore.

This debunk the argument for use of Allah in Bible based on the use of deviated translation of God in Indonesian Bible used before formation of Malaysia in Sabah and Sarawak. successful

In the meanwhile, UMNO and PAS only wish to get into a political debate while DAP benefit from their political instigation to divide society for their quest for power.

PAS thinks that having DAP will benefit their quest for power and their Islamic state agenda. They are too obtuse to see that they are merely being taken for a ride. When in power, their agenda and interest will be set aside as happened in DAP dominated Penang.

Voices started by blogger RBF are calling upon Sinar Harian to stop the debate. It does not benefit any side. Furthermorre the law pertaining to use of Allah by non Muslims is clear and does not need more debate.

There is the decree by the Yang Dipertuan Agong, religious edith by the National Fatwa Council and position of the Syura Council of Fatwa. Before he goes into his typical U-turn, Dato Nik Aziz had also recently expressed clearly his opposition to the use of Allah by non Muslims.

Similar view by Dato Zulkifli Nordin:

The common view now is the debate is politically motivated and merely to ridicule their political opponent. At the end, both side loses and will not look any smarter.

Does PAS wish to be seen by the Muslim voters as defending the blasphemous statement that "Jesus is son of Allah"?

Firm government

In Malaysiakini here, an extract of a commentator David Dass mentioned:

The East Malaysians were using the Indonesian Bible long before they became part of Malaysia. Bahasa Malaysia is their language. They are now present in Peninsular Malaysia in large numbers. And churches minister to them and conduct services in their language using the Indonesian Bible.

So what is the issue? These services are conducted in Christian churches not in mosques. The government should take a firm line. Rulers rule in accordance with the law and the constitution.

How do one resolve the presence of Indonesian Bible readers East Malaysians Christians in Semenanjung in large numbers?

There is more to that issue but the government have to take a firm line. Najib's past populist approach has now come to haunt him. Will he dare wield the stick and bring out the long arm of the law to maintain order?

Doubtful. If the church is frustrated, Muslim group like Perkasa too is disappointed with the inability of the UMNO-led government to be firm and perceived to be weak. [Read MI here] In the blog of Perkasa's Wira Chief here, he blamed it on weak leadership.

In the meanwhile, Khairy should be congratulated by his "minder" for having Regina to split the different religion and the Malays on this issue.

He helped made it increasing difficult for government and leadership to seek resolution and handle the constant provocation to defy the law and sensibility.

Brother-in-law returned from doing Umrah in the holy land for the first time last month. Since then his conscience must be constantly swarmed by angels. He kept highlighting God's multiple rewards for good deeds and ibadah performed in Mekah.

After family dinner over the weekend, he shared his view that the ills of society, particularly within the Malay Muslim community, could be addressed by adhering to the professed religion of Islam. It sounds idealistic and simplistic. However, it is true and right.

Individuals makes up society and putting it morally right at the individual level steer society in the right direction. Generally, all religion promotes morality, and believe in God is first item in nation building Rukunegara.

We added to his train of thought to raise the issue on the need of individuals to see the practise of Islam beyond the six tenets of faith of Rukn Iman and five compulsory practices in Rukn Islam.

The practise of Islam should be elevated to the level of Ihsan. It is a state of consciousness that is reflected by a morally right intention, actions, and behaviour.

It is all good in theory and easy said in conversation. But how do one transform moral value into the way of society? How do one put morality into operation and use in society? How do one operationalise morality?

That question was shared to us by our late sifu. He was posed that question in an interview by the late former Director General of ISIS, Tan Sri Nordin Sofie.

His answer was no. Morality cannot be operationalise.

At best, state can only put in place and enforce rules and law to represent the moral values. Sifu was the choice to fill up the position but someone up did not approve the creation of the position.

Syariah police

The issue of operationalising morality relates to the recent proposal to establish a syariah police unit.

Last week, Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) Director-General Datuk Othman Mustafa was reported by Bernama as saying the setting up of the proposed syariah police unit will be finalised soon. [Read in MI here]

The role of the unit was explained by former Minister in charge of religious affair in the Prime Minister Department and now Minister of Home Affair, Dato Ahmad Zahid Hamidi in a subsequent MM report:

Syariah cops only to assist state enforcement, says minister

BY JOSEPH SIPALAN
January 27, 2014

PUTRAJAYA, Jan 27 — The proposed syariah police unit will not take over jurisdiction of religious enforcement from state agencies, Home Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said today, assuring that it is only there to lend assistance.

He said his ministry and the Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) are fully aware that religious enforcement comes under jurisdiction of the state.

“We are not here to interfere with state jurisdiction,” he said at a press conference after his ministry’s monthly gathering here.

“The reason Jakim and KDN (ministry) formed this unit is to help states with enforcement, especially in dealing with deviant teachings and crimes under syariah law,” he added.

Yesterday, Jakim director-general Datuk Othman Mustafa said his department is currently in discussions with the police to set up a special syariah police unit.

He said the first stage of the setting up of the unit would be known this week, though he did not reveal details regarding the new enforcement arm.

Ahmad Zahid,however, said earlier that the syariah police unit will comprise of members holding degrees in Islamic studies.

The minister today noted that if in the past religious authorities were assisted by officers from the police force when conducting raids, they now have the option of bringing officers who are well versed in Islamic jurisprudence.

“If we are asked by the state enforcement authorities, we will assist them. All this while religious departments have asked for help from the police, now we have special police,” he said.

Ahmad Zahid said outside of assisting in religious raids, members of the syariah police unit would be stationed at Jakim’s office to assist in interpreting and reviewing religious legislation, aside from advising on enforcement issues.

The explanation provided indicate the syariah police is unlike the muttawa of Saudi Arabia [read Wikipedia here] but special support services from the police department to state religious departments.

Rethink

However, Tun Dr Mahathir differ and call for it's reconsideration in his latest blog posting here. He argued that Islamic practices is inconsistent and subject to different interpretations to be enforced by a set of rules. The MI report in English below:

Rethink Shariah police, it wouldn’t solve issues plaguing Muslims, says Dr Mahathir

BY LEE SHI-IAN
January 28, 2014
Latest Update: January 28, 2014 12:02 pm

Former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad (pic) today objected to the formation of a Shariah police unit, saying it would not solve the issues plaguing Muslims.

"Let me make it clear, I do not agree with the plan to set up a police Shariah unit," Dr Mahathir said in his latest blog post today.

"The Islamic religion does not encourage coercion, nor should it be used as the basis to form a police state."

Dr Mahathir said he fulfilled his religious obligations of praying, fasting, paying his dues (zakat), not because he was afraid the religious authorities would arrest him if he did not.

"I fulfil my religious obligations and responsibilities not out of fear, but because I am a Muslim who practices Islam. Because of my beliefs," he said.

Malaysia's longest serving prime minister said the proposal to set up a Shariah police unit to enforce religious laws should be studied carefully before any decision was made.

The Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) director-general Datuk Othman Mustafa last week said the setting up of the Shariah police unit would be finalised soon.

He said Jakim, the Home Ministry and the police would be meeting soon to discuss the matter.

Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi had also confirmed that the ministry would work with Jakim on addressing issues in Islamic law enforcement.

"Islamic laws in Malaysia are different from that of other countries and so is its enforcement and execution," Dr Mahathir said.

"Visitors from other Islamic countries which have different religious laws will get confused with the different practices here."

Dr Mahathir blogged that the religious enforcement officers will be influenced by different perceptions, not to mention their own.

"It is not possible that the Shariah police unit will have personnel who are knowledgeable about the Islamic religion, even Muslim clerics have differences of opinions.

"For example, in some countries, men and women need to be segregated when they go shopping.

"But there also women who go shopping with their husbands, does this mean they must shop separately?" Dr Mahathir said.

He said in other countries, wearing the hijab or tudung might be deemed compulsory. Pants might be deemed too tight, so how loose or tight would the police permit?

"If a Shariah police unit is formed, we will get policemen who will have their own principles and views. The orthodox policemen might be harsher than his colleagues.

"The action to be taken will depend on their views, for some, Islamic laws have been violated and arrests must be made. But for some, no action is needed.

"It all depends on the policemen's interpretation of Islamic law. Even those who object to their more zealous colleagues' action might not voice it out openly for fear of being accused of being un-Islamic."

Dr Mahathir said that Malaysia attracted millions of tourists annually who dressed and acted differently.

"Our Shariah police unit will be stopping these tourists to check whether they are Muslims. If they are, they will be detained or taken back to the Islamic police station.

"These foreign tourists will not take kindly to being detained, let alone being questioned by our police," he said.

Dr Mahathir said of course there would be certain quarters who would say, who cares, this is an Islamic country.

"But a drop in the number of foreign tourists coming to Malaysia would have a tremendously negative effect on the country's revenues," he said.

"Malaysia will lose its tourists to other Muslim countries who not only practice different Islamic laws, but have a completely different interpretation, view and practice of these laws."

Eventually, Dr Mahathir said, there will be pressure on non-Muslims to abide by Islamic laws and practices.

"This will cause tension between Muslims and non-Muslims in Malaysia," he said, adding that the issues and problems faced by a neighbouring country which had Islamic police were well-documented.

What needs to be done is to educate Muslims on the characteristics that an Islamic follower should have in Malaysia, he said.

"We have seen crimes like rape, baby-dumping, drug addiction and other sins involving Muslims. These are the problems which must be addressed.

"Why are more Muslims involved compared with non-Muslims? The laws are the same but those who commit the crimes are not," he said, adding there must be a reason.

Dr Mahathir said while Muslims were taught to adopt certain practices, they were not imbued with the Islamic values of life, obligations and forbidden acts. – January 28, 2014.

Pursuit of spirituality

The downside of such effort is that it is similar in problem with implementing hudud law as promoted by PAS as in it pushes society towards ultra conservatism.

Prophet Muhammad was understood to have said that if society is ready to implement hudud, then it does not need hudud law. A rather self conflicting words which only means strict law is not the only tool to transform society.

To stress the point, the second Khalifah, Saidina Omar ibni Alkhattab suspended hudud law in the face of rising crime during a period of famine. Today's judges or syariah police unit lack the wisdom and compassion in judgement of prophet and sahabat.

Prophet could delay punishment on a woman insistent on being punished for her sin and finally let her off on believe that she has repented. Malaysia does not have welfare support system to give a second chance to thieves committing crime of hunger and poverty.

The need for syariah police to enforce on personal matter of faith only demeans Islam into a nanny religion that needs to constantly supervise it's followers. It de-emphasise elevating the belief and practise of Islam into the consciousness of its followers.

Morality is about right and wrong and could transcend religion. Such manner of enforcement only makes believers conform to a spelt out rule of conduct than the ability to differentiate between the morally right and morally wrong.

Consciousness and morality are important parts of the spiritual journey to attain Allah's acceptance.

Chinese Navy Destroyer Wuhan 169 and Missile Destroyer Haikou 171

The public is too busy watching the political circus of internal political manouvring by Pakatan Rakyat and the clueless ruling party BN keeping quiet upon beseiged by various administrative and leadership problems.

Part of the tense internal domestic problem is due to racial and agitation by the opposition party. In turn they getting support and funding from the west. The western powers is undertaking covert operations to expand their social, economic and political interest.

Thus far, the country have been blessed with peace and the prosperity that arise from peace. Millitary threat have been far and in between. Lahad Datu was the latest millitary threat for many decades since communist insurgency in the 1940s all the way to late 1980s,

Millitary needs can seldom be foreseen accurately. By the time the need arise, it is seldom too late to to equip, train and be battle ready. Possibilities of threat is there all the time and cannot be taken too easy as opposition claim.

Opposition and pro-West NGO like SUARAM have been presumptously calling for cutdown in millitary spending on the pretext of corruption and kickback on millitary purchase. That has affected our military readiness.

The need may arise soon.

Chicago Tribune website here published a Reuters report below:

Chinese ships patrol area contested by Malaysia

Reuters
3:18 a.m. CST, January 26, 2014

BEIJING (Reuters) - Three Chinese ships on Sunday patrolled the James Shoal, an area also claimed by Malaysia, and soldiers and officers on board swore to safeguard its sovereignty, in the latest sign of Beijing's territorial assertiveness in the South China Sea.

The group was made up of an amphibious landing craft, the Changbaishan, and two destroyers, state news agency Xinhua said.

"During the ceremony held in the Zengmu Reef area, soldiers and officers aboard swore an oath of determination to safeguard the country's sovereignty and maritime interests," Xinhua said. Zengmu Reef is the Chinese term for James Shoal.

Xinhua said the fleet commander Jiang Weilie "urged soldiers and officers to always be prepared to fight, improve combat capabilities and lead the forces to help build the country into a maritime power".

China is in an increasingly angry dispute with its neighbors over claims to parts of the potentially oil and gas-rich South China Sea. China lays claim to almost the whole of the sea, which is criss-crossed by crucial shipping lanes.

Beijing regards the James Shoal as the southernmost part of the country's territory.

Last March, Malaysia protested against the incursion of four Chinese ships in James Shoal, about 80 km (50 miles) off Sarawak on Borneo island. Chinese sailors fired guns in the air during the visit to the shoal. In April, a Chinese maritime surveillance ship returned to James Shoal to leave behind steel markers to assert its claim.

China upset the Philippines and the United States this month when rules went into force demanding fishing boats seek permission to enter waters under the jurisdiction of China's southern province of Hainan, an area the provincial government says covers much of the South China Sea.

Vietnam, Taiwan, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines also claim other parts of the South China Sea. China has a separate dispute with Japan in the East China Sea.

(Reporting by Sui-Lee Wee; Editing by Ron Popeski)

Copyright © 2014, Reuters

The Chinese diplomat talks a different language than the People's Liberation Army. The military controls the party and could over ride the government. The Chinese military cannot be trusted.

Can SUARAM that complained and spinned on our military spending be in the frontline to face the enemy in the event of war?

Most unlikely. Their people and propaganda team were more interest to capitalise the incursion for their political agenda. They undermined the security effort when we were facing the Lahad Datu threat.

For a thorough analysis on the Chinese military threat, read Bigdogdotcom's "Lessons from the Paracels"Part 1 and Part 2.

Believe still more is to come.

There are many theories abound as to why Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim intend to run at the Kajang state by-election or should "bi-election" be more appropriate and assume the position of Menteri Besar.

Some claim Anwar is anxious to return to his old bad habit at Ministry of Finance for putting his hands in the cookie jars. He already mentioned of spending the state budget of RM2 billion wisely.

On top of that, no pun intended, Anwar will inherit a sizable reserve of RM4 billion accumulated by the miserly Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim. [Read also Helen Ang here] After state reserve was depleted by the free water campaign promise, Khalid re-accumulated reserve by slashing social programs and selling state lands for development at market rate, including to state owned PKNS.

There is also the suspicion that Anwar and Khalid has a sinister intention to wet their beaks on the massive federal funded development of RRI land at Sungai Buloh and suddenly agreeable Langat 2 Water Treatment Plant [read MyMassa here]

At this juncture, it is still heresay.

PKR leaders and supporters expect Anwar to put in place a better system to distribute political funds or rewards to supporters and party workers. Khalid withheld any such requests from PKR members and leaders like Azmin lost face.

PKR members privately acknowledge there is some truth to the claim by UMNO supporters that Khalid had been firm with their own but lenient with DAP and PAS.

They could notice their DAP comrades getting financial rewards from underworld related activities like massage parlours, illegal gambling, entertainment, etc under the purview of local council.

Menteri Besar or not?

Since the annoncement that Anwar is running in the Kajang "bi-election" to fill in the seat emptied by the resignation of Lee Chin Cheh, Anwar and PKR have came under a barrage of criticism from political opponents, PAS and their friendly activists.

They were accused for abusing the democratic process to address their internal party personality clash. After doing a "kangkung" on the Prime Minister for being insensitive to the problem of price hike, Anwar is now being "taugay"-ed for wasteful spending of public fund.

The only accuse given by them is that BN waste more money but obviously it is a weak argument that could not be easily bought into by the urban or sub-urban Kajang voters.

In an attempt to divert the blame from Anwar, Rafizi claim responsibility for the idea. He explained himself in MI here with a ridiculous conspiracy theory that BN will seize Selangor when Najib is removed and pro-Mahathir faction takes control of government..

The best reply to Rafizi must be from blogger Hantu Laut here. He described Pakatan's Minister of Propaganda explanation as "A pathetic lie even a child can see through".

Our PKR source acknowledged that Anwar is planned as Menteri Besar at the interim to replace Khalid. The reason is to address the animosity between Khalid and Azmin that have been on-going for too long and disrupting

Khalid have not been giving Azmin the slack and the competition heightened at the time when Wan Azizah-Khalid-Nurul faction pitted Dato Zaid Ibrahim against Azmin for Deputy president in the last PKR party election.

Expect an interesting party election soon because this stunt is viewed by certain quarter as Anwar's attempt to divert attention against the barrage of personal and administrative issues that he and Selangor Pakatan Rakyat government is facing.

He has his sodomy case at the Court of Appeal . The divorce of his daughter. Lim Guan Eng Mercedes. Today's Utusan Malaysia in the frontpage and pages 4 and 5 is filled with such theories.

Anwar and Azmin opposed to Selangor speaker, MB and exco members pay rise. AMK member openly opposed to increases in water rate, business licenses, assessment, retailers business plot, etc.

Racial and religious animosity is on the rise as a result of the name of Allah issue, rising racial animosity between Malay and Chinese, etc that are attributable to Anwar's agitation. Thus the sudden Act II of the national reconciliation drama.

Unlike our PKR source, who happen to run in the last general election, there are those that do not see Anwar will take up the Menteri Besar post. He will merely serve the role to do a "check and balance" on Khalid and at the same time, "protect"Khalid from Azmin.

Political analysts, or more accurately academic political analysts, see Anwar's latest ploy as unthinkable.

However among the various comments today in Utusan Malaysia today, Anwar's former Private Secretary, Anuar Shaari hit a note similar to our intuition.

He believed the path ahead is difficult and even the possibility that Anwar will not get HRH Sultan of Selangor's consent.

Khalid's Private Secretary Faekah gave a similar warning to "orang luar" (outsiders) aspiring to be Menteri Besar of Selangor.

Former Deputy Public Prosecutor and now currently in private practise, Dato Salehuddin Saidin wrote an article in Utusan Malaysia today.

To quote a relevent extract below:

"Pelantikan MB terletak di bawah bidang kuasa Sultan Selangor yang mana baginda mempunyai kuasa budi bicara dalam perkara itu selaras dengan Perkara 53 dan Perkara 55(2)(a) Undang-undang Tubuh Kerajaan Negeri Selangor 1959.

"Bidang kuasa Sultan Selangor dalam melantik MB telah dinyatakan dengan jelas dalam peruntukan undang-undang yang telah termaktub dalam perlembagaan negeri," kata beliau.

Pada masa sama, kata Salehuddin lagi, terdapat prasyarat yang telah diperuntukkan di bawah undang-undang berkenaan pertamanya, seseorang menteri besar yang dilantik hendaklah dalam kalangan Ahli Dewan Undangan Negeri (ADUN) selain mendapat kepercayaan majoriti ahli dewan.

Tambahnya, seseorang menteri besar juga haruslah berketurunan Melayu dan beragama Islam seperti mana termaktub dalam undang-undang berkenaan.

"Pemilihan seseorang individu untuk menjadi menteri besar adalah dibuat oleh sesebuah parti yang mendapat sokongan majoriti daripada rakyat dalam pilihan raya.

"Parti yang memenangi pilihan raya itu boleh mengemukakan calon-calon untuk pertimbangan Sultan Selangor. Sultan Selangor akan memilih seorang menteri besar yang difikirkan layak oleh baginda.

"Bagaimanapun, calon-calon tersebut haruslah memenuhi prasyarat seperti yang telah diperuntukkan di bawah Undang-undang Tubuh Kerajaan Negeri Selangor," katanya.

Berdasarkan Perkara 63 Undang-Undang Tubuh Kerajaan Negeri Selangor 1959, tiap-tiap warganegara yang berumur 21 tahun atau lebih yang bermastautin di negeri ini adalah layak menjadi ahli Dewan Negeri. Ini melainkan jika dia hilang kelayakan untuk menjadi ahli menurut Perlembagaan Persekutuan atau Undang-Undang Tubuh Kerajaan negeri ini atau menurut mana-mana undang-undang sebagaimana yang tersebut dalam Perkara 64.

Read in full here.

Will Sultan Selangor agree to have an MB with criminal record and prospect of returning back to jail?

Missing from Salehuddin Saidin's article is a widely believed condition set by the royal family that the Menteri Besar has to be an anak Selangor.

That was the very reason Selangor's Electtion Coordinator, Dato Zin "Badak" was never considered for a state seat in the last general election, which means he will be BN's choice for Menteri Besar subject to them winning. Zin was born in Muar Johor and raised in Melaka.

Showdown

All these points to a showdown between Anwar and Sultan Selangor. And, this will be Pakatan Rakyat's second constitutional crisis with the state sovereign after Perak in 2009.

There are few reasons to such such political theory.

Firstly, the open defiance to the Sultan Selangor by recent comment from lawyer Edmond Bon to question the Sultan's decree to forbid non Muslims use the name of Allah.

Edmond's view was supported by a former UIA law lecturer, Professor Aziz Bari who questioned the Malay rulers' authority as "Ketua Ugama".

Pure Shiite rebutted it here and turned the so-called constitutional expert as a fake for missing something so basic.

Through out the Pakatan Rakyat government, there have been many open spats between the state government of Selangor and the rulers.

Sultan had issued decrees against use of Masjid and Surau for politics, controversy surrounding DUMC raid and openly questioning the state government on several occasions.

In response to Sultan's intervention and decree, there have been similar defying statements from Khalid and exco members.

The Sultan was viewed by Pakatan political leaders as intervening in state administrative matters.

Secondly, the intention of Pakatan Rakyat to do away with monarchy and turn the country into a republic is known.

Azmin had gloated in the past to his family of Anwar's plan and his acceptance to do away with the monarchy system and turn Malaysia republic.

DAP would support any intention to rid off any Malay heritage and institutions. Former DAP, Razali had been going around the country exposing DAP's big plans for the country upon acquiring power. Glimpses of things to come is presently in Penang.

Recently YB Khalid Samad made known of the intention to go head on with the Sultans to his supporters in his twitter:

For the past few years, one should have seen the following flag waved on Dataran Merdeka on new year eve. The flag is falsely claim to be that of a past Malay kingdom but is meant to be the flag for the Republic of Malaysia.

In the picture above is Hishamuddin Rais. This socialist inclined activist openly express his distaste for institutional monarchy.

Bersih 3.0 rally had a poster displaying respect for the HRH Seri Paduka Baginda Yang DiPertuan but had symbol openly showing support for a Republic.

Thirdly, the Malay rulers will not consent to any form of government that arise from a coup d'etat.

Anwar is already late in his age to wait for GE15 to democratically bring down BN government.
He knows that the controversies he has got himself in will still not win the Malay hearts.

His Sabah plan is no where in sight with Dato Lajim at the helm. The move into Sarawak by DAP may not bear much since DAP is still Chinese dominated political party.

BN have time to recover and scrape through GE14.

So his plan is to stir things fast enough and the monarchy will also be made collateral damage.

More frequent than 2007, Pakatan Rakyat and their proxy NGOs are currently churning issues and doing big demonstration monthly. Intention is clear that Anwar is desperate and he wants power now.

Conveniently, there is a mass demonstration scheduled for May 1st at Putrajaya.

That will be after the Kajang "bi-election" expected in February and in time for their close encounter with the palace to heat up.

By March 5th, there is the Federal Court date for the name of Allah issue. If it turns out negatively for the Catholic Church, that is support from 10% of the Christian population and the Malay liberals.

Anwar knows that today's public do not relate to the monarchy as before.

There are underlying resentments against palaces for abusing their position for securing timber, sand, and mineral extractions concessions at the cost of Malay businessmen and the JV partners to the palace are seldom Chinese businessmen.

Palaces have been securing state land to be developed by Chinese businessman to be sold to foreigners and out of state buyers at sky high prices and beyond the affordability of voting rakyat negeri.

In one western coast port, one shipper claimed that 5 acres of the sea was sold at the request of the palace to a Chinese businessmen to squeeze rental from "parking" ships and port.

The behaviour of some Sultans and Crown Princes in public leaves much to be desired.

Private spat in the royal household like the one in Johor are now out in the open syariah court and reported by mainstream newspapers and alternative media.

It does not auger well to the image of the royal household of Johor.

With social media, such stories, news and gossips could go viral in a matter of minutes. The palace or government authority will not be able to contain from the public knowledge. Worse still, they may not be fast enough to gauge public sentiment.

Matters are made worse by the reluctance of palace officials to be close and allow royal audience to NGOs defending institutional monarchy like Perkasa. If a showdown occur, the monarchy system will end up fending for themselves.

Government is too afraid and weak to maintain law and order. Applying the sedition law will only agitate the opposition and their well oiled propaganda and political machinery. There is no more ISA and EO to fear with.

Who would have thought Sabah be attacked by ragtag guerilla fighters? It only makes this theory of a royal encounter highly possible.

Wrote about Astro sometime ago here.

So lending these pro-PKR unregistered NGO a hand. But why Bantah Astro or protest against Astro? It is not a strong message and hints of dependency.

Commercial entities only understand money and bottom line. If it affects their bottom line, only then they will heed and listen.

Otherwise, they will ignore and arrogantly say other clients have no issue. If their number of clientele is increasing, they will be more arrogant and not afraid to say "If you are not happy, you can stop subscription".

There is other options like Internet and Unifi-linked Hypp TV for access to similar services. Call for boycott to unsubscribe. Then they take notice.

But this group called for boycott of Utusan Malaysia before.

Looks like that campaign was not successful. So work harder boys.

Thursday's posting, Close Encounter of the Royal Kind predicts the motive behind Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim's move to run for the Kajang state seat was to do a showdown with the Selangor monarchy.

PKR's failed spinmaster, Rafizi claimed it is to save Selangor from the return of BN under the clutch of Tun Dr Mahathir's faction in view of Najib's gullible political situation. Subsequently, Anwar admit it was to save Selangor.

In a press conference to announce his candidacy, Anwar said he does not wish to deal with the issue of MB appointment. One theory claims Anwar will not assume Menteri Besar position but dual role to "check and balance" and "protect" Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim. Faekah hinted that Sultan has the power to appoint the Menteri Besar and tradition shows only Selangor born will assume the position.

Thus the showdown theory. Then in yesterday's press conference in Permatang Pauh, he said [as quoted from MM here], “We will not complicate the role of the Ruler.”

However, there are two differing theories to offer a royal encounter of the third kind.

The first is a fairly straight forward analysis from Carolyn Hong as published in the Jakarta Post sometime back. It is basically viewing the Sultans as asserting their influence or their constitutional power:

Malaysia's sultans asserting their influence

Carolyn Hong, The Star/ANN, Kuala Lumpur | Opinion | Tue, January 14 2014, 10:22 AM

In the first week of this month, the Johor state weekend shifted to Friday and Saturday, in accordance with the sultan's wish to make it easier for Muslims to perform Friday prayers.

The same week, Selangor's religious authorities seized Bibles containing the word "Allah", after its sultan decreed that non-Muslims cannot use "Allah", in line with a state law that prohibited it.

These incidents highlighted several facets of Malaysia's power structure - federal versus state powers, as well as the role of the nine sultans, several of whom are starting to assert themselves as Malaysia becomes more politically unstable.

As a federation of 13 states, Malaysia's political and legislative power is divided between the federal and state governments. In general, the Federal Constitution gives the federal government power over areas such as defence, education, health and public order, while the states look after land, water and religion. The Malay rulers also have specific roles - sultans are the heads of Islam in their respective states.

This division of power did not matter so much during former premier Mahathir Mohamad's tenure as he had iron control over nearly all power levers.

But since the 2008 general election, which saw the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition losing its political dominance, the sultans and religious authorities have become more politically prominent.

"During Mahathir's time, he had set up a parallel bureaucracy of religious authorities that took charge of Islamic affairs," said Professor James Chin, a political scientist with Monash University Malaysia. "But he was a very strong leader."

Mahathir kept in check not just the religious bureaucracy but also the monarchy through his powerful personality, as well as by removing the rulers' right to veto laws and limiting their absolute immunity to legal prosecution.

Without a dominant figure like Mahathir around, the situation has changed. The "Allah" controversy, in particular, illuminates just how complicated the system is, and why it is so difficult to resolve.

Unknown to many, the ban on the use of "Allah" by Christians had been in place since 1988 in Selangor state laws, as a way to prevent conversion of Muslims to Christianity.

It only came to light when the customs impounded several hundred imported Bibles at two ports in 2011 as they contained the word "Allah".

With the Sarawak elections looming that year, the federal government was worried about the political fallout and quickly forged a deal with churches, by allowing the import of Bibles on condition that they are stamped with the words "Christian Publication".

That appeared to solve the problem - until this month.

On January 2, Selangor religious authorities raided the Bible Society of Malaysia and seized 350 Iban and Malay-language Bibles. It did so under powers bestowed by the Selan-gor Non-Islamic Religions (Control of Propagation among Muslims)

Enactment in 1988 which banned the word "Allah" for non-Muslims.

In other words, the federal and state authorities were on opposite sides, with one permitting the use of "Allah" by Christians and the other prohibiting it.

Lawyer Syahredzan Johan, who specialises in constitutional law, said the federal government's decision to allow the imported Bibles cannot be binding in Selangor.

But at the same time, Selangor cannot issue a blanket ban on "Allah", he said. This is because it is empowered by the Federal Constitution only to enact laws specifically to prevent proselytisation among Muslims.

Thus, he said, the prohibition on the use of "Allah" has to be read in that context, he said.

"The enactment's provisions are so wide that it looks like a blanket ban but many lawyers would argue - and I agree - that this must be read as a ban with a view to prevent proselytisation," he said.

But the law is one thing, politics is another.

The Selangor government can now help to clarify matters by amending the state law so it applies only to proselytisation attempts. But it's unlikely to rush to do this.

For one thing, it will have to convince the many Muslims who do sincerely feel that "Allah" is exclusive to Islam.

Then there is the sultan. His decree, backing the ban, while not legally binding, cannot be ignored.

"The problem for the Selangor government is not really a legal one; it's a political one," Syahredzan noted.

In this day and age, the constitutional monarchs have a mostly ceremonial role. But Malay rulers can wield great power, especially in times of crisis, if they want to.

For example, the sultan must agree to the choice of a menteri besar for his state. A rejection may well end a politician's career, as was the case in Perlis and Terengganu after the 2008 elections.

In 2009, when the opposition Pakatan Rakyat government in Perak was toppled via defections, it was the sultan who made the final decision to recognise the new government formed by the BN.

This, noted Chin of Monash University, is a major reason the Selangor government has to tread carefully when it comes to the "Allah" controversy.

It is only the federal government which may mitigate these tugs of war for influence, but it shows no signs of doing so.

Prime Minister Najib Razak has said very little about the "Allah" controversy, except to call for calm and sensitive handling of the matter.

As a result, Chin said, the jostling will not end any time soon, and controversies like the "Allah" issue will continue to dominate headlines.

The second theory is forwarded by Dr. Chandra Muzaffar but cautious of the publisher. What to do when the main source is a mainstream media only keen to make money and dissemination of information and honour is secondary and tertiary.

In his view, he felt Anwar is not taking a confrontational approach but a diplomatic approach.

Malaysiakini 2:26PM Feb 2, 2014

Chandra dakwa Anwar mahu jadi MB dekati istana

Bekas rakan kepada ketua umum PKR, Dr Chandra Muzaffar mendakwa Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim mempunyai matlamat lain termasuk "mudah mendekatkan diri dengan sultan dan raja" jika menjadi menteri besar Selangor.

Dalam wawancaranya dengan mingguan BH Ahad hari ini, Dr Chandra mendakwa Anwar mahu menduduki jawatan itu bagi menonjolkan beliau sebagai menteri besar "paling berkesan, berkebolehan dan lebih baik" daripada tokoh sebelum ini.

"Dengan menjadi MB, dia akan 'berlagak' dengan menonjokan imej baik bagi mempengaruhi pengundi dan rakyat. Anwar akan cuba berbaik-baik dengan MB yang lain seterusnya mendapatkan sokongan mereka.

"Apa yang penting, dia mahu menonjolkan diri supaya cara pentadbirannya akan dibandingkan dengan perdana menteri. Ini semua strategi mengaburi pengundi sebagai persediaan pilihan raya umum ke-14.

"Dengan menjadi MB, Anwar akan bergaul dengan ramai orang dan paling penting mudah mendekatkan diri dengan sultan dan raja-raja Melayu melalui Majlis Raja-raja.

"Nyata MB adalah bantu loncatan untuk menonjolkan kebolehan sebagai rakyat, MB yang responsif dan berjiwa rakyat," katanya seperti dilapor akhbar itu.

Dr Chandra menjawab soalan berhubung mengapa ketua pembangkang Dewan Rakyat itu didakwa mahu menjadi menteri besar.

A week earlier Dr Chandra gave his analysis in New Straits Times:

28 January 2014| last updated at 12:28AM

PKR internal spat ‘a drain on the public’

SHAH ALAM: The by-election in Kajang is seen by observers as the result of a selfish attempt by PKR to put an end to the increasingly acrimonious squabble between its deputy party president, Mohamed Azmin Ali, and Selangor Menteri Besar Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim.

Political analyst Dr Hoo Ke Ping said the resignation of Kajang assemblyman Lee Chin Cheh, believed to be connected to mounting speculation that Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim will replace Khalid as menteri besar, was to resolve the party’s infighting.

“They (Azmin and Khalid) are fighting for selfish reasons and not for the people. They are fighting over Selangor as it is the richest state in the country. So, Anwar has decided

"From PKR's perspective, I think this move is very reasonable as the party's infighting will be settled. However, from a Kajang resident's point of view, I think Anwar's decision will create problems," he told the New Straits Times yesterday.

Elaborating, Hoo said the decision to boot out a lawfully elected state representative for the sake of solving an internal party squabble might prove too much for the people in Selangor to bear.

"Getting rid of Khalid will be good for Anwar but wasting the people's money to do so is unreasonable. In fact, if Anwar does decide to contest in the by-election, the Kajang electorate might show their dissatisfaction by not voting for him.

"The people in Selangor may still be unhappy with the Barisan Nasional government, but they may decide otherwise this time around. This by-election will be an acid test for both sides who will be battling it out in a mixed constituency."

Another political analyst, 1Malaysia Foundation chairman Dr Chandra Muzaffar said he felt that Anwar chose Kajang as the battleground to show that BN had not regained the support of the people.

"However, I do not think Anwar will stand as a candidate as only a Selangor resident can contest, according to the state constitution. He is a resident in Kuala Lumpur and he would need to create an address in Selangor in order to be eligible.

"Therefore, I believe Anwar is merely forcing a by-election to show BN that it has not regained the support of the people, in particular those living in mixed constituencies."

Elaborating, Chandra said Anwar wanted to use PKR's victory in Kajang, should it happen, as a leverage tool to force the BN leadership to engage in a "national consensus" talk with top leaders.

"Chances are that BN will lose in Kajang and Anwar wants to show BN is in a weak position so that it will be coerced into holding talks with Pakatan. And these talks may lead to the formation of a unity government.

"That might be Anwar's real aim, and not to become the Selangor menteri besar."

Selangor State Speaker Hannah Yeoh, in announcing Lee's resignation yesterday, declined to go on record on the reasons behind the move.

"He came to see me personally and submitted his resignation. According to Article 70(5) of the Selangor Constitution, a casual vacancy shall be filled within 60 days from the date on which the vacancy occurs," she said at a late afternoon press conference at the Selangor state legislative building.

Yeoh said she would inform the Election Commission on Lee's decision today.

Yeoh quoted the state constitution when asked on the possibility of Anwar taking over as menteri besar, saying that "The constitution is clear. The MB must be Malay and a Muslim."

Lee, in his statement yesterday, merely stated that he was resigning from his post as assemblyman "for the common interest of all and to strengthen Pakatan's ability to serve the people".

The former Petaling Jaya City councillor replaced PKR's former Kajang assemblyman Lee Kim Sin as the party's candidate in the 13th General Election in May last year.

He polled 19,571 votes in a six-cornered fight with his closest rival Lee Ban Seng of BN getting 12,747 votes.

Anwar, who is Permatang Pauh member of parliament, needs to become a state assemblyman to become eligible for the menteri besar position.

Lee's resignation had also led to talks that Pandan MP Rafizi Ramli could also be a candidate. He, too, needs to join the state legislative assembly in order to be eligible as MB.

PKR Youth chief Shamsul Iskandar Mohd Akin, however, in a statement late yesterday insisted for the vacated Kajang state seat be contested by no one else but Anwar and that he later on must be appointed as the Selangor menteri besar.

Anwar, however, had denied speculation that he was set to become the next Selangor menteri besar. He said there was no discussion between him and Khalid on the matter.

Speaking to reporters after attending a hearing at the Duta court complex here yesterday, Anwar said he met Khalid almost every week.

"I virtually meet Khalid at least once a week to discuss about the party and the welfare of the state."

He also said the suggestion of a possible takeover was an old issue that had been discussed openly since 2008. Khalid had initially denied any possibility of him being replaced as menteri besar when met at a function in the afternoon yesterday. He, however, softened his stance after news of Lee's resignation was announced later in the day.

When met once again at a function later in the evening he did not rule out the possibility of resigning if a consensus for him to do so was reached among the leaders of all three parties within the opposition pact.

However, he said, so far, the leaders of PKR, DAP and Pas had yet to discuss the matter.

Additional reporting by Rozanna Latiff and Punitha Kumar

The latest news emanating from Anwar Ibrahim is that he acknowledged Selangor has problems and to diffuse Rafizi's ridiculous spin, he also acknowledged it is all planned.

On December 18th last year, a Malaysian Tourism official in Stockholm, Azizul Raheem Awaluddin and his wife, a teacher on unpaid leave, Salwati Nurshall were arrested by police for allegedly abusing their children. [Read Swedish news in English in The Local here.]

It became news in Malaysia in the middle of January when mainstream media headlined it as parents arrested for spanking children refusing to pray. It is a practise in traditional Malay households to judiciously spank kids above 9 years old for refusing to do their five times a day.

The concern had been for the children welfare. The Malay Muslims were concerned of the children placed with a non-Muslim Swedish foster family. There is rumour going around of the existence of syndicate in Sweden taking away children of Muslim families by detaining the parents for investigation under child abuse.

Datin Rosmah openly expressed willingness to meet the Queen of Sweden to get the children back. However, the foreign office, and welfare department successfully engaged the Swedish authority to get the children back to return and live with their auntie in Kelantan. Upon arrival, they were taken to the Prime Minister's residence for lunch.

Media reported government giving all necessary support but a question remained unanswered from the day the news broke. Was it merely a spanking or real abuse done on the four children; Aishah, 14, Ammar, 12; Adam, 11 and Arif, 7.

AFP report here claimed local media reported that the couple had "allegedly scolded and hit their youngest son on the arm for not performing his prayers".

The Local wrote:

Malaysian newspaper The Star reported that the police report stems from an incident in which the Muslim couple struck their 12-year-old son on the hands for refusing to perform his prayers.

The boy told his teachers in Stockholm about the incident, which was then passed along to the school's counselors, who in turn notified police. It has been illegal in Sweden for parents physically punish their children since the late 1970s.

A day later, authorities arrested the parents and placed the children in foster care while their parents await trial, The Star reported.

NST reported;

It was reported that a Swedish Court had extended the remand order against the children’s father, Azizul Raheem Awalludin, who is Tourism Malaysia officer in Sweden, to facilitate probe into the allegation.

The remand order against Azizul, which was the fourth time since his arrest on Dec 18, was extended to another 11 days until February 10.

The Swedish Court had also obtained a remand order against Azizul’s wife, Salwati Norshal, until February 10.

The couple are viewed by the prosecutor as a "flight risk."

The detention over a long time and thrice remanded to await investigation attracted the concern of human rights activists. They equated it to detention without trial. The Star columnist, Veera Pandiyan described it as a "travesty of justice".

AFP also reported that a Facebook page, titled "Bring Shal and Family Home" was established to lobby for the parents' release. It received more than 17,000 "likes".

Nevertheless, Dato Najib was right to express concern for the welfare of the three children. Their welfare should be the foremost consideration.

Welfare Department

In a Bernama report here, the Welfare Department (JKM) spokesperson, Dr Noorul Aini explained that the welfare of the children as stipulated by article 3 and 20 on the Convention on the Rights of the Child as rectified by both Malaysia and Sweden in 1995 enabled their return.

JKM will also provide counseling for the children

Convention on the Rights of the Child

Having personally gone through the ordeal of a child abuse case in Malaysia, we reserve our comment and judgement of the Swede till the matter of whether child abuse and not merely a warning spank is established.

JKM and their interpretation and practise of the child protection law and regulation practices systematically failed to protect abused children.

In our experience, the Welfare Department made a serious misjudgement for buying into the father's simplistic words of family quarrel without taking into considering the children welfare and upbringing as of utmost importance.

The children with deceased mother returned to the abusive father instead of giving the guardianship to either the two grandmothers or the willing aunties of their deceased mother.

The father's erratic burst of temper and abusive tendency remained. As recent as last year, the teenaged daughter is slapped for merely beng persistent to seek permission to join the school camping trip.

His poor parenting skills and improper supervision already resulted in two of the three children failure at secondary education level. The third child is scholastically capable and entered a hostel but is now being denied quality education. Forget about proper parental care and guidance.

In our view and perhaps the view of family members in the know too, the rather paranoid attitude of Swedish authority is more welcoming than the "tidak apa" and prejudicial attitude of JKM, In an incident in the past, the government hospital had a pre-conception in their enquiry and was obviously bias and one sided.

The couple may look loving and pious.

The fact that the mother is a school teacher indicate no similarity in the background with our case. However, similar to our case, looks can be deceiving. The public exterior of a person may be hiding the demon in them. Quite often, religiously strict parents can be unnecessarily stern.

Still we are not passing judgement on the children's parents.

From the Prime Minister's statement, the government is giving the couple legal support. It is probably part of Tourism Malaysia's renumeration package for their staff posted abroad.

If there is none since it is a personal offense, our government is confident of the case and willing to support the couple legally. Is the government judgement based on the view of JKM officers sent overseas?

Hopefully, their judgement is better now than 14 years ago because we are still feeling the misery, agony and frustration of their failed analysis and recommendation to a Magistrate in Kajang.

According to The Local, the couple are being held on remand on suspicion of gross violation of integrity for incidences that took place between June 2011 and December 2013. There is a lot of material to be made into a legal case.

Our acknowledged prejudice mind towards JKM is thinking that the JKM officials that went to Sweden could be sentimentally swayed by media headline that children were hit for missing prayers.

They could be possibly bias to save their fellow government officer and teacher rather than be more concerned for the children. Same like in our case of them being sentimental swayed by the father's hocus pocus family conspiracy concocted.

Safeguard for children

If found guilty, the couple run the risk of being sentenced up to 10 years in Swedish prison.

In their website here, Astro AWANI’s Magazine Editor, Zan Azlee was reported to have been told by a Chief Judge and lawyer in their recent trip to Sweden that out of 10,000 cases, the chances of the children returning to their abusive parents is 10%.

The case has not started and is still under investigation. Malaysians should not be emotional on this issue till the matter is understood.

There have been demonstration and memorandum letter sent to the Swedish Embassy. The point have to be understood. If it is the law of their land, it has to be respected accordingly. Without diplomatic passport, they should know and understand the law and practices of the country.

This is something our embassy should do to assist Malaysian abroad but they don't. Having been abroad before, our Embassies noticeably staffed by mediocre who are more interested to use the overseas opportunity to save their overseas allowance.

Being away from the bosses eyes, they take things easy and are hardly much assistance to Malaysians in dire needs abroad. My youngest brother had to assist Malaysian in Canada during 911 because our Ottawa Embassy are plain lazy!

To our human right activists, be reminded that Sweden is a country that is far more embracing of human rights than Malaysia. If it sounds draconian for keeping child abusers behind bar, then so be it. They have a good basis to put a law in place to safeguard children

Ignore them our human rights activists. They are not so genuinely concerned for human rights but are usually politically motivated and partisan.

In the pursuit of political mileage, the likes of Latheefa Koya and N Surendran are more concerned with defending known criminals and murderers than public safety at large. Let alone the rights, welfare and safety of children.

Through this Swedish ordeal, JKM should learn a thing or two on how much concern and importance that country gave to the welfare and safety of their children. It is more important than the personal liberty of the parents or alleged abuser.

Not like our case of the JKM officer that wanted to believe the concocted family conspiracy ploy and easily returned the children back to the abusive father.

Till the court commence sometime in February, there is nothing to affirm abuse had taken place. Be it Malaysia or Sweden, let the law takes it's course.

A typical UMNO totok (fanatics) would scorn at those that raise issues that later be made viral by the opposition against leaders, government and the party. Their usual argument is why give bullets to the oppositions and who the hell are you tell so and so.

Dato Abdul Kadir Jasin, Outsyed The Box, Din Turtle and many others are being attacked by other UMNO totok bloggers or probably directed to attack by certain people for their critical concern on the leadership's weakness that could be detrimental to the party.

Kadir hardly gave away any information but merely giving cynical commentaries of event that has it's weight of truth. His personal and business affair is being dissected but his message not rebutted.

For two cautionary postings and a photo with Tun Daim Zainuddin and Syed Akbar in Outsyed the Box, Firdaus Abdullah @ Apanama is being brushed in the same stroke by some left out bloggers. His short posting seemed to attract supporters with interesting rebuttals.

Someone alerted us that blogs Helen Ang, Rockybru and The Unspinners is having problem of access. Being long in this game, it is not too difficult for us to guess the probable players and paymasters indulging in such dirty tricks of firing your own.

For us, to each his or her own.

However, such bloggers only made themselves look intellectually challenged for being unable to differentiate between message and messenger and between public figure as subject of public attention and blogger's freedom to express.

It is more pathetic when such blogger hardly bat an eyelid against those person doing the booboo or committing offense and unethical practise.

They attacked fellow bloggers' right to expression without giving a ponder that it is never the writers and bloggers that gave the bullet to opposition but the leaders and top people in government that is doing so.

In the case of the supposed charges for corruption against Dato Suhaimi Ibrahim, why are too few bloggers raising this issue?

This blog wrote of Suhaimi's alleged involvement in the leakage of the 1Azam fund here. The fund is meant for programs to boost the income of the poor and those in the lower income.

Yours truly was reliably informed that he was supposed to be charged on the day or at around the day Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim announced his candidacy.

However, nothing happened.

Bigdogdotcom here wrote about it yesterday and he quoted news clippings from The Malaysian Insiders. Today, The Star reported an MACC panel want the Attorney General to explain their retraction. Read here.

The mastermind of the laughable Kajang move, PKR's Rafizi Ramli seized on the opportunity to call for a press conference. He is likely to play the game to accuse political interference and toy around the fact that 1Azam was money meant for the poor and low income.

Although cleared by MACC, he probably could not resist linking Suhaimi to Dato Shahrizat Jalil and NFC since Suhaimi was her former political secretary.

Was there an attempt to interfere?

In the political circle, it is widely known that Suhaimi have been following Dato Hishamuddin Hussein Onn everywhere during the UMNO party election. Hishamuddin could be unnecessarily implicated for this coincidence.

So far, any of the villified bloggers involved?

No. It is only party leaders and the Attorney General office, specifically Tan Sri Gani Patail himself, that has to answer and explain.

Gani is still in hot soup for wrongful prosecution of the PKFC financial scandal.

He had retracted three charges against Dato Chan Kong Choy based on the acquital of Tun Ling Liong Sik.

The charge on Ling was strange because there was no basis to prosecute Ling who unless proven otherwise, merely brought the paper prepared by government officers for cabinet approval.

The real beneficiary of the PKFZ financial scandal is scot free.

By the way, the financial number is not RM10 billion as bandied about by Lim Kit Siang but significantly less. Late blogger Ancient Mariner overestimate the number by compounding interest and wrongly included the outstanding non-guaranteed bonds.

If it turned out that there had been interference, would the government and ruling party get into a hot soup?

It should be an emphatic yes.

Finally, shouldn't we avoid such embarassing perception on the party and government before it happens?

For those staring at the floor, at least nod the head and acknowledged who actually gave bullets to the opposition.

It reminded us of a certain Dato PMO secretary who usually find it hard to understand such concept. "Janganlah ... " he would usually say to persuade so as not to be too determined but avoid explaining the issue and anything wrong in principle.

The bigger puzzling question is why allow the ever fumbling Rafizi steal the show?

Pemuda or Puteri UMNO wing or other wings in BN could also raise the same issue.

This is a concern of the public and the same of grassroot UMNO. It could dispel PKR's attempt to perpetuate a bad image of UMNO and BN and hopefully score some political brownie points too.

Hmmm ... this is problem with feudelism.

Too much waiting for instructions and clearance from Tengku Dato Adnan Mansor or Dato Raof to talk to the boss that no one seems to know how to think and do things right on their own anymore.

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