So for now I take my leave......with the hope of meeting shortly again.
husseinhamid
Sunday 7th November 2010
Sunday, 7 November 2010
So for now I take my leave......with the hope of meeting shortly again.
husseinhamid
Sunday 7th November 2010
Saturday, 6 November 2010
Friday, 5 November 2010
The view of a true Malaysian
I read this at :http://nklpunya.blogspot.com/ and thought we should get as many of us to read this....a good read...
with thanks to NKLpunya
05 NOVEMBER 2010
Can This Be A View of 1Malaysia!?
The view of a true Malaysian
Received this email from a good friend and the content of the view of this prominent person who has hold numerous significant postions in the government, has taken me deeply.
I would like to share his view over here and for us to ponder about, hopefully something better, even how small it is, conciously or unconciously can be done.
Dominating role not healthy for nation, I think we are farther apart now than we were in 1969. But you have to remember that I grew up going to an English school, to a university where there were people of all races. At that time, although we did think in terms of race, it wasn’t in the way people do now. We felt that we were Malayans. We socialised much better than we do now.
Bahasa Malaysia can be a unifying factor. But it can be a factor separating people, too. As Sukarno would say, “The important thing is the jiwa.” You don’t have to have a common language, if you have the same jiwa (heart, spirit, passion, devotion). This is what we don’t have right now....
In 1956, the historical society of Universiti Malaya went to India . There were lots of Indians in the group, but they didn’t think of themselves as Indians, they thought of themselves as Malayans. That’s the jiwa. But later on, because of certain reactions, suddenly people stayed away from this jiwa - they don’t feel as though they are fully Malaysian. They are made to feel that way.
When I was in the service, there were lots of non-Malays in the civil service, holding good positions. But do you see them now? If you go to the universities, where are the non-Malay professors? After 1969, suddenly there was this drive to make sure that all university vice-chancellors and faculty deans were Malay. So, in the end, we chased away all the best brains among the non-Malays.
When schools say you must start school with a doa (Muslim prayer recitation), you push away all the non-Muslims. When I was at school, we never had any prayers. Whatever we learnt in religious class was a separate thing. I think it’s more important that we bring people together, rather than pushing religion so hard that it alienates other people. This is what’s happening. I can’t blame the Chinese and Indians; why should they go to a sekolah kebangsaan (national school), when they have to do all these things?
All the things are breaking down. Our school system is not as it used to be. We are producing supposedly so many students with so many As, but what do they know? Are we happy about it? The leaders seem to be happy about it. We came up with the Rukun Negara because, after 1969, there was the feeling that the nation was breaking down.
People had forgotten what it was all about. So, we thought we could bring people back together - unite them. That’s what the first part of the Rukun Negara is about: the objectives of the nation. Unfortunately, we did practically nothing to promote an understanding of the Rukun Negara. And when schools make mistakes, nobody corrects them. That should have been the role of the Department of Information.
In the beginning, Tan Sri Ghazali Shafie did try to apply the test of whether something was in consonance with the Rukun Negara or not. But then, the government just forgot about this.
We are supposed to be a united nation, not only in terms of state, but also in terms of people: that they would all consider themselves as Malaysians, and that this was their country and their nation.
We wanted all these people to share the wealth of the nation. One of the things we thought contributed to ’69 was the economic disparities, joblessness. The New Economic Policy was a policy for all Malaysians; not just for the Malays. But we wanted to restructure the economy so that the Malays would come out of the rural agriculture sector into the commercial sector.
We wanted Malay participation at all levels of economic activity. We wanted to uplift the Malays without reducing the position of the others.. - “eradicating poverty regardless of race”. And this was supposed to be in a situation of growth. Not just sharing the existing cake, but the cake must grow, so that these people also have the opportunity to grow.
At the same time, we also hoped that the Malays would grow a little faster. So, they set this target of 30 per cent equity in 20 years. I was not much in favour of that because I didn’t think it was achievable. I felt that participation was more important than wealth.
We never thought that we would produce multi-billionaires. That was never the intention of the NEP. If some people can come up as everyone comes up, it’s okay. But it wasn’t supposed to be about some people getting contracts. We did say that we should have Malay millionaires just as we should have Chinese and Indian millionaires, but not so much so that you don’t have to do anything.
You must differentiate between dominance and domination. As Tun Dr Ismail said,
“We want to be dominant, but we don’t want to dominate.”
“We want to be dominant, but we don’t want to dominate.”
Dominant in the sense that we wanted the Malays to be everywhere; but not to dominate all the others. But we seem to be dominating; and I don’t think that’s healthy for the nation. It’s not about taking your share and not caring about the rest.
If only ......
If
fate had been kinder to Mahathir he would have been selling Rojak beside a
Chendol stall in Pasar Road….but then knowing his ability to multi task he
would in all probability be handling both the Rojak and Chendol stalls with
Mirzan and Mukhriz running between the two stalls taking care of business.
Why
do I say if fate had been kinder? Kinder because no man would wish to be so
reviled by so many in the few years that he has been on this earth as he is
now! At least as a Rojak cum Chendol proprietor he would have served as a
valuable link in the fast food chain in our country…… somewhere between KFC and
Kajang Satay. Just as we would want to make that much anticipated stop on our
journey North at Tanjong Malim for the Pau, Kajang for Satay and Muar for that
Mee Rebus on our journey South..…we would willingly make a beeline for Pasar
Road for Chendol and Rojak at least twice a week for our twice weekly fix of
the famous Mahathir’s C&R (Chendol and Rojak).
He
would be there in his sarong and T Shirt everyday from 11am to whatever time
his Rojak and Chendol would run out (normally around 3p.m.) from Monday to
Saturday. On Sunday he would be serving the same beside the Bukit Bintang
Plaza – just on the road between the Imbi Plaza and Bukit Bintang shopping
center – because the weekend crowd makes it worth him giving up his Sunday of
rest. That is Mahathir for you – totally committed to doing his thing.
And
knowing Mahathir he would have been able to afford at least a Proton Saga and
trips back home to India at least once every two years with his Family. Then
he would still have maintained family ties with his ancestors in India and yet
be anchored to Malaysia, his preferred country of abode.
This
simple but hard working outdoor working life would have ensured that he would
still be as healthy as he is now at over 80. No need for all the expensive
medications and hormone injections he now has to take to maintain his present
health – nor that royal sport of horse riding that does his constitution so
much good – as he so like to claim.
Our
country would not have all our massive billions of ringgits failed projects and
debts, UMNO would not have money politics and our people would be living in
harmony and goodwill. And more important for everyone in Malaysia …we would all
think very charitably of Mahathir as that Mamak who sells Chendol and Rojak
down at Pasar Road….assisted very ably by his children Mirzan and Mukhriz – who
are each driving a Tiara and both suitable attired in a sarong and T shirt ala
Mahathir. Ahhh these are the stuff that dreams are made off for me….we can all
dream can’t we?
OZserver has left a new comment on your post "PERKASA and ME By Dr. Mahathir Mohamad on...":
The Malay Intelligentsia are finally confronting the truth about Mahatir, and saying and writing so directly and forcefully. You are a good and generous people who could accept a Mamak as one of your own and gave him the highest honour of being the leader of your people and thereby of Malaysia. He is very intelligent, well read and articulate. He was a good administrator and ruthless in getting things done. But alas, all those qualities do not a great leader made because he was greedy, beyond description, for his family and cronies, and showed little wisdom or a love and care for the long term good of his people. A simple person like the Tunku has more wisdom, with a genuine love of his people and all Malaysians, will be better remembered in history where Mahatir will be condemned.
The Malay Intelligentsia are finally confronting the truth about Mahatir, and saying and writing so directly and forcefully. You are a good and generous people who could accept a Mamak as one of your own and gave him the highest honour of being the leader of your people and thereby of Malaysia. He is very intelligent, well read and articulate. He was a good administrator and ruthless in getting things done. But alas, all those qualities do not a great leader made because he was greedy, beyond description, for his family and cronies, and showed little wisdom or a love and care for the long term good of his people. A simple person like the Tunku has more wisdom, with a genuine love of his people and all Malaysians, will be better remembered in history where Mahatir will be condemned.
Thursday, 4 November 2010
Najib on CNN
Najib:"We are willing to compete in a fair and free election"
"The best party chosen by the people will form the government".
Well lets us hope that these words of Najib will come back to haunt him as the 13th General Election nears!
PERKASA and ME
Tun you said that when the 5th PM took over it was obvious he was incompetent and unable to govern the country and grow its economy.
TUN it is time you looked within yourself and see
yourself for what you really are. A mean old man who thinks the whole of
Malaysia owes you a living! You need to take responsibility for what UMNO and
BN has now become – a feeble political organization riddle with money politics,
greed and arrogance incapable of winning power in the 13th general
election. And when the 13th general election is done…so will you be
-------------
another blast from the past about this guy from my blog:
1. When the 5th PM took over, it became obvious he was incompetent and unable to govern the country and grow its economy. He was seen as weak by the Malays as well as by the Chinese and Indians. He flipped-flopped, making decisions and policies and reversing them, arresting opposition members under the ISA and then releasing them shortly after, claiming that he wanted to protect them.
PERKASA and ME…a short reply to Tun!
Tun you said that when the 5th PM took over it was obvious he was incompetent and unable to govern the country and grow its economy.
Was
it not you who choose this obviously incompetent 5th PM to succeed you?
As
you choose Musa? Musa teamed up with Ku Li. The final ramifications of their
challenge to your leadership in UMNO was the declaration of UMNO as an unlawful
society due to the existence of several unregistered branches and the purge of
ALL Team B members from your cabinet despite your early pledges not to do
so!
As
you choose Anwar - and we know
what the ramification of that decision is now! It resulted in the loss of the
two third majority long held by BN and the coming into being of a credible
Pakatan Rakyat opposition. I know you will rue the day when you did make that
decision to give Anwar the oppportunity to be what he is now –leader of the
oppposition! The final ramification of your decision in appointing Anwar as
your deputy will only be played out in the 13th general election – a
general election that you are evidently aware is there for Pakatan Rakyat to
lose! Not for UMNO to win!
And
now Abdullah Badawi. You choose him did you not? And did you do so knowing that Abdullah was incompetent in the hope that
there was a way you could still crawl back into the PM seat after you have
agreed to leave? Then when Abdullah did not put a foot wrong as DPM and you
were forced to leave, you had hoped that he would protect your so called
“legacies” - like the crooked
bridge, Putrajaya and the many financial abuse you promoted under your PM
tenure? But that was not to be. Incompetent as Abdullah may be he was not about
to let your abuses be kept under wraps. And so began, to your anger, the
unravelling of your years as PM.
Three
DPM all chosen by you TUN - all
failures (by your reckoning) and are all these three DPM to be blamed for the
pathetic state that UMNO is now in? Or maybe...just maybe you might have had a hand in all this failures? Do the sums Tun - three DPM's all chosen by you and all to be blame for UMNO's current woes? These were just DPM's - you were the one in full control of UMNO and the government! You are the one who must take responsibility!
Everyone
else to be blamed for the massive financial abuse of high office by UMNO
politicians – abuses that occurred under your watch?
Everyone
else to be blamed for the hideous proliferation of money politics within the
ranks of UMNO and BN – abuses that you TUN conveniently closed one eye and shut
the other?
Everyone
one else to be blamed for the greed and nepotism that you personally encouraged
– look no further then your own family – and the clarion call put out to all Malays – join UMNO and
become rich beyond your dreams! And money politics became UMNO’s culture and a
way of life for all of UMNO’s political elite! All this could only be done with
the overt and tacit approval of the President of UMNO, the PM of Malaysia – you
TUN! You! You! You!
You
too presided over the prostitution of the Malaysian Judiciary who unashamedly
did the biddings of their political UMNO master and is still doing so! The CJ
is not compliant? Sack him! Judges are not compliant? Replaced them! The AG
becomes the running dog of the BN government. PDRM became thugs and goons who
operated under your ‘guidance’ to impose their physical might and brutality on
your own people using the ISA and what ever means under their disposal to
ensure that the people were kept subjugated to your wants!
And
I can go on TUN…but I think that is enough for now. This is just another way of
looking at how things really were under your rule. You are entitled to your
opinion and so am I. The proof is in the pudding. The 13th general
elections will be your final political curtain.
The
12th general election was your Waterloo – it already cemented your
place in Malaysian Political history – it is a lesson learned – all future
political parties in Malaysia would ensure that there would never be the
possibility of another Mahathir! A Mahathir that will stay beyond his use by
date! A Mahathir who believed that any means could be used in as long as it
justifies the ends as he saw it – not for the good of the nation but for the
purpose of keeping this Mahathir in power forever and ever! And a Mahathir that
used any means at his disposal to divide and rule not only his own UMNO party
and his Barisan Nasional partners but also his own Malay race and the people of
Malaysia. And a Mahathir shrewd enough to know that he would rather have
Ministers who were corrupt and weak of the flesh in his cabinet because it
would be so much easier for him to have them at his beck and call.
-------------
another blast from the past about this guy from my blog:
Sir you need to take responsibility!
Tan Sri Abdullah Ahmad, group editor in chief of the New Straits Times, wrote (June 26 2002), “[Mahathir] has...created a legacy so monumental that no one could have presumed his mantle.”
That was what Abdullah Ahmad gushingly said of Mahathir when the great man (Mahathir lah!) announced his resignation on June 22 of that same year. “Hear! Hear!” I say…or as Antares succulently said for the benefit of Ibrahim Ali, “Dengar, Dengar!” I believe that that came from Abdullah’s heart for you cannot write anything so ‘moving’ if it does not come from the heart. Now let me tell you what comes from my heart when I read that.
Who would dare to presumed the monumental mantle of this Mahathir who was instrumental in bringing into our way of life such concepts as ISA, nepotism, money politics, greed, privatizations, IPP’s, Perwaja, utter vindictiveness to those that simply do not agree with his point of view, negotiated tenders, a tainted Judiciary, Bakun, crooked bridge, Renong and its horrendous debts, Khir Toyo, Daem, and the list is endless. Every government machinery, every high public office appointment, every political decision made during Mahathir’s time was at his pleasure and made to do your biddings!
No Dollah….nobody would be foolhardy enough to try and assumed that mantle!
All the personal excesses that we now talk about had its beginning, development and reached its zenith during Mahathir’s time. Samy Velu, Rafidah, VK Lingam, Augustine Paul, Liong Sik, Daem, Vicent Tan, Abdullah Ang, Eric Cheah…the mind boggles at the billions these people made at the expense of the nation!
What defines greatness in a man?
"It's not what you take but what you leave behind that defines greatness.”
– Edward Gardner.
This man left us with debts measured in billions not millions!
This man left us with monuments of First World stature but failed miserably to prepare our then third world mentality to be ready for these iconic structures. If you bring a nation into an era that it is not ready for, you are being irresponsible!
If you cut corners and award projects to people who YOU think can do the job and they fail to do that job – you take responsibility!
If you do nothing about a leader that robs his own people blind –like Samy Velu did to the Indians – then you take responsibility.
If you take power away from the Sultans and empower UMNO with the same power - and UMNO abused that power – you take responsibility!
When you remove two of your deputies – and in so doing caused:
1) Within UMNO factionalism that forever weakened UMNO
2) and had one of these removed deputies, Anwar, to come back ten years later and inflict upon UMNO its biggest defeat.
You take responsibity.
When you take a dentist and make him MB of Selangor – and this MB then proceed to enrich himself excessively that finally culminated in the loss of Selangor to the opposition – then you take responsibility.
When you take Oil Royalties from Trengganu and Kelantan because the people voted for the opposition, you take responsibility for the suffering of the people within that state who are now without the funds to develop the state.
When you use Petronas money and to bail out your son shipping company to the tune of hundreds of millions using people’s money then you take responsibility for abusing the trust the people placed in you as the guardian of their money.
That a man of your previous stature would require me, a 62 year old man living in Adelaide to write this biting and hurtful article about you simply indicates the depth you have allowed yourself to sink to. This would not happened to the Mahathir that was PM for 22 years – who brooked no challenge to his rule for those 22 years! How things have changed!
You told us to look East. We looked East. You told us to buy British last. We bought British last. You told us to buy Proton we bought Proton – albeit with a little arm-twisting. Possibly all these were relevant at that point in time. So Tun using that analogy, let me respectfully tell you this Tun. You are no longer relevant.
You are no longer relevant in UMNO except to serve the selfish purpose of certain factions. “Dengar dengar!”.
You are no longer relevant to the Malays. You have done enough damage to us and we see thorough your deceptions.
You are no longer relevant to the people in this country. We have all moved on and demand a more open and responsible government. We see through your duplicity and untruths.
Tun you are only relevant to those that still loves you for what you are – a grandfather, a father and a husband. Is it not time that you return their love and their need to have you back in their fold? And that you return the love and respect that they give to you for what you are today? An 84-year-old grandfather, father and husband?
Sir you would need all the goodness that is in Mecca, all the forgiveness that Mandela has shown to the very people that imprisoned him and all the love that the family of Teoh Beng Hock, Kugan and Aminurasyid have for their love ones if you are ever to be forgiven by the people of this country. And I know that even with all that you would still have a hard time walking down the streets of KL without worrying that someone might spit on you…and that Sir is the whole truth and nothing but the truth…so help me God!
----------------------------
with thanks to doggone, November 04, 2010 16:46:55
with thanks to doggone, November 04, 2010 16:46:55
Wednesday, 3 November 2010
|
Monday, 1 November 2010
Mortality and life's worth...
This last week has been
different. The necessity of coming to grips with health issues tends to focus
my mind very sharply on matters that do not normally occupy my mind. No not
death…that is not important because when you are dead you have the advantage of
not knowing about it. And not life either because I am still living it and I
still have it.
It is the assessment of my worth
now! What have I achieved? For Mahathir he could possible pluck Putrajaya,
KLCC, Petronas Twin Towers and a host of other “achievements” that he thinks he
has bragging rights to. I have done nothing that could hold a candle to what
this Mahathir considers his various legacies to himself and possibly, as he
likes to think, to the nation. I do not even have a terrace house in Subang
Jaya….and yet I look down upon this Mahathir.
I look down upon this Mahathir
because in my mind I see him as a driven animal unable to come to terms with
himself in the twilight of his years. He is 82 and I am 63 and yet this man
that I should really address as uncle is making an ass of himself by trying to
be what he is not or trying to do what he cannot.
He cannot be UMNO’s saviour. He
has by himself destroyed whatever hope UMNO has of ruling after the 13th
General Election. That realization alone should have driven him to despair and cause him untold regrets for being the architect of UMNO demise. That realization should
have made Mahathir realize that acceptance of his part in UMNO’s demise would
have been the first step to his own salvation as a human being…i.e. the acceptance
that he is only a mortal capable of rights and wrongs….and from there try to
stay above the cuts and thrusts of UMNO politics and retire gracefully to a
quite end of an already eventful life. But instead what does he do?
He asked a son already cashed up
with much wealth to go into Pemuda UMNO and fight KJ. And that was a big ask
because his son, in an earlier era, had been comfortable with amassing great
wealth rather then building a decent political base for a future in politics. But
Mahathir gets what he wants. He took Pak Lah out, installed Najib and Muhyiddin
and placed his son in Pemuda and in the Cabinet. Now what? Mahathir does not
have much time left to live and he wants his son in a position to be able to
‘protect’ his so-called legacy to the nation. Here we will differ…I call it his
billions and billions of ringgits of his debts that our children and we will be
left to repay…he calls them his legacies!
So his time is short and he wants
things to move on….he uses Perkasa, he uses Ketuanan Melayu, he uses the need
for UMNO to retain power using his refrain that the “ends justifies the means”
and so is planted the seeds of what UMNO needs to do to retain power….…. and I
watch him do all this and I wonder when he will falter? When will his physical
ability to keep pace with his mental capacity fail him? His recent illness in
Australia was a nudge to make him take stock of what is important in his
life…and so comes to what I have said in my second paragraph of this posting…
"It is the assessment of my worth now!”
I think in terms of what is
around me…my wife and my family and I am blessed with their love and their
physical nearness – despite my daughter and family being so far away in Canada
and me here in Adelaide. I am in rented premises and live frugally. I drive
what could just arguably be called a ‘car’…and my wants are few. Buying the
daily newspaper is a treat I give myself only on Saturday. Sometimes a sushi
with hairy crab fillings when I am in town and mostly spending time on my blog.
Can this be enough for Mahathir? No I do not think so. He would need UMNO to
win the 13th general election
- all his hopes and aspirations for his legacies to be remembered in awe
by the nation rest on that victory. Already the last general election has
already foreshadowed what is to come for UMNO – defeat inflicted upon it by the
very Malay race they claim to champion. Defeats that will in all probability bring to
power the very same Anwar that he so recklessly chooses to demean physically
and mentally so many years ago. Defeat will also bring him face to face with
his own sordid past and his abuse of power - not only as Prime Minister but more telling that of the Judiciary
and all the Ministries under his government.
So you see my friends I do not
envy Mahathir his life now and for the foreseeable future. For he will not only
have to answer for his dark past after the 13th general election but also he will have another day of reckoning when his life with us is
over – as a Muslim. I do not envy him these possibilities…better he then me.....so I am happy as I am now.
Mother and son held in $400m drug bust
A mother and son have been arrested after Australia's fifth-largest drug seizure.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) say 168kg of heroin - with a potential street value of more than $400 million - was discovered in Sydney in a shipping container sent from Malaysia.
A 55-year-old Campsie woman and her 28-year-old son have been arrested along with a 33-year-old Hong Kong national.
The mother is due to appear at Sydney's Central Local Court on Monday.
AFP Commander David Stewart said the heroin was found in a container of wooden doors.
"This importation is the fifth largest in Australian history and has saved the community $48.7 million in associated health and social costs," he told reporters.
Once the heroin had been cut, it would be worth upwards of $410 million on the street, he said.
The drug was discovered by Customs and Border Protection Officers who x-rayed 295 doors and found 24 packages of white powder inside the cavities of nine of them.
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