Half way reading this article, I was already choked with emotions…

Let me finish it first.

Dear Mr President,

Just like my former PM Mahathir Mohammad, I did not vote for you in the Presidential Election because I am Malaysian.

But I am writing to you because my previous PM claimed that what you do in your upcoming presidency will affect my country and put forward some suggestions that bear no relevancy to the former.

But I consider myself one of your constituents because what you do or say will affect me and my country as well.
[...link]

I intend to correct some of the mistakes he made.

Before that, please bear in mind that I do not necessary disagree with these ‘irrelevant’ points he made. While they may be true, they do not affect me and my country as Mahathir claimed and should only be taken as suggestions.

I number them the same as in his list for your ease of reference.

1) The US should stop war - It is common understanding that killing innocent people is a crime. However, no innocent Malaysian has perished at the hands of US military so far. So while I agree with him that US should stop killing people, this point is not related to his claim that your actions on this matter will affect Malaysia.

2) Stop US support for Israeli killers - Yes. US should not participate in a war that is not hers. Your country should be a peace mediator, not a supporter of any warring state. However, please take this merely as a form of suggestion or protest. This has no effect on Malaysia. Malaysia does not participate in the conflict at Middle East. US should be the same too.

3) Stop applying sanctions against countries that cannot do the same against you - Again, what you do on this matter has no effect on Malaysia. No Malaysian have died due to US sanctions. The example Mahathir gave was Iraqi people, not Malaysian.

However, please do consider ALL his suggestions. Thanks.

Happy new year.

Yours Sincerely,
A Malaysian

First day of 2009.

If 2008 was the year of change, let this year be the year of fix.

We need to fix the rot that has been deeply entrenched in every level of government and society.

If you get the privilege of stepping into a Balai Polis, you will walk away in disbelief over the lack of discipline with the men/women in uniform. They don’t respect the uniform and do not project a sense of pride over the profession. Even the the station buildings are in a sorry state; dilapidated, dirty and messy. I am not blaming it entirely on them. Maybe the salary is too low. But I do blame the heads. The rot started from there. The looting incident at Bukit Antarabangsa and the police chief’s lame excuses in defending them show just how serious this problem is. It does not only affect the poor and middle class. Nobody is spared when the authority becomes the thug. With the gloomy economic picture this year, we can expect crime rate to hike. Who can the people turn to when criminals roam freely on the streets? There is no real life Batmans around. KL and JB are quickly turning into Gotham Cities.

Then, we need to fix the education system. Just yesterday, I read another UTM undergraduate Jihadist was detained overseas. This time for taking part in the armed rebellion in Southern Thai. Dr Asahari the Bali bomb maker was a professor from the same university. Universities are supposed to be the nucleus of our intellectuals. Yet besides falling down the university rankings, all we have managed to achieve was being the center of excellence in terrorism. What we produce there will certainly shape the future of this country one way or another. We can fix this by first scrapping Razak-Mahathir’s race-based quota system. University entrance/degrees have been served on a silver platter to some kids just because they were born into a certain race. And then there are scholarships and loans handed out to these kids freely without proper qualification checks. While other parents have to sell charkoayteow and tohsai to send their kids to college, these kids spend their free money lavishly on entertainment and other luxuries like cigarettes and cars. When academic merits is at the bottom of their priority list, they turn their attention to other things - religious extremism is one of them. Let there be leveled ground for competition in our education system. Kids have to be taught to compete and stand on their own from young. When one has to work hard to achieve something, he/she will certainly learn to appreciate it more. Similarly, the rot started from the head. When our policy makers and heads of academics themselves are product of such bad system, what can we expect but more serious rots. To fix this, we need to fix the heads first. To fix the heads, we need to remove the race-based system.

Another fix that is seriously needed is the judiciary system and the ‘distorted’ laws. We need to re-establish an independent judiciary system, free from political intervention. The whole roof is now resting on ONE pillar, the legislative. And as it is, this pillar is rotting. So either we rebuild the other pillars to stand on their own or we all die under the collapsed roof. Legislative, Judiciary and Executive MUST be made independent of each other as much as possible. Over the past decades, Mahathir had managed to distort so much of the laws to his benefit. We need to do away with ISA. This is not wartime and we are not in state of emergency. There are no communist guerrillas to fight. If there is, the people would have turned to them to remove UMNO anyway. Following Mahathir’s footsteps, UMNO warlords continued to use ISA to silent critics. This must be fixed fast.

Come March, Pakatan Rakyat will be 1 year old. They will have 1 year less to fulfill their promises to the Rakyat. A year ago, the people delivered to them what they asked. Anwar is already back into Parliament. As the chanting of “Enough is Enough” fades away and the people go back to their daily mundane life of worrying about food on the table, they are also quietly keeping a score card in their heart. The people are stupid no more. Politics have evolved and the world is more globalized. Information is at their fingertips and news can spread at the speed of light. It’s no longer the old politics of “You believe what I want you to” anymore.

It’s not just about changing the federal government. We will not fix anything overnight just by delivering that. Show us just what any party can fix and we shall support its struggle. For the BN parties, they’ve had few decades of their chance and has not shown any signs of recovery. For Pakatan Rakyat, the past one year was not a good record. I maintain my stand that DAP and PAS can never work together. So far, this is still true.

If there is anything good with March 2008, it was the opening of the eyes of many Malaysians to politics and possibilities. Before that, many abhorred politics. They refused to hear anything that smells remotely political. Today, young people read blogs and online news. They start to see that politics can and will affect their life. They become curious and this is good.

With the economic downturn sweeping the globe, many will struggle to put food on the table. Many will be busier worrying about their jobs. Sense of insecurity and fear is in the air. So this is high time that politicians do something to show they are vote-worthy. While busy toiling, lets not close our eyes to what these public servants, our servants are doing.

We are all Malaysian. And we can fix the nation.

Happy New Year 2009, my brothers and sisters.

I have this thing for politicians without back bones. They are like snakes. Not that snakes are boneless, but they are slimy and difficult to catch. And they change skin too. Each time they change skin, they grow in diameter (not sure about length though).

Anyway, this one Manikavasagam is just one politician who fits perfectly into this image.

Just read his blog. In one posting entitled “Breaking News!”, he :

(1) … said he is resigning as Deputy Liasion Chairman Parti Keadilan Rakyat Negeri Selangor with immediate effect.

(2) … said he is expected to submit his resignation letter to PKR on Monday.

(3) … said he is serious and committed in upholding the rights of all Human Being (mana itu relation to Human Being’s rights, thambi?)

(4) … said he HAS YET TO RESIGN as Deputy Liaison Chairman Parti Keadilan Rakyat Negeri Selangor.

(5) … said he will only resign if no action is taken to rectify the happenings lately.

Poh-dah! Rakyat don’t need snakes like you, Mr Attention-Seeker. Mark my words, you will not go far in politics.

Leaders don’t resign and then retract in public.

After the previous incident where I nearly sprayed my morning Nescafe over my pc’s monitor, I had yet another similar incident with Quaker oat this morning.

I’m beginning to like Malaysia’s morning news update. It’s full of surprises and shocks that can alter the mood of the day.

Two Malaysians face terrorism charges in Thailand

BANGKOK, Dec 30 - A Malaysian undergraduate and a school dropout are facing terrorism charges in Thailand after their alleged plan to “help their Muslim brothers fight Siamese soldiers in the deep south went awry.

Thai newspaper reports say that Muhammad Fadly bin Zainal of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia and Omar Hanif Shamsul Kamar were arrested in June this year while attempting to steal a motorcycle in Golok.

During interrogation, they told Thai officials that they were affected by two incidents in Tak Bai and Krue Se in 2004 - where many Muslims died from suffocation after being packed like sardines in military trucks and were killed in an assault on a mosque.

The two men said that they wanted to join in the jihad fight against Thai military in Southern Thailand.

What do these idiots think they want to achieve? Join the JIHAD FIGHT against the military of another country? Maybe these idiots forgot that they are carrying MyKad and Malaysia Passport. What gives them the rights to interfere in affairs of other countries?

If they really want to protest, here are some ideas - pour kerosene on your body and burn yourself in front of the Thai embassy in KL; shave your head bald and stage a hunger strike.

This is the result of years of Mahathir’s dangerous brain-washing. Malaysians who are eager to participate in wars that they have nothing to do with.

Just not long ago, Najib said Malaysia is willing to help Malays who are minority abroad, BUT insisted that they cannot expect us to support them in taking up arms for a revolution.

Najib has not clarified who he meant by ‘minority Malays abroad’. How about those who look similar and profess the same religion BUT are nationals of other countries? Do they fall into this group he is extending help to?

I am still wondering why NOBODY; I MEAN NO-F78KING-BODY ask what’s going on in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia and our education system in general? Why nobody is checking on the Faculty of Jihad Extremism there? What is F78KING wrong with our government? Where are those Pakatan Rakyat parliamentarians whom we put into power? Too busy with banning Yoga, rock concerts and implementing Hudud?

We keep on producing local Jihadists wreaking havoc in neighboring countries but NO-F78KING-BODY uttered a word about the rot.

Exporter of terrorists - Is this what Malaysia is aiming to be?

Once upon a time, I bought a movie ticket and rushed into the cineplex because I was late. After settling myself down, I heaved a sigh of relief as the movie I had intended to watch was not on the screen yet. Instead it was a Malay action movie.

At first, I thought it was just the preview of latest releases. I started to notice some young kids in my front and back rows throwing loud laughter that almost unseat their butt off their chairs. But the weird thing was, nothing funny was showing on the screen. It was just the ‘Cicakman’ (lizardman) jumping into a house through the window!

After a few more rounds of loud laughter (LMAO type) at more ‘unfunny’ acts, I realized that I had entered the wrong cinema. I quickly left the hall and looked for the correct one.

It was a new experience for me. I come to accept that young Malaysians have a very strange definition of what constitutes ‘funny’. Maybe those kids in the cinema were just trying to impress their girlfriends or maybe they really thought it was funny. Either way, something was really wrong with LMAO acts in cinema at the scene of Cicakman jumping through a window.

I have to admit, save for SEPET, not many local made modern films can drag my butt to a cinema. Don’t even mention about the price of the tickets, it wouldn’t make any difference even if they were given to me free of charge.

The quality of our local movies is so bad that it makes one wonder if there exists certain regulations for GSC and TGV to mandatorily allocate some halls for them.

I am not a worshipper of everything Western. There are many Hollywood films that at times make me want get my few bucks back from GSC and sue them for having wasted few hours of my life. But I think many will agree with me when I say local films suck big time.

I have been to many countries and found our movie tickets to be very lowly priced compared to theirs. I would think twice about going for a movie at Senayan when I was in Jakarta. But to compare our local films with those from ’seberang’, we are still far behind. Theirs are so much nicer that I would even watch some on the tv in my hotel room.

So to apply similar regulation of enforcing higher ticket price for foreign movies to ‘boost’ the reception of our local movies among cinema-goers is simply stupid.

There are just too many Bodoh Bin Tolol in our society that it’s very difficult not to notice them. This one Ahmad Puah Onah, the PRESIDENT of Malaysian Film Producers Association is a quite remarkable one. The association has proposed that Malaysians pay more for Hollywood movies in cinemas. He was quoted in NST :

Our members agree that only by hiking the admission price of Hollywood movies will Malaysians go to watch local movies.

First, if you increase the price of Hollywood movie tickets, Malaysian will STILL pay to watch Hollywood movies.

Second, if Malaysian find it too expensive to buy tickets for Hollywood movies, they will simply stop going to cinemas and turn to pasar malam or bit-torrent.

Third, why only Hollywood? What about Bollywood and HongkongWood?

Finally, anyhow you put it, Malaysian like me who had caught a glimpse of the horror of Cicakman and the brain damage it can effect on our young ones, will definitely not go to cinemas for Wayang, Selamat Pagi Cinta, Antoo Fighter, Los & Faun, Histeria and DEFINITELY NOT Cicakman 2: Planet Hitam!

Try beat the creativity from ’seberang’ first before you decide that the reason for Cicakman 2: Planet Hitam’s poor performance was due to Hollywood’s direct competition.

Another ‘Thinking With My Butt’ proposal from our ‘Butt Thinkers’.

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p/s:
For those who don’t know, ABG is not Akibat Banyak Gaul in Indonesia. It means ‘Anak Baru Gede’.

Ever wondered why 911 plotters held their meetings in Malaysia and our government was more vocal in banning Yoga and tomboys than answering to us how it happened?

Anyone asked how on earth we had a UTM professor on the manhunt list for making the powerful bomb that killed hundreds of innocent lives? And after he was cornered and shot to death in Indonesia, why nobody in Malaysia uttered a word?

Why nobody questioned what was going on in our local universities after the news of a Mara student who blew his leg off on his way to a church with his bomb? Nothing is wrong with our young brains?

Look no further. The answer, lies in Mahathir’s rule.

If there is one thing that this man is great of, it’s his ability to focus all his strength and might on his enemies, the Jews and the West (Badawi and Anwar aside) and his total ignorance of the consequences of his selfish pursuit of fame & vengeance on the future of this ‘forever developing but never developed’ nation.

His ability alone is not enough actually. Coupled with the stupidity of the unthinking mass in Malaysia, we get a nation that is eager to participate in wars that are not hers to begin with. We have made so many unnecessary enemies for our children to bear the brunt of the harsh reality of a globalized world, where might is measured not in the numbers of suicide bombers, but in economic strength and military firepower.

Now I am not an expert with semantics and I am sure one can always argue the other way in favor of the old man. He is so good with words that even the HardTalk anchor found him difficult to ‘harden’. But just read his latest post and tell me what you come away with it?

There can only be two conclusions - three actually if you consider the ‘I don’t care’ type - that either you strangely find your blood starts to boil, your eyes turn shiny, pupils dilated and you start to chant ‘Jahanam Yahudi!’ in your little voice, or like me you will shake your head and ask ‘So is killings of innocents justifiable as long as the murderers are the ‘oppressed’ ones?’. You killed my parents so I am now slaughtering your daughters?

Well, Mahathir would certainly like you and me to chant ‘Jahanam Yahudi, Hapuskan Amerika!’ and help to enthrone him as the hero in the Islamic world.

His time is certainly running out. His legacy locally is already so much over-shadowed by negatives than the positives. For a man who cares about nothing else but his own legacy, Mahathir will not bother what implications his words have on the roads ahead for this ’still forever developing’ nation.

He will certainly not care if there will be missiles flying across oceans or suicide bombers with MyKads in their pockets. If that day comes and he is still blogging, he will just say “It’s other people’s fault. Not mine!”

If The Secret is really the way how this Universe spins, Mahathir would certainly be guilty with his point number 12.

12. “Terrorism” is going to be a part of the world scene for a very, very long time.

But of course without terrorism and Malaysian joining the Middle East circus, Mahathir would grow into a lonely and bitter man without much to be remembered for.

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I normally don’t go through his crazy followers’ comments as they are usually some idiots with “I’m first today” or “You’re absolutely right, Tun”.

But one caught my attention this time:

By Iraman Hj KarimAuthor Profile Page on December 26, 2008 5:32 PM
Tun,
Keganasan…Umat islam tidak terkecuali. Saya tidak menafikan penglibatan penganut agama lain, tapi kenapakah umat Islam terlibat sama, sedangkan pengajarannya tidak sedemikian. Islam mengajak kearah keharmonian dan keselesaan kehidupan. Bumi Allah ini adalah muilik semua.
Mungkin mereka terlalu terhimpit. Mungkin mereka kecewa dan terlalu marah. Pemimpin mereka sangat bijak mengambil kesempatan untuk menyuruh umatnya yang tengah marah dan kecewa untuk meltupkan diri sendiri. Kononnya itu jihad dan masuk syurga. Mana dia ulamak-ulamak yang bijakpandai yang bisa mempengaruhi semua umat supaya kembali kepada keharmonian dan keselesaan hidup ini.
Di Malaysia..saya nampak dengan jelas, jika tidak ada pemantauan, tidak sampai 50 tahun keadaan keganasan spt yang Tun maksudkan mungkin juga akan berlaku. DiMalaysia, bukan satu perkara yang susah untuk memasangkan bahan letupan peringkat permulaan.

There is hope for Malaysia.

There is something really wrong with the Malays mindset. Maybe I shouldn’t say ‘Malays’ as there are many very intelligent and progressive Malays out there. Lets just say the government’s and UMNO’s.

The title of this news piece in MalaysianInsider makes me want to puke. Maybe not puke. ‘Meluat’ is the better word.

M’sia willing to help where Malays are minority, says Najib

Malaysia is willing to offer help towards the advancement of Malays in countries where they are a minority, said Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Najib Tun Razak.

Oi Najib! What is the matter with you? Look at the Orang Asli at Cameron Highlands. They have been here longer than your grandfathers, are minorities and still live in the jungles collecting ‘petai’ and ‘durians’. Their kids are still running around with their ‘lastiks’ while your son is hugging blondes at parties overseas. Maybe he doesn’t even know what is a ‘lastik’.

What ‘help’ are you talking about here?

Read more and I got even sicker. From feelings of ‘meluat’ to ‘muntah’ right away.

“Of course the Malays in these countries must be realistic. They cannot expect us to support them in taking up arms for a revolution to establish Malay governments in them,”

Frankly speaking, not many commoners out there like myself would have expected your ‘help’ to translate into ’support for armed revolution to establish Malay governments”. I nearly sprayed out the morning coffee in my mouth over my laptop’s LCD.

Taking up arms? O_o

I am seriously worried now. Malaysia’s next PM has either a brain the size of an ostrich’s (sorry ostrich), or one that is harboring thoughts of wreaking havoc in other countries. Or worse, both!

This is what I call ‘Bodoh Sombong’ (Another ‘You see… you see…I was right!’ from Mahathir).

Now that he is no longer a PM, he seems to be busy blowing his loud trumpet at how much better Malaysia is compared to US; or to be specific how much SMARTER he is than the Americans.

Dear racist Mahathir,

What is so damn hell great about the rot in your country after decades under your dictatorship? All you can do is pick on the few bad points of those who irks you, amplify your little achievements and blame all the rot on your hand-picked successor.

How about talking on the looting by Search & Rescue uniformed men or the sordid state of the police that started under your watch? (Msian businessmen say police force most corrupt institution, survey finds).

Not your problem? “I dunno…”, “It wasn’t me…” or “It was Badawi!” again?

Jangan jaga tepi kain orang when you can’t even sort out the problems at home.

I would have reserved a little respect for you in view of the rendang or satay lunch box I got after shaking your hands at Seri Perdana many Rayas ago if you would just shut the ‘F’ up!

You didn’t only bail out failures, you spoon-fed them to fail in the first place!

Look at Proton. After two decades of spoon-feeding, today I hear they are going back to ‘borrowing’ unwanted technology from Mitsubishi. Are we seeing another 20 years of ‘bodoh sombong’ period of manufacturing the same Mitsubishi model again?

Your racist policies of promoting the incompetent and rejecting the capable ones had created a nation of lazy and corrupt parasites seeking the easiest way to riches without having to earn it.

Basking in the glory of failures and cheering “I was right at the wrongs” when others quietly eat the humble pie and go on soul-searching to find out what went wrong;

…that’s you, Mahathir Mohammad.

The startling accusation was made by the family of Ng Yee Ping, a 30-year-old accountant who perished in the Bukit Antarabangsa landslide tragedy on Saturday.

“Later, a few rescue personnel arrived at the scene but they just threw a spade at (my sons) and did nothing,” she alleged, claiming that Yee Ping could still be alive if they had assisted.

But they didn’t (help). (They treated her) like some dead dog or cat. Would they have done the same if one of their family-members was involved?” she asked bitterly.

He claimed that when he returned to the house on Sunday morning, he was shocked to discover several men in uniform lying on his bed, smoking and drinking his wine.

“One of them had even asked me whether I still wanted these things, if not I should give it to them. Later, my wife and I examined our safety box and found it opened. Several branded watches and jewellery were missing,” he said.

I dunno what to say.

I feel so angry this is happening.

Yes. It’s possible that the victims did not lie. What is the motive to lie during this mourning period? Would you vent your anger unreasonably on rescue personnels by cooking up such accusation when you’re supposed to be arranging the funeral of your loved ones?

The victims of Bukit Antarabangsa belong to the rich and upper class society. Poor and middle class people don’t get to stay in bungalows at the prestigious community of Bukit Antarabangsa. Money is the least of their worry during this difficult time. Think about it.

I’ve had accounts of fire rescue personnels setting up table outside of a burning shophouse so neighbor owners can sit down and negotiate payment to start operation to prevent fire from spreading to the adjacent shops.

I can’t believe an idiot can be a police chief, but that’s the fact in Malaysia. Read what this Khalid the BODOH has to say. He can rival ZAM on Al-Jazeera.

“You don’t expect an ambulance driver to save a buried victim. He is not trained, so if we request untrained personnel for help and they refuse, we shouldn’t blame them.

“This is because their lives are in danger too. I think we should respect their decision. To dig and save someone, one has to be trained. For an untrained person, it’s a very dangerous task,” he said.

I hope that before you all write your news, you will consult me first, and make sure such things really happened. Is there anything wrong with that?

I hope one day, this Khalid will get to experience being thrown a spade at and asked to dig it himself.

What is to become of this sick country? Yes. I blame all this on nobody else but Mahathir Mohammad, the racist who could just snap his fingers and get millions to kneel down and worship him.

Racism calls for protectionism. Protectionism causes laziness. Laziness breeds incompetency. Incompetency motivates corruption. Corruption leads to looting - Yes, those are my words to sum up Mahathir Mohammad’s rule.