Mahathir vs Abdullah Badawi: Happy Balls Zakaria!

If you remember my previous blog "Why I might not blog about Malaysia either", you might have noticed that I've taken a hiatus away from blogging about Mahathir vs Badawi. You know lah, I'm just not very fond of Club Kamunting, wearing baggy pants with stripes, squatting beside drains to brush my teeth and being some big lonely dude's toothless bitch.

Well... my balls seem to have grown back... and here I go again.

Now, where did I leave off the last time, a few months back...

- AAB was PM
- his son-in-law was in control of the govt
- the govt was a mess
- Tun M was pissed

>>>> Fast forward to the present >>>>

Hmmm, nothing's really changed, has it?

That's Malaysian politics for ya. We could have brine and brimstone, barbarians at the door, foaming at the mouth to plunder our hoard, enslave our children and rape our virgins - but nothing ever changes. As the jaded amongst us would say... biasa lah tu.

The latest was that wildly speculated, but ultimately fruitless Hari Raya meeting. If you had been holidaying in La-La-Land or was rendered unconscious during those few days by the haze, here are links to the press conferences each of them gave after the meeting.

24/10: Transcript of Tun Mahathir's press conference

27/10: Transcript of Pak Lah's press conference

Analyses and opinions abound about the outcome of that anti-climatic meeting. Undoubtedly, you must have read all the spin that the press has been pushing down your throats... that the ministers are disappointed, the politicians are disappointed, the sultan of Johor is disappointed and the rakyat are disappointed. All in all, everyone's disappointed including my neighbour's pet shi-tzu. He has such a sad look on his droopy face that one can only conclude that he's also terribly disappointed with the failure of the "peace talks".

Well, let me venture a guess why the ministers and politicians are disappointed. It's not because they want the distractions to stop so that they can focus on serving the rakyat. Just how gullible do they think we really are?

The ministers and politicians are disappointed because as long as Tun M keeps picking at the bloodied scabs of the govt, the more perceptive & idealistic amongst the rakyat will feel emboldened to do the same and step forward to point out the mischief that our "leaders" have become so accustomed to perpetrating.

For instance, kudos and felicitations to The Sun for breaking the Happy Balls Zakaria story (Zakar-ria -> Happy-balls, get it?) and exposing how palaces are built without approval, restaurants can operate without licences and how the state can sell land worth more than a million ringgit for RM180,000. In another instance, 2.4ha was sold for RM7,000!

Various govt officials have had strong words against Zakaria for the benefit of the press. Heck, the sultan of Selangor's even summoned him but to no avail (he was sick earlier, now he's on holiday). But NOBODY in the govt (not the PM, not his ministers, not party leaders) has expressed any opposition, much less outrage at the Selangor MB's assertion that Happy Balls needs to be let off with a meagre RM24,000 slap on the wrist. Damn... Happy Ball's outright profit from the govt land he bought is nearly 43 times that amount already. That ability to be impudent to all, sundry and royalty, my friends, is the power of an UMNO strongman.

For more on Happy Balls, read this article from the Straits Times, the latest from The Sun (link added to blog on 28/10/2006) and this from The Star after he finally went to face the sultan (link added to blog on 28/10/2006).

If you ask me, the ministers and politicians are disappointed because they are scared. *Scared shitless* that this budding "transparency" will snowball, and one day burst the floodgates to wash all the skeletons out of their closets. Happy Balls is just the tip of the iceberg. And as you know... although icebergs appear to be mountains floating in the sea, 9/10ths of their huge bulk is actually underwater and remains unseen below the waterline. Now, that's not so dissimilar to the mess our country is in right now, is it?

So, what's to come from Mahathir vs Abdullah Badawi?

If there is a god up in heaven above, I hope there will be more probing questions, accusations, revelations and outrage. Let's get this shit out in the open, once and for all. Let's get it all out so that joe public's nose crinkles at the stink and they go to the next General Election as better, more informed voters.

While we wait for the next General Election, let's hope Tun M remains healthy, stays strong and keeps asking the hard questions so that the rest of us mere citizens have the courage to do the same.

And Tun M's role in this is more important than you'd think. He's not just some funky old pensioner with a big mouth and nothing better to do. He's the only one who can directly criticise the govt and not have to take a sudden free vacation at Club Kamunting courtesy of the Special Branch. Have a read of his published statement below.

TUN M: WHY DID I CRITICISE THE PRIME MINISTER