Don't name your teddy bear Muhammad

Whatever you do, don't name your teddy bear Muhammad in Sudan...

Sudanese protesters call for British teacher's execution
The Associated Press
Published: November 30, 2007

KHARTOUM, Sudan: Thousands of Sudanese, many armed with clubs and knives, protested Friday outside the presidential palace in Khartoum, demanding the execution of a British teacher convicted of insulting Islam for allowing her students to name a teddy bear Muhammad.

The protesters streamed out of mosques after Friday sermons, as pick-up trucks with loudspeakers blared messages against Gillian Gibbons, the teacher who was sentenced Thursday to 15 days in prison and deportation.

They massed in central Martyrs Square, outside the palace, for about an hour, while hundreds of riot police deployed nearby to keep control, though they did not attempt to disrupt the rally. "Shame, shame on the U.K.," protesters chanted.

They burned pictures of Gibbons and called for her execution, saying, "No tolerance: Execution," and "Kill her, kill her by firing squad."

During Friday sermons, the Muslim cleric at Khartoum's main Martyrs Mosque denounced Gibbons, saying she intentionally insulted Islam but he did not call for protests.

"Imprisoning this lady does not satisfy the thirst of Muslims in Sudan. But we welcome imprisonment and expulsion," the cleric, Abdul-Jalil Nazeer al-Karouri, a well-known hard-liner, told worshippers.

"This is an arrogant woman who came to our country, cashing her salary in dollars, teaching our children hatred of our Prophet Muhammad," he said.

I've only got a few things to say... damn it's 11pm on a Friday night and I'm still at work... so, it'll be brief.

1. Why the hell would a white, Christian woman want to be in a god forsaken place that despises women, like Sudan in the first place?

So, even if she didn't name the teddy Muhammad, she's a dumb git to even go there. It's almost as dumb as a big group of Korean female Christian evangelists going to Afghanistan.

2. How come these people are so fanatically angry at a harmless teddy bear being named Muhammad, but they do absolutely nothing about thieves, robbers, murderers, rapists and corrupt politicians named Muhammad? Aren't human filth who call themselves Muhammad infinitely and exponentially more insulting to Islam than a stuffed bear?

How come they don't send any hit squads to Malaysia and help us get rid of some corrupt politicians also named Muhammad? How come they don't go after the parents of these bastards... who had the balls to name their children Muhammad but not the quality & upbringing to raise them to be honest & decent human beings?

You know what, we've even got a particularly crooked one who has 2 (TWO) Muhammads in his name. Doubly insulting and much more deserving of a Sudanese firing squad than that ignorant white woman... don't you think?

On sean-the-man and Pak La-La-Land.

As you've probably noticed, there's a distinct slowdown in the number of posts I'm making to the blog.

It's unfortunate, but unavoidable. In the interests of putting food on the table and retiring early, I've recently accepted a new job with my current employer, but there's a condition that I need to continue doing my current job until they find a replacement. Add on top of that, the fact that one of my team is on maternity leave... means that sean-the-man is doing 3 jobs at one time plus saddling a steep learning curve for the new one... yippeee-kaiea... sucks to be me.

Therefore, it's going to be one helluva Xmas and New Year, work-wise. I hope to be back to normal blogging speed by CNY 2008.

Meanwhile here are some comments on current events:

- Hindraf rally... right on! My brothers from other mothers. Everybody's giving you shit about that badly written memorandum, but we all know what's really going on. The rally and memorandum was to increase awareness of the blatant structured racial discrimination and religious prejudice in Malaysia. The demands in the memorandum were just... well, sensationalisation. Not a serious improvement plan.

Besides why should UMNO complain? My hero, KJ, said that it's NEVER WRONG to fight for your race, what.

- Use of ISA on rallies... the govt can do it. And they will. But all Malaysians and the world will know that they are merely using it to silence opposition to their bad policies and keep their wrongdoings buried. You have the moral highground.., use it.

- Pak Lah thanks Malaysians for supporting him... hmmm... talk about wanting to be told the 'truth'. It's confirmed... His new nickname is Pak La-La-Land... cos that's where his official residence is if he thinks that Malaysians are supporting his govt.

Why the Everest is not as tall as the English Channel is wide

This is a delightful interview on Malaysiakini where the interviewee debunks the superficial "achievements" of Malaysia Boleh, or in his eyes, Melayu Boleh. Furthermore, he gives examples and questions why the achievements of non-Malays were never put on the same pedestal as those of the Malays, even when the former's achievements were no less significant to the nation. A good read indeed.

I'm sure this will get comments that it is anti-Malay or anti-Bumi. But read it again. And then read it once more. Kee is not being anti-Malay. He is simply questioning why the UMNO-led Malaysian govt is being anti-non-Malays.

Thanks to Ipoh Timur Opposition Member of Parliament Lim Kit Siang for reproducing this interview on his blog. Btw, YB, how come the street lights in Ipoh Gdn where my parent's house is, don't work 6 days in a week? I know you're busy in KL, keeping BN in check and all the other important stuff... but don't make the residents of Ipoh Timur proud of you on a national level but damn-kow sick of you at a local, day to day - I can't walk out of my house at night because it's so fcuking dark that I'll get mugged and thrown into a ditch - level.

>>>>>>>>>>

Kee to deciphering Umno semiotics
Helen Ang Nov 15, 07 12:51pm

Kee Thuan Chye is an author, actor-director and dramatist. He has written four major political plays: ‘1984 Here and Now’, ‘The Big Purge’ [read at the Soho Theatre in London, 2005], ‘We Could ****You Mr Birch’ and ‘The Swordfish, Then the Concubine’ [adjudged one of the top 5 entries to the International Playwriting Festival 2006 organised by the Warehouse Theatre in the UK.

He’s also a journalist of 30 years’ standing, beginning his career at The National Echo in 1977. Q & A follows: (The views expressed here are strictly the interviewee’s own and do not reflect the stand of any organisation that he is with)

Helen: You’re someone who works intimately with language and having broad experience of the mass media – which in Malaysia is the channel for communicating the dominant narrative. As such, I’d like to get your reading on the ideas behind some of the things said and done at the recently concluded Umno general assembly.

Let’s start with Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi saying: “The act of unsheathing and kissing a keris is part of our cultural heritage but its meaning has been twisted to spread fear among non-Malays, and the image of Umno and Malaysia has been smeared overseas.”

The PM was referring to Youth chief Hishamuddin Hussein who at the wing’s assembly in 2005 started his so-called ‘tradition’ of brandishing the keris. He has since said he expects non-Malays to eventually become “de-sensitised” to his waving this ‘symbol’, and in fact pronounced that naysayers should get used to it.

Deputy PM Najib Abdul Razak believes the act should be celebrated by all races. What do you make of the semiotics of the Umno keris? Is it a “symbol of protection for everyone” as Hisham and the local media would have us think?

Kee: I certainly don’t think it is a symbol of protection for everyone. This kind of talk is typical of Umno politicians who often twist semantics for the purpose of fooling the people. Well, it can fool those who are easily swayed by superficialities but not the intelligent public. Many Umno politicians appear to be pretty superficial themselves and therefore tend to misperceive that the thinking of the rakyat is mainly of the lowest common denominator.

The keris is a striking visual image. When it was first brandished in 2005, it naturally sent fear waves among the non-Malays. The body language of the person wielding it and the words uttered in accompaniment and, more significantly, the tone in which they were uttered combined to even more dramatic effect.

In 2006, the second time it made its appearance, the event looked choreographed – with Hishammuddin raising the unsheathed keris heavenwards and his Umno Youth brethren raising their fists in unison alongside him, in rows of solidarity. It was fearsome, like a military phalanx. All the signs pointed to aggression.

Hishammuddin was theatricalising a moment, and it was theatre with a powerful message – all the more effectively communicated because it was televised ‘live’ and it went out to millions of viewers.

And when you unsheathe a keris and hold it in that way, you’re bound to incite certain sentiments among your followers and to provoke them to ask when you are going to use it, as Hashim Suboh did. This inevitably recalls the moment of a day 20 years ago when Najib reportedly wielded a keris and vowed that there would be Chinese blood on its blade by the end of that day.

In Hishammuddin’s theatrics, the context was clear. It was an Umno Youth assembly, which is a strictly Malay gathering. The aggressive stance, the iconic Malay keris and the invocation to uphold the Malay struggle – all these pointed to an ethnocentric concern.

Other races were certainly not being defended; on the contrary, they were implied to be the enemy.

With weapon in hand, Hishammuddin was unequivocal in his assertion that Umno Youth wanted the return of policies favouring the Malays and would take action against those who opposed the movement’s proposal to revive the NEP. He later said that the keris represented Umno Youth’s “renewed spirit in empowering the Malays”.

So now for Hishammuddin to say that he would use the keris again in 2007 as a protector of all Malaysians – not just Malays – is disingenuous. Any intelligent Malaysian can see through the doublespeak.

What is even worse – and insulting – is what he said about “desensitizing” non-Malays to the issue of the keris. Only a person with a supercilious attitude would behave that way. What he implies by that statement is that non-Malays must accept what he does, no matter how revulsed they are by it. It’s like slapping someone in the face and then slapping him again and again, and telling him that he has to tolerate it each time until he gets used to it. What arrogance!

The arrogance surely stems from the idea of ketuanan Melayu that has been the focus of Umno’s propagation the last few decades. One could read into that “protection” doublespeak an implicit statement of Malay supremacy lording over the other races. This is the same kind of arrogance exhibited by Puteri Umno in its recent criticism of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP). A mere wing of Umno had the gumption to tell a partner of the Barisan Nasional to “stop making noise”.

This is the same kind of arrogance exhibited by Hishammuddin when he issued a warning to the MCA leadership last July to stop saying that Malaysia is a secular state. The leader of a Youth wing had the gumption to tell a senior partner of Umno’s in the BN to shut up. On an issue of national significance, to boot.

In supporting Hishammuddin’s keris antics, Abdullah reveals himself to be contrary to what the mainstream media have hailed him as – “a Prime Minister of all Malaysians”.

It undoes what he had been trying to do throughout this year’s Umno general assembly, which was to be conciliatory towards the other races by not bringing up issues that would be sensitive and threatening to them, particularly religion. No doubt Abdullah knows he cannot afford to alienate the non-Malay voters in light of the upcoming general election. He could have reminded the Umno delegates about this on the eve of the assembly when he briefed them on what issues to avoid. He could also have advised Hishammuddin to take that soft approach with the keris this time.

It was all rather predictable. Umno is inadvertently transparent that way!

In any case, how could Abdullah be considered a PM of all Malaysians when he was the one who stopped any further discussion of Article 11 of the Constitution; did little to clear the air about whether Malaysia is not a secular state; did nothing to quash a proposal by none other than the Chief Justice (then) to replace common law with Syariah law; rejected a proposal to set up an inter-faith council; told ministers within his own Cabinet to withdraw their memo to him calling for a review of laws that affect the rights of non-Muslims? One could go on.

Helen: Well, to go on to next in the hierarchy, Najib’s address this year was themed ‘Reaching for the Stars – Elevating a National Civilisation’, doubtless to ride on the “Malaysians walking a few inches taller” hype generated by the first Malay to go into space. I note a resolute semantics when one man’s ‘space tourist’ is another man’s ‘angkasawan’, while a cynic’s ‘joyride’ is the administration’s ambitious ‘space programme’.

The use of ‘angkasawan’ is blatantly deliberate; I find the English papers parroting this Malay word too. I’d read earlier that Nasa does not see Dr Sheikh Mustaphar Sheikh Abdul Shukor as an “astronaut” but rather a “space participant”. Is the ‘angksawan’ another case of Boleh creative accounting (adding and subtracting)?

Kee: Given the political reality we are in, a reality that has evolved under a campaign of institutionalised racial discrimination over the last 30-plus years, very few Malaysians would have expected the candidate for space to be other than a Malay. The non-Malay contenders were, to put it brutally, merely tokens. The final selection came as no surprise then.

The more cynical among us would also have deduced that it was all part of the Malay agenda of creating “towering Malays”. And there was not only one candidate, there were two. The second is now a spaceman-in-waiting, and to all intents and purposes, he will get his day in the stratosphere, because he will add to the list of “towering Malays”.

(I like the use of the term “spaceman” to describe each of our two aspiring angkasawan; as my dear friend Azmi Sharom pointed out astutely in his column for The Star recently, Sheikh Muszaphar is a man and he was in space.) More important, however, are the questions on a lot of people’s minds: What did our spaceman really achieve? And what has our nation achieved? Did we build our own rocket? Did we find a new way of going to space?

Helen: I would say we found a new ‘leng chai’ poster boy to set women’s heart aflutter … but in any case, to look back, there was the less than enthusiastic reception of the Everest conquerors that were Indian. Whereas a Malay man swimming the English Channel was rewarded with a Datukship – a feat that even a 12-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy (Thomas Gregory / 11 hr 54 min in 1988) accomplished minus the sort of state support and sponsorship given our Malaysian ‘hero’ Abdul Malek Mydin (17 hr 40+ min).

Kee: Non-Malays who have accomplished greater feats tend not to be lionised as much. As you rightly pointed out, the Indians who scaled Mount Everest got short shrift. This also happens in the field of sports.

The Sidek brothers were elevated to legendary status for their success in badminton, totally overshadowing the non-Malay greats who had led the way long before them (Wong Peng Soon, Ong Poh Lim, Ooi Teik Hock, Eddy Choong, Tan Aik Huang, Tan Yee Khan, Ng Boon Bee, etc).

When Mohd Hafiz Hashim won the All-England singles title in 2003, he was rewarded with a car, land, money and a hero’s welcome home. When Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong won the All-England doubles title last March, they were rewarded with only a fraction of what Hafiz got. Not that such rewards are necessarily good. Sadly, Hafiz hasn’t outdone himself since 2003.

Helen: Lack of a maintenance culture.

Kee: I have a theory that our performance in sports started to decline with the inception of the NEP. Before that, we had great athletes like Jegathesan, Rajamani, Ishtiaq Mobarak and Nashatar Singh, and our football team was as good as South Korea’s. But from the ’70s onwards, things took a turn for the worse. I put it down to the decline in national morale. And of course also to the team selection criteria.

Helen: Where does it all lead?

Kee: It all leads to further superficiality. That’s what our leaders are good at – creating the myth of Bolehness by resorting to the accomplishment of superficial ‘feats’. These would include having the tallest flagpole in the world, at one time the tallest building in the world, the paean to Bumiputeraism called Putrajaya (which now appears to be a white elephant), etc, etc. Is there a biggest ketupat in the world too?

Helen: Most certainly, but could have been eaten by now.

Kee: But what it amounts to realistically is spending millions and billions of ringgit, which you and I contribute to whether we like it or not. To the movers of the cause, it doesn’t matter what the cost is as long as it serves the Bumiputera-building exercise. I think that’s unfair. Non-Bumis also deserve an even chance. We contribute too. I was disgusted when I visited Putrajaya at night a few weeks ago – all that money spent on maintaining it, all that energy to light up the streets and the buildings, and all for what?

Helen: To blink at spacemen in Russian stations? But do go on…

Kee: I’ll tell you what disgusted me even more recently. When I visited the Independence Memorial in Malacca last May and looked at the exhibits (pictures, write-ups, etc), I found almost everything centred on the efforts of the Malays. The contributions of non-Malay nationalists were blatantly neglected or marginalised. A handful of Chinese and Indian leaders got mentioned in passing, but that was about all.

Unless I missed it, I didn’t even see a single portrait of Tun Tan Cheng Lock in there. And he was the leader of the MCA at the time. Not only that – his record shows that he was a true nationalist who was president of the All Malaya Joint Council for Action (AMCJA) which, together with Pusat Tenaga Rakyat (Putera), rallied for Merdeka long before Umno got wise to the idea.

I don’t buy that ‘National Civilisation’ hogwash. “National” is just another abused word for “Bumiputera”. But many non-Malays have been conditioned into believing the Umno propaganda, first from having their mindset programmed in school, then from being exposed to the spin-doctoring of the mass media daily and the grand-scale theatrical extravaganzas staged by the BN government occasionally.

When the general election comes around, they will probably vote like they have been doing over the decades.

And sean-the-man, has an example too. Our very own (former) WRC (World Rally Championship) Group N Champion Karamjit Singh. He's a bonafide, true blue world rally champion, winning the world Grp N title once and the Asia Pacific title numerous times. No shortcuts, no punches pulled, not quarter given.

He is by a country mile, the most successful racing driver ever produced by Malaysia - but he's never gotten even a mere fraction of the huge official sponsorhips that never-win-anythings like Tengku Djan, Fairuz Fauzy etc have. He practically has to fight each and every season to keep his drive alive. But despite being largely ignored by the country's sports establishment, he wins championships nevertheless, and never fails to bear the Malaysian flag when he does.

And is he a datuk? Far from it. If a round-the-world sailor who didn't actually finish sailing round the world and an English Channel swimmer who swims slower than pre-pubescent little boys and girls get datukships, I don't see why Karam shouldn't.

Michelin Active Wheel

This is actually one of the better ideas to come out of the automotive green movement.

Think about it.

Drive motors/dynamos in each wheel means that the car is immediately 4WD where the power delivery and braking is individually adjustable, and there is virtually NO transmission loss. If you know anything about current 4WDs systems, the more control you have over power delivery - the more complicated and inefficient the mechanicals and power transmission becomes.

Anyway, the larger picture of green cars is that to date, there is still NO electric car that is NOT fossil fuel dependent to a large extent. Either from an onboard conventional engine (hybrid) or having to recharge its batteries by plugging into the power grid, which is powered by... guess what - coal or fuel oil power stations. Some countries have nuclear power, but me... I prefer a little carbon monoxide compared to radiation poisoning.

WTF is the Social Contract?

Ooi Kee Beng comes up with a commentary of Malaysia's current socio-political situation. He adds nothing new to the argument, and provides no new insight into a possible solution. But the reason why I'm posting this article is because Ooi says here that the social contract is that "Non-Malays were granted citizenship rights on the condition that they recognised the special position of the Malays."

The criteria for the success of this “social contract” — still proclaimed over 50 years later by the ruling coalition as the basis for political stability — are economic growth and inter-ethnic peace. Non-Malays were granted citizenship rights on the condition that they recognised the special position of the Malays due them for being badly handicapped by the colonial economy.

Refer to attached screenshot of his article.

But in his book, A Reluctant Politician, he quotes Tun Dr Ismail as having said that it was "imperative that if the Chinese were to be persuaded into accepting Malay as the national language, they should be granted citizenship as a quid pro quo. This was the real basis of the agreement between the three partners, particularly between the Malay and the Chinese."

Refer to The Real 'Social Contract'

But regardless of whichever version he thinks is the true 'social contract' - at least his article got one thing correct. The definition of this "special position of the Malays" must be clarified and debated openly. The public must know conclusively if 'special' in this context means 'allowing the rich to plunder in the name of the poor' OR 'helping the poor gain equal opportunity and uplift themselves'.

It is plain to all that the 2007 UMNO version of the 'social contract' refers to the former, whereas the 1957 Alliance version refers to the latter.

Santa's HO, HO, HO means Whore, Whore, Whore

Santa fury at 'ho, ho, ho'
By Janet Fife-Yeomans and Amanda Grant, November 15, 2007 12:00am

HE is an unlikely revolutionary but this Christmas, Santa is a rebel with a claus. He is having the last laugh on political correctness - and it's a great big fat belly laugh. Santas across Sydney are rebelling against attempts to ban their traditional greeting of "ho, ho, ho" in favour of "ha, ha, ha".

Recruitment firm Westaff - which supplies hundreds of Santas across the country - has told its trainees that the "ho ho ho" phrase could frighten children and could even be derogatory to women.

Two Santa hopefuls reportedly quit the course because of the hullabaloo of the ho, ho, ho. One would-be Santa has told The Daily Telegraph he was taught not to use "ho, ho, ho" because it was too close to the American slang for prostitute.

And let me introduce you to Sean the man's santarinas, who emplify the true spirit of Christmas. Starting from the left, meet Ho, Ho and the Hos.

Of UMNO's 2007 GA, Bersih's 4,000, Rommel and denying BN a 2/3s majority

I took a break from blogging the past week or so. Partly due to limited broadband access and an inordinate amount of work due to a member of my team being on 3 months maternity leave.

But Malaysia sure as hell was not on a break. So here's what I learned over the last couple of weeks.

UMNO might have toned down the racial rhetoric a little at this year's General Assembly, but it's still the same rubbish party without doubt. This picture here of Dumb & Dumber aptly depicts the essence of UMNO.

1. The mouths are wide open, but there's nothing worth hearing coming out.

I've lost count of how many ways they can spin and re-spin: "We will actively discriminate against you, your race and your religion, but without being unfair to you, your race and your religion."

That's like saying "I'm going to take this here penis, and thrust it in and out of your vagina repeatedly, but you're going to remain a virgin anyway. Trust me."

2. The fists are clenched in the air, but it means nothing more than upturned palms at the end of outstretched hands demanding 30% share for 0% contribution.

Their next free lunch.., the newspaper distribution industry controlled by that dastardly race which dared to enjoy their main festival and solitary public holiday when the UMNO president's son-in-law wanted to have his father-in-law's speech published.

Bersih went ahead with it's Nov 10th 'illegal' march to deliver a memorandum on clean elections to the Agung at Istana Negara.

The police closed off all roads into KL attempting to thwart the march, but were wrong-footed into thinking that Merdeka Square was the rallying point. Instead, the marchers simply marched straight to Istana Negara while the police formed an impenetrable cordon around a deserted Merdeka Square.

The newspapers of course, completely blacked out the marcher's side of the event, preferring instead to spread govt propaganda about riot police having to douse the marchers with chemically laced water cannons because they were in danger of being savagely attacked by boxes of half eaten sandwiches and rain drenched yellow t-shirts.

Best of all, according to 'official' reports, this picture of a huge ocean of people filling the entire length and width of the thoroughfare is actually only 4,000 people. Never have so many been counted as so few.

At the end of the day, it's all very simple. Things are not as rosy as some will have you believe, and it's going to take nothing less than a complete change of government (or at least a reduction of the ruling coalition's majority to less than 2/3s) in order to put the country back on the wagon.

Apparently, the election's coming soon. For the first time in your life, please vote wisely. If you're Chinese and you want what's best for the country, vote against BN... even if you need to vote for PAS against MCA. It doesn't matter that you disagree with PAS' Islamic Nation objective. Even if PAS wins all their seats, they don't contest enough seats to form the govt. But by simply voting for ANYONE BESIDES BN, we can deny BN a 2/3s majority.

If you're Malay and you want what's best for the country, vote against BN... even if you need to vote for DAP against UMNO. It doesn't matter if you disagree with DAP's Malaysian Malaysia. Even if DAP wins all their seats, they don't contest enough seats to form the govt. But by simply voting for ANYONE BESIDES BN, we can deny BN a 2/3s majority.

If you're Indian or dan lain-lain... according to UMNO, your vote doesn't matter. But trust me, it's in your best interest to simply vote for ANYONE BESIDES BN, to deny BN a 2/3s majority.

Comparing the Wii, XBox and PS3

A simple, easy to understand guide to comparing the Nintendo Wii, Microsoft XBox 360 and Sony Playstation 3.

Islamic state, your head.

Thanks to a heads-up from Screenshots, here's an article from the Jakarta Post where a 40-million strong Muslim organisation in Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority nation - unreservedly shoots down the argument that Islam demands that Muslims live in Islamic states.

The idea of the Caliphate, or Islamic state, has no basis in the Koran or the Hadiths.

The influential Bathsul Masail (problem deliberation) commission of the East Java chapter of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), made the statement after thoroughly reviewing the Koran and Hadith, along with other texts, including Attasyri' al-Jina'i Al Islami, al-Qoish al-Hami' al-Asyarqi Jam'il Jawami', Ad Din Watdaulah watadbikis Syari'ah, and al-fiqkul Islami.

While the discourse on an Islamic state become increasingly popular among the nation's intellectuals and the general public, it found no nash (argument and reasoning) in the books that provided the idea of an Islamic state with a textual ground. It said the books also said nothing about an Islamic state being a necessity.

"The Khilafah state therefore is a form of ijtihadiyyah (interpretation)."

Consequently, any effort to replace the country's Unitary State system with an Islamic one was prohibited.

I wonder if PAS, Najib, Pak Lah and Tun M read the Jakarta Post. It'll be interesting to get reactions from these champions of the [prohibited] Islamic state.

Chinese Malaysians need to f*ck for their race

According to The Star, Chinese Malaysians are not breeding enough to replenish their numbers, which have been falling drastically since Merdeka. If you think that Chinese in Malaysia are being marginalised now, you ain't seen nothing yet. It's 25% now, and there'll be hell to pay when it gets lower.

As my hero KJ says, it's not wrong to fight for your race. Therefore, it's not wrong to f*ck for it either. So, Chinese Malaysians better start doing it more, a lot more. In the spirit of community service, sean-the-man offers devirginisation and fertilisation treatments free of charge. If you're a fertile female ready to do your duty for your race, send a photo of yourself to sean-the-man and he'll get in touch with you.

Chinese urged to have more babies
By JACK WONG

SIBU: The Chinese should make more babies to arrest the community's dwindling birth rate.

State Urban Development and Tourism Minister Wong Soon Koh said the lower birth rate had resulted in the country's Chinese population plunging from 37% in 1957 to 25% in 2005.

"This will slip further to 24% by 2010 and to 19% by 2030 or a drop of 1% in every five years," he said at the United Chinese Association's 30th anniversary dinner here.

There is also mention of the high migration rate. State Minister Wong also says that there are good universities in Malaysia and Chinese Malaysians don't have to send their kids overseas for tertiary studies.

Well, why don't MCA put some weight behind those words? For the next election, why don't MCA promise that university quotas will be [really] abolished (ie. dissolve all matriculation courses and make the application and placement process truly transparent), and therefore, all university entries will be based on merit? Not only for a tertiary place in general, but also in terms of which specific campus and which specific course?

He also voiced concern on the high migration rate of the Chinese to other countries.

To arrest the trend, he urged the community to boost the birth rate and to enrol their children for tertiary education in the country instead of sending them abroad.

"There are good colleges and universities in the country to cater for the local population. There is no need to send our children abroad for further education," said Wong.

Federation of Chinese Associations Malaysia president Tan Sri Lim Yuk Tong said a committee has been set up to study the decline in the country's Chinese population.

He said the committee was headed by the Federation of Sarawak Chinese Associations, which had raised the matter at the federation's recent delegates’ conference.

A video is not a surat layang. It is accuser, witness and testimony

Malaysiakini reports "CJ gone, but problem remains". I agree and I'd tend to think that the Judiciary will remain screwed as long as these people are running the investigation.

There is a need to first verify the authenticity of the video clip featuring a prominent lawyer purportedly brokering the appointment of judges before there can be any investigation into the judiciary or formation of a royal commission of inquiry, said Nazri Aziz. The minister in the Prime Minister’s Department said it was therefore important for those with information on the video to come forward and assist the independent panel set up by the Government to investigate if the video was genuine.

“It’d be unfortunate if the mechanism (panel) set up is not used by the people. I really hope people will come forward. Then we can have a look at the judiciary. Otherwise, we may conclude there is no case,” he added.

The three-man panel was set up by the Government three weeks ago, but up till Wednesday no one has come forward to give information to the panel. Because of the absence of testimony, the panel could only hear the findings of the Anti-Corruption Agency, which was investigating the case.

Nazri said there was nothing more the panel could do other than wait for people to come forward because it has neither the powers to compel people to appear before it nor the powers to carry out legal investigations. - The Star

Why is the investigation focused only on people coming forward to 'verify' the video's authenticity?

Perhaps I do not enjoy the lack of technical savvy or abundance of ignorance that the panel and minister possess, but why in the world do you need 'witnesses' to come forward to verify the video? Isn't simply technically examining the video for any tampering a better way to determine its authenticity? Isn't the sole and most important concern whether the video is doctored or not? That is to say it depicts genuine events that actually happened, rather than footage that was artificially generated. Furthermore, isn't the recording of the video and what the video recorded, 2 independent events that should be separately investigated?

The minister says that a video is akin to a poison pen letter or surat layang. But is that true? I certainly don't think so.

Don't they realise that video evidence is NOT the same as the testimony of a witness or an anonymous poison pen letter?

Witness testimonies and poison pen letters purport the personal claims of individuals to be truthful accounts of another person's wrongdoing. So it is of paramount importance to the course of justice that those individuals be properly identified and the truthfulness of their claims be proven conclusively.

With video evidence however, the video itself is accuser, witness and testimony... all in one and all at once. It is not the testimony or poison pen of the maker of the video. It is the testimony of the events that took place in the video itself.

Indeed, it represents the events speaking for themselves. As long as the video is authentic, it's like being caught red handed. That's why the question of who made the video is a moot and ultimately irrelevant point. What IS of utmost importance is proving that the video itself is factually authentic and technically genuine.

From related posting: Utterly absurd that video maker's identity overshadows video's content

And we have a very recent precedent. Interpol obtained a scrambled picture of a paedophile downloaded from the internet, which they unscrambled. The unscrambled picture prompted a worldwide manhunt. Were they concerned who took the picture? Were they concerned who copied the picture file from the camera to the computer? Were they concerned who posted the picture on the internet?

NO. And that's because those people were NOT the point. The person in the photo was. The person in the photo was the one who committed a crime, and the photo was the evidence.

So, at the end of the day, the only thing that matters is whether the Lingam video was doctored. If it was not, then the ACA has a legal and moral obligation to take action against the people in the video.

Btw, this post in Malaysian Unplugged asked a good question. Why is the panel basing the conclusion whether the video was doctored on the opinion of an unknown technology company from Cyberjaya? Who are those people? Are they beholden to anyone? Are they independent? Are they qualified? Do they even have the equipment and skills to do such an analysis?

And it goes on to ask an even better question. Didn't we send the video to HK's ICAC for analysis? Why don't they make public the results of the ICAC's analysis? Was it consistent with the results from that Cyberjaya company?

Totally, unequivocally and violently against bumiputra housing discounts

Recently, there were some murmurings about people being dissatisfied with bumi discounts and quotas in the housing industry. But as usual, the mainstream newspapers (except The Sun) did not carry the story and you'll never see it on TV nor hear it on the radio. Malaysiakini carried a letter to the editor.

I am totally, unequivocally and violently against bumiputra discounts for housing.

Why should (only) bumiputras get discounts?

1. The rich bumis don't need it, and they sure as hell don't deserve it.

But by virtue of this being a simplistic % formula applied on the gross price of a house, the rich bumis will get the biggest absolute ringgit discounts, simply because they buy more expensive houses AND more houses compared to poor bumis. IS THAT NOT A RIDICULOUS, UNFAIR and most UNEQUITABLE practice?!

2. The poor bumis need it, but why aren't poor non-bumis who also need it, getting the same benefit?

This is the main reason why a 'poverty eradication' program like the NEP that is based on race, and not actual poverty, is a FALLACY and a FRAUD. Isn't an expansion of the low-cost housing program available to all Malaysians a better and more equitable solution? Or maybe apply discounts to all houses below RM120,000 that can be enjoyed by all Malaysians, where each family unit can only buy one discounted house.

3. Social re-engineering. To encourage bumis and non-bumis to live together.

Well tell me, why aren't non-bumis getting quotas and discounts in predominantly bumi housing estates to fulfil this noble purpose? Don't noble intentions go both ways?

Like I said... totally, unequivocally and violently against bumiputra discounts for housing.

Housing quota questioned
Jacqueline Ann Surin

KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 29, 2007): The imposition of a bumiputra housing quota is unconstitutional and is one of the property sector’s most pressing issues, Datuk Jeffrey Ng Tiong Lip said today.

Ng, the immediate past president of the Real Estate and Housing Developers’ Association Malaysia (Rehda), said Article 153 of the Federal Constitution, which allows for positive discrimination in favour of Malays and the natives of Sabah and Sarawak, does not include housing at all.

"The positive discrimination (in Article 153) covers only the specific areas of employment in public service, education, training or special facilities given by the federal government, and business permits.

"Housing is implicitly excluded," he said at a "Property Rights under the Malaysian Constitution" panel discussion at the 14th Malaysian Law Conference.

Ng noted that the sub-clauses under Article 153 made it apparent that the positive discrimination enjoyed by bumiputras should not deprive any other persons in the same areas of enjoyment.

"The positive discrimination allowed in our constitution is not done at the expense of others and is not a zero-sum game," he added.

He said it was highly problematic from a constitutional perspective when bumiputra quotas are imposed on all housing developers by the state authorities.

"In my opinion, a state’s imposition of bumiputra quota in our housing industry, if it was made into law, can be challenged on the grounds of Articles 8 and 153 of the Malaysian Constitution," he said.

(Article 8 states that all persons are equal before the law).

Ng added that Article 4 also stipulates that the constitution is the supreme law of the land and any law passed which is inconsistent with it shall, to the extent of the inconsistency, be void.

He said that when the bumiputra housing quota policy was implemented in the 1980s, property developers had to reserved 30% of available units in a housing scheme for a limited period of six months for purchase by bumiputras at a discount of 5%.

"Surely, the understanding then was based on satisfying the government’s social agenda and after enduring the six months reserved period, such unsold bumiputra allocated units can be released back into the open market for resale at prevailing market prices.

"However, today’s guidelines imposed by various state governments and local authorities have changed drastically at the expense of housing developers," Ng said.

He cited how the bumiputra housing quota imposed by all the states now ranges between 30% and 70%, the discount imposed varies between 5% and 15%, and the reserved period of six months is extended without any definite period of release.

He also said some state governments have introduced heavy monetary penalties and compensations before release of unsold units is granted.

For example, Ng said, the Selangor government and Kuala Lumpur City Hall recently introduced a new system of levy where an amount equivalent to the discount given to bumiputra buyers must now be paid to the authorities in exchange for the early release of unsold bumiputra quota units.

"What is unsold after a fixed period must be rightfully returned to us without making further contributions. After all, such units are rightfully owned by us as provided for under Article 13," Ng said.

Article 13 states that no person shall be deprived of property except in accordance with the law, and no law shall provide for the compulsory acquisition or use of property without adequate compensation.

"There is absolutely no justification for imposing such levy or contribution and such guidelines must be reviewed in accordance to our constitution," he said.

Ng said Rehda continues to struggle to convince state governments and local authorities to streamline conditions for release of unsold bumiputra quota units via an automatic release mechanism which is time-based.

He noted that certain state governments have also taken to inserting and endorsing a condition for bumiputra reserved lots on land titles, and marking bumiputra lots on layout and pre-computation plans.

"The restriction endorsement on land title is permanent whereas under the marking method, plans will be unmarked and restriction lifted once release of unsold bumiputra reserve lots are approved.

"Endorsing land titles with such restrictions by state governments is tantamount to creating de facto Malay reserved land and without obtaining consent from the landowner," he explained.

Ng said many well-educated bumiputras avoided buying bumiputra reserved quota lots in urban areas, where land titles have been endorsed, because they are less marketable upon resale in the secondary market and the market value of property is generally lower due to its restriction.

He said the National Land Council and National Council for Local Government have a big role to play in streamlining government policies and existing legislation which have been inconsistently and inappropriately applied in the housing industry.

Sun2Surf: Updated: 09:27PM Mon, 29 Oct 2007

And from Mr Lim Teck Ghee (of 45% bumi equity achieved fame) in a letter to Malaysia Today and Malaysiakini.

Recently we have another reminder of how deviations to the intent of the New Economic Policy – even to the extent of contravening the provisions of the Malaysian Constitution - continue to be practiced and further expanded (see the Sun article, Housing Quota Questioned, 30 December 2007). This issue - in the form of the imposition of a bumiputra quota in housing – was raised in a paper by the past President of the Real Estate and Housing Developers Association which was delivered to the 14th Malaysian Law Conference. The paper shows the extent of deep entrenchment and pervasiveness of racially biased administrative regulations and other policy instruments in a vital sector of the economy – all in the name of restructuring and reducing inequality.

Such discriminatory practices run against economic logic and social justice. They increase the cost of doing business in housing for the developers and add unfairly to the housing price of non-Malay purchasers. They are also damaging to social cohesion. Few other issues arouse so much dissatisfaction with non-Malays than the knowledge that they have to pay more for a house purchase simply because of their ethnicity. Many Malays are in agreement with the view that this is a bad and unnecessary policy which encourages a hand out and subsidy mentality as well as rent seeking and other abusive practices. Malay friends, in fact, tell me that there are ashamed of this requirement, and that there is no good reason why the requirement of a Bumiputra housing quota and the accompanying discount to purchasers should be imposed, let alone continued.

The principle that purchasers of housing or any other public or private good or service should be treated in exactly the same way in how ethnicity impacts on pricing and access should be scrupulously observed by all parties in the country – especially the government. In no other country in the world is there an attempt to practice official price discrimination on the basis of ethnicity. The government will deserve the stigmatization and odium that is attached to this form of discrimination should it persist with it and other similar policies.

9 out of 10 Malaysians DON'T WANT another angkasawan

There you have it.

According to sean-the-man's nowhere near scientific poll of the Malaysian public, 9 out of 10 Malaysians DO NOT want to send another Angkasawan to space.

Let's hope the govt is listening.

More reading on the Malaysian Space Program: http://sean-the-man.blogspot.com/search?q=ASTROCANNOT

Women in sexy outfits emotionally abusing religious men

Malaysia's Muslim men are suffering sleepness nights because their thoughts are distracted by a growing number of women who wear sexy clothes in public - PAS spiritual leader.

PAS has to stop making dumb statements like this if they ever want to be taken seriously as an alternative govt, especially by the non-Muslims.

If he went on to blame the men for not having the willpower and spiritual fortitude to control their evil thoughts and sinful desires, it'd be perfectly okay. It could even be considered an enlightened viewpoint. But nope... he has to go and blame the women for enticing and provoking men.

Tell me... if you had a horny dog that won't stop humping your leg,.. is the root cause because the dog's horny and needs to be castrated... or is it because your leg's just too damn sexy?

And even if you cut off your leg so that it doesn't 'entice and provoke' your dog's horny instincts... isn't the mutt still a bad, horny dog at the end of the day?

Pak Haji... what's the use of religion, faith and piety if those who are supposedly religious, faithful and pious need to live in a sterile world where all temptation (real and perceived) is removed from their presence, so that their religion, faith and piety is never tested?

When your faith in god is weakened by temptation, do you blame your lack of faith or the presence of temptation?

No polls soon becos of rainy weather

A DAP member puts forward his 2 cents why Pak Lah won't call an election anytime soon.

Well,.. let me put it this way. If DAP could predict the strategy of BN with such calculated certainty, they'd be the govt and BN would be the opposition.

I'm posting this not because I necessarily subscribe to the writer's theories about the weather and trickle down cronynomics being the main determinants of the election date, but because this article will never see the light of day in Malaysia's BN controlled media.