Dr Chandra
Muzaffar – just an open note for you Once your heart was
filled with egalitarian ideals which
copiously propagated into the pages
of your books and Aliran Monthly.
I admired your courage to say these forbidden
ideals which in the eyes of the UMNO’s
kingpins were seditious.
Teng Chang Yeow
– You are a TRAITOR.
Okay, okay, I am not that nasty anyway to call
you a traitor or anyone else who call for the
restoration of the Penang Free Port status.
Definitely it’s not my style to affix
this “T” label on anyone.
Well, if you don’t believe me, go back and
look up the Penang Hansard and leaf through the
pages to the State Assembly debate
on 9th June 1994.
Lim Kit
Siang – a personification of political
decency, honesty and civility The response to Kit
Siang’s visit was enthusiastic and warm, and
I could see in the hawkers’ eyes that they
appreciated it very much that he personally took
time off from the scathing battle in Gelang
Patah, Johore, just to see them – his old
constituents.
P. Waythamoorthy
- a letter just for you Believe me,
Waythamoorthy, there can never be a bright future
for us in Malaysia if we do not see and treat
ourselves as brothers and sisters.
A
New Year Wish 2013 - An Independent
Judiciary The three pillars of good
government, the Legislature, the Executive and
the Judiciary must be separated. The
legislature legislates laws, the executive
executes them, and the Judiciary checks its
implementation.
Tranforming
Penang into a world class tourism hub? The
gumption to tell the truth is never a forte of
the Barisan Nasional Government.
And these lies had been repetitively bundled into
cute little news reports that were ever so
willingly published by the subservient BN leaning
media as truths.
This is Gobbel’s doctrine at its best
– repeating lies over and over again until
it “transformed” into truths.
Najib's 20,000
affordable houses in Penang, is it for real? I sort of a pity
Najib. It’s none of his fault, but his
advisors. Promising to build
“not less than 20,000 units of affordable
housing…in Penang,” without knowing the
fact that the same very BN had earlier made a
promise under the four Malaysia Plans spanning
from 1976 to 1991 to build 39,279 houses, but
managed to deliver only 5,484. And it
is even more clownish as this big
“Promise” comes under the
“Promises Fulfilled” banner.
BN govt never
stood by the rakyat in BKT Merah and Papan “there is one principle to
which all should adhere: regulatory authorities
(Government) should be effectively separated from
implementing organization (ARE), since … the
prime duty of regulatory authorities is to
protect Man and the environment, ensuing the
… radiation doses to Man do not contravene
the recommendations of the ICRPregulation.”
Nurul Izzah's No
Compulsion view - A case of misinterpretation
In fact, if they assign these meanings to
not-man, they are not wrong. But what is wrong is
that they have assigned these to a reflective
view in an “infinite” fashion. This
should not happen because between Compulsion and
no-Compulsion, there is absolutely nothing. This
is what one calls the Law of Excluded Middle as
opposed to the “Infinite” term.
Indian Gangsters
or just lost souls Sad as it is, he died a
nobody. I never judged him as a gangster,
but a man yearning to be heard and his cry for
help was woven into his stories.
No man can get
rich in politics unless he's a crook! Even after reading his
“natural abhorrence” statement, my
ringgit still does not feel safe in my pocket.
Frankly speaking, I cannot really grasp the real
purpose of his speech because in reality,
corruption had already seeped into every nook and
corner of our society that had become as common
as “nasi lemak
Shadowing's more
crucial than shadow cabinets That's why in Canada,
Shadow Ministers are referred as Shadow Critics
not Ministers. Thus, leaving the naming of
the new Cabinet Ministers after the General
Election and not before
Ngeh’s tweet
not a proposition but a question. Given that Ngeh’s tweet is
not a Proposition, but a Question, we must
be sincere to treat it as one. Please don't put
words into Ngeh's mouth.
Yoga? I remember
‘mandi safar’ When the Malaysian authorities
disallow the Muslims to practice Yoga, it became
a hot issue. This was because Yoga had elements
of Hinduism.
An open letter to
MP Chow Kon Yeow During my work-visit to Penang
in 1994 with the late P. Patto, to helpout with
the first Suara Tanjung 3 issue, I wrote the
front page article,RM300,000
For Top BN Politician which was at
that time the hottest corruption case in Penang
Lynas’ RM
2-4 trillion money spinner? I guess a few weeks ago,
Malaysia woke up to the best news of the century
– a waste product that could generate RM 2
trillion ...
Toeing the Party
line: A bona fide Westminster practice Being columnists of the
mainstream news media, they are the top of
the heap in the realm of journalism. As such,
their comments on issues or events should
manifest as articulated views or opinions. These
all should be based on extensive observations
without wavering away from the hard facts just to
make the National Front smelling like roses and
the opposition smelling like a dumpster.
The existence of
42,051 doubtful voters - trivial? If the
“doubtful” 42,051 voters
“manage” to vote in the 13th
General Elections, it could influence up to 42
parliamentary and state seats with a 1,000 votes
majority. If it is a 300 vote majority, it
could influence up to 140 seats.
Watergate –
A sex scandal? For a starter, I hate to admit
that Dr. Mahathir is absolutely right when he
said that UMNO’s intellectual base is
thinning just like the fast receding hairline of
Samy Vellu’s.
Najib's
irrational fear of a hung parliament Now, why in world does
Najib fear it? He has the
experience of getting rid of the elected
Pakatan Perak State Government and replacing it
with a ‘Rump’ of his own.
Will the 69%
approval rate improve our lives? Apparently, the answer to this
vast difference in reality and the poll measured
is best described by the ancients which they
likened it to the analogy of the Plato’s
myth of measurng shadows cast
upon the walls of the cave
Bersih 3 in Ipoh - Video In a sense we've come to
our nation's capital to cash a CHEQUE.
When the architects of our republic wrote the
magnificent words of the Constitution and the
Declaration of Independence, they were signing a
PROMISSORY note to which every American was to
fall heir.
Dr Jeyakumar is apleasant
and a gentle person whose passion to help the
helpless poor had always been laced with
compassion. Not a strand in him that suggest he
is a violent person nor it is part of his
disposition. Whatever he does, transcend well
beyond race and religion. He is a true Malaysian
without the Indian adjective.
Papan-Bukit
Merah Radioactive Controversy : Why the
people of Papan, Bukit Merah and Menglembu
protested against Asian Rare Earth, a
subsidiary of Mitsubishi Chemical?
In the early years of 1984, the
people were made to believe that the
dumpsite was of good quality and ARE was
expected to monitor the disposal of the
radioactive waste
Mitsubishi
Chemical – Come clean with the Thorium waste
issue! I read
with amusement the latest article on Mitsubishi
Chemicals’ recent 100 US million cleanup of
the waste in its former radioactive plant in
Bukit Merah. Judging from the way in
which the story is presented or if we squint our
eyes at a slightly wrong angle, we might
mistakenly think that the whole episode rests on
the premise that the largest radiation cleanup is
an act of great charity despite having no legal
compulsion to do so.
Shadow
Cabinet – Do we have one in Malaysia? By
demanding the Opposition to form a Shadow Cabinet
had at last removed any skepticism that there is
a competing power to Putrajaya.
But this recognition is meaningless if barriers
are put up at every single mile towards Putrajaya
to thwart the Opposition from taking over.
Fifteenth year of
P.Patto’s passing – 12-7-2010 Today,
15 years ago, P.Patto passed away, leaving a void
that until today is not filled. Although, a
decade and half had passed, the memory of his, is
still vivid in the minds of those who had the
opportunity to be with him in the fight for
justice for the people.
An Open letter to
P.Uthayakumar and Koh Swe Yong Your party 15/38 strategy
‘to create, win in and create politically
empowered 15 Parliamentary and 38 State Indian
majority seats’ and Koh Swe Yong,
secretary-general of PRM (Star – 7/6/2010)
to contest as many seats as possible in the
coming elections will test or better still crack
the iron-clad feudal first-past-the-post
electoral system to ‘empower’ the
minorities – this had never happened before
in history, either in Malaysia or in Great
Britain.
Mahathir did not
reveal all about the Radioactive Waste issue Tun Dr. Mahathir had at last admitted, but
not all, what the foreign experts (engaged by the
residents 27 years ago) had been saying all along
i.e., the danger posed by the radioactive waste
from the Asian Rare Earth (ARE) company near
Bukit Merah and the waste dumps near Papan was
indeed genuine and serious.
One Malaysia? In conclusion, I guess
Najib had taken the first step to begin this
journey but the second step is already
off-course.
Inevitably, the third one would be heading
towards the direction of Abdullah’s Islam
Hadhari – it disappeared with his departure.
Apparently, Islam Hadhari concept was hard to
understand and difficult to implement.
The One Malaysia concept is different, it is easy
to understand but hard to swallow.
FROM A
BILLION RINGGIT TIN MINING INDUSTRY TO
NGA-CHOY-KAI INDUSTRY
Thanks to Barisan Nasional for single-handedly
transforming Ipoh from a rich and bustling
Tin-City to a Nga-Choy-Kai (Bean-Sprout Chicken)
industry. Ipoh never recovered from this fatal
stroke of incompetence and greed to corner the
World Tin Market. As a result of this, the once
vibrant Tin Industry was totally wiped out.
Do Have Some Humility For
Patto's Family The
renaming of Jln Silibin to Jln P.Patto had caused
an unusually large uproar from the businesses and
residents in this particular area.
Sewer
Journalism at its best When
I flipped open the newspaper the other day, I
noticed a report that caught my eyes. It was
about a report on the special relationship
between Anwar and Azmin.
Thank
God, We Are Africans
Steven Schlossstein, author of the book, Asia's
Little Dragons, lamented: 'Of all the government
leaders that I interviewed in the three counties
in this study, the politicians and bureaucrats of
Malaysia proved to be the most obstinate and
evasive.'
