TO TALK OR NOT TO TALK

If UIA Constitutional law expert Prof Abdul Aziz Bari can be suspended by the authorities for expressing his professional opinion regarding the recent decree by the Selangor Sultan over the controversial JAIS raid on DUMC, then guess what will happen to us if we were to do the same. This is indeed a dangerous trend and precedence when university professors are made to be subservient to the wishes and thinking of the political masters, who think they (political masters) are experts in everything that goes on in the country, but in reality they are not.

Prof Abdul Aziz Bari is an acclaimed constitutional law expert and I have been reading a number of his comments and opinions over a number of issues, and I gain a lot of knowledge by it. And may I ask - who are these people that had criticized and demanded the suspension of the professor? Are they law experts themselves of the standing of the professor? The obvious answer is NO – they are merely some lowly self centered politicians desperately demanding that they be heard, and awaiting to be disposed off during the up-coming GE. If you look at the record of some, they are rejects of one political party and hops into another political party unashamedly pleading to their ‘masters’ that they be given a new lease of life to exist. Do I need to name them? I think you all know who there are – don’t you?

This is the mockery of the entire political system of the country today where voices of reason and conscience can no longer be heard and accepted. What need to be heard must be good for the hearing of our political masters and the many ‘pencacai’s’ that surround them. And anything that goes against their liking must be silence at all costs even if it is an opinion or an advice. The ‘killing’ will be done by the ‘pencacai’ and anything goes, and the trend now it seems, stories about sex (regardless if it is true or otherwise) makes good killing. And haven’t the son of Penang CM Lim Guan Eng been a victim of such scurrilous and vile attacks by you know who! Anuar Ibrahim is fighting for his life in court because of this. But what about the bottom grabber, the money laundering MB and the many corruptors and looters that gleefully lingers around the corridors of power?

The ‘masters-that-be’ knows all; his words are sacrosanct and must be obeyed; just like the days of the Egyptian Pharaohs. Haven’t we all learned from the events in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Syria and most recently Libya? I hope Malaysians are not like the North African Muslim nations, and God forbid that what had happened there does not happen here. But believe me, if the people are stressed out, anything can happen, and the youth today are no longer docile but are a conscious and a thinking lot. And isn’t this the reason why PM Najib has invited football fans to his Seri Perdana Residence to watch the English Premier League football match between Manchester United and Manchester City this Sunday night. I know the crowd will be mainly the youth.

Now, let me tell you this; there are already voices of dissent being heard, and it gets much louder by the day, over a number of issues that’s happening in the country today. Believe me, the judiciary is no longer held in high esteem, the police are seen as a tool of its political masters and the MACC has lost its credibility to even justify its existence when they themselves are seen to be abusive, inefficient and ‘corrupt’. Do I need to name the rest i.e. immigration, customs, EC where acts of abuse and corruption have been ceremoniously associated with them? There will always be something that ordinary Malaysians can talk about in reference to one or some of the departments that I have just named. I have heard it all and I bleed every time I hear such demeaning and disparaging acts concerning these departments whose very existence is to provide service to the people.

Now, going back to Prof Abdul Aziz Bari and the opinion he made is merely a fraction of what was said by our UMNO leaders during the 1993 Constitutional Crisis involving the Malay rulers. Certainly, Prof Abdul Aziz Bari was more refined in the use of his language when making a professional opinion, and he wasn’t at all condemning the Selangor Sultan or used words to belittle the Sultan. I would like to ask - have the Selangor Sultan himself made a pronouncement that he was hurt by what Prof Abdul Aziz Bari said? No the Selangor Sultan has not, and why has there been so much of hue and cry about this?

Although I was in Cambodia during the 1993 Constitutional Crisis, I watched every bit of the news regarding the crisis on satellite TV at how the government would run down the royalties unashamedly on a daily basis. I don’t need to quote statements made by some of our political masters, especially UMNO leaders then, against the Malay rulers that were published in the local print media, because it is already in public domain. And now they claim that they are a party that uphold and defend the rights of the Malay rulers. Am I to believe this and be easily convinced after all they did and acted against the Malay rulers? I’ll be a fool if I were to say yes.

This takes me to an article that I wrote in May 3, 2011 titled “Malay Disunity – A Cause For Malaysian Disunity”, and I would like to say it again that there is something in the Malays (my race) that is damning and partly a cause for today’s misfortunes. The act of FITNAH seems to be synonymous with the Malays now, and it is getting more prevalent and daring, despite the abhorrence Islam placed upon such acts. If such act does not ceased and punitive actions are not taken upon the perpetrators of FITNAH, then all can be rest assured that talks of MALAY UNITY might as well be thrown into the drain.

In the case of Prof Abdul Aziz Bari, it was obviously a Malay that had caused all the problem, and may I ask – what next?


CRUSADE AGAINST CORRUPTION

KETUANAN MELAYU – WHY THE FUSS?

I do not know whether to laugh of cry, when I read the Bernama report in NST online dated Nov 2,2008, where Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim is reported to have asked Datuk Zaid Ibrahim to get out of the “rumpun Melayu” (Malay grouping) over the latter's remarks on “ketuanan Melayu” (Malay supremacy) which the former deemed as extreme. Datuk Zaid Ibrahim had said that the “ketuanan Melayu” concept “was a failure and a detriment to the Malay race”.

I just wonder what is so extreme in Datuk Zaid Ibrahim remarks? Personally, I am not the least offended by what Datuk Zaid Ibrahim has said. Allow him his rights to free expression and for those who do not agree with him, they just have to ignore him. Why is Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim making a big fuss?

And for Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim to suggest that Datuk Zaid Ibrahim gets out of the Malay grouping for the latter's 'extreme remarks' is indeed comical, nonsensical and only reflects the hollow mentality of the former. I am not quite sure whether Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim had said that in jest, or whether he really meant what he said. And if he really meant what he said, how on earth is Datuk Zaid Ibrahim going to get out of his Malay roots. Will changing his name or changing the colour of his skin satisfy Datuk Seri Sahaidan Kassim?

My brotherly advice to Datuk Seri Sahaidan Kassim is for him to search his soul, and to ask whether he has done enough for the Malays in Perlis when he was the Menteri Besar. Had he been the true champion of the Malays in Perlis, surely he will still be the Menteri Besar today. There must be something seriously wrong with him to incur the wrath of the Malays in Perlis and worse still,the wrath of HRH Raja of Perlis to reject him as the Menteri Besar.

And pardon me for saying this...I will only believe in "ketuanan Melayu" if the Malay leaders are fair to all Melayu....not the Malayu from just one political party only. Ask any kampung folk if they know what "ketuanan Melayu" means to them. The answer is "we do not know, and we only want to make sure that our families get enough food to eat everyday".


CRUSADE AGAINST CORRUPTION
Posted at 9.52 pm on Nov 3,2008

WHEN WILL CORRUPTION EVER STOP?

DAP's Lim Kit Siang has said that he will be raising the issue concerning the purchase of the Eurocopter helicopter for the RMAF in the up coming session of parliament. The official announcement for the said purchase was made by Pak Lah, immediately upon having taken over the Defence Ministry from Najib.

It was rumored that his (Pak Lah) son Kamarudin had a hand in the deal, and if that is proven to be true, Lim Kit Siang therefore has every reason to expose this selfish plot that smacks of nepotism and cronyism to all Malaysians. Pak Lah himself who had recently claimed that the reason why SAPP Yong Teck Lee had been critical of the BN was because he (Pak Lah) could not satisfy Yong's 'personal greed'.

Now, in the case of the Eurocopter, and assuming that son Kamarudin was indeed a party to the deal,can we not claim that Pak Lah is himself guilty of wanting to satisfy his very own personal greed, as well as the greed of his family member? The guilt will remain with Pak Lah, if he opts to remain silent, and with that, the accompanying stigma of him being corrupt.

The Ministry of Defence had over the years, spend millions on large equipment purchases which are brought in from overseas. Undoubtedly, there will be someone who will make it rich; some merely by acting as intermediary or agents, and others who are in the position of authority to approve.

Granting of profits and commissions, I am told are quite normal in any business transaction. However, what is unusual is the manner in which contracts are being awarded. This so-called 'direct negotiation' is so commonly practiced by a number of ministries, that one begins to suspect that there is the element of corrupt practices involved. Price murk-ups to such exorbitant levels has also been observed, merely to cater for the lust of some crocked and damningly corrupt government officials. The practice of awarding contracts by 'direct negotiation' is still rampant in some ministries, even at this very point of time.

By the way things are going, I do not believe that we can totally eradicate corruption, in our midst. And of late, I am particularly concern to see the increase in the number of senior government officials being caught for corruption and what is worse, they are all Malays of the Muslim faith. I am ashame....utterly ashame for my race and religion.

CRUSADE AGAINST CORRUPTION