The Rambling Thoughts of an Ordinary Malaysian
Current Affairs Gadgets & GizmosIn an unprecedented move, Tun M did the unthinkable to show up at a street rally Bersih 4 not once but twice in as many days.
Today, Tun M took the KTM Komuter together with his wife, Siti Hasmah, along with an old friend, Zaid Ibrahim. FB went abuzz with pictures of Tun M with the people in a train, arriving at the Central Market station at 4:30 pm this afternoon.
This is really unexpected and surprising. During his tenure as Prime Minister, Tun M never condoned peaceful assembly or assembly of any sort.
This evening at 7:30pm, he and his wife we’re mobbed by the crowd who were elated to see him there.
This can present Bersih 4 a big boost if morale and totally frowned upon by PM Najib. They are well respected veterans and Umno members, notwithstanding Tun M being an ex-PM and current instigator to wanting a change of PM.
In a rare sight, Siti Hasmah comments that Bersih 4 is “people’s power“.
Let’ see how the MSM spins this tomorrow.
Malaysiakini reported via Prime Streams just now.
It is certainly interesting to watch the public calls for no contest to Umno’s top two posts – President and Deputy President. Tun Mahathir made the most bewildering comment where he supported no contest for these two posts. But it was his reasoning that was bewildering.
“Going by the democratic practice, we should have contests but Malaysians do not really understand the practice. If they lose, they will quit the party and set up another, causing the Malays and Umno to split further.
“In this connection, I support contests, but not for the two top posts of president and deputy president.” (read here).
When Tun M referred to “Malaysians do not really understand the practice”, he really meant the Umno Malays since the context of his comments was on Umno election, not on the Malaysia General Election. His description of the following statement about quitting the party is probably the allusion to Tengku Razaleigh during the 1987 Umno election but it is not accurate as he did not quit the party because of losing. It was Umno which was deregistered and subsequently to that, Tun M registered Umno Baru and removed all of Razaleigh’s supports from the Cabinet, thus forcing him to form Semangat 46 in 1988 after an earlier rejection of the name Umno 46. It was Tun M’s vindictive actions to penalize Razaleigh and his supporters that caused the split. The then Umno President took immediate actions to prevent a repeat of a close contest to his top post.
This is probably a case of selective memory to build a supporting reason for Tun M’s comments to support a no contest for the top two Umno posts. Quite typical of Tun M’s style for speaking off the cuff and justifying what he says based on his own version of events.
PM Najib touted that Malaysia had the “best democracy” in the world. That is really a joke looking at now with the mooting of no contest for his Umno post. How is it that Malaysians can accept democracy in the country but Umno as a party cannot? Why is it that Najib can seek a mandate with Malaysians but cannot do the same within his own party?
Tun Dr Mahathir, our beloved former PM of Malaysia, continues to stir up the news. Visions of him on TV during the Umno General Assembly looking shocked but having no choice but to put his right hand across his chest to repeat current PM’s pledges continue to remind us that Tun M has to play to the gallery too.
Now, he has jumped into the foray to provide his opinions on Lynas and the economy. In both cases, more misinformation than ever before.
Strong words indeed to be used to describe what Tun M said. The two articles that reported his comments can be found:
a) Rare earths safe, or we’d be brainless by now
b) Our economy grew highest during NEP, says Dr M
So what did Tun M pick to say and what did he purposely ignored to give us this misinformation?
Tun M has strongly voiced many conspiracy theories on how Soros is attempting to undermine Malaysia’s sovereignty even though he has met with Soros. And so did Najib. Actions by the Government on SUARAM to investigate the Soros link is contemptible.
Now that Obama has won the US Presidency with Soros’ support, what will Tun M and Najib say? Najib has wished Obama well. Everything about Soros is conveniently overlooked or ignored.
Will there now be a conspiracy that Soros will use the US Administration to weaken Malaysia?
In present times, anything may be said for the expedience of politics and avoidance of potential embarrassment from the Scorpene case in Paris where SUARAM is a plantiff. For now, Soros is the best bogeyman.
Today, we read of the Government’s decision to “end the policy of teaching mathematics and science in English or PPSMI in both primary and secondary schools effective from 2012” (read here).
Muhyiddin Yassin, the Education Minister, says it was a fair decision that was carefully made after analysing the implemention for six years.
Muhyiddin had admitted in Parliament last month that students had not shown significant improvement in the two subjects over the past six years.
Interestingly, he and MOE officers had supposedly “briefed” Tun M on this decision probably to avert a backlash from the person who pushed for the teaching of Maths and Science in English six years ago (read here) and said that Tun M accepted this policy change.
Virtually immediately, Tun M came back saying he expressing “disappointment with the government’s decision to scrap his policy of teaching mathematics and science in English, saying it will affect future generations” (read here). He claims his recommendations was not taken into consideration after giving them to Muhyiddin during their meeting.
In an excellent recent article by Mathias Chang entitled “Flip-Flopping Fairy Tales – Malaysia Will Not Have 3.9% Growth In 2009 – Accepting Reality Is Not Pessimism, Giving False Hopes Is Not Optimism” , he challenges the nation’s leadership’s position of ostrich economics.
Surely, his grave warnings may sound like doomsday prophecy and may be brushed aside as wild speculation. Surely, the Badawi Administration can come out and say quite the opposite that all will be well and Zeti says we will not be in a recession next year. Yes, people in the right places can come out saying almost anything about the well-being of our economy.
But guess what? Only we the Rakyat will know and has known for a while now that tough times have arrived and tougher times ahead. It’s not about talking ourselves into a recession but to face the realities and do the right things.
Here are some of Mathias Chang‘s predictions (read here):
UPDATED: Anil Netto wrote an excellent article entitled “Malaysia’s Ostrich Economics” much along the same lines of this posting (read here). It was originally posted at Asia Times Online.
The Straits Times (Singapore) reported today (read here):
On a scale of zero for the least risky to 10 for the most, Singapore scored 2.76, followed by Australia (2.9) and Hong Kong (3.23). Most risky are India (6.87), Thailand (6.28) and Malaysia (6.07). They are vulnerable not so much to the financial fallout but due to internal developments, the report added.
Regardless of what Najib wants us to believe, come November 4 in Parliament, he will have to be candid and honest about the state of affairs in Malaysia. If he is wanting to be the next PM, he has to be seen to know what he is talking about and do something affirmative and not skirt around the issue or remain in a state of denial.
This indeed so strange for a Prime Minister to say. Pak Lah says he is not bothered with what people will think of him as the PM of Malaysia in the years to come. Legacy is something everyone should be concerned about. It is what the individual has done to make the world a better place. What more a PM who has the power to make a lasting impact on Malaysia as a country.
Pak Lah made many election promises in 2004 which resulted him winning the most votes any PM had done so in the history of Malaysia. During the four years, none of the reforms he promised which won him those votes materialized although they were much publicized for the wrong reasons like the Lingam scandal. This year, 2008 March, four years later, Pak Lah again made history winning the least votes any PM had done so in the history of Malaysia. Not only that, he also lost 5 states (Selangor, Perak, Penang, Kedah and Kelantan) and the KL Federal Territory. That’s also the most territory a PM in Malaysia has lost, these being the most developed and richest states.
Is this the only legacy Pak Lah is leaving? Winning the most votes and also the least votes in the history of Malaysia?
October 2008 is the hot month for Malaysia. This is the month to watch as many things that are going to happen during this time which have a longer term implication to us all.
Selamat Hari Raya to all Malaysians who are muslims. This day marks the end of the Ramadhan fasting month and in Malaysia, there is the get together by all non-muslims to join our muslim friends in their festivities.
The open houses by various leaders especially the PM and Deputy PM at PWTC was attended by many people today, including those from Hindraf, Anti-ISA and Free RPK friends. Alas, being an open house, there is little any security personnel can do to stop them and according to MalaysianInsider (read here) they managed to catch the attention of Pak Lah. All ended well and with respect.
This Saturday at Kepala Batas, there is bound to be some interesting visitors to Pak Lah’s open house at his home constituency.
Proud 2B Malaysian 