The Rambling Thoughts of an Ordinary Malaysian
Current Affairs Gadgets & GizmosSelepas Tsunami (After the Tsunami) by KOMAS.org
This is an excellent video that attempts to show what changes are and have taken place since the 2008 GE 12. It is a 36 minutes video and a very well produced documentary. Click on the link below to check it out.
Selepas Tsunami (After the Tsunami)
Ali Hamsa is a Partisan KSN
In his interview reply to NST, this was what he was reported to have said:
Some people have the knack to get into the spotlight but Ibrahim Ali has the knack to get that for the wrong reasons. It appears that he is desperately trying to be relevant to Umno to get a place in the “winnable” candidates list known only to a precious few.
First, he tells the world that Anwar is irrelevant (read here). He thinks if he chimes in after a few others say the same things regarding Anwar being irrelevant that Anwar can be just that. Alas, for an MP, this is quite unbecoming for him to condemn another MP. Seems he’s got nothing better to say. His PR expert advice is to get into the spotlight at whatever the cost or reason. He did just that.
Image taken from Malaysiakini
Then he makes the faux pas by distributing white packets to elderly folks in Perkasa’s first CNY open house he hosted (read and watch here). How can he not know that the color “white” is typically reserved for bereavement matters in the Chinese culture and money in a white envelop is a donation for the funeral? How can Ibrahim Ali give “funeral characteristic” symbols to, of all people, the Chinese elderly? What is he trying to convey to these folks?
The Malaysian Insider reported yesterday that NFCorp Chairman Mohd Salleh Ismail met with Perkasa and 15 other NGOs to brief them on the NFC situation (read here). Immediately after that, Ibrahim Ali gave a statement that “the office of the Auditor-General had already agreed in private that the company’s affairs were in order“. He further made startling remarks that stabbed the AG in his back insinuating that the AG made a mistake in his 2010 Report regarding the “mess” in NFCorp and that he should “release an official statement.”
Malaysians at KLCC
Now that the dust is settling, it is evident that there are many significant lessons and outcomes from the brave Malaysians standing up for a justice against oppression by their own Government and Police.
Here is a dozen.
1. Malaysians have shown that they are mature and will stand up for justice. This is true people power yet Malaysians are peaceful people. Regardless how the Police tried to lock down the city and barricade Merdeka Stadium, there were over 100,000 assembling all over the vicinity of Merdeka Stadium to get pass the Police and all their tear gas and water canons. And peacefully too. Noticeable amidst them was 76 year old national laureate A Samad Said.
2. Najib who last minute decided not to leave town after being severely criticized for wanting to abandon the country at such an hour. Najib who reneged on his stadium offer. Najib who ignored the King to discuss with Bersih. Najib who totally played deaf and dumb to the 100,000 crowd in KL and pretending they were a small group of dissent. Najib who has lost all credibility as a statesman of Malaysia allowing the Home Ministry to severely oppress the people. Najib who remote controlled the Police. Najib who may be having his last term as PM after today.
3. Hishammuddin and the Police oppressive actions that borders on madness have left a bitter taste in the mouths of all Malaysians. Peaceful gatherings, wearing yellow and walking in peace have met with violent beatings, illogical arrests, tear gas shootings and water canons laced with chemicals. The People will remember that they now have a power weapon to fight back. Their bold people power stand with their VOTES in the next General Election.
4. Technology like sms, the internet news, blogs and twitter have brought significant information that the people will believe to be true over the Government controlled media. Twitter was used widely in the Arab Spring upheaval. Twitter was used extensively today to track what was happening, where to move, who got arrested as well as pictures of the moment. Malaysians are all tech savvy and the use of such technology allowed such massive coordination of 100,000 crowd all over KL to march towards Merdeka Stadium. Check out #bersihstories to read how Malaysians supported each other regardless of ethic groups. Truly 1Malaysia!
5. Peaceful rally is what Bersih 2.0 was all about to highlight 8 points for an Electoral Reform. Instead of taking the claims head on, the Government decided to demonize Bersih, declared illegal including the collor yellow, made numerous arrests with the city locked down together with FRU actions, attempting to use a wild reasoning as if KL was going to be under attack of a foreign force. Bersih 2.0 remained peaceful. Only the Police and FRU were the aggressors.
6. The King demonstrated that he is above politics much to the dismay of Umno. He gave a rare instruction apparently approved by the PM which somehow showed his Kingship caring for the People and truly independent. Najib eventually ignored the King’s advice to work things out with Bersih when he realized that the King met with Bersih thus giving them credibility. Daulat Tuanku! Najib ignores the King’s advice, Ibrahim Ali criticize the King for meeting Bersih. Eventually, the King ignored him and not grant him an audience. The message is clear!
7. Perkasa is a washout. After criticizing the King and received no repercussions, Ibrahim Ali ordered his group to gather at Titiwangsa today at 12pm while he stays home. There were no members from Perkasa even at 2pm. Big mouth Ali has no followers. Bersih had 100,000 Malaysians walking for the future of the country.
8. Umno Youth ‘Patriot’ group led by Khairy gathered at Bukit Bintang. It too fizzled out after the 500 clashed with the FRU and KJ was arrested. At least he had courage but for the wrong thing.
9. Bersih 2.0 committee led by Ambiga stood out as heros for they had nothing to gain but stood up with brave Malaysians for justice in the face of ugly threats and oppressions. These are exemplary Malaysians. Malaysians salute you. BN condems you.
10. Pakatan Rakyat leaders like Anwar, Hadi Awang, Mat Sabu, Lim Kit Siang, Nurul Izzah, Tian Chua, and many more stood up to face possible arrests for walking with Malaysians. Even with the court injunction which is so bizzare, they stood with equal boldness with the rest of Malaysians unlike Ibrahim Ali who is only all mouth. Even KJ had the courage. This will give them full identity with the people whio wants justice and a clean and fair election. PR believes they can now win the next election, thanks to how 9 July has panned out.
11. BN will suffer severe backlash in the next election for sure. The way Umno influenced the maddening reaction to Bersih 2.0 also allowed Umno internal dissent to hit out at Najib. Notice how quiet the other component parties were. They dare not oppose Umno or say anything that might jeopardize BN giving a wrong impression.
12. The writing is on the wall. The people wins. The BN Government loses. The actual effects can only be seen at GE13. The sledgehammer approach to Bersih 2.0 which was declared peaceful did not find acceptance with Malaysians. Instead nobody can believe the madness that the Government conducted themselves as if there was going to be an overthowing of Government today.
There is only one redemption for Najib and BN. Listen to the People. Serve them clean and fair. Malaysia wants a government of the people, by the people and for the people. Mr Prime Minister, can you do that?
Quite unexpectedly, we are seeing the first reactions on the just ended PAS 57th General Assembly coming from Umno.
Perkasa, Utusan Malaysia and Umno have all come out to provide their negative commentaries on the party elections. This is most unbecoming of politicians and political tools and PAS meeting had nothing to do with them in the first place. Utusan interfered by spreading propaganda to promote the ulama against the professionals but the voice of PAS grass roots have spoken out clearly in the elections.
Perkasa’s Ibrahim Ali was first out of the block on a nonsensical charge that the elected leaders represents Anwar’s voice (read here). His standard wild claims that Hadi Awang and Nik Aziz will continue to support Anwar belittles these top PAS leaders who are mighty in their own right and that Ibrahim Ali rode on a PAS ticket to win the GE12 seat adds salt to the wounds. Ibrahim Ali shows total disrespect for PAS.
Then the Perkasa Secretary General Syed Hassan tries to belittle the newly elected Deputy PAS President Mat Sabu as not finishing his ITM studies and not having any Islamic qualifications. What the PAS grass roots voted is none of his business unless he too stood for elections. The criteria to be voted was to stand for election.
Perhaps it was in reaction to PAS Secretary General Mustafa Ali who led the snub on Perkasa (read here) and outright rejecting the organization’s “ketuanan Melayu” stance and Perkasa felt the PAS rejection very strongly.
Utusan Malaysia today said that Hadi Awang and Tok Guru Nik Aziz have stopped the rise of the ulamas and allowed the professionals to take lead (read here). It appeared that the PAS ulamas were open to unity talks with Umno and now the election results have shut the door on them, thus, placing the balme squarely on the PAS top leadership. What has PAS to do with Umno and Utusan Malaysia? Only their ulterior motives may have been realised by PAS it seems and so this unusual reaction. And the only reason for this is that the top leadership is against all that Umno stands for.
Next is Mukhriz who complained that PAS is giving up on the Islamic State idealism to a Welfare State pragmatism. Although modeled after Islamic thinking, this stance will allow PAS and DAP to further strengthen their cooperation and that Umno will not obviously approve. He contends ludicrously that PKR and DAP have somehow influenced the grass roots votes (read here). One thing for sure, there is no money politics in PAS and that statement Mukhriz made is a wild reaction having nothing better to say.
Then comes Muhyiddin. He claims that PAS has strayed from Islam because of politics (read here). So strange after Hadi Awang drove home so vividly his disenchantment of Umno in straying from Islam too. And Hadi Awang minced no word to attack the corruption, cronyism, and all kinds of claims that Umno has failed.
All in all, Umno and related political tools have attempted to smear the PAS results and newly elected leaders because they know this PAS leadership will no longer be open to Umno’s overtures any longer.
That means the political expedience of using PAS to gain all Malay votes no longer works. Umno has to go back to the drawing board and seek real strategies with meaningful impact on voters rather than a pure political ploy of convenience to garner votes.
As PAS continues to grow its influence on rural communities, they have opened up more maturely and progressively to address issues across all communities. This will definitely increase its appeal to all Malaysians.
PAS is now considering fielding non-Muslims in the coming GE13 (read here) and DAP will continue to field non-Chinese candidates. The success of these two parties will increase Pakatan Rakyat’s chances and diminish the reliance on wobbly PKR and Anwar Ibrahim in the event he is incarcerated yet again later this month.
The panic statements are reactions to a more mature, forward thinking, pan-Malaysian focus, professional outlook and Islamic based party – the “new” PAS, that Umno is frightful of now.
There is a very real alternative to Umno in today’s PAS.
Malaysia is brewing with “news” these days. Here is a quick roundup in case you missed them.
Wikileaks on Anwar (read here) as well as Najib (read here) are causing much difficulty for them as well as the countries (read here and here) alleged to have made the statements. These are difficult times for both Anwar and Najib in damage control mode.
Perkasa leader Ibrahim Ali again made headlines coming to the defense of Najib (read here) while Najib has remained silent thus far. Further extreme ideas include Perkasa demanding the Najib administration to build a special museum commemorating May-13 (read here). His latest taunt reflects a poor judgment on his part on nation building interest which is deplorable to say the least for this politician. One wonders if he actually knows the facts behind the unfortunate event or is bent to force his personal view on the matter.
Perkasa Chief Ibrahim Ali sure has guts. His press interview (view video below). His exuberance can be easily interpreted as arrogance and his views about everybody can be perceived as “I’m smart, you are stupid”. When he says others contravene the Federal Constitution in their news reporting or blog or facebook or twitter, he has a right to speak out albeit bluntly.
This is the second public appearances in as many days displaying controversies to attract attention.
His belief that Perkasa is a Government Watchdog
It must have given Malaysians an awful shock reading the latest article on Perkasa (read here) posted on The Malaysian Insider. It is inconceivable that such myopic views of fellow Malaysians can be construed by a Malay nationalist group. Based on the report, Perkasa claims that
“the Chinese community will use the next general election to take over the country.“
Proud 2B Malaysian 