Free The Press!

Its really interesting nowadays with regards to the mass media, especially the newspapers. The mainstream newspaper like The Star, New Straits Times, Malay Mail, to some extent the Sun has lost credibility with the public.

While I don't agree that we should boycott any media, I still subscribe just so that the Newspaper vendor has a job to deliver the Star and the Sun to my home. Today, I read the newspaper to see what kind of lies and propaganda our "great and honorable" government is pushing to us on a daily basis. Whilst it is disgusting to read the lies and obvious propaganda, I need to be informed and be able to discuss with my fellow friends and acquaintances on the "creative" reporting in our papers.

Today, the newspapers has two main agendas. Firstly, to sell newspapers via sensationalizing that would include publishing misleading reports that "sensationalize" or stirs up "racial tensions". Secondly, to serve their political masters. Therefore, it appears that Journalistic Press Freedom is dead in this country. Whatever happened to Journalistic creed to report news in a fair and factual manner? We have editors who conveniently misquote their interviewees just to sell more papers?

We should call to "Free The Press!" this can be achieve if the newspapers are not owned by any political party. We all know which party owns which paper. There should be a legislation barring any political party from owning any presses. Otherwise, they don't qualify to be termed as a Newspaper; they should be called newsletter.

Bring back Press Freedom!

Do we all have a moral compass each?♦

Today an interesting thought came to me, "would the world be much easier to live with if we all wore our moral compass as a badge on our hearts?"

We could all look at each others' and ourselves and to know if our actions are questionable or for the greater good.

Undoubtedly some of our politicians have lost theirs; or have chosen to ignore it. Have you ever wondered why majority of humans have intentions for the greater good? But then there are some who are only for themselves. In general each of us have a compass that points to the true north, just like a real compass (true north in this case is that represents all that is Good, honorable, and faithfulness, truth, selflessness as oppose to the south which represents Falsehood, selfishness, and evil intentions); and east and west represented as Lawful, orderly and structured versus unlawful, unpredictable randomness, and chaos.

For a while I do realize like the a real compass, our directions always changes depending on where we are heading. Sometimes, we have that recklessness that makes us cross the street instead of using the pedestrian overpass but often we be obediently follow the traffic lights and wait for the Green light even when there's no traffic around for the last 5 minutes.

If we spent some time reflecting on ourselves, perhaps we will discover once again our moral compass and follow the direction to true north. I would urge our politicians and leaders to ask of themselves are they following their compass? If they are, is their compass broken considering the amount of injustice and lack of fairplay in the Malaysian Society today.

Double Standards Double Speak

Just take a look at The Sunday Star, 16 March 2008, front page headlines: "MB Mystery" here we have the PM and UMNO pitting against the Perlis Royalty on the who would be appointed as the new Menteri Besar of Perlis.

And then we had Mr. Lim Kit Siang, opposing the appointment of PAS MP as a Menteri Besar of Perak. We have UMNO crying out and politicizing protest that DAP is disrespecting the royalty.

Clearly we have the a situation where the Pot is calling the Kettle black. Is there a difference? So when the opposition objects, they are disrespecting the royalty. And if UMNO objects it is okay?

Come On! This is so "in-your-face" double standard that the BN/UMNO is practicing; frankly we are sick of BN/UMNO double standards.

Malay Special Rights and the NEP

For those who are not clued-in as to what is the NEP, the NEP stands for New Economic Policy that was meant to put in place programs and policies to redistribute wealth so that the majority people which is the Malays will control and own the larger slice of the overall economic pie of Malaysia. Which I would think in a socialist perspective would be noble. However, the NEP has abused and used to oppress (for want of a better word) the non-Malays.

To my mind, as a Chinese Malaysian as I am so classified, the Malay Special Rights is to ensure non-discriminative actions in the legal, and commerce arena - to ensure that the Malay have a right to education, a right to conduct business, and access to public facilities and government representation, a right to worship and practice their religion.

All these are fine, until its used to oppress the rest. The BN government appears to have a ZERO sum thought on this. Take from the non-Malays and keep on taking, to the extent that I ask myself where's my right and my children's right. We are prevented from having Chinese Schools, we cant even use "Allah" in our Malay language bibles, places in local universities where a quota of maybe 5% is given to all non-Malays. No scholarships unless we go to our "Chinese" MP to beg for one.

But then when I look at the Malay Majority, when I go into their kampungs and I look at the standard of living. I can truly understand their hardships. They are poor, and their education level is low.

I can understand that their leaders from UMNO tell them that the non-Malays are taking all their rights and wealth, and they believe; simply because the average non-Malay makes more money then them. Perhaps is to question why?

I can only surmise in the grand scheme of things, the UMNO elites and ultras want the Malays to continue in their present condition and to keep them there. This will ensure that the need for "NEP" will always be there. With the NEP is a license and excuse for UMNO and its cronies to print money.

What I can say and advise our opposition politicians (if only if they care to read my blog) is to desconstruct the NEP and improve it. Why say Abolish the NEP? It has to be improved to ensure the wealth really gets to the Malay middle class and poor, not to the rich and wealthy. The rich dont need more help. We dont need more Zakarias and their palaces. The NEP should be expanded to be more inclusive we should include the non-Malays especially the poor and needy. We should add more transparency in dealings and accountability.

Promote meritocracy among the Malays, show them how to compete. Especially for places in Universities. It counter-productive to the Malays where everything is handed down a silver plater; the result is the local university graduates cannot compete in the real world and they end up working in the public sector, where the government having to create more jobs to absorb them. How long can these go on? In the age of globalization, they need to learn to compete on merit, if not they will be trapped in a 3rd world economy and a low standard of living. Its a catch 22 situation. To break the cycle, meritocracy must be introduced; NEP given transparency to ensure there's no abuse of the system for the rich to get richer.

I would challenge the Malays to think! You can't go on in the zero sum game, in the end the biggest losers will be the Malays. You might make the non-Malays suffer and live in a highly discriminated society. Its apartheid no matter how you picture it. You can't be asking us to leave the country if we don't like it. Just imagine, if the non-Malays really did a major exodus and leave the country. You the Malays will be left to your own devices, do you think the foreign investors will stay on? Do you all have the skill set the MNCs need? It will be a step backward into 3rd world economy for whats left of the country.

The NEP in its current form is a dirty word to the non-Malays, not because we are jealous and envious of the special priviledges. It is because it is used to discriminate the non-Malays and used as a devise to enriched the politically connected. The rich get richer, the poor gets poorer. This has to stop; indeed the Malays need an affirmative program to help them, in fact all middle-class and poor people irregardless of race needs the affirmative program to help them. If there's any discrimination needed, it would be the rich versus the poor. As the rich dont need any help; need I say more?

I rest my case.

Urban Sensibilities versus Rural Perspectives

I had the opportunity to get away for a week in the east cost to the beautiful island of Redang off the coast of Trengganu; after enjoying a lovely 3 days of bliss away from all the politics and talks about politics helped me gain a better insight when I spent 1 full day touring the city of Kuala Trengganu interacting with the locals there.

Going to a Malay heartland, where 95% of the population consist of Malays, and 4% Chinese. It does strike me in a realization that in the eyes of these folks; how important the perceived Malay Special Rights are to them. It also dawn on me that it would be very difficult for an Urban Chinese from the big city of Kuala Lumpur to understand their needs and challenges they are facing. Indeed perhaps to lead them as a Prime Minister or Menteri Besar that you will have to understand their customs and religious needs a little more indepth than at the cursory level.

Speaking to these folks, its easy to understand their confusion on the so called "New Economic Policy" has helped them or rather not helped them. Most of them see the daily survival and economic issues as key priorities. They are concerned about getting jobs, able to conduct business and low inflation. All which as I see it, the NEP does not address these important issues. The people are fed up with the politicians who are playing the race card, and declaring that the Malays need NEP. But really, who really needs and benefit from the NEP. It is the politically connected, and cronies of those in power who help themselves to the benefits to extend of taking the poor peoples land and building for themselves private palaces and fiefdoms.

I had a wonderful time in Kuala Terengganu with an elderly taxi driver named Pak Uda who was so kind to be my tour guide for the day Terengganu who showed me around town and to the various beautiful Mosques such as the Crystal Palace, and the Floating Mosque.

And also I had an interesting chat with the Malay taxi driver who took the travel time to send me home to give me his two cents about how corrupted the BN-UMNO government; and he mentioned that he was happy that the Selangor state government is now led by the opposition and he and a bunch of his Malay friends voted for DAP and that some chinese in areas where PAS was contesting the chinese voted for PAS. Truly, this came from a Malay then time for racial politics is indeed over.

A wake up call to the BN Government !

As morning approaches on Mar 9, 2008. It was clear that by 4.30am that the opposition has managed to break BN's hegemony of two-thirds majority. Returning BN to form the Federal Government with a simple majority.

What it means is that BN will be unable to amend the constitution at will, and its policies will be subjected to greater scrutiny. It is also a win for calls for greater transparency and accountability. No longer can the BN ignore the people with its displays of political arrogance and unchecked corruption.

Nevertheless, this is as best the results we can get without the country falling into chaos. The BN majority must learn that it is not necessary a bad thing to have a change in government. Perhaps, the next general election when the opposition parties has shown that they act without fear or favor for the benefit for all Malaysians transcending racial barriers.

What I can surmise is that the people who voted the way they voted in the states that returned the state government to BN are:

1. the vested
2. the fearful
3. the ignorant

While the rest that voted overwhelmingly to give the opposition parties greater representation are:

1. the fed-up of abuse and blatant corruption
2. wanting fair play and equal rights, instead of "in-your-face" discrimination

It is a good day for Malaysia.

Malaysia Votes Today!

Well most of us will vote, I did, and if you are a Malaysian of voting age. I hope you did too. For our future.

We have been receiving various "threats" from BN, stating lack of representation of races will be bad for the respective race. Thats the whole problem if you ask me. We have a government who is racist in nature; dividing the peoples by ethnic origins. Why cant we have a government that does not take race into consideration in terms of aid, and development for the community? Must everything be so colored?

If a leader base his actions on race and forms biased policies, then he does not deserve to be a leader. He would be a bad leader for the country. This country does not consist of a single ethnic group.

Well, I have ranted long enough; lets see what happens by end of the very long day for some of us. Do we return the despots to power? If we do we deserve the government we get. And for those who don't want to vote, shame on you - you deserve the government you get, and what more you loose your right to complain.

Lets not underestimate the power of media blackout by the ruling coalition

Its just another 4 days to D-Day. Polls day for Malaysia. Interestingly most of the young urban folks that I have spoken to tend to be pro-opposition; on the hand, those that are pro-BN are folks that are not so "urban" those that are not expose to the new internet media.

The Chinese predominant concern continues to be, stable economy, better quality of life, cost of renewing leases on their property, education. They tend to be rather short-sighted going for "development" instead of ensuring their rights do not get railroaded. Much like how Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of soup (Genesis 25:29-34); did not value his birthright. And likewise, the Chinese sell their birthright for short term development, prosperity and stability. Do they not realize that when all their rights have been sold and when they have no more rights; whatever prosperity and development in their community will be taken away. Where can they run? Where can they hide? After all, the Chinese diaspora in Malaysia is already in their third generation or forth generation born in Malaysia, this is their homeland it is not China we can't go back to China even if we wanted to.

Perhaps the rich can immigrate to selected host countries, but where ever they go, they will still be second class citizens - "an new immigrant" to their new host countries; but majority will be left here with nowhere to go, left to rot, as second class "Dhimmis" if we allow the current BN government to quietly amend the constitution as times goes by and before we know it - we are an Islamic state; and if you're a non-Muslim you dont have the same rights. Here in Malaysia, the Chinese was one of the founding fathers of Malaysia; we fought for independence with the Malays, and Indians. We should have equal rights to be citizens of the country.

It saddens me that the Chinese are so short-sighted, and the MCA (Malaysian Chinese Association) who is suppose to be the protector of Chinese rights can stand meekly while the UMNO railroad and bullies everyone into submission and taking our rights away all the while being insensitive and arrogant. MCA of today is different from MCA of yesteryear; they have now become just lackeys or pets of the dominant party; their MPs dare not make a stand for justice and righteousness; all they are interested is in lining their pockets with money stolen from the citizens tax money.

As John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, first Baron Acton (1834–1902) said, "Power Corrupts; Absolute Power corrupts absolutely."

I hope the people open their eyes and see how corrupt this government has become, we are already seeing our rights being eroded. Politicians in power getting away with murder, ripping off the people's hard earn money by creating obscenely expensive projects that fails to deliver which yet need more money to complete.

And thus this is how effective is media blackout by the ruling coalition government. There is no freedom of press. Can this be changed? I only hope that the "aware" will tell the "unawares" of the sins of the present government. Its time they wakeup, and I hope its not too late.