Friday 25 March 2011

MALAYSIA: A Country Run by Gangsters

Read here for more

Does it feel like a bunch of gangsters are running this country?

by

Naragan

Photobucket

The most recent act by UMNO to try and kill off Anwar with a lowly sex video moved me to write this article.

Because it increasingly feels like we are living in a country run by GANGSTERS.

What characterizes gangsters?

Is there any difference between what GANGSTERS do and what UMNO is doing?

Use of force, fear, bribes, threats, violence, deceit, unchallengeable positions, indulgence, and parasitic existence and not worrying about appearances would be a reasonable answer to the first question.

To answer the second question “Is there any difference?

I will examine how UMNO performs in many of these dimensions to answer that question.
  1. Force –The Police, the Attorney General’s office, the Courts (I will call them the Unholy Trio from now on) are the instruments of force of UMNO.

    You see them figuring prominently in all occasions where UMNO’s lawlessness are questioned.

    Being involved with Hindraf Makkal Sakthi, I can tell you that, without batting an eyelid– our people are constantly threatened with detention under ISA, or with charges of sedition, or are charged with being involved in an illegal organization after UMNO unconstitutionally and unlawfully outlawed Hindraf.

    The form of force used and the way it is administered may vary in specifics between the gangsters and UMNO but in essence they are the same – UMNO and the gangsters equally resort to force because that is the sole source of their power.

    UMNO has lost its moral legitimacy in its claim for power and hangs on to power only because of the control of the instruments of force – the Unholy Trio being the prime instruments.

    The gangsters never had moral or legitimate basis for claims to power, their claim to power hinges only on one thing – the use of raw and brutal force.

  2. Fear – UMNO so readily instills fear just like the local gangsters.

    UMNO uses the Unholy Trio along with the Media, and when necessary the underworld members to achieve this. The Police have a special unit the Special Branch just for this – the Malaysian Gestapo.

    Every so often we see battalions of the Light Strike Force or the Federal Reserve Units to disallow, to disrupt, to frighten off citizen’s gatherings.

    You should have seen the hundreds at the anti –Interlok forums throughout the country and the thousands at KLCC for Hindraf’s Solidarity March against UMNO’s racism.

    This is exactly what the local gang boss. Putting in the fear of god they say. What the gang boss does is what UMNO is doing.

  3. Threats – The laws enacted by UMNO – ISA, Publishing and Printing Presses Act, Official Secrets Act, Seditions Act, Police Act and even the MACC are all actually devices crafted by UMNO that threaten all those that dare cross the line.

    This is the primary purpose of these acts and organizations, though more noble intentions are proffered to legitimize them. But the true intentions of these are to act as a sword over the heads of any that dare.

    The Media for its part carries statements from time to time from the Ministers, from the IGP, from the Attorney General,from UMNO stalwarts, from Right wing Perkasa or carries images and reports of the Police overpowering any attempts to challenge them or of right wing demonstrations threatening the rest.

    But the purpose is one – to pre-empt potential trouble makers.

    The gang bosses just use outright threats, they do not need these more sophisticated devices.

    As the saying goes, cut the throat of one chicken in front of all the monkeys so the monkeys will behave themselves. In that sense the devices of threatening may be different but both UMNO and Gangsters use threats to remain in power.

  4. Violence – What happened in Kampung Medan in 2005 is a clear example of the workings of the Unholy Trio, the Media and the underworld in the meting out violence whenever they see a need.

    A little further back we had the May 13th riots and May 13th is still a keyword for violence . Hundreds of police killing and maiming continue till today in UMNO’s Police Stations.

    The Police in the fore and the Armed Forces at the back are nothing more than UMNO’s killing machines.

    The threat of violence that UMNO can unleash, should it decide to, is what holds much of the opposition back. Violence is the bread and butter of gangsters and it is the bread and butter of UMNO.

    UMNO and the gangsters understand this very well.

  5. Bribes – When expediency requires and it is wiser, then UMNO bribes to clear their way of trouble makers.

    They buy up leaders of groups outside their circle of influence. They make “mafia offers”. They use skeletons in cupboards to assist them, as we see regularly happening in buying up of the opposition members of the legislature. Other forms of bribe, we see at election times.

    There is a free flow of gifts, goodies and promises. These are tidbits used to corrupt and remove obstacles or create perceptions while UMNO walks away with the loot – to UMNO these bribes are nothing more than the cost of doing business.

    Gangsters for their part use bribes to share their bounty when attempting to get at very large bounties. It is a cost of doing business for them too.

  6. Unchallengeable positions – UMNO’s positions on issues are unchallengeable, just like it is with the local gangster. You challenge at the risk of losing everything.

    When you challenge they fight tooth and nail so you do not get what you seek, on the contrary they make you lose further with intense vindictiveness. Case in point is the Interlok novel. The book remains in the curriculum and the rest who voiced dissatisfaction get beaten up and charged in courts for speaking up, but the book remains in the curriculum.

    Another clear case in point is what UMNO is doing to Anwar Ibrahim. He gets all kinds of s*** thrown at him and with increasing frequency just because he dares to challenge the UMNOPutras.

    Challenge at great personal risk – they will ruin you if they can. Their position must not be challenged. This is very clearly the ways of gangsters too.

    The hallmark of a gangleader is one who has overcome all those who have challenged him and anyone who challenges the leader must lose or the leader loses his basis to continue as a leader. Exactly the case with Najib –ala UMNO and UMNO ala the people.

  7. Deceit – “Biji setelor, rio sekampung” as the Malay proverb goes. UMNO throws a tid bit here, a tidbit there and the media steps in and creates perceptions of a totally benevolent and caring UMNO.

    UMNO holds the reins of the media tight. UMNO is able to manufacture perceptions in people that are so far removed from the truth that the lies are more real the reality itself. You speak the truth and no one listens to you, for they think you distort, for personal advantage.

    UMNO has established monopoly over their minds and UMNO will do with it what they want. They deceive the people and leave the rest of us biting the mud.

    UMNO caught between getting the non-Malay votes and increasing their appeal to the Malays use their outsource vehicle,

    Perkasa to create a perception of the Malays losing out to the non-Malays because the Malays are split.

    The reality is both the Malay And non-Malay people are losing out to the UMNO leaders and their Non-Malay elite accomplices as they use this perception to delude the people and walk off with the loot. No one really listens to this truth, they think it is distorted for personal use. This is a very refined deceit-making machine that we are up against.

    On this count UMNO has improved over the gangsters, recognizing they have to operate within a community of nations and have to be seen to be in accord with norms of civilization. They worry about how they will be perceived, they need to legitimize their position, the gangster does not have to.
So, except for this last point there is really not much difference between gangsters running this country and UMNO running this country.

UMNO is nothing short of being dignified gangsters. This truth may look far- fetched, but you think about what I have said, deeply. Just think about it.

If you agree, then do not be the person UMNO, the gangster wants you to be, the meek and powerless person. Look at what is happening in Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen.

When all the people get together, the empire crumbles, because the true sovereign is the people united. We have to move out and into the light, to a future based on competence, not on force.

The people have to get out from the grips of gangsters.

Thursday 24 March 2011

Datuk T @ Shazryl Eskay Abdullah Admits He is IN the Sex-Tape

Quote

Photobucket

"....I was also IN the (sex-video) Tape"

- Shazryl Eskay Abdullah @ Datuk T
(at the presss conference, 23 March 2011)


Datuk Shazryl Eskay Abdullah @ Datuk T admitted he was IN the Sex-Tape which was screened to journalists.

He made this admission during the press conference yesterday (March 23) held together with Ramli Thamby Chik, the other person responsible for screening the sex-tape. Ramili is the Chairman of Risda, a former Vice-President of UMNO and former Chief Minister of Melaka.

Shazryl said at the press conference he was "100 percent" sure that it was Anwar in the tape.

"Because I was also IN the tape," he said,

But he refused to answer questions about his role IN THE TAPE and as his presence in the hotel where the alleged sex act take place. Read here for more in Malaysiakini OR HERE

Many readers felt Shazryl Eskay Abdullah, facial feature-wise, bears a strong resemblance to Anwar Ibrahim, whom Shazryl Eskay Abdullah and Rahim Thamby Chik accused as the man having sex with the prostitute in the black-and-white video-tape.


BACKGROUND : Shazryl Eskay Abdullah

Shazryl Eskay Abdullah is embroiled in a court case in which he is suing claiming a breach of contract by defendants — Merong Mahawangsa Sdn Bhd and Datuk Yahya Jalil — for failing to pay him RM20 million after he had procured the rights to the Malaysia-Singapore International Gateway (SIG) bridge project (the infamous "the crooked bridge" project). He filed the suit in 2002.

The “crooked bridge” project was terminated by the Abdullah administration in 2006.

Datuk Yahya A. Jalil is the Executive director and major of shareholder Merong Mahawangsa.

Shazryl Eskay said Yahya Jalil had sought his services and his “discretion and good relations” with the governmentto procure the project from the GOVERNMENT and to secure RM640 million in foreign funds for the project.

Shazryl said in court he had also helped Yahya Jalil to gain access to then-deputy prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim.

Yahya admitted today to having a casual meeting with Anwar at the former minister’s house with Shazryl in 1998 but couldn’t recollect discussing the bridge.


Shazryl Eskay also claimed Yahya Jalil suggested a RM20 million in remunerations for his services, which has not been paid.

Shazryl Eskay is seeking a RM20 million payment from the defendants as well as interest, costs and other relief deemed fit by the court.

Shazryl Eskay was a former Thai honorary consul in Kedah when a new Thai consulate was established in 2005 in Langkawi located on the grounds of Kampung Tok Senik although there is already a Thai consulate in Penang .

Wednesday 23 March 2011

"Datuk T " a Code-name for Datuk Trio " Outed Themselves in a Press Conference

Read here for more in Malaysiakini

Former Malacca chief minister Rahim Thamby Chik, today ADMITTED that he is one of the three persons behind the sex tape scandal.

The mystery of a 'Datuk T' - the person who had shown the video to journalists on Monday - was also revealed as a code name for 'Datuk Trio', comprising :
  1. Rahim Thamby Chik,

  2. Former honorary Thai consul Shazryl Eskay Abdullah and

  3. PERKASA treasurer-general and ex-senator Shuib Lazim.
The 20-minute sex tape showed a man having sex with a woman in a hotel room.

Shazryl , who was also present at the hastily arranged press conference in a hotel in Kuala Lumpur this afternoon, said he was "100 percent" sure that it was Anwar in the tape.

"Because I was also in the tape," he said, refusing to answer other questions about his role in the tape as well as his presence in the hotel where the alleged sex act take place.

According to those who have watched the clip, there were initially two men at the beginning of the video.

He also said that he was a friend of Anwar, but he said that he felt "used by Anwar for far too long".


Shazryl also said that he had intially went to Shuib and Rahim - whom he described as long-time friends - after stumbling across the video recording and had asked the former CM to find a "safe place" to screen it.

"When Shazryl found out about the video, we thought that the rakyat and especially the media should know about the man who wants to become prime minister," add Rahim, who sat beside Shazryl.

"They told me to find a secure place, so I suggested Carcosa Seri Negara, because it's safe and a little secluded."

Both Rahim and Shazryl Eskay refused to answer further questions pertaining to the sex video, saying that the police are already investigating the matter.

Rahim also accused PKR MP for Sungai Petani Johari Abdul of demanding a pay-off.

Johari, who had called a press conference earlier today, had revealed the identity of those involved in the sex tape scandal.

According to Rahim, Johari had asked for RM100,000 as "duit pelincir" ('grease money') and RM1 million to defect to BN.


Why trio not arrested?

Citing Section 292 of the Penal Code, Lim Kit Siang said it is an offence to publicly exhibit "any obscene or pornographic material” for which it is liable to a jail term of three years.

Section 5(1) of the Film Censorship Act 2002, meanwhile, stipulates a fine of up to RM50,000, five years' jail, or both, for the same offence.

"Do the trio enjoy immunity and impunity for breaches of the law and actions which have brought world-wide shame to the nation?" asked the Ipoh Timor parliamentarian.

RELATED ARTICLE


Press Statement by PKR MP for Sg Petani, Johari Abdul

Read here for more

Saya dihubungi oleh seorang kenalan yang sangat rapat bermula sejak 15 Mac 2011 untuk berjumpa dengannya mengenai sesuatu yang penting. Pada hari Isnin 21 Mac 2011 lebih kurang jam 12.20 tengahari, saya mengesahkan bahawa saya ada ruang untuk bertemu beliau.

Saya berjumpa dengannya di Hotel De Palma Ampang jam 4 petang hari itu, sebelum dibawa di dalam sebuah kereta yang lain. Kereta itu dipandu oleh dua orang yang saya tidak kenali.

Saya dibawa ke Hotel Flamingo Ampang, seterusnya dibawa ke sebuah bilik junior suite. Saya bertemu Tan Sri Rahim Thamby Chik dan Dato’ Eskay Shazril Abdullah yang telah menunggu di dalam bilik tersebut. Saya turut disertai oleh kenalan saya tadi.

Saya duduk di depan Tan Sri Rahim Thamby Chik sementara Dato’ Eskay Shazril Abdullah duduk di sebelah saya. Kenalan saya tadi duduk di atas katil di belakang di dalam bilik tersebut.

Dato’ Eskay Shazril Abdullah mula bercakap dan mengatakan bahawa saya (“Johari Abdul”) adalah ahli Parlimen yang pertama akan menyaksikan tayangan video yang sedang mula dimainkan itu. Dia juga meminta pandangan saya mengenai Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

Sepanjang tayangan video tersebut, Dato’ Eskay Shazril Abdullah menjadi suara latar menerangkan beberapa perkara. Contohnya, dia menyentuh bagaimana cara individu terbabit menanggalkan kondom selepas perlakuan berakhir mempunyai risiko air mani akan terpercik ke kawasan yang besar. Menurutnya, tabiat itulah yang menyebabkan Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim sering meninggalkan bahan bukti seperti yang berlaku dalam kes liwat pertama tahun 1998 dulu.

Dia juga mendakwa bahawa dia selalu membawa Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim ke club house di mana berlakunya kejadian itu dan tempat-tempat lain di Thailand seolah-olah ini perkara yang kerapkali dibuat oleh Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim. Menurutnya, setiap kali dia membawa Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim ke tempat itu, bilik itulah (yang dirakamkan) yang digunakan Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim sementara dia (Dato’ Eskay) menggunakan bilik bersebelahan. Dalam percakapan seterusnya, dia menyatakan kebimbangan kononnya rakaman-rakaman video seperti itu telah dipunyai oleh pihak perisikan Thai.

Sepanjang penayangan video tersebut, Tan Sri Rahim Thamby Chik kerap mencelah dan membuat komen pendek yang memburukkan Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim. Saya percaya beliau cuba meyakinkan saya bahawa Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim adalah seorang yang tidak bermoral dan tidak layak menjadi seorang pemimpin.

Selepas penayangan video tersebut, Tan Sri Rahim Thamby Chik mula bercakap. Dia memujuk supaya saya meninggalkan KEADILAN dan Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

Dia berjanji untuk bbawa saya berjumpa dengan Perdana Menteri, Dato’ Seri Najib Tun Razak. Tan Sri Rahim Thamby Chik juga menyebut bahawa dia akan uruskan segala keperluan kewangan dan keselamatan saya.


Tan Sri Rahim Thamby Chik juga cuba meyakinkan saya untuk membawa dan memujuk lebih ramai Ahli Parlimen KEADILAN berjumpanya, supaya dapat dipujuk keluar parti. Dia meminta saya mengepalai kumpulan Ahli-ahli Parlimen KEADILAN ini.

Saya tidak memberikan komitmen, selain mendengar komen-komen yang dibuat.


Selepas itu, saya keluar dan diiringi oleh kenalan rapat saya itu. Di dalam lif, saya memeluknya dan memberitahu beliau, bahawa setelah menonton keseluruhan video tersebut, saya yakin bahawa orang di dalam video itu bukanlah Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

Saya berkeyakinan bahawa pelakon itu bukan Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim berlandaskan faktor berikut:

1. Pada awal rakaman, terdapat seorang lelaki lain yang sedang menguruskan rakaman video pada ketika orang yang mirip Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim masuk ke dalam bilik. Sewajarnya orang itu (yang mirip Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim) sedar bahawa perlakuannya akan dirakam. Mustahil sesiapa yang waras akan melakukan adegan sedemikian kecuali dia diupah.

2. Tempoh masa rakaman yang menunjukkan muka si pelaku adalah terlalu pendek. Ditambah dengan rakaman yang dibuat di dalam hitam putih; menyukarkan untuk betul-betul mengesahkan identiti si pelaku.

3. Bahu si pelaku terlalu lebar dan tegap berbanding bahu Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

4. Bahagian belakang si pelaku (punggong) juga berisi dan jelas berbeza dengan tubuh badan Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

5. Di akhir adegan, si pelaku bangun dan tubuh badannya dirakam dengan jelas. Perutnya adalah buncit dan terlalu besar jika dibandingkan dengan perut Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

6. Warna kulitnya adalah terlalu cerah dan hampir tidak dapat dibezakan dengan warna kulit wanita terlibat.

Selepas itu, saya menyatakan kesediaan untuk membawa beberapa orang ahli Parlimen KEADILAN agar mereka juga dapat menonton video dan berjumpa dengan Tan Sri Rahim Thamby Chik.

Saya dimaklumkan sessi tayangan seterusnya akan dibuat kepada ahli-ahli Parlimen KEADILAN pada jam 330 petang 22 Mac 2011.

Kami hadir semalam di Hotel Flamingo Ampang dan menunggu hingga jam 530 petang, oleh kerana mereka telah sahkan bahawa perjumpaa akan berlaku. Walau bagaimana pun, perjumpaan itu dibatalkan oleh pihak mereka.


Saya mengambil risiko membuat kenyataan ini di luar Dewan Rakyat kerana saya yakin bahawa episod terbaru ini adalah satu lagi rencana jahat untuk memfitnah Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

DATO’ JOHARI ABDUL
AHLI PARLIMEN SG PETANI
AHLI MAJLIS PIMPINAN PUSAT KEADILAN

UPDATE: Who is Datuk T and the People Behind the Screening of the Sex Tape ?

UPDATE!! 23rd March, 3pm:

PKR MP Johari Abdul in a press conference has confirmed what we have revealed below that
Shazryl Eskay Abdullah and Rahim Thamby Chik were the people behind the screening of the sex tape.
-
Malaysian Unplug

Malaysiakini reports:
PKR supreme council member and Sungai Petani parliamentarian Johari Abdul today claimed a former Malacca chief minister (Rahim Thamby Chik) and a former honourary consul for Thailand in Malaysia were behind the sex video purportedly involving PKR leader Anwar Ibrahim.

In a press conference at PKR headquarters in Petaling Jaya, Johari alleged he was shown the video by businessman Shazryl Eskay Abdullah, who formerly served as honorary Thai consul in Kedah, on March 21 at the Flamingo Hotel in Ampang, Selangor.

Johari, however, said the man he saw having sex with an unidentified woman was NOT Anwar.
Read here for more
----- End of Update -------

A reader wrote in with the following information:


  1. Who is Dato T?

    He is Dato Eskay.

    The guy who sue Dato Yahya Jalil on Jambatan Bengkok.Now case in High Court.

  2. Who book hotel room at Carcosa?

    RISDA.


  3. Who is the Chairman (of RISDA) ?

    Tan Sri Rahim Tamby Chik.

  4. Is the police involve?

    I am not sure.
    But the police officer invite Johari MP for Sungai Petani to Hotel Flamingo Ampang to view the Video. The IGP must come clean of this.Otherwise the police credibility at stake.

  5. Who is the other guy at Hotel Flamingo?

    Dato Shuib Lazim.

    He try to convince Johari to leave PKR.They promise him million.

WHO ARE THESE INDIVIDUALS?


Datuk Shazryl Eskay Abdullah

Photobucket

BACKGROUND:
".... Shazryl Eskay Abdullah, the plaintiff in the case had filed the suit in January 2002, claiming a breach of contract by defendants — Merong Mahawangsa Sdn Bhd and Datuk Yahya A. Jalil — for failing to pay him RM20 million after he had procured the project for them.

In the statement of claim, the plaintiff stated that Yahya, who is the executive director and major shareholder of Merong Mahawangsa, had enlisted his help to procure the project from the government and to secure a RM640 million foreign fund for the project.He claimed that the second defendant had sought his help for his “discretion and good relations” with the government.Shazryl said the second defendant suggested a RM20 million remuneration for his services, which has not been paid...." Read here for more

Tan Sri Rahim Tamby Chik, Chairman of RISDA
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Background:
Tan Sri Rahim Tamby Chik is a former vice-president of the United Malays National Organization. He was aligned with Dr. Mahathir during the 1987 UMNO General Assembly. He was the chief minister of Malacca from 1982 to 1994. In 1994 Rahim was charged with statutory rape of a minor, however, the public prosecutor later withdrew the charge citing lack of evidence.[1] Opposition politician Lim Guan Eng was later charged with sedition for printing and distributing pamphlets containing details of the allegation against Rahim. (source: Wikipedia)

Johari Abdul, MP Sg Petani from PKR
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Background:
Dato' Johari Abdul is a Malaysian politician and is currently the Member of the Parliament of Malaysia for the Sungai Petani constituency in Kedah, Malaysia. He is a member of the People's Justice Party (PKR) in the opposition Pakatan Rakyat coalition. Johari was elected to the Sungai Petani seat in the 2008 election, defeating Information Minister Zainuddin Maidin of the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition.He was previously a director of the National Civics Bureau.[3] He has a Master's degree in Strategic Studies from the University of Lancaster. (source: Wikipedia)

Dato Shuib Lazim - Treasurer of PERKASA


Tuesday 22 March 2011

Navel Down Politics: First Ummi Hafilda, now enter Datuk T

by

Terence Netto

Read here for more in Din Merican Blog

Photobucket
Anwar with his wife Wan Azizah

Quote

"...An entire political party, a police force, and a judiciary have had to fixate on this one issue. Assorted lawyers, doctors and laboratory scientists have been dragooned as accessories to the drama.

Why? Because to impugn his sexual orientation would be the surest way for his adversaries to down him on the very platform he chose to construct his political appeal: religion.

More than any other politician, it was Anwar who brought religion to be the alpha and omega of Malaysian political life.

His adversaries cannot apparently best him on the great issues of the day; so they choose to do him down on the one issue that if he is found to be guilty of, it’s perdition for him.

And they are prepared to scant the elementary restraints of common sense and due process in order to establish his guilt.

For something like 12 years now, the Malaysian political scene has had to endure periodic obsessive fits about Anwar’s supposed sexual escapades.

Overall, the contretemps have cut a truly sorry spectacle, demeaning to purveyor, target and spectator.

It is as if people have nothing better to do than to engage in an orgy of voyeuristic gratification.

Nobody in Malaysian political history has had to enure this kind of treatment.

-Terence Netto


If you want to bring a politician down, Malaysian style, aim from the navel down.

That seems to be the tenor of the campaign against Anwar Ibrahim from as long ago – it has to be pointed out – as September 1998 till now.


Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim: Hemmed in on All Sides


If you thought soap operas have a decidedly limited run-time, the Malaysian variety is more durable. Peephole politics, the strand of voyeurism that had brought down some Malaysian politicians, has not received a more melodramatic display than when a ‘Datuk T’, in a more hi-tech exhibition of the style common to medicine sellers along Chow Kit Road, unveiled his wares at Carcosa Seri Negara, no less.

For several hours, he had our netizens on the edge of their seats, with dramatic foreplay.It seems nothing can be counted on to get Malaysians salivating more certainly than when told they are about to view the carnal escapades of the prominent.

In the end, this Datuk T’s (not Twit, I am sure, though his refusal to disclose his identity invites derisive conjecture) main play fell like the plop of a pebble dropped in a distant well.

You wondered why if his tape was authentic he did not just circulate it on YouTube, like purveyors of such items as the tape on the lawyer VK Lingam, on the phone to a former judge, and that of the hijinks of Dr Chua Soi Lek, in his Batu Pahat eyrie.

No; Datuk T, in suitably melodramatic, Bollywood style, had to issue an ultimatum: the exposed politician supposedly caught in flagrante delicto, and his long suffering wife, must withdraw from political life, or else he would dump the incriminating evidence, like confetti, on the national concourse for the prurient entertainment of the hoi polloi.

In the event, Anwar Ibrahim, the assumed subject of the tape, pointed to his stomach and said his simulator had a bigger belly. There was some irony in this. Metaphorically speaking, Anwar has had to stomach a lot on his supposed sexual orientation since September 1998.

Purveyor, target and spectator


If you thought that the soap opera about his sexual predilections will have run its turgid course and cease to titillate, you would have to think again.

The phones were ringing non-stop when Datuk T began his overture yesterday. For several hours, news of what it was leading up to held the cyber-alerted in a paroxysm of expectation.

“What could it be now?” must have been among their thoughts. It did not take long for the gas to splutter out of the bag: anyone who had what Datuk T purportedly possessed would have launched it rather than engaged in a striptease and in ultimatum-setting.

For something like 12 years now, the Malaysian political scene has had to endure periodic obsessive fits about Anwar’s supposed sexual escapades.

Overall, the contretemps have cut a truly sorry spectacle, demeaning to purveyor, target and spectator. It is as if people have nothing better to do than to engage in an orgy of voyeuristic gratification.

Nobody in Malaysian political history has had to endure this kind of treatment.

An entire political party, a police force, and a judiciary have had to fixate on this one issue. Assorted lawyers, doctors and laboratory scientists have been dragooned as accessories to the drama. Why?

Because to impugn his sexual orientation would be the surest way for his adversaries to down him on the very platform he chose to construct his political appeal: religion.More than any other politician, it was Anwar who brought religion to be the alpha and omega of Malaysian political life.

His adversaries cannot apparently best him on the great issues of the day; so they choose to do him down on the one issue that if he is found to be guilty of, it’s perdition for him.

And they are prepared to scant the elementary restraints of common sense and due process in order to establish his guilt, all of which have conduced to a situation where the issue of his guilt or the lack, in its second edition more than the first, has become a suppurating wound on the body politic.

Not gay, but straight

Yesterday’s synthetic drama at the Carcosa Seri Negara only served to underscore the point that even if the sex is not gay but straight, the path to Anwar’s career-demolition would have to be sexual.

If religion had not been allowed to become a form of monomania, would this situation have arisen? This is not an argument for the rollback of religion from the national arena. Instead, it is an argument for the recognition that this is a genie that is best kept corked.

Once it is allowed out of the bottle, its gyrations can lead to the grotesqueries the Malaysian public arena has borne witness to in the last 12 years. This is simply contemptible.

All of which is grist for the point that the man who was largely responsible for uncorking the genie must be allowed the chance to coax it back into the bottle which only he can do, if for nothing else, from the power of his endurance of the whole gamut of nastiness visited on him.

Anwar never tires of saying that a Pakatan Raykat government would quite easily set right the major wrongs in Malaysian society. Cynics scoff at this claim but his boosters don’t have a scintilla of doubt about his ability to make good on that claim.

But if he does coax the genie of religion back into the bottle, he would sport what the philosopher Isaiah Berlin described as greatness in a leader: the ability to transform paradox into platitude.

He sprung the genie out of the bottle and to have to endure some of the more invidious episodes stemming as consequence, enough, perhaps, to have dredged up the experiential wisdom to want to put it back where it properly belongs.

The Questionable Sex Tape Linking to Anwar Ibrahim and the Mysterious "Datuk T"

Read here for more in Malaysiakini

Questions Abound over Sex Tape

For the second time in about four years, the country is abuzz over a sex tape allegedly depicting a prominent politician.

This time round, the unveiling of the video was shrouded in mystery. It was revealed to only a select group of news organisations at a posh hotel in Kuala Lumpur.

While the majority of journalists who viewed the video are almost certain of the identity of the politician, many questions remain.

Who is 'Datuk T'?

The person who organised the screening only wants to be identified as 'Datuk T' and he was very cautious about revealing anything more about himself.

However, it is certain that Datuk T had meticulously planned the event today and had booked a room at the posh Carcosa Seri Negara (left) costing RM1,350 to hold the screening.

He was always accompanied by two bodyguards and refused to reveal anything when approached, just sticking to the points raised in a written statement given to the press. Neither did Datuk T reveal anything about his relationship with the politician depicted in the video.

He claimed the politician was at a hotel where the tryst took place on Feb 21 and lost his luxury watch in the hotel room.

"I was asked to search for the watch in the room," said Datuk T in the statement, without revealing when the search took place, who ordered the search and why he was there.

Datuk T said he found the video recording equipment in the room during the search and wants the politician and his wife to quit politics because there is evidence that immoral acts were committed.

He refused to provide his contact details and instead collected business cards from reporters present, promising to contact them in the future with updates.

Where did it happen?

The small hotel room was depicted in the video appeared to be on the lower end of the scale.

An air-conditioning unit could clearly be seen, when even a three-star hotel would be equipped with central air-conditioning.

There are doubts as to whether the seasoned opposition leader depicted in the video would settle for a less distinguished establishment where security is slack.

When did it happen?

The time-stamp on the video clip begins at 10.23pm and ends at 10.45pm on Feb 21, 2011.

The alleged politician is understood to have attended a full-day function on that day.

Questions are being raised as to whether he was still "capable" or "energetic" enough for a late-night romp.

Based on what was depicted in the video, the politician was very vigorous at the tail-end of the act.

Could the politician really pull it off?

There are also questions on whether the politician, who is known for having back problems, was physically fit to perform the act in multiple positions.

Towards the tail-end of the act, the couple changed positions, with the woman lying on her back while the politician performed sexual intercourse facing her while kneeling and straddling.

"The person depicted in the video doesn't look like he has a back problem," said the Malaysiakini journalist who was at the video screening today.

Why isn't it made public?

If the purpose of the video is to embarrass the said politician, it would be strange that the video has not been made available to the general public, as in the case of Dr Chua Soi Lek back in December 2007.

Now, the public, the media and experts have no opportunity to scrutinise the veracity of the video and merely have to rely on accounts from journalists.

Why was it announced now?


One of the most anticipated events today was formal announcement of the Sarawak state legislative assembly being dissolved. However, this event has been overshadowed by video clip.

There is little doubt that the controlled screening of the video was meticulously timed ahead of the Sarawak polls, in which the opposition aims to mount its most serious effort in history to challenge BN there.

Given that the alleged act took place on Feb 21 - exactly a month ago - the video could have been released earlier.

Quality of footage?

One big question mark that will continue to persist is the quality of the recording itself.

The video is displayed completely in monochrome, purportedly due to low light conditions, making it impossible to distinguish hair and skin colour or other identifying features.

There was also one instance where Datuk T fast-forwarded a portion of the video. It is also clear that the footage was split into several files. There is no way of determining that the footage was not tampered.

There is also the question of how one frame, of the four frames shown in split-screen, was clearer in quality, while the other three were grainy.


COMMENTARY

Read here in Rites2Write blog

I scanned the online media and was shocked to read about the press conference where it was alleged that someone that looks like Anwar was caught on camera having sex in what appears to be a sleazy motel room.

The timing of the press conference and its subsequent release of the video in the parliament lobby within several hours shows that it is a well coordinated effort and I wonder whether it has anything to do with the Sarawak State Assembly dissolution.

I think it does not take a genius to figure out the conclusion. The answer lies within the following questions:

1. It looks like Anwar, is it really Anwar? Remember Lingam.

2. If it is Anwar, would he do it in a sleazy hotel room in town?

3. Anwar is a public figure. If he were ever to walk into a hotel room, everyone will know. Wouldn’t it be news since Feb 21st

4. It was reported that Anwar asked Dato T to look for his missing watch. If indeed Anwar did it in a sleazy hotel would he had asked a third party to look for the watch? Knowing that he has many enemies and many “convenient” friends, would he take the chance?

5. Who is Dato T? Is it Dato Tee Pooh!

6. The release of the video was well coordinated. How come?


I keep my answers to myself and it is entirely up to the readers to decide what do they think. Obviously the news release is to remove the glue that bind PR coalition and weakened Anwar influence among the semi urban and rural folks.

In the meantime, I am surprised that the video has not gone into YouTube yet. I wonder why?

-Dr Rafick

WHAT MALAYSIANS ARE SAYING....

Read HERE for more and HERE
  • Someone should lodge a police report immediately for
    1. Possession of pornography.

    2. Showing it to an audience.

    3. Blackmail by an unidentified group which is demanding that the man in the video steps down if he does not want the clip distributed to the public.

  • If a 64 year old man can "perform"... I would like to learn his secrets !!!! Wow! Parliament House has become Porn House.... everything is "Halal" as long as it is UMNO!

  • Actually, the alleged person can help many of us a lot by recommending the special diet and or medicines to last so long. It has been quite a feat, for a person purported to be in his sixties. Banyak kuat !

  • How convenient when the Sarawak Assembly had just been dissolved for election that this explosive sex video, purporting to be the opposition leader as culprit comes out in public. This certainly would be a 'no holds barred' campaign in the coming weeks. The whole episode stinks to high heaven.

    Datuk T dared not reveal himself. He didn't report the sex video to the police which is the rightful thing to do. He, with impunity, can organised a video viewing sessions with the press without the interference of the police.

    If the allegation, which is as recent as Feb 21, is true, then Anwar is the most stupid man on earth: knowing that the Umno regime is watching his every move. It is unbelievable that alleged tryst is in the country: we hear of opposition leaders, including Anwar going abroad when they had important matters to discuss to avoid the snooping from Umno.

    How much more evil can the Umno government inflict on one man? Sodomy, adultery, stripped, jailed and assaulted. Enough is enough.

  • The fact that the pornographic video was shown at Seri Carcosa without any fear of police action of this illegal activity, strongly indicates that the organisers enjoy the same immunity and support as the cow-head protesters. That gives us a good clue as to who created and produced this drama.

    Now the big question is, is this a work of fiction, similar to Sodomy II, created by using a look alike actor or is it as genuine as the Chua Soi Lek video? If we go by the Chua example, the government, if it is not practicing double standards, would immediately ban it and prosecute the organisers of this illegal activity.

    If the government does not do anything and encourages its dissemination, then it would be reasonable to conclude that this is another campaign by BN to smear and persecute the Pakatan leadership, similar to the Sodomy II trial.

    If the performer in the video is really a Pakatan leader then Malaysians will have to choose between an alleged adulterer and one who allegedly steals billions and commits murder.

  • The shady characters behind this video screening are hoping that stuff like this will neutralise anti-government sentiment and turn the tide against the opposition.

    They still don't seem to get it. It is the growing anger and disgust at the wholesale looting of this country for the last five decades, the reign of mediocrity and gross incompetence in all our institutions and all the other attendant ills that has shifted support away from this gang of crooks and inepts.

    If they had any substance in the first place, they would have focussed on self-improvement rather than spend all their waking hours plotting against and demonising the opposition. So it looks like idiocy will continue to reign supreme.

  • This is the most extraordinary story I have ever heard in my life. Of all the people in the world, this Datuk T (hereinafter 'the narrator') was specifically chosen by the leader of the opposition to go on a reconnaissance mission to look for a missing Omega wrist watch - which had supposedly been stolen by a woman from China - in a room in which the leader of the opposition was supposed to have had sexual intercourse with this thief of woman.

    What next? The narrator was a close confidante (and sexual liaison ala S Nallakaruppan) of the leader of the opposition, and he had retrieved the wrist watch from the thief of Peking. After a successful expedition and on his way home to return the watch to its owner, the narrator had a divine visitation.Thunder, lightning and a dove from nowhere appeared. He was to save the world; religion, race, country and Umno included. He saw the blinding light and ended up as a king for a day in Carcosa Seri Negara. The Chronicles of Datuk T.

  • Why doesn't the unidentified group expose the video to all and sundry? Why the secrecy, the security checks, the cloaks and such? To create more drama? To maximise the shock value of the video? Just put it up on Youtube.

  • BN is becoming a gossip-mongering party now? With Ummi Hafilda Ali as the leading spokesperson, they know what sells: sex, lies and videotapes. All this while the real issue of corruption, swindling, racism, and the blatant disregard of public opinion are quietly swept under the carpet.

    Just as the Sarawak Report comes out with hardcore evidence of Taib Mahmud's wrongdoing, a 'mystery' party (at Carcosa Seri Negara, mind you) comes out with a sizzling sex story. If the issues are printed side by side in any newspaper, you know where the eyes will go first. Sex sells.

Monday 21 March 2011

UPDATE: Malaysian Politics Entering the Deep End of the Gutter

UPDATE: (21 March, 10 pm)

A video recording purportedly showing a senior Malay opposition leader having sex with a suspected prostitute, was screened in the MP's lounge in Parliament hours after being shown to members of the media earlier this morning.

Sources told The Malaysian Insider the video was played on a laptop belonging to a Parliament official, in the smoking area of the lounge, and seen by several Barisan Nasional (BN) lawmakers and reporters from an Umno-owned online news portal.
Read here for more

-- END OF UPDATE -

Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has denied he is the man seen in a video having sex with an unidentified woman.


Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim denied today that he was the man filmed having sex with a woman in a hotel room on February 21, and called the emergence of the video recording today a “scurrilous attack” against him, his family and Pakatan Rakyat (PR).

Yes, I deny sternly this scurrilous attack, I categorically deny,” he told reporters this evening when asked point-blank if he was the man in the video recording.

He added that he was at home with his wife, Datin Seri Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, their children, grandchildren and members of his staff, on the night in question.

Anwar was speaking at a press conference called after a video recording showing a man resembling a senior Malay opposition leader having sex with a woman believed to be a prostitute from China emerged today.

I was told the face in the video looked like me. However, the stomach of the man was much bigger than mine, he said while showing reporters his abdomen.

The 21-minute-long recording was shown to members of the media this morning by a man who only identified himself as “Datuk T”.

“Datuk T” said that the February 21 video was from closed-circuit television camera recordings found in a hotel room in Kuala Lumpur.

This evening, Anwar called the video an attempt to stunt the progress of PR and himself.

Don’t drag the public and the country into this dirty politics. The media screening this morning was arranged in such a streamlined way that [it] must involve the top leadership of the country, that involved the Special Branch. I do not know who is ‘Datuk T’, who asked me and Azizah to resign. This shows clear political motive.”

He claimed the sex video had come as the sodomy charge against him was faltering

“I call for Pakatan Rakyat and the public in general not to be distracted by this new allegation but to concentrate on the battle in Sarawak so we can end the corrupt government of (Tan Sri) Abdul Taib Mahmud.” Read here for more

A group of people who refused to identify themselves showed the video to journalists from several Malaysian newspapers and websites who gathered at a hotel Monday.

The group did not explicitly identify the man in the video, but its representative demanded that he quit politics. The Star newspaper said on its website that the man resembled "a top opposition leader." Speculation spread quickly on Twitter and blogs that the man was Anwar.

Anwar told a hastily called news conference Monday that it was not him. Read here more in Malaysiakini or HERE

Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said today that the police will not investigate an alleged sex video of a top opposition leader unless the person files a report.

“We cannot take any action unless a police report is made. Whoever was involved must be brave and answer, whoever who feels victimised must make a police report,” he told a press conference. “Whether or not it is an opposition leader, I don’t know. Whether it is genuine or fake, I also do not know. I have no seen it and may not see it,” Hishammuddin said at the police headquarters in Bukit Aman here today. Read here for more

RELATED ARTICLE

Top opposition leader caught on sex tape?


Read here for more

A video recording showing a man who resembles a senior Malay opposition leader having sex with a woman believed to be a foreign prostitute from China emerged today.

The 21-minute-long recording was shown to members of the media by a man who only identified himself as Datuk T.

He said that the February 21 video was from closed-circuit television camera recordings found in a hotel room in Kuala Lumpur.

Datuk T said he wanted the media to watch the footage showing the politician before sending the copy to him and his wife “to identify the person in the video” a week from now.

“We don’t want to involve the government in any of this. If he and his wife do not resign, then we will call for an independent panel of NGOs to conduct a forensic investigation into the video,” he said after the video was screened.

The black-and-white video was shown in several parts, beginning with the politician, a woman with East Asian features, and another unidentified man in a hotel room.

The second part, recorded from four slightly different angles, showed the man receiving oral sex from the woman and then having sexual intercourse with her in several positions.

The sex acts lasted 17 minutes before the man exited to the right, which seemed to be where the bathroom was.

The woman, after wiping herself with some tissue, then rummaged through the politician’s belongings, fishing out what Datuk T said was an Omega watch.

Datuk T said the person who found the video, only identified in a statement as “the insider,” was instructed to head back to the hotel to look for the watch after the politician had left the hotel.

“Upon close inspection, I found four well-hidden CCTV cameras,” the insider was quoted as saying in a statement.

Datuk T also showed an Omega watch to reporters, claiming that it was the watch that had been reclaimed by his group of accomplices, who also did not identify themselves.

Sunday 20 March 2011

The Sarawak Report - Malaysia's Version of WikiLeak - Exposes Land Grab Scandal

THE SARAWAK REPORT HOMEPAGE

CLICK HERE: THE LAND GRAB


Sarawak Report has made the decision to release the full database of the Land and Survey Department’s recent transactions on rural lands.

For some weeks we have been researching the confidential data, only to discover that of the more than one thousand plots of rural land that have been acquired by the state, the vast bulk have been handed on to close relatives or cronies of Taib Mahmud.

This is a national scandal and deserves full exposure. So, we now invite readers and the press to scrutinise the land register for themselves and to identify what lands have been taken in their own areas – and by whom.

It is time that Taib stopped hiding behind the laughable excuse that “there is no proof”!

The scale of the larceny is shocking. The total of land titles handed out in recent years, as calculated by the Land and Survey Department’s own figures is a massive 1.5 million hectares.

Much of this has recently involved the acquistion of Native Customary Lands, which has resulted in the recent spate of well over 200 landrights cases currently going through the courts – cases which Taib’s government is losing, emphasing the illegality of his actions.

For this land the State of Sarawak also calculates that it has acquired a mere RM 734 million in premiums from the lucky people who received the titles.

Set this against the current sale by Taib’s brother Onn Mahmud of a mere 30,000 acres (12,000 hectares), for which he is asking just under a billion ringgit! The profit from the timber cleared from these lands must have alone dwarfed these pathetic premiums.

The Interactive Land Map [TEMPORARY PROBLEM WITH THIS MAP - WILL BE RESOLVED SHORTLY, PLEASE BE PATIENT AND CONTRIBUTE SOON]

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ou are also invited to take part in our inter-active mapping project, whereby readers can pinpoint land grabs that are relevant or known to them and add them to our on-line annotated map of Sarawak.

Don’t worry it is easy! We have started it for you by marking out some of the land grabs that we have featured in earlier reports. You just plot the red blob and add the information. Shortly after your contribution will be added to the on-line information base for the benefit of fellow readers.

We have decided to embark on this project, because the information that we are presenting ought to be openly available in any democratic state. Instead, for the past 30 years Taib Mahmud has presided over a scandalous abuse of his people’s trust, by covertly stealing their lands for himself!

Don’t say there is no proof, just look at the companies in the database and then find out who they belong to, or used to belong to at the time the land title was awarded. Often these companies were quickly sold on by friends and relatives after receiving the land titles from Taib for millions more than the ‘premium’ he had negotitated with them on behalf of the State he was elected to represent.

This means money that should have gone to the people of Sarawak went to the Taibs and their cronies instead.

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The Land and Survey Department’s own recent totals, showing how many land titles it has ‘sold’, the total number of hectares and the premium received – a mere RM 730 million for a land mass about 20 times the size of Singapore!

Time for transparency

Any procedure involving the alienation of state or NCR lands to private parties, which has happened on a massive scale under Taib, should of course be an open process, so that everyone can see that there has been no corruption and that the best price has been gained for the people of Sarawak. However, Taib has done no such thing. As soon as he achieved the position of Chief Minister back in 1981 he moved swiftly to set up what he termed the Land Custody and Development Agency (Pelita) and put himself in charge of it as Chairman and as the Minister of Resources and Planning. This gave him control over the land.
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Within this department he has secretively sequestered lands from native communities and then equally secretively handed them on to whoever he likes – himself, his proxies, his brothers and sisters and nephews and nieces, as well as tranches for political allies and business cronies to keep them obedient to his wishes.

If these transactions had been properly carried out with full transparency these deals could never have happened. However, Taib just conducted the deals himself behind closed doors!

The term ‘Confidential/CONF’ can be seen all over the Land Registry, because Taib does not want the public to know how cheaply he handed these lands to his family and associates.

The data we are releasing gives details of the lands taken; the companies who took them and the price they paid, along with the dates of the 60 year leases. This information can be cross-referenced with company information and stock market and sales information that can nowadays be found on the internet.

In this way communities can start to unlock the details of what has happened to their traditional lands.

Till now local people often had no idea that Taib had ‘alienated their land until the logging and plantation companies turned up on their doorsteps, often several years later. Now we invite all the people of Sarawak to check this data and find out if their areas have been already grabbed by one of the world’s richest families or their business associates.

Breakdown of a world class theft

Out of the hundreds of companies which have benefitted from the plunder of Sarawak’s lands we have identified scores already which are owned, or were originally owned by Mahmud family members, before being sold on to a thinly disguised third party owner – usually a crony of Taib. Below is a list of some of the companies that feature on the Land Register along with the Taib family members they are linked to. But, with your help, we hope to identify the rest before Taib finally meets his people once more at the polls in just three weeks’ time:

Polar Horizon, Titanium Management, Ukiran Mantap, Umpama Mantap, Radiant Lagoon, Premium Haven, Polar Towers, Polar Red, Log Oak Promotions, Future Atmosphere, Essential Straits, Dataran Aras, Celerity Design, Bella Magic – [ABU BEKIR TAIB – SON]

Miracle Harvest, Green Ace, Usaha Jasamaju, Mega Bumimas, World Sign Harvest, Quality Concrete, Emerald Discovery, Kenyalang Resources, Limbang Sinar Mas, Kumpulan Parabena, Miri Properties, Borsamulu Resort, Saradu Plantations – [RAZIAH MAHMUD/GENEID – SISTER]

Ikrar Bumi – [ELIA ABAS/GENEID – NEICE]

Achi Jaya Plantations – [ONN MAHMUD – BROTHER]

Eastern Eden, Poh Zhen, Palmlyn, Rajah Mutiara, Lanco Plantations, Hariyama, Golden Star-Ace, Senandang Masyhur [ARIP MAHMUD – BROTHER AND TAIB HIMSELF!]

Delta Padi – [TAIB HIMSELF]

Sarawak Plantations, Kub Sepadu, Multi Maximum, Mega Bumimas, Europalm – [HAMID SEPAWI – FIRST COUSIN/PROXY]

Masretus Oil Palm Plantation – [IBRAHIM MAHMUD – BROTHER]

Poliga Sdn Bhd [AHMAD BIN SU'UT - TAIB'S BOMOH]

Utahol, Herba Aromatics sdn bhd, Durafarm Sdn Bhd – [Alfred Jabu - Deputy Chief Minister]

-SOURCE- The Sarawak Report


Monday 14 March 2011

REALITY CHECK: Mahathir's Own Admission He is an INDIAN Muslim

Read here for more

Quote:

".... It was Singapore Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew himself who brought to the attention of the late Sultan of Johore that Mahathir had written Indian Muslim in the space for race when applying to join the University of Malaya in Singapore as a medical student.

Lee gave the Sultan a copy of Mahathir’s application form.

Mahathir, we learn, was not really completely qualified to enter the university but they let him in anyway to make up the numbers.

Delving into his ethnic origins, Mahathir is forced to admit that “some Indian blood” – as an afterthought South Asian, he spins, in a botched attempt at obscuring his origin – runs in his veins “but he DOESN'T know from which part of India his people came”.

This is something very difficult to swallow considering what he clearly told JV Morais in 1982 in ‘Mahathir: A Profile in Courage’. This book tells us that Mahathir hailed on his father’s side from Kerala, Southwest India. There’s little mention of his mother’s side.

-Joe Fernandez


Labels in Mahathir memoirs ticking ‘time-bombs’

by

Joe Fernandez

Photobucket


EXCERPTS

Former Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has come in for a lot of heat over chunks of the contents in his 843-page memoirs, ‘A Doctor in the House’.

The easiest thing to do would be to dismiss the RM100 book as a work of fiction, an elaborate spin, a whitewash job for a man on the verge of degenerating into a pitiful clown, a settling of scores with his many foes, a comedy of errors and perhaps even a crafty attempt late in the day to still determine the agenda when others do any number of follow-ups.

There are any number of labels in Mahathir’s memoirs.

Mahathir the Indian Muslim

Delving into his ethnic origins, Mahathir is forced to admit that “some Indian blood” – as an afterthought South Asian, he spins, in a botched attempt at obscuring his origin – runs in his veins “but he doesn’t know from which part of India his people came”.

This is something very difficult to swallow considering what he clearly told JV Morais in 1982 in ‘Mahathir: A Profile in Courage’. This book tells us that Mahathir hailed on his father’s side from Kerala, Southwest India. There’s little mention of his mother’s side.

Morais, a Malayalee himself, would have got his facts right on this score since Kerala is not that big a place.

Mahathir was not off to a good start in ‘A Doctor in the House’ unless he was confessing that he suffers from an identity crisis and can’t really help his schizophrenic self or that he, for all his bravado, indeed suffers from a deep-seated inferiority complex.

Anyone who has seen Malayalam movies on Astro can tell right away that Mahathir has a typical Malayalee face. This has somehow ended up as a chapter in Mahathir’s memoirs entitled, “I am a Malay”.

If he is Malay, as he routinely claims from time-to-time, why would he need to advertise the obvious fact unless he isn’t sure of himself?

If not for Article 153 in the Federal Constitution and the New Economic Policy, would Mahathir claim so proudly to be a Malay?

If a man cannot admit who he is, can we believe him on all the other things he tells us in his memoirs? There’s a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde side to Mahathir’s personality.

It was Singapore Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew himself who brought to the attention of the late Sultan of Johore that Mahathir had written Indian Muslim in the space for race when applying to join the University of Malaya in Singapore as a medical student. Lee gave the Sultan a copy of Mahathir’s application form. Mahathir, we learn, was not really completely qualified to enter the university but they let him in anyway to make up the numbers. Another notable omission from Mahathir’s memoirs.

Mahathir the Medical Doctor
This also explains why Mahathir never really practiced as a doctor for long although he named his practice in Alor Star as Maha Clinic to impress upon patients that they were visiting an Indian clinic run by an Indian doctor.

Initially, he had one other Indian doctor at the clinic to stand in for him as he busied himself with politics. This doctor was often not paid for four months at a stretch and eventually left.

This little story, common knowledge among medical graduates from India, is not mentioned in Mahathir’s memoirs.

Mahathir would have won credits if he had candidly acknowledged in his memoirs that he was so broke at one time that he couldn’t even afford to pay his clinic doctor.

Ever since then, Mahathir has been busy trying to reduce the number of Indians who become doctors in Malaysia. He has a fixation with Indians becoming doctors and lawyers.

Mahathir’s ethnic origins and early doctoring attempts aside, his memoirs are generally not so important for what it tells but more important for what it OMITS, either completely or under various labels. This would provide fodder for the rumour-mills to start churning for months, if not years, to come.

Consider such ticking “time-bombs” as:
  • Lee Kuan Yew wanted to be Prime Minister of Malaysia;

  • former Finance Minister Daim Zainuddin, a Thai, was too corrupt and had to be laid off;

  • former Deputy Prime Anwar Ibrahim was involved in numerous sexual escapes and was therefore found morally unfit to govern, and

  • former Finance Minister Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah was into money politics and must be held responsible for Umno being declared unlawful in the wake of the 1987 party elections.
Mahathir had it right on Lee.

(But he) has forgotten that it was he and not Razaleigh who was into money politics and didn’t tell us anything new on Daim and Anwar. He didn’t get the perspective right on Daim and Anwar because that would have meant knocking his own carefully-cultivated public image.

On Daim Zainuddin

Daim fell out with Mahathir because he initially failed and later gave a very much watered down accounting of the old Umno assets. Mahathir saw red and amidst rumours of Daim being under house arrest and detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA), the then Finance Minister was dispatched into political oblivion.

On Anwar Ibrahim

Anwar, Mahathir discovered to his utter shock, was even more of a novice in economics than when he became Prime Minister in 1981. He decided that there was “no way in hell that his deputy would succeed him”.

Rather than admit his poor judgment, Mahathir dredged out Anwar’s “sexual escapes” and decided to hang him with it and dismissed him as “morally unfit to govern”.

If not for the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, notwithstanding his sexual escapes, Anwar would have succeeded Mahathir as Prime Minister. The 1987 crisis proved that the would-be Emperor – Anwar – had no clothes.

Taking shelter behind even more labels, Mahathir has admitted that he has “made many mistakes but dismissing Anwar was not one of them”.

If only Mahathir could tell the real reason why Anwar was dismissed from office! Mahathir, by masking the truth, has allowed many people to think that Anwar is Prime Minister material.

Mahathir, the Man with NO Friends

When Razaleigh writes his memoirs, he will reveal that Mahathir at one time had no friends. So, he latched on to the Kelantan prince who was then chairman of Bank Bumiputera and Petronas.

He would park himself in front of Razaleigh at his office from morning, would accompany the man for luncheon and get chased out after that to permit some work to get done, only to return later in the evening for dinner.

Razaleigh has never forgiven Mahathir and joins a long list including Tunku Abdul Rahman, Hussein Onn, Mustapha Harun, Daim and Musa Hitam. The last two, like Razaleigh and Samy Vellu, were shocked by Mahathir’s economic incompetence.

When Mahathir drove the economy into recession in 1986 with his austerity drive and shocked Razaleigh and Musa, only Daim and Samy Vellu stood by him and helped him out of his ignorance to rescue the economy.Mahathir was a quick learner in crisis.

Both Daim and Samy don’t get any credits in Mahathir’s memoirs. The former has instead been tarred black.

The 1986 recession was the spark that culminated in Razaleigh, backed by Musa, challenging Mahathir for the Umno presidency in 1987.

Daim came with wads of cash withdrawn from HSBC and rescued Mahathir during the break for Friday prayers on voting day.

RELATED ARTICLE

Der House doctor: blatant or political liar? –Part 1


by

Sakmongkol AK47

Read here for more

EXCERPTS:

" I HAVE INDIAN BLOOD BUT I AM MALAY"

When Dr. Mahathir said those lines, I nearly fell off the chair. Not because, the Malay categorization of such a fellow is a Mamak or and Indian Muslim, but because of the admission of political chameleon-ness of the person.

Because of that, we can now reconcile such an admission with one particular categorization of Dr Mahathir – that of a political liar.

To re affirm his brand of politics, Dr Mahathir is willing to NOT tell the truth.

His memoir contains not hard truths but fabricated deceits. All in furtherance of his politics.

Musa Hitam wasn't the political animal after all. It's Mahathir. All the time.

Many of us are just blinded by the fact that over 22 years when he lorded over us, Malaysia is rushed into the 21st century ignoring the immeasurable costs to this country and to Malays in particular.

If I were to accept another categorization of Dr Mahathir as a blatant liar, that would induce a different feeling.

At least describing Dr Mahathir as a political liar suggests that essentially Dr Mahathir may still be a good person, but he assumes a certain character when his Machiavellian instincts overwhelm him. Tengku Razaleigh is ever so polite.

On the other hand, to describe Mahathir as a blatant liar suggests a deeper natural characteristic of the man. In other words Mahathir is a born liar.

So you pick your choice- Mahathir the political liar or Mahathir a natural liar.

Here is an example of a man who can contain two extremes and two opposites simultaneously. So how? Mahathir is bye-ethnic? Others are hmm…..bye-sexual?

When Mahathir cannot be Malay he says bye-as in when one cannot get sex, he says bye?

When UMNO does not agree with him, he forms an UMNO Baru!

UMNO- Under Mahathir Never Oppose.

Then, just look at the list of the vanquished in the hands of Dr. Mahathir.
  • Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah because of the man's absolute sense of propriety and protocol when Dr Mahathir has none;

  • Musa bin Hitam because of Musa's insistence on stable principles when Dr Mahathir has only preferences for expedience;

  • Ghafar Baba because of Ghafar's trusting nature and old school innocence facing off with Dr Mahathir's you-are-valued-as-long- as-you are useful to me and un-conventionalism; and

  • Anwar Ibrahim because of the man's dirty morals(?) when Mahathir is artificially clinical.
Here is a person who can hold two opposites simultaneously. You can only term such a person as slippery.

Anwar calls him a blatant liar. Tengku Razaleigh calls him a political liar.

Can you beat such a slippery person? Now a slippery person can pick and choose which part of his own story that he wishes to amplify.

He has just come out with his memoir after an 8 year wait. Unfortunately it appears to be extraordinary more in terms of the author's vindictiveness on his political rivals.

As they say- history is written by the victor. Thus far, Dr Mahathir is the victor and he intends to tell the story as he sees it.

A memoir is what it is- a very personalized and heavily nuanced version of history. In the case of a memoir or autobiography- a personalized and heavily nuanced version of HIS legacy and a selective recollection of aspects of history.

It's easy to rebut what Dr Mahathir says- in diplomat-speake- we can always politely say, what Dr Mahathir says do not seem to tally with the records we have.

For example, during that crucial Friday Prayer break, it was Mahathir's storm troopers who went on a spending spree paying delegates. He just couldn't believe that his larger number of nominations couldn't translate into votes.

But Mahathir said it was done by Razaleigh's people.
  • He begun money politics he says it's done by others.

  • He begun the politics of internal discord, he says others started it.
The question is- can you trust a person who is congenitally intractable?

He wants Malaysians to accept history as it is written by him. He is pig-headed in his version of history.

Can you hold on to anything he says if he doesn't see anything wrong in "I have Indian blood but I am Malay." My Indian Muslim friends were rolling on the floor laughing out loud.

Rather than use this memoir as an opportunity to set the record straight, the memoir is used to bolster his one track views on many things. Mahathir is more eager to leave behind, a cleaned-up operation. Mostly the trails he left behind.

He says he was disappointed that Daim did not defend himself against accusations of graft- how could Daim if his defense will have to reveal that Mahathir, the one-time doctor who was not a wealthy person when he travelled frequently from Alor Star to KL, became the subject of insidious whispers of now being a fabulously wealthy man?

Daim cannot defend possibly because Mahathir was also linked to the accusations? So Daim has to keep mum. Daim will have to bring down the house made of cards.

Mahathir is eager to leave a sanitized legacy perhaps because he is actually scared some people may piss on his grave.

So he must give the world a sterilized version of his-story.

Sunday 13 March 2011

BERITA HARIAN's Insensitivity is a Disgrace to the Malay Community and to Malaysians in General

BERITA HARIAN pokes fun at recent tsunami disasters in JAPAN

Photobucket


CNN iReport :

Local Malaysian newspaper Berita Harian published a caricature in their editor's column today that depicts the popular Japanese cartoon character Ultraman as trying to outrun an incoming tsunami.

The publication has received tremendous criticisms by readers, who accuse the editors as being "inconsiderate and distasteful".

What Malaysians Are Saying....

Read here and here and HERE
  • I am embarrased to be a Malaysian but I can't change that fact. However, I am fortunate to be livimg out of Malaysia given all the distasteful & disrespectful events caused by Malaysian leaders. Now to top things, Berita Harian, a local Malaysian newspaper have proven themselves to be OWNED BY IDIOTS AND RUN BY IDIOTS!

  • I am so disgusted with Malaysia...sad to admit I am from Malaysia...

  • I think this is the most insensitive and distateful thing that can come out of any human being. There is a time and a place for everything and clearly, this isn't one of them.

  • Publish news about japan disaster and yet at the same time mock them with cartoon .. Sorry to say, even I'm Malaysian very ashamed about this.

  • That's the problem with Malaysian, they are so coveted by their government that when this kind of things happen they react too fast without thinking. Here they don't get the whole point. This cartoon is not offensive, it's just not funny. Get over it. A cartoonist like Lat has covered more sensitive subjects and yet has never been criticized, the reason being that he has done it intelligently.

  • I am a Malaysian and I must admit it is a national disgrace having such newspaper poking fun of others misery. There is a classic case of "Schadenfreude" German word for cashing pleasure from the misfortunes of others.

  • I am Malaysian. And i'm ashamed of this as BH is one of the main medium reaching the audiences and the citizen of Malaysia. I would like to apologize for this. A lot of petition has been started online requesting BH to apologize. We, most of Malaysian are aware of the trouble of those affected in Japan. We deeply and are still praying for Japan. Condolences to those affected.

  • BH is supposedly a true 'muslim' news media , fully supported by our UMNOputras. Have a question for the UMNOputras , does Koran teach you poke jokes at suffering people ? ? ? Why have numerous places of worship, instead of decent schools , IF you are able to be DECENT , in the face of such devasting disaster ! ! ! BH should be banned , to prove that we , the Malaysians are really sorry for such a SICK JOKE .

  • This BH is Umno organ and they will be satisfied after making fun of others the like of: “Sodomy adalah perbuatan memasukkan zakar kedalam dubur” so much so my primary school going daughter once asked me, “Papa what is zakar, what is dubur.” I just cannot answer but deep inside me I said,” Umno Pukima*.”

  • The whole Berita Harian editorial bunch should be dragged on the street like the cowhead incident. Apologize is not enough. They should weep for forgiveness to the Japanese people.

  • Taking stupidity in Bodohland to higher levels. That's all they are capable of. When we had the highland towers tragedy, the Japanese, the French acted swiftly, flew in with their rescue personnel & equipment to help us, and this is how we thank them. Screw u next time. When we had terrible floods in johor, while the Sleeping Beauty was cutting ribbon for "restoran" in perth, singaporeans came in and help us malaysians. Ungrateful, this is ketuanan behavior, izzit?

  • Dumb people do dumb things in the most inappropriate time and place.This berita harian ought to b esuspended for embarrassing Malaysia. berita harian = umnoputra = stewpigs! Buat lawak pun tak reti tempat dan masa. Bila umnoputra tersindir sikit jee dah nak meradang ugut bakar lee, ugut hantar balik cine lee, ugut nak tarik balik kerakyatan lee tapi bila sendiri buat bodoh tak de hal laa plak!

  • Sick mentality. The whole Editorial and Management Board should resign and their press printing permit cancelled. This is the so-called 'dominant' race inculcated from the days of Tun Mahathir. Congrats to Malaysia. You have proven to be the most extremely insensitive and offensive Nation in the international community. Perkasa and Ibrahim Ali must surely be truly proud of what they had done.

  • Berita Harian another UMNOputra dirty rag, not worth the paper it is printed on.Their contempt for decency is demonstrated by this distasteful cartoon, nonetheless this daily has shamed me and everyone in my household.In 2009, Berita Harian fell from a circulation of 203,704 in 2006 to 154,868 – a fall of 24 per cent. Little wonder many will not wrap even fish purchases with this rag. It poisons the fish.

  • utusan is so used to making fun, humiliating and threatening people of other races and this time i think, will incur international backlash from japanese investors and citizens. This is not the first time UMNO papers did this. At one time NST humiliated the thais when Kadir Jasin was editor in its daily cartoon.

  • This goes to show how immature, idiotic and distasteful these morons are. People are mourning for the losses of lives and yet they are making fun out of it! Bustards!

  • Tasteless .. another UMNO's paper. This is really insulting even though the paper has apologised. This shows that insulting Chinese is OK, insulting Japanese is also OK. Anyway, I have sent a copy of the cartoon to the Japanese Telecommunication Ministry ex-adviser who closed to me. Good luck to you all #%@#$ UMNO. Let see how no cultural senseless and inhumane this newspaper was.

  • Apology not accepted.Berita Harian has given Malaysia a bad name internationally.It should be shut down, and its editors and entire management should be forced to resign, just like what happened to the Sarawak Tribune in 2006, when they reprinted the Jyllands-Posten cartoons. No double standards should be practiced here.

  • The damage was done. ... That's the essence of their mindset and mentality since Tun Mahathir. They now even think the whole world belongs to them. Berita Harian must be condemned in the strongest sense for their lack of maturity and insensitivity. The whole Editorial and Management Board must resign en bloc for this extreme folly. Is this what their religion taught them? We are talking about thousands of lives feared to have died in the tsunami.