Click on the above link for the full story, and the actual copy of Raja Petra Kamarudin's Statutory Declaration.

Will this be THE breakthrough in the Altantuya Murder Trial? It'll be very interesting to observe how the Judiciary and Police are going to treat this revelation.

And let's book our grandstand seats for drama in UMNO: Coming Soon/Akan Datang!

A nice fusion of Mime and Pop by Johann Lippowitz. Enjoy!

"Torn" with Natalie Imbruglia



"Don't Look Back in Anger" (Oasis)



"Wherever I Lay My Hat, Thats My Home" (Paul Young)

Here's BBC Hard Talk's latest interview with TDM (in 3 parts). Read also the two articles below to jog your memory and keep your opinion of the man in correct perspective......

http://www.malaysiakini.com/opinions/81741
The bickering old boys
Manjit Bhatia | Apr 22, 08 2:06pm

There's something quite stunning and wonderfully comical about former prime
minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, taking potshots at the very man he had
handpicked as his deputy when he was in power, after earlier having
shamelessly unclothed his other erstwhile deputy Anwar Ibrahim. Then, upon
his retirement in 2003, Mahathir installed Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as leader
of Umno and prime minister.

So just what is Mahathir sore about Abdullah?

About Anwar, Mahathir had lied through his teeth first. Then he defended a
rogue police chief for knocking the lights out of the former deputy. That was after he had Anwar thrown in jail by a High Court lined by his own handpicked judges. These judges, all of them, could never muster the courage to be professional men of law, men who should have known better that they are not the law nor above it.

Was Mahathir afraid Anwar was preparing to challenge him for the Umno
presidency? Perhaps. At least that was the rumour then. It was a rumour that
began inside Umno itself. As far as I can tell, it came from key players inside the Umno Supreme Council who were diehard Mahathir loyalists. Yet these individuals who had their own interests to protect. After all, they had become enormously wealthy under Mahathir's patronage system. That is how Mahathir kept power, and how he kept Umno as though power were his own, Umno his too, and the country as well.

For 22 years, Mahathir also kept Malaysians under his gaze, mostly by way of
the Stalinist-style Internal Security Act. The Communist Party of China
leadership and Kremlin would have been proud of Mahathir. They could induct
him to their hall of fame. Mahathir had co-opted Anwar from Abim. But why
Anwar joined Mahathir in his cabinet beggars belief. But as the maxim goes,
power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Only Anwar, the
Asian Renaissance man, and all the bollocks about Asian values that he had
been peddling, found out the hard way how quickly he could be tossed out on
his ear from Mahathir's kitchen cabinet.

That's where the problems begin for Mahathir over Abdullah. Abdullah's
kitchen cabinet, and the power politics that reside inside the top echelon of Umno, the Supreme Council, where power corrupts and just about all of them in Umno by Mahathir. It's a system Mahathir created and owned, and the very one Abdullah adopted and has used since.

Passing of the Olympic torch

It's rather like the passing of the Olympic torch. Mahathir was Prometheus and his prime ministerial office Olympia. The Finance Ministry was the mint that made overnight multi millionaires and billionaires, and the Economic Planning Unit the dispenser of wealth to the Barisan Nasional's network of business and political cronies.

The patronage system that began soon after the May 13, 1969 race riots and
the birthing of the New Economic Policy and all ensuing policies of Malay
ultra-nationalism, became the core of Umno's common sensibility. The kernel
of that sensibility was control and corruption. It was a protection racket that Mahathir ran. It's a racket that Abdullah has been running since 2003.

There's one essential difference, though. Mahathir's protection racket enriched his ministers and their supporters, and in particular Malaysia's business cronies across all races, Abdullah's has been enriching the old cronies but especially the newer ones. It's the newer ones about whom Mahathir seems most sore. For the newer ones, under Abdullah's tutelage, are his immediate and extended family members. What's more, the state contracts that Mahathir had once handed out to his cronies, always on a silver platter, are no longer going to them under Abdullah. Or at least not in the same proportions as previously and in frequency.

It is well documented that Mahathir was pretty sore that many of his pet
projects were shelved soon after Abdullah took over from him. These were
projects that would have directly benefited Mahathir's cronies. Not that those projects were shelved in their entirety. They were massaged by Abdullah and redistributed through the patronage system to a newer network of business cronies and the balance of Mahathir's own, who continued to pay tributes to Abdullah, as they had to Mahathir since the ex-dictator started a slew of privatisation projects in the 1980s.

Funny old world this. One can recall the way in which several Malay sultanates used to pay gold-leafed tributaries to the King of Siam who had threatened to raze those states. And how the sultans sought the protection of the Chinese.

Mahathir isn't wily; he's a bully. He's not brash; he's a braggart. He's an attention seeker. He thinks he's still important. He's not. He sees his legacy eroding quickly and ignominiously. Mahathir deserves ignominity. Every bit of it. He wielded overwhelming power, without any sense of justice and accountability. That's because the people dared not stand up to him in the way they have to Umno, to Barisan Nasional, in the last election. Now Umno, MCA, MIC and Gerakan are in a miserable flap over their relevance in this "new" political landscape.

The decimated Barisan Nasional has been frenetically chasing its own
shortened tail that barely straddles between its short hind legs. In-fighting has quickly become a regular feature amongst them. The slap in the face was well deserved. It was a long time coming. But the humiliation should continue: Malaysians not the exalted politicians from the old/new opposition who suddenly find themselves in power in five states should keep the pressure up on all politicians to come clean at every turn.

Mahathir's problem is that the "new" Umno, which he had tried to create
following the 1988 Constitutional crisis, is arguably on its last legs. This is precisely how his legacy is being shredded. Mahathir has no credibility. All the praise heaped on him, such as being the father of modern Malaysian
development, is bunk. This is typical of Malaysians, with their provincialist and jingoistic mindsets, long fed by the state-controlled mass media and a seriously dumbed-down, worthless, and pathetically weak and farcical education system.

Shooting his mouth off

Mahathir's only resort, as it has always been, is to shoot his mouth off.
Shooting his mouth off is nothing new for somebody with an ego bigger than
the country. Mahathir thinks he is is owed at least that much, by default, or by virtue of the praise heaped on him time and again by the mindless and pitifully predictable local media editors.

These are businesses licensed by the state under very special conditions or
laws. They are owned by rich businessmen who are connected to Mahathir and, by default, to the Barisan Nasional regime. They are financiers of these
media businesses that, more than being incapable of telling the truth, more
than being incapable of being watchdogs of a supposedly democratic system,
are principally concerned with making supernormal profits. They are in the
business of spin, for massaging the truth, by shaping the minds of Malaysians in ways drugs users' minds are shaped by mind-bending drugs.

As spiteful and hypocritical as Mahathir is, typically, he's disgusted by the manner in which the media he once had eating out of his hands, have now
deserted him en masse. Quite literally, the tables have turned on him. The
media have become less and less interested in him and his diatribe. There
was a new master, Abdullah. So they were obligated to serve him, to cater to
his whims, no matter how daft and hallucinatory these were.

Let Mahathir bark at Abdullah. Nobody cares. Both deserve each other, if
nothing else. Wait: there is nothing else. They're not pitiable; they're
pitiful. But so is Najib Abdul Razak. He can't wait for his day in the sun.
_________________________________________________________________

Lest we forget: The dark, dark days of Malaysian history
(The 1987/88 Judicial Crisis)
~Source unknown~

Mahathir was continually upset with the Judiciary because the verdicts in a
number of cases went against the Government. According to then Deputy PM,
Datuk Musa Hitam, one of his favourite slogans was 'Hang the Lawyers! Hang
the Judges!' From 1987, he intensified his verbal attacks against the Judiciary in the news media, making damaging statements which clearly demonstrated that he did not understand the role of the Judiciary as being independent from the Executive and Legislative arms of Government. That the Judiciary exists as a check-and-balance against the excesses of the Executive appeared to have been a concept he never fully grasped. Instead, he accused judges of the sort of political interference that would result in confusion and loss of public confidence in the Government. Hence, to curtail the powers of the Judiciary and subsume it beneath the Executive became one of his cherished dreams.

In April 1987, after an UMNO leadership contest in which Mahathir very nearly lost to Finance Minister Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, there were allegations that several delegates who had voted were drawn from branches not properly registered under the Societies Act 1966. An appeal was filed by eleven UMNO delegates to have the elections declared null and void. This was a very serious matter for Mahathir because if the appeal succeeded, fresh elections would have to be held and he might lose. The matter finally came before Justice Harun Hashim of KL High Court who ruled that under the existing law, he had no choice but to declare not just the elections invalid, but the whole of UMNO an unlawful society as well. The country and, more particularly, UMNO, went into a state of shock.

In most modern democracies, a political catastrophe of this magnitude would
have result in the immediate resignation of the party's President and Prime
Minister. But Mahathir did not resign. He informed the country that the
Government would continue running the country. Opposition Leader Lim Kit
Siang and Tunku Abdul Rahman called for a vote in Parliament to establish
Mahathir's legitimacy but those calls were ignored. Mahathir then set in
motion the machinery to form a new surrogate party called UMNO Baru. His
opponents, however, wanted the old party revived. The eleven UMNO delegates
then launched an appeal in the Supreme Court to have the 1987 elections
alone declared illegal and the party not an unlawful society.

Mahathir fully understood the danger to him of this pending appeal. He had
to act quickly. In October 1987, he launched the notorious Operation Lalang
in which at least 106 people were arrested and detained without trial under
the ISA, including three very articulate critics, the Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang, political scientist Dr. Chandra Muzaffar and leading lawyer Karpal Singh. The official reason for the arrests was that a highly dangerous security situation had arisen but this has been strongly disputed as nothing more than a shameless fabrication. The broad sweep included even environmentalists and Consumer Association spokesmen. Four of the most outspoken newspapers -The Star, The Sunday Star, Watan and Sin Chew Jit Poh - had their publishing licences suspended. When, after five months, the papers were free to publish again, they were no longer the same.

Mahathir's next move was to push through Parliament far-reaching amendments
to the Constitution so that the Executive gained in power enormously at the
expense of the Judiciary. There was general indignation at this rude behaviour which shocked a good many people. The indecent haste and the fact that the amendments were made at a time when the Government's main critics were in detention, including the Opposition Leader and six vocal MPs and outspoken newspapers demoralized added further to the appalling injustice of the situation. Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malaysia 's beloved first Prime Minister, put it succinctly: 'It was legal, but was it just?' Others noted angrily that the Constitution had been raped once again. In a speech, the outgoing President of the Bar Council, Param Cumaraswamy, said:

'The Prime Minister's vile and contemptuous allegations, and the accusations
leveled at the Judiciary and our judges left many shocked beyond belief. His
speech which was full of venom, hate and spite with no substance whatsoever,
illustrated his complete and total ignorance of the role of the Judiciary and the judicial process itself. He has indeed defiled and defaced the Constitution. It is surprising that those 142 MPs who voted in favour, after taking the oath that they would preserve, protect and defend the Constitution, had no compunction about destroying one of its basic structures.'

One visiting parliamentarian was astonished at the lack of public debate. In his own country, he said, such amendments would have taken years.

Next, after having curbed the independence of the Judiciary, Mahathir set about destroying its integrity. This was the removal of Tun Salleh Abas as Lord President in 1988, a move which Tunku Abdul Rahman described as 'the most shocking story in modern legal and judicial history,'

Tun Salleh Abas was a man of humble origins - his father was a sailor and
small village trader - who rose to become Lord President, the highest judge
in the land and head of the Judiciary while remaining a deeply religious man.

By March 1988, Mahathir's scandalous and violent public attacks on the
Judiciary had so provoked the judges that Tun Salleh was obliged to call a
conference. Twenty judges met in the Supreme Court one week after the
debilitating and shameful Constitutional amendments were made. By unanimous agreement, a letter was drafted to the King (also the Sultan of Johore) and copied to all Sultans, expressing disquiet over various comments made by the Prime Minister. The letter was delivered on 25 March and Tun Salleh left soon after for medical treatment in the United States followed by a
pilgrimage to Mecca . He had a most important duty to perform upon his
return: He fixed the hearing of the crucial UMNO Eleven appeal for June and,
because of its overwhelming significance, decided that a full quorum of nine
Supreme Court judges should hear this. Three days later, Tun Salleh was
suspended from his official capacity by the King on recommendation of the
Prime Minister. In the same hour that he received the suspension letter, the
Acting Lord President, Tan Sri Abdul Hamid took the UMNO Eleven case out of
the calendar so that the link between the two was difficult to deny.

Tun Salleh's suspension came after he refused to bow to Mahathir's pressure
to either resign or retire, even though financial inducements were offered,
including mention of a lucrative job in the International Development Bank
in Jeddah. The initial reason given for the suspension was that the King had
taken great displeasure over the letter Tun Salleh had written on behalf of all judges. According to official records prepared by the Attorney General, the King had requested Tun Salleh's removal in an audience with the Prime Minister on the 'Wednesday morning of 1 May 1988' after the weekly Cabinet Meeting.

There are serious doubts as to whether this audience actually took place. The first of May 1988 fell on a Sunday, not Wednesday as the Attorney General recorded. Even if the day of week were corrected, there can be no Cabinet meeting on a Sunday. That the King expressed great displeasure only on 1 May, when he had in fact received the letter on 25 March cast further doubt over this assertion. It is difficult to believe that the King wanted Tun Salleh removed purely because he had protested about the public insults directed against the entire Judiciary by the head of the Executive. In any event, royal displeasure would not be a constitutionally valid ground for dismissal. Indeed, Mahathir advised the King as much in a letter written four days after this probably fictitious audience; however, the Prime Minister went further in the same letter to say that he would investigate Tun Salleh for any evidence of misbehaviour. In any event, the King did not clear up the mystery and, in an audience with Tun Salleh, actually asked the latter to step down without giving reasons although the Conference of Rulers had already asked for his reinstatement. Amazingly, Tun Salleh was suspended and a Tribunal set up to determine his fate before any formal charges were laid.

The Constitution does not provide for the removal of a Lord President. While the Tribunal need not be an inappropriate means, its composition was to say the least, disgraceful. It was composed of six acting and retired judges, although the Constitution required an odd number to prevent deadlock. Of these - four from Malaysia, one from Sri Lanka and one from Singapore - only the Sri Lankan enjoyed a rank comparable to Tun Salleh's. This was contrary to the very reasonable dictum that one should be tried by one's peers rather than one's juniors. The fact that two retired Lord Presidents of Malaysia were available but not invited was glaring. There were grave conflicts of interest with three of the Malaysian judges that should have disqualified them from sitting: Tan Sri Abdul Hamid who was next in line to succeed as Lord President and who had also participated in the conference of 20 judges which resulted in the letter to the King; Tan Sri Zahir who, being also the Speaker of the Lower House, was beholden to Mahathir, the principal complainant in the matter at hand; and Tan Sri Abdul Aziz who, although a former judge, was then a practising lawyer and, more incredibly, had two suits pending against him at that time. But Tun Salleh's objections were ignored and when the Bar Council issued a statement calling for the Tribunal to be re-constituted, both the New Straits Times and The Star refused to publish it. Further, it was decided that the Tribunal would sit in closed sessions although Tun Salleh had requested a public hearing.

The charges, when finally published, were manifestly absurd. Running over 12
sheets of paper, it was clear that quantity had been substituted where quality was lacking, and some of them actually related to Tun Salleh's behaviour after suspension. Many of them related to his speeches and press interviews, whereby sinister meanings were imputed to various innocuous comments that he had made. To cite an instance, in a speech at the University of Malaya , he had said: 'The role of the courts is very important to bring about public order. If there is no public order there will be chaos in this country and if there is chaos, no one can feel safe'

On this basis, Tun Salleh was charged with making statements criticizing the
Government which displayed prejudice and bias against the latter. Another
statement of his, 'In a democratic system, the courts play a prominent role
as agent of stability but they can perform this function only if judges are trusted,' resulted in the charge that he had ridiculed the Government by mputing that it did not trust the judges. These charges were doubly ludicrous in the light of Mahathir's many poisonous attacks against the Judiciary.

It is not surprising that Tun Salleh, after reading this catalogue of fantasy crimes, refused to appear before what was so evidently a kangaroo court. The Tribunal, after refusing representations made by Raja Aziz, Tun Salleh's leading counsel, that it had no constitutional validity to sit, chose instead to proceed so hastily that it wound up deliberations, including the examination of witnesses with just four hours work. As it prepared to issue its Report, Tun Salleh's lawyers sought an urgent stay of proceedings in the High Court. This would normally be granted immediately at the least possibility that an injustice may be about to be done but, here, events turned into utter farce.

Instead of immediately reaching a decision as expected, the presiding judge,
Datuk Ajaib Singh, after the court had been in languorous session the whole
day that Friday, adjourned hearings for 9.30 am the next day. On Saturday
however, the judge emerged in court only at 11.50 am and, even then,
postponed hearings again for the Monday! In desperation, Tun Salleh's lawyers, knowing that the Tribunal could easily release its Report before then, sought the assistance of Supreme Court judge, Tan Sri Wan Suleiman, in his Chambers. The latter agreed to hear them in open court in half an hour's time and called a quorum of all remaining Supreme Court, one of whom, Tan Sri Hashim Yeop, refused to sit. The soap opera reached an apogee of ridiculousness when Tan Sri Abdul Hamid, head of the Tribunal and Acting
Lord President, gave orders for the doors of Supreme Court to be locked and
for the seal of the Supreme Court to be secreted away!

Undeterred, the five Supreme Court judges ordered the policeman on duty to
open the door forthwith. After less than half an hour, the Court ordered the
Tribunal not to submit any recommendation, report or advice to the King. Tun
Salleh's lawyers were typing the Order to serve personally to the Tribunal
at Parliament House when news arrived that the gates of Parliament House had
been locked! At this point, Justice Wan Suleiman rose to the occasion and,
calling the office of the Inspector General of Police, told a senior officer that any impediment to serving the Order would constitute contempt of court. The gates of Parliament swung open and, at 4 pm, Raja Aziz and his team served the Order to the Tribunal members who were found to be still hard at work on a word-processor that Saturday afternoon. All six members accepted service without complaint.

It would appear that justice had at last prevailed but, four days later; all five Supreme Court judges were suspended. Almost every rule that was broken
to suspend Tun Salleh was broken again to suspend them. The prohibition
order they had made were revoked within days. A second Tribunal eventually
reinstated three of the judge: Tan Sri Azmi Kamaruddin, Tan Sri Eusoff
Abdoolcader and Tan Sri Wan Hamzah but Tan Sri Wan Suleiman and Datuk George Edward Seah were removed from office.

The UMNO Eleven case was quickly dismissed. The removal of Tun Salleh also
saw the resignation of Deputy PM Datuk Musa Hitam who, according to popular
wisdom, could no longer stomach Mahathir's ways.

Article also at http://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/79701

The euphoria following last weekend’s People’s Tsunami has settled down, along with the fading away of various rumours and fears about post-election street unrest.

Now it’s time for Malaysians to come back down to Earth and take stock.

This is indeed, as Anwar Ibrahim said, “a defining moment” in our history. I would also personally call this the Tipping Point for the way Malaysian politics will be conducted from now on.

The Opposition’s Barisan Rakyat (BR) went far beyond expectations despite clear instances of the Election Commission’s complicity with the Barisan Nasional (BN) with their alleged gerrymandering, doubled-up postal votes, lack of voting privacy for voters in the armed forces, phantom voter lists and its spurious last-minute flip-flop on the use of indelible ink. It would not be a stretch to say, if EC-BN conspiracy is indeed present, it would have needed at least 55% of all fairly-cast votes to signal this kind of rejection for the BN.

But make no mistake about it. Clearly, beyond the BN and its hardcore supporters, not everybody is happy with this election’s outcome.

Foreign fund managers, perhaps ignorant of the fact that this election result is what truly makes most Malaysians happy, are watching us nervously right now. The KLSE with its natural aversion for the unexpected is also behaving true to nature, taking a dive until institutional investors can see some assurance of business-as-usual.

With politics being the way it is here, we can expect the incumbent Umno-dominated Federal Government to be already hatching a plot to ensure the BR State Governments fail to deliver on their promises to their electorates. Here, the BN has at its disposal its legacy civil service institutions, the police, Judiciary, various other governmental levers of power and a complicit mass-media that it has already co-opted.

We can expect the BR’s State Governments to have their hands tied in many instances where they need Federal funding, approvals or legislative support to implement their promises of social justice, fairness, personal safety and controlled inflation for their constituencies. And we can expect to see news of such ‘failures’ placed in full view of the public over the next four years by the mass media too.

The Opportunity

But at the same time, this is also an unprecedented time of opportunity for the BR in at least three ways.

Firstly, for the first time ever, the BR now actually has the chance to demonstrate its hitherto-unknown ability as an alternative national government to the BN. If the BR can adequately run the economic powerhouse constituencies of Penang, Selangor, FT and Perak in a coherent manner that reflects its election manifesto of “Fairness to All”, it would be in an even better position to wrest the simple majority in Parliament from the BN in the next General Elections. All this is notwithstanding probable efforts by the federal government to smear egg on the BR’s face.

Corollary to this, the next four years would also be Anwar Ibrahim’s one-and-only opportunity to prove he is the most viable alternative Prime Minister for Malaysia. There are still a lot of lingering doubts about this man, and I do not blame the doubters. Even with the sodomy charges against him being quashed, he did do a lot of very bad things when he was part of the System back then.
.
For those of us with longer memories, Anwar Ibrahim was probably a beneficiary of Umno money politics too. He was certainly also shoulder-to-shoulder with Najib, who proverbially “waved the keris” at the Chinese during the Umno-MCA standoff prior to Operation Lallang 1987.

The onus is still upon him to assure every doubtful Malaysian that he is indeed a changed man, especially after his time in prison at the receiving end of police abuse and an ISA he once condoned and used.

Secondly, there already are rumblings of an impending bout of head-chopping within the BN, especially Umno. Incumbent PM Pak Lah’s head is expected to be the first to roll, along with those of his rapacious Fourth Floor advisors including Khairy Jamaludin, notwithstanding his hard-fought victory at Rembau over a PKR first-timer.

Normally, such blood-letting should lead to a stronger party with a more publicly-acceptable generation of leaders taking over, but things are not that simple for Umno right now.

Pak Lah’s successor Najib is equally tainted with the same kind of allegations that caused the BN’s downfall: corruption, nepotism and cronyism. With the shadow of Altantuya’s murder overhanging, to boot. Other post-election survivors in the Supreme Council who are expected to retain their ministerial positions are the same faces behind the AP scandal, keris-waving, etc. too. Indeed, this underlines the crux of Dr. Mahathir’s assertion that positive change in Umno can no longer come from within. In short, in the next elections the BR will be up against basically the same Umno, albeit minus a few big guns.

The people know that too.

So, if the BR cements its credibility and doesn’t drop the ball over the next four years, it could be in the position to form the next Government of Malaysia after the 13th General Elections.

Thirdly, this Tipping Point I mentioned earlier has to do with the way Malaysia voted in this election. For the first time in our 50-year history, Malaysians voted on the issues at hand AND party ideals, in a colour-blind fashion almost across the board. At Batu Caves, the predominantly Indian electorate rejected BN’s T Mohan in favour of PKR’s Amirudin b. Shari. Many Chinese in Penang actually cheered when news of PAS’s victory in Kelantan were announced. For the first time in history too, an unusual number of working-class Malays were actually in live or online contact with non-Malay friends tracking, sharing, and then celebrating election results in the same constituencies. For the first time ever also, a ‘rainbow coalition’ of prominent bloggers have actually gone on a campaign speaking trail in support of the BR, addressing rapt multiracial audiences wherever they went.

Now that a Malay resident at Kampung Baru can see he actually hasn’t that much to fear from a Chinese kopitiam owner at Mount Erskine or HINDRAF itself, his voting behaviour in the 12th General Elections has shaken the foundations of race-hued mental blocks that the BN had long nurtured and exploited to its advantage. This development helped compensate for the race-based gerrymandering that the Election Commission executed for that purpose.

For this phenomenon, we can thank both the BN Government for providing the Opposition with such a plethora of election issues that strike a chord in all Malaysians, and Anwar Ibrahim for effectively brokering this historic multi-ethnic and multi-religious Opposition alliance.

The Challenge

The People’s Tsunami rode on a wave of public indignation and hope for the future, fuelled by BR’s promise of justice for all, eradication of corruption, and proper economic management that translates into more food on the table. Makkal Sakhti and the rest, you already know.

Now what?

Like Peter Parker observed, “With great power comes great Responsibility.” Malaysia is now watching what Anwar and his BR partners are going to do with this unprecedented mandate. After all, very few had expected, amidst all those fears of electoral fraud, that the BR could actually break the BN’s two-thirds majority in Parliament AND form the next government in five States.

Effectively, the BR state governments are now on the receiving end of the same public goodwill and high expectations that was placed upon Pak Lah in 2004.

But with one key exception. The BR, unlike the entrenched BN, is less likely to have the benefit of full cooperation from government agencies at the federal level or even the civil service within their own states. If we consider just the issue of corruption singly, the BR has its work for the next four years already cut out for it.

The local councils are allegedly, by public perception, even more corruption-ridden than the police have been accused of being in some places. Unless the BR state governments succeed in replacing tainted key officers within their territory or in encouraging a moral change of heart within their own local councils and administrations, there is very little the new-kids-on-the-block can do to alleviate the public’s tribulations in this matter over the short-term.

A potentially-uncooperative civil service or local council administration, with possibly a disproportionately large share of pro-Umno staff in its ranks, would if it so wishes also be well-placed to throw a spanner into any well-intentioned programme a BR state government may attempt for the electorate.

And of course, any continued incompetence, corruption or unfairness by these elements will invariably also now be blamed on the new state governments by a public with heightened expectations.

All this assumes, of course, that the new BR state governments are indeed sincere in running their states solely for the benefit of the people. Any perceived signs of impropriety in Opposition states are now more likely to be quickly picked up and given a pro-BN slant by the mainstream media, assuming our newspapers will be what they are now.

The challenge for Malaysian democracy is therefore threefold.

Firstly, the BR needs to ensure that their state councillors are indeed singly committed to serving the people without any expectation of filthy lucre. Only then can they hope to survive past one term under the scrutiny of an electorate that has now signalled its intolerance for business-as-usual-corruption even if it’s by an Opposition elected by them.

Secondly, the BR state governments have to work doubly hard in the areas of competence and credibility to make a difference for their voters in the possible absence of fully-cooperative local councils, as well as the unwelcome attention a hostile federal government. In this respect, some expertise-sharing will be essential among the BR partner parties, especially on how PAS manages to keep Kelantan running all these years while being left on the shelf by the federal government.

Thirdly, voters in the Opposition states must quickly appreciate the implications of their choice. They had voted for Change. They expect that change to be for the better. The problem is, with the ongoing presence of entrenched elements of the BN government in the state government apparatus in collusion with a hostile federal government, the positive change they voted for is not likely to come very soon to their states. Many of these expected changes may not even happen at a significant level during this term of office.

A slippery slope the BR is now on is that urban voters are known, in the past at least, to be far more tolerant of corruption than they are of administrative or allocative inefficiencies by local governments, especially when those factors obstruct their ability to conduct business or live comfortably. Under the abovementioned constraints the BR state governments will face upon handover, the chance of underperformance in meeting voter expectations can be quite high.

Therefore, much tolerance, understanding and maturity will be demanded of Malaysians to weather the next four years of bread-and-butter politicking that is likely to come with this tug-and-war between the BR state and BN federal governments. We need to manage our expectations of the BR in the light of these circumstances.

The future of Malaysia’s democracy essentially now lies at the feet of the BR’s performance as the government of five states that are also the country’s key economic engines. This meteoric rise of the BR is symbolic of the nation’s hopes for a new way of running the country cleanly and fairly, without the ever-looming spectre of inter-ethnic riots whenever a corrupt government’s interests are threatened.

For this reason alone, the BN can be expected to work very hard to extinguish this nascent voter maturity that will eventually render ethnically-chauvinistic voting behaviour a shadow of what it has been for the past 50 years. Umno and its partners will want to demonstrate that their ‘divide-and-rule’ paradigm is what’s most expedient for the voter, even if its working definition of “Ketuanan Melayu” is actually toxic for the future of the country.

Conclusion

The next four years will truly be a test of endurance for two players in Malaysia’s future.

The first player, the Barisan Rakyat, has now found itself in a totally-unaccustomed role as government, but without very much power at this time to do what it needs to do for the people.

The second player in question is the now-awakened Malaysian voter, who will for sure be repeatedly faced with the temptation to backslide towards pre-2008 politics in exchange for goodies denied them by the federal government for daring to vote last weekend for the Opposition in their constituencies.

The ball’s now in your court, Malaysians and Barisan Rakyat!

May God be with you. My cautious hopes and prayer certainly are.

LETTERS: Quotable quotes from MPs
Usman Bawang | Feb 29, 08 4:36pm

There is no point in voting good BN candidates (if there is such a thing). You will see that there are good BN MPs/representatives in Umno/MCA/MIC etc., politicians with a bit of spine and some principles. But what's the point of
voting them in when they are overpowered by the hooligans within their parties?

Good people join BN to change and improve the system from within. They stand up for the people but are shot down by the party and system. Why waste your votes on them then if they are powerless? Judge for yourselves from these
quotable quotes and actions by our erstwhile MPs:

S Sothinathan, (MIC - Telok Kemang) was suspended from his deputy minister's position in 2006 for criticising government policy on the recognition of foreign medical degrees. He felt that many of the students at the Crimea State Medical University (CSMU) in Ukraine, which would be de-recognised, were Indians and because of this, being a BN component party, the MIC was duty- bound to protect their interest.

Loh Seng Kok, (MCA-Kelana Jaya) complained in Parliament about 'imbalanced' history textbooks, new prayer recital guidelines and the problems faced by non-Muslims with regards to places of worship. Six days later, some 50 Umno Youth members, led by Kelana Jaya division chief Abdul Halim Samad, paid him a visit late at night to deliver a 'warning letter'.

Shahrir Samad, Umno's conscience, supported an opposition motion (to censure the 'close one eye' Jasin MP). He also did not receive any support from his fellow government backbenchers to condemn the corruption within his own party.

Tan Cheng Liang (Jawi) and Lim Boo Chang (Datuk Keramat), two BN state assemblymen in Penang abstained from voting on the Penang Outer Ring Road (PORR) project in 2002. The controversial Porr was proposed by the BN
government and vehemently opposed by the opposition. Both were subject to
'disciplinary action' for not supporting the government, even though they thought that the project would not best serve the interests of Penang.

K Devamany (MIC - Cameron Highlands) said the fact that 50,000 people showed up at the Nov 25, 2007 Hindraf rally showed the government's failure in distributing the nation's wealth equally. In trying to highlight the seriousness of this issue, he was strongly condemned by his BN colleagues.

Zaid Ibrahim, another of Umno's conscience, has been dropped from this election. This former Kota Baru MP was one of the first Umno politicians to
publicly demand the establishment of a royal commission of inquiry into the
Lingam tape. This same man has been very public and vocal about the rotting
state of the judiciary and rule of law.

Zaid also led a campaign to re-elect Shahrir Samad, fellow Umno conscience,
as the backbencher's club chairperson after the 'close one eye' MP incident.
He didn't succeed.

These BN politicians were fighting for the people but they are being defeated by their own party. If they can't criticise the government, they can't stand up for you. Please read about Chief Whip in the link above.

Meanwhile, the spineless:

Shahrizat Jalil (Umno - Lembah Pantai) Women, Family and Community
Development Minister, on the passing of the Islamic Family Law (Federal
Territories) (Amendment) Bill 2005 which undermines the status of Muslim
women and the family institution, said this first: 'The uproar over this issue is symptomatic of the real problems affecting Muslim women in the country. Let this be a lesson to all concerned to not trivialise issues involving the rights of women. (Dec 23, 2005)

She then went on to say that her ministry had earlier objected to almost all
the clauses of the Bill, which discriminated against women (Dec 25, 2005).
She later went on to vote to support the bill.

And some quotes by BN and non-BN politicians. They are self-explanatory:

'Umno has now become completely paralysed." - Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

'... it's an opposition motion and we usually reject their motions.' - Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Nazri Aziz, The Star , May 5, 2006.

'Our principle is that BN Backbenchers Club (BBC) will not support the opposition.' - BNBBC Deputy Chairman Raja Ahmad Zainuddin Raja Omar, Bernama. May 5, 2006

'Based on our policy and practice, the BN elected representatives cannot
support a motion tabled by the opposition ... under whatever circumstances,
they should not have supported a motion from the opposition.' - Deputy Prime
Minister Najib Abdul Razak, who is also BN Chief Whip, The Sun, May 2006.

He (Sothinathan) is a member of the front bench and should not have taken a
stand like what he did, criticising his own government... [this] is certainly a breach of party discipline.' - Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, The Star, June 23, 2005

'What happened is unprecedented but he is at fault. That is why action has to be taken against him.' - Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Nazri Aziz, The Star, June 23, 2005

'He broke ranks. You cannot have your cake and eat it too.' - Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Nazri Aziz, The Star, June 23, 2005

'The action against Tan Cheng Liang (Jawi) and Lim Boo Chang (Datuk Keramat) was good enough to serve as a reminder to the rest of the backbenchers.' - BN Secretary-General, Mohamed Rahmat, Jan 6, 2003

'We are of the view that the final decision on this issue should be made by
Barisan. But as far as Umno is concerned, we want them (Tan and Lim) sacked.' - former prime minister and former Umno/BN chairperson, Dr Mahathir
Mohamad, Nov 29, 2002

'MPs are more free now, compared to 10 years ago, to voice their opinions
and views.' - Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Nazri Aziz, New
Straits Times. Jan 14, 2005

(On an objection by a leading backbencher) 'He may disagree, but at the end
of the day it is the Whip's decision.' - Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Nazri Aziz, New Straits Times, Jan14, 2005

'I am a loyal party member and will obey. (If the government bill didn't go
through) It would have meant trouble for me.' - Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Nazri Aziz, The Star, Dec 25, 2005

'They are free to debate and speak their minds, but when it comes to a vote
they have to follow.' - Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Nazri Aziz, BBC, Dec 22, 2005

'I was merely trying to help the Barisan retain voters' confidence by bringing up the issue at the state assembly. And I certainly did not go against the Barisan. I love Barisan and was merely trying to help it retain its voters' confidence.' - Tan Cheng Liang, Jawi assemblyperson, FAC News, Nov 27, 2002.

'BNBBC akan bertindak sebagai platform untuk Ahli Parlimen berkongsi pendapat mereka tentang isu-isu semasa bersama rakyat dan membolehkan rakyat memberikan pendapat dan komen-komen bernas yang akan membantu meningkatkan lagi mutu perkhidmatan yang diberikan oleh Ahli Parlimen terhadap rakyat yang mereka wakili. ' - BNBBC website.

'I urge MPs, particularly from Barisan Nasional, to support the amendments
to the two water bills in the interests of the people and country. The Barisan Nasional leadership should remove the whip and allow BN MPs to speak and vote according to their conscience.' - Opposition Leader, Lim Kit Siang, April 30, 2006

'Saya ada pelbagai cara untuk mendapatkan maklumbalas yang telah disampaikan kepada saya. Itulah cara saya daripada dulu pun. Kalau saya nak buat sesuatu dengan orang yang hendak membuat kerjasama dengan saya, saya akan beritahu, kalau ada pandangan, kalau ada apa-apa yang mereka hendak ingatkan, kut saya terlupa sedangkan kita manusia ini lupa pun ada. ' - Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Feb 9, 2004

'Bekerjalah bersama saya, dan bukan untuk saya.' - Prime Minister Abdullah
Ahmad Badawi, Feb 9, 2004

'I will deal with them, even if they're powerful.' - Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, March 23, 2004

'For 15 years, I had joined the wrong party and I thought in year 2000 when I joined MCA, I could then serve the party and Barisan Nasional (BN).' Lim Boo Chang, Datuk Keramat assemblyperson, Dec 16, 2002

No, Boo Chang. You are STILL in the wrong party.

The article attached below can be found at Raja Petra Kamaruddin's blogsite (see URL above) but I feel its message is too important for anybody to miss. So, here it is again.

"Little Bird" is one of RPK's most prolific and reliable sources and we should take this news seriously.

For the first time in our country's history, Malaysians of ALL RACES agree on the same thing: Enough is Enough!

For the first time in nearly 50 years too, the Opposition is contesting nearly every seat in mostly two-cornered fights all around the country.

So let's get off our asses and stop giving excuses for not voting. It now has nothing to do with whether you're Malay, Chinese, Indian, Orang Asli, Eurasian or whatever. It's about doing our duty AS MALAYSIANS to rid the country of a totally-corrupted and racist administration.

Or at the very least, we urgently need checks and balances in place, if all we manage is to break Barisan Nasional's traditional 2/3 majority. If that doesn't happen they'll have license to screw the Rakyat all they want yet again.

Think about your children's future in this country. Think about your EPF, Socso and life savings when we run out of oil reserves.

Read on, and then Vote Wisely!

----- Forwarded Message ----

To the Indians, Chinese, Dayaks, Kadazans, Malays, etc.
Posted by Raja Petra
Friday, 08 February 2008
By Little Bird

I met a bumiputra CEO of a GLC recently. A GLC means 'Government Linked Company'. He had lots to tell me about some of the things that are going wrong in his sector of the GLC. (Enough material to craft more stories.)

In brief, they are all screwed up. But what I want to say is that this bumiputra CEO said clearly that he will not be voting for the BN. He also said aloud that 'this time we cannot vote for the BN. The opposition must become stronger in Parliament'.

Then there is another bumiputra chairman of another company that does a lot of business with the government. He is a ranking UMNO member in his bahagian. He says that he and his whole family will not be voting for the BN. This will be a first time thing for him and his family in almost 40 years of voting. It's very painful for him, like a messy divorce, but he is determined to not vote for UMNO. Another UMNO member I know is still an office bearer at his UMNO cawangan in the Klang Valley. He too will not be voting for the BN this time around. Another first for him too.

I have already spoken about the other UMNO member in my other article who told me about the Hindraf protesters. He too will not be voting for the BN this time around. In four different constituencies the BN will be losing a bunch of votes from these people. These are not isolated cases. Thousands of UMNO members will be voting against the BN this time. Among them will be Tun Dr Mahathir. Even more thousands of non-UMNO Malays will be doing the same thing.

Tun Dr Mahathir has made it plain that we should not vote for the BN. Dr Mahathir used discreet, indirect language. First he said that we should vote for 'credible candidates'. He then said that 'we cannot change UMNO from within, the change has to come from outside, so vote wisely'. Put together, these two indirect messages become a direct insistence from Dr Mahathir that we should not vote for the BN. He could not have been more blunt.

We are most definitely going to see a very big swing in Malay votes this time around. This is where the Chinese and the Indians must step up to the plate and be ready to swing the bat. The Chinese in Penang, Kedah, Perak, Selangor, Kelantan and elsewhere have already made it known quite early on that they will not be voting for the BN this time. Let us reach out to our Chinese brethren and help reaffirm their commitment. Let us reassure ourselves that when the time comes, each of us does have the power in our hands to change our destiny and the destiny of this country which is our home. Let us be rid of the morons, imbeciles, the liars and the thieves. Also the murderers who have blown up Altantuya Shaarribuu Setev.

At last the Indians have been woken up from their almost drug induced 'BN, BN, BN, BN' mantra by the Hindraf protests. Someday something like the 'Dodo Bird Prize' will be given to the Indian community for being the most reliable and loyal supporters of the BN for 50 years. Perhaps never before has a community given so much support for half a century to a political party which could not really care less for them. Maybe with the Hindraf protests this 'bugger me BN' craving has come to a permanent end among the Indians.

It is absolutely crucial that the BN is denied its 2/3 majority in Parliament. Even with 51% of the seats the BN will still rule the Government but they will be on their tippy, tippy toes. This is what we all want. We want checks and balances. Firstly, if they lose the 2/3, it will cause a major psychological shock to the BN. It will most likely cause Abdullah Badawi's head to roll. The UMNO boys will replace him. If Badawi goes, the son-in-law, the cronies, the crooks, the thieves, etc., will all go too. And the batch that replaces them will learn to pray to their gods more diligently, speak better Malay, Tamil and Mandarin, eat with chopsticks, sing Kongsi Raya songs and all the other good things that are needed to run this country properly.

Denying the BN the 2/3 is also crucial because it will mean that many BN (especially UMNO) candidates would not have public office. If they lose their MP and ADUN seats, they cannot become Ministers, Parliamentary Secretaries, State EXCO members, etc. This means their money tree will be cut off. They will no more be in a position to hand out goodies. UMNO and MCA will choke. This will cause great soul searching especially in UMNO and MCA, which will finally lead to body piercing and ultimately head chopping. It will change our politics for ever.

That is why it is absolutely crucial that all Malaysians stand up to bat for the future of this country. We do not need mere protest votes. We must vote for drastic change. Out with the decrepit buggers. They smell and they are filthy. I can't wait for the elections.

Ok, I admit it... I'm his fan, alright? But look at his hands, aww man....!

All this with just ONE guitar. With a nice detour to "Walk, Don't Run" too!

Another brilliant performance on the strings for those familiar with George Harrison's work with The Beatles!

This guy's an absolute riot! Niche? Self-deprecating and ethnic humour. One of the newer Canadian comedians making waves all over now. You should check out some of his older acts too....!