Iqbal Abd Ghaffar

The lights of the urban skyline heading towards what essentially is the backbone of Peninsular Malaysia where the only casino in this country lay perched look brighter than usual today. The velvet colored dark sky hosts a bluemoon (not literally k). Now I know how the phrase “Once in a bluemoon” came up (click on the link).

The first decade of the new millenia has come to an end. What a wacky decade!

Have you ever had one of those hit the forehead with “Oh I get it!” moment? Well I did, a few days back. I think it was Mix.fm’s old tagline, “playing today’s hit music from the eighties, nineties, and noughties”. Hearing the last word over the air, made it sound like naughties. And I thought naughties? That doesn’t make sense at all! A few days back, as I stumbled upon some articles of reflections of 2009, I came across the word noughties, and then I realized, “I remember my English (as in England) maths teacher called zero nought (or was it not)”. And so it hit me faster that you can say doodle-my-chicken-before-it-poops, “Oh! This is how this decade is referred to!”

Where am I going with this? umm…oh yes! A decade past by so bloody fast. I didn’t notice it right until this morning that we’re heading into a new decade.

It was exactly 10 years ago that mankind and you, me, and the rest of us were all hoping that the new millennium would usher in a new era of hope for mankind. Hopes of peace, end to war, hunger, poverty, more prosperity, equality, green peace (and the list is endless). But 10 years into this new decade and we’ve got a world paralyzed with a war on terror, the imminent danger of climate change and global warming on overdrive, global scale pandemics starting with SARS, bird flue and now H1N1, major natural disasters becoming as common as a mamak in every taman, and a systemic failure of capitalism driven to the extreme by man’s insatiable lust and greed that has costed governments insane amounts of money to fix (pump priming will in-debt future generations).

But all is not lost. All is not gloomy. Despite the doom and gloom that seems to prevail in society today and the amount of negativity that is portrayed in the media (hey, bad news sells), there is still hope for mankind. There are still people who for the love of god would go to extremes and fight for the survival of this planet. There are still people who care about the poor children of africa dying of hunger. And there are still good samaritans who would go all out to put a smile on a strangers face.

I remember a funny story shared by a friend of mine who probably never really cared for any of the above. The story goes that one day he and a female accomplice drove up to a petrol station to refuel. At one corner was a dumpster and there were probably a dozen cats, loitering around and playing with each other and scavenging for food. A couple of minutes later a pickup drove up to the dumpster and a man walked out from the car carrying a bag. This bag was not a garbage bag but was in fact cat food (friskies maybe). The good man spread a sheet of newspaper, poured the cat food on to the newspaper and a dozen or so cats came digging in the nutritious feast.

The friend of mine said to his lady friend (as he got into the car to ready to drive off) “It’s heartening to know that there are still good people like him in this world. Thanks to people like him we can continue being a**h***s”.

The above story folks illustrates… nothing. I just wanted to share that with you. I liked it because its hilarious. *ROFL*

Back to the story…one decade has gone by so fast. That’s 10 years! We’ve added 10 years into our lives. I had just finished high school at the end of the last millennium. I think its pretty awesome that we’ve lived to see the turn into a new millennium, a new century, and a new decade. Thinking about it…the next millennium won’t be here until 989 years from now!

So one decade down, nine more to go in this century. How far are you with your hopes and dreams?

I think that’s the beauty of time. With time, comes experience and hopefully wisdom (sadly some people never get it). I’ve always thought that events in life are nothing more than mere experiences worth recalling, reflecting or worth deleting from your hard drive!

Last year alone, I’ve had quite a roller coaster experience. And I’ve seen events on other people that have impacted my perspective and view on life. But I must admit, a lot of time was spent on soul googling (a new term i coined for soul searching *laughs*) and soul refining (I wonder if there’s ever such a term). And I’m pretty sure the friends and people I know go through the same s**t and had done their own soul refining and soul googling. Perhaps that may just be Google’s next big project!

Moving on to the 28th year of my existence, I’m beginning to comprehend and appreciate the overly used and taken for granted advise that can be summed up in one word: “Bersyukur” or “Be grateful”. Okay, that’s two words in English. Thanks for pointing that out captain obvious.

Go on try it yourself. Reflect on these two words. And I really mean deeply reflect upon it and let it sink in! For some of you, it won’t hit you on the head the first time, it’ll probably take some time. With all good things, it comes with time and patience.

New year party’s over folks. Fireworks are finished. Its the morning of first of January Twenty Ten. Frankly, new year celebration is getting ever more boring. Its repetitive with MC’s and TV announcers having to be hyped up on TV yelling to the audience behind them “SAY HI TO THE CAMERA! IT NEW YEAR! WOOOO!” (what a retard). She made a complete fool of herself.

There’s probably 10 tonnes of waste created from last night’s celebration at KLCC alone (my guess is as good as yours). Its back to work for the hard toiling labors who clean up the mess you’ve made from last night. Respect to these unsung heroes that we take for granted.

Point is that, everyday can be a new year. I don’t see the point of celebrating new year, when on the first day of work come monday, you’d feel all depressed saying to yourself “SSDY (Same Shit Different Year”.

Life is short. Life seems much more shorter now since time doesn’t fly, it travels at warp speed 3.

Anyways, the noughties is gone. Its a new decade. When this decade is over I hope that it won’t be just another 10 years added into your age.

Now…I wonder what’ll this decade be called…the teenies?

Merry New Year and a Happy New decade!

IAG

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilifitri!

Kepada umat Islam yang akan menyambut salah satu hari kebesaran Islam, ingin saya ambil kesempatan ini untuk mengucapkan Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri.

Kepada kaum kerabat keluarga saya, sahabat-sahabat, rakan-rakan sekerja, rakan-rakan taulan, serta kenalan-kenalan, saya memanjangkan jari sepuluh kerat ini memohon maaf atas segala salah dan silap saya baik yang zahir atau batin. Sebagai manusia tidak mungkin saya terlepas dari membuat kesalahan dan dosa.

Semoga kekal dan bertambah mesra persahabatan dan persaudaraan antara kita, dipanjangkan umur, dan dimurahkan rezeki.

Kepada pembaca setia blog saya, Salam Hari Lebaran, dan Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri. Terima kasih di atas sokongan anda. Nantikan artikel-artikel saya sesudah saya puas bercuti raya.

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri!

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To all muslims who will be celebrating one of the grandest days in the muslim calendar, I’d like to take the opportunity to wish you a Happy Eid-ul Fitr.

To my family memmbers, friends, colleagues, and acquaintances, I’d like to seek for forgiveness on any wrong or grievances I may have caused you. I’m only human, thus I cannot escape from committing errors and sins.

May our friendship get closer and grow in strength. May we have a longer life and become prosperous.

To my avid readers, Eid Mubarak and Happy Eid-ul Fitr. Thank you for your support. Stay tuned for my articles when I done holidaying and celebrating eid.

Eid Mubarak!

-IAG-

Iqbal Abd Ghaffar

Election results for the top four MIC post all goes to the President’s men. While 19 out of the 27 CWC candidates endorsed by Samy Vellu were returned

Reformist and change agents within MIC were of no match against the all too powerful Samy Vellu. His dictatorial ways of ruling the MIC has only reaffirmed his position as the ONLY leader for the very divided Malaysian Indian community.

Subramaniam’s defeat for the deputy presidency against incumbent G.Palanivel with a mere 87 votes only suggests that his chances of winning would have been better had the third contender S.Sothinathan not contested. He gained 280 votes.

With powers now fully clenched in his fist, Samy Vellu has already started to exercise his executive powers to “discipline” all those who oppose him. The top line up? Contender for the deputy president’s post Datuk S. Subramaniam.

Its now up to Samy Vellu to decide how slow and painful or quick and clean will death be for the former deputy president of MIC.

MIC has already dug up its own grave. Its demise will slowly come to pass. Respect for the party among its community and in BN is already at an all time low. It has an uphill battle of winning back support from the very people it discriminated, divide, and oppressed.

Any changes and reforms it suggests, are only cosmetic and will be viewed cynically. It’ll be hard to believe in the sincerity of such change since the grand old man of MIC is still at the helm. It is a difficult task indeed.

MIC, God Speed and Rest in Peace.

IAG

Iqbal believes that a large chunk of the delegates threw their votes behind Sothinathan to “play it safe”. Even if Subraminiam did win, he’d be all alone and at logger heads with the Samy Vellu and it’d be a matter of time before he suffers the same fate as former MCA deputy president Chua Soi Lek and former UMNO deputy president Anwar Ibrahim.

Iqbal actively posts his thought and opinions at www.iqbalghaffar.com

Iqbal Abd Ghaffar

The first Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman had once said “An unhappy Indian is its own political party”. I can’t recall the quote word by word, but it sounded something like that.

Tunku Abdul Rahman couldn’t have said it any better as the quote stands true.

In present day Malaysia, the world can bare witness to the myriad of political parties that champions the roughly 2 million Malaysians of Indian ethnic. There’s a total of 9 starting with MIC, PPP, MIUP, Hindraf, Mindraf, AMIPF, KIMMA, MCC, PPM. This doesn’t take into account multiracial parties such as DAP, PKR, Gerakan, and PAS supporters club that the Indians can join .The number is quite large considering that the Indians make roughly less 9% of the Malaysian population.

While the large number of Indian based parties shows that democracy certainly thrives, the flip side of the coin is that a large number of people in the Indian community may be unhappy with the oldest Indian party in Malaysia. This became even more so evident when in March 2008, the MIC was almost obliterated from the face of Malaysian politics.

This can be solely attributed to the dissatisfaction the community has had with the leadership of the MIC. More specifically pointing to Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu, the man who has had an iron fist control of the party since 1979.

Since his “dynasty” as President of the oldest and largest Indian based party, he has marginalized his own people, destroyed the political (and personal) careers of anyone who opposes him, and expelled those who supported the opposed. His dictatorial ways have successfully instilled fear instead of  respect in the community, split its support base many times over, and created a highly marginalized community. In that same process, he destroyed many aspiring and talented leaders from rising within the Indian community. There was only one key message that he wanted to say and that was “Support me, and I’ll extend my help to you. Oppose me, and you’ll perish!”

Samy Vellu is one man whose is skin far thicker than the glaciers of the Alps. Despite his loss in his own constituency of Sungai Siput and the obliteration of MIC in March 8 2008, the calls by grassroots for him to step down, and despite knowing that the many of his presidential peers in the ruling BN coalition has retired and the current BN leadership especially Najib Razak does not openly support him anymore, he defies all this stating that the MIC still needs his leadership to be reformed.

The biggest call to reform, would be to start with himself stepping down as President of the MIC. With him out of the way, new blood and ideas can then be injected into the party. With him out of the way, the shackles of fear based politics would be dismantled. With him out of the way, and with a leader who is more dynamic, young, vibrant, and who stands up to the cause of uniting the community will the party be able to see real progress.

Sept 12 marks the day when 1,464 MIC delegates will elect 23 representatives into the Central Working Committee, three Vice Presidents, and one Deputy President.

Samy Vellu has already lined up 27 “preferred” candidates for this election. But within the party ranks and files and more strongly the grassroots has signalled that this will not be an easy fight. The focus is on the three-cornered fight for the Deputy President’s seat. Incumbent and Samy Vellu’s preferred candidate Datuk G. Palanivel, is being challenged by former deputy president Datuk S. Subramaniam, and new comer and former blue-eyed boy of Samy Vellu Datuk S.Sothinathan.

Subramaniam, 49, has a strong support base from the grassroots who want to see real change in MIC. His support also comes from those who have been expelled from the party by Samy Vellu. His mantra of change for the better, and his promise of accepting all members who have been expelled from the party has won their hearts and minds.

The task of winning the post is an uphill battle as Samy Vellu’s tentacle is strongly wrapped around many delegates. However, his move to publish and interview with Dr.Mahathir on the future of MIC and Samy Vellu has already caused quite a stir with Samy Vellu telling Subramanian brought “shame” to the party, and telling Mahathir to stay out of MIC’s affairs.

Dr. Mahathir’s comments will have an impact on the delegates decision to elect their leaders. Those who want change are already excited with the comments given by the grand old man of Malaysian politics as this endorsement has given steam for the party to push for reforms and a put in place a new leadership that will hopefully muster enough power to oust Samy Vellu.

It is a known fact that the MIC has lost its respect within the Barisan Nasional coalition. In their view, MIC has lost the mandate of the Indian community. Many in BN agree and want to see Samy Vellu step down and let someone else take the helm. The chairman of BN who is also PM, Najib Razak have on many occasions bypassed Samy Vellu when it came to Indian issues such as the Section 23 temple relocation debacle.

All eyes and ears are now focused on Najib’s speech at the opening of MIC elections on the morning of the 12th as this will give an indication to the delegates on who to vote and elect. The outcome of this election will determine the rebirth or the demise of the MIC.

-IAG-

Iqbal backs Subramaniam to lead the way for reform and change in the MIC and ultimately oust Samy Vellu from the post of President. He has Indians close at heart because he and his brothers were well taken care of by a Tamil Sri Lankan maid for 12 years since he was a born. He regularly blogs at www.iqbalghaffar.com

To compare Tony Fernandez to Idris Jala is like comparing a mangosteen to a “ciku”!

Iqbal Abd Ghaffar

While scanning through my favourite non-biased free online paper, my eyes were immediately fixated to a news headline that was screaming for my attention.

It read “PAS says Tony Fernandes better than Idris Jala.”  This piece of news written by Shazwan Mustafa Kamal was interesting because PAS’s vice-presidents Datuk Haji Mahfuz Omar and Datuk Sallehuddin Ayub “told reporters today that the party is questioning the basis and criteria of Idris’ appointment, claiming that the former MAS chief executive had no record of outstanding performance in his previous job.”

They claimed what!? Idris Jala had no record of outstanding job performance in his previsou job?? I beg to differ!

Here would be my reply to Datuk HajI Mahfuz Omar and Datuk Sallehuddin Ayub.

Dear Datuk Haji Mahfuz Omar and Datuk Sallehuddin Ayub ,

First of all, your remarks about Idris Jala’s past performance before joining MAS is indespicable. You have grossly understated his ability. Talk to any of his colleagues and bosses in Royal Dutch Shell that he has served for over 20 years and you will know that he has been an excellent leader.

His greatest strength is in business turnarounds and he has successfully demonstrated and proven this with turning around the Shell Gas company in Sri Lanka. It had been operating at a loss before he stepped in. He was tasked to turn the company around, and he successfully did so in a few years. There are many more successful business turnarounds which he has delivered throughout his high flying career in Shell.

To compare Tony Fernandez to Idris Jala is like comparing a mangosteen to a “ciku”!

Idris was appointed to change and make a mammoth company full of complacency, beaurocracy, and festered with cronies and corruption that was driven by a GLC mentality profitable.

Whereas Tony Fernandez bought over an unknown AirAsia from DRB Hicom (of which was also making a loss) and made it into a profitable airline making him very wealthy in that process.

Idris Jala was handpicked by the government and tasked to make a GLC profitable of where he does not own major or minor stake in the company, while Tony Fernandzs is a business man who (with a couple of his friends) bought over AirAsia and had no choice but to make it profitable or else he’ll go bankrupt!

Now fellow VP’s of PAS, get your facts straight before lambasting and looking down upon an individual which you know little or nothing off. Please stop playing petty politics just to gain cheap political mileage. I think a large majority of Malaysians would disagree with your “hit below the belt” statement about Idris Jala.

Idrs Jala’s contribution to the organizations and companies that he served is far bigger than what you may have achieved in your party or for the country.

Regards

Iqbal Abd Ghaffar

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It goes to show how some people would go to great extents just to hit at Najib’s administration. That’s fine with me, in fact I do too! One can hit at the politicians who lead the ministries, but one should exercise extreme caution when targeting an individual that is known to have an excellent track record of delivery.

Unfortunately for Mahfuz Omar and Salahuddin Ayub, Idris Jala is a man with many excellent track records of delivery.

I applaud Najib’s move to appoint Idris Jala into his cabinet. I believe He is trying to live up to his motto of “People First, Performance Now”. The move will definitely ruffle a lot of feathers especially political warlords from the ruling BN coalition.

But I strongly feel that appointing a handful of professionals into his cabinet will not make his cabinet any more credible. Its already brimming with corrupt politicians who are more self-interested than they are of the people. If Najib is serious about “People First, Performance Now” then at least 60% of his cabinet ministers should be professionals!

To Idris Jala, I wish you all the best in implementing these KPI’s. You’ve got a great deal of work cut out for you. It won’t be an easy feat trying to get cooperation from UMNO/MCA/MIC and the other BN component party warlords to achieve their KPI. But if you are able to pull this one through and survive BN politics, you can survive almost anything.

-IAG-

Iqbal Abd Ghaffar admires both Tony Fernandez and Idris Jala for their strong business acumen and leadership qualities. He has yet to meet Idris Jala.

Iqbal Abd Ghaffar

I can still vividly recall back in August of 1997 of how almost every vehicle had stuck the Jalur Gemilang (Malaysian flag) onto their windscreen or the hood of their bike. I was only 15, staying in a boarding school. Access to outside of the school compound was only limited to weekends, and even that was limited on a fortnightly basis.

However, the site of my teacher’s and school staff’s vehicle be it a car, van, motorcycle flying the Jalur Gemilang  was a site to behold. TV news and the printed media reported the success of the “Raise The Flag” campaign that ran from the 15th of Aug – 15th Sept. Images of vehicles and homes proudly flying the flag was proudly showcased.

I was ecstatic! I was excited! My young-self then felt every vein in my body oozing with patriotism and love for the country.

The following year, the campaign changed its wording to “Kibarkan Jalur Gemilang”. Though many people did raise it, I could feel that the there was a slight reduction in participation from the public. The spirit was dampened as we were hit with the Asian financial crisis, and the Ringgit and stock market was plummeting to new lows.

The spirit of raising the flag dampened with the passing of the years. Today, finding a car flying the Jalur Gemilang is as rare as finding diamonds on the road.

The strong feeling of patriotism and love for the country that I had 12 years ago remains a distant memory.

People cite all sort of reasons for not raising the flag. Petty reasons such as, no one giving out free flags (cheap skate!) to safety reasons such as flags flying off the cars can become a missile (this argument does have merit).

Our closest neighbor (as much as we hate to admit it) by blood and history down south celebrates their independence day with vigor and pride. I haven’t experienced myself, but from what I read and gather, folks down there are patriotic about their Merdeka Day and its celebration. For every year without fail, they’ll raise their flag and fly it with pride and honor.

Citizens of the USA proudly raise the Star Spangled Banner in their homes as a display for the love of their country without fail on or before every July 4th. And they’ve been doing that since 1776!

So what has happened to the Merdeka day spirit of our fellow Malaysians? Have we really lost the pride of calling ourselves Malaysians? Are we just too distracted with fending for ourselves and our livelihoods that we are unable to express or show the gratitude towards this country in which we call home? Or have we succumb ourselves to petty politics and allowed the differences in opinions and our political stance to divide us and dampen our patriotism and love for the country.

I hate to shudder the thought of it, but the stark reality is that many Malaysians just have no clue on how to celebrate Merdeka day. They’re not sure of how to display their love for the country (even though they would like to). And a great many Malaysians are far too divided with their political stance or non-political stance that Merdeka day becomes a display of their utter disgust towards the government of the day (since the parade stand is always filled with government officials from the ruling coalition).

In my opinion, Malaysians of all creed from all walks of life should make this day a neutral day. It should be marked as a day where one remains apolitical and non-partisan. In all due respect, whatever opinions or stance you may have towards the ruling government towards the opposition, on this special day, all Malaysians should uphold the dignity and sovereignty of this land we call home.

Bask in her glory, and dignify her, and remember the struggles of our forefathers and generations that have passed of their plight to achieve independence and self rule. For since the fall of Malacca into the hands of the Portugese in 1511, this land has been under the control of foreign powers for 446 years.

Let us not allow narrow racial politics to control our emotions and thoughts. Disallow the chauvinists from every racial group who only form the minority from controlling the mainstream politics and majority of the rakyat who only want to see tolerance and harmony permeate and blossom. It serves no one any good to allow such groups to fester and penetrate into the thoughts and lives of peace-loving, multi-racial embracing, diversity-driven Malaysians of all walks of life.

In this time of confusion, let us uphold the sanctity of the constitution and look up to the Yang DiPertuan Agung for his leadership and his non-partisan stance on the politics of this country!

Selamat Menyambut Hari Kemerdekaan Yang ke-52.

-IAG-

ps: I too am guilty of not raising the Jalur Gemilang. I promise to that I will raise it next year and every year after that. Please join me and pledge to do the same.

Iqbal Abd Ghaffar

It’s been a while since I last updated my blog. Ok, a long while. Six months and 14 days to be exact! (Need I count the hours, minutes and seconds?)

In that absence, I received a number of comments from my readers about my sudden silence.

Thank you all for your concern. I was touched by your kind words of encouragement to go on writing. While my writing and articles will not win me a Pulitzer, to know that you find my articles informative and my style is acceptable to many of you is a good endorsement and motivation for me to carry on with what I had set out for.

Contrary to what many of my readers and friends believed, I was not detained nor had I become a victim of any political power that I may have upset.

I was merely caught up with the demands of my new job and some personal set backs (thank you for listening and being there when I needed someone to be there, you know who you are).

The demands from the job are huge because I’ve made a quantum jump in my career line. It’s a huge leap of faith. Switching from IT to Marketing (which I have little or no formal education) in a formidable global oil & gas company requires much sacrifice and adjustment. This is not IT marketing, its business marketing of which the concepts and reach are new and alien to me.

The first four months were a struggle, but I’ve manged to cope with it now. I’m still learning and developing and I’m very eager to learn and develop more. I just wished that my assessors had given me a business or commercial role rather than an IT role when I first started with this company. But I take it as a blessing in disguise. At least I now know what I don’t want to do!

I sincerely hope that I will continue to blog and share my thoughts and my 2 cents worth of opinions on the issues that affect this country, region, world, or after world. And I do hope that you would find my articles a pleasure to read.

To the future!

IAG

May we all obtain the true goal of fasting which is Taqwa.

To know more about Taqwa, you may read this article written by Ustaz Zaharuddin, a prominent Islamic Scholar of which I found to be very informative (It’s in Malay by the way).

-IAG-

Will The Real Karpal Please Shut Up

by Iqbal Abd Ghaffar

“Karpal To Anwar: Step Down as Pakatan Head” was the bold headline displayed on the top of the Malaysiakini news portal. 

I couldn’t help but wonder why this grand old man of DAP has to bitch things in the media everytime he’s unhappy about his counterparts in PR. It doesn’t bode really well that the BN controlled media’s radar are always tuned in to look for grouses or bad news that could be used against PR.

Yes, he is angry. Yes, he never agreed to party hopping. Yes, he is against PAS’s Islamic State and Hudud agenda. 

And yes, it is his rights to voice his opinion, but doing it openly may not be the best way to solve any crisis or issues within the PR manifold.

His actions only expose him as an emotional disgruntled old man loosing his cool easily. Aren’t older men supposed to be wiser and more patient by virtue?

His unilateral announcement to sue Sultan Azlan Shah over His Highness’ decision not to dissolve the Perak State Assembly shines a bad limelight on not only him but PR for that matter. After all, he is the DAP chairman.

Luckily, this is just his own personal point of view as other top guns and members of DAP anPRdon’t share the same sentiment and opinion as he does. Or perhaps, its just damage control.

However annoyed he is, this respected old man of Malaysian politics should learn by now that if it has anything to do with the interest of his party or the PR, fight it out internally. Don’t work towards gaining cheap and quick publicity old man.

And Anwar, can you please keep your house in order?

I think that a great many Malaysians and your supporters are not interested to hear too much of your “wife’s” or “wives”  hatred with each other openly?  We don’t want to have to take sides either. We believe in what PR stands for…so please work towards strengthening its structure and strength. -IAG-

This is one man who is both smart and evil in the same time. His rule and grip on the ountry and its institutions would be far reaching and perhaps far worse than Mahathir’s years.

BN is a Four Letter Word

by Iqbal Abd Ghaffar

Dissapointed, disgusted, and outraged is a pure understatement of what the Rakyat of Perak and Malaysia feel of the saga that has unfolded in Perak.

Perhaps not all would feel that way, but to some extent a large majority of Malaysians who support PR, are anti-BN, or are pro-BN but sympathise PR, and not forgetting the fence sitters would feel that the events that have happened were in the most dubious of manners and shrouded in doubt and secrecy.

It could well have been that the whole ordeal was orchestrated and engineered timely and precisely to every minute of the hour. It was a movie directed extremely well, with scripts prepared by the best of brains, and a cast that could stand every chance of being nominated for a grammy award.

The actions of Datuk Nasaruddin Hashim, assemblyman for Bota to jump ship from UMNO to PKR on 25th Jan may have been a coy. The coy successfully put the PR’s gaurds down as they celebrated a small victory. Probably, little were they aware that by them accepting Nasaruddin into PR’s fold, this very move gave every reason for BN to justify PR’s assemblyman to jump ship to BN.

The “I’ll get even with you” and “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” attitude prevails. 

Soon after, the ex-minister of Perak and Perak UMNO liaison and BN chief, Datuk Seri Tajol Rosli quit. Najib Razak replaced his incumbent as Perak UMNO liaison and BN Chief with immediate effect.

This was followed by two of the most corrupted, incompetent, unethical and immoral PKR assembly went missing since the 27th of Jan. Their dissapearance caused a stir as it was rumored that they were defecting to UMNO. All attempts to contact them were futile as even their family members could not even reach them.

In the same time, Jelapang Assemblywoman from DAP, Hee Yit Fong also went missing for 24 hours. Speculation and rumors went abuzz about her meeting up with the President of MCA to defect into that party. When she appeared, she only said that she turned her phone off because she was “unwell” and quashed rumors that she was leaving the party. 

The whole event came to its climax when the speaker of DUN Perak recieved two undated resignation letters from the missing Behrang and Changkat Jering Assemblyman via fax. Suddenly then, did those two men who were MIA appeared rebuking that they had resigned from their posts as assemblyman. Ironically, this was done via a represntative and not appearing by themself! What a coward!

The mess began got from bad to worse as these three ADUN’s then left their party to become independant. They went as far as becoming friendly and supportive of BN. 

The Bota Assemblyman, after completing his mission , joined UMNO again. 

This gives BN a 31 seat lead against PR’s 28. 

Datuk Nizar’s request to the Sultan of Perak for a snap election to allow the people of Perak decide on their leaders was not well recieved by the King.

His Royal Highness rejected it, and instead accepted the BN’s proposal to form a new government in Perak. One wonders why the King had done this, but I figure that this could really be related to the decision of Nizar’s government to convert lease hold land of many new villages to free hold status.

This sentiment was reflected in a speech given by his Son and crown Prince of Perak, Raja Nazrin Shah on the Islamic Economic Forum held in KL last January. He had made references of how the British, before the inception of Malaya and during the Malayan Union gave away Malay Land to the Chinese in many parts of the country. Raja Nazrin was emotional when he said this in his speech.

Coming back to today, could this have been the real reason why the wise Sultan disapproved Nizar’s request? Only he will know, but the backlash from the rakyat was something that was never expected by the Sultan. 

But whatever the reason the Sultan may have used to deny the request of the Datuk Nizar, what’s brewing for sure is a constitutional crisis.

On the one hand, the Sultan is to be fair, neutral, and uphold justice for the interest of the people and uphold the sanctity of the constitution, but on the other hand, did the Sultan live up to the expectations that he has after he and his son has positioned themselves as a champion of nuetrality and the uplholder of the constition since March 8th?

Constitutional experts have a mixed view on this as there are gray areas in the constitution that does give the right to the ruler listen or not listen to the advice of the Menteri Besar of the day.

But apart from all this, what’s most disturbing and the real focus should be on the upcoming Prime Minister in-waiting, Najib Tun Razak. 

A protege of Dr. Mahathir, he is already showing his leadership style; strong, willed, and determined; far more dictatorial then the man he is replacing. 

This is one leader that carries the most access baggage with him. He comes in with his name stilled embroiled with the Altantuya case, his commisions that he earned from the procurement of the submarines, and the latest, the toppling of a people’s government in Perak to that of the Federal’s choice of government from Putrajaya.

If there’s anything to go by, his cloak-and-dagger leadership style that was effectively and well demonstrated in the toppling of the PR government in Perak shows that he is one leader is power hungry and will stop at nothing to have things his way.

After a defeat in Permatang Pauh and Kuala Terengganu, he needed something strong to show to the UMNO warlords and its members that he is no weak leader. The Prime Minister in-waiting needed to tell his people that, he is strong, capable and not a wimp. And the UMNO warlords are happy that they have someone who can stand up to Anwar’s onslaught and grind his plans to a halt with the saga in Perak. 

This is one man who is both smart and evil in the same time. His rule and grip on the ountry and its institutions would be far reaching and perhaps far worse than Mahathir’s years.

But his show down in Perak and his onslaught to topple more PR state governments will not bode very well for everyone particularly with the more enlightened Malaysians. He is dealing with a country far more politically divided than his predecessors and his father had ever faced.

Though he may have won the battle in Perak, he has already set the stage for the imminent down fall of BN and put UMNO on a fast track to extinction. The very people that he should have worked hard to win their hearts and mind, has been cast aside for his political ambitions.  He has lost my respect and many other Malaysians as well.

Thanks to him, BN and UMNO has become a four letter word. – IAG-