| How To Spot A Fascist Regime Posted: 21 Jun 2011 10:04 PM PDT He calls these the identifying characteristics of fascism. The excerpt is in accordance with the magazine's policy.
The 14 characteristics are: READ MORE HERE |
| BERSIH RALLY 2.0 : An essay in its honor Posted: 21 Jun 2011 03:19 PM PDT In Malaysia, are the leaves turning yellow, too?
Are we witnessing the total deconstruction of the race-based political ideology and a breakdown of the economic and social relations of production?
Is the nation being haunted by a 'yellow wave' of change demanded by those alienated by the developmentalist agenda that seems to have favoured a privileged segment of society?
At the speed of how things are turning yellow, it seems that we have to content with such signs and symbols of systemic change as a reality.
Around three decades ago, the 'yellow culture' carried a negative connotation especially in relation to the invasion of the 'decadent aspects of the western culture'. Today, we see a deconstruction of this perception; a mental revolution that is taking the colours of the constitutional monarchy as a symbol of war against the colours of the present race-based regime.
It is a war over the definition of 'democracy'. It includes the question: who has the monopoly over Malaysian democracy? Can we continue to think like dinosaurs in an age of dolphin-think?
One of the nagging questions for our nation as we enter this challenging period for civil rights is this: what is Malaysian democracy and what is its future?
Key spokespersons of the government think that we are doing fine with the system and that we need to only improve the process.
Key spokespersons representing the wave of change and who challenge the 'system' think that the system is no longer working, as we face the realities of changing race-relations.
These are contending views of what 'Malaysian democracy' is - an interpretation of what the process of development of the people, by the people, for the people means. These are the views of the words 'demos' and 'kratos' of what a 'government of the people' should mean.
Democracy is rooted in economics. Our existence - including that of the king and the pauper, rebels and reformists, the Sultans and the hamba sahaya - as Marx would contend, is defined by the economic condition we are in or have created.
In Malaysia, the condition is defined by the pie baked by those who created the New Economic Policy that is now becoming a system of the New Economic Plutocracy.
Systemic corruption
I think the root of the showdown between the 'yellow wave' movement and the 'red- faced' power structure is economic in nature - true to the idea that we are all economic beings or of the specie homo economicus.
We still talk about an economic pie as if it is a constant. The faulty tool is popular with policy makers who are bankrupt of alternative perspectives of looking at systemic change. They continue to defend the indefensible in a time when change is imminent and coming at a very fast pace.
Even newer generation of race-based leaders are ill-equipped with the fundamental character of these radical changes. They use rock logic to meet the demand of a fluid society. Rock logic includes the use of force to prevent demands to these changes.
We must now abandon the metaphor of the pie; one that is increasingly becoming synonymous with the race to meet the gains of material standards at the expense of the real issue - distributive and regulative justice. We ought to adopt a new form of justice that cuts across racial lines and one that looks at the poor in the eye and into their souls.
That form of justice will meet our nation's physical, emotional, and metaphysical needs. The present wave of dissatisfaction is not only an emanation of frustration over the issue of the judiciary and confusion over the line between the Legislature and the Executive; it is an emanation of a class-based issue, of which we are in denial.
Race is merely a sugar-coating of that nagging argument of this and that rights of this and that people; a coating that has become calloused with fossilised viruses that have corrupted the entire system since the British handed Malaya her independence on a silver platter. Race is a convenient basis for argument as it masks the issue of the ownership of power, knowledge and ideology. READ MORE HERE |
| The confessions of an economic (s)hitman Posted: 21 Jun 2011 07:45 AM PDT We must know Ibrahim Ali for what he really is. A pompous and loud windbag out trying to establish his relevance in society. In the late 1970s Ibrahim Ali used to be the head macai for Anwar Ibrahim. He would be present in many of the forums and debates at the University of Malaya. He was from ITM. He would sit at the back of the hall dressed in his trademark folksy dress (just like Anwar in those days) with the Palestinian headscarf normally associated with Yasser Arafat slung over his neck. At the end of each debating session, he would speak under the guise of asking a question about anything Islam. He would be shouting Maududi this, Maryam Jameelah that. On most occasions he would be ignored by UM students. Maybe he was out there to score with the UM freshies or UM students, who knows. He would be Anwar's number one supporter aping Anwar in whatever the later does. In later years, he would get into business of all sorts always using other people's money. In those days, Tengku Razaleigh would be a source of cheap and easily available funds. One time, Ibrahim got a substantial sum from Tengku Razaleigh. He went on to splurge himself in a state of the art office. At that time, the use of electronic doors with coded buttons was a novelty. He got one installed. Indeed he got many installed in the many corporate rooms he had made. After one state of the art (then) office was completed, Ibrahim Ali asked a friend or business partner sitting in the meeting room - ok, let's think of a business to do. READ MORE HERE |
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