Klik GAMBAR Dibawah Untuk Lebih Info

Sumber Asal Berita :-

Posted: 13 Dec 2011 10:05 AM PST

Weigh the threats with caution

When the member from Gombak, Azmin Ali, wanted to tear down the walls of the Sungai Buloh Prison to free Anwar Ibrahim if he were to be found guilty at his current on-going trial for sodomy, or a leader promising to take to the streets if the election results were not to their liking, then we should be careful.

By Zainul Ariffin Md Isa, New Straits Times

WITH the political season heating up, our daily diet of speeches has gotten hotter. This is the time for political speak, which is often high on rhetoric and metaphors.

So for the upcoming general election, Umno and Barisan Nasional (BN) members have been advised by their president to prepare for war, while Pakatan Rakyat leaders have been asking us to help them to save the country.

Some speeches are to inspire, some to motivate, some to proclaim, while others to incite. Politicians, by profession, do a lot of them to drum up support and rouse people into action (read vote). Some do that and nothing else, ever on the stump from the first day they were elected.

People get the exaggerations and the over-the-top-ness of great political speak, since they add colour and vigour, and are able to encapsulate ideas in a nutshell for easy and manageable bites. They get the adrenaline going and make an otherwise passive act of listening into a participatory thing.

But even if people understand that in the heat of battle we tend to say things, they are unlikely to tolerate flippant, chauvinistic and racist remarks -- hence, for example, the controversy that followed Pas deputy president Mat Sabu's belittling of dead servicemen and Perak assemblyman Nga's racist reference to his mentri besar.

When Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said his party should be prepared for war, we know no one was training for combat nor expecting to put life or limb on the line. It's war, but not the warring kind -- the battlegrounds are the constituencies; it is not turf nor resources the fight is all about, but instead a share of voters' hearts and minds.

Politicians like to evoke a sense of battle. In politics where ideas are grand and visions are pure -- it is the "fight" between good and evil, us against them, our way of life and theirs, etc -- the images get them along quickly.

War suggests battles, and the ultimate outcome of war is that the winner takes all. The loser, too, loses something more precious, which is his sovereignty. So if Umno or BN members don't get the message -- they lose everything if they were defeated in the political battlefield -- then, I suppose, nothing else will.

In political speak, many try to evoke a sense of the divine, too, or semi-divine. The Pas president was famous for branding Umno infidels to the point that animals slaughtered by them were haram. Its adviser, too, can do no wrong and comes out with edicts almost at will.

A sense of drama would be great, too. DAP "Godfather" Karpal Singh suggested that he was willing to die -- over his dead body -- in his opposition of the hudud. I believe it was a figure of speech from him, rattling the cages, though not necessarily literally fighting to the death with his mates in Pas, who at this moment still see hudud as the end game in a Pakatan Rakyat takeover of the government.

It is also good to be lumped by association with underdog political figures, like American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, or Myanmar prisoner of conscience Aung San Suu Kyi, or South African freedom fighter Nelson Mandela, by referring to them in political speeches.

Us, the unwashed masses, should be too thick to see through them, I suppose.

Righteousness is such a common commodity in the Dewan Rakyat, peppered in all speeches that at times we hope all of the righteous right honourable elected members could practise it beyond the confines of the august hall.

But it is when politicians decide to disband from the metaphors and start being specific, which is not along the lines of someone saying that someone is God's gift to Malaysians, that we should worry about.

When the member from Gombak, Azmin Ali, wanted to tear down the walls of the Sungai Buloh Prison to free Anwar Ibrahim if he were to be found guilty at his current on-going trial for sodomy, or a leader promising to take to the streets if the election results were not to their liking, then we should be careful.

Similarly, there is no poetic reference to a suggestion that our submarines cannot dive. There is no vagueness in the statement. Was the intention in the political speech then to rouse anger by propagating unsubstantiated untruths?

Would Azmin really be bringing Anwar supporters armed with hammers and picks to break down the walls? If he was not, then he better find a better speechwriter; his metaphor sucks. There was no reference to the alleged walls of injustice, for instance, but instead the brick and mortar walls of the Sungai Buloh Prison.

If he is serious, then he must surely be an anarchist. The specificity of his threat to create chaos or tear down buildings is a threat at subverting law and order and to create chaos.

Former Bar Council president Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan suggested that Myanmar is better than Malaysia in the issue of human rights. We have made the case that politicians -- which I think Ambiga is, based on the company she keeps -- like to exaggerate. But even then, I cannot reconcile her statement with the images of street protesters shot in the streets by the armed forces, and guess what, we are worse off than that.

We can live with the hyperbole. We know when they are full of rhetoric and when they are not. We know they are political speak, mostly words to add spice to the situation.

But surely, we can live without some of them.

Perhaps we can laugh at them as the consequences of politicians getting shallow on ideas trying to drum up emotion in the absence of substance.

Sodomy II: You Are Also On Trial

Posted: 13 Dec 2011 09:31 AM PST

Malaysians must be feeling a state of déjà vu. In 1998, for Sodomy I, a soiled mattress was dragged into court, Anwar was poisoned with arsenic and the charges of Anwar having sex with a range of people, to lurid sexploits related by the virgin Queen, Ummi Hafilda, made Malaysian courts a laughing stock.

Mariam Mokhtar, Malaysian Mirror

On the face of it, Sodomy II is the trial of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim by his accuser, Saiful Bukhari Azlan. In truth, Sodomy II is also the rakyat's trial. It is one where Malaysians are pitted against government misrule, miscarriages of justice and institutionalised repression.

Sodomy II represents a fight to restore democratic rights, for public institutions to recover their integrity, for the judiciary to be made independent and for the police to regain the public's respect.

To most observers, trial judge Mohd Zabidin Mohd Diah, appears to have decided Anwar's fate already.

So who has the most to gain, if Anwar were to be jailed when the judge delivers his verdict?

Who was frustrated when the sodomy charge in Sodomy I was overturned in 2004 by the Supreme Court and Anwar was freed?

The answer is not Prime minister Najib Abdul Razak, but the former PM, Mahathir Mohamad. Najib will be pleased, but Mahathir will be ecstatic.

Najib and the other corrupt BN politicians, their families and cronies, will heave a collective sigh of relief.

But for Mahathir, it is the settling of old scores. His political legacy and dynasty can then prosper, without interference. A corrupt person can continue his evil deeds only if he is surrounded by people with no integrity and low principles.

When Anwar's earlier sodomy conviction was overturned by the Supreme Court in 2004, Mahathir was livid, as were the handful of other individuals who wanted Anwar to remain behind bars.

Anwar said yesterday, that he was "prepared for the best, but expected the worst" when asked to comment about what he thought the judge's verdict would be on his case.

Last June, Anwar's three attempts to have Zabidin recused failed. Anwar's first attempt was when Zabidin failed to take action against Utusan Malaysia for unfair reporting. Zabidin had also threatened to cite Karpal Singh for contempt.

Anwar's second attempt was when Zabidin "pre-judged" the trial when he said complainant Saiful Bukhari's testimony was "reliable" and that it would "establish all the facts required to prove the charge against the accused". Zabidin relied solely on Saiful's testimony.

In-depth studies based on various intelligence reports, have shown Najib's cabinet, that they will fare badly in GE-13. Political observers claim that Najib will want Anwar incarcerated and announce the date for GE-13 during the period set aside for him to appeal.

Najib will claim that he did not put Anwar in jail, but the judge did.

Perhaps, this is what autocratic rulers say, when they absolve themselves of their responsibilities and shift the blame onto others in their administration.

Remember how Mahathir denied that he had ordered Operation Lalang and said that the crackdown had been authorised by the IGP Haniff Omar?

Or as in the current news, President Assad of Syria declared recently, that he did not order the brutal retaliation on his people, and that it was his army which was responsible for the violence.

At a press conference yesterday, Mahathir questioned the need for international NGOs to levy corruption charges against Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud.

He said, "When an election is near, you get funny things like this coming out.

"If it is just a political game to try and undermine somebody's political image then I think it is not right."

Mahathir ignores the fact that the timing for the finale of Sodomy II, is set against a backdrop of GE-13. Did he think this was a coincidence?

Perhaps, Mahathir has got Alzheimer's. In Sodomy I, Anwar faced charges of corruption and sodomy because Anwar, Mahathir's protégé, refused to bail out companies, during the Asian financial crisis in 1997, using taxpayer's money. Some of these companies belonged to his son and cronies.

Anwar became a threat to Mahathir and had to be removed. It did not help that others in Umno were jealous of the close relationship that Mahathir and Anwar enjoyed.

In 2008, Najib, who was the prime minister in waiting, was faced with Anwar becoming a threat to his premiership and to Umno domination in Malaysian politics.

Najib realised that Anwar had to be removed, especially as his mass appeal was increasing and he was able to galvanise the fragmented opposition parties. Unfortunately, Najib is not very creative and his plan, to remove Anwar, involved rehashing the previous one made by Mahathir. Thus, Sodomy II was conceived.

But Najib's blundering ways mean that whatever he does, lacks planning and detail, just like the cursory effort that was put into his Peaceful Assembly Bill (PAB) which then needed urgent amendment barely 24 hours after being tabled.

Nevertheless, Mahathir will be pleased at the prospect of Anwar being jailed. His dream will finally be realised.

In 2011, the seedy plots have varied little. The only changes are the actors like Saiful, his semen stained briefs and the allegations of him having sex with several men as his rectal swabs carried the semen of several men.

These are mere distractions. The main thrust is that Najib needs to win GE-13, by hook or by crook.

Losing means he will be made accountable for his part in the corruption scandals which have dogged Malaysia. He will have to answer for the Scorpene scandal and the murder of Altantuya Shaaribu, amongst others. His ministers will have their own corruption scandals to deal with.

Mahathir's reason is simple. He does not want previous illegal deals to be aired by Anwar, who must have been privy to them, when he was Finance minister.

All Mahathir wants is his political dynasty to continue via his son, and his family to keep their business empire, which was built on public money.

Political gimmicks to con voters

Posted: 13 Dec 2011 07:43 AM PST

Umno leaders are playing a dangerous game and leading the nation towards the brink of destruction when they choose to play the race card at the drop of a hat.

Umno is now leading the nation towards the brink of destruction and the abyss of doom when its leaders choose to play the race card at the drop of a hat. Emotions will run very high if the Malay mind is conditioned by Umno to be under a siege-mentality.

Selana Tay, Free Malaysia Today

Umno, MCA and MIC never fail to use the race card to gain support from the Malays, Chinese and Indians respectively. This race card is the trump card which the British colonialists had left as a legacy to those three parties in the then "Alliance Formula".

Therefore, the opposition will always find it difficult to win the general elections due to these three parties always availing themselves of the ace from the deck of cards dealt by the past colonial masters.

This means that even before Independence itself, the cards have always been stacked against the opposition as the rakyat's minds are already pre-conditioned with the issue of race.

With the 13th general election tipped to be just around the proverbial corner by political pundits, Umno politicians have upped the ante in their recent 65th Umno general assembly with racial speeches accusing the Chinese and the DAP of wanting to grab political and economic power.

Stirring up Malay sentiment is Umno's tried and tested formula of successfully wooing the Malays and it has always yielded tremendous gains for Umno.

As such, during the British era right until this present day, there has not been a single shred of doubt that Umno is the dominant party in the BN coalition. It is Umno which calls the shots and assigns MCA and MIC to only look after their respective race.

This formula of divide-and-rule which has been started by the British has been continued by Umno, MCA and MIC to this present day for them to maintain and stay in power. It is almost impossible to break the divide-and-rule policy because the rakyat are not ready for it. And that is the sad reality to this present day.

For example, there have been rumours that this time the Batu candidate for this coming polls is a Malay guy. Previously in 2008, PKR's Tian Chua defeated Gerakan's Lim Si Pin by a 9,000-plus vote majority. If Umno fields a Malay candidate in Batu, will PKR also field a Malay candidate? The demographics in Batu roughly mirrors that of the demographics of the nation.

Harsh reality

It is a harsh reality here that in Malaysia it is all about race, race and race with a capital "R". A former prime minister has once commented that PAS is afraid to contest in a Chinese-majority seat.

Well, actually it is Umno which is afraid. In Kepong at least 88% of the voters are Chinese.

If Umno fields a Malay candidate in Kepong, PAS will also field a Malay or Chinese candidate and we will be seeing a PAS versus Umno tussle in Kepong – a very interesting and intriguing battle indeed.

Why doesn't Umno field a Malay candidate in Kepong in line with Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak's much-hyped up 1Malaysia slogan?

Race-based politics is a legacy left by the British and honed into perfection by Umno. It will continue to be the order of the day if BN continues to win the coming general election.

As the rural Malay vote is the crucial decider this time around, Umno is going all out to woo the rural Malays by playing the race card.

This is evident going by the vitriol spewed forth at the recent Umno general assembly where the Chinese have been vilified by one Umno delegate after another who accused the Chinese of wanting to usurp the Malays.

READ MORE HERE

Kredit: www.malaysia-today.net

Rabu, 14 Disember 2011

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News

0 ulasan:

Catat Ulasan