Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News
Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News |
- The Curse of Marina Lee Abdullah?
- Penang Lang must defend Penang at all cost
- Najib’s Farcical Presidential Speech
| The Curse of Marina Lee Abdullah? Posted: 11 Dec 2012 01:54 AM PST
According to RPK who helped his MCKK matey Anwar Ibrahim* in the 1986 general election campaign in Terengganu, Rahman Bakar was selected to contest against Pak Haji Hadi Awang in Marang in 1986, and the UMNO man won, satisfying I suppose, Anwar's personal animosity against the PAS leader. * Anwar was then the powerful UMNO Minister of Education, a ministerial appointment mandatory for ascending to the PM post. I wonder whether the animosity between Anwar and Pak Haji had (or should it be grammatically 'has') to do with the known history of Anwar Ibrahim being (once) groomed to be the leader of PAS. Yes, kid you not!
Thus Dr M wasn't the only one who had an eye on the ABIM firebrand and his silvery-tongued manmanlai. Naturally his highly vocal (is there any other way to describe Anwar, wakakaka) ABIM leadership and credentials brought him to the notice of PAS' (late) president Dato' Ustaz Hajji Fadzil bin Muhammad Noor, a known moderate, who was soimpressed by the younger man that the Ustaz wanted him to be his successor as President of PAS. Just imagine that if Anwar had not joined UMNO, today the PAS President would be Ustaz Anwar Ibrahim and not Pak Haji Hadi Awang. What a thought! 'cuse me while I have a tot or two of Scotch (naturally Johnny Walker Double Black) wakakaka. But in that head-hunting episode, it was Dr Mahathir who won against PAS (Ustaz Fadzil Noor) for the affection of Anwar, a man then known for his ABIM anti-establishment (meaning anti-UMNO) crusade.
I wonder whether Anwar had left ABIM for UMNO in a flash ... ZOoooooommm ... to join parachute into the most powerful political organization in Malaysia? Probably from his change of allegiance to UMNO, many people including and especially his former mates in ABIM (except those who followed him into UMNO wakakaka) knew Anwar loves political power more than the political cause he was espousing as ABIM's Chief. Of course he claimed he would reform UMNO from within. During his 16 years in UMNO he shot across the political landscape of power, lighting it up in meteorite fashion to become the very powerful DPM, and the publicly known heir-anointed to Dr Mahathir to become the Prime Minister of Malaysia, an appointment he wouldn't have (theoretically) achieved, as RPK wrote, if he had become only the PAS president after Ustaz Fadzil Noor.
And in those 16 years in UMNO, as DPM and at times acting PM, did he exhibit any inclinations, even a mere subatomic iota, of reforms, or even voice same, as he had promised when he leapt from ABIM into UMNO? Nay, nary a squeak nor a peep! And when he was booted out from UMNO, he made that 16-year record of non-achievement as an UMNO minister even worse by blaming everyone else except himself, and only bleating reformasi when he was no longer in a position of power. Anwar even dared claim to have been helpless to make changes while in government. Former Bar president Zainur Zakaria sneered at Anwar's pathetic excuse - read Zainur Zakaria Zapped AAB & Anwar Ibrahim for more.
Anyway, from my personal observations it's more than political power per se that Anwar loves - oh, he loves that, there's no doubt. But apart from power per se and the associated considerable trappings for a DPM, I think he enjoys public adulation, and if not public adulation then at least supporters' adulation more. Eager hands raided the ossuary for me to be laid As stepping stones for the progress of a demigod On Ardha-Matanga, 4 tasks & seven white trunks Saluting Brahma, walking to Amarawati by a lake (extracts from my poem Murdering Altantuyaa Shaariibuu Again)
Yes, according to the gospel by kaytee wakakaka, Anwar has a weakness for admiration, adulation and adoration from people, but I believe, more than would be considered normal. To his ears, thunderous applause (wakakaka) must be sheer delightful music. He made it ... oh well ... almost. They say, what goes up must come down again (unless of course, in going up 'whatever' has achieved escape velocity - well, let's see what happened and will happen). It's possible that a Western educated person, especially in the classics, would make a comparison between Anwar Ibrahim and Achilles on many aspects, and though I agree, would argue only up to a certain point.
Both shot up like blazing stars, both were stop in their tracks at near the pinnacle of their glories, though in this, Achilles knew his fate, for he had personally chosen, when asked by the gods, to blaze up in glory but die young instead of becoming an average king to die at a ripe old age. I believe Anwar also shares another commonality with Achilles - he has an Achilles heel and I posted on this in July 2008 in a piece titled The Achilles heel of Anwar Ibrahim. The part I want to extract for your perusal pertains to his Achilles heel:
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| Penang Lang must defend Penang at all cost Posted: 10 Dec 2012 12:39 PM PST Your Prime Minster has proven beyond doubt that he is a very weak and incapable leader. His daily speeches, a multitude of plea, threat, admission, omission and deceptive promises that allowed one to see how a man looks like when the fear of losing power is imminent. His latest trip to Penang on the 8th December 2012 was to galvanize support to retake Penang in the next General Election with more ambiguous speeches and deceptive promises. Every Malaysian must ask this question "Who is paying for all the extravagant expenses of your PM playing Santa Claus Merry going round the country"? What kind of leadership is he trying to prove, a leadership for all Malaysians or just to those who like and support his Umno coalition BN? He made a call to Penangnites to ensure a BN victory only then will they get to have (mind you, only pledges) 20,000 affordable homes and monorail. Is he a real joker PM or what? Can I put three questions to him. What has Umno/BN done during their 50 years of taking power in Penang when these affordable homes and monorail were much needed back as early as the late 90's? Is your PM trying to say that there will be no help from the Federal government if Penang is still under Pakatan Rakayat? If that is the case, can Penangnites insist that they will not pay their taxes directly to Federal government but instead to the State government?
Read more at: http://www.ousel.blogspot.com/2012/12/penang-lang-must-defend-penang-at-all_10.html | ||||||||||||
| Najib’s Farcical Presidential Speech Posted: 09 Dec 2012 12:55 AM PST He confuses ponderousness with deliberateness, equates yelling as emphasizing, and thinks that furrowing his forehead as being in profound thought. In the hands of a gifted actor, those could be great comedic acts. Alas, Najib is also far from being that. I learned early in high school at Kuala Pilah that if I did not know what to do with my hands when delivering a speech, to keep them in my pockets or behind my back. Do not gesticulate wildly as that would only distract the audience. Worse, I risked looking like a monkey on speed. Najib apparently did not learn that at his expensive British school. As an aside from the personal hygiene perspective, I hoped they sanitized the microphone thoroughly after he spoke; there was an awful amount of spit splattered on it during his delivery. Najib should take comfort in the fact that there are many effective leaders who are neither charismatic nor great orators. Germany's Angela Merkel readily comes to mind. Najib should also be reminded that the converse is even truer. Leaders with great oratorical gifts and generously endowed charisma can often be among the most corrupt and inept. Sukarno mesmerized Indonesians with his mercurial personality and spellbound speeches, but that country remained a basket case economically and in many other ways during his presidency. Had Najib delivered his address in his usual persona, without the put-on gravitas or pretensions of grandeur, he could have finished his nearly hour-long speech in half the time. Then he and his audience would not have missed their Maghrib prayers. Besides, there was nothing in Najib's speech that was so urgent or important to justify that. As self-professed champions and defenders of Islam, Najib and his fellow UMNO members do not need to be reminded of the importance of prayer. He and UMNO might need it for the coming election! Or perhaps those UMNO folks believed in the canard that their party is God's choice, and thus dispensed from having to pray. With all the daunting challenges facing Malays, Najib could come up with only two piddling policy prescriptions: One, increasing Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia's (AIM) loan amount to RM100K from RM50K; and two, reviewing the country's bankruptcy laws. This from the leader of a party that purports to champion the Malay cause! In announcing the loan increase, Najib looked approvingly to Wanita members, and they in turn responded in kind. Meaning, they were the intended beneficiaries. I have no problem giving those ladies who are hairdressers or trained pre-school teachers loans so they could start their own beauty salons or kindergartens, but simply by virtue of their being Wanita members would be folly. Besides, if all you have is some vague idea of starting basket weaving, you do not need such outlandish amounts. AIM is Malaysia's government-sponsored version of "micro-credit." Muhammad Yunus, its pioneer, would be flabbergasted to know that a loan of RM100K is considered "micro." This is yet another example of Najib adopting an otherwise brilliant idea from elsewhere and then screwing it up in the implementation. AIM's generous program has degenerated into another massive and lucrative UMNO patronage machinery. As for reviewing the bankruptcy laws, I would have been reassured had Najib made it part of an overall scheme to encourage economic entrepreneurialism and business risk-taking especially among Malays. Alas, none of that! It was prompted simply to rescue the many UMNO leaders who are bankrupt purportedly from guaranteeing loans of their members in return for their support. With the proposed changes, those local leaders would be spared from bankruptcy, and then they could be their party's next "winnable" candidates! Having not learned their lesson, they would then mortgage the country's future. What is obvious here is that Najib and the entire UMNO leadership are bereft of ideas. They are intellectually bankrupt. The brilliant political cartoonist Zunar captures well this degeneration of UMNO leaders with his latest cartoon, "Evolusi UMNO." The only remedy for the intellectual bankruptcy of our current leaders is to have an entirely new leadership. Fully aware what Mahathir did to Abdullah Badawi, Najib heaped profuse praise on the still powerful Mahathir. It was sucking up performance par excellence! Najib singled out Mahathir's commitment of loyalty to leaders, which he (Mahathir) apparently forgot when Abdullah Badawi was in charge. According to Najib, Mahathir had impressed upon UMNO members the importance of loyalty to leaders, presumably in contrast to fidelity to principles. Najib readily or more accurately, desperately hung on to that! These UMNO leaders are nothing but opportunistic characters, modern-day Hang Tuahs. In his speech Najib was like a little kid desperately seeking approval and relishing praises from grown-ups. Apart from gushingly citing Mahathir's approbation, Najib reminded his audience of IMF's Christine Legard's praise for Malaysia's "gravity-defying" economic performance. Najib needs to be reminded that the IMF, World Bank, and other "respected" international bodies were running out of superlatives to describe the country's economic stewardship right up to the day before the 1997 Asian economic contagion.
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