Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News
Malaysia Today - Your Source of Independent News |
- An obscene political show
- Tunku Aziz: Hero or demon?
- Malaysia’s 13th General Election: Prospects And Challenges For DAP – Analysis
- Interview with Suaris: The Future of Malays, Part 2
- Anwar should redeem himself in Sabah
- Anwar before RCI will be High Noon
| Posted: 03 Feb 2013 02:46 PM PST
Cultural performances during the Chinese New Years should not be erotic shows exposing breasts and hips and pornography is never a Chinese culture. Once again, the rights of women has been played with, culture has been trampled and issues have been exploited by politicians. By Tay Tian Yan, Sin Chew Daily An erotic dance in conjunction with the Chinese New Year had recently been staged in Kulim, Kedah. Sexy showgirls indistinctly exposed their breasts and hips while drastically shaking to the music at a corner of the street. Some of the crowd were shocked to see an uncle wearing a political party shirt actually became so high and stepped forward to approach the girls, and shook his 50-inch hips with them. The showgirls went further to drag a few little boys and girls to join them shaking their hips after a burst of clamour. It reminded me of the novel Big Breasts and Wide Hips written by Chinese novelist Mo Yan. If the Nobel Prize for Literature winner were there, he might be able to write another award-winning novel after watching the obscene scene. The scene did not only reflect the human nature of erotic desire, but as well show the absurd political show of Malaysia. The performance was initiated by a Kedah PKR Chinese state executive councilor. He invited showgirls for the erotic dance to prove that the PAS state government respected Chinese culture and did not forbid performances by female performers. Some people might think that, as a Chinese and a man, we should be proud of the move of upholding the "Chinese culture", while our heart beating fast for the dance. However, I did not know why, my heart sank without even a trace of excitement. Instead, I felt the surge of lingering sorrow. The ignorance of politicians and the absurdity of political shows have actually come to this point. Months ago, the Chinese community expressed their collective dissatisfaction over the Chinese New Year celebration guidelines of the PAS state government. The people opposed to the restrictions of the guidelines, including banning adult female performers and live bands while limiting only to religious and specific songs. The guidelines were said to have discriminated against women and people were worried that it was part of the state government's move of Islamisation, which was applied also to non-Muslims. However, no one said that Chinese New Year celebrations should have sexy performers and erotic performances and no one takes pornography and obscenity as Chinese culture. It is strange that when the state government announced the guidelines, the Chinese exco did not say a word. After being chased after by reporters for a few days and was finally contacted, he claimed that he knew nothing about it. We actually do not understand what is he doing as an exco. After the state government revoked the guidelines out of pressure, the exco suddenly became so brave and took the initiative to organise a show to prove that the state government is very open-minded and respects Chinese culture. To show his justness, leaders of confronting parties were invited to attend the show. In fact, he should invite Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Azizan Abdul Razak and Datuk Hamdan Mohd Khalid, the state executive councillor in charge of culture and arts, to appreciate the so-called "Chinese cultural show". If Azizan and Hamdan were there, from the view of being responsible, they should be remorseful for revoking the guidelines. Cultural performances during the Chinese New Years should not be erotic shows exposing breasts and hips and pornography is never a Chinese culture. Once again, the rights of women has been played with, culture has been trampled and issues have been exploited by politicians. Honestly, as a Chinese, I feel humiliated.
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| Posted: 03 Feb 2013 02:03 PM PST The former DAP man speaks about upholding the rule of law, fighting corruption and his infamous stand on Bersih 3.0. Lisa J. Ariffin, FMT Tunku Abdul Aziz, 78, is not your average politician. For starters, the former Transparency International vice-chairman has spent most of his life battling corruption and promoting good governance in Asia. He was special adviser to Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Anan, from February 2006 to January 2007, during which he set up the UN Ethics Office. Despite numerous invites from Umno to be a member, Tunku Aziz had over the years declined its offer, holding on to his belief in multiracialism and inclusiveness. "That is why I joined DAP in August 2008, because I believe in multiracialism and they aspired to be just that," he said. "I joined because they offered me a platform to continue my work, to fight corruption and provide integrity in both the government and corporate sectors," he added. "But within two months, I realised I had got myself in the wrong box," said Tunku Aziz. He explained that the party had not provided him an avenue to fight corruption and believed DAP was not as multiracial as he thought it to be. Tunku Aziz said he wanted to resign from the DAP immediately, but was persuaded to stay on by party leaders. "I stayed because of my respect for (DAP parliamentary leader Lim) Kit Siang. There is something about honouring a friendship," he said. "But my break came when Bersih 3.0 wanted a street demo. I have seen what happens during these events. It always starts peacefully, but ends in the spilling of blood," he added. 'Pakatan MPs lawbreakers' Tunku Aziz said he has always supported Bersih as an electoral watchdog group, but his support was conditional and he strongly believed the organisation had to act within the law. "When they broke they law by attempting to occupy Dataran Merdeka, even though it was prohibited, I drew the line," he said.
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| Malaysia’s 13th General Election: Prospects And Challenges For DAP – Analysis Posted: 03 Feb 2013 01:20 PM PST
The Democratic Action Party (DAP) which is one-third of the Pakatan Rakyat opposition alliance today, draws its support primarily from non-Malay, non-Muslim voters. How will the DAP fare at the coming general election if it has to make compromises with its coalition partners, including the Islamic party PAS that still upholds its vision of eventually creating an Islamic state in Malaysia? Farish A Noor, Eurasia Review AS THE 13th Malaysian general election draws closer, there has been speculation among analysts as to whether the country will witness the emergence of a two-coalition system of politics. Since 1957 Malaysia has been governed by parties that were in coalition together, first as the Alliance (1957-1974) and then as the Barisan Nasional or National Front (1974-2013). The opposition parties, however, have been scattered and unable to form a cohesive counter-bloc thus far.  Malaysia Among the prominent opposition parties today is the Democratic Action Party (DAP) that came into being in the mid-1960s. The DAP purports to be a left-of-centre democratic party that is secular, but from the 1960s has been identified mainly with the Malaysian-Chinese voters. Its fortunes have depended upon its ability to speak for the non-Malay communities and also on the strengths and weaknesses of its main rival, the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA). In terms of its electoral performance to date, the DAP's fortunes have been mixed. DAP's Political FortunesIn the 1969 elections the DAP announced its presence by winning 13 Parliamentary seats, the same number as its rival, MCA. From the outset it was clear that the DAP posed the biggest threat not to UMNO, but the MCA for the Malaysian-Chinese vote base. In 1974 DAP won nine seats (while MCA regained 19) and improved its position in 1978 when it won 16 seats. DAP's fortunes dipped again in 1982 when it won nine seats but peaked in 1986 when it gained 24 seats in Parliament. In 1990 DAP won 20 seats, but in 1995 declined to nine. Since 1999 the DAP's share of seats in Parliament has been steadily increasing: from 10 in 1999, 12 in 2004, to 28 in 2008. DAP's gains since 1999 to 2008 have partly been at the expense of the MCA, whose number of Parliamentary seats has declined. Several observations can be made about the DAP's electoral chances at the next GE based on its electoral performance so far: Firstly, it can be seen that since the elections of 1969 to the early 2000s, the DAP has set its sights on the MCA in its long-term strategy of winning the support of Malaysian Chinese voters. Notwithstanding its claim to be a left-leaning secular party, the DAP has taken up several causes that can be described as communal in nature, including the championing of vernacular schools for non-Malays and demanding more political representation for non-Bumiputeras on the political stage. During the 1980s and 1990s the DAP was one of the strongest critics of the Islamisation policy in the country, which necessarily meant that it could not see eye-to-eye with the other large opposition party in the country, PAS. At the height of PAS' campaign to create an Islamic state in Malaysia, the DAP consistently opposed it and as a result was able to reap benefits at the 1986 elections – where PAS won only one Parliamentary seat while DAP won 24. No Alternative But To Join A CoalitionSecondly, due in part to the nature of Malaysia's race-based politics, the DAP has come to realise that its main vote base lies with the non-Malay voters. But this also means that the DAP can never come to power at the Federal government level unless it is part of a bigger political coalition that can win the support of the wider Malaysian electorate. This was not possible from the mid-1960s to the early 2000s because the DAP could not find a way to co-operate with PAS, whose goal of creating an Islamic state was anathema to them. It is only since 2004 that the DAP began to build bridges with the other parties, notably PAS and the Anwar Ibrahim-led People's Justice Party (PKR), first during their short-lived 'Barisan Alternatif' alliance and now in the Pakatan Rakyat coalition. Despite the claims of the leaders of the opposition parties however, there are deep-rooted issues between the parties that remain unresolved. Read more at: http://www.eurasiareview.com/03022013-malaysias-13th-general-election-prospects-and-challenges-for-dap-analysis/
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| Interview with Suaris: The Future of Malays, Part 2 Posted: 03 Feb 2013 12:19 PM PST
As a former physician, Mahathir should know that if a patient does not respond with your prescription, there is no point continuing it. Stop or change it; perhaps your patient requires penicillin, not Panadol. M. Bakri Musa [The original in Malay appeared in suaris.wordpress.com on January 25, 2013). Suaris: In a recent interview with Astro Awani, Dr. Mahathir said that Malays would be left behind unless given continued help. He referred to such help as crutches. Do you agree that we continue to need crutches? If so, for how long? MBM: If we Malays still remain backward and marginalized after over 55 years of "help" from the UMNO government, then we ought to examine critically the nature of that help. As parents we readily acknowledge the importance of how we guide and help our children. Be too indulgent and protective, we lose hope of their ever able to shine on their own. Be too strict and controlling, they will never acquire self-confidence; likewise if we constantly criticize and highlight their weaknesses. In modern medicine, we rarely give crutches to patients following hip surgery. Instead we give them to physiotherapy so they could be self-ambulatory as quickly as possible. I encourage, in fact insist that my surgical patients be up and about the very next day. It is dangerous to keep them in bed; the most serious complication being potentially lethal blood clots. An insight of modern science is that if we do not exercise our body, it would atrophy. This applies to bone, muscle, or even brain. If I were to tie down a healthy young man in bed and "help" him with his feeding and bathing such that he does not have to move a muscle, after a week he would be need a crutch as he would be unable to stand up on his own. That is the price for excessive and inappropriate "help." As a former physician, Mahathir should know that if a patient does not respond with your prescription, there is no point continuing it. Stop or change it; perhaps your patient requires penicillin, not Panadol. Even the right medicine if not given at the proper dose would be ineffective. Yes, Panadol reduces fever, but give only a quarter of the dose and there will be no effect, leading you to blame the medicine. Giving too much also carries its own hazards. Every year many children in America are fatally poisoned because of excessive dose of Tylenol, one more appropriate for adults. If with the right medicine at the right dose and administered correctly but your patient still does not respond, then reexamine your diagnosis. Patients with appendicitis require surgery, not penicillin. If readers are uncomfortable with my clinical metaphor, let me use a more familiar one. If you are not diligent in weeding out lalang in your garden, pretty soon you would be inundated by it, choking off useful plants. What more if you were to generously add fertilizer to the weed! The Malay garden is now full of lalang. We need Roundup pesticide to kill off those tenacious weeds so useful plants would then have a chance. However, what is UMNO's current strategy? Yes, add fertilizer to the lalang! Its rationale? They are lalang, but Malaylalang, so we must be help! The "help" that UMNO types like Mahathir are championing is precisely this. Then we wonder why the Malay kebun is full of lalang. Isa Samad is one thriving lalang in the FELDA plantation; he was earlier found guilty of "money politics." Khir Toyo,now luxuriating in his fantasy palace courtesy of taxpayers while waiting jail time for corruption, is another. The private sector too is infested. Lalang Tajuddin Ramli nearly destroyed MAS estate.Utusan and The New Straits Times are crippled with literary lalang; no wonder their readership continues to decline. The Malay lalang has already snuffed out Bank Bumiputra. We are finally no longer impressed with the greenness and lushness of lalang, even if it were Malay lalang. Our leaders however, still try to impress upon us that those lalangare alfalfa. The tragic part is that they now believe their own deceit. Leaders like Mahathir should be diligently searching for effective ways to help us and not be content with criticizing and dredging up old stereotypes or our alleged weaknesses. Give someone a fish, and we feed him only for a day; teach him how to fish and he feeds himself forever, goes an ancient wisdom. Extend that help a bit as with giving him a loan to buy a sampan, and he will fish the open ocean. Then he can feed the whole village and more, plus repay the loan! Doling out generous quotas for university admissions, lucrative contracts, and import licenses, or forcing others to take on Malays (usually UMNO politicians) as directors for their companies is not help. Those are but acts of fertilizing weeds, membajakan lalang. We end up with only usahan menenggek (carpetbagger capitalists)! The most consequential and enduring help would be to liberate the Malay mind, to teach them how to think freely. If our slogan in the 1950s was Merdeka Tanah Melayu (Freedom for the Malay Land), now it should be Merdeka Minda Melayu! (Freedom for the Malay Mind!) That is the theme of my latest book, Liberating The Malay Mind. The concept of a free mind is best illustrated by this story of Mullah Nasaruddin, known for his use of self-deprecating humor and simple everyday examples in his teaching. He had a neighbor who was in the habit of borrowing items and never returning them. One day he came over to borrow the Mullah's donkey. Anticipating this, the Mullah had earlier wisely locked his animal in the barn and out of sight. When the neighbor came over, the Mullah confidently asserted, "My donkey had been borrowed yesterday!" Disappointed, the neighbor was about to return home when the animal brayed. "I thought you said your donkey had been borrowed!" he said. Whereupon the Mullah resolutely replied, "Do you believe the braying of the donkey over the words of the mullah?" Someone with a free mind would believe the braying donkey. Those whose minds are trapped by customs and traditions would of course continue believing the wise and pious Mullah even when the donkey is braying straight on their faces. We must teach Malays that when they hear the donkey braying, they should believe their own ears and not be lulled by the Mullah's soothing words. I put forth four strategies to liberate the Malay mind: freer access to information and differing viewpoints, meaning, freer mass media; liberal education with a strong foundation in science and mathematics; and encourage trade and commerce among our people. When we engage in trade, we would consider others not as pendatang (immigrants) but as potential customers, meaning, a source of profit. Fourth, we have to examine how we teach religion to our young and how we practice our faith as individuals as well as a society. Islam emancipated the Bedouins from their Age of Ignorance and brought light to them. Islam should do likewise for us – liberate our minds. If our minds are trapped, then the billions worth of help would be meaningless. Those are but narcotics for our self gratification and to indulge our fantasies. Those are but membajakan lalang. As a nation we have achieved much through independence. If we were to liberate Malay minds, there would be no limit to our achievements. Even more beautiful, a liberated mind can never ever be imprisoned again. Liberated minds need not worry about globalization and neo-colonization, or be threatened when our young learn English. Liberated minds would not feel imperiled when God's other children use "Allah" to refer to their deity. It is after all the same God. Once Malay minds are liberated, we would no longer be, to borrow the terminology of the Algerian philosopher Malek Bennabi, "colonizable."
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| Anwar should redeem himself in Sabah Posted: 03 Feb 2013 11:45 AM PST
Joe Fernandez It's unlikely that Anwar had anything to do with the tainted electoral rolls in Sabah and with good reasons too. The modus operandi on the MyKad scam in Sabah, by all accounts, was in operation long before he became Umno Deputy President, Sabah Umno head and Deputy Prime Minister. Indeed, it might even have begun shortly after Malaysia in 1963. The suspicion stems mainly from the number of people classified as Malays, not recognised as a Native Group, in Sabah. In 1960, according to official statistics, there were no Malays in the state, as cited by activist Dr Chong Eng Leong in his book, Lest We Forget – Security and Sovereignty of Sabah. By 2000, there were 303, 500 Malays, a figure which has since reportedly doubled. However, it cannot be ruled out entirely that Anwar knew about the illegalities taking place and either could not do anything or didn't want to do anything, to put things right after he ousted Ghaffar Baba from the party leadership, the Cabinet and government. Ghaffar, like Megat Junid and Aziz Shamsuddin and so many others, was willing to dirty his hands on behalf of Mahathir after Mustapha Harun balked at the impending federalization of Sabah. Mustapha Harun was seen as a stumbling block and removed as Umno Sabah head. Usno, his previous party, was deregistered to keep the increasingly rebellious Suluk and Bajau out of the political mainstream. Indeed, Anwar had previously alleged in public that the issuance of MyKads to the illegals in Sabah continued long after BN had regained power in the state. Assuming that it was the votes of the illegal immigrants, refugees and other foreigners that turned the tide for the Barisan Nasional (BN) in 1994, it cannot be said that the ruling coalition needed such votes after the Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS) re-joined it in 2002. Anwar had most certainly been kept in the know, as Deputy Prime Minister, by the government departments concerned, rogue elements and Umno operatives like former Sandakan District Chief Orang Kaya Kaya Hassnar bin Haji M. P. Ebrahim @ Assainar, now the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) Batu Sapi head. Hassnar, among Sabah PKR leaders, is particularly close to Anwar and reports to him directly on the political situation along the eastern seaboard of the state. Hassnar, once incarcerated under the draconian Internal Security Act (ISA) after blowing the whistle on illegal immigrants being used to pad the electoral rolls, has publicly fingered many suspects and openly challenged the authorities on the issue but to no avail. He claims that even the Special Branch lives in fear of him. He has admitted to entering some 15,000 illegal immigrants on the electoral rolls and attributed some 120,000 other names to other operatives working allegedly with the National Registration Department (NRD) and the Election Commission (EC). Hassnar is the only one so far to express remorse over his treasonous activities which, in his defence, he claimed was due to being misled by Umno. Anwar had previously stated, more than once, that he had nothing to do with the illegal immigrants in Sabah but "had heard about the Projek IC Mahathir". It would be interesting to learn what he had exactly "heard" about this heinous crime against the people of Sabah. For another, in sticking to his guns that a Muslim should head Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) in Sabah, and thereby eventually parting company with party vice president Jeffrey Kitingan, Anwar had stressed that "the Muslims were now in a majority in Sabah". Evidently, he didn't make a distinction between Sabahans and those who had no right to be on the electoral rolls and even in the state. It was political expediency that mattered more to him. Any number of ex-Sabah PKR leaders and members will testify on the stand taken by Anwar on the party's leadership in the state to underline that the Opposition Leader did not hesitate to jump on the illegals bandwagon and capitalize on the phenomenon. One oft-cited statement was Anwar telling troubled Sabah PKR leaders behind closed doors more than once: "As Muslims, we can't simply ignore these people (illegal immigrants)." He never explained why that justified the largely Christian Orang Asal being led in their own land by Muslims who were not Orang Asal. Clearly, Anwar cannot walk away from the RCI smelling like roses by simply hammering the last nail in Mahathir's coffin. He has to own up to a certain extent and concede that he had erred as well, at least morally, and apologise profusely for his transgressions in the state. His sin in remaining silent has not gone unnoticed. Salleh is right on that score to say that Anwar's hands are not squeaky clean. The Opposition Leader has to reveal his suspicions, if any, on whether the modus operandi in Sabah has been extended to Perak and the four Pakatan Rakyat-ruled states in Peninsular Malaysia. This cannot be misconstrued as politicizing the issue. The people have the right to know the truth. The Bangladeshi Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, told a gathering in Dacca not so long ago that Prime Minister Mohd Najib Abdul Razak was willing to grant Malaysian "citizenship" to Bangladeshis on a fast-track basis. This should be enough to raise more than eyebrows given what's being revealed at the RCI. It's more than likely that the Bangladeshis would be issued duplicate MyKads in the names of Malaysians eligible to be voters. It appears that Umno no longer has any confidence that Malaysians would vote for it in sufficient numbers to return it to power. Hence, it seems the party has to resort to either padding the electoral rolls with illegal immigrants, refugees and other foreigners or getting them to vote with duplicate MyKads under the names of Malaysian voters. This disgraceful state of affairs is unprecedented in world history. It would not be right for Anwar to turn up at the RCI and focus solely on the PR states and extrapolate, as an afterthought, that perhaps the same thing happened in Sabah. He will never be able to get away with that in a million years no matter how masterful his performance. Anwar has to redeem himself in the eyes of the people, not just by crucifying Mahathir in Sabah, but by bringing closure on the "sordid" aspects of his chapter in the state. That would be poetic justice indeed!
_____________________________________________________________________ Joe Fernandez is a freelance journalist, among others, who shuttles between points in the Golden Heart of Borneo formed by the Sabah west coast, Labuan, Brunei, northern Sarawak and the watershed region where three nations meet in Borneo. |
| Anwar before RCI will be High Noon Posted: 03 Feb 2013 11:38 AM PST
Joe Fernandez It can be safely assumed that the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) in Sabah will find it extremely difficult not to take up Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim's publicly expressed willingness to appear before it. The RCI resumed this week after a short break. The RCI must not give the impression to the public that they have been instructed by the Government to do everything possible not to allow anyone to embarrass former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad during its proceedings. It's not everyday that a person of Anwar's stature, much disputed as it may be by his nemesis Mahathir among others, makes such an offer. Let's give the devil his due. Anwar should make good his intention without waiting like Mahathir for a standing invitation on bended knee from the RCI. There's nothing to prevent him from turning up at the RCI in Kota Kinabalu uninvited and stating his intention in person and writing. He will be then given a day, date and time to state his piece and take questions. It will be good if Anwar can, locus standi aside, begin for the record at the RCI with his complete ethnic background. This will help demolish the hysterical, certainly hypocritical, bangsa, agama, negara defences being put up by certain unscrupulous quarters on nefarious activities being carried out in Sabah by various government departments. Such self-serving defences play to the gallery to muddy the waters and discourage any rational debate. In the pre-Internet age, apologists and sycophants for the powers-that-be would have issued stark fig leaf warnings on anyone – meaning non-Malays -- "playing with fire", "challenging ketuanan Melayu (Malay supremacy)", "insulting or challenging Islam", or on a milder note, "not getting their facts right". The lunatic fringe would have advised critics to "go back to China (or India) if they are not happy in Malaysia" and/or urged the Government to strip them of their citizenship for "badmouthing Malaysia, being disloyal, unpatriotic, or engaging in seditious and treasonous activities". Apparently, and knocking the bangsa, agama, negara theory, Anwar's paternal grandfather was a Tamil Nesan-reading Tamil Hindu who became Muslim. The story goes that Anwar, as a little boy, used to make the daily trek to the nearest stall to buy the Tamil Nesan for his grandfather. Not much is known about Anwar's mother. If Anwar turns up at the RCI, and there's no reason why he will not, Mahathir will have to do the same. The latter has also likewise indicated, but only once so far until today when he reiterated that he's willing to appear "if summoned" before the RCI. It will not do the former Prime Minister any good hiding behind his reportedly cybertrooper-driven and hits-bought blog and taking potshots at all and sundry on the issue. His latest is that Anwar was involved in wrongdoings in Sabah. This is rich after he had all along rubbished any Projek IC Mahathir in Sabah. He has an eye on the lunatic fringe media coming to his defence. The RCI is the right forum for Mahathir to come clean, tell the truth for once, and throw himself at the feet of the people of Sabah for mercy and beg their forgiveness. The man, given the amount of circumstantial evidence mounting against him at the RCI, will be considered guilty by Sabahans until and unless he can do a "Men in Black" and prove his innocence. It's not for nothing that Mahathir has been acknowledged in Umno as the "Guru of the Numbers Game", fair and foul, in election strategies. It will be interesting to learn from Mahathir himself, as part of his backgrounder at the RCI, on what basis his family from Kerala, southwest India, became citizens in Malaysia i.e. if they ever determined their citizenship in the wake of the British departure in 1957. We don't know much about his mother from J.V. Morais' biography on him, Mahathir -- Profile in Courage, ID Numbers Open Library OL 21316608M, published in 1982 by Eastern Universities Press, a year after he became Prime Minister. There's a romantic hint of a Thai connection on his mother's side, ostensibly Malay from across the border. There's suspicion that this might be a fairy tale concocted to claim links and bloodlines with Nusantara to put some distance, for political reasons, between him and the largely Hindu Indian subcontinent. At the height of Mahathir's run-ins with Tunku Abdul Rahman, the son of a Thai princess, the former came close to denying his heritage. He made the extraordinary claim that he had "only a drop of Indian blood in him". To further insult the intelligence of readers and listeners, he conveniently feigned amnesia, and incredibly claimed in a contradiction in terms that he "did not know from which part of India" his people came. Mahathir, like his Umno Baru hijackers of the old Umno heritage, does not think twice about making up all sorts of stories and manufacturing history. He thrives on paranoia, scenario-building, and being delusional in between harbouring grandiose notions. He had once thundered, at the height of his insanity in office, that Malaysia would be a world power. The pack of lies in his autobiography, Doctor in the House, stands stark testimony to the fact that Mahathir's imagination can run outrageously wild to paint him white, complete with halo around his head and wings, and others black with horns on their heads, hoofs, and red eyes. He can do no wrong, and if he did, it was the fault of others for discovering and pointing it out. His public admission recently that he gave out 200,000 citizenships in Sabah, citing Tunku Abdul Rahman in the peninsula in the wake of the British departure in 1957 as an example, may not even be the real story. The RCI needs to have evidence on this claim and the basis on which such citizenships were issued, if indeed they were any such thing. The Constitution determines citizenship. The RCI is probing the extraordinary rise in the state's population in more ways than one. The most disturbing feature is the electoral rolls which appear to be packed with those ineligible and not entitled to hold MyKads. Here, the "twice-born" feature prominently. The lax control over the electoral rolls has also allowed illegals, refugees and other foreigners to use duplicate MyKads and register as voters on behalf of those who had yet to do so, and also vote on behalf of those on the electoral rolls who seldom turned up to vote. The latest and disturbing revelations is that illegals in Sabah were issued MyKads from Peninsular Malaysia. These included uncollected Peninsular Malaysian MyKads and MyKids which were recycled in Sabah. Anwar's response to the RCI has not been exactly voluntary. He was needled by accusations, leveled of late by Umno leaders in Sabah that his hands were not that clean either on the issues being raised at the RCI. Speaker and former Sabah Chief Minister Salleh Keruak, among his accusers, pointed out in a non-statement that Anwar was powerful at one time in Sabah. The implication was that Anwar, as one time heir-apparent was guilty by association with Mahathir his political mentor then, on the illegal immigrants issue in the state. Now that Anwar has expressed willingness to appear before the RCI, Salleh is sweating buckets and panicking all over the local media in a futile attempt to discredit the Opposition Leader. He fears that "Anwar will not tell the truth" before the RCI or, even worse, "might use it as a forum for politicking".
_____________________________________________________________________ Joe Fernandez is a freelance journalist, among others, who shuttles between points in the Golden Heart of Borneo formed by the Sabah west coast, Labuan, Brunei, northern Sarawak and the watershed region where three nations meet in Borneo.
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