Why are the bloody MPs keeping. This treason of the highest order an unforgiveable betrayal of trust voters reposed in themThis has been morally degrading and has turned politics predatory. But things still remained functional. Till prosperity threw up a body of people whose progress in life has little to do with state patronage and who thus resent being subjected to poor governance and extortion.

 Gani, squeeze najib’s balls harder and the matter would be put to restt Silence is golden for all. Najib will do nothing since AG has Najib’s marbles in his hand on many issues including Altantuyu & submarine controversy. 

a nation led by thieves and plunderersEx-Attorney-General Talib should aim his questions to not only Gani, his successor, but also the Government led by Datu Seri Najib. ” Elegant silence ” on the part of all Ministers and AG is not an option. The loss of territory, Pulau Batu Puteh , is of national interest, urgent and important. The poor show at the International Court of Justice is a shame. How could our leaders treat this sovereignty of Pulau Batu Puteh so very lightly? And most surprisingly, the Home Minister requires a Police Report while the SD is a sworn statement by ex-CId man! Is the HM trying to erase the issue from the public domain? Undoubtedly, this is a hot potato; nobody like sto touch it! But the peopel of Malaysia, and especially teh HRH the Sulktan of Johore, have a strong interest By calling the AG by the ex-AG is barking up the wrong tree! He should have directed the issue to the PM .Talk to the father, and not the son o r the servant, please! Note that you could not hookwink the ICJ ! MPs speak out. Why are they so silence? Does it means treason is accepted to all BN representatives? Malaysians have to remember this when the vote in future

So what do you think Attorney General  is  made of? The zeal to help, to uplift the judiciary, to learn governance if they haven’t, and proclaim publicly that it is not for the lust of power? No it is for self-serving goals, loyalties for sheer benefit, clubbing on to an ideology so as to move down the dissenters. Do we play for the game, or do we play rather aggressively for our own innings?  Both, you may say, but if it comes to elimination of one of the two, self-serving goals are preferred, perhaps wiser.Democracy, in its conceptual principles gives one the right to choose, but disturbingly from the lot that is already chosen. Can’t say that money, muscle and manipulation do not go in all that, and putting it bluntly, why should one who has all this not use it for his purpose? The answer is that he probably would, if he found someone more deserving. No harm at all in believing we all are immortals, because when the inevitable happened, no one came back to say, just to say that it was indeed not so.What comes around goes around Best option is for him is to resign or sue Mat Zain

If a particular point of power is known, if the location of the chair that controls other’s destiny is well spotted, facts of history, geography, legends of the past can be quoted for self-serving gains. Does it matter now if Nehru and Patel were probably not on the same wavelength? Yes it does if that is the way you would like to sway the minds of people. I can’t say that as a strategy this is wrong. People actually wait for such stories in election times. The need to have a basis of conviction to cast an honest vote has to be fulfilled. So who do you think proposed to whom? Was it Emperor Akbar, or princess Jodha? Now this is a tricky one for most parties. Probably it was mutual chemistry would be the best response for both major parties. Shift either side, and twenty percent of your vote bank is likely to sway to the convenient side. The Marxists may have the right answer: “It was a decision of the State.” They and only they can get away with such neutral responses. With the polity so fragile and yet so determined in their beliefs, one cannot put the blame entirely on the politicians.The ailments of the judiciary, including, in the first place, that of the Supreme Court, are of another order. The alleged moral turpitude of some of the judges is only one of them. Even on this count, however, the judiciary is loath to allow an impartial and transparent probe by anyone other than the members of its own fraternity. The most recent instance concerns allegations of sexual misconduct against a recently retired judge of the apex court by an intern. Add to this the growing interference of the apex court in legislative and executive areas that are, strictly speaking, beyond its remit. It is argued, doubtless with good reason, that such interference is inevitable when the government and the legislature are unable or unwilling or both to shoulder their constitutionally-mandated tasks. Governance, like nature, abhors a vacuum. But the danger in this argument is that it upsets the delicate balance of power between the three estates of the republic that the Constitution decrees. On this count, too, a lethal virus could render the “software” of democracy obsolete.This corruption takes three forms: loot of the exchequer (the fodder scam, commissions on procurement), sale of patronage (allocation of mining leases) and plain extortion (no clearance till you pay up, complex administrative procedures, each one of which serves as a rent-seeking opportunity).

This mostly involves use of the state machinery. Which means civil servants must collude, getting suborned in the process. They turn unaccountable as well. A dysfunctional legal system facilitates such funding corrupt of politics.

PKR’s Padang Serai MP N. Surendran was scathing as he claimed that this was the common scenario when it came to corruption and misconduct by those in the government. Surendran was responding to Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s statement yesterday that police would not be investigating the explosive allegations in Mat Zain’s SD because it was not a police report.

Mat Zain said two days ago he had handed a copy of his SD to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and senior Putrajaya officials, alleging wrongdoings by Gani over the Pulau Batu Puteh ownership case.

In the 31-page SD, Mat Zain claimed that hundreds of millions of ringgit had changed hands and deposited into a Hong Kong bank account over the Pulau Batu Puteh case, which the International Court of Justice ruled in favour of Singapore.

Mat Zain alleged that Abdul Gani had deliberately lost the case resulting in the ICJ ruling in favour of Singapore. He urged authorities to investigate the actual reason for Malaysia losing the island to Singapore, saying it was a matter of sovereignty.

Ahmad Zahid noted that the authorities would consider investigating the allegations if a police report was lodged on the issue but went on to say that a SD declaration did not amount to a police report, hence no investigation papers have been opened.

Surendran (pic, left) poured scorn on the minister’s contention, pointing out that there was nothing in the Police Act that states they needed a report to launch a probe.

“What if there was a murder? Or an armed robbery? Are they saying that they will not investigate such cases until a report is made?

“In fact, if the police come to know or hear about any wrongdoing, they are duty-bound and obliged to investigate it even if there was no report,” the lawyer insisted.

Echoing a similar sentiment was Shah Alam MP Khalid Samad, who found it “very strange” that Putrajaya has not taken Mat Zain’s allegations seriously.

“These are obviously serious allegations. It involves treason and corruption of the highest order which has threatened the country’s sovereignty.

“And just because no police report was lodged, there is no investigation?” he said, expressing his disbelief.

Describing Ahmad Zahid’s reason for not investigating Mat Zain’s allegations as “flimsy”, Khalid said the case must be brought right up to the King.

“It seems as if our nation’s sovereignty was sold. This is not a minor thing,” the PAS politician stressed.

Mat Zain had also earlier questioned why Najib was keeping mum on the SD.

The former cop pointed out that if Najib had made public the SD which was sent to his office on October 9, the outcome of the Umno polls held later that month could have been different.

Mat Zain said the Umno delegates would then have known what was happening behind the scenes and would have voted differently
That danger is no less acute when governments, both at the Centre, deploy official agencies to get even with rivals. More often than not, such deployment is initiated outside the framework of laws, rules and regulations. Fake encounters and fabricated cases are evidence of this conceited insouciance. But so is the intrusive surveillance of citizens suspected of making life difficult for the rulers of the day: rival politicians, nosey media persons, un-cooperative civilian and police officials, NGOs and, in one instance at least, an individual who posed no such threat. We recently witnessed such conduct in, among other states,even if some other formation were to replace the UPA, the basic conflict between democracy and its corrupt funding would continue to stymie things. At hand is a crisis of political evolution. It must not be confused with a particular alliance’s problems.

Wonderful to see you again, my friend. Welcome to my lair. Join me for some Wild Witch’s Brew. It is of course just my garden in Sherwood Forest, turning russet and gold in the twilight months of the year, enchanting but not enchanted. The brew is a long frothy drink of cocoa. Coffee if you prefer. And my goodness, aren’t you happy to see me (or you’re packing ammo)! That you’ve turned up today and with that…er…affliction…is marvellous because that’s precisely what I want to discuss (you don’t look surprised somehow).

Malaysiakini    reported Unromantic’ Dr M feels queer love in the air In the not-too-distant past, Dr Mahathir Mohamad had shocked his audience when he proffered a humorous lament about his Wet and wild  Penis  dying   before hims  to nudity are forgotten.Are Malayalee Indian men sex-mad? Do they have uncontrollable libidos which compel them to make unwanted and unwarranted sexual advances towards women, even at the risk of having their own reputations and careers ruined?Such questions became central to a study conducted by a group of international scientists following media reports about a retired Supreme Court judge and the editor of a well-known publication who, in their own ways, had allegedly behaved in what can euphemistically be described as an ‘inappropriate manner’ with young women.

That there is a lot of what presumably is consensual sex in India is evidenced by the country population of 1.2 billion, and counting. With so much of what might be called voluntary sex doing the rounds, why are there so many sexcapades – ranging from rape to stalking and other forms of harassment – in which women are the involuntary targets?

What made the matter even more puzzling for the team of scientists was that it was only Indian men who seemed to have hyperactive libidos. Indian women seemed perfectly normal in this respect, cases of males being sexually assaulted by females belonging to the man-bites-dog category.

The baffled scientists finally turned to genetics to find the key to the mystery. And it was deep inside the genetic structure of Indian males, encoded in their DNA, that they found the answer to their question.

It had long been known to medical science that all Indians have a genetic bias towards cardiovascular disorders and diabetes. Similarly, the scientists discovered a genetic aberration in the chromosome of Indian males which predisposed them to uncontrollable sexual urges.readmore http://clubdesexymind.blogspot.com/?zx=fd195891167cc7a2

The scientists named this genetic anomaly – which was not present in the chromosome of Indian females – MILTY and related it to another behavioural trait common to almost all Indian males but not to Indian females: the compulsion to do what in the vernacular is known as No. 1 in public.

Experiments conducted under laboratory conditions had shown that, given a choice, seven out of ten Indian males would choose peeing in public rather than in a conveniently situated, free-of-charge, hygienic loo. It is not that they want to pee in public, any more than any of the male sex offenders want to be sex offenders. It is just that they are genetically programmed to do so, once again thanks to the MILTY factor.

At a press conference in New Delhi which witnessed a record turnout, the leader of the team of scientists hinted that there had been talk of the researchers being awarded a Nobel Prize for their discovery, though it wasn’t quite clear whether it was to be the Nobel Prize for Medicine or the Nobel Prize for Peace, for having pinpointed a major cause of gender conflict in the subcontinent.

When asked to do so by a correspondent, the head scientist obligingly spelt out the mysterious MILTY which is at the root of the Indian male’s full-frontal sexual exhibitionism: Mine Is Longer Than Yours.

Malaysiakini reported  thank god! Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s penis dying before him.otherwise we will have like Kerala, no country for women!

Leaked Nude Sex Pictures Malay Scanda Do Malay cares about Virginity, lost it yet?readmorehttp://clubdesexymind.blogspot.com/2011/04/leaked-nude-sex-pictures-malay-scanda.html

Mahathir has no shame in admitting that  penis dying before him  not a philanderer? You will be surprised if you investigate his adventures soon after he became a politician. He used to travel quite often from Alor Star, where his wife and children were, to Kuala Lumpur and make a bee line to the University of Malaya students hostel and regularly take out a senior female student whose name had the initials AK. He probably was just as good at hiding his philandering as he was at hiding the USD44 billion that he stole from the Malaysians. Sex is an outcome but also often the cause of inflamed passions. Regulating sex through law has a downside because the adversarial, legal process we follow is pretty poor at establishing “guilt”. The police are so busy lining the roads for VIPs and doing crowd control, that investigating individual crime is a low priority. Shoddy investigations often do not result in meeting the tests for enabling the State to encroach on an individual’s liberty and life. This is especially so when public sympathy is not with the murderer.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, at 62, has a notoriously active sex-life Advanced age is no reason to give up bedroomactivities,“Interesting, very interesting!” That was my reaction to the news that an NRI brother of a friend of mine was getting hitched. Before you deem it an inappropriate reaction—which in the first instance it is bound to seem—let me tell you why I reacted the way I did.Actually, he is a dynamic, ambitious and qualified young man with a highly paid job in the USA. and, therefore, a “prize catch”, if ever there was one. So his parents lived in constant dread of having a “firangi bahu” imposed upon them, but their son’s expressed wish to get him an Indian bride had quelled their fears and gladdened their hearts. And the search was readmorehttp://clubdesexymind.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2013-10-04T19:31:00-07:00&max-results=7

Be it day or night, women in God’s Own Country no longer feel safe whether they walk on the streets or use the public transport.

Despite all the hue and cry regarding women’s safety, women in Kerala continue to live a nightmare. Whether you are married or single, young or old, every woman in Kerala who are out on the streets has a daunting tale to tell.

For former media professional, Gayathri Aravind, a walk from her office to her apartment, which is hardly a kilometre away, is now an ordeal. It was one incident that made her realise how unsafe a single woman like her in a state like Kerala is. While returning from her office around 9 pm, she was stalked by a man, who was making lewd comments at her. Though she turned back to signal a warning at him with a stare, he did not stop. Even as she hurried towards her flat, he followed her. Luckily, neighbours intervened and managed to throw him out of the apartment. Her ordeal did not end there. Everyone blamed Gayathri for returninghome late in the night, that too all alone.

Unfortunately, this is not a one-off incident in Kerala, where atrocities against women are on the rise with every passing day, and women now feel unsafe even during broad daylight.

Navya, a software professional in Kochi, who was previously based in Bangalore, says, “I moved to Kochi a year-and-a-half ago. I used to travel alone at night while I was in Bangalore. However, the way men stare at me here is unnerving. Even autos are not safe to travel in these days.”

Check the man’s marital status before going in for a live-in partnership was the loud signal from the Supreme Court which ruled that Domestic Violence Act could not be invoked by a woman in a live-in relationship with a married man, especially if she knew his marital status.

A relationship between a woman and a married man could not be termed a ‘relationship in the nature of marriage’, the basic requirement for an aggrieved woman in a live-in relationship to take recourse to DV Act for action against her ‘erring’ partner, the court said.

After giving this interpretation to live-in relationship between a married man and an unmarried woman, a bench of Justices K S Radhakrishnan and Pinaki Chandra Ghose said if the married man walked out of such a relationship, the woman was not entitled to seek maintenance under DV Act from him.

On the contrary, it warned, the deserted woman ran a risk of being sued for damages by the man’s wife and children for alienating them from the love and care of their husband/father.

But the bench was aware of the social reality of married men walking out of live-in relationships. Finding that in such situations, poor and illiterate women suffered the most, the apex court appealed to Parliament to take remedial measures through appropriate legislation.

One Indra Sarma had a live-in relationship with V K V Sarma, already married with two children. The man moved in with her, started a business enterprise with her and after several years, went back to his family.

After the live-in relationship ended, Indra moved a Bangalore court demanding from him a house, a monthly maintenance of Rs 25,000, reimbursement of her medical bills and Rs 3.50 lakh in damages.

The trial court found that the two lived together for 18 years. Finding the woman aggrieved, the magistrate directed the man to pay Rs 18,000 per month towards her maintenance under DV Act. The sessions court upheld the trial court decision.

But the Karnataka High Court set aside the trial court order saying the live-in relationship did not fall within the ambit of “relationship in the nature of marriage”, a cardinal principle for one to invoke DV Act.

Upholding the HC order, Justices Radhakrishnan and Ghose said, “We are of the view that the appellant (Indra Sarma) having been fully aware of the fact that respondent (V K V Sarma) was a married person, could not have entered into a live-in relationship in the nature of marriage.

“Appellant’s and respondent’s relationship is, therefore, not a ‘relationship in the nature of marriage’ because it has no inherent or essential characteristic of a marriage, but a relationship other than ‘in the nature of marriage’ and the appellant’s status is lower than the status of a wife and that relationship would not fall within the definition of ‘domestic relationship’ under Section 2(f) of the DV Act. Consequently, any act, omission or commission or conduct of the respondent in connection with that type of relationship, would not amount to ‘domestic violence’ under Section 3 of the DV Act.”

But the bench noticed the deficiency in law to address such relationships in which women, especially poor and illiterate, suffer the most when their partners -already married men – just walk out. The court said it was for Parliament to take remedial legislative steps to plug this loophole in law.

The bench said, “We have, on facts, found that the appellant’s status was that of a mistress, who is in distress, a survivor of a live-in relationship which is of serious concern, especially when such persons are poor and illiterate, in the event of which vulnerability is more pronounced, which is a social reality. Children born out of such relationship also suffer most which calls for bringing in remedial measures by Parliament through proper legislation.”

Despite the concern, the bench decided to go by the law and said, “If any direction is given to the respondent to pay maintenance or monetary consideration to the appellant, that would be at the cost of the legally wedded wife and children of the respondent, especially when they had opposed that relationship and have a cause of action against the appellant (the woman) for alienating the companionship and affection of the husband/parent which an intentional tort.”

In the popularly followed soap opera of the Aarushi and Hemraj double murders (murders committed in 2009; lower court judgment after six years in 2013), public sympathy seems to be with the murderers-Aarushi’s parents. The disgust is reserved for Hemraj, the male Nepali house help, whose sexual relationship with Aarushi, a minor girl, enraged Aarushi’s father to murder and her mother to be an abettor to the act.

Similarly, in 1959, Nanavati, a dashing naval officer confronted his wife’s lover and asked him if he intended to marry her. When the lover laughed in his face, Nanavati shot him with his service revolver. Public sympathy for the noble, husband, murderer and aversion for the lecherous, opportunistic, lover made the President of India pardon him.

In the ongoing Tejpal rape saga, public sympathy is with the victim, but it seems more than likely that she will not be able to meet the onerous legal requirements of proving him, or his abettor Tehelka managing editor Shoma, guilty in court. Tejpal and Shoma have yet to be arrested and Tejpal’s long term political association with the Congress will stand him in good stead, unless yet again Rahul takes a principled stand.

The Gujarat snoop gate in comparison has not attracted much public attention despite it providing a platform for Congress to attack Modi’s governance style. Possibly, the reason is that Modi is not the only chief minister using his state police to keep an eye on political opponents. After all, the woman whose privacy was invaded by the Gujarat State has not complained to anyone and her father seems to condone the action. The clearly established charge (for which no commission on enquiry is required) of misuse of public resources is an endemic “perk” across governments. Nevertheless it would be fitting, for a front running, Prime Ministerial candidate, like Modi, to sanction his assistant Amit Shah, who ordered the snooping, by distancing him from the 2014 poll preparations and fast forwarding the criminal charge process.

Trial by the media helps in getting people convicted fast, but it is never clear if the guilty have been punished. Similarly, judicial proclivity to rely on moral outrage rather than the facts on file, can distort justice. Sometimes, this judicial stance provides a convenient just-in-time outlet for widespread social outrage, with the intention of pushing upwards to appeal courts, the tricky business of handing out justice.

Things get confused in a transitional society, like India, where norms of sexual behavior vary enormously. Dress codes and sexual behavior in a night club are very different from the codes prevailing while shopping in a market. Normally the silos are water tight. Night clubbers dress and behave different when shopping. However, signals get mixed when, for example, a “memsahib” tired of her daring clubbing dress, hands it down to her maid, who promptly wears it, inappropriately, in the park, sending out unintended signals, identified by the “Khap Panchayat mentality” as the cause of inappropriate male behavior and defended so vociferously, by women, as their right to dress as they want. Without a doubt, the onus for a mental makeover is on men, who being socially dominant in India, hold women to account to a stricter code of sexual morality, than for themselves.

The rash of recent criminal legislation seeks to reverse this skew by holding men more rigidly to account for sexual transgressions. This is easier said than done. In Germany a recent legislation proposing to criminalize the customer (generally male) of a prostitute was opposed by prostitutes themselves. Their argument was that this would drive prostitution “underground”, make them more dependent on criminal intermediaries and expose them to dangerous customers. Unintended consequences indeed for a law which meant to do good.

Much the same is true of the spate of recent Indian legislation on sexual behaviour. Unintended consequences will mar these well- meaning laws. Here is how:First, it is difficult enough today for a woman to compete on-the-job with social norms requiring her to multi task between home and office. Effective team work often requires a high degree of intimacy and huge amounts of time spent together. Women are disadvantaged in “hanging out” and “networking” primarily because it is still very much a man’s world. The majority of bosses, at different hierarchical levels, are men. They are likely to be even less willing, than currently, to employ women competitively if even their innocent actions of workplace intimacy can potentially attract criminal sanctions. To put it simply, if today a woman has to be twice as good as a man to get the job, she will now have to be four times as good. Even the “strident voices” which campaigned for making the law on sexual transgressions more draconian, are now finding out how difficult it can be to implement the law effectively in their own offices. Women should be concerned about this additional barrier to their competitiveness.

Second, the notion of a woman as “innocent or naïve” and any man as a “predator” seems antediluvian. The law for sexual sanctions should be gender neutral. Consider for instance the gender biased law on adultery (the most common sexual transgression), where the man is presumed to be the adulterer, even if both parties are married. Similarly the law only regards men sexually harassing and stalking women, as criminals.

Third, laws must respond to the state of play of collectible evidence. It is difficult enough to prove motive but it is even more so to prove whether or not a sexual advance by a man was consensual or not. Oldies will remember the film, “Pakeeza”(1972), in which Raaj Kumar is instantly attracted to Meena Kumari’s ankles, resting on the iron window bars of a train. Only the Taliban would go to extent of banning the exposure of ankles. But it does illustrate how diverse and contextual are the sexual signals communicated between a man and a woman.

It is not for nothing that the eyes are the said to be the windows of the brain. Indian actresses, catering to our modern, prudish, sexual norms, have been adept at using minimalistic body language to convey powerful sexual signals. The lowering of eyes at an appropriate moment is understood to signal consent even if here is no verbal confirmation; playing with their hair is similarly a popular “I am interested” signal. All these are legitimate signals of the human mating dance. Also just as clearly the onus is on the male to calibrate his resultant advances, in a manner which is socially acceptable…and norms vary enormously depending on context.

Our laws are over wordy and over specified. This is a sure sign of a drafting process which gives too much weight to “satisfy” the demands of “strident voices” and “special interest groups”, rather than a professional balancing of the objectives of clarity, specificity, coherence and effectiveness.  Drafting good laws, which are forward looking, implementable and effective, is not our comparative strength. We use legislation just as a means to “shut the mouths” of discontents.

Lastly, lawmakers must assume that laws will be gamed by the unscrupulous; both men and women. This is the downside of the adversarial legal system we follow and its key limitation in harnessing social change. The US is a prime example where the fear of attracting “liability-civil or criminal” is so extreme that passers-by will not directly help the victim of an accident and instead wait for an ambulance to arrive for fear of attracting the liability of “legally” harming the victim.

Take a simple example. Increasing the age for becoming a legal adult from 16 to 18 for women is totally unrelated to the prevalent facts on the ground (UNICEF (2009) estimated that 47% of women in India are married in their teens). Dimple Kapadia was 16 years old in 1973 when she played the “quasi-Lolita”, title role in Raj Kapoor’s film; Bobby. Common sense would dictate that a fair proxy for adulthood is the average age of attainment puberty, rather than an arbitrary age, designed only to enlarge the pool of girls who would be “protected” by the more onerous sanctions against sex with a minor.

Finally, acceptable norms for social and sexual behavior must be left to be decided at the local level since the most effective threat against transgressions, is social sanctions. Pan-India laws are incapable of achieving this level of dovetailing between legal and social sanctions. It should then be left to people to vote with their feet and leave jurisdictions, whose social norms do not fit their world view. After all, India is increasingly a country of domestic migrants. Around 35% of the population has chosen to migrate, with the proportion increasing every year. Unacceptable social constraints and skewed gender roles (the Khap Panchayat world view) and unrealistic draconian laws (the social activist world view) would be just more (good) reasons to do so.

Move over,

ONE CAN NOW EARN A DIPLOMA IN SEX AT ‘THE WORLD’S FIRST COLLEGE OF APPLIED SEXUALITY’ IN MCA, PROVIDED YOU DO YOUR HOMEWORK.

ARE BREASTS A SEXUAL ORGAN BECAUSE NIPPLE STIMULATION IS AROUSING TO SOME WOMEN?

We have often been suggested that breasts have also a sexual function (besides breastfeeding) because nipple stimulation is arousing to some women – some think it is so in all women.

Everyone knows of similar communal conflagrates that follow till today. Who is the final beneficiary?

Over the last 3 decades, the power people in  Malaysia have emerged from mostly faceless people writing  star out of people. Which in a way says it all – media stars were not faces, and as a result, they lacked the popular adulation It kind of evolved over time, especially with the proliferation of news channels, where newsreaders started getting delusions of grandeur, and soon felt that they were the news, and they made the news, of which they did a damn good job too, and so faces became more important than content. The new behind the scenes puppet masters, whose faces seldom if ever come up on the screen directly, were no longer the editors, it was the era of the perception managers – now vying for space and control with the lobbyists As things stand now,

Enough is clearly enough. The anger we saw spill out on the streets of Delhi was an organic act of intensely felt outrage. A spontaneous movement without any leaders or political affiliation, it is a sign that something has finally given way. The idea of living in constant fear, and having to make do with the platitudes of those in charge is no longer going to be met with stoic indifference.Can an election ever throw up the right candidate? Or to put it more moderately, is an election the mechanism best suited to throw up representatives that will strive to work for their constituents and attempt to better their life? Are there in-built into the electoral process, a set of imperatives that help pre-determine one kind of outcome, irrespective of the quality of the candidates?

The reaction of the state reveals the poverty of its perspective. To stop a largely non-violent protest several times and then to clamp down prohibitory orders to prevent the protests from taking place is an act of violent suppression, and comes from an ingrained instinct to convert the protest into the problem  by  the Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor .Emergency type controls or chaos pretty much spells out the extreme range of options, and the fear of blackmail by and on these faces looms large.Or does it? Party over at Federal Territories Ministry given that in any crisis, good, clear and honest communication has a far better chance of convincing people than taking Najib to  the Road to Disaster The election of 2018  will be about the future of the stomach.  Since we live in overriding virtually every other attribute, this week’s sordid scandal … Read more

Here’s a song that spells it out. Do they have, that’s the word, respect?Increasingly, it would seem that what it takes to win an election is not only very different from what it takes to govern, but might well be at odds with the idea of providing governance. The privileging of representativeness in our democracy, with an emphasis on race and religion, has meant that electable candidates are chosen with a view to who has the biggest electoral draw in terms representing the interests of a community rather than select those that have a view on issues of policy or administration. At one level, democracy does not require its practitioners to come equipped with a track record, and representativeness is perhaps the most vital element in the idea of democracy, but over a period of time, what representativeness has come to mean identity rather than action; the leader resembles his or her constituents, speaks for them and on the occasion that he or she acts on their behalf, it is often through the same narrow lens of community. Under these circumstances, the election abets the process of weeding out those that see their role in more secular terms, and focuses its attention narrowly on those with more sectarian agendas. Ku Nan  drinking toddy in Sentul Naked vs nude on poverty Advice  is likely to ignore Change is a mist which floats through events, often obscured by the daily cloudburst of facts. It is noticed least by those it affects most. Tengku Adnan Tengku Manso have a sharper eye than they are given credit for, but they can … Read more

Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia was merely  in the line of disruptive manoeuvres that we have seen being employed., having achieved little.  Behind the perennially noisy scenes in Parliament lurks a deeper silence. It is as if our legislators no longer find too much relevance in the institution of the Parliament and use it for effect rather than action.That is not to say that the opposition had no reason to communicate their anger. When a state institution like the CAG points fingers at the government and alleges a loss to the exchequer of such enormous scale, the opposition is well within its rights to seek appropriate redress. It is also true that in recent times, it is difficult to think of an administration which has governed as incoherently and inefficiently as the present regime has. The number of scams and scandals too has been unprecedented and it is therefore natural that the opposition has reason to attack the government with everything it has on almost continuous basis.The most pressing need before the country is to ensure Letting Parliament function is the responsibility that comes with all the rights that our MPs In a democracy should the  Speaker sit in give judgment  Does the government not have faith in the ability of our Parliamentarians to examine an issue and make realistic and appropriate … Read more

Zulkifli Noordin tells his ex-boss that he already has one foot in the grave and should quit politics, as he vowed before GE13.readmore‘Retire, Anwar, and prepare to meet angel of death’

12-Point Strategy as Blueprint for Pakatan Rakyat to capture federal power in Putrajaya in 14GE

readmore12-Point Strategy as Blueprint for Pakatan Rakyat to capture federal power in Putrajaya in 14GE

The frequent use of party whips makes the idea of parliamentary discussion largely irrelevant as the role of the individual legislator gets marginalised. In effect, the idea of a debate gets rendered meaningless if all legislation gets seen only through the lens of the party and its position on the subject. Particularly when these positions get taken not so much on the basis of ideology or a vision for the nation’s progress, but on the basis of narrow and immediate political advantage, the Parliament becomes a prolonged exercise in arm-wrestling, with every new issue becoming an excuse to flex muscle rather than use it productively.  emptiness of this ritual points to a larger vacuum in the workings of our political system. The role of legislative action in articulating and directing energies of the state towards the task of securing a better future for its citizens is increasingly being buried under a culture of political expediency. Postures in Parliament have much more to do with short-term political jockeying rather than long term legislative action. Much of this political manoeuvring does not translate into material political gain, but it is nevertheless privileged over taking a more long-term view. The fact that all legislators, no matter what political affiliation they hold are conjoined together for a larger purpose is now barely discernible in the actions that we see in the Parliament. The political class shares responsibility for a common task- of formulating policy and keeping the nation going that overrides whatever differences they might have. This responsibility becomes a particularly onerous one, when a coalition government is in power, for the state cannot use its majority to keep the wheels in motion; it needs a degree of collective co-operation. It is interesting that this underlying spirit of unity cutting across party lines was seen in evidence during the discussion , when the political class came together and collaborated to stymie the effort  to create an independent watchdog. It is an irony of our times that the only time that the Parliament acted as the single organism that it is meant to be, was when it came together to protect its members from greater accountability to the people.

Lim Kit Siang said Pakatan Rakyat could rise to the challenge to decide the political future not only of Sabah and Sarawak but the whole of Malaysia in the 14GE.The opposition chose this as its most opportune momentStrategy as Blueprint for Pakatan Rakyat to capture federal power in Putrajaya in 14GE  thinktank felt compelled to throw its most obvious card right away. Other aspects of the reasoning could have been to get its flock together. The party still holds a sizeable number of states and some sort of party unity had to be shown. Further dithering on an obvious candidate would have frittered away the enthusiasm of the grassroots worker.  By embracing some of the ways of politics while rejecting many others it has arguably given itself a chance while dimming its righteous glow. Given that the future looks equally coalition-ridden, the inability of the political system to find a mechanism by which the business of the nation can go on even as political differences get an arena where they can be played out, is likely to be have a crippling impact on governance. In a larger sense we have reduced the idea of democracy to that of elections, the idea of governance to that of power and the rent extraction it enables and the idea of Parliament to an arena for scoring dubious political points. The nosiness of the Parliament is a testimony to the fact that there is nothing worthwhile left to say; all that matter is the loudness with which one screams. Content has been replaced by scale; and the act of disrupting the house is nothing but a sign of the clarity that prevails in the political class about how redundant it has become. Winning elections requires a peculiar kind of race and community arithmetic, multiplied by financial resources and propped up by on-ground muscle. The reason why the incidence of criminality in politics has been such a visible presence is partly due to the fact there are great similarities between the two skill sets. It is easier for a local tough to become a politician than it is for a local schoolteacher, to use a crude stereotype, not only because it easier for the former to mobilise resources and numbers far more easily but also because the electorate sees more advantages in being represented by someone who can thump the table on their behalf rather than someone who is not seen to have a realistic chance of winning.

The new voters for all  idealism, lives in the real world of politics, and on the whole, that is good news. meets with  will potentially open the doors for other efforts of this kind. For voters i, for once there is a real choice on offer. It might not be perfect, but there is a third way.   what it appears to be- a brave new force with its heart in the right place, that they are trying out an experiment in participative democracy. It brims over with untidy energy and self-justifying righteousness. In terms of the solutions they proposes, they are somewhat simplistic and depend largely on the power of good people with good intentions. At all level, it is disappointing that  LIM KIT SIANG has chosen a campaigning style that if anything lowers the bar in terms of the level of political discourse. But perhaps, that is what allows it to escape the fate of other well meaning efforts to clean up politics. Much like LIM KIT SIANG ’s photograph in the posters put up by his own party, the campaign is sweaty, untidy, heartfelt and angry.  It is consumed by self-belief, with no time for appearances or niceties. In some ways, it is a mirror to the inchoate anger and frustration felt against the political establishment by the urban middle class.The prospect of winnability makes unsuitable choices rational, for it is seen to be smarter to align with those that could win rather than root for those that might act on one’s behalf much more usefully if elected, but are seen with little real chance of doing so. Money is the other reason why only those that already have the ability or are able to generate it, are found suitable to be offered as candidates. The political system wards off change at the point of entry itself, by making the entry level conditions unsuitable for anyone but those that toe the existing line and play by the rules already laid down. 

The election requires that a large number of people exercise their preference for one candidate over the others on the basis of some knowledge and familiarity with the individual’s previous track record, the party that he or she represents, the promises made, and the overall feeling of empathy and trust generated by the individual. Given the sizes of constituencies and the scale of the geographies involved, it is difficult for someone who is already not a visible presence in at least part of the constituency to mobilise adequate support. Chances are that the choices will veer towards those that already enjoy a measure of prominence and power in the area- superannuated student leaders, local toughs, successful lawyers, families of politicians, wealthy landlords, caste and community leaders and the like.

The underlying assumption of elections is that every individual takes a personal decision, on the basis of the inputs received, to choose the person deemed suitable to represent his or her interests. The truth is in the Malaysian social construct, the individual does not necessarily act as a singular entity and is often inclined to act as part of a larger collective. This is true not only of elections, but of many other walks of life. The election is in some ways almost asking for people to find their own appropriate collective and to cobble together enough numbers so as to increase the bargaining power at their disposal. It is rational to do so, for otherwise every individual feels virtually no ability to influence the outcome.

The middle class distrust of politicians is in part a sense of frustration with the electoral process. Part of the reason why visible outrage does not automatically translate into higher voting percentages is because the idea is laced with a sense of presumptive futility. It is also the reason why movements like Zulkifli Noordin Perkasa chief the one led  get traction; the apolitical nature of the struggle is found  not valuable. The disenchantment with the movement is in part due to its involvement in electoral politics; the paradox being that the impetus for change cannot succeed unless it becomes a variable in the elections but the very act of getting involved with anything to do with elections is seen as an act of contamination.

Electoral reforms will help. But too much has to change before reforms by themselves can be effective. As a structure, elections cannot create intent; that must exist in the system. Without intent, the structure merely re-inforces and perhaps amplifies all that is already wrong. Even when elections are not rigged, in some ways they always are. If not by design, then by definition.

BACK IN 1994, THE THEN CHIEF MINISTER OF MALACCA, ABDUL RAHIM THAMBY CHIK, WAS REPORTED TO HAVE RAPED A 15-YEAR-OLD SCHOOLGIRL (UNDER MALAYSIAN LAW, SEX WITH A MINOR CONSTITUTES STATUTORY RAPE). LIM GUAN ENG, CURRENTLY THE CHIEF MINISTER OF PENANG AND THE THEN MP FOR KOTA MELAKA, SPOKE OUT AGAINST THE RAPE OF A MINOR AFTER THE GIRL’S GRANDMOTHER-CUM-GUARDIAN, WHO WAS ALSO LIM’S CONSTITUENT, TURNED TO HIM FOR HELP.

15

HOWEVER, FAR FROM DESERVING JUSTICE, BOTH LIM AND THE SCHOOLGIRL RECEIVED THEIR “DUES”. LIM WAS JAILED FOR THREE YEARS FOR SPEAKING UP AGAINST THE RAPE WHILE THE GIRL WAS GIVEN THREE YEARS “PROTECTIVE CUSTODY”. AS FOR RAHIM, BECAUSE OF THE RAPE AND PENDING CORRUPTION CHARGES, HE WAS FORCED TO RESIGN, AFTER A 12-YEAR STINT AS MALACCA’S CHIEF MINISTER.

BUT THE JUDICIARY SAW RAHIM ESCAPE PUNISHMENT FOR A CRIME COMMITTED; THIS CAME ABOUT AFTER THE PUBLIC PROSECUTOR WITHDREW THE CHARGE CITING LACK OF EVIDENCE. THE CORRUPTION CHARGES AGAINST RAHIM WERE ALSO DROPPED

watch http://gutteruncensoreddailya.blogspot.com/2013/11/amateur-malay-couple-having-hotel-room.htm

If language, as Hegel wrote, is the medium of the journey of consciousness, young women’s consciousness is reaching a powerful place, fuelled by their awareness of being valuable, powered by their words that refuse violation. The scandal didn’t surprise me. But what surprised and delighted me is young women saying, writing and meaning ‘No’ – and being heard by a society that turns out more liberal than its leading liberals often credit it for. a world driven bythe affability of powerful men like Mahathir recent events from are shocking readmore Tan Sri Abdul Rahim TambyChik stressed that he had……….  but i’m not terribly surprised. There’s a bigger picture here; amidst the details of intellectual fests in luxury hotels, disputed sexual assaults, an investigative committee seemingly of dinner party friends, alleged intimidation of the victim now, you see the wild thrashings of an old media world, imploding under its own paradoxes. An icy misogyny, blanketed by warm words, nestled here – it stands utterly exposed today.Not too far back – think 10 years ago – this media world stood puffed up with the responsibility of shaping India’s public thought. In a country where governments took great care to skip any investment education required, this world’s grip on instruments of public discourse – the English language, school networks, kinship contacts, patronage – was vice-like. Today, that grip’s been broken with resounding success. With all hues of parents determined to get kids to English-medium schools, the monopoly raj over a good life has been ripped to shreds. The old media world’s been overtaken by a democratic new space, where its claims of being the guardian of Malaysian’s liberalism are redundant. The liberal project in Malaysia- which includes women’s equality – has permeated society; those who once monopolised this should look for new jobs.Flip and glib, this media world seemingly modernised in recent years, but part of its problem lay in shadowy structures. Avoiding corporate discipline, factions preferred funding from quarters which, Lord Voldemort-like, must remain unnamed. Media work then included dinners and have-another-drink-fests, involving the people journalists are meant to scrutinise. A few token women – WAGs, wives and girlfriends, as the British press would helpfully put it – glittered atop this pile, but this remained a world driven by the affability of powerful men, rooted in a murky status quo.

But that was little reason to be despondent. After all, where else could ageing editors sport ponytails and hats and cultivate newsrooms fragrant with machismo? This was a world loud with rants on corruption and abuse, but where internal committees to probe misconduct were a bore. Instead, you could write angered columns, be on TV, host foreign film stars or propound on secularism at lit fests. Its actions differing from its words, this media grew indistinguishable from the powers that be, its misogyny becoming what Slavoj Zizek describes as “an inert stain”, one that “resisted communication and interpretation” – one that couldn’t be cleaned as it couldn’t be seen.

The Tarun Tejpal alleged sexual assault case has hit national headlines. Man of integrity, man for the masses, man who has fought all odds to speak up for rights of the oppressed, and against those who are corrupt and misuse their power is now being probed and damned for doing exactly what he fights against. The fortunate part is that there is CCTV footage and probably further evidence to substantiate her claims of assault or his of a consensual encounter. And with this episode the entire issue of sexual harassment in the workplace has come into focus. But why just focus on the workplace? If you keep a woman in her home, she is subjected to all kinds of harassment by her in-laws, husband and also subjected to sexual harassment/rape by other male family members.

If she ventures out onto the street, she’s at the mercy of perverts, roadside Romeos and criminal elements, and if she is in the workplace it’s by colleagues or coerced into ‘compromise’ by men in positions of authority. Women are simply not given the security or respect or privacy or rights they deserve from the day they are born. We can chase a few, catch a few, imprison a few, and hang a few. But until we realise as a society that it’s not few, but many men out there that need to be sent a stern message through effective policing, swift judicial process and stringent punishments, things will just go from bad to worse.
When Tehelka was accused of using sex workers in its sting operation in 2001 during NDA government to expose corruption in defence deals, many tried to justify it. They said at the end of the day it ‘exposed corruption which is the biggest enemy of the country’. Those defending Tehelka, however, did not consider that use of sex workers was not only against the ethics of journalism but also reflected the mindset which saw women as a commodity. Today, the same mindset is visible in the case in which Tehelka founder Tarun Tejpal has been accused of sexual assault on his own colleague which he describes as mere a ‘bad lapse of judgment’. Clearly, the end doesn’t justify the means. And, as you sow, so shall you reap.The Tehelka sexual assault episode has been discussed threadbare by all. Depending on which side of the spectrum they are, people have taken clear stances, basically along expected lines. While the young journalist, her friends, even her colleagues along with the majority of the media seem to agree with her allegations, the powerful and ‘literary’ friends of the accused, Tehelka’s Editor-in-chief Tarun Tejpal, have started defending him.

While that was to be expected, what has left a completely unsavoury taste in almost every observer’s mouth has been the attempt by these worthies to tarnish the young girl’s reputation. From the first attempts to say it was ‘consensual’ to a ‘fleeting’ one, the girl is now being accused of being a ‘liar’ and that she was ‘partying’ around even after the incident and that if she was partying, she couldn’t have been ‘traumatised’ as she is claiming to be.

Among the host of absurd claims and explanations made, this one must rank as the most absurd. Who has ever said that a person who has been molested by an all powerful boss is barred from enjoying herself? If anything, I would give credit to the youngster that she maintained her dignity in the face of the beastly attack by her boss, all to ensure that the event that she and her colleagues had worked tirelessly for is not jeopardised.

It is being said that she even messaged her friends about how excited she was about the time she spent with Robert De Niro and his wife, after the ‘so-called’ rape attempt. How bizarre! If anything, she shows the maturity way beyond her age, while discharging the duty that she has been assigned – to ensure that a big Hollywood star and his wife are taken care of. You need to respect the girl, and actually be grateful that she did not create a scene. But these so called ‘intellectuals’ are using it to malign her reputation. How utterly pathetic! Or, as Arundhati Roy has said in her essay on the issue, this is like her 2nd rape.

I have often referred to the cozy clubs that exist all over. Memberships to these cliques is guarded ferociously and they don’t allow anyone else to enter even as they throw a crumb here and there to keep the general public interested. Anyone trying to break these cozy clubs is treated with disdain. A concerted attack is launched against the person to discredit him. The attack is so relentless that the person eventually gives up. Often, this attack is wrapped in flowery language and intellectualism that makes the other seem inadequate.

They have succeeded so far because those who can take them on also succumb to the crumbs often. But this vice-like grip is showing chasm with the coming of the social media, which, thankfully, despite its many flaws, does not respect the social status of wrong doers and says it the way it is – straight. Thank God!

We have all seen the flip-flops of the powerful management of the magazine on the issue. From trying to hush it up, to it being an internal issue, to a bizarre self-imposed exile, to penance, to a public apology and now this. Sad! (http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/randomaccess/entry/tehelka_stings_itself_wake_up_call_for_media)

And that is not all. While seeking anticipatory bail, it is also being said that they would demand that the case be moved out of Goa as they fear they would be targeted by the local government. They must surely think the justice system is an ass. They are pre-judging that the state is biased and that they will act against. Has there been even a shred of evidence that the manner in which the state police has moved so far is biased. Why should any court even entertain a request like that?

These silly actions are making the already irretrievable situation go even more out of hand.

In Hindi, there is a saying ‘Vinashkaale Vipreet Buddhi’, which, loosely translated in to English means: Under trying times, the brain often stops functioning or makes you do wrong. Wonder if it was coined with some of these men in mind. In the meanwhile, kudos to the gutsy young journalist!
Denying any sexual harassment of a young woman law intern, former Supreme Court judge Justice A K Ganguly on Friday said he was “shocked and shattered” by the charges against him.

“I am denying everything. I have told the committee that all the allegations levelled by the intern are wrong. I don’t know how such allegations have been levelled against me,” he said.

He was giving his reaction after an apex court official released a statement that Justice Ganguly had recorded his statement before a three-judge committee that went into the intern’s allegations and has submitted its report to the Chief Justice of India.

The apex court official statement said Justice Ganguly had recorded his statement to the three-judge committee headed by Justice R M Lodha. The report was handed over to CJI Justice P Sathasivam on Thursday.

“I totally deny the allegations. I am a victim of situations,” he told television channels.

“I am not ashamed of anything,” he said in reply to a question in regard to the alleged episode which came out in public domain after the intern spoke about in a legal portal earlier this month.

He said the charges against him were totally wrong. The girl had not raised any sexual harassment issue with him, he said, adding that he had not done any physical harm to her.

The former judge said the intern worked with him though she was not officially allocated to him. She came in the place of another intern who had gone abroad after marriage. “I never put up a poster. She came on her own.”

He said the girl had come to his house on a number of occasions in connection with the work.

Asked about the charge that he had asked her to come to a hotel room, Justice Ganguly said he was in Delhi at that point of time in connection with work and she was also in Delhi.

“I know what she has said. The question is that when I was in Delhi she was also in Delhi. She came on her own to my…,” he said.

“If anybody feels uncomfortable to work with me she was free to leave,” he said, adding that there was inconsistency that she has respect for him and there was no rancour.

He said that the intern was like his child and he treated her that way.

Asked if he was worried whether the three-judge committee will pass strictures against him, he said, “I don’t know what kind of strictures will be there.”

To another question if he felt that the committee could have preconceived notions about him, he said,”I am not saying anything.”

Asked whether the allegations have cast a shadow on him, he said, he has faith in people and the people will judge him by his “conduct” and by his judicial work.

Justice Ganguly, who demitted office on February 12 last year, said that if this trend continues it will be difficult for the upright judges to continue to work.

“I have worked with several interns in my life, a large number of them and I treat them like my children. They are all well placed in several places in their lives and nobody has made such allegations. I am shocked and shattered.”

He said that his case be not compared with that of Tarun Tejpal. “Don’t compare this case with Tejpal. Please,” he told to a television channel.

To a question if asked to prove …, Justice Ganguly shot back “how can I prove the negative.”

The intern had earlier this month told a legal news portal that a “recently retired” judge with whom she was working earlier had sexually harassed.

Hit by the allegation, the Supreme Court constituted the three-judge committee to go into the charge of the intern.

Justice Ganguly was elevated to Supreme Court on December 17, 2008 and demitted office on February 3, 2012.

The intern, in a blog, had accused the retired judge of having misbehaved with her in a hotel room last December when the nation was grappling with the gang-rape of a 23-year-old woman in the national capital.

On November 18, the intern appeared before the panel and gave details of the incident and on November 21, she had sent certain applications and affidavits to the panel.

While setting up the panel on November 12, Justice Sathasivam had observed that he was concerned as head of the institution (judiciary).

“In the cases of sexual harassment, we cannot take it lightly,” the CJI had said.

The young woman intern had first come out in public by writing her experience and ordeal in a blog of NGO ‘Natural Justice: Lawyers for Communities and the Environment’, with which she has been working.

She has also got support and solidarity from her employer NGO.It is extremely significant that middle-class Indian girls – like Nirbhaya, the first anniversary of whose gang rape is in 21 days – have been supported by their parents to excel. With Indian girls topping every noteworthy exam, their confidence to ignore the dust and reach for the stars has grown. Their ability to work and earn has grown. Their knowledge of their rights, from Vishaka guidelines to rape laws, has grown. In a social moment of glorious serendipity, this has coalesced with a brave new media space that lets women voice all of the above. There’s no way now that the old media’s leading lads can pose Zizek’s ironic question – ‘Che vuoi?’ Does this ‘No!’ not really mean a double ‘Yes!’? – to young women, who won’t tell them exactly where to goWonderful to see you again, my friend. Welcome to my lair. Join me for some Wild Witch’s Brew. It is of course just my garden in Sherwood Forest, turning russet and gold in the twilight months of the year, enchanting but not enchanted. The brew is a long frothy drink of cocoa. Coffee if you … Read more.

The Member of Parliament for Titiwangsa, Datuk Johari Abdul Ghani Among Nine Umno MT Members Appointed

“Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.”

The desire for martyrdom for the country is our hearts
It will test the strength of the enemy.
Why one does not to speak to others?
Whoever I see is silent.
O country, I submit myself to thee
Now even the stranger speaks of thy courage.
We will display courage at the right moment,
Can’t show what’s inside our hearts now.

In fact, our country is witnessing a ‘fixed match’ between the `fake nationalists’ led by  Tun Mahathir  and ‘pseudo secularists’ led by DAP and PAS to grab power. And, the common Malay is suffering. continuing with minority appeasement policies, people fear communal violence will engulf entire nation in the run-up to G14 elections. Both the sides are promoting fundamentalists

Mahathir’s Racism is a cover for his corruption of power Tun Mahathir  must not be confused with  his weakness or ‘fickleness’, as some observers have claimed, in the backdrop of  his on Proficiency in English Language and Nationalism decision. In the larger public interest, it is crucial that the record is set straight. Tun has always wanted something or the other to be banned. English in  is hardly the only item in that list. Language and technology have been two perennial fault lines where his  lava-like anger keeps steaming and occasionally… will go after the use of English in every forum feasible for years and years, and advocate the shutting down of schools offering English express his distaste for English education by sending  his children son to  the UK to study.However, people, particularly the privileged class, are also to be blamed for the mess because they have allowed themselves to be swayed by Tun Mahathir who have distorted the meaning of the terms like  secularism, patriotism and nationalism to suit  his vested interests. All of us are unaware of the real meaning of these terms which played crucial role in country’s freedom struggle and shaping the idea ofMalaysia. Today, fake nationalists are emulating Hitler (hate and racial supremacy) and pseudo secularist the British (divide and rule).Many of us may not agree with the ideologies of these great men like Tunku Abdul Rahman

but we can at least try to understand and follow the common ideas. And, believe me, it is the only way to address the problems the country is facing today.

Mahathir was education minister from 1974 to 1977, and during that time, Malay neo-nationalism was on the rise. Even Malay creative writers like Muhammad Haji Salleh and Syed Alwi who were originally writing in English were feeling uneasy about writing in the colonial language and decided to switch to writing in Malay. So Mahathir was going with the flow. He promoted Malay to please the nationalistic herd, and he had no qualms about letting our standard of English slide.Why didn’t he stand up and tell them that in the 1970s? In those days, Malay was even less of a language of maths and science. He was education minister, for crying out loud. He was a leader, he was supposed to lead with the right ideas. Of course lah, he didn’t because he was scared he would lose his position. In those days, if he had tried to champion English, he might have got lynched! And Mahathir must have loved his neck too much.

We know, however, what he was not scared of doing. In fact, it was one of the first things he did when he became education minister – the sort of thing he does best. Yes, exert control. Mahathir the control freak bulldozed university campuses and forced academia to be subjected to Government control. He kicked aside academics who opposed the move and placed his own men in vice-chancellor positions. I know that he replaced the excellent VC of Universiti Sains Malaysia, Hamzah Sendut, with a civil servant. What did civil servants know about administering universities except how to behave like feudal lords?

Everyday issue of harassing Islam

there has been no clear outcome of this debate perhaps, since it largely concerns the large immigrant  pendatang like you  vs native Muslim populations in Malaysia For fear of being labeled ‘culturally insensitive,’    governments fail to identify, adequately  report or solve this problem.

Unfortunately, it’s not just the government’s responsibility.  We  Muslims as citizens should also be stepping up and telling them…our elected officials…what we want  Islam  for no ourselves.should exercise our rights to express to their elected officials what we would like to see happen.  This is why I do not understand why Infidel Ivy Josiah  do not exercise their right to vote.  For me, voting is not only necessary, it is great privilege in this country and one many take for granted! – See more at:

By the way, it seems to me that a leader of this nation should be willing to say the pledge of allegiance and wear a flag pin on his lapel.  If you can’t uphold the principles of the nation, why should you be elected to run it?

Herd mentality amongst men in ganging up against a woman is not new  WAO executive director Ivy Josiah that is a different matter but you interfering  in Islamic laws  which non of your business .   Harassment comes in many forms and is not necessary always sexual in nature. Women are persecuted in many ways. Women are automatically labeled as weak, the foundation built on the underlying assumption that they will rarely put up a fight. In many unfortunate cases, the victim may not get support from another woman that she may turn to as well. The hapless victim is most times mortified by somebody she trusts, she does not getting a shoulder to lean on, instead is degraded by the same people she would necessarily turn to. This is precisely the reason why law makers and those entrusted with enforcing the law find excuses to imprudently blame the woman instead of doing what needs to be done in facilitating her protection.

What has been the unique feature of the last decade (2000-2009)–the first decade of the new millennium–that ended four years ago? In the first world, where such events are duly kept record of, it has been the sociological debate between multiculturalism and assimilation.

Because there has been no clear outcome of this debate (perhaps, since it largely concerns the large immigrant and non-native populations in developed countries), the ghastly and morally outrageous crime of what is known as honour killing (but can be really be termed hubris killing) continues to take place also on their soil. For fear of being labeled ‘culturally insensitive,’ governments fail to identify, adequately report or solve this problem.

The cultural argument against multiculturalism countering the ethical and legal one of the universal nature of human values is that culture is merely a direct result of the unique geography rather than history of a particular place. Cutlery, dishwashers (which never took off in India), wines and sunbathing in the northern hemisphere offer specific illustrations of this principal at work while closer home it is the wok, the handloom gamchha and paan. To start living in cold Norway from the scratch, one has to learn to build a house. Hence, the need for adaption, acclimitization, learning of new habits, integration. When in Rome, do as Romans do, so goes the proverb.

In an assimilationist victory in November 2010, Switzerland voted to proscribe minarets following a four-year local opposition to a construction by the resident Turkish association, which may be short-lived, however, as the UN has slammed the ban as ‘discriminatory’. But west of the channel, the British Nationalist Party, which seeks to restore the overwhelmingly white ethnicity of Britain that existed prior to 1948, welcomed one ‘Mr Singh next door’ as its first Asian-origin member. And though the far-right Dutch Party for Freedom, whose leader Geert Wilders advocates banning the Quranand curbing Muslim religious freedom, ranked second in elections to the Netherlands parliament (he was subsequently snubbed by Turkey whose politicians refused to see him citing his views so that he was forced to cancel the trip. He performed poorly in the 2012 general election), there is a sneaking suspicion somewhere that the Establishment has at last appropriated a beautiful movement that started off as a clutch of robust, neoconservative voices that called for the return of foreign emigrants to their respective lands. For the success of a nation, at the root of it, is based on the strength of the morals of its people which directly influence the quality of their life. This campaign said to the migrant gold digger: If you want to preserve your ethnicity, go back to your country and make it on its soil. And help your country do the same. Or else become one of us. There is no middle path.

But the strongest and most robust of these voices (Jorg Haider of Austria who died in 2008, Jean-Marie Le Pen of France who finished fourth in the 2007 national elections, Pia Kjaersgaard of the Danish People’s Party that has been the country’s third largest party in three successive elections since 2001 and Umberto Bossi, the incumbent Italian reforms minister) was that of former Marxist, homosexual and pragmatist, the flamboyant Pim Fortuyn. Portrayed as a Far Right populist, Fortuyn fiercely rejected this description of himself. Calling Islam “a backward culture”, he said if it were legally possible he would close the borders for Muslim immigrants to prevent what he saw as corruption of the Dutch way of life. He formed his party, LPF (Pim Fortuyn List) in February 2007, swept the preliminaries and was on the cusp of victory in the general election when he was assassinated just nine days prior to the polling. His party went on to win an unprecedented debut in Dutch parliament.

It was Fortuyn’s, and not George W Bush’s, that was the first, unequivocal and clearly unapologetic voice against radical Islam. What’s more, he offered the only viable solution — legal recourse and not invasion — a little prior to the time when Bush began to swallow his by-then infamous words, ‘war against Islam’.

Today, LPF has no presence in Holland. But since March 1, 2006, people who want to settle in the Netherlands are required to pass the “integration test” in their own country which includes a film which exposes the would-be immigrants to scenes of kissing homosexual men and topless women. Themessage is, “If you can’t tolerate gay lifestyle and public nudity, you are not allowed to be here.” So Europe which stopped the march of Islam in the medieval times would seem set to play a similar role, that of blocking Islamic radicalism, in the present era.

In 2004, the painter’s great grandnephew and filmmaker Theo Van Gogh and the Somalian-origin intellectual and politician Ayaan Hirsi Ali, both critics of Islam, shot Submission, a 10-minute documentary on women in Muslim societies, that provoked strong reactions from the audience. Van Gogh, who refused protection, was shot two months after the film’s release while he was bicycling to work. Two years later, Hirsi Ali became the centre of a new controversy surrounding her citizenship when a television channel reported that she had given false information when applying for asylum and had covered the fact that the main reason for her migration had been threat of forced marriage. She was forced to resign from parliament and currently lives in the United States.

Amartya Sen’s 2006 treatise Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny (Issues of Our Time) puts forward the concept of multiple identity and roles at the individual level as a critique of Samuel Huntington’s seminal The Clash of Civilizations written a decade ago but fails to satisfactorily determine an answer to the dilemma of social loyalty should a national or political conflict of interest arise. Cases in point include US president Barack Obama’s initial policy on BPO jobs, Jaguar spurning Tata Motors in 2007 (insinuating that the US public was not ‘ready for ownership out of India of a luxury car brand such as Jaguar&rsquo and the rise of Nicki Haley and Bobby Jindal.

The escapism of Hirsi Ali (whose father, too, is a political figure in Somalia) that sparked her identity fraud in real terms was essentially a result of her defeat to sociopolitical forces in her native land. She remains a divided, contentious figure: one who was neither allegiant to nor nurturing of her natural identity but who protested its shortcomings.

If Hirsi Ali criticised Islam by becoming an outsider and pointing out along with others its exclusive need of reform, Iranian-Canadian Muslim refusenik Irshad Manji (The Trouble With Islam Today, St Martin’s Press, 2004) has fulfilled that objective by becoming the sole person, man or woman, worldwide, to have actually donned that difficult mantle, attempting to reinterpret and amend the religion from inside and stressing on upholding what she finds original and true in it, particularly where the roles and responsibilities of the sexes are concerned.

Irshad’s documentary, Faith without Fear, follows her journey to reconcile faith and freedom. Released in 2007, the film depicts the personal risks Manji has faced as a Muslim reformer. Disturbingly, her detractors dismiss her scholarship as coming from a western and hence privileged background.

On the ground, though, Iran’s Neda Agha Soltan is not the only martyr for the cause of Muslim renaissance, much hoped for but yet to arrive in 2010 or even in 2012, as the country goes to polls again this year. The Arab Spring has travelled to Bangladesh where it has taken a unique form. For the first time, some Muslims have recognized the argument for atheism and secularism if not reconciled it with their faith and for the first time a modern oriental culture has eschewed both escapism and atavism and looked history in the eye.

Flashback again to 2010-end when a rights forum reports the story of a 10-year-old Afghan girl whose face was disfigured with acid for going to school by the Taliban. She still goes to school today. Her parents, she said then, had told her that so long as she is not killed by them she must continue to receive her education and attend those classes.

When Muslim organizations invite Shaykhs who speak openly about the values of Islam, the Islamophobic western media starts murdering the character of that organization and the invited speaker. The question these Islamophobic journalists need to reflect upon is; are these so called ”radical” views that they criticize endorsed only by these few individuals being invited around the globe, or does the common Muslims believe in them. If the common Muslims believe in these values that means that more or less all Muslims are radical and that Islam is a radical religion. Since this is not the case, as Islam is a peaceful religion and so are the masses of common Muslims, these Shaykhs cannot be radical. Rather it is Islamophobia from the ignorant western media who is more concerned about making money by alienating Islam by presenting Muslims in this way. Islam Net, an organization in Norway, invited 9 speakers to Peace Conference Scandinavia 2013. These speakers would most likely be labelled as ”extremists” if the media were to write about the conference. But how come this conference was the largest Islamic Scandinavian International event that has taken place in Norway with about 4000 people attending? Were the majority of those who attended in opposition to what the speakers were preaching? If so, how come they paid to enter? Let’s forget about that for a moment, let’s imagine that we don’t really knew what all these people thought about for example segregation of men and women, or stoning to death of those who commit adultery. The Chairman of Islam Net, Fahad Ullah Qureshi asked the audience, and the answer was clear. The attendees were common Sunni Muslims. They did not consider themselves as radicals or extremists. They believed that segregation was the right thing to do, both men and women agreed upon this. They even supported stoning or whatever punishment Islam or prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) commanded for adultery or any other crime. They even believed that these practises should be implemented around the world. Now what does that tell us? Either all Muslims and Islam is radical, or the media is Islamophobic and racist in their presentation of Islam. Islam is not radical, nor is Muslims in general radical. That means that the media is the reason for the hatred against Muslims, which is spreading among the non-Muslims in western countries.

by editor in chief suarakeadilanmalaysia.wordpress  <syed1145@gmail.com>

Now that almost everything to do with Maria Chin Abdullah ’s open defiance to elected government  Coalition for Free and Fair Elections’ (Bersih) new steering committee will now start pressuring the agong for a new Election Commission (EC) to replace the existing members. has been discussed and debated. Now that has closed the chapter  transgression following  now that yet another  Traitor Maria Chin Abdulla ’s treason pressuring our Agong   write to the PM not    defied  a elected governtemt of Najib  fledgling political hopeful, made a mistake it would be loath to recognize, let alone admit? for an organization seeking to achieve the unprecedented the new  broom of  an organization seeking to break through glass and steel ceilings, and in one dramatic leap soar from street anger to responsible office? Is this broom is to brash  to recognize status of the constitution. point is the stability and strength of the institutions of  Malaysian democracy  Some people cite such strength to argue that Najib poses no serious threat to democracy. Even if he has anti-democratic instincts, our institutions would not only protect themselves  Malaysian democracy is still young and evolving. It is weak and malleable in many places, vulnerable to opportunistic pressure from outside the repressed will return in ugly and distorted forms, posing problems for governance .Likewise, harsh crackdowns on what’s construed as hate speech can have perverse effects. It allows governments and mobs to  do anything they find offensive as hate speech. can get away with anything, while artists, intellectuals and members of civil society are penalised for their views.Laws and government must followed  not realm of cultural and political provocationas dissident movements , other than those offered by our total revolutionaries? Hunt’ the villains, there is hope, even if there is a blinding sand storm that is coming our way the government has the duty uphold the rule of law and fulfil a political and moral obligation.

Parliament has become a platform for partisan conflict.  Change is a mist which floats through events, often obscured by the daily cloudburst of facts. It is noticed least by those it affects most.  The balance of power is not Coalition for Free and Fair Elections’ (Bersih) the states of the nation will determine  as  the united states of Malays with  our Agong as constitutional monarchy and Najib as head of the Government

Mr Lim Kit Siang  no one in his right mind in the country will dispute that Making Election Commission independent.While the opposition rants and raves much about the  Election Commission  a government stooge, in reality, no one wants to change the status quo. The reasons are transparent enough for anyone to see – after all in politics tables turn most unexpectedly. I am not sure how as a people we can slowly but surely move the government in that direction, The revelation by former Election Commission (EC) chairman Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman is the reason why the EC must be replaced by a truly independent, impartial and professional… READ MORE

That scenario has changed dramatically now. With social media, women’s voices have taken centre stage. Democratic, driven by numbers and the energies of youth, social media’s developed platforms – blogs, like where an intern recounts being sexually harassed allegedly bythe country’s top cop  , journals, social networking sites – where women have their say and people listen seriously, acknowledging t is not enough to blame the system  or to be scared of jeopardising one’s career, as she was. You have to take responsibility for yourself and your dignity. And when dealing with the system or with men, you have to understand the nature of the beast.  

 In a social moment of glorious serendipity, this has coalesced with a brave new media space that lets Mariam Mokhtar  voice all of the above. There’s no way now that the old media’s leading lads canMariam Mokhtar pose ‘s ironic question – ‘Che vuoi?’ Does this ‘No!’ not really mean a double ‘Yes!’? -If language, as Hegel wrote, is the medium of the journey of consciousness, Mariam  ’s consciousness is reaching a powerful place, fuelled by her awareness of being valuable, powered by  her words that refuse to be   intimated  writing and meaning ‘No’ – and being heard by a society that turns out more liberal than its leading liberals often credit it for.Crude threats from the Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar  pegging blame or insinuating all sorts of misdemeanors   against  Mariam Mokhtar who is  national treasure while the IGP a  politically appointed officials can be dispensed with at leisure  but  just cling on shamelessly.She wasn’t at fault any lesser than most in the media themselves. And, the masses are products of the communication doled out to them day in and out by the the main stream media itself, right?Mariam Mokhtar only vindicated a widely-held bias. Just about everyone from beyond the media has generated a loose view of the industry and its players. Mariam Mokhtar said she felt that Khalid’s warning was a misguided attempt to silence the public rather than being aimed at her.“I think the IGP was acting under orders,” she said in an email to The Malaysian Insider from London, where she is based.If you burn a finger, the reaction is instantaneous; you do not wait years to reveal the hurt and revile the flame that burnt you. So why would you do any less justice to the outrage of your ego, self-respect and dignity?    Unless… you are implying that these matter less than physical hurt.    Unless… you are admitting that you can compromise your dignity or your ego in the interest of career advancement.    Unless… you are saying that since you cannot fight the ‘system’, it is better to go along with it till you are parked in a safe bay, from where you can assuage your guilt by confessing all, no matter whom you hurt.    

Can  Federal

Umno’s appointment of Mohammad Kazim Elias as its new supreme council member has left the party red-faced after the religious scholar admitted that he is a PAS member.How can Secretary-General of United Malays National Organization (UMNO) can not advice  UMNO Presiden. Doesn’t UMNO has rules and regulations governing such appointment?. Look like   Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Mansor  more powerful  this is wonderful! It shows we are so mature politically when a member of the opposition party sits in the supreme council of the ruling party!

There always remains much more to be done that speaks for itself.There is much to note about  Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Mansor political temperament, hardly ever ruffled, and   abusive to his opponents. If the politics is the art taking people along and yet to be able to enforce the greater part of one’s own conviction, then this is it.Territories Minister Tengku Adnan  ever restore  Kuala Lumpur City   glory? Can Kuala Lumpur  ever become the most aspirational city to live in Malaysia? Can it be a role model for other Malaysian  cities? Can it be a place where merit scores over corruption, and citizens are safe? There are no easy answers. Not as long as  Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Mansor Party at Federal Territories Ministry considered the hotbed of corruption, given that in any crisis, good, clear and honest communication has a far better chance of convincing people than taking Najib to  the Road to Disaster . effect will remain hotly contested. We will know the truth only in 2018.

 Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Mansor’s biggest scams have originated here. Second, the most horrific cases of crimes against women have come from here. Today, few talk about Kuala Lumpur as glorious and great. Many talk about as  unsafe.Here is a self disciplined and proud community that has the appetite for enterprise at par with any in the world. Along with that comes a rich nexus of culture that keeps human bonds intact despite immense wealth.   Najib gets his rating because the small as well as the large entrepreneur feels that he is more adept in minding his  as well as the other’s business. Opinions may differ.

It isn`t fair to Klites — 99.9% of them did not tarnish the city.  Nong Chik  and Tengku Adnan   ruined the metro`s reputation. a chance to redeem itself,NAJIB MUST REPLACE TENGKU ADNAN MANSOR coming G14 election the country will watch. The way  votes will decide if it deserves the mantle of a great city. the ‘silent’ interim day is the one with most deals, maneuverings, interparty spying, and surely money exchange It isn`t an easy election, UMNO must be the first choice, with a dynamic  Najib seeking a third term. Despite misconduct allegations, the fact remains  Najib has overseen a transformation of   Kuala Lumpur City `s infrastructure, almost unmatched in any other  city.and individual professionals and take rentals as per customer and usage. In terms of real estate costs, perhaps they can dig a bit more horizontally at major underground railway stations. Waiting for trains shall no longer be a pain. Well if they had thought that much, it would have been a winning slogan for the young first time voters.

With   taxpayer  money  they live with  free, and often luxurious, housing and all the other perks that they enjoy.  But it seems that even after death – or at least some of them – can continue to cost us almost as much as they did when they were alive. Whose interest does it serve for the government of the day – whichever it might be – to shell out huge sums of public money – your money and my money – to bring out such commemorative ads?  However, misfortune remains  fromTengku Adnan  who faces a loss of confidence amongst Federal Territories voters .Najib should appoint new ministerwon`t just clean up  KULAA LUMPURi, it can clean up politics around the nation.If all this happens,  city will redeem itself and restore its honour. The city has been ridiculed and shamed far too much. In deciding   For the 13 Federal Territory seats, assembly seats, it has the chance to show the nation why it deserves to be  Malaysia`s capital. . Go get your honour back.

Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan, who is also the Umno secretary-general, and mother of all snake But admit it: whatever  the strategic thinking for Tengku Adnan. Tengku Adnan has the future mapped out. Operating procedure to bring down Big Boss Najib: sound resigned if you have to, but don’t resign. Deflect and wait. Do a costume change, don’t alter the script.all to make sure that the real “villain” in UMNO The election of 2018  will be about the future of the stomach.  Since we live in overriding virtually every other attribute, this week’s sordid scandal involving an alarmingly enough has appeared about the lurid details of the case, so let’s skip the muck, and focus on what could have been done to salvage a pretty hopeless situation.  fledgling political hopeful, made a mistake it would be loath to recognize, let alone admit?  seeking to achieve the unprecedented — break through glass and steel ceilings, and in one dramatic leap soar from street anger to responsible office?  Tengku Adnan brash  image, representative of  UMNO visual signature of a party that wants to   insists the rate hike will take effect on January 1, for the middle-class, sort out the capital’s silly drainage, and, if there is any time left over, eliminate corruption from the intricate layers of government that claw and crush citizens from all sides? Does a symbol make much difference to electoral fortunes? UMNO has won Titiwangsa in G13 election on a humble Najib’s  promise to voters to hear them. But  voters might be more successful in creating a rebellion than in benefiting from this achievement. In any case,  Tengku Adnan Mansor deserves congratulations for making Titiwangsa a fascinating electoral case-study . A flat equation has acquired the tension of a fragile triangle.: no election is a mirror of the past. Previous statistics can be misleading  Najib has indicated what he will do: continue the distributive largesse from the national exchequer.

PAS was built on the counterfeit PAS will Vanish will be the history of Malay land 

UMNO, which has had the longest innings in power since independence, leads the pack. But others none dares cross their path. What “software” of democracy can they possibly bring to the table? Precious little.But these permanently feuding  Taliban PAS ulama chief Datuk Harun Taib   leaders from one end of the political spectrum to another Erdogans   can and do make common cause when their interests as  Taliban PAS ulamas   are in jeopardy. Consider their opposition to any serious effort to keep   Erdogans    at bay. Consider, too, the alacrity with which they refused to come within the purview of  . Such “software” contains far too many bugs to serve any worthwhile purpose. PAS is only a thorn in the flesh for the Malays, the kind that would form pus, decay and end the history of Malaysia as a Malay land.

There is a single phrase that defines the ethos of  PAS  built to flaunt the grandeur of political power, it is the imperious assertion by the few to the many: hallucination doesn’t stem from the fogging of individual minds. It happens because some people have internalized PAS’s overriding philosophy  There’s  Pakatan  effect, but not PAS  wave. DAP  leaders claim there is definitely a PAS  effect,but  electorally insignificant.  PAS lack a strong leader who can discipline all the rascals in  PAS politics and the its bureaucracy.

The country’s longest serving prime minister said based on PAS’s performance in previous general elections, it was “obvious that PAS would not head the  Government even though it partnered with DAP and Parti Keadilan Rakyat”.PAS, according to Dr Mahathir, had never had any big wins in general elections and he defended ruling party, Umno, by stating that “Umno’s right to head the Government has never been disputed”.“PAS can only be a junior partner if Pakatan ever forms the government and only as DAP’s puppet,” he added.Dr Mahathir drew on the party’s experience helming the Perak government for a short while after the 2008 general election.

“We saw what happened when PAS headed the Perak government,” he said, referring to the coalition helmed by PAS’s Datuk Seri Mohamad Nizar Jamaluddin, but which was widely seen as a puppet to DAP.

Dr Mahathir’s comments comes following PAS vice-president Datuk Husam Musa’s statement last week that he wanted to see party president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang become prime minister.

In response to that, political analysts had outlined the various hurdles PAS would have to overcome in order for the Islamist party to snag the post if Pakatan Rakyat wins the next general election.

“PKR and DAP also have Muslim leaders,” Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs chief executive Wan Saiful Wan Jan said.

Dr Mahathir’s stinging column today alleged that prior to the formation of PAS, Malays were united.

“The formation of PAS was only successful in dividing the Malays and Muslims until they became weak in a country where they are the majority,” he said.

He went on to say that although PAS a  refuge party  broke with UMNO  and  the unity among Malays in 1959 when it brought up the issue of religion, since then it had not been able to show it could  not replace Umno as the party that represents the Malays.

“Where would PAS head to next? Would PAS defeat Umno with the help of DAP? Would DAP help PAS so that it becomes huge in Pakatan and form an Islamist government?” asked Dr  Mahathir.

“It is only those who are obsessed with PAS who will dream that the party would lead an Islamist government ruling Malaysia.”

“The rest know that PAS is only a thorn in the flesh for the Malays, the kind that would form pus, decay and end the history of Malaysia as a Malay land.”Datuk Johari Abdul Ghani said is an imperative for implementing Vision Umno, , won 88 seats just by itself  PAS  with 20seat now you PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang tell me who is sinking BEWARE OF OVERVALUING THE SYMBOLIC PAS RELATION WITH DAP IN THE CONTEXT OF MALAY AND NON MALAY VOTES THERE NO LOVE BETWEEN THEM Washout of DAP its part of a PAS strategy…that PAS is responsible for making politics inside Malaysia  so murky. Well, it’s a trend that it has started. If it gets to rule Parliament ever, the need for spite and retribution will drive the UMNO to pay back in the same coin. So forget PAS good governance; what we are in for is a period of great turmoil in the future. This is why . The problem goes much beyond 2013… Pas a refuge fringe party that they used Islam as their political tool

Do we want fear or hope in these eyes!

Johare  advice to P119 Titiwangsa voters Here are a few pointers to help you remain true to your core…
• Keep in mind long-term goals. Plan for work, life as well as for a meaningful life beyond work.
• Do not try to please everyone; you never can!
• Be your own critic; do not be affected by others’ praise or ridicule.
• Recognise your self-worth. Focus on what or who gives meaning to your life!
• Never trust blindly — neither your circumstances, nor people around you!
• Create and indulge in meaningful activity away from work.
• Invest in good personal friends.

It is time PAS stood up to truth dont make Islam a political football?

Prior to attempting any genuine critique of UMNO, it becomes imperative to substantiate the same with either empirical facts or hard evidence. Even so, in tune with the liberal tenets of our Constitution, UMNO does not object to genuine criticism of its judgment in Islam. However, scurrilous attacks and comments attributing motives to decisions are absolutely unacceptable. These exceptions are reasonable and essential to preserve the sanctity ofits’ that flow . Commentators must understand that the scope of their criticism ought to be restricted to decisions itself – and not the personal characteristics of its leaders .  The simple fact of the matter, is that the politicians is supposed to be, and thankfully is, scrupulously apolitical.  Islam is not in the race to win a popularity contest Change they say is the only constant in life. Some minor, some life altering while some leave a lingering aftertaste. Taking a leaf from PASi’s philosophy, attention was the appeal to youth to spin the spindle and have an experience in meditation while spinning.It is clear that the changing situation in Malaysia needs a fresh approach. Rampant corruption, failing economy and spiralling inflation are enough to defeat  UMNO in the next election but PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang  has kicked unnecessary debate such a strategy was not a new thing as such scenarios had existed for thousands of years.“Muslims in our country were shocked by a string of attacks in relation to Islam being the official religion of the country.Undoubtedly, today’s  PAS is not the one which fought for Islam in Malaysia. PAS version of islam flourished in KELANTAN under PAS. The pluralistic society of  Malaysia flourished under UMNO.One unified  Malaysia, the other gave a socio-economic direction. Together,D AP controlled riots and put thousands of innocent life lives..in danger

DAP led temple movement, leaving behind series of  Hatred Chaos. DAP go beyond ‘builders’ brew’ and give masala chai and chapati a try allow us to believe! Please? In an era that prides itself on ripping away dreamy veils to reveal ugly truths, a sense of mystique is a rare, undervalued commodity.Life would be simpler if we accepted everything at face value but would … Read more

Mat Zain’s insistence that police could investigate Gani based on the contents of his statutory declaration (SD) without lodging a police report.Mat Zain drew attention to Sections 107 and 107A of the Criminal Procedure Code related to information given to the police and their powers to investigate.

Tan Sri Abu Talib Othman said”I am saying this not in support of Gani but to protect the public office of the AG,”Tan Sri Abu Talib Othman said

Sometimes, the formidable morphs into the pathetic for along time It’s all fixed juggernaut, with its potent combination of powerful interests seemed to carry such sweeping and overwhelming force that it looked to be above any challenge, criticism or scandal the same ability to enforce a conspiracy of silence is taking on an air of pathetic absurdity.A former police detective will not see any investigation into his allegations of wrongdoings by the Attorney General unless a police report is lodged, a former top government lawyer said when commenting on the explosive claims.Former AG Tan Sri Abu Talib Othman said that retired Kuala Lumpur CID director Datuk Mat Zain Ibrahim must lodge a police report if he has evidence of criminal wrongdoings by Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail (pic, left).”He was a senior police officer and must have evidence against Gani (the current AG) before making a report and stand by what he alleges.

The brute force of power has replaced the unwritten rules that governed behaviour as the primary arbiter of our actions. Protection and punishment. The two standard responses to we from a minister that both protection and punishment are necessary instruments for dealing with this problem, responding to Mat Zain’s insistence that police could investigate Gani based on the contents of his statutory declaration (SD) without lodging a police report.Mat Zain drew attention to Sections 107 and 107A of the Criminal Procedure Code related to information given to the police and their powers to investigate.Mat Zain had also alleged that Gani had deliberately lost the case, resulting in the ICJ ruling in favour of Singapore. He urged the authorities to investigate the reason Malaysia lost the island to Singapore, saying the matter involved the country’s sovereignty.The former cop had said the reason he came out with the SD was to convince Putrajaya to establish a royal commission of inquiry over the loss of Pulau Batu Puteh to Singaporebut clearly much more is involved. The current idea of action seems to be focused on either preventing an incident that has already happened by limiting the focus to the very set of circumstances that were involved illusion the past, or to run away from the complexity of the proble

“We do not know if he has an agenda. No point in him hiding behind the SD whose contents may be hearsay.”Abu Talib said justice must be done if the police report contained elements of criminality.”Of course, Mat Zain is also open to prosecution if he lodges a false report against Gani.”Mat Zain had said that he had handed a copy of the SD to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and senior Putrajaya officials, alleging wrongdoings by Gani over the Pulau Batu Puteh case.In 2008, the International Court of Justice in the Hague, Netherlands ruled that the sovereignty of the island, half the size of a football field, belonged to Singapore.In the 31-page SD, Mat Zain had claimed that hundreds of millions of ringgit had changed hands and deposited into a Hong Kong bank account over this case.

The problem of course is that protection and punishment, accompanied by anger and recrimination directed at the police and the politicians, seems at least somewhat tangible. Talking about societal change and the shaping of new mindsets seems to be a project in wishy-washy wishful thinking. When change is distributed so thinly over so many people, it looks impossible. It is much easier to believe that the police force and a limited number of people in power can be made to change and give us solutions.The change in the gender climate that can be seen around us needs to be understood differently for something fundamental has changed. real change has been the conversion of covert fantasy into a sense of overt acquisition, which has been aided by a new sense of power and its legitimacy.

The implicit restraints that had been put in place socially have been dismantled, and power in its new form begs to be converted into opportunity. The primacy of desire means that the eye is always hungry, avid in its quest for acquisition, and any action is seen to lack consequences that cannot be reversed or managed through the use of some form of power.Police brute force of power has replaced the unwritten rules that governed behaviour as the primary arbiter of our actions. Currently, we live in a world between rules — those of an earlier era do not apply and new codes have not been framed or agreed to. The responsibility shifts to the enforcement of the law, but this is deeply compromised by the fact that the process is managed by those that cannot fully comprehend the meaning of the changes that we see around us. the operative word being ‘finally’.  will it take government a lot to reach to this point, and the final call apparently  to  ask the Attorney General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patailto   resign  the argument was that these were merely allegations and that nothing conclusive had been put on the table. The idea that people could resign (and remember this is just a resignation from a position, not a jail sentence, and one that can easily be reversed if the individuals are eventually found not culpable) for misdemeanours that were strongly indicated seemed to be an alien one.

The need to evade responsibility both on part of the individuals as well as the government till as long as possible is a part of a larger narrative that goes beyond these instances or indeed this government. It seems to be part of a growing tendency to frame all debates in the vocabulary of the extreme. Demands are conceived of in the extreme, and deadlock prevails till some overwhelming force gets applied. Nothing happens without the intervention of courts, and that too only when they give direct orders, or the party high command when it exerts direct influence on a subject. The opposition too frames its demands in extreme terms- in every session, the resignation of some minister or the PM is demanded and used as a reason to boycott Parliament. The legislative houses have been reduced to empty shells, that exist to exert force rather than extract  solutions from problems through debate and discussion. The only mode of protest that is deemed to have any value is that of the boycott which devalues the very institution that it is part of. Any other intermediate form of protest has lost currency. Of course, through cynical overuse, the boycott has now become a routine fact of life, and the government has begun to find it convenient to go along and put the onus of inaction on the opposition. The boycott threat has spent itself; now, without a desire to bring down the government and face elections, the government simply ignores the opposition.

The malaise is not restricted to the political establishment alone- the media and the middle class speak in the same language. Calls for aggressive pro-active ‘decisive’ action against  criminal wrongdoings by Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail , the demand for  all manners of crime, the need to weed out corruption with a silver bullet of some kind- the yearning for decisive answers  and final solutions can be seen everywhere. The conversational pitch is set so high that any attempt at reasonableness is construed either as a sign of deliberate muddying-of-waters or of weakness. What has been lost is a belief in the power of discussion; today’s conversations at held at gunpoint and end up being guttural exchanges of threats.

In a complex world, the desire for simple answers that are the result of the use of superior force  is potentially dangerous. For it translates into a desire for seductive forms of clarity and a susceptibility to the shallow symbol. The contempt for engaging in dialogue, exploring shaded modes of resolution, staying in intermediate zones of accommodation and negotiation, being comfortable with the idea of give-and-take makes all problems seem intractable. The recent episode involving criminal wrongdoings by Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail   is a case in point – the use of diplomatic means rather than futile sabre-rattling demonstrated the power of restraint and nuanced dialogue. In the real world, not all problems have  neat solutions, not all individuals have all the answers, not all words need to be backed up by actions and not all acts of strength translate into power. We navigate through issues using a combination of word, gesture, symbolic action, benign neglect, tolerance, the veiled threat and the occasional use of brute force. Scams  have come and gone in a flurry, and all debates have been about individuals.  Any attempt to bring about institutional change has been thwarted, any meaningful dialogue about bringing about deep and real change has been avoided.  The two ministers have gone, and what difference has it made to anything? Had their departure been an act of contrition, it would have meant something. Otherwise, it is just about two insignificant politicians being replaced by two others and life going on as usual.

Pas asked did Mahathir build his UMNO empire on counterfeit?

True leaders  has no personal stake in the game. There is of course the duty towards good governance, and national interest, but that fire which stokes Mathir’s instincts has become ash.  his Politics had be come  a human business, and human beings need the zeal inspired by ambition with the drudge of complacency, is an invitation to mistakes, errors of judgement, and indifference to consequence. . Only saints are content with moral purpose alone, and saints do not win elections. Mahathir wanted stymied Najib by jump-start ambitions of his son, the heir who is sometimes here, sometimes there, and often nowhere.  Najib was, in essence, given the responsibility of creating the conditions that would elect  Mukzis as the next prime minister. He did  not do his best. But a mentor cannot help a protégé beyond a very limited point. If you want the medal, you have to do the heavy lifting yourself., many regard  Mahathir was forced step down as the Petronas job his resignation completes the circle   a sign of waning political power although they also expect him to continue to play his favorite role of “backseat driver”.but najib is no  Apprentices unlike Abdullah  Mahathir has a problem: every Nixon needs a Henry Kissinger.  no do Najib has Khairy the birth of any new era requires a midwife with an exceptional grasp of the world order, the imagination to conduct negotiations with a tough enemy, and the blessed virtue of silence.his one prying finger has prised open all of mahathir’s sins. But is it a lynching?  This was is Najib ’s dilemma as well.unlike  Mahathir’s Malay dilemma.

Malaysiakini  reported  Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad  said that corruption in Malaysia is greater now than when he was in office. at a press conference at the Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur today after attending a forum ahead of the Umno assembly which begins on Wednesday,  his comment on . the issue as the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index ”Corruption depended heavily on the law and the punishment meted out. One of the most important factors to battle corruption is the expediting of the investigation process,” Dr Mahathir was reported as saying by news portal Malaysiakini.Mat Zain’s insistence that police could investigate Gani based on the contents of his statutory declaration (SD) without lodging a police report.Mat Zain drew attention to Sections 107 and 107A of the Criminal Procedure Code related to information given to the police and their powers to investigate. Tan Sri Abu Talib Othman said”I am saying … Read more

   Mahathir has been consumed by his own fiery tale former Umno president also said money politics was on the rise, as seen in the recent party elections. ”Although the voting format has been changed, but money politics is still alive and kicking,” Dr Mahathir said, declining to elaborate further.Instead, he said he had an idea on how to combat corruption within Umno and Malaysia.his obscene attempts at cover-up. But in all the indignation being rightly expressed, we do need to give pause and address one gnawing doubt. In our clamorous pursuit of justice for Malaysia , our strident demand for the severest punishment, in -expose  Mahathie’s own murky revenue model, do we have to turn into a mob to lynch him?  ”I have an idea and I will seek out a platform to explain and expand on the idea,” Dr Mahathir was quoted as saying by Malaysiakini.He also defended democracy in Malaysia, arguing that while it was not perfect, it was still better than having people take to the streets.”Malaysia’s democracy may not be perfect, but an imperfect democracy is still better than the people taking to the streets and killing one another.”

today’s   Mahathir ‘s hyperventilating atmosphere, it’s a dodgy question. But the red flag has to be raised if we also believe that summary executions was the hallmark of  Mahathir banana republic – an entity which has no time for the very values that we are fighting to safeguard. Don’t shoot the messenger. My bona fides on gender violations, i hope, are beyond suspicion. Having never worked for Mahathi who  have no urge to ‘protect the institution’. Never having partaken of his’ ‘sunny hospitality’ or shady deals, I have no motive in pleading  HIS’s case. Yes, I marvelled at THE MALAYSIAINSIDER  new enfant terrible rampaging across the mediascape, but, as an old-fashioned journalist, I was uncomfortable with stingfests passing off as investigative reporting.So there’s no whiff of bias in the point I want to make. Which, quite simply, is this: as media we too must follow the rules of engagement. We cannot shout down, heap opprobrium upon, and generally tear apart anyone who ventures merely to say that every accused party has the right to state his case, however untenable, and more important to be tried by constitutionally authorised avenues. We have been so apoplectically sanctimonious that even a panelist reading out an sms sent by  MAHATHIR  becomes an act of high treason, a grand betrayal of justice. Of course, we are outraged, but let’s not lose all sense of proportion.

The Member of Parliament for Titiwangsa, Datuk Johari Abdul Ghani Among Nine Umno MT Members Appointed “Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high Where knowledge is free Where the world has not been broken up into fragments By narrow domestic walls Where words come out from the depth of truth …Read more

MAHATHIR was adamant that Malaysia’s democracy was stable and capable of functioning as a social counterweight for all races and communities.

However, Dr Mahathir said Putrajaya should own up to its mistakes and work on improving itself to develop Malaysia.

“The essence of democracy is not to achieve victory, but to accept defeat,” he said in his speech at the Umno International Forum

Chasing my Malay language dreams forever

The Member of Parliament for Titiwangsa, Datuk Johari Abdul Ghani

Like most of us, I dream. My dream of my malay language  are vivid, rich in colour and detail. They fill in gaps in my workaday life we are so mesmerised by the difference that we become indifferent to  our Malay language  past, and now in the possibilities of our future. History might yet prove, using its special long hand, that differences pale before a common purpose.  deputy minister Datuk Dr J. Loga Bala Mohan  Never blame  our Malay language  for your whipping this inferiority complex  of   our Malay language we are all about exotica and become chauvinistically proud of our cultural heritage. Just like there is a saying that language is a mirror of culture  of a country in which the language is used.It is generally agreed that language and culture are closely related. Language can be viewed as a verbal expression of culture. It is used to maintain and convey culture and cultural ties. Language provides us with many of the categories we use for expression of our thoughts, so it is therefore natural to assume that our thinking is influenced by the language which we use. The values and customs in the country we grow up in shape the way in which we think to a certain extent. Datuk Dr J. Loga Bala Mohan should take firm action on the misuse of  our Malay language.According to Benjamin Lee Whorf and his theory of linguistic relativity, language shapes the way we think, and determines what we think about. He believed that depending on the language we speak we see the world differently. How do I love Malay language ? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of Being and ideal Grace. I love thee to the level of every day’s Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight. I love thee freely, as men strive for Right; I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise. I love with a passion put to use In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith. I love thee with a love I seemed to lose With my lost saints,—I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life!—and, if God choose, I shall but love  my Malay language forever “Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high Where knowledge is free Where the world has not been broken up into fragments By narrow domestic walls Where words come out from the depth of truth Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit Where the mind is led forward by thee Into ever-widening thought and action Into that heaven of freedom  my Malay language , let my country awake.” A new “crisis” broke out  in Parliament  the dark-skinned cannibal who is canibalising  the Malay language  threatening to spear  to death of  the Malay language  if I bring the Malay language issue in Parliamen  Korean also reflects many unique aspects of Korean cultures. Let’s examine some characteristics of Korean and observe how Korean culture is embedded in the language.,language always reflects many aspects of the culture The 14,000 character manifesto drafted by Chen Yuan in 1991, grasped “not only the gun, but the asset economy as well” . It appropriated companies, land and national resources and handed over business to professionals . This last was the critical ingredient for success. Thanks to Mao, we had Macaulay. The letter of invitation from Zhang Yannong, president of People’s Daily, said clearly: “Please be advised that the working language of the program is English and the participating journalist should be proficient in English”. Well said. All the Chinese delegates however were speaking in Mandarin and we had earphones interpreting what was being said. Conquering English is however the biggest challenge wthat China faces today and the ‘Chinese dream’ is all about learning the Queen’s English as the first step to rule the world. This was a ten-course dinner, the best one has had so far. The fare included some fish bladder, sautéed black fungus and ginseng soup in white fungus. Couldn’t wait to lay my hands on it. Alas, there was no spoon, fork or knife on the table. Only chopsticks. The rest of the table was pretty comfortable using the sticks as extended fingers, clicking away to glory. I asked for a fork and it took about ten people in intense confabulations to figure out what I wanted. Started eating about half an hour after all the guests were half way through. This was at a 5-star resort in Nanning, one of south China’s biggest cities. “Don’t know English”, was all that they could say. Same problem when I asked for a loo/ toilet/washroom in the middle of this conference where China had invited delegates from about 15 countries to explain to them the concept of the ‘Chinese dream’ Loga Bala Mohan warned some are sometimes tempted by the thought of strategic ludo. It is the responsibility of their political masters to ensure that the game does not escalate into snakes-and-ladders. Attempts by Opposition lawmakers to cite Federal Territories Deputy Minister Datuk Dr J. Loga Bala Mohan to the Rights and Privileges Committee were rejected by Dewan Rakyat. Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia rejected Lim Lip Eng’s (DAP-Segambut) motion to refer Dr J. Loga to the committee for allegedly misleading Parliament over the DBKL assessment issue. “After considering the feedback from the ministry and the views of both parties concerned, there are no grounds to show that there was intent or malice to mislead the Dewan,” he said when making the ruling under Standing Order 36(12) in Parliament on Tuesday He said that the issue was one of the delivery and interpretation of the statements by Dr J. Loga and Federal Territories Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Mansor last Thursday. Pandikar said that the reply given by the minister and his deputy merely stated that the assessment exercise would definitely go on but the exact amount would only be determined at the end of March after considering protest by stakeholders. “If an issue of public interest is raised in Dewan, please do not to politicise it,” he reminded lawmakers after making his ruling. Lim attempted to cite Dr J. Loga to the committee for alleging misleading the House by stating that the new DBKL assessment rate was deferred till end of March pending submission of protest by affected homeowners beginning Dec 17. Lim claimed this was in contradiction to a statement by Tengku Adnan who was reported to have said that the assessment would proceed this January. Earlier, both Dr J. Loga and Lim were given the opportunity to state their case before Dewan before announcing his ruling. The issue saw Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat lawmakers trading barbs with Teresa Kok (DAP-Seputeh) and Datuk Bung Moktar Radin (BN-Kinabatangan) calling on each other to be cited to the committee inst the dark-skinned cannibal threatening to cannibalise the Malay language  to death Regulating  through law has a downside because the adversarial, legal process we follow is pretty poor at establishing “guilt”.  DBKL are so busy lining the roads for VIPs and doing crowd control, that investigating individual crime is a low priority. Shoddy investigations often do not result in meeting the tests for enabling the   to encroach . This is especially so when public sympathy is not with  like   Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Mansor … Read more

Mariam Mokhtar one prying finger has prised open all of  IGP   Khalid ’s sins. No decent person can justify his  attack Mariam Mokhtar , even less his obscene attempts at cover-up. But in all the indignation being rightly expressed, we do need to give pause and address one gnawing doubt. In his clamorous pursuit of his glory he has violated her civil rights, our strident demand for the severest punishment for top cop . Today’s hyperventilating atmosphere, it’s a dodgy question. But the red flag has to be raised if we also believe that summaryexecutions s are the hallmark of  Mahathir;s era– an entity which has no time for the very values that we are fighting to safeguard.Don’t shoot the messenger. My bona fides on gender violations,  IGP   Khalid  no urge to ‘protect the institution’.marvelled at this new enfant terrible rampaging across the mediascape, but, as an old-fashioned journalist was uncomfortable with stingfests passing off  his remark on  Mariam Mokhtar 

Does Khalid suffer from an inferiority complex or was he under extreme pressure to explain Several instances of  harassment  recently reported by the media — some in retrospect, one immediate and alarming — gave readers fodder for genuine concern  IGP Khalid  Careful his the eyes and his mouth and behaviour: How to avoid crossing the red line .

Who would have realised that a well-meaning article ‘One Idealogy, Two Reactions’ about the need to be compassionate to Malaysians, regardless of their political leanings or social background, would have upset the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar?

IGP Khalid Ashburn  the Metropolitan Police in England refused to divulge the identity of the Malaysian woman who had been “freed”, but Khalid jumped the gun and blurted out her name before the English Police were ready to make this public.

GP Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar should refrain from threatening people who criticise him.

He has threatened Mariam Mokhtar with criminal prosecution, in particular sedition, for her post entitled ‘One ideology, two reactions’.

This is most unbecoming of Khalid. There is no need to resort to bullying people who criticise. He should also not abuse his position by issuing threats against them. As IGP he has no business to focus attacks on individuals who question him.

Being the IGP, he must be prepared to face criticism over the way in which he conducts himself and handles issues of interest to the public. If he cannot understand this, he should resign.

A reading of the article reflects a reasonable analysis of two situations somewhat similar factually but drawing different reactions by the police and the government. How is making that point even by the greatest stretch of the imagination seditious?

How is the calling upon Khalid and the Malaysian government to show compassion to all Malaysians and not merely a select few seditious?

This is again a classic example of how it is sedition laws can be abused and used to suppress criticism and dissent.
Women have sharper memory while men coordinate things better.

An Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi alumni has created the first ever map of neural circuitry inside a human brain which has confirms that women’s brains are designed for social skills and memory while men’s are for perception and co-ordination.

However, there is one field in which women beat men hollow – multitasking, finds the study that looks at brain connectivity.

A new brain connectivity study from Penn Medicine published on Monday has found striking differences in the neural wiring of men and women that’s lending credence to some commonly-held beliefs about their behaviour.

In one of the largest studies looking at the “connectomes” of the sexes, Ragini Verma, an associate professor in the department of radiology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania found greater neural connectivity from front to back and within one hemisphere in males, suggesting their brains are structured to facilitate connectivity between perception and coordinated action.

In contrast, in females, the wiring goes between the left and right hemispheres, suggesting that they facilitate communication between the analytical and intuition.

Ragini who completed her masters in mathematics and computer applications followed by a PhD in computer vision and mathematics from IIT Delhi says “These maps show us a stark difference – and complementarity – in the architecture of the human brain that helps provide a potential neural basis as to why men excel at certain tasks, and women at others”.

According to Verma, on average, men are more likely better at learning and performing a single task at hand, like cycling or navigating directions, whereas women have superior memory and social cognition skills, making them more equipped for multitasking and creating solutions that work for a group.

In the study, the researchers found that females displayed greater connectivity in the supratentorial region, which contains the cerebrum, the largest part of the brain, between the left and right hemispheres. Males, on the other hand, displayed greater connectivity within each hemisphere.

By contrast, the opposite prevailed in the cerebellum, the part of the brain that plays a major role in motor control, where males displayed greater inter-hemispheric connectivity and females displayed greater intra-hemispheric connectivity.

These connections likely give men an efficient system for coordinated action, where the cerebellum, which involves perception, and the front of the brain, which involves action, are bridged together, according to the authors.

The female connections likely facilitate integration of the analytic and sequential processing modes of the left hemisphere with the spatial, intuitive information processing modes of the right side.

The authors observed only a few gender differences in the connectivity in children younger than 13 years, but the differences were more pronounced in adolescents aged 14 to 17 years and young adults older than 17.

Past studies have shown sex differences in the brain, but the neural wiring connecting regions across the whole brain that have been tied to such cognitive skills has never been fully shown in a large population.

In the study, Verma and colleagues investigated the gender-specific differences in brain connectivity during the course of development in 949 individuals (521 females and 428 males) aged 8 to 22 years using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI).

DTI is water-based imaging technique that can trace and highlight the fibre pathways connecting the different regions of the brain, laying the foundation for a structural connectome or network of the whole brain.

The brain is a roadmap of neural pathways linking many networks that help us process information and react accordingly, with behaviour controlled by several of these sub-networks working in conjunction.

The findings were also consistent with a Penn behavior study, of which this imaging study was a subset of, that demonstrated pronounced sexual differences.

Females outperformed males on attention, word and face memory, and social cognition tests. Males performed better on spatial processing and sensorimotor speed. “It’s quite striking how complementary the brains of women and men really are. Detailed connectome maps of the brain will not only help us better understand the differences between how men and women think, but it will also give us more insight into the roots of neurological disorders, which are often sex related”.

Next steps are to quantify how an individual’s neural connections are different from the population; identify which neural connections are gender specific and common in both and to see if findings from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies fall in line with the connectome data.

 drawings, sparking debate on freedom of expression.

An Indian cartoonist has been jailed for his drawings highlighting government corruption.

Aseem Trivedi has been charged with sedition for his cartoons that “insulted” the Indian government.

His supporters say the decision is evidence of political leaders’ growing intolerance of criticism and freedom of expression.

A few years ago MF Husain painted Bharat Mata in a way, it was objected by a section of society. He apologised, yet numerous cases were filed against him in different cities by several groups.

Though a celebrity painter, Husain didn’t say much about creative freedom or tradition of nude drawings in India. He was fiercely opposed by Muslims also, who opposed him in newspapers, on the streets and elsewhere too.

Intolerance plays at many levels in India.

Trivedi had been arrested on charges of sedition for drawings to satirise corruption in Indian politics [EPA]

An Indian cartoonist detained on sedition charges for drawings that satirise corruption in Indian politics has been released on bail, according to media reports.Supporters cheered and waved flags as Aseem Trivedi, a freelance cartoonist and anti-corruption campaigner, walked out of Mumbai’s Arthur Road Jail on Wednesday after a court ruled there was no need to hold him in custody. The arrest of a cartoonist on sedition charges had rekindled a national debate on freedom of speech, weeks after a clampdown on Twitter in the world’s largest democracy. Trivedi, 25, had originally refused to seek bail, demanding the charges be dropped, but accepted the Mumbai High Court’s bail grant of Rs5,000 ($90) after the local government promised to review the charges against him. Trivedi was arrested on Sunday, after a private complaint was filed in a Mumbai court by a young lawyer who charged that the pictures mocked national symbols. If found guilty, the satirist could face up to three years in prison. Continued crusade Upon release, Trivedi said that that he would continue to his crusade through caricatures portraying the truth in the interest of social and ethical justice for the masses as well as the classes. “This battle against sedition and censorship will continue till the time 124A Section is not eliminated from our Constitution. This battle was not confined till my release. It was for the Right of Freedom of Speech, which is not being allowed to exercise across the country,” Trivedi said. Trivedi became an instant cause celebre among free-speech and anti-corruption activists who complain India’s corruption-plagued government is increasingly intolerant of criticism. Just last month, Manmohan Singh, India’s prime minister, temporarily blocked access to a number of Twitter accounts, including several spoof accounts imitating his. Trivedi’s arrest has also sparked a mounting domestic and international backlash against the government, accused by critics of using colonial era laws to crush dissent. “Politicians must learn to be tolerant. This is not a dictatorship,” Markandey Katju, a former supreme court justice who now heads the Press Council of India, told CNN-IBN television. Anti-corruption campaign Taken aback by the vehement protests, RR Patel, home minister of Maharashtra state, said the government would review Trivedi’s case and the charge. Trivedi, a freelance cartoonist, was one of two winners of the 2012 Courage in Editorial Cartooning Award by the US-based Cartoonists Rights Network International. His cartoons, lampooning widespread corruption among Indian politicians, were displayed at a Mumbai protest in December by the anti-corruption crusader, Anna Hazare. The Mumbai-based lawyer’s complaint to police cited one of those drawings that showed the four lions that form India’s national symbol replaced by four wolves and the national slogan “truth shall prevail” replaced by “corruption shall prevail”. Ambika Soni, India’s information minister, stressed that the constitution guaranteed freedom of expression but “also lays downs that we as Indian citizens should respect all national symbols”. “Our government is not for censorship; it is for self-regulation at every step,” she said. Troubling precedents Trivedi’s arrest came five months after a university professor was arrested in West Bengal for forwarding an email cartoon that caricatured Mamata Banerjee, the state’s chief minister. Last month, a farmer in West Bengal was arrested and branded a Maoist sympathiser after questioning Banerjee on her farm policy at a public meeting. Both are out on bail and face lesser charges than sedition. Earlier this year, senior education officials resigned amid a parliamentary uproar over a textbook that included a six-decade-old cartoon criticising delays in crafting the constitution. Indian law defines sedition as an act that brings hatred or attempts to excite disaffection towards the government. The law dates from India’s colonial era when British rulers used it against Indian freedom fighters, including India’s independence leader Mohandas K Gandhi.

We now have the case of a cartoonist, Aseem Trivedi, who was arrested on charges of sedition. Later, he was freed on bail.

Trivedi, who has been part of the anti-corruption movement in India led by the self-styled Gandhian, Anna Hazare, drew a cartoon where he replaced the customary lions in the country’s national emblem with wolves, their teeth dripping with blood. The caption read, Long live corruption.

Another of Trivedi’s cartoons shows the Indian parliament (non-functioning in recent months) as a giant toilet bowl.

Browbeaten into submission

India’s best regarded political cartoonist, EP Unny, wrote in The Indian Express, a paper where he draws:

“We got both our cartoon art and the sedition law from Britain. The two carried on all these decades, including those 21 months of national emergency and censorship in the mid- (nineteen) seventies, without coming to televised blows. Now Aseem Trivedi, a 25-year old cartoonist has been sent to Mumbai jail for the seditious act of insulting the national symbol.”

“The Indian state seems to be more loyal and lawful than the queen. If you Google Steve Bell, The Guardian’s editorial cartoonist, you would think he is cooling his heels in Her Majesty’s prison.  Through some 30 years of merciless cartooning, he gleefully tore into most things British, symbolic and otherwise. Often reduced to bottom wear in Steve’s work, the Union Jack still flies high over Westminster Palace.

“Do four Asiatic lions standing back to back and tall need protection from a doodler, however activist or agitated?  There is bound to be inherent tension between any national symbol and the cartoon. One is meant to be revered and the other is nothing if not irreverent. The two should naturally clash as they do in mature democracies. Between spats they manage to live together – the symbol on its pedestal and the cartoonist at the drawing board.

“Back in 1976 in a Playboy interview when Jimmy Carter confessed to having looked on a lot of women with lust, a cartoonist put a denuded Statue of Liberty into the Presidential thought balloon.  Carter didn’t wage a war on the cartoonist; he worked his way to the Nobel Peace Prize”.

Sedition laws can be meaningless in a democracy, a governance based on the principle of free speech.

A democracy asks its citizens to speak their mind. Provided it does not cause riots or public harm.

But when citizens do that in India, they are warned and browbeaten into submission – even sent to jail.  India’s sedition law was written in 1860 to empower the British masters ruling India to punish “natives”.

Yes, when a writer or cartoonist says what pleases the ears of the powers that be, he is encouraged to write or draw more. However, when he comments in words or pictures something critical, heavens fall.

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the ugh-est of them all? That’s the question Aseem Trivedi seems to ask in his latest cartoon. Errr, Aseem? Yup. The same. This is what happens when an utterly nonsensical sedition case is filed against a cartoonist (high on anger, low on talent) — it’s called a oneday phenomenon. But here’s the upside to the controversy. The recent furor has drawn public attention to the growing antipathy against the ‘ugly politician’. It sure looks likes this is going to be the winter of our discontent.

First came the brutal attack on traffic cop Mohan Lal by a minister’s security personnel. Lal’s crime? He had dared to stop the minister’s convoy for jumping a red light. Then came news of some obscure cartoonist’s arrest in Mumbai. In both these seemingly unrelated cases, the strident howls of protest from the aam junta were similar in nature — they were more against the abuse of power by the high and mighty than in support of two wronged individuals . The big question in both cases — how long before we move on?

Mohan Lal may end up nursing a bloodied and bulbous eye all by himself, once the media pounces on an even grislier story. After all, Mohan Lal has not announced his intentions of joining a citizens’ movement or turning into an activist . There is nothing ‘sensational’ about Mohan Lal’s predicament. This beastly incident is just another tragic case of an earnest government servant paying a huge price for doing what he’s paid to — his duty. Congress minister Taj Moiuddin will carry on, unapologetic, unscathed and unmoved. His repeated chant that he doesn’t have eyes at the back of his head, will also be filed away indifferently and soon forgotten.

But what happens from this moment on to young Aseem Trivedi will be far more interesting to monitor. Here’s a likely scenario: as of now, Aseem is the newest darling of the media. He has been completely co-opted by those crying hoarse against an archaic law. So far, it reads like a meaty story. Aseem, with disheveled hair and wearing the mandatory black kurta, lends himself perfectly to the darkness of the moment , as he plays to the gallery, spewing contempt and talking of freedom of expression. He is also producing cartoons on command as apt photo-ops . That is, when he isn’t posing for shutter bugs, hugging well-known people like Dr Binayak Sen. Aseem’s minders may have taken over his image building, going by how swiftly he undertook an expeditious damage control exercise when the Dalit heat was about to get to him.

Once out of jail, what did our cartoonist friend do — he rushed to Buddh Vihar to pay his respects to Babasaheb Ambedkar, adding he had the ‘greatest respect” for the Dalit leader and the Constitution . He also grabbed a quick lunch at Mayank (India Against Corruption) Gandhi’s office, before addressing a packed press conference.

What does the future hold for disgruntled young people like Aseem when they are suddenly propelled into the limelight and converted into overnight martyrs? What happens when an Aseem becomes a pivot, a symbol, even a hero? Does collective anger find the outlet it seeks? Or does the initial emotional outpouring get dissipated , leading to absolutely nothing but a few dramatic media clips? Political parties are quick to swoop down on people like Aseem.

Any person who can grab headlines is worth courting . In such a cynical scenario, someone like him is a catch.

So far, he has presented himself as a somewhat naïve but reasonably sensitized young man, using crude cartoons to express his disillusionment . His life has undergone a 360-degrees change after the misplaced sedition charge. He is now owned by the media. He is hot property. He will make it to international publications and global channels. For a short while at least, Aseem will gobble up publicity and share front page space with movie stars and sports heroes. Someone smart will ask him to walk the ramp— for a cause, of course. He will be wooed to play showstopper during the unending Fashion Weeks. Reality shows will chase him. He may enter the Big Boss house. Get a publishing deal. His career as a budding cartoonist may end abruptly. But so what? For another 15 minutes, or perhaps 15 days, Aseem will be hailed as a bona fide celebrity , a star. The ravenous media monster isn’t done with him yet. And yes,he also drawscartoons for aliving.

Was that caricature really denigrating or obscene? Anyway.

You can see photos about Muslims objecting to his caricature on my earlier post. Husain couldn’t come back to India, settled outside the country and died. He must have been bitter but didn’t say anything critical of the country or the government.

Now, we have a cartoonist, Aseem Trivedi. In one of his cartoon, he shows ‘Gang rape of Mother India‘. These are the exact words which he mentioned in his cartoon. Mother India is shown wearing a tricolour Sari.

Politician is telling her, ‘Hurry up’, while bureaucrat [spelt wrongly by him] is also holding her hand while another creature [corruption] stands ready.He drew Parliament in such a way that it resembles a big toilet [commode] and as far as our national symbol ‘Ashoka pillar’ is concerned, he turned the lions into wolves.

Contrary to Husain’s case. Aseem Trivedi is not apologetic. He won’t say sorry. The cartoonist who was not too well known, feels that he has every right to draw it. He is quite clear about it. He has conviction, no doubt. Perhaps, good that he has taken a stand.

But the difference in this case is that political parties that right-wing Hindutva groups hounded Husain, but support him for these cartoons. They are not too engaging. But from Shiv Sena to MNS and even BJP, none of these parties feel that such cartoons, particularly, about Bharat Mata, and those tampering our national symbols are distasteful.

The law is clear about it. Yet, he has support from a wide spectrum. Is freedom of expression absolute. No! It comes with responsibility. You can’t abuse your neighbour, leave alone tampering with national emblem.

However, Aseem is right in the sense that slapping a case of sedition was unjust. Yes, these colonial laws are used selectively, often misused, and they must be reviewed. He is courageous in a sense. The fact is that he did what he thought was his right.

Sorry, I don’t like these cartoons & its my personal thought. They are not seditious but they do hurt my sensibilities. I won’t post them on this site. If you intend to see them, search elsewhere. But this is a watershed case.

The strong support the activist-cartoonist has got, political parties standing for his right to expression and state government forced to review its decision–all these are things that would be unthinkable in the past.

I won’t say double standards in the case of Maqbool Fida Housain vis-a-vis Aseem Trivedi. Press Council supports him for his right to draw the cartoon. He gets award for courageous cartoons.

No case registered against him under cyber laws or IT Act, which any other ordinary person may be booked for, if he/she simply forwards objectionable material.

So there is no question of patriotism test conducted on Trivedi. I am a fool yaar, I shouldn’t even think of it. What a silly comparison. Why would someone ever question his ‘deshbhakti’!

Or perhaps, there is a new dawn in India. Boundaries of creative freedom are getting stretched and people are imbibing the Western values as far as seeing and understanding art is concerned. Let’s hope, the standards remain the same in future as well.

It was just for the record

 The Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said Mariam should watch out or the police would go after her.The article had irked Khalid when she questioned the Government’s discrimination over the return of two Malaysian-born communists – ashes of the deceased Malayan Communist Party leader Chin Peng from Bangkok, Thailand, and Siti Aishah Abdul Wahab, who had been influenced by Marxism and was allegedly held as a “slave” in London for 30 years.“In the original article, I had to keep within the word limit.  I was unable to mention the alleged special treatment accorded to the Malaysian terrorists responsible for the Bali and Jakarta bombings – Noordin Mat Top and Dr Azahari Hussein,” said Mariam in the email.She said it was shameful that Khalid had no understanding of the laws of sedition, nor of the role of the government. That scenario has changed dramatically now. With social media, women’s voices have taken centre stage. Democratic, driven by numbers and the energies of youth, social media’s developed platforms – blogs, like where an intern recounts being sexually harassed allegedly bythe country’s top cop  , journals, social networking sites – where women have their say and … Read more

Abdul Gani Patail guilty of dishonest practices, as bribery; lacking integrity; crooked :debased in character; depraved; perverted; wicked; evil:The biggest irony of our times is that people perceive all politicians as ‘thieves’ but at the same time they are also forced to elect them to Parliament again and again to rule the country.  And, these ‘thieves’ pick up people similar to them from all walks of life and every profession to build a nexus they need to loot the country. Do we have any choice?As expected, Majority in the corporate sector is also neck deep in corruption. The entire ruling class is corrupt. This class includes not only politicians but also those in media, social activists, academia, intellectuals, corporates and all privileged ones who always prefer to be on the right side of the power. Scams have taken place in every regime. All parties take help of corrupt, criminals,  and communalism. We have also seen how they ganged up to defeat an `independent lokpal’. Politicians know that the issue of corruption will not affect their electoral prospects, hence they continue to be brazenly corrupt. Mahathir  is putting all the blame of corruption under on the Team  Najib and Rosmah, making space for Team Mahathir   to take over before the next G14 elections. It’s corruption and misrule. But at the same time public memory is short. Hence, Mahathir is trying to offset his losses through resigning. It is being projected as a `tough stand’ taken by Najib against corruption.Veteran newsman A Kadir Jasin believes that there is more than meets the eye with regard to Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s resignation as Petronas adviser.Veteran newsman A Kadir Jasin believes that there is more to what meets the eye with regard to Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s resignation as Petronas adviser.

Unconvinced by the former premier’s excuse that he was relinquishing his post due to health reasons, Kadir (left) believes that the octogenarian may be sharpening his blade.

“I will take the doctors’ advice at face value. They treated him and should know better.

“But what I know is, he does not have to climb 88 floors to get to his office at Petronas and the job was not nine to five, seven days a week. He can even advise without being there.

“But he often said he was a Malaysian adviser. Unlike a British adviser during the colonial days, being a Malaysian adviser, he has no power and his advice was not always accepted,” he added in his blog.

The former New Straits Times Group editor-in- chief put forth his own diagnosis as to what prompted Mahathir’s exit.

“He is better off letting go of the Petronas job than hanging on to it and risk suffering the heartache of being spurned by ‘The Power’ that now controls the national oil company.

“Everybody knows that the single most influential person in Petronas is board member Omar Ong and everybody knows that Mahathir objected to his appointment,” he added.

May have ‘fired first salvo’

Breaking away from the government may be good for Mahathir, said Kadir, adding that the former premier can now say and write things about the government without having to look over his shoulders.

“He is not beholden to the government anymore,” he pointed out.

“Although he was quoted as saying that he was leaving the national oil corporation ‘to concentrate on his health’, we all know that his good health and clarity of thought (at 88) are the products of the many good battles that he fought.

“So leaving Petronas might very well accord him more time and energy to fight other battles.

“He might have already fired the first salvo at the government when he said there was corruption during his time as prime minister but it isworse now,” he added.

Kadir also commented on Mahathir’s remark about his hope that Petronas will continue to play its role in nurturing young entrepreneurs.

“That bit about continuing to nurture young entrepreneurs is loaded because he was recently embroiled in a tussle of sorts with Petronas management over allegations that the national oil company was not doing enough to help bumiputera businessmen,” he added.

readmore Datuk Seri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah with Abdul Ghani Patail as bedfellow Judiciary will be sizzling hot

Attorney General Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail met journalists yesterday to discuss two issues – a rape case involving a teenage bride, and the decision by the Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC) not to appeal former transport minister Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik’s acquittal in the cheating case.

But the top government lawyer did not address the pink elephant in the room – the allegations of corruption against him by retired police investigator Datuk Mat Zain Ibrahim.

The former Kuala Lumpur Criminal Investigations Department chief had been going at it for the past year with hammer and tongs against Gani – writing letters to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and finally making a statutory declaration (SD) of all his allegations.Mat Zain’s insistence that police could investigate Gani based on the contents of his statutory declaration (SD) without lodging a police report.Mat Zain drew attention to Sections 107 and 107A of the Criminal Procedure Code related to information given to the police and their powers to investigate. Tan Sri Abu Talib Othman said”I am saying … Read more

Politicians cannot settle dispute,  and this is not a question of striking some compromise between rival litigants in the title suits over the piece of land on which the Babri mosque stood till December 6, 1992 and which many Hindus believe to be the birth place of Lord Ram. Nor is it a question of some religious or political leaders deciding to bury the hatchet.

The basic character of PAS and DAP is to divide people and establish its rule, Change  say is the only constant in life. Some minor, some life altering while some leave a lingering aftertaste  ’ PAS dirty tricks department’   want to sling mud at anyone sullying it  anyone can dare to pull down a man who has the stature of statue? Saheb was using all his power – and the police force – to treat everyone’s beti like his own possession. But instead of bowing to him and giving him a Bharat Ratna, all those jealous, frightened rivals are levelling dirty-dirty insinuations against this upright man.

the  blatant endorsements and the modern form of poison-pen postings. Bloggers have fallen into the background as people use their social capital to reinforce their positions.Another tool of choice has been WhatsApp, with its instantaneous messaging, and similar groups that allow the quick spread of information, many of which is unverified and emotive.These tools are compounded by Instagram and Twitter, making the election process an “instant” affair. This new medium of sharing ideas has had an impact, adding intensity to the campaign process and moving the mode of discussion from more reflective person-to-person exchanges to a shallower dynamic.While there have also been a record number of fora, including intensive debates over issues such as Pakatan Rakyat and hudud, the messaging has also taken on a new form.

The attacks have become almost UMNO-like in their viciousness in the all-out smear campaigns. In this type of messaging, principles of integrity and decency have gone by the wayside to be replaced by tactics that do not reflect well on PAS. The enemy appears to have come from within as comrades-in-struggle are now focused on bringing down each other.

While the sense of fairness and honesty has provoked a counter-reaction, with those under attack receiving support and sympathy, the results will be a test of how these principles are actually practiced in the party.

Attack messaging has been accompanied by a different pattern of mobilisation. As a national party, PAS is expanding and with it factionalism is deepening. There has always been cliques, but now there are camps, organised with long “menus” of preferred candidates.

Now more than ever, in many cases in violation of the party’s code of conduct, we see personal attacks. Unfortunately, many of the attacks are blatant lies, from the issue of Shiite to derogatory remarks on character.

The solution to a dispute like this one lies in more robust democracy, and building that is a protracted business. The response of the mainstream political parties and of the  non Muslim community should be designed to strengthen the process of building democracy, not to disrupt it.VICTIMIZATION, INTIMIDATION MALAYS BEGINS provocative actions and statements in the past one year, from offering to fight a “crusade” against Muslims dangerous Hindu warning the Malays “anything can happen”. Kamalanathan said the Hindus has the right to question religious ceremony the slaughter of cows …he just don’t respect the religion of the majority race,” ‘Kamalanathansaid you muslims don’t kurang ajar (step … Read more Suara Keadilan Malaysia blogged DAP M Manogaran’s Hindu Defence Brigade and Kamalanathan’s Saffron terrorism against Islam’

The rights of Malaysian’s minorities are best protected by reinforcing democracy, not by patronage of one political party or another. Leaders of the Muslim community should refuse to accept the profuse, insistent offers of patronage that assorted political parties and leaders are guaranteed to extend in the wake of the court verdict on the disputed site.The Ayodhya movement that polarised the polity on communal lines, caused riots and killed people was a political movement, not one of faith, although it manipulated faith to subserve its political goal. Through the immediate, tangible goal of demolishing the mosque, the movement pursued the larger objective of the Sangh Parivar, of redefining Indian nationhood as Hindutva.

Demolishing the mosque, overriding the protection offered by different organs of the constitutional Republic, would demonstrate to the Muslim community where exactly it stood vis-à-vis the relations of power that govern society and its conduct. And this goal was achieved when a mob brought the mosque down.

That marked a rupture in the evolution of India’s polity. The state failed to live up to the constitutional promise to uphold law and order, as well as the rights of the minority. If uppity minorities still refused to appreciate the import of what this meant for how they should conduct themselves in Hindu majority India, they would be taught further lessons, such as the Gujarat pogrom of 2002 and the attack on Christians in Kandhamal, Orissa, in 2007 and 2008.

The state, led by one member of the Parivar, would look the other way, if not actually aid the attackers organised as other Parivar members. This is the politics of the Sangh Parivar. This politics continues today, although it has virtually left behind the specific locus of Ayodhya. The project of creating a democratic polity that guarantees and protects the rights of religious minorities to live with dignity is alien to the Sangh Parivar’s majoritarian vision of privileging Hindus over others in political rights.
It would be a mistake to think that, just because one member of the Parivar, the BJP, has received a setback at the moment, the Sangh Parivar has lost its teeth or that the threat posed by its majoritarian ideology to the project of building constitutional democracy has abated.

India’s mainstream political parties, including the Congress, have been opportunistically communal on various occasions, and this has helped the Sangh Parivar’s cause.

This is the context in which the Muslim leadership has to respond to the Ayodhya verdict. No issue of faith is at stake for Muslims at Ayodhya. The issue at stake is political. And asserting a property right is a small detail in the appropriate political project of building democracy.

Moving to build a mosque at the site or to remove the Ram idols being worshipped in a makeshift temple there would hurt the process of building democracy. It would give the Parivar an opportunity to whip up religious passions again. So, even if the high court decides in favour of the Sunni Waqf Board, it should not proceed in this direction.

Should the Muslims graciously hand over the land for a Ram temple to be built? The loser’s magnanimity has few takers; rather, it is seen as a sign of weakness. Winning a case is a minor victory in a larger political battle where the democratic ground lost by the demolition of the mosque is yet to be regained. And a show of weakness, too, would be a setback for the democratic project. a

When Indian democracy evolves to a level of maturity where the security of no religious identity depends on a physical edifice, then would be the time to give priority to faith over politics in deciding what to build at the Ayodhya site. Till then, the status quo will do quite nicely.

Coming from communal forces themselves, masquerading as secularists, this is the cruelest fraud being played So what if another piece of stone was destroyed, since it belonged to the pre-1400 era. It baffles me that this area was not designated a historical site and cordoned off instead of being sold to a developer for profit.What little we have remaining has been destroyed for POLITICAL gain Hiding behind veils is a sign of cowardice.. What will be left for our children and future generations?PAS, you’re every bit a disgrace as your nemesis, the federal government. Thanks to your combined destructive efforts, JUST LIKE  that RSS and BJP were fanning saffron terror? Why is there even an iota of doubt that these bodies – or atleast a part of them – do indeed fan saffron terrorism? Why look further than the 2 decades old Babri Masjid demolition and the 10 year old Godhra riots to understand the truth  Shame on heartless PAS leaders. Shame on the federal government. There is no excuse for such a heinous crime.PAS has blamed the BN-run federal government for approving the Bujang Valley developer, which acknowledged that the remains of an 8th century temple was demolished to make way for a housing project.Did PAS raise the issue that this is an archaeological site with the federal government? Yes? No?PAS is merely trying to pass the buck. When you sell land to a developer, you must know that the latter is not going to turn the land into an open-air museum. Unless he has specifically stated that he will do so when applying for the grant to the particular land, and you or the appropriate authorities have granted permission for him to establish such an institution.

With the assumed but acceptable or confirmed knowledge that the particular developer intends to develop the land into a residential or mixed-use development, you should grant the title to the land with the provision, which ought to be stated in writing, that he would keep any ancient structures and any related artefacts found on the land intact.

One is very much inclined to suspect that PAS was not in the least bothered about the structures and any other antiquated remains found on the land, as those objects are related not to Islam but to the Hindu-Buddhist civilisation.

Who demolished the Babri Masjid in 1992? Which BJP and Sangh parivar leaders were present in Ayodhya on that eventful day? Who amongst them gave fiery speeches to the frenzied Hindu mob? What was the content of those speeches? Weren’t there exhortations made to the “followers” (whose followers were they?) to go ahead and raze the historical monument down? Who has been accused in the demolition? In fact, who has built a political strategy around Ayodhya and gained the most from it?

Coming to Godhra, which state government ordered its cops to “let the Hindus vent” for three days? (Those of us who lived in Ahmedabad in those days know exactly what I am talking about. Incidentally, even today, the talk in Ahmedabad is about how Modi showed the Muslims their place). Who was the PM who raised the question of “raj dharma” but did nothing beyond asking the question? Which CM and PM candidate is called “Hindu Hriday Samrat” and for what reasons? (Why is he not simply called Gujarat Hriday Samrat if he is indeed taking care of “6 crore Gujaratis”? Which state government has politicized even the state judiciary so much that the Supreme Court routinely shifts hearings outside of the state? Which state has specialized in “encounter killings”, which is nothing but a euphemism for the knocking off of Muslims?

C’mon, lets get real here. The BJP and RSS have fought a pitched battle for decades against the Muslims (they may call it “protecting Hindu culture” or “Hindutva” or whatever). Its strange they don’t openly own up to their acts of aggression, for if it is their belief that Hindus support such acts, then they should publicize them and win the elections right? In fact, have BJP workers forgotten that their party has its beginnings in the All India Hindu Mahasabha founded in 1915, which clearly demanded a “Hindu Rashtra”, and which opposed “the Congress commitment to non-violence, civil disobedience, secularism and its efforts to integrate Muslims and hold dialogue with the separatist Muslim League party, which the Mahasabha deemed to be appeasement.” (source: Wikipedia).

The fact is that saffron terrorism is a reality, just as much as Islamic terrorism is. Even though they are described in such language, the terms “Islamic” and “saffron” are not meant to include all Muslims or all Hindus in their definition. These are neologisms that loosely describe who the chief patrons of these acts of terrorism are. Just like Islamic terrorism, defined in this way, is spawned by certain Islamic organizations, so also is saffron terrorism spawned by the Hindu organizations. For the BJP to split hairs and accuse Shinde of calling all Hindusterrorists is like a comedy show. The party should focus on the core issue he raised. And correct its ways.

But honeslty, can we expect the BJP and RSS to mend their ways? That will mean them having to jettison their absolutely core philosophy. It’s akin to asking ”Twentieth century Kuala Lumpur Indian temple, eighth century Bujang Valley Indian temple–all same rubbish, no use, just tear down, uproot.

Twenty years ago this day, the Babri Masjid was brought down. Riots broke out around the country. Mumbai was severely affected. Muslims attacked Hindus in retaliation for the demolition. Weeks later, in January 1993, Shiv Sena mobs targeted Muslims across the city in the most concentrated acts of communal violence seen in Mumbai.

Two months later, on March 12, 1993, the “Muslim” underworld of Dawood Ibrahim took revenge yet again – not on Hindus alone but all Mumbaikars. Serial blasts ripped through the city – from the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) in South Mumbai to the Sea Rock Hotel in the suburbs.

The Srikrishna Commission, set up to inquire into the riots, had this to say about those four fateful months between December 1992 and March 1993:

One common link between the riots of December 1992 and January 1993 and the bomb blasts of March 12, 1993 appears to be that the former (riots) appears to have been a causative factor for the latter. There does appear to be a cause and effect relationship between the two riots and the serial bomb blasts.

Another common link is that some of the accused who were involved in substantive riot-related offense were also accused in the serial bomb blasts case, though their number is only three or four.

Tiger Memon, the key figure in the serial bomb blasts case and his family had suffered extensively during the riots and therefore can be said to have had deep rooted motive for revenge. It would appear that one of his trusted accomplices, Javed Dawood Tailor, alias Javed Chikna, had also suffered a bullet injury during the riots and therefore he also had a motive for revenge.

Twenty years later, the country has moved on. Young Muslims want to put the past behind them. But will politicians let them? Only two letters separate use from abuse, so there will always be a quack preening himself in the garb of a doctor. But when a person held in high esteem dilutes the trust reposed in him, it affects the collective reputation of the brotherhood.

Justice M S Liberhan did not need 17 years and a thousand pages to tell us what has been public knowledge since December 6, 1992. The Babri mosque was not torn down in the dark of night. It was brought down slowly, stone by stone, in Sunday sunlight, before hundreds of journalists, to the cheers of countless thousands of kar sewaks in and around Ayodhya. The mosque was not dynamited in a minute; it was demolished by crowbar and shovel.

Of course, senior leaders of the BJP and RSS were present, for they were kar sewaks as well. Atal Bihari Vajpayee was not there, but he was in nearby Lucknow, albeit a reluctant guest, but unable to refuse the invitation to the party. Newspapers the next day, and magazines the next weekend, published their pictures, some of which became iconic. We did not need a wait of 17 years to learn that Vinay Katiyar was responsible: he has been claiming responsibility for over 6,000 days.

Sharad Pawar, then defence minister, showed a filmed record of December 6 to an invited group at the home of a party MP a few days later. The Liberhan Commission could have completed half its report by taking a look at that film. The media was equally comprehensive in its coverage of the brutal riots that followed: The Sri Krishna report has done far greater justice to the truth in its findings on the Maharashtra riots, so much so that there is all-party collusion on its non-implementation. There was only one question trapped in doubt: What was prime minister P V Narasimha Rao doing while Babri was destroyed on the longest day of the last two decades? Why was home minister S B Chavan, father of the present Maharashtra chief minister, immobile, inscrutable and stolid?

Shock raced through Delhi when word filtered through that an assault had begun in Ayodhya. Phone calls began to pour into the prime minister’s residence in the hope that he would use the authority of the state to uphold the rule of law and fulfil a political and moral obligation. There was a monstrous response from the prime minister’s personal secretary. The PM was either unavailable or, worse, asleep. It was a lie. Rao’s inaction and Chavan’s collaboration were deliberate.

Liberhan protects Rao with an equally conscious fudge, shuffling the blame on to unspecified intelligence agencies. Everyone knew what was going on, IB officers better than most. Rao called a Cabinet meeting only in the evening, when there was nothing left to be saved — not even reputation. By this time, fires of hatred were lighting up the dusk of Mumbai and dozens of cities across the nation. An elaborate programme of blame, reward and punishment was put into place. Those (including bureaucrats and journalists) who acquiesced in Rao’s charade were rewarded; Congress Muslims got a bonus for silence. Rao remained in power till 1996, but he neither ruled nor lived in peace.

The words of this column will make no difference. A government can reduce the past to rubble as easily as an Opposition party can erase a centuries-old mosque. My apologies for a rare detour into the personal, but this is a rare moment. I was a minor part of the Rao government and resigned on the night of December 6 since the stone wall constructed around the prime minister’s house had become impervious to anything except sycophancy. Words demand a different kind of loyalty, and one was relieved to return to the world of words.

Suara Keadilan Malaysia blogged Dr Raja Ahmad Iskandar to DAP’s Taliban Karpal Singh Poor PR or deliberate? Short term politics prevails over National Interest?

Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin  has slammed Chinese companies who discriminated against Malays in terms of pay and recruitment, adding that none of these companies have a Malay chief executive.This still occurred, he said, while Malay dominated government ministries and departments were appointing more non Malays in senior positions, such as secretary general.The Umno Youth chief based his claims on two studies by Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and Universiti Malaya. Wealth has declined faster for  Malays than for Chinese on the national average.

Why is Malaysia still a country divided by race and religion after all these years  most important DAP leader being racist, Kit Siang  For a long time now, politicians    have given speeches, and the world has gone about its business, without too much connection between the two. Till  Lim Kit Siang  came along. Now every speech he makes is covered    THE MALAYSIAN INSIDER lingering detail by almost d talking heads dissect his words with the certitude that only they are capable of use of the speech as his central political instrument is by itself hardly radical, but in the context of the times, and the general disenchantment with the political class, the fact that he gets heard with such seriousness is quite remarkable.. Lim Kit Siang wanting to be popular for the sake of being popular then people can easily see through the leaders’ smokescreen and be exposed as fake, or a con-artist. Not so much a leader, but a buffoon trying too hard to be popular. His rise to the top position in a party full of leaders, anointed and self-styled, on the back of the ‘DAP story’ generates interest but it is the sense of strength and clarity that he exudes that makes him particularly attractive to the middle class Chinese that is longing for some direction. In his speeches, they hear echoes of everything that they miss today- optimism, a sense of purpose, and a desire to take on responsibility, rather than side-step it.-sms such as ‘the burqa of secularism’, which are a form of a sly wink exchanged between PAS and his audience. The proposition he offers is a combination of his track record in  DAP, which most people have heard about but not experienced, and an aura of decisiveness that is rooted chauvinist in a subtext of  Chinese . He keeps the   element’chauvinist’-Chinese sotto voce while the governance story occupies centre stage. Remarkably, he makes few concrete promises, nor he does he offer sops Chinese  are meant buy into Lim Kit Siang   as an idea first; he is more than the sum total of promises he makes. This is in stark contrast to UMNO, whose campaign hinges on ‘schemes’, complex reward systems that seek to garner votes in an act of transparent reciprocity. PAS  sees itself as an aggregation of its welfarist schemes and cannot offer any other compelling reason why it could be voted for.

Zaid Ibrahim. Ideas and thoughts for here

“I have known Kit Siang for a very long time, inside and outside of Parliament.I know him as a brave MP. I have never heard him attacking Islam or belittling Malay leaders in Parliament, never,” said the former UMNO minister, who was sacked for protesting the use of the Internal Security Act in 2008.

“He always talks about the issue of good governance, corruption and others. In the past, if Mahathir (Mohamad) has succeeded in convincing Malays that Kit Siang is against the rights of Malays, that is a lie! “How can he fight against the rights stipulated in the federal constitution? He can’t,” he stressed, reminding the crowd that Malays still dominate the country with a majority population of 62 percent.He said: “According to the studies, although they met the grade in terms of merits and qualifications, they do not get a fair deal.

“There are cases where they get lower salaries compared with other workers with similar abilities and qualifications.

“What is even sadder is that we constantly see advertisements for work that clearly state their preference for one community and marginalise others.”

Lim Kit Siang  political Strategy have tried to carve up Chinese  support bashing the Malays

The government should appoint a minister whose responsibility is solely to advance Malay under the Bumiputera Economic Empowerment (BEE) policy,

.

This is a sly way of preempting appointing minister who really work for  Malay agenda unlike FEDERAL TERRITORIES MINISTER DATUK SERI TENGKU ADNAN  Typical of one who is experienced in shady transactions, judicial fixing and skullduggery.Sandiwara sahaja! Shadow boxing, wayang kulit, political make-believe, clowning, staged shows. Behind it all, power-crazy, self-interest, vested interest, drowned in Mt.Kinabalu-high ego !Sandiwara sahaja! Shadow boxing, wayang kulit, political make-believe, clowning, staged shows. Behind it all, power-crazy, self-interest, vested interest, drowned in Mt.Kinabalu-high as his age Party over at Federal Territories Ministry given that in any crisis, good, clear and honest communication has a far better chance of convincing people than taking Najib to  the Road to Disaster The election of 2018  will be about the future of the stomach.  Since we live in overriding virtually every other attribute, this week’s sordid scandal … Read more  NAJIB TO REPLACE TENGKU ADNAN MANSOR, PARTY OVER AT FEDERAL TERRITORIES MINISTRY

Umno Youth has urged the government to formulate concrete measures to safeguard Malay welfare

Former Supreme Council member Saifuddin Abdullah said frankly during an exclusive interview with Sin Chew Daily that party president cum prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak was under tremendous pressure from within the party during the Umno elections, resulting in him declaring to make the bumiputra agenda a key national agenda on September 14 in a bid to win broader support from Umno delegates.

If the bumiputra empowerment policy was only a contingency plan put forward during the party elections, then Najib would possibly reactivate the New Economic Model as soon as this pressure is removed.

Najib must lead

I personally feel that Najib’s presidential address, the Umno assembly atmosphere and the base tone would determine whether Umno would eventually move towards moderation or more fundamentalism (further clinging onto its traditional support base).

GE13 is now seven months behind us, and over the past seven months, the political climate in this country has been gloomy, with racist remarks making occasional resurgence every now and then and transformation program laid aside. In its stead, bumi empowerment has taken the driver seat as if to herald the return of racist politics.

Having suffered the electoral setback, how will Najib instruct party leaders and members to take heed of the lackluster response from urban, young and Chinese voters? Will they call for more assistance for the Malays?

If the focus of Umno assembly debates falls on how to reward the supporters of BN, then there will be no way for the New Economic Model running on meritocracy model to ever have a possible comeback again.It is time PAS stood up to truth dont make Islam a political football? Prior to attempting any genuine critique of UMNO, it becomes imperative to substantiate the same with either empirical facts or hard evidence. Even so, in tune with the liberal tenets of our Constitution, UMNO does not object to genuine criticism of its …Read more  HYPOCRITE PAS DIVERSION STOP BLAMING UMNO DON’T CONFUSE YOUR COMPASSION WITH YOUR WEAKNESS

Umno Secretary-General Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor,  think Several Kedah Umno grassroots members registered their unhappiness that  Menteri Besar Mukhriz Mahathir was not included in the supreme council.

The centrality of the speech also creates its own problems for Najib. Given the  Malaysia insider interest in  Tengku Adnan  speech, there is pressure on Najib to perform.   Tengku Adnan’s new act every time  . This is not easy for Najib, for unlike the standard stump speech used by politicians otherwise,Tengku Adnan needs to find something new to say every time without actually saying anything very new. This also results in frequent overreaches- in his quest to make topical and specific connections with the audience and to generate a greater ‘punch’ in one’s speeches, truth is often a casualty, as we have seen in the last few weeks. The disregard for factual accuracy sits comfortably with his larger myth-making attempt but raises troubling questions about anyone who aspires to be the leader of the country. The question is not about an abstract fidelity to the truth but about whether the person in question has the ability to see two sides of an issue, and to take on board some inconvenient aspects of reality that need to be accounted for. To be so sure of one’s own position so as to make up facts that help tell a good story, is a troubling trait. In a speech, truth can be bent in any shape that is convenient, but real life is rarely so accommodating.

UMNO YOUTH ASSEMBLY The government should appoint a minister whose responsibility is solely to advance bumiputeras under the Bumiputera Economic Empowerment (BEE) policy, Umno Youth deputy chief Khairul Azwan Harun said.

“Umno Youth proposes that the prime minister appoint a minister especially for planning, implementing and monitoring policies and programmes under the BEE…,” he said.

The minister must have the required expertise and political will, he said, and not “someone who has a big title but lacks determination and the Malay spirit”.

Khairul Azwan ( left ) also urged that effectiveness of programmes under the BEE be measured through key performance indexes, which are also presented to Umno for monitoring.

He said this while proposing a motion to thank Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin for his policy speech at the Youth general assembly at the Putra World Trade Centre today.

While he supported Khairy’s call for the Youth movement to become more progressive, Khairul Azwan stressed that this is not an endorsement of liberal politics.

“A progressive leader is pragmatic leader, but a progressive leader is not someone who is liberal or who practices pluralism.

“What we want is progressive politics which can address the challenges of the time and present solutions in a practical manner,” he said.

Citing the Quran, he said, progressiveness a la Umno Youth is consistent with Islam, as it is about doing good and ensuring the welfare of Malays are cared for.

Echoing Umno deputy president Muhyiddin Yassin’s ( right ) speech to the wings last night, Khairul Azwan said “pluralism, liberalism and extremist groups” threaten national stability and as such should not be viewed lightly.

Proof of this, he said, are attacks on the judiciary, syariah courts and the royal institution.

As such, he moved that the Umno Youth support Muhyiddin’s proposal to include in the constitution that only followers of Sunni teachings are considered muslim.

“Umno Youth proposes that Islam in the federal constitution refers to the religion adhered to by Sunnis,” he said.

Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin hinted that this may be his last term in leading the wing.

In his policy speech titled “Preparing For Tomorrow” at the Umno Youth wing assembly today, Khairy, who is in his second term as Youth chief said that he is preparing the wing to be able to groom leaders with the same sense of progressiveness, vision and direction through a new caderisation programme.

In a press conference after delivering his address, Khairy said four years before heading into the next general election is not long, thus it is vital for him to ensure that the Youth wing will continue being progressive and relevant.

“I won’t be here forever. I’m already 37. So we need to start now to get the ones in their 20s, the young professionals, the young ulama, the graduates and undergraduates and so on. This is the start of a new generation.

“This is the start of continuity in Umno and although it’s a bit sad for me, it’s the beginning of the next leadership for Pemuda Umno,” said Khairy.

Asked if this will be his last term, Khairy said:”Well it certainly sounds like it.”

Earlier in his speech, Khairy outlined several new approaches, including on key performance indicators (KPI), leadership appointment and how to get young professionals involved in Umno.

He explained that such training is vital in attracting the younger generation into the party as well as to lay the foundation for the future of Umno Youth.

Khairy also revealed that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak, who is also Umno President had agreed to the Youth wing’s proposal to establish the Captain Hussein Leadership Academy (AKHI), in recognition of Umno’s first Youth Chief.

He said the caderisation programme is to train Umno Youth leaders so that they will continue being contemporary, progressive and relevant.

“AKHI will be the cadre centre for new leaders, ensuring that the next generation has the caliber to lead both Umno Youth and Umno in times to come.

“I am only one man and if I leave, Pemuda might be left without a clear sense of direction and the new chief might have a different leadership style.

“But if I can leave a caderisation programme, God willing those that come after me will have the vision and leadership style,” said Khairy.

When asked whether or not he has chosen a successor, Khairy said it’s still too soon.

In his speech, Khairy stressed that being progressive does not mean one forgets their fundamental struggles.

“To believe in a different and modern approach does not mean that Umno Youth is losing its identity or forgetting the Malay cause,” he said.

Khairy, who is also the Youth and Sports Minister said Umno Youth must take a moderate approach and appeal to every segment of society, instead of being a “pressure group” as in the past.

Khairy also appealed to the top leadership for an immediate post-mortem of the recently concluded party polls in October.

He said while the new party election system is a manifestation of transformation, improvements are necessary to ensure results of the selection is regarded as fair and accepted with no room for contention.

“Let there not be a situation where candidate A wins at the division, but candidate B is announced as the winner at the headquarters,” he said receiving loud cheers from some 989 Youth delegates at the Dewan Merdeka in Putra World Trade Centre.

Here are two areas where we will remain on opposing sides of the argument unless Najib get rid of Tengku Adnan  not in a drift, Najib in danger of When the tail seeks to wag the dog There is a saying in Tamil: The sins of a father will also befall on the son.  Like Mahathir have killed the future of many aspiring politicians during his autocratic rule. Now his own son is reaping the consequences of that sin. This is Karma!Tengku Adnan had killed aspiring and qualified young UMNO leaders

 Snaky Minister Tengku Adnan  can   be trusted to trade diatribes on which one has effectively addressed issues of urgent concern to voters: development, inflation, corruption and governance. Each one will also have to spell out what differentiates it from the other. Two battle-lines are in sight. One will pit ‘inclusive development’ — or Mahathir model — against ‘growth at all costs’ for cronies Competence matters less than loyalty. It pays to be in politics or to get on with the political masters. Or is it because these people are indispensable ? Or is it a reflection of the shortage of talent in our country today?Malaysian voters threatened to beat  Tengku Adnan   with shoes after he did not to heed voters demand  Minister Tengku Adnan  will remain divisive and moribund.  He said all the talk about transformation remains a figment of Najib’s imagination, with due respects to his hardworking  snaky Minister Tengku Adnan

Tengku Adnan Mansor has a bunch of issues confronting him How the power of one became  the poison, for FT Minister Ensure that the tail wags the dog: that appears to be the mantra of  Tengku Adnan  to promote its national-level interests  where it has a negligible presence. The strategy is to woo (with financial largesse) or intimidate  the deployment of central investigation agencies  against  rival  UMNO division leaders. Let them be at each other’s throats on their home turf, runs the argument, but make sure that  .

A group of lawyers will be taking Kuala Lumpur City Hall to court to compel it to open up its books and show the public how taxpayers’ money had been spent in the past 10 years.

This is in relation to the local authority’s move to raise assessment fees for all property owners in the city.

“Kuala Lumpur City Hall has stirred a hornet’s nest by seeking to raise assessment fees, now they are being taken to court,” said Chang Kim Loong, the National House Buyers Association honorary secretary.

“If they are asking us to pay more, they should show us how they have been spending the money all this while.”

Chang said the case will be through a declaratory order to be filed at the Kuala Lumpur High Court next month. City Hall, its advisory board and the mayor will be named as respondents.

Chang said that so far, they have 80 ratepayers that will be part of this public interest litigation, with the help of nine lawyers.

Before the end of this year, the legal team will also challenge the revision notices sent out to the 507,800 ratepayers in Kuala Lumpur with new valuation amounts when it comes into effect on the last day of the year.

Chang is also calling for more lawyers and forensic accountants to join the battle against City Hall, saying that with more legal help on the team, they could organise more groups of ratepayers in the legal challenge.

City Hall had started sending out notices to all property owners in Kuala Lumpur informing them of the proposed hike in the property valuation.

The notices, however, stated that if there are objections to the proposed hike, property owners must register their objections with City Hall before December 17.

The public had been outraged by what they complained was an exorbitant increase in assessment fees.

City Hall’s defense was that it had not increased the fees in 21 years.

Local government legal expert Derek Fernandez had previously said that City Hall was not allowed to spend any money unless budgeted for.

As such, he added that it was essential that they open their budget to public scrutiny in order to justify the need for additional funds derived from rate revenue and how it is to be used to provide better services.

Fernandez had also said that failure to do this would make it difficult for the local authority to justify the need to increase rate revenue by revaluation of the annual rental to derive more assessment income

There were red faces in front of the monitors broadcasting Najib’s speech when the Umno president was misunderstood as having said “big penis” in the Iban language Tian Chua

“That’s very bad! Utai besai means big penis,” one East Malaysian remarked.

Najib  said this when thanking Sabah and Sarawak voters for voting BN in 47 parliamentary constituencies

Even as scores of Bangladeshi citizens continue to pour  into Malaysia everyday, both through legal channels and illegally,  Tian Chua and his gangs are keeping their Penis crossed on developments in sex life during the polls a month later.”The fast deteriorating law and order situation across the border is a matter of grave concern to us. We fear that if things get completely out of hand in Pakatan,guy men speak when accused of sexual misconduct always makes for funny reading. The reason is simple: Most men think it’s their birthright to sexually prey on same sex. They are brought up to believe that’s what all men, if they are real men, do. It has been said in a million ways, in books, songs, popular movies and yes, repeatedly in advertising, the most persuasive foreplay of our times, that when a woman says No to Tien Chia , But another guy  actually means is Yes.

Not only men say this. Women do too. That there’s no woman ever unwilling for sex; all they need is a little persuasion. Perhaps Tian Chua was just being her usual witty self. But men, I suspect, have largely taken the advice to heart. Different men of course look at persuasion differently. So while someone may clobber a woman on the head with a baseball bat and drag her to his bedroom, another will drop a 4 carat solitaire in a champagne flute. It’s just a difference of technique, not intent

There’s no real difference between the gay who sneaks flunitrazepam into his date’s Bloody Mary when she goes for a quick loo break and the one who clumsily gropes an unwilling woman in an empty lift in the hope it may lead to something more exciting. It rarely does. A grope remains a grope. A groper, just a groper. He never quite graduates beyond that. But the most tragic figure of all is the pigtailed Romeo in the corner office flaunting his authority all day long and then, when the sun drops, tries to lunge at his juniors. That’s not seduction. It’s crass power play.

Batu MP Tian Chua  our flamboyant editor has done what he is accused of, his crime would list in the last and most despicable category. But   his intent here is not to tar him. There are enough people around to do it. My concern is that at some stage an actual trial must begin. It must assess the evidence coherently and come to a just conclusion. Currently we are putting the cart before the horse. While the truth may look obvious, facts have a curious habit of flipping themselves. So till the case is heard and justice dispensed with, it may be a good idea to stop playing a lynching mob.

Discussing and dissecting every salacious detail of the alleged crime also rarely helps the victim. She has been brave enough to come out and seek justice. Probity now demands she gets it quickly.DAP   or PAS  trying to muscle in.

MP Tian Chua has shot penis. His journalistic career, always overhung with too many unanswered questions about his ethics, is as good as over. So is his life, as he has known it till now. Charges of rape, even when unproved, are not easy to live with. They are neither forgiven nor forgotten easily and even in jail, such convicts are often welcomed with a sound thrashing and flick knives.

Much of this, I believe, could have been averted if    MP Tian Chua had simply apologized to tall his  victims and offered himself for trial. His flamboyant letter, where he claimed to be lacerated by guilt and offered to recuse himself from office for six months was so offensive in its tone that it enraged even those who were ready to give him some room for doubt. The florid language and cheeky tenor of the letter set everyone off.  pink prose from a rape accused is the last thing one expects. But no, he didn’t stop at that. He kept bombarding the hapless victim with more such messages. Without the slightest hint of remorse.

The aftermath of an election in UMNO what do you see in  Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Mansor eyes?,which heralds the mischievous politician within him.  It is like seeing a new person into the mirror. His eyes changes moods often, and we have to then spend time unravelling and understanding what his moods portend for the coming day. The one who peeps into his  eyes gives me an indication of what  really been thinking, how I really feel about something beyond l mask , of the dialogue he  had with his soul.  a group of people vociferously discussing plus and minus points  It seemed from the talk o who had shown himself to be better at taking decisionss until the question of being decisive came up:

We have all heard that eyes are the windows to the soul; they indicate the real you. Have you tried looking deep into your own eyes? Most people are scared of doing so, even as self-help gurus encourage us to do so. For, our eyes can sometimes reveal truths that we are not prepared to face. You could fool the whole world and even yourself into believing whatever your mind wants you to believe, but the accusing look, the hurt in your eyes will pull you up sharply. As beautifully put by a poet trying to explain the connection between eyes and the soul, “Eyes mirror our souls… actually they don’t. They have been carved out of our souls.”

Just like the body, the eyes have a language of their own. Here are some interesting tips from body language experts, which will help you unravel the language of the eyes. Too much blinking can indicate discomfort, while someone who hardly blinks may be trying to hide something. Looking directly at you? Interested in you and the conversation. Too prolonged a gaze? Threatening and could be obsessive. Looking away frequently? Distracted and hiding something. Looking closely at the eyes of a political interest can help you figure out

The changed political landscape in the country following UMNO  elections to clutch at a random straw in the wind is, however, a manifestation of despair, not of hope – of a defeat foretold, not of prescience.That is indeed the most prominent contour. Mahathir camp has received a drubbing. It was unable to play  the pro-incumbency card in in  UMNO  packing for its failure on several fronts Mahathir’s riposte on these charges simply didn’t wash. One reason was the pervasive impression that Najib was weak, indecisive, unable and unwilling to face multiple challenges with the requisite amount of determination and political skill. It meekly succumbed to what it speciously called ‘coalition compulsions’ to explain, if not justify, scam after humongous scam. election speeches also revealed its disconnect with the electorate’s concerns and aspirations. ’s rich-vs-poor and urban-vs-rural rhetoric does not appear to have elicited much fervour.Today’s voters, especially the younger ones, are more receptive to a discourse that harps on education and jobs, and less to one that is redolent with populism. Indeed, what Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Mansor  appears to have not quite grasped is the marked, if steady, erosion of identity politics, especially – though not exclusively – in urban areas.
Identity politics has doubtless not entirely run out of steam in Federal Territories  still casts a long shadow. But in several other parts of the country, political mobilisation strictly on caste lines is paying lower and lower dividends. That holds true of mobilisation along secular-communal lines as well. Harping on the sense of victimhood of Malays is not good enough to gain votes any more even if the reasons for it – a sense of deprivation, even oppression – are genuine.

There always remains much more to be done that speaks for itself.There is much to note about  Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Mansor political temperament, hardly ever ruffled, and   abusive to his opponents. If the politics is the art taking people along and yet to be able to enforce the greater part of one’s own conviction, then this is it.Territories Minister Tengku Adnan  ever restore  Kuala Lumpur City   glory? Can Kuala Lumpur  ever become the most aspirational city to live in Malaysia? Can it be a role model for other Malaysian  cities? Can it be a place where merit scores over corruption, and citizens are safe? There are no easy answers. Not as long as  Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Mansor Party at Federal Territories Ministry considered the hotbed of corruption, given that in any crisis, good, clear and honest communication has a far better chance of convincing people than taking Najib to  the Road to Disaster . effect will remain hotly contested. We will know the truth only in 2018.

 Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Mansor’s biggest scams have originated here. Second, the most horrific cases of crimes against women have come from here. Today, few talk about Kuala Lumpur as glorious and great. Many talk about as  unsafe.Here is a self disciplined and proud community that has the appetite for enterprise at par with any in the world. Along with that comes a rich nexus of culture that keeps human bonds intact despite immense wealth.   Najib gets his rating because the small as well as the large entrepreneur feels that he is more adept in minding his  as well as the other’s business. Opinions may differ.

It isn`t fair to Klites — 99.9% of them did not tarnish the city.  Nong Chik  and Tengku Adnan   ruined the metro`s reputation. a chance to redeem itself,NAJIB MUST REPLACE TENGKU ADNAN MANSOR coming G14 election the country will watch. The way  votes will decide if it deserves the mantle of a great city. the ‘silent’ interim day is the one with most deals, maneuverings, interparty spying, and surely money exchange It isn`t an easy election, UMNO must be the first choice, with a dynamic  Najib seeking a third term. Despite misconduct allegations, the fact remains  Najib has overseen a transformation of   Kuala Lumpur City `s infrastructure, almost unmatched in any other  city.and individual professionals and take rentals as per customer and usage. In terms of real estate costs, perhaps they can dig a bit more horizontally at major underground railway stations. Waiting for trains shall no longer be a pain. Well if they had thought that much, it would have been a winning slogan for the young first time voters.

With   taxpayer  money  they live with  free, and often luxurious, housing and all the other perks that they enjoy.  But it seems that even after death – or at least some of them – can continue to cost us almost as much as they did when they were alive. Whose interest does it serve for the government of the day – whichever it might be – to shell out huge sums of public money – your money and my money – to bring out such commemorative ads?  However, misfortune remains  fromTengku Adnan  who faces a loss of confidence amongst Federal Territories voters .Najib should appoint new ministerwon`t just clean up  KULAA LUMPURi, it can clean up politics around the nation.If all this happens,  city will redeem itself and restore its honour. The city has been ridiculed and shamed far too much. In deciding   For the 13 Federal Territory seats, assembly seats, it has the chance to show the nation why it deserves to be  Malaysia`s capital. . Go get your honour back.

Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan, who is also the Umno secretary-general, and mother of all snake But admit it: whatever  the strategic thinking for Tengku Adnan. Tengku Adnan has the future mapped out. Operating procedure to bring down Big Boss Najib: sound resigned if you have to, but don’t resign. Deflect and wait. Do a costume change, don’t alter the script.all to make sure that the real “villain” in UMNO The election of 2018  will be about the future of the stomach.  Since we live in overriding virtually every other attribute, this week’s sordid scandal involving an alarmingly enough has appeared about the lurid details of the case, so let’s skip the muck, and focus on what could have been done to salvage a pretty hopeless situation.  fledgling political hopeful, made a mistake it would be loath to recognize, let alone admit?  seeking to achieve the unprecedented — break through glass and steel ceilings, and in one dramatic leap soar from street anger to responsible office?  Tengku Adnan brash  image, representative of  UMNO visual signature of a party that wants to   insists the rate hike will take effect on January 1, for the middle-class, sort out the capital’s silly drainage, and, if there is any time left over, eliminate corruption from the intricate layers of government that claw and crush citizens from all sides? Does a symbol make much difference to electoral fortunes? UMNO has won Titiwangsa in G13 election on a humble Najib’s  promise to voters to hear them. But  voters might be more successful in creating a rebellion than in benefiting from this achievement. In any case,  Tengku Adnan Mansor deserves congratulations for making Titiwangsa a fascinating electoral case-study . A flat equation has acquired the tension of a fragile triangle.: no election is a mirror of the past. Previous statistics can be misleading  Najib has indicated what he will do: continue the distributive largesse from the national exchequer.

Federal Territories Umno delegate Mohd Shafie Abdullah said that in the Kuala Lumpur constituencies, it  shown that the under   Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Mansor strategy failed to garner Chinese  and Indian support. Poor Najib. He doesn’t seem to have realised the great advantage that cultivating a beard gives to male politicians: no one can call them bare-faced liars. why the Chinese abandon MCA? It was MCA that supported Barisan. The Chinese lost confidence in MCA first because they did not play an effective role for the Chinese. So abandoning MCA does not means they are ungrateful to the country. Are they traitors? Are they not paying taxes. What about those who might be paying tax but highly corrupted? They are worse than those who support another party.

Najib  speech reflected how the party as a whole appears to be clutching at straws as it tries to figure out the way forward as the prime mover of Barisan Nasional (BN) in post-GE13 Malaysia.”No matter what we did, no matter how much we spent, no matter how many programmes we held, the aid that we gave out, all of that following were Lost  except P119  Titiwangsa at the end of the day  was useless,” said Federal Territories Umno delegate Mohd Shafie Abdullah said  Instead of returning the BN and Umno to power in the Kuala Lumpur constituencies , gave the thumbs up to the Pakatan Rakyat.Despite the billions spent in special allocations .

The Member of Parliament for Titiwangsa, Datuk Johari Abdul Ghani

  UMNO   candidates won  P119  Titiwangsa by defeating PAS opponent,to day this Taxidriver chanced to overhear a group of people vociferously discussing plus and minus points  It seemed from the talk o who had shown himself to be better at taking decisionss until the question of being decisive came up:    who had shown himself to be better at taking decisions  had shown himself to be better at taking decisions so the voter in  P119  Titiwangsa not based on race or religionOne of the top qualities needed  was decisiveness: everyone wants a guy who can take decisions, and act on them, not someone who’s likely to sit on  Minister’s chair doing heads-or-tails with a coin deciding which way to go while the  Kuala Lumpur City  goes to hell in a handbasket for lack of any other decided destination. Yup, it was generally agreed that what Federal Territories needed was a decision-maker

There always remains much more to be done that speaks for itself.There is much to note about  Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Mansor political temperament, hardly ever ruffled, and   abusive to his opponents. If the politics is the art taking people along and yet to be able to enforce the greater part of one’s own conviction, then this is it.Territories Minister Tengku Adnan  ever restore  Kuala Lumpur City   glory? Can Kuala Lumpur  ever become the most aspirational city to live in Malaysia? Can it be a role model for other Malaysian  cities? Can it be a place where merit scores over corruption, and citizens are safe? There are no easy answers. Not as long as  Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Mansor Party at Federal Territories Ministry considered the hotbed of corruption, given that in any crisis, good, clear and honest communication has a far better chance of convincing people than taking Najib to  the Road to Disaster . effect will remain hotly contested. We will know the truth only in 2018.

 Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Mansor’s biggest scams have originated here. Second, the most horrific cases of crimes against women have come from here. Today, few talk about Kuala Lumpur as glorious and great. Many talk about as  unsafe.Here is a self disciplined and proud community that has the appetite for enterprise at par with any in the world. Along with that comes a rich nexus of culture that keeps human bonds intact despite immense wealth.   Najib gets his rating because the small as well as the large entrepreneur feels that he is more adept in minding his  as well as the other’s business. Opinions may differ.

It isn`t fair to Klites — 99.9% of them did not tarnish the city.  Nong Chik  and Tengku Adnan   ruined the metro`s reputation. a chance to redeem itself,NAJIB MUST REPLACE TENGKU ADNAN MANSOR coming G14 election the country will watch. The way  votes will decide if it deserves the mantle of a great city. the ‘silent’ interim day is the one with most deals, maneuverings, interparty spying, and surely money exchange It isn`t an easy election, UMNO must be the first choice, with a dynamic  Najib seeking a third term. Despite misconduct allegations, the fact remains  Najib has overseen a transformation of   Kuala Lumpur City `s infrastructure, almost unmatched in any other  city.and individual professionals and take rentals as per customer and usage. In terms of real estate costs, perhaps they can dig a bit more horizontally at major underground railway stations. Waiting for trains shall no longer be a pain. Well if they had thought that much, it would have been a winning slogan for the young first time voters.

His frustration was shared by other grassroots delegates from other states who spoke at the assembly.

Despite Umno increasing its share of parliamentary seats in the last election, the party does not seem to be boasting.

Instead, the party’s grassroots appear to be obsessed about the ruling Barisan Nasional’s poor performance in the election.

Unlike Pakatan Rakyat, where the three parties demand an equal standing, Umno has always prided itself as the prime mover of the BN. It sets the tone and narrative of all of the coalition’s parties.

In his speech Umno president and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak spent much time talking about how Umno did better than any of three Pakatan parties in terms of parliamentary seats and the popular vote.

He also paid tribute to Sabah and Sarawak Barisan Nasional, which together gave BN 47 seats.

Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan said Najib wanted to stress to grass-roots leaders that the party was still strong and that the country was still on the right track.

“He spent time telling members that Malaysia has received many accolades from international bodies and foreign leaders like (United States President) Barack Obama.

“So the country is not as bad as how the ‘other side’ says it is,” said Abdul Rahman, of Kota Belud Umno, to The Malaysian Insider.

Yet that appeared to be cold comfort for the party’s grassroots who spent a considerable amount of time expressing how they felt the non-Malay community abandoned Umno and BN, despite all the coalition “has done for them”.

More than one delegate used the Malay adage “mencurah air ke daun keladi” (giving aid to those who don’t need it) when describing the BN’s contributions to certain non-Bumiputera communities.

For instance, Kedah delegate Datuk Tajul Urus Mat Zain complained of how all the aid announced and given by Najib to vernacular schools was not repaid in votes.

The same thing was said by Federal Territories Umno delegate Mohd Shafie Abdullah, who told of how Umno worked exceptionally hard to promote unity through the 1Malaysia concept only to see non-Malays dismiss it.

But if they complained of not getting the amount of support that was commensurate with the amount of aid that was being spent, delegates have latched on to the idea of spending more time and money on those who did support them.

In this, they seemed to be taking their cue from their president, who said that empowering the Muslim and non-Muslim Bumiputera communities was at the top of his priorities.

But this is not just simple “I-scratch-your-back” patronage politics. An underlining thread behind all the pro-Bumiputera talk is how the BN could possibly return to dominance through demographics.

Najib alluded to this in his speech when he said 67.9% of the country are now classified as Bumiputera – both Muslim and non-Muslim.

“As a majority community, the agenda to empower the Malay and Bumiputera economy should be a national agenda. Although this will not sideline the needs of other groups.”

As said by Mohd Shafie from the Federal Territories Umno:

“We should bet on those who will His frustration was shared by other grassroots delegates from other states who spoke at the assembly.

Despite Umno increasing its share of parliamentary seats in the last election, the party does not seem to be boasting.

Instead, the party’s grassroots appear to be obsessed about the ruling Barisan Nasional’s poor performance in the election.

Unlike Pakatan Rakyat, where the three parties demand an equal standing, Umno has always prided itself as the prime mover of the BN. It sets the tone and narrative of all of the coalition’s parties.

In his speech Umno president and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak spent much time talking about how Umno did better than any of three Pakatan parties in terms of parliamentary seats and the popular vote.

He also paid tribute to Sabah and Sarawak Barisan Nasional, which together gave BN 47 seats.

Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan said Najib wanted to stress to grass-roots leaders that the party was still strong and that the country was still on the right track.

“He spent time telling members that Malaysia has received many accolades from international bodies and foreign leaders like (United States President) Barack Obama.

“So the country is not as bad as how the ‘other side’ says it is,” said Abdul Rahman, of Kota Belud Umno, to The Malaysian Insider.

Yet that appeared to be cold comfort for the party’s grassroots who spent a considerable amount of time expressing how they felt the non-Malay community abandoned Umno and BN, despite all the coalition “has done for them”.

More than one delegate used the Malay adage “mencurah air ke daun keladi” (giving aid to those who don’t need it) when describing the BN’s contributions to certain non-Bumiputera communities.

For instance, Kedah delegate Datuk Tajul Urus Mat Zain complained of how all the aid announced and given by Najib to vernacular schools was not repaid in votes.

The same thing was said by Federal Territories Umno delegate Mohd Shafie Abdullah, who told of how Umno worked exceptionally hard to promote unity through the 1Malaysia concept only to see non-Malays dismiss it.

But if they complained of not getting the amount of support that was commensurate with the amount of aid that was being spent, delegates have latched on to the idea of spending more time and money on those who did support them.

In this, they seemed to be taking their cue from their president, who said that empowering the Muslim and non-Muslim Bumiputera communities was at the top of his priorities.

But this is not just simple “I-scratch-your-back” patronage politics. An underlining thread behind all the pro-Bumiputera talk is how the BN could possibly return to dominance through demographics.

Najib alluded to this in his speech when he said 67.9% of the country are now classified as Bumiputera – both Muslim and non-Muslim.

“As a majority community, the agenda to empower the Malay and Bumiputera economy should be a national agenda. Although this will not sideline the needs of other groups.”

As said by Mohd Shafie from the Federal Territories Umno:

“We should bet on those who will surely give us support, the Malays and Bumiputera. We should only help those who know how to appreciate the help we give them.”

“It is only those who are obsessed with PAS who will dream that the party would lead an Islamist government ruling Malaysia.”

“The rest know that PAS is only a thorn in the flesh for the Malays, the kind that would form pus, decay and end the history of Malaysia as a Malay land.”Datuk Johari Abdul Ghani said is an imperative for implementing Vision Umno, , won 88 seats just by itself  PAS  with 20seat now you PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang tell me who is sinking BEWARE OF OVERVALUING THE SYMBOLIC PAS RELATION WITH DAP IN THE CONTEXT OF MALAY AND NON MALAY VOTES THERE NO LOVE BETWEEN THEM Washout of DAP its part of a PAS strategy…that PAS is responsible for making politics inside Malaysia  so murky. Well, it’s a trend that it has started. If it gets to rule Parliament ever, the need for spite and retribution will drive the UMNO to pay back in the same coin. So forget PAS good governance; what we are in for is a period of great turmoil in the future. This is why . The problem goes much beyond 2013… Pas a refuge fringe party that they used Islam as their political tool

Do we want fear or hope in these eyes!

Johare  advice to P119 Titiwangsa voters Here are a few pointers to help you remain true to your core…
• Keep in mind long-term goals. Plan for work, life as well as for a meaningful life beyond work.
• Do not try to please everyone; you never can!
• Be your own critic; do not be affected by others’ praise or ridicule.
• Recognise your self-worth. Focus on what or who gives meaning to your life!
• Never trust blindly — neither your circumstances, nor people around you!
• Create and indulge in meaningful activity away from work.
• Invest in good personal friends.

It is time PAS stood up to truth dont make Islam a political football?

The way forward it seems rests on Umno redefining inclusiveness from helping every Malaysian, to helping only those who only support Umno. and Bumiputera. We should only help those who know how to appreciate the help we give them.”PAS was built on the counterfeit PAS will Vanish will be the history of Malay land  UMNO, which has had the longest innings in power since independence, leads the pack. But others none dares cross their path. What “software” of democracy can they possibly bring to the table? Precious little.But these permanently feuding  Taliban PAS ulama … Read more MAHATHIR SAID PAS WAS BUILT ON THE COUNTERFEIT PAS WILL VANISH WILL BE THE HISTORY OF MALAY LAND