Ravana had also tried to kill the monkey king Bali, who was performing prayer to the Sun God at a seashore.
Bali was so powerful, that he carried Ravana with his arms and took him back to Kishkindhya, where he asked Ravana what he wanted. .It was Ravana, a Brahmin, who performed the rites of a purohit, when Lord Rama constructed the Rama Sethu to lead his monkey brigade to attack Lanka. Ravana had acquired a boon from Lord Brahma by beseeching that no god, demon, kinnar or gandharva could ever kill him. Ravana had acquired a boon from Lord Brahma by beseeching that no god, demon, kinnar or gandharva could ever kill him. He was granted this boon, little knowing that he did not seek the boon for protection from human beings. It was Rama, as a human, who ultimately slayed Ravana.
Rowena, a product of the bumi first, BTN racist policy and the beneficiary of the elites and cronies trying to defend the indefensible. Firstly, the majority is supposed to look after the minority who are normally suppressed and oppressed in many ways. The minority Sunni Group in Bahrain and Alawite Group in Syria persecute and or oppress the other majority religious group through the power of the gun and rule by their laws instead of through democratic means. As in Malaysia, we now have a minority govt which is trying suppress the majority (of all races & religion) who voted for change through the various govt institutions which is wrong and immoral. Tindak Malaysia has done an excellent job in educating Malaysians of their responsibility to volunteer in the election process and to ensure free and fair elections. What has Rowena or her Dad contributed to Malaysia except scandals of corruption and murder?The majority Malays in Malaysia are well protected by the Constitution and the Monarchy, which consists of the Malay sultans and Agong. Umno elites have created so many special privileges for the Malays just to enrich themselves and their cronies unfairly. Although all Malays are Muslims, Umno have broken the sacred Islamic rule which says that all men are equal. Not only has Umno, which is 100% Malay failed to treat the non-Malays fairly but the elites have enriched themselves so prohibitively that majority of the bumiputras are living below the poverty line. Rowena, my advice to the ordinary Malays is to beware of Malays like your father,
Baginda Razak and your mother, who owned companies involved in the 500 million Scorpene commission. Altantuya, your father’s ex-lover who came for her share of the commission was blown to pieces. They now have to be wary of you too.
what this woman is saying by asking the of Malays in the NGO is that all NGOs, voluntary organizations, should have majority of Malays to dominate other races, UMNOBARU style in BN She looks like a good candidate for UMNOBARU Wanita and she should table such a resolution in the forth coming UMNOBARU AGM. Once adopted,
she couldn’t see the real picture. The majority want electoral reforms and she is the minority. She is minority not because of her race but for being a reactionary. her family is a minority in UK and is she not wanting to be protected from the majority. think about it……brainless woman.. think about it…..
it becomes law as UMNOBARU resolutions are as good as legislation by Parliament. She really displaced her ignorance publicly in a public forum. How silly. Keeping her moth shut would have been good discretion.
Come on young woman, let’s cut out all the race stuff. You are just being irrational. Have that
murder suspect of a father of yours taught you to think along this line. Of course I have forgotten that your whole family is drowning in the ill gotten money which your father and mother have stolen from the people. You still want “protection” to steal more money? Rowena, you and your kind are part of the majority here and enjoying all the benefits at the expense of suppression, oppression, intimidation, degradation, humiliation and deprivation of opportunities of the minorities. Digest those few words….. Now God finally wake up, realise and pity the minorities and with divine power change you rowena and hence your posterity to be one of the minority, then go enjoy and endure all the above for decades, then your are only qualify or entitle to go yapping about minority and majority rights in the universal form.
Ravana’s empire spread over Balidweepa (today’s Bali), Malayadweep (Malaysia), Angadweepa, Varahdweepa, Shankhadweepa, Yavadweepa, Andhralaya and Kushadweepa Ravana had acquired a boon from Lord Brahma by beseeching that no god, demon, kinnar or gandharva could ever kill him.
He was granted this boon, little knowing that he did not seek the boon for protection from human beings. It was Rama, as a human, who ultimately slayed Ravana. He was granted this boon, little knowing that he did not seek the boon for protection from human beings. It was Rama, as a human, who ultimately slayed Ravana.
Ravana had also tried to kill the monkey king Bali, who was performing prayer to the Sun God at a seashore.
Bali was so powerful, that he carried Ravana with his arms and took him back to Kishkindhya, where he asked Ravana what he wanted. .It was Ravana, a Brahmin, who performed the rites of a purohit, when Lord Rama constructed the Rama Sethu to lead his monkey brigade to attack Lanka.
Ravana offered friendship and the two became friends. It was Bali, who while fighting with Sugriva, was slayed by Lord Rama. Though demon king Ravana is the prime antagonist character in the epic Ramayana, yet most of the people are not aware of his background, his conquests and his erudite knowledge. To put it in a nutshell, here are eleven big facts you should know about Ravana (of course, they are based on Hindu shastras and religious texts): Though demon king Ravana is the prime antagonist character in the epic Ramayana, yet most of the people are not aware of his background, his conquests and his erudite knowledge. To put it in a nutshell, here are eleven big facts you should know about Ravana (of course, they are based on Hindu shastras and religious texts): Though demon king Ravana is the prime antagonist character in the epic Ramayana, yet most of the people are not aware of his background, his conquests and his erudite knowledge. To put it in a nutshell, here are eleven big facts you should know about Ravana (of course, they are based on Hindu shastras and religious texts): Ravana’s empire spread over Balidweepa (today’s Bali), Malayadweep (Malaysia), Angadweepa, Varahdweepa, Shankhadweepa, Yavadweepa, Andhralaya and Kushadweepa. Eyebrows were raised at a forum today when political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda’s daughter sparred with Tindak Malaysia’s leader over race and electoral reform.
Knowing the psyche of typical desperate Umno Malay who had been ostracised or rather excommunicated from their mainstream community they often use another minority race (Chinese) as bogeyman, to win back support and ‘respect’ from the Umno public. In this case, Rowena, daughter of the trial-freed suspect of a most foul murder of Altantuya, probably and deliberately is making use of the Bar Council forum and the NGO, Tindak Malaysia, using race as bait, to announce her presence to the Malaysian public. For so many years since the murder trial – after she had grown up, there was no news of her or any involvements with any public issues and associations. Least of all, nothing was known of her stand on such controversial issues like racial politics. So why did she suddenly pop in her first public appearance with a rather naïve and controversial statement? 1/2.
Then, the widely used Indian excuses of “compulsions of a coalition”, and “anti-incumbency” are always there. There are some truthful confessions in this. Literally it means that since we all ganged up to run this land, we have every right to fight for our piece of the underhand deal. Secondly, since we ruled so long, you must accept that power corrupts, and even if the act is not absolute, we are decent enough to accept that we had a nice time running the show, breaking a rule here and there, with a rather archaic Supreme Court coming in the way. So you know how it piles up, and it is quite natural that you the countrymen will have a bias against us. This is a corollary for every government in power facing elections in this great democracy.
The idea of employing professional ad agencies is still to be welcomed. The history of winning elections in any democracy, depending from when it started, generally follows a common trend. The first is overwhelming iconic influence of the overwhelming party. You may include Abraham Lincoln, Nehru, Roosevelt, Eisenhower, and more recently the legendary Mandela in such a category. These are historic tides of opinion that have a place reserved for them. I would even put Mrs indira Gandhi in this category once she broke away from the old congress.
The secretary to the Ministry of Trade and Industry avers that trade negations must be done in secret, I suppose by the officers concerned. There should apparently be no public debate or even within the Government.
I don’t think it is such a good practice, if indeed that is the practice. Let us see the record of trade and other agreements negotiated by the Malaysian Government. They do not seem to favour Malaysia much. In fact they seem to result in Malaysia accepting unfavourable terms.
The next phase is of a generation that has to negotiate, think of vote-bank politics as a necessity, and still play straight. Consider Golda Meir, Ranatunga, Margaret Thatcher, Olaf Palme in this category, though you have a right to complain that one can’t put everyone in a straightjacket. The third phase is charisma over ruling human infirmities, in the absence of a matching challenge. Consider JFK, Willy Brandt the German chancellor, even a ‘clean’ but inexperienced Rajiv Gandhi hereater
Firstly let us look at the water agreement with Singapore. Malaysia agreed to sell raw water at 3 cents per 1000 gallons. In return Malaysia can buy 12 per cent or less of the treated water for 50 cents. If the rates are to be revised both countries must agree.
If Malaysia raises the rate to 6 cent per 1000 gallons (i.e. 100 per cent) then Singapore can raise by the same factor to 1 dollar per 1000 gallons of treated water. This is not going to benefit Malaysia. And so we never tried to renegotiate the prices.
The first agreement lapsed in 2011 and we did not renegotiate at all. The next agreement will lapse in 2060. So we will be getting 3 cents per 1000 gallons of raw water when the cost of living has probably gone up many-many times.
To avoid Singapore revising the price of water if we raise the price of raw water, Johor was given enough money to build its own treatment plant. Not having to depend on supply from Singapore, we could raise the price of raw water without Singapore raising the price of treated water.
I am told that Johor still needs to buy treated water from Singapore. I really do not know why. So the price has not been renegotiated and I suppose will not be renegotiated until 2060.
Today the Singapore Dollar is 2 ½ times the value of the Malaysian Ringgit. At the time of the agreement it was one to one. Are we receiving payment in Singapore Dollar or Malaysian Ringgit? Or is this a secret also?
Frankly I don’t think we thought very carefully when we negotiated. Incidentally Johor sells water at 30 cent per 1000 gallons to Melaka, i.e. 1000 per cent higher than for Singapore.
F/A-18 fighter jets
Then there is the purchase of the F/A-18 fighter aircraft. Actually the Government wanted the MIG-29. Somehow part of the fund was used to purchase the F/A-18. I suppose the people who made this decision know why they must have the F/A-18.
Unfortunately the agreement to purchase did not include the source code. Without the source code the F/A-18 can only fly on missions approved by the United States. Until then these very expensive fighter planes can only be used for show at LIMA. Very expensive toys.
Then there is the AFTA, the Asean Free Trade Area. We agreed that cars with 40 per cent local contents qualify as national and tax-free entry into ASEAN markets. Forty per cent local contents are easily achieved by cars from outside ASEAN. This means the Japanese, Korean, Chinese and European cars can get ASEAN countries’ national status merely by being assembled in ASEAN countries together with batteries, tyres and a few other components.
Proton
We produce the Proton in Malaysia with 90% local contents. Naturally our costs are higher and cannot compete with non-ASEAN cars assembled in ASEAN countries. While these cars flood the Malaysian market, hardly any Proton is seen in ASEAN countries.
The negotiators may think they negotiated a good deal but I just don’t think so. We are simply opening our markets to countries with closed markets.
But to make matters worse, while Proton must comply with Malaysian safety and other standards, the imported cars are given exemptions from most of these. If Proton wishes to export to the countries of the manufacturers, it must comply with all their standards. So far we cannot export to Japan, Korea and the European countries. This is how good the agreements we have entered into.
Pulau Batu Puteh
We lost Pulau Batu Puteh but we cannot build the bridge or remove the causeway, or settle the provident fund issue. But we have given up our railway land worth billions to Singapore for practically nothing. And now we must ask Singapore’s permission to build our high speed train.
Look at all the agreements we have entered into and you will find practically none of them favours us.
Why the US invented TPP
Now we want to swallow the American conceived TPP, Trans Pacific Partnership. This is another attempt by America to let their huge corporations penetrate the domestic markets of the small countries, in particular Government procurements.
When the GATT (General Agreement on Trade and Tariff) failed they invented WTO (World Trade Organisation) for the same purpose. That also failed. They then invented APEC. Still they cannot achieve their objective. They introduced bilateral free trade agreements. Then they promoted a Globalised World, a world without borders in which their money can go anywhere, destroy economies and then pull out. In case we have forgotten they did this in 1997 – 8.
Still they cannot get at Government procurement. And now they invented TPP, a partnership of unequal, of the strong to take advantage of the weak.
They can sue us for billions
This is going to be legally binding. If we breach the agreement, their corporations can sue the Government for billions. I have my doubts about our ability to convince the international arbitrators or courts. We cannot even convince the World Court over Pulau Batu Puteh.
They will have the best lawyers, lots of them. We will exhaust all our funds to pay our less experienced lawyers. At the end we will lose and pay indemnities and fees running into billions. And we will continue to pay until we comply. And when we comply we will lose more money.
We have a domestic problem and we have to solve this problem. They don’t care. Anyone who talks about the New Economic Policy (NEP) is labelled racist by our officials. When the currency rogues attacked us the purpose was to gain control over our economy. We resisted that because we were still free then. But after we sign the TPP we will be bound hand and foot. No more capital control. We will be colonised again. President Sukarno was right about neo-colonialism.
Secret harm to M’sia
I know MITI is already set to agree to the TPP. It will not entertain any counter arguments. It wants to do this secretly. We don’t punish people who make agreements detrimental to the interest of this country. So what is there to lose.
This is my country as much as it is the country of the officials and politicians. If people secretly do harm to my country I have a right to complain.
We talk a lot about transparency. Let us see transparency regarding the TPP negotiation. The October 2013 ultimatum should be ignored. And let China also be included.
Coming to the deployment of ad agencies in electoral campaigns, the first example who would never have made it without such support is of PM John Major. Major was to be a temporary substitute to Margaret Thatcher’s forced resignation. A man of credentials, idealistic, bit of a dreamer, he was so different and poorly armed to match his predecessor, and his oratorical skills were no match for a more aggressive rival in Niel Kinnock. The job was done by Saatchi and Saatchi. John Major was pulled out of the shadows of being Thatcher’s boy. With a politically declining Conservative government, he was shown in the Conservative mode, but as his own man, approachable, kind, and aggressive at the right moments. The very qualities that are appreciated in an individual are often considered a mark of incompetence in politics. Saattchi and Saatchi worked out just the right recipe.
Projected Major as his own man, and yet showed him apart from the misdoings of his predecessor. John Major still leaves mark on UK politics. Will the ad combination be able to show the right distancing of a young PM aspirant as his own man, teach him to touch the crucial issues for the common man and the corporate world, and portray a right distancing from the floundering of a somewhat defamed UPA II, whatever be the reasons. That grooming, individuality, aggression and distancing from what the country did not appreciate in the present government will be the key factors in the Congress’s survival. Mrs Indira Gandhi did it her own way by throwing out the syndicate, and the country liked it.
There is another recent campaign to be learnt from, before I come back to the Indian scene. It is on record, that the ever charismatic Clinton influenced Ted Kennedy, that president Obama would still do well serving coffee to the Democrats. It was a different obsession for Ted who knew that he had no more than a year to live, that he should be the first Democrat to install a black President. Still, in the absence of the likes of a Saatchi, the Illinois governor did bank on his audacity of hope. I was in the US for a conference, and it was the time for the Texas primaries. Texas is predominantly white, and the women vote counts. An unheralded Obama quietly slipped into the library of the Texas University, scrolling over books and journals. He was casual in meeting any student who would want to shake hands with a Presidential hopeful. It was exemplary humility, or perhaps a compulsory strategy to stay in the race. He was the first one to realize the strengths of the social media. He won the huge young unblemished votes! Besides his oratory is incomparable to what we see in recent times.
We can’t underestimate the accomplished Gujarat strongman. He has risen from the ranks, and the inherent pragmatism of being from his land, he will show absolute comfort in a suit and a tie as in a dhoti. Have no illusions that he already does not have his ad and image advisors from wherever he wants them. His oratorical skills do stand out. Much depends how adeptly he unshackles himself from a party at the moment in hierarchal shambles. It’s a tough game, but he seems to be more corporate savvy. Will that matter? By all estimates that will, with the country on the brink without FIIs. Mr Modi however has to carve out his team, even if that amounts to picking up non-political professionals, even corporate honchos. A young India could not be less pleased.
Manmohanji has been a great statesman over two decades. He will be meeting Mr Nawaz Sharif on the sidelines of the upcoming annual UN Conference. He may go for a makeover to take a shot at another seat of power if he can start projecting that he is his own man. He has enough exposure, so an ad agency is not required. If he can just change the color of his turban to indigo or purple, he does not have to change anything in his style of functioning. Enough in this country judge just by the attire!
Now, for the mandatory Urdu couplet that a certain generation cherishes so much,
“Hum meheveyas to they, ki na hosh aata,
Magar tere tagaaful ne hoshiyar kiya!”
( I was in a trance, waiting, and would never have come to my senses,
But it was your neglect that brought my senses back back! )
