TMF ON SOCIAL ISSUES

Interlok and Sensitivity

2011-02-09T02:28:00.000-08:00

INTERLOK – LET US REFLECT
By Toh May Fook

On a trip to Australia many years ago, a colleague of mine from our London office was detained at the Sydney Airport for impatiently answering a routine immigration question:-

Immigration officer: Do you have any previous criminal record, Sir?
My colleague: Why? Do you still need one to come to Australia?

History of our past is indeed a very complex issue, many of us do not wish to accept the plain truth of our past. Most of us who are doing well now, wish that our past is like a roll of unstained shiny silk but in actual fact, it is most likely not.

In line with our unwillingness to accept our not-too-glorious past, we invoke the most abused term of “sensitivity” to warn others not to look our way, but when others are not allowed to look our way, there will be no meaningful mutual understanding.

My father came to the then Malaya as a migrant worker escaping from the harsh condition in China, the feudal exploitation, the wars and the famines. Most other Chinese migrant workers came to Malaya for more or less the same reason in search of better prospects and it is really not offensive for people like them to be referred to as kaum pendatang.

Therefore it is not wrong for my lecturer to talk about “kaum pendatang” during his political science lecture in UM, generally referring to the Chinese and Indian migrant workers in the historical perspective. But when that lecturer became a politician and still refers to the present day Chinese and Indians in Malaysia as kaum pendatang, he must be deemed mentally challenged. The same applies to those politicians or agent provocateurs using the academic cum historical term of kaum pendatang with the intent to belittle certain legitimate communities.

There will always be irresponsible radical elements in any society. How then shall we respond to the insinuation, insults or even provocation? More importantly, do we know how to distinguish an academic or historical reference from an insult?

In the book Interlok, was the term “pariah” applied by the author as a reference to a historical fact or as a term to insult a certain community? Is it appropriate for a certain community to feel offended because the term “pariah” applied in the literary work touches on their “sensitivity”?

Since when did we become so “sensitive”?

Brickfields where I grew up in the sixties is a very interesting place. Indians and Malays from the railway company, Chinese from some bus and transportation companies lived close together with some Punjabi families. There are many places of worship, our National Mosque, Christian Churches, Catholic Cathedral, Buddhist, Hindu and Taoist temples, all in close proximity to each other. It is very much the same today except I think the toddy shop and the Lido cinema are not there anymore.

Those days we referred to those from other communities with all sorts of derogatory terms but really without any malice; at the same time those from other communities referred to us also with all sorts of equally flowery accolades and I believe equally without any malice.

With such daily mutual belittling and occasional fights in between, we were still able to play and work together most of the time because we were all not too “sensitive” then. In fact, having been so “insensitive” over all that meaningless name calling, we became immune and May 13 did not flare up in Brickfields but in Kampung Bahru where there was a high concentration of a single community.

It must be quite interesting to note that when May 13 flared up in Kampung Bahru, the multi-racial community in Brickfields took collective measures to protect each other. Why?

Let us all reflect if the word “sensitive” is being abused, heavily abused? Wither is the way forward for us to be one big Malaysian community?

Allow me to return to my favorite Australian immigration story.

Years after my London colleague’s disaster at the Sydney Airport, I was told that it had become fashionable for descendants of those crime-related migrant Australians to trace the history of their ancestors, especially the nature of their crime that won them free passage to the then penal colony.

I was relieved that these descendants are no longer outrageously sensitive about the truth of their historical past. I applaud them for even making the effort to search for further details to the extent that combing archival documents has transformed into a serious consulting business.

Many such descendants were more relieved and proud upon being “confirmed” by such ancestry consultants that their ancestors were immigrated to the penal colony for stealing just a loaf of bread to feed their starving children, just like the heroic Jean Valjean in Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables.

How I wish my father was a regal Mandarin sent by the Emperor in China to grace the local soil, a little bit like the fabled Hang Li Po and her retinue. The fact is that he simply arrived here as a migrant worker looking for a better life and I am not offended if he is being referred to as kaum pendatang.

I suppose, in the final analysis, when self-confidence arrives, conjured sensitivity departs very much like the way darkness departs when light arrives.

Open Verdict - TBH Inquest

2011-01-05T15:00:00.000-08:00

TBH died while in MACC's custody for a frivolous investigation and that in turn was the attempt of the BN government to creat issues to take over the PR state government.

The collective cover-up by MACC on the brutality inflicted on TBH is obvious and such collective cover-up is possible because the officers involved knew the real political agenda in the investigation and that they will be protected by the power of the day. Therefore the sloppy police investigation and the failed inquest.

The inquest failed because it allowed MACC officers to lied and to deceieved the court. Most telling was the fact that the officers were summoned to Putrajaya for direction upon the "discovery" of TBH's body instead of informing the police immediately and of course the pre-fall injury on TBH's neck, discovered and revealed only upon the second autopsy supervised by Dr. Porntip.

It is noted that an inquest is a court of law but not a court of justice. But justice is trully what the people are all asking for.

Only justice will bring a closure to the suffering of the Teoh's family and also the anxiety of the society at large.

I believe that all those who were involved in directly and indirectly causing the death of TBH will be haunted for the rest of their lives if justice is not served. Only the truth will set them free from within their souls.

Khir Toyol Charged

2010-12-11T01:14:00.000-08:00

Abdul Ghani Patai, the most controversial AG in the history of this land leading the prosecution team against Khir Toyol for corruption and our PM assuring the people that this is not a political sandiwara.

Now I understand why a friend of mine once told me that when a BN/UMNO man tells us that his father is a man and his mother is a woman, it is safer for us not to believe him.

Khir Toyo charged in court

2010-12-07T09:09:00.000-08:00

Khir Toyo is the most valuable gold mine to PR, hope he will not be convicted.

But then again, even if he is convicted with the maximum sentencing of just two years under the present charge, his story will still be gold mine to PR.

On Samy Vellu Resignation

2010-12-07T08:47:00.000-08:00

"I will move very fast. In future, I would not use cars but will use airplanes because I will be travelling to other countries,” he said when asked what will be his next move after his resignation. - Malaysian Insider

I was once sitted behind Samy Vellu and his buddy on a flight from Jakarta to KL (1991). When the airstewardess asked "Chicken or fish, Sir?" he answered "I normally look at my food before I eat it!" in a loud and arrogant voice.

I thought about what he was trying to say all the way back to KL, till today I still don't understand most of the things that he had said, like the statement above, on his resignation.

Comment on Hisham's Comment, while he was sober.

2010-11-30T08:42:00.000-08:00

"He said it was there for all to see that non-Malays were also enjoying the fruits of the country's progress, and in fact, had a bigger slice of the economic pie compared to Malays.

He said non-Malays were also free to realise their full potential without any obstacles put in their path."

The Minister spoke the half truth, in my case I did realise SOME of my potential BUT by going through lots of obstacles along the way.

The "Potential" I did manage to realise is only limited to improving the economic well being of my family. My further potential in contributing back to the country is not allowed as I am not allowed to be the PM of the Cabinet, CEO of any GLC, Dean of my university, Governor of Bank Negara etc, etc; all the above jobs, I am willing to hold without pay.

Alas, I end up having nothing to do after acquiring my economic well being except to read MT writing comments criticizing the UMNO/BN government to help our country.

KJ'S SPEECH - UMNO YOUTH AGM 2010

2010-10-21T20:57:00.000-07:00

I make speeches honoring hardwork, discipline and responsibility to my children everyday. After a short pause at the end of each of my speeches, each time, they invariably ask," Papa, can we play now? Can we have this and can we have that?"

Equitable policies, sincere actions and unbiased follow-ups, these are the keys, not mere speeches, although hopefully it helps too.

However, if after all the rhetoric, its still business as usual, then what I heard recently will be prophetic; and this is what I was told recently:-

"If a BN/UMNO guy come up to tell us that his mother is a woman and his father is a man, it is still better for us not to believe him." And the person who uttered these words is a non-partisan highly educated retired civil servant.

On MCA tells gov't to slay BTN beast - 29/9/2010

2010-09-28T17:54:00.000-07:00

In case BN/UMNO/MCA thinks we the non-Malays can still take any more threat from BTN/PERKASA, I actually dreamt last night, no joke, that I was in a Malaysia where all non-Malays need to go through BTN sessions conducted by PERKASA.

My whole family together with many other families were dressed to identify that we were non-Malays and paraded along a long road where cruel PERKASA members from the left and right sides of the road jeered and hurled all sorts of insults at us.

All we heard was "Pendatang!" "Penumbang!" "Balik China Balik India!" "Pelacur! Pengemis!" and rounds of jeering and sniggering. All of us bowed our heads; our children grabbed our hands. They were confused and frightened, we the adults were frightened and sad.

The last thing I remember about the dream was that, back in our home amidst series of long houses in a designated part of the town, our original house already being "confiscated", my wife wept and bitterly told me off for not migrating earlier.

Najib offers to help Obama on Islamophobia - Bernama

2010-09-25T02:15:00.000-07:00

What? Malaysian PM whose BN/UMNO/PERKASA uses Islam to cause social instability and racial disharmony to help US overcome Islamophobia? What a joke?

On divorce and breaking down of marriage

2010-09-22T17:38:00.000-07:00

A ninety three old lady petitions to the court to divorce her 100 year old husband. Could not contain his curiousity, His Lordship asks "Are you sure you want to go through this, considering your age and the fact that you have been together for almost eighty years."

"Yes, My Lord," the old lady replied, "but our marriage had already broken down seventy years ago. In order not to bring any pain to our children, we agreed to divorce only after all our children had passed away."

On Corporate Malaysia wants government to stay out of business

2010-09-21T20:09:00.000-07:00

Yes, thats definitely the way to go. Cetntral Planning Economy ( Classical Communist Economy ) had failed. Communist China survived and emmerged when a great Giant of rural origin by the name of Deng Xiao Peng acted upon realising that market economy works and market economy means letting the Smith's invisible hand works in the market place and the state shall regulate to promote welfare and productivity.

Malaysia had gone the other way for far too long. I do not think I am far too wrong if Petronas and all the GLCs plus veiled GLCs, meaning privatised utilities compamies amounts to no less than 60% of our GDP. What is left? What 30% we have been quarelling about all these years distracting all of us from really building this country of all of us?

On Ex PM ABB : We don't need Lee Kuan Yew's advice

2010-09-18T04:49:00.000-07:00

Deep in the heart of your hearts, you know the Giant is right in every aspect of his view on Malaysia. The only question is, do you think he is sincere. I do, I sincerely do.

On Two different versions of Singapore's expulsion - Malaysiakini 16/9/2010

2010-09-15T19:07:00.000-07:00

It was Razak and Tun Dr Ismail who advised Goh Keng Swee that if Singapore was to have any measure of autonomy over its economic well being, the only way was to get out of the Federation - refer to Lee Kuan Yew's obituary during the recent Singapore state funeral for Dr Goh.

While in the Federation, not a single pioneer status application from Singapore was approved by the Federal Finance Minister Tan Siew Sin who was actually cousin to Goh, who was the Singapore Finance Minister.

PR states today must research into this part of our history cafefully.

On Nazir Razak Advise to Ignore Noisy Extremists

2010-08-14T18:37:00.000-07:00

No, we the Rakyat are not supposed to ignore the opportunistic extremists' noisy and shameless display of lawlessness while the reasonable and sincere concerned appeals of so many good men and women are being persecuted by the Government of the day.

This is dangerous, this is how Germany fell to the Nazi, Pakistan to the military, Burma to the Junta, Afgan to the Taliban and the list goes on and on.

When the Government of the day is unable to act rationally for the benefits of our whole country, we, the Rakyat must think and act, each according to individual ability and sphere of influence. Most importantly, vote wisely in the next GE.

Quotes of Thomas Jefferson found in MT Comment Section

2010-08-04T01:13:00.000-07:00

From a learned commetator in MT:-

"Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty."
- Thomas Jefferson

"Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then be trusted with the government of others?

Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question."
- Thomas Jefferson

"Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others.

I do not add "within the limits of the law" because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual."

- Thomas Jefferson

Ayam Kambing Daun - A digression to my personal distress.

2010-05-04T02:17:00.000-07:00

It was in the late eighties when a certain Malaysian politician was incarcerated in Singapore.

One day, he received a short note from Samy and the note reads: " Ayam Kambing Daun ."

Confused but confident in believing that the other knowledgeable and learned tenants in the same lodging at Changi must be able to decipher the "secret message", he went around showing the note to all the hard core criminals and senior gangsters within the Changi Prison to find out what the note was all about.

He was shocked that none of the street-smart tenants there could tell what " Ayam Kambing Daun " really means.

Exhausted with frustration, he sat at a quiet corner, staring at the note to figure out what was Samy trying to say to him.

"I am comming down", suddently, he heard someone whispering from behind; he looked back and saw an Indian warden trying to read the note he was holding in his hand.

"What did you say?" he asked.

"I am comming down" the warden replied.

"I know it says Ayam kambing Daun, but what does it mean?"

"It means the sender of the note will come down to Changi Prison to visit you!"

"But what has it got to do with Ayam, Kambing and Daun!" the politician exclaimed in distress.

25th April 2010 Hulu Selangor By-Election

2010-04-25T16:52:00.000-07:00

Now that the final result is out, let us all accept the fact no matter how unfair it is.

Dear PR and dear Zaid, we are so proud of you for putting up such a good fight.

As for BN, everyone can see that there is absolutely no honour in the winning and we can actually expect a more arrogant UMNO who can claim that MIC is really irrelevant.

It was UMNO/PM who campaigned for the Indians votes.

MCA can expect though time ahead, despite all their strategies, including threats, the Chinese voters overwelmingly voted for PR.

I would like to say that I am proud of the Chinese voters in HS, yet I know it is because they have had enough discrimination. All said, let us pray for our nation, which is still very much struggling .

What is happening in the Hulu Selangor by-election

2010-04-20T20:47:00.000-07:00

What is happening in the Hulu Selangor by-election?

Why was there such dramatic 11th hour changes over the BN's candidate?

Why do the BN campaign strategists adopt personal acttack which lead the electrolate to relate such personnal issues back to BN/UMNO leadership?

There are certain things that "honourable samurai" can not do, so they subcontract it to the ninjas.

In his battle over Hulu Selangor, we can see the shadow of a more brutal war within BN especially within UMNO.

On the attack on Zaid during the Hulu Selangor by-election 2010

2010-04-20T06:24:00.000-07:00

The story about the Tunku meeting Asri with whiskey glass in his hand reminds me about another episode involving the Tunku in our parliament.

Tan Chee Koon as the opposition leader then, was demanding in the parliament, that action be taken against our High Commissioner to Australia who was caught having lots of fun at Kings Cross, the red lights district of Sydney.

The Tunku replied by asking all those in the House, who had not had weaknesses in that respect to stand up.

Tan Chee Koon stood up and looked directly at the Tunku in his eyes.

I was told that there was pin-drop silence in the House before the Tunku simply commented, " My dear David Tan Chee Koon, I really pity you."

On MPs and ADUNs Leaving PKR

2010-03-03T20:38:00.000-08:00

Tun Dr Ismail did warn that people should join political parties to serve only after they have achieved certain level of success in their career and never to join a political party with the intention to enrich oneself. Tun was giving the warning to UMNO at that time.

Knowing that there are now UMNO Puteri and UMNO Putra and perhaps soon UMNO Mat Rempit before GE 13, we are quite clear on the future of such a soon to be bankrupt political party. Those who were enticed to leave PKR will also evoke immense jealousy from those within UMNO who are not presently getting as much.

Dying leaves are falling off from PKR but UMNO's roots are rotting fast. In the final analysis, the Rakyat shall be educated and decide wisely

Need for National Liberation

2009-12-20T18:09:00.000-08:00

Need for National Liberation

The Sabah Crisis 1985 -1994 by Joe Hakim

2009-09-02T19:10:00.000-07:00

By Hakim Joe

Many Malaysians may not know this but the Perak Fiasco this year is not the second constitutional crisis that has rocked Malaysia (after the UMNO crisis). In fact, UMNO’s deregistration as an association by the Registrar of Societies in 1987 was also not Malaysia’s first constitutional crisis but the second.

The dubious award of Malaysia’s first ever constitutional crisis was bestowed on the Sabahan State Government in 1985 when the Berjaya-appointee Sabahan Governor, Tun Haji Mohd Adnan Robert, despite stern objections from his advisors including the Sabah State Attorney Datuk Nicholas Fung and Sabah High Court judge, Justice Datuk Charles Ho, had decided to swear-in a minority coalition party leader as the Chief Minister of Sabah, a coalition that had won less state seats (22 seats combined) in the just completed State Elections than the victor (26 seats), an action that contravened the State Constitution and the Federal Constitution of Malaysia.

So, what happened during the early dawn hours of 22 April 1985 that eventually propelled the State of Sabah into total chaos? An action by one single man in his capacity as the Governor? Or was he somehow “persuaded” (against all logical reasons) by Datuk Haji Yahya Lampong and the inaction of others present (except for Nicholas Fung and Charles Ho) to continue with the swearing-in ceremony? Before you continue reading, always keep this in mind. A Sultan or a State Governor can appoint a Menteri Besar or a Chief Minister but he cannot dismiss him after swearing him in. The appointed MB or CM can only be dismissed in the State Legislature by a vote of no-confidence, if he is convicted of a crime or if he dies in office.

Once again, let us start from the beginning.

Sabah held its state elections on 21 April 1985, a wide open contest between three political parties, namely Berjaya (BN component party and incumbent state government) led by CM Datuk Harris Mohd Salleh, USNO (previous BN component party and state government) led by Tun Datu Haji Mustapha Datu Harun, and the recently formed, months-old, Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS), led by Datuk Joseph Pairin Kitingan (former Berjaya Vice President).

By 11pm on Election Day, it was evident that Berjaya had lost the Sabah state elections. CM Harris had in fact lost his seat in his Tenom constituency. The only Berjaya candidates that survived the backlash were the Speaker of the State Assembly, Tan Sri Haji Sunoh Marso, two deputy ministers, Haji Malek Chua and Hiew Ming Kong, plus three others.

Celebrations were however held at the USNO camp. At almost 1am on 22 April 1985, when USNO and PBS had jointly won 25 seats (simple majority), USNO’s director of elections, Haji Karim Ghani called Pairin’s residence to implement the secret plan between USNO and PBS to form a coalition state government, a plan hatched between Pairin and Mustapha to unseat Berjaya prior to the elections. The telephone call was answered by Pairin’s PBS legal advisor, Datuk Herman Luping, who told Haji Karim that “he will get back to him after speaking to Pairin”, a call that was never returned as PBS continued to win one constituency after another. Treachery? Well, nobody said that politics was clean. The initial pact was made at a time when neither USNO nor PBS thought that their respective party could win the Sabahan elections alone.

It was not until later when the return call never came that Mustapha realized that Pairin had double-crossed him. Moral of the story so far - never trust your political opponents.

It was also then that the State Attorney General Datuk Haji Yusuf Rashid, mentioned to Datuk Haji Yahya Lampong that USNO’s 16 seats plus Berjaya’s 6 seats (a total of 22 seats) were sufficient to form the State Government, provided that the Governor grant the 6 nominated seats to them. (The Sabah Governor has the privilege to do so as the Sabahan Legislature consists of 48 contested seats and 6 nominated seats.)

A call (at 2am) was hastily made to the USNO camp for a meeting between the two leaders. At 2.30am, Karim called Datuk Haji Majid Khan (Berjaya’s elections director) to confirm the meeting at Tun Mustapha’s residence. Majid and Abdul Malek Chua arrived about 15 minutes later and were taken to meet Mustapha. In the meeting, Mustapha was skeptical about this “plan of action” that could unseat PBS but a subsequent telephone call from the Istana “inviting Tun Mustapha to take the oath of Sabah CM” banished all doubts from the USNO President’s mind.

Why did the Governor do it knowing very well that PBS had won 26 seats to Berjaya’s 6 seats and USNO’s 16 seats? Events soon unfolded that Harris had called the Governor after receiving the call from USNO at 2am, informing him that Berjaya has formed a coalition with USNO and that their combined total of 22 seats plus the 6 nominated seats (by the Governor) constitutes a simple majority win in the 54-seat Sabah Assembly. It was then that instructions were given to Adnan’s ADC, Haji Mandalam Marziman, to prepare for the swearing-in ceremony in the wee hours of the night (or is it day?). It was also then that Madalam received a call from the PBS legal advisor, Datuk Herman Luping, as to whom he would need to contact to organize the formal swearing-in ceremony for Pairin as the CM of Sabah.

Mandalam then proceeded to contact the Governor’s private secretary, Sukarti Wakiman, to inform him of Adnan’s decision and to contact the Protocol Officer, Ahmad Jalil, to prepare the arrangements for the ceremony. Ahmad Jalil was already at his office and called the Secretary to the Cabinet, Richard Ngui Thien Soong, to bring all the Instruments of Appointment and Oath of Office to the Istana. It was also then that Ahmad Jalil called Mustapha’s residence to inform him of Adnan’s decision and to invite him to the Istana. The time was almost 2.45am now. By then Harris had already dispatched Nicholas Fung and the State Secretary, Hamid Egoh, to the Istana to help out with the arrangements for the ceremony.

When Richard Ngui arrived at the Istana, he told Ahmad Jalil that the Instrument of Appointment and Oath of Office already had Datuk Harris’s name on it (optimistically never expecting Berjaya’s humiliating defeat) and that Jalil should just blanko off the Harris' name and retype Tun Mustapha’s name on it. It was now that the Sabah State Attorney Nicholas Fung pointed out to Adnan that PBS was the victor and that it was unconstitutional for Adnan to swear in Mustapha, to which the Governor interjected that he knew “what he was doing”.
By then, the guests were all arriving at the Istana and these included Mustapha, Yahya Lampong, Majid Khan, Malek Chua and the Commissioner of Police, Mohd Noor Khamis. When Nicholas Fung saw Yahya and Majid, he once again strongly reiterated that it was unconstitutional for Adnan to appoint Mustapha as the CM. It was then pointed out by Yahya that under Articles 6(3) and 10(2) of the State Constitution that Adnan has the discretion to appoint a member of the Assembly so long as he is satisfied that the member is likely to command the confidence of the majority of Assembly members. Nicholas Fung was not easily cowed and warned of the dire consequences if the swearing-in ceremony was permitted to go ahead, but to no avail. It was then that Adnan asked if Kuala Lumpur had been consulted of his decision to which Majid replied that Harris was trying to get in touch with Musa Hitam (the acting PM as Mahathir was in London). It was also then that Adnan asked if a judge was necessary to which High Court judge, Justice Charles Ho was immediately called up on the phone to attend the ceremony at the Istana.

Harris managed to contact acting PM, Musa Hitam at around 3.40am, and informed him of the Berjaya loss and the subsequent proposal to form a coalition party with USNO. Harris also told the acting PM that Adnan had decided to appoint Mustapha as the CM to which Musa said, “Datuk, give me a few hours.” Musa was of course naturally apprehensive over the events happening in Sabah as it might create a law and order situation of which the Federal Government had no intention of sticking their head into. After all, Musa might be the acting PM but he was the Home Minister. Pairin might not be able to contact Musa but he finally got through to the Federal Attorney General, Tan Sri Abu Talib of which he explained the situation. Abu Talib then advised Pairin to take legal action against Adnan if the latter had already sworn-in Mustapha because the Federal Attorney General and the Governor possess no power to dismiss the CM once he is sworn-in.

When Justice Charles Ho arrived at the Istana, he was briefed by Nicholas Fung and Hamid Egoh as of the situation to which the Judge told the Governor that it was unconstitutional, that the judiciary did not want to get involved in this illegal event and that who was willing to take the blame if there was any bloodshed? Charles Ho then proceeded to tell Tun Adnan that he wanted nothing to do with this decision and that he was going home. Nicholas Fung left with Charles Ho. Adnan told Hamid Egoh to proceed with the ceremony. It was almost 4am. Moral of story so far, listen to what your subordinates have to tell you.

It was about this time that Kota Kinabalu police chief, OCPD Supt. Victor Lim got a call on his walkie-talkie that Harris and Mustapha were present at the Istana for the swearing-in ceremony. He immediately alerted Pairin and Luping. Luping immediately tried to contact Sukarti at the Istana but was told by Mandalam that Sukarti was not available. Luping then drove to Hamid Egoh’s house but the latter was already at the Istana. It was then that Luping (and a group of PBS supporters) drove to the Istana but found themselves barred from entering. Pairin was kept informed of the worsening situation and he decided to call Musa Hitam, of which he failed to contact at his home. (Musa was in fact at Bukit Aman monitoring the Sabah situation.)

When Hamid Egoh was resting after the swearing-in ceremony, he received a call from Abu Talib, demanding to know what was happening in Sabah. After a lengthy argument, Hamid Egoh told Abu Talib that Mustapha had already been sworn in as the 7th CM of Sabah.

Pairin finally managed to contact his good friend, Musa at about 6.30am. Musa reassured Pairin that they were doing everything to defuse the tense situation and that the Federal Government had to uphold the system of parliamentary democracy and that they will respect the wishes of the people of Sabah. Pairin then instructed his legal team to prepare two letters to Adnan, the first emphasizing that PBS had won the elections and therefore the right to form the state government, and the second as a warning to Adnan that unless he dismisses Mustapha, legal action will be taken against him.

It was at about 9am that Pairin managed to contact Hamid Egoh at the State Secretariat. After properly lambasting the State Secretary for allowing the illegal swearing-in of Mustapha as the CM (probably left, right and centre), Pairin asked Hamid if he still had the power and authority as a State Secretary to set up a meeting with Adnan. Hamid immediately contacted Sukarti, instructing him to make an appointment for Pairin to meet with Adnan. 15 minutes later, Sukarti called Hamid to tell him that Adnan would see Pairin at noon. Hamid conveyed the news to Pairin, who immediately agreed.

Adnan however changed his mind and cancelled the meeting at the last minute. He got his personal secretary to inform Hamid Egoh that he was busy and tired and that Hamid should relay this news to Pairin. When Pairin heard about this snub, he had to move fast lest his supporters start a riot.

Adnan however had an early visitor in the form of KK OCPD, Supt Victor Lim who proceeded to hand over the two letters from Pairin’s legal advisors. This was the first time that Adnan heard (from Supt Victor Lim) that Kuala Lumpur was not pleased with his actions. It was also at this time that Herman Luping turned up at the Istana gates to seek an interview with the Governor with regards to Pairin’s swearing-in ceremony. Of course Adnan refused to see him and asked Supt Victor Lim to convey to Herman that they should deal with the “new” CM and not him.
Kota Kinabalu streets were now completely deserted after Mustapha had announced over the radio that the people of Sabah should not be apprehensive and unduly alarmed over his appointment as CM. Mustapha had also instructed the Press Secretary, Fauzi Patel, to draft a similar statement for Adnan’s private secretary, to be issued by the Istana confirming the Governor’s decision to appoint him as the CM. Fauzi Patel of course had to have this statement confirmed by Hamid but was told to clear it with Nicholas Fung. Nicholas, on the other hand, refused to have anything to do with it as he had no intentions of working for Mustapha and was planning to resign the position of the Sabah State Attorney. A further attempt by Hamid to send the draft to Fung through the Secretary of the Cabinet, Ngui, proved to be equally futile. Hamid was therefore left with no other choice but to vet the statement himself. He then asked Sukarti to forward a copy each to be forwarded to the Information Department, RTM and Bernama.
To highlight the incredulity of the people of Sabah, even the press division of the internal Information Department withheld the release of this statement. Department Head, Justine Miol had to personally go to see Hamid Egoh to confirm its authenticity as he could not believe what he had just read.

At about noon, RTM began relaying Musa’s statement on the Sabah Elections, “The Sabah Election is now over and the people have already made their choice. To the winners, I congratulate them. However, I would like to appeal to all parties, especially those who lost, to respect the wishes of the majority of the people. For we in the Federal Government will also continue to respect the wishes of the majority, based on the system of parliamentary democracy which we hold in high esteem…The Federal Government will continue to ensure that the security situation is under control. In this connection, I would like to remind any group planning to take action which could threaten the security that the Government would not hesitate to take firm actions against them.”

About an hour later, Musa came up with another statement, “I would also like to take this opportunity to explain the Barisan Nasional’s stand in connection with the developments in Sabah after the elections that have just ended…I would like to inform that at 3.40am yesterday, Datuk Harris Salleh had asked my permission that Berjaya under his leadership join USNO to form the new State Government of Sabah. I explained to Datuk Harris that I could not give him the permission as I have to consider…” Moral of the story so far, have high ranking pals in the Federal Government.

The shit had just (literally) hit the fan. This was the second indication (the first was from Supt Victor Lim to Adnan) that the Federal Government had not viewed favorably the turn of events at the Istana, but this was official while Supt Victor’s words were merely unconfirmed hearsay.
Adnan was jolted to the hilt when he heard the statements made by acting PM Datuk Musa Hitam. First was the threat by Musa to take firm actions against anyone who threatened the security of the State (which he did when he made Tun Mustapha the CM subverting the Constitution) and the second was Musa’s disassociation of BN from any actions partaken by the Governor and Berjaya after the elections (meaning that he would not be obtaining any help from Kuala Lumpur). The meeting that Pairin had so far failed to get (with him) suddenly gained prime importance. Hamid was contacted to immediately set up the meeting at 2.30pm “alone with Datuk Pairin”, insisted Adnan.

Despite conveying the message to Pairin that the Governor wanted to see him alone, ten full carloads of supporters (together with Nicholas Fung) accompanied Pairin to the Istana. Pairin arrived early at the Istana (2pm) and was immediately brought to meet Adnan. It was here, less then 24 hours before, that Mustapha was appointed and sworn-in as the new CM and it was here now that Adnan is conspiring with Pairin to bring about the revocation of the appointment (together with Nicholas Fung and Hamid Igoh). Abu Talib was contacted to give his advice and the Federal Attorney General reiterated that Mustapha cannot be dismissed (Kalong Ningkan case) but recommended them to talk to Mustapha urging him to resign on his own accord.
Herein lies the problem. How could they urge Mustapha to resign when they had appointed him less than 24 hours ago? Yacob Marican was fished in to assist and he recommended using Razak Rouse (USNO legal advisor) as the conduit because of the latter’s close friendship with Tun Mustapha. Razak was invited to join the group at the Istana but dreaded the responsibility once it was impressed upon him the full nature of the business at hand. Meanwhile, an official letter was drafted to Mustapha revoking (not dismissing) his position as the CM of Sabah. This letter was then handed to Sukarti, who gave it to Jalil to personally deliver it to Mustapha. Meanwhile preparations were made for the “second” swearing-in ceremony of the day.

This time, RTM and the State Information Department were called in to record the ceremony. There were only four guests at the ceremony (Hamid Egoh, Nicholas Fung, Victor Lim and Charles Ho). It was then that Justice Charles Ho contemplated the evident fact that Adnan’s decision to proceed with Pairin’s appointment as CM without first obtaining Mustapha’s resignation would complicate matters even more. RTM broadcasted the ceremony nationwide later in the evening. On Mahathir’s return to Malaysia, he openly backed what Musa had done to defuse the situation in Sabah.

While the uproar was still at the height of the controversial event, Pairin sprung another surprise by announcing that he had included 3 (out of the 6 nominated members) into his cabinet, namely Bernard Dompok, Nahalan Haji Damsal and Puan Ariah Tengku Ahmad to represent the Malay interests in the state. 3 Kadazans to represent the Malay interest (even though two of them were Muslims)? USNO in the meantime had beseeched Pairin to honor the election pact to form a coalition government but was told in the State Assembly (20 May 1985) that “PBS was perfectly capable of representing the Muslim interest and therefore a coalition with USNO would have served no purpose.” It was then that Yahya Lampong challenged Pairin’s position as CM stating the fact that as Mustapha had never resigned from that post after being appointed by Adnan and since Adnan did not have the power to dismiss Mustapha, Pairin’s subsequent appointment was ipso facto unconstitutional. This revelation shocked many PBS MPs as not all of them knew what really happened on the 22nd of April between the Governor and their party leader. Yahya proceeded to lead all USNO MPs out of the Assembly.
On 22 May 1985, USNO lawyers filed a writ at the KK High Court seeking to declare Tun Mustapha as the rightful CM of Sabah and that the revocation was unconstitutional, null and void; that the Governor’s appointment of Pairin was unconstitutional, null and void; that the Governor has acted unconstitutionally in appointing the State Cabinet; and that all acts and things done by Pairin in the capacity of CM were null and void.

Joseph Kurup (PBS Secretary-General) retorted by threatening to initiate procedures to dismiss all USNO members for their walkout in the May 20th Assembly session. The stakes are now well and truly raised. Whatever that had possessed Adnan to make the decision to appoint Mustapha took on a new dimension when a bomb exploded in the Segama complex the following day. The second bomb exploded on 29 May. This was to be the onset of a series of bombings in Sabah.

To offset the USNO writ, Pairin announced that the Legislative Assembly will meet on May 30th to pass a vote of confidence on his position as the CM. USNO countered this move by applying to the High Court on May 27th for an injunction to stop Pairin from proceeding with the session but to no avail as the application was rejected because the High Court was of the view that they did not have the jurisdiction to interfere with Assembly proceedings. (How much has changed leading to the Perak Fiasco.)

On May 30th, Pairin easily won the vote of confidence. Capitalizing on this victory, Pairin continued his attack on USNO, branding them as conspirators in a coup to snatch power from those who had legally won in the elections. Later, in his defense of the USNO writ, Pairin claimed that Mustapha had conspired with Harris to illegally install Mustapha as the CM and that their attempt to seize power by fraudulent means had been motivated by their desire to prevent the previous government’s financial and administrative misdeeds from being exposed.

On June 4th, the third bomb went off at Tanjong Aru, recording the first fatality. Moral of the story so far, get away from places where bombs are likely to be detonated and never compound one mistake with another (to cover the first one).

To preempt the hearing of the USNO writ, Pairin once again called an emergency session of the Assembly, this time to express its confidence in Adnan’s appointment of Pairin as the CM. USNO members once again boycotted this session as they deemed Pairin’s administration to be illegal and proceeded to lodge a police report to the effect that the vote of confidence constituted a contempt of the court. Here is where the shit really hit the fan. In moving the motion, Mark Koding (Pairin’s deputy) said that Adnan was forced and coerced to appoint Mustapha as the CM.

There is no such thing as either a “good” law or a “bad” law. As with all laws, they are required to be tabled and read in Parliament and it is these Parliamentarians (or lawmakers) that hold the key as to having the law to be approved, amended or repealed.

Read this part carefully as it was a precedent-setting case just like the Kalong Ningkan case.

However, it can only be signified as a constitutional landmark “if the jurist act in accordance to the law of the land” and not misinterpret it to suit themselves (or their political masters) or the will of the people.

The fact remains that Pairin could have sought a vote of confidence in the Sabah Legislative Assembly against Mustapha instead of insisting Adnan to swear him in as the CM. An error was already done when Adnan swore Mustapha in as the CM despite knowing the fact that the combined USNO-Berjaya seats were less than that of PBS. To swear Pairin in without first obtaining a resignation from Mustapha, and to revoke the initial appointment was in fact another error in judgment. There are no laws in Malaysia that allows for a Sultan or Governor to dismiss, discharge or revoke the status of a CM in office. Additionally, there are no laws that allow the Judiciary to interfere with the Legislative Assembly proceedings let alone either declare or dismiss a CM in office, and until the Perak Fiasco, these constitutional rights were treated as sacrosanct (well, maybe not in this case either…)

In the Mustapha/USNO writ against Pairin/Adnan, it is the contention that the initial appointment of Mustapha as the CM of Sabah by the Governor (Tun Adnan) supercedes all later appointments. Additionally, a CM can only be ousted from the Assembly through a successful no-confidence vote against him at the State Assembly, and not through a dismissal or revocation by the Governor and since no such vote was ever held in the Sabah State Legislature and that the revocation order is null and void, it must therefore follow that Tun Mustapha is still the legally appointed CM of Sabah.

Pairin’s legal counsels (Luping and Puthucheary) argued that the High Court does not have the jurisdiction to interfere with the Legislative Assembly proceedings and that the writ should be rejected because the issue at hand was not justiciable. Additionally, the Sabah State Legislature had successfully held a vote of confidence on May 30th and that Pairin, as the leader of the winner in the state elections & duly being appointed as CM by the Governor, should not have to be answerable to this writ and the added fact that the initial appointment was made under duress after the Governor was coerced by Harris and Mustapha to appoint the latter as the CM.
The learned High Court Judge, Justice Datuk Tan Chiaw Tong, however found that the issue was not who had won the recent state elections or what went on in the Sabah State Legislature, but whether the initial appointment of Tun Mustapha was legal or not, henceforth making the matter judiciable in the determination of the rightful CM. Pairin/Adnan were then asked to prepare their defense.

Not agreeing with the High Court verdict, Pairin’s legal counsels appealed to the Supreme Court for final judgment. On 21 October 1985, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal by Pairin and upheld Justice Tan’s ruling on the matter of jurisdiction. Acting Lord President, Justice Tan Sri Abdul Hamid Omar together with Justice Tan Sri Hashim Yeop Sani and Justice Tan Sri Eusoffee Abdoolcader stated that the central issue of the matter was the validity of the initial appointment of Mustapha as CM, and since the appellants spoke of “duress and coercion” that had led to the appointment of Mustapha, “it is therefore imperative that the court examine the allegations in order to determine the lawfulness of the initial appointment and whether Tun Adnan was impaired as a result of exercising his discretion in making the appointment.”
The crafty Pairin while awaiting for the case to begin, once again called for an emergency session of the Assembly for the amending of the State Constitution, this time specifying the Governor’s powers on the appointment of a CM and to make these amendments effective on the 22 April 1985, so that through this device of constitutional amendment, Adnan’s dismissal of Mustapha and subsequent appointment of Pairin would ipso facto be legalized. Yet another amendment is to forbid assembly members from joining another political party with the consequences being their contested seat automatically falls vacant if they do. (DSAI should be able to learn a thing or two from this episode.)

USNO’s response to these maneuvers was to apply to the KK High Court to restrain Adnan from assenting to any Bills passed by the Legislature until the court has decided on the issues raised in the writ.

To be able to amend the State Constitution, one requires a two-third majority voting for change (which is why it is so damned important that a government should not possess such a majority) and not a simple majority. When Pairin initiated the amendments to the Sabah State Constitution, he only had 32 (26 plus 6) out of the 54 available votes which amounted to 59.2%. He in fact needed a minimum of 36 votes in his favor to be able to do anything, which he thought he obtained by enticing 5 USNO and Berjaya politicians to join PBS. (He would have 37 votes.)
On 28 October 1985, Tun Adnan’s invitation (parliamentary privilege) to speak at the Assembly kick started the Sabah State Legislature session. Pairin even had the cojones to ceremoniously hand over the prepared PBS text to him in the open. Mustapha (attending the Assembly for the first time since the elections) did not have to wait long to know its contents. Adnan began by informing the Assembly that the people had made it amply clear as to which particular political party they had preferred to form the State Government. Then came the tirade which included the usage of terminologies like “evil forces”, “exploitation”, “disrespect”, “interference” and “manipulation”. Adnan finished his “prepared” speech by confirming the appointment of Pairin as the CM and that he wants to “make it absolutely clear that” he “does not recognize any other as CM apart from Datuk Pairin.” Having delivered his speech, Adnan fled the stunned Assembly.

While Adnan was making his fast getaway through the exit doors, the Clerk of the Legislative Council, Francis Yap rushed to Pairin informing him that he did not have the two-thirds majority of votes he required to amend the State Constitution because he only had 35 (64.8%) votes and that Ghapur and Gatuk were absent. Yap then advised Pairin to withdraw the Constitutional Amendment Bill which he consented to a doubly stunned Assembly. While this was all happening, Bernard Dompok rose to move yet another resolution, this time seeking disqualification of Mustapha, Yahya and Piting from their Assembly membership for being absent from three consecutive Assemblies without permission.

The Assembly was now triply stunned when the Speaker stopped Dompok from moving the resolution, stating that he had in fact given official leave of absence to the three USNO members. This Dompok and Pairin flatly refused to accept because it was claimed that it was the Speaker himself that has confirmed that the three USNO members had remained absent without permission. Moral of story so far, do not trust your political opponents, do not trust the frogs and do not trust (especially) your own party members.

If Pairin thought that he had enough worries for the day, he was sorely wrong. Adnan reached the Istana to find an injunction (from Mustapha) waiting for him, barring him from assenting to any Bill(s) passed by the Assembly. If Pairin thought that he had enough worries for the month, he was sorely wrong. While he was in KL, USNO and Berjaya submitted four pre-signed resignation letters to the Speaker who immediately declared their seats vacant. The four were Ahmad Baharom Titingan, Saman Ghulam, PK Lau and Othman Yassin, the same three USNO/Berjaya members that had crossed over to PBS (plus one who had promised to cross over.) PBS quickly submitted an injunction to stop the by-elections but was rejected by the court even after the four had stated that they did not resign from office. (Different scenario from what finally eventuated in Perak.) The EC fast tracked this issue and by the time the by-elections were over, USNO had successfully retained two of the four vacancies. Berjaya lost the other two seats to PBS.

On 18 November, the Mustapha vs. Pairin case resumed in court. This time Pairin and Adnan were represented by Anthony Paul Lester QC, and new facts were added from the defense whereby Adnan had been subjected to undue outside influence when he appointed Mustapha as the CM (against his will) and that the Governor had feared for his life and those of his family members. (Wa-lan-nay! It’s good to have a good lawyer.) Lester went on to state that Adnan had felt “extremely frightened and insecure” when he agreed to proceed with the ceremony and that the “Mustapha’s coup” was unprecedented in the history of Malaysia. Furthermore, Mustapha had pressured Adnan into misusing the Governor’s constitutional powers to appoint him as CM rather than Pairin. The defense counsel contended that Mustapha and Harris had usurped the constitutional powers vested in the Governor and had forced him to appoint Mustapha, against his wishes.

Adnan played his part well as the first witness called by the defense, making certain that the inviolable office of the Head of State was being adjudicated here. How could a judge say that the Governor is lying? The only conflicting statement Adnan made was the police report he made on the April 22nd incident and that was not tendered as evidence because the report was safely locked away in the Attorney-General’s office vault. When Adnan was questioned by Kidwell QC (Mustapha’s legal counsel) as to why he had discussed the present case with Lester and Puthucheary (Pairin’s legal counsels) instead of the State Attorney, Adnan stated as a fact that Datuk Herman Luping was also present. This, Kidwell failed to grasp because the current State Attorney was Nicholas Fung and not Herman. If Kidwell had done his homework, that would have been obvious and Adnan’s testimony would be left wide open for Kidwell to systematically demolish.

Furthermore, when questioning the security at the Istana, Adnan stated as a fact that he did not trust Mandalam (his ADC and security chief) 100% but sympathize with him and retained him due to Mandalam’s large family. Further questioning revealed that none of the security personnel were transferred since the elections and that Adnan had retained all of them to facilitate the court. (Before the case was over, Adnan was to transfer them all when they refused to back him up in his evidence.) Kidwell proceeded to tear apart Adnan’s testimony (of being frightened for his life), asking him why he did not inform the Police Commissioner who was at his house or his good friend (Avtar Singh) a former police officer who was also at that time in the house with him (as a family guest), or even Supt Victor Lim (KK OCPD) who visited him the next morning.

Adnan also claimed that after Nicholas Fung had left with Justice Ho, he did not utter the words “Let’s go. Let’s swear-in Tun Mustapha” which was contradicted by Hamid Egoh, who in his evidence claimed to have distinctly remembered Adnan inviting all those present to attend the ceremony using exactly those same words.

Lester was however up to it and began by asking Adnan what the exact procedure was in conjunction to the swearing-in ceremony of a new CM. Adnan replied that there should be witnesses to this ceremony and protocol demands that a Judge, the State Secretary and the State Attorney be present at the ceremony in the witnesses area, which in fact was unoccupied owing to the fact that the ceremony was “faked” to get rid of Harris, Mustapha and their “wild” supporters. Additionally, he did not wear any songkok to the ceremony attesting to his claim that the ceremony was a fake one. Adnan also told the court that he was supposed to wear three songkoks and to read the “Doa Selamat” after the ceremony, which he did not.

Good rebuttal? Kidwell’s was even better and all he had to do was to show a videotape of Pairin’s swearing-in ceremony which showed that there were once again no witnesses at the area reserved for them (Hamid Egoh, Nicholas Fung, Victor Lim and Charles Ho were seated at the guests area) and that Adnan was not wearing a songkok, let alone three, and did not read the “Doa Selamat” after the ceremony. Earlier Adnan had answered Kidwell’s questioning of the songkok by stating that as far as he can remember, he did wear a songkok at Pairin’s swearing-in ceremony. Moral of the story so far, don’t lie in court. If you think that you are so clever that you can get away with a lie, remember that the blood-sucking no-good “sell their mother in a half a second” lawyers are far cleverer (and bloody sneaky and cunning to boot), especially those cocky Etonian-accented snobbish (but rich) English QCs.

Getting back to the story, it was therefore blatantly obvious (except to the blind) that Adnan’s concoction of what is suppose to pass as evidence was a flagrant fabrication put forward explicitly to give credence to his claim that the ceremony for Mustapha was a fake while that for Pairin was genuine.

On the question of duress, Adnan told the court that Yahya had given him a piece of paper threatening to remove him from “the face of the earth” if he did not go ahead with the ceremony to swear-in Mustapha. He persistently maintained that he had thus been placed in constant fear of USNO supporters intending to kill him. To this Kidwell (must be having fun) once again demolished Adnan’s testimony. (Lester must have been cringing every time Adnan opened his mouth.) The barrage of questioning got so bad that Adnan had to resort to “I don’t remember” and “I don’t know” to get through it. (Now we know who the “gua tak tahu(s)” learnt it from.) To shorten it, Adnan had to admit that he did not fully understand what was written on the piece of paper and that if he did, he would have informed Justice Ho and Hamid Egoh about the threat as written on the paper.

When Adnan was questioned whether he obtained the “green light from KL” before or after Justice Charles Ho arrived and before or after he got the note from Yahya, Adnan confidently said that he asked about the green light only after receiving the note from Yahya. Kidwell once again asked Adnan if he was certain about this, to which the answer was “Yes, I remember.” Kidwell proceeded to exhibit Adnan’s previous evidence and statement of defense whereby he attested that the piece of paper was given to him before Justice Ho’s arrival. Now, how was he going to tell Justice Ho (about the threat even if he understood it) when the jurist has not arrived? (in Semi-Value’s case, he would have uttered “Gua Tak Tahu”.)

When Adnan was asked about Datuk Musa’s broadcast, he vehemently denied hearing or reading a statement of it because he “did not know that there was a broadcast by Datuk Musa regarding the appointment of Tun Mustapha.” Even after Adnan’s counsel had intervened and conceded that Hamid Egoh did in fact pass a copy of the broadcast to Adnan, he stubbornly persisted in his delusions that he had not known anything about Musa’s statements. However, as the evidence started to mount against him, Adnan finally admitted that he had seen the copy of the broadcast but had not been duly concerned of its contents.

From the court proceedings, it was painfully evident to everyone and anyone attending the trial that Adnan had perjured himself in court with contradictions (of himself) and of events that had happened. Could this one man be correct whilst the rest of the witnesses were all wrong? Well, someone believed him and that someone was High Court Justice Datuk Tan, and that was all that really mattered, stating in his judgment that, “At the outset, I would state that I find these (defense) witnesses to be entirely honest, impartial and independent witnesses, who gave their respective evidence clearly and honestly. I accept them without any hesitation as witnesses of truth; and I accept their evidence. I have reached this conclusion from observing their demeanor in court while giving evidence, and after weighing their evidence against the rest of the evidence, particularly the evidence of the plaintiff’s witnesses Haji Mandalam bin Marziman, Constable Mohd Yunus bin Mohd Yasin and Constable Ali Hassan Muyong.” (What the…)

In other words, what the learned Judge was saying in his God-know-how-many-pages judgment is that he believed Tun Adnan 100% (regardless if he contradicted himself most of the time) and he believed the rest of the other witnesses (who contradicted Adnan) 0%. With this judgment (which was not released until April the 15th, 1986), Pairin was therefore the legal CM of Sabah. End of story. (Sounds like the Perak Fiasco case, right?)

Well, almost the end of the story. The moral of it all is what the Federal Government wants, not what Adnan, Harris, Pairin, Mustapha or even Justice Tan wanted. Sure as Hell it didn’t care what the people wanted (even though it might have been exactly what the Sabahans wanted).
On 23 February 1986, when Pairin was in KL to attend the Rulers’ Conference, he was asked by the Press of his opinion with regards to the rumors that a few PBS politicians were intending to quit the party. So confident was he of his powers that he condescendingly brushed aside the matter as mere rumors and speculations.

On 24 February 1986, Francis Liong (Asst. Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries) announced that he and 5 other MPs (Haji Adut Sigoh, Thomas Anggan, Wences Lojinga, Bernard Chin and Ignatius Malanjum) were quitting PBS. The 6 has earlier written to the Speaker asking him to ignore the pre-sign letters of resignation which might be submitted by PBS in the event that they quit the party. The 10-month old PBS State Government is now left with only 22 elected MPs. (The initial 26 elected MPs were appended with 5 frogs from USNO/Berjaya making it 31 in total until the fateful day in the Assembly when Pairin had to withdraw his Constitutional Amendment Bill due to the fact that 2 of the 5 frogs went missing, and the by-election which they won 2 and lost 2.) The crisis intensified when rumors surfaced that all the Chinese MPs might leave PBS to form their own party (Parti Cina Sabah).

The PBS people were able to locate Wences and Haji Adut in KL and after some hard bargaining, was able to get them to withdraw their pledge to leave PBS. That made the total 24 plus 6 in the 54 seat Assembly, too close for comfort considering the fact that Sabah politics revolves around these frogs. A few more jumpers and that would be the end for PBS. (The former Pakatan state government of Perak should have learnt from Pairin.) His decision was to seek a new mandate from the people (before other PBS MPs could jump) and this he made certain of when he obtained an undated pre-signed (by Adnan) declaration of dissolution of the Legislative Assembly. However, Adnan was still in KL so Pairin had to backdate it to the 24th (the day Adnan left KK for KL). Pairin immediately called a press conference at 5pm at his office and announced that “rather than hang on to a weakened government under siege, the PBS has decided to go back to the people to get a clear mandate as to who should rule. The Legislative Assembly is dissolved effective today (February 26th) although the declaration was signed by the Yang di-Pertua Negeri on the February 24th.” It was also his chance to get rid of the turncoat Speaker.

Abdul Salleh Ghapur (former Merotai MP) filed a writ on March 1st at the KK High Court seeking to declare that the dissolution was null and void in view of the outstanding Mustapha writ. He also sought an interim injunction against the EC from conducting a general election in Sabah. The EC which met on 3rd March was only too obliging (for whatever reasons that they have) and cited administrative problems and a lack of funds (Ha! Ha!) to hold such an election at this juncture of time, henceforth deferring the decision (probably until they have received instructions from the Federal Government). The newly formed PCS did not want to be left out and started their propaganda machinery. They announced that they will contest in 9 Chinese dominated constituencies at the polls. Meanwhile everybody was holding their breath awaiting the High Court ruling, due on 12th March.

Would the 12th March ruling be the end of the story? Not bloody likely! Look at it this way, if new elections were held, the Mustapha writ would have been inconsequential owing to the fact a new CM would emerge from the polls, regardless if it was Pairin, Mustapha, Harris, Bob the Builder or Optimus Prime. One, Mustapha would be implicated in the “Palace Coup”. (Chinese idiom – “Water wash also not clean”) Two, Pairin would have been the undeclared victor as it was his dissolution (as CM) that would spark a new round of elections.

At 8am on the 12th of March 1986, a crowd was already building up at the KK High Court compound. Some estimate it at about 2,000 people (predominantly USNO supporters) awaiting the verdict in the hot sun. The first bomb exploded at 8.45am behind the Public Finance building. 5 more explosions occurred almost simultaneously at the Segama Complex (again), the Central Market, the Sinsurun Complex, the Jalan Tugu Shell station and the Jalan Pantai Esso station. Then the panic started. Everyone started to leave the capital at the same time and causing a massive traffic jam. Just as everyone started to calm down a bit, the 7th bomb exploded at the Jalan Haji Yaakub petrol station at almost 10am. Once again the panic started in earnest.

Meanwhile, the crowd at the High Court compound soon realized that the court wasn’t about to hasten the court proceedings just to impress them, and finding nothing better to do (after the initial excitement of the bomb blasts), they began to march off to Mustapha’s residence (at Tanjong Aru) in a show of support for the USNO leader (which was pointless since Mustapha was in KL).

In Sandakan, almost 3,000 USNO supporters marched through the main street shouting out anti-government slogans. 21 persons were detained by the police. In Tawau, 18 shops were burnt down by arsonists which resulted in 2 deaths.

In KL, Mahathir said that the PDRM would ensure the safety of the people and that the IGP was personally flying to Sabah to access the situation there.

In KK, USNO and Berjaya filed a petition to the PM, asking him to intervene and to help resolve the state’s political impasse. PBS appealed for calm and said that the situation was under control. Everything seemed normal approaching evening time.

The next morning, Muslims found painted crosses desecrating the walls of the State Mosque. The Muslim leaders urged the Federal Government to step in before the situation worsened. Over 1,000 Muslims gathered at the State Mosque to protest PBS’s violation of their mosque. Pairin denied that it was the work of PBS and put the blame on irresponsible elements. USNO started to put out a list of 15 reasons branding PBS as anti-Islam. (Here we go again…)

On March 17th, the KK High Court rejected Ghapur’s application. Some 5,000 USNO supporters who were gathered at the court began marching to the State Mosque. As with any large group of people, things soon got rowdy. The police arrested 77 and questioned over 1,000 people. 5 bombs rocked Sandakan the next day.

On March 19th, some 2,000 Muslim protestors marching to the State Mosque had their first confrontation with the police. After repeatedly warning the protestors to disperse (which they did not), the police fired teargas at them. The situation became chaotic when a group of protestors began to burn cars and a few warehouses located nearby. This forced the riot police to charge them and they soon discovered the torches that were used to light the fires (amongst the demonstrators). When the arsonists and rioters began to flee, the riot police opened fire on them killing 6. For the first time in Sabahan history, a dusk to dawn curfew was imposed as more and more police were called into the city to patrol the streets. The arriving IGP appealed to Mustapha to use his influence to call off the demonstrations.

The last demonstration was held on March 23rd, led by Harris, Hamid Mustapha (Tun Mustapha’s son) and other USNO members. They were however stopped by the police and were asked to disperse. Once again the marchers refused this order and teargas was used on them. The police booked 322 people for illegal procession.

USNO again petitioned the Federal Government to intervene but Mahathir was not biting. His famous words of BN swimming or sinking with Berjaya kept him from doing so and it was also these proud words that have kept him from approving PBS’s application to join BN. Mustapha and USNO was also no friend of Mahathir. The Federal Government was going to intercede only on his terms, at a time of his choice and in a manner of his liking.

The next day, Mahathir finally came up with a “peace formula” and that is an ultimatum to PBS that they form a coalition party with Berjaya and USNO or face federal emergency rule.

Mahathir stayed in KK for only 6 hours before flying back to KL. Ghaffar Baba tagged along as the Chief Negotiator. USNO (16 seats) welcomed the “peace formula” as they would be part of the state government. Berjaya (3 seats only) welcomed the “peace formula” as they would be part of the state government. PBS (26 + 6 seats) was covertly against the “peace formula” as they would now have to share power with their political opponents, but overtly portray that they were “keen” on it as well for the sake of security. Moral of story so far, never trust a politician.

Mahathir then announced to the press that he was confident that the crisis in Sabah would be resolved in view of the general acceptance of the (his) formula by the three political parties.

Mahathir also said that it was now merely a matter of sorting out the details between the three parties before a coalition government is announced. He had in fact given the three party leaders a mere two days to set up the meeting. BTW, one of the proposals of this formula is that there will be no fresh elections (Pairin will have to withdraw the declaration of dissolution) and that the parties “maintain their respective number of representatives in the Assembly” and another proposal is for Mustapha to withdraw his writ from the KK High Court.

With the impending dateline in mind, the USNO and Berjaya leaders rushed to KL to set up a meeting with Ghaffar, hoping to iron out these details before the situation in Sabah worsen. On D-Day, the PBS leader has yet to turn up at KL. Pairin instead sent his deputy, Mark Koding as the representative, pleading illness and that his doctors had ordered him to take a complete rest. Not surprisingly, Koding failed to meet up with Mahathir.

While Koding was in KL, the massive propaganda machinery of PBS started working. A signature campaign to reject the Peace Formula was soon started (not by PBS) by a group of people who called themselves “The Voice of the People of Sabah”. Not surprisingly, they were almost all PBS supporters. Secondly, PBS has started their reelection committee and was actively campaigning. This delay in the negotiation process (Koding might be the rep but he had to clear everything with Pairin) paid off handsomely as the Federal Attorney General Abu Talib somehow managed to convince Mahathir that fresh elections in Sabah is mandatory after the declaration of dissolution has been signed and ratified as the constitution does not provide for the CM or Governor to withdraw it once it has been officially declared. Moreover, the KK High Court has ruled against an injunction to nullify the declaration of dissolution.

So, while the leaders of both USNO and Berjaya were in KL, hoping that an accord can be established to form a coalition government, PBS was already ahead of the game. Even though Pairin had chosen to publicly embarrass Mahathir, the PBS leader was not brave enough to think that he could get away with it and hence his trip to KL (this time his doctors failed to order him to take a rest) to meet Mahathir to discuss his counter proposals. Naturally, Mahathir pointedly refused to see him. Pairin however managed to meet Ghaffar who accepted these counter proposals without discussing them. One of these proposals is that PBS would only entertain the formation of a coalition government after fresh elections in Sabah has been conducted.

The question is why Pairin would only consider the formation of a coalition government after fresh elections and not before it. The answers are quite obvious. One, if a coalition government was formed without fresh elections, PBS’s representation would only number 26 (as the 6 appointed MPs would be neutralized). Two, Pairin could not get rid of the troublesome Speaker. Three, the majority of Sabahans were anti-USNO and anti-Berjaya after the bomb explosions and the violent demonstrations. Four, Adnan was on his side. Five, the KK OCPD, Supt Victor Lim was on his side. Six, the withdrawal of the writ would not clear him of any wrongdoings, and seven, he revealed a plot by USNO and Berjaya to oust him as CM and to topple the PBS government by producing a transcript of a telephone conversation between Majid Khan (Berjaya’s elections director) and Yaacob Marican (USNO legal team member). Additionally, there were rumors circulating within the Sabah judiciary that Mustapha had lost his writ at the KK High Court.

Pairin also knew for a fact (or was extremely confident) that all the Chinese and Kadazan seats were theirs. Their election strategy was hence centered on the Muslim-majority constituencies. When the EC belatedly announced on April 3rd that the Sabah state elections will be held on

May 5th and 6th (subjected to the Mustapha writ), PBS was already well prepared for it.
Pairin can be considered a shrewd, wily, cunning and ruthless man but one cannot call him stupid. Maybe reckless, but never stupid. Far from it, Pairin matched Mahathir in all aspects even to the fact that he can publicly humiliate the PM and get away with it.

With the election date announced and with a strategic plan to make inroads into the Malay vote, Pairin knew that he would have to count heavily on the “sympathy votes” from the Muslim community as his pro-Kadazan stance would be detrimental in such a situation. To garner sufficient votes to topple the USNO MPs in the Malay strongholds, he resorted once again to the politics of expediency, an anti-Federal Government stance (since USNO and Berjaya are portrayed as pro-Federal Govt). Thus Pairin announced on April 9th that PBS has decided to withdraw its application to join BN.

BN countered this move by revealing that the “Peace Formula” was in actuality part Pairin’s plan and it was the PBS leader that had suggested most of the major elements including the expansion (to 14) and composition of the State Cabinet, the inclusion of both PBS and USNO into BN, the use of the BN logo in the elections and the power sharing scheme of the proposed coalition government (PBS-28 seats, USNO-16 seats and Berjaya-4 seats).

Pairin denied it all and said that Ghaffar had in fact misunderstood him.

On April 15, Justice Datuk Tan delivered his judgment confirming Pairin as the rightful CM. Justice Tan also lambasted those who were involved in the Mustapha swearing-in ceremony. Mustapha’s legal counsel, Kidwell QC was so disgusted with the judgment that he left Sabah the same evening.

Nomination Day on April 19th proved to be quite a day when USNO leader Mustapha and his protégé Yahya shocked their supporters by declaring that they would not contest the elections. This was the USNO strategy to wrestle the Chinese votes from PBS as both Mustapha and Yahya were hated by the Chinese people in Sabah. Worse still, Mustapha flatly refused to campaign for USNO (he thought that his presence would inflame the Chinese). Rumors began circulating that Mustapha was in fact acting on KL orders as part of a grand strategy to topple PBS. Mustapha soon left Sabah on trips to Sydney and London purportedly seeking medical treatments. Hamid tried in vain to convince his father to make token appearances. In fact Hamid have to leave Sabah chasing after his father (which was rather foolish) to convince him to return that he himself was missing from Sabah. Hamid himself did not even start to campaign in his own constituency until the final few days before Election Day. USNO was so short of funds that the candidates had to forego “ceramahs” and instead go on a house-to-house campaign to secure the votes. Political funds contributions were far and few in between.

Berjaya was on a totally different tact. Their strategy was to “steal” their coalition partners’ (USNO, PCS and PMS) votes and appending them to their own votes and hoping that the accumulation would be sufficient to tackle the PBS candidates. They henceforth went all out to promote their own candidates only. This double-dealing soon caused problems for their group of volunteers as USNO and Berjaya’s supporters and workers refused to cooperate and work with each other. Berjaya’s elections funds were also scarce as Sabahans refused to make donations to a party that was considered a loser. Even the Federal Government did not contribute much to the party (everybody recognizes a loser).

PBS had no such problems. One, its war chest was filled to the brim and over flowing from donations by the Sabahan business community (everybody recognizes a winner). Two, they were extremely confident of obtaining the majority of the urban votes and three, because they were so confident in winning the 28 Chinese and Kadazan seats, these were left to the respective PBS candidates to do as they wish (and with more than sufficient funds to do it). The top PBS hierarchy only concentrated their efforts on the remaining 20 Malay-majority pro-USNO constituencies. Berjaya had tried before and failed miserably, how was PBS capable then?
In a long term strategy initiated by PBS after Pairin was sworn-in, the party had begun (more than a year ago) to move non-Muslim voters into these areas by giving them low cost flats built here. Business districts were also established in these areas as part of their alleged campaign to appease and enrich the Muslims but were in fact to attract the Chinese businessmen to setup shop here and hence settling here as well. New housing projects were also concentrated in these areas. In the diehard USNO areas, PBS fielded recently recruited well-known Malay candidates and former USNO frogs. In other “cannot win” areas, PBS fielded other “independent” Malay-Muslim candidates to split the vote. Moral of story so far, if you cannot win a contest, make it doubly hard for your opponents to win it.

Furthermore, PBS started screening (and distributing) tapes of the recent Muslim demonstrations, the clashes with the police, the illegal processions, the effects of the bombings, the fires, and scenes of crowds outside the High Court chanting anti-PBS slogans.

The results? USNO’s strategy of not fielding Mustapha and Yahya backfired. Berjaya’s strategy of going alone backfired. PBS won 34 contested seats (almost 71%), USNO won 12 seats (from 16 in 1985), Berjaya won 1 seat (from 6 in 1985) and PCBS won 1 seat. PBS was to win the following 1990 State elections (36 seats) and the 1994 State elections (25 seats) making them the first ever 4-term Sabahan state government.

However Mahathir got the last laugh as BN managed to wrestle (cheat?) the state government from PBS in 1994 after enticing enough of PBS MPs to crossover. Pairin lasted less than two weeks as CM before he resigned his position on the 17th of March 1994. (The Perak Fiasco was therefore NOT THE FIRST TIME a democratically elected state government had lost power after a general election due to party hopping by dishonourable Assemblymen.)
Moral of story: “Go think about it!”

MERDEKA 2009

2009-08-31T10:07:00.000-07:00

http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/111782

THE STATE OF OUR NATION

2009-07-22T07:43:00.000-07:00

Umno's war against Malaysia
author_photo("Dean Johns")
Dean JohnsJul 22, 0911:21am

The suspicious death of Teoh Beng Hock last week while in the custody of the Malaysian Anti- Corruption Commission (MACC) has provoked such an outpouring of rage against the Umno-dominated Barisan Nasional government that there's little point in adding my two cents' worth.

Except to make the point that, rather than reacting to every successive atrocity as if it were an isolated case, it's time to put all the pieces together and face the big picture: that Umno is waging an increasingly uncivil war against the Malaysia that most Malaysians stand for.

Since the decimation of long-term allies like the MIC and MCA in the 2008 general election, and a string of electoral setbacks of its own since then, Umno has been steadily escalating hostilities in its fight to regain lost ground.

Admittedly it hasn't yet resorted to the ultimate weapon of so many other rotten, repressive regimes - the replacement of the ballot with the bullet.

But it has taken to using money as ammunition more blatantly than ever, as in its infamous repurchase of power in Perak and the case of the bridge and other bribes that recently almost bought it victory in the Manek Urai by-election.

And in clear contradiction of its claim to be committed to the concept of equality for all in '1Malaysia', it has been shamelessly practising its traditional and highly successful 'divide and conquer' tactic through the promotion of conflict.

Recently-proposed 'unity' talks with Islamic party PAS appear to have made considerable impact. It has caused bad blood if not yet outright hostility between PAS factions, and weakened many voters' faith in the party's future as a force in the opposition coalition, Pakatan Rakyat.

And the current commander-in-chief of Umno, Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, has given the lie to his brave new '1Malaysia' war-cry by firing-off a salvo declaring it the bounden duty of every Malay and thus every Muslim to enlist in the Umno cause.

As ever, Najib's assault on the hearts and minds of the nation are being strongly supported by Umno's propaganda brigade, the mercenaries and camp-followers of Malaysia's mainstream media.

Recent examples of guerilla journalism in support of the Umno cause include an article by New Straits Times Group managing editor Zainul Ariffin Isa, who accused critics of the MACC over Teoh's death of trying to “demonise Malay institutions”. Another was the craven call by Wong Chun Wai, group chief editor of Star, not to “politicise” the situation.

But this war goes far beyond words. The shock-troops in Umno's increasingly savage assaults on Malaysia, its citizens and constitution are the police, judiciary and other supposedly impartial protectors of the populace, like the Electoral Commission and the MACC.

These renegade organisations have apparently abandoned all but the thinnest pretence of neutrality in favour of serving as hired guns for Umno.

The MACC, for example, mounts ferocious attacks on corruption, but only when this is alleged to have been committed by Umno's enemies, opposition parties and their supporters. Arguably unfounded accusations of alleged infractions by Selangor Pakatan assemblypersons are being dealt with so severely, as to result in the death of an innocent bystander.

Meanwhile, it completely ignores far more tempting targets like Umno's Dr Mohd Khir Toyo, a former menteri besar of Selangor who has allegedly amassed and spent a fortune way beyond his legitimate means.

The MACC also suspiciously lacks aggression in its pursuit of dozens of other Umno and Umno-related prey, like the perpetrators of the RM12-billion Port Klang Free Zone atrocity.

Similarly, the force supposedly charged with guarding the nation's electoral system, the EC, appears utterly derelict in its duty when it comes to the gerrymandering, roll-stacking and vote-buying on which Umno's survival so heavily depends.

Losing battle

But when it comes to crimes in Umno's war against Malaysia, the EC and MACC look like pacifists compared with the police. However many deceased electors that the EC carries on its voter rolls, I've never heard it accused of actually killing any. Nor, as far as I know, has the MACC been suspected of torturing and murdering witnesses before the case of Teoh.

The police have accounted for so many victims, either killed in suspicious shoot-outs or dead as a result of 'accidents' or mysterious 'illnesses' in custody. So many of the deceased are Indians and Chinese Malaysians or foreigners that the scale of these activities almost amounts to ethnic cleansing.

Nobody knows the true toll the police take of Umno's enemies, however, as their activities are shrouded in secrecy. Few cases, if any, are ever properly investigated or prosecuted, even when they come to public notice or achieve outright notoriety like those of Altantuya Shaariibuu and A Kugan.

In any event, the Malaysian police have more vital missions to perform than investigating their own affairs. Like tear-gassing, beating and arresting unarmed citizens who peacefully assemble to protest against Umno; blocking roads to prevent anti-Umno rallies; and massing outside polling stations and opposition ceramah (political talks) to put the fear of God into Umno's enemies.

With all this muscle on its side, however, and a seemingly limitless supply of pillaged public money in its war-chest, Umno sometimes finds itself fighting a losing battle. But it always seems to have an arsenal of alternative weapons and fallback strategies for times like this. Like the well-worn trick of calling a truce and surrendering to public demand for a royal commission.

But, as we've seen since the one conducted on the police force a few years ago, and more recently on the judiciary, royal commissions are nothing but diversionary tactics designed to buy Umno time to regroup and rearm before going back on the offensive.

As offensive as Umno is, however, and as weary as most Malaysians must be after 50 years of fighting in vain for fairness, equality, justice and freedom, at least there's consolation in the knowledge that nothing lasts forever. There's always the chance that Umno will finally self-destruct like the Marcos regime in the Philippines or the Suharto military dictatorship in Indonesia.

I just hope that the forces of enlightenment, progress and active but peaceful resistance can somehow finally defeat the warmongers and whoremongers of Umno before they utterly destroy Malaysia the way the generals and their army have devastated Burma, and Mugabe and his 'war veterans' have totally trashed Zimbabwe.

TEOH BENG HOCK

2009-07-22T00:46:00.000-07:00

We Malaysians owe the family of the late Teoh Beng Hock a profound apology for voting in a Federal Government that does not respect universal human values nor human decency.

We know it is very difficult for the family as it is already heart-wrenching to us. Still, we hope his family can be strong, knowing full well that though Beng Hock has indeed departed from us, yet his legacy shall forever live in our hearts.

God bless Beng Hock, God bless his child and God bless his family.

DEMORALIZED

2009-02-06T20:18:00.000-08:00

DEMORALIZED – BN COUP IN PERAK 6TH FEB 2009

A retired British politician confessed during an interview, on the tactic they used in frustrating the true meaning of democracy:-

“If we were to allow the people to actually have faith in democracy, then we would be ended up being their servants, working day and night, attending to all sorts of requests or needs; or addressing all sorts of issues or problems faced by the electorate.

No, we don’t want that; all we really want is power to control, power to maneuver. Honestly, it’s all about having good lives and excitement for ourselves.

How we go about achieving this was rather simple. First, we used propaganda to confuse them (the electorate), then we used all sorts of government apparatus, such as police force and other enforcement agencies to strike fear into them, and finally we demoralized them by all means during any election to ensure that they lose faith in the democratic process and do not bother to vote. So, eventually, we got elected or gained power with the silent majority watching helplessly.”

From the 5th till 6th of Feb, by taking over power in Perak from PR in the most grotesque way ever, BN/UMNO had succeeded in demoralizing me and my whole family on the democratic process in this country.

On The Various Interpretations On The Special Statement of the Conference of Rulers. Oct 2008

2008-10-25T06:29:00.000-07:00

‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean–neither more nor less.’

‘The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you CAN make words mean so many different things.’

‘The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master–that’s all.’

- Through The Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll-

Bee En Downfall Parody

2008-09-19T20:56:00.000-07:00

I am suffering from depression, so I was told by my doctor.

All his medication did not help much, whenever I think about our country, I was just not able to laugh, let alone smile, until I watch Kavi's Bee EN Downfall Parody!

I laugh like I have never laughed before, not because his work is hilarious, I am still laughig with tears in my eyes and I wonder why?

Finally, I realise that I laugh with tears in my eyes whenever I replay Kavi's work, because what was depicted in his work does really represent the hopes and dreams of millions of oppressed people in this land.

Now, whenever I need another Xanax or another Macallan, I will try to watch the Parody again.

Thanks, my dear Kavi.

Thank you, my dear brother.

TERESA KOK AND "DEFENDERS" OF ISLAM

2008-09-17T05:42:00.000-07:00

Teresa Kok was taken away on Friday [12/9/08]. Two self- proclaimed Muslim Groups were at the Sentul Police Station making report against Teresa on Sunday [14/9/08]morning around 11am.

At the scene, by the road side, some gangster-looking youngsters with yellow head-band were holding some banners accusing Teresa of " menghina Islam."

I stopped my car and asked one of them what was it all about.

Me: Dik, apa dah jadi?

He: Ada Orang menghina Islam.

Me: Siapa?

He: Tak tahu! (The banner he was holding reads: Teresa Kok Menghina Islam)

Me: Lalu you marah siapa?

He: Tak marah siapa, cari makan saja!

Me: Tapi Teresa KOK sudah ditangkap ISA.

He: Siapa Teresa KOK?

Me: ..........

My dear Malaysian brothers and sisters who are Muslims, speak up like our dear Kata Tak Nak, please do not let these people confuse the non-Muslims about the religion.

The mystery behind May 13 1969 has been gradually unveiled over the years, more authoritative first person accounts can be found in books such as The Unmaking Of Malaysia and especially Tun Doctor Ismail personal notes as revealed in The Reluctant Politician. Most accounts described the riots as a tragic consequence of internal power struggle within UMNO.

What I saw on that hilarious Sunday prompted me to think that there must be at least three or four factions within the Peninsular UMNO, each trying to neutralize the others so as to command the support of the 66 Peninsular UMNO MPs left in the present Parliament.

The leaders and supporters of each and every faction cautiously plot and plan all sorts of sinister traps for all their other adversaries, but each not daring to make the first move, fearing that that will leave even the last man standing badly wounded. There is a very tense Mexican Stand-off within UMNO as RPK put it sometime ago.

Given the present untenable situation within UMNO, when dealing with external “enemy”, different faction within UMNO has different scripts, some on racial issues, some on religious issue and some on character assassination.

The difficult part is in the execution of such script, as when one faction executes certain script, the other factions may sabotage or at least try to dissociate themselves from such script, hoping that the faction executing the script will fumble and be neutralized without their own hands being tainted by blood.

As such, all those sinister scripts written are often clumsily executed without proper casting direction and hence I suspect that what I saw on that hilarious Sunday around Sentul Police Station was just one of those scripts being acted out by silly casts with uncoordinated confusing sequence.

No, there is really no tension among our ordinary peace loving Malaysian and definitely no one is interested in fighting each other. That kind of fight is only confined to bankrupt politicians.

AHMAD ISMAIL AND RACIAL SLURS

2008-09-07T18:27:00.000-07:00

The Star reported “ BN leaders slam Ahmad for arrogance “

Dear Leaders of BN component parties,

Why hit out at Ahmad Ismail?

What he said was merely a very mild repetition of what tens of thousands of civil servants, especialy school teachers, were being indoctrinated during sessions organized by Biro Tatanegara.

You need evidence? Please interview those trainees who were victimized by all sorts of abusive racial remarks inflicted by non other than our Biro Tatanegara. Most of them left the typical 5 days training session with broken hearts and eyes full of tears.

By the way, when I went to UM in 1979, the first thing I was told during orientation was that I am from Kaum Pendatang, a term I heard for the first time then. During the first lecture in Political Science, we were being lectured on the term Kaum Pendatang. To my horror, the lecturer was later to be conferred decorative titles and even became the head of Dewan Bahasa Dan Pustaka.

I struggled and worked hard both in Malaysia and abroad, pay my taxes to our government, and our government uses our taxes to fund a destructive institution called Biro Tatanegara to train our teachers, among others, to remind my children that they are from Kaum Pendatang.

Dear Leaders of BN component parties, no point attacking Ahmad Ismail, instead, do look at Biro Tatanegara established by the support from you yourselves.

Many years ago, in the mid 70s, there was this very bright boy from my community around Brickfields who scored full distinctions in his MCE (Cambridge O level) in La Salle Brickfields. He went on to score full distinctions in his HSC (Cambridge A level) in Victoria Institution.

During his interview for a government scholarship, he was asked by the interviewer to sing the national anthem to prove his loyalty to the country. With tears in his eyes he took offence to such doubt over his loyalty and walked out on the spot.

Later on he was offered a scholarship by the Singapore Government under the Colombo Plan to study in New Zealand from where he then graduated as an engineer. He went on to serve the Singapore Government and became a distinguished faculty member of NUS, till today.

The sad part of this story is that from the day he left Malaysia, he vowed never to return to this land where his loyalty could be unfairly questioned just because of his race. True to his word, he has never returned and his poor elderly parents had to travel to Singapore to see their grandchildren.

That’s the story about the bitter experience of a mild mannered top scholar in the mid seventies who would not tolerate racial slurs. Today, we are talking about the denial of citizenry rights according to race EN MASSE be it during political ceramah or, more damagingly, during Biro Tatanegara sessions organized for civil servants, such as teachers, researchers or even returning doctors who wish to serve our Jabatan Perkhidmatan Awam.

Now, is Ahmad Ismail guilty of racial slur or the whole BN government is guilty of such slur? More importantly, can such racial slur be remedied by apology or by sincere repentance, leading to a courageous change for a better Malaysia?

Farewell Pak Samad

2008-09-05T01:00:00.000-07:00

Pak Samad was detained briefly by the British in 1946, and again in 1951.

Upon his release in 1953, Pak Samad co-founded PAP along with LKY.

After moving to Malaysia, he would later be detained under ISA by the BN government. TDM released Pak Samad later but did not abolish ISA.

Today, during his kebumian, no doubt many powerful people will be present to shed their tears and to bid farewell, but for a great man such as Pak Samad, dont they realise that the single most decent thing that they can still do for Pak Samad is to abolish the draconian ISA?

The Curse Of Oil

2008-06-26T16:57:00.000-07:00

The Curse Of Oil
12 June 2008

Thomas Freidman deliberated on the impact of the wealth that comes with the endowment of oil, on various oil-rich nations around the world and concluded that in many of these “less developed nations,” oil is actually a curse rather than a blessing. It actually promotes indulgences of every sort, misallocation of resources, complacency, poor governance, abuse of executive power, corruption and all sorts of other social and political ills.

Back in our country, revenue from Petronas contributed 33% of the government’s annual budget, so we were told, but the accounts of Petronas are not made public and that leads to all sorts of negative speculation from concerned citizens. It defies logic that a national institution as important as Petronas which has contributed so much to the nation does not want to be transparent and gain even more respect from all fellow Malaysians. Unless as they say, benar benar ada udang disebalik batu.

The pump price of fuel has risen to a point that threatens the livelihood of most ordinary Rakyat Right thinking citizens cannot accept the logic offered by the government and this can easily lead to political instability. As the issue has reached crisis proportions, it is ridiculous that the government still does not deem it necessary to open up the accounts of Petronas together with a comprehensive public review on the state of affairs in Petronas.

As Petronas is headed by a respectable and very qualified accountant, Tan Sri Hassan Merican, we are hopeful that if given the mandate, he can explain how when the price of crude oil increases, a NET exporting country is justified in complaining about the burden of a heavier subsidy for the amount consumed domestically. We are not talking about the justification of the subsidy, we are merely asking what does subsidy mean in this context.

Further, when the budget was deliberated the year before, what was the reference price of fuel which enabled the government to obtain 33% of its budgetary needs from Petronas through various forms of taxes? Now that the current oil price is deemed UNEXPECTEDLY high, wouldn’t our government derive even more from Petronas from such various taxes?

If a NET oil exporting nation is suffering so badly when oil price increases, does it mean that all Malaysians, politicians included, should be jumping up and down in uncontrollable joy if the oil price slumps to USD10 per barrel tomorrow?

Putting all the above aside, what about the 2,500 km Peninsular Gas Pipeline Project linking our rich gas reserves from Tok Arun in Kerteh to every part of Peninsular Malaysia which commenced in 1984 and was completed by 1993? Hundreds of millions were invested and for 15 years, very little was done to benefit the Rakyat.

For a long while the only NGV station in Klang Valley was near the surau at KLCC which caused massive congestion; some years ago, another one was available in Sri Hartamas and that also caused congestion but also brought much delight to the station owner over his monopolistic rights.

Obviously, within those 15 years, especially during the last ten years when the oil price began to escalate aggressively, many NGV pumps should have been installed and in fact, Proton and Perodua vehicles should be fitted with NGV tanks instead of petrol tanks. That alone would have made those two the hottest selling brands in Malaysia and there would have been no need for APs and other silly protections to our auto industry, such as hefty import duties for imported vehicles.

Yesterday, a certain minister expressed relief that car owners are rushing to install NGV tanks in their vehicles. The minister went on to explain that the government planned to have 200 NGV stations by year end but due to technical problems, there will only be an addition of 24 more on top of the current available 76 NGV stations.

Today, Tan Sri Hassan Merican said we have 90 NGV stations at the moment and due to problems of land acquisition and problems with local authorities we may have 200 NGV stations only by 2010.

Our government is about to collapse and for 15 years, Petronas could not solve land acquisition problems and could not deal with our local councils to bring much cheaper and cleaner fuel to the Rakyat!

15 years since the Peninsular Gas Pipeline was completed, with proven strong demand for NGV, our nation will only have 100 NGV stations and mostly in the Klang Valley. Brazil and even Pakistan have more NGV stations though they have much less natural gas reserves than Malaysia. Proton and Perodua are not marketing their products according to our God given national competitive advantage and our Rakyat are compelled to pay RM2.70 for petrol instead of 68 sen for NGV for the same function and even cleaner environment.

We need someone to answer all the above strange phenomena, or is this simply what Mr Freidman described as The Curse Of Oil?

Toh May Fook

SEVERAL NET POSTINGS BEFORE 8/3/08

2008-04-02T01:54:00.000-07:00

Hisham on Hindraf

I grew up in Brickfields with many Hindu kids of similar economic background.

I have witnessed their suffering and deprivation.

I have also witnessed how some of the youths turned violent and eventually turned criminals, while their fathers continued to drown their sorrows within the compound of the toddy shop, a mere walking distance from Ananda Krishnan's family house in Jalan Berhala.

Ananda Krishnan made it, many others didn't. I am happy and proud that Ananda Krisnan made it big time; but I am more saddened that so many of the rest of the Indian community in Brickfields of my days did not.

Lazy? they were willing to do the dirtiest jobs for a mere token payment.

Genetically stupid? I know for a fact that many of them somehow speak good English, good in mathematics, humble, polite and very good in people-skill.

Have you ever seen any of our Indian brothers in the estates in Negeri Sembilan, where they only worked and spend their pay in toddy shop because of the sense of hopelessness?

Why is it so difficult for my Indian brothers to succeed? It pains me to ponder. But one thing I am sure, they don't deserve to be marginalised. And I am offended by the minister's interpretation of who should represent my Indians brothers, they are OUR brothers and we need to take care of them. By the way, I am a Malaysian Chinese who love all my fellow Malaysian Chinese, Malay and Indian brothers.
30/11 17:30:34

On Wee Meng Chee

If we go through the lyric and watch the video carefully and objectively, I do not think the composer meant to be offensive on the morning Azan other than describing it as “morning call”.

In my case, I often stay half awake until I hear the call to prayer from the nearby surau to finally get out of my bed to start my day.

In my childhood days when I lived near a Hindu Temple, whenever the priest tolled the bell at the temple in the evening, we took it as a sign to rush home for dinner. I hope it was not offensive to the Hindu.

On the morning Azan, over time, I personally find the call melodious and soothing; as a Christian, the call to prayer also reminds me of my Creator, therefore I am in fact appreciative of the call. However, there were several occasions when the Imam (I assumed) accidentally switched on the microphone a little too early and we could hear the Imam clearing his throat and warming up, the situation could be hilarious and lead us to wonder if there are some forms of guidelines governing how the call shall be conducted. As I have been relying on RPK to know more and more about Islam, perhaps RPK can enlighten us on this.

Wee Meng Chee certainly did not describe Malay as a race that is not bright, the lyric expresses his envy on the graceful and easy going life style of the Malay as a race, as against the Chinese who always struggle in the rat-race to be better. But he did insinuate NEP has caused certain race not weaning off. In essence, he was echoing what TDM described as the “Tongkat Mentality” or AAB’s fear of the Malay descending into “Wheelchair Mentality”.

The whole episode surrounding this Wee Meng Chee issue has proven that Malaysian as a whole can easily be manipulated and politicians are the ones who love to capitalized on this by stirring up violently negative reactions based on erroneous perception.

If we practice some measure of understanding and tolerance and allow more engagements with each other on all issues, I believe our politicians will then be forced to do some real work rather than playing destructive provocateurs.

On The Walk for Justice

It is disheartening to have our PM attacking the Bar Council for scaring off potential investors by organizing the Walk for Justice.

The Law of gravity does not Cause the apple to falling down from the apple tree, it merely Explains why the apple falls down from the apple tree.

The Walk for Justice definitely does not chase away any potential investor; it does however, explains why, among other things, some potential investors are not coming to Malaysia because of the lack of confidence in our judiciary.

Our current batch of politicians are so inward looking, deceitful, defensive and poor in their intellectual capability that it has become a mental torture for us to even listen to them.

MT- MCA Running Dog For UMNO

MCA-the Running Dog? No, it was not so in the beginning.

Tun Sir Henry H S Lee was one of the grand sons of a powerful governor of two important sounthern provinces of China during the Qing Dynasty.

He was also a nephew to one of the first cabinet ministers in Dr Sun Yat Sen's new Republic of China and was educated in Cambridge as state scholar.

Tun Lee came to Malaya, a wealthy and educated young man and liked it here. He was one of the founders of MCA, wielded his political influence and shifted the support of MCA to UMNO under Tengku Abdul Rahman from Datuk Onn Jaafar's new Party Negara, therefore helped in strengthening the UMNO of those days.

In those days, Tengku held many meetings at Tun Lee's private resident in KL. Tun Lee was close to the British Royal family as he also studied with Queen E's father before the latter accented to the throne. Many of his peers during his Cambridge days became eminent persons on the other side of the table for the negotiations on the independence of our country. Because of his personal friendship and influence, such negotiations were to some extent, made easier.

Tun Lee was the second signatory to the Agreement on our independence, after Tenku's signature. Tun Lee passed away in late eighties without a state funeral. But there was a week long exhibition at Museum Negara, displaying various items reflecting his contribution to the country, including his certificate of citizenship bearing single digit number which Tun accapted to encourage other Chinese to do likewise and yes, they also displayed the table from his resident which Tengku used for his many meetings while he was in KL during those pre-independence days.

Those days, MCA was not the running dog for UMNO.

I weep for Tun Lee tonight, as a professional who served him till his demise, not because the D & C Bank he founded has eventually became RHB today. It was also not because The China Press that he founded had lost its voice. I weep for Tun Lee tonight because the party he founded together with some others with noble intention and contributed so much for independence is being labeled a running dog today and all I can do is merely to whisper in silence that, IT WAS NOT SO IN THOSE DAYS!

On Local Council

Referring to Zainah Anwar’s article “ Whose Voice Do They Listen To?”

The Datuk Bandar and all the Councilors listen to not our voice but the voice of the one who appoints them.

Now do we understand the importance of elected representatives in the City Hall and all other municipalities rather than political appointees?

By the way, when someone took away the land from the orang asli, we did nothing because we are not orang asli.

When the super incinerator was improperly sited at Puchong and later Broga, we also did nothing because we do not live there.

When many green parks all over Puchong, Ampang, Selanyang, Setapak, Klang Lama or Bukit Gasing were converted for development, we did nothing because we do not go there.

When elevated highway to Putrajaya was constructed merely within twenty feets from those poor folks' homes in Sri Petaling, we did nothing because, thank God we do not live there.

Now, this is happening in front of our gates, who can we count on to make a difference?

31/5/2007
I paid my cukai tanah today at the Gombak land office.

Visitors, including rates payers and tax payers are not allowed to drive into the vast compound with lots of car parking lots reserved only for the employees of the land office.

Visitors need to park on an open clearing far in front of the grand council building and walk all the way through the gates and up the long road to the grand lobby. A car park marked "VIP" with stainless steel railing was reserved for a VIP "civil servant" right in front of the grand lobby.

At the information desks, I felt bad as my enquiry startled the lady in the both. Apparently, she was reading some magazines and did not expect anyone to make any inquiry.

After settling my cukai tanah with a front desk "civil servant" who was also busy chatting with her many other colleagues with no apparent functions other than chatting, I walked all the way out to my car under hot sun. When I finally reached the gate and looked back, I noticed a beautifull arch structure with words that reads:-Terima kasih kerana mengurus dengan pejabat tanah.

Those words are facing out.

It was the same last year, except it was rainning and I was all wet before I reached my car.

ON Dr Azli 1/6/07

A protestant pastor thought there was nothing he needed to do while the Nazi persecuted the Jewish people since he was not a Jew.

Then he also thought that there was nothing he was required to do when the Nazi persecuted the communists, since he was not a communist.

When the Nazi started persecuting the trade unionists, he also thought that there was nothing he had to do as he was not a unionist.

And when the Nazi was prosecuting the Catholics, he did nothing as he was a protestant pastor.

So when the Nazi arrested him, there was already no one around to speak for him.

I wonder where were all the other faculty members of UUM and also all other local universities when Dr.Azli and his wife were dismissed.

UUCA muted us while we were in varsity in the 80s, making my generation of graduates from UM the laughing stock to our seniors who labled us "graduates of Pantai High School" who could only take instructions but could not think. Like ValentineHIMSELF, we swallowed the humiliations, constantly reminded ourselves to keep our cool and eventually some of us made some form of progress in our lives despite all forms of discrimination. As ValentineHIMSELF said, it was very difficult.

It is rather shocking to know that some regressive forces can now even manage to mute all the faculty members by just one piece of administrative document -"AKUJANJI"!

Dr. Fong was once the Acting Dean in the Falculty of Economics and Accounting - UM in the 80s, whom we respected. Datuk Shahrir was also a highly respected fellow student leader in our faculty who was always willing to assisst others. When he was the Political Secretary of the then DPM, Musa Hitam, I personally received his kind assistance in organising some sort of student activities and I was deeply impressed with his flair in getting things done by just making few phone calls.

I believe both of them understand Dr. Azly's noble intention in objecting to the last 2 clauses in the so called "AKUJANJI" document.

I am disappointed that their names appear in the list of persons of influence who did not respond to Dr. Azly's reasonable request for help, and I wonder why?

On May 13

On May 13 1969, outside gangsters took over our kampong at Lorong Scot in Brickfields, I was 11 years old.

There was only one malay gentleman living with us in our kampong.

Ahmad, who worked for KTM was a very frienly and jovial fellow.

The gangsters armed with parangs shouted outside Ahmad's room, threathening to kill him. My father and also some other neighbours blocked those gangsters and protected and cared for Ahmad throuout the curfiew.

After the tragedy, Ahmad, the only Malay in our kampong moved to Kampong Kerinci. Some displaced Chinese families from kampongs around Kampong Kerinci moved into our kampong instead.

We missed Ahmad and I believe some kind Malay families in Kampong Kerinci also missed those Chinese families who left them after the tragedy.

Whoever started the riots also divided the people for a long long time.

Today, let those politicians who try to separate the peace loving people of our country remember May 13 in the true context.

On the Relationship Between the Triads and our Police Force
3/6/2007

In feudal Japan, Samurai were strictly guided by Bushido with very high degree of honour and served only one master.

Disgraced Samurai who were not accorded the priviledge of committing suicide to redeem his honour become Ronnin and some desperate Ronnin eventually turned into Ninja.

Ninja were not guided by Bushido and they adopt all sorts of tactics and weapons prohibitted under Bushido.

Ninja actually served the Samurai class effectively carrying out what Samurai were not allowed to do as guided by Bushido.

Therefore, "illegal entity" is often allowed to exist by some "powerful legal entity" to serve the latter.Just as Ninja was allowed to exist by the Samurai and the Samurai actually controlled the Ninja, never the other way.

It is the same with the Yakuza and the Japanese police of today.

Triads were very complex issues in the history of China, but the principles are the same, there were always more powerful legal entity supporting and making use of the Triads to carry out functions which were otherwise "not convenient" or deemed “improper” for the former to perform themselves.

Dr Sun made use of the Triads in overthrowing the Manchu; Chiang Kai Shek used the Triads to silence his political enermy.

Suharto used the Pemuda Pancasila (under a certain Pak Kepto, I believe) to ensure the smooth running of his every "general election"

No, the Triads in Malaya was never any headache for the Police Force under the British who engaged the Triads, allowing them to exist and survive and occasionally requesting for information or services to be performed.

I believe it is the same, here and now.

I also believe that it is the same in Hong Kong, Singapore, New York, Dublin, Hamburg and ofcourse it must be so in Sicily.

Nawi Embong - On Dealing With Muslim Officials

2008-04-02T01:31:00.000-07:00

There is really nothing one should worry about when dealing with a genuine Muslim who is very likely to be fair minded.

Many years ago, in 1980, my family’s tyre shop in Klang Lama always got into trouble with corrupt enforcement officers from DBKL, for not paying them kopi-o money on their rounds of inspection, and there was no reason to as we have seen to it that the surrounding was properly maintained.

On one nasty occasion, a very rude officer who could not extort any payment from us, issued a summon with some frivolous charge of traffic obstruction. He was extremely rude and antagonistic as all other shops in the vicinity, in order to avoid problem, just pay meekly on their every visit regardless any offence was committed, except my family’s tyre shop.

I was outraged and demanded that the officer explains the charge but he told me off and just left with his gang laughing along. With tears in my eyes, I rode my Honda cub straight to DBKL and stormed into the office of Datuk Bandar to complain.

Of course I was stopped by the secretary who explained to me about appointment needed and Datuk Bandar having meeting etc.

Feeling frustrated, I retreated to a nearby coffee shop, and remember a senior of mine from Faculty of Law, who was posted to DBKL.

I went to her office, told her in details on what has transpired. She told me to see a certain Director in DBKL whom she said has very low tolerance on corruption and abuse of power.

I went to the Director’s office as directed, was told by the secretary to wait. Soon a man in green jacket and with beads in his hand emerged with an entourage of officers surrounding him.

I was taken aback, and cursed my senior who caused me to face an ayatollah or something, remember the year was 1980, after the Iranian Islamic Revolution and there were posters of Ayatollah Komeini all over our campus in UM.

Though the incident happened 28 years ago, I still remember what followed.

He had a glance of this long haired young Chinese boy with helmet in his hand and asked his pretty secretary:

“ Whats this?”

“ Mahu complain.”

He looked at me again, dismissed his officers and gestured me to follow him into his office, where I told him everything as quickly and as best I could. He asked some questions on my background and then summoned two officers to his office.

Apparently those were Senior Officers in charge of operations on enforcement. I was asked to repeat my ordeal. “Ayatollah Director” then asked the two Senior Officers if they knew their officers were abusive and corrupted as I mentioned. The two advised that investigation has to be conducted first before any conclusion could be made, at which point “Ayatollah Director” blew his top and snared at his officers:-

“What for? You mean to say, this young boy dare barge into my office if he is not genuinely aggrieved? Do you have any idea how your officers conduct themselves in the field? Do you care for our reputation?”

To cut a long story short, those corrupt officers were disciplined and I was told by “Ayatollah Director” that his door will always be opened for me and thank me for taking the trouble to sort things out the correct way.

Since that incident, I had no prejudice in dealing with any Muslim, and I find it rather easy to tell if a Muslim is genuine.

By the way, “Ayatollah Director” real name as I remember is Nawi Embong, I regreted not making any effort to locate him to express my gratitude. However, I have related his good deed many times to many of my friends. Now, I want to dedicate this true story to DAP.

Post 8/3/08 Posting on MT Re appointment of PAS Muslim MB in Perak

THE IMPORTANCE OF FREE PRESS

2008-04-01T19:14:00.000-07:00

Ronald Reagan wrote in his own hand writing in April 1981, soon into his first year as the President of the United States, and I quote:

“ …..that government is only a convenience created and managed by the people with no powers of its own except those voluntarily granted to it by the people.

We sometimes tend to forget that great truth and we never should.”

My understanding is that government exists for the people and therefore must deliver according to the wishes of the people.

In our country, the concept of the power of the government being voluntarily granted to it by the people is questionable. There is no leveled playing field as yet for aspiring political parties to communicate to the electorates. Voters are deemed immature and easily manipulated on racial and religious grounds.

Within such a context, we do need proactive leadership to lead the majority of the people but we should not merely hope that such leadership is also responsible to the people, there should exist some forms of constructive mechanism to ensure that it is indeed so. And I believe a free press is an essential part of such mechanism.

If our government intends to deliver to the people, a responsible free press is needed as a valuable strategic partner to work with and not being taken as something uncomfortable that should be controlled, contained and expresses only the official view of the government.

In my own business, I need to get real feed back from my associates on what is going on at ground zero. When my associates only echo and repeat my view, I know my organization is not moving forward.

To my understanding, self censorship is not welcome and not productive in progressive enterprises.

In progressive enterprises, large amounts are spent in getting all level of management and personnel to speak up so that the top management can accurately execute business decisions. It is therefore foolish for any government not to promote a free press and engaging the free press to feel the pulse of the nation.

FAREWELL MY BELOVED CHINESE SCHOOL

2008-01-10T23:17:00.000-08:00

On the 8th of January 2008, with heavy hearts, we decided to transfer our children from a SRJK (C) to a private school. Today is only the fourth day of their new term into their third year in that Chinese primary school, in the much awaited new school building.

For years, the old school building was bursting way beyond capacity and the children were really deprived of much of the joy of schooling due to the consequential inconvenience of having to share the same facility between two schools, breaking into morning and afternoon sessions.

For the past two years, we have seen with our own eyes how parents, children and dedicated teachers had to endure all sorts of inconveniences in that Chinese primary school. The sharing of the school building, horrific traffic congestion, the run down condition of the school, heavy school bags and equally heavy home work.

We have also witnessed dedicated teaching staff being stretched to teach, raise funds, and fire fight against all sorts of issues such as questionable selection of supplementary text books and even improper canteen operations.

We have donated voluntarily to the school building fund for a new school building, which was eventually built on a plot of donated land in the middle of a huge cemetery ground. We hoped that our children would finally be able to study in a normal way with physical education being carried out in a green field instead of doing it theoretically in the class room as they had been in the past two years, for example.

Just before the school term was due to start, local Chinese newspapers prominently reported that due to the immense effort from a DBKL councilor from a Chinese based political party, an access road within the cemetery leading to the new school building was finally completed. There was a prominent picture of the councilor taking a pose on the newly completed road together with members of the teaching staff and also some Board members.

The nightmare began on the first day of the new school term. As the winding cemetery road was too narrow, there was a massive traffic jam that resulted in parents taking more than an hour to reach the school from the main road through the 3 kilometer winding road in the cemetery.

During the next few days, hired guards, all the teachers and many volunteering parents were involved in trying to direct traffic and ease the jam, but with little success. Parents were frustrated, exhausted and helpless. Many parked their cars along the main road and walked the three kilometer in the cemetery to reach the school.

We tolerated all these terrible pains until today! Today, the local Chinese newspapers finally reported the terrible ordeal faced by the parents and children. The same councilor from the Chinese based political party was there again telling the reporters that the landowner, meaning the Cemetery Management should generously donate more land so that the 4 day old road could be expanded to accommodate the traffic.

We have decided to move our children from the school because we cannot stand the ugly sight of politicians unashamedly taking credit for work which should be their basic responsibility, such as ensuring the provision of proper and safe access to a newly built school funded by donations from thousands of well wishers. Far worse, the whole teaching staff including many parents had to be drawn away from their routine to direct traffic. We feel frustrated and angry when the same councilor, instead of apologizing for the terrible ill-planning of the road construction, shamelessly requested the cemetery to contribute more land for expansion of the road.

Disgusted, we immediately decided to transfer our children to a private school. Our hearts still ached for those thousand or so parents and teaching staff who still need to endure the trauma.

Our hearts weep for the Chinese school and all those students and teachers who were literally pushed to the cemetery. Farewell, our beloved Chinese school that our children could not possibly stay.

ON WEE MENG CHEE NEGARAKU RAP

2007-08-11T21:10:00.000-07:00

I find the song creative, informative and educational. I believe the composer was expressing his true feelings with no malicious agenda.

Do not go after the composer, go and explain yourself if anyone disagrees with any part of the song. This is the basic approach if we believe in civility.

To do that, of course one must first posses the capability to comprehend what was presented.

When you ask any politician on any burning issue, the most standard reply would be either:-

No comment yet. or
I have no knowledge about it, or
I have not read about it, or
I will seek clarification, or
Let us wait for the investigation, or...

In this case, so many of our politicians, including senior cabinet ministers have directly spoken against the composer when it is reasonable to assume that they had yet to know nor understand the issue first-hand. This, I consider outright bullying.

Do not hide behind loud screams of "BEING OFFENDED" or "SENSITIVITY" whenever one is unwilling or more likely, unable to explain valid points raised.

I think it is very shameful that the Police even called up the composer's father. Whatever for? To apply pressure, or to threaten?

Is this how we solve issues or disputes?

Think! People, please THINK! Be consistently kind and honest to each other in the process of building understanding and developing our Malaysia.

By the way, the national anthem of the USA was presented in various styles in the opening ceremony of the Olympic games, or before the finals of their Super Bowl baseball matches.

The national anthem of Taiwan was sung by their superstar, Ah Mei, also with variation in style on the occasion of the inauguration of their President in 2000.

Our national anthem was also presented in several different styles by our beloved late Sudirman and I believe, even the present superstar, Siti Norhaliza, on various occasions.

Please note that in this case, the composer did not change the lyrics of our national anthem, he merely uses our national anthem as the background for his rap.

On our national flag, remember that guy who used our national flag to drape round his head and all over his body, while jumping up and down hysterically with all sorts of facial expressions during the Thomas Cup finals and later, only semi finals matches in support of our national team? Did he "menghinakan" our national flag? Obviously not!

The issue here is neither about our national flag nor our national anthem; it is about the following issues:-

1) Discipline of our Police force
2) The way Islam is being practiced in Malaysia.
3) Inefficiency and indifference of our civil service
4) Imbalances created by NEP
5) Unfair and unwise treatment on vernacular education in Malaysia leading to brain drain.

Address those issues coherently and convincingly. Do not go after the composer, who has actually gained my deep respect!

P/s In moments of patriotism, I often sing Negaraku in various styles and even change the lyrics into something I feel more patriotic, either in my car or even in the shower. If this is a crime, tell me which jail must I report to.
12/08 11:51:01

THE SILENCE IS DEAFENING

2006-03-30T18:59:00.000-08:00

In a real democracy everyone has a voice, and this voice has to be far more than that one vote in a general election once every five years or so. Such a voice, should be heard and respected by the government of the day.

Ronald Reagan once wrote:

“ Government is only a convenience created and managed by the people with no powers of its own except those voluntarily granted to it by the people. We sometimes tend to forget that great truth and we never should.”

How does a responsible government understand and appreciate what the people want if all sorts of obstacles are placed everywhere to mute the voice of the masses?

First we have the Sedition Act, Internal Security Act, Official Secrecy Act, University and University Colleges Act and many other regressive legislation including those that control the freedom of expression in the main stream mass media. All these effectively obstruct the healthy growth in the civic consciousness of a normal citizen and turning such a citizen into a non-participating, ill-informed, marginalized, frustrated and angry person. This is dangerous.

Further, we are now burdened with so many political actors who claimed to be so very delicate, ultra sensitive and very easily offended. Therefore even in our parliament today, relevant issues however humbly articulated with however noble the intention, are “deemed sensitive” and “deemed offensive”. Such political actors shamelessly condemned and threatened
other parliamentarians who brought up certain issues which are affecting every Malaysian. It is disheartening and I believe many thinking Malaysians are disappointed and depressed.

Look around ourselves, we do not find many people who are interested in discussing about any current affairs constructively; we have gone numb and resign to keeping silent.

To me, this silence is very loud and it is getting to be deafening.

http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/49102

ISSUES FROM THE CARICATURES

2006-02-23T22:30:00.000-08:00

ISSUES FROM THE CARICATURES

Earlier, when the issue of the “Caricatures” exploded in various parts of the world, I was comforted by and proud to hear our leaders saying that Islam actually promotes peace, practices compassion and forgiveness, hence appealing to the local Muslims not to overreact.

I was soon confused and very much bewildered that for some events that I still cannot understand, some local newspapers got into trouble with the authority on issues related to the “Caricatures”, supposedly on the grounds of being offensive, insensitive, lacking in understanding, deemed mocking and many other expressed or implied allegations from aspiring and even retired politicians. Publication was suspended; editors and staff lost their jobs.

When I was in University Malaya many years ago, I innocently addressed a lecturer as “awak” during a tutorial; he was offended. Few days later, in the lecture hall with three hundred over other students, he severely ridiculed my “lacking in the understanding” of the language and insensitivity on the need to respect him. I never attended his lectures after that.

Many times in my life, while dealing with others, both local and foreign, my incomplete or inferior knowledge of their languages, customs, cultures and even religious faiths, could have caused me to be easily taken as being offensive, insensitive, lacking in understanding. However, I did not get severely ridiculed or punished as I did in that lecture hall in University Malaya from that lecturer of Political Science. I suspect the main reasons being that the people whom I was dealing with in those situations were peace loving enough to not want to pick a quarrel over my offence and insensitivity, compassionate enough over my lacking in understanding, and most probably they must have chosen to forgive as they were confident and gracious people who did not deem my intention was to mock.

Allow me to elaborate.

Once, many years ago, when I was dinning with some Japanese in Tokyo, I rested my chopsticks pointing towards my hosts in front of me. I did not know that this is offensive according to Japanese customs. My hosts explained their table manners to me with humor and anecdotes; they skillfully explained something which is deemed offensive according to their custom, at the same time, ensuring that I was not embarrassed. We laughed and exchanged many more tips on unique table manners and customs. I became more interested in and respectful of Japanese culture since then and we remain good friends till now.

Last year, I was entertaining my prospective tenant who was a senior diplomat from a certain High Commission. In the course of the meal, since the table was small and I had over ordered, I placed an empty bowl on top of another to create more space. The wife explained gently and gracefully that according to their custom, placing a bowl on top of another means future deprivation of food. I apologized profusely, but they laughed and comforted me about my ignorance. They did not get offended over my “lacking in the understanding” of their customs.

The family has since become my happy tenant and we have also developed deeper friendship, as we find it very easy to respect each other.

Over the years, I also have had several similar kinds of encounters involving my ignorance on religion of different faiths. But none got me into difficulty where I had to be punished, prosecuted, lose my job or business.

I may have been lucky. But the point is, should we punish and prosecute simply because we are offended, because the other party was ignorant or lacking in understanding or even truly insensitive? What does deemed mocking mean? Does it mean unilateral interpretation without giving the so called offending party the opportunity to explain the intent?

I believe that if we truly want others to understand and respect us, we must be confident in ourselves to be graceful and forgiving even though genuine offence has been committed against us.

Show of power to punish and prosecute is no more superior to demonstration of confidence, strength and character to contain and forgive in issues such as those related to the “Caricature”. For any responsible government to deal with the issue otherwise will stand the risk of being viewed as politically motivated to mislead the masses.

I therefore call upon our government to be consistent with its earlier stand in appealing to the nation not to overreact. In the brief history of our nationhood, we do not have many respectable institutions such as the 161 year old NSTP. It is very disheartening and hurtful for Malaysians in general to face the fact that such institution was made to apologize publicly in its front page. I personally wept while reading it.

TMF

http://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/47600

ON MALAYSIAN

2006-02-12T17:49:00.000-08:00

http://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/46750

TALES OF TWO SYSTEMS

2006-01-03T09:53:00.000-08:00

TALES OF TWO SYSTEMS – 3rd January 2006

Today is undoubtedly one of the most difficult in my life, because, like tens of thousands of Malaysian parents, I sent my children to standard one. But the strange thing was I honestly did not know how difficult it could be, until I had to go through the process with my wife.

The whole bitter sweet experience began the night before, when we had to try hard to get our children to go to bed early to prepare for the next bright new day when they would enter standard one in a Sekolah Rendah Jenis Kebangsaan ( “ SRJK” ) or better known as a vernacular school just like I did forty years ago.

I remember then, on my first day in school, my mother walked me to the SRJK in Brickfields; there was no traffic jam, no pushing and shoving. Forty years later, there is still this same SRJK catering to the expanded population with the same basic facilities utilized way beyond capacity, bursting at the seams. Such a school typically accepts enrollment way beyond reasonable teacher-student ratios and creatively has a SRJK II or basically an afternoon school using the same facility.

Our children were assigned to the afternoon school which starts at 1:05pm, but during the pre school briefing, we were advised to ensure that our children report to the school before 12:45pm to avoid clashes with the dismissal of the morning school.

We figured that we would have to leave our home before 11.30am and therefore my poor children had to have their “lunch” latest 11am. By the time we reached the school, the scene was unbelievable! There were numerous school buses around, many were waiting to pick up the children from the morning school and many were just arriving sending in the children for the afternoon school. There were even more private vehicles around for the same reasons. The result was simply spectacular, massive dead locked jams in the whole vicinity. Everywhere around, I saw stressed out expressions not solely due to the prospect of leaving one’s child in school for the first time.

My wife sent our children in while I drove our car further away to avoid causing more congestion; she came out later to take over the car and I went in to see how our children were coping.

As the morning school was still in progress, the children of the afternoon school were all made to sit passively on the floor of the assembly hall according to their respective classes. It then dawned on me that our children today do not have my joy of going to school early and having a whale of a time playing with school mates in the field or in the canteen exchanging smuggled-in nasi lemak some forty years ago.

I went to my children, hugged and kissed them, telling them how proud I was feeling, in witnessing their first step towards this grand notion of education which I passionately promised would lead them into wonderful careers of their choice.

Then I reluctantly walked away from them. As I looked back into the assembly hall and seeing the images of my children sitting on the floor with so many other children while waiting for the morning school to vacate their classrooms, I could not suppress my frustration any further, tears started to roll.

What have we done for our children? Within such close proximity to the Twin Towers, we, the dutiful taxpayers have to go through hellish traffic jams to send our children to such a congested facility. Our children had no space at all to play, mingle or interact with each other.

What have we done for our children? Why were there no expansion of facilities and streamlining of infrastructure in and around such a good and reputable school?

The whole issue boils down to our ruling government’s aspiration of, and stubbornness in promoting a single failed education system under our Sekolah Kebangsaan ( ‘SK” ).

Now that I am experiencing the pain, I began to wonder what happened to some of my peers who are now MPs or even in the Cabinet, do they not experience the inconvenience, anguish and trauma of such unreasonable reality? I do know that they too, send their children to vernacular schools if not private or international schools.

What are we doing to our children? Are we not telling them slowly and painfully that the education system endowed upon them as decided by their parents is not welcome by the government? And who is able to help me in explaining why?

Is there really no room for SRJK and SK to co-exist, to compete on a level playing field for the betterment of our beloved country?

As pointed out by the MP of Kota Bahru, Zaid Ibrahim ( NST 3rd Jan 2006 Comment – Let Constitutional Court Have The Final Say ), by a stroke of the pen, our Government incorporated Syariah courts to co-exist with our civil courts. By a stroke of the pen our Government also introduced Islamic Banking to co-exist with the existing conventional banking.

In China, even the Communists allowed capitalist systems of governments in HK and Macau to co-exist with the larger socialist one in the mainland.

What are we doing to our children? How far can our beloved country progress in an increasingly competitive globalised world with so many of our politicians still lacking in confidence in urgently resolving this destructively perpetuated dilemma on education facing such a wide spectrum of our society?

Education today has to be a liberal means to enlighten the people bringing out the best in them and to connect our society to that of the larger globalised world. In fact, the narrow view of the Government to use education as a tool to influence the people towards a certain direction for clear political reasons will be inherently regressive and unwise.

We owe it to our children to be responsible in offering them a decent environment to study in. Unless we confront the issue pragmatically, it will be increasingly easier to justify the massive brain drain that we are currently suffering.

Read some related articles on Malaysian Education:

http://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/34507
http://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/40697
http://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/34794
http://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/34746
http://anakmerdeka.blogspot.com/2005/10/misguided-hm-in-national-school.html
http://www.johorebar.org.my/content/view/102/27/
http://www.johorebar.org.my/content/view/101/27/

LETTER TO MALAYSIAKINI (OCT-DEC 2005)

2005-12-16T01:03:00.000-08:00

PROMOTING " THE WORLD IS FLAT "
http://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/46417

ON THE SETTING UP OF IPCMC (DEC 2005)

I believe Malaysians will welcome and benefit a lot if Shahrir’s view on the setting up of an Independent Police Complaint and Misconduct Commission is materialized.

Do remember that in the sixties through seventies, Hong Kong had one of the most corrupted and least disciplined police forces in the world and the people suffered greatly while the police force received very little respect from the society. After the setting up of ICAC, an independent watchdog body for the conduct of the police force, and after the sacrifice of many righteous members of the Commission, today, the police force in Hong Kong turned out to be one of the most respected in the world and even Jackie Chan benefited by making a series of movie named after “Police Story.”

We, the Malaysians certainly do not enjoy criticizing our police force, we would rather have our police force glorified, if and when justified.

ON POLICE BRUTALITY AGAINST FOREIGNERS (NOV 2005)

Our Minister has called upon the victim in the infamous Video Clip to come forward.

Who is the victim? The whole nation is being shamed. And as more and more articles appear in the international media, Malaysians are finding it more and more difficult to contain our shock, disgust, humiliation, hurt and anger.

We expect higher level of thought from our Minister to understand as to who are the victims. We, the Malaysians are the victims! And yes, we are coming forward to demand for justice.

Can our elected Administration understand how we feel? Or perhaps our voice is still not laud enough?

ON POLICE BRUTALITY AGAINST FOREIGNERS (NOV 2005)

On my last check on Google search, I found 134 articles on Malaysian Police brutality on foreign nationals. Our Police Force has certainly brought us international shame and disrepute. The need to push for reform in the Police Force has never been as urgent and our conscientious law makers, if there is any left, must respond immediately to prevent our country from suffering further international humiliation and the onslaught of international wrath.

Today, news travels faster and wider than never before, our tourists flow and foreign investment will surely be adversely affected. And Malaysian view as Head of NAM and OIC nations will be losing its meaning as our view on international affairs does not deserve any weight when we can not even put our own house in order.

I know of a girl who was put through the same search procedure as highlighted in the video clip now circulating all over the world; when she talks about her ordeal more than ten years later, she still break down in apparent fear, despair and confusion. I would really like to call upon all fellow Malaysian to reflect for a moment, did we, the people empower the Police Force and any other enforcement agency to conduct themselves in such senseless and inhumane manner to other fellow human being?

I do not believe that our Ministers and senior Police personnel do not know about such brutality as highlighted recently; it is just that they really do not think it was brutal. Our very own Deputy IGP had already said that that the body search was just a routine police procedure, can we not tell that the very organization, to whom which we entrusted to uphold law and order and to protect us had turned arrogant and insensitive, unable to even think as fair minded compassionate human being.

God save our beloved Malaysia!

ON POLICE BRUTALITY AGAINST FOREIGNERS (NOV 2005)

Referring to the group of Indian IT professional who were harassed by our enforcement officers as mentioned in “ POLICE FORCE COULD SPIN OUT OF CONTROL”, some Malaysian may wish to know that their company had since relocated to Singapore. Twin Tower which used to house their office (of a reputable company public listed in New Delhi and New York) had lost a valuable tenant and so did I, as one of the expatriate staff of that company who rented my house was also relocated with very short notice.

As far as I understand, they were not interested in getting any apology or getting involved in our usual debate of the “obviously wrong.” They just act.

Think about those Malaysians who also lost their jobs as a result of the relocation.

ON POLISEMAN CIVIL SUIT AGAINST COMPLAINANT (NOV 2005)

Personally, I welcome the action of the policeman to seek redress in our court of law, because I believe if the issue is properly handled, it may lead to more opportunity for us to improve our system.

I of course do not believe that a 17 years old girl had nothing better to do than making false report against a police personnel. After all our ACA must have deemed the case credible before charging the policeman in court.

But the policeman was acquitted. That can only mean few things to me:-

Our ACA was not competent in handling the case,

Our existing legislation is flawed, or

Our judiciary is biased

Therefore, we as concerned Malaysians should find the truth and move forward, instead of making it look as if the whole Executive is arguing with one policeman

ON POLICE CORRUPTION AND BRUTALITY (NOV 2005)

I read the article with deep felt sadness and anger.

A very unpleasant incident happened to me with the police force some years ago.

It was at a road block presumably to detect drink-driving. Because of my questioning the police choice of the block location, which happened to be at a double lined cornering stretch, I was put through a terrible process of threat and inconvenience at a police station. Four hours later I was cleared and walk out of the police station, I proceeded to another police station in town to lodge a police report. The policeman in attendance asked if I really would like to make a big fuss out of a small “misunderstanding”, I told him I must do what I needed to do to make sure that the Police Force understands that their duty is to protect us by upholding law and order and not arrogantly disrespecting our rights; further, what the bad cops did, affects the reputation of good cops, if there is any. I remember telling him that I could not tolerate “ harapkan pagar, pagar makan padi.”

There was no follow up on my report by the Investigation Officer.

I subsequently compiled all relevant documents and prepared a detailed account of what happened, addressed and hand delivered to the office of the IGP at that time.

No follow up on my complaint for years; then came the Royal Commission. I was delighted and wrote to the Commission with copy of my previous letter to the IGP.

Even then, still no follow up till today.

I am still not giving up hope to put things right, simply because I know this is my country and we must not let those irresponsible and corrupted cops continue to harass and threaten us. We must not give up the ownership of our beloved country to these irresponsible and corrupted cops; at the end of the day, they are the ones who should feel ashamed and we must not let these kind of incidents affect our hope for the future of this country. Remember, we the taxpayers are the one who provide them with the uniform.

I truly wish that the writer, or rather victim, in this unbelievable incident can get over with the hurt and I would like to thank him for writing the article. I believe with more awareness from the public at large, the situation can and must improve.

ON LOCAL COUNCIL (OCT 2005)

I hope you can spend a little more effort in bringing more awareness over this frustrating yet important issue.

There are really many justifications to have elected council members. We need councilors who are interested to serve and posses the ability to serve, instead of appointed councilors who took the appointment simply as a job or as a political favor.

In my several dealings with various councils, the working environment was shameful. Staff were seen playing computer games, person in charge always not around, Ketua having meeting and the list of our frustration goes on and on. In running my own business none of those things I observed in the various local councils is allowed to happen, otherwise my business will surely go bankrupt.

And recently the trend seems to be for the councilors to reward themselves with incentive trips and luxurious living quarters, just look at the situation in Subang, Shah Alam and Selayang.

I believe this is a credible issue for you to encourage more discussions and perhaps to conduct a nation wide poll for opinions.

Thank you for your kind attention and warmest regards

LETTER TO ROYAL COMMISSION

2005-12-16T01:01:00.000-08:00

Toh May Fook

26TH February 2004

THE CHAIRMAN,
SURUHANJAYA KHAS,
PENAMBAHBAIKAN PERJALANAN DAN
PENGURUSAN POLIS DIRAJA MALAYSIA,
P.O.BOX 1084050726
KUALA LUMPUR

Dear Sir,

Re : REQUEST FOR REVIEW OF POLICE REPORT

I am very much encouraged by the initiative under the current Administration leading to the establishment of the Royal Commission. The general public has now placed their reasonable hope that the Royal Commission shall eventually ensure that our nation will have not only a professional police force that we can rely upon to maintain peace and order, but also a dignified and respectable police force that we can be and in fact should be proud of.

With such expectation and also a deep realization that all responsible citizens of this nation must step forward to assist the Royal Commission in such an important and complex task, I am therefore writing to you, to consider reviewing, if you deem fit, a case where I have been wrongfully treated by certain members of our police force. A police report was duly made on the unfortunate incident, with details of the case also subsequently provided via a letter, hand delivered to the Inspector General of Police of that time at Bukit Aman. However till this date, I have not had any response from Bukit Aman.

I enclose herewith a copy of the said letter together with the relevant documents for your kind perusal. I should be glad to provide any other clarification if needed and will be keen to assist in any way possible in your critical mission.

Sincerely yours,

Toh May Fook

LETTER TO IGP

2005-12-16T01:00:00.000-08:00

Toh May Fook

10 September 2001

Inspector General of Police
Royal Malaysian Police, Bukit Aman
50560 Kuala Lumpur

Dear Tan Sri,

RE : COMPLAINT ON GROSS MISCONDUCT OF POLIS PERSONNEL

With deep regrets, I enclose herewith a police report (W892180) lodged by me with the Police Station at Jalan Travers with regards to an incident where I was badly treated and terrorized by members of the police force. The details of the unfortunate incident is more clearly recorded by Inspector Nichimuthu, the Investigation Officer at the Brickfields Police Station.

However, I would humbly seek your permission for me to recount the event as follows:

While on my way home after having my supper at some hawker stalls at Kuchai Entrepreneurs park, I was stopped by a traffic policeman along the road leading from Jalan Kuchai Lama to Seremban highway at around 2 am on 9/9/2001. There was a traffic police operation along that road at the material time.

As I was stopped after a turning immediately after a traffic light along a double lined road, I mentioned to the police officer that perhaps it was not the most appropriate spot to stop a car because it may endanger other cars behind me. The officer visibly took offence and that was the beginning of my misery for the next several hours.

Firstly, the officer shouted at me rudely for my license and then another officer forced me to take a breath test although I did not drink any alcohol before that and I definitely showed no signs of someone intoxicated.

When I inquire if the tube I was supposed to be blowing into was used or new, the officer angrily pulled out the tube and threw it across my car which caused considerable fear in me, I protested his rude and intimidating behavior and he became verbally more abusive. Then I requested to see the officer in charge of the operation, but unfortunately, he did not want to listen to my protest but asked me just to blow the tube.

I then requested to conduct the test at a police station because I was very fearful and I have also lost confidence in them. My request was ignored. I then protested that if they continue to be rude and abusive, I would have no choice but to lodge a police report, the earlier officer by the name of Yacob then shouted at me : “ awak buat lah laporan apa saja, ingat! saya ada kaki dan member di mana mana juga!” and then I was practically forced to blow the tube and although I saw that the equipment showed an illuminated “0” reading, I heard the officer shouted “ Nah! Ada reading, bawa dia ke balai!”

Then they left me standing by the side of my car and I waited for about 10 minutes before another officer got into the driver side of my car and asked me to get into the passenger side. I got into the car and asked if it was proper procedure for a police officer to drive my car without my consent, the officer then told me that I was suspected of being drunk and therefore I was not allowed to drive. On the way to Jalan Tun H S Lee police station, I reminded the officer that he was not wearing the safety belt but he just ignored me.

At the police station, I was made to sit next to two hand-cuffed men and waited for a long while. Meanwhile Yacob also came to the room and intimidated me by staring rudely at me. Much later, I was finally asked to conduct a proper breath test which showed a negative result. I was then handed over to another officer who returned my car keys and my driving license to me and asked me to go home, I then told the officer that I wish to lodge a report, whereupon I heard a loud shout of “ Apa! apa!”, just behind me! I was startled and turned and to my great shock, I saw Yacob staring over me from just behind my chair with the vest that he wore touching my head! I was terrified!

I tried to explain to Yacob then that he has terrorized me and that he is tarnishing the image of the police force, he shouted at me and asked me to just get out of the Balai! I then walked out of the room in a state of shock and asked another officer where can I lodged a report, but I was told that the Balai was closed and I should just get out and lodge the report anywhere I like!

Fearful of my safety I did not go home direct but eventually lodged my report at the Jalan Travers Police Station and later proceeded to record a statement with Inspector Nichimuthu in the Brickfields Police Station.

Dear Tan Sri, I am still in a state of shock and fear, the police force that I trusted to protect me and my family all this while turned out to be intimidating, threatening and even to the point of terrorizing a decent member of public like myself. Now, when I see a policeman, there is this sense of terror that will emerged because of the terrible experience that I had the misfortune to have encountered.

I have no choice but to believe that there must surely be just a handful of police personnel who behave in such terrorizing manner towards a decent member of public;

Dear Tan Sri, when I requested to make a police report out of desperation, the officer insinuated that I will be “taken care of” by his “kaki and member”. And in fact I was prevented from making any report at the Jalan Tun HS Lee traffic police station even though I was really fearful that they will go after me and I could not even reach home! I am therefore writing this letter to your goodself and urge you to kindly look into the matter for the sake of the well being of our nation and also to protect the image of the police force.

As for myself, I just pray that time can wear out my fear the next time I meet a policeman, but I trust that your timely investigation into the matter will also help me to recover easier.

Thanking you for your kind attention.

Yours Faithfully,

Toh May Fook

Read related experience from others:

http://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/41976

http://www.malaysiakini.com/opinionsfeatures/41813