What could possibly have been going on in the heads of the our leaders to have sanctioned the arrest of 3 persons under the Internal Security Act? I can understand Raja Petra: his attacks on the Deputy Prime Minister Rosmah Najib and her husband were getting to be a little too close for comfort. But why Teresa Kok – an inexperienced politician - and why the reporter Hoon Cheng Tan – one of dozens who have been covering the seditious antics of UMNO’s Datuk Ahmad Ismail?
Speculation 1: Najib had to get Raja Petra out of the way, but to detain him alone would be too obvious. So pick a couple of other targets- ones which aren’t too high profile – to get a mixed bag and attempt to spin it as a general initiative to calm the growing waves of unrest in the country.
Speculation 2: Same as above for Petra, but overtly attack a member from each of the Opposition and the Media, as a warning sign that Badawi and Co are willing to use brute force to stay in power.
Speculation 3: Imagine this… A cramped closet. Inside are Badawi and his closest allies. All except the PM are fretful, sweating nervously and emitting BO as the news of the Opposition courting members of parliament in Taiwan zip in on their latest HSDPA handphones. Pak Lah, the epitome of calm, nods off as usual, but owing to the dim lighting, his nodding was interpreted as acquiescence to proceed by the others present. Enter… the Malaysia Zone! Da Da Dee Dee Da Da Dee Dee
Speculation 4: Badawi and the leader of the Opposition, Anwar Ibrahim (a real hypocrite, bless him!) are secretly in league. This scheme, which any political monkey could have foreseen as being fraught with more downside than upside, was cooked up because Anwar’s efforts to woo enough MP’s over to topple the government on Anwar’s (rapidly approaching) boasted date of September 16 wasn’t working. And so, Badawi had to do something spectacularly stupid to push public opinion back towards Pakatan Rakyat. Ta Daa!
The reported response from the police regarding Hoon Cheng’s arrest was a classic: they claimed to be attempting to protect her. But what can you expect from wise guys who walk around collecting protection money: they didn’t know what else to say and so used the same line that they apply to local shopowners. Wise guys in uniform: aren’t there a few movies along this line? And so we come full circle: greek actors wearing masks on a stage: Hypocrites.
Monday, September 15, 2008
Monday, September 8, 2008
Do trees falling make a sound?
My friends in Penang were inconvenienced over the weekend by a landslide which blocked a principal road they often use. There were several other landslides in the state brought on by the continuous rain over the past few days. These incidents bring to mind an old philosophical question: does a tree falling deep in the forest make a sound if nobody hears it?
The response from some of the affected residents is classic. As reported in the Star “Landslides in Penang being cleared”, September 8, 2008), one of them managed to highlight the idiocy of living next to hills in two concise sentences:
“Lee Wai Tuck, 46, said landslides in their area were common. He said he was shocked to see his backyard covered with mud and rocks right up to his back door.”
Now, if I were living in an area where landslides were common, it wouldn’t at all surprise me if an abundance of mud and rocks were to appear suddenly in my living room. Moreover, I wouldn’t be looking to point fingers.
Penang’s Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng, on visiting the residents said the Government would identify the ownership of the hilly area. “If it is privately owned, the state will ask the owners to do remedial work”.
However in Selangor, vocal critics aligned with Lim’s Pakatan Rakyat (“PR”) party colleagues are doing everything they possibly can to ensure no works take place on hillslopes, even if those slopes need stabilizing. One of PR’s more famous MP’s, a certain R. Sivarasa (defender of alleged Malaysian sodomists), reportedly ran around earlier this year vapidly and repeatedly saying “Not one cangkul in the ground” in seeking to publicize his efforts on behalf of various residents living around Gasing Hill. (For you non-Malaysians, a cangkul is akin to a spade. This is actually a great study of hypocritical owners telling other owners why the former should have the right to live dangerously but not the latter. More on this another day).
Another interesting case study which I've ben tracking is the hillside project called Damansara21 where work has been halted as the result of complaints by its neighbours: the owner, Selangor Dredging Berhad, is in a Catch-22 situation: do works, risk landslides and be condemned; don’t do works, risk landslides and be condemned.
I’ve been told, and it makes sense to me, that just as trees fall naturally without human interference, landslides also occur naturally without human interference. The residents living on and around hillslopes voluntarily choose to do so with this knowledge and should move out if they are concerned about landslides. However Malaysians, being what we are, are clearly capable of building our houses on sand without foundations and then scratching our head in wonder when the rains come.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Pakatan Rakyat or Pakatan Hutan
The Malay Mail published an article entitled "Rape of forest reserve continues unabated" on 3 September 2008. It was topped (as usual) by a provocative photo of an excavator next to a mess of fallen trees, bearing the caption "Deforestation: Illegal land clearing taking place in the Raja Muda Musa Forest Reserve. This picture was taken last May"
This was a great expose containing multiple instances of hypocrisy:
State executive councillor Elizabeth Wong continues to display her utter disregard for the poor and disenfranchised. It's easy to shout "Save the forest" from her air-conditioned office and comfortable home, but who gives a shit about the farmers who eke out a living from huts next to the forest. “Officers in charge of enforcement should act firmly. We cannot be selective about when we want to carry out preventive action because this is a serious problem,” she added.
The best part of this latest nonsense from the immature state government of Selangor is that it was another State executive councillor, Yaakob Sapari, who was in charge of Agriculture and Natural Resources who stopped the enforcement officers. "Yaakob told Malay Mail that he wanted to give those who have encroached into the forest reserve more time to move out and find an alternative site... Almost all these farmers have been lurking in and around the forest reserve for many years and have refused to leave, simply because they have no where else to go."
On a general tack, this article is one of so many others by the Malaysian media that obviously pander to the public's desire for scandal at the expense of accurate and fair reporting. I've had the pleasure of chatting with various editors who have at various times separately commented that what sells newspapers is sex, violence and scandal; truth doesn't figure into the picture. Let the readers be misled, so long as they keep buying our paper!!
The entire barrage of articles accompanying the recent landslide in Damansara Heights provided a vivid study of how wildly differing accounts can be of just one, manifestly observable event: some reported that mud had flowed into the house while others claimed that whole houses were completely destroyed; some claimed that the residents were fearfully relocating while another emphasized that residents want to move back or are staying put, etc etc.
In this case, having failed to find tantalizing and current photos to back the article, the Malay Mail dug out a photo which was not only outdated, but not even of the affected areas and parties. Contrary to the title and photo, it turns out that there was in fact not just one excavator at the forest reserve, but three, all of which were driven by officers from the Selangor Forestry Department going about their duties! It's getting so bad that the newsstand looks like it only has tabloids on offer: next thing we'll see is pictures of little green men running about on the front page.
To the State Government of Tan Sri Khalid, I say: GROW UP! Life is complex and the last thing you ought to be doing is behaving as if there is only one solution to every problem. And while you're growing up, stop hypocritically calling yourself Pakatan Rakyat, and start calling yourselves Pakatan Hutan. At least we'll know what we're voting for.
This was a great expose containing multiple instances of hypocrisy:
State executive councillor Elizabeth Wong continues to display her utter disregard for the poor and disenfranchised. It's easy to shout "Save the forest" from her air-conditioned office and comfortable home, but who gives a shit about the farmers who eke out a living from huts next to the forest. “Officers in charge of enforcement should act firmly. We cannot be selective about when we want to carry out preventive action because this is a serious problem,” she added.
The best part of this latest nonsense from the immature state government of Selangor is that it was another State executive councillor, Yaakob Sapari, who was in charge of Agriculture and Natural Resources who stopped the enforcement officers. "Yaakob told Malay Mail that he wanted to give those who have encroached into the forest reserve more time to move out and find an alternative site... Almost all these farmers have been lurking in and around the forest reserve for many years and have refused to leave, simply because they have no where else to go."
On a general tack, this article is one of so many others by the Malaysian media that obviously pander to the public's desire for scandal at the expense of accurate and fair reporting. I've had the pleasure of chatting with various editors who have at various times separately commented that what sells newspapers is sex, violence and scandal; truth doesn't figure into the picture. Let the readers be misled, so long as they keep buying our paper!!
The entire barrage of articles accompanying the recent landslide in Damansara Heights provided a vivid study of how wildly differing accounts can be of just one, manifestly observable event: some reported that mud had flowed into the house while others claimed that whole houses were completely destroyed; some claimed that the residents were fearfully relocating while another emphasized that residents want to move back or are staying put, etc etc.
In this case, having failed to find tantalizing and current photos to back the article, the Malay Mail dug out a photo which was not only outdated, but not even of the affected areas and parties. Contrary to the title and photo, it turns out that there was in fact not just one excavator at the forest reserve, but three, all of which were driven by officers from the Selangor Forestry Department going about their duties! It's getting so bad that the newsstand looks like it only has tabloids on offer: next thing we'll see is pictures of little green men running about on the front page.
To the State Government of Tan Sri Khalid, I say: GROW UP! Life is complex and the last thing you ought to be doing is behaving as if there is only one solution to every problem. And while you're growing up, stop hypocritically calling yourself Pakatan Rakyat, and start calling yourselves Pakatan Hutan. At least we'll know what we're voting for.
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