Posted on by Kit

Losing battle for Pak Lah’s soul

The Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi gave an excellent Christmas message when he called on Malaysians to move forward and put the country’s interest before any “narrowly-defined demands” as “over the past few months, narrow-mindedness and intolerance propounded by a small group has served to test our faith in each other”.

Ask the over two million Christians in Malaysia celebrating Christmas today whether they agree with the Prime Minister’s sentiments and I have no doubt that there will be a thumping unanimous “Yes”.

Ask them to cite a recent example of “narrow-mindedness and intolerance propounded by a small group” which had undermined the national interest with their “narrowly-defined demands”, I also have no doubt of a thumping unanimity of response by the Christians in the country – the narrow-minded decision by the Deputy Internal Security Minister,. Datuk Johari Baharum to disallow the renewal of the Bahasa section of the HERALD, the Catholic weekly and to ban the use of the word “Allah” by non-Muslim Malaysians and non-Muslim faiths.

Abdullah’s Christmas message this year has served to illustrate in a most vivid fashion the losing battle for the soul of the Prime Minister to convince him to walk the talk to project Malaysia as a world model for inter-faith understanding, goodwill and harmony.

It is clear that the writer of the Prime Minister’s Christmas message does not belong to the the Putrajajya fourth-storey “movers and shakers” of the Abdullah administration who exercise real power and are not just wordsmiths but people responsible for a series of “narrowly-defined demands” undermining the national interest in the past four years.

Is Abdullah prepared to strike down the most recent blatant example of “narrow-mindedness and intolerance propounded by a small group”, regardless of whether they are hiding in the bureaucracy or outside?

MCA President, Datuk Seri Ong Ka Ting, MIC President, Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu and former Gerakan President, Datuk Seri Lim Keng Yaik have issued very sweet-sounding Christmas messages. Will they support Abdullah in striking down “narrowly-defined demands” undermining the national interest emanating from within the government machinery, beginning with Johari’s unconstitutional edict?

56 Replies to “Losing battle for Pak Lah’s soul”

  3. The PM will naturally say that at any festival. It`s all blah blah blah.
    Just like in the TV series `Highway Patrol` where Broderick Crawford used to warn the viewers:

    Remember, there will always be people who pat your back with one hand, and pick your pocket with the other.

    Cakap ta serupa bikin.

  4. Pak la lets hear what Bernard Shaw states ‘ men are not wise in proportion to their experience but to their capacity for experience’

    The lack for capacity with the 50 year old government sucks.

  7. Badawi`s inner spiritual struggle is damning the country:

    Sabah Sidang Injil Borneo (SIB) Church president Pastor Jerry Dusing filed the suit on behalf of the church at the Kuala Lumpur High Court on Dec 10 after six titles for their Sunday school education for children were banned from being imported.

    The church is also asking the court to compel the minister to return the consignment of materials that were ‘unlawfully detained’ by customs officers at the Low-Cost Carrier Terminal on Aug 15.

    http://politics101malaysia.blogsome.com/2007/12/24/church-sues-over-book-ban/

  8. The group of people who don’t know their religion well, yet they try to monopolise their own religion. Thus they created conflict with others. Do they know exactly how their religion co-existed with others and lived in harmony, during the time when Islam attained its peak, in southern part of Spain? Christian and Muslims, in my mind, shared too many similarities, including the common God. This God is expressed differently in differently language, but no matter what language you use, it should not change the nature of God. I think Christians and muslims are probably the closest in teaching when compared to Christians and Buddists, for example. You have the same source, in the middle east.

    It is even strange when I read about the same Christians but burning each other’s church because of different races (white versus black). They shared the same Jesus yet they burned their Jesus. Should we also see this in Malaysia?

    I don’t mean that Chinese have no connection with Hinduism. In fact, Chinese culture is strongly affected by the Indians based on the fact that Buddism originated from India. There is a long route and story to import Buddism from India to China (through the monkey, pig and monk) and mixed with Taoism. I still don’t understand why Chinese are brained washed that their culture is pure Chinese culture – purposely by MCA and SUPP. This is never true. So respect the source of your culture. This is the same as Malay. There are many vocabularies in Malay that were from India. When I chatted with one of my Indian friends (from India), we talked about Garuda (the Indonesian national carrier), and he told me Garuda is one of the Hindu Gods that flies. Guru is a Malay word? No, it is from India. And many more. It is bad that both Malay and Chinese are trying to deny part of their cultures, simply because of a lack of understanding of others (and with a good brain washing machine).

  11. The word soul is commonly associated with one’s psyche, or spirit. Many religions in the world believes that the soul survives death and the consciousness continue. As such, the good that we do, creates good ripple effects and the bad we do creates bad ripple effects. In both cases, Karma is accumulated. Good karma makes the soul vibrant and spiritual, bad karma makes the soul miserable and creates multitudes of bad effects on earth.
    Looking back, Tun Abdul Razak bin Haji Dato’ Hussein Al-Haj (March 11, 1922-January 14, 1976) was the second Prime Minister of Malaysia, ruling from 1970 to 1976, was the prime minister responsible to launch the NEP ( then known as Malaysian New Economic Policy (MNEP) ). I believe his soul must be troubled to have launched the NEP. Any God fearing human being will be troubled by such actions. Dr.Mahathir had a chance to reduce his karma by discontinuing the NEP in 1990 ( as agreed when it was launched) but did not follow his conscience.

    The following was taken from Wikipedia:
    “The NEP’s success is a subject of heated debate. The NEP targeted a 30% share of the economy for the Bumiputra, but according to official government statistics, the NEP did not succeed in reaching this target. Although the policy ended officially in 1990, Malaysians often refer to the NEP in the present tense because many of the tangible economic benefits it offered the Bumiputra are ongoing. In 2005, some politicians from the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the leading political party of the governing Barisan Nasional coalition, called for the restoration of the NEP as part of the New National Agenda (NNA).”

    It’s interesting to note that the New National Agenda(NNA) was spearheaded by Khairy Jamaluddin, the Deputy Head of UMNO Youth and Abdullah’s son-in-law. Here is the definition of NNA from Wikipedia :

    “The New National Agenda (NNA) is a set of policies and objectives devised by the ruling party of Malaysia, UMNO, as a fresh means to continue the Malaysian New Economic Policy under prime minister Abdullah Badawi. A major proponent of the NNA has been Khairy Jamaluddin, the Deputy Head of UMNO Youth and Abdullah’s son-in-law.”

    Hey, these guys seems to be re-shaping and giving new breath to the NEP. I’m sorry for the torture they are enduring their souls. Our past and present prime ministers ( except Tunku Abdul Rahman) seems to have sold their souls to the lower forces of nature. They have no fear to God or Allah. If they are convinced by the greatness of God, they will not behave the way they are behaving now. Their greatest evil is denying tertiary education to non malays by imposing quota.

    Let’s hope that these UMNO leaders are touched by the love of God or Allah and that they begin by doing the right things, to give equal rights for the basic commodities in life, like freedom of speech and the right to be educated.

    God bless Malaysia.

  13. Syed Akbar introduces, in the first chapter, the concept of the Failed State. He offers two different sets of criteria that characterize a failed state (p. 7 and p. 9), and throughout the book, numerous examples are given to support the premise that most of the Islamic countries around the world can be classified as such – failed states.

    And here’s the scary part – Malaysia, too, already has some of these characteristics exhibited by the failed states. The proverbial writing, as they say, is already clearly written on the wall. Written, in fact, with bright luminous paint – if only we bothered to look.

    What exactly constitutes a failed state? Using one of the two sets of criteria (p. 7), Syed Akbar characterizes a failed state as one which exhibits the following attributes:

    1. Restrictions on the free flow of information
    2. The subjugation of women
    3. Inability to accept responsibility for individual or collective failure
    4. The extended family or clan as the basic unit of social organization
    5. Domination by a restrictive religion
    6. A low valuation of education
    7. Low prestige assigned to work

    http://asylum60.blogspot.com/2006/11/book-review-malaysia-and-club-of-doom.html

  15. AAB should direct this message to his own party members like Hissamuddin, KJ and Johari and many more and not to malaysian public at large. He must realised that the present uneasiness among the non malays were due to UMNO’s morons. Ask these morons to put the country’s interest before their personal interest, and I believe this country will be a better place to live in.

  16. GE is around the corner, this hypocrite PM is out again to give sweet talk. I hope all voters have learnt the lesson and not to be pursuaded to vote for BN easily. Else we have to suffer another 5 years under an evil regime.

    Enough is enough!! Vote BN out, send the messages to all your family, friends, neighbours, students, strangers, etc. Say not to this hypocrite government. Together we can make a change!!!

  17. Yes, say NO to the hypocrite government! Nothing can put them right. The only way is to vote them out in a few states and greatly reduce their majority in others. It would be best if their position can be weakened so that some independent audit unit can ‘exhume’ their corrupt practices! The innocent Malays need such clear evidents to believe they have been conned!

    Semi Value and OKT are nothing but just ‘puppet dogs’ who would lick whoever is their master; they are spineless (mei-kut-chi)! How can we don’t even hear a damn from them on the ‘Allah’, Kudat ‘Ma-Chu’ issue? This shows that they are no equal partners in the BN which they always denied.

  18. The Indians have deserted BN and Samy himself will have to join John Howard soon.
    The Christians are also fed up. The SIB in Sabah is suing the government and PM zzzzzzzz for banning some Christian literature for using the word Allah. The case will be heard on Thursday (Dec 27).
    Now with the Catholics, another group voters have deserted BN.
    The Chinese (except for the khia sue and khia si ) are also fed up and will vote Opposition.
    Clever Malays are also with PAS and Keadilan.
    Now, how else can UMNO, MCA. MIC win unless they cheat through the transparent ballot boxes with the help of the EC.

  20. “narrow-mindedness and intolerance propounded by a small group” which had undermined the national interest” = what??
    Waving kris n threaten to soak in others blood? threaten to burn down SCAH? demolish temples? forbide even 90 persons to walk 500 mtr on peaceful sunday morning? remove cross from mission schools? destroy pig farm suka suka? forbide to use certain word by non muslim (Msian only or all in Msia?)? forbide rsmall group rakyat to go to parliament to hand in memo? …..etc ?
    Who is AAB refer to??

  21. uncle kit, please make sure there there is no foul play on arm forces votes because in the absence of the personal the regulating department will vote on behalf( example: when a navy personal goes sailing his vote is voted without his presents) better still no postal vote. check on this for DAP to win.

  22. […he called on Malaysians to move forward and put the country’s interest before any “narrowly-defined demands” as “over the past few months, narrow-mindedness and intolerance propounded by a small group has served to test our faith in each other”.]
    Immmm…
    The man just talks because it sounds sweet; irony is, he doesn’t that Malaysian are not stupid as he and his counterpart.
    Another version of the given message is…” don’t ask more, we’ve given alot to you all (non-bumis), just work hard with whatever given to you to make the nation (or bumis) to prosper. This is we want and this is my strong demand from you (non-bumis) all. If you all don’t follow this damand and still request more then no choice using ISA”.
    Very funny isn’t it?
    A kind of slavery system.
    Making non-bumis the forth-class.
    Some kind of Apartheid policy.
    Systematically reducing the number of non-bumis.
    I didn’t tell this…many analysts are telling this.
    New year is around the corner; brand NEW government around the corner too.

  23. The PM`s sinking black soul, now like a chicken losing its head runs helter skelter:

    Crackdown on Bloggers begins?
    Cucumatkilau, a PKR-proposed candidate during the last general election, has claimed that police broke down the door of his home in Kuantan yesterday morning before cuffing him and taking him to the police station . He claimed that the cops did not produce any warrant for his arrest and did not say why he was being arrested.
    http://rockybru.blogspot.com/2007/12/cops-nab-blogger-in-kuantan.html

  24. But why are the following Ministers so silent?

    Ministers of Christian Affairs – Bernard Dompok, Maximus Ongkili
    Minister of Hindu Affairs – Samy Vellu
    Ministers of Buddhist Affairs – Ong Ka Ting,
    Minister for Sikh Affairs – Koh Tsu Koon

    Did we miss anybody out?

  25. I am surprised, no Malaysians in this kind of party would stand up and question the Prime Minister. What are you people afraid? Shoot him with questions. It is his responsibility to make things better and he is not doing his job, why let him walk away unscathed? Dont be so forgiving to any of them.

  27. “What are you people afraid? Shoot him with questions” – sj

    Before you finish shooting your second question, our PM would have dozed off! Days later there’s a possibility he’ll say, “tell me the truth, I want to hear it no matter how negative”

  30. Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi just don’t have what it takes to be a PM. He does not have the mental and physical toughness for the job and if he is not fit even for simple administration/PR work, (often found dozzing off) let alone lead a nation that requires true mental grit. He does not have it, it’s simply too stressful for him.

    He should admit it his failings and retire like a gentleman, no point hanging on while the country suffers.

  31. Negarawan,
    Why should Jeanne be blamed? The way he goes around dozzing off at meetings and meet-the-people session, I won’t be surprised without Jeanne around, he might forget his tie and to change his socks !

    He should count his blessings he married a “maid” for life to see him through his twilight years!

  34. Why should Jeanne be blamed? The way he goes around dozzing off at meetings and meet-the-people session, I won’t be surprised without Jeanne around, he might forget his tie and to change his socks !” Jong

    Are you sure that Jeanne is not the cause of his sleepless nights?

  35. “He should admit it his failings and retire like a gentleman, no point hanging on while the country suffers.” Jong

    That’s what power does. It corrupts and once it corrupts you think you’re indispensable while those without the power think you’re expandable!

  36. “Before you finish shooting your second question, our PM would have dozed off! ”

    Ah, let the voice and the tempest of the people be heard. Let the tempest of Malaysians be so loud that it echoes throughout the country. So loud that even he cant fall asleep. Let the tempest be so furious that even he cant fall asleep at night even if the tries to. Let it haunt him even after he goes to his grave. Rise, Malaysians, Arise and LET OUR VOICE BE HEARD.

  37. Its a national pastime for politicians to use words and sentences to mean something that the listener don’t agree. We know what the PM likely mean by ‘narrow-mindedness and intolerances’ – Hindraf and Bersih etc, when we think it should mean another but right there and then, you can’t ask or clarify.

    What is the purpose of doing this? Not to answer the tough question.

    I don’t think he gave a great speech – he avoided the issue and his stance when its an opportunity to stand up and clarify. True leaders takes these opportunity to send out truly defining messages. He did not and hence not a good leader.

    Still think we don’t need a new vision? He is so…wrong.

  38. I definitely don’t think he made a good speech. It’s his ‘narrow-mindedness and intolerance’ that is severely testing the people’s patience.

    This guy is mentally-challenged, an idiot, a kultz, a dimwit, or whatever, and as what undergrad2 said, he thinks he is indespensible! Maybe not, maybe his speechwriter is setting him up. Doesn’t he at least realise that those words he used actually suited him best?

    Sighhhhhh………I give up! And the formula? There’s none except to please I beg of you Malaysians out there, send the tremors and kick all these robbing monkeys out. Vote DAP, PKR and PAS!

  40. To be fair without siding anyone, since when you see Pak Lah doing thing? But why things get done? And when something done, why pak lah never say that ‘you see, I get it done” like everyone else, regardless from which party?

    When you critic, have you ever thing about who is actually the real loser that being selfish and keep on asking for free lunch or being used/brain-washed by someone? Please get your seat number accordingly.

    In Malaysia, as long as you are willing to work, you won’t die of hunger. If you only work hard but not work smart, you will end up with become poor. Those robbers are lazy + stupid + low EQ + greedy. Those keep on asking for free lunch is lazy + stupid only.

    Finally, I saw someone urge to vote this and that. But as for me, I only vote the one can get issues solved. No point to vote a person base on his party and end up with the town slowly become jungle. Please prove me wrong.

  41. “…The Indians have deserted BN and Samy himself will have to join John Howard soon…” Libra2

    You are giving too much credit to Samy by comparing him with John Howard. In a true democratic country like Australia there is nothing dishonorable about losing an election. Under a fair and transparent electoral system, there is always a loser and a winner in an election. The winner won it with honor and the loser lost it with dignity. John Howard has led the Liberal National Coalition to 3 consecutive victories, an impressive achievement by any standard in true democracies such as Australia, Canada, England and New Zealand.
    In Malaysia, the BN has won every election by cheating and corruption with the corroboration of the Election Commission. They used the whole machinery of the government to run their election campaign. They controlled all the mainstream media and forced them to propagate lies against the opposition parties.
    It will be more aptly to compare Samy Velu and BN with the Ferdinand Marcos regime of Philippine.

  42. Losing battle for Pak Lah’s soul? Sorry man, da prick’s gotta no soul. Like Dr Faustus, he sold it to da devil a long time ago, right after he failed his introductory statistics paper in UM… then he joined UMNO because UMNO is better than UM

  43. “Saya pantang dicabar” – AAB’s favourite phrase. Does that mean he is absolute? Or that what he says must be taken as it is? In that case, it makes him a TYRANT in this so-called democratic nation!

  45. Dear Tickler.

    I refer to your remarks. I see no wrong in leaders reminding the citizens on the danger of extremism. In fact, that is the duty of a leader.

    Yes. It may sound like broken records. So used to tolerance level in Malaysia that many of us took for granted the importance of moderation. so used to seeing racial clashes in TV ( that took places in other countries), some people begin to question the stands that is the hallmark of our country, Malaysia that is moderation and tolerance.

    In some countries( in fact in our neighbouring countries), racial clash is a fact. Remember Southern Thailand or Sulawesi. Remember when goodwill is gone, these masaccre above may look like child’s play if compared to diverse cultures.

    For Putra Malaysia, my dear friend Malaysia does not practise “Robin Hood policy ” or “rob Peter to pay Paul”. Never I heard any UMNO leaders asking Malays to take a negative or short cut to success. They have constantly reminding Malays how backward they are as compared to non Malays.

    And what is this slavery system. Do alert me( and everybody) about non Malays are treated like slaves. Do you have any evidence to support your “claim”. Is Gerakan member who is the Gunung Semanggol’s Member of Parliament in a heavily populated area by Malays a fourth class citizen.

    Mr Jong, please do mind with age old custom of mannerism. Why hitting below the belt. What the wife of the PM has to do with your critics.

  47. ///For Putra Malaysia, my dear friend Malaysia does not practise “Robin Hood policy ” or “rob Peter to pay Paul”. ///-Shamshul Anuar.

    How do you account for the discount given to Malays on house purchase, when non-Malays pay more, and the developers retain their profit?

  48. To reply Ktteokt :

    NEP can consider a short cut to success if you abuse it.

    NEP and NEP2 were originally design to give the bumiputra a chance to develop themselves so that able to participate in the country economy development. It is not robbing yours to help them. Proven by so many examples, the latest and biggest story will be the Air Asia success. Before that should be Berjaya and Astro. You can’t create fortune is because your limitation. Not the NEP. When non bumi buy a house, he/she unable to nego with the developer to discount for him/her and blame the bumi discount had jacked up his/her house price is not true also. Because the developer had calculated 1 very important factor that, what if all bought by bumi?

    As it will become a long story, I just cut it short.

    NEP is a tool to make the country become better. If the majority can’t excel in the economy sector, the gov should put the whole country development expenses on our non bumi tax money? Need to study what is economy flow.

    NEP robes no one. What we need to do is just open our mouth and try. We cannot blame people for our failure. My personal experience, I bought a house cheaper than the bumi price, last year. How? Right time, right person to talk to and did research before approach. And what I’m earning today, which my monthly income more than some fresh grads annual income, didn’t asked from the gov or any politically related organization.

    Don’t dream about earning big money tomorrow. Just do your best. Your time will come. If giving up base on your weak emotion quality, please don’t blame others. No one owes you anything when your are born. And no country has a fair deal. Just like those western country which give monthly subsidy to the jobless citizens. It is unfair to the tax payers as well. All type of plans are just to make the country better. But each country should have their own formula because they are different.

    *note : As someone may like to add in the corruption factor, please consult the blog owner LKS before this thread had diverted too far away from the subject.

  49. To Loh,

    If we make the gov to remove the compulsory discount for bumi, the house price will be the same and only the developer get benefited. And because of that, bumi will have to contribute to make the developer fat tummy fatter. Who rob whose? We need to point it right.

    And 1 more thing, if you feel suffer to buy a house at that price, why not be a smart consumer and buy a cheaper house else where? Or, in stead of die die blaming, why not die die negotiating when you meet the boss who is selling the house? The only can blame the gov is, the school didn’t teach you the analyze and negotiating skill.

  50. ///If we make the gov to remove the compulsory discount for bumi, the house price will be the same and only the developer get benefited///–CSL

    If you believe what you write, then you will believe that house prices do not depend on cost. Why then should the government insist compulsory discount for bumi? Just stop it, and let the bimi bargain.

    The developer has decided on the profit margin they can make, based on market condition. When they are forced by government to give discount to bumi, what is loss from discount is charged from non-bumi; and so non-Bumi subsidized bumi. It is government policy that robs non-Bumi through the hands of developer, and pay the loss of profit through discount enjoyed by Bumi.

    Yes, you are right to say that people can choose not to buy, but where do they live? Buy a cheaper unit from the bumis. Do you think bumi will charge a lower than market price? The prices of old houses are influenced by prices of new houses on the market. The dicount given to Bumi actually raises market value, because non-Bumi pay a higher price.

    Besides the above, why should government insist that only bumi, any bumi, should enjoy the discount. This action creates two classes of citizens. PM AAB has recently mentioned that Malaysians are equal, so there can’t be two classes of Malaysian citizens, and yet this discount shows clearly that government departments do not follow the statement.

  51. Cls, I disagree with your reasoning, just open your eyes and see what NEP has done!!!! We have bred a whole group of GFNs (good for nothings) who just know how to suck from milk bottles! Can we expect WAWASAN 2020 to be achieved in this way????

  52. Actually I expected a ‘deeper’ counter but still cannot find. Most people can see are the things just around themselves. Very rare can find someone that can see from the picture of a whole country. To make a very simple ‘surface-type of’ example, if you see your brother fall into the sea and he cannot swim, what will you do? Continue your journey back home and let your brother swim home alone? Because of that, he will become stronger?

    You may think house price not fair. This not fair and that not fair. But if we don’t sacrifice for our Malaysian, who will? And if there are no NEP….Oppss, this one, you should go and ask those non bumi businessmen. They can tell you which race is their biggest customer.

    I started to ignore and forget the skin colour thing since few years back. This is not lying to myself. But I started my own 1st step. I hope the 26 millions of Malaysian will do the same. Since when anger/frus can solve problems?

    And for the GFN deal, really, even though they were GFN, but had let thousands of families have food to continue their life and no need to come out and rob/steal. Of cause, when someone cross the river, his leg must wet. But this corruption/abuse thing has nothing to do with the NEP. And those who involved, are include bumi and non bumi. Please go figure out and tell the truth.

    Life is life. You cannot just selectively push away or deny certain things and only accept whatever you like. Please study what’s the value within. How much you can get will depends on your own talent. I have no intention to argue. I just want to open your mind.

    For the younger generation, please wake up. There will be nothing in this world like tomorrow will fly from poor become rich, except you go cheat, rob, steal or etc. Not everyday sunday and can ask parents for money to go shopping. For the older generation, I’m not senior enough to advise you. But please use your own good heart to think.

  53. Before NEP intorduced, there are 2 classes or maybe 3 classes of citizen. Who is the richest/elite? Need to ask senior citizen. The rest of the story, will end up with only 1 answer. In stead of envy people, better spend more effort to make people envy. I had been through all these process. And I’m luckily that I’m intelligent enough to find out before 30.

  56. csl

    You talk sense here. But the boat captained by BN will only send us to hell.

    I was intriqued by your earlier comment regarding the housing developer getting fatter if Malays pay the same price as non-Malays. If the discount was not there, then both Malays and non-Malays would pay the same price, and that would be lower than what non-Malays pay without the discount.

    Yes, we are in the same boat, so riots will not be good for the country. But the powers-that-be insisted that without NEP, there would be riots. And NEP was created because of the jealousy of Malays against non-Malays. NEP would then appease Malays because they beome less jealous, but the idea of people having the birth rights of jealousy is taken as a virtue to be promoted. The government policies of NEP project a bad light against the Malays, as though they would not work hard for themselves. They have to depend on charity to survive, and if they are not given the soft life, they would cause riots. This is how the UMNO governemnt tells the world about Malays’ character, and I know it is not true. But since Malays are too polite to correct their leaders, they continue to lie about it, just to get votes to remain in power.

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