Malaysiakini Your Say | Jul 19, 11
‘Chandra, where’s the larger picture with the detention of Dr Michael D Jeyakumar under the Emergency Ordinance?’
July 9: Look at the bigger picture, says Chandra
Loyal Malaysian: Yes, Chandra Muzaffar, the rakyat is looking at the bigger picture. It is Umnoputras like yourself who have chosen to look at it through blinkered dark glasses.
A Samad Said, the conscience of our nation, has openly accused Umno of playing the racial card, and any impartial observer will conclude the same, guilty as charged. Where’s the larger picture in the detention of Dr Michael D Jeyakumar and the other PSM 6 under the Emergency Ordinance, Chandra?
Josephine: To thwart the efforts of Bersih 2.0, the BN government and its cohorts have spun a long list of red herrings, aimed at deflecting people’s objective appraisal of the eight demands for electoral reforms.
One main line of attack was in the form of support by Pakatan Rakyat. BN spun it in such way that made Bersih look like it was ‘hijacked’ by Pakatan. It is untrue that Pakatan is calling the shots at Bersih, which is a coalition of 62 non-political NGOs.
But even if it is true, does it make it wrong for the rakyat to ask for the Election Commission (EC) to mend its ways? After all, wasn’t BN also asked to join Bersih’s efforts, which for reasons best known to PM Najib Razak that BN had declined?
I also hear that S Ambiga was said to have a hidden agenda. I was also told that Ambiga is lobbying to get a judge position. But haven’t Malaysians known by now that the shortest route to get anything good is by being a friend of BN?
G Annamalai: I used to love to listen to Chandra’s talk during my varsity days. It was vibrant, energetic and was sort of an inspiration. Now it’s the opposite.
By the way Dr Chandra, what have you got to say about Dr Jeyakumar’s detention under ISA? Bother to comment?
Abil: What is there to look at a bigger picture, when the government could come up with false charges of communism against social activist Dr Jeyakumar and the other five PSM members and put them under EO?
Chandra, you would have fought for him when you were in Aliran, but now having sold your soul to the highest bidder, you need to look inside you first before asking the rakyat to look at a bigger picture.
Pants On Wire: Dr Chandra used to earn my respect from his Aliran days. Now I see a man, sickly embedded with the establishment and no better than some of the Umno apple-polisher politicians.
Perhaps the comfort of working with the pro-government NGO at the expense of your much touted values far out weight the latter.
Anti-Fascist: Dr Chandra, I used to read a lot of your papers and writings and they were good especially the years when you were the Aliran president.
But in recent years, I must say I am very disappointed with your analysis of issues and the stand that you arrive at. There is a vast difference between the Chandra then and the Chandra now.
Frankly, I don’t pay much attention to your writings now because you have changed; you have, to use your own words, become more partisan to the extend your analysis becomes faulty and you compromise your integrity on things that matters. I sincerely hope you would return to the Chandra that we used to know.
Anonymous_4031: I agree with most of the points raised by Dr Chandra. But the demands of Bersih are old issues which opposition leaders have been raising long before Bersih 1.0 and Bersih 2.0 were born. I, for one, have witnessed all the 12 general elections.
What is wrong for the opposition parties to join the Bersih march? Even Marina Mahathir and her daughter joined the rally.
Obviously, you see the opposition parties taking advantage of the cause of Bersih, and why not? Bersih’s demands are the opposition parties’ demands.
Yes, all people should look at the bigger picture. Fair play in sports, and in politics, is what all are crying for.
Ruben: Chandra Muzaffar, I had a lot of respect for you when you were a professor in USM (Universiti Sains Malaysia). I admired the political forums that you facilitated. But all of that has vanished and actually I feel sorry for you.
Anonymous_4031: The abolition of indelible ink (which cost RM2.4 million of taxpayers’ money) just days before the 2008 polls was telling. The EC chairman, flanked by IGP and AG, announced with a straight face that somebody might try to sabotage the election with the indelible ink.
Later, the home minister told the whole truth: the sabotage was a lie. So, who was trying to fool who? Was there a hidden motive to abolish the indelible ink?
Anonymous_3e8f: The Bersih rally was not the type of demonstrations that the Umno goons are famous for (KLSAH hall, American embassy, PKR headquarters).
The parties that created havoc are the PDRM under orders of the ‘cow-head’ minister. Bersih 2.0 marchers were of all ages and from all walks of life. There was not a single case of violence or vandalism on their part despite the barbaric behaviour of the PDRM.
Avatar1: Dear Chandra, today you are talking of the bigger picture, but do you know that you were defeated in 1999 general election against Tan Chai Ho due to electoral fraud?
You were leading during the vote count and suddenly a large amount of so-called postal votes brought you down. I am sure you will remember that moment for we were there to support you in your bid for the Bandar Tun Razak seat.
What Bersih wants is a fair and clean elections and the eight demands are not something that cannot be fulfilled by a transparent and democratic government. You preach good governance, but you practice something else just to please the powers-to-be.
Chandra have sold his service to UMNO B long ago.
Just read all the comments at the post…you will know who Chandra is.
Dr Chandra Muzaffar has written against Bersih. According to M’ysiakini’s poster, Pants On Wire he’s “embedded with the establishment and no better than some of the Umno apple-polisher politicians” – different from his Aliran past.
I won’t be personal here, so I’ll just comment generally. I have met a lot of clever people in my life. Some absolutely sell their brains to the side in and with power to confer them social prestige/position, hereditary titles, material benefits, contracts or riches in quid pro quo exchange for their intellectual help. That’s the way the world is. The intellectual that says things as it is, truth to power, is rare as the proverbial dragon. The younger ones maybe as youth burns with idealism that age (to many though not all, there still Syu Khi, Mendelas Mother theresa around ) seems to bring them back to reality – that what counts at the end of the day is their own and their family’s & children’s self interest!
They decide that there is no point to battle against vested interests (because the moment one removes one clique, another takes it place, a never ending cycvle from corruption and selfish nature of the human heart) and powers-that-be (its like throwing an egg against a brick wall). They come to believe in what is known as the “Commons Dilemma” – each man owes it to himself to use his brains and efforts to maximise his own well being whilst leaving the responsibility of advancing the wider societal good to the common others – so that he could reap (besides personal benefit, the wider societal benefit as well from others’ efforts at other’s sacrifice and costs). When everyone – especially those who are intellectuals – follows this precept, the society regresses more and more, and most end up suffering, though the self interested one will say, bottomline, “I don’t care because I have gathered enough hay for myself and family!”. He also thinks that’s the intelligent way.
That’s the most intelligent thing I’ve read from our resident counselor for a very long time.
Dr Chandra, stop making comments for the sake of making them. What “larger picture” are you talking about? The PSM 6 has not been charged and nothing conclusive has been shown to indicate their “crime” if any.
Is the “larger picture” that you are talking about the asking of the PSM6 to sacrifice their freedom to cover up for BN’s blunder? Is it because BN had gone overboard with falsely accusing these six of reviving communism and “waging war on the Agong” in their desperation to tarnish Bersih and now find themselves unable to produce proof and they are unable to get off the tiger’s back? And so conveniently charge them under the EO where they can make all sorts of wild allegations and not bound by any law to justify them and hide under these abusive laws?
Dr Chandra, as a human being, we are blessed with a conscience. If we do not have that anymore, we are no longer humans but have sold our souls to the Devil.
That’s why so many of the intelligent and talented actually identify and work to the interest of the establishment, no matter how corrupt the latter is, for reciprocal benefits.
Thats why there are also many ex judges, ex civil servants ex politicians etc who now dare to speak against the government according to truth and conscience – because they are now no more dependent on it, they have made enough money from it.
Equally counting amongst the most strident critics of the present government and its nepotism are some who in their earlier years had made enough money from either contracts or peripheral consultancy contracts from the very corrupt system that these critics now dare to criticise and condemn (because they have now a measure of financial independence arising from taking advantage in the past of the system that they now could criticise from point of safety and non dependence. Then they were squeaky quiet in earlier years. So much for principles then.
Ok, Dr….Dr? Chandra, Jeffrey implies you are clever….maybe, even intellectual.
Maybe, maybe not.
But what seems clear to the fly on the wall is that you are in all likelihood intellectually dishonest. Some people parlay their souls for a few pennies more; others prostitute theirs for a little more. Some ‘intellectuals’, so-called, like Merkel’s ex-defence minister (whose name I don’t even care to recall) are intellectual plagiarists.
OK, Chanrda, I don’t know where you fit in theBIG PICTURE here. You know better.
I don’t want to be personal here. If you think the hat fits you, then wear it. You can do it quietly. This is not a Confession Blog.
///you are in all likelihood intellectually dishonest/// – ENDANGERED HORNBILL
I can agree with you here in the sense that no intellectual (to be distinguished from mere highly intelligent person) can be one and yet be intllectually dishonest. To say otherwise is an oxymoron! The reason being – an intellectual’s thinking process should not be clouded by emotions, whether hopes or fears, much less by bias in favour of self interest. It should be a cold locomotive engine that chugs along (objectively where his thinking draws him) in its inexorable but unstoppable course to a destination of a conclusion – whether he personally likes or benefits from that conclusion or not. That he should dare speak truth to power regardless of personal safety is a measure of how deeply and spiritually embedded his whole being is to the embrace of truth even to the extent of disregard of human opriomodial instinct to self gain and preservation. Few qualify to be that exalted by words santified by deeds!
At the same time having said all of the above lets not adjudge and condemn the prostitute – whether one prostitutes his/her body or his/her ideas and thoughts or principles.
In a sense who is that principled, and not one time or the other, a prostitute in relation to moral principles? In order to make a living (money) the sales man who promotes his product more than its attributes, the doctor who tells you the upside of taking out your gall bladder without the downside that you cannot control your motion thereafter, the one who has to advise on a deal even if it benefits a crony of TDM (eg Daim or Samsuddin), an average businessman who takes rubbish from his clients because of the need for custom/business are all in a sense prostitute. So what – you don’t want to make a living and live on principles alone? Like in all things (including intellectual honesty) its a question of balance, the time, circumstances and the weighing of what is right against wrong having regard to one’s circumstances, station, and context.
Before we condemn the selfish and the unprincipled (especially those endowed with so called intelligence), maybe we should ever be mindful of these simple and yet sobering hard truths of life from two simple analogies…
SIMPLE TRUTH 1 – Partners help each other undress before sex. However, after sex they always dress on their own. Moral of the story:
In life, no one helps you once you’re screwed. So, to some get rich first, before taking on the Powers That be on principles.
SIMPLE TRUTH 2 – When a lady is pregnant, all her friends touch the stomach and saying “congrats”. But, none of them come and touch the man’s organ and say “Good job”. Moral of the story: There’s no universal fairness. Hard work of some alone does not guarantee appreciation and reward by others. So think for yourself also and not just for others and collective good. Key: Balance!
This counselor is getting really profound, and trying to justify the prostitution of principles by Chandra Muzaffar. Justify yourself as a prostitute, counselor, just don’t speak for the rest of us.
Ok, it all boils down to principles.
But a prostitute should be the last person to be a preacher! Ok, be a lecturer by all means. But a preacher, heavens, no.
I am not saying Chandra is anywhere near a prostitute of ideas. I can’t tell. And I am not accusing. I am only trying to sense….from all the readings in the public domain. But certainly, I think a once-Deputy President PKR has made so complete an about-turn, a chameleon would have difficulty changing its colours.
OK, more to the point…Chandra, shut up. You just have no credibility. Something smells here about your credentials too.
///Justify yourself as a prostitute, counselor, just don’t speak for the rest of us./// – Godfather.
Now that you say it, I am just justifying for you, now a strident critic of the administration and its crony dealings and who had then in the past, by your very own admission in this blog, said you had done consultancy deal for Daim or his crony (related to UEM I think), and also been to (I think, New York) as part of the entourage when Anwar was then in BN administration, which I assume you benefitted in that sense, from the existing system…
God father, didn’t you once say some years back in this Blog that you were doing some consultancy work for Daim’s related deal (in that sense benefitted from the system that you now turn critic) ?
I am just speaking for you, if you realise it!
I was not thinking at all about Dr Chandra Muzaffar.
But I am not criticising you, for the turnaround if you get the drift by my ‘we shall not adjudge prostitute’ post.
That’s why I said you should not be justifying prostitution on behalf of others, which includes me and Chandra. Just justify it for yourself.
You have my esteem so far for not denying what you said here. I am not so much as justifying than explaining the phenomenon of why in one set of circumstances win which self interest is predominant they did as they did and in another they wax lyrical about principles and criticise the very stem that they had in the past grovelled and benefitted. I am sure you can identify with this explanation.
Sorry typo – “why people in one set of circumstances in which self interest is predominant they did as they did and in another they wax lyrical about principles and criticise the very system that they had in the past grovelled and benefitted..”
But I can’t say that I have the same esteem for lawyers who try their best to justify on behalf of others what they themselves are waist-deep in the same sh!t.
sorry, “what” should be “when”
Your attempt at diaparagement here does not detract or deflict a single bit from the thrust of my point, which you are intelligent enough to know it. “Waist deep in same shit”? How so? I am not beneficiary of UMNO or Daim’s related deals or consultancy work. Yet whilst I make reference, I don’t fervently condemn here its cronyism and patronage policies even if I never been a beneficiary of these.
Reposting: #22 does not detract or deflect an iota from the thrust of my point. How so I am “Waist deep in SAME sh*t”? I think you speak for yourself. I have never been a beneficiary of UMNO or Daim’s related deals or consultancy work.
“They come to believe in what is known as the “Commons Dilemma” – each man owes it to himself to use his brains and efforts to maximise his own well being whilst leaving the responsibility of advancing the wider societal good to the common others – so that he could reap (besides personal benefit, the wider societal benefit as well from others’ efforts at other’s sacrifice and costs).”
That’s the definition of “same sh!t” when it comes to compromising one’s principles.
“In a sense who is that principled, and not one time or the other, a prostitute in relation to moral principles?”
Perhaps you can answer your own question – are you the rare breed of unbending principled individuals or are you in the majority who had, at one time or another, prostituted yourself ?
I am just explaining the way “Commons Dilemma” works for many. Life is based on strictly principles sometimes and other times on compromises big or small, seldom in absolutes. If explaining for an understanding tantamount to”justifying” (to you) so be it. Your remark “you should not be justifying prostitution on behalf of others, which includes me and Chandra” is odd on why you place youself in same plane with Chandra that I am supposedly justifying. You’re not him. He turned from past critic in Aliran to present supporter and (may be beneficiary of the system) whilst you, the opposite, from beneficiary to critic (retired). I concede the hazards of justifying and putting in same basket (say) a present prostitute with that of a past one, and now a retired mamasan advising others not to join the trade.
Some of those who post here seem to be saying one thing while, very
subtly, they are leading their readers onto another track.
They seem to quote rhyme and verses to support their views when
the simple reason is that the truth is the truth and nothing can
deflect from that.
And nobody can deny that the aims of Bersih 2.0 is noble, no matter
who espouses them.
That’s the simple and undeniable truth.
Chandra ,
you are another political Spin Doctor like dr mathadir prophetic mohamad….
Look today Umno morons provide yr rice bowl benifiting from /for this Evil Umno Supremacy Regime and spinning monies …tomorrow maybe PR Anwar /DAP/PAS…
Maybe consider join APCO someday for better deals??
Skeptical ?? or JUST FULL OF POLITICAL LIES
btw ALL THESE APCO UMNO ECONOMICAL PUBLICITY FUNDINGS COMES FROM WHERE?????
WONDER IT COMES FORM TAXPAYERS OR SOVEREIGN FUND OF AGONG ,BANK NEGARA RESERVES ???? GOSH!!!