Malays and Chinese alike religiously practise this great tradition. The cities and towns would become very quiet, the streets almost empty and the air free of smoke and dust.

My regret is that many who take to the roads to balik kampung will never reach home. They would die in unfortunate road accidents. Instead of their relatives welcoming them with joy and love, their Hari Raya or Chinese New Year would be a sad one as they mourn their bereavements.

Alhamdulillah, sekali lagi dapat kita bersama-sama meraikan hari kebesaran ini setelah sebulan menjalankan ibadah puasa.

Disamping bergembira bersama keluarga, saya harap kita akan teruskan tradisi kunjung mengunjung ke rumah-rumah terbuka untuk mengeratkan lagi silaturrahim di antara kita, terutama sekali dengan rakan-rakan kita yang bukan beragama Islam.

Semoga di hari yang gembira ini hubungan kita sebagai rakyat yang berbilang kaum dan agama di negara yang tercinta ini akan bertambah erat.

Saya akan mengadakan majlis rumah terbuka bersempena dengan sambutan Hari Raya Aidilfitri seperti berikut;

Tarikh : Oktober 5, 2008

Kepada yang akan menyambut Aidilfitri di kampung, berhati-hatilah ketika memandu dan kami mendoakan perjalanan pulang yang selamat.

Sekali lagi saya dan isteri saya ucapkan Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri, Maaf Zahir Batin.

Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad

Dr Siti Hasmah bt Mohd Ali

1 Syawal 1429 Hijrah

2. It set the forms and standards for everything; systems of Government, human rights, economic transparency etc etc. Now it seems to be breaking or ignoring its own rules, regulations and laws.

3. It had condemned the Internal Security Act as unjust and a violation of human rights. Following the shock and awe invasion of Iraq, it has detained alleged terrorists without trial and without rights and habeas corpus proceeings. Some detainees have been there for five years.

2. Pegging currencies is not as easy as it sounds. The whole thing must be studied very carefully. Even getting agreement by a select panel is not easy. A decision made on the spur of the moment that pegging is not possible cannot really reflect the assessment made together with experts in consultation.

3. Pegging need not be always with the US Dollar. But the fact that the US Dollar is currently not stable is no reason why the idea should be summarily dismissed.

Laporan Utusan Malaysia semalam (Sept 23, 2008) amat menggembirakan saya. Sahabat saya Dato Seri Shahidan Kassim, Menteri Besar Perlis yang gagal menjadi Menteri Besar walaupun Perlis di antara negeri yang menang dalam pilihanraya 2008 telah dilantik oleh YAB Dato Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Perdana Menteri Malaysia untuk menjadi penasihat dan pembantu beliau dalam mencapai visi serta misi Wilayah Ekonomi Koridor Utara.

Orang yang busuk hati mungkin menyangka perlantikan ini adalah sebagai cara untuk Abdullah mendapat sokongan ahli Majlis Tertinggi ini supaya dia tidak sokong tuntutan beberapa ahli lain supaya Abdullah berhenti sebelum mesyuarat bahagian.

Kalau saya tidak salah apabila sahaja tokoh tertinggi parti UMNO ternampak mungkin akan menimbul masalah kepada Abdullah, tokoh berkenaan akan dilantik ke jawatan tertentu atau jika tidak ada jawatan dilantik sebagai penasihat kepada YAB Perdana Menteri. Yang bernasib baik akan diberi taraf Menteri. Selepas itu senyap sunyi.

Apakah ini satu jenis rasuah, wallahua’lam.

Dengan begitu banyak penasihat amat menghairankan kenapa tidakan Perdana Menteri Abdullah tidak begitu bijak. Mungkinkah ini disebabkan adanya penasihat bertaraf Menteri pun tetapi tidak ada suara. Ikatan kekeluargaan antara penasihat dan yang dinasihati mungkin lebih utama daripada yang tidak ada ikatan kekeluargaan, wallahua’lam.

p/s Saya juga ucapkan tahniah kepada Ahli Parlimen Pasir Salak, Datuk Tajuddin Abdul Rahman yang dilantik sebagai Pengerusi Felcra.

Yang belum sokong sila percepatkan sokongan. Masih banyak jawatan yang kosong atau dicipta khusus.

1. The goings on in the UMNO Supreme Council are supposed to be secret. So it was quite a surprise when the press reported some important details regarding the Supreme Council’s meeting on Thursday, September 18. What is even more surprising is that the reports expose the attacks against Dato Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi by several members of the council and their demand that the transfer of power should take place before the divisional meetings which would nominate the candidates for President.

2. It appears that the words used by some of the members were very strong. Dato Seri Rafidah Aziz even attacked the roles played by Abdullah’s son-in-law Khairy Jamaluddin and the PM’s son, Kamaluddin.

3. So harsh were the words used that Abdullah’s face changed and he was reeling from the onslaught when Dato Seri Najib Tun Razak, ever the protector of Abdullah, stopped the proceedings. Najib promised he would speak on the matter with Abdullah.

2. In the aftermath of the elections, the component parties pointed accusing fingers at each other. Very quickly they were at each other’s throats.

3. There were talks about leaving the BN. And now we are seeing the first party to do so and to become an independent party.

1. I was reading the comments on my blog on ‘Mengingati Pejuang-Pejuang’, when I came across a comment which respectfully disagreed with me that the defeat of BN in the General Election was not due to support for the opposition but disaffection with BN.

2. He said if that was the case they could have voted for the third candidate who actually lost his deposit.

3. I had lost in the Election of 1969 in a constituency with 35,000 voters of whom 30,000 were Malays. I had won in this constituency in 1964 with more than 4,000 votes majority. I figured that in 1969 that even if the non-Malay voters did not vote for me I would still win because support for me amongst the Malays had increased by almost 3,000.

2. In the last three quarters AIG lost US$18.5 billion dollars (68 billion Ringgit). AIG is struggling to raise funds to overcome its difficulties. If it fails it may have to opt for bankruptcy. But AIG is going to lose even more.

3. The failures are all due to playing with money, selling mortgages, selling papers and all kinds of financial dealings which have been invented by the finance houses in order to make huge sums of money out of nothing. Currency trading is one of them.

1. Spinning is a method of making thread from cotton wool. But today, spinning has an entirely different meaning.

2. I was told about the spin doctors used by Tony Blair very soon after he became Prime Minister. I did not know what spin doctors do. And so I rejected the suggestion that I should employ spin doctors for press relations.

3. Now we all know all about spin doctors, the chief of whom is Kalimullah. He decides how to spin any report on Abdullah. Reporters often apologise to me because their reports on what I said at press conferences are quite different from what they wrote. But they claim they have no say on what appears in print from their reports.