ASABIAH

1. Kita hairan bagaimana ada orang Islam yang begitu sekali menyanjung tinggi pemimpin mereka sehingga sanggup minum air basuh kaki mereka ini. Tetapi inilah yang berlaku apabila terlalu taksub kepada pemimpin.

2. Saya diberitahu tidak ada kemungkinan Barisan Nasional menang di Kelantan kerana penduduk Kelantan begitu taksub dengan Nik Aziz. Demikianlah ketaksuban ini sehingga apa sahaja yang didakwa olehnya berkenaan agama Islam maka orang Kelantan akan menerimanya bulat-bulat sebagai benar dan menepati ajaran Islam.

3. Kata orang ini, tidak ada gunanya ulama lain atau Mufti menolak dan menidakkan dakwaan Nik Aziz, orang Kelantan tetap akan percaya pendapatnya juga. Jika ada yang ragu sekalipun, mereka tidak akan menyatakan keraguan mereka.

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SYRIA

1. I have been watching Al Jazeera T.V report on Syria entitled the War Within.

2. I feel extremely sad and depressed. There is a war in Syria and Syrians are killing Syrians in the most terrible way.

3. If the reports are to be believed the Government of Syria headed by Bashar Asaad is killing Syrians in order to remain in power.

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GOVERNMENT

1. We are seeing some strange things happening in Europe. This continent of rich developed countries is going through afinancial and economic crisis that resists attempts to turn it around and recover.

2. Several countries of Europe are actually going bankrupt. Greece is bankrupt. Now Spain is practically in recession. Reports indicate that Portugal and Italy are also in deep financial trouble. Even the UK and France are in trouble.

3. Where did they go wrong? It is important to know the reasons for their decline because we who are fond of copying the Europeans might be going the same way.

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MALAYSIA IS STILL GROWING

1. I am not talking about GDP and Per Capita. I am talking about feeling. I feel that Malaysia is growing. Certainly Kuala Lumpur is growing. High-rise buildings are everywhere.

2. Take KLCC. The twin towers were once without partners. Now the garden area is completely surrounded by high-rise hotels, condos and officers.

3. It is the same with the railway station. It is now hidden by a palisade of hotels, offices and apartments.

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T P P


1. Not many people know what these letters stand for. I too did not know until some Japanese MPs gave me a badge with “No to TPP” for me to wear.

2. They told me that TPP means Trans Pacific Partnership. It is conceived and promoted by the United States of America. Apparently Malaysia had agreed to join this new organization.

3. The MP asked me why did Malaysia join? I must admit I could not answer.

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MY FEARS

1) Lim Kit Siang is reported to have said that I am working hard to ensure the Opposition will not win because I am afraid when the Opposition Government is in place, it will act against all my “misdeeds” when I was Prime Minister.

2) No doubt he is inspired by what happened to Gadaffi and Mubarak. He would love to see me dragged to the courts and sentenced to death or to at least a life sentence. Maybe like Gadaffi I would be murdered.

3) He is right. I am afraid. I am afraid of the kind of abuse of power that has already been shown by one of Pakatan’s great leader who got a senior police officer to frighten Dr Ristina and Ummi Hafilda into withdrawing Ummi’s letter to me.

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THE TRIAL OF A PRESIDENT

 1.      I watched on Al Jazeera the trial of President Charles Taylor of Liberia.  He was accused of war crimes.  He was found guilty and sentenced to 50 years jail.

2.    He is 64 years old and 50 years really means a life sentence for him. The prosecution was disappointed as they had asked for 80 years. I suppose the prosecution expects him to be discharged at the end of 80 years when he would be 144 years old!  He must live to that age so he can suffer fully for his crimes.

3.    There is no doubt that Taylor was guilty as charged.  The prosecution told about how he was responsible for the killings in a
neighbouring country.  On one occasion he did not stop a soldier from forcing a woman to carry a sack-full of decapitated heads. That was truly inhuman, more inhuman than the killings and the hideous injuries inflicted by another President on hundreds of thousands of Afghans, Iraqis and others, more inhuman than the tortures of prisoners in Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and elsewhere.

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EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW

1. One of the nonsense that we believe in is equality before the law. Of course this is one of the great fictions that democracy is said to uphold. But then democracy itself is often not even democratic. The people, the ordinary citizens never really govern themselves. But that is another story.

2. Now, about equality before the law that democracy is said to uphold. It is not upheld at all. Some people are actually above the law and some are far below it, i.e. they don’t really get the benefit or the protection of the law.

3. I will deal with those who do not benefit first. The democratic legal system gives the power to the courts to decide on disputes between individuals or organisations. The courts are presided over by legally qualified but very human judges. The contestants have to convince the presiding judge of their innocence.

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PENANG MALAYS

1. I was in Penang recently, having been invited to give a talk by the Penang Mubarak (Council of Former Elected Representatives). On the way to Tanjung Bungah I was surprised to see the same wooden zinc-roofed shacks, which were there 60 years ago. The difference is that they are stuck between the slender beautiful high-rise flats favoured by Penang. Their ramshackle appearance seems out of place amidst the modern dwellings of the Penangites.

2. Why are the Penang Malays still living in these hovels? Yes, Kuala Lumpur has Malay slumps. But these are mostly built by new urban migrants. The Government has succeeded to rehouse most of the squatters in modern high-rise buildings so that, passing along the main roads, one does not see the slums anymore.

3. But the Penang Malays live in the same old shacks that housed them long ago. And they are an eyesore.

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POLITIK MALAYSIA

1. Kita sudah merdeka selama 55 tahun dan telah mengadakan 12 Pilihan Raya Umum. Walaupun parti-parti bukan dari Perikatan atau Barisan Nasional telah berjaya menawan dan mendiri Kerajaan dibeberapa negeri di Semenanjung dan di Sabah, tetapi Perikatan dan Barisan Nasional tidak pernah kalah di peringkat Pusat. Perikatan dan Barisan Nasional terus menjadi Kerajaan diperingkat Pusat, peringkat yang paling berkuasa di Malaysia.

2. Memang pada 1969 Perikatan hampir kalah tetapi kuasa kekal di tangan Perikatan dan akhirnya beberapa parti lawan telah menyertai Perikatan untuk menubuh Barisan Nasional yang terus memerintah.

3. Barisan Nasional menghadapi beberapa masalah dalaman tetapi berjaya mengatasinya dan mengekal kuasanya di Peringkat Pusat. Serpihan dari UMNO yang diusahakan oleh Tengku Razaleigh dan Anwar Ibrahim tidak berjaya mengalahkan Barisan Nasional.

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