The Arab Spring II

1. The Western Press has decided to label the upheavals in the Arab countries as the Arab Spring. But it is no spring as the attempts to overthrow authoritarian Governments in these countries have resulted in bloodshed and serious damage to property and to the economy.

2. While in Tunisia and Egypt the uprising of the people has been successful, the fighting in the other countries is still going on. There is no doubt that one way or another there will be changes political, economic and social before the uprisings come to an end.

3. But overthrowing the Government is not the end of the struggle. A greater struggle lies ahead – that of setting up new Governments; the true purpose of the uprisings.

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THE NEP


1. Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam is vehement that the New Economic Policy is the cause of poor inflow of Foreign Direct Investments here.

2. One can fault the NEP for a lot of things but to blame it for the current slowdown in Foreign Direct Investments is not quite correct.

3. There are of course some investors who were and are put off by the NEP and the abuses involving it. But FDI actually contributed much to Malaysia’s industrialisation. And this happened when the NEP was in full swing, in fact picked up during the time when the NEP was being implemented.

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ARAB SPRING I


1. There is much gloating in the West over what is happening in the Arab countries. They, the West, have been peddling democracy to the world and at times they would assassinate leaders or invade countries so as to impose their democracy. Now the Arabs are doing this work for them. The Arabs themselves are overthrowing their authoritarian Governments so as to, presumably, install democratic Governments in their places.

2. Overthrowing Governments is serious business. It normally involves violence and killings. Fortunately the people in Tunisia and Egypt have achieved their objectives without too much bloodshed. But the Libyan Government is not ready to go. So are the Governments of Syria, Yemen and Bahrain.

3. The situation in these four countries is not to the liking of the western democrats. They want to make sure that the despotic rulers surrender and the forces of democracy take over. If the people cannot overthrow their Governments by themselves, than the West must take a hand in ensuring that the authoritarian rulers are deposed.

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MENGHANCURKAN UMNO

1. Usaha sedang dibuat untuk melemahkan lagi UMNO supaya ia dapat dikalahkan dalam Pilihanraya Umum ke-13, bahkan jika boleh untuk menghancurkan UMNO sekarang ini juga.

2. Laporan dalam portal berita, oleh Muda Mohd Noor, mencerita berkenaan Penawar, sebuah badan bukan Kerajaan yang disertai oleh beberapa bekas ahli Parlimen UMNO yang kononnya tidak puas hati dengan Dato Seri Najib sebagai Perdana Menteri.

3. Kononnya saya dibelakang gerakan untuk menaikkan Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin mengganti Najib.

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ONE TRILLION

1. Obama, according to their own news reports, is trying to raise the ceiling for borrowing by the US Government.

2. The US Government is in debt to the tune of US$14 trillion. He wants to borrow more in order to repay the loans. If he cannot repay he will be in default. When a country fails to repay loans, it will be declared bankrupt just like anyone else.

3. What is one trillion dollars? We write it down as one billion with three additional zeros after it. Thus 1,000,000,000,000. It is not such a big figure. You add three zeros or three nothings and the figure increases by 1,000 times. But if we write down one billion as 1,000,000,000 one thousand times, we will have a better idea of what one trillion means. We would be horrified at the size of one trillion if we write the figure 1, one trillion times, which really is what one trillion means.

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THE TELEPHONE HACKING SCANDAL II


1. We are used to the high moral ground taken by the Western Press. We almost cringe mentally when they criticise us for our poor record on human rights, our alleged failure to respect the rule of law, our corruption and the injustices that we perpetrate against others etc. etc.

2. We feel they are right, that they, unlike us, have and they obey high ethical codes, that they are honest and straightforward.

3. It is shocking to find that they are really no better than us, that given half a chance they would cheat and abuse their positions, that they would forget human rights.

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INTERPRETATION OF ISLAM


1. Dr Syed Alwi bin Ahmad blames Islam for the failures of governance in Muslim countries.

2. It is true that Muslim countries are often poorly governed. There is not a single one of them which qualify to be a developed country.

3. But the fault does not lie with the religion of Islam. Over a period of 1,400 years the original teachings of Islam as was brought by Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) have been interpreted and re-interpreted by genuine scholars and charlatans with vested interest so that it is no longer the Islam of the messages of Allah subhanawata’ala. Some of these interpretations are so different from the original that they are not Islamic at all.

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PELUPUSAN SYARIKAT BERKAITAN KERAJAAN

1. Saya membaca dalam akhbar bahawa sebanyak 30 syarikat yang sekarang dimiliki oleh agensi Kerajaan (Government Linked Company) akan dilupuskan.

2. Saya tak tahu syarikat mana yang hendak dilupuskan tetapi saya tahu saham syarikat-syarikat diamanahkan kepada Khazanah dan lain-lain institusi Kerajaan kerana orang Melayu tidak mampu membeli dan menyimpannya.

3. Dengan perkataan lain saham-saham ini adalah milik Melayu dan Bumiputra lain. Kerana institusi ini memegang saham syarikat inilah yang peratusan saham korporat meningkat sedikit.

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DEMONSTRASI

1. Kita tak dapat nafi bahawa berdemonstrasi mempunyai tempat dalam pengamalan demokrasi.

2. Saya baru kembali dari lawatan ke Mesir. Seperti kita semua maklum satu demonstrasi besar di Kaherah telah berjaya menjatuhkan Kerajaan Hosni Mubarak.

3. Tetapi kesan demonstrasi tidak terhad kepada kejatuhan Kerajaan. Ekonomi Mesir merosot dengan amat teruk. Mesir, yang banyak bergantung kepada pelancongan mengalami kemerosotan 80 peratus semasa demonstrasi berlaku. Hari ini pun pelancong belum kembali dan banyaklah hotel yang kosong.

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THE CENTURY OF THE WORLD

** This article was written for a talk I was to give to a forum. I could not deliver it as I was sick. Maybe it would be of interest to some people.**

1. I do not know whether the 21st Century would be an Asian Century or not. But what is certain is that Asia would play a greater role in the political, economic and socio-cultural affairs of the world during the century.

2. The world has been Eurocentric almost as soon as the Europeans reached Asia via the Cape of Good Hope. This happened because of the aggressiveness of their culture, which ensured the supply of trade goods through force and conquest.

3. The conquered territories were ruled largely through the European system of Government. It became clear that their system was superior, so that the countries that remained free such as Japan, China, and Thailand adopted the system gradually.

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