Dec

8

Fascism & fiction

December 8, 2007 | 1 Comment

I found a definition of fascism at PublicEye.org, which says, amongst other things, “fascism is a form of extreme right-wing ideology that celebrates the nation or the race as an organic community transcending all other loyalties… It seeks to forcibly subordinate all spheres of society to its ideological vision of organic community, usually through a totalitarian state. Both as a movement and a regime, fascism uses mass organizations as a system of integration and control, and uses organized violence to suppress opposition…”

And according to Wikipedia, “fascism is also typified by totalitarian attempts to impose state control over all aspects of life: political, social, cultural, and economic, by way of a strong, single-party government for enacting laws and a strong, sometimes brutal militia or police force for enforcing them. Fascism exalts the nation, state, or group of people as superior to the individuals composing it. Fascism uses explicit populist rhetoric; calls for a heroic mass effort to restore past greatness; and demands loyalty to a single leader, leading to a cult of personality and unquestioned obedience to orders.”

The above descriptions sound eerily like what’s happening in Malaysia. And, mind you, the Abdullah regime is not the first in Malaysia to be compared to the fascists. An ex-colleague of mine created a clever photoshop image of a Hitler-like Mahathir about ten years ago.
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Aug

7

Race, royalty and resolve

August 7, 2007 | 1 Comment

This morning, on a whim, I checked out our Opposition Leader’s website, and chanced upon a hot-off-the-press posting by Dr. Chen Man Hin. In his posting, Dr. Chen suggested that the Prime Minister invite Raja Nazrin Shah, the Crown Prince of Perak, to be his personal adviser, in light of the latter’s speech at the first Malaysian Student Leaders Summit 2007.

For what it’s worth, I must say that that’s an ingenius and interesting idea from Dr. Chen. I wonder what Raja Nazrin thinks. (By the way, Raja Nazrin’s credentials are quite impressive. Check out the link to his entry in Wikipedia above.)
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Jul

24

Islamic State or otherwise

July 24, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Once again, I’d like to comment on Dr. Chandra Muzaffar’s article, but this time, I agree with what he’s saying.

Basically, I agree that “when we go beyond labels such as ‘secular’ and ‘Islamic’ and connect with the substance of our three principal documents we will discover that there is a degree of congruence between the two positions.” And the three documents that Dr. Chandra is talking about are the Federal Constitution, the Rukunegara and Vision 2020.

Now, my question is, how do we move forward from this apparent impasse? It’s very obvious that the current hooha is created by the Deputy Prime Minister for political reasons. Indeed, it’s so idiotic for him to make such a statement that I won’t even go into the so-called debate.
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Jul

22

Reconciliation and Unity Commission

July 22, 2007 | 1 Comment

After chatting with a friend about my blog, I realised that I need to be a bit more positive about things, and also more constructive.

Hence, after some reflection about my “apartheid posting”, I believe there is a better way forward for Malaysia. At least in terms of patching up racial relations between the different ethnic communities.

Actually, I started writing this posting yesterday but had to stop for lunch, meetings and so forth. Anyway, it’s just as well that I didn’t finish it yesterday because I just read Dr. Chandra Muzaffar’s comment in the NST this morning. Frankly, I am surprised Dr. Chandra still has so much confidence in the government and the Parliament.
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Jul

18

Axis of Stupidity

July 18, 2007 | Leave a Comment

After reading Patrick Teoh’s blog, I figured we must be a member of the Axis of Stupidity. Niamah, indeed.

Oddly, whilst reading former President Gorbachev’s speech, I was reminded of how “slow” we are. In his speech, Gorbachev commented about the 5½ decades of Cold War - the confrontation, the hostility, sometimes open, sometimes concealed.

Further on in his speech, Gorbachev said:

“We have already graduated from the primary school of instruction in mutual understanding.”

Well, we’ve had 5 decades of Merdeka… Are we even out of kindergarten yet?

‘Nuff said?

Jul

14

Don’t need an institute, it’s apartheid

July 14, 2007 | 2 Comments

What is this country’s authorities up to? It’s like after having concocted an original lie, they now have to keep piling on more lies to cover up the original lie.

What on earth do we need an Institute of Ethnic Relations set up for? Read today’s NST if you don’t know what I’m talking about.

I think most of us know how to have good relations with our neighbours, irrespective of race or colour. I don’t know about the rest of you but my elders, including my teachers and scoutmasters, have taught me to care for people, to be polite, to respect other cultures and so on and so forth.
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Jul

12

Peace… what peace?

July 12, 2007 | 1 Comment

Something’s been buzzing in my entire being for sometime now, and I really need to get it out of my system… And to make matters worse, I couldn’t put my finger on it.

I guess I’m quite anxious (not excited) that the general elections are just round the corner. The anxiety is partially caused by all the ineffectiveness, inefficiency and incompetence that I observe, and I wonder if we’re ready to face the general elections.

And now I’m getting even more anxious and agitated when I look at the front page of today’s New Straits Times. The actual newspaper has a nice photo lineup with the Prime Minister and all these other supposed members of the ‘Unity Squad’. Another half-baked idea from somebody’s backyard, but a definite sign that elections are just around the corner.
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Jul

10

Are we really fighting for the People?

July 10, 2007 | 1 Comment

Don’t know why, but I woke up with this idea in my head. You know, when you’re in that half-awake, half-asleep state, there’s something in your head that just doesn’t go away? Maybe it’s because I bumped my head yesterday at a shopping mall, where they have some stupid doorway that’s only about 5 feet tall!

Anyway, here’s my not-so-new idea: Gerakan, DAP and Keadilan start talks for a merger. It’s not a new idea in the sense that I’ve already mentioned this many times to friends already, and I’m sure some bright sparks out there have thought of this too (and probably dismissed it as some silly fantasy).
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Jun

2

Social contract or social engineering?

June 2, 2007 | 1 Comment

I’ve been meaning to write about the Information Minister’s recent comments about the so-called “social contract” in Malaysia. I’ve heard some politicians misuse this term before, and I believe they have been using it deliberately to mislead the Rakyat. Then again, maybe they think they sound clever when they use a philosophical term although they don’t really understand the meaning of it.

Well, I was prompted to write this by an email from a friend that contained a news article on Zam’s comments on another but somewhat related issue. Anyway, I think it’s time he and other like-minded Umno-BN politicians stopped misleading the people about how independence came about in 1957 and the current social realities.
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May

19

I love my parents…

May 19, 2007 | 3 Comments

I was at the launch of Dr. Kua Kia Soong’s controversial book last Sunday on May 13, 2007. Yes, the book that is now in the middle of some hoo-ha and may be banned.

Anyway, my focus here is not so much on May 13 or the book but more on the lightbulb that flashed in my head when I was sitting there listening to the panel speakers, especially Ms. Beth Yahp.

As expected, the academics – Dr. Kua, Dr. Syed Husin Ali and Dr. S. Nagarajan – gave their analyses of the events. However, Beth, who wasn’t originally billed as one of the panel speakers, gave a rather different perspective to May 13.
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Dec

8