On the daun Kaduk

Last week, we were presented with a 'request' by the DAP MP Prabakaran for a Tamil University, just like UiTM for the Bumiputra:

Let's picture this scenario:

Under the auspices of, and underpinned, by British Imperialism, Malays make up 6.7 % of the population of Tamil Nadu (i.e., the same share as the Indians in Malaysia).    After nearly 100 years of working, residing and prospering, they suddenly demand  their own University - after decades of having their own Malay language school maintained by the Government  (just like Tamil Schools in Malaysia).     What would be the reaction of the majority Tamils?  And, for that matter, the reaction of the Adivasis - India's notoriously oppressed indigenous tribal groups?

Just for comparison, and if this may help to mollify the expectations of Mr Prabakaran and his comrades, Malays (the Bumiputera) in Singapore make up 13.6%  (twice that of Indians in Malaysia) of the population.  As yet we have not heard of any cry, much less a demand for a Malay University or even their own Malay language school!

So 13.6 % of the population in a neighbouring country have no choice but to suppress their socio-educational desires, while Malaysia's 6.7 % in Malaysia Baru are strutting their arrogations and pushing back the goalposts.

Our datuk-nenek from long ago would describe this as Kaduk Naik Junjung.   In Malaysia Baru we seem to find this propensity thriving and shoving from the nation's Mr 6.7% and Mr 22.6%!

Kaduk naik Junjung in my backyard

We may wake up one morning and discover  MALAYSIA BARU/BOLEH has turned into MALAYSIA BOLIAU (no more, finished) and MALAYSIA ILEK.

This country has troubles enough.  Too many people have forgotten where they came from and how they got to be where they are in Malaysia.  They take their well-being and safety for granted.  As for their wealth and material comfort, they never seem to have enough.

Aiyaah, you so lucky one - CHIAK BUAY LIAO (eat until cannot finish).

To compound this, many people (and especially our urban elites) seem to be increasingly infected by a virus from the West - a virus called Victimitis and MeTooism.       It's become a global phenomenon amongst the already comfortable: everybody is now a victim.  Nobody wants to talk about their blessings or their responsibilities - only their self-entitlement and the ethos of "beggar thy neighbour". 

Those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad.

Election Fever

Parliament is not a congress of ambassadors from different and hostile interests; which interests each must maintain, as an agent and advocate, against other agents and advocates; but parliament is a deliberative assembly of one nation, with one interest, that of the whole; where, not local purposes, not local prejudices ought to guide, but the general good, resulting from the general reason of the whole.  Edmund Burke  1729-1797


What a sterling statement from one of Britain's foremost political philosophers!  What a perfect achievement for any Parliament.

We have to aim to achieve the very highest (and toughest) principles of life and living.  When we fail or fall, we shall not descend into the deplorable bottom of the pit, but maybe just halfway down so that we will be able to claw our way back and enable us to reach some sort of redemption. Perfection is an excellent objective but to assert that one's principles and practice are perfect is almost like claiming divinity.

Just as I prefer to be a pessoptomist - a pessimistic optimist - I stand by this vision of perfection by Shakespeare,

                                       I saw her once
Hop forty paces  through the public street;
And having lost her breath, she spoke, and panted
That she did make defect perfection,
And, breathless, power breathe forth.

We have to live with defects in our Parliament, in our leaders and especially in one very major frailty: that Malaysia as one nation and one interest is sadly and badly lacking "the general good, resulting from the general reason of the whole".  Unlike the nations of Europe (including Britain), and even Japan and China to a certain extent, we were manipulated and  overpowered by the political, religious and economic ambitions of the Judaeo-Christian West.  Our history and geography, culture and economy were manufactured by others.  Southeast Asia and Nusantara became the proverbial Goose that laid the Golden Egg although in this case the Goose was not killed but allowed to keep on laying the golden eggs - thus maintaining the profitability of their enterprise.

The defects in our practice of Parliamentary Democracy are no different from any other country.  But Malaysia, unlike most other countries has a legacy and a structure that is not of our making.  Malaysia is made up of many dissimilar factions who, under the British, were allocated very differing and discordant parts to fit into the Empire's pocket.  Under such a condition, it is almost impossible to create an " assembly of one nation, with one interest".  It is like dealing with and living in an arranged and loveless marriage. You have to put up with it and hope for some kind of rapprochement and peaceful co-existence, provided no third party comes into the equation.

If oil is a curse on the Middle East, then the rich (now completely exhausted and depleted) deposits of tin in Perak and Selangor, together with the Peninsula's easy accessibility between East and West  have been the bane of the Malay Peninsula's existence.

The Malay Peninsula, a finger-like southeastern extension of the Asian Continent, caught in the grasp of the Occident and the Orient. 

Since 1957, the Federation of Malaya and later as Malaysia, has committed itself to the institution of rule by Parliament - of conducting General and Local Elections every few years. There have been many brickbats, thrown at Malaysia from both home-grown and foreign sources about the integrity of the election and the elected government.  GE14 like GE13 will demonstrate the same back-stabbing, dirty tactics, cheap racist innuendos and shifty debates to win over the hearts and minds of the electorate.  Our political parties are quite adept in pandering to the lowest common denominator in our political psyche - particularly on the issues of race and riches.

The run-up to GE 14 will promise a great deal of political theatrics and pageantry.  How shall a pessoptomistic septuagenarian cope?

I suppose I shall have to turn to Aesop and Sam.  We are all familiar with Aesop.

As for Sam .....
I reckon (when he was younger in the 1990s) he was not the sort of young man you would take home to meet your mater and pater who dwell in Kelburn, Wellington New Zealand, or Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur, or Tanglin, Singapore or Hampstead Heath, London.

But as he is our Kiwi nephew we have taken him into our home in Leicester and Setiawangsa.  As you know, blood is thicker than water or even flat beer.

Sam (left) and his doppelganger, actually his twin brother Joe in the late 1980s.

In the picture above, Sam and Joe looked very bolshie and serious.  Sam had just returned from his anti-apartheid  occupations and demonstrations in Wellington. Joe is a skilful kayaker and used his hobby to harass the American warships that prowl the waters off New Zealand in the late 1980s.  In fact a few months after this picture was taken, Sam was badly beaten up by the police during an anti-apartheid demonstration in Wellington.  His right eye was permanently damaged but his commitment was left intact.

Sam spent his compensation backpacking in Pommie Land, Europe, the Middle East and continental Southeast Asia.

Sam's Journey 

When I was rummaging through the stuff I needed for this posting, I read once again after nearly 30 years Sam's postcard and I felt a lump in my throat.

Sam's Syria, thirty years ago.

Today, Syria has been bludgeoned back to the Stone Age because it was successfully and adamantly minding its own business - keeping the Americans and British and Israel and Saudi Arabia at bay.

When Sam Buchanan came home he decided to paddle his feet in the world of politics.  He became the candidate for McGillicuddy Serious Party for Kapiti.  Here's the write-up for  McG.S.P. in the local paper Kapiti Observer.

Exposing the Political Sham by Sam.

This is how this geriatric shall attempt to get through this GE 14 election fever with the aid of Aesop and Sam.

• Aesop said :

Beware of joining forces with those who promise salvation and safety.

• In the matter of making choices, Sam reminded voters that in "every election  .... the ordinary citizen has always lost".  Politicians always win.

• Aesop also wrote :

• Beware of the motives of politicians says Sam.

Aesop often used animals to refer to the self-serving nature of man, which I think is an insult to the innocent animals.  Take this fable.

Who can learn a lesson from this parable?

1. Belacan Malays
2. Mandi Malays
3. Masala Malays
4. Mayonnaise Malays
5. The whole caboodle

Finally when this GE 14 is over I can imagine this scenario -  a panoply of  recriminations, complaints, squabbles and the 'only-in-Malaysia' tantrums!  This is how Aesop  would describe it.

To  sore losers and Travellers like these, me ole mum would say :

Hujan emas dinegeri orang, hujan batu dinegeri sendiri.

Dimana bumi dipijak, disitu langit  ku junjung.

And so, on 9 May 2018, vote wisely Malaysia.  Vote with this hope in mind -  "one nation, with one interest, that of the whole; where not local purposes, not local prejudices ought to guide, but the general good ..."

And please do not denigrate the Plane Tree or take it for granted!!

To quote Rita Moreno, "Cool it".

The Sins of the Father ??

Brothers/siblings fall apart all the time.  It's an ancient malady beginning with Cain and Abel,  the feud between Joseph and his brothers and Romulus and Remus.

In modern times in Britain, we have the simmering rivalry between the Milliband brothers, David and  Ed after Gordon Brown's departure from the Labour Party's leadership.     And Rupert Murdoch's brood had their problems too.

Even the mighty Royal Family was not exempt.  Because Edward VIII - who reigned for just one year in 1936 - decided to give up the British throne for the love of his American paramour Mrs Wallis Simpson, the duty and responsibility of the Monarch fell upon his reluctant brother George (who became King George VI,  1936 - 1952).  From childhood, George VI suffered a chronic stammer and public speech was an ordeal for him.  His wife Queen Elizabeth (the mother of the present Queen), was unable to forgive her brother-in-law ...... for what she regarded as a betrayal of the Royal Family.  She blamed him for her husband's early death - George VI died at 57, his brother who was a year older died at 78.

Today, we bear witness to the very public falling out between two brothers (and a sister), scions of the venerable  Lee Kuan Yew family/dynasty, all  holders of the much vaunted President Scholarship,  high-flyer graduates from one of the most pukka universities in the world (just like their mater and pater), top ranking players (just like their wives) in the first-world city state of Singapore - that Utopia in the economic backwater of  Southeast Asia. They are squabbling like alley cats over the old family home  - and the money and power that are linked to the old homestead.

It's not so much a tragedy as a farce.

We in Malaysia have been regaled by stories of the PM's  'financial shenanigans', his wife's handbags and  eye-boggling diamonds in both the local and global Press.

Now squeaky-clean and self-righteous Singapore is giving us a soap opera worthy of another manga-style comic book hero, as a sequel to the Manga comic book: The LKY Story - Lee Kuan Yew: The Man Who Shaped a Nation.

According to Bunsho Kajiya, managing director of Shogakukan Asia " The manga format is often used because even youth and children find it  appealing to read and there is a general understanding that manga format works on a global scale to attract many potential readers."

Say no More!

But I cannot avoid harbouring a feeling of deja vu, that this scenario has happened before in Singapore's history.

Now I remember this history textbook in Singapore.

In it , Singapore schoolchildren are taught the history of their  island Republic, of being small fish surrounded by many Malay fish.  This book notes

Let me continue this with a quote from an earlier posting - to illustrate what happens when legacy and siblings and power begin to disintegrate.
See : https://anaksihamid.blogspot.my/2013/02/stamford-bob-and-dave.html

"Raffles employed the old trick of manipulating factional rivalry and playing the kingmaker to ensure Singapura belongs to the British and to challenge the Dutch threat to Britain's lucrative opium trade between China and British India.

He installed Tengku Hussein who was exiled in Riau by his brother the Sultan of Johor as the Sultan of Johor!  All this was done with the collaboration of the man who was the head of the Malay settlement located at the mouth of the Singapore River when Raffles first landed in Singapore.

Stamford Raffles did not discover Singapore.  And he did not sign a treaty with the actual Sultan of Singapura - he installed a puppet, an interloper.

1 February 1819 - Tungku Long (Hussein) was smuggled in from Riau and Raffles offered to recognise Hussein as the Sultan of Johor  (just as Robert Clive did in installing Mir Jafar as the Nawab of Bengal) thereby legitimising the British right to set up a trading post (mind you, just a trading post)  in the treaty of 6 February 1819.

In the treaty, Hussein was claimed to be 'the lawful sovereign of the whole of territories extending from Lingga and Johore to Mount Muar.'  The Brits left no stones unturned!"

Well, I thought I might enhance some of the material in that school textbook which simply recorded this......

..... and an illustration of an exotic native warrior.

- 

And so, boys and girls - here are some final thoughts.

1.

From "Elegy written in a Country Churchyard" by Thomas Gray, 1716-1771

2.  "The old trick of manufacturing factional rivalry and playing kingmaker" - it's a dangerous device  that is being manipulated in both Singapore and Malaysia.


3.  Among the Malays, there are a growing number of Tungku Longs and Temenggong Abdul Rahmans  who are willing to sell their fellow-Malays down the drain, knowingly or unknowingly - in the name of progress, religion, democracy, liberalism, human rights and profit.


What wee gave, we have;
What wee spent, wee had;
What wee kept, wee lost.

(Epitaph on Edward Courtenay, Earl of Devon (d, 1419) and his wife at Tiverton)

Jest for fun.  My favourite song in the late 80s and a beautifully light advertisement
 for all stricken brothers.  Cheers mate!

ROYALTY

On 24 April 2017, the Sultan of Kelantan, Sultan Muhammad V will be installed as the 15th Yang di-Pertuan  Agong of Malaysia.

This occasion is described as an 'Installation' and not a 'Coronation' (from the word coronet which is also a crown).  Part of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong's Regalia is the Tengkolok di Raja (a traditional head-dress) and it does not include a Crown. Malay Sultans are not crowned (except for the Sultan of Johor).

After 73 years, (although I spent my first 63 years as a citizen of the  Republic of Singapore)  I am just getting acquainted  with the whats and whys and hows  of this unique system of  Constitutional Monarchy.  I am just beginning to come to grips with the history and legacy of  the Lingga-Riau Empire. Their Royal Regalia is similar to that of  Malaysia's Paramount Ruler specifically items like the Keris  and the Cogan. 



 More fascinating for me is the Nobat di Raja.

Here's a video of Perak's Nobat di Raja at practice.

No,  AsH has not gone dewy-eyed over Monarchy and Royalty.  Let me describe  phases of my span when Kings and Queens became part of my education - during Colonial times and the
Singapore-in-Malaysia era.

For a short spell when Singapore was part of Malaysia in the 1960s - Singaporeans faced the prospect of having a Monarch: a Sultan who is a Malay-Muslim and carries the nomenclature of  Yang di- Pertuan Agong as the Head of State.  The closest thing they could relate to a "Sultan"  is  Masjid Sultan or Jalan Sultan, where Malays and non-Malays would flock to for Malay and Indian-Muslim  culinary delights during every Ramadan.  As for Johor, it is the nearest neighbour with a Sultan, but Singaporeans were not too impressed with the 'stories' regarding the then Sultan of Johore.

From September 1963 to August 1965 ( which coincided with my sojourn at the University of Singapore )  we sang  Negara Ku  as our National Anthem.  The line  "Raja Kita Selamat Bertakhta" carried no significance for us  and we could not connect with the institution of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong in Malaysia.

But then, Singapore's very own National Anthem Majulah Singapura was sung with gusto at every morning Assembly in schools, and when a pupil was asked the title of the  Anthem, he happily gave the answer "Mari Kita"  (the Anthem's first two words)!

In Singapore, Malay might be the National Language (then), but it carried no kudos and no significance. Besides, Malay schools were flagging in their enrolment (like some vernacular Chinese schools in Malaysia today) and were left  to die a natural death, especially after August 1965.

When I was teaching at Sekolah Menengah Yusof Ishak in the late 1960s, I met a number of pupils who, in their 4th/5th year at Kampung Jagoh Malay School (Telok Blangah Road), had to menumpang at Jubilee Malay School (off West Coast Road) when their school enrolment reached a critical level.

By the 1970s/1980s Kampung Jagoh Malay School and Jubilee Malay School ceased to exist.   As they withered away, there were no voices that would or could whimper and mourn their demise.

But I'm digressing.

Interestingly, Dr Toh Chin Chye (1921-2012), a founder-member of the PAP, and a former Deputy Prime Minister (1965-1968) wanted the Anthem to be in Malay "as this is the indigenous language of the region "  and it would "appeal to all races".  A whole lot of water has flowed under the bridge since then!!

In 2001, the Anthem was re-arranged by Mr Phoon Yew Tien in "the musical key of F".  This arrangement was "grander and more inspiring" in order to make the anthem "more accessible to all Singaporeans".

[Details regarding the Singapore National Anthem were taken from www.nhb.gov.sg]

During the courtship period between Singapore and the Federation of Malaya, I recalled an incident that stuck in my psyche - that convinced me that this "arranged marriage" would not work.   One party was chalk,  the other was cheese.  More than that, the agenda - implicit and explicit - for the merger was fraught with duplicity and opportunism.

What was the incident?

I was with some of my fellow undergrads in the Union House canteen chatting about the hottest topic on the campus - of Singapore in Malaysia.  I was the only Malay in the group.  One of the boys cheerily quipped, "Yah man, we shall have AH GONG as our Head of State!"  They were beside themselves with glee and cackle -  except Maznoor bt Abd Hamid!

After that startling revelation, I wrote an article for the Bulletin of the University's Democratic Socialist Club entitled 'SULTANS : AN ANACHRONISM? ',  I wish I had kept a copy, but in those days we were still using dinosaur technology.  In a nutshell, I stated that Sultans, like the British Colonials and the Chinese tycoons, have a place in the political makeup of the country - and especially the Sultans.  If they had not been conquered, conned and cajoled (and sometimes connived) into opening up their States, there would be no Singapore or Malaya or Penang.  Just as the British Isles is the United Kingdom, 'Government' in Malay is translated as Kerajaan.  Very flimsy ground maybe, but there's a limit to the insults and encroachment that the Malays can take.

When Singapore joined Malaysia, it became obvious that the main thrust of the PAP's agenda was to agitate for Malaysian Malaysia.   It was a glib and disingenuous mantra, which sounds like one thing, but it means another.   Today, though differently packaged it is still part of the agenda of the DAP, a clone of its cousin in Singapore.

So why did I write that article?

 I am no great fan of Royalty, local or foreign.  They were only characters in movies like 'Hang Tuah' (re the self-indulgent, unjust and effete Sultan) and 'Bawang Putih, Bawang Merah' (this time the handsome prince, which many red-blooded damsels dream of marrying).  Titles like Tengku or Raja or Syed for that matter do not leave me in awe.     But, enough is enough - just how many more apples do they want to pick off the tree??


                                                       ======================

I reckon there are some in Malaysia who will snigger, mock, ignore or at the very least tolerate this Royal ceremonial event that takes place  every five years.

However this septuagenarian remembers how Singapore and the Federation of Malaya went to town to celebrate another particular Royal Event.   Here are some images from the "Penang  Settlement Coronation Celebrations" of June 1953.

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second and the Penang Settlement Souvenir Programme.

The pages relating to "The significance of the Crown in Malaya" indicates that the nine Malay Rulers are only entitled to the appellation  'His Highness', not HRH ('His Royal Highness).  Mere titles they may be but it still reveals the pecking order.  Malayans then were quite at ease and happy with this version of imported Royalty and feudalism.  How different  should they be today?

The Nine Sultans - His Highnesses taking their place in this Ceremony.

The following extracts describe the 'Historic Ceremony of Coronation'.

In 1953 I was just nine years old and we had all this procedure explained to us in our classroom.  I was fascinated by the Orb and the anointing ceremony.  Fancy rubbing  your hands and head with
"holy oil from the Ampulla which is poured into the Anointing Spoon".  And we were informed by our teachers that this means " she is blessed and consecrated as monarch and made ready to receive the royal vestments and regalia, the outward symbols of her office".  We hung on to the words to imagine all these rituals taking place.  I remember being quite gobsmacked ( though that's not the right word for 1953) and we little brown children of the British Empire sat there on the floor with glazed eyes and (some) open mouths.

The Orbs

The Mace (top picture), The Royal Sceptre and the Jewelled State Sword (lower picture)

============================================================================================

Here's the Malaysian version.

========================================================================================

But I must admit most of that pomp escaped us and all we wanted was the Coronation souvenir badge.

Now that I am 64 years older I find these parts of the Ceremony quite fascinating.

1. Then follows the administration of the Oath, in which the Queen, in answer to questions put to her by the Archbishop, promises to govern her people according to their laws and customs, to "cause Law and Justice, in Mercy, to be executed" and to uphold the Protestant faith.

2. The Queen then takes the Sword and goes alone to the altar and in an act of symbolism offers it to the service of God and lays it down.

3. The Bible is presented ("The most valuable thing that this world affords.  Here is Wisdom; this is the Royal Law; these are the lively Oracles of God") and the Archbishop's Benediction follows.

The Queen is then ceremonially assisted from the Coronation Chair to the Throne, and in turn the Archbishop, the Princes of the Blood Royal, and the senior member of each degree of the peerage, kneel before her to pay homage ....


Certainly the Yang di-Pertuan Agong's Installation won't be as complex and ostentatious and magnificent and sumptuous and showy as the Coronation of a Christian British Monarch whose reign covers half of the globe.  Malaysians who prefer to be Republicans can take comfort from that difference!

Finally, how did the Rakyat in Penang celebrate that joyous day?

And finally, a grand tribute from the Rakyat in Penang to Queen Elizabeth the Second -

That lottery is for the construction of a permanent memorial,  a concert hall named Queen's Hall  in Coronation  Garden.     What is $200,000 worth in today's money?

The intent of this posting - nine Sultans taking turns to be the Yang di-Pertuan Agong is simpler (and more interesting) than having a permanent lifelong monarch.  Every nation needs a figurehead Head of State.

For the Malays - whose economy, demography, government and culture have been subverted and muddled by the appetite of Britain and its compradores - please, please let them keep their Sultans .... and please, please save them from the Republicans, the puritan Arabists and all shades of Shakers and Modernisers.

Babies and Missiles - America's Trump Ca(r)d.

A few days ago we witnessed the might and triumph of the magnificent American Avenger - that of the 45th President of the USA Donald Trump.

President Donald Trump then unilaterally attacked Syria with 59 Tomahawk Missiles - effectively dismantling 20% of Syria's airforce - a very "emotional" response by a caring father and grandfather who by the way does not care two hoots about the plight of the fellow citizens of these victims of chemical warfare in Khan Sheikhoun.  After all he  has endorsed a blanket ban on immigration from Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Sudan, and Iran.   They are all Muslim majority countries and have been and still are victims of American imperialism - especially the first four.

From Alison Weir

Will the UN and global media ever forget this drama at the UN on 5 April, performed by the American Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley?

May my 'umble self suggest more images for the Ambassador to parade?  They are all victims of American and Allied bombings, missile strikes and drone attacks - no grief or crocodile tears for them, no hand-wringing cry of "babies, innocent and beautiful babies."



1.

Remember Operation Shock and Awe in Iraq?

2.  When two American mothers Nikki Haley  and Samantha Power (Samantha Power was Obama's American Ambassador to the UN) stood up in the UN to challenge the 'absence of shame' and the inhumanity of Assad,  we should not forget another American "hand that rocks the cradle" - Madeleine Jana Korbel Albright, President Clinton's US Secretary of State from 1997-2001.

A financial and trade embargo was imposed on Iraq by the UN Security Council (at the behest of USA and her Allies)
to force Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait.  It lasted from 1990 to 2003.  The 2nd Gulf War, Operation Shock and Awe was carried out in 2003.

3.  And now, we have this scenario after the 59 Tomahawk (why do they use words from the Native American vocabulary, why not words like 'chainsaw' or 'Lincoln Continental' ?)  missiles that fell on Syria.

Besides the two swooners above there's the applause from a certain "foreign country" - which itself is responsible for the massacre of countless babies, and which somehow does not get tears or outcry or retribution from the likes of  Donald, Nikki, Theresa and their predecessors.

Three of the four Bakr boys killed by Israel on the Gaza beach in 2014, fleeing for their lives. (From Mondoweiss)

These are just little drops of  dead, innocent Palestinian babies in a huge ocean of  'collateral damage'.   After the last major cleanup of Gaza, groups like Save the Children could not digest the atrocities much more and they came out with this conscience-tickler,  a tad touching but not drastic enough to be accused of anti-Semitism.

What can we expect after this trumped-up farce?  For them Assad will have to go the way of Saddam Hussein and Gaddafi.  Look forward to another cliff-hanger and a pent-up bloodlust scenario in the White House as seen in the "Let's get rid of that SOB Osama"  movie clip.

Obama and Clinton have had their satisfaction - next will be Nikki Haley and Donald Trump.

CRY BABIES CRY !!!!

Hallelujah!!!!

Christmas - Part 1

That time of year is coming upon us again - the season of goodwill and peace to all men (and women, oops!).   It's also the season for  shopping, for putting up ornate lights and decoration in the city centres, for giving and receiving presents, for boozing ( in the West mainly )  and for eating - and I must also add - for over-consumption and over indulgence.

It's similar to any other religious festival (discounting the boozing for Hari Raya of course) and "secular" festivals like Chinese New Year and the Gregorian New Year in most parts of the world.

In Malaysia, of course, all religious festivals are celebrated with gusto and they are all gazetted as public holidays.

But consider this.   In the UK (according to 2011 figures) 4.4 % of the total population are Muslims and the vast majority of these are located in England where they make up just over 5 % of the resident population.  In this primarily Christian country, Muslims do not enjoy a public holiday during  Eid.

In China, which has an estimated 1-5 % Christian population, Christmas Day is not a public holiday.

Christmas Day is a gazetted public holiday in Malaysia - which has a Christian population of 9 %. Yes, Sabah's Christians make up just over 30% of Sabah's population and in Sarawak, 43 % of her population are Christians.   But what of Peninsular Malaysia?

Malaya,  a primarily  Muslim  country, had been invaded and ruled by Christian nations like Portugal, Holland and Britain since the 15th century.  She  became a part of Malaysia in 1963.   Here, Christmas Day was gazetted as a Public Holiday by the colonial authorities long before Merdeka in 1957  -  even though Christians make up just over 3% of the Semenanjung's population (2010 statistics).  I reckon the percentage must have been even lower in pre-1963 and colonial days.    But is this surprising?   Malaya, after all, has been a  part of the Christian British Empire since the late 18th century.

So remember the Muslims in England: 5 %  of the population, and they have no leg to stand on if they want Eid to be declared a public holiday in this "primarily Christian country"!

I recall Allahyarham Usman Awang's poem:

Baiknya hati Melayu itu

tak terbandingkan

Selagi yang ada sanggup diberikan

Sehingga tercipta sebuah kiasan:

"Dagang lalu nasi ditanakkan

Suami pulang lapar tak makan

Kera di hutan disusu-susukan

Anak di pangkuan mati kebuluran"


( http://ww1.utusan.com.my/utusan/Rencana/20140409/re_05/ErtiTaatSetiaBaiksungguhlahkerajaanMalaysiaini  - Thank you, Zaini Hassan, for reminding me of Usman Awang's acerbic wit!)

However, the "anak di pangkuan"  mentioned in this poem has mutated into ... fat cats, copycats, cool cats, hep cats, cat's pyjamas (whiskers) - mostly, but not entirely with the aid of the NEP, under the aegis of  the (old) UMNO.   Nearly 60 years after Independence in 1957, the Malays are fighting like cats and dogs.  They have lost the ability to smell the rats.  They have allowed themselves to be manipulated, to be used as cats'  paws - resulting in bitter disputes and in-fighting.

Oh dear, I must stop these references to 'cats'  - they don't deserve to be reflected in the asinine aspects of my bangsa Melayu. 

Sadly the Malays who have been hoisted on the NEP have instead turned into the Other "kera"  -  "seperti kera diberi bunga".  

Even more challenging, the Malays of the 21st century have to re-boot themselves into "Melayu Sederhana" , now that they have been painted into a corner by the uninvited home decorators.  It looks like  si kera  must liberate, liberalise (?) themselves and begin to lay out a carpet of flowers from their little corner right up to the front door -  while all other things remain unequal.

"We tortured some folks." - a folksy admission by President Barack Obama

1.  "The Senate Report on the brutal interrogation methods employed by the CIA after  9/11 not only makes shocking reading: another dark day for an agency, and an ugly stain on the global reputation of the US."     Rupert Cornwell, The Independent 9 December 2014.

Read :http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/cia-torture-report-a-victory-for-moral-outrage-and-a-blow-for-us-democracy-9913740.html



2.   It wasn't that bad, we've been told, over and over again for more than a decade,  "We only water boarded three people".  

The man himself - President Obama - admitted recently, "We tortured some folks."

Read : http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/dec/09/america-torture-cia-report-defenders



3.  American Language for camouflaging torture.

       American Language                                                            Real Language 

       1. waterboarding                                                              simulated drownings

       2.  exploiting individual phobias                                     setting Alsatian dogs to sniff
                                                                                                genitals of suspects.

       3.  adjusting temperature                                                 subjected to sub-zero freezing.

       4.  dietary manipulation and behaviour control               rectal feeding and rectal rehydration

       5.  stress positions                                                            hanging suspect in shackles for 180 hours

       6.  degrading treatment                                                     torture

       7.  enhanced technique                                                     another word for 'torture'

       8.  serious mistakes                                                          there was no torture - just serious
                                                                                                 mistakes BUT countless lives have
                                                                                                 been saved and our Homeland is
                                                                                                 more secure.

     

4.  Why torture is bad according to many western pundits: it did not produce the crucial intelligence. According to the Report  "none of what the CIA perpetrated actually procured information that stopped any plots against the US or its allies."

Dear,dear, what a shame.  All that torture and it did not stop the "Muslim Terrorists".

There's no moral indignation about the means and methods applied in this War of Terror, only the disgust  that the ends were not achieved.

5.   However, according to Patrick Cockburn :  The CIA's real failure?  It pursued the wrong targets.

          Read:  http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/the-cias-real-failure-it-pursued-the-wrong-targets-9913730.html


Cockburn's article makes two points: Firstly, he saw the CIA as an agency fighting the War of Terror and it had failed because it did not prevent  the expansion of ISIS.

Secondly, two countries who were  'complicit' in 9/11 (Pakistan and Saudi Arabia) were not
targeted.  Well, if they had been, Saudi Arabia would not be 'complicit' with  Obama today in pushing down the  price of petroleum so as to target Putin (Russia) over the issue of  Ukraine and Iran over its nuclear programme.
       
As for those blighted  people of Pakistan, didn't their leaders allow the US to walk all over its sovereignty so that American hit-men could assassinate Osama Bin Laden in his bedroom in
in front of his wife?

Furthermore, despite their nation being an ally of the USA, Pakistani civilians were not spared from being murdered by drones.
       

 

Hence in Patrick Cockburn's reckoning,  "Guilty the CIA may have been of torturing but this was one episode in a far greater failure. (my underline)  for which it had never been held to account."
         




6.   Obama oh Obama !!!
 
I recall that when this heartthrob President visited Malaysia, we were ticked off for failing to apply American-style democracy, values and morality.
   
Read : http://anaksihamid.blogspot.com/2014/04/pekong-di-dada-dan-kuman-di-seberang.html

But do people remember when, in January 2009, the newly-elected President Obama pledged to close Guantanamo Bay within 12 months?  Do people remember that he reneged on that promise?
   
In the US inquiry into 9/11, Bush censored 28 pages of the Report which included the role of Saudi Arabia.  Obama promised to allow the pages to be published, but he has never done so.
 

7.   Those who are enamoured with America and all things American ( and there is no shortage of them here in Malaysia)  will probably extol the fact that the American Government under Obama is willing to reveal all - in this US Senate Intelligence Committee Report.  This, they will say, would never happen in their homeland!!   Well, read on......
   
The torture of Muslim prisoners and  'terror suspects by the CIA had been well documented by those who have studied the goings-on in American politics and policy.  " Torture and the Violence of Organized Forgetting"  (Henry Giroux's words)  are not an aberration or a new phenomenon in US domestic and foreign policy.

   
Read :  http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/12/12/torture-and-the-violence-of-organized-forgetting/

 
"The maiming and breaking of bodies and the forms of unimaginable pain inflicted by the Bush           administration on so-called 'enemy combatants' was no longer seen in violation of either                       international human rights or a constitutional commitment to democratic ideals."

 " ......... Frank Rich once argued and the Senate Intelligence Report confirms,  ' torture was a pre-meditated policy approved at our government's highest levels ...... psychologists and physicians were enlisted as collaborators in inflicting pain."                

Two psychologists - Jim Mitchell and Bruce Jessen - who developed the CIA's torture programme formed a company called Mitchell, Jessen and Associates.  They were paid more than USD80 million for their services.

It was reported:  after an X-ray of one prisoner's foot, another doctor 'recommended'  that the prisoner  'could be made to stand for 52 hours'.  As for waterboarding, doctors allowed up to three sessions per day.

     Read ;  http://www.businessinsider.my/doctors-scientists-in-cia-torture-report-2014-12/

CIA suspect Abu Zubaydah (AP)

 Abu Zubaydah, a Pakistani 'terror suspect' was transferred to Thailand and left in isolation for 47 days,  he was "squeezed into tiny boxes for 300 hours and waterboarded no fewer than 80 times ......   The water-boarding left Abu Zubaydah  'completely unresponsive, with bubbles rising through his open full mouth.'  He was left in a state of 'involuntary spasms.' "
       

Abu Zubaydah was a broken man after his extensive interrogations.  Remember  Pavlov's experiment (by using dogs) on conditioning human behaviour?  Well, it worked on Abu Zubaydah.  "In CIA documents he is described as having become so compliant that  'when the interrogator raised his eyebrows', he would walk to the 'water table' and sit down.  The interrogator only had to snap his fingers twice for Abu Zubaydah to lie down, ready for water-boarding, the report says."                


So what is waterboarding?  An individual is "bound securely to an inclined bench, which is approximately four feet by seven feet.  The feet .. are generally elevated.  A cloth is placed over the forehead and eyes.  Water is then applied to the cloth in a controlled manner ..... and produces the perception of 'suffocation and incipient panic' "                

Well, for those of us who have abandoned their rose-coloured glasses about the West, they will realise that  Obama's Democrat administration published this Report mainly to expose the Republican administration of George Bush.  CIA's use of torture had been known even before Obama                 came to power.  But it's useful to publicise it now because next month the Senate will be run by the Republicans.

Furthermore, only 500 pages of the 6,000 page Report were published: 5,500 pages remain unpublished - that is, over 90 percent of the report - supposedly  to protect  the allies of US, including the United Kingdom, and to hide the 'black site' prisons where suspects were sent for 'rendition'  that is, to be tortured.
           

"Global"  At its height, the CIA program included secret prisons in countries including Poland, Afghanistan, Thailand, Romania and Lithuania - locations that are referred to only by color-themed codes in the report"
(from the Daily Mail)

While HRH Prince Charles of the United Kingdom is still wringing his hands and bemoaning the victimisation of Christians in the Middle East by extremist Muslims, we await his verdict on the atrocity committed by his fellow white Christian ally the US on these 'terror suspects.'  I wonder if he could see the connection between what Judaeo-Christian countries inflict on the Middle East and the flight and plight of Middle Eastern Christians.

It is a relief to know that in the case of  the years of torture of Muslims by the CIA,  President Barack Obama has responded by saying (this time it's not 'promising') he "will  continue to make sure we never resort to those methods again" .  After all, the CIA's behaviour  was merely "contrary to our values"!!


The Free World  now depend  on drones to rid the world of the menace of Islamists, terrorists, Jihadists, al-Qaeda, ISIS, Gazans and Palestinians, etc, etc.  In this way, the US and her allies can decimate and maim their enemies without bringing home their boys in body-bags.  Also their hands, unlike Lady Macbeth's, will not carry the stench of foreign blood.

The following cartoon says it all.
       

" How dare they?!   That's against International Law"