Now, who's the dead meat?

I don't like Anwar Ibrahim. I don't want him to be our Prime Minister. But I don't believe he sodomised his aide, Saiful Bukhari Azlan either.

However, I do think that Saiful have been "sodomised" by Anwar's political foes. Whatever Anwar's sexual orientation is, he's not that stupid to sodomise his assistant. He wants to make a political come back and this is the last thing he'll do.

Both Saiful and the people "behind" him are stupid. This is the worst political strategy in history. Now, a photo of Saiful posing in front of the office of the Deputy Prime Minister is being circulated on the internet. He was with a DPM's officer.

Now, who's a dead meat?

Shut up and blast?

Don't you think Pak Lah is quite predictable? Whatever he denies is usually the truth. That is scary.

To the police force, if you want to redeem your dignity, please act on Raja Petra Kamarudin's (RPK) statutory declaration.

To Rosmah Mansor, if RPK is lying in his statutory declaration, you need to clear your name.

To RPK, it's very brave of you to make that declaration. It is something you should have done much earlier.

Lipstick, powder and paint

It's not the song of Shakin' Steven that gave me the inspiration to write this posting. It's the latest directive from the Kota Baharu Municipal Council (MPKB) that prompted me to blog this.

Again, women are being blamed for rape cases and illicit sex. How convenient. What about more and more children who are being molested and rape these days? Some of them were committed by the father or a male relative.

I don't know if I should laugh or cry when the directive also includes the prohibition of high-heeled shoes with tapping sound. Do men get aroused with tapping high-heels? Is sex the only thing in men's mind?

Read more about it here:

June 23, 2008 20:54 PM

No Lipstick And High-heeled Shoes For Female Muslim Employees In Kota Baharu
KOTA BAHARU, June 23 (Bernama) -- Female Muslim employees in business premises in the Kota Baharu Municipal Council (MPKB) area are forbidden to wear lipstick and high heel shoes to work.This directive is contained in a MPKB circular, dated May 25 and signed by its president, Shafie Ismail, which has been distributed to business premises under its area of jurisdiction.A check by Bernama at the premises found that only a few tenants had received the circular this week while some have yet to receive them.The circular stated that the directive, targetted at female Muslim employees working in food outlets and other business premises, was issued to prevent incidents like rape and illicit sex as well as to safeguard the moral and dignity of Muslim women in Kelantan.It states that Muslim women are forbidden to wear thick make-up, like bright coloured lipstick and high-heeled shoes that gave a tapping sound.For those who insist on wearing high heel shoes, they can do so but with rubber heels.Attempts by Bernama to contact Shafie for clarification on the directive were futile.The directive on the wearing of lipsticks and high-heeled shoes are in addition to the wearing of scarves which should cover the chest and not of transparent material, blouse with long sleeves, long and loose blouses and socks.Those who do not adhere to the regulation can be imposed a compound fine not exceeding RM500.-- BERNAMA

Who dunnit?

Raja Petra Kamarudin, the editor of Malaysia Today, made a statutory declaration alleging that Najib Razak's wife was at the murder scene of Altanyuya Shaaribuu. This is something he should have done much earlier instead of making wild accusation on his website and got the police put him in jail briefly.

We all want a just trial. It must be very daunting for the victim's family. Any small evidence that can take the murderer(s) to the gallow is very, very important. Thus, I don't agree with him when he posted those accusations on his website.

IGP, Musa Hassan said, the matter could be subjudice as the murder trial was on going. But then Mr. IGP, sometimes, during a trial, there could be new developments to the case.

Besides calling up Raja Petra to investigate his allegations, the police should also immediately question the names of the individuals mentioned in the statutory declaration and act on the "new" lead.

Yong da man

I really don't like Anwar Ibrahim. But I'm not mad when the president of Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP), Yong Teck Lee had a secret meeting in Hong Kong to discuss "the political dynamics affecting the nation and Sabah".

We don't know what actually transpired during those meetings. We don't even know who initiated those meetings. We can only speculate.

Knowing Anwar's style (but I might be wrong), he might have invited Yong over to Hong Kong to discuss the possibility of SAPP crossing over to PKR. He knows that Sabah is not in Pak Lah's priority list. So, Anwar might have been courting SAPP. And Yong is man enough to admit that he met up with Anwar.

Whatever it is, I still cannot comprehend why Pak Lah is still holding on despite all these sequence of events starting from the general election. I don't know where his conscience is. The fate of millions of Malaysians is in his hand. But we don't have confidence in him anymore.

And if Pak Lah don't take Yong seriously, I don't know what can happen. This is serious. Pak Lah should resign "gracefully".

Fit only to be a Tok Penghulu

I was skyping with a Malaysian friend of mine who lives in NYC just now. We're talking about old times and also the current politics.

Thanks to technology, she keeps herself abreast with the happenings in the country via internet. And she reads Dr. Mahathir Mohamad's blog regularly.

She's also frustrated with Pak Lah. She said, Pak Lah is too nice and only fit to be a Tok Penghulu. I had a good laugh. And then she continued, "he can only fulfill requests for a new telaga by the kampung folks in Ulu Tobiar".

I think so, too lah Pak Lah.

Pak Lah, the fallen angel

I'm appalled when Pak Lah said that the president of Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP), Yong Teck Lee made that announcement because of "personal greed".

Yong listed down the pressing issues concerning Sabah which was deliberately overlooked by Pak Lah. They're all very important matters to Sabah and the country on the whole. How can the nation's leadership ignore that?

As far as I am concern, my friends in Umno are the ones who join politics for personal gains. If you tell them about problems faced by the rakyat, they don't care. They're more concern about failing the Opposition instead of improving the livelihood of the rakyat. Datuk Azhar Ibrahim is one of the Umno men who urged the federal government to cease projects for the rakyat when DAP conquered Penang in March.

By highlighting the problems in Sabah, what does Yong in return? What kind of monetary rewards does he get?

BN is calling for an emergency meeting to discuss about SAPP's stand. I noticed none of the party leaders in BN who call for SAPP to be sacked in response to the announcement by Yong earlier. They dare not do so. But when an individual demands for Pak Lah to step down, they want to impose severe disciplinary action. What difference does SAPP made? None.

If SAPP leaves BN, it's a catastrophy for Pak Lah's leadership. While Myanmar and China suffered natural disaster, the aftermath of Malaysia's political tsunami will see recurring "tremors" in the next few months, leading to Umno party election in December.

I wonder what kind of action Pak Lah will take against SAPP. This is what happens when a leader sleeps on his job. And when someone gave a tip off to him in public, he ignores it.

Who wants an ignorant PM? I don't.

Bravo Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) for making an official announcement that it has lost confidence in Pak Lah. Read this.

What now Pak Lah? Call for a snap election? You'll lose everything should you do that. I'd like to echo what SAPP said in the press conference today - step aside and let another leader take over.

And then, Minister at the Prime Minister's Dept, Nazri Aziz said that SAPP cannot table vote of no-confidence in Parliament this Monday. But the Speaker can call for an emergency motion. Read more here.

Malaysian politics have never been this exciting.

How do you solve a problem like Sabah?

If you ask me what I think about Pak Lah, I'll say that he's lazy. He's too lazy to think; he's too lazy to check the temparature of the people's sentiment; and he's too lazy to work even.

Pak Lah just don't have the foresight a leader should have.

When two Sabah MPs declined appointments as Deputy Ministers at the federal level in March, Pak Lah should have taken the cue from there. To him, it's okaylah if they don't want to be Deputy Ministers. He can appoint other MPs.

Pak Lah failed to see that the portfolio does not help the MPs in their effort to forge the relationship between Sabah and the federal government. Shafie Apdal, the Umno man from Sabah was appointed as Minister of National Unity, Cultural, Arts and Heritage. In layman's term, he's a penjaga muzium or museum caretaker. That role given to Shafie wasn't enough to reflect the importance of Sabah in the federal government.

In fact, there is no suitable portfolio that can ensure an even distribution of wealth in Sabah and Sarawak.

Thus, if I am Pak Lah, I would certainly be alarmed with the allegations saying that a party within BN is opting to leave the coalition. And today, 18 June, 2008, Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) is going to make a very important announcement which could affect the whole country.

SAPP's president Yong Teck Lee even referred to his deputy's statement earlier, denying rumours that the party is pulling out of BN as "politicking".

This is politics. In politics, you cannot be nice. You can be "polite" but never nice. However, Pak Lah's style of politics is being nice. He was known as Mr. Nice Man. He still is. Within a month, he visited Sabah twice. During the first visit, he gave out a lot of goodies to Sabah. He thinks, that'll do.

Wrong. There is still no active participation of Sabah politicians in the federal administration. The federal law is also not doing justice to Sabah. The Labuan issue and oil royalty are other matters which remains unsolved.

Wake up, Pak Lah. It's the dawn of a new era. If you want to sleep and continue dreaming, let other people do the job. Sabah cannot be taken lightly.

It's a tough life

The people are already paying more for their essential food before the fuel price hike. Last week, I noticed that the prices of my favourite food has increased, too.

The government can throw some big figures to our face, on how much it has to subsidise us on oil. But the people on the streets cannot comprehend those new subsidy structure. If it's really true that the subsidy is a lot while Petronas cannot give further discounts, then show the accounts to us.

We cannot accept that Malaysia, a net oil exporter, is denying its citizens of their rights to the subsidy. If the government's excuse is that they can't afford it anymore because they've been subsidising us for way too long and needs the money to fund other developments, then it should consider raising the corporate tax of oil companies operating in the country. Create new types of taxes just to get more money from them. They won't ditch Malaysia. The whole world needs gas. They'll have to explore for the black gold at every corner of the world, if they have to.

Oil companies are making tonnes of money from the increase of global oil price. But they pay the usual corporate tax. And they still have excess. Tax them.

Another thing, I don't understand why we're sticking to some ancient ruling that could dampen the effort to have clean and fuel efficient vehicle in the country. For example, the import of a hybrid vehicle is an expensive affair. The tax you have to pay for such a vehicle is costlier than the cost of the car itself. This is so ridiculous.

There are a lot of ways where we can save but it's not easy to save. Another example is the lack of petrol stations with NGV refuelling. This is a deterrant for people to convert their vehicle into an NGV-powered one where the cost is extremely low. And I wonder why, only Petronas has the exclusive rights to have NGV refuelling stations.

It seems to me, the government is telling us, "sorry folks. We are not going to make it easy for you".

The "fuel-out" guy

If there is a key performance indicator (KPI) for our Prime Minister, he failed miserably. The latest snafu he committed is the fuel price increase. Not just that, he's hiking the tariff of electricity, too.

I noticed there's a lot of inconsistency in the statements made by the Prime Minister and the Minister of Domestic Trade & Consumer Affairs, Shahrir Samad prior to the announcement on 4 June. In fact, the announcement was postponed from 30 May to 4 June.

The decision made by the government was a very shortsighted one. At first, they wanted to ban foreign registered cars from filling up gas within 50km of the north and south borders. Then, they wanted foreign registered cars or foreigners to pay market rate.

Following that, there were a lot of protests from various quarters. Obviously, the government was just thinking out loud. They didn't have the subsidy structure ready. Or maybe they have no clue of how to do it. Really. Read on.

On 4 June, all the information officers of the government machineries were gathered for a briefing on the fuel hike and the new subsidy structure. Apparently, they were told that there will be a 50 sen increase for gas. There were no mention of new electricity tariff.

Later in the day, when the announcement was finally made, the government informations officers themselves were stunned.

This is very alarming. How can the sharing of information within the government be distorted? This is a very important public information. How do the government expect their information officers to manage the perception for them if they're not consistent with their decision? If the material for the information officers was correct for the briefing, then someone might have made the PM changed his mind at the 11th hour. Who's the culprit?

Even if I don't know what's behind the scene, I still believe that the current government is so indecisive.

I suspect that when the government decided on a flat rate for all, perhaps the gas station operators didn't have the system to do the double tier pricing. The government should have spoken to the association of gas operators in Malaysia and check with them on ways to tackle this issue. They shouldn't make any public statements, only to get the affected parties to object to the proposal and in the end, we the Malaysians have to suffer.

I was initially very grateful that Malaysians will get to pay a decent rate for gas while the foreigners will have to pay at market price. It's fair (or selfish) because we're the taxpayers. But then, it wouldn't be fair to foreigners who pay tax to the Malaysian government.

If I could advise the government, the price of gas will have to be at market rate. However, MyKad holders will get a discount. Of course, not a 30 sen discount. The discount should translate back to the old price. So, when the foreign cars from Thailand and Singapore or foreigners not issued with Malaysian ID come to the country, they'll have to pay full price. I believe foreigners who reside here have their own Malaysian ID. They can use that ID to purchase gas at a discount, too.

That way, we're not depriving foreigners from filling gas in our country. They're most welcome here. But they cannot take advantage of our subsidy. That's all.

If the government cannot implement that now because of lack of instruscture, they can always postpone it to a later date. After all, Shahrir earlier leaked the information that the price hike would only be in August. He must have a good reason to say so. Meaning, the government can afford to wait till August, if they want to. In the end, the increase is now.

If Aquaria can have two tier admission fee, so can the gas stations. No infrastructure in place? Ask Aquaria for advise. It's not a new technology. It's a matter of installing them at the premise.

It really made me sick when I read a news piece quoting the Singaporeans who are relieved with the rates. It makes me wonder if this whole thing is to please the Singaporeans. And I just can't believe that our government had the heart to say that the new rate is still lower than Singapore. But their the per capita income is three times higher than ours.

I read with great interest, the remark made by Petronas that it could go bust by 2018 if they keep giving money to the government to buffer the local economy. It claimed that while the price of oil has increased globally, the expenditure for exploration is getting expensive.

Points taken. I know that oil exploration in our region is no longer on shallow waters. But there's potential in deepwater exploration. And yes, it's very costly. However, I don't believe that Petronas' profit margin is slim. They can still make money with the global price increase and they should give Malaysians some discounts. After all, we're a net oil exporter.

Petronas remarks about "giving money" to the government also gives me the impression that our national reserve is not very healthy. As if, the government has to rely on Petronas alone for money. It makes me shiver. No wonder Hassan Merican of Petronas is referred to as the de facto Finance Minister.

Pak Lah is so unbelievable. He wants to continue "serving" the rakyat despite calls for him to quit after the general election. But he's messing the country even more. He's not a problem solver. He creates more problems for the whole nation.

The increase in price of food globally is inevitable. So does the price of oil. But we need to find ways to buffer the impact. Instead, our government wants us to suffer. And then, they use the gangster tactic to school bus operators for example - "don't increase your fare." How do the government expect people to function and do business?

I know Pak Lah is not going to call for a snap election although the Election Commission has issued a standby notice to its officers. This is in view of MPs jumping ship. But with this latest development, Pak Lah will fall flat on his face if there's a snap election.

For someone who has lived to witness May 13, I don't want to see an unrest that will force a snap election. It's better for Pak Lah to step down and give way to others who can think more objectively.