Sunday 27 April 2008

This will become a backfire

Assalamualaikum warahmatullah wabarakatuh,

The more measures the federal government is doing to control the state money, those 5 states that are under the opposition, the more people will hate the government - BN. First, the cancellation of MoU on tourism in these states. Then channeling federal fund through ministers to the local councilors and now fund to SEDC into MARA. And now you want to scrap all the developmental projects in these states which have already written in the long-term Malaysian plan. You want to make the opposition states bankrupt, means that you want people to suffer. I don't understand what type of government who is really caring for the people will like to see the people suffer. This means that the government is just doesn't care.

If you know that you loose the states because the non-Malays did not vote you, and now you are giving more money to MARA - an organisation that only benefits the Malay - you are making it worse than ever. And you announced it in Penang, a non-Malay populated state. You are committing a suicide.

The more you are squeezing these states, the stronger they will be. Why? It's like the more you suppressed the non-bumiputra in Malaysia in economy, education and politics, the stronger they are. Kelantan over the past 18 years has slowly decrease the debt. I bet the rest of the states will be able to do so.

And oh, one more thing. Now that the rumour (or plan?) about the opposition is going to take over the parliament or the federal government soon, I mean soon, your plans will just become models for the next federal government to evaluate and implement on states that you are controlling now! What if the opposition use the same strategies that you have used? Don't you think any deeper and long-sighted?

I seriously cannot believe how short-sighted BN is. You are not doing this for the good of the people, not for the good of the states, not for the good of the country, not for the good of the next election and most importantly not good for your own self! You are slowly killing yourself because you only give more excuse to people not to support you in the future, either when opposition takes over, or in the next election. Stop main busuk lah!

Think deeper for the people.

ALLAHU'alam.

Wassalam.

Celebrity speaker

Assalamualaikum warahmatullah wabarakatuh,

Today, a friend of mine who is working in a conference management company in London told me that to hire Anwar Ibrahim for a 45-min speech, the minimum fee is GBP10,000 .00. This is not a joke and it is in the official hire list of celebrity speaker. Some celebrity speakers can go up to GBP25,000.00 to hire. So, treasure the opportunity to listen to his speech before you have to pay for it.

ALLAHU'alam.

Wassalam.

Friday 25 April 2008

Nepotism in UK and EU

Assalamualaikum warahmatullah wabarakatuh,

European Parliament completely bans any MP to employ any of their family member or relatives to work at any government sector they are holding the portfolio. UK has more than 100 MPs who are employing their family members and relatives using taxpayers money. Wonder why this form of corruption was not mentioned during the BBC Hardtalk. This article is taken from BBC.

More than 100 MPs have declared family members they employ using their taxpayer-funded expenses.

The list of 106 includes the home secretary, environment secretary and the standards committee chairman.
A register of employed relatives was set up after revelations about Tory MP Derek Conway's payments to his son. It is will become compulsory in August.
There is no rule against MPs employing relatives but the European Parliament has voted to ban the practice for MEPs.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith lists her husband, Richard Timney, as a "senior research/parliamentary assistant", which attracts a salary of between £27,780 and £40,052.

Voluntary register

Sir Stuart Bell, one of the senior MPs looking at expenses, employs his wife, Margaret Bell, as office manager.
Housing Minister Caroline Flint's husband, Phil Cole, is employed in the same role, as is Tory MP and standards committee chairman Sir George Young's daughter, Camilla Young.
Environment Secretary Hilary Benn's wife, Sally Clark, is listed as his "research/parliamentary assistant", attracting a salary of between £14,212 and £34,240.
Others to declare relatives on the register include shadow home secretary David Davis, former work and pensions secretary Peter Hain and former Tory leader Michael Howard.
The register was set up at the recommendation of the Standards and Privileges Committee, following the revelations about Mr Conway.

'Severe consequences'

It emerged in January that he had paid his son Freddie more than £40,000 over three years for work as a Parliamentary researcher, despite him being a full time student in Newcastle.
He was suspended from Parliament for 10 days and was ordered to repay £13,161. Mr Conway also lost the Conservative whip.
Sir George, as standards chairman, has warned fellow MPs of "severe consequences" if they could not show they were "beyond reproach" in the way they employed relatives.
The register is currently voluntary but will be compulsory by 1 August.
It is likely more will come forward. The current list amounts to 54 Labour MPs, 39 Conservatives, eight Liberal Democrats, one independent, two DUP and two SNP MPs.
But in February Tory leader David Cameron said "just over" 70 of his MPs employed family members.
Five MPs employ more than one relative - including husband and wife DUP MPs Peter and Iris Robinson.

Expenses review

Mrs Robinson employs their son Jonathan as office manager and daughter-in-law, Mr Robinson employs their daughter and other son.
There are no rules against employing relatives and previously there had been no obligation to declare them publicly.
Shadow Commons leader Theresa May said: "In principle, there is nothing wrong with employing family members, but it is important that we have openness and transparency so that the system is not abused."
But Matthew Elliott, of the pressure group the Taxpayers' Alliance, said the employment of relatives was "completely outdated" adding: "To dispel any suspicion that they are taking advantage of taxpayers' generosity, this practice should be banned once and for all."
MPs only have to give job titles of employed relatives - they do not have to spell out details of the work they do.
A "root and branch" review by the Commons estimates committee into MPs' allowances and pay is expected to report in the autumn.

Can Malaysia also have a register of employed relatives? Along with the declaration of assets.

ALLAHU'alam.

Wassalam.

Wednesday 23 April 2008

Mahathir on BBC Hardtalk

Assalamualaikum warahmatullah wabarakatuh,

I am not a supporter or opponent of Mahathir but I really respect the way that he answered the questions by Stephen Sackur the the latest BBC Hardtalk. Calm, confident, clear and though he has been sacked until he was breathelss in answering the questions, he still has the opportunity to sack back Stephen and question him. Such a quality of a debater should be a model of the leaders of the country. I am not saying that everyone has to follow any of his negative examples (if there is), but in a talk like this when you and your country are severely attacked by foreigner, you need to learn how to defend your country like Mahathir. Like it or not Mahathir is still a very respectful person, even in the eyes of the West or they won't quote his sayings and be cautious about him.

I would also like to give a credit to Mahathir for his effort in developing the human resources in Malaysia. He reformed the educational system after giving a comprehensive report on Malaysian education in 1979. After that, we have so many educated citizens who read, write, criticise and think openly. His coin of paradigm shift has really shifted the mindset of many Malaysians hence today we can see how reformation led by the opposition is no more a naive fighting but sounds intellectual and clever. Mahathir has given a lot of thoughts in building the nation and despite all other corruptions and wrong doings in his government, he still managed to put Malaysia in the eyes of the world and made us Malaysians proud to be Malaysians, with many who are educated, open-minded, motivated, ambitious and capable to lead the country both politically and economically.

I would think that if he had not said anything after this recent election, many of his faults will not be dug up and he will remains as the best Prime Minister of Malaysia. Anyway, probably it is the time for justice. Only ALLAH's scale will be the most just. No matter how we weigh the good and the bad, we will not be able to tell if a person is more to good or bad because we are just humans who have no power over anything. So, there is no point of finding someone's contributions and faults and then weigh out if the person is really doing good or bad to the country. Let's just look at the good side, not the black dot on a white wall, for every human.

ALLAHU'alam.

Wassalam.

The 2008 TIME 100 most influential people in the world


Assalamualaikum warahmatullah wabarakatuh,

Credit to Chegubard who posted this. Anwar Ibrahim is one of the finalists for the 2008 TIME 100 most influential people. As I am still writing this post, he is in 7th place. What a pride of Malaysians (ok, not all Malaysia, especially his political opponents). I wonder where is Mahathir or Pak Lah? Aren't they once the chairman of OIC and NAM? Hmm, they are definitely not in the 200 finalists as I have scrolled through them all.

ALLAHU'alam.

Wassalam.

Tuesday 22 April 2008

A blog without the link to give a comment

Assalamualaikum warahmatullah wabarakatuh,

A blog without the link to give a comment is like a 1-way debate that many politicians in Malaysia prefer. You say A today in a press conference and the opponent will say B in another press conference the next day or days later. You can keep going on for ages, like what you see now PM and Mahathir are doing. You attack me today saying that I made UMNO deregistered, I'll attack you tomorrow saying that actually you are the one that made it happened; you are still not happy with me, you give me another blow that I should change the quota system, then I'll tell you that it's your fault that the quota system is still there; then you said that if I am truly democratic, I should abolish the quota system but I said that you are the one that made UMNO undemocratic. This can go on and on and then there is no conclusion left for the people, no facts, no figures, no proof of what they are claiming. Yet, they still can do this kind of 1-way debate. When you invite them together for an open debate, they say no cause they know that they will loose and they can't afford to loose. They said, there's no need to even care about the invitation to a debate.

You write your post today on your blog and you can say whatever you like cause you know that no one can say that you are wrong. There will be no comments. When you wrote this post on your blog, you thought that no one can say that you are giving the wrong facts cause there is no way that readers can put their comments on your blog to refute your un-basis attack. But you are wrong. People still can give their comments else where and finally you have to take that post away from your blog. Today, I can't find this controversial post anymore on your blog.

This is my comment to your blog.

ALLAHU'alam.

Wassalam.

Tuesday 15 April 2008

BBC News report - Robin Brant

Assalamualaikum warahmatullah wabarakatuh,

"we are not in hurry" - that's what Anwar Ibrahim said.

Since we can't trust mainstream media (MSM) and alternative media, let's see what foreign media like BBC News reports about Malaysian politics.
"Mr Anwar was sacked by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in 1998"

"Mr Anwar's supporters jeered the police but dispersed peacefully"
In another report by BBC News:
"Now there are strong signs that he [PM] does not intend to fight on for much longer, says the BBC's Robin Brant, in Kuala Lumpur."
Wassalam.

Friday 11 April 2008

Let's stop politicking and get the work started!

Assalamualaikum warahmatullah wabarakatuh,

It has been more than one month now since the last election but our dear politicians are still politicking instead of putting their 100% mind and effort in fulfilling their promises to help those voters who have given their trust to them. UMNO is still in a mess of trying to gain people's confidence. Too bad, too late. Mahathir, Ku Li, et al. are trying their best to preach UMNO members to push away Pak Lah's team in UMNO while Pak Lah, KJ, et al. are trying to uproot Mahathir's team by replacing his team members into the new Cabinet and of course the next UMNO party election in December. Witch-hunting has become a part of political game. Both sides just can't stop finding the other side's faults. Funnily, many wrongs have been accused but not many cases are brought to investigation and legal action. People who don't have first-hand information can only wander who is telling the truth.

On the opposition side, the midnight of 15th April 2008 has been long waited. Will Anwar Ibrahim be welcome into the parliament again? We shall wait another 5 months because any by-election can only take place after 6 months from the election day. And he is obviously politicking. Fair enough, he doesn't have a constituency to look after but people around him (friends or enemies) who have their own constituencies to take care of should just do their work and let others who have nothing to chase Anwar. Pak Lah has been travelling to Sabah & Sarawak (using whose money?) to make sure that none of his people will "jump" to the opposition. I wonder what is happening to his people in Kepala Batas. Hope they still get what they were promised during the election from Pak Lah.

Azalina has launched the first cannon to the opposition by stopping any money to the opposition's states through the sector of tourism. A psychological war to punish the people and to pressurise them to reject the opposition in the future. All the states are in debts. Without any income from the federal government, you literally cannot survive. That's what happening to Kelantan in these past 18 years. Kelantan has to look for investors who do not support the ruling coalition and also those out of Malaysia. Nizar asked for 100 days before the public make any evaluation. I am not being pessimistic, but if there is no assistance from the federal government and the rebellious Ketua Kampung are still politicking until May, it is really difficult to show your true performance by mid-June 2008. At least to ensure a positive evaluation, Perak is really concentrating in doing something for the people. Not much news about Kedah except rumours of "jumping" will happen. Perlis & Terengganu have ended the issue with the Sultans and hope they are doing some good to the people there. Selangor is underfired because Khir Toyo is not going to sit down quietly and see Khalid soars in the decision on boars, though he has resign as the UMNO Selangor Cheif, now he needs to do more publicity so by the end of this year, he will win the position of UMNO Youth Cheif.

MIC, MCA, Gerakan, etc. are very quiet now. Samy Velu said that he will continue to be the president of MIC for another term though he has lost his parliamentary seat in the last election. Many of the MIC candidates have also lost their seats due to the Hindraf issue. So, MIC is not going to say much to the media nowadays except for Samy Velu to make up his own mess by asking the release of the Hindraf detainees. In MCA, Ong Ka Ting has been condemned by some MCA senoir members to be too Pak turut that he only nodes his head to all the decisions made by Pak Lah. That's why MCA lost quite a number of seats to PKR and DAP. Gerakan? Do you need me to say anything about this? The whole Penang cannot accept Gerakan anymore and the gentleman Koh Tsu Koon admitted the defeat is partly his party's fault and wante to help Lim Guan Eng in making sure that the Penangites enjoy better development under the DAP government. I hope many MPs and state assemblymen are truly working for the people instead of politicking, either in their own parties or trying to win back states or the whole federal government.

People want to end the corruption cycle as well as the abuse of national policies that only give benefits to selected groups of people who manipulated these policies for theirs and their families profits. That's why more and more people have chosen to vote for the opposition, not more of the reason that they accept the opposition (though some are) but more of because they reject BN which has been demonstrating very obvious corrupted track records in these recent years. Those who have voted for the opposition should come to a true realisation that they also have to abandon their desire to commit any form of corruption, no more if-you-choose-me-to-be-in-charged-
I'll-give-you-"lubang"-to-"rob"-taxpayers'-money
. You want to earn money, then you work for it, not by selling or investing your vote during an election thinking that you will have the next five years of prosperity and harvesting. If you are so despise of the corrupted behaviour of the ruling coalition that you decided not to vote for them, you should be feeling the same for your ownself - hate yourself if you ever thought of committing one.

To offer RM80 millions to buy an opposition state assemblyman to "jump" over to BN is obviously a form of corruption; so to persuade some 30 or so BN MPs to "jump" over by offering this and that (like Deputy PM to the recently-resigned-minister), isn't that a form of corruption? Corrupted leaders will only breed corrupted followers, how can we ever end this cycle? I don't think there will be 100% working for the people until either Anwar Ibrahim gets what he wants or Pak Lah stands down and someone (either Ku Li or Najib or ...) gets what he wants.

ALLAHU'alam.

Wassalam.

Thursday 3 April 2008

On FITNA

Assalamualaikum warahmatullah wabarakatuh,

The people in Denmark are indeed feeling very sorry for what Geert Wilders did and to compensate that, many people from Denmark have made lots of movie with the same title of FITNA THE MOVIE so that many viewers will be failing to watch the documentary. This is what the common message when they uploaded their "sorry movie".
We are sorry! You too? Check: http://www.mediamatic.net/ Please make a video with the title "Fitna" saying you're sorry for Wilders's behavior, so his film will be lost between all the fake fitna-videos. Thank you!

Is it still fair to boycott the Danish products? I don't know. Probably it's better to urge the Danish to stop voting for Geert Wilders. Have a look at the below article
taken from here.

As many muslims around the world have come to know the broadcasting of a 15-min documentary produced by a Dutch party's leader, Geert Wilders, called Fitna, hosted by LiveLeak.com, there have been up-roars in many muslim countries around the globe. The title of the film speaks for itself what is the intention of the film. Before I talk about the title, just look at the track record of the producer. He is clearly a great supporter of Israel, an enemy of Islam for his remarks, a follower of US policy and a very insecure person for his absent in parliament and special seat in the parliament due to safety reasons. He is also hunger of power as he left a party that he has joined for a long time and formed a new party using his name but then changed to a party that uses 'Freedom' as the name of the party. Clearly he needs to learn what does 'freedom' mean.

Al-fitnah has been interpreted with so many meanings, even the wikipedia has a say in this - "disagreement and division among people", or a "test of faith in times of trial". Ibn Kathir in interpreting Surah al-Baqarah verse 217 said that in the verse "Al-Fitnah is worse than killing", al-Fitnah means "trying to force the Muslims to revert from their religion and re-embrace Kufr after they had believed". Ibn Kathir also said that al-Fitnah can mean "what you (disbelievers) are committing" or "shirk or polytheism". In Surah al-Anfal verse 39, Ibn Kathir said that al-Fitnah is "Muslim is persecuted so that he abandons his religion"

In Surah Yunus verse 85, al-Fitnah is interpreted by Ibn Kathir as trial, trial from the wrongdoers, from those who denied the truth and covered it. In Surah al-Ankabut verse 10, al-Fitnah is a trial that "trial is leaving Islam if they are made to suffer for Allah".

Clearly al-Fitnah is a trial, temptation, persecution, torture and any other form of saying and action that can lead muslims into disbelieving after believing. Leading believers to disbelieving is a form of mischief or corruption. It is no wonder that many muslims call for the death of the documentary producer. But if we know that what he is spreading is al-Fitnah, we as muslims should try our best to prevent the al-Fitnah from spreading among the muslims. Since the documentary has been produced, killing the producer will not solve the problem, but by stopping the spread of the message of this documentary and trying to explain the fitnah that this documentary is trying to spread inshaALLAH can help stop the fitnah.

I am glad that no other channel is hosting this documentary and so muslims should stop spreading this documentary as it carries fitnah. If the producer kept spreading the fitnah, we have the responsibility to stop him because clearly in the Qur'an ALLAH has commanded us to stop the fitnah wherever we find it but if they stop spreading fitnah, we should cease.

I really hope that muslim scholars can provide interpretations of the below verses quoted in the documentary in a more contemporary and in-context method so that both muslims and non-muslims can truly understand the message sent down by the Most Merciful and Most Gracious Lord of All Mankind:

8: 60; 4: 56; 47: 4; 4: 89; 8: 39

The producer urges the muslims to tear off half of the Qur'an because he thinks that half of the Qur'an encourage terrorism but he only quoted 5 verses from more than 6000 verses of the whole Qur'an, which is less than 0.0008% and of course these 0.0008% of verses of the Qur'an do not permit terrorism. It is only in the hearts of those who have yet studied the real meanings of these verses, the stories behind the revelation of these verses and hadiths related to them that they think that these verses permit terrorism. If only they come to realise how Merciful ALLAH is and how the Prophet Muhammad (saw) is sent down as a mercy to all mankind...

So, please study the whole Qur'an, Arabic, Hadith, 'Ulum al-Qur'an, Asbab an-Nuzul before you make another documentary regarding any verse in the Qur'an, or you are just an ignorant politician.

To all muslim brothers and sisters, please let's not be emotional in facing this fitnah. I don't know if demanding the death of the producer or boycotting Danish products is a way out of this or is it the same as what the Zionists do to the Palestinians - collective punishment? This is because many Danish have expressed their apologies to the muslims and claimed that the politician doesn't represent their views. Read here. No matter what it is, let's fight evil with good as what the Prophet (saw) preached and turn this trial into a chance to make da'wa.


ALLAHU'alam.

Wassalam.

Tuesday 1 April 2008

How blogging changes the country - Part III (Popularity)

Assalamualaikum warahmatullah wabarakatuh,

Following the previous two posts on how blogging has changed the country, this post will continue to further elaborate the use of blogs among politicians where the drum of cyberwar will start beating, soon.

As many bloggers have known that the ex-MB of Selangor has started his blog and he said that it is truly his own writing and comment. Up to this moment, there are nearly 900 comments written on his two posts. This proves how popular he is, not that popular for positive reasons but most of the comments are asking him to make explanations and worse to condemn his actions before this, especially the position of UMNO & BN in persecuting the bloggers before the election. He should put a counter to see how many visitors to his blog, probably he can beat Millionaire Marina very soon.

Now that the ex-MB of Selangor has opened up the opportunity for people to ask him questions directly regarding his position as the opposition in Selangor and probably his ambition to become the Chief of Pemuda UMNO, we surely hope that many other politicians from BN will follow suit. The politicians in BA/BR have already been doing this even before the election and blogging surely has raised their popularity among the voters. BN should learn from this too.

In another case, for the first time, Khairy Jamaluddin who has descended from the main stream media after being accused as the main reason for the failure of BN in this election, he suddenly gave his response to a blogger, Susan Loone on the Penang land accusation. There have been so many blogs and posts in the blogosphere that accuse him in so many different matters but he has never given any response to them, especially the Antikhairy blog when the main stream media is no more an effective channel to do so since many are boycotting it now? Is it because really takes . Interestingly, this time he said something and Susan tried to verify it by asking his mobile number. If it is truly himself that replied, I wonder why now? Is it because Susan is a popular blogger that he has to reply? Is it because this is the only wrong accusation while other accusations in so many blogs and posts before this are all correct? Is it because now that he think that whatever written in blogs can have big impact in his political career that he cannot ignore them anymore if he wanted to be PM by the age of 40? Is it because this is the time to gain popularity through blogosphereBN is the opposition now in Penang, so it is the time to challenge the new MB of Penang like many other are trying to bring down the government in Perak, Selangor, Kedah & Kelantan? No matter what the reason is, I hope this kind of development in blogosphere should bring some positive impact into the cyberwar. If the new MB of Penang answered KJ's request to carry out an investigation, I would be happy with that because it proves that whatever said in the blog is not just ranting but is taken seriously by the politicians.

What the bloggers want is truth. No matter how the politicians and bloggers arrange their strategies and tactics in winning the cyberwar, we pray that only truth will surface at the end. Constructive comments and posts should be interacting with good manner. The good and 'gentleman' image of the bloggers/politicians will win a vote from the readers in the future. So use this space properly if you want positive popularity!

ALLAHU'alam.

Wassalam.