Saturday thoughts & blogger ‘Kickdefella’ freed

Been reading on the web, listening to Fleetwood Mac and Don Maclean, etc.

One of the better pieces is by Paul Jenkins, ‘Obama Still Does Not Know His Place‘. It’s fairly ‘old’ (posted 29th July) but it always reminds me how hard change can be to the status quo.

By definition, emerging thinkers or leaders are not from the old establishment pack. Stories of such new thinkers and doers having their difficult rite of passage must be as old as the Greeks. Yet we still see it in 2008 – up north in USA and here at home. And if we stop for a moment, parse the words and thoughts of old moguls, compare them with what we (the public) seek, we’ll realise we still can get things done and progress without old dogma – what I sometimes, in exasperation, call ‘the box’. Our younger Malaysians can draw inspiration from this. There’s always a better tomorrow.

Hence, this piece is a reminder for me, a reminder that no matter how absurd our lot, there’s a much longer road than we can imagine, and we’ll get there, one day. Anyway, if you haven’t already, it’s a good read.

PS. Requires some knowledge of geo-politics, importance of Clintonistas to Democrats, and so forth. But still brilliant on its own

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“A matter of choice” / Updates / ‘kickdefella’ support

A fellow blogger has commented that he just started a new one called Cendana Blues~Addicted to Politics. His other blog is: Recovery From Drug Addiction (in Malaysia).

As he made some comments here, I decided to reciprocate.

Here’s my post:

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Hi Mat,

Saw your comments at my blog. Thought I’d put in a word or two.

In particular, you mentioned:

“Since politics is generally a dirty business, I’m gonna get dirty and be dirty too.”

Well, it doesn’t have to be dirty.

Those who stoop so low will always be caught – in Malaysia or elsewhere. Some may take longer – like Stalin, some quicker – like Bush. No one is an island.

3 Malaysians arrested under ISA on 12th Sep 2008

Yesterday, Friday, 12th Sep 2008, my government arrested the following individuals under the Internal Security Act (see also AP-GoogleNews):

1) Raja Petra Kamarudin, editor of Malaysia Today.

2) TAN Hoon Cheng, reporter at Sin Chew Daily

3) Teresa KOK, DAP and Seputeh Member of Parliament

Local politicians, civic organisations and international press:

• Bar Council of Malaysia released a statement.
• Anwar Ibrahim released a statement and Lim Kit Siang / DAP’s statement.
• List of international websites reporting the detention under ISA (via Google News).
• See Al-Jazeera’s article on the use of Internal Security Act in Malaysia
• updated: 14th Sep 2008 – Activists slam Malaysia over crackdown on dissent (Huffingtonpost)

All these started from a by-election in Permatang Pauh, Penang (see my first post) and here (Economist).

Whilst most Malaysians look forward to the weekend, three of my fellow countrymen, are stuck behind walls – calling them ‘prisoners of conscience’ is not half of it.

Malaysia – 10th Sep for Irene Fernandez / 16th Sep for Anwar Ibrahim

About 16th September: another day in Malaysian politics

This is priceless.

Fearful of the opposition and under the banner of ‘We need to study’, the Malaysian coalition government is going to leave Malaysia, as reported by The Star.

After a strong showing by Anwar-led opposition in our general election last March, Abudullah Badawi thinks its good to idea to run away from 16th Sep – 11 days from now. Rumour has it on 16th Sep Anwar will lead a revolt and file for a no-confidence motion in Parliament.

Harris Ibrahim’s blog, People’s Parliament has a nice post on this and the comments it generated is quite tough reading because one senses how disliked BN is by the populace. But does that mean you go off to another country? Why Australia? Can’t the government ’study’ in Malaysia?

When I first read this, I thought it’s got to be a joke because this is just the most absurd, hare-brained, strategically ridiculous idea any aspiring politician can think of (read ‘Tiong King Sing’ – see Star article)

Why? Because you need your allies/ friends / party members in Parliament on the 16th September 2008!