The Government v the People

Went to the Protesi Rally last Sunday night, fully expecting there to be a capacity crowd at the Kelana Jaya Stadium. But surprise surprise we were able to park within 200m of the stadium and when we arrived at 8 pm there was a very meagre crowd of maybe 2000 people.

Just shows how easily Malaysians can be manipulated by fear. A few subtle hints dropped about possible Army intervention and a few cautious comments about Army personell not trained for this sort of thing and might be dangerous if things get out of hand. And Malaysians stayed away in droves

The organisers rightly expected a huge crowd because the rise in fuel prices is something that is affecting everybody, and we havent seen the downstream effects of the rises yet.

But fear reigns in this country. It was interesting to note the palpable change in the atmosphere within the Stadium when the police helicopters flew overhead. Even sane rational me was thinking " What if??"... because I have seen how irrational can be the behaviour of the Malaysian Police at previous demonstration.

Of course, now the Government are crowing about the failure of the Rally... behaving like the people of Malaysia were their enemy rather than their employer

But back to the Stadium and a few other observations:

1. For a long time I have been uncomfortable with the way that Malaysians idolise their politicians. And it was apparent again on Sunday night. On Anwar's arrival at the Stadium the crowd went mad... standing, waving and cheering. It was the most animated they got all evening despite the attempts by other speakers to get them riled up about the price rises.

I often wonder why this is so... in other countries politicians are greeted with cynicism and its only the close party faithful who treat them with similar adulation. But here we have ordinary every day people greeting a man who is not even in Parliament as though he is there long sought saviour.

I suspect part of this adulation is because Islam forbids the worshipping of any form of idol, yet people need something to hang their hat on. In this case its Anwar, for a brief period it was Badawi and for far too long it was Mahathir... and you know where that got you.

The other possible explanation is that Malaysian politics is devoid of Policies. For 50 years UMNO et al gave you "more of the same" because there was no valid Opposition. So that an ad hoc system of governance evolved whereby the Government lurched from one crisis to the next.

Prior to the last election the Opposition parties briefly flirted with a Manifesto produced by RPK from Malaysian Today but that all seems to be long forgotten. Now we have Anwar the wannabe PM promising to lower fuel prices the day after he gets into power. If that's not buying votes UMNO style then I dont know what it is.

More learned economists than I will tell you that maintaining subsidies is economic suicide, what is needed is to raise incomes to better reflect the present day economic climate.

2. Sitting on the grass in the stadium with my eyes at butt level, I was horrified at the number of overweight people in this country

The Melaka Pig Fields War

So they are at it again. This time its the Government of the State of Melaka making an absolute fool of themselves

On Sept 4 malaysiakini wrote:

"All roads leading into Paya Mengkuang - about 30 minutes’ drive north of Malacca city - were cordoned off by the police, isolating the village.

Fifty of the police personnel stood by in plastic-suits, waiting for the state government’s order to move into the pig farms to kill the animals.

About 100 anti-riot squad personnel were also on stand by.

Six excavators had been brought in to dig mass graves to bury the dead pigs while six police trucks including some with water cannon were stationed in the vicinity.

On the other side were the villagers - men, women and children forming a human shield at the main entrance to their farms. The barricade included a number of small trucks."

and on Sept 5, Biggum Dogmannsteinberg wrote in Malaysia Today

"The 12-hour stand-off led to the Melaka State Government to rescind the pig-culling instructions without any explanation in the evening. The State Secretary was not available for comments, for the culling operation which saw over 2,000 authorities personnel in bio-hazard gear assembled at the Alor Gajah Town Council as early as 4.30 am this morning.

Despite repeated stern warnings, the pig farmers continued to breed more pigs than they were allowed to under the law. The Melaka State Government permits only 48,000 pigs to be reared but it is believed that the farmers in the area were rearing over 150,000 pigs. It is believed that Singaporean investors are behind the pig farmers. (The Chinese-majority Singapore Government bans pig rearing in the republic). The area is the largest illegal pig-farming commune in the country."

I havent seen the situation first hand but there is no doubt that major pollution of rivers has occurred and that the smell from these piggeries is unacceptable to nearby residents

My comments are as follows:

Pigs do not pollute... but pig managers do. Given the right conditions pigs are one of the most clean-living of all the domesticated animals. There is technology freely available to design piggeries and waste disposal systems that will allow pigs to be raised efficiently and profitably with NO POLLUTION

The Singaporean Chinese who are supposedly the evil masterminds behind this scheme can only think of one thing ... PROFIT. They apparantly dont give a damn about the welfare of their pigs unless it affects their profitability and they certainly dont give a damn about the residents who live nearby to their piggeries nor the rivers into which they discharge their effluent.

This is another example of the widely distributed DGAF syndrome that affects all aspects of life in Malaysia

But the real fault in this fiasco lies with the Government of Melaka. Their "repeated stern warnings" obviously weren't stern enough and one cant help but think there is the smell of something strange here and its not the smell of pig shit.

Basically, this is a matter of the Melaka Public Servants not doing the job they are paid to do. And to cover up for their inefficiency and incompetence they come up with the brilliant idea of slaughtering 100,000 pigs

Whoever thought up that idea must be totally insane

Elite Universities

In The Star, Sun Sept 2 there was a tree page article describing the functioning of the recently announced Elite Universities.
All very interesting and progressive with lots of positive statements by associated players

Then there was one line which unravelled it all:

"Selection of students to reflect the demographic profile of the country based on merit.

So there will be no change... Mediocre students will be promoted to university entrance where they will perform in a mediocre manner... pass rates will be pre determined and eventually they will graduate with mediocre degrees. Pushed over the line by their racial status.

Meanwhile the best brains will continue to leave the country to study and they will stay away.

When will this country learn that it needs more than vote buying tactics to run a nation?

The Red Herring Taxi Company

It wouldn't be Malaysia if the bureaucrats didn't avoid the real issues and instead had a short term blitz on something totally irrelevant

This time its the dress code for Malaysian Taxi Drivers...

I think the whole concept of dress in Malaysia is quite irrational. For starters most people wander around in the tropics thinking that they are living somewhere in the temperate zones. Is this a hang over from the British raj?. Whatever the reason the form of men's dress is totally inappropriate for the tropics. Of course Malay women's dress is dictated by Malay men's inability to control their sexual urges and is also quite unsuitable.
Secondly, dress is used as a form of repression in the young and self promotion in adults. This country is uniform crazy, partly that is to keep young people from daring to explore their individuality. In adults uniforms are used as an ego booster to make men in minor roles appear far more important than they really are. The sight of an overweight policeman in uniform is truly laughable

Malaysians are still struggling with the relationship between dress and status and widely assume that stereotypes prevail. That's probably the reason that so many of them get conned so easily by smooth talking, smartly dressed con men.

But back to the original subject... It seems that the Commercial Vehicle Licensing Board have decided to gloss over all the major problems affecting the taxi industry, and have decided to pursue those drivers not adhering to the "uniform" of white shirt, dark trousers and black shoes ( with sox). I guess this is the easiest option available to them, after all you don't have to think too deeply or work too hard to notice if the driver is not adhering to the need to be "dignified and dress well"

The fact that the the well dressed driver:
... stinks of BO or cigarette smoke
... is driving a taxi which is dirty both inside and out
... refuses to use his meter
... refuses to take clients on short trips
... refuses to take clients into areas where traffic jams are common
... rips off visiting tourists at every opportunity
... is rude and unhelpful/ignorant

seems to be totally unimportant

Merdeka Day... at last

So that's it...is it?? That's all that Malaysia can offer to celebrate 50 yrs of independence

After all the pomp and ceremony has died down what has Malaysia got to show for the Celebration of 50 yrs of self government?

A lot of transitory celebrations, flower shows, fireworks, parades and flags flags and more flags. Did I forget the ferris wheel and the oft delayed Russian space shuttle? It seems to me all so shallow and disappointing...

The media have been doing nothing but look backwards at an often "not too illustrious" past. As they continue to sanitise previous PM's and politicians so that they can be elevated to the status of demigods.

Where is the country that should be looking to the future? I would have thought this year was a time to be looking forward to a great and rewarding future instead of burying your head in the sand and reliving past glories.

The only comment about the future I noticed in my newspaper was a comment about the Brits working with the Malaysians to develop a joint future together. It did occur to me that it might be a joke but then I realised its not April 1st.

Where is the tangible proof that the 50th celebrations are celebrations for the people of Malaysia... the Malaysians. Couldn't the government have come up with one simple project that would be worthwhile in the long term and benefit everybody such as a major specialist hospital serving the whole nation.... Free of charge

Where are the noble ventures by commercial firms and GLC's to add their input to the Nation's Celebrations... Some projects which come to mind are potable water and schools for all orang asli villages, restoration of some sadly neglected but still beautiful traditional Malay houses and chinese shop houses, religious buildings and I could go on an on and on. There are so many things in Malaysia that need to be done and could have been done in this year of celebrations.

There appeared to be no funds available for community groups to develop their own projects in the fields of heritage, the environment, arts and culture etc etc... Projects over and above the responsibilities of government

Instead, all I see is extravagance and obscene waste... with nothing to show after all the flags are torn down and the litter cleared away

Malaysian Icons

Wow!!!... people are starting to look at my blog so I guess its time I made some comment.

Over the last few days there has been launched another iconic Malaysian building. This time its the new KL Law Courts and within the last few months there was the launching of the model for the new Istana in KL

My question is: Are these buildings meant to fill Malaysians hearts with pride? Because they should. Both these buildings are iconic symbols of this nation and as such are an important part of what makes up a nation's patriotism

But to my mind they are nothing more than the regurgitation of the oft repeated symbolism of another era, another culture and another country. To be candid they have me thinking of a high class bordello in downtown Cairo

Malaysia is, or pretends to be, a multi cultural, forward looking, high tech, modern and sophisticated country and its my understanding that iconic buildings such these two should reflect that image. But they come nowhere near satisfying those criteria.

The architects of Malaysia must be cringing behind their computer screens and bemoaning lost opportunities to create something worthwhile

As an aside, its my belief that both Royalty and the Judiciary in any country, and especially in Malaysia should be impartial and be seen to be impartial in all of their dealing. Housing them in proto-islamic buildings is hardly fulfilling those goals