At last.. Chua Soi lek resigns yesterday. Did he really resigns or he was force to do so is another matter. Malaysia is a country which gives such a paramount importance towards the moral image of it’s so called political leaders. “Kepimpinan melalui tauladan” as the famous Malay saying goes. Is it so? Looks like sexual crime is totally unbearable in Malaysian politics. Corruptions and cronyism is less mischievous it seems to me personally. Anyway Mr. Chua Soi Lek deserve my respect.

Todays Malaysiakini also reported about the rejection of permit by Policeto hold a candlelight vigil at Dataran Merdeka on Saturday. The candlelight vigil is to be organized by Abolish I.S.A Movement (GMI). The full report here. But GMI has assured that they will proceed with the activity despite the permit denial though it will be declared as ‘illegal’ gathering. Recently I read an interesting article by Raja Petra in his blog about ‘all that is haram’. Nice as usual by RPK and worth your time of spending in the net.

But the real catch about todays news is here in Malaysiakini… a real Indian comedy worth to be filmed by director Mani Ratnam. I will quote some below

For BN and PM, MIC to mobilise thousands
Jan 3, 08 1:11pm

Come Jan 20, more than 15,000 MIC members and supporters will gather in Kuala Lumpur to pledge their support for Barisan Nasional (BN) and Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

According to MIC president S Samy Vellu, the gathering, to be held at the Cheras Badminton Stadium, would be the first in a series of gatherings throughout the country aimed at bolstering the party’s strength and support for BN ahead of the coming general election. He said besides Abdullah, who is also BN chairperson, Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak will also be invited to the gathering.
“Similar meetings will be held in all the states in stages,” he was quoted as saying by Bernama. Samy Vellu said the prime minister would also deliver an important address at the Jan 20 gathering. “The prime minister is expected to emphasise the importance of staying united in a multiracial and multireligious country,” he added. He said the gatherings were also aimed at explaining to party members and the Indian community the struggles, achievements and challenges confronting the community to send a loud and clear message to the opposition that the Indian community would always stand solidly behind the BN. Samy Vellu said MIC members were united in thwarting attempts by certain quarters to stir up racial and religious issues for their own political agenda.

Opposition slammed

He expressed disgust at some opposition parties for using Hindu temples to flare up racial and religious issues. “This is a new trend where they get a few Indians to hold political ceramah in temples because they know that people (Hindus) will come for prayers,” he said.

More….

Now.. Now.. I got a question to Mr. Samy. Will there be somebody in the crowd to ‘booo.. boooo.. booo’ at him as what happenened last month in Penang? Naa.. Just Kidding Mr. Samy. I’m also hoping that those 15K people are well paid as what Lulu says here. But really Mr. Samy for your political stature and the M.I.C’s credibility 15K is far too less. Maybe you could make in round figure like 150K … I suppose. BTW, Mr. Samy is the permit ready?

ciao!

Yes you’re Mr Chua Soi Lek. Kudos to you!

After all two jilo jilo eighth isn’t that boring, is it? Malaysiakini portal reports that Health Minister Chua Soi Lek openly admitted that he was te man on the sex video widely circulated in the area of Batu Pahat and Muar, Johor. Read below the news.

Quote Malaysiakini

Chua: I’m the one in sex video
Jan 1, 08 4:32pm

Health Minister Chua Soi Lek today openly admitted that he was the person featured in a video depicting a man having sex with a woman purportedly in a hotel room.

Chua, 60, who is also MCA vice-president, made the confession at a press conference this afternoon in his parliamentary constituency of Labis in Johor.

However, he said that he will not resigned as health minister but will instead let Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi decide on his fate.

An apparently relaxed looking Chua vowed that he would continue his ministerial and party duties as normal. The senior MCA leader, who is married with three children, also said that the 30-something woman featured in the video clip was a “personal friend”. “I am the man in the tape. The girl is a personal friend,” Chua said from a prepared statement at the Labis MCA headquarters at 4pm, accompanied by a group of 50 party supporters and local leaders. The veteran politician emphasised that he did not make the tape himself. “Who have done this is not important. What is most important is that my family, wife and children have accepted my apology,” he told the packed press conference. Chua revealed that he had met with Abdullah yesterday as well as Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and MCA president Ong Ka Ting to “personally apologised to them”. When asked what was the outcome of his meeting with Abdullah, Chua declined to answer and instead told the reporters to ask the prime minister. According to Chua, he got a copy of the video from a friend on Sunday and he had watched the clip. He said the reason for the person who made the video clip without his knowledge was “very obvious”, hinting that he was a victim of a political conspiracy within the party. He also said he was considering making a police report on the matter but added that the police had already started investigating the video. Chua also refused to divulge the identity of woman in the video when pressed by journalists. “I appeal to the press to give me and my family some space during this difficult time.”

More….

Well, it’s not my business to interfere in the private matters of an adult individual. BTW, who on earth do not have sex? Further most people do involve in extra marital affair. It is their preference la… Come on guys! What different here is that this guy here is a public figure and the Cabinet Minister of Malaysia holding the health profile. Last nite I read blogger Jeff’s post about the curse in the health profile of the cabinet which is traditionally reserved for M.C.A. At least Chua did have some guts to own up and not telling some fantasy stories which most people here always do.. You know what I mean? Yes.. Correct! Correct! Correct! They like to spin too much.

And the best part is that Chua’s wife, Wong Sek Hin also backs him and stands by her husband in the difficult time he was going thru now. Really wish to have such wife. Most women whom I knew personally don’t take this easily. I wish Chua good luck and Happy New Year 2008!

It’s just started… with a BANG!!! That’s 2008 for you!

ciao!

Quoted from Malaysiakini

Gov’t backs down, Herald gets new permit
Soon Li Tsin | Dec 30, 07 8:24pm

In an about-turn, the Internal Security Ministry has allowed a Catholic weekly newspaper to continue to print without any condition, after earlier threatening to revoke its licence in a row over the word ‘Allah’. Augustine Julian, secretary of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference, said a new licence had been granted to the Herald, which would continue to use ‘Allah’ in referring to God in its Bahasa Malaysia section of the bulletin.

“The letter to allow the Herald to be printed was hand delivered by internal security officials on Sunday,” he said.

“They have allowed us to publish the weekly as usual. All four sections – in English, Malay, Tamil and Chinese – will be published. I suppose if they give us the printing permit we can continue to use the word Allah,” he added.

Julian said no reasons were given for the extension but suggested the government would not want to alienate Malaysia’s two million Christians ahead of general elections.

In a press statement, Herald editor Father Lawrence Andrew said that the letter from the Internal Security Ministry – which was hand delivered to the newspaper at about 10am today – “places no restriction whatsoever, and includes the permit for all languages, including the Bahasa Malaysia segment”.

He said that the newspaper received a letter two weeks ago from the Internal Security Ministry stating that the Herald could not publish its Bahasa Malaysia section from the date of the permit renewal in 2008.

More…

That’s the latest development reported in Malaysiakini portal regarding the Herald issue and the use of word Allah which stirs up few debates here and there in the blog sphere world for the past one week.

Now first thing first, a week ago Deputy Internal Security Minister Johari Baharum says only Muslims can use ‘Allah’ and Herald will not be permitted to renew their licence for 2008. Then suddenly after a week the licence will be granted to Herald without any conditions! Now what is this all about? I’m not a Muslim but from what I understand when it comes to religious affair of the Islam exclusively there is a body which issues a ‘fatwa’ or something like black and white stating that certain thing is allowed or prohibited. Am I right here?

Then what happens to Johari when he stated ‘Allah’ is exclusive to Muslims only and further threatens Herald not to grant them permit for their publications? Now my question is as a Christian in Malaysia, is the word ‘Allah’ really forbidden to me or not? Can any of the top guys from Majlis Fatwa in our country confirm me about this? I don’t really care now about the universal perception among those Abrahamic faith people. As per my understanding a ‘fatwa’ can be exclusively used in only one country without being generalised to all Muslims in the world. So in Malaysia is there a ‘fatwa’ by Majlis Fatwa saying that only Muslims have the ultimate copyright for the word ‘Allah’?

BTW, I would like to wish all of you a Happy and meaningful New Year 2008! Take care!

ciao!

The Malaysiakini Newsmaker or maybe Noisemaker of the year 2007 Awards

Goes To ……………………..
Yes! Malaysiakini is Correct! Correct! Correct!

And for me the video clip is the best movie of the year 2007! Can I be wrong here?

ciao!

The first female Prime Minister in the Muslim world, Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in a gun and bomb attack today in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Bhutto was attending to a election rally there when the tragedy happens. Wasif Ali Khan a member of Pakistan’s Peoples Party (PPP) said Bhutto died at 18.16 (13.16GMT) in Rawalpindi General Hospital. According to BBC news today at least 15 was also killed in the incident.

Democracy in Pakistan seems to be more in vain as how things happened now. By the way will the coming elections on January will still go on despite this tragedy. Is it a conspiracy? It seems that in the event of her assassination there was a bomb blasted nearby and Bhutto was killed by a gunshot on her head in news at Reuters today. Hmm.. it seems like the bomb blasted just to divert the attention and the killer seems to just shot Bhutto direct at her head. Any takers?

ciao!

Really? Yes indeed and Bernama news says so!

December 25, 2007 19:19 PM

Samy Vellu Puzzled Why Indians Lack Interest In Govt Jobs

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 25 (Bernama) — Works Minister Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu is puzzled over a report saying that that non-Malays, especially Indians were not interested in government jobs.

“I am surprised over the report,” he said when commenting on a report in a Malay daily yesterday that of the 486,802 applications to work in the civil service last year, Chinese and Indians only accounted for 1.78 per cent and 2.5 per cent respectively.

The report quoted Public Service Department (PSD) director-general Tan Sri Ismail Adam as saying that the situation was difficult to change although the PSD had been trying to reduce the gap between the races in the civil service.

Ismail said the Government had never condoned sympathy or discrimination when hiring new staff, including those at the Diplomatic and Administration level.

Samy Vellu, who is also MIC president, said he would write to Ismail for further details on employment and promotion opportunities for non-Malays, especially Indians in the public sector.

“I want to know the latest statistics after which I will prepare a detailed report to be submitted to the Cabinet,” he said in a statement Sunday.

Samy Vellu had recently said that he had brought to the attention of the Cabinet on the need to employ more Indians and also provide more promotion opportunities for them in the public sector.

It was also reported that Indians only made up about five per cent of the employees in the civil service.

Samy Vellu added that the MIC had urged the government to speed up the intake of more Indians in the civil service and also give them better opportunities to be promoted.

— BERNAMA

Oh! Dear.. dear.. poor Uncle Samy! Me too was really puzzled and flabbergasted reading this post below at Uncle Lim’s blog.

“d crowd jeered loudly at semi value (samy vellu) at ‘d atta 100 vagai’ at PISA in penang just now (22/12). d crowd booed loudly when DJ announced samy vellu’s presence. d ‘BOO’ was so loud dat no one heard anything. Within 2-3 mins he moved back 2 d stage. A very gd lesson 4 d spineless… I’m here in PISA. samy has left d arena.”

What really happens to those Indians who booed and jeered Uncle Samy on that day huh! Those people there are more interested in booing and jeering at him rather than joining the civil services is it? Maybe they got no other better work to do is it Uncle Samy than booing at you!

Enough is enough la Uncle Samy. Pothum Chellam!.. Please. You have been there in the Malaysian Cabinet for so long time aledi thinking and being puzzled yourself. Nothing more that you did than just being puzzled! Now time has come for you to think Uncle Samy. Think! Think and… Think!

ciao!

I just finished reading this blog posting by Mahaguru58 regarding the news reported by Malaysiakini few days ago. I’m not going to really agree with Zainol Abideen on this one. Illogical! The word Allah had been in use in pagan Mecca era even before Islam came to birth. At that time people there was still in darkness (jahil) with some occupants Abrahamic or Ahl al- Kitâb faith of Jews and Christian too! All of them refer to the almighty God as Allah.

The father of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) is known to the world as Abd Allāh ibn ‘Abd al-Muṭṭalib (Arabic: عبدالله بن عبد المطلب‎)‎ If I use my logic even his name contains the word Allah (even before the birth of Islam). So he is akaffir and non Muslim before the Prophet was born and preach Islam to the Meccans or Arabs and the world generally. So what is his right to have the word Allah in his name? The prophet (pbuh) only receive his first wahyu when he was 40 years old. Then only Islam officially were born. Simply said before Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) the founder of Islam was born, the Arabs in pagan Mecca already used the word Allah. It was not exclusively used by people of Islamic faith or the followers of Muhammad (pbuh).

I don’t mean to disrespect you brother Zainol Abideen but on this one no matter what you said I simply can’t agree with you. I’m a Tamil christian and in my mother language I refer to Allah as ‘Kadavul’. That’s it! In Malay it means Tuhan. In Arab it means Allah. What is the fuss? For me the Herald issue is just politically motivated rather than a religious affair. That is a opinion of myself which you may argue if you wish.

Let us agree to disagree. I remain.

ciao!

Maybe! The ousted Prime Minister of Thailand will soon be back to his country after his long exile in London. It is likely now that Samak Sundaravej the leader of The People’s Power Party being the new P.M of Thailand after his party won 228 seats in the country’s General Election today. The P.P.P has been widely told as the proxy for Thaksin Shinawatra and Samak had publicly announced before that he will bring back Thaksin if his party won the G.E in his election campaign.

But still Samak is short of 13 seats for the 241 requirement to form a government. Who will join P.P.P to form a government? The only serious contender to dash the dreams of Samak and Thaksin will be Abhisit Vejjajiva, the fresh-faced, Oxford-educated leader of the Democrat party. Abhisit himself still have the chance to be the next P.M of Thailand .. If all the other parties willing to form a coalition with the Democratic Party. I’ll wait and see!

Bernama news latest on the election’s outcome quoted below.

December 24, 2007 01:03 AM

PPP Sweeps 228 Seats

By D. Arul Rajoo

BANGKOK, Dec 23 (Bernama) — The People’s Power Party (PPP), the proxy party of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, emerged with the highest number of seats in Thailand’s general election today, handing a severe blow to the military which 15 months ago staged the country’s 18th coup in 75 years.

The party won a total of 228 seats, comprising 194 constituencies and 34 party-list seats, which, however, fell short of the 241 required to form a new government on its own. It is now seeking out other parties to join it in forming a coalition government.

The Election Commission of Thailand (ECT) chairman Apichart Sukhagganond said the country’s oldest party, the Democrats, won 133 constituency and 33 party-list seats for its best-ever showing of 166 seats.

Thai Chat 10, Chart Thai, which is likely to decide which party forms the next government, won a total of 39 seats, followed by the military-linked Puea Paendin with 26, Ruam JaiMatchima seven and Pracharaj Party four out of the 480 seats at stake.

Apichart said the results were based on the 93.11 percent of votes counted as at 10.15pm but assured that the outcome (of the election) would not be affected once all ballots are counted.

He said that a total of 29.34 million voters, or 59.9 percent of the over 45 million eligible voters turned-up for the election, which was called by the military-installed government with the aim of restoring democracy, as well as keeping Thaksin out of power.

Asked why the voter-turnout was lower than the government’s target of 70 percent, he said it could be due to people being tired of intense politicking in the country, which has seen four elections in a space of seven years.

The PPP was formed by Thaksin supporters after his Thai Rak Thai party was dissolved by the court in May and all its 111 executives banned from politics for five years.

Thaksin, who is facing numerous corruption and power abuse charges, monitored the election from Hong Kong.

Former deputy prime minister and Bangkok Governor, Samak Sundaravej said that the PPP was willing to work with other parties to form a coalition government, an offer rejected by Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva who could become the prime minister himself if all the other parties abandon the PPP and join his coalition.

The PPP has already warned of attempts by some influential people and the military to stop them from forming the government and is wary of the investigations to be conducted by the ECT on over 170 cases of poll irregularities.

Under Thai election law, ECT has 30 days to scrutinise all candidates before announcing the official results.

— BERNAMA

ciao!

Ipoh Barat MP Kula’s mom passes away

By HAH FOONG LIAN

IPOH: P. Visalachee, the mother of Ipoh Barat MP M. Kulasegaran, passed away peacefully at 12.30pm Sunday.

Visalachee, 86, was admitted at the Fatimah Hospital on Friday.

She leaves behind her husband V. Murugeson, 96, six children and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Kulasegaran said the cortege would leave the house at No 14, Laluan Raja Dihilir here at 3pm Monday for the Bercham Crematorium.

He said the family had requested that no wreath be sent to the house and any donation should be made out to the Tamil Foundation of Malaysia.

Reported here at The Star @ 8.00pm.

My deepest condolence and sympathy to Mr. Kulasegaran. Take Care!

ciao!

Quoted from Malaysiakini

Catholic weekly in quandary over permit
Dec 20, 07 12:52pm

The organ of the Catholic Church, Herald is facing problems in renewing its yearly publishing permit allegedly over the use of the word ‘Allah’ in the weekly’s Bahasa Malaysia section.

According to Church sources, the government is not happy with the use of the word ‘Allah’ by the weekly when referring to ‘God’ in Bahasa Malaysia.

The use of ‘Allah’ outside of Islam has previously stirred controversies in Malaysia. Four years ago, the Bible in Iban language was banned because it translated the word ‘God’ as Allah Taala, which resembles Islam’s name for God, ‘Allah’.

The ban was however lifted after protests from the Christian community.

The Herald, which is published in four languages – English, Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil – has a circulation of 12,000. The weekly’s permit is due to expire in two weeks.

The Herald - which publishes news and information for Catholics in Malaysia – have previously received written warnings pertaining to the content of their articles primarily those which touch on religious and political issues.

Most recently, the Herald frontpaged both the Bersih and Hindraf rally which saw tens of thousands protesters hitting the streets of Kuala Lumpur.

Remove BM section

Opposition leader Lim Kit Siang in a statement yesterday said the Home Ministry has imposed a new condition for the renewal of the Herald’s publication permit – that the BM section of the weekly be removed altogether.

This is confirmed by sources close to the Catholic weekly.

Lim has described Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s administration as one which has promoted religious polarisation the most as compared to four previous prime ministers.

more…

That news was reported in Malaysiakini just this afternoon. December to dismember indeed! After all the issues of temple demolitions, Bersih, Hindraf, Human Rights violations, I.S.A’s and now this…

Why need to remove the Bahasa Melayu publicatons altogether? Is this the only viable choice or solutions after all? Pissed Off!

ciao!