August 26 - Day of Reckoning

The day of reckoning is on Aug 26, 2008. The people of Permatang Pauh will be voting over-whelmingly in a by-election to send their favorite son Anwar Ibrahim and "prime minister-in-waiting" to Parliament. That's how the people of PKR wants to think. In reality the 20 days from now will not be a well paved road of glory for Anwar to return to parliament.

He already got his yellow card - the summon to attend court tomorrow which will charged him for sodomy. Will he be given the red card - throwing him into jail since charge of sodomy is not bailable. Since he is innocent until proven guilty, he still can be nominated as a candidate on nomination day 16 Aug, but he will not be able to campaign in person. Wan Azizah will be holding the fort and leading the campaign for him, holding his songkok and sarong while campaigning!

After Anwar is charge in court and thrown into jail, BN will be analyzing the scenario of the by-election, not the question of winning or losing but calculating the worst situation that can happen and how big the majority Anwar will get this time. Knowing that BN will lose big this time, how can BN put up a fight yet still don't lose face? This will be also round two in the sparring between Anwar and Umno deputy president Najib Razak. The first round was the Ijok by-election last year which was won by a BN representative. Najib knows his image is at stake if BN candidate lost terribly.

No matter what's the scenario BN will still nominate a candidate to contest on nomination day. The big question is whether the still unknown BN candidate or even Anwar's nomination will be accepted without any objection? Will it be a saving grace for BN if their candidate's nomination is rejected on a tecnicality? This will give Anwar a walk-over but BN can claim they actually did not lose since the voters did not vote against them. This is another way of boycotting the by-election as suggested by some Umno leaders without actually doing it. Face saving measure for everybody. The Home minister too will be "happy" that he can save some money for the nation from the costs of deployment of the police force for the by-election if it is held.

If Anwar's nomination is rejected, we better pray that common sense and compassion will prevails in both the political divide.- Loka

Scholarship - Why Not Me?

Parliament turns into a stadium yesterday. The shouting match between two opposing teams in a football match in a stadium was replicated in our august parliament by both side of political divide. The catalyst of the shouting match - scholarships from the Jabatan Perkhidmatan Awam (JPA). The JPA recently decided to allocate scholarships based on the quota of 55% Bumiputra and 45% other than Bumiputra.

I am not going to debate on the percentage allocated but to reflect on what happens during my schools days. Related to scholarships of course.

I never did receive any scholarship from the government, neither from my home state Perak nor the Federal government. I did submit applications but to no avails. I can't blame anybody if the selection process was based on results. I was never a straight "A"s student, so that excludes me from the list of those "cemerlang" students. But then if it is based on need basis, I should have been strongly considered for a scholarship.

When I was in primary school, I was always curious when without fail each month the same group of my classmates were called to the headmaster's office. Are they being punished for being naughty or had broken the school rules. It was neither. I only found out what they got for being summoned to the headmaster's office - not the rotan but to collect disbursement from the biasiswa persekutuan (federal scholarship). If I am not mistaken it was $30 per month. I did not know why they were selected....

That was a lot of money then. I only have 5 sen as my daily pocket money. I usually use the 5 sen to buy a piece of local cake during recess. When my water container dries up, my drink for the rest of the day will be from the school tap water near the washroom. There was no water dispenser/cooler in my school then.

I wondered why I was not summoned to the headmaster or gurubesar's room each month. I will be happy to do that if I am treated the same as the selected group of classmates. I never understand the reason even after I left primary school. I was just too naive or just plain ignorant on what is happening. No one ever tells me that I was different from the group of lucky classmates.

Secondary school was a new beginning of my life as a Malaysian. I starts to read and love history. The new syllabus for history textbooks for secondary schools was launched when I was in Form One. Most of the contents focuses on Malaysian history. I would prefered the old syllabus which covers even Genghis Khan and Atilla the Hun. I explored world history by reading those phased out history books used by my older siblings.

From the school textbook on the Malaysian history, I then realised the reason why I was not invited to the headmaster's room during my primary school. I am a Malaysian but of different stock. I do not fall into the "privilege" category. So no scholarship for me even though based on my family economic situation, I was deemed "qualified" to receive four gantang of rice each month from a local charitable board founded by a local Chinese tycoon.

Admission into a local university later on was a rite of passage for a Malaysian of my kind. Most of the first year students applied for the JPA scholarship. I was having high hopes that I will be offered one to cover my tuition and daily expenses. When the lists were out, I scan the list again and again few times. My name was not there. It was not even close. Malaysian of my stock were so few that we might misses it and I wondered why they asked us to applied for the JPA scholarship at the first place.

The howling and shouting in parliament about scholarships will continue until the day when all accepts the fact that Malaysia need to move on. The people need to be help because they need it, disregarding the stock origin or colors of the skin. Those who wants to lead must have the heart to help those who need it and deserved it. Other criterias should be secondary.

Clown Around at Your Own Perils

The Cabinet decided to continue having live telecast of parliamentary sessions even though the antics and "performance" of some of MP during the initial live show last Wednesday prompted some, the PM included, asking the live telecast to be cancelled.

My take is, disregarding the live telecast or not, those antics and clowning around by some MPs are not the first time and I doubt it will be the last. It's a matter of who will be the star clown during the particular session. Although many are pointing to the Opposition MPs as the main players on last Wednesday's show with Kinabatangan MP Bung Mokhtar as the BN striker, many TV audiences I assumed, misses the antics of former BN MPs Badrulruddin of Jerai and Raja Ahmad from Perak.

Saying that the MPs are taking the opportunity to play to the gallery during the live telecast are not totally correct.It can be observed that quite a number of policitians survived their lack of wisdom, intellectuality and well research arguments by playing to the gallery most of time, not only during parliamentary or state assembly sessions but also their meeting with the media, with their constituents or political parties!

The live telecast of parliamentary sessions not only should be continued for 30 minutes each day but should cover throughtout the parliamentary sessions. Lets see if those publicity seekers verbal and physical antics can outlasts the technical strength of RTM broadcasting department. If an MP do not put in extra efforts to undertake well documented research to support with facts and figures to back up their debates in parliament, sooner or later they would run out of steam and people will lost interest and confidence on them.

The voters will outsmart those clowns in the long run. Keep on clowning around at your own peril!

Enter the Big Brother

Brothers speaks the same language!

MCA President Ong Ka Ting suggested today in his maiden speech as a backbencher in parliament some measures to address issues related to the religious rights of non-Muslims. The Sun today reported Ka Ting's saying:


“In situations involving non-Muslims who became a Muslim due to marriage, they should be allowed to renounce Islam when the marriage has ended.

“Similarly, if a child who was unilaterally converted to Islam by one parent without the consent of the other parent, the child should be allowed to maintain his or her own religion.

He also brought up incidences whereby statements were made that the proposed legal amendments will affect and protect both Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Urging the government to be transparent to avoid a repeat of the cases above, Ong said non-Muslims are not to be subjected to any form of Syariah law.

“And, for any disputes or overlapping areas between the jurisdiction of the civil and Syariah courts, civil laws must prevail,” he added.

Ong said in the case where one parent embraces Islam, the religion of a minor must be decided by both parents.
“Should a dispute on the child’s faith arise, the religion must remain as status quo until the child reaches the age of majority that is 18 years upon which the child decides.
“In the event the convert dies, the property comprised in the estate of the deceased prior to the date of conversion should be subject to the civil laws of inheritance and succession for the time in force,” he added.

If we can recall two years ago on 15 March 2006, his political brother Loh Seng Kok who was then the MP for Kelana Jaya spoke in Parliament on problems faced by non-Muslims in regards to places of worship, prayers recital guidelines and "imbalanced" history textbooks. Seng Kok's speech attracted strong reaction from his BN counterpart especially the Kelana Jaya Umno Youth division which stormed his service centre and demanded explanation from him.

Ka Ting and Seng Kok both had served as political secretaries to the then MCA president Ling Lion Sik. This means both of them having the same political father. While it was Ka Ting as the "Lao ta" (big brother) that gave the opportunity to Seng Kok to contest the Kelana Jaya parliamentary seat in 2004, it was also him that dropped his "Shih ti" (brother) as a candidate in the recent general election.

Anyway, the dropping of Seng Kok as a candidate was a blessing in disguise for him as the Kelana Jaya seat was won by PKR's Loh Gwo Burne a.k.a Videoman, beating the favorite candidate Lee Hwa Beng. At least Seng Kok knows that he was not rejected by the people of Kelana Jaya but his political brother!

As karma dictates it, now Ka Ting has to wear Seng Kok's shoes and speak out the same language loudly for the non-Muslims in parliament. Whether the situation will come full circle as two years ago awaits us in a week or two to see. The same sign already there. An Umno backbencher MP for Pasir Salak already ticked off Ka Ting in parliament. The next will be a visit from the Kulai Umno Youth to Ka Ting's service centre to confront him!

Hopefully by now Ong Ka Ting will understand why he need people like Loh Seng Kok to hold the frontline.

Gwo Burne Offer his seat to Anwar

It takes two to tango.

Now the news already came from the horse's mouth, or should it be camera's LCD, that the MP for Kelana Jaya Loh Gwo Burne offered to vacate his parliamentary to enable Anwar Ibrahim the ticket to parliament and possibly the coveted Prime Ministership!

Loh was quoted in Parliament on Monday that he had offered his seat to Anwar. As I had wrote earlier, Kelana Jaya is high on the list as the seat for Anwar's entry to parliament.

On the other hand, Loh was busy taking pictures and videos on his first day in Parliament. Maybe it is a sign that he is taking all the necessary photos as momentoes in anticipation of his quick exit from parliament?

Adios Ramli Ngah Talib

The 222 newly elected MPs took their oath today. It will be an exciting Parliament this time around with 82 opposition members against 140 BN representatives.

History was made today with the appointment of a Sabahan Pandikar Amin Mulia as the new Dewan Rakyat Speaker. Adios to Ramli Ngah Talib, the immediate past speaker. Now he can fade away quitely to his kampung in Pasir Salak after a long service to the nation and the state of Perak. Even the parliament official website was very prompt in updating Pandikar Amin as the new Speaker as of today!

My first impression from afar of Ramli Ngah Talib was during my school days in the early 80s' when he came as the acting Perak Menteri Besar to officiate my school Annual Speech Day.

I remembers my school headmaster was very proud to announced that the Menteri Besar was a former student of the school, albeit only for his Form Five. Being a kampung boy, I was awed with this "big man" from Ipoh but as years past I starts to look at this big man as just another Umno politician with agenda of his own.

But no matter what, this guy really a political survivor. After being dumped as the Menteri Besar in 1999, he gentlemanly accepted appointment as the deputy transport minister after contesting a parliamentarian seat that year. Many politician his stature would have balked at this junior position as a slap in his face. But he persevered and was duly appointed the Dewan Rakyat Speaker in November 2004 after the demised of the long serving speaker Zahir Ismail.

Ramli was reluctant to let go of the speaker's post but at the end of the day he has to accept the political manouvering by the BN leadership. The BN leadership in KL had to submit to pressure from the East Malaysian BN politicians to allocate more positions to Sabahans and Sarawakians as a goodwill gesture to their contribution in providing 54 parliamentary seats to ensure the continuity of the BN federal government.

For this time around, it's the end of the road for Ramli Ngah Talib. Unless of course if he is appointed the next Dewan Negara Speaker!

For political parties, no one is indispensable. You played by the game rules and kick-out by the same rules!