Category: Personal Thoughts

Thank you Bersih Thank You Ambiga


For a while, due probably to the end of semester exams and essay submission due date, I wasn’t following events in Malaysia all too closely. I then discovered, about 2-3 weeks ago, the planned activities of Bersih 2.0 and thought “wow, this should be great”.

I haven’t been disappointed.

For over 2 weeks I have jumped on the usual websites (Malaysiakini, Malaysia Today etc) and have picked up reports concerning 9 July 2011. More importantly, I have picked up vibes about the how people feel, leading up to the event.

I haven’t been disappointed.

The responses of the authorities have been expectedly empty gong loud noises. There haven’t been any substantive responses to the cause of Bersih. The cause is very clear, and it is made up of the following:

       1.      Clean the electoral roll

       2.      Reform postal ballot

  1. Use of indelible ink
  2. Minimum 21 days campaign period
  3. Free and fair access to media
  4. Strengthen public institutions
  5. Stop corruption
  6. Stop dirty politics

 Instead of addressing the matter in substance, it has branded the movement in a number of ways, none of which demonstrate that Bersih is anything other than what it claims it is fighting for. Like I said, Ambiga Sreenevasan is fair dinkum. You cant fault her. She may be nice – after all she was a dutiful rakyat who heeded her Agong’s call – but she is also clean and has nothing to fear or lose, except her personal liberty maybe. I expected Ambiga Sreenevasan and her team to hold steadfast to the cause and I haven’t been disappointed.

It is such an exciting time to be in Malaysia, particularly in KL. It wouldn’t be pretty. It would be tense. But it is exciting, because you could sense change coming. Maybe Najib Razak did too. Maybe that is why he has run away for now. Maybe intelligence tells him (not his, Najib doesn’t have a lot of intelligence I don’t think – I meant that of the Special Branch) it isn’t safe to be in the country as this could lead to anything. Maybe the actions of the authorities, especially the police, leading up to 9 July has been such that the people would at long last, say enough is enough and they would rise and take no more of this rubbish the hopelessly finished BN government continues to dish out.

I will participate by remote presence. I will be in the Melbourne chapter. Tomorrow is expected to be a little cold, and even wet. But it is an opportunity to be part of something special. Federation Square will be Merdeka Square for me tomorrow. Thank you Bersih. Thank you Ambiga Sreenevasan. 

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Do You Hear The People Sing, Singing the Song of Angry Men


Calm, serene and beautiful

When I look at this and consider my hometown turmoil, I am grateful but also angry. Malaysia is in so many ways, as beautiful as Australia. It is however, bogged down with such corruption, bigotry, and general bloodymindedness that I can imagine how much has been lost because of greed and selfishness.

BERSIH 2.0 is all the rage in Malaysia now and well it should be. If I were still there, I would not have required much thought – it is a no brainer, the causes BERSIH is fighting for. In a sane world, no one one would have thought it strange or in any way negative, to support it. Alas, the politicians in power in Malaysia are different. They live in a world and era well past. The rest of the world has long past this brand of bigotry. It looks like the odes of Les Miserables are waiting to be recited with gusto again come 9 July. This is the Malayia Boleh I have been waiting for.

From Les Miserables:

Do you hear the people sing?
Singing a song of angry men?
It is the music of a people
Who will not be slaves again!
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes!

Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?
Beyond the barricade
Is there a world you long to see?

Then join in the fight
That will give you the right to be free!


Do you hear the people sing?
Singing a song of angry men?
It is the music of a people
Who will not be slaves again!
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes!

Will you give all you can give
So that our banner may advance
Some will fall and some will live
Will you stand up and take your chance?
The blood of the martyrs
Will water the meadows of Klang (France)!

Do you hear the people sing?
Singing a song of angry men?
It is the music of a people
Who will not be slaves again!
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes.

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Robust Together


Growing robustly together
Robust as one

This tree is just around the corner from our home. I was walking LBJ yesterday with a camera and decided to get a picture before some developer decide to get rid of it…

I’m sure the many trunks and large branches get in the way of each other but it is only because each is robust and strong that the tree appears strong, healthy and imposing. Togetherness…wow.

Scruffi on Steroids


This was from a story in the Herald Sun this morning…
 
Scruffi on Steroids

Ambiga Sreenevasan stares down sorry UMNO


I was just catching up on Malaysian news this morning (given I am relatively free now) – on 9 July a big rally is planned for free and fair elections, by a movement known as “BERSIH” (Coalition for Free and Fair Elections).

The main champion for this is Ambiga Sreenevasan, an ex Skrine lawyer who now has her own firm. She was the one who received the US Secretary of State‘s Award for International Women of Courage Awards presented by Hillary Clinton. She is a much respected lawyer in Malaysia.

As usual, PERKASA is making very bad noises to threaten the rally. They have organised their own march against the rally. As usual, the government warned against the BERSIH rally but police has given permit for the PERKASA march – usual rubbish by Malaysian police and government.

It doesn’t require someone of Ambiga’s stature to show up the intellectual and moral pigmies who make up UMNO, the ruling Coalition that is BN and the hangers on who line their own pockets in keeping these morons and bandits in power.

But when she does appear on the scene, the UMNO and BN look downright pathetic.

Its henchmen in PERKASA sound even more stupid and oafish, the sort of fools who are dangerous for thinking they aren’t.

I am thrilled with the efforts of Ambiga and those who stand with her, and BERSIH. I hope my friends who will be in Malaysia on 9 July, take caution but be courageous and stand against the folly, thievery and moral contempt that UMNO and BN wallow in.

That a person like Ambiga should stare down the cretins in UMNO will be particularly riling.

In this brave, intelligent and honourable woman is an amalgam of elements twerps like Ibrahim Ali and others in his pack cannot stand, and certainly do not expect to be a formidable foe.

She is an Indian, a woman and a lawyer. Together, these elements embody the definition of a nemesis for the brand of hackneyed form of bigotry which has been tiresome and should have been gotten rid off with the C4 their master is wont to resort to.

Most of us are sick of them and would sooner spit them out and flush them out of our lives altogether. My disdain for their ilk is such that when I cease to loathe them I would safely claim victory in my personal strife in my journey as a Christian. It would be a miracle of Lazarus proportions for me to cease despising this lot with utter abomination. They are my cross.

For now, I am quietly enjoying the moment when someone like Ambiga Sreenevasan quietly and with dignity, give these gnats the flick.

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19 n. o.


This time 19 years ago, I remember being unhappy with allowing myself to be at the mercy of a hairdresser named Joey. He was my beautiful bride’s hairdresser but it was a dreadful error to think he could also be trusted with my hair. I trusted him. I regret that eternally. Not the wedding though, nor the marriage. It is still the best thing to have happened to me, since the day I realised I needed Jesus as my Lord and Saviour. Being in Nou Camp on 26 May 1999 came close but only just.

Time flies when you’re having fun, one often hears. It has been true for me. I really believe that somewhere in my youth or childhood, I must have done something good.

Happy anniversary my dearest wife.

Nicole McKechnie: I Shot The Sheriff…


Eric Clapton - Swing Auditorium, San Bernardin...
Image via Wikipedia

I first heard “I shot the Sherriff” from Eric Clapton. I dont think I ever heard the Bob Marley original version. I think Nicole McKechnie the ex Media Advisor for Victoria Police, just did. Shot the Sherriff.

The news that Simon Overland has resigned as Chief Commissioner has long been coming. The discrepancy between his statement and that of his Media Chief is probably the last straw and given that one of them must have been lying and given the swathe of others in dispute with him in recent weeks, it was untenable for him.

Simon Overland has long come across as being too close to the Labor Government. His dodgy crime statistics to make the Brumby Government look better, was always a stink which would come home to roost. I dont think it is just the police. The judiciary, long massaged by Labor to be left leaning and dishing out nanny like molly coddling decisions, is another black mark.

Federally, the Garnaut Report and the likes of Tim Flannery and the Treasury under Ken Henry has come across as too political. They are meant to be independent experts but their left leaning tendencies are all too clear and they are only too happy to be aiding an unprincipled and mangled federal Labor Government.

If only Simon Overland is just  the first of these public servants to go for doing other than objective and independent work.

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In this corner – Ben Shapiro and Sarah Palin…


First it was Ben Shapiro. Now it is the futile attempts to dredge dirt through Sarah Palin’s emails. I think the chest-beating rhetoric of the left leaning entertainment and media hacks have to think about formulating responses. Ben Shapiro’s Primetime Propaganda outed what many have suspected for a long time – that prime time television has a deep seated left ideologue mantra running through it. Anti Vietnam themes, feminism, gay rights and lampooning right wing politics are all core themes of sitcoms, movies and documentaries from Hollywood.

I must admit I often let these themes coat me over without any serious reflection or thoughts.

Take the Tina Fey impersonation – belittling – of Sarah Palin. I’d laugh along and probably believe most of what Tina Fey suggested Sarah Palin said or think.

Apparently the line that Sarah Palin could see Russia from her house was entirely fictitious – made up by Tina Fey. There was no disclaimer however and that has now become popular folklore. Sarah Palin may not be the brightest or most sophisticated but how many of us are?

The 24,000 pages of emails journalists trawled through in Alaska – in the obvious attempt to find more material to either fuel night time stand up comedians or discredit any attempt by her to stake a position against the left – suggest she is just an ordinary hard working and decent family person, with perhaps one big difference from those who stand against her. She has traditional moral values and she is not afraid to speak up for them. She may have flaws and may have made mistakes – how many of us haven’t – but that she strives on in spite of these flaws, speak of her strength. Those journalists went through extraordinary lengths to find damaging material. Is this what left leaning liberalism represent?

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Earthquakes – frequency (Christchurch hit again)


Christchurch was rocked again by another quake of 5.6 on the Richter scale. This apparently happened less than an hour ago.

It really feels like earthquakes are happening so frequently. It has really triggered that element in Matt 24:7  (Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places) and it would be foolish to ignore this altogether, perhaps.

I hope things are not too bad with the folks down in Christchurch.

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Fergie Rebuilding


The transfer market in the English Premier League is sounding really busy. United has apparently picked up central defender Phil Jones from Blackburn. I’ve noticed him before and thought he’s a quite an all action attack-the-ball kind of player. Sort of like Vida himself. Experts think he’s a John Terry in the making but Phil Jones will be his own man. He’ll be better than Terry because apparently he can hold his own as a defensive midfielder as well. I reckon it won’t be long before he overtakes Johnny Evans in the pecking order and I like to think Chris Smalling and Phil Jones will step into the shoes of Ferdinand and Vidic. A colleague (a United man of course) was just saying to me Fergie is thinking of selling Wes Brown, O’Shea and Gibson all to Sunderland. Apparently the collective price is only 12m – surely Brucie is not that great a mate to SAF? These are good squad players to have so I hope Fergie has a good backup plan. Maybe some youngsters are coming through the ranks. O’Shea has been reported however, to want to stay and fight for his place. It would be a crowded defensive squad he has to fight in and talent wise, he’d had to work pretty hard but hats off to him for wanting to have a go. Fergie is rebuilding – again.

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