Thinking Allowed
The "Great" PORR Revolt
Frankly, I couldn't care less; the MCA is playing its politics with the view of upstaging the Gerakan eventually. And, if some among them get burnt in MCA's own politicking, so be it. Politicians are not to be conceived as innocents or lambs led to the slaughter. Instead they are more like fighter pilots on a bombing mission. They enter the fire zone with full cognizance of its perils � or they should anyway! My concern is with the larger issues and the sheer mendacity of government these days. In particular, Koh Tsu Koon, Hilmi Yahaya and the BN government have still to respond to why a particular concessionaire, Peninsular Metro-Works, with no track record, has been given the RM1.02 billion PORR contract. And, when will citizens see the results of a proper EIA? And, what exactly are the alternative considerations to PORR? Moreover, what are the cost-benefits of an alternative public transport system to PORR? Some of these basic issues have been long posed by many thinking critics and have appeared on the pages of Aliran Monthly but remained unanswered. The anti-PORR groups ranging from CAP, SOS! and affected residents have raised many other points, including adequate compensation for the affected, and still have got no satisfactory responses. Instead of addressing these questions, we are now being side-tracked by the issue of the possible sacking of two MCA politicians. However, there is an upside to all this furor. Despite the government's denial, PORR has become a highly controversial project. And we're still only seeing the tip of the proverbial iceberg. So, one is not to be blamed for being even more baffled when deputy CM Hilmi Yahaya intimated that the 17-kilometer PORR could become "the most expensive highway in Malaysia". Unless he was going for some Guinness book of records, wasn't the DCM shooting himself in the foot? But I wouldn't put it past our policy-makers, who have already got us the longest bridge in Southeast Asia, the tallest buildings in the world, the first to drop a car onto the Arctic, etc, etc, to go for it! But hopefully citizens will take advantage of the continuing controversy over PORR to demand reasonable answers to legitimate questions, none of which they are getting now. "Umnocracy" is Alive and Strong Turning from Penang to the national concerns, things seem to be sailing rather smoothly for DPM Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who appears to be easing into national and UMNO leadership surely and steadily. The DPM hosted a "conversation" with journalists from Southeast Asia, which was televised to Indonesia, Thailand and Philippines. Abdullah modestly averred that he could not fully emulate Mahathir Mohamad but "Mr Nice Guy" went on to correct this soft guy image. He reminded his interviewers that as Home Minister, he has been responsible for detentions under the ISA. Nice touch, Pak Lah, sock it to them! Meanwhile, "Not-so-Nice-Guy" Mahathir has declared for the umpteenth time that he is definitely quitting but not before he appointed some of his favourite "sons" to some important cabinet positions. Indeed, the news of these appointments upstaged Pak Lah's conversation with Southeast Asia. The three new appointees, Jamaluddin Jarjis (as second finance minister no less), Tengku Adnan (PM's office) and Zainuddin Maidin (deputy information minister) are all Mahathir stalwarts. No prizes for guessing why these appointments have to be made at this time. Some apparent reasons: set them up to protect the old man's "interests" after he leaves. Jamaluddin looks slotted for the first finance minister and Zam for information, both crucial ministries. Adnan? He'll be perhaps the 'chief cook and bottle washer' and damage controller. If the new cabinet appointments are no mystery, then certainly the decision to keep UMNO kicking by every which way has been even more candidly stated. In case you didn't catch it, the news item was uncomplicated: "The election of UMNO top posts and supreme council members � scheduled for next year � has been postponed to after the general election" (Star, 30 November). I'm jogging my memory to figure out when was the last time UMNO had elections and can't come up with a date. I guess it was 2000 after the 1999 general election. Every time a general election rolls along, it's also time to suspend UMNO democracy. Whenever it is expedient, the normal processes of democracy can be easily sidelined, derailed and, I suppose, with time can become totally forgotten. That's Umnocracy! Sniffer Dogs and Weighty Ministers
The matter didn't end there, however. The security men kept hounding her (no pun intended). As she was approaching her car, the sniffer dogs came after her luggage again. She then personally dragged her own luggage away and into the car's boot. However, upon arrival at the hotel, there were the sniffer dogs waiting! This time our weighty minister put her foot down. She threatened to leave immediately and miss the WTO meeting if the dogs took one more sniff at her luggage. The security personnel saw by then that that Rafidah was no pushover and that they had met their match. They left her and luggage in peace. Raja Petra of FAC News had one more piece of news to share. He said that Rafidah had actually to sign a declaration to say she had no offending items in her bags before she was let off the hook. Horrid Aussies! But the question on the tip of everyone's tongue surely is, what was so special and so precious in the luggage that Rafidah wouldn't countenance it going through a sniffer dog test? She surely carried no drugs (or weapons) which sniffer digs are trained to detect. Furthermore, the dogs were merely sniffing the bags not the items inside them, so the religious objection is rather disingenuous. Did she have expensive perfume? Ikan bilis? belacan? gold? God knows! Raja Petra comments: "Rafidah is certainly very sensitive about doing the 'right Islamic thing' and refused to have her bags sniffed by dogs because, as she says, this was a most unIslamic thing to do. Now, we wonder what her sentiments about the Internal Security Act (ISA) detainees who are being denied permission to conduct their Friday congregation prayers are. The congregation Friday prayer is compulsory under Islam and is a bigger deal than refusing to have your bags sniffed by a dog." (FAC News, November 30.) More Anti-Aussie Fire "Down Under' also came under scrutiny from our outgoing prime minister, who never fails to take a whack at the Aussies periodically ever since the former PM Paul Keating called him a "recalcitrant" for not attending the first APEC summit meeting of November 1993 at Seattle. Incidentally he sent Rafidah Aziz to take his place. Last month, Mahathir said: "We say less things about Australia than Australians say about us, calling me a dictator, authoritarian government.I am the first authoritarian government (sic) elected to become a dictator and then resigning as a dictator. So this is the first dictator in the world who has resigned while still quite healthy." Are Malaysians Thinking? There's a silly book by Singapore diplomat Kishore Mahbubani with the title "Can Asians Think?" I find such a poser not only patronizing and self-deprecating, it demonstrates a 'kiasu' mentality. But never mind our pompous southern cousins, what about ourselves? Contra Mahbubani, I want to ask the question, whether Malaysians are thinking hard, deeply and critically about events in the world about us? Not much point turning to the mainstream media and their self-denigrating columnists, who, as regular unabashed apologists for the powers-that-be have plunged Malaysian media into a sub-100 ranking of press freedom in the world (AM, Vol. 22,No. 9). Perhaps the letters to the editor may be a better choice. But even here, in our experience, letters from genuine, concerned and thinking Malaysians are usually censored out by the servile press. ALIRAN's letters and statements to the mainstream media meet such a fate all the time. Where then is one to find evidence of whether Malaysians are thinking or not? What about our schools and the salad minds which they house? Is there evidence that thinking is encouraged or in evidence? I fear not. Learning by rote and studying to score in (or pass) exams is the order of the day. Of course, debating and literary societies may exist but the topics for debate are carefully screened and "political" subjects are usually filtered out. Or should we say the authorities seldom encourage students to be independent-minded, let alone have 'dissident' views. I had had the misfortune a couple of years back to listen to a school debate where debaters spewed out governmental propaganda as if they were oratorical gems. Mind you, the judges probably thought they were! The universities? My friends there will say 'do spare me' and usually go no further! One can quickly surmise that universities are the terrain for the paper chase and hardly the hotbed for social protest these days. For the majority of students it is the ideal spot for three or four years of brain slumber! Where then do we find Malaysians who are thinking and thinking hard about current issues and dare to speak out? I guess one has to seek them out in cyberspace and from some unconventional sources. Cyberspace is indeed the domain where a great deal of Malaysian creativity has taken off, even post-reformasi. The internet paper Malaysiakini is clearly an important site for this and we find today a host of columnists and writers who regularly pepper its virtual pages with trenchant analysis, critical perspectives and a variety of opinions in the letters section. How refreshing to read some of these letters as opposed to the ones in the mainstream print media. I found a couple of views expressed on ALIRAN's webpage, which illustrated a sense of the culture of dissent, which I try to re-present below. Reviving the "Malay World" On 15 October, one 'Teng' wrote in the "guest book" of the Aliran website that the "September 11" of the Malay world has come on October 12, 2002. He argued that that was the day Indonesia's economy was crippled irrevocably and its state as good as failed. Says he, "This day also marked the virtual death of the 'international Malay nation' envisioned by great revolutionaries like Jose Rizal, Ahmad Sukarno, Ahmad Boestamam, Burha-nuddin Helmi, P. Ramlee, Onn Jaafar, Ibrahim Yaacob, Ishak Muhammad, and Tunku Abdul Rahman." Teng's rather unconventional view places emphasis on what was known as "Malaysia Raya" or "Indonesia Raya" championed and popularised by the Malay left of the past. But I'm afraid the project received its death knell rather earlier than October 12, 2002. The British snuffed it out just before independence and with UMNO's ascendancy, led by Tunku Abdul Rahman, the concept was buried good and proper. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has more or less replaced the old Malay World concept. Teng makes the interesting suggestion that we should develop the notion of ASEAN regional citizenship, i.e., create the notion of "Aseanites". Despite the rather awkward sounding name, that's not such a bad idea. The Europeans have found a regional identity, when can the Southeast Asians? "True" Opposition In another letter to the Aliran "guest book", "Ex-Mahathir man" responded to the AM lead article last month on the question of opposition politics by agreeing that "no opposition at all is better than any opposition." The writer suggested that Malaysians who want to be real oppositionists should do some of the following:
Six Bags Full While everyone will commiserate with the retired armed forces chief Ismail Omar because of the tragedy that befell him and his family at their Taman Hill residence, the recovery at the scene of six bags of money and jewellery would befuddle most of us. Why would the Affin Bank chairman want to keep such large sums of money and precious gems in his home? As a noted banker, he would surely have heard of safe deposit boxes. This is all the more puzzling given that the so-called VIP Robbers struck pay dirt at his house several months ago and got away with RM40,000. One other puzzling matter is that the bank chairman and his family were also prepared to live in a residence without a certificate of fitness. In Malaysia, we seem to be able to get away with all kinds of things, and tragedies such as Taman Hill and the Highland Tower, only nine years ago, never seem to convince the authorities to implement and enforce rules for human safety and good public conduct. D.L. Daun The Other Arms Inspectors The world media has been tracking the UN weapons inspectors' every step in Iraq. But there is another weapons inspection team at work, albeit with little publicity. This item caught my attention - I thought it was rather "cute" too. Way to go, Canada! Canadians to lead weapons inspection team into USA November 21, 2002 (Toronto) - A coalition of Canadian peace groups today announced their intention to send an international team of volunteer weapons inspectors into the United States later this winter. The coalition, Rooting Out Evil, are recruiting inspectors through their newly launched website, www.rootingoutevil.org. "Our action has been inspired by none other than George W. Bush," said Christy Ferguson, a spokesperson for the group. D.L. Daun Now tell us what you think. E-mail us. |
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In Malaysia, some events become blown up even though they are tiny storms in a teacup. This is the case with the abstention of two MCA members on the DAP motion in the Penang State Assembly to postpone work on the Penang Outer Ring Road (PORR). As ALIRAN president Rama-krishnan pointed out, more than a third of the BN members were actually absent for the vote. If this was such an important motion should not the BN Whip and deputy CM Hilmi Yahaya, take disciplinary action against these absentees? Instead the two BN abstainers have been hauled on the carpet to face the prospect of being sacked.
A not so funny thing happened on the way to the World Trade Organisation meeting on November 14 for Minister of international trade and industry Rafidah Aziz.. She had an encounter of a canine kind in Sydney, the day she arrived together with her weighty luggage for the WTO meeting. The airport security set sniffer dogs on her luggage and she instinctively reacted by declaring that as a Muslim she could not allow such a thing. Why was she so nervous? "The officials relented and asked me to put my luggage for scanning after which I was allowed to leave the VIP room" (Star, Nov. 30).