Lion On The Prowl

I'm seriously worried about the future of my country. But like I told my friend Achul over dinner just now, the saddest thing is that I feel there is nothing I can do. It's all very well to say ... oh we have to keep on going, because the voice of the people will ultimately matter, we all can make a difference... so on and so forth... but I'm really beginning to doubt it. Can we really make a difference? in Malaysia?

The Great YABhg. Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, the man who kept Malaysia safe from greedy salivating economic invaders, lamented not too long ago that he was disappointed that Malaysians seem so jaded. Nothing shocks them into action. Nothing pushes them beyond cynicism and raised eyebrows. Not that he expected Malaysians to take to the streets.. But at least Malaysians should be angry enough to cause their elected representatives to spring into action and demand answers and explanations.

But we got nothing. Nada. zip. Not a whimper about the excesses of YDP and his family, about the ECM Libra Avenue debacle, about the slow and excruciating murder of MAS, about the control of one family over Khazanah Nasional, about the selling of Johore, about the rape of Terengganu

Articles like this one here written by YB Ron (Ok ex-YB) and posted on Malaysia Today make me feel more helpless. Its like its unfolding over our very eyes and we can do nothing!!

In the last few days, it's clear that the Lion is on the prowl again. This Lion is mighty indeed... mighty in causing destabilisation and enriching its coffers. This lion now counts as part of its domain the communications and banking & finance sectors of the most populous Muslim nation on earth, rendering that nation an economic hostage to the lion, should any situation arise that would put it head to head against the king of beasts.The lion caused the downfall of a government in the land of the white elephant.And now the lion eyes another weakened tiger of Asia... A tiger weakened by the departure of it's mighty leader of 22 years in 2003, replaced by a bumbling fool who cant tell s**t from breakfast. Probably coz he falls asleep between the toilet and the breakfast table. Ah but that's ok... He has a loving SIL to help him decide which is which.

Anyway back to the lion. in recent days, we heard that operatives of the lion are back in action after lying low following severe pressure from YABhg Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad. The operatives, believing that the mighty Tun is now weakened by age and health concerns, have returned to claim the helm of a boutique investment bank.... which is, I believe a vehicle to forage for bigger chunks of the tiger's meat to be devoured by the ruthless lion.

The primary Singapore operative - the fourth K- this time reappeared at the apex of the investment bank with a friend in tow. TF. Now this TF is somewhat of a puzzle to me. For a long time I thought his master was a reclusive Malaysian communications billionaire. Turns out, he belongs to another billionaire, a certain powerful SIL.

Then it starts to make sense. Patutla his budget airline got into the Lion's den so easily, in spite of the lion being infamous for its protectionist stance over every single thing. Yet it allowed the budget airline in? Hmm...SIL must've been behind it.. SIL is after all not only beloved by YDP but also by the Lion. It was within the lion's den, after all, that SIL got his early education.

Patut la the budget airline is getting all sorts of perks and breaks from PM YDP's castrated government... rupanya SIL is in the background. Rupanya SIL and TF are cosmic twins... almost one and the same, evidently.And the Fourth K of course is happy to work with the cosmic twins, faithfully serving his lord The Lion, whilst laughing at idiot Malaysians and the hp6 puppet cabinet, all the way to the bank.

Aduuuh Sang Harimau... apa lah dosa ditimpa nasib sebegini?

When news of the Lion's agent and TF taking leadership of the investment bank broke, my friend (whom we call Jong-Il) sms-ed me frantically.He was quite livid. Enraged even, by the blatant audacity of SIL and the Fourth K. I said, "well what to do mate? It's the way the cookie crumbles". Jong Il replied "Takkan the rakyat are that hapless?? (sic)". I only said "yes they are. live with it." Silence from Jong-Il after that... obviously he's off somewhere fuming by himself. Jong Il is also probably pissed off at my cavalier attitude about the whole thing.

But I'm not cavalier about it because i dont care. I do care. I'm furious! hell that's why Spooky Muck came into being in the first place. But like YABhg. Tun Dr. Mahathir, I'm starting to feel a little disheartened. "Resistence" as the evil are fond of saying, "is futile."

To be honest, right now I feel like my country has come under the rule of the dark lord Sauron (read: Jembalang Hitam SIL). But like I said once before, my poor country aint middle earth, and we dont have a fellowship of the ring that would help destroy Sauron. Our white wizard Gandalf (TDM) is constrained by age and of course by invisible spells that thwart his considerable powers.

Meanwhile the rape, pilage and plunder of my poor motherland continues. The lion prowls for ever bigger game, to have lavish feasts with its entire pride.

We, my countrymen, watch in horror as our motherland is being devoured alive. We wince in pain, we cry silent tears... but at the end of the day.. we just watch. Hmmm... Should we then be angry with the lion for coming to our territory when we did nothing to stop it or chase it away?

BN trumps PKR. Whither Aljubs?

By now everyone will have heard that the BN won in Ijok. The victory is not surprising. If you had gone there in the last two days of campaigning, you will have sensed that the swing for BN was all around. What is surprising is the spike in the majority which rose from 1649 to 1850.

Odly enough, it was YDP who was being interviewed for almost an hour over RTM, although he was in Ijok for all of 1 and a half hours. Hmm. I was under the impression that Najib led the BN team in Ijok....

Anyway... that's not important. BN is after all a united front and the main thing is that the party won.

Back to the numbers. A hike in the majority is surprising in that it destroys the notion that the people are unhappy with the current administration. It seems that the bridge issue, the oil-for-food scandal, the 200million jet plane, the turkish yacht, the ecm-libra scandal... all those things dont matter to the people.

Then again maybe they do matter. Its just that people forgot about them. Why did the people forget? Because the opposition curiously forgot to raise them. In a most fishy manner, the PKR and DAP forgot the very issues that they have been riding on over the past 3 years. Instead they banked on the flimsy rumours of the Altantuya case and the alleged misdeeds in the Scorpene and Sukhoi case. The strategy reeked the stench of Al Jubs. Why? because the attacks were so centrally focused on Najib. Aljubs had the most to gain with Najib out of the picture.

The gnawing question is: what deal was there between Aljubs and certain quarters. We lay off you, you dont defend Najib?? Who knows.

Meanwhile, the real good news out of Ijok today is that PKR is all but dead. This was their last chance at a comeback. They failed disastrously.

For Aljubs, the loss is doubly bitter. Not only has he inadvertently strengthened Najib by forcing PM YDP to re-enforce his ringing endorsement of the deputy premiere, he has also removed all doubt that PKR is fading, by making it clear that even with the great Anwar leading the charge, people still reject PKR -or affectionately known as Keldaian

What he will do next is fairly predictable. He will rant and rave. He will cry foul and allege vote rigging and phantom voters. he will plead a victim of the might of the BN Machinery, he will claim BN's victory as having been bought by $$$

Behind the scenes, he is probably less loud,probably silent and fidgety. Aljubs now knows that outside of UMNO he is on the road to nowhere and fast. Ijok may well be his death knell.His future seems bleak.

What will he do? I would wager that he will intensify secret negotiations with SIL for his re-entry into UMNO, somehow. At the same time he will send yet another emissary to mengadap YABhg Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, something a little bird told me he tried to do at least four times before, each time failing miserably with TDM all but slamming the door on the face of the envoy. (Not literally of course)

Aljubs will want to get into UMNO at all costs. he knows that PKR is toast. He's probably relieved he's not a member. Then again he already calculated that he wanted to be free to consider his options -options that include re-joining UMNO. What he miscalculated on was BN's strength, in particular Najib's strength in countering his personal attacks.

Tonight is a humid night. But Anwar is feeling cold, because he is locked on the outside in this dark and dreary night, looking through UMNO's window and seeing the warmth and comfort inside. He knows he has to get in or he will just fade away into the night. The desperation is increasing for him. As he listens to the joy and laughter inside the UMNO home, he realises on this side of the wall there is no celebration. By this time tomorrow, when the Ijok dust settles, Anwar will see that he is all alone.

A Question of Legacy

It was a wet day in Ijok. The rain, had returned after a brief hiatus at midday and I found myself huddled in one of the quaint "kedai kopi" in the middle of this tiny town that is now the focus of the entire nation. A number of reporters also take shelter there and one of them, sitting at the next table looks our way, recognizes my friend and moves over to join us. Conversation starts about this and that, then he says... "kesian Najib.. betul-betul kena sekali ni"

Naturally my friend asks why. I listen with marked interest. This guy is a reporter from one of the TV stations. He must know what he's talking about. "Sorang-sorang dia kena balun dengan Pak Sheikh...Takdak sapa mai tolong." he says. Again my friend asks why. I am the uninvolved listener in this scene, but my interest is unmistakable. Happy that he has a keen audience, the reporter continues "Hang tak perasan ka? Sekarang ni, pembangkang pun dah dapat air-time. Dulu mana TV station kita benarkan... sekarang coverage calon pembakang hampir lebih air time dari calon BN."

"Awat lagu tu?" My friend asks, reverting to his native Kedah dialect.The reporter is only too happy to divulge his 'insider' stories. It seems that in actual fact, BN Big guns are down to help campaign in Ijok although looking at the news one would think its only Najib doing the rounds. But apparently there's been some... 'wahyu' if you will... a commandment from on-high that there should be less focus on BN's campaign and more 'flexibility' must be given in airing the opposition's campaign. Not so much that it would get noticed... just more than before.

"Tak kan lah" said my friend incredulously, although of course anyone following the events in Ijok on the news will tell you that for the first time ever, the opposition is being given ample exposure during prime time news. "Betul, Bang." said the reporter. "Kami diberitahu begitu... pasai katanya PM YDP [the term is used by me in this article.. not by the reporter] nak satukan Melayu.. perlahan-lahan."

The conversation went on for a bit longer, then the rain stopped again and we parted ways.

What the reporter said stayed with me long after we left the Kedai Kopi. Penyatuan Melayu by PM YDP? What could this mean? To my suspicious mind, this had a thousand and one implications. Naturally Penyatuan Melayu would mean bringing together the Malays of UMNO, PAS and Keldaian.... which - following through with the train of thought of my previous posting- means that it's another piece in the jigsaw that will form the picture of Al-Jubs' return to UMNO, which adds another token in favour of the conspiracy theory against Najib.

I called up a few of the learned, battle-scarred former generals of Malaysian politics and asked them what they thought was actually afoot. One interesting insight was this: Its about legacies. It seems that PM YDP is very much pre-occupied about his legacy when he high-tails it out of office. This Elder of the Party told me that from day one PM YDP has been obsessed about the mark he'll make. You see, said the Elder, PM YDP has a bit of an insecurity about stepping into the shoes of the great YABhg. Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, an icon of Malaysian politics, and a much respected global statesman. He thought, in the begining, that his endless sloganeering was good enough to win support of Malaysians. But after the so-called honeymoon period, he realized that Malaysians demand substance to back up the pretty slogans, something he had very little of.

He often lamented to his fourth floor boys about this and they set about carving a niche for PM YDP. Islam Hadhari, Biotechnology, Human capital, Towering Malays, Red Book, Green Book... all sorts of crap were dished out, in their pitiful attempt to make PM YDP look good. But nothing worked. Psycophants will forever polish your knob and say stuff to make you feel good, but deep down they realize the truth. They knew that even if you polish glass for a thousand years in a thousand different ways, a worthless piece of glass will never become a diamond. PM YDP will never even become even the toenail of TDM, much less a person of equal stature.

Of course they have some of the HP6 Ministers time and again coming out with assinine statements about not comparing leadership styles and that TDM's time is past, or that PM YDP is the dream leader and stuff like that. But nothing erases the fact that PM YDP is mediocre at best, and that should he no longer be leader tomorrow, his legacy would only be the empty slogans, oh and yes , the unabated ascendancy of SIL during his rule.

Even PM YDP realises this sad truth. He must have a more impressive legacy. Something that would cause history to place him in the same league as TDM and TAR, Malaysia's most illustrious Prime Ministers.

In the view of his advisers, the most impactful thing is to bring the warring Malay factions together. "Let's face it", they seemed to have said, "you cant beat Mahathir's industrialisation and modernisation, you cant beat what TAR did with FELDA and stabilising communal relations through economic restructuring". No way in hell, unless there is a nuclear war, everything is destroyed and PM YDP gets to start with a clean slate. Not gonna happen.

So what do you do? you deliver what TDM has himself proclaimed his own failure to accomplish: To unite the Malays. You will then finally get a worthy "Bapa something" to add to your name when you hit the road: Like Bapa Pembangunan or Bapa Pemodenan. You, instead of holding to the ridiculos, pre-mature, insane tag of Bapa K-Ekonomi bestowed on you by one of your Ministers, can rightfully claim to be Bapa Penyatuan Melayu. (Salivate salivate. clap clap)

Now to do this, what must you do first? Bring the most difficult protagonist into the fold, then others will soon follow. This prize catch is none other than Al Jubs, the actor of actors, the fake of fakes. He may be fake, but damn, he still has his followers. Hell he can talk the pants off of anyone! ( No pun intended.)

And so the game plan is set in motion. Start the mental conditioning of the malay public, especially the UMNO stalwarts. Give the opposition airtime. Allow Al Jubs to have a field day with the press... and... make no effort to save Al-Jubs favourite target: Najib. For indeed, how on earth will you bring back Al Jubs if his perceived primary stumbling block is in the way?

Perlahan-lahan, the reporter said.

It's still a blurry picture but its starting to make sense to me. Re-introduce the idea, condition the mind, kill the main obstacle, then roll out the red carpet.

My friend, the learned party Elder sums up: It's all about an unfound legacy. An all important legacy, a coveted immortality. Some men would pay a hefty price for it. One man and his SIL may consider offering a bigger sacrificial lamb: The illustrious son of a legendary Malay leader.

Unholy Alliance?

Here's something I wrote a while back... I thot It should be posted here...

***
As far as Al-Jubs (DSAI) is concerned, the equation is simple: If the path to power is through UMNO, then that path must be (U minus N) to the power of K; U being UMNO, N being Najib, K being SIL.

Al-Jubs is well aware that what TDM said is too true: Any hopes of coming back to power on his part is nothing more than a pipe dream... unless... he is back in UMNO.

But then his return to UMNO is not that easy. He (being the egotistical megalomaniac that he is) will never return to UMNO as an ordinary member, and he has a deep rooted vengeance against Najib , because on some level Al-Jubs feels Najib has taken what is rightfuly his -The number two spot. In the begining Al-Jubs was hoping that his Golden Key to UMNO was through SIL.SIL after all was extremely involved in securing Al-Jubs' freedom. And Al-Jubs sensed that SIL was looking for a symbiotic relationship of sorts...

The symbiotic relationship SIL wanted, had to do with his own famous ambition. SIL knows that he will never be next in line for the number one spot because of his age. So he needed a black stallion (no reference to anything sexual here.) to run the course first- A stallion who would be indebted to him, and who would ensure his ascendancy, long after his current source of power- The Sleeping YDP- is gone.

After the famous passport episode, SIL and Al Jubs realised that people were getting suspicious. Rumours abound about a lengthy phone call between Al Jubs and YDP -arranged by SIL-while YDP was in Australia for his nose job.. er.. I mean sinus treatment. Then there was that Hari Raya open house call.

So to throw people off the scent of their unholy alliance, SIL went on the UMNO Youth platform and angrily condemned AlJubs as 'Pengkhianat', conveniently forgetting the whole passport incident.

SIL has at least twice more repeated that Al Jubs will never be accepted into UMNO. But we all know that promises made in politics mean diddly squat. All that is needed is for SIL to organize a 'popular voice' gimmick and then say "Kita terpaksa akur dengan kehendak akar umbi"... it's a trick done a million times before.

So anyway, the unholy alliance continues on the quiet. Fast forward to today, Little Birds here and there keep on singing about secret meetings and telephone calls between the two. Even letters to one another...like lovers in a forced separation. When YABhg Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad began his well-grounded offensive against YDP and SIL, AlJubs felt that he was getting closer to his goal. YDP and SIL needed to strengthen themselves by bringing AL Jubs as a trump card to thwart TDM.

They severely miscalculated. UMNO was still unwilling to accept ALJubs, and worse the party was deeply divided about their support for YDP, one huge faction clearly leaning on the side of TDM. The Al Jubs re-acceptance plan was put on hold. But make no mistake, Little Birds say, the relationship is still there. Only now they are playing the waiting game, hatefully banking on the fact that with TDM being 82, time cant possibly be on his side.

While they wait, they take on the other big obstacle, Najib. Wasnt it Al Jubs who started the Mongolian connection story? And the Scorpene link story? and the Sukhoi link story? It wasnt anyone else.

Al Jubs says nothing about the ECM Libra Avenue affair, nor about the oil for food scandal, nor about any of the 1001 nonsensical moves of the YDP administration... but he goes doggedly after Najib. Meanwhile, no one is coming to Najib's defence.

Where is the Pemuda Wing that he used to lead? Hisham of course says nothing without SIL's green light and SIL will not lift a finger to help Najib although technically the Youth Wing is duty bound to defend the deputy president.

What about the other ministers of the half past six cabinet? No one has said a word in defense of Najib. Why? We're talking about a bunch of sycophants and yesmen who would even say YDP's farts smell like roses! Yet they do nothing to defend Najib?

This is not to say whether Najib is innocent or not. That's a whole other debate altogether. What I'm getting at is: Isn't it a bit suspicious and uncharacteristic of UMNO that no one defends the number two? That they are lettling him drown all alone? Doesn't it smack of some kind of conspiracy somwhere?

(Consider this: When Razak Baginda was arrested, how come the Straits Times of Singapore broke the story before the local papers? [On a completely unrelated matter, Hindugod was in Singapore the day before that, or so says another Little Bird.]How come for the first time newspapers revealed the identity of a remanded suspect BEFORE he was even charged?)

If AlJubs is, as he claims, a valiant hero who fights for truth and justice, why hasnt he EVEN ONCE attacked SIL? Why hasnt he charged nepotism and crony-ism against YDP like he was quick to do with TDM? Why has he made no noise about the house in Perth, the Turkish Gullet, the RM200 mil jet, the inexplicable wealth of SIL and friends, the inanely stupid responses of YDP ("like I dont know, I'm not involved"..).

Put it this way... as the de facto leader of the opposition, shouldn't AlJub's sparring partner be YDP? Why should he go after Najib if his objective is to discredit UMNO? He should go after the party's supremo. Instead he attacks Najib and only Najib. Which can only mean that he sees Najib as an obstacle to his path forward, which means that he feels his path forward is still through UMNO, which necessarily means that the unholy alliance between him and SIL is very very much alive... and... given SIL's and AlJubs tendency to always favour the interest of their foreign friends over what's important to Malays and Malaysia, that's something about which UMNO members should be afraid. Very afraid.

Tun Apologizes...or did he?

Saw it in on the 8pm news. For the first time in yonks, TV3 was only too happy to show an extended footage of TDM's press conference. Tun said he made a statement relating to YDP (Yang Disalah Pilih)'s house in Perth based on strong and presistent rumours. It has since been proven that the house "belonged to the wife of a chinese businessman". (The portion in quotes came from TV3's script).

I wonder why TDM did that. It seems so out of character... and in the next portion of the PC footage, he apparently told bloggers not to embellish so as not to erode the credibility of their blogs....

Hmm... it all seems a little strange. I sent a bewildered text to TDM's aide, who responded by saying it's all part and parcel of spinning...

Wonder if my blogger idol Rocky has a take on this...

UPDATE

Now I get what TDM's aide meant in his reply to my sms ... get the full perspective of what TDM said here and for a take on Agence France-Presse's view, read here.

UPDATE 2

D-uhhh.... how could I have missed it??? It was a brilliant move by TDM to 'apologize'. Then again, my first reaction to this story was based on the spin on TV3. Now that I have the full context, I know that it was a master stroke from a master politician. TDM managed to:

1. Get extra airtime, more than he did in the last nine months

2. Get the story of the house onto the mainstream media, where before it was only on the blogs and the internet.

3. Get it out in the open that SIL was caught with his pants down, confessing to Kamaluddin's ownership of the house, when in actual fact it was Mrs. Patrick Badawi's

Now, TV3's claimed 3 million viewers of Bulletin Utama all over the country will be talking about the Perth House, finding out more things, when previously they knew nothing.

A masterstroke from a Master politician. What else can i say. The man's a genius. hidup Mahathir!