By election

So, Anwar has won the by election. I wonder what this means to the politics of this country? More fireworks... and less work? I think just judging by the political furore of these past few months, not much will change. The alternative front is just all talk and very little action, unless it is to march and protest over the oil price hike, which are actually non issues. The ruling coalition on the other hand has much to do and undo... to get back the people's trust. As for Anwar's "landslide win" in PP - was there any other result expected? It was his first constituency - he was almost born there - even when his wife won the constituency in days gone by - no one sane and reasonable expected anything different. BN would hav been over ambitious if it had ever expected to win PP. Of course they could try... which from what I read and heard, they did. Oh well... some other life time perhaps Pak Lah.

I've been trying to picture Anwar at the helm of a new Malaysia - on as Raja Petra and a number of others have been saying - non racial politics. Can we ever have a non racial government, if what we hav now according to them is very racial? Will the Chinese stop clamoring for a bigger share of the cake, the Indians a bigger quota of everything else and what about the others? The IBans, the Kadazans and all those other tribes in Sarawak and Sabah? Will they too demand for a bigger share of the pie? And amongst all these, who will look after the ordinary people? The quiet ones with no voice - the silent majority who are the cogs in the wheel. Even now Selangor has seen some quiet changes - road signs in chinese, tamil and rumi. Not Jawi anymore.

I have always maintained that whatever the political party, whoever at the helm, the ruling emotion, the ruling creed will be the " ME" ideology. IT's me first and foremost, then those who helped me, and then those who helped those who helped me.

We can never run away from our basic instincts. Otherwise proverbs such as Birds of a feather flock together will never come about. Even if we do mature, and become more open and more giving, it comes at a cost.

Viewpoint

Hurray Sara's coming home at long last. She's now in Dubai or maybe already in the plane on the way to KL. Its been a really long year - however fast other events seem to be, Sara's being away is always longest. I really miss my baby girl, the doctor-to-be! Wan is back from Macau and Shasha is back from Singapore. So today at least, or tomorrow perhaps most of my children will be home. Tomorrow we'll go back to Malacca. Need to take mother back from Ipah's house. I wonder how she is. Sometimes I really feel sorry for her, she must be feeling terribly displaced and being her, does not want to disturb her children by being too demanding. But I also think she gets upset about small things, thinking negatively about things we say that are not even meant to be negative. As the other day when I mentioned to her whether Alan has called to say he's coming. She told Yatie that I asked her because I was worried that Alan's children will break things in the house when actually I asked her because I wanted Alan to come and visit her. I didn't want her to feel alone in the house because we were away in Singapore. I guess as we age little things like that can be sensitive. I want her to stay with us, at least with me she can rest easy.

Malaysia's economy isn't doing too well these days. Everyone is talking of a recession and someone said its better to save money now than to invest. But I think if we all think like that, we will indeed go into a recession. I remember Dr Mahathir's time when there was a world slump in 1997 - the year the hedge funds dropped and our money went down in value. That was a really bad year for us but Dr Mahathir encouraged spending and said we have to keep the money moving or there will be a slump. I also remember a number of people criticised him. Oh the number of times the Opposition threw brickbats at him - yet he carried on, with dignity and determination because he knew what he was doing would be right for us. And it was right. But did we praise him and thank him? No - we all just accepted it as our right. And because of his tactics - he got the banks to lower interest rates - we recovered quite quickly. But Abdullah Badawi is no Mahathir. He's too scared and too afraid to tilt the balance. Our politicians too are not helping - especially Anwar with his accusations of political intrigue to purposely derail his plan to get a position into parliament. I believe that he's doing all the intrigue himself, if there's any. All our MPs seem to be at loggerheads. Across the spectrum of issues - whether its the bar council or the economy, everyone is disagreeing with each other. Not only do they disagree, they disagree loudly and vehemently. The Opposition party throws disagreements to the Ruling coalition, they spit at each other in Parliament and hurl vitriolic remarks at each other. In fact both parties can be quite creative at the invectve they use. When can anything be achieved if this goes on all the time in parliament?

On the home front

I finally got the cheque for the pre-employment class - after a month's delay. However my friends Alby and Barbara didn't get their cheques and had to collect it the next day. I think the university is really inefficient. SKET is worse than inefficient. Imagine we received our letters of appointment today - after we had finished teaching and what is more, we didnt even get that for the pre-employment programme. We were asked to come and teach and we all went happily, without even a letter to appoint us. And now after its all over, they still haven't prepared our payment vouchers. I had to wait from 12.00 till 1.pm then the clerk told us to come back at 3.00pm. When we returned it was still not ready, though lucky for me, mine was. When will they pay us for the last programme I wonder. Next month perhaps?

Today's news is full of Anwar's melodrama - his so called death threats and running to the Turkish embassy for safety. He said or his wife said that the Turkish embassy invited him but the spokesperson at the embassy said he went there himself, not at anybody's invitation. As to the reports of his sodomy act with an aide, well I really don't know. Of course he and Azizah both claimed that it was a frame up, as before. But my mind can't accept this logically - who would frame him? The BN? Najib? But why? Political assasination? I think its Anwar himself trying to get some political mileage.The strange thing is that I know many of my friends are on his side. They believe him and say that he has been sadly maligned and that he is the only leader Malaysia can hope for. Maybe... I would have voted for him once. But ater the Gore affair and finding out that he supported Al Gore's campaign for presidency and gave money to his cause, well... now I think he's just a greedy man who wants power.

Malaysia's political future really seems to be in a shambles. Today's parliament sitting looked like another farce - a comedy of errors, with the DAP and PAS making accusations and the speaker trying to maintain order. I think its becoming more and more farcical - the whole parliamentary session. As long as these people are only interested in promoting their own agenda, things will never improve. Why can't they ALL be more mature in their thinking and work only for the good of the country and not themselves. But this I think is naive thinking. Most men are greedy anyway - for money, for power. Whether it is one political party or the other,the end result is the same. Its just they way they do it that's different. Some spout religion and wear the ulamak's robes to swear that their aims are pure and altruistic. Some try to gain the people's sympathy, giving a picture of a down-trodden political opponent who is subjected to all kinds of malicious rumours...

I think I'd rather trust Lim Kit Siang with his verbal attacks on parliament than hypocrites who show a smile to the world, hiding malice behind their words. As Shakespeare quoted in Julius Caesar -" Yon Cassius has a lean and hungry look... such men are dangerous." I agree with him wholeheartedly. At least Kit Siang does not hide behind a mask of religiousness or goodness.

Oil price hike

Just some thoughts on the oil price hike and how the opposition is using it to get some political mileage. There was some kind of protest during the weekend it seems. They held a rally in front of SOGO and also Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman. I think whoever thinks they are doing it out of concern for the citizens must really be blind. They're only using the oil price hike for their own political gains. It just goes to show how much they really care for the country.The oil price hike is a global problem. WE cant change the price here in Malaysia. Even a large oil producer like Brunei has increased its oil price and oil prices has gone up double the amount every else in the world. If Abdullah Badawi wanted to be popular among the citizens he could have reduced the oil price but he knew that it wasn't possible and that for the good of the nation, no matter what, he had to reduce the oil subsidies. In fact we have been cushioned from the harsh realities of life throughout our life - right from the 80s.

On another matter...

I find it really irritating that Lim Guan Eng keeps on harping about Petronas. Imagine what could happen if he were the PM! Will he abuse his priviledges as PM and would Petronas end up subsidising most of the govt's expenses? God knows! Its true that Petronas is a govt company but its also a company in its own right and should be independent of and from the govt. Otherwise how can it be run as a successful company? If they didn't have the freedom to run the company as a company, Petronas wouldn't be where it is today. And I know how hard they work, with both my son and the hubby working there at one time.

The Penang minister should stop looking out for all the things the previous govt did or did not do and just work on improving the state. I think he should just shut up and run the state - in his own way - whatever that is. Its 100 days and what has he achieved so far - besides complaining?

The Tsunami Elections

When the elections were held in Malaysia we were still in Bangkok. We got news from friends and later on tv - BBC. The results were really shocking - I did expect BN to lose a few seats and for the DAP to win more than before, but these results were really catastrophic. BN lost 5 states in all, or actually 4 states because Kelantan was never BN's. But to lose Selangor - man, that was a real twist! I blame the corrupt councillors from Selangor state. And maybe even the MB. Well I guess its high time they realise what they are doing and how the people feel. In Penang and Perak too DAP won the majority for both parliament and state so the new MB will be from the opposition. They were sworn in yesterday. However there was a slight glitch from Perak. DAP didn't want the MB to be from PAS since they said PAS only won 6 seats and DAP won 18. Well, the constitution however does not provide for a non-Malay MB. And also MBs must be approved by the Sultan. Guess DAP didn't think the Sultan had any say. This one did have a say however and he didn't want a non-Malay MB. Not sure what will happen now - just hope things will be better!