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Dearest Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad,

Datuk Seri, your Merdeka speech on the eve of Merdeka Day celebration caught us by surprise. We did not expect that you could make such a shocking speech to Chinese communities. To be honest, we don’t know how to explain this to the public. We are under immense pressure from opposition parties demanding that we quit. What we are doing now is lie low and keep mum. It will put us in a more difficult situation if we comment about this issue and Barisan Alternatif will take advantage of it. What we are trying to do is sit on the fence and pretend to preserve racial harmony by not speaking out.   Don’t get us wrong. We are not angry with you. In fact, we totally agree with you. Yes, we are communists and terrorists. You can call us any sort of names you like. No objections.  We do not care if your speech hurts Chinese people's feelings. You are numero uno, I chi ban, number one in Malaysia, above King and Parliament. You are the saviour of Malaysia. We will continue to support you, Datuk Seri. We will  always be behind you every second. You are always in our heart.

Don’t worry about the Chinese people. We know them very well. Let us handle them. We can always use threats of  riots and racial sentiments as usual to threaten them. They are  scared as hell. They will support us when they hear about the May 13 riots, Indonesian riots – killing and raping of Chinese people, Reformasi riots – violent demonstrations such as kicking dustbins and kicking cars, racial unrest, Islamic state – conversion to Islam (Abdullah), Hudud law – potong tangan, Al-Ma’unah - terrorists, a vote for DAP is a vote for PAS. They are brainless, irrational and shy away from the real issues, such as Anwar Ibrahim, reformasi, UMNO crisis, Corruption, Cronism, Nepotism etc. As long as they have cars, nice houses and sufficient money to spend, they are happy, satisfied and do not bother to know what is happening in Malaysia. They have no time to fret over these things. Time is precious and all they know is how to make money.

It is the same fear tactics that we use over and over again and yet they always fall in our trap. We have found it to be very effective and it is working well according to our plan. It is very easy to brainwash and psyche them. We do not see why we cannot capitalise on these tactics again as God is always on our side. One bitten, twice shy is not in the Chinese people's dictionary. They will not learn from their mistakes. Unlike the Malay people, they are afraid of change and to take risk even when they reliased their blunders. No matter how badly we treat them, they dare not retaliate against BN. They feel that they have no choice. Don’t worry; in the end, I am sure the Chinese people will still support MCA and BN for the sake of preserving their identity, ideology and religious belief. They will still vote BN for peace, political stability, development and prosperity and all the bullshit that we tell them.

As you know, MCA has started a campaign against Esctasy drugs recently.We call it a Chinese’s disease because we want the Chinese communities to portray MCA as a good association which takes the trouble to look after their interest. We want to play and manipulate this issue in order to make Chinese people believe our sincererity. Datuk Seri, do you think we are really serious in overcoming the menace? Of course not. Why should we be interested in saving Chinese lives? We are more interested in swindling and wheeling and dealing.

The Ecstasy drugs issue is like killing two birds with one stone. That means, solving the drugs issue (hopefully) and restoring MCA and Gerakan’s tarnished image. This issue will draw attention away from people who want to discuss the MCA president's wrongdoings or the UMNO crisis. Datuk Seri, isn't it a good idea? We will use our gifted acting talent to the full. Again, UMNO people gifted talents are second to none (bodek). In other words, UMNO people are very good at play-acting and MCA and Gerakan would take a leaf from UMNO especially from you, Datuk Seri.

Hidup Mahathir, Malaysia Boleh, Mahathir Boleh.

Thank you,

With regards,

Ling Liong Sik, MCA President
Lim Keng Yaik, Gerakan President
Koh Tsu Koon, Penang’s Chief Minister

Contributed by Anonymous Reader

The news from the judicial dunghill seems to get worse and worse. Despite widespread condemnation both at home and internationally after the verdict on Anwar Ibrahim's second trial, whorehouse judges have again let loose their crap to terrorize vocal Malaysians brave enough to condemn the judicial filth.

On September 5, we have the Court of Appeal upholding lawyer Zainur Zakaria's three-month jail sentence for contempt of court. All Zainur did was refuse to apologise to the monster judge Augustine Paul for submitting evidence of the Attorney General's malicious prosecution of Anwar Ibrahim and his tennis partner, Datuk Nalla. On September 6, the Attorney General issued Malaysian Bar vice president, Roy Rajasingam with a show-cause letter asking him why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against him for statements made in the wake of Anwar's savage nine-year sentence. Then we have a disreputable lawyer lodging police reports against Malaysian Bar president Sulaiman Abdullah and vice-president Roy Rajasingam over statements they made allegedly attacking and scandalising the integrity of the Malaysian judiciary. Given the corrupt state of the police and judiciary, convictions are more or less certain. Then we hear of Mahathir crony, Vincent Tan, demanding RM3 million in defamatory damages from freelance journalist MGG Pillai, failing which, more court action would be instituted against the journalist.

It is clear that the Malaysian judiciary is simply being used by Mahathir and his cronies as an instrument of terror for which there is no defence whatsoever. It is a perfect waste of time, money and effort to appeal to a higher court for redress when the dunghill gets smellier the higher one ascends, culminating in Eusoff Chin who will go down in history as Malaysia's most repulsive chief justice. Not even the King now has the independent power to correct these shocking miscarriages of justice.

This Reign of Judicial Terror may be compared to the Stalinist purges or Mao's Cultural Revolution. Brave critics are ground down, fined millions of dollars or jailed until no whimper of public dissent can be heard. And the Malaysian Bar Council has come in for some heavy-handed battering simply because it refuses to be silent in the face of the most appalling rape of justice in the land. The attack against opposition leaders will not be long in coming and one can expect the already supine mainstream news media to become even more supine, if such a thing were possible. One can only be reminded of the words of Malaysia’s first Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman, on the occasion of the sacking of Tun Salleh Abas, Lord President of the Judiciary in 1988, a Mahathir-authored attack which started the judiciary’s downhill slide into the current cesspool:

“Our judges are the guardians of the Constitution and thus our democratic system of Government. When they lose their independence our precious freedoms are at once threatened. And our judges were indeed deprived of their independence in the year 1988. We are therefore in grave danger today. “

Dr. Yahia Abdul Rahman, Founder
American Finance House
750 East Green Street, Suite 210
Pasadena, CA 91101

Dear Dr. Abdul Rahman,
Assalamu Alaikum:

I hope by now you have learnt of the factors agitating a sustained public outrage against Mahathir bin Iskandar, Prime Minister of Malaysia.

The Islamic Society of North America, one of the largest Muslim umbrella organizations, has recently rescinded an invitation to Mahathir to speak at their annual convention in Chicago next month. This decision by ISNA has been widely applauded for it stands to show that Muslims will not tolerate anyone who violates the rights of fellow Muslims and in the same breath dares to sermozine them on Muslim unity. The forked tongue and a bellicose hypocrisy is, therefore, no longer polarized politics but an issue of wider Muslim concern.

Whatever has reached your eyes and ears on Mahathir's misdeeds is a derived narrative. None of those who have written to you protesting the proposed award to Mahathir by your esteemed organization have sustained any direct brunts from the brutal and terrorizing paraphernalia that Mahathir maintains under the pretense of a democracy. This, by no means, dilutes the essence of their message.

Through this submission, however, I would like to draw your kind attention to the plight of an individual and his family who were specifically and personally targeted by Mahathir towards his nefarious conspiracy to topple Anwar Ibrahim. That individual happens to be the undersigned.

For your kind perusal, I am enclosing herewith one of the few pieces that I wrote in the aftermath of those 126 torturous days that I was forced to spend under Mahathir's captivity. I have been kept from writing more simply because of a chronic disability induced courtesy of my captors. I continue to suffer from memory loss, nightmares, irritability and general psychiatric disorder of concentration.

Please spend a few moments reading the first hand account of the criminal deeds of Mahathir and his clandestine operations. If nothing else, it should evoke the call of human conscience in you as it did in literally hundreds of thousands of readers all over the world. I remember from one school in Canada alone I received nearly thirty letters of young children who cried after reading this piece and made a pledge to upold human dignity.

I am aware that the prestigious LaRiba Award has been bestowed upon Muslim men of accomplishment. I feel honored that one of the awardees, Professor Khurshid Ahmad, is both a mentor and a dear friend. At least two others - Sheikh Saleh Abdullah Kamel and Professor Najatullah Siddiqui - are known to me in a professional relationship.

After knowing Mahathir's brutality against Anwar Ibrahim, Sukma Darmawan, Nallakaruppan, myself and our families, would you still insist that he joined the august company of LaRiba Awardees? In consonance with a great number of Muslims and people who respect human dignity and freedom, I do not consider Mahathir worthy of this honor.

With best regards.

Wassalam

Dr. Munawar A. Anees
Former Prisoner of Conscience - Malaysia [Amnesty International]
Former Writer in Prison - Malaysia [Pen International]

If the Cambridge University Malaysia Society, organisers of the "Malaysia in the New Millennium" conference had really cared about the substance of the topic, they would not have invited as keynote speaker, the person who has done the most to damage the country's future prospects.

Neither would they have relished as speakers, a number of pro-Mahathir minions such as Dr Mohd. Noordin Sopiee, Zeti Akhtar Aziz and Dr. Rais Yatim who, between them, would struggle to emit even a single original or provoking thought.

Where indeed are the learned academics who would intellectually challenge the immediate and extended audience in this supposedly "academic" conference? Are they really too busy to share the limelight with a Prime Minister, as the co-chairman claims, or do they disdain doing do in the bleak light of the Anwar imbroglio?

Perhaps they recognise that any conference addressed by Dr. Mahathir can scarcely be non-political as the man has not got a single non-political bone in his body. Perhaps they are unwilling to associate themselves with a nation that has greeted the new millennium with a Stalinist show trial, police brutality, and a judiciary stinking to high heaven.

Perhaps also, the organisers are not so naive as to be unable to understand the political nature of their conference, being students not only of Cambridge University, but also of the Mahathir School of Lies and Hypocrisy.

It is more than likely that Mahathir will use the platform to make some disgraceful comments about Anwar's two trials and alleged immorality. It would be ironic that a distinguished centre of learning becomes the platform for a disreputable leader to hurl insults at the intelligence of the general public.

The conference organisers would do well to reflect on their part in setting the stage for a human rights abuser with near dictatorial powers. What is the point of being "highly educated" if one has still got no feel for justice, freedom and democracy? For the sake of everyone, the conference had best be re-named “Malaysia’s Unmaking in the New Millennium.”

Tsu Nam

In a rare moment of candour, Singapore's Senior Minister, Lee Kuan Yew described the Anwar imbroglio as an "unmitigated disaster" and that he felt "more sorry for Mahathir than for Anwar Ibrahim." Mahathir, he opined, had paid a heavy price for his "errors of judgement."

These comments can be considered quite astonishingly bold, coming from a normally tight-lipped man who cannot be unaware of Mahathir's supersensitivity. Especially given Mahathir's recent "friend or foe" remark, Lee would appear to be playing with fire here.

Even more revealing, Lee Yuan Yew publicised Mahathir's off-the-cuff answers to a couple of questions when they met during the 1999 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, shortly after Anwar's arrest.

"Why did you arrest him under ISA (Internal Security Act)? How can he be a national security threat when only three weeks, four weeks ago, he was deputy for five years?" Lee asked Mahathir

Lee said he was "flabbergasted" when Mahathir revealed that he did not know that Anwar was going to be arrested under the ISA. Mahathir had said, it seemed, that it was the prerogative of the police chief (then Rahim Noor) to arrest Anwar under the Act.

Malaysians cannot really believe this assertion of Mahathir. It is typical of the dictator to pretend that has less power and knowledge than he really has, claiming for instance, that the country has an independent judiciary. Who ordered Anwar's arrest if not Mahathir? Can the then police chief be any less of a puppet than his whorehouse judges?

Then, Lee said, he asked Mahathir why he did not set up a commission of inquiry immediately to investigate the "black eye" incident, because although the inquiry would not absolve the prime minister from blame, it would erase the doubt that he (Mahathir) was a party to it.

However, according to Lee, Mahathir had instead replied, what benefit would he get out of it?

Those misguided individuals who still think that Mahathir cares passionately for his country should take especial note here. A commission of enquiry, launched soon after the bashing, would have repaired the nation's battered image. Instead, all Mahathir could think of was himself: "What benefit would I get from it?"

Many believe that Rahim Noor would not have dared bashed so high-profile a prisoner as Anwar without an express command from Mahathir. The fact that an internal police report tried to cover up the basher, and the fact that Rahim Noor got off with a ridiculously light two-month sentence is further evidence of high level protection. Rahim has still to serve even a single day in prison, as he is still appealing against his "too harsh" sentence, would you believe it?

In dragging Anwar through two kangaroo courts, in destroying the judiciary and sinking the nation low in the estimation of the world, Mahathir has been behaving true to form. It's all to satisfy his vindictive, hate-filled nature, not to save the country from a sodomist as he claims. It's what he gets out of it that's important to him, not the impact on the country as a whole.

But so surrounded by sycophants and yes men is Mahathir that he cannot see the "unmitigated disaster" that has befallen Malaysia, or the damage that would take decades to repair after his demise which Malaysians hope will not be too far off. While Lee was right about the heavy price that had to be paid for the Anwar affair, he was wrong about who had to pay it.

It is typical of Mahathir and his boot-licking, knee-bending minions to deal with foreign criticism by 1. calling it undue interference in the country's internal affairs and 2. by pointing to past injustices in the foreign country's history. Thus, the blast of international condemnation over the verdict of Anwar's second trial and his savage fifteen year jail term has been dealt with in a similar fashion with the Malaysian government counter-attacking and raising concerns about blacks in America and aborigines in Australia.

The senile and decrepit Mahathir appears not to understand that we all live in a global community and, hence, can criticise one another, especially on a matter of human rights. After all, don't we all belong to the human family? For instance, if you hear your neighbour beating the life out of his wife, would you ignore her screams or would you try to save her? Can you possibly keep a "non-interference stance?" Also, just because you may have done some bad things in the past yourself does not mean that you have no moral right to take action in the immediate situation.

No people, not even the foreigners themselves who condemn the Malaysian judiciary, will claim that their country has never violated justice and human rights before. But can we point to the wrongs that others have committed to justify the wrongs that we do? What sort of sick reasoning is this?

South-east Asian nations have been deafeningly silent over the brutal treatment of Anwar Ibrahim. It does them no credit as they will then expect Malaysia to be silent in the face of gross abuses of their own. We can only build a better world together by pulling each other up, not by shutting our eyes to evil deeds for the sake of being "good friends." It is worth noting that loud-mouthed Mahathir is himself one of the most trenchant critics of the West. Yet, his inability to take the shoe on the other foot bespeaks a man who has surrounded himself so long with fawning boot-lickers that he can no longer take a dose of reality.

How is Ariffin Jaka doing these days? The puppet judge who acted as Mahathir's executioner to unjustly convict Anwar and imposed a manifestly excessive sentence of 9 years now joins Augustine Paul as contemptuous dregs of human life.

First of all let us not be deceived into thinking that he acted out of what he believed was right. Any decent and neutral judge would have thrown the case out of court without calling for the accused's defense. Ariffin Jaka was acting to Mahathir's script and even the harsh sentence can only be straight from Mahathir's vindictive mind. He knew that he was sending an innocent man to jail.

Ariffin was said to be a religious man. He had even gone on a haj to Mecca. Perhaps he believes in God but obviously carrying out Mahathir's wicked plans is more important than God. He was not born evil nor did he live an amoral life. He was not like Attorney-General Mokhtar who ruthlessly perverted justice and goodness with gusto and extraordinary zeal to serve Mahathir. Mokhtar is totally corrupted evil but Ariffin had to struggle against his conscience. In the end he went over to the dark side to serve a wicked man rather than remain true to his principles.

What would make a man forsake his religion, his principles and the very core of his beliefs to commit evil for one man? Is the pull of Mahathir's evil greater than the love of God? What can Mahathir give him that would be greater than the rewards of the afterlife? We do not know how strong Ariffin Jaka's religious beliefs are but there is certainly a powerful attraction in getting your reward now rather than later. Besides one can always repent before one's final days and earn a reprieve from a merciful God.

But heavenly reward and punishment are deeply personal concepts. They should not be depended on to punish the bad. Evil committed in this earthly existence should be paid for in this world. Ariffin Jaka will pay dearly for this one act of evil to serve Mahathir. Everybody have deeply ingrained core beliefs about good and evil and if these beliefs are violated there is hell to pay in guilt and personal torment. Ariffin is not Mokhtar who is without conscience. He cannot even hide under the pretence that he had no choice but to find Anwar guilty. In the courtroom as he declared his judgement, Mahathir had no power to force him to follow his evil script. He could have decided to stick to his principles and find Anwar innocent. What could Mahathir do to him outside the courthouse? At worse, Ariffin Jaka could resign as a judge and live the rest of his days in peace and comfort that he had done the right thing.

Besides having to live with his conscience Ariffin also earns the contempt of millions. His peers will shun and ostracize him, his friends will be those like Augustine Paul, Lamin Yunus and Eusoff Chin who have themselves committed great evil. He has also tied his fortune to Mahathir. Should the wrath of the people topple the tyrant, Ariffin can well tremble in his shoes. Like a criminal who has committed wrong and ever fearful of being caught by the law or the enemies he has made , he will live the last dregs of his life in dread. He has also reserved a shameful place for himself in the history of man and millions will hold his memory in contempt as a puppet judge. What a heavy price to pay but it is difficult to feel sympathy for him. After all he was not forced into the dark side, he was seduced and he only has himself to blame.

Mahathir’s persecution of Anwar Ibrahim has been so cruel, ruthless and vindictive that it became a boomerang of sorts. The corruption charges were apparently too boring in a country that took such things for granted, so something else had to be cooked up that would truly disgust the population. Plain old womanising would not do, hence the sodomy charges were invented to smear the ex-DPM with utter completeness.

But here, Mahathir’s contempt for the public intelligence led to his downfall. Even with the slavish local news media pandering to his designs, even with the most knee-bending of judges, neither Malaysians nor the rest of the world have been convinced. It takes no effort to run a kangaroo court; the hard part is to do it convincingly. It’s even harder with a judiciary already discredited by numerous questionable trials and a key witness who was as unreliable as he was stupid.

Instead of the public castigating Anwar for what the puppet judge described as a “despicable act,” it is Mahathir who has been seriously damaged by this trial. No even his most ardent supporters can believe that it had been a fair trial, even if they chose to lick his jackboots in public. History will not be kind to this repulsive villain and, as his legacy unravels, Anwar becomes the symbol of heroic defiance. Certainly, not what Mahathir intended at the outset. A more astute politician would have neutralised a rival far more effectively but moderation was never Mahathir’s forte.

If Anwar had been slapped with a less severe sentence, the revulsion might not have reverberated right round the world. Malaysians themselves may well be surprised that the going-ons in a relatively small and unimportant country should attract so much concern, albeit for all the wrong reasons. Surely, Anwar’s standing in the world community was not so high as to merit the attention of the Vice President of the USA, the European Union, the Prime Minister of Australia, numerous international bodies and a whole galaxy of newspaper editorials. But it was not Anwar’s standing per se that did the trick; it was Mahathir’s cruelty that shocked the international community to attention.

There is a lesson in all this. In politics, to use all the guns at your disposal is not necessarily a good thing, and it is possible to come out in far worse shape than your helpless enemy. But this is a lesson which Mahathir may well have learnt too late. For the rest of us, it is not displeasing to see someone hung by his own petard.

Only someone as cruel, vindictive and hate-filled as Mahathir could have been capable of writing Anwar’s nine-year sentence for sodomy, to run consecutively with the six years already imposed for non-existent corruption. Arifin Jaka, after all, was merely the puppet judge bending at the knees and kowtowing to the jerk of Mahathir’s pull.

It would be hard to believe that the judge, who knew deep in his heart that Anwar was innocent, could have imposed such a savage sentence of his own volition. Sodomy in Malaysia has never been punished by more than two years imprisonment. It is also common for sentences to run concurrently. Arifin Jaka, over the course of the 14-month long trial, appeared at times to have been a man fighting his conscience. He had allowed Anwar’s defence considerably more latitude, even allowing testimonies embarrassing to the government to be aired, including the wrongdoings of high level politicians. He had allowed Anwar to vent his rage before imposing the sentence, and did not slap the prisoner with contempt of court even in the face of a personal attack. The nine-year hell could not have been his own choosing.

Just as one has good grounds to believe that Mahathir ordered ex-IGP Rahim Noor to bash Anwar in prison, the evil incarnate obviously meant to destroy Anwar politically with the nine-year consecutive sentence. Hopes of a successful appeal are non-existent, given the corruption that runs right through the judiciary. Not even the King can rescue Anwar, as the royal pardon can only be granted on the advice of the prime minister. Mahathir carefully closed off this loophole in the early nineties when he took on the Rulers.

Never has Malaysia come under such a barrage of international criticism as over the Anwar affair — the bashing of the man in prison, the conduct of the first trial and now the conclusion of the sodomy trial. Great damage has been done to the country’s image just so that a spiteful dictator can have his hollow victory. Mahathir may spew his venom against his detractors to his heart’s content but, in the end, Malaysians are the biggest losers.

The chorus of condemnation at home and abroad over Anwar’s sodomy conviction and his cruel sentence illustrates just how hollow Mahathir’s victory is. Politicians, human rights groups, NGOs, individuals and newspaper editors from around the world are united in their perception of a manipulated judiciary being used as a tool of political persecution. Indeed the only persons telling us to respect the judge’s verdict are BN politicians who, having already sold off their balls and their brains to Mahathir, can do nothing else except lick the ground beneath his feet.

It is no victory for the ruthless and hate-filled dictator if the court of public opinion acquits Anwar and sees in him, a symbol of unbreakable defiance in the face of oppression and tyranny. Anwar in jail is even more troubling for Mahathir than Anwar free. With each unjust blow, the flame that the injured man has lit grows a little brighter. We can now see for ourselves just how corrupt, filthy and nasty the regime is. The impetus for change begins with self-realisation.

Whether or not Anwar’s political career is finished is not the central issue. But the fact that a growing number of Malaysians have become disgusted enough to demand change is of paramount importance. Time, technology and the Internet are on our side, and the bleak days of absolute media control are all but over. The young crowd are asking questions and demanding a seachange. As Suharto’s party fell into a heap in Indonesia and the Koumintang sank in Taiwan, so too will the seemingly impregnable UMNO.

The next elections may still be a long way away for Malaysia but, on the other hand, it is a short time for the utterly corrupt UMNO to put its house in order. As long as Mahathir is still around, its chances are not good, and it’s a fair bet that only the Grim Reaper can pull the rug from underneath this deranged, power-crazed dictator. Let us hope that the Scythe finishes off his decrepit body in the not too distant future as, otherwise even more ugly, cruel and repressive tactics will have to be used to silence the disgusted populace

The conviction of Anwar under the most flimsy of court cases ever must come as the lowest point of Mahathir's despotic rule. In a case which would have been thrown out of any decent court, he was convicted on the sole evidence of a disreputable man who has been highly inconsistent in his evidence and shown to be a political pawn. There were no witnesses and the accuser could not remember any dates. The only "corroborating evidence" was a confession forced out of Sukma in the police dungeon and which he has repudiated. Even Anwar's defense of alibi which has never been challenged by the prosecution was totally ignored.

The puppet judge said that Azizan had nothing to gain by lying about the matter. He must be blind to the fact that Azizan has been elevated from driver to company director since making public his accusations. And this scoundrel stands to gain plenty more by helping Mahathir pull down Anwar. Is it so difficult to understand that one stands to gain by being in the good books and currying favour with a person who has the power to heap huge rewards? The judge should have just kept his mouth shut instead of making an illogical fool of himself.

There is no clearer case of political interference in this ridiculous trial and it is none other than Mahathir who is behind this hideous circus. This spiteful old man would stop short of nothing to convict Anwar even if it means dragging the already tainted judiciary through slime and the reputation of the nation down with it. But if this evil man had thought that he could fool the public with his ludicrous kangaroo court he couldn't be more wrong. Nobody is so stupid as not to be able to recognize the truth glaring at them from the evidence given in the courtroom. Nobody can fail to see that truth and justice has been sodomized. Mahathir shits on his legacy and soils himself with his own hands. He has shown the world that he can equal Stalin and Hitler in abusing the courts to crush political enemies by ridiculous show trials. What a tainted legacy to retire with.

Arifin Jaka demonstrates to all Malaysians just how low a human being can degrade himself in the shameful climax to Anwar’s sodomy trial. He shows us all how one can bend so low to a slave master that his face wipes the slimy ground. He is like an animal who has forgotten all religion, culture or decency as he does his master’s bidding.

This lying, hypocritical judge dares to describe Anwar as “sick.” If that is so, how can one describe a moral degenerate sitting on the bench, twisting the law and diddling the scales of justice?

The moral health of this very ill judge is displayed for all to see in his rubbishy judgement. How anyone with a brain can say that “the prosecution has proved its case against both accused beyond reasonable doubt” is beyond belief. How any sensible person in possession of the facts can praise Azizan’s reliability as a witness is astounding to say the least. It is like telling us that the sun has risen in the west today by judicial fiat and expecting us all to nod in agreement.

It is also not true that Anwar did not provide an alibi from Jan 1 to Feb 12. In fact, Anwar submitted that the bed was delivered to the Tivoli Villa apartment only after February 12. Azizan had claimed that he had been sodomized on a bed.

But facts do not matter any more in this political persecution. The conviction and the cruel sentence are part of Mahathir’s script. It is not proven that Anwar has sodomized Azizan, but it is manifestly clear to all that Mahathir has sodomized the judiciary. Arifin Jaka to the end was merely a tool of the dictator. On the real Judgement Day of the World, he will stand shivering with Augustine Paul and then, no amount of knee-bending will save their sullied souls.

On this day of shame, a puppet judge bending under the pull of Mahathir convicts Anwar Ibrahim and Sukma Dermawan of sodomy against all reason. The verdict is hardly surprising, given the judicial contortions that had been going on in court over the last 14 months. A fair-minded judge would have long ago dismissed the case as being entirely without merit.

Yet the morally flexible Judge "Gila Babi" had the nerve to proclaim that "the prosecution has proven its case beyond reasonable doubt" as though Malaysians have no better intelligence than four-year olds. This insane judge even declared that key witness Azizan Abu Bakar had come out "unscathed" during cross-examination even though he himself had, at one stage, scolded Azizan from the bench, given the latter's clownish performance.

Even more outrageous are the savage sentences imposed: nine years for Anwar, six years for Sukma plus four strokes of the rotan. These have probably been written by Mahathir himself to destroy his ex-deputy politically for all time. While the judge may only have been an appliance used for the dirty work, he cannot be morally absolved in the eyes of God or man. One would hope that God's rotan would in time, fall on both the puppet master and his slave as many times as divine justice demands.

This Day of Shame will long be regretted in the history of the nation, a day that caps the long and sickening show trial where political persecution mangled truth and justice was raped for all the public to see. Yet decent, outraged Malaysians have been denied even a chance to rally to show their disgust, prodded here and there by police dogs.

Long will history condemn Mahathir as the dictator who brought us great shame. Long will we spit at his memory and on his grave.

At the eleventh hour, puppet-judge Arifin Jaka’s verdict on Anwar’s sodomy trial was postponed to an indeterminate future, the reason being that the “judgement was not ready.” This pretext will work only on the most simple-minded. What horse-shit is there for the judge to “think” about? Can anyone be in doubt that Mahathir had long ago decided on the verdict? All the puppet had to do was to jerk to the pull of his slave master. We cannot imagine that he had the least bit to think about.

Many surmise that the judgement has been put off to foil the planned rally in front of the courthouse in support of Anwar. The fact that no date has been fixed for the judgement is telling. It is entirely possible that the day will be announced only at the eleventh hour, too late for the people to gather in large numbers. This shows how totally the judiciary is at the beck and call of the Executive.

It will indeed be a shameful day when men are convicted of hideous charges under no evidence whatsoever, when in fact, all evidence point to the fabrication of these charges. It is a day that Malaysians should take to the streets massively to mourn the death of justice in the land. While Mahathir has staged this grotesque show trial so that the public can be disgusted over Anwar’s supposed immorality, he has only succeeded in creating mass revulsion over the filth that encrust the judiciary. But even the public show of disgust is to be forbidden.

A regime that is based on fear, intimidation, police brutality, torture and detention without trial has no place among the nations of the world. When such a regime is shored up by a tightly controlled mass media, a fake justice system and a severely compromised election commission, it can best be described as a dictatorship. For too long, we have let the black clouds seep in. We now live under a perpetual night, but many of us have been so blinded that we can no longer see.

Hardly anyone in Malaysia will await the verdict on Anwar’s sodomy trial with anything like suspense. It is a foregone conclusion that the ex-DPM will be found guilty despite the utter lack of evidence; what remains to be seen is the length of the prison sentence, a sentence that many expect, would have been written by Mahathir. Although the presiding judge, Arifin Jaka, has given the defence somewhat more latitude than the monstrous Augustine Paul, he can hardly be relied on to disobey his puppet master when the moment of shame arrives.

Malaysians may pretend that they do not hear and do not see, but deep in our hearts, we know that so blatant a kangaroo court can hardly have taken place without some degree of complicity from the general public. As a nation, we failed to be courageous when the moment called for courage; we failed demand justice when injustice covered the land like a black cloud; and then we failed to throw out Mahathir when we had the chance. A number of brave individuals made sacrifices, but they were too few. If we were a country that valued freedom, justice and democracy, we would have marched the streets in our millions, demanding that truth prevail.

History will judge us as a generation that will quietly accept any amount of corruption and moral turpitude just so long as we are free to make money. The ease with which Mahathir is able to corrupt all public instruments of government shows clearly how greed and cowardice are the natural state of man. History is full of despots like Mahathir, but no single person can be despotic with first enslaving the minds of many into sheep-like obedience.

So the moment of shame draws nearer, the moment of unbearable shame for all Malaysians. Deep in our hearts, we will acknowledge that justice has been besmirched although our faces may tell a thousand lies.

If the entire Malaysian judiciary had a single face, all Malaysians should queue up to spit at it.

Unfortunately, now that the Bar Council has been silenced by a judiciary seeking to protect its own filth, Malaysians have no further recourse other than to suffer in dumb silence.

Puppet judges are in a mutually symbiotic relationship with their puppet master wherby they obey and he protects. Parliament, also under the sway of this Evil Incarnate, has time and again refused to debate the corruption in the judiciary. The local mass media whitewashes the issues rather than bring them to the attention of the public. Even the Sultans, from whom the judiciary supposedly derives its power, have been so battered by the Executive that they can only turn a blind eye towards the appalling rape of justice in the land.

It is a judiciary that punishes the innocent in meek obedience to the dictates of the Executive, no matter how glaring the lack of evidence. It is a judiciary that allows the guilty to go free -- note for instance, how Rahim Noor has yet to spent a day in jail for bashing an ex-DPM, and now we hear that a final decision on his woefully inadequate sentence has been postponed to September. It is a judiciary that threatens all critics with contempt of court, as though it has any further claim to the least shred of dignity.

Malaysians will, henceforth, have to hold their noses in the presence of judges stinking to high heaven. As they vomit out their filthy judgements from atop their dunghill, let us hope that the offal lands with poetic justice where it rightly belongs -- on Mahathir's face.

Tsu Nam

It comes as no surprise that Judge Nathan granted an injunction to a government stooge to prevent the Bar Council from holding an EGM to discuss Chief Justice Eusoff Chin's improper holiday with counsel V.K. Lingam who has been wildly successful in his court. This is yet another example of "Justice on a Dunghill" style of Malaysian judiciary. The reason for his judgement was a senseless as it was flimsy. It insults the intelligence of all Malaysians to learn that Justice Nathan had given his dubious judgement on the basis that the Bar Council could not prove that Law Minister Rais Yatim had made allegations against Eusoff Chin on Australian Radio National.

What is the relevance of having to prove that Rais Yatim had make the famous comments on public radio? Aren't the widely known photographs on the internet reason enough to call an EGM to discuss the serious allegations against Eusoff Chin's improper behaviour? We cannot expect the corrupted judiciary to rule in favour of the Bar Council but the reason given for the judgement make fools of everybody. It confirms in no uncertain terms that the corruption and degradation of the judiciary has taken hold to such an extent that it is probably beyond repair.

The Mahathir government is so corrupt that it does not care an iota for public opinion. A once independent judiciary was subjugated and perverted until it became a shithouse to serve the ruling party. When lawyers can't even hold a meeting to discuss solid evidence of misconduct by the head judge we know that the dung has reached the ceiling. The judge sits on a pile of dung to deliver his stinking judgement, looking and acting every bit the smelly slime that he is.

As a nation we dream of achieving developed status by 2020, but our social development seem to regress backward to the dark ages. We hope to hide this glaring social backwardness by constructing economically senseless monoliths as if a nation's progress is determined solely huge physical structures. The incongruence of our material development against a backdrop of debased spiritual values means an empty soulless place. The Twin Towers will come to signify our lost future, a symbol of how we lost our way as a nation under the morally unfit leadership of Mahathir.

Kevin Gan

With the latest revelation in Malaysiakini of the Bowman papers detailing the joint holiday of Chief Justice Eusoff Chin and lawyer V.K. Lingam together with their families in tow, no honourable government can now let the matter rest as mere hearsay. Eusoff Chin now stands accused not just of improper association with a lawyer, but also of lying, he having previously asserted that the holiday pictures resulted from a chance encounter.

It is unfit that the head of the judiciary should be of such moral fibre as to adorn this fabrication with affecting details such as the pleasure of “bumping” into a fellow countryman far from home as well as an invitation to share a bus ride to the zoo. This sort of premeditated lying, if proven, would shame the office of Chief Justice with utter completeness.

Yet, we now have the revolting spectacle of a dishonourable Prime Minister rising up to defend an execrable judiciary from the censure of the Bar Council. In doing so, he exhibits not only complete faith in the stupefying powers of the local mass media, but also his customary contempt for the public intelligence.

But not even all the whitewash vomited by the local news media can paper over the filthy dunghill upon which the judiciary sits enthroned. Even before this latest scandal, a Hong Kong-based survey had already given the Malaysian justice system disgracefully low marks for its morally flexible judges.

It is clear that Mahathir’s success in enslaving the country’s judiciary has over-exceeded itself to the point that Malaysians can now only harbour deserving contempt for their contemptible courts. In this light, judicial interference with the Bar Council’s planned EGM to discuss the issue, or the PM’s refusal to initiate a tribunal investigation of Eusoff Chin can only sink the judiciary to the very nadir of collective odium. Unfortunately, this is a price that Mahathir may well be willing to pay for so invaluable a tool of political oppression.

Tsu Nam

The Malaysian government's acknowledgement of the rot in the country's Judiciary in the unguarded remarks of Dr. Rais Yatim must have come as a surprise to many. This, however, is evidently not coupled with any sincere desire to reform the institution.

Given that the government has shamelessly manipulated the Judiciary to its own ends since the sacking of Tun Salleh Abas as Lord President, its inertia is only to be expected. Thus, we are told that the Chief Justice, Eusoff Chin had merely been reprimanded for holidaying with a suspiciously successful, high profile lawyer when, in fact, the offence should have merited a dismissal. This contrasts with the treatment meted out to Tun Salleh Abas who was hauled before a tribunal to face a list of fantasy charges in 1988.

One cannot accept the hasty explanation of Eusoff Chin that he had only by chance, bumped into this lawyer in New Zealand. Even if true, one would have expected better judgement from no less a person than the head of the Judiciary in allowing compromising photographs to be taken. One can only wonder at the calibre of the person who presently heads one of the three branches of democratic governance.

With this latest blow to the already abysmal reputation of the Judiciary at home and abroad, the crisis of confidence is all but complete. Under these circumstances, a judiciary that convicts Anwar Ibrahim of sodomy when there is not a shred of evidence will only show itself to have been sodomized by the all-powerful Executive.

It is no wonder that Singaporean CLOB investors did not attempt to seek justice in the Malaysian courts for what amounted to improper seizure of their legitimate assets by an avaricious Finance Minister. Given the history of cases in which the government has had an interest, they would have had as much chance of success as the proverbial snowball in hell, an observation that does nothing to improve the attractiveness of the country's investment climate.

For the same reason, one can only view the intention of 40 Nipah viral victims to sue the government for negligence as a waste of both time and money. For too long, we have stood by while Justice was repeatedly and publicly raped in our country. No matter how great our need, how useless to now implore the assistance of so abused an institution.

Tsu Nam

The tourism Minister, Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir, is concerned about the image of Malaysia.

Speaking to a two-day earthenware exhibit in Shah Alam, he expressed concern that Malaysians and foreigners will have "bad feelings and experiences, frustrations and dissatisfaction" arising from poor treatment in Malaysia.

A lack of proper facilities "will tarnish the image of the country."

Pity the poor minister. Every day we hear of people arrested without warrants, held indefinitely without bail, beaten to death, and the officers responsible going free on bail "pending appeal." The Deputy Prime Minister is himself brutally beaten in detention by the man who is responsible for investigating police conduct, and then he, after pleading guilty, is given bail. His handcuffed and blindfolded victim, however, is held without warrant, without bail, without representation, and then eventually brought up on specious charges which are then amended from horseback until a flimsy case can be made on perjured testimony. This circus is presided over by a clown who is rumoured to be blackmailed by the government with threats to convict his errant son.

The electoral process in Malaysia is the joke of the world, and if a tourist attraction is desirable, then we should advertise low fares for people to come and see how elections are won by buying votes, making unkept promises, threats and intimidation, ballot fraud of every description, and the sad sight of people lined up to vote after traveling long distances in hot weather to put their ballots into a cannister that will never find its way to the counting station.

The tourism minister has a difficult job.

Sri Mersing

One can only read, with a sense of bitter irony, the accolades heaped by MCA division leaders on Ling Liong Sik in urging him to reconsider his decision to resign his Cabinet post. Ling has been lauded for his supposed leadership qualities, his experience and his championing of Chinese rights from within the government. Such comments are more reflective of the quality of the MCA as a party than of its leader.

This litany of undeserving acclaim destroys any illusion that the MCA can rejuvenate itself as a party that truly represents the Chinese even after Ling’s departure. Indeed, an organisation that strives to keep so useless a leader as Ling can only be itself, quite worthless.

Chinese business guilds have been no less shameless in urging the continuance of a style of leadership that should have only excited widespread contempt.

We also have V.K. Chin, the sycophantic and spineless editor of The Star, adding further idiocy by writing “that the MCA is as strong as it is today and able to play an influential role in Malaysian politics is due in no small measure to his (Ling’s) leadership.”

However, the real groundswell can be heard on the pages of Malaysiakini where few e-mailers have had a good word for Ling or the MCA. Instead, he is roundly condemned for being self-serving, an UMNO knee-bender, and for his timidity on any issue in the past that has threatened Chinese interests whether it is Astro programming or bank mergers.

But how deeply have these sentiments penetrated the Chinese community? Not very much, judging by MCA’s fine showing in the tenth General Elections.

Sadly, many Chinese appear to have lived under the yoke of discrimination for so long that they willingly accept being second class citizens in exchange for protection against May 13 style riots. In this regard, a mousy, timorous leader like Ling can be seen to make better sense that a stronger one who would only risk a backlash against the community.

This is a formula that does not auger well for the future of the community. Given our dwindling proportion of the total population, we could one day be reduced to a level in our country similar to that of the Indonesian Chinese in theirs: voiceless, powerless and grateful just for not being rioted against. Can we continue to let MCA leaders, engorged with the feast of corruption, cronyism and nepotism, sell the future of our children down the drain?

Tsu Nam

The stock market senses a changing climate, reacting negatively. It has a good record of anticipating events. What other news carries a portent of change?

Rais Yatim, the minister for Justice in the PM's department made a speech in Australia which severely criticizes the Chief Justice of Malaysia. He has confidence that he will return to Malaysia without fear of reprisal, thus giving notice that the PM approves of this attack on the Chief Justice of the High Court. This is new.

The Attorney General has announced that the case of the author of "50 Reasons ..." is to proceed immediately. This will bring the Anwar Ibrahim case into the news, as testimony in Anwar's trial implicates Daim, Megad Junid, and Rahim Thamby Cik. The word was circulated at the Umno annual meeting to play down the Anwar case, and just "follow the lead of Bernama." Now, without prior warning, the government decides to re-open the entire matter. The charges are for printing "false news." Something has changed.

Dr. Ling, the MCA President, has left the country under some cloud, to make a decision about his continued participation in the PM's cabinet. Right now the missing pig money is being distributed in the by-election constituency by the Health Minister and the TK candidate. It is embarrassing to try to buy a vote when the money is overdue payment on an old debt. Yet the fact is, at least some of the money has surfaced, albeit from the government and not from the MCA coffers, where it was deposited in trust. The pig farmers, while happy to finally see something tangible, can hardly be expected to return the BN to power without qualms. But the money is being paid at last. This is new.

The ACA today announced that it is pursuing multi-national corporations who have paid bribes to receive contracts in Malaysia, and further, have participated in currency transactions "which have destabilized the ringgit." Previously the government think tanks have held the foreign hedge funds, and George Soros in particular, as the culprits.

To begin to spread the blame wider, especially to implicate local parties who are the recipients of the bribes is dangerous. The politicians and the businessmen (where these are separate entities) are both subject to investigation, and perhaps prosecution, although the situation in Malaysia is such that after an intial announcement of renewed vigor in pursuing an end to corruption, especially in the pre-election period, nothing further transpires. But to make the announcement, broadening the scope, is enough to generate anxiety. It destabilizes the stock market, which previously was carefully avoided. This is new.

Missing funds are under investigation in various states, including Melaka. Melaka has been a staunch ally of the BN repressive approach to politics. The Menteri Besar of Melaka is responsible for any malfeasance in his jurisdiction. These investigations cast suspicion on the management of funds entrusted to his care. Why is the government launching these anti-corruption moves at just this time? Only if prior reassurances have been given can the leaders of these states face the future without concern. Previously there has been a general immunity from prosecution for BN ministers. Now they are threatened. This is new.

The list is long, but what I have mentioned gives the tone. Is it just campaign rhetoric, or is it more, the long-hoped-for improvement in Malaysia's human rights stance, its corruption-ridden politics, and the pitiful corrosion of the judicial system? When the Attorney- General states that, "We don't put on show trials," and then follows this statement with a subpoena for a four-year old child, it betokens a straight-forward and serious intent. Let us be hopeful.

If all these events (there are many more) are indicators of real change, as the stock market implies, then we may truly be hopeful.

The report that a serious shortage of medical doctors exists, and recruitment efforts are difficult, show that the expected brain drain is significant and worsening. There is not much to expect of Malaysia's future if our youth with education and talent are disaffected, and continue to accept lucrative offers from more liberal climes elsewhere. Without them there will be no more Boleh! and no possibility for a developed country by 2020, or at any future year.

It is election time, and we may rightly be suspicious. But if all these portents are real, a seachange is in the offing.

Sri Mersing

I went to the PWTC with some anger, and many unanswered questions. How could muslims be responsible for leaders who were clearly neither honest nor capable. What was the answer? I came away with a completely new appraisal of the situation.

First I wanted to know if the members KNEW. Were they aware of what their leaders were doing? Talking to new friends and old, I learned that the answer is yes, they know.

I wanted to know if they approved. The answer was a resounding NO! Why, then, I asked, did it continue? Their answers surprised me. First, the money handouts are significant to them. "We are poor. We have families. We depend on the money. If we don't give them our vote we will be ostracized, considered traitors. We will not only be eliminated from all forms of patronage, they will find ways to punish us. They have many ways, and they are ruthless. Once they consider you the opposition you will be hounded incessantly. So there is both the greed/need aspect and the fear.

What about guilt? Didn't they feel they were going against their Islamic teachings. Yes, that is true for all of us, they told me. But it is a complicated situation that goes way a long time. It is difficult to make change. Why don't you use your vote, I asked. They said, "Well, almost everyone here is sponsored. The sponsor pays for the transportation, lodging and meals. So we have to deliver our votes to the sponsor.

Aren't the votes secret, I asked? "No, they have ways of finding out how you vote, so we must deliver the votes according to the sponsor's wishes. This is how money politics works," they said.

Did they know that the voters in the Sanggang by-election received RM1, 000 for their votes? "Sometimes more," they corrected me. Did they consider this wrong? Yes, they did. But again, they are poor people and cannot afford to turn the money down. They cannot refuse, because if they do, they will be branded and punished. There have been promises made, and these promises must be honored.

So while there is guilt, there is also fear, and against these is the feeling of belonging, even if the brotherhood is one of criminals. To salve the conscience there is the money, the promises of new roads and bridges, jobs for the relatives, contracts, favors of many kinds from powerful people in positions of influence above. There are loans, and scholarships for the children.

Do they agree with the way the judiciary is manipulated? No, especially in the failure to prosecute the guilty party leaders, and especially the treatment given to Anwar, who is universally admired as a good Muslim brother. Do they believe the charges? Certainly not. It is all a fabrication for political purposes.

I came away feeling sad. One cannot be angry at these people, they have been entrapped, and now they genuinely are fearful for their wellbeing. What does all this mean for Mahathir and the leaders of Umno? It betrays the truly thin support they have in their party. The grassroots of Umno is almost totally opposed to the policies and activities of the leadership. Their loyalty is based on fear and greed, and cannot be depended on when the inevitable challenge arises within the country.

For Mahathir it is a clear message, "You are not wanted, not liked, and given any opportunity, you will be replaced." For the Umno party it means that they cannot continue in the same way for much longer. The new reform minded members must be given positions and a voice. If they are frustrated in their efforts to return to basic Muslim principles, they will bolt and form a new group, or as many ex-Umno members already have, join one of the BA parties.

There is a ground swell of dissent that cannot be obvious to Mahathir and the other Umno leaders. Whether it is too late, as I personally feel, or whether they can open up the party to new reform minded members, is something we will have to watch and see. Perhaps I delude myself, but with these fundamentals, the unravelling seems imminent.

Sri Mersing

Good riddance to Ling Liong Sik who resigned from his cabinet post. This self-serving Chinese leader who has a huge inferiority complex and is a genius at doing nothing should also resign as MCA President and get the hell out of the Chinese political consciousness.

What has Ling Liong Sik done for Chinese? Ever the apologist for Umno, his style is to kowtow to the Umno bigwigs and be completely subservient to them while pretending to represent the Chinese. Erosion of Chinese rights means little to him as long as he can hold his political position and go about the serious business of making money in the background. And what an embarrassment of riches it has been with his son becoming a billionaire at 27 from out of nowhere and without any track record in business.

There is nothing that Ling likes better than maintaining the status quo. But it is not the status quo of the Chinese community that he desires to maintain but his own political favour and wealth opportunities. The rights and interests of the Chinese can just go to hell. Thus he declares nimbly on the back of a stunning MCA election performance that the party will not ask for additional posts in the government. This is like a fund manager saying he does not need better returns for his investments, after all the investors have enough already.

Is there nothing that this Chinese pretend leader will do or not do to rock his political boat? What about his declaration that TAR college will not seek university status against the popular aspiration of the college administration, the students and the Chinese community? At a time when diplomas are run of the mill and every student should strive for a degree in a fast-paced competitive world this backward thinking charlatan wants to hold back the Chinese in education. So adept is Ling at second guessing the implicit desires of his political masters that he voluntarily restrict Chinese opportunities so as not to compete too strongly with the dominant race. Once again, Chinese interests can take a back seat while he does his utmost to please the others.

Ling Liong Sik's huge inferiority complex need no second guessing as he has said it himself. He has stated in no uncertain terms that we Chinese are a minority race and we should behave like a minority race or there will be trouble. Being 30% of the population isn't such a minority is it? And even if we are a minority should the rights of the minority be ignored? Clearly Ling's deprecating views of the community he claims to represent is nothing short of betrayal. If he has no heart to fight, protect and advance Chinese rights then he should let others take the lead instead of behaving like a village headman bought over by the foreign colonists to quell and keep the uncouth natives in check.

Never would Ling Liong Sik stick an inch of his political neck out to speak out for the Chinese. He is the quietest man in the cabinet and a downright disgrace compared to the other minority leader Samy Vellu who has at least been outspoken on issues affecting Indians. Did he ask the government to help the victims of the JE virus? Ask something for the Chinese coolies? Are you mad? Would I risk displeasing Mahathir? As usual all that MCA did was to pass the hat around to raise money as if Chinese must depend on charity just like the old coolie days while the dominant race can depend on government help.

Things have gone to such an extent that even the MCA grassroots are critical of this self-effacing, self-serving, backward thinking, inferiority ridden bogus leader that even Ling Liong Sik is feeling the heat through his thick skin. But let's not get our hopes up that this political hack will be gone anytime soon. He has not resigned from the MCA Presidency and his cabinet resignation looks like shadow play to whip up sympathy and rally his yes men. No doubt Mahathir will reject his resignation and the old goat will be back to suppress and oppress the Chinese he pretends to represent.

Kevin Gan

An excerpt from A. Kadir Jasin's Sunday column indicates that the Youth Minister has been on the take for a long time, and that "it was not a secret." One wonders if these transactions are legal, and whether these share allocations and other perquisites of office are part of the official salary.

I suppose I am not in my right mind, but I believe that Umno has indeed become irrelevant. This is because of the ironies of their success. They wanted to silence the presses. They did, and by doing so generated resentment in their own members. They wanted everyone to equate the party with the government. This was successful, but it has backfired in that now everyone finds fault with the party ministers for every pothole, every incidence of national life. They publicized their need for gratitude to the extent that an internal resentment grew. They punished their own deputy, and now can't get it to die down. It poisons every aspect of national life, and will continue to do so until he is freed. The irony is that in in creating a judicial system and a national police force which answers only to the whims of the PM, there is now no feeling of security among the public, and the very system of laws that they have destroyed is no longer available to ensure justice to themselves. They have killed the goose that laid the golden egg. They know that their future lies with the young, but their insensitivity to the complaints of the youth about the various unconstitutional laws which abridge basic human rights are ignored. Thus they know the problem that they have created, but do not know how to correct it.

The Umno leaders have grown rich from bribery, licences and general plunder of the public trust that they seem indifferent to the stench they have created within their party. This very success, if wealth can be any indicator of it, has created such resentment among the grassroots of Umno that no Malay can stomach their lies any further, and it is only the fear of reprisal which unites them. The irony is that every time they hold a meeting they talk among themselves, and the fear dissipates. Noting this, the leaders engage in further cruel acts. What a cycle of frustration and despair it is to watch from outside. It cannot last.

Harun Rashid