US-Asean Summit: Remembering JJ's creatiivity, energy and vision

Some Malaysians have been watching too much politcal porn on the likes of Sarawak Report and Malaysian Chronicle, They actually believed that the FBI would detain PM Najib Razak once he set foot on American soil for this week's US-Asean Summit! Last I checked, Najib was detained in SoCal but by FB (not FBI) friends ... for photographs and selfies. 

KL, 15 Feb 2016

Nobody had expected the Asean bloc (led by Malaysia), once an afterthought in American policy, to become a top priority for President Barack Obama. The US-Asean Summit taking place for the first time ever in American soil this week is proof of this. But it's not just about the TPPA or the China factor, it is also about good personal and diplomatic ties, not least between Obama and PM Najib Razak, who was the Asean Chair last year. 

Malaysia can thank the late Jamaluddin Jarjis for that. During his brief tenure as the Malaysian Ambassador to the US (2009-2012), JJ worked at a furious pace to try and improve bilateral relationship not just between the two countries but also between Obama and Najib. For years, ties between Washington and Putrajaya have been lukewarm at best. After Lyndon B. Johnson's visit to Malaysia in Oct 1966, no American President had visited Malaysia until Obama's historic visit last November. The Americans were seen to be more sympathetic towards the Malaysian Opposition, especially after the sacking of Deputy PM Anwar Ibrahim, whose closeness with some American leaders were viewed suspiciously by the Mahahir Administration then. JJ was aggressive and creative as Ambassador - he even took Opposition politicians with him to the US as part of his plans to bring the two nations closer and to draw Washington's attention to the Asean bloc. 

I hear that some progams initiated by JJ when he was our Special Envoy to the US may be discontinued and that some that he had planned for have never been implemented. That would be a real shame. Especially now that some of the American media are rediscovering Malaysia as a convenient punching bag. When JJ was killed in the helicopter crash in April last year, the US Embassy in KL lowered the American flag to half mast as homage to the man. We should be more appreciative of our own man.

Read before you comment: 
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Better still, leave your own real name when leaving comments. What are you afraid of?

Post-CNY thoughts on Monkeys with Keyboards

Bukit Kiara, 10 Feb 

I must confess that at times I try to drift away from the cyber world. Blogging has always been toxic from the start but lately it has become really unhealthy! Bicycling provides a good means to help me escape and that's what I have been doing quite religiously with some friends these past couple of weeks, as some of you on my FB and Instagram would have noticed. 

But over the Chinese New Year, as I was riding the Kiara Hills among the monkeys, I bumped into cyber "friends and followers" who were also sweating it out in pursuit of a healthier lifestyle, who also happened to not share some of my views on politics. One elderly chap said he could not stomach the fact that I was actually defending the Prime Minister on my blog! His idea of consistency and integrity (on my part) was for me to attack Najib Razak the same way I had attacked Pak Lah when he was PM! I tried explaining but of course he - like others like him - wouldn't listen. At least the young walking mom, even though she held different views and beliefs, thanked me for the couple of times I had taken the trouble to respond to her comments!  

Thankfully, in real life we tend to be more agreeable to disagree ... 

Because in real life, you have to be yourself and you deal with real people. In social media and the cyber world, anonymity is providing unscrupulous people a perfect cover to behave like the proverbial monkey. Some of us have long forbidden visitors to our blogs from commenting as Anonymous. A. Kadir Jasin, for example, requires his commenters to use a moniker. Of course, a nickname doesn't give away the real identity of the person who is leaving the comment but at least the blog handler doesn't have to deal with scores of Anons at the same time! 

Me, I've allowed people to comment on my blog as Anons because I understood that there were some people who just could not afford their real identities to be blown. These people would leave intelligent and useful information, too. But in this cybertrooper and RedBeanArmy era, we have too many monkeys with fancy keyboards making use of the cover provided by Anonymous to spam your space. 

So, what I will do is I will stop publishing comments by Anonymous. I don't need to. In the space of a week (my last posting was Feb 2) my comment box has been inundated by hundreds - yes, hundreds! - of "Anons". I don't think that's being fair to me so I'm doing a Kadir Jasin on you Anons and I will tell you: Leave a nickname, a moniker, a pen name ... or don't leave a comment! 

Better still, leave your own real name when leaving comments. 

What are you afraid of?

Najib not a suspect in Swiss, Najib not involved in Altantuya. So how now?

KL Feb 2
So nice of the Swiss Attorney-General to make himself understood more clearly. It would have been nice if he had the foresight and had come out with a less ambiguous press statement earlier. Obviously, he did not realize that there are quite many Malaysians with low IQ, despite their high education and cushy professions. That was why when the Swiss issued his original statement, these people were jumped with joy. They believed the Swiss authorities were zeroing in on Najib Razak, our Prime Minister.

Because that's what they wanted to believe in. Pity.

Read Switzerland says Najib not a suspect



And so good also of Sirul to come out and say that Najib Razak had nothing to do with the murder of Altantuya. Of course we already knew that. The Courts had established that a long time ago. Only some people, because they wanted so badly to bring down Najib, the same people who wanted you to believe that the Swiss AG was coming for Najib, they wanted people to think that Najib was behind the murder.

Pity.

Najb Tidak Terlibat, sumpah Sirul