Spanking the monkeys in TBH's Inquiry

“The lawyers representing them should have advised them against the withdrawal but it appears they did not act in the best interest of their clients."

- Associate Professor Dr Johan Shamsuddin of the Faculty of Law (University of Malaya) on the decision by the Teoh Beng Hock family to withdraw from participating in the RCI (just before the Selangor government also pulled out)

 

WATCH OUT, MONKEYS! Malaysia's early bloggers include one Dave Avran of Spanking DA Monkey, a gila-gila writer who poked fun at anything that could be spanked to bring a smile and laughter to his readers, yours truly included. These days, Dave Avran seems more circumspect. His latest posting on the "drama" preceding the Teoh Beng Hock's Royal Commission of Inquiry reflects the concern of a growing number of Malaysians about where it's really going

"Hopefully, the drama will cease and the RCI be allowed to do its job. It’s got the mandate from the King and it has to deliver answers to the public and media, to you and to me by April 2011.

Expect more spanking from this veteran blogger. Read his appetizer here.

Bolsover Revolution, against Taib Mahmud

DISCREDITING TAIB. A group calling itself Friends of Pakatan Rakyat will be hitting the Bolsover Street in London on 28 February (Monday) at 9 am in the hope of starting a revolution against Taib Mahmud, the chief minister of  Sarawak.

I received this e-mail today:-

On 26th March 2011, it will be 30 years since the Sarawak Chief Minister, Taib Mahmud, one of the most corrupt politicians of South-East Asia came to power. On the 28th February concerned Malaysians and friends would like to highlight Taib's personal responsibility for the chopping down of most of Sarawak's rainforests at the expense of the indigenous communities. We would also like to protest against the international community's inaction with regard to Taib's blatant corruption and his placement of assets worth millions of dollars in Western countries.

With the impending election, we aim to:
- discredit the Taib reign internationally as a corrupt kleptocracy that has earned its riches through logging and corruption.
- Pressure the authorities in Malaysia (Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission MACC) and western countries (Canada,USA, UK and Australia) to start investigations against the Taib family. 
- In England - assets of Ridgeford Properties Ltd, belonging to the Taib family, should be frozen. The serious fraud office (SFO) should determine if the Taib family financed the real estate swindler Archilleas Kallakis.

Lee and Nik, two long-serving leaders

The agenda is very straight-forward: help PR unseat BN in Sarawak. And the way to do it is to get very personal and by telling the people of Sarawak that they can stop being cowards and start being as brave as the people of Egypt. It is no secret that the Oppostion will be using Taib Mahmud's long tenure as CM of the state as a weapon to anger Sarawak's people. Selangor Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim, although embattled in his own state and party, set the ball rolling by telling Sarawakians to bring down their Chief Minister, read HERE.

Taib has to call for a state election by July this year.

ps Nik Aziz in Kelantan is the second longest-serving chief minister in Malaysia. He must be watching reformasi Bolsover with great interest.

"My friend Din Merican ..."

So Din Merican is JR Malott's friend and Malott is Din's friend. That's OK and that explains why Din Merican is putting his already-shortened neck at stake to defend Malott's rather awful piece on Malaysia, which has riled so many Malaysians. Din said Malott's intentions were good. That may be so, but as a former ambassador surely Malott is aware that good intentions are not good enough. You have to deliver them well. Din Merican has the benefit of being Malott's friend so he can say he knows where the man's coming from. The rest of us are not as lucky. But we do understand English.

The mainstream media's response to Malott has been quite sober, I must say. The New Straits Times produced articles by Azmi Anshar (Malott trying to distract us from Anwar's woes) and Shamsul Akmar (Get your facts right, Malott!), among others. These are not friends of Malott but professional journalists who exposed and discussed Malott's flawed assessments. No names-calling, as far as I remember. The Utusan Malaysia also came up with editorials to correct Malott's harsh description of Malaysia. Sometimes they are a little harsh, too, but not more harsh than Malott had been about us in his article, surely.

None of the writers in our mainstream media called Malott Anwar's pet as Rachel Motte did in her article, though. The NST and Utusan reproduced Motte's article simply because it would be of interest to read what an American blogger thought of it all, but that's now being used against them by both Din Merican.

I thought nobody read NST and Utusan anymore; guess I was wrong!

It's interesting to note that Rchel Motte's article has now been brought down by the New Ledger and I'm not sure if NST and Utusan are going to do the same. Malott seems to be putting the pressure on our papers with his threat of a legal suit, and Din Merican in his latest posting  Mainstream Media and Umno Bloggers seems to be providing Malott the justification to sue the Malaysian papers.

I don't think Din and Malott should get too worked up by the whole thing. It's not like the papers started it, too, y'know. When Malott wrote the offending article in Wall Street Journal, I'm sure he expected -- hope for -- some backlast. Let's continue with the debate and not resort to legal suits.

p.s And Aang Din Merican, please advise your friend lah. And also, I strongly urge you to take alternative-stream media Malaysiakini to one side, quietly, to set the record straight. They can't still bedescribing you as "a close associate of Anwar".

"According to Malott's latest article which appeared on Din Merican's, a close associate of Anwar, blog, he said that he is now contemplating legal action against both dailies."

The fact, as I know it, is Din Merican is no longer a close associate of Anwar Ibrahim. In his political ride, Din is now in "N" mode (that's "Neutral", not necessarily "Najib"). Yes, he used to be in "P" (for Pak Sheh aka Anwar) gear but that was another lifetime ago.

Maulud Nabi

 

Salallahu alahi wasalam. 
Today Muslims all over the world celebrate the birth of Prophet Muhammad.
Peace be upon him.
Peace be upon you.