HAPPY WESAK DAY!

TAHNIAH DAN TAKZIAH !

Saya mengucapkan tahniah kepada Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak diatas perlantikan beliau sebagai Perdana Menteri ke-enam Malaysia. Nampak nya, negara negara barat melihat upacara ini sebagai kembalinya era Mahathirism di-Malaysia dan hari ini juga mereka mengumumkan Malaysia sebagai salah satu dari 4 negara yang bermasaalah berkaitan kerahsian perbankan. Takziah di-ucapkan.

Congratulations and commiserations! No, my best "paint the town red" buddy is not getting married! This one is for Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak on his appointment as the sixth Prime Minister of Malaysia. My congratulations!

As if they intended to take a swipe at the return of Mahathirism, the west could not have timed this announcement better, at the G20 Summit, they declared Malaysia as one of the four rogue states as far as bank secrecy laws are concerned. My commiserations!

MAHATHIR

Hiya Guys...

Remember the acronymn MAHATHIR that came out sometime ago?
M - Make
A - Anwar
H - Homosexual
A - And
T - Then
H - Highlight
I - It
R - Repeatedly..

There is a new one now...
M - Must
A - Alaways
H - Hantam
A - Abdullah
T - Till
H - He
I - Is
R - Removed..

Good one eh?

Shut up! You're redundant.

CAMBRIDGE: Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad feels that Malaysia will continue to have race-based parties unless the people can think of themselves exclusively as Malaysians.

The former prime minister said the reality of the situation was that the people were still conscious and felt strongly about their race.

Those were the first two paragraphs of a report in today's "Star". The racist has spoken. Look at how he has cleverly directed the blame on the people. Sometimes I just wished that there was someone or something that can make this dangerous man go away! Somehow, in UMNO's giant scheme of things, they have found it necessary to instill race consciousness in our society, and they have certainly helped by making it compulsory for us to state our race in whatever government generated forms that we may have to fill out from time to time. So how can we be at fault? It was his racist regime that inculcated this practice! Instead of repeating what everyone else has articulated sometime or other, I would like to reproduce a poem (if you could call it that) I once wrote. Here it is.

The Man Who Could Do No Wrong?

He once ruled a nation of multiple ethnicities
In a climate of fear lived the minorities
An “A” student of British indoctrination
He divided and ruled the nation


In time, he retired, leaving a trail of injustices
All brought about by this doctor’s malpractices
For it was he who promulgated "ketuanan melayu"
And the nationalists said "Boo!"


He retired with an anointed successor
Who turned out to be a curse for his predecessor
Now he’s back as a prosecutor
Instigating his ‘once-nemesis’ to be the executioner

Shhhh...............

The Court's in session!

From the frying pan into the fire!

This is a follow up to yesterdays' piece about living dangerously! So the learned Works Minister has decided to lift the ban on hill slopes development, which effectively contradicts the Deputy Prime Minister's call to all local council to ban all hillside developments! Who's the Boss? Whoever the boss maybe, the Minister's statement was welcomed by the REHDA president. However, the Bukit Antarabangsa Residents Association chairman, Dr. Mohd. Rafick rightly pointed out that it is the lack of adequate laws on hillside development which is the issue. What the good doctor said maybe true but I am a pessimist. Even if we have adequate laws and guidelines on hillside development, the good doctor has forgotten that corruption in the government departments (I don't care if it is a BN administration or otherwise) IS a work culture!

As I know, land matters are the sole prerogative of the State government, therefore, no federal minister has any say on such matters. I salute the Selangor state government for taking a stand on this issue. They have decided that they shall not lift the ban in Selangor. On the contrary, the Penang DAP chairman said that "it would be disasterous to stop hillside development in the state". He also pleaded that the current administration should not be faulted as these projects were approved by the Gerakan administration. Well, if the PR government in Selangor can do it, why not the DAP in Penang?

ALL PENANGITES, LISTEN UP, AND LISTEN GOOD! The DAP man said that local councils would have to cough up a couple of hundred million as compensation to developers! I WISH I HEARD HIM WRONG! WHAT HE SAID CERTAINLY SOUNDED LIKE LOST LIVES AND PROPERTY OF THE ELECTORATE IS STILL CHEAPER THAN LOST DEVELOPMENT! GET THE DRIFT?

“We have taken measures such as issuing stop-work orders on some projects, sometimes even repeatedly, to ensure the developers complied with the guidelines,” he said. The Penang public is aware of these so-called stop work orders, but as I pointed out yesterday, the order may have been issued, but the blasting continues unabated. I hope what I have read in the media is his (Chow Kon Yeow's) personal view and not that of the DAP. He said it would be easier if the Federal Government imposed a blanket ban on all hillside projects. Spoken like an idiot, as an assemblyman, he should be aware that land matters are excluded from the purview of the federal government. See, that is the problem we get when we vote for some incompetent nincompoop fronting as candidates for the political party of our choice!

We deserve the government we put in office. Regrets? Anyone?

The Rape of Penang

Notice proximity of existing buildings
stop work order issued, blasting continues
protesters arguing their case


I suppose an apology is in order. Sorry for the extended inactivity on this blog. The hippie simply OD'd!

Well, a lot has happened over the last two months. There was Christmas, the New Year and recently, the Lunar New Year. In between all the celebration, there were also quite a bit of developments on the political front. Actually it was the political on goings that drove this hippie back to the commune, just to get away from it all. Things went so bad that I did not know how to get my message across without getting myself in trouble, so I decided to head back to the commune to re-live my youth!

The great Malaysian circus is on the road again, currently playing in Perak, with promotions being done in Kedah, Selangor and Penang. Never mind the circus, I shall not dwell on them. Today, I want to feature Gerakan's legacy of hill slope development to the people of Penang. After the 1991 Highland Towers debacle, the Federal government saw fit to introduce guidelines to all State governments to stop all development on Class IV hill slopes. The last State government, headed by this nerdy looking gentleman, ignored these guidelines and approved several such hill slope development projects. Not only that, he actually approved a couple of high rise developments in the city centre and thereby threatening our newly acquired Unesco Heritage status!

Repeated appeals by the Tanjung Bungah Residents Association seemed to have fallen on deaf ears. There was a ray of hope earlier when the current State government, headed by the DAP, actually issued a stop work order to one of these projects. Shortly after, probably a day or two later, work at site resumed. They continued their blasting of the hill slopes, which IS ongoing! Angry and frustrated, the members of the Residents Association organized a gathering to voice their displeasure. I am glad to inform readers that there were no incidents even though the PDRM was present! In fact the credit should actually go the PDRM because it was rare to see them so well behaved!

While the Tanjung Bungah residents gathered to protest, the Deputy Works Minister, Datuk Seri Mohd. Zin bin Mohamed, declared that in spite of controversies involving hill slope developments, there shall be no blanket ban on such projects. He offered a most bizarre explanation for the decision, claiming that a growing population and the scarcity of land has made it necessary!

Though many are blaming the past administration for approving these projects, I think the current administration's failure to effect the stop work order should be looked at! Was it lip service during the run up to the elections? The DAP assemblyman for Tanjung Bungah was present at the protest and he declared that as a backbencher there was only so much that he could do! Why do I find politicians from both sides of the divide more convincing before they are elected?

I hope something positive will come out of this exercise because there is a good chance that things might get ugly soon. I am saying so after speaking to an active member of the Residents Association. Apparently while putting up a banner to "SAVE THE HILLS" he was spotted by an employee of the contractor. The following day, all four of his car tires were punctured!