Namewee Feeling How It Is To Be Anti-Malay

There was a time in Malaysian socio-political history when there was a label worse than 'racist' for a public figure, that label being 'anti-Malay'. This may seem strange for the younger generation of today, but being anti-Malay as recently as in the early 80's was seen as being shallow, viscous, ignorant and a threat to harmonious relations between all races in Malaysia.

Well, Namewee may be unhappy at having his film rubbished by those who haven't even seen it, but he has to accept this as a reality rather than rant on it. The reality is that someone writting for an established Malay mainstream daily has rubbished his movie due to it simply being directed by him. Why? Because they perceive him to be racist and 'un-1Malaysian'. But truth be told, Namewee's image is worse, as to many Malays, he is anti-Malay.

Namewee has come a long way since the day he published the Negarakuku, a sign-post of how a segment of ethnic chinese-Malaysian youths were and still are developing in terms of socio-political consciousness. Negarakuku showcased a lack of respect and culture as well as a complete ignorance of history, leading up to a feeling of angst and anger towards the Malay-led establishment in Malaysia. It was an outpouring of anti-Malay feelings

Ironically, Namewee was saved of being disowned completely by the nation by the MCA, the Barisan National (BN) government's Chinese component party that is typically rejected by the kind of youths Namewee represents. Namewee and his like typically reject the MCA as being the lackeys of the dominant United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) party in the BN coalition. Nevertheless, Namewee followed MCA's advice and apologised.

All Malaysians, generally having adopted the soft-hearted forgiving nature of Malays, chose to forgive, but did not forget. The tarnishing of national symbols, such as the national anthem, is not so easily forgotten. Strangely, or perhaps naturally, him being a media person, Namewee did not seem to want to be forgotten. Since being anti-Malay in the guise of ignorant honesty seemed to work before, Namewee caused further controversies over Youtube.

At the same time, Namewee worked hard to establish himself among the independent media elite of the country, cleverly leveraging on his notoriety and building on his 'simple' yet direct persona. These independents, having grown without too much government support, if at all, proved receptive to Namewee's entry to their circle, allowing him the opportunity to develop as a 'Malaysian' artiste separate from his racist of 'anti-Malay' persona on the web.

It is a shame that when confronted with Namewee's version of racist abuse, BN figures react with either the extremes of calling for his figurative head or embracing him with hope of making him 'understand'. Maybe these leaders are confused by Namewee's apologies for being ignorant and maybe accidentally sounding racist... but this is ridiculous of course! I believe Namewee knows exactly what he is doing - he admits to being a degree holding media man!

For me, Namewee has been a warning sign of there being a segment of disaffected chinese youths who reject the Malaysian Social Contract as they have been given little reason to respect it. However, that was before. Now, I see Namewee as a figure that is a danger to society as he has chosen to earn a living by being the embodiment of the anti-Malay in the public eye. And he dares do so as he believes he can always apologise to the soft-hearted.

Namewee's evolution to being a menace to society was re-affirmed to me when a senior MCA leader recently suggested to bloggers that Nasi Lemak 2.0, Namewee's film, is racist and anti-Malay. It would seem Namewee's former saviour, and despite its recent weaknesses, still the strongest champion of ethnic Chinese rights, the MCA, has disowned him, knowing him to be a danger to continued harmonious prosperity among Malaysians.

So Namewee. Grow up. Stop pretending. Don't even bother apologising. Accept that there are some of us Malaysians, not just Malays, have accepted the cultivated persona you have for what it is. You are a racist  and anti-Malay. Just be greatful the only thing we will (or rather won't) do is to your movie, which even without watching we are reassured is anti-Malay. Sit down and shut up you Racist Anti-Malay Icon.

Please note, this article DOES NOT encourage the watching of Nasi Lemak 2.0 as it is racist, anti-Malay (has to be coz of the director) and will likely be available as cetak rompak soon anyway!

Apabila Keikhlasan Perjuangan Orang Muda Disambut Kezaliman Yang Berkuasa

Pada waktu Maghrib, hari Jumaat, 23 September 2011, berlaku peristiwa hitam dalam sejarah pergerakkan belia dan hubungannya dengan pihak berkuasa. Seramai 20 ke 30 orang anggota polis telah menyerbu ke pejabat MAYC Kebangsaan di Wisma Belia untuk menangkap Setiausaha Agung MAYC, Ahmad Ansor Rivai Batubara kerana kononnya ceroboh berdasarkan kehadiran beliau di pejabat pada luar waktu pejabat.

Lebih mengecewakan lagi, tak puas mungkin kerana begitu ramai dikerah untuk menangkap seorang sahaja pemimpin belia, pihak polis juga mengambil keputusan untuk membawa juga ke balai, 3 orang pemimpin MAYC Wilayah Persekutuan yang kebetulan singgah sebentar ke pejabat untuk mengirimkan makanan untuk saudara Ansor, sekaligus menemani beliau makan. Alang-alang makan pun pemimpin belia boleh dicekup polis! HEBAT!

Tidak logik bila difikirkan bagaimana begitu ramai anggota polis, ada yang lengkap bersenjata api, boleh dihantar semata-mata untuk menangkap 4 pemimpin belia yang hanya sibuk makan di pejabat sendiri. Lebih hairan, anggota polis dipimpin oleh seorang pegawai yang begitu tinggi pangkatnya, ACP Wan Abdul Bari Wan Abdul Khalid, Ketua Polis DAERAH Brickfields! Malah pihak polis juga agak kabur tentang jenayah yang ditangani.

4 orang pemimpin belia ini, terdiri dari 3 orang lelaki dan seorang wanita, 3 Melayu dan seorang India, dibawa ke... bukan IPD, dibawa ke Balai Polis Brickfields saja untuk di 'soal-siasat'. Memandangkan 'Belia 4' ini tidak melakukan apa-apa kesalahan, difikirkan proses soal-siasat akan selesai sekelip mata, tetapi tidak! 3 orang Belia yang ditahan sementara makan, termasuklah yang wanita, dilepaskan hanya selepas 5-6 jam di balai!

Setidak-tidaknya, pemimpin MAYC Wilayah bertiga tersebut hanya berada di bilik temuramah selama sejam lebih seorang. Saudara Ansor pula, setelah masuk, tak keluar selain perlu dan kekal ditemuramah selama 6-7 jam tanpa henti! Ini bukan penyiasatan yang berhemah tetapi seakan-akan mendera. Sementara pemimpin belia wanita tersebut sesekali menalipon ke rumah menanyakan anak, apakah yang dicari-cari oleh polis yang menyiasat?

Rahsia di sebalik kejadian malam tersebut terbongkar apabila saudara Ansor dimaklumkan bahawa tekanan sedang diberikan kepada pegawai polis dari 'orang atas' untuk menahan beliau dan teman-teman. 'Orang atas' ini pula dibilang dari golongan pemimpin politik! Apabila ditanyakan siapa, ditunjukkan kepada Ansor yang Tuan Syed Rahman Tuan Kuning dan Zainal Fathodin, dua orang kuncu TS Syed Hamid Albar sedang cuba mengarah polis!

Sejak bilakah PDRM harus akur dengan arahan pemimpin politik, walau mantan menteri, apatah lagi kuncu-kuncunya, dalam menjalankan tugas? Tindakan polis menangkap serta melayan para pemimpin belia tersebut sebegitu rupa mungkin terlihat zalim, tetapi kezaliman tersebut menjadi-jadi bila kita difahamkan polis hanyalah senjata kekerasan yang digunakan untuk mengugut dan menakutkan pemimpin belia!

Pada hari Rabu lepas, 21 September 2011, kepimpinan MAYC yang diwakili saudara Ahmad Ansor Rivai Batubara telah memasuki pejabat MAYC Kebangsaan dengan niat menghidupkan kembali jentera yang seolah sudah reput sementara status MAYC Kebangsaan dalam pertikaian. Sdr Ansor berhak membuat demikian atas jawatan Setiausaha Agung MAYC Perak selain kedudukan beliau sebagai Setiausaha Agung Kebangsaan di bawah jurublog.

Usaha saudara Ansor telah disokong oleh para pemimpin Kelab Veteran MAYC Malaysia dan diransangkan lagi oleh nasihat seorang bekas Presiden MBM yang menegur dahulu yang organisasi belia adalah satu Pergerakkan. Oleh itu, syarat ia hidup adalah ia bergerak, bukan berpaut kepada undang-undang ataupun syarat. Kiranya belia BERGERAK maka ia hidup, tak kiralah pendapat mana-mana pihak berkuasa sekalipun.

Maka saudara Ansor BERGERAK untuk menghidupkan kembali pejabat MAYC Kebangsaan. Malangnya, sejurus beliau masuk pejabat, timbul penghalang berbentuk saudara Mustafa Mat Arof yang rupa-rupanya menghuni pejabat Presiden MAYC Kebangsaan pada masa itu. Mustafa tercabar apabila Ansor mengatakan beliau masuk pejabat untuk menghidupkannya, sekaligus menunjukkan betapa MAYC pejabat tersebut lesu walau Mustafa penghuninya.

Lebih buruk lagi, pihak polis telah dipanggil buat kali pertama pada siang itu juga! ACP Wan Bari pun hadir juga pada masa itu dan memutuskan kejadian yang dilaporkan bukanlah hasil jenayah, tetapi timbul kerana krisis dalaman. Namun, polis dipanggil lagi buat kali kedua pada siang 23 September 2011, sejurus sebelum sidang akhbar di mana saya menjelaskan niat kami mengambil alih Wisma Belia. Pada masa itu juga, tiada tindakan diambil.

Maka kenapakah perbezaan berlaku dengan kes malam 23 September 2011? Bagaimanakah ACP Wan Bari yang sebelum malam itu sudah pun memutuskan isu MAYC bukan isu jenayah tetapi krisis dalamam, boleh berubah fikiran sebegitu? Sahlah yang ada pengaruh politik yang memainkan peranan. Maka jenayah ada berlaku pada malam tersebut, tetapi jenayah tersebut bukanlah apa-apa yang dilakukan oleh 'Belia 4' yang ditangkap polis.

JENAYAH YANG BERLAKU ADALAH KEZALIMAN SALAH GUNA KUASA DAN PENGARUH OLEH SEORANG PEMIMPIN POLITIK MENGGUNAKAN KUASA POLIS UNTUK MENGUGUT SEKUMPULAN RAKYAT YANG TIDAK BERSALAH SELAIN MERUNSINGKAN RENCANANYA. JENAYAH ZALIM INI DILAKUKAN OLEH TAN SRI SYED HAMID SYED JAAFAR ALBAR PADA MALAM TERSEBUT KE ATAS 4 ORANG BELIA, TERMASUK SEORANG WANITA.

JENAYAH INI ADALAH YANG SAMA MENYEBABKAN DS ANWAR IBRAHIM DIPENJARAKAN SELAMA 6 TAHUN KERANA MENGUGUT UMMI HAFILDA, AZIZAN, DSB MENGGUNAKAN ANGGOTA POLIS. MAKA TAN SRI SYED HAMID ALBAR SEHARUSNYA DISIASAT DEMI DIHUKUM DEMIKIAN SEKIRANYA BERSALAH. INI ADALAH KEZALIMAN YANG TIDAK BOLEH DIBIARKAN MENULAR...

The Real Solution To The Telco Prepaid 6% Tax Problem

I have been observing the media reports, from msm news items, blog postings, even radio interviews of prepaid mobile customers about this issue. The thing that concerns me about this issue is that the telcos seem to have succeeded in playing the innocent corporate citizens here...

For me, the 6% increase in prepaid rates is just a scheme for telcos to increase profits from existing customers. They are already paying the 6% tax off existing sales, but since the prepaid business in Malaysia is so cut-throat competitive, the margin of profitability has probably become too slim to be sustainable. Sure enough, it is understood that Digi is the telco that has been pushing this hard, and it should come as no surprise that prepaid is its largest revenue stream!

OK, if the price of prepaid is now so low that telcos do not find it sufficiently profitable to stay in the prepaid business, what should it do? The natural options to me would be to:

1. Raise the price. Ah, but this is not an easy solution to make. A price rise may result in better unit profitability, but the loss in market share, especially with removal of non-price barriers like the ability to swap the same number between services, may be too painfull.


2. Cut the cost. May be a little harder to do even than raising the price. With each additional new technology on offer, the cost of delivery to customers increase. And some costs that appear easy to cut have real medium to long term implications. e.g. cutting promotions budget means reduced market share or slowing of growth whilst cutting training, a firm favourite among Finance and HR managers, will lead to reduced staff competency...


3. Leave the business... ya lah, dah not profitable enough to be sustainable, tutup kedai la, what else!

However, the telcos as an industry have actually decided to go for option 1 above, only newly improved with some spinning! Also, to ensure a successful outcome of option without the penalty of loss of market share, they have chosen to do it collectively, together, like a cartel - something illegal in many developed countries and soon to be illegal in Malaysia come January 2012!

On the spin, instead of saying they are increasing the price to make more profits, they decided to 'pass on the 6% tax' to the customers. Pass on the 6% tax? What nonsense! Such a statement only makes sense if prepaid mobile charges are subsidised, but they are not! Telcos are already make a profit after paying the 6% tax. All this talk of telcos 'absorbing the taxes' so far is a load of nonsense! Customers are paying the taxes already via the current prices...

So all this talk of 'passing on' the 6% tax is just spin that sounds better than telcos saying, we will increase prices by 6%! In fact, it even helps avoid clever customers, or worse still, bloggers, from sitting down and calculating how much % profitability telcos will gain from increasing prepaid prices by 6%! 'Passing on' taxes my foot, it is the dishonesty to customers that really gets me about this spin!

Then, the telcos choose to perform the increase collectively, like a cartel! Such activities are 'anti-competitive' or rather, against consumer interests! The last time I looked, the telco industry is not heavily regulated for price, hence the myriad offers in the marketplace, which is good for consumer choice. Such collective behaviour in an industry, even among a few major players, would be criminal in more developed economies.

In fact, if the telcos chose to do this early next year, they would be subject to criminal action under Malaysia's own anti-competition laws, due to be debated and ratified by Parliament in December, with the enforcement under the purview of the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism (MDTCC). Interestingly, the MDTCC Minister, DS Ismail Sabri, has already shown himself to be not only competent, but determined to champion consumer choice!

Could the telcos be moving now due to the threat of the coming anti-competition law curtailing such actions by early next year? If so, this 'passing on of taxes' disguising a 6% price increase collectively moved by the industry in criminally insidious! In fact, perhaps some of the telcos with foreign ownerships, such as Digi or even Celcom Axiata should worry about anti-competition laws being brought against them in other countries! It can be done!

Locally, such behaviour by the industry should not be tolerated. Perhaps the MDTCC should consider tabling the new anti-competition act to be retrospective in application for at least 6 months! this should help curtail further corporate evils of this sort against the rakyat!

Mat Sabu: Icon Of Corruption, Pakatan Rakyat Government Style...

There has been much talk of Mohamad 'Mat' Sabu's poor behaviour of late. As a person who has known of Mat Sabu's various inconsistencies over the years, I am actually a little surprised that there has been such shock regarding this behaviour. Perhaps it is time to scrutinise this 'new' icon of Pakatan rakyat politics... and this is where long time PAS members may feel uncomfortable, as to me, the present Mat Sabu is a creature born of Pakatan, not PAS ideals...

Let us do a broad sweep of Mat Sabu's various inconsistencies...

1. Mat Sabu the leader of Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (Sunnah) is a fan of the Syiah revolutionary politics of the Ayatollahs


2. Mat Sabu, the first national political leader of any party to imply DS Anwar Ibrahim had bisexual tendencies by calling him Anwar 'Al-Juburi' or Anwar 'of the arse' has since declared his devotion to Anwar as 'his' leader and 'friend' from since the 1970's.


3. Mat Sabu, the famous PAS leader was acquitted from the religious crime of being in 'close proximity' (khalwat) by the Kelantan Syariah court but later married the woman he was caught and accused committing khalwat with when she was soon divorced by her husband after the incident.


4. Mat Sabu, once so called champion of the people in the Kuala Kedah constituency when he was MP for the 1999-2004 term of Parliament, is now happily acting as Lim Guan Eng's agent to stop any attempt by Kedah state to apply water tariffs to its supply to Penang as an appointed member of the Penang Water Board.


5. Mat Sabu happily condemns the PAS government of Kedah and Kelantan of various misconduct but is silent of the management of DAP's Penang and PKR's selangor led governments but forgets that people know he is a beneficiary of salaries from both Penang and Selangor state agencies... all to do with Water.

Effectively, Mat Sabu is a new kind of Icon of Corruption that is being born by the Pakatan government. A creature that is salaried by PAS' coalition partners to keep PAS in line or rather in 'harmony' with the principles of its partners. Mat Sabu only ever became a contender to PAS Deputy Presidency in the Pakatan environment. PAS would have preferred a more learned man before, but PAS in Pakatan knows to win, they must have a Pakatan man for a leader.

In this regard, Mat Sabu is an ideal Pakatan man. He can be bought with salaried positions in Penang or Selangor state agencies. He is not a good Muslim, though is such a fiery speaker that PAS can't bear to part with him. His principles appear to be for sale, and if he is willing to embrace Iranian Shiite Revolutionary success due to its success, little wonder then that he could forgive Anwar 'Al-Juburi' for his preference if it will gain him power!

Little wonder then also that Mat Sabu would forget he was supposed to be not just a Muslim, but a Muslim leader, when he declared communist murderers to be fathers of our Merdeka.

The problem for PAS now is that, it is clearly now no longer a party of Islamic ideals, as its members appear willing to favour an inconsistent leader that is in the pocket of its coalition partners, just so they can please some coalition partners in pursuit of power. Mat Sabu hence now stands tall in the age of new PAS, a PAS led by Pakatan leaders, leaders of compromise for the sake of power, Mat Sabu... Icon of Corruption... Pakatn style...

The Merdeka That Never Was?

Last Wednesday was the 54th anniversary of our independece. One was expecting much fanfare as in previous years, but was grossly disappointed. It would seem the 2nd day of Hari Raya was of greater significance to MALAYSIANS, not saying Muslim Malaysians here but MALAYSIANS, as even the customary flurry of flags was absent or near enough as along the streets, skyline and even screens this year.

Read what you will of this phenomena, but I find it sad that a day for celebrating the birth of our nation was so easily forgotten due to a holiday, the second day of which even has little religious significance at that...; Muslims can even fast on the 2nd day of Syawal, the month after Ramadhan, as opposed to being forbidden to toil in celebration of the end of Ramadhan the day before. And even if the Muslims were busy, where was the fanfare by non-Muslim Malaysians?

Of course, the week long holiday these days is not enjoyed just by Muslims but also non-Muslims alike - note the traffic jams offering Muslim and non-Muslim driven cars especially to local tourist destinations! However, no reason for us to neglect our Merdeka day I think! In this regard, we fail still as a nation to exhibit our maturity through celebrating key parts of our nationhood as a nation should and must. Are we not Malaysians then after all?

In response to this need to 'fill the vacuum', MAYC Perak with support from my team at MAYC Kebangsaan and Perak state agencies will be holding a Merdeka Poetry Event at Menara Condong or the Leaning Tower of Teluk Intan on the evening of 10 September 2011. All are welcomed to join us and with much support and effort, may we attempt to inflame anew the spirit of Merdeka within us all, and with luck, inspiring along the rest of Malaysia as well...