National debt and the flippant answer by the pontian gnome.

1. I was listening to Ahmad Maslan explaining the reasons of our rising public debt. He attributed this mainly to our increasing our legal debt ceiling from 55% to 65%. We had to spend more because of covid.

2. Mind you, this is a man touted to have a high CGPA speaking. He spoke like an idiot.

3. Don't assume that a man speaking in a serious tone, a deputy ministerial tone, in a baritone tone, is s

4. In fact, he was lying at that short session, attributing the rise in public debt to natural calamities like covid. What next? Floods?

5. Then, ultimately blame God la because it's God who sends down the natural disasters.

6. Publish data then on how much we actually spent on covid and on other natural disasters. How much, did the sum of the spending on the 2 items, contribute to our public debt ? Ada berani?

7. I don't think a person who was fined RM 1 million and who received dirty 1MDB money and one accustomed to living with financial shenanigans under an umno government, will dare do that .

8. Spending on natural disasters do contribute to the rise in public debt. But I suspect the percentage increase in expenditure on natural disasters is not as high as overall public debt.

9. I don't have the data to go by, but let's do some intuitive imagining. Let's say, in 2013, the spending on natural disasters was x amount. In 2022, it's x+1 amount. Over the same period, public spending was y and y+1 amount.
Misuse of revenue, tax cuts tax relaxation lower tax revenue

10. Then we can calculate the percentage increase in x and y and compare the two.

11. Or we can compare the absolute increase in x and y and calculate what is the percentage of x of y.

12. Or to be more vigorous, we can run an econometric analysis to find which independent variables contribute to public spending, actually. Which variable is the culprit to our rising debt.

13. We can't assign major blame to natural calamities and disasters. They are beyond our control and as a responsible government we react accordingly and to spend. Spending on them is unavoidable.

14. As they are acts of nature, we can't treat them as a major determinant of public debt. They are, as Lim goh thong said of landslides in genting, 'ini tuan Alla punya kerja'.

15. Indeed, some natural calamities like floods occur with such regularity, that you can rationally expect them, rationally decide on them by setting aside budgets.

16. You are able to this because you learned from experience and makes rational decisions to solve it. Making rational decisions because you learned from past experiences is a gloss on the rational expectations in economic theory. You never learned anything from it means you are a real dungu.

17. COVID-19 is an anomaly and an abnormality. It is totally unpredictable. It doesn't occur with regularity, and you can't learn from it. You have to spend money in order to save lives.

18. Still, it remains for us to find out whether we, the people and the government got the money's worth from the financial outlay to combat COVID.

19. Some people may be scooping out of murky waters and placing fish traps in bottleneck conduits. God knows there are many sadists out there.

20. Perhaps the government may want to produce a white paper on how much was actually spent on covid and established whether there has been misuse in public revenue.

21. That brings us to what I think are the more serious causes of public debt. Misuse of public revenue, tax cuts, tax relaxations and reduction of tax revenues.

22. Publish, from 2013, the absolute values of all the direct negotiations. What is the proportion of these to our national debt? Are the PM and the Pontian gnome bold enough to do this?

23. The amount we forfeited as a result of direct-nego, represents the amount stolen from the people, had the various projects had been offered on open tender basis.

24. That kind of stealing deserves the severest of punishments. Let's see if PMX walks the walk. Will he punish these crooks?

25. It seems, misuse of public revenue is rampant. It's committed by prime ministers, ministers, immigration, coercive forces, members of the judiciach ry-heck nobody seemed insulated from the scourge. Misuse of public revenue is a catch-all term- it encompasses corruption, price fixing, theft etc.

26. Let me be clearer in my example. If we can save 11b from realigning the ECRL, doesn't it mean that 11b was intended to be sakau-ed?

27. Or the intended theft of 11b is ok because the name of the would be chief perpetrator is Ali babavum Najib, and they would be thirudargalum were probably UMNOPUTRAs?

28. Perhaps some turbaned Ustaz somewhere got a message from God, saying the 11b can be classified as sedekah and is therefore halal and kosher?

29. All these financial skulduggery makes it imperative for the PM to form financial oversight committees over a certain threshold at all the cost centres.

30. The application and commitment of public revenue is so important that they must not be decided by one person only such as head of GLCs, civil servants, ministers including finance or the PM. Decisions must be made by financial oversight committees.

31. These are being done la. Well, if financial misuse still happened, it means some members of the committees are complicit in the embezzlement.

32. Decisions by committees are time-consuming and may not be good for business. My answer to that is, if it means saving money for the country, it's worth doing.

33. Indeed, further safeguards to save as much money are needed. I would like to see the formation of overseeing audit committees above the financial committees. So we don't lose a billion to companies belonging to sons, sils and cronies.

34. I didn't hear the misuse of public revenue in this form being mentioned by the pontian gnome. Perhaps to a man accustomed to umnonization of public funds, this kind of embezzlement is normal.

35. Were any tax cuts and relaxations given to crony companies? I am not talking about the various tax concessions given to foreign investments. To selected crony companies like low budget airlines, port concessionaires etc. Publish these.

36. What's the amount of reduction in tax revenues from 2023 to now. These reflect the inadequacy of tax collection institutions such as the Ihdn, customs, immigrations etc. The collection from these institutions pale in comparison to tax evasions and illegal repatriations, for example. The tax evasion saga of the Najib family, for example, suggests that evasions by the rich and powerful are rampant.

37. Now, what safeguards will the PM put in place to stop these financial haemorrhages? Can he sing his way out of these?

38. Whatever is taken away from the people or denied from them, call them misuse of public revenue, direct nego, tax cuts, tax relaxations, tax evasions or illegal repatriations is theft, embezzlement, robbery, purloining etc. Theft by any other name is theft .

39. One final thing. By assigning blame to natural disasters, for example, indicates that this pontian hobbit is a dangerous person.

40. If he can callously and flippantly say that natural disasters are a principal cause of national debt, then he is likely to say that all the income transfers of the PM such as the various bantuan Sara hidup and EPF withdrawals are but populist initiatives. He is a double-edged sword, Mr PM.

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The speech from the house of God. Part 3 and final part .

1. How I wished the communications minister was quick enough to expand more and vigorously on the gist of the PM's speech . But he hasn't and this convinces me, that he wasn't alert.

2. It also tells me that perhaps the PM hasn't picked the right persons for certain ministries. And that is why i said that when the PM said he has a team of like-minded people, it was more an expression of hope rather than one of reality .

3. As regards the public service, we don't have people like an Ismail ali, a Zain azrai, a thong yaw haw, or even a navaratnam. What we have are passable joes who advanced because of connections, race and so on instead of merits and performance.

4. Once the principles of putting the best person on the job based on incorruptibility, excellence, ability and performance are abandoned and replaced by choices based on connection and race, the rot seeps in

5. Many years ago, when I was an adun in pahang, we attended a talk given by tan Sri navaratnam. He talked about his book, 'the winds of change '.

6. Naturally, he talked about the importance of having an excellent public service as a Sina qua non for a good, clean and efficient government . He waxed lyrical about having the best civil service during tun Razaks time .

7. So, I asked him a question. Would he agree that the deterioration in the quality of our civil service began with the indiscriminate bumiputra-ism policy? He was evasive and didn't take the bull by the horns. As was the politically right answer.

8. Operasi isi penuh was interpreted as filling all government posts with any tom, dick and Harry Malay.

9. But even more damaging than the mono racism intake, was the abandonment of the ethos of an excellent civil service based on incorruptibility, competition, excellence and dedication. That's when we started going to the dogs.

10. The theme of creating an excellent civil service wasn't enunciated clearly by PM X. It seems like Jack sparrow, he will make it up as he goes along. He hasn't got the germ of that idea .

11. The efforts to create an excellent civil service must include his own personal resolve and will to shape the ethos of the civil service. It must be one based on incorruptibility, excellence, diligence and service for the people. We found none .

12. We would have expected the shortsightedness and deficiencies of the PM would be made up by members of his 'team'. Unfortunately many of them are not quick on their feet .

13. Sure, we all agree that a clean government with good governance must be anti corruption, anti abuse of power and anti wastage and so on. First the PM must have the personal resolve and will. 2nd, he must have the instruments to do it .

14. Assuming the chief of the sprm is whole, the sprm should be given wider powers and answerable to parliament. Other justice and law enforcing institutions must be given full unobstructed powers .

15. We would by now realized that creating a clean government is not just flashing your chesire cat smile, eating briyani or eating at warungs or eating grilled fish at tangling. It requires more than refineness . It requires robustness and force

16. If we are mesmerized by all those superficial crap, then we are one generation removed of walking on all fours. Like lky says( he's talking about imprisoning people under Singapore's Isa) we are applying it to severely punishing the corrupt, taking action against these people, is like making love to a virgin. It's painful initially, but gets more pleasurable subsequently. His words, not mine ok.

17. The recent arrest of the segambut bersatu chief, meant that some corrupt civil servants conspired with the then equally greedy political leadership to swindle the country of some 93b covid funds .

18. Civil servants should work with the current political leadership to achieve it's overriding objective to secure an incorruptible government. The rotten apples in the civil service, no matter how high or from what ministry should be exited. Don't save them, save us from them .

19. It is not the business of public servants to make things difficult for the public. They cannot put up unnecessary red tapes to the business community as a pretext to get commissions. Their brief is to make it easy to set up businesses.

20. Similarly they don't make things difficult for the public at large. The public shouldn't be made to wait excessively too long to get service. I liked the story of the lady mp in India, whose main mission is to tear down red tape. The question she asks is, why should the public wait excessively to get service from public servants?

21. When a department is created and civil servants staffed it, there is purpose for that. The purpose is to serve the public promptly and efficiently. And not to expect temporal gratification.

22. You do your best because you are duty bound and serve for the sake of serving. This is the Lillah taala the PM spoke of. The Japanese have a word for it, ganbatte or ganbare. Doing your best is hotwired in the self.

23. The ' for a purpose ' function is illustrated by a story about the great lee Kuan yew.

24. He once went for a holiday at a government rest house by the sea, at Tanjung Pagar, I think. He pressed the desk bell many times. It didn't work and nobody attended to him.

25. The lesson here is this. The bell and the host were there for a purpose. The tools with which the civil servants have, must work and the civil servants must serve diligently. They are not there to decorate the office.

26. The presence of these civil servants at the mosque and listening to the speech by the PM that day, do not preclude them from behaving horrendously at their workplace.

27. Both the presence and listening are not a guarantee that civil servants will act virtuously and piously. The PM will still need to wield the big stick to punish errand civil servants.

28. The bipolar personality of the civil servants questions the brand of Islam that they practised.

29. If they uphold corruption, abuse of power and are wasteful with government resources and continue to behave in a Hobbesian manner, then their religiosity must be a warped and vulgar one .

30. Moreover, the mosque does not guarantee that whatever promises, resolutions they make, will be translated into virtuous behavior and acts of saintliness.

31. The mosque, a Muslim place of worship and other devotional acts, is as much a place where virtuous acts emanate, as well as a place where wickedness originate. The civil servants can make the Putrajaya mosque an Al Quba mosque or an Al Dirar mosque.

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The speech from the house of God. Part 2.

1. Pardon my ignorance, but here are some stupid and awkward questions.
Isn't a leave from the CJ necessary before sending the petition? If it's not necessary, then, 1001 convicted felons can also deluge the UN with their petitions. Then the chicken thieves, the people who stole milk, the rapists and the paedophiles can all send their petitions to the UN. Yahoo! Hooray!

2. Is intervention, and therefore interference by the UN, a new normal for us? Are we in a state of horrendous legal catastrophe that require a multinational UN legal force to police our behaviour?

3. isn't the sending of the petition a terrible indictment on our justice system? Ours is defective and the judges at the federal courts are idiots, is it? Mind you, all 3 levels of courts reached the same conclusion. It would require a celestial bolt of lightning to change the guilty verdict.

4. Here's the final question. Isn't the sending of the petition, the highest act of defiance, bordering on treason? We are willing to sacrifice our laws and substitute them with the laws of the UN? Big brother is going to watch over us. We are going to be an Orwellian society.

5. The 3rd development, which thumps the PM at his nose, was the arrest of the joker who is related to mahiadin's sil. He is alleged to mastermind a direct nego business deal of some 95b. That's scandalous.

6. We are glad that he was arrested by sprm. But what is the outcome? Is he going to be freed to enjoy his commission and as usual the scandal will be swept under the plush carpets in Putrajaya?

7. These developments will certainly test the PM's resolve. Luckily, as he said, he has a team that thinks likewise. The team also wants to clean up the mess.

8. Unfortunately, I think that is more an expression of hope rather than an expression of reality. These developments show some members of his team are not alert or are sleeping on the job.

9. The law minister was surprisingly silent on these developments. The home minister doesn't seem to know what to do , other than visiting here and there.

10. Najib is escorted to court like a VIP, in glass tinted cars and outriders. He is wearing Gucci or zegna 3 piece suits instead of prison garb and is not handcuffed. Lesser mortals will be subject to the usual prisoner sop.

11. So, the PM's claim that he is aided by a likewise thinking team is long in hope, but short in realty. Clearly some members of his team, who matter now, are mediocre and are of grade C eggs quality.

12. The new year Eve speech, and the munajat that followed suit, is significant for a number of reasons.

13. The speech was given in a mosque in Putrajaya. Meaning, it was directed chiefly at Malay Muslim civil servants.

14. Having to begin his speech by exhorting his audience that all efforts must be exerted to create a clean government to attract investments, is a telling point.

15. Let me address the issue of the elephant in the room and take the bull by the horns. Could it be that the Malay Muslim civil servants are the main culprits holding back efforts to create good governance?

16. They, with their Hobbesian mentality, undermined all efforts to create good governance. They opposed the creation of a clean government, free of corruption, abuse of power, wastage. Furthermore, they create all kind of problems to exact commissions, and they pooh-poohed distributive justice.

17. Before we discuss good governance and good government further, let us think of how to make Malaysia an attractive place to invest.

18. Unfortunately, the PM mentioned this en passant only. And as usual, the real sting of the whole speech is hidden behind the usual linguistic gobbledygook and argle- bargle of the speech.

19. To attract foreign investments, there must be excellent transportation and communications infrastructure. These were not spelt out clearly by the PM

20. The transportation infrastructure appears to be well-placed under the energetic and capable hands of Anthony Loke. The communications infrastructure require improvement and pragmatism.

21. Ignore the noises and the ass braying of the language nationalists. Make English the 2nd official language of business communication. Civil servants must be able to communicate in good English. Credit passes must be a must in their resume.

22. Wading through the phooey and hooey of the PM's rhetoric, the gist of his speech is as follows:-
23. To make Malaysia an attractive place to invest requires:-
*We must have an excellent civil service
* An excellent civil service must incorporate a number of characteristics.
* There must be distributive justice
* The civil service must be close to the ground.


24. But I doubt it if many in the audience realized that it behoves them to galvanize themselves into an excellent civil service. Instead, many of them are easily mesmerized by the PM's artful presentation of his speech.

25. They are accustomed to living with a mediocrity. They hold back efforts to make Malaysia an attractive place to invest by being what they are.

26. Which is a bunch of people comfortable being incompetent, non performers, layabouts, fond of luxury living through corruption, abuse of powers, pulling ranks, earning commissions and the like.

27. Perhaps they are like these sorry individuals as a result of an extreme interpretation of what bumiputraism is.

28. Bumiputra-ism to them means they are naturally entitled to. They are naturally entitled to being incompetent, entitled to being corrupt, entitled to abuse of power, right to waste, right to do as they pleased. They are entitled to all these precisely because they are BUMIPUTRA. When umno was in power, because they are BUMIPUTRA and UMNOPUTRA.

29. So now, they find themselves to be the subject of the PM's speech. However, the PM paid scant treatment of this aspect and thus lost a golden opportunity to drive home the point of what entails an excellent civil service.

30. I am sorry to say that the PM's speech wasn't as structured as we would like it to be. Meaning, not much thought was given to it, especially on the aspect of what it takes to create an excellent civil service.

31. But nevermind, as the Malay Muslim audience in the mosque,are easily mesmerized by the bombastic rhetoric of the PM. The hooray and yahoo crowd will insist that it was and is an excellent speech.

To be continued in part 3.

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The speech from the house of God. Part 1.

1. I listened to the PM's new year Eve speech a few times. I don't want to steal his thunder, but don't you think his speech was unfocused?

2. It sounded more like a speech suited for an election campaign. Long in form, but exasperatingly short in substance.

3. It's verbose, circuitous, circumlocutory without actually delivering the sting and thrust of his message. Just a little and peripheral of it.

4. The listener can be overwhelmed by the rhetoric, use of exotic linguistic terms, name-dropping (mohd natsir) and irrelevant Quranic verses (just as long they are Quranic)-that will do.

5. These will be enough for a crowd who believes you can be intelligent overnight by eating raisins and defeat a business rival by sprinkling soil from the cemetery at the business premises of the rival.

6. The heil mein führer crowd will of course lap up each dollop of his speech and pronounce it as revolutionary, earth-shattering and so on. Yahoo and hooray!

7. Like all his publicity stunts like publicised prayers at mosques or eating biriyani or eating at warungs, the speech at the Putrajaya mosque was well stage-managed and choreographed.

8. It may well project Anwar as a man of God, a holy man or a religious person. And what he said, in such a holy environment, is therefore sacrosanct.

9. But the transgressors, the corrupt, the abusers of power and the commission takers, know that Anwar is talking half-heartedly despite his orotund warnings.

10. If caught and convicted, they only have to return a portion of their ill-gotten gains. What about properties bought with the stolen money? Why only a portion? Why not all?

11. Like Thomas Hobbes who wrote leviathan said, what is the use of the law, if there is no one strong enough to enforce it?

12. Without someone or a body of persons powerful and strong enough to inflict severe punishment, the law is an ass.

13. In the absence of the capacity to inflict severe punishment, Pak sheikh, we would be better off eating pasembok or Mee sotong at Deen maju in Pulau Pening, sir

14. While I believed that humans are by nature good, emphatic, conscientious and humble, the same cannot be said about the ketua pengarahs, those helming the glcs and the little Napoleons in Putrajaya and elsewhere.

15. They are selfish and hope for personal gain. They are like Hobbes said, solitary, poor, nasty, short and brutish. They are full of hubris and self conceitedness.

16. They are solitary in the sense that only their opinions and judgments that matter. They have poor compassionate values. They are nasty because they want to always prevail over their fellow human beings. They have short memories. Probably what Anwar said went into the right ears and out the left. They are nasty, because they can't wait to find excuses to earn commissions.

17. Only the fear of severe punishment and fear of God will keep them in line. Anwar must be strict in punishment and not offer wishy-washy statement regarding this.

18. So why return only a portion of what have been stolen? They must be sent to jail, return everything and properties and assets bought with the stolen monies be confiscated. If they are politicians, ban them forever from politics. If they are government servants, no more employment for them. Make them march through the streets with placards admitting guilt

19. What's the use of all the corruption laws, if there is no one to impose the most severe of punishments? Despite the headmasterly warnings that there will be zero tolerance against corruption and so on, will the PM have the political will and resolve to stem corruption?

20. Will we see another round of just empty talk? During the 22 months when PH was solely in power, we didn't see any arrests nor convictions of the corrupt.

21. My own thinking is, if when it had absolute powers, PH didn't do anything, now in a coalition government which includes also the kleptocratic clique, it will likely not do anything.

22. As it is, issues about corruption seems to quieten down. Nobody appears to be talking about it. DAP, PKR, Amanah are surprisingly quiet about it

23. We don't hear anything about the LCS scandal, the howitzer canons, opvs, immigration scandals and so on. Yilek!

24. Publicised the name of the individuals involved in corruption. Make them wear dunce caps and placards saying I stole 600 m, 1b, 2b or 4b. Make them parade on a designated street of shame. There must be public shaming, just as there were public canings when we were at school.

25. I am glad, the PM spoke about giving the law and justice enforcing institutions absolute and full discretionary power to do their business. Why not for a start revamp sprm and make it answerable to parliament?

26. Barely a week into his speech, there were developments that trivialized and mocked the role of these institutions.

27. First, was the acquittal of shahrir samad for receiving 1 m of presumably 1MDB money. I am not capable of going into the legal arguments therewith, or the rules regarding proof and evidence and so on. My principal question is this. Did he receive tainted money or not? If yes, the prosecutorial team ought to direct their minds to this

28. The 2nd development was convict Najib sending a petition to the UN. To review his src conviction. In other words, to pull a fast one on the UN people who don't even know where Malaysia is.

29. We don't even know whether the UN has even received the petition, deliberated and decided on it, already some stupid website has proclaimed it's syukur, that at last with the intervention of the UN, bossku is free at once.

30. So intervention and interference by the busy body of the world, is the new normal for us? What are we? Half naked natives with our women jumping bare breasted? We think the UN will bring their brand of legal values and impose them on us?

31. The premature ejaculatory behavior of the Najib sponsored websites is like pouring the water from the tempayan upon hearing the ruffle of the thunder.

32. On the contrary, I think the thunderous and seemingly triumphant legal novelty, has only brought untold shame upon Malaysia.

To be continued in part 2.

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Zahidism and umno's love fest with DAP.

1. The news above made me laughed out loud and rolling on the floor. My reactions are reflected as follows.

2. What umno is about to do reminded me of a Lat cartoon. A son was showing off, to his father, his reading skills. The father sat nonchalantly on his chair and continued reading his newspaper.

3. Seeing this, the son suddenly said, Lim Kit Siang joins the MCA. The shocked father put down his newspaper and exclaimed what!

4. The umno plan is ridiculous as saying lim Kim Siang joining MCA. The truth value of the plan is on the same level as umno inviting superman hew speaking at the umno general assembly. Which is zero!

5. The umno plan has zero value. Nevertheless, let us analyse its absurdity and it's ramifications. This plan, confirms my belief that umno is led by dullard and idiotic leaders.

6. But first, let me congratulate PM Anwar. Congratulations! I must start calling him Dr Anwar Ibrahim. Dr mengele Anwar Ibrahim.

7. Under the roof of his big camp, he has managed to coral in all the mental retards at a party called umno.

8. All the czars of kleptocracy, suffering from all forms of mental disorders, schizophrenic individuals, sufferers of bipolar personality disorders, dissociative personality disorders are now under his big camp.

9. Ignore that the leader of the kleptocrats conceitedly claiming they obtained 6 ministerial posts despite winning only 30 seats and condescendingly mocking Dap for getting only 4 ministerial posts despite winning 40 seats, they are the real suckers, actually.

10. They are, because they are not aware they are being treated as enemies kept closer as compared to Amanah and dap who are friends, requiring to be kept close only. Keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer.

11. Before umno knows what hit it, it would already self-destruct. And the man expediting its inglorious demise is Dr Anwar mengele Ibrahim.

12. So let stupid Zaid gloat about having 6 ministerial posts, but like the frog, doesn't know it's being boiled alive.

13. DAP doesn't have to do anything but give Herr Zaid long enough rope to hang himself and open the trapdoor of the gallows.

14. The penchant of assigning blame to others is evidently clear. The current flavour is to blame Dr Mahathir for indoctrinating the umno and Malay masses. The usual habit of blaming the Chinese and in particular the DAP is temporarily shelved, to rear its ugly head later

15. Dr Mahathir may have been the grand vizard of Malaysian KKK, but was succeeded by grand vizards Ali babavum Najib and wak ponorogol himself. They didn't correct the derisory racial narrative, so they are severally liable for the villainy.

16. If the umno and Malay masses were gullible enough to accept the indoctrination which was continued under Najib and zahid, how else can we describe the 2 masses, other than as being dullards and racially receptive?

17. All of these people and similar thinking malays outside there are waiting for a miracle answer to explain away the causes of all their social ills. And the miracle answer as the main cause of their social ills, is demonic DAP

18. From demonic to angelic-that is a tough brief for umno. It would be interesting to hear bigots and umno rednecks such as Lokman Noor Adam, Herr zahid, the pontian gnome and fuad zarkashi spin fairy tales about DAPs transformation.

19. The umno mensheviks are using industrial detergents and chlorox to sanitize DAP, that really it's not the evil apparition that suddenly materializes in Malaysian politics.

20. The DAP is a legitimately a validly constituted political party, able to take part in Malaysian politics. It's articulating legitimate Chinese interests and speaking out against all social injustices. The malays shouldn't be fearful of the Chinese and DAP as a yellow horde going to overwhelm and infringe upon Malay precious rights

21. Umno will claim that it understands fighting for legitimate interests and is also against all social injustices. So really, there is no conflict between DAP and umno.

22. Unfortunately, things are as easy as that. Is that umno talking or Zahid's particular way of interpreting the current and contextual umno thinking?

23. Unrelenting and unreformable, umno is not going to abandon its tradition of demonising DAP. Hence, Zahid's newfound fetish with DAP, makes him a revisionist.

24. That makes Zahid's reinterpretation of umno history, is ephemeral and transient only. His interpretation gains currency because of the fact he is umno president for the time being and the fact his efforts are not going to be restricted by PH.

25. My advice to PH and in particular DAP, not to do anything. Just give Zahid enough rope and open the trapdoor of the gallows. Let Zahid play with himself.

26. It's going to be a sea change, retelling the traditional bedtime story that the DAP is not the fiendish tasmanian devil but a huggable cat.

27. The lie about Dap was started during tun Razaks time, continued by Hussein onn, accentuated by Mahathir. It's easy and convenient to blame Mahathir, as he was umno president for 22 years. He was, as Zahid says, largely responsible for indoctrinating the umno mind.

28. We must remember, though, that Dr Mahathir was succeeded by Abdullah badawi, Najib and Zahid. They did not do anything to correct the misrepresentation of DAP.which makes them guilty too.

29. Even mahiadin and Ismail sabri did not correct the lie about the grotesque description of DAP. They are guilty too. These people including zahid are guilty of perpetuating the lie. Zahid comes to the fore, with sullied hands.

30. Therefore, I am not sure zahid is the right person to revise the tradition. Like the Americans say, if you want to drain the swamp, you don't put the biggest alligator in charge.

31. Nevertheless, let us support Zahid for our own selfish strategic reasons. It's the method that gives us the best advantage. Let's kill umno with a borrowed knife.

32. Let's support Zahid and his revisionist ideas. We would be precipitating the disintegration of umno and the eventual demise of umno.

33. Let's allow him to blame Dr Mahathir or say this person did this or that person did that. Let's countenance his efforts and clap our hands for him.

34. He can't promote the idea that dap is not as evil as it looks, without also sniping at himself. We will find that he is a useful idiot after all.

35. But promoting the idea that DAP is not as evil as it looks, is not as damaging as destroying umnos axis of evil, which is the perception that DAP is anti-Malay, anti Islam and anti monarchy.

36. That's like snuffing the oxygen with which umno breaths. Zahid is ensuring that umno is surviving on an artificial breathing apparatus.

37. At every turn of an opportunity, at every PAU, that DAP represents the tripartite of evils, is the mantra that umno members must regurgitate.

38. Debunking these, zahid is destroying umnos Sina qua non, the essential lifeblood of its existence, it's raison detre, the reason for its existence, and it's weltanshaung, how it looks at the world.

39. The umno purists can only bray at the sidelines, they can't do anything, they are not the president. Venceremos! El presidente!

40.umno has reached its tipping point where it will not survive as Malaysia's KKK. It must adapt to political realities. Adapt or perish.

41.its love fest with DAP, must be supported. It marks the end of the old umno, and the birth of a new and tolerant umno.

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Image Building: Unsolicited Views from a Pretentious Image Consultant.

1. In 2019, frank dikotter wrote a book titled dictators. In the book, he outlined the steps taken to build a cult of personality.

2. The steps taken will usually and eventually lead to the creation of dictators.

3. The steps, if I may simplify, are as follows.
A. Wielding the big stick.
B. Image building.
C. Religious validation.

4. I disagree on 2 things. These steps are not intrinsicaly bad. Used positively, they can create a PM with unfettered powers to do the various reforms we badly need.
They do not necessarily lead to dictatorship if there are safeguards.

5. It all began, when the PM issued a headmasterly warning. That he will sack ministers and related personnel if they are corrupt.

6. That statement was a double-edged sword. It instils fear in ministers and public servants. But it gains appreciation, approval and approbation from the people.

7. But the statement is also ambiguous. It is unclear. Why wait until the damage has been done? Corruption has happened?

8. Authorized sprm or relevant bodies to investigate the person of interest's and his immediate family's account.

9. If the account has an extraordinary amount of money, ask him to explain. If he can't, that's prima facie evidence that he stole the money.

10. Don't just sack him. He must go to court. If convicted he must be jailed. The stolen money, every bit of it must be returned. All assets, chattels and moveable assets bought with the stolen money must be seized and returned

11. To carry out the order, we need an honest sprm.perhaps sprm now needs reforming, beginning with the head.

12. All these can be carried out, if we have a legally unfettered leader. The steps mentioned by dikotter, need not necessarily lead to the creation of a dictator. They are necessary to give unfettered powers to the pm.

13. There's a very thin line that divides a potential dictator and a powerful PM. That's why he needs to surround himself with the honest, the ablest and the most un-intimidated ministers to provide the political ballast to keep him on an even keel.

14. That's why I disagreed with the PM, when he included the kleptocratic people and the losers in the election into the cabinet.

15. In one passage, dikotter wrote that Louis 14 was a master at theatre. A great actor. All politicians need an image. The PM too.

16. The PM has assiduously created an image that he's one with the people. The refusal to take a salary, refusal of a Merc, the publicised Friday prayers and the folksy dressing. All designed to identify with the common people.

17. He may be someone acting. In real life he maybe some who likes playboy shades, driven around in a 7 series and likes LV loafers. He is an axe with an iron and wooden components. The iron component cuts and hurts you, but the wooden component got you convinced, he's one of you.

18. People may regard it as farcical and flatulent, but that image endears the PM to the people.

19. People are tired with the lordly image of previous PMs with unacceptable wealth. Anwar represent a breath of fresh air

20. In building up that image, the PM has help from various groups. Photographers, blog writers, cyber army and propaganda minister.

21. Sufficient to elicit smarmy exclamations from puerile websites shouting:-

22. Hooray, yahoo, ya Allah, amithoba,skanda, Vishnu, subrahmanya etc.

23. The last 3 I mentioned, are multi-headed Hindu gods. Therein lies the talent of the PM. The ability to talk different things to a different set of people. Hence, the multi heads.

24. Rather than being looked as something destructive and detrimental, the multi-headed persona is a political asset. It enhances his political longevity.

25. Thus, he's able to talk A to the Malay rednecks ,B to the Chinese, C to the indians, D towa others. To religious people, he's also a holy man.


26. Of course, the PM has to have his own talent. Chief of which is acting. Mussolini for example, regarded himself as Italy's greatest actor. Hitler, as mentioned by dikotter, regarded himself as Europe's greatest performer.

27. The PM can regard himself as MGR, Gemini ganesan, sivaji ganesan or Rajinikanth. Take your pick.

28. People around him must also act. They must exercise self-censorship, feigned obedience, smile on order, shout reformasi on cue etc. All designed to give an illusion of undivided support to the PM.

29. We have given such devotional support to people like Ali babavum Najib, abah cow, why can't we give to PM Anwar? He plans it better. He's got the smarts.

30. Finally, to give the money impression that he is genuinely love, he needs some religious validation. This, he recently, accomplished when he organized a congregation of Muslim ulamaks. Anwar is now a holy man.

31. It seems that Anwar has got all the components not to become a dictator, but a real powerful PM. He can now set about to execute his robust policies.

32. One, he has already done. That's the termination of all political appointees aka leeches in gls, glics, statutory bodies and the like. It is estimated the number can be as high as 17,000.

33. Other than serving as chairmen, directors and board members, they really are dead weights and totem poles.

34. Terminating these suckers, could save us rmbillions. That is part of the anti wastage election slogan PH promises us.

33. He must now tackle the bigger problems of corruption and abuse of power. People have not forgotten that during the 22 months in power, there were no arrests and high profile corruption cases tried. Amuse us with some Earth shaking arrests and trials.

34. The image, Anwar carves, is designed to make him a leader with legally unfettered powers. Do the next part.

35. Grudgingly, I have to say Anwar Ibrahim is our shrewdest PM after all.

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The Vote of Confidence. Much Ado about Nothing.

1. Was the confidence voting a gimmick and a prelude to a dictatorship?

2. As a rule any party with a questionable majority support of MPs, ought to subject itself to a vote of confidence.

3. Stronger reasons to do one if the government in question is composed of a coalition of parties. The support of these ought to be verified in parliament.

4. Hence, primarily, doing one isn't just a response of being challenged by a sceptical joe. More important, it's an action to affirm and validate a government's claim that it has the confidence of a majority of the MPs.

5. Therefore, (in our case) ignore the grumblings and grouses of a petulant mahiadin. The stronger and more important reason is to validate and to affirm majority support.

6. Doing a vote of confidence and ascertaining support in a physical presence is a surer way of validating support than reliance of SDs.

7. Our government is based on the support of the electorate and a manifestation of that support through the physical demonstration of it by MPs in parliament. Parliament is the appropriate venue to validate that support.

8. Our government must never be founded on the tenderizing of SDs. The fact that the king called each MP to ascertain his or her support, showed an implicit lack of 100% confidence in just a piece of paper.

9. It follows, therefore, a party leader relying on SDs only, ignores the wishes of the people and is arguably less trustworthy himself.

10. We didn't see a vote of confidence done by both mahiadin and Ismail sabri. I would be forgiven then into believing the 2 governments were the biggest scams done to Malaysians.

11. It's a moral imperative then to do a vote of confidence and not just a response to the challenge done by petulant mahiadin.
In politics, we are guided by both legal and moral principles. It's gimmicky only in saying it's a response to the challenge by sourpuss mahiadin.

12. Isn't it laughable to hear people saying the vote of confidence is a gimmick, not necessary, and we don't want to durhaka to the king and saying the submissive ampun tuanku?AFTER the MOA being signed by the Anwar government?

13. Why didn't these charlatans acknowledge that all this while, right from the beginning, Anwar had majority support and that the MOA is superfluous?

14. Instead, they want to belabour and caused stress to everyone by asking a vote of confidence. And when their plan backfired, say disingenuously it's a gimmick, not necessary and don't want to durhaka to the king?

15. It's just verbal semantics and like the uncivilized bung mokhtar said, FU.

16. Let's not overgeneralize the MOA as being a prelude to a dictatorship. I think that's a rushed and rash statement.

17. I think the statement saying it's a dictatorship was first made by mas ermiyatie and then parroted in parliament by Hamzah zainuddin. All the components to a dictatorship are not there, but they insisted on treating the MoA as a pivotal component. They are inviting us to believe that. That's an invitation we shall stoutly refuse.

18. In any case, would you want to establish a dictatorship by publicising the step you are taking? You would do everything by fiat.

19. Does the signing of SDs snuff out the freedom by MPs to say what their conscience dictate? The MOA have the same effects.

20. Rather than saying the MOA signifies lack of support, I would rather say it's just a step taken to fortify support. Just as much as an SD is.

21. If the MOA is regarded as odious, objectionable and unsavoury, the SDs must be similarly regarded

22. Now, the tales told by ermiyatie and Hamzah are really Macbethian in spirit. It's a tale told by idiots, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

23. Ermiyatie and Hamzah are not idiots, but their tales are idiotic.

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