Gov't , people changing lifestyles differently

According to a report in the New Straits Times today, "it is estimated that 10 to 15 per cent of the 20,000 cabbies in the Klang Valley are civil servants" who have to moonlight "to make ends meet" (p.23). Meanwhile, PM Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has confirmed that his administration has "only leased" an executive jet worth millions "for the use of the government" in the process of denying that it is "purchased" for his own use "only".

Pak Lah smashes many more M'sian rice bowls

Wishing all Hindu friends and family relatives very happy Thaipusam.

A Merdeka salute to martyr S.A. Ganapathy

PAS: Umno's racial politics endangers nation

Indians and Indian cultural influence in China

My Indian neighbours in a hotel in Guangzhou

Buddha as an universal teacher of humankind

Strategic language(s) for effective activism

Peter Elphick's highly acclaimed historical analysis of the failure of the British defence of Peninsular Malaya and Sinapore in WWII, Singapore: The Pregnable Fortress is now published in the Chinese language by Singapore's Asiapac Books. The Forward of this Chinese edition is written by the President of Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Chua Thian Poh.

Telling a great Malayan story in Singapore

British Army WWII veteran defends Chin Peng

Media Masters' Regional/Military History

Has MCA changed since Tan Siew Sin's time ?

By continuing to actively campaign and securing Chinese votes for Umno in general and by-elections as in Batu Talam, the ranks and files of MCA in fact serve to legitimize Umno's ideology and policies that are detrimental to the struggle for true national unity as well as the honour and dignity of MCA itself. What has MCA changed in essence and its unequal relations with the Unmoputras as prevailed in the time of shameless capitulationists like Tan Siew Sin ?

History of Malay Left published in Mandarin

Glad to see that Dr. Mohamed Salleh Lamry's Gerakan Kiri Melayu Dalam Perjuangan Kemerdekaan (Bangi, Penerbit UKM, 2006) has been translated and published in the Chinese language. Dr. Mohamad Salleh is also the author of the posthumous biography of communist Kamarulzaman Teh, Gerakan Dan Tokoh Kiri - Kamarulzaman Teh Dalam Kancah Perjuangan Kemerdekaan (SIRD, Petaling Jaya, 2006).

Film on Malay Reds now screened in Germany

Rashid Maidin's memoirs now out in Mandarin

More reflections on Pak Zaman's biography

Posthumous biography of Kamarulzaman Teh

Alternative history of Merdeka for children

Exploring independence's image-reality gaps

Exploring other sides of Merdeka history ...

Assessing Tunku's controversial foreign policy

Communist Eng Ming Ching memoirs out now

Thursday's Chinese-language Oriental Daily published some salient points made by Dr. Collin Abraham in his latest book The Finest Hour: The Malaysian-CPM Peace Accord in Perspective (Kuala Lumpur, SIRD, 2006) as well as an interview with Said Zahari on the multiethnic participation in CPM's anti-colonial struggle.

Attending Australia Day 2007 cocktail party

Going to KL soon to attend the annual Australian Day reception and also to bid farewell to friend and High Commissioner, H.E James Wise. Happy Australian Day to mates here and over there.

Neither shocked nor awed by ' Karpal Singh '

As I have said earlier, I have no time to ascertain whether this DAP press release was actually written by Karpal Singh. I said that because some senior editors in the Chinese-language media told me that they feel that the emotion behind the language of the statement belong to either Lim Guan Eng or Lim Kit Siang and that Karpal Singh has not been known to be a writer of long and tightly structured press statements on politics. However, what is more important for me is whether what the writer (even if he is my own father) of the statement has written is right or otherwise: should DAP leaders and members ignore what is widely perceived in the normal society to be an utter lack of procedural justice and Machiavellianism in the removal of Ong Chee Keng as the party's chairman in Selangor? Does the DAP of Lim Kit Siang, Karpal Singh and Lim Guan Eng practise what it preaches?

How do I know if this DAP press statement is actually written by Karpal Singh or not? I have more important things to do in life.

Peter Zarrow's China in War and Revolution

Finally, I have finished reading historian Peter Zarrow's China in War and Revolution, 1895-1949 (London, Routledge, 2005) which impresses me as one of the relatively balanced and objective English-language discourses on China's modern history or China's history in the quest for modernity. However, it is very interpretative and a certain amount of background knowledge of the general Chinese history is helpful to follow Zarrow's reasonings and arguments.

Epoch-making Long March's 70th anniversary

New China's gratitute to Dr. Norman Bethune

Re-reading Edgar Snow's Red Star Over China

The frequent interruption of Internet connection in recent weeks is certainly very irritating. My most sincere apology to friends who may have needed my prompt replies to messages but could not get them. SMS could be an alternative for the moment if things are urgent.

Happy Australian Day to teachers and friends

HAPPY AUSTRALIAN DAY to all unforgettable teachers and friends.

Film on Malay Reds now screened in Germany

January 21, 2007 14:29 PM

World Premiere Of M'sian Documentary At Berlin Film Fest

By Manik Mehta

BERLIN, Jan 21 (Bernama) - The Berlinale 2007, Berlin's 37th film festival, will have the world premiere of Malaysian Amir Muhammad's "Apa Khabar Orang Kampung", a documentary film portraying village life in southern Thailand, home to retired Malaysian Muslim Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) members.

A special section at the festival dedicated to new aspiring young directors offers opportunities to new film directors not only from Germany but from across the globe to showcase their films, a spokesperson of Berlinale 2007 told Bernama.

Anyone attending the Berlinale's forum section in February can view a wide range of films from Bollywood productions to comparisons of political life in the United States and Japan.

The forum line-up will have 25 world premieres, including "Apa Khabar Orang Kampung", and 15 debut films.Like the Malaysian Amir Muhammad, there are also directors from other countries in Asia.

Bollywood happens to be a rich source of new film makers, many of whom aspire to showcase their films at international events such as the Berlinale.

While the films comprising the 37th Forum represent entries from 29 nations, the organisers have decided this year to focus on new filmmakers from the German-speaking world.

This includes Thomas Imbach's "I Was a Swiss Banker", an underwater fairytale from Switzerland, and Ann-Kristin Reyels' "Jagdhunde" (Hounds), a movie shot in the winter in the eastern German state of Brandenburg.

Other German-language films featured in the forum section include Stefan Schwietert's "Heimatkldnge," which portrays three artistes who develop traditional Swiss music in very different and unconventional ways.

Then, there is Ulrike Ottinger's portrait of Vienna's Prater, the oldest amusement park in the world.

And super-8 filmmaker Fred Poulet looks back at the 2006 World Cup soccer championships in Germany from the substitutes' bench in "Substitute".

As usual, the forum programme also screens its share of oddball movies such as Kevin Aduaka's Elvis Pelvis, a father-and-son story revolving around pop idols Elvis Presley and Jimi Hendrix.-- BERNAMA

2007 update on Chin Peng's homecoming case

Still searching for Marx in Faces of Courage ?

Rashid Maidin's memoirs now out in Mandarin

In memory of Kamarulzaman Teh, ani-fascist patriot

Salute anti-fascist martyrs, patriots of al races !

Communists celebrate Hari Raya Aidilfitri too

Suriani's Malay memoirs now out in Mandarin

Malaysia editor in plagiarism row

Nepal as role model of peace, reconciliation

Nepal, a smaller, poorer and less developed country, indeed sets a much better example or role model for peace and reconciliation.

Real values of honouring contracts, treaties

Invitation to chat with Sir David Frost on air

The Al Jazzera office in Kuala Lumpur has just confirmed its earlier invitation to me to appear on Sir David Frost's Global Conversation programme on coming Friday (19 Jan) evening. My old and good friend Hishammudin Rais has already appeared twice.

Five English cyber-spatial gateways to China

Just found my handphone which had somehow 'disappeared' since Sunday afternoon. It was left on the shoe rack outside the door of my house. Aiya, must go to Yu Yan Sang or Hai-O to buy traditional herbs for strengthening or revitalising the brain cells for memory.

Umno fans fielding 'independent' candidate ?

According to a malaysiakini news report, there is a speculation that Umno is allegedly ‘making arrangements’ to field an independent candidate so that the Batu Talam by-election can proceed. It is not illogical for that to happen because only when there is a contest, there is campaigning and only when there is campaigning, members and supporters of Umno and/or other BN component parties could cari makan as contractors or sub-contractors of mini-projects, advertising agents, writers and printers of propaganda materials, party's electoral office clerks, door-to-door campaigners, polling and counting agents, drivers of campaign vehicles as well as field suppliers of food and drink, etc. For them to field an 'independent' candidate to challenge their own party's official candidate could be a very lucrative business or profitable investment.

Opposition smashes BN supporters' rice bowls

The Opposition boycott of the Batu Talam by-election seems to have achieved more than it originally expected or calculated. Without contest, there is no campaigning and many ad hoc jobs and mini-projects planned and allocated for BN's supporters have to be re-negotiated, postponed or even cancelled consequently. Should those who have already been paid cash return their money to their paymasters even though no-contest is not their fault? It is really ironical to know that the financial well-beings of many BN supporters ultimately depend on whether the Opposition challenges their own 'beloved' parties or not in general or by-elections.

Pak Lah smashes many more M'sian rice bowls

Still searching for Marx in Faces of Courage ?

Are Zams still searching for any ideational traces of Marxism in Faces of Courage? Stop wasting time and public resources as there is none. I have read the book from cover to cover and line by line twice within two weeks last June. To access to the ideas of the millienium's greatest thinker, there are other less expensive and cumbersome gateways in the 21st century, like Marxists Internet Archive and Situs Kaum Marxist Indonesia, or official websites of the Communist Party of Australia, Communist Party of Britain, Communist Party of Canada, Communist Party of India (M) or Communist Party of USA.

Simon says UM needs critical thinking

The Brits did not divide and rule Malaya: Don

Khoo Khay Kim’s comments highly impressionistic

S'pore publisher seeks ministry nod for book

Today's Sun reports on the book Faces of Courage (Singapore, Media Masters, 2006) which is still officially disallowed from being imported to Malaysia from Singapore. The book, co-authored by veteran Australian journalists Ian Ward and Norma Miraflor, also includes a short essay by communist veteran Chin Peng paying tribute to Sybil Kathigasu, a Christisn Eurasian woman in Ipoh who was involved in the anti-fascist underground during the Occupation.

Sybil Kathigasu – new stories, same legend

Singapore's never banned Pak Said's memoirs

Heroine's book: Publisher 'challenges' local editors

Judging books by cover and a name ...

Heroine Kathigasu books seized by JB Customs

Another 'Chin Peng book' held up

Is MCA a ruling or opposition party? The answer seems to be that when there is credit to be claimed for popular government policies or measures, it is a ruling party but when policies and/or the 'delivery system' anger the people and there is buck to be passed (down or around), it speaks and behaves like the opposition outside the government or ministerial decision-making process or mechanism.

Colourful propaganda versus bleak reality

Are all the policies of the government really okay and it is only the 'delivery system' or implementation that is faulty? Or, could both policies and their 'delivery system' or implementation be equally and simultaneously objectionable? Some of my critical ideas are articulated in Poor policy delivery: A case of passing the buck published in malaysiakini (please subscribe) on 6 Jan (Sat).

Last month, Tourism Minister Tengku Adnan Mansor reportedly forewarned the Chinese media not to jeopardise government's effort to promote Visit Malaysia Year 2007. But, I really do not think Mr. Wayne Wright and Mr. Yahweh Passim as well as Mr. Randall Barnhart and his wife Carole read Chinese like Mr. Kevin Rudd. In any case, Malaysia is still lucky because Noh Omar is not our Tourism Minister. Now, he is just in charge of your dear children's education.

Chin Peng's legal application, based on the spirit and letters of the 1989 Malaysia-CPM Peace Accords, to return and settle in his homeland, is to be heard again on coming 6 February at the Kuala Lumpur High Court *. After nearly two years of delay and postponement, the defandants still have not filed any affidavits in opposition to the court yet.

* The actual date for the coming hearing at the Kuala Lumpur High Court is 6 Feb, NOT 2 Feb as appeared in the original news report. It was my typo. Minta maaf.

No judge available now for Chin Peng's cases

Chin Peng's cases postponed to 25 September

Chin Peng's homecoming case delayed again?

Another date set for Chin Peng's case hearing

Chin Peng sets court case deadline for gov't

'Emergency' or ' War of National Liberation' ?

In his Forward to Dr. Collin Abraham's book The Finest Hour - The Malaysia-CPM Peace Accord in Perspective, ex-PM Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad is, to a large extent, right when he says that hitherto most of the books on the 'Emergency' have been written by the British and "quite naturally their writings have been biased". Even those books which were written by local mainstream historians, including the truly honest ones, were heavily or one-sidedly based on English-language British intelligence sources or war propaganda or psychological warfare materials. Indeed, the very word 'Emergency' is itself self-serving one as the period could also be termed 'War of National Liberation' or ' Anti-Colonial War for Merdeka' by the other side of the Cold War divide. Of course, not all Brits were supporters of colonialism as the British communists and some liberals were also principled critics of British colonialism as the Japanese communists were consistent opponents of militarism in the 30s and 40s.

PAS: Communist party helped secure Merdeka

Rashid Maidin's memoirs now out in Mandarin

The memoirs of the late Rashid Maidin (1917-2006), which was originally written in Malay, has recently been published in Chinese and it is now available in all major Chinese bookshops. I have read part of it and found the translation to be accurate and faithful to the original text as the translator, who is also a veteran communist and comrade of Rashid, first learnt the Malay language from the author as early as 1955.

Recruited by martyr Toh Lung San to join the party as early as 1941 just before the Japanese invasion, the trilingual Rashid was probably the most well-known top leader of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM) after Chin Peng as both of them were the party's representatives to the 1955 Baling Peace Talk as well as signatories to the 1989 Malaysia-CPM Peace Accords. Rashid passed away as a proud and honourable communist on 1 September, 2006 (Friday) which was the 64th anniversary of the 9/1 Martyrs' Day.

A public tribute to Rashid Maidin (1917-2006)

A people's monument for Rashid Maidin in KL

Rashid Maidin's indestructible spirit honoured

Pak Said salutes friend, patriot Rashid Maidin

Farewell, salute to Pak Rashid !

Ex-PM Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad has issued a very strongly-worded statement condemning the execution of Saddam Hussein. Earlier, US President George W. Bush also issued a statement fully endorsing the controversial hanging of the former president of Iraq.

Tension accelerates in Iraq