Monday, February 16, 2009

Addressing folks in Ipoh on situation in Perak

On Friday evening, at the kind invitation of twelve non-partisan civic organisations in Ipoh, I spoke to a spirited crowd of about 300 on the causes and consequences (including unintended consequences) of the coup in Perak. Folks in town were clearly still very furious; and I could strongly sense that even grandfathers, grandmothers and housewives have been incensed by the unconstitutional as well as anti-democratic ways whereby their elected government has been arbitrarily removed. The plotters of the coup obviously under-estimated the very powerful sense of self-respect, as well as honour and shame, of common souls. Seen in this light, the political upheaval resulting from the 2/06 coup in Perak is, by essence, a clash between two different value-systems.

Background of M' sian rulers' loss of immunity

18 Comments:

Blogger Roger said...

But what happen if BN assembly man and woman jump to Pakatan ?

Do we still condemn jumping ?

I do agree that Anwar should not lead Pakatan anymore

Perakians had been cheated by all politicians ( BN + Pakatan)

7:51 PM  
Blogger James Wong Wing-On said...

At the moment, I am more concerned with what has already happened, not "what if ? ".

7:58 PM  
Blogger James Wong Wing-On said...

Hannah Yeoh's analysis may help: http://hannahyeoh.blogspot.com/2009/02/mockery-of-our-democratic-institution.html

8:02 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Way to go Roger! "What if" is equally important as "What is". What if Anwar manage to get the numbers to defect? Then, a new UNDEMOCRATIC Federal Government is formed. Then, Malaysians will be cheated by the very people they trusted their vote with. The blame game will be played on and on by the political circus. We all know that people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. Whose to be blamed? Anwar? Najib? Kit Siang? Karpal? I blame politicians of both divides for bringing us to this state of disrepute now. We have lost our sense of direction with way too much politicking. Soon we will be the also runs in the world of competitiveness game.

11:54 PM  
Blogger James Wong Wing-On said...

To the real and productive people who want freehold land titles in Perak, the answer is very simple and concrete (not speculative):

1. After 2/06, they are now not sure whether they can obtain freehold land titles;

2. If Anwar's 9/16 succeeds, they know for sure they will get freehold land titles because the PR government had already been issuing them;

12:13 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

I can see the whole motive now! Land, land, land. Should all the land be alienated by the next GE there will be no more goodies to dish out..... very selfish pursuit of power. All of them, and I wish to reiterate, I'm blaming both the divides for using the nation's wealth as a means to one's own end. Why can't they think of how to harness our wealth to create more wealth for the nation instead of just dishing out the goodies?

12:37 AM  
Blogger Roger said...

You all missed my point.

Now we condemn Hee's jump-over. But we would have been celebrating if BN jump over to Pakatan.

What is our fundamental guildline about cross-over ?

Surely I am saying Anwar does not have any fundamental guildline.

12:42 AM  
Blogger James Wong Wing-On said...

Permata, correct me if I am wrong: you mus be one of those privileged ones who do not to worry about 'lowly' things of 'greedy people' like TOL, seurity of land tenure and how to earn a living by working or doing businesses with self-effort. So, it is very easy for you to be self-righteous.

12:49 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Far from it my dear James. Just read up both the political theory and political history and you will know what I mean. There are other ways of alleviating the people's predicament than just by putting food on their tables. Government is about facilitating not just feeding.

12:58 AM  
Blogger James Wong Wing-On said...

Giving freehold land titles to productive and working people (to grow vegetables, breed fish, ayam-itik, etc) so that they do not need to worry about the security of tenure is better than giving petty cash to voters/delegates during party, general or by-elections.

1:05 AM  
Blogger MikeLing said...

Dear Permata, May I suggest you read the book from Hernando De Soto about land reform and land titling and it's effect on the poor people. Cheers.

1:09 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

I'm not being self-righteous. We can argue till the cows come home but achieve nothing in return. I'm leaving you with your own thoughts....... Can't blame you, it's the political landscape that help shape one's mind.

Going back to my earlier concerns,I think we should all agree that this civil strife should be stifled otherwise the nation will suffer from an abnormal constriction and cease to exist.

This discourse is getting more interesting with Mike Ling bringing De Soto in. It's alright if it is associated with property that is already owned but to alienate what belongs to the state is simply incorrect. One might have been dwelling and working on the piece of land for ages, but we must see how he or she got there in the first place. We respect the rights of the legal owner to dispense with the property in a manner he or she sees fit and reap the economic rewards from them.

See ya, I've got a plane to catch.

God Bless Malaysia!

1:47 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Hi Roger, sorry we all missed the point here. I can't fly off without saying something about this. It's still about party hoping right? Well the truth of the matter is, someone is crying wolves although the entire idea of changing allegiance was first mooted by "you know who". Therefore if it works your way, well and fine. Otherwise it's unfair to the voters. See what I mean Roger?

2:05 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

james, tq for coming back to ipoh and boost our morale to fight the bxstxrds. take care.

2:19 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

testing

5:18 AM  
Blogger The Next ObaMa said...

Talk about morale???? When the people are suffering???? Come on, man!!!
You think jumping from BN to PR is dirty?
What about conspiracy of BN government?
What are you all thinking???
Sometimes, wrong decision maybe the best decision.
You wait 5 year, UMNO fatter with money after 5 year, people suffer more after 5 year.
End this BN fast, it is wrong, but ending the pain of people is right.
Just like killing, it is wrong to kill, but it is right to kill a killer to stop more death.
You all telling PR to wait the next general elction is like a hypocrite.

7:17 PM  
Blogger Dragonfly said...

I would love to vote for BN. To those who is in favor of BN for Malaysia, give me 3 reasons why I should vote for Najib to lead this country?

Note, Najib wasn't polite to me and my family once. He also pretended to be smart and asked our nation to "Ubah Cara Hidup".

BTW, do you always drive your car within the permitted speed limit? I wonder why.

5:50 AM  
Blogger The Next ObaMa said...

Dragonfly, I would like to ask you one question.
Would you trade your soul with devil for eternal life?
Same as voting for BN, would you want to trade the nation's sake with some little, dirty money?
You are just a non-matured, easily-fooled voter.
Even I, the non-voter (under age 21) knows that our nation will fall sooner and later if BN still holds the power...

12:33 AM  

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