Pemilih Tanpa Parti Penentu Dalam PRU 2013

A Kadir Jasin

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PILIHAN raya bukanlah kompleks sangat. Mula mula-mula Parlimen dan Dewan-Dewan Undangan Negeri dibubarkan. Lepas itu Suruhanjaya Pilihan Raya (SPR) umumkan tarikh penamaan calon dan hari mengundi.

Yang susah ialah memilih parti atau calon untuk diundi. Itu pun bagi pemilih atas pagar dan pemilih baru saja. Bagi pemilih partisan, mereka sudah buat pilihan. Buruk baik, datang hujan atau matahari terik, mereka akan pangkah parti mereka sekalipun mereka tidak senang hati dengan pemimpin parti.

Ada yang taasub kepada parti kerana agama. Masih ramai penyokong PAS, contohnya, percaya iaitu ada kaitan antara akidah dengan mengundi parti itu. Bagi segelintir daripada mereka, mengundi PAS memisahkan antara syurga dan neraka.

Ada yang taasub kepada parti kerana bangsa dan nasionalisme. Banyak penyokong Umno yakin parti itu masih berpaksikan nasionalisme dan perjuangan orang Melayu walaupun ada di kalangan pemimpinnya yang berkata agenda Melayu sudah ketinggalan zaman manakala yang lain pula memperjuangkan keterangkuman (inclusiveness).

Ada yang taasub kepada kaum dan kepentingan kaum. Penyokong DAP, secara sedar atau separa sedar, menganggap parti itu sebagai parti orang Cina. Walaupun DAP memperkenalkan dirinya sebagai parti pelbagai kaum dan melandaskan perjuangan di atas konsep Malaysian Malaysia dan sosialisme namun kepemimpinan, keahlian dan orientasinya adalah Cina. Sejak awal-awal lagi, orang Melayu dan India sekadar biola kedua (second fiddle) dalam parti itu.

Sejak mencapai prestasi baik dalam PRU 2008, DAP nampak lebih ikhlas dan tekun untuk membawa masuk orang Melayu yang boleh memberikan wajah Malaysia kepada perjuangan, tetapi tidak begitu berjaya. Namun dalam PRU kali ini ia mungkin meletakkan lebih banyak calon Melayu-Bumiputera.

Ada juga pengundi yang taasub kepada watak seperti PKR yang berkisar di sekitar perwatakan Ketua Umumnya, Anwar Ibrahim. Tetapi unsur ketaasuban kepada pemimpin dan pemujaan kultus (cult worshiping) tidak terhad kepada PKR saja. Ciri yang serupa wujud dalam hampir semua parti, termasuk Umno, apabila ada pemimpin yang mengutamakan peribadi mereka daripada dasar dan perjuangan parti.

Dalam PAS ada beberapa watak kultus yang kuat pengaruhnya. Terulung adalah Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat yang pemujaan penyokong PAS terhadapnya sudah mencapai tahap taasub dan pemujaan kultus. Ciri yang serupa turut dipamerkan terhadap Lim Kit Siang (DAP) dan Abdul Taib Mahmud (Parti Bumiputera Bersatu Sarawak).

Faktor Pengundi Atas Pagar

Bagi pengundi tanpa parti dan atas pagar, membuat pilihan lebih rumit. Bilangan pengundi atas pagar dijangka lebih besar kali ini dengan bertambahnya bilangan pemilih baru.

Ramai pemilih baru, termasuk yang direkrut oleh parti-parti politik, tidak berparti. Selain pemilih baru, sebahagian penyokong Umno/BN yang berpaling tadah pada PRU 2008 mungkin kekal sebagai pengundi atas pagar.

Memperoleh undi pemilih baru ini lebih sukar kerana mereka belum biasa mengundi dan tidak terikat dengan mana-mana parti.

Mereka juga lebih sukar untuk dipengaruhi kerana majoriti tidak mengikuti media arus perdana atau tidak yakin kepada MAP. Kemungkinannya mereka lebih terdedah dan mempercayai media baru dan media alternatif.

Dalam konteks ini, penggunaan media baru berasaskan Internet adalah sangat penting. Siapa yang lebih meyakinkan atau lebih lantang akan mendapat perhatian. Tuduhan dan dakwaan yang tidak dijawab akan disimpulkan sebagai kebenaran. 

Aliran Pengundian PRU 2013 

Adalah tidak memeranjatkan kalau aliran berikut berlaku pada PRU 2013:-

1. Sebahagian penyokong Umno/BN yang merajuk pada PRU 2008 dan mengundi pembangkang akan kembali menyokong Umno/BN;

2. Yang masih berasa marah mungkin tidak akan keluar mengundi atau membuat undi protes dengan merosakkan kertas undi;

3. Umno/BN mungkin dibantu oleh ahli parti yang sebelum ini tidak mendaftar sebagai pemilih tetapi kini sudah didaftarkan dan oleh kegiatan memindahkan pengundi Melayu dari kerusi di mana BN tidak ada harapan menang ke kerusi di mana BN ada harapan merampas balik kerusi daripada pembangkang;

4. Majoriti pengundi baru bandar akan mengundi pembangkang manakala pengundi baru luar bandar akan mengundi BN; dan

5. Aliran pengundian akan mempamerkan ciri polarisasi kaum yang lebih buruk kerana kegiatan merekrut pemilih baru oleh parti-parti politik dibuat berasaskan perkiraan kaum. Wallahualam.

An Open Letter to 'Murderer' Bush

A Kadir Jasin

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LET us take a little time away from our preoccupation with our domestic politics and look at what a wrong choice of leader and voters’ apathy had done to America.

It is widely accepted by the Americans and the world that the Bush-Cheney Administration was the most evil in American history.

                                                     Bush and his 'lapdog' - The Guardian

These liars together with their neoconservative warmongers and their English lapdog, Tony Blair, had brought death, destruction and misery not only to the civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan but also to their own people.

While George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and Tony ‘the lapdog’ Blair continue to live the life of luxury, earning millions for making speeches and defending their lies on Iraq non-existence weapon of mass destruction (WMD), thousands of US and British war veterans are dying of injuries and going mad because of guilt.

                                            The Gang of Three: Bush, Cheney and Rice

On the event of 10^th anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq, a dying US veteran, Tomas Young (http://www.truthdig.com/dig/item/the_last_letter_20130318/), wrote a powerful open letter to ‘liar and murderer’ Bush and vice-president Cheney, accusing them of war crimes.

Young joined the U.S. Army two days after the Sept 11 2001 attack on New York and Washington DC. He was shot and paralyzed during an insurgent attack in Sadr City, Iraq in 2004, five days into his first deployment. He penned the letter from his Kansas City, Mo., home, where he's under hospice care.

                                                Young in his Kansas City Home

In the letter, Young also accused Bush and Cheney of  ‘plunder’ and ‘the murder of thousands of young Americans’.

Bush’s Egregious War Crimes

"I write this letter, my last letter, to you, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney," Young wrote.

“I wrote not because I think you grasp the terrible human and moral consequences of your lies, manipulation and thirst for wealth and power. I write this letter because, before my own death, I want to make it clear that I, and hundreds of thousands of my fellow veterans, along with millions of my fellow citizens, along with hundreds of millions more in Iraq and the Middle East, know fully who you are and what you have done. You may evade justice but in our eyes you are each guilty of egregious war crimes, of plunder and, finally, of murder, including the murder of thousands of young Americans—my fellow veterans—whose future you stole."

The 33-year-old, who was the subject of Phil Donahue's 2007 documentary "Body of War," continued:

“I joined the Army two days after the 9/11 attacks. I joined the Army because our country had been attacked. I wanted to strike back at those who had killed some 3,000 of my fellow citizens. I did not join the Army to go to Iraq, a country that had no part in the September 2001 attacks and did not pose a threat to its neighbors, much less to the United States. I did not join the Army to “liberate” Iraqis or to shut down mythical weapons-of-mass-destruction facilities or to implant what you cynically called “democracy” in Baghdad and the Middle East. I did not join the Army to rebuild Iraq, which at the time you told us could be paid for by Iraq’s oil revenues.”

Young believes he was injured fighting the wrong war:

“I would not be writing this letter if I had been wounded fighting in Afghanistan against those forces that carried out the attacks of 9/11. Had I been wounded there I would still be miserable because of my physical deterioration and imminent death, but I would at least have the comfort of knowing that my injuries were a consequence of my own decision to defend the country I love. I would not have to lie in my bed, my body filled with painkillers, my life ebbing away, and deal with the fact that hundreds of thousands of human beings, including children, including myself, were sacrificed by you for little more than the greed of oil companies, for your alliance with the oil sheiks in Saudi Arabia, and your insane visions of empire.”

"When Tomas Young saw President Bush on television speaking from the ruins of the Twin Towers, his life changed," his bio on the "Body of War" website reads. "As his basic training began at Ft. Hood, he assumed that he would be shipped off to Afghanistan where the terrorist camps were based, routing out Al Qaeda and Taliban warriors. But soon, Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq."

In an interview with Truthdig.com, Young—who suffered an anoxic brain injury in 2008—said he had been contemplating "conventional" suicide, but decided to go on hospice care, "stop feeding and fade away."

"This way, instead of committing the conventional suicide and I am out of the picture, people have a way to stop by or call and say their goodbyes," Young said. "I felt this was a fairer way to treat people than to just go out with a note."

Sadly, in the world where the bankrupt US is the sole superpower, only the lesser beings are charged and punished for crime against humanity. The likes of Bush, Cheney, Blair, Rice, Rumsfelt and Wolfowitz are free to continue their murderous lies in the lecture circuits and memoirs and are paid millions to do so. These are people to whom conscience has no or little meaning.

Sadder still, there are people in and outside our government and the Malaysians in general still look up to American leadership, past and present, for support and inspiration. They are either blind or morally challenged.

Johor Ahoy, Here Comes Lim Kit Siang

A Kadir Jasin

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AFTER successfully delivering a knocked-out blow to the Gerakan in Penang during the 2008 General Election, the DAP appears to be aiming its next killer kick at the MCA in the coming polls.

So confident is the party that it has chosen Johor, the Barisan Nasional’s bastion in the Peninsula, as the battleground. It is so sure of making an impact in the state that it is sending its supreme leader, Lim Kit Siang, to lead the charge.

Even so Lim is playing second fiddle to PAS, which over a year ago nominated its Johor-born vice president, Salahuddin Ayub, to lead the charge to conquer the state. Salahuddin is PAS MP for Kubang Krian, Kelantan. Should the Pakatan Rakyat succeed in the assault, Salahuddin will become the Menteri Besar.

Incidentally, the top MCA leaders are also jostling to contest in the state believing it is the safest place for them. The squabbling for seats among the MCA leaders could jeopardise the BN’s chances of defending the state.

The DAP national adviser, who is the MP for Ipoh Timur in Perak, will contest the Gelang Patah seat now held, with a comfortable majority, by the BN via the MCA. In the 2008 polls, MCA’s Tan Ah Eng won with a majority of 8, 851 over PKR’s Dr Zalina Mustafa after polling 33,630 votes. A tough call but Lim appears to be confident that he could wrest the seat.


The DAP will also contest Segamat, Kluang, Kulai, Tanjung Piai, Labis and Bakri.

Changing seats is Lim’s trademark and a survival strategy. He has been successful in the past and the planned move is a vote of supreme confidence that Johor is ready for change. He would not have made the decision unless he believes he has better than average chance of winning.

Since the 1969 GE – his first - Lim had won parliamentary seats in four states namely Malacca, Selangor, Penang and Perak. He has also been a member of the State Legislative Assembly in Malacca and Penang.

MCA the 2013 Target

After doing away with the Gerakan in Penang in the 2008 GE, it is only natural for the DAP to hunt down the MCA this time around.

Only by getting rid of the MCA could the DAP hope to consolidate the Chinese under its banner. The consolidation of Chinese votes under a single party, i.e. the DAP, will strengthen further the bargaining power of the community.

A solid block of 30 over percent Chinese votes is formidable given the fact that the Malay-Bumiputera votes are split three ways among Umno, PAS and PKR and a sizeable chunk of Indian votes is with the PR.

On the other hand, the concentration of Chinese votes under one party would worsen further the already acute racial polarisation in the political arena.

I have for decades been suggesting the possibility of Umno having to partner the DAP in the future in the manner that it partnered the Gerakan in Penang after the 1969 race riots.

DAP’S Presence In Johor

Although Johor is undoubtedly a BN bastion since the 1955 Federal Legislative Council election, the DAP has always had a presence in the state.

It had won several Chinese-dominated state and parliamentary seats and tended to do well under a maverick and Lim falls into this category.

The last maverick to stamp the DAP’s seal on Johor was Lee Kau of the Kluang fame. He was MP and state assemblyman for several terms.

Still it is a brave decision by Lim to move to Johor. The party won a solitary parliamentary seat – Bakri – out of 26 and four state seats out of 56 in the 2008 GE. Pas has two state seats and PKR none.

The objective is clear. The DAP will contest only in urban centers with large Chinese population where the BN is represented by the MCA as killing the MCA is its prime consideration for descending on Johor.

With Johor recording one of the highest number of young and first time voters, the DAP’s southward march may not be as foolish as it may appear to some and the BN should not be overly confident that Johor is an impenetrable.

In Came Tun Musa

A kadir Jasin

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NOT all economic, financial, monetary and fiscal measures proposed by the Pakatan Rakyat pact are sound or practical. Some could have undesirable effects on the well being of the country if implemented.

But these are promises and, like all election promises, they are not cast in stone. Even the Barisan Nasional had, over its long rule, amended and abolished some of its cherished policies and programmes.

That the BN leaders and supporters quickly lampooned and berated the PR economic agenda as set out in its 2013 General Election Manifesto is only to be expected.

Both the Prime Minister cum Finance Minister, Mohd Najib Abdul Razak, and (Tun) Dr Mahathir Mohamad, were reported as saying that the PR economic agenda was impractical and could bankrupt the country.

In his blog posting entitled ‘Change’, Dr Mahathir, among other things, wrote: “Five years for the (PKR de facto leader) Anwar (Ibrahim) or (PAS president Abdul) Hadi (Awang) -led opposition to govern is dangerous. Many things can be destroyed in five years. We have some experience in this.
"Already we see this person who claims to fight for free speech suing and resorting to the courts to shut the mouths of his critics. Other powers of the government will be similarly abused.
"Nepotism and cronyism will be employed as indeed they are in the party he now heads."

Musa Came to PR Defence

 

What is not expected is for the former Deputy Prime Minister, (Tun) Musa Hitam, to join the fray and contradict Mohd Najib’s and Dr Mahathir’s assertion.

In a March 13 report headlined ‘Pakatan regime won’t bankrupt nation, says Musa Hitam’, the Malaysian Insider news portal quoted him as saying, Malaysia would not become bankrupt if PR trumps the BN in the race for Putrajaya in the GE.

Knowing Musa-Anwar relationship, I believe the statement is less about endorsing Anwar and his People’s Pact than about resurrecting his long-drawn rivalry with Dr Mahathir. Although Musa was for five years – from 1981 to 1986 - Dr Mahathir’s deputy, there is little genuine respect between them.

So, with Dr Mahathir positioning himself as Mohd Najib’s ‘panglima’ (warrior) in the battle against Anwar in the GE, Musa is set to resume his diatribe against his former boss.

After resigning as Sime Darby’s chairman, Musa is free of all links with the government and, therefore, free to speak as he likes. Furthermore, Musa was appointed to the board of Sime Darby not by Mohd Najib but by (Tun) Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Rekindling Mahathir-Musa Rivalry

Ironically, Musa has little respect for Anwar. He saw Anwar’s rise as nothing more than his ability to butter up Dr Mahthir and hang on to the latter’s his coat tail. Musa’s luckless “Team B” considered Anwar as the wedge between them and Dr Mahathir.

Musa and his followers were highly critical of Anwar’s so-called ‘Abimnization” of Umno and the government, and they did not subscribe to Anwar-inspired inculcation of Ismalic values in the administration.

Musa attributed his ouster from the government to manipulation by Dr Mahathir’s inner circle, which included Anwar. When he eventually resigned as DPM and Home Affairs Minister in 1986, he cited irreconcilable differences with Dr Mahathir as the reason.

Musa had famously argued that the commissioning of the National Automobile Project (Proton) was a foolish move that ‘would bankrupt the country’.

(On a personal level, I must acknowledge that I owe Tun Musa a debt of gratitude for being a friend and a mentor on economic, political and social issues when he was Minister of Primary Industries and later as DPM.)

So Musa’s defence of PR is less about him believing in or supporting Anwar but more for his animosity towards Dr Mahathir and his reticence about Mohd Najib.

As for Dr Mahathir, his decision to be a BN campaigner in the coming GE, in particular for Umno, will heighten attacks on him by the PR and his former detractors in Umno. He could end up being the BN’s lighting rod.

And should the rekindling of old animosity between Musa and Dr Mahathir continues to gain momentum, the effects on Mohd Najib and the BN could be unfavourable as the case of the proverbial ‘gajah dengan gajah berperang, pelanduk mati terpijak’ could become a reality.

Pemerintah Ditimpa Bala Rakyat Kena Sama

A Kadir Jasin

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KRISIS pencerobohan ke atas Sabah oleh pengikut bersenjata sultan isytihar sendiri (self-proclaimed) Jamalul Kiram III dari Sulu, Filipina, masih belum selesai.

Kita terus berdoa agar masalah itu selesai segera dan tidak akan berulang lagi. Selepas ini, minta pemerintah keluarkan Kertas Putih mengenainya. Rakyat berhak mendapat penjelasan terperinci dan benar.

Kita ucap takziah kepada keluarga perajurit dan perwira kita yang gugur dan cedera. Kita berdoa mati mereka tidak sia-sia.

Dan kita yang tinggal dan selamat kerana perlindungan mereka hendaklah berfikir, mencari jawapan dan mengambil iktibar daripada kejadian itu.

Manalah tahu, boleh jadi ini amaran, bala dan balasan Tuhan terhadap benda-banda salah yang kita lakukan dan terhadap kealpaan kita.

Pada zaman pentadbiran (Tun) Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, saya bercakap dengan seorang bekas aktivis politik bahagian yang bertukar menjadi penerima kontrak raksasa kerajaan.

Saya katakan kepada beliau, kalau Allah Taala turunkan bala ke atas seorang pemimpin, semua orang di bawah naungannya akan turut ditimpa bala.

Antara Ubat Cacing dan Tangkal Azimat

Bagi orang Islam, tauhidnya adalah kepada Allah dan RasulNya. Kita boleh yakin dengan ubat cacing ramu (cacing kerawit) yang Loman atau Abdul Rahman jual, tetapi kita wajib percaya bahawa akhirnya Allah Taala yang menentukan kemujarabannya. Keupayaan kita hanyalah berusaha keras dan berdoa.

Tetapi seseorang Islam tidak boleh percaya kepada tangkal azimat yang dijual oleh seorang penjual ubat India yang seangkatan dengan Loman. Dia kerap berkongsi lokasi penjajaan di pekan sehari dengan Loman.

Saya kurang pasti namanya, tapi kalau tidak silap ada orang panggil dia Babu atau Babuji. Tapi kita hanya kenal dia sebagai India tangkal. Saya kurang pasti agamnya, tapi rasanya bukan Islam.

Babu atau Baboo, dalam kegunaan di India, adalah gelaran atau panggilan hormat kepada seorang lelaki. Kadang-kadang di hujungnya ditambah “ji” yang jaga panggilan hormat.

                        Wanita mandi air suci di Sungai Ganges, India

Babuji menjual tangkal azimat. Kata Babuji, sesiapa saja yang memakai tangkal buatannya akan jadi kuat, kebal dan digeruni.

Kelentong niaga (sales gimmick) Babuji ialah dengan menyuruh budak lelaki pembantunya masuk ke dalam selimut dengan memakai tangkal azimat Babuji. Babuji berlakon memengkal leher budak itu dengan pedang.

Dia kemudian memanggil nama budak itu. Apabila budak itu menyahut, dia bertanya: “Apa fasal tara putus?” Budak itu menjawab: “Tangkal!”

Maka berduyunlah Melayu yang mudah percaya kepada benda-benda ghaib, karut dan khurafat membeli dan memakai tangkal azimat Babuji itu.

Babuji Merentasi Zaman

Masa berlalu, tetapi zaman tidak semestinya berubah. Babuji boleh jadi sudah mati atau bersara, tetapi tangkal azimat, serapah-jampi dan air mantram masih ada kerana ada lagi orang yang percaya kepada sihir dan buat-buatan.

Seorang kawan Hindu saya di Brickfields memberitahu, mantram (atau mandram), mengikut amalan biasa, adalah serapah-jampi dan “ilmu” atau dalam bahasa Sanskrit disebut mantra atau dimelayukan menjadi mantera.

Katanya ada orang Hindu yang membuat mandram di atas kubur, di tepi busut atau di bawah pokok besar untuk meminta bermacam-macam benda.

Air mantram adalah air jampi agama Hindu. Kalau bagi orang Islam, air yang paling suci dan dihargai adalah air dari telaga Zam Zam di Makkah. Bagi orang Hindu mereka percaya kepada air mantram.

Orang Kristian pula mereka ada “holy water” iaitu air yang dijampi oleh paderi. Dalam sembahyang berjemaah orang Kristian, paderi akan menyuapkan biskut yang dicelup dalam “holy water” kepada jemaah.

Seorang bekas menteri Melayu memberitahu seorang wartawan Cina sebuah akhbar berbahasa Inggeris baru-baru ini yang ramai orang politik, tak kira parti, agama dan bangsa serta tanggungan mereka guna bomoh.

Cerita klasik dan tragik hubungan bomoh dengan orang politik ialah pembunuhan Ahli Dewan Undangan Pahang, Mazlan Idris, oleh bomoh kepercayaannya, Maznah Ismail aka Mona Fendy, pada tahun 1993.

                        Mona Fendy bomoh seksi kepercayaan Mazlan

Saya kenal baik Mazlan kerana beliau kerap datang ke pejabat saya di New Straits Times manakala Mona Fendey pula pernah dipromosikan oleh Berita Harian, akhbar yang pernah saya pimpin, apabila dia mengeluarkan album sulungnya.

Jadi, berwaspadalah jangan kerana serapah-jampi, mantera-mantram, kemenyan dan patung, tangkal azimat dan batu ajaib akidah terpesong, benda khurafat menjadi adat.

Bagi orang Islam, jumpa tok guru boleh. Tapi kalau tok guru silat, berjaga-jagalah sikit. Hatta tok guru agama pun kena tengok juga. Bukan semua dalam ilmu agama dan bukan semua berjuang kerana Allah semata-mata. Tok Kiai lagilah. Banyak di antara mereka yang lebih berunsur mistik daripada berlandaskan Islam. Wallahualam.

Sabah Incursion: Hang the Traitors

A Kadir Jasin

 

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CONDOLENCES to families and kin of the fallen and injured members of the police unit involved in battling the Filipino occupiers of Kampung Tanduo in Lahad Datu, Sabah. Alfatihah.

As has always been the case, when we send our policemen and soldiers into battle and are killed or injured, the chances are they are Melayus and Bumiputeras.

Perhaps there is wisdom in getting more Chinese and Indians to join the armed forces so that they too can die for one Malaysia.

Traitors Within

And if they are Malaysians, no matter how remote the chances are, who are involved in the invasion and occupation by the armed Filipinos in Sabah, we should hang these traitors by their necks and, to borrow a dialogue from the movie “Shanghai Noon”, until their feet stop kicking.

There have been rumours and rumblings that some Malaysian opposition politicians might or could have been involved or implicated in the cross-border transgression by the Filipinos.

Today, The Sunday Star newspaper published a report quoting a leading Manila daily, Philippines Daily Inquirer, as saying that Filipino intelligence sources had linked a Sabah politician, who is allied to a Malaysian opposition leader, as among “external factors” responsible for instigating heirs to the Sulu Sultanate to claim Sabah.

The Inquirer journalist, Nikko Dizon wrote that Manila was monitoring three groups described as 'external factors' behind the incident.

“These 'external factors' are one small faction that is in it for the money, an anti-Aquino administration group, and the Malaysian political opposition,” the daily's online website stated on Friday.

If the Philippines is monitoring these groups and our people are not, then I recommend that they too should also be hang until their feet stop kicking.

Taking Responsibility

Even as we speak, somebody in the Malaysian government should already be blamed and, if they are anak jantan, should accept responsibility, for the security lapse that allowed such a big group of well-armed people to land on our shores.

Whose responsibility is it to safeguard our territorial waters and our shores? The answer is the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Home Affairs. Aren’t the ministers of both ministries not Umno Vice Presidents and trusted allies of the Prime Minister?

If the Prime Minister hasn’t considered them as having failed in their very important jobs, then who should we blame – the mata-mata and the soldadu?

Personally, I believe the apparent “persecution” of the neutralized Filipino Muslims in the ongoing RCI hearing in Sabah could have also triggered the response by the armed Filipino group.

Whatever the case and the outcome of the standoff, hopefully not more bloody than it had already been, I think a White Paper is needed to see who had failed us and what steps to take to ensure that such an incident does not happen again.

And as for PKR's Tian Chua, I am appalled by his insensitivity and thoughtlessness. Saudara, apa dah jadi? There must be limits to politicking and hunger for power.