Najib's Kangkung legacy...

On looking at Najib's reign as the Prime Minister of Malaysia, I'm reminded of the famous Chinese proverbs:"莫以恶小而为之，莫以善小而不为" (Do not because the harm is small and do it, do not because the deed is small and not do it).

Najib's administration are riddled with a lot of such small harms and done deals. For example, the practices of giving out government projects in closed door deals, the annual Auditor General Reports that is full of "things bought expensive" items, and the most recent round of the subsidies cut and the justification that follows:"The inflationary effects of these cuts are limited and the poor would not be affected much by it".

Here's the bad news, when small harms are accumulated over time, the harmful effect will no longer be small and limited. The pressure cooker have been building up pressure before the Kangkung catalyst, really.

Najib's policies are also riddled with a lot of small goods not done. For example, the buying over of Toll Concession from the Toll Concessionaires, the removal of AP for imported vehicles, the honoring of AFTA and opening up the local automotive market, and the neglected public transport systems because the government wanted to build a not so national car brand (Proton) this is all because the UMNO regime didn't or didn't have the ability to see the good these would bring to the country and its people.

Heck, Najib's administration is also riddled with some huge good but not done deals, example Taib Mahmud, Shahrizat Abdul Jalil's cow, and PKFZ, need I say more?

It is at times like this that would show the wisdom of Liu Bei's final words to his son.

Of 2014, Allah-banning and Kangkung

2014, it may well be just another year. There's nothing particularly special about 2014 unlike 2013 with the election fever in Malaysia or 2012 with the end-of-the-world frenzies.

But 2014 proved to be a special year for Malaysians.

First, the political drama of Allah-banning is being expanded from a printed circular: the Herald, to the Christians Church services. Now Christians are told that they can no longer recite their Malay Bible in their Sunday services, if the recital contain the word:"Allah". The situation quickly got worse with the raiding of the Bible Society Malaysia and the subsequence seizing of over 300 Bibles and detaining of the president of the said society.

All in all, 2014 will be remembered and etched into Malaysia history as a year started with a brutal assault on the freedom of religion of Christians.

Then, we have our local vegetable, the Kangkung being made famous world wide, courtesy of our Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak. At this age of Internet Social Media, where a faux pas would earned a country leader instance infamy, it is unfortunate for Datuk Seri Najib to be caught on video while making the kangkung blunder. He had, in essence, repeated history: From the infamous "Let them eat cake" of French origin to the much more ancient "Why don't they eat meat?" uttered by the Emperor Hui of Jin.

From another perspective, it is a fortunate turn of event for Malaysians on the street because the Kangkung has saved the day. The public attention is now being brought back to what really matters, our stomach. While Allah was used as a weapon to divide, the humble kangkung unifies. It resonate so well with all strata of the Malaysian society that everyone responded in unison and in one voice: cynicism. And that is how kangkung was introduced to the world.

I would not fault religious Malaysians from reading more into this with claims that Kangkung was a divine intervention trying to stop Malaysia from sliding down into the abyss of hatreds and chaos. The particular choice of the unifying tool: the humble kangkung does seem like the perfect divine choice against the mighty political apparatus of the government religious enforcement unit. But alas, I'm ahead of myself.

But it is ironic seeing how things have turned. The ruling regime had in fact created a very successful red herring that diverted the public attention from governance failures... then the kangkung strikes and now it was their leader that is in the cross-hair, yet again. And on top of it all, it was due to his own doing! Poetic justice?

Now is only the start of 2014, half way through the first month of the year, it seems we will have another roller coaster ride in 2014. If there weren't any serious consequences for Malaysia, I would really love to just sit back and enjoy the show. So, hang on tight my fellow Malaysians, rough ride ahead!

The Story of Brown Country, Episode 1: No, we have no rats, the rats are all opposition!

There was a serious rat problem in this Brown country. The populace have tried many methods to solve the problem, they tried rat-poison, rat-trap, rat-glue and even had run a RM1 one mouse campaign. All of these didn't work. There are still over-population of rats in their country. So, after much pressure from the people, the government of Brown country finally decided to seek the advice of an international consultant. Of course the consultant didn't come cheap, rumors have it that they have to pay Millions of RM to get this consultant's advice.

Anyway, the consultant came to the Brown country. After looking at the situation Brown country is in, the consultant concluded that the country have two options:
1) To run an image campaign to tell the people that the country didn't really have a rat problem. Everything is fine, there are no overrunning of rats in the country. There are no rats stealing people's food, there are no rats contaminating the water source, no rats biting off people's clothes, all these rats problems are political ploys of the oppositions. In fact, the rat problems are the doing of the oppositions. If the oppositions are all locked up in jail, then the country would no longer have any rats, because all the oppositions are the rats.

Without hearing the second options offered by the consultant, the government of Brown country jumped with joy and jubilation. "That is IT! That is what we would do!!" The PM of the Brown country government said.

So, that is what the government do. They run media campaign on newspaper, TV, and Radio, reporting that the rats are the oppositions. If the oppositions were gotten rid of there will be no rat in the country.

The people believed the government, so for 50 over years, the opposition in Brown country were the rats. Who, in their right mind would want a rat to run their country? So, in these 50 years, there were no hope for the opposition. For there were no one, whom would listen to the opposition. After all, who would listen to what a rat have to say?

Then the people started to realized that the rat problem has become worse, in fact, it's such a big problem that the people do not need to look for a rat to find a rat. The rats were so rampant and bold that they are parading in front of the people! As if to telling the people there are nothing you could do!

The people become enraged, they demanded that the government to do more to show some results in catching the rats.

Being a democratically elected government, the government of the Brown country have no choice but to do something, so they decided to form an Anti-Rat Agency (ARA). A special investigation agency with the power to investigate rats but have no power to prosecute rats. The power of prosecutions lies with the AG, the government explains, "But don't worry, the AG will prosecute based the finding of the investigation of ARA."

The people sigh with relieve, finally there is an institution to deal with rats.

For sometimes, rats are being caught, then the people realized something. All the rats that are caught are all small rats. The big ones always got away scot-free. So the people started asking the government:"Why is the big one always got away?"

The government assuring the people:"NO, that is not true, the ARA is independent, it doesn't matter if the rat is big or small, all will be investigated."

So, the ARA went to work, now they are investigating the big rat. Then the opposition making noises, "Why, is the ARA only investigating the big rats in Opposition? Why is it not investigate the bigger rats in the government?" Ask the opposition.

The government responded: "That is not true! The ARA is investigating all the rats be it big, small, governmental or from opposition!"

But the people sees what happened. They finally realized that the biggest rat in the country is the government! So, the people decided to send the government a big message. The people put more opposition into the parliament. Now, the opposition become stronger, much stronger than the government of the Brown country have ever experienced. The government suddenly realized that they need to do more to show the people that they are serious in tackling the rats problem.

So, the government reform the ARA in to BARC (Brown Anti-Rat Council). BARC will have more power than ARA, but still hold no prosecution power. The government also promised the people that with BARC, rats will have no place to hide.

True to the government's word, BARC was given a free hand to work. But only to target the opposition. BARC have gone further than ARA. BARC have gone to the extend to make rat out of a non-rat in the opposition. BARC in their pursuit of the opposition, oops! correction, rats. An opposition figure died in their office.

Suddenly, BARC is in deep trouble. People are now suspecting that BARC have committed a murder. BARC, together with the police, and the governmental pathologist have come out and desperately trying to tell the people that the man committed suicide. BARC have nothing to do with the man's death. But BARC couldn't afford a reasonable explanation how would a man choose to end his life the day before he was going to marry the love of his life.

Under intense pressure from the people, the government open up a coronal court to investigate the cause of death of the opposition figure in BARC office.

The coronal court session is still in progress, and it's anyone guess what would be the outcome. But the modus operandi of BARC remains the same: "There are no rats but those from the opposition."