ESTATE INDIANS' INHERENT RIGHT TO COMMUNAL PROPERTY!

Rocky in his post in rocky's bru Sunday, March 16, 2008, entitled Temple in Sime Darby estate demolished refers to an incident in one of the Sime Darby Estates of a temple demolition. Others have disputed that fact. I posted a series of questions in the commentary which I thought I shall post here for my own future reference more than anything else.

I am not going to bother about the veracity of it. However, there have obviously been many instances of temple demolitions on land that is supposedly private but which once was part of an estate.

Obviously there are always two sides to a coin. The position of the land owners may in the face of it seem right. Calling it "temple on private land" appears to be sufficient to appease the majority that the land owners have a rightful claim an that there is trespass to the property.

I would like to explore a different approach and I wonder if you might be of the same opinion as I that maybe it may not just be as simple as that after all. In a much earlier posting on the Malaysian Indian Dilemma I did try to explain. Maybe it was a little over the top.

I am proferring a set of questions that require some honest answers. Of course I am directing it all to Sime Darby, seeing that they are presently the largest owners and benefactors of decades of sacrifice and investment. But this can equally apply to any estate, large enough to warrant the support of a working community within the estate. You will need to go through all the questions before you begin to see the picture that I am attempting to paint here. So please bear with me.

So these are the pertinent questions for Sime Darby.

1. When was the temple built?

2.Who built or allowed the temple to be built ?

3. On whose land was it built?

4. Why was it necessary for the temple to be built?

5. Was/Is there a tamil school also built within the vicinity?

6. The housing provided, was it of the dormitory kind suitable for itinerant workers or was the housing provided cater for families to live in?

7. If housing was meant for workers and their families, a school was provided for the children of the workers and land was allocated for a temple to be built, how were all these facilities used and how was it relevant in the carrying on of the business of the estate?

8. If all these facilities that were provided and tolerated for so long by the owners despite them not being used nor relevant in the carrying on of the business of the estate, then why did Sime Darby find it necessary to misallocate company resources for non-business use?

9. Why does Sime Darby now demolish this temple?

10. Has the nature of the business of the estate been changed somewhat so that any need that might have existed prior to the demolition, now does not exist anymore?

11. How does provision of a primary tamil school, housing for a family, instead of the worker, and provision of a temple be wholly, exclusively and necessarily for the carrying on of the business of the estate?

12. If Sime Darby is unable to answer question 11 above satisfactorily, then Sime Darby is required to answer why then were these provided and tolerated for so long?

13. What is the economic life expectancy of a rubber tree that will make investment in the industry viable?

14. Can that life expectancy of the rubber tree be ensured using itinerant workers who may work from anything between 1-3 years.?

15. If not, why not?

16. Will Sime Darby agree that using itinerant workers will in most instances cause the premature expiry of the tree because of unskilled tapping?

17. Will Sime Darby agree that the rubber industry is only viable when permanent workers continue working, on average, their entire working life, in the estate?

18. Will Sime Darby agree that it needed to ensure constant replacement of retiring and dying tapping workers?

19. Will Sime Darby agree that because tapping needed to commence at dawn and workers needed to begin work while it was still dark, it was necessary that in any sizable estate housing was necessary to be provided so that it is almost equidistant to the four corners of the estate?

20. Will Sime Darby agree that it needed to provide all the necessary facilities and infrastructure within the estate so that workers can be the catalyst for the birth of a cummunity that can be relied upon to supply the needed skilled tree tapping staff as a matter of succession planning?

21. Will Sime Darby agree that to conduct a viable rubber estate business it was not only the workers which the estate needed, but its demographics and succession planning meant that alongside the cultivation of the rubber trees a community needed to be supported?

22. Will Sime Darby agree that marriage and copulation between workers of the opposite sex produced for them the assurance of replacement workers in n years time?

23. Will Sime Darby Agree that basic school and/or day care facilities were provided for only such purpose and such time that the children were of unemployable age?

24. Will Sime Darby agree that the tamil school provided in the estates enabled the parents to go on to work and government employed teachers were used to teach, with little hope of the children proceeding beyond primary education?

25. Will Sime Darby agree that this pool of children supplied the needed replacement that came about from the retirement, death or moving out of rubber tapping workers?

26. Were a mosque or a church ever considered to be provided to these workers? If not, why not?

27. Were the provision of the temple a necessary requisite in order to ensure the community that provided the skilled workforce and that assured the work force of the future in order that the economic life of the rubber trees can be prolonged for as long as is possible? Is there a correlation between the two?

28. Does Sime Darby agree that what it needed were workers, and yet it needed to sustain and support a community in order that it has a viable business model that will secure for itself the maximum earnings?

29. Has Sime Darby derived from each of its rubber estates the earnings that it had sought?

30. Does Sime Darby acknowledge that while supporting a community, it's employment arrangements were only with the individual workers and that those who were not workers, and yet part of the community, for example some spouses, children and non-working parents, were not compensated for the role they played in making possible and viable the business of the estate?

31. Will Sime Darby Agree that this community may have just an inherent right to not just the communal land but also all the facilities that include the housing, temple as well as the school and the small patch of garden and playing field that kept them immobile?

32. Will Sime Darby agree that the rubber industry has been screwing the workers and this community for the last 150 years?

33. Can Sime Darby explain why it provided transportation for the children of the chief clerks, the mandores and supervisors from the estate to the nearest English or Sekolah Bangsaan Schools often located several miles fromt eh estate?

34. Can Sime Darby explain why it did not provide the same opportunities for the children of the rubber tapping workers?

35. So how long does it have to take for a community to work for Sime Darby before they can earn and keep for themselves what was promised to them as a community as an enticement to stay and work for Sime Darby?

I get a feeling that if the various stakeholders were to go through these questions, a better formulae can be worked out to deal with the marginalised Indian situation with dignity and honour. I am not suggesting that Sime Darby or other estates set out to steal from or abuse or exploit the workers in the first instance. A lot of what was done may have not even been strategically thought out. Even if it was I wonder if documents can surface to show conspiracy.

Without having to feel the need to defend themselves. Or without having to read this from the point of one standing accused, or without reading this list of questions from the point of view of one who might feel exploited, I am hoping that understanding can be established. From there we can work towards a respectable solution for not just marginalised societies, but also temples and places of worship and community property.

BN's Track Vs BR's Rope

Its analysis time. Everyone is promising to, for the umpteenth time, going down to grass roots to find out what happened. The MCA has got its post mortem. MIC has got its. UMNO is still grapling over its analysis and post mortems. Bit of a laugh actually as they all seem still very much trapped in their own rigid make-up. They just cannot seem to look from out of the box.

I believe instead of going back to the roots, where they will not get any real answers, they, for the first time, should start reading blogs from, o.k. lets pity them a bit, about a year ago. All of our postings and comments are archived anyway, and the collective intelligence of the blogging community, comentators and the grass roots are expressed in so many ways and available freely to them.

For their election strategies as to what to tell the people, they should have relied on blogs to find out exactly what to say. But I guess all these very important people like the sound of their own voices better and preferred to rely on mainstream media.

As someone who supports the Barisan Rakyat and the Peoples' Parliament movement, indeed I like to thank mainstream media for helping heap so much rubbish on all of us in the weeks leading to the General Elections that the stink was just unbearable. Barisan Nasional's enemy No.1 was, is and continues to be Mainstream Media. This is one good reason to get rid of the Printing Press and Publications Act. They may, for once, tell the Barisan Nasional People the truth. As to the meaning of "truth", I advise they check up Wikipedia.

Now for my own interpretation of what happened.

What happened started over 50 years ago when the Alliance of UMNO, MCA and MIC was formed. They set themselves on the same starting point reaching out to a common destination.
But they set themselves on seperate lanes on a track with each going at their own pace like as if they were on an athletic's track.

They saw the nation and they continue to see the people like as if we still remain in our own lanes on that track and like as if it is ordained that each of our communities remain within our own assigned lanes on that track. Given that to be so, the formulations for leadership, governance, conduct of civil society was presupposed to support that track. The fact that they do not see any difference is further affirmed by the individual parties within the BN as well as collectively by the BN when they speak about reinventing or restructuring themselves.

Even now, when speaking of forming the cabinet, the over-rinding insistence is the make up of it with "representation" of the seperate communities predominating its formation.

My attitude is, if that is what they believe, then just do so and continue on that track and support it from the separated lanes that they all are running in. They are welcome to support that structure that has finally let them down.


What Happened on March 8, 2008!

For me, I guess my first experience of what was happening was when I was at the BERSIH Rally on the 10th November. The word I used to describe in a comment somewhere was, cohesion. This word is now used by Anwar Ibrahim himself to explain how it happened.

I warned UMNO then, and once again after HINDRAF's 25th November Rally. I warned that BERSIH was more potent than HINDRAF as those present at BERSIH experienced first hand the cohesion and the sense of elation stemming from it.

But I guess they were the ruling ones and it was their interpretation and definitions and labels that mattered. They actually believed it when the MSM ran with it as well. The MSM could have, but they failed to tell UMNO that they got their definitions wrong. They could have, but failed to tell UMNO that HINDRAF had nothing to do with terrorism. It really makes me wonder if some shenanigan within MSM was doing all this to purposely undermine UMNO and Barisan Nasional. But that is fine with me. After all they were taking me and the rest of us Malaysians down the tube anyway.

From Threads Weaved Into Ropes

Yes, we recognise that we were all on our own separate lanes bonded at our boundary lines. We were uncomfortable, most of us. However, maybe unknowingly to us, as this was surely not premeditated, we found ourselves to be like individual threads of different strengths, make-up, colour and orientation walking along the the lanes on the track laid out by the BN. Going towards the polling booth we began to cross over and weave together to form a rope of multi-coloured threads of different strengths and properties. We became one.

A multi-coloured rope is certainly stronger than the cumulative sum of the strengths of the individual thread. The colours weaving around one another accentuates its beauty more than when it was coiled around itself.

Maybe some in there are stronger than the other, but interleaved with the other and supporting the weaker, it gets even stronger, and in the meantime allowing the weaker to grow with it.

That is what we as a nation have become. That is what I see.


Politics of BN Vs Politics of BR


BN presents to you the politics of the athletic's race track with each of us in our own seperate lane. The only comfort is we are bonded at the boundary lines. All their promises for the future. All their promises of a restructuring. All their perspectives does not allow them to see anything beyond this race track.

BR shows you as multi-coloured threads walking together and then seamlessly merging and weaving to become a solid strong rope. In that rope you find the thread that you contributed now is stronger than when it was before getting weaved into that rope. As part of a rope you
imediately see your value increase over the value that you were when you were just a thread.

In that rope, you find your colour accentuated, shining bright against all the other colours and not only that, you bring out the best in the colour of the others too.


So I give you: BARISAN NASIONAL's You in your own lane on the race track

OR You may choose to be part of BARISAN RAKYAT's ROPE!

RM1 FOR MSM!

Mainstream Media forgot its charter and got guided completely by Joseph Goebels in the run up to the elections. Joseph Goebels would have been proud of the NST, The STar, The Sun, Berita Harian, Utusan Malaysia, Makkal Osai, Tamil Nesan, Nanban, RTM, TV3 NTV7, TV8 and 9 and what ever other means by which the BN got its story out.

MSM stole the show indeed in showing to the world how a propaganda machinery should be run. Obviously they will not apologise for their mistakes. Indeed they were even, I dare say, operating contrary to the linceses under which they operate. Which means news.

I have one suggestion. Of course this assumes that in 5 years BN will have lost out to Barisan Rakyat and Barisan Rakyat for a start will rule on a simple majority. Which means they can use the laws in place. Now employing these laws they can immediately cancel the licences of all these MSM as they would have failed the conditions of the license.

My recommendation is that the owners of these newspapers can be told that the license will be sold then for RM1 to anyone who proves that they indeed are more worthy as news publishers and broadcasters. That would be fair. The previous owners can hold on to their business premises and plant and machinery and employees and wait forever for a license or they can do a fire sale of evreything, lock, stock and barrel for, o.k. la, Give them RM2, for it to the new license holders.

The staff will not necessarily have to suffer. They will all be reemployed. Of course the champion ass lickers would have to go.

I think Malaysiakini ought to get ready for this occassion! no point starting a print newspaper now. Jsut wait, and they will get all of this on a fire sale!

OPEN INVITATION TO BN MPs & ADUNS

SELAMAT ERA BARU

This is an open invitation to all BN MPs and ADUNS

You are freely invited to leave and abandon the Barisan Party you are a member of to join any one of Party Keadilan Rakyat, Democratic Action Party or PAS (My apologies to PAS. I don't even know what your full name is).

This invitation has only one proviso. That you shed all traits, attributes and properties of the Barisan Nasional Party and its expectations of its members that you belong to. Cleanse yourself and then come in clean unconditionally. You have a lot more to lose sticking around as in 5 years your game will be over!

Why?

I would like to first of all appeal to your conscience since I believe that it only took you to suspend it in order to survive your membership with BN in the first place. So you still have it.

You know that it was fraud that had to take place with or without your acknowledge that you are an MP in the first place. Your continued silence only acquiesces that fraud. If I am mistaken here, I do apologise and I retract this statement.

The UMNO led government was all about perpetuating a myth in order that a few will benefit. You may also have benefitted although I do hope for your sake you are not one of those.

The UMNO led Barisan Nasional saw the nation as an athletic race track with each of us classified into our ethnic background slotted in each separate lane. We started the race about 50 years ago with a destination in sight. We are all at various distances along that length with some getting advantages like getting on a buggy to ride whereas others are still running or walking. Even after this massive defeat, they continue to talk like as if the nation remains on that athletic track, each on their own lane.

8th March 2008, the people saw themselves as thin threads of different colours and strength. But along the walk to the polling booth, they weaved together into a very strongly bonded rope. The rope being stronger than the sum of the strength of the individual threads. The interweaving colours giving colour and a shine and a light that gives far greater value to each and every thread in the rope than the individual value of the thread itself.

Yes, you are on that single lane in an athletic track. Whereas we are threads that have weaved into a multi-coloured rope.

Can't you see? You are like a thread moving along that lane. We are now a rope, on the other hand, and have taken over the entire track and there is but just one lane!

Join us and make the rope stronger yet.

Badawi, your so called leader, who has led you into this storm says he will still remain the Prime Minister BECAUSE he has the support of UMNO members.

Now, is he the Prime Minister of the nation or is he the prime minister of just UMNO members?

Yes he sees ardent supporters who will insist and cry if he even considers letting go. But look at these supporters and who exactly are they? Are they the UMNO war lords who most benefit financially from the perpetuation of UMNO's world?

You may think I am presumptious. That in 5 years all will return to being the same.

Just consider!!

You are being led by a guy who studied Islamic Civilisation or something. All of you basically cannot summon enough courage to stand up and talk to a bunch of bloggers let alone the new MPs and ADUNS you are going to confront. Just compare your qualifications, careers, ability to talk, debate and carry out a discourse. You will all be completely drowned out by even the youngest rookie. The only thing that will keep you going is Nazri standing up and pointing fingures shouting and sreaming angrily "Racist and Kekauman" 41 times. All I can say now is save yourself or forever be condemned as your kampung's idiot.

You cannot even write a decent sentence to save your lives. The rookies in Parliament and State Assemblies can, not only write legislations, they can also tear them apart when your Attorney General writes for you to present and that you basically will never understand anyway. After all you only read.

You promised your constituents that you will talk on their behalf. Oh really? Sothinathan and that other MIC guy got a whipping when they tried. So stop fooling yourselves. MCA guys are only trained ass lickers. At least Gerakan saw one or two who would speak. They probably got a away because they were not MIC. As UMNO MPs you basically need to only say sokong to everything and to scream and shout when the opposition member talks. Can you see how low down UMNO has led you to become? You can save yourself now! Do it before it is all over. History will treat you kindly.

Look at the people on the opposition bench. Take a hard look. In 5 years you will be there and they will be where you are. Why? Do I even have to say it? You just need to be a no brainer to be where you are. Just the lady MPs alone will eat you up for breakfast leaving no bones for the men who come a little later.

Its a new ERA. You can fight it or you can be part of it. Your call.

If you cannot make up your mind, do it for selfish reasons then.

Badawi will not last long. Najib has the best opportunity now to get rid of him to become your leader. But don't believe Tun Mahathir and think for one moment that Najib is going to be any better. In any case you are going to see only battles raging within UMNO. UMNO is basically finished. It will self implode.

Reason it for yourself. With all this infighting that UMNO is going to be in, this is inevitable. They will be ruining the country. Let them do the fighting while not running the country as well. If you guys got out now and joined any of PKR, DAP, or PAS, the Barisan Rakyat that has committed itself to the Peoples' Declaration issued by The Peoples' Parliament will at the very least be able to acquire a simple majority and take over the running of the country. The country can be saved from the next 5 years of hell that UMNO is going to lead us all into.

You may be comforting yourself that this tsunamic change in fortunes might have erupted out of an emotional response to any number of issues. That this is just a swing of the pendalum. Fact is there is frustration with the structures that have defined their lives and the strictures placed on them whether consciously or otherwise.

Your people may not be buying your stories any more. They may not be your stories, they could be other peoples' stories you have been made to repeat.

You may think that this is all about individual leaders who have overstayed their welcome. Is it really that simple?

There are possibly other more relevant reasons that others can add to this. I am going to stop here.

Once again BN MPs and ADUNs are invited to abandon their sinking ship to join the force that is moving the country to a new era. PKR, DAP, PAS.

Only 30 of you are needed to cross over. Who will be the first?

Once again SELAMAT ERA BARU

I AM NOT A MEMBER OF ANY POLITICAL PARTY AND NEVER WILL BE! (But then again, some people do remind me, never say never).

Badawi warns of Chaos and Instability!!

Election day finally arrives a little too early for me. Got up about 6.00 and with time on my hand decided to turn on the idiot box, to RTM2 infact and learnt a bit about my prostrate. But I couldn't take it anymore after a while when it got a little gross..like bladder filing up with urine and this guy being unable to piss it out. Almost felt like I was under that agony. Channel surfed for a bit and then decided to brush teeth and wash up. Logged on to see if there was any thing new before taking a shower and dressing up and venturing out into a new world, I hope!

Decided to treat myself to a breakfast, two thosais and my kopi si kosong. Had bought the NST before that. Opened up and on the first page, I see what I thought to be generous of the NST actually. They actually are acknowledging that its my call as to where Malaysia ought to go from here. They got hope yet, I thought, as it sounded like respect for me.

Now what do they have to say about scorpions? NST had to spoil it for themselves and become Joseph Goebels award winning propaganda machine that they really are and have been for a long time, that I believe they couldn't have known better.

At the bottom left corner of the page they had a quote from Abdullah Badawi. He says "You have to vote for our future... our children. What will happen if there is chaos and instability?

Hmm...what is that supposed to be? A threat? A reminder of possibilities we ought to fear?

At one look, without the backgrounders and the total Malaysian experience, it may seem to be a tame enough statement. No threat. No reminders to anything.

However, for a bum like me with an idle mind with nothing else to do, all that is needed are prompts like this to begin to expand on it. So if you care to indulge me, you may take a ride with my idle mind that wants to probe this further.

So whats it that being Malaysian does one assume of our psyhe and make up? We know that government means a Barisan Nasional government with the leader of UMNO as its head and Prime Minister. It just cannot be any other way. A BN government means, UMNO is in control and they will have their way with everything and anything and they are a law unto themselves.

Opposition means those DAP, PAS and Keadilan types who are basically the unwelcome spoilers at the party. They are supposed to be uncouthed, unshaven, belicose, loud mouthed who just only know how to oppose. And they don't wear a tie! And after all, that is their role and doing all that. Whereas the BN politicians are supposed to be gentlemanly, after all you cannot be a Datuk or a Datuk Seri and be all those descriptives that apply to opposition politicians. And the BN MP wears aBush Jacket or a tie and suit.

Now, the Barisan Nasiaonal that is supposed to be led by UMNO in equality, so they all like to claim, with the component parties are supposed to be the know it alls who so generously give off of their time and economic opportunities to serve the people. The opposition are just a hurdle to all that is meant for the best of the people. But you see, the Barisan Nasional only knows one thing. That it has to have not less than two-thirds of the seats in parliament and of every state assembly. Anything less is just too embarssing and unacceptable. Kelantan is just not acceptable to them.

Now once every 5 years or so, in trying to be in keeping with the constitution which they have amended something like 690 times over the last 50 years, more than 20 times the times that the American constitution has been amended in over 200 years, we have general elections.

Now here, is the dichotomy. With the power to amend the constitution anytime, and with the opposition so demonised as nothing but spoilers, one has to wonder why then have the opposition. Is it not so easy as to pass the necessary amendmends to the constitution and institute laws to ban the opposition and be just a one party state? Like China maybe! Yes be a dictatorship. Can be done so easily.

But no. obviously there is something else that these guys savour more. Its not about religion or respect for the laws and constitution surely. But then again Armani and all the other fashionable clothes don't exactly sit well on Dictators and their wives do they? A dictator flying in a RM200 million jet is looked upon as a scoundrel so much so he cannot actually fly the plane anywhere. But then you get off such a plane in your Armani suits as the Prime Minister of a democratic country, it kind of all fits nicely and you have respect too. You see scoundrels too want respect. To be a Gadaffi is a hard act to follow forever. Even he fell for the trappings finally.

So do you see why they leave a legitimate and controllable opposition seemingly wondering about freely? Gives them legitimacy and certainly makes them look good. You got to remember, at that level, they are seeking approval, respect and comaraderie from a different bunch of people from the ones you see at latte land!

So now, coming back to whats on the front page of the NST. Threat, promise or a warning?

A flippant look at that statement and being the everyday Malaysian the first thing that strikes you is that you see the chaos and instability and you picture in your head Lim Kit Siang and Karpal Singh leading it. You may even have in the distance the image of Anwar and maybe even Tok Nik Aziz. Its them that are supposed to be causing all this chaos and instability.

But stop. Put on your brakes.

That statment by Badawi is so that he makes sure he gets what he wants and needs. That is a two -third majority victory and better still if he can equal or better the 2004 performance.

So this statement is intended to stimulate you, or motivate you, or inspire you, or corner you or threaten you to vote BN or what?

Look at that statement carefully once again. " What will happen if there is chaos and instability?"

Now, that is not inspiring at all. Is it motivating? No! Is it stimulating? I am certainly not getting a hard on!

Is it inspiring a hope? Nope. Is it inspiring or prompting a fear? Now that is more like it!

If that is the case, is it carrying out the function of a threat? That sure bloody well is!

So, in otherwards Badawi issues a threat and I am supposed to respond to it and approach the polling booth in fear!

Bollocks to you Badawi. Bollocks to you.

So what Badawi is trying to suggest is that an "opposition" victory is a sure recipe for unmitigated disaster as there will be chaos and instability. Well, at least I am sure Chandra Muzaffar and a few others will certainly think so too.

And they expect that we are to stop at that and only view the "opposition" victory as chaos and instability in the same frame.

Now stop once again. There are more questions that need to be asked.

Who is going to cause the chaos and instability? Badawi ignominously leaves that out.

Now we know and can be sure that the "opposition" are indeed good losers. For 50 years they have been losing and they have not casued any problem. The only time the UMNO led coalition, Alliance then, came to losing their two-thirds majority, in 1969, UMNO and some of its leaders started the skirmishes that led to the infamous May 13 disaster. Of course for over 20 years they let us all believe that it was an opposition led or inspired strife.

Never mind. So if the BN gets its two-thirds majority, that will be alright and we will not have to worry about chaos and instability. The BN and Badawi are confident the "opposition" are good losers and know how to go back to their stables after a defeat. That is very complimentary and generous too.

What if the two-third majority is lost? What if the Barsan Nasional loses its simple majority and the "opposition" take over?

Chaos and instability! But how? Who causes it? The "opposition"?

Well yes! Except this time the opposition will be the BN led by Badawi himself. And he is promising that he and his Barisan Nasional will cause chaos and instability if they lost? Wow! woe be it if they lose. WE may have to start the new era with an Emergency!

Remember, with the present "opposition", i.e DAP, Keadilan and PAS in a victorious mood, they will be busy celebrating and will be busy trying to form the next government. Why would they want to cause chaos and instability and make life miserable for themselves?

So Badawi is basically saying that he and his buddies are basically bad losers and like very spoilt children, to keep them quiet and obedient, we should actually hand them a handsome victory! After that they will go to the loot at their whims and fancies as we are the ones who let them into the loot in the first place. Nice, very nice!

So Badawi is promising that if they lose, that is lose two-thirds or even worse, lose the simple majority, they are going to throw a tantrum! Have you seen what happens when an unrestrainable child throws a tantrum? And Badawi threatens that he is going to throw one if he loses!

So really what the BN wants is that we lie our lives in fear of them!!

Once again Badawi, bollocls to you!

GE 2008 -Dreaming Up Scenarios!

I am not a gambler. Neither am I a good investment consultant or advisor. Doing either requires one to postulate positions or events or situations in the near or distant future. That I hate doing because it means I might have to be committed to it. And I hate making commitments. And then I may have to also act on it. And that I hate very much as I'd rather procrastinate.

However, since we are in the General Election season, it is interesting to conjecture. There are so many scenarios out there and any one of them can happen of course. And some certainly will not happen. Like for instance I am rather certain Barisan Nasional will hold on to more than 50% of the seats contested for Parliament. Now, that is a bit of a relief, since by committing to that assumption I don't have to paint a scenario for what if they do only manage to get under 50% of the seats in Parliament. Hmm...I don't even want to contemplate that as much as I might be wishing it alongside my blogging mates out there.

So for the next outcome. Fair enough, there is a sizable number out there for whom anything less than a two-third victory for BN might constitute instability. What exactly they picture in their minds by that is a wonder though. Let me digress a bit and expand on this.

For some it would seem like as if there will be a collapse of the government itself especialy if the BN were to lose more than 50% of the seats. It would seem like as if suddenly all the various institutions of government will go into a seizure and just stop functioning. Hospitals will shut down. The police might be out of a job, (after all to many in the force their job is principally to ensure the ruling BN party and more importantly UMNO is protected at all cost; security vis a vis crime is just ancilliary). Schools will close, Government offices will shut and transportation will grind to a halt and anarchy will reign.

Somehow I cannot understand this. How is it that the BN has governed us for 50 years now and has not managed to make human beings out of us who might be trusted to know right from wrong and will be able to manage our affairs without their overseeing us? It would seem like as if like a herd of sheep or cattle we remain within our safe boundaries so long as the guard dogs are there. But the moment the guard dogs are taken away we go bersek and destroy ourselves.

But then again that is the picture that forms for many who rely on the Mainstream Media for all the information they need to make their opinions and decisions. If only they will allow themselves to indulge in a little thinking. If really such a thing was to happen and the BN actually lost, would it not be that the victors will be celebrating and quickly be working towards governing? So surely they will not be in any mood to be fighting. Certainly they don't want to rule over a fighting lot. So who really is going to cause any problem at all? Yes, that is right. It will be the losers surely. And as it is, they are the ones who are talking about instability because they know they are the ones who will instigate it and cause it too. So I guess, at this time it might just be better that we take note of that threat, because it is indeed a threat, and maybe not give them any reason to excercise that threat.

But then again, as I have already said earlier, that is not exactly a scnario that I will conjecture.

But as to what the next scene might be like it would actually be necessary to look at the personalities and issues that are the real moulders of decisions and actions within UMNO.

Lets cut straight to the chase. Fact is, we all think Khairy wants to be Prime Minister and he needs to get on board to head towards that direction while protector father-in-law is still ruling the roost. But we also know the Deputy Prime Minister, Najib Razak is targeting that position as well. If natural order of things prevail and the so called and much taunted "culture within UMNO" prevails, Najib will be the next PM.

But if Najib becomes the next PM, he knows he does not want lover boy Khairy up his ass all the time scheming and plotting. Najib's men will take over and Khairy might just be history. Khairy cannot allow for that.

General Elections in Malaysia are not just about who takes over parliament and how many seats BN has. It is also about how well BN has performed. And what happens if they don't perform well. Well, for this we got to go back to 1969 as that was the last time it was perceived that the then Alliance made up of UMNO, MCA and MIC supposedly did not do well although they barely got their two-thirds majority. But that was enough for some restless souls in UMNO to initiate what for a long time I had actually thought was racial riots caused by Chinese celebrations and their chiding of the Malays. Of course we all know better now that it was an UMNO grass-roots inspired turmoil perpertrated out of Dato Harun's house in Kampong Baru.

It was short, no doubt. But it did not take too long to displace the Prime Minister then, Tunku Abdul Rahman. Of course the beneficiary was Tun Razak. Najib's father. The point I am making here is that, really, all that was needed was at the GE the Alliance, and if now, BN, makes a poor showing and the wannabes in UMNO can use that as the excuse to purge the leadership.

Badawi, and indeed Khairy more so, need a resounding victory at the GE on the 8th March if they don't want to be purged out of UMNO. Anything like the 1969 victory is good enough to warrant a revolt in UMNO. Only problem is that they cannot use the 1969 solution. Racial riots. If BN does badly, it would be as much the Malays who voted against them as it would be the Chinese and the Indians. Indeed, reading the blogs and listening to some of the ceramahs, it would seem like the Malays are more committed and intense in their despise for BN than the Chinese or the Indians.

Coming back to my conjecture or prediction. I reckon BN, by their measure, would do badly. They may just scrape through and hold their most sacred two-thirds. Or they may just lose that precious two-thirds. In any other country the winning party would be only too pleased and celebrating. But for BN and more so, UMNO, this is just unconscionable! Just unthinkable! Just unacceptable! Ther eia a major losss of face and someone has to go. Obviously, it would have to be Badawi and all those closely identified with him.

But then again we saw how the UMNO leaders behave and what their loyalties are all worth. Remember how they all abandoned Mahathir? Worse than Judas I would say. Rafidah, the crying baby who ran up the stage crying when Mahathir announced he was quitting UMNO, and hardly two years later, she chastises him. I suppose they do't even send each other Hari Raya cards anymore.

Well, that is what I reckon we would see. We would see how, like clock work they would all move about like chess pieces to the side of the perceived champion. Its easy for everyone up there in UMNO. But not so easy with Khairy. He is Son-in-Law after all. Also he certainly has burnt many bridges with most others and especially Najib. But then again he can be a chameleon. After all Badawi is only a father-in-law. And what the hell if she want to go, go lah...That Maya whatever her name is is still around isn't it? Ah, well, conjecturing after all, so let me risk it. I think Najib will dump Khairy at this point.

Yes, this GE might just see the demise of Badawi's administration and of course that is good for the country. We can bid Khairy adeu.

But achieving this is another thing altogether. In 1969, Harun did the May 13. For over 20 years most of us believed the official story line and the Chinese took a greater blame for it.

But unlike May 13, we now have had stuff like the BERSIH rally on 10 November and HINDRAF rally of Nov 25th. You now also see some HINDRAF boys carrying PAS flags and supporting PAS and you also see PAS guys supporting Chinese candidates. There is cohesion and no one believes the other wants to wreck havoc on him just because he is of a different race. I too am willing to support PAS. So there is no racial hatred towards another race really.

Najib cannot resort to the 1969 passage to oust Badawi. He has to do it from within UMNO. And from within UMNO he has to draw his strength and unleash his whip at the most appropriate time, like when Badawi is most vulnerable and weakest. He cannot wait until it is too late by which time Badawi would have gathered his troops to withstand any attempts to oust him.

So I guess by this time, if indeed my conjectures and predictions are valid in any way, Najib should be watching not so much what is going on in the General Elections. I hope he is focusing his attention on UMNO itself. Its nice and ready for a slaughtering. Time of course is of essence.

Well, I'm just a purveyor. I like watching. But as I watch teh GE, I shall also have an eye on UMNO and Najib. Badawi and Khairy. I think a much more interesting battle is begining to take shape in UMNO itself.

But then again, as predictions go, this will have to remain no more than just a prediction. But, I wish it came true actually!

So Najib, here it is. Your best chance to making PM is if you could help throw this GE. Provide youself the excuse and get rid of Badawi. Let this opportunity go and your favourite Pak Lah may just decide that he actually likes flying that plane a lot! Who knows, the mile high club is something worth keeping membership of for as long as you can, right!!

Makkal Sakthi- See It Through!

Fellow Indians, you showed your resolve on 25th November 2007 when 30,000 of you took to the streets and stood tall through water canons and tear gas charges against you.

Once again on the 23rd January 2008 you rocked the country, especially the authorities when 800,000 of you failed to show up at Batu Caves! Now 800,000 is a number of people never before in this country ever to do something together to send a message. Never before and never again probably will there ever be 800,000 Malaysians collectively protesting and sending a message to the authorites that they have had enough.

Unfotunately for these 800,000 people, the fact that you were not where you usually assemble somehow seems to have been missed by everyone. Conveninetly The Star reported you having gone in large numbers to all the other Murugan temples around the country. But when it came to attendence at Batu Caves they could only meekly quote Samy Velu. And of course according to this moron he quoted something like 1.3 million people.

Until Thaipusam, Hindraf were supposed to be terrorists. since then they have stopped using that term. So what it is they are confined for is indeed a wonder. Just don't be surprised that at the last minute the Hindraf 5 are released without any charges and unconditionally. Why? To seduce you into thinking everything is alright and that now you should vote the BN once again.

Don't be cheated. Indians, just remember one thing, you don't need political representation. It was not political representation taht got V.K. Lingam to be able to twist the Malaysian judiciary for more than a decade around his little fingure. The indian diaspora is doing very well for itself everywehre else that it has gone to. And they are not politically represented. The one controlling the the world's largest steel production is Mittal, an Indian. Of course he is not South Indian Tamil like you. But Satyam and a few other IT companies are controlled by Tamils like you. Pepsi's CEO is Indra Nooyi, is Indian born and from Chennai. Guess what? She speaks Tamil like you and I. Indian-born Nooyi, who was ranked No. 11 in Fortune's list of the most powerful women in business, joined the company in 1994 and was named CFO in 2001.

They all did it BECAUSE they were and they are not politically represented.

Samy says we need to be cotinually represented in the government and cabinet. WEll, eh, yes. We have been for the last 50 years. And see where and what it has got you. If you see me as having done well for myself, it is because I don't know any MIC member. If I had, then I'd be taking his advise and I'd have been waiting for him to bring me the promises that he has made to me. Just like most of you . Still waiting on MIC and its leaders to deliver on its promises.

Fact is other Malaysians, Malay and Chinese, have seen what you did on 25th November. They respect you for that. They don't realise that 800,000 of you did not turn up at Batu Caves to continue on with your struggle. If only they knew!! But now, more importantly, at every opposition rally, whether it is a Chinese, Malay or Indian crowd, there is one clear message that every speaker enunciates. Makkal Sakthi! Makkal Sakthi! Makkal Sakthi!

You started it. Now finish it. Vote DAP! Vote Keadilan! Vote PAS!