Hopes on a string

IN the wake of the PKFZ Cabinet Papers on the complicit position of all the BN government political leaders, we ponder on Malaysia's future just some weeks after Merdeka celebrations and ... in the midst of 'Idul Fitri merrymaking after the Ramadhan Fasting.

The President of the United States of America, Barak Obama has wished all Muslims worldwide 'Idil Season Greetings, a first in history and which we hope will not be the last among the community of nations beholden to the search for peace and understanding. The gesture is clear and inspiring when one considers how our world has taken a barrage of beatings prompted by pride and prejudice. The wastes that's now threatening wealth and health of our earth. Despite our misgivings of past tragedies there emerges an incessantly unmistaken irrepressible urge to change and make things better.

It is surely the same thoughts and feeling lingering in the minds of Malaysians at the terrible impasse in our search and journey for change. We are not alone. We have ourselves and other like-minded world citizens as the world attempts to wrench itself off the well-trodden muddles of the last millenium.

There'll be the usual pitfalls to steer away from but we will find it. We've tasted the bits and pieces of what we can more build. And we will get there.

Selamat Hari Raya Puasa

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For those still on the road, they'll get there safely. Those who won't make it back, the nearest Suara or Masjid should just be round the corner!

Excuse! Your fly is open!

Bernama report states Police on the prowl looking for persons responsible for PKFZ Cabinet Minutes/Paper leak. Only one person should be responsible - The Chief Secretary, Ketua Setiausaha Negara, to the Government! Put him in jail. Whoever initiated the contents wanted to tie down somebody with the mud. Why put it on paper? You can only say as always - when something is wrong, it will go wrong !

It's all over the place now. It should have been, in the first place!

Police Summon Several Individuals In PKFZ Cabinet Paper Probe

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 18 (Bernama) -- Police have summoned several individuals to record statements on the posting of the Cabinet Paper on the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) on a website.

Deputy Inspector-General of Police Tan Sri Ismail Omar said police were investigating how the Cabinet Paper which involved the Official Secrets Act (OSA) could be exposed online.

"We are investigating to find out who is responsible for exposing information on the Cabinet Paper.

"However, I can't comment more on this as it will disturb our investigation," he told Bernama here Friday.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak told a press conference that police would investigate the exposure of a document said to be that on the PKFZ Cabinet Paper on the 'Malaysia Today' website.

He said the investigation was not to deny the peoples' right to information but the act of exposing the Cabinet Paper on the Internet was unacceptable.

Unbranding governance

Don't you ever stop wondering why we need to quarrel with Indonesia? Now our non-performing Yen Yen is talking crap to divert attention away from the MCA problem.

Why would you want to list Sarawak Laksa with UNESCO? In case this vain Yen forgets, if ever we need to list, it must be "Sarawak" Laksa - not Malaysian Laksa. Malayans don't know anything about cooking Sarawak Laksa. They sure know how to eat it and then got cirit!

Some Malaysian donkeys think the only way to govern a country is by branding it. Then there's the crazy misguided Islamists who are branding Islam. Malaysia has so many brands already. There's the Twin Towers (mistaken for twin phalluses). Our best brand however, must be Mahathir Mohammad (mistaken for "air mata kasih" or love's forlon tears). Who doesn't know him? Many Malaysians appear to think there is more to know about him than meets the eye. Some who try to know more, have been shooed away.

Still it hasn't got us anywhere in a good and constructive way.

You remember Singapore Girl! Sure you forgot. But you won't forget Lee Kuan Yew. See? They say he's busy softening his brand.

Maybe we should invest with our Prime Ministers as brands. Our recent PM was branded as Sleepy Lah! Well, it's still a brand! It might still sizzle in a nighmare.

But you wonder whether there's a reason why we should not brand. God forbid what would have happened if the Islamists were to put a face to the good Prophet. There's wisdom in it I suspect. But that did not stop the irreverent Danes to paint silly misguided pictures.

Despite all these, there is a brand I honor till today. That's Milkmaid or "Susu Junjung"! It's a good brand actually - simple, unpretentious and wholesome. We owe our lives to it, what!

Malaysians know it as "Susu Junjung". To "junjung" means to honor and respect somebody or something. It can also mean to highly support something or somebody . What of Yen Yen needs support? Maybe something I have yet to see.

War mongers turn on Obama

With the economy in tatters despite Bernanke's assurance of glimmers of recovery, the War lobby wants Iran's blood soon after Ahmadinejad's presidential inaugural.

The health campaign promise is yet to make headways anywhere. It's a tough time in Washington. It can't be War or Health. Or can it?

The war drums are a-beating. Will Obama dance?

"...The pressure campaign kicked off in earnest this week. On Thursday, hundreds of leaders and activists from the U.S. Jewish community descended on Washington to lobby for harsher sanctions, while widely-publicised media reports suggested that Iran is already nearing the verge of a nuclear capability.

Leaders from Jewish groups came for a national "Advocacy Day on Iran", during which they met with key Congressional figures.

Rep. Howard Berman, a California Democrat who heads the House Foreign Affairs Committee, suggested that the clock "has almost run out" on Iran's nuclear programme, and indicated that he would move ahead next month with a bill imposing sanctions on Iran's refined petroleum imports "absent some compelling evidence why I should do otherwise".

Not all U.S. Jewish groups are lining up behind the legislation, however.

Americans for Peace Now (APN), for instance, issued a statement arguing that "arbitrary deadlines are a mistake" and that "pursuing sanctions that target the Iranian people, rather than their leaders, is a morally and strategically perilous path that the Obama Administration must reject". ..."

More at Inter Press Service (IPS) News.