What's Albar trying to say ??

Once again, I'd like to express my views on a recent statement made by our Home Minister, Dato Syed Hamid Albar. This time, Albar was referring to a speech made about three weeks ago by Zaid Ibrahim (prominent Malaysian lawyer) who criticised the concept of Ketuanan Melayu (Malay Supremacy).

I am not going to comment on Zaid's speech as I have no intention on questioning Ketuanan Melayu. What I will point out is Albar's questionable reply statement about the speech.

This is what Albar said... ' If you say the concept of Malay supremacy has failed, then Zaid will not be what he is today. He is fortunate he was born a Malay ' .

Hmm...although the statement is short and direct, I find it questionable as it seems to have a few other indirect meanings behind it such as :-

Is he indirectly saying that Chinese people are unfortunate to be born as Chinese ?

Are Indian people unfortunate to be born as Indians ?

Are the Kadazan people unfortunate to be born as Kadazans ?

Are the Iban people unfortunate to be born as Ibans ?

Are the Bajau people unfortunate to be born as Bajaus ?

Are all Malays born lucky ?

If Zaid was born of another race, does that mean he would have been unsuccessful and unfortunate ?

Is Zaid successful only because of Ketuanan Melayu ?

Does Zaid's own hard work, effort & intelligence have no role play in his success ?

Are some Malays only successful because of Ketuanan Melayu & nothing else ?

Hmm...so many questions and indirect meanings from such a short statement.

Quote found in NST of November 4 2008, page 4.

HINDRAF Banned..Problem Solved ?

  Our Home Minister, Dato Syed Hamid Albar just banned HINDRAF & declared it illegal. This is a joke. How do you ban & declare an organisation that has not been registered and officially doesn’t exist, illegal ?!

  How come the HINDRAF 5 were put under ISA 11 months ago...& only now they "ban" HINDRAF ? I just don't see the sense in it. Can anyone enlighten me please ?

  What big crime have they done ?...Have they killed anyone ? Have they blown up anything with explosives ? Have they insulted the other races of Malaysia ?...Clearly, the answer is no, no & NO.

  I don't think that HINDRAF was formed to be a 'legal organisation'...I feel it was formed to wake Malaysia up & also get worldwide attention that Malaysia has political problems...which they have succeeded with flying colours.

  If it wasn't for HINDRAF, the political scenario in Malaysia would be totally different. They were the trigger & catalyst to the results of the General Elections 2008.

  HINDRAF just tried to show the government that the Indians were marginalised & they were not getting enough help. Simple basic human rights man...Has the government responded to their pleas in any way ? What has the government achieved by banning HINDRAF ?

Why has it become so hard to achive harmony & unity in Malaysia ? Is it because of HINDRAF ? ... I don't think so.

So what if HINDRAF is banned ? What difference does it make ? As the saying goes, you can imprison a man, but not his ideas.

" ISA Is For Your Safety " ?!

The journalist , Ms. Tan who was arrested yesterday under ISA was released today . She was arrested for reporting on Ahmad Ismail's racist remarks . The interesting part is the statement given by Dato Syed Hamid Albar(pictured) on the reason she was released .

He said that 'Tan was detained under Section 73(1) of the Act in order "to ensure her safety" as police intelligence indicated that there were threats to her life after she reported on Bukit Bendera division Umno chairman Datuk Ahmad Ismail’s allegedly racist remarks' .

Wtf?!...Are we idiots ?!...Who would fall for this bullshit?!...If she was given death threats , why didn't they go after the person who gave the threats in the first place ?...Why arrest under ISA ?...Why didn't they just give her police protection ?

Well in my opinion , I feel that the Agong silently stepped into this matter and told the government to stop it as they have gone too far . Only the Agong can reverse government decisions if the government themselves refuse to do so .

Or else why would they simply release her ?...I doubt public noise would have stopped them as they knew it would happen...or else they wouldn't have done it in the first place...hmm...just my opinion and me exercising my oppressed freedom of speech and expression .

What Did the Road Blocks Achieve ?

Our Home Minister , Dato Syed Hamid Albar issued the police to set up road blocks at 12 roads in Kuala Lumpur on Monday of July 14 2008 ...Imagine that on a Monday morning...This was done to prevent a protest by the Pakatan Rakyat (Opposition Party) at Parliament .

DAP (Democratic Action Party) adviser , Lim Kit Siang says that this caused great financial losses and inconvenience for hundreds of thousands of people based on rubbish intelligence about a non-existent high-level Pakatan Rakyat leadership meeting, two speeches, two blogs and two SMSes . His statements can be seen here .

One thing for sure is that these massive road blocks did more harm than good . Here are a few complaints made by the public which can be seen here .

1 . The city's productivity's were halted for at least four hours, which in monetary sense means in the tune of hundreds of millions of Ringgit .

2 . Unnecessary burning of fossil fuel (that's petrol) over the same period of time .

3 . The rage and anger sitting in a car for hours for no apparent reason .

4 . Students at Malaya University missed their CLP (Certificate of Legal Practice) exam . This exam is in its final year and will not be repeated from next year onwards .

5 . People late for work and school children late for school .

6 . Ambulances couldn't get to patients or get patients to hospitals quickly.

7 . The sick couldn't get to clinics for treatment and doctors couldn't get to clinics to treat the sick .

8 . Patients who had waited weeks for an appointment in government hospitals couldn't get to the hospital and will now have to wait for even more weeks for another appointment .

9 . Operating staff couldn't get to hospitals on time , resulting in operations being postponed and lengthening the already overly-long surgical waiting lists in government hospitals .

At the end of the day , were the road blocks worth it ?

How much damage would a few hundred, or even a few thousand people demonstrating outside parliament have caused ?

I say none...because from the past , judging from the Hindraf & Bersih rally's , I think it's quite obvious that things only get violent when the people are provoked by the police .

I rest my case .

"Smart Comment" by Dato Seri Syed Hamid Albar

Recently , our Home Minister Dato Seri Syed Hamid Albar made a "smart" statement on TV . Regarding private investigator Mr. P. Balasubramaniam who is missing , Dato said that he thinks Mr. Bala is "alright and must be safe" because nobody has seen or heard anything about him '.

What is that suppose to mean ? Can he say the same thing about the late Altantuya ? Nobody saw or heard of her again after her sad fate . Does that mean that she was safe ?..Obviously not...because she was shot and blown up with explosives .

For those who would like to see more of this Dato's silly and embarassing comments , I highly recommend you to see him being interviewed on BBC Hardtalk on Youtube . The link is here .