Kash’s World

Just saw the news on MalaysiaKini that Teresa Kok has been released.

Thank God that good sense prevailed. Next, and soon I hope, should be RPK.

And can we please get rid of the ISA law once and for all? I think there are ample other laws. We don’t need such a draconian law any more, that is if it was ever needed at all.

When I was about to enter Form 4, my father was transferred from Pahang to Melaka. That landed me in Malacca High School where I ended up as a member of the kumpulan jahat. Of course in those days (the seventies) what we did as budak jahat would probably still enable us to become prefects in schools today but I am digressing. This post is not about the state of discipline among students in Malaysian schools these days.

This is about one man who was my form mate in Malacca until Form 5. We hardly knew each other then and I am sure he won’t even remember me. But it has been my personal pleasure to see this man take his place in the national scene.

Despite what the media used to write about him back in the days when the DAP were portrayed as being closet communists, I had no doubt by then that he wasn’t a budak jahat.

I felt proud when he stood up for a 15 year old Malay girl and I cheered when he became the Chief Minister of Penang. Lim Guan Eng has gone on to become a people’s hero and yesterday, at Kelana Jaya Stadium, I finally heard him speak in public.

All the other speakers before Anwar spoke very well but Lim Guan Eng managed to outshine them all. He even held hisnown against Anwar. He has the style of the father but with the added command of Bahasa Malaysia. It’s an almost unbeatable combination and I am certain that he will conquer even greater heights in days to come.

For fifty years this country has suffered because of dichotomies.

To promote BM, we must stop teaching English. Helping the Malays meant leaving other races aside, even if there were segments of underprivileged among those races. Islam must be raised to a high status as the official religion in Malaysia, so that meant other religions must be squeezed and not given room.

Well last night, one man spoke of a new Malaysia. A nation in which it would be possible to uphold the status of and promote the use of Bahasa Malaysia as our national language and yet make sure that everyone is proficient in English so that we can compete in the world’s market economy. A nation where every race will be helped without compromising the special position of one race. That man also spoke about the dignity of the Malays, that he wants a Malay race that is competent and able to stand shoulder to shoulder with the other people of Malaysia.

He spelt the end of divisive politics and of a new paradigm where everyone’s aspirations and needs can be satisfied without hurting others. A united and strong nation.

Who says there is no substance in his message? He has always spoken eloquently but yesterday he even surpassed himself.

If there was any doubt that we are seeing a PM-elect, it would have been erased last night. Malaysiakini reported a 20,000 strong crowd. It seemed a little bit more to me.

The adoring crowd made sure his car moved at the pace a metre every minute, so big was the throng of well wishers who rushed to shake his hands and pass him encouragements.

It was Malaysia Day in Kelana Jaya stadium yesterday and soon, God willing, the entire nation will celebrate a new beginning.

It took half an hour for the car to move a few hundred metres

The PM-elect

The determination of Malaysians to see change, no matter at how much pain to self

PS- as usual, TV Smith has the best pics

Ordinary Malaysians must be wondering what the heck is going on. I’m not sure exactly who’s calling the shots in this administration but the sheer amount of flip-flops happening recently appears to confirm the widely held belief that a power struggle is in full blaze.

Or could it be that something unbelievable in Malaysia may have taken place? That some elements of our administrative and security forces may actually be out of control? And that they could be following the orders of some other group?

Consider the evidence

1. The order goes out to ban Malaysia-Today (a not so smart move if I may be the millionth person to say so). Anyway, the minister concerned who should have at least been in the know if he did not actually initiate this move did not know of the ban.
2. Then the order came to lift the ban which was a shock to RPK himself.
3. In between somewhere came advice so rare that no Malaysian appears to know when something similar had happened before. The Malaysian armed forces chief, someone normally so low profile that I bet nine out of ten Malaysians wouldn’t even know his name, weighs in with a dire warning that action was overdue to cool the situation down (my understanding of what he said).
4. The came the arrest of RPK; very deplorable but at least no one can say that it was unexpected given that some people just couldn’t figure out what to do with him. But Theresa Kok & the Sin Chew journalist? That was unbelievable and almost textbook stuff if someone wanted to stir things up instead of cooling the situation. I mean just what good can be achieved by holding them under ISA?
5. Already so confusing but wait, the situation becomes even more surreal. The Sin Chew paper’s reporter Tan Hoon Cheng’s release after less than 24 hours custody is very good news but, excuse me, you don’t arrest someone under the ISA for only 16 hours.
6. It‘s the reason given for Tan’s detention that really makes me wonder just what the heck is going on. Apparently she was arrested for her own safety. I’m not making this up, Malaysiakini reports our Home Minister as saying this. Tan must be the first person ever to be arrested under the ISA ‘for her own safety’. This makes me wonder why the Saiful guy was not arrested under the ISA. After all the police did say he was under police protection.

Sigh. I shiver to think of the reports that must be appearing in the international media. Luckily (for us I mean) Hurricane Ike is taking up lot’s of media time. Otherwise it would be worse, I tell you.

How most Malaysians want the overall situation to end is very easy to guess. But guessing how all this will really end up is much much more tricky.

I think however that it’s going to be the ordinary Malaysians that will decide how it pans out. If everyone stays calm but determined and continues to value harmony above selfish interests, nothing anyone can do will bring us back to the bad days of sixty nine.

No sir, we won’t play that game again. We’ve been down that road for forty years now and see where it got us. It’s time to try something different and radical. Like ‘Ketuanan Rakyat, for instance.