[UPDATED VERSION] Once again, the comment section is now up and running!

[ORIGINAL VERSION at 14:03hr, 28 July 2008] I didn’t realize that the comment sections had been down since last week as I was on the move with intermittent internet connectivity until a reader sent an email complaining that his comment wasn’t approved.

Apologize for any inconvenience caused while he technical team is working hard (I hope) to solve the issue, appreciate your understanding on this matter.

Frankly speaking, I’m tired with all these talks about Muslim and Non-Muslim.

When the fish this country is going to have a talk for all Malaysians rather than the bloody talks particularly meant for Muslim or Non-Muslim only?

As a start, Malaysia Today Raja Petra Kamarudin unveiled the medical report which shows no evidence that the accuser Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan was sodomised.

PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim, who was alleged to sodomise his aide said the leaked medical report confirmed that the sodomy allegation made against him was baseless and politically motivated.

He also expressed his concern for doctor Mohamed Osman, whose whereabouts are unknown at the moment as he has taken leave since last week.

At the same time, Anwar’s lawyer Sulaiman Abdullah said the leak of the medical report is "regrettable", however the report’s contents are admissible evidence in court regardless of how they were exposed.

The courts have always taken the position that evidence that is relevant is admissible even though it has been wrongly exposed," […]

"The situation now is that everybody knows about this medical report and while an invasion of doctor-patient confidentiality has occurred, it’s regrettable, but you cannot run away from the fact that it’s now very clear that there is no sodomy involved."

Now, here comes the statement from the Government’s side when the Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar urged the police to wrap up their investigations as soon as possible in view of high political tensions and unsettled foreign investors besides dismissed any talk of a government conspiracy.

As a result, the Deputy IGP Ismail Omar who was under pressure to provide answers to so many uncertainties revolving around the sodomy allegation and conveniently put the blame on internet/blogs in which he accused the leaked medical report was intended solely to skew public perception and undermine the police.

"The police want to state categorically that there is no iota of truth in the allegations made in the aforementioned article. At no time during the course of this investigation did the police detain a doctor or force him to fabricate evidence against the suspect," he said.

The harder they try, the more confused the public is, hence the spiraling effect - more conspiracy theories and obviously, going to imply badly on the police force as Anwar has since accused the police of going after him without any concrete proof and without him seeing the original police report lodged by the accuser.

As of now, many questions remain unanswered: If it’s true that Saiful aide didn’t present any physical signs of injury at the hospital, then on what basis was the police report filed? If the aide went to a government hospital to get a second opinion — as required under the law in sodomy cases, and as the first doctor suggested — what did that second doctor see? And why is Saiful still formally under police protection?

Having said all that, it’s quite amusing when the Deputy IGP is cocksure that the police shall not in any way be influenced or intimidated by any party to avert investigation of this case, that the police were conducting the investigation professionally and expeditiously, that the police are conscious of the fact that this case has to be handled fairly and impartially, that ….?

Hence the laughing stock.

The Mercedes saga in Terengganu has gone overboard.

Initially, the Terengganu MB Ahmad Said said the state government had planned to purchase the cars for a long time now to replace its Proton Perdana V6 Executive fleet in a move to cut cost. In another word, high maintenance cost for the Proton Perdana(s).

Subsequently, Proton Holdings Bhd managing director Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamed Tahir refuted the allegation by saying that the average maintenance cost for each Perdana car sent by the Terengganu Government was only RM542 per year.

Then, the Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said the state’s executive council members would therefore not be allowed to use any of 14 Mercedes-Benz E200 Kompressors the state bought for RM3.43mil and said they can only be used for visiting foreign dignitaries and guests of the state.

However, the directive seems to be ignored by some of the state EXCOs when they were seen with the newly purchased Mercedes. Some said they’re awaiting for an announcement from Ahmad Said while some merely brushed off the issue by putting the blame on the media.

It’s an outright defiant act indeed and the public must not allow this issue to be put to rest without any firm resolution from both the Federal Government and the Terengganu State Government.

As far as we’re concern, it’s a vague decision from the non-influential PM in which the Terengganu EXCOs led by Ahmad Said are not giving him serious attention which led to the current non-conclusive stage with regarding to the cars usage.

But really, what’s the root cause? The incapacitated PM, the gung-ho MB or the usual fallible standard of the Proton to get the blame? Any remedial measure to curb any similar recurrence in the future as to ensure prudent spending among the power group?

Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice delivered a punch to the Malaysia government that US will continue to speak out in legal cases such as that of Anwar’s sodomy allegation and urged Malaysia to be transparent and follow the rule of law in dealing with the case.

She also rejected the Government’s claim that the Anwar case is an internal affair.

"We are always going to speak up on human rights cases, political cases, but again we do so in a spirit of respect for Malaysia." […]

"Part of the comfort level or the confidence that states need to bring to the international system is that their judicial systems are indeed responsive to rule of law, transparent and fair."

"Even-handed application of the rule of law is very important." […]

No wonder even Singapore PM Lee Hsien Loong couldn’t resist the opportunity to chid the instability scenario in Malaysia.

Let’s forget about the talk between PAS and UMNO between the 2 political figures in each camp, you’re not going to fill your stomach with the private discussion.

There is more pressing concerns on hand in the name of bread and butter issues when it’s announced by the Statistics Department that inflation in June 2008 up 7.7% compared with June last year, also 3.9% higher than last month.

The inflation rate accelerated to a 26-year high in June after the government increased fuel prices, spurring speculation the central bank will raise interest rates for the first time since April 2006.

For now, what you can do it to embrace for a possible raise in borrowing cost as early as this week or otherwise, wait for the next inflation announcement to rock your boat.

That’s how the index reacts when PM Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s administration was trying to be smart in a subtle way of showing off themselves but failed miserably.

Once again, the Special Squad cops with balaclavas who whisked the PKR de-facto leader Anwar Ibrahim away in such an abrupt manner put Malaysia in the wrong limelight.

In another word, Malaysia itself is like a drama where new chapters unfolded and there is never a single day without fresh conspiracy theories and accusations, worse, for a certain political advantage, every single soul in this country is inconvenienced. You setup roadblocks everywhere in fear of public protest?

Prior to that, Malaysia stocks fell to a 16-month low, our Ringgit slumped the most in two weeks, investors left the domestic scene in a lurch and many more explosive allegations never cease to plunge the country into crisis mode.

Not long ago, Anwar was freed on bail. Today, Malaysia Today’s Raja Petra Kamarudin is to be the next on the list, being charged for criminal defamation and he appears to be in the mood to fight.

"I’m in the mood to f*** the government. What more do you want me to say?" he said.

How about the next in line? Never know.

However, I notice that desperate moves start to show its tails, with sign of massive crackdown much akin to the Operasi Lalang, but the bottom line is, no one really believes that Anwar or RPK’s arrest will end the power struggle in Malaysia as the country in 2008 is different from what it was in 1998 in several key respects.

A short moment after the forceful capture, blogs and other Internet-based news sources like Malaysiakini, Merdeka Review and etc. started to spread the news in an effortless manner. Netizens and online alternative medias now inform public discourse, even as the mainstream media continue to be dominated by parties in the ruling coalition.

Malaysia ought to serve as a statutory warning to fast-growing Asian nations about the pointlessness of chasing the dream of Western-style prosperity while failing to build strong democratic institutions.

It’s wishful thinking that the latter would miraculously appear when the Barisan Nasional government chooses to believe that its continuation of a very long and old legacy of BN administration in place.

It was an interesting historic debate between the Information Minister Ahmad Shabery Cheek and PKR advisor Anwar Ibrahim.

I’d say that it’s unprecedented and thumbs up to Ahmad Shabery for living up the expectation as a man with gumption to face the charismatic PKR de-facto leader.

Eventually, we Malaysians are the real winner. My entire family was so elevated when it’s confirmed that the debate would go on as scheduled, in fact, we appreciate the fact that it’s a combination of the Anwar factor as well as the courage by Ahmad Shabery to take up the challenge when his (Ahamd Shabery) bosses (the PM Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and the DPM Najib Tun Razak) were shielding somewhere.

God knows where.

Here’s a few interesting observation though:

1. Ahmad Shabery appeared to take things personally when he started to critisizing Anwar personally (e.g. Anwar’s role during the 1997 financial crisis, his record as a Finance Minister, etc.). Not once, but a few times.
2. While Anwar said the Petronas coffer will be left undisturbed and it’s only the tax paid to the Government that would be used to fund the subsidy, Ahmad continued to blame Anwar for using the Petronas’s money for the purpose of subsidy?
3. Ahmad Shabery didn’t answer the question by Siasah editor Zulkifli Sulong on the government’s claim that the RM4 billion saved from the March 2006 fuel hike to be spent on improving public transport.
4. While Anwar proposed to re-negotiate the lndependent power producers (IPP) agreements to recover RM2 billion and to use that to subsidise, Ahmad Shabery claimed that it’s Anwar who supported the IPP contracts before.

I hope more of such debates would be organised in the future, afterall, merely an hour to skim through such a complicated topic is definitely not enough.

Potong steam, indeed.

How about Pak Lah next? Only if a real leader can act and speak like a real leader.

I’m a no fan of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew, however for the tiny little red dot to go this far, part of the credit must go to him.

At a dialogue session at the Economic Society of Singapore, he said Singapore has become successful and earned the respect of the world community today because it has been governed by able leaders who have high integrity and are not corrupted.

"Singapore progressed well until today because it had been managed by dedicated leaders who had a high sense of honor and level of integrity, honesty and competency and were not corrupted," he said.

The keywords are honor, integrity, honesty, competency and not corrupted.

Doesn’t matter the conversation was done at the expense of the neighboring countries, especially when leadership crisis is a stark issue in our homeland.

In probably his last ditch attempt to secure a more promising future of the part he is currently at helm, MIC president S Samy Vellu in the 62nd MIC general assembly said the Barisan Nasional (BN) must do away with communal politics and become a truly multi-racial party if it wants to regain the support and trust of the people.

"I think the time has come for the BN to play a more prominent role as the guardian of multi-racial Malaysia. This will help us to do away with communal politics," he said.

Well said, Samy. Samy might be playing to the gallery in view of his own and the party’s predicament, however, I always believe that when someone is embarrassed, humiliated, disgraced with every shred of dignity was stripped away, the sense of humility will slowly creep into the mind and that’s when someone will utter something to win over some friends.

This is usually the case.

I for one certainly do not hope it’s yet another usual rhetorical statement from Samy, but as he is stepping down soon, I believe he is sincere in asking for more respect from the coalition his party is in, so let’s give him the benefit of doubt.

But what matters now is, do you think the Umnoputras up there are willing to give him and the remaining component parties a pair of listening ears?