Planet UMC

Permukiman penulis selama dua minggu di Permatang Pauh mulai 12 Ogos sehingga 26 Ogos menyaksikan pertarungan getir, suka duka dan pelbagai peristiwa menarik dalam sejarah pilihan raya kecil di negara ini. Selain mampu memberi banyak makna dan pengajaran.

Hakikatnya sumpahan Permatang Pauh terus menjadi badi berterusan sehingga kawasan tersebut boleh disinonimkan dengan Anwar Ibrahim. Seperti mana dekat dan eratnya Allahyarham Fadzil Nor dengan Bukit Raya. Apabila mengambil maudhuk dan asas ini maka fahamlah kita kenapa cara berfikir lebih 58,459 pengundi tidak berubah?

Gunakanlah apa jua strategi, taktik, pendekatan, politik pembangunan, imbuhan ataupun elemen propaganda media segenap penjuru. Apa yang nyata kesemua elemen ini akhirnya menjadi backclash kepada usaha Barisan Nasional (BN).

Memang benar sebaik sahaja Dr. Wan Azizah Wan Ismail mengumumkan perletakan jawatan pada 31 Julai, gendang paluan perang pilihan raya kecil Parlimen Permatang Pauh sudah bermula. Akan tetapi persediaan psikologi, fizikal dan mental sebahagian besar ahli UMNO dan BN misalnya masih dalam dilema dan trauma. Sebahagiannya akibat tsunami politik PRU ke-12, 8 Mac yang lalu. Sebahagian lagi kerana pergelutan mesyuarat cawangan, pemilihan bahagian dan lobi untuk jawatan Majlis Tertinggi.

Ini disebabkan baik UMNO mahupun MCA, dua buah parti berkenaan turut menghadapi pemilihan peringkat cawangan dan Bahagian. Justeru apabila jentera digerakkan ke Permatang Pauh, bala tentera BN berbelah bahagi, punyai fokus yang berbeza, mana lagi mahu diingatkan cawangan yang ditinggalkan, dalam masa yang sama perlu pula menghadapi taktik agresif, daya juang tinggi semangat petugas PKR dan Pakatan Rakyat.

Sebab itu dalam kebanyakan hal petugas dan jentera BN dilihat agak santai, dengan coffe-house Hotel Sunway di Seberang Jaya, Hotel Summit di Bukit Mertajam menjadi tumpuan. Termasuklah memenuhi ruang Restoran Nasi Kandar Pelita Samudera, Retoran Nasi Kandar Khalel dan Kassim Mustaffa. Sebahagian petugas lainnya ada yang menginap di Sungai Petani, Kedah dan di bahagian sebelah pulau, satu lokasi yang tidak praktikal untuk membolehkan kerja berganda dan bersungguh dilakukan.

Natijahnya, petugas seakan-akan lali seperti mana enaknya nasi kandar berserta kuah kari yang dihidangkan. Pilihan raya kecil Permatang Pauh yang seharusnya ditanggapi sebagai 'medan perang induk' dilihat tidak lebih daripada sekadar satu pilihan raya yang pernah dilalui oleh BN selama ini.

Hakikat bahawa UMNO dan BN Pulau Pinang adalah pembangkang, begitu juga UMNO dan BN negeri-negeri jiran lain seperti Kedah, dan Selangor yang turut sama bertungkus-lumus bekerja siang dan malam turut membawa tagline pembangkang tidak diinsafi.

Kesannya petugas atau gerak kerja yang dilakukan seolah-olah UMNO dan BN masih menjadi pemerintah negeri-negeri berkenaan. Lalu wujudlah budaya mengambil mudah, ego, dan lagak yang agak memualkan.

Maka dilihat dari dua sudut, elemen propaganda dan kewujudan bilik gerakan, markas dan pondok panas sedari awal sudah membuktikan jentera UMNO/BN jauh ketinggalan. Bandingan boleh dibuat misalnya kata-kata, slogan yang terpampang hasil kreativiti PKR dan BN.

BN masih dengan 'slogan' lama sebagai contoh 'Tekadkan Pilihan Anda, Undilah Barisan Nasional'. Sedangkan dalam dunia yang serba canggih, pelbagai risalah, papan iklan, sepanduk serta karikatur yang lebih menarik dan mampu meruntun hati pengundi sebenarnya boleh dilaksanakan.

PropagandaPetugas BN tidak kurang tenaga pakarnya, namun mungkin elemen imbuhan jadi keutamaan justeru hasil kerja sekadar siap semata-mata, tidak ada pengisian roh, rasa komitmen yang tinggi dalam menjadikan bahan kempen itu lebih menarik, inovatif dan berdaya saing.

Ditambah dengan lagu dan kaedah propaganda lama oleh media arus perdana. Pengulangan teknik dan taktik yang sama paparan berita TV misalnya yang menggunakan elemen dan pendekatan yang sama, sudah mampu diduga oleh penonton. Lantas melahirkan satu sentimen, bahawa semua maklumat dan berita yang dipaparkan tidak benar dan rekaan semata-mata.

Akhbar mahupun televisyen harus berubah, bukan menjadi tukang kempen calon tertentu sebaliknya mengajak pembaca dan penonton berfikir, dengan logik praktik yang ada. Selagi media dipersepsikan sebagai tukang kempen calon tertentu maka kredibiliti, teknik yang digunakan akan lama kelamaan menjadi hambar.

Sering kali dalam setiap pilihan raya baik umum mahupun kecil semenjak pilihan raya pertama 1959, faktor 5M menjadi pendorong kepada kekuatan UMNO dan BN. Money (wang), media, machinery (jentera), manpower (tenaga manusia), manipulation (manipulasi) dimaksimum sebaik mungkin oleh pemerintah sehingga tidak ada ruang kepada parti lawan untuk bangkit menghadapinya.

Malang dalam situasi pilihan raya kecil Permatang Pauh, PKR yang tenaga induknya adalah serpihan UMNO, juga punyai formula dan kepakaran di bidang yang sama. 5M ini dimanfaatkan sebaik mungkin, kerana dari segi perbelanjaan, cara kerja, pengurusan tenaga manusia dilihat jelas PKR cukup banyak sumber kewangan dan jenteranya yang pelbagai.

Barangkali UMNO dan BN selain formula 5M tradisi harus menggabungkan dengan 5M kontemporari yakni Mengenali, Mencari, Mendekati, Menjelas dan Merayu Pengundi.

Jika ini dapat dihubung jalinkan, tidak mustahil dalam beberapa siri pilihan raya kecil yang dijangka bakal berlaku pada masa akan datang, UMNO dan BN tidak akan dimakan sumpah lagi.

Persoalannya pilihan raya kecil Permatang Pauh, yang dianggap ibu segala pilihan raya di negara ini bakal menimbulkan implikasi pelbagai. Demokrasi yang telah terlaksana dengan baik meskipun adanya unsur pergaduhan, budaya provokrasi dan agresif petugas parti, namun hak rakyat telah tertunai.

Apa pengajaran di sebalik meningkatnya majoriti undi yang dimenangi Anwar Ibrahim sebanyak 15,671 berbanding 13,338 yang dimenangi oleh isterinya pada 8 Mac 2008 yang lalu? Pertambahan sebanyak 2,283 undi. Dalam masa yang sama calon BN hanya beroleh 15,524 undi lebih rendah daripada jumlah yang didapati dalam PRU ke-12 lalu yakni sebanyak 16,950 dan 21,147 undi pada Pilihan Raya Umum ke-11, 2004.

Realitinya, sumpahan Permatang Pauh terus membelenggu BN untuk tempoh masa yang cukup lama. Buktinya juga politik pembangunan yang selama ini memenangkan BN sudah tidak signifikan, kerana pemikiran pengundi era kini lebih strategik.

Berilah apa jua bantuan, sumbangan atau imbuhan, mereka akan terima dengan lapang dada atas prinsip ini hak rakyat, namun mengundi belum tentu.

RasionalRasionalnya juga politik liberal dan majmuk PKR makin diterima sedangkan faham perkauman yang mendasari parti komponen BN makin ditolak rakyat. Keputusan pilihan raya kecil ini juga harus menjadi satu tanda aras tentang pencapaian dan gerak kerja petugas BN.

Demikian juga agensi risikan, kaedah, metodologi, sumber penilaian dan analisis harus lebih terkini. Penggunaan kuantum nisbah 50:50, atau 80:20 sudah agak ketinggalan zaman. Indikator seperti trend, simpton, kecenderungan, tingkah laku pengundi, senario semasa, sentimen dan faktor sejarah harus diambil kira dalam membuat analisis holistik bagi membolehkan tahap objektiviti ramalan mencapai tingkat tertinggi.

Gerak kerja pilihan raya juga jika mahu berjaya harus mengetepikan soal imbuhan dan kewangan. Ironinya medan pilihan raya kecil atau umum bukan tempat membuat duit, atau melobi sebarang bentuk perniagaan.

Kesukarelaan harus diletakkan pada tahap paling tinggi, moral, daya juang, istiqamah, sanggup berkorban dan daya tahan harus kukuh. Demikian juga selain percaturan atas kertas dan tenaga manusia, pertolongan dari Allah SWT harus juga dipohon.

Koordinasi kerja juga perlu cekap, sikap akauntabiliti, integriti dan ambil peduli juga harus tinggi. Sebab itu pengalaman di Permatang Pauh seolah-olah menunjukkan UMNO Pulau Pinang dan UMNO Bahagian Permatang Pauh terlalu mengharapkan gerak kerja dari petugas UMNO negeri lain.

Ibarat tuan rumah mahu mengadakan kenduri, namun segala persiapan, keperluan dan tatacara diminta para tetamu dan jiran untuk menguruskannya. Tentulah mewujudkan suasana bercelaru dan ketidaktentuan.

Kempen yang memenatkan sudah pun berlalu, pergeseran sesama kaum, kawan rakan, handai dan taulan, perkelahian dan unsur ganas yang mewarnai pilihan raya kecil Permatang Pauh harus diinsafi semua. Persoalan seterusnya, apa nasib masa depan politik negara?

Adakah penolakan pengundi di Permatang Pauh ke atas BN dapat diterima sebagai satu wake up call atau panggilan kecemasan bahawa populariti kepimpinan negara mulai pudar? Apakah natijah, implikasi di sebalik semua ini? Ke mana arah tuju dan arah haluan hubungan kaum, nasib masyarakat, kemuliaan agama dan pemantapan institusi di hari-hari mendatang?

Apa yang boleh dinukilkan ialah banyak ketidaktentuan daripada jaminan kestabilan. Ketidaktentuan yang boleh memusnahkan, diharap setiap pemimpin sama ada parti pemerintah mahupun pakatan pembangkang lebih rasional. Jangan lagi kerana politik kuasa, rakyat dan institusi dimangsai.

Demokrasi telah terlaksana, mandat yang diperoleh harus dijalankan dengan penuh cekap dan amanah. Rakyat sudah letih, celaru, dan tidak keruan memikirkan nasib masa depan.

Semangat Ihya Ramadhan yang bakal tiba awal September nanti harus menjadi medan keinsafan untuk kita semua kembali bertaut kasih dan silaturrahim, tinggalkan seketika baju politik atas nama kepartian atau ideologi. Kita bina dan bangunkan kembali negara ini dan institusinya supaya sejahtera, supaya aman, terus makmur dan dalam masa yang sama bermunajat dan bermohon kepada Allah supaya melindungi negara bertuah ini daripada sebarang malapetaka dan bencana dan unsur penjajahan semula daripada apa jua anasir luar yang tidak bertanggungjawab.

UMNO Puchong Indah
— Kenyataan Keputusan Pilihanraya Kecil Permatang Pauh

Marina Mahathir
— And we thought it was just us...

The growing cowardice of online anonymity

By Richard Bernstein

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

NEW YORK: Anonymous sources are of course among the newspaper reporter's best friends, without whom the cause of informing the public would be severely set back.

But anonymity is also a tremendous aid to the resentful, the scandalous and the cowardly, and the signs are that the tidal of wave of anonymous comment made possible by the Internet is getting even bigger.

Or that, at any rate, is the impression that some recent reporting on the rising vogue of college gossip Web sites would indicate.

One site, called JuicyCampus.com, which maintains message boards on 59 university campuses, has been attracting special attention. As a recent article in Radar Magazine put it, JuicyCampus.com is "a virtual bathroom wall upon which college students across the country scrawl slurs, smears, and secrets, true or otherwise, about their classmates."

In one feature, to take one modest example, the site asked for replies to the question: Who are the sluttiest girls at Cornell? As of this week, there were 47 postings in response, several of which gave names, apparently real ones.

All of the postings, needless to say, were anonymous, and that would appear to be the main point. It's bad enough to tarnish reputations and to publish insults, but if the people doing so identify themselves, there is at least a possibility of censure and accountability.

But the Internet not only makes the anonymous pejorative possible, it also bestows a certain techno glamour to what ought to be a guilty snicker. "C'mon, give us the juice," JuicyCampus.com says on its home page. "Posts are totally, 100 percent anonymous."

To be sure, there are often good reasons for anonymity: an employee of a corporation who uses a company intranet site to criticize senior management or to expose misbehavior at the top could fear for his job if he had to provide his name. In the news business, anonymous sources are ethically tricky, and the better papers handle them with care. But sources are commonly promised anonymity in exchange for information that would otherwise be kept secret.

But what the Internet and its cult of anonymity do is to provide a blanket sort of immunity for anybody who wants to say anything about anybody else, and it would be difficult in this sense to think of a more morally deformed exploitation of the concept of free speech.

An illustration, admittedly personal: Some time ago, I complained to Amazon.com about reviews posted on its site that offered what I felt were viciously negative and factually incorrect views of a book I had written.

Anybody of course is entitled to say what he or she wants about a book, including one written by me. It's the anonymity that Amazon grants to its reader-reviewers that I objected to, on the grounds that anybody who wants to say something nasty about somebody else's work ought to have the little bit of bravery needed to say it under his or her name.

When I wrote an e-mail to that effect to Jeffrey Bezos, Amazon's head and founder, I received a reply from Amazon's customer relations department saying that it allowed anonymous reviews as a way to encourage discussion. My reply was that, under the guise of encouraging free expression and unhindered debate, Amazon was really encouraging cowardice instead.

At the time I earned my living as a book critic for The New York Times, which, needless to say, did not allow me to hide behind a shield of anonymity in my own reviews. If I did have negative opinions about a book - and I often did - I could be held responsible if, in fact, my opinion was unjustified or unfair, or if I was avenging myself against someone who had once written negatively about me.

Amazon's reader reviews are an old story. What is more recent is the Internet's encouragement not just of scandalous and malignant personal commentary but racist remarks of the sort that have for years been branded outside the scope of acceptable discourse.

Reading JuicyCampus.com, for example, I found this remark, anonymous of course: "Are there any black guys who aren't dumb jocks?"

There was much worse stuff along these lines, unprintable here even if only to illustrate how the grant of anonymity can lead to the regression of public discourse. It almost makes one nostalgic for the days when people who uttered racist slurs were all too happy to identify themselves.

Concerned about the effect of JuicyCampus.com, prosecutors in New Jersey have lately been investigating the site for consumer fraud - on the grounds that it promises in its terms and conditions that no offensive content will be allowed on the site even while it conspicuously provides no enforcement of that promise.

In fact, to get JuicyCampus on the grounds of consumer fraud would be a bit like the feds getting the gangster Al Capone on tax evasion. But the law does make it very hard to hold Web sites legally accountable, even for libelous opinions. This is because the U.S. government's Communications Decency Act grants immunity to Web site operators for false or slanderous information they publish when that information has been provided by third parties.

In other words, the law would seem to contain its own sort of Catch-22: the Web site itself can't be held legally responsible for defamatory statements, but neither can anybody else, since the defamatory opinion was expressed anonymously.

There have been other illustrations of the use of anonymity in recent years of questionable moral value. One was the decision of the publisher Random House a few years ago to publish the novel "Primary Colors," the best-selling satire of Bill Clinton, by "Anonymous." It was a brilliant marketing ploy, the suggestion being that the author was an administration insider who could be harmed if his identity were known.

In fact, as it turned out, the book was written by Joe Klein, a very talented and worthy political journalist but one whose well-being did not require that his identity remain secret.

But that was in the days when there was a certain assumption that people who were anonymous needed to be so for some reason. Now that the Internet has made anonymity almost standard, it's unlikely that anybody would make that assumption anymore.

Notes:

KZ Ahmad
— Anwar Ibrahim mula memancing.

Kenyataan beliau dalam the Star yang berbunyi sungguh demokratik setelah menang di P44 Permatang Pauh [di sini]

Kelab Maya UMNO
— Pak Lah Perlu Disingkir Segera !

Kelab Maya UMNO
— Kenyataan YBM Tengku Razaeigh Bin Tengku Hamzah (Dwibahasa)

Kelab Maya UMNO
— Anwar Ibrahim - Era 'Malaysian Malaysia' ?

Kelab Maya UMNO
— PERMATANG PAUH

Kelab Maya UMNO
— September 16, Here We Come! Clearly It's The Economy, Silly!

Dr. Mahathir Mohamad
— PERMATANG PAUH

5. Ramai pengundi tidak ingin undi bagi Dato Seri Anwar. Tetapi mereka juga tidak ingin undi Barisan Nasional. Calon Barisan Nasional baik tetapi kalau beliau menang maka Dato Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi akan dakwa yang dirinya menang, dakwa yang sokongan kepada Barisan Nasional iaitu pada dirinya sudah kembali, dakwa Barisan Nasional telah dipulih dibawah kepimpinannya.

6. Saya percaya dengan berat hati penyokong-penyokong Barisan Nasional telah undi PKR supaya Dato Seri Abdullah akan sedar yang kepimpinannya tidak dikehendaki lagi.

7. Wang yang banyak telah ditabur atau dijanji akan ditabur. Pekerja Barisan Nasional dibayar saguhati. Calon yang diletak sesuai juga. Apakah yang tidak kena dengan Barisan Nasional sehingga pengundi memberi kelebihan undi yang lebih banyak dari bulan Mac kepada Dato Anwar yang enggan bersumpah.

8. Mesej yang hendak dihantar oleh pengundi Melayu, Cina dan India menjadi sia-sia kerana Dato Seri Abdullah tidak ada telinga untuk mendengar, tidak ada mata untuk melihat.

9. Tetapi ahli UMNO daripada pemimpin lain UMNO perlu sedar dan faham mesej daripada pengundi Permatang Pauh. Sejak Mac 2008 sokongan kepada UMNO dan BN bukan pulih tetapi merosot.

10. Kamu boleh terus sokong Dato Seri Abdullah sebagai Presiden parti. Tetapi rakyat tidak akan sokong UMNO kerana UMNO sudah jadi alat Dato Seri Abdullah dan keluarganya. Apabila datang pilihanraya ketiga belas rakyat akan jatuhkan UMNO dan Barisan Nasional kerana hanya dengan cara ini sahaja rakyat akan dapat jatuhkan Dato Seri Abdullah.

11. Malang bagi UMNO dan Barisan Nasional. Tetapi kerana UMNO dan Barisan Nasional tidak sanggup bertindak, rakyat terpaksa bertindak.

12. Untuk pulihkan sokongan kepada UMNO dan Barisan Nasional, Dato Seri Abdullah perlu bertanggungjawab dan letak jawatan sekarang. Ini akan memberi masa empat tahun bagi pemimpin-pemimpin UMNO berusaha untuk menarik balik penyokong UMNO dan Barisan Nasional. Jika ditunggu hingga Jun 2010 masa yang tinggal untuk pemulihan hanyalah 2 tahun; terlalu pendek untuk kerja yang berat ini.

13. Pilihan bagi UMNO hanya dua. Setia kepada Dato Seri Abdullah dan kalah dalam Pilihanraya Umum ke 13 atau setia kepada UMNO lebih daripada setia kepada Dato Seri Abdullah dengan kemungkinan menang Pilihanraya Umum ke-13.

14. UMNO perlu ingat undi daripada ahli-ahli setianya sahaja tidak mencukupi untuk mendapat kemenangan. Untuk menang calon UMNO perlu undi orang bukan ahli parti dan orang Cina dan India. Dalam keadaan sekarang, dalam keadaan UMNO dan Kerajaan di pimpin oleh Dato Seri Abdullah tidak mungkin orang bukan daripada parti UMNO dan orang Cina dan India akan beri kemenangan kepada calon UMNO atau Barisan Nasional. Bahkan ahli-ahli UMNO yang kecewa dengan pimpinan Dato Seri Abdullah pun tidak akan undi UMNO dan Barisan Nasional.

15. Saya percaya akhbar dan TV arus perdana akan putar cerita pilihanraya kecil Permatang Pauh untuk menyedapkan hati pemimpin UMNO dan Dato Seri Abdullah. Justeru itu pemimpin, terutama Dato Seri Abdullah akan yakin yang dianya dikehendaki untuk pulih semula parti. Dan UMNO pun akan terus pilihnya dengan sebulat suara pada bulan Disember. Dan akan merosot lagilah UMNO dan Barisan Nasional.

16. Dengarlah, lihatlah apa yang dipertunjukkan oleh pengundi Permatang Pauh. Mereka tidak undi untuk Dato Seri Anwar dan PKR. Mereka undi untuk mengalahkankan Barisan Nasional dan UMNO.

17. Kelebihan undi bagi Dato Seri Anwar berbanding Mac 2008 tentulah kerana dalam jangka hanya lima bulan sokongan kepada BN dan UMNO merosot lagi.

18. Nak tunggu sampai bila wahai ahli UMNO, sebelum kamu sedar akan perlunya kepimpinan Dato Seri Abdullah ditamatkan?

Kelab Maya UMNO
— Abdullah-Anwar saling membantu – satu pengesahan?

Kelab Maya UMNO
— KELENTONGAN ATAU REALITI ?

Kelab Maya UMNO
— Current Global Economic Impact on Malaysia

Kelab Maya UMNO
— Isu Tidak Melunturkan Ketaksuban Terhadap Seseorang

Kelab Maya UMNO
— The Politics Of Fear... Not A Monopoly In Malaysia

Kelab Maya UMNO
— UTAMAKAN NEGARA BUKAN PERIBADI !

Kelab Maya UMNO
— PAS Selar DAP

Kelab Maya UMNO
— Seks, Wang dan PR(Pakatan Rasuah)

Tempoh hari kita telah menyaksikan tangkapan yang telah dilakukan oleh BPR kepada beberapa DUN Perak yang terdiri daripada exco kerajaan Perak sendiri. Didalam suasana PRK di P44 yang semakin rancak minggu lepas, BPR telah bertindak pantas dengan memberkas suspek semasa perkara terkutuk itu dilakukan. Dalam erti kata lain, tangkap basah! Atau dalam bahasa inggeris "caught red handed"!

Kelab Maya UMNO
— Apa motif DAP lantik Tunku Aziz sebagai VC?

A. Kadir Jasin

Kesan Besar Kemenangan Anwar

A Kadir Jasin

[TOLONG JANGAN BUANG MASA ANDA. ULASAN ANONYMOUS TIDAK AKAN DISIARKAN. SILA BACA BETUL-BETUL PERINGATAN BERIKUT. Komen menggunakan pengenalan anonymous TIDAK AKAN DILAYAN. Sila gunakanlah nama sebenar atau nama samaran. Jikalau menggunakan anonymous, sila nyatakan nama di penghujung komen. Ulasan yang mengandungi unsur fitnah, hasutan, perkauman dan bahasa kesat tidak akan disiarkan. Ulasan yang terkeluar daripada tajuk tidak akan diberi keutamaan.]

KEMENANGAN Anwar Ibrahim dalam pilihan raya kecil parlimen Permatang Pauh hari ini akan memberi kesan besar dan menyeluruh kepada persekitaran politik negara.

Anwar (Parti Keadilan Rakyat/Pakatan Rakyat) memperoleh 31,195 undi, Arif Shah Omar Shah (Barisan Nasional) 15,524 dan Hanafi Hamat (Akim) 92, memberikan Anwar majoriti 15,671 undi.

Kelebihan undi yang besar itu membuktikan populariti Anwar tetap kental walaupun sudah sedekad terkeluar daripada arus politik perdana dan kini menghadapi tuduhan liwat di mahkamah.

Serentak itu, keputusan pilihan raya kecil itu mengesahkan penolakan yang meluas dan berterusan terhadap Barisan Nasional, khasnya Umno.

Ia juga berupa undi tidak percaya terhadap Perdana Menteri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi dan tamparan hebat kepada timbalannya, Mohd Najib Abdul Razak, yang menjadi ketua kempen BN.

Beberapa fakta dan kesimpulan awal yang terbit daripada keputusan pilihan raya kecil itu adalah seperti berikut:

1. Serangan peribadi ke atas Anwar tidak berkesan walaupun BN menggunakan hujah seperti tuduhan liwat dan sumpah laknat si penuduh, Saiful Bukhari Azlan;

2. Gula-gula pilihan raya seperti penurunan harga minyak, janji-janji pembangunan dan buah tangan tidak membantu mengubah pendirian majoriti pengundi yang tidak sukakan BN;

3. Kehadiran begitu ramai pembesar Umno dan BN dengan jentera rasmi dan peribadi mereka ditolak oleh majoriti pengundi;

4. Peranan media massa arus perdana yang terus memberi gambaran yang songsang mengenai keadaan sebenar menyebabkan pemilih jelak dan menolak mesej BN dan pemerintah yang mereka bawa;

5. Kekalahan lebih teruk ini akan memburukkan lagi kedudukan Abdullah sebagai Perdana Menteri, Presiden Umno dan Pengerusi BN;

6. Kewibawaan dan integriti pakatan setia Abdullah-Mohd Najib semakin dicurigai apatah lagi apabila Mohd Najib sendiri menggunakan pilihan raya kecil itu untuk bersumpah dengan nama Allah menafikan keterlibatannya dalam kes pembunuhan Altantuya Shaariibuu.

Mohd Najib bersumpah yang dia tidak kenal dan tidak pernah berjumpa dengan wanita Mongolia itu;

7. Seruan supaya Abdullah segera meletakkan jawatan mungkin memuncak semula dan mungkin berlaku percubaan baru mencalonkan seseorang untuk mencabar beliau dan Mohd Najib pada pemilihan Umno Disember ini;

8. Kemenangan ini memberi mandat yang lebih kuat kepada Anwar untuk memujuk Ahli Dewan Rakyat BN untuk berpaling tadah menjelang Hari Malaysia pada 16 September ini seperti yang diuar-uarkannya;

9. Kedudukan Anwar sebagai MP dan calon Perdana Menteri Pakatan Rakyat bergantung dan tertakluk kepada keputusan perbicaraan kes liwatnya;

10. BN tidak lagi boleh menggunakan kuasa kewangan dan pentadbiran untuk mempengaruhi keputusan pilihan raya kecil. Pada masa lampau, BN umumnya menang pilihan raya kecil malah berjaya merampas kerusi pembangkang; dan

11. Umno akan lebih parah dan mungkin ditolak terus oleh orang Melayu pada pilihan raya umum akan datang jika kepemimpinannya terus mengabaikan mesej yang dihantar oleh pengundi. Ramai ahli parti dan penyokong BN tidak keluar mengundi.

KZ Ahmad
— Islam bercelaru; yang rogol adalah 'orang agama'

Salam, Isu sekarang saiful dah bersumpah untuk dirinya sendiri. Datuk pun boleh jadi saksi, sebab kalau dia sudah bersumpah yang bakal dilaknat sekiranya benar apa yang dia niatkan adalah dia yang terima. Soal saksi berdaftar ke , seorang yang beriman ke, ustaz ke, ulamak ke; itu urus tadbir. Ustaz-ustaz ni pun kong kali kong juga. Cara yang benar, Islam yang benar, ikut diorang aje. Kalau tak

Dr. Mahathir Mohamad
— AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

4. In boxing we cannot match a heavyweight against a lightweight. The latter would be hammered to a pulp.

5. In horse racing the lighter horse would carry weights so that the race is between evenly matched horses and riders.

6. Globalisation has been promoted by the rich countries.

7. The essence of globalisation is open borders or a borderless world. With this, the rich and the well-endowed will have unrestricted access to the countries of the poor in order to exploit them. Of course the poor can have access to the rich countries too. It sounds fair. The playing field seems to be level.

8. But what will certainly happen is that the rich will go into the poor countries and with their capital, their managerial skills, and their technology, would overwhelm the people in the poor countries with their small businesses, limited skills and limited capital.

9. The end result would be that the poor countries would effectively be owned and exploited by the rich countries and the local people would be mere workers in the big enterprises of the rich, earning a pittance for themselves. Essentially colonisation of the poor by the rich would again take place.

10. But the rich countries will claim that the people of the poor countries are free to do business in the rich countries, buy over the banks, the industries and anything they like. But they know and we know that it would be impossible for the people of the poor countries to do this.

11. This is why the WTO has been rejected by poor countries. The people of the poor countries know they cannot compete; know that in the end they would be colonised. They are not being selfish. It is simply that they want to exploit their wealth for themselves.

12. Effectively the poor countries want to discriminate in their favour by rejecting the borderless world of Globalisation. Exploitation by the rich would most likely enrich the poor countries. But they would rather be poor than be exploited.

13. We take the relative peace and stability in our country for granted. But look at other multi-ethnic countries. In most cases the indigenous people, if given power would not just discriminate against what they consider to be non-indigenous people but would want to expel them. Look around us and you will understand what I mean. Look at the Tamils of Sri Lanka, and the Indians in Burma. There are other examples which I will not mention here.

14. But the indigenous people of this country actually welcome the non-indigenous and expressed their willingness to share the wealth and the opportunities that this great country has to offer between them. But the sharing must be fair. That was the kind of sharing our founders agreed upon. The Malays would not have agreed if in this country they would be reduced to being the hewers of wood and drawers of water.

15. When the sharing did not really take place, the anger lead to the 1969 race riots.

16. Following that our wise leaders from all the communities agreed on how to carry out the sharing. They agreed on what is basically affirmative action. They agreed that they would eradicate poverty irrespective of race and that there should be no identification of race with economic function.

17. It is only a small sacrifice. But the peace and stability that came with the NEP had enriched the country which in turn had contributed towards peace and stability even during the recession caused by the financial crises. We know that racial riots occurred in other countries at that time. Contributing to the fairness of the NEP was the decision that discrimination should not be by expropriation of what already belonged to others but through the distribution of new wealth and opportunities. Thus, the sense of deprivation would be reduced.

18. But even when the discrimination is to be based on growth the rich would still feel a sense of deprivation because they cannot get all the wealth and opportunities that they believe they were qualified for.

19. If contracts or licences or permits are to be given out why should someone less qualified get them when they, the qualified could make better use of these things.

20. In the case of university admission and scholarships, why should someone less qualified get admitted when the better qualified cannot.

21. So even when the corrective action is based on new opportunities and wealth and not by expropriation of what is already in the possession of the rich, there would still be a sense of deprivation by the richer communities.

22. Accepted that the richer communities also have poor members among them and the New Economic Policy's first prong clearly proposed poverty eradication irrespective of race, the fact remains that there is more poverty among the poorer community than among the richer communities.

23. If we eliminate poverty among the rich without regard to the level of poverty, then the richer community would be rid of poverty while the poorer community would still be saddled with extensive poverty.

24. Today we have reduced poverty to 5 percent. If we care to do a study, we will find that the majority of those still under the poverty line would be from the deprived community.

25. Still, despite the alleged discrimination, our poverty eradication is regarded as being very successful. It is nearly impossible to find hard core poverty among the better-off race in the urban areas. There are more in the rural areas.

26. Fifty years is a short period in the history of nations. We have not reached menopause yet. In fact we are in our youth still. Whether we succeed to overcome our present difficulties depends on us. If we fail, pointing fingers will not save us.

27. I will readily admit that the NEP had been abused. But we are so ready to blame that we pick on the wrong target. Of course the way the affirmative action was carried out, and the abuses, were picked on by the opposition to condemn the whole policy.

28. UMNOputra, like cronyism, was a word invented by politicians and the detractors of this brash country which dared to thumb its nose at the powers that be. Unable to condemn blatant corruption as they do to other countries, they came up with cronyism and UMNOputra. When there is real cronyism and corruption they deliberately ignore them because these are committed by their favourite people.

29. Before making these criticisms against the affirmative action of the NEP, why not make a real study. Are most of the Malays getting the scholarships and entries into the universities the children of UMNO people? If they are, why was it necessary to have the Universities and University College Act to stop students from demonstrations against the UMNO-led Government? How did the doctors and lawyers in PAS get their education? Are the students all from rich families with connections?

30. I will be the first to admit that there have been abuses in the promotion of business among the bumiputeras. Given opportunities, given licenses, permits, contracts etc, they disposed these for immediate gains. This frustrates the efforts to help them. Some degree of abuses may be excused but the degree of abuse of the opportunities created by the NEP is far too much. They cannot all be excused.

31. I also admit that there has been unfairness in the award of scholarships and Government jobs.

32. I will not try to defend these abuses. We must try to reduce them. But affirmation is about discrimination. And those discriminated against will never understand the big picture, the benefits of an increasingly egalitarian society.

33. The Malays must accept that this discrimination cannot be forever. If they fail to respond properly to what is being done for them, they should accept this policy would be taken away.

34. When Malay youngsters, especially boys, failed to study and qualify for university education, when they preferred to play and not study, we cannot expect the non-Malays to patiently wait and give up their opportunities until the Malays decide to become serious and study. That would not be fair.

35. That was why we introduced merit in the selection of students for the universities. Unfortunately, the implementers of Government decisions chose to interpret it differently. By requiring Bumiputeras to sit for the matriculation and the non-Bumiputeras to sit for higher school certificates, they managed to give the impression that the Bumiputeras were actually better qualified than the non-Bumiputeras. With this, the intention of the Government to make the Bumiputeras become more serious about their education failed.

36. There is a tendency among Malays to regard the discrimination in their favour as a privilege, as a recognition of their superior status. I think this is wrong. The discrimination is in order to give them a kind of headstart so that they can catch up with other races. To me, it is shameful to have to be protected because we do not have the capacity to compete. We are not Red Indians to live on reserves. We should regard it as a temporary expedient to be done away with once we have achieved the capacity to compete on our own.

37. However, we must give time for ending the NEP and it should be done in stages. I hope that the time will not be too long. In the meantime, serious efforts by the Bumiputeras must be made to avail themselves of the opportunities. If this is obviously not being done, then, as with entrance into the universities, the discrimination must end.

Marina Mahathir
— Except for...?

JOHOR BARU: Laws and regulations that are gender discriminatory will need to be reviewed to ensure equal opportunity for women. (ALL of them? Syariah ones too?)

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said that women today held key positions not only in the Government but also in the private sector.

“If there is any sort of discrimination, this is due to certain laws which need to be reviewed,” he said, adding that such matters would need to be looked into by the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry. (And what about the Special Adviser on Women's Affairs??)

“In fact, excluding me and the Second Finance Minister (Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop), the eight other key people involved in the upcoming Budget were four women and four men,” he added. (That makes 6 men and 4 women...)

Previously when he was in the civil service, there were few women holding key positions, Abdullah in his speech during the launch of the national level Women’s Day celebrations.

He also announced an RM10mil incentive to enhance the implementation of the Home Managers training programme.

“The Government is supportive of efforts and initiatives which help in family building and is willing to allocate more resources for such programmes,” he said, adding that he hoped that women would take advantage of such programmes.

Abdullah also paid tribute to women who have excelled in their respective fields such as Bank Negara governor Tan Sri Zeti Akhtar Aziz and Securities Commission chairman Datuk Zarinah Anwar.

Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Dr Ng Yen Yen said the Home Managers programme was aimed at creating professional housekeepers.

“We will now start on creating the curriculum and hope to begin the programme by year end. We are looking for anyone who loves to do housework,” she said, adding that the one- to two-week free training would be outsourced. (Can men do this too?)

Dr Ng said that she would suggest that a recommended monthly wage of RM800 to RM1,000 be set and stressed that these “house managers” should not be equated to domestic servants.

“We are also not doing it as a care programme, but as part of the service economy.

“There are many women who are working outside and need help,” she said, adding that this would also allow more women to enter the workplace. (So it's NOT a care programme?)

Dr Ng said that participants in the programme would also be required to undergo medical screening and background checks to ensure they had no prior criminal records. (OK....how is that different from our current domestic workers?)

A. Kadir Jasin

Implikasi luas Pilihan Raya Kecil Permatang Pauh

A Kadir Jasin

[TOLONG JANGAN BUANG MASA ANDA. ULASAN ANONYMOUS TIDAK AKAN DISIARKAN. SILA BACA BETUL-BETUL PERINGATAN BERIKUT. Komen menggunakan pengenalan anonymous TIDAK AKAN DILAYAN. Sila gunakanlah nama sebenar atau nama samaran. Jikalau menggunakan anonymous, sila nyatakan nama di penghujung komen. Ulasan yang mengandungi unsur fitnah, hasutan, perkauman dan bahasa kesat tidak akan disiarkan. Ulasan yang terkeluar daripada tajuk tidak akan diberi keutamaan.]

DALAM masa tidak sampai 12 jam pemilih kawasan Parlimen Permatang Pauh akan keluar mengundi bagi menentukan bukan sahaja kesudahan politik Anwar Ibrahim tetapi masa depan politik negara.

Sama ada bekas Timbalan Perdana Menteri itu menang atau tidak, implikasi pilihan raya kecil ini adalah luas dan mengambil masa yang lama untuk sampai ke penyudahnya.

Jangkaan umum menjurus kepada kemenangan Anwar. Yang menjadi persoalan hanyalah sama ada ia kemenangan besar atau tipis. Menang tetap menang.

Yang sudah pasti adalah kempen pilihan raya kecil itu bukan sahaja sengit tetapi mengandungi unsur-unsur sensasi yang nyata banyak melanggar etika, adab dan tatasusila – daripada tuduhan liwat kepada pembunuhan, pengkhianatan, politik wang dan penyalahgunaan kuasa.

Tetapi salah satu kesan jangka panjang yang memerlukan masa untuk diselidik dan difahami adalah tindakan beberapa watak terbabit menggunakan sumpah untuk membela diri.

Apakah sumpah atas nama Allah atau sumpah di masjid ini boleh dilakukan sewenang-wenangnya dan dijadikan amalan politik harian?

Yang pertama bersumpah dengan nama Allah dan merujuk kepada balasan laknat adalah Saiful Bukhari Azlan yang mengaku dia telah diliwat oleh Anwar.

Dia bersumpah di hadapan imam dan pegawai Masjid Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur pada 15 Ogos, sehari sebelum penamaan calon Permatang Pauh.

Walaupun sumpah Saiful Bukari itu didakwa tidak kena mengena dengan pilihan raya kecil Permatang Pauh, namun menurut laporan media massa arus perdana dan alternatif ia menjadi bahan kempen yang hangat bagi Barisan Nasional.

Tindakan Saiful Bukhari dicontohi oleh Timbalan Perdana Menteri Mohd Najib Abdul Razak apabila beliau bersumpah, juga dengan nama Allah, di sebuah masjid di Permatang Pauh.

Mohd Najib bersumpah dia tidak pernah berjumpa dan tidak kenal dengan mangsa pembunuhan sensasi Altantuya Shaariibuu. Penasihat politik Mohd Najib, Abdul Razak Abdullah Baginda dan dua anggota polis sedang dibicarakan atas tuduhan membunuh wanita Mongolia itu.

Apa pun muslihat dan kesan mutakhir dua sumpah ini ke atas keputusan pilihan raya kecil Permatang Pauh dan kepada orang yang bersumpah, satu perkara yang dikhuatiri adalah implikasinya terhadap Islam.

Apakah kesan sumpah ini terhadap orang Islam keseluruhannya dan terhadap pandangan orang bukan Islam kepada Islam?

Perbuatan bersumpah ini boleh mencetuskan persoalan dan pertikaian yang berkemungkinan akan mencemar dan memburukkan lagi imej Islam di negara kita.

Misalnya, apakah reaksi mahkamah sivil terhadap sumpah seperti ini? Adakah sumpah di masjid dengan menggunakan nama Allah atau Al-Quran boleh diterima sebagai bukti?

Dalam keghairahan orang politik dan pihak-pihak yang bersekongkol dengan mereka menggunakan kaedah sumpah ini untuk membela diri, mereka wajib sedar bahawa tindak-tanduk mereka boleh menjejaskan akidah umat Islam dan mendedahkan agama Islam kepada sendaan orang bukan Islam.

Adalah sangat merugikan Islam apabila pihak-pihak yang membelakangkan Islam di dalam tindakan rasmi dan peribadi mereka tiba-tiba bersumpah atas nama Allah dan Kitab Suci apabila tersepit.

Di satu sudut lain pula, perbuatan bersumpah dengan nama Allah dan Al-Quran ini boleh diambil kesempatan oleh pihak-pihak yang mahu hukum hudud diperkenalkan sebagai undang-undang sejagat bagi memperkukuhkan tuntutan mereka.

KZ Ahmad
— Anwar Ibrahim; Bakal Perdana Menteri Malaysia 16 September ini?

Kelab Maya UMNO
— Anwar : Penyingkirannya Selamatkan Nasib Bangsa

Mungkin ini satu rahmat tersembunyi yang ramai orang tidak tahu jika tidak menghayati perjuangan sebenar orang Melayu khususnya UMNO. Penyingkiran Anwar Ibrahim daripada kerajaan dan UMNO adalah tindakan yang tepat kerana ia mengetepikan satu anasir yang boleh mengharu-birukan bangsa Melayu dalam menghadapi alaf akan datang. Tindakan itu juga menyelamatkan UMNO dari dirosakkan oleh orang yang bukan berjiwa UMNO.

Dr. Khir Toyo
— Memilih Pemimpin Untuk Bersorak atau Bekerja?

Assalamualaikum dan salam sejahtera para sahabat bloggers sekalian, 1. Esok akan merupakan satu titik penting dalam landskap politik negara. Sungguhpun pilihanraya kecil Permatang Pauh hanya menentukan ahli Parlimen bagi kawasan Permatang Pauh namun ia mejadi begitu "panas" dan tegang hampir di setiap kawasan terutamanya di kawasan pengundi Melayu. 2. Keadaan kali ini lebih kurang sama dengan

Kelab Maya UMNO
— Antara Sumpah Saiful dan Kengganan Sumpah Anwar

Kelab Maya UMNO
— NOVUS ORDO SECLORUM & THE ALL SEEING EYE 4 - THE OATH OF OBLIGATION

Kelab Maya UMNO
— Anwar Pejuang Gereja Sejati

Kelab Maya UMNO
— DAP MAHU RAMPAS KUASA DI PWTC

Kelab Maya UMNO
— Cara-cara untuk menyelamatkan orang-orang Melayu

Sejarah di Malaysia telah menunjukkan bahawa orang Melayu terlalu memberi muka kepada orang Cina sehinggakan orang Cina tidak pernah menghargai segala kebaikan yang dilakukan oleh orang Melayu. Lebih dari itu, orang Cina tidak pernah menunjukkan rasa hormat kepada orang Melayu.

Marina Mahathir
— Slumming it...and Getting Educated

(Slum street scene, Dhaka.)

My last stop in Dhaka was a particularly enlightening one. I wanted to see projects by BRAC (originally short for Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee but now is simply known by its initials), the largest NGO in the world with over 100,000 employees. Founded in 1972 by an economist Fazle Hassan Abed with a mission to alleviate poverty and empower the poor, BRAC is now so well-established and successful that it now runs BRACBank, BRAC University, BRAC Insitute of Governance, 50,000 schools, offers comprehensive healthcare to 31 million people, runs Aarong which sells high-quality handicrafts made by poor rural women and is now doing work in other countries in Asia and Africa.

Early one morning I went with BRAC staff to one of Dhaka's slums to visit one of their schools and a safe delivery centre. It had rained the night before so the slum's streets were muddy. No cars can navigate inside it because the 'streets' were simply not wide enough. The solution was to walk or ride a rickshaw. Since I wasn't wearing the right walking shoes, I got to ride in my first ever rickshaw since probably the beginning of time...

You don't realise how lively a slum can be until you explore one. This slum was like a small city, full of shops selling everything its dwellers may need. There were grocery shops, fruitsellers, barbers, coffeeshops, clothing stores and a myriad other small businesses. Vendors also ply the streets selling their wares; I bought some well-crafted kitchen wooden utensils from one. They cost 14 thaka (about 50 sen) in all.

(The BRAC schoolroom)

After riding through several streets, we finally came to the BRAC primary school (there are other schools run by NGOs in the slum too). About 50 children sat on the floor in a one-room schoolroom, brightly lit by the sunshine outside. These girls and boys, aged between about 6-12, spend about 4 years in this school, learning the same curriculum that would take 5 years in regular schools.

But the difference is that this school is informal. They are geared to the children's situation, is interactive and fun and aimed at getting the children educated enough to eventually join regular mainstream schools. And the amazing thing is this: when they do join the mainstream schools, they do better than the kids who had been there longer.

The kids I saw were certainly happy to be at school. They began with a game where, as the whole room chanted, each child took turns to name a different country. Perhaps for my benefit, 'Malaysia' came up twice. They then all sat in their places on the floor ( there are no desks), their small pile of books stacked neatly in front of them. Asked what their favourite subjects were, some answered, " Bangla", "Maths", "English!" Indeed, they were not shy in the least to speak in English, shouting out " howarrryouuuuu??", "Whatisyourrrrnammme???" gleefully. They asked me questions about where I came from, where did I go to school and what my favourite subjects were and were just delighted to host a visitor who was in turn delighted to meet them.

(Kids getting cosy with their visitor)

And to think, BRAC runs 30,000 schools like this all over Bangladesh!

Regretfully leaving them, we then went on to visit a small healthcare centre. Many of the slum women deliver their babies at home which can be unsafe for both mother and baby. So BRAC started a system where trained midwives visit homes, identify pregnant women and encourage them to deliver babies at birth centres they set up in the slums. These birth centres may not be as modern as what we are used to but they are clean and there are trained female birth attendants. If there should be any problems, they know how to refer to the nearest hospital. In this way, both infant and mortality rates are lowered.

Even more interesting, the midwives have an opportunity to make some money by selling medical supplies to the households such as over-the-counter medicines, sanitary pads, vitamins. This is generally the excuse to visit the homes and they then take this opportunity to make note of the general health of each household, including whether there is a pregnant woman or not. These midwives are also from the slum community so they are very well-accepted by the people there. and they also educate their community folks about hygiene and prevention of illnesses and family planning.

It reminds me of the early days of our own country when we used to have more community-based health workers who know their community folks very well. Perhaps we still have these in our rural areas. I wonder whether squatter settlements have access to such facilities.

Kelab Maya UMNO
— Rintangan terhadap impian menggunung Anwar

Kelab Maya UMNO
— Jadikan Isu Istana Kampung Glam Singapura Sebagai Iktibar

Pembangkang Pro-Singapura. Masih ingatkah lagi kita dengan isu Istana Kampung Glam apabila parti pembangkang cuba membangkitkan mengapa perlu ahli parlimen UMNO mempertahankan berita yang dilaporkan oleh TV3 dan Utusan mengenai isu Istana Kampong Glam. Menurut pandangan parti pembangkang yang sempit ini isu berkenaan akan membangkitkan kemarahan kerajaan dan rakyat Singapura serta rakyat berbangsa Cina di negara ini. Mereka juga berpendapat bahawa pihak kerajaan cuba mencampuri hal-ehwal politik negara jiran itu.

KZ Ahmad
— Permatang Pauh 44; bertemu bekas reformis 98 di Bahrain

Tempohari tidak disangka bertemu reformis 98. Beliau akui begitu fanatik mempertahankan Anwar. Ada bukti katanya. Beliau bekas kakitangan kerajaan yang kemudianya bekerja di swasta. Beliau kemudianya merantau keluar dari Malaysia sehingga ke hari ini. Kini di Saudi Arabia. Setelah beberapa hari berlalu, beliau mengirimkan sms antaranya: "Najib dah bersumpah di masjid kat P.Pauh tapi

Kelab Maya UMNO
— Nizar Luluskan Lesen Balak Untuk DAP

Kelab Maya UMNO
— Apabila Pak Lah Mula Berkempen

Kelab Maya UMNO
— Kezaliman PKR terdedah satu persatu!

Marina Mahathir
— Empowering the Margins

To say that Bangladesh is a populous country would be something of an understatement. It has about 150 million people squeezed into 133,910 square kilometers. (By comparison, the US is 9.1million sq km and 300 million people and Russia, over 16 million square km with 141 million people). This gives it one of the highest population densities in the world. And boy, when you're sitting in a Dhaka traffic jam, you really feel it.

Wending my way through the horrific traffic, I managed to visit two NGOs which are doing good work in their respective fields. The CREA-Modhumita HIV prevention and treatment centre is housed in a building in Lalbagh, Old Dhaka. Here, a small group of doctors and counsellors help drug users get off their addiction and also educate them about HIV. Housing both male and female drug users for three months, the doctors and staff work to not only get their residents off drugs but also to get them jobs after rehabilitation as well as reunite them with their families. Those who have family support afterwards tend to stay off drugs much longer than those who don't.

(Talking to male recovering drug users at CREA-Modhumita.)

I sat with the residents to ask them how they felt being there. It was easy to tell who had been there a while and who had just arrived. The former looked healthier and calmer while the more recently-arrived looked thin and more nervous. They all seemed to know exactly how many days they had been in there, readily answering '84 days' or '19 days' as the case may be. But they seemed to be universally appreciative of the opportunity to get their lives back, as well as to be in a safe place with decent medical care and food.

Asked what message they had for others using drugs and still on the streets, they stressed the importance of being safe, knowing the dangers of HIV.

(The shy women at Modhumita telling me their stories.)

There are not as many women in residence at Modhimatu but they have more difficulty in getting their lives back together. More sensitive about the presence of cameras than the men, we had to negotiate to keep their faces out of the photos before we could start talking. Many of them had worked in garment factories, some had become involved in prostitution. One shy young woman who understood English fairly well had once been a dancer and actress on TV. But they too felt grateful for the opportunity to get cleaned up and maybe, just maybe, get back on track again.

(The Durjoy team, Shahnaz Begum, President, in white, Hazera Bagum, in purple. The sign above us means 'Dhurjoy Children's Care Centre')

Not too far away from there, I visited a rather special NGO, Durjoy Nari Shangar. This translates into 'Victorious Women's Association' but the women of Durjoy are not your average women's association types: they are all sex workers. Shahnaz Begum is an attractive dignified woman who is President of DNS while the very pretty and lively Hazera Bagum is Project Director of the Durjoy Children's Centre. (Hazera had met me the night before at a UNAIDS function and despite my inability to understand Bangla, had chattered away at me insisting that I visit her centre. I could not resist.)

As can be imagined, sex workers in Bangladesh have lives well below the radar of most people. Marginalised, harassed, ignored and neglected, they suffer abuse at every turn. Worse still, their children suffer from being almost totally ignored by society.

In Bangladesh, father's lineage is most important in determining a person's identity.As most children of sex workers are unable to claim their lineage, they become non-persons, unable to obtain papers and therefore to do what other children do, including go to school. This is one of the reasons that Durjoy Nari Shangar was set up in 1999, to fight for the rights of both sex workers and their children. Today DNS has over 3500 members, all sex workers.

Thus far, without much fuss and fanfare, DNS has quietly been advocating for their rights, obtaining funding from various foreign donor organisations for the centre which I visited. One of the chief problems that the sex workers faced was what to do with their children while they were at work. Some have had their children kidnapped while waiting for their mothers on the street. Others have been forced to bring their kids into the same room as them while they worked.

(Little dancer, Durjoy Children's Centre)

In order to serve this need, DNS set up the Durjoy Child Care Centre specifically to cater to the sex workers' children. In a brightly lit but very bare room, the children played, sang, recited poetry and danced for their visitor, smiling all the way. They were proud to show off their English, these poor undernourished children, unlike our shy people at home.

(Shahnaz and I and the kids of Durjoy)

Like everyone I met in Bangladesh, the women and children of Durjoy were naturally hospitable, insisting I have tea and cookies. Shahnaz and Hazera are understandably proud of what they have achieved with their centre but worried that their funding would soon run out. Would there be anyone in the world who would be keen to help sex workers and their children in Bangladesh?

Kelab Maya UMNO
— Siapa Gus Dur Mahu Ajar Kita?

KUALA LUMPUR, 22 Ogos (Bernama) -- Beberapa hari lepas, bekas presiden Indonesia Abdurrahman Wahid tiba-tiba saja muncul di Malaysia dalam apa yang dilihat sebagai cubaan untuk membantu kempen Parti Keadilan Rakyat dalam pilihan raya kecil Permatang Pauh.

Namun, untuk PKR bergantung kepada seorang personaliti yang bercelaru dan tidak lagi berwibawa, adalah sesuatu langkah yang dianggap kurang wajar.

Kelab Maya UMNO
— Dakwaan cuba ‘kacau bini’…Timbalan Menteri cabar Anwar saman

Bagi mereka yang kurang tahu sejarah… Timbalan Menteri Perumahan dan Kerajaan Tempatan sekarang,Datuk Hamzah Zainuddin pernah rapat dengan Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim masa beliau Timbalan Perdana Menteri dulu.

Rabu Penasihat PKR itu telah memberi tempoh 48 jam kepada Hamzah yang juga Ahli Majlis Tertinggi UMNO memohon maaf kepadanya jika tidak surat saman RM10 juta akan sampai.

Kelab Maya UMNO
— Surat Terbuka Buat Datin Seri Wan Azizah: Usah Bersandiwara Lagi

Kelab Maya UMNO
— DILEMA MELAYU ERA PAK LAH

Kelab Maya UMNO
— Menafsir lawatan John L. Esposito ke rumah Anwar

Berikut merupakan catatan peribadi Anwar di blognya mengenai lawatan John L. Esposito, seorang orientalis, guru Anwar yang menjadi Pengarah Center for Muslim Christian Understanding (CMCU) di Universiti Georgetown, Amerika.

Hayati dan perhalusi apakah maksud tersurat dan tersirat Anwar itu :

Kelab Maya UMNO
— CM Half-truth

Kelab Maya UMNO
— Cadangan 30% Kuota Melayu & Bumiputra Di IPTS Dipanjangkan - Bab 1

Dr. Mahathir Mohamad
— MERDEKA

4. Rata-rata kita lihat kemajuan yang telah dicapai. Jumlah yang miskin telah dikurangkan dan mereka turut bersama bergembira.

5. Rakyat berbilang kaum tidak bermusuh sesama mereka walaupun tidaklah berharmoni seperti yang diharapkan. Namun tiap kali pilihanraya diadakan majoriti pengundi memberi kepercayaan kepada Kerajaan Barisan Nasional kerana beranggapan segala-gala yang dinikmati adalah hasil pemerintahan Kerajaan-Kerajaan BN. Biasanya mereka memberi kemenangan lebih 2/3 daripada kerusi Parlimen.

6. Rakyat Malaysia yang pergi ke negara asing berasa bangga kerana Malaysia dikagumi dan dihormati oleh siapa sahaja yang mereka bertemu apabila sahaja orang asing mengetahui yang mereka dari Malaysia.

7. Mereka menyebut menara kembar Petronas dan perlumbaan Formula 1. Orang Islam asing pula tertarik dengan kemajuan dan kestabilan sebuah negara Islam.

8. Kerana semua ini rakyat Malaysia gembira dan bersemangat untuk menyambut kedatangan Hari Merdeka. Jalur Gemilang dikibar di kereta-kereta dan di bangunan-bangunan. Bukan sahaja Melayu yang bersemangat, Cina, India, Kadazan, Iban dan semua suku kaum di Sabah dan Sarawak memperlihatkan semangat dan kegembiraan mereka.

9. Biasanya apabila tiba bulan Ogos semangat dan kegembiraan rakyat dipertunjukkan dengan pelbagai cara. Jalur Gemilang berkibar di merata-rata tempat. Mungkin saya silap, atau mungkin saya bias (berat sebelah), tetapi bulan Ogos ini rakyat agak muram, tidak gembira dan bersemangat luntur.

10. Mungkin ini kerana kenaikan harga minyak dan lain-lain. Tetapi ternampak ada sesuatu yang lain yang tidak kena yang menyebabkan rakyat tidak gembira untuk menyambut Hari Kemerdekaan.

11. Blogger Sheih Kickdefella telah syor kempen terbalikkan Jalur Gemilang sebagai cara memprotes ketamakan ahli dan pemimpin parti-parti politik tanpa mengira parti mana.

12. Cadangan seperti ini tidak pernah dibuat selama 50 tahun kita Merdeka.

13. Reaksi Dato Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi mudah diramal. Cadangan kempen ini ditafsir olehnya sebagai perbuatan kurang ajar. Dan seperti biasa ugutan dibuat supaya polis akan ambil tindakan terhadap blogger berkenaan. Lain-lain blogger juga dibelasah sebagai tidak berfaedah dan mendatangkan kesusahan kepada rakyat.

14. Cadangan mengibar Jalur Gemilang terbalik dianggap menghina diri sebagai rakyat Malaysia.

15. Tidak terlintaskah dalam hati Dato Seri Abdullah untuk bertanya dan mengambil tahu kenapa cadangan ganjil ini dibuat? Seperti dengan kekalahan BN pada Mac tahun ini, Dato Seri Abdullah menafikan bahawa ada sesuatu yang tidak kena dengan BN dan Kerajaan pimpinan beliau yang menyebabkan penyokong BN daripada semua kaum memberi undi mereka kepada parti lawan. Sebaliknya beliau mentafsir merosotnya undi kepada calon-calon BN disebabkan sabotaj dan pihak tertentu tidak mahu beri kemenangan 2/3 kepada BN. Kenapa mereka berbuat demikian tidak dipersoal olehnya, hanya kemarahan dan ugutan untuk bertindak terhadap mereka ini.

16. Macam-macam cara telah dibuat untuk menyedarkan pemimpin ini tentang perasaan tidak puas hati rakyat, tetapi sikap penafiannya menyebabkan semua mesej disalah tafsir dan disalah erti. Dalam keadaan kecewa rakyat maka sukarlah bagi mereka untuk menunjuk semangat dan kegembiraan dengan keriangan sambutan hari Merdeka.

17. Kata seorang daripada kenalan saya, sekarang hanya 10 hari sahaja sebelum hari Merdeka tetapi ianya melihat hanya sebuah kereta sahaja yang memasang Jalur Gemilang.

18. Kata seorang lagi, saya simpan sahaja Jalur Gemilang tahun ini.

19. Tidak ada sesuatu bangsa yang bermaruah yang tidak ingin bebas daripada belenggu penjajahan. Kita lihat di sana-sini peperangan untuk membebas wilayah sendiri sedang berlaku. Kita lihat penderitaan mereka, hidup tidak sempurna, berlari-lari dengan bungkusan harta yang sedikit ke sana-sini. Sekejap-sekejap letupan senjata membunuh dan mencederakan mereka. Inilah nasib orang yang dijajah yang ingin merdeka.

20. Pada tahun 1957 kita merdeka dan harapan kita ialah hidup yang lebih bahagia. Justeru kita rayakan hari keramat ini kerana merdeka difahami dan dihargai oleh semua pihak.

21. Saya percaya kita masih hargai kebebasan kita, kemerdekaan kita. Tetapi sesuatu telah berlaku yang menyebabkan kita tidak begitu gembira pada hari ulangtahun merdeka pada tahun ini. Kita kesal kerana kita tidak dapat buat apa-apa untuk mengembalikan kegembiraan bangsa yang merdeka.

22. Kita bersyukur kerana kita, samada Melayu, Cina, India, Iban, Kadazan dan lain-lain suku kaum tidak bersifat ganas, tidak suka pada huru-hara, tidak berminat merusuh. Tetapi pemimpin hendaklah faham kenapa rakyat berasa muram tahun ini. Jangan tipu diri dengan berkata tak benar rakyat tidak gembira. Lihat sahaja berapa ramai yang keluar melihat bunga api. Malangnya ini bukan ukurannya. Ini hanyalah cara untuk melupakan sekejap keperitan hidup rakyat kerana diperintah oleh orang yang tidak mahu faham tentang perasaan rakyat.

23. Saya akan sambut Hari Merdeka tetapi tidak seperti 50 sambutan yang terdahulu. Sesuatu sudah hilang daripada makna kemerdekaan. Mulut sudah ditutup dan apa yang ada dalam hati tinggal tertambat, tidak boleh diluahkan. Kita takut berkata apa-apa kerana polis akan digesa bertindak. Kadang-kadang saya berasa yang kita berada dalam sebuah Police State (Negara bawah kawalan polis). Tetapi ini mungkin sifat keterlaluan saya.

24. Selamat Menyambut Hari Kemerdekaan yang ke-51. Mudah-mudahan Allah s.w.t. akan membuka hati mereka supaya faham mesej-mesej yang disampaikan oleh rakyat.

Muhammad Muhd Taib
— Permatang Pauh

Muhammad Muhd Taib
— Melihat Permatang Pauh dari dekat…

Salam bahagia untuk semua. Mungkin sehingga 26 Ogos ini saya akan banyak mencatit dalam laman ini tentang perkembangan pilihan raya kecil Permatang Pauh. Malah sejak sebelum penamaan calon lagi saya sudah berulang alik antara Kuala Lumpur dan Permatang Pauh. Namun, dengan tinggal lima hari lagi sebelum hari pembuangan undi, saya sudah mula berkampong di Permatang Pauh.

Semalam, saya berkesempatan untuk sekali lagi ‘turun padang’ pergi rumah ke rumah pengundi sekitar Parlimen Permatang Pauh. Pertama sekali saya amat terkejut melihat keadaan infrastruktur kampong-kampong tersebut yang masih lagi jauh ketinggalan. Bagi saya inilah kawasan parlimen bekas Timbalan Perdana Menteri dan Menteri Kewangan yang ditinggalkan dan kemudian disambung oleh isterinya Dato’ Seri Wan Azizah atas tikit Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR).

Saya bersama petugas-petugas bilik gerakan pilihan raya telah menemui beberapa orang pengundi yang terdiri dari golongan kurang upaya, ibu tunggal, keluarga yang menanggung anak atau ahli keluarga yang sakit serta mereka yang tidak mendapat pembelaan dari wakil rakyat yang dipilih sebelum ini.

Turut serta bersama saya sekumpulan tiga orang doctor yang diketui oleh Dr. Roa. Kami datang bukan sekadar untuk menyampaikan sedikit buah tangan malah doctor yang ada terus melakukan pemeriksaan kesihatan dan mencadangkan rawatan lanjut kepada pesakit.

Rata-rata yang ditemui mengakui selama ini mereka tidak dipedulikan oleh wakil rakyat yang dipilih dan mereka hilang tempat mengadu kerana wakil PKR lebih mementingkan soal politik nasional daripada melihat keperluan dan masalah rakyat yang diwakili.

Bagi saya, inilah masalah sebenar orang Permatang Pauh. Orang luar, seperti saya dan kita semua mungkin melihat pilihan raya kecil Permatang Pauh ini lebih kepada soal Anwar Ibrahim ingin menjadi Perdana Menteri tetapi terlupa dan terlepas pandang nasib orang Permatang Pauh yang akan menanggung atas keputusan yang mereka buat nanti selama sekurang-kurangnya empat tahun lagi.

Bagi saya masalah rakyat setempat adalah soal kenapa kita perlu memilih wakil rakyat yang benar-benar mewakili parti yang mampu memberi perkhidmatan kepada pengundi mereka.

Oleh itu, saya menyeru kepada pengundi di Permatang Pauh agar lebih bersedia untuk berubah untuk masa depan mereka dan jenerasi yang ada daripada terlalu emosi kerana simpati dengan lakonan seorang yang mempunyai agenda peribadi.

Dr. Mahathir Mohamad
— 2008 GENERAL ELECTION

4. Do they care that our democracy is not as liberal as the western democracies? Do they care about detached intellectual discourse by intellectuals who want to display their intellect?

5. If they, the intellectuals think or believe that these kampong people, petty traders and hawkers voted for the opposition because of these ideals, because they have become very mature, because they want to see change, then think again. Go down to the very "unintellectual" level of these ordinary voters and try talking to them about your ideas.

6. You will find that their concerns are about their cost of living, the price of padi, jobs for them and their children, some of whom are graduates, their small businesses, the little development for their villages and urban slums, their dissatisfaction with their treatment by Government officers and their wakil rakyat not visiting them etc.

7. Whom do they blame? They blame UMNO and its leaders and the kowtow-ing leaders of MCA, Gerakan, MIC. In particular they blame the Prime Minister, Dato Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

8. Why did they blame Abdullah? Their reasoning was simple. Under previous Prime Ministers they were very much better off; the prices of goods did not go up too high, their incomes had increased, the officials were more attentive and so were their wakils etc etc.

9. Besides these there were no other changes. UMNO, MCA, Gerakan, MIC were all still there although they were somewhat different, being led at the local and national level by grasping politicians concerned with holding posts which gave them opportunities to enrich themselves, getting JPs (Justice of Peace), Datuk-ship, Tan Sri-ship and other ships, kissing the PM's hand in order to win his favour. They cared more for what they could get from him than what they could do for the people. And his response was to favour these leaders and not the people. These leaders and party hacks would keep him as their President and therefore his Premiership. For the people he proposed Corridors in the future.

10. The people did not object too much to the corruption. It would be good if they got a piece of the goodies themselves. But the Prime Minister did not bother. Comfortable with the support of his party people he did not see the need to bribe the people. So the people owed him nothing.

11. They regarded him as being responsible for all their misfortunes simply because all these misfortunes came during his time, or more crudely it came from him. So it seems to them.

12. One of the things that the simple people did not like was a lack of gratefulness shown by these leaders. They, the ordinary voters were too scared to protest over this show of ungratefulness on the part of the Prime Minister and his minions. But they felt strongly about Abdullah's lack of gratefulness, especially as he let his minions show crudely their ungratefulness, cursing and condemning the people who had been responsible for their exalted position as Ministers etc.

13. The people feared the reaction of the Government and did not voice their disgust at such uncouth behaviour. But that did not mean that they were prepared to overlook such displays of ungratefulness. And so the first time they felt free to express their views without fear they did - by voting against the Barisan Nasional.

14. And so the BN lost. But the opposition did not win, certainly not because the simple voters liked the opposition. They won by default because that was the only way the erstwhile BN supporters could show their dislike for the people they blame for their problems. The BN lost, the opposition really did not win.

15. The liberal intellectuals should be able to see this. But they wanted so much to believe that they had convinced the opposition parties and the voters about their ideals of liberal democracy, their free speech, transparency etc etc. that they took the apparent success of the opposition as being due to their espousing and the electorate being convinced of the kind of politics the intellectuals preach.

16. And so when recently opposition party members behaved in the old ways, reverting to racism and religious intolerance, to disliking sensitive issues to be openly discussed, to regarding those of their own kind joining the liberals as betrayers, they became unhappy at what they consider to be treachery on the part of the opposition.

17. But the opposition led by the wily master of spin, Anwar Ibrahim, only made a show of being liberal, of being advocates of freedom of expression, as being above racialism, of being against detendtion without trial and of being all the way with the liberal intellectuals. They have no intention of being all these. But it was good politics and a good way to hoodwink the naive intellectuals and their even more naive followers.

18. The intellectuals and the pretenders had allowed themselves to be led by the nose up the garden path. The hard nosed real politicians, especially of the oppositions are laughing.

19. It is time the so-called intellectuals realise they were being duped by the Master of Spin, the pious Muslim who is also the bosom pal of Paul Wolfowitz, the neo-con Jew, the killer of Muslims, the supporter of Hindraf and of the Chinese schools etc. etc.

20. But intellectuals will not admit they have made a grave mistake. They see what they want to see. Carry on dreaming. Hold your forum, discuss what you like. You are driving the people further and further apart, pushing them back to their old racialism. You are helping to hold up a regime that is incompetent and thoroughly corrupt. You are helping to destroy this country.

A. Kadir Jasin

UiTM dan Permatang Pauh Uji Kematangan Politik

A Kadir Jasin

[TOLONG JANGAN BUANG MASA ANDA. ULASAN ANONYMOUS TIDAK AKAN DISIARKAN. SILA BACA BETUL-BETUL PERINGATAN BERIKUT.

Komen menggunakan pengenalan anonymous TIDAK AKAN DILAYAN. Sila gunakanlah nama sebenar atau nama samaran. Jikalau menggunakan anonymous, sila nyatakan nama di penghujung komen. Ulasan yang mengandungi unsur fitnah, hasutan, perkauman dan bahasa kesat tidak akan disiarkan. Ulasan yang terkeluar daripada tajuk tidak akan diberi keutamaan.]

RAMAI pembahas yang meminta pendapat saya mengenai isu Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) dan pilihan raya kecil (PRC) Parlimen Permatang Pauh.

Pandangan saya lebih kurang begini. Saya setuju orang Melayu dan Bumiputera menuntut dan mempertahankan hak mereka dan saya tidak menentang orang bukan Bumiputera menuntut dan mempertahankan hak mereka.

Cadangan Menteri Besar Selangor, Abdul Khalid Ibrahim agar UiTM membuka pintu kepada lebih ramai pelajar bukan Bumiputera adalah contoh kecil proses tuntutan dan pertahanan hak ini. Ia tidak sepatutnya membuatkan kita terlalu emosional.

Tidak kira apa yang dituntut dan dipertahankan oleh kaum-kaum di Malaysia, ia wajiblah berasaskan Perlembagaan, undang-undang dan konvensyen yang telah dipersetujui lebih setengah abad lalu.

Biar semarah atau sehangat mana sekali pun perasaan kita, kita wajib mengakui bahawa Malaysia adalah antara sebilangan yang amat kecil negara berbilang kaum dan agama yang masih kekal dan selamat.

Negara pelbagai kaum dan agama seperti Yugoslavia dan beberapa buah negara Caucasia sama ada telah hilang dari peta dunia atau sedang dilanda pertumpahan darah seperti India, Sri Lanka, Kenya dan Filipina.

Hatta negara-negara satu agama seperti Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan dan Turki pun terus dilanda keganasan dan kacau bilau.

Janganlah kita mengambil kesempatan daripada persekitaran politik yang kononnya lebih terbuka kini atau daripada tanggapan bahawa kerajaan sekarang lemah dan kucar-kacir untuk membuat tuntutan yang melampau, khasnya yang berbau perkauman.

Kita boleh merayakan demokrasi. Kita boleh berpesta dengan kebebasan dan keterbukaan. Tetapi kita hendaklah jangan lupa kepada segala bentuk sensitiviti yang berkaitan dengan masyarakat majmuk kita.

Sebagai seorang yang lahir sebelum merdeka (yang tali pusatnya dipotong dengan sembilu oleh bidan kampung) dan mendapat pendidikan pada tahun-tahun peralihan daripada bahasa perantaraan Inggeris kepada bahasa Melayu, pandangan saya banyak dipengaruhi oleh pengalaman dan persekitaran waktu itu.

Kampung saya kampung majoriti Melayu. Penduduknya bercucuk tanam. Tanaman utama sampai hari ini ialah padi. Tetapi perniagaan dari awal-awal lagi dimonopoli oleh orang Cina.

Pergaulan mereka begitu mesra sehingga orang Melayu tidak berasa apa-apa membenarkan babi jiran Cina mereka berkeliaran. Allahyarhamah nenek saya memberikan keladi dan daun ubi kayu kepada jiran Cinanya sebagai makanan babi. Sebagai ganti dia mendapat kopi, gula dan tembakau.

Pengayuh basikal yang diupah oleh ayah saya untuk menghantar dan mengambil saya balik dari Sekolah Melayu Pendang, kira-kira lima kilometer dari rumah saya, adalah seorang bujang Cina bernama Ah Hin.

(Dia kemudian masuk Islam dan berkahwin dengan seorang perempuan Melayu. Tetapi khabarnya setelah bercerai dengan isterinya, dia kembali kepada amalan asalnya tanpa sesiapa pun buat ribut.)

Selepas lima tahun di sekolah Melayu, saya masuk Special Malay Class (Kelas Khas Melayu) di Saint Michael Primary School di Alor Star pada tahun 1959. Dari saat itu mulalah saya bergaul dengan budak-budak Cina, India dan Thai.

Oleh kerana Saint Michael adalah sekolah mubaligh Kristian mazhab Roman Katolik, bapa saudara saya seorang tok guru pondok di Pendang memprotes kepada ayah saya. Dia amat yakin sekiranya saya tidak dikeluarkan daripada sekolah itu saya akan jadi kafir.

Ayah saya tidak mempedulikan protes itu. Sebaliknya di Saint Michaellah saya belajar agama Islam dan sewaktu sekolah menengah menyertai kawan-kawan Muslim yang lain menubuhkan Persatuan Pelajar-Pelajar Islam.

Kami mewajibkan pelajar Islam tingkatan tiga ke atas berbaris ke Masjid Zahir pada setiap Jumaat lengkap dengan pakaian baju Melayu warna sekolah.

Tidak menyertai perbarisan ke masjid tiga kali berturut-turut tanpa alasan dikenakan tindakan disiplin oleh sekolah. Guru besar kami namanya Charles Alexander Westwood (yang kami pinda kepada Salleh Iskandar Kayubarat ketika Bulan Bahasa Kebangsaan tahun 1965) dan ketua agama (Brother Superviser) bernama Brother Brendan.

Persekitaran pelbagai kaum dan agama berterusan sehinggalah saya ke Maktab Sultan Abdul Hamid dan kemudian di Bernama dan New Straits Times Berhad.

Namun dari dahulu sehingga sekarang saya berpegang kepada falsafah bahawa Malaysia, sebagai negara berbilang kaum dan agama, tidak akan selamat dan makmur sekiranya kekangan ekonomi antara kaum dan di kalangan kaum yang sama, dibiarkan berlarutan atas nama ekonomi bebas, globalisasi, persaingan, meritokrasi dan keterbukaan.

Peminggiran kaum majoriti akan mengundang ketidakstabilan dan peminggiran kaum minoriti akan mencacat prinsip keadilan dan kesamarataan.

Dalam konteks semasa, kaum majoriti semakin jauh ketinggalan dalam bidang ekonomi manakala kemiskinan berlaku dalam semua kaum.

Justeru itu, manakala Khalid Ibrahim boleh mencadangkan agar UiTM dan institusi pengajian tinggi awam (IPTA) lain membuka pintu lebih luas kepada pelajar bukan Bumiputera, dia juga wajib memastikan yang kuota atau bilangan pelajar Bumiputera di institusi pengajian tinggi swasta (IPTS) ditingkatkan.

Saya yakin UiTM dan pelajarnya akan lebih cergas, cerdas dan berdaya saing jika berlaku interaksi dan percambahan pemikiran yang melepasi garis dan sempadan kaum.

Mengenai PRC Permatang Pauh pula, saya terus berpegang kepada pendapat bahawa ketua de facto pembangkang, Anwar Ibrahim akan kembali mewakili kawasan itu selepas 26 Ogos ini.

Namun ciri-ciri berikut mungkin berlaku:

1. Kelebihan undi Anwar mungkin lebih kecil daripada yang diperoleh isterinya, Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail pada pilihan raya umum 8 Mac lalu;

2. Adalah kebiasaan bagi Barisan Nasional memenangi PRC dengan kelebihan undi yang lebih besar. Dalam beberapa PRC, BN berjaya merampas balik kerusi daripada parti lawan;

3. Penyokong setia Anwar akan tetap mengundi beliau biar apa sekalipun dakwaan, tuduhan dan hukuman ke atas beliau;

4. Ramai akan mengundi beliau kerana percaya beliau adalah mangsa konspirasi tidak kira bahawa penuduh beliau sudah bersumpah dengan nama Allah mengatakan dia telah diliwat oleh Anwar;

5. Pasti ada sebahagian pemilih yang akan mengundi Anwar kerana mereka benci kepada BN, khasnya kepemimpinan Umno yang ada sekarang;

6. Pasti ada yang akan merosakkan undi atau tidak keluar mengundi sebagai tanda protes terhadap kepemimpinan BN dan Umno;

7. BN dan Pakatan Rakyat pasti menggunakan segala kuasa dan kekuatan yang ada pada mereka untuk saling jatuh menjatuhkan;

8. Permatang Pauh akan menjadi medan perjuangan menentukan hala tuju politik negara dan masa depan watak-watak utama seperti Anwar, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi dan Mohd Najib Abdul Razak;

9. Keputusan PRC Permatang Pauh akan menguji kewibawaan dan penerimaan ke atas pasangan setia Abdullah-Mohd Najib dalam proses pemilihan kepemimpinan Umno yang sedang berlangsung sekarang; dan

10. Ia akan menjadi pentas untuk menguji keakraban dan iltizam pendukung Pakatan Rakyat untuk menjatuhkan kerajaan BN biar apa sekalipun yang akan terjadi kepada Anwar.

KZ Ahmad
— Permatang Pauh 44; menemukan mereka berdua

Kelab Maya UMNO
— PR PERAK AKAN ADA KAN DUA PERHIMPUNAN ESOK, SOKONG EXCO MEREKA!!

Nampak nya bila semakin terdesak, PR mula merancang tindakan yang bukan2.

Peristiwa penahanan 2 ahli exco PKR oleh BPR atas tuduhan rasuah bersama 4 lagi orang awam telah benar2 membuat PR menjadi gelabah.

Sebagai reaksi awal PR telah menuduh kejadian itu adalah satu lagi konspirasi peringkat tertinggi BN untuk memburuk2 kan pakatan tersebut.

Marina Mahathir
— Grameen Bank: How Mutual Trust Can Be Profitable

(Banesa and her cows.)

Banesa Khatun, about 35, is a wealthy woman in Dholla Singair village about 40 minutes outside Dhaka. She owns eight cows, 27 rickshaws, a small biogas plant which uses cowdung to produce gas for cooking, a fridge and a TV in her small but comfortable two-room home.

Mayful is also wealthy. She has a cow worth about USD1000, a grocery shop in a local market, owns land and a house in which she lives with her husband, a son and daughter and their spouses.

And Lovely, aged just 16, is doing well with her handicraft business as well as helping with her father's chilli business, and hopes to make enough money in a year to go back to school.

(Dholla Singair Grameen centre meeting. Mayful tells her story.)

All these women are members of Grameen Bank in their village. Twenty-two years ago, Mayful, the chief of her village borrowers' group, borrowed 1500 thaka (about RM75 by today's exchange rate) and bought a cow. Selling the milk from her cow, she made enough to repay the loan and more and with the next loan of 30,000 thaka, she set up a grocery shop with her son while her husband started a mobile popcorn selling business. After successfully repaying that loan, she was able to increase her credit each time with the bank until today she is eligible to borrow 100,000 thaka.

Banesa has the same story. The first time she borrowed 5000 thaka ten years ago, she bought one rickshaw to rent out. Today, she can borrow 100,000 thaka and owns 27 rickshaws. (And as it is only men who cycle the rickshaws, this means she's boss to at least 27 men!) She sells milk from her eight cows and is now thinking of supplying biogas to other homes in her village.

I visited Dholla Singair village and met with the Grameen group there and they told me time and time again how microcredit has changed their lives. This bore out what the bank's staff were telling me in a briefing at the local Grameen centre.

The Grameen Bank system is organised in a pyramid structure. At the very bottom (but also the most important part) are the members, 8-10 of whom make up a group. Group members must fulfill three criteria: they must be poor, must be permanent residents of the village and must NOT be blood relatives to each other. The reason for the last condition is to ensure that each member belonged to different households and families so that as many households will benefit as possible. If two sisters want to become members and they each have their own families, they must join different groups.

8-10 groups make up a centre, and 60 centres make up a branch. Above them are just supervisors. The purpose of the groups is just to give each other encouragement to borrow and repay the loans; loans are always given to individuals, not groups.

The Dholla Singair branch has thus far disbursed 425 million thaka worth of loans to 4904 borrowers from 78 centres! That's more than RM21 million....and all to poor people with no collateral. How amazing is that?

(A villager pumping clean water from a pump. In many Bangladeshi villages, there is a problem with water that is tainted with arsenic, rendering it undrinkable.)

The staff, who seem to be universally passionate about what they do, explained to me that in Bangladesh, nobody is idle. People there are all doing some income-generating work, whether it's making handicrafts, selling tidbits, pulling rickshaws or something. But to give them a chance of increasing their income, a little financial support helps.

"Poor people don't betray the bank," they told me, "They trust us and we trust them."

The system is set up so that it is entirely borrower-centred. The first time a borrower takes a loan, she ( and it's almost always a she) has a ceiling of 10,000 thaka. She pays it back at a manageable weekly rate and when she has successfully completed repaying, a new ceiling for a loan is fixed. Each ceiling is tailored to the individual. Based on this system, the default rate is an astonishing 0.01%! And at least part of that reason is because the borrower not only knows that if she successfully repays her loan, she is then eligible for a bigger one but also because the borrowers also own the bank. Thus their success is tied to the b

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