DAP’s Raub MP Ariff Sabri Abdul Aziz is recovering in a hospital after suffering from a stroke on Friday.
DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang said he had been out of intensive care since Saturday and is recovering.”He is doing ok, he is recovering,” he told Malaysiakini when contacted.
However, Lim declined to reveal where Ariff Sabri was hospitalised, saying the latter should be given time to rest.
Ariff Sabri, 61, was previously Pekan Umno information chief, serving under division chief and the current prime minister Najib Abdul Razak from 2000 to 2004.
Ariff Sabri – who is also known by his blogging pen name Sakmongkol AK47 – quit Umno in 2012 to join DAP.
He contested the Raub seat in 2013, and beat BN with a 2,814 vote majority.
MKINI
Ben Hur Plug Up Blog - I belief that if one wants change one have to fight for it and cannot be a bystander .If you have articles, information, thoughts you want to share just send it to me at benhurplugup@gmail.com . Please keep your articles brief, not more than 1000 words or just use bullet points. If you have pictures to go with the articles, that is even better. Towards an excellent Malaysia.
Tuesday, 23 May 2017
Boy, 10, who weighed 30 stone due to fizzy drinks addiction undergoes dramatic surgery to fit clothes again
The boy's parents begged doctors to operate on their son after putting him on a diet failed to make much difference
Boy, 10, who weighed 30 stone due to fizzy drinks addiction undergoes dramatic surgery to fit clothes again
At his worst Arya Permana was eating five meals a day
The boy's parents begged doctors to operate on their son after putting him on a diet failed to make much difference
His desperate parents begged doctors to operate on their son, 10
A 10-year-old lad who weighed a whopping 30 stone due to an addiction to fizzy drinks and noodles has been forced to undergo surgery.
Once Arya Permana was so large he could not find clothes that could fit him – and was forced to simply wrap a sarong round his body.
Dieticians put Arya on a strict diet consisting of fruit and vegetables but he only managed to lose one-and-a-half stone in four months.
His desperate parents Rokayah, 36, and husband Ade Somantri, 45, begged doctors to save their morbidly obese boy.
Doctors carried out bariatric surgery on their son to save his life last month.
Arya had sleeve gastrectomy, which includes reducing the size of the stomach. This means, his stomach will limit the portion of the meal and give him the sense that he is full. Arya will also experience a decrease in hunger due to decreased hormone ghrelin, and the remaining stomach remained can be used to maintain digestive function.
Since the two-hour operation on April 17, Arya, from West Java, Indonesia, has shed just over two and a half stone.
His mother Rokayah is delighte
d but said making up their mind for an operation was not easy.
She said: “We were worried about his weight. He was put on a healthy diet and living a healthy lifestyle.
“No more colas, noddles or rice but his weight was not dropping. We had to think of the surgery.
"He has now lost 20 kilos. We are happy and relieved but he is still overweight for his age. We are hoping that one day he will lose all the extra weight and be as healthy as other children at his class.”
His parents hope with the help of doctors their son will weigh under 15 stone in a year’s time.
At his worst, Arya would eat five meals a day that consisted of rice, fish, beef, vegetable soup and Tempeh – a soy patty large enough to feed two adults – cola and five packets of instant noodles.
Now following the surgery Arya throws up if he overeats.
Dr Handy Wing, a surgeon from the Omni Hospital, where the operation was carried out, said: "Arya's weight could cause heart disease, diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, breathing disorders while sleeping, and cancer.
"If he was not immediately given the right medical treatment, Arya could have been exposed to the above complications, worse, even death."
Doctors are now monitoring the result. Every week Arya will lose weight and doctors hope that after one year can be under 100 kilos.
Understand and use English the Malaysian way
The Malaysian Way.
steadyaku47 : Got this in from my whatsapp group...sharing it with you guys:
10 perkataan English yang digunakan orang kita di Malaysia .. berlainan jauh sungguh maksudnya..
πTACKLE
English : menangani, mengatasi
Orang kita : Mengurat
πCHOP
English : cincang
Orang kita : Rubber stamp
πBUDGET
English : belanjawan
Orang kita: contoh ayat "makan nasi bajet laaa"
πACTION
English : bertindak
Orang kita: berlagak
πBLUR
English : kabur , samar-samar
Orang kita : bingung
πSOUND
English : bunyi
Orang kita: marah, tegur
πSLUMBER
English : tidur lena
Orang kita : bersahaja (selamba = perkataan Melayu)
πCABLE
English : kabel
Orang kita : "orang dalam"; orang ada kuasa untuk menolong.
πTERROR
English : Keganasan
Orang kita : Hebat
πSPENDER
English : orang yang berbelanja
Orang kita: seluar dalam (suspender; brief)
HIDUP MALAYSIA!
ππππππ
Contoh ayat klasik :
"Apasallah dia ni blur sangat, cable dah putus kot, dah kena sound pun slumber je, action plak tu, macamlah terror sangat, spender pun mak bapak beli, ada hati nak tackle anak dato', budgetlah sikit ... "
steadyaku47 : Got this in from my whatsapp group...sharing it with you guys:
10 perkataan English yang digunakan orang kita di Malaysia .. berlainan jauh sungguh maksudnya..
πTACKLE
English : menangani, mengatasi
Orang kita : Mengurat
πCHOP
English : cincang
Orang kita : Rubber stamp
πBUDGET
English : belanjawan
Orang kita: contoh ayat "makan nasi bajet laaa"
πACTION
English : bertindak
Orang kita: berlagak
πBLUR
English : kabur , samar-samar
Orang kita : bingung
πSOUND
English : bunyi
Orang kita: marah, tegur
πSLUMBER
English : tidur lena
Orang kita : bersahaja (selamba = perkataan Melayu)
πCABLE
English : kabel
Orang kita : "orang dalam"; orang ada kuasa untuk menolong.
πTERROR
English : Keganasan
Orang kita : Hebat
πSPENDER
English : orang yang berbelanja
Orang kita: seluar dalam (suspender; brief)
HIDUP MALAYSIA!
ππππππ
Contoh ayat klasik :
"Apasallah dia ni blur sangat, cable dah putus kot, dah kena sound pun slumber je, action plak tu, macamlah terror sangat, spender pun mak bapak beli, ada hati nak tackle anak dato', budgetlah sikit ... "
Stop the senseless terror -KATIE HOPKINS: Despite all the politicians’ clichΓ©s of bravery, there is a sickness in our society - and I fear it’s terminal
The terrorist are protected by their own communities’ silence. This happens because they do not stay in mix housing and govern by their own code of conduct. Need to forcibly integrate them with the other communities. Pass a law and a hosing area must have a mix neighborhoods. Take away the dole for the unemployed and stop brings in refugees and start deporting the troublemakers to their home countries. After few hundred thousand get deported, the rest will fall in line and U.K will be safer again
By Katie Hopkins for MailOnline 23 May 2017
I knelt by my bed as I heard the news.
They said eighteen dead at the Ariana Grande concert; now it’s 22. Including an eight year-old. A 16-year-old. Others still missing.
Another terror attack in Britain. A terror attack on our youngest girls, excited, thrilled, filled up by life after watching Ariana Grande perform.
'I knelt by my bed as I heard the news. They said eighteen dead at the Ariana Grande concert; now it’s 22. Including an eight year-old. A 16-year-old. Others still missing'
Armed police at a block of flats in Manchester today, as the city reels from last night's attack
Cut down by ball-bearings from a home-made bomb as they piled out into the street with their mums, their friends, their futures ahead of them.
Suicide bomber strikes at Manchester Arena: Twenty-two...
The worst kind of death. The most savage of attacks.
I wanted to vomit. Crouching at the end of my bed, I wanted to be physically sick, knowing what this would mean for today.
It would mean the eunuch politicians peddling their narrative that we will carry on as normal, that we stand united. Trying to find some hope to hang on to.
Eight-year-old Saffie Roussos is among the victims
Victims eight-year-old Saffie Roussos and 18-year-old Georgina Callander, who is pictured with the concert's star, Ariana Granda
'Another terror attack in Britain. A terror attack on our youngest girls, excited, thrilled, filled up by life after watching Ariana Grande perform'
It would mean Andy Burnham, the new mayor of Greater Manchester, right there to tell us it would be business as usual in Manchester.
I want to scream at him. Business as usual? BUSINESS AS USUAL?
Tell that to the mother of 16-year-old Georgina Callander. Someone slaughtered her most special thing, the tiny baby she carried, birthed, equipped with all the things she could protect her from the world with, smiling at her loveliness as she became a young woman.
And you say it is business as usual? The dead never get to carry on as normal.
This is not usual, Andy. This is not 'part and parcel' of city life, Sadiq.
This country is not usual. It is absurd. Disgusting. Forlorn. Broken.
And we will have a full day of this, this standard response to terror. A narrative so drilled into the minds of the terrified that they cling on to it for fear of drowning in the horror. Like a bit of flotsam in the sea long after the boat has sunk, and all you feel is numb.
'Cut down by ball-bearings from a home-made bomb as they piled out into the street with their mums, their friends, their futures ahead of them'
'We stand united. We are not broken. We are strong.'
'We stand united. We are not broken. We are strong.'
Repeated like a mantra.
The new Lord's Prayer of a terrorised generation.
Saying it over and over, faster and faster as the sharks circle and it becomes clear that hope is fading fast. That this could be the end. If not this time, then the next one. Or the one after that.
'I wanted to vomit. Crouching at the end of my bed, I wanted to be physically sick, knowing what this would mean for today'
Next time could be my daughter, my child.
After the Westminster terror attack on March 26 I said we were cowed. That we were like ants, carrying on as normal, waiting for the next footstep to fall.
And today I see this to be true. Ants, squashed by a car, hewn in half by a truck, bounced off the bonnet of a 4x4, punctured by ballbearings and shrapnel from a hardware store.
And the only thing we ants can do is act busy. Whip ourselves up into a frenzy of activity. Move this way and that. Scurry about carrying things. Film ourselves walking to work. Make posters about 'having a cup of tea', get cross about what is said on twitter.
'After the Westminster terror attack on 26 March I said we were cowed. That we were like ants, carrying on as normal, waiting for the next footstep to fall'
We celebrate the first responders, as we should. The bravery of the people there to save us. And anyone else who joined the battle to save our souls. The kindness of the taxi drivers. The staff of the arena. The people of Manchester who opened their doors to offer whatever they had.
These people are angels amongst us. Holding, helping, healing.
A homeless gentleman hugged a woman as she died in his arms, there so she did not die alone.
But no, Andy Burnham, they are not yours to use. Not extras in your charade of defiance.
'We celebrate the first responders, as we should. The bravery of the people there to save us. And anyone else who joined the battle to save our souls. The kindness of the taxi drivers. The staff of the arena'
Do not use these acts of kindness to support your false narrative that this is us standing up to terror.
The people helping are reacting instinctively. Battling against blood and death.
They are not standing up to terror. They are not showing we are strong. They are trying to scoop up the handfuls of flesh that is weak and stop it bleeding.
They are being decent humans. They should be applauded. Rewarded. Not manipulated by impotent politicians into standing as a perverse symbol of how terror will never beat us.
'Do not use these acts of kindness to support your false narrative that this is us standing up to terror'
Because it is beating us. It is grinding us down. We are worn down by it all.
Some think my divisive talk should be outlawed, should be illegal, because 'it's what the terrorists want'.
People have rung my bosses on the radio demanding I am sacked for my tweets because my divisiveness is what ISIS wants.
These people have bought the narrative, hook, line and sinker.
They are channeling their impotence and anger at me.
'The people helping are reacting instinctively. Battling against blood and death. They are not standing up to terror. They are not showing we are strong. They are trying to scoop up the handfuls of flesh that is weak and stop it bleeding'
In truth, the terrorists couldn't give a stuff what I tweet or write or say. They couldn't care less if we stand divided or pretend to be united.
If anything, united in one place, we are an easier target.
The terrorists want us dead. They want the infidel to be slaughtered. And they spread their message most effectively by targeting our children, our little girls.
Try and deny you don't feel a change in the mood of our country. Try and deny you don't feel we are a little bit less.
Tell me you don't feel like you've taken a battering, made it to the twelfth then someone punched you square in the stomach, drawing the air from you in one long ooof.
'The terrorists want us dead. They want the infidel to be slaughtered. And they spread their message most effectively by targeting our children, our little girls'
Do you find yourself looking around for comfort in the small things — the Chelsea flowers, pictures of cute cats, a phone call to your mum, an extra big hug for your daughter, another text to your son to check he is safe? I have rung my husband twice today just to listen to him speak.
I heard a lady on the radio wanting to share, to hold on to something, to grab onto the piece of flotsam that keeps us all afloat. She said her 16-year-old daughter stopped her to ask where she was working today. Wanting to know if she would be safe.
You see, it's not the acts of walking over a bridge, or getting on a train, or going to work on the underground that are the truths of how we feel.
It’s the fear in the margins, the double-checking, the anxious wait for someone to be home. The moment between hearing there is a bomb, and knowing your child is safe in another city, another place.
'This country is sick. It is calling out for a doctor. We need to know what will cure us. What action do we take? What do we do? How can we stop the hurt? I look back to the missing persons and see little Saffie Roussos, smiling aged eight, now confirmed dead. And I wonder if we are too sick to be saved'
When the only option is to carry on as normal, what the hell else are we going to do?
Carrying on as normal is not defiance. Or strength. It is the default.
When someone dies in our family, we carry on as before because the alternative is to lie down under our duvet and hope the world goes away.
And sometimes we even try that for a bit, too.
But in the end, reluctantly, we default and carry on as normal. This does not make us strong. Or united. It makes us desperate to feel better.
This country is sick. It is calling out for a doctor. We need to know what will cure us. What action do we take? What do we do? How can we stop the hurt?
I look back to the missing persons and see little Saffie Roussos, smiling aged eight, now confirmed dead.
And I wonder if we are too sick to be saved.
Monks are also human beings with earthly pleasures
[WHAT?!] Thai Monk Watched Porn Openly On Bus Without Earphones Shocked The Internet!!
As we all know by now, a monk is someone who practices religious asceticism by monastic living either alone or with any number of other monks. Monks are ascetics who voluntarily chooses to leave the mainstream society and live life in prayer and contemplation.
We see monks around Malaysia, but more often in Thailand. They are like in every corner, whoops!
When a Thai netizen, Wittawat Wonghajuk boarded a bus heading to Nong Bua Lamphu province, he witnessed that it may not necessarily be the case for this monk.
Source: Facebook
A Thai netizen shared his encounter on Facebook which went viral with over 5,000 shares. In his post, he wrote,
“I was on the bus heading home to Nong Bua Lamphu, when I suddenly heard some strange sounds. When I looked over, a monk was holding up a mobile phone but what was shocking is that he was watching porn openly.
In addition, he had turned the volume really loud and wasn’t wearing earphones while watching.”
Source: Facebook
The monk was dressed in full religious attire and has a shaved head, he appears to be wearing sunglasses while enjoying his ‘show’ on-board. He seems to be completely oblivious to the reactions of the passengers around him.
Source: Facebook
There are no words to describe the scene, whatever we’ve thought it may just be a lie!
As we all know by now, a monk is someone who practices religious asceticism by monastic living either alone or with any number of other monks. Monks are ascetics who voluntarily chooses to leave the mainstream society and live life in prayer and contemplation.
We see monks around Malaysia, but more often in Thailand. They are like in every corner, whoops!
When a Thai netizen, Wittawat Wonghajuk boarded a bus heading to Nong Bua Lamphu province, he witnessed that it may not necessarily be the case for this monk.
Source: Facebook
A Thai netizen shared his encounter on Facebook which went viral with over 5,000 shares. In his post, he wrote,
“I was on the bus heading home to Nong Bua Lamphu, when I suddenly heard some strange sounds. When I looked over, a monk was holding up a mobile phone but what was shocking is that he was watching porn openly.
In addition, he had turned the volume really loud and wasn’t wearing earphones while watching.”
Source: Facebook
The monk was dressed in full religious attire and has a shaved head, he appears to be wearing sunglasses while enjoying his ‘show’ on-board. He seems to be completely oblivious to the reactions of the passengers around him.
Source: Facebook
There are no words to describe the scene, whatever we’ve thought it may just be a lie!
[LITERALLY HOT!] Woman Cheated On Her Husband, He Punishes Her By Putting Chilli Peppers Into Her
Did you think that getting cheated on hurts? Did you think that you would act in an outrageous way if you got cheated on? Well, as for this dude: he did.
You would think that there are other ways around it. But noooo.
He decided to do it hot.
All that is known about these pictures are that they were shared on a Philippines page, with the status “Before this happens to you, you better change.” From the Tagalog words typed after that, it is understood that she had her vulva chilli’d up because she went home late, constantly. Thus, hinting her lack of loyalty for him because she always went home late.
Source: Kabet Facebook
The video depicts that he slipped the chilli peppers into her shorts, it is unknown whether or not she did have chilli up her vagina. Despite that, although I am an advocate for honesty in relationship, I think this was just downright cruel. There is a difference between getting angry, and just downright punishing.
Similarly, none of us have clear evidence that she was cheating on him, so this is really messed up.
Also this kinda hints that the husband may have been abusive and violent for the longest time, which is possibly why she decided to cheat on him.
Somebody's idea of a sick joke or a costume party
[SCARY!] A Female Demon, Found At A Church in Hyderabad
ByHazPosted on May 23, 2017
We have heard of pontianaks, but have you heard of churail? They are local to Karachi, sometimes a tree spirit, or a woman who dies at childbirth. She seeks revenge against her in-laws, who are (presumably) evil. By nature, she becomes a local female demon to Pakistanis.
For those who wish to see how she looks like, here she is. All posed for the camera:
Source: Faakhir Mohamed’s Facebook
Singer Faakhir Mohamed shared this picture on Facebook, taken from a roof of a church in Hyderabad, Pakistan.
A bit scary, if you ask me.
Usually people would run away at the sight of a scary being, however… Well, as most can see from the picture above: no. Not everyone ran away. In fact, in this age of “I gotta make this viral!”, people have taken photos of the supposedly female demon.
Man, I feel bad for her if her intention was revenge, and to scare people.
Malaysian Con Couple Spotted Shopping At Takashimaya!!
Netizens of Malaysia and Singapore are urged to beware of this couple as they are con artist famous for collecting a large sum of money from companies and no delivering the job.
They were recently spotted shopping at Takashimaya in Singapore. A Facebook user Wang Maria Linda shared several videos and photos as her sister spotted them last Saturday.
The man, Howard Ng, cheated her sister’s company of SGD48,000 deposit for a job but was never delivered.
Wang also shared the information of the company owned by Howard.
Company name: V2 ART DECOR PTE LTD.
Address: No. 66, Home Road, #04-00, Singapore 209073.
After the con couple was apprehended they created a scene at Takashimaya shouting vulgarities and pointing the middle finger.
The couple was escorted to the security office by security and police.
I hope they get jailed for life for cheating many people in their life, of they get a hefty fine from the government!!
Have a look at the video!
They were recently spotted shopping at Takashimaya in Singapore. A Facebook user Wang Maria Linda shared several videos and photos as her sister spotted them last Saturday.
The man, Howard Ng, cheated her sister’s company of SGD48,000 deposit for a job but was never delivered.
Wang also shared the information of the company owned by Howard.
Company name: V2 ART DECOR PTE LTD.
Address: No. 66, Home Road, #04-00, Singapore 209073.
After the con couple was apprehended they created a scene at Takashimaya shouting vulgarities and pointing the middle finger.
The couple was escorted to the security office by security and police.
I hope they get jailed for life for cheating many people in their life, of they get a hefty fine from the government!!
Have a look at the video!
Amazing facts of GANESHA
Did you know there are 250 temples of Ganesha in Japan.
In Japan, Ganesha is known as 'Kangiten', the God of fortune and the harbinger of happiness, prosperity and good.
An Oxford publication claims that Ganesha was worshipped in the early days in Central Asia and other parts of the globe.
Ganesha (also known as Ganesa or Ganapati) is one of the most important gods in Hindu mythology and he is also worshipped in Jainism and Buddhism. For the Ganapatya Hindu sect, Ganesha is the most important deity. Ganesha is highly recognisable with his elephant head and human body, representing the soul (atman) and the physical (maya) respectively. He is also the patron of writers, travellers, students, commerce, and new projects (for which he removes obstacles from one's path) and is rather fond of sweets, to the slight detriment of his figure
Ganesha statues have been found in Afghanistan, Iran, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Mongolia, Japan, Indonesia, Brunei, Bulgaria, Mexico and other Latin American countries.
It means the cult of Ganesha was prevelant all over the world in ancient times.
*Ganesha in Europe, Canada and the USA*
Ganesha's idol and paintings are exhibited in all the important museums and art galleries of all the European countries especially in the UK, Germany, France and Switzerland.
Ganesha idols and paintings(as goodluck charm) are also present in thousands of houses/offices of successful business/writers/artists in all the European countries and in Canada and the USA. Recently a figure of Ganesha was unearthed in a village near Sofia, Bulgaria. Like Indians, the Romans worshipped Ganesha before any work was begun.
*Irish believe in Ganesha luck.*
The embassy of Ireland at New Delhi became the first European embassy to invoke the blessings of Ganesha by installing a statue of Ganesha at the main entrance of the embassy.
*Silicon Valley in USA selects Ganesha as the presiding Deity of cyberspace technology *
“Ganesha is the God of knowledge and Ganesha's vehicle is the mouse and, as you know, for software engineers the mouse is the vehicle that they use to take their ideas and innovations from one place to the other.” Hence it was decided by the computer industry association to select Ganesha as the presiding Deity of Silicon Valley.
*Ganesha on Greek coin.*
Early images of an elephant headed Deity, including those on an Indo-Greek coin and elsewhere, dating between the first and third centuries BC, represent Ganesha as the demi God Vinayaka.
*Indonesia Currency notes.*
One of the Indonesian currency notes carries the picture of Ganesha.
*Vedic origin of Ganesha.*
10,000 year old secret of success.
Devotees of Ganesha make reference to his Vedic origin which is around 10,000 years old to push his antecedents back in time. The Vedas have invoked him as 'namo Ganebhyo Ganapati' (Yajurveda, 16/25), or remover of obstacles, Ganapati, we salute you. The Mahabharata has elaborated on his personal appearance and Upanishads on his immense power. “Scholars say artifacts from excavations in Luristan and Harappa and an old Indo-Greek coin from Hermaeus, present images that remarkably resemble Ganesha”. (“Robert Brown in his Book “Ganesha: Studies of an Asian God”:State University of New York Albany).
Former Guyana health minister sentenced in US for running 'pill mill'
NEW YORK, USA -- Noel Blackman, who practiced as a medical doctor and was the former health minister of Guyana and executive member of the World Health Organization, has been sentenced to 50 months’ imprisonment and three years of supervised release for illegally distributing oxycodone, a highly addictive prescription painkiller.
Additionally, United States District Judge Joanna Seybert ordered Blackman to forfeit $536,200 in illegal proceeds. The sentence followed the defendant’s guilty plea on August 24, 2016.
Between 2015 and 2016, Blackman prescribed more than 365,000 30-milligram oxycodone pills from “pain management” clinics that he worked out of in Queens, Long Island and Brooklyn.
During his guilty plea remarks before Judge Seybert last August, Blackman admitted that, in exchange for $300 cash payments, he wrote oxycodone prescriptions for 1,920 pills of 30 milligram oxycodone dosages to persons whom he knew had no legitimate medical need for that highly-addictive drug. As described in court papers, that amount of oxycodone was worth up to $57,600 on the street.
According to court filings, on February 7, 2016, HSI agents removed Blackman from a plane at John F. Kennedy International Airport en route to Guyana and arrested him in connection with the illegal distribution of oxycodone.
At the time of his arrest, more than $30,000 was found concealed in Blackman’s luggage. Following his arrest, Blackman admitted that he believed that some of his patients were addicted to oxycodone.
Blackman has forfeited his medical license and will no longer be allowed to practice medicine in the United States.
“Prescribing ‘oxys’ in exchange for cash is no different than a street dealer’s hand to hand drug transaction; both are illegal and fuel drug misuse in our communities,” stated James J. Hunt, Special Agent-in-Charge of the US Drug Enforcement Administration’s New York Division.
Additionally, United States District Judge Joanna Seybert ordered Blackman to forfeit $536,200 in illegal proceeds. The sentence followed the defendant’s guilty plea on August 24, 2016.
Noel Blackman
Between 2015 and 2016, Blackman prescribed more than 365,000 30-milligram oxycodone pills from “pain management” clinics that he worked out of in Queens, Long Island and Brooklyn.
During his guilty plea remarks before Judge Seybert last August, Blackman admitted that, in exchange for $300 cash payments, he wrote oxycodone prescriptions for 1,920 pills of 30 milligram oxycodone dosages to persons whom he knew had no legitimate medical need for that highly-addictive drug. As described in court papers, that amount of oxycodone was worth up to $57,600 on the street.
According to court filings, on February 7, 2016, HSI agents removed Blackman from a plane at John F. Kennedy International Airport en route to Guyana and arrested him in connection with the illegal distribution of oxycodone.
At the time of his arrest, more than $30,000 was found concealed in Blackman’s luggage. Following his arrest, Blackman admitted that he believed that some of his patients were addicted to oxycodone.
Blackman has forfeited his medical license and will no longer be allowed to practice medicine in the United States.
“Prescribing ‘oxys’ in exchange for cash is no different than a street dealer’s hand to hand drug transaction; both are illegal and fuel drug misuse in our communities,” stated James J. Hunt, Special Agent-in-Charge of the US Drug Enforcement Administration’s New York Division.
Commentary: Honduras: A nation misunderstood
Published on May 23, 2017 By Ben Anson
The sun beats down. It does so fiercely. At this moment however, I remain cool. I happen to be sitting below the kind, encompassing shade of a large palm tree. Crisp, white grains of sand slide between my toes as I stand up. I do so in the attempt to see if any ‘coconut bread’ vendors are coming along. So they are.
Honduras , Country in Central America
Honduras is a Central American country with Caribbean Sea coastlines to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. In the tropical rainforest near Guatemala, the ancient Mayan ceremonial site CopΓ‘n has stone-carved hieroglyphics and stelae, tall stone monuments. In the Caribbean Sea are the Bay Islands, a diving destination that's part of the 1,000km-long Mesoamerican Barrier Reef.
Capital: Tegucigalpa
Currency: Honduran lempira
Population: 8.075 million (2015) World Bank
President: Juan Orlando HernΓ‘ndez
Official language: Spanish
Sliding back down the palm’s trunk I arrange myself comfortably on the dry sand. A bronzed coconut rolls off another near tree and thumps upon the neatly attended beach. Some local children run past me, one shrieks in laughter whilst the other wrestles the small, excited child onto the ground. A teenage girl cackles, "allΓ te tiene!" or "he's got you there!" I chuckle.
Along comes the coconut bread seller, an elderly Garifuna woman, her wrinkled, weather-beaten black face shines in the blazing sun. Smiling radiantly, two aged hands dig deep into the plastic tub from which she then produces a bag of individual pan de coco. Homemade coconut bread at 30 Lempira. I buy a full bag. "Gracias, mi amor," she beams.
On her departure I return to sitting below the palm tree. Salsa music flows over from a nearby bar. The clear, blue sea glistens out beyond. It is indeed quite something to ponder, that I live in the most dangerous country in the world…
Honduras is a Central American nation suffering from what is an absurd reputation. The title is without doubt far more ‘absurd’ than the said reputation. ‘Murder capital of The World’. Beyond sensationalist in its approach, the world media has taken a nation both unknown and subsequently misunderstood and rashly labelled it as a country more ‘dangerous’ than any other.
This has been done chiefly as a result of the high homicide rates. Most murders in Honduras being drug/gang related. Organised crime is a serious and indeed overwhelming social problem in Honduras. Poverty stricken, as is most of Latin America, the reasons for high crime rates are not hard to imagine. A schoolteacher (this being regarded as good work in Honduras) might make the equivalent of £1 (US$1.30) an hour. That is the salary of the average maestro. The vast majority of Hondurans struggle (‘struggle’ being an understatement) economically.
Due to such a poor economy there has been in recent decades a growing rate of crime. Due to a relatively close proximity with the United States, drugs trafficking is a well-paid venture. This is not just Honduras, however. This is Latin America. The same story can be told in Mexico, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Colombia, Venezuela or Brazil. In Mexico, there have been cases of cartel members rolling the severed heads of business rivals onto nightclub floors. Down in El Salvador, if a teenage girl does not wish to join a local gang, she is henceforth subjected to what is known as ‘the train’. The gang-members rape her one after the other. In Brazil, transvestites or gay men have been beaten or burned to death in gang-controlled neighbourhoods.
These cases (all related to organised crime) are not common in Honduras. Similar and indeed grotesque things have occurred, yet not on the same level as in other nations. Therefore, one must ask: ‘how is Honduras any more dangerous than its neighbours?’. The answer being simple – ‘it isn't’.
Sat once again, I find myself talking to a neighbour. He remains ‘perched’ upon a railing as we look out upon the view. A young father of two; he appears skinny as a whistle, his jet black hair closely cut against the scalp. Two piercing brown eyes study the distance as his hands wipe trickling water from his freshly bathed face. He speaks in a quiet yet fast paced and grotesquely slang-ridden speech. “SΓ yo no pago aquel man me va a montar pija viejo!” It doesn't translate very well into English. “If I don't pay that man he's going to mount me s*** old guy!”
My neighbour simply explained (using his colourful Honduran/Latino slang) that if he wasn’t able to pay a debt then the man to which he owed money would bring him many problems. Life was not easy for this fellow. It was there that I found myself living in a dilapidated apartment block. My neighbours comprised of US deportees, single mothers, ex-cons and marijuana-addicts.
I have however, never had a better set of neighbours in my life. Everyone got on with and looked after each other. Why? We were neighbours. We shared the top floor together. Therefore what other excuse did we need in looking out for one another? Working as an English teacher in a school by day and at a language academy at night, I experienced the day to day of Honduran working life. Many, many hours and little pay.
Everyone here lives in debt. One owes money to friends, relatives, shop owners, neighbours, schools, universities, random acquaintances or -- worst of all – loan sharks. ‘Debo a todo Tela’ a woman recently told me, chuckling to herself. "I owe all of Tela" – Tela being our city. Exotic in its ambience, relaxed in its manner – Tela, nevertheless is almost ‘magical’.
So yes, Honduras is indeed poor and Hondurans indeed struggle. These are, however, a people who withhold an inner kindness quite contradictory to their tough surroundings. That same neighbour I mentioned, would wake himself up at 5.30 am in order to make me coffee. He insisted that I could not start my working day without it. All I was to him was a neighbour. Who on earth would do that for me back in England? I pondered.
On another occasion, I recall being in search of a Honduras national football shirt. The search was for a fellow colleague – not myself. This was back in 2014 when I worked as a volunteer in the mountainous region of Lempira. During our search, I eventually stopped to ask a random stranger on the street. I saw the man wearing one such shirt and so I asked where he had bought it. He shone a beaming smile; the stocky fellow then spun himself around and indicated that we follow him. The man walked us a good three blocks until we arrived at a large store with an array of football shirts hanging from its second floor windows. Smiling at us again, he nodded his head, waved and walked himself right back from where he'd came...
Nobody would walk themselves three blocks out of their way for two foreign travellers where I come from. Not for anybody in fact -- no way. I mean, I wouldn't even think to do it. How peculiar it is indeed, to meet such amiable characters within ‘the most dangerous country on earth/the murder capital of the world’.
There are dangers here. This cannot be denied. I have heard of people being killed, tortured, raped, robbed and all the rest. Is this something native solely to Honduras though? Are we to say that such atrocities do not occur elsewhere? Of course not. Henceforth, I must demand that this nation is not singled out.
Here in Tela, there is no danger. The city’s ‘Mara’ watch over its citizens. ‘Mara’ is a term meaning ‘gang’ or ‘gangsters’, ‘Mara Salvatrucha 13/MS-13’ being one of Central America’s two largest street gangs. Robberies are seldom committed. Rape does not exist. Why? Tela is known as a place of calmness and good times, the city is a Caribbean delight. For the gangs, anything jeopardising this reputation is bad for business. Therefore, petty criminals fear the repercussions.
Any TeleΓ±o will tell you that “aquΓ Las Maras cuΓdan a la gente”. “The gangsters look after people here”.
When living in a poor coastal community by the name of El Porvenir, I myself came into contact with some teenage gangbangers. A mixed race fellow known as ‘Clay-Clay’ had been involved in a fight with someone I knew. One afternoon I approached him when on his own. On asking the bare-chested and chain wearing youth what happened, he replied softly, staring up at me with his dark, brown eyes. “Oye blanquito, no te preocupes, a vos te vamo’ a cuΓdar”. Expecting at least an aggressive answer from someone who was suspected locally of murder, he instead told me: “Listen little white guy, don't worry, we’re going to look after you.”
My time in Honduras thus far, amounts all in all to a year and three months. I am ‘surprised’ shall we say, to have never even seen a single act of violence in the ‘murder capital of the world’. The point being, I advocate some reasoning or, better still, some education…
'Australian' wheat turning farmers' heads in India
Scientists testing 'mystery' seeds to determine their origin and variety
CHANDRAKANT PARGIR and MANISH SONI, Contributing writers
Parmeshwar Rajwade has become well known among farmers in his part of Chhattisgarh for the high yields he has gotten from new seeds. (Photo by 101Reporters.com)
KOREA, India -- Parmeshwar Rajwade struggled for years to make a living on his small farm in Kanchanpur, a village in the Korea district of India's poor eastern state of Chhattisgarh. Then one day in 2013 a sales agent from a seed company handed him a 2kg packet of unnamed foreign wheat seeds that promised a 30% higher yield than local varieties.
Rajwade, who farms 2.4 hectares of land, sowed the wheat on a small plot of barely a fifth of a hectare. The results were startling: The seeds yielded 500kg of wheat when he harvested the crop four months later.
The following year, Rajwade sowed twice the area with the same wheat variety and reaped a yield of nearly 1 metric ton. His output was 2.5 times the average wheat yield in Chhattisgarh. Unsurprisingly, he increased the sown area to 1.2 hectares in 2015, producing 3 tons of wheat, and in December 2016 he sowed the seeds on his entire farm, harvesting more than 5 tons.
"The grain of the new wheat variety is bigger in size, and it weighs more than our traditional Indian varieties," Rajwade said.
To this day, the wheat has not been identified. But that did not stop Rajwade from offering seeds to other farmers -- a common practice in India when yields are good. By 2016, the unidentified foreign seeds were planted by most of the 50 or so farmers in Rajwade's village.
"An agriculture expert once visited me after spotting it growing in my field and he told me it was an Australian variety of wheat," said Rajwade, who is now celebrated in his village. Sales of larger quantities of the seed are now helping him to put his two children through school.
Rajwade said that two government-run agricultural research institutes, the Baikanthpur and Ambikapur agricultural research centers, had offered to test the seed, and appealed for more farmers to adopt it for better returns.
His nephew, Akhand Partap, farms the same foreign wheat on 0.4 hectares. He said that 300 of the 400 farmers in his village had also adopted it. "Due to its straw quantity, size of grain and softness while baking, it's become popular in the area," Partap said.
The best part, he said, is that growers do not need to go to market to buy it. Farmers are happy to pay Rajwade 25 rupees ($0.39) for a kilogram. The Indian variety of wheat is sold at 20 rupees a kilogram.
The 5 African Countries Where Change Isn't Coming, for Better or Worse
Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari with government officials after Friday prayers at the presidential palace in Abuja, Nigeria on May 5, 2017. Nigeria's 74-year old president has emerged to attend Friday prayers after missing a number of public engagements and three straight weekly cabinet meetings because of poor health. Sunday Aghaeze—Nigeria State House/AP
RISK REPORT
Ian Bremmer May 12, 2017
Change is in the air in countries from France to South Korea, both of which see new presidents take office this month. But for the moment, at least, not much political change is to be found in Africa. A lack of change can reflect stability, but it can also reflect stagnation — as the populations of these five African countries are discovering:
Kenya
Nearly a decade after post-election violence there killed hundreds and displaced hundreds of thousands, Kenya has become one of sub-Saharan Africa’s better stories. President Uhuru Kenyatta remains broadly popular, and while the country’s fractured opposition once hoped it could put forward a single candidate to challenge Kenyatta, political egos got in the way. Elections will be held on Aug. 8, Kenyatta’s path to reelection is clear, and the vote is likely to pass relatively peacefully.
But it’s not just the political stability that spells good news for Kenya. Kenya’s central bank is now helmed by the hyper-competent Patrick Njoroge, who continues the fight to bring inflation under control (currently at 10.3 percent). He will get a boost from the weather of all things—while drought conditions have caused food prices to spike (the price of maize is up 30 percent), the coming “long rains” season will provide some relief. And just in case state finances become precarious, the IMF is standing by to assist with a yet-untapped $1.5 billion program.
Angola
In oil-rich Angola, we’ll see a new president, but the same party of power. The center-left People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) is expected to remain the majority in this August’s legislative elections, paving the way for Joao Lourenco, the current Defense Minister, to assume the country’s presidency.
Lourenco is a competent technocrat with a relatively scandal-free reputation, critical in a country as resource-rich as Angola (45 percent of the country’s GDP comes from oil, as does 95 percent of its export revenue). Expect an anticorruption push as soon as he assumes office, part of a concerted effort to encourage foreign investment and boost the business environment.
Outgoing president Jose Eduardo dos Santos has ruled the country for 38 years—his departure inevitably brings some political upheaval, especially for investors who had grown accustomed to Dos Santos’ centralized decision making style. But it’s a managed transition, and Dos Santos will remain chair of the party and a formidable political presence in the country. Not bad—if only all leaders who’ve ruled for nearly four decades bowed out so gracefully.
Rwanda
Paul Kagame has been in power since 2000; this August, he will win his third seven-year term as president. There’s not much suspense; last time Kagame ran in 2010, he won 93 percent of the vote. Kagame is no doubt a ruthless leader, but as far as most Rwandans are concerned, he’s the only political game in town—and many have made their peace with that.
Kagame grew up as a refugee in neighboring Uganda, and rose to political power as part of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) that would eventually end the Rwandan civil war. He has ruled with a strong hand since assuming power, cracking down on the free press in particular (Reporters Without Borders ranks the country 159th out of 180 on the World Press Freedom Index). He’s poised to continue doing so for the foreseeable future; the new constitution allows him an additional two five-year terms through 2034. His hanging on will probably drive another violent transition before 2034—it’s just very hard to predict when or how.
Nigeria
As the health of 74-year-old president Muhammadu Buhari continues to deteriorate, Nigeria is caught in a holding pattern. A political crisis has been averted for the time being, with Buhari handing power to his vice president while he returns to London for medical treatment of an undisclosed illness. This virtually assures that the country won’t undertake much-needed economic and business reforms until the February 2019 elections are over.
Having a president with frail health is always difficult, but it’s especially problematic in Nigeria. By the terms of an informal agreement dating back to when democracy was restored in 1999, the presidency is meant to rotate every eight years between a Muslim northerner and a Christian southerner to reflect the country’s demographics (roughly 50 percent of whom are Muslim and 40 percent Christian).
That hasn’t worked out great for Northern Muslims, as their first president Umaru Yar’Adua died in office in 2010 after serving just three years. Should Buhari (a Muslim) die in office, his Christian vice president Yemi Osinbajo will assume the presidency—which is exactly what happened in 2010. Osinbajo will face pressure to step aside for a Muslim candidate in 2019 should it come to that. Combine that with an economy that just saw its first economic contraction in 25 years and a government that continues to battle the Islamist Boko Haram, and the short-term prospects for Nigeria aren’t looking great at the moment.
South Africa
Jacob Zuma, who leads the African National Congress (ANC)—the party once-led by Nelson Mandela—remains in office despite almost 800 charges of corruption leveled against him. Given his continued control of the party, he is likely to survive the vote of no confidence slated to be held in the next month or so.
The twist to this story is what comes next. At the moment, Zuma’s most likely successor is his ex-wife Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, a capable politician in her own right who has just completed her tenure as chairperson of the African Union, the regional organization that coordinates pan-continental politics. She is likely to use Zuma’s existing political network to vault to the presidency, and has been careful not to criticize the patronage network that backs Zuma and which has drawn the ire of political opponents and international observers. For Zuma, anointing Dlamini-Zuma his successor gives him some protection from prosecution once he leaves office, and it prevents the more market-friendly traditionalist faction within the ANC from renouncing him entirely.Unfortunately, this won’t change the fact that the South African economy continues to stumble (unemployment is at around 27 percent and the economy grew just 0.3 percent in 2016), and major ratings agencies are poised to downgrade the countries investment rating—already at “junk” status—even further. For the country hailed as the continent’s success story just five years ago, it’s a major fall from grace—and it has further left to fall.
5 World Leaders Less Popular than President Donald Trump
RISK REPORT - Ian Bremmer May 22, 2017
Donald Trump had a historically bad series of news cycles this month, right up until he left the country on an overseas trip last week. But believe it or not, Trump—currently with an approval rating just under 40 percent—is sitting pretty compared to some of the world's other heads of state and government. Here then is a world tour of political figureheads who are even less popular than the U.S. president:
Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela
President Nicolas Maduro may have retained an approval rate in the mid-to-low twenties since last year, but he is currently the world’s most embattled political leader. Venezuelans take to the streets daily to violently protest his government amid crippling food and medicine shortages—74 percent of Venezuelans have lost an average of 19 pounds over the past year, and roughly 80 percent of basic medicines are unavailable.
The situation has gotten so bad for a number of reasons. First is that Maduro has the misfortune of presiding over a country whose economy is almost wholly dependent on oil (over 95 percent of export revenues come from it) at a time of low oil-prices, a problem compounded by severe financial mismanagement over many years. Second are his bumbling attempts to quash dissent, epitomized by his recent attempt to abolish the National Assembly, only to retreat at the popular backlash. And not to be overlooked is that Maduro simply lacks the political charisma of his predecessor, the still-revered Hugo Chavez. So far, Maduro has used a combination of police forces, the national guard and armed militias to contain the protests; when he has to call in the military, the game will be all but over for him.
Michel Temer of Brazil
Following an impeached president should be easy; the bar has been set low. But as Brazilian president Michel Temer has found out—with an approval rating in the single digits—following Dilma Rousseff has been no walk in the park. The veteran politician is now clinging to his job after recordings emerged of him allegedly negotiating the payment of a bribe to silence a fellow corrupt politician. He may soon be the second president in a row to be impeached, due to links with the far-reaching Lavo Jato graft scandal.
But Brazil was already in big trouble even before this latest scandal erupted. The slowdown of the global economy and the accompanying crash in commodity prices have hit Brazil hard, leading to the country’s worst recession ever. GDP has fallen more than 7 percent in the last two years, unemployment has roughly tripled, and at least 3.5 million people who had been lifted out of poverty in the boom years between 2004 and 2014 have slid back. Much of this dates back to before Temer's presidency — but now, the reforms he introduced to fix Brazil's economy will likely be subsumed by scandal.
Jacob Zuma of South Africa
South African President Jacob Zuma’s approval rating is at an all-time low of 20 percent across the country’s seven major metropolitan areas; more than 70 percent of South Africans want him to resign. Some of that has to with South Africa’s slumping economy, which took a hit with the global recession and the slowdown of the commodities super-cycle. Since Zuma assumed the presidency in 2009, the country’s currency has lost a third of its value, and unemployment currently stands at 27 percent. It’s hard to remain popular with numbers like that.
But it’s Zuma himself who’s the bigger problem. Zuma has had nearly 800 charges of corruption leveled against him, and he relies on patronage networks to keep him afloat politically. He’s gotten rid of well-respected ministers (and political rivals) like Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, who crusaded against government corruption. At the moment, Zuma is grooming his ex-wife to be his political successor to protect himself from prosecution once he leaves office. Zuma’s term runs through 2019—for most South Africans, change can’t come soon enough.
Najib Razak of Malaysia
If you’re not going to be popular, you may as well be rich. Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak has been president since 2009, which is the same year he established an economic-development investment fund called 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). More than $1 billion ended up in Najib’s personal account, which at a certain point he tried to pass off as a “gift” from the Saudi royal family. He was backed up by Malaysia’s attorney general, who reported that the money constituted a legal donation, and that “most” of it was returned. Unsurprisingly, his current approval rating is at record lows.
But politically-speaking, Najib doesn’t have much to worry about—he retains firm control of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), the political party that has dominated Malaysian politics for nearly six decades. He has systematically sidelined opponents within the party, and his main adversaries outside the party have been jailed on what critics say are politicized charges. Who needs popularity when you have political power and money in the bank?
Alexis Tsipras of Greece
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras continues to fall in polls as he is forced to accept more and more austerity measures to keep his country afloat. Greece’s financial woes began well before Tsipras assumed the reins (the country has lost 25 percent of its GDP since the crisis began in 2010), but Tsipras and his Syriza government have compounded problems. Syriza triggered elections in 2014 at a time when it seemed the Greek economy was finding its footing, which Tsipras won by promising to bend Berlin to his will and getting the Germans to forgive Greek debt (he’s still waiting for that).
That was followed by the tumultuous tenure of finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, whose brash rhetoric made an already weary-E.U. even less likely to grant Greece concessions, and a snap referendum on whether to accept a new bailout deal from foreign creditors. Greeks said no, but Tsipras went ahead and signed it anyway.That said, Tsipras’ enduring anti-establishment credentials and combative rhetoric make him the only Greek politician able to push through unpopular austerity measures to an exhausted and jaded Greek public with minimal public outcry. Sometimes, democracies need unpopular leaders.
Cameron Highlands Coldest Place In Malaysia
KUALA LUMPUR: Cameron Highlands in Pahang registered the country's coldest temperature of 16 degrees Celsius last month, according to the Malaysian Meteorological Department.
Cameron Highlands District
Its director-general, Datuk Che Gayah Ismail, said the cold weather was due to the frequent rain and cloud cover during the month.
She said this minimum temperature was not reported in the lowlands.
The popular tourist destination of Cameron Highlands holds the record for the lowest temperature in the country, at 7.8 degrees Celsius, which was experienced in February 1978, Che Gayah said to Bernama.
"It was recorded at an altitude of 1,471.6 metres above sea level," she added.
-- BERNAMA
Cameron Highlands District
The Cameron Highlands is Malaysia’s most extensive hill station. It occupies an area of 712 square kilometres. To the north, its boundary touches that of Kelantan; to the west, it shares part of its border with Perak. Wikipedia
Area: 274.9 mi²
Population: 38,471 (2010)
Its director-general, Datuk Che Gayah Ismail, said the cold weather was due to the frequent rain and cloud cover during the month.
She said this minimum temperature was not reported in the lowlands.
The popular tourist destination of Cameron Highlands holds the record for the lowest temperature in the country, at 7.8 degrees Celsius, which was experienced in February 1978, Che Gayah said to Bernama.
"It was recorded at an altitude of 1,471.6 metres above sea level," she added.
-- BERNAMA
Page from the Past - Remember Yesterday -The real story behind May 13, by Tunku Abdul Rahman
Remember Yesterday »
The real story behind May 13, by Tunku Abdul Rahman
The May 13 incident as personally related by Tunku Abdul Rahman, the first Prime Minister of Malaya/Malaysia and ‘Bapa Merdeka’
From his residence in Penang, 1972:
‘It was clear to me as well as the police that in the highly charged political atmosphere after the police were forced to kill a Chinese political party worker on May 4th, 1969, something was bound to happen
to threaten law and order because of the resentment towards the Government by the KL Chinese on the eve of the general election. This was confirmed at this man’s funeral on the 9th May when the government
faced the most hostile crowd it had ever seen.
Therefore, when the opposition parties applied for a police permit for a procession to celebrate their success in the results of the general election, I was adamant against it because the police were convinced that this would lead to trouble.
I informed Tun Razak about this and he seemed to agree.
Now, without my knowledge and actually ‘behind my back,’ there were certain political leaders in high positions who were working to force me to step down as a PM. I don’t want to go into details but if they had
come to me and said so I would gladly have retired gracefully.
Unfortunately, they were apparently scheming and trying to decide on the best way to force me to resign. The occasion came when the question of the police permit was to be approved.
Tun Razak and Harun Idris, the MB of the state of Selangor, now felt that permission should be given knowing fully well that there was a likelihood of trouble. I suppose they felt that when this happened they
could then demand my resignation.
It seems as though the expected trouble was anticipated and planned for by Harun and his UMNO Youth. After the humiliating insults hurled by the non-Malays, especially the Chinese, and after the seeming loss of Malay political power to them, they were clearly ready for some retaliatory action. After meeting in large numbers at Harun’s official residence in Jalan Raja Muda near Kampong Bahru and hearing inflammatory speeches by Harun and other leaders, they prepared themselves by tying ribbon strips on their foreheads and set out to kill Chinese. The first hapless victims were two of them in a van opposite Harun’s house who were innocently watching the large gathering. Little did they know that they would be killed on the spot.
The rest is history. I am sorry but I must end this discussion now because it really pains me as the Father of Merdeka to have to relive those terrible moments. I have often wondered why God made me live long enough to have witnessed my beloved Malays and Chinese citizens killing each other.’
[From Raja Petra Kamarudin’s blog, Malaysia Today]
Philip Bowring
16 May 2007
A new book presents the view that 1969 race riots were instigated by ambitious Malay politicians. Now it seems the book will be banned by the government.
Thirty-eight years on, the traumatic ethnic riots of May 13, 1969 in Malaysia remain as much a subject of official censorship as the events of June 4, 1989 in China. Now a new book by a Malaysian Chinese academic is on the point of being officially banned for suggesting that May 13 was the occasion for what amounted to a coup against the independence leader and Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman by his United Malays National Organisation colleagues who were pushing pro-Malay policies. Officials of Malaysia’s Internal Security Ministry Tuesday confiscated 10 copies of the book from a Kuala Lumpur bookstore, advising the store not to sell it as it may be banned. According to a letter issued by ministry officials, the book is suspected of being an “undesirable publication.”
What happened on May 13 remains highly relevant to UMNO’s position as the leader of the Barisan National, the alliance of race-based parties that has ruled the country since independence 50 years ago.
“Declassified Documents on the Malaysian riots of 1969” by Dr. Kua Kia Soong, the principal of New Era College, is based not directly on Malaysian sources but on now-open British documents held at the Public Records Office in Kew Gardens, near London. These consist of contemporary British diplomatic and intelligence reports which suggest that the riots were not spontaneous acts of communal violence, as is constantly alleged by UMNO, but were fanned by Malay elements, with support from the army and police, wanting to discredit the accommodating prime minister and impose a much more rigorous Malay agenda. One British document concluded that the goal was to “formalize Malay dominance, sideline the Chinese and shelve Tunku.”
The official Malaysian government version of events was that the riots were sparked by opposition parties “infiltrated by communist insurgents” following huge opposition gains in the election. Although the UMNO-led Alliance, the predecessor of the Barisan National, retained an overall majority, it lost its two thirds majority and its control of Selangor state was threatened. Certainly there was much celebrating among the mainly Chinese opposition parties at the election result, which angered Malay politicians who sensed their political dominance was under threat.
By the time the riots were over, official figures said 196 people had been killed, 6,000 made homeless and more than 700 buildings destroyed or damaged.
Non-Malays in particular have long believed that though there was violence on both sides, it was a mostly one-sided affair with some Malay politicians, notably Selangor Chief Minister Harun Idris, encouraging mobs to attack Chinese areas and that the security forces initially did little to prevent violence. This is largely confirmed by contemporary reports such as those of Far Eastern Economic Review correspondent Bob Reece.
Kua’s thesis suggests that there was a grander political design behind the episode, which from the beginning was intended to create a new political agenda and new leadership. He attributes this to a younger Malay group dissatisfied with the aristocratic, pro-British the Tunku.
In any event, the Tunku effectively stepped aside as emergency powers to rule by decree were (temporarily) placed in the hands of a National Operations Council headed by his deputy Tun Abdul Razak – father of current deputy prime minister Najib Abdul Razak. The Tunku remained prime minister until September 1970 but had little authority any more. In 1971 he also stepped down as president of UMNO after virulent criticism by the Malay “Young Turks,” headed by Mahathir Mohamad, the future Prime Minister. The same year the government enunciated the New Economic Policy and began aggressive affirmative action programs to advance the economic and educational level of Malays.
However, while the consequences of May 13 may be clear, there are disagreements about Kua’s thesis even among those who attribute the riots to Malay politicians. For example, Dr Syed Husin Ali also a respected academic and deputy head of the opposition Keadilan Party, has suggested that while some UMNO figures used the events as an opportunity to sideline the Tunku and set out a pro-Malay agenda, it was not planned as such.
In other words, Razak and others took advantage of the situation which arose after the election and the appearance of Malay mobs to grab the reins of power from the Tunku, with whom they were dissatisfied, but that it was not premeditated. Syed also takes issue with Kua’s view that they represented an aspirant Malay capitalist class when most had traditional and feudal links.
Bookstores have been advised not to sell Kua’s book and a formal ban looks likely on the grounds that it will stir up racial animosities, which it could well do in the short run. However, from a broader perspective it is hard to see how a multi-racial, multi-religious Malaysia can flourish if events such as May 13 can only be discussed in private, while the public is fed a distorted official version in order to sustain the legitimacy of UMNO politicians.
December 14, 2010Written by CT Wong (cpiasia.net)
The deputy Utusan editor-in-chief Zaini Hassan (left) had recently written that May 13 should be celebrated as ‘tarikh keramat’ — an auspicious and sacred day. He opined that May 13 is a blessing in disguise and without May 13 the Malays would not have enjoyed the benefits as what they are enjoying today.
From the Oxford Fajar bilingual dictionary, ‘keramat’ means “place or object that is (believed to be) sacred with supernatural or magical powers.” The powers refer to the special ability to cure sickness or to provide protection.
So far, May 13 has not cured the malignant sickness of racism dating from colonial times – colonialism is a form of racism. Neither do the citizens feel more protected from its relapse. What we witnessed was not supernatural powers, but authoritarian powers that destroy the very foundation of democracy – separation of powers of the executive, the judiciary and the legislative.
I find it difficult to understand how May 13 might wish to be celebrated as sacred, as spiritual. The predators become heroes and idols. Where is the sacredness? When unarmed Malaysians who were non-combatants were sacrificed by those in the deadly pursuit of power and wealth, God or gods were also sacrificed. In fact, civilisation, if not God, abandoned us during those dark days.
To the Germans who are proud of their Einstein, Beethoven and Sigmund Freud, these names are forever linked to Auschwitz in the land of Germany. To many a Malaysian, ‘Islamic’ civilisation and the ‘Malays’ are eternally linked to the May 13 genocide.
The Germans do not celebrate the Holocaust, but to create a museum right in the centre of the SS headquarters and exposing all the crimes against humanity of Hitler and the Nazi party, lest the future generations forget. In this land of Malaysia, the ethnic minorities are repeatedly reminded of “May 13 or equality!”, lest they forget.
We can always look for a silver lining in our tragedies if we want to. However, the Utusan editor seemed to find the smell of death quite sweet and fragrant. This brings me back to the times how I lived through the days of May 13.
I was an adolescent living in a rather isolated Chinese-owned rubber-holding up north. Just a mile away was a formerly foreign-owned rubber estate with mostly Indian rubber tappers. And a few miles away was a Malay kampung. When the news or rumours of ‘racial riots’ in KL reached us, we were shocked not only by the killings but the way it was carried out.
On May 13, life and death depended on skin colour; the skin that protects us as a biological organism suddenly becomes a death sentence and our vaguely friendly Malay neighbour could suddenly be a murderer. Such fearful thoughts disturbed me for quite a number of days.
My family and I had been forced to move to the nearest small town to stay just in case we happened to be the victims.
As times went on, the traumatic memories and the rawness of receiving a rude shock out of the deep slumber of racial accommodation slowly faded. I moved on with my life. But, time and again, non-Malays like me are being reminded of May 13.
To me, May 13 means that the Alliance government of the day failed to protect its citizens. It means that the social contract between the state and citizens was deliberately broken.
The use of the phrase ‘May 13 racial riots’ is constantly being circulated and recycled in all our narratives, including that from the opposition parties. It is understandable if we use euphemistic terms to describe something awful so that we can cushion off the emotional overwhelm. But the phrases ‘racial riots’ or ‘racial clash’ or “May 13 incident” only serve the purpose of bleaching the mass atrocities, the mass murders of May 13.
The word ‘racial’ is quite a harmless term. You can use it for ‘racial harmony’ also. It does not bring out the sense of cruelty embedded in racism. When killing based on race is so ruthless, you don’t call it ‘racial’ anymore. It would be more appropriate to use ‘genocidal’ instead.
From etymology of the word, ‘geno’ refers to race and ‘cide’ refers to killing (e.g. homicide, suicide, patricide, etc).
From a definition by the United Nations, genocide refers to the destruction in part or whole of an ethnic group based on religion, ethnicity and racial identity. It does not need to be total as the Final Solution of the Nazis; neither does it need to be deaths in the magnitude of the hundreds of thousands or millions as in the Rwanda genocide.
S.A. Budd, the British High Commissioner to Malaysia in 1969 was quoted as saying “…that of 77 corpses in the morgue of the General Hospital on 14 May, at least 60 were Chinese…” (Kua Kia Soong, 2007). The demography of ethnic identities is obvious.
Gregory Stanton, the President of Genocide Watch, argued that “The motive of the killer to take the victim’s property or to politically dominate the victim’s group does not remove genocidal intent if the victim is chosen because of his ethnic, national, racial or religious group.”
The intent was clearly genocidal in the case of May 13. So, May 13 may be more accurately redefined as the May 13 genocidal mass killing, or May 13 genocidal massacre, or genocidal mass atrocity, or if we retain the ‘riots’ terminology, at least May 13 genocidal riots, lest we celebrate the historical events for the wrong reasons.
Riots as we understand it from the experience of the United States, Britain and Europe is that of an expressive act of hostility by the aggrieved and subordinate group or class. The American blacks, for example, were so marginalized economically and culturally that violence was used as a counterbalance against power inequalities. Rioting is often used defensively by the ethnic minorities to confront the authorities who are from the dominant group, in particular the police, to bring them to the negotiating table.
May 13 was not perpetrated by the skinheads or a Chinese secret society. It was “a planned coup d’etat by the ascendant state capitalist class against the Tunku-led aristocracy.” (Kua, 2007).
In other words, it was state-sponsored, or at least state-tolerated with deliberate and conscious planning.
Without the green light from the top and Malay power elites, the scale and magnitude of the destruction would not be possible within a mere few days. The Malaysian official statistics of casualties as of May 21, 1969 were: “137 killed — 18 Malays, 342 injured, 109 vehicles burned, 118 buildings destroyed, 2,912 persons arrested, mostly curfew breakers.”(Kua, 2007).
TIME magazine (May 23, 1969) cited Western diplomatic sources as believing the death toll was closer to 600, with most of the victims Chinese. It also wrote that “…By the time the four days of race war and strife had run their course, the General Hospital’s morgue was so crowded that bodies were put into plastic bags and hung on hooks.”
Hence, May 13 may be re-conceptualised as the 1969 Malaysian Genocide, of which there is nothing sacred to celebrate. We, whatever our race and religion, would like to die with dignity in a spiritual or cultural sense. This desire is a human norm as only men bury our dead.
I could still remember those days when the adults were talking excitedly, at times with horror, under the rubber trees about the deadly slaughter happening hundreds of miles away in Kuala Lumpur.
There were the stories of the Chinese secret societies which were viewed as a nuisance in peaceful times but during May 13 becoming the protector of community. Also, I heard that there were courageous soldiers who refused to be willing executioners. The truth, be it from the perspective of the perpetrators or of the massacre survivors or the conscientious objectors, is yet to be openly told.
Ian Ward of the London Daily Telegraph reported on May 23, 1969 that “The initial stages of the government crackdown produced glaring discrimination against the Chinese.” (Kua, 2007).
I would celebrate May 13 if an anti-genocide standby unit is formed today in the armed forces or the police forces specifically trained and dedicated to handle racist malignant conflicts.
It is risky to pray for heroes to emerge or to hope that soldiers would act professionally rather than become willing executioners in ugly and brutalizing times. On May 13, there were some heroes and some soldiers who valued professionalism. But we have a better chance of saving more lives if the prevention of massacres is taken as a professional duty of the armed forces.
Gregory Stanton in his “8 Stages of Genocide” proposed that genocide is also a cultural question. He wrote that “… A plan for genocide doesn’t need to be written out. An act of genocide may arise in a culture that considers members of another group less than human, where killing members of that group is not considered murder. This is the culture of impunity characteristic of genocidal societies.”
Those who use genocidal threats of May 13 are in fact operating in a cultural environment that condones or affirms a new moral code of behaviour: Killing is not murder.
Killing is repulsive to many a human. Once it is rationalised, the normal moral restraint is removed. Police could kill suspects when they believe or justify that they are killing crime, and not criminals, real or imagined. Or a soldier could kill old people, women or children if he believes that he is killing ideological enemies and not human beings.
And the intelligentsia would have no qualms about justifying mass murders.
Of course gun or machete kills. But it is the justifying words of a destructive racist ideology that direct the brain to give green light to the fingers to pull the trigger. Hence, ideology kills, be it in the print or electronic media.
Being conditioned by a coercive and brutalizing ideology, the power elites rationalise unequal and oppressive treatment of the others when perceiving themselves as the victims due to historical injustices. This sows the seeds of genocide and waters its growth.
The threat of repeat of May 13 is to suppress the raising of civil rights issues. May 13 is in actual fact democide, a mass killing because of democratic demands by the ethnic minorities. Genocide is justified because democratic demands pose a threat of the loss of power of the dominant race or rather the power elites.
May 13 is an unjust and immoral war against the ethnic minorities asking for legitimate democratic demands. The threat of its repeat is being used to legitimise social inequalities and to deprive citizens the freedom of thought and discussion.
The intelligentsia class is often guilty of complicity in mass murders. Our own intelligentsia class urgently needs critical self-examination and self-reflection, not celebration and not bleaching of mass murders.
Reference
Kua Kia Soong, 2007, May 13 Declassified Documents on the Malaysian Riots of 1969, Petaling Jaya, Suaram Komunikasi.
The real story behind May 13, by Tunku Abdul Rahman
The May 13 incident as personally related by Tunku Abdul Rahman, the first Prime Minister of Malaya/Malaysia and ‘Bapa Merdeka’
From his residence in Penang, 1972:
‘It was clear to me as well as the police that in the highly charged political atmosphere after the police were forced to kill a Chinese political party worker on May 4th, 1969, something was bound to happen
to threaten law and order because of the resentment towards the Government by the KL Chinese on the eve of the general election. This was confirmed at this man’s funeral on the 9th May when the government
faced the most hostile crowd it had ever seen.
Therefore, when the opposition parties applied for a police permit for a procession to celebrate their success in the results of the general election, I was adamant against it because the police were convinced that this would lead to trouble.
I informed Tun Razak about this and he seemed to agree.
Now, without my knowledge and actually ‘behind my back,’ there were certain political leaders in high positions who were working to force me to step down as a PM. I don’t want to go into details but if they had
come to me and said so I would gladly have retired gracefully.
Unfortunately, they were apparently scheming and trying to decide on the best way to force me to resign. The occasion came when the question of the police permit was to be approved.
Tun Razak and Harun Idris, the MB of the state of Selangor, now felt that permission should be given knowing fully well that there was a likelihood of trouble. I suppose they felt that when this happened they
could then demand my resignation.
To this day I find it very hard to believe that Razak, whom I had known for so many years, would agree to work against me in this way.
Actually, he was in my house as I was preparing to return to Kedah and I overhead him speaking to Harun over the phone saying that he would be willing to approve the permit when I left. I really could not believe what I was hearing and preferred to think it was about some other permit. In any case, as the Deputy Prime Minister in my absence from KL, he would be the Acting PM and would override my objection. Accordingly, when I was in my home in Kedah, I heard over the radio that the permit had been approved.
It seems as though the expected trouble was anticipated and planned for by Harun and his UMNO Youth. After the humiliating insults hurled by the non-Malays, especially the Chinese, and after the seeming loss of Malay political power to them, they were clearly ready for some retaliatory action. After meeting in large numbers at Harun’s official residence in Jalan Raja Muda near Kampong Bahru and hearing inflammatory speeches by Harun and other leaders, they prepared themselves by tying ribbon strips on their foreheads and set out to kill Chinese. The first hapless victims were two of them in a van opposite Harun’s house who were innocently watching the large gathering. Little did they know that they would be killed on the spot.
The rest is history. I am sorry but I must end this discussion now because it really pains me as the Father of Merdeka to have to relive those terrible moments. I have often wondered why God made me live long enough to have witnessed my beloved Malays and Chinese citizens killing each other.’
[From Raja Petra Kamarudin’s blog, Malaysia Today]
Philip Bowring
16 May 2007
A new book presents the view that 1969 race riots were instigated by ambitious Malay politicians. Now it seems the book will be banned by the government.
Thirty-eight years on, the traumatic ethnic riots of May 13, 1969 in Malaysia remain as much a subject of official censorship as the events of June 4, 1989 in China. Now a new book by a Malaysian Chinese academic is on the point of being officially banned for suggesting that May 13 was the occasion for what amounted to a coup against the independence leader and Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman by his United Malays National Organisation colleagues who were pushing pro-Malay policies. Officials of Malaysia’s Internal Security Ministry Tuesday confiscated 10 copies of the book from a Kuala Lumpur bookstore, advising the store not to sell it as it may be banned. According to a letter issued by ministry officials, the book is suspected of being an “undesirable publication.”
What happened on May 13 remains highly relevant to UMNO’s position as the leader of the Barisan National, the alliance of race-based parties that has ruled the country since independence 50 years ago.
“Declassified Documents on the Malaysian riots of 1969” by Dr. Kua Kia Soong, the principal of New Era College, is based not directly on Malaysian sources but on now-open British documents held at the Public Records Office in Kew Gardens, near London. These consist of contemporary British diplomatic and intelligence reports which suggest that the riots were not spontaneous acts of communal violence, as is constantly alleged by UMNO, but were fanned by Malay elements, with support from the army and police, wanting to discredit the accommodating prime minister and impose a much more rigorous Malay agenda. One British document concluded that the goal was to “formalize Malay dominance, sideline the Chinese and shelve Tunku.”
The official Malaysian government version of events was that the riots were sparked by opposition parties “infiltrated by communist insurgents” following huge opposition gains in the election. Although the UMNO-led Alliance, the predecessor of the Barisan National, retained an overall majority, it lost its two thirds majority and its control of Selangor state was threatened. Certainly there was much celebrating among the mainly Chinese opposition parties at the election result, which angered Malay politicians who sensed their political dominance was under threat.
By the time the riots were over, official figures said 196 people had been killed, 6,000 made homeless and more than 700 buildings destroyed or damaged.
Non-Malays in particular have long believed that though there was violence on both sides, it was a mostly one-sided affair with some Malay politicians, notably Selangor Chief Minister Harun Idris, encouraging mobs to attack Chinese areas and that the security forces initially did little to prevent violence. This is largely confirmed by contemporary reports such as those of Far Eastern Economic Review correspondent Bob Reece.
Kua’s thesis suggests that there was a grander political design behind the episode, which from the beginning was intended to create a new political agenda and new leadership. He attributes this to a younger Malay group dissatisfied with the aristocratic, pro-British the Tunku.
In any event, the Tunku effectively stepped aside as emergency powers to rule by decree were (temporarily) placed in the hands of a National Operations Council headed by his deputy Tun Abdul Razak – father of current deputy prime minister Najib Abdul Razak. The Tunku remained prime minister until September 1970 but had little authority any more. In 1971 he also stepped down as president of UMNO after virulent criticism by the Malay “Young Turks,” headed by Mahathir Mohamad, the future Prime Minister. The same year the government enunciated the New Economic Policy and began aggressive affirmative action programs to advance the economic and educational level of Malays.
However, while the consequences of May 13 may be clear, there are disagreements about Kua’s thesis even among those who attribute the riots to Malay politicians. For example, Dr Syed Husin Ali also a respected academic and deputy head of the opposition Keadilan Party, has suggested that while some UMNO figures used the events as an opportunity to sideline the Tunku and set out a pro-Malay agenda, it was not planned as such.
In other words, Razak and others took advantage of the situation which arose after the election and the appearance of Malay mobs to grab the reins of power from the Tunku, with whom they were dissatisfied, but that it was not premeditated. Syed also takes issue with Kua’s view that they represented an aspirant Malay capitalist class when most had traditional and feudal links.
Bookstores have been advised not to sell Kua’s book and a formal ban looks likely on the grounds that it will stir up racial animosities, which it could well do in the short run. However, from a broader perspective it is hard to see how a multi-racial, multi-religious Malaysia can flourish if events such as May 13 can only be discussed in private, while the public is fed a distorted official version in order to sustain the legitimacy of UMNO politicians.
May 13 more accurately ‘genocidal’ than racial riots
December 14, 2010Written by CT Wong (cpiasia.net)
The deputy Utusan editor-in-chief Zaini Hassan (left) had recently written that May 13 should be celebrated as ‘tarikh keramat’ — an auspicious and sacred day. He opined that May 13 is a blessing in disguise and without May 13 the Malays would not have enjoyed the benefits as what they are enjoying today.
From the Oxford Fajar bilingual dictionary, ‘keramat’ means “place or object that is (believed to be) sacred with supernatural or magical powers.” The powers refer to the special ability to cure sickness or to provide protection.
So far, May 13 has not cured the malignant sickness of racism dating from colonial times – colonialism is a form of racism. Neither do the citizens feel more protected from its relapse. What we witnessed was not supernatural powers, but authoritarian powers that destroy the very foundation of democracy – separation of powers of the executive, the judiciary and the legislative.
I find it difficult to understand how May 13 might wish to be celebrated as sacred, as spiritual. The predators become heroes and idols. Where is the sacredness? When unarmed Malaysians who were non-combatants were sacrificed by those in the deadly pursuit of power and wealth, God or gods were also sacrificed. In fact, civilisation, if not God, abandoned us during those dark days.
To the Germans who are proud of their Einstein, Beethoven and Sigmund Freud, these names are forever linked to Auschwitz in the land of Germany. To many a Malaysian, ‘Islamic’ civilisation and the ‘Malays’ are eternally linked to the May 13 genocide.
The Germans do not celebrate the Holocaust, but to create a museum right in the centre of the SS headquarters and exposing all the crimes against humanity of Hitler and the Nazi party, lest the future generations forget. In this land of Malaysia, the ethnic minorities are repeatedly reminded of “May 13 or equality!”, lest they forget.
We can always look for a silver lining in our tragedies if we want to. However, the Utusan editor seemed to find the smell of death quite sweet and fragrant. This brings me back to the times how I lived through the days of May 13.
May 13 to me
I was an adolescent living in a rather isolated Chinese-owned rubber-holding up north. Just a mile away was a formerly foreign-owned rubber estate with mostly Indian rubber tappers. And a few miles away was a Malay kampung. When the news or rumours of ‘racial riots’ in KL reached us, we were shocked not only by the killings but the way it was carried out.
On May 13, life and death depended on skin colour; the skin that protects us as a biological organism suddenly becomes a death sentence and our vaguely friendly Malay neighbour could suddenly be a murderer. Such fearful thoughts disturbed me for quite a number of days.
My family and I had been forced to move to the nearest small town to stay just in case we happened to be the victims.
As times went on, the traumatic memories and the rawness of receiving a rude shock out of the deep slumber of racial accommodation slowly faded. I moved on with my life. But, time and again, non-Malays like me are being reminded of May 13.
What is May 13 then? And why call it racial riots?
Social contract destroyed
To me, May 13 means that the Alliance government of the day failed to protect its citizens. It means that the social contract between the state and citizens was deliberately broken.
May 13 means the killing of civilians. It cannot be justified by any rules of war.
May 13 means the extension of politics by an unjust and immoral war.
The use of the phrase ‘May 13 racial riots’ is constantly being circulated and recycled in all our narratives, including that from the opposition parties. It is understandable if we use euphemistic terms to describe something awful so that we can cushion off the emotional overwhelm. But the phrases ‘racial riots’ or ‘racial clash’ or “May 13 incident” only serve the purpose of bleaching the mass atrocities, the mass murders of May 13.
Dissecting the label
The word ‘racial’ is quite a harmless term. You can use it for ‘racial harmony’ also. It does not bring out the sense of cruelty embedded in racism. When killing based on race is so ruthless, you don’t call it ‘racial’ anymore. It would be more appropriate to use ‘genocidal’ instead.
From etymology of the word, ‘geno’ refers to race and ‘cide’ refers to killing (e.g. homicide, suicide, patricide, etc).
From a definition by the United Nations, genocide refers to the destruction in part or whole of an ethnic group based on religion, ethnicity and racial identity. It does not need to be total as the Final Solution of the Nazis; neither does it need to be deaths in the magnitude of the hundreds of thousands or millions as in the Rwanda genocide.
S.A. Budd, the British High Commissioner to Malaysia in 1969 was quoted as saying “…that of 77 corpses in the morgue of the General Hospital on 14 May, at least 60 were Chinese…” (Kua Kia Soong, 2007). The demography of ethnic identities is obvious.
Gregory Stanton, the President of Genocide Watch, argued that “The motive of the killer to take the victim’s property or to politically dominate the victim’s group does not remove genocidal intent if the victim is chosen because of his ethnic, national, racial or religious group.”
The intent was clearly genocidal in the case of May 13. So, May 13 may be more accurately redefined as the May 13 genocidal mass killing, or May 13 genocidal massacre, or genocidal mass atrocity, or if we retain the ‘riots’ terminology, at least May 13 genocidal riots, lest we celebrate the historical events for the wrong reasons.
Riots as we understand it from the experience of the United States, Britain and Europe is that of an expressive act of hostility by the aggrieved and subordinate group or class. The American blacks, for example, were so marginalized economically and culturally that violence was used as a counterbalance against power inequalities. Rioting is often used defensively by the ethnic minorities to confront the authorities who are from the dominant group, in particular the police, to bring them to the negotiating table.
Riot is not usually an instrument employed by the state.
May 13 was not perpetrated by the skinheads or a Chinese secret society. It was “a planned coup d’etat by the ascendant state capitalist class against the Tunku-led aristocracy.” (Kua, 2007).
In other words, it was state-sponsored, or at least state-tolerated with deliberate and conscious planning.
Nothing sacred to celebrate
Without the green light from the top and Malay power elites, the scale and magnitude of the destruction would not be possible within a mere few days. The Malaysian official statistics of casualties as of May 21, 1969 were: “137 killed — 18 Malays, 342 injured, 109 vehicles burned, 118 buildings destroyed, 2,912 persons arrested, mostly curfew breakers.”(Kua, 2007).
TIME magazine (May 23, 1969) cited Western diplomatic sources as believing the death toll was closer to 600, with most of the victims Chinese. It also wrote that “…By the time the four days of race war and strife had run their course, the General Hospital’s morgue was so crowded that bodies were put into plastic bags and hung on hooks.”
Hence, May 13 may be re-conceptualised as the 1969 Malaysian Genocide, of which there is nothing sacred to celebrate. We, whatever our race and religion, would like to die with dignity in a spiritual or cultural sense. This desire is a human norm as only men bury our dead.
The violent deaths of May 13 were otherwise than dignified.
I could still remember those days when the adults were talking excitedly, at times with horror, under the rubber trees about the deadly slaughter happening hundreds of miles away in Kuala Lumpur.
There were the stories of the Chinese secret societies which were viewed as a nuisance in peaceful times but during May 13 becoming the protector of community. Also, I heard that there were courageous soldiers who refused to be willing executioners. The truth, be it from the perspective of the perpetrators or of the massacre survivors or the conscientious objectors, is yet to be openly told.
Ian Ward of the London Daily Telegraph reported on May 23, 1969 that “The initial stages of the government crackdown produced glaring discrimination against the Chinese.” (Kua, 2007).
Minorities vulnerable to violence
I would celebrate May 13 if an anti-genocide standby unit is formed today in the armed forces or the police forces specifically trained and dedicated to handle racist malignant conflicts.
It is risky to pray for heroes to emerge or to hope that soldiers would act professionally rather than become willing executioners in ugly and brutalizing times. On May 13, there were some heroes and some soldiers who valued professionalism. But we have a better chance of saving more lives if the prevention of massacres is taken as a professional duty of the armed forces.
Gregory Stanton in his “8 Stages of Genocide” proposed that genocide is also a cultural question. He wrote that “… A plan for genocide doesn’t need to be written out. An act of genocide may arise in a culture that considers members of another group less than human, where killing members of that group is not considered murder. This is the culture of impunity characteristic of genocidal societies.”
Those who use genocidal threats of May 13 are in fact operating in a cultural environment that condones or affirms a new moral code of behaviour: Killing is not murder.
Killing is repulsive to many a human. Once it is rationalised, the normal moral restraint is removed. Police could kill suspects when they believe or justify that they are killing crime, and not criminals, real or imagined. Or a soldier could kill old people, women or children if he believes that he is killing ideological enemies and not human beings.
And the intelligentsia would have no qualms about justifying mass murders.
Brutalizing ideology can kill
Of course gun or machete kills. But it is the justifying words of a destructive racist ideology that direct the brain to give green light to the fingers to pull the trigger. Hence, ideology kills, be it in the print or electronic media.
Being conditioned by a coercive and brutalizing ideology, the power elites rationalise unequal and oppressive treatment of the others when perceiving themselves as the victims due to historical injustices. This sows the seeds of genocide and waters its growth.
The threat of repeat of May 13 is to suppress the raising of civil rights issues. May 13 is in actual fact democide, a mass killing because of democratic demands by the ethnic minorities. Genocide is justified because democratic demands pose a threat of the loss of power of the dominant race or rather the power elites.
May 13 is state-tolerated genocidal violence deeply rooted in cultural and social conditions.
May 13 is an unjust and immoral war against the ethnic minorities asking for legitimate democratic demands. The threat of its repeat is being used to legitimise social inequalities and to deprive citizens the freedom of thought and discussion.
The intelligentsia class is often guilty of complicity in mass murders. Our own intelligentsia class urgently needs critical self-examination and self-reflection, not celebration and not bleaching of mass murders.
Reference
Kua Kia Soong, 2007, May 13 Declassified Documents on the Malaysian Riots of 1969, Petaling Jaya, Suaram Komunikasi.
Tun Razak: Seeing the Father through the Son
M. Bakri Musa
www.bakrimusa.com
Last March 11, 2017, would have been Tun Razak’s 95th birthday. He died in 1976, his sixth year in office and two months shy of turning 54. On April 3, 2017, his son, Prime Minister Najib, will enter his ninth year in office.
Najib seems so different from his father. Or is he? Is Najib a reflection of his father?
Just to pose that question is to commit secular blasphemy in Malaysia. Many Malaysians, Malays in particular, revere the Tun. He was buried at the Heroes Mausoleum at Masjid Negara. The country’s first Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Bapak Merdeka (Father of Independence), was buried in the state and very provincial capital of Alor Star.
“Many” does not mean all. Among non-Malays, excluded from the largesse of Tun’s landmark New Economic Policy (NEP), memories of him are less charitable.
As a young surgeon in Canada in the 1970s I came across William Shaw’s glowing biography of Tun Razak. He was a legend at Malay College, a scholar-athlete par excellence. He breezed through his law studies, completing it well before his scholarship term ended. He could have been a successful lawyer there or have a lucrative career with one the many colonial firms.
Instead he chose to serve his country. He could have been the first native Governor of the proposed and subsequently-aborted Malayan Union. He was a rising star destined for great heights. Yet he gave all that up to join the fledgling UMNO, and with that, a very uncertain future. UMNO then, very unlike today, had no plump GLC directorships or lucrative government contracts to dole out.
Tun’s story as spun by Shaw inspired me to return. Then just days after I landed, the news of his unexpected death in London. Sudden and shocking! I was devastated. So too was the country.
Razak’s legacy is NEP, and of course Najib. As for Najib’s, it’s too early to tell. This much however, is indisputable. He has burdened Malaysia with a humungous debt to be borne for generations. The full liabilities are not yet known. With most in foreign currencies and with the ringgit fast becoming worthless, those debts would only get worse. Crippling cuts to hospitals and universities are just the beginning.
Also indisputable is this. America’s Justice Department has filed its largest asset forfeiture lawsuit under its corruption and money laundering laws. “Malaysian Official 1,” aka Najib, is alleged to have siphoned off a staggering US$3.5 billion from 1MDB. Singapore has already convicted some of the culprits. Together with Switzerland, Singapore has also shuttered the banks involved.
Najib is both corrupt and incompetent, a lethal combination. Now desperate to hang on to power, Najib adds a third and volatile mix–religion. He regularly sports white jubbah and kopiah, a la the Bedouins. He unabashedly apes his predecessor in leading congregational prayers, an imam wannabe, with camera crew in tow of course. This from a man with Bill Clinton’s sexual proclivities but minus the compensating intellect.
Those desert accoutrements are harmless, more juvenile. Far more dangerous is his cavorting with extremist Islamists. Earlier, Najib exhorted UMNO Youths to emulate ISIS. Now he eggs on PAS Hadi with his mischievous RUU 355, the so-called Hudud Bill. In plural Malaysia, that is playing with religious fire, a potential hell on earth.
Razak too co-opted PAS following the 1969 race riot. While he acted from strength, Najib is from weakness. Make that desperation.
These observations on Najib prompted me to reassess my hitherto hero, Tun Razak, spurred by the village wisdom, Bapak borek, anak rintik. Literally translated, frizzled roosters having spotted chicks; idiomatically, like father, like son. We do not become the characters we are out of nowhere. Our parents in particular shape, influence and develop our beliefs, morals, and assumptions.
As a kampung youngster back in the 1950s, I remember Minister of Education Razak exhorting Malays to send their children to the newly-established Malay secondary schools. Many fell for his sway, dis-enrolling their children out of English schools. The consequences of that initiative, and his education policies generally, are now plain.
I was a temporary teacher at one of those new Malay secondary schools back in 1963. I was appalled at the atrocious quality of the textbooks and the total lack of preparation for the new system. As a consequence, generations of Malay children paid and continue to pay a terrible price for Razak’s folly.
My saddest moment visiting the old village today is seeing my former English school classmates whose parents had switched them into the new Malay stream. They are stuck in the kampung; their education had failed them. Their only comment on seeing me was, “Your father was wiser than mine!”
What was my father’s wisdom? We should not listen to what our leaders say, rather follow what they do.
What did Razak do for his children? He sent them all to English schools, and in England to boot! Hypocrisy would be too mild a term for that!
Today his son Najib is asking Malaysians to be frugal and civil servants not be corrupt. Laughable! Many in UMNO today are taking my father’s advice. They don’t listen to him but follow what he does! While Najib, his family, the Lows and a few of the highs like that Goldman Sach bonds salesman get hundreds of millions if not billions, those UMNO kutus are satisfied with a few devalued ringgits and some leftover contracts as rewards for their sucking up to Najib.
` Malays are not mudah lupa (forgetful lot), rather mudah selesa (easily satisfied).
Returning to the shock of his death, Razak hid his lethal cancer from his family and country for years. Even his last desperate flight to England seeking medical treatment was undertaken in an elaborate ruse. A leader not trusting his people. Razak deceived not only Malaysians but also his loved ones.
Our prophet counselled us to lead a life as if we would live forever (meaning, plan long term), but be prepared as if you will die tomorrow (keep your affairs in order so as not to leave a mess). Razak failed to prepare his young family as well as the nation. With five young sons, and a wife unprepared, that was the height of paternal irresponsibility.
In his memoir, Tunku lamented how Razak went through elaborate machinations to topple Tunku, or at least forced him to resign following the May 1969 riot. If only Razak had been straightforward and confided his wish to Tunku, he would have stepped aside sooner. There was no need for Razak to undertake those dirty, unseemly backroom maneuvers. Despite being comrade in arms for over a quarter of a century, Razak still did not take Tunku in his confidence.
That was Tunku’s assessment of Razak’s character.
There is a picture of a young Razak in a Japanese Imperial Army uniform. His apologists spun that as his being a ‘secret agent’ for the British! Only with imminent Japanese surrender did he switch sides. There should be a special word to describe such Benedict Arnold duplicity. “Coward” and “traitor” would not do justice.
Young Razak was no Lieutenant Adnan. He wore his Malay Regiment uniform with pride defending his Tanah Air against the Japanese. Adnan gave the ultimate sacrifice; a wira sahih (genuine hero).
Note the parallel between Razak’s Japanese uniform and Najib’ Bedouin trappings.
Najib also has a political father. Mahathir mentored Najib and more than just greased his ascent. Najib is Mahathir’s most obscene legacy. The redeeming grace is that Mahathir now recognizes his error and is desperate to rectify it. It must pain him to spend his retirement years on this onerous but necessary dirty duty.
Muslims believe that Allah punishes us in this world to spare us a more horrible one in the Hereafter. That belief is a salve to our current travails. As to what awaits us in the Hereafter, only He knows. That aside, I pray for Mahathir’s success, not for his salvation but Malaysia’s.
As for Razak, may his soul rest in peace. His early demise spared him the agony of witnessing what he had bequeathed unto Malaysia through his oldest son.
posted by M. Bakri Musa
www.bakrimusa.com
Last March 11, 2017, would have been Tun Razak’s 95th birthday. He died in 1976, his sixth year in office and two months shy of turning 54. On April 3, 2017, his son, Prime Minister Najib, will enter his ninth year in office.
Najib seems so different from his father. Or is he? Is Najib a reflection of his father?
Just to pose that question is to commit secular blasphemy in Malaysia. Many Malaysians, Malays in particular, revere the Tun. He was buried at the Heroes Mausoleum at Masjid Negara. The country’s first Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Bapak Merdeka (Father of Independence), was buried in the state and very provincial capital of Alor Star.
“Many” does not mean all. Among non-Malays, excluded from the largesse of Tun’s landmark New Economic Policy (NEP), memories of him are less charitable.
As a young surgeon in Canada in the 1970s I came across William Shaw’s glowing biography of Tun Razak. He was a legend at Malay College, a scholar-athlete par excellence. He breezed through his law studies, completing it well before his scholarship term ended. He could have been a successful lawyer there or have a lucrative career with one the many colonial firms.
Instead he chose to serve his country. He could have been the first native Governor of the proposed and subsequently-aborted Malayan Union. He was a rising star destined for great heights. Yet he gave all that up to join the fledgling UMNO, and with that, a very uncertain future. UMNO then, very unlike today, had no plump GLC directorships or lucrative government contracts to dole out.
Tun’s story as spun by Shaw inspired me to return. Then just days after I landed, the news of his unexpected death in London. Sudden and shocking! I was devastated. So too was the country.
Razak’s legacy is NEP, and of course Najib. As for Najib’s, it’s too early to tell. This much however, is indisputable. He has burdened Malaysia with a humungous debt to be borne for generations. The full liabilities are not yet known. With most in foreign currencies and with the ringgit fast becoming worthless, those debts would only get worse. Crippling cuts to hospitals and universities are just the beginning.
Also indisputable is this. America’s Justice Department has filed its largest asset forfeiture lawsuit under its corruption and money laundering laws. “Malaysian Official 1,” aka Najib, is alleged to have siphoned off a staggering US$3.5 billion from 1MDB. Singapore has already convicted some of the culprits. Together with Switzerland, Singapore has also shuttered the banks involved.
Najib is both corrupt and incompetent, a lethal combination. Now desperate to hang on to power, Najib adds a third and volatile mix–religion. He regularly sports white jubbah and kopiah, a la the Bedouins. He unabashedly apes his predecessor in leading congregational prayers, an imam wannabe, with camera crew in tow of course. This from a man with Bill Clinton’s sexual proclivities but minus the compensating intellect.
Those desert accoutrements are harmless, more juvenile. Far more dangerous is his cavorting with extremist Islamists. Earlier, Najib exhorted UMNO Youths to emulate ISIS. Now he eggs on PAS Hadi with his mischievous RUU 355, the so-called Hudud Bill. In plural Malaysia, that is playing with religious fire, a potential hell on earth.
Razak too co-opted PAS following the 1969 race riot. While he acted from strength, Najib is from weakness. Make that desperation.
These observations on Najib prompted me to reassess my hitherto hero, Tun Razak, spurred by the village wisdom, Bapak borek, anak rintik. Literally translated, frizzled roosters having spotted chicks; idiomatically, like father, like son. We do not become the characters we are out of nowhere. Our parents in particular shape, influence and develop our beliefs, morals, and assumptions.
As a kampung youngster back in the 1950s, I remember Minister of Education Razak exhorting Malays to send their children to the newly-established Malay secondary schools. Many fell for his sway, dis-enrolling their children out of English schools. The consequences of that initiative, and his education policies generally, are now plain.
I was a temporary teacher at one of those new Malay secondary schools back in 1963. I was appalled at the atrocious quality of the textbooks and the total lack of preparation for the new system. As a consequence, generations of Malay children paid and continue to pay a terrible price for Razak’s folly.
My saddest moment visiting the old village today is seeing my former English school classmates whose parents had switched them into the new Malay stream. They are stuck in the kampung; their education had failed them. Their only comment on seeing me was, “Your father was wiser than mine!”
What was my father’s wisdom? We should not listen to what our leaders say, rather follow what they do.
What did Razak do for his children? He sent them all to English schools, and in England to boot! Hypocrisy would be too mild a term for that!
Today his son Najib is asking Malaysians to be frugal and civil servants not be corrupt. Laughable! Many in UMNO today are taking my father’s advice. They don’t listen to him but follow what he does! While Najib, his family, the Lows and a few of the highs like that Goldman Sach bonds salesman get hundreds of millions if not billions, those UMNO kutus are satisfied with a few devalued ringgits and some leftover contracts as rewards for their sucking up to Najib.
` Malays are not mudah lupa (forgetful lot), rather mudah selesa (easily satisfied).
Returning to the shock of his death, Razak hid his lethal cancer from his family and country for years. Even his last desperate flight to England seeking medical treatment was undertaken in an elaborate ruse. A leader not trusting his people. Razak deceived not only Malaysians but also his loved ones.
Our prophet counselled us to lead a life as if we would live forever (meaning, plan long term), but be prepared as if you will die tomorrow (keep your affairs in order so as not to leave a mess). Razak failed to prepare his young family as well as the nation. With five young sons, and a wife unprepared, that was the height of paternal irresponsibility.
In his memoir, Tunku lamented how Razak went through elaborate machinations to topple Tunku, or at least forced him to resign following the May 1969 riot. If only Razak had been straightforward and confided his wish to Tunku, he would have stepped aside sooner. There was no need for Razak to undertake those dirty, unseemly backroom maneuvers. Despite being comrade in arms for over a quarter of a century, Razak still did not take Tunku in his confidence.
That was Tunku’s assessment of Razak’s character.
There is a picture of a young Razak in a Japanese Imperial Army uniform. His apologists spun that as his being a ‘secret agent’ for the British! Only with imminent Japanese surrender did he switch sides. There should be a special word to describe such Benedict Arnold duplicity. “Coward” and “traitor” would not do justice.
Young Razak was no Lieutenant Adnan. He wore his Malay Regiment uniform with pride defending his Tanah Air against the Japanese. Adnan gave the ultimate sacrifice; a wira sahih (genuine hero).
Note the parallel between Razak’s Japanese uniform and Najib’ Bedouin trappings.
Najib also has a political father. Mahathir mentored Najib and more than just greased his ascent. Najib is Mahathir’s most obscene legacy. The redeeming grace is that Mahathir now recognizes his error and is desperate to rectify it. It must pain him to spend his retirement years on this onerous but necessary dirty duty.
Muslims believe that Allah punishes us in this world to spare us a more horrible one in the Hereafter. That belief is a salve to our current travails. As to what awaits us in the Hereafter, only He knows. That aside, I pray for Mahathir’s success, not for his salvation but Malaysia’s.
As for Razak, may his soul rest in peace. His early demise spared him the agony of witnessing what he had bequeathed unto Malaysia through his oldest son.
posted by M. Bakri Musa
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Traitors in the midst of Pakatan Harapan and mostly in DAP
Traitors in Pakatan Harapan , yes many are and do not realize they will be the ones because they are already been compromised during to the...
Popular Post
-
Asian Woman Dies After Shoving An Eel Up Her Golden Gates!! Oh my God! I don’t know whether I want to cringe or be sad for her but...
-
CAUGHT ON VIDEO: WOMAN’S LAST MOMENTS BEFORE FATAL CAR CRASH A SHOCKING livestream video that has gone viral purportedly captures the l...
-
Updated with photo of Tun in Malay costume. Cannot find one with matching one when Tun Siti Hasmah was wearing sari. I guess in these ti...
-
NEWS25 Years-Old Naked Singaporean Lady Gets Injured While Photocopying Her Boobs! ByXiao MintxPosted on May 29, 2017 27th of May, a...
-
Sure, not every woman is walking around with an itchy vagina, but many are. And the reasons why can range from benign (your choice of undie...
-
【WARNING!】Ladies Are Not Allowed To Show Off Their Breasts In Thailand During Songkran Water Festival! Songkran Water Festival is ...
-
'Perspective is a b**** Defiant Kim Kardashian vows to work on 'better lighting and angles' as she slams the haters in foul-mout...
-
Sujatha Call for independent inquiry on Actress Sujatha’s Death Wednesday, August 01, 2007 Manikavasam of Justice party (Parti Kea...
-
Wall Street Breakfast: Investors Assess Geopolitical Risk Read more here Global markets are waiting to take their cues from the U.S. ...
-
The new record holder of the world’s largest penis goes to a 26-year-old Singaporean man who requested to be identified only as Daniel to pr...