A reminder about Umno-Baru thuggery: Mat Rempits disrupt “Anything But Umno-Baru” (ABU) ceramah in Klang

By Mariam Mokhtar13 August, 2017No Comments




The video below is from an ABU (Anything but Umno-Baru (ABU) and Hindraf ceramah in 2012, in Klang.

The video exposes the Umno-Baru modus operandi.

Video

They use Mat Rempits to intimidate the peaceful crowd who were only there to listen to the politicians. Many in the audience were elderly people. Many left out of fear.

The Malays and yes, they were Malays threatening the spectators. They used sticks to trash the chairs, threw bottles at the crowd, and rode their motorbikes in the hall.

Of course people were afraid. I would be, wouldn’t you?

Where were the police? In fact, the police dismissed the organisers’s claims of assault and intimidation.

Some of the faces are clearly evident on the video.

Were they ever caught and charged for causing chaos or a public commotion and threatening the crowd?

YOUR CHOICE

If this is the sort of country you want to leave your children, then do nothing.

But if you are angry by what you see in the video below (and in today’s Nothing to Hide 2.0 event, where the thugs tried to hurt former PM, Mahathir Mohamad), then please do something.



Talking to Umno-Baru politicians is pointless. We trusted them for 60 years and nothing has changed. In fact things have got worse.

The Umno-Baruputras have too much to lose, if they did not rule Malaysia again.

They have too much wealth squirrelled away in overseas banks, in properties in London, Melbourne, Sydney, Singapore, New York, San Francisco and other locations around the world.

They also know, they will lose their freedom if they did not rule in GE-14. They know that we will demand that they are thrown into jail for crimes against the state, for the deaths, injuries and other evils they have committed. For the segregation, for child marriages, for religious persecution, for the unexplained abductions.

You know what to do in GE-14.

If you do nothing, then do NOT complain again. I, and other Malaysians, who are trying our best to rebuild our nation, will not listen to you.

Prepare to vote in GE-14. Malaysia depends on you!

ATTACK ON DR MAHATHIR BACKFIRES: BRICKBATS RAIN ON NAJIB FOR DIRTY TACTICS & IMMATURE POLITICAL CULTURE

Several flares were hurled, and the forum was forced to be cancelled.

Political debates constitute an integral part of democratic politics. Through rational debates, people holding different political views can exchange their ideas, compete among themselves, and convince the public in a bid to win their support.


Unfortunately, the forum organized by PPBM Youth was marred by the unpleasant incident that saw violence overpowering rationality.

But luckily the incident did not flare into much bigger conflicts and the troublemakers were arrested while former PM Mahathir, who was on the stage, was unhurt.

Politicians on both sides of the divide began accusing one another, giving this whole incident a very thick political conspiracy hue.

Both sides should exercise maximum self restraint at this moment to allow the police to step in and investigate. Any politically motivated allegations will not help resolve the matter.

Simply put, it is utterly important for the police to initiate the probe and severely punish the perpetrators so as to prevent similar incidents from taking place again in future.

The weird thing is, among the three men detained, two are private college students. Their motives of causing trouble at the forum must be thoroughly probed.

As political parties are stepping up their preparations for GE14, it is inevitable for political climate in the country to get heated up as confrontation gathers steam.

BN and Pakatan Harapan are gearing up for the election to wrestle power, and rivalry has been elevated to a new height after Mahathir set up PPBM which subsequently joined Pakatan Harapan.

But, that does not mean that intensified competition must do down the violent way.



The ruckus taking place during the “Nothing To Hide 2.0” forum shows a deteriorating trend in the country’s political development.

Such a trend must be reversed at once. As a country ruled by law, all political activities and maneuvers must go according to the law.

We are a democratic country that has been practicing democratic politics for decades. Unfortunately our democratic politics has yet to reach a certain level of maturity. This will form a major hurdle in our quest of a developed nation’s status and must be overcome at all costs.

Rationality is a manifestation of matured political culture, not violence. We must strive to win the support of people through civilized means and good reasoning.

We need to establish a matured political culture and incidents like the one at “Nothing To Hide 2.0” must never happen again.

MYSINCHEW

GE-14 is a “Make or Break” election for our nation.

Me: Many people are anti-Mahathir and are displeased with the new Mahathir and Pakatan Harapan line-up. Are the people who refuse to vote in GE-14, just because they are anti-Mahathir, being selfish and irresponsible?

Thomas (in brief): I understand their reservations. It is true that a lot of the troubles that our country is in, has its foundation in what Mahathir has done.

We must look at the reality. We are in a desperate situation as a country.

In an election, it is always about making a choice. The choice between the lesser of two evils.

The 1MDB scandal exposed the full extent of corruption and abuse of the institutions that are supposed to protect us…

DESPERATE SITUATION.
Thomas appeals to our better senses, to give Pakatan Harapan (PH) a chance to rectify the nation.

He tells us that if PH does not perform, to remove them in GE-15. He reassures us that there are many good people in PH, and he is encouraged that many capable young Malaysians have entered politics, and will be given a higher profile and more opportunities to serve the nation.

He is confident that more of the younger generation will be fielded in GE-14.

THOMAS’ MAIN THRUST:

GE-14 is crucial.

We are in a “Make or break” election for our nation.

We must put aside our differences.

We should NOT throw away our vote by not voting.

He said, “Don’t allow our country to spiral to become a failed state. Idealism is a luxury we cannot afford, when our house is on fire.

(Note: He also tells us about getting registered, to vote in the general elections, if we have not done so yet)

Elon Musk To Quit Tesla, Jumps On Financial Tech

Real life ironman - Elon Musk, has just announced that he is about to quit his position in Tesla in order to make room for a new business venture which he believes will change world more than Tesla, SpaceX and Solar City ever could. His new venture is called RefFeed and, although he didn't come up with the idea, he invested $72 Million in it which allowed him to control all of the RefFeed decisions.

Before we go into details of RefFeed, let us explain who Elon Musk is exactly. Elon Musk is a visionary, some call him the smartest enterpreneur of our century. He believes in renewable energy and although his ideas seem too radical and impossible to many people, Elon is proving them wrong year after year. He has made it his agenda to make the world a greener and better place. Some of his ventures include electric cars (Tesla), cheaper and publicly available space travel and colonization of Mars (Space X) and next generation solar panels (Solar City).

But now, Musk has decided to partly withdraw from running Tesla, in order to focus on his new venture in the financial sector. That's why he acquired RefFeed.

What exactly is RefFeed? RefFeed is a financial technology with the plan to redistribute worlds wealth. Basically, to take from the top 0.1% and give back to 99.9%. Elon believes wealth is not distributed well in our age, and although there always will be someone richer and someone poorer, the current situation is not acceptable, where top 0.1% controls almost 90% of world's wealth. Musk believes he can cut that down to around 20% without causing world-wide financial crisis. So what exactly does that mean to you, the regular middle or lower class person? This means you will become 2 - 3 times wealthier, and no one except the super-wealthy will take a hit. Sounds amazing, doesn't it?
Ok, the theory is there, but how will it work you might ask? Overall, the idea is easy. The top 0.1% keep their wealth invested in stocks, and Wall Street brokers trade these stocks for them. The idea is to beat the Wall Street traders in their own game - make winning trades so Wall Street with their hoards of wealth slowly but surely starts losing money. Just like a poker game, where a new player comes along on the high-stakes table and starts winning.
In order to do this you would need a better stock movement predictions than the Wall Street has. With the help of cloud computing, it can be done, and it's actualy being done now as RefFeed has showed! This is exactly the reason why Musk jumped on this technology as soon as he heard about it. It's revolutionary.

We interviewed Reffeed CTO Dan Marconi so he can better explain exactly how Reffeed operates.

Can you tell us how RefFeed works?

RefFeed works like a team of spies. We have millions of automated robots that go on social media and gather real-time data - posts, images, text, videos and anything else people are publicly saying. Then we analyze all this data, looking for topics related to any publicly traded companies. Once we have a certain trending topic related to a big company, we analyze if the trend is Positive or Negative. If the trend is positive, we bet on the stock to rise, if the trend is negative - we bet on the stock to fall. It’s that simple.

How often does RefFeed make a mistake?

Not that often at all. What people are saying on Social media is real, it’s there and it’s true, so we rarely make a mistake. We are still in Beta stage of our software, but it’s already showing over 87% successful trades. This means that out of 100 trades RefFeed makes automatically, 87 will be profitable.

How much money can a regular user of RefFeed make?

It depends a lot on the money they invest and the broker they work with. Let’s take the regular user who starts with 500$ and bets 20$ per trade. Over 24 hours RefFeed will make around 200 trades based on trends on Social media. Around 174 of the trades will be profitable, and 26 will not. This means user will win approximately 3,480$ and lose around 520$. Evening out to 2,960$ profit in a single day. There are some small commissions added by the broker, but it’s usually less than 2%.
Has any user actually lost his investment?

No, we have never had a user who had lost his invested money. Even the worst cases we have had were always profitable in the end.

What improvements are you working on right now?

Right now we can only access information that people are publicly sharing on social media. Once we go out of Beta and make the RefFeed available for anyone, we will ask our users permission to access their individual Newsfeeds. This will give us even more data to work with, making RefFeed more accurate.

Individual Newsfeeds? Is it safe to give access to that?

It’s 100% safe. We simply ask for access monitor the newsfeed using automated systems. There is no risk of us posting anything or your behalf. And besides that, no real human will be reading your Newsfeed. It’s all just algorithms looking for keywords. We take privacy very seriously and will never take any risks to harm our users.

How much will it cost to use RefFeed automated system?

We don’t know yet. But first 1,000 spots will be free. After that, for regular users, we are thinking of charging $10,000.00 monthly and a hundred times as much for trading firms who wish to use RefFeed. We do not want to disrupt the stock market too much so spots will be limited to 1,000 trading firms and 1,000,000 regular users.
When will RefFeed be available?

Very soon. We are just adding finishing touches and first members will be welcome very soon. First we will open the doors for small traders - regular people, and only later for big trading firms. Again, first 1,000 people will get a lifetime membership for free.

After the interview Dan showed us RefFeed in action. It was like seeing a real miracle for the first time. Dans software was making money on autopilot. Dan was so confident in his Software that he offered to give us one free membership so we can run our own independent tests, and so we did.
Alex Woods, 24

We took one of our intern students Alex Woods and told him to sign up, following each step.
The first step was fairly easy - he needed to fill in some details like name, last name, email and phone number. After the form was completed and submitted, he was taken to RefFeed dashboard. Everything seemed pretty easy over there.

The next step was to fund the trading account with a trusted broker. The broker RefFeed selected for Alex was BinaryTilt. As we were navigating to the deposit page, Alex received a phone call from BinaryTilt. It was his personal account manager wanting to assist funding process. With the help of account manager, funding process didn’t take long, as all major Credit Cards like VISA, MasterCard and American Express are accepted. Alex went ahead and deposited 250$. Once funded, we navigated to the “Auto Trader” section of software, set the trade amount to recommended 20$ and enabled it.

RefFeed started making trades automatically in front of our eyes, winning most of them. We left it active for 23 hours and once we came back, Alex already had $2,592.37 in his account.

Alex wasn’t convinced. To make sure this was all real and not just some phoney numbers on the screen he requested a withdrawal of $2,500.00 to his bank account. This was a fast and easy process as BinaryTilt is a thrusted broker. After 2 hours money was in his bank account! At this point Alex and we knew that it’s real.

We can’t wait for the software to go live. This will change lives of millions of people. Sometimes the things that seem too good to be true, are actually true.

Do we need Mahathir to save us from Najib?

There are many people who are displeased with the new Mahathir Mohamad and Pakatan Harapan line-up. They have threatened not to vote in GE-14, because they claim that they would only jump from the frying-pan into the fire.

The former PM has been given a new lease of political life. With the Opposition, Mahathir’s new line-up looks like a rag-tag team of former foes, ganging-up against an adversary, who is making his last hurrah. Is this a fair assessment, or is this a group of patriots who are giving-up everything, to save the nation?

Whilst the news of Mahathir’s new Opposition team, may upset a lot of Umno-Baru supporters and definitely, the PM, Najib Abdul Razak, there are many Malaysians who are displeased for other reasons.

These Malaysians say that Mahathir’s policies sowed the seeds of disunity, and they disagree with Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) need in teaming up with him.

They claim that PH could win on their own, without Mahathir. They also dismiss the projection of Malay loyalty to Mahathir, and claim that this may well be an overstatement.

They are also angry with the infighting in the Opposition.  Instead of presenting a strong united force, to bring down a weak Umno-Baru, they are busy trading blows with one another.

THE MAHATHIR-PH ALLIANCE IS FULL OF IRONY.
First. Abdul Razak Hussein, Najib’s father, saved Mahathir from the political wilderness, after he was chucked out of Umno by Tunku Abdul Rahman.

Who would have thought that Abdul Razak’s son, would one day, be Mahathir’s pupil, and fine-tune his divisive tactics of race and religion?

Second. When Mahathir resigned as PM, many said that Najib was only a seat warmer for Mahathir’s  son, Mukhriz. This is now a moot point as Najib had other designs and the nation is now a battleground in which former political foes fight for the prized crown of PM.



Third. Over thirty years ago, Kedah Umno (before it became Umno-Baru) complained, to Mahathir about the threat posed by a charismatic and influential ustaz, called Ibrahim “Libya” Mahmood, from PAS. The 1986 general election was approaching and Umno feared they would lose badly to PAS.

Ibrahim “Libya” refused to be held under the ISA and this resulted in the siege of Memali, when 14 PAS supporters died.

The irony is that PAS appears to have forgotten the extreme violence used by the police against Memali, because today, Hadi Awang, of PAS, has aligned himself with Najib. It is as Mahathir once said, “Melayu mudah lupa”.

CAN YOU SEE THE BIGGER PICTURE?
Are the Malaysians who will not vote in GE-14 justified in staying at home, or are they being irresponsible?

Are they content to do nothing? Are they happy to live with high prices, corruption, incompetent civil servants and rising racial and religious intolerance?

Do they realise that if they vote for change in GE-14, they can vote PH out in GE-15, if the party fails to perform?

If they do not wish Mahathir to be PM, but are happy for PH to lead the govenrment, do they realise that they can make their feelings known to the Opposition, now?

There are many capable Malaysians, who could lead, and as Zahid Hamidi, the DPM has acknowledged, we have had non-Malay PMs, before.

Thomas Fann, a human rights activist and political observer disagrees with people refraining from voting in GE-14, just because they are displeased with Mahathir. He said, “Idealism is a luxury we cannot afford, when the house is on fire.”

How YOU can help the Orang Asli communities in Malaysia.

By Mariam Mokhtar15 August, 2017No Comments

 

(October 2015. Semai Village, Batu Empat Belas, Jalan Pahang, Tapah. 

Far right: Ayob (a director of Kenraak and is Semai), Prof Gomes, three Semai children, Dr Seiko Hanochi, Prof Kinhide Mushakoji (87 year old, Japanese, Retired Rector of UN University in Tokyo, Director of Nagoya DEEP, a global peacebuilding network.

Sitting from right: Dr Michalis Michael (Australian), Wah Ani, Faridah Goh (a Temuan, OA women’s activist) and Bah Tony (Lawyer cum activist). 

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On behalf of the Orang Asli (OA) communities in Malaysia, Prof Alberto G Gomes, is hoping to raise funds, to help create awareness, to highlight the plight of the OA and to empower them so that they can protect their rights more effectively.

Professor Gomes was born and raised in Kuala Lumpur. He is a Professor of Anthropology and the Director for the Centre for Dialogue at La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia.

Thank you.

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PROFESSOR ALBERTO GOMES’ APPEAL

Hello friends,

As most of you know I have been working with Orang Asli communities for about forty years as a researcher and now as a scholar-activist. Recently, I have been advising an Orang Asli Not-for-Profit organisation named Kenraak.

Established in April 2015, Kenraak, whose current members are committed Orang Asli mostly living in villages in Perak, is focused on creating awareness of the rights and responsibilities towards family and community among the Orang Asli and supporting Orang Asli communities in their struggles to protect their land and their livelihood.

The organisation, which is expanding its membership to include Orang Asli from other parts of the Peninsula, takes its name from a hard-shelled wild fruit resembling a very small durian. 

 (The tough inedible kenraak fruit)

 

It is hard to crack open by force but it splits open naturally when the fruit is ripe and ready. Some Orang Ali hang the fruit at the entrance of their homes as a talisman to ward off malevolent spirits. 

(Photo credits: Colin Nicholas and SM Shafi; The fruit as it is hung at the entrance to the house)

The organisation has adopted this fruit as a symbol of its strength, its relative autonomy, and its primary goal of defending the communities it represents against others seeking to dominate, displace, dispossess, destroy and discriminate against them.

WHAT WE DO

So far, Kenraak has run educational workshops in villages, advised Orang Asli on legal matters, assisted villages in the preparation of legal submissions and court cases related to land rights, evictions and compensation claims, represented Orang Asli in meetings with State departments and corporations, and liaised with non-Orang Asli organisations, such as the Bar Council, concerned about the plight of Malaysia’s First Peoples.

Kenraak has thus far depended almost solely on the generosity of the Orang Asli villagers, who have had to dig deep in their small pockets to finance its activities.

It is poorly equipped in terms of office resources and does not have funds to cover the renumeration of much needed project staff and administrators or office costs such as computers, stationary, internet or the huge travel costs to transport people to the courts, or the court fees and other disbursements. Hence, I have started this crowdfunding appeal to support Kenraak.

Your generosity either in kind (computers, time to carry out tasks like auditing, secretarial, promotion) or in financial contributions (CIMB Bank No 80-0810637-9. Account Name: Kenraak Sdn Bhd.

Please let the following persons below know so that they can acknowledge receipt and keep you posted via email as to how your contributions have been put to use) will be immensely appreciated.

Please circulate this appeal to your networks.

USEFUL CONTACTS

For further information, please contact any of the following:-

Bah Tony Williams-Hunt (+60197874018 or bahtony.whunt29@gmail.com)

Faridah Goh (+60196321470 or faridahgoh.wh@gmail.com)

or Bah Jali (Tel 017 891 2482).

You may also contact me, Alberto Gomes (+61411778813).

Thank you in anticipation of your kind support to this worthy cause.

Alberto Gomes

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(Credits: Group photo and the appeal are Professor Gomes’ own.

Thank you to Prof Gomes, Bah Tony, and Colin Nicholas, SM Shafi for photos of the kenraak fruit and talisman.)

The curse of the sanctimonious clerics, and the “bin Abdullah” badge of bastardy.

By Mariam Mokhtar11 August, 2017No Comments




The “bin Abdullah” issue has reared its ugly head again. Being born out-of-wedlock is the latest issue to be made political; but this is Malaysia, where religion is the tool used by individuals, institutions, political parties and the government, to control people.

The “bin Abdullah” tag is like a badge of bastardy.

Recently, a seven-year-old boy, and his parents, took the National Registration Department (NRD), its director-general and the government, to court, over the boy’s surname.

Last week, the Court of Appeal ruled that the child could bear his father’s name, and that the National Fatwa edict had no relevance, in law. Justice Abdul Rahman Sebli also wrote that the fatwa, was inapplicable, as it had not been passed into law, by an Act of parliament.

Actually, children who are born out-of-wedlock are not the only ones who face the pressure and humiliation of the “bin Abdullah” issue. In the past, some Muslim children, who were adopted, had to use “bin”  or “binti” Abdullah, instead of their adopted father’s name. Thus,  others would know that these children had been adopted.

The first two stories below, are of those who bore the surname Abdullah. The NRD director, the Perak mufti, Harussani Zakaria, and members of the Muslim Lawyer’s Association, all ignore the pain these people endure, and the trauma experienced in their formative years.

ANITA’S TALE
I was the eldest child of a wealthy and long-established family, which many consider to be a pillar of Malay society. I wanted for nothing. A good education, travel and friends. I was happy.

One day, soon after I came of age, I was pulled aside by two older members of the family, an aunt and an uncle. I was told, in no uncertain terms, that as I did not bear my father’s name, I was not eligible for any family inheritance, nor was I allowed to inherit my mother’s jewellery, or any property they owned.

I was just another happy-go-lucky kid, until this bombshell fell. I had not been aware of the significance of the name “Abdullah”.

I remember my world collapsing, and I have not recovered from being told that I was  an outcast. At thirteen, I was glad to be sent to a boarding school, where I flourished. To this day, I still have difficulty forming close relationships and am overwhelmed with sadness for my lost childhood.



BURHAN’S STORY
When I was eight, my father’s job took us to the north. At  our new school, the boys in my class, kept pestering me, and asked why my brother and I did not share the same name. I was “bin Abdullah” but my brother was not. When I asked my parents about this, they just said they loved both of us equally. This answer was good enough for me.

One day, when we were in the school playground, a boy kept pushing my younger brother and when I tried to stop him from hurting my brother, the bully and his friends rounded on me, and taunted me by saying that “bin Abdullah” meant I was “adopted”.

The boys surrounded us, and the bully lied and said my real father was a criminal, and that my mother was a “bad” woman. I punched him and got into trouble with the school and my parents.

The shame was so great, that I hated myself, and had problems adjusting to the new school. Being called “bin Abdullah” is a curse. Ever since then, I just keep to myself. I sometimes wish I had never been born.

KIAH’S NARRATIVE
The day I exchanged my wedding vows should have been the happiest day of my life, but one interfering old man, in the mosque committee spoilt the day. Without any consideration for my feelings, he said that my father could not give me away. Only then, did I discover that my father was not my biological father, and that I had been adopted.

My surname is the same as my father’s, but this old man who has known my family for decades,  said that my biological father had to be found, so that he could give his consent for the marriage.

The news shocked my father, and my mother. I felt as if the previous 23 years of my life had been a lie. I have always suspected that I was adopted because I look different from my siblings; however, my parents have always showered me with love and kindness. Their betrayal, by the old man, was cruel and none of us have recovered from the humiliation.

SANCTIMONIOUS, UNFEELING CLERICS
These stories demonstrate the lack of feeling by some individuals who overstep their authority and trample on the constitution.

We are frequently reminded that Islam is a religion of compassion; but only in Malaysia, is the child punished, for the sins of his parents, but more importantly, his humiliation is made complete, by the intransigence of the NRD and the clerics.