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Status Update 2 May

Assalamualaikum everyone! How are you.

So, yea I’m board and thinking about status update. What to tell other than about the coming election… I did not update any of my project. The parser project is progressing well… bla… bla…

Allright, election. This year election is the most intense election Malaysia had ever been. That is because the Opposition is really strong this time, and in my point of view, I would be surprised of the government did not change this time. Of course, in this coming election there is a lot of political talks and news. Most of them pretty much is negative about the other party. Now, I’m going to assume that you guys are not from Malaysia, allthough most likely there arent any “you guys” accept for a few which I just knew one… a very scary stalker-like-different-gender one. So anyway, lets meet out contestant.

On the defensive side, we have Barisan National (BN). This is the current ruling party back from Malaysia’s independence. Allegedly corrupt, had been known by everyone who actually looked outside of the television to highly abuse their power on every mainstream media, except for a few like en.harakahdaily.my . The link to harakah daily may be unavailable as they may be under DDOS attack by ‘unknown’ forces. I have confirmed that the website is down yesterday, or yesterday’s yesterday. Anyway, basically if you watch news on television, I can assure you, most of it is their propaganda. They are the ruling party so basically they kinda ‘own’ the country. Even here in IIUM, there have been some report on vehicle with opposition flag is not allowed to enter but there are vehicle with BN’s flag parking in front of the rectory. Another thing in IIUM is, the pro Opposition club, ‘WUFI’ (tell me if I’m wrong) is officially unofficial, and banned. While there is a pro BN club, ‘Aspirasi’. I could say more, but that would just be unfair. BN has a lot of history in Malaysia. They are the party that ask for independence from British. And one of the prime minister is Mahathir Mohamad (yes, he is in the party and still is). There are three main organization in BN, UMNO (united malay national organization), MCA (Malaysian Chinese Agency (I’m not sure about the ‘A’ letter) ) and also MIC (Malaysian Indian Congress) . So yea, they are basically racial based. BN is lead by UMNO which is lead by Najib bin Tun Razak, the current prime minister and the son of the second prime minister.

On the opposition side, we have Pakatan Rakyat (PR). Pakatan Rakyat gain strong momentum when Anwar Ibrahim, a very controversial icon had been allowed to enter politics again. Anwar Ibrahim is the leader of  PR. PR main media is social network and organizing talks. PR is composed of three main organization Democratic Alliance Party (DAP), Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) and also Parti Islam Semalaya (PAS). Allthough their name does not show any racial bias, in practice DAP is a non-malay majority party and PKR and PAS are malay majority party. So yea, malay has been split into two. PAS is basically the main Islamic party and PKR is the less islamic Malay party. PR in short is very controversial.  UMNO we already know to be corrupt and abuse their power. The question is, what about PR. Lets have a look one by one.

DAP is a chinese majority party. They are the one who is involved in the 1969 racial riot in Malaysia in which about 168 reported killed, foreign media say the number reach 2000. So you can say the current perception is that DAP does not like Malay, especially PAS. PAS aims to implement hudud (Islamic Sharia Law) in Malaysia, but DAP does not like that. Karpal Singh (DAP leader) even once said “over my dead body”, although he does have history of having an uncensored mouth on various event. Anyway, DAP is actually the biggest party in PR. The malay have majority by combining PKR and PAS. DAP stronghold has been in Pulau Pinang. BN had always attack DAP by saying that DAP only focus on the chinese majority part of urban Pulau Pinang and neglecting Seberang Perai, the rural part. As a side note, Kedah which basically surround Pulau Pinang is currently own by PAS. BN also attack DAP by saying then when people vote for DAP, they vote for PAS which who want to implement hudud, at the same time BN say that a vote for PAS is a vote for DAP who is a christian saint.

PAS is Parti Islam Semalaya, basically the Islamic party in Malaysia. They aim to provide complete Islamic Sharia Law in Malaysia. Their stronghold is in Kelantan. PAS is the first party to ever defeat BN at state level in peninsular Malaysia. Their spiritual (as in the actual) leader is Nik Aziz, while the party’s president (as in the official leader) is Hadi Awang. PAS is another controversional party. The party basically break into two when Nik Aziz say it is OK for the christian to use the term ‘Allah’ in Malay version of the bible after been urged by DAP. PKR also allow it which basically means PR allow that. Ironically, UMNO had always been against it since the beginning. PAS has a lot of negative sentiment. Some of PAS members are member of Shia ( which is officially deviated in Malaysia) and Al-Arqam (another deviated teaching). PAS member tend to be… extreme. Or is that PKR? I’m not sure exactly. Kelantan is ‘officially’ the poorest state in Malaysia, with the ‘highest’ rate of HIV. Of course, these are reported by mainstream media which is controlled by you-know-who.

PKR on the other hand is formed by Anwar Ibrahim’s wife. Have I told you before that Anwar Ibrahim is a very controversial character? Back when I was a child, I remember that he is a big criminal. Probably because I watch TV. So, lets put this in perspective, Anwar Ibrahim was a member of UMNO. Yes he was. He used to be the Deputy Prime Minister. Yes he was. He worked under Mahathir Mohamed and was said to be the step son of Mahathir Mohamed. Yes, up to that extends. Then 1998 Mahathir sack him from his post, and he was arrested under allegation of sodomy and corruption. Yep, he was there. Of course, he said that he was framed, because he did not agree with Mahathir to use public fund to save Mahathir’s children business. Anyway, his wife formed PKR to gain support, he was release after six year because the sodomize case was dropped. Be he have to wait for several year before he can legally go back to politics. Anyway, now that he is back, things are getting really intense.

So my point of view, BN is corrupt. Everyone who did not watch TV news knows that. I remember back at IIUM’s orientation week, some minister came to officially give 1 Malaysia Book Voucher to us, but in reality he is just talking about how great the government is. And then at the end of the orientation week, there is another briefing supposedly about a program where every Malaysian graduate should enter, in which the briefer again, basically talk about how nice the government is, but the big thing is, he showed a video linking PR’s party with the riot on Arab Spring. He actually show PR’s party logo, which clearly show that he is preaching for political agenda. I don’t really care if they want to praise the government, but don’t think of us like stupid student. There are various things that the government gave right before the election, for example the voucher for smart phone (which just pathetically show that they are desperate) and BR1M in which they basically give money to those who are living on below average salary. There are also many other stuff that is questionable, for example the MRT’s budget and also Scorpion submarine price.

On the other hand, PR’s manifesto is… unrealistic. They want to give free high education, with student allowance while at the same time eliminate tolls tax, eliminate vehicle tax and increase subsidy  So how are they going to get the money to afford such stuff? Management? Better management without corruption? That is their only way of making things affordable. Which is not very assuring. I’m quite sure that when PR gain power, there will still be corruption from every party. The thing is, how much? And what are the parties action toward corruption. Then there again, there is the racial sentiment that had always been provoked by BN. Just look at their poster, I do not need to explain. Basically, there is PAS and there is DAP. About corruption, BN mostly say that DAP is corrupt, some abuse that property and that. PKR also abuse that and that, and also PAS has lost their ideologies by siding with DAP. Oh yeah, have I told you about DAP’s flag issue before? Its a great story, that can be viewed in may ways.

Basically two days before the naming day (very convenient right?), the Society Registrar said that they did not acknowledge DAP’s previous internal election, which elect their top leaders, because there have been many report of unsatisfactory in the election process. This is important because for a particular candidate to use the party’s flag, they need a signed letter from their top leader. If the Society Registrar did not acknowledge the internal election, basically the top leader’s is not authorized to give permission for the candidate to use the party’s flag, forcing DAP candidate to compete as independent candidate. So PKR and PAS said that they will be more than happy to sign the letter for DAP to use their flag. The amazing thing is the conclusion, if the issue cannot be resolved, DAP will use PAS flag in peninsular malaysia and PKR flag in sabah and sarawak. The thing is, why PAS flag? Not PKR? The less-islamic malay party? The PAS leaders, spiritual and official, basically said that they would be more than happy to sign the letters, there is no problem.

This basically nullify the perception that PAS hate DAP and vice versa. Or is it? I’m not sure myself. The thing that really surprise me is that PAS leader said that there would be no problem. Anyway, if we look it at PAS perspective, DAP voter will have to “cross” on PAS logo, which basically acknowledge PAS. In another sense, uninformed malay voter will vote for DAP although they thought that they are voting for PAS. In DAP point of view, this will raise their reputation significantly among Muslim. Or in other way around, Muslim will vote for them although they do not really like them. On the BN side, this is overall, a mess for them. Their biggest weapon is the separation between DAP and PAS, Christian and Muslim, Chinese and Malay. On another way, this also means that they can say that “If you vote for DAP you are voting for PAS, and allowing Shariah law in Malaysia”. Well, in a way they are choosing PAS logo. I would understand DAP’s decision for this. Chinese are not stupid and they need Malay support. And it seems that MCA is really weak compared to DAP. Chinese probably had already choose PR, probably due to racial separation in Malaysia in various way, notably in education. Anyway, the logo issue has been resolved. SPR(Suruhanjaya Pilihan Raya-the election committee) said that there is no problem. Society Registrar will not affect the logo, so DAP will use their own logo. No conflict over here other than what just happened.

There are many other BN propaganda that shows how bad PR is. Some of those are so stupid that in a sense its as if trying to tell people to not vote BN. So, there is a sentiment that all those evil stuff that BN says are actually said by PR’s people. Which frankly is not really surprising. Given that PR supporter tend to be more extreme, because they only see the unjust that happen to them. There are may things in what PR’s people say that I do not agree. For example, they tend to say that for 50 years BN has been oppressing the people. I totally do not agree with this. BN is the party who ask for independence and every development so far is under them. Not to say that it cannot get better, but it really is better than neighboring country like Indonesia (Maybe) and Myanmar. So to say that they do everything wrong is not correct. Have I told you before that 40 year ago, Malay muslim girls go to school wearing skirt? Yes that is after independence where the system is still largely derived from British. Nowaday, girls wear baju kurang and Hijab. Also notice that 40 years ago, Malay own about 2.5%-6% of the economy. Due to various policy that BN made (the racial discrimination/separation policy) now malay have about 19% to 30% percent of the economy. Still low compared to Chinese, but much better than before. I do agree with PR’s policy that basically want to exterminate this racial separation and change it into wealth-teared approach, which basically means, the poor get more help instead of Malay get more help. If you think that PAS would say no to this, you would be wrong. Islam does not encourage racial sentiment. Its just that in Malaysia, generally Malay are Muslim. In fact, its not really far from the truth when I say that Chinese Muslim are idolized here. Basically every malay respect non-Malay muslim. Here non malay muslim is more common for Indian than for Chinese. That is why Indian muslim are not really respected as Chinese muslim. I myself have encounter many trouble differentiating between an Indian muslim and a Malay because they both look alike. So Indian muslim here are like… most Malay. That is not really surprising at all, as India hold the largest population of Muslim minority. Muslim in India are like Indian in Malaysia. So Indian tend to convert to Islam. By the way, Indian are officially a minority group here in Malaysia, although you can basically see them everywhere.

Anyway, BN did do something right. The problem of this… oppression probably started at the time of Mahathir Mohamed. Many people know him as a very prominent individual in the world probably because of the economic crisis where he play a crucial role. He is also among the most vocal person against Israel, and also had contributed quite a lot in Malaysia’s economy and also in Islamic world. In fact IIUM is suggested by him and funded by OIC. So basically the Malaysia’s most rapid economic growth was under his government. The Opposition said that Anwar Ibrahim was the Finance Minister at that time. Well, that is in some way true. On half of Mahathir’s rule (which is relatively long), Anwar Ibrahim was the finance minister. But the rapid growth start about 5 year before him, at Mahathir’s second term which at that time, Anwar was the education minister. In some way, Anwar did a good job as the economic performance during his time is consistently good. In fact, right the on the year Anwar was sacked, Malaysia’s GDP dropped for a while. Maybe Mahathir do something wrong or Anwar really did do some heavy corruption or simply because of global economic crisis. The thing is about Mahathir is, well , he is a tirant. Well, in some way he is. Not many people dare to fight him because at that time as there is ISA (Internal Security Act) which basically mean he could put anyone he deemed dangerous to jail without proper trial. ISA is no longer active now at the time of Najib. It has been replaced by two other act. Anyway, after Operasi Lalang in which basically there is a demonstration from the Chinese community regarding vernacular Chinese school, and in response, Mahathir used ISA to capture about 106 individual including both Lim Kit Siang and Karpal Singh who was and still very important DAP leader. If you think that only Chinese were arrested, you would be wrong. Even some UMNO member were arrested. PAS members too. Anwar Ibrahim (who is the education minister at that time) are among the demonstrator who is not arrested. So if you think that only Chinese were demonstrating, you would be wrong. Anyway, the operation also cause a prominent english newspaper, The Star to be closed for a few month. After that, the top leadership of The Star has been replaced by UMNO and you can see the result until now. From that on also, most of the mainstream media is under the government control. So the Chinese and anyone who oppose the government were silenced. So you can say that Mahathir is Malaysia’s Ghadafi. Both has their own strong supporter, but there are report that they both abuse their power to silence people and both say they they are against Israel in a very vocal way which in some way make us think that they only say that to gain support. In fact if I’m not mistaken, Mahathir was on Ghadafi’s side when Ghadafi was opposed.

Anyway, now that Anwar Ibrahim, Lim Kit Siang and Karpal Singh is back, BN is in deep trouble. Even so, I would say that it is still possible that BN will win. They still have television. So basically most housewives are on BN side. Among the most used propaganda other than the one I said before is that Anwar Ibrahim’s sexual habit of sodomizing people. Notably Saiful Bukhari. Poor guy, true of false, people curse him and he is being used. After Anwar Ibrahim had been released out of the prison, he has another case of sodomy. This time with Saiful Bukhari. At the end, the court said that there is not enough evidence to say that Anwar Ibrahim is guilty. Anyway, several month after the court decision, he is back with his sumpah laknat. And now he show people a video that he swear in front of the kaabah. Of course, PR people will not believe that, but it does effect the public. The thing about Anwar ibrahim is, he has been accused of so many thing that people just don’t trust when the news said that he do this and that. This article demonstrate it quite nicely. There have been many sexual videos of Anwar Ibrahim coming out these day. And even recently a sex video of a PAS leader. My question is, why do they capture the video in the first place? My second question is, why is PKR member Saifuddin Nasution Ismail is the first person who said that the video exist by saying that he has been approached by an UMNO-BN agent who show him the video? So basically the opponent just come to your house and tell you what they will do soon? Very strange. I have to agree with some people who say that these videos benefit PR more than they benefit BN. In some way, it is likely that PR themselves make this video. Although the one who keeps on saying these stuff is the main media who is controlled by you-know-who.

So basically these are the situation in Malaysia. BN is corrupt, we all know that. The question is, is PR corrupt too? If so we are in deep trouble. The people basically has no choice but to choose PR. But if they do choose PR, what will happen? Their manifesto is somewhat unrealistic, they are fighting with each other, although I’m sure there is a lot more fighting in BN. And also the racial tension that is fueling BN right now. Lets face the fact, DAP will not win without the Malay support, PKR need PAS to be strong and need DAP to be win. PAS on the other hand will not likely to implement hudud anytime soon, given that DAP is there and PKR do not want to do so. The most worrying thing for me is PAS has some extreme candidate, notably of Syiah teaching. The son of Mahathir said that some PAS candidate in kedah is a Syiah. PAS said that what does it have to do with politics, which basically means that PAS do not denies it. I’m not so surprise to know this. PAS although they say that they are Islamic party, they do not really study or focus on Islam. They mostly have the nationalism spirit of Islam, or anything that say they are Muslim. So these people who has very high nationalism are more likely to join teaching such as Syiah and al-Arqam. The thing about Syiah is, they have 12 imam. Syiah think that Sunni are kafir because we have no 12 imam, while Sunni think that Syiah is syirik because they have 12 imam and focus on them too much. The clash between Sunni and Syiah will be very devastating and are much more dangerous that a clash with Christian. That is why, it is not wise for Syiah to be here in Malaysia, we will be like Iraq if Syiah spread here.

Anyway, before I end this, let me quote a quran verse,

 You will surely find the most intense of the people in animosity toward the believers [to be] the Jews and those who associate others with Allah ; and you will find the nearest of them in affection to the believers those who say, “We are Christians.” That is because among them are priests and monks and because they are not arrogant.

Surah Al-Ma’idah verse 82.

For Muslim, don’t think of the Christian as your enemy, as they do not fight you. And remember that among the responsibility of a Muslim is to preach Islam to non believer. How can you say that the Christian hate the Muslim when at the same time, the Muslim that they see do not even pray five time a day?

For Non-Muslim, first of all, I would like to clear this up, there is no way for a Muslim to be guaranteed heaven when he kill someone. Not even if he kill the biggest tyrant in the world. The guaranteed heaven is when he get killed while fighting for a just cause or protecting his right. If anyway you encountered a quranic verse saying that Muslim should kill the unbeliever whenever we see them, I dare you to find and read the whole verse. Please don’t just judge people before you do your research. Not all Muslim practice Islam like not all Christian practice Christianity. And so I cannot say that everyone who claim they are Muslim to be a good guy. A good indicator is that a real Muslim must pray at least five time a day. That is basically the basic of a muslim.

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