Umno is doing rather well among rural Malay electorates.

It is the mostly non-Malay, urban constituencies that are worrying
the BN coalition. These are usually ignored by Umno, except when non-Malays happen to hold the balance and the party’s future in the Malay heartlands is uncertain.

Rural areas are enjoying a prolonged boom from the high prices of resources like palm oil and rubber. The rural sector also gets subsidies, projects and handouts from the government, funded by petroleum income.

- So, from the news comment, we can see that Umno has done its homework. The votes that matter are the Malay votes and the Malays are not fed up.

If one behave like an animal, treat him/her like an animal.

Yup, women like Sari Yanti Mohamed Nazari (shown in the Star today) would give men of his kind sleepless nights.

What’s the cure? Very simple indeed. Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat should consult our PM – the art of Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

The PM either cannot afford or afraid of the risk of a Royal Commission that can open up a whole can of worms for UMNO besides paying the political price of being seen to be weak by his party members for not facing down the lawyers. He learned his lessons with the Royal Commission on the police force which he still have not put the genie back in the bottle.

This is especially so with election certain within the next six months. He cannot afford a weakened machinery going into this election.

Malaysians are not just fed-up. They know they need leadership otherwise there will be hard prices to be paid in the future. Consider our current growth rate of about 5.8% which they are trumpetting despite falling short and projecting a similar one next year. Singapore is projecting conservatively at 7-8% for 2007, yet is projecting only 4-6% for 2008. The most optimist analyst predicts Malaysia will fall short of its projection.

Tunku Abdul Rahman says Malaysia should be like one big family. It has become one but its a middle-upper-class dysfunctional family. So long as lots of money is coming into the family, all gripes and unhappiness is swept under the carpet. Soon as money start to dry up, family members will start to look after its own self interest and the family start to tear itself apart. Unless that family can find new leadership, it will fall apart.

That is what is happening and we all know it…

Extract from RPK’s blog:

Lawyer Fahri Azzat pointed out that the crux of the video shows how corruption cripples the justice system and the country as a whole.

“Corruption ruins people and brings the Bar down. Why? Because it is a betrayal of trust and you can’t trust anybody any more.

“So we are like flies trapped in the web of corruption. There is no institution, no government authority that will or want to help us. They are there to keep us deluded, distracted and denied.”

In his emotional speech, he appealed to lawyers to be brave in confronting this fact, and then outlined the ineffectiveness of the PM in dealing with this issue.

“Is the PM going to help us? I don’t really think so. He may say nice things about us but I don’t know if he remembers them the next week.

He’s not interested in the Bar or the law. He is just interested in officiating events, smiling at cameras warmly, dispensing the most pedantic of homilies. I don’t blame him. People do what they do best and this is what he does best,” he said with tongue-in-cheek.

He pointed out that the lawyers can expect no help from the judiciary, Parliament, the government, Anti-Corruption Agency, the attorney-general and the police.

“Let’s face up to reality. It is because they want to be in power. Anything that works to the benefit of the people means the detraction of power from the elite in power.

“We are on our own. All we have is each other and people who feel the same way. That’s all you have. I hope we can look deep in ourselves and say ‘enough’ because if not, it’s over.”

During the session, an excerpt from the book ‘May Day For Justice’ by K Das was read out by his daughter, Jo Kukathas, a director of the Instant Café Theatre.

In it, the author described how court doors and Parliament gates were locked in attempts to deny then Lord President Tun Salleh Abas a fair trial in 1988. He was later sacked.

Has to be the joke of the century from the Imam of Islam Hadhari.

If he meant what he said, he should be there. But with all the excitements that’s going to happen there, I am afraid his heart might just stop beating. All senior citizens should just stay at home.

The BERSIH march’s organisers should invite Tun Dr Mahthir to l
lead the march from Merdeka (Independence) Square to the national palace to present their petition to the King (Agong).

And TDM should accept the initation as a measure of contrition – and atonement – for how his policies have placed the nation in her present predicament.