Going forward from what yhsiew posted – NST today reported :’An English daily’s report that certain Umno Supreme Council members had asked Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to speed up the transition plan at their meeting on Thursday was inaccurate, Umno Youth chief Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said yesterday.’

{Note : A reference tp The Star 20th Sept under front page caption “Under pressure”}

In Shah Alam, Umno information chief Tan Sri Muhammad Mu-hammed Taib said members who supported the call for Abdullah to speed up the transition of power to his deputy were not supporting the Pakatan Rakyat’s moves to wrest control of the Federal Government. “It’s true that some Umno members want a faster transition but it’s not a decision.” He was commenting on a statement by DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang, who had asked Abdullah to step down quickly because that was the wish of many Umno members. Muhammad said the supreme council had agreed on the power transition and that any change would be announced by Abdullah and his deputy, Datuk Seri Najib Razak. He also chided Lim for interfering in Umno’s affairs, saying the party could solve its own issues. ‘ – see NST Sept 21st, link -http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Sunday/National/2355848/Article/index_html

{What’s the link between those like for example Tan Sri Muhyiddin urging the PM to “fast forward” the transistion of power plan oif the one part and Anwar’s 9/16 plans to wrest control of the Federal Government that Mu-hammed Taib alluded to and denied???}

What Kalimullah Hassan, the deputy chairman of the New Straits Times Press (rumoured to have links to the top) wrote on page 20 of today’s NST (21st Sept) is interesting : (I quote exerpts) :

‘….It is politicians who sparked off May 13 and it is politicians who have been central, almost all the time, in raising religious and racial tensions over the last four decades since May 13. Some of the May 13 culprits are still around.

I am beginning to believe you cannot change politicians because politics changes even the best among them. The Tunku Abdul Rahmans and the Tun Ismails are rare in modern Malaysia and few and far between.

Politics, I told them [note his children], was now a miserable and not honourable trade because our politicians from either side of the divide seem to care more about power than the people and country they took an oath to serve.

Maybe I am just dispirited because of what politics has done to the country, especially since the March 8 general election. Maybe I am disillusioned that there are too few good men and too many megalomaniacs out there.

Who ever heard of those who lost an election trying to grab power? Yet, nary is a voice from civil society raised over attempts to thwart the will of the people by buying over elected representatives with promises of position and money to topple a legitimately elected government.

If these people whom we gave our trust to can be bought and sold like goods over the counter, what will stop them from selling our country?

Well-known Canadian-born feminist Shulamith Firestone said: “Power, however it has evolved, whatever its origins, will not be given up without a struggle.”

That is why I fear for my country. I wonder whether those who want to grab power realise that those who have been in power will not allow it to be taken away through illegitimate means.

They won’t give it up without a struggle. Without a fight. And when people get desperate, they do desperate and dangerous things.’[Unquote]

In light of what Kalimullah Hassan wrote [especially last 3 paragraphs] is it reasonable to think that the BN govt will abolish (repeal) the ISA (no matter what the good arguments are there for such a move and how many protestors shave their heads)?

It won’t happen until Pakatan Rakyat takes over.

It seems to me a forum on how to help PR takes over will be more relevant and helpful than one discussing “abolish ISA” in the practical terms of actually getting the ISA abolished/repealed. :)

Any way “18 justice-and-freedom-loving Malaysians” are shaving their heads in protest against RPK’s ISA detention. Mendela has suggested (posting 09:42.53) that YB Kit also shaved his hair. He said RPK looked good on bald head. However that’s RPK, not necesarily Kit. Situation not similar. In first place RPK has a patchy loss of hair; secondly he told me that he went in and out of prison so many times … that it would be more convenient to shave off his hair (lock-up rules states that “rambut mesti di potong pendek-pendek” ). If you think you follow his baldness to support his cause you are wrong because his hair would have grown unshaven in detention!

Anyway what is the logic and symbolism behind this ritual of shaving one’s head to mark a civil disobedience protest? Why shave head – no other ways of protest? I don’t understand this.
Traditionally hair is shaved to humiliate and rob the shaven person off pride and dignity. In Jan 2008 there was public outcry when Kajang police arresting some old folks playing majong during CNY shaved their heads, viewed by us as a way to uncessarily humiliate them. So if I were protesting against the ISA, it would be natural for me to try to humiliate those who invoke ISA so why would I humiliate myself by shaving?

Unless to show sacrifice on my part, to show by cultural norms a price to pay? This I can understand (say) silk protestors or may be some very religious people associating religious vow with having to shave bald their long hair in protest against something but for the rest, especially those influenced by western popular culture and fans of Sinead O’Connor or Britney Spears shaved bald???

What is the connection between giving up one’s hair and protesting against something –is it a sensible mark of protest – are we doing things blindly without reason – and is there is difference between male and female, religious or non religious protestor in this respect???

I respect those who are prepared to do something like even shave hair to protest – I am not trying to ridicule them – but cannot understand why they choose “shaving bald ” of all things as the symbol and ritual of the protest, when there seems to be no cogent rationale for such an act.

Unfortunately I was wrong in my speculation that Pak Lah’s decision to fight the other UMNO power brokers/warlords might be a favourable consideration to release Raja Petra Kamarudin from ISA.

Malaysiakini has just reported, that “ Malaysia Today editor will be sent to Kamunting Detention Centre in Taiping, Perak today to begin his two-year detention under the Internal Security Act, said his lawyer. The home minister has signed his detention order last night to be held without trial under section 8 of the tough security law”.

Now the only reprieve RPK has is Anwar’s promise to take over the government – fast.