What for waste RM800 million – to bring legislative nearer to Executive in Putrajaya for latter to symbolically control it? Democracy looks better if there’s a newer more prestigious Parliament building meh?

Now wasn’t it MIC chief S Samy Vellu who 2 years ago drew a parallel between the “dilapidated” state of Parliament and the looks of a 50-year-old woman who had lost her beauty??? Wasn’t he the one whose metaphor of a ‘50-year-old woman’ drew flak from women groups like Joint Action Group for Gender Equality (JAG) for reinforcing the gender stereotype that a woman’s worth lies with her extrinsic attributes (looks) and not with her intrinsic qualities as a human being??

And now they want to change Parliament – have a new one at Putrajaya that could cost up to RM800 million – and yet complain we have no money and need to cut back on subsidies with one minister Idris Jala saying we’re on road to bankruptcy if we don’t cut back expediture ???

Typical mentality of an already not-well-to middle age man who wants, at the slightest whims and urge, to re-cycle his 50 year old wife for a younger nubile virgin even if the latter substitute will blow a hole in his pocket?

Nazri should consider seriously the lower cost alternative like upgrading [works], fixing the roof and the electricity supply : like an “old wife” that has served well – take a leaf from Samy’s advice, a bit of expense on maintenance and renovations spent on her, like stem cell injection, plastic surgery will, so to speak fix the the problem and cost relatively less than blowing one’s pocket for a brand new problem! (Samy himself fixed it by a wig?)

This is typical mindset complained of by JAG of putting more importance on “extrinsic attributes (looks)” rather than on what that counts – the intrinsic qualities whether of wife or the institution of Parliament!

The worth of Parliament is in its intrinsic structure of practices – whether democratic or despotic – and the way the MPs conduct themselves.

It is supposed to be a citadel of Malaysian Democracy including Freedom of Speech. What we have, as I have complained in earlier thread, is a lack of respect for freedom of speech. Instead of debating and refuting the Opposition Head’s allegations linking APCO and Jews and 1 Malaysia to 1 Israel and by rational arguments showing them fallacious or spurious in the best tradtion of democratic parliamentary debate Commonwealth style – they prefer to flex their majority status to refer him to PRPC (dominated by ruling coalition’s members party) for punishment in the process denying him the right to counsel that is allowed even by the House’s own Standing Order 83 Rule 7A! Other earlier times quality of debate was interspersed by sexist innuendoes of a MP who alluded to a fellow woman MP’s menstrual cycle, the very same who lately was one of those in centre of a heated argument between opposition MPs and several Barisan MPs in Parliament’s Senate Lounge – (see Malaysiakini’s report “MPs clash in Senate lounge” by Christine Chan Jun 9, 10 3:47pm).

This is precisely the point: whats the point of having a brand new Parliament (cost RM800 million) when its intrinsic qualities are at these levels? Likje whats the point of having a young wife, beautiful in outward appearances, but whose inner qualities are quarrelsome and bitchy, vindictive, insecure restrictive of the man’s freedom???

///And this is not a one-off situation, it is being repeated times and again. So the pronouncement that the nation can go bankrupt may not be far off./// – #17

Generally in any kleptocracy, government spending is a raison de etre and an end in itself without which there is no opportunity to make money by elites holding the reins of power over the national purse and in position to create projects and an excuse to spend.

I would imagine that, unless the country is high income, no matter how tight the purse strings government spending has to continue, as if having life of its own, to be financed from printing of more money that exacerbates inflation or impose more taxes & more taxes direct or indirect / raise more borrowings until either the common people, faced with hardship from either more taxes or inflation, put an earlier end to it by another government or the country goes into bankruptcy when it defaults in debts (where again the people faced with hardship from unemployment, devaluation in currency, bust of bubble/asset values created in part as response to hedge against inflation, will again vent their anger by trying to replace the government), whichever the earlier.

It is an inexorable course.

This means that an individual, if faced with the prospect of being unable to change the inexorable course by his and other votes through the ballot box, has left only two options in terms of personal financial survival: either get out of the kleptocracy or join the system (by connecting to elites and their friends) to amass his own financial nest to buffer and weather against the worst case scenario – provided in the latter case, the money amassed has to be hedged in assets located in other more stable political, social and economic systems.

Chua, better faster give back the two datukship awards. If Johor Royal Council secretary Abdul Rahim Ramli said that Johor palace was not obliged to reveal its reasons, the public too are entitled to draw the appropriate inferences about this revocation under unprecedented circumstances.

This unprecedented revocation of the honorific titles will crown Mr Chua Jui Meng with a greater and more permanent public honour of being the first to suffer his titles withdrawn on grounds of political affliliation.

I wonder what will happen if all Pakatan Rakyat’s politicians with datukships offer their titles to be withdrawn – in solidarity with Chua – if political affiliation were cited at reason for withdrawal.