Malaysiaku, Negaraku

 

  Former Selangor MB, Azmin Ali chided his progeny, Amirudin Shari, whom he had appointed to be Menteri Besar of Selangor.          And Amirudin fired back a salvo claiming that Selangor had, in fact, deteriorated since Azmin's era.           To me, both characters did a lousy job as Menteri Besar of Selangor which has left the state the way it is today, "Negeri Selangor, Darul Sampah."  Lip Service          Even when the problems on the ground were highlighted to Amirudin, he paid no attention to the complaints on the ground, but in Selangorkini, he claimed that PH has done a great job in Selangor.            The contribution that Selangor made to the country's Gross Domestic Product, Amirudin said, has increased from 23.2 percent in 2017 to 24.8 percent in 2021. This is hardly anything to shout about, considering that the percentage contribution takes into acco...

          There is so much we can learn from the history of ancient civilisations. This is because the human heart is deceitful above all things, and nothing has changed in the way we do things, even though we are now living in post-modern times.          After reading a few posts, a friend wrote to me, " Wow… history repeating itself in our own country" when he read what was said about the Qing Dynasty by Qizhi Chang: An Introduction to to Chinese History and Culture . New York, NY: Springer Heidelberg, 2015.           " The eventual collapse of the Qing Dynasty is, however, not because it did not have a good system of government. Other factors contributed to its decline. While Renzong (emperor) was against corruption, he was surrounded by the elitist group who had made up of both central and local officials. They helped to safeguard the emperor’s power base, but at the same time, these elites were bot...

            Many of us will still vote for Pakatan Harapan (PH) because there are no better choices around.            Even though I treat Siti Kassim as a friend, the fact that she is an Independent means, I would not vote for her.           This is because we need every single vote for an alternative coalition to form the next government. We have had enough of leaders like Najib Abdul Razak (and his wife, Rosmah Mansor) and Ahmad Zahid Hamidi. It will be a very long list if I were to go on.  Strong Message          Therefore, let me send a strong message to leaders in PH. They ought to learn to be humble and serve the rakyat the moment they form the next government.           Snubbing some of them does not mean that I would not cast my votes for PH. I vote because of PH, not because of these individual politicians themselves....

            While I agree that fresh faces have to be injected into the political landscape in Malaysia, instead of the tainted politicians, it is not always the best decision.           Allow me to elaborate. As I was doing my assignment in partial fulfilment of the requirement for my doctoral degree, I had to read up about the Ancient Chinese history. There are many lessons one can learn from 2,500 of Chinese history.  Bad Advisors           The collapse of the Sui Dynasty was attributed to the “deceit practiced on each other by both high and low officials, the emperor’s own arrogance and complacency, the fawning attitude of his advisers and their failure, in terms of loyalty, to criticize the emperor’s mistakes.” (p50)          Subsequently, the Tang Dynasty attempted to keep the balance between the  scholars (Ru) and the non-scholars (Li).  The ...

  DAP Penang was supposed to have its state election alongside with the general election, although the initial decision made by Pakatan Harapan was to hold its state election at the end of the full term.          This, by right, should be the case which is why everyone was telling Ismail Sabri Yaakob not to hold the general election during the monsoon season.           But then, Penang state government was right that if the state election is not held simultaneously, it may not be able to attract big voters' turnout.          It is good for DAP to allow voices of dissent, instead of chastising the state DAP for proposing something contrary to the earlier decision. After all, there is no right or wrong answer. Either way, you cannot predict voters' sentiment six or eight months from now.           Whatever it is, I agree with the Harapan's decision to maintain its earlier no ...

  Mariam Mokhar's articles I have been following for a long time now.           Here is a very good article by Mariam, who writes as the general of the Green Bean army, whatever that means to anyone! Anyway, Mariam, I can't even recall what you call your army because that's not important to me.          But, the country needs to see a change that we all have yearned for. We continue to be plagued by all sorts of politicians - from frogs to toads, buaya and the sharks, the hypocrites and the Judases.          The question is not how the Chinese or the Indians vote. BN knows well that the Chinese and Indians are not important. We have our fair share of bad MPs and State Assemblymen,   yet we all know which coalition to vote although we will snub the underperforming or snobbish politicians.           The important question is how the Malays and the East Malaysians ...