A Short Note to Ahmad Ismail and his ilk

September 9th, 2008 gier

Saya cuma nak cakap, Datuk memang hebat. Penyokong-penyokong Datuk pun, ish … hebatlah. Memang pahlawan Melayu abis-abis. Saya memang kagum dengan tindak-tanduk Datuk tu. Ye lah kan, pegi koyakkan gambar Koh Tsu Koon tu, memang power. Lepas tu, ancam nak bunuh reporter sorang … ish … ganas! Mengancam, sungguh mengancam. Lagi satu, masa Datuk bagitau kat cina-cina tu toksah jadik macam Yahudi kat Amerika tu … terpegun saya dengan kuasa Datuk berpidato. Saya lansung tak terpikir nak kaitkan orang Malaysia dengan Yahudi. Kat Amerika lak tu. Intelek Datuk sememangnya tinggi menggunung. Lagi tinggi dari Bukit Cina kat Melaka tu.

Tinggal saya cuma nak cakap je lah, kalau Datuk pikir semua Melayu akan sokong Datuk kalau ada apa-apa, Datuk kena pikir lagi sekali lah ye. Sebab saya sendiri akan berada bersama-sama orang Malaysia. Tak kira lah bangsa apa pun. Bukan Melayu je tau.

Tu je la saya nak cakap. Kthxbai.

Posted in Mentera Moden | 2 Comments »

Cursing the Nation

August 25th, 2008 gier

It all started with that Mahsuri lady. So, the husband wrongfully accused her of being naughty with some other dude while he was away and got her skewered. She bled white blood (probably bad case of leukemia) and cursed Langkawi for seven generations … resulting in a cluster of islands that was untouched and pristine. With clear waters and fantastic weather.

Legend then has it, the fourth Prime Minister of Malaysia lifted the curse on the islands after the seven generations were up, turning it into a tourist destination with no tax. Big hotels sprung up, cigarettes were cheap, that sort of thing. It resulted in an overpriced, crowded place which were no longer untouched and pristine. The waters stopped being so clear, but the weather didn’t change. Curse or no curse, God does not play dice.

Fast forward a few more years, and here we are.

These days, not really cursing la, more swearing … which is not that far from cursing, really. Then there’s also oathing with statutory declarations, with is not really swearing, but not that far also. A bit like cursing, actually.

If I were to summarise all the cursing swearing and oathing that’s been going on, it’d be like this:

“I swear, so help me God, under the Act from 1967, that I had a penis magicked by a bomoh so that I cannot see the face of the Mongolian model, shoved into my C4 strapped arsehole, witnessed by the wife of the Deputy Prime Minister, who prayed in a Hindu temple, which had no signs of penetration (t.r.o. the ACA with sexual favours) and does not involve any helicopters or submarines (except the butt diving kind), where my assistant was involved in the hotel room. I make this oathing and swearing under duress, with a few mistakes which were corrected by an Imam from Sabah who votes in Penang and works in Kuala Lumpur. This I declare, while being attacked by government funded islamist armed terrorist, in a Chinese temple.”

Yeah, that should about cover it. More than seven generations. At least twenty, I reckon.

Posted in Mentera Moden | 1 Comment »

The Crash and Burn of Farish Noor

August 22nd, 2008 gier

I’ve decided to put my thoughts here, instead of on the OtherMalaysia site, because it’s more a personal thing, rather than anything else. I put TOM on hiatus because Farish has decided to “shut down the Othermalaysia research group project.” It was a unilateral, dictatorial decision made on his own, by himself, whilst alone, without first checking with the research group. Of course, the research group was a group of two, i.e. him and me, but that’s by the by. No hard feelings, really. But if he ever decides to stand for any sort of election (like class monitor or captain of the softball team), there’s no way I’d vote for him, that’s for sure. Hah!

But seriously, at the end of the day, Farish was, and is the heart and soul of The Other Malaysia and I am, at best, a blood vessel. If we were a rock band, he’d be the vocalist and lead guitarist and I’d be the dude playing percussions or that little triangle thing that goes “ting-ting-ting” when you smack a little rod on it.

And Farish has crashed and burned.

What often sustains a left-leaning civil activist (is there any other kind?) is a passion for justice, fairness and equality. What drives the activist is anger and hope. And if you’re a political scientist and historian, you get to lean from much further back, and see much further forward than most others. Add to that the ability to write in such engaging style and you get Farish A. Noor.

But sometimes, anger gets spent and hopes dim. It happens, even to the best amongst us.

Farish has never been one for partisanship, never been one to take sides for the sake of being on a side. What this has meant is that he would get brickbats from every side, whenever an attempt is made to expose hipocrisy, inconsistencies and, far too often for our liking, sheer idiocy of politicians and leaders of this fair country.

For far too often, rational discourse and engagement have been suppressed for the sake of preserving the status quo, or to forward even more draconian and ridiculous measures to “protect” the fragile state of this artificially constructed nation. And yet, artificial or not, it remains our nation and one that is loved dearly by Farish.

So, there you go. He seems to have run out of gas for the moment.

When The Other Malaysia site was started, is was a labour of love for the both of us. We had not much of a budget. Not even a shoestring one. It was more like a lint budget, really. I asked Farish what he wanted the site to look like, and he drew some lines on a piece of paper. He sent me a bunch of pictures, and said that he wanted the Chelapa Minang sketch to be the logo. Except that it should be split in half, and arranged at either end. Oh, and he wanted it to be white on black. I just whacked.

He sent a bunch of old articles, wrote a couple of new ones, rehashed a few others and we were off. We grew slowly and eventually averaged about 1,000 readers a day which was not bad considering we weren’t exactly the sort to pander to any prevailing sentiments and basically did no promotion whatsoever. The spike we received during the election period was intriguing, but I thought it was just a case of people hitting whichever website they could to see if there was any information. I recall at the time Farish was busy getting himself molested in front of a mosque, deep in the north-east heartland.

But anyway, for what it’s worth, for an undetermined period of time, the Other Malaysia website will be on a hiatus. All the stuff that’s on there can still be accessed and maybe one of these days I’ll actually have everyting categorised properly. It’s not the only resource for Farish’s writings anyway, since he’s always taken the attitude that it’s more important to spread the articles to as many sources as possible, as opposed to getting eyeballs to the site. An arrangement which suited me just fine.

Will Farish write again? I hope so, and maybe I can piss him off enough to get him to do so. But don’t hold your breath.

Posted in Mentera Moden | 2 Comments »

How to solve a problem, Melayu-UMNO style (and one copycat)

August 13th, 2008 gier

So, those crazy lawyers, eh? What can you do. So many people had objected to them holding the open forum, which was held in their own private property with the doors closed. But they went ahead and did it.

That’s why there were 100 300 500 1000 ? protesters outside the building, shouting slogans warning the crazy lawyers against challenging Islam. Somewhere along there was also a warning against challenging “Ketuanan Melayu” and “Hak-hak Istimewa Melayu”. That the forum wasn’t titled “Conversion to Islam and Melayu[1]” was something that must have escaped the protesters completely.

The multi-party gathering was quite unique, apparently, with a report on the online comic saying that the UMNO-backed guys had colour banners and the PAS/PKR guys had photostated text only. Dunno if the UMNO-backed flers had their banners supplied by Elegant Advisory. Hah hah! Cheap shot, sorry.

Anyway, the protesters managed to get the forum stopped, in the end. Though it must be said that the UMNO-backed guy, Jais his name was apparently, managed to insult the Chinese, the Indians … and – this is unverified, may well be hearsay – the Jews … which was certainly odd since there weren’t any Jews at the forum.

In the aftermath, there were calls for the application of the ultimate solution to shutting people’s mouth in Malaysia … the Internal Security Act. The UMNO flers were asking for the head of the crazy lawyers to be sent to Kamunting. Which UMNO flers? Well, according to this report, there’s Ali Rustam, CM of Malacca; Datuk Shahaniza Shamsuddin, Information Chief for Puteri UMNO and Datuk Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim who is described as the “Pengerusi Sekretariat Pembelaan Rakyat” though don’t let that fool you. Azeez is that Putera UMNO dude who used to hang around the Mat Rempits, trying to reform them from “nutjobs racing around the streets in the middle of the night” to “nutjobs racing around the streets in the middle of the night who support UMNO“. Yes, that’s the one. Yes, yes, the one who went to that “health centre” in Subang to help out a mate who got caught with his pants down and arms around some Chinese tourist who overstayed.

The PKR fler, Zulkifli Nordin didn’t call for the ISA to be applied. Actually, after the forum, he didn’t call for anything at all, since he seems to have disappeared. Never mind having Zulkifli calling for anything, he himself doesn’t seem to be callable. Even the police say they’ve no idea where he is, and that he’s not ISA-ed himself.

The PAS fler, Salahuddin Ayub has also clarified that he doesn’t support the use of ISA on the head of the crazy lawyers. He also said that he was at the protest simply to “monitor” the PAS flers who were there. Sure dude, I believe you. I mean, that’s why you were talking on the microphone to the assembled crowd, eh? And standing next to that dude with the loud hailer, screaming his head orf? Yeah … sure.

So, who’s the other guy who called for the ISA to be used, then? Well, it’s a DAP guy, believe it or not. Senawang asemblyman P. Gunasekaren said that the protesters should all be sent to Kamunting. I can only assume he did it in jest, though.

The Internal Security Act … the weapon of a bully, that’s what it is.

[1] Some wit once told me that converting to Melayu is actually quite possible and fairly easy. The Constitution says nothing about looking like a Malay, after all.

Posted in Mentera Moden | 3 Comments »

The Bar Council Forum this Saturday and the “Missing The Point Horde”

August 7th, 2008 gier

So, those crazy lawyers over at the Bar Council will be holding an event called “Conversion to Islam: Art 121(1A) of the Federal Constitution, Subashini & Shamala Revisited”, on Saturday, 09 August 2008. According to the blurb, the event is to discuss “How should conflicts in matrimonial and family matters i.e. divorce, custody, maintenance and distribution be resolved, upon conversion to Islam of one party in a non-Muslim marriage: Ought the Civil Courts to have exclusive jurisdiction? ”

It’s a very interesting subject, I think, even though I won’t be attending due to other, more pressing, matters. Anyway, as to be expected, there’s a whole bunch of people protesting the event. On last count, there’s:

The Deputy Prime Minister, Dato’ Seri Najib Abdul Razak, where he said, “We are not stopping public debates. It is something healthy, but it should be organised in a closed manner.” … A closed public debate … how does that work?

UMNO Youth, where Exco member Datuk Pirdaus Ismail said, “It is pointless to organise forums based on intellectualism, professionalism or controversial issues when the safety, peace, harmony and stability of the country were being compromised.” … Yea, verily, keep your head under a shell, don’t be intellectual or professional … Where do they find these people?

Minister in Prime Minister’s Department, Datuk Seri Dr. Zahid Hamidi, where he said, “Walaupun sudah buat pada siri pertama forum Memeluk Islam dan hujung minggu ini siri kedua, saya bagi amaran, majoriti senyap masyarakat Islam di Malaysia belum lagi bangun untuk menyanggah mereka, tetapi jangan suruh kita bangun.” … Don’t challenge the silent majority indeed … The problem with the silent majority is because they’re so silent, sometimes you don’t even know if they actually care, or if they’re even a majority. I, for one, would love to have this majority voice out, for good or ill. At least we can have a chance at a dialogue. Openly. Not in a closed session. Not even a “closed” open session. Open, as in O.P.E.N. In public. With other people …

The Home Minister, Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar, who said, “Kalau ada perkara yang kita tidak puas hati, ada forum (cara) untuk kita menyelesaikan masalah tersebut, bukan melalui perbincangan terbuka yang boleh membangkitkan salah faham atau ketegangan.” … This is a “forum” wot the Bar Council is holding, albeit an O.P.E.N. one, where anyone can come in.

Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia (ABIM), whose Secretary General, Khairul Ariffin Mohd Munir feels that the issues should be discussed only by those in the know, i.e. “dalam kalangan mereka yang mempunyai latar belakang dalam bidang berkaitan.” … In other words, constitutional lawyers know diddly squat, and Muslim lawyers who are not approved by the likes of you know even less …

Jabatan Kemajuan Islam Malaysia (Jakim), where the Director General, Datuk Wan Mohamad Sheikh Abdul Aziz was reported to have released a statement which stated, among other things, that the Bar Council should instead “mendidik rakyat mematuhi setiap keputusan mahkamah, termasuk membabitkan hak orang Islam dan hak keistimewaan orang Melayu.” … Exactly, you crazies at the Bar Council! Why debate these things la? Just tell the people to just abide by the decisions of the court, including those involving the rights of Muslims and the special “right” of the Malays. The rights of other races … haiyaa, don’t invite trouble, ok. They got rights too, but that’s a different story, ok.

And finally (even though there are others, but I’m bored already), PAS have joined the chorus. In an emailed statement, the President, Ustaz Dato’ Haji Abdul Hadi Awang said,”PAS is of the opinion that the Bar Council’s initiative, which is secular in nature, will only confuse the real understanding of Islam and cause undue tension. To guarantee stability between different religions and races, PAS calls for the forum to be cancelled.” … Secular in nature … Confuse the “real” understanding of Islam … My head spins …

Look, these guys are MISSING THE POINT, in my humble opinion. In all these statements made by these people, not a single one of them chose to actually touch on the subject of the forum, which is about the rights of the non-Muslim partner in a marriage when the other partner embraces Islam. This is not a conversion issue, not an apostasy issue, not the rights of existing Muslims issue, not a Malay rights issue nor any other issues relating to the status of Islam in the country or the special “rights” of the Malays as entombed in the Constitution. And, no, it does not say “special rights”. It says “special position”. Not rights, my fellow Malays, but a position which essentially recognises that Malays are not equipped to compete with the “migrant” races — at the point of Independence, 51 years ago. And that’s not the Article in the constitution that’s being discussed here anyway.

And why can’t it be an open discussion? Because it might raise racial tensions? For whom? The Malays? Why? Can’t the people at least listen to the other side of the story first before immediately assuming that it’s a threat to the Malays and Islam?

Doesn’t Islam preach tolerance and understanding? I have written about Subashini before, and even then, I questioned whether the treatment given to her is fair or not. I wondered if it is not, in fact, zalim.

Posted in Mentera Moden | 2 Comments »

GERAMM/PROTES … and why it’s rubbish

July 4th, 2008 gier

So, this Sunday there is supposed to be a “1 Million” march or rally or something, to be held at Stadium Shah Alam Padang Timur Stadium Kelana Jaya. Ostensibly, it is to protest against the fuel price increase, which have burdened the rakyat. Or, it’s an anti-inflation march. I’m not really sure myself, in all honesty. My fault, I’m sure for not being civil society enough, or summink. However, the following reasons are why I think the rally (or whatever the thing is, since it also includes entertainment, apparently) is rubbish:

1. The expected turn out is “thousands of people”, which I’m afraid to point out is less than 1 million. So, it’s false advertising.

2. I actually think that the rise in fuel was inevitable, and Anwar’s assertion to reduce the fuel price “when I am Prime Minister” to be a rather blatant populist statement. I hate the price increase, but then so do everyone else. But to plunder the country’s reserves and Petronas just so you could get into power is just careless.

3. It’s an extension of the Pakatan Rakyat’s strategy to whip up the rakyat’s support for them to topple the government. How about actually doing some governing, eh? I, for one, refuse to be led by the nose and used as a pawn or part of some leverage to pressure others. I’d like to see what you can actually do first, okay. And right now, not fucking much, apart from making noises, and marching and rallying, it seems. BERSIH was different, because it was for a free elections, so that people can actually vote properly. For government. For democracy. For the right to have Gwen Stefani and Ella concerts.

4. And the biggest reason to not go to the rally: Because I fear that it’ll turn into another Anwar love fest with the braying, shouting, screaming fanbois and fangirls agreeing with everything he says after having left their brains at home. The only thing worse than the sycophantic drooling masses of the Cult of Anwar is the sycophantic drooling masses of the Cult of Mahathir. Even then, I’m not so sure.

Like some others, I am hoping that the business of government will eventually return to governing. That means you too, Pakatan Rakyat.

Bleh!

Posted in Mentera Moden, Politics | 2 Comments »

Statutory Declaration by gier of mentera.org

July 3rd, 2008 gier

I, gier of mentera.org … do solemnly and sincerely declare as follows:

1. I am of sound mind and relatively good health, and am not given to delusions or hallucinations.

2. My cigarette of choice is Camel Filters, though if I’ve run out and desperate for a fag, any cancer stick will do.

3. I was recently driving to a meeting in Putrajaya, by way of Cyberjaya, coming from Petaling Jaya when I saw by the side of the road what looked like a fairy.

4. The fairy was staring at me with a “come hither” look, but since I was late and was with a colleague, decided to ignore the look and drove on straight.

5. After a few days thinking about the encounter with the fairy, I decided to dismiss the incident as an optical illusion. Also, since I did not want to seem like a drama queen, I felt it was best to not mention it to anyone.

6. However, it seemed that the fairy had noticed me noticing her and a couple of nights ago, while I was sleeping, I was forcefully abducted by the fairy and taken to an unknown place.

7. I was rendered unconscious during the abduction, and when I came to, I discovered myself lying face down on a platform in what looked like a sterile, totally white, room.

8. I was tethered to the platform by secure straps, leaving only restricted mobility. I was also totally naked.

9. With great difficulty due to the reduced mobility, I managed to look around the room where I detected a mechanical contraption mounted on the ceiling. The contraption looked like it was made of some kind of alloy, possibly titanium or some other exotic metal.

10. The contraption also had a long, slim rod which was positioned right on my anus, which caused me some trepidation.

11. Suddenly, there was a tiny mechanical sound, followed by a buzzing and I suddenly felt the rod moving towards my arsehole, causing me to flex the muscles in my buttocks, resulting in a clenching action.

12. However, my efforts were in vain, as I felt the tip of the rod reach my anal orifice. The tip then spouted a small filament which travelled into the orifice and wormed itself inside my body.

13. While I am unable to physically observe this, I would like to state that I could feel something moving inside me.

14. After what seemed like hours, though it could probably have only been minutes, the filament was retracted back into the rod, and the rod was withdrawn from my butthole.

15. A few minutes later, the fairy that I encountered a few days earlier appeared through a hole in one of the walls. The hole was not present before he entered and disappeared again without any seams once he completed his entry.

16. The fairy then spoke to me, first in Bangladeshi, then in Javanese followed by Hokkien, Tamil, Tagalog, Myanmarese and finally English. She (or indeed, he, since the fairy seemed rather androgynous) continued to speak in English when he discovered that I showed recognition of her words.

17. The fairy explained to me that he was not a mythical fairy, nor is he what is considered, euphemistically, a “fairy”, “fag”, “she-male”, “tranny”, “shit-stabber”, “village people”, “brokeback mountain”, “poof” or plain homosexual. He was, and still is I am sure, an alien from outer space. The planet designated CLHZ-001×5 from beyond the Oort Cloud to be exact, using our own nomenclature for classifying planets and stars.

18. The fairy then further exposited to me that I was selected to be experimented on, by way of an anal probe, as part of their scientific research activities on planets within the Milky Way. He then assured me that I was not in any way physically impacted apart from maybe some slight discomfort for a few days when I need to take a dump.

19. I was then stunned by what seemed like a phaser gun and lost consciousness.

20. When I came to again, I discovered that I was returned back to my bed, in the same night. Before stunning me, the fairy said that he would do a mind wipe of my brain so that I will not remember what was done to me, but it must have malfunctioned, for I remember every single detail.

21. Further to that, during the conversation, he said that he had employed what is equivalent to a bomoh to put a hex on me, so that I would be unable to look at his face nor focus on any parts of his anatomy. However, his bomoh must have been ineffective, for I found myself unaffected by any magick or hex.

22. I am currently emotionally distraught, and am consistently seeking the solace and comfort of hot, nubile, big-breasted women to calm my frayed nerves.

23. The purpose of this statutory declaration is to:

1) Record my disappointment and feelings of affrontedness at being so abused.

2) Bring to the notice of the relevant authorities that the fairy alien had violated my basic human rights, and should therefore be charged under whatever law — local, international, terrestrial or extra-terrestrial — for this offense.

3) State my refusal to be tested or examined by any medical personnel at the KL General Hospital or any other hospital or specialist centres, unless the fairy alien presents himself (or, indeed, herself) and demands for it to be done.

4) Express my concern that such blatant intrusion of our country’s air space and land can be done with impunity by gay-looking alien lifeforms and that such action should be taken to prevent these types of incidents again.

5) Demand that the poof come back down to earth so that I can give her (or, indeed, him) the whatfor.

24. And I make this solemn declaration conscientiously believing the same be true and by virtue of the provisions of the Statutory Declaration Act 1960.

gier of mentera.org

03 July 2008

Posted in Lame Jokes, Mentera Moden | 2 Comments »

Truth or Die!

June 26th, 2008 gier

Okay, I don’t know how to say this without actually sounding like I’m dissing someone’s traditions and culture … but I have to say something.

Any Malaysian still awake knows about RPK’s statutory declaration, saying that he was “reliably informed” about certain things regarding the late Altantuya’s murder, and that these things involved the Deputy Prime Minister, his wife, the Prime Minister, the Prime Minister’s son-in-law and also a Sultan. There isn’t even any point in linking to the stat dec.

So, people blah blah blah lah about why the PM, DPM, KJ, DPM’s wifey didn’t say anything until recently. And today … *sigh* … today on the subscription-based online comic, Malaysiakini, we get a report saying that the State Reform Party (Star) president, Dr. Patau Rubis, has suggested that the “dispute between Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and his wife Rosmah and blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin over the truth of the matter relating to the Altantuya murder case is perhaps best settled by the traditional Bidayuh way …”

What’s the traditional Bidayuh way, you ask?

Well, according to Dr. Patau Rubis (who is willing to “sponsor” the ceremony), the trio has to go and “swear before a Bidayuh ketua gawai in the Kampung Gumbang baruk (head house) to the truth of their statements to the authorities.”

Yea, verily.

Why would that solve anything, you ask?

Well, Dr. Patau Rubis says that “the Bidayuh belief is that anyone who tells a lie will die within three weeks.”

So, in other words, the three people should go to the ketua gawai, swear that they’ve done “nuffink wrong, guv. You is not got me bang to rights, no sir! I DID NOT DO IT!” And the one(s) who is a lyer, DIES! That’s right. The lyer gets DEAD! In three (3) weeks!

Of course, Dr. Patau Rubis then added, “But if you are scared to come, let the court decide the matter.”

Quite.

I need a fucking break.

Posted in Mentera Moden, Politics | No Comments »

PAS Yoofs, amik kau, Sultan dah marah la

June 18th, 2008 gier

It’s interesting to see how the PAS Yoof wing seems to have lost the plot recently. First there was the white school blouse thingy, supporting the National Islamic Students Association of Malaysia’s “condemnation“. Then they hit on the bright idea of having hardline Islamic law enacted in all the Pakatan Rakyat states … which would have surprised Selangor, and especially Penang, surely.

And now, ooh … ban concert with Ella (still hot after all these years!) and Mas Idayu (dunno who she is) or PAS Yoof will demonstrate at the stadium. Yea, verily, they shall smite the heretics and infidels who dare to watch two ladies singing on stage before a football match. Well, not smite, exactly … more like standing around outside with placards, I guess. They also suggested that Mawi would be a more suitable singer. Heee!

Anyway, now the Sultan of Selangor has lost his rag with these PAS Yoofs. According to the Star, HM said that these PAS Yoofs are hypocritical twats obsessing over trivial matters (I’m paraphrasing, I’ve no idea what HM actually said). Ella in turn also expressed her disappointment and anger at PAS Yoof’s “baseless accusations”, saying that they have no right to judge her. You go grrl! You so HOT! Err … where was I?

Actually, maybe the Pakatan Rakyat believers are the ones who have lost the plot. Maybe PR supporters believed PAS when they signed the Peep’s Declaration, when they waxed lyrical about the welfare state (socialist Islamists … who would’ve thought, eh?), when they presented a more moderate, understanding face? Can a leopard change its polka dots?

Can the PAS Yoof ever get a clue than not everyone wants to play in the same team?

Posted in Mentera Moden, Politics | 3 Comments »

The Islamic State a’la the Rightfully Guided Caliphates — No Thanks.

June 12th, 2008 gier

This is an old bugbear really, but one that’s been stewing for a while, especially since there are more than the odd nutjob or two who actually believes that an Islamic State modelled on the rule of the early Caliphs would be a good thing for Malaysia. For example, check this MalayWomen post. Got fatwa some more.

The fatwa essentially says that the establishment of an Islamic State is an obligation to all Muslims. The more rabid voices out there also says that we should follow the path set out by the four Rightfully Guided Caliphs, Abu Bakar, Umar, Uthman and Ali. I would like, if I may, register my objection here.

Why?, some might ask.

Well, the second Caliph, Umar, was killed during praying by a Persian ex-slave who pretended to be a Muslim in order to get close to the Caliph. He plunged a knife into Umar’s belly and dragged it to Umar’s neck. He then stabbed Umar in the back, for good measure.

The third Caliph, Uthman, was murdered while reading the Qur’an in his house. By other Muslims.

The fourth Caliph, Ali, had a poisoned knife plunged into him while he was praying. He suffered for two days before he dieded. Killed by a fellow Muslim too, mind.

So … I dunno. Maybe not such a good idea lah. Scary stuff.

Also, by the way, if Malaysia were to follow that path … no more Kings and Sultans, eh? Don’t want to be like the Umaiyyad dynasty, or the Abbassiyah, eh?

Abbassiyah … Baghdad. 1001 nights. Harem. Free secks with concubines … But I digress.

Posted in Mentera Moden | 4 Comments »