How to feel good about this Merdeka?

By Sim Kwang Yang

I write many columns for many publications under various names, and I was asked by one editor to provide a “feel-good” piece on Merdeka.

If you take one of those correspondence courses on how to write saleable articles, you will be taught to write on topical and seasonal subjects.  A professional columnist like me must learn to write on important dates of the calendar, and August 31^st is one of these dates.

Any writing course will also teach you to have an ending that make the readers feel good.  If you just hantam with a long string of negative toxic expletives and whining, like many people who leave comments on blogs and websites on the Internet, nobody will want to read your stuff, and you will not be able to sell your articles.

1 Black Merdeka Day

The Police give us food for thought

By Pak Bui

A fortnight ago, as I was waiting in transit at a local airport, I found the small snack counter at the departure gate had closed. I was hungry, having endured a glass of mystery fruit juice on my previous flight, and not much else the entire day.

I approached the police officers on duty at the security checkpoint, and asked for permission to leave the gate for a few minutes to buy some food. The two police officers sitting at the X-ray machine, a man and a woman, appeared relaxed, and were chatting with each other.

“You want to go out?” the policeman asked. “Are you leaving the terminal?”

On Merdeka, the nation-state, the Brookes, and endo-colonialism

by Bunga Pakma

Merdeka Day 2009 comes in under a cloud.  In one sense literally—the Haze creeps back in though damped by the rains of the past week.  Figuratively, what could be gloomier than the cloud of events we have been enduring since July?  We are no closer to finding out the circumstances of poor Mr. Teoh’s death at this point in the investigation than at its beginning.  More people than myself recognize in this delay a tried and true tactic in the organized burying of truth.

Malaysia has been publicised around the globe for one bigot’s decision to have a Muslim woman caned for drinking beer. No, she didn’t get totally pissed, rev up her Pajero, and skid into a crowded night-market and kill 30 people. It is a peculiarity of Malaysian justice that it likes to make major examples out of petty offences.

YOU CANT SEE ELSEWHERE EXCEPT MALAYSIA

NGOs demand respect for natives’ rights in stalled “legal timber” agreement

By MC Wong

Ambassador and head of the European Union (EU) delegation in Malaysia, Vincent Piket, said on August 19, “EU hopes to sign a bilateral Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) with Malaysia, by year-end, to promote the trade in legally produced and harvested timber.”

Piket first announced, a year ago, that under the Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) plan, the EU is preparing to sign an agreement with Malaysia which would be ready by the end of 2008.

In January 2009, he told the media that the VPA would be signed in three or four months. Four months later, at the end of April, he said again that the EU and Malaysia were finalising timber trade talks to ensure sustainability and legality of output.

Newspapers smear Teoh Beng Hock and “foreign instigators”

By Pak Bui

It’s confirmed! The newspapers are full of propaganda and they stink to high heaven!

Malaysian newspapers have been falling over themselves to fawn over Umno and the Sarawak BN.

The mainstream media in KL have published endless claims of Teoh Beng Hock’s “likely suicide” and his being “on the take.” The whitewash has vacillated between trying to bury the story on the inside pages, and trying to publish the MACC’s version of events, at the same time.

The MACC officers seem to be convinced they can smear Teoh Beng Hock’s name without fear, because they are playing for the side that controls the ball and the referee. They do not see any injustice in accusing a dead man, who cannot defend himself, or sue the MACC – as long as the MACC get off the hook.

Revisiting George Orwell’s Big Brother in Sarawak

By Apang

I first came across George Orwell’s classic novel, “1984”, when I was doing my Higher School Certificate in the late 1980s. My English teacher, Janet (whose full name escapes my diminishing brain cells now), had prescribed this as a book to be read for the entire class.

Each week, the class would have to discuss a chapter. I have to admit that I am still not a great admirer of novels. For me, “1984” was just a book to read to pass my English exam. All I could remember of its content was one phrase – Big Brother, and how this “thing” was watching and controlling all aspects of our lives.

Back then, it was an alienating concept that this “thing” would have such manipulative control over human beings. I was young and naïve then. The “unreal” world of “1984” existed only in my imagination, that we citizens, communities, societies, would be controlled, in our thought, our behaviour, beliefs, and ultimately, our actions.

Dayaks: victims of Sarawak crony capitalism

(The following article is published in the October issue of the Bloomberg markets magazine.  The writer, Yoolim Lee, is a Korean reporter based in Singapore, who came to interview me in KL.  She had just returned from a trip to Sarawak, where she spent some days staying in a Penan settlement)

This article is a labour of love from Lee.  It is a little long, but worth your slow perusal.

I recommend it highly.

sky

 

Time for some secular aggression

By Sim Kwang Yang

The caning of former model Kartika Sari Dewi Sukarno has been postponed till the Ramadan month is over.  She has been sent back home for another month of emotional anguish.

The news has since become the fifth most popular story on both the CNN and BBC websites.  There was even a Facebook account listed as “Help Kartika Sari Dewi Sukarno”.

I feel boiling mad with her sentence, because the caning punishment is barbaric and out-dated for any crime.  It should have been outlawed long ago.  It does not serve as a deterrent, and neither should it serve as punitive punishment.  It belongs to the Dark Ages.

I was thinking of writing about religious overzealousness, at the risk of offending some religious sensitivities, when I came across the article entitled “Time for secular aggression” by Wole Soyinka.

“We are all immigrants” — says a thoughtful Malay citizen

”  I received in my email the following English translation of an article by Syed Imran entitled “Antara Pendatang dan Penumpang” in the original Bahasa Malaysia version.  I know it has been doing the rounds on the Internet for some time.  But it is still worthy of reproduction on our blog, so that faithful HU readers will have a chance to see an alternative view to the whole emotive debate on race.  ——  SKY  ”

All immigrants

“Syed Imran, an Arab-Malaysian born in Penang, Malaysia, an ex-Bernama journalist (1971-1998) and former press secretary to the Minister in PM’s Department, posted a great blog days ago, which was translated into English.”

To begin with, I was quite reluctant to comment on the mess created by the statement made by Ahmad bin Ismail, the head of the Bukit Bendera, Pulau Pinang UMNO Division.. Whether he made the statement in reference to Chinese Malaysians is no longer the question, as the issue has spread and has been hotly debated.

A call to Rosmah: can justice flow like a river for Penan girls?

By Rosita Maja

Penan school girls have claimed they have been raped, sexually abused and taken advantage of, on their way to school. Could you keep quiet if this happened to your daughters?

Many quarters of civil society have fought hard to bring the issue to the attention of the Malaysian government and the relevant authorities. The issue has been highlighted for more than a year!

We heard Rosmah Mansor, Mrs PM, say “to me…no child should be left out or deprived of the opportunity to learn,” in one of her speeches in June.

Why are you, Rosmah, still keeping quiet on the reports of rape of Penan schoolgirls and women?

Road-blocking Penan communities fear imminent police action

Road-blocking Penan communities fear imminent police action

BRUNO MANSER FONDS, BASEL / SWITZERLAND

Communities protesting against planned oil palm and acacia plantations on their native lands

LONG BANGAN / LONG NEN / LONG BELOK, Sarawak / Malaysia. Three indigenous Penan communities in the rainforests of Borneo are fearing police action on account of their protest against oil palm and acacia plantation projects on their native lands.

Last Thursday, 20 August, Penan of Long Nen, Long Bangan and Long Belok in Sarawak’s Tutoh river region set up manned road blockades to prevent vehicles from a number of logging and plantation companies from entering their native lands.

According to Penan sources, four policemen visited the blockades on Sunday and announced that they would come back with more of their colleagues to dismantle them. The blockades are mainly directed against Pusaka KTS and Samling, two controversial Malaysian logging and plantation giants.

One Malaysia ? – in the New York Times

(  Malaysia hit the headlines in the New York Times with this op-ed piece below. Let us see how one of the world’s oldest and most reputable newspapers perceives our 1Malaysia project. The last sentence is singularly sobering. —- sky  )

One Malaysia?

By PHILIP BOWRING

Malaysia is a lucky country but not at present a happy one, a worrying situation for a Muslim-majority nation that needs to balance democracy and free choice with religious and racial harmony.

Malaysia is lucky because its abundance of resources has enabled the economy to keep growing. It is unhappy because its politics are between a rock and a hard place.

Malaysia badly needs a break from 52 years of sometimes authoritarian and corrupt rule by a coalition of race-based parties headed by the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), which controls most levers of power and money.

Questions over “tip-off” regarding MACC and Teoh Beng Hock

By Pak Bui

The anonymous letter written by “MACC Officers” in Officialese (mind-numbing bureaucratic language) has stirred up a swarm of questions. RPK, as usual, has done Malaysians a favour, by stimulating debate, and publishing the anonymous letter in full on the Malaysia Today website.

Could it be true?

One obvious question is: are the allegations against a senior Selangor MACC official true? We should adhere to the age-old tenet that any indicted person is innocent until proven guilty. But the Selangor MACC’s record speaks for itself.

The Selangor MACC launched a rabid attack on the PR government, “probing” allocations of funds of less than RM2500. It appears unlikely that Umno can unseat PR’s Selangor government by fair means, because Khalid’s administration has performed well overall, as Nizar’s did in Perak.

Thinking of the Malaysian media

By Bunga Pakma

Apart from a few visits to America, for most of the past thirteen years I lived hidden away in the wilds of Pasar Pakma.  That time was full of event, though the events concerned only myself and my family.  Briefly to describe that life, I gave myself full time to the important business of being a husband and father, and of taking care of our kebun and all the other things that need taking care of, e.g. engines and plumbing.  Talk to any farmer (and I’m just an amateur) and he’ll tell you that you spend 70% of your time and effort fixing things that get busted, and 30% actually taking care of the plants and the chickens.

Other than that, I did some writing, some “consulting” of a sort.  I read a great deal, nothing that I was required to read. Kuching saw me once a month on a day trip to do business.  My company was my family, only rarely did I connect with a friend outside that circle, and “ingenious conversation” was a treat that came infrequently as did a steak.  I was little connected to the big world of affairs, and little concerned with them, except to deplore them.  In short, I was eating the lotus, and part of me enjoyed a profound peace.

Mind Blowing Company of Malaysia

Dear Friends,

Urgent and important message for your attention.  You will never regret receiving this information.  Please click now.

sky   :(

Nazri proud of “e-court”, but not Sarawak BN MPs

By Apang

The de facto law minister from UMNO was in Kuching last week. The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz, was given widespread coverage by the local papers, on several issues.

Nazri’s trip was full of praise for Sarawak indeed. The Sarawak BN must be delighted that the Umno minister was praising the state so effusively. The Sarawak BN leaders’ faces were splashed all over the local papers, beaming because of Nazri’s compliments.

Nazri’s e-nthusiasm for technology

Permatang Pasir: a milestone in the long march against racism

By Sim Kwang Yang

The Malaysian government is thinking of doing away with the category of “race” in all official forms.  I have been filling those forms all my life and I have always hated that particular category.  When the forms do not really matter, I just fill in “human” for my race.

But removing the category “race” from forms will not begin to eradicate racism that is so entrenched and institutionalised in Malaysian national life.  It has its deepest roots in party politics.  As long as political parties find that racist sentiments are the most effective tool in mass mobilisation of populist support, racism will continue to colour all our daily judgements.

In short, race-based political parties and their race-based nation-building policies are the real cause of racism in Malaysia.

A Long Hard Journey to School

By Chee How

The persistent international outcry over the alleged rape of Penan women and schoolgirls by logging company workers seems to have spurred the Sarawak government to take steps to improve the safety of Penan schoolgirls traveling to and from schools.

Deputy Chief Minister, and Chairman of the Steering Committee on Penan Affairs, Alfred Jabu, continues to dismiss allegations that Penan women and girls were sexually abused by workers from two local logging companies.

Bakun burning: Does anybody care about Bakun any more?

” I got this press release from Sarawak Conservation Action network in my email.  I was told that very few people care about the whole Bakun issue nowadays.  That is sad to hear.  I still care though about what is going on there and how those settlers are doing.

This press release is unlikely to be carried by any newspapers, so I thought we should give the platform to be heard on Hornbill Unleashed.

SKY “

SARAWAK CONSERVATION ACTION NETWORK

National Secretariat Office
Lot 1046, Shang Garden Shoplot
Jalan Bulan Sabit, Miri
Sarawak, Malaysia.
Tel: +6 085 423044  Fax: +6 085 438580

15 Malaysia – Potong Saga

MACC — My many questions!

By Sim Kwang Yang

The Star headline on Sunday reported that MACC officers went to Tiong King Sing’s office and interviewed him from 2 pm until 6.30 pm in the presence of Tiong’s lawyers.

Why was Tiong NOT summoned to the MACC HQ and denied legal assistance, as was done against several aides to DAP dignitaries in Selangor?  Why was Tiong not summoned in the evening and questioned for 10 hours till early the next morning in the way Teoh Beng Hock was interviewed?

Why was Tiong not immediately arrested as a suspect, and if he resisted arrest, immediately beaten up, as was done to Wong Chuan How, personal aide to Ronnie Liew?

Trying something different…….on a lazy Malaysian Sunday

By  Sim Kwang Yang

A HU member suggested that we should try posting some Chinese articles for those readers who are educated in Chinese.  I thought we should give it a try, since there are so few social and political blogs in Chinese in Malaysia.  So this Sunday, we offer an article written by Liew Ming Sing, a columnist for the Nanyang Siang Pao, a commentary on the Singer Zainal Abidin and the Malaysian green party.

For those of you English readers, just skip the Chinese article and shoot to the article “Chinese Houses Have No Windows” by author unknown.  The piece was emailed to me by a friend, and I think the personal reflection on the paranoia the Chinese have for politics is worth a read by everyone.  

Sex, Eros, morality, and reproduction

by Bunga Pakma

After weeks of articles on dispossession, indoctrination, cultural insensitivity, the hellish Haze and other awful things, it’s time for us to step out for a beer.  Wait a second… Beer too has appeared to be manhandled.  So let’s talk about sex.

Sex promotes hilarity and life-affirming thoughts.  We could skip directly to erotica and to dirty stories—for sex is responsible for the sublime in both the highest mystical experience and the broadest low comedy (let us pass over the tragic side). 

However, we contributors have an obligation not to lower the tone of the soberly conservative Hornbill Unleashed, so in its pages (or screen, rather), I’ll stick to observations that might possibly possess some redeeming social importance, though if anything hilarious presents itself by the way, it’s welcome to join in.

DAYAKS HAVE BEEN SHORT CHANGED UNDER MALAYSIA

By Paul Raja

I have just returned from the court this afternoon, after having a heavy-duty argument with Datuk Fong Joo Chung and Mr Joseph Chioh, both State Legal Counsels with the Sarawak Attorney-General’s Chamber.

I am representing the natives of Uma Apan (Apan longhouses) community, who are among those people affected by the demolition orders issued by the Superintendent of Land & Survey, Kapit Division, last year.

The native community’s application to resist the demolition orders has been before the court since July 2008.

The Federal Bureau of Indoctrination

By Pak Bui

“We were told, in the Biro Tatanegara camp, over and over, the source of all the world’s problems… the war in Iraq, the invasion of Afghanistan, the global financial crisis, even the results of last year’s Malaysian elections,” said Jo, a young friend working as a professional in the Malaysian civil service.

“Hmm,” I said, looking up from my mound of rice and curry. “And what’s the cause? Isn’t money the root of all evil?”

“You may be surprised to learn,” Jo explained, grinning, “that the Jews are responsible.”

“All Jews? Or just American Jews?” I asked. “Zionists? Israelis? Aren’t there African and Indian Jews too?”

The End of Beer…What’s the next target? Toto Magnum?

By Zhang ML

It was with some relief that I heard on the evening news that the MB of Selangor, Khalid Ibrahim, announced that there will be no blanket alcohol ban in “Muslim-majority” areas in Selangor. (Not that I am a lover of drink and beer! … far from it).

Khalid went on to say that the state will draw up self–regulatory approaches with respect to the sale of alcohol and beer by next month. In the meantime, you can bet that the debate and statements by various quarters, in particular the ones playing up strife between PR partners, are bound to continue for a while yet.

However, my relief was qualified. Khalid, in his wisdom as state leader, must have acknowledged that the actions of enforcement officers of the Majlis Bandar Shah Alam (MBSA) had been illegal. The MBSA had clearly exceeded their authority when they seized beer worth RM620 from a 7-Eleven convenience store.

An Appeal to the “First Lady” of Malaysia, Rosmah Mansor

By Rosita Maja

Dear Mrs PM,

Can you look into the plight of Penan girls and women in Sarawak?

You, Rosmah Mansor, wife of Prime Minister Najib Razak, were installed on April 23 as the new president of Bakti (the Association of Wives of Ministers and Deputy Ministers).

During your first public statement as Bakti president, you declared the society would concentrate on charity and welfare work. You pledged that Bakti would plan programmes to benefit Malaysian society, especially the handicapped.

Mother Nature, Human Nature and Politics

By Apang

Mother Nature is terrible, merciless, cruel and yet is, of course, natural. In our current Sarawak context, the dry spell is drying up our taps. Mother Nature is blamed yet again.

When our “god-given” rights to live are interrupted, Mother Nature cops it. So it is rather consistent that the “almighty” human blames others, almost always, for anything and everything. It is even easier when the “others” are like Mother Nature, when there is no possibility of the “others” responding to the blame and accusations.

So as Sarawak is suddenly in “crisis” mode again during this dry season, El Nino is blamed, again. Google this term and you will find out that this is a “natural” phenomenon. That elite group called “scientists” tells us so.

Umno, the Malay heartland and the Winds of Change

“”  Election after election, UMNO expects the rural Malays to vote them back into power and they have fulfilled that expectation. Beneath the peace and the tranquility, the sleepiness and the simplicity, the rustic countryside holds the key to the real political power in the land. “”

By Kenny Gan

Bright sunshine pours out of a glorious blue sky and bathes the rustic scene of wooden stilted houses set among coconut palms and banana trees close to the winding ribbon of bitumen road.

Padi fields stretch into the distance on both sides like a sea of fresh, vibrant green stalks waving in the gentle breeze.

The deep grunt of a water buffalo penetrates the still air as it waddles in a muddy pool and contented cows rest under shady trees as all around flows the shimmering heat, encompassing everything in its benign embrace, keeping people indoors.

Cawat remark hard to digest

By Liumx

Can a cawat remark hurt my “native Sarawakian” feelings?

I must confess that I am not good at reading minds. I am even worse at reading a “mindset”.

This reflection is, of course, a reaction to the cawat comment by the honourable PAS president, Hadi Awang.

PAS jargon is hardly easy to digest. Terms such as “muktamar” or “muzakarah” are strange to the minds of those who are unfamiliar with Arabic, or rather romanised Arabic – maybe even, to some extent, a Malaysianised, and inauthentic, Arabic.

Ask any ordinary passer-by, say on the streets of Miri, the meaning of these phrases. The number of people who can give a satisfactory description of “muktamar” or “muzakarah” may add up to zero.

Therefore, why use this peculiar jargon?

The toxic natural and political haze in Malaysia

By Bunga Pakma

The dreaded Haze is back, and back bad.  The smoke, the August heat, the chill of air-conditioning, and the fatigue of rushing here and there have weakened my defenses and I have picked up a cold from someone among the teaming masses of the Klang Valley.

To date 15 people have died from the H1N1 virus.  I wonder how many the Haze will kill?  Others than I are coughing, and people with asthma or heart disease must be anxious.

The Haze saddens me.  Almost twenty years I have seen it come each musim kemarau.  Today outside my window the smoke is nearly as heavy as it was in the awful days of August 1997.  That month Haze covered the whole of Malaysia and obliterated sky and horizon.  The mountain three miles away vanished, the trees at the bottom of the yard dissolved into vague shapes.  The sun rose deep red, and so feeble that my son detected—with his naked eyes—a sunspot on its surface. We stayed indoors, and bugs of all kinds too moved in, looking for refuge and dying in heaps.  In the air I saw a flying-fox in daytime, escaping north.

101 East – Malaysia’s security act – 6 August 09

How will the law evolve under Najib Razak, the new prime minister, and is the controversial act being used to stifle political opposition in the country?

Part 1                                                 Part 2

Hungry Penans draw a shrug and a laugh

By Pak Bui

“3,000 Penans near starvation” in Belaga drew a stifled yawn from the State Disaster Chairman, also known as the State Chief of Disaster.

“I am very shocked,” Dr George Chan said, “it is impossible…I think we better check whether the story it is true. If nobody does anything to help them in the jungle, they can still survive. The Penans live in the jungle and they have animals, plants, all these things. I have been to the jungle and I know.”

On July 30, Deputy Federal Minister for Rural and Regional Development, Joseph Entulu Belaun, told the world that insects and monkeys had destroyed the crops in six villages, Lusong Laku, Long Avit, Long Kajang, Long Tanyit, Long Malin and Long Midem. The 3,000 Penan are running out of food.