What next in Perak … on a lazy Malaysian Sunday?

By Sim Kwang Yang

The Appellate Court decision yesterday to restore BN’s Zambry as the Perak Mentri Besar should not have surprised too many informed Malaysians.

We have lived through the constitutional crisis in 1988, when judicial independence was stripped through constitutional amendments rammed through the Parliament by the BN two-third brute majority.  We have lived through the Lingam Tape scandal before the 2008 general election.  We have seen half-past-six attempt on judicial reform after the 2008 political tsunami.  It is judicial business as usual, Malaysia style.

Even if Nizar gets his written judgement, and he appeals to the Federal Court against the decision of the Appellate Court, what do you think the final decision of the Apex court will be?  You want to bet, even for a cup of coffee?

A rose by any name

Kaypo Anak Sarawak is a Columnist  of  Hermit Hornbill at The Borneo Post Online , His article is  published  in The Borneo Post every Sunday. (Used by permission of the Author )

‘What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.’

THOSE are the immortal lines from the lips of Juliet, from the immortal British bard William Shakespeare’s eternal love story, Romeo and Juliet. I had to study the play for my literature class to pass my Cambridge Overseas School Certificate back in 1966.

Juliet was reflecting on the significance of name because her lover, Romeo was a Montague, and she was a Capulet. Since their families were engaged in a family feud, their romance was destined to a tragic end for from the very beginning, and hence their label as ‘star-cross’d lovers’.

Watch out! The Indians are angry!

By Sim Kwang Yang

It seems like the nature of human affairs that persecution is the best engine for growth for some social or political causes.

If the early Christians had not been fed to the lions or slaughtered by the gladiators in the Roman amphitheatres, the religion would perhaps not spread so far and wide in the Roman Empire.  Christianity seems to thrive on persecution, beginning with Jesus Christ himself.

Ever since the Hindu Rights Action Force (Hindraf) has been outlawed, they have appeared to be divided, and lost for direction.

A tribute to RPK: storm the Bastille!

By Sim Kwang Yang

I have never met Raja Petra Kamarudin RPK; through I did talk to him briefly on the phone a few times.

I do read his entry on Malaysia To-day first thing in the morning, every day. He does have a way of gaining access to very private information denied to most Malaysians, including me.

Though I do not always agree with him, I like to read his stuff because his view is often incisive, original, provocative, and sometimes ironic, a literary technique that few Malaysian bloggers are capable of.

He is a very well-read person and a writer with a flourish that keep readers’ interest to the end of an article. Almost single-handedly, he has pried open a new open sky on the Internet for a multitude of alternative narratives to bloom and blossom in Malaysia.

Now he is on the run, a fugitive from unjust archaic laws which should have been banished to the dustbin of history long ago. That is what I call creative civil disobedience. Socrates would not have agreed, but this is modern Malaysia, not ancient Athens 25 centuries ago.

Why do we blog?

By Sim Kwang Yang 

A piece posted by a writer by the name of “a pensioner” in Dayak Baru has this to say about why people blog.

“Blogging is nothing, other than a hobby & perhaps therapy for some. Blogs are meant for pensioners who have nowhere to spend their remaining valuable time. In short bloggers are those who have nothing better to do. They hope (only hope) to help shape public opinion, but as proven in Batang Ai…voters has no respect for bloggers. Not only the voters shy away, they don’t trust bloggers for they tell only half-baked truth.

“Misperception…bloggers seemed to think too highly of themselves, not knowing they are disgruntle lots.”

I am quite sure there are many bloggers who do blog as a hobby, for nothing better to do, in their young or old age. But the constrictive view expressed above is a little unfair to all bloggers in Malaysia.

In his latest posting on Malaysia Today entitled Sun Tze and the art of war, Raja Petra Kamarudin wrote this about the power of the internet:

“Yes, in 1998, when we first started using the Internet to fight Barisan Nasional, there were only 280,000