This is a warning/prophecy by an old guy. Having reached the biblical age where I am allowed to offer blessings, spit out curses, and issue wild-eyed prophecies, I have decided to get them all over with in this one all-purpose blog.
Malaysians have no other choice than giving Anwar Ibrahim the chance of being our next primr minister. He has been through hell and high water and still has not been drowned. His partners in Pakatan want him as their leader to help build a better Malaysia for all Malaysians. Vote for Pakatan and make it happen! Good proposal. Convert the PM's residence in Putra Jaya into a museum showcasing the luxury lifestyle of leaders who just want to enjoy themselves without serious attempts at improving the country's economy.
those causes.... not a peep out of Anwar &Co as to what they might do. So the scenario is that you have a group of PAS and PKR politicians waiting in the wings for their bite at the cherry pie. You have already seen that if you would only open your eyes... frog hoppers, disgraced politicians, minor corruption... and yet you still want to give Pakatan a chance.quote Anwar "we will make do with what we have" This is what i want to hear from my leader of my country. not BR1M, giving out money for WHATEVER reason instead of improving education, law, etc to let rakyat know how to fish by their own. Not 1M Supermarket or whatever it is. We want our leader to govern the country not to do business in this free market. Not building Tun Razak Exchange, that make no sense at all. even the name. Fight corruption? is the two words that current and pre leaders do not dare to mention. -Malaysian You confound meIt is a symbolic gesture, that say's that if the new PM can do it , the rest of the ministers, Chief ministers, senior civil servants can also do it. It is leadership by example. The impact is not in the amount of RM2.9 million per annum that is not spend but rather the message and the multiplier effect throughout the rest of the government. Unlike Najib who has spend over RM15. million on the latest renovations of the offical residence at a time when our debt and budget deficit is growing ,Anwars gestures speaks a thousand words of the difference between the irresponsible and profligate BN that driving Malaysia to bankruptcy versus a prudent and effective government as proven by the Selangor and Penang state government of PR"The Malays are among the poorest. But there are poor among the Chinese, Indians, Kadazans and Dayaks. They all deserve to have a share in what rightfully belongs to all of them." No wonder many poor and suffering Chinamen are moved to tears. At least Anwar did not forget them, those who are poor and needy whom because of Malaysian stereotypes, we think all Chinese are rich and wealthy. You should see some of the abject poverty and squalid condition in their backyard. But Alas! nobody bothered. Here Anwar speaks the truth and the reality. I shall not mention the Indians and the rets for I am sure they catch the drift of the message too. My vote goes to Nizar Jamaluddin as new MB of Perak post GE 13.The PM's residence in Putra Jaya, in fact, the entire Putra Jaya is a monument to abuse of public funds, a shameful show piece to SHOW OFF, one of the many unwanted legacies of the RM100 billion man. For example, the Twin Towers, KLIA etc. How difficult, how far, how expensive, how inconvenient, how time wasting etc is Putra Jaya for the general public who have dealings, which are plenty, with all public institutions. Your thought here, Anwar, is a good one but remember you were the DPM and Finance Minister when that opulence were built and had a collective role to play in all that colossal waste and abuse of tax payers money. But then, who dared challenge and question the almighty, all powerful RM100 billion manWith the deplorable state that Malaysia is in economically, its leaders ought to be frugal and not but not be ostentatious. Living in mansions and spending millions a year on electricity and water, one-half million ringgit on their offspring's engagement party and 80,000 ringgit on their birthday party (both expenses alleged to have been met from public funds and the matter has not been disproved convincingly), when the country is heavily in debt and very many are ‘hard-core' poor smacks of the style of the presidents of banana republics and African countries such as Zimbabwe. On another note, I do agree with blind freddo that the PR announcing of what it will do in its first 100 days would be nice to hear. As for Anwar using a Merc, I wouldn't quibble over that, unless the car had been bought with public funds.
I don't think of myself as aged (I was just as cranky at thirty and I still get around pretty good) and my wife hates for me to use that ugly three-letter word -- OLD -- we are both chronic age deniers - but to deny my age at 80 would be like denying global warming during this fetid, never-ending New York summer. It's hot and getting hotter, and I'm old and getting older. I am more than worried, but not about the aging process. I accept the inevitable as I see my friends and contemporaries leave the scene, but what I cannot so easily accept is the inevitability of the Romney/Ryan election. I find that this is the scariest, most dangerous election that America has faced in my lifetime, and I've been around long enough to experience quite a few frightening ones.
Since I have a fair record of losing at the ballot box I have come to understand that my losses were not irreparable. That is until this election. I cast my first vote for Adlai Stevenson who lost to Dwight Eisenhower. As a kid growing up during WWII, I admired Eisenhower as a war hero, but as a young adult I didn't believe that war heroes were the best men to usher in peace and prosperity, and I was charmed by Stevenson's literacy and golden tongue. Frankly, I did not like Ike. Eisenhower proved me wrong. He helped to rebuild the country, proved himself a more than decent president despite his caution during the McCarthy era and surrounding himself with the smear monger Nixon and a few sleazy characters in vicuna coats, he warned about the military industrial complex, and helped in his own slow, cautious way to calm the Cold Wa, made some small progress with Civil Rights, and built a highway system that helped shape this country into a great postwar power. And after Ike I kept losing more than winning at the ballot box. I lost in my second vote against Richard Nixon. I lost in my vote against Ronald Reagan, and I lost and lost and lost again in my vote against George Bush senior and junior. And both the country and me survived our losses. Arguably, not so well after W: Indeed, disastrously so, still we were able to pick ourselves up as best we could, scrape off some of the dirt, smear on some anti-biotic salve, put on a clean bandage, and vote his party out of office.
We now live in a different time since Bush's Supreme Court left us with Citizens United, Carl Rove's political fundraisers, and the Tea Party. Quite simply these people aided by the Koch Industries' billions will try to buy the coming presidential election. And they may well succeed. The polls are close enough to cause a progressive like myself to worry a lot. And people are desperate in these hard economic times resulting from the last Republican recession to forget who caused their troubles, and to seek relief in a new set of rouges with a new set of promises. This time I fear it will be different. Indeed, I know it will be different.
Elections are the best tool we have for gaining a representative government. But they can also be the beginning of an end for the democratic process. Whoever believes that the Muslim Brotherhood will be voted out of power in Egypt should they prove too extreme and bring in a radical Sharia law is hopelessly naïve. Not all totalitarian regimes are brought in by military coups. Some are voted in. Germany in 1932 brought in fascism by electing it (with a little help from the SS murderer/bullies).
And now we have the possibility of a Mitt Romney presidency. I am not one of your fair-minded liberals who will give any points to Romney for his past business acumen, his alleged charities, or his former progressivism as Governor of Massachusetts. I find Romney to be a totally new political creature -- the sociopath as a square. He learned nothing from tethering his poor dog to the top of his car and riding full speed ahead to Canada -- and it is America whom he will now tether to his presidency, and the ride will be horrendous for young and old. No bathroom stops while Daddy Mitt is driving. I think he is probably the most dangerous man to run for the presidency in my lifetime, and that includes Nixon. He has lied time and again, distorting his own record while dissembling about the president's Medicare reforms, denying the public the right to examine his taxes and past business practices, and promising to help the elderly and the poor by destroying the very safety net that they are clinging to. Moreover, he is determined to win by hook or crook, forget the hook, there is enough crook in new Voter ID regulations to turn some of the swing states in his directions by denying the vote to minorities. Having no core of his own, the emptiness inside him can and will be filled by those who have bought him his presidency.
The prosperity he promises to the country is the prosperity we now have -- belonging only to that notorious 1%. And the liberties he promises to usher in will be freedom from the very taxes that support a civil society, freedom from Social Security which only spoils the elderly, freedom from Medicare and Medicaid, freedom from pollution controls, freedom from freedom itself in the case of women's bodies and minority rights. These amazing vouchers he so loves that promise to replace everything from SS, Medicare, Public Education, are a gift that will not stop giving -- to insurance cronies and educational profiteers. All of it is clear and out there, nothing is hidden from view, and to deny it and pretend that the etch-a-sketch will move him towards the center while the Koch brothers and the far right wing control that Romney toy is preposterous. This is the man who mocks President Obama for stating the obvious, that nobody succeeds on their own without the help of a functioning government. Perhaps he is one of the few who can say that because he did not need the government, all he needed was his rich father's success to start him on the road to a good education (with time out for a little gay bashing as he cut off the hair of a kid he held down). The lesson then as now, "Conform or we will force you to do so." Inside every bully is that totalitarian instinct waiting to take power.
Having voted Romney/Ryan into office with their disastrous foreign policy moves (trust me that war with Iran and Syria is going to happen under Romney -- so sayeth the Prophet) and with the country thrown into a greater poverty with the total destruction of trade unions and the outsourcing of any decent jobs, and with women's rights and gay rights rescinded, it should seem easy to vote Romney out in four more years with an energized, enraged populace. No way. He will be a war president who can and will assume war powers. That little thing called martial law can make civil liberties disappear in a nano-second. Immigrants will be regarded as a national security danger, and all protestors will be called traitors during the never-ending war. Forget your voting ID. Every citizen will need a national ID card that carries with it their political allegiance and enough information to control their lives. The freedom that is promised is the freedom from freedom.
The drone society that we see in that old Fritz Lang movie Metropolis, a German film that preceded the rise of fascism and WWII, is a warning of what can happen here. Nobel Prize-winning novelist Sinclair Lewis famously wrote in the 1930s that when fascism came to America it would not be wearing jackboots but would come in a very American shape. He was referring to the demagoguery of a Huey Long, not the Babbitry of a Mitt Romney, but Lewis knew that the denial of our rights would emanate from the ordinary, not the ranting, raging, dictator.
I will probably not be around to know if my prophecy of a Romney-ruled dystopian America will come true. I hope it is only my fantasy caused by my fear and loathing for these men with their shape-shifting characters and indecent policies. But I have a seven-year-old granddaughter, and a pair of four-year-old twin grandchildren who will be here. I love them beyond anything in my life -- save my wife of sixty years -- and for their sakes I do not believe that we can risk the Romney/Ryan presidency -- for as my wise old mother used to say, "If you dance with the devil, the devil calls the tune."
“MALAYSIA WILL BECOME A FULLY INDEBTED NATION BEFORE THE END OF THE DECADE AT THE CURRENT RATE OF MASSIVE BORROWING AND IRRESPONSIBLE SPENDING BY THE BN GOVERNMENT” DECLARED THE MALAYSIAN INSTITUTE OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH (MIER).
The Star since 2010 because it is not worth the RM1.30. Some have described it as Malaysia’s No.1 toilet paper, as far as hard news is concerned.
The time machine has catapulted us back to a dark era, to the times of Mahathir’s rule. The ‘dark’ times are well and truly here, thanks to the relentless efforts of a few sacred beings with a holier than thou attitude. Welcome ‘darkness’, welcome to a haunting world, where eerie shadows lurk in the dark, where daggers are brandished in case we wish to express our fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression.And I remain flabbergasted with what is going on right now, with the Government acting possessed and trying to exorcise our fundamental rights out of us instead!It will be interesting to see how much further would the Government be willing to push it’s agenda. An obvious agenda that targets those who are critical of it. It is vital for a mature democracy to be fed information from all fronts in order for it to make an informed decision. There ought to be some semblance of ‘variety’, variety still being a rare commodity. However, the void is being filled by strong voices on social media and who have a reasonable audience that worries the Government. Most of these voices do not instigate the common man to brandish their swords (and naturally the ones who do have to be clamped), they instead provide a trajectory that is quite different to that of the new media’s. This makes their outlook refreshing and innovative. What the Government has failed to understand in this unwanted clampdown is that by blocking people on Twitter, Facebook etc, it has birthed ten dozen more such free thinking people elsewhere. They can clamp your freedom of speech, but not your freedom of thought.Already well-known for his 'anything-to-win' political ruthlessness, former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad is not a stranger to controversy.
In the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition, he is now regarded as the most dangerous fuse capable of sparking self-destruction and setting in motion the dismantlement of the 14-member grouping that has ruled the country for the past 5 decades.
Calling the MCA's bluff
Indeed, Mahathir's recent U-turn over a controversial Muslim penal code that calls for outrageous punishment including beheading, stoning to death and the amputation of limbs has cast the spotlight on MCA, adding to the pressure on the Chinese-based party to leave BN.
The rest of the BN parties are mostly from East Malaysia, where some senior leaders have already resigned, preferring to contest the 13th general election under the Opposition banner.
In recent months, the MCA has been rehashing an old BN strategy - using the Muslim hudud law to scare Chinese voters back to its fold.
Three street dogs wagged their tails expectantly in front of our neighbour’s gate—instinctively they knew that it was time for the lady of the house to come and hand out last night’s leftover ‘parathas’ to cows and canines. It is a typical Indian tradition which has morphed into a good deed of the day and it leaves people feeling atoned for the sins of the last 24 hours at the least. Anyways, the quadrupeds feasted till they had had their fill and, satiated, they went away, probably for a snooze. A skinny rag-picker, about 11 or 12 years old, was watching the scene from a nearby vacant plot (which was distastefully being used as a dumping-ground by many residents and hence was a veritable treasure trove for the urchin, from where he picked up sundry trash which earned him his measly livelihood). His hungry eyes had noticed the two ‘parathas’ the dogs had left behind (probably too oily for canine taste, huh ?) and he looked furtively to his left, then to his right and, seeing that no one was looking, dashed towards the gate and grabbed the ‘parathas’. But he was out of luck—isn’t that the underlying theme of his miserable life?—and the lady reappeared and, seeing the boy scurrying away, raised an alarm of “Thief ! Thief ! Get him!” A few odd men—drivers, security guards, various vendors—hanging around in the locality immediately sprung into action and in a matter of a few seconds, had the pathetic boy by the scruff of his tattered collar and had dealt him a few tight slaps. They asked the lady what had been stolen by the imp, and she said she had no idea; she had simply seen him grabbing something and fleeing.
Well, the “helpful saviours” then emptied the big sack on the boy’s back and found nothing of import (after all, they couldn’t for the life of them imagine that ‘parathas’ could be counted among valuables worth stealing!) Between sobs the boy explained that he had stolen nothing but, being hungry, had simply picked up the two ‘parathas’ the dogs had left behind. For a few seconds there was an audible silence. I am sure that each of those present there had to deal with some guilt—guilt for having whacked the boy without confirming his crime; guilt for having had a sumptuous meal without sparing a thought for the millions who go hungry to bed; guilt for not having known the real value of food, “I am not a thief, please believe me,” his plaintive plea echoed in my ears for a long, long time.
The episode had unnerved me somewhat. A holier-than-thou attitude proclaiming that the lady was wrong to have raised a ruckus would be uncalled-for, because with the crime graph skyrocketing at an alarming rate, citizens have got to remain alert; and it is also true that these street children have been known to have committed some petty crimes. But the whole incident did get exaggerated—the boy needn’t have been bopped off without having verified his offence. But unfortunately, man’s baser instincts jump to the forefront in the heat of the moment. We are quick to seize an opportunity to open the floodgates of our anger, frustration, wrath, fury and so on. One could say that all the stresses that we constantly live with suddenly find an outlet of expression, and having vented our accumulated angst, we feel liberated and even proud to have proved ourselves to be conscientious citizens !
But does our conscience rear its head only when our supposed “culprit” is weaker than us in strength and/or status ? Why doesn’t our collective conscience feel equally outraged against the “powerful” criminals ? Why do political leaders, who are bungling with taxpayers’ money, go scot-free in spite of having been proved guilty by the judiciary ? Why are underworld dons treated like royalty even when they are imprisoned for a number of the most heinous crimes ? Why are killers acquitted even when there were eye-witnesses to the murder most foul ? Why is tax evasion regarded as a claim to fame when it should really be labeled as “theft”? When a shopkeeper cheats us by either giving us underweight or poor quality stuff or by not giving us a cash memo, doesn’t he qualify as “thief”? Why do we simply react with momentary shocked disbelief and then shrug our shoulders in helplessness when we are given media bytes about scam-tainted politicos or corporate honchos? Do we take up cudgels then? No, we don’t. “These things happen ”, we scoff. We are not prepared to upset our perfect little lives to get embroiled in any “nuisance”! Our self-preservation instincts warn us to play safe because we know that the people we dare to scorn might harm our families in a bid to get revenge. I am not condoning or propagating cowardice but it is perfectly natural for us to make the family’s security the topmost priority because we do not have much faith in our law-enforcers either. Fine. But then, we DO feel angry and agitated at the blatant misuse of power that we see / hear / read about, and this impotent rage seethes and simmers inside us only to boil over at small provocations like the incident of the nondescript rag-picker. That’s not very fair. But then life rarely is, we argue self-defensively.
Does this mean, then, that there is really no practical solution to this imbroglio ? For the time being it definitely seems so. It’ll take a huge amount of collective courage and unity to protest against the humongous law-breakers. Hopefully, a day will come when the public will tire of being made a fool of and will rise as one body to take some decisive action (lynching, for instance ?). Amen. Till then, what are we to do ? For starters, I guess we could be a little more compassionate and definitely more objective while dealing with those less privileged than us; it’d be foolhardy to trust them blindly and outright cruel to mistrust them completely. And what about the Godzillas of the crime world ? A few protest marches and demonstrations will not deter them—only capital punishment will. Is our judiciary upto it ?
Rosli Dahlan triumphs again as Bank Negara loses Appeal
by Din Merican
I was deeply troubled when I read the news reports that in Karpal Singh’s trial for uttering seditious words against HRH Sultan of Perak, DPP Noorin Badarudin insulted the court when she submitted that “The Attorney-General has the sole discretion and absolute power in deciding who to prosecute…. and the A-G’s discretion cannot be questioned in Court ”HERE
That is a startling arrogant statement that A-G Gani Patail can show his middle finger to the courts of this country and there is nothing the courts can do about it because A-G Gani will definitely not allow himself to be charged before any court of law. No wonder A-G Gani Patail seems invincible despite the expose’ on his Hajj exploits with Tajuddin Ramli’s proxy, Shahidan Shafie; his interference with the Ho Hup Bhd Boardroom tussle and even the highly explosive book by Zainal Abidin Ahmad titled ‘Tan Sri Abdul Gani Patail: Pemalsu, Penipu, Penjenayah?’
It seems that A-G Gani Patail can fix people up and practise selective prosecution (more like persecution) and there is nothing anyone can do about this.
Was that why, five years ago A-G Gani Patail dared to sanction the brutal arrest of lawyer Rosli Dahlan and then make the Anti-Corruption Agency (now known as the the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission [MACC]) to charge him on Hari Raya eve?
Was that why the MACC was not bothered about losing that case badly despiteits Deputy Director of Prosecution, DPP Kevin Anthony Morais, being exposed as a Liar? Was that why A-G Gani Patail remained unperturbed and made the MACC appeal against Rosli’s acquittal and kept that hanging on for two more long years but withdrew it last minute on the very day the appeal came up for hearing? Is it because A-G Gani Patail feels his conduct cannot be questioned by anyone, even by the Prime Minister? I considered that as an abuse of power, malicious prosecution and prosecutorial misconduct and made that the central theme in my recent writings in these links:HERE, HERE, HERE
To my mind, abuses must be exposed and checked by the Courts– that simple! That is why I posted Tan Sri Robert Phang’s Statutory Declaration describing how the MACC knew they had no case but was made to continue persecuting Rosli by A-G Gani Patail. I now understand why Rosli had filed multiple law suits against those him he considered “Rogues in Government” to seek accountability from them. Despite initial disappointments when dirty tactics were used in Rosli’s criminal trial and goal posts were changed several times, Rosli was vindicated by the criminal courts.
Rosli is now pursuing civil claims against his perpetrators – 17 Defendants were named in his RM50 million law suit filed in 2008 including the Government of Malaysia. He also sued big mainstream media like Utusan Malaysia, The Star and The NST. Utusan Malaysia had published a public apology admitting that “their news article was untruthful and written in a sensational manner to generate publicity which exceeded the parameters of ethical journalism”.
Rosli seems to be taking on the whole establishment. As I have seen how his family and career suffered during his incarceration and persecution, perhaps he should step back and think about his family. Many will be cheerleaders but eventually he will be standing alone in facing the onslaught from those in the corridors of power. That is my friendly advice because his path towards vindication has been quite a rocky climb and he has had to go through a baptism of fire.
In November 2011, Rosli suffered a setback when High Court Judge John O’Hara (not sure which Irish stock he is from) struck out his RM50m claim against Defendant No.16, Abdul Rahman Abu Bakar, the Bank Negara Financial Intelligence Manager. Judge O’hara held that Rosli had no cause of action against Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM).But this morning, the Court of Appeal Justices Dato Ramli Ali, Dato Zaharah Ibrahim and Dato Anantham Kasinather unanimously disapproved of Judge O’Hara’s decision. The Court of Appeal held that the High Court Judge had misdirected himself on the law on conspiracy and that the facts showed that Rosli has sufficiently shown misconduct on the part of BNM for colluding with the rest of the defendants in fixing up Rosli. BNM was even ordered to pay cost of RM10,000 to Rosli to show how the Court of Appeal disapproved of BNM’s conduct. Rarely, one gets costs against government.
This is certainly good news. In celebration of that fighting spirit, I want to share with my readers the lyrics of Randy Newman’s song “Can’t Keep A Good Man Down (HERE), especially this part:
Listen, when you’re on the bottom like I am today
Those around you are losing faith in what you’re tryin’ to do
There is only one thing a man can say
‘You can’t keep a good man down’
Treat a man like dirt, give him no respect for who he is
Expect something dirty in return
Oh, they’re flyin’ high up there, they’ve got a lot to learn
Because you can’t keep a good man down
They shame me, blame me, tryin’ to frame me
But they can’t keep a good man
They can’t keep a good man down….’
he recent article by Anonymous Policeman that claimed crime statistics are being massaged listed serious allegations about police conduct, and clearly raised questions about the veracity of the crime statistics itself. PEMANDU has repeatedly said that it depends on the police to present the data for reporting and that the data from the police were never massaged by PEMANDU.
However, if what is claimed by the article is true, then there are serious questions that need to be asked: is the police force under undue political pressure to perform their duties and therefore dispensed with their charter of being “Mesra, Cepat dan Betul” (friendly, fast and correct)? And, most importantly, keeping our eyes on the real goal of all this, how to deal with the situation?
First and foremost, in order to manage any situation properly, PEMANDU and the police must work with real data to size up the problem properly and to deal with the problem in the most appropriate manner.
If data has been massaged for whatever reason, the real depth and scale of the problem would be unknown, and resources may be misdirected accordingly due to the false data. So, data integrity is, needless to say but still important to remember, of the utmost importance.
Secondly, let’s address the issue of political pressure. The Government Transformation Programme is ambitious. It was formulated with the specific intent of dealing with the worst problems that the Malaysian public is most concerned about. Crime, corruption, education, urban public transportation and so on are all, by definition, high priority, urgent and biggest problems that are facing the nation.
So, yes, of course there is political pressure.
Crime and all the other NKRAs are never meant to be feel-good projects, low-intensity issues and of lukewarm concern. Everyone in PEMANDU and the specific ministries involved are all under high pressure to delivery big results, fast, to the Malaysian people.
The question is then: is our police ill-equipped to deal with such pressure that they have now succumbed to fudging the numbers just to please their bosses? Do they not stand by their motto of “Mesra, Cepat and Betul”, especially the “Betul” part, just because their shoulders carry the heavy burden of preventing and reducing crime in the country?
This may sound like finger-pointing, but the fact is, PEMANDU, the various ministries, the police and the Malaysian people are all in this together. No amount of finger pointing will absolve anyone of the failure to address the issue of crime in the country.
We all carry the heavy burden and responsibility of transforming our government and our country. If the police, or any government department for that matter, are ill-equipped, even if psychologically, to deal with the high demands of the NKRAs and deliver the results we want for our nation, what should we do?
Fudging the data to achieve the targets is certainly not the answer. Pointing fingers and apportioning blame is also not constructive.
We as a nation need to look inwards and ask ourselves: what will it take and do we have what it takes to achieve our national goals? Do we have the honesty to admit where we are wrong (amidst the things that we’re doing right), that we have weaknesses (amidst our strengths) and that we have the courage to do the right thing no matter how difficult the situation, and correct ourselves when we make mistakes?
The top leadership of the country is facing the reality of our nation that not all is right with our country: hence the Government Transformation Programme and all its NKRAs. That is a big step. It could all easily have been “business as usual”, plodding along with “average results, in its own time” instead of big results, fast.
PEMANDU’s task is monumental — and with the monumental task comes the monumental pressure — to work with all relevant ministries and government departments, and members of the public, to deliver the results that the nation wants.
(Don’t forget, the NKRAs were conceived with inputs from all levels of society, experts as well as concerned citizens in multiple labs.)
Of course the targets are stretched. They HAVE to be. Of course there is political pressure, because an entire nation wants results. Of course the targets are not easy — they were never meant to be a walk in the park.
The challenge is to deliver those targets in all earnestness, putting in our best efforts and pushing ourselves forward each and every difficult step of the way.
Fudging the numbers or making it easier for ourselves is not the way forward.
Whether the allegations are true, they have to be investigated to ascertain the extent and impact. PDRM would have to get to the bottom of it. If they are true, how would PEMANDU move forward? PEMANDU would have to re-evaluate their plans. If they are not true, then the burden is on PDRM to show how the numbers could not have been fudged in the manners that were described by Anonymous Policeman.
But regardless of the outcome of the investigations into the allegations, our national goals will not and should not change. We must reduce crime rates in the country. Those targets should not be reduced for expediency. PEMANDU and all involved must still deliver big results, fast.
Yes, the stakes are high, and high stakes come with high pressure.
Perhaps the police require more resources than what they have now. Perhaps the police force need extra support in dealing with corporate-style target-setting, frequent reporting and transparency that their work is subjected to now. Perhaps our crimes rates are indeed so high that they cannot be reduced sufficiently to meet our targets within the time frame that we have set for ourselves. These are all good questions that will come up again and again, not just in the Crime NKRA but in all the different NKRAs.
But above all, we must report the truth and we must work with our reality.
This is our country, our reality. We have to be honest with ourselves. Let’s not fudge that fact. Gujarat changed for the worse. The S6 coach of the Sabarmati Express caught fire at Godhra, killing 59 people, mostly kar sevaks returning from Ayodhya. The communal riots that followed affected at least 16 of the state's 25 districts and claimed over 1,000 lives, mostly Muslims. Many were rendered homeless. The commissions that probed the Godhra incident have arrived at different conclusions. While the U.C. Banerjee Commission, appointed by the Centre, said the fire in the S6 coach was accidental, the state-appointed Justice (retd) G.T. Nanavati and Justice (retd) Akshay Mehta Commission, in its part I report, said the carnage was pre-planned.
The violence created a gulf between Hindus and Muslims that, even a decade later, is yet to be bridged. Compensations can hardly undo the damage. Even today, families fear to return to their original villages. Widows continue to struggle to earn their livelihood. Rape victims are still counselled for trauma. The families of the convicted cry foul. Businesses struggle to survive. Gulberg Society The name is embedded in collective memory as a symbol of the Gujarat riots and, to many, of the administrative complicity behind it. In Gulberg Society, the past is never far even as those looking at the future have learnt to make peace with it. The empty shells of its 29 bungalows and 10 apartments now serve as godowns for neighbouring Muslim bakers, who supply their wares to Hindu shopkeepers next door.The smell of these bakeries and shahi dawats once filled the society, a Muslim-dominated area that came up in 1965 in the predominantly Hindu Chamanpura.Targeted during the riots, they had all left. The owners of all eight bakeries are now back with their shops, though they stay 7km away in Muslim-dominated Rakhial.Shamsul Haq Ansari’s Robin Bakery, adjoining Gulberg Society, was looted and torched.
He suffered losses of lakhs and claims not to have received any compensation. He chose to return and rebuild from his savings, and said not only has his business taken off again but that he is doing better than before.Ansari’s customers are all Hindus, including local provision stores, as there is no Muslim habitation around. For him or other bakers in the area, that hasn’t been a problem so far.Mubarak Ansari, owner of Mubarak Bakery, said there was some tension immediately after the riots. “But with time, things have improved. My entire business depends on local Hindus and they support me wholeheartedly.”However, none of them lives in the area. Haseemuddin, working with Ashiana Bakery, said the owners as well as the workers live in Rakhial — which has been the case since they migrated from Bijnore. He cited “cultural and social reasons” for this. As such, they did not lose any near ones during the Chamanpura riots.Those who did have chosen not to continue in Gulberg Society, except Kasam Mansuri, 62, who lost 12 members. After his sons relocated, Mansuri stayed back and makes a living selling mattresses outside the society. “This is my society, where will I go?” he said.Looking at the garbage dumped outside Gulberg Society, the Hindus, on the other hand, feel it is time to break free from the past, if only to bring Gujarat’s famed development to the area. Said Bhavanlal Jain, a moneylender whose customers are mostly Muslims: “The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation has been neglecting the locality since they do not want legal complications of property, etc.”The Citizens for Justice and Peace has come up with the idea of turning the society into a “holocaust museum”. To people like Saed Khan, who moved to the Muslim-dominated Juhapura, that is better than selling the houses to strangers. “It would be like selling the graves of your beloved.”While Mansuri gets angry at times that the survivors of Gulberg moved away and set up a new life, Khan said: “Gas cylinders were busted in homes; when these caught fire, they threw acid bulbs on people hiding. Women were pulled out and raped in public. No one wants to go back there.”
The bakers are the only remnants of a life that was. The mosque that was destroyed now holds five prayers a day for them. On Fridays, it also draws a number of Muslims working in nearby areas.As days such as these become routine, Afroz Ansari, a salesman working with J-K Bakery, is hopeful. “The riots,” he said, “were an aberration.”Naroda Patiya
A young boy gets down at the last stop of the Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) on the RTO-Naroda route and says, “Where is this Naroda Patiya, the riot spot, actually located?” Nobody knew Naroda Patiya till 2002.Muslims who survived the biggest post-Godhra massacre are now called Patiyawala, a term they own up with pride. They lost their loved ones but their lives has since seen a sea of change, with the BRTS running right outside their homes and the surrounding development making their own abodes high on the demand list.
After the 2002 riots, they lost that too. They say factories dominated by Hindus closed their doors on them.
For the Muslims in Patiya, which housed around 5,000 Muslims in 10 major settlements of Husainnagar, Jawaharnagar, Masjid ki Chali, Kehmchand ki Chali, Panditji ki Chali and others, life was always all about earning their daily bread.
Farooq Qureshi, Nasir’s next door neighbour, says, “If one sees carefully, nothing has really changed. Earlier, we used to toil to earn our daily wages to manage two meals. After the riots, we are toiling much harder to streamline our small businesses that face threat from the majority community.”After the loss of factory jobs, the men from the Muslim community took to cart pulling, driving autos and cabs and setting up small pan shops, tea stalls and local phone booths. Now, the fight is to keep them humming.
use your political authority to give justice, lack of morals the real crises in the mother fucker and scumbag in The Attorney-General’s Chamber First is regarding mother fucker and scumbag AG himself. We must not forget that he was the main player in Sodomy 1 — the charge that Anwar was also
And the dispossessed cried for mercy.
Yet, no one heard.
“ reformasi” They yelled.
Yet, no one heard.
“ reformasi” They yelled.
And the tyrants cried “ISA THEM KUGAN THEM!”
“Starve and beseige them!”
“Use all necessary force to bring them to submission!”
“Starve and beseige them!”
“Use all necessary force to bring them to submission!”
And to the world the tyrants raged: “Security!”
And the sycophants cried in defense of the tyrants.
And the sycophants cried in defense of the tyrants.
Then Conscience spoke and asked.
“Who will secure the starved, beseiged and dispossessed?”
Silence.
“Accountability!”
“Who will secure the starved, beseiged and dispossessed?”
Silence.
“Accountability!”
Corrupt political leadership does not attractive men of outstanding integrity; neither can it be expected to enact effective laws to maintain high integrity in
Zannatbibi Sheikh, an old and feeble fruit vendor, shows her cash box and says, “I start in the morning and this is all I have earned, Rs 100. It has been the case for 10 years. Our businesses dropped and women were the worst sufferers — empty kitchens, several children to fend for, no money for school uniforms and books.”Zannatbibi, who lost her young son in the 2002 riots, points to a nearby madrasa and says, “The children who come to study here often come to my shop to eat potato balls. I sell them for only one rupee. I feel as if Mushtaq (her dead son) has come home hungry.”
The madrasa is now closed most of the times. The aged Maulana, Abdul Rauf Khan, comes every day to teach but there are not enough children.
He says, “There was a time when 10-12 batches of children used to come to recite the Quran. I loved reading it out to them. Now, only 10 children come to madrasa, that too after much convincing. Parents fear the madrasa would be the first to be targeted if things go bad again.
Mariambi, who runs a chicken shop near the madrasa, says, “This home is the only piece of property we have. We had requested the relief committee to rebuild our houses at the same place. For us, the struggle for basic needs is more important than the incidents of the past.”
Both Mariambi and Zannatbibi are widows living in Patiya with their children.
It is not without reason that people worldover call “politics a game of scoundrels”. This also explains why a majority of politicians across all parties were overjoyed when try to give a political alternative to the people because at present most leaders are corrupt and do not want a strong to curb corruption. These politicians know that electoral politics depends more on caste and communal combinations, and use of money and mafia, areas where Anna is a big zero.
Pesh Imam Abdul Salam Shamshuddin Sheikh, the custodian of Noorani Masjid across the road since 1984, says, “The mosque was empty. I had gone to a home for Daur (reading of the holy Quran). This was the best time for the attackers to start. They began with breaking the minaret of the mosque. They blasted gas cylinders inside. Not a single corner was left.”Noorani Masjid has been since restored and painted and it now bears no mark of the February 28 violence.
Amina Behlim’s sons moved out of Ahmedabad after riots but she still lives there at Masjid ki Chali. She is stronger than the rest. She was a security guard at a printing press in Chiloda, but was sacked for sheltering for five years a girl who was raped during the riots.She says, “She (the victim) stayed in Jawaharnagar alone after her parents kicked her out for not ‘adjusting’ with her alcoholic husband. I was hiding on a terrace and saw her being raped by 11 men.
Godhra Train Burning
Number of deaths 59; number of accused 94; convicted 31; acquitted 63
Gujarat Riots
Number of deaths: More than 2,000, including killings at Best Bakery, Sardarpura, Gulberg Society, Naroda Patiya and Naroda GamMore than 4,500 houses destroyed, 18,500 damagedLoss of property of Muslims pegged at approximately 0600 crore and that of Hindus at approximately 040 crore (based on former IPS officer R.B. Sreekumar's affidavit before the Justice Nanavati inquiry commission)Special Investigation Team headed by former CBI director R.K. Raghavan re-investigating 10 major cases, including the Godhra carnageNot a single FIR against Chief Minister Narendra ModiBest Bakery killings: number of deaths 14; convicted 9; acquitted 8Sardarpura killings: number of deaths 33; number of accused 73; convicted 31; acquitted 42Gulberg Society killings: number of deaths 69; number of accused 67; number of accused out on bail 57; case has reached final stage in the trial courtNaroda Patiya massacre: number of deaths 95; number of accused 60; number of accused out on bail 49; case is in the trial court
Naroda Gam killings: number of deaths 11; number of accused 83; majority out on bail, case in trial court
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