Sound advice from Bung Syed :

Despite our mistrust, we want the police to do its duties.

We don't want it to cause any instability, certainly, because we want peace and order to be maintained because the government would want to see certain instabilities, certain troubles, so that they can crack down upon the opposition, especially upon PKR, and to probably proclaim all kinds of acts or laws which can (curb) the freedoms of this country.

Source : Malaysiakini

• Emergency Scenario Possible

Anwar Ibrahim has released a press statement from the Embassy of the Republic of Turkey in Kuala Lumpur :

I am issuing this statement from within the embassy of the Republic of Turkey in Kuala Lumpur. I was transported to the embassy earlier this morning fearing that my personal safety was in danger. I thank all those who offered to assist me in this time of need and am grateful to the Turkish Ambassador for extending an invitation to seek refuge within the Embassy.

Since the March 8th elections, numerous credible sources from within the government and military intelligence have advised me that certain agents from within Barisan Nasional leadership have initiated plots to cause harm to me or my family or my supporters. I have been told that my assassination has not been ruled out as means to subvert the people’s will and bring an end to the transformational changes taking place in Malaysia.

A lot has happened over the last 18 hours. Photographs of the accuser with certain members of the incumbent ruling party are being circulated online, the police are warning those who dare doubt the credibility of the charges and discuss alternative scenarios with persecution, Anwar is reportedly taking refuge in a foreign embassy - due to an assassination threat (which some mainstream papers glossed over by appending the term "political" in front). The same papers have also found it fit not to repeat the allegation that Anwar has received evidence of misconduct by the Attorney General and the Inspector General of the Police.

I've been thinking a bit about this. If this really was a plot to bring down Anwar, why be so stupid and bring up an old, discredited story? One would really have to be bloody daft to risk something like this in a conservative society like ours when one is so close to victory.

What could be the possible outcome of such an allegation (and subsequent action against the accused)? I assume there'd be a general sense of outrage, possibly even mass action taken to the streets. Which brings me to the next question, if such a scenario were to take place, how would Umno-BN react?

The only plausible reaction, something which has been making its rounds in some of the more pro-Umno blogs since March, would be the suspension of the Constitution and civil rights, the declaration of Emergency, suspension of Parliament and rule by decree. A MAGERAN II if you'd so have it.

That's why I would like to appeal for calm and level headedness. At this juncture, more damage is being done to tyranny and oppression by being in Parliament with a strong minority than being outside. The Pakatan parties seem to be on the ball and are taking the lead in terms of reactions and responses. We would do well to wait for their cue.

I was generally still under the impression that the kid probably got roughed up real bad (yeah .. I know .. I'm biased) when some friends of mine sent me a photo and some blog posts that go way back to March of this year. I'm not sure what to think of it yet but I have been informed by a source that I have no reason to doubt that there's been some reasonable doubts about the kid's integrity and a meeting was actually held on Friday between the kid and Anwar Ibrahim in the presence of a few others. Yep .. kinda like one day before the police report was made and if one were to take his word for it, the day after he was allegedly sodomised.

Anyway, enough said. Here's the photo in question ..

And here's a link to a post that links to the other posts .. quite a mouthful :D If what is alleged is true, I feel sorry for the musangs that have been maligned by association.

The full press statement issued by Anwar just a short while ago:

The police report lodged against me earlier today is a complete fabrication. I believe we are witnessing a repeat of the methods used against me in 1998 when false allegations were made under duress. This is clearly a desperate attempt by the Barisan Nasional regime to arrest the movement of the Malaysian people towards freedom, democracy and justice.

The report has been organized by interested parties to attack me in retaliation for evidence I have recently obtained implicating IGP Musa Hassan and the AG Gani Patail in misconduct including fabrication of evidence in the cases launched against me in 1998-1999 (emphasis mine). This vile attack will not prevent me from releasing this dossier to the public.

Assuming that Anwar isn't arrested tonight, the press conference scheduled for tomorrow at Quality Hotel in Shah Alam at 1.00 pm will proceed. I expect he will respond to this matter. Tian Chua's reaction has been to dismiss this as an act of desperation on the part of the Barisan Nasional led Federal Government.

Perhaps it is a vindication of the claims that the beginning of the end is coming soon? As I mentioned before, let the games begin.

Update @ 1.31 am

Latest text from KeADILan’s SMS service says that Anwar recently came into possession of documents proving Musa Hassan and Gani Patail fabricated evidence in ‘98.

I can't verify the source but if the press conference is a go tomorrow, we might hear about it.

Update @ 1.34 am

Apparently thousands are gathering at Quality Hotel in Shah Alam where Anwar is supposedly at to prevent his possible arrest ala 1998.

And the aide who made the report .. he's apparently in hospital now according to The Star's SMS news alert service.

When Focus on the Family starts focusing on Obama, we're in trouble. One wonders .. would FOTF Malaysia agree with the opinions of Dobson?

My own opinion .. I'll focus on my family first and perhaps if we had some Obama like figures in Malaysia, we might have some temporal salvation after all.

Kyrie Eleison.

Apparently due to a case of mistaken identity, Nat Tan posted that I was arrested earlier today. Well .. fortunately, I was not.

This apparently was not the case for Saiful Bahari, an aide for Anwar Ibrahim. An SMS I received an hour ago claimed that he was arrested this afternoon and forced to make a confession that he was sodomised by Anwar. I first caught the news in Malaysiakini before receiving the SMS and TV3 has also just reported it, although no names were mentioned.

The full text of the SMS is as follows:

Polis telah menahan pembantu DS Anwar Ibrahim, Saiful Bahari petang ini dan memaksa beliau membuat pengakuan diliwat oleh DSAI. Polis dijangka menangkap DSAI malam ini. Sebarkan.

The police arrested DS (Dato' Seri) Anwar Ibrahim's aide, Saiful Bahari, in the late afternoon today and forced him to make a confession that he was sodomised by DSAI. The police are expected to arrest DSAI tonight. Spread the word.

And yes .. sorry for the prolonged absence. A lot of things have been happening in my life lately.

As the Ship of Fools introduced it..

Young, foolish and clearly needing the money, gorgeous, sleeveless Russell Crowe chances upon a hot, sweaty man of God in very short shorts.

You gotta see it to believe it ..

So is he an Adventist? Beats me.

But he did go to the press late last year stating his intention to be baptised together with his youngest son, Tennyson, in a chapel built on his own property.

Johann Pachelbel's Canon in D, probably one of the most recognised tune even to non music afficionadoes like me (EJ can vouch for that). But I thoroughly enjoyed this rendition by the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet :

I heard something today ..

.. the fact that I love the Church so much is why perhaps I fight it so much ..

Some things bring back memories .. some pleasant, some less pleasant .. but memories nonetheless ..

Vanitas vanitatum omnia vanitas ..

.. say what?

Everything is meaningless,” says the Teacher, “completely meaningless!”

This is the time of the year when colleges, polytechnics and universities open their doors for new applications and intakes. As someone who's interested in adult and alternative pathways to formal education and certification (blame it on a youth gone awry), I did a bit of research and was quite pleasantly surprised at what I found out.

The recently adopted Malaysian Qualifications Framework or MQF is something that is way overdue. We've always had issues with cross recognition of qualifications and the seemingly dead end path for those of us who did not have the opportunity to complete a proper college education at the "correct age". The new MQF, which is based on some of the more proven systems in the Commonwealth, seems to provide a way out of this impasse. I even wrote a short article on it for Wikipedia.

.. or does their passing, at any age, seem too soon, their time with us too brief, the loss too big?

Those words were shared by Kathy Rowland of Kakiseni .. something I find difficult to disagree with.

Toni Kassim, quite a character and very passionate. I don't even remember when I first met her but it was definitely before the 1999 General Elections. She eventually became one of my "bosses" when I was attached with the Centre for Independent Journalism.

Toni, I'm sorry I didn't make enough effort to come to see you when you were sick .. may your soul rest in peace.

PS : If you've been having trouble trying to reach me, its because my laptop's on the fritz together with my cell phone. Sorry y'all.

Don't get too busy and miss the things that matter and not being there when it matters .. family, friends, people ...

Goodbye Toni. I'm so sorry it had to be so soon ....

Another sign that my age is showing ... and that I have nothing to show for it .. sigh

And yes .. I did use to still enjoy 羅大佑 very much.

I wrote a letter to Malaysiakini last week and it was published over the weekend. It was a result of a series of conversations with some people both within and outside the power generation industry and I was quite scandalised at what I found out :

During the recent World Earth Day, my friend proudly announced that he was contributing towards a greener earth by sleeping without the air conditioning. His logic is that if everybody consumes less electricity, the power companies would produce less electricity, hence reduce the burning of fossil fuels which in turn reduces the amount of greenhouse gasses choking our atmosphere.

While that logic holds true in most other countries, I sadly told my friend that his efforts were in vain, because in this country, it really doesn’t matter. This isn’t me being pessimistic saying that the efforts of one individual doesn’t matter. This is me saying that in this country, it really doesn’t matter.

According to The Times' Richard Owen, that seems to be the case :

Pope Benedict will issue his findings on Luther (1483-1546) in September after discussing him at his annual seminar of 40 fellow theologians — known as the Ratzinger Schülerkreis — at Castelgandolfo, the papal summer residence. According to Vatican insiders the Pope will argue that Luther, who was excommunicated and condemned for heresy, was not a heretic.

.. and don't stand by while they eat frogs. The title of this article; Cyclone victims can survive on frogs, insists "Myanmar"; jumped out at me when I was going through the Sunday Star today at my normal lunch hang out. Unfortunately, it wasn't reproduced in The Star Online; nonetheless, Bangkok Post has the same story here.

Now .. how does that make you feel? Fair enough, fishes and frogs can taste pretty good and are part of the normal diet of some people. I enjoy the occasional bowl of Paddy Chicken (Cantonese colloquial for frogs) Congee (田雞粥) myself. Nonetheless, the timing and the context of that statement was really unbelievable. The Burmese government has been under criticism from the United Nations and aid donors for forcibly evicting victims and survivors from relief centres.

Reports state that the military have been dumping victims with virtually no aid supplies near their destroyed villages in the Irrawaddy delta. I don't have any figures yet but it is interesting to note that the Irrawaddy Division has substantial numbers of minority Karens and Arakanese who generally have been systematically discriminated against even in the best of times. In fact, ethnic minorities like the Karen, Mon, Shan, Chin, Kachin, Tamils et al, form a significant proportion of the population in the 5 provinces that were the most heavily affected by Cyclone Nargis.

Apparently there's a trojan somewhere in this account which I have yet to detect. It is triggered everytime someone attempts to post a comment (basically every time an HTTP Post command is called) .. which basically explains the 404 Page Not Found errors. It then generates a binary file which is essentially a back up of the whole blog and stores it in the CGI-Bin which eventually overloads this account's quota.

Looks like its back to the drawing board. For the time being, comments will unfortunately have to be disabled. Sorry. Apparently by using Typekey authentication for comments, I'm able to bypass the error. Will have a look at the in-built authentication routines of the script to see if I can identify what's causing the original error.

Sorry for the inconvenience but I guess folks who want to comment will have to utilise the Typekey authentication service until I can work out the bug.

Ok .. looks like it should work now and upgraded too. 1 down .. 2 to go .. when I wake up.

Injection script messed up the MT installation. Will be fixing it over the next few days. Sorry :(