Politicians are politicians, wherever they are

Bad, or naughty, politicians to be specific.

Mayor of Detroit, Kwame Kilpatrick, recently resigned from his post, having pleaded guilty to felony charges last Thursday in a sex scandal.

Why Kwame? Well, I happened to witness his campaign for his first term in 2001. He was the young candidate (31 years old at that time), campaigning against the old opponent (Gill Hill was 70 at that time). He was hip-hop, energetic, and had this 'young' aura - at least in his TV campaign ads - if I remember correctly.

He was exciting.

However, apparently his two terms in the office was full of controversies. Similar to some politicians in this part of the world, but handled differently.

While he must have done some good things for Detroit, but the information in Wikipedia lists mostly his controversies.

A wild party involving strippers at the official residence of mayor.

The murder of one of those exotic dancers.

Personal use of Detroit Police's Harley-Davidson.

Expensive lease of a luxury SUV (by the city) used for his family.

Use of a Civic Fund (created to improve the city of Detroit) for week-long California vacation with his wife, three sons, and babysitter.

And the latest, a sex scandal with his chief of staff, having previously denied the wrongdoing under oath.

The chief of staff, by the way, once was pulled over for speeding. She reacted by saying "Do you know who the f*** I am?" to the traffic officers. She called the Police Chief and the cops were called off.

These sound kind of familiar, doesn't it?

So I'd say, bad politicians are the same everywhere.

The difference is the way they are handled. Of course, some would get away. But in this region, most will get away. Worse, some are well-guarded and keep their positions for long.

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Living dangerously

No, not the movie/novel (The Year of) Living Dangerously.

It's blogging.
Particularly, blogging against the government.

In Malaysia, you can be jailed and charged. Your home may be raided, and your website can be blocked. Defamation is the keyword.

In Russia, you're dead.

So Malaysians can consider themselves lucky.

P.S. Malaysia Today is now blocked, and has moved to another address.

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Drama nation

I don't follow politics - well, except the big events like elections. I'm a skeptic when it comes to politicians (or politician wannabes).

I also don't read newspaper regularly. We don't subscribe to any local paper, but every other week we always get the free Star everyday - because our maid is nice enough to pick up the free paper every time she takes Anya out to wait for her carpool.

Last week Anya was carpooling so we get to read local newspaper everyday. That's when I've really had enough about drama with Malaysian political leaders.

The news are full with crappy drama from the political leaders. Either it's about sodomy, or unresolved murder of a Mongolian model, or racist comment, or missing private investigator (after providing a report, of course), or other things that are shameful enough to occupy first page news for days.

Or maybe they should be on the first page. Because these news involve the number one and the number two, as well as the former number one and the former number two...

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The day after election

It's the day after the general election. The day we were advised not to go out due to many rumors of post election "activities".

The incumbent, Barisan Nasional (BN) or National Front, is losing their 2/3 parliament majority they have had since 1974. It also looks as their popular vote will hit the rock bottom at low 50's. The last time this happened was in 1969, followed by some riots.

I start to think that I got a well-thought advice.

The oppositions - DAP (Democratic Action Party), PAS (Parti Islam SeMalaysia), and PKR (Parti Keadilan Rakyat) - won in five states, as compared to only one state in the last election.

(... I don't know why I put the parties' logos here...)

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On the definition of Malay, politically

M. Veera Pandiyan wrote in the Star last week about the rift between Indonesia and Malaysia on Rasa Sayang. I do think both sides are a bit overreacting and agree with most of what he said.

That aside, though, his explanation of Malay, under Malaysia's constitution, is the one that caught my attention.

clipped from thestar.com.my

But most Indonesians don’t realise that Malays, who make up the majority of Malaysians in the peninsula, are not “Malay” as in the context of people from the Riau province on the eastern side of Sumatra, which include Batam, Bintan and some 3,200 other islands.

Not many also know that under our Constitution, a Malay is a political rather than ethnic definition – a person who practises the customs and culture of the Malays, speaks the language and is a Muslim.

I've been puzzled with the way people here stereotype Malay-like people, really, and these two short paragraphs answer it all. That if someone who looks like a local and is neither a Chinese nor an Indian, he or she must be thought as a Muslim. That's merely my observation.

What would a non-Muslim Malaysian who was born from, say, Javanese parents, be called?

PS. Jennie - in this case, American accent helps too!

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Global warning

"Who will fix the world?" Ben, my four-year-old son, asked while I was trying to explain what global warming and Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth are about.

The answer is us. Because we're also the culprit. Gore said: "Each one of us is a cause of global warming, but each of us can make choices to change that".

Ben fell asleep 15 minutes later, despite all the information he could get from the movie.

So how do we fix the world?

Gore continues: "With the things we buy, the electricity we use, the cars we drive, we can make choices to bring our individual carbon emissions to zero." He should've done this movie before running for the U.S. president. World could've been a little better and more peaceful now.

Anyway, here are six things we can do to slow down global warming:
- Electricity end-use efficiency
- Other end-use efficiency
- Passenger vehicle efficiency
- Other transport efficiency
- Renewables
- CCS & Supply efficiency

CCS = Carbon Capture and Sequestration. More about CCS.

It can be as simple as using energy-saving bulbs, unplugging electronics from the wall when not used, or eating less meat.

At the same time, perhaps we can make use excess rainfall in this region. I initially thought business, but after seeing the movie, it should be for human being.

See An Inconvenient Truth trailer here.

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How can we engage more people in the democratic process?

Barack Obama, a candidate from the Democratic Party for the next U.S. president, is trying something that perhaps no other presidents or candidates have tried. He posted a question in Yahoo!Answer: how can we engage more people in the democratic process?

I'm not exactly clear what he meant by democratic process - whether it is the election only, or the whole democratic process, whatever the process is.

Some answers are quite interesting:

The first thing I would suggest is to reestablish the people's trust in government. Many people have lost trust in the system and this leads to apathy. After all, who wants to participate in a process that is viewed as flawed or biased? I, myself, have become disillusioned with our democratic process (as have many others I know). Many people just no longer believe that the government has their best interest in mind.
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This question assumes that participation in democratic process if a matter of *choice* when in fact its a matter of *ability*. The first step should be to bring all people to equal *ability* to participate in the democratic process. With massive inequalities in education, standard of living, and access to resources - we are clearly not there yet. On one hand we have those who don't even know whether they will get to eat tonight - worrying about voting in the mid-term elections is hardly on the top of their mind. On the other hand we have those who have paid millions of dollars to politician's election campaigns to make sure that their needs are taken care of once the politician gets elected. Can this really be referred to as "the democratic process"?
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It would help if politicians could be trusted. And the best way to gains ones trust is an act of generosity on their behalf. I think proposing legislation to remove corporate and private donations, essentially cleaning up the system, would prove to the voters you are genuine and can be trusted.
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By ending the smear campaigns. Many people have become apathetic to politics because they are fed up with the negativity and mud slinging. We want to hear what the candidates CAN and WILL do, not a list of every crime against the other.
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Send corrupt politicians to real prisons to serve real time. Stop treating us like children. Stop lying.
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The majority of the people I talk to tell me "it doesn't matter what I say or how I vote, Congress does what the people who donate the money to their campaigns tell them to do". I believe most politicians in Washington D.C. probably are bought and paid for and unless their constituency makes enough noise to change their vote they vote with big donor interest in mind. Unless we have Federally funded campaigns and some way to reign-in lobbyist pocket books and influence we will never get enough people engaged in the democratic process to make it really a "Government by the people".

Why do politicians want to engage more people in the democratic process? At the same time, why do people want to get engaged in the democratic process? I guess, whatever the answers are, politicians should not engage people in the process just for the sake of making the process looks democratic.

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Foreign workers revisited

In my previous post, I was curious whether countries that supply (low-skilled) foreign workers would benefit from these individuals. One thing for sure, the receiving countries would, by allowing the local workforce to pursue higher value activities.

Seems like a good thing.

On the contrary, however, the Malaysian government is proposing a bill that would restrict foreign workers to their work sites unless they receive special permission to leave.

Home Minister Radzi Sheikh Ahmad said: "We are not trying to confine the foreign workers ... but it will be better to supervise them for law enforcement."

In the same article, Police Chief Musa Hassan said that foreign laborers may be restricted to their living quarters and their "activities monitored" as part of efforts to curb crime. Under the proposed legislation, foreign laborers will not be allowed to leave their homes unless they register beforehand, and their employers will be responsible their movements.

Not allowed to leave their homes?

Musa further added that about 5,000 crimes were committed by foreigners last year from a total of about 230,000 (232,620 cases, to be exact).

That's not even 3% of the total crimes committed...

Typically, people use the 80-20 rule, a general assumption that most of the results in any situation are determined by a small number of causes. Although it's highly dependent on how one stratifies the causes, but if foreigners-related crime is one of the causes, 3% is definitely too low to even spend resources for.

Unless, of course, there are other reasons.

But still, this doesn't feel right. Like a foreign construction worker said in the article: "To keep us in our beds when we have a day off is criminal."

There's gotta be a better, more effective way.

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White house visits wisteria lane

Bush, the old one, had lunch with "Desperate Housewives" star Teri Hatcher. Apparently George Sr. thought that Teri really was desperate, because he ended their lunch date by giving her a couple of slaps on the ass.



Another reason not to be the biggest fan of the Bush family... what Bill Clinton did was more fun!

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Barack Obama to run for president

Philips in his blog touched how Obama can be a friend to Indonesia if he becomes the president of the U.S.

At that time Obama hasn't decided if he would run. Last Saturday, he declared himself a candidate for the White House in 2008. Here's the full text of the announcement speech.

Is this good? If elected, will he turn the U.S. to be a friend to Muslim-majority countries like Indonesia?

I don't know. I don't intend to analyze that. But here's an interesting reaction to his announcement.

Australian leader slams Barack Obama for Iraq policy. John Howard, a staunch Bush ally who has sent troops to Iraq and faces his own re-election bid later this year, said Obama's proposals would spell disaster for the Middle East.

Obama's proposal, by the way, is to end the war in Iraq and to remove U.S. combat forces by March 31, 2008.

"I think that will just encourage those who want to completely destabilize and destroy Iraq, and create chaos and a victory for the terrorists to hang on and hope for an Obama victory," Howard said on Nine Network television.
(-- and what are your motives there? Destabilize, destroy, chaos... specifically, what are you and your buddies doing there?)

He further said: "If I were running al-Qaida in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008 and be praying as many times as possible for a victory, not only for Obama but also for the Democrats."
(-- oh, he's a Republican...!!)

"You either rat on the ally or you stay with the ally," he said. "If it's all right for us to go, it's all right for the Americans and the British to go, and if everybody goes, Iraq will descend into total civil war and there'll be a lot of bloodshed."
(-- Mr. Howard, aren't you aware of what's going on there now?)

Apparently, Howard is seeking his fifth term later this year. Recent polls suggest voters are increasingly unhappy about his refusal to set a deadline for withdrawing Australian troops from the Middle East. He currently keeps about 1,400 Australian troops in Iraq despite domestic opposition to the war.

What does really Howard and Blair get from Bush, I wonder...?

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The miseducation of George W. Bush

The latest edition of the Top 10 Conservative Idiots (#276) is State of the Union special. This one is about Bush's education policy.

The Miseducation Of George W. Bush

We all know that George W. Bush pays special attention to the nation's education. That's why you so often see him carrying books during the summer months and pretending to have read them. He understands his position as America's educational role model and standard bearer. Just listen to how well his No Child Left Behind scheme is panning out:

PRESIDENT BUH: Spreading opportunity and hope in America also requires public schools that give children the knowledge and character they need in life.

Whoa, hold on bub. We've seen how you "spread opportunity and hope" in Iraq. I'm not sure we need that in America, and certainly not in our public schools.

PRESIDENT BUH: Five years ago, we rose above partisan differences to pass the No Child Left Behind Act, preserving local control, raising standards, and holding those schools accountable for results. And because we acted, students are performing better in reading and math, and minority students are closing the achievement gap.

Which is great, except they're not. According to NPR:

There's no question the law has had a significant impact on the nation's 14,000 school districts. But the results from the tests known as the National Assessment of Educational Progress are more mixed than the president suggested. The administration can point to some modest gains in math and reading among fourth graders, and math among 8th graders. But in 8th grade reading, test scores fell from 2002 to 2005. And the achievement gap between black and white students in that period actually widened a little.

The less encouraging numbers among older students are troubling to many educators.

But hey, let's not forget that George W. Bush didn't have all the awesome advantages of No Child Left Behind when he was a young lad, so you can't blame him for being a little slow. Plus, NCLB is really great for finding and targeting those 17-year-old kids who don't know what they want to do after school but figure those Army commercials look kinda fun. So it's not all bad.

(from Democratic Underground)

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New year's bombing and terrorist threats

There goes another bombing in the neighborhood. Now it's Thailand to join Indonesia and the Philippines. That leaves Singapore and Malaysia in the Southeast Asia region. Are they afraid?

More than three-quarters of Singaporeans are, but only less than 60% Malaysians are, as a recent survey shows. The survey, based on 59,000 interviews in 63 countries, was conducted by market information consultant TNS and market and opinion researcher Gallup International. The interviews were conducted between July 24 and August 22, 2006.

Specifically, out of the 1,250 urban Malaysians polled, 59% said in face-to-face interviews that they believed terrorism was a threat. This ranking was, however, among the lowest of the 12 Asia Pacific countries surveyed. Only Hongkong (43%) and Taiwan (45%) registered lesser sense of fear than Malaysia did.

In the region, Indonesians registered the highest level of fear of terrorism at 89%, followed by Thailand (82%), Singapore (78%), Japan (71%), Korea (71%), the Philippines (71%), and Vietnam (61%).

So Thai people's fear was justified. Which then makes it sensible for the Singaporeans to be afraid as well. They live among the countries attacked by terrorism.

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Busy Indonesia

What a busy few weeks has it been in Indonesia. First there is AA Gym, a famous religious leader who ate his own words and married his second wife. Well, he just got more famous, especially among the husbands.

Then Yahya Zaini and Maria Eva. The earlier one is the head of the biggest political party's religious affair committee. The latter one is simply a bitch, who sings, fucks, and holds evidence, such as movies from cell phone camera, for ransom.

Earlier, it was the kid who died of, presumably, some wrestling actions. Smackdown, or smekdon, as people call it.

And even earlier than that (I can't remember more than this), was Bush's visit. Yes, that freakin' arrogant Dubya. It took billions of rupiah for the Indonesian government to prepare for his visit - safety, traffic detour, and thousands of policemen.

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