OKOK 3 posts in a day is pushing it, but bear with me (besides, I won’t be around next week).

Sprintcuts (No idea who sponsors the site, maybe Samsung) is a cool-looking site with tips on how to speed up your life. I like the clean-looking videos with the deadpan commentary and animation.

I’m not sure that the “quick-peel egg” one works though… and the “soothe a crying baby” looks way too easy to be true. Check out the “Calculate your time” section too for a nice bit of Flash scripting.

Just sharing a story that I’d read some time back but got Dugg today:
24 years on - The man who saved millions of lives (Another version here, or the wiki entry)

The uplifting part about the story is how a military officer refused to follow protocol, because it would have resulted in a war costing millions of lives. The sad part is how it was precisely this which caused him to be shunned and considered an unreliable military officer, eventually having a nervous breakdown and living the rest of his life in poverty.

I have to admit that sometimes - especially at the beginning of Pak Lah’s tenure - I was in the camp of those who were thinking “Oh Pak Lah’s actually a nice guy; he just doesn’t have the willpower/clout to carry out his cleanup”. But as time goes on it’s petty obvious we were all hoodwinked.

In the current judiciary scandal, I was expecting him to start as usual with “setting up a panel to investigate”. But instead I open The Star today and see this:

Abdullah said that based on the content of the video clip and transcript that was sent to his office, only a single person’s conversation could be heard despite claims that the lawyer was talking to a senior judge.

“Can we believe or accept this?” he said.

He added that if investigations revealed that the claims were false, action would be taken against those who were trying to undermine the judiciary.

The prime minister said the video recording would invoke public anger and hatred towards the judiciary.

…

He said at this juncture, the question of setting up a Commission of Inquiry did not arise as the allegations in the video clip had yet to be proven as authentic.

I mean seriously, we’re talking about a scandal up there in the ranks of US’ Watergate, and the mainstream papers are relegating the news to page 15-20 with no names and no pictures, and treating it as though the corrupt are the victims. He wants the allegations to be proved before setting up a commission. Seriously.

Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar was featured on BBC’s Hard Talk recently. The funny thing is, the way he answers it’s as if he’s a joke interviewee on the Colbert Report. The sad thing is he actually seems to think that he is giving good answers.

Do view the first vid here, then find the rest on Youtube.

Some gems:
BBC:
But since poverty has been tackled, since illiteracy has been eradicated, what’s the justification for treating generations-old - ethnic chinese and indians who have been in Malaysia for generations, why should they be treated differently now?

SHA:

I think, when you are looking at it from a detached point of view, you may be seeing it that way but if you look in reality, what is happening is, the economic growth of the non-Malays is faster after the New Economic Policy than before it. The share of the economic cake is bigger, deeper, and wider than before so it’s not as if you’re looking at a theoretical, conceptual thing - you’re looking at the realities on the ground. The reality on the ground - look at the household income within Malays, Chinese and Indians. Even the Indians have got better household income than the malays.

…

[On the educational system]

I think you have to look at it this way, I think you have to look at it this way. Without getting excited about it, or emotional about it. [He just described "outside" people as "detached" earlier!] If you look in term of total number of students, of all the universities in Malaysia, there are still more non-Malays than the malays. and this should not be an issue that divides us. i think ultimately we have done, we have tackled all issue step by step. And it is working, I think ifor Malaysia it is working, whenever we see there is disparity.

BBC:
What about government contracts?

SHA:

For your information, the contracts that are enjoyed by the chinese, in absolute terms - the non-Malays - is bigger than even the Malays.

If I have a piece of land that is one acre in a rural area, that one piece of land may be valued at 10,000 ringgit. Which is about 3,000 US dollars. But if I have got a 10,000 square feet of land in the urban area, that would cost millions.

[First of all, this had nothign to do with the question, second of all, I thought the government liked to compare things at par, not market value]

SHA : (in response to question about rising resentment among races)

Democracy does not come by itself. It comes because we look at the examples of other races. So let me see that, in the case that, the most important thing is, there will come a time, when the Chinese, the Indians, and the othe races in Malaysia…

have accepted the arrangement. How can somebody from outside come to tell you -

BBC:
You mean that this situation is fine because nobody in Malaysia is saying anything about it?

SHA:

No, not nobody is saying. If, if they are able to - if the opposition, if they are able - or the Chinese parties - decide to get together, and to change that thing, there is nothing under the law to stop it.

[YEAH RIGHT]

BBC:
Do you not think it is a little odd that all the senior posts in the Cabinet in the last 30 years haven’t been held by a non-Malay?

SHA:

I don’t think so, this is a democratic system. Each one of them have agreed in a coalition to work together. It is well and good for somebody to say “Oh this - it should not be. I don’t think we’re going to be fooled.

BBC:
Article 11 of the Malaysian constitution says that every person has the right to profess and practice his own religion. Increasingly that seems to be coming meaningless. Is it?

SHA:

I don’t think so, I don’t agree with you… you know, Malaysia is one of the places where you can see the practice of multi religion - all religions exist in malaysia. But if you’re talking about converting one person - that is a different issue entirely -

BBC:
Why? If a Muslim - and there have been some high profile cases, and perhaps one of the most high profile: Lina Joy, a Malay woman. She tried to convert to Christianity, and she wasn’t allowed to.

SHA:

No no, I think you have made the whole thing turn into something that is negative. Lina Joy wanted to change her name. She was never not allowed to convert to Christianity or whatever religion that she has chosen. But a person is born with an identity card. That is the system we have in Malaysia, the ID [Wow, IDs!].And that ID you want to change, that creates problem. It’s nothing to do with the fact that nobody has arrested her and force her to become a Muslim. But the court decided on the basis that you cannot change your name on the ID.

Today’s Star carried the following piece:

The Terengganu MCA Youth wing is offering RM3,000, on top of the RM5,000 put up by the state Umno Youth, as reward for information leading to the arrest of the person who burned the national flag during Saturday’s riot at Batu Burok.
…
The state Gerakan and MIC have also pledged contributions to the reward money.
Earlier, the state Umno Youth offered the cash and a trip to perform the Umrah as reward for information leading to the arrest of the culprit.

This is a just dirty way of showing “patriotism” - with a nauseating mix of religiousity to match. Flag-burning is a victimless crime. Firing live bullets at civillians is not.

For all those who have only been reading the MSM (mainstream media), then take some time to find out what really happened in Terengganu.

It was NOT a riot organized by the opposition. It was a rally organized by the NGO Bersih to discuss electoral reform, that turned ugly when the police refused - with no good reason - to provide a permit at the last minute.

The people there did not just single out the police officer to beat him up. He was an undercover (Special Branch) cop who was there busy firing up the crowd. When he was recognized as an SB officer, the crowd went for him. He fled, firing shots behind him at the crowd [link (Mkini)].

You may ask “Why the f*** does the SB pretend to be part of a gathering and provoke them against the police? It’s because it gives the MSM chances to paint the gathering as rioters, preferably tieing them to opposition parties in the process. The truth is that most of the time it is not the opposition that acts like rioters - many of them are urban, highly-educated people. A letter written to Malaysiakini (Provocation: Part of police work) was particularly revealing:

In most of these demonstrations, it was never difficult for someone like me, standing a bit further away from the main crowd, to see those clever Special Branch (SB) officers at work.

At Sogo, they were the ones that made the most noise shouting ‘reformasi’ and, when the FRU moved in, they turned around and arrested the activists standing next to them. They were at Kesas highway when Anwar wife’s Wan Azizah Wan Ismail and Lim Kit Siang were present. I vividly recall one of them hurriedly running away from a group of people when someone there recognised him as a SB officer. But when the tear gas trucks came, they moved in to make their arrests.

…

I saw them burn tires at some road junctions near Lebuh Ampang. Although I can never prove they were SB people, it was strange to see one person bring one tire to a junction, set it on fire and then coolly move away from the area.

It certainly looked like the tire was burnt for no other reason but to create a nice photo opportunity so that it could appear on the front page of the papers the next day. After all, Malaysians had to be convinced that the reformasi movement was a ‘violent’ one and bent on ‘overthrowing’ the government through force.

Wong Chun Wai is the new Editor in Chief of the Star. (From rocky’s bru).

If you read his editorials you’ll know that he’s (relatively) level-headed and at least tries to be fair in his opinions. Here’s hoping he’ll be the one to lead the Star to rise above the lalang.