October 8, 2009
YOU SEE THE DEFERENCE BETWEEN TUN MAHATIR AND SAUDARA ANWAR IBRAHIMAnwar’s Bridging Ability Anwar urges patience in bid to remove gov’tMahathir CAUGHT WITH HIS UNDERWEAR DOWN.on Ananda’s yacht
YOU SEE THE DEFERENCE BETWEEN TUN MAHATIR SAUDARA ANWAR IBRAHIM
by Terence Netto
PKR leader Anwar Ibrahim reiterated his view that the best way to combat violence and terrorism is to remove authoritarianism and dictatorship.
Speaking on the subject of ‘Islam and Democracy in East Asia’ at the University of in California in Berkeley last week in the second half of a two-week lecture tour of the United States, Anwar said that if the world is to wage war on the level of ideas, then the targets should be the deeper causes of terrorism and extremism and not its manifestation in the violent actions of fringe groups.
He told a distinguished audience that included Nobel laureates that “I believe that given freedom and democracy Muslim societies will know how to deal with the radicals and extremists.”
Anwar (right) cited Iran in 1953, Iraq in the immediate post Second World War period, Indonesia in 1955, and Pakistan in 1947 as examples of Muslim societies that demonstrated an interest and engaged in the rituals of democratic process but because of foreign intervention or military adventurism the experiments did not bear fruit.
He held that he did not think “I am going out on a limb in saying that the fundamental principles of democracy are alive and well in the Muslim tradition.”
He elaborated: “You might be surprised to hear that freedom is in fact one of the underlying themes of the Islamic law. Islam has always been defined by its commitment to justice, ‘adl, which entails consultation in governance and abhorrence of tyranny and despotism.
“These ideals are encapsulated in the higher objectives of the sharia, a concept articulated by the 8th century jurist al-Shatibi. Whereas Islamic law is today almost exclusively understood in light of specific rulings and regulations, al-Shatibi explained that the real substance of the law are its higher objectives, known as the maqasid, that seek to implement in society the preservation of religion, life, intellect, family, and wealth. “
Noted for drawing parallels between Islamic thought and western streams of speculation, Anwar held that al-Shatibi’s discourse bore “striking resemblance to the Lockean ideals that would be propounded centuries later and gradually filter into the formulation of the American constitution.”
Phenomenon of Religious Belief
Anwar’s penchant for synthesizing thought from Islamic and western streams recently drew attention from an unlikely quarter. Sholto Byrnes, assistant editor of the British left wing publication, New Statesman, said in a column in the September 3rd edition, that Anwar had once commented that “Asian man was ‘Homo religiosus’ “.
Evidently, the term was derived from Adam Smith, the Scottish moral philosopher and economic theorist, who founded classical economics on the premise of the rational “economic” man – “Homo economicus”. Anwar is fond of quoting from Adam Smith’s books, especially The Theory of Moral Sentiments.
Byrnes, whose column citing Anwar was an appeal for keener appreciation for the reality of religious belief – the object of widespread derision, if not contempt, in British intellectual circles – wrote that the Malaysian opposition leader was “admired by thinkers and leaders from Amartya Sen to Al Gore (left).”
Byrnes quoted Anwar on “Homo religiosus” to argue the point that the phenomenon of religious belief must not be taken as “misguided delusions” when the “convictions of billions do so much to shape our geopolitics.”
The New Statesman is a left wing journal, and like publications of its kind, an unlikely forum for the appreciation of the reality of religious belief.
That Anwar Ibrahim, supposed darling of neoconservatives who needless to say are anathema to left wingers, can draw attention from both sides of the ideological divide 
suggests that his penchant for combining disparate streams of speculation is beginning to resonate in far flung intellectuals hubs.
Anwar urges patience in bid to remove gov’t Sep 24, 08 1:22pm Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim today defended his failure to topple the government a week after claiming he had enough support to seize power, and asked Malaysians to be patient.
Anwar said removing the ruling coalition which has dominated Malaysian politics for half a century was an enormous task and that he wanted to do it smoothly and within the law.
“I appeal to Malaysian citizens, particularly those who want to see a change, to understand this and be a bit more patient because we do not want to transgress the constitution, rules and procedures,” he told a press conference.
“It will take a lot of patience, a lot of resolve, to try and unravel this complex web controlled by a few cronies,” he said.
Anwar said last week he had the support of more than 31 lawmakers from the Barisan Nasional coalition and called on Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to agree to negotiations on a handover of power.
Abdullah refused and rejected a request for an emergency session of parliament for the opposition to mount a vote of no confidence against him.
PKR information chief Tian Chua said yesterday the opposition had begun handover talks with the government, with several meetings between intermediaries taking place since the weekend.
Abdullah said there were no such talks and Anwar said Wednesday he was “not aware” of any discussion on a political transition.
But he said he had written to the king to inform him of his actions so far, although he was not yet seeking an audience with the monarch, who would need to approve any change in government.
‘If they think I’m a liar, put it to test’
Anwar dismissed the premier’s claims that he was merely bluffing about the defectors, whose names he has refused to release.
“If they think I’m a liar, put it to the test and have a vote taken,” he said.
Parliament resumes on Oct 13 after a break for the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan but even then the opposition faces procedural barriers to mounting a no-confidence vote.
Anwar faces a trial on sodomy allegations – the same charge that saw the former deputy premier sacked and jailed a decade ago.
On Wednesday, his lawyers argued against an application to move the case to the High Court.
“The prosecution is trying very hard to transfer the case to the High Court so it will be heard by a judge decided by them,” Anwar said after a hearing at the Sessions Court which reserved its judgement to Oct 7.
- AFP
Business and Politics makes strange bedfellows but makes some men very rich Mahathir CAUGHT WITH HIS UNDERWEAR DOWN.on Ananda’s yacht
Friday, October 9, 2009
cakap cakap….Mahathir
About the only Prime Minister that can be said to be without any personal blemish would have been Hussein Onn. We know Tunku weaknesses. We know Tun Tun Razak’s too. But these blemishes or weaknesses in their life affected only themselves … or possibly at most their immediate Family. I know that Tun Razak enjoyed …or needed would be the more appropriate term….needed a few drops of liqueurs and liquors every now and then to calm his nerves and take away the pain of his illness. There are many who are still around today who will testify to that. There were also other issues but Tun Razak public persona is impeachable. Yes he had a Malay agenda. Yes he had done what he thought necessary to achieve those objectives ….but Tunku, Tun Razak and Tun Hussein – these were leaders for whom greed, arrogance and overt deceit were matters to be avoided like the plague.
Then came Mahathir. What we saw of his public persona was one that exudes confidence and a take charge sort of a leader. Nobody crosses his path. Not even any of his deputies. Not even UMNO. He seem to be able to emerge from any crisis, any conflict any confrontation victorious. I watched as he went across the country drumming up support and momentum in his move to strip the Sultans of their seemingly invincible aura. He succeeded. His manuovering were crude but he succeeded. One by one he disposed of Musa and then Anwar with relish. Malaysia wanted to host the F1 Power Boat Race? He organized it with one phone calls to his cronies – and he came out with the money. Langkawi? He single handedly made Langkawi into what it is today –throw in LIMA as the icing on the cake. No problems. Putrajaya, KLIA, KLCC…..and the list goes on. Amazing stuff. What Mahathir wants he will make happen.
And then the stories started coming out. He give MAS to Tajuddin who have had no experience in running an airline. Bakun to Ting Pek Khing who also had no experience building dams. PLUS was having massive debts problems. Petronas bailed out his son’s shipping company to the tune of RM1 billion CASH! Then another billion to bail Tajuddin out of MAS.
But did’nt Mahathir insisted that all Ministers must use Perdana? We even see him in a Perdana! Did not Malaysia go through the Global Financial crisis with flying colors? Do we not have our own national car? Look at all the highways being built. ……..Yes but we did have to pay tolls on the never never. We did have Ops Lallang. We did have Perwaja. …and slowly the spin that Mahathir has put on his years of rule started to wear thin. Mahathir had many ideas but the problem is that most of them sucks!
Privatization given to his cronies consistently required bailouts that cost the country billions. EPF, Petronas…all the Government controlled financial institution were quietly bleeding money to ‘reimburse’ cronies given projects by Mahathir but who have failed to make them viable. We hear people talk not in terms of millions but billions…and yet no one was held accountable for these massive abuse of Public funds. I saw picture ofshirtless on Ananda’s yacht. Mahathir horse riding. Mahathir this and Mahathir that and that was when the doubt started. Business and Politics makes strange bedfellows but makes some men very rich.
When he left the sigh of relief from Malaysian was audible to everyone. He left confident that in Pak Lah he had somebody who would keep under wraps what had happened during his years in power. He was wrong. Now we know. We know that all that was done by Mahathir during his time in the name of progress’ development and Nation building was done with not much consideration for the needs of the people. There was no consideration for what the country will endure in the time to come to pay for these massive losses and failures that have been recklessly embarked upon by Mahathir. And suddenly we know we had a problem….and as always it is the rakyat that ultimately is left with the problem of paying for the bill.
Just imagine what could be done for the country with the massive billions that have already been used to bail out all the follies of Mahathir? We should have just given his children and his cronies a billion each and it would still be worth every penny spend to rid ourselves of these vultures and criminals that have bleed our country dry.
People talked about Malaysia incorporated. No it was more a Mahathir incorporated run on the same lines as the Mafia. If you are family you are a ok. …the only difference was even with the Mafia there was a limit to the amount of money they could lose…not with Mahathir. Not with Mahathir. Even the Mafia did not have access to the billions that Mahathir so generously gave to his cronies. …and he thinks he is the father of Development of Malaysia? Huh! Our challenge now is to learn from his mistakes. It was his mistakes not ours but we still have to learn from his mistakes. So that we will never allow within our midst a leader like him agai
YOU SEE THE DEFERENCE BETWEEN TUN MAHATIR AND SAUDARA ANWAR IBRAHIMAnwar’s Bridging Ability Anwar urges patience in bid to remove gov’tMahathir CAUGHT WITH HIS UNDERWEAR DOWN.on Ananda’s yacht
YOU SEE THE DEFERENCE BETWEEN TUN MAHATIR SAUDARA ANWAR IBRAHIM
by Terence Netto
PKR leader Anwar Ibrahim reiterated his view that the best way to combat violence and terrorism is to remove authoritarianism and dictatorship.
Speaking on the subject of ‘Islam and Democracy in East Asia’ at the University of in California in Berkeley last week in the second half of a two-week lecture tour of the United States, Anwar said that if the world is to wage war on the level of ideas, then the targets should be the deeper causes of terrorism and extremism and not its manifestation in the violent actions of fringe groups.
He told a distinguished audience that included Nobel laureates that “I believe that given freedom and democracy Muslim societies will know how to deal with the radicals and extremists.”
Anwar (right) cited Iran in 1953, Iraq in the immediate post Second World War period, Indonesia in 1955, and Pakistan in 1947 as examples of Muslim societies that demonstrated an interest and engaged in the rituals of democratic process but because of foreign intervention or military adventurism the experiments did not bear fruit.
He held that he did not think “I am going out on a limb in saying that the fundamental principles of democracy are alive and well in the Muslim tradition.”
He elaborated: “You might be surprised to hear that freedom is in fact one of the underlying themes of the Islamic law. Islam has always been defined by its commitment to justice, ‘adl, which entails consultation in governance and abhorrence of tyranny and despotism.
“These ideals are encapsulated in the higher objectives of the sharia, a concept articulated by the 8th century jurist al-Shatibi. Whereas Islamic law is today almost exclusively understood in light of specific rulings and regulations, al-Shatibi explained that the real substance of the law are its higher objectives, known as the maqasid, that seek to implement in society the preservation of religion, life, intellect, family, and wealth. “
Noted for drawing parallels between Islamic thought and western streams of speculation, Anwar held that al-Shatibi’s discourse bore “striking resemblance to the Lockean ideals that would be propounded centuries later and gradually filter into the formulation of the American constitution.”
Phenomenon of Religious Belief
Anwar’s penchant for synthesizing thought from Islamic and western streams recently drew attention from an unlikely quarter. Sholto Byrnes, assistant editor of the British left wing publication, New Statesman, said in a column in the September 3rd edition, that Anwar had once commented that “Asian man was ‘Homo religiosus’ “.
Evidently, the term was derived from Adam Smith, the Scottish moral philosopher and economic theorist, who founded classical economics on the premise of the rational “economic” man – “Homo economicus”. Anwar is fond of quoting from Adam Smith’s books, especially The Theory of Moral Sentiments.
Byrnes, whose column citing Anwar was an appeal for keener appreciation for the reality of religious belief – the object of widespread derision, if not contempt, in British intellectual circles – wrote that the Malaysian opposition leader was “admired by thinkers and leaders from Amartya Sen to Al Gore (left).”
Byrnes quoted Anwar on “Homo religiosus” to argue the point that the phenomenon of religious belief must not be taken as “misguided delusions” when the “convictions of billions do so much to shape our geopolitics.”
The New Statesman is a left wing journal, and like publications of its kind, an unlikely forum for the appreciation of the reality of religious belief.
That Anwar Ibrahim, supposed darling of neoconservatives who needless to say are anathema to left wingers, can draw attention from both sides of the ideological divide suggests that his penchant for combining disparate streams of speculation is beginning to resonate in far flung intellectuals hubs.
| Anwar urges patience in bid to remove gov’t |
| Sep 24, 08 1:22pm |
| Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim today defended his failure to topple the government a week after claiming he had enough support to seize power, and asked Malaysians to be patient.
“I appeal to Malaysian citizens, particularly those who want to see a change, to understand this and be a bit more patient because we do not want to transgress the constitution, rules and procedures,” he told a press conference. “It will take a lot of patience, a lot of resolve, to try and unravel this complex web controlled by a few cronies,” he said. Anwar said last week he had the support of more than 31 lawmakers from the Barisan Nasional coalition and called on Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to agree to negotiations on a handover of power. Abdullah refused and rejected a request for an emergency session of parliament for the opposition to mount a vote of no confidence against him. PKR information chief Tian Chua said yesterday the opposition had begun handover talks with the government, with several meetings between intermediaries taking place since the weekend. Abdullah said there were no such talks and Anwar said Wednesday he was “not aware” of any discussion on a political transition. But he said he had written to the king to inform him of his actions so far, although he was not yet seeking an audience with the monarch, who would need to approve any change in government. ‘If they think I’m a liar, put it to test’ Anwar dismissed the premier’s claims that he was merely bluffing about the defectors, whose names he has refused to release.
Parliament resumes on Oct 13 after a break for the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan but even then the opposition faces procedural barriers to mounting a no-confidence vote. Anwar faces a trial on sodomy allegations – the same charge that saw the former deputy premier sacked and jailed a decade ago. On Wednesday, his lawyers argued against an application to move the case to the High Court. “The prosecution is trying very hard to transfer the case to the High Court so it will be heard by a judge decided by them,” Anwar said after a hearing at the Sessions Court which reserved its judgement to Oct 7. - AFP Business and Politics makes strange bedfellows but makes some men very rich Mahathir CAUGHT WITH HIS UNDERWEAR DOWN.on Ananda’s yachtFriday, October 9, 2009cakap cakap….Mahathir
About the only Prime Minister that can be said to be without any personal blemish would have been Hussein Onn. We know Tunku weaknesses. We know Tun Tun Razak’s too. But these blemishes or weaknesses in their life affected only themselves … or possibly at most their immediate Family. I know that Tun Razak enjoyed …or needed would be the more appropriate term….needed a few drops of liqueurs and liquors every now and then to calm his nerves and take away the pain of his illness. There are many who are still around today who will testify to that. There were also other issues but Tun Razak public persona is impeachable. Yes he had a Malay agenda. Yes he had done what he thought necessary to achieve those objectives ….but Tunku, Tun Razak and Tun Hussein – these were leaders for whom greed, arrogance and overt deceit were matters to be avoided like the plague. Then came Mahathir. What we saw of his public persona was one that exudes confidence and a take charge sort of a leader. Nobody crosses his path. Not even any of his deputies. Not even UMNO. He seem to be able to emerge from any crisis, any conflict any confrontation victorious. I watched as he went across the country drumming up support and momentum in his move to strip the Sultans of their seemingly invincible aura. He succeeded. His manuovering were crude but he succeeded. One by one he disposed of Musa and then Anwar with relish. Malaysia wanted to host the F1 Power Boat Race? He organized it with one phone calls to his cronies – and he came out with the money. Langkawi? He single handedly made Langkawi into what it is today –throw in LIMA as the icing on the cake. No problems. Putrajaya, KLIA, KLCC…..and the list goes on. Amazing stuff. What Mahathir wants he will make happen. And then the stories started coming out. He give MAS to Tajuddin who have had no experience in running an airline. Bakun to Ting Pek Khing who also had no experience building dams. PLUS was having massive debts problems. Petronas bailed out his son’s shipping company to the tune of RM1 billion CASH! Then another billion to bail Tajuddin out of MAS. But did’nt Mahathir insisted that all Ministers must use Perdana? We even see him in a Perdana! Did not Malaysia go through the Global Financial crisis with flying colors? Do we not have our own national car? Look at all the highways being built. ……..Yes but we did have to pay tolls on the never never. We did have Ops Lallang. We did have Perwaja. …and slowly the spin that Mahathir has put on his years of rule started to wear thin. Mahathir had many ideas but the problem is that most of them sucks! Privatization given to his cronies consistently required bailouts that cost the country billions. EPF, Petronas…all the Government controlled financial institution were quietly bleeding money to ‘reimburse’ cronies given projects by Mahathir but who have failed to make them viable. We hear people talk not in terms of millions but billions…and yet no one was held accountable for these massive abuse of Public funds. I saw picture ofshirtless on Ananda’s yacht. Mahathir horse riding. Mahathir this and Mahathir that and that was when the doubt started. Business and Politics makes strange bedfellows but makes some men very rich. When he left the sigh of relief from Malaysian was audible to everyone. He left confident that in Pak Lah he had somebody who would keep under wraps what had happened during his years in power. He was wrong. Now we know. We know that all that was done by Mahathir during his time in the name of progress’ development and Nation building was done with not much consideration for the needs of the people. There was no consideration for what the country will endure in the time to come to pay for these massive losses and failures that have been recklessly embarked upon by Mahathir. And suddenly we know we had a problem….and as always it is the rakyat that ultimately is left with the problem of paying for the bill. Just imagine what could be done for the country with the massive billions that have already been used to bail out all the follies of Mahathir? We should have just given his children and his cronies a billion each and it would still be worth every penny spend to rid ourselves of these vultures and criminals that have bleed our country dry. People talked about Malaysia incorporated. No it was more a Mahathir incorporated run on the same lines as the Mafia. If you are family you are a ok. …the only difference was even with the Mafia there was a limit to the amount of money they could lose…not with Mahathir. Not with Mahathir. Even the Mafia did not have access to the billions that Mahathir so generously gave to his cronies. …and he thinks he is the father of Development of Malaysia? Huh! Our challenge now is to learn from his mistakes. It was his mistakes not ours but we still have to learn from his mistakes. So that we will never allow within our midst a leader like him agai |
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