Lest we forget ....

Today marked the 21st anniversary of Operasi Lallang where 106 people from various political parties, NGOs and even Christian pastors were arrested under the ISA. I'm sure many who were present at the Amcorp Mall candlelight vigil last night were not even born then. Ever since the nation has been carrying this scar and it will still remain and I believe should remain. A scar remind us that something painful has happened. Before a scar, there was a wound.

The wound that has been inflicted on this nation 21 years ago has not been entirely healed. Whenever someone is arrested under the ISA, a fresh wound would appear. The people of this nation has been living under the woundedness of fear. The fear of the midnight knock on the door. The fear that I may be the next one.

Thanks to the events that happened within a year, the Bersih rally, the Hindraf rally and the 8 March political tsunami, many have overcome their fear. Thanks also to many individuals who have been the trailblazers, among them Raja Petra Kamarudin who has now fallen victim to this evil law.

I have resigned to the fact that the ISA will forever remain as law if there is no change of government. As long as BN remains in power, ISA will not even be reviewed let alone be abolished. Look what happened to MCA and Gerakan. None of their MPs signed the memo to the PM to call for a debate on the ISA in Parliament.

Last night at the candlelight vigil people talked about the middle class overcoming their fear. Yes, to a certain extent I surely agree with that. But I'm not sure how long this vigil thing can carry on before the middle class revert back to their comfort zone especially with the global financial crisis worsening each day. The middle class will be more concerned about their money than the issues of justice. Am I being pessimistic? Maybe.

What if there is a round of crackdown, Operasi Lallang II? Will the middle class take to the streets? These are the questions that I'm asking myself as I'm part of the middle class. I believe we will only take to the streets when we are angry enough. Are we angry enough with evil?

21 years. I hope it doesn't have to take another 21 years to abolish the ISA. Malaysia cannot afford that. It's either cosigning the ISA to the rubbish bin of history soon or cosigning Malaysia to the rubbish bin of history as a failed nation. A nation that silence its people without just cause will not last long.

ISA Candlelight Vigil Opp. Amcorp Mall

This was second candlelight vigil I attended. The first one was after Teresa Kok was arrested under the ISA. The crowd was over 200. I went with 2 other church members, John Chung and Han Meng. When we arrived slightly before 8pm there was already a crowd about 100 and many candles were already lighted. But there was quite a number of people crowding round on the pavement. Free RPK T-shirts were snapped up like hot cakes. After about 15 minutes Marina Lee gave a short speech. Couldn't hear what she said as I was too far away. This was followed by one of RPK's counsels, Gobind Singh, the Panther of Puchong. Next were Bernard a.ka. Zorro and Haris Ibrahim. Upon someone's suggestion, Haris asked us to be there every Sunday until ISA is abolished and all detainees are freed. He encouraged us to bring a friend the next time and to bring another, another time until one day the whole field will be filled.

Kit Siang also made a brief appearance and gave a short speech. Again I couldn't hear what was said but it's about bringing something up in Parliament next week. I forgot whether it was Haris or Bernard that said he was encouraged to see so many new faces. Yes, those were the faces of middle class Chinese who before 8/03 don't give a damn about politics much less the ISA. All we care for is to make money. How things have changed. What about the middle class church, I wonder? Tonight, there were only 3 of us from the same church. I hope by next month there would be at least 30. Is it asking too much to light a candle?

Make a stand against evil.

At the PJ Sessions Court (Day 4 of RPK’s trial)

I reached the court at about a quarter past 8. I was there on Monday but didn’t manage to get a seat inside. Few minutes later a van with RPK inside arrived. The crowd about 30 plus clapped when he stepped out from the van. I managed to get a seat in court next to a lady who is RPK’s neighbor. She fetched Marina and the daughters to court and has been there every day without fail. Good neighbor. (Update: I didn't even know she is blind. But I thought she told me she fetched RPK's family to court. Must have heard wrongly) Before the trial started, I managed to shake RPK’s hand and wished him well. Nurul Izzah and Ronnie Liu were among the Pakatan leaders who were there this morning

The trial started punctually at 9am with the prosecution calling its 5th witness, one Chinese police officer. I think the prosecution was totally inept and was ticked off by the judge a couple of times. The DPP actually wanted to tender a document as an exhibit when it was clearly marked on the document that it was not supposed to be used in the court proceedings. A few times the DPP tried to show the witness the police reports he has made without even questioning the witness first on the reports. The judge asked why are they (the prosecution) in such a hurry. She remarked that there is no shortcut to justice.

When the DPP finished with his examination-in-chief, the judge asked for a 15 minutes break before continuing with the cross-examination. I came out to go back to office. There were plenty of people outside to take my place. No wonder RPK is in high spirits. He has not been forgotten.

Update:

11:20am, October 9, 2008: The prosecution just admitted that the exhibit which forms the foundation of the charge against RPK was not originally taken from Malaysia-Today but was a police cut-&-paste job.They also did not deny that a large part of the original article is true.

11:30am: The prosecution is seeking to stand down the trial, and decide what to do as the charge may be defective. The judge is alarmed that the exhibit to the charge is not the original but a police's cut-and-paste article.

11:35am: Prosecution is in a quandary as the trial appears to be scuttled since charge may be held to be defective midway through the trial.

Court is adjourned to Monday, 13/10/2008.

The above was taken from MT.

Ha ha ha .... How I wish I had not taken leave earlier.

A financial nuclear winter?

While George Bush was looking for Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq as a pretext to invade the country in 2003, Warren Buffet issued a warning on what he termed as the 'Financial Weapons of Mass Destruction' i.e. derivatives.

5 years later as predicted by the sage from Omaha, these weapons exploded taking down financial giants which have more than 100 years of history.

In came the white knight (vulture to some) from Omaha with USD 5 billion to the rescue of Goldman Sachs. Well, in return this white knight will get preference shares giving 10% interest and warrants to buy up to $5 billion of new Goldman Sach's shares at $115 per share at any time the next 5 years. Goldman shares rose to $133 per share following the announcement earning the white knight a notional profit of of $783 million

'Forecasts may tell you a great deal about the forecaster; they tell you nothing about the future.' (Warren Buffet)

Yes indeed when the forecaster is none other than Warren Buffet himself. You may profit greatly from reading the recently released authorized biography of Warren Buffet. Authorized in the sense, he actually opened himself and given complete access to the author unlike previous biographies where he neither encouraged or discouraged. So grab hold of a copy 'Snowball - Warren Buffet and The Business of Life'

What, where and how to invest at such a time as this?

Yesterday a subsidiary of my company organized an Elementary Investing seminar where I was one of the speakers. Besides my Chairman who was an ex-banker, there were 3 other speakers, two are Head of Private Banking, one from a local bank and the other from a bank in Singapore. The other guest speaker is a MD of an asset management company. So I was the odd one out. I'm a lawyer by training. But since my Chairman knows I'm passionate about value investing and has achieved some decent results, he asked me to speak on value investing. Personally, I dread public presentation but can't say no when the boss told you to do it.

I guess the seminar was timely in wake of the financial turmoil in the world following the collapse of Lehman Bros. Financial giants would have fallen like a house of cards if not for the bailouts by the Fed and rescue from investor like Warren Buffet. During lunch with the 2 private bankers, I realized that the impact of the collapse of Lehman Bros. is huge. They told me and those attending the seminar that they have almost nothing to sell to their clients now. I guess everyone now is paralysed by fear.

My topic was Value Investing - The investing philosophy adopted by the richest man (for a while) in the world. The words in the brackets were added in last week because when I started preparing for the talk, Warren Buffet was the richest man in the world. Last week, the ranking was revised and he has dropped to 3rd place.

I told my audience that what I was about to present is nothing original. My approach was to let Warren Buffet speaks for himself. My presentation will be peppered with quotations from him. Some of those are real gems. Where appropriate I will give my comments and illustrations. But sometimes there will be nothing to be added to wisdom.

From the feedback, I guess I did not do too bad though I felt I've rushed through the whole presentation because of time constraint. Some things were left unsaid.

We had a panel discussion after everyone has spoken. The speakers were asked for their opinions on certain issues and there were some questions from the floor. One of the questions for discussion was 'What is your outlook and what trends do you see? E.g. market, currency, interest, commodity, prices, inflation etc.'

I was the last to respond and I said it was a wrong question to ask me as unlike the other speakers I'm no expert of the financial markets. Secondly as a value investor I really don't care about the outlook and trends because I follow what my sifu, Warren Buffet's approach. I quoted him

'If we find the company we like, the level of the market will not really impact our decisions. We decide company by company. We spend essentially no time thinking about macroeconomic factors. In other words, if somebody handed us a prediction by the most revered intellectual on the subject, with figures for unemployment or interest rate or whatever it may be for the next two years, we would not pay any attention to it. We simply focus on the business that we think we understand and where we like the price and management. If we see anything that relates to what's going to happen in Congress, we don't even read it. We just don't think it's helpful to have view on these matters.'

If you ask me where to put my money in these turbulent times? I would say stocks because they are one of the asset class of investments I understand well. Invest in things that you understand. Don't invest in products that you don't understand even if they are capital guaranteed. After all, the guarantee is only as good as the guarantor. After what we witnessed in the financial markets in the past weeks, can anyone really guarantee someone's capital?

I end with 2 quotes from Warren Buffet

1.Investment must be rational. If you can't understand it, don't do it.

2.Risk comes from not knowing what you are doing

ISA - A Muslim's perspective

Last night at a forum 'Abolish the ISA' organized by the DAP, Syed Ibrahim Syed Noh, the chairperson of the working committee of the Abolish ISA Movement or GMI (Gerakan Mansuhkan ISA) said this at the conclusion of his speech. (I'm quoting from my recollection so it's not word for word but I think it's 95% accurate)

'Sebagai seorang Muslim saya berdosa jika saya biarkan ISA terus bermaharajalela.' (Trans: As a Muslim I sinned if I allow the ISA to continue its tyranny)

That is the public stand made by a Muslim on the ISA.

(Syed Ibrahim is also the vice-president of the Muslim NGO Jamaah Islah Malaysia which has issued a condemnation on the use of ISA on Teresa Kok, RPK and the Sin Chew reporter)

Where is the Christian voice against this immoral and evil piece legislation? I wonder how many Christian leaders in this country think they have sinned if the remain silent on injustices perpetuated by the ruling party. No, they only think it's immoral to topple an evil government (to be fair this is probably not their view of the present government) through the backdoor.

Please talk to Kak Laila whose husband now is at his 7th year of detention under the ISA. She is one strong lady but I cried when I first heard her testimony on how the ISA has destroyed her family life. She has set up her own blog recently. Please go and read. Yes, talk to and listen to many more testimonies by ex-detainees or family members. ISA does not only impact the detainees but thousands of others who are related to them. Each of us in way is also impacted as no man is an island.

Yes, after you have been 'informed', only then shall we discuss again the morality of crossing over.

For another Muslim's perspective read here

A Time for Politics and a Time for Tea

I've just read the blog of a local theologian whom I respect arguing that it's unethical for Pakatan Rakyat to try to get BN MPs to cross-overs. It is not difficult for me to rebut him point by point as there is nothing new that I've not read about the whole issue of cross-overs. But what's the point? I'm getting tired. I just need to accept that people even people whom I respect have different views. Anyway, whether Pakatan Rakyat succeeds in forming the Federal Government, there is no turning back. I wrote about the new wine that cannot be kept anymore in old wineskin. This was confirmed on 916 as I stood with 20,000 other Malaysians of different races and religions in Kelana Jaya Stadium singing our national anthem 'Negaraku'. I've never felt so emotional singing our national anthem. The journey for me started with the Bersih rally in November last year. As I walked shoulder to shoulder with my Malay countrymen and women I was overcame with a great sense love and respect for them. Whatever former prejudices I had towards the Malays because of the injustice and unfairness I felt due to the NEP was immediately melted away. At that moment I felt one with them.

The days ahead may be chaotic and full of troubles, but then, who say giving birth is easy. OK, I should stop writing about politics for now. It's time for tea.

Recently I think I got some very good bargains. The Puer market has undergone a severe correction last year. The older and more vintage teas are still able to maintain their prices but the newer teas have taken a severe beating. I bought 2 tongs (7 pieces in one tong) of Menghai 7352 (2008) raw puer tea for RM140 or RM20 a piece. New Menghai raw tea were sellling for more than RM100 per piece last year



I've not actually tasted it. But I guess RM20 is not too much to pay for a good brand. The other 2 that I bought was even more value for money. Xiaguan 100g raw tuocha (2006) and a 250g ripe Puer brick (2008) for just RM8 each. I've tasted them and they are not bad especially the brick tea. According to the vendor though the tea was produced this year, the raw material (mao cha) is much older