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'