Category: Current Events

I may not be a theology student or Bible quoting expert but I do find Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ to be a good movie that is going to return lost sheep to the flock.

He (Mel Gibson, not God) wanted to make this as authentic and at the same time as entertaining as possible. But there are a few things that stood out as possibly inaccurate. Although Aramaic was one of the languages that was widely spoken then, the Gospels were written in Greek and there were evidence that Jesus spoke Greek (refer to this thread in an American Scientific Affiliation forum), in addition to 2 more languages that were used then- Latin and Hebrew. Another stretch is the implication that Mary Magdelene and the adulteress being stoned were one and the same person. Apart from these two examples, the movie is quite close to the Gospels. Of course, there is this one episode of flashback that involved Jesus inventing the dinette table, but then you have to give the film makers some artistic license…

Is it anti-Semitic?

My personal view is that there are no anti-Semitic messages that had been added by the filmmakers that were not already there in the Gospels. And even so, the Gospels are not anti-Semitic when taken into context. While the New Testament made reference to Jews who wanted to kill Jesus, in context, Jesus and His followers were Jewish too. It’s like saying that Chiang Kai Shek is anti-Chinese because he wants to kill Mao Zedong. Doesn’t make sense. I guess what irked some Jews is that the Bible claimed that 2000 years ago, some Jews, or specifically, the Pharisees, plotted to kill a person who claimed to be the Messiah.

Of course, it doesn’t help that a Pastor put up a sign in his Denver Lovingway United Pentecostal Church reading: “Jews killed the Lord Jesus”, taken wholly out of context from 1 Thessalonians 2:14-15. This really shows how dumb some purported Christians are because the message of Christ is one of love and understanding.

The reason why Christ died is more important than who killed Christ.

In a year that is devoid of any real issues, Malaysian will be going to the polls on the 21st of March 2004. Who then, to vote?

First off, the incumbents are looking very strong this time around. The opposition has to ditch their black book of old scores because the old Man has retired and the new man is doing an acceptable job so far. In Malaysian politics where forgiveness is divine, expect to see issues of the last administration falling flat with the voters (“Haiyaa, now PM also change already what, why bring up somemore?”). Scaling on a solid performance record (though I must say that without the cronyism and corruption we could have achieved so much more in a shorter period of time), there is no denying that this election will be a renewed endorsement for the incumbents. Only thing that I would like to see is old guards lose their seats to make way for new blood.

I’ll be rooting for my favorite social democratic (or democratic socialist) party whose absence and silence during the past 5 years makes one wonder if they had really suffered some rocket malfunctions as a result of NASA cuts. Worse still, are they on a path of orbit that will result in a spectacular fireworks-type disintegration during this election season? Questions that remain to be answered in a season that is devoid of any real social issues to be exploited.

Of course, if you speak to my friend, the Pakcik of my office- we should all vote fairly and free Anwar. To his credit, Anwar is a passionate politician who can summon up the spirits and command respect. He is strong and charismatic. He’s pro-business (another way of saying that he has his own personal business interests). So what if he’s a poof? I’ve no issues with his (allegedly proven) homosexuality but being naked in bed and getting jiggy with zealous mullahs is just plain immoral. My suggestion, cut the taliban ties and move to real issues instead of being another Aung Sun Suu Kyi.

Lastly, how can one not love our own made-in-Malaysia brand of Islamic extremists, whose declared goal is to change our constitutionally inshrined secular (okay, maybe moderately Islamic- but secular enough) Constitution so that they can set up an Islamic state. Their idea is to strip the country of all vices and to impose a code of morality that everyone should follow. Only problem is that their lifestyle might ensure them a place in heaven but what about the unbelievers? Besides, what fun would life be if some of us cannot chomp down on our favorite pork knuckles while guzzling down a pint or two?

I can’t wait to attend the campaign ceramahs!

Being an avid fan of movies, I found this year’s Academy Awards to be rather interesting.

This is the first time that a Fantasy movie like The Lord of The Rings- The Return of the King has broken the glass ceiling (from technical achievements like Sound Editing, Special Effects) to clinch not only the Best Director but also Best Movie. Kudos to the happy Hobbits, elegant Elves, dastardly-looking dwarfs, wonderful wizards and humble humans who live in New Zealand, I mean, Middle Earth. Huge credits go to Peter Jackson, a George Lucas-ian nobody then, who have spent a better part of a decade to bring the highly regarded (but stupendously boring) tome to life.

However, I am a little (just a little) bit disappointed that Bill Murray didn’t win for Best Actor considering that he is so good in Lost In Translation. But I guess that winning Best Screenplay is not too bad of an achievement for Sofia Coppola- whose aloofness on stage is either caused by a terminal case of bashfulness or she is still reeling from her horrible part in Godfather III.

After months of chest thumping declaration that weapons will be found, the two giants finally admitted that faulty intelligence was to blame while still insisting that it is still a right thing to invade Iraq.

Body: The Iraq hunt for WMD turned up a smoking gun that has more smoke than gun. George Tenet in his address yesterday stated that the CIA has never stated Iraq was an “imminent threat”. And for those who agree with Bush’s and Blair’s hind-sighted justification for war even though no there were no WMDs in Iraq, I’ve heard justifications like:-

1. “We can’t really blame them. It was faulty intelligence” – Wrong! Hans Blix’s reports stated evidence to the contrary of what the intelligence community was saying. Knowing today that the CIA and MI6 did not have on the ground operatives, why weren’t Bix’s finding taken into consideration during the march to war?

2. “It’s okay because it is an international effort and the majority of the world agrees with the action”– Mr. Bush, kindly be aware that the whole world does not only mean countries in the Coalition of the Willing. Everytime Bush states something to this effect, bear in mind that the Coalition represents only 10% of the world population. Besides, even if the whole world did agree, isn’t the act of lynching somehow out of synch with modern civilization?

3. “Saddam has to go. He is evil and if we allow him to be in power, he’ll be another Hitler”– Don’t you think that the Europeans- who had suffered under Hitler during World War II- would have been more sensitive to the rise of any megalomaniac and evil dictator? Besides, Hitler has a massive army and an ideology that inflamed the population to commit atrocities. Saddam did not even have the means to defend himself and he is a has-been who has no ideology even among the Arab states and the Muslim world.

4. “I don’t like Saddam’s face and no matter what, I’m glad he’s gone even though our reasons of going to war was false and unjustifable”– Then, my friend, there is no way to convince you of the magnitude of their wrong doing. One day will come when Bush and Blair use the same pretext to invade another country of their choice. Pray very hard then that it is not our country.

Colin Powell has conceded to reporters flying with him that there may not have been weapons of mass destruction after all in Iraq before the US invasion.

Body: With that, Powell’s impressive pre-war Security Council presentation that contained “proof” and “irrefutable evidence” has come crashing down. The hours spent in the preparation of the Powerpoint (not to mention the tireless efforts of the “creative” team to draw connections between Iraq, WMD and Al Qaeda) amounted to a presentation fit for Hollywood in their stereotypical Imminent-Threat-Coming-So-Hero-Briefs-The-Council-But-Council-Won’t-Listen scene

But the world remembers those chilling moments when Powell masterfully presented “intercepted” Iraqi radio transmissions between faceless evil Eye-Rack-EE commanders and their soldiers to hide weapons before the arrival of UN inspectors. We were also shown grainy satellite pictures that had been augmented by analysts’ color-by-number outlines of missiles, factories and make-shift labs.

And now it turned out that all the evidence were lies, mistruths and misinformation.

In fact David Kay’s resignation from the Iraq Survey Group- the group that has been tasked by the US administration to find WMD in Iraq- has dealt another blow to the assertion that there are WMD in Iraq. Kay’s parting shot at the Bush administration can be felt in his recent statement that there are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq- amazingly given to the press a few days after Bush quoted his report and recontextualize parts of it to fit his claim that Iraq has “weapons of mass destruction program activities” (don’t ask me what that means but it’s there in his State of the Union address).

Indeed the WMD “smoking gun” may prove to be as real as mirages in the Iraqi desert…

When I first had greater awareness of the world around me when I was about 5 years old, the Prime Minister of Malaysia had always been Datuk Hussein Onn. One of his most endearing feature was his recognizable parrot-nosed side profile, made famous by Lat in one of his “Scenes From the Malaysian Life??? collection that included an instructional chapter on how to draw all 3 Malaysian Prime Minister (up until then).

When Mahathir became the Prime Minister and Hussein Onn retired (later made a Tun), my world-view was severely shaken. To me, Hussein Onn was a quiet and unassuming character. He looked like someone who will remain calm even under the most stressful situations. And to me, his laid back and peaceful aura represented Malaysia.

But my perception of Mahathir then was secondary hand-me-down opinions that I had heard from the grown ups. My liberal but Chinese household was suspicious of the fact that a Malay ultra was taking over the reigns of the Government. Some relatives were commenting that Chinese businesses, education and way of life are going to be severely affected in Malaysia.

Naturally I was concerned.

One day, a Chinese classmate told me that Mahathir is good for the nation. I disagreed and an animated discussion attracted a Malaysian crowd (read Malay, Chinese, Indian students) that participated in the debate. Primary school political discussions are probably the most politically incorrect forum because children often parrot whatever their parents said in the privacy of their homes. But they are often a true indicator of what most households think.

From that debate, it was evident that no one knew what to expect. And that was pretty much how people who had grew up since then felt when Mahathir ran the country- they didn’t know what to expect but they knew what whatever it is, it’s something big.

The first opinion of my own that I had of Mahathir was that he is fascinated with time. Why did I think that? First, he took an hour away from Malaysia- we had to move our clocks to be ahead of Thailand and Singapore so that East and West Malaysia can have the same time. Next, he introduced punch cards in government offices (that then trickled down to private organizations).

I remembered the effects of those changes. As I was growing up, RTM used to publish their TV schedules with up-to-the-second time. So, the Six Million Dollar Man would play at 8.07pm on a Wednesday night- which is 43 minutes after a cartoon. But the problem was RTM couldn’t keep up with the schedule themselves so scheduled shows always came on early or late. After the change in attitudes towards time, RTM published their schedules on a half-hourly basis (but the part about getting their act together is still going on and is taking much, much longer than anticipated).

Next, Mahathir asked the nation to looked East. This was a pretty bold thing to do as most people were looking West to either the United States or the USSR for aid. This was the first time that Malaysians had to look towards an Asian country to emulate- which was difficult considering all the colonial worshipping we did back then to the Mat Sallehs. To compound matters, Mahathir spearheaded a “Buy British Last??? campaign.

Then came the period of privatization and all of the associated Filem Negara shorts on “Malaysia, Inc.??? that came along with it. I remember watching these (I do a lot of TV back then) on a lazy Friday afternoon and not understanding the message of the short film, wondered just what in the world are they talking about then. I was thinking then are they going to make Malaysia into a company and all of us could a salary from the Government?

As a result, either out of frustration or out of ignorance, people complained. Being Malaysians our capacity to talk, debate and complain far outweighs our sense of initiative to do actually something about it. So naturally, Mahathir’s policies persisted and sometimes caused me sleepless nights because they tend to appear as Bahasa Malaysia essay questions.

Under Mahathir, more and more big things suddenly crept up.

Malaysia started producing local cars. The first car, however, was the aesthetically challenged Proton Saga of which I still remember to this very day the awful TV commercial jingle:- “Pro-Ton SAAAA-GAAAA, ke-ja-ya-an Ma-lay-SIAAAA!??? One is grateful that Proton got lesser and lesser laughs from the public with each subsequent release of new models. The first 3 cars that I had owned were proudly Malaysian made cars.

Transport and communications infrastructure improved tremendously. In fact, I don’t ever recall a day that goes by without me ever noticing a construction of a new overpass, bypass or underpass. The country has been tarmacked and wired up like never before. This not only has truly brought the nation together but to bring the world to Malaysia and vice-versa. I still get chills, and not from the air conditioning of KLIA, every time I depart or arrive at this spectacular airport.

On the social front, Mahathir “softened??? the NEP- which is one of the biggest policy contention that non-indigenous population have with the Government- without really stating it in public. In its place, free wheeling capitalism took root and it created a super class of tychoons. The Vision 2020 speech, an important milestone for the Malaysian society because it outlines the utopia that we should all work towards. This is an important vision because, truly, this outlines what a Malaysian society to be like.

This is not to say that I agree a 100% with our PM.

My biggest criticism of Mahathis is on the Anwar issue- which I believe is one of the biggest black spot of his career. He probably miscalculated the ground swelling support for the Deputy Prime Minister. Who can forget the imagery of thousands of casual Malaysians taking to the streets and highways to protest against the heavy-handed approach that the Government took to silence Anwar? The real reason behind the sacking will probably never be known during Mahathir’s lifetime but I don’t buy the corrupt homosexual angle.

Secondly, Mahathir was in a position to accelerate the liberalization of society, economy and politics but he didn’t go far enough. Mahathir could implement transparency policies in all levels of government bureaucracy like he did with punch clocks and nametags. This would trickle down to society and reduce the rampant graft that now occurs in all levels- from the paying off of law enforcers to the cover-ups of corporate scandals. Small things create big differences and Mahathir was in the right place and the right time to plant this small seed but he didn’t.

While these legacies (good or bad) will always remind Malaysians of Mahathir, he had also done for us something good that time will never erase. He had instilled a new sense of confidence and pride in ourselves so that our children, their children will always believe that if we work hard enough, we can truly make anything happen.

And with that, I would like to thank our Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mohammad Mahathir, for his great contribution to the nation. The Malaysia and Malaysians of today wouldn’t be where we are without you.