Several of my friends had expressed anger over what was happening at the inquest of arwah Adib.
They were also angry at the comments of those who were cheering the testimonies of "experts" at the inquest, as could be read at the comments section of portal reports.
They believe that there will be no justice for the deceased fireman and his loved ones as according to them the inquest is heading towards this narrative;
I told my friends to calm down and stop being foolish.
They were hoping for justice from the wrong place.
For me, I never expect the inquest to deliver justice from the very start and that's why I didn't write anything about it.
Why do they need such an inquest for this case after all?
I don't intend to comment on what transpired at the inquest even in this post.
As a Muslim, at the moment I believe only Allah can give justice to Adib and his loved ones.
I told my angry friends to just pray for Allah to deliver that justice.
Man-made laws, inquests or whatever can never deny justice from Allah.
In case we forget, this was what happened that night,
If the inquest wants to rule that these damages to the fire engine was because it hit Adib, let it does so;
Maybe after that they will get the IGP to apologise and retract this statement of his,
When asked if it was confirmed Adib had been assaulted, he replied: “If he was not assaulted, how would he be in such a critical condition with so much injuries on him?”
Whatever it is, as a Muslim, I believe that Adib is resting in a better place now and will be placed in jannah in the afterlife. As for those who caused his death and deny him justice in this world, they will rot in hell for eternity. This I believe with all of my heart.
Other main sponsors of the charity dinner are QI Group of Companies, which is the platinum sponsor; Sunway Group Berhad, UEM Group Berhad and F&N Beverages Marketing Sdn Bhd.
As mentioned in the report, other organisations which have pledged contributions are BIMB Holdings Bhd; Bank Rakyat; Malaysia Airport Holdings Bhd; Sime Darby Plantations; Pos Malaysia Bhd; Bank Simpanan Nasional; Hong Leong Bank; Constance Westwood; Parkson Corporation Sdn Bhd; RHB Bank; Sirim Bhd; NIKON Malaysia; Maybank and AirAsia.
Also mentioned in the report was the plight of former NST journalist Jason Gerald. I actually received this about Jason via WhatsApp from a journalist friend a few days ago,
It is good that NPC is making the effort to assist journalists such as Jason in their time of needs.
Also commendable are all those companies such as Country Garden for contributing to the welfare of journalists.
Hopefully more will contribute to the good cause, particularly media companies such as Star Publication, Media Prima, The Edge Group, Astro, Malaysiakini, Malaysian Insight, etc.
After all, the fund collected by NPC is for the welfare of their journalists or those who once worked for them as journalists.
Actually I think it's a bit weird if the media companies are not at the forefront of the effort.
Meanwhile, another journalist friend who was at the NPC's AGM last night forwarded this picture of the club's newly elected committee members,
All the best to the new NPC team and hopefully they can further improve the good work of taking care of journalists' welfare.
Friends had previously asked me why I didn't go hard on current Johor MB Datuk Osman Sapian despite me being among the first to express reservations over his appointment.
This is what I wrote a day after GE14 on May 9 last year;
Well, as proven by now, Osman does have several serious flaws.
However, as pointed by my friends, my criticisms of the PH menteri besar of Johor were rather mild compared to those that I had expressed against his predecessor from BN, DS Mohamed Khaled Nordin when the latter was in power.
To begin with, Salahuddin Ayub whom I initially suggested to be chosen over Osman for the job turned out to be not such a good choice after all. He is making a mess as the Agriculture Minister.
Now I believe that Salahuddin would not have been any better than Osman as the Johor MB.
In actual truth, I do pity Osman. He's in a pair of shoes too big for himself.
He landed himself a very tough job and, as I was told by friends in JB, he's really struggling with it despite trying his best.
However, one thing I know which is good about Osman is that he's aware of his limitations and he is not what the Malays describe as a bodoh sombong.
Despite his reputation of being abrasive and less refined, Osman does not shy away from asking for advice from those whom he respects.
I know that among the first he called after appointed as Johor MB was his former boss TS Abdul Ghani Othman.
Ghani was the menteri besar when Osman, who was then with Umno, served as Kempas assemblyman for three terms.
I believed Osman had called Ghani for advice about his MB duties and as a show of respect for his former boss who is his senior in that capacity.
The same thing didn't happen when Khaled Nordin took over the post from Ghani in 2013.
If this is how Khaled's people want to behave, then I dare say that he will be just a one term MB and Johor will fall five years from now.
Johor is no longer a BN stronghold because of the Chinese tsunami in GE13.
Five years from now, Johor will not even be an Umno stronghold if those in control of the party are "beraja di mata, bersultan dihati" even among their fellow Umno people.
Do mark my words on this.
I was told that Ghani rarely went back to Johor after he left the state that year.
Most of the time he only went back to his kampung in Sungai Mati, Muar and he never spent a night elsewhere while in Johor.
That was until Monday night when he went down to JB for a meeting with Osman in his capacity as the Sime Darby Plantation chairman.
It must be a poignant visit for Ghani as he spends the night in Iskandar Puteri, which he developed to be the state's administrative centre under the Iskandar Malaysia initiative.
A journalist friend forwarded me these pictures of Ghani's meeting with Osman yesterday.
The meeting between Johor Government and Sime Darby Plantation
Ghani and Osman
Ghani and Osman with Kota Iskandar staff
My friend told me that those who were present at the meeting were actually amazed that Osman salam and cium tangan Ghani when they met.
That's the level of respect that Osman has for Ghani.
I had only done that once, which I mentioned in this post;
Yup, I went and spent the whole day there. Woke up in the morning and just decided to have a look at the place.
It's a typical small town with rows of shophouses along the main trunk road and villages as well as oil palm estates in the surrounding area.
Arrived there around noon and had lunch at a stall. Rice, mackerel masak lemak cili padi, fried bean sprouts, sambal belacan and teh O ice for RM5. Really not bad.
I asked the makcik who ran the stall about the coming by-election and she said things are not hotting up yet.
"Makcik nanti nak undi siapa?" I jokingly asked her.
"Ish....undi tu kan rahsia," she said laughing.
I laughed too as I didn't expect her to answer the question.
But then she added; "Tapi kalau boleh biarlah kita undi orang kita...."
I think I know what she meant, but I rather leave it at that.
I drove around a bit after that and noticed that everything seemed to be in place. The infra of the place looked good.
I even noticed a rather new fire station by the roadside, which is not bad considering the small size of the town.
Then I decided to check out the kampung house of Mat Hassan, the Umno deputy president who is going to be the BN candidate for the by-election.
The makcik at the stall had earlier told me how to get there. Everyone at the town seemed very familiar with Mat Hassan, who is the incumbent assemblyman there.
It was a bit troublesome to get to Mat Hassan's house yesterday as they were repairing the road in front of it.
The original small wooden structure, which is typical of Malay traditional kampung houses of Negeri Sembilan is still there. It looked very nice in front of the normal modern-looking part behind it.
They had erected a huge tent behind the house and I was told by local BN people later that the place will be the coalition's command centre for the by-election.
I then decided to visit Mat Hassan's community service centre in the town, which is about two km away.
There was already a crowd there as it turned out that Mat Hassan almost always would be at the service centre in late afternoon to personally attend to his constituents' problems.
The kind of help he gave ranged from providing financial assistance for the needy to easing the bureaucracies for those dealing with government agencies on matters such as applications for land titles.
I was also pleasantly surprised to meet a journalist friend who was there with his team from KL to try get an interview with Mat Hassan.
Mat Hassan arrived from KL about 4.30pm. I was told that he had earlier been at the parliament as an observer. My friend was given a slot to see him after he had done with attending to his constituents.
I went to a nearby cendol stall for a drink as my friend and his team waited for their turn to see Mat Hassan.
Unfortunately for him, Mat Hassan declined to be interviewed as he was not feeling very well. My friend only managed to chat a bit with him and even that was off-the-record.
Despite having waited for hours, my friend seemed okay with it as he really likes Mat Hassan.
"Tok Mat really looked tired and he is fasting today,' said my friend.
He, nonetheless managed to get some pictures of Mat Hassan attending to his constituents who were there asking for his assistance.
He gave me some of those pictures and that of the Rantau town as he knows I'm not good with a camera,
And these are pictures which I took myself yesterday,
The stall where I had lunch in Rantau yesterday.
The cendol that I had near Mat Hassan's community service centre.
Well, that's my day in Rantau yesterday.
My friend said he will try again to get a proper interview with Mat Hassan before the by-election. Hopefully he'll get it.
and Anwar, the PKR president gave a long winded explanation for the decision.
Well, whatever.
I just hope the guy will bring his pass to the nomination centre this time and save us all the time, money and trouble to have yet another by-election later.
Simple thing like that also he cannot do and still wants to be a wakil rakyat. Sigh.
Eh, a by-election costs tax payers a few million ringgit, okay.
Honestly, before the announcement of PH candidate yesterday, I calculated that PH may have a slight advantage to win in Rantau.
Bear in mind that the demographics of the Rantau constituency is Malay 53.43%; Chinese 18.81%; Indian 27.01%; B/P Sabah 0.18%; B/P Sarawak 0.13%; Orang Asli (Pen. Msia) 0.01%; Others 0.42%.
It's not an outright Malay/Bumiputera majority constituency like Semenyih which BN won the other day.
If PH was being realistic about the current political scenario, they would have fielded a Malay candidate to have a better chance of beating Mat Hassan, the acting Umno president.
By right they should have solid support of the Chinese and Indians and only needed a fraction of the Malay votes.
A good Malay candidate would have done the trick.
However, I suspect that PH had done its own calculation and discovered that it can't win in Rantau even if they are to field such a candidate.
So, that's why they are sending the Streram guy there again.
Guess, at least they have an excuse when they lose later.
Oh, we are multi-racial unlike BN which uses racial and religious cards, they would say.
Sure.
I wonder what Pribumi Bersatu people think about that.
Amanah.....well that party will take its cue from DAP and I think we all know what it would be for them.
It would be interesting to watch how enthusiastic the Malays of PH will campaign in Rantau.
As for BN, I think they will do well like in Cameron Highlands and Semenyih or maybe even better.
MCA and MIC have reaffirmed their commitment in the coalition and the cooperation with Pas is getting more solid by the day.
I think MCA and MIC are now confident that there is nothing sinister about the Umno-Pas cooperation and they will convey this to the non-Malays in Rantau.
I'm quite sure that Pas will even help along if the candidate of the by-election is from MCA or MIC, the same way they did so for their former allies such as DAP.
Well, it really do look good for BN at the moment.
If Mat Hassan, whom I believe is the key factor for the BN's turn-around to recovery could win in Rantau, then the road back to Putrajaya is going to be a real one for the coalition.
Finally, BN and Umno have a proper leader who has his feet firmly planted on the ground, tactically smart and willing to listen to not just party members but all the rakyat.
Here's a bit more of Mat Hassan's background by the man himself,
Last time they made so much noise about the anti-fake news law, and now they are coming out with their own version.
Of course DAP with Gobind as communication minister will decide what are fake news and racist posts.
I'm quite sure Guan Eng's war declaration remark was not racist, according to them.
On the other hand, next time you write "Orang Melayu dan Islam perlulah menguatkan ukhwah dan perpaduan demi masa depan anak cucu kita", they will deem it as racist and have MCMC to remove it.
Well, just brace yourself for it.
Bear in mind that others were already hit and became casualties of Guan Eng's war,
That's the evicted Taman Manggis residents at Komtar yesterday.
Guan Eng's cronies in Penang said they were just doing things according to the law. Must be firm like in Singapore.
Hei, those are PPR residents la.
I do wonder whether the DAP state government would be so firm if the evicted residents are mostly poor Chinese.
But of course Guan Eng said it's a war what.
Us versus them.
No mercy.
Right, Guan Eng?
But somehow I do wonder a bit whether this is just his diversionary tactic to make people forget about his fake accountant status.
I think I will hang around here until the result is announced later this evening.
That's because I enjoy observing things on the ground during an election.
Sometimes what you see and hear from afar, is not the real picture, unless you are there yourself to witness it.
As for this Semenyih by-election, what I noticed most by being on the ground was that many people are quite fed up with Pakatan, despite them voting for it in GE14 less than a year ago.
Pakatan people are just talks and not much else.
That's what most of them said and I have to agree.
Have the people's life really improved because of the change in government last year?
I don't think so.
Prices of goods are still high or even worse, race relations definitely worse than before, many people are losing their jobs, etc etc.
The only pleasure is for some who hate the truly Malay-led government of BN and wanted it to be destroyed.
They think their kind can do a better job.
But really, on the ground, most people I met here don't really care about all that politics too much for now.
For them, it's about bread and butter issues as well as the GE14 broken promises of Pakatan.
Well, at least that's the sentiment among the Malay majority constituents.
A friend yesterday asked me via WhatsApp about the claim that Pas paid Sarawak Report to settle their case and I said it doesn't really matter in Semenyih.
It's just a sign of desperation.
The SB's report must be in by now and it most probably indicates that Pakatan may likely lose the by-election.
That's why they needed to have a last minute "bomb" to undermine the Pas-Umno cooperation which is giving them nightmare here as it was in Cameron Highlands several weeks ago.
The problem is that the target of the bomb is actually Pas supporters whom Pakatan needs to stop from voting for BN.
The claim needs to convince them that Pas leaders are corrupt, the way the same claim managed to persuade many Umno members to go against their party leaders in GE14.
Well, Pas supporters are not the same as Umno supporters. They believe in their leaders more than anyone else.
So, it's not going to work, okay.
It's not even convincing in the first place. Anyone can bank-in a sum of money to Sarawak Report and then claimed it's from Pas.
You know la how people lie these days....just like the Pakatan's GE14 manifesto.
And after all, the people on the ground in Semenyih can't really be bothered by such nonsense.
They should know better what's in their heart and who to vote for.
Well, just wait and see their decision by the end of today.
For me, the Semenyih voters may send either a strong message to the Pakatan government to get their acts together or just be happy with getting rid of BN and be contented with Pakatan's promises....doesn't matter that they were unfulfilled.
Just observing as the campaigning reaches the end.
This is the first by-election that I'm on the ground since the one in Sungai Besar in 2016.
And it's the first time I watched a true BN-Pas political cooperation in an election.
For me, that's the most significant thing about this Semenyih by-election.
Honestly, I think Pakatan is in trouble because of it. The same as they were in Cameron Highlands and likely in future elections.
I was at the Pakatan's gathering near Tesco Semenyih yesterday evening where Dr Mahathir and others were there for the final push before the polls on Saturday.
It was actually kicked of by a performance by popular singer Jamal Abdillah. Seriously, okay.
And the guy sang two songs. I don't know the first one, but the second one with slightly modified lyrics was titled "Kau Lupa Janji" (You forgot your promise).
I even suspected that Jamal Abdillah was a BN's mole at the Pakatan's function.
I'm not very good at estimating the number of a crowd, but I noticed that at least half of those present were wearing the red Pakatan or Pribumi Bersatu t-shirts.
I don't think that having to fill up half of the venue with party workers was a good sign.
Then there's a stall less than 50 meters away from the stage selling Apa Malu Bossku t-shirts and it's doing, I believe, good business. There was some sort of a pasar malam near the venue which probably helped to boost the number of crowd.
The first speaker was Amanah president Mat Sabu.
His speech was focused on three things which were
- Najib and BN bashing.
- Telling Malays not to fear DAP.
- Pleading to the Malays not to let Dr Mahathir down.
Seriously, it was an awkward speech. Mat Sabu tried to be clownish as he always did but now that he's a minister and not an opposition leader anymore, he sounded more stupid than ever instead of being funny.
I didn't wait for the other speeches and left for Bandar Sri Putra about 20 minutes drive away to check on the BN's ceramah featuring Mat Hassan and Pas deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man.
By the time I arrived, Tuan Ibrahim was already halfway through his speech. I completely missed Mat Hassan's.
Still, Tuan Ibrahim's speech was quite good.
I particularly like the part where he asked for the audience to be honest with themselves on what have they gained from the change of government last year.
I know and like Tuan Ibrahim from my days in Pahang and I believe the guy is honest. His demeanour is that of a wise elderly kampung man. Nothing like Mat Sabu.
And I got chills down my spine when he read the doa at the end of his speech.
The first time ever that I listened to a Pas leader praying for a BN victory.
The crowd at the housing estate field looked more genuine than the Pakatan's one.
The BN supporters clapped to Tuan Ibrahim's speech while the Pas ones cried "Allahuakbar".
Pas' Unit Amal members were also in full force managing the traffic near the venue. It was as if the candidate on their side is from Pas instead of BN.
Well, I have a feeling that BN may win this one as it did in Cameron Highlands.
