Street rallies in Malaysia are built on hate

Had dinner with a good friend last night.

She used to be a BN supporter but now had jumped to the other side.

She read my last post and said I was wrong for asking the authorities to stop the planned Bersih rally next month, but agreed on the part where I wrote that the Red Shirts needed to be stopped too.

"Bersih is peaceful. It's the Red Shirts who create the trouble. They are the violent ones," she said.

She had watched that video where a group of Red Shirts beat up a Bersih motorcyclist.

I told her that I'm against all kind of street rallies.

It doesn't matter who are organising it.

Street rallies can easily end up being violent no matter how peaceful the organisers said it would be.

The Bersih rallies had turned violent in the past.

Remember these images?

The Bersih crowd in that incident actually beat up a policeman and totally thrashed his patrol car.

There were other not so nice images of Bersih like these.

Any group of people can turn into a violent mob if they were instigated hard enough to hate.

It doesn't matter whether they are wearing red, yellow, pink or whatever other colours.

That's why I'm against both Bersih and Red Shirts.

I believe in doing things peacefully and intelligently.

Street protests, at least in this country, are just not that.

They were mostly built on hate and the risk of violence is always there.

In Bersih case - hate Umno and BN.

In Red Shirts case - hate the opposition.

Hate and violence should be shunned.

It's actually easier to preach hate and violence but  to what end will that leads us?

Let's not fall for the tricks of those who try to be popular by peddling hate and violence,  okay.

Stop the Bersih vs Red Shirts nonsense

I really think the authorities should move in and stop the planned Bersih and its rival Red Shirts rallies.

Such rallies are not good for the country.

I do believe in freedom of expression and such, but not to the extent of causing public disruptions.

As happened in the past, the authorities tolerated these rallies but the organisers kept doing it by breaking the laws.

For instance, they agreed to hold the rallies at a stadium or padang but later on march through streets to get there, causing disruptions to traffic and everyday lives.

This should be stopped.

Organisers of these rallies should not be allowed to repeat such nonsense again.

The authorities should just strictly enforce the laws on this matter.

I'm of the opinion that if people want to express themselves, they should argue their case through the available channels without causing problems to others.

They can even criticise the government or the opposition for that matter, in the social media if they want.

That's why I allowed almost all of those comments in this blog through.

Let everyone release their anger and frustration with minimal damage.

It's better than letting everyone goes to the street and causing problems.

Just look at how ugly the Bersih versus Red Shirts thing has turned out now.

You all had seen the videos, right?

I think it will only get worse if they are to clash at the rallies in downtown KL next month.

Seriously, why can't these people wait for the next general election?

If so itchy to quarrel, just whack each other in the social media lah for now.

Why the need to scare others who don't want to have anything to do with their nonsense and all those rallies?

Such a waste of time and energy too.

The new Tiang Seri Umno

BN lost its two third majority in the Johor state assembly the other day.

The story is here,

BN loses two-thirds majority in Johor 

That's the first time ever.

For someone who was part of the team which defended Johor in the last general election, I was a bit sad over it.

Well, we worked so hard on it back then. okay.

But I don't really blame Jorak assemblyman Shahruddin Salleh for doing what he did.

He is after all the right hand man of TS Muhyiddin Yassin in Pagoh and thus his political career is tied with that of the Pribumi Bersatu president.

After all, it is almost certain that he will be dropped from the BN candidate list for the next general election.

May as well he gets out now. At least he would be seen as a hero by those who hate BN and Umno.

I also suspect that Shahruddin will likely replace Muhyiddin to contest the Pagoh parliamentary seat in the next general election while his boss moves to Muar as rumoured.

That's bad news for Datuk Razali Ibrahim, the current Muar MP whose majority was reduced to merely 1,646 votes in the last general election.

Razali, who is a deputy minister had such a bright future in front of him back then and was even tipped as the second in line for the Johor MB post.

Now his political career may be snuffed out altogether.

Poor Razali.

Nonetheless, looking at the bigger picture, I don't think there will be a mass exodus of Umno members switching to Pribumi Bersatu in Johor.

And Shahruddin is likely to be the only one among the BN assemblymen and MPs who is motivated enough to do so.

The others, even if they are personally unhappy with the BN and Umno leadership will stay put.

Unlike Shahruddin, they don't have to worry about getting "killed off" for being too close to Muhyiddin.

The former Umno deputy president actually doesn't have too may die hard supporters in Johor despite being the state MB for nine years two decades ago.

Yes, he has his supporters in the state but they are not of significant number  or overly loyal to him.

Muhyiddin on his own is not much of a force in Johor.

The real danger to especially Johor Umno is still the unhappiness over several issues among the Malays on the ground.

If not addressed properly, and combine them with the huge hostile Chinese electorates in the state, then things can be quite dire.

That's the big job of current Johor Umno chief and MB DS Khaled Nordin and his team.

If they fail to prevent the Malay votes in the state from further splitting, then it's not impossible for Johor to ends up like Selangor, which has about the same electoral breakdown.

I'm of the opinion that the current over dependency on the palace-driven "Bangsa Johor" concept may not be enough for Khaled to keep things together.

Khaled and his boys simply need to do more....and better.

It's going to be tough but there's no other way to do it.

Guess by now they know that occupying Kota Iskandar does not really mean a life of leisure and luxury all the time.

They have to work hard too, okay.

Whatever it is, I don't see Johor returning to the good old days when Umno and BN were so dominant there.

Back then, Johor was considered as the Umno bastion.

Tiang Seri Umno, they said.

Well, I don't think that's true anymore.

Anyone contesting under the BN ticket in Johor is not assured of victory anymore.

They can lose, even in the heart of Bangsa Johor heartland of Muar.

Seriously, Johor is no longer the Tiang Seri Umno.

That title has moved to Sabah, I think.

That's where Umno is supreme now.

Almost untouchable.

At least that's how I see it, based on reports and talks with friends from Sabah.

I wish I can write more about Sabah but I have only been there once.

So, I don't think I'm qualified to do so.

Unlike some people, I will not try to pretend to know about a state which I have hardly been to.

See lah how.

If I can go there and be on the ground more often, I will write more about that new  Tiang Seri Umno.

Rogue Ones and cyber gangsterism

I do understand the need for everyone to earn a living.

Thus, I'm actually not so much against bloggers getting paid for what they write.

True, it makes them mercenaries,  but so what, as long as they don't break any law.

I don't think a blogger shouldn't be allowed to earn a living by writing in favour of those who are willing to pay them to do so.

Whether what they write is true or otherwise is secondary.

I'm of the opinion that it's up for us to decide whether the writing is worth reading.

That's why I often times wrote that we should be careful with what we read.

The writer, if paid, was just earning a living.

If we decide that the writer was writing falsehood, we can just stop reading the bullshit.

And if we feel that we don't have the capacity to decide whether what was written is the truth or a lie, I suggest we read other things which are really worth our time.

We can read gardening blogs and learn how to plant chillies...for instance. That's better than reading political stuff which we are not sure to be true or just bullshit.

I think it's a simple enough concept.

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you should noticed that I almost never used the reprehensible word "dedak" or even "the red bean army", associated to paid bloggers..

I don't like those words because I'm still okay with people getting paid for what they write.

Proper journalists are also paid for using their writing skills and talents to earn a living.

So, why can't others get paid too, right?

Of course the best are still those who write purely because of their ideals.

They are the true pejuang.

If their writing is good instead of raving and ranting like a lunatic, then they are the ones deserved to be read the most.

But not everyone can afford that. Ideals can be quite expensive and people need to eat and feed their spouse, children or dog or cat.

Really, I understand the need of some people to be mercenary bloggers, cyber troopers and what ever.

If you all find them so reprehensible, just don't read their writings, okay.

But try not be too harsh on them. They just cari makan.

Having said all that, I'm nonetheless do get disgusted whenever I read these kind of stories,

In Malaysia, another blackmailing blog exposed

To be paid or even asking to be paid are still tolerable, but to blackmail for payment is very wrong.

It's against the laws too.

I can still tolerate a blogger taking payment to whack someone, but for the blogger to then offer the victim to stop the attack for a higher payment is really disgusting.

These are the people who truly give bloggers a bad name.

I encountered these people once.

It was back during the run up to the last general election.

There was this group of supposedly Umno bloggers who approached the team of then Johor MB TS Abdul Ghani Othman.

Ghani's team at that time didn't have dedicated cyber war people.

The bloggers offered to help with the campaign of Johor Umno and Ghani in return of a fee of several million ringgit.

The Ghani's team declined the offer because they really didn't have a budget for it.

Anyway, the demanded fee was way too high considering that the bloggers were not even of the top notch variety.

Unfortunately, the bloggers didn't take the rejection very well and in retaliation started to post series of slanderous articles aimed at Ghani.

They kept a constant barrage of those posts until the very last few weeks before the 2013 general election.

My sources insisted that the bloggers were paid by another group of Umno people, backed by very powerful personalities who wanted to make sure that Ghani is out of Johor after the election.

But of course I have no hard evidence on this, so that I can't say for sure whether it's true or not.

Nonetheless, I was told that the very same group of bloggers could now be seen from time to time at Kota Iskandar.

Okay lah, that's their rezeki, but what they did by whacking and slandering people who declined their services was bad.

That's cyber gangsterism.

I heard of this kind of behaviour from time to time.

Blogger demanding money from politician by threatening character assassination.

I strongly advice the politicians who experienced this to report those bloggers to the police.

The same goes to business people or any individuals being threatened in such a manner by rotten bloggers and social media players.

My experience on this matter was mostly on the Umno and BN side.

That's because I am from this side of the political fence.

I do wonder if the opposition people experienced the same.

Are there any opposition blogger or writer who got nasty because their demand for money was rejected?

Are there opposition bloggers or writers who indulged in character assassination of their leaders who rebuffed their demands?

I strongly believe it's the same on their side.

There are a case or two which I suspected to be those of opposition bloggers or writers turning rogue because they were not paid or accorded the recognition they thought they deserved by their political masters.

DAP don't pay, turn to Umno. Later, if Umno don't pay, turn back to DAP.

Scary la those.

Well, I guess it's all the same on this or that side.

End of the day, it's for us to decide what we want to read.

My suggestion is, let the cari makan bloggers earn a living and don't be too hard on them, but try to read the genuine ones more.

Even that, do be selective because even the genuine ones can be just spewing a lot of rubbish. All emotional and crazy.

In fact, I find some of the paid bloggers to be better in the sense that they do a good job by being rational, research their material well, write beautifully, very creative etc.

If they make better sense, why not read their blogs too, right?

The need to be intelligent and Annie's authentic mamachari

It turned out that my grandmother's condition is not as bad as I had feared.

She is okay now.

Alhamdulillah.

Well, I'm back at work since yesterday.

Lots of things to do and no real time to write.

Sometimes I wonder how some bloggers can write very long posts complete with beautiful charts and graphs.

And some are so serious that they write as if Malaysia's fate is in their hands....and that Malaysians are doomed if they fail to read and agree with their writings.

Well, never mind.

It's really none of my business how people write their blogs.

I can never be like them though.

I don't believe that I'm influential or popular at all.

In fact, I don't want to be influential or popular.

I really don't see the point in being like that.

I think that being influential or popular will only make me egoistical and shallow.

Really, I mostly write just for fun.

Just expressing myself and sharing my thoughts with anyone who care to read this blog.

I don't even believe that I'm clever or anything like that.

But I do had seen things happening up close.

It's just those things I saw that I'm presenting here.

That's all.

Well, of course I comment a bit on those things, but  you all have to decide for yourself on how to judge what I write.

For instance, if I write something like a prominent blogger told me that another prominent blogger is nasty, fat and smelly, that doesn't necessarily mean the information is absolutely correct.

It's just someone telling me that another person is nasty, fat and smelly.

My own opinion could be that person is actually softly sweet, cuddly chubby like a baby walrus and just a bit pungent only.

Okay, the nasty part is a bit true though. Scary even. Ha ha ha....

Well, never mind.

Don't take the whole thing too seriously, okay.

Hey, for all you know, those prominent bloggers are just putting up a smoke screen and are actually in love with each other :)

Anyway, the whole point is that, you all have to filter what you read ya.

I can't be 100 per cent correct all the time and so do the other bloggers.

The same with the TV and newspapers and in fact the whole cyberspace too.

You all simply have to be intelligent in processing the information that you received.

So, if you really want the truth about a prominent blogger being nasty, fat and smelly, the best way is to try meeting the blogger in person.

I would also suggest that you try disputing the blogger's opinions to see whether the nastiness will come up to the surface.

As for the fat and smelly allegations, you just have to see for yourself and sniff a bit, okay.

Hey, enough of all that. I need to get up and get ready for the day.

Going to ride my bicycle again before going to work.

It's my exercise routine now.

I went to buy the bicycle that day but can't find the one that I wanted.

My father ended up buying me a second hand one.

It's a real “mamachari” just like I wanted it in this previous post,

• About kena whacked and mamachari

It's a classic Kuwahara city bicycle and came direct from Japan.

I need to get it a basket and bell though.

Will try to get yellow ones to match the colour.

Very nice, right?

Okay, really need to get up now.

Have a nice day guys.

Cheers.

Better than politics

Got a bit of free time now.

Just feel like highlighting this story,

Japanese scientist wins Nobel medicine prize for work on 'self-eating' cell mechanism

Excerpts ;

David Rubinsztein, deputy director of Cambridge University's Institute for Medical Research, said Ohsumi had provided scientists around the world with "critical tools" to help them understand how disrupted autophagy can contribute to illnesses including infectious diseases, cancers and neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington’s and Parkinson’s.

Chister Hoog, a professor at Sweden's Karolinska Institute, told Reuters the work helped explain crucial processes in human development, from growing up, to aging to succumbing to disease.

"In the very early stages (of a human’s development) your organs and your whole body is constantly being made over again – you are growing. So you need to get rid of the old stuff and generate new structures," he said.

"When you undergo aging, you have structures that have to be taken away and this – autophagy – is the principle that gets rid of them.

"If you affect this system – the genes and proteins involved in autophagy – you no longer can take care of the waste, and once it accumulates you will get some type of disease."

I always admire these people of science.

Their works really aim to make our lives better.

Better than those people whose profession only make our lives more complicated so that they can earn tonnes of money from our difficulties.

I think you all know what are those professions.

Anyway, I hope Malaysia will one day produce such brilliant scientists.

They can really make our country proud.

For me, they can be our true heroes.

If only we can focus our efforts towards producing such scientists.

That would be much better than producing more politicians like what we are doing now.

Everyone seems keen to be politicians these days.

Just go to our social media and you can see that everyone is trying to be a political expert.

Politics is a shortcut to fame and fortune for most of these people.

Actually, that's why our politicians are not even of good quality, if you ask me.

Why do we give so much importance to them?

Why do we have to listen to them all the time?

Really. I don't think we need to do all that.

We should instead be focused on our works.

The Japanese don't seem to care much about all the stupid politics like we do.

They work hard instead.

That's why they got such brilliant scientists and other professionals who make their society truly better.

Election time, they just vote the politicians who bullshit the least.

Isn't that easier and better.

We should try that, okay.

Oh, by the way, in Japan they have very passionate politicians.

Watch this,

They really try their best don't they.

More accusations and Phoebe's little song

Someone commented this just now,

Anonymous2 October 2016 at 21:12

Someone just accused Annie of something, so what else is new? If she had just googled "blogroll missing" all these other bloggers also lost their blogrolls recently. Annie certainly did not cook up a story about her blogroll getting wiped out. So, who is the one that is full of malice?

http://hartwoodroses.blogspot.my/2016/09/where-did-my-blogroll-go.html?m=1

http://sepulchreofheroes.blogspot.my/2016/10/somehow-my-blogroll-disappeared-submit.html?m=1

http://advancedgaming-theory.blogspot.my/2016/09/technical-issue-in-regards-to-blogroll.html?m=1

http://elizabethaquino.blogspot.my/2016/09/my-blogroll-and-all-links-have.html?m=1

http://thegallopingbeaver.blogspot.my/2010/09/yes-our-blogroll-has-disappeared.html?m=1

Hey, thanks for defending me, who ever you are.

I'm seriously amazed that there are people who took the trouble to actually accuse me of lying about my missing blogroll.

What's wrong with them?

Sick or something?

Such a small thing also want to use against me..

Really, I'm not lying about my blogroll getting wiped out that day.

I noticed that even my blogging captain Rocky got his blogroll wiped out.

Both of us are on blogspot.

Well, never mind...crazy people like that lah.

Eh, you all take it easy for this long weekend ya.

I got other more important things to worry about at the moment.

Here, I put this little song by Phoebe  for your enjoyment,

Take care and cheers.