Comment
Letter from Pulau Tikus
Wardrobe
malfunction and other matters
|
Comment
Letter from Pulau Tikus Wardrobe
malfunction and other matters |
Wayward halter top and skirt zip EXTRACTS FROM an Asia Times piece by Sudha Ramachandran: “ India's morality storm troopers were steamed up last week in response to two incidents of "wardrobe malfunction" at the Lakme India Fashion Week in Mumbai.... “..... In one instance, model Carol Gracias' halter top slipped, leaving her breasts exposed; in another, model Gauhar Khan's skirt zip split, exposing her bottom. Barely had the models covered up than the moral brigade stepped in to protest. ... Speaking in the Maharashtra Legislative Council, Neelam Gorhe, a leader of the Shiv Sena's women's wing demanded that the government take "serious note" of the "obscene act." Nitin Gadkari, a leader of the Hindu right wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) went a step further. He asked the government to serve a criminal notice to news channels that telecast the "indecent acts". “... Maharashtra's Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil ordered the Mumbai Police to investigate whether the wardrobe malfunction was "a deliberate indecent act." The probe has since revealed that the exposure was accidental. But some members of the moral brigade are not satisfied with the investigation's findings. “Pramod Navalkar, a senior leader of the Shiv Sena and a legislator, said he was upset not just with the "indecent acts" but with the whole tone of the fashion week. "In these fashion shows the majority of the body is exposed and very little is covered," ... About a year ago, Patil and other politicians swung into action against dance bars, saying, "The bars are corrupting the moral fibre of our youth." Several were closed. “More recently in the southern city of Chennai, film actress Khushboo's comments to a newsmagazine on pre-marital sex sparked off violent protests across the state of Tamil Nadu. The actress had merely said that "pre-marital sex is fine, provided it is safe" and that "educated men should not expect virgin wives." Political parties like the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) - which is part of India's Congress |
| Party-led national coalition
government - and the Dalit Panthers of India accused her of encouraging
pre- marital sex and organized demonstrations against her.... “Moral policing in the name of protecting culture is nothing new among India's conservative parties. The Sangh Parivar - a family of Hindu hardline organizations, including the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiv Sena - has a long history of mobilizing mobs around such agendas. Hardliners of every faith have issued diktats, fatwas and orders to "protect" their culture. The Shiv Sena even attacks Valentine's Day on the grounds that it represents a violation of "Indian values". “What is new and interesting about these incidents of moral policing is how supposedly liberal parties are now mobilizing on such agendas, not the usual suspects. It was a Congress-Nationalist Party coalition government in Maharashtra that went hammer and tongs against dance bars in Mumbai and also ordered the probe into the fashion week faux pas. “It did it to outflank the Shiv Sena and to score points with the constituency to which the Sena appeals. And in Tamil Nadu, the campaign against Khushboo was spearheaded by parties with roots in a rationalist movement that opposed, among other things, the double standards of public morality....” Sounds very much like Bolehland doesn’t it? The good doctor The former prime minster regularly entertains us with his ”better than you” claims. The good doctor should keep his dignity and shut up instead of chattering away like some self-advertising politician. If he will not shut up perhaps he should give priority to reply to some of the points made Mr P Ramakrishnan of Aliran magazine in his acceptance speech when Aliran was awarded Transparency International's National Integrity medal recently. We summarise the points made by Mr Ramakrishnan: 1. You would recall that, some years ago, a rumour was in circulation that the DPP had submitted his findings to the AG that Rafidah Aziz and Rahim Tamby Chik had a case to answer with regard to corruption and abuse of power. But this rumour was vigorously denied by the authorities. But when Mohd Ezam circulated these documents not long ago, he was arrested, charged, convicted and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment for possession of documents that were classified under the Official Secrets Act. The bottom line in this case was that there was such a document which confirmed the allegations of corruption. That classified document implied that the DPP after investigating had recommended that charges be framed against them. But the case did not proceed. Why? Was it because top notch politicians were involved? It is obvious that the OSA is meant to cover up crony corruption, abuse of power and wrong doings That is probably the reason why they stamp “Sulit” (Confidential) on |
| documents and hide everything! 2 There was another case of another personality caught with large sums of cash in his drawer which could not be accounted for. This was disclosed by the former ACA head in open court. According to Shafee Yahaya, action was taken to raid Dr Mahathir’s “senior officer’s office” following “än official complaint by an aggrieved party” and what was undertaken “was officially required of the ACA”. But Mahathir, as related by Shafee, ordered the former ACA head to close his investigation against the ex-Economic Planning Unit head, Ali Abul Hassan Sulaiman. We then asked, “Äre we serious in fighting corruption? Mahathir himself had reviled and ranted - and even shed tears - against corruption and money politics. Why then did he abort this investigation?” How different was Mahathir’s alleged conduct from the abuse of power charges filed against Anwar? 3 Then there was the case of 18 high profile cases of corruption still waiting to be prosecuted. According to the mainstream media, on 28 May 2004, the ACA director general had submitted the ACA’s report on the 18 high profile cases to the Attorney General, who was expected to proceed with prosecution without further delay. But, to date, nothing seems to have moved. On 28 November 2004, Aliran moved a resolution demanding an explanation “from the Prime Minister as to why the Attorney General has been delaying the prosecution of the persons involved.” A year later, on 27 November 2005, we moved another resolution strongly urging “the Prime Minister to direct the AG to explain to the people of Malaysia why he has sat on the ACA’s report for so long”. When the case had been investigated and was waiting for prosecution, why this foot dragging? Compare this again to Anwar’s corruption case. How fast our justice system moved then and how quickly the AG secured a conviction. 4 Then you have the bailouts involving Malaysian International Shipping Corp Bhd (MISC) and Malaysia Airlines (MAS) to quote two examples. The Petronas-controlled national shipping carrier Malaysian International Shipping Corp Bhd (MISC) stepped in in 1998 to bail out Mirzan Mahathir’s floundering and debt-laden shipping empire. The government’s bailout of Tajudin Ramli’s stake in MAS was just as scandalous. The Finance Ministry paid RM8 per MAS share when the market price was RM3.62 on 22 December 2000. MAS had then posted four straight years of losses and was saddled with over RM9 billion in debts. How could we justify paying 121 per cent premium?... |
| Police as tools? Mohd Rafie Awang who wrote “Skandal Seks dan Rasuah Ruslin” was investigated under the Printing Press and Publications Act for publishing false news by the City Dy CID chief. Now the strange thing is that the victim, a mayor the police were ostensibly protecting, told the Sun newspaper, “I don't think much of it because I have a lot of work to do.” So who was the person who lodged the formal complaint that set the police machinery in motion? Is someone powerful using the police as his tool? Someone, obviously an insider, then told us of scandalous goings on in the MAS. As the source was anonymous stories should have been treated by honest persons as so much contemptible trash. Yet we learn from MGG Pillai - that indestructible journalist who coined the memorable phrase “ Bolehland” - that his computer was taken away by the police who explained they had merely wanted to trace the secret author. Again, the question: who was that powerful person who got the police going on the wild goose chase? Sadistic caning The lawyers are to be congratulated for coming round to the view that the death penalty should be abolished. Some years ago when Dato Dominic Puthucheary conducted his own opinion poll he reported to the Bar Council the lawyers were for the death penalty; proposals for its abolition were abandoned. The lawyers should now press on and demand an end to the cruel British style of flogging of convicted persons called euphemistically “caning” here. So savage have we become that the other day a magistrate (a woman) inflicted 36 of these savage beatings on a person she had convicted and sentenced. Good cinema I congratulate the local TV for having screened some beautiful films that are miles superior to the cheap Hollywood stuff that is served up every day. Two were Iranian and the other Filipino. “Drunken Horses” was about a young man seeking a cure in Iraq next door for his little crippled brother. We have shots of life in a border town dominated by smugglers who brave minefields to earn their dangerous living. Earlier there was one about an abandoned dark boy who was taken under her wing by an Iranian woman who broke with her colour sensitive friends. How the boy learns to speak the language and inexorably becomes a member of the family is finely told and crafted in a superb film. The Filipino “Crying Women” is about three women on the edges of poverty who earn five days pocket money as mourners at a Chinese funeral. Manilla life at a low level is shown to us without pity or morbidness but with a touch of objective quiet humour. These films were a breath of fresh air. Visitors Shortly after the very satisfying concert by the Beijing Children’s Choir came the Cantus Musicus (see Page 11 of this issue) to the Malaysian German Society, |
| a humble choir of amateurs
who startled us with their controlled and skilled enthusiasm. They
had come all the way from Kuala Lumpur to join in the celebration of German
month, entertaining us with a wide range of songs which included the formidable
German lieder. At Auditorium A at Komtar, Peter Korbel presented
medieval music of the lute and ended the evening with Jobim's evergreen "The
Girl from Ipanema". I was glad I overcame my distaste for that execrable
venue to listen to Korbel’s guitar for I now know where that song, "The Life
of a Fool," comes from. One thing I couldn't understand was why Peter
Korbel did not use the larger modern guitar for the second half of his programme
which was devoted to the music of the Latin American composers like Villa
Lobos. The smaller guitar was only comfortable with lute music which occupied
the first half of the programme On the 250th birthday of Mozart, Mr Woon’s 24 young musicians of the Junior String Ensemble gave a very professional concert which revealed the great improvements the past twenty years have brought. Even ten years ago one deplored the “ear” of the players and grieved at their sense of timing. But that night they tackled the difficult Copland piece, “Hoe Down from Rodeo” with verve and a confident sweep. What pleased me particularly was that there was young Malay boy among the first violins. Woon, the great founder of the Penang Symphony in 1981, must be pleased with his creation. Then it was time to go home. There was utter confusion. We did not know how to exit Auditorium A. Some doors appeared locked. True to form, the lift did not do down to level 3 as required but zoomed up to level 36 then, without pause, swept to the ground floor, which was almost in darkness We we had to walk down the two flights of escalators; yet we noticed with sympathy, some shops were still open. "Koay Jetty" by Dr Ooi 
There
was more to come. The Penang State Symphony orchestra gave us a concert at
the restored old town hall. There were two surprises. One was the vastly
improved playing under the Japanese conductor, J Shimano and the polished
singing of the choir under Khoo Hooi Lay. The other was that the double
basses and the cellos were in full throaty voice, filling the hall which
lifted and amplified the sound as if it had been designed for orchestral
concerts. Astonishing.Photo exhibition Dr Ooi Cheng Ghee's “Koay Jetty” exhibition at Armenian Street showed the changes in the area since he took the first pictures of the Weld Quay stilt villages 25 years ago. It was Dr Ooi’s farewell to the old settlement, soon to be torn down in the interests of development. ( see Koay Jetty in this issue) The show was at an art gallery in Armenian Street, fast becoming a centre of restaurants and art galleries right in the very heart of old George Town. |
| Judges should watch
their mouths. According to a report in the Star newspaper the chief justice Ahmad Fairuz said during a hearing on the powers of local government: "So, they should be given freedom to live as they like? The constitution allows all citizens to do that (hugging and kissing) even by the roadside, in public park?” "In England, those acts are acceptable to the people in that country but is kissing and hugging acceptable to Malaysian citizens? Is the act according to the morality of the Asian people?" The chief justice should guard his tongue for such remarks only serve to weaken the authority of his judgment on statutory interpretation. According to The Star, on another occasion, the same chief justice in the course of a hearing said, “The conduct of a judge on the bench can be challenged, if there is proof that he is acting in bad faith. The immunity of a judge is not absolute. A Judge is not above the law.” The chief justice should watch his language and confine himself to the law involved in the appeal before him. This is must be because the public might think that he was encouraging action against judges if bad faith could be proved for they would not have in mind that the Courts of Judicature Act, 1964 lays down that a judge cannot be sued for actions within his judicial capacity. The chief justice should remind himself of the words of Chief Justice Harlan Stone (of the US), "the only check upon our own exercise of power is our own self restraint." ... Pitt Street again They are at it again. They won't leave the street alone. The last time they cut down all the neem trees and tiled the roads which face-lifted roads shook cars and punctured not a few trishaws and infuriated the irrepressible taxi drivers who, as you have guessed swore some unprintable language. I thought of Tan Jing Qwee’s lines You cannot retile the past With gaily paved malls; Clean up the toilets Display food within glass panels To narrate a lie for tourist dollars And what is it this time? The road is lined with a series of dwarf posts accompanied by two balls each. I wonder what theme the author had in mind when he dreamed up that great concept. Incompetence One of the last comments written by the late MGG Pillai, who passed away while these pages were being prepared for launching, was a complaint that TELECOMS had charged him for a service he did not ask for. When he complained, he got a stock |
| reply that he had been unusubscribed
from the service but he would have to pay until cancelled. But that was not
all. Getting to Telecoms was a chore, he complains. What with all the "labour
saving devices" it has at its command. It assumes that anyone who telephones
it has time to waste. “I have had a human being speak to me after several
tries lasting several hours. ... (Often) I am left holding the telephone,
often for ten minutes or longer, hearing the sickening message that
"your call is important to us". and being cut off after some time,
this time without any apology or message.. ... ... Funny, though, I could get who I wanted when in London, Tokyo, Paris, Washington, even Bangor, Maine, even if I did not get to the operator. I shudder these days of having to call Telekom to report the phone out of order, or to get help. I must first make sure I am not going out in the next two hours, and I have time to waste. Angsana in bloom At the beginning of the Cheng Beng festival the angsana, true to form started to sprinkle its golden blossoms on the ground and I watched with amazement as they flowers floated gracefully to earth, it was as if it rained gold. The Chinese call it the Cheng Beng flower The state of George Town From a poster in a pharmacist's window Lighten the pigmentation of your vagina K L Chai |
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