Transformer vs Terminator - the road to tyranny
Swipenter: Dr Mahathir Mohamad must be an excellent teacher. No, "too good" should be the right description. One of his students is even more dictatorial and repressive than him.
And also allegedly amassed a fortune bigger than his in a short period of time. Also his financial scandals are more explosive and more massive than the master’s.
Now the student has become a master in his own right and refuses to acknowledge the one who showed him the ropes.
Can the master checkmate his student?
Anonymous #20099632: The one in power, refuses to talk and is silent on all issues. The one no longer in power, refuses to be silent and comments on all issues.
Haveagreatday: Good one, RK Anand. But I hope that the fake transformer will bite the dust soon. That ex-dictator is making the right noises now because he wants to push that fake transformer off his perch.
The Analyser: You write like repression is something new. Like it’s something unique to Mahathir and Najib Abdul Razak.
Get real, Anand. Repression is an Asian thing, in fact the whole social structure is based on repression.
Parents repress their children, 'educators' repress their students, bosses repress workers, races repress one another, governments repress everybody. Religions repress their followers and one another. Malaysians repress Malaysians.
So why are you so surprised when you are on the receiving end of repression. The saying Malaysians love to quote is, "What goes around comes around."
It's because Malaysians are so used to repression that Umno has got you repressed and keeps you sufficiently repressed that they can do whatever they like, whenever they like.
Meanwhile. all you can do is whimper pathetically as you sit repressed in your fantasy world where some superhero comes along and saves you from yourselves. Have you noticed yet that your 'superhero' was a super fake?
How do you think all the 'backroom boys' who run this country got rich and powerful? With Mahathir's alleged help. That's how.
And how do you think these backroom boys stay in power? By manipulating a weak PM.
Ng Kam Loon: After all Mahathir's deeds, it is hard to expect him to change. If he succeeds to bring down Najib, the replacement will be just as bad or even worse.
Negaraku01: With the new Prevention of Terrorism Act (Pota) and the Sedition Act, whoever dares to speak against them will face infinite time in the lock-up. Tun wouldn't be so stupid as to be in the opposition.
The Voice of the Wilderness: The penultimate fight between the two incorrigible devils. The fact remains, whatever the 'authentic terminator' did damage to the nation, it was just greed (corruption) and love of power, but he did not take away any innocent lives.
At the end of the day, it’s better to have a dollar stolen from you than losing a family member's life to the unrepentant one.
RR: Mahathir, be careful. With the new amendments to the Sedition Act you can go behind bars for 20 years, especially when you touch on Islam or royalty and no bail, too.
'Voices of moderation must occupy Malaysia'
Einstein: Are there any ‘moderates’ left in Malaysia?
In a culture where questioning the leadership is viewed as ungrateful (non-syukur) and disrespectful, in an atmosphere of pretentious religious piety and holier than thou attitude, where having a contrarian less dogmatic religious view is viewed as a betrayal of brotherhood, in a draconian legislative environment where voices of reason and demands for transparency is viewed as seditious, are there any ‘moderates’ who are busy struggling to makes ends meet still have the strength and courage left to speak up?
If our leaders' rise to power is through appealing to the extremists in their parties, is there any hope that they would shift to the centre and champion against chauvinism and fight for rationalism?
1Citizen: I look forward to the day when leaders can accept criticisms, hold public town-hall meetings and open debate instead of hiding behind archaic laws and bureaucracy.
If you want to practice real democracy then let the power be with the people not their elected servants. The ballot box is a means and not the end. We should not have to wait for general elections to have improvements and get rid of deadwood.
David Dass: We are all complicit in not doing enough to stop the erosion of our freedoms. Perhaps this is because democratic freedoms came too easily to us.
After all we all came from feudal or autocratic traditions and our experience of democracy was new. The democracy we had prior to our independence existed for the British, not for us. And many of the repressive bits of legislation we are now burdened had their beginnings then.
At independence, we crafted a constitution which embodied the best of democratic experience at the time. We worked out a formula for peaceful coexistence among people of diverse languages, cultures, races, and religions.
We rejected the notion of a theocracy because we thought that it would be divisive. Our early years as a new nation was peaceful.
That peacefulness was shattered in 1969. We then realised that unfettered capitalism would not work and that our policies and practices should ensure that all races benefit from growth. The New Economic Policy (NEP) was born.
There was no problem with the NEP. The implementation was something else. Race-based parties and policies divided the nation. A religious party now seeks to exploit the rift by moving us toward a theocracy. Things look grim.
However, all is not bad. A younger, better-educated segment of our population are asserting their presence. They want more democratic space and greater accountability.
They appear impatient with attempts to divide them on the basis of race or religion. But religion is a sensitive matter given IS (Islamic State) and other trends emanating from the Middle East.
New legislation is proposed to deal with perceived threats. There is strong opposition to the proposed legislation. The government is overreacting - confused between its desire to stay in power and in trying to cope with the new realities.
We cannot remove our freedoms to save our democracy. More careful thinking is required. We have much to lose. Ours is a beautiful country. Much of that beauty stems from the freedoms we enjoy.
ABS: I can sympathise with people who keep saying, “Why didn't you do something when you were in the system”, etc, but it's well past being a tired sentiment.
In many cases, people would have had their hands tied by circumstances. Whistleblower judge Syed Ahmad Idid Syed Abdullah Idid is a strong exception .
But look at the now and future - those who 'did not do anything in their time', and who are we to say/know that they didn't in their own way - are lending their voices today.
Let's do something now - and not let others, 20 years on look back and ask, "Why didn't you do something when...”
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