In Zhao Mingfu: A Coroner’s Inquest into Politics

One of the most jarring revelations emerging so far from the coroner’s inquest into Teoh Beng Hock (accurately, 赵明福 Zhao Mingfu) is, it contains all the elements of a criminal trial, not  an inquiry to produce a finding or to deduce a conclusion.
In a trial, guilt and innocence have everything to do with what goes [...]

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Rebel Against Umno: For a Mongol PAS?

That’s no moon a dragon will swallow… (also see earlier entries ).
In the 5,000 years of written Chinese history and its cycle of dynasties, about 20 came to preside over China and Han Chinese society. Seven of them – Xia, Shang, Zhou, Han, Tang, Ming, Qing – lasted longer, far longer than is American history [...]

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On Soh Cherwei: A Response

On Soh Cherwei’s post: a response. Borrowing Li Bai 李白 (701-762 AD), with apologies.
Chinese version, 李白
長干行
妾髮初覆額，折花門前劇;
郎騎竹鳥來，遶床弄青梅。
同居長干舉，兩小無嫌猜。
十四為君婦，羞顏未嘗開。
低頭向暗壁，千喚不一回。
十五始展眉，願同塵與灰。
常存抱柱信，豈上望夫臺。
十六君遠行，瞿塘灩澦堆。
五月不可觸，猿聲天上哀。
門前遲行跡，一一生綠苔。
苔深不能掃，落葉秋風早。
八月蝴蝶來，雙飛西園草。
感此傷妾心，坐愁紅顏老。
早晚下三巴，預將書報家。
相迎不道遠，直至長風沙。

An equally exquisite English version of the above, Chang’an xing 長干行 (Chang’an, present day Xi’an), was published in Cathay (1915). That Ezra Pound translation retitled but was faithful, in every way, to Li Bai’s original:
The River Merchant’s Wife: A Letter

While [...]

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素沁 Ah Suh Sassies Up to PAS

Among all the inanities under the banner Sassy MP, this, below, takes the prize (Full version here; it reads like a confession from the pew and you can almost be sure it was written by a converted soul, testifying for Jesus before and now for PAS):
I fear not its grandstanding for an Islamic state for [...]

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The Mahyuddins of Chop Chop Square & Apartheid

There is in pre-Islamic Malay culture no known records of the public display of chopping heads or displaying them on timber spikes, whether as forms of royal punishment, personal revenge, or as trophies of tribal wars. Question: Where then did the likes of Mahyuddin Manap (pictures below) pick up nuances in those practices?

In Islam’s desert [...]

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A Baby & the Gospel of Ridhuan Tee

视其所以，观其所由，察其所安。人焉叟哉？- 孔子
See what a man does. Mark his motives. Examine that which he rests on. How is his character concealed? – Kongzi
Sino Confucian culture at the core of Chinese identity is so tolerant that government ministers get away with putting Chinese go-go girls on stage to solicit ballot votes. And after that, they get [...]

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赵明福 Zhao Mingfu, DAP & the Price of Power (1)

On Zhao Mingfu – In Life and in Death
MACC’S INVESTIGATION & REPORT IN 24 HOURS
Introduction
This report will require your perseverance because it is lengthy – give yourself half an hour – and because it simultaneously goes over a number of subjects, government, politics, finance, business, public affairs … and money. It is done because the [...]

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天妒英才: The Great Have Great Hardships

After the public discovery of Zhao Mingfu’s body, Shukri Abdul, the MACC director of investigations, appeared to have attempted two things in a Press conference the same day:
1. Proximity – to remove the physical proximity between MACC and Mingfu’s death. Examples: he was “released” nearly 9 hours before the body’s discovery in the [...]

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赵明福的回答 Zhao Mingfu & the MACC Death Question

Wherever I am, I’m German – Thomas Mann, 1938
In Malaysia, the question is finally asked: Are you Chinese?
It has been said that Thomas Mann, the German novelist (Felix Krull, Death in Venice) arriving in New York from escaping Nazism, was asked the question about his cultural heritage since he had fled his homeland. His reply: [...]

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MACC Goes Racial; Beng Hock On the Road Home

On the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC)
A RESPONSE TO MOHD KHIR TOYO
Preface (Updating)
The two short news passages, below, from Lee Wei Lian are deficient and defective. These reflect recurring problems – portraying facts, accuracy in judgement, transliteration, language use, and so on -  common among English press reporters trying to report on matters that concern Chinese [...]

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The Last Seven Hours in Teo Beng Hock’s Life

After taking Perak in a coup, Barisan Nasional will want Selangor because the longer Pakatan keeps it, the more politicians of the latter might show what they can do, and may do well. The question Barisan therefore has to ask is, how? Possible answers: defections, resignations, legal and procedural intimidations, harassment and aggravations.
Timeline in Teo [...]

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Seditious Laws: A Reply to N.H. Chan

N.H. Chan has spent 4,113 words to decide on the question whether words spoken by Lim Kit Siang and Karpal Singh were of a “seditious tendency”. Certain words in the legal definition will tend to be seditious once they “bring hatred or contempt” or they “excite disaffection”, etc.
Chan’s defence of Lim and Karpal is an [...]

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Before the Law is the Doorkeeper

If we believe absurdities, we shall commit atrocities. – Voltaire 
The Lingam Conversation.
Below is an attempt to understand the conversation (video) of one VK Lingam with another person, said to be Ahmad Fairuz, Malaysia’s Chief Justice. The attempt includes answering the question: Who is the doorkeeper?
A. THE SETTING
The video clip (released publicly by the Justice Party, or [...]

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