Ides of March jottings (UPDATED with Chinese Translation)
As what Malaysia Today said earlier: bye-bye, Musa, unhappy retirement — because I am sure your retirement is not as happy as you would have liked it to be now that Ramli Yusuff is off the hook and you still can’t extradite RPK even though you promised the court it would happen by October 2009.
THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
Raja Petra Kamarudin
Exactly 2,054 years ago, the Ides of March changed the course of history. (Ides of March means 15th of March, to those Umno goons who never read Shakespeare.) On the Ides of March, Gaius Julius Caesar was assassinated and Marcus Antonius a.k.a. Mark Antony, Caesar’s cousin, took over as the Head Honcho of Rome.
One of the fringe benefits of becoming the Head Honcho of Rome was the pleasure of the company of Cleopatra, Caesar’s plaything, whom Mark Antony inherited. Unfortunately, Mark Antony and Cleopatra both committed suicide nine years later when their combined forces was defeated by Octavian Augustus.
But that bit of information is only spice to an even more interesting story. The more significant aspect to this entire episode is that a Blogger had earlier warned Caesar he was going to be assassinated. Okay, maybe it was a soothsayer and not a Blogger who had warned him. But in those days there was no Internet and Blogs to do the soothsaying work. So they had word-of-mouth soothsayers, who were just like the Bloggers of today.
“Beware the Ides of March!” said the soothsayer cum Blogger to Caesar.
Incidentally, just to digress a bit, back in July 2007, Malaysia Today also told Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to beware the Ides of March. The 15th of March 2008, the initial date that was set for the 12th General Election, would see the beginning of the end for Umno and Barisan Nasional, said Malaysia Today. They are going to lose five states and their two-thirds majority in Parliament.
15th March 2008 was the date the feng shui master said the 12th General Election should be held. But to prove Malaysia Today wrong and to prove that Malaysia Today always lies, they held the 12th General Election on 8th March instead of 15th March. After all, eight is a more auspicious day, according to the Chinese.
Okay, so it was not the 15th of March that they held the 12th General Election. Instead, it was the 8th of March. But Barisan Nasional still lost five states and its two-thirds majority in Parliament. So soothsayer Malaysia Today was still right on that point. It is just that the date was changed at the last minute, against the advice of the feng shui master who told Pak Lah to hold the elections on the 15th of March 2008.
Anyway, enough digressing; let’s get back to the Caesar story.
“Beware the Ides of March!” the soothsayer warned Caesar. On that day he was going to be stabbed in the back by his best friend. But Caesar ignored the warning and his best friend did stab him in the back as foretold. And Malaysia’s equivalent of Caesar, or at least he imagines himself as Malaysia’s equivalent of Caesar — the man who sits at the top of Peace Hill lording over this country and controls the politicians, the Chinese underworld and everyone that walks in the corridors of power – also now knows what the Ides of March means and what it feels like to be stabbed in the back by his best friend.
You see, today, the Ides of March, the Minister announced that IGP Musa Hassan is being sacked after all. And just a few days earlier it was denied. But now it is confirmed. Musa is going. And Musa knew the day the MACC raided his house and found RM1.5 million in cash that his days were numbered. And the MACC also knows about Musa’s bank accounts in Singapore and Australia where tens of millions more are hidden.
But Musa is clever; or so he thought he is. Malaysia Today had earlier revealed the story about the MACC raid and the millions in cash they discovered in his house as well as the many more millions stashed in his overseas bank accounts. But he does not want this to be quoted as the reason he is being asked to go. So he told the Chinese underworld to leak a story to the Chinese mainstream media that he had resigned. And the China Press believed this story since it came from reliable sources. So they ran the story.
Then Musa jumped and the Minister, his best friend, was forced to deny this story. Then they sent the China Press a show cause letter. This is to give the impression that the China Press lied — Musa did not resign. Instead, Musa’s contract is just not being renewed. That is all.
Ah, but Musa was supposed to have his contract renewed for a fourth term until September 2011. That was what his best friend, the Minister, promised him. But then his best friend, the Minister, stabbed him in the back, just like what happened to Caesar on the Ides of March. And Musa’s best friend, the Minister, also chose the Ides of March to stab him in the back.
Poetic justice, don’t you think so?
Musa tried to make it appear like he is not being sacked. It is just that his contract is not being renewed after all, although at first it was supposed to be renewed until September 2011. Well, if it is not being renewed, then what does this mean? Does it mean he is not being sacked after all?
That is what Musa hopes it will look like. And that was Musa’s game plan, to make it appear like he is not being sacked.
So it is true, as Musa says. The leak that was made to the China Press did come from the Chinese underworld. But it was Musa himself who asked the Chinese underworld to leak this to the China Press. Musa did not lie. He just did not explain how the Chinese underworld got this information and why they leaked it to the China Press.
Clever or not? Not that clever, really, because Malaysia Today the soothsayer of the Ides of March knew what Musa was plotting at the top of Peace Hill. And Malaysia Today also knew that his best friend, the Minister, would stab him in the back on the Ides of March.
So what now Musa? Et tu Brute? Or rather, et tu Sham? And what now of your Cleopatra? Who is going to enjoy her once you are gone? Hurts don’t it? And I hope it hurts real bad.
A rose by any other name smells just as sweet, said Shakespeare. A sacking by any other name smells just as sweet, says Malaysia Today.
As what Malaysia Today said earlier: bye-bye, Musa, unhappy retirement — because I am sure your retirement is not as happy as you would have liked it to be now that Ramli Yusuff is off the hook and you still can’t extradite RPK even though you promised the court it would happen by October 2009.
Okay, let’s move on to another subject. 80% of the people polled said they do not understand what 1Malaysia means (see the Bernama report below). So the government is going to ask BTN (Malaysia’s brainwashing agency) to conduct 500 seminars over the next one year to explain 1Malaysia to Malaysians.
Good luck, BTN. It is just like asking Paris Hilton to give talks on ‘say no to extra-marital sex’ to young girls. Yeah, right, the girls would say.
If you need to explain yourself then there is something terribly wrong, don’t you think so? A good policy should not need explaining. It should be self-explanatory. Even Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said he does not understand what 1Malaysian means. Will Dr Mahathir be made to also attend the BTN courses?
I just love this.
Next issue. In His Majesty the Agong’s speech in Parliament today, he asked us to emulate Najib (see the second Bernama report below). I know for a fact that the Agong does not write his own speeches. They are written by the Prime Minister’s Department. In fact, even the Sultans’ speeches are written by the government.
So whom is Najib trying to fool?
I remember the late Sultan of Johor once reading his speech when he was the Agong. Halfway through his speech he muttered, “Who the hell wrote this?” (in Bahasa Malaysia, of course). And to everyone’s horror he threw the prepare text aside and rambled on off the cuff.
That sure was the funniest thing I ever saw, which proves that His Majesty’s speech is written by others and that he does not get to see it until he stands up to deliver the speech.
Yeah, right, emulate Najib. Even the devil would never dare emulate Najib.
Finally, read The Edge news item below with regards to Hamzah Zainuddin. It says in the report that Hamzah and Anwar Ibrahim were ‘best friends’. Actually, Hamzah was a Najib man since the days when Najib was the Umno Youth Leader and Hamzah was still just the Ipoh Youth Leader. That is how far back Najib’s and Hamzah’s relationship goes.
At that time Hamzah was the MD of Justera Sdn Bhd, a company wholly-owned by Cash Berhad, in turn a company owned by Syed Ibrahim, the man who committed suicide in his home in Kenny Hills a few years ago. Syed Ibrahim was the crony of Ahmad Sebi Abu Bakar, the MD of TV3, Daim Zainuddin’s nominee. Ahmad Sebi was the man who engineered the take-over of Sports Toto together with Vincent Tan and which was approved by Daim, who was the then Finance Minister.
Hamzah wanted the contract to build the new UIA (International Islamic University) campus. But Justera had so many abandoned projects in Perak and Kedah. So the tender committee refused to consider Justera. And this made Hamzah very angry. He accused Anwar, the UIA President, of not helping him.
Hamzah then asked his second wife to phone Anwar and to try and lobby for the project. The second wife even offered to open her legs for Anwar if he would consider giving the UIA contract to Justera. But Anwar was not interested in her pussy and he still said no.
And that made Hamzah even angrier. So he made this allegation that Anwar was trying to get his second wife into bed whereas it was the other way around.
So that, dear readers, is the real story of Hamzah Zainuddin’s second wife and the phone call to Anwar and all that talk of sex and whatnot.
And how do I know all this? Well, Hamzah’s first wife came to see me to discuss what to do about her problem. You see; Hamzah had abandoned his first wife, whom I know quite well, after he married his second wife (now, now, perish all those dirty thoughts please; she is just a friend). So I told Hamzah’s first wife to sue him.
And she did. She claimed 50% of his property and the Shariah court awarded her RM10 million. She was still not happy, though. She told me that Hamzah is worth more than RM20 million but she is not able to trace all his money. All she could trace was RM20 million and she got half of that.
Oh, and how did Hamzah make so much money? Simple, he was the then Chairman of FELCRA. And do you know how much contracts FELCRA dishes out? And guess how much ‘commission’ the FELCRA Chairman gets?
Hold on! Was not FELCRA under Najib? Hmm…interesting.
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(Bernama) — The Information Department finds Malaysians overall know about the 1Malaysia concept but have yet to have a full grasp of it, said Director-General of Information Datuk Abdullah Morad.
He said, according to a survey carried out by the department recently, 80 per cent of the people interviewed knew about the concept but were not able to explain what it really stood for.
“As such, this year we will continue with efforts to explain the 1Malaysia concept and how people from all walks of life can appreciate it more deeply,” he told reporters after attending a community programme organised by Komuniti Bestari Kampung Pulau Melayu here today.
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Emulate Najib, meet people, Agong tells leaders
(Bernama) – Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin today called on leaders in the country to emulate Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and go down to the ground to meet the people to understand their problems.
He said that since taking over the helm of the government, Najib had succeeded in implementing various programmes to enhance the well-being of the people.
“We congratulate the prime minister and his cabinet because for the past 11 months, Our government under the leadership of the prime minister has succeeded in implementing various programmes for the well-being of the people.
“The leaders should emulate the prime minister and go down to the ground to mingle with the people to better understand their problems and foster closer relations with the people at all levels,” he said when opening the third session of the 12th Parliament here.
Present was the Raja Permaisuri Agong, Tuanku Nur Zahirah.
This is the first time that Tuanku Mizan is delivering his speech since Najib became the country’s sixth prime minister on April 3 last year.
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April 26 hearing to strike out Hamzah’s defence in Anwar defamation suit
(The Edge) – The High Court on April 26 will hear opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s application to strike out the defence of Plantation Industries and Commodities deputy minister Datuk Hamzah Zainuddin in the former’s defamation suit.
Deputy registrar Fatimah Rubiah Ali fixed the new date during a mention of the suit in chambers here today.
Anwar’s lawyer Sankara Nair told reporters that the application would be heard before Judicial Commissioner Dr Prasad Sandosham Abraham.
According to Sankara, Anwar was seeking to strike out Hamzah’s defence after the latter was late in filing further particulars requested by Anwar.
In his suit filed in August 2008, Anwar was seeking RM10 million in damages from Hamzah following the latter’s allegations that Anwar had harassed Hamzah’s wife in 1998.
Chinese daily newspaper Kwong Wah Jit Poh had on Aug 19, 2008 quoted Hamzah as saying Anwar had wanted to “harass (kacau)” his wife despite the two men purportedly being “best friends”.
Hamzah, who is Larut member of parliament, allegedly had made the remarks when campaigning during the Permatang Pauh by-election in August 2008, which Anwar subsequently won.
Translated into Chinese at: http://ccliew.blogspot.com/2010/03/blog-post_17.html
