Believe it or not, the Swedish Pirate Party has garnered enough votes to send at least one MP to the European Parliament. According to Ars, they’re still tallying the numbers but the party has already breached the 4% minimum needed to qualify for a single seat. They’re currently polling at 7.1%. While a single MP in a parliament of 700 may not do very much, it is quite an achieve for a political party that is less than 2 years old and formed with a very narrow set of agendas that deal with intellectual property rights.

Personally, I think that it is great that a political party is able to ride on an intellectual property platform. Obviously, the recent spec-trial of The Pirate Bay helped boost their cause. As a result, they are currently the second largest political party in Sweden and their youth wing is the largest in Sweden. While most people may argue that they are a fringe party, they are a fringe party which has accomplished a lot – more than most other older mainstream political parties.

Personally, I think that this is a great achievement. While they may not wield much power today, they’re the largest under-30 political party in the EU. This gives me hope for the future. Now, if they only opened up a branch in Malaysia.

Our dearest former PM has recently suggested that Malaysians should show our disgust at the events happening in Gaza by boycotting American companies and products. I guess that he meant that we should stop doing things like buying our Frappucinos from Starbucks. This had many of our local franchisees up in arms as they feared for their businesses (never mind the fact that our dearest former PM was the one who encouraged local bumiputera businessmen to engage in franchise businesses).

The fact that our country is so small, means that any boycott that we engage in, would inadvertently only harm ourselves. If we wish to use economic power as a way to send a message to certain super powers, it needs to be coordinated internationally. Farish Noor mentioned in his recent blog, some previous examples where such tactics were successfully employed in applying economic pressure on political regimes.

In addition, the boycotts would need to be directed at very specific entities. A blanket ban on all American products is stupid as we will ultimately feel the problems ourselves. So, the boycotts should be targeted at specific companies that invest heavily in Israel and be coordinated globally to have any sort of affect on them. Now, that is the difficult bit to achieve.

As for myself, I have been doing a quick mental inventory of things that I buy. Surprisingly, I have already been avoiding many American made products, particularly those with investments in Israel. For example, I typically buy either AMD or VIA based computer systems and not Intel ones. As for software, I have avoided Microsoft products like the plague and they have investments in Israel too. So, even though I have not been actively trying to boycott US companies with investments in Israel, I have been doing it anyway.

I cannot avoid using Google though.

PS: I like the fact that our government had convened a special session of parliament to discuss the war perpetrated by a state that our country does not recognise. I wonder how does one send a message to an entity that does not exist.

According to a MalaysiaKini article today, Lim Kit Siang claims that, “Umno Youth chief aspirant Mukhriz Mahathir had committed sedition in calling for the closure of Chinese and Tamil primary schools. He pointed out the Constitution Amendment 1971 had imposed absolute prohibition on Malaysians from questioning the four issues, which includes anyone who propose the closure of vernacular schools.”

Does this mean that my previous blog entry might be seditious as well? As I am not a lawyer, I wouldn’t know for sure. So, looking at the Sedition Act 1948, it mentions in 3(1)(f) that:

“A seditious tendency is a tendency to to question any matter, right, status, position, privilege, sovereignty or prerogative established or protected by the provisions of Part III of the Federal Constitution or Article 152, 153 or 181 of the Federal Constitution.”

As we all know, Article 153 deals with the special rights and privileges of the Malays and Bumiputra while Article 181 deals with the royalty. However, Article 152 does deal with the issue of languages. So, let’s see what it actually says:

The national language shall be the Malay language and shall be in such script as Parliament may by law provide: Provided that-
(a) no person shall be prohibited or prevented from using (otherwise than for official purposes), or from teaching or learning, any other language; and
(b) nothing in this Clause shall prejudice the right of the Federal Government or of any State Government to preserve and sustain the use and study of the language of any other community in the Federation.

While Mukhriz had called for the closure of vernacular schools, he has not called for an end to the study of any of the vernacular languages. Quoting the M’kini article, “We can make it compulsory that the Chinese and Indians study their own language in their mother tongue while these two languages can be optional for Malay students to learn or we can make it compulsory for students to learn at least three languages.”

Obviously, our respected Lim Kit Siang and all the other politicians who are rising up to the defense of vernacular schools, have been misinformed. They are also in the business of spin and trying to play this issue up for their own political mileage. What Mukhriz is calling for is in fact an reinforcement of Article 152 of the constitution, a fairer and more sustainable way of doing things.

If there is anyone who is acting seditious, it is the Dong Jiao Zhong who have fought previous attempts at introducing vernacular languages in national schools. So, if Mukhriz gets elected in as UMNO Youth Chief and then gets appointed as the Minister of Education, I will support any attempts that he makes at phasing out the vernacular schools.

However, he must put his money where is mouth is and introduce a third-language into our schools. We already have the option of taking Arabic, French, Mandarin, Tamil in SPM. So, please introduce all these languages in schools and allow anyone to take any languages that they wish. It will make all our kids trilingual and that can only be a good thing, particularly for national unity.

I stand by my previous statement that vernacular schools need to be “burned down” (not literally of course!). However, we should also open up all our national schools to everyone, meaning that there should not be any measly quota restrictions anywhere. Let’s all play fair now!

According to this article in TheStar, “The Regent of Negri Sembilan, Tunku Naquiyuddin Tuanku Ja’afar, has called on royal immunity to be reinstated so the constitutional monarchy can be restored to its full sovereignty. He said that if the Ruler were to exercise his duties in a fair, just and impartial manner to protect the Federal Constitution, his sovereignty needed to be protected too.”

I think that this is a potential political coup, if only our political parties are able to look beyond their noses. If we wish to undo some of the things done in the Mahathir era, this is potentially one of the things that we need to look into. Our former PM had effectively clipped the wings of the monarchy and relegated them to a purely ceremonial role. However, if we wish to undo this, we will need to work through parliament.

And this is the political gem. As neither side of the house has a 2/3 majority, none of them can amend the Constitution on their own. In other words, there needs to be cross-party consensus and cooperation. If I was a PR/BN MP, I would think of using this as a potential platform for reaching across the table. The way I see it, it is a win-win situation for them.

If the other parties decide to tag along and agree to the amendments to the Constitution, the one who pushed for the amendment would score a public relations victory as they have shown the ability to work across party, to undo some of the harms done in the past. If the other parties decide not to agree to the amendments, the one who pushed for it would again score a political victory as they will be seen as defenders of the monarchy. At this time, when the monarchy is being seen as our last bastion of freedom, this can only be a good thing.

Of course, any amendments to our Constitution needs to be studied in depth before being made. There are reasons that the wings of the monarchy were clipped in the past. However, times today have changed and the younger generation of monarchs seem more educated and more professional in discharging their duties. The opposite has happened in our other branches of government, who seem to have become lackadaisical.

Anyway, this is just a random thought.

It seems that the show is starting…

RPK has just been arrested under the Internal Security Act, today. He obviously knew that it was coming and he has been well prepared for it. Whether or not it was right to detain him under the ISA is another question altogether. Some will think that the government has abused it’s powers while others may think that it was justified. We can argue about this till the cows come home and it won’t change a thing. Personally, I am not really sorry for him as he is well aware of the consequences of his action.

The person that I’m feeling sorry for is the reporter from SinChew who reported on the idiotic remarks made by one specific UMNO politician from Penang. All that Tan Hoon Cheng did was to do her job, which is to report incidents as they happened. Nobody has come out to deny the reports. In fact, the person who uttered the remarks has since admitted to doing what was reported.

So, it is really funny when the person who uttered the racist remarks, is still free while the reporter who merely reported the issue, is now under indefinite detention in Kamunting. I think that the government is doing her a big favour. Her future is now secured.

Since she is from Penang, all she would need to do is to run under a DAP ticket for either a state seat or a parliamentary seat. ISA detainees are not criminals and have the right to run for office. Then, even if she is still languishing away in Kamunting, she will need to be paid a salary as a politician. If she stays long enough in ISA and wins for two terms, she will then qualify for a full government pension.

And the latest news is that Teresa Kok, the MP who won with the largest majority in parliament of 36,600 is now under ISA detention as well. I cannot possibly imagine how much her majority is going to be in the next general election. They should have a new category in the Malaysian Guiness Book of Records for her. I think that her majority in the next GE is going to be enough to form a small town by itself, probably in the 50,000 range.

This is a live action comedy in the making. I should go get some pop corn and sit and watch.

I like to read TheStar when they report on the silliness of our parliamentarians on both sides of the divide. Recently, there was a minor stunt by our opposition MPs, who have decided to politicise my idea of cycling to work. According to the article:

Four Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) MPs – Tian Chua (Batu), Hee Loy Sian (PJ Selatan), N. Gobalakrishnan (Padang Serai) and Zulkifli Nordin (Kulim Bandar Baru) – cycled to Parliament Monday as a mark of protest against the recent fuel hike.

Tian Chua said move was also to “appeal to the Cabinet Ministers to understand the difficulty in using bicycles or public transport” in the country. “Changing of lifestyles is not as easy as what the Government claims,” he told reporters.

He said that he and the three others had taken about 20 minutes to cycle from Bank Negara to the Dewan Rakyat. “It’s a difficult task because the road transport system here is not designed for bicycle use and cyclists will face problems cruising around town,” he said.

The opposition MPs should not have called it a protest. As protests go, this is a very silly and gimmicky stunt. They used to do really good protests but this is certainly not one. They should have positively spun it as an act of support for the government’s call to ubah gaya hidup (change lifestyles). It can also be spun as being an environmentally friendly move on their part. But no, they had to spin it as a lame attempt at a protest against the price hike. Silly.

Then, we have another MP from the ruling coalition, who calls the stunt, a cheap gimmick that is suitable for kids. He could have come up with something better, and praise the opposition MPs for supporting the government’s position on fuel prices and changing their lifestyle. He could even say that the ruling coalition MPs would lead by example and cycle over short distances. But instead, he claims that he isn’t stupid and he isn’t going to cycle, which implies that only stupid people follow the government’s call of ubah gaya hidup.

Recently, our new Minister of Information has announced some minor changes to our dearest RTM television channels. Beginning the end of this month, RTM will broadcast live parliament proceedings whenever parliament is in session, between 10:00 and 10:30am daily.

Broadcasting parliament proceedings is a common practice in most democratic countries as a means to encourage accountability and transparency. It serves to inform and educate the public on various national issues and it also allows the voters to gauge how their various MPs are performing at their jobs. So, it is certainly a move that I feel is, although long overdue, thoroughly a welcomed one.

However, some friends have harped that it’s the time chosen is not a very good one as it’s during mid-morning when most people would be at work. But there’s obviously some rational in choosing that time.

Firstly, it’s probably the timeslot with the least number of advertisers. So, filling up with something as boring as parliamentary proceedings, would not affect the bottom line much. Then, it is a good opportunity to gauge interest before evaluating whether or not to start a dedicated parliament channel similar to BBC Parliament.

But the main concern would actually be the actual show that we will be seeing. I would think that the opposition members who have always complained about not getting any airtime, would relish the opportunity at getting free airtime now. Hopefully, they’ll later expand the timeslot so that we would be able to see more of the parliamentary proceedings.

Regardless, I do think that it is a good overture that there are some changes happening in government. Whether or not we’re moving in the right direction is yet to be seen. But it is still good to know that we are moving somewhere, one step at a time.

Actually, everyone should make sure that we support this move and tune into the parliament proceedings everyday. Somebody should actually automate the task of recording the broadcast at 10am each day and uploading it to YouTube. It is something that is fairly trivial to do, with the right knowledge and equipment.