Oh Malaysia, Land of Prejudice

I am like William Poster who came out from his house one day and found billboards all over the place with ‘Bill Posters will be prosecuted’ and he was so paranoid that he dares not come out of his house.

That we are reminded of our racial origin and what to expect from that is so well known that it is second nature to us, when filling in forms for any purpose; when in school, higher institutions of learning and at work.

Now, we have to be careful what colour T-shirt we wear in case the police are given orders to look out for some ‘trouble-makers’ wearing certain colour. There is already a law on assembly of people, which require permit, and we are not talking about large numbers, just a handful. So it is at the discretion of the mighty police and the ‘rule by law’ Home Minister. His power craziness includes banning an opposition leader from 5 km from Parliament; arresting him before the time given was up; and arresting a journalist ‘for her own safety’; just to give some examples of his judgment.

The latest news was a big joke in town: "A police beat base located in the Chow Kit area of downtown Kuala Lumpur has been shut down because the “presence of criminals could make it unsafe” for police officers." (Well! The presence of criminals makes it unsafe for the rest of us too but guess we can't rely on the police?) Marina Mahathir's comment in brackets.

According to Lim Kit Siang, there are crises in confidence in IGP, AG, judiciary, ACA, PM, DPM, well, just about every pillar of society. For the latest – the appointment of Zaki as CJ, he even asked if ‘it is the last nail in coffin of Abdullah’s judicial reform’.

It is like completing a jigsaw puzzle favouring the ruling party. Under such circumstances, the headline ‘Rulers defend social contract’ adds as icing to their cake. We are effectively warned not to question too much.

For those who question Anwar’s list of MPs, if they were unable to understand the complexities involved in ensuring a smooth take-over, then I would say they are being naïve. He has to consider the insecurity of the Rulers. If those on the list were merely from Sabah and Sarawak, it would effectively put the non-Malays or non-Muslim MPs in the majority.