Categories
ASEAN Politics & government

[435] Of case for a Malaysian intervention in southern Thailand

Things seem to be heading for the worse close to home.

A few days ago, a few Buddhists were killed as revenge to the unnecessary death of roughly 80 Muslims in southern Thailand. I don’t see the problem subsiding as everyday since the trouble was aggravated has been marred with death related to the issue.

Some in Malaysia have voiced outrage over this. There were a few protests here and there and the most notable was recently held in front of the Thai embassy in Kuala Lumpur. No unwanted incident happened there but it does reveal that part of Malaysians, the Malay Muslims at least, are quite concerned with the development there. And it is not just Malaysia. Practically, every other Muslim nations have somewhat voiced their regret on Thailand’s mishandling of the issue. Even the United States expressed concerns.

What bothers me the most is not the mishandling per se but rather, I am worried with the nearness of the conflict to the Malaysian border and history. So far, most of regional conflicts have occurred well off Malaysian soil. Even when a conflict spilt into Malaysia as what had happened in Sabah a few years ago, it happens at a place where the population density is very low and the effect on Malaysia is negligible. If it gets worse, the worst thing that could happen is a diplomatic row, of which is kind of fun to participate in whenever it concerns Singapore. And whenever all that occur, I may only care for an issue without the fear of knowing Malaysia might become too entangled in it. To say the least, all the diplomatic issues that had risen in the past were much less of an issue when compared to the outbreak of the recent avian flu or the infamous Coxsackie virus.

But the resurfacing issue in southern Thailand brings a different kind of feeling to me. This is simply because the southern Thai states are more culturally similar to Malaysia than to Thailand. And in many ways, the issue affects Malaysia.

Mahathir on the other day suggested autonomy power being granted to the troubled states. It is a sensible option but the administration in Thailand quickly brushed the idea off the table and accused Mahathir of interfering with Thailand’s internal problem.

This is no doubt part of Thailand’s internal issue but it does concern Malaysia. It is similar to the situation when Russia had to drop its paratroopers into Belgrade during the NATO bombing in order to help the people that shared a trait of Russian culture. Malaysia can’t stand quiet while the undercurrent occurs. Malaysia must actively participate in this issue.

At the same time, with the mercury rising in southern Thailand. It is only comprehensible to expect the tension between the Muslims and the Buddhists there to be rather high. Muslims in Malaysia have expressed their opinion but the Malaysian Buddhists haven’t but I in no way expect the Buddhists to stay quiet if the Muslims overreact. However, I trust rationality will overcome any discomfort between Malaysian Muslims and Buddhists. But this possible misunderstanding in Malaysia provides the more reason for Malaysia to lend Thailand a hand.

Of course, Thailand will be outraged by this notion but Thailand must understand that the world is a continuous system. Something that happened somewhere, will affect something else somewhere else, regardless of the magnitude. Whatever Thailand chooses to do, Malaysia will be affected. Furthermore, local trade in the vicinity of the Malaysian and Thai border will hurt if things get worse. Without trade, development along the border will suffer. Local trade must flourish for the benefit of both Malaysians and Thais and for healthy trade to occur, cooperation towards peace is a must. Therefore, it is only acceptable for Thailand to allow a Malaysian intervention. Thailand cannot deny that.

In the near past, Malaysia has acted as a mediator in the region. Malaysia was the one that brokered a ceasefire between the Mindanao rebel and the Philippines government. Malaysia has also been of a help in Aceh and Myanmar. It would be uncharacteristic of Malaysia to not assist Thailand in this issue.

p/s – Totti is an arse.

Categories
Politics & government

[434] Of four more years

A few networks have claimed that Ohio called for Bush. The official result should be the same.

The race was close but this time, the Republicans convincingly maintained and improved their influence in both the White House and the Senate. I don’t think anybody could dispute that.

To me, the result is not surprising though it is disappointing. But who would have imagined it would come down to Ohio? I certainly didn’t.

But talking after the fact is always easy. Therefore, I’ll stop here and go to straight to bed.

Oh shit, I can’t get the phrase four more years out of my head. This is going to be a long night. Remember Arnie shouting four more years at the Republican National Convention in New York?

I am hearing just that. Sometimes, it hurts to know democracy works both ways. At least, Barack Obama managed to get a place in the Senate.

Alrighty! Hillary Clinton for President in 2008! There is no way Darth Cheney gonna get the White House.

p/s – it’s just too bad that the proposal to change the current voting system in Colorado into proportional system was struck down. In Michigan, Proposal 2 received sufficient ayes and thus, marriage is being conservatively defined. Proposal 1, which is on gambling, according to somebody from NPR, was creamed.

pp/s – at 0304, NPR projected Michigan to call for Kerry but that is useless with the current situation in Ohio. Boy, we should have invaded Ohio when we had the chance a long time ago.

p3/s – well, Kerry conceded at around 1500.

From the Michigan Daily.

Categories
Liberty Politics & government

[433] Of November 2, 2004

Kerry or Bush?

The latest Pew’s polling shows Bush would win by a small margin. However, the standard error is nowhere in sight (actually, I’m too lazy to calculate it) and therefore, I don’t know how well the poll goes in predicting the outcome for tomorrow. Furthermore, the survey seems to represent popular votes rather than predicting the electoral college result. If that is the case, then the poll is probably as useless as the popular votes that Al Gore received.

Regardless of the result, I am not sure if I strictly prefer Kerry to Bush anymore. I don’t like Bush but Kerry doesn’t seem to be sufficiently good.

One reason for this is that I do think Bush is doing a good job in some area.

I don’t like taxes and I do believe taxation is an excuse for the government to steal our money. With this, it is only possible for me to agree with Bush’s tax cut. Moreover, Bush’s tax cut does stimulate the economy. The budget deficit however is another story – it is Bush’s failure, as was Reagan’s failure, to realize the notion of a limited government, of which, another thing that I believe in.

Bush however can’t be blamed too much for the deficit. When it comes to the question of cushioning the recession, an expansionary fiscal policy is a way to do it. Furthermore, nobody, neither Clinton nor Bush, is to be blamed for the recession. It was just unfortunate for Bush to come into office when the business cycle took a dip. But the unnecessary so-called war on terror does worsen the deficit and that is certainly Bush’s fault.

With the exception of Bush’s spending spree, I agree with most of Bush’s economic policy. In fact, this is the only thing I agree with Bush and as a graduating economic major, this counts a lot in shaping my opinion.

At the same time, I am not a citizen of the United States and I recognize myself as an environmentalist (In fact, I love to call myself as a libertarian green or maybe a green libertarian but I’m a green first and libertarian second. What does it mean? Frankly, I have no idea. I just like labels). Bush’s unilateral moves on many issues and his bad environmental record are enough to sway me into the anybody-but-Bush camp.

Kerry on the other hand, seems to be sitting well with the greens and the world community at large. And with him, it is easier to imagine the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol by the US somewhere in the future.

But then, his economic policy will probably not move towards more free-trade – already he promised to make outsourcing more costly. In the name of efficiency, capital and labor should be allowed to roam freely. Any friction towards free flow of trade should be eliminated, unless there is a very strong reason for some restriction.

More importantly, I think most of Kerry’s plans are almost impossible to be implemented without raising taxes. He is promising to do a lot of things and at the same time, promises to not raise taxes on the middle and lower classes. He probably realizes that he has to raise taxes on somebody and so he said he is going to raise the taxes on the higher income level earner. This kind of taxation is called progressive tax rate – the tax rate goes up as the income level goes up. I don’t know about most people but in my view, punishing somebody for being successful is wrong.

So, Kerry or Bush? I don’t know anymore.

Nader? He is hopeless unfortunately, as with other candidates.

So, if I could vote, who would I vote for?

The only real candidate, My Teddy Bear!MTB for President of the World!

Whatever the outcome, the one quote to rule them all:

I voted for it before I voted against it.

It couldn’t get any better than that.

p/s – apart from the Presidential stuff, people in Michigan will be voting on at least two other issues. Proposal 1 is about gambling and Proposal 2, the highly debated issue of gay marriage.

I don’t agree with gay marriage but at the same time, I don’t feel the need for me to go against it. If they amend it, I’ll feel good because I’m a Muslim (no matter how liberal I am). If they don’t, I’ll be fine too because I’m a libertarian – I respect personal freedom.

Categories
Photography Sports

[432] Of Sparties

The hype,

the teams,

the down,

the fans,

the weirdos,

the disappointment,

the equalizer,

the lobster,

the chicken,

the overtime,

the oh-my-god-more-overtime,

the final-overtime-in-progress,

and the celebration,

are all for the orgasm!

Sing it!

It’s great, to be, a Michigan Wolverine!

It’s great, to be, a Michigan Wolverine!
It’s great, to be, a Michigan Wolverine!

For more information, please go to Yahoo! Sports. But, quoting Lloyd Carr:

“It was one of the greatest games I’ve ever been in. It’s unfortunate somebody has to lose.”

p/s – see you next year Sparties. Can’t wait to kick your ass for the gazillionth time.

Categories
Photography Politics & government

[431] Of Noam Chomsky and Illegal but Legitimate lecture

I went to see and hear Noam Chomsky in person today.

His lecture, entitled “Illegal But Legitimate”, was held at the Law School, which was a mere five-minute walk from my place. Hence, I left my place approximately six or five minutes earlier before the lecture started. For those of you who need an introduction on him, the excellent Wikipedia provides more than sufficient details of him. Support Wikipedia. Bookmark it.

Heaven forbids but I thought I was early. When I first got through the Law School’s doors, I was surprised to witness an extremely large mass trying to take a peek into the auditorium where the lecture was held. When Ralph Nader came the other day, there was a big turnout but it was nowhere as large as Professor Chomsky’s lecture.

The auditorium has three doors and the doorways were packed. In fact, even the windows were packed. Many, having not the chance of getting into the auditorium, heard the lecture from outside and inside the windows.

Didn’t your mother tell you to stop biting your nails? Ooo, shiny head…
I was rather discouraged upon seeing the state of the moment until I saw a few uncivilized folks standing on a sturdy wooden table located just outside auditorium, in front of one of the doorways. Badly wanting to hear what the professor had to say, I decided to join the uncivilized. Who cares about being civilized when one has the chance of being enlightened eh?I saw the podium through a doorway, from the top of the table. Alas, I couldn’t hear anything. It was as if the auditorium was completely designed to prevent any sound originating from the podium from traversing outside of the auditorium. By this time, Professor Chomsky hadn’t given his lecture yet. Instead, some unknown person, probably some faculty member from Michigan, was probably giving a much unneeded introduction to the much celebrated professor. I didn’t know for certain what that person was saying since I simply couldn’t hear anything.

So instead, I had a conversation with a girl who was standing on the table right beside me until unfortunately, a lady came and shooed us off the table. Moments later, she and a few others removed the table to somewhere else. Sigh…

With the table out of the picture, I forced myself into the doorway. I got nowhere far since the doorway was packed. Despite my effort, I still heard naught though I managed to position myself in a way that the podium was in my field of view.

Worse, a f-guy was pushing me from behind! And I swear his dick was on my ass! And I am not sure whether he was interested in the lecture or me!

Uncomfortable with his intimacy, I intentionally elbowed the person. He was gone within minutes to my luck. Come to think of it, it would be ugly if there were a confrontation. But the end justifies the mean; he was gone and I was happily struggling to listen to the lecture.

Noam Chomsky later came up and a loud applause followed. In fact, the professor received a standing ovation even before he said anything. By this moment, I managed to get closer into the auditorium but I was still somewhere at the doorway.

For a good fifteen minutes, I was standing, watching the professor without hearing anything. It was a sad situation but I managed to take a few pictures from the doorway. Here is one.

I’m hearing Noam Chomsky! I think I’m in heaven!

There was probably a war of attrition happening among the pack of people but my resilience paid off. A few gave up and hence instantly allowing me to forward farther into the hall. More importantly, the resilience gave me a chance to hear the lecture.

When I got thus far, Professor Chomsky was talking about Nicaragua and how the US government manipulated the situation there via illegal means toward their advantages. I don’t remember the progression of the lecture properly but he also talked about the situation in Vietnam, Kosovo and Afghanistan. The conquest of Florida by the US was also mentioned. Somewhere along the line, he mentioned how and why the US refuses to submit itself under the International Court of Justice. The situations given in his lecture were to reflect the title of his lecture – illegal but legitimate. He argued that the current US administration truly believes in this “illegal but legitimate” ideology. This sounds like Bismark’s realpolitik in a different light to me.

The lecture most likely went for an hour and 15 minutes with a questions and answer session lasting for about half an hour. One of the questions that were asked concerned Clinton’s impeachment.

The question roughly went: Why Clinton was impeached because of lying about his sexual misconduct but Bush isn’t being tried despite the latter lied to the public about the situation in Iraq?

The professor, whether it was by wit or by accident, replied by saying, roughly, lying to the public is not the supreme sin. The hall burst into laughter upon hearing that. You will need to watch the lecture to understand the joke because the supreme sin (or something like that) was somewhat defined in the lecture.

Once the Q&A ended, the crowd quickly dispersed but I stayed around to get closer to the professor. Apparently, there were a number of people thinking of what I was thinking – most wanted to get his autograph. Some merely want to shake hand. I merely wanted to take a picture of him.

The professor up close.

If you are interested in hearing the lecture, there is supposed to be a recording on the University’s server. However, when I visited the site, the link was bad. I don’t know when it will be up.

And tomorrow, the former Prime Minister of Norway, Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland, will be giving a lecture on sustainability. With all midterms done for the moment, I intend to give myself a treat.

p/s – this is what I meant by inside the windows.