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Politics & government Society

[2975] Do not blame Muda by too much

Ralph Nader was a popular figure in some of the progressive parts of America. He gave speeches in Ann Arbor several times when I lived there, and once ahead of the 2004 presidential election, he had to defend himself from vote-splitting accusation. In 2000, Al Gore lost the presidential election to George Bush with the narrowest of margin, with the Naders’ Greens won substantial votes as the third party candidate. Given that Nader and the Democrats’ bases overlapped, it was easy for bitter Democrats to claim that Nader took votes away from Al Gore, and paved the way for Bush’s presidency. Nader defended himself by saying that if he did not put himself on the ballot, those who had voted him would likely have not gone out to vote anyway.

I see Pakatan Harapan supporters blaming Muda for vote-splitting, and for easing Perikatan Nasional’s advances in Selangor. For a number of seats PH lost, the loss margin was smaller than the votes Muda won, even as Muda lost all of their deposits.

And it is easy to dislike Muda this time around. The episode in Bukit Gasing was Muda’s act of self-sabotage. Their asset declaration exercise was less than truthful, and so, to me, insulting. More than several candidates were nothing more than rich kids with little understanding of society or policy. Their campaign messages were jumbled up badly, confusing local, state and national policies all at once. I came out of the 2 weeks campaigning period from a position of neutral-to-mild skepticism near the beginning, to that of a dismissal by voting day. The latest set of candidates undid some good work earlier ones like Lim Wei Jiet have done.

Yes, it is easy to dislike Muda but Nader’s defense applies here.

The low turnout suggests PH bases were uninspired this time around. PH’s pandering to the deep conservatives on the far side is one possible reason for these people not to go out and vote. And there are people, who voted for PH the last round, openly said their would vote for a third choice as a sign of protest.

So, if there was no Muda, it is hard to say whether those Muda votes would have gone to PH or BN.

But more than that, for every vote Muda got, there were more PH voters who did not go out and vote. Blaming Muda is an excuse to ignore the much bigger point: PH base is dissatisfied. PH is committing the same mistake PH 2018-2020 did: trying to get the votes they could never get on the far side of the spectrum, at the expense of the middle voters and PH bases. And these voters protested and did not bother to go out.

This dissatisfaction has to be addressed.

Categories
Pop culture

[2974] Watching Oppenheimer

During my graduate years, I was surrounded by friends having extensive knowledge of films. Inside their mind stored what seemed to be a thick encyclopedia, with complete entries of titles, dates of release, actors and actresses, directors, languages, plots and every tiny things of interest. While I tried to keep up during our conversations over meals, or just lazing over grass during bright summer days, my less than broad education meant I regularly found listening instead of contributing. It was my luck these friends were kind and happy to entertain quizzical looks from me, and what might have seemed like noobish questions.

I have since developed a little more interest in moving pictures. Parts of that education have allowed me to name every Christopher Nolan’s movie now. Though I cannot say I have watched all of them, the ones I have watched impressed me at a very deep level. Nolan’s The Dark Knight Trilogy redefined Batman into a serious superhero movie, that could spark serious discussion of watch-ifs, and the motives of each character. In The Dark Knight, the second installment of the trilogy, there is an application of game theory. His doing of Superman through Man of Steel raised the prestige of the superhero, after years of being dragged through the ditch on television. Inception is mind blowing, playing with my understanding of reality. I remember watching Momento when I was young, and did not understand it (due for a rewatch). Interstellar is amazing, and it redefined the appearance of black hole in the popular mind, and made everybody a modern lay physicist. The Prestige, I just love it, and the movie probably convinced Hugh Jackman that he could be more than just Wolverine (or Van Helsing). I thought Jackman grew after, in Les Misérables, in The Greatest Showman, and in Logan. As for Tenet, let us ignore it here.

Together with Dunkirk, I think his latest, Oppenheimer, are probably the least cerebral among the whole collection. The storyline is direct, and there is not much of a twist. That does not make both of them any less amazing.

But I think, what makes Oppenheimer stands out out of the two is its sheer noisiness. I may suffer from incomplete recollection to make a complete comparison, but I would venture to claim his latest does not give my ears a rest from the very beginning, right up to the successful test of the atomic bomb at Los Alamos in the middle of the movie. For a movie that runs for three (freaking) hours, that is quite a long exposure. Not one second is there a pause. There is always background music, or it might better be described as loud pounding foreboding ambience music.

Combined with a fast paced story, and a dialogue that keeps going, it feels like watching a race car movie! When I was in the cinema watching it, my heart was beating faster than usual trying to match the tempo of the ambience music. It is a confusing feeling, given that Oppenheimer is a very talky movie that shows off its nerdiness by citing Einstein, Bohr, Teller, Feynman and several other big names, with the only big visual spectacle is the atomic bomb test explosion.

When the silence came, it came as a relief. But of course, seconds later, an even louder shockwave came afterwards.

And I watched Barbie afterwards. You should too. Your ears need that rest with happy songs.

Categories
Politics & government

[2973] Harapan must not let Pakatan pussies speak for the coalition

We all understand why Pakatan Harapan needed to ally with Barisan Nasional. At the very end of the last political cycle, we were faced with stark choices: have an imperfect alliance between the reform-minded individuals and everything the grand old party presents, or live under an incompetent conservative regime that would rewrite what Malaysia would mean so completely. Given the world as it was at that particular point of that, the imperfect alliance was the preferred option.

Such imperfect alliance will always present Pakatan members and supporters with challenges. Compromises will have to be made and that is completely understandable and reasonable.

But not all things can be compromised, and compromises must involve both sides, not just one. If only one side compromises, and willing to compromise everything, then something is wrong.

That is where some Pakatan members and supporters are today.

Whenever new political appointments were made for the benefits of Umno, some Pakatan supporters would use the imperfect alliance as an excuse. “This is not a Pakatan government. It is a unity government.”

Now, there is movement to get Najib Razak, barely several months in prison, pardoned. Disappointingly, some Pakatan supporters now use the same template excuse without even thinking what it means. Too eager to defend the Pakatan government against any criticism, the template is used as get out of jail card for every single problem the government faces. They do not even bother to right the wrong. So fearful of any threat of instability to the government, they lose their backbone. They bend over without making any effort to push back.

Those are who I call Pakatan pussies. No backbone. No accountability.

These spineless pussies, when faced with difficult questions from Pakatan supporters, would go back to their list of lazy excuses and say “do you want a Pas government, or Pakatan? Choose.”

Betting chips down when they are not

The stark choices Malaysians collectively, and Pakatan supporters specifically, faced in November 2022 came to being when the chips were down. It was the nuclear option at the very end of the road.

We needed the nuclear option to sharpen the mind of many. “Pas or Pakatan” was a simple decision tree to let people discover for themselves the consequences of November choices. Veil of ignorance, so-to-speak. You present the many with the destinations, and make them work for themselves the roads towards the preferred destination. These allowed them to see the world as it was, and accept the decision made, however unpalatable the road was.

We are no longer in November 2022. The pressures are much less intense. The timeline is easier. In fact, attempts to get Najib Razak pardoned have not even started earnestly.

Yet, these Pakatan pussies are inappropriately using the nuclear option, betting the chips down too soon.

Red lines

Pardoning Najib Razak, in my mind, is a red line in any compromise between Pakatan and Barisan. I have at least three reasons why that is so.

One, he and his supporters have not expressed any remorse. In a society where corruption is still rampart, example must be set so we can begin to reset our morals. To free an unremorseful man is the wrong message to send in pursuit of a moral society.

Two, it opens Pakatan Harapan to partisan attacks from Pas and their allies. So far, Perikatan Nasional, Bersatu especially, appeared have been crippled. They are now in search of an issue to rejuvenate their political fortune. They have tried to make EPF withdrawals as a rallying point. They have not been successful there. Pakatan Harapan seemingly blessing the pardon—does not matter explicitly or implicitly—will be the one point Perikatan needs. Pas (and Umno) did that with ICERD and the death of  Muhammad Adib Mohd Kassim, and came back from the dead in 2019.

Three, the long run is not as static as many make it out to be. In November 2022 when decisions had to be made in a matter of days if not weeks, the decision tree in which the nuclear option was represented was static. This is especially so when election had been concluded. It is a mistake to think the same statics will work over longer time horizon. People… voters… adapt to situations. If you keep using the nuclear options too many times, then people will begin to dismiss it and become immune to any similar exhortation. Additionally, it is quite easy to imagine more and more parties entering the arena competing for Pakatan’s base as a sign of dissatisfaction. At the very least, non-voting will be an issue. This has happened before not too long ago. In other words, in the long term, there is a real risk of current Pakatan voters deserting the coalition.

The final point is not a mere theoretical musing. In 2009 until 2013 when Najib was busy promoting various liberalization that he appeared to be a liberal, his men and women dismissed concerns about Umno’s voting base. “They would have no where to go.” That was quickly proven untrue in 2013, which partially led Najib to turn around and embraced racist politics more rabidly.

Message: do not take your voting base for granted.

Get a backbone and push back

Compromises have to be made. But there have to be red lines. Pardoning Najib is one of those red lines. Pardoning Najib risks the long-term viability of Pakatan Harapan, and we need Pakatan Harapan to succeed in order to push back racist and fascist forces.

Pakatan needs to push back. We need to tell Umno we will not support any pardoning, and in fact, opposes it. We can make it difficult, and raise the cost of them doing so.

And please, no kop-out by saying it is a royal prerogative. In so many ways, the royals are accountable to the people too. Rakyat itu Raja.

At the end of the day, Pakatan Harapan will have our urban fortresses. Right now, it is Umno that faces annihilation with Bersatu and Pas outside having the grand old party for lunch. It is Umno that faces existential crisis, not Pakatan. Remember, that crisis is Najib’s own doing. Too many in Umno are too blind to see what outsiders already know. Here, Pakatan needs to advise Umno the folly they are committing.

If the stubbornness continues, Pakatan needs to be careful so we do not sink with Umno.

This is why we need to push back.

And this is why Pakatan Harapan cannot let these Pakatan pussies speak for Pakatan. Not only they are spineless, they are myopic too.

Categories
Personal Photography This blog

[2972] Writing interrupted

I have not been blogging, or writing, much in the past few weeks. There are several reasons for this.

I am getting more responsibility at work. On top of that, I am suffering a little bit of writing fatigue after finishing up a book that I have been writing for the past 6 or 7 years (going to print soon!). With routine broken, getting it back up is not easy. But I would be lying if all the reasons behind such laziness are all professional-sounding. I bought Football Manager 2023 in late February, and it is a time-suck.

But this blog begged me for attention yesterday, after a WordPress update broke something that forced me to manually go through my database and repair it for 1-2 hours. Exhausting but it also proves to me that I still care about this blog, even if people have moved on.

So, it needs an update!. Let me post something to celebrate (belatedly) the reopening of this part of the world.

Some rights reserved. By Hafiz Noor Shams. Creative Commons.

I visited Phuket and its surroundings a week or two a few months back. This is the small water settlement of Ko Panyi, located on the northern side of Phang Nga Bay. If I remember it correctly, the journey from Phuket takes about two hours by boat.

Categories
Pop culture Sci-fi

[2971] Of Imaginur and Vanilla Sky

There are several post-1990s Malaysian movies that really impressed me. I want to say Malay, but the heavy English-Malay mixed medium convinces me to use the label Malaysian instead. But very, very few if any plays with your mind the way Imaginur does.

Imaginur, showing at the movies now, starts with a relatively linear storyline. But what I noticed first was the aesthetics. Being a child of the 1990s, I love the aesthetics. Equipment and vehicles seen are all quaintly in the way the 1990s is. Old Macintosh, maybe Commodore 64 or something similar, and other machines with yellowing white exterior exposed too much to sunlight decorate the room in which the hero meets a medical expert. The hero drives a dulling white (or was it red?) 5th generation Corolla, with the same sunlight turns the car’s paintwork to the same color as the Macintosh, or Commodore 64, in that room, probably in Petaling Jaya. I actually want to say one of those depilated 1960s homes near LRT Bangsar, but I digress.

The settings, for much of the movie. tells you nothing about the time. You would assume it is in contemporary period. 2023 or somewhere thereabout. After all, the clues in the background suggests all characters appear to have a tough life. A struggling copyeditor not earning enough to buy a new car. A psychiatrist dismissed as a quack by the government and so, failing to get research grants. With so little money. he is unable to purchase decent computers and equipment; hey, government hospitals still use Windows 2000 after all. There are KTM Komuter station, and various MRT running through parts of Petaling Jaya. Yes, it all appears contemporary.

Then things get weird. A Groundhog Day-like loop happens. And then another loop. And another. Each storyline reloops itself, except there are minor changes to it. It is as if there is an unreliable narrator telling the story repeatedly, and the protagonist realizes there is something wrong with his reality. He thinks he is losing his mind.

It keeps going several rounds, making it all confusingly intriguing, that you get suck into it, trying to solve a puzzle. What the fuck is happening?

I have seen similar puzzle before. The presence of a mind machine reminds me of anime Paprika. But Paprika is not a puzzle Inception is, a movie that borrows heavily from the former. I want to draw parallel with Inception, but my mind brings to a time long ago when I found myself watching Vanilla Sky on one miserable snowy Minneapolis night.

Yes, Imaginur plays with your mind the way Vanilla Sky does.

I exited the cinema, humming (really, singing) Peter Gabriel’s Solsbury Hill, because I was convinced Imaginur messed up my mind the way Vanilla Sky did. And I like Vanilla Sky.