Hands Dirtying Act

And here we thought that Najib is on swell terms with Goldman Sachs.

Maybe there is a pouting moment here, what’s with the whole controversy swirling around 1MDB and Goldman Sachs' role.

Anyway, I digress.

This is in relation to the supposed reactivation of govt equity investment firm , Valuecap, “to shore up the country's stock market”.

The amount – while certainly more than, urm, RM2.6 b – is pretty small when compared to the money pumped by the Chinese government to “prop up (its) plunging stock market.”

Of, course China’s equity market have tumbled like an unstable pack of cards line atop each other to start with.

Didn’t do much help and the bigger fear would then what if the government then decides to stop hoarding and pull out.

Our stock market have seen better days, but as is forever the economic cycle, there will be bulls and there will be bears.

So why the RM20b injection?

And where is this fund coming from?

Why the selected stocks and who decides?

At what point which Valuecap stop, urm, propping and starts selling again to recoup?

Or is there going to be no recoup?

Can Najib simply, simply take RM20b from the national coffers to pump into the share market which is supposed to be market driven without the Parliament's okay?

RM20b is not exactly peanuts and last generations.

Why is the govt getting its hand dirty again with such a commercialized move? Doesn’t 1MDB provide any experience on the folly of doing so?

Or are we missing a bigger picture here?

Not us, of course.

Lest We Forget: Hope was also in the Pandora's Box

I think it’s gonna be until death do us part lah with the Cabinet reshuffling.

Not that there was any hope with all the smiles and the bravado shown, but the minor rumbling showed a glimmers of the balls that should’ve been with the men (and women) supposedly the leaders of this fine country.

And, Kadir Jasin spoke too soon about the Task Force being hard to sabotage with Gani Patail out of the picture and a new guy in place.

Is Nur Jazlan a Deputy Minister? What happens to the Parliamentary PAC now?

This is a classic middle finger to the largely middle, liberal class who have been (I think) rancorous on the whole 1MDB saga.

“If I go down, you get Zahid Hamidi” kind of statement.

Not that Muhyiddin (Malay first, Malaysia second) is any better but at least he shown a measure of balls on the issue of 1MDB and the alleged transfer of monies into personal accounts.

(Not conscience, though. Had it been this, MY would have quit the Cabinet looooong ago..)

So what happens now?

God knows but it sure looks like either an NFA or a write off is in the offing. 

** Footnote: Art on Death from DC's Sandman by Jason Paz.

Penentuan Pahala Posa aka PPP.

Kalau ikut kata Menteri di Jabatan Perdana Menteri Jamil Khir, posting ni akan mengurangkan pahala puasa kalau ada sebut pasai 1MDB yang ada berunsur fitnah atau seangkatan dengannya.

Like, Forward, Komen dan lain2 yang berkaitan yang banyak2 tu pun sangkut gak, katanya di sini.

Al maklumlah 1MDB kan ada jasa kepada agama dan negara.

Agaknya kalau tanya kemusykilan tapi dengan nada penuh sinis kurang tak yek? Kurang jugak rasanya.

DAP punya Tony Pua seronokla sebab dia tak posa. Boleh belasah sungguh – sungguh bab ni.

Sarawak Report punya Clare Rewcastle Brown pun okay gak.

Kita – kita yang Melayu Muslim ni sangkut la. Rafizi, SakMongkol, Aspan Alias, Kadir Jasin, Apanama dan lain - lain. Depa - depa la. Ramai baca lak tu..

Oleh sebab itu, saya akan posting pendek sangat2 hari ni dan ianya bukan pasal 1MDB dan isu - isu berkaitan dengannya.

Sebaliknya, saya nak cerita pasal beli komik Marvel “Secret Wars” (yang dulu, bukan yang sekarang; gambar sebelah kanan) dapat beli buku terbaru Tunku Halim “ A Malaysian Restaurant in London” (nun di sebelah kiri) murah 20%.

Nak tahu saya beli kat mana?

Kat Borders Mutiara Damansara.  Ala, Borders. Yang manager Melayu  Muslim dia tu pernah kena hambat ngan Jawi pasal buku la jugak. Cerita lama lah tapinya sebab la ni dah lepas dah.

Okay lah. Dah cukup setakat ni. Tak nak posting banyak sangat. Letih posa.

Kepada Pak2 Menteri yang berposa, selamat berbuka nanti, Insha-allah. 

Kalau nak bunyi Arab, iftar. Kat Kedai Mamak operate 24 jam pun boleh. 

Pahala dapat asalkan ber, ummm, iftar awal waktu no.

PASt Distrust

I must admit that the antics of PAS of late (especially since the passing away of Tok Nik) has made it easier to reconcile with my deep innate distrust of any organization that uses the religion – in this case, Islam - as its clarion call.

Doing so puts every Muslim who does not believe in your stands, principles, visions in a dilemma, doesn’t it.

Fed with a constant dose of P Ramlee movies, Western children books (I hear my favourite author as a child, Enid Blyton is a racist. Really? Explains a lot) and comics, Japanese Manga and then a stint (freedom, yayy) of living in the UK as an impressionable young adult, I’m quite the liberal.

I’ve sobered (love for comics still around) on the liberalist ideals; re-entrenched my faith in my search for a balance outlook pre and post life and am praying that Allah will accept me as I am, as I try, as I will forever will accede that my life is His.

I worry when some segments of the Malaysian Muslim community seem to lose this perspective with holier than thou attitudes and judgments.

My thinking now is that PAS is seeing all these changes as something that is ripe for the taking.

Some analysts are saying that the PAS – who lost its supposed (I say so because I do not know any except for Dr Mujahid and Khalid Samad) progressives – is going down the political drain; that its gonna be a party kampong, again.

Seriously, you have to really listen to the grounds before making this dangerous assumption.

My belief is that it is in fact positioning itself to grow from this groundswell of mostly young Muslims looking for directions in the theological sense.

Look at the so called IS' success in recruiting thinking, bright children from Europe to take up arms, to cross borders in answering the religious clarion call and you’ll see where exactly I am going.

The world doesn’t make sense to many of us.  We see the bad apples getting Scot free, making a mockery of the rule of law.

Those with any sense of decency will want a solid authoritative take on where things are going, and for Muslims, where else could they turn to but Allah.

Alas, the danger lies in the fact that we often need to look upon others - the so-called Ulamas – for directions, and we’ve seen how the Ulamas in this country have seemingly taken partisan stands, populist causes et cetera.

As a political party supposedly espousing principles based on Islam, PAS is quite finely poised to fill this vacuum.

If given a choice between a wholly liberalised Malaysia or one that grounded on Corporate Greed or a supposed Utopia based on religious principles, which do you the above-mentioned lost / losing it / needing directions majority would opt for?

Take a wild guess.

Then again, I may well be reading things way, way pessimistically.

Nazir Razak could come up with an ACE of a political party that caters for every bloke; all hunky dory and Malaysians live happily ever after.

Hmmph. In the meantime, Selamat berbuka to all my fellow Muslims.