ELECTION - USA, November 2020. A TAPESTRY inspired by the EAGLES "Hotel California"

 

HOTEL CALIFORNIA - EAGLES

On a dark desert highway

Cool wind in my hair

Warm smell of colitas

Rising up through the air

Up ahead in the distance

I saw a shimmering light

My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim

I had to stop for the night

There she stood in the doorway

I heard the mission bell

And I was thinking to myself

This could be heaven or this could be hell

Then she lit up a candle and she showed me the way

There were voices down the corridor

I thought I heard them say

Welcome to the Hotel California

Such a lovely place, such a lovely place

Such a lovely face

Plenty of room at the Hotel California

Any time of year (any time of year)

You can find it here

Her mind is Tiffany-twisted (mind twisted with materialism and status)

She got the Mercedes Benz

She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys

That she calls friends

How they dance in the courtyard

Sweet summer sweat

Some dance to remember

Some dance to forget

So I called up the Captain

"Please bring me my wine"

He said, "We haven't had that spirit here since 1969"

And still those voices are calling from far away

Wake you up in the middle of the night

Just to hear them say

Welcome to the Hotel California

Such a lovely place, such a lovely place

Such a lovely face

They living it up at the Hotel California

What a nice surprise (what a nice surprise)

Bring your alibis

Mirrors on the ceiling

The pink champagne on ice

And she said, "We are all prisoners here of our own device"

And in the master's chambers

Joe and Kamala

They gathered for the feast

They stab it with their steely knives

But they just can't kill the beast.

Last thing I remember

I was running for the door

I had to find the passage back 

To the place I was before

"Relax", said the night man

"We are programmed to receive

You can check out any time you like

But you can never leave"

LONG LIVE DEMOCRACY.

LONG MAY SHE/HE REIGN.

Will Malaysia pick up a few tips and hints on the theory and practice of Democracy in the West?

I cannot turn into a sweet little, old Malay lady.

Tomorrow I return to my spouse's kampung after spending nearly seven months in my kampung.  Our abode is in the Midlands, in Leicester where our very dear friends live though some have died.

He's a very lucky Scotsman, my spouse.   The land of his forefathers is still there,  intact and safe though that security did not come easy.

This line marks the pride of the Scottish: I have withstood the shock of England, of Denmark, of Rome and the world.

I so wish my Tanah Air  could have reclaimed her dignity and pride after the shock of  Portugal, of Holland, of Britain and the rest of the world claiming stakes and the resources of my Tanah Pusaka.

But this we have in common.  The people of Scotland can sing with pride :
The eyes of my sons , their bright swords are glancing.
Triumphantly riding through  ruin and death.

Our Police Force and our Armed Forces have done the same, like Lieutenant Adnan from the Malay Regiment who  sacrificed his life and that of his brave comrades in holding back the Japanese in Singapore in February 1942.

But the Scots were proud of their sons and celebrated and remembered their sacrifice :  Bold hearts and nodding plumes wave over their bloody tombs.
  Malaysia was also proud of our sons, who gave up their lives during the Communist Insurgency so that the future generation could live in peace and prosperity.  The nation remembers them each year , remembering those who did not come home :

Alas the Malaysian Rakyat of today, led chiefly by the 22.6 % cohort (see AsH's posting on 27 October 2019) of Malaysia's Anak and Bangsa Malaysia have decided to spit on their tombstones instead; when the ashes of  the "Great Leader" of the Communist Insurrection were brought back surreptitiously into Malaysia in defiance of the law and the heartbeat of the Nation.  While the Scots can sing with pride Scotland the Brave,   these Malaysians who come from all levels of society, including our Leadership should hang their heads in shame.  What cowards and ingrates!

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In 1967, when I graduated from Singapore University,  my Abah advised me to  "balek" to Malaya to his and my Tanah Pusaka.  But I did not heed his counsel.  Finally, forty seven years later I realised where I really belonged.

But since 2009 when I finally received my Kad Pengenalan  (after 5 years of waiting)  almost everything that my Abah and I held dear in our Tanah Pusaka have been battered and torn by the shameful politicking and misguided  and self-serving politicisation of race and rights.

"Every nation gets the government it deserves" (Joseph de Maistre).

However the inhabitants and government of Malaysia do not deserve this generous and bountiful Tanah Pusaka .

Who will find the parang kontot and slay the burong hantu, shaitan and hantu jembalang?

In his inimitable way, P. Ramlee has brilliantly described the fate of this country.

Celaka punya penyamun, Sial!
Bikin rosak ana punya programme.

Buah amra masak bergetah,
Baharu na'mengkal gugor sendiri.
"Di pechah2 lalu perentah"
Itu - lah 'akal pena'alok negeri.        (From Kalong Bunga, Buku 1 oleh Za'ba)

Balik Kampung Tanam Kacang

AsH balik kampung for Hari Raya in Kay-El and discovered Malaysia Baru - New Malaysia - hence my makeover spelling for the capital of a New Country.

With a memory like an elephant, a septuagenarian elephant at that - it reminded me of the landslide victory of Tony Bliar (oops Tony Blair) and the Labour Party in 1997 after a long period in the twilight zone when Margaret Thatcher and the Conservative party held sway from 1979 to 1997 with her free market, capitalist, monetarist policy.

Eventually, the British public had had enough of Thatcher and her cronies in the privatised Conservative culture.

Tony Blair came along like the Avenging Saviour for the weakened Labour Party caught in the shenanigans and mire of  'Socialism' and  Trade Union politics.  He modernised the Labour Party and stitched up a synthesis between capitalism and socialism and called it NEW LABOUR. It worked especially as it kept the middle class happy and Blair (and the Labour Party) ruled the roost from 1997 - 2010.  Like Ronald Reagan he was a teflon leader because political dirt could not stick to him - especially the invasion of Iraq in 2003.  AsH also believes Malaysia has a good share of teflon leaders!!  We Malaysians are as good as the West where modernisation is concerned.

If I had been in Malaysia Lama (or Malaysia Buruk?) on May 9, 2018 I would be utterly confused as to my choice of vote.  Deciding between BN and PH is really no choice at all.  It's like deciding between LABU and LABI, between the hantu or the jembalang.

Yang Mana Satu Idaman Kalbu??

Again our magnificient P. Ramlee has pinned the situation right down to a T.

 

Tukang masak aku tak sudi,
Tukang cuci menyakitkan hati.

As for misai tebal, ular sawa : as my dear ole mum would put it - selisih malaikat 44!!

But Haji Bakhil has hit the nail right on the head.  Tak habis habis asmara chinta (asmara politik?) Lagu nasihat lebih baik - bagaimana datang duit, darimana datang duit, bagaimana nak jadi orang kaya...

But that is what Malaysian politics has been all about for the past 50 years or so - the actors in Parliament, the protagonists in the social media, the (political) sifus and warlords, the taukehs and tycoons, the bankers, the lawyers, the academics, the CEOs, the Immigration Department, the handbag purveyors and the financial movers and shakers.  P. Ramlee could see all that coming - bless his cotton socks!  In my book he is the most Eminent Person that Malaysia did not have.  After all, if fate had not taken away his life too soon, he would be only 89 today - just a few years younger than the PM of Malaysia Baru.

I must admit that in this GE 14  I am on the same wavelength as Haji Bakhil's daughter :  Hati dah bosan.  Tidak berkenan sebab perangai tidak siuman.

And so in abject despair AsH has to submit to this ultimatum.

Biarlah setan atau pun hantu

Cukup bulan makan batu.

Biarlah hantu atau jembalang

Balik kampung, tanam kacang.

And here's the grand denouement :

Macham mana aku ta' makan,   says the Snake.

Sudah memang makanan kami.

Democracy delineated, re-delineated and reviewed.

Read this news three days ago.  Oh dear, I thought.  More hot flush from the Yellow T-shirts.

Where were these avengers, the voice of the people, by the people, for the people, when we needed them; to articulate and represent us at the dire and sorry state of our water supply in Selangor, when in early March we were deprived of water for 4 whole days plus plus?  How can the ordinary rakyat  remain bersih without our supply of water?  For the two geriatrics, we only found out about the water cutoff when we brought our two cats to our vet and Aida the receptionist inquired if we were affected by the closure of supply in our area
.
Got home, checked the letter box, there was no  letter informing us of the disruption. Checked with our neighbour - she was just as much in the dark.  Checked with my sister at Bukit Mulia, she was uncertain too as she had had no warning in the post.  So just two days before our departure, the two geriatrics rummaged for all the water containers they could find to store enough water for upstairs and downstairs - both for our use and for Osman our house and cat sitter who would be taking over when we leave. Was this due to a drought like a few years back?  At least then we had a respite when water was turned on at night. Has global warming affected Selangor more than any other part of the country? No, it's due to a typical Malaysian malady - just sheer mismanagement on the part of our corporate and political leaders.

Anyway AsH is just letting off steam about life in our sultry and torrid tropical Selangor.

I found out later what was involved in SPR (see the image above).  SPR is the Suruhanjaya Pilihan Raya or Election Commission (EC) - who is responsible for constituency re-delineation, which has to be conducted every 8 years.  It was done in 2003 for Malaya and Sabah, and in 2005 for Sarawak.  Thus it was due for the coming General Election.

This review has everything to do with the theory and practice of  DEMOCRACY, a system of government we inherited from the British who in turn had taken its mantle and practice from the Greeks. 

However laudable democracy is, I applaud H.L. Mencken's view "Democracy is a form of worship.  It is the worship of Jackals by Jackasses".

I must declare my ignorance of the practice of delineation and reviews of electoral boundaries in various democracies.  Sometimes it's described as gerrymandering.  At  times it is claimed to resolve electoral bias and to equalise electoral constituency sizes.  But in the light of the hi-tech collusion of Cambridge Analytica and Facebook to target the voting and the voter during the Presidential election of the  planet's richest and strongest democracy, redelineation and re-jigging looks quite anaemic.

Nevertheless on 28 March, Malaysia's Election Commission's redelineation report was passed in the Dewan Rakyat - despite a great deal of  robust outcry from the Opposition and their Yellow Legionnaires.

Well, Singapura in 2015 also conducted a similar exercise.  It had a different appellation, it was called the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee (EBRC).  Amongst the changes made; there were more Single Member Constituencies (SMC).  Two SMCs, Joo Chiat and Whampoa  and the Moulmein-Kallang GRC(Group Representative Constituency) vanished.  Naturally all incumbent governments will find sound, solid reasons for their manoeuvres.  The tamperings with the SMCs and GRC were regarded by the Opposition and their supporters as a move by the People's Action Party to "cut their losses".  But outpourings of anger and dissent in Singapura were muted unlike in Malaya. Perhaps this can be attributed to a shortage of supply and demand for Yellow T-shirts in Singapura !

As for the electoral system in USA, it was quite acceptable and legal for a Presidential candidate (Hillary Clinton) to win the popular vote by a 3 million vote margin, lose the Electoral College by 74 votes and yet she had to concede victory to Trump!  That's democracy?

The Electoral College is made up of all the states in the Union. Each state, large or small is granted three electoral votes - from the two Senators and one representative.  There was one delineation, the 23rd Amendment, whereby the capital Washington got at least three electoral votes.  The Census Bureau attempts to balance the number of representatives for a changing population (what Americans describe as 'census-based reapportionment' )  but despite this, Hispanics and Asians remain disadvantaged  in the size of their representation.  If this is democracy in the USA, why do we coloured practitioners have to be whiter than white?

In UK, the Conservatives have been complaining about the pro-Labour electoral bias. I shall not attempt to delve into the mechanics of the bias.  Factors like abstention (which is supposed to help Labour to get more MPs for its votes than the Conservatives)  and the effect of having a third party like the Lib-Dem seem to play a part in the 'mismanagement' of democracy in UK.

I find it interesting that  some members of the Opposition in Malaysia advise voters to abstain from voting in the coming General Election.  I reckon this is part of a voting strategy for victory in an election in a democracy.  I am certain all our political parties have their in-house  (or maybe external too?)  electoral mechanics to service and manipulate the pokery-jiggery necessary to win the next and all other elections.

While we poor sods, the rakyat are brought up on the milk of Abraham Lincoln's platitude of  "Democracy is the government of the people, by the people, for the people" this cynic prefers  to include this caveat by Oscar Wilde.  His version is: "Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people, by the people, for the people".

And on the prospect of being further bludgeoned, also beware of these 'hurrah words' like Freedom, Equality, and  Human Rights.

In the next few months in Malaysia, expect more sightings of the likes of Snoopy and the Red Baron.  But despair not, lying in wait are several Great Pumpkins to help whoever with their old and new battle plans.

It is a general popular error to imagine the loudest complainers for the public to be the most anxious for its welfare.  (Edmund Burke, 1729-1797)

Trumpomania

Got back to our Leicester abode  a week ago and landed smack-dab in the middle of the countdown of the election for the 45th President of the United States.  So we stayed up (also because of jet lag) for the nail biting results and was quite pleased that the uneducated "basket of deplorables"  (Clinton's description of Trump supporters) gave the self-righteous hypocrites and educated liberals of Clinton's ilk a good kick of reality.

Above all, it is so satisfying to see how the election has exposed all the bigotry and extremism around issues of race, religion (Islam in this case), and immigration in this font of the Free World.

I applaud the victory, because now those non-white, non-Christian, non-liberal nations who have been accused of various malfeasances can heave a sigh of relief to know that they are not the only  'basket of deplorables' on this earth.   My word!  "Deplorables" also exist in the Free World and they are claiming and winning their ground.    And true to form (just like the well tutored 'liberals' in the non-western countries) the Clintonistas (and Brexit Remainders) are very sore losers: they take to the streets to denounce the results, and they claim the electoral system which is enshrined in their Constitution is flawed and needed to be revamped.  Does that sound familiar?  Are we witnessing an American Spring? , a Squeaky Clean Demonstration?

It's just another scenario of saucy geese and ganders -"What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander")



 On getting back to Leicester I snapped this photo when I was on my way to the Co-op.

The image indicates a parking lot for the disabled owners of the car.
But it's so tempting to put another interpretation. Is it the car/driver that is disabled or the potholes, that symbolize the damaged and unrepaired surrounds of where the car is parked.  Or maybe both!  I suppose we could apply the same obfuscation to hurrah-words like 'democracy', 'freedom' and 'equality'.  

To me it's so symbolic of the state of the richest countries in the world.  The election of Trump as the president of the most powerful country on this planet should teach Malaysians several lessons.

1. Debunk the myth that western liberal  democracies - their lifestyle, and their culture - are worthy of imitation, to be transplanted into all nations.  Western democracies have shown again and again that they will not spare the rod to turn other economies and culture to get tied up to their apron strings. Note most recently the fate of Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Yemen, and Syria!

If they are capable of setting the dogs of globalisation and neoliberalism on their own working class (whites) and their poor, why should they lose sleep over the emaciated economies and societies of the rest of the non-white, non-Judaeo-Christian world?

George Monbiot has this to say about American democracy in general and Trump specifically.

...... the US ...... now suffers the worst of both worlds: a large electorate dominated by a tiny faction. Instead of republics being governed, as Madison (America's fourth president) feared, by "the secret wishes of an unjust and interested majority", they are now beholden to the not-so-secret wishes of an unjust and interested minority.  What Madison could not have foreseen was the extent to which unconstrained campaign finance and a sophisticated lobbying industry would come to dominate an entire nation, regardless of its size.

For every representative, Republican or Democrat, who retains a trace element of independence, there are three sitting in the breast pocket of corporate capital.  Since the supreme court decided that there should be no effective limits on campaign finance, and, to a lesser extent, long before, candidates have been reduced to tongue-tied automata, incapable of responding to those in need of help, incapable of regulating those in need of restraint, for fear of upsetting their funders.

Read more in  https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/oct/26/donald-trump-outsider-system-elections

(Wannabe political fashionistas in Malaysia should beware of dipping their hands into donations boxes from abroad - they could turn into the 'tongue-tied automata ' of the American empire .... or is that what they actually desire?)

2.   For many reasons, Trump has been demonised as a monster, succumbing to the lowest common denominator of all that American (and Western) civilisation holds dear.  Trump, in the liberal perception, is a racist, a misogynist, a demagogue and an islamophobe.

But Donald J Trump did not invent Islamophobia, and neither is he its only purveyor and practitioner.  In denouncing Trump's Islamophobic klaxon-call, 'educated' Muslims are losing the context of  the theory and practice of  Islamophobia.

Whether the ruling elites are Republicans or Democrats, antipathy to Islam - and by association, the Palestinians and Gazans - holds them together.

Ash has, in the past, wrote several postings on this issue and here are several extracts to support my conviction.  As I said earlier, anti-Islam sentiments did not begin with Trump or in the United States.


Extract 1

In the beginning - from the pre-Christian era : Arabs = Islam.  Therefore Islam lies and deceives.

Extract 2

From Roget's Thesaurus :

Extract 3

From some time ago ......

Extract 4

From not too long ago ......

3.  Trump's Wall.

Two thousand years ago, Emperor Shih Huangti constructed The Great Wall of China to protect the people and territory of  China from invasions.

In 122 AD Hadrian's Wall was constructed to keep out the native (and barbaric) Picts and Scots from invading the Roman province of Britannia.

Remember the Berlin Wall?

More of the above from  http://www.dailysoft.com/berlinwall/history/why-the-berlinwall-was-built.htm

And here's the Mother of all Walls in the 20th/21st century!

 : 

West Bank - Getty

More from Ash's posting:  http://anaksihamid.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/cull-of-2012-part-3c-finale.html

The Israeli Apartheid Wall is different from all other Walls.  The Israeli Wall is a prison corralling people in the West Bank in the world's largest prison.

We don't hear any bleatings of anger and protests from the Republicans or Democrats or from the global Human Rights Industry over this wall.

So,what's so special about the wall to be built by the United States 45th President?  As he also intends to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, he might as well pick up tips for his Wall from Israel.  But just make sure it's cost- effective.  Don't employ labour from Israel or the US - get the Mexicans to do it quick and cheap.

So Trump intends to expel 2-3 million illegals from Mexico.  In this case he is simply continuing President Obama's legacy.

Readhttp://www.alternet.org/election-2016/mexican-wall-already-here



4. Tags for Trump and Gender : Women, misogyny, glass ceilings, Muslim women.

Nafs nafs.  I shan't assault my readers with more renditions of the same song.  But here's my favourite.  A cartoon is worth a thousand articles.

This is taken from a brilliant book , The True and Barbaric History of the Benighted States of America by Jim Hughes - Quartet Books Limited, 1973. Great Britain.  I bought it from a car boot sale at Saddington, Leicester sometime in the early 1990s.

Liberation theology for Hawaiian and all women.

Liberation is available not only to Hawaiian women but to all who seeketh the golden chalice of choice.

My grave oversight - I forgot to record the source of this image.  All I can recall is, it came from a serious article on the internet.

Finally, we  (have to) look forward to the reign of the 45th President of the United States.  The  so-so 44th will move to greener pastures.

Long live Mr. President Donald J Trump - " the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States and of the Militia of the several States when called into the actual service of the United States."

Hold on. I hear a little voice.  Words referring to a sacred text that you know so well.

Please Mr President, could you find a way to correct a historical calumny - against the First People of this nation.  If you can make laws to protect the dignity and human rights of Semites (of Judaic origin) and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transexual citizens, perhaps you could erase the reference to us as  "the merciless Indian savages whose known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions."

From the American Declaration of Independence -  indicting the king of England for trampling Americans' rights and liberties.

When you can grant us this dignity, we can truly and heartily roar your clarion call  'Glory Hallelujah' and Make America Great!