A Pray for My Brother..

God..

Please bless his mother in the afterlife
Forgive her sin
and let her children`s pray to flow continuously for her

God..
Please grant him strength
to get through this difficult time
Please grant him patient
so he could think clearly and finish all things that have to be done
please grant him wisdom
so all his little brothers and sisters can follow him as an example

God..
Thee (alone) we worship; Thee (alone) we ask for help
Keep us on the right path

Dedicated to Roma
my roomate & "big" bro

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The Power Game in Perak

Two nail-biting events marked the onset of year 2009. The first one happened between London-St Petersburg when hard fought negotiation had occurred for almost 1 month to transfer unsettled Andrey Arshavin from Zenit St Petersburg to Arsenal FC. And it ended happily both for Arshavin and Arsenal.

What about the second one?

The second event don`t have any relation at all with football :)) but it occurs also in January and it is still ongoing until now -_-


Like most of commonwealth nations, Malaysia adopts Westminster system which is parliamentary system with monarch as head of state, both in federal government and state governments. So, the government can be replaced if it loses its majority. Therefore by just 3 seats majority, the opposition will only need 2 seats in order to bring down the government through by elections or defections..

It started at March 2008 when The Pakatan Rakyat (PR) coalition won a slim majority in Perak against UMNO led Barisan Nasional (BN) by merely 3 seats majority. At that time, DAP won the biggest seat for PR (18 seats) followed by PKR (7 seats) and PAS (6 seats). However the Perak constitution only permit Moslem as Menteri Besar (MB) and DAP has none moslem state assembly member, therefore Mohd Nizar from PAS became Perak MB. Almost every act of his administration (from land title to Camry issues) was critisised by the Malaysian mainstream press.

After that, events full of twist and turns, defect and re-defect occurs between end of December 2008 until today. It begins with Nasarudin Hashim, a state assemblyman from BN who defected to PR on 25 January 2009. After his defection, there was talk of another defections from BN to PR. However suddenly 2 PR Assemblymen from PKR, Jamaluddin Mat Radzi and Mohd Osman Jailu, went missing on 31st January 2008 and shockingly declared 3 days later that they "became independent" but gave their allegiance to BN. They were joined by Hee Yit Foong the following day and also surprisingly... Nasarudin Hashim who re-defected back to BN! Then, Sultan had audience with both parties and decided to install Zambry Abd Kadir as a new MB from BN. However, Mohd Nizar is still claiming until now that constitutionally he is the rightful MB.

Recently, Perak Assembly speaker from PR, V Sivakumar, also added more controversy by suspended Menteri Besar Datuk Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir and his six excos from the state assembly for 18 and 12 months respectively for contempt of the assembly. Thus if it is well within the speaker rights, who is the real MB of Perak right now??

Seeing all this twists and turns, as an amateur political observer I`d like to give my 2 cents :P

Defect and re-defect
One of the characteristic of Westminster system that I`ve previously mentioned is the dangerous of small majority or a weak coalition that will easily bring down the government. Worst of all, if the fall of the government is caused by "bribery-triggered" defection. Not only it is morally wrong but it will also cause instability and even chaos

So how to prevent it? It is by preventing the defection itself using an "anti defection act". Therefore if a member of parliament (or state assembly member in this case) want to switch sides, he/she will have to resign his/her seat and contest in an by-election. In other word, let people decide if your defection can be justified :D

Bypassing the State Constitution
As BN gained majority in Perak State Assembly after the defection had occurred, I found it was such a blunder by DPM Najib Razak to directly meet The Sultan of Perak in order to bring down the PR Government. If BN truly command majority of the state assembly, they should pass vote of no confidence to the current MB in order to force his resignation (which is in line with the constitution). So the question is why they didn`t do it? To save time or they weren`t sure winning the vote of no confidence?

Snap election
Well.. seeing all this chaos, I think it`s better for the Sultan to dismiss The Perak Assembly and hold fresh election.. (and hopefully the winner gets large majority :P)

Presidential System
Generally I still love presidential system compare to Parliamentary system :))

References
How The Perak State Government Fall
Perak Constitutional Crisis (from wiki)
Westminster System that is used in Malaysia and most of commonwealth nations (also from wiki) Read more!

Outlandish-Look Into My Eyes

Outlandish is a hip-hop band from Denmark. It was formed in 1997 and consist of Isam Bachiri, Waqas Ali Qadri and Lenny Martinez. All the band member have cultural background from outside Denmark and even Europe. Isam has Morrocan background while Waqas and Lenny have Pakistani and Cuban-Honduran respectively. The group can be considered as a contemporary nasheed group because of its tendency to voice problems associated with moslem in western countries and also moslem in general

Look Into to my eyes is one of their single from Closer Than Veins Album. It tells us story of Palestinian child who compares between his/her condition with his/her peers in USA. The song is originated from poem written by Gihad Ali, a volunteer with the Arab American Action Network (AAAN) and the Palestine Solidarity Group based in Chicago.

I found the video clip of this song is unique and touchy. The video clip uses Red Riding Hood story as an analogy for Palestinian-Israel conflict. Maybe because the poem uses a child point of view so it is best to visualizes the lyric by using popular children story, (i.e. The Red Riding Hood).In the video clip, The red riding hood is a Palestinian girl with kafiyeh and slingshot while the big bad wolf is an Israeli soldier.

Enjoy the song.. and don`t forget to pray for our brothers and sisters in Palestine, especially in Gaza Strip..

Video Clip Link

Look Into My Eyes

Look into my eyes
Tell me what you see
You don't see a damn thing
'cause you can't relate to me
You're blinded by our differences
My life makes no sense to you
I'm the persecuted one
You're the red, white and blue

Each day you wake in tranquility
No fears to cross your eyes
Each day I wake in gratitude
Thanking God He let me rise
You worry about your education
And the bills you have to pay
I worry about my vulnerable life
And if I'll survive another day
Your biggest fear is getting a ticket
As you cruise your Cadillac
My fear is that the tank that has just left
Will turn around and come back

Yet, do you know the truth of where your money goes?
Do you let the media deceive your mind?
Is this a truth nobody, nobody, nobody knows?
Has our world gone all blind?

Yet, do you know the truth of where your money goes?
Do you let the media deceive your mind?
Is this a truth nobody, nobody, nobody knows?
Someone tell me ...

Ooohh, let's not cry tonight
I promise you one day it's through
Ohh my brothers, Ohh my sisters
Ooohh, shine a light for every soul that ain't with us no more
Ohh my brothers, Ohh my sisters

See I've known terror for quite some time
57 years so cruel
Terror breathes the air I breathe
It's the checkpoint on my way to school
Terror is the robbery of my land
And the torture of my mother
The imprisonment of my innocent father
The bullet in my baby brother
The bulldozers and the tanks
The gases and the guns
The bombs that fall outside my door
All due to your funds
You blame me for defending myself
Against the ways of my enemies
I'm terrorized in my own land (what)
And I'm the terrorist?

Yet, do you know the truth of where your money goes?
Do you let the media deceive your mind?
Is this a truth nobody, nobody, nobody knows?
Has our world gone all blind?

Yet, do you know the truth of where your money goes?
Do you let the media deceive your mind?
Is this a truth nobody, nobody, nobody knows?
Someone tell me ...

Ooohh, let's not cry tonight, I promise you one day it's through
Ohh my brothers, Ohh my sisters,
Ooohh, shine a light for every soul that ain't with us no more
Ohh my brothers, Ohh my sisters,

American , do you realize that the taxes that you pay
Feed the forces that traumatize my every living day
So if I won't be here tomorrow
It's written in my fate
May the future bring a brighter day
The end of our wait

(pause)

Ooohh, let's not cry tonight, I promise you one day it's through
Ohh my brothers, Ohh my sisters,
Ooohh, shine a light for every soul that ain't with us no more
Ohh my brothers, Ohh my sisters,

[with kids]
Ohh let's not cry tonight I promise you one day is through
Ohh my brothers! Ohh my sisters!
Ooh shine a light for every soul that ain't with us no more
Ohh my brothers! Ohh my sisters!

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