squeak. speak. roar!

April 30, 2008.

Press statement on parliamentarians using ‘monkey’ and ‘bigfoot’ as derogatory terms in the Dewan Rakyat

On behalf of all the monkeys and bigfeet (plural of bigfoot, no?) I feel insulted that the titular name for these two creatures were downgraded as a form of name-calling or insult used in the first 12th parliamentary session today.

Referring to a Malaysiakini report that stated:

Opposition DAP chairman and lawmaker Karpal Singh began by questioning the way the session was being held when he was distracted by a government MP, Bung Moktar Radin.

“I hope Bigfoot… does not disrupt the proceedings,” Karpal taunted him. “Bigfoot, sit down.”

Bung sprang from his chair, shouting: “I am bigfoot, you are big monkey.”

I call upon the esteemed MPs names above to apologise to monkeys and bigfoots in Malaysia for using those terms as insults for each other. Surely they would not like monkeys/bigfoots when commencing their parliamentary session to call each other ‘Karpal’ and ‘Bung’.

Imagine if this were to appear in the independent forest daily, ‘Hutankini’:

Opposition chairman and lawmaker Monkee D began by questioning the way the session was being held when he was distracted by a government MP, Bigfoot Snagwire.

“I hope Bung… does not disrupt the proceedings,” Monkee taunted him. “Bung, sit down.”

Bigfoot sprang from his chair, shouting: “I am Bung, you are big Karpal.”

Clearly this is not a healthy political culture amongst beasts and men alike. I sincerely hope the two MPs (Karpal and Bung, not Monkee and Bigfoot) will apologise to the monkey and bigfoot community for their uncouth usage of their species designation.

Sincerely,
Polytikus
(on behalf of Monkey, who has bigfeet)

Monkey: Apologise to me now!!! :)

Did you guys watch the first ever live broadcast of Parliament today?

I go into office around 10.30am and caught a glimpse of the TV where the PM was answering a question. I asked if it was ending and the boss said, “It just started”. Next thing I knew when he was done with his answers, Kit Siang got up and asked the Speaker why aren’t supplementary questions allowed. The banter went on for a few minutes with Kinabatangan attempted to polish PM’s shoes and the Speaker trying to justify why supplementary questions were not allowed and Kit Siang raising his voice some more. It was amusing.

In the end PM got up and asked the Speaker to allow supplementary questions and the Speaker picked Marang’s Hadi Awang. Hadi went on with a loooong question and by then, the telecast ended at around 10.45am.

When it ended, we were all like, “Wtf! That’s it?”.

Screw it man, gimme the 90 minutes! :) Oh and MPs, watch out if you pick your nose, we can see that all on live TV :)

Tony and Jeff aren’t the first ones to blog from Parliament as I have done so countless times when I was covering Parliament.

I guess the only difference is that I am no MP :P

Congrats Tony, Jeff and all other MPs on their swearing in today! We will be watching closely :)

Why are they calling it ‘Question Hour’ when the duration being telecast live is only 30 minutes? *face palms*

Telecast may go 90 minutes

KUALA LUMPUR: The 30-minute live telecast of “Question Hour” will be extended to the full 90 minutes if there is demand, Information Minister Datuk Ahmad Shabery Cheek said yesterday.

“We are prepared for this and we have put in place the infrastructure,” he said yesterday after visiting parliament to inspect the facilities for the live telecast.

“We don’t want it to distract people from work.”

Ahmad Shabery conceded that some MPs might use the opportunity to attack the government.

“There may be some who will play to the gallery. We have to take the risk. When you talk about openness, it is like opening the floodgates… some rubbish is bound to come through.”

Asked if the telecast would be sponsored by the private sector, he said this was up to RTM.

He said RTM had placed three cameras in the House at a cost of RM1 million, instead of depending on the in-house closed circuit television cameras, for better visuals.

He declined to give the total cost of the live telecast.

My two sen?

I have watched the British equivalent to this so-called ‘Question Hour’ when I was in UK. It is called BBC Parliament and it is a dedicated channel for parliament enthusiasts. Trust me, only the extremely bored homemaker with nothing else better to watch on telly will turn to that channel. To even imply that people will be distracted from work because of this ‘Question (half an) Hour’ is ludicrous! Dear minister, I humbly beg that you stop taking the rakyat for fools and stop being so condescending on those who genuinely want to watch the live telecast with the sincerest of intentions.

Does the minister not see why people are demanding to watch parliamentary sessions live? It is because we’ve lived in a country where secrets and shadows are prevalent. Transparency stops on the road leading to Parliament where we can see our elected reps enter the august house but we don’t know what he or she is doing. Our elected reps are voted in by us and they are being paid by us so for all intents and purposes we have a right to see what they are doing in parliament that is worthy of votes again!

Of course if he means that we will be distracted because we will finally get a chance to witness the antics that our parliamentarians get up to, then I can understand why he said it would distract people from work. True enough, it is rather entertaining to watch our politicians call each other names and having the Speaker decide on pointless motions that have little bearing on Malaysian lives over serious national issues. But that’s besides the point.

The minister also says, “There may be some who will play to the gallery. We have to take the risk. When you talk about openness, it is like opening the floodgates… some rubbish is bound to come through.” I absolutely agree with him. Some will use it to their best political mileage. I won’t be surprised if we see product placements, advertisements etc when RTM is airing it. I am unclear whether the rubbish will come from the Pakatan or Barisan but I would most certainly bet my bottom dollar on the latter :) This is sound judgment based on past experience of course. The same guys will always make the same noise and spew the same filth. But hey prove me wrong! I guess Uncle Kit can chillax this time round as there are more people to help him out. He should enjoy the sessions and let the young ones learn. Of course he’s welcomed to show ‘em how it’s done :)

And what is this RM1 million being spent to pay RTM and their three cameras in the House? RM1-freakin-million!!! I’m consulting professionals on this. RM1 million is too huge a sumf or me to accept :( And the minister declined to give the total cost of the live telecast. So much for ‘openness’.

C’mon people, are we going to give the minister the ‘demand’ he wants? :)

Just to quickly point out that Dr Setev Shaariibuu is hardly ever ‘calm’. He is always agitated, frustrated and his expression strained. If you can find a picture of him smiling anywhere, let me know.

From NST:

Father loses cool, slams ’slow’ trial

PETALING JAYA: He is normally calm and composed, but having waited so long and still not having seen justice done, Dr Setev Shaariibuu simply lost it yesterday.

The father of murdered Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu slammed his fist on the table during a press conference yesterday and threatened diplomatic consequences should the trial of the accused not be fair, free and speedy.

Setev fought hard to hold back the tears. That his eyes watered was clear to all, but he put on a brave front - until his outburst.

In general, I think people who haven’t covered a particular issue well enough or followed it from the start should refrain from making assumptions especially on a person’s character, demeanour or disposition. This only misleads the reader. Even when I cover events that I am unfamiliar with, I try to refrain from giving it too much ‘colour’ and I stick to the facts as much as I can. I’d rather have my story be boring and dry to read than to misrepresent or overinterpret the situation. There’s always a fear of getting called up and being fucked you see. Being too creative is a no go for me.

In this case, readers would think Setev is suddenly highly strung over the way the case is being handle and that this is the first time he has erupted before the media. Fact is, he has been frustrated and emotional since day one. I have seen many, many eruptions. And the Malaysian public doesn’t know it because the mainstream hardly reported his statements when he was here for the trial which began last July. He continuously lashed out at the media for not reporting his statements especially TV3 true enough, he repeated himself again yesterday (on the media, not TV3).

However, I think this time round, he has understood the implications of his actions and I noticed how he chose not to comment on the case too much. Sure he still whacks Abdul Razak Baginda but at least he isn’t outrightly saying “he is guilty, he killed me daughter and he should burn in hell”. Setev used to say things like that and it was hard for me to even write my stories. Even more so when he claims he dreamt his daughter Altantuya had told him who killed her. Now that was tough.

So trust me when I say I am thankful for his statements on humanitarian request and the leads on Mongolia wanting to sever ties with Malaysia. These are substantial and factual information that the Malaysian public needs to know, not how Setev suddenly had an outburst in the middle of a press conference. But there is always a tendency to focus on personalities and never the issues, eh?

What we have is a Mongolian mother of two and interpreter for the Malaysian government being blown up to pieces and her aggrieved father wants some form of monetary assistance for his sick wife and grandson. So stories that leads with surreptitious innuendos on one’s character? Sorry, tak jadi, dong.

I’m sure Setev is calm at times but this is most certainly not the case in front of the Malaysian media. And in his next trip back to Malaysia, I most sincerely wished he and his daughter get the justice they so deserve. Maybe then we’ll see calmness and ‘composed-ness’ :)

If you haven’t been to the Parliament website, that means you ain’t seen the new mugshots of our new YBs :) I decided to do the ground work and bring you some of the pictures that was taken recently during their briefing session. Witness how wide some smiles can be and how stoned some can look :)

In no particular order:-

Jerlun’s Mukhriz Mahathir. “I wish I had more hair”.

Bagan’s Lim Guan Eng. “Hehehehe, muahaha, I’m gonna rule Penang!”

Permatang Pauh’s Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail. “No, aku bukan Kit Siang”

Bukit Bendera’s Liew Chin Tong. “I delivered for DAP, gimme a raise!”

Jelutong’s Jeff Ooi. “Yes, I am handsome without specs. And I blog.”

Sungai Siput’s Micheal Jeyakumar Devaraj. “I defeated Samy, yes”

Batu Gajah’s Fong Po Kuan. “Yeay, to my third and last term”

Serdang’s Teo Nie Ching. “I look like the next Teresa eh?”

Puchong’s Gobind Singh Deo. “I aim to make a lot of noise in parliament”

Kelana Jaya’s Loh Gwo Burne. “Basically, like yeah, ummm … right, so yeah”

PJU’s Tony Pua. Where is that famous toothy grin? :)

Subang’s R Sivarasa. Almost Mr Bean-ish. lol.

Shah Alam’s Khalid Samad. PAS’ new poster boy.

Kapar’s S Manikavasagam. Smile lah sikit, Mike!

Kepong’s Dr Tan Seng Giaw. Our next deputy speaker, I hope!

Batu’s Tian Chua. Omg, he looks like a school boy.

Wangsa Maju’s Wee Choo Keong. And he looks like a gangster. lol.

Segambut’s Lim Lip Eng. Hiding his joy somewhat.

Lembah Pantai’s Nurul Izzah Anwar. Look at that skin!!

Bandar Tun Razak’s Khalid Ibrahim. “I just woke up”.

Rembau’s Khairy Jamaluddin. “I just got some”.

You ain’t experienced politics yet if you haven’t been to Parliament! For those who want to visit but don’t know how, here is some information from their website that may assist.

The letter of application for a visit must be addressed to:

Head of Administration for Parliament,
Parliamentary Department of Malaysia,
Parliament Building,
50680 Kuala Lumpur.

The application letter must include the telephone and fax numbers of the applicant.

All visitors must adhere to the dress code while in the Parliament Building.

• i. Men – to wear the traditional Baju Melayu complete with songkok and sampin or long trousers, a long-sleeved shirt and batik shirt a tie. Jeans and t-shirt are not allowed.
• ii. Ladies – must be properly attired, decent and the length of outfits must be below the knees. Jeans, t-shirt (body fit) and sleeveless blouse are not allowed.
• iii. Students – must be in their school uniforms.
• iv. Visitors are not allowed to wear sports shoes or slippers.

Visitors are required to show the approval letter at the entrance of the Parliament Building.

Visiting group leaders are required to furnish a complete list of members of the group, including full name, identity card number and home address.
Note: only those names in the list are allowed entry.

Visitors are required to obey the visiting time that has been jointly agreed.

Visitors are not allowed to:

• i. Bring children (under six years old)
• ii. Smoke within the Parliament area
• iii. Take photographs while inside the Parliament Building.

The ‘no smoking’ rule made me laugh. Parliamentarians fag all the time! Sometimes, cigars. And worse, exhale in your face! lol. Ah, all the fireworks will be starting soon be it on or off the 30 minute live coverage when Parliament begins on April 28. Let there be no more debates on the war in the the Middle East being chosen over how poorly we performed in the global corruption index!

I woke up to a phone call this morning. It was from a high school friend whom I haven’t seen for almost two years now. She asked if I was still with Malaysiakini and I said “yes”. She then related that Rustam A Sani passed away early this morning in his house in Gombak and needed to inform Malaysiakini about it. She said Sdr Rustam was her grand uncle. As I was still groggy from my sleep it didn’t hit me as hard but when I woke up proper and read her SMS with details to his house and the funeral, my heart sank.

Political analyst, writer, academician and ex-politician Rustam A Sani passed away early this morning in his house in Gombak, Selangor. He was 64. He leaves behind his wife, two children and a handful of grandchildren.

I’ve never met the man but I knew how supportive he was when Nat was arrested. He is a prolific writer whose blog posts have given me insights on Malay nationalism which I wish I had known back in university so I could insert his views into my dissertation. Most of all, in the brief time we’ve spoken on a phone, when I asked him for his views on the Abdullah-Mahathir spat back in mid-2006, he was warm and friendly dispensing precious analytical views on the state of politics that I absorbed as my own. I recall asking him if he had a mobile phone and he laughed answering, “I’m an old timer, I don’t like people disturbing me on the phone. Call me at home, I’m always here writing my books.”

Al fatihah and sincere condolences to his family and relatives.

Nat and I took a really short but lovely trip to Langkawi Island over the weekend. It was heartwarming to know were were flying over Pakatan Rakyat land throughout. lol. Guess I’ve been tasked to share some memories from the trip. We forgot the camera and we paid for our oversight by missing out on some really awesome shots of view from where we stayed (The Andaman) and the sights (atop Gunung Machinchang). Oh well :) So with my trusty Nokia 6300, here are some shots from our trip - mostly sights and not of ourselves but more at our Flickr set!

I love taking pictures of the clouds when I’m on a plane. Reminds me of Care-a-lot. That’s what the Care Bears live if you didn’t know. lol.

It was lovely to see the rivers and patches of earth below. This is nothing like flying over a desert though. You won’t believe how amazingly gorgeous sand dunes are from the sky.

Our suite at The Andaman, Langkawi.

The corner of the room has a sofa. Outside the window was nothing but trees and the sound of the Andaman Sea splashing along the shore. Truly tranquil.

Yes, that’s me taking a picture of the washroom.

Ah toiletries. The washroom comes with a bath tub so I finished all the bath gel and had a couple of good soaks before I got back home to my usual boring showers.

Andaman Sea! That island you see has been christened Monkey Island by Nat and I after we kayaked there and deemed it our island. lol. We later saw a row of monkeys walking behind one another on the mainland near the rocks. We got pretty excited. Such city folks we are.

The view from the deck chair as I worked on my tan. Blissful.

Randomly-shaped sand patterns made by little white beach crabs when digging their little homes.

After chilling by the beach we had tea at the beach bar. We had a focaccia with oregano and camembert. The texture was a little dry for me but the taste itself was fragrantly flavourful.

Calamansi sherbet with chocolate and hazelnut biscotti. Now this was a real palette cleanser.

The beach bar where we had our snack was surrounded by a rainforest. The amount of noise made by whistling, buzzing insects were crazy. My head felt a little dizzy soon after hearing too much of it.

We took a walk down the beach after tea. We saw this really cute hermit crab. Image cropped for a clearer view.

Sunset by the rocks.

Between this picture and the sunset was a really good breakfast, two movies and a kayak trip out to sea. We took the cable car to the Langkawi Suspension Bridge. This is the view from the first stop midway at 625 metres above sea level on Gunung Machinchang.

The jungle trek available for those who would explore the wilderness instead of taking the cable car.

On a fine day if you stand here between 6.30pm to 7.00pm you will have the pleasure of witnessing the most enchanting sunset at Langkawi cable car. When we were there, it was cloudy like fuck. lol.

Behold the engineering wonder that is this bridge - it sways and vibrates when the wind blows!

Valleys, chasms, curves of the mountains and the ocean beyond.

Caution: for your safety, do not climb. At 700 meters above sea level, who ever that wants to jump from here is not concerned about his/her safety!

The suspension bridge was one of the highlights of the trip. Nat put Sting on my Ipod and it was the perfect song to soak up the marvellous view. We were the last to leave the place. They practically had to pry us from our spot that gave us that awesome view above :) The cable car is RM15 with your MyKad, otherwise it’s RM25. If you ever go to Langkawi, you must see go up and see the scenery!!

The Andaman is truly a paradise for those who want to get away from the city and all that is hectic related it. It is about 40 minutes from the airport. Rooms come with DVD players so bring your discs along or you can rent some from the gift shop. The hotel also has a spa but we didn’t try it. There are also complimentary morning and evening walks available. For those with extra moolah, there are biking and hiking excursions out too. For RM60, you can help plant a tree. We saw one from Bank Negara dated 2001 and it was really erm, stunted and small. Must be a pygmy tree :) All in all, a perfect place to be if you want to be some place secluded and kilometres away from normalcy.

Thanks to Nat’s parents for the hotel vouchers! :) Didn’t think Nat and I could possibly afford RM990 a night now can we? lol. For that price, you can imagine that the service was top notch, the pillows being extra fluffy and the breakfast spread unimaginably huge.

What a break from work. I want to migrate to a remote island! :)

Anyway, I wanted to write about the pitfalls of tourism but I’ll save that for the next post :) Hope you guys enjoyed the pictures! :)

Warning. Non-halal pictures coming up!!! Don’t say I didn’t warn ya :)

Remember dear old Pinko that I got two Christmas’ ago from Nat?

Nat went to Singapore recently and borrowed Pinko. He came back and gave it a makeover :)

My Ipod nano now has ears, feet, a cute tail …

.. and is officially called Piggo now. Oink oink!!!! Find him a modern pig farm to chill in :)

Christmas appears to have come early because Nat got me a pair of Mary Janes crocs and Aussie-made Tim Tams from S’pore too!!!!! *pigs out*

<3

lol. Sorry about the quality of the pictures. My camera is still with Fotokem and I’m barely scraping through when it comes to documenting my life with my phone camera! :|

Good weekend, everybody! :)

Nat and I went to Murni’s to check out their food after hearing so much about it. After waiting for 15 minutes calling for the bloody waiters and the owner - who acknowledged our existence - still nobody came. So fuck it, we left. Along with another couple I saw leaving who arrived shortly before us. Odds are I’m never going back ever. I doubt they will miss our business though. Having had experience in the service industry, I have extremely high demands from restaurants. Partially because Malaysians need to snap out the ‘restaurant is boss, customer is not’ mentality. Murni’s can only retain a certain amount of regulars but will likely chase away new ones like me. Plus, I hate mainstream mamaks! :P Commercialised to the core and not that fantastic either.

But that is not what this post is about! lol. Shortly after leaving we went to Swensen’s instead. We were waited immediately and the food was prompt. Sure it cost a bit more than Murni’s but we both were hell of a lot more happier about the service!!

Clam chowder - baby clams, diced potatoes, carrots, onions and celery in creamy soup served in a sourdough breadbowl. I’m a sucker for breadbowls. And clam chowder. It was pretty good but it was a lot smaller than expected. Second to Zuup at least in terms of concept. However the soup tasted like it come out of the can and it was missing the heartiness with the lack of seafood inside.

Caesar salad with golden-fried breaded fish. Nat wanted the fish. The picture in the menu had 6 strips of breaded fish but we only had 4. We wanted to complain :P Nat liked the fish and I like the salad that comes with a herb mayonnaise dressing. There was no romaine lettuce in it though so it was technically, not caesar. lol.

Chicken mushroom mayo - grilled chicken and sautéed mushrooms on a mayonnaise pesto base. It came a little burnt but it was bearable because who really eats the outer crust anyway? But still, the pizza was a large disappointment because they did not use mozzarella cheese. It tasted pretty salty and rich like cheddar and the entire pizza was dominated with that cheesy taste. It became jelak after a while.

Fish & chips with tartar sauce, U.S. fries and coleslaw. Nat wanted more fish so he took 6 bites out of this dish to satisfy his craving and we swiftly moved on to pack it for home. lol.

Swensen’s as I remember it was an ice cream parlour where I celebrated one of my childhood birthdays. It was a luxury back in those days to eat ice cream at Swensen’s. It was before Baskin Robbins, Haagen Dazs and New Zealand Naturals. To survive the ever-competitive F&B industry in the country, they had to repackage themselves as a restaurant while maintaining their adventurous array of ice cream desserts and sundaes. They now have ice creams served on a hot, boiling skillets. Beat that! I wanted to try it but my pants already felt tight by them. Next round, I guess.

The food selections is your average western fare with a healthy variety of snacks, burgers, pizzas and salads. The odd baked rice may tickle your fancy too if you like that sort of thing :) It is also limited enough that you won’t tear your hair out over (like PHOP). It just needs to market itself into a more hip place to be and it might just bring in the crowd and not just old fogeys like me who got turned off at Murni’s :P It really deserves it … the service was excellent! :)

Swensen’s
22 Jalan SS2/67, Petaling Jaya
47300 Selangor
Tel : 03-7876 3644
Fax : 03-7876 3645

Opening Hours :
Weekday : 11.30am – 11.30pm
Weekend(Fri/Sat) : 11.30am – 1.00am