News Round-up

News Round-Up.

Of late, this web log have taken on a more personal note, publishing stories about me, myself and I, when so much else is happening throughout the world.

I don’t know about the rest of you out there but I haven’t consistently read the mainstream papers for almost two years now. I am not too willing to pay RM 1.80 for The Star or the New Straits Times over here in Sabah, especially not on a daily basis and even more, for a package of well-edited lies. I rely on Raja Petra Kamarudin’s Malaysia-today for my daily updates. It has served me well thus far.

It’s been more than a month now since the so-called political tsunami of Malaysia. Those among us wishing and itching for change must be getting pretty impatient by now. I don’t know. I’m based in Sabah, the bluest of the bluest BN state. Things haven’t changed much for me and certainly not for most of the local Sabahans. The rare times I do read the news, it all sounds so yesterday.

Racist remarks teeming with tones of Malay supremacy are still very much the norm. The latest is from the crown prince of Kelantan, one Tengku Faris. The feedback and backlash from the Malaysian society in general seemed pretty pale when compared to the backlash in response to similar remarks by the UMNO bohemians. The most firm-worded statement had to come from Karpal Singh, who remarked that Tengku Faris’ remarks bordered on sedition. The relative silence from the Malaysian society especially the Malay politicians is a testimony of the prevailing cloud of feudalism among Malaysians. Just because a racist remark came from a human with so-called royal blood doesn’t make it any less racist and rude. We all bleed red and breathe air and rot to nothing after we’re dead. Turds smell like turds be it whether they came from ‘commoners’ like us or ‘royalties’ like this Tengku Faris fellow. Call a spade a spade and call a turd a turd, even when it’s a royal turd.

Crime is still prevalent. I don’t know about the police’s response and attitude to it though. Personally, I feel that the cops of Sabahland are much more courteous and committed to their duty. A friend’s house was broken in juts two days ago. It was a well-planned heist with the principal targets being his high-end laptop and other costly gadgets. The Sabah cops recovered his belongings within a day and arrested all the suspects who turned out to be my friend’s next door neighbours. The Sabah police force also made a remarkable breakthrough in the recent abduction of a 22-year-old Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) student. Both suspects were caught but not before the young lady victim was allegedly sexually assaulted. The arrest of both suspects was only possible with effective communication between the police teams across the state. One interesting point to note in this case of abduction is the fact that the abduction was witnessed by the four friends of the victim. These fiends however, waited two hours before lodging a police report, by the time which the victim was already midway on a terror ride from Likas to Keningau.

It is really mind-boggling why four university students waited for two hours before making a police report on her abduction. Are we producing graduates that are so stoopid and dumb and retarded these days? What in the world were they thinking?

Speaking of UMS, I wonder if Malaysian parents are aware of what institution their children are entering? To many Sabahans, UMS is their pride and forte. The university is supposed to be a reward of sorts for Sabahans’ undying support for the BN regime. After more than a decade in operation, UMS has turned out to be yet another NEP factory. In fact, it is so very pathetic that it can’t even train its own NEP products. The SLAB program for UMS is apparently held in a twinning effort with UM, UKM. Closer to the medical fraternity, some have renamed that the Medical Faculty of UMS as University Myanmar Sabah. It’s really a more appropriate name in fact. Most of its medical lecturers are Burmese. I have nothing against persons of Burmese origin. Some of my own lecturers back in UM were Burmese and some were excellent teachers. Something is terribly wrong however, when most of the lecturers are foreigners from Burma and the Middle Eastern states of Iraq and Egypt. It simply means that UMS was never ready to start a medical school in the first place. There was a time when these Burmese lecturers-surgeons were allowed to operate in the hospital. Except for a few minor surgical procedures, ALL of the other patients died post-operatively – mostly from poor surgical techniques or post-operative neglect. I really pity Sabahans in this respect. They came with high hopes but left with a corpse to bring home. Realising the exceptionally high rate of perioperative mortality among the Burmese surgeons, the Surgical Head of Department decided to put his foot down and cease the daily slaughter of innocent Sabahans. The Burmese surgeons are still operating though, but usually under supervision. Note the emphasis on ‘usually’ as opposed to ‘always’.

Apart from quality, UMS is a slaughterhouse in its own right. Located in Likas, an area densely populated by UMNO’s Project IC citizens, I have lost count on how many UMS students have been victims of violent crime since the day I started working in Sabah’s healthcare.

The Sabah Chief Minister has proudly proclaimed that the BN state government will be building more detention centers to house illegal immigrants. It simply means that more of your money and my money will be used to raise these Filipino and Indonesian children so that they can grow enough lean meat to rob our houses later on.

Tenaganita’s Irene Fernandez and other human rights advocates insist that no immigrant or refugee should be stigmatized and blamed for the increasing crime in Malaysia. I beg to differ. Common sense must always prevail over emotions and personal beliefs. Are Filipinos and Indonesians in Sabah more prone to commit crime than the local population? Facts and figures and news reports may lie and bluff but the harrowing tales and scary accounts of the victims do not. I feel Malaysians should really keep a lid about the human rights of Filipino and Indonesian migrants and re-focus on defending the sovereignty of our borders and seas instead.


I don’t get many readers, if at all from the Philippines but seriously I hope one or two of them will read this article. The population of Philippines has risen to a massive 88 million according the latest Filipino census. This explosive figure is alarming the Filipino government especially more so since the nation is facing a shortage of rice and other essential items. Nevertheless, the predominant Catholic nation remains obstinate on the use of contraceptive techniques. In a nutshell, they are more fearful of angering the Pope than sending a million children to death by hunger.

While the Filipinos have their hands full attenuating hunger and a bulging population, the Pope himself is no less busy over in the United States. He is still attempting to downplay the prevalence of paedophilia among Catholic priests to the extent of defending an Archbishop who defended his church’s paedophilic priests.

Humans are really funny and stupid at times. We put our faith in man and men in religious robes instead of God almighty who created the heavens and the earth and all within it. To me, all humans are prone to temptation and failure.

We’re all turds in our own ways and to varying degrees. We cannot pretend that we’re not turds, not even when we’re dressed in fancy flowing religious robes.