Jeremiah: A Voice of Truth & Reason

Will A War In The Middle East Involving Iran Erupt in 2012?

2012-01-18T01:16:00.000-08:00

In an November 2011 interview with currency and poltical analyst Jim Rickards with King World, there is an interesting view that the "War With Iran has Begun" and that "Gold to Break $2,000."

With oil near $100, gold and silver on the move and many people worried about what is going to happen with Iran and the Straits of Hormuz, today King World News interviewed resident expert Jim Rickards. Rickards negotiated the release of US hostages from Iran in 1981. His advisory clients include government directorates around the world and he is heavily involved in US national security issues and the Department of Defense.

Rickards has also gained international recognition for his deadly accurate predictions regarding moves by central planners. This is what Rickards had to say about the situation in Iran: “Eric, this really could not be more serious. The fact that we, meaning the United States, are on a path to a war with Iran is very clear at this point. It does seem the countdown has begun and it’s coming to a head sooner rather than later.”

“Things are moving very quickly. General Martin Dempsey, who is the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has arrived in Israel and Israel is integrating itself with the U.S. European Command or EUCOM. So, at this point, the integration of the Israeli and the US operational capability, including NATO based in Europe, is very far along.

There are an enormous number of US troops in Israel. I don’t know if people realize that, but they are operating the THAAD system (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense). They oversee weapons that will shoot down incoming Iranian missiles.

There are joint exercises going on between the US and Israel. At the same time Iran is conducting war games. There are a lot of moving pieces on the chessboard at this point. This is not just war gaming or thinking about what might happen, the pieces have actually begun to move on the chessboard.

For Israel this is really existential. The US would really like to see a world where Iran did not have nuclear weapons, but for Israel it is not a preference. If Iran gets nuclear weapons, Iran has said they will burn Israel to the ground. So, this is not just a strategic rebalancing, this is life or death for the Israelis.....

“All of the information I have is that the US is going to do it (attack Iran). So the tension between Israel and the United States is being resolved in favor of letting the US actually launch the attack.

Part of the reason for this is the retaliation vector. If the US attacks and Israel keeps out, then Iran has no justification for attacking Israel. They (Iran) will attack US targets in the Middle-East, but we’re ready for that, we’re prepared for that. We will suppress the missiles and their air force is a joke, we’ll take that out in the first day.

But they do have a serious missile capability. We’ll need anti-missile warfare and we will need to strike those bases. We will need to do a lot of other damage to Iran, cyber warfare, take down the power grid, take down the command and control structure. Do whatever we can to stop them from attacking our assets in the Middle-East.

This war will be fought with air power, sea power, cyberwarfare, financial warfare, sabotage, special operation, assassination, things like that. This is already going on. As an example, yesterday a prominent Iranian nuclear scientist had an unlucky encounter with a magnet bomb.

So this war is already being fought. The other day the United States sanctioned the Central Bank of Iran. By the way, we’ve been sanctioning them for years, but we’ve been dialing it up little by little. It’s like the frog that’s boiled in a pot of water and doesn’t know until it’s too late that the water is getting hot.

President Obama sanctioned the central bank about a week ago. The Iranian currency, the rial, dropped 30% in a single day. Hyperinflation has broken out in Iran. This is financial warfare.

My point to the listeners is this is not theoretical, this is not a war game, not an exercise, it’s happening now and the clock is ticking.”

Rickards had a great deal to say about gold, investor psychology, the coming war, how it will impact key players, markets and more. Here is a quick snippet: “If you see the war with Iran happening, and I definitely see it happening, then gold will blow right past $2,000.”

This is an extremely important interview with one of the top individuals in the world of national security. Rickards also described how this war will be fought and how it will impact major players and countries. The KWN Jim Rickards interview will be available shortly and you can listen to it by CLICKING HERE.

Welcome 2012 and the Year of Creative Harvest

2012-01-17T23:49:00.000-08:00

This is the year of harvest in the spiritual realm where years of sowing seeds into the soil of our souls will be reaped. Good seeds will bring good fruits while bad seeds will reap bad fruits.

After going through many prophecies for the year and shaken by the tumultuous events of 2011, I think 2012 will be the year the hidden plans and things of the heart will be unveiled and crystallised. This is the year of action, of deep prayers and thoughtful deliberation into the political process between citizens versus elected administrators, between employers and employees, between leaders and their followers and between God and mankind.

For the Chinese, this is also the year of the mythical Dragon but judging by the catastrophic and fast-changing events of 2011 (the Arab Spring and Japan's triple disaster) which was the year of the Rabbit, the Dragon year could either be extremely docile (as polar opposite of the preceding year) or it could be even more volatile. As one who does not believe in astrology but who is a keen observer of global trends, I think the latter is likely to be the case.

Malaysia In The Grips of Spiritual Legalism

2011-10-31T18:34:00.000-07:00

The whole heart of the issue facing Malaysia and cropping up in the recent controversial speech by associate professor Dr Ridhuan Tee Abdullah is NOT about Ridhuan Tee, his genes, character nor any religion as referred in Art Harun's blog article Compulsion in Islam.

The key word is COMPULSION and whether a human being (whether you are atheist, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Hindu or Jewish) can be forced to become more spiritual (or approved of God) if he/she adopts certain outward customs and practices.

The opposite of spirituality is compulsion/tyranny/force/legalism. The law can never make a person a better human being, it only ensures that sins of commission are not committed. Sins of omission (doing good, giving love, charity) can never be supervised or publicly enforced.

Only the most wonderful human acts are done outside the glare of organised religion. Becoming a Christian for me is an earth-shaking event but for my non-Christian neighbour or relative, it is nothing. What matters is the fruit of my faith. Am i a better neighbour, am i more considerate, more kind?

The Internet is the most effective conversion tool. It is free and it is fair for all to see: A tree is judged by its fruits. Just look at the fruits of all the religions of the world: you will quietly observe without any bias that for those religions whose faithful followers can be counted as 70%-80% extremists, confusionists, terrorists, hypocrites in all their personal lives are the religions that preach to a false God/being. Whether for good or evil, the actions and lifestyle of believers advertise the tone, the inspiration and the power of their scriptures.

So the question of compulsion is already a sign of confusion about spiritual matters. The consequence (fruit) of confusion is hate, violence and murder.

We all know that the devil's aim is to kill, steal and destroy. Whether by guile (democratic means?) or by force, he will try to do it but God has already defeated the devil on his own terms so now he is after human beings. Which is why the world is in such political and economic turmoil.

The Pied Piper Comes A Calling On Europe - Who Will Pay ?

2011-09-23T10:34:00.000-07:00

The world economy is slowing towards the edge of recession with the European debt crisis and the American economy growing at a snail's pace.

Investors' hopes are on China and the emerging markets to be the new engines of growth but these markets do not have the credentials nor the global political power to take over the reins of the global economy.

China is not only too weak in per capita purchasing power, it is not transparent and a highly fragmented society with little democracy or corporate governance.

The next credible candidate to take over the world economic dominance may be Europe if the Euro zone rises out of its current debt trap and transforms itself into a cohesive political union. This requires great political sacrifices, much negotiations between European powers and trickery of the electorate by the elite.

Like the Pied Piper, who came back to ask for his payment, there is a payment for the folly of the European Euro project, and the people who have to pay up are the debtor members as well as the citizens of the creditor nations. The alternative is what the Pied Piper warns: a doomsday Global Depression..but is it a real threat or a bluff? We shall find out in the next few months as we enter 2012.

In fact, the global economic mismanagement by policymakers and governments looks increasingly like a twisted Pied Piper tale where the Pied Piper (the global elite/market manipulator) trained the rats (the financial crisis of 2008) to listen to the music, let the rats out on purpose on the city of Hamelin and then duped the citizens into entering a deal with him. When the mayor could and would not pay up for the services rendered, the threat is to put all their children into debt (i.e. take them away into slavery - although in the story, the children were led into a paradise).

Now the Pied Piper stands at the door of world governments to ask for payment - first the European countries, then the US and Japan will be next. Will citizens of the developed world call his bluff and risk a major financial meltdown? Will world leaders respond with more money printing and more manipulated financial meltdowns (rats) to be carried out with the Piper's magic pipe? And his price is: total political and economic power in the hands of a global elite starting with the besieged European Union. In fact, a new global currency based on the controlled supply and consumption of energy (carbon currency) is being planned according to a study by Michael S. Coffman, Ph.D. and Kristie Pelletier. http://newswithviews.com/Coffman/mike129.htm

The Destiny and Prophecy for The Rainbow Nation

2011-05-08T10:12:00.000-07:00

As I have been saying for many months since last year, Malaysia is at a major crossroads in a world that is shaken by all forms of disasters: political, religious, economic and geological.

Yet, we seem to have survived and prospered in relative peace...But there is a warning and this is what I have come across from a prophecy given by God to Pastor Julius Suubi and Pastor Francis Ameta from Kenya.

The Intercessors at the 24/7 Prayer House in Kenya have been fasting and praying for Malaysia since the 5 January, 2010 for 40 days. There was a very, very strong burden for Malaysia and during their intercession there was much weeping and crying out for this nation.

The following is the message they received from the Lord for Malaysia:

Malaysia is at a very important crossroads. The Lord says that He has been so faithful to the nation of Malaysia. He has protected Malaysia in 3 areas:

1. The principalities over Malaysia have tried to cause racial dissension. Feelings were stirred in the hearts of the people to rise up for destruction but because of God’s grace, He has prevented this destruction from happening.

2. God has protected Malaysia from natural calamities when the surrounding regions have been hit by such disasters.

3. God has protected the church. Seeing that you are in a Muslim land, the church has a high measure of freedom thus far. Many times the enemy has tried to come up to close in on the church but God has not permitted it.

God’s faithfulness and favor towards Malaysia is not because the Church has been praying. In fact, the Church in Malaysia has entered into a comfort zone. The Church is so contented and so comfortable and in slumber. There is prayerlessness in the church and she is not carrying the burden that God has for the “cousins” in the land. Most of the prayers that take place in the churches are personal prayers but not a burden for the nation and the lost.

Warning from the Lord:

The veil of protection over Malaysia is slowly giving way over this land.

The heavens over Malaysia have already begun to close.

The burning of the churches is but a tip of the ice-berg of what the enemy is wanting to do over this nation. There is a looming judgment waiting to take place over this land if intercessors do not arise.

Teaching on Abraham pleading for Sodom & Gomorrah by Pr Julius Suubi

Abraham prayed for Sodom and Gomorrah but his prayers could not deliver the cities. His prayers alone could not prevent the judgment of God upon the cities. Abraham was not living in Sodom & Gomorrah. The people of the land themselves need to arise to intercede for their own land. Unfortunately, there was no one in the land who took up the burden to pray for their cities and the cities were destroyed.

Application to Malaysia:

Only the prayers of the people in Malaysia can deliver their land. This burden has to be taken up by the Malaysians themselves. They have to arise to pray for their land, cry out to God, influence the people and to tell them that the nation is at an important crossroads. Tell the people that the next 5 years is so very important. They either arise to a very, very powerful revival or slide in the other way.

God’s will is for Malaysia to rise up to her destiny (being a “Rainbow Nation”) and for a great revival to sweep through this land. Our brothers from other nations are just here to help us “PUSH”. They are like “midwives” to help the Malaysian Church push until they see the baby born (the destiny of Malaysia). The Malaysian Church has to pray and intercede to open the heavens over Malaysia. To see revival, we need the heavens to be open. Prayer will open the heavens. The enemy will try to hinder our prayers but we must persevere and pray until we see the revival.

PROPHETIC WORD CONCERNING PENANG, MALAYSIA

RELEASED BY PR JULIUS SUUBI DURING THE SCHOOL OF PRAYER AT TRINITY METHODIST CHURCH, PENANG

Penang is like the umbilical cord. Just as an umbilical cord supplies nourishment to the baby, Penang provides life to sow prayer and seeds for the revival in Malaysia. The baby about to be born is the revival that God has planned for the nation. The Lord is asking the Church in Penang, “Are you willing to pay the price for the revival to come?”

Penang is also like the church in Pergamum where it was mentioned that the “seat of Satan” was there in the city. Penang has attracted the enemy to this place. The Lord wants to raise up prayer warriors in this city to stand in the gap.

Teaching on Altars by Pr Julius Suubi

In times of judgment, people were to raise up altars to reverse the effects, to bring about healing for the land. There are 4 altars that need to be raised up at a time like this:

1. Personal altar: We are the temple of the Holy Spirit for the Holy Spirit indwells us. We need to activate our personal altar. We need to pray everyday. Develop your personal prayer life.

Pray at least one hour a day. Jesus asked his disciples, “Could you not tarry with me one hour?”

2. Family altar: Husband, wife, children need to gather together to pray. We need to establish the family altar. Exercise authority over your household in problem areas. When men break faith with their wives, there is no family altar and this has great impact upon the children (Malachi 2:13-16). Family prayers will affect your neighbours and neigbourhood as well.

3. Church altar: My house shall be called a House of Prayer for all nations (Isaiah 56:7). The strength of the church is not measured by how many members, how much money or how powerful the pastor is. It is measured by how strong the prayer life of the individuals in the church. Very few people at the prayer meetings, a common sight in our churches.

Prayer meeting is for everyone, not just certain groups of people.

God wants to establish the Territorial Church (territorial altar) in the city to impact the city. There needs to be a unity among the churches in the area or city. The territorial church can deal with the principality over the area and thus have great impact over the area or city.

If all cities have territorial altars then every city will begin to experience transformation.

4. National altar: People from the various territories or regions that have set up their altars will need to gather together to form the national altar. The prayers that rise from the national altar will greatly impact the nation.

Finally, let’s take heed of God’s Word concerning watchmen who are not doing the work of watchmen.

God has called us to be watchmen on the wall, to warn the people of impending judgment or danger. Let us not be like the watchmen as described in Isaiah 56:9-12. If we are like watchmen who are blind and dogs that cannot bark or shepherds who lack understanding, then the “beasts of the field…… the beast of the forest” will come and devour our land! Take heed, Church in Malaysia!!!! The Lord has spoken through his prophets (Amos 3:7).

Sarawak Christians Need to Relook At The Borderline Between State & Religion

2011-04-14T19:52:00.000-07:00

Ideally, as one Sarawak colleague remarked to me once, state and religion should be kept separate. In other words, what is of the world should remain in the world and what is of God should remain in God’s house.

In practise and in the case of Sarawak, the dividing line can no longer hold because the state has encroached on the religious values and integrity of the church (which is not an association but the whole body of Christians in Malaysia and the world community). This is evident in the two-state policy of the government on the Bahasa Malaysia bibles and Allah issue.

What should Christians do and does the behaviour/campaigns of Christian politicians (on both sides of the party line) in this election reflect the character of our Lord Jesus Christ? I am sure our Creator in Heaven is watching very closely as the protagonists argue and plead their case to the people of Sarawak.

Sarawakians have enjoyed freedom of religious worship for decades and I can see so many churches flourishing there. They have enjoyed this privilege while the persecution of the church and the gospel is happening at a very intense rate in the Peninsular and around the world (compare how much religious freedom is granted to Christians in Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, India etc versus Peninsular Malaysia. China is in a class of its own in the persecution index).

But will the outcome of the 16th April elections change the perspective of Sarawak Christians about their position in Malaysia? Will it completely change their view (which in many ways is Biblically correct) that the worldly and the divine should remain separate?

These are hard issues which will engage the entire nation and the body of Christ for years to come. As Christians, we are the spiritual shepherds of this nation and we have to wake up to our responsibilities in this present end times: there will be increasing worldliness and political tensions on the one hand while a call for greater spirituality and blessings from God will also intensify on the other hand.

God is shaking the nations to wake us up and we must not remain indifferent and complacent.

So where shall we stand as Malaysian Christians? In the midst of the tranquility and natural beauty of Sarawak, a great spiritual battle has started.

We will do the nation a great favour by continuing this dialogue with our non-Christian neighbors and fellow citizens. In the process, we must remember to remind ourselves that our faith in the goodness and love of God goes beyond politics and beyond casting a vote in the ballot box. So in our prayers, when we ask God for justice and righteousness to prevail in the land, it is very much the Kingdom of God that we are seeking to be established on earth, not according to our own designs/will but God’s perfect will.

Malaysia At Spiritual Cross Roads Amidst Political Deceptions Locally & Globally

2011-03-31T20:22:00.000-07:00

As Malaysia prepares for the 13th General Election coming right after the Sarawak state election, the political struggle that is being fought between the incumbent state government party and the Opposition parties in Sawarak threatens to overshadow the larger moral issues facing the nation.

Do Malaysians, political experts, bloggers and man-in-the-street, know that we are heading towards the end of the age? Do we think we are immune from the earthquakes/tsunamis that hit Japan and other countries of the world? What do these natural disasters which wipe out thousands of lives mean for the people of Malaysia apart from taking precautions not to eat Japanese food or review our nuclear plans ?

The sins of the people of Malaysia are evident: one the one hand, we have corrupted politicians who have made themselves wealthy and powerful at the expense of the people and on the other hand, we have the yet-to-be-tested politicians in the Opposition who try to take power away from the corrupt. For the latter, the road to Putrajaya seems to be the ultimate solution to Malaysia's woes.

What precisely are the sins committed by this nation? Arrogance and self-promotion of our own communities, racial divisions and pride, pornography, adultery, divorce, hypocrisy at all levels and the complacency of the general citizens who only care for their own short-term interests. i.e. their rice bowls.

Will our rice bowls be taken away from us in the next global economic tsunami despite the fact that we console ourselves that Malaysia is blessed with oil and commodities? The deforestation of Sarawak, the mistreatment of the poor and enrichment of crony capitalists there is a testimony of our rape of natural resources and the indigenous people that God planted there.

The only way the nation can avert the divine judgement of God on this nation as He is indeed shaking each nation throughout the world (after Japan, the next natural disaster could be in the Ring of Fire) is by repenting of our sins and turning our eyes, our hearts to God. Therefore, Malaysians, especially Christians, should be careful not to put their faiths in new or existing political leaders to bring justice and righteousness to the nation.

And the churches of the country, as will be the case in Sawarak on 16th April, will play a major role in turning the nation to repentance of our sins, praying to God for mercy and forgiveness of our self-serving life-styles.

Indeed, the Lord Jesus is coming soon and the rapid deterioration of the current world order is happening before our very eyes on TV and the daily news. (Please do read my previous post Troubles in the Middle East and What It Means To Us)

Face the Spiritual Challenges First, then the rest will follow

Over the land of Sarawak, there is what the Christians call a principality that tries to rule over the land and its people.

We are not called to engage in spiritual warfare with flesh and blood (i.e. mankind) but with principalities who often portray themselves (through their human subjects) as kings of the land.

Once you pull down these principalities thru prayer, repentance for the sins committed against the land and declaring that Jesus is the King of Kings, you will deal the biggest blow to the enemy. Then perhaps we may see a real change in the land come 16th April 2011.

So it is important for the opposing political candidates and voters to be courteous and loving to each other. Let us not demonise Taib no matter how much he is vilified by certain people. Let us show love and mercy while praying hard for God's justice to be done on earth as it is in Heaven.

Early this year, tyrants and dictators have fallen in Tunisia and Egypt and even the principality of Sendai was shaken. Sarawak’s economic and social problems are far from Tunisia and Egypt and God has blessed this land with peace and abundant resources (albeit diminishing). But being the first state to usher in the next general elections, I think this state is key to Malaysia’s spiritual transformation.

Trouble in The Middle East & What It Means To Us

2011-03-28T22:17:00.000-07:00

We are indeed living in times of great global turmoil. First the global economic crisis started in October 2008, starting with the U.S. and then reverberating throughout the world as if each country's economy had an implosion: Spain, Greece, Ireland, Portugal, etc. Depending on the level of debt and extent of asset bubbles, no nation was spared the effects of the global economic meltdown. Then two years later we see political unrest and wars in the Middle East and North Africa starting in late 2010.

On 11th March 2011, a major earthquake of 8.9 kw hit Japan's northeast region, killing more than 10,000 people with the same number missing.

The word that comes into my mind is global cataclysms (deluge, any catastrophic geological phenomenon, volcanic eruption, earthquake, any large-scale disaster).

While I am not surprised by these events based on Biblical prophecy, the entire sequence of events are starting to make sense from the message given by God to Kenyan prophet Dr David Edward Owuor.

On 25th March 2011, he gave an audio sermon in Manila at a pastors' conference. Listen to it and you will be amazed to see how the final chapter of the Bible, Revelation, reveals the timeline of this current age.

Dr Owuor, who has a strong track record in accurately predicting global calamities, said that we are seeing Biblical prophecy unfold in real time in our newspapers and television screens: wars and turmoil in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen and earthquakes in Chile, Haiti, New Zealand (all prophesied by him months in advance) and Japan.

To find out the mystery of what is happening in the Middle East (no, its not a CIA or Mossad plot), you need to have a full open mind (especially non-Christians) to connect what is revealed by Jesus in the Bible (Mathew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21 and Revelation 6) to current events in the world today. We are living on borrowed time and the end of this age will have eternal impact on all our lives.

No nation or people on earth is spared for the Word of God is true and abiding. The release of the 4th rider on the pale horse (prophecied by Dr Owuor on July 29th 2009 in Johannesburg) early this year shows we have entered an era of global cataclysm where one fourth of mankind will perish through war, famine, plague and disease.

In fact, the political unrest in the Middle East and North Africa may be a prelude to a realignment of the nations surrounding Israel. Will the new rulers of these nations change their stance towards Israel ? Will they be closer or further away in their relations with God's remnant people ? Whatever the outcome, every nation will play a part in the final realignment of nations vis-a-vis Israel in the coming days. Praise God that His ways are mysterious and wonderful even as He is the same, yesterday, today and tommorow.

Note: In Revelation Chapter 6, the 4th horseman of the Apocalpyse emerges when Jesus Christ opens the fourth seal of the secret scroll (out of seven seals) and this horseman was captured on Euronews (MSNBC, CNN, YouTube) riding among the rioters in Egypt on 3rd February 2011. You can see the transparent pale, light green rider at the end of the video. (Some skeptics speculate that it is a hoax or flare of the lens, but who on Euronews would have contrived such an elaborate CGI hoax?). The fact that Egypt's revolution was relatively bloodless is due to the prayers of the 2010 Open Heavens Prophetic Conference held in Egypt where 550 intercessors prayed for Egypt. However, Libya is now seeing bloodshed of the 4th horseman as it was not prayed for in the conference.

Waiting for The City That Is to Come

2011-03-17T02:38:00.000-07:00

The devastation of the Sendai earthquake/tsunami has stirred deep feelings of sorrow, empathy and fear in the hearts of many throughout the world. How this tragedy, which is now threatening to turn into a nuclear meltdown, will unravel and what it means for the Japanese people is certainly going to affect not only the economy of the world (Japan is the 3rd largest economy and the second largest consumer market after the US), but also our everyday lives.

Earthquakes are occurring with increasing frequency in recent years and this acceleration in natural disasters is attributed to a wide range of factors from global warming to man's pollution of the earth. The Bible quotes Jesus as saying that these are the signs of the end times when God returns to earth to rescue his bride (the church) from the tribulations (escalation of human violence and natural calamities) and his final reappearance to battle the Antichrist and the armies of the world in what is called the Apocalypse.

In Matthew 24 verse 7, Jesus said: "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places."

Looking at the pictures and videos of devastation in Japan, I pray that the Japanese can turn to the one true God, the Lord Jesus in their hour of darkness and loss. Already, the admirable response of the Japanese people in the wake of the disaster may be a sign that Japan may see a revival if not in spirit, then in her national psyche after prolonged years of economic and spiritual stagnation. For God has said:

"Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."

In Hebrews 13, the apostle Paul wrote:"The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering but the bodies are burned outside the camp. And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. For here, we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come."

Yes, the whole earth groans for the new earth to be borned where the eternal city of God will descend and crown the new world. Deep in the hearts of mankind, whether Christian believers or non-believers, we are seeking for an eternal peace, a rock of stability where there is no death, no tears, no earthquakes and tsunamis to shake our lives. That city is the city that is to come. Amen.

An Honest Man Digging Through A Mountain Called Malaysia

2011-01-20T23:58:00.000-08:00

For the first time, I attended the ETP (Economic Transformation Program) briefing on 19 January at Meridien Hotel by Senator Datuk Seri Idris Jala, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department cum Chief Executive Officer of Pemandu. After two hours, I find him to be quite an impressive man who appears to be honest, smart and committed in driving through the economic transformation program.

... However, if there is one cartoon metaphor that is most accurate in depicting Idris Jala's situation (and I will commission this to some cartoonists if I have not the time to draw it myself), it is this:

With a pick and axe, Senator Jala is digging laboriously a tunnel through a huge dark mountain called Malaysia. Other adjacent mountains like China, Singapore, India also have tunnels but they have already been built and cars are zooming through them at tremendous speed.

At Senator Jala's feet are 4 dynamites which he has forgotten/refused to use. These dynamites are labelled: Abolish NEP, Abolish Cronyism, Bring Back Science and Maths in English, Prosecute and Charge Corrupted Ministers/Tycoons.

The tunnel he hopes to complete is only one third of the actual mountain underpass and it stops at a sign: 2020 ETP target.

Conclusion: He and the PM need to be more efficient and use those dynamites to blow up the way for the enitre tunnel. If he does not hurry and thinks he has until 2020 to finish, other countries like Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, China, etc will reach their goals faster than Malaysia. All the stated ETP projects may well create the 3.3 million jobs that is estimated by Pemandu. But these jobs may be largely project-dependent (construction) jobs and not long-term, self-sustainable jobs without the requisite insitutional reforms that Malaysia deeply needs.

Unless he embarks on picking the low hanging fruit and removes the heavy shackles burdening Malaysia, we may be truly stuck in the middle income/half-way tunnel hole. And this mountain underpass is the only hope not only for the economy but for the country and its people.

Real Public Servant-Leaders versus Career Politicians

2011-01-16T17:59:00.000-08:00

The ratio between real public-servant leaders who truly serve the well-being of the people and self-serving career politicians who represent the interests of a select group of power interests is 5:95 in Asia.

Globally, the ratio improves to 10:90. Between real public servants and career politicians, there is a huge spectrum starting with category A to E.

A. Leaders who are public servants first, politicians second: Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Ronald Reagan, Yudhoyono (work-in-progress).

B. Leaders who are politicians first, public servants second: Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, Anwar (the once enigmatic Opposition leader who recently seems to have trouble reinventing his image beyond an Opposition leader with a troubled frown), Deng Hsiao Peng (the only Chinese leader who fell from category A after his role in the Tiananmen massacre), Lee Kuan Yew (who, according to wiki leaks, cleverly distanced himself and Singaporean politicians by calling some Malaysian politicians opportunists and corrupt).

C. Leaders who are good at fooling the public that they are public servants first: Obama (the guy who talked his way into winning a Nobel peace prize without creating peace), Putin (at least to the Russians), Hu Jintao (another leader in a long line of beneficiaries of Deng's pro-capitalism reforms and Chinese nationalism).

D. Leaders who are servants of their inflated egos and power-driven passions: Mao, Stalin, Hitler, Mugabi, the Iranian demogogue Ahmadinejad, the Burmese generals, the North Korean Kim dynasty.

E. Leaders who try to get into the categories above but will likely be just a footnote in history: Abdullah Badawi (whose real achievement was that he managed to project a nice guy image and keep the extremists in check), Najib (depends mostly on whether he can walk the talk with the social and economic reforms outlined in the New Economic Model, failing which he will be just another face among mediocre career politicians).

Jokes aside, I am convinced there is a huge demand for real public-servant leaders in Asia in view of (a) the acute shortage in supply of such leaders currently and historically (b) Asia's rising prominence in the global economy.

This is why I will offer to my two children, the option of a new career choice: visionary economist prophets for the nations. These prophets will advise kings and presidents on the course and destinies of their nations. Not for the money, the status or the power but primarily because there is a true need for such advisors of leaders to navigate through the treacherous political and economic convulsions of the 21st century.

I can imagine parents asking if these are risky professions: the answer is that there will be no future at all if national leaders are advised by the wrong people. Not only are we faced with economic ruin but devastating earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, famines if nations do not quickly align themselves with God's divine destiny.

Incidentally, after the world economy was resuscitated and went through critical turning points in 2010, I believe we have entered a new era of economic realignments and paradoxes in 2011: countries will be facing social chaos and food shortages while other countries will thrive in stability and prosperity. This widening chasm between the afflicted and the fortunate will sow the seeds of hate among those who refuse to learn from their errors and healing among those who are willing to turn back from their destructive economic, politicial habits.

(In fact, these ideas suggest a research project which I will explore in the coming months on raising our children for the prophetic calling of nations.)

6 Challenges Facing the End Times Church

2010-12-21T01:34:00.000-08:00

The challenges for the church today is to overcome 6 temptations/deceptions:

1. the deception of the prosperity gospel where we are encouraged to strive for worldly goods.

2. the temptation to be lukewarm, neither hot nor cold. i.e. allowing anxiety and worldly values to erode our faith and purity of heart.

3. the temptation to have a judgmental spirit against people who disagree with our values/views.

4. the temptation to be caught up in doctrinal and theological issues that water down the full glorious mystery of the Bible.

5. the deception to focus on works and not grace.*

6. the temptation to forget that God wields the power of grace and judgement for those who reject and disobey Him.

And before we turn our gaze to the state of the churches worldwide, to what extent have Malaysian churches and Christians been led astray by the above?

* According to Kenyan prophet Dr Owuor, "the entry into heaven is not an earthly reward based on the works of man, but a heavenly gift based on the grace of God Almighty."

Humanism and The Impossible Question

2010-10-11T02:22:00.000-07:00

According to Wikipedia, humanism is defined as "an approach in study, philosophy, or practice that focuses on human values and concerns. The term can mean several things, for example:

1. A historical movement associated especially with the Italian Renaissance.

2. An approach to education that uses literary means or a focus on the humanities to inform students.

3. A variety of perspectives in philosophy and social science which affirm some notion of 'human nature' (in contrast with anti-humanism).

4. A secular ideology which espouses reason, ethics, and justice, whilst specifically rejecting supernatural and religious dogma as a basis of morality and decision-making."

There are various types of humanism but be it secular humanism, Renaissance humanism or modern humanism, the central theme is the human being or the qualities that make up the human character. My discussion relates to the definitions of (1), (3) and (4).

The way I see it, there are two ways of looking at humanism as a philosophy: (1) one is pragmatic humanism whereby we accept our human nature for what it is. We then find ways to nurture the best in us and impose laws and sanctions to restrain the worst in us from harming others. (2) the second and more interesting humanism is idealistic humanism, a form which I used to subscribe to, half-hearted, from my teenage years up to my 30s.

Idealistic humanism arises when we take a look at human nature and see how it is actually very weak and, often, destructive given the cruelty, wars, crimes, insanity and irresponsible exploitation of human and natural resources that was and continues to be committed by man. This is despite the fact there is a boundless capacity in us to be noble, kind, self-sacrificial and creative.

Idealistic humanists cannot accept this "mixed" nature and let it remain in such an unstable and inflammable state. Thus, the only recourse is to change the inner man through a program of mental and/or spiritual enlightenment, which, depending on your preferences, range from the New Age philosophies to cultural and political regenerative doctrines (e.g. Stalin's communism and China's cultural revolution).

Unfortunately, all these philosophies including the latest environmental cult of mother earth (Avatar) have failed to completely regenerate human nature from the inside out. So the lame excuse of humanism for its failures is to say that we are either limited or liberated by our own psychological self-imposed boundaries.

This is based on the positive thinking justification that we are what we believe: the more we believe we can or cannot do something, the more we turn that belief into a reality as if by a mere stroke of a pen. In other words, man is the master of his destiny and he has the free will to choose whatever goals and destinations he wishes as long as he does not harm another fellow traveller.

I think the question posed by humanists is the wrong one to pose because it assumes that man starts his journey from the point he was born. Instead of asking the question what is a man, what mankind can do and what mankind can realistically aspire to become, we should first ask who is man? Where did he come from and what purpose is there for his existence on earth?

That question is the pink elephant in the room that intellectuals tend to ignore because to comprehend this being called the human being in all his complexities, pretensions, strengths, genius and frailties, we need to know what is the meaning of the human being, not what is the meaning of humanity (you can find that out by reading history and the daily news).

When we ask that philosophical question we are putting man in the context of the universe. In other words, we are bound to ask if man is a creature of such marvelous complexity and intelligence, who is his creator then? Is there a God behind the universe and creation?

To make a simple analogy, imagine Martians have landed on the beach and discover a beautiful Rolex watch; they collect it and examine it and then try to figure out who is the creator of the watch. It would be quite ridiculous for them to assume that the watch evolved from the sands of the beach like a pearl in a shell over centuries of evolution and natural selection. (btw the pragmatic humanists among the Martians would wear the watch while the idealistic ones will try to disassemble it and transform it into a space navigator.)

The Impossible Question Needs to Be Asked

So the question about who we are and what we are destined to be invariably becomes a question of what is the purpose God (or gods) created us for. That remains the logical and intelligent start of a real enquiry into the truth of human nature and this strange thing called "humanity."

If humanists respond by saying there is no scientific or visible sign of God anywhere, then they are making the false premise that only what we see is real and what we don't see or cannot test scientifically, is non-existent. Does a blind man need to be shown proof that the sun exists when he can feel the warmth of sunlight on his face? His lack of sight does not hinder nor contradict his tactile senses.

Likewise, the agnostic's dismissal of all theological questions as impossible questions that can never be answered with any intellectual or scientific conviction is also intellectually dishonest. The humility of a good scientist and seeker of truth is to ask all impossible questions without worrying about their answers or consequences.

Just because we do not have the right tools to climb the mountain does not mean the peak cannot be conquered. Much of the question about the existence of God can only be approached from circumstantial evidence and that evidence is most clearly proven by acts of faith. As a Christian, I have seen people healed miraculously by the power of God.

But even if you have not witnessed these things, a fairly careful observation of the world around us testifies to an orderly universe and a creator who has good intentions for us. There is no need for theists (i.e. believers of a single God) to presume the supernatural: we experience and see the supernatural works of God almost everyday.

To conclude, there can never be an independent human being separate from the divine creator who created him. The real reason why humanism is such a strong belief system is because mankind refuses to give up all his weaknesses, his evil habits, his freedom of will and self-belief.

The humanism of New Age religions is based on a simple belief in a God-force who does not dictate how we live. That is a mere man-made invention of convenience and not the Truth, the Way and the Life which we will discover when we ask the impossible question with all our faculties, our senses and wisdom.

A Merdeka Praise & Prayer To God For His Goodness

2010-08-30T02:44:00.000-07:00

In the spirit of Merdeka, let us all Malaysians unite in praising God for the bountiful harvest of peace, goodwill, health and prosperity that He has bestowed on Malaysia despite the turmoils and challenges that we as a nation have to endure and may continue to endure in the years ahead.

Let us all praise God for His goodnes in keeping us sane and loving towards the helpless, the orphans, the widows, the oppressed foreign workers and the less fortunate.

If we praise God for all the good things we can think of about Malaysia on Merdeka and Malaysia day (31st August and 16th September), we shall reap great changes and blessings in this country.

Let us not have a complaining and critical heart but one of boundless gratefullness. We will be pleasantly surprised beyond our wildest dreams.

A New Season of Great Changes Starting with 2nd Half of 2010?

2010-08-04T22:39:00.000-07:00

The start of the second half of the year and the approach of September is usually an exciting time for world events.

I am focusing my prayers and thoughts on certain events - in particular the battle between the coming one world order contrived by man and the natural divine plans of God.

We all know who will win ultimately and my prayers are for Malaysia that we shall stand in the right standing with God in Heaven so that we will avert the global catastrophic and cataclysmic events that will sweep the earth in the coming years.

The question for end time Bible scholars is whether we are at the start of the seven year period in which the Great Tribulation will begin in the middle of Daniel's 70-weeks (seven years in Biblical time) and which will culminate with the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ on earth.

Who knows the actual timing of these events including the Rapture and the Ezekiel war? We may not know the dates but we are instructed by God to be watchful and be ever alert about our spiritual conditions.

Until my next post, I shall make this season to be one of active prayers and intercession for my family, loved ones, friends and country.

May the good Lord grant you peace and shine His gracious light on all of you.

To Scrap or Not To Scrap Exams Is Not The Right Question

2010-06-24T16:56:00.000-07:00

The government has raised the question of whether the UPSR and PMR exams should be scrapped as these exams do not produce problem solving and effective students. This issue was highlighted by Tony Pua's blog and comments in Parliament.

My view is that the right question is not whether to scrap or not but to change the mix of the syllabus. An education syllabus is like a preparing a healthy meal/diet that is delicious and nutritious.

If the present syllabus/diet does not produce long-term health, we have to find out why instead of jumping to the conclusion to scrap the exams (which may or may not be right).

The emphasis of exams can be split into 33% memorisation of facts, 33% analysis of facts with the help of evidence and 33% judgmental and qualitative thinking.

(The problems with most Malaysians these days is their inability to distinguish facts from opinions and their inability to be intellectually honest by keeping two opposing thoughts in their minds.

They often get caught up emotionally and lose all energy to probe the truth further. That's lazy thinking which comes from the present education system.)

It goes without saying that quality teachers and a revamp of the exam syllabus are essential for creating a new breed of creative thinking, problem solving students/citizens.

But the greatest asset that the education system should emphasize on (which is usually diluted and overshadowed by rules, policies and bureaucratic civil servants) is for teachers and students to ask the right open-ended questions that probe into the mystery of life, history and human nature.

Without encouraging students to ask the right questions (and instead pressurizing them to seek the right answers), we will never promote creative thinking and a new generation of outstanding scientists, artists, craftsmen, philosophers, innovators and business leaders.

But if the government does not wish to seek the final goal of an innovative, intellectually vibrant working population, all these policy changes and academic debates are useless.

Let us not confuse the ends with the means as the government often does. Scrapping the UPSR and PMR is like using a sledge hammer to kill a fly.

We should work backwards from the final goal and ask ourselves what sound and logical steps should be taken to reach that goal.

1Malaysia Anti-Vote Buying Fund Proposal

2010-05-26T19:12:00.000-07:00

In an ongoing debate on the Micah Mandate website regarding the suitability and wisdom of accepting money during election campaigns, I believe a good idea to resolve the political dilemma for voters is to set up a special anti-vote buying fund contributed by all the monies that the parties have given (legally, illegally, ethically or unethically) to sway voters' voting decisions.

I believe the wider perspectives of the whole issue have been quite reasonably discussed by CL’s and other commentators.

As you may know, Malaysia, like other countries during these perilous times, is going through spiritual battles that show up in political and religious tensions in recent years.

I understand why Pakatan supporters are passionate about their values of justice and integrity. By the same token, I do not condone YBH Anwar Ibrahim’s past tactics of getting MPs to switch seats to gain a parliamentary majority. That kind of approach has sown some backlash many months later.

But the debate about the 4 Sibu churches receiving the funds should be taken one step further: Assuming they (including the Hulu Selangor school) decide to return the money, would it be wise to return it to the government who will most likely unwisely give it away again at the next by or general election?

Why not put the money in a special anti-vote buying fund so that whenever any party (BN or PR) tries to buy voters’ loyalty with any amount, the fund will be activated to make a counter offer, which may be smaller but sufficient to make a statement to the whole of Malaysia?

We can call it the 1Malaysia Anti-Vote Buying fund managed by independent trustees comprising a cross section of religious and secular committee members. Meanwhile, the churches in West Malaysia can try to raise money to help those 4 Methodist Sibu churches finance their needs.

My suggestions are just ideas that seek to go above the partisan and religious heat of the issue. I have always believed in a third force in Malaysian politics and that it resides in us (bloggers and activists) keeping both BN and Pakatan Rakyat in check so that they truly serve the interests of the people.

It would be a mistake to give the impression that Malaysian Christians are mostly supporters of PR or BN. We are not neutral but politically aligned to the vision of the rainbow nation, one where unjustified privilege based on race and position is mitigated by love for our fellow citizens.

Either We Aspire To Greatness or Be The Next Greek Tragedy

2010-05-20T20:14:00.000-07:00

The blogger/lawyer Art Harun has written an interesting philosophical piece on Integration with Integrity. I agree with much of his views and would like to expand his line of reasoning to more practical solutions.

Integrity is defined by the online Webster dictionary as:

1. firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values - incorruptibility

2. an unimpaired condition - soundness

3. the quality or state of being complete or undivided - completeness.

The problem with Malaysian society today is the same with every developing democratic society:

How do people of "different" mindsets/values live together in a peaceful and productive environment so that the best in their human potential is allowed to grow?

To the ultra-nationalist, he sees himself to be the epitome of integrity and is usually blind to his own bigotry. Same thing with the facist, the religious extremist, etc. They are locked within their own world views and think that those who don't share their views are the ones who ought to deserve less in life.

For Malaysia to move forward to have a civil and useful dialogue among people of different faiths & values, we need 4 things to happen:

1. Good and honest leaders to serve the best interest of the people, not by appealing to their worst fears/weaknesses. (Malaysia's score card: 6/10).

2. A sound, independent media that provides a platform for discussion and intellectual debate. (score: 5/10 - the average ranking is boosted by the relative free access to the Internet media, without which the media score falls to 3/10).

3. An independent and effective judiciary that ensures the government and its branches are doing their job honestly and efficiently. (score: 3/10).

4. A thriving market for art & culture free from religious/political sanctions so that artists can express their thoughts and visions of the individual and his role in the world. A healthy and world class art culture paves the way for freedom of intellectual discourse. (score: 7/10).

Are we asking too much of Malaysia with a population of 28 mil people?

I think not. Either we aspire to greatness or remain on the slippery slope of mediocrity, sliding eventually to become the victim to corrupt leaders, dictators, madmen and the mob. (e.g. Thailand, Greece & Burma today).

P.S. Ok. I may be taken to task for comparing Malaysia to Greece, but incidentally, Malaysia's public debt/GDP ratio is 53.7%, which is comparable to Spain (54%) and Ireland (64%), members of the infamous P.I.I.G.S European nations that are causing a potential meltdown in global financial markets. And we can't depend ultimately on the nation's oil reserves to bail the economy out of trouble and assume that oil prices will remain high forever.

Post Sibu Challenge: A Referendum and A Dialogue For The Rainbow Nation

2010-05-17T02:27:00.000-07:00

While I am happy that a miracle happened in Sibu’s by-election on 16th May 2010, the 2% margin of victory for the DAP does pose some questions about how Sibuans regard the nation as a whole. I personally do not think it is an easy task for Pakatan Rakyat to win the next GE given their internal weaknesses. If only the rest of Malaysia is as mature and sensible as Sibu voters.

Having said that, the Sibu election victory for DAP and shock defeat for BN/SUPP may signal another turning point that will tilt the balance in favour of Pakatan Rakyat if they get their house in order. The UK elections and the unlikely coalition between the Tories/Liberal Democrats is also an encouraging sign for the new politics.

What the voters in Sibu and the majority of Chinese in Hulu Selangor and all Msians want from their politicians is to come to the table and have a meaningful dialogue, a real discussion with the people on what they want to see in this country: fairness to all, economic transparency and efficiency, religious harmony and mutual understanding, etc.

Perhaps, PM Najib is well-advised to seek a national referendum on major issues that the electorate wants to see resolved once and for all. In doing so, he will take one small but major step in showing he is sincere about fulfilling the 1Malaysia vision and abandoning the old school of divisive politics.

The Allah issue was not an issue until the home ministry and the government took actions that threatened to undermine the constitutional fabric of the multi-racial and multi-religious country.

Sibuans and the Foo Chows know their real future does not lie in just cash handouts and vote-buying gains for Sibu but in more long-term issues.

Man does not live by bread alone. So the bread-for-vote tactic of BN/SUPP is a total failure.

Clearly, the prayers of Christians in this country and abroad have done wonders. I praise God that my church in Peninsular recently prayed that what He had started on March 8th 2008 to be completed in this nation. With God's grace, we are on our way to a rainbow nation.

Politically and intellectually Malaysians need to rise above their circumstances and show their politicians the mature statesmanship and leadership which all citizens deserve.

Allow me to quote this Proverb that is so relevant for all Malaysian leaders on both sides of the aisle:

"By justice, a king (leader) gives a country stability, but one who is greedy for bribes (members of parliament, voters, etc) tears it down."

Let us not allow our country to be torn down by this spirit of bribing, vote-buying and corruption. Let us rebuild this nation with love, wisdom, mature dialogue and unassailable integrity.

What God Says About China's Future In The Bible

2010-04-16T00:20:00.000-07:00

Does the Bible, which is meant for all people of the world, have anything to say about the land of China?

The Holy Bible, inspired by the Holy Spirit of God and written by more than 40 authors over a period of 1,600 years, faithfully records the words of the God of the universe. It is a treasure mine of priceless truth. It is the great standard of right and wrong, clearly defining sin and holiness. Of all the books that have flooded the world, however valuable, the Bible is the most deserving of our closest study and attention.

The Bible opens the history of past ages. Without it we should have been left to fables and speculation regarding occurrences in past eras. This sacred volume gives not only an accurate history of the creation of this world, a history of our human race, but also the world’s only authentic account of the origin of nations. It contains instruction concerning the wonders of the universe, and reveals God as the Author of the heavens and the earth.

The Scriptures unfold a simple and complete system of theology and philosophy. Without the Bible, we are soon enveloped by false theories, superstition, and spiritual darkness.Although unappreciated by many in today’s secular world, the Bible is, in fact, the foundation of all true knowledge, for it is the revelation of God to man.

Throughout the ages God’s divine hand has preserved its purity. The many mysteries found in the Bible are perhaps the strongest evidence of its divine inspiration. One of these mysteries is Bible prophecy—foretelling persons or events in the future. In the entire Bible there are thousands of prophecies. By now, most of them have been exactly fulfilled in time and place as predicted. The rise and fall of nations have been foretold in the Bible long before they happened.

Some prophecies are yet to be fulfilled in due time. This is entirely beyond human comprehension!Jesus clearly revealed God’s purpose for giving prophecies when He said:“And now I have told you before it comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe.”(John 14: 29).

One of the most powerful, yet often neglected, Bible prophecies that might bring conviction to the Chinese, as well as the world, is the prophecy of China written by Isaiah (720 - 680 B.C.).

The Land of Sinim

The ancient Dead Sea Scrolls,3 found in 1947, include the book of Isaiah, and once again confirm that today’s Bible is accurate and reliable.

This verse in Isaiah is thought to refer to China:

"Surely these shall come from afar;
Look, those from the north and the west;
And these from the land of Sinim."(Isaiah 49: 12).

You may wonder what the word “Sinim” means. Where is this land of Sinim, mentioned by Isaiah before his service was terminated in 680 B.C.?4 According to Strong’s Concordance, “Sinim is a distant Oriental region.”5 Young’s Concordance reports, “Sinim is a people in the far east; the Chinese?”6However, the meaning is still not quite clear.

Let us now check an English dictionary for help: “‘Sino’ indicates Chinese; for example, Sinophile. [French, from Late Latin ‘Sinae;’ the Chinese, from Greek ‘Sinai;’ from Arabic ‘Sin;’ China, from Chinese (Mandarin) ‘Ch’in’ [Qin], dynastic name of the country.]”7 Now it is clear that the Hebrew word “Sinim” means China, as can be seen, for example, in the word “sinology”—a study of things Chinese. As we mentioned earlier, all Chinese roots meet in the Qin dynasty.

However, the Hebrew alphabet does not have the equivalent of “ch” in English and “Q” in Chinese. Thus “Qin” has been phonetically translated as “Sinim.”

The Significance of Chin

In Isaiah’s day, the state of Qin was only one of hundreds of states under Zhou (770 - 256 B.C.). It was located in the present Gansu Province through which trade with the West was conducted.

How is it that Isaiah chose Qin to indicate the Middle Kingdom? What was so special about Qin?Rang Kung was appointed as the first Duke of Qin (770 B.C.), then a small, aristocratic house. Under his administration, the state of Qin emerged as one of the 14 major states under the Zhou dynasty.8 It was 500 years after Isaiah that Qin Shi Huangdi defeated all the other competitive states and established the Qin dynasty. From then on, Qin represented the Middle Kingdom [China].

Simply put, the God of Isaiah, with divine foreknowledge, saw all the stages in the development of Qin—from a small, dependent, aristocratic house to becoming the famous Qin empire. God knew that the Duke of Qin would become ever stronger, equal with those of the other 13 states. Furthermore, He foresaw that after another 500 years, the Dukedom of Qin would still exist, defeat all the other states, and unite them as one empire, even choosing “Qin” as the name for the new empire!Some attempt has been made to identify Sinim as Syene [Aswan] in upper Egypt.

Yet a closer look at what Isaiah said precludes this opinion. Listen to what he said:

Indeed He says,

“It is too small a thing that
You should be My Servant
To raise up the tribes of Jacob,
And to restore the preserved ones of Israel;
I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles,
That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.”(Isaiah 49: 6).

God proclaimed here that the mission of His Servant [Jesus Christ] was not limited to the salvation of the Jewish nation and its colonies [like Aswan] alone, but is also extended to all Gentiles throughout the world. In fact, when Jesus affirmed the faith shown by the Roman centurion [a Gentile] He said,“And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 8: 11).

Jesus used the expression, “from the east and west,” to represent all the Gentiles. Isaiah used the term, “those from the north and the west and these from the land of Sinim,” in the same sense. “These from the land of Sinim” should naturally be a large group of people among the Gentiles. Only China, not the small city Aswan, could fit the verse so well.

Sinim and Today

Isaiah’s prophecy about China did not stop with the Qin dynasty, but rather it extended into the future. Over the 2,600 years since Isaiah, many countries have come and gone, but the land of Sinim (Qin) still stands firm as the land of China.The most exciting phases of this prophecy relative to “Sinim” will surely continue to be fulfilled.

Reading earlier verses in this 49th Chapter of Isaiah, we find these words:

“That You [Jesus Christ] may say to the prisoners,
‘Go forth,’
To those who are in darkness,
‘Show yourselves. . . .’
For He who has mercy on them will lead them,
Even by the springs of water
He will guide them. . . .
Surely these shall come from afar;
Look! Those from the north and the west,
And these from the land of Sinim.” (Isaiah 49: 9, 10, 12).

Isaiah’s foretelling of a final gathering of God’s faithful among those “in darkness” must indicate a multitude of peoples—even from China. Most of the people living in China, since Isaiah’s day, have been “in darkness” concerning the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ. Yet here is a specific prophesy and a promise to bring “prisoners of darkness” in the land of Sinim to the light of salvation, freedom and mercy.

We mentioned earlier that the Great Wall has forever been associated with the land of China—ever since the establishment of the Qin dynasty. The existence of the Great Wall is reminiscent of its first builder and planner. Hundreds of emperors have ruled and died in the long history of China. Most of them are forgotten. But the name of Qin Shi Huangdi stands out!

The same prophet Isaiah foretold that the God of Israel paid the greatest price of all in sending His Son, Jesus Christ, to rescue fallen humanity! Jesus Christ came to earth, was nailed to a wooden cross, and died that all mankind might be rescued from sin. He would bear the nail print scars in the palms of His hands forever.

Does the God of Israel know and care about the land of Sinim (China)? Listen to what He says right after the prophecy of China in this book:

“Can a woman forgether nursing child,
And not have compassion on the son of her womb?
Surely they may forget,
Yet I will not forget you.
See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands;
Your walls are continually before Me.”(Isaiah 49: 15 - 16).

The land of Sinim is still there. The massive Walls are still before the people of China and before the God of Israel. God has not forgotten the people of China, for He says, “See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands.” Jesus died for the people of China who must now come out of darkness. We must learn why it was necessary for this Holy Man, the suffering Servant, to die. Just as the Great Wall cannot be separated from the land of Sinim, so the Great Wall of defense from evil and sin, built at the cost of Jesus Christ’s blood on Calvary, cannot be separated from the God of Israel!

One might ask if, since the God of heaven was so interested in Sinim as to speak through His prophet Isaiah regarding this distant nation, is there a possibility that God could have spoken directly to the people of China in past ages? Could He actually have raised up “prophets” for Himself in this ancient land? If so, could these ancient Chinese wise men yet speak to the people of China today?

Editor’s Note: This is an excerpt from Samuel Wang and Dr. Ethel Nelson’s new book, God and the Ancient Chinese, which is now available. We trust that it will benefit all who read it both intellectually and spiritually.

What It Means To Be A Christian Before God and Not Before Man

2010-02-19T00:54:00.000-08:00

In the light of the recent public outcry and shock over the caning of three Muslim women who voluntarily submitted themselves to the punishment handed out by the Shariah court, I have nothing to say except to respond with the Christian perspective of the meaning of repentance before the Almighty God. This post was written back in August 2007:

Most Christians struggle with the question of what it means to be a Christian in the eyes of the church, in the eyes of fellow Christians and non-Christians. They are at pains to create the right impression of what a good Christian ought to do, say, think and behave. Little do they understand that in the eyes of our Lord, these are not genuine spiritual questions but facile questions of the world.

The spiritual journey of man begins when we ask questions that are beyond our ability or powers to answer and only through constant struggle, unceasing wrestling with God will we find an answer that speaks to our innermost being. So deep down, when a surface Christian asks what he/she should do to appear like a good, Godly Christian, he/she is ultimately seeking his/her own happiness and trying to fit his/her life into the visible realm of a typical Christian family. In other words, these people are trying to put on what can be seen from the outside as Christian but internally they are just a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

The only litmus test to ascertain whether a person is a genuine Christian and a disciple of Christ is the one test which our Lord Jesus gave in John 13:25: “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” That is the true mark of a Christian. Yet there is a great paradox in Jesus’ command: “A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” He is saying we are to love unconditionally one another and love with the same intensity, the same passion with which He loved us (“As I have loved you.”).

But we all know that this type of love will always be tested: True genuine love that is flowing naturally from an eternal spring can only occur when we have Christ in us and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. (1 John 3:16: “This is how we know what love is: Jesus laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers…This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in His presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and He knows everything.”) All other attempts to live a life of genuine love will be based on our fleshly desire to fulfill a duty, an obligation, an external rule that has no true appeal to our own selfish hearts.

So Jesus is saying that we have to love one another and yet at the same time, in order to do that in practice, we have to clean up our own hearts, give up the fleshly desire to be a happy Christian or the notion that God’s purpose in putting us on earth is for us to be “happy” Christians living in comfortable homes, doing some church work and attending church regularly. (I can well imagine a Christian who sacrifices his life for another with deep joy and peace in his heart but I find it hard to imagine a Christian “happily” sacrificing his life for another.)

Just look at what the true Christians in the Scriptures went through: Paul, Daniel, Jacob, Joseph, Elijah and all the apostles of Jesus. Did they live a comfortable, orderly life of getting cut-and-dried answers to their spiritual problems and dilemmas by asking their pastors, reading some inspiring books, attending a prayer rally or surfing some Christian sites? Were they superficially asking themselves “am I in the right books of God?” or “Is my church in the right standing with God?” and seeking these answers through external appearances and external approval from their fellow Christians? I really wonder had they been given all the technology and the resources in the world in their time whether they will take the quick-and-easy way out or would they still experience their dark nights of the soul regardless of the external environment. Would they seek to impress the public and their fellow Christians or would they seek direct answers from God through prayerful dialogue and internal baptism of fire?

The reason why Christians today no longer have any genuine arguments with God anymore is because our consciences are no longer sensitive, no longer shocked by the horrors of sin, of hatred and of violence that is burning human society each day. We have become so immune to the horror and senselessness of sin to the extent that we can no longer distinguish between right from wrong in a world where wrong is puffed up as right and right is brushed off as wrong.

The only recompense (our sacrificial payment to the Lord for our immoral indifference) is to go back to the Lord and tell Him how we feel, our hurts, frustrations of not being able to love unconditionally and disgust with our sinful hearts. And then be quiet, like Job at the end of his dialogue with God, and wait for Him to provide the peace that passeth all understanding, the vision that puts every jigsaw puzzle, every wrong in its rightful place. And this epiphany of the soul through wrestling with God is the whole essence of being a Christian before God. By allowing Him to work through our inner struggles, we are allowing Him to melt away the selfishness, the things of the flesh in us. And through this melting process, we are refined in the way which He wants to refine us.

Great Hope For Malaysia Through A Spirit of Thanksgiving

2010-01-11T22:16:00.000-08:00

Dr. Farish Ahmad Noor, a Malaysian political scientist and historian and presently a Senior Fellow at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, recently expressed his doubts and concerns about the future of Malaysia as a nation in this article A Cold Look At The State Of Malaysia Today.

My fellow Malaysians,

Much as I empathise with Dr Farish Noor's pessimism based on the present facts (corruption in high places, attacks on church buildings, political and religious contentions of the lowest sort, etc) , I urge all Malaysians to look beyond the facts which are symptoms of a greater struggle, an inner spiritual conflict that Malaysia is going through.

If you can see that the nation is in birth pangs to give birth to a new Malaysia (be it in 2012, 2015 or 2020), then you may be filled with hope and joy.

Don't allow the immature and narrow politics to blur your vision of what God has destined for this nation.

In God's eyes, the future is eternal and He already knows the choices we have to make. One road leads to ruin and the other leads to harmony and glory. But if we Malaysians take the wrong road, the nation will have to go through a more painful lesson before she gets back to the right road.

Whatever road we take at the crossroads, in the end, God's final destiny and will for Malaysia will be achieved.

The choice of how we wish to arrive at the truth depends on us (citizens and politicians alike), through the valley of darkness or through reason, love and wise counsel.

And the secret to overcoming the negative spirit of hopelessness and despair that has arisen from the political, social and economic disintegration of the nation in recent months is a spirit of thanksgiving. Thank God for good health, for our families, for the food and the earth that He has given us to live and share among ourselves.

According Pastor Peter Tan, an attitude of thanksgiving in our words and actions has a major impact on the spiritual forces that drive a nation. This is an excerpt from his online book Prosperity Through Grace.

"We are the custodians of the New Testament flow of grace; we should be as willing as God to bestow unconditional love and grace towards all men. The manifold wisdom of God of this dispensation of grace is to be manifested through the church (Ephesians 3:2, 8-10).

The devil will seek to make us ungrateful for our country, our leaders, our fellow countrymen, our world so that our prayers for them become ineffective. We should endeavour through thick and thin to have a grateful thankful heart for everyone around us. For the atmosphere and attitude of thanksgiving is essential for the working of the power of the Holy Spirit.

Be thankful for your spouse, your family, your children. Don’t let the enemy make you an ungrateful person and hinder your prayers for your own loved ones. The seeds of divorce are found in the attitude of ungratefulness and the lack of thanksgiving. A strong loving marriage is built upon the foundations of thanksgiving and love. Always be thankful for your leaders, your country and your fellow countrymen. For you release the grace of God (and the power
of God) upon their lives when you hold them before God with thanksgiving in your prayers."

(Note: By "new Malaysia", I do not mean to say I support a change in government to PR or BN. Politics will always be subservient to a nation's spiritual quest for truth.)

Online Allah Debate Opens Up Philosophical Insights

2010-01-06T18:11:00.000-08:00

Datuk Marina Mahathir’s blog post "Prophet Muhammad's Promise to Christians" at http://rantingsbymm.blogspot.com/ has opened up interesting philosophical issues facing Malaysia.

The diverse and interesting comments on this blog post can lead us into a deeper discussion about truth and human nature.

One of readers (pro-Allah is exclusive camp) said it is better to be unfair to non-Muslims that they cannot share their faiths while Muslims can openly do so with non-Muslims. He/she warns Muslims with a scenario of former muslims worshiping at a church in PJ.

First, openly sharing the Christian gospel is already possible through the Internet. Even without the Internet, God has His ways to show you the truth sooner or later. Just read the story of the Prodigal Son who was welcomed back by his father despite straying into a sinful life. If your religion has little influence over you, then real life experience will teach you lessons about your purpose in this world.

Second, we are again putting the cart before the horse when we espouse religious orthodoxy at the expense of fairness, kindness and peaceful acceptance of others with different beliefs.

Third, even assuming the former Muslim converts into a false religion, don't you think that one day he will open his eyes to the truth. Or is that false religion so strong and persuasive that he can't see the truth himself?

The last point is most relevant in this Allah debate because we are actually discussing about human nature: can man know spiritual truths through his own personal experience or is it through external laws governing his conduct, speech and rituals?

The Catholics would err if they think that the readers of their Bahasa publications, or Sarawakian Christians for that matter, will be less spiritual and confused by changing the name of Allah to Tuhan.

Likewise, the "Allah is exclusive" Muslim group will also be mistaken to believe that a generic name used by other faiths can have any impact on the richness of their faiths.

But the High Court ruling is right that to make the Allah word exclusive is unjustifiable. It is an infringement of constitutional rights. Not only that, it shows Malaysians to be most superficial, petty and ungracious in their religious practices, far behind Indonesia and many Muslim-majority countries in the Middle East.

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Here are some of comments in the intense dialogue:

Dear Marina,

Your article about the historical promise is a wonderful discovery. True religion should tame a man from the inside and not from the outside. Only truth will set people free from the rage that imprisons their souls. Here is the best illustration of the destiny of Malaysia, which is at the crossroads between flirting with theocracy and birthing a true democracy.

Written by pastor TD Jakes on 6 April 2009:

"The founding fathers of America created a democratic system that separated church from state so that, as a country, we could avoid the slippery slope of getting into the business of telling people what to believe. That is a job they left to be determined by the individual, the synagogue, the mosque and the church!

A country that has one national religion as its only compass is much more of a theocracy than a democracy. That kind of tyranny leads to witch burning, spiritual genocide, forced and fraudulent expressions of faith, and God knows what else. As wonderful as faith is, faith out of control can be lethal. I love democracy because it is designed to keep the government from telling me when and how to serve communion, and it allows room for debate without dominance.

Religious people will never agree on everything within or outside of the bounds of the church. Democracy allows that debate without polluting it further with political intervention as long as that debate doesn’t infringe on another human’s rights.

Lately, it is my view that religion has become increasingly a servant to politics, and whenever a flame is needed to move a candidate or party closer to power, they ignite the flame of the faith community by playing on controversial issues and fear."

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Munira said...

And interestingly enough, in the Netherlands...What we're really doing is we're arguing semantics. It's petty. But at the same time, as Nehemiah has pointed out, the one good thing that comes out from all this is some of us have learned something new. Nehemiah's sensible argument made a lot of strong points.

Also, if we ban the non-Muslims from using the word Allah, we'll be affecting the prayers of Sikh people as well. Or have we forgotten about them too, or simply ignorant?1. What about us?2. Ban on "Allah" word will interfere with Sikh prayers.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it very unIslamic to interfere with the prayers of other people? Bukankah salah kita mengganggu sembahyang orang lain, walaupun orang itu bukan orang seagama kita?

Be kind. Be generous. Be understanding. It's not that hard, for that is what God, the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and the Holy Quran are trying to teach us. Not hatred. Not prejudice. And definitely not injustice.

January 7, 2010 12:08 PM

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Regarding Encik Azahar's comment:

"BTW Marina, do not let your great confidence in ISLAM to blind you from sinister acts of enemies of ISLAM who are always searching for ways to destroy ISLAM"

1. Is the reason why you advise Marina not to have great confidence in ISLAM, is because you think that God will have great confidence in you to carry out the dictates of Islam? i.e. by sounding and acting extra religious?

2. Pray tell who are the sinister enemies of Islam? With the world filled with rising crimes, drug abuse, wars ,etc, is it more important to protect your religion and your God's generic name, which is not exclusive btw, or make the world a better place to live in by truly transforming man's inner soul?

The purpose of religion is to reform man so that (a) he is in a right and loving relationship with God (b) he is in a right and loving relationship with his neighbour.

And Marina hit the nail on its head by saying that this relationship is based on CONFIDENCE and trust.

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Postscript: I think there can be a simple solution to avoid confusion among the Muslims:

A compromise solution that will satisfy all parties concerned would be for the Herald to put a qualifier/caveat every time it uses the word Allah (e.g. "interpreted as the triune God by Christians and distinct from the Allah referred to by Muslims").

To all bahasa-reading Christians, we must be clear that changing the word Allah to Tuhan does not change our foundational understanding of God nor our spiritual walk with Him. It is a question of religious worship and familiarity for many East Malaysians who are used for decades in calling God Allah.

Since the government banned the word, the licensing issue can only be settled by the High Court. However, the social, cultural and constitutional controversy should be discussed in interfaith dialogues to reach a mature and harmonious solution.

Of Hamlet, Atheists & The Dilemma of Msian Christians

2009-11-11T20:32:00.000-08:00

I am a Christian. Though I may not be an exemplary one at times, I do not boast about myself but Christ in me.

In a simple analogy, Jesus may not appear to be the answer to how we decorate our houses but He is the answer to what foundations we build our houses upon. There are many people who live successful and moral lives without believing in God and Jesus Christ. At the end of their lives, they will face an accounting for which they will be judged and weighed by their Creator.

The confusion of this world and the tragic comedy of the human soul is caused by our lack of understanding of who we are, our position in this world, our purpose and final destiny. A world in which every man and woman act for themselves within the constraints of the law and human decency is destined for failure. If we build our house on the rock of Christ, we shall withstand every storm, every blow of circumstance and overcome the sting of death (i.e. we shall all die a physical death but will be spiritually redeemed and saved from eternal death).

In simple words, Jesus is the practical answer to every aspect of our lives. He is present in every suffering person, be the pain physical or emotional or spiritual. I personally know because I marvel at the way He rescued me many times from trouble even when I was not a believer in my youth.

My faith is in Jesus who died for our sins and took our place of bearing the punishment that God had reserved for sinful man. My faith is that man can only be saved and have eternal life through giving our lives to Him.

Why Christians Come Short of Christ

However, many Christians who have been spiritually reborned have allowed their old selves and old ways of thinking to return and drown out the voice of the Holy Spirit (God is a trinity of the Father, the Son Jesus and the Holy Spirit). In other words, there was not a full conversion, a deep cleansing of the heart due to some unresolved issues.

Without a daily renewal of the heart and mind in the love of Christ and communion with Him (hearing His voice and reading the Bible), Christians face the danger of backsliding into their old selves. And many are unaware they have backslided or were not truly converted in the first place.

In this sense, a Christian engaged in social or political works without the power of the gospel and the aid of the Holy Spirit is like an empty drum, making noise and having little impact in the harvesting of souls.

So I think the dilemma facing Msian Christians, post March 2008 shake-up in the political landscape, is not Hamlet’s dilemma of whether to be or not to be a man of action (to stay apolitical or take a more active political stance apart from voting at elections). It is precisely this limited choice that caused Hamlet to end tragically. Without the power of the Holy Spirit and the word of God, we won’t be able to contend with the enemy of this world, which is not flesh and blood but principalities.

The Fallacy of Atheists & Hamlet's Question

The logical fallacy of historicism is to assume that historic men of genius believed in the God of the Bible out of cultural convenience (they happened to be shaped by their historical circumstances), ignorance of other philosophies (the Internet and printing press were not invented yet to widen human knowledge) and a limited scientific breadth of mind (all Newtonian ways of seeing the world are outdated following Einstein's discovery of quantum truths).

If Shakespeare or Rembrandt were to be borned in 20th century England or Holland, it is my conviction that they will still be inspired by the intellectual, literary and emotional power of the Bible above all modern literature and philosophical paradigms. Hamlet struggled with an ancient sense of guilt that could neither be relieved from his soul by action or inaction but only by the free will to submit to and believe in the transformative power of Jesus Christ.

The Gardener Rabboni & The Woman At The Tomb

2009-10-21T21:58:00.000-07:00

A woman is weeping outside an empty cave tomb. Two strange men stand guard inside the tomb, ask her why is she crying. She says “They have taken my Lord away and I don’t know where they have put him.” The men remain silent.

Suddenly, a man appears in the sunlight at the entrance to the tomb. Thinking he is the gardener, the woman, with tears in her eyes, asks him if he has carried the body that was previously there. The ‘gardener’ calls out her name, “Mary” and she turns towards him and cries out “Rabboni (teacher in Aramaic)! My Lord Jesus! You are alive!”

Jesus is alive today and he waits at the door of Heaven for us to join him. He has prepared a beautiful garden in Heaven for us that we may live joyfully with Him.

Jesus is the Gardener of our lives for he takes out the weeds and cuts off the twigs that bear no fruit in our lives. He is the Teacher through His Word in the Bible and he is also the Shepherd, who takes us to living waters, out of the desert, out of the valley of death into life eternal.

6 Hours In Heaven and 10 Minutes in A Traffic Jam

2009-07-14T19:39:00.000-07:00

While I was driving my son to school on a rainy day, I thought of continuing our discussion about Heaven after what I recently read about a pastor's six hours experience in Heaven.

On October 22 1988, Henry Gruver, a global itinerant pastor called by God to visit and pray for nations, was taken up to Heaven during a prayer session from 10am to 4.15pm. Read the whole testimony here.

Anyway, i started by telling my son about the golden pavement flowers that sang to God and this was what followed during the 10 minutes we were driving through the PJ traffic:

Father: When the flowers sang, their songs were so wonderful and turned into a glowing light that went up to the throne of God.

Child: That is why Heaven is full of lights, right?

Father: Yes, Heaven is full of lights and songs of love for God.

Child: Will I have a brithday cake in Heaven? Can I make a birthday wish there?

Father: Of course, you can wish for anything in Heaven and God will make your wish come true. But you will make only good wishes because there are no bad wishes when we are there.

Child: (Silence as he pondered over this before asking...) Can I wish for God to show me how He makes miracles happen?

Father: Yes, you can ask God to teach you about His miracles. That is real magic because the only true magic is the miracles of God. (Pastor Gruver mentioned this miraculous quality of Heaven in this excerpt:

"All of creation when it gives life and gives honor and praise to throne that made it, it is regenerated in that manner. As the River of Life flows beneath throne, so does all life flow from throne. Everything in heaven is regenerated continually in the presence of his glory. You see perfection of beauty and no degeneration.")

Finally, as he put on his heavy school bag before leaving the car, I ended the conversation by saying I will write all this on my blog and then prayed the fatherly prayer for him.

A Child's Q&A About Heaven

2009-06-01T01:19:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, the joys of parenthood resurface suddenly like a burst of sunshine breaking through a cloudy day. Yesterday was one of those blessed days while waiting for my wife in the car with my two children seated at the back.

Out of the blue, my five-year old son asked me a series of philosophical and moral questions which kept my mind pondering on how the world is viewed by a young toddler.

Child: "Papa, why did God made the world?"

Father:
"God created the world so that we can glorify Him."

Child: "Why are Christians so important?"

Father:"Christians may not be important to other people but we are very important to God because we can build a better world and help other people be saved by God."

Child: "But Papa, why did God create a world that has bad people?"

(This question surprised me for a moment and I had to think how to explain to a 5-year old about original sin, free will and creation.)

Father: "God did not create bad people. He allowed people to choose to be good or be evil. Like Adam and Eve in the Garden, God gave them a beautiful garden to live in but they disobeyed Him. God actually created a beautiful world: look, we have good food to eat, good weather and many great places to see: the mountains, the lakes and forests."

Child: "I know. Eve ate the apple and gave it to Adam. Why did she listen to the snake?"

Father: "She listened to the snake because she was deceived (lied to) by the snake, which is the devil. The snake said she will be like God after eating the apple. This made God very angry because God wants us to worship Him and not worship ourselves."

(Silence as he pondered what I said.)

"In the Garden, God also created a world where the lion and the lamb can lie side by side in peace and be friends with each other. If you go to Paradise in Heaven, you will see all the animals living there."

Child: "Papa, will I go to Heaven? Will I get new wings?"

Father: "Yes, you will because you believe in Jesus. In Heaven, we will have new bodies and there will be no sickness, no death. We will be young forever. And there are no tears in Heaven."

Child (excitely declaring): "I want to go there. And I want all of us, Papa, Mama, me and baby to go there."

After a thoughtful pause, the Child said: "But Papa, I am naughty, how can I go to Heaven if I am naughty?"

Father: "Don't worry. You can be good if you ask God to help you to be good. We all have sin in us because of what Adam and Eve did. We can pray to God and ask Him to make us good each day. So don't say that you are naughty. You must always believe you are a child of God and you can do all that He is. Each day, God will change you to be a better person."

From what I can recall, these are the pieces of the conversation which we had over ten to fifteen minutes. I shall treasure these moments with my son, who is seldom so lucid and focused in his enquiries about God and the world.

And it is my prayer to God that our son will always have that heart-felt wonder and inquisitiveness about his creator and the world.

As for this blog, I shall turn inward towards more spiritual and philosophical matters from this year onwards and take a welcome break from political commentaries. We need to talk to our children more to know what kind of world awaits us and to be humbly reminded of our place in the universe.

They are truly the future and the promise of a new world.

3 Kinds of Bloggers & The Heart of God

2009-05-21T20:32:00.000-07:00

Just as there are three kinds of leaders, there are three kinds of bloggers/writers:

1. The Rear Mirror Types: Using the analogy of driving, these bloggers focus on the past, history, what was done, the wounds, the glories, the disasters of the past 50 years of Msia.

2. The Present Focused Types: These bloggers will comment and anlayse the present situation and the latest policy statements. Many are witty and tend to be pro-reformasi as shown in my bloglist on the right.

3. The Future Focused/Visionary Types: These bloggers, while having a healthy dose of realism, are more than intellectual. They know that what really moves heaven and earth is a tangible vision of the future, what our deepest hopes are for the nation and for our citizens. For instance, the rainbow nation comprising various races blended into one is a vision that Msians can aspire for.

I think most local civil rights, pseudo-political blogs and Internet media are in the 1 and 2 groups. Malaysiakini has a potent blend of opinionated content but has only 10-20% focused on solutions and future visions for the nation. I hope existing and new bloggers like Dato' Zaid Ibrahim's will put their intellectual energies into building up fresh visions for Malaysia’s future.

The future is now in our hearts as soon as we cherish the vision despite the corruption, the partisanship, the comedy of our present state of politics.

This is not New Age hocus pocus but a spiritual truth: what we constantly cherish in our hearts which are aligned with the heart and promises of God will come true. It may take months or years but I am confident God will fulfill the hopes of man that are visualised and imagined faithfully according to His Word.

Drawing Hands by M.C. Escher

A People-Friendly Second Best Solution

2009-05-14T20:03:00.000-07:00

An open letter by blogger Nehemiah to the leaders of Pakatan Rakyat and Barisan Nasional:

The present political stalemate in Perak can only be resolved with creative, new solutions which are rakyat friendly. Otherwise, the reluctance by one of you (Najib) to agree to fresh elections will see the issue go back and forth between the courts and counter appeals, etc.

Barring a fresh election, both your parties should work together (or cooperate if you like) to prove to Perakians that the people's welfare is a HIGHER priority than partisanship.

The rakyat should and is the final employer assessing which candidate to employ.

But if two rival candidates refuse to work together, the employer(rakyat) should give them a choice: either you cooperate for my benefit or you both don't get the job. In such a stalemate, Perakians can afford to bear the loss of being ungoverned and wait for the next GE to decide. Perhaps by then, both parties will come to their senses or there will be a third party that can offer better governance.

Of course, the ideal solution is for snap elections to be held but that option is currently a roadblock for BN as it would be quite certain to lose.

And please, in the talks between both of your alliances, do not reject outright any proposals for power-sharing if it is the second best solution to serve the people's interests.

The whole of Malaysia and the world is watching how you both navigate the state out of this mess with a new creative solution that is approved by Perakians. Conduct Internet polls or surveys among the people to get feedback on the second best solution. Get the media/bloggers involved as an objective third party.

As Deng Hsiao Peng once said, it does not matter that the cat is black or white as long as it catches mice. Looking at recent developments (notwithstanding the national shame of the violent removal of the Speaker Sivakumar on 7 May), both of your parties seem to be more concerned about who gets to be called the official MB and occuplying the state secretariat than in catching real mice.

The Invisible Costs of May 7 For The Nation

2009-05-10T18:27:00.000-07:00

In the field of economics, there is a saying that what we don't see with the naked eye is more important than what we can see.

For example, some vandal who breaks a glass window will cause the house owner to give money (say RM100) to the glass maker to make a new window, which triggers a chain of positive economic effects throughout the economy. But the opportunity cost is invisible: what the house owner would have done with the RM100, which he saved for his consumption or investment, if his window had not been broken.

Same truth applies to politics and the recent Perak crisis, what we saw was the Perak Assembly Speaker Mr Sivakumar being forcibly removed by several men at the State Assembly on 7th May. And economics student/writer John Lee has rightly pointed out, what is unseen is the tremendous damage to democracy and respect for the rule of law, the separation of powers enshrined in the constitution.

I think the invisible damage is worse: the use of physical violence on a law-abiding citizen should be condemned by government leaders. If not, then it may be interpreted by the young and politically illiterate as an implicit official sanction of violence for the sake of asserting one person's power over another.

Will criminal violence escalate after this shameful incident? I beseech the authorities to be wise and responsible and express remorse over the violent removal of the speaker instead of trying to justify it.

Msia's Top 4 Macroeconomic Problems Remain Unsolved

2009-05-08T01:25:00.000-07:00

According to the World Bank, in 2007, Malaysia had a GNI per capita of US$6,420, far behind high income societies such as Singapore (US$32,340), South Korea (US$19,730), Japan (US$37,790), Hong Kong (US$31,560), Australia (US$35,760), Finland (US$44,300), and Switzerland (US$60,820) and Norway (US$77,370).

There are four economic reasons why Malaysia has fallen below the Gross National Income (GNI) per capita of Asia's Tiger economies since the early 1980s.

(1) Dutch disease: Our blessing of oil and commodity resources which meant that we had little incentives to upgrade our manufacturing sector to rise to higher value-added chains. The blessing can be a curse in the long term.

(2) Subsidy policies: The subsidy implicit in the national car Proton at the expense of non-national cars which are overpriced due to high tax duties. The subsidy of food and fuel prices which makes cost of living articifially cheap so that wages can be low and cheap foreign labour can be employed. The hidden policy of keeping the Ringgit competitive vis the USD is also a subsidy for exporters. These subsidies prevent the proper allocation of resources and prevent manufacturing and other industries from rising up the value chain.

(3) The wealth distributive policies: The NEP if implemeted properly should be to alleviate poverty of all races but instead is used as a political weapon. At the end of the day, affirmative action policies help no one except the rich and the political elite.

(4.) Corruption from the top to the bottom. This is prevalent in the construction sector and other sectors where bidding for government contracts are not on open tender basis.

If the present government and policy makers seriously address these 4 economic bindspots, then Malaysia's long-term slide in the ranking of GNI per capita may be reversed. The current economic recession should be a good reason to review the above and open the eyes of citiznes about their sheltered economic existence in a world that is changing rapidly by China and India's economic resurgence.

Now, there is a new economic problem coming up and that is the strong possibility of the Opposition party Pakatan Rakyat (PR) in winning the people's mandate at the next general ellection in 2012/2013.

If PR can remain focused on these four issues and come up with workable policies while the economy's growth continue to stagnate at the 1-3% range in the next few years, then the politicial pressure will intensify for the incumbent government to fast-track real reforms in the economic and political sphere.

Msia's Policy Makers Wake Up To Economic Realities

2009-04-23T19:41:00.000-07:00

The IMF projects Malaysia's GDP to contract by 3.5% this year compared to the Malaysian government's forecast of -1% and +1%. Meanwhile, IMF's forecast for Sinagpore is -10%, which is in line with Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew's comments a month ago.

Thus, PM Najb's move to remove the 30% bumiputra equity requirement in 27 sub-services sector (Computer & Related, Health & Social, Tourism, Transport, Sport & Recreational and Business Services) is commendable and marks a first step towards real economic reform for the country.

Removing the NEP policy and the political agenda behind it is essential. But what is more essential for bloggers/the media and the public to understand is that distribution of human and financial resources based on race is economically most wasteful and greatest disincentive for economic wealth-building (as opposed to wealth hoarding by the privileged few).

Allocating economic resources based on race/class(Marxism)/religion/or any other superficial feature is a guarantee for economic inefficiency and waste. There are huge opportunity costs (RM140 billions or 20% of annual GDP?) that Malaysia's affirmative action policies (as distinct from but not unrelated to cronysm) have incurred.

So Najib's move should spark a fresh wave of analysis why Malaysian policymakers need to recognise the absurdity and stupidity of economic disincentives and to allocate its resources in the market efficient way. Everyone benefits from a bigger pie.

A Mighty Nation In The Making: Part II

2009-04-08T21:01:00.000-07:00

There have been some post-election analyses commenting about the risky strategy of Msian Chinese voters in Bukit Selambau and Bukit Gantang in supporting PAS and attending PAS ceramahs.

Chinese Malaysians are not naïve with regards to PAS's Islamic state aspirations. We have all along known their long term objectives. But if PAS changes its pro-multiracial colours after helping PR to be the next government, then it would destabilise the government because Malaysian voters can always vote them out.

The common glue that holds the Pakatan together is the anti-corruption, anti-injustice agenda. And what is most tragic about BN/UMNO is their blatant lack of shame in the face of corruption and money politics (albeit Msia is ranked 7th in terms of corruption).

This lack of honour and fair play is totally unacceptable in Asian cultures. The advent of the Internet media and bloggers has opened the eyes of Msians, esp the younger generation regardless of race and religion.

So I conclude that the PR victories in the two states are not a victory for Islamic interests but a victory for all Malaysians.

A Beautiful & Mighty Nation In The Making

2009-04-05T22:28:00.000-07:00

God works in unknown ways. Deep in my heart, I wish that PR will win the three seats (Bukit Selambau, Bukit Gantang and Batang Ai) in the by-elections tomorrow.

What is God’s plan for Malaysia under the new PM Najib? Will he be under pressure to reform or maintain a tight grip on the status quo?

Tonight, I’ll pray that the the best party with the best leaders will win in line with God’s future plan for this beautiful and mighty nation.

Malaysia is beautiful because it is the nation beloved by God for its racial harmony despite government-sponsored racism. It is mighty because the dramatic political upheavals and elections in the past year have been broadly peaceful with no bloodshed.

7th April, Tuesday: Whichever way the by-elections go today, I think PM Najib will surprise on the positive as far as incremental reforms are concerned.

If BN wins two out of the three seats (Bukit Gantang most likely will be won by PAS/PR), it would increase the people's anger more if BN sees the victories as an endorsement to be as corrupt and oppressive as before. So the PM will likely make some reforms to placate the middle ground, the most important challenge being the revamp/removal of the NEP stigma on the nation.

On the other hand, if PR wins all three of the seats, the PM will be under more pressure to reform BN internally, which is also good.

Either way, the stock market is riding a global bear market rally and should retrace later when the focus is back to a contracting economy.

Painting by Iranian artist Kamrooz Aram.

How God & Man Can Change Malaysia's Destiny

2009-03-24T09:42:00.001-07:00

For many months since the political earthquake of 8th March 2008, I, as an ordinary citizen, have been praying and seeking solutions to Malaysia's seemingly intractable economic and political problems.

Why should I care if not for the fact that I love this beautiful country where I spent many wonderful teenage years and where my children will be growing up.

Presently, the problems we face seem insurmountable at this stage when a new Prime Minister will be taking over the government, the Opposition is facing fresh hurdles and the economy is sliding into possibly its worst recession.

Einstein once said that given an hour to solve a problem, he would spend 55 minutes understanding (or defining) the problem first and the last 5 minutes solving it.

Dr Aiko Hormann, a Christian minister of God and a former Artificial Intelligence scientist with NASA, revealed in her remarkable interviews (with "Its a New Day") that the way for us to resolve difficult problems (financial, health, emotional, spiritual) is to move into God's perspective and declare God's promises over the present situation despite the adverse circumstances.

In doing so (and we need to be sincere in our motives which is to glorify God), God will actually bring about a change in our external circumstances to be in line with our spiritual state of being (which is a joyous praise and thanksgiving to Him who has already done the finished work of healing, of freedom from poverty, of freedom from anger, hate, bitterness, etc.)

She reveals that the two hindrances that keep us from instantly seeing the power of God work in us is (a) to be distracted by the physical sensations of our present and (b) not being able to "see" from God's time perspective of the past-present-future.

In other words, humanity is always attempting with little success in moving from point A (the present with all the harsh realities) to point Z, where all our problems are gone.

Rather than dwell in A, God wants us to be spiritually and mentally be in the future time zone of Z, where all His work is accomplished just as Jesus Christ finished the work of our redemption with His death on the cross two thousand years ago.

How does all this relate to Malaysia's current problems? Well, I believe Christians as well as non-Christians should take a different perspective of this country, where its future lies according to God's plan and not according to our ideals or visions.

And the important point is not to despair or be discouraged by what we see in the physical realm (no, YB Lim Kit Siang, we are not entering a dark age) but instead be joyful and strong in nurturing a victor's perspective and mentality (not a victim's pessimism). Why? Because this is the kind of spiritual partnership with God that will work real miracles in this country.

No man can defeat the problems we face or heal a divided nation. Only when we begin to see how small, how insignificant these problems are, do we see from God's eternal perspective.

Postscript: Whether Malaysia will see its problems fixed overnight or in three or four years time depends on how we submit to God's guidance and solutions. Dr Hormann did say that sometimes, the victory is delayed so that our faith will be tested and emerge stronger after we go through difficult times.

6 Ways To Ascertain The Truth of the Bible

2009-03-06T09:06:00.001-08:00

It has never been my contention that spiritual truths can be proven with the scientific precision with which we prove physical truths such as the law of gravity. But the inability to conduct a laboratory experiment on a moral or religious issue is by no means proof that the issue can never be verified.

In fact, if we use a scientific, empirical mindset to understand the law of divine justice in human affairs, we can see that certain spiritual truths or laws will always be immutable (not susceptible to change).

One such truth is the law of sowing what we reap. For instance, if we spend time thinking and planning on how to be rich to the exclusion of every sensible responsibility, then we shall one day pay the price in either making a bad investment decision or in breaking the civil law.

Nonetheless, the existence of God is something which cannot be proven by reason alone. As the philosopher Dr Charles Taylor said: "This (religious belief) is something that you cannot ultimately prove except by impressing people with the fact that you have a more intelligent interpretation all the time."

Conversely, the non-existence of God (or the idea of a world without a creator) can be proven to be irrational. No man, who is a being of sensible reason, emotions and limited intelligence, can ever honestly admit to living happily in a state of uncertainty about his after-life. He may have theories or beliefs about what could happen to him after death, but his endeavours to resolve this sudden unknown event will be a measure of the meaning of his life.

When various religions proclaim that there is life after death and describe the different worlds that exist in the after-life, there seems to be no way of proving which religion is right or whether they are all fanciful stories.

The objective social scientist can conduct an experiment and that is to investigate and interview people who have apparently died physically and then returned from the after-life to tell their experiences.

As a practising Christian (who was formerly an atheist, then an agnostic and just before becoming a Christian, a Buddhist), I am convicted of the truth of the Bible as the Word of God. But looking at the Bible from the non-Christian and skeptical perspective, I think there are 6 ways to ascertain its truthfulness. These ways are the weight of evidence in support of the truth of the Bible:

1. The Historical - the main historical person in the New Testament is the person of Jesus Christ whose words, deeds and teachings were described in the eye witness testimonies of the four Gospels, written in the first century. Apart from the Bible, there are historical records that verify he existed and was borned at the time cited in the Bible.

Charles Guignebert, Professor of the History of Christianity, at the Sorbonne, maintained that the "conclusions which are justified by the documentary evidence [concerning the life of Jesus] may be summed up as follows: Jesus was born somewhere in Galilee in the time of the Emperor Augustus, of a humble family, which included half a dozen or more children besides himself." He adds elsewhere "there is no reason to suppose he was not executed".

There is a passage from a 10th century Arab historian named Agapius of Manbij who was a Christian. He cites Flavius Josephus (c. 37–c. 100), a Jewish and Roman historian, as having written:

At this time there was a wise man who was called Jesus. And his conduct was good, and (he) was known to be virtuous and many people from among the Jews and the other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die. And those who had become his disciples did not desert his discipleship. They reported that he had appeared to them three days after his crucifixion and that he was alive; accordingly, he was perhaps the Messiah concerning whom the prophets have recounted wonders.

The text from which Agapius quotes is viewed by historians as closer to what Josephus wrote about Jesus.

(For skeptics who say there is no proof of his resurrection after three days being dead, read this article.)

2. The Archaeological: In the last 150 years, archaeologists have excavated thousands of sites in the Near East, many of whom have tried to disprove the historical records of the Old Testament. Yet, every time they turned their spades, the new evidence confirms what the Bible says.

For example the Old Testament mentions all the kings of Israel and Judah in addition to 47 other kings in the Gentile (non-Jewish) world of Egypt/Babylon/ Syria/Greece. Not a single history book mentioned even one of them. The archaeologists found in their sites every one of the 47 kings exactly in the places where the Bible said they had reigned.

3. The Sensible Insurance Policy: Pascal's Wager (or Pascal's Gambit) is a suggestion posed by the French philosopher Blaise Pascal that even though the existence of God cannot be determined through reason, a person should "wager" as though God exists, because so living has everything to gain, and nothing to lose.

We only have two things to stake, our "reason" and our "happiness". Pascal considers that there is "equal risk of loss and gain", a coin toss, since human reason is powerless to address the question of God's existence. That being the case, we then must decide it according to our happiness by weighing the gain and loss in believing that God exists. He contends the wise decision is to wager that God exists, since "If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing", meaning one can gain eternal life if God exists, but if not, one will be no worse off in death than if one had not believed.

(Note that although he was a Christian, Pascal's wager does not necessarily point to a Christian God but to the belief in one God - theism - which is shared by Judaism and Islam).

4. The Scientific: Empirical science is catching up with the Bible as neuroscientists explore the seemingly unexplainable power of prayer and meditation. Increasingly, the miracles of Christians praying for the sick and healing them of a wide range of illnesses (cancer, deafness, physical deformities, etc) are being recorded on the Internet and have been confirmed by secular doctors who have tested these patients before and after the prayers of healing. Just because today's science may not yet have full explanations of how the cures occurred does not at all invalidate the efficacy of prayer, which the scientific mind will be open to explore.

There are even many testimonies of people who have died and were taken to witness Heaven and Hell before coming back alive.

These experiences and testimonies are hard, but not impossible, to verify scientifically but there will be a day when tests can be made to see if these people are hallucinating or lying. (To those who explain that healing may be due to the power of the mind over matter, then they should examine how ineffective is healing through new age methods.)

5. The Psychological: There is insurmountable evidence throughout history of the positive, inspirational impact of the Bible on the lives of great politicians (George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, William Wilberforce, etc), writers and playwrights (Dante, William Shakespeare, John Milton, Dostoevsky, Charles Dickens,etc) scientists (Kepler, Galileo, Newton, Morse, etc) and social workers (Florence Nightingale, David Livingstone, Mother Theresa, etc) to name a few.

These are men and women of great intelligence whose works have transcended their cultural eras and historical circumstances. Can these people of character and genius who have done so much good for the world and whose good deeds have benefited our present society, be irrational and easily converted by "a fanciful, superstitious book that can only be believed by fools?" Think again with wisdom and care.

6. The Fulfilled Prophecies: Finally, the most powerful feature of the Bible is the fulfilled prophecies about Jesus Christ decades before he was borned. There are 333 prophecies concerning the coming of the Messiah Christ and these predictions include the exact date of his birth, the place of birth (Micah 5:2 -Bethlehem), that he would be borned of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14) . These predictions in the Old Testament also describe his character, his betrayal for thirty pieces of silver, his burial in the grave of a rich man, his resurrection from the dead and ascension into heaven. All of which were fulfilled and described in the New Testament.

There is no individual in the history of mankind nor any other religious texts that has been so prophetically and predictively detailed.

To those who are still skeptical despite the 6 peripheral ways of ascertaining the truth of the Bible (note I did not say that reason alone can be used to confirm the Bible's truth), then I will paraphrase the English writer C.S. Lewis who said that even if Jesus was a myth, it would be a myth worth living for. From my personal experience, I testify that Jesus Christ is not a myth but the only living truth that can help man redeem himself from the darkness of his savage and corrupted nature.

And the Good News of the Bible is encapsulated in this foundational verse 1 John 16: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whosoever believe in Him (His Son) shall not perish but have eternal life."

Editor's comment: Far be it for me to suggest that the existence of God can be tested as this would be a mark of distrust and irreverence. Rather, I am simply showing to skeptics and atheists the tremendous weight of evidence, through 6 different perspectives, concerning the truth of the Bible, which offers a unique and more intelligent, if not the only, interpretation of the meaning of our purpose and life on earth.

Perak Crisis Snowballs In Favour of Perakians

2009-03-02T08:40:00.000-08:00

Thank God I was prophetically discerning when I wrote on 4 Feb, the eve of changes in the state government in Perak:

"Today, God may allow the devious cross-over and reverse takeover of the Perak state government by BN for one very good reason: the whole population of Perak and the country will start to see how unethical and undemocratic is the BN in trying to gain power.

Let them win the war of cross-overs but they will definitely lose the battle for the hearts and minds of the voters."

The daily drama (or comedy?) of events in Perak since the day BN declared themselves the "new government" of Perak continues to show to the nation and the world that the people of Perak are the true victims of an unethical, unconstitutional grab for power at all costs.

The good news is that this crisis is turning into an avalanche of sympathy for the people of Perak as long as they are denied a snap election to elect the state government.

So I wonder why the bloggers, lawyers and media commentators are so exasperated and demoralised by the Perak political crisis. Whatever use of force (ISA or emergency rule) that the BN comes up with in desperation to assert its rule of Perak, the outside world is watching with bemusement.

All's well that ends well and the end of Be End is coming soon if it continues in its present path.

http://jeremiahliang.blogspot.com/2009/02/battle-for-hearts-minds-of-perak-is.html

http://jeremiahliang.blogspot.com/2009/02/lessons-to-be-learned-from-perak-crisis.html

Postcript: I call on all Malaysians to pray for Perak, the state of grace, that the Lord will fight the battle for this state amidst the current turmoil it is going through and open the way for justice, righteousness and the rule of our constitution to prevail.

Roots & Solutions to The Middle East Conflict

2009-02-24T17:51:00.000-08:00

The Israel-Arab/Palestinian crisis is a very complex problem that poses the biggest risk of a geopolitical war. However, I disagree with the various naive proposals offered by many people across the blogs who say that the solution is to reduce the power of the extremists from both sides, ignore the religious perspectives, talk peace and disarm.

What we are dealing here is a political conflict that emanates from an ancient family trauma (the rejection of the surrogate son and the concubine wife from the Abraham family) which, over the centuries, manifested into controversial texts that incite warmongering against the other half-blood tribe.

Nonetheless, there are several ways to approach the problem and achieve a real solution. A complicated problem requires a complicated analysis from various perspectives with a simple but profound solution.

1. Reexamine the simplicity of the political solution: a two-state solution simply requires that each state recognises and respects the existence of the other. All other tactics to obstruct the recognition of this fundamental right of existence reflects an indirect denial of real peace. For example, if Singapore/Indonesia refuses to recognise Malaysia as a legitimate country and threatens to wipe it off the sea, why bother talking about a truce or lasting peace with them? Wiser to prepare secretly for the coming attack.

2.The diplomatic solution is now offered by President Barack Hussein Obama. He is likely to convince Iran and all the proxy elements of the Arab world to lay down their arms for peace. But this peace won’t hold because it is merely diplomacy laced with great rhetoric from an ambitious world leader. Read his inaugural speech:

“To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history, but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.”

This means a voluntary disarmament which will eventually be a prelude to rearmament. An unclenched fist can easily become clenched with a nuclear bomb later on.

3. On the question of who is right or wrong. I suggest we heed Jesus’s advice to judge a tree by its fruits. How many Jewish and Arab friends do we personally know from both sides of the issue to be able to know the truth of their lives in this region?

We should learn to see the problems of the Middle East from the perspective of a Martian who has no vested interest. Which party in this conflict is unreasonable, barbaric, illogical and religiously extremist? By their acts and their behaviour, you shall know the wolf behind the sheep.

Maybe, the Martian will conclude that both parties are equally guilty. But ask him further, show him the history of this conflict which extends to Abraham’s relationship with his two sons Isaac and Ishmael and you may arrive at a truly objective view.

4. The spiritual solution is the most effective one: both the Arabs and the Israelis must look deep into their intertwined past as half-brothers and truly repent of their hate crimes and forgive each other.

They must be made to see that the alternative is more bloodshed and perhaps a geopolitical war. Just remember that the last world war was tainted by the tragedy of the Holocaust (the genocide where about six million European Jews died.)

Unfortunately, human nature can only learn to repent after a great tragedy has happened. And the tragedy of lost lives stemming from the wars fought between Israel and the Arabs since the formation of the former on May 14, 1948 is perhaps not sufficiently painful for sane, citizens of the world to turn their backs on the insanity of war and the drive for political power in the Middle East.

Is The Hedgehog or the Fox The Best Leader For Msia?

2009-02-15T20:23:00.000-08:00

Now with the latest Perak crisis, doubts are emerging about Anwar's effectiveness as the opposition leader. However, the mystery of who is the real Anwar should be analysed from the fox and the hedgehog context.

Philosopher and historian Isaiah Berlin said that foxes know many cunning tricks to survive while hedgehogs know only one single thing.

My instincts indicate that Anwar pretends to be a fox who can fix many of M'sia's social and economic challenges. However, he may actually be a hedgehog with only one real talent: Is it his oratory skills? His ability to hold the PAS-DAP dichotomy together or his anti-NEP and anti-corruption principles (which very few Malays have the intellectual bravery to champion)?

For most M'sians, all they want to see is a shadow cabinet, sound economic policies and a new set of values that will unite the secular and the non-secular sentiments of the citizens.

Since the former Premier Tun Mahathir, who seemed to be more of a fox than a hedgehog, failed to move the country out of its handicaps, the public may now clamour for a hedgehog-type of leader, a man of integrity and vision who only knows how to carry out one great idea that will solve many of the country's problems.

Abraham Lincoln's hedgehog genius was to liberate America from the scourge of slavery at the cost of civil war. I guess Barack Obama's hedgehog idea is to do the opposite: promote world peace at the cost of making diplomatic alliances with despotic regimes. ("To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history, but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.")

In others words, a false world peace today to postpone the real world war that is looming at the periphery of the global financial meltdown.

Lessons To be Learned From Perak Crisis-Malaysiakini

2009-02-05T17:47:00.001-08:00

Now that the full consequences of party-hopping and cross-overs have been reaped for every Malaysian to see, let us re-examine three simple lessons we can learn from this crisis:

1. If party hopping followed by snap elections is justified as an unjust means to a fair end, then there will be no end to party hopping, what more when vast amounts of money is offered under the table. (Anwar, pls take note, you are at an economic disadvantage in this respect).

2. Now that both BN (sin by commission) and Pakatan Rakyat (sin by temptation) have created this political mess, it is the honourable thing for both Anwar/PR leaders and Najib to outlaw party hopping. But first, to regain his credibility with the voters, Najib should call a snap election soon in Perak to make amends for the unfairness with which the Perak people are subjected to. That way, he will be doing what Anwar actually promised, cross over and give back the mandate to the electorate.

3. Politics is often dirty and devoid of ethics. Whoever has more influence on the rules of the game (the courts of law) has a stronger hand. But the spectators, i.e voters have an active role to play in giving the weaker opposition a stronger hand. They can either walk out in protest or continue watching the drama between the two foes. If the civil rights activists and bloggers had debated thoroughly the issue of cross-overs and not given blanket approval to Anwar's 916 tactics, they would have seen its dangers, both ethical and political.

Aside from Pakatan Rakyat's greatest political weapon of being anti-NEP and anti-corruption, what was sorely lacking was the lack of a shadow cabinet, concrete policies for the economy and a new set of values to unite a multi-ethnic people.

So the blame for the current Perak crisis should be shared with Malaysia's intellectuals, bloggers and silent citizens.

Read Karim Raslan's take: "Trouble in Perak."

The Battle for The Hearts & Minds of Voters Is Lost For BN-Malaysiakini

2009-02-04T18:36:00.001-08:00

We, Malaysians who care for democracy and clean governance, must all look at this setback for Pakatan Rakyat in Perak positively and creatively.

Do not lose hope for Malaysia because God has a greater plan beyond the obvious cat and mouse game.

Look at the irony of the situation: The unethical cross-over planned by Anwar failed last September.

Today, God may allow the devious cross-over and reverse takeover of the Perak state government by BN for one very good reason: the whole population of Perak and the country will start to see how unethical and undemocratic is the BN in trying to gain power. (This view is gaining ground. Read Tengku Razaleigh's latest comments).

Let them win the war of cross-overs but they will definitely lose the battle for the hearts and minds of the voters.

(I see that many blog commentators have vented their anger on the ex-DAP assembly lady. To paraphrase an old but true saying: when we forgive someone, we are pouring water on the hot coals burning over their heads. The power to change Malaysia’s despicable politics lies in forgiving our enemies. Likewise, those who curse Ms Hee fall into the same trap of hate and bitterness that divides our nation. Change begins in our hearts no matter what colour, political party or faith.)

Prediction For 2009

2009-01-07T22:13:00.000-08:00

The year 2009 began with a crucial war (Israel-Hamas Palestine) while the whole world is focused on the global and financial economic crisis. The surprise for the year ahead may be a major political event linked to the Israel-Palestine crisis while the economic arena may take a back seat with a boring but predictable recession hitting most developed nations.

The same reversal of human expectations occurred at the start of 2008. People were worried about the subprime crisis but not too worried to cash out all their investments. The US election took centre stage and ended predictably with Obama's win against mediocre contenders. However, the financial markets saw a blow-out with the biggest losses since the 1930s Depression.

Same thing happened in Malaysia with the country suddenly turning its attention on the political tsunami post the March 2008 election. People, including myself, were transfixed by Anwar's takeover attempts and counter-tactics by BN. Then, the unexpected crash came in September after the Beijing Olympics.

This year, what most investors are worried about may turn out to be less severe than their worst scenarios. However, global political developments may shape up to be a major Black Swan event, unpredictable and having a major impact on financial markets.

These are my thoughts which I will continue to pursue. So if you wish to see ahead, don't look in the rear view mirror (a tumultuous 2008) but look ahead and above the skies for a different kind of tsunami.

Dostoyevskian Wisdom In Malaysia's Midnight Hour

2008-11-24T17:35:00.000-08:00

Malaysians from all walks of life will benefit tremendously from reading the Russian writer Dostoyevski's writings and understanding his worldview. For me, he alone of all writers, apart from the writer of the book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible, has so clearly seen the truth of the human heart and the daily battle that rages in the soul of man.

The battle that matters most to Dostoyevski is the spiritual battle of wrong ideas that has infected modern man and led to the destruction of his faith in God. Through pride, we become convinced that we, alone, hold the keys to our destiny and are able to plan a bright future for our fellow citizens and children.

And in the present global economic and financial crisis where governments are taking control over banks and trying to steer financial markets from chaos, I believe we are seeing the beginnings of the building of a new tower of Babel from the ashes of the financial crisis. I may be wrong about the timing but it is only an issue between the next two or five years that the world's government and financial system will change drastically.

Still I have hope and that hope rests on our decisions, the daily focus of our thoughts and prayers. Even a mere citizen of Malaysia, small as we are, can make a difference to the world we live in by thinking profound and measured thoughts based on clear insights into human nature.

On rereading "Notes from the Underground", I found that the following passages speak much more truth to me than today's predictable social-political commentaries in the blogs, MSM and international news magazines:

1. On politicians and leading economic advisers who have continued to mistake the symptoms for the cause (one clear example is to define inflation as rising prices instead of rising money supply in excess of sustainable economic growth), Dostoyevski, through the notes of the Underground Man, says:

"All "direct" persons and men of action are active just because they are stupid and limited. How explain that? I will tell you: in consequence of their limitation they take immediate and secondary causes for primary ones, and in that way persuade themselves more quickly and easily than other people do that they have found an infallible foundation for their activity, and their minds are at ease and you know that is the chief thing."

2. On the intellectual limitations of Malaysia's civil-rights activists (anti-ISA vigil's notwithstanding) and the well-intentioned idealism of Malaysia's bloggers:

"Oh, gentlemen, do you know, perhaps I consider myself an intelligent man, only because all my life I have been able neither to begin nor to finish anything. Granted I am a babbler, a harmless vexatious babbler, like all of us. But what is to be done if the direct and sole vocation of every intelligent man is babble, that is, the intentional pouring of water through a sieve?"

My interpretation of this is that an intelligent man seldom begins his intellectual analysis on the right footing or completes the logical flow of his ideas. Much like many intellectuals today who see the world through rose-tinted or grey-tinted glasses, depending on their temperaments.

3. On our entertainment and food-centric civilisation and the coming new world order of humanism:

"The only gain of civilisation for mankind is the greater capacity for a variety of sensations--and absolutely nothing more."

4. On the limitations of reason and human nature:

"Reason only knows what it has succeeded in learning (some things, perhaps, it will never learn; this is a poor comfort, but why not say so frankly?) and human nature acts as a whole, with everything that is in it, consciously or unconsciously, and, even if it goes wrong, it lives."

Finally, this is the passage that encapsulates the universal problem of freedom of choice and man's inclination for evil actions for the sake of exercising his moral freedom:

"Now I ask you: what can be expected of man since he is a being endowed with strange qualities? Shower upon him every earthly blessing, drown him in a sea of happiness, so that nothing but bubbles of bliss can be seen on the surface; give him economic prosperity, such that he should have nothing else to do but sleep, eat cakes and busy himself with the continuation of his species, and even then out of sheer ingratitude, sheer spite, man would play you some nasty trick. He would even risk his cakes and would deliberately desire the most fatal rubbish, the most uneconomical absurdity, simply to introduce into all this positive good sense his fatal fantastic element. It is just his fantastic dreams, his vulgar folly that he will desire to retain, simply in order to prove to himself--as though that were so necessary--that men still are men and not the keys of a piano, which the laws of nature threaten to control so completely that soon one will be able to desire nothing but by the calendar."

Here is the tragedy and dilemma of man: faced with the logic (as precise and engineered as a piano key) of civilised morality that dictates he should only do the right thing, he makes the choice to do the wrong thing just to exercise his sense of power; the God-given freedom of choice he is entitled to as a free moral being.

Can Governments Avert A Global Armageddon?

2008-11-04T22:35:00.000-08:00

While I had taken a long break from blogging with the arrival of my beautiful baby girl, many momentous things have also occurred outside the tranquility of my home.

It appears that the partial nationalisation of the banking system in the U.S. and parts of Europe following the pioneering rescue plan of British Premier Gordon Brown has saved the world from a major economic and financial meltdown. Brown's £500 billion plan includes £50 billion to recapitalise banks and accounts for up to one third of Britain's GDP.

This year, regional stock markets around the world have fallen by 40-50% with Malaysia apparently outperforming with one of the lowest decline of 40.9%, more by default than on its own merit. If this is not a financial meltdown then what else can be called a meltdown? Jim Rogers says these type of market crashes occur only 8 times in a 100 years. That is a probability of 8% with a collateral damage of 50%. However, Naseem Taleb thinks that worse case scenarios may have higher probabilities than we wish to think because stock markets do not follow the bell curve's distribution.

Today, stock markets have cheered the end of the U.S. election with the appointment of America's first black President. Is Barack Obama likely to rescue America out of its economic malaise? Or will he be another Herbert Hoover who succumbed to the folly of government thinking by raising taxes, tariff barriers and worsened the Great Depression of 1929-1933?

Here are some very insightful articles I read today that will shed some light on the current economic crisis. One is by Paul Wilmott, a finance lecturer and the other by Dr Arthur Laffer, the supply side economist who created the Laffer curve.

With half of the world going into recession (U.S. and Europe) in 2009, can Asia withstand the slowdown? To answer this question, we need to understand that the underlying drivers of robust global economic growth in the 2003-2007 period was caused by the housing bubble and credit bubble that started in the US and spread throughout Europe. This asset-fueled consumption growth was the driver of economic growth in export-based economies of Asia and emerging economies. So the big economic question is how much will we be affected in Asia? Will Asia be strong enough to withstand the coming storms of banking collapses in the West?

Before I share more thoughts on Malaysia's economic and political outlook in 2009, I would like to say that recessions are very good for economies as long as governments allow economies to reduce their excesses, reduce fat and be more efficient.

Like Japan in the 1990s, the U.S. is doing the opposite of sound economics by bailing out the speculators of Wall Street and taking money from healthy tax payers to pay for the mistakes of foolish tax payers with unmanageable housing loans.

Overcoming The Enemy's Political Tactics Against The Christian Family

2008-10-19T21:23:00.000-07:00

The enemy (the principalities that covertly try to manipulate our thoughts) uses the same political tactics that Malaysia’s political parties use in maintaining their stronghold over ignorant, uneducated and emotionally vulnerable citizens.

These are 3 most common tactics used by the enemy in its current attempts to destroy the family and the country:

1. Divide and Rule: By creating division between the spouses, the enemy has gained a foothold. One tactic to create division is for third parties to take sides in any domestic issues, however small or big. Another tactic is to use an imaginary or real scapegoat, someone who can easily be blamed for creating problems. [Racist politicians still feel that the best way to appeal to their own own racial support group is to make the other race look like the external threat to their prosperity and security.]

2. Reality Denial Mentality: By constantly denying the truth about a person or the person’s environment, the enemy uses this tactic to blind the person about the truth and hence prepare the person for a shock when the facts continue to contradict the person’s misleading perception of the truth. [Politicians often exaggerate about the economic outlook, either it is too rosy from the ruling government’s viewpoint or too bleak from the opposition’s viewpoint. Many politicans lie about race-based economic policies that mislead people into thinking that these policies are ethical.]

3. Subvert the Authority of the Father: In the Christian tradition which is supported by Biblical scripture, the father is the servant leader who helps his family to serve God and who makes sacrifices for his family. He is to love his wife as his wife is to submit to him. Changing or distorting this role by giving the wife more grounds to take the lead in family matters of finance, children's upbringing or religious values is against the tradition of the Christian family (unless the husband is a philanderer or unwilling to lead). [Politicians show little respect for the King, the PM and rival MPs, forgetting that these people are annointed by God and elected by the people's votes.]

While both husband and wife are to be willing partners in managing the family’s affairs, neither party should try to go against the will of the other. At the end of any disagreement, there must be a consensus built around mutual respect. The same role model is practised in all other traditions. The enemy tries to destroy the father’s mandate and credibility by whispering lies about the husband and making her question his ability or authority.

These three types of attacks against the Christian marriage and family can be nullified and revoked by spiritual prayer as well as:

(1) Appealing to the reason and good faith of the spouse in seeing that the enemy is the external threat and not the spouse nor the children.

(2) Keeping a healthy perception of the truth of surrounding circumstances and do not be influenced by gossip and wrong attitudes. Fellowship with faith-filled Christian friends.

(3) Ensuring that the whole family continues to read the Bible, pray and worship together so that they understand the way to achieving the family’s aim of health, happiness and prosperity is not through power struggles of right and wrong, not through perfectionism but through humble acceptance to the sovereign will of God in their lives.

Through the daily confession of sins and repenting of unforgiveness to God, each family member will align himself/herself in the proper relationship with God. Unforgiveness over past wrongs is the greatest seed for bitterness and conflict in relationship. Unroot that seed each day with the seed of goodness.

The Shakespearean View of Humanity

2008-09-12T00:43:00.000-07:00

We live in interesting times where economic waves, technological waves and political waves change the landscape of our world. However, it is essential for us to step back, each day, from the hustle and bustle of this volatile world and reflect on the nature of our humanity.

The questions which have come up for myself in recent days are as follows:

1. Our trust in man: How much can we put our trust in ourselves, let alone leaders in government, politics or in our religious communities? Do we need others to hold us accountable just as a government needs a judiciary and a viable opposition party for checks and balances?

2. What are our ideals and values ? What do we really stand for and what are we willing to sacrifice our bread and butter for? Do we care for cleanliness, transparency and honesty? Are these values positive externalities which benefit everyone? How realistic are our ideals and are there loopholes for us to make irreparable errors?

3. Where is God in the midst of our lives? Do we put God in the driver's seat or the passenger's seat? Is He a partner writing the book of our destinies or are we dictating to Him what we wish our lives to be?

Now that the nation's eyes are on 16th September or 20th September for a political tsunami, there is the rising concern whether this will be a peaceful or chaotic transfer of power in view of the incumbent government's recent crackdown on certain opposition figures (MP Teresa Kok who was released after one week in jail and blogger Raja Petra).

The answer to this political issue very much depends on how we answer the three questions above.

The poet and playwright William Shakespeare was right in his assessment of man's nature, which is driven by wild storms of greed, lust, hate and fear.

This is why we should not trust in anyone except in God (answer to 1). We should also check that our ideals are based on change in the spiritual man within rather than in the external circumstances (answer to 2). And finally, as the Bible said, put first the Kingdom of God, and all this will be granted to you (answer to 3).

Hamlet's philosophical question "To be or not to be" can be wisely settled by allowing the Holy Spirit to dwell in us and to be Christ-like in all his living fullness. Then, we need not choose whether to remain as our petty selves or be completely a pawn of circumstance. Hamlet was not the average man who could compromise between these two extremes. He was brave enough to see that, in a world where man puts faith in himself, we can either be one type or the other type: A man of action or a man of inaction. And therein lies the tragedy of Hamlet, who decided to "take arms against a sea of troubles" rather than nobly suffering "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune."

In fact, the greatest freedom is having the freedom of mind to be jolted by the tragic consequences of our sinful human nature, and as a result of this shock to our system, allowing God to mould our hearts and transform us completely.

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (Act 3, Scene 2):

To be or not to be, that is the question;
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing, end them. To die, to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to — 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there's the rub,
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. There's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life,
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
Th'oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely (scorn),
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of th'unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin (dagger)? who would fardels (burdens) bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pitch and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.

The Economic Push For Political Change in Malaysia

2008-09-01T03:27:00.000-07:00

Malaysians are more rational than we normally give them credit for. There is a new wave of political change that is sweeping through this country and this change is driven by forces that go beyond the mere frustrations of citizens with corruption and poor governance.

If there is just one powerful idea that has strong economic and social benefits for Malaysia and which has been the key to the electoral success of Pakatan Rakyat, it is the idea of removing racial discrimination in employment and business opportunities for all citizens, regardless of race.

Why is this solution to Malaysia's economic and social problems so powerful, rational and academically justified?

For many Malaysians (see a recent government-commissioned poll), it is almost intuitive and common sense to accept that equal opportunities and market incentives for all will bring more economic prosperity for the country than the costs of carrying out this liberalised policy.

The difference between the situation 5 years ago and today in 2008 is that more and more citizens across the racial and class divides are becoming convinced of this solution. The voting outcomes of the GE of 8 March and the by-election of 26 August in Permatang Pauh testify to this wave of public opinion that is in favour of economic and political change. Intelligent voters have made their voices loud and clear that they want a drastic change in vision for the nation!

With Malaysia becoming a net oil importer by 2014 and the coming global economic storm, how can an outdated economic model like ours continue to thrive? I suppose we can still depend on oil export revenues before it runs out and low value-added manufacturing exports for the next five years. But honestly, what can Malaysia offer to the global economy dominated by new giants such as China, India and Russia? Palm oil and biodiesel?

Rational Racism

For me, as a practising offshore economist, I have found further confirmation of the urgent need for Malaysia to change its race-based politics and race-based economics policies. It was found when I read Tim Harford's book "The Logic of Life." Chapter 6, The Dangers of Rational Racism, in particular, talks about rational racism as found in America.

Supported by class room experiments and statistics, Harford explains that racism practised by American employers in their recuitment process against African Americans is quite rational because it saves employers time and trouble to treat African Americans as "part of a group that's known to be educationally struggling, rather than taking a closer look at their individual qualities."

The interesting part of the chapter that resonates on Malaysia is when he cites the work of University Chicago economist and Nobel laureate Gary Becker, who wrote The Economics of Discrimination. Becker found that while discrimination hurt the incomes of both the employer and unemployed, the extent of economic damage for the country as a whole depended on the size of the minority group relative to the majority group.

In America, 12% of the population consists of African Americans or blacks while the rest are mostly white. Even a moderate amount of discrimination against blacks by white employers diminishes the economic well-being of the blacks while the white majority do not suffer much economic collateral. Competitive pressures could take a long time to favour white employers who are colour blind in their employment practices.

However, Becker points out that in a different racial structure such as South Africa, where the blacks who formed 80% of the population, were ruthlessly discriminated against under the Apartheid regime, the practice of race-based economic policies caused major economic underperformance for the country as a whole.

Now coming back to Malaysia, where the minority group forms a whopping 40% of the population, it is clear that the impact of the removal of race-based economic policies will have tremendous economic benefits for the whole country. Currently, employment policies that maintain certain race-based quotas have interfered with the efficient system of market incentives. Moreover, this inefficiency (or misallocation of human capital) is magnified in non- profit maximising organisations like the civil service and most government-linked companies where the racial profile of employees are disproportionately represented.

Prognosis: There are two types of economic leakages in the Malaysian labour market arising from the current race-based economic policies. First, there is a brain drain of professionals (both non-Malays and Malays) who have left the country to earn higher salaries overseas. Many of these people have either migrated or are permanent residents in their host countries.

Second, there is the economic leakage caused by low morale in the workforce as workers are not motivated to compete with the best and the brightest peers (locally and globally). It also does not help that foreign multinational companies perceive Malaysian workers to have generally suppressed their own productivity through low self-confidence.

Conclusion: Given the challenging economic environment that Malaysia finds itself, I think the time is already overdue for race-based economic policies to be dismantled so that the labour force gets a breath of fresh air and free market incentives are provided for each and everyone to compete with the best brains and the most hard-working peers. (In fact, Becker's hypothesis was that free markets, through the profit maximizing incentive, are the best way to combat racism and bigotry).

Rational racism is no longer rational when the minority group is 40% of the population. The economic wealth generated from meritocratic labour and capital policies will be large enough for all Malaysians to share for many years to come. Not least because foreign investment capital (which seeks the highest returns at the lowest costs) will come to invest in a more vigorous and motivated Malaysian workforce.

P.S. The problem with labour economics is that changes in policies take time to reap positive results in terms of higher productivity and wages. This is why Pakatan Rakyat, which has a mandate to change labour laws, should continue to be a viable alternative government. This will put political pressure on the incumbent policy makers to push through economic reforms or else be replaced by a more efficient government. However, the real pressure for reform is not political but economic as higher inflation of 5-6% in 2009 will reduce the purchasing power of wage earners.

The Next Strategic Move For Pakatan Rakyat

2008-08-27T00:50:00.000-07:00

After winning with a crucial two thirds majority of the votes in Permatang Pauh, the next hurdle for Pakatan Rakyat will be the biggest. Anwar should focus on strategy and not be sidetracked by the tactical warfare waged on the sodomy allegations. If Anwar is to engineer a convincing crossover of MPs on 16 Sept, he has to provide a strategic catch: a public ultimatum for Barisan component MPs to either stay put or cross over.

PR should challenge UMNO/BN to review the religious conversion laws, revamp the NEP, eradicate corruption and race-based politics all at one go by a fixed deadline, say 10 September or any date. Once the deadline passes with no change in policies by the incumbent government, this will be a strong signal to the BN component parties, the reformers in UMNO and the rakyat that the leaders of BN have not wakened up to the new political landscape. As such, all BN component parties and UMNO reformists (see Karim Raslan's post-election analysis of the Permatang Pauh tsunami) should leave and form their own independent, multiracial parties or join PR.

This is what I call a moral, ethical cross-over. Even if he has the numbers, Anwar's current tactic of secret negotiations may raise doubts about the integrity of the party hoppers.

However, BN and UMNO will fail even more if they maintain their current policies. Second attempts to bring PAS into its fold will be an old trick that no longer works on the rakyat much less on the rural Malays such as those in Permatang Pauh who voted for real change.

In the meantime, the reformers in Pakatan Rakyat should not sit on their laurels but instead work day and night on hammering out a common platform of policies which enshrine the well-being of all Malaysian families as its guiding principle. This Middle Third Way will be an intelligent compromise between theocratic and socialistic policies on the one hand and the self-serving, oligopolistic policies of BN. If PR does not find a common platform to unify the coalition, then other parties may get a headstart.

Once investors, both foreign and local, see that the economic implications of a family-oriented political agenda is based on sound economic principles, they will be more receptive to the new direction in local politics. Welcome to a new era of free and democratic competition in Malaysian politics!

P.S. Here is a hint of the five issues that are highly valued among Malaysians :

(1) The family;

(2) The hopes of young people;

(3) An environment of tolerant religious worship based on the free will of the individual;

(4) Long lasting economic prosperity and equal opportunities for all and

(5) Truthfullness and accountability.

If you can't expect your government to tell you the truth at all times, how can you expect your child to grow to be a truthful person?

Russia's Military Intentions & The Kings of The East

2008-08-22T02:05:00.000-07:00

Russia's rapid invasion of Georgia on 8 August and subsequent ceasefire brokered by the French President has been commented on briefly by the Malaysian media. But there are worrying signs of a bigger war ahead which has implications on Malaysia's political trends.

I think the one sided "war" reflects more than an issue of national sovereignty versus independence in Central Asia, it marks the coming of the kings of the East, namely the new Russsian Tzar Vladimir Putin and his secret alliance with Eastern and Middle Easter nations. While the whole world was watching the Beijing Olympics, America and NATO was caught surprised by this war breaking out just before the majestic opening ceremony.

When I saw the Russian tanks roll into Georgia on CNN, the questions on my mind were: "Is this the Ezekial war?", "Will there be a third world war in the next five to ten years?"

In the book of Daniel in the bible, there is a prophecy about a future war between the King of the North and the King of the South. Many bible students have tried to identify who are these two warring nations.

Given present circumstances, I think the next geopolitical war could be between an American-NATO alliance versus a Russian-Chinese-Iran alliance sparked by an oil and food crisis. It has the makings of the the beginning of WWIII. Russia and China are building up their military capabilities to challenge America's military dominance of the world.

In Ezekial 38, the prophet Ezekial speaks about a war that is started by the invasion by Gog and Magog (Russia and another country/alliance of nations) of Israel from the north.

I think the invader/aggressor in the Ezekial war will be punished with defeat or neutralised. Consequently, the outcome could be a severe weakening of military resources on both sides. As both the U.S. and Russia become weak and the world is disillusioned by war, a new global body will emerge, perhaps a form of one world government comprising 10 national groupings. A world leader who appears to be a peacemaker will lead this government and then, after three and half years of ensuring peace in the Middle East, he will show his true colours and launch a final assault against Jerusalem.

The good news is: people throughout the world are finding spiritual salvation from accepting Jesus in their lives even in Iran, Palestine and Israel. The hatred of nations against one small nation's right to coexist with others will finally bring God into the battle.

Two questions:

1. How will Malaysia play a role in the current geopolitics of a new cold war between Russia and America? If either Anwar, Najib or Badawi compete among themselves to take a more prominent stand for or against Russia's new military aggression, then we can see where the nation is heading in the endtimes.

2. Similarly for U.S. politics, Barack Obama may have to prove to the world and the U.S. public that he is a strong global leader who can stand up to Putin. If not, John Mc Cain is the only hope for the world in a new cold war. This new cold war may be more devastating as it appears not to be between just Russia and America but between a coalition of nations. And, I believe, oil will be a key element in the coming conflict.

The Paradox of Intellectual Honesty

2008-08-18T02:45:00.000-07:00

The ability to consider dispassionately two opposite ideas is a sign of intellectual maturity and honesty. Far be it for a sound-thinking rational person to have no passion about anything. But it is essential for him,/her, when faced with two opposite ideas, two contrasting choices, to consider everything with a cool head and a warm heart.

Aristotle wrote: "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."

Our country is at a crossroads whereby Malaysians, both in Permatang Pauh and the rest of the rakyat, need to seriously consider several choices that will affect our futures for the next decades. The window of opportunity is very narrow and it is now open thanks to the dramatic shift in the political landscape.

The two issues which we, Malaysians of all races and faiths, need to address are:

(1) What are the real choices we face?

For the voters in Permatang Pauh, is it Anwar versus Arif Shah? Is it Pakatan Rakyat versus Barisan Nasional? Or are the choices facing both citizens and political leaders more complex in Malaysia's multi-cultural and multi-religious dynamics?

For all Malaysians,who may be facing a possible snap election, the choices appear to be between choosing an outright change in government to clean up and reform the entire executive or maintaining the current status quo, which is mired in a stalemate.

In fact, there are two opposing political ideas which Malaysians are struggling with: individualism, which promotes the liberal interest of the individual over the state and statism, which promotes the interest and power of the state over the individual. There is in fact, a third middle way, which is distributism.

According to Wikipedia, "distributism distinguishes itself by its distribution of property. Distributism holds that, while socialism allows no individuals to own productive property (it all being under state, community, or workers' control), and capitalism allows only a few to own it, distributism itself seeks to ensure that most people will become owners of productive property."

(2) How do we make the right choice?

In other words, do we make choices emotionally because we are wired to be communal and will put the interest of our race and religion first? Or should we make decisions with a cool head and a warm heart? Having a warm heart is not a problem for most Malaysians because we are known to be one of the most hospitable, gentle and peace-loving peoples (notwithstanding our bad behaviour behind the wheel).

However, Malaysians are not so blessed with cool heads because they tend to allow their emotions and their cultural habits to colour their thinking and actions. Examples of losing our cool and sanity are the recent protests at the Bar Council forum and emotional reactions to racial issues.

From an intellectual perspective, the two opposing ideas which we need to consider are: on the one hand, a race-based political structure that could lead to further polarisation of Malaysian society but has ruled the country for the past four decades. BN has both elements of statism (where the state interferes with the market economy) and individualistic capitalism (where capital and power is vested by a privileged few).

On the other hand, Pakatan Rakyat offers the alternative political structure of non-racial politics with priority given to the underprivileged and the lower classes who have been left behind by the country's inefficient education system. However, this party also has elements of statism (to the extent the DAP is socialistic and PAS is in favour of a religious state) while promoting democratic rights for all citizens.

The paradox of intellectual honesty is that even the most rational, most sensible political choice should be considered with skepticism because human nature is weak and vulnerable to errors of judgment. Is there a middle way offered by the political philosophy of distributism which enshrines the interests of the family unit rather than the state or the individual?

Politicians should realise that, unless and until there is a middle way which appeals to the common interests and values of all party members, the two main political parties will be inherently unstable. Each faction will be holding on loosely to the coalition for the sake of political expediency and not for a foundational common interest.

As citizens, we must always keep in mind that we are not choosing between good and evil but between two differing types of government and political values. Let us not fall into a moral and intellectual error by choosing to please either our emotions or our reason. Right decisions are invariably made by listening to the voices of the conscience and the reasoning mind.

Powerful Prayers Can Swing The Permatang Pauh Election

2008-08-16T09:39:00.000-07:00

There are three types of voters that will swing the vote in three different ways at the three-cornered election battle in Permatang Pauh on 26th August 2008.

1. Those who wish to see the right leader for their state and country, regardless of race/religion.

2. Those who wish to keep the status quo in the country and maintain the current Federal government with some slight reforms.

3. Those who have little care for the country's political future and who are most vulnerable to "bribes" and short-term incentives to vote for a particular candidate/party.

The whole nation (as well as foreign nationals concerned about Malaysia's future) can take part in the PP election indirectly by praying to God that the PP election will be fair and that the voters will be of the first category.

If all sincere Christians, Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus (all over the world) were all to pray to God in their own ways for a fair and just election, and for the voters to choose the right leader in Permatang Pauh, then this act will be more powerful than all the sms, all the rallies, all the blogs, all the money that can be used to persuade the voters.

Malaysia needs a real change of leadership. Either the current leaders change their attitudes and value systems (which seems unlikely given recent events and policy errors), or the government has to change.

The Permatang Pauh election will be the second major test of Pakatan Rakyat and Anwar Ibrahim's political and moral credibility after their relative victories in the 8 March election.

Solzhenitsyn: The Battle of Good and Evil Over Nations

2008-08-07T01:49:00.000-07:00

When I was in my teens, I read two Russian writers whose works came often to mind through my later years: Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881) and Aleksander Solzhenitsyn (11 December 1918 - 3 August 2008).

I was more interested in Dostoevsky's dramatic inner study of the human soul: the psyche of the criminal, the petty thief, the man caught in the midst of political chaos. Solzhenitsyn was harder to read as his realistic accounts were based on personal experience of imprisonment and exile.

What would this great writer, who outlived the Soviet dictatorship and passed away on 3rd August 2008, have said about Malaysia's current state? Never be overconfident in your trust in man. There are no such steroetypes as good people on one side and evil people on the other side as painted by comic books and some local political blogs. The individual human soul is the battleground of good and evil.

Read this excerpt of his most famous book:

"So let the reader who expects this book to be a political expose slam its covers shut right now. If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?

During the life of any heart this line keeps changing place; sometimes it is squeezed one way by exuberant evil and sometimes it shifts to allow enough space for good to flourish. One and the same human being is, at various ages, under various circumstances, a totally different human being. At times he is close to being a devil, at times to sainthood. But his name we ascribe the whole lot, good and evil.

Socrates taught us: Know thyself!

Confronted by the pit into which we are about to toss those who have done us harm, we halt, stricken dumb: it is after all only because of the way things worked out that they were the executioners and we weren't."

- The Gulag Archipelago (1973) [p. 169]

The political instability we see today in Malaysia is not a fight between good people and evil people. Rather, it should be seen as a struggle between leaders who wish to be perceived as good and who will paint their rivals as evil.

So who is fooling the Rakyat? Don't we all know that both good and evil has a stake in every person? With the resources of the Internet and books written by people like Solzhenitsyn, the enlightended Rakyat is wise enough to see through these political games and demand capable governance from their elected leaders.

Coincidentally, many of Solzhenitsyn's views on the life of nations are reflected in my thoughts about Malaysia in this blog. Just as Russia needed to repent for the crimes of the Soviet era, Malaysia needs to repent for "the sins of the fathers" that are visited on the children. Instead of pointing fingers at our leaders who do not hold the keys to the nation's salvation, we should be willing to make a frank assessment of our own vices and sins and make penitence for them as one nation.

In other words, the way forward for Malaysia (apart from the neccesary though overplayed reforms of democratic institutions) lies not in political action but in a quiet moral revolution. And this moral revolution can only start when we first acknowledge that the priorities of our lives, in the past five decades, based on pursuing self-centred material well-being and race-based priorities have made a desert out of our spiritual lives. While most Malaysians may consider themselves a religious lot, many are far from accepting personal responsibility for the sins of the nation (like bureaucrats, they will say: "my conscience is clear and my hands are clean.")

Some religious ideologues of this country mistakenly believe the way to make people become good and turn them from evil is to establish religious rules of law as santified by the state. This is what Solzhenitsyn had to say about the foolishness of imposing morality by legal or political means:

"After the Western ideal of unlimited freedom, after the Marxist concept of freedom as acceptance of the yoke of necessity- here is the true Christian definition of freedom. Freedom is self-restriction! Restriction of the self for the sake of others"

- From Under the Rubble (1981) [p. 136]

This moral freedom is a fundamental truth for all religions and not only for Christians. In God's eyes, a moral person is one who is willing to restrict/forfeit his own needs out of love for others. He is not doing good for the sake of some heavenly reward or to accumulate some points in a universal scorecard.

As a nation, when will Malaysia know her true destiny in the family of nations? Can she solve her political problems by recognising them as spiritual problems? Only then will we see that the right solution is not a political one but a true intellectual and spiritual examination of the past, the present and the future.

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Postscript: A Merdeka Day Prayer, written by Elaine Yeoh as a letter to Malaysiakini, also calls out for national repentance.

Will the Real Malaysian Flag Be Raised?

2008-08-03T19:21:00.000-07:00

If celebrating Merdeka Day is a question of whether to fly the flag, or not, whether to fly it right side up or upside down, then it is just political posturing. Read Susan Loone's blog on this issue, Raising The Malaysian Flag or not?

As several bloggers have said before, the Malaysian flag does not represent the government but the country and its people. What is more meaningful is for both the PM and the defacto head of the Opposition to proclaim a national day of repentance either on Merdeka or Sept 16 Malaysia Day.

You may ask: Why should we innocent citizens repent when we have done no wrong to the country?

Not responsible for the state of the country? Really? Who abstained from voting for the past two decades to allow for a one-party monopoly? Who continued to support the compliant newspapers?

Lastly, who cursed Malaysia the blessed country by equating the government with the country, saying things like Malaysia is going down the drain or we are the Zimbabwe of SEA?

We can do what we want with the flag or any symbol, but our words of mockery and curses on Malaysia may one day come true.

What this nation needs on Merdeka Day is a time of reflection about the future of Malaysia in ten years time (2018). The world would have changed tremendously: China will be a bigger economic and political force. It may have become a democratic country and will, instead of supporting despotic and undemocratic regimes as it is currently doing, China may be a force for good in Asia. By then, will Malaysia be prepared for the political tsunami coming from outside?

Let us reflect in our hearts what we truly want for our children in this country and be humble enough to learn from other more successful countries.

Ends & Means Out of Malaysia's Stalemate

2008-07-29T00:36:00.000-07:00

The problem that Malaysia, as a nation (inclusive of politicians, community leaders and institutions), and as individual citizens, face today is a well-known philosophical dilemma between Ends and Means.

Do the Ends justify the Means ? (e.g. the Communists stole from the rich and suppressed the intellectuals in order to have a truly eqalitarian utopia on earth) Or do the Means justify the Ends? (e.g. the capitalist system allows free enterprise for all without any market inteference, resulting in a more prosperous, more vibrant and more democratic society in the end).

Looking at the political and civil problems that has captured Malaysia's media and blogs objectively, we can reframe the issues into the following facts:

1. About half of voting citizens voted for BN.

2. The other half (slightly lower) voted for the Opposition.

3. Both parties do not have a two thirds majority.

4. Both parties are trying to gain more political power. (this is a tactical means to a desired end: Power of the Few or Good for All Malaysians?)

(a) BN by retaking some of the five states it lost through a snap election or a potential cross-over by PAS.

(b) PR by forming the government through cross-overs or a snap election.

5. Both political parties and their leaders represent the interests of their voters with differences in policies, methods, objectives, etc.

6. Both parties and the voting public share one common aim: the harmonious prosperity and progress of Malaysia.

7. Human nature is prone to evil and corruption. Especially those who eventually wield power, whether economic or political.

8. The system of checks and balances is still weak. The judiciary and the media are still not fully independent of the government's influence. (This is a situational environment which is used by manipulative parties to checkmate or gain advantage over their rivals).

Given these facts, let us separate the facts from the value statements with the latter in colour and the facts in black as shown above. The blue statements are the ends (objectives) while the red statement are the means (methods/tactics/strategies).

Politicians often justify unethical methods in favour of idealistic goals

Is the pursuit and successful acquisition of power more important than the way power is obtained? This is similar to ancient histories of generals who assasinate/imprison their Kings in order to sit on the throne. The general justifies to the people that the King was evil and would have ruined the country. Any politican these days would justify their questionable methods of aquiring/maintaining power by saying that it was done for the sake of the "country's security, for unity of race or for the preservation of a multi-racial harmony."

Given that both BN and PR (whose future depends on its leaders) are actively engaged in a power struggle for control of the Government, the best case scenario is for all parties to go back to their foundational values, declare to the voting public what they really represent (Power of the Few or Good for All?). Once the public is confident we have politicans who are at least honest and transparent about their goals and promises for the Rakyat, they can declare a snap election. This is the pre-condition for fair and transparent elections besides having an independent elections commission and an independent press.

The Seven Eleven Test

The test of a good and wise government is to talk to the working young man in the street (e.g. the McDonald's delivery man, the illegal VCD vendor or the Seven Eleven cashier earning RM700 a month). Ask them what is their greatest aspiration in the next five years? If the majority of the young working class say they do not cherish any long-term dreams such as saving enough for a college education or to start a business, then that is a reflection of a mediocre Government and a weak economic system.

Mostly probably, the replies would be: "I am trying to make ends meet." or "I hope the government lowers the price of petrol." or "I hope more people will be willing to work at these low salaries so that they can help me cope with my workload." (One car salesman actually told me: "I can't trust what this government says anymore. They say one thing today, and do the opposite the next day.")

The short-term challenge of any Government that deserves to govern Malaysia for the Good of All Malaysians (a worthy End) is one that can inspire (through ethical and pragmatic policies) its young people (of all races and all economic classes) to cherish and work smart for a viable future (a worthy End).

And that future is neither secular or Islamic. It is neither a PR or BN future. It is neither an Anwar-annointed or Badawi-annointed future. It is a viable future for all Malaysians who can trust the wisdom of their leaders based on the intelligence and fairness of their policies/methods today.

Conclusion: Never trust politicians/religious leaders who advocate or adopt dubious means to achieve a supposedly great objective. The test of the ethics and honesty of politicians is the effectiveness and soundness of their methods. Everyone can have a great vision like Vision 2020 but look how the politicians have clouded that vision with poor policies. That's probably why Obama is considered to be a smarter and more adaptive politician in regards to his Middle East policy compared to McCain or Bush.

Update: One of the latest unsavoury methods of political power-grabbing is the agenda of the talks between PAS-UMNO based on the unity of a certain race. Says TK Tan in this article Signs of Disunity: "Our country continues to be undermined by the self-interests of many. Agents of disunity abound. And very few work for the good of all." I agree that very few politicians work for the good of all, but that is why good politicians who do not appeal to our lowest instincs are a rare and much desired breed in this country today.

Abraham Lincoln's Solution To Malaysia's Crisis

2008-07-23T22:34:00.000-07:00

"It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord.

We know that by His divine law, nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world. May we not justly fear that the awful calamity of political strife which now desolates the land may be a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people?

We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown.

But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole Malaysian people.

I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of Malaysia, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the 16th September (Malaysia Day) as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens."

Abraham Lincoln - October 3, 1863 (Transposed to Malaysia’s perspective in italics).

Comment: If only our politicians and citizens can rise above the trivialities of today's politics and behold Lincoln's perspective of the nation as an individual, there is still hope for Malaysia. See how Lincoln's speech is as powerful a prayer for the nation as much as it is an appeal to the people of America to truthfully examine themselves before conscience and God.

What We Say In The Court of Public Opinion

2008-07-20T18:30:00.000-07:00

Does repeating things often enough make people believe them? This is an interesting topic that Michelle Yoon wrote in her latest post Repeating things often enough. Also, in a recent letter to Malaysiakini, a writer gave reasons for his view why Anwar is not guilty. In my opinion, we need to make a smart distinction between a statement of fact, a statement of view and a question.

For example, if I repeat to myself each day that I am loved by God, I will actually feel the blessings of being loved by God. This is actually a spiritual fact for me while for others it may be just a view. (Try replacing God with a stone or another person, and you'll be disappointed.)

But if I repeat to myself each day that Anwar is being investigated for sodomy as often as I read the papers these days (MSM and government are suffering from Anwar-phobia), it does not make me believe he is guilty or innocent at all.

The more the government tries to implicate him, the more the public will tend to believe otherwise. But for me, what is repeated is a media-bias against Anwar in MSM and a media-bias against the DPM on the Internet. Neither establishes the truth. Even in the questionable "court of public opinion." (How many "witches/sorcerers" were burnt in the Middle Ages by the court of public opinion? How many "communists" were prosecuted in the McCarthy era by the same court?).

What we bloggers should be doing is to repeat reasonable questions in the most objective and creative ways so that the "subject" of our question is willing to engage in a dialogue. But if we prejudge a person as a criminal (like one former PM calling certain Western governments imperial Zionists and genocide murderers) in the international court of public opinion, then that's the end of the dialogue. They won't even bother listening or persuading you against your biases/prejudices.

Postscript: Reading this blog post by Tony Pua on Dr Syed Farid Alatas, I am impressed by the level of maturity and intelligence of many Muslims who can analyse religious issues. Extending the theme of inter-faith dialogue, I think that dialogue across all political and ideological communities will resolve some of the current problems of this nation. For a start, the government should start a meaningful dialogue with its boss - the voting public - even though almost half gave their support to the Opposition.

Strike The Shepherd To Scatter The Sheep!

2008-07-17T08:42:00.000-07:00

They say God moves in mysterious ways. And I am certain Malaysia is dear to His heart. So whatever happens in this country, I have faith He can turn the worst crisis into an unmitigated blessing.

In the political dramas that we live in today, the ordinary citizens are just bystanders to the play. The only difference is that this play is for real and our economic and social health will be affected by it, for better or for worse.

I can't imagine the day the nation comes to a standstill just because some powerful politicians are fighting for the premiership. This morning, on my way to work, the traffic almost came to a standstill.

I am no political scientist even though I studied at a world-class political science university. But I have a strange intuition that the winds of change blowing through Malaysia are bigger than just what the naked eye can see. Perhaps, this is why I started this blog in May 2008: To change from being a passive witness of Malaysian politics to be an active citizen.

Now the political strategy of both PR and BN is simply this: Strike the shepherd/leader and then the sheep/followers will surely scatter. Anwar is targeted by his adversaries in the sodomy charge while he himself is attempting a pre-emptive strike against certain leaders in BN way before the next elections.

Advice to Pakatan Rakyat: The key to defeating BN is to stand firm on the middle ground of Malaysian society so that the fence-sitters and the politically neutral will share PKR/PAS/DAP's common values: i.e. that the alliance is an ethical party that fights relentlessly against corruption, racism and injustice. PR should never be anti-UMNO but anti-greed for power and money, anti-wastage and anti-injustice.

Frankly, PR needs to rebrand itself into a cohesive coalition rather than remain as a tactical marriage of convenience. PAS chief Nik Aziz said to avoid going to the snake pit. That is sufficient not to be bitten. But PR should start to form the shadow cabinet and implement positive policies that will build up the economies and communities of the five PR states.

PR should also consider plan B in the event DSAI is taken out of the political arena for some reason or other. Could an enigmatic blogger with the stature like RPK fill in the void? He has to be a political visionary, highly intelligent and ethical. On the question of credibility, the source of RPK's SD remains a mystery to the public.

Advice to BN: Reform the government, police and judiciary by implementing a system of meritocracy, which provides incentives to be honest and efficient and disincentives to be corrupt. Is that asking too much? Why can't the lead'ers of BN see that monopolizing the economic pie for the short term will see them end up with a smaller pie to share among the cronies in five years time?

Advice to the Rakyat: Start voicing and supporting the need for a third political party that has the best qualities of PR (their long-term values) and BN (its organisational skills) without any of their weaknesses. This means we need a few good men or women to rise up who will move away from race-based politics and the mentality of birth-right entitlement to a system of value-based politics. A three-party system will reduce the risk of a duopoly party system taking advantage of the Rakyat.

But even if these three protagonists of Malaysian society do nothing but remain status quo, the Rakyat could still be the beneficiary of the stalemate between BN and PR. Each day, (through Parliamentary and recently TV debates) we are learning something new about how the government works and what was only known in the closed corridors of Putrajaya.

Tackling The Real Issues of The Fuel Debate - Malaysiakini

2008-07-14T23:33:00.000-07:00

It's a foregone conclusion. Who will be the winner in the 'Great Fuel Debate" between Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Information Minister Datuk Ahmad Shaberi Cheek to be held tonight? The winner may be the two debaters as they improve their public standing and the loser will probably be the rakyat for being less enlightened than before.

Amid much hype, my guess is that the TV debate will turn out to be less of an intelligent discussion about oil economics and, instead, be more of an exercise in rhetorical skills among the two suitors of public opinion. However, I may be proven wrong if tonight's debaters address the following issues facing the future of oil in Malaysia and the world:

- Poser 1 to BN: Oil resources are Malaysia's national asset and should be properly managed to take advantage of the rising trend in prices. As such, the government should disclose who are the six option holders and at what fixed prices do they obtain the oil supply from Petronas at below market prices.

- Poser 2 to BN: What is the government's view of global oil prices? Does either debater believe in Peak Oil theory? If oil is heading towards US$200/barrel in the next two to three years (regardless of a possible near term correction), what would be Petronas's reserves and production strategy? The Rakyat should know these issues because every citizen has a stake in the country's resources.

- Poser 3 to BN: The move to raise oil prices is economically sound as it discourages excessive consumption and conserves the nation's long-term resources. However, Malaysians's standard of living has always been reduced by the high cost of owning quality cars as a result of high import duties which were put in place to protect Proton. A move to liberalise the petroleuem market for the government's coffers should be accompanied by a similar move to liberalise the imported car market for consumers.

- Poser 1 to PR: How will PR deal with a ballooning budget deficit problem if petrol continues to be subsidised while spot prices increase? The question of setting petrol prices and subsidies depends very much on whether the country has a budget surplus or deficit rather than whether the country is a net exporter or importer of oil. Msia's petrol prices at current levels of RM2.70 per litre are about 23%-25% below prices in the U.S., which should be considered a benchark for market prices even though the US is a net oil importer. Our retail petrol prices are much higher than net oil exporters such as Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, but these countries are enjoying budget surpluses of 26.2% and 2.4% respectively versus Msia's budget deficit of 3.1%.

- Poser 2 to PR: Any adjustment mechanism for setting retail pump prices should be transparent and market-based, i.e. dependent on international oil prices.

- Poser 3 to PR: If PR is so concerned about the welfare of all Malaysians, why continue to encourage them to consume petrol by lowering petrol prices. Is this wise economics?

- Poser 4 to PR: What are PR's policy proposals to enhance the public transport system and proposals regarding the protected car market?

To both debaters, the related key question is what are the economic implications of their petroleum policies (market-based fuel prices versus lower subsidised prices) on the general level of inflation? Anwar has stated his skepticism of the official inflation rate. Lowering petroleum prices may provide some short-term relief to inflation but in the long-term, will the nation have to pay for even higher inflation when the country's budget deficit balloons or we become a net oil importer?

Finally, it would be good if both debaters focus on economics, policy issues, trade offs between short term and long-term priorities and cite academic research/experience from various countries.

Postscript: As expected, the debate was lively and to some extent, a civilised discourse despite some potshots at Anwar's credibility. Even my toddler could predict Anwar will win after watching the first half hour! The quality of economic discussion could be improved as facts and figures were presented without further analysis. Venezuela is facing major economic problems of hyperinflation because of its currency peg, price controls and years of unbridled monetary expansion thanks to high oil revenues and fiscal spending.

Next debate: Tony Pua/Lim Kit Siang versus Tan Sri Nor/Khairil on "What Is Malaysia's True Inflation Rate?" And have it broadcast in English.

Can We Love Our Political Rivals?- Malaysiakini

2008-07-11T01:27:00.000-07:00

The question of the day is not who among Anwar, Najib and Badawi will be the best leader for Malaysia as raised in a Malaysiakini letter. Rather, the crucial question today is the quality of intellectual ideas that we raise in the public forum of Parliament, media and blogosphere.

Malaysia's future as a fledgling democracy depends very much on the civility of its politicans, bloggers and citizens in discussing the political differences and resolving the conflicts of interests among its people.

What I refer as civility goes beyond having good manners. Civility means to have the goodwill in accepting other people's differences in opinion/values while at the same time, affirming your strongly-held values. In other words, our ability to agree to disagree in a civilised manner is the mark of a civil, democratic society.

Which is why the ideas presented by Dr Os Guinness in his latest book: "The Case for Civility: And Why Our Future Depends on it" may be just what Malaysians need in this hour of the nation.

Personally, I haven't read it yet but an interview with Dr Os Guinness shows his admiration of William Wilberforce who played a major role in eradicating slavery in Britain:

"There are scores of lessons we can learn from Wilberforce, but take just one: his civility. As a follower of the way of Jesus, he loved his enemies and always refused to demonize them. At one time he was the most vilified man in the world, but while he never minced words in speaking about the evils of slavery, he was always gracious, generous, modest, funny, witty, and genuinely loving toward his enemies. When one of his worst enemies died, he at once saw to it anonymously that his widow was cared for adequately."

Can our politicians and elected representatives regard their political rivals and fellow intellectuals with the same civility as Wilberforce? Between Anwar, Najib and Badawi, I think the latter is the most civil. Yet, he, among the three, is the one who needs most to step up the plate and provide some fresh intellectual solutions to this nation's crisis of ideas.

As for mere citizens like us: Ask not what your politicans can do for you, but ask what you can do for your family, friends and neighbours in this aspect of civility.

A Day for National Reconciliation & Healing

2008-07-09T23:02:00.000-07:00

I agree with Farish A Noor's factually accurate article on Malaysia's current politics (A Dead-End To Malaysian Politics?). But surely, he has allowed himself to be dismayed and disillusioned by the frenzied state of politicking.

Looking at our situation closer, I prefer to use the metaphor of the glass of water which Malaysians always thought was drinkable until somebody stirred the water and mud came up clouding up the glass.

All the mudslinging and rumours of corruption/murder/sodomies are to be expected in this Machavielian fight for power among the contenders.

The Rakyat should continue to watch and examine how much our leaders from both BN/PR are genuinely concerned to represent the public's interest. They have failed badly so far, but let us not demonise them to the extent they lose face.

The day will come, sooner this year or later by the next election, when Malaysians will decide whether to throw out the water from the glass and put in fresh water(new government) or sterilise the water so that it is still drinkable.

The last thing I want to do is to sit mournfully in front of the half-full glass and weep. However, Farish has hit the nail on the head with his suggestion for national reconciliation and healing for the whole nation.

A day for national reconcilation can be held on Merdeka day when all citizens and current and past leaders apologise for their mistakes in the past and vow to move on united as a nation. On that day, let us stop the finger pointing and instead point at our own hearts before God or conscience (for non-believers), that we have fallen short of the promise deserving of this great country and will learn to start on a new leaf.

To start with, here are the few things I suggest we ask God to forgive us for:

- To have falsely accused innocent people of crimes and sins they did not commit.

- To be judgmental towards both the guilty and innoncent when we ourselves are also subject to judgment.

- To have willingly voted for governments and parties that have subsequently disappointed us and misrepresented our national or state's interests.

- To have used foul language and become angry with this beautiful and blessed country.

- To have said terrible, sarcastic and condemnatory words about Malaysia as if Malaysia is equal to the government and its peoples. (Malaysia is the land and much more)

- To have offended the faiths of our fellow citizens and of other nationalities (including derogatory comments about Jews, Arabs, Americans, Zimbabweans, etc)

- To have given up all hope in our country just because of the weaknesses of our elected leaders.

- To have written statutory declarations that are not based on the truth.

- To have failed to protect the weak, impoverished, oppressed and not upheld justice for the victims of murders and crimes.

- To have engaged in politicking just to gain some political advantage.

- To have misrepresented the interests and the future of our children and our children's children by fooling ourselves about entitlements based on race when the world economy has already moved beyond such primitive systems.

These are my items for asking the nation and God to forgive us and repent for the wrongful words/deeds we have done to Malaysia. This country needs some hearfelt prayers and true respite beyond just waving of flags, making empty speeches and going about our own ways on Merdeka Day.

(Postscript: If neither BN nor PR can agree on holding the day of national reconciliation, then either one can go ahead unilaterally and invite all citizens to gather on a non-partisan basis).

Ethics Without Religion Is Possible- Malaysiakini

2008-07-07T09:35:00.000-07:00

Once a while I come across an interesting article that appears to be academic but actually has many serious implications. A recent Malaysiakini article written by Sim Kwang Yang suggests that it is futile to ask whether ethics without religion is possible because believers and atheists will not come to any agreement or common ground. I think otherwise.

In the present state of polarised ideologies throughout the world, the question of whether ethics is possible without religion needs to be asked in a different and more subtle way. The right question to ask is whether it is possible to act ethically without belief in God. And my answer is definitely yes.

An ethical act is a humane act of kindness, of giving up your own interest in favour of the interest of others. And this understanding that human beings have a common need for goodness, however ambiguously defined it may be, is actually the foundation of most civilised societies in both the West and the East.

Even many people who do not believe in God are prepared to sacrifice their energy and time for an ethical principle such as working against injustice towards the poor, the persecuted or the oppressed. So does that mean that such free-thinkers/atheists have no ethical values just because they do not believe in God?

I myself am a Christian and I can see the dangers Malaysian society is presently facing with regards to religious freedom as enshrined by the constitution on the one hand and religious extremism as espoused by people who wish to integrate civil laws with religious laws on the other hand.

When religious extremists perceive that secular laws are laws that are meant to govern the ungodly, then they will deduce that it is justifiable to supplant secular laws with their religious laws. Whether or not their religion encourages them to impose religious laws on everyone is besides the point. One of the reasons why the Taliban became powerful in Afghanistan was because they saw the degraded and meaningless aspects of Western society and equated that with the failure of secular society.

As Mr Sim rightly points out, the mark of Christian faith is that it is subject to our free will as God does not impose Himself on us just like a parent who does not demand the love of his children. Love is a gift and should never be legislated. Let us live in a secular society with secular laws that protects the rights of all citizens and yet at the same time, respect the rights of every citizen to pursue their own faiths.

Malaysia's Future & The Half Glass Metaphor

2008-06-30T23:38:00.000-07:00

If you ask the typical Malaysian on the street today to describe his/her feelings about the future of the country in terms of the half-empty/half full glass metaphor, what do you think would be the most common response?

One online news article seem to capture the mood of the public by suggesting that the current political turmoil has badly affected our sense of confidence as a nation. Perhaps we need to win a regional sports tournament like the way the Spainish were united by the European Cup victory.

The truth is that Malaysia did win a victory that was greater than any sports event. And that was the resurgence of confidence in the power of the ballot box to decide our country's future at the 12th GE on 8th March 2008.

Rather than asking whether the glass is half empty or half full, the important question is whether we wish to keep the same old water in the glass or throw it out to replace with clean water. All the revelations that we see are like the soil that is stirred at the bottom of the glass, clouding everything. Is it still clean enough to drink or should we wait for the dust to settle?

Much depends on the current state of politicking among the leaders from both sides of the House. When will the politicians start to discuss and intellectually debate on real policy issues gripping the world today rather than slinging mud on each others characters and reputations?

The lack of intellectual honesty in dealing with today's problems cannot be solved by either silence, noise or dramatic acts of political change. The PM should regain the people's trust in the government by showing them the trade-off between short-term policy effects and long-term policy gains.

Datuk Anwar Ibrahim seems to have a good view of the long-term prosperity of the country with the right recipe of policies but he fell short of the short-term policy intitiatives by promising lower fuel prices. That is probably better than the flip flop situation of BN leaders having to act each day to make short-term gains for the sake of their political survival.

How to Prepare for The Next Crisis

2008-06-28T15:34:00.000-07:00

The end of the first half of 2008 has come and yet the profound changes that Malaysia has experienced in the political and economic spheres are likely to continue in the second half of the year. We have already successfully weathered the first political tsunami on 8th March 2008.

Yet, based on the fresh developments that emerge each day, we may be facing a second tsunami or the after-shocks of the first tsunami in the near future before the year ends.

In fact, a foreign visitor, known as a phophet, said last year that Malaysia will experience major changes and birth pangs in 2008, which coincides with the jubilee year for the nation starting from August 2007.

The latest news on the web is that a police report was filed against the defacto Opposition leader. At present, we do not know the truth and the details of the report. Who can we trust for truthful information when there are doubts about the objectivity of the mainstream papers? Even several blogs can't be trusted because of their political leanings to one party or another.

However, we can learn from the history of the world: In every political crisis, the first thing and most powerful thing to do is to pray to God that He will interevene for the truth to prevail, the lies to be exposed, the injustice to be reversed and the innoncent to be protected from the evil that has taken the hearts of men.

We can unravel the enemy’s plans and bind their feet before they take further action by praying for God’s divine intervention.

So if we read or hear about a dramatic turn of events (such as the arrest of a prominent political leader), I think we should be prepared for a major crisis in the country. As an individual citizen, now is probably the time to gather our families and friends together in our homes and places of worship to pray as a nation that the next tsunami will be as peaceful and mature as the first one on 8 March 2008.

Be Careful What You Wish For

2008-06-24T02:39:00.000-07:00

How should Malaysians, including the blogging community, respond to the current times of political change, shocking statutory declarations and social discontent with the current establishment?

The Bible has an answer in the book of Micah verse 6,chapter 8: 'He has showed you, O man what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.'

This wise advice applies not only to Christians but to everyone who is tired of all the upheaval in the political arena. The post-8 March 2008 "reawakening" of political consciousness can turn chaotic if we are not careful about what we wish for.

The Good, The Ugly and The Bad Kinds of Inflation

2008-06-23T08:47:00.000-07:00

We all know that the inflation rate that we experience with our wallets is far higher than the official inflation rate, which rose from 2% in 2007 to 3% in the first five months of 2008 and 3.8% in May alone.

Economists know that the national inflation rate is an average inflation rate based on the average spending pattern of an average citizen, who is actually just a statistical entity.

To come up with a more realistic and transparent CPI index, I propose that the government adopt the following measures:

1. An urban inflation rate be measured and disclosed versus a rural/small town inflation rate. We all know that a bowl of noodle costs much less in a small town like Sibu than in PJ/KL.

2. That the government updates the consumer survey on which the CPI is based and which may no longer be relevant because the last survey was done years ago.

3. That the government reveals how much of the average cost of food for the consumer is imported so that we know whether a stronger Ringgit will help to keep a cap on imported inflation.

4. That the government and Bank Negara educate the public about the linkage between cost-push inflation and demand-push inflation. BN always say the two types of inflation are different but the truth is that cost-push can lead to demand-pull when expectations are anchored that food and oil prices will continue to rise. The worst type of inflation is galloping inflation caused by the people's diminishing faith in the Ringgit.

5. That the real reason for rising inflation (not the national average CPI) is partly because there is excess money in the system created by a managed currency policy. 101 Economics tells you that too much money chasing after too few goods leads to higher prices. Hence, letting the Ringgit appreciate will curb money creation and dampen inflation.

In conclusion, good inflation (e.g. 3%-4%) occurs when prices rise due mainly to higher costs and there is little people can do anything about it except to buy less of the item and switch to a cheaper subsitute. Bad inflation (e.g. 4%-7%) occurs when prices rise due to higher consumer demand (e.g. people will buy more when their incomes are higher or they feel richer because of their stock/property investments). Ugly inflation (e.g. 7%->10%) occurs when prices rise due to a complex combination of higher costs, higher demand, wage pressures and worst of all, spiralling expectations that the domestic currency's purchasing power is declining by the day.

Across Asia, Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, China and India have just entered the start of the ugly inflation phase and that is why their stock markets have been badly hit. Vietnam is already in the deep end of ugly inflation with prices rising by 25% in May.

To avoid bad inflation, governments have to take concrete and pre-emptive steps when the good inflation phase enters the bad inflation phase. Measures such as higher real interest rates, removal of subsidies and currency appreciation will send a strong signal to everyone that long-term price stability is more important than short-term economic growth.

Thus, the government's current strategy of price controls are inadequate short-term measures that encourages people to consume more of fixed priced goods, eventually resulting in more dire shortages in the future. What is the point of keeping prices low for a few years only to find that in five years' time, there is a looming shortage of that controlled item? Isn't the lesson of our petrol subsidies enough to teach consumers and policy makers about the folly of making short-term gains in exchange for long-term problems?

This is why the fuel price debate as highlighted by Malaysiakini is not over yet and needs further analysis by all members of the House.

(Postscript: Good news! A televised fuel debate between PR/BN on 15 July and the government is looking into producing an urban-rural inflation index. Perhaps, someone up there is listening to my suggestions.)

Don't Let PAS Frame The Religious Debate

2008-06-16T16:37:00.000-07:00

Ideally, in any healthy democratic country, state and religion should be kept separate and this is enshrined in our constitution where we allow for the freedom of religious worship and belief. By implication, even atheists who believe in a materialistic world have a right to their beliefs as long as they do not harm others and themselves.

For the PAS youth leader to proclaim and presume that all Muslims subscribe to hudud laws is similar to the situation where, for instance, the Catholics in Malaysia were to make it a law that all Christians, including Prostestants like myself, wear the cross. While I am sure any power-wielding Catholic party is not so foolish as to do such a thing, I am using this as an example to show the tremendous problems of making religious values into laws for everyone. (Another example would be for an elected Christian sect leader to make it a law that all Christians can only worship on Saturdays).

Based on the latest controversy of PAS revealing its true colours, I think the best strategy is to counter a religious premise (hudud laws) with another religious premise (the freedom of every God-created person to love and worship God is a freedom that God grants out of a true, genuine love reminiscent of a father's unconditional love for his children).

Here is the deep deception which religious fanatics are trying to deceive all faithful Malaysian citizens: that the acceptance of secular law is an acceptance of godless laws, i.e a system of justice without god in the centre of judgement. This is false and against the spirit if not the letter of the constitution. We have to obey traffic laws and laws of commerce but if, you as a member of your religious fraternity, wish to conduct business according to your Syariah principles, well and good. Nobody is stopping you until and unless you impose your principles and laws on other people (who may be even more spiritual than you.)

In conclusion, leaders in the DAP and Keadilan have to intelligently engage PAS in this crucial debate. And all Malaysians have to deal with the root of this issue, which is not so much about secular laws versus religious laws.

Don’t let PAS frame the debate. The actual debate is essentially this: Should religious practices be imposed on people who do not share the same religious interpretations? If the answer is a resounding No!, then the next question is: Can the practice of religion (and the love of God) be the free will of its practitioners or is it best to enforce it through punishment and penalties? The answer to this question will resolve the issue of whether Malaysia or any of the five states in which PR rules is an Islamic state, a Christian state or a secular state.

Postcript: The only practical solution, as I see it for this country, is for a secular state and its basic laws to overide the draconian laws of any religious group. Even if 9 out 10 Muslims want to have hudud laws legislated in any state, the basic human rights of that minority single Muslim citizen should be protected by the law.

Malaysia's Biggest Long Term Economic Problem Comes Home To Roost

2008-06-12T23:57:00.000-07:00

In macroeconomics under the reknown Solow growth model, the standard of living in a country is dependent on the productivity of her people. And productivity is dependent on how much wealth we can generate from three things: (1) people, (2) capital and (3) land.

Until today, no economist has ever come up with the true reason for people to become economically productive. However, many economists agree about what are the right conditions or environment in which people tend to perform their best. That environment is indisputably a market-driven economy where people who work hard and smart will be duly rewarded by the market place and not by the government.

In fact, the best thing the government can do (apart from helping the underpriveleged and leveling the playing field for true competition), is to enhance the effectiveness of the market economy and ensure there is trust among employers, employees and institutions. The free market system of meritocacy is a system that is set up by Adam Smith's invisible hand, not by the hand of any bureacrat or well-intentioned politician.

So Pakatan Rakyat's call to revamp the NEP, eradicate corruption at its roots and enhance transparency are all economic measures that Malaysia should have done ten years ago when China and India were not as globally powerful as today (and oil prices were still low).

The free-floating of the Ringgit to a stronger value will also help the manufacturing-dependent economy to stand on its own feet. But in the world of 2008 when oil prices are US$130-140 per barrel and rising, Malaysia's grace period of living in a sheltered castle are over.

Not only are manufacturers and transport companies going to face tougher times with higher market prices for fuel, but the services component of the economy will have to deal with higher prices and more prudent consumers.

At the end of the day, the government's micro-managing efforts to keep interest rates low and administer fixed prices and minimum wages for the lower income groups will delay the economy's ability to be more flexible and adjust to the tougher economic times ahead.

This is why I believe the long-run problems of economic productivity which Malaysia should have fixed when the Asian tigers of Chindia were just infants have now come to roost. The best remedy now is to have a complete change in the mindset of the people through a total reform of the NEP so that trust among the races is established and a race-based system of patronage is totally replaced by respect for hard work and true innovation.

Once this human capital issue is addressed, then other micro issues can be settled efficiently following on the same logic. However, if the government continues to debate whether English should be maintained in the teaching of Science and Maths, then it is obvious Malaysia does not even have the ability and the DNA to speak the same "language" as global players.

Thus, politicans from both sides of the House should cease their politicking and start discussing policies intelligently with a view of how to prosper this nation in the next ten to twenty years. Panic efforts to prevent a sharp economic slump through populist policies in the short-term may just bring the country back into the besieged fortress of protectionism.

In other words, short-term pain for long-term pain.

Welcome to the New Era of Global Inflation!

2008-06-06T02:21:00.000-07:00

After the government made the sudden decision to raise petrol and diesel prices with effect from 5 June 2008, Malaysians will be quickly entering a new era of globalised inflation ranging from between 5-7% per annum in the next one year. Is this good or bad after years of enjoying the shelter of government subsidies (basically our own money)?

Well it depends. Most sensible bloggers and economists are correct in concuring that a fuel price hike is necessary and will enhance the efficiency of the economy. We have lived under the shelter of excessive subsidies for too long and need to adjust our consumption habits. However, the whole debate about the fuel price hike of 41% to RM2.70/litre plus the efforts to provide a rebate needs to be simplified into 4 issues:

(1) The quantum of the increase is a shock to consumers and companies' pockets and this 41% hike in the fuel bill has never ever happened before in Malaysia's history. Who knows whether we will enter into a steep economic slowdown while most of our trading partners in the US , Europe and Japan are now going through economic stagnation? Is the government and the central bank so confident that they can fine-tune the economy after this shock treatment?

(2) About RM7.5billion or 55% of the savings from the government's reduced subsidy is given back to the people who are apparently car and motorbike owning lower income groups. So in a way, this is a form of income distributive policy by taking the subsidy previously enjoyed by both rich and lower income groups to give to the lower income car owners. But distinguishing the income groups by the capacity of their car engines is a questionable policy. Can't a car owner with > 2000 cc buy cars of 2000 cc and below and be entitled to the rebate. Anyway, the RM625 is not sufficient to cushion the higher cost of fuel.

(3) Is the government really short of cash when out of the estimated RM53 billion of subsidy (without fuel hikes), its actual direct subsidy is less than RM20 billion.

(4) Instead of using the other 45% of RM13.7 billion to subsidise food, why not improve the public transport system and lower the import duties on cars so that our standard and quality of living will be on par with Thailand and Indonesia where the prices of cars are much lower? Alternatively, build a wider and more efficient rapid train system similar to Singapore's.

Aside from the issue of leakages through inefficient spending, these issues will probably be played up by the Opposition, which incidentally, has suddenly made a U turn on their position on petrol prices. (anyone remember them harping about using Petronas profits to reduce petrol prices before the elections?)

Let's see whether the political backlash will lead to some solid debates in parliament and eventually more efficient use of resources.

For those who hope that oil prices will come down below US$130 per barrel, I think that hope is skating on thin ice. World demand for oil is running at 87 million barrels a day while supply is only 85 million barrels a day. It's basically a supply and demand mismatch and the reserves are been drawn down to meet the excess demand from the emerging middleclass in China, India, etc. Welcome to a new era of economic realities and all eyes are now on what Bank Negara's governor will do with interest rates.

Who Needs A Powerful PM When The Rakyat Has The Bargaining Chip?

2008-06-03T00:36:00.000-07:00

After 22 years of a government led by a powerful and domineering prime minister, Malaysia, under the present PM's fractious tenure, has at last entered the age of maturity with the citizens (Rakyat) having a greater say in the government of this country. (Notwithstanding the fact that Ahmad Abdullah Badawi needed a wake-up call to walk the talk of reform).

This change in the country’s political consciousness was not achieved overnight on 8 March 2008 but after two decades of disillusionment and outrage over the many injustices that have happened before our eyes and ears. It was only after giving up hope in humanity and turning to God with our heart-felt prayers that we have seen a real change in the political climate. *

But now that the Rakyat, through the ballot box, has elected more elected representatives in Parliament who will protect their rights and their interests, do we really need another powerful prime minister (whether from the incumbent Barisan Nasional or from Pakatan Rakyat) in office?

Once the political system and the judiciary are cleaned up and reformed to become more transparent and accountable institutions, what we need are fairly intelligent, wise and responsible leaders who are able to steer the country out of the past and into a new future based on mutual respect and shared goals.

The new status quo after the 12th landmark elections is not political instability (contrary to FT's John Burton's article "Malaysia's Era of Political Stability Ends"). Neither is it whether Najib, Tengku Razaleigh or Anwar will be the next PM. The new status quo which every Malaysian citizen has to realise is that Malaysia today no longer needs a strongman to lead her when there is a God that cares for her people. In fact, the emergence of another powerful leader who steamrolls his way through the wishes of the citizens will be an unmitigated disaster, leading to more resistence from the Rakyat and ultimately real political turmoil.

Without putting hope in powerful and supreme leaders, we only have our goodwill, faith and intelligence to guide us. May William Shakespeare's prayer be fulfilled each day: "God shall be my hope, my stay, my guide, and lantern to my feet."

* Read Karim Raslan's article "Ceritalah: Christians in Malaysia"

The Redemptive Message of 'The Kite Runner'

2008-05-26T19:26:00.001-07:00

Rarely do I come across a film that is emotionally and intellectually moving, interweaved with the joys, the shadows and the turning points of childhood. The Kite Runner, directed by Marc Foster and based on Khaled Hosseini’s famous first novel is one of those rare films that works on our minds and hearts without pretensions.

At a different level, the story has enormous depth in the echoes and parallels to the family history of Abraham-Sara-Isaac on the one hand and Hagar-Ishmael on the other hand. In fact, (for those who have seen the film or read the book), I believe there is a redemptive meaning of this story for the present geopolitical Judaeo-Muslim conflict. Every political problem comes from an inner family conflict and every relational family conflict stems from a spiritual problem.

The Kite Runner is a story that hints at a spiritual drama behind the complex family history of the father Baba having a child – Hassan - with his servant’s wife. But instead of banishing the servant’s son from his household, it is Amir, his legitimate son who deceptively banishes Hassan out of their household. The rest of the story basically tells of the redemption of Amir from his past guilt (of not helping his best friend Hassan and of falsely accusing Hassan of theft.)

This story is amazing because it could be based anywhere in the world. We may live in a peaceful and prosperous country but if we are not vigilant and spiritually strong, we too may destroyed by external forces or internal forces.

It is not a coincidence that, in the story, the invasion of Afghanistan by the Russians happened after Amir’s betrayal of his servant friend and his lying to his father. The departure of Hassan and his servant father from the Baba household is the beginning of the end of Afghanistan. Hassan, by the way, comes from the Hazara tribe, a despised minority group.

Would it be safe to say that the beginning of troubles for any nation on earth invariably starts when the rich and powerful injure and mistreat the weakest and defenseless minority? The Kite Runner starts with child-like hope which leads to a tragedy and ends with redemptive hope.

Likewise, it is my belief that our country Malaysia is close to coming to terms with her past (and present) sins and the hope of redemption is waiting at the door. A line that echoes throughout the film is "there is a way to be good again."

I highly recommend people, especially Malaysians, to see the film or read the book if not for the sheer enjoyment of a well-written, political-family thriller.

The Swing Factor That Tipped The 12th Election

2008-05-19T03:19:00.000-07:00

In the wake of the 8 March 2008 General Elections (GE), we asked a prominent Singapore political analyst what was the one main factor that pushed Malaysians to vote for the Opposition? Was it a protest vote (push factor) of voting against the Barisan Nasional or a pull factor of voting for the Barisan Rakyat (as the Opposition was called then)?

Surprisingly, the political expert sounded as shell-shocked as everyone else. In his opinion, he said it was a combination of factors such as discontent over widespread corruption in the system, the rising crime rate, the perceived erosion of right of religious freedom, the political marginalization of the Chinese and the Indians, the NEP, Lingamgate etc.

In many ways, he was right but surely there must have been one tipping factor that tipped the 12th election outcome to swing into the Opposition with the gaining of five unprecedented states under their administration.

Until today, I am still looking for that one tipping point factor if there is one because I don’t believe people are so different that they can be motivated by a wide range of reasons.

Perhaps the BR did a great job through the new media. But was it Tony Phua who said, post 8 March, that even a cow would have won if it stood against the BN?

A decision-making framework I formulated before voting has helped me to understand and clarify the reasons behind my voting decision. In fact, I wrote a piece in Malaysiakini’s letter column called “Will You Swing Your Vote?” three days before the GE.

Looking back, as a first time voter, I voted for the BR because I wished to deny the incumbent BN a two thirds majority. This is described as the Strategic Vote. In my pre-election hypothetical case study, I assumed that the average Malaysian will attach a 30% weight to the strategic vote.

Now, after talking to friends and reading several blogs, I believe that the strategic vote counted more prominently with a 50% weight (and the balance 20% accorded to the political candidate and 30% for his/her policies).

If this was the key tipping point factor, then we can now better deal with the post-election issue of a potential change in the government through Pakatan Rakyat (PR) obtaining more state and parliamentary seats through “cross-overs”.

Since I did not vote for an outright change of government, why would I be in favour of the PR’s strategy to gain power through cross-overs, which is ethically questionable? My skpeticism about the timing of this formation of a new government is based on concerns that the PR party is not ready to form a unified, cohesive government with a consistent set of economic, social policies for the country.

Much of Pakatan Rakyat’s social economic objectives (apart from the debatable issue of lowering fuel prices) sounds great and the party may eventually and hopefully transform Malaysia into a more accountable, transparent and efficient country. But why the hurry in 2008? Is it because BN is imploding under its own weight? Or is it because Anwar Ibrahim is just impatient to form the next government?

Essential Differences Between Views & Values - Part 1

2008-05-13T23:34:00.000-07:00

How should we judge a person – by the views he holds or by the values that are dear to him? Views and opinions can be changed and are held together by a combination of intellect and emotions.

However, values are seen to represent what we are made of and what our characters represent. These values may be publicly accepted values such as integrity/sanctity/righteousness on the one hand or private values such as security, power and wealth on the other hand.

We attach greater importance to values because our values are ultimately what we are willing to risk our lives for and what we are willing to go to war for (or not go to war if you are a pacifist). Values seem to appeal to our spiritual and nobler inclinations such as cherishing life and helping those in need. However, despite the distinction between values and opinions, the two are often substitutes for one another.

Our views often reflect our values, regardless of how much we try to be politically correct or neutral on certain issues. They say that one man’s meat is another man’s poison. This refers more to values than opinions because values are as important to our lives as food is to the body. But would it be correct to say that one man’s opinion is meat to him but poison to others?

Opinions and views are exchanged more frequently and they are subject to improvisations, innovations, mutations and alternations. In reply to accusations of being inconsistent, the economist John Maynard Keynes famously said: "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?" However, values are more sticky and, hence, harder to change even if the facts no longer support the values.

For instance, many politicians still believe that subsidized pricing is an effective way of keeping inflation under control. Little do they see the fact that subsidized pricing maintained over time will distort the allocation of resources by encouraging consumers to consume more of the commodity (e.g. fuel, rice, bread) that is in limited supply.

Finally, I shall conclude by asking a question that is on many Malaysians' minds in recent months: "How do we judge the character of a charismatic, eloquent and internationally well-respected politician like Anwar Ibrahim?" Are his values more important to him than his methods and policies? Would he use questionable means (e.g. cross overs to gain a backdoor entry into power) to achieve a fair and just end (A new Malaysia)? A wiser politician - under scrutiny from a discerning public - would be equally careful in shaping his opinions, policies and tactical methods as he would be in forming his long-term goals for the nation.

This brings us to another related and important topic: Is it ethical to use unjust means to achieve a just end? We often hear of Deng Xiaoping's quote that it does not matter whether the cat is black or white as long as it catches the mice. Well, I beg to differ. If you get a hungry tiger to catch a mouse in your house, you may well end up getting mauled.

In conclusion, unsound methods may reveal much about a person's values. (Let's be clear, I try to be as apolitical as much as I can in this blog. There may be reasons why drastic measures/means are sometimes used to save a nation from disaster. That is why political problems are best resolved by an intelligent trade-off analysis.)

This discussion of ends and means in regard to Malaysia will continue in Part 2.

Safe Harbour in A Turbulent World

2008-05-12T18:03:00.000-07:00

For the first time in the history of mankind, the 21st century will probably be the era of the greatest changes for our generation. We have reached a point where the consumer can not only choose which good or service to purchase but, amidst the increasing materialism and stresses of modern capitalist society, what spiritual values to hold on to.

Those who espouse and champion freedom of choice without any obligation to anchor their desires to a set of ethical values will find their element in this century.

But at the same time, this is the century of change in the widest sense of the term. There will be changes in the weather, changes in the economy, changes in international relations, changes in politics, changes in the family and most importantly, changes in the spiritual life of man.

When we choose to take the wrong path, either unknowingly or willingly, we are faced with consequences that are many times more powerful than we could imagine. Why so? The reason is quite simple. For the first time in history, we have more knowledge at our disposal, a broader range of choices to make and more demands on our limited resources and time on earth. Invariably, greater knowledge comes with greater responsibility.

Where are our hearts and minds focused on, 24 hours a day, in wakefulness and in sleep? Is it in the pursuit of happiness, the hope of wealth, the waiting for God’s provisions or the seeking of something which can fulfill the thirst in our souls? How do we know whether we have chosen the wrong path or are walking in the right one?

It is said in the Bible that to know a tree, we are to know its fruits. We know whether we have taken the right path by not only reaching the destination but also by what we experience along the way. Is it a walk of quiet joyfulness, of endurance and painstaking perseverance or is it a walk through a dark forest filled with strange entertainment, confusion, false promises, temptations and ultimately a walk to the gates of perdition?

Ultimately, do we walk with God or do we walk alone? Do we start our days with a list of what we want or ask God what He wants? Do we handle unexpected crises and challenges with what we know or what God declares in His Word? Our Lord Jesus Christ is the only security we can find who will not cheat us and whose friendship will not fade with time or age. The Holy Spirit is the boat in which we can find refuge while on earth and which will take us to safe harbour in our eternal home in heaven.

Baking A Bigger Pie for The Nation To Share Equally Among its People

2008-05-12T09:53:00.000-07:00

Despite 50 years of race-based politics and a disastrous social economic policy (NEP), many Malaysians have still not woken up to the meaning of the political changes that we saw on 8th March 2008.

There are still many Malaysians - from the highest to the lowest levels of society- talking about special privileges based on race and warning about the dangers of upsetting the status quo.

The idea that there will be political instability when one race becomes economically poorer than another in a multiracial society is filled with fallacies, especially in today's world of electronic communications and global dialogue.

First, on a matter of human principle (all men & women are created to be treated equal with equal rights), the legalisation of political and economic privileges based on race is something that the world has struggled with in the past, and we know the victors were those who favour humanity and equal rights (the fall of legitimised racism and white nationalism in South Africa, the failure of Fascism in Germany, etc).

So as a matter of principle and even as a matter of practice, the promotion of superior rights for any race, be it minority or majority, will actually lead to instability, either from the inside which happened in Malaysia, or from external forces (which is reflected in the marginalisation of Msia's economic health versus its stronger neighbours - Indonesia, Thailand, Spore etc.)

The truth is that the winds of change have come to Malaysia. And it is God's divine will that all unjust laws and corrupt practices will eventually be blown away by new forces of change. Anwar himself may be an opportunist as some people may say, but he is definitely used by God to change Malaysia for good and transform this country into a model of civilisation. If we are wary of his true intentions (who can trust a politician anyway, especially one who is not repentent over his track record), make sure there are checks and balances and ensure neither Barisan Nasional nor Pakatan Rakyat gets two thirds majority.

There is hope in a meritocratic society: as Malaysians learn to respond to incentives to enhance their abilities without crutches or government aid, they will be able to compete globally with the very best. At the educational level, those of us who are more efficient or capable can take time to teach and guide the ones who are less capable (e.g. the Finnish model of education is one example of a successful education system).

Friendly domestic competition based on mutual trust and respect will lead to a greater economic pie for everyone, regardless of race, to share. Let us all work for a real future and a vision we can all share and work against the idea that the baker will always be there to cut a bigger slice of the pie for some sections of the populace. Baking a bigger pie is always better than slicing a big portion of a cupcake.

A Truthful Speech In Parliament from Unexpected Quarters

2008-05-12T09:47:00.000-07:00

On the morning of 30th April as I was driving to work, I prayed to God for several things to be raised during the nation's historic 12th parliamentary session: The end of corruption, the restoration of the independence of the judiciary and the removal of unjust laws that infringe on the basic rights of all law-abiding citizens.

When I read the headlines in the two mainstream media the next day, I was at first sorely disappointed that the session was marred by disputes over points of order and name calling between the two parties.

Didn't God answer my prayers as He usually does? Reading further (and we need to look hard for the real news buried in the manistream media though less so with the new media), I was surprised to see that Ong Ka Ting made a terrific speech about the one of the most important issues that turned the heavens against this nation's administrators: that is the unfair subjection of non-muslims (former converts or either parents who converted) against their free will to Shariah laws versus civil laws in several cases in recent years. This was the speech I expected the Opposition to give as the most powerful attack against the government, who is ultimately responsible for the erosion of religious freedom and rights as enshrined in the constitution.

I can see why Ong is motivated to stand up forcefully for the religious rights of the non-muslims, perhaps for the first time in his career. Let us now see whether he or the other MCA leaders will pursue these important issues that are dear to the hearts of many worshippers in this great country.

However, a speech will remain a mere speech unless it is followed up by committed action. He certainly has stolen the thunder from the opposition while BN and PR were entangled in a war of words.

If MPs like Ong can continue to stand up for the people regardless of partisan political affiliations, my prediction for Malaysia in the next six months is that we will have a new era of political language. And the Rakyat and God will be the judge as to whether these reformist impulses are sincere and effective in protecting citizens from unjust laws and a unfair judiciary.

The best line from the new cartoon film Horton is: "A person is a person, no matter how small." Can Malaysia live up to the principle of equal rights for all citizens or are some persons more important than others because of their colour, their politics or their religion?