I’m so sorry, Elizabeth.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, we’re at it again. We made it to BBC. Again.

We’re fucked one way or another.

Elizabeth Wong’s smear campaign is one that resonates very strongly with me, particularly because I’ve been studying sex and gender this semester as part of my Masters coursework. Sure, much of gender I study is related to the performing arts but it is nevertheless pertinent, and brings me to question why, in this very country, victims of harassment always end up targeted while the perpetrators almost always get away untouched.

Very unfortunately, if the victim is female, the wrath is even greater.

What angers me most, however, are the moral police. Arseholes who sit on their fucking high arses, who preach about the ‘proper’ thing to do.

Well excuse me. We may be women and by god, are we not entitled to live the lives we want to live? So we sleep naked. We sleep with men who are not necessarily our husbands. That is a sin?

And here’s the ironic part: we’re supposed to be a secular country.

Mostly, I feel incredibly sad for Elizabeth. I can only imagine how painful this time must be for her. 

Will I lose my dignity
Will someone care
Will I wake tomorrow
From this nightmare?

~ Rent, Will I?

As Vusi Mahlasela once sang, it is truly the ‘age of broken minds and souls’.

Look! Our stupidity made it to the BBC again!

Malaysian MP removed from office

A Malaysian opposition leader has been forcibly removed by police from his office in a political tussle over which party controls the state’s legislature.

Perak state’s chief minister, Nizar Jamaluddin, described his removal as a “coup” and promised legal action.

The opposition won control of Perak state in general elections last March.

But the ruling National Front coalition said it was wresting control of Perak state legislature after the defection of several opposition lawmakers.

Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak said the lawmakers were now “friendly independents”.

Mr Najib is expected to become prime minister next month in a transition agreed with incumbent Abdullah Badawi.

Commentators have described the Perak manoeuvres as a burnishing of Mr Najib’s image as a decisive and politically adept leader before next month’s internal party vote.

He had recently run two by-election campaigns in which the National Front coalition lost.

Public concerns

The National Front claimed it had wrested control of Perak’s legislature after three lawmakers quit the opposition on Wednesday.

Following the defections, both sides have 28 seats in Perak’s 59-member legislature, but the National Front claims it effectively has control because the three independents would back it in any vote.

The takeover was endorsed by Sultan Azlan Shah, the influential hereditary ruler of the state.Chief minister Nizar Jamaluddin insisted he had the popular mandate and refused to leave office, but when he arrived at work on Friday, he found all his personal belongings had been removed.

Police escorted him out of the building less than an hour later.

More than 2,000 opposition supporters had gathered late on Thursday at his home in a show of support, shouting “Reform” and “Long live the people”

“Such a takeover is really a big blow to democracy and insults the wisdom of the masses,” opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim told the Associated Press news agency.

Senior opposition leader Lim Kit Siang accused Najib of making an “illegal and unconstitutional grab for power in Perak”.

The respected Malaysiakini news website reported extensive blogging activity in support of the ousted chief minister and calls for fresh elections.

Due process?

Opposition leaders have criticised the conduct in the Perak change of power, saying the use of defections instead of an open by-election has damaged democracy.

Anwar Ibrahim’s opposition Pakatan Rakyat alliance won an unprecedented five of Malaysia’s 13 states in general elections last year.

He later tried to take over the government by engineering defections but failed to gain adequate numbers.

The same party has controlled Malaysia for more than 50 years but analysts say there is no doubt the government is struggling.

**********

Behold, the workings of our brand new, soon-to-be Prime Minister.

Puzzling.

I stumbled upon this article as I was reading the papers today:

Semi-nomadic tribe goes back into jungle after delivering lost surveyors

MIRI: The group of Penans who rescued two surveyors lost in the deep jungles of Long Seridan in remote northern Sarawak have declined any reward for their heroic deed.

The Sarawak police are impressed by not just the bravery and kindness of the semi-nomadic Penans but also their humility.

So too is Ba’Kelalan state assemblyman Nelson Balang Rining, who stressed that the Penans had been at the forefront of many search and rescue missions in the jungles and mountains of Sarawak but had never asked for any reward or publicity.

Surveyors Ismail Salleh, 31, and Rano Sani, 26, went missing on Oct 28 while carrying out demarcation work for a multi-billion ringgit inter-state gas pipeline project between Sabah and Sarawak.

The two men were in a group of 50 surveyors that is handling the task of drawing up a land route to lay the 500km-long gas pipeline from Kimanis near Kota Kinabalu to Bintulu town, the gas capital of Sarawak.

The duo were found in a mountain village on Saturday afternoon following an aerial and ground search mission launched by the police.

They were rescued by a group of Penans, who were out hunting and gathering jungle produce, and escorted to the village.

Baram district police chief Deputy Supt Jonathan Jalin said he had spoken to the group of surveyors via satellite phone from Long Seridan yesterday.

“They are weak, but otherwise unhurt. They confirmed that it was the Penans who saved them, not any of our search parties.

“The group of Penans led them out from the jungle to a settlement after giving them food and water.

“My conversation with them was brief because of connection problems, but the surveyors said the Penans left them in the hands of the villagers and promptly went off into the jungle again.

“We (police) are trying to find out who these Penans are, and which settlement they are from. We must give them due credit,” he said.

Asked if the duo would be brought out for medical treatment, DSP Jalin said that they were still recuperating in the camp and did not seem to be in need of urgent medical help.

Long Seridan is located between Long Lellang and the Bario highlands. It is eight hours by land from here via Long Lama village.

Balang, whose constituency also covers Long Lellang, Bario and the area north of Long Seridan, said the Penans who rescued the duo should be given public recognition.

“It is the Penans’ nature to be helpful and yet shun publicity. They know the jungle like their backyard. They are capable of walking from Long Lellang to Bario non-stop,” he said.

Balang called on the police and the survey firm to try to trace the Penans who saved Ismail and Rano, saying that at the very least, they should be given a banquet.

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While it all sounds pretty fluffy and happy and wonderful, I strongly feel the need to highlight this article as well:

———-

Penan women accuse loggers of sexual abuse

24 September 2008

Women from the Penan tribe have accused workers from two Malaysian logging companies of harassing and raping Penan women, including schoolgirls.

‘I want to make it known that we are being sexually abused by the timber company workers on a regular basis’, one woman said.

The Penan live in Sarawak, in the Malaysian part of the island of Borneo. They have spent more than twenty years trying to stop logging companies destroying their forests. The accused loggers work for Samling and Interhill, two of the major companies operating on Penan land.

According to research undertaken by the organisation Bruno Manser Fund, the perpetrators frequent several Penan settlements in the Middle Baram area, looking for women. The company workers are based in logging camps in the region and are usually drunk when they arrive at the villages.

‘When we hear their off-road vehicles coming, we just leave everything as it is and flee into the forest,’ the Penan source said. ‘They come on an almost weekly basis, but the situation is worst during the school holidays when they know the students are in the villages.’

In other cases, school runs operated by logging company vehicles had been arranged so that schoolgirls had to stay overnight at a logging camp, where they were abused.

The Penan communities are reporting several cases of pregnancy as a consequence of abuse by company workers. They also accuse the loggers of using armed ‘gangsters’ to intimidate them and of handing out alcohol to young Penan. Complaints by the Penan to those in charge of the logging camps and to the police have so far had no effect.

The Bruno Manser Fund has asked the Malaysian government to start a formal enquiry into the allegations. In particular, the government is being asked to ensure that the victims are protected and that the harassment of Penan women by company workers is brought to an end immediately.

In a separate development, the Sarawak government recently announced that it would no longer recognise elected Penan leaders in some communities. The move is seen as an attempt to break resistance to logging.

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Are we forgetting something? Yes, it is all very wonderful that the surveyors were found safe. But some ‘banquet’ for the Penan community will not do.

Horoscope for the Day…

Virgo: Only days ago you drew the line with somebody whose attitude and actions have been a consistent source of concern or unhappiness. Yet they’re still causing problems, although not of the same magnitude. They’re trying to get your attention with their antics. Ignore them.

Wow. That’s good to know!

Leap!

I’ve done it. I finally put in my letter.

I’ll be leaving my comfortable, full-time job at the end of August. It has been incredibly hard, given that I have been bombarded with counter offers, a salary raise and promises of more opportunities.

But I can’t take it anymore. While the opportunities were great, I need to be happy. And I want to be happy.

This is my leap of faith.

I’ll be pursuing my Masters actively. Part time lecturing will help me stay afloat in the meantime.

I need to trust that I will be ok. I need to know that it’s ok to feel insecure and worry about how I’ll manage.

Then again, I guess this is the Man Up There’s way of getting me to talk to him more. Joker.