Critical Thoughts

I saw the debate between Chief Minister of Penang Lim Guan Eng and the acting President of Gerakan who was also the previous Chief Minister, Dr. Koh Tsu Koon, which was for some reason a bit more muted than the previous debate involving DSAI and the Information Minister. For some reason, this debate did not enjoy the wide media coverage as the previous one did and it was only shown live on NTV7. On the issue debated, I personally believe that it was a tie, although I admit that Dr. Koh does look a bit unsure of his answer but he didn’t cede his debating ground.

But overall, I find the debate an interesting affair, although both were at their impeccable behaviour one cannot help but to notice the underlying animiosity behind the two under the “gentleman” act displayed. I guess that is the best one can expect from them, and after all they did not have a go at each other like trainees undergoing muay thai training in thailand. So on the whole, the debate was a success and further evidence (much like the more publicised “DSAI vs Shabery Cheek debate”) that such practice should be further encouraged for live telecast.

I wonder where did the AKIM guy go….I haven’t seen him in any news coverage except when mentioned together with BN and Pakatan candidates for the Permatang Pauh by-election. I am not too unduly worried about his presence as he definitely has no chance of winning at all and he even admits that himself. He must be crazy enough to throw away RM15K just like that, he might as well use the money for da’wah purposes. Or better still, give it to me, I can think of 1001 uses of what I can use the money for the cause of Islam if I have RM15K right now.

But I guess its a free country after all.

Something about this whole liwat thing bothers me, despite the so-called “Qur’an swearing” and all. I’ve never seen a more relaxed sodomy victim sitting calmly in a room full of pressmen and photographers and taking questions without batting even an eyelid. You would think that a post-traumatic victim of sodomee would show some kind of anxiety disorder or distress after being violated in the butt-hole. But truth is, I do not see any of those signs in Saiful Bukhari Azlan. Do I think he is a victim? The answer is obvious.

As for the so-called “Quran-swearing” event itself, I have yet to see the video of the actual process taking place so I cannot say for certain what actually transpired, although according to the Malaysiakini reports the scene was recorded and shown to the reporters. I’ve done my fair share of swearing on the Qur’an to respond to the fitna of an Islam Liberal (who has convieniently until today yet to reply) but the way this whole thing is playing out in the “sodomy victim’s” case just does not feel right.

I am not surprised that there would be these so-called “know-alls” who would label yesterday’s success of closing down a blatantly anti-Islamic forum as the result of “mob rule”. These people think they can speak for Islam, but the protesters who attended yesterday’s protest were indeed voicing the feelings of the Muslims on the ground about the forum. I have seen the video of the protest and some of the leaders who organised the protest were sane and rational individuals, although the same cannot be said for one or two individuals who attended and tried to pick a fight with another protester.

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I have actually known about the arrest as soon as the word went out, but I was too busy to do anything about it. For the life of me, I cannot think of any comprehensible reason why would anyone arrest Pak Bakaq, but I saw this reason provided by Nat. Not sure it is true or not but if it is….it has to be the silliest reason conceivable to warrant an arrest of a blogger.

Personally, I think there is a much more sinister reason behind it and as Pak Bakaq is well-known for maintaining his specialised blog-tal, this could well be an intimidation attempt by those concerned to silence socio-political bloggers. I hope someone can inform me of the latest news about Pak Bakaq as the fiancee will be in town and I wouldn’t have time to keep up with the news.