Every serious episode of depression
is a murder mystery.
Your old self is gone
and in its place is a ghost
that is unable to feel any pleasure in food,
conversation
or in any of your usual forms of entertainment.
You become a body bag.
Moving a pile of books can take days,
as the objects in a room have a stronger will than your own.
You are both the corpse and the detective.
Without alibis
- work, a social life -
there’s nowhere to go.
Your job is to find out
which part of you has died
and why it had to be killed.
- Gwyneth Lewis, “Sunbathing in the Rain“

If life was about right or wrong, good or bad, strong or weak, love or hate, white or black - I’d be wrong, bad, weak, hate and black. Fortunately, that’s not the case. Fortunately, life is more a matter of degrees, of tentative knowledge and of shades of grey.

However that doesn’t stop those days appearing when you not only loathe life but also yourself. Days when you wake up and find yourself wanting to rip your heart out, not only because someone or something has done you wrong, but also because you have done yourself wrong. Somedays you wake up and you just can’t face yourself. Literally.

Posted on March 25th, 2004 by jl
Filed under: Notable: Personal | 7 Comments »

The over-the-top, exuberant and in my view exaggerrated proclamation of the triump of moderate Islam continues unabated today, both in the local and foreign press. (I shall not bother listing them down. Yesterday’s examples are still representative.)

Singapore’s Straits Times continues to be the only newspaper to temper its reactions with restrain and cynicism. They and Brendan Pereira, formerly the Straits Times’ Bureau Chief in Kuala Lumpur, now with Malaysia’s New Straits Times. In his commentary today, Pereira picked up the point made by Warren Fernandez (of Singapore’s Straits Times) yesterday that PAS’ share of the popular vote rose to 15.8% from 15% five years ago. After an analysis of the results, he cautiously concluded that “if Abdullah (Ahmad Badawi) does not carry out his reform agenda, the next wave in five years may push them (PAS) back into national prominence.” Premesh Chandran of MalaysiaKini was similarly cautious in his analysis. He did not believe that the results signalled a “rejection of ideological concepts such as an Islamic state.”

More data has now emerged to support my argument yesterday. We should not be so quick to judge that “radical” Islam, as propagated by PAS, or that PAS are now in the retreat. They are at best at rest, but they have certainly not been driven out.

Page 10 of the Star newspaper today published the popular votes garnered by BN and the opposition. While overall, the popular vote for the opposition has declined, the following are telling:

Popular Votes to the Opposition for State Seats
Kelantan 296,056 (1999) and 262,528 (2004)
Terengganu 180,492 (1999) and 171,136 (2004)
Perlis 36,221 (1999) and 33,859 (2004)
Kedah 252,487 (1999) and 263,143 (2004)

While admittedly the popular vote going to the opposition (for all intents and purposes in these cases, PAS or its proxies) had declined, they have not declined in such huge numbers as to warrant the euphoric reactions we’ve seen so far in the press. Similarly, although the percentage of votes garnered by the BN in these states have risen, with the exception of Perlis and Kedah, the percentages hover around the 50% mark (see Premesh Chandran’s commentary). More important, the number of votes going to the opposition have actually increased in Kedah! Similar observations hold for seats at the Parliamentary level.

I therefore reassert that “radical” Islam and PAS are not dead. They may have lost the battle but they haven’t lost the war. While most people, particularly those in the West, are understandably disturbed by terrorist activity in the last 3 years, usually linked to radical Muslims, we should not let our desires cloud our judgement. While we may desire for the retreat of radical Islam, desire and reality are, to state the obvious, two very different things. In celebrating the absolute victory by BN, let us not be deceived in our euphoria and more importantly, let our deceptions not be the foundations of our future actions, or inaction.

Posted on March 24th, 2004 by jl
Filed under: My Malaysia | 6 Comments »

Of all the conclusions derived from the results of the recent General Elections, the most widespread and prominent is that PAS’ version of political Islam has now been trumped and defeated.

This is most notable in the headline of a report by MalaysiaKini: “BN victory a defeat for political Islam” it proclaims loudly. MalaysiaKini also quotes Abdul Razak Baginda of the Malaysian Strategic Research Centre in several reports as saying that the results of the General Elections “shows that the more extreme Islamic forces have been kept at bay and that the Malays are in favour of a moderate Islam” (see here for instance). The news portal then quotes Robert Broadfoot, managing director of the Hong Kong-based Political and Economic Risk Consultancy as saying, “If it happens in Indonesia and (other parts of) Southeast Asia, it would be showing that there is an alternative route for Islamic culture that is not threatening and is not one that the world has to fear.” Andrew Tan, a security analyst with the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies in Singapore, was also cited by MalaysiaKini as saying that “this is something that could very well be crucial in turning back the tide of fundamentalism, not just in Malaysia but also elsewhere.” (see this report).

In a front page article in today’s edition, the Asian Wall Street Journal cited Shamsul Amri Baharuddin, sociologist at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, who observed that “even the Malays rejected PAS because they want to give the Abdullah moderate brand of Islam a chance.” The leader of the AWSJ concluded that “the elections in Malaysia are a blow to Islamic conservatives” and that “Muslims … spurned PAS’s vision of a theocracy and chose secular politics.” It further suggested that “religion was reestablished as an area of personal piety.” The Associated Press reported that “voters overwhelmingly rejected the hardline policies of the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, known as PAS, in favour of Abdullah’s promises of a moderate form of Islam and cleaner government” (see here). Reuters argued that fundamentalist Islam has been weakened as a political force (see here).

Alternative media and the foreign press were not the only ones crooning this tune. The local printed press were just as loud. Wong Sulong proclaimed in the Star that “PAS has been shown up as the party it always has been - narrow-minded and bereft of ideas.” “PAS’ Islamic Agenda Left the Malays Cold” crowed a headline in the New Straits Times. The Utusan Malaysia states that “Rakyat Tolak Fahaman PAS”.

Alas, I am not so sure that this is the right conclusion to draw. I am uncertain that PAS really has been beaten. They may have been defeated with the absolute results, but have we really seen the backs of PAS or of political Islam in general?

Posted on March 23rd, 2004 by jl
Filed under: My Malaysia | 4 Comments »

This is a public petition and a wild shot, but worth a try nevertheless.

Has any one happen to have keyed in the results of the General Elections, as published in today’s newspapers? Or perhaps know where to get the data set? It would be great if they are in either CSV or Excel format, for further manipulation.

Anyone?

Posted on March 22nd, 2004 by jl
Filed under: My Malaysia | 3 Comments »

It’s not really over yet, there are still a few “critical” seats to be finalised, but enough of the results have come in for us to now make a reflection on how Malaysian’s have voted over the weekend.

No one, almost no one, predicted the landslide victory for the Barisan Nasional, in particular the almost complete turning of tide in Terengganu and Kelantan.

For me the most intriguing question is what prompted the change in sentiments in Terengganu and Kelantan. Some of the explanations offered so far are:

* Voters have rejected PAS’s version of political Islam and support Badawi’s moderate version of the religion (AWSJ, AFP, Reuters, Abdul Razak Baginda,

* Support for Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s reform agenda (AWSJ, Abdul Razak Baginda, Ho Kay Tat, Suhaini Aznam

* The fading of the Anwar-star (Chandra Muzaffar, Ho Kay Tat, Suhaini Aznam)

Or is it because:

* Voters in these two states are tired of being poor and sidelined from development? In the past, the BN government has generally deprived states governed by opposition parties, in particular Kelantan, from federal funds for development purposes.

* Voters are sympathetic to Pak Lah for what he is as an individual and would like to give him a chance - but at the same time are not saying that they reject PAS’ version of Islam, and are in fact, waiting to see how Pak Lah would move towards PAS’ form of Islam?

* Or is this a rejection of the less than savoury form of politics practised by PAS - the mud slinging, the heaven and earth discourse?

Or is this a combination of all the above?

I’d be interested to hear your views. Do share them.

Posted on March 22nd, 2004 by jl
Filed under: My Malaysia | 10 Comments »