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| 2002-08-28 | Is there honour in the Malaysian flag? The flag is an important attribute of a national will, to be
treasured and honoured. I was once sent to detention class, in
the 1950s, for inadvertently letting the Federation of Malaya
flag fall to the ground, at the English College, Johore Bahru,
while hoisting it. But these traditions are ignored by those
nations which does not see much value in them. Here it is an
object of commerce, people asked to fly it so some crony business
men could make money selling them. It started with devaluing the
flag by hoisting a larger version of one atop what is billed as
the tallest flagpost in the globe. It is plastered on motor
vehicles, allegedly to reflect the patriotism of the vehicle
owners, but what is reflects is the devaluation of an important
symbol of nationhood. No one pays much attention to the
importance of a national symbol, including, I am sorry to say,
the Prime Minister himself. This deliberate but unthinking
devaluation of the Jalur Gemilang happened during the 21 years he
has been head of government. The flag therefore has lost its
symbolic meaning. If it had not, Dato' Seri Syed Hamid Albar
would have lodges the strongest diplomatic protest to the
Indonesian ambassador in Kuala Lumpur. And Dr Mahathir would not
have dismissed it as a trifle not worth bothering about.
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| 2002-08-10 | The new electoral rolls: A war by other means
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| 2002-08-04 | Ras Adiba: Curiouser and curiouser
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| 2002-07-18 | Rewriting history for votes The election was held in UMNO headquarters, then in Johore Bahru, since destroyed to make way for a road, the Tengku was
reluctant, and went into the meeting with his two friends
standing guard outside the two entrances to the hall. There were
three candidates: the Tengku, the head of UMNO's religious wing
and a cousin of the later Saudi oil minister Sheikh Yamani, and
Dato' C.M. Yusof. The UMNO supreme council cast 15 votes for the
Tengku, 8 for Mr Ahmad Fuad, and one for Dato' C.M. Yusof.
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| 2002-07-11 | A Mentri Besar Annoys A Godfather
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| 2002-07-10 | The Najib Enigma
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| 2002-05-08 | The Cabinet begin its campaign for general elections
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| 2002-04-28 | When you should be dead, you cannot live
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| 2002-04-10 | Frightening Arrogance in the Land of Fear and Loathing
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| 2002-03-27 | Racial Discrimination: The knives are out
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| 2002-03-18 | UMNO can criticise but not be criticised
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| 2002-03-07 | The biter bit in Malaysia-Singapore ties
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| 2002-02-06 | A bilateral hiccup raises ire in Singapore and Malaysia
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| 2002-01-30 | The UMNO battle begins anew with treachery abound What ought then to have settled in BN is not. UMNO still
struggles for a role, with PAS and Keadilan taking steps which
spell danger. PAS is forced to change. It now promises women
candidates in future elections. It would run into heavy flak.
But it is enough to unnerve UMNO. Its vice president, Tan Sri
Muhiyuddin Yassin, says in Johore Bahru it is a ploy to lure
women voters. The gall of this man is astonishing. He believes
women are so naive that they could be led by such "cheap" tricks,
which he insists it is. He is worried with something more
serious: UMNO is disbelieved. It is heavily involved in
corruption, but it insists it fights it. It promises restraint
in theory but is profligate in practice. It is also a sign that
UMNO and BN cannot take advantage of Dr Mahathir's categorisation
of PAS as a Taliban front.
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| 2002-01-23 | Duty free status for one man
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| 2002-01-18 | Indera Kayangan: UMNO in the spotlight
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| 2002-01-07 | Indera Kayangan may determine fate of a distant mentri besar
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| 2001-12-06 | The street naming controversy in Ipoh And to show that the government is not about to erase
non-Chinese road names, we are solemnly told that Jalan Wong Ah
Fook, named for one of the great pioneers of Johore Bahru at the
turn of the last century, would remain. The name has stood for
nearly eighty years. Was there then a proposal to rename it, and
other roads named after Chinese and Indian pioneers of Johore Bahru? That this assurance was given suggests it was in the
cards. And like in Ipoh, the MCA, the Gerakan, the MIC, PPP and
UMNO would have acted in concert to make that happen.
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| 2001-12-05 | Hear Ye! Hear Ye! The stupid, idiotic mentri besar cometh!
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| 2001-11-06 | A transparent mentri besar's hidden assets
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