Don't Panic!

Is anybody panicking yet?

You know. Possible food and fuel price rises and the fact that the monthly pay packet can't hardly make ends meet.

But do the bozos elected to the Parliament care? Since the March 8 polls, we have seen political games within and without the Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat that have yet to answer at least one question.

That is, what the hell is happening with the Malaysian economy?

And whether we Malaysians have enough money in our pockets - notwithstanding the rather dubious strengthening of the Ringgit Malaysia which is more due to the weakening of the US dollar - to maintain some sort of a lifestyle.

Okay, folks in Selangor will get 20 cubic metres of water free. Newspapers report that rice prices are on the up and up due to the whims and fancies of 35 men who slurp soup and rice somewhere in Bangkok Others give ideas on savings.

The Siber Party of Malaysia (M) thinks that there is undue attention on rice prices. Rice is just a small component of the daily meal or the monthly expenditure in a household. Fact is, how much of rice can one ever eat?

Got to a banana leaf shop and try. They can give you mountains of rice, it isn't free, as they have already put in the cost in the meat, fish and vegetables consumed in the meal. The same scene in the Chinese economy rice shops or the Malay restaurants or the Thai restaurateurs with their little metal bowls of steamed rices at either 50 sen or one ringgit a pop.

That's rice. You don't have to eat it everyday. Like roti canai or char kway teow or bihun soup or whatever strikes your fancy.

Food is a major component of expenditure but there is others there that you can cut out to enjoy or maintain your lifestyle. I mean, do you really want to stretch your ringgit? Especially those in the city who constantly complain of low pay and high expenditures.

Cut out the mobile phone calls. The two mobile phones. The 3G service. The SMSes. See your savings. Cut out that unnecessary trips down the road with your car. Cut out the unnecessary splurge at the departmental stores or boutiques just because purple is in or beads are out of fashion and its time for other chunky jewellery.

Forget the 10 ringgit lattes and teas at the cafe joints just because there is WiFI service there. Or the banoffee pie, cinnamon roll, the tapas

Think about what you can save. And go save it.

Because the bozos in parliament don't care. One of the things they will do is to raise their own pay, get public funds to run their service centres and research teams.

That's our money going to make them debate better or rather speak longer. Talk is free. What we need is action. Err... like now!

May The Farce Be With You

Notwithstanding the March 8 polls results, you know the world has changed when people start comparing unifying-divisive Khairy Jamaluddin to Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader and Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng sports a turban.

A red one! Yes. Its a farce, it is!

No, we don't think that Khairy Jamaluddin - the putative polymath Malay ultra/son-in-law/politician/boutique owner/football manager/whatever - is anyone from the Star Wars universe.

And we don't think that those who gave their opinions know much about UMNO or its juvenile Youth wing. Or rather, they display a certain lack of wit or knowledge of what they talk about. No wonder it came out in Mentera's favourite online comic.

Fact is, UMNO is A Malay party. So its members are focused on Malay causes and politics. So yes, everyone there should technically be a Malay ultra. Not even if they seem to be reformists hell bent on opening UMNO to all Malaysians.

The last person who did that was Onn Jaafar. He left and left it as a Malay party. Which means if Khairy is an UMNO party member, he is quite rightly a believer in the Malay cause and a Malay ultra of sorts.

And his options are limitless but his future is cloudy and vague. He probably needs Yoda to guide him now!

But what takes the cake is their comparison of Khairy to either Skywalker or Darth Vader. Come on! Anyone with a shallow knowledge of Star Wars know that Skywalker was obsessed with his mother, forbidden love and a thirst for power and thus seduced to the Dark Side.

And Darth Vader is just a running dog/errant knight errant of his master, the Emperor! Either way, the anti-hero's redemption comes with his death at the hand of his son.

You see Khairy as any of that (pun intended if you get it!)? Khairy is just Khairy - a wannabe in a land of nobodies and dictators who build on greed, envy, hatred and dirt swept under the carpet.

Well, yes, there are parts that might parallel the Star Wars universe but not its characters.

May the farce be with them. (Apologies for the farce in the videos!)

SiPM's Dirty (half) Dozen 2006 - 2007

Thanks to all of you SiPM is now well into their 2nd year of political outreach.

And it has been a blast!

To honour your support, we are going to take a trip down memory lane and collate the best videos/post you love best!

• 6. Selamat Pengatin Baru by Mat Merah with video of "Selamat Pengantin Baru" by Spider: Pak Lah gets married and we were one of the first ones to break the news on the internet
• 5. Meanwhile in Reality by Mat Merah with a video of "All the Watchtower" by Jimi Hendrix: Mat Merah writes about the netizens navel gazing the civil service but reminds us to focus on the issues at hand rather than bury our faces in computer screens and furiously type away criticisms without any solutions
• 4. The Weeks That Wanked By: 26th Dec-7th Jan 2007 by Dek Mat: In the 2nd of the Weeks that Wank By series, Dek Mat summarised the week where YB Minah and TatakSombong contributed for the first time while we had issues such as the toll, Proton, the hanging of Saddam Hussein, Synergy Drive, the floods in Johore, ban on political parties based on ethniticity, AirAsia FAX, and the editor of the now no-more Monsterblog ready to vote for SiPM
• 3. The Chief Whips: Bound and Gagged by YB Maya Minah Black with a video of "Skinny" by Lo-Rider: Our Chief Whip reminds us to stay polite and say no to censorship!
• 2. The Week That Wanked By: 16th Jan-23rd Jan 2007 Freedom Fighters Fight Freedom by Dek Mat with a video of Bill Clinton being vodooed: Dek Mat summarised the week where many Malaysian bloggers turned hypocrites during the NST vs Jeff Ooi and Rocky Bru saga

and your number one post/video is:

• 1. SensualSophia Indulges Political Malaysia (Mmmmm...) by Mat Merah with a video of "Simply Irresistable" by Robert Palmer: SiPM pays tribute to the ever erotic SensualSophia who apparently never returned from a trip to learn Kundaligi Yoga... - her site is no longer available too :(

So congrats to Mat Merah for his hattrick!!!

But a special mention award goes to the only video produced by SiPM which has now attracted 81,711 views on YouTube!!! The video entitled UMNO's Sleeping Beauties has attracted links from Chegubard, Sang Kelembai, Mahaguru and also attracted 556 comments!!!!

To the bloggers who linked to the video we say thank you (eventhough they didn't credit us... bloody pirates!)

And to our readers, again, our warmest appreciation and here's to all of you, SiPM and of course our beloved Malaysia!

Freedom

Freedom of expression. Pure and simple. Is that too hard?

What are we talking about here? The freedom for some sharia lawyers and judges to express their thoughts and ideas for their faith and their reason of existence, such as punishment for non-Muslims caught for close proximity or khalwat with Muslims.

Of course, it is a foolish idea what more when proposed on April 1. First, the very idea is against any societal norms and what more, against the some 690-times-amended Federal Constitution.

But what do they and we Malaysians get? We get this riposte from an apparently learned man. He ripped apart the idea and connected it to other concepts such as Islam Hadhari and the now much-beleaguered UMNO.

See, the sharia lawyers and judges live in their own perfect world and think it is unfair that only Muslims get punished but the others don't. Of course, they don't think it is unfair that only Bumiputeras get seven percent discount on house prices, easier access for education, etc!

And they don't get it that being Muslims in Malaysia is an oppression with such repressive laws that prevent close proximity, drinking alcohol, gambling etc. They don't see the need for such freedoms because they don't think Muslims in Malaysia can take freedom responsibly.

We don't blame them.

Let them access to the Internet and they dip their keys and mice into vitriol and venom and let fly with allegations, innuendos, lies and whatever filth they can get their mind to spin.

Let them access to cars and motorcycles and they race to oblivion.

Freedom. Not an easy thing to have or use.

Even Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders is at a loss with freedom, using it to foment discord towards Islam.

Of course, thousands of Muslims worldwide have used their freedom to castigate Wilders and boycott Dutch-made goods, just as Dr Farish Noor uses the same freedom to criticise sharia judges/UMNO.

Freedom. We all can have and use it. Responsibly.

Making Sense of It

Oh.My.God.

In the new Malaysia, giving like, one's two sens is now out of the question from April Fool's Day. It is either zero sen or five sen. Like, ain't that the truth, dudes!

Well, babes, today is the day all of us like, get sooooooooo sworn in to the new Parliament although the rest will only get it done later. Oh My Gawd... All of us are now Members of Parliament. Awesome. YBBs we all are in the House of the People ;)

But gag me with a spoooooooooooon already! We hear now that the failures at UMNO are quick off the mark to dispose the 30 percent quota for nominations from party divisions for the posts of party president and deputy president.

Of course, like it started with the former lord and his sooooooo erstwhile nemesis Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah. That's like democracy or what. As if!

Like, you don't see them that eager to drop the 30 percent quota for Bumiputera share of the capital equity, do you? Nooooooo, that just like ain't kosher! Fer sure!

We wonder when they will, like wake up and smell the coffee, not just the coffee money, in their own house.