A week is a long time in politics

Read the papers lately? The news I've been reading reaffirms the fact that watching Malaysian politics in action is much like having ring-side seats to a circus.

The one with the really ugly clowns.

In the midst of the political back-stabbing, random policy changes and wrangling over Menteri Besar posts, one article caught my eye; apparently the highest echelons of PAS leadership is "confident that it can soon set up an Islamic Federal Government".

Huh.

Their win in Selangor emboldened their leadership to create comparisons between Selangor and Kelantan, which sounds distinctly dangerous to me. Have you been to Kelantan? Damansara is not Tumpat, nor is Kota Bharu anything like Petaling Jaya. Don't get me wrong, my mother is Kelantanese, which makes me nominally Kelate, and as much as I love that state, I don't think I can survive there for very long.

It's just too . . . different. Too, well, green, if you know what I'm saying.

People who know me well know that I have never believed in religion in politics. God is not welcome in Parliament, because the concerns of the afterlife do not mesh with Parliamentary debate on budgetary issues, or matters of foreign policy. Do not take this to mean that I do not believe in religion; I do, but I believe it to be a private matter between a man and his God (or Gods, or benevelont ancestor deity).

Politicizing religion always turns out for the worst; religion in a place of power breeds extremism, which breeds intolerance. And I don't think I want that for my kids (when I get around to having some).

Yes, I want a change in the political landscape. But no, I do not want to live in the 1960's (or the 11th century) thank you very much. Which could happen when a religion runs a country.

So, yeah. We've exercised our democratic right to usher in new faces for the Government. But have we, in the process, created a monster we can't control?

This is my political piece

Been getting a lot of flak for my political stance lately, especially among the older set. Which I don't really understand, seeing as I'm supporting a "don't care, don't wanna know" stance anyway. Apparently, not enough young people are voting.

Huh, big surprise there.

I mean, have you seen the choices we're presented with? Blue, a lighter blue, green, red, white and blue. They sound the same; religion, blah blah, race, less corruption, more corruption, blah blah. BN or PAS or PKR or whatever.

I even went to a rally, just to see what it's like. And yeah . . . not hearing anything interesting here, only more attacks against whatever other party is competing against the organisers.

Where are the hard issues? When are they going to come up with a working manifesto that actually addresses what's wrong, instead of . . . fluff. (So God help me, have you seen Pas's manifesto? Abolish taxes? Free tolls? Are we going back to the '60's? Or will this create a religious utopia unlike any we've ever seen? And yes, this is sarcasm.)

I want a cleanup of the judiciary, a split from the body politic and the body government. I want a better education system, taught in English, like what we're promised. I want a clear split between religion and Government. I want a political system and Parliament for the people, by the people.

Instead, I get the same bloody thing every election year; nonsense manifesto's, parties competing for change, without a plan of what to change.

And you older people wonder why we're not voting. Sorry, we grew up with CNN and BBC, Al Jazeera and the Internet. We're far more politically informed and far better read. We actually know better than you what we want. So we'll wait, until your generation has run this country to the ground.

And then we'll build it up again. And hopefully avoid all the mistakes you've made.

Ian McDonald's River of Gods

As Mother India approaches her centenary, nine people are going about their business - a gangster, a cop, his wife, a politician, a stand-up comic, a set designer, a journalist, a scientist and a dropout. And so is Aj - the waif, the mind-reader, the prophet - when she one day finds a man who wants to stay hidden.

In the next few weeks, they will all be swept together to decide the fate of the nation.




I do not really enjoy sci-fi. The high blown physics tend to sail over my head, making me think of school and the utter humiliation I felt when I don't understand what the hell is being written on the blackboard.

But this book sheds sci-fi for humanism, physics for religion, and higher mathematics for faith. Amid the newsreels of waterwars and high politics, between the puujas on the Ganges, there is a story of people caught up in the flow of fate.

This is India, this is Bharati, this is Varanasi, as seen through the eye of its citizens, 39 years from now. The smell of rotii, the stink of traffic, the hooting of phatphat horns, temples and Gods, all seven million of them. The crowds and riots and beautiful sari's, jawans and jai Bharat!.

And through it, between it, among it, flows the Ganga Mata, Mother of Rivers, life-giver and life-taker.

Yes, there is physics; M-Star theory and physical manifestations of higher level aeiai consciousness, parallel universes and zero-point energy math models, but it fits. It is merely a part of the larger story, and not the whole of it.

Read this book, you will not be disappointed.