An interesting look into what’s happening in East Timor, especially within it’s relations with “the saviour” Australia - sent in by Shah in Melbourne, taken from Socialist Alternative (SA) magazine, issue 129, June 2008

Ex-Falantil guerrilla says get Australian hands off East Timor!
Socialist Alternative’s Cipi Morgan spoke to former Timorese resistance fighter and now author and activist Naldo Rei.

I met Naldo in 1999 at a refugee centre in East Hills, Sydney. I was there visiting young friends - new arrivals from East Timor and Kosovo. When Naldo arrived at the camp all the Timorese children shrieked with excitement and the centre suddenly transformed into a party.

People - including the Kosovars formed circles and danced the “Tebe Rai”, a traditional circle-dance with a popular song from the Independence movement. The Timorese children told me then: “That’s Naldo from the Falantil East Timor’s freedom fighting guerrilla army.” Over the years I got to know more of Naldo’s story.

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Fellow Malaysians: 1969? Pffft..!
by Asparagus Alfalfa | March 10th

Like in the Harry Potter series, where the monster’s name is always referred as ‘He who should not be named’, it has been looming, like dark clouds above our head, ever threatening - the number 1969 as the ‘Year that shall not be mentioned’. C’mon folks, this is the sole reason why the racial card is still playable- the constant broken recorder-like repetitive threat of them who played the racial card, saying that ‘1969 will happen again if this, this or this be done, revised, changed, questioned’. Her e is a few reasons why I think 1969 is so obsolete, sooo in the past, and not worth mentioning at all unless you are a nostalgic racist slasher: Dude, you’re alone.

I say, ignore that thought. Fear has been used by those in power to control commoners like you and me. Just like how the Bush administration used it to win the second term. The proof has been evident: the guy in power who threaten in 1987 to bathe his keris with Chinese blood and the recent younger keris wielding hopefuls in the local KKK assembly. They reinstate and keep the fear constant and of course, it backlashed. Believing what they telling and further occupying our mind with that would only contribute to their successful use of the four lettered f-word. Why do we even bother?

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We Don’t Need a Strong Opposition, We Need to Kill Democracy.
by Asparagus Alfalfa

Someone once said that philosophy is a debate about words, since we utilize the vocabularies in our perusals to debate about it. I am going to debate why you SHOULDN’T vote, since everybody is asking you to, for the sake of being the Devil’s Advocate, it might be a bit philosophical, but let us try to see the other side of things, upholding the believe that we are all rational, open-minded and non-puritan/fundamentalist individuals, ready to hear opinions form all sides of the arguments.

First, power corrupts AND enemies become friends and friends become enemies in politics. One minute this guy happens to be your best friend ever, openly express his admiration for you and how much he would vouch for you but in another minute, he switched political party and openly talk and digging your dirt from the past about how it was a big mistake being a comrade with you (refer: Chandra Muzaffar). It is all power struggle of those people with their names appearing on the media. Not you or me. We have no business there in this power struggle thing: Those guys just need a reason to be in power and they will have it once you endorse them to be there by casting your vote for there- regardless of the ruling party or their Opposition.

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singalong!

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Pramoedya dan Ceritanya
oleh Elle J. Hafiz

Lama sebelum saya terjumpa karyanya, nama Pramoedya Ananta Toer (6 Februari 1925 – 30 April 2006) ini sudah saya dengari. Tak ada apa pun petunjuk – kecuali sedikit catatan-catatan penulis tempatan – untuk saya jadikan panduan mencari buku-buku beliau di Malaysia ketika itu; cukup sukar bagi yang mencari bersendirian. Ketika itu juga, disebarang kesempatan yang ada, pasti saya akan menyelongkar rak-rak buku di mana-mana kedai untuk mencari hasil kerja Pram.

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Inside-Outsiders
by George Wielgus

Whatever happened to individuality?
Whatever happened to idiosyncracy?
Whatever happened to unity? Unity? Unity?
Whatever happened to you and me?

There’s a war going on in Batu Arang
There’s a war in the Bukit Bintang
There’s a war going on in Chow Kit, Brickfields
There’s a war going down your street
From the KLCC to the Damansara Heights
From PJ to Puchong to Ipoh
Port Klang, Melaka, Penang, JB
There’s a war in your kampong scene

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Angkasawan Pt II
by Rafil Elyas

Whilst I wish our space flight participant a safe return home, I am shamed by the sheer magnitude of financial waste and stupidity of all parties involved in our Angkasawan program.

I thought I’d just leave it at one satirical post (refer to pt. I) but the level of idiocy and damage it has done to this country’s credibility in the field of science and technology has infuriated me. I can’t laugh about it anymore.

101007 is when the entire planet snickers (fortunately, in past space flight participants have opened the door for shooting useless personel into space) at this country, and more specifically the Malay peoples. Malay Muslims (true believers or IC ones) have enough trouble casting off stereotypes, the last thing we need is something this big and stupid.

For those Star Trek fans, we are now officially Pakleds.

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rice note: a schoolmate of mine wrote me a rare email yesterday, enquiring if I would be heading back to Terengganu for the Raya.

Read on…

Extremely Words
Awang Goneng

It is a fact well known among those who have stared at them, face to faceless, that Trengganu ghosts have especially long fingernails, panjang jjenggöng as they will tell you, and then they will end it with a final Eeeeee! plus a shoulder-shrug. The last to signal their note of aversion for having had to behold such a terrible sight. The confrontation would have taken place in the thick of night, gelak gguguk, in a distant place, jauh jjenak.

Jjengöng, gguguk, jjenak are nonce words, standing only for the occasion, never seen again outside the context or hand unheld by the adjectives that they enhance — panjang (long), gelak (dark), jauh (far). On their own they are meaningless, but with the companion adjectives, they enhance. So, dark (gelak), becomes very, very dark (gelak gguguk), long becomes very, very, long (panjang jjengöng), and dark becomes very, very dark (gelak gguguk). These are ‘extremely’ words.

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Malaise in Space
by Rafil Elyas

In less than 10 days, a Malaysian, part of the national Angkasawan (Astronaut) Program, will be sent into space. Unlike the first Malaysian Everest Conquers or our World Beater Squash Champion, he’s relevant. I.e., he is of the correct race and religion.

Allhamdullilah.

Finally.

For those unfamiliar with the background of Malaysian space exploration, no problem, let me summarize where we are so far.

We’ve acquired satellites for communication and entertainment but we don’t have a viable space program.

Malaysia is not a space faring nation. Malaysia has no jet propulsion lab, no aeronautical/aerospace research facilities, no fabrication yards for space hardware. We have no young von Brauns shooting projectiles into the air.

A couple of years ago, there was a local interest program on TV about a guy in Ipoh who’s been struggling for over a decade to build an ultralight aircraft. He was unsuccessful, but he was of the correct race and religion.

Never mind all that.

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Got this on the APA yahoogroup today and I can’t wait to share it with you guys:

Very fair writer Dina Zaman wrote this post (a blatant spam):

“Fair and Lovely has come up with a short story competition. 12 winners, 9 of which would get a cash price of RM500 and be published in Harian Metro the top 3 would get a cash price of RM3,000 get published in Harian Metro AND their stories would be adapted into TV dramas, which would be directed by Osman Ali.

Each story in Malay should not be more than 2,000 words, with an interesting title. A4, double spaced. Send it in before the 31st of July 2007. Fair and Lovely Mini Novella Penuh Hasrat Hatiku.. bla, bla, bla”

and here’s Panda’s reply, an excellent attempt which in the ideal world should won him a trailer-load of Fair & Lovely!

Subject: [APA] Writing Contest! | Importance: High

>transformation in the live of a woman in her quest to reach her goals and dreams.
>published in Harian Metro

In order to meet the stringent standards of that fine publication, the following elements are necessary:

a) Black Metal
b) Harussani
c) Jabatan Pengguna Islam
d) Malay people
e) Clueless, Confused and Angry Malay people
f) Brickfields OCPD
g) Strange deaths.

The protagonist needs to be a Malay, Venom Listening, Devil Worshipping, Goat Riding, Black Metal Slut who sees the light and TRANSFORMS.

Plot summary:

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Taiwan Punk Scene Report
taken from: The Deported’s MySpace Blog

Last year I spent a long time writing a Taiwan punk scene report for Maximum RocknRoll. I attempted to document the short history of punk-ish music in Taiwan, the past and present bands, as well as the various self-styled promoters and labels.

After Joe Kidd, one of the big kahunas of the Malaysian scene saw one of my half-ass reports on Ricecooker he said something like “reminds of the early days of the Malaysian scene in the early 90’s. Heady times indeed.”

Well, thinking back, 2005 wasn’t exactly heady, but it was kind of exciting to have bigger crowds at local clubs and bills featuring all punk-influenced bands. But then that fall four Taipei bands broke up and like a small musical village hit by a corporate plague of mainstream small pox, the underground was wiped out. The kids went back to popping ecstacy and raving till dawn to Mando-candy techno at the monstrous downtown night clubs.

To put it simply, Taiwan is a lot more of a conformist society than some of us were willing to admit (particulary us foreign devils). Keep in mind, this report is very much written from a foreigner’s point of view - albeit a foreigner who has lived in Taiwan for five years and played in a band. NEVERTHELESS…

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Montage peristiwa perobohan rumah rakyat peneroka bandar di Kg Chubadak Tambahan, Sentul, KL pada 5 Disember 2006.

background:
KG CHUBADAK TAMBAHAN – THE UNFINISHED STRUGGLE

jerit.org

Saddam: Pembunuhan Pemimpin di Iraq
oleh Yunus Ali / via Black in South Korea

Maka matilah Saddam Hussein di tali gantung pada 30hb Jan.2006 bersamaan Hari Raya Qorban (dirayakan di Iraq sehari lebih awal dari Malaysia).

Saddam ini bukannya pula baik orangnya, dia ini adalah seorang despot yang menaiki kuasa melalui kekerasan senjata dan pembunuhan. Tetapi jika diperhatikan sejarah di tanah bernama Iraq ini, kita akan dapati satu aspek pergolakan kuasa yang ganas, berdarah dan ngeri.

Zaman Khalifah

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Antara Black Metal dan Mat Rempit
oleh Adzakael

Awal tahun ni pelbagai pihak; media, majlis agama, polis dan kerajaan telah berusaha untuk membendung gejala Black Metal. Pelbagai perkara telah dilakukan untuk menyamakan golongan peminat muzik keras (Black Metal, Underground, Indie dan suku sakat mereka) dengan raksasa Otromen yang pekerjaannya menjahanamkan bandaraya Tokyo setiap hujung minggu.

Apa yang telah golongan penggiat muzik keras lakukan?

Hanya bermain muzik yang dianggap sebagai agen budaya kuning dan agen syaitan.

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Don’t know if you guys are aware that the experimental musicians and artists co-operative malaysia (EMACM) runs a great streaming radioshow at their site. For the 5th show, one of them, Ayah Mejelis did a tribute on recently deceased Pink Floyd founder member and main inspirational figure, Syd Barrett.

The tracks included are awesome, especially a cover version of “Astonomy Domine” by my fave post-metal band Voi Vod, and also At The Drive-In doing “Take Up Thy Stethoscope And Walk”; and of course there are tonnes of rare Syd’s & Floyd’s tracks.

go there and trip out! emacm.org/radio

sydbarrett.net

Tracklisting and special article below:

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