When UMNO thugs Nazri and Tajuddin rejected by Switzerland and Indonesia as Ambassadors...
Even before the humiliating defeat of the Barisan Nasional government under the leadership of Najib Razak in the May 2018 General Election, the disturbing practice of appointing scandal-plagued or rejected pro-government warlords as ambassadors had been widespread. For decades, the corrupt government’s policy has been – “birds of a feather flock together”.
For example, then-PM Najib appointed his best friend Jamaluddin Jarjis as Malaysian Ambassador to the United States in July 2009 after he sexually harassed a female worker of a restaurant at a five-star hotel in Kuala Lumpur. The former Science, Technology and Innovation Minister was said to have grabbed the woman’s buttocks and expressed some sexual remarks.
Of course, after the disgusting acts of sexual harassment were exposed in April 2008, Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, the top lawyer of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) that ruled the country, was promptly despatched to do damage control. Hours after the victim lodged a police report, she withdrew her statutory complaint against Jamaluddin, and the case was never heard again.
It was clearly an attempt by Najib to protect his buddy from further investigation by shipping Jamaluddin to the U.S. as an ambassador, who had won the Rompin parliamentary seat in the March 2008 General Election, just a month before he molested the poor restaurant worker. Legend has it that Jamaluddin had paid lots of money to make the case disappear.
Zahrain Mohamed Hashim, a Member of Parliament who contested and won Bayan Baru constituency in Penang under the opposition People’s Justice People (PKR) ticket, but switched sides to Najib administration in 2013, was rewarded in a similar fashion. Mr Zahrain, known for his fetish gay sex, was appointed by Najib as the Malaysian Ambassador to Indonesia in 2013.
Zahrain Mohd Hashim - Former Ambassador to Indonesia
After democratically-elected multiracial government of Pakatan Harapan was toppled by traitors Muhyiddin Yassin and Azmin Ali, who betrayed their respective parties and formed a backdoor government called Perikatan Nasional with defeated UMNO and Islamist party PAS extremists, more MPs have been appointed as dubious special envoys or ambassadors.
It was already bad that Prime Minister Ismail Sabri, after taking over from Muhyiddin Yassin in August 2021, had maintained his predecessor’s bloated Cabinet of more than 70 ministers and deputy ministers. It became worse when the turtle-egg Ismail also retained political appointees such as Hadi Awang, Tiong King Sing and Richard Riot as Special Envoys with ministerial rank.
In order to maintain his fragile, un-elected government, who is struggling to survive with only 114 MPs in the 222-seat Parliament, the desperate prime minister has tried to promote Nazri Aziz and Tajuddin Abdul Rahman as ambassadors to Switzerland and Indonesia respectively. Both UMNO warlords were strong supporters of former PM Muhyiddin and Ismail Sabri.
However, in what appeared to be a simple process of bribing Nazri and Tajuddin with ambassadorship in exchange for loyalty that has gone haywire, both individuals were “rejected” by the Swiss and Indonesian governments. The rejection is a slap in the face of PM Ismail because even the U.S. and Indonesia did not reject sex maniac Jamaluddin and gay Zahrain previously.
The speculation of Nazri being considered an ambassador job started flying as early as September 2021, immediately after Ismail Sabri took over the premiership. Mr Nazri, who last served as the tourism minister, had been looking forward to the posh job in Switzerland after he proudly told all and sundry in June 2021 that he was going overseas for a 2 months holiday and to enrol his 5-year-old son to study in France.
Nazri Aziz, Wife and Son Jean Pierre Azize
The distance between Paris and Zurich is only 300 miles (490 kilometres). Both countries, which share a 570-km border, are the perfect choice for Nazri to enjoy his luxury life with wife Haflin Saiful at the expense of taxpayers’ money, while watching his son – Jean Pierre Azize – studying French in a foreign country instead of Malay in poor-quality national schools back in Malaysia.
When a blogger, Hussein Hamid, mocked and laughed at Nazri’s dream job being crushed by the Swiss government’s refusal to consent to his appointment, the UMNO thug immediately went ballistic. The disgraced Nazri shamelessly claimed that he was not interested in the post of ambassador to Switzerland, obviously an afterthought excuse to save face.
Denying claims that the Swiss had rejected his candidacy due to his link to the infamous 1MDB scandal, the furious UMNO gangster argued that it was him who had rejected the offer as he would have to resign as an MP. But even if it’s true that he has to vacate his seat as MP, he should not have any problem doing so. After all, he already announced his retirement from politics in August 2021.
The fact that Nazri repeatedly called the blogger “stupid” suggests that the six-term MP was deeply hurt and frustrated that now everybody knows that he has been rejected by the Swiss government. It was an incredible humiliation. Hilariously, he has even claimed that he was offered the same ambassador post in 2019, during which the ruling government was Pakatan Harapan.
The funny thing is, if indeed he treasured his MP seat more, why hadn’t he declared his rejection for the post of ambassador since 2019? Even as recent as September 2021, when rumours about his appointment as Malaysian ambassador spread like wildfire, he only said he wasn’t aware of it. Not once did he express his reluctance to sacrifice his MP in exchange for ambassador. - FT
A Swiss Slap In the Face For Malaysia?...
Indeed it is becoming true that the Social Media aka the Alternative Media aka the non-mainstream media are not only read more than the Mainstream Media but often the Social Media are setting the pace for news and discussion which is then being picked up by the Mainstream Media.
A few days back I saw the Whatsapps and the comments on the Blogs about two countries Switzerland and Indonesia rejecting Malayia's nomination of our ambassadors to those countries. This is a real embarrasment for Malaysia because never before have countries that are considered friendly to us rejected two of our ambassadorial nominees.
The Star has picked up on one of these rejections by Switzerland which first appeared in the blogs:
According to The Star our nominees for ambassador are first approved and appointed by the Yang Di pertuan Agong. After that the ambassador nominee is presented to the foreign country (in this case Switzerland) for their approval. So when the Swiss Government rejected our nominee for ambassador it is equally an embarrasment for the YDP Agong.
Lately the kaldais have resorted to dishing out ambassadorships to political nominees as rewards and favours. Sometimes even the slugs and toilet bowl scum get selected. If you are an ambassador in a foreign country your children's schooling, your car, driver, housing are all paid for by the Malaysian taxpayer. How nice.
Actually this is not new. A previous ambassador to Indonesia was also a political nominee. The Indonesians did not reject him.
The foreign countries do not tell us the reasons why they rejected our nominees for ambassador so we can only speculate. But for a certainty the foreign countries depend on their own embassies here in Kuala Lumpur to do background checks on these nominees. So the acceptance and rejection of nominees is influenced by the feedback from their embassies here.
In the future, to save time and embarrassment, perhaps Wisma Putra should check informally with the foreign embassies here if their countries would have any objections to Malaysia's ambassador nominees. A bit of back door diplomacy. - Syed Akbar Ali
Raja Bomoh...
My sympathy for Ibrahim Mat Zin (also known as Raja Bomoh) and his cousin Suliaha Abdul Hamid who have been charged recently in the Lower Syariah Court in Ipoh, Perak, for performing the ritual of “tolak bala”. In this instance, Raja Bomoh was performing a ritual to ward off the floods which had affected various parts of the country.
Apart from the investigation on them by the Perak Islamic Affairs Department (JAIPk) which led to the charge, someone had also lodged a police report on the matter.
Raja Bomoh and Suliaha are being charged under Section 22 of the Perak Shariah Criminal Procedure Enactment 2004 for performing a ritual that goes against Islamic teachings. The Syarie prosecution is also looking into charges under Section 16 of the Perak Shariah Criminal Enactment 1992.
When contacted by media, JAIPk director Mohd Yusop Husin responded by urging Muslims to not to be influenced by such rituals and to avoid practices that could lead to superstition.
I now urge His Highness, the Sultan Of Perak, who is head of Islam in that state, to intervene on the claim made by JAIPk against Ibrahim Mat Zain and friends. Whether the rituals are superstitions or silly “mumbo jumbo” is irrelevant.
We live in a supposedly free society, and therefore, everyone has the right to do silly or superstitious things, as long as it causes no physical harm to someone else. When we allow the Religious Department to prosecute people for heresy under that legal provision,it means we go back 1,000 years in human history to a time when we burned witches and hanged those who believed in matters not approved by the majority clergy.
The state religious department should not have been given the power to prosecute for criminal actions for heresy and for defaming Islam in the first place, as criminal offences against insulting religions are already found in the Penal Code. Is there a need to provide the state departments with more powers? Is it not enough that Muslims are being punished in so many instances for criminal offences for the way they dress or buying Sports Toto?
Rituals performed by Raja Bomoh may not have a scientific basis and probably do not have any effect whatsoever on warding off the floods or any kind of misfortune. However, there are many things we do including officially endorsed rituals -which have no scientific basis nor proven to have the effect that they purport to render. These rituals are acceptable because the religious department say so.
Why criminalise a ritual one disapproves of? Just ignore Raja Bomoh. Islam and its adherents are not going to be affected by some actions of wayward bomohs.
The belief prevalent in the country that if you vote for a particular political party, you will go to heaven, is pure mumbo jumbo; a superstition with no basis whatsoever in science or culture. Yet, I am still waiting for the Religious Department from any state to take action against this organisation and its leaders. The leader of this organisation is close adviser to the Prime Minister.
I am not superstitious but I see the value of bomohs and their role in relieving stress and fear in people’s minds. I grew up in the kampung where "main puteri" was regularly performed and there were occasions when the depressed and the ill were exorcised by the “bagih" and the “ghosts” were taken out of the body of the sick person.
The bagih performer would begin by chanting words in classical Kelantan Malay, accompanied by traditional musicians. The crowd would rejoice to participate and help the sick person overcome the "ghost" inside the body and sometimes, the sick would recover fully.
My granduncle Pak Cik Soh was one of the more well-known “Bagih “performers in Kelantan. I still remember vividly his electrifying performance to control and ultimately overcome the ghosts. This is how in the old days, people with depression and those who faced emotional challenges were given help. They had no psychiatrists nor psychoanalysts. There were no sleeping pills or anti depressants to swallow.
It may be heresy to the Perak Religious Department now but it was fortunate that religious officers in those days did not prosecute anyone performing such traditional rituals. In the olden days, people in Kelantan were allowed to taste and savour the culture of seven hundred years but now, it has been taken away from them in the name of religion.
Bagih and main puteri are part of Malay culture and traditions dating back many hundred years. Some say it came about when Orang Asli rituals fused with those of the larger Malay community in helping the emotional imbalance amongst depressed individuals.
I suppose there are still many other ghosts inside the leaders of this country that need to be exorcised . If we allow more “Main Puteri and bagih to be performed on them ; perhaps there will be less nonsense coming out from them. The level of insanity amongst public officials currently is at all time high
Whatever its usefulness nowadays, the Religious Department should not be allowed to criminalise the rituals in the name of Islam. We already have too many restrictions and punishments, all in the name of Islam. The wise Sultan Nazrin should put a stop to it now. - Datuk Zaid Ibrahim
cheers.
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