Tuesday, November 13, 2007

The Yellow Wave of November 10

I wasn't able to attend the peaceful march from Dataran Merdeka to Istana Negara to hand over the Rakyat's Memorandum calling for free and fair elections to the King due to my herniated disk. Below are some links to blog posts that describe the rally.

  • BERSIH: Demonstration, Malaysian-Style (?) by Tricia Yeoh

  • Open Letter To Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, PM. Fiction writer Beth Yahp writes in support of Malaysian Journalists

  • Not One Step Backwards. Unfortunately marred by an idiotic colour scheme that makes reading the blog all but impossible!

  • Kaki Blog. This young blogger experienced tear gas for the first time in his or her life - and will never trust the BN propaganda machine again!

  • A blogger's first-hand report of an action-packed adrenaline-driven day in KL.

  • Photos of an action-packed adrenaline-driven day in KL.

  • Lulu's first-hand reports of an action-packed adrenaline-driven day in KL.

  • Joshua's first-hand reports of an action-packed adrenaline-driven day in KL.

  • Haris Ibrahim, The People's Parliament


  • BTW, it appears the Polis Di Raja Malaysia (PDRM for short or Royal Malaysian Police in English) were TOTALLY UNPREPARED for the scale and popular support for this peaceful march. At about 11 am on the morning of Saturday, November 10 motorists driving north along the PLUS Highway around Kulai were startled by a convoy of 20 police vehicles ~ motorcycle outriders, patrol cars, red trucks carrying Federal Reserve Unit (FRU, read riot squad) personnel ~ that overtook them at speed. I say TOTALLY UNPREPARED because they had to get reinforcements from as far away as Johor as the Polis has grossly underestimated the manpower required to "keep the peace" (I use that phrase facetiously as it was the Polis themselves that broke the peace).

    The Polis even had road blocks in Putrajaya ~ there was one on the border between Putrajaya and Selangor on the B15 between Cyberjaya and the Puchong toll plaza on the LDP.

    Interesting to note that we have a new Deputy Inspector-General of Polis Datuk Ismail Omar as of Monday, November 12. I hope he's not part of "the rot" as the institutional corruption in the PDRM is often referred as.

    From this transcript of the interview by Al-Jazeera of the Chief Spindoctor of Malaysia it is abundantly self-evident that the Mamak of Merbok has earned the moniker of ZAM Goblok.

    Funny how we’ve been so indoctrinated by the Barisan Nasional (BN ~ National Front, in English) bullshit that we’ve seem to have accepted their notion that OPPOSITION is a bad word. Don’t you realise that an OPPOSITION is a necessary prerequisite for a DEMOCRACY? We’ve been so blinded by the spindoctors of the MADHATTER DICTATORSHIP/AUTOCRACY that we accepted the PAK BLAH MEDIOCRACY. All that has happened when BOLEHLAND changed leaders is that we’ve exchanged one DE FACTO DICTATOR and his cronies for another and his bunch of nespots and cronies. The fun will start when the MADHATTER kicks the bucket and Mr I’m-in-politics-to-avenge-my-suicided-dad KJ will start the witchhunt on the MADHATTER cronies and progeny with the help of the KeADILan “ANWAR-REVENGE” PARTY. ANWAR is his almost-father-in-law.

    Here are some philosophical musings by Antares on kings and the divine mandate to rule:

    "One blogger's report on the YELLOW WAVE that swept through KL on 10 November 2007 - and there are HUNDREDS of bloggers celebrating the triumph of justice and human values over the BN's arrogance and criminal misuse of police power:

    To my friends in the mainstream media: the line has been drawn across the sand! Enough of playing spin-doctor for Dr Ummmm...NO! The Earth supports INTEGRITY as she ascends.

    http://melvin-mah.blogspot.com

    "According to Confucianism, the King is symbolized as an avatar of God
    on earth. And the signs of thunder above serves the warning against the
    police. Mencius, who lived B.C. 372-289, and devoted himself to the task
    of spreading and consolidating the Confucian teachings, made no attempt
    to lead back the Chinese people towards their early beliefs in a
    personal God and in a spiritual world beyond the ken of mortals. He
    observes in a general way that "those who obey God are saved, while
    those who rebel against Him perish. Those came are loyal to the country
    and the king, and in that Mencius context means they can be saved, while
    whoever attempts to kill or torture can be punished (perished). Coincidence?

    "Mencius said, "He who uses force as a pretense of Humaneness is the
    de-facto strongman among the princes. But such a strongman must have
    a large state in order to be effective. The man who uses his virtue
    to practice Humaneness is the true king. To be a real king you don't
    need an especially large territory. T'ang did it with only seventy
    li and King Wen did it with only one hundred li. When you use your
    power to force people into submission, they will never submit with
    their hearts; it is only because they don't have enough strength to
    resist. When people submit to virtue, they are happy from the bottom
    of their hearts, and they submit sincerely, the way the seventy
    disciples submitted to Confucius." (2A3, tr. Muller)
    "

    Copyright 2003-2007 Azlan Adnan Legal Notice

    Saturday, November 10, 2007

    My Herniated ("Slipped") Disk

    Just a short blog post to update everyone on the progress of my herniated disk ~ what laymen incorrectly refer to as a "slipped" disk.

    At about 11.45 am on Thursday, November 8, 2007 I sustained a left lower back injury while lifting some heavy stuff into my car boot. I paid a visit my chiropractic physician, Dr Zafer Yama, at the Chiropractic Speciality Center in Plaza Damansara at about noon the next day. Upon examining me, he diagnosed a herniated disk between my L4 and L5 vertebrae.

    I had some Interferential stimulation to reduce oedema, some ultrasound stimulation to prevent and break down the formation of scar tissue and, of course, a chiropractic manipulation.

    In addition, I continued with my dietary supplements of glucosamine 500 mg b.d. and chondroitin 400 mg b.d. which I have been taking since my October 19 fall at the KTM Serdang Station. Glucosamine and chondroitin are prominent precursors in the biochemical synthesis of joint tissue, cartilage and intervertebral disks. Both are widely used dietary supplements for the treatment of osteoarthritis.

    In the evening, I received a Releasing statement from Heiko Niedememeyer, who had studied under the founder of the Lindwell Releasing Technique, Dr E. E. "Isa" Lindwall (1919-2007) and so I made that Releasing statement.

    Also, last night I slept on my ionising mat on my traditional Malay wooden sleeping platform (a solid meranti pangkin).

    As I write this at about 9 am on Saturday, November 10 I am in no acute pain, just experiencing some dull soreness and stiffness in my left lumbar region that should go away in a few days together with any residual swelling.

    I am NOT taking any painkillers or medications at all.

    Copyright 2003-2007 Azlan Adnan Legal Notice