HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

2008 is here!

Happy New Year 2008 everyone!

The New Year has started off in a deliciously scandalous manner in Malaysia with a sex video of Health Minister Dr Chua Soi Lek, 60, with a young lady.

The Minister has admitted to is starring appearance in the tape. And has requested that the media leave him and his family alone for the time being. But that is not going to stop the schadenfreude fiends from moralising on the issue. What I am interested in is finding out who made the sex DVDs. I suppose the Minister should reveal to Bukit Aman which hotel the tryst took place in so that the coppers can check the names of people who have checked into that particular hotel room and analyse the hotel's CCTV to ID the guest(s) and anyone carting in workmen's tools into the premises (surely the cameras used to film the Minister were concealed and would need a bit of work done over a period of time to hide them well in the room etc).

It would also be interesting to see what the PM says on the issue. Co-incidentally, there was a year end report in The Star that had feng shui experts and an Indian fortune teller predicting what's in store for 2008 -- I AM MOST ASTONISHED THAT THE INDIAN FORTUNE TELLER PREDICTED THAT THE ELECTION WOULD BE POSTPONED BY AT LEAST A MONTH, INTO APRIL. Amazing! For surely Chua Soi Lek's current situation will merit a reconsideration of Barisan Nasional's election strategies/tiiming.

And speaking of elections, it looks like the Pakistani elections will result in Benazir Bhutto's PPP winning because of sympathy votes. Not providing enough security for Benazir is going to prove Pervez Musharraf's downfall -- even if Musharraf wins, I suspect, it will be because of massive election-rigging (i.e. there is no way in hell Musharraf can win after Benazir's assasination!!!!!!) -- as the assasination of Benazir has made her a martyr of sorts in the eyes of Pakistanis and Pakistanis are going to hand over their country on a silver platter to PPP (from what I have studied of the situation in Pakistan based on, what else, CNN's coverage!).

Nevermind that I think Benazir's son will be equally useless at running Pakistan as his late mother was... some politicians see a political position as an opportunity to amass great wealth. Which is the truth in the context of Asian countries, especially! Sigh.

PERVEZ MUSHARRAF

A STUDY OF CHARACTER...

The telecast of President General Pervez Musharraf passing the baton of Chief of the Army Staff to General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani over CNN and other stations which braodcast the event on Nov 27th was a priceless study in character. Musharraf exhibited a resoluteness and confidence throughout this whole handover process that was interesting to watch. He didn't appear as f he was putting on a show for the media - which is a clever strategy in itself in the first place (the man studied media management in India at one point, according to Wikipedia).

Whatever people say, General Pervez appeared to be sure footed. This particular broadcast was also very notable in that the women who witnessed the event all played secondary roles to the men in attendance. The wives of all the senior Pakistani politicians and army men stood by the side of their respective men (husbands, one would assume) as General Pervez walked about. All the women women smiled and nodded from behind their men but never ventured forward to congratulate General Pervez or General Ashfaq.

All said, Pakistan is still very much a patriarchal society and it is hard to imagine Benazir Bhutto wanting to assume political leadership of such a country. Anyway, Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif already had a go at running Pakistan and nothing much good ever came out of their leadership there.