Saturday, March 16, 2013

A more peaceful America, A more peaceful world



Obama's courage to set up more strict rules against firearms in the US is a brave move indeed. This is not the first time we've heard of gun killing in American school, but this is my first time that i see a American President having the guts to stand up on this issue and actually do something about it.

Some of you might wonder why after all this time, shouldn't this issue be raised a long long time ago? well, it is actually quite complicated. There are reasons why previous President didn't act against this issue. In fact, the reason is quite shameful and is deliberately not highlighted by media. You see, US is one of the biggest firearms producer and also one of the biggest consumer as well. These companies "donate" lots of money into election campaign, so it's like saying, "Hey, Mr President, if you come up with some fishy rules to ruin my business, kiss your funds good bye!". When you're running for the post of the most powerful person in the world, with such intense competition, it is hard to say no to these funds.

And thus, it began the vicious cycyle, firearms company pumps money in election, Presidents make sure firearms company interest is protected, firearms company make money, and pump money back into election again. Having stricker rules on firearms alone is not enough. The culture must change.

American has one culture which is very bad, the cowboy culture inherited since the wild wild west days. During those days, cowboys violated and moved into Native American Indian Lands. So conflicts are inevitable, so that's why everyhouse has a gun to "protect" themselves. When having a gun for self protection is justified by law and people have a culture of keeping firearms at home, thus the demand for firearms exist. When there's demand, there's supply. That's the natural laws of business. We cannot simply labeled firearms companies as the source of evil. It is the people, the consumer who "created" this company themselves. When there is no demand, the supplier would go out of business.

Hmm...if u look into this further, i think it's like a curse or karma. the European grabs and steal Native American Land, as a result, their future generation continue to cling on firearms in order for them to feel safe. So it is actually not easy to directly set up rules to completely ban firearms, they need to do it step by step, and it is not gonna be easy. They are still many people who protested against this stricker rules and still wants to have firearms, despite knowing the risk and the implication to the society.

Moving on... why does this title says a peaceful america will contribute to a more peaceful world? A few years ago, i watched a movie staring Nicholas Cage, called "Lord of War". It tells a story of an US underground arms dealer who sells firearms illegally to countries in conflict. This movie is really an eye opener as it gives you a glimpse of the darker side of US which probably the main media is pumped money to keep their mouth shut.

It does make sense if you think of it. US is one of the largest firearms producer. Firearms is made to kill, not for decoration. Peace is not good business for firearms, War is, Conflict is. Look at some of those dirt poor military controlled African countries, where do you think they get their firearms from? Do you think they have the technology to make firearms themselves?

To make things worse, the US keeps getting involved in other people's business and wage war with other countries, look at George W Bush admininstration, under him, he wage two wars, Afghan and Iraq. When there is war, the firearms make money again. Luckily GW Bush wouldn't be able to continue a 3rd term.

Luckily the next president Obama is not a warmonger, but a more grounded and more not-extreme crazy-thinking guy. GW Bush left the US in economic and politic shit when Obama took over, so they are many fixes and hardwork that needs to be done. Beside being able to give good speeches, Obama did live up to his "CHANGE" campaign through his actions. SALUTE! Hopefully it would pave up more paths to stricker gun rules in future. PEACE.

Lahad Datu Crisis



Recently some facebook users shared photos and commented that our Royal Malaysian Army is so poorly equipped that they need to take AirAsia to fly Lahad datu…. Before I jump on the wagon to share the news, I began to think why???

Is it our government’s military budget is misused or not enough? But then sometimes it is hard to prioritise distribution of funds for public usage or military usage, especially in era of peace. I believe they do have their own war plane, just that in emergency cases, if you want to transport troops faster to the warzone, anything will help, even taking commercial plane. By deploying troops faster to the field, they are able to protect more lives and halting the enemy’s advancement. Furthermore, these soldiers are going into a warzone not for vacation, for those unfortunate, it could be a one way ticket for them.


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When the Lahad Datu’s incident first hit the newsstand, there’s a rumour saying that the Sabah incursion is politically planned to delay the election, which I don’t think so. Because if this is a staged, you’ll be able to see our PM flew to Sabah the next day and appeared quickly to give a fiery speech in a soldier uniform with imprinted with One-Malaysia logo staging the PM is the hero publicity stunts.

But instead, I think the government reaction is a bit slow, sorry to say. As I think after the first landing, they should quickly send troops to occupy and surround the area. Instead, they even let the enemy advances into several different area, thus making more Sabahans lives at risk. The first week of negotiation I think is a complete BS. When you have armed men occupying your territory, do you still have the leisure to sit down teh-tarik and negotiate with them? The Malaysian Government should have DEMANDED that the armed men leave at once or face retaliation.

 I really think the Sulu Sultan claim on Sabah is a lost cause.

1) Sabah has been a part of Malaysia for 50years. A survey has been carried out during the formation and the people agreed to be part of Malaysia, not to be a part of Sulu.

2) The British has been paying money for acquiring Sabah to Sulu yearly, this is continued by the Malaysian government. It’s like you SOLD your house, but the new owner still pays you yearly rental, but then one day out of the blue you crash into their house and demanded your house to be returned to you! WTF logic is this?

3) If you want to make a claim like this, I think the more appropriate channel should is to bring the issue to international court. That’s what countries do when solving territory dispute. The moment you bring armed men to occupy another country’s territory, you’ve lost the respect for others and yourself, you no longer deserve the rights to negotiate terms. You would have just labelled yourself a terrorist.

One lucky thing is that the claim is not supported by the Philippine government itself, so at least it would not escalate further into an inter-country conflict. However I think that the Philippine government should put more pressure on the Sulu Sultan who’s currently reside in Manila. Someone needs to knock the fact into the head of Sulu Sultan that his claim is a lost cause and he should ordered the complete withdrawal of all forces at once. A leader who sends his men to a sure-lose battle with a sure-lose cause is a coward. If he withdraw his forces, at least he can be the leader that bite his own pride to prevent further bloodshed.

For the mess he’s caused, for the lives that was lost, the Sulu Sultan should be taken to court to be judged for his crimes. Death penalty may be out of question, as it may incur vengeance but at least he should take some responsibility for causing this mess. At the end of the day, he must sign a treaty to release the Sulu’s claim on Sabah and the Malaysian Government should stop paying money to them anymore.

Both Governments should proceed to do some long term collaboration projects to develop the poor and neglected Sulu states. Build more schools and build up the economy. Give the Sulu states reasons and opportunity to create more peace-loving and hardworking citizens. If there are more job opportunities back home, the Sulu people also wouldn’t flood to Sabah to look for job. Having tamed the Sulu states would also be a big relieve for the Manila Administration. At the end I believe this would be a win-win situation.

Let’s hope that the conflict can be resolved soon. PEACE.