Whose idea was it to organise the World Sailing event?

Malaysia came under scrutiny after it denied entry visas to two Israel athletes, which resulted in their withdrawal from competing in the ISAF Youth Sailing Championship being held in Langkawi from December 27 to January 3.

Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said that little could be done to help the Israelis as Putrajaya had to abide its diplomatic policy.

Following the outrage, Perak DAP's Economic Development Bureau, Chong Zhemin, spoke out and accused Khairy of allowing politics and personal sentiments getting in the way of the international sports event.

Chong also said that it was very unsporting to deny visas for any athletes based on their nationality, religion or personal belief.

"Moreover, both athletes are the defending champions and to deny visa for their entry is to deny their right to defend their titles. This is unacceptable in any sporting event," he said. (Malaysia Digest, 28 December 2015)

With DAP coming into the picture and Israel is involved, it has become a sensitive issue. Just like everything else in this country, it has turned political. Friends and foes criticised DAP.

However, DAP has a point. Why did the Sports Ministry approved and agree to the event knowing Israel is not only a contender, but world champions?

MH132 amplify importance of training in air safety

There was a Christmas Day mix-up in Auckland, when an Malaysia Airlines pilot queried the air traffic controller on a flight plan provided to return to Kuala Lumpur. The initial coverage of the incident by NZ Herald the next day got the attention of local and international media to report.

One could only expect the dramatic and negative headlines given by the "orang putih" media. Pilot was headlined as spooked, surprised and baffled. Flight was flying or flied in the "wrong direction". MAS was blamed for giving the "wrong direction".

The worse headline seen was "Disasters strike again for doomed Malaysia Airlines" for the pilot's enquiry to the control tower whether they are flying to KL or Melbourne.  

This is not about a recent advise by Dato Salleh Said Keruak to public to not just read news headlines but the content too. The negative attention MAS is getting is partly due to the two air disasters involving MH 370 and MH17 suffered within a short time. More important, it highlights public concern to safety. 

And, it emphasise the message in the previous posting here that a well trained pilot is an important component in air safety.

Giving a chance avoid the difficult choice

The posting using the quote of former American President George W Bush, "You are either with us or against us" got a decent traffic but attracted few negative reactions. One was too vulgar to be released in the commentary. Another was from Life of Annie here.

For someone, who follows politics diligently, her reaction was a surprise. W Bush was applying a manipulative political strategy called bandwagon. It is quite typical in politics, even in Malaysia. And, Dato Najib will eventually have to put UMNO members on that crossroad to consolidate himself.

Maybe the mention of W Bush was just too revolting. Nevertheless, the original posting title of Take no prisoners, Mr President sounded more brutal. Is politics not military in strategy and at times, has only a human facade?

Tun Dr Mahathir is a known practitioner of Sun Tzu's Art of War and Niccolo Machiavelli's Il Principe. The two works is nothing compared to W Bush.

It should be OK to Annie because he is a handsome 90 year old and watch Star War recently at the movie theatre.

Something ain't right II

The Malay proverb to describe the predicament of the former Senior Exco of Perak, Dato Hamidah Osman would be "Sudah jatuh ditimpa tangga."

Murphy's Law says if something is to go wrong, it will go wrong. More befall on the already fallen Hamidah.

Without any position in the Perak State Assembly and Wanita UMNO Malaysia, she was sacked by UMNO Supreme Council in late November.

No new development in the sacking that seemed something ain't right. However, a day before Christmas Eve, her home was sealed by Ipoh High Court bailliff.

The representative of Mohamed Hanifa & Associates, the firm of Sepang MP, Hanipa Maidin carried the order for their client, Shah Alam MP, Khalid Samad.

Salam Maulud (Video)

Compromising safety will eventually be costly

Transport Minister Dato Seri Liow Tiong Lai told AirAsia to buck up for leaving hundreds of passengers temporarily stranded on November 30 to December 1st. Same happened in early October at Langkawi airport.

A week later, AirAsia A320 aircraft had a rear axle tyre burst during landing at Sibu airport last Friday. This is more serious as early in the month, the Indonesian authority released report on the AirAsia Indonesia's QZ8501 crash.

The report highlighted problems related to "maintenance regime of AirAsia" and suspicion of insufficiently trained pilot.

The latest incident in Sibu reflect badly on the company. It is as if the company did not heed warning by authorities and learnt any lesson from last year's Christmas tragedy involving the flight from Surabaya to Singapore.

If AirAsia could not appreciate the need to minimise risk and pay attention on safety issue, the tragedy off the western coast of Kalimantan that cost 162 lives will eventually find its way into the short and long term financials of the company.

"You are either with us or against us"

The Patriot, the blog of Johor Assemblyman, Putra Haron Aminurrashid bin Tan Sri Tengku Abdul Hamid Jumat quoted the words of US President, George W Bush in his 2001 speech, "You are either with us or against us" in his latest posting here.

It is not intended to support Bush's deceptive justifications to invade Muslim countries, but the approach Bush used to secure full support for his actions was something to be thought off.

With 1MDB dying off as an issue and the visible support to Dato Najib at the UMNO General Assembly, the subsequent decisive and strategic action would be to remove any dissenting voices from within the "troops" to prepare for the way forward.

As Tengku Putera see, it is time "to eliminate the enemies within and move forward as a big, strong and united coalition under one flag." After last weekend's "No Retreat, No surrender" message at the UMNO General Assembly, it is a natural follow-up.