vox populi small thumbnail'Nobody can give an accurate answer to the mystery. They are all liars. I suppose only the ‘ring' itself knows the truth.'

The one ring that confounds us all

Louis: If the ring is returned to the seller, who is going to pay the following bills?

1. Air freight (Must be quite exorbitant for transporting such an expensive ring).

2. Insurance premium, which definitely is not in the range of a few hundred ringgit.

3. Deposit for the ring - at least 10 percent of the value.

In view of the cost, the seller is no fool to send the ring to a phantom buyer as implied by Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Nazri Abdul Aziz.

Having said that, who is the real clown or fool? Nazri or the seller of the ring?

Goliath: Nobody can give an accurate answer to the mystery. They are all liars. I suppose only the ‘ring' itself knows the truth.

Like the Abba song, ‘Ring Ring' - let's give the ‘ring' a call: "Yes, I am down and feeling blue, and I don't know what to do, oh oh. Ring, ring, why don't you give me a call?"

Jedi_Who: How would you pay for the ring? Were you going to TT (telegraphic transfer) the money from Malaysia? But then Bank Negara would come to know and there would be a paper trail.

Or do you have money stashed away in foreign countries? Is this part of the billions that have flowed out of our country?

All MPs, even the PM and presumably the wife, would have needed to declare their assets. So how is it that they have amassed such fortunes that one could even consider purchasing a ring like this?

Perhaps the rumours of lavish properties and money stashed abroad by Umno politicians could be true. We would also like to know how come items purchased like this are not subject to tax like they should be.

Anak Sabah1: All our previous PMs' wives do not have any controversies except this one. I understand our PM's frustrations of having a wife whose shadow is bigger than him.

If not careful, this shadow may be the fuel that will toast her husband politically.


Malaysia was colonised, admits DPM Muhyiddin

ONG: I first learned that Malaya, Sabah (British North Borneo) and Sarawak were British colonies when I was still in school almost 60 years ago. Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin just discovered this fact recently, perhaps just a few days ago.

However, National Professors Council chief Zainal Kling, perhaps together with some of his fellow professors, are still ignorant of this fact.

Wira: To those professors who digressed. I hope they will find a hole to bury their heads in.

Keturunan Malaysia: "Muhyiddin replied that historical facts are by and large consistent, but that the interpretation of the facts - or the philosophy and understanding of history - could differ, leading to misunderstanding"

After 50-plus years, our government seems to be telling us that they are still figuring out the correct interpretation of our historical facts.

Fillio: It looks like we are about to reach consensus that this nation was colonised by the British, albeit one historian professor and the longest reigning PM saying otherwise.

Surely Malaysians must not be fooling themselves on every Aug 31 celebrating the liberation of this nation from the colonial British.

The next stage would be recognising the nationalists who fight with arms or otherwise to liberate this nation from the colonial British.

It would be a gross injustice to only recognise the negotiators for independence as nationalists, while those who had sacrificed their blood and lives fighting to free this nation from the occupier British are dismissed as traitors.

AB Sulaiman: About the only thing new here is that Muhyiddin (Umno-BN) is beginning to show signs that he/they have realised their own mistakes.

This has not been the case in the past where he/they can do no wrong. Should he/they pursue this new enlightened course assiduously in future, then there may be some hope for us all.

CiViC: Flip flop, flip flop. Now Muhyiddin seems smarter than the historians. I wonder how would those historians feel - at one time, they were ‘instructed' to announce on national TV that we were not colonised, now the very same party which had given the orders stands to be the hero.

That's the price to pay for being a dog to Umno-BN.

FairPlay: This leads to a related issue. What charges have they got against PAS deputy president Mat (Mohamad) Sabu when the nation did not exist at the relevant time? Who were he insulting?

David Dass: Mat Sabu said that we were colonised and that Muhammad Indera who led the raid on the Kepong police station and killed many was a freedom fighter because he fought the British coloniser.

Mat Indera might have been a communist. Johor has recognised him as a hero. The professors said that we had never been colonised and therefore Indera was fighting Malayans and not the British. Former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said that we were not in form a colony but in substance we were.

Communist Party of Malaya leader Chin Peng says that he fought the Japanese and then he fought the British and now he is old and wants to come home. Muhyiddin says that we must have been colonised or else why have we been celebrating Merdeka all of these years. And so the debate goes on.

Malay, Chinese, Indian, Kadazan, Melanau, Iban, Bidayuh, Dayak, Eurasian, Indonesian, Filipino - and now Bangladeshi, Pakistani and whoever else - we are all Malaysians. Our fate and our fortunes are inextricably linked together.

We are multi-layered. We are the sum of all our parts. Let us move on.

Compass: Now that the DPM has admitted that Malaya was indeed colonised, should professor Zainal Kling be charged ala Mat Sabu for defaming "the dead people of Malaya" for saying that they were not colonised?

The late Tunku Abdul Rahman surely was defamed as he proclaimed that Malaya became independent from British colonial rule. If Zainal Kling is not charged, Mat Sabu shouldn't be either.

 

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