what is so important about meeting thses controversial saudi figures. it a blessing that they publicly snubbed anwar. nobody needs to be in their good books. if not for haj quotas, malaysia wouldnt give a damn about saudis.
I congratulate Anwar Ibrahim on stitching up a magnanimous deal with Cambodian dictator Hun Sen that Malaysia's capitalist class will not pay imported Cambodian workers a minimum wage nor, with that, one can safely assume, will Cambodian indentured laborers in Malaysia be accorded human rights and labor rights. This would be in keeping with UMNO-ruled Malaysia adhered to the same principles -- principles then minister of trade and industry, Rafidah Aziz, swore black and blue to uphold come hell or high water at the inaugural World Trade Summit in Singapore in 1996. So well done, Anwar Ibrahi, to living up to your reputation is the gatekeeper and goader of your reformaso greatness, and assuring Malaysians and your regional neighbours that you are a stickler for of morality and ethics in the matter of allowing Cambodian indentured workers to be exploited by your country's capitalist class and, no doubt, be treated like sh*t by your country's heinously corrupt enforcement agencies.
I don't give a damn about religion. It's all made-up, hand-me-down hogwash meant to extract compliance in the name of "mass religiosity". And I don't care how Anwar was dressed for whatever he was supposedly dressed up for. He can be Mahatma Gandhi coming to town or Yoda for all I care. But the complete stuff-ups are par for the course, and the current foreign minister is a joker, of the first degree, like all of Malaysia's past foreign ministers who, en masse, have achieved bupkis. Their bias towards Muslim countries is as open as a can of worms. That's the essence of Malaysia's foreign policy.
That Anwar Ibrahim was stood up in Saudi Arabia is an excellent example of how (still amazingly) incompetent Malaysia's Malay-dominant pencil-pushing bureaucrats are. They wouldn't even be able to organize a "chook raffle", let alone meetings between members of the political class in different countries. But surely -- surely -- Anwar insisted on going to Saudi Arabia in search of photo-ops and crude opportunism to stick it to the Islamic fundamentalist PAS that is hell-bent on becoming Southeast newest Taliban brigade. It's no fantasy that there are elements within Malaysia's Muslim "communities" who wanted the adopt the Saudi so-called culture (whatever the heck culture is supposed to mean), from head-to-toe in garish Saudi garbs. But what's to say Anwar is also seeking to stitch more than a more meaningful political relationship with the nasty, bloody-minded, greed-driven, untruthful Saudi hierarchy -- short, this time at least, of arriving with a begging bowl in hand?
And exactly what did he, the great orator of a big-mouth reformasi progenitor, achieve in his whistle-stop in Phnom Penh other than to rub shoulders with the nasty, bloody-minded, corrupt dictator Hun Sen -- the usual caper of granstanding Asean brotherliness?
And so on her goes to China, hobnobbing with a few Chinese capitalist class chieftains only because, as with Saudi Arabia, that's where the money lies, but money, as rightly pointed out, to re-commence the rail project, very likely at the urging of China's dictator Xi Jinping's Silk Road which, in different way, has more or less stalled. But what happens to Malaysia when Xi decided to effectively cut a path across Burma and establish ports and naval base(s) in the Gulf of Martaban for Chinese warships and cargo boats -- just as Xi might the planning the same thing in Pakistan? Will Anwar sing the pathetic praises of Asean neutrality that have achieved zilch since 1967 in term of international diplomacy and regional geopolitics? Or will he quietly sing the praises of Xi -- because that's where the money lies (just ask the Hong Kong capitalist class)? And will he dare raise the matter of Xi's China persecuting the Muslim Uighur? Or Xi trying to take sovereign territories from Southeast Asian states? Or Xi undermining the security of Southeast Asia? And you wonder why the Philippines, Indonesia and the sovereign state of Taiwan are circumspect of China.
Now that he has had his various junkets -- at taxpayers' expense -- since being installed by the king as prime minister, but whose legitimacy remains questionable, will Anwar Ibrahim return to Malaysia on the weekend to deal with Malaysia's manic corruption, Malaysia's manic racism, Malaysia's continuous structural poverty of Malaysians and in particular of his rural and semi-rural Malays? Or will he ride on his vague triumphalism of the last week whilst putting his grandiose promise of "reformasi" on the backburner -- indefinitely -- as he build his rocketship of cheap populism?
"Not for no reason did he arrive in Jeddah dressed in umrah attire when umrah is performed in Mecca"
If you are entering Saudi Arabia from Jeddah to perform the Umrah, you need to be already dressed up in its attire. Anwar Ibrahim was rightly dressed; you are wrong (you should learn a bit about "miqat" in relation to Umrah and Haj).
You are also wrong when you wrote:
".... to perform the Umrah, sometimes considered the "lesser pilgrimage”, every Muslim MUST (my capitalisation) make to the holy ground."
It is NOT a "must" for every Muslim to perform the Umrah.
Well everybody knew anwar is a loser.
Just and act,polish by trying to be like loser democrat in US.
what is so important about meeting thses controversial saudi figures. it a blessing that they publicly snubbed anwar. nobody needs to be in their good books. if not for haj quotas, malaysia wouldnt give a damn about saudis.
Saudis control Malaysia's banking system; are a big shareholder of Petronas and flood the country with petrodollars to build mosques among others
I congratulate Anwar Ibrahim on stitching up a magnanimous deal with Cambodian dictator Hun Sen that Malaysia's capitalist class will not pay imported Cambodian workers a minimum wage nor, with that, one can safely assume, will Cambodian indentured laborers in Malaysia be accorded human rights and labor rights. This would be in keeping with UMNO-ruled Malaysia adhered to the same principles -- principles then minister of trade and industry, Rafidah Aziz, swore black and blue to uphold come hell or high water at the inaugural World Trade Summit in Singapore in 1996. So well done, Anwar Ibrahi, to living up to your reputation is the gatekeeper and goader of your reformaso greatness, and assuring Malaysians and your regional neighbours that you are a stickler for of morality and ethics in the matter of allowing Cambodian indentured workers to be exploited by your country's capitalist class and, no doubt, be treated like sh*t by your country's heinously corrupt enforcement agencies.
I don't give a damn about religion. It's all made-up, hand-me-down hogwash meant to extract compliance in the name of "mass religiosity". And I don't care how Anwar was dressed for whatever he was supposedly dressed up for. He can be Mahatma Gandhi coming to town or Yoda for all I care. But the complete stuff-ups are par for the course, and the current foreign minister is a joker, of the first degree, like all of Malaysia's past foreign ministers who, en masse, have achieved bupkis. Their bias towards Muslim countries is as open as a can of worms. That's the essence of Malaysia's foreign policy.
That Anwar Ibrahim was stood up in Saudi Arabia is an excellent example of how (still amazingly) incompetent Malaysia's Malay-dominant pencil-pushing bureaucrats are. They wouldn't even be able to organize a "chook raffle", let alone meetings between members of the political class in different countries. But surely -- surely -- Anwar insisted on going to Saudi Arabia in search of photo-ops and crude opportunism to stick it to the Islamic fundamentalist PAS that is hell-bent on becoming Southeast newest Taliban brigade. It's no fantasy that there are elements within Malaysia's Muslim "communities" who wanted the adopt the Saudi so-called culture (whatever the heck culture is supposed to mean), from head-to-toe in garish Saudi garbs. But what's to say Anwar is also seeking to stitch more than a more meaningful political relationship with the nasty, bloody-minded, greed-driven, untruthful Saudi hierarchy -- short, this time at least, of arriving with a begging bowl in hand?
And exactly what did he, the great orator of a big-mouth reformasi progenitor, achieve in his whistle-stop in Phnom Penh other than to rub shoulders with the nasty, bloody-minded, corrupt dictator Hun Sen -- the usual caper of granstanding Asean brotherliness?
And so on her goes to China, hobnobbing with a few Chinese capitalist class chieftains only because, as with Saudi Arabia, that's where the money lies, but money, as rightly pointed out, to re-commence the rail project, very likely at the urging of China's dictator Xi Jinping's Silk Road which, in different way, has more or less stalled. But what happens to Malaysia when Xi decided to effectively cut a path across Burma and establish ports and naval base(s) in the Gulf of Martaban for Chinese warships and cargo boats -- just as Xi might the planning the same thing in Pakistan? Will Anwar sing the pathetic praises of Asean neutrality that have achieved zilch since 1967 in term of international diplomacy and regional geopolitics? Or will he quietly sing the praises of Xi -- because that's where the money lies (just ask the Hong Kong capitalist class)? And will he dare raise the matter of Xi's China persecuting the Muslim Uighur? Or Xi trying to take sovereign territories from Southeast Asian states? Or Xi undermining the security of Southeast Asia? And you wonder why the Philippines, Indonesia and the sovereign state of Taiwan are circumspect of China.
Now that he has had his various junkets -- at taxpayers' expense -- since being installed by the king as prime minister, but whose legitimacy remains questionable, will Anwar Ibrahim return to Malaysia on the weekend to deal with Malaysia's manic corruption, Malaysia's manic racism, Malaysia's continuous structural poverty of Malaysians and in particular of his rural and semi-rural Malays? Or will he ride on his vague triumphalism of the last week whilst putting his grandiose promise of "reformasi" on the backburner -- indefinitely -- as he build his rocketship of cheap populism?
You wrote:
"Not for no reason did he arrive in Jeddah dressed in umrah attire when umrah is performed in Mecca"
If you are entering Saudi Arabia from Jeddah to perform the Umrah, you need to be already dressed up in its attire. Anwar Ibrahim was rightly dressed; you are wrong (you should learn a bit about "miqat" in relation to Umrah and Haj).
You are also wrong when you wrote:
".... to perform the Umrah, sometimes considered the "lesser pilgrimage”, every Muslim MUST (my capitalisation) make to the holy ground."
It is NOT a "must" for every Muslim to perform the Umrah.
Thank you for your response. we have modified the story- eds.
Anwar needs to call on his rainmakers. The ones with fire in their belly.
Be more intense about mission than meeded. Be miltaryish on discipline and attitude.