Political buzz gets Malaysian media excited
This is the political season in Malaysia with Party General Assemblies, new party launches and Extraordinary General Meetings getting the talking heads and newspapers excited. Top billing went to the Umno Party’s Annual General Assembly where the country’s new Prime Minister and party president, Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razzak gave an inaugural speech which electrified the more than 2,500 delegates in the Putra World Trade Centre and delighted most Malays who form the majority of the population. His speech, titled Upholding Tradition and Effecting Change, called on party leaders to go to the ground and get closer to the grass roots as the party implements amendments to its constitution making it more transparent, inclusive and democratic and closer to the rakyat (people).
After nigh-on 16 years of living in Russia nothing, not even a widespread network of Malaysian friends in Russia’s capital prepared me for the Kuala Lumpur experience, or as the city is universally known, KL. I hadn’t realized how ingrained Russian attitudes and suspicions had been ingrained in me. My first thought on arriving at KL’s international airport was, “Why are all these people smiling at me?”
One of the anomalies of the modern age is that when world leaders speak and their national media follow, a whole country and its people can be pigeonholed. Such is the case with Belarus.
Here we are where Iran is being condemned for voluntarily revealing it has a second nuclear enrichment facility. The one benefit seems to be that the US Government has signaled that it will seek to talk directly to Iranian diplomats in Geneva.
Iran has legitimate rights to develop nuclear energy.
With US President Barack Obama shying away from the Bush plan for a European missile shield with radar in the Czech Republic and missiles in Poland, a feeling of euphoria is sweeping government circles in Russia.