Congressof Library

One of the things on my Washington D.C. Must-Do-List was making a stop at the Library of Congress, a feat I was able to accomplish this past week. I had been to a couple of trainings in the Library of Congress during the first few weeks of my internship, but they were in the James Madison Memorial Building not the Thomas Jefferson Building.

Fun Fact: The Library of Congress is actually housed in three buildings throughout the Capitol Complex, Thomas Jefferson Building, John Adams Building, and James Madison Memorial Building. And prior to 1897 the Library of Congress (LOC) was located in the actual Capitol building. Here is a link for historical information on the Library of Congress: http://www.loc.gov/loc/walls/history.html

The Thomas Jefferson Building houses the Main Reading Room, a prominent feature in the movie National Treasure: Book of Secrets, and probably the most well known “library” in America. As I made my way through a maze of corridors that felt never-ending in search of the Main Reading Room I came across four amazing exhibits.

Located in the Graphic Arts Galleries (Herblock Gallery and Caroline and Erwin Swann Memorial Exhibition) the first exhibit explored the rise and evolution of editorial cartoons through the work of Herbert L. Block, a famous cartoonist from the 1950s. Through an archway is the Swann Exhibit, a collection exploring the diversity of cartooning from slapstick to political and everything in-between. Down the hall was Here to Stay: The Legacy of George and Ira Gershwin, a phenomenal exhibit for those of you who love musical theater and film from the first half of the twentieth century. The Gershwin exhibit is followed by Hope for America: Performers, Politics, and Pop Culture, with a funny film introduction by Stephen Colbert. 

Political Culture in Washington

As I get more comfortable in the office where I intern, I am making some important observations about the workings of politics. In some ways the things are not as bad as people think when looking in from the outside, and in other ways, they are worse. The reality is that the men and women that work in government are just like the rest of us, and they are in some cases just as frustrated with the political situation as those that feel disenchanted with the stalemate politics in government.

Every day I get new proof that working in congress is not any different than working anywhere else. There are the usual day to day activities of doing the same work that you did not finish yesterday and continuing the same work tomorrow and yes there is a time to be serious and a time to be funny. I am learning a great deal about the decision making process, and all the different channels involved in getting your message across. I had never considered the true nature of voting, deciding how to vote, deciding what to support and what not to support, and all the choices of who gets heard and who does not get a chance to voice his or her opinion.

There are interesting and complicated debates that leave everybody wondering about the merits of their arguments, but at the end of the day there is a certain level of consensus.

The most important lesson that I have learned so far is that most of the time it is the small picture that draws attention, and the immediate effects of the policies that are put forth. This is understandable, since everybody is under pressure to show progress and since there is a high level of transparency in government, and everybody has to show some kind of results. However, I have to say that I hoped that once in a while not just the present, but also the future impacts of policies would be taken into consideration.

During my free time at home, I have been rereading the Congress chapter of my Political Science textbook just to refresh my mind of what I learned about the United States Congress so that I can have a better idea of what everybody talks about in the office. I have the say that the theories in the textbook pretty well match up with the reality, and when they do not match up exactly, they act as the textbook predicts. The reality is that at the end of the day it is all politics, which is all about who gets what and how. I wish it was different than that, but it is not. In order to make a real difference there has to be serious reforms in the process of governance in America.

Reid machine

 

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid remains wildly unpopular in Nevada, meaning he probably won’t be doing much public campaigning on behalf of his old friend, Rep. Shelley Berkley, who is seeking the state’s other Senate seat.

But when it comes to nitty-gritty politics, Reid is showing he’s not afraid to engage on the congresswoman’s behalf.

Knowing that the Nevada race could tip the Senate’s balance of power, Reid is beefing up an already aggressive campaign machine that played a major role in his stunning reelection victory last November. Already, Reid’s team is enlisting top staff, pollsters and fundraisers on behalf of Berkley, fine-tuning its voter registration and identification programs, recruiting an army of volunteers to reach out to voters, sending fundraising solicitations to 70,000 email addresses acquired through the last campaign and drafting new plans to target the state’s rapidly growing Hispanic population.

On fundraising, many well-heeled donors in Nevada and Washington fear backlash from the powerful Democratic leader if they donate to Berkley’s primary challenger, Byron Georgiou, or to Sen. Dean Heller, the Republican incumbent. And Reid has already become a surrogate attack dog, engaging in a mud-slinging match against Georgiou that could marginalize the Democratic challenger — while allowing Berkley to stay above the fray.
Reid may not be on the ballot next year, but Republicans know that Berkley won’t be the only Democrat they’ll have to worry about in the hotly contested Senate race.
“I don’t think you can underestimate Sen. Reid,” Texas Sen. John Cornyn, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told POLITICO. “He did a formidable job in his reelection, so I don’t underestimate him. So we’ll be ready.”
For Democrats, the majority leader’s role in the campaign certainly comes with a political price: The GOP is eager to paint Berkley as a Reid clone who carries the water for the Obama White House.
With the election of a new GOP governor, Brian Sandoval, Republicans are optimistic they’ll be able to turn around their disorganized state party and possibly chip away at Reid’s machine. Some in the GOP even downplay Reid’s 2010 voter-turnout operation, saying his victory was largely the result of Republican Sharron Angle’s flawed candidacy and pointing out that Heller received 18,000 more votes in his House reelection bid than Angle did in the northern part of the state.
Heller, who was appointed in May to the seat vacated by scandal-tarred Republican John Ensign, may reap the advantages of being an incumbent, allowing him to raise his statewide profile over the next 17 months and set up Senate offices in the southern part of the state, where he’s not well known.

Democrats Need

Here's a question: Why is repealing the Bush tax cuts such a constant obsession for the Democratic Party? Especially the top rates for the most successful earners and small business entrepreneurs?

It seems this is the Democratic answer for every single issue, every problem, every debate.

This, of course, saddens me enormously.

And so, always ready to help, I am recommending a 12-Step program to help them overcome their anger, resentment, and obsession over the Bush tax cuts. Democrats really need a Higher Power on this.

First, when tax rates were lowered across-the-board in mid-2003, the incentive effect kicked in to jump-start the economy immediately. Over the next four and a half years, before the financial meltdown slammed the economy-- and that was a credit event, not a fiscal one—8.2 million jobs were created.

Jobs essentially rose for about fifty consecutive months.

Non-farm payrolls rose from just under 130 million to just over 138 million. Don’t believe me? You can look it up. This sort of job creation is exactly what President Obama would love to see happen now.

And, while jobs rose, the government took in more revenues. As a share of GDP, revenues rose from 16.2 percent to 18.5 percent. Simply put, supply-side tax cuts were the single best economic policy President Bush implemented.

Elsewhere, President Bush overspent and overregulated. And yes, the dollar collapsed on his watch. And from Fannie Mae to the Federal Reserve, the housing bubble was born.

Minimum wages now, not policies

While a significant number of workers suffer due to poor wages, the government continues to be pro-employer in its approach.


 
By Syed Shahrir Syed Mohamud

It was a sad day for workers and unions in Malaysia when Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak at the Malaysian Trade Union Congress (MTUC) dinner on June 14 made no firm commitment on the promotion and protection of workers’ rights.

As for the minimum wage issue, his response was that this matter is to be referred to the National Wage Consultative Council. There was also no positive response on the issues of retirement age of 60, increasing maternity leave to 90 days for all workers, and the Cost of Living Allowance (COLA).


Workers in Malaysia are still a very low priority of the current Umno-led Barisan Nasional government that has ruled since independence in 1957. Pleas of workers and their families for decent wages continue to be ignored by a government that has been shown to be pro-employer and pro-business, which, by its actions and omissions, seems to be more interested in maintaining the supply of lowly paid, “problem-free” and “easily used and disposable” workers especially for private sector companies.

Workers’ demand and plea for a basic minimum living wage law that will ensure that workers and their families will be able to live decent lives as human beings continue to be ignored by this government, which has at the same time been very fast in increasing the cost of living. This government has allowed increase in the cost of electricity, water, postal services, phone charges, toll charges, petrol and generally the cost of living.

The introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) saw an overall rise of cost of almost all goods and services. Continuous subsidy removals have also resulted in the increase of prices of basic goods and amenities needed by all persons to sustain life. All these measures that resulted in an increase in the cost of living of workers and their families have been done speedily and systematically, but at the same time this government has not ensured increase in wages, and has been systematically removing the right to secure employment until retirement age.

New workers today are being allowed by the government to be employed as short-term contract workers, and sadly even once permanent workers are made to leave through various schemes, like voluntary separation schemes (VSS) and then re-employed as short-term contract workers. Then, the government has expressed the intention of wanting to deny these now contract workers the right to go to court and claim for reinstatement when they are wrongfully dismissed by employers, but the trade unions and civil society opposed this and the government has yet to make this law.

Now, another disturbing trend is that the government is allowing some companies to avoid employment relationships, and their duties and obligations to the workers who work in their factories, plantations and workplaces. It is doing this by a new illegal entity called outsourcing agents, who are actually contractors for labour that supply workers to principals, and this clearly is not allowed in our Employment Act 1955. The law applies to all, including the government, and action is demanded that injustice and violation of law are aggressively ended.

Workers living below poverty line

On minimum wage, Malaysia always had the Wages Councils Act 1947, which gave the government the means and mechanisms to stipulate minimum wages for workers but, alas, it seems that only four categories of workers have been covered by orders made under this Act, that is, in 1967, 1970, 1972 and 1977. They are catering and hotel workers, shop assistants, cinema workers, and Penang stevedores and cargo handlers respectively. For example, the 1970 order on shop assistants provides that the minimum remuneration for a worker ranges from RM170 to RM250, depending on the age of the worker, location and whether full-time or apprentice.

Now, rather than immediately setting and implementing a minimum wage for all workers in Malaysia, or coming out with a minimum wage law, the BN government is telling us that it is tabling a new Bill called the National Wage Consultative Council Act, and the fear is that this will just be as ineffective as the previous law, and all workers will not enjoy basic minimum wages for some time yet, if at all.

The government can immediately set the basic minimum living wages for workers now, subject to later adjustment. A few months ago, the government set the minimum wages for security guards at RM700 per month, which came into effect at the end of January 2011, and as such, the government also can and should immediately set a floor minimum wage for all workers now. It is proposed that this be at least RM900 and it become effective on July 1, 2011. Further adjustments and annual periodic reviews can be done later but at least workers will get sufficient wages now for themselves and their families when cost of living is already so high.

It is sad that the new president of MTUC, Khalid Atan, saw it fit to shower praises on our prime minister, and pledged that MTUC will be working closely with this government that has a history of being anti-worker and pro-employer. MTUC, trade unions and workers’ groups must always place as priority the fight for workers’ rights and welfare, and not try to curry favour with politicians and the government of the day.

It is also distressing that MTUC has allowed the event to become an Umno event, in particular when Umno Youth used it to launch its workers complaints (aduan pekerja) website. It would have been much better if the money was just donated to MTUC to have its own independent website.

Workers and their unions have been calling for minimum wage for a long time, and this demand intensified in the last six years but, alas, the current government’s response has to date been empty promises only save for the 100,000 plus security guards that got something.

Let us not forget that a study on wages initiated by the Human Resources Ministry has revealed that almost 34% of about 1.3 million workers earn less than RM700 a month, below the poverty line of RM720 per month. And in June 2011, our prime minister is not talking about workers getting minimum wages soon but only that “…he hoped a minimum wage policy can be implemented by year-end…”

Workers demand minimum wages today – not just a policy by end of the year.

Syed Sharir Syed Mohamud is the former Malaysian Trade Union Congress president.

Ibrahim an idiot or agent?

Perkasa or Ibrahim Ali, a so-called NGO, sponsored by Umno, on the pretence of fighting for 'Malay rights' has now step up its move to thwart Bersih's rally which is totally irrelevant to their (Perkasa 'cause') which was doubted by most right thinking Malaysians.

Bersih's rally is just about justice, free and fair elections for Malaysia...what this got to do with Perkasa...unless Perkasa is an agent of Umno.

Obviously, we see that the setting up of Perkasa was just a tool by Umno to create racial and religious uneasiness so as to make the Malays phobic of their rights being trampled (rubbish), their political supremacy diluted (rubbish) and non-Muslims' threat to Islam (also rubbish).

Well, all these are churned out for few things...a poltical purpose, power and survival.

Fight and we must fight to win

By Captain Joseph Wilfred

As promised last Sunday, I have returned to consult The Sifu on which opposition party in Sabah to support in the coming 13th General Election and the following transpired.

2. On 16th September 2010, while ATAMA was performing for Malaysia Day at Padang Merdeka Kota Kinabalu, I attended a dinner reception hosted by PAKATAN RAKYAT at Putera Ballroom Bukit Padang together with The Sifu.

3. He was seated firmly in his chair from the beginning but mysteriously vanished when a SupreMoo, a Semenanjung MP, a Sabah MP, and a Sabah Assemblyman took over the microphone – in the process, abandoning even the food on the table which I personally know is one thing The Sifu will never do.

4. Today more than 9 months later, The Sifu told me why: He said,

5. “I am an objective person. For more than half a century as a human being, I tell you Captain, I can definitely recognize an idiot when I see and listen to one. I won’t sit around and hear crap.

6. You were there yourself on countless occasions when I told off people who had done wrong but in a very nice manner and these people (the brilliant ones, of course), despite feeling embarrassed, always put aside their shame and approached me for advice.

7. On the contrary, this SupreMoo (someone called him an old cow lately) portrays himself as a ‘I can do no wrong and you can do no right’ kind of politician. When I heard him speak (actually, he shouted all the way, to be precise), I find a person devoid of intellectual substance and etiquette. He doesn’t realize that his speeches are so hateful to hear so much so a convicted petty thief would rather choose amputation than to be put in a counseling room with this SupreMoo.

8. The Semenanjung MP, I heard, read Law from don’t know what university (I really don’t know). But that night on 16th September 2010, she portrayed herself as a “cheapskate Mandarin opera singer” who ignored the fact that 80% of the audience that night can only understand either English or Bahasa. To me, she is both a humiliation and an embarrassment.

9. As for the Sabah MP, I heard the people of Foh Sang Township ‘whispering’ that he thinks he is going to be the next Chief Minister of Sabah. For 3 times I have heard him spoke and I can have only one question to ask: ‘does this person really possesses a bona fide doctorate at all’?

10. You want to know what I think of the Sabah Assemblyman? This is one fellow who in spite of not having the ability to give a coherent and understandable description of anything at all in any language that he may try his tongue at (in short, everything he said that night was outright horrendous), has the audacity to parade his DUBIOUS NATIVE CERTIFICATE to all and sundry when everyone knows that his ancestors are 100% PURE CHINESE.

11. Oh…before I forget, do you still recall 25th July 2010 when a former PKR Leader launched his Pakatan Friends FaceBook Page in Yaho Hotel Sembulan? Remember the representative from Sepanggar who went up to the rostrum? His speech was a complete disaster and the audience, instead of laughing with him, was actually laughing at him. And the truth is, Captain, almost 90% of leaders and members from this Semenanjung Party are of this kind of quality.

12. By the way, Captain, it is wrong for you to address a veterinarian (meaning doktor binatang) as a doctor. You can only call him Vet So-And-So not Dr So-And-So. Under international standards, only genuine doctorate holders and medical practitioners treating human beings are entitled to be addressed as doctors.”

13. What about SAPP then, Sifu? Do you think the people of Sabah should support and vote for SAPP? What is your view? And His response was,

14. “If the opposition front in Sabah is only between PAKATAN RAKYAT (meaning PKR, DAP, PAS) and SAPP, then like what ATAMA had already suggested to SAPP Supreme Councilor Peter Marajin sometime in March this year, let PAKATAN RAKYAT take all the Parliamentary Seats while SAPP all the State Seats. All my reasons are already made known confidentially to SC Marajin by ATAMA.

15. Do not create multi-cornered fights and split the votes because only UMNO/BN will win. Whilst the local opposition party (meaning SAPP) support PAKATAN RAKYAT’s move to take over Putrajaya, PAKATAN RAKYAT must reciprocate and respect Sabah’s autonomy in every way.”

16. What if PAKATAN RAKYAT and SAPP refuse to come to a consensus? What then? The Sifu laughed,

17. “Of late, it has become obvious that PAKATAN RAKYAT (meaning PKR and particularly DAP) is bullying SAPP into a tight corner. You cannot really blame DAP members when they accuse SAPP of having a questionable leadership.

18. Interestingly, this Semenanjung Party also have corrupted leaders not to mention those with bogus doctorate, dubious native certificate, fake knighthood purportedly awarded by Queen Elizabeth II, and many others including a supreme loose cannon that fires blank rounds (check out youtube for parliament videos and you will know why UMNO MPs always ridicule and tell him to shut up).

19. Similarly, Captain, do you remember a sitting State Cabinet Minister from PBS who also claimed that his Datukship is equivalent to a British Knighthood not too long ago?

20. Now back to your question: If a black and white consensus cannot be reached, then PAKATAN RAKYAT and SAPP should jointly contest every Parliamentary plus State Seats against each other and lose all their deposits. This is one outcome that does not require a crystal ball to predict.” If they cannot agree and compromise, they should fight it out – fair and square and lose. There is no other way around the impasse.

21. If such a scenario happens, what is your advice to the people of Sabah? The Sifu (now serious),

22. “This is my message to all Sabahan brothers and sisters – vote for UMNO/BN if you are stupid; vote for PAKATAN RAKYAT if you are just as stupid; if you are not stupid, Vote only for SAPP but subject to the following terms and conditions:-

1. Do not vote for a candidate if he or she has any social, political, economical, family, or criminal baggage because such person’s integrity and credibility can be bought

2. Do not vote for any past or present incumbents because I have yet to see anything tangible that is worthy of praise being done by them, at least not by my standards

3. Do not vote for a candidate who has a speech and language problem because such person is usually stupid

4. Do not vote for a candidate who thinks he or she knows everything and yet only parrot what was heard

5. Vote for a candidate who is energetic and highly educated (preferably, but not limited or confined to, in English and with a degree in Economics) because only such candidates are able and willing to walk the extra mile for their constituents

23. If you could not find any or all of the above qualities in a SAPP candidate but on the other hand a PAKATAN RAKYAT candidate possesses those details, then, by all means, vote for the PAKATAN RAKYAT candidate instead.

24. If neither SAPP nor PAKATAN RAKYAT candidates have those qualities, I will stay home and not even bother to fly 17 hours back here to cast my vote.

 (JW: Note to SAPP, in paragraph 22, The Sifu has insinuated to you what you should be contesting.)

25. Before I finish, I have to give due credit to Hiew King Chieu for highlighting the harassment on ATAMA in the mainstream media. This shows that Hiew King Chieu is a caring person. No human being is perfect but shortfalls can be rectified. Perhaps there is room for possible improvements, probably?

26. For helping ATAMA in my absence, I say a big THANK YOU.”

27. You people want to know what The Sifu said about Sabahans who are members of PAKATAN RAKYAT (particularly PKR and DAP) taking pot shots at SAPP, this is the analogy He gave:

28. “Throughout the real history of the Malacca Sultanate, Malay warriors are losers – they fought the Siamese and ended up paying ‘bunga emas’ every year as ‘ufti’ until ‘Hang Tuah’ and his friends came into the picture.

29. Who is ‘Hang Tuah’? He and the others are the personal bodyguards of a minor Chinese princess ‘Hang Li Po’ who came and married the Malacca sultan.

30. It is common in China those days that servants adopt the surnames of their masters and even courtiers who served the Imperial Court well were bestowed with the surname of the Emperor.

31. The entire ‘Hang Li Po’ clan was Chinese Muslims like Admiral Cheng Ho. To those of you Malay Muslims who do not know, Islam was practiced in India and China at least 600 years before any of your ancestors did.

32. Back to ‘Hang Tuah’, Malacca’s fortune changed instantly because of superior Chinese ‘kung fu’ and war strategy. After his death, every battle the Malay warriors fought was, again, lost e.g. against the Portuguese, English, Japanese, Communist, Indonesian Confrontation, and etc.

 33. ‘Hang Tuah’ was epitomized as a Malay hero in history books until it was finally revealed by American scientists that the DNA from his remains was proven to be 100% Chinese.

34. All of a sudden, the name ‘Hang Tuah’ was stricken from all history books and you do know why, isn’t it? It is embarrassing to idolize a Chinese as a Malay Hero and worst, there was no other name that is as famous.

35. Remember his famous quote, ‘Takkan Melayu Hilang Di Dunia’? Malays in his era loved him very much for his loyalty even though history told us that the then Malacca sultan was a fickle minded asshole that did not deserved it.

36. He was so powerful yet so gentle; so Chinese yet so Malay. It took a Chinese warrior from China called ‘Hang Tuah’ who not only blended into local society, fought with them and for them, he even assured the local Malays that their race will not be wiped out from the face of this world…! By comparison, ‘Hang Tuah’ a Chinese is even more Malay than the Malays!

 37. Coming back to Sabahan pretenders of Semenanjung Parties who insult and degrade the local opposition party who stood up against an Evil Monster, have you no shame when you mark them with infamy just because they are Sabah based and you are from a Semenanjung Party? Have you forgotten that you yourself also have Sabah blood flowing inside you? You are telling Sabahans that your half past six leaders are better to lord over Sabah?

37. If your leaders are so invincible like you say they are, why don’t they become like ‘Hang Tuah’s of modern Malaysia instead of arrogant assholes…?

38. I only have one label for these Sabahan pretenders and that is they are traitors to Sabah of the highest order…!

With that The Sifu ended all political talk and jump started into dessert mode. It was unfortunate that I could not ask The Sifu one more thing before he whacked his Ais Kacang; did any one of you reading this, notice that The Sifu did not mention anything negative about PAS? Maybe next time...

 p.s.1. If you read between the lines, you will realize that a lot of unnamed ambitious politicians were literally ‘slaughtered’ by The Sifu whose motto is to spare no one that is incompetent. And to those of you who know that you are targeted, The Sifu has time and again reminded the two of us to tell you to your face if and when we have the opportunity one day “that there is absolutely no dignity at all for you to continue asking the ‘RAKYAT’ to keep voting for you when you are already a laughing stock as a result of your being thoroughly dishonest and your character utterly despicable.

p.s.2. We will try to produce a translated version of this conversation for the benefit of ‘BAHASA’-speaking readers but that will have to wait for a while.

p.s.3. Like what you are reading? Anyone of you guys and gals who want more from The Sifu will have to ‘bodek’ me and ATAMA ;-)