Urmmm, no! (Bah. 1/2)

Menjelang perhimpunan agong Ameno (ini description digunakan orang yang anti parti ini), saya pikiak nak tulis blog di website straitstimes.com.
Dua tahun dulu, 'wajib' setiap journo ST Foreign Desk tulis blog.
Tapi kini saya tengok di website tu, dah tak diwajibkan lagi. Malah dah tak sunat pun. Kamu kena scroll ke bawah website ni jika nak baca blog posting tulisan wartawan ST - 'latest blogs'. Dah tak glam.

Tapi saya dah pun tulis cerita-cerita lama bagaimana saya cover Umno annual assembly ini, dalam bahasa Inggeris.
Baik saya lepaskan kat blog sayalah. Tidak rugi rasanya, sebab dah ditulis pun!

Esok, Ameno bermula dengan siri meeting tahunan mereka ni, hingga Sabtu.
Saya rasa Sharizat akan kena bantai kot. Dan perhimpunan ini akan kita ingat di masa depan sebagai 'Shahrizat's assembly' - sama juga seperti beberapa tahun lalu kita ingat meeting tu sebagai 'Rafidah's assembly' sebab teruk kena bantai mengenai isu AP. Atau 'Isa Samad's assembly' bila depa menang sebagai naib presiden, lepas tu bagi hint kuat bahawa ada politik wang (rasuah beli undi).
Jika kamu go-stan, kamu akan realise bahawa setiap tahun, ada saja benda berlaku semasa perhimpunan ni.

SAYA juga hampir setiap tahun dulu cover Muktamar Tahunan PAS - sama ada di Kota Bahru mahupun di Gombak. Yang saya miss bila ia diadakan di Kedah (di Sarang Semut?). Yang diadakan di Ipoh pun saya ada.
Tapi ceritanya tak menarik atau kontroversi, seperti Perhimpunan Agong Ameno ni - sebab PAS gaduhnya selalu berkisar golongan ulama dengan golongan profesional.

Terakhir: Boss, jika nampak benda salah dalam posting ni - terutama tarikh - sila betulkan. Banyak sangat cerita lama, saya rasa gerenti ada silapnya.
Enjoy.


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almost every annual umno assembly i attended since 1996, is remembered for one main issue (to me anyway) that people will remember for years.
when malaysia's GOP (Grand Old Party) meets, the earth shakes, birds stop chirping and rivers flow more slowly. just kidding.
more likely the traffic stops, money flows freely in hotel restaurants, and it is time to see who is up and coming.

the best place to show the health of the party of 3.4-3.8million members (as claimed), for me, was by the main car park where umno chiefs make their entrance. always great to see their new cars and shiny new jewelry of the wives (who's driving what, with who!).
s-class is nothing. u gotta come in porsche, or at least one of those mercs with fancy dark glass roofs, to show u have arrived at the top.

this year's assembly looks like one where shahrizat will be the main focus with her husband's cows and condos.

i started covering umno from 1996. but funny enough, in 1996, there was hardly any foreign reporters covering umno daily and covering the issues.
like me (with reuters then), we turned up to meet certain corporate types or politicians to interview, then we leave the halls.
that changed for everyone in 1997 when asian economic crisis dawned - thai economy 'attacked by rogue speculators' in aug1997 and everyone was saying the rest of the Asian Economic Tigers would be next (korea, taiwan, malaysia, singapore). in the end indonesia got whacked more, singapore survived.

past assemblies that i remembered (hoping to write a blog for st.com):

yang ini saya tak cover -
1987 - maha vs ku li. this was wayyyyy before my time. the inflamous split between mahathir and tengku razaleigh (ku li). this was the year when people say 'money politics' (vote buying) first become a mainstay in umno. maha had to buy votes to stay in power. he beat ku li by a narrow margin. ku li left to form another party, umno was deregistered etc.

1994 and 1995 - i didnt attend (arrived in kl at end of 1994).

1996 - many malay tycoons turned up in beautiful expensive malay baju - including biggest names. then banker rashid hussein (that's where RHB Bank name came from = Rashid Hussein Bhd), azman hashim of Ambank, halim saad who ran the biggest listed companies then Renong and United Engineers, tajudin ramli of malaysia airlines and celcom (largest mobile telco then).
mahathir had asked them to come along to showcase umno's success in raising malay corporate greatness.

1997 - worried abt asian econ crisis, anwar was finance minister, deputy PM and umno's deputy president.
a reuters reporter (me!) caused regional stockmarkets to fall by some 7 per cent that day (i kid u not), 7 per cent stock market falls in kl, jakarta, manila, bangkok, (and at least 3pct or so in spore, taipei, seoul etc). and currencies all fell by about same amount.

reuters missed a local paper story where some top guy (forgot if it was mahathir or police chief) warning economists and stockmarket analysts that anyone who wrote "negative reports" about the country would be "blacklisted" by police.

so i asked finmin anwar - "is it true that govt will blacklist economic writers who did this?"
this was way before ministers in southeast asia realise the danger of sound bites (bloomberg had then just opened office in kl at a rented premise, there was UPI, and Knight Ridder wire agency was big. so u know how 'early days' of wires this was).

so anwar answered (something like) - "yes we will blacklist these economists and analysts because they give a bad name to the country".

imagine the reuters newsflash, in asian markets very nervous about how is SEA going to respond to thai's tomyam financial attacks.
by the end of the day, it was a bloodbath in stocks and currencies, cos reuters flashed:
"Malaysia FinMin Anwar says to blacklist economists who write negative reports about country".

1998 - tensions between maha and dy anwar surface. rumours that anwar was planning for his men to heckle and boo mahathir as he speaks on stage.
shock: a copy of the book (in malay) "50 Reasons Why Anwar Cannot Be PM' were found in each of the official assembly delegate bags (about 2,000 delegates).
shocking cos the books wouldn't be inside the Umno bags unless sanctioned by top officials.
shocking also cos book made allegations that anwar was gay and had chick flicks too.
"the charismatic, islamically-inclined anwar, who gave sermons in mosques is a sex predator with girls AND boys? gitoutta here!"
Anwar was sacked in sept 1998.

he fell into mahathir's trap - he made a police report about the books in the bags. police, ever ready to (ahem) probe when it comes to anwar, did just that and "uncovered" many more things.

mahathir by this time had learnt that these seemingly innocent questions by cute wire agency reporters are dangerous.
at one press conference (some 50journos present, anwar beside him), he said (something like) - "we have analysed these news reports. we find that everytime we say something, reuters would report it, and then the ringgit will collapse".
everyone in the room looked at me (i was famous then) and pointed fingers. "reme u bastard", "here he is!".

but mahathir being mahathir, he will answer directly when asked. so he was asked - "datuk seri, are u happy with the level of the ringgit?"
the fool said - "no, i am not".
while i pretended to look at the ceiling and showed disinterest, everyone forgot about the second reuters reporter at the back of the room. we do "double-teaming" at big events so someone can run out to send newsflashes while the other stayed inside.
barani krishnan (last 7years he has been with reuters new york) sent a flash = "malaysia pm mahathir says not happy with current level of the ringgit".
yes, ringgit fell again that day, along with other regional currencies and stocks.
it wasn't me! i didn't do nothin'!

1999 - (cannot remember if assembly was postponed. if there was one, umno would be gearing up for GE with chants of reformasi on the streets. and badawi would've been appointed as new dy PM).

2000 - introspective assembly after umno-bn lost badly in the dec 1999 GE. lost kelantan and terengganu - first time 2states in oppo hands.
nearly lost kedah and weak in perlis, as malays ran away to pas due to reformasi. there was about 35-40 opposition seats in parliament, a new record then (oppo had 82 seats after 2008 GE - though since dwindled by some defections).

2001 - puteri umno makes first official appearance at assembly, as umno moves to attract young to join in.
wow! everyone love those pretty young girls from the kampungs in their pink uniforms.
(i joined ST in may2000).
the streets outside meeting hall were quite empty, as people whispered that the GOP (Grand Old Party) is dying and people have abandoned it for pas.


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