Of Siti, Mawi and black metal

Malaysian popular culture has seen a very interesting time since the last couple of years, with the emergence of Mawi-mania and most recently the spectacular Siti Nurhaliza-Datuk K wedding.

These two spectacles has also shown the tremendous power of popular culture, confirmed partly by the droves of politicians trying to cozy up to them in attempts to gain more visibility and consequently win more votes.

Before Siti and Mawi, Malaysia has never really seen the inter-mingling of politics and popular culture. For many, popular culture is merely entertainment, a domain far removed from the complicated world of politics, the business of the state.

But during the reign of Siti and later Mawi, it appears that no politician would end his speech without mentioning these two pop stars. And it is also a time when the country witnesses a new political game between the two largest political parties, Umno and PAS.

With this change, the world of Malaysian popular culture has never been the same. From Puteri Umno to the PAS government of Kelantan, politicians cuddling up to pop culture icons have become the norm. Everyone now wants to link themselves to the success and popularity of stars.

But unfortunately, that is as far as it goes. It appears that very few politicians actually address popular culture and even culture seriously, including in the Mawi-friendly PAS.

Culture is something that should be taken seriously. It should be the topic that is addressed in PAS discourses regularly. Culture is becoming more and more important in today's world of global monoculture. Still, that could be an understatement.

You don't get tons of votes by out of a blue organizing a Mawi concert and praising him as a model teenager - which anyway refers to the pre-Diana Rafar Mawi. After all, by the next general elections, the concert would be just a little footnote in Malaysian pop culture history.

In fact, the concert does little to help improve PAS's image, in light of recent Mawi events. It did, however, expose the naivete of PAS in dealing with pop culture, especially if some PAS leaders' statements around that time were taken seriously.

It is problematic for PAS, a party that has been known for its critical views of popular culture to suddenly appear with a new friendly face. It just does not work that way.

PAS should take culture seriously, and not suddenly start organizing concerts when there is a shortage in the young generations vote bank. It is a mistake to see culture through a narrow perspective, reducing it to entertainment and other things that usually are the concerns of Rais Yatim's ministry.

It is exactly due to this misperception that PAS seems ill equipped to deal with issues like black metal, culture wars and other authority-defined "social ills."

It is irresponsible and misleading for PAS to address various problems - whether real or imaginary - by reducing them to symptoms of a secular country governed by a secular government. Islam Hadhari does not give birth to such social phenomena.

And it is also due to this misperception that PAS is often mislead into addressing issues - like black metal - in the way it is framed by the mainstream media. The mislead PAS join hands with the powers that be in constructing a monster that in turn would distract the whole country from real concerns of the people.

In the end, such problems appear as genuine social problems, and the authority of the powers that be is strengthened.

Black metal, mat rempit and numerous other social phenomena do not need a secular government to exist.

What then would be PAS's arguments when these problems still exists in PAS-governed Malaysia? Social ills would still be around irregardless of the government of the day and the government's ideology. People who enjoy motorcycle racing in the middle of the night would still be racing in the middle of the night under a different government.

It is indeed time for PAS to address culture seriously, to avoid past mistakes and formulate new ways to deal with the various, complex cultural issues.

Pope’s Speech: Slander Cannot be Met with Slander

By FARISH A. NOOR

The repercussions following the statements made by Pope Benedict XVI are being felt till today, though by now the modalities of global Muslim protest have become evident and well-known to close observers of political Islam. As expected, following the speech that was delivered while the Pope was in Germany recently, there have been hundreds of protests all over the Muslim world, calling on the Pope to apologise for what he had said and calling on the Western world to be sensitive to the concerns and sensibilities of Muslims the world over.

That such a reaction was forthcoming was to be expected: It has to be stated again that the choice of quotes used in the speech by the Pope was anything but enlightened, and that uttered by a man of his standing and delivered before such a public gathering, was bound to lead to a reaction on the scale that we have seen thus far. What is more, it should be noted that apart from the reaction from the Muslim world, there was little unease or disquiet about the Pope’s speech elsewhere. Proof, if any was needed, that there exists an unhealthy tolerance for abuse of Islam and Muslims in many parts of the non-Muslim world today.

Furthermore, as it has been noted by the author Karen Armstrong, this pedestrian and common form of Islamophobia and prejudice towards Muslims has become so widespread that there now exists a common consensus between the conservatives behind the Pope and even secular Muslim-haters in the West. In her words: ‘Hatred of Islam is so ubiquitous and so deeply rooted in western culture that it brings together people who are usually at daggers drawn. Neither the Danish cartoonists, who published the offensive caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad last February, nor the Christian fundamentalists who have called him a terrorist, would ordinarily make common cause with the Pope; yet on the subject of Islam they are in full agreement.’

But here it pays to take a degree of objective distance from the issue and look at the matter from a broader perspective. While the comments made by the Pope were morally questionable both in their content and intention, one also has to question the logic at work in the reaction of some Muslims to the event. It has also been reported that many an Islamist group had reacted to the speech of the Pope with calls for violence and retribution: A stupid and counter-productive reaction if any, for it simply reinforces the stereotypical view (repeated in the Pope’s speech) that Islam is a religion of the sword and that Muslims are fundamentally violent.

Consider the following statements that were issued by one radical Islamist group in Iraq, said to be linked to al-Qaeda: In its press statement the Mujahideen Shura Council stated bluntly that "We shall break the cross and spill the wine. ... God will (help) Muslims to conquer Rome. ... God enable us to slit their throats, and make their money and descendants the bounty of the mujahideen." In bellicose terms bordering on the hysterical the statement then proceeded to "tell the worshippers of the cross (the Pope) that you and the West will be defeated” and that "you will only see our swords until you go back to God's true faith Islam,." If the Pope’s speech had done damage to inter-religious dialogue, then such a reaction was calculated to ensure that the final nail would be hammered into the coffin.

It remains an oddity till today that many Islamist groups react to provocation at a drop of a hat, and that their reactions often follow the predictable path of rhetoric and pyrotechnics. Fiery speech may gain a group some precious minutes on the TV screen, but in the long run they do untold damage to the understanding and image of Islam (both in the eyes of Muslims and other faith communities) that will take ages to heal.

It would also be hypocritical for some of these Islamist groups to demand an apology from the Pope while remaining blissfully oblivious to the venomous speeches and tirades that issue forth from their own ranks, be it in the form of mosque sermons, videos, pamphlets, recordings or death threats. Muslims cannot, and should not, demand respect for our faith as long as we are not prepared to show the same respect to the beliefs of others. Yet how many Muslims have criticised the extremists and conservatives in their midst, who continue to ply the crowd with sordid stories of ‘Christian conspiracies’ against Muslims, or with lurid accounts of the alleged ‘decadent, immoral’ lives and values of the so-called ‘infidels’.

To reiterate the main point of this article: We are indeed living at a time when Muslim-Western relations are at an all-time low. It is also a fact that the divide between the Western and Muslim worlds is not a neutral one, but rather one based on unequal and unjust divisions of power, wealth and privilege. However in order to redress this imbalance and injustice on a global scale, a global view of the world is needed which sees humanity as a singular community. Divisive speech on either side of the divide will do little to help the situation; and if anything it can only perpetuate the very differentials of difference and power which is at the root of this injustice.

Stupid, insulting and even destructive comments from either community should be met with a rational voice tempered with logic and morality, and not threats of violence couched in the flimsy rhetoric of victimhood. If Muslims felt insulted by the Pope’s comments, then we need to realise that many non-Muslims likewise feel insulted by the barbed accusations and slander that have come from some self-appointed spokesmen for Islam.

Where is the solution to this? Islam reminds us that logic and reason are universal qualities inherent in all creation. To abandon the way of rational, logical discourse at this stage would not only be an abdication of the responsibility to dialogue, but would also lead to a further marginalisation of Muslims on a global level. And above all, Muslims need to remember that in our reaction to abuse and slander we are nonetheless guided by a moral principle that is higher: One cannot react to slander with even more slander; anymore than one can react to racism with even more racism. If the moral compass has been lost by the Pope, our duty – as Muslims and non-Muslims alike – is to restore this balance, and not to let the ship of humanity flounder even more.

Persepsi Islam di Amerika

Persepsi tentang Islam akan Berubah oleh Empat Hal

"Pertama, persepsi masyarakat Amerika tentang Islam kurang lebih memang dibentuk oleh media. Tapi itu bukan berarti para elit politik Amerika juga mampu mendiktekan persepsi media tentang apa yang sedang mereka inginkan. Kalau Pemerintahan Bush sedang membangun persepsi tentang musuhnya lewat slogan perang melawan terorisme (war on terror), media Amerika tidak akan bisa terus-menerus terpengaruh oleh penggunakan istilah itu."

Baca artikel di laman Jaringan Islam Liberal

Der Spiegel Interview With Cardinal Walter Kasper

"Islam is a Different Culture"

Cardinal Walter Kasper, the Catholic Church's ecumenical representative, discusses the Vatican's relations with Muslims and the furor over the pope's recent remarks.

Read the interview in Der Spiegel.

World Watch: China's Carrots

From The New York Times, September 18, 2006:

China Competes With West in Aid to Its Neighbors
By JANE PERLEZ

STUNG TRENG, Cambodia — In the dense humidity of northern Cambodia, where canoes are the common mode of transportation, a foreman from a Chinese construction company directs local laborers to haul stones to the ramp of a nearly completed bridge.

Nearby, engineers from the China Shanghai Construction Group have sunk more than a dozen concrete pylons across a tributary of the mighty Mekong River, a technical feat that will help knit together a 1,200-mile route from the southern Chinese city of Kunming through Laos to the Cambodian port of Sihanoukville on the Gulf of Thailand.

This is the new face of China’s foreign aid to poor Asian countries: difficult construction in remote places that benefits the recipient, and China, too.

“It is the favor of our government to the Cambodian people,” said Ge Zhen, 26, one of the more than 50 engineers and 250 other Chinese workers on the four-year project.

Flush with nearly a trillion dollars in hard currency reserves and eager for stable friends in Southeast Asia, China is making big loans for big projects to countries that used to be the sole preserve of the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the United States and Japan.

With the Singapore meeting of the World Bank on Sept. 19 and 20, China, one of the bank’s biggest customers, is quietly shaking up the aid business in Asia, competing with the bank at its own game.

For poor countries like Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, and somewhat better-off countries like the Philippines, China’s loans are often more attractive than the complicated loans from the West.

The Chinese money usually comes unencumbered with conditions for environmental standards or community resettlement that can hold up major projects. The aid does not carry penalties for corruption that are being increasingly used by the World Bank president, Paul D. Wolfowitz. And China’s offers rarely include the extra freight of expensive consultants, provisions that are common to World Bank projects.

For its part, China benefits from the added infrastructure — roads, ports and bridges — in the underdeveloped but growing region around it, to help increase trade and to move natural resources from China’s periphery to its heartland.

Liqun Jin, vice president of the Asian Development Bank and a former vice minister of finance in Beijing, said in an interview at the bank’s headquarters in Manila that China had carefully considered how to use its increasing wealth.

“China is attracting external capital, and as a balance China wants to help developing countries in the region by financing infrastructure projects,” Mr. Jin said. “Helping your neighbors to have a good life is no sin.”

He added, “China makes no bones that we want a peaceful neighborhood to develop our own economy.”

The effects are likely to be enormous. Tom Crouch, country director for the Philippines at the Asian Development Bank, said, “Here comes a very large new player on the block that has the potential of changing the landscape of overseas development assistance.”

Already, in the past several years, China has given aid to African countries, where it is buying oil and gas. They include some with repressive governments like Nigeria, Sudan and Angola.

Even during the cold war, China spread aid around Africa, sometimes to counterbalance assistance from rival countries, which were being helped by Taiwan. In the 1960’s and 70’s, for example, China aided Angola while Taiwan helped neighboring South Africa.

In Cambodia, Prime Minister Hun Sen boasts of China’s offer last spring of $600 million in “no strings attached” loans, made during a visit from the Chinese prime minister, Wen Jiabao. The money will help pay for two major bridges near the capital, Phnom Penh, that will link to a network of roads; a hydropower plant; and a fiber-optic network that will connect Cambodia’s telecommunications with that of Vietnam and Thailand.

In contrast, Mr. Hun Sen points out that the traditional lenders together pledged just $1 million more than China. And the money came laden with conditions, including World Bank anticorruption clauses.

Four World Bank programs in Cambodia worth about $70 million were recently suspended by the bank after its investigators found corruption among Cambodian officials in the procurement process.

China’s generosity to Cambodia has caught Washington’s attention. The United States Navy is planning a port visit to Sihanoukville early next year, a first since the Khmer Rouge seized power in 1975.

In the Philippines, China is also making a big splash, offering an extraordinary package of $2 billion in loans each year for the next three years from its Export-Import Bank.

That made the $200 million offered separately by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank look puny, officials from those banks said, and easily outstripped a $1 billion loan under negotiation with Japan.

Officially, the World Bank says it is not concerned about competition from China’s increasingly energetic aid program. “The more important impact of China on these countries’ development is trade rather than aid,” said Homi Kharas, the bank’s chief economist for East Asia and the Pacific.

The aid, chiefly for infrastructure, was being focused by China on the integration of trade in the region, a useful result for poor countries, he said.

But Western aid donors complain that China is secretive about its aid projects, and that it declines to attend the traditional meetings presided over by the World Bank to coordinate aid activities in poor countries. They also say they doubt that China always delivers the full value of the projects that it announces.

And Western aid officials said they were taken aback when the news of the $2 billion Chinese aid package came out at a lunch meeting of more than 100 aid donors in Manila last month. The size of the Chinese loans came as a shock, in part because the Philippines serves as the headquarters of the Asian Development Bank, a lender dominated by Japan and the United States. China is also a shareholder.

The secretary general of the National Economic and Development Authority in the Philippines, Romulo Neri, compared the Chinese aid package to those from other sources, and noted the appealing absence of the expensive consultant fees common to Western projects.

After being a favorite of the Bush White House, the Philippine president, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, fell out of favor when she pulled her country’s troops out of Iraq in 2004.

The Chinese appeared to have quickly filled the economic breach for the Philippines and, according to a memorandum from Mr. Neri’s office, a number of projects are expected to be completed when Mr. Wen visits Manila in December.

They include two toll roads and a water supply system for Manila, and further financing for a rail project already under way to connect northern Manila with four provinces.

In some countries, like Cambodia, China’s construction projects seem clearly aimed at helping to assure China’s access to natural resources.

Western diplomats and aid officials in Phnom Penh said they believed that Cambodia had recently granted China the rights to one of five offshore oil fields that could yield as much as $700 million to $1 billion a year. Chevron already has an agreement for exploratory drilling at one of the Cambodian fields.

Washington does not know yet, and would like to know, whether China plans to offer loans for an often-discussed deep-sea port at Sihanoukville that would allow China a convenient delivery point for its Middle East oil imports.

In resource-rich Myanmar, the former Burma, Beijing’s only real competitor on the aid front is India. China has built dams and roads connecting the interior of the country to China’s southern flank, and is currently reported to be working on a deep-water port on Myanmar’s west coast.

Myanmar is in deep arrears to the World Bank, which said it had no loan program there. The United States offers no official aid, either, because of the repressive nature of the government.

In Laos, China has built a major road up the spine of the country, and has been influential as much by the prospect of what it might do, than by what it has actually accomplished.

After years of study on the impact on the environment, the World Bank broke ground on a environmentally controversial major dam, known as Nam Theun 2, in Laos last year, because it knew that China was ready to step in to build the dam, bank officials say.

Beyond its no-strings approach, China is often appreciated as a lender by poor countries because it is willing to take on complicated projects in distant areas that others are not.

The bridge that Mr. Ge, the engineer, and his colleagues have sweated over during the last four years — the temperature creeps up as high as 106 in April — is in one of the most underdeveloped corners of Southeast Asia, the area where the Khmer Rouge first took power.

Running from the bridge is a new, smooth 130-mile road built by Mr. Ge’s team that connects Kratie, a village to the south of Stung Treng, to the Laotian border.

“When we came here four years ago, we would leave at breakfast time from Kratie and we would arrive here for dinner — eight hours,” Mr. Ge said. “It now takes two hours.”

Keganasan pasca 11 September

Keganasan boleh berlaku di mana-mana, termasuk di negara Avril Lavigne yang distereotaipkan sebagai aman damai dan bosan itu.

Keganasan ala-Columbine yang berlaku di sebuah kolej di Montreal, Kanada mungkin tidak ada kena mengena dengan 11 September atau kebangkitan sayap kanan ekstrem. Tetapi apa yang berlaku seolah-olah mesti berlaku dalam dunia selepas 11 September, dan Columbine mesti menjadi pemulanya.

Towards a New Islamist Discourse

Political Islam is facing a challenge of gargantuan proporation these days. But it is not the challenge - usually described as threats on Islam - from groups such as Article 11 and the interfaith commission, which are often generalized and grouped together as "the anti-Islam group" by some Islamists which is the biggest. The greatest challenge is from within - the failure to recognize and truly compete in today's free market of ideas.

Many Islamists still speak of invoking the Internal Security Act against these groups and view them as criminals whose only wish is to see disintegration and destruction of Malaysia's plural society.

Some speak of the lack of freedom of speech in this country and in the same breath announcing that they would sacrifice their lives to protect the sanctity of Islam, whatever that means. It is not clear how they got the idea that it would reach a stage where violence would be required.

But one thing is clear. The Malaysian Islamists' discourse on freedom of religion shows their failure in competing in the free market of ideas, unlike other smaller but more organized groups. We don't see many intellectually sound articles written by Islamists or ulama addressing the issue in the print media.

Take the controversy surrounding the Farish A Noor's article in Harakah a couple of years ago. While you could feel that many are upset and disagree with Farish's views in the article entitled Memikirkan Semula Pendekatan PAS, you didn't see articles of equal standard (meaning articles that academically and coherently addressed the issues presented and not resort to name-calling and reducing the issue to "attacks from the enemy of Islam") published anywhere.

What could be so difficult? After all, there were many news media, including web sites run by Islamists that would be happy to publish those views.

The same thing is happening now. We can see still a huge number of Islamists fail to see that it is of paramount importance that they present their views on the different level. Saying that these are the enemy of Islam seeking to destroy the religion, which then would arouse the anger of a great number of Muslims, simply will not do. How about arousing their intellect for a change?

The works of groups such as Article 11 cannot be reduced to only challenging the supremacy of Islam. And it is also irresponsible to call for the authorities to stop this group from organising their programs. After 49 years of independece, no one should be denied of this freedom.

In dealing with the current "liberal threat," we see that Malaysian Islamists cannot help but speak in the language of power. The fact that today's globalized world allows such contestation of ideas seems to elude them.

The religion of Islam really has great potentials. It is the fastest growing religion in Europe and the Americas. The appeals of this religion is clear. But Islamists need to really know that the free market of ideas - much like the free market of goods and services - knows no mercy. Products that are not competitive will lose out in this huge global market.

It is exactly because of the merciless free market of ideas that PAS, the most succesful Islamic movement in the region, needs to undergo a reform, to enable it to face the new reality of fierce competition in the free market of ideas. In view of the competition both locally and internationally, PAS needs to put this at the top of its agenda. And more sophisticated views should come out of PAS's intellectuals and ulama, in the language of the world today.

As a popular movement and strong political force, PAS cannot help but undertake this responsibility. Whether we like it or not, PAS's discourses largely shape the thinking of a significant number of Muslims in Malaysia.

It is time that PAS discard the old ways that have made it ill-equipped to compete in today's free market of ideas. Old concepts and practices that it is used to - such as the problematic leadership by ulama - need to be redefined. And empty rhetoric will not help it to get by in the world that is getting more and more sophisticated day by day. The free market of ideas requires a new PAS, one that is at ease with the world today and equipped with the intellectual tools to face the challenges that come with it.

Roger Federer

Roger Federer meneruskan dan melengkapkan dominasi pemain bukan Amerika dalam U.S. Open tahun ini.

Walaupun boleh dijangka, harapan terakhir Amerika, Andy Roddick era baru memberi tentangan yang tidak seperti biasa. Tetapi jurang jauh Federer dengan pemain lain hampir membosankan, lebih-lebih lagi jika berterusan begini, tanpa pencabar kuat di gelanggang hard court.

Malaysia hari ini (In a nutshell)

1. Debat keris Umno

Kerana sebab-sebab tertentu, ada kumpulan dalam Umno cuba menjadi politically correct dengan menyarankan lambang keris ditukar kerana kononnya menjadi punca sengketa. Umno tidak perlu menukar lambang keris ini, kerana banyak sebab. Antaranya, sebab yang dikemukakan sangat dangkal dan mungkin juga bodoh.

Umno perlu kekal dengan keris. Tanpa keris, Umno perlu bergabung dengan Parti Keadilan Rakyat.

2. Sokongan sepenuh hati kepada kapitalis Amerika

Restoran McCurry tewas dengan McDonald's. Walaupun boleh dilihat sebagai kemenangan multinasional ke atas kedai tampatan, kemenangan McDonald's ini boleh diraikan (dalam kes ini sahaja). Antaranya kerana tindakan menggunakan awalan Mc itu sangat tidak original dan tidak kreatif. Kalau alasannya Mc tidak boleh dijadikan tanda perdagangan kerana nama bangsa Scotland, apa kena-mengena kedai mamak dengan Scotland?

Lagi satu, kedai kapitalis Amerika seperti McDonald's dan Starbucks tidak pernah kotor dan hampir tidak pernah berlaku pekerja menyapu semasa pelanggan makan seperti yang berlaku setiap hari di sebahagian besar restoran mamak.

Gazprom lagi

Gazprom dan kebangkitan semula empayar Rusia

Akhir tahun lalu, setahun selepas kehilangan Ukraine kepada pengaruh Amerika Syarikat (AS) dan Kesatuan Eropah, Rusia di bawah pimpinan Presiden Vladimir Putin bertindak balas dengan meningkatkan harga minyak yang dijual kepada Ukraine sebanyak hampir lima kali ganda – setaraf dengan harga pasaran di Eropah – menunjukkan dengan jelas kesediaan Moscow menggunakan bahan bakar minyak dan gas sebagai senjata politik.

Mac lalu, Rusia, pembekal minyak kelima terbesar kepada China, meningkatkan kerjasama tenaga apabila lawatan Putin ke Beijing menyaksikan berpuluh perjanjian termasuk melibatkan tenaga ditandatangani kedua–dua negara, ahli tonggak Pertubuhan Kerjasama Shanghai (SCO) yang mencapai usia lima tahun Jun tahun ini. Tahun ini juga menyaksikan Rusia memegang kepimpinan G8, dengan membawa isu keselamatan bekalan tenaga sebagai fokus utama kumpulan negara maju itu, menegaskan kepentingan Rusia kepada dunia maju dan kedudukannya sebagai negara pengeluar minyak dan gas.

Kesemua peristiwa tersebut mempunyai hubungan rapat dengan satu sama lain, dan menunjukkan dengan jelas sekali pengukuhan Gazprom, monopoli gas milik negara Rusia, yang juga bermakna pengukuhan kuasa Rusia di peringkat serantau dan global apabila kuasa sumber tenaganya menjadi senjata penting percaturan geopolitik kuasa Eurasia itu. Rusia memiliki lebih daripada 20 peratus rizab gas asli dunia dan sekitar 7 peratus rizab minyak dunia, ketiga terbesar dunia selepas Arab Saudi dan Iran.

Rusia menyaksikan Kremlin bertindak agresif memiliknegarakan semula syarikat–syarikat tenaga aset negara yang dijual semasa keruntuhan Kesatuan Soviet. Ketika inilah, Putin meningkatkan kawalan terhadap Gazprom dan syarikat multinasional ini merealisasikan potensinya. Gazprom dimiliki 51 peratus oleh kerajaan. Pergantungan banyak negara – terutama Eropah – kepada negara pengeluar gas ini membantu Gazprom memainkan peranannya sebagai satu bahagian penting dalam landskap baru politik tenaga global hari ini.

Putin dan sekutunya mempunyai alasan kedaulatan negara untuk melaksanakan agenda ini – yang selain Gazprom paling jelas dilihat melalui tindakan undang–undang terhadap Yukos – walaupun hakikatnya kapitalisme kroni juga berperanan besar. Ketika kelompok hartawan dikenali sebagai Oligarki menguasai korporat Rusia, pengaruh itu melimpah ke ruang politik. Yukos di bawah Mikhail Khodorkovsky jelas sekali kelihatan cita–cita politiknya, antaranya melalui pembiayaan parti politik liberal. Beliau sering bertindak bertentangan dengan agenda Kremlin dan membina hubungan baik dengan korporat Amerika.

Ketika Yukos dan Sibneft hampir menyelesaikan penggabungan, korporat multinasional Amerika, ExxonMobil hampir berjaya membeli sebahagian kepentingan dalam syarikat gabungan itu. Sejak itu, Putin dengan jelas berperang dengan Khodorkovsky. Penggabungan itu akhirnya dibatalkan. Selpas itu, bahagian utama Yukos dibeli syarikat minyak negara Rosneft dan Sibneft dibeli Gazprom dengan nilai AS$13 bilion.

Dan Khodorkovsky bukan satu–satunya hartawan segera – yang mengambil peluang membina kekayaan daripada penjualan aset negara secara besar–besaran selepas kejatuhan Kesatuan Soviet – yang bertindak bertentangan dengan kepentingan Kremlin. Sebagai kapitalis, hampir semua hartawan mengambil pendirian politik bertentangan dengan sikap Putin yang kelihatan ingin kembali kepada cara pemerintahan kuku besi era Soviet.

Penguasaan Putin dan sekutunya ke atas Gazprom dan tindakan memiliknegarakan industri tenaga menamatkan kawalan kelompok Oligarki seperti yang disaksikan selepas pemerintahan Boris Yeltsin. Melalui Gazprom, Moscow melonjakkan kembali kedudukannya sebagai sebuah kuasa dunia yang disegani. Ketika inilah Barat melihat dengan sangat bimbang kebangkitan Gazprom, kerana sama ada disukai atau tidak, Gazprom ialah pemain utama dalam bekalan gas kepada Eropah, yang dikukuhkan lagi baru–baru ini dengan pembinaan saluran paip terus ke Jerman. Akhir 2005, Gazprom mendakwa eksport ke Eropah meningkat sebanyak 9 peratus dalam tempoh 11 bulan berikutan peningkatan permintaan di rantau itu.

Gazprom baru–baru ini muncul sebagai syarikat tenaga kedua terbesar yang diperdagangkan selepas ExxonMobil apabila sahamnya meningkat sebanyak hampir 9 peratus. Pengeluar dan pengeksport gas asli terbesar dunia bernilai AS$240 bilion ini kini menjadi syarikat tenaga ketiga terbesar dunia di belakang syarikat British, BP. Peningkatan ini menegaskan kedudukan Gazprom sebagai salah sebuah multinasional dan syarikat tenaga utama dunia, apabila mencapai kedudukan sebagai syarikat keempat terbesar dunia selepas ExxonMobil, General Electric dan Microsoft. Berdasarkan nilai sahamnya, Gazprom menduduki tangga kelima.

Moscow menyedari bahawa sumber tenaga merupakan kekuatannya. Pengukuhan Gazprom ialah tanda jelas hasrat dan hala tuju Rusia sebagai kuasa serantau dan dunia. Apa yang ditegaskan oleh Putin melalui G8 ialah Barat perlu menyedari kepentingan Rusia dalam keselamatan tenaga global. Barat memberi respons dengan mendesak Rusia meratifikasikan Piagam Tenaga yang bertujuan memastikan ketelusan urusniaga tenaga antarabangsa, mekanisme yang boleh mengelak tindakan pemotongan bekalan gas kepada Ukraine musim dingin lalu.

Gazprom berkembang dengan sangat pesat sejak beberapa tahun lalu. Syarikat multinasional ini kini membekalkan lebih 25 peratus gas kepada Kesatuan Eropah dan memperolehi AS$25 bilion setahun melalui urusniaga itu. Menurut timbalan pengerusinya, Alexander Medvedev, dalam rancangan Hardtalk Perbadanan Penyiaran British (BBC) tidak lama dulu, Gazprom membekalkan lebih 26 peratus kepada negara ahli kesatuan itu dan jumlahnya dijangka meningkat kepada 33 peratus menjelang 2015 sekiranya tidak dihalang.

Gazprom juga menguasai bekalan melalui pemilikan sebahagian besar rangkaian gas yang menyalurkan bekalan ke Eropah, dan ingin meningkatkan kedudukan dengan menjadi pembekal utama gas kepada AS dan China menjelang dekad akan datang.

Gazprom kini sedang memerhatikan pasaran runcit di Eropah dan seluruh dunia, terutama AS. Melalui penglibatan dalam jualan runcit, Gazprom dijangka memperoleh keuntungan yang lebih besar berbanding sekarang. Syarikat monopoli gas Rusia ini sedang memerhatikan Centrica, yang memegang syer pasaran 50 peratus pengguna UK melalui jenamanya British Gas. Sekiranya pembelian ini berjaya, Gazprom akan memastikan kedudukannya dalam pasaran runcit gas, sekaligus memasuki ruang baru perniagaan yang diidamkan.

Medvedev sendiri pernah menyatakan Gazprom berhasrat menguasai 20 peratus pasaran gas Britain menjelang 2015. Syarikat dari banyak negara juga kini sedang berusaha mencapai kerjasama dengan Gazprom, memberikan gambaran sebenar potensi multinasional gergasi Rusia ini. Gambaran ini juga ditunjukkan melalui satu pertemuan duta AS, William Burns dengan ketua eksekutif Gazprom, Aleksei Miller.

Terbaru, Gazprom mencapai persetujuan dengan syarikat kimia Jerman, BASF, yang memberikan syarikat Jerman itu hak dalam pembangunan medan minyak Yuzhno–Russkoye di Siberia, manakala bahagian Gazprom dalam kerjasama membekal gas kepada pengguna Eropah itu ditingkatkan. Jerman jelas sekali berperanan penting dalam percaturan politik tenaga Rusia. Berikutan hubungan rapat bekas canselor Jerman, Gerhard Schroeder dengan Putin, Jerman menjadi destinasi saluran paip gas dasar Laut Baltik dari Rusia sepanjang 1,200 kilometer, tanpa melalui Ukraine dan Poland, dua negara yang semakin rapat dengan Barat.

Projek ini dimiliki 51 peratus oleh Gazprom, manakala BASF dan sebuah lagi syarikat Jerman memiliki masing–masing 24.5 peratus. Saluran ini juga bakal mendapatkan akses Gazprom kepada pengguna di negara Eropah lain termasuk Perancis, Belanda, dan United Kingdom. Projek bernilai AS$4.7 bilion yang diusahakan Putin dan bekas canselor Schroeder itu penuh simbolik dan petanda politik. Seperti juga saluran paip Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (dari Azerbaijan melalui Georgia ke Turki), saluran paip gas Rusia-Jerman itu sangat jelas perkiraan politiknya. Saluran itu tidak melalui Ukraine, negara yang tahun lalu keluar daripada pengaruh Rusia apabila kebangkitan rakyat yang mendapat sokongan Washington menaikkan pemimpin pro-Amerika.

Walaupun berfungsi sebagai alat geopolitik Kremlin, Gazprom masih perlu mematuhi peraturan ekonomi untuk membolehkannya mencapai apa yang dihasratkan pemegang kuasa di Moscow. Terbaru, had syer asing ditingkatkan kepada 49.9 peratus, bertujuan antaranya meningkatkan modal dan mendapat kerjasama syarikat asing. Tindakan ini juga mungkin mengambil kira tekanan G8. Perancis dan negara Eropah yang bergantung kepada bekalan gas Rusia mendesak Moscow membenarkan pemilikan lebih besar dalam industri tenaga Rusia dan monopoli Gazprom dikurangkan.

Satu projek besar melibatkan kerjasama Gazprom dengan syarikat asing ialah eksplorasi di Laut Barents di wilayah Rusia. Menurut Medvedev, medan Shtokman seluas 1,400 kilometer persegi yang dibangunkan itu mengandungi 3.2 trilion meter padu gas, dijadualkan beroperasi menjelang 2010. Projek yang disifatkan sebagai salah sebuah projek terbesar monopoli gas Rusia itu bakal meningkatkan pasaran Gazprom di AS.

Sebuah lagi projek besar Rusia-Eropah yang mengukuhkan posisi Rusia telah pun bermula November tahun lalu. Projek dikenali Blue Stream itu membekalkan Turki dengan gas Rusia. Saluran paip sejauh 1,183 km itu telah mengukuhkan pengaruh Rusia di Turki, sebuah negara sekutu Amerika yang menyempadani Eropah dan Rusia di Laut Hitam.

Sekiranya Turki diterima sebagai ahli Kesatuan Eropah, Rusia akan muncul sebagai sebuah penjamin bekalan tenaga kepada dua negara terbesar kesatuan itu: Jerman dan Turki. Putin, ketika projek Blue Stream itu memulakan operasi, telah menunjukkan cita-cita besarnya apabila mencadangkan satu lagi projek saluran minyak dan gas dari Rusia ke Turki, yang akhirnya akan turut membekalkan tenaga kepada Eropah.

Pakatan tenaga Rusia dengan China merupakan peristiwa paling penting untuk diperhatikan melibatkan politik tenaga Rusia. Lawatan Putin ke Beijing Mac lalu ialah pertemuan kelima pemimpin tertinggi kedua–dua negara yang semakin mengukuhkan kerjasama strategik, terutama melalui SCO. SCO merupakan salah satu manifestasi politik tenaga Rusia. Disebabkan permintaan tenaga China yang sentiasa meningkat, kerjasama ini mengukuhkan lagi hubungan Moscow–Beijing yang menyedari keperluan mengimbangi pengaruh Washington, terutama di kawasan sekitar Asia Timur, Asia Tengah dan Kaukasus, menunjukkan implikasi politik yang luas kerjasama tenaga dua kuasa itu.

Bagaimanapun, walaupun bekerjasama dalam bidang tenaga dengan China, kerjasama kedua–dua negara tidak sentiasa berjalan lancar. China melihat Rusia bergerak perlahan dalam meneruskan kerjasama yang membolehkan lebih banyak bekalan dieksport kepada China. Sebagai alternatif, China memperluaskan pencarian sumber tenaga ke Afrika. Moscow juga menggunakan sumber tenaganya dalam mengukuhkan kedudukannya dengan negara jiran, termasuk China. Selain China, Jepun juga dijanjikan dengan bekalan tenaga Rusia. Akibatnya, kedua–dua negara yang tidak sehaluan itu bersaing untuk mendapatkan sumber Rusia.

Kebimbangan Barat terhadap kebangkitan Gazprom dan pengaruh Rusia disedari Putin, dan kebimbangan itu bukan sekadar retorik nasionalistik Kremlin. Putin menegaskan sebelum satu pertemuannya dengan Cancelor Jerman, Angela Merkel bahawa Gazprom sering berdepan persaingan tidak adil dalam pasaran antarabangsa. April lalu, berikutan kritikan Barat terhadap Gazprom, Putin membuat kenyataan amaran bahawa eksport minyak dan gas Rusia akan dihalakan ke Asia dan bukan Eropah kerana persaingan tidak sihat yang dihadapi di Eropah.

Walaupun banyak dakwaan terhadap Gazprom jelas benar, seperti ketidaktelusan dan campur tangan politik berlebihan, realiti ini dihadapi semua syarikat minyak, terutama syarikat tenaga Amerika yang berperanan besar dalam dasar luar kuasa besar dunia itu. Sama ada Rusia menggunakan tenaga sebagai alat politik bukan lagi isunya, tetapi soal yang lebih penting ialah sejauh mana senjata itu akan digunakan, dan bagaimana Barat dan seluruh dunia akan menghadapinya. - 3 Mei, 2006

Kalau nak pegi masjid..

Satu artikel menarik tulisan Ulil Abshar-Abdalla. Petikan:

"Saya curiga, tampaknya masjid-masjid kita kini bukan lagi tempat umat bisa menambah wawasan keagamaannya dengan cerdas, tapi justru menjadi tempat untuk merawat 'kesemenjanaan' atau mediokrisi. Dari hari ke hari, umat dijejali dengan demagogi, ceramah yang sarat dengan klise, repetisi materi yang membosankan, dan kadang caci-maki yang menyuburkan rasa benci."

Baca artikel di laman Jaringan Islam Liberal.

Politik pisang

• Perang pisang Kesatuan Eropah dengan Amerika Syarikat berpunca daripada keengganan EU membuka pasaran lebih luas kepada pisang syarikat AS. EU memberi keutamaan kepada bekas tanah jajahannya di Caribbean dan Afrika. Akibatnya, AS yang didorong syarikat multinasional mengadu kepada Pertubuhan Perdagangan Dunia dan AS mengenakan tarif kepada yang ketat kepada produk Eropah.
• Perdagangan pisang, buah-buahan (tetapi sebenarnya berada dalam kategori herba) paling popular dunia didominasi tiga syarikat AS; Chiquita, Dole dan Del Monte. Tiga syarikat ini memegang sekitar 70 peratus pasaran pisang dunia.
• Perdagangan buah paling popular ini berjumlah AS$10 bilion setahun.
• Pisang menduduki tempat keempat tanaman terpenting selepas beras, gandum dan jagung.
• Chiquita sebelum perubahan jenamanya dikenali sebagai United Fruits Company, syarikat yang terlibat dengan pelbagai amalan korup di Amerika Latin. Satu peristiwa pembunuhan yang dikaitkan dengan pengaruh syarikat ini disebut dalam novel Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
• United Fruits juga dikaitkan dengan kejatuhan Presiden Jacobo Arbenz Guzman di Guatemala pada 1954 yang dilaksanakan oleh CIA.
• Perdagangan pisang ialah salah satu isu yang menjadi perhatian aktivis pekerja dan alam sekitar kerana hak asasi pekerja yang tidak terjamin dalam industri ini. Menurut laporan kumpulan aktivis, ada pekerja di Ecuador yang dibayar serendah AS$1 sehari.

Strawberry

Satu fokus dalam perkahwinan Siti Nurhaliza dengan Datuk Khalid ialah strawberi bercoklat, yang dilaporkan sebagai hadiah yang menambat hati Siti terhadap Datuk K. Peristiwa ini ialah cerita terbesar melibatkan strawberi dalam budaya popular Malaysia.

Strawberi coklat ini dijangka akan menjadi kegilaan dalam perayaan Valentine's Day Februari nanti. Ada teoris konspirasi mengatakan ini salah satu gimik pemasaran untuk mempopularkan strawberi.

Strawberi paling popular dalam budaya popular ialah lagu The Beatles pada 1967, Strawberry Fields Forever. Strawberry Field menempatkan satu rumah anak yatim berhampiran kediaman John Lennon semasa kecil.

Strawberi juga muncul dalam satu adegan filem Pretty Woman lakonan Richard Gere dan Julia Roberts.

Andre Agassi

Andre Agassi, one of the most colorful and interesting players in professional tennis, retires today after his last match in Flushing Meadows, New York.

From The Associated Press:

“The scoreboard said I lost today, but what the scoreboard doesn’t say is what it is I have found.

“And over the last 21 years, I have found loyalty. You have pulled for me on the court and also in life. I’ve found inspiration. You have willed me to succeed sometimes even in my lowest moments.

“And I’ve found generosity. You have given me your shoulders to stand on to reach for my dreams, dreams I could have never reached without you.

“Over the last 21 years, I have found you. And I will take you and the memory of you with me for the rest of my life.

“Thank you.”

Links:

1. U.S. Open
2. Agassi in Wikipedia
3. Agassi Open

Pulang ke kantor

Hello friends,

I'm back from a very long vacation, and will post more random thoughts and articles very soon.

I will write something short on the politics of banana between the United States and the European Union.