You're under arrest!

Looking at the results from online polls conducted yesterday night, Anwar wins "big time" against foamed mouth Shabery Cheek over the debate regarding fuel price hike. Unfortunately, the celebration was "shortlived" as Anwar was arrested for sodomy allegation today.(again) The arrest was made as Anwar was returning home from the ACA at Putrajaya. He had told reporters earlier that he would go to the police headquarters at 2 p.m. and "give my fullest cooperation" to the police.

Is this what Badawi means a week ago that "political stability will soon be restored"? Note also prominent blogger Raja Petra will also be charged tomorrow for criminal defamation for allegations made on persons in his statutory declaration. Expects more "government's worst nightmares" "horror men" to be intimidated, charged and arrested soon?

Even though the arrest of Anwar did not surprised me, I felt disappointed and disheartened as my hope(also to many other true blue Malaysians) of seeing a knowledgeable and capable leader for Malaysia some day suddenly came crashing down. It seems that most Malaysian have already made up our mind that he was the chosen one to be the next PM. Hmm... Is this the way politicians want to play? Revenge/Suppress. Blood for blood, an eye for and eye, a hole for a hole. This is a crucial time where Malaysia needs capable leaders to man the sinking economic ship rather than playing politics. Whether Anwar did "it" or not- Badawi, Najib, AG and IGP better make sure they have good and convincing evidence for the arrest and play it fair as they have to deal with rakyat's already "bad perception" on them.

Our country has plunged further into political turbulence and there is no evidence that "political stability will soon be restored" as mentioned by Badawi. In fact, it may have just step into a new phase. I dread to think what will happen to our country in the coming weeks and months and whether the local investors and foreign funds will dump Malaysian stocks for good. The KLCI was down 2 points at noon time, but as the news broke out, the index plummeted 9 points soon afterwards. It closed the day at 1,119 howering dangerously close to the 200 day ema of 1,115. Really, another dark day for Malaysia today.


* Anwar Ibrahim- previously voted by Time Magazine as 100 most influential people in the world; first Malaysian to be included in the prestigious list. He was also voted as Newsweek's 1998 "Asian of the year".

* Fitch Ratings yesterday downgraded India's country debt and local currency outlook from stable to negative. It also lowers India growth forecast for the year to 7.7% (previous estimates 9%). It states inflation as the main culprit for the lower forecast. In response to the news, Bombay's SENSEX dropped 4.9% to 12,676.

* Thailand unveils a USD1.4b package 6 month-program of tax cut and handouts to the poor in a bid to revive a struggling economy and sagging popularity. I seriously doubt the amount is sufficient.

* Crude oil falls USD6.45(4.4%) a barrel yesterday, the 2nd biggest fall in dollar terms in history. The largest fall was on 17 Jan 1991 with a fall of USD10.56 or a minus 33%.

* Dollar went to a new low yesterday against the Euro - 1.603 as the worries continue on world banking financials, Freddie and Fannie and gloomy economic outlook for large European nations.