No enemy tricks will stop the people!

It is encouraging to read the letter written by Patriot on the situation in Sarawak. The following extract is from Hsinhua News (March 19, 1974).

The Malaysian authorities have "staged in Sarawak on March 4, a farce of inducement to surrender", says the "Voice of the Malayan Revolution" in a recent commentary entitled "Sugar-coated Poison".

The commentary says that the Malaysian authorities made use of, and deliberately played up, the surrender of a few renegades who had speculated in joining the revolution and usurped the leadership of the North Kalimantan People's Armed Forces, in an attempt to shake the fighting will of the revolutionary fighters and people of North Kalimantan and put down the revolutionary armed struggle of the North Kalimantan people.

The North Kalimantan revolutionary organisation was seriously sabotaged as a result of shameless betrayal by the traitors and the Malaysian authorities' intrigues and manoeuvres. "But, a bad thing can be turned into a good thing, provided that the North Kalimantan revolutionary fighters and people sum up experience, draw lessons from it and persist in revolutionary armed struggle," the commentary points out.

"Genuine revolution or revolutionary wars are always arduous and complicated things. The great leader Lenin had said," there has never been, nor can there every be, a revolution that was guaranteed against a long and arduous struggle, and perhaps filled with the most desperate sacrifices". It is hardly avoidable that frustration in one way or another may take place in the course of revolutionary war. Frustration serves as a severe test for the revolutionary ranks, before which all opportunists and cowards show their true colours but real revolutionaries are tempered and come out stronger than before," the commentary notes.

It concludes: countries want independence, nations want liberation and the people want revolution — this is an irresistible trend of history. No tricks played by the enemy can prevent the torrent of the revolution of the North Kalimantan people from surging forward.

Abortion is hard on little babies

Abortion is hard on little babies. Before the above statement is branded as too emotional and sensational to warrant consideration, can I refer to the article published in Salient April 17 on Abortion and Women's Rights. In it, Dr Margaret Sparrow stated "Life is a continium. An ovum is alive. A sperm is a living, moving cell. Both contain 23 chromosomes." However, an ovum can never develop as a human being by itself; a [unclear: sperm] can never develop as a human being by [unclear: itself;] Both will die if not united with the other. [unclear: Dr] Sparrow continued to say that at the moment of fertilisation "we now have a single-celled zygote with the full complement of 46 chromosomes, and a sexual identity, genetically male or female." It is then, at fertilisation that a new and unique being is created. Any organism with the chromosomes and genes proper to a human being can be nothing less than human. It is scientifically false to claim that" 'human life' is different from 'human being', the latter being the status accorded to all members of society. Embryonic human life has only the potential to become a human being." After all, only a human being can develop a human brain. A human brain cannot develop before a human being exists. A human brain begins to develop soon after fertilisation and is, in fact, the first organ to begin to develop.

The Women's National Abortion Action Committee who seek repeal of all abortion laws in New Zealand complain that "the facts are buried under a heap of secrecy and hypocrisy". Yet the most crucuial fact in the whole abortion issue is ignored by them: that we have all been human beings from the moment of fertilisation. Let's be honest. Abortion is not so much the problem of unwanted pregnancy, as it is a raising of the question whether pregnancy is a relationship between two human beings — both possessing the right to life. Abortion is not so much the problem of unwonted pregnancy as a matter of unwanted evidence.

Today all human beings, whether born or unborn, have legal rights: to sue, to inherit, to be given blood transfusions, and to be protected before birth and after. Yet it is imperative that their one right, without which all other rights are meaningless, must be protected — the right to life itself.

WOMAAC should note again that a successful abortion is always lethal to the unborn child. Or in other words, it's not really too emotional to declare "Abortion is hard on little babies".

Cath Bergin

Child-slavery

Do you realist that there is a body of students who between them pay over $2000 a year in Student's Association fees? For this they receive nothing in return.

These students are parents with pre-school children, and the latter are cared for at the University Creche (57 Fairlie Terrace, Ph. 758-145). Because the staff there are not only underpaid, but also overworked, the student/ parents, in addition to paying creche fees find themselves often needing to put in hours of work at the creche.

They have no time to use the coffee bar, cafe, attend afternoon picture shows or otherwise make use of the Student Union facilities. Yet it is these same people who annually contribute more than $2000 to these Union funds.

Many people feel that it is about time the student body acknowledged the existence of this very worthwhile organisation, and perhaps did something to help their fellow students.

Write to Salient, help us get some financial assistance, in the first instance from the Students' Association. Perhaps look out old toys, books, records, paper — anything that could be made use of by 80—100 pre-school children. Take them along to the creche. Stay for an hour, why not.

The Creche Parents' Committee

Fair land Sarawak

I refer to the letter by a 'Patriot' entitled "Guerillas Will Never Give Up" in Salient No. 7 where in comments were made on the situation in Sarawak.

Malaysia, of which Sarawak is a component state, is a developing country. In the eyes of 'Patriot', the people of Sarawak are "the victims of unemployment, inflation and soaring prices of commodities". But he fails to see that even in a developed country like NZ, similar situations are evident if not more acute than in Sarawak where there are no shortages of sugar, petrol, electricity and toilet seats! It is difficult to understand the statement that "wide rural areas are plunged into bankruptcy and the livelihood of the peasants is poor and miserable". The wide rural areas are full of potentials like timber and other forest produce which only need to be developed. But then development is hindered by the threat posed by the guerillas who are [unclear: nore] terrorists than freedom fighters. The only people who can be said to be bankrupt are the guerillas who face bankruptcy in ideas and support. That the peasants are poor and miserbale is true only to the extent that this situation is brought about by the terrorist threat which forces them to stay indoors while curfews are imposed to facilitate Government mop-up operations.

Social justice and progress is a matter of degree and the Sarawak Government has taken another step forward by having reached amnesty with some of the guerillas. With peace comes prosperity. It is the remainder in the jungle who try to sabotage the state's achievements in the fields of social justice and progress.

The failure of the Indonesian Communist Party in the Parliamentary contest and the similar failure in Chile serves to show that such groups do not have the majority's support. While others achieve Parliamentary victory, the Communists face failure. To 'Patriot' and his likes, the only solution is to force their minority view by armed revolution. And so they did in Chile recently and Indonesia some years ago. Did the revolutionaries attain social justice? Instead they found one hard fact: united they fall in arms. Disasters in both Parliamentary contests and armed struggles lead me to the conclusion that the Communists and armed revolutionaries have no place in Sarawak if not in most developing countries.

"Guerillas will never give up". Sure enough, for by definition if they did they aren't guerillas anymore. Treat Bongo's surrender as a "betrayal" to the people of Sarawak if he likes. As a Sarawakian, I would really welcome such so-called "betrayal" for it means one thing: there will be no guerillas and the people of Sarawak can look forward to an era of peace and progress.

How about it?

Ever since the contraceptive machine broke down and was removed from the men's toilet every evening has been pure hell. The missus rolls over and says "how about it?" and I say "can't, no rubbers."

How long can this go on. I'm desperate, my sex life is pure hell. Please, please, please can't something be done about the rapid replacement of the machine.

Graphic by Caroline Campbell

Exaggerated Criticism?

The sincerity of the writer of "Peasants will have to fight" in Salient last week is questionable. Any sincere, knowledgable and open-minded critics would gladly have printed their names for any article they write. The fact that the writer hid his or her identity using a pseudo-name could mean any one or both of these two reasons: 1) The writer is insincere in his/her criticism. 2) The statistical data was taken out of context and the situations described were grossly exaggerated or to say the least incorrect.

Many readers of Salient would have noticed that the statistical data was incorrect and was 20 years behind time. It was obvious that the writer was blowing a lot of hot air in an attempt to incite a feeling of doubt in the minds of some people.

According to the latest figures issued by the statistics department in Malaysia, the production from factories in the Federal Land Development Authority (FELDA) schemes showed the highest increase of 12% in 11 months. The Authority has opened 130 palm oil, rubber and sugar cane schemes at the end of 1973. This year (1974) the Authority will open 1 cocoa, 16 palm oil and 2 rubber schemes, with a total area of 94,028 acres. Thus by the end of the year FELDA would have 149 schemes covering 625,784 acres of land, bringing the total of FELDA settlers to 32,044. Considering the fact that FELDA is one of the many 'vehicles' established by the government to ensure harmonic development, we cannot pretend that it is not an instant socio-politico-economic policy prodigy of the Malaysian government. Other development projects catering for the peasants are many and varied. The Muda Irrigation Scheme consisting 260.000 acres of padi-fields is settling 325,000 people. Hence it is incorrect to say, as the writer of "Peasants will have to fight", that within 14 years after independence the government has settled only 14,000 families.

'Tongin' also condemned the presence of foreign investors. In Malaysia the decision whether to rely upon foreign capital to supplement the industrialisation efforts is not one of political choice, but rather of economic imperative to ensure an accelerated industrial process within the shortest possible time.

The need for foreign capital is obvious. The prevailing inadequacy of domestic savings for investment and the dismal lack of indigenous technical know-how and managerial skills must surely warrant this alternative in the task of economic expansion and industrialisation. Most developing countries adopted a joint venture concept where a sound compromise between the needs of a developing country for a greater inflow of capital, know-how and skills, and the desire to gain maximum benefits from it is carefully worked out by the government and the foreign investors. There is integration of the foreign firm into the framework of national economy so that it will identify itself fully with the long-term interest of the host country.

Other incentives include investment tax credit, export incentives, and other fiscal and non-fiscal incentives.

Thus it is not really correct to generalise that foreign investors enjoy tax holidays for 5—8 years because there are conditions attached to these incentives. This is one of the examples of statistical data taken out of context.

I would advise the writer to update his knowledge about Malaysia. It is only when one has knowledge that one can make evaluations or interpretations of information. Indeed a person who has no knowldge of what his nation is all about would understand little about various movements which to him would be beyond control. He may even feel cheated or manipulated and would resent the whole thing. A person with distorted knowledge can be a stumbling block to prosperity or national unity, if he feels alienated. At best he would be cynical and jump on the bandwagon of change without fitting his feeling with his knowledge nor his action with his commitment He becomes a self-seeking huckster pretending to belong to a revolutionary group. Such "phonies" are a menance in the process of restructuring Malaysian society.

Henry Lawhutt

Calendar climbing (on the grapevine)

It has come to my notice, through the grapevine, that the retail price of the University Calendar is to be increased from $1 to $2 next year. While I realise that inflation necessarily increases the cost of printing, I still think that doubling the price of the calendar purely on these grounds is a bit steep. Since every student ends up buying a calendar, this cost increase will affect us all.

Philip J. Tree

Pen-pal

I am a boy from Bangladesh. I am 20-years-old. I am keenly interested in making pen-friend ship with boys and girls of my age from New Zealand. My hobbies are, pen-friendship, view-cards, exchange of gifts, music, cinema, magazine, travelling, stamps.

I would reply all the letters.

I would be highly pleased if you kindly print my name and address in your paper for pen-pals.

Love Story

Well, weren't the Easter holidays great, plenty of fun for all, and all that leisure time. But what did it mean to you? Did any of you stop for a moment to think about the historic facts commemorated at Easter?

Christ died and rose for all of us, not just for Christians. Why don't you add meaning to your life and think about His life. He really loves us.

Charles Arkright

Suara no-balls?

Permit me to make a few points on "Suara Raayat's" letter published in Salient, April 17 issue.

Chong Kah Kiat

What's wrong with the High Commission?

'Suara Ra'ayat' is rather imbecilic for making a groundless assumption about the First Year students being so naive and ignorant as to be hoodwinked easily. New as I am to the scene, I am perfectly capable of making lucid judgement to what is acceptable and what is unacceptable. I can see nothing inappropriate for MSA to represent the Malaysian students. After all the name MSA is self-explanatory.

Again, what is wrong with the Malaysian High Commission? It is an office. An office which is here for us to make full use of. To make use of the office is considered as sensible and not "a puppet". Mind you, 'Suara Ra'ayat'!

If you 'Suara Ra'ayat', can't write a logical article, shit-off with your blunt dim-witted argument.

K.L.C.

Review of the letter by Suara Raayat

The letter written by Suara Rayaat is the greatest masterpiece of the century. It is the most amusing review of any article that anyone can ever hope to come across. Suara Rayaat's superb style prompts me to read the letter a second time.

Alas, on a second consideration, the letter by Suara Rayaat struck me as the greatest shit that could only be written by a super wanker. Suara Rayaat's masturbating thoughts are glaringly inconsistent. The letter referred to Ken Lim as a first class coward. If Suara Raayat is not a coward himself, why should he seek refuge in a pseudonym? I challenge Suara Raayat to prove me wrong by openly identifying himself?

Furthermore, it is also apparent that Suara Raayat is trying his best to hoodwink the freshies by his unfounded allegation that "MSA was and still is and will always be a puppet of the Malaysian High Commission". His only ground for the allegation is "there is no need for me to go to lengths to prove this point to you freshies". For the benefit of the freshies, whom Suara Raayat is so concerned, I hereby challenge Suara Raayat again to support his allegation with concrete evidence.

If there is no response rendered by Suara Raayat to my challenge, then the only logical conclusion is that he must be an ignorant wanker.

William Chang

Sloppy proofreading provokes reaction to 'Flicks' at last!!

Your anonymous movie reviewer is really onto something!

It wrote this 'review' (although it was more a catty attack on the celluloid city and its citizens) on a film called "The Best of Sheila" which sounded just like one I saw a while ago called "The Last of Sheila". One of them has gotta be a rip-off of the other and I guess only your reviewer knows.

They just couldn't be the same film. "The Last of Sheila" was quite an intelligent and entertaining whodunnit which starred among others, James Mason, while 'The Best of Sheila" as your reviewer points out, features John Mills — a mere shadow of his former self.

I mean if you didn't get the title or the movies, you'd have to at least get the actors right, wouldn't you.

Jon Bowie

Neurosis

In reply to Mother of Seventy Three's letter in Salient (10.4.1974), I would like to comment on her apparent long-term suffering of suburbal neurosis. Her obviously one-track mind has never allowed her to make a true political decision for herself, let alone venture into the controversy of population growth. One must learn to make decisions, or else forever dwell in apathetic bliss.

Suara Raayat

It is evident that the writer of the so-called "Voice of the People" has much prejudice and hatred for the MSA and its members. I suspect an 'ass' in between the association's name. One wonders if it made any difference which ever way the articles were written.

In blatant derogatory and abuse he spews venom and spit. Unfortunately, along with it, comes the spate of his ignorance and infinite immaturity. He laments and criticises, among others, the "Bedtime story" and 'To be or not to be'. I wonder if he had the little cow-brains to understand the simple articles before criticising them. Where basic ideas are concerned, one wonders why the disagreement in agreement when there is so much agreement in disagreement?

One can ask the writer of "Suara Raayat" the following: 1) Is he sure that both the writers failed to see that it is a class rather than a race issue? 2) What does he mean by "promoting the racist line of the Razak government" — in line with the ideas presented in the articles?

3) and "masters of their own land" — with respect to the present political controversy, who does he consider the "owners of the land"? 4) Can he point out specifically where in "Bedtime story", a fantasy satire involving imaginary people, direct reference has been [unclear: mac] to the Chinese and Indians and, dubiously, "insulted them"?

If this sadly misguided and vitriolic person keeps on barking up the wrong tree, he may have, in his conscience, the total annihilation of a common cause.

Suara Siswa vs Suara Ra'ayat

I refer to the article entitled 'A review of MSA's Suara Siswa' published in your last issue of Salient. Its writer makes a blatant and unfair criticism of the editorial in Suara Siswa as being a piece of "sheer bloody bullshit". The use of language was disgusting and the sincerity of his intention doubtful.

The MSA publication committee always welcomes criticisms — provided they are both mutual and constructive. If the writer has any idea as to what should be done, there is always room for suggestions. A barrage of destructive attacks achieves nothing. If he maintains that MSA has political inclination or is somebody's puppet under the present committee, let's see him campaigning for the association's presidency this coming September. An, arm-chair critic (protesting anonymously under the style of 'Suara Ra'yat') commands no respect.

Finally his criticism on the contents of Suara Siswa is unworthy of even a comment, challenge that he come forward to prove his points.

Victor Fong

Pigs on campus

I was very shocked to see nearly a dozen policemen patrolling around freely in the Student Union Building during the MSSA rock music party last Saturday night. Who was responsible for this invasion of police on to the campus? It seems that nowadays the police can enter the university premises too easily and receive little opposition. The VUWSA should investigate this serious issue. Police should not be allowed to walk on an inch of the university ground in future.

One wonders what MSSA is doing these days. The organisation has degenerated into a pleasure seeking group by having rock music dancing. The results are shocking: bottles thrown everywhere, windows smashed during the party; widespread fighting. Some of those who joined in the "shindig" were no better than drunkards; their vomit was everywhere. It should also be pointed out that no MSSA Committee member offered any help to those poor drunkards who just laid down like half dead bodies.

To sum up, the MSSA dance created fighting, smashed windows and most unpardonable, resulted in the invitation of policemen on to the university ground. MSSA should review its value as a student body which should show concern for the motherland and the living conditions of the people at home.

Usually, a social gathering allows people to have the opportunity to meet, talk and discuss together. Participants are able to make friends and promote better understanding between the overseas students and local people. The MSSA had advertised down town and tried to attract as many outsiders as possible. The intention of MSSA Committee members to help their members to get to know more friends from all corners of the city is good.

As can be seen from the function, these 'friends' from all walks of life are those who can afford to pay money, money, money. Some of them are drunkards and probably some are 'friends' who liked fighting at the party. It is clear that MSSA has degenerated to being an entertainment group with a profit motive by offering fun and alcohol. This profit motive of MSSA, however, turned out to be a disaster. This is a good lesson that MSSA should learn. As a student body, there should be a lot of meaningful work to do, apart from organising 'hot' music parties.