The Koboi Project is a photo-performative instantiation of identity across the discontinuities of a multi-generational diasporic experience.
Mahathir | Muhyiddin
Is it over …or is this Malaysian Standoff, more thrilling the any of Leone’s Mexican Standoffs, still unraveling?
https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2020/02/29/dr-m-releases-list-of-mps-backing-him/
So its over … Anwar Ibrahim will not be the 8th Prime Minister of Malaysia ….. maybe the 9th?
Muhyiddin
Pakatan| Muhyiddin
Interim Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad declared that he now the backing of Pakatan Harapan to form the new government. This is breaking news on Malaysiakini website! Anwar is still in the game but standing behind Mahathir for now!
https://wordpress.com/block-editor/post/koboiproject.com/15743
– Anwar | Muhyiddin –
– The Good | the Bad and the Ugly! –
– The Malaysian Standoff –
In the 5 days that have passed the external event has occurred the external event that sets off the Mexican or Malaysian Standoff into motion has occurred. According to the Straits Times the speaker of the House, has intervened against Mahathir’s call for a special session of parliament on March 2nd, and the action has started to unfurl – in slow motion of course!
Mahathir has fallen away to be replaced by Bersatu’s Muhyiddin Yassin, possibly his proxy, who seems to now have the upperhand in the fight. Muhyiddin has the support of Umno and PAS, who were not previously behind Mahathir. According to another Straits Times, “coupled with Bersatu’s 36 MPs, the former deputy premier will have the support of 93 parliamentarians,” thereby getting ahead of Anwar, who had 92 supporters on the last count.
The standoff now seems to be back down to a duel between two – Anwar and Muhyiddin.
– PAKATAN | MAHATHIR | MUAFAKAT –
– The Good | the Bad | the Ugly! –
– The Malaysian Standoff –
Depending on how old you are and perhaps on your gender, regardless of where in the world you grew up, you will probably be aware of the great cinematic artistry of the Spaghetti Western. My 1970s boyhood in St. Johns Primary involved regular collective viewings of violent and engaging cowboy films. There were no good guys, no bad guys – just guys you identified with – no matter if it was the Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach or Lee Van Cleef – we collectively learnt that there was small difference between the Good, the bad and the Ugly – In Malaysia, today we are having to learn that same lesson all over again, as adults! One classic plot device or trope in this Cowboy genre was the Mexican Standoff where parties face each other at gunpoint. There is an inability of any party to advance its position safely. At the same time no party has a safe way to withdraw from its position, thus making the standoff permanent, at least until there is an external event!
According to Malaysiakini, “the “Sheraton Move”, which refers to the gathering of rogue PKR MPs, Bersatu, BN, PAS, GPS and Warisan MPs at Sheraton Hotel, Petaling Jaya last Sunday night has “upended the conventional two-coalition political configuration in the country, fracturing Malaysian politics into three groups.”
Whatever the outcome … there is no doubt that Wan Azizah has given Anwar Ibrahim –
40 years of kindness.
40 years of courage.
40 years of loyalty.
40 years of strength.
I am happy and proud to declare that it was I, who nominated laureate Zainub Verjee for the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts, 2020. Our relationship as individuals, which has been both personal and professional, embodies the contiguity of contemporary art across of the Pacific Rim, and it is the desire to signify and articulate this contiguity that set me on the path to making the nomination.
What began as an idea for an image for the Leraian series of my Koboi project and an extended blogpost on the genesis of the image was developed into an essay for an important anthology titled Other Places: Reflections on Media Arts in Canada and into the successful nomination I wrote for the Governor General’s Award.
Here is an extract from my nomination of Zainub Verjee, “Working with as much regard for the centre as for the periphery, Verjee’s modus operandi has been one of developing platforms for the disparate constituents of the Canadian artistic community . . . throughout her career in arts administration, she has managed to leaven effective space for ‘wild’ innovation and ‘undisciplined’ dissent. She has channelled these disruptive energies towards achieving change at the heart of power, while maintaining some degree of functional harmony for the whole.”
https://koboikembaralagi.wordpress.com/2017/07/12/5-zainub-untitled/
https://canadacouncil.ca/press/2020/02/2020-ggarts-winners
https://koboibalikkampung.wixsite.com/leraian
https://koboikembaralagi.wordpress.com/2017/05/31/zainub-verjee-signifier-to-signified/
https://www.otherplaces.mano-ramo.ca/
https://en.ggarts.ca/zainub-verjee
“We shall see.” … said Anwar Ibrahim when asked whether he will be the next prime minister.
Budaya
Tak sopan menujah lawan,
tak elok memaut kawan;
Kejam dalam pertarungan,
saling bersalam-salam.
Adapted from Nakula –
“Tumbuh berpunca, punca penuh rahsia,
Tajam tidak menujah lawan,
Tegak tidak memaut kawan,
Tetapi berlingkar dengan mesra.”
Arising from a source whose origin is mystery,
Sharp yet not piercing foe,
Firm but not restraining friend,
Ever encircling in harmony.
The Koboi Project 
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