Dead To Me: The Saga Continues
Written by johnleemk on 5:02:54 am Mar 13, 2007.
Categories: Malaysian Politics
Considering it is the 50th year of Malaysian independence, it's not surprising to see advertisements in magazines touting "Visit Malaysia Year 2007". Neither is it surprising to see the visage of our Prime Minister and Tourism Minister on these advertisements. (And it's really the only way I'd even know what our Tourism Minister looks like, since I can't be bothered to stare at pictures of our mammoth-sized Cabinet.)
A few days ago, I was surprised to see a photoshopped picture of said Tourism Minister, Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor, depicting him as some form of Jabba the Hutt or God knows what. I wondered what the reason for this could be, since last time I checked, the Tourism portfolio wasn't exactly conducive towards controversy. (At the most, one might have to apologise to the Chinese nation for the Police making a Chinese-looking Malay woman do nude squats.)
All was revealed yesterday, when I was linked to a blog post from a few days back highlighting some ridiculous remarks by Tengku Adnan — remarks that remind me just why so many of our politicians and leaders aren't worth the air they breathe. These remarks were later splashed across the alternative media; I just spotted a couple of pieces about them in Malaysia Today.
For those who have not had the pleasure of reading Tengku Adnan's remarks, however, here is one reported transcript of them (unfortunately, I wasn't given enough context to reproduce the whole thing):
Bloggers are liars. They use all sort of ways to cheat others. From what I know, out of 10,000 unemployed bloggers, 8,000 are women.
Bloggers like to spread rumours, they don’t like national unity. Today our country has achievements because we are tolerant and compromising. Otherwise we will have civil war.
Malays will kill Chinese, Chinese will kill Malays, Indians will kill everybody else.
...
We have to show to the people our positive attitude. If the world learns from us, there will [be] peace and no civil war.
If you haven't doubled up in laughter/vomit yet, then permit me to continue. Tell me, why on earth is this man still alive and kicking? I mean, I know it's his job to promote our country and all, but last time I checked, he was the Tourism Minister, not Propaganda Minister. (And our actual Information Minister, Zainuddin Maidin, is another fellow not worth the air he breathes for his ridiculous proposal of apartheid in the modeling industry.)
It's one thing to defend your country's reputation on facts. It's another to defend them with a basis of lies. And it's another thing to defend them by using blanket labels to slander an entire body of people.
I don't know if I would consider myself a blogger. I occasionally refer to this site as a blog, and I know a lot of people would call this a blog. Whatever I am, I don't take much personal offense at Tengku Adnan's remarks.
What I take offense at is the fact that my taxes (well, my parents' taxes actually, since I don't pay taxes just yet) are going towards paying this man's salary, when by right he should be six feet under. (Metaphorically speaking, for those who are inclined to sue me for libel.)
I know that a lot of bloggers are liars. I'm sure a lot of them are cheaters and unemployed women, too. But that doesn't make it right to assume all (or even a majority) of bloggers are liars, cheaters and/or bums with nothing better to do than blog.
Tengku Adnan also seems to be unable to differentiate political blogging from lifestyle blogging. Many political bloggers (and many, many more blog commenters) further racism and disunity in our country, but very few (if any) lifestyle bloggers do. And most lifestyle bloggers are these unemployed women he alluded to. (And for the record, I'd like to know which part of his ass Tengku Adnan pulled that 8,000 out of 10,000 figure from.)
I find it very rich, though, that Tengku Adnan would accuse bloggers of harming national unity. True, a lot of them are racists, and a lot of them are just rabblerousers who have nothing better to do than rant and blame and complain.
But how are they hurting the country more than a certain political party whose last year's annual general assembly's focus was on the spilling of blood of the non-Malays? I'm quite shocked Tengku Adnan isn't aware of this party, since it's the leading party in our ruling regime, and also happens to be his party.
I'm not sure what lessons the world could learn from this party (UMNO), but I'm quite sure that whatever they are, they wouldn't be very likely to help bring about peace on earth and goodwill to men. If anything, they'd probably encourage more xenophobia and distrust between the races.
These comments are sure to irk (or would be sure to irk) Tengku Adnan if he read them. He'd probably accuse me of being another one of those bloggers out to harm national unity. I don't know about you, but I don't see anything racist about criticising a party whose leaders routinely talk about spilling the blood and trampling upon the rights of other races.
Well, whatever the case, it's just too bad. It turns out that our Tourism Minister is yet another one of those chaps who, for all intents and purposes, are now dead to me. Much like American political comedian Stephen Colbert, I have no tolerance for idiots and rascals like our Tourism-cum-Insane-Propaganda Minister.
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| Related comments from forum thread "Toppling UMNO/BN: An Agenda for Change": | |
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johnleemk
Infernally Rambling Thoughtless Mind Head Administrator Posts: 953 IP Logged | Posted at 11:11:00 am Aug 28, 2005
UPDATE: More on this proposed party can be found in the replies below. Okay, it's pretty much clear now that politics in Malaysia cannot move forward without real multiracial parties, an unbiased media (or at least, a media consisting of many people with different biases for balance) and a decent opposition that has a plan, a direction, and some principles it will adhere to and not compromise on for a little more power. A lot of bloggers at other sites seem rather pumped up about brainstorming ways to achieve these aims, but the most they end up doing is talking about talking how to reform the government/opposition. So, if you please, I'd like to have a real discussion on how to reform Malaysian politics. (Although I'm quite pessimistic we'll see much change in our lifetime; the most we can do is plant the seeds for the next generation to reap; right now, the existing generation of adults is simply too set in their ways to change much.) I propose the formation of a new political party. A party that is for the people, of the people and by the people. A party where the little man can speak and know what he says can have a real impact on his daily life. The elite of our country cannot form this party. They have no interest in promoting change. This party has to come from the middle class. The middle class has a latent but large amount of resources - physical, mental and intellectual. All this will go to waste if we continue to stay at the periphery and let the big guys squabble for the right to ride the gravy train. On the other hand, the poor are incapable of promoting much change because of their low resources. Even if they have intellectual brainpower, it has not been developed much due to their little capital available for educational purposes. It is up to those of us, those of the middle class, to step into the breach and save our country. Malaysia is falling apart. Nobody can deny that. Peek into the pages of any newspaper, even the NST or Berita Harian. There is ample evidence that if we maintain the status quo - and doubtless, UMNO and BN intend to maintain it - Malaysia will die a slow and agonising death. We have a country built on division and corruption. Either we tear it down and rebuild a magnificent edifice we can be proud of, a building to rival the veritable skyscraper of Singapore, or we let our dilapidated gilded hut of a country rot and collapse fifty to a hundred years from now. It's up to the middle class to promote change. It's in our interest, and in the interest of every Malaysian, rich or poor. |
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marvin
Member Posts: 6 IP Logged | Posted at 3:50:44 pm Jan 27, 2007
Grads in Malaysia are a hopeless bunch. Judging by how the education is being handled, there's no wonder why the end results are usually lame and half witted. No doubt we have intelligent young people who are either visionary or charismatic. But we lack people who have the combination of both and more importantly young people who are idealistic. Idealism is the most important essence to a revolution. Your idea of a Malaysian utopia needs a revolution to be realized. The public in Malaysia do not possess ideological sense because they don't read, they follow their leader, specifically today, it's their feudal lords. Capitalism, socialism, nobody understands that. What's more important to them is to ensure they would live comfortably for another day. A charismatic figure, who is idealized, who is extreme in his belief, who relates to the public, who makes the public think, so like him, they can foresee the gloomy future. This charismatic figure, because of his idealistic nature, risks to lose everything if he doesn't succeed. You know, like an ol' Senor Ernesto Guevara minus the marxism and guerilla side. Unless the BN government really plunder the nation like Ferdinand Marcos did Philipines, it's unlikely that a generation of this sort idealist would be born. But certainly not impossible. Best case scenario, a new libertarian socialist party led by a Malay. Party is anti statist, anti royalist, anti feudal, secularized and headed towards decentralized government. People may not be prepared for the party's ideology but supports it because they believe in the leaders and believe that without a change, the country will dwindle into a state of carcass. Ultimately only that ONE person is needed and the rest will follow suit. I'm inspired by the writings in the Republic Of Virtue by Dr Azly Abdul Rahman. Is it likely? |
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johnleemk
Infernally Rambling Thoughtless Mind Head Administrator Posts: 953 IP Logged | Posted at 4:55:02 am Jan 28, 2007
I agree that there is a dearth of grads with idealism and ability - but at the same time, they are not non-existent. I am also essentially optimistic about the ability of the brainwashed populace to cast off the shackles of BN - provided there is an opposition party which can show how ably it will govern the country, and knows its stuff. As Khairy noted in his opinion piece, the opposition has always been incompetently running on a platform of not being BN, instead of a positive policy platform for change. If the people truly believe they will have a better future under a new government, they will vote for it. That is why I agree that "Ultimately only that ONE person is needed and the rest will follow suit". The important thing is that the idealists and intellectuals should not be shackled by their ideologies and be able to handle politics. Many social activists in PKR are idealistic, but they cannot really fight for political power because all they know how to do is hold demonstrations. Similarly, intellectuals who are too detached from reality will never be able to compete politically. |
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tanstaafl
Member Posts: 9 IP Logged | Posted at 10:31:06 am Jan 28, 2007
Being 15, you can take the long view and personally, I believe that's the right approach to take given the circumstances provided those currently in power don't cut this off at the knees before you get anywhere or some other events occur before meaningful change is achieved. I concur with your conclusion that a new party is needed for the reasons that you have clearly set out so I won't re-hash them. Insofar as the list of goals are concerned, I would like to add a couple more - Separation of State & Religion - might require a change to the constitution? Separation of Politics from Business - which I've always felt eventually leads to corruption For funding is concerned, I believe that the only viable sources locally are amongst the middle class professionals. Most of the so-called corporate tycoons will have no interest in supporting a party that seeks to upset the status quo and their own livelihoods. Incidentally, I suggest a change of name to this topic. The current one is too narrowly focussed. How about "Proposals for Political & Social Reform"?  |
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johnleemk
Infernally Rambling Thoughtless Mind Head Administrator Posts: 953 IP Logged | Posted at 12:08:50 pm Jan 28, 2007
Separation of State & Religion - might require a change to the constitution?It depends on how far you want to go. Personally, I think we'll never succeed at getting Islam removed as the official religion, and I'm not sure we even want to go there. Rather, the focus should be on restoring the original intent of the Constitution, which was merely to permit some Islamic rituals at official functions (e.g. doa) without making Malaysia an Islamic state. (Tunku Abdul Rahman himself said this when speaking in Parliament in defence of the practice of serving alcohol at government functions.) Separation of Politics from Business - which I've always felt eventually leads to corruptionThis is something I agree with, but it is difficult to hammer down specifics about this. Even the most advanced democracies in the world haven't been able to tackle this problem, so unless we can come up with something innovative, I'm not sure it'd even be worth trying to do more than address this on a somewhat ad hoc basis. (That's pretty much how the Americans handled the Jack Abramoff scandal when Abramoff, a professional lobbyist, was caught bribing politicians.) For funding is concerned, I believe that the only viable sources locally are amongst the middle class professionals. Most of the so-called corporate tycoons will have no interest in supporting a party that seeks to upset the status quo and their own livelihoods.I agree. I think it would be actually possible to subsist on a similar budget to that of, say, the DAP. The DAP/PKR actually have a lot of potential despite their limited resources - it's just that they haven't been very effective since the DAP is constantly plagued by infighting while PKR has been focusing too much on social activism. Deployed appropriately, their limited resources could probably pose a serious threat to the government, since they've already been regularly winning about 30 to 40% of the popular vote. Incidentally, I suggest a change of name to this topic. The current one is too narrowly focussed. How about "Proposals for Political & Social Reform"?Hm, true...but the name of the topic has a certain bite to it. Maybe I'll change it to "Toppling UMNO/BN: An Agenda for Change". |
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tanstaafl
Member Posts: 9 IP Logged | Posted at 1:50:27 pm Jan 28, 2007
State & Religion - on second thoughts, this is a tricky one As far as separation of State and Business is concerned, let's go back to the fundamentals and agree that it is not OK for political parties to own businesses or to channel government contracts and projects to those businesses, cap contributions, blacklist / prohibit companies in which elected officials or their families have an indirect interest from participating in any government projects extending up to a period of up to 5 years after ceasing to be an elected official. Hell, I'd even be happy if people would actually react to some of this crap instead of just saying "oh, that's how we do business in Malaysia". Hard to reform when patronage is institutionalised :P |
