Even UMNO's Morons Are Teachable
(Malaysiakini.com, November 8, 2007)
Editorial lead: If enough voters were to teach these Umno operatives a
lesson, they might just learn to behave themselves for the better
permanently.
Hishammuddin's decidedly subdued speech to UMNO Youth at the party's
recent General Assembly was in mark contrast to his racist histrionics of
last year. This showed one thing: even these morons in UMNO are
teachable after all.
Last year we witnessed the revolting spectacle of Hishammuddin
repeatedly stabbing the sterile chilled air of the PWTC Conference Hall.
The only thing missing was the foam frothing from his wide, open mouth to
make that silly scene really complete as a sandiwara (shadow play).
Hishammuddin of course received a rousing response in that
hall for his piece of titillating theatrics. That prompted me to write
then that we should expect his deputy Khairy Jamaluddin to outdo
Hishammuddin at this year's gathering. Meaning, Khairy would probably
attempt a silat with his keris instead of merely jabbing an imagined
enemy in the air. I also wrote that the only way to end such silly
stunts would be to have the klutz Khairy accidentally stab himself. Only
through such divine interventions would these latter day Hang Tuah and
Hang Jebat pretenders be taught a memorable lesson.
Fortunately, thanks to the outrage expressed by ordinary
Malaysians to last year's crudities, we were thankfully spared similar
stupid spectacles this year. The good lord need not have to intervene
after all to stop these childish charades.
To be sure, such outrages were expressed only in cyberspace in the various
web blogs and Internet portals like Malaysiakini.com and
Malaysia-Today.net. Our intellectuals and pussy footing pundits remained
curiously silent. I interpreted that to mean that they must have approved
of the stunts and the accompanying venomous messages spewed by these
characters.
In contrast to the furor in the Malaysian blogosphere, there were
apologias galore in the mainstream media. One sycophantic columnist
excused the whole ugly episode as nothing more than "party politics as
usual." She duly noted, with approval undoubtedly, that Najib Razak had
many years earlier dripped his keris with tomato ketchup to emphasize a
particularly racist point when he was UMNO Youth leader addressing a
similar crowd.
Seeing that Najib is now UMNO's Deputy President and thus the nation's
Deputy Prime Minister, a mark of success by any measure, Hishammuddin
must have taken his cue from his beres (brother-in-law by marriage).
Thus it was not far fetched of me to predict last year that Khairy would,
in a "monkey see, monkey do" style, ape Hishammuddin.
The Greater Lesson
There is a greater lesson here. That is, despite the
government's (UMNO specifically) repeated attempts at ignoring and
dismissing the role of bloggers and the Internet generally, we who use
cyberspace to spread our message are making an impact, whether the
establishment acknowledges it or not.
If the likes of Hishammuddin truly believe in their own message that
cyberspace is irrelevant or that it is the limited only to the fringes of
Malaysian society, they would have continued behaving like the mischievous
monkeys that they were last year. Nor for that matter would UMNO
establish its halfwit "cyber troopers" to try and shut down some of the
highly influential websites like Malaysia-Today.
To commentators in the Barisan-controlled media, the current mellowness of
UMNO leaders is not the consequence of the severe criticisms in cyberspace
rather to their being pragmatic and wanting to appear "moderate" and
"rational" ahead of a soon-to-be-expected general election. That is the
mainstream media's spin, their way of ingratiating themselves to the
establishment, their paymaster.
Never mind that such a portrayal merely exposes the cynicism and scheming
nature of these UMNO operatives. Such a characterization means that they
have not really changed, merely put on a cosmetic cover over their ugly
racist stripes, mascara as it were, to make themselves presentable to
voters.
If that were so, it would be even more important for voters to disabuse
these UMNO operatives of their collective delusion. Even if they were to
be minimally successful in the elections, that would only embolden them to
be even more cynical the next time. They would then think that they could
hoodwink and manipulate voters at will, like just before an election.
Their contempt for citizens would only be reinforced.
That being the case it is all the more crucial that we should teach them a
more memorable lesson, one that would stick with them forever. We know
that morons are slow learners, but then as we have seen even UMNO morons
are teachable. We just have to repeat the lessons more often, and
increasing the punishment more severe each time they regress or forget
their earlier lessons.
If enough voters were to teach these UMNO operatives a lesson, they might
just learn to behave themselves for the better permanently. That would
be good for them and for us, as well as for the nation.
Power of the Blogosphere
Meanwhile until that election comes, we in blogosphere must continue
teaching them their much-needed lessons. That is our obligation,
especially now that those whose traditional job is to keep those in power
in check and the public informed – the journalists, reporters, and others
in the fourth estate – have betrayed themselves and their profession.
Ours is not a hopeless cause. We have seen Chief Justice
Ahmad Feiruz unceremoniously rebuffed for extension of his tenure.
Former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has done more to cleanse the
rot that is the Malaysian judiciary with his release of that explosive
tape (showing a senior lawyer attempting to fix a judicial appointment)
than when he was in power!
The mainstream media may have ignored Anwar and that tape, but thanks to
bloggers and citizen journalists of the 'Net, Ahmad Feiruz is now out.
He joins former director of the Anti Corruption Agency, Zulkipli Mat
Noor, another deserved casualty of cyberspace journalism. Our job is to
make sure that this gallery of rogues keeps expanding.
Earlier, Raja Petra exposed the profligate spending of our
"humble" and "pious" Prime Minister Abdullah in acquiring a RM200 million
corporate jet for his use, financed of course by taxpayers' money. Thanks
to Raja Petra's diligent work and pungent expose, Abdullah had to
backtrack his earlier denial by clarifying that the government did not
acquire the aircraft, rather a government-owned "private" entity did.
Such semantic gymnastics and nuances of language!
As for the mainstream commentators, editors and journalists,
they are busy transcribing ministers' press releases. Such flagrant
abuses of power by the powerful do not interest these journalists.
Already through the power of the Internet, BERSIH, a coalition
of NGOs, will be organizing this Saturday, November 10th a massive display
of civic dissatisfaction with the government. Specifically their petition
will address a longstanding problem: fair and honest conduct of
elections, that basic prerequisite of democracy. While I will not be
able to physically take part in this worthy rally, I will be there in
spirit. Already the Istana has berkenan (consented) to receive the
citizens' petition!
Meanwhile UMNO Youth Deputy Leader Khairy has stated his
opposition to the proposed rally. He has asked the government to "come
down hard" on the citizens. Presumably his model is Pakistan's
Musharraf. Someone ought to remind Khairy that it is the basic freedom
of citizens in a democracy to petition their government. We are also
free to associate. One wonders what did he learn at Oxford?
My objective as a committed cyberspace commentator is to make
that rouge gallery bigger. I will not be satisfied, nor will I stop,
until that gallery has the country's biggest rogue included in its
rooster.
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