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Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Pot calling the kettle black: Which politicians are playing up small problems?

Read a report in the Sun today, now my favorite mainstream media newspaper. It featured our Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister with the heading "Politicians playing up small problems, says Najib'. In the report, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak was reported as saying politicians (by implications I assume, the opposition) are playing up small problems which then end up as big issues because the various races magnify them.

Negarakuku: expression of frustration of a Chinese educated Malaysian via a rap
by Namewee (Wee Meng Chee). Namewee is only an insignificant Malaysian studying in Taiwan who was used by politicians to draw attention away from other more important issues affecting Malaysia


This is clearly what I would call the pot calling the kettle black. Perhaps not even that because I don't think the kettle (the opposition) are "black". Look at the issue of Namewee (Wee Meng Chee) who made parody calling attention to the real problems that exists in our country by making a Negarakuku rap. The whole government machineries plus the mainstream mass media was used against a small insignificant 24 year old undergraduate in a Taiwanese University which drew calls for him to be recalled for retributions and many politicians screamed for his citizenship to be withdrawn. What crime has he committed? Did he siphoned off huge amount of public funds like what many are suspected of doing but against whom no acton are taken? I suspect this is a ploy to draw public attention away from the much bigger problems like the huge Port Klang Free Zone fiasco, the misuse and mismanagement of public funds plus the lack of action to investigate these scandalous abuse, the Alantuya Shaahriibuu murder case, the Islamic state issue and a whole list of others big issues of public importance.

Worst still, the Speaker of the Parliament who controls the debate and is paid from public fund to facilitate debates on issues of critical importance to Malaysia, seem to be acting in the interest of the ruling coalition. Whenever proposals to discuss issues of great importance, such as the Port Klang Free Zone fiasco, is brought up, the Speaker who is supposed to be impartial, invariable rule the proposal as of no importance or not relevant, and disallow them to be debated. How is Malaysia going to achieve this vision of becoming a developed country with situations like this?

The Islamic state issue is not a small issue because from what I know of a real Islamic state, its citizens are not equal. The people of the Book (Christians, Jews) are dhimmis who have to pay a special tax to the Islamic authorities and have less rights than a Muslim. The Christians who have to pay tithes to the Church (which are not deductable from Income Tax while the Muslim who pay zakat get theirs deducted from Income Tax) will end up paying 3 taxes - the Income Tax (which seem to be squandered), the tithes and the special tax to the Islamic authorities. I don't know about the plight of the non-Muslim who are not people of the Book. I would suppose they would have even less rights than a Muslim. These are real issue which rightly the non-Muslim are concerned about and which they will need to rebut, and yet their right to voice out their complaints are suppressed by the directive that only the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister are allowed to make statements in the mainstream mass media.

So now, who is calling who "black"?

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