Tottering Malaysians?

Look, I don’t want to be a bloke who damps down on a bit of fun, but the point is that this claims not to be about fun.

Rather, it claims to be a response to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s call to the nation to produce 'towering Malaysians'. Next year 35 Malaysians will be going to Egypt in an attempt to cover the Great Pyramid of Giza with a giant national flag and those of the 57 members of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC).

It’s a RM 200,000 expedition, funded by this and that ministry, basically public money. Of course 2 Cabinet ministers will join the fantastic expedition to the Land of the 2 Niles. And the event will naturally be logged in the Malaysia Book of Records.

The mission has been assigned the distinguished title of 'Malaysian Peace Mission' and has the additional task of promoting the country and showing strong support for the Prime Minister, who as OIC chairman intends to uphold the dignity and image of Muslim nations.

Towering Malaysians?

I think we are in trouble if the objective of the expedition is supposed to demonstrate Towering Malaysians in action. Somewhere along the way we seem to have lost track of values. Mind you, this sort of jolly can serve to opiate the dissatisfied rakyat (people) - perhaps that may be the true aim.

I would have love to read the objectives of the expedition proposed as follows:

“It claims to be a response to Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s call to the nation to produce 'towering Malaysians'. Next year 35 Malaysians will be going to Darfur in Sudan to operate a medical cum aid centre for war refugees. They aim to fly our national flag and those of the 57 members of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) proudly over the Malaysian run refugee centre.”

“The mission has been assigned the distinguished title of 'Malaysian Peace Mission' and has the task of demonstrating the country's compassion and humanitarian values in real terms, and at the same time, showing strong support for the Prime Minister, who as OIC chairman intends to uphold the dignity, image and compassion of Muslim nations.”

But I suppose that's just too much to expect!

Then, given that it won't be a jolly, the following would probably appear:

"Two Cabinet ministers will see the team off at the airport. They lamented their inability to accompany the team to Darfur due to their heavy parliamentary schedule."