The Last Communist or Communalist?

Here’s a man who tells the truth and be damned, and bugger those who don’t like what he said.

Home Minister Radzi Sheikh Ahmad said it was for UMNO party’s supreme council, and not the Cabinet, to decide whether the film The Last Communist may be screened locally.

Yes sir, the minister said the UMNO Supreme Council, from a political party, shall be the one to give the green light on an issue of official security-related banning of a film.

And if it seems strange that a cabinet minister of a nation, that claims to be a democracy, puts an unelected unrepresentative organ of a political party above that of the highest official organ of a democracy, that’s peopled by elected representatives of the Malaysian people, well, f**king get used to it. But look at the bright side, at least Radzi didn’t mess around. He went straight for the jugular.

He explained that when it comes to the issue of communism, UMNO is a lot more involved than the Cabinet. Obviously the bloke, truthful as he may be, has utterly no concept or understanding of what democracy and parliament are all about. How in the world did such a political imbecile ever become a minister?

This is the calibre of minister we have, who made such idiotic pronouncement without a thought for, if not anything, at least the semblance of parliamentary proprietary.

He continued: “When it comes to communism, UMNO (people) have very strong sentiments about it.”

What about those two Chinese police inspectors who were awarded Malaysia’s medal for highest gallantry, the SP (equivalent of the British Victoria Cross or the US Congressional Medal of Honour) or the young Chinese and Indian army and air force officers who received the PGB, second only to the SP. Don’t these heroes have any sentiments about the insurgency?

MPs were recently given a private screening of The Last Communist on Sunday. Not one found the film controversial or provocative. This was after the National Film Censorship Board had approved it without a single cut, and likewise by a group of Special Branch officers.

Now Radzi, who is also UMNO secretary-general, wants to provide a private screening for UMNO’s supreme council in June when they meet so that a political party, not the cabinet, will decide whether to lift the ban.

I am not sure whether he’s doing this to screw up a free show for his mates, or to save face for his stupid mindless banning in the first place. But whichever, he has insulted Malaysia’s highest authority, the cabinet.

I am sure Lim Kit Siang would come out with all sorts of political procedures to make Radzi as The Last Communalist.

But reporters had the last laugh as they asked Radzi whether his unjustified banning of the film has actually made The Last Communist by Amir Muhammad, considered unimpressive by many MPs, more popular and a must-see among the young.

Again Radzi said truthfully he did not plan it that way. You see, the truth was he was actually planning to score some brownie points from UMNO upper echelon and cheap popularity among his party’s converted. Even then he didn't get it right by providing the film with free publicity.