The Malaysian Insider - Pakatan Kedah must resolve issues, says Kit Siang.
A policy statement from a truly national leader who, while supporting the frustrated struggles of his Kedah state branch with the PAS state government, also works for the greater good of maintaining the political cohesion of the Pakatan Rakyat.
The abattoir issue might have been perceived by DAP Kedah as the final straw (in a series of frustration), but Lim is sending the message that political resolution (a) will not be achieved by mudslinging via the media a la a certain ‘two brothers’, and (b) there is no such thing as a 'final straw' in an ideologically-diverse coalition - one should expect/accept such to be the norm, and to rise to the challenge, even one of Gordian-knottish proportion.
I could write a lengthy post on the position of the DAP in Kedah, but suffice to say, the party state leaders should heed Lim Kit Siang’s advice.
Meanwhile, on to another type of national leadership.
Sin Chew reported in Sending pigs into the living halls of Malaysians that Info Minister Rais Yatim insisted on the Malaysian media using the term ‘swine fever’ in contrast to the rest of the world. In fact the minister issued instructions to this effect ...
... hmmm, why go to such extent of (as suggested by Sin Chew) sending pigs into the living halls of Malaysians?
The news report (translated from Chinese by Sin Chew itself, and published in its English online edition – kaytee has corrected some incorrect spelling, such as bombasted’ into ‘bombarded’, etc) states:
[...] As a matter of fact, I do sympathize with these broadcasters. Being Muslims, they are naturally sensitive to pigs. However, instructions from their superiors have forced them to repeat these few words on a daily or even hourly basis.
As non-Muslims, even we find it extremely discordant to the ears hearing it, and I wonder whether our Muslim audience would feel comfortable being bombarded with the word 'babi'.
This has inevitably raised a question what information minister Datuk Seri Rais Yatim has in his mind that he must enforce that the media switch to the term ‘selsema babi’ or ‘swine flu’!
Is the mission of the information ministry to arouse disgust among the public, or to create linguistic pollution, lower the country's broadcasting standards or to smear the Malaysian society?
Of course, in this multicultural society of Malaysia, sending the pigs into living halls of Malaysians of various ethnic groups could only accentuate the repulsion (or should this be 'revulsion') between the races.
I was thinking the duty of the information ministry is to promote inter-racial unity.
Rais has his explanation. He said A(H1N1) was too tough on the mouth, and that ‘Influenza A’ sounded awkward.
If news broadcasters could not get the pronunciation right, I think they should go through renewed training.
As if that is not enough, no countries in the world could offer so ridiculous reasons to change A(H1N1) into swine flu.
I'm curious how Rais thinks, and am perplexed why he has a unique passion for this word.
Well kaytee is not curious because I have commented in a previous post Zaid Ibrahim joining PKR - Turning point for MCA? that since March 2008 (when Chinese support for BN continues to plummet to abysmal figures) UMNO appears to on a continuing covert crusade to demonise or threaten Chinese through a campaign which included:
... stirring up ethnic suspicion and even hatred in the anti Chin Peng return, a basically anti Chinese stirring which Anwar Ibrahim has cleverly exploited for PKR's political gain to UMNO's loss,
* incidentally a couple of weeks ago a sweetie informed me that Museum Negara will hold an exhibition on the Emergency, which undoubtedly will carry the underlying message of how cruel those Chinese commies were (and I suspect, be silent on the participation of Malay commies in the CPM)
... the inexplicable resurrection (coming out of the f* left field) by Rais of a possible prosecution against Namawee, a case long closed and deeply buried after MCA had organized a public apology by the Chinese rapper for his negarakuku song
And this came long after his predecessor Zainuddin Maidin had (2 years ago) dismissed it as a ‘wee’ issue when the blogger had already made a public apology – see my 2007 post KJ & MCA - malaysiakini & Star.
Why the f* then is Rais Yatim evoking all these, if not as part of a sinister UMNO campaign.
what the f#ck you are surprise with the antics from this dinosaur?
ReplyDeletegee, he didnt even believe in his own thesis which gave him the prestigious PHD title. what can you expect from this sort of character? and he is a minister! gosh, malaysia deserves better.