Crisis on critical thinking

Two and a half years ago I posted Mean-spirited Malaysians in which where I criticised both sides of Malaysian politics, with some individual exceptions (eg. Ku Li, Zaid Ibrahim, Lim KS, Dr Jeya),  for their lack of civility, mean-spiritedness and politicization of even the most trivial and non-political issues.

On the BN side, we witnessed how the UMNO-led federal government shamefully and illegally withheld financial allocations to Pakatan MPs while providing handsome sums to their BN counterparts. Such public funded allocations are part and parcel of a MP’s local budget to spend for his/her constituency’s requirements and benefits, and not from the personal kitty of UMNO, PM or Finance Minister.

I remarked:

The irony is there are actually BN supporters in those electorates represented by non-BN MPs and ADUNs. Such is the BN's spite that they would punish their own supporters as well. Perhaps those BN supporters should wake up and rethink who they ought to support the next time around.

I also wrote on:

… BN's denial of oil royalties to then PAS-ruled Terengganu and now PAS-ruled Kelantan. 

The States’ right to oil royalties has been enshrined as a legal Federal-State contract but the BN government has arrogantly ignored that, and is spitefully frustrating the PAS State government (then and now) in a disgraceful mean-spirited manner. 

We have also read with disgust how the current federal government is channeling financial allocations for maintaining Penang’s heritage listings through Khazanah Nasional rather than the Pakatan government in Penang. 

Just WTF has the investment holding arm of the government, roled as its strategic investor in new industries and markets, got to do with maintenance of the heritage buildings etc?

Not sparing Pakatan, I commented that:

… DAP people stepped on the photos/posters of the Perak frogs as they entered the venue. Totally unpleasant, and I’m glad Lim GE took avoiding steps. […] 

PAS of course has been known to issue a couple of death (or tummy upset) curses wakakaka at their opponents in the BN - c'mon lah, Pak Haji!

And of course I didn’t omit that political pygmy, that Chief Dökkálfar troll (how could I, wakakaka) for his self-promotion via his unjustifiably pompous ‘thunderous applause’ on his pitiful pathetic pariah 'success' in having Rosmah Mansor removed as chancellor of Universiti Industri Selangor (Unisel) before her term expired. Pray tell me, what earth-shaking PKR public policy was this?

I wrote in another post that:

I presume after that fantastic Azmin Ali’s achievement, there was better food on the tables of Malaysians, rental costs became more affordable, fuel prices dropped, school education standards improved, streets became cleaner, sand mining in Selangor was better controlled, birds sang cheerily and rainbows span the Selangor sky every day, etc.

It’s not just the poverty of standard of Malaysian politicians that I opined but that there’s a lamentable mean-spiritedness in Malaysian politics ... […] … I hope DAP will never descend to such petty bickering.

Alas, my hopes have been dashed by M Manoharan, DAP’s Kota Alam Shah ADUN, who has been foolish enough to make snide remarks on Twitter against one of Malaysia’s two globally eminent sportspersons, Lee Chong Wei (the other being world squash champion, Nicole Ann David) - see Malaysiakini's Manoharan gets brickbats over tweets on Chong Wei.

Regrettably Manoharan has politicized Malaysian sports in his twittering, and diminishes DAP's standing with the public, especially sports fans. I'd be surprised if BN pollies don't make hay out of this.

I am doubly disappointed because I was one of the few DAP supporters who defended him on the flag issue, in my post Flagging DAP's political cringe.

I castigated the DAP party disciplinary board for its decision to whack Manoharan with a 6 month suspension for what was Manoharan's very legitimate opinion (expressed on his Facebook page).

I wrote in that post:

Manoharan wanted the Jalur Gemilang redesigned because it shows too much of a resemblance to the national flag of the USA - incidentally an undeniable and, to many, embarrassing fact - an association that today is a not only a stigma, but a dangerous stigma, given the hatred for the USA throughout a large portion of our globe. 

Now, on what grounds did the DAP disciplinary board find Manoharan’s comments ‘serious’? That DAP MPs, ADUNs and members must not express their own and legitimate opinions? Sheeesh! 

The truth, I believe, is that the DAP has demonstrated it suffers from political cringe, afraid of UMNO’s racist attacks on Manoharan’s alleged unpatriotic call. 

I reckon DAP must have felt that in the wake of Mat Sabu’s opinion on a piece of Malaya’s colonial history, it may be too much against the party’s endeavour to win Malay confidence in the party’s Malaysian-ness. So, Manoharan has to be sembileh (sacrificed as an offering) to the Trimurti (gods) of racism, bigotry and intolerance. 

I am truly disappointed, but I want Manoharan to know there are DAP supporters and members who believe he has been perfectly within his rights as a Malaysian citizen to propose a redesign of Jalur Gemilang, which by the way, belongs to every Malaysian and not just UMNO members.

But Manoharan has proven to be a bit of a loose cannon, this time putting his big foot in his even bigger mouth by his unnecessary unjustified and indefensible tweet against Lee Chong Wei.

It’s not unlike the unnecessary, cruel and highly politicized bashing of our Malaysian astronaut or space tourist, yes, you could class him as you saw fit, but was there any need to attack him personally, just because he was under contract with the government and made to travel around the country with Najib?

Not unlike the astronaut, Lee Chong Wei has been perceived by some quarters of having 'sinned' by not making the required ritual of bashing Rosmah Mansor.

RPK commented in his latest post The problem is you, Rosmah on this Malaysian political mean-spiritedness with regards to (BAM Patron) Rosmah Mansor’ trip to London to support Lee in the Olympics, as follows:

People hate her so they need to whack her. And her trip to London is a good issue to bring up. Even if Lee Chong Wei had won gold she would still have been whacked, mainly because she is Rosmah. It makes it even better when Lee Chong Wei did not win gold. 

If Dr Siti Hasmah had remained the Patron of BAM then no one would have been angry about her going to London. Some still would, of course, mainly because she is Dr Mahathir’s wife. But most wouldn’t. 

If someone other than Rosmah or Dr Siti Hasmah were the Patron of BAM then the trip to London would have been a non-issue. 

Pro-PKR portals like Malaysia Chronicle attribute Lee Chong Wei’s failure to win gold as Rosmah’s failure. “TOP CHEERLEADER ROSMAH FAILS! Olympic dream eludes Chong Wei,” screamed Malaysia Chronicle. 

I suppose if Lee Chong Wei had won gold then the headline would have been … hmm … I wonder what the headline would have been. Got to find out from Tian Chua.

RPK had in an earlier post Critical thinking to change the government made the sarcastic comments that:

...  to demonstrate that I am a loyal opposition supporter and have not sold out, I shall now oppose the plan to introduce critical thinking into Malaysia’s education system. 

Critical thinking is an idea that comes from the government and anything that comes from the government is either bad or, even if it is good, cannot be sincere. 

But I will need to support my stand of opposing critical thinking with a valid argument. Well, there may be one good argument I can use, an issue that is currently being hotly debated. And that issue is the Islamic law of Hudud. 

If we allow critical thinking, Malays would question the practicalities and viability of introducing Hudud in Malaysia. They would look into the history of the Sharia and analyse the reasons why the Sharia exists and so on. And, by applying critical thinking, many Malays may come to the conclusion that Hudud is no longer practical or applicable to modern-day Malaysia. 

Critical thinking allows the Malays to think. But thinking Malays may not be beneficial to the opposition’s aspiration of forming the new federal government. 

So, if we want to see Umno defeated and also see Pakatan Rakyat form the next federal government, we will need to ensure that PAS wins a large portion of the 70 seats it is going to contest. Only then can Umno be brought down and Pakatan Rakyat get to form the new federal government. 

Hence the Malays must be made to believe that Hudud is compulsory and that Malaysia must implement the Islamic laws of Hudud. And the Malays must also be made to believe that it is their religious duty to vote for PAS and not for Umno. And this will also mean that the Malays must not be allowed critical thinking or else they may reject Hudud and PAS would not get their votes. 

But PAS cannot do this alone. The Malays are of the opinion that the non-Muslims are opposed to Hudud. And Umno is capitalising on this and is playing up the issue. In fact, today, the Umno Blogs are even saying that DAP has a secret plan to turn Malaysia into a Christian state. 

Hence the non-Muslims must openly declare that they support not only Hudud but also PAS’s aspiration of turning Malaysia into an Islamic State. Only then will PAS have a chance of winning the 70 seats it is going to contest. 

And only then will ABU succeed and Pakatan Rakyat get to form the next federal government. 

And please do not apply critical thinking to what I just said. Critical thinking is what the government is proposing and anything that the government proposes we must oppose if we are loyal opposition supporters.

Wakakaka!