The Irony of Malaysian Lupa-ness

One definition of the word 'irony' is  'an outcome of events contrary to what was, or might have been, expected'.

It is not to be confused with 'ingratitude' which would be 'unthankfulness' or 'lack of gratitude', though sometimes one could argue, within Malaysian political context, there's connection between the two.

For example, in the 70's when Ibrahim Ali (yes, that Jabba the Hutt bloke) was a student leader and desperately trying to escape detention under the ISA, he frantically sought the help of a Chinese, namely, Lim Kit Siang, then Parliamentary Opposition Leader. In recent times, Jabba the Hutt has been virulently and venomously vicious against most things Chinese, in particular against Lim and his party., the DAP.

Jabba the Hutt

Would this be a typical case of Dr Mahathir's Melayu mudah lupa?

No, because we know Ibrahim Ali is a political survivor par excellence, a cheen chnea ch'am* carma† chameleon, and thus we know that his personal interests, khusus untuk numero uno, would have easily, conveniently and unconscionably suppressed any of that often touted Malay phrase hutang budi, that is if at all any exists in the first place, to Lim Kit Siang.

* cheen chnea ch'am is Chinese for bloody (wakakaka) pitiful

† for 'cari makan', an abbreviation coined by A Samad Said

Naturally, as Opposition Leader, Lim would only be doing his job in ensuring, within the laws, that Ibrahim Ali was not ISA-ed, and which Lim did, and for which he would not expect nor demand any gratitude, and Lim did not.

As I had written in a 2010 post Malaysian meaning of 'gratitude' about the survivor instinct of Ibrahim Ali who had the thick-skinned temerity, or perhaps in this case, we could use 'irony' (wakakaka) of Jabba, to speak about the lack of 'gratitude' of Chinese in Hulu Selangor and Sibu when they disdainfully rejected the PM's offer of campaign pork-barrelling financial allocations, as follows:

Look, if Pakatan becomes the ruling party one day, Ibrahim Ali will be there beside the new Pakatan PM singing a new song titled ‘Reformasi is for me’; if PAS assumes power, Ibrahim Ali will replace the Kulim Wonder as the No 1 Islamic warrior of Malaysia, and in the unlikely event of DAP becoming the ruling party, Ibrahim Ali of course will be in astronaut costume, helmet and all, to show he’s an ardent rocket jock wakakaka.

Jabba the Malaysian astronaut wakakaka

Of course there is nothing for the rakyat to be grateful for a politician's election campaign pork-barrelling, because the offered or allocated funds belong in the first place to tax payers, and not the prime minister or any politician.

In this confusion over or incorrect expectation of 'gratitude', which I posted in Malaysian meaning of 'gratitude', I averred to our Malaysian medieval feudalistic mentality, of still a prevalent belief in some quarters of our society that people are born with a divinely assigned position or status such as rulers, nobles, warriors and vassals, and where the PM (in modern times voted in by the rakyat, but perceived nonetheless as a ruler in our social culture) owns all or most of the land and national assets which he has the authority and prerogative to grant (as if his own) to his supporters in return for their loyalty.

Exploitation of this belief has sometimes been laughingly referred to as the disease of 'sehelai kain pelekat & RM100'.

Mind you, Jabba himself does not believe in the above but don't call it 'irony' but rather, take your pick, 'politicking', 'expediency' or 'hypocrisy', because the reality is that his messages, like most political messages, have been naughtily crafted for his targeted audience.

Okay, let's leave Jabba at his planet Tatooine, and may he stay there forever wakakaka.

Tatooine

When we talk about 'irony' and 'lupa-ness' how could we ever get past Dr Mahathir without reminding ourselves, very sadly, of his Bangsa Malaysia.

Here was a man, a far-sighted Malaysian leader, who took the initiative, with just two words, to infuse us with a sense of harmonious fusion, a sense of all belonging to one nation, a sense of togetherness in one proud nationality, perhaps even that of a new race a la 'Americans' (the gringo variety wakakaka), 'Australian', 'Canadian', etc.

Here is a man who talks about the nonsensical potential of Chinese taking over the country, whipping up Malay nationalism, ensuring we remain as divided as the days before Merdeka and especially immediately post May-13.

Would this be irony, or would it be his accusation of Melayu mudah lupa be the irony?

On the other hand, perhaps his Melayu mudah lupa has been 'prophetic' rather than 'ironical', as he amply demonstrated the veracity of his own accusation by his repetitive selective amnesia over his prime ministerial records.

Perhaps I'll indulge in just one more commentary on Dr Mahathir, the prime minister who during his earliest term, in 1983, promoted the concept of Kepimpinan melalui teladan or leadership by example. In kool parlance it's for leaders  to walk their talk.

Adanyakah?

Addendum @ 1900 hours - see The Malaysian Insider's Ideology and debt: A reply to Dr Mahathir by Pak Sako, who wrote that Dr Mahathir, who had complained about the injustices of the neo-liberal international order, had himself (during his government) introduced neo-liberal policies including the massive privatisation strategy (sometimes referred to cynically as 'piratisation' strategy) - 'twas said to be the policy linked to 'increased competition for resources within the ruling Malay party', and which redistributed resources 'in favour of emerging factions centred on key political leaders'.

Hmmm, another of his mudah lupa-ness?

Let's move on to ...... wakakaka ..... no, I'll let him off today, though I won't his followers, those M-cube, the Mindless Manmanlai Myrmidons - see my post Mindless Malaysian Myrmidons wakakaka.

Now, in my previous post, someone asked me to write something about Princess Nurul Izzah. Here goes, though it may not be what he/she expected.

Now, this would not be unfamiliar to you who read blogs. Those M-cube would frequently demand that Marina Mahathir (I presume you know who she is wakakaka) in her writing denounces her father before they would consider her as clean and acceptable.

Apart from Marina ignoring those totally senseless demands (unlike me she is polite and courteous, whereas I would just use the f*-o word wakakaka), as an Asian I believe it is utterly cruel and unreasonable for someone to demand that a son or daughter publicly condemns his/her parent, regardless of who the parent is or has done, I would not respect Marina if she ever publicly denounces any of her parents, no matter what they might have done, even (wakakaka) mass murders.

One can disagree with one’s parents and refuse to do what they do or what they want one to do, but one can never, should never ever badmouth them, no matter what their sins. As Chinese would say, a put-hau (unfilial) child is an affront to the Heavens.

I once wrote that Marina Mahathir is only responsible for her own conduct and the master of her own destiny. Her father’s should be those of her father. She doesn't need to be unfilial just to be accepted, which should be solely on her own conduct, rights and merits.

Just look at RPK’s post Your 10 questions with Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir* , where one of the visitors left this terrible moronic mindless comment:

* incidentally, RPK was incorrect in addressing her as Datin (implying her husband was the Datuk) when she is in fact a Datuk in her own rights - wonder how her husband should be addressed? Dateeen? wakakaka

Never bother to read what she wrote. Never believe she is an angel in Bersih 2. The many many SINS from her Mamak Papa to the Rakyat of Malaysia can never be cleansed and forgiven. Please remember that every night you go to sleep. Same to your brothers.

His (or her) mentality is not unlike the Israelites’ belief in the biblical saying that the sins of the father will be visited upon their children for several generations …

Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me – Deuteronomy 5:9

or

I will even repay into their bosom, both their own iniquities and the iniquities of their fathers together – Isaiah 65:6-7

… which I opine is utter nonsense on the basis of logic, commonsense and secular justice, but then, a mindless Manmanlai Myrmidon could never ever understand logic or commonsense.

What if we were to demand that Nurul Izzah denounces her father for a host of evil sins? As I promised I won’t raise those sins here, but if you’re interested, please see my post Mindless Malaysian Myrmidons; if you want to continue to be an ostrich wakakaka, then skip it.

Shouldn't it be also good for the goose whatever is good for the gander?

In my post A Tale of Two Sweeties I wrote:

… whatever good Marina Mahathir might have done (as in AIDS and women affairs), they (as well as some UMNO-BN people too) would impute some ignoble motive on her part [...]

Then there were others who questioned her ’enjoyment of the privileges’ of being a PM’s daughter as if she could only be free of guilt if she had chosen someone else to be her parents. Such has been the stupidity of those mindless comments.

And incidentally, did Nurul not enjoy the same privileges when Anwar was the powerful rightwing DPM from UMNO?

It’s frightening that these people, who like their leaders, claim to fight for democracy, have 'ironically' shown themselves to be most undemocratically authoritarian, attempting to shout down at and silence anyone who has written unfavorably about their party and leaders. There’s no Voltaire-like understanding of free speech or democracy.

Irony? Lupa-ness? No, it’s just plain double standards!