3 of the worst in election campaigns

There is a Western folk superstition that all things (good or bad) come in threes.

hmmm, after serious considerations, I assess the above as 'good', wakakaka 

nah, wakakaka 

Not surprisingly, there is even an example of the deep belief in this saying among some Westerners that there was once a servant who after accidentally breaking an expensive wine glass, quickly picked two very cheap glass items to break, so as to complete the ominous prediction of that superstition, and of course to avoid breaking anymore expensive stuff.

I came across that saying in secondary school when my English teacher put us through an endless drill of knowing, understanding and then writing essays on our own experiences reflecting several English sayings.

The worst, vis-a-vis my essay writing, was Winston Churchill's "I have nothing to offer you but blood, toil, tears and sweat".

I still remember my English teacher's emotional pantomime a la Mark Anthony, with one of his hands (palm down) sweeping horizontally across my class, when he expressed Churchill's immortalised saying, wakakaka.

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.

The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones;
So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious:

If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answer’d it.

etc etc etc

Yes, on 10 May 199040*, in his first address as prime minister of Great Britain, then facing a mighty Nazi Germany in WWII which started on 03 September 1939, Churchill told the British people, “I have nothing to offer you but blood, toil, tears and sweat”.

* typo pointed out by visitor Monsterball but who described it as 'fake', wakakaka

Now, how the hell was I going to write an essay based on my personal experience when I or every student in my class wan't even born yet, wakakaka. But one of my uncles, wise man that he was and still is, advised me to write that as if I was told a WWII story by an elder - kowtim.

The second occasion I came across the saying was in reading Arthur C Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama, a very popular sci-fi book (which eventually became a series). I read all the books in this series as I loved (still do) those tales.

In Clarke's story, a strange spaceship made a passage through our solar system bypassing Earth. But there was a small window (of time) available for Earth's astronauts to make a visit to the ship and the objective of the expedition, an inspection of it and anything else, before the alien ship left the solar system.

Our intrepid astronauts then found on their visit that everything on board the spaceship had been triplicated - yes, 3 of everything.

And as the spaceship was about to leave our solar system for good, and the astronauts reluctantly left it before it was too far away for them to return to Earth, the final sentence of Rendezvous with Rama had one of the characters in the book having the thought in mind, that the builders of the spaceship, which they called Ramans, do everything in threes.

Once I was taking about 'all good things come in threes' to a sweetheart when she attempted to correct me by her rendition of 'all good things come in trees', providing examples of mangoes, cempedak and durians, etc.

It took a while before she grudgingly accepted that my saying with 'numerals' was the correct one rather than her things arboreal, wakakaka.

But in this post, I will discuss 3 of the worst things that our politicians and/or political parties have said or done in their election campaigns in recent times, well, perhaps not so recent, wakakaka.

Let's start with Najib (BN):

(1) In January 2014 he made his kangkung remarks, which earned him a lot of opprobrium.

(2) This month he made another politically incorrect remark about eating quinoa. Oh Dios mío! Wakakaka.

quinoa 

(3) Today, the MM Online publishes No temple demolished if BN wins Selangor in GE14, PM’s aide says.

That statement of election campaign promise might have been made by the PM's aide but it's as good as coming from the PM.

Extracts of that news article in its first two paragraphs says:

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 25 — No more temples would be demolished if Barisan Nasional (BN) wins Selangor in the upcoming 14th general election (GE14), according to Special Officer to the Prime Minister Isham Jalil.

In a special interview with Tamil Nesan editor-in-chief K. Padmanabhan recently, Isham said the BN government now is strongly against wrongful demolition of temples.

Sri Muneeswarar Kaliamman Temple on Jalan P Ramlee

Quite frankly, the news article headline plus the first two paragraph sound really bad, as if the PM (through his aide) was making a threat to Hindus, wakakaka, a la 'Vote for me, then no more temple will be demolished'.

To be fair, the following paragraphs show a different shade, as follows (extracts):

“Religious tolerance and mutual respect among ethnic communities in this country are paramount. Since Datuk Seri Najib Razak became Prime Minister in 2009, a lot of emphasis had been given to the importance of understanding and tolerance among the multi-ethnic communities,” he said.

Isham said a huge sum amounting to more than RM50 million had been allocated for the upgrading and maintenance of temples in the country for the Hindu community.

“However, I am sad to hear that on the contrary in Selangor, since Pakatan took over the state government in 2008, twenty temples have been demolished by the state authority,” he added.

Isham was responding to a question posed by Padmanabhan on the recent demolition of a Hindu temple in Masai, Johor, that was purportedly done by the Johor state government, but in actuality was carried out by the private land owner.

If the headlines have been: RM50 million had been allocated for Hindu temples, wouldn't that be better?

Wakakaka, but that have been Najib's 3 worst pronunciations (though, as mentioned, the last was a MM Online's headline but tough for him).

Okay-dokey, let's look at the DAP and Lim Kit Siang (and I'll be brief, wakakaka):

(1) This one, to be fair to the DAP (but it's vicariously responsible in a way) is more of its supporters' doing than the party itself.

The pro-DAP cybertroopers have been excessively abusive, feral and uncouth. They behave like ravenously hungry hyenas, vultures and African wild dogs.

They're turning voters off with their terrible obscenities and unreasonableness. As a DAP supporter I have been appalled by how they had even gone against Sangeet Singh, daughter of our beloved late Karpal Singh, slandering her with abuses.

(2) There's a lot of negativism in DAP politicians' statements, announcements and silly 'I dare you' in their election campaign, rather than what its positives are, like its policies, programs and plans after GE14 (other than broad brief promises).

I believe many who support DAP have been fatigued by the party's incessant excessively negative campaign. DAP's anointed PM-designate even insulted voters by saying those who felt that boycotting the election would make no difference were “shallow-minded”. 

Not a clever move to insult voters and not good for the DAP who reaps vicarious responsibility for the insult because of its too-close association with Mahathir.

Lastly but not least:

(3) having Mahathir among the Pakatan team and worse, as its PM-designate.

This is and will be the singular losing factor for Pakatan and thus the DAP. His contribution (penetrating the Malay Heartland) will be minimum whilst his exploitation of Pakatan at the expense of particularly Amanah and PKR will be maximum, all for his own Pribumi's interests.

DAP supporters have been asking: In GE14 are we going to have to choose between UMNO and UMNO?

no f**king difference 

What profit then has he brought to Pakatan?

I'll leave you with these.