Flogging a dead horse

Technorati tags: Politics, Religion, Pope, Apology, Islam, Christianity

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Dead horse to most, important issue worth flogging to some

Yesterday, Walski was reading about the Youth Wing of PAS (or Baby PAS as blogger Alphabet Soup calls 'em) organizing a Dead Horse Flogging Rally this afternoon (Friday, September 22), announced on several inter-related blogs. You can read all about it here.

The plan is to flog the dead horse, hard and plenty of times enough, to actually resurrect it. Once resurrected, the horse will be despatched to Pope Benedict XVI (either via FedEx or DHL, we're not sure).

The resurrected equine will then insist that the Pope retract portions of his talk, delivered at Regensburg University about a week or so ago, the portion that has caused so much furor within the Muslim world. The Pope, of course, wouldn't be able to refuse, since he heard it from the horse's mouth.

Presumably, the resurrected horse will also carry with it instructions on how to build a time machine, which the Pope will use to travel back in time to 15th century Byzantium, where he would need to track down Emperor Manual II Palaiologos and promptly b*tch-slap the Emperor, "persuading" him to retract what he said about the Prophet Muhammad.

Or, prevent him from making the offensive remark, if the Emperor hadn't already uttered those dastardly words.

It depends. Time travel can be a little confusing that way.

So, NO offensive words from Byzantium Emperor - fast forward to the present, NO offending reference made by Pope Benedict, Muslims the world over are happy campers once again. Case closed.

Now, if all that seem a little far-fetched, wait till you read about the real reason for the rally.
(more dead horse flogging in the full post)

The rally will convene at 2pm (after Friday prayers) to protest the remarks by the Pope, and to insist that the Pope retract his remarks, deemed to have insulted Islam.

And where will the rally be held? At the Jamek Mosque, Kampung Baru, KL. But, of course! Where else would it be held - St. John's Cathederal?

Unless Walski has missed some critical logical linkage somewhere along the line - what on earth is the rally hoping to achieve? Walski has no problem with them holding a peaceful rally - that's their democratic right - but to what end?

Walski will bet his bottom dollar ringgit that Pope Benedict will not be there. Neither will any representatives from the Vatican, to the best of our knowledge. The hot air that will be vented (and knowing PAS there will be a lot of it) may contribute to global warming, but it probably won't persuade the pontiff one iota.

It's a little difficult to get someone to comply with your demands, when they don't actually know about those demands or can't hear them.

So the rally, therefore (unless Baby PAS are really, really naive), must have another achievable purpose. And in Walski's opinion, it is nothing more than getting a little political mileage out of this whole Pope controversy. Elementary, my dear Watson.

With the price of petrol still at RM 1.92 per liter, it's not really known just how much mileage Baby PAS can get. Flogging a dead horse may keep the issue alive, or invite the wrath of the RSPCA, but to expect anything else out of it would be a little silly.

Knowing PAS (daddy, mommy and baby included), though, any dead horse worth flogging will be flogged, so as long as there's some political payback. They are, after all, a political party. Of course, they have to be seen as defenders of the faith - nevermind that their actions won't amount to much - action is more important than results.

Which is probably why, in their announcing the horse-flogging protest rally, they have invited all editors and reporters of the mass media. What a bunch of media sluts (no offence intended to the real mediaslut).

But media-whoring works - it gets your agenda out - any photo or press opportunity will be fully taken advantage of. That's what underdog political organizations tend to do. So Walski wishes them all the best in getting whatever mileage they can out of this, while they can.

The Pope has apologized, and the issue, as stated by many Muslim leaders the world over, is now moot. So, time, therefore, is of the essense. There are only so many times that a dead horse can be flogged, before it falls apart and decomposes; disappearing into the mist of distant political memory.

Walski's RSPCA appeasement notice: No actual horses - alive, dead or resurrected - were harmed in the making of this post. In fact no horses were used at all. Any resemblace to actual alive/dead/resurrected horses is purely coincidental.