Dumbstruck and Pantyless

Technorati tags: Humor, Politics, Nazri Aziz, Journalism, De facto, Defective

There are two separate, and mostly unrelated, things to tell you folks today. Both have to do with politics, but otherwise have nothing to do with each other, per se. It's just that putting the two together made for a great post title.

First, the Pantyless part.

Yesterday, Sunday morning, Walski began his day, as usual reading e-mails and browsing thru the morning's news items, when he came across this report, via Malaysiakini.

The mis-read headline (via Malaysiakini)

Not really anything out of the ordinary. But being not really a morning person, and whose eyesight probably leaves much to be desired first thing after waking up, at a glance, Walski could've sworn that the headline read

Pantyless state rep turns up at PRS meeting

Now that would really have been an infinitely more interesting human interest read, don't you think? Imagine all the investigative journalism that could've been applied... like, why wasn't the rep wearing panties... or the real purpose of turning up at the meeting pantyless (and the bizarre possibilities to account for it)... or does he prefer the lacy kind or the normal polyester stretch type. Or if crotchless panties are in his collection. Or any from Victoria Secret... the list of questions is endless...

Instead, it was another humdrum article about an elected state rep without a party. But who needs a party when one can serve the people just as well, eh? Same question Walski would throw at Zaid Ibrahim - perhaps one of UMNO's more prominent voices of conscience, as Harris calls him, and whom many don't think UMNO deserves to have in its fold.

Speaking of UMNO, and a nice segueway into the Dumbstruck bit... is this particular YB - the acronym which could, in this case, mean Yang Bodoh, Yang Bengap, Yang Biadap or a whole slew of other possibilities... other than Yang Berhormat (or some might even argue Berkhidmat).
(the bodoh-bodoh-bodoh YB, and more, in the full post)

Yes, boys and girls, it's none other than our de fective facto Law Minister, Nazri "Bodoh^∞" Aziz (that's Bodoh-to-the-power-of-infinity, incidentally), who really showed his de fective facto -ness in a recent interview published by the NST yesterday (Sunday). You can read the entire interview, with commentary, over at Malik Imtiaz's blog (here and here).

Now, Malik's commentary, of course, is one coming from a learned counsel. Articulate and lawyerly. Walski, however, isn't anywhere nearly as kind. So, let's select some of the juicier Q&A, and Walski will tell you what he thinks of it - which will probably explain why Walski was dumbstruck by some of what this Yang Bengong had to say.

Q: Is the tenure of the chief justice going to be extended?
A: I don’t know. I don’t know anything.

Yeah, that about sums it up, doesn't it? Which pretty much explains why he's a de fective facto Law Minister, as opposed to a real one.

Q: If you just take into account what is printed in the media and what comes out in the blogs, it would appear that there is a crisis in the judiciary.
A: To me, if there were no newspapers, if there were no blogs, then it’s just mere chit-chat in the coffeeshop. That’s all.

Q: Coffeeshop chit-chat is not important?
A: No. The people are important. This is a government elected by the people, for the people. So, people means the majority. If we didn’t have blogs, if we didn’t have newspapers, who in this world would know about it? But because of technological developments, you are able to chit-chat (about it). It’s just chit-chat.

Q: But the fear that is felt is genuine.
A: So what do you want me to do? Ban all these bloggers? Shut down all the newspapers? I don’t think so. We must live with the fact that this is now a modern world. Technology has enabled us to get to know each other so news gets moved faster.

Q: So, you don’t think it’s important to try to address the worries of these people?
A: No. It’s not important. Why do you put so much importance on bloggers? You know what rubbish has been written in the blogs?

Which, in effect shows us all what Nazri thinks of feedback. It's all talk... Elephant Talk. Or coffeeshop chit chat, in his words - inconsequential and unimportant. The people are important, but not important enough to address worries that they may have... what the fuck's wrong with this picture?

Oh, did someone mention blogs?

Q: Do you read blogs?
A: I don’t. I don’t waste my time. The few pieces that people print for me are just rubbish. I’d rather spend my time to do things that are constructive; that go down directly to the people who are really in need of the help of the government. Our bloggers are really not up to standard. When they put up something, it’s not something that they want to discuss in a very intellectual way. It’s more because of their anger - the language they use. Why should I read all this rubbish? When the standard of our bloggers is upgraded, then probably I will look at what is written. But anyway, they are a minority. My concern is for the majority.

Q: Indians in Malaysia are a minority. Does that mean that they don’t count?
A: No, not in that minority sense. I am talking about bloggers. When you talk about minority in the sense of perkauman, they are very important, because they are our rakyat, a rakyat that needs to be helped. Bloggers don’t need to be helped. They are merely throwing rubbish into the blog.

I have no concern for and care about bloggers.

The problems of Indians as a minority is different from the problems of the bloggers. You must appreciate that. I don’t care about the bloggers, but I do care about the minority Indians. In my constituency, I take care of them. You can go to my constituency and see what I have done for the Indian minority. I was the one to open the training in Mara for the Indian youths. These are my concerns.

Incidentally, our ASEAN brethren Indonesia has really started to embrace blogs as valid citizen feedback - so much so that October 27 was declared by the Indonesian government as National Bloggers Day (via Unspun). Meanwhile, on this side of the Melaka Straits, our leaders realize full well that it's a brand new technologically enabled world that we live in, while having their head firmly stuck in the sand - ostrich style. Walski would even venture to say stuck far up their own behinds, where the sun don't shine.

And, yes, there's unfortunately more dumbstruck verbiage, if you care to read all of it... By the by, Walski will give credit where credit is due - to the great point-blank journalistic line of questioning by Aniza Damis. Despite being with the NaSTy... we all gotta eat, huh?

In the meantime, go ahead and stay stupid, stupid, stupid Nazri 'ol boy... the bloggers that you diss today may very well be the same citizens who'll make damn sure our beloved nation doesn't have any more de-fective ministers in the future to leave us dumbstruck as you just have.

Panty or Pantyless - we don't really care - after all, it's the other end of the torso that really counts, at the end of the day...

Walski's Bahasa Malaysia glossary for the non-BM speaker footnote: Bodoh, Bengap and Bengong essentially mean stupid, dense, and dazed/vacant, respectively - which are various colorful ways to describe the said YB. Biadap, on the other hand, means rude. Berhormat is an irrelevant characteristic when it comes to this particular YB, so Walski won't even bother...