Quiet Riot

Technorati tags: Humor, Politics, Sarawak, Richard Riot, SUPP, BN

Walski's Recent Low Content Apologetic Forenote: A thousand apologies for the lack of postings lately. It's that dastardly thing called work. Plus, whatever time he's been afforded online has been spent in search of a new template...

One of the coolest Malaysian politician names, hands down, has to be Richard Riot. He is the 5-term MP for Serian, Sarawak, and a member of the SUPP (Sarawak United Peoples' Party). Or is he, still?

Malaysiakini, on Thursday (March 20th) reported that Richard Riot has quit SUPP, apparently upon learning of the new Cabinet line-up, discovering that he wasn't appointed as a deputy minister. He could have, living up to his name, ran Riot, but didn't. According to the same news report he is now somewhere missing in action - presumably Singapore (or some even say Batam and JB...).

Then one day later, the SUPP boss, Dr. George Chan denied that the Serian MP had quit (via Malaysiakini)... but did concede that Richard Riot was upset over not being selected to the Federal cabinet.

So, did he or did he not? The possible quit move has further fueled Anwar Ibrahim's allegation that several BN MPs are jumping ship. But so far, no one has officially taken the plunge (pun intended).

The latest on the riotous Richard saga, however, comes from state news agency Bernama, late last night.

So far, Riot has been quiet - not speaking to the press directly. The question remains, therefore... did Richard run (but not Riot)... quietly?
(other suggested occupations for Richard, and more, in the full post)

Another question: when he does go meet the PM, eventually, will Abdullah A. Badawi be under the heavy protection of the FRU (aka Riot Police)?

But here's the thing... with such a groovy name like Richard Riot, why go waste it on politics? Walski could think of a number of better occupations fitting such a great name...

Like, rock star, for example. To join, of course, rock 'n rolls other illustrious Richards... like Richard Hell (of ".. #&26; the Voidoids" fame)... whose album, Blank Generation inspired an entire generation of punk rockers. YouTube has a video of the title track, in case you're interested.

Incidentally, Blank Generation could also describe the bulk of the March 8 voters, who decided to almost blank out BN... intentionally or otherwise...

So, what would Richard Riot call his act, if he so decided to change careers to becoming a rock musician? Here are some suggestions Walski's come up with:

• Richard Riot and the FRUstrated Politicians
• Richard Riot's SawaRockster (a play on syllables of his home state, Sarawak)
• Lafe Riot - a collaboration with Dr. Tiki Lafe (also cool, namewise), another Sarawak MP thinking of jumping the BN ship (via Malaysiakini)
• The SUPPlementarians (featuring Richard Riot) - probably a very large group, which including the roadies, number into the thousands...

Or, how about something as simple as Quiet Riot? Oh, wait... that one's taken, unfortunately.

And if it's really true that Richard Riot's jumped the BN ship (and more to come), then it would appear that the barely re-elected incumbents have got a lot of picking up the pieces to do...

Walski's Richards-in-Rock footnote: Apart from Richard Hell, some other notable Richards would include Little Richard and Keith Richards (of The Rolling Stones)... Incidentally, revisiting some of Quiet Riot's song titles, Walski discovered that some of 'em quite aptly describe the current Malaysian political scene. Apart from "Picking Up The Pieces", you've also got "Don't Wanna Let You Go", "Condition Critical", "Put Up or Shut Up","Empty Promises","Blast from the Past"... and probably many more, if Walski really looked hard enough...

Other possible alternative occupations Walski decided not to list down... wrestler, or Honorary Director General of the FRU...

Incidentally, don't try to look up Richard Riot in Wikipedia - yet - you're gonna find something totally off topic (a 1955 riot that happened in Canada)...