Friday, April 20, 2007

If you're hot, you're hot, if you're not, you're not


Shortly after The Apology I received an urgent SMS from my friend, whom we'll call Jong-Il (due to his uncanny likeness to the hermit dictator of North Korea), who said;

"Bro, what is numero uno rambling nonsense on RTM1?". Naturally I immediately switched to see the great YDP in action.


I don't quite know how to describe it to be honest. He was...mediocre at best. And I'm really trying to be objective here (...I can almost hear my friends scoff...). Cakap macam orang sembang kat kedai kopi, if you ask me. I was a little embarassed at first, seeing my undisputed leader speaking so poorly. He went on and on about how poverty is relative as are commodity prices bla bla bla. Then I thought, (being objective again... and I hear the same scoffing again) "maybe he is doing it deliberately... it is after all to the UMNO machinery he was speaking to".


Then he went on the personal tack and unabashedly defended his so-called record, citing bourse hikes, and the much touted 1 trillion trade volume yadda yadda yadda. Then I think he crossed a line. For me, anyway. He said something like "Depa kata saya nak berhenti bulan tujuh. Sapa kata?? " and then the much quoted "Depa kata saya one term Prime Minister... nanti tengok...", which was just before he added that he doesnt want to be a leader for keeps because "Kesian Najib dok tunggu nuuh...".


My immediate reaction was: Takkabur betul orang tua ni. (This old man is really Takabbur) [Takkabur means...erm... well it's when someone is so full of pride in himself that he discounts the will of God in determining things... something like that.]


Now I'm not typically religious or anything. But my point is that HE is! YDP bases his entire personality on the fact that he is the grandson of an renowned Ulama and that his tertiary education was in the field of islamic studies... he peppers his speeches with references to the Quran etc. So how can a person like that be so bongkak an angkuh? Where is the requisite "inshaAllah"...? where is the humility? I have never known anyone who has ever heard TDM say anything remotely like that.


Then again this is nothing new kan? Remember "Saya Perdana Menteri"... and "Anak Saya Kaya"?


So to me, this kind of makes me wonder whether YDP is all that he is made out to be. I remember a foreign friend of mine, who doesnt know much about Malaysian politics, who told me that when YDP was ponted out to her as the new PM, her first instict was that "This man wears a mask." (Should we now call him the Masked one?... entah lah...)


So anyway, of course the next day NST went overboard (as usual) in trying to put he pathetic speech in a good light. It had this on the front page, like it was some divine revelation from on-high:

The full NST perspective of the mediocre speech can be read here. Of curse once you read it, you will think that its not as bad as I'm making it out to be. Trust me it was. Thats just the NST black magic of HindugodMuslimpriest breaking your defences.

But however much NST tries, they cant really reverse the damage. Jong Il wasnt the only one who sent me a text that night. At least 13 more came in, all saying how disapppointed they are with YDP. One said he (YDP)spoke with all the flair and aplomb of a KL City Cab driver. Another said she was "malu nak mengaku pemimpin kita".

It's interesting that the NST was the only paper that made a big deal about that speech. NST and of course RTM la, who broadcast th speech in the first place. Other papers just treated it like any other speech. A must use story because its the holy words of YDP (even its mind bogglingly inane), but nothing spectacular.

Poor NST. Nak sangat orang pandang YDP tu hebat. But hey, if you're hot, you're hot... if you're not... buat lah macam mana pun, you are just NOT!!!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Spooky,

I got here via MT.

Enjoyed what you've written.

I think the English word you want for 'takabbur/takkabur' is 'hubris'.

Kersani said...

Hi Mekyam,

Thanks for the compliment, and the right word.

Hope you come back again and again.