The Wedding And Other Stories....

It's amazing how so many things can happen in just a few short days. I've been away from my beautiful motherland for all of six days, but whoaa nelly.... it's like I've been gone a month. So here are my commentary on a few things.. finally rounding up with a look at the (gag) wedding of the year. Here goes...

Using TAR To Attack TDM?

Update 13 June: Just learned that SIL has invited Dato Mukhriz Mahathir to moderate and participate in one of the sessions... I therefore have been unkind to question SIL's motives and suggest an evil design in this particular case, and for that I apologize. I am therefore removing a portion of the earlier posting.(this is of course subject to review if the outcome of the seminar proves my original contention right. Not that anybody cares la. Just for my own satisfaction.)

I only leave this portion below from the original posting:

"I don’t know… maybe my suspicions are far fetched. We’ll see. But the thing is, if this is a sincere effort to rightly glorify TAR, shouldn’t SIL have invited TDM? TDM is after all a living icon of the TAR era, having been a key personality in UMNO politics then, and a person whom TAR favoured to be brought back into UMNO after his sacking over the Malay Dilemma. Surely he would have much to contribute in any sincere discussion about TAR?"

Here Lies Proton... R.I.P

Maybe it's battle fatigue.. maybe it's just me becoming completely jaded... but when the news item appeared a few days back about the possibility that Proton will soon be 51% owned by a foreign company, I was numb. I didn't react. i didnt text anyone. Then again even Jong Il didnt text me.. which is so unlike that patriotic friend of mine. Maybe we're all just getting a little bit tired of the insanity that has been plaguing us for more than three years...But the story stayed with me in the back of my mind... my heart ached a little... but .. knowing that this too will be ignored by the Malaysian masses, by UMNO in particular, by so called 'pejuang bangsa' near and far.... who am I to be able to do anything??

I remember Tun M's lament not too long ago when he said " Yang benci sangat kepada Proton ni kenapa?, Bukankah ini syarikat milik kita? satu bukti kebolehan kita? Satu sumber pekerjaan untuk ratusan ribu orang?"Then I read Tun's latest outcry below... a cry that will no doubt be ignored by TETGOL (The Evil That Grips Our Land):

'Mereka berjaya bunuh Proton'
08-06-2007 05:02:20 PM Oleh
SA'ODAH ELIAS(MStar)
PUTRAJAYA: "Segala usaha mereka selama ini untuk
membunuhProton nampaknya telah berjaya," demikian keluh bekas Perdana Menteri Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad hari ini.

Katanya, segala tindakan yang telah diambil oleh pengurusan baru Proton akan berakhir dengan berkuburnya syarikat nasional itu.

"Dan hari ini, kita akan lihat pembunuhan satu industri nasional, inilah pandangan saya, tetapi mereka tidak perlu menerimanya," katanya kepada pemberita selepas meraikan kepulangan kumpulan pendaki Merdeka de Everest di pejabatnya di Yayasan Kepimpinan Perdana di sini.

Dr Mahathir berkata demikian sebagai mengulas perkembangan terakhir dalam syarikat automotif nasional dan beliau masih lagi dilantik sebagai penasihatnya.

Kenyataan ini kali pertama dikeluarkan Dr Mahathir dalam tempoh hampir sebulan setelah diarahkan berehat oleh doktor berikutan serangan jantung bulan lalu…

It really breaks my heart. I haven’t read the papers for days so I don’t know what’s the latest development on that. I know there have been initial denials, But the very fact that the idea is being mulled over is, to me, nothing less than a tragedy. Yet most Malaysians say nothing… all attention diverted to the wedding …and even Paris Hilton’s jail debacle!

“Not Janda, Not a maid” – Freedom of the press, TETGOL style

This is a second hand story which I got from rocky and from other blogs as well as from people well connected. TETGOL’s version of Alistair Campbell has told the media in no uncertain terms that the PM’s bride is to be described in certain ways. No specific reference to certain aspects of her past.. no crude descriptions of her, true though they may be.

You know it’s funny, during TDM’s time, you never had senior media editors being told by a thirty-something budak hingusan about what they can and cannot say. Certainly not when it comes to light stories like the new bride of the PM.

But in this era of new media freedom in this country, a budak hingusan is tasked to ensure that only the right things are said about the PM’s new wife.

Here Comes The Bride

Before anything else, let me congratulate YDP for his marriage. I echo TDM’s sentiment that a person who has lost his wife should re-marry, and I join TDM in wishing him well.

Now, having said that, I cannot help but feel that this wedding is a watershed moment in the YDP administration… at least in his inner circle.

Who is this woman? (Picture courtesy of New Straits Times) And what will her impact be to the “Royal Household” ?

Not much is known about this new queen, but opinions have been expressed that she is quite a strict house keeper (no pun intended). Word has it that she has been known to keep visitors and guests of her future husband at bay, even waiting at the gates, because she deemed that her then boss needed to rest. This is not to dispute the publicly gushed opinions that she is pleasant and kind… she may be all that… and she may be strict and controlling too.

Now her new husband is a man very much in love. The annoying ear-to-ear grin he’s been sporting for days says it all. As far as I know, a man in love behaves very strangely. (for the inexperienced, see lyrics to the classic song When A Man Loves A Woman) He would do everything he can to please his new love. This would of course include listening to whatever she says. Her views become scripture in his eyes, and her opinions are always the last words he considers…

This would be a non-issue if YDP is a person of strong character, who is able to separate his professional from his personal life. Unfortunately, we know that YDP is no such person. He is weak and clueless. We know he discusses important things with his family and we will be hard pressed to believe that his family is not involved in his decisions, directly or indirectly. Indeed if they are not, we wouldn’t have the trouble of SIL and Son.

And so the question is: what will happen now? Will SIL’s position as defacto PM be affected? Will we soon see the mark of a powerful queen as the primary force behind TETGOL? Will the queen taper off the influence of the fourth floor? Will she help the cause of those close to YDP like the murderer of the NST (The Fourth K), the plagiarist, and the Terengganu Chinese Monsoon Prince? Or will she alienate them. What about the all-powerful son? Will he still hold sway over YDP? Or will his influence too diminish in the face of the fading memory of the late wife?

Only time will tell, and I have a gut feeling that things are about to get interesting. I do of course hope that the new queen will be good for us all. Who knows, maybe she will get YDP to actually start working?

Okay okay. Bad joke. Stop laughing.