Tuesday, September 16, 2014

A dominant 50-years of humourless narrative for Malaysia

There was a time, as old timers like to remind us, when there was no need for political correctness. You could call your friends using mock tones with nicknames without worrying about inciting anger and being accused of being racist.

In many ways Dr M changed that banter with his humourless narrative. And, sadly, in the past 50 years it has been Dr M's narrative that has proven to be dominant and prevalent.

Here's a thought; Has Dr M robbed Malaysians of our sense of humour?

So, when the grand old man hurls remarks about Malays being lazy, he sets off the exact reaction he wanted. 

When he legitimised Perkasa with his patronage he set off a different set of reactions.

Dr M's genius is his constant ability to drive the narrative in Malaysia. 

So, are Malays lazy? That is the stupidest question one can ask.

Are Chinese hardworking? Another stupid question.

We've all seen lazy and stupid Chinese. We've seen incredibly hardworking Malays.

But to take Dr M's remarks at face value and, to react to it, we are allowing ourselves to conform to his narrative.

Should we conform to that narrative? Can we avoid that narrative and begin our own?

Now Dr M has begun a movement to destabilise the sitting Prime Minister. 

It as if Dr M is chasing another superlative. In his time as Prime Minister he had 4 Deputy Prime Ministers.

In his retirement he has seen off one Prime Minister and he appears to have set himself (or, has he?....mindgames, eh?) to see off another.

This is the greatness of Dr M. His shadow writs large in the Malaysian psyche. With a twitch of a hint of a sneering half smile and an elusive glint in his eye, the grand old man can have us go into a catatonic state. Lady Gaga can only hope to have that kind of charisma! All the twerking that Miley Cyrus can muster cannot even come close to the effect that Dr M has on Malaysians.

sourced here.

You may recall the opening scene of the movie Troy where, Brad Pitt as the mythical Achilles, having smote the giant of a man who challenged him stood before the enemy and cried, "Is there no one else?"

Here we have Dr M making his moves on the current Prime Minister. 

Will the sitting Prime Minister be deft enough to duck the coming blows and brickbats and survive this attempt to unseat him?


I, for one, as with all Malaysians, am sitting on my couch with a packet of kuaci watching events unfold with the type of awe-filled fear and anticipatory sensation I used to have when watching the black and white Pusaka Pontianak (1965), quavering like Aziz Sattar and fearing the worst for Ahmad Daud's character.

Dr M is, as the characters in Korean dramas like to say, "a scary person".
 sourced here.

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