Was all that designed to inject some spice into his dull demeanour
and grey character? Clothes maketh the man ā but they also unmake him.
If a man is dressed as a colourful clown rather than as a serious
leader, how much respect can he command?
Padang Rengas MP Nazri Abdul Aziz tried to divert the issue by saying VIPs always get expensive gifts.
So, is he admitting to a culture of subtle corruption? What āfavoursā
did the givers expect in return? And even if it was a gift, the
symbolism remains all wrong.
Iāve
nothing personal against Ismail Sabri. But he became PM by an accident
of political intrigue. And so, as a citizen, I am very concerned that we
now have a leader who may be out of his depth, and whose abilities (or
lack of them) in the top job will harm the country. Thus far, this man
has not inspired much confidence in his career.
2) As the minister in charge of security, he issued MCOs that confused people and badly harmed our economy.
When
the chicken sh*t hit the fan (as farms closed), Ismail Sabri instead
subtly racialised the issue on May 23 by promising a ājihadā against
middlemen āmanipulatorsā. He repeated this call for an economic jihad on June 30.
Such
āholy warsā make good racial politics. But remember the governmentās
grand-sounding National Action Council on Cost of Living that was formed
way back in Feb 2018. What have the knuckleheads there been doing? Is
it another symptom of #KerajaanGagal (failed government)?
Language nationalism diversion?
To
make up for the lack of real achievements, what can be done? Well, how
about spending more government money to build Ismail Sabriās image by
pushing Keluarga Malaysia this and that?
There are now so
many billboards along our highways showing how ācaringā he is with the
people. Just donāt mention the poor handling of floods and inflation,
please. Or his RM6,900 shirt.
If Keluarga Malaysia is not
enough, then Ismail Sabri has resorted to language nationalism. In
March, when visiting Indonesia, he proposed that Bahasa Malaysia should
become Aseanās second language and be used in every official meeting
between the two countries.
Nggak bisa (no, cannot) retorted Indonesian Minister Nadiem Makarim who basically said that āitās our version of Bahasa
(not yours) which should ruleā. Why should Indonesia, with a population
of 280 million, give way to a version of the language spoken just by 30
million Malaysians?
Despite this slap in the face, the government keeps waving the flag of BM āpatriotismā. Now, there are threats of a whopping RM50,000 fine plus jail time for ādisrespectingā BM.
A
country should indeed be proud of its national language. But why did
Putrajaya try to imitate New York City by calling its areas āPresintā?
Why is our new financial centre called Tun Razak Exchange rather than
āPusat Perdagangan Tun Razakā?
Why does Shah Alam have signs for
āDewan Bankuet MBSAā and āGaleri Shah Alamā when the perfectly suitable
āDewan Jamuan MBSAā and āBalai Seniā can be used? I grew up learning Ilmu Alam and Ilmu Hisab in school, why was this changed to Geografi and Matematik?
Will
those leaders who have allowed such an invasion of pseudo-English words
into BM be deemed guilty of ādisrespectingā our national language and
thus fined RM50,000? These people should be the last ones to wave the
flag of language nationalism. Itās just hypocrisy.
But perhaps
such contradictions reflect our national ethos. And so we have a leader
flashing his wealth while preaching how āweāre all togetherā in Keluarga
Malaysia. Showing off foreign brands while representing this country.
Who canāt decide if heās a frustrated fashion model or a PM.
This is why the Burberry Man, the BM-PM, may be the perfect symbol for Malaysia.
But perhaps such contradictions reflect our national ethos. And so we
have a leader flashing his wealth while preaching how āweāre all
togetherā in Keluarga Malaysia. Showing off foreign brands while
representing this country. Who canāt decide if heās a frustrated fashion
model or a PM.
This is why the Burberry Man, the BM-PM, may be the perfect symbol for Malaysia.
