The Emperor's New Clothes

Others have written about this before but I just wanted to bring this up as it's related to what I want to write about. A few weeks ago, Pak Lah officiated a boutique owned by his daughter, Nori and his son-in-law Khairy in the Pavilion. Guess what was the name of the shop?

"The Emperor's New Clothes". Oh, the irony. They even presented him a polo shirt at the shop. Now if you don't know the Hans Christian Andersen story, it goes like this. The emperor is swindled into wearing a 'magical' robe which only the one deserving his position could see. No one else wanted to tell the emperor that there he was naked as he paraded down the street in his new clothes until at last, a small boy laughed and shouted out, "he has nothing on!".

So the moral of the story, don't surround yourself with yes man. When the people are angry, the press should report it instead of sweeping it under the carpet. True, the press also has a responsibility to ensure national security is maintained but on the flip side, when things are not said, people get angry when they don't get to voice out their opinions. The only way people could pass the message to Pak Lah was at the ballot box.

It must have been a hard pill for Pak Lah to swallow. If you have read newspapers; watch the TV; seen the billboards and been listening the radio... you would have assumed that BN was on its way to an easy 2/3 majority win again. What wasn't reported however was the huge dissastifaction among the people. Even during the hectic campaigning period, it was in-your-face propaganda. The only piece written about the opposition was color stories or short paragraphs. I don't think Pak Lah even knew how strong the opposition's campaign was and the people's anger. Pak Lah couldn't see the magnitude of the people's anger. He probably knew already and had the press supress it... but that is just as dumb.

Once the election results come out, the press would look stupid just as well. It goes to show they are not in touch with reality. The election results is a huge dent in all the official Malaysian press credibility. All their editorials; the so called 'experts' they interviewed; the VOX POPULI interviews... now it goes to they were all... well, bullshit. BN leaders are now claiming suprise at their results. Wow, have they been eatening up the same stuff their propaganda engine has been shuffing down the troats of the masses?

I wonder how the BN council post-mortem would be like. I would love to be a fly on the wall and hear what all the BN component party leaders have to say. They're all putting on a show rallying around the PM now. That's exactly what Brutus and his comrades did just before Caesar murmured out 'Et tu Brutus?"

Here's my favourite part from Shakespeare's play... Julius Caesar, Act 3, scene II

Now, before you watch Marlon Brando deliver the lines below... imagine if Marlon Brando was speaking about Tun Dr. Mahathir or Pak Lah instead.



We're all honorable men aren't we?