It's OK For Rocky To Be Angry

UPDATE, Aug. 3 - IN case you are still not convinced, read this.

OROGINAL POST

I AM happy that my friend Rocky gets angry. Unlike me, he’s always composed, stoic and steady. He seldom gets angry. He’s always that big, tall and steady Rocky.

It’s good to get angry sometimes. Get things out of your chest. I always believe that a person who feels the anger but can manage it is better than one who is not touch by it.

In his posting of Aug 1 headlined “Malaysia, where death is cheap and staying alive costly” (read here)Rocky is angry that a Singapore tabloid, The New Paper, had portrayed Malaysian in bad light.

So when a rookie online reporter to ask about Rocky's posting, I told him, what’s so terribly wrong about a Singapore newspaper writing negative things about Malaysia when some Malaysian newspapers and writers make running down Singapore their bread and butter.

I told the rookie that New Paper is not a new paper. It was started by the Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) – the owner of The Straits Times – way back in 1987.

Being a Singapore paper, it is responsible to the Singaporeans. Since many Singaporeans live in Malaysia or visit our country, it’s the paper’s right and responsibility to warn its readers of the risk that they may face while in Malaysia.

Let Us Face Fact

Is it not a fact that Malaysia is becoming more and more dangerous? Don’t just blame the Singapore newspapers. Our own newspapers are replete with stories of murder and mayhem. In fact, crime stories have become the staple of our newspapers. They regularly made the front page.

I hope neither Rocky nor his followers would consider me a Singapore agent. But I am willing to be accused of being an agent provocateur.

I want to provoke Malaysians to think critically and be willing to tell their elected representatives – from the novice Yang Berhormat to the Prime Minister – what they feel and want. We want a safer Malaysia!

We want them to accept culpability for their actions – abolishing the Emergency Ordinance and the Banishment Act that overnight unleashed some 2,500 bad hats and criminal elements on all of us.

It’s fine for Prime Minister Mohd Najib Abdul Razak and his liberal-minded advisors to want to appear humane and be popular with the city slickers. Or gunning after their votes. But did he get it? No. Instead the lives and limbs of the ordinary rakyat are put at risk.

I Am Not Anti-Government

A very senior civil servant asked a former deputy minister (who is friend of my friend) why I have turned from being pro-government to anti-government.

I am not anti-government. I am not a subversive element. I love my country. I am not even anti-Mohd Najib. Yes, I told him repeatedly of his burdens, his Achilles heel and what the people think of his family. Not a new thing either. I had told him these things as early as when he was Education Minister. There shouldn’t be any misunderstanding on this matter. In my simpleton way of thinking “raja dalam rumah buat kira-kira, suri dalam dapur makan roti gula.” Period.

But I am critical and I am against the wrong things he and his advisors had done or are doing. Let’s see how far they will go with the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement with the USA! Almost every person who dares to speak out has spoken against the agreement and the government is less than willing to share information with the people.

It’s ok for him, his Cabinet and even the MPs in the House to do away with preventive laws, including the ISA. They have bodyguards and live in walled and guarded compounds.

They don’t have to trudge through addict-infested areas of the City. They don’t shop in Chow Kit. (During Ramadan, Chow Kit is my favourite place. I love browsing and hunting for ulam kampung). They don’t have to ride crowded commuters and buses during peak hours. And they don’t face the risk of being robbed when parking cars at shopping complexes.

And for some of them, their outsiders have no qualms about forcing us off the road to make way for them and their spouses during peak hours. Don’t they know the annoyance and the danger they cause with the siren, the flashing lights and the honking?

Consider this. I do not make this up. This came from Bukit Aman and was reported by Malaysia’s own National News Agency Bernama. Serious crimes involving ex-EO detainees had increased by 100 per cent in the first six months of this year from 33 cases to 67.

And consider this too – a letter from then Federal Police CID Chief (dated Oct 13, 2011 to MyWatch chief, R Sri Sanjeevan, who was recently shot by unknown men) stated that 17,882 cases of snatch thefts and robberies without firearms and 43,792 cases of burglaries and break-ins were recorded between January and October 2011.

But the official crime index published by the government (for KPI purposes) reported only 7,324 cases and 30,200 cases respectively. Who is telling the truth? Which is more important – the welfare of the rakyat or the Ministers’ KPI? In any case, few people care about the KPI or believe in its accuracy.

And, is Idris Jala the best man in one Malaysia to lead the drafting of the law to replace those time-tested legislations done away by his boss?

If the judges, the police chief and the lawyers who set as the Royal Commission to Enhance the Operations and Administration of the Police (2004/05) were deemed to have not understood the constitution, as alleged a Minister and his deputy recently, are we to believe that Idris is better than all of them combined?

I hope I am not adding to Rocky’s anger. But if I do, I will not going to say sorry. Even the stoic, steady and ever happy Rocky must face the reality that Malaysia is not as safe as it used to be. Wallahualam.