A minister’s ‘ridiculous’ explanation?

What a boisterous remark coming out from Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor to suggest that marrying a reporter was a possibility comparable to the suggestion to ban lower-powered (kapcai) motorcycles in central Kuala Lumpur.

Such is the quality of our cabinet ministers these days, when there are major issues that need to be solved such as providing better shelters at bus stops to encourage people to use public transport.

Little did he realise that there were many Puan Sris and Datins who joined the Bersih 4 rally; so, when he suggested that the rally goers could go “naked” in a stadium, Tengku Adnan had literally raised eyebrows amongst the city’s elites.

Brickbats in the past

The dust may have settled, but Tengku Adnan’s reputation had seemingly gone down the drain when he proposed to clean up the city of Kuala Lumpur of street people.

In his typical fashion, he had found fault with NGOs and street people for dirtying the spots where food was being served to the people once a week. When I checked out a particular feed station, I found the opposite was true.

The street people themselves were willing to volunteer their time to clean up the place. So they were deeply disappointed with Tengku Adnan.

And now he has suggested banning kapcai in central Kuala Lumpur, and after nearly a week, instead claim that it was only a possibility. This is how ridiculous his explanation seems to appear.

Arresting journalists for ‘trespassing’

When I read of the arrest of Orang Asli activists in Kelantan and two journalists by the Kelantan Forestry Department, I wonder how the two journalists could be arrested for ‘trespassing’?

Journalists have to do their work. If they are in the country with a valid visa, how can they be prevented from reporting a major incident like a raid on the Orang Asli who had set up the blockade to stop what they consider as ‘intruders’?

They claimed that their ancestral land has been encroached. The Orang Asli were here in this part of the world even before the arrival of our forefathers.

They are the true bumiputra of this land, but even their land and their livelihood have been taken away from them.

So, I want to ask both PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang and the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Najib Abdul Razak, “What good is it to pretend that you are championing the Rohingya, when the Orang Asli in our own country are being discriminated against?”

Meanwhile, as reporters, it is their job to capture the Forestry Department’s operations on camera and report it as news either in print or digitally. How then did they trespass?

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STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008. Mkini