Go on, Jamal, give us some comic relief

Instead of being a threat, the leader of the Red Shirts has turned out to be a joke.

COMMENT

If there’s one thing we’re never short of these days, it’s entertainment. If you think about it, Malaysian politics is the equivalent of gladiatorial battles fought in the Roman coliseums of yore. It’s ugly, brutal, decadent, and every spectator feels a bit dirty when it’s all over. But hey, it’s still great entertainment.

But what does that make Jamal Yunos? If you had asked this question about a month ago, people would paint him as either a fearless leader or a deluded madman, depending on which side of the political fence you are. But now, he has become a punchline.

He has regressed from being the leader of 50,000 rambunctious demonstrators marching through the streets of Kuala Lumpur to heading a crowd of 200 ragtag supporters shouting slogans in a suburb. But he seems intent on protesting for whatever cause until only he stands holding a placard. Even the young, disenchanted Malays who followed him into KL have since had second thoughts on who is really to blame for their economic status, if a Malay Mail report on the toll hike is reflective of the wider sentiment.

And now, Jamal has once again made it to our headlines with a proclamation that he is part of a movement among Umno division heads who want to see party deputy president Muyhiddin Yassin ousted. Correct me if I’m wrong, but after a certain Anwar Ibrahim let slip that some Umno MPs were going to cross over to Pakatan, that plan got sunk faster than you can say “Scorpene submarine.” So why on earth would you announce to the whole world that you are part of a “clandestine” plot?

So what role does Jamal really serve in our society, or even in Umno, or even perhaps in his own Umno division? He’s not winning any arguments, not by a long shot, and support for his increasingly obnoxious rallies is fading fast. Even Nazri Aziz waved him off as unimportant – like a gnat, not worth even swatting. And since Nazri is one of Najib’s frontline defenders, we can assume that the PM shares the same sentiment about Jamal Yunos.

And so the person some thought – just a little more than a month ago – would turn out to be the latest threat to racial harmony has turned out to be a joke. Jamal Yunos is the jester in Najib’s court, assuming he is even allowed inside.

Malaysians are in great need of something to laugh about, and it looks like the timing could not be better for Jamal to provide us with some comic relief.