THE ARUL KANDA-TONY PUA DEBATE IS MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

Umar Mukhtar

Come to think of it, what can a public debate like that one achieve? If you are anti-1MDB, you are not going to believe anything Arul Kanda says anyway. Similarly, pro-1MDB advocates will look at Tony Pua like a clown that they think he is. No one is moving his or her position. They just hope that the other side will make a slip of some kind, enough for fodder at ‘teh tarik’ stalls, or blogs where birds of the same feather flock together.

Till today, the only thing people remember about the Anwar Ibrahim-Shabery Cheek debate held years ago is Shabery’s saliva at the corners of his mouth begging to be wiped. Not about what was said specifically. Just that Anwar won or Shabery won,depending on whose fan you were. The cheering or jeering, depending on the speaker, was partisan.

Nobody came to listen, only to be heard. Did anybody learn about anything new? Nah, only about Shabery’s delinquent saliva. And yet proponents of the 1MDB debate consider this debate to be a discourse where you will learn more of the truth, and which will be significant to this nation’s thirst for knowledge about things that keep us apart, not together. It’s fun to quarrel.

A publicity-hungry politician was looking for a platform to wrangle things from 1MDB. But he himself has not been too forthright either about his means of getting information. A glorified ‘macai’, Arul, would love to earn his keep and a chance to show his prowess at saying a lot about nothing, the way he has been doing. You mean Tony Pua will be able to make an honest man out of him?

Tony made a challenge, which, if he is an experienced and wise parliamentarian, he should have known he couldn’t keep. The ‘macai’, after having been advised accordingly, accepted Tony’s offer. Then Tony suddenly said that it won’t be a no-holds-barred debate but a question and answer session, with him asking the questions. That’s not a debate, Tony. Nowadays an Oxbridge education doesn’t mean much.

So Tony wants to hold his own PAC public inquiry, and he was expecting the beleaguered storekeeper to accept being that lamb to the slaughter. Obviously, Tony was not serious because there’s no way in hell will Arul be allowed to be that moron by his boss. Now Tony wants Rafizi Ramli to be his replacement. Arul should also offer Papagomo then.

Who was the challenger? If at the first instance, Arul had accepted Tony’s challenge by offering Papagomo to debate on his behalf, would Tony have agreed? It’s such a comedy and yet Malaysians are treating this seriously. Listen, if you are really interested to know more about the mystery of the goings-on in 1MDB, I recommend the ample stuff out there in the social, print and electronic media. Things spoken and unspoken, lies, truths and half-truths.

The stonewalling and allegations will continue, debate or no debate, but the dam will burst in due course. The thing about ‘tahi bawah topi’ is that it stinks to high heaven after a while, ‘topi’ or no ‘topi’, if the shit is there. Meanwhile, under no circumstances will the truth be revealed. Who is going to reveal it, now that the instruments of prosecution and inquiry are in the firm hands of the very target of the allegations? Your guess is as good as mine. Not Tony, not Dr. Mahathir, not Azalina. And definitely not Arul Kanda, you kidding me?

One thing for sure, the Arul-Tony debate is dead in the water. It’s a bloody waste of time. Why humour these nobodies. The man to seek in order to get to the truth is the Raja Bomoh himself! We are Malaysians. We just love not to believe whatever, and we get to laugh while at it!