The whiff in the Onion went undetected

When news of former Inspector General of Police, Musa Hassan’s (above) gaffe emerged on Sunday night, I must have been among the many who had a good laugh and posted humorous and sarcastic notes on Facebook for some laughs.

One has to wonder why Musa did not understand satire. More importantly, common sense would have said something was wrong with the report.

Furthermore, in the 10 months the “news” was in the limelight, if it were true, some mainstream media would have picked it up. Surely a pardon of this terrorist of such international fame would have necessitated a headline in the newspapers and TV stations would have gone ballistic.

What went wrong? Musa is not less intelligent than many of us.

Musa joined the force as a probationary inspector at the age of 19 in 1961 – probably after secondary education. There are perhaps thousands with similar qualifications who have made good in the commercial world.

Looking at his profile on the Sunzen Group website, of which he is chairman, he obtained a Diploma In Law from the University College of Wales in Aberystwyth in 1985.

Fourteen years later, he attended an Intelligence Analyst course in Australia and in 1995, he attended a Organised Crime course in Japan. In 2002, he attended an advanced management programme at the Templeton College, Oxford University.

With such an illustrious background, didn’t he have a whiff of The Onion (pun intended)? Didn’t he think it was the in-thing called fake news?

Do we blame the education system or the man for not being in the know?

Musa and I must have gone to school in the same era. Didn’t he use that orange-coloured book called 'The Students Companion' which was compulsory reading in Primary Five and Six? Didn’t we read fairy tales, parables and the lot? Didn’t he at that time realise that Cinderella was a figment of someone’s imagination? Didn’t he read Art Buchwald, whose satire column appeared in the New Straits Times in the 60s and 70s?

Several questions abound about the intellect and persona of the man. In Oxford, didn’t he come across Private Eye in the students’ dining area?

What is wrong with this man? There is a Tamil proverb that a man insisted that the rabbit he caught had only three legs because he believed it.

Despite being told that the whole story is satire, Musa continued to believe it and continued harping on it, refusing to accept that he had been caught with his pants down.

Now that there is a hue and cry over graduate unemployment, this disastrous or hilarious (depends which way one looks at it) episode illustrates one of the reasons. Just reading text books and passing written tests is not enough. You must be a man for all seasons.

When I was in my early teens, I read the newspapers every day. When I came across words which I did not understand, I checked the dictionary.

A few years ago, I was invited as a guest in the Teach for Malaysia programme. I was teaching a Form Four class and no one could pronounce the word “detention”. Not surprisingly, none knew the meaning. When asked to take out their dictionaries, none had one.

This is what our school system has come to. Several hours are spent on subjects that bring no benefit, and little time is spent on gaining knowledge.

Pointing out comparatives is the last thing we should do. However, former Victoria Institution headmaster and educationist V Murugesu posed this question in one of his many notes to the Education Ministry: The British left behind the same education system for Malaya and Singapore when they left in 1957. How come they have progressed while we have regressed?

The answer is obvious.

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R Nadeswaran believes Musa is an intelligent man, but was in his own world, not realising satire is part of journalism. Comments: citizen.nades22@gmail.com - Mkini