Stupidity and the planet of the apes

 

It’s about time Malaysia imposes a mandatory IQ test on ministers and politicians. Yup, we are the laughing stock of the world again. With our ministers as jokers, who needs comedians like Harith Iskander.

In defence of the Malaysian palm oil industry, plantation industries and commodities minister Zuraida Kamaruddin assaulted the animal kingdom by making the unbelievable claim that planters were not harming orangutans, but that the primates were more likely to kill humans.

An excerpt of her speech began circulating on social media this week and is currently trending on Twitter.

However, Zuraida said on Thursday that her “orangutan will kill you” remark was taken out of context. She said the video clip had been edited in a way to cast aspersions on her.

In the video, Zuraida said: “Even lions and tigers also, when they see, they don’t kill them. They have to have some kind of procedure to faint [sic] them and take them to the zoo. We have all these procedures. We don’t simply kill orangutans.”

However, the February 2018 issue of Global Citizen reported data from 36,555 orangutan habitats which reported a drastic decline of the orangutan population in Borneo between 1999 and 2015, leaving the primate population at less than 148,000.

The report said the palm oil industry was the main culprit for mass orangutan die-offs, as the relentless and often unregulated pursuit of palm fruit led to deforestation and wildfires throughout Borneo.

It said humans killing orangutans for food, for self-defence, to keep them out of farms, and for mere sport may be an even more serious threat to the species, according to a comprehensive analysis in the journal Cell Biology.

This is not the first time our political gaffes have captured the imagination of social media around the world. People were aghast when the women and family development ministry advised Malaysian women to “talk like Doraemon” as a tip for wives to survive and handle their husbands during the Covid-19 movement control order.

Who has forgotten the free publicity given to Timah whiskey when MP Rusnah Aluai suggested that drinking the whiskey was akin to “drinking a Malay woman”.

Many went out to buy whiskey just to get a taste of a Malay woman. When some drinkers were interviewed, few could describe what it tasted like, except to say “Uh, it tastes like whiskey”.

It’s not only women politicians that are prone to gaffes. Our former health minister suggested that drinking warm water would help kill the coronavirus.

Former health minister Dr Adham Baba invited further internet ridicule when he mistook the deadly Spanish flu of 1918 for ‘Spanish fly’ during a health talk at Universiti Putra Malaysia. Spanish fly (not flu) is a popular aphrodisiac to whet your sexual appetite.

Similarly, in 2019, the former tourism minister from Sabah who was at the Berlin Trade Fair caused a sensation in Germany when he reportedly said there were no gays in Malaysia.

In January 2021, International Business Times reported that the Malaysian government was mulling harsher laws against the LGBTQ community for “Unhealthy activities”. Deputy minister Ahmad Marzuk Shaary called for stricter punishment for the community and urged the public to report “unhealthy activities”. So the LBGTQ community does exist in Malaysia after all.

The icing on the cake goes to Dr Mahathir Mohamad who said the Chinese practice of using chopsticks to eat was the reason they had no “Malaysian identity”.

He said that although they were born here, brought up here, grew up here, they still had links to their ancestral roots by using chopsticks to eat. This, he said, divided the people (of Malaysia).

By his theory, Mahathir is creating another Malay dilemma: how to get the Chinese to eat with their fingers. Mahathir failed to observe that the Chinese eat durians with their fingers like the Malays.

These kinds of gaffes, deliberate or otherwise, is a reflection of the IQ of our ministers and politicians. If that reflects the state of the nation, Malaysia is in dire straits.

While the ministers’ speechwriters should also be blamed for the gaffes, it is incumbent on ministers to read and correct prepared speeches, especially at the oil palm forum where Malaysia is already under a great deal of pressure from countries with anti-oil palm groups.

With a bloated civil service, one would have thought there were some good speechwriters amongst them.

Gone are the days when Malaysia’s pride as a promising tiger economy stood as tall as the Petronas Twin Towers. The orangutan faux pas by Zuraida is a good distraction from the MACC fiasco that has consumed our nation.

Malaysian leaders should stop being the butt of jokes around the world, sending Malaysians for cover under the nearest dining table every time.

Some wish there were policies to send politicians to the zoo to recuperate and reflect on their stupid statements. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.