Signs of a rut in PN

 

From Terence Netto

A sure sign your opponent is rattled is when he says you have borrowed – even stolen – his ideas.

Everyone in the creative arena borrows. Even Shakespeare did.

It’s what you make of what you have borrowed that counts.

Gerakan Tanah Air (GTA) deputy information chief Mahdzir Ibrahim claims that the general idea of Anwar Ibrahim’s government to endear itself to the B40 category (households below RM4,000 monthly income) of the population, broadly named the ‘Rahmah Concept’, was plagiarised from Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Mahdzir said the idea was originated by Mahathir and enunciated in a speech by the then Pakatan Harapan prime minister in Kota Kinabalu in mid-February, 2020.

This may be true but it does not really matter because ideas in embryos are like clay waiting for the potter, or stone waiting for the sculptor.

Domestic trade and cost of living minister Salahuddin Ayub hit the nail on its head when he said it does not matter who originated the Rahmah idea so much as who used the idea to benefit the people.

It’s like the late Chinese supremo Deng Xiaoping’s observation that it does not matter if a cat is black or white so long as it can catch the mice.

An idea is only as good as its ability to drive programmes that impact the people in a beneficent way.

Likewise, it does not matter in which location a good idea is pitched as long as it can be used to convey the spirit that animates it.

The government is preparing to use the ‘Rumah Terbuka’ (Open House) concept of celebrating Hari Raya in six towns in six states of the peninsula rather than just hosting a huge gathering in the administrative capital Putrajaya this year.

Kedah menteri besar Sanusi Nor dismissed the whole project as the government’s attempt at electioneering in advance of the state polls to be held in Penang, Kedah, Kelantan, Terengganu, Selangor and Negeri Sembilan later this year.

It took Umno Supreme Council member Puad Zarkashi to remind Sanusi that the whole concept of Rumah Terbuka is an exercise in public relations.

In other words, if this year’s exercise in public relations is going to be used to attract votes for the ruling government, the gambit is well within the remit of the powers that be.

To gripe at the way this stratagem is being employed is to be a spoilt sport, just as to whine about purloined ideas being gainfully used by your opponents is to be a whinger.

Either situation does not invite sympathy, nor votes. - FMT

Terence Netto is a senior journalist and an FMT reader.

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