SYED NADZRI: Fumbles, bungles and gaffes but whose heads roll?

AH, the weird world of public figures. Sometimes they quit when you least expect them to. At other times, they just refuse to go under any circumstances, even when everyone else wants them to disappear.

By Syed Nadzri, NST

The story about former Japanese finance minister Shoichi Nakagawa, who resigned after looking and sounding drunk at a press conference last week, is quite amazing. Seen in the context of some of the things happening around us in Malaysia today, it is even laughable.

It was reported that Nakagawa, who is known to enjoy a drink, had slurred and yawned his way through the press conference for Japanese journalists attending the Group of 7 meeting in Rome on Feb 14.

When that episode became a talking point in his country, the minister initially issued a statement denying he was drunk at the event. He instead blamed his bumbling and at times "incomprehensible performance" on an overdose of cold medicine.

"It is true that I didn't conduct myself properly, and I feel I must set the record straight," the 55-year-old Nakagawa told reporters in Tokyo then.

He admitted drinking on the flight from Tokyo to Rome, but insisted he had no more than "a sip of wine" at an official lunch the following day.

"I did not drink a glassful," he was quoted in agency reports.

"I had a cold. Honestly, the cold medicine kicked in too much," he added, before sniffing loudly to prove his point.

Poor guy. But somehow, the story didn't hold much water in certain quarters and after some verbal assaults he received back home in Parliament, Nakagawa chose to resign.

I managed to catch that "incriminating" episode in a video clip on the Internet and found the whole thing very amusing indeed — not the misfortune that had befallen the minister or whether he was telling the truth about the cold medicine but rather the circumstances of it all. About the microscope hanging over public figures all the time.

True, Nakagawa could be clearly seen in the video fighting for dear life to stay awake. He was frowning at questions and slurring like a Long Bar regular at 1am. But it couldn't have ended the way it did, I thought.

I am quite used to the Japanese sense of humour. Most of their officials I know can be a riot sometimes, including the very pleasant Masahiko Horie, the Japanese ambassador to Malaysia, who is absolutely friendly and jovial.

Maybe Nakagawa was caught in that sense of humour at that particular time. I mean, the way the Japanese and world economy is doing at the moment, which person in his position would not appear to be, or sound, sloshed when bombarded with all sorts of questions from journalists?

But from reading the subtitles, I thought he didn't do too badly at all.

In fact, he managed to field some hard questions and was quite precise in stating that interest rates to be set by the Bank of Japan would be between zero and 0.2 per cent.

Another matter he touched on was the fact that Japan had asked the Obama administration to rapidly implement fiscal policies.

Whoa, drunk? Those were very sober subjects as far as many people are concerned.

We have come across acts and many instances worse than this I am sure — at press conferences here where the answers to questions were not only slurred and incomprehensible but downright insane. And nobody resigned.

Disgraceful antics, at times in our own Parliament. Nobody resigned.

Hills came tumbling down on houses recently. Nobody resigned. Malaysian soccer in the pits. Nobody resigned (but the coach and assistant manager got sacked).

That, I mean, makes up the weird world of public figures, the latest sensations being the stories behind the resignations of politicians Elizabeth Wong and V. Arumugam.