Defence minister talks cock. Poke him in the eye

ARCHIVES 2012

By admin-s On Jan 12, 2012

Ahmad Zahidi Hamid, the defence minister, talked poppycock on Monday about the mangled Engrish used on the ministry’s web site that featured “Clothes That Poke Eye”. He said the mistakes have been corrected.

By uppercaise

On Monday: “We have corrected the mistakes”
— Ahmad Zahidi Hamid, defence minister, quoted in the Star
Wednesday: Still no correction done

Is someone lying? » Mindef’s Engrish and Google compared | See for yourself

In fact, no corrections have been done on the web site. At 5pm on Wednesday the two-word headline still says “Ethical Clothing” (instead of “Dress Code”). A notice still says “Translations are not available”.

Ahmad Zahidi was lying. Does Ahmad Zahidi or anyone in Mindef have eyes? Or have they all lost sight by being poked in the eye?

Apologists for politicians always make excuses to say the politician was misinformed. Just because someone lied to him and he in turn lies to the public does not excuse the lie. Ministers are responsible to the public for the conduct of their ministries. If a civil servant lied, he is disciplined. But it is the minister who takes the rap in public.

That’s how constitutional democracy works.

But how often do Malaysian ministers take the rap when proven wrong?

Does Ahmad Zahidi take everyone for fools? Obviously the answer must be yes. First because he’s still there as defence minister handling billions of your money. And second, because the ministry could not be bothered correcting something as simple as a two-word headline. Too much bother? Just brazen it out? Politics as usual? The public are too stupid to care?

What do you think? Do those people in high places, in government or in business, care what any of us think? Or do they think the public are just a bunch of saps who just need to be tickled every five years?

Ahmad Zahidi also told the Star that the ministry had used Google’s free online translation services, thus implying that Google was to blame. More poppycock.

Mindef did not publish a Google translation. What they published is different. Google’s translations, in fact, are both better and worse than Mindef’s shoddy Engrish.

Mindef’s “Clothes That Poke Eye” is Google’s “of scantily clothes”. Some other parts are similar to Google’s versions, some are different. » Mindef’s Engrish and Google compared See for yourself whether someone’s lying.