English murdered in a murder story
Black Rose – the much-hyped tell-all – falls short of expectations but provides enough inside jokes and hints to keep its readers gripped.
Anisah Shukry, FMT
By this time, avid followers of The Confessions of the Carpet Man have no doubt winced and chuckled through every misspelt word and thinly-veiled nicknames in the book The Black Rose, presumably written by the Carpet Man himself.
Never mind that Deepak Jaikishan, the star of the real-life saga, has denounced the free e-book as being a fake – such a fact makes for even more salacious reading and adds further intrigue to the unfolding drama.
And what a drama: By reading the first paragraph alone, the reader can guess just how complex the issue is – and the bad language certainly doesn’t help.
“This is a true version of the events leading to the 2nd SD by LABA on the instruction of Black Rose, on the day the first SD was announced by LABA flanked by the head of the opposition, Black Rose called me in the same evening, she wanted KAPEED to help solve the SD issue as the repulsion was very severe, she explained to me that LALA’s people were going to see the SD by LABA to convince a direct participant in the 4C incident to come forward and make a SD and confess that he had been instructed by whom to initiate 4C and that ABCD instructed him and ABCD was instructed by BIJAN.”
And that’s just the first sentence.
But whether the writer intended this or not, there is a plus side to the run-in sentences and disregard for punctuation – it makes for a hilarious book that just cannot be put down.
For example, the Selangor Umno Wanita chief Raja Ropiaah Abdullah land deal is just that more gripping when described so eloquently in the following manner:
“…Raja Popiah was a very strong person in state politics, she was very chauvinistic and greedy and unlike popiah stall owners who once they have sold their popiah to one person will never dare to sell it to another, Raja Popiah darest do the unimaginable…”
This unintentionally humorous writing is especially useful since readers will find that the book holds nothing new in terms of information.
But on the down side, the writer’s brutal murder of the English language makes it very difficult for the reader to take the contents, and the writer himself, seriously.
Content-wise, for those who haven’t read the book, you don’t miss out on anything except for a lot of laughs, because it is just a (bad) re-telling of information Deepak previously divulged to the press.
Analysing the symbolism
From the Raja Ropiaah land deal to the events leading and following the second statutory declaration by P Balasubramaniam, everything appears to be recycled from Deepak’s interviews and press statements.
Even the documents included in the PDF file, which make up half the book, were apparently already available on PKR director of strategy Rafizi Ramli’s website.
Regardless, those who have free time should definitely give this book a try; the nicknames the writer came up with alone are worth it.
