Squatter-Gate vs. Ming Court 2.0: Don’t Shift the Blame, Old Man!

ARCHIVES 2013

By admin-s On Mar 26, 2013

I refer to a classic piece of spin doctoring on the recent Global Witness exposé by a blogger calling himself/herself The Benchmark entitled “Global Witness on Taib: Was it really a sting operation?” Click on http://thebenchmark0.blogspot.com/2013/03/global-witness-on-taib-was-it-really.html to read this rather lame attempt at shifting the blame.

Being Vernon

The piece by The Benchmark desperately tries to deflect, distract and ‘turn the tables’ on Global Witness, which is why I call it a classic text-book case of Spin-Doctoring 101. In a nutshell, the writer is saying that the exposé is “a well crafted conspiracy against Taib by his own kin,” and supports his/her conspiracy theories by resurrecting the old and tired story of the Tun Rahman Yakub versus Taib Mahmud ‘feud’ of the 80s. Whether or not the ‘feud’ was real or simply a ‘sandiwara’ (shadow play) is beside the point. It was a very public spat, and Taib made a big show of withdrawing licences issued by his uncle to drive home the point that the fight was indeed genuine.

Then, after Taib had allegedly identified and neutered his enemies (per kindness of the dramas that unfolded at a certain Ming Court Hotel in Kuala Lumpur many years ago), consolidated his position and solidified his political strength, this happened:

A heart-warming and tearful reunion of uncle and nephew was carefully choreographed and publicised, and the dynasty was intact. Nevertheless, in a very recent video interview by Taib, he retorts, “Are you trying to frame me?” suggesting that hidden hands are now at work to undermine him. Classic Taib!

Before we fall into this trap of being distracted by the conspiracy theories being espoused by The Benchmark, let us first examine the facts before us, and deconstruct the arguments advocated by The Benchmark one by one.