It’s OK for Rocky to be angry
So when a rookie online reporter called to ask about Rocky’s posting, I told him, what’s so terribly wrong about a Singapore newspaper writing negative things about Malaysia when some Malaysian newspapers and writers make running down Singapore their bread and butter?
A Kadir Jasin, TMI
I am happy that my friend Rocky gets angry. Unlike me, he’s always composed, stoic and steady. He seldom gets angry. He’s always that big, tall and steady Rocky.
It’s good to get angry sometimes. Get things out of your chest. I always believe that a person who feels the anger but can manage it is better than one who is not touched by it.
In his posting of Aug 1 headlined “Malaysia, where death is cheap and staying alive costly”, Rocky is angry that a Singapore tabloid, The New Paper, had portrayed Malaysia in bad light.
So when a rookie online reporter called to ask about Rocky’s posting, I told him, what’s so terribly wrong about a Singapore newspaper writing negative things about Malaysia when some Malaysian newspapers and writers make running down Singapore their bread and butter?
I told the rookie that The New Paper is not a new paper. It was started by the Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) – the owner of The Straits Times – way back in 1987.
Being a Singapore paper, it is responsible to the Singaporeans. Since many Singaporeans live in Malaysia or visit our country, it’s the paper’s right and responsibility to warn its readers of the risk that they may face while in Malaysia.
Let us face facts
Is it not a fact that Malaysia is becoming more and more dangerous? Don’t just blame the Singapore newspapers. Our own newspapers are replete with stories of murder and mayhem. In fact, crime stories have become the staple of our newspapers. They regularly make the front page.
I hope neither Rocky nor his followers would consider me a Singapore agent. But I am willing to be accused of being an agent provocateur.
I want to provoke Malaysians to think critically and be willing to tell their elected representatives – from the novice Yang Berhormat to the Prime Minister – what they feel and want. We want a safer Malaysia!
We want them to accept culpability for their actions – abolishing the Emergency Ordinance and the Banishment Act that overnight unleashed some 2,500 bad hats and criminal elements on all of us.
It’s fine for Prime Minister Mohd Najib Abdul Razak and his liberal-minded advisers to want to appear humane and be popular with the city slickers. Or gunning after their votes. But did he get it? No. Instead the lives and limbs of the ordinary rakyat are put at risk.
I am not anti-government
A very senior civil servant asked a former deputy minister (who is a friend of my friend) why I have turned from being pro-government to anti-government.
I am not anti-government. I am not a subversive element. I love my country. I am not even anti-Mohd Najib. Yes, I told him repeatedly of his burdens, his Achilles heel and what the people think of his family. Not a new thing either. I had told him these things as early as when he was Education Minister. There shouldn’t be any misunderstanding on this matter. In my simpleton way of thinking “raja dalam rumah buat kira-kira, suri dalam dapur makan roti gula.” Period.
But I am critical and I am against the wrong things he and his advisers had done or are doing. Let’s see how far they will go with the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement with the USA! Almost every person who dares to speak out has spoken against the agreement and the government is less than willing to share information with the people.
It’s ok for him, his Cabinet and even the MPs in the House to do away with preventive laws, including the ISA. They have bodyguards and live in walled and guarded compounds.
