Semantics of politics and politics of semantics

By admin-s On Mar 18, 2015

If you need to use that much in such a short period of time, it denotes urgency, and that would lead me to deduce that 1MDB was in dire need of that RM600 million, and thus this “standby credit” is a bailout.

Scott Ng, FMT

Ah, semantics. Knowledge of it is quite useful in the trade of journalism, especially when you can’t directly say the word “guilty”, for example, to avoid any legal trouble in the line of duty. In politics, however, semantics is far more than a mere tool. It is the whole trade.

There may be a difference in the level of mastery, but journalists, like much of the rest of the public, can tell when politicians are using semantics to lighten the smell of something rotten. So take it from us when we say the difference between a loan and a ‘standby credit’ in the case of the recent infusion of public funds into 1MDB is merely semantics.

A little background seems to be in order here. Recently, it was reported that Putrajaya had made available RM950 million to the beleaguered 1MDB as a loan, though many would rather use the would “bailout” to refer to this infusion of cash into the wealth fund. Now, Second Finance Minister Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah would like you, dear reader, to know that this immense amount of capital made available to 1MDB is not a “bailout” because bailouts are for companies that are failing and haemorrhaging money. He said it was not a loan either, but really a “standby credit” because 1MDB does not receive the full sum but can use as much of it as it needs should it need it.

Obviously, it was needed, because merely days after the announcement of this “standby credit”, it was revealed that 1MDB had already used RM600 million of the RM950 million made available to it.