Nur Jazlan, gangs, idiocy and Bersih 4
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To join a gang, an aspiring member has to show the gang’s leader that he has the qualities it takes to be a member. If he’s nominated by someone other than the leader, he faces a tough challenge; but Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed is up to the challenge.
Three weeks ago PM Najib appointed Nur Jazlan as deputy home minister. His boss, the Home Minister, is Dato’ Seri Zahid Hamidi, who has been sued for assault, has a soft spot for Malay gangs, and has written a letter of support for a triad member and gambling kingpin.
Nur Jazlan’s recent comments on Bersih 4 suggest that Zahid has challenged Nur Jazlan to prove himself worthy of being in Zahid’s gang.
Nur Jazlan appears to have chosen the most idiotic ministers as his role models.
Nur Jazlan seems to be competing with Deputy International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Ahmad Maslan who said the boos he got from Umno members in his constituency, Pontian (my hometown!) don’t indicate that they dislike him.
Nur Jazlan also seems to be competing with Rural and Regional Development Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, whose response to the Low Yat incident is to entrench apartheid by creating Low Yat 2 “for Malays.”
Nur Jazlan’s play in the idiocy stakes is his claim, while supporting the police ban on Bersih 4, that “no other country in the world has a police force that is as tolerant as the Malaysian police.” (The Star, Augst 20).
With that claim, Nur Jazlan has qualified for membership of another club. It’s the club whose motto is “My mind is made up. Don’t confuse me with the facts.”
The erstwhile chair of the Public Accounts Committee has, since his promotion to deputy home minister, joined the ranks of other ministers: he has chosen to ignore facts.
But we do not look to members of our cabinet for a judgment on the police force. We look instead to respectable authorities and facts.
