“Calm” before the storm

By admin-s Last updated Dec 21, 2018

How can you tell people to keep calm when they are angry? It’s a stupid thing to say

Ktemoc Konsiders

MM Online – Malay confidence in Pakatan hinges on pace of action after fireman’s death (extracts):

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 21 — Pakatan Harapan must speed up investigations and prosecution if it is to stem the slide in Malay support following the death of firefighter Muhammad Adib Mohd Kassim, analysts have said.

Though Adib’s death was not due to an interracial clash, those polled have noted the burning anger within the Malay demographic group towards certain ethnic Indian lawmakers from the ruling coalition whose initials remarks suggested one.

“It might create uncertainty if no immediate action is taken,” Sivamurugan Pandian from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) told Malay Mail.

Already, a coalition of Muslim organisations known as Gerakan Pembela Ummah are calling for a #Justice4Adib solidarity rally outside Masjid Putra in Putrajaya after Friday prayers today — which was also the date the slain fireman was to wed his fiancee Nurul Najihah Mohd Radzi.

The same Muslim coalition demanded the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government rescind its moratorium[a] on the death penalty 24 hours after Adib’s death so it can be used on those convicted of his murder.

Ummah is also clamouring for the removal of the PH ministers from government and the use of the Sedition Act against them. It will march to deliver its memorandum to the Prime Minister’s Office.

Sivamurugan said the government cannot afford to be seen to delay justice, even if it wanted to ensure the rule of law is applied properly.

With the public restive, continued calls for calm from those in positions of power have had the opposite effect.

“Many irresponsible parties were involved. All should be prosecuted without delay so that it does not create crisis of confidence towards the authorities,” the USM political sociology professor said.

Datuk Agus Yusoff of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) said whether or not PH suffers a Malay backlash hinges on the actions of its leaders in the next few days.

“But the problem is they have been issuing unwise statements like ‘keep calm’,” the associate professor of UKM’s history, politics, and strategy school said.

“What their leaders should say is ‘we promise stern action and heavy punishment to all those found guilty, and swift justice will be delivered’.

“How can you tell people to keep calm when they are angry? It’s a stupid thing to say,” he added.

Indeed, as I wrote in my post Words that annoy!:

I had stated this, my bêtes noire (bugbear), in my Facebook some weeks ago because I was highly riled whenever I read of the word within a certain context – no, not as in ‘a calm sea’ or ‘the calm before the storm’ etc.

The annoying ‘certain’ context would be when (and regrettably just too often) we have politicians or so-called national leaders (from both sides of the political fence) advising us to ‘remain calm’, even in situations which didn’t trouble us in the least.

And if we were to be in situations which trouble us greatly, just how the hell would we be able to ‘remain calm’ when we would in all probability be anxious, worried and perhaps even sh*t-scared?

Thus such advice would be useless and worse, rather patronizing, as if we are budak-budak kecil to be calmed (f**k) … er … I mean … soothed.