EMAIL RESPONSE TO A FRIEND

HANTU LAUT

Dear Diana,

I am surprise you still find his writing moreish.I have stopped reading his articles a while ago, as not only I find them distasteful, needless to say , the man is also in consistence, bias and arrogantly perceives himself more sanctimonious than others.Not being dismissive, I also find his long-winded and repetitive style of writing just to make the story long, to prove he has literary skill, makes dismal reading.It would have been more gratifying if he had precised his articles.

In Para 7 of his article he mentioned that those who become a threat to people in the corridors of power were either sacked or bought off.In some other story he wrote,he earnestly defended one allegedly corrupt senior police officer with wealth worth RM 27 millions, an ex CP in Sabah, who had to be bribed with huge parcel of land and shares in some companies before he went with his counterpart in the army to launch a massive exercise to arrest and deport illegal immigrants, which ended as an exercise in futility and an action not done in the course of duty but through immoral incentives.

Many of the top political bloggers in Malaysia the likes of Raja Petra,Rocky Bru,Susan Loone,Elizabeth Wong, Kadir Jasin,M.Bakri Musa and few others are good writers, but unfortunately, they are also very anti-establishment. Many of what they wrote were emotionally charged and geared to attract more hits to their blog rather than seeking a discourse in intellectualism or to broach an argument substantially not out of substance.It's a close-knit community, abrasive, histrionics and exhilarating in 'I scratch your back, you scratch mine' kind of philosophy.They have a kind of 'I am smarter than thou' extra sensory perception with a gaff on innuendoes and conjectures.

If you care to go around and make home visits to their tendentious blogs, you would notice they seem to work in harmony and without diversity, an idiosyncrasy that seems to work well with the uninitiated fans, the readers, that the majority of are only capable of making fatuous comments and utterances of insufferable obscenities against the establishment, which I don't really care about.I certainly agree there are a lot of rot in the establishment, but to have a dyed-in-the-wool opinion of every thing the government does is wrong, is blind as a blind can be.

What is even more worrying and disturbing is the effect of the bloggers' campaign against the government by trying to incite the Agong and the other rulers to interfere in the administration of the nation.It seems to have some effect on some of the rulers, especially in Perak, where the Raja Muda and recently the Sultan had come out of the royal cacoon and made some statement on the state of the judiciary.They broke fast from their elegant silence.

Malaysians should also be perturbed to learn that the Agong had refused to accept the Prime Minister's choice of candidate for judiciary appointment.Our nation is not an absolute monarchy but a constitutional monarch based on the British Westminster system where the head of state do not have executive power.To deny the Prime Minister's choice, no matter how bad it is, would be tantamount to interfering in the administration of the state.This is a dangerous trend and a bad precedent, if the story going round the blogosphere is true.

My grandfather once told me, there are two kind of people in this world you must not trust.A policeman and a journalist.

If we want to change the leaders or the whole government for that matter, the rightful place would be the ballot boxes. It's somehow seems strange that some supposedly seasoned political pundits deemed it fits to drag the Agong and the other rulers into a controversy that didn't concerned them. If Badawi is the problem than the elected representatives should decide whether they want him to lead or not as there are provisions in the Constitution to remove the Prime Minister if he fails to enjoy the majority support of the house.

It is very disheartening to know that such anomalies, which this beautiful country, could ill afford to have, had taken place.I am all for clean government, a clean and fair election and a government accountable to the people, but do we have to ape the western form of democracy, are our citizens discipline enough to demonstrate? The recent 'walk for justice' had gone to naught.The proposed march on 10th November initiated by BERSIH and supported by NGOs and opposition parties with estimated 100,000 turnout is something to worry about.How do you control the sentiments of 100,000 individuals ? Do you honestly think the crowd on the 10th of November would be as discipline and peaceful as the 2000 lawyers ? The people who organised the march should have their head exmine, if they think they have control over the behaviour of the participants. Many peaceful demonstrations in some other countries had turned to bloodshed and death due to unruly, aggressive and uncontrollable behaviour of the crowd.

Maybe we should not worry too much and take some of the stories with a pinch of salt.

Best regards

Gram Kong.