Saturday, January 24, 2004

The Court of Appeal today dismissed an application by former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim for bail pending his appeal against a sodomy conviction...

Why am I not surprised? Didn't we all already know this verdict even before the case was heard? We were just waiting for confirmation.

This is not just about Anwar. Any sensible thinking person will need no convincing to agree that there's something dodgy about Malaysia's judiciary system. Oh, hold on....it's actually the whole governing institution to be more precise. Let us not compare with the corruption in India or Latin America. Let's pause for a minute here and reflect on our own country.

Take the protectionism employed in the automotive industry for instance. The government imposes 200% or so duty on imported vehicles to boost sales of the national car. Bloody expensive they are - Honda, Mercedes and Hyundai. Yet, people still buy them. Why? The misguided notion that everything local is "korok", "cikai" and vice versa? Brand Conscious? Perhaps that is one of the most proliferating neo-Malaysian traits but a lot of us aren't. Moreover, we are talking about a machine here; an object the male gender has a natural affinity for. They're nonchalant. They dont care about brands. They are mainly techies. Its the technology, performance and workmanship that matters. These are not 20 ringgit tops, these are items costing tens of thousands of ringgit; the value for money cannot be compromised.

Our national cars survived the industry only through price discrimination. Now, when the bigger players from outside want to drop their prices specially, i repeat specially for export to Malaysia, some regulators had a go at them. Hello...come on. If you cant remain competitive, drop out. If you cant bear the consequences of going bust e.g. loss of taxpayers money and the failure of a visionary, then do something to improve your Tin Milo reputation. This is a business and its about taking risks. Surely, from the very start the guy who studied the project must have known the enormous risks involved before allowing any investment decisions, right? Then, when the consumers complain, they always turn the tables by lecturing on the lack of patriotism. What a misuse of a national sentiment!! Its not like its free that we have to be grateful for like Rezeki Allah Bagi kan? And even Allah asks us to strive for betterment. This is something we're paying for hence we have every right to voice out our discontentment. By the way, how could we improve if nobody ever tells us what we are doing wrong? We'll never learn. Criticism is not always negative. If they think positive it could be downright constructive. Sikit2 Malaysia Boleh! You know, honestly, I think all the efforts to popularise Malaysia what with F1, Twin Towers, KLIA etc have gone to waste. When I was in the US, no one knows exactly where we are. Caribbean lah, Africa lah. I think the only thing that we might be remembered for is that we once had a loud anti-semitic PM..its almost like a word could paint a thousand pictures instead of the saying a picture could paint a thousand words..

This is only about courts & cars. There are plenty of other examples right before our eyes if we take the time to ponder. And yet, our leaders have the guts to go centerstage, lashing out on the policies of other governments. Apa ni? Tak malu ka? Outrageous. Its criminal enough that they're abusing their political postions and power to treat us like their doormats. Insulting our intelligence by trying to cloud our minds with their national unity and peace propaganda pushes them even lower down the dignity ladder.

posted by ShopTastic @ 7:54 am |