The elephant in the room is …

AMONG our top politicians there are those who choose to make Aung San Suu Kyi a scapegoat for the alleged genocide of the Muslim Rohingyas in Myanmar.

In fact, their anger was directed at the Myanmar generals, who are still around and holding the real power behind the throne. But they don’t dare address them directly.

In the Malay village downriver from ours, this indirect reference would be expressed as ‘ Pukul anak sindir menantu’. Hit your own daughter when in fact you aim at your son-in-law, or sack your son for the fault of your daughter-in-law.

In Switzerland, you hit the bag when you mean to beat the dog. That’s a kind of Swiss diplomatic language.

I think, we Malaysians are not being diplomatic at all when it comes to criticising Suu Kyi’s role in the government of Myanmar as its de factor leader. Some Malaysians demand the return of her Nobel Peace prize to whoever gave her the award as if she had got it from Malaysia. You could take away that title from her if she held a datukship from Malaysia. Here, she is not even a third-class Datu.

From Facebook I read about a character who boasted of having successfully handled a tiger. Given a chance, he would use his black magic on the winner of the Nobel Peace laureate too. That’s a daft threat, unacceptable to most decent Malaysians.

People who must find a scapegoat at all for the persecution and oppression of the Muslim Rohingyas must pause to think, if Suu Kyi, despite her exalted position, if she has that power at all, to stop the soldiers from harming those