The truth hurts

the Cabinet. If you remember how Umno had removed Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim from all his posts, you would definitely say Muhyiddin’s removal was mild in comparison.

Now imagine if someone in PPBM did the same. In fact, the press received four statements from the party over their former women’s leader, Ainina Saadudin.

The party went into a tailspin, first saying she was fired, then she resigned, then said she didn’t have a post, and finally saying there was in fact no established women’s wing of PPBM.

Perhaps she didn’t use the “proper channels” in voicing her displeasure with where the party was heading.

From Kuala Lumpur, we move to Penang, where the DAP also went through this issue of “proper channels”.

DAP member Roger Teoh resigned and took his grouses on the Penang Transport Master Plan online and to the press.

Apparently, nobody was paying attention to his thoughts and grouses, thus leading to his resignation last Dec 12.

He rejoined the party on Jan 2 after being guaranteed a “direct channel” to voice his criticism of the transport masterplan.

I guess in this sense he found his “proper channel” which was not available before.

After all, a lot of things get lost in determining an avenue to communicate your thoughts to the upper hierarchy – your age, your gender, your experience or inexperience, even the choice of words and platform – to voice your thoughts.

In politics, all these could get you sacked, or placed in cold storage, or even fired, charged with corruption and even sodomy.

Thus, forget the channel for criticism. It isn’t important.

Even using comics – a medium of satire at most times, has landed a cartoonist in the book of records for the most times charged with sedition.

A personal experience comes to mind. Once upon a time, I wrote a speech for someone who told me that it was too grating, like a bread knife.

There was a need to soften the language to make it acceptable for people to laugh at points criticising society, and even look at how to hold people’s attention with humour and delivery.

The method of delivery for criticism