Divide and rule, again
just that “selectively”.
A case in point was the seizure of an opulent yacht by the Indonesians who claimed that it belongs to a Malaysian businessman. The denial came swiftly. In contrast, the Kuok case escaped such a treatment.
It was only after the third post that a minister went on the offensive, strangely not against the blogger but against Kuok for reasons that are still unclear.
For one, he must have trusted the “fake” posts to take such a position as a senior minister in charge of “culture”. This was what got people uptight with utmost embarrassment especially when it could have been avoided.
No doubt Kuok deserves an apology, but so too Malaysians who are still reeling from the shock of the lack of adab and budi bahasa. The culture that we are proud of was sacrificed at the altar of unbridled anger. And getting away with it yet again although Sarawak reportedly has expressed some reservations.
Because of these “noises”, the blogger is conveniently out of the picture. He can sit comfortably in his faraway home watching how his handy work pans out since nobody dared to challenge him to return and prove his case. At least not until Kuok decides to take up the issue legally as purported in his response.
Meanwhile several politicians were falling over one another. It is clear that the “divide-and-rule” tactic worked perfectly. Sadder still is to discover the weakening of “perpaduan” (or is it “sehati sejiwa”?) when some members of various political affiliations started to vigorously exchange barbs openly.
It was not a pretty picture further attesting to Kuok’s analogy of personalities hugging and kissing in public, while in their hearts daggers are “semi-drawn”.
How bankrupt the political situation is shows when “racial” cards are played. By claiming that the issue is insulting to any one ethnic group is in itself no less an insult of equal proportion to all Malaysians who believed that Robert Kuok is a Malaysian, first and foremost.
This was clearly highlighted twice in this column (Jan 24 and 29) with extracts from the memoir.
Indeed he has demonstrated this on several occasions, unlike the lip service that is increasingly observed nowadays. This includes attempts to twist a cut-and-dry case into a “racial” one that smacked of some sort of desperation bordering on a “divide-and-rule” mindset. That it involves veteran politicians speaks volumes of the “decadent” nature of thinking that is colouring the political scene.
In fact, Kuok referred to such people in no uncertain terms which has allegedly become their second nature thanks to the gutter politics that they wallow in, more so as the