By Xavier Kong
When a minister or member of parliament says something that brings down incredulous ridicule and ridiculous incredulity, Tiger figures that the line must have been a heck of a whopper indeed. This leads Tiger to wonder, do Malaysia’s ministers really say the darndest things?
The year 2015 was one of great amusement for this particular Tiger, considering the amount of gaffes and faux pas by the governmental administration and members of parliament of Malaysia. The comments have, in their time, brought about responses of incredulity from the rakyat, though there were also responses of “I’m not surprised”.
Still, while Malaysia’s administration has admittedly committed multiple gaffes over the years, 2015 has made its mark in the history books, chock full of remarks that have drawn ridicule and derision from the rakyat.
One particular gaffe that struck this Tiger as immensely memorable in the improbability of its scale of implementation was the suggestion by Salleh Said Keruak, Malaysia’s communications and multimedia minister.
Said Keruak had called for Malay to be the lingua franca of the Asean region. In all honesty, when Tiger heard of this, the first thing that came to mind was the scale of implementation this would require, considering the common language in use by the region is English.
The good minister had a good basis, in that a community should speak the same language. However, with a community the size of Asean, with the number of people involved, it is just not feasible! (Tiger refrains from comment on the choice of language, as Tiger very much enjoys his freedom.) Tiger would also like to point out that this is also the minister who said Malaysians preferred slower, cheaper Internet, so Tiger will leave the conclusion to the reader.
Ahmad Maslan
At the same time, there is one name that seems to pop up regularly, especially in his comments about GST. Yes, Tiger is talking about Malaysia’s deputy finance minister, Ahmad Maslan. Despite his 3.85 GPA, the good minister has managed to make statements such as “products will be cheaper post-GST”, as well as asking students to cook their own food rather than eating out.
However, this has resulted in the minister being slammed for being thoughtless to the plights of the students he addressed, many of whom were not allowed to cook in their dormitories. The good minister then further added to his statement, asking students to cook off-campus if the rules did not allow it. At that point, Tiger was just pushing face into paw at the world of good the 3.85 GPA has done for him.
What about recent sensation Ismail Sabri Yaakob, Malaysia’s own rural and regional development minister? This was the man who called for a boycott of Chinese-owned businesses by the Malay community, blaming those businesses for prices not going down despite the drop in oil prices. Bringing racial overtures into the issue just proves to Tiger that there is only one card to play.
Speaking of racial tensions, this was also the good minister who proposed Low Yat 2, a Low Yat Plaza equivalent for Malays. Bringing that up at all has Tiger wondering if the racial card is the only card held in hand, considering the rate they play it.
Tiger would also like to mention that this was the two-legs who claimed to have not eaten any turtle eggs during a dinner in Sandakan. Other than the fact that this is a fellow endangered species, the good minister cannot even find it in himself to either confirm or deny if he even had those, preferring to come up with increasingly preposterous statements which had this Tiger wondering if he believes all Malaysians are as daft as he is.
Abdul Rahman Dahlan
And how can Tiger fail to mention Malaysia’s Minister of Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government, Kota Belud MP Abdul Rahman Dahlan. There should be no need for Tiger to note why he is in this list, but really, Tiger just wants to point out the incredulous statement by the good minister who had asked urbanites to “wake up earlier to avoid paying tolls”. When Tiger first heard this, the struggle to decide between staring open-mouthed in shock and bursting out in uproarious laughter was herculean.
Then again, this is also the minister who, within the same week, said he “would be the happiest urban wellbeing minister if the rakyat were to balik kampung”. Honestly, Tiger seriously wonders if any thought is placed into what these ministers say.
While Tiger would like to ask if Malaysia’s ministers say the darndest things, the list practically speaks for itself. That there is a series of books titled similarly to this article is a pure coincidence, though it speaks for the point further. One day, in the hopefully not-so-distant future, Tiger wistfully dreams of the time when ministers become people the rakyat can look up to again, instead of objects of ridicule and chortle at for their nonsensical statements.
A Tiger can dream, right?
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