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Monday 10 August 2009

The Bully Pulpit


One commentator sent me a You Tube recording of a presscon between Minister Rais Yatim and the press people. He called the pc to explain the arrangements relating to the celebration of Malaysia's Independence Day. He stated clearly he won't answer any questions relating to his proposed censor of the internet.

He did exactly the opposite- he actually wanted to talk more about the proposed censor.

Minister Rais haughtily said- we are preparing the grounds to save our very civilisation against the scourge of pornography, stressing in particular, child pornography. From the way he spoke, it can be taken that he meant exposure of children to pornography. He has probably missed the fact, that the principal source of exposure of pornography is parents leaving vcds and dvds in their players. Or the availability of the smut material from places such as Petaling Street or dvd peddlers.

I am not sure of the quality of journalists sent to cover this particular pc. I presume they must be young and can in turn be reasonably presumed to be wet behind the ears to a sufficient degree that Rais could behave impudently towards them. The You Tube showed who Minister Rais is- a bully. The press people who came were obviously out of their political depth and league, a fact that allowed Rais to behave flippantly.

We heard a muffled question in English asked and Minister Rais responded by berating the poor chap. He asked were you educated in England and started to mockingly rephrase whatever was asked in accented English. His facial expressions showed utter disdain. The arranged press conference descended into a bully pulpit for Herr Rais.

Let's go beyond this typical presscon by a person who is easily given to showy linguistic and verbal circumambulations. Do the antics of Minister Rais finally resolve your doubts as to why many people simply hate UMNO ministers? With leaders like these, UMNO doesn't require enemies to do it in.

11 comments:

Far away,  10 August 2009 at 22:52  

I hate to say this, Rais is my friend, but what is reported seems to be true. He is consistent in his flip-flop manner, and I quite agree with u that with one like him, who needs......
When he was in S46,
1. he said he had burnt the bridge to UMNO, yet he wriggled thru the burnt bridge to get back to UMNO.
2. he said that, after thorough study of the I.S.A., that the law was bad and cruel and unnecessary and should be removed, yet when he joined UMNO and given a Ministerial post, he changed his mind saying that I.S.A. is a necessary evil and shud be maintained.
3. when as Min of Foreign Affairs, and as a seasoned lawyer, he seemed confident of winning the Batu Putih case, but M'sia received a knockout in the Int Court.
4. in S46, he said that UMNO lama "sudah tidak relevan" and yet he rejoin that irrelevant party.
There are a number of other flip-flops, but suffice for me to stop there.
Wish UMNO all the best tho.

Ramli Mohd Yunus 10 August 2009 at 23:31  

dato,

with rais, I could not agree more, this man seems to be behaving like he is the smartest man on earth!

rais was and is always a flip flop politician..remember his `burn the bridge antic'?

May God Bless Us..

Unknown 11 August 2009 at 03:15  

This is exactly what i have always been telling my umno friends, that when you sacrifice your principles and start to pretend for too long,at the end you become what you pretend to be.

This idiotic minister has now become the very worst that you can imagine, he has turned into a monster.

There were times when i thought he was good man, but thats a long long time ago.

yeappie,  11 August 2009 at 05:43  

Dato',
Don't you think these institutions of higher learning that Rais attended should review their admission/acceptance policies?

Anonymous,  11 August 2009 at 07:13  

Dato',
Rais is just trying to emulate Dr. M by putting the journalists in a very uncomfortable position by intimidating them. Unlike Dr. M, he just doesn't have the tact and polish to do it.
Pak Zed

Anonymous,  11 August 2009 at 11:05  

The Quran states in Surah Luqman 31:18-19

Do not be a bragging boaster
[31/18]

Do not be contemptuous or arrogant with people

Do not shout. Speak politely keeping your voice low. [31/19]

I guess this applies to all (politicians included, especially) since time immemorial.

bindi

Anonymous,  11 August 2009 at 14:36  

This clip has left a very negative view of ratty Rais. His stint as Foreign Affairs Minister has not help to polish his PR skills. Under him, we lost a Pulau to savvy Spore, dont we have better qualified Malays to fill the cabinet??

angela ooi

Jarod 11 August 2009 at 23:25  

Dato,

Not to forget. He got his PHD from US.

GreenBug 12 August 2009 at 00:23  

It is sad that many of our politicians esp those from UMNO speak down and are show-offs, not realizing that amongst their audience are many who are more educated and well-travelled than them, but have chosen a different path to be ordinary citizens.

I have seen senior public officials lecture people before during the regular taklimats at the ministries not realizing that the people they lectured are the ones with the better knowledge and resources but yet these officials used power, authority and their bully tactics.

These only go to show how immature these people are and how the culture of bullying and talking down has permeated our entire civil service and leadership.

Anonymous,  13 August 2009 at 23:42  

A wise man once said. Politicians, sooner or later, they nearly all suffered from an exaggerated idea of their importance. This is very true of Rais Yatim.

He has an expired shelf life. He should go.

Anonymous,  14 August 2009 at 18:37  

and what scares me is he is supposed to be one of the more cultured and educated of the umno ministers...

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