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Sakmongkol ak 47

ariff.sabri@gmail.com

Saturday 13 September 2008

What if the Ahmad Ismail mischief is just shadow play?

The MKT had made a judgement against Ahmad Ismail. He is to be suspended from holding any posts nor can he contest for any, for the next 3 years.

The funny thing about this sordid handling of the Ahmad Ismail affair raises more suspicions.

Ahmad Ismail is an inconsequential UMNO bahagian leader. He has a colourful past and that is not a compliment. Yet he is being given royal treatment. He is lionised by the Malay press, hailed by Malay nationalist and so on. Meanwhile, his thuggish behaviour continues.

After the punishment was handed, he defiantly conducted a press conference. Usually pc’s are held by political luminaries of a higher kind, -deputy ministers, supreme council top leaders, Menteri Besars etc.

Here, he was doing a pc. In attendance was the man with the questionable royal lineage- the man whose name changed from Teuku to Tengku.

That indicates some tacit endorsement by the UMNO secgen. Was this done with permission from the UMNO president?. If it did, then, where does that place the punishment made after the 3 hours debate? Was it just a diversionary play acting?

The Ahmad Ismail affair is a trivial matter. It does not require calling a full meeting of the MKT to discuss the affair of one kichi mayung from a kingless state. So why was it dignified by a full meeting of the MKT?

The 3 hour long debate serves to confirm what Sakmongkol has accepted all along. This is the Parkinson’s law of triviality.

Parkinson’s law of triviality is also known as the bicycle shed example. The law states that organisations give disproportionate weight to trivial issues. The simpler the issue, the more complex and more strained the arguments.

Therefore the MKT meeting on the Ahmad Ismail affair was reduced to a JKKK meeting discussing the building of bicycle shed. Building one is simple. So the JKKK guys will start debating whether there is a need to build one. That over, they will discuss whether to construct the roof using asbestos or zinc roofing. Next, they will discuss whether to also lay a concrete foundation. Lighting and so on. The arguments over building a simple edifice such as one bloody bicycle shed becomes long winding and strained. Why? Because such a simple subject is understood by everyone and so everyone wants to outdo each other.

Ahmad Ismail issue was a simple one. It could have easily be done away in two shakes of a lion’s whiskers. But then, as we all know, with all kind of people in MKT ( some maybe with fake diplomas), the issue is made unnecessarily complicated.

Suppose, the issue is a complex one like building an incinerator plant. That would be despatched very quickly so that no one is made to look stupid.

So when the Ahmad Ismail issue took 3 hours to deliberate, Sakmongkol is sure, this is an application of Parkinson’s law of triviality.

The MKT spend inordinately longer time on a triviality. Just like a JKKK meeting.

But imagine this. What if the Ahmad Ismail mischief is part of a larger grand design? That’s for part 2 folks.

2 comments:

Anonymous,  13 September 2008 at 22:43  

It was 3 hours to ensure that it finish just before buka puasa.

Ariff Sabri 13 September 2008 at 22:55  

you mean, kalau tak bukak puasa, it could have been longer?

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