General elections blues

Top dog has finally dissolved parliament and the 13th general elections is due anytime by the end of this month or thereabouts. This time, campaigning is the in-your-face variety. I have so far received several sms-es from Najib's Barisan Nasional urging me to vote for Malaysia and hence, vote for Barisan Nasional. Fascist sms-es only annoy me. If i were a fence-sitter, this will cause me to swing AGAINST the government rather than to vote for them. First of all, they have gotten my handphone number from God knows where and then they messaged me several times equating the government to the country. Wrong in principal and oh, have we forgotten the Personal Data Protection Act 2010? Or is that just a nice piece of gloss to brag about. And all these promises of goodies from both sides of the political divide is disgusting. We want clean, transparent, efficient government, not goddamned hand-outs. It's our tax payers' money and the government has no right to use it to buy votes. Hopefully, people have grown smart enough not to fall for this Santa Claus bull shit. Last but not least, I'm sick and tired of reading the mainstream newspapers like the paid prostitutes that they so are.

I am weary. Let's vote and be done with the damned politics.

screw this

I bought 4 shooter's magazines for my dad today at a certain leading bookstore chain and paid the full price for my purchase. Then when i checked my bag later, i found 5, not 4 magazines. In there was a 124-page, glossy magazine priced at RM15 which i had not bought and which the cashier had casually slipped into my plastic bag with little old me unawares. Courtesy of Limkokwing University of Creative Technology, no less. It's title? NAJIB - NATION ON HIS MIND, PEOPLE IN HIS HEART (see pic).

15 bucks and they're giving this away for free 'cos no one will fork out 15 bucks to read any that this glossy slick publication has to show for our beloved prime minister? Man, the government must be really, really, really desperate.

As for me, i checked my receipt and sure enough, i wasn't billed RM15 for this unwanted piece of gloss which i can't find no practical use for other than to stuff a worn-out shoe (if i had a worn-out shoe that i still wanted to use). Look here Limkokwing,  I get oodles of government propaganda everyday in the newspapers and i don't need any more, ok?

Auditor-general's report be damned

Remember last year's auditor-general's report on government contracts and procurements for over-priced computers and furniture? a set of jacks for many times more than what you can buy off the shelf? Well, now how about a defence contract worth over RM8 billion tentatively to be awarded to a local company (DRB-Hicom BHd's wholly-owned unit Deftech) for 257 armored personnel carriers (APCs) priced at around RM31.12 million each APC, which is about 6 times more expensive than an American make or about 3 times more expensive than a German-Dutch make? Yaaaay! we can afford it! And we can build our very own too! It's ok that they cost several times more than tried-and-tested APCs available in the open market, cos what's important is we be self-sufficient, right? who cares about comparative advantages or our lack of it as such? We have our own national car already, now let's start on the big bucks department, military hardware and equipment! Hmmm, if we bought it for say a third of RM8 billion, we'd save about, say conservatively estimated, over RM5 billion? RM5 billion would buy a heck lot of schools, hospitals, public services, right? Naaaaaah! Let's just throw money around like it's going out of fashion. after all, there's lots lots lots more where that came from. Auditor-General's report be damned.

Burn baby burn

We live in the Age of the Gloss. Form over substance, appearance over content. Nothing is what it seems. The government speaks in doublespeak we cannot trust our institutions our leaders lie. We must scrutinise, examine and do due diligence or be prepared to be SHAFTED. Words are just words, lip service is easy, no one gives a Good God Damned so long as the party and the music plays on. Hey Maestro, let the good times roll! Then someone whispered: "we live in steadily coarsening times, bro". This is not just because people do not care anymore or they're just too tired to care. The culture glosses over everything. Instant gratification instant oats instant love instant sex, you see it on TV (I keep switching channels but one show isn't very much different from another). Lift up the carpet and you'll see a writhing pile of maggots feasting on the decayed bloated corpses of Prime Ministers past. Blue veins pop all over their dead pale decomposed skins like a dead man's body floating on the river in the hot afternoon sun. When the man dies, let him be cremated in a giant funeral pyre. No Worms, i hear. Fire cleanses, fire purifies everything. Prometheus' gift to mankind it's the BEST.

Gloss-nost

We practise gloss-nost. Gloss-nost as opposed to former Soviet Premier and Cold War liberator Mr Mikhail Gorbachev's Glasnost, does not mean open-ness transparency and reform. Gloss-nost here means a glossing over what is the surface of things, a shallow-ness in approach to things, the touching of surface level only without going into the substance of matters. For example, 1Malaysia as espoused by the government of late to mean one-ness of all Malaysians united and strong. But then on the other hand, politicians including a former premier have come out fighting for the rights of one race above all others. They struggle for one race and no one else. They are not bothered by what the other races think. They espouse the Mastery of the one race. This sloganeering and putting forth of empty platitudes has become a regular feature of every new government to come into power in Malaysia. Gloss-nost.

But Gloss-nost is not merely confined to the Malaysian government. It cuts across the political divide to include members of the Opposition. For example, Beyonce's concert to Malaysia. Certain elements in PAS protest on "moral grounds". They object that Beyonce's dressing, the showing of flesh, her act will be suggestive in some ways and will tend to corrupt Malaysian youth. Nevermind that Beyonce is a highly talented singer who was invited to sing at the US President's Inauguration Ball where she was watched by millions to be in tears while rendering a heart-felt version of Ella Fitzgerald's "At Last" as newly-elected and the first-ever black American President Barack Obama waltzed to the tune with First Lady Michelle Obama. Nevermind that other notable US-based singers such as Gwen Stefani have obliged us, bending over backwards as it seems, to tone down on their dressing and acts, to cover up more flesh in our humid and warm tropical climate if only just to suit Malaysian cultural mores. Nevermind that the concert is only open to those who actually buy tickets to go and watch it, the vast majority of whom will be adults and not a few non-Muslims. Nevermind that Malaysia is a multi-ethnic, multi-religious country. The views of the vocal stupid few based on the narrowest most shallow/superficial interpretation of religion, never mind the substance, is to cow all else into submission. Gloss-nost.

The Auditor-General's 2008 report as expected, brings to light more instances of over-charging and rampant corruption in government disbursements and spending. How else do you account for an out-of-date-model laptop that costs RM42,320(equivalent to US$12,513 at today's exchange rate), purchased stools that don't match with contracted specifications, government vehicles' maintenance over 3 times the market rates charges, etc etc etc? But I fully expect that nothing will be done to rectify this problem. A few sympathetic and "tut-tut" statements from the top echelons of government shall be enough to re-assure us that, rest assured, the government FIRMLY DISAPPROVES of such profligate waste of public funds. Perhaps a slap on the wrist or a show trial of one or two expendable small fries will be thrown in for good measure. Just to show what's been done. The prosecuted will also likely be found not guilty at the end of the day. Everyone is happy, case closed. Wait until next year's Auditor General's Report and see lah. Business as usual in the meantime. Gloss-nost.

It's ok, waste of public funds? Believe you me, the government is a money tree and there's plenty plenty plenty more where those come from, my friend. The pool of tax payers/funds is seemingly inexhaustible.

Gloss-nost is a way of life in Malaysia. We don't need to think very much thanks to Gloss-nost. We can remain rent-collectors, dividend drawers, expect to be paid for doing nothing thanks to Gloss-nost. We have the most wonderful PR job in the world to depict our happy little country as living in a perpetual summer of racial harmony and communal bliss and all other nations are oh so eager to emulate our fine example. We shall teach them a thing or two. About Gloss-nost.