Malaysians Say The Darndest Things!

Goodbye Chua Soi Lek. We Won’t/Will Miss You

January 7, 2008

Happy belated new year to all. It’s been a week since I’ve blogged, and I hope you’re still sticking strong to whatever resolutions you’ve made. I know I haven’t.

Anyway, what better way to start off my first post of the year by writing about Chua Soi Lek and his now very public sex tape. So should Chua Soi Lek have resigned after all? There seems to be two prevailing arguments on this:

1. Chua Soi Lek should not resign because although he is an adulterer, he did not do harm to this country. The penalty was certainly harsher than the crime.
2. Chua Soi Lek should resign because he is a public figure and what he has done is so morally repugnant for a man in his position. Leaders are held to higher standards, so for him to stay on in his position is untenable because of the lost of trust.

If you hold true to either arguments above, I am not here to tell you that you are wrong to think this way. To each his/her own viewpoints, and it’s really a moot point to argue about it since he has already resigned.

Chua Soi Lek: Taken from Malaysiakini

However, I would like to share with you my view that Dr. Chua has done the right thing in the end. In my short years reading about Malaysian politics, it is indeed extremely rare for a Barisan Nasional politician to be so accountable for his own actions, however reluctant he might have been to resign in the first place. Remember Mohd Said Yusof, the BN MP for Jasin? He told customs officials to ‘close one eye’ and ignore the violations on companies linked to him. His crime is comparable to, or worse than Chua’s, and yet he is still sitting in Parliament.

But let’s not give Dr. Chua too much credit for getting off the high horse and resigning. In fact, if it were up to me, there are other Barisan MPs who should be sacked for dereliction of duties as MPs, and other transgressions as well (remember the Port Klang Free Zone scandal which cost the country billions of dollars?). As MPs, they are supposed to represent their constituencies in Parliament, but it is clear that Barisan MPs prefer to play it safe and toe the party line blindly, for fear of disciplinary action.

<< Start Ranting About Something Unrelated to Dr. Chua >>
Let’s jump back to the recent amendment to our country’s Constitution. 189 Barisan MPs voted to pass an amendment to extend the Election Commission chairman’s retirement age from 65 to 66. Why pass such a frivolous and useless amendment? Because the chairman was due to retire last Dec 31st, and since the elections will most likely be held this year, they probably wanted to keep such a valuable resource around for another year to keep the advantage in BN’s favor during the elections. The supposedly independent chairman has already stated his support for BN, so 189 BN MPs went to parliament, voted ‘aye’ to the amendment during the first hearing, and went home happily knowing that they have done their job (according to the party, not as an MP). See how easy it is to make amendments to the supreme and fundamental piece of law in our country? Just like changing toilet paper. On the contrary, when we have vast segments of people in society wanting certain sensitive articles in the Constitution to be amended to prevent further state-sponsored racism, we have certain leaders threatening ‘amok’. We have certain leaders telling us that laws cannot be changed, because it is enshrined in the Constitution, and we should respect the Constitution. Really, how much respect do these leaders have for the Constitution when they voted in such a frivolous amendment like extending the retirement date of an old man that does not clearly help the country advance in any single possible way? See how it’s suddenly very hard to change the Constitution?

As to why some other Barisan MPs should be sacked for dereliction of duties as MPs, head on to Haris Ibrahim’s site and read the letters that the rakyat has written to their MPs wanting them to vote against this constitutional amendment. The MPs are supposed to represent their voters in their constituencies. But BN MPs prefer to toe the party line, and play it safe, so 189 BN MPs voted to pass the amendment in Parliament. Should these Barisan MPs be sacked for not representing the voices of their voters? Isn’t it clear to you, the voter, that a Barisan MP can clearly ignore you, the person who voted for him/her, just because of the threat of disciplinary action? Do you still want to vote for a Barisan Nasional MP during the next elections? I know I wouldn’t want a coward representing my voice in Parliament.
<< End Ranting >>

So back to Dr. Chua. Ask yourself this, what’s the big deal if Dr. Chua resigned? Name me 3 things that Dr. Chua has done as Health Minister that has benefited this country and also showed positive results. How about the ‘Tak Nak’ campaign to tell people to stop smoking? How many of you think that it’s a waste of public funds, and the approach of buying billboard space, air time on radios and television is all wrong? The only neutral thing that I can say about Dr. Chua’s tenure as Health Minister is that he didn’t fuck it up too badly. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on where you stand), it seems like the story has not ended there. Malaysiakini reports that Dr. Chua thinks his political rivals want to see him completely destroyed. I’m waiting for him to start naming names, so that more BN MPs will get in trouble. Anything that gets BN MPs out of Parliament, especially famously ’subservient-to-UMNO’ MCA MPs is fine by me, so Dr. Chua, name names already!

On another note, if Dr. Chua decides to keep his mouth shut and retire from the limelight forever, Malaysians Say The Darndest Things would like to say thank you and goodbye to Chua Soi Lek for having gracefully appeared in this blog previously for saying something stupid, and we will miss you. Have a great Chinese New Year, Dr. Chua.

P.S. Now that Ong Ka Ting is acting Health Minister, does that mean he is warming the seat up for his elder brother, Ong Ka Chuan? I shudder to think of having such an arrogant arse being a minister.

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