Reassuring words, but the proof is still in the eating

Pak Lah vowed that "No Malaysian will be left out" in a report carried by The Star today at page N4.

“As long as I breathe and am entrusted with the mandate by Malaysians to lead the country, I pledge to you that I will strive to ensure Malaysians will live happily and enjoy the peace, harmony and success of the nation,” he told a high tea gathering in conjunction with the 307th Vaisakhi celebration here yesterday.

Powerful words indeed. I'm sure it made a whole lot of people feeling happy and reassured for putting the all-too-precious "X" mark on the ballot paper in support of Pak Lah during the last General Election in 2004.

And it does not take a genius or rocket science to figure that if Pak Lah continues to spew such awe-inspiring rhetorics and occasionally dish out fair goodies to everyone (and even popular public demands like the IPCMC and ombudsman), he might even do better than 92% in the next election. That's how much we all love Pak Lah, the underdog.

On top of that, we also love the way he warned senior government officers with powers to approve and implement projects against acting like "little Napoleons" and causing delays in 9th Malaysia Plan programmes.

"No need to show how powerful you are by delaying (approval) and holding on to the file. We do not want little Napoleons to show their power and delay things," he said, adding that there was always a small group that caused problems for everyone. "We do not want a few to cause so many problems for so many people."

I imagine Citizen Nades, columnist for The SUN must be pleased to hear that Pak Lah has declared such officers as "unwanted people". Citizen Nades has shouted himself hoarse trying to bring these people to justice for abusing the system. Pak Lah could learn more about such stuff if he were to invite Nades for a chat at his office.

But I am not too convinced by the statement from the Chief Secretary Tan Sri Samsudin Osman that Abdullah's message was merely a warning and that the misuse of power by senior government officers was not rampant, although complaints from the public on rude officers had been received from time to time.

Who are you trying to kid, Samsudin? Protecting "little Napoleons" shows that you are just one BIG chief Napoleon. You are certainly giving a wrong message to these saboteurs.

Maybe Pak Lah should put this guy on the list of "unwanted people" as well.

Over at the NST, the report has a slightly different spin:-

"As long as I am given the responsibility to lead, no single race in the country will be left out of nation’s development plan." That was the pledge Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi repeated yesterday. He said everyone would enjoy the fruits of development.

... He said he wanted every citizen to feel good about the development plan and everyone should be proud when Vision 2020 was achieved. Therefore, he urged the people to be with him in preparing the nation to realise developed status earlier.

... Abdullah said although all the races had their respective festivities, the interaction among them was good and amicable. "We are moderate in everything, including religious practices and cultures. There are no extremes in any race. There is no situation where one race doesn’t like another. This is a uniqueness that we have and we should preserve it."

Now, I don't know how to agree with Pak Lah that "we are moderate in ... religious practices and cultures" especially so when he backed the "tudung" issue among policewomen. You definitely can't say you are a moderate when you forced non-Muslims to don the tudung on the pretext of uniformity. No way.

There you go.

It is how an issue gets reported that sets the mind thinking. The more you read, the more confused you get from different spins put on one single topic.

There's so much to learn on the art of writing for the masses.

Update: Thanks to a blog entry by MageP's Lab, I came by this article written by Philip Bowring published in the International Herald Tribune on 13 April 2006. An excerpt from the subject matter titled Malaysian Malaise might interest you to read the article in full:-

"The Asian headlines have been about the political turmoil in Thailand. But perhaps at least as important and disquieting for Southeast Asia has been the fine print of the news from Malaysia. A flow of small news items cumulatively casts doubt on Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi's ability to advance ethnic harmony, a competitive economy and a modern, inclusivist Islam."