Jokes on political ‘frogs’ leap to a new level

PETALING JAYA: When politicians switch allegiance faster than a speeding bullet, it takes Malaysian humour to deal with the situation.

For example, a message on the “latest whole animal farm prices” has been leaping around on WhatsApp.

Buffaloes and chickens were listed at their usual prices of RM4,000 and RM25 respectively but “frogs” were named as the most expensive at RM20mil each.

The amphibian is in reference to politicians who defect to opposing camps.

Sabah’s political landscape is so fluid these days that some exasperated people have purportedly issued a letter via the Sabah Press Association, calling on the chiefs of political parties to contact the newspapers “only when they have finished ‘jumping’.”

“They urge all political parties to be more considerate as many reporters had not been sleeping for days and their health is a major concern.”

“We also beh tahan liao, every five minutes check WhatsApp,” the message read; beh tahan liao being a mixture of Hokkien and Malay to mean “can’t take it anymore”.

There are also memes of grilled frogs with the word mati katak (die needlessly) and that of a frog being lifted out of the playing field on a stretcher by medical staff.

Sabah STAR president Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan was not spared the jokes, having his Wikipedia page edited several times.

After he announced that his party, which won two state seats in GE14, would work with Barisan Nasional to form the state government, the Internet trolls began their attack.

An unregistered user vandalised the introduction column of the page, labelling Dr Jeffrey as a “politician and a frog” from Sabah at 9.57am on Thursday.

Another user then changed his name to “Datuk Dr Jeffrey Katak Gapari Kitingan” and added that he majored in “basic jumping”.

Wikipedia contributors have been removing the vandalism and the edits made but the cyber trolls had been relentless.

As at press time, there were 98 revisions to Dr Jeffrey’s Wikipedia page.