Rinse and repeat

IT’S become a soul-sapping experience. Most of us can only cringe because some of our politicians are so adept at putting our country in a spot because of their absurd comments.

They seem to continually suffer from the dreaded foot-in-mouth disease.

Most Malaysians have already gotten used to these personalities and the political fatigue they inflict.

There’s an unending sense of hopelessness. Most of us have simply thrown our hands up in despair.

And because we haven’t given up on our beloved country, we still get upset when these politicians put us in the international news for all the wrong reasons.

Obviously, we still care about the image of our country, which explains our distress since some of these inane politicians persist with their tomfoolery.

Dubiously, silly comments made in 2017 have returned with a vengeance to haunt Tasik Gelugor MP Datuk Shabudin Yahaya. Well, that’s how social media works and seldom do people verify what they forward.

The Bersatu politician had said that rape victims can have the opportunity to lead a healthy and good life if they marry their rapists, saying girls aged between nine and 12 years old are “physically and spiritually” ready for marriage.

“For a wife who was raped, if she can marry (the rapist), she would not go through a bleak future. At least she has someone who can become her husband,” he was quoted in the media at the Dewan Rakyat in 2017.

For some reason, the address by the former Penang Bersatu chairman has resurfaced. He isn’t exactly a household name, so most of us can be forgiven for his anonymity.

Still, his only speech engrained in our psyche about child rape victims has reminded us of his contribution to Parliament debates.

Then, there’s Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, with his endless tirades against Singapore.

The cause of his deep-rooted resentment for the island republic remains a mystery. Maybe only a shrink can give us a good psychoanalysis.

The media had earlier quoted him saying Johor should reclaim Singapore and Riau islands. Perhaps reporters unfamiliar with his trademark sarcasm had taken it too literally.

Or it was simply a Freudian slip. Either way, the next day, he issued a statement of clarification, saying that he wasn’t asking Malaysia to reclaim the land it had lost.

“I am trying to point out that we are so concerned over losing a table-size rock Pulau Batu Puteh, but never about bigger parts of Malaysia when they were taken from us,” he explained.

That’s the trouble with some Malaysian leaders. They love to resurrect old issues which have been buried. After all, giving these dead issues a fresh perspective provides little benefit in bringing them up in the first place.

Maybe Dr Mahathir would ask for the return of Brunei next.

That’s why we’re still talking about unnecessary and contentious issues relating to race, religion and language that were resolved before our independence in 1957, and doggedly pursuing them.

The world doesn’t care if we want to use Bahasa Malaysia, or Bahasa Melayu, or whether we should allow Chinese vernacular schools to exist, or even if we should attend Bon Odori. In the bigger picture, these are all inconsequential, hair-splitting issues that do nothing else than to frame our nation in a bad light.

Honestly, does the world really give two hoots? However, investors do care about pumping money into Malaysia when our neighbours, especially Singapore and now, Vietnam and Indonesia, are making great strides.

Malaysia is looking like a nation in decline because of our politicians who simply lack judgement, intelligence, or even common sense.

They never seem to think through what they say to reporters and barely realise they make Malaysia a global laughingstock and source of ridicule.

Picture this: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaacob led a delegation to Japan in May to promote Malaysia as an ideal investment country. There, he met top Japanese businessmen including leaders from Mitsubishi Power Ltd, the Japan-Malaysia Economic Association and Rohm Wako Co Ltd.

But a month later, our minister in charge of religion, Datuk Idris Ahmad, literally put the entire effort on a bonfire with his comments on Bon Odori, the biggest Japanese summer festival of the expatriate community in Malaysia.

It has caught the Japanese community by surprise and many Malaysians, in their personal capacity, have had to smooth ruffled feathers.

The timing couldn’t be worse, but it’s unlikely that Idris was even reprimanded because this is a weak federal government struggling to stay intact.

PAS only has 18 Members of Parliament in the 222 seat Dewan Rakyat and yet, almost all its lawmakers are ministers, deputies and at least one, a special envoy to the Middle East.

Well, ambassadors who have called on these PAS lawmakers have plenty to share, diplomatically and cautiously, about their competence – or rather, the lack of it.

On the flip side, there’s former Tourism Minister Datuk Sri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz. He is a polished, urbane, and senior Member of Parliament. With his impeccable English and social skills, he’s the type of minister who can make us proud internationally.

Yet, he too, fumbled last week. He came under fire over his suggestion that floods in Malaysia could be used to promote “voluntourism” or volunteer tourism.

In an interview with Sinar Daily, he said that instead of crying over the flooding situation getting out of control, Malaysia should seek opportunities by promoting volunteer tourism.

After getting battered by netizens, he clarified that voluntourism is a recognised branch of tourism by the United Nations World Tourism Organisation.

The only problem is he wasn’t convincing. His idea has been, well, flooded with cynical and angry comments and is unlikely to attract tourists to Malaysia hoping to see our rising water levels.

Besides, Malaysia has serious competitors like Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, which have one thing in common with us – we can’t resolve flood problems which occur every year, especially during the monsoon season.

It’s a disgrace, and great injustice to the people of the East Coast that they are inundated by flood problems and the level of preparation by our authorities seems to only be about rescue boats and personnel.

Permanent flood mitigation plans with engineering solutions should be the answer. But chances are, we’ll now hear them blame climate change for the inadequacies and incompetence over flood controls.

But that has not stopped PAS vice-president Datuk Nik Mohd Amar Nik Abdullah from proclaiming that his party is the only political group in Malaysia that has a complete roadmap for Malaysia’s future via its “Wawasan Induk Negara Sejathera” blueprint.

The 30-year-old roadmap, he reportedly said, would resolve Malaysia’s woes in all aspects, proving that PAS is a forward-looking party.

I guess he said all this with a straight face. His party can barely resolve the water woes in Kelantan – the lack of decent piped water and floods.

Politicians should stick to what they do best. Don’t try to be stand-up comics who certainly get more respect from an audience which pays to be entertained.