Mariam Mokhtar
Malaysiakini
Dec 2, 2013
I am on the waiting-list for membership of the exclusive ‘Sedition Club Uniting Malaysians’, (SCUM) which has several distinguished members like Adam Adli, Haris Ibrahim, Tian Chua, Tamrin Ghafar, Safwan Anang and Zunar. I don’t think many people know the criteria which makes one eligible for membership.
Who would have realised that a well-meaning article ‘One Idealogy, Two Reactions’ about the need to be compassionate to Malaysians, regardless of their political leanings or social background, would have upset the inspector-general of police (IGP) Khalid Abu Bakar?
Does Khalid suffer from an inferiority complex or was he under extreme pressure to explain his involvement in the Lahad Datu debacle?
More importantly, he wanted to divert attention from the terrible handling of the Siti Aishah Abdul Wahab story, by the Malaysian government and himself. They probably thought they would capitalise on the story of Aishah’s enslavement.
Initially, the Metropolitan police in England refused to divulge the identity of the Malaysian woman who had been “freed”, but Khalid jumped the gun and blurted out her name before the English police were ready to make this public.
Even before Kamar Mahtum and Hishamuddin Rais arrived in London, the IGP was already boasting about the welcome they would give Aishah on her return, home. Khalid said she would not be arrested as her “crime” was in the past. Meanwhile, the women’s minister talked about providing counselling.
It was like a couple expecting their first child, preparing the nursery to receive the baby, except the ‘baby’ – Aishah – refused to come home.
As information trickled back to KL, the IGP was probably told that Aishah had not deviated from her ideology. She had not been enslaved, as was previously reported. She had no intention of returning to Malaysia. She was not remorseful, nor did she want to resume ties with the land of her birth. Sources also allege that the reunion between Kamar and Aishah was far from cordial.
If Aishah really wanted to flee from her captors, she would have.
Khalid and the government realised, too late, that Aishah had outsmarted them. Aishah did not follow the Umno Baru script.
The IGP and Najib Abdul Razak probably wanted to give Aishah a heroine’s welcome at KLIA. Then, after a six month religious rehabilitation at one of the indoctrination centres, arrange a photo-shoot of Aishah kissing Najib’s hand, renouncing her previous ideology, giving up her Marxist beliefs, and praising Najib’s government as the saviour of her body and soul.
The penny must have dropped as Kamar and Hisham passed through passport control at Heathrow, on Saturday morning to return home. So, Khalid had to divert attention from the government’s terrible handling of the Aishah story. A distraction had to be found. Me! The rest is history.
A means to intimidate the public?
Did Khalid, in a moment of madness, lose his judgment and decide to abuse his position and utilise the publicity machinery of the state, and use me as a means to intimidate the public?
He was foolish to think I would be intimidated. Perhaps, he wanted me to be cowed and cower under the bed, as a certain politician, who was caught in flagrante delicto in Port Dickson, was alleged to have done.
Khalid believes that writers for the alternative media write, merely to get hits. They don’t! One would like to ask the IGP if his men have been given orders to use their weapons, just to score hits, on their victims?
Will Khalid understand that one of the reasons the mainstream media is failing the public is because they are economical with the truth. They manipulate facts and tell lies to incite hatred.
If Khalid were to talk to former Utusan journalists, he would learn many painful truths. Those who joined the exodus, in 2007, have alleged that their wages have not been paid. Another journalist alleges that the paper is losing money, because Umno Baru takes out full page advertisements in Utusan, and then fails to pay the paper.
Utusan loses revenue, and Najib, the president of Umno Baru knows that the party is bankrupt. So, he urges the government-linked companies (GLCs) to place advertisements in Utusan Malaysia.
My calling is to continue informing the public and stimulate them to ask questions of their parliamentarians and people in positions of responsibility, like the IGP. What are Khalid’s good points? People have lost faith in the police because of leaders like Khalid.
One would have thought that Khalid would have understood the nuances of my article. Surely, someone could have explained them to him, before he was allowed to shoot his mouth off.
It was Khalid who incorrectly mentioned race as the reason for the different treatments meted out to Chin Peng and Aishah. Perhaps, he would like to tell us why the dead Malaysian terrorists like Dr Azahari Hussein and Noordin Mat Top, the masterminds of the Jakarta and Bali bombings, were allegedly given the VIP treatment? Not many dead Malaysians would be returned to Malaysia at the taxpayer’s expense, in an RMAF transport.
Khalid warned me via a Bernama report that, “She (Mariam Mokhtar) had better watch out…”
Despite his failings, we should praise Khalid for his ‘1Malaysia’ spirit. During his visit to multicultural and predominantly Christian Sabah, he has kicked off the Christmas season with the classic song ‘You’d better watch out’. Most readers may know it by its original title, ‘Santa Claus is coming to town’.
A Malaysian makeover
With apologies to the original songwriters, J Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie, whose song made its debut in 1934, I have given the song a Malaysian makeover, and substituted the words ‘Santa Claus’ with ‘The IGP’.
The older generation may recall Fred Astaire, Dean Martin or Frank Sinatra singing this song. Khalid and younger Malaysians may prefer Miley Cyrus’ catchy rendition on YouTube.
Oh! You better watch out,
You better not cry,
You better not pout,
I’m telling you why:
The IGP is coming to town!
He’s making a list,
He’s checking it twice,
Gonna find out who’s naughty or nice.
The IGP is coming to town!
He sees you when you’re sleeping,
He knows when you’re awake.
He knows when you’ve been bad or good,
So be good for goodness sake!
So…You better watch out, You better not cry
You better not pout, I’m telling you why.
The IGP is coming to town.
Who knows? The Khalid inspired song, ‘You Better Watch Out’, may prove to be this year’s Christmas hit.
Khalid was wrong to attack and intimidate members of the rakyat. This harassment should be our catalyst for real, meaningful change. It is Khalid and Umno Baru who had better watch out!
MARIAM MOKHTAR is a defender of the truth, the admiral-general of the Green Bean Army and president of the Perak Liberation Organisation (PLO).
Mariam, I presume you are aware of the standard of spoken/written English among the civil service and police force. Of course, they speak ‘some’ basic English but that’s about it. I am sure Khalid, like most in high positions did not understand your article.
He is acting more like the warlords in UMNO, Perkasa and Isma who think they are supreme beings. Have you heard Ibrahim Ali’s English? Khalid’s
is no better.
Second in the top of the hits’ chart
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas,
warnings everywhere
But the unsightly sight to see is the whoever that will be
On your own front door
Mariam has substituted “The IGP” for “Santa Claus”; or, she has replaced “Santa Clause” by ” The IGP”/with “The IGP”. Call this a rear-guard action against misuse of the word “substitution”. Blame football for this chaos in English, where the player with the defects is “substituted”; actually it is the fresh player who should be substituted.
As an illustration of proper English, consider this sentence: “Our IGP should be replaced; an intelligent officer should be substituted (for him)”.
Those in high office please stop turning Malaysia into a police state. But let the democratization process run its course.
Sorry to digress.
Corruption Perception Index 2013: Singapore-rank5-score86%, Taiwan-rank36-score61%, S.Korea-rank46-score55%, Malaysia-rank53-score(50%), Thailand-rank102-score35%.
http://www.transparency.org/cpi2013/results#myAnchor1
Now jakim is going to charge her for singing Xmas song. See, every which way you turn, you got jokers at every corner.
Oh! You bitter watch dog,
You bit her no cry,
You bit her no pout,
I’m telling you why:
The IGP is aping a clown!!
He’s making a threat list,
He’s saying it twice,
Gonna find out who’s more cocky or vice.
The IGP is number one in town!
He seeks you when you’re law abiding,
He knows when you’re awaken.
He knows when you’ve been BN or Pakatan,
So be good for goodness sake!
So…You bitter watch dawg, You bitter umno guy
You bitter mudpout, I’m telling you why.
The IGP is making us frown.
Cari makan mah…….mamak is going, Ibrahim in jail..
the end is near I suppose …….Hope we will have a better country soon
What if she writes dat d engineered pseudo-meritocracy system 4 university intake is NOT fair
Seditious?
When are these BN blockheads ever going to learn a basic law of physics that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The harder and cruder these intellectually challenged bullies rant and rave, the more biting will be the riposte. More so when the threats issued are without substance and most certainly without justification.
Mariam did a splendid job to ridicule the IGP’s threats (if he can read between the lines) and even throw in a yuletide season ditty to cut him down to size further. Bravo!!
I suppose anything can be made engaging if you want to do so badly enough. I probably would have amended “anything” to “any noble act” if that statement had passed through my cerebellum at all, but that’s hindsight! You don’t have to sell your soul to do so. Here’s why:
All that glisters is not gold;
Often have you heard that told:
Many a man his life hath sold
But my outside to behold:
Gilded tombs do worms enfold.
Had you been as wise as bold,
Young in limbs, in judgement old
Your answer had not been inscroll’d
Fare you well, your suit is cold.
The beauty of hindsight.
Here is the problem, you can point out at the IGP’s idiocy all you want, the problem is that HIS CONSTITUENT – the ones he made his idiot statements for, won’t get a lot of it and the few that understand like the Home Minister, don’t care.
What the IGP does is simply more testorone than brains but its precisely he think he has enough constituent that buys into his color rather than substance that he does it.
If you want to get to him, the only way is to match the tetestorone level even if you match the intellect. And the simple fact is pointing out the sophisticated idiocy is not going to make it but rather raising it to the level of FEAR is what will.. FEAR of impending disaster and when it happens, to link it back to precisely this line of debate..
Watch out?
For what?
It has been whitewashed for God’s sake.
Got u mariam!
Reading this article really reminds me of Xmas now – oh by the way, Xmas is a season of peace & forgiveness too ;-)
How in the first place Khalid can be made Igp of Malaysia when he can’t even know what is consider seditious.Is writing the obvious truth become seditious act now ?Only ignorant racist will not think his own double standard of treatment meted out to his fellow country man based on race/religion is unjustifiable,not to mention haram in one religion.He must be thinking all this while he is the Igp only for Malay muslims.He must be proud to be able to join the rank like the Malay first Deputy Minister toad face Mooohidin,3 line abang adik cum Home Minister Zahid and the usual always ‘hidup’ Nep/Melayu PeeeeeeeeeM.Walao…with these exclusive jokers,Malaysia will automatically qualified to be ‘damn best racist nation’ in the book of Guiness Record.Hooray…