Letter to Editor
LET’S be frank, many Malaysians are up in arms with stand-up “comedian” Jocelyn Chia’s tasteless jokes about our country not just because of MH370 but also because of her spiteful execution.
Good comedians can insult you and still make you laugh. It all boils down to the delivery. Chia came across as a vengeful ex who relishes seeing a former partner suffer. Many Malaysians cringe watching her awful performance.
One can almost feel the hatred and spite oozing out of her pores as she ran down Malaysia on stage, bereft of any humour that should have been the main ingredient of any gigs in comedy clubs all over the world.
Well, as it turns out, she is neither a Singaporean (she gave the impression that she was one) nor a well-known comedian (until her obnoxious clip made her famous for all the wrong reasons, including an admonishment from the Singapore Foreign Minister Dr Vivian Balakrishnan).
The truth is, spite doesn’t get one far in life, whether as a comedian or even in politics.
In our Dewan Rakyat recently, we also witnessed a spiteful incident in the form of the government’s insistence to table the Auditor-General’s (AG) Report 2021 for debate
For the record, the AG’s report was tabled in Parliament last year. And, as is parliamentary tradition, it was not debated.
However, as parliamentary tradition dictates, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), a bipartisan body, deliberated on the report’s findings, including calling ministers to hearings.
In other words, there’s nothing new in the report that the public did not already know.
In fact, a parliamentary body comprising MPs from both sides of the divide had gone through it with a fine-tooth comb. The relevant parties, including ministers and senior officials had also been summoned to testify. Where relevant, reports with authorities like the police and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) had already been lodged.
Furthermore, there was nothing else that the PAC had done that the Dewan Rakyat could do more of. We do not even have an AG now as the post has already been vacant for a while!
So, why did the government decide to go through all the trouble of tabling the report for debate in the August House? The answer is, to smear Perikatan Nasional (PN) which was the ruling coalition in 2021.
The unity government wanted to dig up old issues of alleged impropriety and governance lapses contained in the report to cast aspersions on PN. It wanted to do so—at taxpayers’ expense—with a level of vengeance and spite that matched Chia’s.
With days to go before the state assemblies in six states are dissolved, paving the way for crucial polls that will decide the fate of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, the unity government is clutching at straws to stay in power.
There is no bar too low even if this means using hate-fueled tactics derived from spite-laden intentions.
The PN MPs were strategic enough not to fall into the trap as they chose to boycott the parliamentary debate, hence depriving legitimacy to what was basically a blatant effort to discredit the coalition ahead of the state polls.
Nevertheless, the unity government can learn a thing or two from Chia’s debacle – spite doesn’t get one far in life and the public backlash can be merciless, whether in cyberspace or at the ballot boxes. – June 9, 2023
