From Bungaraya http://www.egroups.com/group/bungaraya

The Mentri Besar Feels The Heat

By MGG Pillai

The Pahang mentri besar, Dato' Seri Adnan Yaakob, stung as never before, threatens to sue PAS for character assassination, accuses it of blowingout of proportion his taunting of the PAS crowd with obscene signs atthem. Does PAS not know that "I have done a lot for the people,especially the poor and single mothers"? PAS does this, no doubt,because they are jealous of his achievements, which presumably gives himthe right, in the true spirit of democracy, to do what he did. In thevideo clip of the incident, distributed widely on the Internet, theembarassment of his aides, tugging at his arms discreetly, is so clearthat Dato' Seri Adnan does not have a leg to stand on in his defence. But the National Front condones it.

The deputy prime minister, Dato'Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, believes such behaviour is correct. Prof. Shahnon Ahmad, now a PAS member of parliament, only strengthened thecontents of his satirical political novel, SHIT, which caricaturedpolitics as the human body, and how all good things end up as faeces. What shocks is the National Front's attempt to regard the incident asinsignificant. But would it have condoned this if it the roles werereversed? Despite his unacceptable and provocative actions, Dato' Seri Adnaninsists PAS should take the blame.

This is character assassination, hethunders. His has called in his lawyers, no doubt with a view to amultimillion ringgit defamation suit. He is outraged that his concernfor the people is sidetracked by his boorish behaviour, which heinsists, is "a small slip on his part" -- as no doubt his beating up ofa PAS member at the Bentong nomination centre for the general electionslast November was. He has todate not apologised, and PAS, as anyopposition party would in the circumstances, takes full advantage of it. Besides, in his view, PAS "will deny everything because they are a bunchof hypocrites." But how could that be when he admits to have shown theoffending signs for what he terms "nasty remarks" like "Hancur Barisan"and "Mampus Barisan" (destruction and death to the National Front)? If a political leader can lose his head over a matter of politicalsemantics at an orderly election procession, can he be trusted in worsesituations?

When the National Front used the Kadazan headress Tengku RazaleighHamzah wore at a function, which the spinmeisters decided was a cross(when it clearly was not), and splashed all over the country days beforethe 1990 general elections, it was considered a coup which sank theSemangat '46 political party. That, no doubt in Dato' Seri Adnan'sview, a perfectly legitimate reaction. But if he shows obscene signs at his opponents, and the opposition react as the National Front would haveif the roles were reversed, the opposition are hypocrites and deserve tolose. His claim that it was PAS who started taunting does not holdwater because all the evidence we have is what PAS had videotaped. Itrealised, after the Bentong affair, when they did not have videocamerason hand, that the mentri besar of Pahang would provide issues like thisthat would aid their campaigning. And so it proved.

Since the NationalFront's candidate's involvement in Islamic affairs is highlighted, am I,as a non-Muslim, to believe it not un-Islamic to show obscene signs asthe mentri besar of Pahang makes a habit of on nomination day to elections?