On Monday, in the winding-up on the Information Ministry during the 2008 Budget policy debate, Information Minister, Datuk Zainuddin Maidin saw red at being called “monkey” in this blog.
At first he accused me for calling him a “monkey” — but when confronted, he backed down and admitted that it was a comment left on my blog. But he said I must bear responsibility as moderator of the blog.
I said I regretted that such a term was used but it was definitely not used by me. I did a search of the reference which he had objected to and found it was a post by ENDANGERED HORNBILL on 28th October 2007 in the thread “Zam – Info Minister under coconut shell or bidding to be Mat Rempit “Godfather”?”, viz:
“ZAM is behaving like a BN monkey that’s gone bananas over NUTs.”
ZAM has legitimate grievance at being called “monkey” but it is no justification for him to become the Cabinet’s premier anti-blogger, and this was why I told him in Parliament why he should not behave like a “frog under the coconut shell” in expressing satisfaction at Malaysia’s 32-spot plunge in the Freedom Without Borders (RSF) 2007 press freedom index, from No. 92 last year to 124, which is the nation-worst ranking in the RSF annual worldwide press freedom ranking since it was started in 2002.
From Monday’s parliamentary exchange, it is clear that although ZAM is the government’s chief anti-blogger, he reads this blog and I would urge all posters to use proper language to express their views hoping that they will have some influence on government thinking and direction.
I am surprised that RTM last night telecast the parliamentary exchange between ZAM and me. Those who have seen it may wish to offer their feedback.
#1 by Filibuster on Wednesday, 7 November 2007 - 10:38 pm
Mr Lim,
It’s not about the outrage, it is about the publicity. Does it not look scandalous, that “you” called him a monkey? People don’t know the truth, and the problem therein lies with the fact that the newspapers are controlled by the Government. We may know the truth, but the picture says that the public does not. What many may see here as a ridiculous action by the Information Minister is in fact a clever ploy to play a card to discredit his political opponents, and in this case he picked on you.
Fellow readers,
In my opinion, the important thing to take from here is to spread the word, or rather, in this case, spread the truth. Only then will this man and his media controlled network fail to dislodge the opposition.
#2 by Jong on Wednesday, 7 November 2007 - 11:01 pm
Is there a good graphic artist among us here who can create a primate with that ‘familiar’ look? Then we’ll see the fun, watching all the monkeys and gobloks go nuts over bananas!
#3 by chai on Thursday, 8 November 2007 - 12:25 am
as my opinion ZAM is truely monkey!!! not need to controversy already.
#4 by undergrad2 on Thursday, 8 November 2007 - 12:38 am
“Is there a good graphic artist among us here who can create a primate …” Jong
Please don’t insult the primate.
#5 by malaysiatoday.com on Thursday, 8 November 2007 - 12:41 am
Please stop name calling to your enemies.
Three fingers are pointing back to you when you point your (two) fingers to your opponent.
#6 by undergrad2 on Thursday, 8 November 2007 - 12:42 am
“ZAM sees red in being called a “monkey”…KIT
That is why he should be color blind.
#7 by undergrad2 on Thursday, 8 November 2007 - 12:45 am
“Three fingers are pointing back to you when you point your (two) fingers to your opponent.” malaysiatoday.com
What of the person who has only one finger?? It is not fair to discriminate again those who are less fortunate.
#8 by thaksan on Thursday, 8 November 2007 - 1:53 am
hahahah… when the rakyat calls him Monkey, he should realize that the rakyat don’t think he’s doing a good job and LOOK AT HIMSELF!
#9 by Tulip Crescent on Thursday, 8 November 2007 - 2:33 am
Let us not insult the monkey by comparing the monkey with Zam. I keep a monkey as a pet and he is such a nice pet to have.
I cannot entertain the idea of keeping Zam as a pet. He is just not worth the trouble, not at all!
#10 by Tulip Crescent on Thursday, 8 November 2007 - 2:34 am
By the way, my monkey is an intelligent primate. Can we say the same thing about Zam, the half-past-six Information Minister?
#11 by bra888 on Thursday, 8 November 2007 - 3:08 am
Come to think of it, I find that what ENDANGERED HORNBILL’s comment, again, applies to this blog entry too. Don’t you think so?
I mean, with this:
“I am surprised that RTM last night telecast the parliamentary exchange between ZAM and me. Those who have seen it may wish to offer their feedback.”
I believe it actually proves what ENDANGERED HORNBILL’s commented true. Why go all the trouble to broadcast it in TV that someone has been calling names to him? Let us take a closer look at this situation. A ‘nobody’ (no offense ok ENDANGERED HORNBILL, I do support you :)) wrote a comment that has a word describing Zam behaves like a monkey. Zam responded to this by taking action to the magnitude that the whole country must know.
This is simply too much. We’re talking about precious broadcasting time. I believe it was wasted for this six letter (monkey) issue. On the other hand, the people deserve to know other information that he has censored. Is this ‘monkey business’ more important than the information we deserve to know?
#12 by bra888 on Thursday, 8 November 2007 - 3:16 am
“Freedom Without Borders (RSF) 2007 press freedom index, from No. 92 last year to 124″
I believe that maybe our country’s “Zam’s Only Border (ZOM) 2007 press freedom index” is number 1 in this country. What do you think?
#13 by ENDANGERED HORNBILL on Thursday, 8 November 2007 - 6:44 am
undergrad2 Says:
November 7th, 2007 at 20: 59.04
To: ENDANGERED HORNBILL
“I wonder if there is a difference between a monkey that goes bananas over nuts, and a monkey that goes nuts over bananas?”
I haven’t had the time to think about such fine distinctions in these pattern of words…almost like a clever palindrome, isn’t it?
All this hullabaloo about monkeys pushed these hot lava-like molecules of not-so-latent thoughts to rise to the surface of my cranium:
Scorpene submarine deal – a.k.a. “monkey business”
UMNO infighting – a.k.a. “monkey-eat-monkey”; also AIDS (or ‘Acute Income Deficiency Syndrome” ) among monkeys.
Zam on Rempitism – a.k.a “monkey going NUTS” or “monkey going BANANAS”
Zakaria of Klang-Gate fame: “monkey see, monkey do”
PM Abdullah : “If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys”
Nazri on Lingam-tape : A monkey on somebody’ back
Malaysian Corruption Index: There are more monkeys out there!
Witness Protection Bill : I’ll be a monkey’s uncle! I thought they were only monkey tricks.
MP for Kinabatangan: Eveybody’s making a monkey (‘binatang’) out of me!
Angkasawan hype: It’s cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey.
IDR/ECR/NCR: Monkeys climbing up a molehill.
Parallel to what ‘Boh liao’ & others said above on ‘insulting the monkeys’:
Davy Crockett (1786-1836; US Congressman, frontierman & folk hero) was at a menagerie exhibition in Washington and amused his friends by pointing out a similarity between the features of one of the monkeys on display and those of a certain member of Congress. Turning around, Crockett found the member in question standing right behind him. “I suppose I ought to apologise,” he said, “but I don’t know whether to apologise to you or the monkey”.
LKS’ blog: “Zam sees red in being called a monkey”. Cats and monkeys, monkeys and cats – all human life is there. (The Madonna of the Future). It’s reincarnation time, babe!
Penultimately, ENDANGERED HORNBILL SAYS: “I do not give a monkey’s to what Zam said. This guy is usually irrational. His brains are ornamental rather than functional, in a manner of speaking, of course. Listen, ENDANGERED HORNBILL is no idiot to make a physical comparison. Definition of a monkey by Charles Darwin: ” A hairy quadruped, furnished with a tail & pointed ears, probably arboreal in its habitat”. Hello Zam, any similarity would have to be in the realm of the unseen like the IQ, for instance?
Sigh, finally: THere are 193 living species of monkeys and apes. 192 of them are covered with hair. The exception is a naked ape self-named Homo sapiens. (Desmond Harris, The Naked Ape[1967], Introduction). Sorry, Zam, you are a monkey after all, according not to ENDANGERED HORNBILL, but according to someone much more distinguished than you, Desmond Harris.
#14 by Jeffrey on Thursday, 8 November 2007 - 8:03 am
“Why go all the trouble to broadcast it in TV that someone has been calling names to him?†– Bra888
In indirectly telling everyone that he read this blog – in accusing YB Kit or readers here in Parliament for calling him names like a “monkey†– in RTM’s telecasting the parliamentary exchange between Kit and him – isn’t our Information Minister unwittingly publicizing in mainstream media this blog to the Malaysian public to access and receive the messages of this blog?
I thought Zam should be thanked for doing the Common Cause here a favour since it has been the complaints of many a posters here that the revelations and opinions do not permeate out to the larger public or least the section of it that accesses the Net by virtue of them not knowing about Kit’s blog.
Take the case of Malaysiakini.
On the sidelines of the Umno general assembly, a Star reporter asked Zam a question. Because of the din around he couldn’t catch it. Malaysiakini’s reporter standing next to the minister tried to help out by repeating the question but was asked to identify himself first. Zam immediately turned on him and angrily said “You are nonsense!….Malaysiakini is nonsense. You people only know how to sensationalise news! You people are low!â€Â
Malaysiakini immediately reported this. The Information minister was afterall helping to sensationalise Malaysiakini. It has been proven that everytime some ministers complain about any blog and about it not being moderated, it is news and the hits increase!
#15 by Bigjoe on Thursday, 8 November 2007 - 8:58 am
Zam has gotten so many facts wrong throughout his career and his tenure at Information Ministry, no one of critical mind is surprise by his wrong fact and spin on it. In most jobs, he would have been fired by now, but his jobs is not to get the facts right but to spin information the way his bosses and friends wants.
Think of UMNO GA speeches, they are full of incorrect facts, not just their views of things. Revisionism is part of UMNO agenda and their culture. The facts are unimportant, what is important is in the end how they look. In fact, making up fact is an artform, a very amateur one after decades of practise at that.
#16 by Jeffrey on Thursday, 8 November 2007 - 9:48 am
//…Again and again we have seen Malaysian politicians come to power by playing the race – and now increasingly religion – card above all else, pandering to their own communities at the expense of the rest…// – Farish.
But isn’t coming to power the main and consistent objective of politics and most politicians in general of whom Malaysian politicians are no exception? To them, if communitarian issues on race and religion were a sure fire proven way to be popular, garner support and rise up the political hierarchy, why not? They don’t particularly care a damn about nation’s wider interest unless it is symmetrical to the advancement of their own political careers.
Who do you really blame then for the deepening and widening of the racial divide then ? Yes politicians but that does not explain why the majority of people keep repeatedly vote them in – rather than out – when they play the racial and religious card on communitarian posturing and issues, does it?
If the problem of communitarian/racial politics were to be tackled, it should proceed at the ground level of the people (ours is a system of one man one vote with majority prevailing) but try convincing them not to vote on basis of race and religion – will one succeed?
What does our history show?
From day one of independence, we’re heading down this road of communitarian politics – and more communitarian politics. The seeds of politics of race were sown then and for 50 years thereafter it not only germinated but flowered and grown from strength to strength. Our Federal Constitution based on the so called “social contract†institutionalized, constitutuionalised and legalized distinctions based on race and religion; and political parties and ideologies were drawn on communal basis from Day One. Dato’ Onn wanted Malaya to be a “Malaysian Malaya” with equality for all races. Massive UMNO-orchestrated protests opposed it and was one of the points UMNO used to defeat the formation of Malayan Union and forced Dato’ Onn to form the Independence for Malaya Party that never secured broad based support. After independence, Singapore was kicked out of Malaysia by reason of the race factor and LKY’s campaign for “Malaysian Malaysia”. May 13 was used as an excuse and blamed on the Tunku Abdul Rahman who was edged out for being too fair and not doing enough for his disadvantaged community.
Today notwithstanding political talk otherwise, we’re increasingly a “Malay Malaysia”, and an “Islamic State” though other races are supposedly protected as to their rights and constantly reminded of their obligations not to question the “social contract†lest it would disrupt the delicate “sharing of power†and harmony of the country leading to the spectre of another May 13 repeat!
These are the existing realities.
Even the concept of “Bangsa Malaysia†was questioned by the MB hailing from the state that is the bastion of UMNO’s support – Johore.
#17 by lupus on Thursday, 8 November 2007 - 10:04 am
I am very disappointed with all the bloggers on this topic. How could you INSULT MONKEYS by associating such fine animals with the Information Minister ? The minister is right to be out-rage, after all, Zam is not good enough to be called a monkey after all the BODOH things he has done and said. A MONKEY WILL NOT EVEN BE THAT STUPID!!!!!
So, think again…..stop insulting the poor animals…….they have a higher intelligence than the information minister – infact, we should replace him with a monkey…….would do a better job and save the tax-payer money – we can pay in bananas!!!!
#18 by bhuvan.govindasamy on Thursday, 8 November 2007 - 12:13 pm
You guys ought to be ashamed of yourselves. Comparing an elected official with a monkey is really insulting…. to the monkey I mean.
Truly, Zam is no more than a mass of protoplasm inhabiting space. I wouldn’t pay him any heed.
#19 by bra888 on Thursday, 8 November 2007 - 12:58 pm
Jeffrey
Thank you for reading my comment. I know the answer, I just want people to analyze the situation properly by asking that same question themselves, in which you did and answered it well.
Zam
If you’re reading this, you’ll have to understand that people are not satisfied that this country’s Freedom Without Borders (RSF) 2007 press freedom index, drop from No. 92 last year to 124. It shames us and our country in the face of the world. This failure happened under your watch and you’ll have to bear the responsibility for it as you are the only one determining that fate. Unless it improves, I believe you should not expect compliments.
That failure is self evident of your incapability to function as the Information Ministry. Your failure to admit this will show that you’re living in denial. This is also our country’s reputation that we’re talking about, not yours alone.
Remember, it is you who hold the power and have failed this country, not the bloggers.
#20 by bra888 on Thursday, 8 November 2007 - 1:24 pm
Don’t take this personally.
Burma made a mistake by attacking bloggers and restricting their freedom of speech. Many life’s were lost. They made a mistake so that we can learn from it, not so that we can repeat it.
There are more of us(bloggers) than there are more of your ‘underlings’. I believe even Lim Kit Siang is a blogger(he is or else I’m probably in someone else’s blog). I believe declaring war against us is unwise as it is a losing battle and a useless one too. I believe that working together would be a wiser choice.
This country is believed to be a ‘peaceful’ country, only if when we achieve a certain level of understanding by working together, not by working against each other.
Start talking with each other to achieve a common understanding, instead of being biased by our own opinions. I believe that’s what bloggers do and it’s their purpose. They blog, so that they can receive all kinds of opinions, good and bad. So that in the end of the day, we understand each other and learn a few things or two from strangers. Things that we are blinded by our own biasness, we can see it now with the help of strangers.
And I believe, if this is achieved, maybe people will like you more and will defend you at some times(it depends on your actions in the end, so don’t really expect too much).
#21 by iggy on Thursday, 8 November 2007 - 4:53 pm
My day is complete..
#22 by undergrad2 on Thursday, 8 November 2007 - 8:53 pm
Even the three monkeys who “see no evil”, “hear no evil” and “talk no evil” would be aghast at all this talk about the Info Minister objecting to the comparison!
#23 by watgoblok on Friday, 9 November 2007 - 6:47 pm
goblok?yes,blogreaders cant differentiate him and a monkey. so mind ur language too,dearly lovely zam.
#24 by De5thElement on Saturday, 10 November 2007 - 12:04 pm
Monkey sees, monkey does…!!!
#25 by motai on Sunday, 11 November 2007 - 8:17 pm
United Monkeys Natural Org Manifesto found in the super highway!
1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism – Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.
2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights – Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of “need.†The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause – The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.
4. Supremacy of the Military – Even when there are widespread
domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.
5. Rampant Sexism – The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution.
6. Controlled Mass Media – Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.
7. Obsession with National Security – Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.
8. Religion and Government are Intertwined – Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government’s policies or actions.
9. Corporate Power is Protected – The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.
10. Labor Power is Suppressed – Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.
11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts – Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked.
12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment – Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.
13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption – Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.
14. Fraudulent Elections – Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.