All the newspapers reported on the front pages that Anwar Ibrahim would be sworn in as MP for Permatang Pauh today and that the swearing-in will be telecast live over RTM, which airs the first 30 minutes of the daily parliamentary sittings from 10 am.
It will be no exaggeration to say that since the introduction of the 30-minute parliamentary live telecast by RTM since April, there has never been such greater national interest in the RTM live telecast as this morning to witness the historic return of Anwar to Parliament after a decade-long enforced absence because of political persecution and victimisation.
I did not realise that there was no RTM live telecast of Anwar’s taking his oath as MP until I was asked about it by the press when I came out of the Chamber about an hour later and I received angry reactions by Malaysians who felt “cheated” of the live RTM telecast.
How petty can you be, Information Minister, Datuk Shabry Cheek that you should indulge in such puerile tactics as to veto RTM from proceeding with its live telecast of Anwar’s swearing-in?
Why are the Barisan Nasional Ministers and leaders so afraid of one man that there should be a ministerial directive to veto the live telecast of Anwar taking his oath of office – after the live RTM telecast had been announced and reported in all the newspapers today?
Shabery should offer the nation a personal apology for such petty and puerile behaviour.
Or did the directive to veto the RTM’s planned live telecast of Anwar’s swearing-in come from the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi himself or through his Putrajaya Fourth Storey mafia?
Abdullah should explain what role he played in RTM’s last-minute cancellation of its live telecast of Anwar’s swearing-in, and he should discipline Shabery including his dismissal as Information Minister if the veto had not come from him or the Putrajaya Fourth Storey.
It is also most deplorable that there was such low attendance of Barisan Nasional Ministers (only three Ministers were present) in the House when Anwar took his oath as MP – to the extent that there are those who described it as a sort of “boycott” by BN Ministers and MPs!
This reflected most adversely on the BN Ministers and MPs and not on Anwar. Shame on them!
The above is the video clips of Anwar’s swearing-in, the empty BN Ministerial and parliamentary benches and the “BN Government the present-day Titanic” episode.
#1 by IloveDAPforever on Friday, 29 August 2008 - 12:22 am
Apologies.. typo error..Mr Strawberry should be pretty sore with DSAI not AAB.
#2 by lopez on Friday, 29 August 2008 - 7:12 am
for first 30 years we practice a system tailored for a new nation, we were trained, coached and educated in a system that is the pride of the commonwealth of nations.
Some of us the offsprings of such a system, speaks and write a language which has now evolved into a variant called international english.
And many of our good standing politicians are in this class. People being humans tends to become selfish and once have enough they becomes arrogant and tyrannical.
We have many of these too in this small nation.
Ironically some of these people has becomes too wildly obssessed with the power and wealth being entrusted upon them.
The curtain is coming down for them, there are in desperation, they might just advocate for stand down, lock down, clamp down, as similar to the traffic mania by 1 st generation botak of bolihland.
#3 by Jeffrey on Friday, 29 August 2008 - 9:41 am
Information Minister Ahmad Shabery Cheek said there is no need for RTM to accord new Permatang Pauh MP Anwar Ibrahim any ‘special treatment’, among other round-ups from the House today. “Why must we provide special treatment for just one MP? When 222 MPs were sworn in, there was no live telecast, so why must we break the tradition now?” he asked.
Short answer : rest 221 MPs have not gone on circuituous route (being incarcerated & now facing Sodomy II) to make a historical come back to Parliament marking acomplete political rehabilitation!
What RTM does not do, Al-Jazeera gave DSAI international media intention. Will CNN’s Talk Asia be next?
#4 by Damocles on Friday, 29 August 2008 - 1:45 pm
Each succeeding BN cabinet is worse than the one before.
So, it follows naturally that the current Information Minister is worse than his predecessor!
Nothing unusual!!
#5 by smashchye on Friday, 29 August 2008 - 3:30 pm
before anwar won the pp seat, BN was saying that BN will win the seat and they were so sure they will get the seat and making a big deal out of it..after anwar won, they say the winning wont affect the govt (tutup malu la tu) and it means nothing… erkssSS???????????
#6 by imranj78 on Friday, 29 August 2008 - 11:25 pm
Lets look what is the purpose of the 30 min TV telecast – to show the question and answer session. This is to allow the rakyat to see the parliamentary debate themself and see how their wakil rakyat performs. Isn’t this the most important thing? DSAI is just another politician being sworn in. Was the swearing in off the other 200+ wakil rakyats shown life on TV? I dont think so.
You guys are making a mountain out of nothing. Look at the bigger picture and the more important things!
#7 by swee_ann_tweety on Saturday, 30 August 2008 - 10:21 pm
SHABERY CHICK CHICK CHICK CHICK CHEEK CHEEKS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc0MtCgTWUc
#8 by simon041155 on Wednesday, 24 September 2008 - 8:03 am
The last-minute cancellation of RTM’s planned live telecast of Anwar’s swearing-in, and the low attendance of Barisan Nasional Ministers is a clear testimony of Anwar Ibrahim’s stature today as a politician. We don’t expect the Barisan Nasional to welcome Anwar with open arms, do we? For all we know, these MPs are so ashamed to witness the swearing in because it reflects so poorly on themselves. Even with their massive control of the mass media and a huge government machinery behind them, they still lose to a man whom they thought they had broken long ago.
The last-minute cancellation of RTM’s planned live telecast of Anwar’s swearing-in is good for the Opposition. In any case, the ceremony is actually a boring event to most people. You see one, you see all. But a last-minute cancellation helps boost interest and heighten the drama.
I believe (as most other people do) that in the 2008 general election, the Opposition won by default because the rakyat simply refuse to vote for the Barisan Nasional anymore. It’s the beginning of the end when they keep shooting their own foot and no one believes in their lies anymore. Every time I see a Minister talking, my first response is, “What is this liar trying to bluff this time round.”
The latest ISA arrests are nothing more than a manifestation of BN’s desperation. And the more desperate they are, the more oppressed they become. And the more oppressed they become, the faster they go. Looking at the ways things are moving, it seems that BN is heading for the big longkang. Whatever it may be said of Mahathir, he seems to be the only one with the brains to reverse this development. But fortunately for the Opposition, he has retired.