— Yow Hong Chieh
The Malaysian Insider
Oct 01, 2011

OCT 1 — So Jabba the Hutt has struck the first blow against Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s new reform package barely two weeks after it was announced.

Despite promising to give more latitude to the media, his administration’s knee-jerk response to the “Undilah” video has only demonstrated that old habits die hard — if something disagrees with you, ban it.

The issue for me is not whether Pete Teo had intended to draw parallels between Najib and the hermaphroditic mob boss.

Only Teo truly knows the answer to that and, even if the allegation were true, the last time I checked it wasn’t a crime to be a hypocrite (in this case, to be allegedly partisan in what was intended to be a non-partisan project).

The issue is the disproportionate reaction of government to the perceived slight. To think the wheels of our state machinery were put in motion for what is, at worst, a sly but harmless dig at the current administration.

Lighten up, guys.

If online news portals can shrug off an arson threat from Umno Senator Ezam Mohd Nor, you should be able to take a joke too.

Let’s be clear. The message of the video is simple: Take ownership of your country by registering to vote and casting your ballot come polling day. If not, don’t come a-whinging when government enacts policies you’re opposed to.

The rest is irrelevant, including all two seconds (in a five-minute video) of what must’ve been a very sweaty cosplayer standing at a bus stop next to a poster of the prime minister.

In any case, if votes could be diverted so easily by such mind tricks, Barisan Nasional (BN) should expect nothing less than a clean sweep in the next general election.

The ruling coalition does, after all, have absolute control of the airwaves, through which an unending barrage of subliminal and not-so-subliminal messages praising the establishment are beamed straight into the homes of millions of Malaysians every day.

But obviously, that’s not how it works. Four opposition-led states and the biggest electoral rout in the nation’s history prove voters’ minds are a bit more resilient than that.

Voters tend to worry about more critical issues, like stagnant wages in the face of runaway inflation, appropriate use of public funds as well as quality education and healthcare.

So here’s the bottom line. As oxymoronic as it may sound, the Najib administration must learn to take a joke if it wants its promises for more freedom of expression to be taken seriously.

If the government wishes for Malaysia to become a truly robust democracy, it must be prepared to be skewered on a weekly basis. Watch The Jay Leno Show, Jon Stewart’s Daily Show, Bremner, Bird and Fortune or Spitting Image if you think “Undilah” was out of order.

Anything less, and the joke really is on you.