NEWS ANALYSIS
The Malaysian Insider
October 07, 2013
The police are looking into five reports against DAP publicity chief Tony Pua for calling the Registrar of Societies and Utusan Malaysia Umno’s running dogs.
Deputy Inspector-General of Police Datuk Seri Mohd Bakri Mohd Zinin reportedly said they want to decide whether Pua should be investigated under criminal law or the Sedition Act.
This is where it gets farcical. Why investigate a man for calling someone else a lackey?
Do the police, Utusan Malaysia, the five groups that lodged the reports or even Umno understand what running dogs even means? It’s an English translation of the Mandarin word that refers to lackeys or lapdogs.
Maybe Bakri Zinin should go for English classes too, if he is unable to figure out what the phrase means. It is fine to accept police reports on anything but to waste time considering which law to apply here says a lot about the police.
The police top brass should be looking into tightening procedures to prevent guns and handcuffs going missing, or police cars getting stolen or lost. Rather than get themselves involved in semantics.
Calling someone a lackey isn’t a crime, or is it under the Penal Code or Sedition Act?
The persecution of someone who uses the phrase “running dogs” just shows how far we have fallen in our understanding and comprehension of the English language.
And every day, Utusan Malaysia reporters and Umno politicians give Malaysians empirical evidence on why our education system is in the doldrums and Malaysian universities are just conveyor belts churning out mediocrity.
Unless of course, one has confused being moderate with being mediocre.
The police need to act on the crime and security of the country, not on people who have a better understanding of the English language.
Or is that a crime too?
The real crime is acting with alacrity on the matter and proving how true it is for Pua to use that phrase against the authorities and the Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia. – October 7, 2013.
#1 by lee tai king (previously dagen) on Monday, 7 October 2013 - 1:06 pm
“War of the running dogs.”
Go umno. Go read that book if you dont know what that expression “running dogs” means.
#2 by Bigjoe on Monday, 7 October 2013 - 4:21 pm
Initially I thought Tony could show better class than using the phrase in the first place BUT the reaction of Utusan and others have simply made what should be unremarkable to simply heroic confirmation of their character. They simply handed more proof of what they are that you think even when the critics did not try hard enough, they still do so well.
#3 by undertaker888 on Monday, 7 October 2013 - 5:49 pm
To them retards, translating these English words to Malay will be a crime as well.
Joystick – batang gembira
Two-hole female connector – pencucuk dua-lubang betina
Imagine translating, “please connect the joystick to the two-hole female connector”. They will sure run wild under sedition act and porno act.
#4 by ENDANGERED HORNBILL on Monday, 7 October 2013 - 5:52 pm
What do we do with an entire police force and maybe prosecution too that do not seem to understand basic, truly basic English?
“running dogs” is metaphorical.
Other metaphors invoving anjing:
“Why keep a dog and bark yourself” –
throw somebody to the dogs.
Oh, doggone…. am I casting pearls..
#5 by tuahpekkong on Monday, 7 October 2013 - 8:06 pm
The police should investigate Zulkifli Noordin’s racist remarks about the Indians instead of wasting time on investigating Tony Pua’s innocuous utterance. Oh, maybe UMNO prefer cats. So instead of saying running dogs and pigs might fly we should say running cats and cats might fly, just to suit them.
#6 by ENDANGERED HORNBILL on Monday, 7 October 2013 - 9:08 pm
You see what clever UMNO leaders say:
“We can’t have casinos, 4D, Toto, gambling, lottery, massage parlors, ah long.”
Why blame the world that you are Muslims?
It is like the Jews blaming the world that they don’t eat pork as if pork is a higher quality meat!
It is like Hindus blaming the beef-eating world for their abstention from beef.
It is like Christians telling the world to stop revolving on Sunday because it is the Lord’s holy day.
Come on, UMNO, show you have better brains and not your awesome fists.
#7 by Winston on Monday, 7 October 2013 - 9:23 pm
They are just doing their best to make things difficult for the opposition at their masters’ behest.
Not much excuse is needed.
And things will only be notching up.
#8 by sheriff singh on Monday, 7 October 2013 - 10:32 pm
What ever happened to that Hari Raya dog case?
Maybe what the police need is this type of dog:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzQ8GDBA8Is
#9 by ENDANGERED HORNBILL on Monday, 7 October 2013 - 11:51 pm
Hello Ali Rustam, please read Bloomberg BusinessWeek (i.e. if you understand English):
“Last week, a respected cleric in Saudi Arabia responded to a countrywide petition effort by women demanding the right to drive a car by suggesting that getting behind the wheel could damage their ovaries.”
#10 by Noble House on Tuesday, 8 October 2013 - 4:22 am
Who was the Education Minister then (1974-1978) that started the English rot in Malaysia with his policies? Education was just a mere propaganda tool to serve the hidden agenda in his ultimate control and power in UMNO. As a result of which we have more YES MEN than leaders today!
#11 by Jeffrey on Tuesday, 8 October 2013 - 6:44 am
I am “dog tired” of this controversy. Section 298 of the Penal Code makes it an offence to “utter words, etc, with deliberate intent to wound the religious feelings of any person.” Tony’s use of “running dog” as an English metaphor for “lackey” provides the excuse and pretext in this “Dog eat dog world” of Malaysian politics and season of paranoia to target bogeyman for some quarters to be seen defending racial/religious sensitivities from offence. Metaphors are a cultural construct – a dog in England from which a metaphor of “sleeping dog” is derived is viewed differently from a dog in Malaysia! Here those complaining offence are leveraging on the dog being considered unclean by adherents of the predominant faith (eg investigation of dog trainer Maznah Mohd Yusof for sedition after an old video showing her bathing her dogs during certain time of holy month). Toney may remember DSAI allegedly called ex IGP “Bapa Anjing” he got a black eye for that in custody! So be careful if you don’t want to be taken literally for purposes of section 298: when referring to ruling party’s inability to reform/transform, don’t ever use the metaphor, “can’t teach an old dog new tricks” or refer to PM as “top dog” (as such term is used to refer to the dominant personality)!
#12 by boh-liao on Tuesday, 8 October 2013 - 8:12 am
Dogs r dogs, just dat. Don’t expect dogs (sitting, running, or peeing) 2 act independently. They r just ‘Yes, Minister’ n ‘Yes, Master’ creatures.