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.