Emperor's New Clothes

Emperor’s New Clothes

I would like to comment about the “A Date with the Prime Minister” dinner (“the banquet”) organized by a group of Chinese NGOs and societies on 16th of March, 2013 (eve of both St Patrick’s Day and yours truly’s birthday !) in Seremban, Negeri Sembilan.

I am reminded about the tale of the Emperor’s New Clothes. For the uninitiated, it is a short tale by Hans Christian Andersen about two conmen disguised as weavers who promised an Emperor a new clothing that is invisible to those unfit for their positions. The vain Emperor who loved to parade in the latest fashion hired the two men who promised him the finest and best avant garde clothing made of a fabric invisible to anyone who is unfit for his position or "hopelessly stupid or incompetent". 

 

The Emperor's stooges/ministers could not see the clothing themselves, but pretended that they could for fear of appearing unfit for their positions and the Emperor did the same. Finally, the conmen reported that the clothing was ready, they mimed dressing him and the Emperor marched in procession before his Rakyat. The townsfolk played along with the charade not wanting to appear unfit for their positions. Then a child in the crowd, too naïve to understand the need to keep up the charade, blurted out that the Emperor was wearing nothing at all and the cry was taken up by others. The Emperor cringed, suspecting the assertion was true, but continued with the procession.

The phrase "emperor's new clothes" has since become an idiom about logical fallacies. The tale is an example of what happens because of pluralistic ignorance. The tale is about a situation where "no one believes, but everyone believes that everyone else believes”.

This tale aptly describes the current situation in Seremban. It is so obvious who the emperor is, especially of what transpired recently in Penang’s PSY concert. The emperor’s new clothes in Seremban was supposed to be the attendance of the 30,000 people for a free dinner. The sole purpose of the banquet is sycophantic in nature i.e to show support for the emperor. 

 

The banquet was supposed to be the biggest ever held in Malaysia and Malaysia’s Book of Records is invited to witness and record the event. The banquet was supposed to be funded by a few top Chinese businessmen. DAP has asked the question “who funded the event?”. As total estimated costs is more than RM 1 Million ! 

 

The banquet was supposed to be non-political but looking at the lineup of the people involved in the organising committee, everyone of them is connected to a political party ("the Party") one way or another. Even when the top leadership of the Party denied any involvement in the organising of the banquet, a top leader was seen supervising and walking around in the venue of the banquet. The way the top leader vehemently defended the organising committee, clearly shows that he is trying to camouflage the situation. These community leaders linked to have ulterior motive. It could be a form of payback time for their receipt of patronage or for future benefits.

The banquet is used for political purpose. The banquet serves as the Emperor's New Clothes. Perceived new clothes when he is actually naked. The support is forced because the Party's leaders infiltrated Chinese societies. Used these societies' or NGOs' identities to deceitfully hold POLITICAL CAMPAIGN/ BANQUET to please Najib. They are too shameful to use the Party to organise the event because they are fearful of failure and poor attendance. They used subtle pressure on neutral bodies to gain attendance involuntarily, which they will shamelessly claim as Chinese leaders' and Chinese Associations' support. Chinese community leaders fear that their non-attendance could cause them loss of government allocations/patronage. Even the table allocations showed that it is actually organised by the Party as the tickets are distributed by the Party's leaders. Those in the wrong camp did not get any tickets. I understand that the blue-eyed boy got the best seats which are the top 500 tables nearest to the stage.

The banquet is another bread and circuses event to create a feel good factor. I wish to reflect on many Chinese Serembanites who are commenting to me and wants me to say this. Their fear is the emperor’s insincerity and they fear that he will play dirty because of his track record. They have been haunted by 1987 famous keris-waving. Only recently, he showed the controversial movie “Tanda Putera” to 3,000 FELDA settlers with bad intentions.

I urge the chinese community to spread the message about such shameless and deceitful move by attending the dinner since it is free and vote otherwise ! I urge those people who are impoverished by bad government policies which benefitted the ruling party’s stooges for the past 30 years to go and attend the banquet and “tapau” (pack) the food as that is their right. I urge Serembanites to show the same political wisdom as Penang by attending under protest ! I urge Serembanites to show that our dignity cannot be bought. This is a golden opportunity for us to openly show our disgust and displeasures about the ruling party’s bad policies which benefitted a small group of cronies and not Malaysians as a whole !