Tales from Bolehland

March 8, it’s International Women’s Day, just when Malaysian women this week marked their achievements in many areas but were uniformly worried over a sharp rise in gender related violence - especially rape and domestic abuse. greeting from our Tourism Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor "bloggers are liars, 80% are unemployed women", read Elizabeth's :"Tengku Adnan whacks women bloggers"

Malaysian Minister for Tourism, Tengku Adnan was reported by Sin Chew (9 March 07, Early Evening edition pp 5) to have said the following :

Tengku Adnan: Bloggers are Liars
80% are Unemployed Women
updated:2007-03-08 20:11:32: MYT

(Kuala Lumpur) The Tourism Minsiter Tunku Adnan lashed out today (Mar 8, 2007) that all bloggers on the Internet are liars, out of which 80% are unemployed women.

“All bloggers are liars, they cheat people using all kinds of methods. From my understanding, out of 10,000 unemployed bloggers, 8,000 are women.”

Tengku was addressing the media at the 2007 Malaysia GP Sales when he was asked about allegations made on a blog by a female TV presenter. The guests present were shocked at first, but burst into laughter.

He said he may lose some female voters but did not retract his statement or indicate that he was just joking.

He said that bloggers spread rumours, disrupt social harmony and many bloggers are slanderous and are cheating people with their blogs.

“All bloggers are not in favour of national unity. Our country has been successful because we are very tolerant with each other, if not, there will be civil war, the Malays will kill the Chinese, the Chinese will take revenge and kill the Malays, and the Indian will kill everyone.”

He urged the rakyat not to simply trust bloggers, and gamble our future away because the achievement we gain in the 50 years of independence is not an easy task.

“We have to show the world our positive attitude, if the world learn to be as tolerant as us, the world will be peaceful, without war or civil war.”

He said that the tourism ministry has been promoting the country for the rakyat’s benefit, not just to benefit his own ministry.

He stressed that the Malaysian tourism industry is now in a critical moment as the competition from the neighbouring countries such as Vietnam, Cambodia and the Philippines will be stiffer and Malaysia must respond proactively.

(Translation by Jeremiah Foo )

Not too long ago, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has accused his critics of unfairly smearing him.

"I know there are people who are trying their best to ridicule me,"

"They make a mountain out of a molehill. They just want to rubbish me."

Abdullah did not specifically identify his critics then, but said bloggers and other people were using Web sites "to create stories" that underscore how online freedom has been manipulated.

"Lies after lies are being told," Abdullah was quoted as saying. "They feel they are free, they cannot be disturbed and they can say whatever they wish to say."


Recently, UMNO Reform .com labelled certain bloggers as Anti Abdullah :"Pak Lah dalam Bahaya?".Excerpt of the posting translated by Susan :-

This is a more comprehensive and thorough attack. This attack is more organised and Pak Lah should be worried, not only of their presence but because there are no othordox supporters to defend him. This only goes to show that Pak Lah is more in danger now than it was during the reformasi movement. The systematic attack against Pak Lah is increasingly organised, and more ‘adventures” in starting a movement.

Furthermore, UMNO reform said these people are not ‘penembak curi” but those who “open fire” with a certain feature (face), motive and vision (quoting from Sang Kelembai’s blog). This open attack seem to have more substance and looks more thorough while Pah Lah seem to have failed to respond (to compete) with the rising attacks.

“Whatever it is, if Pak Lah failed to defend himself against this attack, it shows that he had failed to see the scenario and sentiment on the ground,” ended the said article.

The citizens of Bolehland ended the year 2006, Year of half-bridge, half-past-six govt and half-witted leaders, in high spirits. Even though things did not quite fork out for the "work-with-me, not for me" Prime Minister (PM), the government of the day took us to great heights in various ways.

Pak Lah’s chime of change and his high-sounding anti-corruption cheer and chant continued on in 2006 to 2007. Three years after being voted into office on an anti-corruption platform,allegations that the head of the powerful Anti-Corruption Agency is corrupt and unscrupulous, the Prime Minister has dismissed damaging allegations against two of the country's top anti-corruption officials.

The prime minister has promised to allow for a full investigation. He has asked the police to probe both allegations thoroughly. He has said that he will act once the evidence is presented to him. If he fails to act in the face of incontrovertible evidence, then the public will begin to lose faith in his drive against corruption.




Still not long ago, A PKR leader Tian Chua was accused of attempted murder.The news report from NST :

An opposition politician is facing up to 20 years in jail after police yesterday claimed they have built a strong case of attempted murder against him.

The 44-year-old politician is being investigated for trying to run over a site supervisor with his car at Kampung Berembang off Jalan Ampang on Wednesday.

The real story ? Read here, here and here.