Category: currentevents

It has been raining heavily across Malaysia as Typhoon Rai rages across the Philippines and many parts of Malaysia have been flooded. Kuala Lumpur is under water. And this isn’t even where the floods are at their worst. In Pahang, two storey houses are under water. There is a flood emergency, a #DaruratBanjir.

The government has been (unsurprisingly but no less disappointingly) slow to respond, with various councils and committees seemingly reluctant to take charge and lead a consolidated relief effort. Instead, it has been up to NGOs and volunteers to launch rescue missions, relief funds, and food banks. Meanwhile, government politicians engage in exactly the kind of performative bullshit that Jen Psaki scoffs at.

“This is common sense kan, Tan Sri?” This woman speaks on behalf of Malaysians everywhere when she tells off an asshat politician, the chair of Selangor’s state security council, for sending just three boats to evacuate an entire district. It’s not so much that she’s talking sense; it’s that she’s angry enough to tell off a “Tan Sri”, in this case a titled – read: entitled – Malay man with power who is not fulfilling his responsibilities.

I wish it hadn’t happened this way, but I hope this outrage lasts until and is revived every time there is an election. Remember the government that neglected its people in their time of need.

I meant to sneak in another post in July, but things got away from me a little bit as I had to prepare for a couple of talks last week and put together a couple of job applications before their deadlines. Now that those are done, I can turn my attention to the absolute shitshow that is Malaysia.

Last Thursday, literally half an hour after I finished my second talk, Malaysia was being plunged into a (potential?) constitutional crisis. It may all be moot when Parliament next meets, but who knows? Certainly not the average Malaysian citizen.

The gist of it is thus: Malaysia has been in a state of Emergency since January, ostensibly to combat Covid-19, but really to preserve the political power of a bunch of self-serving assholes that staged a coup last year at the start of the pandemic. This Emergency was supposed to end today, on August 1.

Parliament was suspended, but last month, the Agong, who has increased powers in this time of Emergency, decreed that Parliament should reconvene as soon as possible, so last week there was to be a special sitting of Parliament. Opposition MPs wanted to actually work and debate policies and laws and such, but the government decided that this time should be used for key Cabinet members to brief the House on what they’ve been doing (i.e. nothing) for the last six months.

Somewhere in the middle of all the briefings on July 26, the Law Minister, Takiyuddin Hassan, announced that Emergency Ordinances had actually been revoked on July 21. This is…problematic, as constitutionally the EOs can’t actually be revoked during an Emergency without the Agong’s assent and there had been no federal gazette announcing the revocations.

So. This presents a bit of a conundrum. For the time between July 21 and August 1, was Malaysia under Emergency rule or not? The Speaker of the House, Azhar (Art) Harun, called upon the Law Minister to explain, but gave him some time to prepare his remarks, scheduling his explanation for August 2 (next Monday).

This would likely have rendered the subject moot since the Emergency would have expired anyway. But the Agong did not take kindly to people announcing things he had not assented to, and on July 29 (while I was giving my talk) the palace issued a statement saying that he was very saddened by how the Law Minister had misled Parliament.

When pressed upon to allow time to discuss this issue, the Speaker adjourned Parliament for a couple of hours to come up with an excuse as to why that couldn’t be done. Then one of his deputies delayed the resumption of the afternoon session by another hour to buy him more time. Then the other deputy speaker announced that some Parliament staffers had tested positive for Covid-19, and so Parliament would be suspended while everyone present was tested.

Meanwhile, a bunch of key MPs and Cabinet members had left Parliament for a meeting at the Prime Minister’s home, because for some reason Muhyiddin Yassin, the leader of this abominable Malaysian government, had not actually been in Parliament for a parliamentary session.

Everyone was tested but Parliament did not reconvene because more cases had been identified. Instead, the session was suspended until Monday, and yesterday it was announced that Monday’s sitting would be postponed until further notice, supposedly on the scientific and medical advice provided by the Director General of Health, Noor Hisham Abdullah.

Also yesterday, about a thousand people, mostly young adults, gathered in Kuala Lumpur to protest the government’s response to the pandemic and call for Muhyiddin’s resignation. Today, the police have begun arresting them. This follows a walkout staged by medical frontliners on July 26, who have been shouldering the brunt of the pandemic for over a year as government contract workers without benefits and career development opportunities.

So here we are, with everything still in shambles. Up to yesterday, Malaysia has recorded 1.11 million cases of Covid-19 among its population of 32 million and 9,024 people have died as a direct result of the disease. Others have died of complications or other Covid-19 triggered conditions to say nothing of the many still suffering in some way or another. Malaysia’s government is not interested in anything other than holding on to power and it is killing this country in its efforts to protect itself. Shame on everyone in this government.

For the first time, I watched a news story unfold on Twitter, and it was a most uplifting and entertaining end to what has been a long and frustrating day in Malaysian politics.

The day started with the news that the Agong had agreed to a state of emergency in Malaysia to stem the spread of Covid-19. The emergency ordinance runs from today until August 1, or earlier if the Covid-19 situation is under control, although what it means to have the situation under control has not been explained.

Our unelected and useless Prime Minister broke into English during his Malay press statement to reassure “stakeholders” that “Malaysia is open for business” despite yesterday announcing a lockdown for six states, all but one of which are among the top six states contributing to the country’s GDP (Selangor, KL, Johor, Sabah, and Penang). This is also okay, because despite there being a lockdown in place, five economic sectors will be open for business as usual – manufacturing, construction, services, trade and distributions, and plantations and commodities. Which is, um, basically all of them.

Anyway, what any politically-aware Malaysian knows is that the real reason for the emergency is to suspend Parliament and prevent elections from being called because the Prime Minister, who was part of a coup last year that saw him betray his own coalition at the start of the pandemic, has now lost the confidence of the assholes who partnered with him to overthrow a democratically elected government.

The government’s majority, which had been 113 out of 222 members of Parliament was reduced to 110 out of 220 (two MPs having passed away) a couple of days ago when some of his conspirators turned against him. His emergency announcement was followed by another conspirator withdrawing support for him and daily Covid-19 cases in Malaysia reaching a record high of 3309.

In other words, as of today, the backdoor government led by Muhyiddin Yassin has collapsed, but in a remarkable second coup, he has managed to avoid being thrown out of Parliament. Gotta hand it to him, that’s excellent political strategy.

Anyway, all that drama meant I was a little distracted during the workday so I was planning to spend my night revising a paper but my co-author sent me a message pointing out a 2014 tweet from the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), which regulates communications, media, and information in the country. The tweet read simply “fuck fuck fuck”. (And it was one of the less offensive tweets that I saw.)

Earlier this evening, the MCMC had released a statement telling people to behave themselves online and not spread misinformation or make slanderous or incendiary remarks pertaining to race, religion, or royalty on social media. It even encouraged people to rat each other out via Whatsapp and email.

Which led to this fantastic saga unfolding on Twitter.

Usually I get to these stories after the original posts have been deleted, and all that’s left are screenshots. And that’s where things did wind up tonight, but I was there for it all, and it was great. The memes have been fantastic. Here are some that made me actually lol.