Thursday, February 08, 2007

Is our most respected Dr M going nuts?


That was what I thought at first when I read the headline to this article and on further reading, the article seems to imply that as well. However, this just didn't ring true of the Dr M I know. So, I did a little more investigation. It turns out that TheStar was being sensational and quoting our Dr M out of context.

We used to complain a lot when the foreign media quotes Dr M out of context. The local media used to extol the virtue that they were immune to such things. However, it would seem that there has been a subtle shift in their policy towards our reverent Dr M. I wonder if this is possibly part of a larger campaign to discredit him and paint him as an old senile mad man. For certain, he is old, but he is neither senile nor mad.

If you look around a bit at JeffOoi's post on the exact same thing, you will see how it has been taken out of context. Dr M is merely backing the victims of a viscious foreign policy gone wrong. If the US had been the victims instead, he would have supported them. In fact, along with the rest of Malaysia, he publicly expressed sympathy for the people of the US when they were the target of 9/11 attacks. He also unequivocally condemned cowardly terrorist attacks of any sort.

I was at a talk, yesterday evening, given by a former British ambassador to China about managing China's growing role in this world. Even he took a few side swipes at the current US regime's manner of managing the rest of the world in contrast with the approach used by the Chinese government. I think that he'd actually used the word 'mis-adventure' though I cannot recall for certain. So, it would seem that, although there is official British support for the US campaign, there are expressions of quiet discontent behind closed doors.

The world is changing. The people of the world can see that great injustice is being done. A lot of people are unhappy about it but do not have the power to do anything about it. Our most reverent Dr M has become the lone voice, loud enough to be heard, that challenges the present world view. He is one man, using whatever influence that he has left, to give the World Bully a piece of his mind. I certainly hope that he lives long enough to actually affect some real change in this world.

In case it isn't clear yet, the answer to the question is No!

1 comment:

Dan said...

for a moment i thought he was doing that because he didn't want the nobel prize :P