YOURSAY ‘Light bulb moments like these are divine in their timing and intent.’

Umno and the 'CIA-Jewish' lightbulb

Ferdtan: This ‘Lampu-gate’ is getting more interesting. Even with an innocent incident like this, Umno is panicking. Why are they so defensive?

A small matter like this, and they still want to spin the issue? Can’t they just dismiss the matter and ask everyone to move on, instead of coming up with a grandfather story of ‘CIA-Jewish connection’?

Again this quote comes to mind: “Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad.”

WoTB: Ha-ha. Let's blame the Jews and CIA for putting the lights out (on former PM Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s banner at its Umno headquarters).

If need be, let's blame the ‘pendatang’ Chinese for this mess, too. Even though Anwar Ibrahim is in jail, I am sure he can be blamed, too.

Lies, Lies & More Lies: Lying is an acquired skill. Our politicians are probably the best you will find anywhere. That, too, during Ramadan, and always in the name of religion and race.

Just admit a bulb had a blown fuse, and go fix it. Why all this high drama?

Fightforjustice: I don't think they are lying. It is what they actually believe and that is the scary part. Malaysia is doomed if the progressive Malays don't start speaking up and take over the country.

Lone_Star: Of course, it has got to be that guy in Bamboo River (Sungai Buloh), who has little to do and is probably ‘berniat jahat’.

He is said to have taken tuition from that Uri guy, not the Yuri guy; the guy who could bend spoons, that Israeli guy, who is also known to be able to put out electrical lights from as far as 10km away.

That guy from Bamboo River, whom many thought is also a CIA agent, wants to cause further tensions between the ‘My Way’ guy and the Bugis Nothing2hide warrior.

After all, the Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC) isn't really too far away from Bamboo River.

Real Truth: Much ado about nothing. This matter is a non-issue to all except Umno leaders who are spooked by Mahathir's shadow. Even in the dark, they fear Mahathir.

Lonely MidnightSun: "Why would we do such a thing, it doesn't make sense. This is ‘bodoh’ (stupid)."

Was it reported that it was a deliberate act? Only a person who is really, really ‘bodoh’ will make such a ‘bodoh’ comment - a phenomenon when stupidity and arrogance collide.

Nil: Coincidence? A prank? How would we know whether the light bulb was really fused or not lit intentionally? But that is not my question, which is, why would they use light bulbs which are suspected to easily fail?

In this day and age, there are better alternatives (given their seemingly unlimited resources).

Vent: Tell me, why would anyone want to change the light bulb when it was Umno's epiphany? Light bulb moments like these are divine in their timing and intent.

Doc: Soon it will be lights out for Umno.

I am not sure if the light bulb over Mahathir's banner has fused, thus plunging his banner into darkness, but one thing for certain is Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor’s ‘bulb’ has fused long ago.

Our panopticon nightmare with religious bent

Pemerhati: After independence the country maintained its secular nature, as unlike now there was no recitation of the ‘doa’ during assemblies in schools and government departments.

Unlike now, no Islamic prayers were recited at Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) in the mornings during office hours.

No important political leader has criticised the recitation of the doa except PPP’s M Kayveas who once said, “In every assembly, we have to recite doa (prayers), this is only for Muslims but how about non-Muslims? For them to sit there and listen (to the prayers), they could say, ‘this is prejudice’.”

So Umno keeps pushing their Islamisation agenda further and further, such as imposing Islamic dress codes for the public.

When there was a public outcry after the ‘sarong’ and ‘towel’, etc, incidents, Umno tried to appear reasonable by getting its officers to apologise and unfairly blamed the guards who were just following a directive sanctioned by Umno.

Umno’s strategy here is to take one step back and then quietly move two steps forward.

Gen2: There is a new form of colonialism going on. It is the colonisation of the rich local Malay culture by the dry Arab culture.

The culture as embodied by P Ramlee which draws smiles from every race is being replaced by a hateful culture based on religious intolerance and segregation of a once united nation into racial divisions.

The true Malay should wake up to the destruction of his native culture. He has turned from being a Malay to a fake Arab.

As the Arab culture is now causing Arab nations to go down the path of failed states and self-destruction, so too will the fake Arab Malays cause the destruction of our beloved Malaysia.

Senior: This is what happens when you turn to religion for votes.

Vent: Jeremy Bentham's panopticon is an apt metaphor for socially controlled and engineered state shenanigans.

However, whichever way we see it Malaysia is in the grip of oppressive patriarchal Islamic fundamentalism. As for the pendulum swinging back, wistful wishing won’t hurt.

The Analyser: I suspect political economist Karl Polanyi never visited Malaysia. Here both sides of the argument are pushing the pendulum in the same direction, albeit to two different forms of ignorance-based religious autocracy.

Although they will never admit it, the Christian Chinese and the Muslim Malays are frighteningly alike. That explains why there is this ongoing sniping at each other.

Malaysia Ku: Indeed, such a pendulum effect was somewhat similarly postulated by William Strauss and Neil Howe in their seminal critique of the periodic societal gyrations that affect America (‘Generations’, 1991).

Hopefully, the way our society unfolds as it is doing now will move us towards a more serene and stable plane of neo-Utopian status.

Pipe dream perhaps, but who says Shangri-la exists to be easily accessible by all and sundry?

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