JUNE 13 — Are we world leaders in sleaze?
The last 48 hours have been, strangely, par for the course in Malaysia.
It must be unnerving to be one of the few countries not to be overwhelmed by Donald Trump’s sexual peccadilloes. His “locker room talk” is lame wannabe when compared to our “film performers.”
Comedy Central, at this juncture, should consider a Malaysian franchise.
If you’ve been locked up in a magician’s trick gone wrong all this while, here’s the meat. Economic Affairs Minister Azmin Ali has denounced a smut video wantonly — currently circulating in Whatsapp groups anywhere in the federation — seeking to besmirch his honour and worth.
It is easy to be washed away by the developing story — or more so by developing visuals — but let’s take stock. What has been gained and lost in our paradise with this expose?
Yang Berhormat
Are politicians served notice? Don’t engage in private actions with public consequences, or tighten privacy protections in and around public establishments?
They’d be hard up to follow the former, so expect many to be paranoid in hotel rooms from now on. It’s usually near the telly, the hidden cam.
Since a phone’s in every pocket, and damn Samsung and Oppo keep doubling up efforts to improve their cameras and sell them like hot cakes, the solution for reprobates would be discretion in partner selection.
How? If you must.
A questionnaire followed by interviews and nailed by character references. Be a bit more diligent with lads from boarding schools.
That or the conscious choice to opt for a mask in bed. I’ve a standard balaclava at home but the fashion conscious might opt for an Avenger façade.
Have a facial wardrobe malfunction, no worries. Go for the last port of call.
Which is a denial steeped deep in rejection of technology, right off the bat from Shaggy’s biggest hit song, It wasn’t me.
Or with the aid of technology, superior technology.
Pretend forensic expertise, delve into aperture qualities, contrasts inconsistencies and missing shadows, and hope for the best. Plausible deniability works manifold, often reliant on obfuscation. When not sure, stay chatty.
Though the online audience won’t resist the temptation to taunt at every opportunity. A hollow victory at best for survivors.
Sequels and squeals abound
The emergence of a confirmation clip from one alleged victim of the said video in less than 24 hours after the distribution of the initial activity short, guarantees further choreographed acts.
[And so was the case — as by the time this column was completed — another salacious clip had been forwarded with the caption two of four, forewarning more.]
It expects a lot from the viewer, the apparent admittance of guilt, not the least the stripping of modesty.
Haziq Aziz, a private secretary for a deputy minister, concedes early yesterday that indeed he was one of two individuals in the clips.
Bizarrely, instead of being upset about having his privacy violated, he mused in a cold manner about how his “partner” is a minister of low morals who in addition to random video appearances is corrupt. As if graft was a necessary backup plan in case sordidness did not penetrate Malaysia’s imagination.
Contradicting reports emerge in which party mates claim, it’s not the private secretary. “He’s too buff to be Haziq,” has been bandied about.
It does not explain why the identified individual chooses not to present himself to the police. Nor the decision by the deputy minister to remain mum about the matter. It’s all cloaks and daggers.
This harkens back to the days of the late 1990s, when the personal attacks were synchronised for devastating effect even when only a sliver of Malaysians were online.
Therefore more effort was exerted with the disadvantage of less technology to destroy political opponents.
Thirty years later, the spite only mounts.
Holier than thou
The muck’s only truth is unpalatable.
[I’m aware of my own glass house, so the fragility is universal.]
It’s not that there’s colossal effort to collect video or fake it to tar a politician, it is the alarming disparity of value between social shame and public service. This is why it is the go to method to political victory.
The people, the general population, are less concerned about how well public officials perform as opposed to how much they are disgusted by the unsavoury private information political enemies can produce — or fabricate — about them.
Our values are out of sync.
The prime minister loses his bearings to a cohesive response since he set the marker for political execution through sexual shaming two decades ago. Today is a morph from that administration.
And it has been seeded into the collective Malaysian psyche.
The private lives of politicians and their self-righteousness about theological morality, are the cornerstones of appreciation. Tick the boxes, and all is forgiven. Leaders are to live or die by them.
As sure as the meek follow downstream, competitors on both sides submit to the creed.
Constant expressions to associate with piety are rendered and huge willingness to lead the cheer on further policies which cleanse us. This narrative dominated.
They prefer that than to stand for common sense solutions — which they fear would upset the denizens raised to ignore reason. They feed and reinforce moral stereotypes.
To win elections, they’d hoist their religious credentials rather than their management nous.
Which is why when credentials are shot, there can only be denial. In a binary world, the urge to conceal is high and the incentive to rationalise political extortions, nil.
In a roundabout way, this explains why I lack sympathy — even if they have my empathy — for the various characters, involved directly or indirectly.
It was long coming, and it will keep going, the moral locomotive chugs on unhindered.
In our excitement to be morally superior — and win elections — we've left astray our decency. Gnaw away, brutes!
*This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
