August 11, 2012
Lenggong endorses Anwar’s Castigation of UMNO-BN’s Governance
by Terence Netto@www.malaysiakini.com
A subdued Anwar Ibrahim played tutor to some 2,000 people in Lenggong, Perak last night who had gathered to hear the putative head of Pakatan Rakyat convince them that the electoral repudiation they are contemplating was essential to the country’s future.
Lenggong is an UMNO bastion, regularly returning its nominees to Parliament and Perak’s state assembly, and restricting support to opposition parties to only 30 percent of the vote.
These days 30 percent is a viable electoral proposition for the Opposition given that Chinese voters, who compose 18 percent of the Lenggong electorate, are unabashedly for Pakatan and the Malays are said to be divided between UMNO-BN and Pakatan.
Hence it is no exaggeration to say that the way Lenggong leans in the eventual
ballot at the 13th general election would be indicative of who would own the writ to Putrajaya for the next few years.
Lenggong lies on the lee side of the Main Range, 45km east of Kuala Kangsar on the road to Gerik, its predominantly Malay denizens (81 percent of the electorate) having produced almost all of Perak’s menteris besar since independence, a bit of political history that belies the apparent docility of the populace and the serene feel for life’s rhythms noticeable among its hill country folk.
Early arrivals at the last night’s PKR-organised ceramah would not have suspected that the crowd would be as big as it eventually was because of the small numbers who had straggled on to a football field just off the main Kuala Kangsar-Gerik road, a short distance before a right turn that brings visitors to Lenggong proper.
But on leaving the ceramah venue an hour and a half after its start time of 10.15pm, the crowd that was seen filing away from the shadows and recesses of houses fringing the field was far more substantial than was evident from the numbers seated on mats and cardboard sheets on the field during the speeches.
Apparently, Lenggong’s lot does not believe in tipping its presence. That discretion was discernible from the reception they gave Anwar when he arrived which was distinctly short of the fervour that normally attends the opposition leader’s advent, with people scurrying to shake his hand and rousing to the battle cry of “reformasi, reformasi.”
Perhaps the lack of exuberance was due of the fasting month and the premium it places on self-possession.
Subdued tones
Anwar himself was in not in the mood for the expansive gesture, speaking in subdued tones in keeping with the mortifying rigours of Islam’s holiest month such that the emcee’s disclosure at the end that it was the lead speaker’s 65th birthday hardly raised a stir.
However, there was no mistaking, even in the understated tenor of the evening’s proceedings, the spontaneity of the ‘ayes’ and ‘nays’ rippling through the crowd whenever Anwar punched a point in his castigation of UMNO-BN’s record of governance.
Dataran Kek Yam, which is the name of the place where the ceramah was held, is a long way away from similarly-named but more august gatherings places along the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia, but in its rusticity and apparent isolation from the main information grids of the nation, you would think it improbable that there could be a link between the spontaneity of those ‘ayes’ and ‘nays’ and its source.
But, as Anwar is so fond of citing the wisdom of the Spanish philosopher Jose Ortega y Gasset, that one should never underestimate the intelligence of the masses, Lenggong’s evident rusticity should not deceive one into thinking that its people are on the outs with what is to be had on the Internet.
These days physical attenuation is not tantamount to an informational disconnect and Gasset may well be turn out to be godfather to Lenggong electorate’s repudiation of its customary voting behaviour.
Believers! After his death,write all he quotes and prophesies into a journal.get a few guys to learn it by heart n boom!lol
Sent by Maxis from my BlackBerry® smartphone
Such verbosity when a few words will do, written in a style meant to be a literary piece of sorts. Who is your targetted audience, Terrence? This is about you, isn’t it? Why don’t you go and live among the people of Lenggong for a month and come back and tell us what they think and feel?
Brother Bean,
Netto loves to massage his own ego. He thinks he is God’s gift to Malaysian journalism. Shiok sendiri saja. The people of Lenggong will vote for a mere rm200 per head in favour of UMNO-BN. All these intellectual garbage means nothing to them. We all now know Anwar is just a gas bag. PKR will get weaker after GE-13 because of its froggies.
Netto is an interesting writer-analyst with a gift of the language. Reading him, one acquires a few new words. Read him slowly with a good dictionary by your side. He has a unique style of conveying a message. That message is insightful, nuanced and subtle. –Din Merican
That message is insightful, nuanced and subtle. – Din Merican
Any message the guy seeks to convey is garbled, distorted by the need to massage his own ego – like Ahmadi Hussein so rightly points out. But all is not lost if massaging is the problem that a visit to Pooi Ming Massage Parlour cannot cure. Here we are interested in the message – and not massage.
The problem with Netto’s style of writing is that readers will end up having to do mental gymnastics. Most readers are not trained in gymnastics and are likely to end up smelling his or her own ass. We don’t want that.
Lenggong and Gerik, stronghold of UMNO, Tajol Rosli constituency and before that his dad Ghazali Jawi. After GE 12, the folks in Perak felt cheated by Zambry and may turn in protest vote against BN/UMNO.
The last time i went to Lenggong was last century to see Perak Man. Bloody museum was closed, so i headed up to Grik and ended up staying in Temenggor lake resort. The still hunt wild boar up there. I was hunting for troglodytes, er cave men. If Lenggong falls to the Opposition, i’ll eat my shoelaces – gladly.
Yeah, Terence is twisty. No worries Bean, keeps our neurons firing, albeit jerkily.
Great, Netto’s language is better than someone’s double-meaning, sexual laden, suggestive language that pervades your blog, Dato’.
Massage his own ego??…What this writer really need is a good massage at “Ipoh mali” spots in Ipoh not faraway from Lenggong!..
In that case let’s see you write. I am not the one writing for the media. Nor a contributor to any print media. If I were a contributor to any news media then i would give attention to what my readers say about my style of writing. If I cannot get to my targetted audience then my contribution is not worth the paper it is written on. Netto has to decide who his targetted audience is.
Try writing a piece on economics or on law using Shakespearean language. Try addressing the jury using flowery language or using legal terminology the jury doen’t understand and see what happens. If you cannot make yourself understood by the audience your write for, why write at all? Because few would read. Many are likely to be turned off by the style of writing. And it is such a waste because he may have good ideas to offer in the way of analysis. Narration? Anyone can do that. Not because they are not familiar with the literary style used, or not sufficiently literate in the English language etc but readers are left wondering why the need for the use of such literary style more suited to literary journals.
I am not questioning the writer’s First Amendment right.
Fareed Zakaria (though born in India, was educated at Harvard and Yale)someone whose analytical skills on political issues are the envy of many, this week has been accused of plagiarism – unfairly in my opinion becasue he was strapped for time and it is easy to overlook given the busy schedule. Still there is no excuse and he has been suspended by CNN. Terrence Netto on the other hand, being a Malaysian and writing for a Malaysian audience does not have to worry. The bar is set so low in Malaysia you can get away with anything.
Barry,
Me Ipoh Mari la. gone were the days when the old sultan in charge, massage parlours have become norms then.
Ahmadi,
Terence syiok sendiri. Wait till you read some blogs where one believes he’s a supergod. He’s in the din merican’s blog list.
Bean,
Perhaps you can say the same words to one blogger starting with k
Clf,
You would never know. Pas lost by 5k votes.
Anwar himself was in not in the mood for the expansive gesture, speaking in subdued tones in keeping with the mortifying rigours of Islam’s holiest month such that the emcee’s disclosure at the end that it was the lead speaker’s 65th birthday hardly raised a stir.
However, there was no mistaking, even in the understated tenor of the evening’s proceedings, the spontaneity of the ‘ayes’ and ‘nays’ rippling through the crowd whenever Anwar punched a point in his castigation of UMNO-BN’s record of governance.
———————-
Fareed Zakaria, whom I admire, wouldn’t write it this way. He would write thus:
It is the fasting month when thoughts are more focussed on the mundane such as where to break the day’s fast, with whom and what kind of food are being served. They forget that it is Anwar’s 65th birthday. Even Anwar’s punch lines failed to raise the kind of applause we are used to hearing.
Why can’t Netto write like Fareed Zakaria? In simple English.
So Lenggong didn’t recieve Anwar in a manner that antiBN people can gloat about. Reading Terence’s piece, I couldn’ help feeling that he was scraping the bottom of the barrel to positivise a negative scenario. All is not well, PKR.
Mr Bean,
I think you misunderstood Netto’s point. The audience was not expected to be lively, heck they even did not bother to applaud the fact it was Anwar’s birthday. This is UMNO’s Ground Zero + Fasting month, so don’t expect the usual rah rah shouts of re-fo-ma-si. However, in spite of this, the crowd gave their shouts of “ayes” and “nays” (“betul” and “tidak”) in response to the many rhetorical questions that pepper a politician’s ceramah (Anwar and Najib seem to like this way of communicating). Netto further observes that UMNO has generally underestimated the intelligence of the rural base and on the strength of this showing, UMNO (Rosmahjib) does so at their peril
Terrence has his unique style of expressing himself. If you don’t like his style or cannot understand his queen’s English then don’t read his articles. This is his craft.
This article was written for Malaysiakini and its readers are not complaining. So what’s the beef?