Kam Raslan’s Talking Edge

(Reprinted from The Edge – Options pullout, 18 August 2014 issue)

Dear Kam,
The Selangor MB thing. My question is simple: What?!
Last Man Standing

I try to live my life by three simple rules: Never attempt to clean a sharp knife by plunging it straight into my own head, never invade Russia in the middle of winter and when choosing an MB, try not to pick the guy who has an outstanding RM67 million debt.

Things are moving fast in the Selangor menteri besar crisis, or moving as fast as a slow-motion train wreck can move. At the time of writing, the old MB is still the MB but without the support of his original party and instead, with the support of the party that was the opposition in Selangor. I have never seen anything like this before. I’ve seen MPs and state reps change party but I’ve never seen a leader essentially join another party and thereby take the whole state with him. Is this possible? Somehow it is possible. Oh well.

We might be witnessing the end of the Pakatan alliance and its challenge to BN dominance. Pakatan has been fast losing prestige and friends. This has been a complete fiasco and the only people rubbing their hands in glee must be BN. But wait. If BN does wrest Selangor from Pakatan, then it will have been by what is essentially a trick. This does not reflect the will of the people of Selangor as they voted in the last elections. It might be possible to get Selangor back in this manner but it could be just a short-term gain. People would be wise not to allow themselves to be fooled into thinking that a short-term gain is actually proof of the long-term trend. If people think this means that business as usual can go on forever then, well, that would be their mistake. But then again, it worked in Perak, so why not Selangor?

Pakatan has clearly made a complete mess of things and BN is happy. But by focusing on the Selangor fiasco as a purely BN vs Pakatan event, we lose sight of the third factor — what do voters really want? I think the majority of Malaysians want to see clean and open governance, an end to the corruption that has distorted our economy and an end to racially divisive politics. I think that voters will rewardwhichever party will give them that. I might well be wrong, it might be that the majority of Malaysians will simply follow whichever party offers the image of strength and power because they are in thrall to power. But I don’t think so.

My favourite Shakespeare play is Hamlet and my favourite scene comes right at the very end. In the final scene all the characters kill each other. Hamlet (the Prince of Denmark), the king and queen of Denmark, and everybody else involved in the running of Denmark lie dead on the floor. A prince from Norway happens to be passing by and when he sees that everyone is dead, he basically says, “Oh look, they’ve all killed each other. I think I’ll be king of Denmark now. With sorrow I embrace my fortune, clear away that dead Hamlet and let’s build some, er, ‘infrastructure projects’.” The moral of the story is that out of the mess somebody will be victorious, and it isn’t always who you think it will be.

Dear Kam,
What, Malaysia wants to ban Facebook? Is this Soviet Russia?
Like. Comment. Share.

So our Communications and Multimedia Minister said, “If the people are of the opinion that Facebook should be closed, we are prepared to look into the matter, but it is a radical approach.” He said this to Cheras Wanita Umno delegates. Cheras Umno is the same branch that the PM told should emulate ISIL.

Could Facebook really be shut down in Malaysia? I’m sure the technology to shut down Facebook is very simple and it could be done today if anybody really wanted to. The regularly quoted figure is that 14 million Malaysians have Facebook accounts (in 2013, 3.5 million were between 18 and 24) and the numbers are constantly rising. The minister himself has a Facebook account with 37,683 “likes”. Would they shut down Facebook? It would be a ludicrous action but you never know what passes for a good idea these days. An academic has added the idea that the government should register all Facebook users. Er, how about nope.

The ostensible reason to “look into this matter” (how many times have I heard that phrase?) is because there have apparently been 2,000 complaints about insults to Islam and royalty made on Facebook. Even the minister admits that 2,000 is a low number considering that millions use Facebook every day. For every alleged insult posted by Malaysian Facebook users, there are 15 million pictures of kittens and today’s lunch. It would be crazy to shut down Facebook and it’s not going to happen, but it’s interesting that it should be deemed necessary to remind people, especially young people, that their social media thoughts are being watched and being looked into, although no action has been taken as yet.

Personally, I am in favour of banning Facebook if it means I will no longer get any Candy Crush requests. I don’t play Candy Crush and I don’t ever want to play Candy Crush because from what I have heard, it is horribly addictive. Every single day, I receive requests on my Facebook to play Candy Crush and, Malaysia, I want it to stop. I don’t know much about how the intertubes work but I think that Facebook will automatically tell the whole world every time you play Candy Crush. That’s right, Facebook will tell everyone you love and respect that you are playing Candy Crush and are therefore not doing anything useful for humanity and that you basically don’t have a life. If you play Candy Crush, then you probably don’t want the whole world to know. It’s just not something one boasts about. I’m guessing that if you go into your Facebook settings, you will be able to find a way to switch off Candy Crush alerts. Do it now.

So my position on Facebook is this: I do not want to receive any more Candy Crush requests but I am willing to receive a lot more pictures and videos of cats doing cute things (especially with ducks and babies. And videos of cats bullying dogs. Basically, anything with cats). If Malaysians cannot be trusted to use Facebook responsibly, then you leave me no choice but to look into this matter before deciding what action will be taken.

Reprinted with the kind permission of