Friday Jottings: When toads bare fangs at toothless partners

ABOUT three weeks ago, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad wrote that Umno is a “slave” of the DAP and it drew supporters from both parties to spew vitriol at the two times former Prime Minister.

Unfortunately for them, their anger seems misplaced as DAP leader Nga Kor Ming (picture; left) chose to disprove them or maybe vindicate Dr Mahathir and on both counts, this can be either intentional or inadvertent.

Regardless, Nga’s response to Umno’s Dr Muhammad Akmal Salleh’s (right) criticisms over the ham sandwich issue was very telling in which the former reportedly, during an interview with China Press said:

“As far as I am concerned, lions don’t argue with flies,” adding that “we are not on the same level, so there’s no need for a debate.”

And Akmal’s response, too, seemed to “agree” with Dr Mahathir’s earlier contention when the best he could muster to Nga’s insult was calling the DAP leader a “ham-brain”, which obviously is not much of an insult based on Nga’s personalised interpretation, of the word ham. 

For context, Nga had, before that, mocked Akmal and other Malays when he wrote that ham means a process of making food, which included chicken and turkey, which are perfect for consumption.

He mocked further by explaining that Root Beer is non-alcoholic. Nga concluded that those making an issue out of it simply showed who was the real idiot.

So, for Akmal to call Nga ham brain is not an insult until and unless he accepts and acknowledges Akmal’s interpretation of the word, which, by the way, is shared with the rest of the dictionary-using world and not by those with twisted intellect.

While the original insult and arrogance had yet to be addressed, Nga decided to tell off Akmal and reminded him of his place in the hierarchy of the national political structure.

Again, for context, Nga is the DAP vice-chairman, MP and Cabinet Minister, while Akmal is the national Umno Youth chief, a state assemblyman and executive council member.

Toe to toe, obviously, Nga stands above Akmal, and the former is not wrong to spell it out.

But styling himself as a lion while dismissing Akmal as a fly is not merely talking about the different levels of the political hierarchy.

Even if not taken literally, it was meant to condescendingly insult Akmal as being beneath him, not worthy of even being acknowledged.

On the flip side, it can also be viewed that Nga felt that his position and by the same token, his party, the DAP, have reached the upper echelons of power and that a national youth chief of Umno is merely an irritant that at best be swatted.

Umno and Akmal may not realise it, but that is where they stand in the eyes of Nga and, by extension, the DAP.

Despite the poor showing in the last general election, unfortunately, Akmal and Umno still command the support of almost 30 per cent of the Malay voters, apart from the fact that they lead the Governments in four states while party to the others.

For Nga to dismiss and insult Akmal, whose opinion on the ham issue is shared by even Malays from outside Umno, is, by extension, an insult to them.

It is also a show of superiority when the remarks directed towards Akmal are intended to remind him of his inferior station in life.

Simply put, Nga had chosen to summarily brush aside the sentiments of the Malays, who are aggrieved by the ham sandwich issue, by boxing it into his spat with Akmal is not going to contribute to appeasing opinions of the DAP’s chauvinistic nature.

While the DAP will have to deal with such opinions that may gain new traction following the antics of Nga and his supporters, the reputation of Akmal and the position of Umno vis-à-vis the Malay community are equally at stake.

Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s call for the spat on the ham issue to be stopped is not seen as an effort to ease the tension but rather to appease the DAP.

Zahid, during his Umno Youth days, was, though not much, a bit of a firebrand. As enjoyed by his predecessors, he generally had the support of party seniors when he chose to take up certain causes.

But Akmal seems to be on his own.

Either because the cause he fights for is of no interest to his party superiors or that they did not have the gumption to pursue it is anybody’s guess.

The conclusion is simply that Umno and its leaders are toothless, hence their inability to defend Akmal’s position, which as pointed out earlier, is a position taken by a number of Malay, albeit not the “liberalised” ones.

By that token, when one party becomes toothless, the other grows fangs. As such, Nga is correct when he decides to claim a place among lions. The only snag is that lions and flies are not compatible parallels.

Toads and flies correspond better.


  • Shamsul Akmar is an editor at The Malaysian Reserve.

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