The Malaysian Insider

By Syed Jaymal Zahiid

AUG 19 — Remember the second instalment of the “Lord of The Rings” trilogy? The part when the king of the horse kingdom (I can’t remember the names) was powerless to speak as he was under a spell, and the one talking to Aragorn and gang was the king’s so-called adviser by the name of Wormtongue?

And of course judging from the name, it is obvious that this Wormtongue represented not the true will of the king but of evil forces.

Why am I talking about “Lord of the Rings”? I am actually talking about the press conference given by Umno and Barisan Nasional information chief Ahmad Maslan and others on the issue of their candidate’s disbarment.

The candidate, Rohaizat Othman (picture), was there the whole time during the press conference but there seemed to be invisible tape over his mouth at the time. The Umno information chief and others did all the talking for him.

He looked agitated, uncomfortable and annoyed by the “unsavoury” questions asked by reporters. Although he smiled, it was a politician’s smile. Full of suppressed angst and given the opportunity, he looked like he would love to punch the daylights out of the reporters.

My point here is that this man is a candidate who is supposed to lead the Permatang Pasir people; lives would literally be dependent upon him and if he can’t even speak for himself, are we seriously expecting him to speak for the people?

And this isn’t the first time I’ve seen this kind of politics practised before the media. Take it from me, as a journalist, we’ve seen this scene played out over and over before. Opposition included.

Let the man speak for himself. Let’s hear what he really has to say. I mean he graduated with a law degree, passed his Bar examinations after all. I am certain with all the knowledge, he’s got something clever or at least decent to say.

Or am I a naive ideallist?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 19th, 2009 at 2:38 pm and is filed under Reporter's Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.