you are unpatriotic if you agree with backman’s ‘malaysia bodoh’ article?

i just switched on tv3 in the middle of its 8.00pm news and happened to catch an excerpt of parliament proceeding of which there was a shouting match (as always) between opposition leader, lim kit siang and a umno minister (didn’t catch who he was).

they were debating about the article by aussie writer, michael backman, in which he label malaysia as ‘malaysia bodoh’. remember? this umno minister was of course condemning backman’s article something like how could he label us malaysians as bodoh, i think. didn’t catch the earlier part but what i caught very clearly was how he label lim kit siang as unpatriotic because he agree with the article written by backman.

whoaa! then all of us (most of us anyway, esp. those who made comments earlier) are unpatriotic too, as we agree fully with backman? obviously this umno minister, just like many his members (and even the PM) are again in denial mode. they dare not admit the shit that malaysia was in which made malaysia bodoh in the eyes of foreigners. and because lim dares to agree with it, he was being label unpatriotic.

the umno minister was seen pointing to the article of backman and saying (in bahasa but i’m writing here in english) ” look this foreigner says malaysia bodoh and our opposition leader agree with him. isn’t that so unpatriotic of him?” (not his exact words).

i also heard lim shouting “membetulkan malaysia!” (correct malaysia). i guess he meant  if they think what backman wrote was not true, then they should made it so, that it is NOT true, i.e. to correct the ‘bodohness’ in malaysia.

let’s wait for today’s paper to see if there’s any report on this issue.

in the meantime do you remember what our esteemed long time lady minister, the rrafidah lady said about this article? she couldn’t care less since backman is not a malaysian! what does a foreigner knows about our country, that was her view i guess… but my dear lady don’t you know usually it takes a foreigner to really know/access the real situation of our country.