No April Fool jokes as I had planned for this week of April 1, I’m afraid, as there’s no way I can any longer resist celebrating the good news that Google has finally said ‘no’ to censorship and cyber-targeting of its search site by the notorious politician gnomes who run China.
These no-account nobodies have no principles, no humanity, no integrity, no soul, no mercy, and no notion whatever of shame. In their so-called ‘People’s Republic’ there’s no honesty, no transparency, no truth, no justice, and human rights are an absolute no-no.
No doubt Google, with its corporate mission statement ‘Do No Evil’, went into China with high hopes of changing the despicable ‘see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil’ system of Communist repression. But it very soon became clear there was no way this was going to happen, and Google has finally said ‘no more’.
China’s totalitarian or rather norulers couldn’t simply take ‘no’ for an answer, however, and, in a demonstration that no degree of hypocrisy is beyond them, blamed Google for “politicising” what they claimed was a purely commercial issue.
There’s really no distinction between political and commercial issues in China, as commerce funds its massive system of political corruption and plunder, and thus dissidence and protest as enabled by Western trouble-makers like Google is by no means tolerable.
There’s no way, of course, that Google’s recent decision to play no more part in this no-win situation will improve the lot of the Chinese people.
But at least it encourages the rest of us to say ‘no’ to no-good governments everywhere - like Barisan Nasional, the coalition of no-hopers who still cling to power in Malaysia as they have for more than 50 years.
Admittedly there’s no sign yet of their saying ‘no’ to online freedom like their Google-alienating Chinese counterparts have and continue to do, but then there’s also no sign of any rush to provide Malaysians with a notably fast, efficient and affordable broadband internet service either.
And just as there’s apparently no way that Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s magniloquent Multimedia Super Corridor can be made to deliver, the answer is ‘no’ when it comes to almost anything else a significant proportion of the Malaysian populace needs, requests, expects, demands or is promised.
Examples galore
For example, what about calls for repealing the Internal Security Act or at least modifying it to apply only to terrorists and genuine enemies of the state, not legitimate opponents of the BN
government?
No.
Any chance of an end to the Printing, Presses and Publications Act that permits political parties to own and dictate to the print media so that they’re instruments of party propaganda instead of communicators of genuine news and independent views?
No.
What about some long-promised transparency and accountability in the affairs and financial dealings of government agencies and government-linked corporations?
No.
How about instituting the recommendations of the royal commission on the police force years ago, like the formation of the Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission?
No.
And while we’re on royal commissions, any chance of any action on the findings of the one into the judiciary that turned out a bit of a fizzer through Mahathir’s convenient memory failure?
No.
What about corruption? Now that the ACA has been transformed into the MACC, surely we can expect to see some investigations into ‘big fish’ like Dr Mohd Khir Toyo, S Samy Vellu, Rafidah Aziz and all the others who have made fortunes for themselves and their families out of their political positions and connections?
No.
If corruption is a non-starter, how about homicide? Any chance of a proper probe into all the still-unanswered questions surrounding the murder of Altantuya Shaariibuu, like who ordered the killing and how her immigration records came to be erased?
No.
Any meaningful progress on the mysterious ‘suicide’ of Teoh Beng Hock following questioning at MACC headquarters? Or the mysterious death of A Kugan and hundreds of others in police custody? Or the killing of countless ‘suspects’ in alleged ‘shootouts’ with the police?
No.
No chance, either, of getting to the police to do their proper jobs in any time they have to spare from staging shootouts, causing custodial deaths and manning roadblocks to thwart opposition protests, like fighting non-police crime and enforcing the traffic laws to stem the appalling road toll?
No.
How about permitting local elections, if only in Pakatan Rakyat-run states, so residents can wrest control of municipal planning, services and provision and maintenance of neighbourhood amenities from the clutches of uncaring, corrupt inept BN-appointed stooges?
No.
What about putting an end to the deliberate division of Malaysia along ethnic and religious lines with race-based political parties, pressure groups like Perkasa and special perks like the NEP that enrich Umnoputeras and their families and cronies at the expense of people of all races including the one it pretends to help?
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!
No wonder that, as both Josh Hong and I, and possibly many others, have pointed-out in the past, the BN-dominant party calls itself Um..no.
No chance of getting rid of them any too easily, either, as there’s no sign whatever that the Election Commission has any independence from politics, or any intention whatever of fixing the BN-biased system of gerrymandering, postal votes, pork-barrelling and bribery.
No joy either, for that matter, from the millions of Malaysians evidently too alienated, apathetic or just plain pathetic to manage a no-brainer like registering and making the effort to vote.
No matter how hopeless it sometimes seems, however, at least we students of history know that no crooked, corrupt and incompetent government can sustain itself forever.
So next time BN asks for co-operation or calls for support, be it electoral or just for its latest nonsensical slogan, let’s just take a leaf out of Google’s book and reply with the only word that good-for-nothing governments everywhere appear to understand.
No.
DEAN JOHNS, after many years in Asia, currently lives with his Malaysian-born wife and daughter in Sydney, where he mentors creative writing groups. Soon to be published in Kuala Lumpur is a third book of his columns for Malaysiakini, following earlier collections ‘Mad about Malaysia’ and ‘Even Madder about Malaysia’.
