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Black jokes about black shoes give M’sia a black eye

COMMENT | Black shoes have become the dark jokes about Education Minister Maszlee Malik – that his preference for black (shoes) suggests an inane mind at work.

Wouldn't white shoes be better, argue some Malaysians. At the very least, white would instil discipline, especially if one can keep one’s shoes clean. Individual and collective cleanliness, in other words, is commonly taken to signify a discernible rise in intelligence of the whole country.

But the issue is not necessarily the colour of the shoes, nor the discipline that comes with it. Society has to understand that there is no causality at all.

Take the argument that white shoes can lead to better discipline. Well, all school-going children, who were lucky enough to receive an education, grew up with white shoes since 1957. But Malaysia is in a deep crater now precisely because of a prime minister who polished his (black) leather shoes every day when he was in a boarding school.

In one of his last interviews to Bloomberg prior to the end of his tenure as the sixth prime minister, Najib Abdul Razak claimed that he would not be easily bullied by the opposition front – including Dr Mahathir Mohamad – since he has had the benefit "of going to a boarding school."

In other words, he withstood the discipline, and did not grow up as a cavalier and nonchalant person. He seemed to be hinting that he was a "man of steel," rather than "man of steal," which The Economist parodied.

But look at his tenure. A legacy of unaccountable fiscal indiscipline. Did his well-polished leather shoes in English boarding school help his ability to be a prime minister one bit? No...

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