COMMENT | Why does the PM make me think of Buster Keaton?
COMMENT | Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s address to the nation on the first anniversary of his administration’s power putsch triggered a thought about Buster Keaton, so I re-watched his classic film The General.
The film is widely regarded as his masterpiece. Orson Welles, whose Citizen Kane is widely regarded as the best film ever made, said it was the “greatest comedy ever made […] perhaps the greatest film ever made.” And Welles was not known for his modesty.
Why did the prime minister make me think of Keaton? Because Keaton was different from the other silent movie comedians. I sensed that even when I was a kid watching their movies and shorts in Lido Cinema decades ago.
Like Chaplin, Harold Lloyd and the Keystone Cops, Keaton would be involved in a breathless sequence of hair-raising, life or serious injury-threatening moments, but his genius was to survive it all with a deadpan expression, not a flicker of emotion, as if nothing that life threw at him surprised him, hence the public’s name for him “The Great Stone Face.”
That stoic face in contrast with the slapstick, pratfall humour of surviving falls and dodging a beating from big bullies – hilarious.
The lines that put me in a humourous mood: “When the election is held, we will leave it to the people to decide whether the Perikatan government should be re-elected or otherwise.
“You are free to choose. That is what democracy is all about.”
Firstly, to be “re-elected” one would have to be elected in the first place and I don’t remember Perikatan Nasional (PN) being on the ballots in the last election.
Great rubbing-in punch-line, no humour intended, but I found it bare-faced funny: “You are free to choose.” Yes, the voters choose, and then days, weeks or months later the politicians choose - to change...
COMMENT | Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s address to the nation on the first anniversary of his administration’s power putsch triggered a thought about Buster Keaton, so I re-watched his classic film The General.
The film is widely regarded as his masterpiece. Orson Welles, whose Citizen Kane is widely regarded as the best film ever made, said it was the “greatest comedy ever made […] perhaps the greatest film ever made.” And Welles was not known for his modesty.
Why did the prime minister make me think of Keaton? Because Keaton was different from the other silent movie comedians. I sensed that even when I was a kid watching their movies and shorts in Lido Cinema decades ago.
Like Chaplin, Harold Lloyd and the Keystone Cops, Keaton would be involved in a breathless sequence of hair-raising, life or serious injury-threatening moments, but his genius was to survive it all with a deadpan expression, not a flicker of emotion, as if nothing that life threw at him surprised him, hence the public’s name for him “The Great Stone Face.”
That stoic face in contrast with the slapstick, pratfall humour of surviving falls and dodging a beating from big bullies – hilarious.
The lines that put me in a humourous mood: “When the election is held, we will leave it to the people to decide whether the Perikatan government should be re-elected or otherwise.
“You are free to choose. That is what democracy is all about.”
Firstly, to be “re-elected” one would have to be elected in the first place and I don’t remember Perikatan Nasional (PN) being on the ballots in the last election.
Great rubbing-in punch-line, no humour intended, but I found it bare-faced funny: “You are free to choose.” Yes, the voters choose, and then days, weeks or months later the politicians choose - to change sides.
Muhyiddin touched on the Emergency Ordinance in his address, when he reiterated that it was not a bid to hold on to power.
“I am aware and I understand the meaning of democracy. None of the ordinances that have been proclaimed is meant to keep a prime minister in power forever,” he said. I love Buster Keaton.
A slow clap for the grasping at a positive straw in noting that the emergency had until Aug 1 as a deadline, the first time in the country’s history that an emergency had an end date. Oh wow, good show, another entry for the Malaysian Book of Records.
The only time there seemed to be a crack in the solemn trotting out of platitudes and promises and when there seemed to be an emotion more than shallowly felt, was when he said “[...] the Perikatan Nasional government completing one year in office with me as the prime minister is something that I had least expected.”
Endless threats, huh? Never a restful sleep? Always looking over your shoulder? With a growing thunder of Umno war-drums and sulky chest-beating challenges disturbing the peace? With the opposition insisting you are short of numbers?
You can bravely insist you look forward to elections after the virus’ deadly reach has been much reduced, so the people can have their say, for a day, about the retention of your government. I say I like blood-sports and will enjoy the locking of horns between Bersatu and Umno, bring on the bruisers and the bruises.
Shifty politicians
The prime minister will draw some comfort from the recent poaching of a few amphibious politicians from Sarawak and Sabah. And more comfort from the unhappiness in the ranks of Pakatan Harapan with their internal hip-hopping politicians.
Never-ending – hop to a new pond with a more insect-rich environment, out shoots the long sticky tongue, swiftly it retracts with its protein-rich catch, a gulp, next … sluuurp!
Only way to end this nomadic infestation is an anti-hopping law. Can I trust politicians to vote for an anti-hopping bill that will stop their “democratic” freedom to change their mind about who is aligned to their political/personal needs? Not really. Maybe a flicker of a faint hope.
In the meantime, I hope the voters will say no to shifty politicians who dare show up in their neighbourhoods again in the next elections. Remember, their word is only good up to polling day, after that, it will be recycled.
If the prime minister reminded me of Keaton, Sebatik assemblyperson Hassan A Gani Pg Amir, who defected to Gabungan Rakyat Sabah after winning on a Warisan ticket, is a Keystone Cop – humour in broad strokes, what you see is what you get.
And what we get is a man who said: “I will not betray Warisan and voters’ trust upon me. If I choose to join another political party or declare allegiance towards another party or declare myself as an independent assemblyperson […] I will resign my post as Sabah assemblyperson.
“And, to show my sincerity, I hereby sign my resignation letter that will be handed to the Sabah state assembly speaker and the Sabah governor if I breach my oath of allegiance.”
He says now the pledge was made under duress and is thus invalid.
Duress in lying to the state assembly speaker and the governor? Was he beaten? Tortured? Water-boarded? Blackmailed? Why did he say things he didn’t believe and signed on it?
“If I had not sworn the oath, I would not be placed as (an election) candidate.”
The best thing I can say he is honest about his motivation. I have made the literature of the world a lifelong study and pleasure. There are multiple timeless lines that speak the truth, even centuries after they were written. Here is a couple:
“There is nothing in this world constant but inconstancy.” - Jonathan Swift.
“I can resist everything except temptation.” - Oscar Wilde, Lady Windemere’s Fan.
THOR KAH HOONG is a veteran journalist.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.
