Lies Will Not Affect Umno's Chances In General Election, Says Home Minister Radzi. But The Truth Will

Lies and distorted facts levelled by certain bloggers in their blog sites will not in any way affect Umno's chances of winning seats in the next general election, party secretary-general Datuk Seri Radzi Sheikh Ahmad said Friday.

"No, I don't think so. Umno is strong and getting stronger," Radzi said when asked if these allegations would hurt the chances of the party, which is the largest political party in the country and the backbone of the ruling Barisan Nasional, in the general election.

Radzi, who is Home Minister, said bloggers had been given "a lot of freedom" under the leadership of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi but this did not give them the right to abuse the freedom granted.

"They should not ridicule religion, or the King...their allegations have no basis at all. It would be good if they could come up with ideas and suggestions for the betterment of the government," he said.

***** Firstly Umno is a political party and not synonymous with Islam (although they very much act the role) and they definitely are not representative of the monarchy. What Radzi and the other whingers are doing is to manipulate the issue at hand by pulling out one stray comment on His Majesty the King and magnifying it to a ridiculously unbelievable level. For safe measure they've thrown in the 'insulting Islam' accusation as well, hoping that it would galvanize a large section of the Malay-Muslim electorate to rally behind these 'warriors' who have been 'struggling' for bangsa, agama dan negara; a tempatan version of the classic 'divide and rule' policy of yore.

The so-called 'lies' they are referring to are the numerous revelations by the internet media and blogs on the abuse, corruption and financial wheeling-dealing by some of those in authority. This is what these buggers can't stand; that the normally docile Malaysian after decades of being muzzled by the government, now dares to criticize and condemn. They cannot tolerate the idea of being held accountable or have their misdeeds publicized, openly discussed and commented on by the average Joe on the street. They would love to remain above the law if they could.

Gagging the citizens and using out-of-date draconian legislation to somehow totally hush the 'adventurers' among the bloggers reflects not only their truculent mentality, it also clearly shows how desperate they are. With elections not too far off there is an added urgency to severely restrain the internet media and curb any 'inconvenient' news or discussion.

Admittedly not everything that is posted on the internet is true but that doesn't mean that they are outright lies either. Instead of sweeping things under the carpet as our authorities have been used to doing for so long and completely smothering allegations, especially on official corruption and other wrongdoings, the government should thank bloggers for raising these issues. In fact the authorities should go one step further and investigate the claims rather than reflexly go into denial mode and lash out at the messenger. But that could be asking for the sky.
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