know your place, minister!

It has been widely established that Malaysian politicians suffer from the foot-in-mouth disease in one form or the other, but the following might just be the worst we have seen so far:

Tengku Adnan: Bloggers are Liars
80% are Unemployed Women
updated:2007-03-08 20:11:32: MYT

(Kuala Lumpur) The Tourism Minsiter Tunku Adnan lashed out today (Mar 8, 2007) that all bloggers on the Internet are liars, out of which 80% are unemployed women.

“All bloggers are liars, they cheat people using all kinds of methods. From my understanding, out of 10,000 unemployed bloggers, 8,000 are women.”

Tengku was addressing the media at the 2007 Malaysia GP Sales when he was asked about allegations made on a blog by a female TV presenter. The guests present were shocked at first, but burst into laughter.

He said he may lose some female voters but did not retract his statement or indicate that he was just joking.

He said that bloggers spread rumours, disrupt social harmony and many bloggers are slanderous and are cheating people with their blogs.

“All bloggers are not in favour of national unity. Our country has been successful because we are very tolerant with each other, if not, there will be civil war, the Malays will kill the Chinese, the Chinese will take revenge and kill the Malays, and the Indian will kill everyone.”

He urged the rakyat not to simply trust bloggers, and gamble our future away because the achievement we gain in the 50 years of independence is not an easy task.

“We have to show the world our positive attitude, if the world learn to be as tolerant as us, the world will be peaceful, without war or civil war.”

He said that the tourism ministry has been promoting the country for the rakyat’s benefit, not just to benefit his own ministry.

He stressed that the Malaysian tourism industry is now in a critical moment as the competition from the neighbouring countries such as Vietnam, Cambodia and the Philippines will be stiffer and Malaysia must respond proactively.
[source]

I am not sure what was he hoping to achieve by making such sweeping and irresponsible generalizations.

Fine, he might upset over the allegations made by the female presenter but even then, I felt that he was way out of line in his response.

How could someone so high up in the Government be content with making such blatant statements without pausing for a second to consider its rammifications?

What good could come out by demonizing the entire blogging community, especially by zeroing in on the female bloggers?

And what on earth was the talk of "civil war" and of "the Malays will kill the Chinese etc." all about?

Does he think that the rakyat are so immature and irrational that without the benevolence and firm guiding hand of the Government, the country will quickly degenerate into civil war?

I am not sure whether I should be more insulted over the fact that he views bloggers as disruptive agents bent on tearing the country apart or that he feels that the rakyat are so myopic that they will immediately jump at the chance to attack each other if given the chance.

His statements are denigrating, intellectually lazy and offensive. Period.

There is no way he could discreetly back out, feigned ignorance or - most creatively - accuse the blogger community of twisting what he said.

This time, he had gone too far, too deep.

How about the bit about "civil war" and "the Malays killing the Chinese etc."?

Well, you are putting words in my mouth, Minister!

But I guess this statement of his qualifies as one of the "proactive" measures Malaysia has to take to woo more tourists and face off competition from other countries?

I simply cannot wait to see the outcome then - should be thrilling.