Bodohness. This word is a quintessentially Malaysian mix of English that means Stupid. The word doesn’t exist on its own though, except in my own Lexicon of Spoken Manglish.

Now who said one has to revile stupidity? I say we celebrate it, in a grand style, just like we Malaysians celebrate everything else. We reward mediocrity, we hail our defeats, we pass the buck, we sit down and do nothing when TPTB takes away our rights and privileges, we sit down and do nothing when our brethren is persecuted.

We conveniently become bodoh when an enlightened prince states that people with shady past should not be allowed to take office.

We prefer to have a band of shady men and women in important places in the government and when they retire, reward these various shades of greed and notoriety with company directorships for their “loyal” service.

The Raja Muda of Perak, whom I would be more than glad to have as a Prime Minister of Malaysia (apparently I’m not alone in thinking this) also made some pertinent observations in The Star. (taken from the same article above)

Raja Nazrin said corruption was mankind’s most deadly social disease as it could undermine good governance, weaken institutional foundations, distort public policies, compromise the rule of law and constrain the economy. 

He said corruption curbed competitiveness to the detriment of economic and social developments, would lead to tremendous misallocation of resources and make cost of doing business to become unacceptably high. 

“Corruption exists because of man’s enduring desire for personal gains. Once corruption becomes widespread, it will no longer seem immoral and unlawful, just business as usual,” he added.  

I digress a little. You know, I had a jolt when I read recently of China punishing its errant officials with death. But I suppose fear is the most effective of motivators, with the exception of love, that is, and little else matters. Conscience doesn’t exist.

The concept of Malu (shame) doesn’t seem to exist among our politicians these days, I must say. A man with a past so gleefully pursues his “righteous” indignation with a blogger, conveniently forgetting that as a black pot, he has no business calling the kettle black.

The Attorney General’s Chambers doesn’t feel it is accountable to the public, and neither does the entire cabinet….or for that matter, the civil service.

Yeah, we bloggers are really pain-in-the-ass, opinionated MFs who cannot keep quiet, keep sniping and bitching. But Cui Bono? As Mr Veera Pandiyan eloquently asked today from his perch Along The Watchtower.

For the benefit of Malaysia laaa kawan. Why? We can’t love our Tanah Tumpah Darah ah?