I know I’m coming on to this topic late, but a week plus after the story first appeared, I’m amazed that there are still various groups asking for “Namewee” to be punished. Don’t people like Puteri UMNO have better things to do?

Oh, and the usual tired line gets trotted out again: people who seek to “menggugat keharmonian kaum*” in our country deserved to be punished. Hmm. Let’s have a think about this, shall we? Would that be a (silly / naive / stupid / malicious: take your pick) 22 year old apparently penniless student making observations about his country? Or would that be a fairly senior politician brandishing a keris and lauding the concept of Ketuanan Melayu? Let’s see now. Stupid naive kid rapping about his view of his country, or senior politician with much influence waving a keris around telling all and sundry to submit to an outdated concept? Well, I know who I think would be doing more to “menggugat keharmonian kaum” in our country!

Back to the rap version of our national anthem though.

Really, talk about a storm in a teacup. I’ve seen the video and read the lyrics (thanks to a translation), and I have to say, some of the things mentioned are things that people talk about anyway! We all know about duit kopi**, we all know about how us Malays are favoured over the other races, we all know about the lackadaisal approach our civil servants have when faced with the public … and we all know about how we perceive each other: (dare I say it?) Malays are lazy according to the Chinese, and the Chinese are kiasu***-mad according to the Malays (the Indians never seem to figure in these things!). Plus, I know a lot of feathers are ruffled by cockerel comparison, but you know what, I wouldn’t mind being woken up by the call of a cockerel in the morning, so comparing the azan**** to that is hardly insulting to me; that to me is like saying the azan is akin to a natural phenomenon. (Anyway better the azan than tolling bells to wake you up!).

Plus I don’t know how anyone can accuse this guy of insulting the nation when there are numerous others who do the same every day. You know, those MPs who promise the earth and the moon during election time, and then desert their constituents as soon as they’re elected. People who are meant to uphold the law but instead subvert the law for their own personal gain. People in power who abuse their positions (AP permits come to mind). Even, goddammit, people who misuse the security forces - our security force, mind you! - in order to shatter the body of a poor Mongolian girl. Tell me, are not those actions more insulting to the nation than some student rapping about how he views his country based on the tune of our national anthem?

We will be 50 in exactly ten days’ time. Is this what we want our country to become - a place where our young is persecuted for daring to say what they think, whilst those in power flagrantly abuse their positions?

* Trans: harming the harmony of the races
** Trans: (lit.) coffee money, i.e. a bribe
*** Trans: always out for No 1
**** The morning call for prayers in Islam