So which is it?

I posted my first article on my first ever blog yesterday. I was exhilarated that I finally took the brave step to write and publish my thoughts online. As I was slowly recovering from hitting the submit button, a thought came over something I read.

Now, Kak Fidah said that investors are keen on doing business here despite the rallies and demonstrations. She said that they are interested in how we are going to help them to make money and they of course know about the history of our opposition parties. She then switched into the wise-sage mode by cautioning the public to be aware of what the opposition is trying to do before concluding with “it is a negative move”. From where I am standing I wonder to whom is it negative to? Hmmm… (Hint, hint. Two names pronounced together. An insect that gathers honey and another that is being bullied by the grasshopper.)

Secondly, why would she need to warn the public that this is a negative move when no investors give a damn about rallies and demonstrations? I mean, since they should be coming here knowing what kind of opposition parties we have, one must conclude that these rallies and demonstrations are mere irritations that they can bear with it. Yet they are not coming in droves. We all know that the Government has launched a lot of economic development regions and proposed lots of incentives but other than some news on possibility of an international theme park operator interested in operating from South Johor and Middle Eastern investors trying to sell the stories to their countrymen, we aren’t exactly seeing money flooding into this country. As we all should be well aware, foreign direct investments have not return to the levels seen in the 90s after the 1997 - 1998 economic crisis. Now why is that? Kak Fidah already said they couldn’t care less about a rally that only occurred less than a week ago. Is the minister hinting something sinister the opposition parties are capable of doing that even the ruling party can’t stop them? Hmmm….

And why is it so negative when the recent “illegal” rally which “happen” to start and ended peacefully but for some strong arm tactics employed by the police to forcefully disperse the crowd? I really don’t get it.

While Kak Fidah was rather taciturn about why we seem to have short supply of foreign investors pouring money into this country, another minister hinted the possible reason as to why they are not coming. Ali Rustam said that peace-loving Malaysians have suffered and businesses have incurred losses! So is that it? Does he mean rallies and demonstrations do result in losses? Then why is Kak Fidah saying the investors didn’t care about demonstrations or rallies? But one must recall what I said above that investors are not coming in droves way before this BERSIH rally. Now if we drop all references to the rally or sinister opposition parties which no one could care about or waste time on, could it be something to do with the policies of this country resulting in possible losses? Are the two ministers trying to tell us something by using the rally as a secret code?

So which is it? As ministers who are supposed to be in the know, you should be able to give better reasons and answers than that. Calling it a waste of time in the same breath as an irresponsible act while acting mute and dumb when it comes to explaining the real reason(s) why the foreign investors aren’t coming in droves since 1998 tells me something is really stinky with these statements made.

Is that the smell of pants on fire?