The Christians are saying God works in mysterious ways.
Under ordinary circumstances, our national broadcasting menu is staidly, if not solely, Muslim in tone and tune. But we’re living in extraordinary times. Thanks to the Information Ministry, Malaysians are inadvertently introduced to Indonesian gospel.
Local Christians who otherwise would not have known about the song Serukan Nama-Nya are – judging from responses by the Malaysian public – in a ‘Hallelujah’ rapture because Malaysians have taken to singing this catchy viral hit “Yesus Tuhan Raja s’gala kuasa tunduk dalam nama-Nya”.
The high-spirited, wholesome performance, which can be watched on YouTube, beats Janji Ditepati hands down. See ‘Aiyoyo, irama ‘Janji Ditepati’ macam lagu gereja Indonesia?‘
Among the most recent YouTube comments on Serukan Nama-Nya:
“Praise the lord. He has made a way to Malaysia.”
The beleaguered Information Minister is now being given a hard time by almost everyone (… and maybe soon too by Indonesians screaming “Malingsia”).
Above is a screenshot of Rais Yatim’s tweet yesterday:
“Malay Mail shows its true opposition colour…”
Not only Malay Mail but The Scissors too but we’ll come to that shortly.
Meanwhile, NST reported:
“He [Rais] also condemned several members of the opposition for using the allegation to take a further swipe at the song, Janji Ditepati.
“‘They (the opposition) appear to be engaging in a rushed cheap ploy via the allegation,’ he said.”
Below are screenshots of tweets by members of the opposition who have been poking fun at Rais in Twitterjaya.
Bong Chang Siong, who uses the handle ‘bongkersz’ and going “hahahahahahaha!” at Rais with Hannah Yeoh, was a few months ago invited by The Star to take part in the paper’s Twitter promo programme.
The Star makes admirable efforts to promote anti-establishment tweeters by publicizing pro-opposition personalities such as Nat Tan, Edmund Bon and not forgetting Hannah’s tweeter buddy who “hahahahahahaha”-ed Rais.
Rais has previously said that social websites, especially Facebook and Twitter, had become popular channels for individuals to hurl insults and accusations at others, and urged Malaysians not to waste their time surfing the social websites.
It is probably because Rais does not to waste his time surfing the social media that he is unaware how gleefully he is mocked by Star reporters.
In fact, the paper’s own National Union of Journalist ex-chairman made the following Scissors stabs at the Minister of Information (screenshots below).
See also ‘Tweet “Big Mama” oleh jentera media MCA‘
Rais has 13,458 Twitter followers. He would have more if only The Star promoted him as enthusiastically as it does the Christian opposition figures, some of whom due to the paper’s dutiful and glowing promotion are hitting the 50,000 mark.
[So strange that there are still Malaysians under the mistaken belief that The Star is a government mouthpiece).
Rais also tweeted about his buka puasa function. Rais is a Minang (the Minang people have a distinctive cuisine).
The Star might have given Rais some positive social coverage as the man is after all the country’s Information Minister, but nope. Despite Rais being well-known as someone knowledgeable about Malay customs and culture and plus he’s a Muslim, the paper does not think his views are worth soliciting for its articles on Ramadan.
On the other hand, look who The Star just interviewed for its Ramadan story special (screenshot below). Is the MCA paper determined to help the DAP Christian evangelists leave their mark on a Muslim festival?
Preceeding posts:
Helen Ang 
Hannah Yeoh must be eyeing top post at JAIS. Major coup if the evangelists get to run it as a Church body…
Personally I don’t care if it was or was not inspired by another song, but it is just funny that it had to end up sounding like a gospel song considering the steps the government sometimes attempts to bury the influence of other religions and cultures.
That being said, the song itself is a very poorly veiled political gimmick that reeks of desperation. And what’s worse is apparently that isn’t even the original version, check out what it should have been here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQEl8FrkywM
Know what is even funnier? The UMNO-aligned bloggers have been mobilized to defend the theme and song, and their best defense is apparently pointing out that Obama’s re-election campaign uses a ‘Promises Kept’ slogan as well.
I wonder if they realize the difference between a re-election campaign and a national day celebration?
Then again I wonder if Najib and Rais do as well.
-Vish.
I’m sorry Helen but its Rais Fossil Yatim, You cant really expect much from the man. He is waaaay behind time~
Puak evangelistas yang licik memanglah pandai guna media termasuk media sosial. Dan betul juga, dalam hal ini Rais yang tidak mesra Twitter dan Facebook tampak seolah-olah keterbelakangan.
Namun takut-takut mereka yang mendokong pendekatan media sosial 24/7 lebih cenderong kepada soundbites dalam usaha mereka mengejar populariti di kalangan khalayak ramai.
Pengaruh saluran pengantara digital yang menekankan faktor ‘segera’ (instant gratification) tidak dapat tidak akan mempunyai kesan ‘dumbing down’. Menggunakan Media Baru, nak cepat pasti seraya terdesak dari segi masa. Maka kesuntukan masa untuk berfikir masak-masak serta panjang tentang sesuatu isu.
Yang cepat dan popular itu tidak semestinya yang hak atau yang afdal.
Bukan saya bermaksud hendak menyampaikan kuliah pada awal-awal pagi Sabtu :D Sekadar meluahkan perasaan terpendam sendiri sebagai seekor dinosaur yang begitu keberatan untuk mem-Facebook dan jauh sekali untuk mentweet.
kritikan yang dituju rais atas kegagalan lagu n logo merdeka ke-55, serta pandangannya terhadap media sosial ialah salahnya sendiri. usah nak salahkan star atau hannah. ramai orang pelbagai bangsa malah fahaman politik pun dah membantai yorais.
seorang menteri budaya, info n kommunikasi kena berfikiran matang n peka kepada teknologi terkini yg dapat menyebarkan info bebas dari kawalan kerajaan.
adiue,
I beg to differ. Dr Rais is of different standard. He just does not waste time insulting or mocking people the way Hannah Yeoh always have time for that.
I know Dr Rais in person. He may not like you but he will not insult you in his tweet. He is not detached from reality.
i have to agree with Shamsul on this. Rais Yatim is born in the same village as mine. He is the typical old school of thought Melayu who are full of budi not the modern day Melayu yang kena suap for material enrichment. Maybe politically he is interwined, but not a unreasonable character.
I would say that probably, one of the reasons why Hannah Yeoh loves to mock people is because she has an inferiority complex, and inferiority complex is due to the fact someone is not properly educated. After all, if you are someone with a “proper education”, you don’t go around town saying things about other people.
“Proper education” is very ambiguous these days. Whether it is man made or how one derives it to fit their own agenda? The only proper education is when you find the humanity within yourself to help another without any expectation if that is the reality.
Hannah Yeoh is irrelevant, but we make it relevant for our own needs. Her inferiority should not be a problem, if we can overcome our own act and participate without an expection when you decide to speak the truth irrespective of the origin.
I still think Rais Yatim should seriously consider retirement. He has served long enough to earn it.
Hysteria of power and hysteria of delusion. That’s how I m going to describe the behavior of the Opposition’s supporters in cyberspace. Just by counting the number of tweets and postings on cyberspace on a daily basis, you know that these people are hysterically driven. Oh my, what can I say ? Phew !
Malaysian in New York,
Many people like Hannah Yeoh assume people who are not fond of ‘tweeting” or spending time on FB as “backward”.
Actually it is not. Dr Rais does tweet but he is selecting. That reflects standard. Not like Hannah who loves to tweet as if world will collapse without tweeting.
Hannah is lucky that the “old world’ still has its place in this country. The old world ‘politicians” are careful with words. They can be counted with word of wisdom, not crude .
They still can ignore when people called the Prime minister as “Hitler’. Imagine if the insulted person who was chastised as “Hitler” treated his opponent like Hitler did.
Malas la nak layan orang yang begitu angkuh sekali.
Not everyone guna facebook and tweeter. And those who don’t, tak semestinya ketinggalan zaman. Can be, they have better things to do with their time than to tweet EVERY thought that comes to their minds, especially when posting insulting comments.
There’s nothing good nor intelligent in passing rude or insulting comments. People who are educated and righteous would practice refrain and practice good adab and percakapan in everything that they do, be it in alam maya or alam nyata. Ms Yeoh and her followers should know this and should know better as they claim to be of higher class, higher morals and righteous.
Is this the type of leader that we want, suka insult orang? Is this the type of EXAMPLE you want to show to your kids and the future generation? Malu la melihat gelagat macam ni….
Just to quote from Mufti Ismail Menk, as a reminder to me and everyone (hint hint, Ms Yeoh),
“A true believer does not insult or abuse those whom he disagrees or has differences with.
The Messenger pbuh never insulted or abused those he disagreed or had differences with.
Those who swear others, insult them or belittle them due to a disagreement lack spirituality & decency.
If we cannot resolve our disagreement or understand one another, it does not warrant insult but rather we should agree to disagree.”
helen, since you love to ketuk the star n claim they have some sort of christian agenda or traitorous schemes, can you comment on this?
http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2012/08/03/we-dont-need-utusan-as-big-brother/