Cukuplah with the pack-of-hyena politics. Harapan leaders and their supporters are circling the Health Minister and snapping at his heels like fanged predators.
Even Sinchew joined the pack today with an opinion piece (below) penned by their liberal Malay columnist.
This remorseless hounding of Dr Adham Baba will only serve to our entrench ethnic and political tribalism beyond the point of no return.
Although the dog pile on Dr Adham includes Malay megaphones shouting on Chinese media platforms like the aforementioned Sinchew columnist, the hunt-down is undoubtedly led by DAP, e.g. Lim Kit Siang who labeled the Umno man the “Warm Water” minister — see below.
Previously I’d said, “DAP is hellbent on finding fault and nitpicking to death the political career of the Health Minister“. Well, it is not DAP alone but Sinchew also piling on.
While hyena politics is what I would expect from DAP, a similar narrative from Sinchew is disappointing to say the least … that is unless its editors too are political animals first and foremost.
DAP’s petty politics: Mean spirited and full of malice
Even before Adham can get his groove, detractors are defining him as Menteri Air Suam. Imagine if Kit Siang’s son were to be chalk lined as Menteri Loji Nuklear.
Truth: When Lim Guan Eng was protesting against Lynas, he called their plant a “nuclear reactor”, and suggested that Lynas could “meletup” any time. His idiocy is recorded on video.
Did Sinchew ever say that Guan Eng’s “nuclear” fear mongering made him a laughing stock?
Now let’s look at Sinchew’s disgraceful editorial yesterday headlined ‘Shame on you, ministers’.
“Adham Baba’s ‘warm water’ theory has made him a laughing stock. He even claimed that he had a video conference with 500 countries,” opined its deputy chief executive editor Lim Sue Goan.
My dear Sinchew, you’re espousing the Chinese point of view. Your own Mariam Mokhtar aside, the majority of Malays do not share your characterization of the Health Minister. And neither do I.
According to Harakah columnist Mohd Nasir Abdulah, beliau “mendapat mesej dari doktor yang mengatakan Dr Adham menjadi bahan lawak oleh doktor-doktor dari ‘satu kaum’ dalam kumpulan aplikasi WhatsApp. Hanya ‘satu kaum’, tiada bangsa lain dalam kumpulan itu yang mempermainkan Dr Adham”.
Sinchew blinded by Chinese ethnocentrism
The following excerpt from Mohd Nasir’s column in Harakah Daily is typical of the view of the other side of the political divide.
He wrote: “Baik, Dr Adham melakukan kesalahan […] Tetapi ianya tidak memudharatkan kerana saranan beliau hanya minum air suam. Jika kita minum sekalipun, tak akan ada apa-apa terjadi. Hanya virus sahaja yang tak dibuktikan turun ke perut. Tetapi meminum banyak air suam, adalah digalakkan. Itu tiada siapa yang nafikan. Titik.”
In the viral interview, Dr Adham provided two specific pieces of advice — (1) use hand sanitizer, and (2) drink warm water in order to “nyahaktif” (deactivate) the novel coronavirus. At no point did he ever say warm water will “kill” the virus or that warm water is a cure for Covid-19.
We have the choice of extending good faith (bersangka baik) to Dr Adham and allowing more nuance to his misspeak. I do. But DAP and Sinchew choose instead to continuously paint him in the worst possible light.
For those of us who are not DAP supporters, what Dr Adham said – including his “500 countries” slip of the tongue – is nowhere near any cause for a cabinet minister to resign, as Lim Kit Siang has urged.
Mohd Nasir writing in Harakah had described Kit Siang‘s rant as ”politik jelek”, “tidak boleh (buat) cara baik”, “mengangguk di air keruh bagi kepentingan politiknya“, “tidak tahu adab berpolitik, dalam keadaan negara perlukan kesatuan, kepercayaan antara satu sama lain, dia kelihatan cuba memecahkan“. I agree!
Where DAP’s hyena politics has led Malaysia
The attempt by Lim Sue Goan at shaming a clutch of Malay cabinet ministers is too close to the DAP style for my comfort.
I’ll give an example of Lim’s strawman-type argument. In the same op-ed cited above, the Sinchew deputy chief executive editor wrote, “women and family development minister Rina Mohd Harun suggested that women dress in office attire when working from home during MCO and mimic to voice of Doraemon when talking to their husbands”.
This ridicule of Rina is patently weak sauce. Granted that an entry in her ministry Facebook had indeed featured the Doraemon tip; nonetheless it is a far stretch to claim – as per Lim’s article phrasing – that the minister herself had personally suggested for married women to adopt a giggly cartoonish tone.
DAP playing hyena politics is par for the course but why does Sinchew desire to follow suit? Look at where it has gotten the Chinese community. A picture speaks a thousand words: Wee Ka Siong was the only Chinese in the room when the Muhyiddin administration convened its first meeting.
The MCA president represents the five percent Chinese voters who reject DAP and Harapan.
Chinese media had a big role in turning the Chinese electorate to the DAP’s favour. This 95:5 ratio in the pattern of Chinese voting will not budge an inch if social influencers such as Sinchew persist on their present trajectory.
The question is how does Sinchew see the political future of Chinese in our country. I’m really curious to know.
Helen Ang 
I really admire your dedication to spewing nonsense so wholeheartedly. Many would have given up putting so much into writing crap 5 people read.
I cannot agree with you. I read her articles all the time. You might think she spews nonsense but she is a voice of reason. What she writes could be above your IQ, what more your EQ.
Yes… I can’t agree more too.
I read her blogs all the times, maybe not straight away. At this moment her article may not contain a lot of analysis as previously, esp. before n after GE.. but they tickled the mind. And with the stupidity of Pakatan/DAP and its ilk who has lost power (whilst in power, imagined that 😂) even a simple short entries (the type that Helen Ang favours) is enough to expose such stupidity.
ABSOLUTELY
These DAP boys and girls don’t know how to play with big marbles and lost all. Now, these amateurs return to play the small marbles which they are accustomed to. What a joke ? Sin Chew just want to sell their newspapers for profit.