just minishorts.

Most kids of any generation would have grown up learning of the boy who cried wolf. As with all fables, it bore a timeless teaching in its story line. Boy gets given simple task of shepherding the flock, boy decides its fun to fool around, boy starts to scream 'wolf wolf', villagers believe him, boy does the same thing several times…

And then when finally real wolf comes, boy screams wolf-wolf again, and villagers no longer believe him. So all the sheep will die.

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Some people grow up to become noble politicians and get the honourable task and responsibility of GOVERNING A NATION. At least 30% of the people in this nation can't even dream of entering the realm of governence (and its true that race, gender and age figures greatly in our country, alas!). Dah lah tugas tu berat and amanahnya bermakna, but some people just don't seem to FAHAM. These stories of the boy who cried wolf have been told through the generations in SO MANY different forms, and wouldn't you think that they would have learnt something about 'values'?

Heck, these are the same people who are clever enough to decide that the younger generation, the growing generation in Malaysia, must learn the awesome subject called Pendidikan Moral in all our formal, government-educated years, along with some 16 nilai-nilai murni, which I seem to remember included those cool behaviors called, 'Berhemah Tinggi' and 'Bercakap benar'.

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50 years. 50 years with 12 general elections, including the latest where the BN gov won a 'simple majority'. The problem with Malaysians is this, (and I really, really, if you haven't noticed this already, I really don't like throwing all the blame to just the Pak Lah system alone, because I think this is a case of everybody's fucking guilty). They don't seem to get why BN is allowed to make stupid mistakes.

We let them mah. We never say anything also. We didn't tell them we didn't like it, we just allowed it, and we enjoyed the fun stuff that BN gave us (and they did give us some pretty cool stuff).

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I know a lot of people who are prone to saying things to fit the occasions. Or say things just for the sake of opposing. SO its quite funny how our conversations can turn out. Before the rising price of petrol, about 6 years ago, we were on a drive up to Penang, and we stopped by a petrol station to get some gas. A Singaporean friend who had tagged along said loudly, ' Wah you guys SUPER lucky man. Your petrol is cheaper than buying mineral water! Whoa!'

So our anti-government entity had said then, 'Government subsidize lah. Stupid government, shouldn't subsidize these things .That's why we have so many cars.'

I am not kidding you ok. There were TOO MANY people that I used to know who hated traffic jams so much they kept on saying that the government should just jack up the price of petrol and shift the subsidies elsewhere, so that only ppl who can afford cars will buy them, and we won't have so many crazy flyovers and additional roads being built.

Today those same people are bitching about how Malaysian being an oil-producing nation should continue having subsidies in fuel prices.

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As much as I want to slap some of the PR politicians for literally taking our Malaysians for a ride with the stupid 'I promise price of petrol sure go down if you vote me' roll-call, I get reminded that you can't really blame them. You see, the case of the boy who cried wolf hasn't really proven itself to be true in the Malaysian context. If the BN government can promise the rakyat a thousand and ten guarantees over the course of 50 years (through 12 GEs) and still win the elections, obviously this is a tried and tested method that will work.

Wasn't it ten years ago that I did mention that when you tell the truth, it is more important that you tell a version of the truth that the people want to hear?

So that's what the PR politicians are doing now. Just tell the people what they want to hear. It's a tried and test method that has worked. Don't change. Malaysians LOVE it.

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SO here it is, of all times, when the BN government IS telling the truth, no one wants to believe them. Really, really, did you really think that BN was lying about fuel prices going up? And honestly, is it that difficult to test the truthfulness of the matter by asking, 'Why would Pak Lah commit political suicide right now? Just to get money? Come on, he's taken enough adi….'

Even if you didn't trust the local papers, a click of the mouse should take you to foreign websites that will tell you, the fuel price escalation is a GLOBAL phenomenon.

You see, masalahnya, we are a nation of people who are really all intent on getting what we want to get, listen to what we wants to listen… and those things have got to sound really good, logical or not isn't the point. And knowing that this is the kind of audience the Malaysian general population is, its really easy to cook up populist statements to rouse the anger of the people.

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There's this really strange thing about Malaysians I really don't get. They keep saying that Petronas belongs to them, and they demand that Petronas's funds be channeled back to them. I don't know why is it that we keep saying Petronas is ours but we don't seem to behave as if Petronas belonged to us. Or why is it that we waited for 12 years allowing this sore wound to fester, and then NOW we keep banging our fists over broken glass. Your wallet is yours. The money you earned is yours. Would you honestly take out all of your money and give it to your friends for the sake of charity? If you knew of ways to keep your cash funds and increased your personal fund, you wanna spend it or you wanna put in some trust fund (or whatever system that can guarantee additional returns?)

If we really thought of Petronas as our own, why do we keep wanting to spend everything that Petronas earns?

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Of course everybody wants clean governence, transparency… but I thought its funny that we only find it extremely important NOW, when we have to pay RM2.70 a litre for our petrol and it starts to really hurt our pockets. So lies can be accepted, as long as they don't affect me right? When those lies were obviously lies, what were we all doing about it? (Tak pe, corrupt pun tak pe, it doesn't affect me yet).

And now we demand that they (powers that be) be clean, transparent, that they also change their lifestyles. Granted that these are sensible demands, but really, who are we kidding? Since when were we able to teach an old dog new tricks?