Malaysian politicians say the darndest things

Let's be honest here, even those of us who don't pay much attention to politics have heard of certain things that spill out of the political arena and into the streets. Sometimes it's because a politician said something funny. But often, it's because someone who should have known better let their racist, sexist and generally rude side show, probably under the impression that they are being funny. [return][return]On International Women's Day last March, Tourism Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor said this in response to Indonesian TV journalist/blogger Nila Tanzil:[return][return]”All bloggers are liars, they cheat people using all kinds of methods. From my understanding, out of 10,000 unemployed bloggers, 8,000 are women. Bloggers like to spread rumours, they don't like national unity. Today our country has achievements because we are tolerant and compromising. Otherwise we will have civil war. Malays will kill Chinese, Chinese will kill Malays, Indians will kill everybody else.”[return][return]This caused filmmaker and blogger Amir Mohammad to look at other Outrageous Quotes that cause waves in the local media. He found about 200. About half of that appear in this first volume, providing glimpses into three decades of Malaysian culture, society and politics.[return][return]It doesn't really matter whether or not you are familiar with the circumstances that inspired the quote. Amir provides context, along with where and when the quote was reported.[return][return]To come upon an Outrageous Quote in the news every now and then is one thing. We laugh or rage, “lie” about it on our blogs and we move on. Reading more than just a handful in a sitting makes you laugh a lot, and then wonder what kind of people we entrust our country's governance to.[return][return]Are politicians really this frivolous? Do they think they're being witty? Are these ridiculous comments just a ploy to get into the news? And more importantly, can they focus on the real issues of the country instead of bringing in menstrual cycles and making declarations about subjects they understand nothing about?[return][return]To find out, stay tuned for Vol. 2. Select snippets can also be found in Off The Edge magazine. Meanwhile, Vol. 1 is already available at most good book stores in town.