Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Winners? Anwar v Shabeery?

I was impressed with Shabeery. Indeed he is a better choice compared to Zam. I find him able to hold his own but he seemed more interested in discrediting Anwar with personal attacks which is more akin to an election ceramah. He should have stuck to the arguments for topic of the day. His argument that the price increase is unfortunate as world prices is rising fast and Malaysia has no other option but to follow suit so as not to burden the government with astronomical subsidy and suffer other economic consequences. Great argument, but he failed to address the matter. With reduced subsidies, it merely means that there are funds to be channeled to other pressing matters which he has failed to mention.. because the government has not given any thoughts or having any plans to improve the situation. Out of the many issues that the public are concerned with, he merely touched on food security. The numbers do not add up... 78sen, save 50bil. Reduce 50sen cost 5bil. Eh? Do we need 50bil in food security? Not too long ago, we were told that 1.2bil would be spent on subsidy for rice while under 1bil will be spent on cooking oil.

1 hour is never enough to debate the matter. One should question who has more ideas in addressing the matter. I never agree that pump prices should be reduced. But, I do agree that leakages should be given priority. Sadly Shabeery did not touch on that. In fact, his Tonto, Tan Sri Dr. Ahmad Kardi made himself look stupid in his supplementary question. Instead of asking a question to put Anwar in a corner, he created a corner for Anwar to shut him up. Zulkifli Sulong fared a tad better but he also got shut up for not extrapolating the prices of petroleum after the 30sen hike. Both Tontos were made to look like fools that night.

I do not understand Shabeery, he has limited time to make it count for him to explain the government point as to why they increase pump prices, but he chose to attack Anwar on a personal level which Anwar I must say answered him in the most dignified manner in that he is there to debate the issue and not to attack a person personally. However, many of Shabeery's allegations fell flat except for the 1974 demonstration which left very much unanswered. But for the other attacks, it is either Anwar answered it well and Shabeery did not have the chance to counter, OR, our dear Information Minister was mis-Informed yet again on past. Allegations as to Anwar was part of the government when the IPP contracts were signed... to which I think Anwar scored great points here to say that Finance Ministry and Tan Sri Ani Arope objected to EPU and the Prime Minister then and thatTan Sri Ani Arope resigned as a result.... Shabeery must be blushing at his own mistake. Questions as to multi billion bailouts with public funds met with muted response. IPP soaring profits went unanswered. At least Sharir Samad gave a better insight when he argued that the profits will go back to TNB and not the government and that it is a temporary measure.. what about long term.... Damn... Sharir should be our PM instead of well...

Net importer by 2015! That was a topic but again Shabeery was made to blush. Anwar's answer was simple enough for man in the street to understand. The problem here lies not in Shabeery not being able to articulate himself well. He has proven that he can. Poise and confidence, he took Anwar head on, but he has precious little ammo to take him through. IF... only IF, the government has announced austerity measures ahead of the increase as well as put in place concrete plans for public transportation, education, health, infrastructure etc and THEN announce the increase for funds to fund these initiatives, it would have vindicated Shabeery. He was on the defensive from the word go and the only offensive he can offer were potshots at Anwar on a personal level.

Anwar on the other hand does not offer much either. But he did outline steps he would take to realize his "vision". Which I think is good enough for the time being. But he too failed miserably to talk beyond the price reduction. Maybe he wanted to stick to the topic of the day.

No winners last night but if it has been telecasted by RTM, more Malaysians would emerge winners as we see arguments from both sides for the first time on TV. A step in the right direction? I hope for more debates of this nature and hopefully the marshalls are not that zealous in breaking cameras, tripping people and hammering the journalists in scuffles after the debate.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Shabery DID hold the fort, keeping poised and all that, but I think the content of most of the debate was off. Some questions were left unanswered, some just went totally off topic. As you've said, one too many personal attacks, I think.

But one hour was definitely too short for them to make any real commitments, especially when they spent half their time trying to defend themselves and criticise the other.

Still, I think Shabery did better than what I expect other ministers would have fared.

Malaysian Joe said...

Thank you for your visit and comment.

Yeah. Shabery was a breath of fresh air as compared to frothy mouth Zam Mydin, but the character assasinating statements which Anwar actually cautioned as FITNAH which he would gladly have another debate to clarify all that is another challenge. Will Shab go for it? Since he started the topic?

Anonymous said...

LMAO... I was munching on lotsa finger food last nite during the debate with my other half. OMG... wtf one does for a good quality time together these days-we watch some politcal debate and treats it like a movie. Our country politics offers so much entertainment and thrillers, don't you think?

To me, the Strawberry guy is kinda blurr...he's trying to attack Anwar and slams him down than focusing the questions in hand. he's out there more to prove that Anwar is an incapable scoundrel rather than giving out infos to the rakyat. Personally, i think Anwar was more steady and convincing than Stawberry!

Though some of my pondering were answered in the debate, there are many more left unanswered,which is what goes beyond and what Pakatan have in store for the rakyat if they were to govern. My concerns are not just the fuel price... i've wanted to know on their overall plans... but I guess there's no chance of finding out.

Malaysian Joe said...

The overall plan is there but I am more interested to find out their plans to combat leakages as well as how they intend to sustain low prices while maintaining it available to the right people. Their focus on education policies, health and energy policies. Loads more but that debate is just this, today form government tomorrow lower prices.

Strawberry.. LOL... admit it, he is miles better than Zam!

Anonymous said...

Zam stinks, period! LOL. But... seriously, Strawberry's smiles gives me the creep...scary... like got something going on on the back of his head!

Malaysian Joe said...

Exercise caution. With Anwar's arrest at the not so agreed time may turn things on its head. BN is forcing the hand... go home early and stay around in big groups of known friends.

warrior2 said...

I agree that sabrey did well and stood his ground and managed to get anwar in a corner with the pre election promise.

Anawar`s formula of which many ahd expected a miracle cure turned out to be a dud. A form 4 student would have tought that too

Anonymous said...

A 6 years old child told me that Anwar will be arrested today because he 'speak' too much in TV last night. I had agreed with him, and he turn out to be right. LMAO.

Malaysian Joe said...

warrior, I must say that you have turned out to be a BN apologist. Anything that the govt did 50 years on, is still okay. While anything the opps do is never right. So, I guess we must just stay to the end to see whose postulation to be more correct.

warrior2 said...

Joe, you got me wrong on many things including this one. I am not pro govt or anti pakatan.

I see things how it is. I am only surprise that you dont.

Funny thing is, what ever govt did for the past 50 years is NOT OK with you but everything the opps do, is ok.

Clef, that 6 year old child must be a little bit dumb because it was a one hour debate,so anwar must speak a lot to fill the 1 hour time slot. Its a debate btw. You should tell that to the child when you see him next. Tell him that anwar was arrested because he was accused of sodomising his aide. You should educate the child a little bit at least if you cant educate this 1 particular grown up

warrior2 said...

That child is dumb because I have sen a 6 year old child who is not. Now if what Clef said is true about the child, who put that thing in the child`s mind?


Let me ask you 1 question.
You write stuffs and you respond to comments. What you wrote is your point of view/opinion. I just dont agree with you thats all. Whats so big deal about what that?
You dont like differcne of opinions huh?

BTW I only called the child dumb. I didnt call/infer you or anybody else dumb or stupid

Malaysian Joe said...

Gosh... now the child is dumb because he does not concur to your thinking... ish.. ish.. ish... implying that the parents are dumb.. ish.. ish.. ish... warrior is the only smart fler around.

The difference is you can write, we can have difference in opinion... cant we agree to disagree?

Okay... lets make it this way, I write, you comment, I shut up.

Lets see, you offered me the blog and you asked me the credibility. I said its credible enough... accepted. When your argument is sane enough for me to accept. I accept.

By the way, this post about Strawberry able to hold his own was never my view... its meant to prove my notion that anything that favours BN you will agree...