Misquoted? More like Hadi thinking aloud

(TMI) – HERE’S the thing about politicians. They don’t quite know how to prevaricate, unless in a bind.

See, the time-tested escape route of politicians suffering from “foot in the mouth disease” is to simply say “I was misquoted” or “I was misunderstood”. And, they think they can get away with just saying that.

Remember Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor and his off-the-cuff remarks to Christians? Well, he was also misunderstood when he said UiTM was set up for slow learners.

The thing about clarifications is that, often, they make the politician making the clarification even more dense. Let’s take PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang’s clarification.

This was what he had said then.

“If PAS rules, it (the administration) will be divided into two. One (is) a cabinet that decides on national policies. This must consist of people who adopt the national ideology and faith.

“This cabinet will appoint an executive cabinet to carry out the policies, and the members can be non-Muslims, appointed based on their expertise,” the Marang MP had said in Kepala Batas, Penang.

The second group would be the technocrats who carried out government policies, he had said.

“The technocrats can be from Parliament or the private sector.”

And now, PAS mouthpiece Harakahdaily said today that this was what he meant.

“The two-cabinet (proposal) is incorrect. It’s not two cabinets. It’s the distribution of duties.

“It’s normal for a government to have a minister, deputy minister, prime minister, special functions minister (and) ministers who administer ministries.

“That’s the normal distribution, right? It’s not a two-cabinet (model). They didn’t understand my statement,” it quoted Hadi as saying.

No prizes for guessing why it was necessary for Hadi to change his tune.

He and his party have been slammed and ridiculed by all and sundry after the press reported on his two-cabinet structure. He has been exposed for the featherweight thinker and strategist he is.

So now, he and his party are in damage-control mode. No Malaysian in their right mind would want to support this regime that believes in divide and rule, and that wants to institutionalise racism.

Mind you, the two-cabinet structure was supposed to be an improvement from Hadi’s previous idea and statement on a Muslim-only administration, which was panned.

Clarification? Misrepresented? Misquoted?

Nah.

This is just him thinking aloud.