“OI! Whr r u? Get online! M sending u sum links. Read, hv a gud laugh & write it up!” was the text message received in the dead of the night, or rather, early Thursday morning from a girlfriend. Eye stumbled over to the computer and opened two links that lead to the online edition of a national daily. The first article was titled ‘Puteri wants ban on horror movies’ and the second was ‘Kelantan mulls no promotions for smokers rule’.The email that contained the link was also accompanied by a long commentary by the lady who sent the links. Since she had already taken the time to write down her thoughts, the Eye decided to feature what she wrote, instead of writing up from the Eye’s perspective. Let’s begin with the ‘no promotion for smokers’ matter. She wrote and Eye quote (actually, Eye decided to take the lazy route, and cut and paste some of her comments, without editing):
“Can you believe this?!? They say they are trying to discourage people from smoking. What they’re doing is really being judgmental! There are lots of smokers out there who are good hearted people. They work hard with integrity and commitment. They get things moving, the get things done, and done well. Equally, there are people who portray themselves as angels, as pious examples to society by not smoking or drinking, yet, when it comes to work and commitment, they are absolute hypocrites — finger pointing, irresponsible towards their own tasks, back biting, ambik kangtaou and practice other sickening workplace habits.
And PAS wants to judge those who smoke? A smoker’s choice to smoke is a personal one and it would be wrong to say he or she does not know what risks are involved each time they light up.
Not that I encourage people to smoke but to implement a rule to cut promotions because a person smokes is ludicrous! These PAS clowns who rule the state of Kelantan are ridiculous… either that, or they really have no other legislation to draft? I am so relieved that I live in Sarawak and not there.”
On the other matter of horror films, Puteri Umno passed a call in its general assembly to propose that the government bans the production of horror, mystical and superstitious movies. Apparently the princesses of Umno decided that such films can weaken the faith of the Muslims in the country. The call was met with an angry outcry from the general public and has since dominated topics of discussions on blogsites over the past few days.
The Eye’s friend had this to say:
“Equally ridiculous! And I can’t believe this is coming from Puteri Umno, a party supposedly made up of educated, widely traveled and dynamic women! You’d think they’d be able to analyse or see things from a wider perspective.
“A person’s faith, no matter what religion he practices, is not determined by horror movies! If the person had faith to begin with, he wouldn’t be influenced or swayed by horror movies at all.
“Can you just beat this? What? By banning horror movies, will everyone be strong in faith? Just what are they trying to say? This seems as belittling our basic religious teachings. Are they saying that the religious foundations that our parents, schools and religious leaders instilled in us from young are insufficient or cannot hold up against the fictional demons of horror movies?
“Ha ha ha what a joke! Oh let me rephrase that… what a scary joke! Maybe these ‘horrified puteris’ can go join the PAS clowns. After all, there are horror movies that revolve around clown and Stephen King could use them as characters in his next book — It and the political princesses.”