Before we start, this post does not in any way intended to insult professional clowns or Member of Parliaments who don’t clown around on serious business in Parliament.
Meet your next Member of Parliament – as a clown, he is funny and entertaining! I am not sure which is more depressing…a MP who goes to Parliament and does nothing or a MP acting as a clown in the Parliament? Image Source: https://www.slideserve.com
I was watching the news at 8.00 pm on TV3 when the issue of “Minyak, Roti Canai dan Ayam di Parlimen” (issue of oil, prata and chicken) was highlighted. Immediately, I sensed that it must be raised by one of the MPs who known to be clowning around in the Parliament – the MP for Jerai or the MP for Kinabatangan. The station showed both the MPs.
It was not surprising to see both clowns trying to outwit themselves by talking about how an increase in the price of the oil affected the price of roti canai in Parliament.
One clown said “kalau harga minyak naik 10 sen, harga roti canai naik 10 sen…” and the other clown said “kalau harga minyak naik 10 sen, harga roti canai naik 3 kali ganda…”(loosely translated – if the price of the cooking oil goes up by another 10 cents, the price of the prata will go by 10 cents as well or 3 times more)
Classic clown talk indeed and if they think it is funny, I can assure them that my foot was laughing to their jokes. Seriously no one know what are they trying to prove? How many million of ringgit that these MPs trying to save?
So, is this how our MPs spend their valuable time in Parliament talking nonsense?
No wonder Lim Kit Siang gets upset with the state of the nation and the Parliament. I wonder how the issue of oil and roti canai can be more serious than the issue of national security, economy, road safety, corruption, etc.
Even if in our wildest imagination that we take the issue of roti canai price to be as important as the issue of national security, what does the clowns expect the Parliament to do? Pass new law that classifies roti canai as a controlled item? Setup up a Royal Commission to study the effect of the increase of roti canai price on the nation’s GDP?
If the clowns have a good reason to bring the issue up, let the rakyat be aware of the possible solutions. Oh wait a minute; I remember now, one of the clowns did mention something about this. That’s right; the clown from Jerai said the local “experts” should undertake a study on the effect of the increase in the price. The way I see, it is a “good” way to spend the rakyat’s money on hiring experts and making a comprehensive study.
Way to go, MP for Jerai!
People who are selling roti canai are not stupid – otherwise, they will not so successful in business. When the price of oil goes up, only the foolish ones will raise the raise. The smart ones will just reduce the size of the roti canai whilst maintaining the SAME price.
It is the same everywhere whether it is on food like nasi lemak, mee goreng or non food items. It works on a simple rule – people will continue to patronize the outlet where the price remains the same (even though the portions has gone down) as compared to a outlet which maintains the same portion but had increased the price.
Then again, I guess that the clowns in the Parliament are too busy being a clown that they failed to see the point.