Posted by
wetbenang
at
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
A NEW ROLE MODEL IS BORN ... NOT!
The people of Terengganu can heave a huge sigh of relief now that the State Government has found for its youths a new role model in the newly voted AF4 champion. "Yeay! A ray of hope for our languid, lazy, lackadaisical lads and lasses is finally here!!"
Yup, the MB of Terengganu wants the winner of the just-concluded reality TV talent programme to lead the State's languishing young laggards and show them the way to success.
And the State's Pemuda UMNO, which played a key role in garnering support for the winner, sees the boy as an icon for the people of Terengganu for realising the three main slogan of the State: "Bukan Halangan, Hanya Peluang; "Impian Menjadi Realiti"; and "Memahat Sejarah, Mencipta Tamadun." Whatever these mean.
The Pemuda head is suitably proud that efforts by various parties "membuahkan hasil apabila anak jati Marang itu berjaya merangkul tempat pertama pada pertandingan itu."
If I were a Terengganu constituent, I would be duly worried.
First and foremost, the boy is not exactly a role model material. I'm not quite sure what his academic performance/education qualification is like, but if he can't even pronounce simple English words (let alone understand the language), then I'm assuming it's not something that the Terengganu people can write home about, not even to Marang. Before AF4, the 22-year-old was helping out at his aunt's jewelry shop.
Secondly, I'm not quite sure I'd be proud of his "win". I mean, AF is not like other competitions where contestants really have to work hard at winning. Here, if you have fanatical fans or fan clubs -- and it helps to be well-connected -- you'd be almost guaranteed of winning. I would also like to point out that winning this contest has nothing to do with luck or doa, as the boy tries to have us believe. I should think God does not play a role here.
BERNAMA reported a week before the final AF4 concert that RM10,000 was collected by the good people of Terengganu to buy pre-paid cell phone cards so that fans of the boy could send SMS votes to ensure his win. Of the amount, RM5,000 came from the Majlis Kebudayaan Negeri, RM1,000 from a royal philanthropist, and the rest came from other private donors. And the boy's parents also spent thousands of ringgit (on credit) on their campaign to secure votes for their beloved son.
(Hmm. I wonder how much money they had spent on tuition fees or on English classes for the boy while he was still schooling; how much efforts they had made to ensure the boy did well in school.)
So, a fine role model he would make. I imagine all those lepakking Terengganu boys and girls would now be inspired not to do well in school, because they could always depend on their State Government and related agencies and connections to buy votes to ensure they win singing/talent competitions. So no need to work hard in school, no need to learn English, no need to learn the universal language. Yalah, when one becomes AF champion, the only language one needs is body language.
What a very fine message the State Government and its kuncus are sending to the good people of Terengganu. (I guess they learnt this from Johor, which produced the previous AF season's winner.)
And RM10,000 is a lot of money to be wasted, if you ask me. A lot of schools in Terengganu lack so many things -- computers, books, etc. There are also a lot of children from poor families in the State who are not getting the education that they deserve.
They would make a more worthy cause for the State's Pemuda UMNO to champion, I should think.
PS. Since this posting, reports have it that the good people of Terengganu would also make the boy the State's road safety icon. A fine choice, since the boy is a self-confessed traffic violator. Prior to AF, he drove around without a licence.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment