Two weeks ago a local official from the Malaysian Tourism Board called Unspun in his office and displayed such stupidity that even though Unspun was temptd to blog about it, he refrained because life is hard, all of us have to make a living and if word of the conversation got out it may cost the man his job.
But after his big boss Tengku’s Adnan’s comments about bloggers and women Unspun figures that the local official will probably promoted in the Malaysian Tourism Board heirachy if the conversation came to light. So here’s Unspun’s contribution to the advancement of a waste-of-space’s career (I had written it and saved it as a draft with the headline Malaysian Tourism Board responds! here’s the text):
Well sort of…and not in the way anyone with any sense of service would have envisioned.
The background to this is that after the Malaysian Tourism Board mucked up the trip of Nila Tanzil who was there shooting a travel program for a local TV station, she blogged about it here and here. The Board responded by complaining about her blog entry to the station, which has since not bothered to invite her to host any more programs for them.
Then, The Star’s Wong Chun Wai wrote about Nila’s case and said that the Board would do well to look into the incident and see if any lowly officials are covering up their own incompetence by putting the muscle on the Indonesian TV station. Since then silence. Not a peepfrom the MTB either in Indonesia or Malaysia.
Then on Friday Unspun‘s alter ego received a phone call from a locally-based official wanting to know: #1. if Nila worked with Unspun 2. Nila’s phone number in tones that are best described as demanding, as a mountain goat in heat would be if deprived of a mate.
Unspun replied that he should already know the answer to both questions. He’s read the blogs, he knows Unspun personally, and if Nila went to Malaysia he should have her contact details on record, so what’s the point of asking moi?
To which said official tried to play the we-have-something-in-common-card. “You Malaysian, I also Malaysian lah” was repeated several times to Unspun. Then said official realized he was getting nowhere so he got angry, saying “I contak you but you marah I, so never mind lah,” in a merajuk tone and hung up.
Unspun is still wondering what the call was for. To get Unspun to put pressure on Nila? To pave the way for making amends to Nila? What?
With the latest development Unspun‘s advice to said official is “Keep it up my son, mirroring the Big Boss’s behvior will get you far.”
Hi Ong,
Fellow Bolehsian here residing in Balikpapan while my Santa Cruz Superlight gathers dusts somewhere in PJ. Been reading your blog – and been enjoying your take very much -Yup, they want you to put the pressure on NT me thinks. The idiots are in damage control mode, so gotta try every which way. They’re not THAT stupid, so it serves them to put a spin on this. Heck – hopefully there is an upside – somebody ‘up there’ will remove that offending charachter for good! Hopefully can get a chance to ‘ngopi -ngopi’ with you if I transit over… Best always..
Mat Selo: Anytime will ngopi with a fellow Santa Cruz Superlighter!
Is the above conversation for real ?
Ganesha: Hey, his minister just told the world that all bloggers are liars, 80 percent of these bloggers are women and unemployed.
A ministry like that has the ability to bend credulity and logic to its limits, and then some.
Unspun,
You are a blogger, therefore you must be making all that up to try to shame the Jakarta office of our glorious MT, led by our highly esteeemed “Tengku” MT Man.
Shame on you. And on all bloggers. [Especially women bloggers...]
…Our esteemed MT Man has seen through you….
…wait a minute, I’m getting it all mixed up. You (a blogger) lied. Therefore, Jakarta MT never called you. Therefore, esteemed MT Man was right! But that was reported in another blog…so that was a pack of lies too. MT Man never said those stupid, racist, sexist things.
Besides, Nila Tanzil is a woman blogger. So she made it all up. She never went to Malaysia at all.
MT Man was right all along…yeah, that must be it. Nila Tanzil does not exist. She’s just a figment of some lying woman blogger’s imagination.
There…now that MT Man’s truth is out the whole “crisis” will blow away.
I think Opah’s got it all figured out…
Then it’s too good. It’s open season for ridicule…They’re asking for it. It might be the biggest piece of internet stupidity I’ve seen since the 2001 ‘Chung’ debacle in South Korea.
No shit, man! MTB in bolehland has done it again..just like the recent academy awards, perhaps the MTB man should be on the red carpet too …wuu huu … to take honours for shunning the real issues at hand.