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M’sia Today & Tian Chua – No sense of humour, or malicious intent?
Posted on July 3rd, 2007 by Nathaniel Tan
o_O !!!
Of all people, I would expect M’sia Today to have a sense of humour. Trying to accuse Tian Chua of passing the picture below off as something real is insanely inane.
Sigh, maybe I need to have a sense of humour too. Maybe M’sia Today is self-parodying. That’s the only sane explanation.
And looking at the first set of comments and I’m either shocked, or forced to believe that those comments are being generated by people paid either to pad MT or hantam opposition. The other sad possibility is that MT readers are a bit…. errr……. dunno how to say.
But it is a pretty funny picture innit? :P
(update 8.45pm – I should clarify, the only funny part = the fact that the picture is obviously fake)
that’s gross and defamatory!
Things like this makes a valid and real issue be treated as a joke. We are talking about a person cruelly killed and her family is seeking justice for her death. Not to make a political statement.
Its done in a bad taste and sickening as Tian Chua forgot that the person he superimposed is now DEAD.Is this what we call sense of humor. I call it sick.
Childish leaders.
hmmm, you guys are giving me pause for thought. perhaps it was indeed done in somewhat bad taste……..
my guess though, is that there was no direspectful intent involved…….. as for the end result, i guess that’s for each individual to judge….
:) sorry boss, but really have to disagree with your stance on this one. In no way did Tian mention that it was a fake, or credit the source of his photo, and to start with, the person behind the photo surely could have done better, if not with his photoshop, then with his conscience.
Whatever reason behind Tian’s decision to post that photoshop tragedy on his post about Najib’s alleged involvement, I guess your attempt at “defending” him somehow falls into a “you’re either with us, or not” kind of analysis.
Issues, boss, not the dude.
Tian’s a fine man i bet, but let’s be honest that he’s screwed up (not najib, but himself) big time.
Conscience, dude, conscience! :) :) :)
all sincere comments always welcome, so absolutely no apologies necessary!
i value pt and ek’s opinions very highly, and both your comments have given me occasion to reflect.
i think in terms of respect for the dead, perhaps the photo author/publisher did leave something to be desired.
in terms of ’strategy,’ the fallout suggests that putting the picture up appears to have backfired and brought a lot of bad publicity to tian. ek is also perhaps right that perhaps some extra caution (by say putting a teeny disclaimer) would have been judicious.
i think it is still my opinion that the fakeness of the picture should never have been in question. while it appears that some felt it is too close to being real, when i saw it myself, the blatant fakeness seemed amusingly silly. also,
i can’t help but get the sense (rightly or wrongly) that some commentors who criticised this action were perfectly aware of the (perhaps inappropriate) tongue-in-cheek nature of the picture, but took the opportunity anyway to whack away. just a (perhaps paranoid) feeling.
so again, i fully believe that any and all opinions regarding whether the picture should have been put together/up in the first place (and how it might have been done)should be respected,
with regards to people taking it far too seriously, i believe i would have had the same opinion irregardless of who published the picture and what camp s/he was in.. :P :)
just my few cents :) again, no need to apologise for opinions! :)
Can’t you all see that the picture of the lady is not altantuya? The other picture showing them having chicken dinner, also shows the ‘lady’ but she is not Altantuya. She is (or was) a Korean model. THe one that earlier Star paper published as ALtantuya.
Although I am not a fan of PKR at all, to me TIan Chua has done nothring wrong. SInec already many people said at once everybody will know this photo is fake.
Look into the intention and the reason for the picture.Look at the picture as ‘one’.
TC’s screw up of getting the wrong mugshot is no justification of any sort.it Doesn’t make the publication right.
His intention is clear that he wanted to scandalise the entire issue for a political spin purely to injure the DPM and base on a very weak assertion made.
The issue of the photo must get the public to demand the photo be made available and proved.
It is like the 50 dalil issue when Anwar was accused of homosexual activity. The demand then was-Prove it.
many Malaysian agreed that the 50 dalil publication should not be used to kill Anwar as it is merely an assertion and not credible.
The same standard must apply and leaders must observe this standards to maintain ones own credibility, especially for political parties who stands for justice and fairness.This cannot be altered for the whims and fancies with double standards.
Now-in Najib’s context.We cant fix another 50 dalil type of stunt and try to spin it for political purpose.TC just did it and it is a shame.
Doing something that you once condemn with disgust.
We must stand the high moral ground and give the person the right of presumption of innocence.
There are ways to take this issue forward in a more credible and fair manner.
anony: :)
Observer: thanks for your comment!
No doubt that given the current fallout, there are some serious questions regarding the strategic wisdom of publishing that picture.
With regards to his intent: perhaps you are right about the part where the pic was meant to generate hype – again, there are very divergent opinions about that as a whole.
but i simply cannot believe that it was meant to create a scandal by trying to get people to believe that it was the actual picture.
i very much appreciate your opinion regarding moral high ground and credibility.
in this case, i reckon tian just thought it’d be something funny to put up. i think it is perfectly within an individual’s prerogative to find the joke distasteful or inappropriate, but unlike in the 50 dalil case, tian never believed that the picture was real, nor did he (in what appears to be a serious oversight) expect others to believe so. he also admitted very early (tho perhaps not early enuff, in the final analysis) that the picture was fake.
all that said, whether it was right/appropriate to publish such a picture as a joke remains hotly debated.
thanks again for your thoughts!
I feel left out, so I’ll share my 2sen :P
on the count of being lame, not funny, and insensitive, we the self-appointed-police-judge-jury-executioner-and-undertaker find Tian Chua an asshole. However, we, the people, are assholes, so I dare say this: had his attempt at satire actually tickled our funny bones, many of us would have forgiven his transgression against our shared norm of respecting the dead (especially so soon after the demise). But because it wasn’t funny/clever, we are “outraged”. Sorry, but that’s how people are. He needs better comedy consultants; I hear Rob Cordry’s out of work.
And there’s no doubt in my mind, this was an attempt at satire, not an attempted forgery, so the issue of trying to mislead does not arise. The suggestion about Najib’s possible link to the deceased remains speculation, and if no evidence can be adduced confirming the speculation, those flaming the speculation will lose credibility. I am satisfied with this process, I see no need to prosecute against it. It’s a different story if people start saying “yes we know for a FACT that he had dinner with her, the bukti we will share at the *right time*”, aha, that’s a different story, then I say let najib have his defamation suit cake. (As far as I am aware, that line has not yet been crossed.) Rumour mongering will always exist, the onus is on us a society to rise above it for our own good.
Comedy gone wrong has hurt BN people in the past as well… Teresa Kok’s campaign in 1999 got a big help when her opponent (a real lady’s man, NOT) made a stupid joke about how he would make a better MP than Teresa because he can pee standing up. kekekekekekek bye bye, better luck next election.
Back to TC’s case, as satire goes… his attempt was categorically dumb. Funny is risky… if you pull it off you become a hero, if you screw it up you become a villain. In this case, I don’t think Tian Chua was even TRYING. I don’t know what he was thinking… or maybe he wasn’t. That’s the trouble with new media, there’s no filter between brain to submit-button (with old media you can fall-back on sympathetic editors to spin you out of trouble). And now that I am keenly aware of this, the “Submit Comment” button is intimidating me :)
I said: “Rumour mongering will always exist, the onus is on us a society to rise above it for our own good.”
I would like to edit that to the following:
“Rumour mongering will always exist, the onus is on us as a society to develop a selective instinct to distinguish the trumours from the meaningless rumours, to increase the “signal-to-noise” ratio (to borrow an engineering term).”
See? No editor to save me, I made a boo boo :)
trumours? aheheh…
always happy to hear your opinions sir :D thanks!
Tirath.You should also qualify you ‘we the people, are assholes’ to just refer to yourself.Dont package the people as assholes just because you are in the category.Dont point at the society for everything that is not agreeable to you and to make you look smart and outstanding.
Your 2 cent is so far worth the quality of the lowest currency valued in the world.A new discovery in your own country.
Dont treat TC as a comedian to value an act as a winning one or failed and assume the actions that follows base on what you would do.
He is a politician and a leader and he is in the opposition.There are higher expectation placed on him hence the reaction of the people are justified and its his duty to take it and move on.No one is crucifying him.his what you get once you become a public figure.
Your Teresa Kwok example is childish.There is no significant of what he said and her winning.Know the local politics and the work of DAP and not just the few statements that came out during campaign.
What happen to the Jasin-Kinabatangan duo after series of sexist racist comments that they made without fail in every parliament sitting?
Its time for public figure to emerge as a real leader of the people and be accountable and be responsible to the people for everything they say or do.
Rumours or trumours..its the same.All facts must proven and be treated in a proper system and forum and the effect should take place according to the finding.The public is to evolve and learn to deal with facts and figures and informed decisions not rumours or trumors as you suggest that will take us back to another 500 years back.
This is why people fight for an independent media and judiciary and transparent and accountable governance so that people dont have to deal with rumours or trumours or leaders be toppled base on rumours or trumors.
Are we now allowing for the society to evolve.No-we continue to crate rumours and even repackage it as trumours and push an agenda for the public to act.
observer: dood – chill la, i agree w/many of your points, but why attack tirath? a kind hearted, intelligent visitor here, not so unlike yourself. personal attacks tidak berbaloi yo….
I’m sorry, but I just lost my respect for TC after this post. Private post or not, Tian is a leader of the opposition and whatever he posts on the Internet (whether he deems it private or public) will fall under public scrutiny. I try to hold the opposition leaders accountable for the same kind of behaviour I expect from the BN. Frankly, I hope that PKR leadership will do the same, although they don’t seem to be doing that.
If someone had posted a doctored pic of LKS on a blog, DAP would be up-in-arms and demand an apology. No wishy-washy claims about satire & art (please, you guys are politicians! Not philosophers. Get that straight.) The opposition needs to do the right thing and apologise for TC’s silly mistake; by not doing so, they are proving that they are no different from our dearest ruling party.