Thursday August 2, 2007

Some lessons in Latin

Along the Watchtower: By M. VEERA PANDIYAN

A LONG-awaited animated movie and a much fussed-over book prodded me towards an interest in Latin. It began with the discovery of two mottos: Corruptus in extremis and Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus.

The first, which means “the extreme corruption”, is the tenet of the Springfield mayor’s office in The Simpsons. The second translates as “a sleeping dragon mustn’t be tickled” – the maxim of Harry Potter’s Hogwarts School.

Last Sunday, just as the brain was picking up such fascinating Latin phrases, an old Javanese word to describe the dim-witted was flung into works, courtesy of our country’s insightful Information Minister.

Datuk Seri Zainuddin Maidin warned Malaysians to be wary of certain goblok (stupid) political bloggers.

He said the people should wise up to goblok bloggers, who, he claimed, had become tools of foreign countries bent on destroying Malaysia.

Describing them as having “limited knowledge and evil intentions”, the minister bewailed that such dangerous people had been around since independence.

“These writers do not have an Asian mentality but lean towards Western thinking because they were educated overseas,” he said.

Personally, that part of it was quite a relief. As a locally schooled semi-literate hack, it was comforting to know that I won’t fit his billing of a goblok, if I decide to butt into blogosphere.

Zam’s tirade against bloggers came in the wake of earlier rebukes from Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Deputy PM Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, Deputy Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaludin and Energy, Water and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Dr Lim Keng Yaik.

If these bloggers are really guilty as they are being made out to be, I suppose this is a chance to exercise my paltry knowledge of Latin and ask two questions: Cui bono? (For whose benefit?) and Cui malo? (Bad for whom?)

Who stands to benefit if these bloggers spread lies and falsehoods? And if they are being used as tools by foreign countries, which nations are we talking about? After all, information is power.

The Cui bono question can be traced to Marcus Tullius Cicero, reputedly the Roman Empire’s greatest orator, philosopher and campaigner against corruption. He had apparently flogged it repeatedly on a jury while defending a man charged with murder and eventually vindicated him.

Today, the legal principle of cui bono is the basis of criminal investigations for determining credible suspects and for assessing the strengths of motives, according to benefits to be gained.

As for Cui malo, I must confess that I really don’t know any eminent person associated with it. But it sounds like a brilliant blend of the terms for the devil (in Hokkien) and shame (in Malay) and I thought it would be a pity not to use it here.

But seriously, isn’t Cui malo pertinent now that Malaysia is already getting so much bad press over blogger-bashing? Wouldn’t it bad for our leaders to appear that they are going against the grain of current global information flow realities?

The Information Minister chided those who leaned towards Western thinking. But what is the current trend of thought in the West? The people are actually getting fed up with what they see and read. There is mounting resentment against the powerful corporations that control the airwaves and print publications.

Michael Parenti, one of the Western world’s leading social critics notes in his latest book, Democracy For The Few, that in 1983 about 50 giant corporations controlled the major television and radio channels, newspapers, magazines, book publishers and movie studios.

Today there are only seven – Time Warner, Disney, General Electric, Viacom, Bertelsmann, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation and the cable-TV colossus Comcast.

Parenti says these media giants determine what is to be aired and what isn’t, whether it's news or entertainment.

Those entrenched in the industry stick to playing by their rules because it pays well to do so. Their job is to spread the “proper” message, which excludes all the ugliness that is harmful to ordinary people.

It’s about time our leaders realise that absolute control of anything can be repulsive. This is among the main reasons blogs are becoming more popular in the West and elsewhere in the world.

People want to have access to as much information available, evaluate it and if possible contribute their views, instead of just taking it from whoever is dishing it out. As such, rulings by fiats or decrees, such as declaring that an issue or a debate has been closed is hardly effective these days.

Some bloggers may be guilty of being misguided or pushing their own narrow agendas. Those who have succeeded in acquiring a huge captive audience may also be guilty of delusional pomposity. Rightly or wrongly, they see themselves as the final saviours of media freedom, both from state and corporate control.

Demonising them, shutting their sites down or threatening to invoke the Internal Security Act against them, is not going to make them go away. If they are spreading lies, take them to court, using the existing laws in the country.

So, to go back to Latin, a language that is supposed to be dead but still very much alive, perhaps we should all learn to audi alteram partem (hear the other side).

After all, its the legal principle of fairness, which is also written as audiatur et altera pars (let the other side be heard too).

We should always be compos mentis (in control of the mind) rather than appearing to be non compos mentis (not in control of one’s faculties) or talking ad absurdum (to the absurd, or in logic, to the point of being silly or nonsensical).

Let’s bring back Cicero for a concluding quote: Cuiusvis hominis est errare, nullius nisi insipientis in errore perseverare (Anyone can err, but only the fool persists in his fault.)

I can’t resist the temptation to put in the last word. It’s dixi (I have spoken).

Among the cute Latin phrases that M. Veera Pandiyan, Deputy Editor, New Media, learned recently is: “Ad praesens ova cras pullis sunt meliora” (Eggs today are better than chickens tomorrow).

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