The Emperor's New Clothes

The Emperor marched in the procession under the beautiful canopy. and all who saw him in the street and out of the windows exclaimed, " Indeed, the Emperor's new suits is incomparable ! What long train he has ! How well it fits him !". Nobody wished to let others know he saw nothing, for then he would have been unfit for his office or too stupid. Never the Emperor's clothes were more admired.
- Hans Christian Anderson's tale of 'The Emperor's New Clothes'

How do we tell the PM of Malaysia in this time of media manipulation and kiss ass politics that he has no clothes on..? Why does the PM continue to deny the most basic message the recent 12th General Election gave, explicit and implicit ? It is narcissism, hubris, vanity,egotism, arrogance etc....all euphemism for Pride.

Pride is one of the original 7 deadly sins. Clerics calls it the most serious of the seven sins in reference to Lucifer, known better as Satan. In Christian tradition, Lucifer initially a prominent archangel was cast out from the heavens from a failed rebellion against God, motivated by pride. In Muslim tradition, Iblis was cursed by Allah to hell for refusing to prostrate to Adam citing his superiority to man as the cause, motivated by no less than pride and egotism (Quran 7:11-12).

In the movie Seven(1995), a disfigured model lay dead from an overdose of sleeping pills. The original killer had glued a bottle of sleeping pills in one of her hands and a phone on the other hand. The killer had purposely sliced the model's nose off and gave the still-alive but disfigured model a choice. Either call for help OR commit suicide, thus relieving her the torment of living in disfigurement, laughed at by her beautiful peers. The model opts the later. The killer left the scene with the words PRIDE written on the headboard of her bed...using her red lipstick.

The thematic lesson of Hans Christian Anderson's tale of the 'Emperor's New Clothes' (yes..it's the little school children fairy tale) explicitly faults pride as one of the greatest folly of all the people in the fabled land. Their unwillingness to recognize and admit their mistakes in light of the plain and obvious made them the victim of the greatest sin of all. The Emperor's need for adulation and praise made him blind to his senses and rationalization. His ministers's hypocrisy, insecurity and self-doubt made it easy for the swindlers to play with their self doubts thus succeeding in manipulating them, many of whom are intelligent. In their need to conform and align themselves with popular but wrong views, they only strengthen the Emperor's tenacity to devoid himself from errors thus resisting himself from accepting the all encompassing truth that he has no clothes on.

Some time this year, the PM himself officiated the opening of a boutique in Pavillion owned by his daughter Nori and her husband Khairy Jamaluddin, aptly named 'The Emperor's New Clothes'.

Fate it seems, is not without its sense of irony..

References : Picture of PM was taken from tonypua.blogspot.com