Datuk Shahrukh Khan... maa ehhhhh!!!
Malaysia has done it again! The Malaysia Boleh spirit lives on folks. The latest feat is awarding a Bollywood Superstar with an esteemed honor that carries the title Datuk!
My dad, once said, throw a pebble on any KL street and it will land on a Dato's head! Well dad, 5 years down the road, throw a pebble on global landmarks and it might land on the head of another Dato! Sorry Dato' Jean Todt...
Honorific titles are meant to elevate one's status, a pride to be treasured and evident of one's contribution to mankind... But Malaysian honorific titles are accorded to those with the moolah to pay for it or be the king of shaky bom bom (Daud Kilau) and recently, anyone that gets minimum fortnight coverage on press or media...
The game of gaining popularity has apparently become the pursuit of popularity to those giving out the awards, the apparent attitude of 'saya lagi terrer (hebat)' has become the new agenda in giving out the awards.
'Dia bagi Jean Todt, dia tu bagi kat Michelle Yeoh tapi saya lagi terrer... saya bagi kat Shahrukh Khan haaaaa' and there will be 12 courts jesters laughing like hyenas in support to the decision!
With this popularity gesture, it is the nation's honor and pride that is tarnished. A medal or honor recipient should be proud of receiving the title, but receiving a title that is deemed to not hold any value results in disrespectful gesture by the recipient.
Do you honestly think Shahrukh Khan will be referred as Datuk Shahrukh Khan wherever he goes in the world now? Forget globally, even in his homeland India, he will not be referred as Datuk Shahrukh Khan!
What about honoring your host and receiving the award personally? I am not sure on this cause as I type this, approximately 8 hours ago, Shahrukh Khan was strutting his bolly stuff on stage in Singapore... But will he be here personally in Malacca to accept the honor adorned on him by one of Malaysian's ruler? Flip any press release and tell me if you see foreign media referring Jean Todt as Dato' Jean Todt?
The same personality would have given enough due respect should they be lucky enough to attain medal of honors that are regarded highly exclusive such as Knighthood from England, then you might just witness the re-branding of these personalities and they will forever be honoring the Orders of Chivalry- thus the name will be Sir Shahrukh Khan.
The Orders of Chivalry are granted to those deserving individuals, truly deserving individuals who has made significant contribution to the country, community and mankind in whole. The priority of granting this noble titles goes to British citizens... for more info, refer to website such as UK Honours System (http://www.honours.gov.uk/). It even lists the remarks on why this person was accorded with the noble title to ensure fair and justice to all.
In conclusion, it saddens me to see that we're witnessing a table where the stakes are country's honor and pride, the glitz and glam should be left to where it belongs- the showbiz and the silver screen. Let's look at rewarding the people who has made significant contribution to the country and to make the rewards truly exclusive and not a mockery...
nice one! this was def a good read :)
ReplyDeletecorrection peeps- just saw on http://damianslyeo.blogspot.com/2008/10/datuk-shah-rukh-khan.html that Shahrukh was not present to honor the award and the CM has explained that efforts are in place to arrange the award reception...
ReplyDeleteHello Nexus
ReplyDeleteThanks for swinging by my blog and for your comment. Am real glad I reciprocated your visit cos I like your blog and your writing!!! Er...just one problem...this old lady here finds the font size a weeeeee bit small ;) but it is ok cos I enlarged the font size.
Maybe now you can understand why the font size in my blog is so huge haha. I do have a wordpress account too but somehow got stuck in blogspot and it's kind of difficult to move.
Anyway, I like your classy rants and your blog posts. I grew up on a staple diet of Hindi movies and my share of Haathi Meeri Saathi, Bobby etc which I have watched many times and I like your post of bollywood movies..
Do keep in touch and all the best to you. Keep up the good work here!
Cheers
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ReplyDeleteniceee!!
ReplyDeletecountry ran by wiredos!
See... told ja.
ReplyDelete*SRK stands at door.. Goes "I'm the King baby!"... leaves..
hahaha
malaysian ministers r doin a pretty gd job proving their low IQ level for the world to c..n then they wonder y they arent respected? :S
ReplyDeleteI agree there has been too many Datukships given by Malaysia that it became really... worthless. Oh and by the way, TheStar has reported that he's not present in the ceremony!
ReplyDeleteA good one, Nexus.
ReplyDeleteDitto! Datukships in Malaysia are much more worthless and meaningless!
ReplyDeletethis is so funny! even in India we didn't give out awards to them :p
ReplyDeleteHi Nexus,
ReplyDeleteWhilst almost everybody scratched their heads and wonder...Its obvious none of those in THE political circles are aware of the reason for Shah Rukh Khan Datokship...
There is always the unseen hand and the unseen hand is almost always unseen>Heh Heh
I wish someone can pull out the well publicised visit by Shah Rukh Khan to Najibs house to meet up with his wife Rosmah who is an Ardent Fan...Shah Rukh and Rosmah were even on stage together during a public function for his visit to KL.
Now...Ali Rustam wished he can be Najibs deputy but havent the same clout as Muhyideen. So what does he do? His senior the current Chief Minister of Melaka, Khalid is from Najibs home State of Pahang....
Its all part of the game for which you guys are not invited to..
This is the pinnacle towards absurdity as how can an award be given to someone who doesn't know what that award is all about. The actor to his credit shouldn't be blamed for this as he was not the one asking for this honor, instead our ministers have out done themselves. Truly amazing. The reason given (promoting tourism) is even more laughable as the actor only appeared once or twice in Malaysia for a movie. Imagine that. How many people are going to be given this Datukship. To top things of, the actor failed to turn up to receive his title and they are apparently trying to convince him to collect it personally. Need i say more. India has not recognized him with such titles even though the actor has acted in various movies and directly boosted tourism for India. Is the Malaysia government going to retaliate in the even that the actor refuses to accept the award personally or will they revoked it? Mind blowing. This is not one of those time where you can say that your proud to be Malaysian.
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ReplyDeletedawn: thank you for the comment...
ReplyDeletemasterwordsmith: it is a great pleasure to have you visiting my page and leaving such a long comment, i am truly honored and glad that we did establish contact...
lulu aka my other half: thank you for the great feedback coming live from singapore as you witnessed yourself and proved that malaysia did indeed become a laughing stock
uncle sam: tell me about it... ;)
ariff khan: for having an uncle that typesalot, you are man of few words
cyke: i still await the day that you cud be proven wrong, but u alwiz win!!!
ss: well, thus the reason the country lacks leaders with calibre.. perhaps we shud have at least one or two docs in there ;)
ylwong and zara: too many would be understatement, i am thinking of doing a survey of shouting 'datuk' on malaysian street and see how many would actually turn...
shosh: thank you dear
sonia: well like they say, ghar ki murghi, daal beraber
DalaiLlama: i'd say you are the right man with the insider news, probably sitting in those high offices and observing this people running the country in mediocrity... a mysterious man indeed yet with knowledge that amazes
Vicky: i see the echo there and it truly is ridicolous but when the management is putting up the show (circus) and they have monkeys that dances to the tune, you're pretty sure that some would be clapping while the rest be saying.. 'boooorrriiiinngggg', it's a hard cold-truth but if everyone were to start thinking like you do, the country would have prospered and elevated herself to a global power...
baby: singaporeans are allowed to have datokship, better still, coz they charge same amount but conversion makes it double hahaha...
( Sigh , Sigh , Sigh, ) Malaysia, she walk thru independence just to find herslef being raped by her own people. I have only sympathy for you my dear, You need a real ruler. . , May all the corrupted Bastards burn in HELL!!!!!!
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