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By Mihar Dias (C) Copyright June 2023
"Why kick the can when you can kick butt?"
That's the question being raised in coffee shops around town since Khairy Jamaluddin alleged that Anwar is kicking the can down the road on Monday, June 5.
It happens to coincide with Agong's birthday celebrations where Lim Kit Siang, known for "kicking people in the butt," received his Tan Sri, a lifetime achievement award of sorts for him
Khairy made his statement over his latest edition of a podcast he co-hosts with another suspended Umno member, Shahril Hamdan when trying to explain the status of Najib's request for a pardon; "As I understand it, they are kicking the can down the road" said KJ.
He went to say more than that, but that's the only sentence that caught the attention of my fellow coffee-drinking buddies and the only one that they chose to remember. We kicked around the subject for quite a while before realising that a majority around the table did not understand the phrase "kicking the can down the road."
Etymologically, kicking the can down the road is an activity of idle urban youths since the late 19th century.
But in the modern sense, most likely after1980s, when KJ was in college and from where he picked the idiom, it simply means to "procrastinate."
Historically, older Americans grew up playing yard games. For Kick the Can game, "all you needed was an old can, one player to be “It,” and a bunch of other players to hide. It’s job was to guard the can while trying to find the others; anyone who was found would be escorted to a holding area. But if a hider could kick the can before getting tagged by It, everyone went free. The game may have had its heyday in the Great Depression; by the early 1960s, it had all but vanished."
Anyway, back to the debate at the coffee shop, when someone paraphrased KJ's idiom quoting Oxford dictionary's definition as "putting off confronting a difficult issue or making an important decision, typically on a continuing basis", one red faced die hard old Umno member in the group blurted out the same Hokkien word that now landed Sanusi MB of Kedah in hot soup.
Then he continued, "See, what did I tell you? They purposely want to keep Bossku inside!"
He was later joined by a chorus who said, "PMX can not do this to Bossku!"
Khairy Jamaluddin is right. "They don't want to make a decision. They have instructed the Pardons Board not to bring out the file first by using any excuse."
Khairy said Anwar Ibrahim seems to be in a bind over Najib's pardon and decided to buy time to avoid any backlash from PH supporters who do not want to see the prisoner released. Similarly, Najib's supporters expect PMX to be actively pursuing his pardon post-haste.
The coffee shop thumping of tables above is, we are sure, not an isolated incident where the kicking of the can down the road is concerned.
In fact, there is "increasing criticism from key party veterans against their allies in the current government can be attributed to growing impatience over the fate of former prime minister Najib Razak."
For example, Puad Zarkashi, secretary-general Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki, Shahrir Samad and Supreme Council member Nur Jazlan Mohamed, all "have publicly questioned PH leaders, in what appears to be a sign of tension building up in the Malay party six months after joining hands with its long-time foes to form the government."
The burning question among Bossku supporters now is not how long PMX is planning to kick the can down the road, but who would have enough guts to give the right people a kick in the butt/pants to get their boss out of jail.
Mihar Dias is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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