COMMENT | It's only words

"It’s exactly where a thought is lacking

That, just in time, a word shows up instead." – Goethe, 'Faust', (1808)

COMMENT | I guess the civil service had a Faustian moment when it came up with its new sign-off on official documents: Prihatin rakyat: Darurat memerangi Covid-19 (Care for the rakyat: Emergency to fight Covid-19).

Wow, another deadly weapon in the arsenal arrayed against the dastardly Covid-19 virus. Their deadly days are numbered.

It’s illustrative of how politics has divided this country that such an inconsequential, piffling change (that won’t change anything at all) stirred up hornets, hot air about unduly justifying the emergency proclamation, even offering alternative slogans.

Missing the forest for the trees. Who cares? Really, who cares? Does anyone, including Public Services Department (PSD) director-general Mohd Khairul Adib Abdul Rahman who signed the memo, really believe that a government officer, dealing with dozens, hundreds of official documents a day, the slogan appearing as a matter of form at the bottom, will pause for moments through the day to absorb the "important" reminder, and then plunge with renewed vigour into his/her duties? Ha-di-ha!