Still Not So Royal, After All....

I guess some people never learn. That's what happens when you disregard those who critique you and generally label them as haters. For it was the great Victorian author Samuel Butler who said, “The truest characters of ignorance are vanity and pride and arrogance.”  

As for me, it's not like I go in search of nonsense, but last night, somehow, it just plopped itself before my eyes and before I knew it, I had more proof that some people just refuse to accept their station and behave accordingly.

If you recall, about two weeks ago, my blog went viral because of a posting I made entitled Not So Royal After All. If you're new to my blog, read it here. But for those of you who know what I'm talking about, let me just say that, the update is simply Still Not So Royal After All.

Last night, I was on Twitter. And I happened to land on you-know-who's twitter page. Lo and behold, something else was brewing as he attempted another one of his 'mesra rakyat' efforts. Let's look on the bright side first. I applaud his initiative to reach out to his followers. They ask him lots of questions, ranging from what is his favourite food, to whether he is a fan of Justin Bieber.

I am not a Bieber fan myself, pretty sure a lot of people aren't either. And the way he answered that question was very diplomatic and good. He doesn't like Bieber and he simply answered that question with a “Not Quite”. However, if only he would have practiced that same method with another question, we all wouldn't be here right now. I wouldn't have had the burning urge to write this post and you would probably be reading about how much I can't stand people who double park for no valid reason. But, things took a nasty turn last night and here we are today.

Last night, at approximately 1am, someone tweeted the Crown Prince of Johor (Tengku Mahkota Johor) who shall be referred to as TMJ from this point onwards, asking a rather out-of-place question. But then again, everyone has the right to ask whatever they want. As someone in a higher position, he should have known how to answer difficult questions. Although I do not know why it was even considered a touchy subject but it sure brought out the un-royal side of him.

Here's the question, and the answer given by TMJ:

And from there, the situation just spiralled downwards. Take a look at the tweets below, listed chronologically as they appeared last night.

For those of you who are not familiar with how Twitter works, here's what transpired. Someone asked if TMJ ever thought of meeting t a local actress Neelofa (currently of Azura 2012 fame) someday. TMJ replied “Hell no”. Now my question is why was he able to be diplomatic when someone asked him about Bieber, but failed to exercise the same diplomacy when it came to Neelofa? After that, the same person who asked about Neelofa went on to ask something totally unrelated (or was it?). She wanted to know what is on his wish list. TMJ obliged with an answer, and said “To be with my Ellie now and achieving my goals.” Good answer. However the person who asked did not know who he meant by Ellie. And asked him to explain. He responded by asking her to ask others. (For those of you who don't know, Ellie is the nickname of TMJ's other half, Fazura.) It could have ended there. The questions were already going in a different direction. He could have been the bigger person and kept on answering other tweets from other people asking him about various aspects of his life. But where would the fun have been in that, right? Why not say something provocative and make more people lose respect in him? So he added this, “By the way I hate Neelowhatever girl you mention just now.” Ignore the glaring grammatical mistakes, although if you're anything like me, even that is enough to make you grit your teeth in utter frustration. Back to the point, the girl was already done with the Neelofa thing, she was already moving on to other questions however TMJ, portraying no sense of being a bigger person whatsoever, decided to add that bit. Neelowhatever? Seriously? I'm not a fan of Neelofa, but is it really appropriate to show your disdain for another public figure in such a public platform? No matter how much they hate each other, there are better ways of dealing with things especially when you're in the public eye. Sadly, it did not stop there. Another Twitter user asked TMJ why he hated Neelofa and he replied, “Berangan and hati busuk tak boleh tengok orang senang. Suka menjatuhkan orang. Pretend to be virgin but not. Act all innocent but no. Fake.”

I don't think I have to ulas this issue dengan panjang lebar. I think everyone can see the problem here. The only thing I have to say is that, what gives him the right to announce the state of someone's virginity on a public platform? This is a very big accusation. Forget about being a royalty, sebagai seorang Islam, is he aware of the hukum involved in claiming that another person is not a virgin anymore? The point here is not whether he is right or not in his claim, but the point is what on God's green earth was he hoping to achieve by saying such a thing? Tak suka macam mana sekalipun, perlu ka menulis macam remaja tak habis sekolah? Rasanya budak2 sekolah ja kot yang main campak tuduhan petty macam ni. Some of you might again argue that he's only human. All I can say is bullcrap. Manusia ka alien ka, semua ada code of conduct. Rasanya kita yang bukan keturunan diraja ni pun akan fikir 600 kali sebelum nak type tuduhan sebegitu rupa and post it on Twitter. Apatah lagi seorang anak raja.

The reactions that came after his tweet was what prompted me to write this article. I just can't believe at the amount of approval he was getting for behaving like a spoilt child. Look at the sequence of tweets below.

Someone called Neelofa a jenglot (no idea what this means but I'm guessing it's not good) and he responded with an approval of “bullseye”. Someone said he might get sued, he said “Be My Guest.” etc etc. I find it utterly frustrating that someone who has the power to do so much good, has the power to inspire, instead chooses to behave like a kid. I am particularly disturbed by this one reaction given by one of his many ardent supporters. 

Doesn't this kind of adoration make him realize the power he has over his followers? They idolize him, worship him, love him dearly, and what does he choose to do with it? Inspire them to spread bad information to other people. Regardless of the fact whether Neelofa is still a virgin or not (something which I really honestly don't think anyone cares about), why did he think it appropriate to make such a personal attack on her? If you don't like the person, why can't you say, “Sorry, I'm not a fan. Haven't had the time to watch any of her films/dramas. Maybe one day I will give it a try.” Yang nak kena share your burning hatred with your followers kenapa? Just say tak suka, dah, it ends there.

A few minutes later, my guess is after reading some of the tweets directed at him that slammed his inappropriate behaviour, he posted this string of tweets.

And another thing worth mentioning here is that, he later deleted the “virginity” tweet. If he truly did come to his senses, all I can say is Alhamdulillah. Good for him. Hopefully there'll be no more childish outbursts from him on Twitter. He should take his own advice if he refuses to take the advice from us “haters”. In the last sequence of tweets above, in the midst of all that bad grammar which rendered some of the sentences completely incomprehensible, he did have some good things to say. The only problem is, he's not taking his own advice. My suggestion is, it looks like he really has no handle on Twitter and what is considered appropriate as a public figure with a social-networking account. The right thing to do would be to suspend the account for awhile and forget about reaching out to his followers via social media. Until he learns that “mesra rakyat” does not mean you get to make personal attacks about another public figure just to show that you are a “cool and honest” prince. All it's doing is making a lot of people lose respect in you. In the words of John C. Maxwell, “A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them.”