Wednesday April 27, 2011
Shahrir chides blogger over ‘sin city’ JB
By MOHD FARHAAN SHAH and YEE XIANG YUN
newsdesk@thestar.com.my
JOHOR BARU: A poem on the Net that derided Johor Baru as a “sin city” has ruffled the feathers of its MP Datuk Shahrir Samad and the state government.
Shahrir accused United States-based blogger Dr Azly Rahman of degrading and tarnishing the city through Sin City, Jay Bee a Tribute to Johor Baru that has appeared in several anti-establishment portals, including DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang's blog.
He dared Dr Azly to return home and see how the city had progressed.
“Johor Baru is not trying to emulate New York. The crime rate there is much higher than it is here,” he told The Star, when asked to comment on the poem.
Shahrir chided the blogger for living in the past.
“Sorry to disappoint him, but Johor Baru is not like what he had in mind when he wrote the poem,” he said.
Johor Tourism and Environment committee chairman Hoo Seong Chang said such negative poems would not affect the state's tourism.
“We have proven ourselves with attractive packages that pull in visitors all-year long,” he said.
“I understand the state's cleanliness has been an issue but we are working on it.”
Hoo said about 16.5 million tourists visited the state last year.
“For the first three months of this year alone we have already attracted 3.9 million tourists an increase of 455,672 when compared with the same period last year,” he said.
Dr Azly, who lives in New Jersey, said he was born in Singapore but grew up in Kampung Melayu Majidee here. He studied at a boarding school in Kuantan and continued his studies in New York.
In his poem, he portrayed Johor Baru as a drug-ridden, corrupted and eco-unfriendly city with a poor economy.
One of the stanzas in the long poem, reads:
Jay Bee
You may be called a city of filth
Of gang wars and transvestite galore
Of rock kapak geniuses conceived immaculately
From the womb of Papa Rock
Ahhh New Johor New York you may want to be
Thou shall never attain that notoriety.
In the final stanza, Dr Azly wrote: “You were once mine, you will no longer be.”
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11 comments:
Azly Rahman,
"Sin City" I believe is a name given to Las Vegas Nevada in US. It is a place where people gambles and doing other form of vices.
I cannot understand why you are making a similar references to JB town plus addition remark about gang wars, ganja, filth and etc.....
I think that your intention is to spark anti establishment sentiment since Johor is BN strongest fortress.
What you have written is not from what you had observed personally but from others.
For your info, since you had not been back for a while, Singapoean flock to JB every weekend and there are a lot of them bought their second home in JB. There will be a MRT link from Singapore to JB in a few years time. These will not be happening if JB is as what you describe it.
For a person who had grown up in Kampung Melayu Majidee to write this kind of garbage.....shame on you.
Jay Bee
Defenders of JB shits ! Covering the shit that is real ! Open your eyes and mind man ! Its happening !
Anonymous,
FYI: i was back in Malaysia TWICE this year. I know JB more than you.
Azly Rahman,
You know more about JB then me...
So can you please elaborate more about the Gang Wars....What and where is the gang wars?.....between whom exactly?....How many people died?.....I was born and brought up in JB, the closest thing I know about Gang Wars is the CD I've rented in JB starring Marlon Brando and Al Pacino.
Ganja Filled the air...which part of JB is that? ....can you be more specific... there are multitude of drugs in America but Ganja/cannabis is soo much that it filled the air in JB? where exactly or are you just giving a bullshit story/poem based on your fancy.
Filth....which part of the country where there is an exact contrast to JB? KL maybe...?
Amuraria....open you eyes? ...can you please be more specific or you are just full of shit like this chap writing this crap?
Jay Bee
you had problems understanding poems and my creative license, Anonymous? i sense you are not a student of literature and not able to proceed with this discussion though you did well with your arguments that are a non-issue. i did not realize that poems can stir one's anger ...relax Anonymous, you are upset for no clear reason as if JB is heaven to you? I grew up watching, right before my eyes adults get wasted with drugs listening to stories of this or that gang going after each other.
and i do not owe you any explanation out of any poem ...
JB is a shitty place to grow up in.
kelakar la doc nie..tak yah balik la ,duk je kat us , jay bee tak perlu org mcm doc nie.
Dr pls dont discuss with there kind of people who studied live in the hostel until graduated, later got a middle class's job. they never know the real life of the underprivileged class citizen and street life for the other world.
Yes. JB indeed is a sin city. I own a house in Johor Jaya. I rented it out to a factory nearby. And they let their female workers to stay there. But after about 3 months, they called me and said that they wanted to stop renting and wanted to move out. The reason is that their female workers got robbed and/or raped. I had to reduce the rental charges to keep the tenant. They agreed but will only let the male workers to stay there. They said that the police only take note of reports of such incidents but never take action. That is why the bad guys never stop doing such terrible crime in the same area.
Aha...JB! For the one who had such high praises for JB must be well...either ignorant or living in a cave or may have a different agenda altogether which we all may not know isn't it?
Or, maybe this individual is either do not have the correct vision to see the facts and reality on what's really happening around where crimes are indeed rampant to an unbelievable critical level!
For you, yes, you coward out there who refused to acknowledge the facts and provide constructive suggestions on how to address such problematic issues rather than hurling your abuses to the one who dares to bring such issues to light (and mind you, have every single right to voice such issues, even if it is just based on his personal observations and points of views just like what I am trying to convey too), I would strongly suggest you to just get your heavy butt off your comfort zone and onto the streets in JB and just by casually asking around with "real people" living in JB to find out how many out there who have not have their share of experience with either home broken-in, thefts, car windows smashed and valuable looted, car stolen, snatch thief, robbed, etc where the culprits are almost never caught. And that's is just the superficial level.
That will not be a task too difficult for you to do isn't it? And then come back and update us your interesting findings yeah!
On a related note, I am flabbergasted to read the comment of one particular MP of ours who commented that the crime rates level in JB is low as compared with New York.
With the sheer size and population of New York alone, even if it is only 1%, the crime numbers will of course dwaft the number of cases in JB.
If such simple mathematical logic could not be computed, I really wonder what kind of progress could be expected!
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