{"id":3106,"date":"2012-11-02T12:42:40","date_gmt":"2012-11-02T04:42:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/?p=3106"},"modified":"2013-02-20T17:45:09","modified_gmt":"2013-02-20T09:45:09","slug":"dont-be-duped-by-bns-bread-and-circuses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/dont-be-duped-by-bns-bread-and-circuses\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t be Duped by BN\u2019s Bread and Circuses"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Nicole Tan Lee Koon<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The term “Bread and Circuses” (Latin: panem et circenses) is a figure of speech for a fake sense of satisfaction or the \u201cfeel good\u201d factor. In the case of politics, the phrase is used to describe the garnering of public approval through manipulation and\/or the instant\/quick mere satisfaction of the shallow requirements of the citizens.<\/p>\n

In other words, as “panadols” for quick fixes. Juvenal (a Roman poet) defined it as \u201ca simplistic motivation of common people\u201d. The phrase is taken to describe a populace that no longer values civic virtues and the public life. To politicians, it connotes the winning formula for the survival of the Roman Republic for centuries.<\/p>\n

Both the Roman Republic and China\u2019s Han dynasty lasted for 500 years. The former used \u201cbread and circuses\u201d whilst the latter was an absolute monarchy. Instead of winning the citizens\u2019 approval through excellent public service and policies, the Roman Republic gave cheap food and entertainment.<\/p>\n

The Roman Republic provided the bread and circuses in order to order to keep the Roman citizens from becoming too discontent with their lives. The Roman government provided the citizens with enough food (bread) so they wouldn’t starve and enough entertainment (circuses) so they would be amused. Hence, the Romans elected them again and again.<\/p>\n

BN\u2019s breads are the 1Malaysia goodies and handouts (BR1M Part 1 & 2, free tyres for taxi drivers, smart phone allowances for young adults, FELDA\u2019s RM15,000, pay rise for civil servants, etc). BN\u2019s latest \u201c bread\u201d was announced by Najib : \u201cNajib Announces RM2.98 Billion for Sabah next year<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n

BN’s circuses shows are the alphabet soup management (ETP, GTP, NKRA etc); not forgetting tarring the roads before any General elections. Another great circus show was Najib\u2019s “groundbreaking” announcement in his Malaysia Day’s speech. He said the government shall repeal the 3 Emergency Declarations and the draconian statutes like ISA, Printing Presses and Publications Act and Banishment Act.<\/p>\n

They were BN’s powerful weapons to curb opposition and Rakyat who do not accept the government’s policies. Why should BN take away these powerful weapons ? It is actually for BN’s political survival. Like the lizard’s survival skill. The lizard will shed its tail in order to escape for its predator\/death.<\/p>\n

Food (or bread) for thought : is BN using the age old formula of \u201cBread and Circuses\u201d to survive another general elections ? Are we gullible enough to allow that to happen again ?
\n*Steven Sim\u2019s article \u201cIs A Country A Brand?<\/a>\u201d also touches on bread and circuses.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Nicole Tan Lee Koon The term “Bread and Circuses” (Latin: panem et circenses) is a figure of speech for a fake sense of satisfaction or the \u201cfeel good\u201d factor. In the case of politics, the phrase is used to describe the garnering of public approval through manipulation and\/or the instant\/quick mere satisfaction of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3130,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[283],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therocket.com.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}