ZAINUL ARIFIN Please switch off the politicking

(NST) MY first reaction was, Oh, no! Not again! We need a by-election like we need holes in our heads. And now we are going to have two.

We have not had any respite from politics for a long while; it seems like forever, whether we like it or not. Not just politics as usual, but the in-your-face-take-no-prisoner partisan politics that often get the worse out of us.

The air is so thick with nastiness that we often need to check the soles of our shoes to see if we had stepped on something slimy and bad.

Our seemingly endless immersion in everything politics started at least back in 2007, and climaxed in March 2008. Unfortunately, someone forgot to press the "Off" switch, and the politicking has not subsided since.

These political goings-on have been trying and tiring, as well as draining, especially with threats of crossovers and the by-elections in Penang and Terengganu.

The tussle for control of Perak last week is yet again an example of how we have been subjected to endless politicking — we let politics and politicians rule us, rather than the other way around.

We have shown that we are highly, nay, rabidly politicised, and as emotional as a 5-year-old on his first day at kindergarten.

Regardless of how we feel, or our political leanings, we should all take a step back and look at the bigger picture. Is the whole thing that our politicians are putting us through worth it?

Politics is a game of perception and promises. It is one where he who shouts the loudest wins, and wins everything. The loser must learn to take his lickings, even if he has lost by just one vote.

Now even as we try to negotiate the economic crisis looming ahead, we are yet again tested by the need of more, not less, politics.

The two coming by-elections for Bukit Gantang parliamentary seat in Perak and Bukit Selambau state seat in Kedah seem destined to pile on us many more layers of acrimony on top of those already suffocating us.

But for every dark cloud we must believe that there will be the proverbial silver lining, or else accept that we are really cursed to go through our lives through the whims of politicians, and the ebbs and cycles of politics.

For me the silver lining is that by-elections, especially in this current political climate, will provide us more than just opportunities to elect representatives to Parliament or state assemblies.

Each by-election represents an opportunity for political parties to define themselves better and make their cases further with us voters on why they should be the ones to represent us. The more the by-elections, the better we shall know our parties and politicians.

A series of elections will also give opportunities for political parties to royally screw up in front of our eyes. You know the saying, "give them enough rope, they will hang themselves".

Away from the relatively wide scale panorama of a general election where the action is spread out, the smaller by-elections provide us focus. They give parties the benefit of scale that allow for better use of resources, and where domestic issues like clogged drains share the stage with national agendas such as transparency and governance.

While it started out as a beauty contest, repeated by-elections will require our political parties to start asking us to look beyond their looks. What are their ideals, their vision and their agenda? Are they capable, or just a bunch of opportunists?

A number of by-elections will help us to re-visit often made campaign promises and allegations. The more elections we have, the more our politicians will have to work on their messages.

Politicians, too, will have to be consistent in their messages and actions, and not be masters of convenience, repackaging snake oil to cure all the ails of all the people.

Barisan Nasional, for example, may see by-elections as an opportunity to show that it got whatever messages sent to it by voters thus far, and is really about changing and winning them over, again.

For Pakatan Rakyat, by-elections will allow it to build up its credibility as a serious alternative, and not a rag-tag sleepover where the partygoers insist on conspiracy theories whenever the love they feel the whole country owes them are not translated into victories.

I suppose in that sense the more by-elections, the better. If only our hearts and pockets can take it.