Perak State Administration And Pandora’s Box
There are people taking to the street to reject the new government; there are also people forming teams to defend the royalty and new administration. These two opposing forces represent the confrontation on the political, legal and moral fronts.
By TAY TIAN YAN/Translated by DOMINIC LOH/Sin Chew Daily
The change of government in Perak is more than just the change of a state government.
The whole incident has been a black box that hides many things from public vision.
Like Pandora's Box that hides many mystical powers, which turn the world upside down once the box is opened.
Pandora's Box was derived from the Greek mythology. But when comparing it with what happens around us today, there appear to be many similarities.
Pandora was the first female human being created by Zeus to teach mankind a lesson. Under the arrangment of Zeus, she was presented to one of the gods, Epimetheus.
Epimetheus accepted Pandora, and when the wedding ceremony was held, Zeus ordered that each of the gods place a gift inside the box to be given to Pandora.
Epimetheus' brother Prometheus warned him not to accept Zeus' gift. Soon after marrying Pandora, Epimetheus began to regret, because other than jealousy, greed and vanity, Pandora's greatest weakness was curiosity.
Since the day she was married, Pandora had wanted to open the box which contained the gifts from the gods, while Epimetheus had tried to restrict her curiosity, for he knew the gifts inside the box might be no good to anyone.
One day, when Epimetheus was away, Pandora opened the box and a pall of smoke rushed out from it, liberating all the contents within, including happiness, sickness, sorrow, friendship, disaster, love…
Pandora was excessively frightened, and quickly closed the box. Nevertheless it was too late, and only "hope" was left inside the box.
According to Greek mythology, all the problems encountered by mankind today have come from Pandora's Box.
Perhaps you might ask: What has it got to do with Perak?
Think about it. Isn't this Pandora the administration that everyone is trying to grab?
Isn't Pandora's Box a gift that comes with the administration?
Indeed, this administration is a gift to BN, but there are good and evil things inside the box. Once opened, what come out from it may be all kinds of benefits, but also all sorts of facts, such as power wrestling, moral controversies, human greed, disloyalty…
BN finally won over Perak, but that was not done with voters' mandate.
BN's way has triggered all forms of reactions as well as contradictions.
There are people taking to the street to reject the new government; there are also people forming teams to defend the royalty and new administration. These two opposing forces represent the confrontation on the political, legal and moral fronts.
More people choose to remain silent. But deep inside them, they have plenty of queries.
In the near term, it seems that BN has won the battle, but in the long term, will it win the war? Or will it win a battle but lose another?
As for the Pakatan state government, it is indeed a setback for failing to complete its term of office. Having said that, its performances over the past 11 months should leave behind some traces that will allow the public to conduct a fairer appraisal and comparison. This will lay the foundation stone for it to recapture the state administration in the future.
In the end, only "hope" is left behind, and hope is what everyone could claim.
After all the hoohahs, it will become a kind of consolation, and a motivating force that will guide the future.
