A Lesson For Young Politicians
By Tay Tian Yan (Sin Chew Daily)
Penang Deputy Chief Minister I Mohamad Fairus Khairuddin has only himself to blame for losing his power. He was given the opportunity to become the Penang Deputy CM when he was only 33 years old. He was seen as a future political star with a bright future.
All came to him too easily. He did not work hard but his good luck brought him all. There is nothing wrong with good luck. However, it is definitely wrong to have failed to use it well.
Politicians must fulfil four conditions: righteousness, ability, effort and luck.
Luck may just fall from the sky but the other three conditions depend on the politicians themselves. If they rely only on luck rather than working hard on gaining righteousness, ability and effort, luck will as well leave them very soon.
Fairus did not understand the truth or perhaps, he did not care at all, thinking that with his luck, everything will be alright.
| "By now, Fairus has finally done something right, that is to resign." |
The people of his constituency rarely saw him and he seemed to be an outsider during or the State Executive meetings. He had no political performance; he did not show up in activities sponsored by him, and even his party leader Anwar Ibrahim and Penang CM Lim Guan Eng at times had to wait for an hour for him.
Eventually, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission started investigations when a PKR member accused that two senior state party leaders had been working with local quarry operators to cover up illegal activities. The finger was pointed to Fairus.
Prior to this, Fairus thought someone was edging him out and he was the victim of the inner-party struggle. Indeed, there is a power struggle within the Penang PKR. The question is, which political party has no power struggle?
As long as you are doing your job well and have done nothing wrong, everyone can see your efforts and contributions, you would not be defeated. Otherwise, you will be cast aside by the people even if no one is fighting against you.
By now, Fairus has finally done something right, that is to resign.
Generally, the Penang state government's effectiveness and incorruptibility have been affirmed since they took the office last year. In order to live up to its Competency, Accountability and Transparency (CAT) tagline, the state government's team quality must be neat. The state government representatives of both DAP and PKR must all possess high, instead of uneven, quality.
The state government and PKR leaders worked together to make Fairus resign so that they could build a firewall to prevent the state government's credibility being affected.
Such a decision should be made long ago. Fortunately, the delay did not result in a great disaster.
Young politicians, regardless which party they are in, should have learned an important lesson from Fairus. As for Fairus, if he has really come to his senses, perhaps he can still carry on his political career. (By TAY TIAN YAN/ Translated by SOONG PHUI JEE/ Sin Chew Daily)
