Sarawak – a state of independents
By Maclean Patrick, Free Malaysia Today
It cannot be faulted if we all agree that it is human nature for people to group together within familiar circles. We see this in family units, communities, villages, towns, cities, states, countries and (the obvious) political entities.
It’s a comforting effect – to be able to huddle together in a tight unit either for warmth or security. A habit born from prehistoric times since the days the human species branched out to populate the world.
Human beings are herding creatures, much like the rest of nature.
And as Sarawak approaches its state election, we are presented with a tantalising option: which herd will we join?
Direct membership is nothing new to the Barisan Nasional (BN). Yet there should be a caveat as proposed by Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) president James Masing.
“Direct BN membership should not be a sanctuary for party dissidents or rejects of any BN component party. If BN accepts those characters, it will create a destabilising precedence and open the floodgates for unruly personalities to come in,” he told a local daily.
Rightly so, we do not want to go against Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection. Bad genes in the herd gene-pool would only spell doom for the herd at large. Leave out the dissidents or rejects and all is fine. And BN will be stronger and better, more able to lead the state of Sarawak.
Pakatan Rakyat is not fairing any better, with the Batu Sapi PKR branch calling for Zaid Ibrahim’s sacking before his Dec 16 resignation. Another call in line with many, these past few weeks, for Zaid to be punished. Cull the herd of these dangerous characters, less the herd at large strays from its migration to Putrajaya.
Vote for independents
Darwin would give two thumbs-up and a big toe to these turn of events because it validates his findings with finches (a small bird) in the Galapagos Islands.
But let’s be honest here. Leave the herds to themselves and ponder for a little while. What does Sarawak have to gain from all these political drama?
Either herd presents its own set of evils, and no matter how much you stomp about, asserting your proposed dominance in the savannah, it is just going to be a mere show of hooves and dust and grunts.
To which, many are suggesting that come the next election, vote for the independents. Make Sarawak a state of independents.
Why not? We do have a right to nominate and vote a candidate of our choice.
Allow me to digress a little and take us back to the basic idea of democracy, all the way to the rule of the Etruscan who came up with the idea of the citizen vote.
Not much is mentioned about the Etruscans, for which we can thank the Romans for wiping out much of the historical records of the Etruscans.
