Senjata Makan Tuan
By Masterwordsmith
In politics, there are no permanent friends and there are no permanent enemies. One could be a friend today, and an enemy the next day. Judging from the dynamics of the power play, the balance of power is in such a delicate position that it could tip either way.
In Just Another Political Fantasty, Himanshu Bhatt of The Sun discussed the implications of the alleged invitation by Nazri for DAP to join BN. Nazri, who was quoted making the invitation by Sin Chew Daily on Aug 14, later denied he had extended such an invitation. Naturally, the DAP quarter expressed surprise at the purported invitation by an Umno leader to join the BN. In response, Penang CM Lim Guan Eng said that the offer had come “out of the blue” as no one had mentioned it before. He then reaffirmed DAP’s allegiance to Pakatan Rakyat.
In reality, the situation has very close parallels with the Gerakan situation in the early 70’s after Gerakan swept into power with popular people’s support to wrest control of the Penang government in 1969. Later on Gerakan joined the federal ruling coalition, the Alliance, which was renamed Barisan Nasional in 1973. Of course, the playing field was different then but this development certainly can (in the words of Himanshu Bhatt) “provide nevertheless some spice to the ever-percolating broth of our everyday politics.”
On September 16th 2008, 30 BN MPs were supposed to have crossed over to help Pakatan form the new federal government. Prior to that fateful day, many Malaysians waited with much expectancy for that purported event to happen. However, nothing happened. No one crossed over to the other side.
Now, let’s be honest. If any Pakatan MPs crossed over to join BN, they would have been labelled as frogs, traitors, turncoats, etc.
When BN MPs are enticed to cross over they are NOT frogs, traitors, turncoats, etc. They are regarded as warriors.
The truth is – BN MPs will NOT cross over unless there is some benefit to them. To put it simply, it means we need to buy them. Would this not make them mercenaries? That being the case, how different would the 30 BN MPs be to those Pakatan MPs who have crossed over then?
You can read more about what actually happened n RPK’s post on The Bumiputera race torpedoed the Putrajaya race.
This post also provides the timeline of events that happened before September 16th, 2008.
This is the sad situation. We applaud and welcome BN MPs who cross over. We vilify Pakatan MPs who do the same. If so, what values do we in the opposition maintain?
Cheating is okay as long as we win. Cheating is not okay if it is BN that wins.
In short, we have reached that part in the political game where many seem to have no values. Why?
