The pot is as black as the kettle?
Kapil Sethi, The Malay Mail Online
When PKR, the political party leading the charge against the politics of division of Barisan Nasional is of the opinion that their incumbent Selangor Mentri Besar (MB) is not enough of a politician to continue in his job, the phrase about birds of a feather flocking together naturally comes to mind.
Two Selangor politicians including the MB don’t see eye to eye for the longest time but carry on for six years, yet suddenly an assemblyman from Kajang resigns triggering a by-election that the leader of the Federal Opposition himself announces his candidature for, in order to solve the internal problem by becoming the next Selangor MB.
Watching the contortions of the likes of Rafizi Ramli, Tony Pua and Anwar Ibrahim in trying to defend an action that is essentially born out of a petty internal squabble would be laughable if it weren’t so pathetic.
Somehow while the current MB is a great administrator, he is not enough of a dirty politician to take on the big bad Barisan bogeyman. So what to make of the cleanliness of the person who can take them on when he becomes the next MB?
What to make of the party that is not about personalities but policies pleading to the voters of Kajang to give Anwar the mandate as it may spell the end of his career otherwise?
What to make of the suggestion that somehow with Anwar as MB, the Malay Bible seizure issue would have been handled better when the party has yet to make its stand on the “Allah” issue unequivocally clear?
What to make of the idea proposed by Anwar himself in an Australian interview that the move was to showcase how well PKR could be a model of good governance, implying that under Khalid it was not?
Apart from the rabid Anyone But UMNO (ABU) gang of Pakatan Rakyat (PR) supporters, recent events within PKR have been a cruel letdown to those who thought that the coalition represented a radical departure from the politics of cynicism, with voters being mere pawns in the larger game centred around the pursuit of power.
Indeed, PKR leaders have not been shy in admitting that this move is part of a larger game plan to wrest power at the federal level, somehow implying that the means justify the ends. So they can behave equally badly as other politicians till they control the country when they will magically transform to become the people-serving, power-shunning incorruptible beacons of hope that their supporters think them to be.
“The consumer is not a moron. She’s your wife.” This quote by David Ogilvy is not just a caution to advertising professionals, but equally applicable to politicians seeking votes. Particularly to a political party whose support is primarily from the urban, educated and moderate segment of the electorate. The more PKR twists and turns on the issue, the greater the doubt in the minds of the people who have learnt to ask questions of their leaders in the freewheeling environment of the alternative media.
Questions such as “Why is Azmin Ali being happy so important to the welfare of the rakyat that all of this Kajang move is seen as an effort to placate him?” or “Why are people like Rafizi and Pua who have built their reputations by not being conventional politicians willing to risk it all by defending something which smacks of pure political wheeling-dealing?” or “Are the views of voters who returned the party to power in Selangor with a greater majority irrelevant because PKR knows better as to who should lead the state?”
When it is implied that ordinary mortals cannot understand the higher order thinking that led to the Kajang move, PKR is one step closer to treating its supporters as morons. Dr Mahathir might approve. Even if it yields more votes from people who do not support it currently, the consequences on the support that it takes for granted could be deadly.
Even worse, it would reflect negatively on the same set of urban, educated and moderate supporters of DAP and PAS, who would legitimately wonder if this is the view of just PKR, or all of PR.
And that would be a crying shame for an electorate looking for a strong political alternative to BN. Not just to talk up their differences from the ruling coalition, but to live up to them.
