Opposition cannot even get their act together but want us to leave our fate with them
Umar Mukhtar
Just because the man next to you is an asshole, it doesn’t make you a better man. You could be worse. Don’t get me wrong, I am one of the millions of Malaysians who yearn for change. But to hope that the opposition will be that agent for change does seem to be expecting a bit too much.
First, they thought that a coalition of like-minded forces is the answer to our woes of a disunited opposition. Hence, the emergence of Pakatan Rakyat and now Pakatan Harapan, in spite of the dismal failure of Angkatan Perpaduan Ummah, Gagasan Rakyat, and Barisan Alternatif, principally made up of the same players. Same thing, glossy packaging.
Instead of looking substantively into the causes of the earlier failures, they chose to pretend that the problems of opposition cohesion can be solved by adjusting forms. Adding to the pretensions was a manure salesman peddling his personal agenda, so you have a potent combination to make up a pathetic excuse to keep Barisan Nasional in power.
It wasn’t that the fissures were invisible. They were screaming to be addressed. But addressing them would mean that the real divisive issues would resurface and the parties might lose their die-hard supporters. It was a game that made any accommodation be deemed a self-defeating compromise, and so the spirit of kiasu reigns.
Gloss it over, that’s what they did. And it was almost successful in PRU13. Suddenly it was as if the age-old problems were resolved. The Pak Lebais wearing skull caps with ‘black-eye’ T-shirts carrying the ‘rocket’ flags. How and why did that happen? A common hatred of BN? That’s how we over-simplified it. We, too, gloss over the fact that each party secretly retained its own political ambitions exclusive of its partner.
So we celebrated that superficial crap that disguise age-old distrusts. Saw a photo of that last night and I couldn’t help smiling to myself. It is now a collector’s item, a symbol of our institutionalised hypocrisy. Somehow, an MIC man wearing an MCA T-shirt carrying the UMNO flag seems more realistic, money politics and political shams aside.
The truth is, BN has got the formula that worked in terms of coalition politics. Say what you may about the pervasiveness of it all, but it ruled for more than half a century. It was not perfect, but it worked. PR seem to say that it has an ideal solution, or have they? Maybe it’s a mirage of what can be but PR wouldn’t touch it with a ten-foot pole, as if not to risk smudging any of its cosmetics.
So what kind of politics is that? It’s about retaining the purity of sectarian interests above everything else. It’s about being a big fish in a small pond. It’s about having a fall-back option in case things don’t work. And they dare dream of coalition politics without an appreciation of what sacrifices need to be made in the politics of accommodation.
That the opposition is in disarray is the least you can describe it. To take over Putrajaya takes more than the holding up of placards in a House that should thrive on oral arguments (parley-ment) instead of imbecile and comical indiscretions that cheapens its dignity as an august place where mature adults hold discourses that decide a nation’s fate.
BN, too, is in a disarray. But the opposition is unable to offer a unified response that encapsulates a Malaysian solution; not a party or community solution. They just bitch and bitch and bitch, while sometimes adopting the negative traits of those they bitch about. Until the opposition gets a true Malaysian leader without odious personal habits, BN will continue to rule.
Oh yes, the opposition will have a hundred excuses on why and how BN won. Always the bully’s foul play and never the opposition critical introspection of their own flaws. It’s a tradition Malaysians can do without. Be reminded that BN, too, can still come up with a solution, it’s not just the opposition’s monopoly. It’s the opposition’s good fortune that BN seems blur about what really matters other than a free lunch.
Meanwhile, I wait for Jo Lho to enter politics. He seems like a winner who does not have to pay his dues. What? What do you mean ‘rich already no need to enter politics’?
