How the KKB by election might itself trigger of more by-elections

The KKB by-election might not be the last by-election that we will likely be seeing in the foreseeable future. For all we know, the KKB by-election itself will cause at least 2 or more by-elections to occur in the near future.

Nehru Sathiamoorthy

Most of us probably already know about the “6 Jahanam” travesty.

To the uninitiated, the “6 Jahanam” are a group of 6 renegade MPs from the opposition party Bersatu who are stubbornly insisting on staying married to the opposition while sleeping with the government.

What this means is that though officially, the 6 MPs are a part of the opposition party Bersatu, for all intents and purposes, they act, talk and behave as if they are a part of the government, who not only blindly support the government that they are supposed to keep in check, but also stand firmly in opposition of the opposition grouping that they supposedly belong to.

Naturally, the opposition is livid at the idea that 6 of its MPs is sleeping with the government. In tandem with its outrage, a couple of months ago, Bersatu decided to amend its constitution, so that it may forcibly and unilaterally divorce the “6 Jahanam” and be rid of the humiliating prospect of having 6 of its MPs sleep with the government while remaining married to it.

Despite that, the 6 Jahanam MPs are stubbornly refusing to leave the Bersatu fold, while openly fornicating with the government in public.

In the most recent episode, during the campaigning period in the KKB by-election, one of the 6 Jahanam MPs took the travesty to another level by sharing the stage with PH to campaign against Bersatu.

The MP, Dr Zulkafperi Hanapi has even given the most absurd reason as to why he had to commit the travesty of sleeping with the government while being married to the opposition.

According to him, it all basically has to do with money.

He claimed that his monthly salary could be wiped out in a week from just attending weddings and funerals at his constituency where he was expected to donate money as well as pay the wages for his aides.

The lack of funds also meant that he could not organize programmes for the people despite many requests to do so.

“So please don’t vote for an assemblyman from the opposition. I don’t think they can get very far (in terms of helping the people). It won’t be any different from what I have experienced,” he said, to shamelessly ask the KKB voters to vote for money just as he is humiliating himself and the parliament for the sake of money.

Hearing Zulkafperi reminded me of the saying “whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad.”

You know how you know that you are mad? It is when you think that right is wrong and wrong is right.

Zulkafperi is clearly clueless as to what the job of an MP entails and should actually be ashamed of himself for prostituting himself to the government for the sake of money, but not only is he not showing an iota of shame, he is proudly acting as if  he is a role model to be emulated.

Putting aside Zulkafperi’s shamelessness and ignorance aside, his action is almost certainly going to cause Bersatu to demand that he vacate his seat right after the KKB by-election is over. If Bersatu’s demand is not met, I don’t see what other choice Bersatu has other than to create havoc in order to salvage what remains of its self-respect.

Bersatu, by the way, has every right to take umbrage against the 6 Jahanam and the unity government for the humiliation that both the unity government and the 6 Jahanam are forcing it to endure.

It is bad enough that Bersatu’s 6 MPs  is sleeping with a third party while insisting that they remain married to it, to have one of them openly French kiss the third party at the village ball for everyone to see, while loudly claiming that they only do so because “their spouse didn’t give them money,” is rightfully a grievance that entitles Bersatu to even extreme actions.

As it is, Bersatu is already cognizant of the humiliation that is being imposed upon it by the action of the 6 Jahanam and the unity government.

“Think about it, is it logical?” Bersatu president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has commented about the action of  Zulkafperi and Selat Klang assemblyman Datuk Abdul Rashid Asari, who like the 6 Jahanam, is also cheating on Bersatu in the Selangor state assembly.

Muhyiddin might only be ruing the matter quietly for now, but that is likely only because he is still waiting for the Speaker of the Dewan Rakyat to decide on the fate of the 6 Jahanam.

The decision by the Dewan Rakyat Speaker should not be a difficult one. Even a kindergarten student can clearly see that what the 6 Jahanam is doing is not only humiliating to the opposition, it is an insult to the dignity of the parliament and mockery of the democratic process that underlines the very basis of our system of governance.

The problem however is that the government might not be too happy with the prospect of the 6 Jahanam losing their seats. The government must have gone through a lot of trouble to secure the support of the 6 Jahanam in the first place, and if it loses them, not only will all of its efforts go to waste, the repercussion of the loss might even result in it facing an existential crisis.

If the government loses the 6 Jahanam’s seats, and if they also lose most if not all of the by-elections that result from the loss of seats, which has a likelihood of happening, it will again raise the question as to whether Anwar Ibrahim and his government, are ruling the country because they have a mandate to rule, or merely because of some trick of technicalities.

A mandate to rule is just not about technicalities or statistics. It is a real and actual component of organizational behaviour. If the leader of an organization or nation has a mandate to rule, the organization or the nation will interpret the wishes of the leader as its command.

Anwar might control a two-thirds majority in the parliament and he might be able to technically claim that 66 percent of the votes in the country belong to him,  but none of this will mean a thing if no one in the country feels compelled to listen to a thing he says.

There already has been a series of incidents that is raising the doubt as to whether Anwar has the mandate to rule. The last thing he needs is  6 by-elections, which he might not be able to win, to remove all doubt as to whether he has the mandate to rule.

While Anwar will most certainly not welcome the prospect of his mandate to rule being openly tested by 6 consecutive by-elections, Bersatu is most definitely not going to accept  6 traitors, who are intent on humiliating it at every opportunity, in its fold, lying down as well.

Considering all that, I would go as far as to say that regardless of how it turns out, the KKB by-election is probably going to act as a harbinger of more intense and vicious politicking in the days to come.