Disgruntled candidates: Don't threaten, don't beg - JUST GO!

As the decision-makers on both sides of the political divide name their candidates who will battle in GE-13, we are also beginning to witness a worrying symptom. It appears that the fibroid of self-centeredness is widespread on the political landscape of this country. And that in itself is a shame if not a curse over generations to come.

When a candidate does not get selected to stand in the elections, the pattern seems to be to threaten to jump ship by journeying on alone as an independent or to piggy-back with the opponent camp.

Listening and reading about how unsuccessful politicians are reacting to their not being selected makes you wonder where have all that talk about the noble virtues of service above self gone to.

Just because you do not get what you think you deserve you believe you have a right to rebel with threats and allegations.

Yes, in all probability, there could have been a darker hand at work that caused your displacement. But if you are as capable as you claim to be then you should have had that wisdom to spot the cloaked hands long before and not wait till the nation arrives at the doorstep of a defining moment in its political history to pull the rug under the citizens’ feet.

No one asked you to BEG - just GET LOST!

It is most disgraceful when individuals who claimed to serve the rakyat by riding on the platform of their respective political ships cannot suddenly see the big picture of victory for voters. They can so easily fume, threaten and jump ship simply because they believe they "deserve" to be the chosen ones.

Some even proudly and unashamedly claim that "because I have sacrificed so much of my personal time and money why can I not be chosen?". Hello politicians, what is the very basic notion of 'sacrifice'? Have you forgotten?

How can we trust such individuals who under the claim of fighting for the citizens have made themselves so indispensable and see themselves more important than the political party they claimed to defend all this while?

Indeed this is a cancer that can only eventually choke the political landscape of Malaysia. In the end there will be no winners. When you so easily sacrifice the higher and nobler principles of politics and trade-off with self-centered desires, elections remain as mere formalities.

Come GE-13, voters must differentiate the wolves from the sheep and rise above these self-centered, greedy tides and show our politicians that they as voters have what it takes to extricate such fibroids from our political organs.

MAILBAG