GE13: End of an era

This election the country might bid farewell to leaders like Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad (87 years old), Lim Kit Siang (72 years old), Karpal Singh (72 years old), Datuk Seri Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat (82 years old), Datuk Seri S Samy Vellu (77 years old), Tun Musa Hitam (78 years old) and Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah (76 years old).

Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani, fz.com

THIS coming general election we will probably witness the climactic end to the career of politicians that have coloured and shaped the country's politics as we know it today.

 

Leaders who have flushed the country's newspaper headlines and stirred public imagination with their unmistakable quotes.  

 

Politicians of conviction and not consensus, as the late Margaret Thatcher had described herself.

 

This could also be used to describe these politicians who never minced their words regardless of how ridiculous they may have sounded to the common people.

 

Charismatic leaders who were puppet masters, able to tug at the heart and emotions of the rakyat with their oratory masterpieces.

 

The country's political sentiments have been swayed and anchored by these stalwarts of Malaysian politics and torchbearers of public opinion.

 

My generation, my father's generation and grandfather's generation have seen these leaders gun-slinging against one other with their quick and sharp retorts.

 

This election the country might bid farewell to leaders like Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad (87 years old), Lim Kit Siang (72 years old), Karpal Singh (72 years old), Datuk Seri Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat (82 years old), Datuk Seri S Samy Vellu (77 years old), Tun Musa Hitam (78 years old) and Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah (76 years old).

 

With most of the leaders well into their 70s, it is hardly likely the country will see them campaigning in the 14th general election.

 

These leaders' personas reflected the country's state of political maturity at a time when the nation was still looking for direction and identity.

 

A country that was still learning how to breathe and considered as a backwater of the region.

 

A country of farmers and fishermen, rubber and tin.

 

Fifty-seven years later, these leaders still dominate the nation's politics but the country is no longer a blip between Singapore and Thailand.

 

The country is no longer black or white but black and white, with an emergence of a grey area.

 

The country is no longer divided into distinct racial or religious silos but united in their economic hardship.

 

The rakyat is slowly realising that their loyalty is not for any political party but to themselves and their future.

 

Politics in Malaysia is slowly becoming about the people and no longer about the political parties and its personalities.

 

Loyalty has often been used by politicians in the post-colonial era to divide and conquer but it is time that we move forward.

 

As the country turns a new chapter with polling day next month, both Pakatan Rakyat and Barisan Nasional will introduce new candidates as both try to reach out to the 3.7 million new voters who had never experienced the hardship of the pre-Merdeka generation.

 

The next five years, we will see who among the new leaders will able to take up the mantle from the old guards and drive their parties forward. 

 

These leaders will determine which political party will survive or slowly disappear into the history books.

 

We need leaders who are not looking to blow their own trumpet but able to articulate and intelligently discuss issues that affect the people.

 

We need thinking leaders and not only preachers.

 

It will be interesting to see which leaders will be pushed into the upper echelons of their party leadership.

 

Will it be leaders like Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah, Tony Pua, P Kamalanthan, Gan Ping Sieu, Rafizi Ramli, or Salahuddin Ayub? 

 

Malaysia will decide.