The PAS man and the BN flag

Ivan Yeo, TMI

This morning, I saw a man putting up flags for PAS. As he was doing so, a BN flag caught the wind and came unmoored from the railing. The man stopped what he was doing and crossed the road, holding out his hand to stop traffic where the BN flag had fallen. He picked it up, and tied it back to its original spot. He raised it so it once again caught the wind, its colours flying.

You can tell a lot about someone by how they treat those they don’t need to treat well. This man showed something sharply absent in the run-up to the elections: dignity.

I think it’s going to be hard for politicians of any stripe to be gentlemanly. For the ruling coalition, a very obvious desperation can be seen. Their appeals are poorly dressed up threats.

The narrative can be boiled down to this: “Choose us, or else.” Many of them trumpet progress that was built by people who were in office when they were in school. Reading their self-congratulatory statements on the campaign trail, you would think they single-handedly built this country.

They didn’t. We did. You did. Your parents, your friends and you.

There are no Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerbergs or Lincolns in the sitting government. You are the thing that has made Malaysia work.

The opposition similarly has almost perfected their playing of the Martyr’s Symphony. “Look at how they’ve tried to oppress us!” The shameful ploys of the government are real, and really despicable. The Election Commission (EC) can make no claim of objectivity after the whole DAP CEC fiasco. 

Even Fight Club has rules. But after you’re done nodding and bitching at yes, how unfair it all is, you’ll notice they’re milking it. Everything has become strategy: “We can use this!”

Fortunately, the election doesn’t hang on them. It’s down to us. The state of the country after May 5, 2013 can be seen right now, in each other. We need to be better than our governments, and I’m hopeful that we are. I need to be.

The man I saw this morning did not forget this simple power we have but seem to have forgotten in our rage and our (not unwarranted) cynicism. Our country is not our government. Our country is us. It will never be better than how we treat each other.

I saw a man treat his adversary with grace, dignity and respect.

And I’m willing to bet he would have done it even if there were no elections.

You have that power.