Political TURKEY? Who's the political TURKEY? Ooops MCA, it's YOU!

My task for Christmas is to find a turkey.

Please do not laugh at me as it is actually a very challenging task, particularly in Malaysia.

Most turkeys found in supermarkets seem to have been frozen for three years and it might take another three years to defrost them. They look more like plastic then real turkeys.

No matter how good your ingredients are and how advanced the oven you use, it is still hard to turn plastic turkeys back into real meat. Perhaps, they are more suitable to be food for humans on the moon.

For convenience, we can actually order from western restaurants or hotels. However, you never know whether the taste is good or not. Many restaurants and hotels have prepared turkey dishes for Christmas in a mass manufacturing style. They give you whatever necessary, except for the taste. And they charge high prices.

Although it is not easy, I still have to find a turkey for Christmas year after year. After all, it would hardly be Christmas if there is no turkey for Christmas table, right?

I understand that the meaning of Christmas is much more than a turkey, but it just seems like missing something without a turkey.

It was said that people did not eat turkey to celebrate Christmas in the past. In Europe, people ate goose or hunted a bear. I am just wondering how many chickens would be needed to feed the whole family?

Later, turkey was brought into Europe countries from the US. The meat of the ugly poultry was hard, try and tasteless. However, one was enough even for a big family. If some spices, a variety of ingredients and sauces were added, it should not be too bad.

It then became a tradition and the main dish on Thanksgiving and Christmas tables. Its symbolic meaning has become more important than its taste.

Turkeys would be carefully selected from the farm to be served on the White House's dining table on the Thanksgiving and Christmas Day in the past.

It doesn't have to be X'mas for us to know who's the TURKEY!

When Abraham Lincoln was the president, he could not bear killing the turkeys meant for the Christmas table after many lives had been sacrificed in the civil war. He thus announced amnesty for the two turkeys.

The turkeys lived and was returned to the farm. It became a much-told tale showing the compassion of the national leader.

Since then, it became a tradition for the White House to pardon two turkeys every Thanksgiving. This year, President Barak Obama pardoned two turkeys named "Popcorn" and "Caramel".

After pardoning the turkeys, Obama joked: "Even a turkey with a funny name (Popcorn) can find a place in politics. As for Caramel, he's sticking around and he's already busy raising money for his next campaign."

Except for Lincoln, the White House's turkey pardoning ceremony has become a political propaganda for the following US presidents. It seems like turkey is having a special relationship with politics.

Not long ago, British Labour Party's shadow chancellor Ed Balls was said to have lost the trust of the party and would be replaced. Prime Minister David Cameron told Ed Miliband at the final Prime Minister's Question of the year., while gesturing towards Ed Balls: “You don’t need it to be Christmas to know when you’re sitting next to a turkey!”

In the English-speaking environment, turkey represents a has-been figure. No politician wishes to be called a turkey and if they are branded the title, it means their future is doomed.

Just like the MCA party election this time, the losers will become the turkeys being excluded in the party's mainstream. Therefore, candidates have resorted to all means to fight for votes.

However, the party itself has become a frozen turkey like those found in supermarkets. It has been left lying there and even Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had suggested that the party should take a shot of political Viagra.

The Liow faction eventually won the party election and their first target should be getting out of the freezer, so that they can be defrosted and revive.

If they fail, they should then try the cold turkey approach to completely separate from their past to see whether there are chances to revive.

Missing the last chance will make them turkeys after Christmas, with no more market value. - mysinchew