Politicians are no laughing matter

Cartoons are figures of fun portraying human foibles – stinginess, greed, stupidity – meant to evoke laughter.

Except our authorities have not been laughing.

Already arbiters of what is acceptable religion, language, art (recently at the Biennial at the National Art Gallery), news, etc, they also sit in judgment on what people should laugh about.

Zunar hasn’t been able to get a chuckle, much less a laugh, out of them in ages.

The government is right. No good can come from laughing at our politicians.

I confess: I used to be snide whenever a politician was having an apoplectic fit, claiming he was misquoted for a vacuous statement. Hey, want to be heard clearly? Next time take your foot out of your mouth before you speak.

Here are the grounds for my shift in attitude.

The Greeks created drama and its genres of comedy and tragedy. The kernel of Greek comedy was an amusing “agon” or conflict.

It’s amusing to have conflict? Go ask the thousands who have fled from Syria. Their answer probably will be: nothing comes from “agon” but “agony.”

What was the usual “agon” in a Greek tragedy? A society of powerless young people unable to progress, unable to get rid of a society of the powerful old, left with no recourse but derisive laughter.

Do we want this in our country – young people laughing at our musty, past-their-shelf-life politicians?

Weren’t we taught from young to respect our elders, to salam them, gently wipe away their drool and look like we’re paying attention to their garbled, rambling monologue, no matter how demented or senile they are?

Don’t we want the young to have another career option? It doesn’t matter which side you pick in Malaysian politics. All get rewarded – a title, wealth and property overseas on one side, mass adulation while under detention on the other. Win-win is what I say.

Lastly, but most important, as the world’s second oldest profession, politics was the first pillar of civilisation. This was when warring tribes realised endless raiding for slaves and livestock, meant diminishing numbers on both sides while larger, hungrier tribes were looming on the horizon, and decided to coalesce in larger numbers for security where land was rich or harbours deep.

Just as there was no more raiding neighbours (though IS is trying to recreate that primordial era), men took their conflict into politics. Instead of eviscerating enemies face to face, they stabbed each other in the back, whispered lies.

Once in a while, the tribal genes asserted themselves and they reverted to coups and assassinations to settle differences, but generally, over the centuries, there has been evolution.

In many parts of the world they just lied, got misquoted, and talked and talked and talked … and now we have tolled highways and submarines, hillside re-development in more ways than one and GST, all thanks to politicians serving the people.

Who do we blame?

A largely thankless task (forcing some to thank themselves) prompting US president Ronald Reagan to say, “Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realise that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.”

Considering the pressures of the post, the president was entitled to feel f***** once in a while.

But a moment of violated vulnerability is nothing measured against where civilisation is now, helmed by politicians.

We need politicians, just as they us.

Who do we blame for the haze, landslides, traffic jams, crime, rubbish? Politicians.

Who do politicians blame for the haze, landslides, traffic jams, crime, rubbish? Us.

Here is a selection of profound thought from illustrious leaders of state, immortal wordsmiths. Ponder their wisdom brewed in decades of politics, and the next time you feel like sniggering at a VIP, don’t, for they’re no laughing matter.

“He knows nothing, and he thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career.” - George Bernard Shaw, ‘Major Barbara’

“Political language … is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.” - George Orwell’s essay, ‘Politics and the English Language’

“A statesman is a politician who places himself at the service of the nation. A politician is a statesman who places the nation at his service.” - Georges Pompidou

“The saddest life is that of a political aspirant under democracy. His failure is ignominious and his success is disgraceful.” - HL Mencken

“Vote for the man who promises least; he’ll be the least disappointing.” - American financier and presidential adviser Bernard Baruch

“Men enter local politics solely as a result of being unhappily married.” – C Northcote Parkinson

“The more you read and observe about this political thing, you got to admit that each party is worse than the other.” - Will Rogers

“Politics, as a practice, whatever its professions, has always been the systematic organisation of hatreds.” - Henry Brooks Adams, ‘The Education of Henry Adams’.

Politicians have their hands on the levers that channel the flow of the nation’s billions. What is so damn funny about that?

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THOR KAH HOONG is a veteran journalist. - Mkini