Same old, same old - old men, old battles

The New Year’s Eve weekend was a blissful time because, by and large, everyone in the world suspended hostilities.

Journalists must have had a hard time finding a politician to badmouth another, or an analyst to pontificate on the temper of the electorate. Even the daily twit Trump didn’t dump on anyone during this period of goodwill.

That moment of peace – other than the WhatsApp blizzard of videos of soppy singing of Auld Lang Syne and fireworks displays, jokes and greetings – is over.

Now it’s back to the silly season of politics – politicians sniping at each other, hurling charges, extolling achievement.

This noisome nuisance, this tiresome to-and-fro, will probably drag on for at least another two/three months (please, please, please, not longer) till we get the general elections.

The ceramahs, rallies and forums are petering out. Is there any adult Malaysian who hasn’t heard the truth/lies about 1MDB and formed an opinion? There are a multitude of Malaysians who can’t manage to construct a coherent simple English sentence, but know the meaning of “kleptocracy.”

For that matter, are there many voters who are still sitting on the fence?  

It’s the same old, same old – old men, old battles.

Old men? Hey, I am an old man.

But old battles? Really! I wrote editorials for The New Straits Times in the 80s and I had to go to archival material to refresh my memory on details of Memali and Bank Negara. C’mon, who cares?

The demand that Dr Mahathir Mohamad (photo) apologise for past actions? Move on, man. This is like a kids’ squabble: say sorry, otherwise I won’t friend you.

Living in the past for what? Malaysians’ main concern is for their future.

The silly fuss over the “interim PM” of the opposition coalition? What is one thing the prime minister and Mahathir have in common? The charges made against them are that they had/have full control over the reins of power and patronage.

Cabinet ministers toe the party line, unless the issue affects Chinese or Indian concerns.

Hiroshima’s Peace Park

Are we still going to invest our hopes in one man, whoever he may be, give him unchallenged reign?

I would say yes if he were someone like the assassinated prime minister of Sweden, Olaf Palme (photo). I had the good fortune to deliver a paper in 1981 in Tokyo at the Olaf Palme United Nations Commission on Nuclear Disarmament.

He sought me out during lunch at the Peace Park in Hiroshima, because he saw that I was overawed the past couple of days in the presence of my fellow panelists – an ex-president of Nigeria, David Owen (later knighted), Gorbachev’s adviser, Georgy Arbatov, India’s UN ambassador, etc.

I was charmed by his simple humility. My theatre experience taught me to hear falsity in speech, and there was none in his chat with me.

There was no cant in his explanation of his idea of socialism - he served the people. If a citizen had a grievance, he/she could go to his office without an appointment and if he were in and free, he would see them. They would not be fobbed off to see an underling.

I did take a pinch of salt when he said that if the citizen wanted to see any of the documents in his office, he would not prevent it. He said everything was on record for the public.

If only… here much of official documents and dealings are secrets that must be kept from the rakyat. That’s okay. It’s official. Not good for us to know. Why upset us unnecessarily?

Palme was shot, inexplicably, while walking home with his wife from the cinema, without any security. If a man so much loved and respected can get shot, I understand why many of our politicians need bodyguards. 

1,000-year reign?

One change in recent days is the raising of the pitch of invective and vitriol, “infidel” and the analogy of a dead man walking, making the news.

In my first year in the University of Malaya, one of my compulsory courses was Malay adat (customs). Was that a History course I took? What has happened to the traditional deference and courtesies?

This change for the worse can be seen in the other communities too. No thanks to social media, any Jamal, Bala and Lim can spout crap or worse, inflammatory provocation that reinforces prejudices on both sides.

Tell us, better still, show us how to unite a country that is fragmenting into prickly tribal enclaves. Or at least expand and inhabit the common ground between the communities.

The official portrayal of Malaysia as a harmonious multi-racial, multi-cultural, multi-religious nation is becoming a lie. Everybody piously mouths unity and harmony, but their actions belie their words.

Guess it’s wishful thinking to have the nation get together to mend fences for the moment. Whoever wins the elections will have a majority of the seats in parliament, and have a large minority of disaffected Malaysians.

That means the same old, same old, gearing up for the next mother of all battles, over the next four or five years.

The shortsighted opposition wants change this year. The only farsighted statesman in the country is Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, because he has shifted the goalposts back three decades.

I hope I will live to see that day, the dawn of a new glorious, transformed Malaysia, because it will mean I will be celebrating my 100th birthday.

In the same prophetic vein, the PM promised his party a thousand-year reign. That was unfortunate. The last head of state who promised his followers that, wound up holed in a bunker, killing himself as Russian troops tightened the noose. 

A thousand years of same old, same old Umno? Give us a break. 

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THOR KAH HOONG is a veteran journalist.- Mkini