Governing by the numbers

 

The bell in Parliament has tolled 11 times (at the time of writing) during the committee stage of the Supply Bill, and to my ears, it sounds like a dirge, a death-knell for Anwar Ibrahim’s hopes of heading the government before the end of the year.

The budget for 11 ministries cleared. Another 16 to go. Where are the numbers? Where will they come from?

Umno? Nobody has jumped ship, with only Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah taking a stand. Concessions were made to satisfy Umno’s demands, so they stayed put … for the moment

They still have the threat of withdrawal from Perikatan Nasional to exercise periodically till the next general election. It’s ingrained in the heritage of our cultural behaviour – nothing more satisfying and more often than not successful than a full-blown merajuk (sulk). If nothing else, it’s a cathartic venting of steam to singe or scorch your target.

Hasn’t Anwar learned, after all these years in politics, that if you deal with shifty, slippery people who cannot stay still and consistent, you can’t count on them for the numbers? There are always people who can offer bigger numbers.

Talking of merajuk, MPs from Warisan were conspicuously absent for one vote. If they were to maintain their distance, whom else is Anwar counting on for his comfortable majority?

His last-minute instructions for Harapan MPs to pass the Supply Bill at the policy stage last week stirred up a storm of fuss and criticism, charges of cowardice, and dissent even from within his coalition.

He tried to deflect the brickbats by promising that Harapan would be calling for bloc votes during the committee stage when each ministry’s budget came up for scrutiny.

Well, so much, so far, for the bloc votes.

Anwar should watch the current hit Netflix miniseries, ‘The Queen’s Gambit’.

In the orphanage where she was placed after her mother died in a possibly suicidal car crash, a young Beth Harmon (played by Anya Taylor-Joy) learns to play chess with the custodian, Shaibel.

In one scene, Shaibel, having mentally played the game several moves and counter-moves ahead, tells Beth to surrender the game, her cause was lost.

She didn’t see it that way. She still had a fight, she still had pieces on the board. A few moves later, she surrendered, toppled her king piece.

She asked why she had to surrender so early to the inevitable concession.

Shaibel’s reply? "Sportsmanship."

I would never ever expect sportsmanship from a politician, but right now, with the passing of each ministry’s budget, it feels like a slow dripping, a death of a thousand cuts, instead of a swift retreat, barely covered by threadbare excuses, for Anwar’s current campaign.

Beth learned about surrendering – when the battlefield was lost because of a flaw in temperament, a predictability in strategy, cracks under pressure, being lured unwittingly into an untenable position – in that the loss is bearable because there will always be a new game.

Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin must be happy with his daily tally of numbers in Parliament. It must increase his receptivity to the increasing clamour from both sides of the political divide to have a general election.

It is crazy to contemplate a general election when the daily number of new Covid cases and the surfacing of new clusters of infection suggest that, at least in many areas and aspects of social interaction, we have become too close to each other and should practice avoidance, not gathering.

Without counting new voters, my constituency tallied over 135,500 votes in the last election. With a minimum social distancing of one metre, that’s a collective queue of over 135 km, stretching way past Tanjung Malim and well on the way to Ipoh. How long will it take to process our lot, without electronic or postal or early balloting for more people?

But when have politicians factored people’s wishes into their plots and plans, except as lip-service alibis for their foraging into greener pastures?

In the next election, Muhyiddin thinks he will have the numbers, with support from other parties, to fend off Umno’s barely polite tendering of an eviction notice from the prime minister’s office. Umno thinks it will have the largest number of seats post-election, reversing the table and allowing it to patronise and condescend to listen to Bersatu’s gripes.

Harapan thinks it will regain the numbers or more from the last election because, in the end, the current voting in Parliament is by MPs who feel the seats are personal furniture given to them by supportive voters and not party property.

So Anwar, on to the next game. Change the script. A fourth time and your promise of numbers will be greeted with derisory disbelief.

Will the next election settle the numbers? With Malaysian politics and politicians, don’t bet on it.

In the meantime, here’s a couple of negative numbers for Muhyiddin: 48-10 in the vote of confidence against Perak menteri besar Ahmad Faizal Azumu.

In his concession speech, Ahmad thanked all assemblypersons.

"I miss you guys sometimes actually, seriously," he said, with a chuckle, of his former political allies in Harapan.

Seriously, he’s funny.

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THOR KAH HOONG is a veteran journalist. - Mkini

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.