Political pandemic still viral

 

Who knows what our political future holds?

Creators of memes have had a field day with the appointment of Ismail Sabri Yaakob as our 9th prime minister – one election, three governments. Talk about being productive and economical with our efforts.

And an overwhelming sense of déjà vu – back to an Umno-led government (sort of; I live in hope the factional fight within its ranks is just warming up and will be traumatic, should make good blood-sports for spectators) that ignores its electoral defeat in the last general election.

The alibi for all the political shenanigans of the past couple of years is Covid-19, Covid-19, the fight against Covid-19, and the suffering people.

Except that the suffering people are never party to the discussion and decisions that are made in meetings at this house or that hotel.

Shut out from being in the know, people are driven to a mumbo-jumbo seeking of portents and omens.

Ah, when the sultans met at the Istana Negara on Friday, Aug 20, to put a seal on the appointment of a new prime minister, the city’s sky was thunderous with dark, roiling clouds that rained throughout the duration of the royal gathering. 

Kedah got swamped in a flood. Heck, the doom-sayers even mentioned the unfortunate woman who was crushed on the tracks by an LRT train. I thought I was warped.

The Chinese went to town on the date of Ismail Sabri taking over the reins of government – oh no good, 14th day of the Hungry Ghost month. Typical Asian flexibility in syncretism, but really folks, can a Chinese Taoist ghost haunt a Muslim?

The police saw restive ghosts in the shadows. They set up 88 roadblocks to control vehicle movement into the city on the day of Ismail Sabri’s appointment. This was supplemented with the suspension of rail services into the city centre for “public safety”.

The consequence: social media lit up with heated frustration, people hours late for their vaccination jab, pinned in a vehicular clot.

The reason for this: preventing a protest rally that had been called off days before.

Every time I think the bar for farce can’t get lower, I am shown to be wrong.

Yes, it’s a month of restless ghosts seeking roots and home. New government. Music is still playing while the prime minister decides which planks will make up his cabinet. So keep circling round the PM until the music stops, until you get a call.

I would be surprised if the “new” cabinet was not just tarted up window-dressing. Support must still be rewarded. I would be stunned at the audacity, but I would not be surprised if we got a cabinet of 113 minus how many of them Muhyiddin Yassin considers to be kleptocrats. All hands needed on deck to fight the scourge of Covid-19.

The viral pandemic and its deleterious consequences on lives and livelihoods contributed to Muhyiddin’s brief tenure. 

There were polls at the beginning that noted positive figures for people’s perception of how he was handling things. If there has been a similar poll in recent months, I must have missed it. No point is it?

Ismail Sabri should pray and work at reining in the spread of the virus, bringing down the daily numbers of the infected and the dead, bringing up the vaccinated number, and bringing down the health threat to a general election – (pause here for an outburst of expletives over your coalition’s political putsch in Sabah that fuelled its flaring up and its ungoverned return to West Malaysia).

If the government doesn’t get a move on, if a general election is much furthered delayed, I fear memes with one election, four governments – that would be over-killing a joke that was already sick in its black humour.

If I were to scrounge for portents in the future of your government, the signs are not positive.

Former prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin

Muhyiddin’s reference to a Perikatan Nasional (PN) government has been “corrected” by a couple of Umno leaders that it is not a PN government. PN is just part of the new government, a “Malaysian government”, “a mixed government.” That clarifies things.

Ominously, there is also Muhyiddin’s parting words: “Here, I am again today... That is what life is about. What goes up, maybe, must come down. But what goes down now, God willing, I will come back.” There’s a threat if ever I hear one. We have been warned.

Muhyiddin told his wife he felt relieved on the day of his resignation. Sir, that feeling was shared by many Malaysians. - Mkini

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THOR KAH HOONG is a veteran journalist.

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