Who has got it right, Syed Saddiq or Maszlee?

 

From Terence Netto

Who has got it right on the reasons for Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) waning popularity as reflected by the coalition’s poor performances in the Sarawak and Melaka state polls?

The question has taken on urgency given that the Johor state polls are scheduled for March 12. Nominations are set for Feb 26.

PH won two of 82 seats in the Sarawak elections last December and five of 28 seats in the Melaka polls a month earlier. Both outcomes saw a drop in their takings from GE14 in 2018.

Tentative conclusion: PH is waning in popularity.

Muda’s Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman and PKR’s Maszlee Malik aired their views on the subject when drawn by the media on separate occasions last week.

Both Syed Saddiq and Maszlee are leaders from Johor, the state that will soon go to the hustings. Syed Saddiq has figured prominently in Muda’s seat negotiations with Pakatan Harapan while Maszlee is touted as PKR’s menteri besar-designate should PH triumph on March 12.

As inference, Syed Sadiq attributed the decline in PH’s popularity to what he termed the coalition’s “personality-driven politics”. He suggested that PH should henceforth build a team of leaders rather than be dependent on a mega-leader.

It was hard to resist the interpretation that Syed Saddiq was criticising PH’s dependence on PKR supremo and prime minister-designate Anwar Ibrahim, who is regarded these days as so much soiled goods.

“Malaysia’s politics needs to change. We must stop focusing only on one party or personality but rather focus on building a team of leaders where no one is more powerful than the other,” opined Syed Saddiq at a panel discussion.

Maszlee had a different take on PH’s decline in electoral support. He attributed the drop to lower voter turnout and an electorate worried about their reduced economic prospects as a result of measures to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Everybody is entitled to his own opinion but not to the facts,” said American politician Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Sage advice this, but not very helpful when the facts are difficult to establish.

Indeed, lower voter turnouts in the Sarawak and Melaka polls, as compared to the ones in GE14, impacted PH’s takings at the state polls, and the electorate were burdened by worries over their Covid 19-shrivelled economic prospects.

But those were not the only factors for the lacklustre PH performance in Sarawak and Melaka.

Cumulative disappointment at what was viewed as a feeble PH performance as governors in the 22 months they were in Putrajaya; Anwar’s failed projection that he had the numbers in September 2020 to make the federal government; and the coalition’s dalliance with frogs in the prelude to the Melaka polls contributed to PH’s poor performance.

One thing’s for sure: if PH, especially PKR, does poorly in the Johor polls, Syed Saddiq’s reasons for its decline will resonate while Maszlee’s will be seen as threadbare.

What, then, of Syed Saddiq’s proposition that PH build a team of leaders rather than rely on an iconic one as they have done with Anwar? Leaders who rise to national prominence usually emerge from a travailed past which gives them the toughness to overcome challenges.

If, in addition, they show they have vision and can convince people to support it, their chances are better at getting to the top of the greasy pole, as Benjamin Disraeli described the ultimate prize in politics.

At bottom, the entire quest entails putting immodest ambitions in the service of others.

A rare few possess the singular focus, compelling vision, persuasive elocution, and sense of timing to pull it off.

They cannot be built.

Rather, a pearl of a leader emerges from the oyster bed of an embattled past which endows the person with fidelity to a vision that combined with cogent articulation makes him/her singular.

These days, these formative conditions are absent in the Malaysian political scenario which is why exceptional leaders will be hard to find.

If PH fares poorly in Johor, they will be hard put to find a new leader who has the mettle, vision and persuasion to bind communities into a nation. - FMT

Terence Netto is a senior journalist and an FMT reader.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.