The circus is back in town

 

So finally, the open secret, the guessing game, and the hopeful musings have been put to bed. Malaysia will go out to vote within the next 60 days. Of course, the actual date hasn’t been announced yet. That would be too easy for us. Lest we can plan our end-of-the-year breaks, work, and festivities.

The intelligentsia of Malaysia are on over-drive to speculate when nomination and election day will actually be. It is so amusing to read the various ‘experts’ offering fantastical theories about when and why the date will be such or such.

These analyses make for very good late-night reading before dozing off.

The seat grab season has begun. Hitherto unseen politicians will suddenly be camping in the constituency of their choice or hope, whichever the case may be. Coffee shops and wet markets will be awash with politicians of various persuasions doing meet and greet sessions.

Many election hustings or ‘ceramah’ will happen. Some of these politicians are good value for money. As an erstwhile comedy club co-owner, on many occasions, I had hoped to secure the services of some of these politicians to grace our stage. Many of them are consummate closet comedians.

Each of them will espouse why you should select them. The usually aloof chaps will transform into congenial and convivial fellas. Everybody will now have time to listen to your problems. And every politician will promise that they are the ones who will look after your needs and rights.

Right now, is the time for us ‘rakyat’ to milk these political aspirants. Go out and ask for new roads, new bridges, new street lights, new parking spots, new schools, new hospitals, new places of worship and more welfare projects etc.

None of them will dare to say a serious ‘no’ to you.

Even if they know that they cannot fulfil their promises to you, with the most earnest look, they will, and there’s no doubt here, tell you that “…I will look into this.”

Of course, nothing much will eventually happen. Until a few years from now, when they come back and beg you to select them again. And conjure up their most earnest look once again.

To be fair, we do have some politicians who will work at fulfilling their election promises. There are actually conscientious candidates from all sides of the political divide. But even the good politicians will be bound by their ‘paymasters’ – not the ‘rakyat’ – but their political bosses.

Everyone will have to toe their party-line. If not, the ‘surat watikah perlantikan’ or the formal letter that says “…you are our candidate” will not be signed by the party leaders.

They cannot disagree with their bosses, and then be expected to be selected. And while there is white-washing that a ‘committee’ will decide, we all know that there are warlords who will actually decide who gets to stand for election and who doesn’t.

Even in political parties that have the word ‘democratic’ in their name, there is nothing democratic about them choosing their candidates. It’s never about the choice of party workers, or the local populace having a say in the choice of candidates. It is always about whether the candidate is pliable enough for the leaders and obey without questioning anything.

And, we Malaysians don’t seem to like, trust or believe in ‘independent’ candidates, anyway. We vote for the big party logos, don’t we?

So, the leaders of the main political parties or in the case of our next election, the leaders of the main coalitions will decide on the candidates, the theme, and the drive of their campaign. Or rather, what kind of circus we will see.

By my estimation, there are four coalitions with differing agendas in Peninsular Malaysia.

East Malaysia collectively runs on a different fuel. So, by and large, as seen on numerous occasions before, one particular peninsula-heavy coalition, banks on what they call ‘fixed-deposit’ seats from East Malaysia.

So, here is my ‘man on the street’ guide to the coalitions we have.

But I want to lay a caution statement out first. I am not an analyst, I am not part of the Malaysian intelligentsia, or even an aspiring political scientist.

I am just an irritated voter who has had to cancel his vacation plans with his wife because some opportunists pulled out a date from thin air to hold elections, thinking that it is expedient for them.

First, we have our most famous and long-established coalition, which governed Malaysia for decades. Much of the development in our country came during their time. There is no doubt that they raised our standard of living and quality of life.

But at the same time, they also emboldened the racial divide, they stood by and promulgated rampant corruption in the public sector, they presided over the weakening of the various democratic institutions in the country, and they did all this in the name of development.

Malaysia today, is in a terribly messy situation, undoubtedly, because of them.

Then there is the next hopeful coalition. The majority of the citizenry voted for them in our last elections. After 60 years or so, they broke the monopoly of that first coalition. And in the time that they were in power, they tried to start reforms and bring the rule of law back to Malaysia.

But these former lions and tigers in opposition, got themselves a strange ‘ring-master’ who was their arch-enemy and nemesis. And astonishingly, this strongman tamed them quite easily. It became a coalition of strange, uneasy bedfellows.

And, like all dodgy partnerships, they broke up after just 22 months.

From this broken second coalition, arose two more new players on the block. One is the coalition of the traitors who peeled off from the legitimately elected government. These miscreants got together with some other interlopers and usurped the government. For months the moniker ‘backdoor government’ stuck with them.

These untrustworthy fellas want us to trust them again.

The fourth and perhaps strangest coalition is the one formed by the former ‘ring-master’ himself. What they stand for and what they will deliver is all still a mystery. Currently, it feels like it is simply a vehicle for this man, who wants to remain relevant in his ripe old age, to regularly make press statements.

So, there you go. The circus is back in town, and it wants to draw you in. Beware. - FMT

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