MAY 16 — The election results caught many of us off-guard. Now that the euphoria has come down a little, let us be reminded to avoid certain pitfalls.

While I think we should give the current administration some leeway and give it some benefit of the doubt, the personality worship really needs to end.

Already on social media, people are proudly crowing #MyPM and creating little online fan clubs for Mat Sabu.

This is precisely the nonsense that kept the last government in power way past its due date. An obsession with icons, a need to anoint heroes and the projection of desires onto leaders who are, like us, very human.

We cannot move forward as a nation if we keep being tied down by our feudalistic roots. The practice of kissing politicians’ hands, for instance. It’s a custom meant for either royalty or to show respect for elders. To see a man, kissing the hand of a man around his age, is rather disturbing especially as it is not a show of custom but of subservience.

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is the exception as at his age he’s not so much the "Bapa” (father) as much as he is the "Atok” (grandpa) of the nation, Kiss (his hand) away, just try not to give him any germs, he’s got a lot of work to do.

It reminds me of the time Barack Obama won the US presidential election; so much hope and expectation was placed on his shoulders that were frankly quite unrealistic. Being the leader of the free world doesn’t actually give you carte blanche over the running of the country, something Donald Trump is discovering, much to his annoyance.

Let us temper our demands and be pragmatic about just how much can be achieved within the next 100 days. Already we see PKR returning to form, with its public squabbling and quibbling over seat allocations. It hasn’t been a week but PKR is disappointingly predictable.

It shouldn’t need reminding that the Pakatan Harapan alliance is tenuous at best, fragile at worst. The parties are still getting the hang of working things out and it will be difficult to keep the many, many egos in check. Let us not feed said egos by giving praise where it is unwarranted and too much leeway where it is not needed.

My hope is that the economy and the nation’s finances are at the top of the to-do list — while already so many of my friends are wringing their hands about the not-yet-announced health, education and environmental portfoilos, I’d like them to take a chill pill.

The biggest abuses so far have all been connected to money and if the state of our finances aren’t sorted out, how then can we proceed to properly fix everything else? Money is, whether we like it or not, the lifeblood that keeps everything running.

Our newly-formed government is made up of people — people with failings and feet of clay. People who are now being forced to hit the ground running, who still need to be cautious as the government forges a new agenda.

Let us not build new pedestals after we’ve worked hard to push yesterday’s idols off theirs. Embrace now, this new reality, where we no longer have to treat politicians as though they are our masters when the election showed just who really holds the reins of power.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.