AUGUST 17 — Recently, PKR Wanita head, who is also Education Minister, Fadhlina Sidek, turned down a suggestion for her to debate with Bachok MP Syahir Sulaiman on education issues. She has wisely dodged a bullet from her political opponent with the rejection.

Now that the elections in the six states are over, there is really no need to engage in unproductive debates that do not contribute to policy-making. As we know, politicians like Syahir want to build on Perikatan Nasional’s (PN) momentum from the state polls.

This is why people like him want to remain in the limelight and further establish PN’s branding in the run-up to GE16... or God-forbid, earlier via Sheraton Move 2.0.

Honestly, what policy input has Syahir contributed to nation-building since his debate with Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli? His suggestions of a new wooden house with four pillars as a new economic model has been poked fun at endlessly on social media.

This can only suggest that Syahir is not interested in a contestation of ideas, but merely to bask in media limelight to score political points. Sadly, a little-known MP is now the talk of town, not because of the productive and constructive ideas put forward by him, but because he has debated a minister but brought nothing to the table in terms of actual and realistic policy formulation.

If we were to trace back the history of political debates in the country, little has come out of them. Those that come to mind include debates between Umno’s Shabery Cheek and PKR’s Anwar Ibrahim, MCA’s Chua Soi Lek and DAP’s Lim Guan Eng as well as Umno’s Najib Razak and Anwar.

We have not come across any fruitful ideas or suggestions from these debates that have been turned into useful policies. On the contrary, they have only heightened political tension and become a platform to grandstand and fan sentiments.

Unless politicians treat debates like the dignified platforms for ideas-generation and evaluation that they truly deserved, we should forget about holding them altogether. As of now, most debates involving opposing politicians are nothing more than horse and pony shows.

There are other ways of generating and evaluating ideas that do not involve political animals preying on voters’ primal instincts. Sadly, debates have turned into highly unproductive and divisive tools.

This is why I salute Fadhlina for seeing through Syahir’s agenda while she focuses on the onerous tasks of actually lifting education standards in the country and empowering women.

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