APRIL 17 — It is said: Politics is the art of the possible, not what is right. It is also about horse-trading. And at the same time, it is about votes cast, not counting people who clap. It is, above all, and never must the gathering crowd forget, a game of meeting the needs of the people, not the needs of the politicians.
So they say, and more.
As nauseating as it often gets, one is forced to ask, has there ever been a field of play which has had more clichés than politics? All of them, each of the throwaway remarks above which are abundant in any ten dollar political manual, in their various permutations, back all views and in time negate the very views they were hoisting up with pride in the beginning.
They say so much without saying anything. They say everything, though nothing is said.
Look in particular at the last bit that politicians go around trying to please us. And what they figure constitutes most of us.
If all politics is to meet the people’s aspirations, and if most of the pursuits of politicians — the successful ones in Malaysia are bigoted — would that mean our people's aspirations are laced with hate, or stating more plainly our people are bigots.
Because only when the vast number of the community are ardently bigoted that national leaders also echo this view, seemingly.
Meaning our polling booths are visited exclusively by those who hate only, and therefore those who lobby for their votes need to show the same level of intolerance?
Cue, the high court judge who despises large statues; the mother who loses her child to a man in a van who gets away because he's related to her Muslim ex-husband; the ultra-religious organisation upset with a church displaying banners in the national language; the mentri besar(chief minister) who rather let the federal government's lawyer decide a fractious case disfavouring non-Muslims — who are the voter majority in the most populous state — despite knowing he's preferred arbitrator is also the man who prosecuted his boss to six years in jail and whom the man who put him in that seat believes to be part of a continuing conspiracy to persecute him; the only religious party in Parliament proposing a religious criminal code extension to already over-reaching religious courts and secularists on both sides of the aisle unwilling to say nay to it; and a major candidate to be deputy leader of the party likely to have the first non-Umno prime minister, which could mean him in four years saying that his multicultural party has an open understanding that only half of its members are the real leaders in the party.
Below is a sampling of recent news reports:
‘Huge’ Hindu Buddhist statues against Islam, ex-judge says
Minister backs IGP’s decision to ignore Seremban child abduction
Seremban council demands ads in Malay, says church in Easter uproar
Under fire over bible seizures, Selangor MB uses legal advisor as shield
Anwar says PAS has right to hudud agenda, but still needs Pakatan consensus
Azmin’s rubbishes Saifuddin’s claims, stresses on PKR’s diversity
These are current issues where there is a colossal absence of leadership.
Many political leaders caught in the storm are actively or passively backing what they feel are safe decisions. They are seemingly giving in to the clichés.
For they believe these are the majoritarian views.
The findings
Are Muslims in Malaysia repulsed by cultural constructs which are opposed to their personal beliefs? They may be indifferent to idols, but do they want to be indifferent to individuals who believe in those idols?
Are Muslims in Malaysia unperturbed by the wailing of a mother who’s seen the abduction of her son in broad daylight, just because the father of her children is a Muslim now?
Are those walking to a mosque or mall in Seremban susceptible to deep moral imbalance because they’ve seen an invitation in Malay to an Easter weekend play? Even if the city council forced the “Malay” condition on the organisers, how is it shocking to know that Malaysians running a Malaysian church after being educated in Malay are — horrors of horrors! — writing in Malay?
Are we not to imagine the worse when Selangor Mentri Besar Khalid Ibrahim surrenders his judgement on the bibles in Selangor to Attorney-General Gani Patail who rarely fails to serve the Pakatan Rakyat interest in any courtroom? Saying Gani will decide is akin to saying let Barisan Nasional decide a crucial Pakatan Rakyat state issue.
Of course PAS, being an Islamic party, are always going to propose the hudud, but why would all those personally opposed to an Islamic state and committed to the secular state not speak up strongly enough? Is it because they feel they’d lose local votes?
And then my party, the Secretary-General underlining that PKR has the tacit approval of all non-Malay members that Malays are supposed to dominate the party. Surely this has nothing to do with the fear that PKR is seen to be too progressive and risks losing supporters to both PAS and Umno.
Speak if you want to be heard
These affronts to Malaysian sensibility are building up by the day because the often purported silent majority has lived to form, being muted.
The politicians are picking up these lines and nuances, and falsely imagining that a large number of Malaysians expect politicians to hold these opinions if they want their vote.
The disconnect happens because the minority is loud and the overwhelming majority is missing.
Your politicians have averaged out the population based on who speaks and not the total number who can speak and therefore worked out that the average Malaysian is bigoted.
Politicians respond to numbers. So if you want to up the national average from bigoted to mildly sensible then conscionable persons should begin to speak up.
But for now, the politicians are justified by their survivalist tendencies to speak to the inner bigot rather than the moderate Malaysian because only one group seems to be present.
This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
