MARCH 18 — They say politics is just another job and every four years the politicians may lose theirs at the ballot box.
Fascinatingly, the phrase is radically true and false at the same time.
Politicians are mortals and face similar risks the employed endure, but they live lives few employees experience regardless of salary or position.
They are to perform for our satisfaction, their falls may be spectacular and their rises inscribed in our history books. Their words are our café chatter.
Separated from other celebrities in that they affect all our lives even if we do not love or hate or care to know them. They can screw all our lives, therefore I humbly submit, it’s not just a job.
They are humans entrusted to ride power for both themselves and the masses, and later belatedly made aware they themselves struggle to conceive the nature of power.
They are terribly human. And at times, terrible humans.
Remember this as the next few weeks and months transpire, taking all of us on a journey we never asked for.
In case the Internet died on you the past few days, here's a recap: Dr Xavier Jayakumar left PKR over the weekend. Ever-present in the party over the decades and having been assemblyman, state exco, parliamentarian, minister and party vice-president, his departure has immense impact.
But it’s not a passing of an era, as the dentist immediately stated his support for his previous opponent, Perikatan Nasional (PN).
A defection.
So much is mentioned of Xavier (Kuala Langat), Larry Sng (Julau) and Steven Choong (Tebrau), most of it unkind. However, they are not the only presumed villains in this theatre piece, it’s a crowded stage with a queue in the backstage and a few acts still to be played out.
Don’t rule out a surprise or two.
Three years of free-loving
Wild swap soirees have dominated since the last general election. Not unlike swingers’ parties, except these are party leaders trading their jobs for better deals.
Politicians have moved in different directions defecting from their respective parties. In two waves.
The first wave, occurred between June 2018 to late 2019. Barisan Nasional (BN) leaders, more pertinently MPs, quit as individuals and blocks.
Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB), Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS), Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) and Sarawak United People's Party (SUPP) left BN on June 12, 2018 to become Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS)
Not to be left out, individuals began their exits from June 23, 2018 with Bagan Serai’s Umno MP Noor Azmi Ghazali kicked things off. They assiduously left separately, only to converge en masse in Bersatu.
The reason is alarmingly simple.
Pakatan Harapan not BN was in charge and apparently it was pointless to be with Umno when it has no power. Pakatan was the promise, BN was not.
The phase ended with the sudden government change on March 1, 2020, not the least due to these allegiance shifts, these new players.
The second wave ensued from that point and remains ongoing.
In this phase, Pakatan Harapan MPs quit to support PN.
Now out of power, it’s unseeming to remain in the opposition.
As if on cue, GPS switches allegiance to the new ruling coalition. Even if the support for PN is conditional.
At that point, all bets were off.
The waves produced aftershocks unnoticed by casual observers. The stayers — MPs who never strayed — sensed impermanence was upon even them. In the aftermath of PN’s formation, parliamentarians seemingly can choose or not choose to support the ruling coalition without hurting their party membership.
Umno encapsulates this expediency.
MP for Gua Musang Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah openly opposes PN. Umno MP for Ketereh and Minister Annuar Musa backs PN, declares impending defections will reinforce it.
Umno vice-president Khaled Nordin is bent on fighting Bersatu at the polls. Umno MP for Rembau and Vaccine Minister Khairy Jamaluddin, who is not in Umno’s Supreme Council, busies himself with efforts to buy, distribute and deliver jabs to Malaysians so they’ll remember him later and not blame him for the present mess.
Also not in the Umno Supreme Council but thrilled to be foreign minister is Sembrong MP Hishammuddin Hussein. Umno Deputy President Mohamad Hasan is not in the Cabinet and constantly decries party disunity.
Umno President and Bagan Datoh MP Zahid Hamidi is both in Dewan Rakyat and court, and his PN views are damning or cryptic depending on who he met the day before.
In short, it’s mad.
Is it possible the record-breaking transfers back and forth of MPs over three years and still ongoing is undoing the most cherished fact of Malaysian politics where sides were clearly marked?
Because if greys dominate, traditional voters might also be swayed to act out of character in the next election.
That can be deadly for PN, BN, Pakatan, Muafakat Nasional or Pakatan-with-Warisan-Muda or all. A proper Russian Roulette.
Fear and loathing in the Dewan Rakyat
Back to the initial dilemma, should MPs behave like regular employees or small business owners?
We tell normal workers to create space between them and their jobs, to mind the self, family and friends too. Work-life balance in all its glory.
If MPs put that hat on, then self-interest would dominate.
Yet we expect our MPs to not act in their self-interest, instead we ask them to put others before themselves. Not to take the easy routes because many lives are at stake.
Ironically, the MPs claim their desertions are about the voters not themselves. It’s so incredulous it’s astonishing.
The only take home here is that the MP job is impossible by definition and to just expect those elected to be honourable and to self-sacrifice is selfish on our part.
The difference between a fledgling democracy and a stable democracy is not its politicians, but rather its voters.
Politicians may or may not know their jobs are central to voters’ lives.
Voters have to remind them, often. Shout too. From rooftops. And then repeat. That’s the path to political stability.
Their flaws are obvious, so too are our roles, to bother them till they try to be respectable politicians. Even if they merely pretend.
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
