OCTOBER 26 — As I would rather concentrate on the half-marathon I’m running later this year, I am taking a break from writing about politics at least until the election is over.
Why not make a list of predictions of what I expect to see in our local politics from our local politicians just for shits and giggles then?
I will not bother commenting on MCA, MIC or Gerakan as they are as relevant as golf clubs during a hockey match.
Same old, same old
I expect nothing new or exciting from Barisan Nasional as a whole as they have demonstrated a complete lack of imagination in previous elections.
Why wait for the next election, learn from mistakes and work on winning back the people’s support when they could just engineer a coup and make the elected government defunct?
Expect to see most of the old guard, with perhaps a little musical chairs here and there.
The only interesting question is where they will make Khairy Jamaluddin run despite his unpopularity among Umno’s warlords.
My bet is he’s not going to go far outside the Klang Valley.
Still learned nothing
I wish I could say Pakatan Harapan (PH) learned its lesson but seeing how Selangor DAP is intent on self-sabotage, the power play within Penang DAP and PH’s relations with other parties such as Warisan, PSM and Muda — selfishness is still the order of the day.
PKR is still delusional about how influential it is outside the Klang Valley and is far too eager to collect the leftovers from other parties.
Penang and Selangor, no matter the noise about the latter, will likely still remain under PH but until PH learns to manage East Malaysian relations better, I doubt PH will make inroads in either Sabah or Sarawak.
Grandpas, stay home
For the love of all that is good, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad should finally retire. He wasted his second act as prime minister and bears as much responsibility as BN for the PH government’s fall.
To the people saying Lim Kit Siang should return to help lead DAP, could you re-examine your failure at nurturing newcomers?
As expected, many of the should-have-retired-by-now set will be running and with the pandemic, old age and general lack of fitness among many of them, they will probably need to be replaced in a couple of years due to, well, dying.
Have we forgotten the spate of politicians passing away, forcing many by-elections because we just keep on electing senior citizens with a not-great life expectancy?
Dr Mahathir is an anomaly, perhaps we should start acknowledging that no one else can outlive most of his peers out of sheer spite as he has.
One gender, one ethnicity
You would think women or other races do not exist in Malaysia seeing how they are hardly represented in politics, especially recently.
We need to stop giving crumbs to minorities and accept that those with immigrant roots are Malaysians too and so are our women.
The issue of Malaysian women passing down citizenship to their children was a glaring reminder that in many things, women still are not fully equal as citizens.
Yet I do not foresee political parties making an effort to be more diverse as there is much concern trying to placate just one race, ignoring the others who live in Malaysia
Depressingly, I think that we will have even fewer women being nominated as there has been little effort, but a lot of talk, in increasing women participation in politics.
What else to expect
The thugs showing up at Muda events won’t be the last. It’s an old and tired tactic, to use violence and provocation to create a tense atmosphere leading up to the election.
Many independent candidates will suddenly appear out of the woodwork and there will be more defectors from parties, who will announce their support for other parties.
It’s just another Malaysian election in many ways, it seems.
So who will win?
Barisan clearly does have an edge coming into the election especially as it had done an overly good job at destroying many people’s faith in the democratic process.
There are many people who have decided to just give up, saying a vote does nothing anyway, if a politician can use money to negate its impact.
Still it is unlikely that Barisan will get a two-thirds majority should it win and in many states the results will most likely be close victories.
Will I be voting? Again I will have to sit this one out as with the resurgence in Covid cases and a new variant, and the ridiculous flight ticket prices to East Malaysia, I feel it is better to prioritise my health.
To those voting, may it go smoothly. To those sitting it out too, for whatever reason, may you be at peace with your decision.
Expect the next few weeks to be very eventful but beware of rumours and provocations so if you must, delete WhatsApp on your parents’ phones. Do it for Malaysia, but most importantly, do it for your own sanity.
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
