Politics is an unsavory topic for me.
The truth about politics is that there is no truth in it. Politics contains only one's own ambitions and intentions concerning power. One pretends to use that power for the public good when deep inside, one knows it is for one's own personal pride, gain or vanity. The less politicians talk about themselves the better it is for everyone.
The problem with politics is this constant battle between the social good and personal gain. It is easy before one has the power to pretend that one is benevolent, and always will be. After having just got the power, one will try to make good the promises one has made and will most often find them impossible to keep. But on discovering that one could get away from it, one would ride along with the pretense of being benevolent and continuing to make more promises than one can keep. Before long, one believes that the power is rightfully one's own and all efforts will be made to hang on to that wonderful power which enlivens one so much with live and energy, to be able to do as one wish and to be able to pronounce one's opinions as if they are good values. The corruption of power has entered the person.
It is for this reason that one is prone to self-deception about one's own greatness and power that there should be a time limit to how long an individual can sit at the apex of the political power structure of a society, lest the ramblings of old people and lunatics become the wisdom of the day.
Ordinary people to whom politics is thrown upon them look at politicians like gods who throw scraps from heaven for their sustenance and survival. We pray for providence and goodness. The least that we dare to ask for is that the gods do not send ill winds and storms to destroy our families and our homes. We stay resolute to keep prodding on despite the odds in order to be able to take care of our loved ones; for we are heroes, and our loved ones need our protection from forces of evil from outside.
But there are those among us in a free democracy who cherish the ambition of taking power and with no money in their pockets and only a smile and sweet words, try to charm the rest of us that there is an evil that we must fight against and that they are the one who will save us. I never believe in that.
So I am caught in this lousy situation in between old seasoned liars and new seasoned liars. The dynamics of political change do not change, how the newcomers try to destroy the incumbents with all sorts of name calling and accusations which may or may not be totally correct. I care not for those accusations but I fear the unfamiliarity with the newcomers. The incumbents are long dead in their boots, gone beyond redemption.
The only consolation in this world of politics is that there is regular change of the underwear so that the stink does not nauseate. The faces of long-timers on either side of the political divide all look the same, grave and threatening but empty. They are only thinking about their dynasties. I favour constant injection of new blood, and shorter term for politicians so that no one can make a career out of such an important public function. They have got to learn to do real work sometime.
4 comments:
Democracy is for mature countries where politicians are leftists, rightists or anywhere in between. They stand for their philosophical stance. Democracy for Sarawak just does not make sense. The way it is now, we should move towards a modified communism where elections are not necessary. Why waste money and time and frustrations for all. Just let those politicians run the country in whatever ways they like. The rest of us just go about our lives - make money anyway you like. Those with morals by all means make their money morally right. The rest who are amoral, just go forth and make money, straight way or crooked way.
1. What choice does one have then?
2. To be cynical about both options based on a math-minded propensity to equalize and round up will only create a vacuum of silence while the plundering and squandering continue with increasing intensity.
3. All the money come from the peoples and the land. What right has any politician to steal state funds using schemes which the masses cannot comprehend, subvert the integrity of the federal institutions and the constitution, deflect attention by proxying diversions into conflict on race, rights and religion, and then jail those who disagree this is how democracy should work in the best interest of the country artificially and hypocritically made synonymous with the fortune and fate of political parties long past relevance?
4. In the beginning of this nation, good suggestions were quietly adopted that had required the government of the day to change its policies; there was inter-racial inclusiveness which over time became a bedrock of moderation and wisdom. Administrators were embarrassed by even one fiduciary misdemeanor.
5. In the middle stage, the shield of moderation against extremism was broken by a mono-racial movement that created rifts; good suggestions and voices of moderation were rolled over; excesses were swept under the carpet; wastage and corruption became the norm; political power was used to crowbar economic gains that however could not be sustained in the absence of integrity and good management.
6. Now in the epilogue stage, they just do any damn thing they want and right in your face; the vision and missions have crumpled, toxic assets remain that pollute both land and minds; hyenas haw and monkeys chatter; the wheels of the tragic caravans are however too broken to move on.
The alarm bell rings repeatedly, the cctv's video the perps, the tremulous bystanders recognize all of them but yet they saunter out of the peoples bank wearing not masks but wide grins while heaving heavy sacks of ill-gotten gains that put the lie to their lies, not just at the local street corner but right across the globe.
7. The other side can only do so much with so little by way of funds. And it is precisely because their adversary knows they have so little money to campaign that the same adversary has gone full-swing across the nation with their cash-is-king money politics which has spread their original corruption down the pyramid of poverty into the minds and hearts of the gullible who will mindlessly support them today for a dime that will however lose billions tomorrow which could have been better channeled for their welfare, development and jobs. In this grim situation, what practical solution can come from cynicism woven out of under-worn but somehow zenified egos?
2/2
8. Doesn't it make better sense to move the nucleus of political power back into the hands of the peoples than have it soiled by the unprincipled, covetous and culturally superficial few who have remorselessly destroyed the foundation of this nation?
After all, if you can collectively vote for the incumbent players, you can vote out the opposition after you have voted them in and find them wanting. Hasn't the recent state election resonated that vote-swinging rumba?
9. Let us say the curtains will finally drop as an impasse, a zug-zwang, a no-man's zone. What can those who are sane and pragmatic meanwhile do to prepare for their own future and that of their families and friends?
10. The black/grey economy is the only thing you can do. So do it. If a government can marginalize the peoples and voters away from what is good, right and enduring, return the favor.
11. Don't bother with mainstreams; minimize interaction with them; do your own thing; watch the backs of those who are doing the same; work and learn damn harder so that you can make heaps more, then accumulate as much noteworthy assets as you can in order to combine them with those of others like-minded with view to creating share-worthy entities that you can list globally. Then exit and let the world come in with better governance and sanity.
When a government chooses to remain parochial and continues to pretentiously suck its own toes, the peoples must instead move on and globalize on their own so that this country can live on and grow by the statutes of common sense, modern thinking and progressive hard-work made intelligent by relevant knowledge and skills-honing.
12. You think with all these financial scandals, institutional corruptions and ethno-religious sewer racism the world will care a hoot to lend a hand to the incumbents? The economic backbone has already been broken. Save the liver. The soul of this nation.
The answer is to vote for change, not for love of any one particular party or grouping.
Post a Comment