Almost There

It seems the much-awaited 13th General Elections (GE) is just around the next bend. An MCA leader said it should happen within six weeks.
 The war-drums however, have been thumped since long ago. In fact since the 12th GE when the ruling coalition party, Barisan Nasional (BN) chalked-up one of its worst performance ever, Malaysians in general have done little else but talk politics.
 Many are growing increasingly tired of the politicking as other issues affecting Malaysia seems to have been relegated to the bottom of the 'To Do' list. At times, it feels like we are approaching India's status as a nation with probably the most politically-charged society around.

 It seems in Malaysia today, everybody has a political opinion. And everything from a football match to defending the country's sovereignty can be politicised. It is true that all is fair game in politics.
 So much so that if all the politicians, their supporters, including those online are to be hauled up to face our legal system to answer charges for commiting civil offences, we will face a major productivity problem since a large percentage of our workforce will be busy attending court hearings for civil suits. The lawyers will make a killing.
 Supporters of both the government and the opposition parties are liberally defaming and slandering their political foes in public -- in newspapers, in party bulletins, in speeches, on Youtube and all the other social networks on the internet.
 It is also true that in politics, there is no permanent friend or a permanent enemy. In politics, in the pursuit of the coveted trophy of having the right to govern, convenience takes importance over everything else, and forgiving a former bitter foe is as simple as lighting a cigarrette, as long as he/she can promise a better chance for the party to win.
 And to a certain extent, there exist similarities between the political parties in Malaysia and the professional football clubs in the British Premier League. Players can be bought and sold.
 Usually, a lot of money are involved in the transfer of professional football players. And it is not wrong to say too that most of the players switch clubs to earn more money.
 Money is indeed central to the whole equation and in politics too, we have seen people changing allegience and changing their colours almost at will. Loyalty is only lip service.
 It is not surprising therefore to see a very strong critic of one party at one time, vehemently defending it in the very next election. Feelings of remorse and wanting to help correct whatever wrongs they claim to have realised have little to do such a phenomena.They say if all other leads fail, check the money trail.
 In the days leading to the 13th GE we will be entertained to numerous campaign speeches. In fact, they have started going from place to place, with the aspiring leaders, so to speak, saying everything that the other side does is wrong, and that they, and only they, are the saviours. All they ask for is that X mark next to their party symbol on the ballot papers.
 Sadly, not much of these speeches make sense. Most of them use the makeshift stages and the microphones in their hands to run down what the other party is doing, without providing much of a solution of their own. Many are no better than the street medicine peddlars we'd find in Jalan Masjid India in Kuala Lumpur.
 Their speeches and silly jokes will usually be interspersed with shouts of approvals from the audience. In the end, the success of any campaign speech is measured simply by the amount of laughter and shouts of approvals from the audience.
  We should be wary of this for if we choose just based on the comical acts these politicians perform on stage, we may discover later that the joke is actually on us.