a charade...eh?

A charade that shows up our political naivety

by Zainul Arifin

THIS must surely be how it feels like to live under a circus' big top. Be thrilled and enthralled by feats more daring than the last. Come one, come all.
You think nothing can top the attempt to implicate the deputy prime minister's wife in murder? How about a police report alleging a former deputy prime minister of sodomy, yet again?

Come see the (political) high-wire act, the human cannonball bent on self-destruction and, of course, the jesters.

Truth, they say, is stranger than fiction. Could a more ludicrous script be written? Well, yes, but only by reality, of course.

How about an assassination attempt, yet again, to prevent the self-proclaimed prime minister-in-waiting from executing a coup d'etat with the aid of MPs with unhappy feet. And then there was, of course, the early morning refuge at a foreign embassy.
How about yet another conspiracy, this time involving the nation's top law enforcers to frame the former deputy prime minister a decade ago?

These are all, of course, not a tirade against, nor indictment of, the former DPM. It is just the situation we are finding ourselves in, where a confluence of events is making us punch drunk with conspiracies and he seems to be right there in the centre of everything.

Never have the security camera recordings at a Bukit Damansara condominium, said to be the scene of the crime, been so anxiously awaited. Either way, whatever was found in them, the images would weigh in big on the nation's future.

Sometimes, I feel like I am at the busiest cross-section of the city -- say at Bukit Bintang in Kuala Lumpur -- on New Year's eve, with traffic, din, neon and revellers all fighting for my attention. I am overwhelmed. Suddenly a loud horn blast makes me jump, and a 16-wheeler speeds past me, and the driver shows me the finger.

I need some respite from all the dramas, and the drama queens. Ever since the elections we have had more posturing and pouting than elbow grease. Unfortunately, the campaign for the 13th general election began in earnest the day after. Bless our poor souls that we have to live and endure through this for months on end.

In Parliament, because of the heightened interest following the outcome of the elections, we have still more posturing from both sides of the aisle.

Does observation affect outcomes? Can we ask the age-old philosophical question a la "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"

If Parliament is in session, but it is not reported by the media, do our MPs still put on their game face?

Life under the big top or at the crossroads is not really healthy for us. It saps our strength and takes a toll on our mental well-being. Reading the newspaper is like a visit to the dentist.

In the news, on a daily basis, about a dozen individuals continuously dominate our attention. The fact that almost all of them are politicians, proves yet again why some of us look at politics and politicians with askance. Oh, for the good old days of Mawi and Siti.

Do we deserve this? Is it karmic retribution for being nasty to foreign labourers?

We need a respite from all the endless politicking. The citizens have elected governments and we are living with our choices, whether we like it or not. We expect the same of our politicians, whoever they may be and whatever the ideologies and affiliations they may have.

We understand the roles of government and the opposition and the inherent need for one-upmanship in politics, but we find politics as usual abhorrent when we are trying to make sense of the economic challenges facing us.

These past few months we too have found out that so-called liberals can be as dogmatic and as unwelcoming to differing opinions, as the incumbents they try to knock off.

Politicians need to be careful. If they keep this up they could be found to be irrelevant. People might soon wise up and see that the country is actually being kept together by civil servants.

One of the better opinions I read of late. A tad right off centre for me liking but hey, nobody's perfect. The last sentence should read: People might soon wise up and see that the country is actually being kept together by civil servants, despite more than a few black sheep among them are bent on being dirty politicians themselves. Maybe dirty politicians is being redundant. They are of the same meaning.

The hopelessness of being....

" What do you mean you prefer to be with him than all of us?
Ohh... Damn! "