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The politics of one-upmanship
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Lim Sue Goan
Friday, 30 July 2010 17:40
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OPINION It looks like the MCA has found an Achilles heel of the DAP when the scandal involving a Selangor municipal councillor exploded early this week, and it is certain that the MCA will not easily let go of the yummy heel it is now biting.
Klang municipal councillor Tee Boon Hock has been alleged to have misused letterheads of Selangor state executive councillor Ronnie Liu to write letters of support for companies of his friends.
Although Tee has denied the allegation, the MCA is expected to demand the pound of flesh from the fiasco.
In the past, when dealing with scandals involving the Barisan National, the Pakatan Rakyat has always criticises the ruling coalition for covering up.
Now that its own people are involved in a scandal, it is expected that it should launch a transparent and impartial investigation to convince the people.
The DAP must implement the principles of transparency and impartiality. If the Pakatan Rakyat also sweeps the problems under the carpet, then what ethical right has it to criticise the Barisan Nasional?
The Pakatan Rakyat's small errors have been magnified by the Barisan Nasional component parties to shake the public confidence in the alternative coalition.
If the Pakatan Rakyat is unable to properly deal with the problems, the favourable public opinion of it will be eroded.
The Pakatan Rakyat state governments have been in power for over two years. Although the Chinese support rate is still high, the Pakatan Rakyat should not expect to last if it is unable to perform better and enhance its credibility.
The Pakatan Rakyat cannot continue playing political games like making accusations against the former state governments, dealing with resignation crisis, and wasting its time in internal conflicts. It will eventually lose some valuable supporters who are fed up with its trifling leadership.
Meanwhile, is the issue of misusing letterheads of the state exco member more serious than any other frauds involving hundreds of million ringgit? Why are we focusing only on the allegation while many other major fraud cases remain unresolved so far?
This is the current political environment of Malaysia. No matter what the issue is, the first thing to consider is to see whether the issue can be used to attack their political rivals. They must put all the mistakes of their opponents under a microscope while neglecting their own mistakes.
Politicians from both the ruling and opposition parties are having a mindset, namely to keep attacking their political rivals to make the public lose confidence and reduce their support rate so that they can get benefits from there. The more internal conflicts of their political rivals are revealed to the public, the more they are proven to be incapable to rule.
A politician with professional political attitude should treat all fraud cases equally even though if the cases involve his political rivals. Unfortunately, politicians in Malaysia always have double or multiple standards.
It is worrying that when they are unable to solve their own problems, they try to divert the people's attention by revealing other's mistakes. Such kind of thinking is actually making comparison to see who is the worst, instead of who can perform better.
Falling into such a political myth will collapse the country.
Another cause for concern is the worsening phenomena of vulgarisation, pan-politicisation and war of words.
In addition to Umno and Malay-language papers, MCA president Datuk Seri Chua Soi Lek has also asked the party grassroots leaders to be high-profile and reveal the weaknesses of the Pakatan Rakyat. Therefore, we can see all kinds of political statements which simply criticise or attack their political rivals.
Politicians can simply write over 30 statements like that a day in an air-conditioned room and forget about their professionalism and academic researches.
Under such a pan-politicised atmosphere, the government still allows teachers to take an active part in politics. Isn't the government creating troubles for itself?
You and I should tell politicians: If you want our votes, please stop vulgarising politics. - MySinChew.com
* The views expressed here are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysian Mirror and/or its associates.
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Last Updated on Friday, 30 July 2010 18:24 |
