Games politicians play — Lim Mun Fah

JAN 28 — The Tenang state by-election campaign in Johor is heating up.

Two hot topics seem to be the so-called handshake issue involving the PAS candidate and the Chinese independent school issue.

A controversy is also brewing after PAS had accused BN candidate Azahar Ibrahim of involvement in a land dispute eight years ago.

The MCA, meanwhile, gets a PKR founding member to publicly tear a mock membership card as a symbolic gesture of quitting the party before making an announcement to join the MCA.

The Tenang by-election, like all other local elections, is replete with political ploys and personal accusations. Amidst the dazzling chaos, voters might attach extra importance such “issues” at this moment, and become mere pawns on the political chessboard.

It is a common phenomenon as it might be bustling and noisy like a carnival now but turn into a tragic bloody battle later.

Such a phenomenon repeats itself every five years. When the superiors are declaring war, the subordinates are fighting little battles against each other. The whole country will then be covered by a tension atmosphere with all the political parties become active and all voters being mobilised. The whole society will also have to suffer distressed hostilities and is either being split into two or confused amidst debates, shouts and confrontation among political parties.

As ordinary public, we expect to see a gentleman’s competition in which a more rational verbal debate is held and more in-depth political ideals are used to fight for support to show a high-quality election with depth and faith. We do not want to see how politicians use all conceivable means to fight for votes, distort virtue and morality to gain victory and even do anything to discredit their opponents. As a result, individuals win the election but the whole community has to pay the price of split, conflict and hatred.

Hence, at this very moment, nothing is more important than staying calm. Voters must always bear in mind that many promises, slogans, praises and passion during election campaigns are meant to gain votes in their hands. Voters can only see what we called the truth after the passion is gone. We can then know which political parties and politicians are wearing masks and look different before and after the election.

We reject the arrogance of one-party dominance and we are pleased to see the formation of the two-party system. However, we do not want society to be torn apart by elections and the benign two-party system turned into a vicious one in which the two coalitions are irreconcilable and fighting foul. — mysinchew.com

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