Kacang is Nuts!

The title sounds like a pretty familiar tag line, doesn’t it? It originates from the Aliens versus Predator movie (OK OK, I’m a movie buff). But just think. It actually describes Malaysia’s current political scene quite accurately.

On one hand, we have the incumbent political alliance. One party here is famous for its corruption, abuse of power, cronyism, nepotism, and bungling up of anything and everything possible. An Iranian friend once commented that they’ve turned Malaysia into the second Apartheid (Someone from Bush’s so-called terrorist state thinks we have an Apartheid. How much worse can things get?). The other member parties, well… The apples they sell on behalf of the main player are sure polished so shiny you can see your face in it like a mirror. Ah well, but this is all old story. Not unimportant, but it’s not as if anyone doesn’t know about it.

Strangely enough however, the opposition isn’t exactly doing any better either. There isn’t a united opposition front per se; more like a rag-tag, mish-mash collection of parties whose only common goal is to unseat the incumbents. All of them have very different primary objectives. One party wants to create an Islamic state; another, a dynastic Malaysian Malaysia (sorta like a certain small island down south); the third is obsessed with personal vengeance against a system which wronged it’s leader. All are goals which are virtually incompatible with another. And the splits are already showing with the protracted “negotiations” over who should contest at which constituencies. Hell, if this is how they try to win the elections, imagine how they’d try to run the country.

For the opposition, winning against a dug in opponent such as the incumbent requires superb strategy and coordination. There is no way to win by sheer strength, only by sheer skill. Had David walked up to Goliath with only a stick in hand, David would have had his head bashed in soundly and deservedly. Unfortunately, there is a decided lack of any such finesse and skill among the opposition. After the BERSIH and HINDRAF rallies, they thought they “smelled blood”, and are circling the “wounded” incumbent in the hopes of delivering the killing blow. Instead of coordinating on actually doing the killing though, they’re squabbling on who should deliver the blows. All of them want to get to be the hero. This is apparently going on even intra-party (Think DAP). Politics to get rid of Fong Po Kuang? Old foggies complaining that too many new and young faces have been brought to Penang? The incumbent, of course, is sneaking away and laughing at such sheer foolishness. And they’ll probably win the elections. Again.

What a country we live in. We have idiots and nincompoops running the country. And the alternatives are the fools and donkeys trying to take over from the idiots and nincompoops. The poor folks who suffer for all this? Everyone else, of course.

Filed under: Malaysia, politics