“Ninety per cent of the politicians give the other ten per cent a bad reputation.”
– Henry A. Kissinger, American diplomat
RUSSIAN doll politics has successfully infiltrated Malaysian politics. Numero uno hires people who will not pose a danger to his standing, status and stature. He deliberately selects someone less smart.
David Ogilvy, the founder of advertising titan, Ogilvy & Mather, would regularly send each of his directors a set of Russian nesting dolls, where inside the largest doll would be a small one, and then a smaller one, and so on until the smallest doll.
In that smallest doll, Ogilvy would place a piece of paper that read: “If we hire people who are smaller than we are, we will become a company of dwarfs. But if we hire people who are larger than we are, we’ll become a company of giants.”
Malaysia is light years away from becoming a government of selfless political giants. Each watches his or her back. Rice bowl syndrome is tattooed in the DNA. Don’t rock the boat. Toe the line. Obey. Say nothing. Pensions and GLC appointments await the obedient and the pliant.
President Ronald Reagan, the consummate politician: “Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards; if you disgrace yourself, you can always write a book.”
Twenty-two books were written by a former Malaysian prime minister who stayed in power for a total of twenty-four years. He wrote prolifically about the nuances of implementing and enforcing draconian independent Executive power and authority.
Unfortunately, Russian doll politics is nuanced by the ballot paper which fuels the ego for a power-hungry politician. Usually their DNA does not, cannot, accommodate any semblance of a nagging conscience.
A sound mind as mandated by Article 48(1)(a) Federal Constitution does not mean it produces a seasoned and experienced politician with more than ample qualifications for the job at hand.
Talking about a lack of giants in Malaysian politics is well-documented. While seen at a table having a meal with a bountiful bowl of boiled turtle eggs, one politician claimed he did not eat turtle eggs as he was cholesterol conscious!
Another politician lived up to his predictable image when he told Parliament that the recent state flash floods “was an act of God”. This insurance law mantra found utterance in a Parliament that usually enjoys shouting bouts instead of reform minded law-making.
“I am exercising my right to free speech. Why is it that I can’t say something against the Jews when a lot of people say nasty things about me and about Malaysia and I didn’t protest,” claimed a former prime minister fond of Jew-baiting.
The same champion of free speech unleashed Ops Lalang during his prime in government. Such giants of spite and strife have escaped the selective short reach of the rule by Malaysian law.
“The salaries of MPs are not paid by the people but the government and the government’s money is not the people’s money. Once money has passed on to another quarter, it is no longer our money . . .” claimed another misguided politician lashing out at a netizen.
Malaysian adat should ostracise and disqualify such people from seeking political careers. Today, Malaysian politics has earned itself a toxic, racist and elitist brand that confounds the rule by law and the rule of law.
The Federal Constitution is silent as are laws to penalise such politicians who dare to step out of line with unerring evidence of cognitive dissonance. Probably forgot their oaths of office outlined in the Sixth Schedule, Federal Constitution?
“And if they break their oaths after their treaty and defame your religion, then fight the leaders of disbelief, for indeed, there are no oaths [sacred] to them; [fight them that] they might cease.” Surah Al-Taubah Ayat 12 (Holy Quran, English Language version).
Disobeying Islamic Scriptures by Malaysian Islamic politicians is a very serious matter for which the Conference of Rulers, as guardians of Islam, would hopefully look into for the sake of peace, partnership and prosperity.
“A humble learner of today becomes a strong leader of tomorrow,” surmised Abhijit Naskar.
Our disastrous education system has never been structured or designed to create future leaders, merely employees.
Peace and harmony, goodwill and equal prosperity seems to require a bloodless revolution and a bold evolution. Several prescriptions and proscriptions in our system of government are destructive, never instructive.
Must Malaysian politics be governed and guided by William Clay’s assertion that “there are no permanent friends or foes in politics, only permanent interests”? Permanent greed?
Our laws are ineffective. The pre-General Elections absolute independence of the Executive is cast in stone, inviting a temporary sense of Schopenhauerian pessimism that we live always in the putrid past.
The ballot paper is just another piece of bio-degradable paper given force once every five years or so. The Election Commission is one of the numerous co-defendants when the Federation is sued – Article 69(2) Federal Constitution.
Where are the titans, juggernauts and giants with superior political intellects? Meanwhile quo vadis Lady Justice when facing the independent Executive?
“You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist,” opined Friedrich Nietzsche.
For twenty-two years the Machiavellian maverick permanently entrenched the “I did it my way” Russian doll politics that needs permanent undoing.
The views expressed here are those of the columnist and do not necessarily represent the views of Sarawak Tribune. The writer can be reached at chiefjudge@secamtektektribe.org.
