Royal Pain

There are so many things happening in Malaysia's political scene presently that if I were to choose a few simple words to describe it, I would say that "it is anything but dull".

With these circumstances, it's no surprise that political analysts or commentators are most likely to be employed and post 8th of March election, we saw quite a few more blossoming unofficially, including me I guess. Discussions in Kopitiams and Mamaks are as heated as ever. Speculations after speculations have been made but nothing is really certain, yet. Like I said, even a layman could now become a political analyst and speculate Malaysia’s political course albeit with his own unique interpretation.

Saving this matter for later let us move on to another issue. One of the most contentious news this week is regarding Karpal Sigh’s statement which is considered insulting to the Rulers and Islam. This issue comes about when Karpal allegedly questioned the power of the Sultan of Perak over a transfer of a civil servant. Now, let me make things clear by saying that I will not be analysing the legality of his actions and to those who seek just that, pardon me for disappointing you .What I am trying to analyse here is the reaction of the people (political analyst) towards his statement.

In about a few days, 19 police reports was made alleging Karpal to be seditious. Some go to the extent labelling Karpal’s action as tantamount to being disrespectful to Islam. Is it just me or all this seems a tad too dramatic. We never really did bother to lodge any police report when our neighbors’ house got robbed. We never bothered to report the corruption and the abuse of power occurring right in front of our eyes. And yet a meagre statement could somehow attract 19 different police reports against it. In retaliation someone from Pakatan Rakyat (PR) lodgeed a report (only one) against Pak Lah under the Sedition act due to his comment towards YDP Agong’s action of appointing his own choice of MB, - “the appointment of anyone other than Idris (as Terengganu’s MB) is unconstitutional and invalid”.

It is clear that both parties here are playing the same game and we as the spectators only hope that justice will prevail. Charge Karpal for Sedition and you just have to subject the PM under the same charges. Isn’t that how justice should work? No one is above the law as Pak Lah always says. If that is the case, then we have to look a little further back into our history books. Recently it was the appointment of MB’s of Perlis and Terengganu. Before that there was Muhd Taib’s ‘conflict’ with the Selangor’s Sultan, the government reducing the power of the Rulers and most importantly the Constitutional Crisis. If we were to dig all this and scrutinise bit by bit, a lot of UMNO members would inevitably be charged with sedition. Even Dr. M would have to worry about a new case in his hands. This would then come under the Sedition Act that categorised “bring into hatred or contempt or to excite disaffection against any Ruler or against any Government” as having seditious tendency.

On the other hand, I’m no lawyer. You can do a little research yourselves or seek legal advice to confirm that one. Revisiting the first matter on speculations and the likes, it seems that Malaysians, and I do mean ordinary Malaysians like you and I, have a knack for them. When something new surfaces we examine it thoroughly and base on the information available, we arrive at a particular speculation. Until it is definite, it will merely remain as one. While speculations are sometimes harmful to the economy, i.e. 1997 currency crisis, it can also do a great deal of damage to the political stability, either for a certain party or the country as a whole. This is regularly so when political advisors give counsel to the MP’s based on a knee jerk reaction towards sheer speculations.

One clear example is the ongoing news about the crossovers of MP’s from BN to PR. We can see that BN MP’s are now dancing with PR’s tunes by giving unnecessary remarks and comments about the crossovers. It is more disappointing when an entire parliamentary session was focused on the same issue. It seems that they are too engrossed in this speculation and forgot about other important things to discuss about. It does not do to dwell on speculation and forget to live. As a so-called ‘political analyst’ I would say that BN could act proactive by starting to treat their MP’s fairly without discriminating them. Try to win their hearts instead of condemning the act of crossing over because that will not deter anyone from executing their initial intention. To PR, I hope that whatever your next move is, it will be for the sake of the greater good. The earlier the speculation ends (read: confirmed) the earlier our MP’s could get back to work.

To top it up, I reiterate that in Malaysia, there is no such thing as too many political analysts. There is, however, such thing as too many political advisors. In which case one of them might get entangled in a high profile murder involving a foreign model. - NHF