First of all Pua, in case you have not
noticed, most people are struggling in this pandemic attempting to make
ends meet all the while acutely aware that the rules apply to them
differently than they do to politicians.
When
you are struggling to put food on the table, you do not really have
time to ponder on the blunders of the political class beyond thinking
that maybe, just maybe that the people you voted for have your back.
This just goes to show you how out of touch some people are when it
comes to the average Joe rakyat.
When
you have hundreds of people dying a day, and the opposition claiming
that the pandemic and the response to this pandemic by the state is the
reason this is so, is Pua really presenting this choice of tolerating
this regime - tolerating the deaths of hundreds of people - just a
little while longer so Pakatan Harapan has a political advantage in the
next general election against the court cluster and derhaka cluster? I mean there is tone-deaf and then there is just dumb.
Of
course, all of these are false choices. There is no difference between
Umno, Bersatu, Pejuang and any of the other tributaries of the Malay
political establishment. This is not about the court cluster against
the derhaka cluster.
This
is a fight between Malay power brokers while the average Malay on the
street is discovering how little use Malay privilege and rights are when
the chips are down.
The fact that someone like Pua, who is
supposed to be one of the best and brightest that Harapan and the DAP
have to offer, is obsessing about kleptocrats regaining power, should
tell us something about the priorities of the opposition.
Keep in
mind that Anwar Ibrahim, the supposed leader of the opposition, was
having cosy chats with Ahmad Zahidi Hamidi, who is leading the charge to
topple the current PM.
All this means that, as usual, the DAP is
caught in the crosshairs of the Malay political establishment. The party
seems incapable of distancing itself from corrupt charlatans because of
the potential for political power and predictably failing to live up to
its party’s ideals, which its propagandists shovel in heaps online to
anyone who would listen and those who do not want to listen.
Here
is the thing: in case you missed it Pua, all the DAP and Harapan have to
do, if they really believe that PN is an existential threat to
Malaysia, is to vote against the Muhyiddin Yassin regime when the time
comes. Harapan and the DAP can do this, without having to work with
anyone to destabilise the PN regime.
The DAP and Harapan can do
this if they make the argument that when in power they are going to
reform the system instead of playing footsie with the Malay political
establishment, which worked out so well for them when Harapan was
briefly in power.
Now, if they do not think that PN is an
existential threat to Malaysia, then they should work with the
government and attempt to form some sort of bipartisan partnership, and
gear their rhetoric and policy decision-making with the aim of working
with the federal government.
What you do not do is present false
dilemmas to your political base, while the country, the economy and the
people are going down a manure hole. Speaking of going down a manure
hole, perhaps, what Pua should do is explain what the hell Harapan is
doing in Selangor.
Or
is Harapan going to lay the blame solely on PN’s doorstep for
Selangor's high numbers? Is Harapan going to claim that its hands are
tied and that it can do nothing for Selangor because Harapan is not in
federal power?
Is Harapan going to rely on partisan trolling on
social media to deflect from the reality that it is so much easier to
call PN a failed state when the reality is that Harapan has failed the
state of Selangor?
The Harapan state government, in waiting beyond
offering criticism, has yet to unveil its strategy in combating the
virus. Its strategy in dealing with the welfare of the most
disenfranchised during this pandemic. Its strategy on how to revive the
economy.
Moreover, this is important because Harapan is not a
stable coalition. Harapan, as Pua ably demonstrated, is making this
about personalities instead of policy.
We have seen what an
unstable coalition can do when it comes to this pandemic. The main
reason why the handling of the pandemic by the PN government has been
dodgy is that they are a dodgy alliance of political operatives, who put
their political survival over the healthcare of the nation.
Do not fall for personality politics. The court cluster, the derhaka
cluster and the various flotsam and jetsam of the Malay political
establishment are here to stay - unless reforms are made and there is
the political will to do so.
Do not fall for political gambits that detract from the real issues that affect the rakyat. Do not fall for false dilemmas.
