New political coalitions are being rumoured as we munch left-over kuih raya that guests wouldn’t eat and recover from our holidays.
But yes, I predicted this, folks. You can ask any one of my breakfast friends but I remember the moment well because I had the epiphany while trying to finely balance dirty clothes in my top-loading washing machine. (The weight has to be carefully balanced on account that if I don’t get it absolutely correct, the spinning thing in the middle would shake violently when I turn it on, looking like it would, at any moment, disintegrate, henceforth sending plastic and metal death-projectiles in every direction and probably maim, if not kill me instantly.)
The radio was on and the news was telling me that the government, which on the will of the people toppled the previous Barisan Nasional government of sixty years, was on the verge of being replaced without any legitimate support of the electorate but through a series of negotiations that totally bypassed ordinary people like me who are just trying to get laundry done in peace.
This was in 2020, the year of the “Sheraton Move” when members of the 14th Parliament defected from the government and formed a coalition with the Opposition, which comprised many names the people had kicked out just 22 months before.
Being the pragmatist ordinary Malaysian who just wants to get along without open thieves in the government, I just shrugged my shoulders and thought to myself that it was just growing pains.
The fact that the previous Pakatan Harapan (PH) government, led by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, lasted 22 months was regrettable from the viewpoint of democracy, mainly because people think that they weren’t given the full term to show what they can achieve in five years.
While patiently re-arranging the bedsheet and towels, I spontaneously told the cat that “we’ll have a few changes of governments before I buy another washing machine, I can tell you”.
So, that was how I predicted, ahead of many pundits on television at the time, that we’ll normalise changing governments like linen until eventually everybody grows up and start “adulting” in politics and we’ll have a real government in place, chosen by the people wisely. I’d say that’ll take place after four or five governments.
After the previous 60 years under the same rule, at the time many Malaysians were euphoric that even the mightiest well-protected political entities could be brought down by the will of the people.
PH was eventually replaced by Perikatan Nasional, led by Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, which began what my local kopitiam gang dubbed the musical chair period of Malaysian politics. The musical chairs continued throughout 2020 and well into 2021, while people had other things to think about — like not dying horribly during the Covid-19 pandemic.
If you can recall after the haze of lockdowns, while flags and post-vaccine nausea, Muhyiddin resigned under pressure in August 2021 and was replaced a few days
later by Tan Sri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, ironically the man who gave the Covid daily report on TV in flamboyant shirts as Security Minister under Muhyiddin.
The political to and fro continued until the snap election of 2022, which is where we are now.
And in keeping with my incredible foresight things are roiling again.
This time the rakyat is again being given front seats at another potential musical chair, mere months into the administration of the present “unity government”.
But this is all in keeping with a healthy democracy that we will be asked to once again go to the polls, this time under the mechanism of state elections which will begin in earnest in about two months’ time. However, even before that, the talk is rife on another unelected government being manoeuvred behind closed doors.
The usual players are there, along with the usual knackered issues and goals. Grievances of the political factions are stealing the airtime over the grievances of the common people.
Ordinary people want to see politicians argue like adults over how to make the economy better and bring happiness to the people as a whole, and not nit-pick over who gets invited to the palace or which convicted thief gets a royal pardon.
But this, unfortunately, will go on as long as people tolerate the incompetence and blatant misbehaviour of politicians over our legitimate right to good governance.
We want our government to lock up the crooks and get our navy their darn ships. We want clean water, reasonable wages and RM2 nasi lemak that tastes like RM20 nasi lemak.
So, go on then, change governments for all we care but get us these things.
Meanwhile, I am still looking through washing machine catalogues. Perhaps it’s time for a new front loader maybe?
- ZB Othman is an editor at The Malaysian Reserve.
- This article first appeared in The Malaysian Reserve weekly print edition