Asking question to Distract

At the tail of an interview last week, when I asked a political scienti about his thought on when the general election would be held, Prof Dr Andrew Aeria (Faculty Social Science, Unimas)  shot back : “ That’ not important.  It’s a “red herring” all that matters are issues. 

He said again, “An election isn’t about dates; it’s about what people are concerned with.”  I became embarrassed immediately- the professor would have seen this had been chatting face to face instead of over the phone.  I was equally embarrassed for not quite knowing what a “red herring” meant.  A check on Google says it is either a dried fish, or something that is intended to mislead or distract.

Of course, Prof Aeria was referring to the later meaning of the metaphor.  The less we let people divert us onto when the election is going to be, the more we will discuss issues, and how to move forward.  There so much on the minds of Malaysians.  Chiefly, we concerned about rising cost of living versus slow income growth.  We also care deeply about freedom of speech in relation to extremism.  Corruption is perpetually on the tongues of politician.

Yet, what is actually being done?

There are rights movements campaigning for greater judiciary independence, just as the Government insists its recent losses to the opposition prove a fair legal system.  Gosh.  Parents are worried about their children’s education- Bahasa Malaysia or English.  While teachers are caught in the middle of it all.  Of late, there have also been talks of escalating public healthcare cost and its weight on national debt.

Above all, there are issues concerning quality of life that is worth pondering over.  Malaysia has never been at such crossroads before, and perhaps indeed I’s “the time they are changing”, as B0ob Dylan sang so tunefully- and timelessly- about 1960s America.

So Prof Aeria is right: It matters not when Parliament will be dissolved.  In fact, when we Malaysians ask when the Government might be holding the General Election, that question is technically and fundamentally wrong.  The Government does not set the election date: it’s the election commission which does.  All the government of the day does is to dissolve Parliament with the consent of the Yang Dipertuan Agong.

In our political system, the prime minister is not really tested in elections for he is not directly elected by the people.  We elect members of parliament, or MPs.  The person who becomes Prime Minister is the one supported by the majority of elected MPs in the parliament.  He then appoints minister- again with the consent of the Yang di Pertuan Agong- to form the Cabinet A.k.a “Executive”.

The executive’s plan and polices must then be passed by parliament, before they are sent to the senate, which gives the final okay.  But that’s not the end of it; every single piece of legislation can still be challenge in the court (the judiciary) to see if it fits with the constitution.  The legislative, executive and Judiciary are checks and balances for all of us.  It’s quite an awesome system the British left us.  In most countries, the free media is often called “the fourth estate”, acting as the fourth check on the system.  Yet with such a political system as complex as that, the only question most of us bother to ask is, “when will the election be held?”

Prof Aeria’s assertion that overemphasis on “when” being distraction is truer still when the speculation comes from the mouth of the high ranking politician.  Whenever a senior politician talks about the election, it will be reported.  Think about the amount of the column-inches and airtime wasted on “when”, but not about “what” issues and “how” to address them.

Inevitably, whenever “when” is brought up by those in power, it is followed by the wrong “why” specifically, “why the government of the day deserves to be re-elected?”  To be sure, this is true the world over.

In Malaysia, though, there has long been deliberate distortion of the words “Government” and “opposition” in relation to which parties belongs in which camp.  Listening to some government officials speak, you would be for thinking that should Pakatan Rakyat become the ruling government one day, it would still be known as the “opposition”.

Maybe the only “ when” question we ought to ask ourselves – given the state of politics – is: “when will we grow up?”


~Agus~