Clinging to the Cause .... Wishing the Results Away

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"O liberty! how they have played with you."
- Mme. Jeanne Roland de la Platiere, before death at the guillotine
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For a nation to come crumbling down, there are but three kinds of people in leadership, with three different characteristics that is required, namely -

• the untamed passions in a gifted man,
• the wanton power in a weak man, and
  
• the unteachable temperament in a privileged man.

How "lucky" we are, that we have all three in just one man, who I shall leave unnamed.

C.S. Lewis said, "When a ship goes out to sea, there are three things that it has to know -
First is, why it is there in the first place.
Then she has to how to keep from sinking,
and third, how to keep from bumping into other ships".

In life, the answer to the above three lies in ethics.
For us, Malaysia is that ship - sailing around in the high seas rudderless, and changing course as and when it pleases, without an idea as to where it's headed or why it is there doing what it is doing.

In "debating" the issues, we appear to have all our priorities and answers all wrong, or simply mixed up.
Karpal calls for DSAI's resignation after the Perak fiasco despite the fact that it was a DAP MLA's defection that triggered this crisis. Mahathir laughs at Anwar's apparent double standards at Nasarudin's re-hopping, Hamid Albar and Khairy screams "treason", and Shad Faruqi says that anti-hopping laws should solve the problem.
Of course there are many peasants among us who feel let down by the decision of a certain high office - having put them on a pedestal, after their lip service to "justice" in their high-flung speeches.

Shad Faruqi the Pakistani "constitutional expert", in his Reflecting On The Law column in The Star said, "What is worrying is that the fall-out of this crisis is sullying the reputation and credibility of many legal and constitutional institutions while the root cause – the despicable phenomenon of party hopping – remains unaddressed." (like as if they have any worthwhile reputation in the first place!)

Shad, after earlier proposing that it is the Sultan's prerogative to "Hire" and hence, by virtue of the Interpretation Act, is entitled to "fire", now makes a U-turn to suggest otherwise by saying that, "This implies that an MB cannot be dismissed except by a vote of no confidence in the assembly. If an MB who has lost confidence, and is refused dissolution, is shameless enough not to walk away, then the Sultan would be justified in dismissing him ......
The question of losing confidence was not constitutionally investigated."

He then spins to justify the extra-constitutional actions of the EC in undermining the constitutional right of the Speaker of the Assembly, by saying that - "In the light of this decision and the denial by the two defectors, the Election Commission had some basis to make up its own mind and to declare that the seats had not fallen vacant..... ".
Has he forgotten the prerogatives of the Speaker and the duties of the EC?
So much for "constitutional experts", I suppose.

Anyway, he is once again, grossly mistaken on the matter of party-hopping - it isn't in the least bit, "the root cause", as he claims it to be.
The fact remains that party hopping is legal, and justifiable, should the reasons for it be morally valid, and it reflects the people's mandate - hence not an "issue". It is the premise upon which such an action is taken, that needs scrutiny - not the act of "hopping" in itself.
It would be wrong to ban it completely - and I maintain that it is wrong for Karpal and gang to demand an anti-hopping law, or reprimand DSAI for it.
I would rather suggest that certain criteria be fulfilled and procedures be adopted - so as to reflect the people's mandate, and also to restrict the exploitation that it may be subjected to by those who wield power and money.

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"He that is conscious of guilt cannot bear the innocence of others:
So they will try to reduce all others to their own level. "
-Fox, Charles James
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The issue here is the fact that the Nizar Government is the Constitutional Government!
The political coup d'etat which was perpetrated by the DPM, to install a Government in the State of Perak was simply through purchase of "commodity" (or so it seems), is unconstitutional and illegal - whether the Sultan swore them in or not!
The DPM mocks the very Constitution which Shad speaks of. This makes all documents, agreements and contracts drawn out by this government, "illegal"- and those who partake in their activities would be rendered criminals.
The perpetrators of this crime are however, lauded as "heroes" in a certain party which happens to rule the Nation!!! One can only speculate the level of respect these goons have, for the Federal Constitution or the rule of law .....

The question however remains -
Just what is the malady that afflicts the Malaysian leadership and the electorate, that it is so difficult for us to bring about the change we desire?

The way I look at it, it is simply a crisis of faith in our Federal Constitution (and of course, that of the states), which stems from the 600+ amendments made to it by the lawmakers of BN, starting from Tun Razak - to perpetuate the evil called the NEP.
Anything done toward this end- criminal or not- is "fair game"!
To make matters worse, we have "legal eagles" in high academic/ professional office, who try to play the apologist for these "criminals" in office, through various subtle spins in the MSM and brutal enforcement on the streets.

It isn't enough that there is content in the Federal Constitution, and one more amendment as Shad Faruqi/Karpal/Guan Eng recommends isn't going to make a difference. Nor would the resignation of DSAI, Hadi or Kit Siang cut it.
What matters more than the content, is the conviction in its purpose, which should translate into faith in the Federal Constitution - that which is absent among politicians who disregard it. It is today nothing more than a taxi - a vehicle for the elite to ride on for a fee (or free), only for convenience - beyond which, it is simply, "toilet paper".

Until and unless we are willing to admit our faults/mistakes, we are doomed to sail rudderless - while pirates help themselves, until the day we are blasted to smithereens by that one pirate who cannot find anything to rob from us.
Thus far, this is being avoided by "refilling the empty decks", so that newer pirates can still have their fill - thus the myth that we are still a prosperous ship.
But we have warlord-leaders in denial like Muhyiddin who claim that the NEP "is perfect", and it is only the delivery system that is flawed. (That's like saying that Proton is a good car, and it is only the owners/customers/drivers who don't maintain them ....)

How can we cling to the cause - namely the NEP, which perpetuates wholesale piracy and daylight robbery, and wish the results away?
It is a system that thrives on the evils it cultivates - the immoralities of corruption, greed, undeserved rewards, intellectual bankruptcy, idolatry, sloth, envy, covetousness and hatred - albeit, under cover of the veil of religiosity or blatant racist bigotry.
Therefore, the lives of many Malaysians today is ruled by a dichotomy in which, they do what they hate, so that they can wash away their sins through repeated "acts of penance", or simply indulge in their pleasures to forget their evil deeds.

It all springs from our lack of ethics in our politics & education system - we have forgotten where ethics comes from, and hence, have unwittingly subverted our Federal Constitution in the process. As a matter of fact most of our lawmakers who scream "treason", have no idea what the word means, as they trample on the Federal Constitution.
We then have an electorate with paralyzed thinking faculties, and made to believe in their powerlessness. They are given to emotional upheavals and religiosity - they'd rather scream themselves hoarse and bang their heads on the roads for an unknown Palestine, while they squander away their own rights for pittance or nothing, by subverting their own Constitution.
To top it all, we have a CJ who confessed to indulging in corruption (at least that's what the media reported), and is now appointed as the head of the JAC!!

The Federal Constitution which is supposed to be the supreme entity, is no longer the living document upon which we build our nation - it is simply the toilet paper with with we wipe away the dirt we leave behind. It is simply an instrument which "modified" and "enforced" at will by politicians, to perpetuate their agenda of greed.
It has been replaced by corrupt & vainglorious men who wield power (and not real leaders), who seek to rule - and they can only do so essentially, by bribing the electorate and their representatives.

This is a system which can only survive through the deprivation of civil liberties and the emasculation of thought - and hence in has to be enforced by an enslaved "security apparatus" and civil service of the state, through the primitive laws and bigotry that we are famed for. What we have is a dictatorship of oligarchs.

No wonder Frank Herbert (Dune) said, "If you think of yourselves as helpless and ineffectual, it is certain that you will create a despotic government to be your master. The wise despot, therefore, maintains among his subjects a popular sense that they are helpless and ineffectual."

And yet, we still, cling to the cause, vote for pirates
and prefer to point fingers at the sideshows, so as to wish the results away .....

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"There is a kind of dictatorship that can come about
through a creeping paralysis of thought,
readiness to accept paternalistic measures by government,
and along with those measures
comes a surrender of our own responsibilities
and therefore a surrender of our own thought
over our own lives and our own right to exercise the vote."
- Dwight Eisenhower
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