Boredworkers.com

The political scene in Malaysia, and specifically Perak, is getting absurd. The last couple of days has been rife with news of political instability in the Perak state government. The entire affair makes a mockery out of the ideals of Democracy.

If you haven’t heard, three members of Pakatan Rakyat (PR)’s Perak state branch have recently quit the party to become Independents. PR which were holding 31 seats previously and had formed the party now find themselves with 28 seats and equaling Barisan Nasional (BN). This creates a deadlock over the rights to form the state government. However, with the support of the three newly resigned members, BN is claiming that they have the majority and have approached the Sultan as such requesting a mandate to dissolve the present office in preference of forming a new one.

There’s plenty of arguments either way which is why I think of it as a farce. One that was initiated by the present PKR head a long while back and has been childishly taken to the next level by the present heads of government.

Defections as the basis of forming a government is low and undignified. If it can happen once, what makes anyone believe that it will not swing the other way in the near future? This just causes a general sense of instability and unease.

To begin with, the elected candidates won their seats as part of a party. The people’s choice are affected by two factors, namely the candidate themselves and their political affiliation. If these same candidates had stood for election under the independent (or for that matter, any other) flag, they may not have won the state seat.

To take the people’s choice for granted and assume that being elected gives them the right to change their affiliation and continue to retain the people’s support is a grave mistake. It is an abuse of the people’s trust and quite frankly, it is not something that would be taken lightly.

The Sultan has called for the present MB to resign and he has refused. I would be lying if I said I had no interest in the outcome. However, as the story continues to unfold, I can’t help but take a step back, shake my head and laugh at the predicament we’ve gotten ourselves into. Seems like every other day, there’s more news of trouble brewing. Here’s to a wonderful 2009.