Political Unity and Disunity

The political climate in the country today is pretty much like the weather - very hazy, smoggy and vision is limited to less than a kilometer. But, everyone seems to be as busy as usual, the jams on the road as dense as ever, the supermarkets as crowded and our kids are playing in the parks without feeling the pinge of political wranglings or the economic crunch.

Only the newspapers and the blogs are full of disturbing views and commentaries on the state of the nation. Barisan and its component parties are facing tremendous stress and strain to keep united, centrifugal forces clouded by communal interests and extremist demands blowing stronger than the centripetal forces which the new leadership could master.

There's talk by MCA on leaving Barisan, by MIC and by PPP. While some factors in PAS want to pursue talk about unity with UMNOPAS's spiritual leader is dead against it. All talks seem to point towards disunity rather than unity. And this is true of Barisan as well as Pakatan Rakyat with Karpal Singh stirring up a lot of divisive dusts. Why has politics suddenly become a disuniting factor rather than uniting people to work together to achieve a common goal although through different political organizations?

It would seem that political ends are now viewed over a very limited span of vision, like what the the haze or 'jerebu' is doing to us. We go through the haze as if through a tunnel, making the wider horizon a dark mass of uncertainties. If there is an economic twister coming our way, we'd never be ready to face it when it hits us. It seems to me that this is the best time for political parties in Malaysia to join hands to seek a solution to our economic problems. Political coalition can be made and unmade but a nation ones fractured and maimed by divisive political interests, will become and remain incapable of giving its people a good life - the way we and our children are now enjoying.