A house divided

Opinion 2014-03-06 17:53 By LIM MUN FAH Translated by DOMINIC LOH Sin Chew
Daily
Several days ago, DAPs parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang quoted Abraham Lincolns "A
house divided against itself cannot stand" to warn Pakatan Rakyat, admitting that Anwars
biggest enemy is not the independent candidate nor MCA or even Umno, but PKR itself.
There are good reasons why Lim, a seasoned political fighter, has said so.
The three candidates in the Kajang race have all shown themselves by now, as Anwar, Chew
Mei Fun and Zaid Ibrahim are pitched against one another in full swing. But so far the
election heat has yet to peak. In its stead, a water MoU has exposed the intricacies within
PKR, setting alight the war flame within the party itself.
Khalid Ibrahim and Azmin Ali have pointed fingers at each other, attracting not only the
attention of the media but also the eyeballs of people in the street.
Anwar has long anticipated a landslide victory in Kajang, but with the election war yet to
warm up, controversies over a "manipulated by-election" and "intra-party conflicts" have
brewed into potential abstentions which could thin off Anwars majority votes, and this is
definitely not going to augur well for either Pakatan or its de facto leader.
Backlash over the "manipulated election" could die off soon, hopefully, as feelings get
diluted after the election, along with all sorts of frustration and conflicts. But if the
infightings are allowed to live through, the aftermath could be irreparable, and "a house
divided against itself cannot stand" will thus become self-explanatory.
After the 13th general elections last May, political parties in the country have seen their
chaotic moments, be it MCA, Gerakan Rakyat, DAP or PKR, albeit at different levels of
chaos. But to the ordinary citizens, the impression etched on their minds is the same for
people feel they have been let down.
Conflicts and factional struggles are an innate trait of politicking, occasionally punctuated
with some hypocritical compromises that have made a clear demarcation between a friend
and a foe at times obscured. All this serves to illustrate the point that politics is indeed a
highly complicated thing. So are its players.
That said, majority of the voters are very simplistic, and just because they are so, many have
placed their favorite parties or leaders high on the pedestal. The moment they discover that
their exalted heroes do not live up to their expectations, they will find it hard to accept and
believe, and will get utterly disappointed and dejected. Of course they have also picked up
some valuable lessons along the way and will cast their ballots with more sober minds come
the next GE.
I have come across many voters in this category. They keep grumbling why their elected reps
are nowhere in sight or making only momentary appearances as if their constituencies are
nothing better than brief transit stops.

There are also friends who have complained that their reps were so approachable just before
the elections but not after the race was won.
They are even people who lash out mercilessly that politicians change after they have been
elected, not to be outdone by their predecessors.
But none of these frustrations towards politicians come more unbearable than
disappointments towards infightings in their parties.
Indeed, such infightings have utterly crushed the voters hopes, as they have harbored
unrealistically high expectations for these politicians and their parties that they now find
themselves thrown into the valley of despair.
If politicians and their parties fail to visualize such a reversal of voter emotions and think
rationally, fantasizing that voter support is unbreakable, then Im, sorry to say, "Well, lets
see if the saying a house divided against itself cannot stand will be brought to fruition."