divided

Several days ago, DAPs parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang quoted Abraham Lincolns "A
house divided against itself cannot stand" to arn Pa!atan "a!yat, admitting that Anars
biggest enemy is not the independent candidate nor #$A or even %mno, but PK" itself&
After the '(th general elections last #ay, political parties in the country have seen their
chaotic moments, be it #$A, )era!an "a!yat, DAP or PK", albeit at different levels of
chaos& *ut to the ordinary citi+ens, the impression etched on their minds is the same for
people feel they have been let don&
$onflicts and factional struggles are an innate trait of politic!ing, occasionally punctuated
ith some hypocritical compromises that have made a clear demarcation beteen 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&
,hat said, ma-ority of the voters are very simplistic, and -ust because they are so, many have
placed their favorite parties or leaders high on the pedestal& ,he moment they discover that
their e.alted heroes do not live up to their e.pectations, they ill find it hard to accept and
believe, and ill get utterly disappointed and de-ected& /f course they have also pic!ed up
some valuable lessons along the ay and ill cast their ballots ith more sober minds come
the ne.t )0&
,here are good reasons hy Lim, a seasoned political fighter, has said so&
,he three candidates in the Ka-ang race have all shon themselves by no, as Anar, $he
#ei 1un and 2aid 3brahim are pitched against one another in full sing& *ut so far the
election heat has yet to pea!& 3n its stead, a ater #o% has e.posed the intricacies ithin
PK", setting alight the ar flame ithin the party itself&
Khalid 3brahim and A+min Ali have pointed fingers at each other, attracting not only the
attention of the media but also the eyeballs of people in the street&
Anar has long anticipated a landslide victory in Ka-ang, but ith the election ar yet to
arm up, controversies over a "manipulated by4election" and "intra4party conflicts" have
breed into potential abstentions hich could thin off Anars ma-ority votes, and this is
definitely not going to augur ell for either Pa!atan or its de facto leader&
*ac!lash over the "manipulated election" could die off soon, hopefully, as feelings get
diluted after the election, along ith all sorts of frustration and conflicts& *ut if the
infightings are alloed to live through, the aftermath could be irreparable, and "a house
divided against itself cannot stand" ill thus become self4e.planatory&
3 have come across many voters in this category& ,hey !eep grumbling hy their elected reps
are nohere in sight or ma!ing only momentary appearances as if their constituencies are
nothing better than brief transit stops&
,here are also friends ho have complained that their reps ere so approachable -ust before
the elections but not after the race as on&
,hey are even people ho lash out mercilessly that politicians change after they have been
elected, not to be outdone by their predecessors&
*ut none of these frustrations toards politicians come more unbearable than
disappointments toards infightings in their parties&
3ndeed, such infightings have utterly crushed the voters hopes, as they have harbored
unrealistically high e.pectations for these politicians and their parties that they no find
themselves thron into the valley of despair&
3f politicians and their parties fail to visuali+e such a reversal of voter emotions and thin!
rationally, fantasi+ing that voter support is unbrea!able, then 3m, sorry to say, "5ell, lets
see if the saying 6a house divided against itself cannot stand ill be brought to fruition&"