Thick-skinned, confused politicians

There are some thick-skinned, confused politicians around who are turning the concept of parliamentary democracy on its head.

The terminology that politicians use can sometimes be scary especially when it reflects their warped mentality. And the picture we get isn’t usually pretty.

There’s James Masing, who came up with this outrageous statement in the Borneo Post expressing the belief common among some elected reps that they are the masters or bosses of the rakyat:

The confusion, it appears, is concerning the role of the legislature – which are the elected representatives or YBs. All YBs are elected by the people/ voters. During polling day, the rakyat (people) who have been registered as voters are the ‘boss’. The power is invested on rakyat, by the legislature, to elect who should be the Administrator/ Boss of their lives for the next five years.

Once they have elected their YBs or the administrators, the role changes. The elected representatives become the administrators/ boss of the rakyat, while the rakyat plays a subservient role seeking assistance from the YBs from time to time.

Masing said there was no need for him to apologise for his ‘Jangan Lawan Tauke’ remark. “Apologise for what?”

It is James Masing who is utterly confused or ignorant about the nature of elected reps. Someone should tell him that elected reps are there to serve the people and not to lord it over them as bosses or taukeh. Typical feudal mentality!

It’s government of the people, by the people and for the people. Get it?

Then there’s PM Najib, who likens a general election to going to war, indeed “the mother of all battles”. Where once he was talking about defending Putrajaya at all costs even it means “crushed bodies and lost lives”, now he is talking of generals issuing orders to “attack”. This latest statement of his was reported in the Malaysian Insider:

Najib added that the concept of fielding only “winnable candidates” is the final hurdle in BN’s election plans and said all supporters should accept choices made by the coalition’s leaders.

“The choice must be supported by every one of us because we are at war, the mother of all battles. And if we speak of the mother of all battles, we must make preparations…,” he said.

“And there must be a chain of command. If the general says attack, you must all attack at the same time. We cannot win unless we move as a team. And when we are committed, God willing, Selangor will be returned to us.”