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 Anwar's 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 I'm, sorry to say, "Well, let's see if the saying 'a house divided against itself cannot stand' will be brought to fruition."
By LIM MUN FAH
Translated by DOMINIC LOH
Sin Chew Daily
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