By C C Pung
Justice of Peace
ELECTION time is the season for political theatrics, posturing and promises.
In this season, politicians suddenly acquire a basket of inspiration which are at best the equivalent of “pocketful of mumbles such are promises …’ alluded to in Paul Simon’s “The Boxer”.
Anwar Ibrahim promised some miracles in Sabah’s pathetic utilities system.
The Sabah government, an economic novice that doesn’t even know that is is a novice, suddenly thought of a thing called ‘sovereign fund’.
What for? To be run by highly paid novices?
It brought to mind Winston Churchill quotes calling politics as the ability to tell what’s going to happen in a week, or a month, or a year and then being able to explain why nothing came true.
Churchill’s era hadn’t coined ‘ bullshit’ but that was precisely what the cigar-chomping war time prime minister was talking about.
And Sabah politicians have shown themselves to be outstanding in Bullshitology.
Some thinkers of old had asked ‘Are the limits of your language the limits of your world?’
if language is a tool like a cache of saws, hammers and chisels, can one call himself a carpenter when he can’t tell one tool from another?
Can I be expected to write with a limited vocabulary?
Can I fly a plane without knowing the functions of each dial in the cockpit?
Painkillers dull aches. But knowing that panadol relieves headache does not make one a doctor.
Does it?
But looking over the nearly 600 names vying for election in the state polls this Nov 29, I wonder how many among them are actually clueless about government and society, or command a vocabulary on the subject to at least make them add it they’re ignorant.
How many among the candidates actually had jobs or underwent some professional training that give them to ability to understand the complex and dynamic issues confronting the population?
I just learnt that a certain minister Anthony Loke never had a job other than briefly dabbling in his father’s business.
This perhaps explains his bungling responses to the troublesome train and leaking roofs at the KL airport.
There are candidates whose only credential is their family name.
I’m aware that a degree or two don’t guarantee a good leader.
But surely they are a better bet than once unemployed SPM holder, or a once struggling car salesman.
By the way, Churchill not only led the UK through the war and is remembered as a global icon.
He also won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953.
Yes, brains and leadership do belong together.
That’s a combination not found where money talks and bullshit reigns.
Cheers. Sabah is for Sabahans, what are you thinking?
