Effectively, fancy that! Rishi Sunak is the prime minister of the UK.
Plenty of firsts that go together with that – first brown particular person (even when I believe I’m browner than him in case you ask me) to be Prime Minister of the UK, the richest by far, and the youngest prior to now few hundred years.
At 42, he’s younger sufficient to be my son. But when he had been my son, I’d be very disenchanted he turned a politician. I’m already disenchanted with him having been an funding banker (and with Goldman Sachs of all individuals). Now this.
There’s an outdated joke a few man ruefully speaking about his two sons, certainly one of whom was convicted of against the law, whereas the opposite turned a politician. “One in every of my sons went to jail for theft” he mentioned, “whereas the opposite didn’t prove any good both.”
It seems you possibly can find yourself being a politician and a convicted legal, too. That’s actually taking Malaysia Boleh to a complete new degree, which isn’t a nasty factor for as soon as.
Half-baked drama queens
Western societies by and enormous see politicians as a essential evil, tolerated however definitely not lauded or worshipped. Even the great ones get bruised and battered by the general public and the media frequently.
In Malaysia, nonetheless, half-baked drama queens of questionable competence and integrity…
OK, let’s not go into that. It’s getting boring bitching about our half-past six politicians. Let’s not get into an prolonged evaluation of all of the challenges dealing with Rishi Sunak both, as a result of that’s an excessive amount of work. I’ll simply deal with one straightforward facet of it – his age.
We’ve got too many elderly individuals in Malaysian politics (and to be honest, elsewhere too – consider Joe Biden and Donald Trump).
Revenge of the younger
A type of amongst our numerous ex-prime ministers mentioned that younger individuals lack the expertise to be leaders, which means they have to bide their time, pay their dues and serve their apprenticeship.
The issue is that those that imagine this didn’t fairly imagine it once they had been younger themselves, once they fortunately pushed apart outdated individuals to make means for their very own ambitions.
Scary thought – maybe all younger politicians are destined to finish up as outdated hypocrites?
However even when they did bide their time, paid their dues and served their apprenticeship, many nonetheless didn’t prove very nicely. It’s definitely not a course of assured to supply competent, trustworthy, clever political leaders.
Politicians and diapers
British political tradition assumes politicians are all the time as much as no good and must be monitored carefully, slapped round occasionally, and sometimes thrown out like smelly diapers and changed with recent ones.
That is one colonialist mindset I don’t thoughts having right here in Malaysia! It took us over 60 years earlier than we threw out a bunch of people that had lengthy overstayed their welcome, and introduced in a bunch of “new” ones, with lots of hope and pleasure.
However the “new” ones weren’t all that new. Many had been recycled – maybe downcycled is a greater phrase – whose many stains and poisonous spots had been glossed over as a result of the individuals had been giddy with pleasure.
Luxurious lodges may be harmful locations for democracy too. Politicians like to get into their limousines and scoot to the closest 5-star resort to create a cabal of consensual cahooting to fully corrupt conscientious civil society!
Revenge of the Raj
However at the very least most British politicians appear to imagine in one thing among the many extra respectable political opinions reminiscent of capitalism (decrease the taxes!) or socialism (increase the taxes!) or the atmosphere (tax every thing!).
Provided that the British cupboard itself has a couple of filthy wealthy (and brown) individuals, wealthy even earlier than they entered politics, and the nation has a better-functioning system of governance, many don’t get richer after going into politics, not like these in Malaysia.
Politics right here has change into a sport, one which pays nicely to the winners. It’s inhabited by individuals who couldn’t earn a dwelling another means, and who’d maintain on to their political energy as if their lives (and livelihoods) rely on it.
The UK has proven they’re additionally able to placing incompetent ideologues in cost who’d attempt to ram by means of flawed insurance policies to assist their favoured demographics. However so far as outright political thievery is worried, they’re means behind a lot of their ex-colonies.
A lot has additionally been made about Rishi Sunak being the revenge of India over the British Empire, given his Indian ancestry and Hindu religion. But when related circumstances (Suella Braverman!) are to be believed, I’d say India shouldn’t anticipate a lot favours from him. He’s a British upper-class capitalist twit by means of and thru.
An Indian PM in Putrajaya?
An much more fascinating query is, can a Malaysian-born and bred ethnic Indian be a Malaysian prime minister? The formal reply is after all sure – nothing in our Structure bars this from taking place.
The precise reply is: Not for a protracted lengthy whereas but, Thambi.
Not so long as Malay politics nonetheless insist on scraping the underside of each barrel, and never so long as politics is seen as a sport to earn wealth for your self, and infrequently to your subsequent seven generations too.
One factor we’re higher than the British is that, after a interval of instability, we’re lastly going to the polls to ask the rakyat for a recent mandate. Whereas each soiled trick can be performed, at the very least the individuals may have a say on who runs issues for the following 5 or so years.
However we must always study from historical past and perceive that to make sure true stability, ministers ought to by no means be allowed anyplace close to a 5-star resort.
The views expressed are these of the author and don’t essentially mirror these of FMT.
