Malaysia has a bigger problem than Political Frogging - Political Crabbing.
Crabbing is more dangerous
as it is not as visible as frogs jumping. It is also more widespread. The
culture of crabbing is the deeper reason why we are in a catch-22 situation. In
fact, today, frogging is but a tool to crabbing.
Let me explain.
To understand the Crab
Culture, one first need to get familiar with the Crab Theory or better known as
the “The Crabs in a Bucket Phenomenon”.
When you place crabs in a
bucket or container, even if one can escape, it would not be able to because
the other crabs will pull down the one trying. This will happen even if there
are just two of them in the bucket. This behaviour makes sure that no matter
how hard anyone of them works and tries – none will be successful.
Ditto Malaysian politics.
Crabbing in Malaysia is not confined at the national level
between two political blocks like Perikatan Nasional and Pakatan Harapan, but
also within political parties, like today’s UMNO – between the Kluster Kabinet
and Kluster Mahkamah. Some time ago crabbing was the standard operating
procedure in PKR until the eventual split.
Leaders and their factions hold the other leaders and
factions down so nobody can clearly win and nobody can lead effectively. This “if
I can’t have it, neither can you” approach is classic Crab Culture. Sadly, I have strong
convictions that this Crab Culture is not only confined to the leaders, but the
followers and the rakyat who continue to cheer the behaviour.
At the national level, when one side tries to unseat a
sitting Prime Minister in parliament, it is not that they are sure and confident
of having a clear majority but it is about trying to prove that the other side does
not – this is crabbing at work. Please bear in mind that I do not belong to any
political party or coalition. I dare say that the other side would do the same
if the situation is reversed. It is our unfortunate Crab Culture that may eat
up our nation if we remain unconscious and continue as we are.
That was why I was one of the early individuals who
proposed a state of emergency and am still until today at two hearts about the
re-opening of the parliament. Do not get me wrong, I strongly believe in a
functioning parliament but I have little confidence in our lawmakers shedding
the Crab Culture. Are you? Have you not seen how one side will shout loudly and
the other yell back hysterically to drown out each other’s voices so no one ends up hearing anything
substantial during a session in parliament? It even took place during the
inauguration of a new speaker! That is crabbing at work.
When confined inside a parliamentary sitting especially
these days when the government in power has a thin majority, I find the Crab Culture
manifest its power even
more potently. It is like putting 222 crabs in a “Parliament Bucket” setting
them into frenzy. Even decent lawmakers are dragged down or simply drown out and trampled by the Crab
Culture. Is it a wonder that the YDP
Agong agreed to a state of emergency?
With the emergency in
place crabbing rears its ugly head through other ways like the Covid-19 numbers. Each
increase in cases reported is a good chance to pull the other ‘crab’ down and
vice versa. The more dire our
Covid-19 situation, the more noises from one side that we need to
reconvene the parliament. So more crabbing can take place. As I said earlier, I
am not a party to any coalition, and it is likely that the same would happen if
the situation is in reverse. The Crabbing Culture is fuelled firstly by the
desire for power.
I am not saying that our politicians are heartless human beings
who do not care about the rakyat. Be that as it may, gaining or keeping power
is a very large part of the equation (or is it the larger?) even when dealing with Covid-19. Remember
the Sabah state election? Every single politician from the Peninsular, whether
from the government or opposition and their thousands of campaigners who
returned to their home states after the state polls were the main contributors
to our current coronavirus massive numbers. It all started then. The Prime Minister
himself admitted this last November.
So, do please stop crabbing and pointing fingers. Admit your
mistakes and apologize instead of hiding using crabbing antics. Even if you had quarantined yourself
for 14 days thereafter. Ask if you had ensured your cohorts of campaigners did
the same. Did they? Can you guarantee that they did? Stop lying to yourselves
and the rakyat. If you had placed the rakyat first instead of crabbing for
power, you would have stayed home in the Peninsular and let the Sabah
state elections be strictly a people of Sabah affair. Period.
If I sound sceptical and
doubting, my apologies. Unless our lawmakers and politicians call for a genuine
truce until we no longer have any Covid-related death and have vaccinated 80%
of our population, I will remain distrustful. Meaning, no power grabbing,
organising of frogging or testing who has a thinner majority in parliament and the
forcing of a general elections.
Allow the parliament and the government of the day to
function till the next General Election even if they have a one seat majority.
That is political maturity that avoids the Crab Culture. This has been done before by Tun Abdullah
Ahmad Badawi who ensured and guaranteed the smooth functioning of the Kelantan
State Government from 2004 to 2008 even when PAS at that time had a majority of
only one seat. That is political maturity minus Crab Culture.
You see, at this point of time we do not need a change in
leadership. What we really need is a change of leadership behaviour. We need to shed the Crab Culture and focus on
the rakyat,
Is that too much to ask for?
Peace.
Anas Zubedy,
Kuala Lumpur.
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