During my bachelor days, I stayed in a three-room house with two other friends. Each of us occupied a room. One Sunday evening as I recalled, my immediate neighbor, a newly-wed couple was having a heated argument at the porch of their house.
As I was polishing my leather shoes, it's norm of me to sit down in the middle of the entrance door of the house and do the needful. As I noticed, their argument started soon as the wife parked her car at their porch.
The husband came out of the house charging at her and started yelling abusive words. I wasn't too sure what was the reason for him to do that, but rather puzzled, as they were just recently married.
Perhaps, jealousy don't go down well with a hot-tempered husband. On hearing the commotion coming from next door, one of my two housemates called me into our house and requested me to close the door. Then he said,"When a husband and wife quarrel, we cannot take side. Today, they shout at each other, later in the night they would say I love you," a line embedded deep in my mind till these days.
Now, I try to compute and comprehend the benefits of staying neutral if factions of a political party I lend support are hostile to each other. They said in politics, anything can happen - foes becoming friends and vice-versa, some are more blunt by saying politics are dirty.
Taking sides in politics proven to be more challenging than taking sides in a husband & wife disputes - since politics determine the course of a nation.
True, as a Malay proverb that goes,"Sedangkan lidah lagi tergigit," simply means, husband & wife, family members & friends are at times encountering disagreement, but the dilemma is when a party is decimated with disagreement by it's bickering factions.
Another problem with partisanship is, as I realised - we tend to precipitate our undivided support to faction of our choice without taking into account if their actions might prejudice the party.
Perhaps, one way out is not to support any faction and instead support the party. Faction means divisions, when there are divisions, party will be destabilised, in one way or the other. Thus, it is important for top leadership of a party not to favor or indicate partiality as members will be swayed if not confused before torn apart.
I have been consistent at being critical to the ruling party Barisan Nasional (BN) since leaving them in 1998 for all their shortcomings and injustices.
Those days, whole of family members are Umno. My late mother is the late Datuk Harun Idris (former MB) "strong woman". Every first day of Hari Raya Aidilfitri (Eid Mubarak), my mother would leave her house empty and left the keys at my sister's house next door as she is visiting party top leadership - at the expense of her own children returning home to celebrate the festival with her.
Former Selangor MB Datuk Abu Hassan Omar was more than delighted to receive my mother and her entourage every first day of Eid Mubarak. When she returned (usually late evening), though exhausted, she still looked cheerful and started her "story-telling". Started by showing-off the usual "kain batik" and "duit raya" (women's sarong & festival cash gift) given by Abu Hassan. But I can tell, the gifts are not the compelling reasons for her visit, perhaps the atmosphere of the meeting itself that must have given her the "thrill" and satisfaction.
I told myself then, how "bad" are Umno leaders, they even "robbed" supporters' priority on the very first day of Eid, when they could choose to stay home receiving family members, relatives and friends.
However, when Umno was "torn-apart" with the sacking of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, it disappoints her very much. She decelerated her party involvement before eventually quitting Umno for PAS. Her membership certificate which was signed by party president is still in my possession to this date. This shows, depravity plaguing the party could undermine members and supporters' loyalty.
The same goes for Anwar. There was always party members and supporters who are willing and prepared to dare all challenges in the name of supporting him. Active during the "reformasi" movement myself, I know precisely, what many supporters had gone through - teared gas, chased and beaten by the police, hand-cuffed, locked-up in police stations and even jailed thus, the least he (even other leaders) could do to appreciate is not to let down or disenchanted his/their supporters.
As I have said, I couldn't care less with Kajang Move, whether it's party consensus to change Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim and make his wife Dr Wan Azizah as new Selangor MB and whether it's going to be a smooth transition, my only concern is how much the turmoil in People's Justice Party (PKR) would affect People's Pact (PR).
Is there a real need to talk about Kajang Move when their original plan to install Anwar as MB failed? True, like Anwar said, "after-all, Azizah is the party president" and I agree, she is "qualified" for the post, but what I and perhaps many would not want to see is the probability that she will be "dictated" in most of her actions in administrating Selangor. If this happen, administration of Selangor would be seriously affected, at the expense of the state and people. People of Selangor especially voters, may start to feel disgusted with no ending political hassles from their ruling party.
Another "situation" cannot be belittled is whether the Selangor Ruler, HRH Sultan Sharafuddin Idris Shah would "welcome" the idea of getting his MB replaced just to fulfill the Kajang Move aspiration, let alone to have a woman MB.
Uncertainties surrounding Anwar's sodomy appeal case before the Federal Court is another factor worth to be given some consideration. In the event he lost in his appeal, is Azizah "mighty" enough to put the house (PKR) in order?
Call it injustice, biased judgement or conspiracy, in the event he has to stay behind bars, not only his own political future gets gloomy, but possibly the party. Splits and divisions would become more serious leaving the party president without much option but to succumb to the stronger faction.
In principle, I disagreed to bigotry actions and remarks, be it by NGO (Non-Governmental Organisation) or even national leaders, especially when it has the potential to harm unity and harmony, but I would not also condone the same to be committed by people from People's Pact. The question - Do we have to stoop so low and make us look no difference from them?
We can always opt to be "friendly, but firm" in our approaches and certainly, there is no need "to beat our own child to death" to indicate our disagreement, like the case of Muhamad Hafiz.
Perhaps, our maturity is all that count for us to not only winning the people, but most importantly, winning Putrajaya in GE14!
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