Sex, lies, money and politics

WELCOME to Malaysian politics.

That is the most I could reply every time someone lamented to me the state of our country’s politics which has become perhaps a laughing stock to the outside world.

While the rest of the world is focusing on economic revival and job security, we have been entertained almost daily to political circus in our home yard, no thanks to some of our politicians who seem ignorant of the plight faced by the people who are already affected by the global economic recession.

Sex, lies, money and politics may best describe the political development in our country.

Early last year, we were caught by the brouhaha over the revelation of a sex scandal involving former Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek who is also the MCA deputy president.

His sexual tryst with his alleged lover in a hotel was widely circulated on the You Tube as well as MMSes almost instantly, thus ending Dr Chua’s political career, albeit briefly.

But being the fighter he is, Dr Chua went against all odds when he beat the other two contenders to assume the MCA No. 2 post.

Just when we thought that Dr Chua’s scandal could perhaps be the only sex-driven political massacre, we again were treated to another scandal.

This time, the Bukit Lanjan state assemblywoman and Selangor executive council member Elizabeth Wong was caught in the nude with her semi-naked photos in compromising positions circulated on the internet and widely reported in newspapers.

Even a major portion of the nightly Evening Edition on Astro channel has been focusing on Wong with other news taking the back seat.

The ‘political rape’ as one of the political scientists called it has resulted in the former national swimmer offering her resignation despite the fact that she is victimised for whatever reason only privy to whoever is behind this evil act.

While she has been asked to take a long leave by her political master and to reconsider her decision to quit, how far this setback would be for Wong or the Pakatan Rakyat for that matter is yet to be known.

Lies? Well, I guess everyone of us could still remember private investigator Balasubra-maniam Perumal who went missing until today after making a statutory declaration last year concerning murdered Mongolian model Altantuya.

And there was this former personal assistant to PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim who suddenly disappeared after he claimed he was sodomised by his employer.

And then there you have Changkat Jering assemblyman Mohd Osman Jailu who failed to turn up in court for his graft trial and remains elusive together with the other two assemblymen, Behrang’s Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi and Jelapang’s Hee Yit Foong after their defection, which caused Pakatan Rakyat to lose its grip on the Perak state government.

Bukit Selambau assemblyman V Arumugan who quit his state seat and executive councillor posts and went missing recently has added to the list of how Malaysian voters have been cheated again and again by certain irresponsible politicians.

Well, I guess the only thing we can find solace in is the fact that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has called on the civil servants to do more to speed up the implementation of projects under the RM7 billion stimulus package announced by the government in November last year.

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak is expected to table a mini-budget soon and come out with a second stimulus package with estimated amount of RM10 billion to stimulate the economy.

Penang Chief Minister and DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng, meanwhile, has called on the federal government to consider giving unemployment benefits to those retrenched as part of fiscal stimulus with each one of those retrenched given RM800 a month from three to six months.

And just recently, the mission schools and conforming schools in Sabah and Sarawak were given a total of RM21 million funding during a visit by Najib to the state capital.

While disbursement of funds has always been greeted with cheers from the people, politicians must bear in mind that money politics would not be tolerated by the people as it is the root of all evil.

It is heartening at least to note the call by Minister of Environment and Public Health Dato Sri Wong Soon Koh on municipal councillors to declare their interest but this call must be translated into action and extended to all elected representatives as politicians are supposed to be clean and not involved in any conflict of interest in any business dealings.

Ah ha, Malaysian politics is not so bad after all. Just sit down and enjoy it while we do the assessment for the politicians who will receive their report cards come every election.