I’ve been trying to figure out what’s gone wrong since the rush precipitated by the March 8th elections, and I hit a blank wall. A rush of excitement, then 100 days later, newsbits about corruption, land scams, corruption and everything else has petered out into the dull grey of the daily grind of governance, I suppose. The only excitement so far comes from outside the government (and parliament), these days: Raja Petra’s SD, Mahathir’s vilification of Judge Ian Chin and SAPP contemplating a pull-out from the ruling coalition.
No, these days it seems as if the UMNO/BN machinery has effectively clamped down on Opposition voices now in state governments. I’ve been reading and watching the news about an embattled Abdullah Badawi but honestly? I don’t see how he’s fighting from a corner. Yes, he was pushed into talks with an iffy deputy Prime Minister over prospects of a hand-over but what has that brought us so far? And DSAI’s talk of crossovers appears to have fallen a little flat. If DSAI has something else up his sleeves, he needs a publicist to time his announcements, for all the gravity these little snippets about crossing over for the good of the people have.
In the meantime, as I watched from the sidelines, I kept expecting a BN offensive in cyberspace - it seems as if the ancien regime is still stuck strategizing their way into the online space. I’d rather be pessimistic: if they’re taking this long, they must be planning real well. This puts me in a bad mood, mostly, but Khairy Jamaluddin’s making things interesting.
I blogged many moons ago about the possibility of a trojan horse in KJ, and the coupled circumstances of a devastated, post-election UMNO and the tightening noose around his benefactor daddy-in-law seems to be forcing his hand: he’s been balancing quite a number of issues, hasn’t he? While he seems to be the articulate howitzer aimed at Opposition ranks at times, he’s also come out saying strange things about press freedom, the ISA and the like, now hasn’t he? Maybe he’s making a play for position now that his base of support - essentially one person - looks decidedly unstable.
Given how political views are starkly divided these days, it’s difficult sounding anti-UMNO/BN without drawing some disbelieving looks from the ‘other side’, I suppose. Then again, maybe it’s the politician (I didn’t statesman, did I?) in Khairy reacting to that hateful cliche, that “political tsunami” (jeez, can’t we come up with better terms?!) - pandering to the people, pandering to the lowest common denominator.
I’m undecided: is Khairy a political has-been?