The recently concluded Johor election was full of drama, irony, absurdity, mockery, controversy, subterfuge, and power play.
It is ironic that Datuk Seri Najib Razak was given centre stage to canvass and campaign on the platform of good governance, honesty, and integrity.
He was given undue prominence over Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob at the Barisan Nasional victory press conference. Najib was also given the same treatment at the recently concluded Umno general assembly.
Elements of absurdity were also evident in the state election. The field of competing political parties was rather convoluted. While at the Federal level, this motley crew of different political parties with disparate aspirations form the government, at the state level, they locked horns.
This is like a comedy of errors – friends and foes at the same time.
But here, it is not so much a case of mistaken identity as in a Shakespearean play, but of assuming a dual identity – one of cooperation, and the other, confrontation.
Then, there is the element of subterfuge in the election, which is tantamount to a betrayal.
Even before nomination day, Umno had announced that the caretaker menteri besar and Johor BN chairman, Datuk Hasni Mohammad, would be its pick for Menteri Besar. Hasni was well regarded and popular.
The people voted overwhelmingly in favour of Umno-BN, knowing that the leadership had a good track record, and that Hasni had proven his administrative, and political mettle.
Normally, after a landslide victory, the menteri besar would be sworn in that very night. However, Hasni was sidelined and replaced by Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi.
The flimsy excuse, being the need for new blood, simply does not make sense.
The people were betrayed by Umno’s weak leadership that lacked honesty and integrity.
The Johor Menteri Besar episode showed that Umno had failed the people and its members, who had voted for Hasni as menteri besar.
It raises questions as to whether Johor, as a state, practices democracy, or is still shackled by feudalistic sentiments.
The people were made to believe that they were exercising their democratic rights through voting and choosing the leader of their government.
But the peoples’ voice was muted when another candidate was sworn in as menteri besar. Democracy is maligned or dead when people’s choice and free will are roughshod by powers imposing their anachronistic and defunct feudal rights.
Umno won a landslide victory in Johor not so much because of its strengths, but because of the prevailing circumstances. This included a fractured and weakened opposition, the low voter turnout of only 50 per cent, and due to the interests of certain quarters.
Had the opposition been more united, they would have won no fewer than 30 seats. As it stands, they deserve to lose in Johor, and even in GE15, if they do not regroup and re-strategise.
The Johor state election is a wake-up call for all political parties to come to terms with the electorates’ aspirations for a system that prioritises the peoples’ needs through honest representatives, while safeguarding the democratic principles of governance.
This is the personal opinion of the writer and does not necessarily represent the views of Twentytwo13.
