Just considering some things, more speculation and nothing concrete. I’ve been thinking about the current police abuse situation and trying to piece together some events that have occurred. I make some general statements, true, but more in the vein of speculation, so forgive me if I offend.

1. Playing Kingmaker
The by-election in Pengkalan Pasir. According to this post and a Malaysiakini report, Anwar Ibrahim is out playing Kingmaker for a PAS candidate. It sounds strange, or does it? Maybe it doesn’t. It allows En Anwar a way out of his own political desert, it makes dead certain he won’t be wandering about for 40 years. The problem with Kingmakers, I gather, is the fact that if they themselves do not have solid footing, their dependence on their favoured’s largesse tends to be precarious. Imagine campaigning for everybody and discovering all of them to be sharks in disguise, unless, that is, he’s sure about his ability to appeal to the masses: harried ex-PM-designate and now demagogue. This will be very interesting to watch.


2. Stacking up controversies
Consider the Police-Abuse situation. If you’d think about it, it’s a whole string of events. I’ll observe from the timeline of this blog: first, the AP issue, then the MMU issue, then the Nazri-racist in parliament issue, then the “Chin Peng bapa DAP” issue, then the “Keling” issue, and now the police abuse issue. In all of these events, LKS was able to steal the limelight, take a stance that corresponds closely to public opinion - or at least the position of opposition supporters - and gain a huge deal of political mileage. He isn’t just making trouble in parliament (the view of BN supporters, no doubt), he’s winning the war in the court of public opinion. It’s another few years before elections again, and I wonder how he’ll use what political capital he’s gained. This, too, will be interesting to watch.

3. Stumbling BN Parliamentarians
The fact that BN parliamentarians are getting caught flat-footed. Besides the relatively weak leadership of PM Abdullah, parliament is moving in the direction dictated to it by opposition politicians; sure, it’s not all their doing, but BN parliamentarians are willingly shooting themselves in the foot time and again. With Hansard transcripts and video broadcasts available, Opposition politicians just have to raise a ruckus for the tech-savvy public to swarm sites which have the former readily available. And Opposition politicians benefit by simply being made to look like victims, or better yet, being made to look like defenders of victims among the public.

4. Messianic figures and moral grounds
What’s been telling these past few months is the fact that the Opposition have been winning many victories, and even on moral grounds. That’s the point: the Opposition have been winning moral victories both in parliament and, by extension and news reports, in the public domain.

This is so easy to do, I believe, simply because the government/parliament has ceased to become the lean machine it should be. It relates to the point above. With such a high concentration of BN members in parliament, any mistake or misstep essentially tarnishes all parliamentarians but a few messianic figures (the Opposition). The parliament is bulky, and opposition politicians can do no wrong; utter the word “Keling’ by mistake and the opposition dances circles around parliament.

Any attempt by BN parliamentarians to justify themselves makes them fall farther down the abyss. So what are BN parliamentarians forced to do? Either apologize or obfuscate, in which case, the memory remains especially in the public. And if the BN parliamentarians apologize, they will appear to give credence to Opposition demands, which in turn, really tarnishes the image of BN parliamentarians.

Watching the pieces in play
Parliament has basically grown fat and juicy with so many pro-government parliamentarians.

We’re seeing this play out very, very clearly with the police abuse issue: it’s a matter of grave public concern; it was brought forward by an Opposition parliamentarian, suggesting the public only trusts them; Nazri, Shahrir and the rest are falling over themselves trying to be the first the declare the incident an outrage.

How will this look to voters in Pengkalan Pasir, and what would be Anwar’s angle with such BN gaffs at his disposal?

Hmmm. Your move, BN.

What do you think? Are there other aspects I’m missing?