Surprisingly, the article of mine that has received the highest number of views so far is the one about the down-on-his-luck politician Lim Guan Eng.
That opinion piece, titled “Sedarlah Diri Awak Itu Siapa, Lim Guan Eng”, unexpectedly garnered almost 850,000 views — far more than articles I had written about bigger political figures like Anwar Ibrahim, Mahathir Mohamad, Rafizi Ramli, or Khairy Jamaluddin.
In that article, I argued that Guan Eng’s constant back-and-forth with Chow Kon Yeow was making him look like a loser, because Chow Kon Yeow simply is not in the same league as him politically.
Nothing good comes from fighting someone beneath you in stature.
If you defeat them, you look like a bully.
If you lose to them, you look pathetic.
Conversely, being forced to fight somebody above their station benefits the weaker person either way. If they lose, nobody blames them. But if they win, they become giant killers overnight.
Since that article received so much attention, I suspect even Guan Eng himself may have read it. And perhaps he took the advice seriously too, because the last two people he has publicly confronted in recent days are the newly minted PN supremo Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar and Khairy Jamaluddin.
I am not interested here in debating the substance of Guan Eng’s disagreements with either of them. What matters is this: politicians like Khairy and Dr Samsuri are the sort of opponents Guan Eng should be fighting.
Unlike Chow, Khairy and Dr Sam are politicians in the same class like him.
These are contests worth having because there is actually something meaningful to win from them. And even if Guan Eng loses to Khairy or Dr Sam, that is still ok, because there is no shame in losing to people of equal stature.
After all, when you fight someone on your own level, you may not always win — but even in defeat, you retain your honour.
That, perhaps, is the difference between a winner and a loser.
A winner fights only when there is something worth winning.
A loser fights merely to release his frustrations.
I hope Guan Eng continues reflecting on that distinction, because if he does not, the more he fights, the more he will be trapped in the image of a loser.
Some of you may now think that I am giving good advice to Guan Eng because I secretly support him.
That is not the case.
My role is simply to create articles that can serve as food for thought for readers. Other than that, as a fellow citizen, I also believe that one of the things Malaysia desperately lacks today is justice and fairness.
Justice means placing things in their proper order.
Having Guan Eng and Chow Kon Yeow spar endlessly , for example, is an injustice. But having Guan Eng confront figures like Khairy or Dr Samsuri — politicians operating within the same political weight class — is justice.
Fairness, meanwhile, means having a level playing field where willing participants can compete with a reasonably equal chance of victory.
Politics is a field that Guan Eng, Khairy, and Dr Samsuri entered willingly. If they clash over political ideas and political ambitions in order to prevail within the political arena, then that is both fair and healthy for the country.
Some may ask:
“But Nehru, isn’t it dangerous if all politicians keep fighting each other? Who will govern the country then?”
To that, I would say no — political conflict is not inherently bad, so long as it remains fair and just.
The real problem in Malaysian politics today is not excessive conflict.
It is excessive unfairness and injustice.
It is unjust because people who deserve to rise are often dragged down unfairly, while those who should have fallen continue clinging to power by hook or by crook.
It is unfair because politicians increasingly fight over matters outside the proper political arena — corruption opportunities, racial agitation, and religious manipulation — instead of competing over politically relevent matters like how to win for the people and the country.
When politicians of
different stature fight each other, and when political battles spill into race and religion, politics becomes petty, vicious, degrading, and shameful.
Nobody truly wins in those kinds of fights.
But if political competition becomes fair and just again, then political conflict itself can become healthy for the nation.
I genuinely believe that Happiness, Fortune and Prosperity will only favour this country once we first welcome Fairness and Justice into our land.
TheRealNehruism (nehru.sathiamoorthy@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
The User Content (as defined on Newswav Terms of Use) above including the views expressed and media (pictures, videos, citations etc) were submitted & posted by the author. Newswav is solely an aggregation platform that hosts the User Content. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact creator@newswav.com.