Alas, PH had won the KKB by-election. How bitter and disappointing it was to hear the news.
The PH candidate won with more or less the same majority despite the lower turnout. That for all you know, might in terms of net percentage mean that more people in KKB supported the PH government this time around than the last time around.
When I heard PH’s communication minister remarking that PH’s victory in KKB is a triple celebration for the unity government, on account of it also being the anniversary of the founding of PKR and Umno, it felt like the villains in the movie were celebrating after raping the heroine. All I could hope for is that this is just the interval scene. If this is the movie’s ending, this is a terrible movie.
I really had hoped to hear PH bite the dust after the KKB by-election.
I wanted to hear the news of the Indians teaching PH a lesson so that I can write an article to rub it in Anwar’s face, by telling him that this is what you get for calling Indians the k-word last year.
I wanted to hear the news that the Malays have decided to put aside their differences, and come together to stop the rot in the country.
But alas, what happened instead is that the Indians said that Anwar is still their man despite the way he had treated them and the Malays saying the it doesn’t matter if the ship is on fire and heading to the bottom of the sea, what is more important is who gets to be the captain of that sinking ship.
Even if PH had won with a slim majority, it would have been acceptable. But to hear it winning in a way that suggests that it still has the same level of trust and confidence of the people is just downright depressing.
It feels like nothing has any meaning anymore. You live, you die and in between you get harassed by the question why. It makes you wonder why bother to wait for tomorrow at all, when it is likely going to be all downhill from today onwards.
Hearing PH’s victory, I could only take consolation in philosophy and poetry.
There is a saying. Whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad.
You know how you know that the gods have made you mad? It is when what is wrong looks right and what is right looks wrong. It is when gold looks like dirt and dirt looks like gold.
Omar Khayyam has a famous quatrain. It goes like this.
The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.
When I remember it, it makes me think that maybe as a nation we have committed too much sin, and as a result now the gods wish us ruin.
If I had thought that maybe there is still something that we can do to change the course of destiny, it is Khayyam's words that I hear ringing in my head.
“Nor all thy Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.”
Today I woke up feeling that band members of the Titanic must have been incredibly wise. They must have been, because when they realised that they were doomed, they didn’t struggle and make a fool of themselves. Instead, they just resigned themselves to their fate and kept playing their music with dignity, until their water engulfed them and caused them all to perish.
Nehru Sathiamoorthy is the author of “While Waiting for the World to end”. He was a columnist at FMT and a frequent contributor to the South China Morning Post, The Star, Malaysia-Today, MalaysiaNow, MalaysiaKini and Focus Malaysia.
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