friend-with-benefits turns up. As in all alliances, raising hopes is invariable followed by raising the ante. Everyone has done it, from Bihar’s Kumar to Bangalore’s Kumaraswamy.
Take Jealously Desirable You (JD-U) Nitish. He had all along archly declared he would never cast even a second look at that hairy Modi. Then, at the NDA-PDA, he publicly canoodled with Naughty Narendra. But, the very next day, the media grape-vine buzzed that he might cozy up with the Congress, which again found him sexular. When it comes to the reign-dance, you can’t really choose with whom to schmooze. You groove with whoever you can grab.Seducer and seducee are jumping onto any bedfellow with shocking alacrity. Anyone indulging in such outrageously immoral behaviour i
No? What else should they have done? Keeping BN at 90% flat?
(How much does it pay to lick the boots, Zubaidah?)BARISAN NAJIS Government is slowly fading away ? It may sound funny Barisan Rakyat ( Pakatan Rakyat ) will be the New FEDERAL Government in due time.
There’s no North-South divide in this minuet. Chandrababu Naidu too believes that he must Trade with Desirable Partners (TDP). He had earlier kept his options open on Advani’s advances while maintaining his prim, monogamous façade with the Third Front. As with conjugal hypocrisy, the political farce is replete with those famous last words, ‘Mein to shaadi-shuda hoon’.Studying Malaysian politics is a chore in itself, but rewarding for the simple reason that it is one of the most plural, complex and complicated countries in the world. Among all the countries that I have worked on, it is Malaysia that continues to challenge my capacity to think (and relax) for the simple reason that its communitarian mode of sectarian politics is an odd blend of modernity and primordialism that is seldom equalled anywhere else.
At present the opposition coalition known as the Peoples Alliance (Pakatan Rakyat) is once again in a state a crisis – or rather manifold crises – as the component parties bicker over the mode of governance in the states that they won after the elections of March 2008. Bringing together the predominantly Chinese-Malaysian Left-leaning DAP, the multiracial PKR and the overwhelmingly Malay-Muslim Islamists of PAS was never an easy task; and it was said from the outset that the coalition was an instrumental one.
By Farish A. Noor Today however the coalition is once again at breaking point after the DAP threatened to leave the coalition over a dispute over the destruction of a pig abattoir in the state of Kedah, disputes over contracts awarded to development projects in Penang and Selangor, and the lingering fear that the Islamists of PAS will push their Islamisation agenda in the states that have come under their control. Seemingly trivial matters such as the sale of pork and alcohol have forced all three parties to the defensive, with each party holding steadfast to its stand.
Now for political scientists such as myself, situations such as these – which are by no means unique to Malaysia – are worthy of further study as they raise the question of how a mode of representative politics can be developed and institutionalised in the context of plural societies with ethnic, religious and linguistic differences enshrined in the constitution as well as the institutions of state. For this reason what happens in Malaysia is of interest to others in countries like India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Singapore, South Africa et al.
The root of the problem seems to be this: Despite the introduction and imposition of modern tools of statecraft such as the Parliament, the Constitution, the Judiciary etc. the operative mode of politics in Malaysia – like in many other post-colonial societies – is anything but modern. Feudal, essentialist and primordial loyalties to race, religion and culture predominate and determine the norms of political praxis, and are still being used by all political parties to maintain the support of their respective sectarian constituencies. Hence the Islamist party’s preponderance to defend and foreground causes deemed relevant to Muslims; while other ethnic-based parties continue to foreground the interests of their respective ethnic Seducer and seducee are jumping onto any bedfellow with shocking alacrity. Anyone indulging in such outrageously immoral behaviour
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