Whilst voters elsewhere are increasingly voting for alternative parties either of the left or populist right, what viable alternatives do we Malaysians have to the lousy bunch of politicians, coalitions, pacts and parties which we have right now?
The left-nationalist Sinn Fein (We Ourselves) rose from obscurity to come out tops in percentage of votes in the recent Republic of Ireland (Eire) elections, ahead of by Fianna Fail (Soldiers of Destiny) and Fine Gael (Family of the Irish), thus ousting Fine Gael from power, along with the former Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar, a general practitioner by profession (though they never tagged "Dr." before his name) and incidentally perhaps Ireland's first ethnic Indian Taoiseach and the Dublin-born son of Ashok and Miriam (née Howell) Varadkar.
However to the Irish, Leo Varadkar is Irish, FULL STOP, unlike Malaysians who are all about race, religion, language, as well as 1MDB, 2MDB, 3MDB, 4MDB, Altantuya, Teoh Beng Hock, as well as kleptocracy, comptency (or more accurately incompetency), transparency, accountability, who had hetrosexual or homosexual intercourse with whom, backdoor government, who will be 8th prime minister and when, rumours of a "Pakatan Nasional" ("National Pact") coalition between a faction within the ruling Pakatan Harapan (Pact of Hope) splitting off the form a pact with UMNO and PAS which are currently in the opposition, to form a new government and send the other faction within Pakatan Harapan onto the opposition benches in parliament, whilst the economy sputters, supermarkets and businesses are closing down, engineering graduates drive e-hailing taxis, the steps of escalators at LRT stations and commercial stores collapse, the price of crude palm oil is heading southwards again after a brief rebound following news of Pakistan buying more Malaysian palm oil, the ringgit having weakened to over RM4.14 to the U.S. dollar, the price of Brent Crude having dropped to U.S.$53.90 per barrel, prices of essentials still sky high and many other economic problems.
Anyway, ethnicity is not important to me and sorry Leo Varadkar but you were in the wrong political party which implemented the wrong policies, or you may very well still be Taoiseach today.
BTW. "Taoiseach" is pronounced something like "Tee-cher".
You can hear how George Galloway pronounces "Taoiseach" towards the end of this short video below:-
#MOATS: Varadkar has clearly lost - it would be absurd for him to continue
Fine Gael is Ireland's equivalent of a conservative party, whilst Fianna Fail are social democrats similar to the U.K.'s Labour Party, whilst Sinn Fein began as the political wing of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) which together with other Irish nationalists, such as Eamon De Valera (who founded Fianna Fail) fought for Irish independence from Britain and won a partial victory bar the six northern countries which are still part of the United Kingdom (likely to soon become the Disunited Kingdom if Scotland votes to leave and the six counties eventually reunify with the Republic).
However, due to neo-liberal degeneration of social democratic parties worldwide, especially since the end of the 1970s when Thatcher became the U.K.'s prime minister in 1979 and Reagan became U.S. president in 1980, both Fianna Fail and Fine Gael implemented neo-liberal policies upon the Irish people, with the former implementing them to a lesser extent than the latter, or it could be said that Fianna Fail implemented neo-liberalism with a "kinder face" than Fine Gael but both parties imposed neoliberalism none the less, hence Sinn Fein's coming out tops in Ireland's election which is based upon a proportional representation voting system, rather than the "first past the post" electoral system in the U.K. and in Malaysia.
However, the problem with the proportional representation electoral system is that most often, none of the parties gain enough votes to form a majority in the parliament (Dáil Éireann, Bundestag or whatever), so the leading party or parties must find coalition partners to be able to form a government and the current speculation is that Sinn Fein will partner with Fianna Fail to form a government and hopefully Sinn Fein will be able to curb Fianna Fail's neo-liberal tendency.
Back to Damian Wilson's article in Russia Today (you may have noted that I rarely cite articles by the British Bullshitting Corporation, CNN, CNBC, Fox, other mainstream British, U.S., Australian, Canadian, New Zealand or Western European media).
I really love these two paragraphs in his article:-
"Establishment politicians throughout Europe, and even further abroad, have now spent a couple of decades shifting away from fulfilling the roles that we have come to expect of them. We no longer have any real first class statesmen or visionaries with brilliant ideas that fit right in with the new social, technological and global environment."
"Instead, we are overloaded with narcissists, media obsessives, intellectual lightweights and poseurs using hollow assurances of a life devoted to public service to disguise the reality that they are more interested in the business of self-service."
Whilst Damian Wilson refers to Europe in the above two paragraphs, the points he made can be equally applied to Malaysia's current crop of self-serving politicians.
Meanwhile over in Germany, the right-populist Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) party switched its votes from its own candidate to Thomas Kemmerich of the business-friendly (hence likely neo-liberal), pro-European Union, pro-free market, pro-privatisation, pro-marijuana legalisation Free Democratic Party of Germany in the Thuringia state elections, thus electing him as Premier of Thuringia (similar to a Menteri Besar (Chief Minister) in Malaysia). The "economic liberal" - i.e. neo-liberal FDP is a junior coalition partner of Germany's ruling Christian Democratic Union and Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) coalition. Angela Merkel, Germany's current Chancellor (Prime Minister) is from the CDU, which opposes any collaboration with the AfD or the Left party, so put pressure on Thomas Kemmerich to step down as Premier of Thuringia.
It's support for a Free Democratic Party candidates is rather politically opportunistic (sacrifice of political principles) on the part of the AfD which besides being German-nationalist, anti-immigrant and is opposed to same-sex marriages, the party also is eurosceptic and opposes further integration of Germany into the European Union, if not a total GEREXIT (Germany Exit).
In his article, Damian Wilson slams the CDU of putting pressure on Thomas Kemmerich to relinquish his post.
Anyway, like it or not, the current trend in politics today, especially in the west, is where voters are abandoning mainstream centre-left and centre-right parties and polarising either to the populist right or left ends of the political spectrum, and in more developed and affluent western countries, as well as imperialist western countries, the tendency is to move towards the right, whilst in former colonised countries such as Ireland, which have no imperialist legacy, the tendency is to move to the left, unless as in Greece, the "far-left" Syriza sold the Greek voters in the referendum down the drain in face of the European Union financial oligarchs.
Meanwhile, over in the United States, Bernie Sanders calls for a "recanvass" (I guess that is a recount) of votes in the Democrats' Iowa caucus debacle, where despite Sanders leading in the popular vote, however Pete Buttigieg was ahead of Sanders in delegate votes.
Sanders asks for recanvass of 25 Iowa caucus precincts
"Last Monday's caucuses turned out to be a disaster of epic proportions for the Democrats, as the smartphone app intended to tally results "glitched" and the reporting phone lines collapsed under the workload. Full results were not available for days, and when they finally trickled in, they showed Buttigieg 0.1 percent ahead of Sanders and getting one more delegate as a result – but Sanders winning more of the popular vote."
https://www.rt.com/usa/480529-sanders-caucus-recanvass-iowa/
However, George Galloway is pretty sure that Bernie Sanders will eventually win and become the Democrats' presidential candidate who will go head to head against Donald Trump in November 2020, unless his fellow Democrats stab Bernie in the back and put one of their fellow swamp creatures as the Democrats' presidential candidate.
BERNIE WILL WIN NOW | What happened in Iowa? (SUB) #MOATS #USpolitics
I really love how George Galloway hammers away at the ludicrousness of having to use a smartphone app to count heads at in a caucus vote. This comes from someone who once made steel belted tyres in a Michelin factory, when most members of parliament wouldn't know how to change a flat tyre on their car.
I wonder how many of our members of parliament, state assemblymen and assemblywomen know how to change a flat tyre on their car. Perhaps they will search for an app on the Google Play Store or the Apple App store which will tell them how to change a flat tyre or perhaps even change it for them, or maybe they will call their Filipina or Indonesian maid to change it for them - perhaps the same maid who also wipes and washes their bum after they have done a crap. Are they any smartphone apps which will magically wipe one's bum? Perhaps some MSC Malaysia status startup company can develop one and earn millions from it.
Without further ado, Damian Wilson's Russia Today article follows below:-
German & Irish voters make it clear they want real change. Establishment puzzled & fails to understand that the problem is THEM
Damian Wilson
Shock election results in Germany and Ireland are signs of a political earthquake that rumbles on across Europe and with more polls penned in for this year, the voter upsets will roll on much to the dismay of the establishment.
The political tremors rumble on in Germany after the main governing party lost its leader and future chancellor Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer amid the self-flagellation of an AfD-assisted win for the CDU in a regional German vote.
Elsewhere, Ireland's general election resulted in the previously unthought of scenario of Sinn Féin (which started its life as the political wing of the paramilitary IRA) topping the poll.
Both incidents are part of a massive seismic shift that has hit politics in the Western world and shows no sign of easing, and while the career politicians and their pals sit around and scratch their heads, puzzling over what went wrong and why they didn't see it, they fail to acknowledge one simple truth that every voter knows.
The problem is them.
Establishment politicians throughout Europe, and even further abroad, have now spent a couple of decades shifting away from fulfilling the roles that we have come to expect of them. We no longer have any real first class statesmen or visionaries with brilliant ideas that fit right in with the new social, technological and global environment.
Instead, we are overloaded with narcissists, media obsessives, intellectual lightweights and poseurs using hollow assurances of a life devoted to public service to disguise the reality that they are more interested in the business of self-service.
And my, what a shock when the emperor's new clothes are revealed!
Ireland's Prime Minister Leo Varadkar has spent his time in office sucking up to the EU in return for tough words on the Irish border and a hardman role in the Brexit withdrawal bill negotiations.
While the telegenic young leader of the EU's youngest nation loved the way this seemed to play out, the folk at home were less impressed. And when the chance came to hit him where it hurts, they seized it, turning to Sinn Fein in their droves, with only the over-65s with longer memories than others of historical troubles sticking with the conventional offerings.
It caught Sinn Féin so much by surprise to win 24% that even they are guilty of playing politics with the same old rules as always. Standing candidates in select areas, using strategic voting, rather than looking to have as many people represented as possible.
Not so the German CDU candidate Thomas Kemmerich in Thuringia, who opted to enlist the support of Alternative for Deutschland in order to win his bid for office.
While the mainstream media continues to brand the AfD as "far right" in an obvious attempt to link it to the Nazis, the party has a massive appeal throughout Germany, particularly in the east.
But what Kemmerich did was branded "unforgivable" by Angela Merkel because it is considered taboo by those in the mainstream to deal with anybody from the "far right", even where those credentials don't really fit.
So here we have a democratically elected politician hounded out of office for refusing to play by the establishment rules. Germany has a problem.
The treatment drips with hypocrisy.
Then again, the German leadership has been accused of having a tin ear ever since Merkel opened the doors to 1 million migrants in 2015, so no one is surprised by this "Mummy knows best" approach.
They don't take into account that voters are far more sophisticated these days.
They are not surprised when genuine politicians with a real connection to the people form alliances or partnerships that will actually help address the concerns of those who elected them.
This is exactly what the modern voter wants. Pragmatic, go-getters. Not someone whose hands are tied because a party machine forbids them from using any sort of initiative.
Look at Matteo Salvini in Italy. He might have been the world's worst coalition partner during his time as interior minister in the short-lived government with partners Five Star Movement (M5S) as he insisted on grabbing the headlines and dominating the national political narrative. But heavens above he was, and remains, popular.
Later this year we have more elections in Europe, which are all capable of throwing the cat among the pigeons.
There are national polls in Cyprus, Croatia, Romania, Slovakia and Lithuania with presidential elections in Poland.
Each of these EU nations has its own internal issues; sluggish economies, endemic corruption, underperforming representatives, take your pick.
Then there are a host of regional elections across Italy and more in Spain, including Catalonia, in which anything could and probably will happen as issues of immigration and the economy cause headaches for the Italians and regional separatism dogs the Spanish.
Rather than accept disruption as the new face of democracy however, the entrenched political establishment will continue to threaten, cajole and coerce those who undermine the way they do things, even if that means upsetting the voters or going against their explicit wishes.
They will do this at their peril.
People expect more in 2020. They might all have their own issues — climate, digital access, transport, housing or the lack of work — but are all agreed on one thing. They will no longer take inaction or excuses from their politicians.
Try those and see what happens.
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/480530-ireland-germany-elections-establishment/
Yours truly
Politi Scheiss
http://politischeiss.blogspot.com/
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