- nabalunews
LET'S PRACTISE MATURE POLITICS MINUS NAME CALLING, SAYS POLITICAL ANALYST
3 Mac 2021
Sabahan have for years since 1994 have wanted to kick out and drive out and chase out UMNO from the face of Sabah for good, and the chance, the only chance came soon after the GE14 when the Sabah State Assembly was hung; no parties or coalition have enough Assembly seats to form the government.
Sabahan’s hope to change the government then rested in the hands of party presidents; alas the unthinkable happened, Jeffrey Kitingan switched from the opposition side to give life to UMNO; thank goodness, that didn’t happened; UPKO came to the rescue of Sabahan in their attempt to get rid of UMNO. However, that was short lived, money and greed took its toll and a snap poll have to be called. In any case, UPKO’s move to change side at that point in time was perhaps the most honourable thing to do for Sabahans and democratically correct.
Lets look at the British politics. The government interchanged between Labour in Conservative. The Conservatives was poised to displace Labour in 2010 after Labour took control for 1 years. Labour lost in the election, but the Conservative didn’t have enough majority to form the government. Then came Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats who decided to support the Conservative and thus got rid of Labour and the Conservative have been in power since then. In all these, Nick Clegg was never branded a political frog or any similar derogatory terms used in western politics because what the Lib Dem did was perfectly democratic.
Similarly, the 2010 election in Australian have left Julia Gillard as ‘caretaker’ Prime Minister while negotiations took place as to which party would form government. Labour was in the minority, however, Labour took the realm of government when 1 Green Party MP and two independent decided to switch side and supported Labour, and since then Australia have been ruled by a coalition of politcal parties? Again, the Green party MP and the two Independent were never branded as political frog as what they did, again, was perfectly democratic.
So when in May 2018, UPKO decided to switch sides and support Warisan to form the government, it was, by convention, perfectly democratic. The dynamics of our politics will continue to be fluid from now onward, from one general election to another, and we don’t know who will switch sides from which to where.
The best our current political leaders should do, especially those in the power that be, is to carry on with the best that they can do, minus name calling and using derogatory words against another political leader. We inherited a political system from the British, let us also inherit their matured political mindset.
Lesaya Lopog
Local Political Analyst
