So the 12th general election is finally here.

The timing is interesting in itself. The Royal Commission of Enquiry on the Lingam video tape has just begun to re-captivate public imagination with juicy testimony from the lawyer’s former secretary, and the estranged (but not deranged according to him) brother was recounting life in their large family in ways that we associate with the plots of an Indian movie.

I now cannot wait to hear from his driver. Humble secretaries, drivers, and brothers know all about the secret life of the high and mighty. Unfortunately, they are not always accorded the respect they deserve, because the high and mighty tend to see them as part of the furniture.

In any case, it is better for me not to comment on this famous lawyer so much for fear that I – and Malaysiakini as well – will be slapped with a RM100 million fine in a defamation suit.

I do not like the idea of a court of public opinion, which is more often than not an expression of private prejudices anyway. But then again, the principle of the open court is one of the most revered tenets of British law, as the late great Lord Denning will tell you. So let the Commissioners do their job in an open public hearing.

The Commissioners themselves are also very aware that they are under the glare of public eyes. We read about applications being made for this or that Commissioner to withdraw himself from the Commission. So far, they seem to have acted with pretty impressive decorum, even if I do not agree with some of their rulings. But then, I am no lawyer, and should keep my incompetent legal views to myself, on pains of being charged with contempt.

When newspaper report of the hearing proceedings was just getting interesting, Parliament had to be resolved, and the nomination and voting dates had to be determined. Overnight, the entire attention of the media is diverted to the many faces of the elections.

Is this the reason why the PM has chosen this juncture to hold the general election, to avoid suffering more embarrassment as witnesses wash more filthy linen and rattle more skeletons in the closets of prominent people in high places?

Indeed, at this time, nothing seems more newsworthy than the elections. I open the morning papers, and they are filled with pages and pages of reports on who contest where, what their chances of winning are, and how the various political parties are shaping up. The continued hearing of the Commission would be sidelined.

Manufactured truth

This is also the season in which I find the newspaper unreadable, and the TV coverage unwatchable. Dominating the deadlines, will be various interviews of the PM, the DPM, and the heads of the various political parties in the ruling coalition. The IGP will come out with the mandatory warning about sensitive issues and law and order. The Election Commission chairperson will tell politicians about following the law of the land. It is the same old narrative repeated numerous times in the past. You wonder: do they have anything new to say?

Judging from media coverage, you would think that opposition parties do not exist, or if they do, they are anti-government, and therefore, have nothing good to say, or worth reporting about.

This official view of His Majesty’s loyal opposition is entrenched by propaganda clip on RTM, showing opposition leaders and supporters as riot-prone ugly citizens bent on destroying public order and political stability. This unashamed attempt in producing manufactured truth should turns your stomach, even if you have a cast-iron stomach for political spin like I do. It frightens me to think that there are actually many people in Malaysia who believe in that kind of demonising propaganda on the state media.

The busiest people now are probably those involved directly in party politics. There will be frenzied lobbying for candidacy. The election does strange thing to otherwise rational and reasonable people. It infects their system, and their brain goes into a feverish mental tsunami. They must be the party candidate, or else they will die. Why, they are prepared to jump ship, or stand as independent candidate, or sabotage the campaign of their own party, if they are left out of the list of party candidates.

I suppose that in the ruling parties, election candidature opens the door to a prominent and profitable future in the party. He may become a YB, slowly rising through the rank to the top leadership within the party, with the reward of a cabinet position perhaps after a while. This would be followed by a string of tongue-twisting titles before his name and access to the immense opportunity to tap into the rich pork-barrel monopolised by the government. He would do his family proud.

This obsessive fixation with becoming a candidate is no less intense in opposition parties. They have come to worship their prominent party leaders as glamorous heroes, and they wish to be like them. A candidate during a general election does enjoy celebrity status for a while, and is sometimes pursued by the media. It does give a big boost to the ego for some also-runs.

The pay for an MP or a State Assemblymen is also quite substantial, and there are significant perks. For some people with some financial trouble, this is a good way out.

The people who are most excited by the prospect of a pending election are those actively involved in party politics. Elections are their bread and butter after all. Then, there are their supporters and election workers. They are committed, or partisan. Their sense of loyalty to the party and the candidate of their choice is not that much different from that of a football fan towards his favourite club. Winning is everything to them.

Then again, there are armies of professional campaigners all over the country. It is only during an election like this when they can enjoy a windfall of reward in various forms, particularly cash income. In vast and sparsely populated states like Sarawak and Sabah, a candidate cannot move in a rural constituency without a huge army of professional campaigners on his payroll. Election expenses there run into the millions.

Baffled by so much attention

Reporters, journalists, and columnists are equally excited. Politics is still the main fare of the media. These news hounds and arm chair political analysts will have no problem of finding suitable materials for their copies. Naturally, some are fairer than others.

As for the voters, I am not so sure. I get the feeling that the young are not all that moved by the prospect of an election. Marginalised from the democratic process all their lives, being told by their elders that politics is dirty, told in school and university that politics is not for them, they will probably be baffled by so much attention given to the election in the media.

Their enthusiasm may go up a notch when the sound and fury of an election campaign is in full swing after nomination day. It is hard not to notice all that tons of banners and pamphlets being hung up and distributed all over the constituency. Then, there will be the usual carnival like atmosphere in the ceramahs during the night.

I almost forgot the punters and the gamblers. Malaysians are crazy about betting on any contest. If there is a dog fight in the middle of the road, there is probably a bet on which dog shall triumph among the spectators. Football is the favourite sport for gamblers, and many a Malaysian has been ruined financially by such a degenerate hobby.

I dare say that in Malaysia, there is no bigger spectator sport than the general election. There is excitement, drama, and above all the element of civilised warfare. For 13 days, the compulsive gamblers will watch the combat like a hawk, gauging the rising and falling of the odds daily, waiting for the time to make a killer hit.

In a country where election candidates are reduced to the status of race horses, fighting cocks, and combat dogs, what future is there for democracy? No wonder it has often been said that politics is the second oldest profession in the world, enjoying little more respect than the oldest one!

(This column was held over from last Saturday)