MACC: what “politicising�
By Sim Kwang Yang
In a malaysiakini story headlined Stop politicising Teoh’s death, Nasri the de facto Law Minister accused Lim Kit Siang of trying to turn the MACC issue into a racial issue.
This strange term “politicising” (what a twisted mouthful!) is one of the most often used mantras ensuing from the lips of BN ministers in over three decades. It has also been dutifully quoted in headlines in the mainstream media during the same period.
Everyday, I browse through three or four newspapers online in the USA and UK, and have not encountered this term even once all these years. It is indeed a unique and prominent Malaysian word in our political language. It deserves some attention.
We have to ask: why is politicising any issue such a big crime? Is there a law against it? What is politicising anything anyway?
To “politicise” – I suppose – is to make political out of something which is apolitical.
We know how some opposition supporters are. They tend to blame everything on the BN government, especially on the Internet. It is like a knee jerk reaction. When they see a male dog mating vigorously with a female dog on an open street in Kuala Lumpur, are they justified in blaming the BN government for this unsightly scene? Are they pollicising something that has nothing to do with politics?
Well, opposition people with great eloquence can argue for their case without difficulty. The BN government controls DBKU and the DBKU have failed to control the wild stray dog population in the nation’s capital. Wild dogs mating in public will drive away tourists, and our national economy will suffer. This is indeed a political issue of national importance. Q.E.D.
So many things in our daily lives have to do with politics. The huge body of laws of the land that regulate and control our behaviour and every commercial transaction have been legislated by politicians holding political power in our institutions.
Breathing the air is also a political issue. It is polluted in KL, because the government has failed to provide a cheap, clean and efficient public transport system, forcing everybody to buy cars that emit filthy fume into the air. The haze over the Klang valley these days is a political issue of international dimension.
So, why is this BN abhorrence against the opposition politicising anything?
