A CASUAL conversation with a delivery driver on the eve of the budget announcement on Friday afternoon predictably led to this question: when will the next general election take place?

The driver certainly did not hide his disgust on the nation’s broken politics and the real possibility of having a general election during a monsoon season. It is indeed a very honest and visceral opinion, of which I appreciate a lot.

I had an inkling he was a flood victim, and therefore it is entirely reasonable that the question of who should govern Malaysia is the last thing on his mind as the monsoon season approaches.

For starters, I understand and empathise with flood victims and the potential risk of having an election during such environmentally challenging times. And this is not an article trying to defend Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s recklessness in wanting an election regardless of any circumstances.

In fact, Zahid’s arrogance is the perfect illustration of how our politics is beyond broken, that some unscrupulous politicians care more about their own political interests rather than the wellbeing of the people.

However, we should also remember the necessity of having an election as soon as possible is perhaps the only way to fix our current broken politics and without it, the question of who should govern Malaysia would continue to linger and disrupt any sitting government.

What I meant by broken politics, or to put it bluntly, is voter frustration and apathy stemming from the Sheraton Move.

The withdrawal of Bersatu and Mohamed Azmin Ali’s gang of 11 has essentially destroyed the political mandate that Pakatan Harapan (PH) rightfully earned in 2018 and a snap election should have immediately occurred at that time. This is specifically done so to allow voters to make their voices heard on the seismic political change in 2020.

Malaysians should be the ones to decide whether to return a mandate to a PH government without Bersatu, experiment with the Malay unity government led by Muhyiddin Yassin, or grant an overall majority to a strong and stable Barisan Nasional government to lead the country.

And to be fair to Umno, they neither wavered from their intentions nor were they afraid of going to the country for a fresh mandate. The alliance with Muhyiddin’s government was only temporary because of the pandemic and it was Muhyiddin’s naivety thinking that he could control Umno that led to his dismissal.

And it goes without saying that the consensually agreed upon candidate, Ismail Sabri Yaakob, was expected to stabilise the sitting government and focus on the pandemic and economic recovery.

Despite leading some reforms, Ismail still has no political mandate to lead the country, which is why polls should be held as soon as possible.

The pandemic has essentially suspended our democracy and it is now patently obvious that any government formed from this current parliamentary composition would only result in instability and meek governance.

Therefore, the stagnation has given rise to a series of political blunders and crises that we Malaysians have grown too familiar with and therefore continue to do untold damage to our politics.

Critics rightly mentioned that the country should not be held ransom by a political party or a few politicians, but in emphatically dismissing any possibility of #undibanjir, the opposition has only exposed its electoral weakness and further embolden Zahid in pressuring Ismail for an early dissolution.

If the opposition strongly believes #undibanjir could heavily disrupt the government’s flood mitigation plan, then the opposition should be making that argument consistently and ensure the anger is translated into a vote against Zahid and Umno.

The crux of the matter is that the opposition, in its current position, is powerless in deciding the election date, and any dissolution now would still deem to be democratically appropriate since this parliament has been sitting for more than four years.

The opposition would eventually have to face an election in a year’s time, but the decision to postpone polls in PH states must be interpreted as an act of cowardice.

This is because people of Selangor, Penang and Negri Sembilan would still be voting in a general election regardless of the state polls and therefore the risk of a #undibanjir still remains.

Therefore, Zahid is correct in saying a confident opposition would not delay the chance to gain power; after all the raison d’être of opposition is to displace the sitting government through elections.

And most of all, it appears that the skittishness of the opposition is making Umno increasingly bold and confident in winning the general election.

If that is the case, it is perhaps best for the opposition to muster some political courage and face Zahid’s Umno in an election and let Malaysians call his bluff once and for all. – October 9, 2022.

* Kenneth Cheng has always been interested in the interplay between human rights and government but more importantly he is a father of two cats, Tangyuan and Toufu. When he is not attending to his feline matters, he is most likely reading books about politics and human rights or playing video games. He is a firm believer in the dictum “power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will”.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.