THE prime minister’s appeal yesterday to the opposition for support in a confidence motion next month, which came with a slew of conditional promises, in a televised address is akin to a promise made by someone in a time of extreme stress or fear who will promise anything to get out of the situation.

His admission that he has lost majority support is akin to the death of someone who has had an impact on our life, either positively or negatively, for the last one and a half years.

How we adjust to life without him and to the negative aspects of the relationship, with the possibility that it may be over, determines the healthiness of our grief.

The promises were to the opposition. Not to the rakyat. 

The rakyat need to look at the promises, evaluate them on whether they can be fulfilled, should be fulfilled and is he willing to fulfil them, given his record. 

These promises were the same as those made when his party was part of the ruling coalition voted for by majority of the rakyat in 2018. 

By leaving the previous coalition and forming the present government with his current coalition partners, it is clear that his party no longer believes in the manifesto and the promises it made.

Now that he is repeating the same promises, how will the outcome of these promises affect the lives of the rakyat in general as these promises were not part of the manifesto of his current coalition partners?

If he chooses not to honour those promises, where does the rakyat seek recourse? The rakyat needs to find closure. Politicians have made many promises of change, yet little seems to have actually changed over the last 60 years in the country.

In every election, in every change of leadership, the word “change” is bandied about. It not only conveys the promise of a better future, it appeals to the desire for something new.

It doesn’t take long, however, for the promise of change to seem less an assurance than an old tactic. If the PM could truly deliver a better future as he promised when he assumed power in February 2020, then why is there a need to make these promises to the opposition now?

These promises were made solely to fend off pressure from his coalition partners so that he can remain as the leader of the country. 

The key was that he needs to get 2/3 support for those promises to be fulfilled.

If he can’t even get majority support from his own coalition partners, how does he expect to get two-thirds support even with the opposition supporting him?

I wonder. 

The rakyat hopes it is not a cynical exploitation of the short memories of Malaysians and done solely for political partisanship. – August 14, 2021.

* FLK reads The Malaysian Insight.