Where are my true politicians?

If there is one politician who can really earn my respect in the recent time, he must be the Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs, Datuk Shahrir Samad who is also the MP for Johor Bahru.

Datuk Shahrir had decided to relinquish his ministerial post after losing his bid for a seat in the powerful supreme council in the just concluded Umno General Assembly.

And previously, he also resigned as an MP under Umno ticket and stood as an Independent to seek the reelection from the electorates of which he again won the seat.

It is normally a convention that a politician who loses his or her position in the party may have to relinquish his or her Cabinet appointment, as he or she does not have the majority support in the party members.

But again, this convention may only apply in Peninsular Malaysia but not in Sarawak where this practice is still yet to take its shape.

Try to tell our politicians here to follow their brethrens across the sea and you may well end up being tongue lashed.

One may argue why a particular politician, who is also an elected representative has to do so as he is representing the rakyat and not only his party and thus put party politics above all in this case.

My whole point here is that a politician ought to uphold principle at the highest level and put aside personal interest regardless of whether such practice of submission to the party wish is healthy for political development or not.

The other way round perhaps would be for those politicians who lost in the general elections to relinquish party post and let the new blood to take over for rejuvenation process.

Whenever we chat over a cup of coffee on political topics, often than not we end up listening to men on the street condemning certain politicians for abusing their positions for self economic interest rather than fighting for the people.

Such has been the way people perceive some of our politicians and I must say to take another politician to emulate the like of Mahatma Gandhi or Martin Luther King is an almost impossible dream to realise.

The sad thing is certain politicians instead of talking sense are so engrossed with fanning hatred rather than debating issues objectively.

Just flip through any newspapers during parliamentary or state assembly or ceramah sessions and we could end up being fed with reports of our politicians quarreling over what they may term as “sensible” but not to us.

Politics after all is about ideals where politicians are supposed to be passionate about their ideals and willing to sacrifice for the sake of realising their ideals for the betterment of the people.

While rhetoric may be part of the game, politicians must make sure that what they preach is exactly what they are upholding to.

People are watching closely and with the emergence of new media, politicians cannot get away from their gaffes or stupid stunts as it will for sure be shown on YouTube.

Being in the public office, politicians are bound by public scrutiny and whatever their conducts may be will be watched closely by the people who will then decide whether these politicians deserve to be where they are.

A lawyer whom I had lunch with before I continued writing this piece enlightened me that the Opposition candidates seemed to be more passionate with their political cause which won them the support of the people as shown in last year’s general election.

Certain political parties ought to quickly re-examine their approach in selecting candidates as the state election is approaching in 2011.

I would definitely loathe candidates who are put up by the party leaders just because they know how to rub shoulders with their bosses, with the people’s interest being secondary in their political cause.

The parties also ought to nominate only those with integrity and principle with high aspiration fighting only the best for the people.

We ought not to have politicians up there only to seek personal wealth and try to fool people with their rhetoric and with due respect, these politicians should be taught a hard lesson when the time comes.

While a lot of people have been pouring cold water on me for my ideals in seeing the emergence of true politicians of near perfect, I still have not lost my confidence that we will be seeing one emerging.