A top political leader said recently that politicking in Malaysia continues even after a general election, unlike in other nations.
"In other countries, once the general election is over, politicians will work together to build the country, but we continue to play politics. Just about anything will be politicised," said the gentleman.
That may be true, yah. I must look harder to find these other domains, which the Honourable one refers to.
Maybe these are nations where politicians spend a tiny bit of time on politics after an election, but expend a lot of energy on agendas with clever labels such as "development for the people".
This they may do, I guess, when the party that rules has a huge legislative majority.
In this country, though, whatever the parliamentary equation, dollops of politics served in-between elections are not uncommon. We have been talking about it for the longest time. Even since my school days.
"Excessive politicking" wasn't born yesterday.
It was there when Barisan Nasional was in power. And Pakatan Harapan, too. PH fell early in its term, arguably because politicking was raging. And now, Perikatan Nasional is facing the same roaring waves.
I remember leaders scolding fellows from the other side, telling them to focus on the country's needs instead of feeding the political flames. They were told to wait for elections to do their politics and let the government do its job of "developing" the country.
In 1998, a NST columnist spoke to the Kelantan BN information chief. She wrote that he was one of the state's best public speakers.
He told her: "...politics goes on 25 hours a day… For us, politics is like football. You know, during the World Cup, people makan dan tidur bola (live and dream football). In Kelantan, we makan dan tidur politik the year round."
In the same article, the then Sabah deputy chief minister said "politicians in the state spent 80 per cent of their time politicking and far too little on real work".
And here's one more gem.
"People are so obsessed with politics here. Even when I go to the market, the first thing they ask is not what I want to buy but, 'Datuk, apa cerita politik?'" the Kelantan politician told the columnist.
Mind you, this was in the time of dinosaurs, figuratively speaking. Meaning, before social media and the Internet redefined life and lies.
Even in democracies in these times, politicking goes on apace. Some find it sickening, some find it enthralling. Some dismiss it as a necessary pain.
This political jousting is unlikely to happen, though, in autocracies that wear the dress of democracy and the smile of a benign, potbellied old uncle to good effect. Which countries? Won't you hazard a guess?
But let's consider the so-called top dog in the democratic Premier League.
Former US president Barack Obama, in his book A Promised Land, tells of a "battle plan that McConnell, Boehner, Cantor and the rest would deploy with impressive discipline for the next eight years: a refusal to work with me or members of my administration, regardless of the circumstances, the issue, or the consequences for the country".
(Republican Mitch McConnell was at that time the Senate Minority Leader, and John Boehner, the House Minority Leader.)
Any help given by the Republicans to the Democratic Obama administration would only be to his political benefit. Long story short, it was, as Obama put it, "about clawing your way back to power".
Isn't this Republican "obstruction strategy" to regain power also in the playbook of parties in democracies the world over? What else should we expect?
Opposition Party A praising government Party B for being such a great administration that serves the people? Government Party C saying opposition Party D is a fantastic foe that has wonderfully revealed the administration's shortcomings? Aiyo, in a divided land that's probably a ticket to electoral obliteration.
Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamad wrote in the NST on Tuesday that "[W]e must again cultivate a spirit of bipartisanship and parliamentary decorum to restore stability to our increasingly divided nation".
I agree with the minister. But we have a mountain to climb. Our history ("25 hours a day") proves we have not gone up very far.
We don't have to look to other countries to know this.
The writer is NST production editor
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times
