Winds of change in lingo and landscape

The lingo of Malaysian politicians from both sides of the political divide has changed dramatically. The intra-party chemistry among the folks in the federal government and also the opposition has undergone a major change.

And let’s not even start talking about the political landscape as the two warring sides prepare to battle it out in the 13th general election (GE13), probably the most defining polls since the Malayan general election of 1955.

Lingo

One cannot but notice how the language of politicians from both Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat has changed over the last five years. GE12, or the 2008 GE, brought to the fore new vocabularies in them.

Formed in 1973 as the successor to the Alliance (Parti Perikatan), BN has been ruling Malaya and then Malaysia uninterrupted since 1957. It has never experienced defeat at the federal level.

Here is where the power resides. BN has had it all the time. Members of BN coalition like Umno and MCA had always talked nothing short of an outright victory. Never once in the recent past did they even consider defeat.

That is now history. No less than Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak himself had spoken on a number of occasions that BN may lose at the next polls.

That lingo has worked its way down the party leadership. Ministers and other party leaders of the powerful coalition had followed suit.

They had warned their respective party members that the ruling coalition could face defeat at GE13.

Perhaps it was more to serve as a wake-up call to their members to double up their efforts to ensure a decisive victory. Nevertheless, the lingo has changed.

On the other side of the track, the so-called political tsunami of GE12 has emboldened the leaders from the Pakatan trio (PKR, PAS, DAP). They are now talking about capturing Putrajaya.

They have their hearts set on the federal throne itself.

This is a far cry from just a few GEs ago. Back then, the loudest cry would have been to deny BN its two-thirds majority in the Parliament. There was never any talk about capturing the federal government.

It was simply to win enough seats to deny the ruling coalition party from having a free hand in amending the Federal Constitution.

The only two occasions when the combined opposition was able to deny the ruling party the two-thirds majority in Parliament were in 1969 and 2008.

Landscape

The landscape has also changed. Malaysia has perhaps not witnessed so much politicking as it has seen in the last five years. Sometimes, it seems that campaigning never really stopped after GE12.

On the ground, the tone of discussions at the teh tarik stalls and at investment forums have been more open, more direct. Lately, you could hear people being more open about their political leanings.

Of course, social media has given wings to the discussions. It makes it possible for the man on the streets to exchange views with thousands out there. They no longer have to depend on newspapers and television channels, bearers of news in the olden days.

Chemistry

Another major difference this time around is the chemistry between the leaders of the opposition pact.They have certainly come a long way from their early days of being suspicious of each other.

Back then, the Islamic-bent PAS and the Chinese-majority DAP could not work out their differences. How do you ignore “over my dead body” remark by DAP supremo Karpal Singh on PAS’ dream of establishing an Islamic state?

The differences exist. They could one day blow up and break up the Pakatan pact.

For now, though, the opposition leaders from PAS, DAP and PKR have stuck together since the 2008 GE.

Under the leadership of Anwar Ibrahim, they have kept pushing the envelope of the local political scene. This surely poses a challenge to Najib and his troops as they march into the final lap of the campaigning for GE13.


Source : http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/opinion/2013/04/05/winds-of-change-in-lingo-and-landscape/