Friday, February 27, 2009

Politics 101: Introduction to Politics

Politics is an intricate subject by itself. But Malaysian politics, I have to admit, adds a fourth dimension, taking the entire topic to another level of complexity. To all the Chemists out there, if Politics were Organic Chemistry, then Malaysian Politics is perhaps equivalent to Quantum Chemistry, which goes so far as saying that the politics in Malaysia is highly convoluted and mind boggling. Therefore, to all of the newbie (myself not spared) out there, the following is an extract from an email I recently received, which gives a rather general, but realistic, view on the basics of politics.

One day, a son asked his father “Dad, what is politics?”
And the dad replied…

“Son, since I bring home the money, so I am the CAPITALIST.”
“Your mother administrates the money, therefore she is the GOVERNMENT.”
“Your grandpa, who keeps an eye over the whole thing, is the UNION.”
“Our maid is the WORKING CLASS
“ We all want just one thing, your well-being. Hence you are the PEOPLE, meanwhile your younger brother who is still in his nappy is the FUTURE.”

And when the father asked if the kid understood it, the little one thought about it and told his father that he wanted to sleep it over for one night.

Then during the night the boy was woken up by his younger brother’s constant crying and the foul smell in the room. As he didn’t know what to do, he wandered into the parents’ bedroom but only to find the mother in the room sleeping all alone. The mother was so sound asleep that the little boy failed to wake her up. So he then went over to the maid’s room, but this time only to realize the father was having “fun” with the maid, whilst the grandpa was secretly peeping through a hole. They were all so engrossed into their own activities that no one realized the boy was standing there in the room. Seeing that he didn’t know what else to do, he decided to get back to bed and force himself to sleep.

On the following morning, the father asked the little boy if he could, in only a few words, explain what he understood about politics.

Confidently the boy said that he could and started explaining:

“The CAPITALIST abuses the WORKING CLASS
“The UNION watches without doing anything”
“While the GOVERNMENT sleeps”
“The PEOPLE are completely ignored”
“And the FUTURE is in a shitty mess!”

What can I say..that is politics! :)

No comments:

Post a Comment