Watershed polls at Deepavali

THERE’S going to be a lot of fireworks this Deepavali. And I don’t just mean the stuff that goes bang with sparkling bright colours at night.

At almost every open house, dinner and family get-together, the talk is going to be about that other explosive subject – the elections. The year-end rains and floods could well take a backseat.

Already, political parties are jumping onto the murukku bandwagon, promising parties, gifts and even cash to woo the electorate.

I just hope the elections do not rain on the Deepavali parade; I’d hate to see supporters of different parties spoiling the party.

It’s really no fun when politics gets into festivities.

It’s never a good idea to have divisive elections during a festival that promotes love, but at least there’s almost a month from Deepavali on Monday to the polls on Nov 19.

It’s not as bad as it was in 1990. Then, the elections were on Sunday, Oct 21. Deepavali was on Thursday, Oct 18, just three days earlier.

There was little festive mood as all talk was about the looming elections.

There was also a huge, dark shadow over the elections – the first since 1987 when the government of then prime minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad (now Tun) ordered the major crackdown known as Ops Lalang.

Some 120 people – Opposition politicians, lawyers, activists, students and artists – were arrested and held without trial under the draconian Internal Security Act.

Some 40 or so of them were freed only in 1989, a year before the elections.

The Star was shut down, along with several other newspapers, but reopened in 1988.

Meanwhile, Umno had been de-registered. Dr Mahathir formed his Umno Baru, which was to later become just Umno.

The country’s first prime minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman, also tried to form a new Umno with Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah but had to be content with a party called Semangat 46 instead.

I had been transferred from Penang to Petaling Jaya after the reopening in 1988 and had returned home to the island to celebrate.

That was some 32 years ago, but there are many similarities between that general election and this one.

It was a hotly contested battle, the first time there were two Malay-led coalitions battling for supremacy. And then, like now, there was an ageing man fighting to bring down his successor.

On one side was Semangat 46, with two strange bedfellows – DAP on the west coast (as Gagasan Rakyat) and PAS in the east (as Angkatan Perpaduan Ummah).

On the other side was the perennial Goliath, Barisan Nasional. It marked the beginning of the clash of coalitions.

Today, we have four Malay-led coalitions, with two new kids in town – Perikatan Nasional and the fledgling Gerakan Tanah Air (GTA).

DAP, meanwhile, is now with Pakatan Harapan, the third Opposition coalition.

Barisan remains a formidable force, if not exactly the Goliath it once was.

Semangat 46 then was led by ousted Umno veteran Tengku Razaleigh and the Tunku was its weapon.

Despite his age – he was 87 then – the Tunku was a fighter. But he was frail.

I remember being among a group of people carrying him in a sedan chair to the stage at a market in Jelutong, Penang.

I was no Semangat 46 supporter – I had been taught to stay neutral as a journalist – but carrying the Tunku on my shoulder was an honour.

The man, frail as he was, had the crowd at his feet.

“Saya sudah tua, gigi pun takda, cakap pun susah (I am old, I have no teeth and it’s hard to speak),” he said.

But speak he did, rallying the crowd with his story of the two doctors who kept him alive – his personal physician and his greatest nemesis, Dr Mahathir.

He went on about the problems the country would face if Dr Mahathir were to continue to lead the nation. Dr Mahathir did continue to lead, for another 13 years.

Both Semangat 46 and PAS lost miserably, with eight and seven seats in the Dewan Rakyat while DAP had 20. Barisan swept to 127 seats in the then 180-seat Dewan.

The Tunku died just over a month later.

There are those who still claim that the spectre of Ops Lalang, the arrests and fear that violence would follow any Barisan defeat, led to the coalition’s big win.

Fast forward to today, and another ageing man is fighting the battle of his life.

At 97, Dr Mahathir is now the frail old man. And he is on the other side, trying to spearhead the Opposition to Barisan, the coalition he led in 1990.

He is part of a fractious Opposition, with three quarrelling coalitions trying to take on Barisan.

The funny thing is, Dr Mahathir probably has only himself to blame.

He could have built a united front that would still be in government had he managed to strike a deal with his own nemesis, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, after their victory in 2018.

However, he chose to resign and bring down the government he then led. Now, he apparently is keen on a third term as prime minister.

As I write this, there are just two days to Deepavali and five days to the 35th anniversary of Ops Lalang.

The country now has a chance to bring about a new stable government that will have the people in mind, after almost three years of bickering since the Sheraton Move.

There’s much that needs to be done. The Covid-19 pandemic, the unprecedented floods last year, the economic downturn, the shrinking ringgit – all are issues that have to be handled head-on.

Let us hope the people choose wisely and bring a new bright future for the country, ending all the murkiness.

They should not be bought over by handouts at Deepavali parties.

Light over darkness – that, after all, is the message of Deepavali.

Happy Deepavali to one and all. Enjoy yourself and do be careful with the fireworks.