New Kid on the Block

A new party  is being formed in Malaysia. I do not know any of the registered committee members as well as  whether there is anyone behind this new party although there are speculations in the blogs, read here.

Some said this party belongs to one faction of the 2nd biggest component party which is now in a win-or-die party fight for survival. But the new party, let us call it Parti C, was registered in June 09, long before the dvd actor was chopped… Unless the dvd actor is a very good fortune teller, there is no way knowing that he would be kicked out. Of course, you can say it may be a contingency plan, but I would think that unlikely.

However, the forming of this party may be a contingency plan after all;  only the players behind may be different.

What I am writing below may be purely my conjecture, but do think about the possibilities.

Let us say that in a country there are 2 main parties vying to rule. One party, B, has been ruling for many years, but another one,party P, is coming on strong since many people are fed up with party B.

But as the Chinese saying goes,’ even a rotten ship would still have 3 kati of nails”. This party B, despite losing its popularity , still has sizeable support and also has the advantage of being the party in power, which enables it to have control over many state apparatus.

So for the next election, it would be a fifty fifty fight, with the slight advantage to the opposing party P at the moment.

But do not forget, some of those who support party P are not supporting them for what they stand for, but rather were fed up with party B. Since there is no other choice, they have to give their support to party P not because they like it, but because they dislike party B more than anything else. And so far, Party P has also not giving a sterling performance and is often embroiled in internal squabbles, and many of their supporters who have high expectations of it are beginning to start looking elsewhere.

This group is quite big, and many of the middle ground people belongs to this group.

So, if the new party C comes along and instead of 2 corner fight, there is a 3 corner fight, which party would draw away the support of this group of disgruntled middle grounders?

When you draw a cartoon figure, you do not need to draw the intestines, so i leave it to you to answer this question. If you do not get the right answer, you need to ask your friend to knock your head hard, to stimulate your sleeping brain cells.

Besides,I think there may be another function for party C.  Since many component parties  inside party B are having party fights , party C has another function: to absorb  those who lose in the party fights and prevent the losing factions from supporting Party P. 

So while Parti C is not exactly the third force, being the new kids on the block, it can serve as spoiler. And it is perfectly legitimate to do so, since there is no rule to disallow this .

Actually the secret of winning votes lies in the Confucian saying that ‘ to win   the right to rule, you must win the hearts of the people first”.

Parti P,  if they want to win,  needs to really buck up and improve their acts, and not quarrel over small matters, like who can sell beers and so on.By doing so, they can minimise their loss of votes to Party C, and gain even more support away from Party B.

 Parti B too can still have a chance if only they implement real reforms and not resorting to undemocratic tactics….

The balls are at their respective foot, and how they kick it will decide the ball game comes the next election.