The disappointing result in Kuala Kubu Baharu

The news that Pakatan Harapan (PH) has won the Kuala Kubu Baharu by-election is bitter and disappointing.

The PH candidate won with more or less the same majority despite the lower turnout. In net percentage terms, this would mean that more people in Kuala Kubu Baharu supported PH this time than in the last election.

When I heard the communications minister say that PH’s victory in Kuala Kubu Baharu was a triple celebration for the unity government as it was also the anniversary of the formation of PKR and Umno, I felt like the villains in the film celebrating after raping the heroine.

I can only hope that this is just the intermission scene. If this is the movie’s ending, it is a terrible movie.

I was really hoping to hear PH bite the dust after the by-election.

I wanted to hear the news that the Indian community has taught PH a lesson so that I can write an article to rub it in Anwar’s face by telling him that this is what you get for calling Indians the K-word last year.

I wanted to hear the news that the Malays have decided to put aside their differences and unite to stop the rot in the country.

Unfortunately, the Indians have instead said that Anwar is still their man despite how he treated them, and the Malays have said that it doesn’t matter if the ship is burning and heading for the bottom of the sea, what matters more is who is the captain of the sinking ship.

Even if PH had won with a narrow majority, that would have been acceptable. But to hear that it  won in a way that suggests it still has the same level of trust and confidence among the population is just depressing.

I could only console myself with philosophy and poetry, such as the saying: "Whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad".

How do you go mad? It's when the wrong thing looks right and the right thing looks wrong. It's when gold looks like dirt and dirt looks like gold.

Omar Khayyam has a famous quatrain:
The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.

Perhaps we as a nation have committed too many sins, and therefore the gods wish us doom.

Today I woke up with the feeling that the band members of the Titanic must have been incredibly wise. They must have been, because when they realised they were doomed, they didn’t fight back and made fools of themselves.

Instead, they simply resigned themselves to their fate and continued to play their music with dignity until the water engulfed them and they all perished.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of MalaysiaNow.