Harapan is mainlining apathy into its base

“So, in the interests of survival, they trained themselves to be agreeing machines instead of thinking machines. All their minds had to do was to discover what other people were thinking, and then they thought that, too.”

- Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions

COMMENT | Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng’s plea for more time and patience when it comes to implementing policies meant for everyone is a pusillanimous tactic considering we were told that removing the Najib Abdul Razak regime was an all or nothing gambit and time was of the essence.

Prime minister-in-waiting Anwar Ibrahim echoed the same sentiment when pleading for there to be no protest votes against the government he hopes to inherit. At this moment both are dealing with anger from a section of the Harapan base aimed at a particular component of Harapan.

In politics, anger is something that can be dealt with, with the appropriate realignment of policy and agenda. What is worse, and which could eventually destroy Harapan, is apathy. This is the real danger facing Harapan.

The DAP, in particular, is a victim of its own propaganda success. The party’s scorched earth policy when it came to race relations with regard to what the MCA was doing with Umno and the rhetoric surrounding the failed Umno policies – which Harapan has no problem emulating – was effective propaganda for non-Malays but like all propaganda, it comes back to bite the collective behinds of Harapan...