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©New Straits Times (Used by permission)

EVER since the country was served notice that Sept 16 would be doomsday for the government, speculation about who is going to cross the party line, and when and where that will take place, have become a ritual. The text messages that have been making the rounds in recent days have been as predictable as the tedious reiteration that the modus operandi and deadline for bringing down the government remain unchanged. But as wearisomely repetitious as the rumours and the countdown are, there is no mistaking how dangerously twisted the Machiavellian machinations to unseat a legitimate government have become.

When defections are engineered to bring a duly-elected government down to its knees, it is not only a political coup d'etat against the government of the day but also against the majority of the people who voted it into power. Nothing justifies the employment of means which ride roughshod over the majority principle in a parliamentary democracy. When elected representatives act unilaterally to switch loyalties without so much as a by-your-leave from the people who put them in power, it smacks of rank political opportunism. While it is arrogant in the extreme for politicians to treat voters with so little respect, the bitter irony is that the attack on the most basic democratic principles has been perpetrated in the name of change by a political party that says it is committed to democracy. Those who have been most vocal about the lack of transparency, accountability and integrity in governance have also been conspicuously silent on the cloak-and-dagger backroom dealing. Some defenders of the rule of law have been deafeningly mute over the attempt to hijack the Constitution. As if to seal the stamp of expediency, the partners in the opposition alliance have treated the open defiance of acceptable democratic practices with a smug shrug.

This is neither the fresh winds of change nor the brand new politics the voters have bargained for. A political party that seeks power through dubious means does not act in good faith. The political atmosphere has been poisoned because of what appears to be the intent to make the country ungovernable. The situation is unsettling and does little to assuage concerns and confidence. It is time for democrats of all colours to distance themselves from the attempt to subvert the right to govern which the majority party in parliament could claim a mandate. There is a need to send a clarion call to all members of Parliament to honour the verdict of March 8.

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