Trust me, trust me not

Free Malaysia Today

08-06-2025

We tend to take the politician's word with more than a pinch of salt, for good reason.
When they want your vote, they court you with promises that, we have a sneaky suspicion, they can't ever keep or have no intention at all to fulfil.
It is easy to shout slogans and make accusations of incompetence, even malice, when one is in the opposition. We applaud them but we also know they are not in a position to make good their promises or prove their allegations, however serious they may be.
They play to the gallery because the people want someone to keep whatever issue that is current and hot in the public eye lest it be quietly filed away in some cabinet and quickly forgotten.
Teoh Beng Hock's family waited more than 15 years, hanging on to hopes that those YBs who had said so much about him and his untimely death under suspicious circumstances would help them get the justice they deserve.
But 15 years is a long time, and in the intervening years, the very same YBs have seen their status change.
From merely shouting slogans and hurling accusations, these very same people have suddenly found themselves in a position to act on what they previously said should be done.
But the silence now is deafening. Not a word from these YBs since the last — perhaps the final — word on Teoh's case. NFA, or no further action.
The challenge to all DAP ministers, those very same people who had been most vocal in the Teoh saga, to resign their positions in the current government to take responsibility for their failure has been met with … again … silence.
But let us not even fake surprise or shock at their change of heart. The mark of a good politician is in his ability to make good his promises when he finds himself in a position to honour those pledges.
Few, if any, have made that mark.
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.