Of ‘The Irishman’, the politician, the conman and ‘Reformasi’

Over the weekend I watched the latest Martin Scorsese flick, ‘The Irishman’. It was a highly combustible mixture of Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Al Pacino in a story based on the novel ‘I heard you paint houses’ by Charles Brandt, a former Delaware lawyer.

At the end of the three and a half hour movie, my wife asked me why, truck driver, Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran, became a hitman for the mob?

I am not going to give away any spoilers here, but my answer was that he had a family with two daughters and he probably could not provide a good life for them based on his wages.

I started thinking about why people do what they do and it boils down to a few factors like economics, social standing, and education.

So, why do people go into politics, another highly combustible and dangerous career path?
Ask Anwar Ibrahim, the PKR president and he will tell you that politics can kill you.
I know a few men and a few women who have chosen politics as a career. For some, it is a calling. For others, it is a vocation.

For those who see it as a calling, start well with some grand vision of changing the lives of the people, of making their nation progressive, advancing the lives of the downtrodden, bringing justice to the poor so the citizens can have better standards of living and education, etc, etc.

You get the drift.

Fade in to New Malaysia.

The repressive and corrupt regime of Najib Razak came to a sudden end in May 2018 after a very unexpected win by a scrappy coalition led by former Umno strongman and Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Ostensibly, the new coalition presented itself as the only platform to bring about ‘Reformasi’ or sweeping changes to a nation being crushed by the exorbitant cost of living and household debts breaching the 80 percent mark.

And all these, and more, were wrapped in a powder keg of bigotry and racism that pushed the already strained delicate race relations to the brink.

Where is the Reformasi agenda?
There is a raging and unhealthy debate now in New Malaysia as to who started the Reformasi movement.

Well, the sad truth is that nobody in PKR, or anywhere else, contributed to the movement.
And it’s because no such concept exists. It has been reduced to nothing but a catch phrase used by conmen (read politicians) to induce hopelessly optimistic people into thinking they are not conmen!

So where is the Reformasi agenda? Where is the list of priorities? Where is the list of strategies to carry out the agenda in New Malaysia?

No such concept exists across the whole spectrum of Pakatan Harapan yesterday, today and not in the foreseeable future.

And the reason it does not exist is because selfish slime are attracted to politics for what they can get out of it.

Not for what they can contribute. Which has proven to be very little, when you consider how wonderfully mediocre the average politician is.

They interpret power as the right to make impulsive irrational decisions without being questioned. The concept of power to benefit the nation and its people is non-existent even under the New Malaysia governance.

And money means the opportunity to indulge in personal extravagances, often nonessential. The main goal is to expect extra privileges for their self-proclaimed “excellent governance.”

The title of the book on which The Irishman is based is “I heard you paint houses.” In the parlance of the profession, it means a hitman for the mob. The phrase comes from the blood splatter on walls after a job is done.

In New Malaysia, politicians should start really painting and building houses with brick, motor, real paint, and brushes to get a feel of how the people are still living their mundane and hopeless lives.

Of people who are still struggling to provide for an improvised home, paying the bills and putting a minimum of three meals a day for a family of four.

That said, don’t forget to watch “The Irishman” and find out who really killed JFK. -/TISG