Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavours to live at the expense of everybody else.
– Frederic Bastiat, French parliamentarian
Amidst the cacophony of fictions, factions and frictions, a powerful fraction finds utterance in the Dewan Rakyat as a two-thirds majority advantage that is yet to be used by PMX. Does Article 159 Federal Constitution (Amendment of the Constitution) need a formal introduction?
Shakespeare’s Henry VI draws first blood:
“Good Lord, what madness rules in brainsick men
When for so slight and frivolous a cause
Such factious emulations shall arise.”
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‘Fundamental liberties’, ‘independent judiciary’, ‘the public interest’, ‘the rule of law’, ‘to act on advice’, and ‘law enforcement’, are some of the many popular fictions that go neck-to-neck to the finishing line of creaky constitutional cataclysms. Mind you, there is no legislation – yet – to punish constitutional law transgressions.
These fictions seem to support the view that lawmakers, law practitioners and law interpreters are equipped with insufficient strategies when dealing with dunce-like legislation. A host of fictions invariably clash in the court of public opinion.
The most seditious fiction is ‘equality’ at Article 8(2) Federal Constitution that, willy-nilly, sets an unexpected constitutional snare with the phrase “except as expressly authorised by this Constitution, there shall be no discrimination against citizens . . .” Is Article 162(6) catatonic for our judges? Or, is this our ‘darkest moment of theoretical possibility’?
Fictions, frictions and factions are the staple of left-wingers, right-wingers, centrists, reformists, extremists, racists, bigots, narcissists and chauvinists. Peruse any newspaper, podcast, or political sermon to receive an earful. The mathematical precision of the two-thirds majority as unheeded by PMX is a paradox.
Some political commentators say that factions create a sense of balance. What if the balance is tipped in favour of the bad guys whose suspect credentials pose another danger? Factions create differing and opposing political philosophies that gradually become the prevailing political culture that pleases the sinister promise-keepers, promise-breakers, and power-brokers.
Ernest Mandel observed that “factions are a sign of illness in a party”. Brainsick men everywhere in every political camp or party. The rule of law, and the role of justice are no match to this illness that begats concurrent madness.
The anti-party hopping law is as seamless as it is hopeless and useless. Factions are the direct cause of disjointed pieces of legislation that sustains frictions. The Federal Constitution addresses this brainsick element by the unsound mind disqualification for both elected politicians at Article 48(a), and the electors at Article 119(3)(a).
The fiction of these two Articles is that there is no known evidence of mental illness experts issuing a clean bill of health to both electors and the elected politicians before the elections. But the supreme law of the land demands it. Nobody cares. Nobody will despite the fearless fraction roaming in Parliament.
When you use rationality to understand the contagious insanity, you will end up equating brainsick with brain-dead. The law is experiencing a moral freefall. The Federal Constitution is purposely taking a beating with unfulfilled oaths of office. Meanwhile, the politicians nonchalantly perform the Nero ritual.
The two-thirds majority in Parliament encourages robust amendments to the Federal Constitution to combat the prevailing fictions. The recent pardon issue has gone into unpleasant high gear. Article 42 (power of pardon, etc.) may need tuning for unforgiving clarity. Pun unintended. The word ‘power’, most urgently, needs definition. Article 160 Federal Constitution (Interpretation) must getter bulkier.
The two-thirds majority has had no praise, prayers, parades, pomp and pageantry. PMX should take full advantage of this fraction in his fortuitous favour to firmly finish off fictions and factions with full finality and fortitude. He has been in politics long enough to not want to miss this rare opportunity.
Term limits for all elected public officials is another deserving candidate for constitutional amendment. Factions, and frictions can be totally erased when staying power for 22 years, for example, has bestowed us with the curse of Machiavellian fascism depicted as a social democracy.
The scourge of bribe-giving and bribe-taking requires a strong unassailable constitutional safety valve to sustain and maintain the supreme law of the land from periodical manipulation in a court of law.
Abraham Lincoln’s warned: “If both factions, or neither, shall abuse you, you will probably be about right. Beware of being assailed by one and praised by the other.” That warning applies to every system of government. PMX should listen.
Is the wind still behind PMX? Does he take the trouble to ask “what are we doing wrong?” Our politicians and judges must take refuge in the aphorism that the Federal Constitution has no competitor. Perhaps it’s time for Article 4 (Supreme law of the Federation) to be stress-tested in the wake of mindless legislation.
The recent Federal Court decision concerning Kelantan’s Syariah enactments exposes the ominous overlaps between state, federal and Syariah jurisdictions despite Article 121(1A) Federal Constitution concerning Syariah’s theatres of applicability.
And to add insult to injury, the Thirteen Schedules in the Federal Constitution are a rojak-bowl of State, Federal and Concurrent Lists with law-makers, law interpreters and law practitioners scrambling to unsuccessfully untangle the self-inflicted enumerations and iterations concerning jurisdictions.
Democracy should not die in discussion or debate unless you factor in digressions and distractions. Politicians need to be fully awake at the wheel. You snooze, you lose.
The views expressed here are those of the columnist and do not necessarily represent the views of New Sarawak Tribune.
