By Tay Tian Yan, Sin Chew Daily

If you still think politicians are high on the pedestal and worthy of our adoration, you don't really understand their situation now.

To many Malaysians, the mere existence of these politicians is almost dispensable, especially those who are unproductive yet eager to put on some shows to prove their meager worth.

I'm talking about politicians on both sides of the divide. Their command of public respect has taken a nosedive especially after the February power struggle fracas and the current coronavirus pandemic.

Let me cite two recent examples.

Umno's higher education minister Noraini Ahmad said her recent visit to a COVID-19 lab was meant to have a better picture of how universities in this country could help the government battle the coronavirus.

Which was reasonable, given her capacity as higher education minister. 

The issue is, she was donning a complete set of PPE (personal protective equipment).

Many social media users were very unhappy about this, claiming that she had wasted a precious set of PPE given the fact our frontline doctors and nurses are severely lacking such equipment, with the stock enough to last only 19 days according to our health DG.

Some even argued that the minister should be held responsible if any of our frontliners contract the virus because we don't have enough PPEs for them.

Even a specialist doctor agreed to such argument, tweeting that the minister only needed to put on a face mask when visiting the lab, not a complete set of PPE, as it would constitute a sheer waste of precious medical resources.

Even though the minister has her reasons, members of the public and consensus are overwhelmingly tilting towards the social media and the specialist doctor. They even feel that the PPE is worth a lot more than a good-for-nothing minister.

Meanwhile in Tawau, Sabah, DAP's state assistant minister Jimmy Wong Sze Phin was pictured distributing food to rich people in town, at a time many poor residents have problem feeding themselves and their families during the pandemic.

He later explained that the food had been distributed to all poor people in the area, so he went on to distribute food to middle class families.

Many questioned whether the limited supply of food was sufficient to be distributed to all the poor people. Moreover, those living in the two upmarket residential estates he visited are in no way poor or even middle class.

I have no idea whether our politicians lack functioning brains or that they simply love to put on shows. By right politics are supposed to serve the underprivileged groups and not just to please the voters.

Putting on a show used to be a mandatory lesson all politicians must learn, without which there would be no publicity, and without publicity they wouldn't become popular, and without popularity they would never win an election.

Unfortunately the voters can see things much clearer nowadays. We know whether they are doing their jobs well or just putting on a show, and whether they are serving the community or just their own interests.

Moreover, power is no longer the exclusive right of the political elites but has been distributed more evenly among the populace. We no longer tolerate politicians monopolizing all the powers and public discourse.

Malaysians will not permit Noraini Ahmad to have that special privilege of putting on a PPE badly needed by our frontliners by virtue of her ministerial status.

Similarly, when the public accused Jimmy Wong of distributing free food to wealthy residents in his constituency, he was in no position to defend himself by arguing that it was a provocation from political rivals.

So, do you still think there is any worth in our politicians?

Yes, but only if they will create positive values and play their roles dutifully to rebuild their political workers' stature.

What I know is that some of our politicians have indeed worked very hard raising resources quietly through their own channels and relationships during the current COVID-19 pandemic, in order to provide more protective equipment for our frontline healthcare personnel.

We also have ministers who have coordinated experts from their respective departments to develop anti-coronavirus information software while others take the initiative to consult the views of scholars and NGOs in a bid to draw up the best solutions to address the woes of the rakyat.

They are doing their jobs diligently in low profile and are not showing off their work. They are the ones who have created positive values.

As for those who have squandered public resources for own publicity, trying to lift their perceived values through media exposure, these are the ones we'll treat with contempt.