It is hoped that we won’t hear too much of trashy talks that will flood the town before the monsoon rains even arrive. Please come up with viable solutions that will benefit the rakyat instead.

The general election is akin to a war. While in the olden days warlords fought among themselves for territorial supremacy, politicians today win the power through an election.

Very often before the ballots are even cast, the war of words has already started.

War of words is very common in any democratic election, as a party vies for the attention of voters by exposing the bad things about a rival camp and offering candies to the voters in their impressively sounded manifestos.

As the election manifesto is not the Bible, anyone can promise anything without having to bear the responsibility.

So, no matter how impressive the promises appear, they are not going to convince anyone any more.

As this time the parliament is dissolved early to pave way for fresh election supposedly to “return the mandate to the rakyat” as some have claimed, we do hope they will come up with truly meaningful and substantial election manifestos instead of taking this opportunity to attack their rivals. Do bear in mind that you have the obligation to guide the public and honor your pledges.

Members of the public must learn to think independently. The more Rashomon (disputable statement) you create, the more you get distrusted. We should treasure the ballots in our hands and vote for those with convincing political views and not rumor-mongers.

We must vote wisely, or we will see the repeat of the political instability over the next five years.

As the monsoon season is coming very soon, we thought the EC would announce the nomination and polling days within the shortest time possible. Unfortunately, we will not hear from them until they meet next Thursday.

The polling day will very likely fall on November 12 after the high tide, or November 19.

That being said, we still hope that the election can be held on November 5 or earlier, but that will also mean the nomination day will have to be on October 26.

Sounds a little rushy, right? But we indeed witnessed such “high level of efficiency” from the EC in the five general elections from 1986 to 2004!

If the election is to be held in mid-November when the expected heavy downpours start bring in floods. The first to be blasted by the rakyat must be the election commission. As for Ahmad Zahid and Ismail Sabri who have been so persistent in dissolving the parliament fast in order to “return the mandate to the people,” they will largely escape unscathed.

The caretaker PM already did the “sterilization work” the day after announcing the dissolution of parliament, arguing that he had to do so because of disharmony within the cabinet, as 12 MPs had “inappropriately” written to the King to reject the dissolution of parliament.

So, Umno is totally indemnified for risking to hold an election in the middle of the monsoon season. It’s the 12 PN ministers who are to be blamed for any disastrous consequences.

If the sky remains blue and dry from nomination to polling day, these Twelve Disciples of PN will be spared from the ill fate. But what if it pours and much of the country is submerged, that will be none of Umno’s business because they were “forced to” dissolve the parliament because of “disharmony within the cabinet.”

Looking back at the political developments of the country over the past few years, we the rakyat know very well who were to take the blame. If even His Majesty gets frustrated, what about the rest of us here?

Who messed up this country? Verily BN, PN and PH all have their parts to play in this utter farce so that no party or alliance deserves any of our praises where track record is concerned. Even if there is any good in them, many might have forgotten long ago. That’s why politicians should watch their every move and word over the next one month or so.

Any careless talk they make could develop into a full blown war of words that can potentially tip the balance of the election war.

Umno president Ahmad Zahid threatened at an open event last Sunday that if BN loses the 15th general election, not only would he be charged in court, the other BN leaders would also get into trouble, including Tok Mat, Vigneswaran and Wee Ka Siong.

What he was trying to say is that all this is “political persecution.”

And then we have the seasoned political veteran Lim Kit Siang who said recently that if Umno were to win the next election, one of the primary agendas would be to get Najib out of the prison. He even reminded the people that none of BN’s leaders had stood up to rebuke the RM42 billion 1MDB scandal.

We have to reiterate here that disclosing the irregularities of the previous administration is not a war of words, but distorting the fact is.

It is hoped that we won’t hear too much of trashy talks that will flood the town before the monsoon rains even arrive. Please come up with viable solutions that will benefit the rakyat instead.