What a first day in Parliament. It was full of sound and fury signifying something. But the "something" wasn't good.
If we take the 222 members of parliament as a microcosm of Malaysia — we won't be too far off the mark here — then it's a bundle of bad news. Not a very good slice of Malaysian reality to write home about. Some MPs, though decorously dressed to send the opposite message, were in their indecorous worst. Calling a fellow MP an ape? He sure owes an apology to the man and the ape. And the rest of us, who were watching him say it.
Adults in an august house? Some MPs sure have lots of growing up to do. Let's make no mistake, they are from both sides of the aisle.
It was a bad beginning for Dewan Rakyat Speaker Datuk Johari Abdul. Though armed with all the powers of the speaker, Johari had to ask MPs to sit down multiple times before he was obeyed. An insolent crowd such as this needs a sterner speaker. Johari would have done well if he had made a good example of one or two by sending them out of the august house.
But as it turned out, he was forced to ask them: if you all aren't respecting me, then who else? Perhaps it was a first-day generosity from the chair. Wasted charity, we say.
That wasn't all. There was a more worrying thing. The language of some MPs suggests Malaysians have had a baggage of bile pickled for a long time. We aren't sure if this wrath is as old as the nation, but it is certainly rather old. Long in the tooth, as some would say. And waiting to be released at every opportunity. The fiery words — beruk ape wasn't the only word — and the flaming delivery tell us so. If anger is allowed to grow into rage, it will run riot.
A nation cannot be stitched together on such rage. As a nation — and that means all of us — we must tame the impulse to hate the other. Rage at first divides and, if allowed to fester, it destroys. We must not allow our dream of being a united nation slip and slide away like this.
Sure, our yesterdays are beyond mending, but, God willing, we still have our tomorrows to make better.
But Monday was not all bad news. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim got the confidence vote he wanted. A vote of confidence, in one way of seeing, is a vote for political stability. Malaysia was denied this for a long four years. The consequences were consequential.
Not only our politics was bent but everything that it set in motion was similarly contorted. There were resignations, retractions and reappearances. Small wonder The Economist, the English newspaper that isn't too fond of Malaysia, was quick with its alliterative headline: "Chaos in KL".
But we must admit that however much it hurts us to read it, those three words did cleverly tell the entire story of power and politics then. Now that political stability is back, or so we are promised, let's hope Putrajaya takes politics to where it hasn't been before. A good place.