Tea Leaves For The Dap

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 Throughout my adult life I have made the acquaintances of academics and scholars. Not just as social acquaintances but engaging with them in their areas of study and areas of knowledge. 
In my opinion few people have more clarity than an engineering professor. They have contributed words like precise and mathematical to our vocabulary. They ARE precise and mathematical.  If only engineers could rule "our" world. Because the world around us is indeed precision and mathematics.
I have also met the 'doctors' of religion. More than one religion. It is difficult to call them scholars because they have absolutely no proof for what they say. They run on their own faith. Not evidence. Hence 'area of study' and 'area of knowledge' need not be the same thing. The three letter word WHY brings them to a screeching halt. Let them speak for half an hour then just ask them WHY? They can go blank. (The reader is encouraged to try this as an experiment). Most people do not ask the WHY question out of politeness towards the religious folks or fear of being labelled a "doubter".  Indeed fear and no evidence are the basic building blocks of religion.

What I have also noticed is that some academics (not all) are big into textbook knowledge and textbook learning but their 'street smarts' are wanting. Being realistic and pragmatic may clash with what is written in the texts. I think they are aware of this and hence most of them (thankfully) learn tolerance for the differences in opinions as part of their training. This is the wonderful part of being academics - well most of them.

A few days ago I attended a panel discussion by a few academics. One of them was Prof Wong Chin Huat and the topic was Bangsa Malaysia. The professor referred to the MOU of September 2021 signed between the Ismail Sabri government and the Opposition as lending to political stability  in the country. Well it did not because the Ismail Sabri government actually collapsed a year later by 10th  October 2022. Ismail became the shortest serving prime minister of Malaysia.
I was not planning to comment on this except that I received the following via WhatsApp:
 




The Pakatan government is in fact highly unpopular. Comments like the above, which promise eggs on the DAP's face if they do not leave the Pakatan are now a dime a dozen on Social Media. 
And believe me unpopularity does not add towards political stability. It is quite the opposite - unpopularity leads to political instability. 
Especially since the Pakatan government is a minority government which cobbled together a coalition with its political enemy UMNO which the Pakatan once called the kleptocrats. 
So MOUs and minority governments do not make for a popular or a strong coalition.  The right tremors or the right amount of egg on the face can easily unravel things for the PH. 
In any case the Pakatan is most certainly a one term entity. The question is when will their term come to an end? They are not even 12 months into their first term.
The DAP in particular has two choices. They can either read the tea leaves:


Or soon they can read the writing on the wall. 
"writing is on the wall means there are clear signs that a situation is going to become very difficult or unpleasant".

Choose carefully.



The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.
By Syed Akbar Ali 

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