politics in the old days,(1957-1983)

This is a photo of my late father, Datuk Awang Ngah Ibrahim, at a function in Temerloh. The year I am not sure. My father is seen seated to the right of the second Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tun Abdul Razak bin Hussein, the gentleman seated in the centre in white attire and with spectacles. 

In the old days politics were much simpler. Aspirations of politicians were different. I am saying this as an observer. Even though my father was involved in politics, I was not. Never had a mind for it.

What I want to share today is in reference to a comment made last Sunday (25th January 2009) in one of the local newspapers about why the UMNO, the United Malay Organisation, the backbone party of The Barisan Nasional, the ruling party of Malaysia, lost in the Trengganu by-election earlier in the month. One of the reasons cited by the writer was the arrogance of the the UMNO campaigners. They were all staying in hotels and they were all busy talking about the coming March party elections. The opposition campaigners on the other hand, were staying with the voters at their homes or friends homes. So they were intimate and I suppose more endearing to the voters. When you eat and pray and sleep together, of course you could get much closer or feel much closer to the voters.

Now I remember during father's time of politics, it was like that. I remember people sleeping at our house, eating our foods, sharing our bathrooms and chit chatting in the living room of our home. I vividly remember one prominent politician from Johor, the late Datuk Syed Jaafar Albar, the late father of our Home MInister, Syed Hamid Albar, one day sleeping at our house. He slept in my father's room. We had only two bedrooms. He ate the foods that my mother cooked. As a small girl I saw him walking to the outside toilet the family shared with his towel over his shoulder. He bathed  in my father's bathroom. He was like a member of the family.

Its the small gestures, the personal gestures which I think the present politicians have forgotten to do. Of course in Temerloh then, there were no hotels! But then in these modern times, if the opposition can still  share those personal moments in the homes of voters, why should we share our times formally in the coffee houses of the hotels?