By Tania Rengasamy

“Politics is for those who have no conscience and no intelligence, or at least not the former for sure, if you want to be in it.” I remember an old uncle uttering these words over a cup of coffee, eons ago. Today, I see the bitter truth behind what seemed like an emotionally-driven statement coming from someone who knew nothing about politics at the time. Or so I thought.

I have always thought politics was a tool to help ease the governance of a nation. A systematic approach to get, well, a systematic output. As much as I knew that the driving factor was definitely to achieve power, I adamantly chose to believe that the power that is eventually achieved through the mandate given by the believers, will be used to return the favour, by helping the people. Politics should be dealt with the same way science is dealt with. It has a set of rules, objectives, a structure to it, followed by experiments and results. The knowledge behind politics is basically the art of governing but just as we have mad scientists all set to conquer the world (Pinky and the Brain being my favourite), we also have mad politicians.

The history behind mad politicians or heads of countries gone mad if you may, goes way back and every single country has had their fair share. From politicians who thought they were God, to those who would behead a royal guard for simply laughing, the list is endless.

Over the years, the characteristics of the mad politician has evolved. From thinking they were made of glass, today we have politicians who say a statue of an eagle, yes an eagle, is extremely catastrophic to a man’s faith and his character, so much so, it must be blown to smithereens.

There is also the extreme fear of using a particular language, a fear so profound that all correspondence must be in a preferred language, failing which official letters, no matter how crucial to the country’s wellbeing, will be flushed down the toilet.

On the other hand, we also have people suffering from “Cynophobia”, so no more calling a Coney “dog”, a Coney “dog”, you hear?

Nothing seems to work to stem this spread of madness – not online petitions, not harsh statements posted on social media, not even taking our grievances to the streets.

The people voted for the politicians when the latter professed to be sane or at the very least pretended to be sane. When they told us they would bring this country to its full glorious form, we believed in them and surrendered our future to them. Now, they have gone mad.

I have thought about this and rather than sitting and waiting for the lot to either cough blood and die, I think I’ll just keep voting, one of the few constitutional rights I still have. I will keep experimenting even if it means I’m at risk of forsaking my future and the future of my children, term after term. Because I have come to believe, since I am left with nothing else, that “voting is a right best exercised by people who have taken time to learn about the issues”. Like that Chinese uncle, may his soul rest in peace.

Tania Rengasamy is an FMT reader.

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