Like children on the last day of the school year, our MPs have finally left Parliament for their “holidays” – which will this year take the form of the GE13 election campaign.
No doubt Pakatan MPs have hopes of coming back in the next term as part of the big class that sits on the other side of the Dewan Rakyat in Government but first, there’s the small matter of their report cards. Exactly how did they rate in this past term? In the interest of fairness we won’t limit our judgements to members of the Dewan Rakyat.
Anwar Ibrahim
Anwar’s biggest failing of the year was his inability to complete his major assignment for the term – a manifesto for him and his Pakatan Rakyat friends. This means he misses his crucial assessment grade and it makes it difficult to mark him against the other children because he hasn’t truly demonstrated what he is capable of. How can he be measured against the likes of Najib Razak (the class captain)? Of course he can’t.
Anwar is also guilty of truancy. Throughout the term he has been frequently absent with his friends from the foreign media at, among other things, a Public Relations conference in Dubai.
Verdict: Better attendance (in Malaysia) would be good start. Anwar should also try to be more positive.
Karpal Singh
Karpal looked like becoming dux of the school back in 2008 when he and his DAP friends did so well but it all seems to have gone wrong in the past year.
We believe his problems began in the school yard when he got into a fight with that P Ramasamy. Apparently it started with some silly name calling about “warlords” and “godfathers” and seems to have gone on and on since then. Sadly, it has totally overshadowed his academic achievements and it has distracted his classmates in the process.
Still, at least he enjoyed taking part in the school musical.
Verdict: Needs to spend less time fighting and more time arguing – about policies.
Abdul Hadi Awang
Sadly he failed his major assignment for the term. Students were asked to work in groups to complete an assignment and Hadi and his PAS friends could only come up with their Negara Berkebajikan (Benevolent state) idea on which they were marked zero.
More recently Hadi seems to have had problems at home (Kedah) which have left him sulking quietly in the corner when he should have been taking control of these issues. His leadership credentials are now in tatters.
Verdict: Should have asserted himself when he had the chance.
Lim Guan Eng
Guan Eng is a constant disruptive influence who seems to think he is the only one deserving of attention. Sometimes he seems to say the first thing that comes into his head such as his remark that schools that support BN should have their funding cut (which we believe was him trying to be class clown), that Malaysia’s school system is failing based on the lack of scholarships to Harvard, and his ludicrous outburst that the whole of Malaysia can be rich if it copies Penang – honestly we don’t know where he gets these ideas from!
Guan Eng has shown he doesn’t want to play with the other children by snubbing the Parliamentary Select Committee on Lynas which up until that point, we thought was his favourite subject.
Verdict: Should speak less and listen more.
Hasan Ali
Expelled and failed to complete the school year!