The GE13 kiss of death

MALAY Mail reporter Amirul Ruslan may not have the Pulitzer perspective of Nick Ut whose defining work the whole world knows simply as “The Girl In The Picture”. The sight of a naked and wailing girl, Kim Phuc fleeing a bombing carnage contributed towards the cumulative effort that helped end the Vietnam War. While not globally seismic, Amirul’s snapshot captures the eerily unedifying spectacle of a kiss planted by an overzealous supporter on the cheek of Shah Alam BN candidate Zulkifli Nordin on Nomination Day (April 20). While not similarly outstanding, this “Kodak Moment” deserves to share the same billing. The smooching spectacle; which I shall pronounce the “GE13 Kiss of Death” shaped perceptions and influenced the vote during polling throughout GE13, to the detriment of the BN candidate’s electoral (mis)fortunes in the Shah Alam parliamentary consituency.

For non-war historians, roll back the years to June 8, 1972; the village of Trang Banh, South Vietnam. In a bid to flush out the Communist Cong, the South Vietnamese air force bombed the village causing them to flee. Caught in the scorching fiery maelstrom, 10-year-old Kim peeled all the clothes off her back running for safety. All the while she cried “Nong qua” (too hot) “Nong qua” (too hot) - which incidentally became the first Vietnamese words I learnt, thanks to the helpful caption carried by Newsweek magazine.

Nick, who was Associated Press Photographer then, was at the right place and at the right time. It was he who took THE photograph that won him a Pulitzer as well as the 1972 World Photo of The Year.

Amirul; don’t despair if this picture of yours; does not get the recognition it deserves in local mainstream media circles. The whole nation knows the size of its impact in shaping the way the votes went in Shah Alam during the 13th GE. However, I doubt if your effort will make it beyond the first stage of judging for any premier local press awards, knowing which way the vote swings.

So now that the dust has settled, I wish to alert the Pullitzer Committee to Amirul’s prized picture which I would like to caption thus: “Sealed with a Kiss”. Far from launching a thousand ships, the picture of Devendren planting a peck on the cheek of Zulkifli could well have sunk one.

Amirul who was at the right place at the right time had all his faculties about him at the precise moment, enabling him to snap this one defining picture that will no doubt enhance his journalistic resume. If this was going to be the mother of all Malaysian elections, his snapshot would rightly be the mother of all campaign photographs.

This single moment of exuberant madness was worth more than the thousands of rounds pressing the flesh, speaking at ceramah or, the millions spent in wasteful handouts. As soon as it was posted in print and published online, the photograph went viral and Zulkifli should have right there and then; kissed his electoral chances goodbye.

At a time when the sexual peccadilloes of some politicians were dragged out like some well-worn rug, here’s one that really emphasizes the fact that stomach curdling intimacy should be kept behind closed doors and confined to the privacy of some party closet away from public gaze.

Pity Zulkifli, the hapless politician the BN thought could carry for it the parliamentary constituency of Shah Alam. Pakatan strategists must have felt like having Marquis De Sade on their side for once; the moment the Selangor BN election machinery decided to field the Perkasa deputy chief against incumbent Khalid Samad of PAS.

Amirul must have woken up that Saturday morning on May 5 feeling like a million dollars. He was alert enough to notice an overenthusiastic Indian man grabbing Zulkifli in a bear hug and proceeded to give him the leery lip service.

With great journalistic instinct, Amirul pointed his camera and there; gotcha! A picture that all the BRIM’s in the world would not be large enough to stymie the eerie message that politics attracts strange bedfellows. Such attraction, by their very nature results in many a marriage of political (in)convenience. Consumating it in the manner of public prelude to disgusting “wayang kulit” (shadow play) only raises it to the level of political stage management that would one day return to haunt the perpetrators.

That picture on its own must have revolted a huge cross section of the Shah Alam electorate. They would no doubt have been repulsed by the apparent play-acting and phoney affection for Zulkifli. Neutrals must have rubbed their eyes in confusion – is this the same Zulkifli whose past rants did not exactly endear himself to the Indian community. And why, are they so readily forgiving – and putting up this cloyingly yucky stunt as a kiss-and-make-up stunt?

While the random act of one man could not have been foretold, the same could not be said of the unfathomable decision to toss former Johor Menteri Besar Datuk Ghani Othman into the frothy cauldron in Gelang Patah. I can clearly remember the prophetic warnings of a guest interviewed on a pre-election programme on Astro Awani. The Chinese academic, widely respected for his intimate knowledge of the Malay language and culture pointed to the possibility of his community seeking to punish the government at the ballot box. We were roundly censured for providing a platform for him to make that assertion. Alas, it was the Prime Minister himself who made that connection in his immediate response to the loss in Gelang Patah.

What then of the confusion caused by Ibrahim Ali in Parliamentary Pasir Mas? Somewhere in the most private corners of post mortems, someone would be making the connection that this was all down to the meddling of a former Prime Minister.

Who could have given the Perkasa president the gall to assume that he should be given the seat – even a proxy one at that - at all when the BN had its own candidate? But then, the close association he enjoyed, as well as the benign nod in response to his rants in asserting bumiputera rights from a coterie of elder statesmen must have emboldened him. But that still does not answer the question of why he lost.

Ibrahim himself had, in the local pejorative; “membuka pekung di dada” (exposing one’s most intimate secrets) when he spoke to the media even when the heat of the defeat had not dimmed down. He blamed the Umno machinery for sabotaging the effort to elect him – having assumed that he was representing the BN in all but name. He blurted out that some Umno voters were not paid – yes he said paid; for their efforts to come home to vote in the elections.

That in itself is not an offence but for a candidate to establish the unholy nexus between money and votes, what does it say for the motive force that drives one’s campaign.

Ghani, Zulkifli and Ibrahim all have suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous GE13 fortunes. Above all the fray, I tip my hat in recognition of Amirul’s photo essay.

Ends.

RAZAK CHIK’s first encounter with a kiss was through the music of Gary Geld and Peter Udell, the duo who wrote Sealed It With a Kiss, made into a hit in 1962 by Bryan Hyland.