Unfortunately, the most abiding memory of the Great Debate was this scene during questions from the floor.
Unfortunate because of the many other bigger issues she could have
raised and because of the way it was raised. And unfortunately for her
and her MCA, she probably did more damage to her party’s cause than
whatever Guan Eng said.
Clearly, the lack of a culture of ‘live’ political debates has
resulted in some people being unfamiliar with the basic etiquette
involved in raising questions from the floor.
In this case too, the organisers – and future organisers – should
evaluate how questions from the public should be raised. This is not to
say that questions should be screened nor should those asking questions
be devoid of passion or conviction.
But haranguing speakers should not be allowed, and questions raised should be relevant to the topic.
In this case, the topic was vague and weird (purposely to keep
Malaysians divided or to suit the race-based agenda?), to begin with.
And that made it all the more difficult to decide what was relevant and
what wasn’t.
And how is it those asking questions were mainly from one side?
Let’s hope the next debate would be more about the respective
politician’s vision for all Malaysians and the concrete policies to
realise that vision. And let’s hope it is in a language that all
Malaysians understand with more accurate and clear translations,
televised live on free-to-air networks.
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