Why can’t our politicians speak?

DEC 21 — If there is one thing that puzzles me about our politicians, it is their general lack of eloquence.

The Umno assembly, for instance, is less like a gathering of the influential and powerful as much as a fish market. Don’t get me started on Parliament where it becomes painfully apparent that few of our elected representatives are gifted, speech-wise.

It gets me thinking, is this a facet of Malaysian society where the average voter is not interested in the way a politician speaks so long as he promises something? That it is all right if a politician speaks terribly as long as he delivers the free sewing machines and election hampers that are coming our way very, very soon?

Perhaps it is a fault of our school system, with its lack of emphasis on proper elocution and where debating is an elitist activity. I have met people who scored As in their Bahasa Malaysia oral exams and yet speak haltingly, almost painfully in the language.

Why should speaking properly matter? By speaking properly, I do not mean that all our politicians should sound like Oxford scholars. At the very least, I expect them to have solid, reasoned arguments that are put across clearly.

Exhibit A of brain not connecting to mouth would of course be Perkasa. It is all too easy to make fun of Ibrahim Ali’s coarse, brusque way of speaking. I half expect fire and brimstone to come out of his mouth each time he makes one of his paranoid, inflammatory allegations.
Yet, I wonder sometimes if our politicians are really the reflection of what we really want.

Perhaps we don’t want someone who sounds too smart, who talks too fine. Perhaps Malaysians are more inclined to vote for “good old boys”, who talk like that old uncle of yours, all charming and affable. Yet said old uncle would also be the one trying to sell you some clap-trap about the new MLM he’s joined or regale you with a thousand and one stories you know he probably made up.

But really, Malaysians, your old uncle has no business being in Parliament. We really need to break out of our habits of voting in the boors, the crass, the representatives who can barely talk without tripping over their own tongues.

Some would argue that it’s not the manner of their speaking that should determine a politician’s worth. Shouldn’t his ability to work hard count more than his gift of the gab? Well, if you can’t speak, you have no business being in politics. And if you can speak only to the constituents who speak your mother tongue, then seriously you have no business being a Malaysian politician.

Oratory skills are that: skills. They can be picked up, honed, sharpened. Of course there are some more gifted at the art than others but there is no reason that a politician cannot learn to talk better.

But in any event, if you can’t come up with your own words, then at least for the love of God hire a good speechwriter.