The Termites in the Temple of Democracy: How Our Politicians Are Eating the Constitution Alive

The Termites in the Temple of Democracy: How Our Politicians Are Eating the Constitution Alive #

Let’s drop the pretence. Let’s strip away the polite fiction, the mind-numbing legalese, and the nauseatingly patriotic slogans that echo from ministries to mamaks. The single greatest, most existential threat to the Federal Constitution of Malaysia is not some shadowy foreign power, not an external ideology, and certainly not the average Malaysian citizen. It is the very class of people who, with greasy palms and forked tongues, swore a sacred oath to protect it: our politicians.

They are not public servants; they are a parasitic infestation in the machinery of state, systematically gnawing at the foundational beams of our nation for personal gain, political survival, and the perpetuation of their own privilege. The Constitution isn’t their guiding star; it’s an inconvenient obstacle to be circumvented, twisted, or simply ignored when it suits their grubby purposes.

Look at the evidence, laid out not in conspiracy theories but in the glaring, daylight robbery of our principles. The Constitution guarantees freedom of speech. Their response? A sledgehammer of selective prosecutions under draconian laws, silencing critics while their own cybertroopers spew venom with impunity. The document envisions a democracy where governments are formed by the will of the people, expressed at the ballot box. Their innovation? The great, shameful lompat culture, where elected representatives—devoid of all shame, spine, and principle—are auctioned off to the highest bidder, making a mockery of your vote and reducing parliamentary majorities to a game of musical chairs played with our future.

And let’s talk about the elephant—or rather, the racist, fear-mongering dinosaur—in the room. They have taken the noble, protective provisions of Article 153, meant to ensure equity, and weaponised them into a cudgel to beat the populace into submission. They scream about “defending the Constitution” when what they are really defending is their own relevance, stoking the embers of racial anxiety to distract from their breathtaking incompetence and staggering corruption. It is the oldest, cheapest trick in the book: when you can’t fix the economy, the education system, or the crumbling infrastructure, just find a bogeyman and point. The Constitution is their favourite prop in this tiresome, destructive wayang kulit.

Every time a contract is awarded without tender, they piss on the principles of justice and fair competition. Every time an institution—the MACC, the Judiciary, the Police—is weakened, intimidated, or turned into a political attack dog, they are not just breaking the law; they are breaking the very system designed to hold them to account. They have turned our highest law into their personal servant, to be summoned when needed for a photo op and dismissed when it gets in the way of another backroom deal.

We are not watching a debate. We are watching a demolition. And the wrecking ball is wielded by men and women in expensive suits, shielded by immunity and arrogance, who treat the founding document of our nation like a used tissue. The cancer isn’t at the gates; it’s on the government benches. And until we, the rakyat, stop being audience to this farce and become the jury that holds them to account, the termites will keep chewing until the entire structure collapses into a pile of dust and forgotten promises.