Mud slinging has begun in Permatang Pauh by election!

Accusations after accusations have begun taking its centre stage in the coming by election in P44 Permatang Pauh these few days. The latest was Dr Koh Tsu Koon accusing Anwar the candidate for interfering in a sales of shares in a company belonging to PDC. The sales has resulted in the PDC losing RM9 million. Anwar was Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister at that time. Tsu Koon also has thrown another shot at Anwar for bailing out a company belonging to Amin Shah, the elder brother of Datuk Ariff Shah, the BN candidate pitted against Anwar. Pretty bad coincidence huh...

Then the `boy with 6 boxes' Ezam Mohd Noor has challenged Anwar to sue him for accusation made against Anwar on Rm1 billion worth of projects that Anwar has handed out on direct negotiation to his cronies when he was the Finance Minister. Ezam will name the project beneficiaries soon. This could be one of the contents of the 6 boxes that Ezam claimed to posses when every one were thinking the contents were aimed at Rafidah Aziz and Khir Toyo. Ezam is trying his best to be in limelight too!

These mud slinging episodes never stop. My only regret is that these accusations were only made and revealed after Anwar has left the Government and Tsu Koon has been kicked out by voters in the last election. As for Ezam, he has left Anwar's camp and now trying very hard to convince the new camp commandant he has just joined. My next question is, will these so called revelation and accusation emerge its head if Anwar was still the DPM and the Finance Minister or if Koh Tsu Koon was still the Chief Minister of Penang.

We have seen and heard these `mud slinging' and counter accusations when Tengku Razaleigh was out of BN's favour and leading the Semangat 46 Party. All type of names calling were hurled at each other during the general election and by elections. All were said in the name of integrity, credibility and quality. These counter claims were so rampants that the masses were quite confused at that time. All claims and accusations were made after Tengku Razaleigh was not the Finance Minister anymore.

These claims and accusations were even made wildly during the Constitutional Crisis involving the Palace. Even the Sultans were made to be the target for reasons known only to the accusers. There were times when we saw many 'republicans' among the 'democrats' in the Government. It was not very pleasing to refresh the issues again. We can see leaders with hypocrisy of the highest order still around and singing a totally different tunes altogether!

Now the big question is, will all these mud slinging and counter accusations appear if both parties were in the same corridor of power. Were they part and parcel of activities suited to them when they are together and start going after at each other's throat when they fell apart. Bad deed justified when two parties were in the same boat, practising the same bad cultures and bad habits. Or is it a case of unfairly divided loots!