Buying people with positions in a political party?

I wish to refer to the following blog post (in my blogroll):

CHARLES HECTOR: 'Buying' Zaid Ibrahim and other ex-BN people with gifts of 'positions' into PKR must stop - it is betrayal of the Rakyat...

Well, it depends on which party one is referring to, because each has its own standing in our political scene in terms of attractiveness.

I would agree with Charles if it were the BN making the offer. But accusing Anwar of enticing with positions in PKR is stretching a bit. What Anwar has to offer is something, which is just a probability, maybe a possibility but definitely not a certainty.

I would still consider Zaid’s entry into PKR as something very positive to the party, and this was shown in the NTV7 polls, which gave a 90% thumbs up. He is already a rich and respected lawyer owning the largest legal firm in Malaysia. He had just resigned as a Minister in the Prime Minister’s department in a matter which ran contrary to his principles which is an exception to the rule in Malaysia.

The following is my little experience dabbling in local politics:

At the lowest level, I was re-elected Chairman of an inactive branch of another party simply because none of the members are really ambitious as in having to show their mettle to convince party leadership in the hope that they might be considered as potential candidates in state or parliamentary elections.

I have just heard of one branch election where the top positions went to the incumbents but for a minor position like Assistant Secretary, there was a challenger and the votes ended in a tie (10 against 10) and the decision was via a toss of coin!

On the other hand, I have heard of a branch chairman of a BN party intimating that he refused an offer from someone willing to bring in x number of members simply because the numbers would have threaten his own position!

Then there are those who fought, even physically in the process of election, for positions. Why? Where there is certainty of positions of power and the intention of abusing that for personal gain would be the likely answer to that question. As I have mentioned before, the least they can hope for are the range of state awards ranging from PPN, PJK, AMN, KMN, JP or even Datukship to hope for, in the case of BN component parties. That’s the difference.