One chapter in the saga of political parties in Malaysia has been closed. Another chapter is just beginning.

The media is in the midst of frenzy in their coverage of the party elections, first in MCA, and now in Gerakan. It seems apparent that, as far as the Chinese press is concerned, party politics sells better than Merdeka celebrations.

At the height of the MCA party poll, I counted 12 full pages in one of our Chinese newspapers, filled to the brim with an avalanche of news, interviews, commentaries, anecdotes, and loads of photographs. The dust there has hardly settled there when another heat-wave of party election engulfs the other Chinese based partner of the ruling BN, the Gerakan.

A Chinese-literate casual visitor to Malaysia might have been given the mistaken impression that Malaysia is having a national poll, or that Malaysian Chinese are both politically savvy and very democratic.