Remember how our great Malaysian leader once criticised the Americans in his usual sarcastic tone by saying that they spend two years working and two years campaigning.

Well, to be fair to our nations commander-in-chief, there is some truth to his statement. Al Gore is now on an aggressive drive to get the Democrats nomination for 2004. And we are only in the first quarter of 2002.

But what our supreme leader forgot, or pretended not to know, is that Malaysians were also guilty of the same crime. Possibly, we could be worse. Political campaigning now seems to be a national past-time in Malaysia.

As soon as one election is over, we begin to talk of the next one.

Leaders of winning and losing parties in a just-concluded election will exhort their members to work harder either to retain or hoping to capture a seat in the next round.

For the politically ambitious and the goof balls, this means the campaigning should start from day one.

Yes, it is true that the Americans are campaigning for political office every two or three years.

They have elections for mayors, governors and senators before finally settling to find a president on the fourth. Still, that doesnt seem like too many elections in their political system compared to ours.

There are some 20 active political parties in Malaysia at the moment, represented in both the ruling coalition as well as the opposition alliance. Most of them hold their party elections every three years.

Umno boasts of a membership of two million. MCA has 1.2 million. Gerakan and MIC say they have more than half a million members each.

PBB and SUPP in Sarawak claim a membership of about half a million each. Upko and PBS in Sabah say they have about 300,000 members each.

Add the members of the other parties and we can safely say that half or more of the countrys population are members of political parties.

As the parties have different dates for their party polls and with their branch and division set-up, we can assume that every other month some Malaysian politicians somewhere are campaigning for office. The only difference in the campaigns is possibly its intensity.

Do-or-die battle

For the bigger entities like Umno and MCA, the campaign for party posts has become do-or-die battle for many. To these people, winning in the party polls is as important as winning in the general election. Handsome rewards await winners.

For example, becoming an Unmo division head is often a passport for higher political office. There is that chance to be a candidate for the general election, executive councillor or minister or the opportunity to head a public corporation.

The same is also true for the MCA and the other senior BN partners. When there are such handsome rewards up for grabs, one can imagine how people will go out of their way to get them.

The seven Umno division chiefs punished by their party for breaching election ethics and getting involved in money politics is a case in point.

At this juncture, I cant help but ask why that bank chairperson found guilty of money politics was not removed from his position.

Umno should know that such a character is certainly unfit to be in charge of a public bank.

On the MCA side, the current turmoil in the party began more than a year ago. One can therefore assume that more than one million Malaysian Chinese have been campaigning for the past year in anticipation of the fierce battle at the MCA elections this June. There goes another campaign.

In Sabah, the tussle for the PBRS presidency between Joseph Kurup and Jeffrey Kitingan has not been fully resolved at the political level although the Registrar of Societies has recognised Kurup as the rightful party president.

With an unhappy Kitingan group, we can expect some campaigning to go on in the Land Below the Wind for some time to come.

In Sarawak, the attempt to hasten the departure of PBDS president Leo Moggie by a certain faction in the party saw another campaign of sort.

Dinner meetings are being organised in several major towns in the state by the group to drum up support to get rid of Moggie quickly. By June or July, PBB will also hold its party elections and some campaigning is expected.

There we go. Malaysians from the east and west are campaigning for political office virtually throughout the year.

Fired up

With the Malaysian fondness for political campaign, (not necessarily politics, just the campaign) is it surprising at all that the nation gets so fired up when rumours of a snap general election start to make its rounds.

DAP chairperson Lim Kit Siang was the first to predict that a snap general election may be called. This was in November last year, exactly two years after the 1999 general election. (Well, this equals the American work two years, campaign two years record.)

At first, not many people paid much attention to it. However, when the national Chinese media played up the issue in the weeks following Lims statement, a snap general election soon became a national point of discussion.

PAS Youth chief Mahfuz Omar then followed by boldly stating he was sure the government would call for an early election, forecasting that it would be held in November this year or early 2003.

He said his prediction was based on the governments image building exercise now.

Mahfuz also stated that PAS had directed its election machinery at all levels to prepare for an early election, adding that PAS was confident of capturing Kedah. Now, this should send PAS members and supporters into a frenzy.

It has. Soon, the rumours spread to the Malay hinterlands as Mahfuzs statement was discussed regularly in Harakah , PAS official party organ.

In recent days, Keadilan also joined the circus of a snap election. Its president, Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, said the present political climate was suitable for the government to proceed with an early election and Keadilan was making the necessary preparations.

In a related matter, the partys deputy Youth chief Saifuddin Nasution said the party had established its presence in 143 parliamentary constituencies, adding that its grassroots members were being trained to face an early general election.

So everybody, it seems, is ready for a general election. But when will it be held? Nobody knows really. Even the nations sitting chief executive does not know because come that day, he cannot be sure he will still be sitting there to call for the elections. That is a fact!

Well, I suppose rumours of a snap election is generally harmless. After all, such talks are not uncommon. Every three or four years after an election, such speculations are bound to emerge.

It is true that Malaysians are fond of listening to rumours. Our people can be quite gullible too. But I do hope it will never reach a stage when it becomes so bad that what rumours are to Malaysians is comparable to what football is to Brazilians.

National obsession

I suppose that when rumours of a snap general election turn into a national obsession, then it is no longer harmless.

Elected representatives will be distracted in their work; many already are in their campaign for party posts.

The constituents who need help will be neglected and members of political parties will be constantly disturbing the populace in an attempt to win their votes.

Surely, there are more important things for us, Malaysians, to do at this point in time than to worry about the next elections. Do we not have other priorities to focus our energies and resources on?

Then again, why should the government call for a snap election? At the moment, I see no reason why it should.

The BN still has 33 months in office before the next polls are due. It is not even half way into its term. Even a favourable climate does not warrant calling for an election mid-way in a new term.

Whether the 76-year-old BN commander wants to lead his team into another election again or not is also irrelevant. The succession is in place, or so it seems. At least, calm should prevail at the top for the coming few years.

Interestingly, it is the opposition parties which are always more interested in a snap general election than the BN. And they are the ones firing up the people on the issue.

With the BN politicians constantly on the campaign trail for party posts and their opposition counterparts campaigning for a make-believe general election, Malaysia has certainly become a nation of political campaigns.

I am just not sure where all these is going to lead us. What I do know is that it is not a healthy trend and it is not doing the people and nation any good.

For once, I feel we should all be glad that our mayors, senators and governors are all appointed and not elected. Otherwise, there will be more campaigns, of course.

(FRANCIS SIAH is a journalist and politician from Sarawak. He contested in the 1996 and 2001 Sarawak state elections but failed to get elected on both occasions. He feels that defeated candidates should encourage and allow elected representatives to concentrate on serving their constituents and not distract them with campaigning all year round. Get them when the next polls is due, he says.)