In a few days time, candidates from the contending parties will be officially nominated for the Sarawak state general election, and then their campaign for votes can begin in earnest.

This quiet before the storm is a tense period for the political parties.

Professional campaign managers are now finalising their preparations, setting their election machinery in motion, drawing large sums of cash in small denominations from banks, establishing the necessary communication infrastructure for efficient application of strategies, registering and motivating election workers numbering in the thousands.

For the moment, the focus is on nomination day. For the ruling parties at least, it involves mobilising hundreds, and often thousands of supporters to accompany the candidate to the nomination centre.

Numerous flags, candidate posters, badges, T-shirts with party symbols, caps, and banners bearing slogans must be made available, and contractors for these items have to work around the clock to meet the sudden surge of demand for them. Of course, these must be paid in cash, for as the contractors and suppliers know well from long experience, political parties and their candidates are not the most trustworthy of debtors.

For the large throng of supporters on nomination day, buses, vans, cars, boats and launches must be booked long before hand, to ferry them from various parts of the constituency to the nomination centre. Food and drink must also be prepared for the event. The first dispatch of cash in small notes will come in handy here, to compensate people for their loss of income for one day. In Sarawak lingo, this is to take care of people's tanbang.

At the end of the day, when the nomination of the candidate is successful, especially when he wins uncontested, these party supporters will enthusiastically chair their hero in a celebratory show of solidarity. It makes a good picture in the media. The party organiser will then sigh with satisfaction in the thought that the huge expense involved has been worth it after all.

Only candidates from the BN can afford to stage such a grand show at the nomination centre. Opposition candidates and the odd independents would count themselves lucky if they can find the cash deposit, the proposer, the seconder, and the correctly filled nomination papers all ready an hour or two before the nomination begins. (You would be surprised how easy it is for proposer and seconder to disappear at the last moment, and the nomination papers lost at the last minute!)

During these few days before the actual campaign shall begin, none are as tense as the candidates themselves.

Objects of admiration and contempt

Most people have never dreamed of being an election candidate, and know next to nothing about what goes on inside these strange creatures. More often than not, these candidates are regarded as objects of admiration or contempt, or worse still, as curiosities for much snipe comments and gossip.

So who are those suitable to become election candidates, and why should anyone want this thankless task of being thrust into public limelight?

Well, equality and freedom are the two basic tenets of democracy. We are living in a supposedly democratic country, and anybody can become an election candidate. In the end, we do get ANYBODY and EVERYBODY!

There are those seasoned old hands who have gone through many elections. They have long ago developed a personal survival manual, containing all the tips on how to get through the intense pressure of an election campaign without much damage to themselves and to their party.

For the first timers and for those who are jostling to be a candidate to the very last minute, these are heady days indeed. Outsiders can never guess at the kind of turmoil that embroils and agitates inside the political aspirants during these few days leading to the election.

Election fever is indeed like a mind-altering drug, transforming a perfectly reasonable character into an anomalous personality. Overnight, even the wife if she can stay cool-headed will not recognise the husband when he has become the candidate.

There he is, a party faithful of some seniority and standing, having sacrificed much of his time and money on the "cause'. It matters little that the "cause" can sometimes become hazy over the years. Long years of indoctrination, regimentation, and peer-group pressure have cemented his loyalty to the party symbol, or to a particular party leader.

Inspired idea

One day, the election dates are announced. Suddenly, out of the blue, or at the suggestion of some colleagues, the idea goes to his head that he must contest as a candidate, to win a glorious victory for the rakyat and his beloved party.

A group of supporters will gather around his inspired idea, usually people who do not know more about politics than he does. Whispers of his intention will then ripple outward, first through the rank and file, right up to the top party leadership, and finally leaked to the media perhaps.

If there is already an incumbent or more than one contender vie for the coveted candidature, this particular aspirant and his group will then plunge into much aggravated intrigue. There would be much manoeuvring behind the scene, canvassing for support within the party top-brass, and often degenerating into vicious personal attack against the competition within the party. This is the most common cause of factionalism within all political parties.

This internal invisible war sets our aspiring candidate's mind ablaze. Now he is more convinced than ever that he would rather die than concede the candidature to his competitor.

Obsessed, possessed, and fixated, his inner life is a whirling hell of anxiety, hurt, suspicion, despair, hope and rage. His common sense has left him completely. He may be semi-illiterate, have 3 wives and 10 children too many, and a few court petitions suing him for bankruptcy. Nobody is going to convince him that he is vastly unsuited for the job!

On the eve of nomination even, he may still make a last desperate pitch for his candidature to the decision makers within the party, pleading, cajoling, begging, and threatening even, with much beating of the breast and baring of the soul.

If eventually his ambition is frustrated, and someone else is appointed to contest the election, our self-professed would be YB would be incensed and extremely resentful. His whole life's political work has been belittled, and his superior and peers, for their selfish reasons, and chosen the other person over him. It feels far more hurtful than being jilted in love.

It happens often that he will pull back his support for his party candidate. Why, he may even ask his supporters to vote for the opposition. His one wish is to see the defeat of the undeserved candidate from his party, just to prove that those top people have made a grievous mistake and brought harm to the party by not choosing him in the first place. Perhaps he is already plotting the downfall of those useless top party leaders during the next part delegates' conference.

This is how the BN may lose a few seats in the coming election. It may happen in the opposition camp as well.

Like a pagan god

The successful candidates of course will be in cloud nine. It is his life's greatest achievement. Overnight, he has been elevated from a nobody to a household name, with throngs of reporters and cameras hanging on his every move and his every word. He watches himself on television, and reads about his great exploits in the newspapers. His handsome face smiles from thousands of posters hung all over the constituency. Why, he is exuding more charisma and glamour than a film star.

The whole campaign is handled entirely by pretty professional campaign managers. The candidate is told that he is to do nothing but beating the pavement, from morn till dusk during the campaign, in the busiest of city streets and housing estates, right down to the remotest village. He must become an instant smiling and hand-shaking machine, endearing himself to one and all.

Then, there are the numerous functions and political gatherings that he has to make a grand appearance. He has to make a speech of course. If the candidate is one of those born with a deficiency in oratorical talents, it does not matter. He just has to mumble something for a few minutes, reading from a prepared text. The party and the rakyat do not need orators; they need a cardboard character to worship like an idol from a pagan temple!

If eventually, when all the votes are counted, our candidate turns out to have lost, it is a big blow of course to his self-image and self-worth. He would probably retire from public attention to brood and sulk for a while, counting the balance on his political and financial account. He may find solace by weeping in his wife's arms. Perhaps, he is already contemplating another attempt at the next general election.

On the other hand, if it turns out that our candidate becomes the winner, he will be chaired at the nomination centre amidst loud cheers. He will be paraded everywhere like a pagan idol that has answered the plea of the faithful. Why, the winning candidate may even think he is god himself!

He shall hold court of course, and assume a new personality to fit his new exalted position of a YB. A new dawn is beginning for him. He is now head and shoulder above the rest of the citizenry. Pretty soon, he will get used to being treated like a demi-god.

The emotional roller-coaster that had begun before nomination has now reached its climax. It would not die there. For the newly elected YB, that roller-coaster will take him speeding towards self deception often, for the next five long years, until the next general election.