COMMEN T It’s been an unbearably tragic weekend for the nation. On Saturday, I couldn’t write anything that wasn’t related to MH370. As days pass while the plane is still not found, it’s too early to comment about the mishap, and almost too hard to write about anything else.

In the end, I decided to put this together, now that nomination day in Kajang has passed. Like many others, I’m not particularly in the mood to talk about politics, but I thought I’d put some thoughts down for the record, and give Kajang some closure for now.

With some luck, this will be the last that needs be said on this for a while. Many of the points are by now academic, but perhaps they bear some recording.

One of our first duties in politics is to be consistent.

I have always held that the prosecution of Anwar Ibrahim for sodomy is in bad faith, political in nature, unjust, and based on extremely shaky legal ground. I see no reason to change my position.

Anwar is one of the only people in Malaysia to have ever been convicted of sodomy, and that is not a coincidence. There is little doubt in my mind as to my view that this is an injustice, and a burden on a family already far too burdened.

All that said, consistency also means that nothing I have written about Anwar and Kajang in the last month and a half changes either.

There is no mistaking the fact that Anwar has led a remarkable life. He has endured with admirable grace trials and ordeals that would have broken lesser men, and he has undoubtedly taken many public stances over the years that were in my view morally correct.

Nevertheless, going along with Kajang-gate was - in my humble view as an individual who has no comparable experience or accomplishments - a mistake. One we can only pray will not be repeated.

On the whole, my views generally resonate with those expressed in Karim Raslan’s recent piece .

The question that many are asking now is, what of all the things that Rafizi Ramli and gang claimed on the outset of the Kajang Move?

Is Selangor still under grave threat of a takeover by Barisan Nasional? Are racial and religious riots imminent?

Will PKR push for Wan Azizah to be menteri besar? Will her appointment as such address the questions above? Is a new menteri besar still necessary for Kajang to be made into the launchpad of Putrajaya?

If Wan Azizah is not being positioned to be menteri besar, then will her non-appointment address the questions above? Will her election as state assemblyperson stabilise Selangor PKR?

An exercise in futility

March 8 was supposed to be a big rally for Pakatan Rakyat and Anwar. I think the degree to which they were banking on this was revealed by how much they focused on their convention, despite what else was going on in the country that day.

I think if Barisan Nasional had done something similar, they would have caught much more flak for it online.

Among the many things being said at this Pakatan rally was that the Kajang Move was still on, and that they were still on track for achieving its objectives.

I’m not sure how that logic works, but I suppose they had to say that, whatever the reality was.

From where I stand, it looks like the entire plan was an exercise in futility, and one that has caused more damage to PKR and to Pakatan than anything else.

What was the hurry? If the plan was to install Anwar as menteri besar, couldn’t they have waited until after the court’s decision before deciding whether or not to go through with the plan?

Their choice of timing has resulted in a relatively meaningless by-election, preceded by a war of attrition that achieved nothing except collateral damage. I for one cannot see any way in which this has moved us forward instead of back.

After the fact, everyone loves to say: “Oh I knew this all along” and “Oh, this was the plan all along”. I hope such people understand if we take their views with a pinch of salt.

I would also like to think that even these people could not have possibly engineered this whole thing to merely be a referendum on popularity - a political judgment by the masses to counterbalance the judicial one.

The Gandalf vs Sauron political narrative

The court’s ruling may prove traumatic for Anwar and his family. I hope they are granted the grace and patience to endure whatever lies ahead.

The political ramifications of this judgement may be viewed favourably by some in Pakatan however, at least in the short term - a new reason to ride an old wave of sympathy.

I feel that the public does not like their politics particularly complicated. I harbour no illusions that any of my anti-Kajang-gate articles brought joy into anyone’s lives.

People - even highly educated, politically aware individuals - prefer a much simpler political narrative: good guys against bad guys, Gandalf vs Sauron.

Often times, they get upset when something or someone - however rooted in the truth - threatens to upset this narrative.

SodomyII works well for Pakatan because where once things were starting to get grey, things are now black and white again. The evil Barisan Nasional is bullying the good Anwar by finding him guilty of sodomy.

To make things even better, proponents of the Kajang Move have now gracefully found a quiet exit plan through which no one loses too much face.

With that, balance is restored, and now everyone can rest easy knowing where they stand.

In my view, Malaysians have been forced by both sides of the political divide to stand here, facing the same old politics (like sodomy, fighting for Anwar, etc) for far too long. It feels like we are trapped in a cyclic hell, punished like Sisyphus to repeat fruitless labour.

Dancing to our own music

When I started writing about Kajang, I started getting calls from people who haven’t called for years. One of these resulted in a friendly tea with a highly placed old friend who fed me more conspiracy theories than any poor guy should be subjected to during an evening at the mamak.

Layers and layers of theories about who is manoeuvring how, hidden motivations behind hidden motivations - the whole thing felt like deaf men groping in the dark, constantly jostling to try and stab each other in the back. Anwar’s latest comments regarding national reconciliation seems to be the latest bout in this ballet of madness.

I decided that I can’t possibly make sense of any of it, and that it was meaningless to try. I think normal citizens like us should try to base our opinions on whatever information is publicly available. To try and go beyond that is a slippery slope indeed.

At the end of the day, I think that if we take a longer view, we should be looking to build the foundations for a more sustainable system, built on a different brand of politics. It may be a long road ahead, but it may also be the only one worth starting a journey on.

I don’t know about everyone else, but I’m tired of dancing to the same tunes, played by the same pipers. Perhaps it’s time for the rakyat to make its own music.

NATHANIEL TAN tweets @NatAsasi , and would be perfectly content if this is the last piece he writes on Kajang or Selangor for a while. He hopes against hope for the passengers of MH370.