NOV 4 — In the triple jump, a jumper has to accelerate, hop, step and jump.
The step must not exceed the jump line, otherwise the jump will be invalid. So the athlete needs to prepare himself, time himself well before executing this hop, step and jump sequence.
You cannot just hop and then jump without the step...
In real life, often those who are just one step behind the leader moved to fast and, like the triple jumper who did not time himself well and stepped on the jump line, these people who are in too much of a hurry to ascend often fail to execute their moves properly and hence the jump is considered to be “foul”.
Looking at history, there are plenty of examples. Even Brutus, who famously stabbed his mentor Julius Caesar, did not get to become Caesar and had to flee Rome and became an exile.
In recent the history of China, Lin Biao, who was anointed to be the successor by none other than Chairman Mao himself, had to flee and died in a plane crash in 1971 when he tried to stage a coup to overthrow Mao who got wind of Lin's plan and moved first.
In MCA, where a political stage-play is being played out, the No. 2 in the president’s camp (No. 3 in party hierarchy) moved too fast. Seeing that the president was down (but actually not yet out) after the EGM, he moved to try to take advantage of the situation and tried to triple jump to be No. 1, not through election by the grassroots, but through bargaining and horse-trading within the leadership itself. He must be cursing himself now. He failed to learn from history.
His reminds me of the story of a man who, after seeing a man fall into a well, threw a big stone into the well instead of trying to rescue the person who fell. This is supposed to be the worst type of human behaviour.
Some people told me that greed for power must have blinded him, and with a few impatient schemers behind pushing him, he made the biggest mistake in his life and is now fighting for his political survival. Indeed the position of Minister of "Hell" seems to be really under a curse, and whoever sits there would not have a chance to move up.
How things have a way of working out. The No. 2 who was sacked by the presidential council is now back in his post, and the No. 1 who has been trying to kill off No. 2 is now friendly with No. 2, and actually depended on No. 2's support to consolidate his own position and fend off the challenges from the very friends around him.
Politics is all about interest. Either national interest or community interest or party interest. Talking about interest, perhaps I should tell you a true story about a great soldier, statesman and patriot.
During the Second World War, General De Gaulle, the young tank commander who made a name for himself writing about tank warfare, fled to Britain after the fall of France, and after his boss Marshall Petain and Vichy worked out a peace plan with Hitler to form the Vichy government to rule the southern part of France.
He was a junior minister/officer, and as a lone voice he established Free France in London and became the rallying figure for those French who were opposed to Hitler and the Vichy government in France.
De Gaulle used to criticise his British counterparts, despite the help given to him by Britain, so much so that a British minister complained to him that “we are your friends, not your enemies". De Gaulle famously replied: “France has no friends, we have only interests!". That was the saying of a great man and he indeed fought only for France's interest.
Now that MCA is more stable, personal interest should be put aside, and let national interest took over. By national interest, I mean the PKFZ case, where we should allow the transport minister to dig, dig and dig, until the whole truth is out. PAC has already mentioned a few names but are there others? Many people believe so, and if so then we must leave no stones unturned.
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