Malaysia, be prepared. For-the-sake-of-the-country politics is headed our way. The ruling Pakatan Harapan-led coalition government has promises to keep and the Perikatan Nasional-led opposition bloc is vowing to ensure that they get delivered.
And if they aren't, the bloc pledges to take the ministers to task. Should issues be handled badly, it will work with the government to ensure policies are sustainable.
More interestingly, the bloc is promising to act as an alternative information channel to the media if ministers fail to respond to press queries. Now this is an age-ender.
National interest politics such as this will make three good things possible. Start with political stability. No matter which side of the aisle of Parliament the politicians sit, 222 of them speaking in one national voice must spell political stability in any language.
What, the opposition bloc working with the government? We have opposition leader Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin's word for it: it would only be fair for the opposition to support the government if it is on the right track. Sure, ideology will test this united voice now and then.
But then again, there is no politics without ideology. If ever there is one, it will be rudderless. It will be like running on the spot and going nowhere. As a nation, we must head somewhere good. This may be how.
Secondly, it will keep the ministers on their toes. True, we have had key performance indicators (KPIs) for our ministers before. But how real were these? Ministers never fail to rank themselves as "stars", to use the performance management language of the Boston Consulting Group. Never a "question mark".
Take the last government. It gave itself 90 per cent on overall performance while the people were screaming mad about this and that. Human trafficking, corruption, poor public service and so continued the lament list. The issue isn't KPIs, but the ones assigned don't seem to measure what the country needs.
The good news is the opposition's scrutiny of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's government promises to be transparent. Transparency is something which is in short supply in Malaysia. It has been a game of hide and seek for at least two generations. The ruling coalition says it is after transparency, good governance and accountability. Here's what the opposition bloc says: You are on candid camera.
Finally, and most significantly, is the bloc's vow of open engagements with the media if press queries go unanswered by ministers. Speaking truth to power may become that much easier. Granted, ministers no longer silence journalists in public, but media evasion has taken on subtleties even the most persevering pen will be tested.
Text the ministers and the response is one of two: "Am at a meeting" or "send me your questions through WhatsApp". Then a pregnant silence of the eternal kind. Deadlines come and go like visitors to a museum. Very practised evasion. If the pressman is blessed, he manages to get the minister's press officer.
But this too, at times, turns out to be an infinite wait. We wonder why they are called press officers. Not media savvy at all. It may be too early to celebrate for-the-sake-of-the-country politics, which is at its birth bed.
But being directed to the delivery room where the rebirth is to take place is itself a cause for celebration. Tryst with destiny? We will know when we redeem the pledge.