Come Saturday, thousands of cities, towns and municipalities all over the world will put their lights out for one hour 8.30 am local time. The organisers believe that this switching off of lights towards natural darkness is a vote for the future of earth against global warming.
While the Earth Hour campaign is celebrated, a possible ‘political lights out’ ten days later in Malaysia may not.
After the triple by-election on April 7, ousted Perak Menteri Besar Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin as well as Pakatan Rakyat could face a political blackout. But perhaps, could it be that Umno would experience a political knockout?
Could the battle of an unstoppable Anwar Ibrahim against an immovable Barisan Nasional (BN) finally come to an end soon?
Nevertheless, the most regretted happening is the gradual, unconscious ‘lights out’ of Malaysian political consciousness. Following are three examples.
Firstly, election goodies are easy bait. Community projects like building hospitals and schools are not government efforts anymore but credited to a political party/alliance.
The most common slogan used is ‘Satu Lagi Project Barisan Nasional’. Malaysians fail to realise that these projects are part and parcel of the role of any elected government and are funded by public money.
Secondly, we are taught that giving gifts with the intention of getting some reciprocal reward (in contrast to merely showing appreciation) is akin to bribing. So are not elections goodies some form of bribe?
And how about rent-seeking as in the Approved Permits (AP) case? How about the findings outlined in the annual auditor-general’s report? What about the Lingam tape scandal?
Malaysian have easily forgotten all these cases after the BN government’s aggressive marketing of the latest anti-corruption body, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).
Hence, where is the Malaysian consciousness on ethics? Have we switched off the lights on our sound judgment?
Thirdly, we protest against political crackdown in Myanmar, the invasion of Iraq and the aggression in Afghanistan, to name a few. Malaysia champions for democracy.
Then, how on earth do we justify detention without trial under the ISA? Can we justify aggression towards peaceful demonstrators? How about restriction on speech, banning of opposition party organs and curbs on religious freedom?
In the first place, it is disharmony that gives strength to protest, criticism and debate all of which are need for the process to seek a new equilibrium towards stronger unity and more lasting harmony.
Yet, BN has been successfully using their tricks to pain a negative connotation of opposition-inclined Malaysians and many duly follow this line without giving it much thought.
Hopefully, Malaysian will switch off their lights for Earth Hour but not the light of their political consciousness.
In the 12th general election, which is dubbed as “political tsunami”, years of Barisan Nasional (BN) dominance in Malaysian politic was suddenly crashed by the opposition alliance’s people power. Ever since, democracy system in Malaysia has been exploring uncharted areas day by day.
The latest or perhaps also the most interesting is the Perak saga. Among those uncharted areas include phenomena of “jumping frog” that led to the case of two opposing Menteri Besar (MB), questioning the legitimacy of each other. The case is hence dubbed “MB vs. MB case”. Another one is today emergency sitting of Perak state assembly which held under a tree! Hence, some Pakatan supporters dubbed the tree as "pokok demokrasi" (democracy tree) (Ong 2008).
The ongoing Perak saga again and again throw fresh doubt about BN’s integrity as well as neutrality of law enforcement authority (the police, particularly). In this case, should the BN go all out to stop the state assembly? If the BN "order" the Pakatan state assemblymen to wait and settle dispute in court, why not they wait and prove their legality in the court first before declaring their are legal state government of Perak?
Anyway, the below picture may worth thousand of words on democracy in uncharted areas… but whether the happening is a worth discovery or a shameful joke is yet to know. Perhaps, time will tell.
Har Wai Mun | Feb 13, 09 1:10pm [Source: http://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/98213]
All of a sudden, issues such as race, corruption and Malaysian police brutality are making headlines. Yet, these issues did not come from nowhere or spring up overnight.
‘Malay’, ‘Chinese’ and ‘Indian’ are supposed to be a neutral adjectives to describe the origin of someone just like ‘thin’ and ‘fat’.
However, if these adjectives are institutionalised in an unfair manner over a long period of time, then it could become a big issue.
It will be interesting to imagine having a national policy that gives an advantage to overweight people but discriminate against skinny people. What will happen after one day? One year? Fifty years?
Let’s continue to imagine. After fifty years, some skinny people may not tolerate it anymore and get angry and start to criticise that policy. Should we blame them? Should we stop them? Jail them for the sake of maintaining harmony?
Applying the same analysis to a perception of the police force, their negative image did not develop overnight and out of nothing. Nevertheless, they should not be blamed completely too.
A continuous suppression of freedom of speech with the police as enforcers naturally puts them in bad faith with the public. Misusing the police force as a political tool is another factor.
In a bi-directional causality effect, these two factors in turn over-empower the police, hence providing breeding ground for misuse of power.
Nonetheless, it needs plenty of repeat cases of police mischief over a long period of time to enable a bad perception to develop. The reverse is true to change a perception from bad to good.
Therefore, the police force should wake up from its state of denial and be brave enough to confront reality. Particularly that related to the A Kugan case. They should be doing as their slogan saying: ‘Firm, Fair and Courteous’.
Please be firm in identifying and taking action against the responsible person(s) involved in Kugan’s death. Please be fair, which includes being transparent and declining any government intervention in this case.
Hence, the home minister’s outcry is not welcome; particularly his ‘Don't see criminals as heroes’ statement. I hope that the police and minister understand that nobody is a ‘criminal’ until having being found guilty by the courts.
Lastly, please show courtesy to the public whom you should protect with your integrity. Again, please realise that any ‘good’ or ‘demonic’ perception on anybody did not come from nowhere or just overnight.
Har Wai Mun | Feb 10, 09 6:51pm [Source: http://www.malaysiakini.com/letters/98004]
First of all, the Sultan of Perak’s decision against a snap state election is very disappointing. Equally disappointing is Pakatan Rakyat’s (PR) over-enthusiasm to overthrow the Barisan Nasional (BN) government that has now backfired.
Meanwhile, BN seems continuously trying to prove that it is beyond repair.
PR’s surprise victories in the March 2008 election implied ad hoc readiness to form state governments. Therefore, their over-enthusiasm to wrest further power from BN added both extra pressure and further exposure to fatal carelessness as like in the Perak saga.
In the midst of attracting BN assembly persons to defect, they overlooked the fact that there were internal dissatisfaction and weaknesses, therefore giving a chance for BN to pounce.
As a result, PR, particularly PKR and DAP, lost not only their majority in Perak but the parties’ integrity among voters.
Anwar Ibrahim and other leaders of PR should have realised that some of their members of Parliament or state assembly persons are not up to the mark in terms of loyalty, political maturity and integrity.
Interesting to say, PR could also have won some constituencies by putting monkeys as candidates. On the one hand, ‘monkey’ representatives are a source of future trouble.
On the other hand, this implies that citizens are actually voting for the party, not the candidate. Hence, party-hoppers should resign and stand for fresh elections.
Just ask ourselves two simple questions: ‘What is the full name of our Yang Berhormat?’ and ‘Which party won our constituency?’
If the later is easier to answer, then party-hoppers are clearly traitors to voters while BN ‘government’ in Perak is morally unjustifiable. Also, an anti-hopping law seems more urgent and appropriate than before.
Political development in Malaysia could be better if Malaysians (from politicians to the ordinary people) become more political conscious and mature. Political maturity enables voters to be able to differentiate between political rhetoric and fact.
Thus, Malaysians voters would not be easily brainwashed by the rhetoric of fear and the ‘bribing’ by election ‘goodies’. Malaysians should not buy any ‘information’ blindly as the mainstream media could be a tool of political propaganda.
Nevertheless, the long term success of PR could depend on them upholding their struggle towards high integrity, fairness and competency as well as politically educating Malaysians.
This is preferred rather than following BN’s unethical approach to gain power by defections.
In addition, putting efforts into strengthening their services to society could be their better choice for a progressive path towards Putrajaya.
Despite being the most influential political ideology in the world, democracy is not perfect. Hence, it is subjected to exploitation by ‘political worms’. Once its shield of integrity is broken, democracy would start to rot aided by those ‘worms’.
This unwanted scenario could be what has been happening in Perak. Not even a year ago on March 8, 2008, voters chose their representatives to parliament and the state assembly.
Unknown to them, they were not fulfilling their role to uphold democracy but were merely ‘officiating’ a political game between two camps of ‘political worms’.
After the ‘official opening ceremony’ ended, the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) camp was awarded a total of 31 ‘chess pieces’ while Barisan Nasional (BN) camp was surprisingly awarded three pieces less on the ‘Perak chessboard’.
Then, the game begin with both chess masters (‘worm-masters’?) playing mind games to win over chess pieces from the other camp. The voters were merely spectators!
So is democracy still alive in this country? Could be, but it is fast rotting to death. In the process, we witness all sort of lame reasons given to justify a switching (and rejoining) of camps.
The Bota ‘chess piece’s’ ‘long and serious’ consideration to hop over to the PR camp seems less serious considering his reverse process to rejoin BN. The issue of money politics was brought up.
Threats and treats were rumored. Resignation letters were countered with denial letters. The Election Commission’s decision was disputed and the matter could even end up in court.
Thus, is democracy still alive? Perhaps, but that depends on what ‘medicine’ is given to detoxify those ‘political worms’. It is certainly not an easy task and thus a truly qualified doctor (more precisely, a ‘savior’) is needed, of which the Sultan of Perak is one.
Yet, before official ‘medicine’ is prescribed, three major opinions have been voiced out. Some believe that having by-elections in both Behrang and Changkat Jering is the best medicine but some claim a smooth transition to BN rule is better.
Meanwhile, others (including me as a voter in a Perak constituency) prefer snap state elections as the medicine.
Only then can the power of voters be restored from being merely ‘spectators’ of a chess game to being the deciders of our own state assembly representatives.
Democracy should empower the people through the electoral process - not empower the ‘political worms’ through a chess game. Let’s hope democracy has not rotted to death in the country yet.
“Save the best till the last” seem explains some high impact happenings in Malaysia. November 2007 witnessed the two People’s rallies, namely the Bersih Rally and Hindraf Rally that caused a shocking moral defeat to the “invincible” Barisan Nasional ruling government in the 12th General election in March 2008. On one hand, Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi’s liberal stand on freedom is blamed for the release of Anwar Ibrahim, the rallies and the mushrooming of blogging activities, which all contributed to the so called “political tsunami”. On the other hand, Mahathir’s uncompromising approach is believed to have seeded continuous suppression of dissatisfactions that erupted like a volcano during the general election.
While all winning parties in their respective ruling states were busy planning the administrative and power sharing matters, finger pointing particularly among the Barisan Nasional (BN) members occupied the months of April and May. Not to miss out in action is Mahathir Mohammad, who stole the headlines of blaming Abdullah Badawi for the election defeat and setting up its blog. By the end of May, his blog, “chedet.com” registered a milestone of one million hits, clearly showing to Malaysian what is missing after his “retirement”.
Petrol price hike took over the spotlight in June after the government announced a jump of 40.6 percent hike to RM2.70 per litre. Inflation shot up record high. There was even a public debate between Anwar Ibrahim (opposition leader) and Ahmad Shabery (Information Minister) on this issue, which is the first of its kind and something Malaysians never imagine under Mahathir’s era. Credit should be given to Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi for his effort towards liberalization of speech. All this while, Malaysians have been mocked as “having freedom of speech but no freedom after speech”. Unfortunately, his effort and liberal stand brought him more calamity than blessing as he was held responsible for indirectly strengthening the opposition, hence asked to relinquish his top post comes March 2009. Abdullah is also branded as “softie and like to sleep in meeting”. Other happening was increasing news of mass defection from BN to Pakatan Rakyat, thus setting a climate for “unstoppable Anwar against immovable BN” showdown.
The showdown sparked off with Anwar being charged for sodomy again while Najib Razak is being linked to the murder case of Mongolian Altantuya Shaariibuu. Both denied their respective involvement. Nevertheless, Anwar won the “first round” by winning the Permatang Pauh by-election in August on a bigger majority to return to Parliament. The “second round” fight was on the “September 16” plan of change of ruling government. As a result, the BN’s MP being packed off to a study tour in Taiwan, believed to be a strategy to avoid the “September 16” plan. For those Malaysians that are not interested in the country politic, Olympic Games could be occupying part of their August, perhaps supporting other Asian teams like China and Japan rather than Malaysia.
Besides, the debate on New Economic Policy (NEP) and Malay supremacy getting hot up until nearly tearing Parti Gerakan Rakyat Malaysia (PGRM) away from BN coalition. In early September, Ahmad Ismail and his gang from UMNO Penang controversially stroking up racial tension and tearing Koh Tsu Koon’s (then, PGRM acting President) picture. Ahmad blamed a journalist from a Chinese-language Sin Chew Daily named Tan Hoon Cheng for the whole mess up. Subsequently, the later of September rocked Malaysia with the triple arrest through the Internal Security Act (ISA). The victims are blogger (Raja Petra), journalist (Tan Hoon Cheng) and politician (Teresa Kok). These arrests triggered nationwide condemnation of the draconian Internal Security Act (ISA) and resignation of Zaid Ibrahim from his Minister post as a sign of disagreement to the misused of the ISA by the government. Zaid, widely known as de facto Law Minister and is Malaysian best hope for juridical reform. He was later sacked from UMNO. In this month, Sabah Progressive Party (Sapp) also announced its pull out from the BN coalition.
Nonetheless, “September 16” became an anti-climate for the opposition and never materializes. BN keep a clean a sheet and won the “second round” despite Anwar has far more possession in this round. In other happening in September, announcements of big banks from the United States and Europe collapsing did chill the country of a possible global economic crisis and start to trigger the nation attention to economic arena.
The “third round warm up” did not start off as fierce as the previous two rounds. Therefore, month of October merely involved randomly throwing of punches to each other. These include outgoing MCA President, Ong Ka Ting surprisingly criticizing UMNO as bully in the BN coalition and Zaid Ibrahim claiming that Malay supremacy model has failed. Sexual abuse of Penan women in Sarawak, the controversial appointment of Low Siew Moi as temporary head of PKNS, MCA election, nominations for UMNO election, banning of Hindraf and reductions of petrol price filled up the month.
In November, PKR move up the heat by indicating that the Pakatan Rakyat is targeting Sabah and Sarawak to fulfil the “unfinished” plan of “September 16”, or at least for the coming state elections. Fatwa on the ban of tomboy characteristic and yoga to Muslim trigger anxiety. Yet, this month seems to belong to BN as various happening started to reveal weakness of the Pakatan Rakyat. Examples are the Penang’s UNESCO status fiasco and various reports of rifts among the Pakatan members.
Full concentration to economy provides calmness before the storm in early part of December. In the late December, plan to privatize IJN (National Heart Institute)causes some spark but it was the debate about implementation of Islamic hudud law resurfaces that matter most, threatening to tear DAP and PAS apart and leaving Anwar and PKR aimless with the “head Pakatan lose, tail, BN win” dilemma.
As the Kuala Terengganu by-election, perhaps the “third round” around the corner, happenings at the very end of the year set the stage for the battle to continue. Who will win? How many more “rounds” are needed to unveil the winner? Will this battle of the unstoppable against the immovable benefit the country and the rakyat? How about the potential catastrophe of a global economic crisis?
Anyway, lets the new year begin. Welcome the Year 2009 and whatever it may bring.
