Of Pakatan, politics, and passivity
As we approach the upcoming UKEC AGM, I will try to end my stint as Chief Editor on a slightly more productive note, with a few more articles before we move on to the new management - and with the Bagan Pinang by-elections fresh in our minds, what better topic than Pakatan and the future.
“A new Malaysia, a better Pakatan, even a better Barisan, are all possible - but if we merely stand by, complain, and do nothing, none of these happy endings will ever make it to the final draft of the script.”
By Hizami Iskandar
It hasn’t been a particularly comfortable time for Pakatan Rakyat supporters of late. In-fighting in Selangor; Kampung Buah Pala in Penang; resignations in Kedah; and now, the rejection of Pakatan in favour of Tan Sri Mohd Isa Abdul Samad in Bagan Pinang. Over the Raya period, and even before, the cynicism in my family was at an all-time high, as the common refrain: ‘Pakatan and Barisan - they’re just as bad, the both of them’, sounded at every corner.
I still believe that Barisan Nasional has been in power for far too long, and that change is needed to knock it down many, many notches, and hopefully force it to take a long, hard look at itself. The continuing immature antics of UMNO branches; the train wreck that is MCA; the zombie in denial that is MIC; and the ever-irrelevant Gerakan - it’s been a year and a half since March ‘08, and that period has shown, I think, that nothing less than a total shock to the system will bring BN out of its self-love and refusal to face up to its countless failures.
But it’s also becoming all too clear that Pakatan is losing ground as well. The impression that the average Malaysian gets, I fear, from the news is that Pakatan is treating the next election as theirs to lose, when the opposite is very much the case. I believe that this impression could not be farther from the truth, as far as Pakatan activists are concerned - but in the end, as someone remarked to me the other day, how many Malaysians are actually in regular contact with these activists?
My belief in Pakatan Rakyat is not a blind one. I am all too aware of the sub-standard leaders which crowd the ranks of all three parties, and routinely drag their coalition’s name into the unforgiving mud. And there is a sense in which Pakatan cannot be an end in itself, but must be seen as a transitory entity - we do not want another coalition government, which will end up with the same problems that Barisan now faces. The end must always be one, single, multi-racial, multi-religious party, which can manage race and religion without needing to compartmentalise itself along those battle lines, and which has a coherent vision of Malaysia to offer. At the moment, Pakatan is still very far from this dream - but like a caterpillar whose cocoon is barely spun, the future is still very fluid. A few wrong steps will dislodge the cocoon and destroy the potential butterfly that might emerge; but if we stay our course, and keep the end firmly in mind, we may just end up with the political equivalent of a rare, incredibly beautiful creature.
The buildings blocks are there, for all to appreciate. Pakatan, and especially PKR, is blessed with a cohort of very committed and sincere young leaders. The wonderful thing is that these people can range from those like YB Nik Nazmi, whom I like to think of as the public face of these Young Turks; to a young lady who introduced herself as being with the Selangor State Government, before proceeding to speak eloquently on the need to change the negative public perception of migrant workers. Tricia Yeoh, Lee Khai Loon, Brian Yap, Ginie Lim, YB Elizabeth Wong - if you want to debunk the pathetic stereotype that those of a certain race have little passion for public service, look no further. The dream of a multi-racial party begins with these young souls, and a happy ending is still very much a possibility.
But such an ending does not come on its own. Barack Obama’s rise and now, seeming stagnation, teaches us two central lessons. Firstly, politics as the art of compromise is very much overrated. Compromise and coalition-building has earned Obama little but scorn, whilst perhaps fatally wounding all his projects, from healthcare to the struggle for a Palestinian state, and the war in Afghanistan. Pandering to one’s enemies in the hope of winning them over, when it comes to matters of principle, leads to nothing but despair and failure.
Pakatan must learn from this. In a way, Lim Kit Siang was right when he called for greater discipline - but that discipline must be imposed from the bottom upwards, not the other way round. It is not the young whom are spoiling the broth, but those of the old guard who are still sticking to their outdated ways of playing politics. If it must come to a Tunku-Mahathir showdown, then perhaps that is the best way forward. What is not acceptable is merely waiting, in the hope that these trouble-makers will somehow be magicked away. If it means losing entire branches and divisions, then let it be so. It is better to trim away those who are in it for the politics, leaving only those who truly believe in a new Malaysia, and who are ready to see this through. The leaner, more sincere party that remains will be richly rewarded by the rakyat, come polling day.
But the second lesson is less for my friends in Pakatan, and more of those of us outside the party political system. What I have seen of Obama’s campaign for healthcare reform is that the loudest voices are coming from his opponents, whilst the millions who should be vociferously supporting a fairer healthcare system are being drowned out, because they just aren’t being as active as the other side is. When you’re trying to overcome vast vested interests, armchair politics just isn’t going to cut it.
The same goes for Malaysia. We cannot pin our hopes on the young leaders of Pakatan, as long as we ourselves do not do our part. Now, we should certainly lend our support to those we trust, and remind them, whenever they feel that the seniors of their parties are too powerful to overcome, that there are a lot of Malaysians behind their struggle.
But just as significant, I believe, is the struggle for the mind of the rakyat. The road to justice goes both ways. We expect sound policies on race, religion, the economy, crime, education, drugs. But the mistake the Americans made was to trust Obama to deliver all these wonderful policies, without first making sure that enough Americans were solidly behind him for him to be able to overcome the inevitable resistance to all these good ideas, and make them happen.
We are no different. Simply put, it is time we stopped expecting our leaders to lead, and follow Gandhi’s wise words: ‘Be the change you want to see in the world.’
This article is already too long as it is, so I’ll have to return next time for a fuller discussion of the details, but suffice is to say that the blueprint is a straightforward one: if we can fix race, and fix religion, then we can move on to fixing all the other issues that need to be addressed: PPSMI, the minimum wage, crime, foreign workers, healthcare. On all these fronts, we cannot wait passively for the politicians to act. We have to have a clear idea of the best way forward on all these issues, and we have to convince other Malaysians that we are right. We have to keep on working until we can build a real consensus - not just amongst the few thousand who make up Malaysian civil society, but amongst millions of the rakyat. Enough people to actually make their votes count, and enough people to make sure that these good ideas are actually put into practice by the politicians they voted in.
I end with a thought: on one reading, the history of Islam was a spectacular lesson from God. His Prophet taught us to take responsibility for our actions, to speak out in the face of injustice, and to constantly strive towards justice in society. We, however, chose passivity over action; and preferred that the ruler control us, rather than us controlling the ruler. The inevitable result was injustice, oppression, and ultimately, an irreversible decline - and the line of unworthy Caliphs after the Right-Guided was only punctuated but rarely by gems such as Umar ibn Abdul Aziz, Salahuddin al-Ayubi, and Muhammad al-Fateh. We were given the choice of active democracy, but we refused it in favour of the despotic rule of dynasties, and look where that has got us today. Thus, God’s lesson was a simple one: if you truly want to see justice done upon this Earth, then you cannot leave it to others to do - it is up to each of us to do our part, and change the world around us as best we can. A new Malaysia, a better Pakatan, even a better Barisan, are all possible - but if we merely stand by, complain, and do nothing, none of these happy endings will ever make it to the final draft of the script.
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Comments
i completely agree, and i think the reaction is a prime example of what the article is talking about - contrast say, Azmin, and his blaming the rakyat, and Nazmi’s succinct response, which called for Pakatan to use the loss as an opportunity for self-reflection.
There’s still promise in Pakatan, but it’s in the younger generation, because far too many of the older leaders are either as UMNO as UMNO themselves (being UMNO has-beens themselves); or are still stuck in a decades-old groove.
If these people aren’t flushed out soon, and no real transition of power takes place to the younger generation in Pakatan, then yes, they will be in very real trouble (not that they aren’t already); and i think we would have lost a great opportunity to change politics in Malaysia.
Whether that will happen or otherwise remain to be seen… as things stand there’s perhaps little cause for optimism, but, I won’t give up on the young guns of Pakatan quite just yet, I think
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I have to say I’m disgusted with the Pakatan response to BN’s victory in Bagan Pinang.
To say that the voters there are blind, unprogressive or corrupt is like saying ‘I hate you’ to someone you want to marry.
Pakatan did not just fail to win the hearts of the voters, they’ve successfully made themselves an enemy to the voters.