Politics that ruins everything!!!

t seems that ‘reform season’ has arrived in Malaysia, and Malaysians are now being treated to the spectacle of both the ruling party UMNO and the opposition parties of the Pakatan Rakyat racing in the rush to reform themselves. Perhaps the only good thing to come out of this is the awareness and recognition of the fact that both the ruling parties of the Federal government and the opposition parties that control the state governments of four states have to reform themselves to meet the demands of the Malaysian public. For the first time in decades, the political parties seem to have finally realised that power ultimately rests with the people, and not politicians.

However one also needs to look at the reforms that are being attempted, and ask the question of how far they can go and what they are intended to achieve. Malaysians have become somewhat jaded by the spectacle of cosmetic reforms by now, and able to tell the difference between sweet rhetoric of no substance and the real thing.

For this the Malaysian public has to be thankful to the former leader of the country, former Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi: Badawi’s election in 2004 rode on the crest of a host of reform proposals that sounded almost too good to be true. (And indeed, they were too good to be true.)

Badawi promised to serve as the ‘Prime Minister of all Malaysians’, and claimed that ‘no Malaysian was more Malaysian than another’. He preached the values of transparency, moderation, progressive Islam, moderate politics, multiculturalism and pluralism like there was no tomorrow; and indeed most of these promises never came true in the end. Instead what the Malaysian public saw during his tenureship was the rise of even more race and religion-based communitarian politics, more inter-communal distrust, more instances of religious intolerance, and the sordid spectacle of members of his own parties waving daggers in public while preaching the cause of an exclusive ethno-nationalism that rendered his own promises of a multicultural plural Malaysia hollow.

Fast-forward to the present and look at the state of Malaysian politics today, where ethno-nationalist protesters can march in the streets with a cow’s head, where the self-appointed moral guardians and morality police of the country continue to enter the private premises of citizens to snoop on their personal life-styles. The headlines are filled with lurid tales of bizarre happenings like prayer-mats that stand up and pray by themselves, bomohs (witchdoctors) casting spells on girls, sex-tapes of politicians and the like. All of this has betrayed the reality that the slogan of a happy harmonious modern progressive Malaysia is mere bunkum and hype.

So the question remains: Can the leadership of all the political parties in the country get their act together and provide some semblance of moderate, mature, adult leadership for once? Or will the Malaysian electorate be lulled yet again by promises of a bright new future that will never come? And are the politicians of Malaysia - both in government and in the opposition - going to demonstrate that they have the spine that is required to transcend the vulgar mode of populist politics that has got the country into the present impasse it is in?

Politicians of any country need to realise that they will ultimately be held accountable for all that happens during their tenure in office, and that history will judge them not only by what they did but also by what they failed to do.

In ethics there exists the concept of ‘negative responsibility’ whereby an individual can be held responsible for not doing the right thing when he or she ought to have done so: It is akin to me witnessing a blind man crossing a road and a car coming headlong to ram into him. If I choose to remain silent and allow the blind man to cross, then I am negatively responsible for not warning him in time. His death is still my responsibility, even though I did not drive the car that killed him.

In politics the same conditions apply, particularly for those politicians who had the power to stop the slide towards a more bigoted, racist, violent and oppositional politics. No, Badawi did not raise the dagger and no, he did not endorse the use of communitarian ethno-nationalist discourse by the members of his own party. But he could - and should - have stopped them from doing so, and he should have made it clear that such juvenile pyrotechnics was not only detrimental to the image of his party but even more so to Malaysia as a whole. By failing to act, he was and is partly responsible for the mess that the country is in now.

The same applies to all the politicians in Malaysia today, be they of the ruling coalition or the opposition coalition; as it applies to all politicians worldwide of any party and any government. Sooner or later, all politicians need to understand that with their perks and status comes the responsibility to act to prevent the mainstream of politics from falling into the hands of extreme demagogues and communitarians. Failure to do so will mean that this generation of politicians will likewise be negatively responsible for the country’s slide towards chaotic politics, and historians like myself will be there to remind them of their failings even if they choose to forget them.

Some things just don't change!!

MALAYSIA'S proud experiment in constructing a multiracial society exploded in the streets of Kuala Lumpur last week. Malay mobs, wearing white headbands signifying an alliance with death, and brandishing swords and daggers, surged into Chinese areas in the capital, burning, looting and killing. In retaliation, Chinese, sometimes aided by Indians, armed themselves with pistols and shotguns and struck at Malay kampongs (villages). Huge pillars of smoke rose skyward as houses, shops and autos burned.

Firemen drew sniper fire as they attempted to douse the flames, and outnumbered police watched helplessly at times as the street gangs rampaged. One man, trying to escape from his burning car, was thrown back into it by a howling mob, and died. By the time the four days of race war and civil strife had run their course, the General Hospital's morgue was so crowded that bodies were put into plastic bags and hung on ceiling hooks. Government officials, attempting to play down the extent of the disaster, insisted that the death toll was only 104. Western diplomatic sources put the toll closer to 600, with most of the victims Chinese.

No Longer Satisfied. From its inception, Malaysia has been haunted by racial divisions. By tacit agreement, the Federation's 4,300,000 Malays under Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman wielded political power. Economic power was largely in the hands of Malaysia's 3,400,000 Chinese. There are also the 1,000,000 Indians and Pakistanis who make up the third major ethnic group. What made it all work was the Tunku's Alliance coalition, in which Malay, Chinese and Indian parties participated. But for some time the Chinese and Indians had feared that eventually they would be pushed out as laws favoring Malays for schools and jobs bore fruit.

The trouble began two weeks ago, when newly formed Chinese opposition parties cut heavily into the Alliance's majority in parliamentary elections. It became suddenly apparent that many Chinese were no longer satisfied with just economic hegemony, but wanted a protective share of the political power as well. Nothing was more surely calculated to frighten the Malays, in particular the Malay "ultras" (right-wingers), who have long preached the doctrine of Malaysia for the Malays. Alarmed, the ultras began to discuss ways of retaining control. At a Malay post-election meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Chinese onlookers began to taunt those in attendance. Infuriated, the Malays attacked. At least eight Chinese were killed and within 45 minutes fast-spreading riots forced the Tunku to clamp a 24-hour curfew on the capital.

Returning to Singapore. Struggling to restore order as the fighting mushroomed, the Tunku and Deputy Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak took power into their own hands. Parliament was suspended, as were constitutional guarantees. Total administrative power was taken by the newly formed, all-powerful National Operations Council headed by Razak, which proceeded to suspend publication of all Malaysian newspapers for several days. Arrests began. Ninety-three alleged terrorists were bagged in a swoop on a Chinese apartment building in Kuala Lumpur, and Razak reported that all Communists and known sympathizers were being rounded up. Razak and the Tunku blamed all the troubles on Communist China, which, they charged, had funneled large sums of money to Communist agitators in Malaysia. Later, however, the Tunku backed off slightly, and praised "loyal Chinese elements," adding that he had been mistaken when he blamed Chinese Communists for all the troubles.

As tensions eased late in the week, curfews were lifted long enough to allow householders to go out and buy food. The fires burned on, however, and there were still occasional racial clashes. For some time to come, Malaysia would be a bitterly divided society. Already many Chinese have given up hope: one senior government official spoke of abandoning everything in Kuala Lumpur and returning to his native Singapore. There was no doubt that if many others followed his example, severe damage to Malaysia's once-prospering economy would result. Beyond that was the question of whether the wounds opened last week would ever sufficiently heal to permit Malaysia's diverse peoples to resume their quest for a working multiracial nation.