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It hasn’t helped that the leadership of Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, decent man as he is, has been fundamentally weakened and seems unable to deal with the multiple crises that beset it. By KARIM RASLAN/ MySinchew
It has been nearly two month’s since the epochal 12th General Elections and the political tumult shows no sign of dying down. With Umno fast diminishing and the Barisan Nasional just a shadow, once peripheral players are beginning to assert themselves. It is nigh impossible to predict what’s going to happen in a political landscape that is changing daily, and a sense of weariness is starting to set it. It hasn’t helped that the leadership of Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, decent man as he is, has been fundamentally weakened and seems unable to deal with the multiple crises that beset it. While political actors are striking their ideological colours to the mast, the moves to reform the judiciary are being undermined by politically motivated prosecutions and the police’s loss of moral authority. How simple things were in the days of Dr. Mahathir! We never had to worry about such things as everyone knew their place under the stern eye of the Great Architect. Those days are long past, and it is futile to look to the Umno elite for direction. Malaysia is in a time of flux- and there’s no use trying to make sense of it all. If there is hope, it is in individuals trying to drag our country kicking and screaming to the future, such as Ong Tee Keat’s recent call for multi-racial politics, which was almost immediately shot down by his party’s corpulent leadership. | "How simple things were in the days of Dr. Mahathir! We never had to worry about such things as everyone knew their place under the stern eye of the Great Architect." | Yes, the days are getting rather surreal, but there are still things we should look out for. These include (in random order, as keeping with the times):
Firstly, Sabah’s Kadazan leaders. More than anything else, East Malaysia is now truly the “Kingmakers” in these troubled times. The mostly-Christian Kadazan have been marginalized by the Federal (i.e. BN and in other words, Umno) Government for decades and their disgruntlement is evident. Their support will be key for Anwar Ibrahim in his push to become Prime Minister. While many Kadazan leaders (most notably their Huguan Siou Pairin Kitigan of the PBS) remain sceptical of the ex-DPM, anything can happen in politics, to say nothing about Sabahan politics so the possibility of yet another ‘jump’ cannot be discounted.
Also, the current debate about ‘Malay rights’ needs to be monitored as well. While organisations like the Kongress Permuafakatan Melayu think that the community is in a state of crisis, the reality is that nothing can be further than the truth. The Malay-Muslim community will continue to be prominent in our nation’s public life (regardless of whether it is through PKR, PAS or Umno) by sheer numbers: the community has 60% of the entire population. The contentions of the KPM and certain Umno leaders are simply scare-mongering tactics. This is not to say, however that certain leaders of the Pakatan Rakyat, read Karpal Singh are not helping their alliance through constantly harping on doctrinaire issues like the DAP’s ‘Malaysian Malaysia’, which, while ideal will only serve to drive large swathes of Malays away from the party. It must be said, however that Umno’s harping on Karpal’s supposed ‘disrespect’ for the royal houses is the worst sort of straw-grasping, as is their cries for ‘ketuanan Melayu’ to be protected. Calls like these only serve to highlight Umno’s hypocrisy and divide the BN further. We can take comfort that progressive Malay politicians like Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and Anwar Ibrahim have attempted to articulate alternative visions and it will be interesting to see the extent to which these ideas take root. Finally: the economic situation which is showing signs of deterioration. With the prices of household goods and other key items like fertilizer and petrol rapidly rising, the Government’s long-standing subsidy regime is proving unsustainable. As it was a cornerstone of the BN’s politico-economic hegemony, their withdrawal cannot be good news for the Prime Minister. The resentment of the rising costs of living can also easily translate into anger, as the residents of Cheras battles against toll-roads will demonstrate. Incidents like these will happen with growing frequency and will surely challenge the Government’s already precarious hold on power. These are very, very interesting times to live in indeed.
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