I may have spoken a little too soon regarding slowing down on commentary.
This Malaysiakini letter by P Dev Anand Pillai (whom I’ve heard good things about) comes in the aftermath of Ezam. I can sympathise with his frustrations, but I think some of the conclusions he has drawn calls for a defence of idealism against defeatism.
Yeah2, I know, my same old tune :P :)
Malaysia being a country with a one-party government where everything is centred in and around Umno, it would be better for the founders of PKR to just disband and go back to Umno. As for the Malays, there is no better political platform that they can choose to build their political careers on than that of Umno’s, which is the government of the day.
I couldn’t disagree more.
Umno is poison to the Malays, and poison to all Malaysians. KeADILan is not going to disband and rejoin the group of politicians who are most unscrupulously responsible for the utter destruction and moral bankruptcy of Malaysia just because we have been denied electoral victories.
I’m involved in politics because I’d like to do my part in helping to see this country being run properly. I’m not here just to shout in the streets or shake my fists at the government (nothing wrong with either tho!). But there really is a point at which complicity with any part of something as thoroughly corrupt as BN is simply not an option.
My Malay colleagues have similar convictions. Yes, they want to do their part in fixing Malaysia, but stooping to Umno’s complete lack of principle or moral value is simply not an option.
This trend is very evident no matter how one looks at it. The bottom line is that a Malay leader is always a leader with Umno in his heart unless he a leader from PAS who may have some convictions.
Bull. What about people like Syed Husin Ali? Rustam Sani? My colleagues who sweat it out every day in the field for no reward whatsoever?
I find those lines to be insulting. To suggest that all non-Pas Malay leaders must be sympathetic to Umno is to accuse many good men of a particularly abhorrent sin.
The colonial masters had very cleverly set in place a divide-and-rule policy which is seen as the best for a country like Malaysia because multi-racial politics just doesn’t seem to convince the people. Perhaps the change towards better governance where a fairer and more equal platform is created for the betterment of all Malaysians irrespective of race can only emanate from Umno and no where else, and this is just a reality which we have to accept.
There is no reality that humans are forced to accept, outside the laws of physics (and even those…….). Everything else is malleable. To believe otherwise, I fear, is to die a little.
Multi-racial politics failing to convince the people? What, so concede to an eternity of being the last country on the planet to have race-based parties? I don’t think so.
Again, in the Malaysian electoral landscape, I utterly refuse to accept that the current election ‘results’ indicate an unwillingness to embrace non-racial parties. If I had to name three things that keeps BN in power it’d be fear-mongering, public apathy and cheating (okok, and maaaaybe because we in the Opposition hasn’t *quite* stepped up our game enough…. YET).
And “the betterment of all Malaysians irrespective of race can only emanate from Umno” = freedom from racial bias emanating from a racial party? I couldn’t think of a worse contradiction in terms.
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My idealism doesn’t need to be perfectionist, but it does need to believe that some vehicles simply tak boleh pakai langsung. Acceptance is complicity, and this is perfectly the point of the saying: evil is what happens when good people do nothing.
Don’t believe it, don’t surrender to the darkness.
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Malaysian Politics
Tags: Malaysian Politics by Nathaniel Tan
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