Rigged Politics – The only game in town

On my way out to lunch, but a quick point to my latest article. The hyperlinks therein were removed, so I hope no one will mind if I reproduce it here with links intact :)

While writing this piece, I had a random thought perhaps worth noting for later further exploration. What if Najib was secretly egging on the Perkasa factions so as to make himself appear to be the more moderate alternative – an ‘in between’ between conservative Umnoputeras and ‘overly liberal’ opposition? It’d be quite a con.

Ah well, wouldn’t be a political blog without the occasional conspiracy theory right? :P

The Only Game in Town

Why do people with good hearts even bother anymore with politics in Malaysia?

There’s a story about gambler and card sharp Canada Bill Jones, who was one day losing his entire bankroll at a crooked game of Faro. His friend asked, “Hey Bill, why don’t you walk away while you can – don’t you know the game is crooked?” Canada Bill sighed and replied “I know, I know,” and added,  “but it’s the only game in town.”

Sometimes those who work for a better Malaysia can’t help but get the feeling that they’re always playing against a stacked deck, and I can’t blame them.

This was brought home to me in particular last week when I learnt that a book I edited with John may be banned (if I can make a shameless plug, it’s still available for now, but perhaps not for long!) – this despite our efforts to ensure that what we put together was entirely factual, things we are confident would hold up in a fair court of law. Apparently though, any book with pictures of Altantuya, Teoh Beng Hock, Kugan and Anwar on the cover are bound to “threaten public order”.

Of course, much larger problems are happening in the grand scheme of things – many of which remind me of Canada Bill’s game.

Over the last few days and weeks, we have seen a great number of injustices. This last weekend, the police moved to block Khalid Ibrahim from speaking at Batu Caves during Thaipusam – ostensibly because the police felt it wasn’t cool for him to do so given that Najib wanted to speak around the same time.

I couldn’t help but remember scenes from Batu Caves not 3 years ago, where Najib’s same Umno government was firing tear gas at Indians trapped within the same Batu Caves compound.

Of course, Khalid isn’t the only one being prevented from speaking to the rakyat. Anwar met the same fate in Kampung Kerinci that same week, when the Brickfields district police chief came down to drag him off the stage, even preventing Anwar from saying some prayers to prematurely close his speech.

This level of government paranoia is overbearing. In any mature democracy, citizens should be allowed to inspect all the cards in the deck to make their own verifications and judgments, not just the ones the dealer chooses to reveal.

Anwar of course faces bigger challenges this week than being disallowed to say closing prayers. Last week, the Federal Court decided that his defense should not be allowed to examine the prosecution’s evidence ahead of his trial. Sounds a little like they’ll have to fight with one hand tied behind their back.

Elsewhere in less prominent legal cases, police defy court orders to return all of the samples seized from Kugan’s post mortem, and return some in an unusable state. One of the lawyers taking up the case, Teluk Intan MP M. Manogaran is himself being investigated for sedition over comments he made about Umno, the church firebombing and Anwar’s trial.

Students haven’t been spared either, as universities hold e-voting for the first time, raising a great many suspicions about vote rigging.

Through this all, the biggest ace hidden mischievously up a sleeve may be the abuse of the mainstream media.

One of my consistent ‘favourites’ may be The Star, who headlined Zulkifli Nordin two days in a row. This was too rich for me – highlights of the problems of one individual coming from the party who can’t even elect or depose their president and central committee properly.

Even that however, may not have been as dangerously misleading as the opinion piece that was written by Joceline Tan in The Star comparing articles by Najib and Anwar in the Wall Street Journal on the Allah controversy.

I must say I cannot think of a better word for this particular op-ed, along with Syed Nazri’s nearly identical one in the NST (directions from the top? goodness me of course not) than “disgusting”.

The general thesis seemed to be that the WSJ articles show Anwar to be some raving lunatic that was willing to let the country burn in order to get his political way, while Najib was a middle ground, peacemaking statesman.

I invite you to read the two articles for yourself. I found Najib’s to be extremely representative of himself and his administration – a pitiful attempt to replace badly needed leadership with hopelessly empty rhetoric, entirely reminiscent of the manner in which Najib is as always unwilling to take a proper stand in any matter or conflict.

I suppose Ms. Tan has been tasked with trying to salvage some of the Christian vote, which to my mind will not easily forget the trauma of the last few weeks and months – I daresay BN would be hard-pressed to garner votes from anyone but their most diehard supporters from that particular segment.

The reason she is bound to fail is that people are well aware of a pivotal fact that she glosses over: it was the Umno government themselves that made the ban in the first place, and that same Umno government (under Najib no less) that challenged the High Court ruling allowing the usage of Allah.

Ms. Tan’s attempt to rebrand Najib as a mediator rather than a primary party to the conflict is in bad faith, as is Naijb’s own attempt to cloak in honeyed words his own culpability in this controversy as well as his lack of decisiveness and ability to lead change. A man who started a fray cannot pretend to be above it.

The proof of the pudding is in the eating, and when you peel your way through the words chosen by consultants paid with millions of your tax dollars, we see a Malaysia that is anything but 1. We see instead different rules for different communities, and different standards for those on the ‘wrong’ side of the political divide.

As the deck continues to be rigged, I cannot help but both pity and admire those still willing to sit at Malaysia’s crooked game because they believe to leave would mean deserting the rakyat. My own hopes include seeing the day where enough straight players sit at the table to force a change in the game once and for all.

Nathaniel Tan has been known to enjoy the occasional game of cards, but he promises not to gamble away any of his book sales income you may feel like contributing towards.