A recent comment on my blog:
Hey Nat,
I was much entertained by your article :
http://jelas.info/2008/02/19/abdullah-wants-you-to-believe-him/
Hope things won’t go in that direction for you to plead / tell the rakyat to have faith.
I must confess to have found the comment entertaining as well :)
It sparked off a small episode of soul searching with regards to this blog. Will in turn into something that is primarily critical to an apologist rag? :P :)
Anyway, let’s get back to the matter at hand before I get more sentimental.
*
Upon reflection, I would say the crux of the problem is one between the old and the new. It is a question of whether we will be bound in chains to the past, or whether we will build our tomorrows on a cleaner slate and a forward looking vision.
I will talk a bit about the DAP here, although I must say that in response to queries regarding them, I am hardly the best person to ask - wrong party! Partners yes, but goodness knows I’m not privy to any of their secrets. I’m not even privy to KeADILan’s :) Anyway.
YB LKS is a seasoned politician. He is no fool, no racist and in essence, no bigot.
My best theory (and it is exactly that - a purely personal, 100% hypothetical, speculative and non-representative theory) as to what happened is that with all due respect he has made an error in political judgment.
When push comes to shove, he does not strike me as a grumpy old man with axes to grind.
Why then?
In the remainder of this post, I will attempt to give some context - much of which has already been touched on and is only recompiled here for reference.
Again, purely as a personal opinion, someone once told me that 1999 was a very traumatic year for YB Lim and his party. I think that may have been the only time he was ever voted out of parliament perhaps. The ‘conventional wisdom’ at the time, as I understand it, was that the party was ‘punished’ for allying itself with Pas.
I really don’t know if this is true or not. In social sciences, things are often described as ‘overdetermined.’ No one can reasonably single out a single reason why Somalia is a failed state, why Americans love reality TV or why the results of any given Malaysian general election turned out the way it did. There are just too many congruent factors.
Nonetheless, I may posit this: Even if, and this is a sizeable if, the 1999 outcome was the result of a huge Chinese distrust against Pas, the same cannot be said for 2008. Pas won this time around in areas with a huge chunk of non-Muslim constituents - and they won big.
If you ask me, the one simple thing this means is that Malaysians want change.
I didn’t even often use that term myself, for fear of spooking more conservative quarters. But I think the margins and majorities speak for themselves.
Malaysians have evaluated all three major opposition parties, and deemed them acceptable enough to vote for. Maybe few to none expected such major wins, but none are so pissed off with the result that they’re out in the streets yet (and if this ever comes to pass, of course, suspect manipulation and try to stay calm).
This is the new Malaysia. When it comes to the non-Muslims and Pas, arguably, voters were assured by the replacement of Islamic state talk with Welfare State talk as well as with the new face of Pas as seen in its dress styles, new headquarters and most importantly, the hearts of its now-decked-in-suits-and-ties leaders.
I personally think YB Lim would score massive points for himself and his party if he were to allow himself to find this interpretation persuasive (Penang is doing quite well, where points are concerned :)
When he talks of supporters being disappointed about Pas, is he referring to old or parochial individuals who are either not truly open to a Malaysian Malaysia and/or have deeply internalised all the negative media about Pas over the years?
Or is he talking about Malaysians who have now read more balanced accounts about how Kelantan is run, and were so dismayed with the direction of our country that they were willing to give a chance to individuals and parties that had chequered pasts but immense potential and demonstrated sincerity?
Those Malaysians said KeADILan/Pas/DAP over BN any day of the week - in particular if that day was Saturday, March 8th, 2008.
I actually found the comments on his blog and elsewhere in cyberspace encouraging, passionate though some may be. Some talk about the limited reach of the internet, but I hope our friends will note the 100% 180 degree turn all major urban centres in West Malaysia have made politically. The internet may be more representative than we think.
In any case, since I kinda can, let me map out even more context that I feel is relevant.
Firstly, it is important to honour an agreement. If YB Ngeh announces that Perak DAP will accept anyone the Sultan chooses, the time for the DAP CEC to object is before the Sultan’s decision, not after.
Secondly, KeADILan fielded a lot of good candidates in Perak - but not all of them won. As BN has been repeating frequently, we respect the will of the people. The candidates that did win I trust are excellent individuals and human beings. Traditionally, however, people expect their top leaders to be of a certain stature when it comes to education, careers, and so on. In this regard, many people seemed to think that the Pas candidates who won state seats were superior.
Thirdly, remember that the decision was made by Raja Nazrin Shah - much touted as a wise and very highly educated man; one we can trust knows what he’s doing.
All this has already been said, and much else bears repeating.
Again however, I think it boils down to old versus new. A misjudgment of voter’s mood here could have serious consequences for our fragile state of affairs, as early as tomorrow.
Hopefully, wisdom and grace will prevail.
Don’t give up hope. Change always involves transitionary periods with slight bumps. Will we get through it? I very much believe so, as long as we keep a good, open attitude.
ps- And Anwar? Of course he has something to say. But probably a little too busy working right now to be talking too much.
Tags: DAP, Pas by Nathaniel Tan
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