52 years on, and still Mistrust and Communalism reigns...

This year, I greeted Merdeka amidst deep feelings of disquiet and uneasy anguish. It has become a recurrent theme of my melancholy.

31st August has come around again -- Hari Kemerdekaan, Independence Day.

Before I go on, I want to state that I am not politically-affiliated and do not belong to any political party. I consider myself a liberal Malaysian, and have always been advocating a kindlier, more sensible, more cohesive, more efficient and less corrupt Malaysia. I am passionately inclined to supporting a radical yet peaceful change for a better Malaysia.

I begin this way, knowing that in Malaysia these days, everyone is now a potentially vocal commentator with no holds barred to their freedom to express themselves!

Still, I continue to hope that more common sense and reason will prevail. I am an unabashed believer in more constructive if idealistic rational discourse and less rhetoric.

I was born two years before the Malayan liberation, too young to understand the significance of what 'Merdeka' meant. But later, my late father (one who was ever so apolitical) would remind me that it was one of those life-defining moments of epiphany, with the nationwide rousing shouts of pride of "Merdeka, Merdeka, Merdeka!..."

Now 52 years on, this shibboleth appears somewhat hollow, too meaningless, too unfelt. Was it truly freedom to decide our own fate, our own lives, our destinies? Have we really been liberated?

Or has this been replaced with an even more destructive social disintegration, political uncertainty and perhaps a growing sense of hopelessness? I wonder.

But as Malaysians, we seem to have forgotten that we did have some success, as many people around the world would gladly attest. We were among the better, more stable newly independent states, which had progressed with a decent clip of development, fairly good administration, a workable semblance of political freedom and democracy. But perhaps only just, as dictated by the reality of the times, then...

I am not sure if our history could have been much different given the circumstances, the ethnic composition, the political awareness, the communal tensions, the talents and the leaders that we have had. But then again, I am not sure if we had learnt anything at all from our unique history.

To be sure, we will all have our own passionate beliefs that our past leaders had led us down the garden path of corrupt destruction and wasted opportunities. As a whole, this would be a true reflection for many of us.

Many have lamented the fact that the mainstream establishment had been guilty of glossing over the splintering jaggedness of our incompatible perhaps ineradicable differences. Deep-seated communal bigotry and irrational ethno-religious bullheadedness continue to jar our carefully crafted Vision 2020, and the more recent if much maligned facade of 1 Malaysia.

Sadly, these tensions just refuse to go away, only to be stoked incessantly by morally-bankrupt politicians...

We clearly could not all have hoped to be taking the singular path of breakaway Singapore in 1965... Like it or not, Singapore's political reality, resource-poor island status, and their ethnic composition then, made it a particular experience at nation building, which perhaps could only have happened once in a rare while, much like the serendipitous bountiful arrows of earth's evolution, and our magnificent diversity, to paraphrase the late paleo-zoologist Professor Stephen Jay Gould.

With our greater numbers and more diverse peoples, it was unlikely that Malaysia would have achieved that identical status that is Singapore today. Yes, it is true that Singapore's economic strides: GDP growth, living standards and appreciating dollar, appear to have left us quite far behind...

Yet again perhaps, (and with due apologies to my Singaporean friends!) many Malaysians would baulk at that idea of becoming another successful if somewhat soulless and straitjacketed nation, across the Causeway -- that "little red dot", bright and lustrous as it sometimes seems...

But, it is good to imagine what might have been, if we had chosen paths of greater ethnic, religious tolerance and acceptance, 'real' unity and accommodation, greater efficiency, lesser corruptibility, less political manipulation and even less seething if undisguised polarisation.

It is increasingly difficult to be jubilant, enthusiastic, yes, even nationalistically proud when we celebrate our National Day, our independence from our long history of colonial past. 52 years now from whence we were cobbled together, in a mishmash political entity called Persekutuan Tanah Melayu and then later in 1963, Malaysia.

From colonial expediencies where the colonial masters commanded all the "divide and rule" puissance, to deviously subdue local inhabitants, e.g. Malays, Ibans, Kadazans; indenture Indians into planting and then tapping the sprawling rubber plantations, and crudely importing chain gangs of Chinese coolies to mine tin and other minerals, we were expected to arrive at a semblance of an amalgamated whole. Perhaps, this was a tall order, too tall to succeed...

Despite more than half a century of this social experiment and so-called nation-building, it appears that socio-ethno-religious fracture lines have never been truly mended, much less fused. Latterly, this frangible social contract seems to have been sundered further apart with vengeance!

Political meekness and tongue-tied obeisance on the part of the secondary parties within Barisan National, were punished by increasingly loud and resurgent anti-establishment voices, which crescendoed in the March 8 electoral gains by oppositionists.

Yet, instead of greater democratic space and hoped for change, this last year and a half, have been fraught with political uncertainties, ridiculously crude and partisan chicanery, and a rising tempo of communal and religious tensions! Every day seems consumed in politicking and more politicking!

There is great social schism in our rakyat, mounting mistrust, and a seemingly unbridgeable chasm of non-accommodation on both sides. Anything espoused by either side is quickly dismissed as inherently self-serving, misleading, wrong, devious or inept.

Oppositionists have been labeled as disloyal crypto-racists, anti-royalty, and even more viciously anti-Malay, which must be furthest from reality. Unfortunately, events of late have made this feeling even more entrenched: selective prosecution/persecution of oppositionist supporters, peace or anti-ISA demonstrators including candle-light vigil participants; Machiavellian takeover of the Perak state government; custodial deaths and torture (with the latest Teoh Beng Hock's 'falling death' from the 14th floor of the MACC building); perceived and blatantly biased actions and arrogance of our much maligned Police force; widespread misgivings on the impartiality of our judiciary, etc.

In short, to many of the growing throngs of anti-establishment Malaysians, the current government cannot be trusted, period. And all its civic institutions appear rotten to the core... There's widespread anger, indeed even rousing hatred which fuels its own vicious cycle of anarchic anomie.

The rise of the blogosphere and alternative media though the world wide web, has opened up and exposed that untameable genie in the bottle, never again to be contained. While, this ungovernable cyberspace has fostered unimaginable information traffic, and unlocked many secrets, exposes, and countless exchanges for the better, there is another sinister side which has emerged.

This unleashed genie of free expression too is fraught with disturbing inexactitudes, irrational bigotry and unrestrained viciousness of its own. Personally declared but intolerant righteousness have been spewed behind the facade of perceived anonymity of the Internet. Can anyone believe anything at all in the web? Certainly not everything, but the dilemma is knowing which is which.

Belligerent ad hominem attacks have become the preferred mode of communication for greater share of internet audiences. From rambling disorganised blogs/commentaries to incoherently twittering 'haikus', rantings and ravings have replaced civic discourse or rational dialogue.

Rumours and innuendoes have been elevated to become unchallengeable "facts", aggravated by the overzealously self-censoring main stream media, whose alienating voices are diminishingly soft and perceptibly untrustworthy...

There appears to be very little patience for compromise, for sensible meeting of minds... How do we build a republic of virtue, if we cannot at least try to work together and are almost always bogged down in the quagmire of seething hatred and mutually destructive distrust?

Although some may disagree with the middle ground of academic Azly Rahman ( in Dream of a Sincere Merdeka), I think he represents that enlightened Malaysian intellectual who espouses more dialogue no matter how trenchant the tone: "We spend too much time politicising everything and less time educating. If all that energy is used to design a better system of participatory democracy and philanthropy, and to reach out to other ethnic groups to collaborate in solving the issue of poverty, we, as Malaysians, will become a miracle nation."

I think many alter Malaysians are now so intoxicated by their own anger, hatred and righteousness that many are no longer listening, except to their own voices and other like-minded echoes they surround themselves with. We are no longer thinking about how some of these seemingly implacable problems can be resolved. We just want to see instant results, provoke instant reactions, we behave as if the politics of the land is a playground for the brave and loud. But, what about how to run, really run a government of our choice, of virtue?

An online editor has confided apologetically that: "many commentators basically rant and rave at any one who seems to be in authority... I do wonder if there is a place for genuine discourse. But I guess we live in a country where quite a lot is broken."

Conversely, pro-government politicians, administrators (police, judiciary, MACC, civil servants) and supporters are now all increasingly tainted with that huge tar brush as corrupt, venial, mercenary, totally reliant on political patronage, rent-seekers, and ineffective, without exception -- which again cannot be all the incontrovertible truth.

But the innocents are increasingly marginalised and are being pushed to smaller and smaller corners of despair, which may explain their entrenched attitudes towards some sort of subliminal retaliation. Anger and hatred breeds both ways, it is often forgotten...

Worse than that, we appear to be spiralling down that abyss of ever more provocative racist and religious extremism: the latest being that unforgivably brutish "cow head" protest against the building of a Hindu temple in Shah Alam. After initial outrage, this unspeakable bigotry seems to have receded into receiving no more than knuckle-rapping warnings and an inexplicable deafening silence from that raft of usually "legalistic" UMNO leaders.

Yet on the other side, can we not see that some Muslims and Malays fueled by politically-motivated siege behaviour, may have been 'engineered' and have banded together to fight back, to loudly proclaim their growing sense of 'loss', their perceived grievances? Never the twain shall meet, it seems...

Thus, can anyone be faulted for this sense of national despair, of hopelessness, of more of the same or worse?

But this disturbing sense of intellectual anarchy in our newfangled 'democratic' space keeps growing--our politics get murkier and murkier, with widespread and humongous allegations of bribery, corruption, counter charges of corruption; whispered vote buying of millions to reported billions of Ringgit of corporate mismanagement; shameless personal enrichment and rent-seeking cronyistic patronage and handouts; counter claims of inept, uncaring constantly politicking oppositionist state governments!

Every action appears to have been challenged by more reactions. We have now accumulated mountain piles of legal challenges and counter-challenges that appear to be the only by-product of our hard-fought democratic space.

Countless police reports, counter-reports, statutory declarations, counter-declarations, whether true or false, pointless point-scoring judicial challenges/reviews, spiralling defamation suits (100 to 500 million Ringgit! Is any Malaysian really worth that much?), accusations and counter-accusations now dot our political landscape and news, almost on a daily basis!

We are effectively stalling and stumbling at the starting block, as impasse spasms continue to paralyse our development and progress...

We trust no one, we blame and censure everyone, we continue to let our unleashed rage, our gut-instinctual righteousness, and our unyielding partisanship create this overpowering dark cloud atmosphere of gridlock and paralysis!

There appears to be no hope, the divide seems unbridgeable, the Malaysian schism further separates... So there appears to be one law for supporters and another for the others. So frustrating, so provocative, so hate-fulfilling...

A beleaguered government sensing their dismal disarray into possible irrelevance, corrals upon itself a "fight or flight" mentality, its back against the wall. It necessarily wants to fight back, and it does so with a vehemence that should surprise no one!

There appears to be no willingness to compromise, this is one fight to the 'death' so to speak! Winner takes all! But is this necessarily so?

Can we find a middle ground? Or is the only other way, a revolutionary disassembling, discharge or destruction of the other? Must this confrontational stance rise and rise to that unthinkable crescendo of social dehiscence, which can only threaten to destroy all of us, everyone of us, self-proclaimed 'true' Malaysian patriots?

We could tone down our justifiable outrage, our unforgiving tantrums, our frenzied rantings, because this would help make our arguments a tad more tolerable, even if less exciting to read. True dialogue rather than talking heatedly over each others' heads would be far more productive.

We must learn to think aloud and listen to ourselves, especially if we wish to impart and share our strongest views about others. Even if we believe that by doing so, we can hopefully help create a small glimmer of hope, to help bring about 'change' for the better.

This is not to say that we are climbing down from our precarious perch of righteousness or moral might. This is also not my 'apologist stance on behalf of the establishment'. It is a genuine call for more common sense, and less rhetoric, less posturing. Our strength of conviction will be that levelheaded perspicacity and moral persuasion that serve as the hallmark of modern democratic action.

Perhaps, I am naive, but I sense and fear the growing demise of our social respect for each other to the point of contempt and constant belittling of one another. Once we start thinking of those who disagree with us as less than human, we are really stepping down the slippery slope of dangerous no return.

We must therefore, learn to avoid these sparks of deadly rhetoric which can precipitate ethnic-religious tragedies such as has been experienced in the not too distant past, in former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.

I know we all think we are contributing to this concept of change which we must begin with each and every one person in Malaysia. I believe this too, passionately, but I too must be aware of the prevailing realities and maintain a step-back patience.

Sometimes, the loudest most strident voice is not necessarily that most listened to; some people would be very quick to switch off immediately, and we would not be listened to at all, except from the already converted. The more serious consequences would be the possible repercussions of retaliatory anger, hatred, vengeance...

We can all help to lessen the tenor and the tempo of recriminations and deep-seated anger and try and temper down the growing ill will that is brewing and boiling over in our blogosphere and possibly also in our civil society!

We stand ready to lose and exclude another huge segment of our society, who are our fellow citizens too, albeit on the other side of the fence. Worse, we may be kindling something more unthinkable, more sinister and terrible! I do hope I am wrong and will be proven so!

Let's help reduce the political tension, while continuing to push our agenda with less animosity but with greater moral suasion!

God help us! Have a thoughtful Merdeka!

This article has been published in The Malaysian Insider, 06 September 2009
Also in Malaysian Mirror, 06 September 2009
Appears as a brief letter in malaysiakini Sinister side of the web, 08.09.09


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Yasmin Ahmad, A Truer Malaysian Patriot...

Saturday 25 July 2009, 11.25pm. Yasmin Ahmad has died. Massive stroke. Brain haemorrhage. Abrupt. Mal apropos. Lethal.

Like many Malaysians, I am shocked and I mourn the untimely loss of filmmaker and creative director, Yasmin Ahmad.

Simply put, I mindfully ask why we are yet again losing so many great people, so young, so needlessly, so unforeseen—illustrious souls claimed too prematurely by the grim reaper, the proverbial 'thief in the night'.

I have never met Yasmin Ahmad. Yet, I feel a kindred spirit with this fellow Johorean, perhaps the quintessential Malaysian filmmaker within my generation.

Like many wishful and wistful Malaysians nowadays, we all continue to yearn for a lost time and era, where our ethnic diversity was our amalgamated strength and our unique sense of pride.

Yasmin, I believe, is a truer Malaysian than most of us dare to profess. She was more daring than most, to flesh out a more creative version of what it means to be a citizen of this blessed land, which we call Malaysia.

She dared to explore the darker expressions of racial bigotry within our society, which of late has been sundering our communities, in staggered if with unchecked certainty. Interracial relations have always been touchy nearly taboo subjects, which many Malaysians are at pains to sweep under the carpet of self-censored political correctness.

Publicly, we are at pains to project in most instances a tightly controlled sensitivity, and tongue-biting reservedness, which borders on impenetrable aloofness, but loudly declared if perfunctory camaraderie. However, over time, these less than robust facades get sandpapered away to expose the superficiality and the unburnished colder emotions—of barely submerged antagonism and crude stereotypic dehumanising racial slurs.

During political rhetoric and partisan outbursts, the uglier face of racism surfaces, latterly more often than not. Unleashed anger, hurt-pride, mob-instinct, explode more readily with utterances of irrational bigotry—which create vortices of vicious cycles of indignant recriminations, of plangent hurtful sectarian bombast...

Yet, in subtle contradistinction to these stereotypes, in many Petronas-funded commercials, Yasmin was able to inject a heady stream of poignancy and comic relief which showcase our unique connectedness, our inexplicable destiny, rather than spotlight our skin-deep dissimilarities. In other short films, she was able to finesse uncommonly discussed issues, considered by many to be too raw or too crude to be aired—“The Funeral” was one case in point.

Yet she was able to evoke bittersweet emotions which knew no racial or religious bounds, but which continues to showcase our human foibles and our oft-forgotten sensibilities, in a comically tender fashion, which warms the heart.

She married a Chinese (Tan Yew Leong), to wit, as if to announce to the world that she believed her destiny was meant to be—a Malaysian who was bold enough to live and practice without the oppressive constricts of social religious mores, racial taboos or unspoken frowns of politically-incorrect dissuasions...

Better than that she dared project those hypersensitive touchstones which help us all to question our irrational if misguided 'monkeys off our backs' which tether our better gentler spirit to our uglier crasser emotionalism. For many of us, this emotional stunting remains that deeply entrenched molten lava of illogical ethnocentric superciliousness, our ingrained if misguided belief in our own ethnic supremacy. "Aren't all of us racist in our own hearts?"

Yet, many of us are schizophrenic when it comes to being labelled Malaysians. While we may all look quite different, Malays, Chinese, Indians, Dusun-Kadazans, Ibans, etc., we have whenever we are in any international forum or discourse, declared our proud Malaysian origins. We sense ourselves as different, yet similar and unique in an inexplicable way, in spoken Manglish, "-lah"-accentuated speech patterns, so ingrained in our acculturated mindset that only a Malaysian can understand.

Like so well illustrated by another iconic Malaysian artist, Lat, our Malaysianness must stand us apart, if only because only we can fully appreciate the colourful nuances, the comical stereotypes which enhances rather than demeans our differences. Our uncouthness, our jagged crudities, our slapstick teeth-sucking, nose-sniffing mannerisms, our oddly juxtaposed spoken words are but cultural pearls which only our Malaysianness can decipher and find chuckling meaning and furtive humour...

Indeed, while we had been colonized serially for centuries, Malaysia had been blessed by her fecund land: first from our sequential abundance of natural resources—from tin and rubber, then palm oil, then crude oil and latterly expanding into small medium industries, led particularly by our insightful foray into the then explosive electronics industry.

But perhaps most importantly of all, I strongly believe that Malaysia benefited singularly from her peoples: our unique blend of multi-ethnicity, so jingoistically announced to the world as "Malaysia, truly Asia." It was this sensitive portrayal of the eclectic Malaysian and his/her interracial tensions that marked the genius in Yasmin Ahmad.

She had variously been branded an ethnic traitor and frequently labelled as controversial, when all she ever did was to dare to expose the fallacies and the down-to-earth idiocies of racial/religious stereotyping and bigotry.

It appears that the Malay heartland was less impressed with Yasmin's talent and derring-do than other non-Malays, who have always embraced her more readily, sensing her passionate understanding and connectedness. Perhaps not wearing her religion on her sleeves, and having married a non-Malay spouse, might have helped shaped her sense of greater ethnic openness and tolerance.

But there was more than met the creative eye of Yasmin Ahmad. I believe Yasmin was a truer patriot, more in deeds and soul-searching honesty than most. She had that extra touch of creativity and sensitivity which transcended ethnic considerations and concentrated on what truly matters, the human spirit and experience, that singular penetrating understanding of interpersonal relationships, in the unique inescapable setting of multiracial Malaysia...

“Sepet” was perhaps Yasmin's best-known work, which won her acclaim and controversial notoriety. A thinly disguised critique of interracial love and emotional relationships heavily tinged with exploits of ethnic bigotry, touched many tender raw spots which were previously considered taboo in Malaysia.

"Sepet" released in 2004, won Malaysian Film Festival Best Film Award (2005), including too several international awards, viz. the Asian Film Award at the Tokyo International Film Festival 2005, the Grand Prix Award at the 2005 Creteil International Women’s Film Festival.

Since her first movie, “Rabun” in 2003, other films followed: “Sepet” (2004), “Gubra” (2006), “Mukhsin” (2006), “Muallaf” (2008) and Talentime (2009).

Such were her magic touches that almost every film made by Yasmin had won some prize or other in the international film scene, marking her as an extraordinary filmmaker whose eye for social analyses had come of age, in an era where serious quality was often trumped for trendiness and kitsch.

In fact her style and talent so captivated Singapore's Prime Minister, that he'd invited Yasmin Ahmad to direct a film for launch at the Youth Olympics in 2010 in Singapore. Alas, this project is now in limbo...

We'd probably lost forever, the opportunity to see yet another work of a genius, of a truly international class film master...

Sleep well, Yasmin. Your films, your influence, your touch, your Malaysianness will yet outlive your short sojourn on earth. May your unswerving efforts and boldness to deconstruct ethnic taboos, religious boundaries and racial bigotry help realise a better, more united Malaysia.

Rest in Peace.

Al-Fatihah.

Shocked, Outraged, Saddened (SOS): Royal Commission of Inquiry Now!!!...

It appears that Malaysians are perennially bombarded by shocks and shock waves, since the epic March 8, 2008 general elections.

One after torrential one, political shenanigans and Machiavellian trickery appear to jolt our sense of justice, equanimity and sense of belonging, of our shaky if aspired to patriotism.

It shatters the already nebulous myth of the jingoistic "1 Malaysia" which continues to belie the unvarnished disarray that consumes our politically-fractured citizens. Sadly, most if not all of these inane happenstances are self-inflicted by unthinking members of an administrative branch run amok, which appear increasingly aloof and out of touch with reality and changing times.

On many occasions too, politicians on either side have been trading body blows of razor-edge brinkmanship, which totters on mutual self-destruction. In its wake, these cheap point-scoring exercises continue to drag some of us, the more rabble-roused citizens deeper into the morasses of futility and despair! No, it's not our fault per se, but it most certainly underscores the pathetic state of justice and sense of fair play in the country.

Political aide, Teoh Beng Hock's untimely and truly unnecessary death has put yet another damper on the institution of justice and law enforcement in the country. This time the hurriedly cobbled together MACC must bear the brunt of this senseless and tragic exercise of unfettered power play and what appears increasingly as blatant one-sided prosecution, perhaps even shameless persecution!

Sadly, the officers in charge appear nonchalantly oblivious that what they have been doing, is anything but impartial or even neutral. Their blinkered attempts to push what must be undisguised probes into so-called complaints of misallocation of funds only of oppositionist lawmakers, surely must be from partisan directives! For fair-minded citizens, there appears not to be any modicum of decency to do the 'right' thing, even if only for show!

Instead, in one fell swoop, officers of the much maligned MACC have destroyed every thinking Malaysian's dream of civility, personal human rights, justice and modern democracy. Their arrogating of power to enforce their duties without regard to natural justice and proper rules of engagement, debases most thinking citizens.

It continues to disabuse us of our fanciful notions that perhaps some semblance of innovation and justice may indeed be the better modus operandi of the new leadership under Prime Minster Najib Razak. If for nothing else, this blatant misuse of the machinery of power, reinforces the need for a more enlightened, a more responsible and accountable system of justice and law. I continue to believe and hope that this new administration can do better and rise above such unnecessary if arrant negative publicity.

It is sad that in the process of trying to enforce the 'law', a young man with so much potential has been so ruthlessly cut down, his life truncated so prematurely, that he had now left behind a bride and his orphan child to be!

This cynical loss of life, so senseless and so unnecessary, points to perhaps another growing culture of arrogance when another's life was dehumanised and cheaply disposed of... Power of authority was all that mattered. This is indeed not something isolated, indeed it is now appearing to be a pattern of ingrained autocracy, unchallenged power among enforcement agencies such as the police and now the MACC, with no foreseeable oversight in place...

Custodial 'torture', unregulated investigation methods, custodial injuries and deaths, now appear to be commonplace, and are occurring with a regularity that showcase our enforcement agencies' callous disregard for human lives and their imperious unconcern for human rights.

When will our helpless, disempowered citizens get justice? When will our Kugan Ananthan, Letchumanan Kathan, Ravindran Alagiry, S Henry, A. Gnanapragasam, and now Teoh Beng Hock, get their justice? When will their true stories be told? When will their loved ones find closure and meaning in such senseless premature loss?

What about the other 1535 custodial deaths that had occurred between 2003 and 2007? Surely these numbers are shockingly high by any standards; they are shameful and unacceptable, and point to a systemic failure of our custodial service, our law enforcement agencies.

Can there be any doubt that these should never have happened, nor must they be allowed to continue? How many more nameless and unnumbered detainees beyond 2007 were there, who have suffered, been injured and who might or might not have perished?

In the 2005 Royal Commission Report for Police Reform, 3 major concerns from the public were identified:

* High incidence of crime and widespread public concern regarding personal safety.
* Public perception of widespread corruption within the police force.
* Extensive and consistent abuse of human rights and non-compliance with prescribed laws.

The report acknowledges that because of the above challenges, there is a growing breakdown of public trust and confidence in the police force. Increasingly the police force is “generally viewed as inefficient, uncaring, unable to prevent or check crime.” Worse, the police is seen to condone widespread “infringements of human rights... and the PDRM is not seen as being transparent or accountable to the public.”

In the light of these weaknesses, a resounding recommendation was made that an Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission (IPCMC) be set up urgently. This is the proposed external oversight body to be established through an Act of Parliament, and which must be vested with powers to receive and investigate complaints regarding alleged police misconduct and to impose sanctions against any found guilty of such misconduct.

That appears to be the crux of the matter. As of right now, the police force and now the MACC appears to be 'above the law', answerable only to the Home Minister, if that was at all, evident.

There appears to be no oversight body to determine if there have been abuse or misuse of their powers and worse, if they had engaged in criminal activities including custodial abuses of detainees, unlawful taking of lives, any life without justification! There have been instances where, the police had acted as judge, jury and executioners as well, e.g. shooting deaths of groups of so-called armed criminals.

Has there ever been any review of such extrajudicial shootings by any independent police or watchdog Internal Affairs Department, as exist elsewhere? From 2001 to 2003, there were just 6 coroner's inquests, out of 80 reported custoidal deaths—were the other 72 deserving of their untimely deaths?

SUHAKAM (Human Rights Commission of Malaysia) has on several occasions, been promoting the continuing education of human rights to the public—its purpported "work to nurture, develop and advance a human rights culture within Malaysia".

My belief is that the public does need some reminder of their human rights, every now and again. We often take this too much for granted. Sadly, most of us are now fully aware, when tragedies such as Teoh's shocking death, happen. It reminds us that perhaps, these can happen to us too, without rhyme or reason—too chancy, too unbelievably unjust, too unpredictably senseless and too iffy!

Of greater concern is to remind and educate the enforcement agencies such as the police, the military and now the MACC, to be not only mindful of their duties, but to demand their strict adherence to human rights dictates in each of their engagement with the public.

Detainees, witnesses, suspects, prisoners, whoever they are, must be accorded due respect and fairness, until all their legal rights have been exhausted. There should be greater move toward painstaking gathering of evidence, rather than resorting to coercing and extracting confessions, which have been identified as a faulty barbaric mandate preferred by some of our law enforcement officers.

A recent NST editorial "Death of a Witness" makes a logical if grudging apologia for some form of closure to this debacle:

"In the face of a sceptical public which is over-receptive to any and all allegations of bias and subterfuge, and unwilling to give the MACC the benefit of the doubt, while it must be bold and resolute in investigating and prosecuting cases without fear or favour, it must also not abandon due process.

"This makes respect for human rights as critical as the selection process for investigations and the impeccable credentials it must establish for itself if the MACC is to enjoy the wholehearted confidence and close cooperation of the public."

A Royal Commission Inquiry is now mandatory to appease the ghosts of all these custodial deaths, which must now include the MACC. In the interim, the MACC must suspend all its activities pending this full inquiry. Its due processes and rules of engagement must be reviewed and spelt out clearly, with no ambiguity as to which investigative techniques are illegal, and these should be fully subject to oversight sanction.

Legal representation, and continuous videotaping of all suspects and witnesses should be mandatory without exemption. Selection of officers must be entrenched with human rights education and inculcation, and those with wrongful attitudes or aptitudes must be removed or redeployed to other areas which do not interact with the public, lest they resort to actionable if delinquent activities. In other words, it must undergo a total revamp and complete overhaul, if it should ever wish to regain any semblance of credibility, at all...

Teoh's untimely demise must not be in vain! Our shock, our outrage and our sadness must be translated into a meaningful revamp of our enforcement agencies, and hopefully reignite some new belief and help reclaim some confidence in our badly bruised civic institutions...


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Shame: The Negative Politicisation of Malaysian Society...

"All through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall, always." ~ Mahatma Gandhi

Long before the stunning outcome of last year's election shock, Malaysian civil society has been embroiled in and simmering in sleaze and negative vibes.

The 'feel-good' mood of the rakyat has long since evaporated. In its place there hangs a thick fog of resigned exasperation and seething anger increasingly directed at the current debilitating establishment.

Sadly, our pliant administration (yes, including our subservient civil servants and the ingratiating if arrogant police who should rightfully be serving the rakyat and not simply the misguided whims and demands of the politicians!) appears to remain stubbornly oblivious to the changing tide of popularity and the mounting legitimate demands of a politically-awakened rakyat.

As enlightened rakyat we refuse to kowtow anymore to more of the same—the crass corruption and senseless power play for wanton personal gain. Enough is enough, we seem to say—if only this cry for justice and fairplay can be heard more resoundingly...

Our previously self-assured confidence has since been punctured by despondent daily takes of political trickery and rising crime rates. Our streets are becoming more and more unsafe. In the space of 2 consecutive days, two pregnant women had been killed by the senseless thuggery of snatch-thieves more brazen than ever before, while the police dawdle on partisan political corralling of activists and oppositionists...

And this sorry state of affairs has shown no signs of abating. We are still mired in political gridlock and parochial inaction to the point of undermining our vaunted position as one of the fastest growing economies of the world.

Perhaps, this is the result of too long an incumbency of the previous leadership—22 years of stuttering sometimes staggering achievements, but also creeping and crumbling encrustations of ageing emasculated institutions. Followed by another 6 years of political and administrative indecisive meandering, Malaysians appear to have dug deeper into the bottomless chasm of uncertainty and despair.

Political manoeuvrings appear to have become the sole and blinkered attention of our one-dimensional politicians, with the old guards stubbornly and tenaciously clinging on to whatever Machiavellian manoeuvres to stay in power, worse they are adopting the much-maligned and perverse 'Mugabean' methods of usurping or grabbing power!

The police and the judiciary appear to have become instruments of the ruling elite, whose clinging to govern at all cost know no bounds.

To quote The Malaysian Insider editorial:

"Crime appears to be spiralling out of control in Malaysia, snatch theft victims are dying on the streets and the men in blue seem more interested in enforcing a dress code and arresting social activists and politicians on lame-duck sedition charges. Really, the reputation of the Royal Malaysian Police takes a beating every time they forget that their duty is to serve the Malaysian public. But still they persist in acting in a manner which alienates the same people who are paying their salaries."

As a Malaysian, I feel so let down, so ashamed that our political masters have blatantly forgotten their causes, their roles, their purported functions. They have let themselves be elevated to the exalted status of gods or royals, who have no other concern except their own survival and their own selfish interests! There is not even that show of modicum for respecting the rakyat and their wishes—its all about staying and clinging on to power at all costs!

I echo the articulate anguish expressed by renowned writer Beth Yahp when she says in malaysiakini:

"I’ve seen the Perak state assembly descending into chaos in a naked power grab that makes a mockery of every claim to fairness, justice and democracy that the new regime of our newly-minted prime minister, who apparently orchestrated the whole debacle, may make."

Can any one seriously respect the institutions and the current government any longer—seeing that it continues to do as it pleases, and abuses its rule by law and diktats according to its own whims and fancies, but not according to legitimate people's interests?

Charging and arresting anyone who opposes them with all sorts of bullying Acts and laws cannot be the way to legitimise its faltering stranglehold on power... If anything, it hardens and alienates the rakyat against them even more.

Aliran president's Ramakrishnan rightly points out that:

"The police have acted in a diabolical manner and did not act professionally and in an impartial manner as they are required to do so. They are seen to be acting pro-Barisan Nasional and in a high-handed fashion in arresting so many people who had not posed any serious threat to the security of the nation."

"Law and order has completely broken down in the Perak state assembly and in this state of lawlessness Umno has taken charge of the Perak. This is no honourable take over of the august body. It is a shameful way of acquiring power through brute force."

Perhaps this realisation is what's galling the ruling elite—that it appears to be losing the popular support of the people day by day, despite it trying so very hard to 'please' an ever-growing number of disgruntled people—every which way, the incumbent government appears to lose!

I sometimes wish we can turn back the clock, but we can't. So many of our Malaysians have awaken to the possibility of change so potent, that we cannot now go back to our slumber of timorous compliance and swallowed pride and tongue-biting conscience.

We have progressed too far along our democratic space and journey that we cannot allow our momentum to weaken, from backsliding. We have to collectively nudge this along even if we are hampered by such roadblocks of inconvenience, we must remain steadfast to defeat the ancien regime of tottering misrule!

To quote Beth Yahp again, we cannot allow bully tactics to recede back into our accustomed apathy, our fear; together we can make a difference, we must choose to be more daring, more vocal now:

"This darkness didn’t happen overnight. And it won't dissipate overnight. We have all contributed to it, by our silence, our apathy, our self-interest, and our fear. These qualities have been so indoctrinated in us that, like it or not, they are part of what makes us Truly Malaysian. We are so used to people telling us what we’re allowed to say and do. Why not also what to wear? What to think? What to be?"

I wish upon a new era for Malaysia, a new dawn of a democratic, progressive and fair Malaysia—one that every rakyat can be proud of. And not one where fair-minded citizens the world over would snigger in derision at its tainted leaders, its crumbling institutions, its wanton corruption, its power crazy machinations, its total lack of moral credibility for us, the rakyat to believe in...

Alas, would my country be reborn?.

To further quote from another blogging commentator aries:

"This is the dawn of a NEW MALAYSIA.

A Malaysia of equal respect, equal opportunities, equal partnership, equal standing, equal honour, equal responsibilities, equal citizenship, equal humanity.

Gone are the days of treachery, unfair quotas, prejudice, selective persecution, selective discrimination, unequal opportunities, unequal partnership, discriminative citizenship, supremacist positioning and posturing, racial and racist political stance and policies."


An abridged version appears in malaysiakini on 13 May 2009, as Negative Politicisation of Malaysian society.

Malaysian Anomie: Shenanigans and Sleaze rules...

"Malaysia’s addiction to conspiracy theories is quite incurable, fed as it is by dose after dose of bewildering episodes and partisan posturing. It is not only Perak that is suffering a constitutional crisis. The whole country is mired in a misguided democracy." ~ Ooi Kee Beng, in Today

After pausing and reflecting on the momentous year that was, the start of the year 2009 could not have been any more melodramatic.

Indeed, all the seedy goings-on crescendoed into what must rank as one of the most turbulent first 2 months of possibly any year for Malaysians! Unfortunately, these aren't happenings that anyone can be proud of.

These are more dispiriting than uplifting. Indeed they have dampened the ebullient mood of many Malaysians who had hoped for greater political change and democratic gain following the 2008 elections, just a mere 10 months ago...

What started as polemical jousting and rumblings turned into a farcical comedy of errors and cynical one-upmanship of the crassest! An earlier defection to Pakatan Rakyat (PR) by one dubious Barisan Nasional (BN) state assemblyman, U-turned into an abrupt all-out assault on the erstwhile PR-led government of Perak, with the cynical defections of 3 PR assemblymen to enable a highly controversial BN take-over of the state.

Somehow, the usually aloof royalty has also been drawn into this quagmire, when its decision to allow the change of government was made despite vociferous if futile calls for fresh state elections, to truly determine the rakyat's choice.

By refusing to bow to this unexpected debacle and sudden loss of power, PR's Menteri Besar Nizar Jamaluddin, suddenly became his (PAS) party's democratic stand-up hero, but also considered by his UMNO detractors as a stubborn ingrate of treachery most foul!

This then triggered a convenient round of recriminations and accusations of 'derhaka' or treason against those who had dared challenge the wisdom and decision of the royalty! Led by UMNO, BN now plangently proclaim its swinging new tune and melody of pro-royalist allegiance, with frenzied protestations of loyalty and avowed claims of protecting the institution of the Malay Royalty forever.

Ironically, this runs in sharp contrast to the earlier Trengganu Sultan's decision to install his own choice of Menteri Besar. Only then, UMNO-led politicians were loudly critical, if not also 'treasonous' in demanding that royalty acquiesce with the expectations of the rakyat.

Azly Rahman has once again nailed the issue when he discussed this antithetical mindset of our Malays in particular, in malaysiakini's article "From Daulat to Derhaka"

How quickly memory fades and tunes change when political occurrences favour one or the other. Such is the status of politics--expediency, erstwhile elastic memories and short-term gains almost always prevail, if only to be overturned or improved upon at a later more enlightened era...

Correctness of purpose and ethics are as flexible and malleable as plasticine, and depends only on who calls the shots, ultimately. No wonder that ordinary folks find politics and politicians so skeptical, so dirty, so self-serving...

In my mind, there are no two ways about this. Party hopping so soon after an election is a cynical betrayal of the public's trust. This practice should be totally banned and made impossible, even if necessary by new and better anti-hopping laws. This will forestall and eradicate the growing spectre of illegal enrichment and worse corrupt promises and practices which taints the politician and the parties concerned even more, making a mockery of our burgeoning democracy.

There can be no denying that during the recent elections and again during the hard-fought by-elections, that the people are the ones who had decided which party they wanted. Again and again it had shown that it does not matter who the actual candidate was; what matters is the party that represents the aspirations and the wishes of the rakyat.

To surreptitiously induce lesser-minded, morally-dubious politicians to switch party is to encourage the culture of mindless expediency and personal greed at its worst!

Such political shenanigans only show blatant disregard and disdain for the rakyat. Political manoeuvrings, machinations and victory at any cost, appear to condone dubious policies and practices which border on illegality or extremely skewed legal interpretations. They reflect a facile penchant for bendable rules and show utter disrespect for social acceptance and norms.

It even appears that the current bully pulpit of Malaysian politics can even get away with whatever it chooses, in the most cynical display of arrogance. Shameless primadonnas even parade themselves with the smugness that flusters one's sense of goodwill, fairness and equanimity.

Such exhibition of unabashed coldhearted contempt for the citizens, with the absolute goal of winning at all costs, can only create a sense of anomie and despair for our rakyat!

Is there no rule which matters any more?

Is political expediency the only law of the land left?

Is there no hope for change for the better?

Let common sense return and prevail once again!

Let the will of the rakyat remain supreme.

Let's not becloud the real issues of proper and moral governance with extraneous if contrived umbrages and baggages of royalty-baiting or shifty sycophancy for convenience and expedience's sake!

Let Malaysia have a New and Real People-empowered Beginning!

This has been published in malaysiakini on 26 Feb 2009.

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2008: Annus Mirabilis: The year that was... Part 2

6. The foundering disappointment of the Abdullah Badawi government
When he first took over the helm of Prime Minister, Abdullah Badawi was seen as the next hope for change toward a gentler, less corrupt, less autocratic government. He did promise to clean up the act. But alas, the wheels of change under his watch, were truly grinding under the weight of ponderous inaction and torpidly unconvincing pledges—some talk, but generally no action. At least, none worthy of institutional progress.

If anything, he let his cronies, his fourth/fifth floor gatekeepers led by his son-in-law KJ, control the engine of his listless administration and the nation's projects for development. As a result the country literally stalled, with gross incompetence, venal and shameless bartering for ill-gotten gains and extravagant wastage!

It was as if the wealth and direction of the country now hinged on the grandiose if untested whims and fancies of a small coterie of young 30-something year-old Oxbridge graduates, beholden only to the ambitious Khairy Jamaluddin.

Rumours of his excesses are probably just that. But the unflattering perception became disastrous for the Premier, who seemed unwilling or unable to rein in this appealing if brazen young man (in closer circles, he had been quoted as having said that he would become prime minster before the age of 40!)

His impatience and his greater-than-life belief in himself and his worth clearly antagonised more than just the ordinary Malaysian, his UMNO brethren began to openly question and challenge his stature and his ambition. Thus, began the break-up of the cosy unity of purpose of UMNO-dominated largesse and its shattered myth of political goodwill. It finally boiled down to everyman for himself, as they wrangled for the spoils of dominance, influence and connections.

The strong 2004 electoral mandate given by a hopeful rakyat, was therefore quickly sapped and frittered away, with escalating disenchantment with Pak Lah's lethargic style of leadership. Ambitious and impatient political rivals skirmished and began to sorely test his mettle, and left in its wake, a lingering if haunting disservice to his vitiated legacy.

Some kinder pundits have equated him, Pak Lah to be Malaysia's Gorbachev—a sort of an enlightened leader who espouse a new beginning (sadly, equally nebulous in the final anaylsis), an openness, a glasnost, for greater democratic space—perhaps, they were right...

But ultimately, being benign and gently ineffectual (perhaps even a seat-warmer?), is never enough to hold on to power in this hurly-burly world of politics... Pak Lah would soon have to relinquish his mantle of power, (one which we sense he was uneasy to begin with anyway), brokered through an uneasy truce with his number two.

His tenure of Premiership is best summed up as forgettable, even as he tried at the last gasp to enact new laws (the watered-down MACC, JAC) which would lend some spotted burnish and meaning to his lacklustre administration.

Still, it is true that Malaysians were given a chance to become more outspoken, more willing to question the status quo, braver with the uncensored anonymity of free-expression aided by the mushrooming alternate media—the blogosphere, YouTube and the world wide web through the internet. So, in a sense we should be grateful.

But, perhaps, it is also the spirit of the times, the zeitgeist of a new interconnected world, where civil liberties and expectant human rights have matured with presumptuous free expression, information ubiquity and where knowledge access is de rigueur, even inevitable...

7. The ex-PM who would not go away...
Mahathir Mohamed, now Tun, our ex-Premier for 22 years, must be that permanent fixture on any Malaysian political scene, who refuses to fade away.

There is much that can be said of this singular man, but there is also sadness that having achieved so much, he has clung on to his cast-in-stone ideas that Malaysia must be the Malaysia of his own, and perhaps his only image.

There can be no doubt that Mahathir placed Malaysia on the world map pedestal. He developed modern industrialised Malaysia in the mould of strong and autocratic man of yesteryears. Malaysia is made known globally because of his untiring efforts to promote a Malaysia that Can, i.e. Malaysia Boleh!

His grandiose schemes while criticised by many of his detractors, might be temporally opportunistic, but his landmarks have become household names in the region as well as globally, e.g. the Petronas Twin Towers, Putrajaya city, the KLIA, the Penang Bridge, Proton cars.

But alas, his other legacy isn't so sparkling or benign, but may be even more painfully enduring and inimical. In his determined quest to modernise Malaysia and uplift the indigenous Malays in particular, he began with unique bold ideas which were beneficent. As a result Malaysia's hard core rural poverty had been drastically reduced, and a sizeable middle class had been created.

However, many of these quickly became blemished as these created a spectacular if exclusive brand of government-linked corporations, and government-aided multimillionaires, very closely tied to or even dependent on the leadership's patronage system.

He did well in removing the scales from the eyes and the parochial mindset of many bumiputeras. He gave them a much-needed self-belief which is undoubtedly important and laudable, for which they can at last become more confident and conscious of their self-worth. He must be credited for having unabashedly promoted the Malay agenda so that as an ethnic group, they can confidently become more fully engaged in the business and affairs of the nation and its development—and hence, could compete on equal footing in this globalised world.

Thus, in times of plenty, when the economy was growing at a vigorous clip, there was enough wealth to be spread around, and every Malaysian appeared to benefit. Hence, in many ways he also made Malaysians of all races, proud to be Malaysians, because of his visionary leadership. But his continued sanction of this affirmative action has also created a subclass of dependency, of crutch-mentality and easy handouts, of rentier capitalism and political largesse.

He also brooked little opposition, challenge to, or restraints on his style and his power, believing that as popularly-elected Premier and government, he had the mandate to rule without interference from the constitutional royalty, the oversight judiciary or the minority opposition. His idea of majoritarian rule appears to be one of absolutism.

His brand of power politics and autocratic rule unfortunately and systematically emasculated these same institutions—the judiciary became beholden and capitulated; the royalty had its wings clipped, and the pliant police were offered unfettered power in exchange for its unquestioning loyalty. Corruption and political patronage practices reached its height, and UMNO-supremacist ideologies pushed to its ultimate arrogant peaks.

Following the March 8 election debacle, he openly led the huge chorus of criticisms casting his blame on the weak leadership of Pak Lah and his family connections. Since then he has all but undermined our hapless prime minister. He has since found a new dimension to his once silenced voice—the resurgence of his acerbic tongue through his immensely popular blog chedet.com!

It appears that Mahathir has issues of not being able to forgive or forget, as he relentlessly pursue his Machiavellian vengeance on whoever crosses him... At 84 years old, he continues to remain as sharp and as artless as he had always been. Until Pak Lah leaves the scene, there is little doubt that Mahathir will continue to badger him and his administration, pulverising whatever little that's left...

As he has already commented, as long as he is alive, he will not keep silent when he feels things are not going his way, neither would he allow Malaysia's fortunes and gains (which he had bulit up over the decades) to be 'jeopardised'. I foresee that Dr M will continue to figure prominently in the coming 2009, health and God willing!

2008: Annus Mirabilis: The year that was... Part 1

2008 must rank as one of Malaysia's most defining years, and perhaps too... for the world.

Here are the top events from my lenses:

1. The March 8, 2008 Elections.
For us Malaysians, 2008 must be ranked as one truly momentus Annus Mirabilis, for indeed after 51 years of shackled and distracted timidity, near half of all Malaysians, Malays, Chinese, Indians, Others, one and all, rose from the ashes of UMNO-dominated politics to decide that enough was enough. We were finally emboldened to think the previously unthinkable while overcoming the racial taunts and threats of disorder. In its wake, this spawned a new Malaysian political order.

The ruling Barisan government lost 5 states to the rag-tagged opposition parties, and shockingly lost its two-thirds majority trump-card. That night, the national TV channels were hopelessly shell-shocked, incredulous that the ballots were going against the government, that they refused to telecast timely disclosures, and purposely delayed the electoral results with idiotic racist commentaries by some pathetically out-of-date personalities. Recounting and postal ballot loading were insufficient to recast the foregone results, fortunately, and despite the odds, some 48% of the voting rakyat had given the opposition its unprecedented 82 seats out of the total 222—truly a most famous victory!

The opposition, whose loose coalition still managed to capture the imagination of change-minded citizens, who are simply put, fed-up with more of the same: top-down politics, arrogance, executive abuses, corruption; rising crime rates and crime-ridden cities, a discredited police force more attuned to political hijinks than civic protection purposes; a totally compliant judiciary; disproportionate and biased religious contentions; selective prosecution and high-handed suppression of public anger and demonstrations.

2. The Awakening of our Rakyat, Hindraf...
One uncharacteristic phenomenon which emboldened more of our unhappy citizens must be the eruption of Hindraf. This groundswell of long-forgotten and deprived Indians in many pockets of the country, grabbed the headlines by its boldness of purpose, its courage of conviction, its penetrating pervasiveness, and its shared anguish.

Many Malaysians of Indian origin could easily relate to and find the reality issues totally consonant with their sense of social and economic deprivation. Unemployment, unemployability, high levels of school drop-outs, growing gangsterism and entanglement with violent crimes among its restive youths serve as the stark underbelly of Indian marginalisation even in rapidly wealthy Malaysia.

This undoubtedly made many see the urgent need and the possibilities of unity of purpose and willingness to sacrifice, assimilate and participate in its causes with passion. Shouts of satyagraha and makkal sakhti became the clarion call for sociopolitical action and purpose. Short-message service texting (or sms's) and emails became the modus operandi for planning, collaboration and coordination. And boy, did they succeed!

Despite their announced plans for peaceful demonstrations and marches, they were denied permits and met with iron-fisted response from the government and the police. The Hindraf march on November 25, 2007 must rank as the determining focus of their concerted energy and sacrifice. The luckless police reacted by attacking these throngs of families—young and old—with laced water and tear-gas. They wrought unprovoked beatings and arbitrary arrests, in the full glare of the ubiquitous cellphone photography and videos.

They cast their idiotic paralysing police road-blocks around every arterial road entry into the city causing massive unprecedented gridlocks, which completely inconvenienced the rakyat without any justification except as a cynical portrayal of its silly attempt to show-off its clout—one supremely fatuous act after another, which further distanced the urban folk from the high-handed actions of the much-maligned police.

Videos and photos of police brutality were published in YouTube and the blogosphere, which further antagonised the disgruntled and the furious, and which lent the police and the government even less credence for their warped sense of powerplay!

3. The rise and rise of the blogosphere
Blogger extraordinaire Raja Petra Kamaruddin (aka RPK or 'Pete') led a motley crew of outspoken bloggers (Jeff Ooi, Kickdefella, Rocky, Tony Pua, M Bakri Musa, Kim Quek, Farish Noor, Azly Rahman, etc.) to vent believable (if somewhat unchecked) stories and alternative viewpoints.

Conspiracy theories and political shenanigans were told in such arresting conversational style and 'detail', that many readers believe these to be absolutely true. According to RPK, his 'rumours' have so far proven to be accurate in more than 90% of the time, and that he had all the documentation to prove them, which lent 'street cred' to his messages for change!

This internet chatter had earlier been the salt and grist of rumour mills especially when the main stream media (MSM) chose to be safe, sycophantic and self-censored, while remaining completely out of touch with the seething grumbles of the muffled grassroots. Thus, began the power of the blogosphere which were tapped with great elan by the opposition politicians, converted to printed pages, vcds, and roadshows—clearly offering an alternate if more plausible scenario of the inaptitude, corruption, arrogance and failings of the incumbent government and its tainted members.

4. The return & travails of Anwar Ibrahim and the Formation of Pakatan Rakyat.
Disgraced and imprisoned former deputy prime minister made a triumphant comeback, this elections, as he led as de facto leader of Parti Keadilan (Justice Party), although he was still barred from eligibility due to his conviction just short of 5 years ago. He managed to cobble together disparate opposition parties such as PAS and DAP, and led this loose coalition (then monikered Barisan Alternatif, BA) to a stunning if unexpected general elections results in March, 2008.

His charisma is unmistakable, but more importantly he had decided that he had to off-load many of his former archaic ideas and develop new ones which called for more openness, more egalitarian, more inclusive, less corrupt, more transparent, more meritocratic principles, which appealed to the change-agenda of many new voters and a restless rakyat. Setting priorities of cooperation rather than dwelling on ideological differences and unrealistic party political goals, helped the voters to focus on simply voting for change from the incumbent—the swing was decisive and impressive.

This led to the later amalgamation into the Pakatan Rakyat of today, a true blue alternate political front of substance, yes with its teething problems of sporadic spats of one-upmanship. It is hoped that this erstwhile if convenient alliance would outlast its trying differences, and become in due course, a worthy successor to viably administrate the next governments for the good of Malaysia.

But Anwar Ibrahim is still under the cloud of Sodomy charge II, one which was hurriedly brought about by an unashamed former aide, who happened to have met with the DPM Najib Razak, some days before. The timing could not have been better—Anwar was to stand for by-election after his wife resigned her place at Permatang Pauh in July 2008. The doctor who examined his alleged victim, was suddenly missing fearing for his safety, after he had been 'urged' to write a more favourable report.

Unfortunately, this salacious saga continues, despite urgent calls from many a disbelieving public to abandon what many feel is another trumped up charge. The silly attempts to move the case away from a sympathetic but brave judge at the lower Sessions Court to the High Court, again underlines the machinations which the Attorney General's office has decided to selectively prosecute its special cases. Clearly, Anwar Ibrahim is a special case... The final denouement has yet to be played out.

However, Anwar's attempts to persuade Barisan Nasional's MPs to defect failed miserably, despite rocking the equanimity of the governing leadership, whose tenuous hold appeared to be breakable at any moment. By September 16, Malaysia Day, it became clear that the Pakatan Rakyat could not pry away elected members from the BN camp to join their cause. Perhaps, the offers were simply not enough to entice the defections.

This failure has cast a shadow over the PM in waiting, and many wonder if his strategem had any substance to begin with. His popularity has taken a dip, since. Perhaps all this is for the better. Now, the PR seems resigned to its oppositionist role and appears more dignified. PR is finally beginning to look ready to seriously govern its 5 states, rather than acting as debutantes and tetchy oppositionists, whose intents and purposes appear to be too focussed on and mired in political ploys!

5. The inane spectre of the ISA
Following the March 8 electoral setback, the opposition and the rakyat became increasingly boisterous and began urging for greater freedom of speech and expression. The months that followed were difficult ones for all, with politicking and grandstanding taking the place of true governance and civic discourse. The insipid and debilitated premiership of Abdullah Badawi did little to assuage the mood of a restive populace clamouring for change and immediate if unrealistic reforms.

Challenges to the perceived fallout in authority of the police and the home ministry brought about swift and disjointed responses of confusion and knee-jerk stupidity. The public, finding its voice and now demanding greater transparency, appeared emboldened and testy—seemingly to kick the teeth in for the incumbent but beleaguered government.

Alas, when the chips are down and the tempo and pitch of political recriminations were turned upwards to jarring plangent decibels, the government reacted. Racist taunts were bandied about with unrepentent advocates on both sides testing the limits of each other's resolves. Ethnic bigotry was allowed to raise its ugly head, while seemingly tolerated if these were on the side of the governing political parties. Slanderous accusations were attributed to either sides, with the police appearing tardy or partial to investigate the veracity or otherwise. The ISA was invoked, and with some quickly shortened after huge public hue and cry--Sin Chew journalist Tan was released after 24 hours, purportedly her detention was "to ensure for her safety"; and opposition MP Teresa Kok after a week.

But the much feared and fearless RPK who was initially slapped with criminal defamation, had his detention confirmed by the incoherent home minister Syed Hamid Akbar, to a 2-year order for incarceration without trial. Then, after nearly 2 months at the Kamunting detention centre, a judge decided at long last that his detention was illegitimate, and RPK was freed! The government was in total disarray trying to ameliorate its public relations nightmare, for perhaps for the first time ever, its arbitrary decision had been successfully challenged.

His problems are still not yet over, as legal woes are mounting. But RPK has been as pugnacious as ever, challenging those who feel slighted to sue him, as was the case when he roundly condemned the pathetic performances and sorry excuses of the just retired Elections Council chairman.

Together with like-minded liberal Malaysians, such as Suaram, Jerit, the Bar Council, and even SUHAKAM, we are calling for the abolishing of the ISA, and we will continue to voice our strongest opposition against this unjust and arbitrary law. There is hope that Pakatan Rakyat will rescind this obnoxious law once it comes to power, so we can all hope for a better future, soon.

Malaysia’s Ambivalence toward Greater Public Debate must Change

A shorter version of this article is published as an opinion piece in malaysiakini: Change ambivalence over public debate


"We can succeed only by concert. It is not 'can any of us imagine better?' but, 'can we all do better?' The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise—with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country."
~ Abraham Lincoln, December 1, 1862, Annual Message to Congress

The recent raucous debate on the aborted (or postponed?) sale of the IJN (National Heart Institute) underlines the ambivalence with which the government views our current health care system in particular, and the disdain that it generally regards its own citizens.

Importantly, it had seriously misread the public’s mood and views that it could once again simply announce its often-opaque decisions of granting sales of this and that, or even enacting new national schemes/plans at will. Some would even say, at its own whims and fancies.

In modern political parlance, it appears to regard such national goods, natural resources, property and stakes as if it owns them outright, and to dispose of these as its arrogated right—something which is increasingly frowned upon by more enlightened citizens worldwide.

But, while this appears to be the model of wasteful utilization of (many are calling this, pillaging) the nation’s resources among many failed states in Africa, parts of Asia and the Middle East, it is no longer acceptable behaviour for any respected nation in this modern day and era.

Instead, the government of the day is expected to be only holding these in trust for the nation, its people and its future. The ultimate goal of a ‘good’ state is to ensure the longer-term benefit for the citizens (although it must be acknowledged that most politicians possess a more shortsighted vision, one that is constantly persuaded by electoral considerations, vested interests and lobby groups.)

"Modern politics is characterized by a sharp focus on the acquisition and retention of political office rather than on appealing to people's higher moral values and inspiring people to undertake enduring change" ~Stephen Denning, in The Secret Language of Leadership, 2007, John Wiley & Sons, p68

Notwithstanding this, because Malaysia aims to become a developed state, it must choose to be modern, respected, and abide by the rules of international law and social justice. While a nation may pride itself of its inalienable sovereignty, it must not confuse this nationalistic right as an unquestionable license to sanction its own contrived self-aggrandising and parochial fiats.

Its previous top-down disclosures after behind-the-scenes “discussions and analyses” have been found to be greatly wanting of financial propriety, fiduciary soundness and worse, of dubious public benefit. Often, the government has shown that it has failed to understand the wider implications of its pronouncements, especially when these impact so drastically on the rakyat.

Although the government through its various ministries and divisions has from time to time, attempted to gather input from various stakeholders through dialogues, workshops, etc., these have often been carried out with too much haste, too little preparation or in-depth planning or feedback. Often these are undertaken at very short notices, which leave precious little time for these other bodies to gather sufficient information or views from their own members or even from the people involved or those others who would be affected.

Clearly any attempts at privatization or corporatization of public healthcare facilities fall under this category of national goods and services, which must be considered extensively, and only after full discussions with all its citizens. Obviously of course, this government had failed to do this, only now to call for greater scrutiny of its implications, when public hue and cry overwhelmed its usually deaf ears.

Such a paternalistic approach of assuming that the government knows best whatever it wishes to do, is no longer the acceptable form with which to address national issues of great repercussions on the citizens. We, the rakyat, are calling for and are demanding more say, more input into this ultimate decision making process: we wish to be consulted more, and we want to be heard.

The modern era has empowered citizens with entirely new and hitherto unavailable information and knowledge so that we are no longer minions who can be pushed around. As we mature as a democracy, we have also demanded greater space to voice our thoughts and opinions, which we believe correctly express our intentions and collective vision, and which would ultimately enrich the nation and our lives.

True, with too many views and opinions, these may appear unwieldy and may even result in gridlock or impasse, but then at least when the final compromise or consensus is reached, most sensible stakeholders would have to agree that their views have at least been considered, or that better ideas have been chosen—then, our demand for representation would have been assuaged, albeit grudgingly sometimes.

But there would still be those naysayers who would argue that these collective (consensus) final decisions are flawed because their views have been sidelined or diluted. This is not an uncommon reaction, but people must learn to accept that majority decisions have to be given priority, that accommodating other more acceptable views is a hallmark of any inclusive democracy.

Disgruntled or defeated groups must learn to bite their tongue, and fight another day with another argument, another approach, perhaps. That is the essence of modern liberal democracy—that the ‘best’ or most agreeable views hold sway for those particular moments in time and place. This is not to say that these are cast in stone, they are not. In fact in healthy democracies, modifications and amendments are usually the hallmark of fine-tuning collective decisions, which can then last the test of time and experience.

But somehow, the current government appears to have been locked in a time warp of its past glory days, when it held all the power and the sway of huge majoritarian might. It continues to thrive on its much discredited secretive and opaque decision making process, hiding behind the façade and cloak of the OSA (Official Secrets Act)—most decisions seem to have been mooted by the all-powerful EPU (economic planning unit).

Examples are aplenty: the privatization of the healthcare support services, the sale of the government pharmaceutical arm; Khazanah’s take-over (60% ownership) of Pantai Holdings Bhd.; FOMEMA (privatization of the medical screening for foreign workers); the delayed (aborted?) e-kesihatan scheme for public vehicles’ drivers; and of course now, the potential sale of our IJN to Sime Darby Berhad.

It cannot be denied that under the premiership of Datuk Seri Abdullah Badawi, there has been greater allowance for public space for discourse and greater freedom to speak out. But this has been rudely set back of late with the inane use of the ISA to silence its greatest critics such as prominent blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin, Hindraf, opposition lawmaker MP Teresa Kok and a whistle-blowing Sin Chew Jit Poh journalist.

It is arguable whether PM Badawi could have maintained the strong-arm authoritarian style of ex-premier Mahathir, whose pugnacious 2-decade stranglehold on Malaysian politics have left in its wake devastated and emasculated institutions of the judiciary, the police and the UMNO-dominated power politics.

The hurried parliamentary passage of 2 much-vaunted bills concerning institutional reforms [(Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC)] has been seen by well-meaning pundits as too little, too late, and a whimpering finale to its earlier promise of change. That these should still be under the purview of the PM and the attorney general’s office has put a damper on the political reality of this incumbent government—it is still not ready to transform its political stakes toward greater openness or transparency as demanded by the more liberal citizens here in Malaysia.

Perhaps, the government is still smarting from its unaccustomed fall from grace, but it appears to continue under-estimating the power of the alternative media, i.e. the World Wide Web and increasingly the blogosphere of alternate news and opinions. The internet penetration welcomed as an earlier-favoured march toward modernisation and IT literacy had exploded in its face, so to speak. But this irreversible and relentless spread of interconnectedness has become too pervasive, too diffuse in its power to reach the masses.

The Internet medium has simply encompassed too many people, even in Malaysia—information asymmetry once under the closeted control of the mainstream media (MSM), has been decidedly eroded. In its place, information largesse and ubiquity in all its forms of freedom of expression, of thoughts, of criticisms, of exposes, of alternate viewpoints and plausible visions, have shown that it, the world wide web is impossible to constrain, or even to contain.

The good thing is that some MSM have learnt to adapt accordingly so as to maintain their “street cred” (street credibility)—they have become somewhat bolder in addressing real issues with a newfound temerity as against the sycophantic brown-nosing of yesteryears! The previously lamented self-censorship is now looked upon as nonsensical timidity, which undercuts the media’s purported stance to provide thoughtful discourse, checks and balances of this ‘fourth estate’ and credible information to the people.

So what must the government do to regain its stature, its political capital, its power to lead? It must change. Tom Daschle, US Senate democratic leader has said that "If you want to get elected, learn to speak. If you want to stay elected, learn to listen." Therefore, the government must get back on track to what is usually expected of good governance. It must listen to its detractors’ malaise, not so much to accept these wholesale, but to see the merits of why some of these maligned institutions, laws or plans, need tweaking or revamping or even outright rescission (such as the much-abused ISA and OSA).

The whole world is undergoing tremendous financial turmoil and uncertain economic and market future. It is the head-in-the-sand absurdity to imagine that we would be exempt from these tribulations and perturbations. As the world’s 18th largest trading nation, Malaysia will be caught up in this maelstrom of economic upheaval. Sadly, there has been precious little planning and discussions as to how we can tackle or prepare for such an inevitable eventuality—instead, we continue to mire ourselves in humdrum political power plays and narrow-minded pettiness.

We must begin to look at the bigger picture sooner, rather than to allow the tsunami of economic downturn to overwhelm us suddenly, just because we have been caught napping, and only dreaming distractible delicacies of inconsequence!

Let us begin a national debate on how we can move forward to meet the impending crisis, in more concrete terms rather than knee-jerk diktats and self-interested venal pillaging of our diminishing natural resources.

Let’s have a greater national discourse on where our nation should be heading. It is of little use to keep shouting shibboleths of Wawasan (Vision) 2020, when we can’t even see beyond the next 2 years. We need a reinvigorated, more refreshed national vision, not more of the same!

So what should we be doing?

We need a renewed national vision, one that should be more inclusive than divisive, and not tainted with ethnic, racial or religious politics.

We must negotiate a new social contract, which will help unite us more meaningfully rather than to harp upon decades-old concepts, which have perhaps lost its contemporariness, its shine and power to persuade us as one people.

We need to make every Malaysian feel Malaysian without any sniggering backstabbing asides, which only perpetuates the skin-deep accommodating acquaintances, but which does not foster true bonds, true nationalism or the feeling of belonging.

We cannot have bigoted lawmakers who shout at others to ‘balik kampung’ or ‘get out of the country’ whenever they cannot win an argument without theatrics and rationale; and get off scot-free as if that’s their right to inflame and institutionalize racial bigotry.

We cannot have the Biro Tataan Negara, which separately indoctrinate our civil servants that Malaysia is only for the Malays and its Ketuanan Melayu supremacy policy, while subjugating other ethnic groups in insincere indoctrination to accept this premise which is now so maligned and unacceptable.

We need instead to identify our collective strengths and weaknesses so that we can reap from the best, and maybe suppress our baser instincts for divisiveness and narrow-mindedness.

We need to re-assess and value our national resources and wealth, which should be our long-lasting legacy for our children and our children’s children.

We must convene an all-inclusive task force to address the economic and banking debacle, and how we as a nation can overcome or mitigate against its worst outcome scenarios. This does not mean including the usual public sector technocrats and closeted civil servants who are often the least exposed to ground level realities.

We have to tap our finest brains and especially the citizens and consumers on the ground, include targetted NGOs, opposition representatives even, so that a collective voice can be made with greater meaning. This would also promote a spirit of inclusive citizenship so that unpopular repercussions may be better understood by all, when hard choices have to be implemented.

We have to get serious that nation building is not just one election after another. That once elected, our policy makers must heed calls for greater duties, responsibilities and sacrifices, and make the best laws, not convenient ones for vested pork-barrel interests—that the electing public has its duties to be the ever-vigilant watchdog for such political deviances and shenanigans.

We have to want to be better, not just for our selfish little moments, erstwhile comforts and immediate gratifications, but more importantly for our collective national good and future.

We must ensure that when we say Malaysia Boleh, we mean it with pride and not just jingoistic anthems, which simply arouse sniggering contempt at some who are just embellished as jaguh kampung (village champions).

We must want to be world-beaters and achievers of the best and the finest.

We must aspire to be champions on a global scale: respected, rather than self-congratulatory.

We must truly achieve significant success, rather than be frowned upon at our silliness of getting into the record books for things that really don’t matter and are of forgettable, meaningless inconsequence!

For 2009, there is that hope that Malaysia would have at last matured, and that we the citizens have played our roles to help bring this about. Let the momentous spirit of March 08, 2008 live and march on!

"Ruling parties and presidencies are almost never felled by issues alone. Rather, it is the more general perception of a creeping chaos—the sense that leaders no longer have a firm grasp on events or the credibility to unite disparate constituencies—that cause political powers to come undone." ~ Matt Bai, journalist, in The Way We Live Now.