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Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Authoritarian China? Malaysia already like Burma, Zimbabwe!


Dr M, Najib - same gang as China, Burma, Zimbabwe
Wong Choon Mei, Malaysia Chronicle

Pakatan Rakyat leaders scoffed at former premier Mahathir Mohamad for insinuating that China’s authoritarian rule was more effective than the ‘democracy’ practiced in Malaysia , arguing that many Malaysians and foreigners already see the ruling Umno-BN government as little better than a dictatorship.

“There is nothing ominous or worrisome about his comments. How much more authoritarian and skewed can Malaysia get? People already compare her to Zimbabwe and Burma, so what is China?” PKR vice president Lee Boon Chye told Malaysia Chronicle.

“If you ask foreign investors, they will tell you that rule-of-law was one their greatest concerns but they still plowed trillions into making China the infrastructure miracle that it is today. Why - because the Communist government gave their assurance. Whereas here, we have finely-drafted laws thanks to our British heritage but after the Perak crisis, Najib’s word is dirtier than drain water. No one would dare to take his word as good.”

Pride comes before a fall

The Perak crisis refers to the coup d’etat engineered by Prime Minister Najib Razak against the Pakatan Rakyat-led Perak state government. After the power grab, Pakatan leaders filed a barrage of lawsuits that became the talk of the international legal academia and used as case studies or examples of gross tampering by a ruling government in a judicial system.

Najib-sanctioned use of force in the Perak state Parliament
Although more than a year has passed, few people especially investors have forgotten Najib’s open flouting of the most basic tenets of democracy and rule of law. To them, it confirmed his similarity to Mahathir, who has often been called a dictator to his face and accused of endemic corruption worth billions, plunging the country into the serious debt it is still trying to pay off.

However, Najib is not expected to solve the problems - both political and economic - created by Mahathir. In fact, Najib has embarked on his own worrisome spending spree with a newly-unveiled Budget 2011, where RM109 billion worth of super-mega projects were announced including a 100-storey skyscraper that has already sparked public protests nationwide.

“The Warisan Merdeka building is an awful symbol of Najib’s boastfulness and it will mark the final tombstone for Umno. It is an economic white elephant when there is already a growing glut in office space because of the slowing economy. And then there is the question of traffic congestion – how much will we need to spend to correct the resulting problems?” PAS central committee member Nizar Jamaluddin told Malaysia Chronicle.

Democracy is failing because of Dr M and now Najib

On Monday, at a public function, Mahathir had said in a speech that democracy was a “failed” ideology and held up China’s model of authoritarianism as an alternative “worth studying”.

Lee - already authoritarian
“The Beijing Consensus shows that having a non-democratic country can also give a good life for the people. If you find good people to run a country, even dictators can make a country develop and develop very well,” said Mahathir

“Democracy has failed in many countries. It is not the perfect thing it is touted to be. You find that some of these democracies really cannot work. People cannot make up their minds.”

But the 85-year old, who is also notorious for his thinly-veiled racism and divide-and-rule policies, failed to convince not just his immediate audience but also the man on the street.

“Basically, the feeling is that democracy works. It is not perfect but it is still the best available system and it is up to the individual country to tailor it for themselves. Look at how Indonesia is rising, Philippines is still working on it but it has clearly put behind the dark shadows of the Marcos regime. By comparison, only Malaysia is sliding back into the Burma and Zimbabwe club. But one thing Mahathir is right about – democracy is failing in Malaysia. But it is not the fault of the ideology. Democracy is failing because of leaders like Mahathir and Najib," said Boon Chye.

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