Chandra and the Umno game of devious politics

A political scientist should understand better what Machiavellian politics is. Altruism has never been the moral fibre of most modern day politicians. Altruism is utopian as far as politics is concerned these days. Non-altruistic politicians are those opportunists seeking power or would want to remain in power to sate their personal ego. These self-serving politicians harp on trivial and sometimes irrelevant matters with the sole aim of achieving the ends. To them the end justifies the means. They criticise and argue endlessly – in most cases deceitfully – but veto others from doing the same.

A fiery critic

Chandra Muzaffar (with due respect to him) must be aware that he had once ‘soiled’ his hands and his intellectuality by going into politics. So happened that he was leading the Just NGO prior to that and he decided to join Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) (then known as Parti Keadilan Nasional). At that time Chandra was a fiery and emotional critic of Prime Minister Mahathir Muhammad’s administration. Chandra then was all out for social justice and had no tolerant for corruption in the country. In his political ceramah he was unwaveringly despising the policies of the government of the day. However, despite his intellectual background he failed to win any seat in elections to represent PKR at the state or national level. His stint in real politics did not last long though – lasting for only two years when he left the party in December 2001. Most academics are too idealistic are usually not born or cut to become good politicians.

As a matter of fact, most academics are more tailored to become political observers or armchair politicians. They may know a lot on the art or theories of politics but may not be good political “practitioners”. Academics are idealistic creatures and can never adjust to the robust game of politics on the ground. Chandra, in fact, failed as a politician partly for this reason. Regrettably, his departure from Opposition politics put himself in a strop and he still stores in him a cavernous and intense dislike for the de facto Opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim. Of course, those in PKR have a lot to say about his approach to politics then – pleasant and bitter. Some felt that he was too intellectual to be in politics. One of those bitter comments is that he could not lead but was more towards the authoritarian type of leadership and this failed him as a politician in an new-fangled political party at the time.

But after going back to academic life and as a prolific scholar Chandra should be seeing the country’s political landscape from the perspective of an academic – objective, impartial and true-heartedly. He may be good at the detail but at times cannot see the forest for the trees. The people on the ground are now clamouring for a two-party system and this should bode well for the country and every right-thinking citizen. They are no more interested in looking into the viability of having a one-party system where people are forced to sing praises and say ‘all is well’ with the incumbent government. Neither are they concern whether Anwar would become the next prime minister or not. They just need a choice in politics.

Unfortunately, most of Chandra’s recent observations on the political situations in the country tend to consciously favour the serving government possibly out of hatred for Anwar, his former close aide in politics. He has now almost forgotten the many scandals and mismanagement affecting the country. Rightfully a true academic is trained to be objective in his analysis of any issue he is confronted with and he should not be prejudiced when presenting his thesis on any issue unless he decides to wriggle out of his “academic Hippocratic Oath”.

Has earned less respect

Of late, Chandra has turned a blind eye on the many wrongdoings of the incumbent government unlike his eventful days with Aliran – a multi-ethnic social reform group founded in 1977, which he led for 14 years. That was when he had many of his plausible thoughts on social justice and good governance published. He was then well respected among his academic peers and students. Corruption was one issue he never failed to raise during that time. How the society now wish if he could still comment on the unbridled corruption, financial loss and abuse of power that have been going on in the country since 1981.

Beyond that, the people also wish to hear his opinion on the many other issues wreaking the government of the day such as financial leakages, mismanagement, abuse of taxpayers’ money, cronyism, negotiated tenders and failed multi-million dollar projects. The RM250 million NFC fiasco has been highlighted almost to the point of perpetuity but the society hears not a word from Chandra on this issue. Supposedly, it is the duty of an academic to appraise the country’s overall performance critically to bring awareness to all politicians and people that the government has to be more accountable for what they are entrusted with.

Sadly, Chandra has decided not to utter any criticism against the weaknesses of the present government. Supposedly, he has chosen to ignore all this because of his new political stand. For his new stand he has consequently earned less respect from the people who knew him before and the majority of the people today would not listen to his sullied rhetoric anymore. At times he deliberately skew his comments to despise the Opposition but the people are not that naïve to buy his lopsided views on the many real issues affecting the nation. The people are aware of the Malaysian government’s stand on the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian, they are also aware of Anwar’s and Mahathir’s stand on this issue. Apparently, they all see a similar stand on this issue.

The US has a role to play in this world despite what her foes say about this powerful country. The Sunni-Muslim countries fear the Syiah-Muslim Iran and they need the US and Israel to protect them. The Sunni-Muslim Arab countries do not mind having a strong Israel as this helps them fend off Iran’s influence in the region. Ambitious Iran cannot be contained and neither could North Korea be tamed without the US. Taiwan, for instance would succumb to China without the US. World War 2 would possibly not have ended too soon without US intervention.

People change, so has Chandra

The US may be the most powerful country in the world and it will remain so for many more decades. We would never know China’s ambition until it takes over as the most powerful nation in the world. It’s still unpredictable. As they say the true character of a country will only be seen when it wields absolute regional power, just like Iran of today. Anyway, hope that peace will prevail in this region immaterial of which country –US or China – ultimately puts on the king’s crown.

Back to the Malaysian setup, we are still hoping for more critical views from Chandra on the many other basic issues affecting the nation. He must be aware that after 54 years of independence, we cannot see politicians debate freely on fundamental issues affecting basic human rights and needs on television, unlike the political scenarios in some developed countries – for fear that the incumbent politicians would loose their popularity. Politics in the country is solely left to be debated and defended in the public through ceramah and the cyber media – particularly for politicians in the Opposition. Only the serving government could use the government-controlled media to articulate their viewpoints.

Chandra’s thoughts and ideals as a politician then were always against the incumbents for well-founded reasons. People change and so has Chandra. His new ideals, however, may not save the country from denying the country a two-party system. He must be aware that academic idealism may not exist in modern day politics. Idealism is more for the academics and is meant for the academia.

Chandra must have realised the fact that some politicians are just opportunists for want of power, as he was once an active politician. Throughout the world, with the exception of a few leaders, political aspirants go all out to get the support of the masses to the extent of justifying whatever devious means they can think of in order to achieve their goals. Many have known to be tricky to garner votes from the ignorant and hopeful. Many have been bribed to vote for them. Some politicians scheme on all sorts of devious strategies just to secure and retain power including the use of taxpayers’ money to bribe voters. They use conniving strategies to outmanoeuvre their opponents, in some instances giving the latter almost no chance to confute.

Game of devious politics

They also go out of control character assassinating their opponents with the hope that the naïve voters are convinced with their high jinks. When they have achieved what they desire, they start thinking of how to enrich themselves and protract their power. Unfortunately in this game of devious politics. the hopeful among the socially marginalised in society and the poor would only remain browbeaten and doomed forever. The undeserving politicians will remain in power to be more corrupted to enrich themselves and their cronies. The rich will get richer and the poor become poorer.

Chandra must have realised how imperfect politics can be on the real battle front, as he was once actively involved in politics and Aliran. Obviously, he is a changed man now. Was it his intellectual prowess or the emotional part of him that had dragged him into the “dirty” world of politics? As an intellectual, he should know better.

The people may have high respect for him as an academic and an intellectual. Nevertheless, with his present social standing it would be wise of him to become a fair observer of politics – giving sensible and objective comments on issues currently affecting the country rather than becoming a partisan critic out vengeance. A true academic and a man of principal even when drowned in the world of politics out of necessity will not ‘kiss-and-tell’.

He lives by his own principle and seeks respect from many fair-minded observers by giving non-judgemental but constructive comments on affairs they observe around them. Be it on the important role of the US in the international political scenes, China’s role in the modern economic scenario, Iran’s ambitious plans to wipe out the Sunni majority states in the middle-east, the right of the Jews to have a state of their own as ordained by the Holy Scriptures or issues on endemic financial scandals and corruption ruining the nation now.

Braiding a net of pretence will make an academic non the wiser. The Chinese will not be easily swayed to vote Barisan Nasional (BN) by just having someone praise China. India is also one of the biggest trading partners of Malaysia and this does not mean that the Indians in the country will all vote for BN. Seemingly, as for China she is now engaging more with Indonesia partly because of Malaysia’s bigoted policies and race and religion bashing politics.

The politics in him should be removed

The US cannot contain the rise of China unless there is an all-out war between countries allied to these two nations. Neither can the US go all out for a regime change in Malaysia without the support of all Malaysians. Regime change in this country – if the people aspire for it – will be decided by her own people not the US, China or the Jews. Remember that the US is still a democracy while China is not. The human rights atrocities is China is still a subject of concern for many neighbouring countries. Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Laos, Kampuchea, Malaysia and Singapore are equally wary of China's possible “threat” when it takes over the US as the world’s most powerful nation. This can already be seen in the tussle for the many disputed and resourceful islands in the South China Sea.

Malay votes for the Opposition will not be affected by calculatingly smearing Anwar’s image as the US or Jewish tool. A two-party system in the country is more than an Anwar-Najib political tussle. It is not necessary that Anwar becomes the prime minister if the Opposition could wrest power for BN in the next general election. Chandra also must be aware of Anwar's acquaintance with Paul Wolfwitz and US vice-president Al Gore, as that was when he held the post of deputy president of PKR. Why the fuss now?

If Chandra seeks to raise public consciousness on the moral and intellectual basis of global justice the politics in him should be removed. The society, in truth, expects Chandra to say more on the number of critical issues closer to home rather then harping on external issues with the intention to deride the Opposition. The move towards creating a two-party system for the country, freedom of speech, fair media coverage for both the Government and the Opposition, the poor quality of education, bribery, corruption, financial leakages, lack of financial accountability, the NFC (National Feedlot Corporation) gaffe, the MAS (Malaysia Airlines) bailout and financial loss, the Lynas project and the many other abuses currently affecting Malaysians must also be of his concern as a non-partisan academic and intellectual.

Malaysia Chronicle