Will PR change its tune after GE13: Change can wait?

This general elections promises to be the best with both contending parties having rolled out their respective manifestos amidst the razzmatazz. One coalition wants to "ubah" while the other wants to " tukar" but change can wait. This happens all the time all over the world so don’t be short changed.

Take Barack Obama for instance. He stormed into the White House two terms ago promising change. At the Democratic Convention in 28 Aug 2008, he said: "Change doesn't come from Washington. Change comes to Washington." (For context, please substitute Putrajaya for Washington).

"I will cut taxes for 95 percent of all working families, because, in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle class." The faithful responded with hearty amens!

Four years later at yet another Democratic Convention, Obama said, "I’m no longer just a candidate. I’m the president."

What about change? Well, he asked for another four years to deliver it. Politics, they say, is the art of the possible. Yes it’s possible to get away with unfulfilled promises.

Hudud & Islamic state looms

Alright, let’s come back to GE13. Leader of the opposition pact, Anwar Ibrahim, has promised the price of petrol will come down on the very next day Pakatan wins the elections. Najib Razak, from the ruling coalition, was quick to match that with a "Promise of Hope." Return Barisan to office and he will double payments to low income households to RM1, 200 each and RM600 for singles. For good measure, these payments will be for the next five years as long as Barisan is in office.

Let me draw your attention to something closer to our hearts, race and religion. Pakatan’s platform calls for "respect (for) the position of Islam as the official religion and guaranteeing the freedom of religion as enshrined in the Federal Constitution." Nothing new as we already know that for the last 50 years.

But what is left unsaid is that PAS, the Islamic component of Pakatan, wants to introduce hudud law at some time after they get into Putrajaya. We know hudud is syariah law derived from the Qu’ran.

The Barisan manifesto promises that in the next five years it is committed to upholding Islam as the religion of the Federation. We know that already. It also wants to promote the "Syiar and Syariat" of Islam.

Umno, the dominant component party in Barisan, has made it clear since the time when Dr Mahathir Mohamad was Prime Minister that Malaysia has been declared to be an Islamic State. Pak Lah, the previous Prime Minister after Mahathir and before Najib, has out it in a nicer way, "Islam Hadari."

If you ask me, it all boils down to the same thing. The difference is in the choice of a name for a theocracy and differing approaches. We have to recognise that Malaysia is a Muslim majority country so we have to accommodate to a reasonable extent the infusion of "Islamic culture."

Not everyone is comfortable with this including the more "liberal" among the Muslims who also dread to be under the cloak of orthodoxy and fundamentalism.

My prayer and hope is that both contending parties would respect the rights and privacy of their constituencies by showing restraint and tolerance to each other and not try to outdo each other by resorting to "holier than thou" belligerence.

-mysinchew.com