Historic chance for reform

KUALA LUMPUR, May 5 — Malaysians go to the polls today for the most important election in the country’s history, with the opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR) standing a real chance of winning — for the first time since independence from Britain in 1957, the New York Times reported today.

The daily said recent polls show PR, led by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, running neck and neck with the governing Barisan Nasional (BN), led by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

It reported that BN, the direct successor to the Alliance Party of the 1950s, has been one of the world’s longest-governing parties, outside of authoritarian regimes like China, North Korea and Cuba. For half a century, until 2008, it had a two-thirds parliamentary majority, which allowed it to amend the Constitution at will, it said.

In the article, John Pang, chief executive of a research institute focused on economic integration in Southeast Asia, wrote that since the 1980s, BN has resorted to stoking fears among the country’s many ethnic communities — Malays, Chinese, Indians and many non-Malay indigenous peoples — to keep them beholden to its rule. It has abused affirmative action policies, intended to help impoverished ethnic Malays, in order to enrich its members and their cronies.

Pang wrote that Malaysia’s outdated model of governance — a system of racially exclusive parties that deliver patronage to captive racial voter blocs — is no longer sustainable.

BN’s brand of racial politics is the disease to which it pretends to be the cure. And it is the reason genuine reform is not possible without a change of government, he wrote.

“Today, after more than six decades in power, the lines between the assets of the state, the ruling party and its leaders are blurred. Corruption and deceit are now endemic to the system,” Pang wrote.

Pang quoted Bridget Welsh, a political scientist at Singapore Management University, has saying that Najib, in power since 2009, has spent close to US$20 billion (RM60 billion) on populist election-related incentives over the four years of his administration.

In the article, Pang said BN controls the mainstream media and uses the machinery and resources of the government for partisan purposes. 

“Electoral fraud is widespread and the election commission is believed to be partisan. Although international monitors will be present for Sunday’s vote, and the government has set up an online portal for citizens to monitor the balloting, many citizens fear that cheating will determine the outcome due to allegations of widespread fraud,” he wrote.

The writer said this general election is expected to be close in spite of the gross unfairness of our electoral process. 

“The electoral system is heavily gerrymandered against the urban and Chinese vote. The use of ‘phantom’ voters and the manipulating of ballots cast by post are routine. “Even by those standards, what we have seen in the last two weeks already qualifies this as the dirtiest election Malaysia has ever seen.”

Pang wrote that Anwar and PR are riding a tide of desire for reform and national renewal

The opposition’s popularity has been aided by a demographic bulge of young people, a rapidly urbanising population and the widespread adoption of social media and smartphones that circumvent the government’s monopoly over mainstream media, he wrote.

He concluded that if, against all odds, the opposition wins, this general election may go down as a revolution in which the incumbents were laughed out of power.