Are hardliners trying to scare us into migrating?

The Malaysian Insider chief executive officer Jahabar Sadiq has written an understandably well-received article headlined ‘100 days later, Malaysia remains stuck in Election 2013'. 

I heartily agree with a good number of his observations regarding recent phenomena in Malaysian current affairs.

I would like to offer some alternative interpretations as to the reasons behind those phenomena, and begin the process of thinking what everyday citizens can do to arrest the slide down this slope. 

Jahabar’s thesis is that we find ourselves in our current malaise because politicians are still stuck in GE13 mode.

I have a slightly different view. As I have argued before here andhere, it is precisely the end of GE13 and the political landscape that came after it that has brought about many of our current problems. 

On one end of the spectrum, I believe that the GE13 results have had a profound influence on conservative hardliners in the country.

They seem to buy deeply into a Mahathiresque, reductivist interpretation of the results, summed up best perhaps in the classic Utusan Malaysiaheadline that appeared so early after the election: ‘Apa lagi orang Cina mahu?’ (What more do the Chinese want?)

The argument I find most convincing is that, from where these hardliners stand, non-Malays are turning further and further away from the BN with every election.

One day, they will tip the scales and boot Umno out of power. This is of course the party’s worst-case scenario come alive - an end to hegemony and feudalism, as well as the corruption that feeds it.  

Far from being ‘stuck in GE13’, those hardliners are now working hard to ensure a different dynamic in GE14. 

Observe a simple logic that follows: If the non-Malays and the liberals are the problem, we need to make that problem ‘go away’. If we want them to go away (say, by migrating of their own accord out of frustration), we need to make them feel like this is no longer a place they want to call home. How do we make them do that?

Think about Alvivi, the beauty pageant, Chetz, and now, the resort owner in Johor (and keep in mind that if the prime minister has any real influence over the elements responsible, it is tenuous at best). Think about the atmosphere that is being created. 

Is this a spontaneous groundswell or an engineered puppet show? Is there something magical about the second half of 2013 that accounts for the sudden dramatic rise in cases of “insulting Islam”? 

(I suppose if I were to mention here the equally sudden and dramatic rise in gun crimes, I would probably be labelled as paranoid.)

Are those who have been wringing their hands in despair and fantasising about migrating playing right into the hands of Umno-supporting hardliners? The much satirised phrase ‘then the terrorists (or trolls) win’ comes to mind. 

Lack of direction

Worse yet, why does it feel like the rest of us seem powerless to do anything about this unfolding state of affairs? 

Jahabar’s analysis captures very well the deeply disconcerting sense of directionlessness (‘tak tentu arah’) and being stuck in the mud that those of us on the other end of the spectrum seem to be experiencing post-GE13.

Voters look to representatives, representatives look to voters (and amongst themselves), and nobody seems to be leading us anywhere meaningful. 

As human beings, we are largely defined by our sense of purpose. As a society, we are not very different. 

A large portion of Malaysian society, albeit not large enough, had a clear sense of purpose as we approached May 5, 2013. We wanted change, and we were willing to set aside a great deal of differences to unite with whoever shared that goal. 

With the election over, the change we fought so hard for is now out of reach for a good many years. The question became: what now?

After the first few days and weeks, it feels like we failed to find a good answer, shrugged and carried on with our lives apart from politics. We left the arena, and we took with it our GE13 spirit and momentum, creating a vacuum. 

Who else would move in to fill that vacuum if not the full-timers: the politicians. To them we effectively gave back the exclusive power to decide our national fate. 

Making politicians better

I believe that in the grand scheme, the behaviour of players in a game is determined first and foremost by the structure of the game.

When the objective of winning GE13 defined the structure of the game, Pakatan Rakyat leaders and their supporters demonstrated great solidarity and shared purpose, which made for a truly magnificent movement. 

The structure of the game has now changed, given that the next chance to change the government is so far away. The sense of purpose we got in GE13 from having that shared goal has not stuck with us; instead, we have left it behind. 

Now, without lofty short term goals, we appear to have fallen to the human tendency towards pettiness. 

Pakatan politicians fight among themselves, as can be expected when the current structure of the game gives them most to gain by running down their political competitors. 

(That said, I would be the last to paint everyone with the same brush. Look carefully for those ducks - lame or otherwise - who look calm above the water, but paddle furiously and consistently underneath.)

If we really want politicians to improve (or better yet, if we want to start redefining the game ourselves), we have to go beyond decrying the actions (or lack thereof) of these politicians via repetitive cynical rants, and start to really think about how we the rakyat can effectively change incentive structures in such a way as to create real change.

As we watch our leaders degenerate into the same political muck we have experienced for decades, is there nothing we can do to reverse the tide?

I believe there is, although doing so may take us out of our comfort zones. 

For starters, we must no longer leave politics to the politicians. That is the safest, surest way of keeping the game exactly as it is, with each political player playing selfishly for keeps. 

We might feel relatively powerless as individuals, but almost all great social change the world has ever seen has been the result of uniting individuals to become unstoppable collective movements.

If all goes as planned, more concrete and practical ways for us to do this will be mapped out in the weeks to come. 

The choice is ours. We can either get our hands dirty by doing the cleaning up ourselves, or we can live in the dirt forever. 

Between the devil and the deep blue sea, I for one say forget jumping into the ocean; it’s time to get together and take the fight to the devil.

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‘They rebelled. They evolved. And they have a plan.’ NATHANIEL TAN Tan tweets @NatAsasi