Hard lessons we can learn from the political drama

 

The only positive outcome for the rakyat who have been mere spectators to the unfolding political drama these couple of weeks are the hard lessons we can learn from it.

We are in this mess because of two reasons: one, because we trusted - lock stock and barrel - our politicians; and two, the democratic system is flawed and need to be fixed.

Let’s not forget, Pakatan Harapan in whom we trusted to save Malaysia from the kleptocrats fell from a coup within and not from any attacks of its political enemies from the outside. So what happened? Why did we have turn-coat politicians among Harapan's fold? Was Anwar Ibrahim fooled or did he know of the fox among the sheep?

The rakyat is not privy to these political games played by politicians because we were so overwhelmed by the wave to topple BN in 2018.

But recently, we were also taken aback when some Harapan leaders recently ‘welcomed back’ the same defectors whom they were condemning as pengkhianat (traitors) for the past year. In a rush to meet enough numbers for Anwar, these turn-coats suddenly became our saviour. Similar manoeuvres were also made by the Muhyiddin camp to consolidate support from the kleptocrats.

The rakyat has become sick of these never-ending games by the political elite. This has led to the recent narrative among many that politicians cannot be trusted. Either we choose to shun politicians or not, but no solution will come if we isolate ourselves from politics. 

If we are disappointed with the elite politics, then we should aggressively seek alternative solutions in preparation for the 15th general election (GE15) so that we don’t make the same mistakes again.

Firstly, while the parliamentary democratic system that we have today has many deficiencies, at the moment, it’s the only way to get into the legislature so that real changes can be made. But in order to get the right people in to make those changes, we need to make informed choices by really asking key questions:

1. What is the political ideology of the candidates or the party they belong to? It’s about time that we dumped race-based parties because they have repeatedly proven to only enrich the elite among their race by fearmongering that the ‘others’ are out to take away their rights. Race rhetoric keeps them in power!

2. What is their class perspective? Are they speaking from a T20 position looking down, or can they relate to working people's issues? Is their election campaign funded by big businesses to whom they will have to return a favour by approving projects later?

3. Will they be principled and brave enough to take on big businesses when they pollute the environment and destroy communities?

4. Besides handing out bakul makanan during difficult times, will they also put forward concrete policies to overcome poverty?

5. Will they challenge neo-liberalism that seeks to privatise healthcare and education by degrading the quality of public service to enrich private investors?

6. Will they protect the rights of people with different sexual orientations or seek to mock and victimise them?

The list goes on…

These are not difficult questions, but they are questions that will define the candidates when they become members of parliament or state legislative assembly and how they will solve your everyday problems.

It all boils down to the political ideology and agenda that the aspiring politician and his party have to offer.

Secondly, the presence of these progressives might not be enough to form the government, but at least they could be an independent bloc offering a fresh perspective in Parliament. We need to form a progressive third bloc in Parliament that can voice out clearly against neo-liberalism, racism and the power of capital.

The lesson that we have learnt is that the system shapes politicians into corrupt and self-serving individuals. How is this so? Firstly, the remunerations and perks of an MP immediately rocket you into an orang kayangan. A goodhearted MP without sound ideological grounding on the issues mentioned above will soon find a place in the corrupt system.

Furthermore, the system has in place a very strong structure that serves political patronage. BN, Perikatan Nasional and Harapan have used it for their own political leverage. Maybe, Harapan didn’t explore it as thoroughly as BN did during its 60-year plus tenure.

While concerned citizens and civil society organisations are enthusiastically making a wish list on how this ‘new’ pandemic cabinet should be, the political elites are making a list of their own. Unfortunately, it’s not the same list.

For Ismail Sabri Yaakob, who will take oath today as the ninth prime minister, he is already charting a path for his continued stay in power. This means consolidating political power by any means necessary.

And we have a polished system in place that enables this. The various government agencies, GLCs, departments and so on will all wait for political appointees to head them. On top of that, you can always create a new position when all the chairs are filled up.

Until we break this cancerous system, the corrupt political financing mechanism - where government contracts are given out to party members so that there will be kickbacks to party funds - will continue to flourish.

Thus, while we need to pressure the Ismail Sabri ‘interim’ government to deliver and take us out of the pandemic, we also need to build a progressive political force comprising socialists, youths, workers, grassroots movements, climate activists, gender activists, human rights campaigners and many more to break the hegemony of the two-party parliamentary system.

We need to end the situation of having to choose the lesser of two evils in the absence of a truly people-centred progressive alternative. - Mkini

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A SIVARAJAN is secretary-general of PSM.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.