Is the Deep State blocking real reform?

 

I salute DAP's Damansara MP Tony Pua for suggesting that we consider our political options, including that of working with the desperado Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin to implement political reforms.

I salute him not because I like his idea but because this is what grown-up democratic participation is about.

Too often, we moan that we feel powerless about what’s happening “up there”. But when a senior MP opens up a chance to give input, too many of us resort to angry, childish shouting, betraying our lack of maturity. This will discourage leaders from ever again offering us a chance to discuss decisions.

It was really disappointing to see many Pakatan Harapan supporters abusing Pua online, with some even suggesting he had been bought over with “durians”. How quickly had his years of good work been forgotten.

Even DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang himself was condemned by many Chinese for so-called “selling out” in 2019. His “crime” was to suggest that we should be open to learning three pages of Jawi-khat.

Have we become the fickle crowd at the Roman Coliseum, ready to scream for lions to devour gladiators at the slightest deviation from orthodox views? Is this what we have become? Are we an angry mob ready to stab friends just for daring to think outside the box?

Luckily, not all of us are "Komplain Kings" or "Qomplain Queens" as there were also many others who knew how to disagree respectfully and to debate rationally. This is the way forward for a civilised democracy.

The Malay deep state

So let’s talk about Pua’s proposal. Yes, I agree with many others that a snake tends to speak with a forked tongue. And so Muhyiddin’s offer of limited democratic reforms, though important, can’t be trusted.

After all, there’s nothing to stop him from breaking his promises, yet again, after he has bought some time to buy over more frogs with “durian RM30”. So forget his offer of reforms.

For me, the real attraction of Pua’s suggestion is that this will ensure Bersatu and Umno keep fighting and weakening each other till the next elections, and thus allow Pakatan to win then.

As DAP's Bangi MP Ong Kian Ming wrote back in April 2020, Bersatu knows that it is much weaker in political machinery and branding compared to Umno.

So it must try to become the dominant Malay party by splitting Umno apart and keeping up the pressure of court cases against leaders like Najib Abdul Razak and Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

Bersatu has succeeded in doing both. To rub salt into the wound, it has even lured away PAS, Umno’s former political “wife”, thus ending the Muafakat Nasional marriage!

Of course, this has led to a ferocious counterattack by Umno, culminating in Zahid pulling out 15 MPs from Perikatan Nasional and Muhyiddin losing his majority. Great! So why don’t we let Umno and Bersatu continue killing each other?

You may ask, why can't PKR president Anwar Ibrahim be allowed to try and form a new government? Isn't that the obvious choice since Pakatan Harapan (and friends) now has the biggest block of MPs (88 + 17 = 105) in Parliament?

Anwar will most probably be able to attract enough support to form a "Pakatan plus" coalition of at least 111 MPs (or perhaps even 120 or more), because everybody wants to be on the winning side, right?

But sadly, as respected political analyst Prof James Chin wrote, the Malay establishment (some call it “deep state”) seems to be blocking Anwar because he is regarded as being “too liberal” and “too close” to the DAP.

Chin wrote, “The Malay establishment is so profoundly committed to the racist ideology of Ketuanan Melayu Islam… (its) greatest fear is a fracture at the highest levels of the Malay elite which would give the DAP a chance to form a government with a major Malay faction.”

According to the professor, the “Malay establishment” comprises senior civil servants and police/military officers, heads of GLCs, Malay tycoons, and members of royalty.

I don’t know, is Chin right? Will a truly reformist Anwar and Harapan upset too many jambu carts? Will it disrupt too many gravy trains? And must therefore be blocked?

Monsters killing us

So, please don’t condemn Pua for being realistic. He is probably right in predicting that Muhyiddin’s downfall will just mean reshuffling the same old stale cabinet a bit with Umno taking the PM’s post.

At best, the Air Suam Health Minister will be replaced and Azmin Ali will be demoted.

Meanwhile, get ready for Ismail Sabri Yaakob, Zahid, or whichever Umno joker to become PM. Will they do a better job than Muhyiddin in tackling the crisis? Or will they, like the Perikatan Nasional gang, also be preoccupied with consolidating financial and political power (to destroy Bersatu at the next elections) in a never-ending Game of Thrones?

Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin

Of course, if Muhyiddin remains, the chaotic infighting will also continue for months. Meanwhile, the equivalent of one plane-load of people is dying from Covid every day.

What will happen when the even more virulent Lambda virus variant arrives? As they say, before a plane crashes, “buckle your seat belts and brace for impact.”

Are there no good options? Perhaps by now, even the elite Malays (and their non-Malay allies) may have realised that the old ways have led us to the brink of disaster. How much can they cream off a destroyed economy? How many can run off to ooh-la-la Paris? And aren’t their “own people”, the Malays, suffering the most from the current crisis?

Why not instead allow Anwar and DAP to form a new government? Pakatan can then implement whatever reforms (and more) that Muhyiddin is offering. It can also immediately pass anti-frog hopping laws to stabilise the political situation.

This is also the moral democratic choice, as it returns the voters' mandate of the last elections. Let competent and sincere leaders such as former Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad and former Transport Minister Anthony Loke return to steer us through the storms.

To be realistic, the people with vested interests will still be lurking. But let their demands be more moderate and less of what Nazir Razak (Najib’s smarter brother) called a “monster” that demands “feeding” or it will “bite you” by blocking contracts, licences, and tenders.

Let what he called the “cancer of money politics” be cured (or reduced) so that we don’t have another 1MDB fiasco. Let those slurping at the various gravy trains be less greedy so that we don’t lose a RM170 billion company called Grab to Singapore.

In the 1960s, Malaysia was ahead of South Korea and Taiwan. Oh, how far we’ve fallen behind! If we keep focusing on feeding the freeloaders rather than on real reforms, in a few decades we will lose out even to Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand. And Malaysians may be going there to work as maids and factory workers. Sawadee krab anybody?

It’s always been said that our entrenched elites will never change until our economy collapses. Perhaps, our wake-up call has arrived. Too many companies are closing down, too many jobs are being lost. And we are having one plane crash a day in Covid deaths. Surely, enough is enough.

But we need far-sighted leaders who are willing to admit that the old monsters of racial and money politics have led us close to collapse. We need brave decisions to pull our plunging plane out from its current nosedive. Only then can we save this country. - Mkini

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ANDREW SIA is a veteran journalist who likes teh tarik khau kurang manis. You are welcome to give him ideas to brew at tehtarik@gmail.com.

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