Oh, so the state elections are an indicator?

 

Does it make me sound like a broken record if I say that I can always see the same trend when it comes to politics and elections in Malaysia?

But I guess once you’ve been around the block several times, you would actually notice it. Or it could just be me and no one else sees it.

The recent Johor state election just concluded and we saw BN making quite a sweep, beating Pakatan Harapan and winning 48 of the 56 seats in the state assembly.

This isn’t that different from the last state elections; BN just added a few more seats to their win this time around.

Umno and BN decided to go their separate ways when they declared that they would contest every seat in the state, competing against Harapan.

To many, this was a surprise because BN and Harapan are allies in the federal government, working together to administer the country. Drama, right?

But then again, is this really a surprise? Even in the last Johor state election, BN had gone their separate ways.

I know, because at that time, I was in charge of helping my friend, former minister Maszlee Malik, run his media campaign for the elections.

During that same time, BN and Perikatan Nasional were in the government together.

Back then, all the politicians and analysts said that it was going to be an indicator of how the 15th general election was going to be. What happened then?

Hung parliament

Nobody outright won the general elections and Harapan chief Anwar Ibrahim had to make pacts with the other parties to form a unity government.

So, my prediction is just that for the next general election. It’s going to be the same as before. There won’t be a clear winner and the different parties are going to have to form a coalition to form the government.

Unless, of course, everyone is tired of Anwar’s administration and decides to not vote for Harapan at all.

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim

Honestly, I don’t see any problems with the situation at the moment. I think that it is advantageous to the people if we have a government that is barely holding on.

The reason is that it means that they have to do everything they can to make sure the people are happy, or they can just easily be booted out.

But the people have to be aware of this too. We need to realise that we can hold the government accountable for everything they do.

We hold the trump card and shouldn’t stand for any bullshit from the politicians. If we don’t like whatever they are doing, we can make it known and they have to listen to us.

Compromises

We also need to realise that whoever the government is, they won’t be able to do everything they promised in their manifesto before the elections because they are in a unity government.

What that means is that Anwar would have to appease all of the other parties so that they would come together.

There will be all kinds of give-and-take and compromises made so that they can all work harmoniously. So we can’t expect Harapan to be able to fulfil all of their promises.

That also means that the other parties will have some of their promises made to their voters brought to the forefront. Are all the voters going to be happy?

If we want the parties we vote for to fulfil all of their promises, then we need to make sure that we vote them into office convincingly.

Then they will have the majority mandate to do so. But if we vote for them in the way it is now, then it is neither here nor there, and we need to expect a diluted fulfilment.

Again, I say this isn’t really a problem. We just need to manage our expectations. And that means no administration has overwhelming power to do anything.

That’s why I’m okay with an arrangement like this. The only issue is that we have an excess when it comes to problematic laws, systems, and legacies from the previous administration.

We need to get all that sorted first before we can actually enjoy a “confidence and supply” government, which is a more accurate term than unity government.

There are many countries where arrangements like this work very well, such as New Zealand, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Ireland.

So are we stuck in a conundrum? Maybe we are. So what should we do? If the Johor state election is any indicator, then we’re in big trouble.

Let’s wait and see what happens in the Negeri Sembilan state election and then later on, in Malacca. I bet we’ll get some indicators from those. - Mkini

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ZAN AZLEE is a writer, documentary filmmaker, journalist and academic. Visit fatbidin.com to view his work.

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