We need political reforms, not just electoral reforms

 

We had sent invitations to all the political parties in Malaysia, even those in Barisan Nasional, to attend the signing ceremony of The People’s Declaration. Only six responded, three of them from Pakatan Rakyat. The others ignored us. Hence I owe loyalty to only those who endorsed The People’s Declaration. And if they reneged on their commitment then I no longer owe them any loyalty since they have betrayed us and have sold us out.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Dear Raja,

I hereby inform you that the DAP has decided to endorse The People’s Declaration.

It’s indeed a great effort by your team of esteemed citizens. I was instructed by the party Secretary-General, Lim Guan Eng, to deliver the decision to you and your team.

Makkal Sakhti!

Berkhidmat untuk Rakyat dan Negara!

Ronnie Liu Tian Khiew

DAP CEC member and NGO Bureau Chief 

http://mt.m2day.org/The_Peoples_Voice.pdf

http://mt.m2day.org/The_Peoples_Declaration.pdf 

http://mt.m2day.org/Deklarasi_Rakyat.pdf

http://mt.m2day.org/Declaration_Chinese.pdf

Photographs of the signing of ‘The New Social Contract’ by the six non-Barisan Nasional parties in the run-up to the 12th General Election

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When the Liberal Democratic Party (LibDem) of the UK announced that it is seeking not just electoral reforms but political reforms, I immediately signed up as a party member. I too felt that Britain needed political reforms, not just electoral reforms. After all, the UK too has declined into a ‘sick society’, if you know what I mean.

When the UK saw a hung Parliament and both Labour as well as Conservative could not form the government without LibDem, I was in agreement that LibDem form a coalition with Conservative instead of Labour, although before the elections LibDem had said that in the event of a hung Parliament it would go with Labour. This is because Labour talked about electoral reforms while Conservative agreed to go for political reforms.

Earlier, in Malaysia, we too talked about political reforms, as opposed to Bersih, which talks just about electoral reforms. I felt that mere electoral reforms are not good enough. We need more than that. We need political reforms, electoral reforms being just one component of political reforms. We need an entire change of system, not just better elections, because better elections and a change of government will not guarantee us a change in the political system.

I was elated when Ronnie Liu sent me that official letter above indicating that his party, DAP, had endorsed The People’s Declaration, which is a document regarding an entire reform package. Subsequent to that, an official signing ceremony was held with six non-Barisan Nasional political parties, three of them within Pakatan Rakyat -- PKR, DAP and PAS (as the photographs above show).

Post-2008 General Elections, Pakatan Rakyat appears to have done a U-turn on its promise, which was earlier made with no conditions attached. Now it appears like there are other priorities that first need to be addressed before we can talk about ‘the bigger picture’. This was not declared during the signing ceremony. During the signing ceremony, The People’s Declaration was accepted with no conditions attached.

I felt betrayed in 2010 during the talk in London attended by Anwar Ibrahim, Tian Chua and Tunku Aziz Tunku Ibrahim (that was before I decided to go to the mainstream media). When I raised the issue of the promise that Pakatan Rakyat had made before the 2008 General Election that The People’s Declaration, which had been accepted prior to the election, would be implemented, the response I received was that it could not be done yet for various reasons. It appears like what was promised more than two years before could not be delivered after all.

In a talk in Australia soon after that, Anwar told the audience that Pakatan Rakyat cannot listen to Raja Petra, who lives thousands of miles away in England. That was not just a slap in my face but a violation of the people’s trust and a betrayal of the cause. Pakatan Rakyat can’t seem to understand that this is not about me but about the promise they made to the voters. But they are making it appear like this is about what I want rather than about what they promised the voters and are now telling the voters they cannot deliver on this promise.

Of course, with the spinning by the alternative media, they made it look like I was becoming personal and that my grievances were a personal issue. The issue that this was Pakatan Rakyat’s promise to the voters and not at all a personal agenda of mine was downplayed. It would have been more honest for Pakatan Rakyat to declare that although it had committed itself to The People’s Declaration, that pre-election commitment could no longer be met. Pakatan Rakyat should make its stand clear instead of spinning the whole issue as something personal on my part.

The next general election will be upon us in the next few months, maybe nine months from now. Pakatan Rakyat should state now whether it is still committed to The People’s Declaration. I cannot force them to agree to The People’s Declaration. I am in no position to do that and in a democracy no one should be forced to do something that he or she does not want to do. However, at least we will know where we stand and we will not be under the misconception that this is the agenda whereas this is not so.

If Pakatan Rakyat feels that The People’s Declaration is not workable and is no longer an opposition agenda then I am prepared to drop the whole issue and no longer pursue the matter. The important thing is I will know where I stand and also where Pakatan Rakyat stands. Then there will be no confusion as to what each of our agenda is.

During the 2008 General Election, I campaigned for Ronnie Liu and Nurul Izzah Anwar. At Ronnie’s request, I also campaigned for DAP, but only in Selangor and Penang. I made it clear that I do not wish to campaign for anyone other than Ronnie and Nurul Izzah and I turned down all the invitations I received from PKR and PAS to speak at their ceramahs.

During the 2008 General Election, I was not a party member of PKR, DAP or PAS. I presented myself as a Blogger, an independent political activist, non-partisan although political. In my speeches during the ceramahs,I made it very clear that I support those parties that support The People’s Declaration.

We had sent invitations to all the political parties in Malaysia, even those in Barisan Nasional, to attend the signing ceremony of The People’s Declaration. Only six responded, three of them from Pakatan Rakyat. The others ignored us. Hence I owe loyalty to only those who endorsed The People’s Declaration. And if they reneged on their commitment then I no longer owe them any loyalty since they have betrayed us and have sold us out.

Pakatan Rakyat needs to do the honest thing here. They must make a declaration as to whether they are still with us on The People’s Declaration. If the answer is ‘no’ I can live with that. Then at least the confusion can be cleared up.

As I said, I am not a member of PKR, DAP or PAS. In fact, I am a member of the LibDem in the UK. My interest in Malaysia is only as far as political reforms are concerned. If there are going to be no political reforms then I no longer have any interest in Malaysia. I can then put Malaysia Today to sleep and not waste so many hours a day of my time doing what I have been doing for the last 14 years since the birth of the Reformasi Movement.

I am not pro-Barisan Nasional. I am not pro-Pakatan Rakyat either. I am pro-political reforms. And I will support any grouping that aspires for political reforms.

I have no interest in changing the government. To me, who gets to form the government is not crucial. What is crucial is what that government stands for. And if the government commits itself to political reforms then I will support that government.

Governments are mere vehicles. It is a vehicle for getting from point A to point B. What vehicle we use is not important. Getting from point A to point B is. Hence let us focus on the journey, not on the vehicle. And the vehicle that serves this purpose must be the one we choose.

So tell me, is this vehicle going to be Pakatan Rakyat? If my journey into seeing political reforms is met through Pakatan Rakyat then well and fine. If it is not going to be met through Pakatan Rakyat, that is also well and fine. But we will need to know before we go to the ballot box and not after we have voted. I am sure that is not too much to ask for.