My picks for top 5 news stories of the year

“The headlines screamed at him as soon as he saw the paper. He almost screamed back.” Terry Pratchett, Going Postal

Like my picks for the top five newsmakers, my choices for the top five news stories are, I suppose, counter-intuitive.

These are not the stories that gained the most traction. However, I think these stories deal with marginalised communities or issues that provoke strong reactions.

Like my choices for top newsmakers, I think these stories tell us who we are as a people and if I sound cynical, maybe there can never really be any form of genuine unity except for a fragile peace brokered by compromised political operatives.

I can honestly say, that I believe that removing the Najib Abdul Razak regime, was necessary but I struggle with the reality that there seems to be very little difference if Dr Mahathir Mohamad stayed in Umno and removed Najib and the situation now, which is that he abandoned Umno for Harapan and removed Najib.

The old maverick is, slowly cobbling together a new home for the supremacist in this country abetted by a new breed of articulate sycophants.

Time is not on our side.

Here are my top five news stories, in no particular order.

State sanctioned murder

The government’s tabling of the bill to abolish the death penalty coupled with their earlier initiatives to limit the death penalty to certain cases is welcome news for a regime that seems to turn backtracking into an art. The death penalty provokes strong reactions especially from people who use religion as a means to buttress their arguments for what is essentially murder.

I believe that even if the death penalty could be justified using some form of utilitarian argument, the fact is that Malaysia is the last country which should have this “penalty”. Race, class and religion are intimately linked in this country, as is the state security apparatus that has demonstrated that in many ways, it is above the law.

Whenever I write about this issue, the hate emails I receive outnumber the mails I receive from families who have relatives on death row, or who have loved ones murdered by the state. Most of them involve drug cases but the ones whose loved ones are killers, are the most harrowing to read. Those mails are torn between sympathy for the families of the victims and their sorrow, for the one they have lost or are going to lose.

From my vantage point - When it comes to the death penalty, the state is not an honest actor. How could it be? 

The anti-Icerd rally

The public debate and Harapan’s backtracking was an absurd display of hypocrisy and political opportunism. Umno and PAS played Pakatan Harapan like a Stradivarius violin. When the rally was announced, there were the usual fear mongering and the duplicitous behaviour of the state security apparatus.

Liberal types loved the fact that they could have their cake and eat it. Here was a rally which was supposed to show the far right how civilised the left was and it was to reaffirm the principles of democracy when in fact the political elite of Harapan had betrayed those very principles.

For me, it was a difficult rally. It reminded me that average Malaysians who were friendly and civil, were not the enemy although their ideas were the kind that led to failed states. 

I curse the politicians and religious leaders who make use of these people as I curse the politicians who have no will to show them a better way.

From my vantage point -“From its enemies," he said. Nearly everyone I spoke to had this myopic view of their religion and race. As an old-timer who grew up with Malay/Muslims with different sensibilities, I marvelled at how social engineering has turned a relatively peaceful community into a community that is afraid of everything and willing to fall prey to mendacious power brokers to sustain their identity. 

The Undirosak movement

Before this most crucial of elections, this movement cropped up. A close friend of mine said, that knowing what she knows now, she would not have spoilt her vote – the most despicable of actions in the democratic process, Thaya – but she would have not voted, which she claims is an honest reaction to the perfidy of political operatives.

While I was against this movement, writing three articles arguing against it, I was appalled at the level of misogyny aimed at one of its proponents and the rancid ad hominems against other vocal proponents. The level of vitriol should not have surprised me, but it did. Even if this was a politically motivated movement, they are having the last laugh, for the moment at least.

From my vantage point – “I have often wondered - and I am not alone in this as numerous foreign correspondents who read the local media wonder the same thing - how some folks who pride themselves on their progressive politics, who blame Umno/BN for the toxic politics of this country, have never had a problem hurling misogynist and racist abuse against people who are critical of the opposition or who disagree with their position. Even more troubling is that, most often, their intended targets have a history of social and political activism on behalf of the opposition.” 

Backtracking on Harapan manifesto

A Malaysiakini reader wrote to me and said, that he could not give a damn about the manifesto. He voted to get Najib out. This reader now bitches about the fact that the Harapan regime is not doing enough to save Malaysia and going back on their word. I asked him if he did not read the manifesto, how could he know that they are going back on their word? “I read, the papers and online news sites” he replied.

The current prime minister said the manifesto was made when Harapan did not think they could win. His chief propagandists said a lot of thought went into the manifesto. Everyone more or less agrees that what is contained in the manifesto would save Malaysia. 

What is the hold-up? Maybe this regime does not want to save Malaysia, maybe this regime like any regime just wants to retain power.

I do not normally say this, but Harapan has the means to save Malaysia. What they lack are political operatives to use them.

From my vantage point - Surely there must have been Harapan political operatives who did believe in the manifesto and did not just say things because they believed they could not win. Was that really the strategy? Make a bunch of stuff up and then if victory was miraculously achieved, claim that they could not fulfil those promises? Moving forward, how can people ever trust anything Harapan officials say when it comes to policy? 

Child sex abuse

A whole host of issues gets entangled in these crimes. I have many activists’ friends who most people have not heard, who do not get the press, who day in and day out have to deal with this issue. It wrecks their lives, which is nothing compared to what these victims who are children – sometimes infants- go through.

If the Harapan regime does not do anything but makes the lives of children safer in Malaysia, that would be something. Here in this country, race and religion, cloud this issue. I fear the children will carry on suffering in this new Malaysia.

From my vantage point -I think if more people understood the scope of the problem, they would compel their elected representatives to act. I believe that the reason why this data is hidden is to protect a corrupt religious and political culture which seeks to reinforce a specific type of religious discourse, and they are worried at the outrage that would happen if people were to be confronted by the kind of culture that such beliefs nurture. 

Well, that is it folks. Have a great new year and for anyone speaking truth to power - Illegitimati non carborundum.

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S THAYAPARAN is Commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy. - Mkini