Politics - a game in which your vote means very little

When the 14th general election result broke on May 9, 2018, some of us were in tears of joy, thinking that, finally, we had a breakthrough that would save our beloved nation and restore it to the path of glory.

Others were not so joyous. I was in the mainstream media at the time, and there was more than one political operative masquerading as a journalist on my news floor. A few were ashen-faced that the Najib Abdul Razak regime they had sold their soul to was now defeated. But when I paid attention to how they reacted, it became clear just how quickly ‘Old Malaysia’ would react to subvert the new.

One of them came back early the next morning with some puff pieces about prime minister-elect Dr Mahathir Mohamad - someone they had been lambasting enthusiastically throughout the campaign. It had taken just about eight hours to switch sides to ensure they were still backing the winner. This individual ordered me to publish the piece quickly so they could show it to their new masters.

I overheard another one of them articulating what was probably a bold vision - a plan to play up and aggravate two divides within Pakatan Harapan. One was the divide between Mahathir and Anwar and the other was the split of camps within PKR itself. “These two would alone would be enough,” I heard that person say.

In the euphoria, it was easy to overlook, but it was my dream of a new Malaysia that appeared to be in tatters - while sadly, these cynics appear to have been correct.

The second individual was an East Malaysian who has actively believed in politics of scandal, slander and backroom deals - not ideology. To this person, the journalist is someone who carries tales of intrigue and curries favour between competing political camps. Creating a lot of smoke when there is no fire is a particular skill of theirs.

“Anyone can switch sides at any time because it’s all a game,” he once told me.

“Speak for yourself,” was my retort at the time – it may be the fashion in Sabah, but I would like to think there are some principle differences between the parties.

OK, yes I agreed, for example, that DAP to this day has always resembled a Chinese rights party more than a social-democratic one despite its professed beliefs – and that PKR, despite being multi-racial and liberal, didn’t really seem to have enough of a foundation – but I did think that there were some broad ideologies at play – for example, when the progressives in PAS split to form Amanah.

People are always going on that East Malaysia is better than Semanjung – they may be right when it comes to racial and religious tolerance but when it comes to political principles, it’s hard to see what’s great about a system where talk is cheap and loyalty even cheaper.

The party-hopping culture may even have Jeffrey Kitingan (above) as its poster boy – he was in PBS, Akar, PBS, PBRS, UPKO, Umno, PKR and Star. As sure as could be, he ran against BN in GE14 and then has suddenly turned into an ally. Some ally, really!

So this is the problem with our system and this Friday’s D-day at the Pakatan Harapan council sums up the issue. Why are we – the people who voted on a clear promise of Mahathir handing over power to Anwar – why are we even sitting waited with bated breath to find out the results? It should have been a done deal if there was honesty and integrity. But – despite the massive drop in popularity of Mahathir’s administration, as reflected in the by-election defeats – the transition is still up in the air.

Despite the numerous U-turns on promises, the regime remains thick-skinned. Despite the astounding failure to pass progressive legislation or put any number of corrupt Umno leaders behind bars, the man on top still appears to be hanging on – even his stated plan appears to be to eat into more than half of the five-year mandate obtained in May 2018.

It’s as if our vote didn’t really matter – and I am reminded again of that old saying – If elections could really change the world, they would be illegal!

Yes, we threw out a smug tyrant who would probably have bankrupted the nation given another five-year term, but I am not really sure that we won’t be living under a more oppressive government in the not too distant future.

When you call it deep state it makes it sound conspiratorial and far fetched, but actually, that’s what’s all around us – those sycophantic pseudo-journalists are the least of the problems. The power structure is still up to be resistant to change.

Basically, these are all those people who colluded in the old corrupt system and who don’t want something new and better to take its place.

They can be cops, teachers, councillors, GLC, civil servants, palace officials, you name it. Up to and including high-ranking members of the current government.

I think back – and wonder what it was all for – Reformasi and Bersih? We were on the street, challenging the status quo. Hardly any foundations have been shaken.

There are still the same dynamics of the oppression of the poor – from the Orang Asli to estate workers to Malay poor. Is the government really concerned with defending them or are its leaders more concerned with their game of musical chairs?

We – the third class citizens of the country – grit our teeth and bear it when our tax is taken for Felda and UiTM, even though it is that community’s leaders who stole. I used to do it willingly because, in my philosophy, the poor of all races must be helped. But these same poor are being educated in the ways of racial and religious prejudice, as a tool to benefit their masters.

Sigh. If we didn’t have too many voters who were stupid to see what Najib was doing to the country, we wouldn’t even have needed Mahathir to come back and we might not be in this mess. And now it appears as if it doesn’t even matter whether a politician was elected under PAS or Umno or PKR or Bersatu or Amanah – everyone’s loyalty has a price in a game of horse-trading.

Perhaps the finger points most at those politicians who were our brave heroes in those days – but who now stand on the cusp of fatally betraying their own reform revolution.

Mark these words - if you are to back the Bersatu leader to continue instead of keeping the promise to the people, and it backfires – in a short while we will be under a corrupt and heavy-handed Umno regime again, this time with the repulsive PAS as the backbone of the coalition’s support.

Remember dear MPs - if you get this wrong and Pakatan Harapan takes the self-implosion route of India’s Janata Party in the late 1970s or Japan’s DPJ administration a decade ago - a government based on racial and religious hatred is what is coming. And it will have been down to your own folly.

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MARTIN VENGADESAN is a Malaysiakini team member.