Things are falling apart in our country

 

“Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.”

- WB Yeats

Today, PAS released a statement saying that Umno’s statement and tacit approval for its Members of Parliament who have supposedly chosen to shift their support from Muhyiddin Yassin to Anwar Ibrahim is in effect a breach of the Muafakat Nasional Charter.

What has long been crumbling and on the verge of collapse may now finally be totally coming apart at the seams.

I am not talking about Muafakat Nasional. I am talking about Malaysia’s outdated political modalities as a whole.

We have been seeing, for many years now, this unending trend of aligning, un-aligning, realigning and all the detrimental political instability that has come with it. There was a joke on Twitter about making a new app that can tell you (in realtime!) who the prime minister of Malaysia is right now.

It’s hard to mark the most significant start to the chaos.

Some may say it was two days ago, when Anwar made his latest announcement.

Some may say it was the Sheraton Move; or how Dr Mahathir Mohamad never truly believed in the Pakatan Harapan coalition. Some may trace it back to how the Kajang Move was the first sign that a stable two-party system was not going to happen for Malaysia. Some may go as far back as the Reformasi of 1998.

Whatever your interpretation, I think it is fairly safe to say that Malaysian political history has been a history of fragmentation. The last five or six years, in particular, have been years of political instability and the constant shifting of alliances and alignments.

The Barisan Nasional model and its relatively predictable and ‘stable’ history can be traced back to 1969, where the aftermath of the May 13 riots called for a healing of national wounds - and a grand alliance, big tent approach to politics.

They say absolute power corrupts absolutely, so it was no surprise when BN hegemony resulted in more and more corruption over the years.

However, our attempts to replace a BN hegemony have turned out to be a bumbling mess.

Time and again, we have tried one configuration or another. The year 2018 marked the first time in Malaysia’s history one of those configurations resulted in a new government - due in no small part to PAS’ decision to engage in three-corner fights all over the country.

The Pakatan Harapan alliance that took over, however, lasted even shorter than its predecessor Pakatan Rakyat.

Much and more has already said about how and why.

'Umno is merely using Anwar to...'

Coming back to the present, some observers have speculated that Umno is merely using Anwar to force Muhyiddin to call for a snap election.

Everyone, Muhyiddin most of all, probably sees that no matter what happens in GE15, Muhyiddin is not likely to survive as prime minister.

This incentivises Muhyiddin to delay GE15 for as long as possible. Umno, on the other hand, is probably of the view that a partnership with PAS will deliver enough seats in a general election to ensure that the next prime minister will be from Umno, and the two parties are thus incentivised to have elections as soon as possible.

Umno has perhaps assumed that PAS will thus go along with whatever machinations they have in hand (not unlike how Anwar likely assumes DAP and Amanah will go along with his own machinations).

PAS’ statement today, of course, shows that it has no intention of being taken for granted, and the party does not necessarily believe that its interests are best served by removing Muhyiddin at this juncture. If there is indeed a deal between Anwar and elements of Umno, it’s clear PAS was not invited to be a stakeholder.

To speculate much further about all the details involved will likely amount to little beyond political gossip at this juncture.

Taking a step back, however, I think we are clearly witnessing more and more evidence that Malaysia’s political system and ecosystem, as a whole, just don’t work.

Our system and the parties that have grown up in it fully incentivises all the kind of backbiting, betrayals and every-man-for-himself type of politics that we see unfolding before our very eyes yet again.

This deep in the game, nobody gives a rat’s behind about principles, good national policies, or the welfare of the people - simply because nobody is incentivised to.

'The only thing that matters'

They are incentivised to gamble every single thing on the only thing that matters: controlling the prime minister’s post and all the resources that go along with it.

I feel as if I have witnessed firsthand how this zero-sum ‘only one thing matters’ nature of our political system has whittled down and corrupted even the hearts of those who set out with a sincere desire to serve and better Malaysia.

Much as we want to see an end to the bitter politicking and cluster**** that today’s politics has become, we’re not going to, unless we see some changes to this centuries-old version of Westminster politics.

It’s not going to be solved by having the King appoint a new prime minister today. It’s not going to be solved by fresh elections, and it certainly won’t be solved by us pontificating at politicians, trying to change their behaviour.

As for starting a new party, it may be an improvement on existing ones, but I’m not sure that will solve the larger problem either.

We will only see an end to this if we, as a nation, start sitting together and building consensus as to what a better democracy may look like, and how it might work. It will be a long, arduous, and painstaking process, but if we fail to embark on it, then we will be subject to no end of this dysfunctional sound and fury.

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NATHANIEL TAN is a strategic communications consultant. He can be reached at nat@engage.my - Mkini

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