Is this what democracy looks like?

 

The events of the past weeks have unfolded in a way that seems to have stretched the fabric of time itself. It is difficult to believe that #Lawan (#Resist) was only last Saturday and that the #HartalDoktorKontrak (#ContractDoctorsStrike) was only the Monday before.

Since then, it has become increasingly clear that our democratic rights have been dealt a severe blow.

This is especially distressing when we take into account the fact that Malaysia suffered the steepest drop on the World Press Freedom Index since the yearly ranking was published in 2002. It fell 18 places to sit at 119th out of 180 countries. With recent developments, we can expect it to fall further.

I am no stranger to protests, and there is no feeling quite like my throat growing raw and my voice hoarse with every rallying cry of “This is what democracy looks like”.

And this is, in fact, precisely what democracy looks like. Democracy looks like the freedom to assemble, to have our opinions heard and represented in Parliament, to remind our elected representatives that they work for us.

Democracy looks like us choosing each other every time. It looks like the collective Malaysian spirit behind every food drive, behind the response to the #BenderaPutih (#WhiteFlag) campaign.

It looks like Malaysians donating their own money to bail out the country after 1MDB. It looks like the Malaysia that most of us would live and die for. It looks like filling the streets with many of us, being so loud that they can no longer pretend not to hear us.

Power has never been handed over willingly and Malaysians have tired of being told to simply vote when the time comes, only for our politicians to disobey and betray us, to form alliances that restore power to the people we have spent generations trying to hold accountable. We will not be silenced any longer. We will not allow our politicians to gaslight us on national television.

This movement did not spring out of nowhere. Those who claim our people were a peaceful folk have forgotten our history. There were multiple revolts during the long period in which we were subject to foreign rule, the most notable of which we have been learning in schools for years.

In fact, the youth has often been the beating heart of these rallies, like in the demonstration by farmers in Baling in 1974, protesting declining rubber prices. The threat of these disruptors was so great that the Universities and University Colleges Act was amended in 1975 and finally enacted six years later to curb the growing movement.

This did not work for long. Students continued to rally behind movement after movement, from Reformasi to Bersih to #Lawan.

We stand on the shoulders of our predecessors, no longer begging, but demanding, our dues.

It is no surprise that politicians do not understand where this movement is coming from. They have remained blissfully out of touch with the reality on the ground as their power has been left unchecked and they robbed the people blind, only to mislead them and point to their fellow citizens as “usurpers”, here to steal what rightfully belongs to them.

The only thieves are those whose pockets get plumper despite their refusal to go to work. One need only tune in to national television for a few moments to see that many parliamentary seats are empty in every session.

Meanwhile, the rest of us have been forced out of the workforce, our savings depleted, barely staying afloat and still trying to help each other. We would likely have been sacked for missing just three days of work.

It is time we held our politicians to the standard we are held to, time to demand they do their jobs. Everyone else is watching us in horror, hands tied as our politicians order us to starve.

Even the World Bank has urged us to implement more comprehensive aid packages, even if it means taking out more loans to do so.

Aid needs to be given freely and everyone should be eligible to receive it. We cannot spend too much time worrying about whether the rich will abuse it. RM500 is unlikely to do much for those who don’t need it, but for someone flying a white flag, it is life changing. It is life saving, even. Study after study has shown that giving the poor money, without having them jump through hoop after hoop to get it, is the most efficient way to pull people out of poverty. Poor people know what they need. If you give them money, they will buy it.

Worrying about whether the wrong people will abuse aid is a waste of resources. Trying to be gatekeepers of who gets what money will almost always result in the people who need it most deciding it is not worth the effort of trying. Besides, the rich are getting richer anyway. We might as well try to help the rest of us while we’re at it.

Aid is not the only thing the rakyat needs to get through this pandemic. We also need a structural change to our labour rights.

Most people have not been paid enough to tide them over in an emergency, let alone a prolonged pandemic that is set to enter its third year. They lack the security they may need to call in sick. They lack access to unemployment insurance and centralised retraining for those in danger of redundancy due to increased automation. Most important, they often lack the protection of labour unions.

This lack of policy was not accidental because up until now, the job of the government has been to protect the needs of the rich and influential. This needs to be remedied immediately.

The emergency ordinances and vote of no confidence cannot be the only thing debated at the next parliamentary sitting. We need moratoriums on loans, our labour laws need urgent revision, although the best time to have done it was years ago. The second best time is now.

I keep hearing people say “Melayu mudah lupa” (Malays are forgetful). They are wrong. None of us are.

We do not forget our loved ones and we will not forget that more than 9,000 people have died due to the pandemic. Their absence leaves an unnecessary, gaping hole in our lives. And we will remember this.

Our politicians have one last chance to prove to us that they know who calls the shots or they will learn the hard way exactly what democracy looks like. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.