Malaysians have matured, but not its political parties

 

We often look to the US and its two-party system as some sort of a model for democracy. There is the Democrat party and the Republican party. One party acts as government and the other as opposition, depending on the flavour of the day, for the check and balance to happen.

In Malaysia, as we see how the recent Sarawak, Melaka and Johor state elections have been, BN has been making almost clean sweeps in winning both states, resulting in many people criticising the opposition for not being united.

It’s not just disunity within the Pakatan Harapan coalition, but there is now a third coalition in the form of Perikatan Nasional.

Since 2008, the opposition has tried their best to come together to become a force to challenge BN. It started as Pakatan Rakyat and evolved into Harapan.

Many times, it would seem like parties with totally opposite ideals are just coming together, such as the DAP and PAS. But that was seen as something necessary.

In my opinion, this type of two coalition politics can definitely work if, like in the case of our beloved country, there is a common enemy that one side would like to defeat.

BN seen as the enemy

Obviously, we are looking at how BN has always been seen as the enemy that everyone else needs to destroy. This was put in motion in 2008 and 2013, with it becoming a success in 2018.

A Harapan flag

Also proven, a model like this works in the short term but not necessarily for the long term. I mean, come on. Twenty-two months is pretty short for a government to stay in power.

So when the recent three state elections came about, why was it that this same model was seen as the strategy to go with? Obviously, it isn't something feasible anymore. And with the next general election just around the corner, there are concerns.

As many people are seeing how Malaysian politics is falling into a slump, I would express my disagreement. Instead, I would say that the country is maturing. We are progressively moving towards politics where people no longer feel the need to fight a so-called ‘enemy’ anymore.

Sure, we want to weed out the dirty and corrupt politicians and all, but, if a political party can be sure that they are worthy contenders, they will get the votes.

Nothing new

BN has proven that most recently in the Johor state election. It had nothing to do with the opposition being disunited. Instead, it had everything to do with the opposition parties having nothing new to offer the voters.

BN winning the Johor state election

It was mainly the same old strategy of saying that BN is dirty and if you don’t want things to get worse, then don’t vote for them. That is so 2018 (and 2013 as well as 2008!)!

The opposition needs to start realising that they cannot model themselves after BN whereby you get a whole bunch of component parties to form a super coalition anymore. The only reason BN is still winning is that the opposition is still playing that same game.

It’s obvious that Malaysia is now moving towards a multi-party system and the best way for the opposition to make an impact is to embrace that.

The opposition consists of many parties that have many different agendas and manifestos. It is almost impossible for all of them to come together before an election and agree to a common manifesto.

Internal bickering

It will just result in a lot of internal bickering. We know this because we've seen how this doesn’t work already. The best bet is for all of them to just head into elections with their own different manifestos.

But it is important that these manifestos and agendas are clear and issue-driven instead of just harping on anger, revenge and fear. They need to show the people that they have solutions for improving the country and making life better for everyone. That’s what the people want now.

They aren’t interested in the old narrative of bringing down the old blood who have dominated. Just show the people good and efficient governance that benefits them.

It’s time we move towards the way of New Zealand and many other European countries where governments are decided upon negotiations of winning parties after an election.

Minority government

Basically, a minority government could be the way forward where a group of political parties who have won seats come together and decide on a mutual agreement to form a workable government after the election has happened.

This is something that I have written about numerous times before after seeing how it has been proven to work more often than not. For example, the state assembly in Perak decided on a Confidence and Supply Agreement (CSA) in 2020 when the state government was shaky.

It was a mature decision and for the most part, the agreement has been observed. It was probably the first CSA of its kind in Malaysia.

Back then, I wrote that what Perak did could be a model for how the Federal could work too. In a way, it probably did work when Umno’s Ismail Sabri became prime minister.

He met with opposition leaders and they agreed on maintaining a stable government during the Covid-19 crisis. A memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed and we have been going on based on that agreement so far.

Politicians on both sides signing the MOU

The important thing is that everyone must keep to their word for this to be successful.

So back to what I was trying to say regarding a minority government coming to the next general election. Heck, even political commentator Wong Chin Huat recently wrote about it.

Form an alliance

The opposition needs to realise that they are not a unit, but they can be. They can’t be a unit going into an election but they can be after an election. They can come together and form an alliance by compromising on their manifestos.

They need to discuss and negotiate like mature adults and always keep the interest of the people in mind.

I know there will be many critics who will say that our politicians are far from mature. But just hold on now. It has been proven that minority governments and CSAs can work in Malaysia.

It worked for Perak. In a sense, it worked on a federal level too when the MOU was signed between Ismail’s government and the opposition. Of course, there will be glitches along the way, but that can be figured out as we go along.

I think this will work very well because it would mean no one side has too much power. But it would only work if the current opposition parties move towards accepting this instead of moving like they have been in all of the elections before this.

Malaysians have spoken during these recent past state elections. Whether it’s by not turning up to vote (seeing how low the voter turnout has been), or even by voting for Barisan Nasional. So it’s time to move with the times. The Malaysian people have matured and it’s time for the politicians to do so as well. - Mkini

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ZAN AZLEE is a writer, documentary filmmaker, journalist and academic. He had waited so long for a change in the system and he is not willing to settle for a half-past-six change. And then the Sheraton Move happened. Visit fatbidin.com to view his work.

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