MALAYSIA VS PAKISTAN, DEMOCRACY VS DICTATORSHIP / OLIGARCHY

 

 

If you have read my books I have written repeatedly about Pakistan and other Islamic countries that have collapsed. It takes time to collapse. I wrote about Pakistan being a failed State from before 2006. 16 years have elapsed and Pakistan has gone from a basket case to a mental case.

Pakistan has always been ruled by either dictators or the rich oligarchies who are so influential in their country. And ruling above all of them is the Pakistani Army. 

But whoever rules Pakistan their policies have not changed much.   It does not matter if the country is ruled by a dictator or by an elected prime minister. They have all goofed up.  The military dictator General Zia Ul Haq introduced the religious laws into Pakistan. To make the people happy. Imran Khan the 'elected' prime minister ramped up religious education in their school system. To make the people happy.

"Pakistan government attempts to 'Islamize' school curriculum
S. Khan Islamabad, May 24, 2021

Prime Minister Imran Khan's administration is preparing to implement a uniform education system in the country with a strong focus on an Islamized syllabus"

To make the people happy.

Imran Khan has been replaced by Shebaz Sharif, the brother of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif. The same families get "elected" into power. These are the super rich oligarchies. 

So they have another double whammy. The first whammy is the Army which is always in the background plus the same oligarchies that get 'elected'. The second whammy is that it makes not much difference because their policies do not change. Its the same no matter who is in power.

In Malaysia the policies also do not and have not changed. As we can see now the Umno boys are back. Even if they lose the elections, they are back. Why? Because they are the creators and owners of the policies that are agreeable to the other politikus scurrying around the country.  

The fact is it is these same failed policies that ultimately saw :

• UMNO getting kicked out in 2018
• the first PH government getting kicked out in 2020
• then Tan Sri Muhyiddin losing his perch in 2021 and finally 
• Ismail Sabri getting 'terminated' in 2022. 

As you can see UMNO has been losing serious ground since 1995.

Throughout all this time, the policies never changed. And will never change. Just like in Pakistan.

The difference is in Malaysia we have a solid electoral system which has consistently gone to the polls once every five years since 1955.  For 67 years our people have been used to going to the ballot box to determine our future.

The fact that UMNO/BN prevailed for 62 years before getting kicked out in 2018 shows that the electoral system works. We can change the government.

But the fact that every government since 2018 has also been kicked out shows that the policies have not changed. The people are actually not happy.

Now the same people who failed before have  managed to wiggle their way back into power. 

More sadly they all believe in the same policies. In fact there will most likely be more of the same policy making. It is likely going to get worse. The Four Horsemen arrived sometime ago.

But lets not give up on democracy and the electoral process. As long as we have the electoral process, there is still a chance. One day the people will realise that in order to be happy they have to change the policies. 

So we wait lah.

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