A PN-inspired Merdeka

“Only sometimes you can’t feel anything about a subject without hypothesising its extinction.”

- American novelist Richard Ford

The green wave overshadows whatever feel-good messaging the state comes up with every year for Merdeka.

Once a year, the political class attempts to project an image of inclusivity in what is supposed to be our independence from colonial rule.

This year, Perikatan National looms large. It has had a good year. They have leaders who are willing to slay Malay sacred cows. They have used social media to their advantage. They have demonstrated that as a political bloc, they are immune from the sanctions of the state.

They have made this unity government look like a bunch of incompetent autocrats and they have done all of this, while their leaders and various bank accounts have been under siege by the state.

But more importantly, they have torn away the last vestiges that Malaysia is a secular and multi-ethnic state.

This administration is so afraid of spooking the Malay base that they are doing the theocratic and racial work for PN.

The non-Malay political bloc is so terrified that anything said or done would be spun as “Chinese influence” over the Madani state.

So much so that they have tucked their tails between their legs and acted as handmaidens to any racial or theocratic diktat that Anwar and Umno think will burnish their Malay and Islamic credentials.

The sight of a sitting prime minister presiding over the conversion of a new convert is symbolic of the encroachment of PN into every aspect of the fast-dissolving public and personal spaces of non-Muslim Malaysians.

The attempt to normalise this act is symbolic of how non-Malay political operatives and some of their supporters have surrendered to the theocratic state-in-waiting.

Dismantling democratic guardrails

Merdeka is supposed to be a day of remembrance, of where we came from. It is also a day for looking forward, to where we are heading. This is a bitter pill to swallow.

Where we came from was a functional democratic and secular (for the most part) country, after independence, having Umno/BN over its long watch slowly dismantled the democratic and secular guardrails of this country and turned this once blessed land into an ethnocracy before turning it into a kleptocracy.

Where are we heading? Well, PN has the answer for that. We are heading into a theocratic state. We are a country divided not on ideological grounds but rather on racial and religious paradigms. People who vote for PN have no interest in the fig leaf of multiculturalism that previous regimes indulged in.

PAS understands that not only is the political instability brought upon by the machinations of a kleptocratic regime useful to them, but also that more democracy injected into the Malaysian body politic is detrimental to them.

With Pakatan Harapan/Umno attempting to restrict the press and calls not to act like a big brother, not to mention all the abandoned promised reforms, PN would have an easier time when it assumed power.

More damaging is that Harapan and DAP would not be able to make credible arguments for reform and calls to action when they are the opposition again because, when they had the opportunity for reformasi, they rejected it.

So what non-Muslims need to understand is this. The only Islamic narrative in this country is that Muslim leaders will govern based on their religious dogma and that as long as they have power, they should use it to enforce their religious dogma.

There used to be Merdekas in the past where the possibility of hope and reform were present. This Merdeka especially, Harapan supporters have nothing to hope for.

Their coalition is in power and working in concert with Umno, fending off an attack by a populist movement intoxicated by the power it wields through racial and religious narratives.

Appeasement of extremists

Merdeka as a totemic reference to the unshackling of chains has morphed into a different kind of beast. The religion of the state and the racial hegemony of the majority have become the dominant narratives.

We are not really talking about independence as a means to fulfil everyone’s potential but rather independence from Western democratic values which hampers the religionists in this country.

As the years roll on, sticking up for your rights is becoming more onerous. What the youth vote demonstrates is that young people who vote, especially Muslims, have no desire for any kind of consensus building.

Over the decades, the consensus has become appeasement. The appeasement of racists and religious extremists not only endangers your rights as a citizen but also makes you complicit in a system in which you really have no say.

What does it say about Merdeka in his country, when the lesser of two evils is clamping down on our personal liberties and public spaces, but the alternative, PN is worse?

What is the point of celebrating Merdeka when the people who vote for one coalition have no trouble letting their non-Muslim brethren live as pak turuts (yes men) and the other side wants to do whatever is necessary to remain in power even if it means further disenfranchising the non-Malays/non-Muslims in this country?

This Merdeka is a culmination of this country foolishly throwing away its potential. Everyone says give this unity government more time but time is not really the problem.

What does this Madani government want to be? What kind of future does this Madani government want for the Malays? Because not spooking them is not a roadmap to a productive future.

It is pointless writing feel-good articles about this country and how it is hampered by extreme forces. What hampers this country is that there is no opposition to those extreme forces. No opposition backed by political will to define the democratic future of this country.

Merdeka this year reminds us that democracy is a legacy of this country instead of its future. - Mkini

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S THAYAPARAN is Commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy. Fīat jūstitia ruat cælum - “Let justice be done though the heavens fall.”

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