What is the alternative, they ask?

 

I remember when I was growing up in the 80s and early 90s, the leadership of then prime minister Mahathir Mohamad was lauded as visionary. Of course, it was an open secret that mainstream media, at that point, was carefully curated to reflect this very narrative. And, dissent was scarce, except for a few firebrand opposition leaders.

As a teenager, being constantly exposed to this trope, I naturally believed in its veracity. I grew up in an apolitical home, but my parents were government servants who leaned towards BN.

The first time I voted in a general election was in 1995. Suffice  for me to say you can imagine who I voted for. In 1994, I had started working, first as an employee, then by 1995, as a 24-year-old, I ventured into entrepreneurship and business.

It was only after I was exposed to information through the alternative media, that I really started to question the way the country was being administered, and its leadership. And that too, if you remember, we had to question in hushed tones.

I had an uncle who had migrated to Germany. He had access to the then most famous Malaysian online news portal, which was the first to offer alternate views and carry articles and columns from opposition leaders. He would send me these eye opening essays.

Eventually, I started to think that there must be an alternative to BN’s way of running Malaysia. And, I discovered that many urbanites of my generation, who were in their late twenties and early thirties at that time, also thought like me.

However, the push back whenever we broached the subject of a non-BN government, always centred on this one point. The old-guard would just say that we did not have a credible opposition. PKR and DAP were not seen as fit for purpose.

This was clearly reflected in the 1999 election when BN swept up more than 75% of the seats in parliament. And, in post-Mahathir 2004, a staggering 90% of parliamentary seats went to BN. The opposition parties were all but decimated.

Now, let’s fast forward to 2024. Both PKR and DAP are the mainstays of the current unity government, albeit being propped by BN. The “alliance of hope” is the bulwark of the government.

Those of us, who were in our late twenties and early thirties then, are now older, and are in our fifties. It was my generation that first took the leap of faith, and started this “revolution” in 2008, culminating in 2018. The six-decade long dominance of BN was ground to a halt. They came back via some political chicanery in 2020. But, after the last general election in 2022, at the invitation of our King, the BN was included in government. This time though, it was not on their own terms, and they are a shadow of their former selves.

But the country has now come round in a full circle.

Today, if those of us who took the plunge and punted with the then opposition, question our current government, the sycophants offer us the same retort we heard some 25 years ago. “You disagree with the Madani government? You know what the alternative is? It’s the big-bad green wave.”

Politicians and their minions play a zero sum game. They will tell you that it is either “us” or “them,” and the alternative to “us” is terrible.

This is how the BN-dominated government led us down a six-decade slide, which has come to societal fracture, the weakening of our once strong economy, the complete dumbing down of our education system, and the abject racial and religious polarisation we see in our country now.

So, do we still listen to the same hogwash? Or do we, as a nation, fight back against these opportunistic and parochial politicians? The decision is really ours, because “…every nation gets the government it deserves.”

Not all politicians are bad though. I know some really hard-working and inclusive ones. In the government benches, there are members of parliament like Syerleena Abdul Rashid, Steven Sim Chee Keong, and Ramkarpal Singh, who are actually broad-minded and cosmopolitan. These three MPs, for me, truly reflect Malaysia. Of course, all of them are Penang based, and perhaps this is why many changes start in Penang.

For example, the 2008 “revolution,” although it had its genesis in the Hindraf movement, it bore fruition in a spectacular manner in Penang when a sitting chief minister was defeated.

But unfortunately, at the end of the day, these MPs are politicians, who have to toe their party lines. Their political masters will dictate terms to them.

Perhaps the only solution is that we no longer vote for the “party.” Instead, we should focus on the candidate. We should pick only the people whose sole interest is the well-being of the community and not the accumulation of personal wealth for themselves and their family members.

And, regardless of our support for anyone, we must never stop questioning. - FMT

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