Sex, race and religion still political weapons in Malaysian politics

The Malaysian national and state elections on 8 March 2008 surprised all observers.

Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi’s ruling coalition, Barisan Nasional, lost its two-thirds majority in the federal parliament, and a coalition of secular and Islamist opposition parties, Pakatan Rakyat, won five state governments.

The election saw Malaysia’s ethnic voting patterns break down to an unprecedented extent.

Pakatan leader Anwar Ibrahim heralded the result as a ‘New Dawn’ for Malaysian politics. Pakatan’s rise seemed to finally enable the creation of a new politics that could somehow unite both Islamists and liberal cosmopolitans against ethnic and religious political manipulation.

Very quickly however, the possibility of a genuine political challenge to Barisan began to fade.

Instead of articulating a post-racial vision, Anwar’s major post-election strategy has consisted of seeking defectors from the ruling coalition. He even suggested 16 September as the date Pakatan would gain the numbers to form a new federal government.

Instead, almost one year on, Pakatan’s state government in Perak has collapsed. Pakatan representatives crossed over as Barisan allies instead, reportedly in return for millions of ringgit in payment. Media speculation over the viability of the Selangor and Kedah Pakatan governments is intense.

Malaysia’s New Dawn has been reduced to a sheer numbers game. The grim calculus of attaining numerical dominance in state and federal legislatures, in turn, has seen important players launch cynical and calculated attacks based on sex, race and religion against Pakatan parliamentarians.

Two recent events have revealed that sex, race and religion are still key themes, and major political weapons, in Malaysian public life.

A Pakatan member of the Selangor state assembly, Elizabeth Wong, offered her resignation on 18 February 2009, after photographs of her sleeping semi-naked were leaked to the Malay Mail, a government-linked tabloid.

The photographs appear to have been taken without Wong’s consent by a former partner and political ally.

Despite the cruelty of the public betrayal, and Wong having broken no laws, the photographs were immediately used to slur her character. Former Barisan Chief Minister for Selangor, Mohamad Khir Toyo, quickly declared that “This is about morality”. It was not necessary to elaborate, but Khir persisted, “She is a single person. How can she allow a man into her room when they are not married?” Wong’s resignation has not yet been accepted by the Pakatan leadership, but she has effectively been shamed off the political stage. She has been one of Pakatan’s brightest stars, one of the most capable of articulating the new politics that was promised last year.

Months earlier, in September 2008, another high-profile, ethnic Chinese Pakatan member for Selangor, Teresa Kok, found her parents’ home had been firebombed.

Some weeks earlier, the same Khir Toyo had used his blog to allege that Kok had asked that a mosque in her constituency cease amplifying the azan (Muslim call to prayers). The accusation was repeated in another newspaper, Utusan Malaysia.Mosque officials quickly revealed that the amplifier was actually faulty, but Kok was arrested and detained under the Internal Security Act, which allows for indefinite detention. Several Muslim NGOs, widely regarded as government fronts, quickly declared Kok an enemy of Islam.

Fortunately for Kok, other prominent Muslim organisations denounced her detention and she was released a week later. Regardless, the insinuations continued, and Kok was accused of wearing a short skirt to a Ramadan meal to break the fast.
Attached to the Molotov cocktails was a note which mocked her racially, called her a pig, and threatened that she would burn next.

These two women’s public humiliation has been driven by two developments following the election.

First, Kok was detained on 12 September, days before Anwar’s federal government crossover deadline. The political defectors, however, did not exist.

Second, Barisan’s reduced majority has created much bitterness within its main constituent party, the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO). Abdullah was immediately blamed for the poor election result. A political succession deal was brokered and Deputy Prime Minister, Najib Tun Razak, will apparently become Prime Minister next month.

Khir, too, is involved in a major power struggle. Vying for the position of UMNO Youth Chief, Khir is hoping to undermine the Pakatan state governments with appeals to racial and religious majoritarianism, and widespread community acceptance of the moral surveillance of Malay-Muslim women.

The moral insinuations which result, along with frequent racial and religious slurs, are key features of Malaysian political life. Non-Malay, unsurveilled, non-Muslim and immoral: two prominent, unmarried and politically capable Chinese women hit all the important political triggers at once.

Pakatan component parties have condemned the attack on Wong’s character. However, Islamists in the coalition—like Barisan—have an active interest in promoting public discussion of women’s personal choices.

Other power-brokers are focused on keeping the coalition together, and on winning two upcoming by-elections in Perak and Kedah states. Without a coherent, unifying vision to bind the coalition, Pakatan has lacked the political resources to defend Wong, and her fate is uncertain.

Author: Amrita Malhi, ANU

Malaysia must end racial politics-Razaleigh

The Najib Tun Razak government and the United Malays National Organization (Umno) came under attack from former Finance Minister Tengku Razaleigh who urged the nation to do without 'communal policies' and racial based politics.

In a veiled attack against his own party, Tengku Razaleigh pointed out that the NEP had been systematically appropriated by a small political and business class to enrich itself and perpetuate power.

“We must break the stranglehold of communal politics and racial policy if we want to be a place where an economy driven by ideas and skills can flourish.

“We can do much better than cling to the bright ideas of 40 years ago as if they were dogma, and forget our duty to come up with the bright ideas for our own time.

“We need a Malaysian New Deal based on the same universal concerns on which the NEP was originally formulated, but designed for a new era.”

The Umno veteran also called for a fair and equitable political and economic order, founded on equal citizenship which he said was the only possible basis for a united Malaysia and a talent-driven economy.

Tengku Razaleigh pointed out that the current government was elected into power on March 8, 2008, and not 100 days ago.

He also argued that Najib had effectively been in power since last year when Tun Abdullah Badawi’s departure schedule had been announced.

“The issues before the present BN government are not transformed overnight with a change of the man at the top,” he said.

In a scathing criticism of the BN government, he cited the recommendations made in 2004 by the Royal Commission to Enhance the Operations and Management of the Police and pointed out that despite the allocation of RM9 billion as a result of the panel’s conclusion, “there has been no dent on our crime problem.”

“Security is about more than just catching criminals out there. It is also about the integrity of our own people and processes.

“It is above all about uprooting corruption and malpractice in government agencies, especially in law enforcement agencies,” he said.

The key recommendation of the panel, he pointed out, was the formation of an Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Commission, but it had been shelved.

Citing another example, he said the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Lingam video clip “might as well have not been conducted” because its findings had been completely ignored.

Tengku Razaleigh said that Malaysians should start trusting “less in personalities and more in policies.”

“Look less to politics and more to principles, less to rhetoric and more to tangible outcomes, less to the government of the day and more to enduring institutions,” he said.

In his speech, the former finance minister also spoke at length about the country’s affirmative action policies, the NEP and how he felt embarrassed that after 50 years of independence, “we are still talking about bringing Malaysians together.”

“Curiously, although the policy was formulated … for a finite period, in our political consciousness it has grown into an all encompassing and permanent framework that defines who we are.

“The NEP ended in 1991 when it was terminated and replaced by the New Development Policy, but eighteen years on, we are still in its hangover and speak confusingly about liberalising it.”

He said that it was a crushing indictment of the mediocrity of leadership that the NEP is considered sacrosanct and that departures from it are big strides.

“The NEP is over and we have not had the courage to tell people this.”

However the good talks and the criticism, Razaleigh's views will not weight much within the Umno, said an oberver to Wfol.tv. The observer added that Razaleigh wanted to 'reform' the Umno but that is tentatmout to Don Quitchot fighting the windmills and losing the battle. "His place is within the opposition, in the Party Keadilaan Rakyat (PKR) and not with Umno," said the observer.

A cyber war in Malaysian politics?

FEB 19 — Once upon a time, before the Internet became as common as the television in Malaysian homes, public figures made local speeches that were tailored to suit the audience that was physically present.

This worked well for politicians wishing to entertain the parochial tendencies of the audience of the day without jeopardising their prospects of becoming nationally relevant.

Today, however, such speeches quickly leak into the wired world of the Internet, putting things into a different context, and revealing the speakers' supposed real values to the world.

Playing local politics with the awareness that the audience is always the whole wide world is no easy task, especially for those who have been in politics and in power long before the Internet changed everything.

The dominant Umno learned this the hard way three years ago when it decided to telecast "live" its national assembly. The parochialism and racism expressed by its candidates on that occasion for the nation to hear soon forced it to backtrack.

Defensive arrogance does grow out of the inability to evolve.

The attempt to block access to Raja Petra Kamarudin's controversial Malaysia Today website last year managed to stop traffic going to that site, but did not stop access to its contents. Mirror sites sprung up immediately to nullify the censorship.

The police decision in September 2008 to use the Internal Security Act to jail Raja Petra, along with prominent opposition politician Teresa Kok and journalist Tan Hoon Cheng, merely backfired. The de facto minister of law, Datuk Zaid Ibrahim, soon resigned in protest.

Publicly calling female bloggers liars, as then Tourism Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor did in March 2007, is also not a very smart thing to do. The negative reaction on the web on that occasion was tremendous.

Opinions expressed for local consumption becoming national news is part and parcel of a revolution in information technology which carries enormous consequences for the near future. Some are positive, and some will certainly not be.

Through the Net, you can sell old useless books you have under the stairs on the world market; you can get to know strangers on the other half of the world merely by being on chat sites; and you can arrange an entire holiday to the south of France without talking to any salesperson at all.

In Malaysian politics, we have witnessed how SMSes, videos and phone cameras have come into play. While these can uncover abuse of power, as in the case of the woman forced to do ear-squats naked while detained by the police in December 2005; reveal dubious practices, as in the case of the Lingam Tapes released in 2007 showing a prominent lawyer boasting about his ability to fix top judge appointments through political connections; and contribute to court cases, as in SMSes supposedly sent by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to a lawyer, discussing the detention of a close associate then charged with involvement in the murder of a Mongolian woman.

The latest political incident involving IT innovations concerns the circulation of nude pictures of prominent opposition politician Elizabeth Wong, secretly taken on a phone camera.

The case of Wong (also a blogger), who has offered to resign from her position as state assemblywoman for the opposition-held Selangor, adds worrying dimensions to the political use of modern IT.

First, it is not only the line between the local and the national that is being erased. The line between the private and the public is fading fast as well.

That is worrying indeed. Most urbanites in Malaysia of all races, especially in the Klang Valley where Wong lives, would undoubtedly consider Wong the victim. Mass media attempts to class the case as a "sex scandal" — and this happened on both sides of the Causeway — smack of shameless sensationalism, journalistic amateurism and political opportunism.

In the sanctity of her home, surely she is allowed to walk scantily dressed, sleep half-naked, even shower nude, and yes, have sex without clothes on. The culprits deserving punishment are those who facilitated the publicising of those pictures, regardless of whether they were taken with her permission or not.

The fact that she is an unmarried woman, and not a man, has had a serious impact on how the incident is being interpreted. Should a male politician, married or not, such as former Selangor Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Khir Toyo, for example, have been photographed in the nude while asleep, the fallout would have been minimal, even comical.

The Wong case also shows the disturbing shrinkage of moral space when the private and the local are technologically subsumed under the public and the national.

Moral values do differ geographically, individually, culturally and according to lifestyle. This diversity is denied when such a case gets politicised, and here, the supposed sensitivities of the vocally most religious, most parochial, most traditional and most rural are allowed to define the national public norm. Wong is being sacrificed to appease illiberal elements within the opposition. Surely, this is not what the Pakatan Rakyat is fighting for.

A political cyber war has started in Malaysia. While we thought that the old would be at the mercy of the new in such a showdown, it is time to realise that, in truth, the more desperate and more immoral has the edge.

Malaysia court sets date for Anwar sodomy trial

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) - - Malaysia's high court has set a new date for Anwar Ibrahim's sodomy hearing, his counsel has said, voicing fears that the opposition leader will not get a fair trial.

Sankara Nair told AFP that the high court has said it will now try Anwar, a former deputy prime minister, July 8 rather than July 1 for sodomy charges levelled by a former aide.

"We are not fully prepared for the trial because we do not have the full set of documents. The prosecution has not given us crucial documents to help us in our defence. It will lead to (an) unfair trial," he said.

The lawyer said that among the documents the defence needs are witness statements, CCTV footage and original swabs taken from Anwar and his accuser for re-testing.

Sankara also said that the trial judge would hear Anwar's request to have the charge dropped on the same date.

"We maintain the charge is baseless and should be withdrawn. There is no case against Anwar," he said.

The opposition leader said last week that the charge against him should be dropped because it was a "political ploy" but vowed to fight hard in court to clear his name.

In an interview with AFP, he voiced concern false evidence would be introduced in a bid to jail him and end his political career.

"It's a convenient way for UMNO to get rid of me to settle their political problem," he said, referring to the United Malays National Organisation which is the dominant party in the ruling National Front coalition.

Anwar, 61, has consistently rejected the allegations levelled by a 23-year-old former aide -- the same charge that saw him jailed a decade ago -- as a government conspiracy to derail his plan to topple the ruling coalition.

Sodomy, even between consenting adults, is illegal in predominantly Muslim Malaysia and carries a penalty of 20 years' imprisonment.

Anwar has the best ever chance of ousting the weak National Front government that has ruled Malaysia since 1957 after the opposition deprived the government of a two-thirds majority in 2008 elections.

The opposition leader is currently out on a 20,000-ringgit bail (5,700 dollars) pending his trial but supporters have expressed fears that it might be revoked during the hearing.

Practising in Perak

For federal battles to come

WHEN three legislators in Perak, one of five of opposition-ruled Malaysian states, switched sides in February, overturning a narrow majority in the 59-seat assembly, the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) was cock-a-hoop. After a big electoral setback last year, the long-dominant UMNO was at last taking the fight to the opposition, led by its nemesis, Anwar Ibrahim, a former deputy prime minister. Loyalists credited the defections, reportedly induced by the threat of corruption probes, to the bare-knuckle tactics of Najib Razak, since sworn in as prime minister in place of the mild-mannered Abdullah Badawi. Taking back Perak was just the start, UMNO snarled.

Perak was indeed the start of something, but not the rollback of Malaysia’s opposition, as foreseen by UMNO and its ruling coalition partners. Instead it has snowballed into a constitutional crisis that reveals the wobbly underpinnings of a democracy yet to be tested by a handover of power at the federal level. On May 7th, amid scuffles at Perak’s parliament, UMNO’s man was installed as chief minister. Scores of people were arrested, including the speaker of the house, who was bundled away by plainclothes police. He had objected to the takeover as it had never been put to a vote in the assembly.

On May 11th it was the opposition’s turn to crow. The High Court ruled that its man, Nizar Jamaluddin, was still the chief minister of Perak as his removal in February was illegal. He had been removed not, as is usual in parliamentary systems, by his elected peers but by Perak’s sultan, one of Malaysia’s hereditary state rulers. Sultan Azlan Shah had sealed the controversial takeover on February 5th, ignoring an appeal from Mr Jamaluddin to dissolve the house and hold snap elections.

The opposition’s euphoria was short-lived. The next day UMNO successfully obtained a stay from an appeals court against the reinstatement of Mr Jamaluddin. That decision allowed Zambry Kadir, UMNO’s candidate, to return on May 13th as caretaker chief minister. Grotesquely, in a blog posting, Mr Kadir likened his grubby power play to the struggles of Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi.

A fast-track deliberation by the appeals court should resolve the case in the next week or so. But the political fallout is much harder to fix. Should the obstreperous assembly reconvene, more scuffles are likely, says James Chin, a political scientist at Monash University’s campus in Kuala Lumpur. One way out, it seems, is to hold fresh elections in Perak. Yet that is exactly what UMNO fears most after a run of embarrassing defeats in state and federal polls. Ministers complain that by-elections are a waste of public money. In the case of Perak, the legal and legislative routes have not been exhausted, argues Khairy Jamaluddin (no relation), a senior UMNO official.

The opposition is expected to win again in Perak, as it did in March 2008 in an election that saw the UMNO-led National Front lose its cherished two-thirds majority in parliament. Mr Anwar subsequently sought to persuade 30 ruling MPs to cross the floor, the same tactic used in Perak. His advisers argued that this was justified as he planned to dissolve the house and return power to the people, betting on victory. In the end, Mr Anwar’s carrot went unbitten. But it dangles still, and UMNO knows it.

The bigger question posed by the proxy war in Perak is what happens if the levers of federal power should one day slip from UMNO’s hands, as has seemed inevitable since last year’s election. Entrenched political elites rarely go quietly. A politicised civil service and security apparatus might resist an opposition victory, and look to the judiciary and, possibly, the sultans for support. Mr Anwar knows this, and is courting power-brokers in the system. But the danger of civil unrest should not be dismissed lightly. That is particularly true if UMNO decides to play on tensions between Malaysia’s majority Malays and its ethnic-Chinese and Indian minorities.

Until the Perak storm broke, Mr Najib had been steering a mildly reformist course. A handful of political prisoners have been freed, including ethnic Indians jailed after rowdy anti-government protests in 2007. Regulations on Islamic banking and insurance, and on local-ownership restrictions in selected service sectors were liberalised. But the core grievances of non-Malays over statutory privileges for the Malays remain. These privileges, staunchly defended by UMNO, were introduced in 1971, two years after deadly race riots in Kuala Lumpur. The riots began after UMNO suffered election losses to Chinese-based opposition parties. The date, by coincidence, was May 13th 1969.

Whither Malaysian Politics?

Since the 8 March 2008 general election, Malaysian political development and change has never been as vibrant and dramatic as before. The “political tsunami” that swept away the 50-year political hegemony of the Barisan Nasional (BN) has given Malaysians a taste of “People’s Power” for the first time.

But this “People’s Power” is not yet a mature one. There is freedom of speech, more so for non-governmental magazines publications, internet blogs and online newspapers, but less so for the (controlled) mainstream newspapers especially the Malay presses. Public debates on political issues, on television shows as well as public ceramah enjoy a higher degree of openness. Yet, several public gatherings have been selectively quashed by police intervention. These include the ISA candlelight vigils and the countrywide cycling event organised by the Oppressed People’s Network (Jerit). And police have intervened and broken up a few ceramah ahead of by-elections.

Whither Malaysian politics? Is Malaysia going to be a mature democracy or will we witness a return to the era of an autocratic regime? Or is it muddling through a transition that will leave us somewhere in between? These are not simple questions to answer.

But we can learn much from our neighboring country’s experiences. A look at the historical events in the Philippines might give us some hypothetical answers. I will provide four possible scenarios for Malaysian politics. I argue that a return to authoritarianism is doomed to failure. But I raise a doubt on the political behavior of the Malaysian people, who play a significant role in regime change.

I am not arguing that the Malaysian common folks are ignorant and do not want a change. My doubt is the unexplored political behavior of this “realm” of politics, which Pakatan Rakyat (PR) has not yet learned from the BN.

Political drama on the stage

The euphoria of the political tsunami began to subside when a whole series of political events followed. First, was the dispute within PR on the distribution of state assembly seats especially in Perak and the uncertainty over the appointment of its Chief Minister. Then, Anwar’s announcement of the possibility of PR forming a new federal government. The Sabah Progressive Party (Sapp) was the first to withdraw from the BN. The withdrawal gave high hopes for the PR supporters that ‘September 16’ would materialise. But, as we all know, it did not succeed. Then, the list just goes on and on, culminating with the political fiasco in Perak and the sudden Elizabeth Wong episode.

The change of Perak state government has made many Malaysians; especially Perakians disgusted and at the same time doubtful. People felt betrayed and angry by the decision made by the three defecting politicians. It is no surprise that many were upset.

The chronology of the political drama began with the defections of the Bota Umno state assembly member Nasaruddin Hashim followed by the ‘missing-in-action’ PKR state assembly members Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi and Mohd Osman Jailu ahead of their corruption court cases. Then came the sudden show of support for the BN by the three PR’s state assemblypersons’, the third being DAP state assembly member Hee Yit Foong. All three appeared side by side with Prime Minister to-be Najib Razak over TV news and finally came the meeting with the Sultan of Perak.

Currently, most Malaysians are in doubt whether the formation of the new state government is constitutionally proper or otherwise. (See malaysiakini.com, 6 February 2009) Without passing through the (much-debated) dissolution of the state assembly, the appointment of Zambry Abdul Kadir as the new Menteri Besar has forced Menteri Besar Mohammed Nizar Jamaluddin to take the matter to court. The fiasco continues with the now much-debated issue of whether the Perak Sultan’s decision has legal basis and is grounded in the constitution.

Karpal Singh also sought legal means, this time not directed at the new state assembly but looking at the “constitutional” and customary right of the Sultan. Aside from that, Karpal also criticised and blamed Anwar Ibrahim, Lim Guan Eng and Lim Kit Siang for PR’s political disaster in Perak.

What has happened within Pakatan Rakyat – leaving aside their two by-election victories on 7 April? What has happened to the politicians in whom many have placed their hopes? What has happened between Umno and the royal family? These are the doubts that many Malaysians would like to clear.

The semi-nude photograph episode involving PKR’s Elizabeth Wong is the most distasteful and disgraceful drama that Malaysian political history has witnessed since the Anwar sodomy case in 1998. Unlike before, this event has twisted Malaysian politics from racial politics and the politics of suppression into the politics of intrusion into a person’s personal life, character assassination and conspiratorial politics.

Possible scenarios

What do the above events tell us? There are two political manifestations. On the one hand, it reveals that the maturity of PR as a coalition is weak. PR is facing internal rivalry besides pressure from the BN. Further, PR is not yet a firm coalition that can face the realpolitik of external pressures, particularly from Umno.

On the other hand, we witnessed a comeback attempt by the BN, especially Umno, which reflected Najib’s desperation to consolidate his power ahead of the March Umno general assembly and Umno’s lack of a political strategy, apart from racial and gutter politics.

What then are the possible scenarios? There are four possible scenarios:
• a return to authoritarianism;
• less authoritarian but no further liberalisation;
• a liberal era, and
• PR to become another BN.


The comeback of authoritarianism

BN will continue to use gutter and racial politics to consolidate its power as shown by recent political events. The semi-nude photographs episode is unlike what happened to Anwar Ibrahim and certainly not similar to Chua Soi Lek’s case, though some quarters might argue otherwise.

Both these cases involved top politicians, with the former being deputy Prime Minister and the latter a former MCA vice president. Both are also male politicians. More importantly, both cases were highly linked to internal political rivalry that happened during political crises. That is to say, if both Anwar and Chua had not been politically assassinated, their enemies would have lost their political hegemony altogether. Hence, a direct, planned, quick, and openly orchestrated political assassination was deemed necessary.

In Elizabeth Wong’s case, she was the victim of a political power struggle between two political blocs, namely PR and BN. It is not yet proven that the episode was politically oriented. But if this is the case, then it is similar to cases of political conspiracy, “dirty” and gutter politics. The only difference is that she is not a high-ranking politician and had never had a political career of any sort that was similar to Anwar’s and Chua’s.

Political assassinations have now gone ‘behind the scene’ and appear unplanned unlike the much more openly orchestrated image assassination in the public sphere that both Anwar and Chua endured: both were publicly alleged or rumoured to have engaged in sexual acts, a form of “constructed” public image assassinations. In contrast, the Elizabeth Wong episode was without any rumour of any sort; yet it appeared to be orchestrated “behind the scene.”

On 19 February 2009, Umno Youth leader Hishamuddin Hussien and his followers organised a rally at PWTC. A closer listening to his speeches (see malaysiakini.com video on 19 February) revealed a heightened calling for “Ketuanan Melayu.” In general the speeches revolved around the rhetoric of “kestabilan dan keamanan” (stability and harmony); bangsa (nation); “hormat kepada raja” (respect for the Malay royalty), which were juxtaposed to Malaysian history of political struggles and its political harmony.

A betrayal of the raja or disrespect to the raja’s decision in the formation of the new Perak state government or even questioning the decision could subject one to condemnation as a penderhaka (traitor). This interpretation of political history and rhetoric translates to just one conclusion: “ketuanan Melayu” represented by respect to Malay royalty.

BN or Umno is still engaging in the racial politics of “ketuanan Melayu.” This time, the rhetoric does not revolve around the disputes over the Malays’, Chinese, or Indians’ rights but the royalty. The politics of new bottles filled with old wine attempts to seek a return of old politics.

In a seminar talk organised by a Mandarin online newspaper, merdekareview.com and The Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall on 17 February, the DAP Bukit Bendera Member of Parliament, Liew Chin Tong, argued that Najib attempted to put forth a political strategy similar to his late father Tun Razak’s. In the midst of political crises such as the May 13 crisis, Umno regained its power in 1969 by turning chaos through racial riots to its advantage. Similarly, Najib was alleged to have been creating political crises to begin in Perak in order to create a political climate for intervention.

Such an attempt is doomed to failure. History lessons from the Philippines have shown that Ferdinand Marcos attempt to come back to power amidst political instability and crises sparked his downfall. Marcos had to flee with his billion dollars of cash and jewellery to Hawaii.

Marcos’ downfall was the result of a combination and the culmination of human rights abuses, rampant corruption, and the suppression of freedom and democratic rights of civil society during his Martial Law era from 1972 - 1986.

In 1983, the assassination of Ninoy Aquino at Manila Airport and the widely publicised photo of his body lying on the floor at the airport shook Filipinos. The assassination revealed to the people that the act of violence was an act of betrayal of the people, an act of disrespect to democracy, and an act of denial of the people’s freedom of choice. In February 1986, Filipinos demonstrated and gathered at Edsa and succeeded in toppling the authoritarian regime. The return to old politics was doomed to fail.


Less authoritarian rule but no further liberalisation

A second scenario will be that BN has learned its lessons but will not relinquish its power for further democratisation. Opting for the latter will spell the end of the political careers of certain BN personnel. Unless these politicians are willing to change, they will allow for less democratisation. Given the events that are happening now, it is unlikely they are going to opt for less authoritarian rule and further liberalisation.


A liberal PR or another BN

A liberal era will be born – that is, if PR survives the political fiasco. Let’s be optimistic despite the “demise” of PR caused by BN. PR has not yet been institutionalised as a stable coalition in its ideology, its unity to sort out differences, and its ability to build a valid political platform for the people.

Besides that, PR will need to get used to realpolitik – that is, gutter politics, money politics and repressive politics of BN/Umno. It will have to find a way of maneuvering and learning how to fight against Umno hegemony within the system.

If PR survives these, it will become a more institutionalised political coalition. A liberal era will be born - if PR keeps its promises of liberalisation.

It is possible, however, that PR could become another BN. Let’s not forget that PR is made up of a variety of “politicians”. It includes those who are committed to democratisation, those with vested interest such as the three musketeers, and those who are susceptible to realpolitik pressure from Umno.

Hypothetically speaking, if PR survives the political pressures through a strategy of know-how and political maneuvering within the system, it will not be surprising that some of PR’s political figures will begin to compete for a revamp in the political distribution of power - at the expense of democratisation.

The history of the Philippines between 1898 to 1901, when Emilio Aguinaldo, the President of the Malolos Republic, was attempting to strengthen his political authority from the intervention of the United States, is revealing. One of the strategies that Aguinaldo used was to reorganise the power structure in Manila as well as in the provinces.

A number of commissioners were appointed to organise elections for the cause. In doing so, Aguinaldo made a decree, which was known as decree June 18, 1898. It stipulated that only those 20 or above were eligible to vote; those “friendly” towards the idea of independence; and those who had “high character, social position and honorable conduct, both in the community and the suburbs.”

In other words, only the elites – the learned and the rich - of the country were eligible to vote and compete for political positions.

The consequence of such stipulation was that the latter political administrations were controlled by those elites with less interest in independence, with vested (economic) interests; and less committed to the revolution. That left the masses (mostly peasants), non-elites, revolutionary elites and military personnel committed to the revolution to continue fighting for independence. In short, Aguinaldo had a chance to revamp the Philippines’ political structure with committed political personnel but instead prioritised politicians with vested interests.

Unexplored "realms"

An article published in merdekareview.com on 19 February stated that there was a hint that the Perak crisis was about to happen. It found out that articles were already being published by Utusan Malaysia and interviews with several Malay organisations and personnel about the then PR-controlled state government on the issue of land entitlement for the (Chinese) new villages. Land is another symbol that is seen as part of Malay rights. Therefore, the PR government’s proposal had intimidated hardcore supporters of “Tanah Melayu”. As a result, Umno used such racial politic for its own ends.

It is certainly possible that the land issue was of concern for the Malays, especially rural Malays - but let us think out of the box for the time being. I would argue that there is more than just “Tanah Melayu.” There are other politics that we have taken for granted.

What about the politics of morality? What about the politics of charisma? What about the politics of “taking care of the people’s welfare” in the kampung areas (note, not bandar or bandaraya)?

These are the unexplored “realms” that have not yet been surveyed - the way rural folks ‘do’ politics. Most analyses are too caught up with the racial politics and electoral politics, which are important too, but these have limitations in representing the political perspective of rural folks. Seldom do we attempt to understand their political perspectives (not culture), their articulation, their desire, their views of authority, and their way of interpreting change.

Remember that recently Khairy Jamaluddin teamed up with AirAsia in the former’s MyTeam football project, which was to make “dreams come true” for the rural folks to play Manchester United in London? We might argue that this sort of tour is a waste of money and without meaningful political participation.

Whether we like it or not, it is precisely these sort of Umno ways of political engagement with the people that has constructed a moral political platform from the grassroots. Thus, this is politics of a different sort. Not authoritarianism, not democra-tisation, not corruption or human right issues, but a politics that is perhaps based on morality, personality, charisma and commitment.

Likewise, it is not gutter politics but moral politics that attracts people. This sort of politics has been engaged by Umno/BN throughout its 50 years of hegemony. On the whole, Umno has had solid support from the rural folks, which does not necessary translate to national politics, but it has solid ground in local politics as seen in the 7 April by-elections.

This different sort of BN regime might remain in the rural area for years to come, which PR is lacking and way behind! The votes cast for PR was not because PR was a better alternative than the BN. Neither was it because Umno failed to deliver. It was, perhaps (if we have conducted a thorough survey), simply to teach Umno a lesson for its arrogance, its negligence, and the frustrations caused by the economic downturn.

March 8 was an “unexpected” result for the BN, for the PR, and for the the Malaysian people. We do not yet know ‘the commoners’’ voting behaviour on March 8. What PR should do now is to look at the politics of rural folks, which Umno or BN has long ago done so much work on. Is PR ready for a political ideological change?

Epilogue

Both BN/Umno and PR will need to learn their lessons. A return to old politics would be political suicide for BN and PR. Equally, a lesson not learned would be political suicide for both. Both face huge challenges ahead. The former is required to strip off its old political ideologies and to engage in new, liberal and moral politics ahead. The latter needs to solidify its liberal political agenda more forcefully and to learn from its enemies’ good deeds.

Indonesia has taken 10 years to reform and is still continuing to do so. Are Malaysian voters ready for a regime change? Are we ready to face the new and more frustrating challenges ahead? Whither Malaysian politics? Let us explore this further in the next few years.