Author: Hafiz Noor Shams

For more about me, please read this.

Categories
Economics Politics & government Society

[1324] Of a grim signal for the opposition and possibly a bad survey

In both Turkey and Japan, voters’ main concern is the same: the health of the economy.

The Merdeka Centre for Opinion Research conducted a survey earlier in June and this is the result:

A survey by the Merdeka Centre for Opinion Research in June found that 76 per cent of Malays thought the economy was favourable, but only 45 per cent of Chinese and 58 per cent of Indians shared their view. [News Focus: Economy, crime main concerns of Malaysians. Darshni, Shamini. NST. August 7 2007]

That does not sound good for any opposition party that depends on Malay votes.

Regardless, this might be a result of a very confusing question:

Asked whether they thought Malaysia was lagging other economies but if programmes and other government efforts would help the country catch up, 24 per cent of Malays, 44 per cent of Chinese and 45 per cent of Indians disagreed. [News Focus: Economy, crime main concerns of Malaysians. Darshni, Shamini. NST. August 7 2007]

Do the participants disagree to the statement “the economy is lagging” or “government effort helps to catch up”?

And these results do not make sense, or at least something is missing.

On Islamisation, 91 per cent of Malays said they supported the idea while 82 per cent of Chinese and 58 per cent of Indians did not. [News Focus: Economy, crime main concerns of Malaysians. Darshni, Shamini. NST. August 7 2007]

Do read that together with:

Among those who felt the Islamisation process had a positive effect, 29 per cent said it instilled noble values and eight per cent said the religion helped reduce social ills and indecency. [News Focus: Economy, crime main concerns of Malaysians. Darshni, Shamini. NST. August 7 2007]

Only 29% of the sample agrees that Islamization instill noble values and only 8% agrees that religion reduces social ills but 91% of Malays support Islamization. Odd.

I believe a more meaningful way of presenting the results is to either divide the result regarding instillation of noble values into ethnic groups, or to have the percentage out of the total sample related to the question of support for Islamization instead of having it in its current form. Only through either one method does one could compare an apple to an apple. By reading this article from the New Straits Times, it is either the reporter has bad critical writing skill or the Merdeka Centre conducts unreliable survey.

I tried to clarify some of my confusion by looking for the actual survey. The Merdeka Centre’s site however is disappointing: nothing relevant could be found there.

But putting technical questions aside, could it be that the reason behind support for Islamization is neither about promoting noble values nor reducing social ills but mostly caused by something else?

And finally:

On Islamisation, 91 per cent of Malays said they supported the idea while 82 per cent of Chinese and 58 per cent of Indians did not. [News Focus: Economy, crime main concerns of Malaysians. Darshni, Shamini. NST. August 7 2007]

A concrete fact to support my earlier post.

Categories
Politics & government Society

[1323] Of unelected representatives have no mandate to represent everybody

There is strength in numbers… with all things equal, of course. Those active in politics realize this and they work hard to build up their bases. Some however pretend that they have similar support, claiming to represent a body while no member of the body could recall appointing any representative to speak for the members as one. Though this might seem odd to those with the right of mind, self-proclaimed but unelected representatives are as common as rats in the monsoon drain.

It is not hard to find an example or two.

One that comes to mind is the component parties of the Barisan Nasional. It is customary for those in UMNO to claim to speak for all Malays, claiming to represent all Malays. The same is true to MCA and MIC. This however is untrue because not all Malays agree to be represented by UMNO, or any other community for that matter. When presented with proof that these race-based parties do not represent every Malay, Chinese, Indian, etc as they claim to be, their way out is to accuse those that refused to be represented by them as traitors.

What these unelected representatives really mean by traitors really not traitors to the community but rather, traitors to the unelected leaders, which none has pledged loyalty to in the first place.

Another similar example relates to the religious conservative Muslims who claimed to speak for the whole Muslim community, as if the Muslim community is a monolith society with a single mind. When those that disagree raised their voice against these unelected representatives, the self-proclaimed leaders began calling those that have different minds as heretics. But the religious conservatives are strange animals. While they may play with exclusive politics game, when one genuine wishes to opt out of the community, these religious conservatives actively hinder one’s liberty to do so. A true catch-22 — they will shove you out of the door but they do not let you go out of the door. The minds of the religious conservatives are truly mindless.

In both cases, the trend is observable, as clear as daylight. The unelected representatives masquerade as the authorities of a community despite knowing full well that they have no organic mandate to speak for everybody in the community. When dissenting voice fills the air to remind the pretenders of that fact, these unelected representatives would accuse the reminders as traitors to the community. The accusation continues on and on until only those that agree with the unelected leaders, as well as those that are too afraid of being labeled as traitors, are the only ones left in the community.

Suddenly, only those that stay loyal to the unelected representative are the true members of the community. The others which were part of the original and more inclusive community are now the outsiders.

The unelected representatives have no mandate to represent us; they have no mandate to represent a community which has never appointed them as the speakers. These unelected representatives are merely pretenders, impostors, liars. Or at the very least, these unelected representatives assume that they have the support of the community; they simply assume too much.

Categories
Economics Politics & government

[1322] Of lesson from Japan

The recent Turkish election, which saw the conservative AKP gaining control of the Turkish legislature with a strong majority, taught the world the importance of a healthy economy. The recent Japanese upper house election unmistakably rings the same bell:

The vote was a rejection of Mr Abe’s priorities, which emphasise ideological issues of nationhood, such as instilling patriotic education, rewriting the pacifist constitution and expanding the role of the Japanese armed forces. Many Japanese are not opposed to such measures, but they rate them far below pocketbook concerns: a shortage of decent jobs for the young; stagnant wages; rising health-care costs; uncertain pensions; and swathes of the depopulated countryside missing out on the economic recovery that has taken hold in Tokyo and other big cities. Mr Abe’s blunder, contend Richard Katz and Peter Ennis from the Oriental Economist, a newsletter, was to think that the recovery would take care of these concerns by itself. [Keeping his head just above water. The Economist. August 2 2007]

What lesson do you think the upcoming Malaysian election will teach us?

Parties like DAP and PKR better memorize this lesson to heart before it is too late.

Categories
Liberty

[1321] Of your mandate is derived from the people, sir

It is amusing how Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi yesterday said that he had granted freedom to Malaysians. In the Malay daily Utusan Mingguan today:

“Saya bagi banyak kebebasan dan semua orang boleh bersuara, macam-macam boleh cakap tetapi pandai-pandailah uruskan kebebasan, kalau tidak dihargai semuanya (kebebasan) akan hilang” [Amaran PM — Keamanan boleh tergugat jika kebebasan bersuara disalah guna. Utusan Mingguan. August 4 2007]

That could be roughly translated into:

“I’ve granted freedom and all may speak freely but do practice freedom responsibly or else, it will disappear”

The Prime Minister forgets that he derives his mandate from the people; we, the people do not derive our rights from the PM.

Categories
Liberty

[1320] Mengenai fikir

Fikir, selamatkah kita di tangan tukang karut itu;
Fikir, selamatkah kita di tangan dalang wayang itu;
Fikir, selamatkah kita di tangan ahli koporat itu;
Fikir, selamatkah kita di tangan doktor jiwa itu;
Fikir, selamatkah kita di tangan pakar kitab itu;
Fikir, selamatkah kita di tangan tuhan-tuhan itu;

— Mohamad Nasir Mohamad, Anak-anak Kita