Category: Politics & government

Categories
Politics & government

[2486] Glad Anwar is not guilty

I am one of many that expected Anwar Ibrahim to be found guilty. I expected so not because I believe he is guilty, but just because I distrust the Malaysian justice system. And when the judge ruled in favor of Anwar, I found myself pleasantly surprised. I am glad for the ruling for two reasons.

First, like I have mentioned, I do not believe that the former Deputy Prime Minister is guilty as charged. The whole episode appears ridiculous from the outset. The circumstances of the whole charge are suspect.

This of course opens me up to the charge of cherry picking: when the judgment works unfavorably, the system is accused as biased but when it works favorably, the system is fine. In my defense, I am not a fan of Anwar and I maintain certain distrust of him. That said, I think I can see gross injustice for what it is; this is not so much about Anwar Ibrahim per se.

It is really also about, if a person as influential as him can be treated like that, what about the ordinary man on the streets like me? Besides, we all (still) have a stake in this society. To have a gross injustice goes quietly in the night will spell trouble later if not immediately.

Second, which is probably more important and more concrete is that I really do not want to see another 1998 in terms of political strive. Furthermore, I personally have run out of enthusiasm for large protests and I definitely have issues with large and sustained protests like the ones in Bangkok not too long ago. I do not want to see a Bangkok in Kuala Lumpur.

I am a liberal but there is such a thing as too much protests. I am not contesting the rights of the protestors (as long as they are peaceful, and peaceful in the truest sense of the word and not according to the Peaceful Assembly Bill 2011). The point I am bringing up is that continuous protests introduce protest fatigue. That fatigue can easily take away popularity of a cause. It makes many angry in the most unproductive manner. And I think, politically and strategically, this is an important factor that must not be discounted.

If a large protest had erupted today, it would blow up a conflict within me: between the distaste of large, sustained protests and the need to stand up. But with the ruling, I have escaped that seemingly impossible knot.

Despite all that, this is only a High Court ruling. Possibly, there is some way to go still, if the prosecution is to appeal the judgment today.

Categories
Politics & government

[2482] A big coup for DAP?

Mohd Ariff Sabri Abdul Aziz and Aspan Alias are joining the DAP. This is big because it is yet another big step in widening the party’s appeal to the larger Malaysian demographics.

Let us face it. The DAP is mainly seen as a Chinese party. The characterization may be unfair to some extent because there is significant number of Indians in the party and there are definitely Malays in it. But the party derives its support mainly from Chinese areas and I do not think that can be dismissed easily. Even if it was untrue, the typical Malays who can be counted on to vote for UMNO and Barisan Nasional see the DAP a Chinese party. As the cliché goes, in politics, perception matters.

This is a problem because if the DAP needs to survive in the long term, it cannot merely depend on Chinese voters and other non-Malays/non-Bumiputras. The Chinese demographics is not inspiring from the perspective of electoral politics. It is shrinking due to both the relative prosperity of the community vis-à-vis the general population (number of child per couple/per person drops as prosperity increases; happens almost everywhere) and emigration. To secure its future, the DAP needs to be more Malaysian and that means more diversified support base. That also means non-urban voters.

There are efforts to do that. In the several months after I returned to Malaysia, I managed to observe the DAP machinery during the Sarawak election, thanks to Tony Pua. As I have written previously, despite the seats in Kuching having a heavy Chinese characteristic, the banners were written in multiple languages for the first time. Those multilingual messages at times can be dizzying and but is the cost of inclusiveness. And of course, this has been the norms in the Peninsula.

And of course, there are Zairil Khir Johari and Tunku Abdul Aziz Tunku Ibrahim. While their presence and effort are valuable to the DAP, there are just not enough Malays to translate those presence and effort into heavy political influence. Furthermore for Tunku Aziz, I do not think the increasingly competitively vicious political atmosphere will do good for the gentleman that is him. I am taking risk in saying this because I know both of them personally and I do appreciate their opinion of me but both of them are urban Malays whom a majority of Malays are unable to relate immediately.

Ariff Sabri Aziz and Aspan Alias are the different kind of Malays. Both are, or were, UMNO members and relatively influential at that. Their participation in the DAP immediately eats into UMNO’s base by virtue of their value as insiders. Secondly, they do communicate in Malay and that is a big plus point. They are widely read and that makes their entry into DAP all the more important. I do not know much about Aspan Alias but Ariff Sabri Aziz’s former connection to no less than UMNO President Najib Razak says a lot about how big a coup this is.

Yet another point to share. Zairil and Tunku Aziz have been accused as DAP or Chinese stooges, being token Malays and all that. With the presence of more influential Malays who are unlikely satisfied to become merely passive members, together with those already in the party, one has to wonder, is that accusation valid in the first place? One has to ask, why exactly are the Malays joining the DAP?

Categories
Politics & government

[2474] So bankrupt of issues, they squabble over an insignificant banner

I have been using the word farce all too often these days. I find this is really bad because it suggests that my vocabulary is limited. I admit, it is limited to simple words but to demonstrate it in the public so openly, especially for a person who regularly pretends to write columns in both online and the more traditional newspapers, it is bad business. But I really cannot help it. There are so many instances where the word describes exactly what the instances are.

Here is yet another one of those farces that is becoming a national issue: at a small protest at UMNO headquarters organized by university students, somebody without approval lowered down a banner that had the Prime Minister’s face on it. The protestors were highlighting the issue of academic freedom, responding to events that demonstrated much more needs to be done with respect to undue political influence exerted by the federal government on Malaysian campuses.

And guess what attracted the most attention nationally?

You would be too kind to the farcical politics to suggest the issue of academic freedom is the crux. Or maybe even freedom of assembly.

The biggest issue by far that has arisen from the whole brouhaha is the act of lowering the banner. Granted, the act itself was wrong but is that really the biggest issue UMNO has over the incident?

And it does not end there. The education deputy minister Saifuddin Abdullah whom decided to entertain the protestors at UMNO HQ by agreeing to accept a memorandum from the student group has been asked to resign by some for the whole farce.[1] Indirectly, some UMNO members and supporters are blaming the deputy minister for that.

Really? Seriously? A resignation for such a trivial thing?

C’mon, UMNO members. There are ministers with actual scandal like Shahrizat Jalil and she is getting away with murder.

In the end, do you know what does this illustrate?

Quite simply, it is the bankruptcy of issues. Of all issues there to pick from, UMNO and its members chose the most trivial to fight for.

I say it again. This is a farcical fraca. Petty. This should be a comedy or a satire played in the theater, not on the national stage. Alas…

Maybe, this is a manifestation of a conservative-liberal tussle within UMNO, but surely, there are bigger conflicts to play out, something less petty to sweat over.

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

[1] — KUALA LUMPUR, 20 Dis — Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah kini berhadapan dengan serangan daripada beberapa pihak dari dalam Umno dan proparti itu, dengan ada yang mendesak agar beliau meletakkan jawatan berhubung insiden menurunkan bendera wajah Datuk Seri Najib Razak, Ahad lalu.

Serangan itu dibuat menerusi mesej-mesej Twitter dan entri dalam blog-blog.

Timbalan Menteri Pengajian Tinggi itu, yang dilihat sebagai antara pemimpin Umno bersikap terbuka dalam isu-isu berkaitan penuntut institusi pengajian tinggi (IPT) dan Akta Universiti dan Kolej Universiti (AUKU) digesa memikul tanggungjawab insiden kumpulan mahasiswa menurunkan dan kemudian menaikkan semula bendera Najib di pekarangan ibu pejabat Umno di sini.

Selain kritikan di dunia siber, Persatuan Alumni Pemimpin Pelajar IPT Malaysia bercadang berhimpun di pekarangan Kementerian Pengajian Tinggi di Putrajaya petang esok.

Presidennya Mohd Shahar Abdullah berkata, pihaknya mahu melahirkan sokongan kepada kepimpinan Najib selaku perdana menteri dan presiden Umno susulan insiden kelmarin. [Saifuddin jadi sasaran desakan letak jawatan susulan insiden bendera Najib. The Malaysian Insider. December 20 2011]

Categories
Politics & government

[2470] Progress brought by better actors

The war drums are being sounded again. The drummers are telling us the election is around the corner yet again. Looking back, I am not so sure much tangible things have been achieved since the last time the drums were sounded.

It has been awhile since the last one. I remember I was angry at many things that it would take a book to list down those sources of anger. I thought I took some initiatives then to channel my anger appropriately. And I voted for the first time in my life in a national election. Now, it is almost four years later and I am disappointed at which things have gone so far.

I am unsure what I had hoped out of that election. I know I did not expect anything out of this world. I did not expect things would change all the sudden into my liking. I knew real, structural, permanent change would take a lot of time and work. Maybe, it would even take a whole generation. It would be naïve of me to think that the immediate years after the 2008 election would reinvent Malaysia into something better.

I do not really know what better means really, but it is out there and I know Malaysia is not there yet. It is just one of those Goldilocks things. It is a trial-and-error exercise. When it is right, one just know that it is right. When at first you do not succeed, you try and try again.

As I inspect my hopes for the country, or rather the community that I live in and interact with, I am starting to suspect that this hope is unattainable. It keeps shifting forward and it does not stay still. It is ever out of my reach. I suppose it is progress and there is progress since 2008.

There are bolder dreams now, swankier presentations and more executions. Yet, one does not need to do much to be better if the Abdullah administration is the benchmark.

Really, it is hard to see if progress we have seen in the last few years is of any real meaning in the grand scheme of things. Racial and religious issues are still flaring up purposefully by some groups. Pick up some of the local newspapers and the headlines are ever ready to prove agitprops are at work. I have learned to dismiss the fear mongering but many have not, and this is angering. Many have yet to learn what is real and what is imagined.

Corruption is still there. As new controversies emerged, old ones go unresolved.

And those in power still lie. The lies are more getting sophisticated with public relations companies as coaches and makeup artists, but lies are lies. In one hand, those in power show that they have something positive to offer, but in the other hand behind their back, mud and slime.

Maybe, after all those historic change and transformation, what we have now for the most part of it are better actors.

That is progress, I suppose.

Categories
Economics Politics & government

[2469] The United States of Europe, on the way

There are several stages of economic integration.

Free trade agreement is probably the lowest of all integrations. It seeks just free flow of capital and labor across borders.

The next step is either custom or monetary union together with a common market. Member states surrender monetary policy to a central authority while maintaining independent fiscal policy. Trade duties are harmonized across the union.

The next stage is fiscal union where individual governments cede their power over fiscal policy to a central authority.

The European Union is on the verge of becoming a fiscal union, making history less than just two decades after adopting a monetary union in all of its sense. Today at an important summit, a majority of European leaders voted for stricter fiscal deficit rules. They believed the best way to solve the debt crisis is to integrate further. Integration will eliminate the crisis of confidence Europe currently suffers from, much like how a troubled California will not trouble the United States by much.

This integrationist logic is persistent among Europeans. When Europe suffered from a serious currency crisis long ago, the then European leaders thought the best way to eliminate volatility between currencies that adversely affected trade in Europe was to have a monetary union.

This is really a big jump. Usually, debates on exchange rate mechanism gyrates between floating or fixed regime. Europe chose to not only have a fixed regime, they chose a fixed regime by marriage. You cannot get a more fixed regime than a monetary union.

Now, the thinking is that the best way to address the debt crisis to have a fiscal union.

Yes, it is an exaggeration to call the recent development in Europe as outright fiscal union. But the new agreement is a big push towards that direction, towards the United States of Europe.