Category: Politics & government

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Politics & government

[2494] Cheapening transformation

Transformation is a big word. It is not some word that should be used lightly. Use it too often for the smallest of things, it will turn into a cliché and it will lose its meaning soon afterwards. In Malaysia, that is already happening with all the stress on transforming Malaysia under the 1Malaysia banner.

And so, in conferring an award to Prime Minister Najib Razak, World Chinese Economic Forum’s Michael Yeoh said, “[y]ou have contributed significantly to the transformation of the Malaysian nation.”[1]

Transformation of the Malaysian nation?

With the ETP appearing stalling or at more kindly put, going slowly, economic liberalization halted halfway through, along with half-baked realization of the September 15 announcement of the so-called political transformation program, and moreover, not even 3 years in office, I would think there is hardly anything that could be transformed. Tweak yes, but transform? Far from it.

Remember, transformation is a big word. It connotes an action that changed something completely into something else. Maybe the ETP has it right when it uses (and overuses) the word transform. At least, the objective of being (yet another overused phrase) high-income nation suggests a completely different Malaysian economic reality that prevails today.

A moth into a butterfly, that is transformation. Ass to a donkey? Maybe not so.

In the past three years, what transformation have we seen? Is Malaysia today any different that in 2009? Some potholes in the city have been there even before the PM assumed office with Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s mandate. It will not take a transformation to cover the potholes. Yet, here we are living in transformation, so claimed Michael Yeoh.

You cheapen the word Mr. Yeoh. But I guess, since everybody uses it so cheaply, it does not hurt much. How more cheaply can the cliché get, eh?

A mere less-than-three-years, and Mr. Yeoh and the WCEF granted the PM a lifetime award.

If anything, the supposedly transformation has hardly begun in earnest. The jury is still out there but Mr. Yeoh and the WCEF have jumped the gun. Overwrought, them.

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved
[1] — PUTRAJAYA, Jan 25 — Datuk Seri Najib Razak was crowned today the “Father of Moderation and Transformation” by the World Chinese Economic Forum (WCEF), which said the prime minister’s “fair and just leadership” had benefited the Chinese community “tremendously”.

Najib was also conferred the “Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award” by the WCEF for his work and commitment towards transforming Malaysia.

“You (Najib) have contributed significantly to the transformation of the Malaysian nation.

“The Chinese community has benefitted tremendously from you for your fair and just leadership,” WCEF chairman Datuk Michael Yeoh said in his speech at the conferment ceremony here today. [Chinese economic group calls Najib ”˜Father of Transformation and Moderation’. Clara Chooi. The Malaysian Insider. January 25 2011]

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Economics Politics & government Society

[2487] Religious conservativism and priorities

Words for Malaysian religious conservatives, maybe especially for Hasan Ali and his sympathizers.

In November, Hazem Salah Abu Ismail, an independent Salafist cleric and presidential candidate, was asked by an interviewer how, as president, he would react to a woman wearing a bikini on the beach? ”She would be arrested,” he said.

The Al Nour Party quickly said he was not speaking for it. Agence France-Presse quoted another spokesman for Al Nour, Muhammad Nour, as also dismissing fears raised in the news media that the Salafists might ban alcohol, a staple of Egypt’s tourist hotels. ”Maybe 20,000 out of 80 million Egyptians drink alcohol,” he said. ”Forty million don’t have sanitary water. Do you think that, in Parliament, I’ll busy myself with people who don’t have water, or people who get drunk?” [Thomas Friedman. Political Islam Without Oil. New York Times. January 10 2012]

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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.

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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]