Anwar poyo saje?

It cannot be denied that the BN was rocked to it’s core in the 838 tsunami. Malaysians voted for change. However, to claim that voters voted for a change of Federal Government is, at best, a stretch. Therefore, I am very concerned about recent rumblings that Anwar Ibrahim is looking to trigger East Malaysian flip-flopping to wrest control of the Federation away from the BN. BUT WAIT! Didn’t I say just a few days ago that “East Malaysia must rise to the occasion to bring about a change in Federal Government”?! Nola, read carefully…

What I said was this:  

“Is there anyone who can save UMNO? I repeat my earlier call… if things go shitside up, East Malaysia must rise to the occasion and bring about a change of Federal Government.” 

That remains, at this time, a pretty big “if”. My belief is this: if UMNO’s reaction to the election outcome is an attempt to characterize the BN’s loss as a hijacking of Malaysian political momentum by the non-Malays, and the ultranationalists in their ranks start to rattle their sabers, then there should be a clear indication from the East Malaysian parties as a block that any trouble caused by UMNO in the Peninsula would be responded to by en masse departure from the Barisan Nasional and consequently UMNO’s removal from Federal Government. That would be a justified act, to ensure the viability and safety of the Federation.

But encouraging this “lompat-si-katak-lompat” politics that East Malaysia is so shamefully known for, is not something that can be defended easily. If there is a higher goal, then fine, but to welcome political defections simply because the so-called “Barisan Rakyat” has momentum is, quite frankly, shameful and hypocritical.

Voters voted for change, but they did not vote for a change of Federal Government – we must respect that, especially in the DAP’s case, where the rakyat voted for the message of “deny BN 2/3rds majority”, but as I said immediately in the wake of the tsunami: it wasn’t a vote for Islamic State, it wasn’t a vote for Malaysian Malaysia, and it wasn’t a vote for PKR’s new agenda which the majority of Malaysians – let’s be frank – know little about, other than that it promises to be “more fair to all”.

Nevertheless, if UMNO is putting it’s own hegemony over the peace and prosperity of the Federation, then the “Barisan Rakyat” has a responsibility to wrest Federal Government away from it, so they can take control of the executive and if need be – as commander-in-chief or whatever the Malaysian equivalent is – announce temporary short-term curfew, round up all the trouble-makers, restore the peace, make arrests – then get on with returning Malaysia’s democratic institutions and consequently put Malaysia on the path to peace and prosperity and genuine representative democracy. In this regard, I welcome Anwar Ibrahim’s rumblings because it sends a stern reminder to UMNO that if they screw up, they will lose Federal Government. But I sincerely hope his intention is just to put the fear of God and rakyat in UMNO, and not an indication of his immediate political ambitions.

And by the way, the so-called “Barisan Rakyat” does not exist – and not just because PAS and DAP can’t agree on Islamic State vs secularism, but in addition PKR and DAP can’t agree on “turun harga minyak esok” vs “remove subsidies, but channel oil profits to rakyat via tax credits or other means” – these are substansive and significant differences in policies, to the extent that they represent different ideologies, and yes that is important because you can’t have a coalition government that is so ideologically disparate. We may get rid of one set of problems, but inadvertently introduce serious new ones. Some reps will lose face, some would by definition fail to stick to election promises and some reps may feel the need to resign. Maybe PKR has the edge here over DAP and PAS, where the latter two would suffer the consequences of more clearly defined and more widely known positions (a double-edged sword, to be sure). Even in Selangor and Perak, the Sultans were concerned that the State governments would be shaky, how then would the “Barisan Rakyat” Federal Government be? You could counter this by pointing to Perlis and Terengganu, where there is dispute over the appointment of state government leaders – although that does show that UMNO itself is somewhat unstable, the level of instability is very different: in the case of Perlis and Terengganu, there is no (as yet) risk of a different party taking power, it’s just the leader that is uncertain. In Perak and Selangor, if things get really messy, the BN can regain control of the executive.

If Federal power is wrested through East Malaysian lompat-ing, without the intention of maintaining peace and prosperity given some obvious and alarming threat by the present regime, then I think it sets a black mark in the history of the country that – in time – we would all be ashamed of. Pre-emption is a tricky thing to get right. For Anwar to wrest power from the BN thru such means, he better have a bloody good reason, and evidence to go with it.

A cheap and easy criticism of my point of view here would be that, as a DAP member I have “perpetual opposition” mentality. Not at all, we have the Penang, Selangor, and Perak state governments. How is that opposition? It’s just that I am very emotionally invested in doing well in these states, I don’t want to make the mistake of “yang kejar tak dapat, yang dikandung berciciran”. I, for one, don’t want my children to blame my generation for screwing things up because we were impatient, and… *gulp*… arrogant. 

We would do well to remember that one of the main reasons for the BN’s downfall this time was to do with hubris. Remember that.