Azly Rahman
http://azlyrahman-illuminations.blogspot.com/2009/10/winner-in-bagan-pinang-negeri-sembilan.html
Isa Samad's second coming - into Minangkabau politics - signifies the coming of a disturbing age of loosening morality. What does a landslide victory mean?
Will we see a kingdom of peace on earth that the Minangkabau people inhabited? Will this "landslide victory" of an avalanche of postal votes establish another forty years of the reign of One Malaysia?
Let us look at the semiotics of Bagan Pinang - of the sign, signifier and the signified of this by-election that is telling Malaysians something about the shape of things to come.
The Negri Sembilan people have spoken. They have voted for corruption to reign. What does the victory say about hegemony and political immorality?
Thus spake the Minangkabaus
Negri Sembilan politics is "Menang Kerbau" politics. Hence, the name Minangkabau. It's a blood sport of Toros bullfighting, only that it is happening in a Third World country. Sometimes I do not know what all these mean - the elections, democracy, and the fierce struggle for regime change.
How must a corrupt regime be allowed to sustain itself? How must voters be allowed to continue to choose leaders that are corrupt to the bone? Political questions become philosophical musings - ultimately forces one to become an existentialist.
We are living in a world of cynicism and hopelessness. Of course, we do not expect every Malaysian to become an existentialist thinker and abandon the advancement of political will, but there must be a period in our evolution wherein we ought to step aside and think what is right and what is wrong in politics and how we address the question of meaningfulness, alienation, and revolution.
Existentialist thinkers such as Jean Paul Sartre, Franz Kafka, and Soren Kiekaargard have addressed the issue of human condition in a time of hopelessness and hegemony produced by the government of the day. In a world of big-time bullfighting - this "Menang Kerbau" and cowhead protest era - in which winning is a Machiavellian act, one is faced with an existential situation - what do all these mean?
Bagan Pinang was a game of high stakes and low stakes politics, as the anthropologist Clifford Geertz would put it, as analyzed in his work, "Deep Play: Notes on a Balinese cockfight". It is an occasion to symbolize the arrogant return of the politics of despotism - of the decadence of that two-decade rule. In this sign of arrogance lies the symbolism of a world of money-media-machinery-mind control.
In this symbolism lies the signifier of the continuation of old school hegemony and yet another phase of its transition. In this continuum of sign, symbol, and signifier lies a representation; that the people of Bagan Pinang specifically and Negri Sembilan generally are still mesmerized by the spectacle of old school hegemony and blinded by the argument of the "technicality of corruption".
If corruption can be turned into a technicist construct, what must other forms of expressions of dehumanization - the Internal Security Act, The University and University Colleges Act, The Official Secrets Act, etc. - be called? We will see more of the acts of rationalizing conducts that are blatantly irrational. How else can we explain police brutality, torture, religious intolerance, unexplained political murders, the rise of Malaysia's Hitlerian youth, the nexus between politics and the underworld, and so forth?
Tsunami of political immorality
Existentialists have generally abandoned the hope for divine intervention in the resolution of deteriorating human condition. Conditions in French Algeria particularly during the Algerian War, and the aftermath of World War II gave an inspiration for philosophers and humanists like Albert Camus, Jean Paul Sartre, and Franz Kafka to lose hope in Fate to intervene.
But in our times, religion need not be an opiate for the masses, nor a ‘ganja' for the delusional. From the experience of the liberation theologists in Latin America, South Africa, and the Philippines we can see the power of the collaboration between radical critical theorists and religious reconstructivists.
In the face of hegemony, such as in the outcome of Bagan Pinang in which landslide victories signify the march of big-time irrationality and political immorality, our own interpretation of liberation theology can be constructed between the revolutionary forces of change within the parties in the counter-hegemonic coalition.
What the rakyat want, to be part of a tsunami, is to wipe off corrupt individuals, institutions, installations, and ideologies that have become part of the landscape of even the Malaysian mind. What is needed is a reconstruction of the philosophy of counter-hegemony in this game of ‘Menang Kerbau', or the Malaysian buffalo or cockfight so that the revolutionary and religious elements of radical change can be constructed and hence the chi or the inner harnessed energy, like in the training of the Shaolin warrior, can be harnessed and used to transform society.
As long as there is no reconstruction of this philosophy, race can still be used by the oppressors as a tool to dislodge, divide, disengage, and ultimately destroy the force of change.
Is Bagan Pinang the beginning of more landslide victories? Or is it a lull before a tsunami? As an existentialist, I would say that only time will tell, and only after there is a serious reconstruction in the philosophy of the forces of counter-hegemony.
OUR USUAL REMINDER, FOLKS:
While the opinion in the article is mine,
the comments are yours;
present them rationally and ethically.
AND -- ABOLISH THE ISA -- NOW!
written by concernedinmalaysia, October 13, 2009 05:25:36
Secondary School repairs to 21 others - RM23800000
Three terrace houses special renovations - approx RM1000000
Adoption of Fishermans Welfare Assoc. - RM????
PD Army town given top priority - RM????
Training and job placement programme for the youth - RM????
Develop ceramic decoration products - RM????
Construction of 150 units of public housing - RM25000000
Various allowances for families - RM????
Health benefits for veterans - RM????
Veterans Club House - RM????
Maktab Rendah Sains Mara - RM????
Library and Wi-Fi facilities - RM????
upgrade surau in the military area - RM100000
SRJK Tamil Sungai Salak - 1 hectare land - RM????
SRJK new building built within one year - RM????
SRJK upgraded to government school - RM????
Three Chinese vernacular schools "donation" - RM480000
223 senior citizens ang pow - RM22300
Computers for 6 schools - RM????
Estate workers tared roads - RM????
Estate workers - communtiy hall- RM????
Hall for Temple - RM????
Drains fixed - RM????
badminton court and photocopy and fax machines - RM????
Estate Workers Housing Aid Fund - RM????
So a very rough estimate of RM100 million I would guess, maybe more. And every single cent from the treasury!
I feel so warm a fuzzy (sic) that we all, every Malaysian funded the BN governments blatant vote buying.
Mind you all the things that are being done should have been done a long time ago, but somehow the people of this electorate can't see that even though BN was in power before and they didn't do it that they should be punished not rewarded by offering up all these goodies now. I say it's time that we all demanded what we need for our communities now! Then when we have our own by-elections at least BN will know what to give us, my god is this not a country held to ransom?????
God Dave Malaysia - I know BN won't
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written by menowok, October 13, 2009 02:27:19
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written by Sitora, October 13, 2009 01:44:04
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written by asguard, October 13, 2009 01:40:42
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written by Alice, October 13, 2009 01:30:14
IT IS SHAMELESS POLITICAL IMMORALITY!!!!
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written by Bigjoe99, October 13, 2009 01:16:16
I remember as a very young child when we were poor, my grandmother who was strict on our behaviour - being polite to others, keep room cleans, do no evil etc. BUT I remember on occasions we would occasionally steal a bit of neigbours's fruits grown in their farms. Somehow that was OK with my grandmother who even praised us. As an adult you realised that everyone has a selfish point and it varies. When you have a large brood of grandchildren and struggle to feed them, while you can see being impolite to your relatives is a big wrong, stealing a little from a big farm does not seem morally wrong.
Why should Bagan Pinang folks care about corruption when for most of their lives the urbanites who spend 99% of their time focus on themselves and much better off consequently, can pay the taxes, have never even paid any attention to them before that? If you have a selfish neighbour and if someone steals from him/her, would you lift a finger to catch the thief?
But then why do the Malays who profess Islamic fervour don't care? Because Bagan Pinang is no more than a hour drive from KL.. Everyone in Bagan Pinang is just as familiar with the major neigbourhood of KL then anyone in Klang Valley.. This is not where before they do anything they think of God and Quran.. They are probably just the same as anyone in KL who spends 90% of their time thinking of their work and pleasure and on Friday go to prayer if they do so at all.
Bagan Pinang is UMNO heartland..Without a split in UMNO/BN, they are not going to swing the votes and that is a fact...
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written by DreamLady, October 13, 2009 00:55:47
Time and again, these are the voters who cry foul, who complain, who swear and curse a mighty lot, yet they are ever willing to stoop so low, to scoop up the crumbs thrown at them by the
suppressors!!
It would indeed be a tall order for Malaysia to walk tall among other inhabitants of the planet, to achieve anything worth-mentioning amidst the overwhelming filth of corruption!!!
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written by Fairminded, October 13, 2009 00:39:12
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written by NSTPravda, October 13, 2009 00:29:16
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written by Hakim Joe, October 13, 2009 00:28:48
As for the concept that the anthropologist Clifford Geertz had hypothesize, the only “deep play†I can imagine is that the people are F**ked (deeply). If it wasn’t bad enough that BN won, the increased majority shows exactly how rural politics are strangling the march towards badly needed reforms in this country.
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written by Agahdemo, October 13, 2009 00:19:45
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written by macho, October 12, 2009 23:15:12
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written by Kathy, October 12, 2009 23:06:24
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written by educationist, October 12, 2009 21:25:02
But the voice of the rakyat of Bagan Pinang is disappointing!
Of course they have every right to choose Isa since he's a registered candidate but to condone this tainted leader is, to me a reflection of the mentality of the voters there.
You can register ur protest by abstaining from voting or by sending in a spoilt vote but to give that Isa chap an overwhelming majority is immoral!
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written by James Loh, October 12, 2009 19:43:32
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written by tumbledore, October 12, 2009 18:42:55
it's really a far removed dream that the voting behaviour of the malaysian people would change in time to accomodate an opposition to come into power. no doubt a very pessimistic opinion!
dear Azly Rahman, with all respect to you; lets pray for our salvation!
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With due respect, I can't agree with what you wrote. You are totally wrong. Why? let me know if you are interested to know.