Hobbes’s Leviathan

By batsman 

Not many people bother to read Hobbes anymore, if only because he is considered obsolete and very un-PC. He lived during the time of Cromwell and the English Civil War and his political ideas reflected the conditions of his time.

How are we to know that nearly 400 years after his time, his ideas still reflect quite accurately the conditions of modern Malaysia making us only about 4 centuries behind England in political development – a blink of an eye in terms of history? Malaysia Truly Boleh. 

Hobbes believed that human political organization must necessarily revolve around self preservation of the individual. To survive the individualism, selfishness and greed of each member of society, people choose to elect an absolutist (during Hobbes time, it was the absolute monarch, but in modern times it can be an absolute dictator of any kind) and confer absolute power on such a person or an assembly of persons. This implies complete surrender of all authority and all power by the people. 

The absolutist thus chosen was supposed to have power even over spiritual matters and was supreme over religion. This was necessary in case any residual power was retained by religionists, tribes, cliques, gangs and interest groups in general to wage civil war amongst themselves and hence threaten the security of individual members of society. 

In modern Malaysia, although we have general elections every 4 or 5 years, the fact that the same political party has been chosen to rule for over 50 years regardless of any abuse of power or corruption tends to turn Malaysian political organization into a Hobbesian Leviathan. It was as if the people has surrendered all power and all authority to the ruling clique and are no longer sovereign. 

In fact abuse of power and corruption is no longer in the Malaysian dictionary since these are now valid and rightful powers conferred on the ruling clique by the people and should not be called such confusing and seditious names anymore. 

Even in terms of political thought, Hobbes showed his genius when he correctly predicted that people will bow to the rationale of self-preservation since in Malaysia, any small threat of racial violence was sufficient to make people tow the line and submit to authority. 

Thus 50 thugs spitting and stamping on a cow’s head was sufficient to send shock waves and frightened shudders around a whole country called Malaysia. But perhaps it is unfair for me to say this since most people also believed that the police and judiciary were supportive of and backing up these 50 thugs. 

Nevertheless, whatever the reason the practical consequences are the same – complete surrender of all authority and power to the ruling clique. Malaysia is now a Hobbesian paradise. 

The similarity is uncanny. In terms of spirituality, the ruling clique even invents a new religion which it calls Hadhari in place of the old one. Hence the ruling clique has supremacy over religion. It showed its supremacy over the traditional Malay rulers more than once, taking away their powers slowly but surely. 

So while the whole world struggles to complete the advancement of human social and political development, ideas and philosophy, we seem to have found a paradise in the ideas of a thinker who lived 400 years ago. 

We are indeed fortunate. Malaysia Truly Boleh. Perhaps we can now finally dispense with Vision 2020 as an unnecessary glitch in our Hobbesian Shangri-La, since 1Malaysia is already sufficient.