People’s Power
By batsman
People’s Power can be an illusion or it can be very real. Those who put complete faith in it form one end of the spectrum among PR sympathizers. Those who place their faith in the political parties form the other end. Using another description, one end comprises the romantics while the other comprises the practical men.
I am neither here nor there so I feel I should be the one to draw flak from both sides.
People’s Power becomes a real force only rarely – like a tsunami. It is when the greater part of society becomes inflamed with a common ideal or a common hate. I am personally quite familiar with this especially the one about the common hate.
In reality, the people themselves are not homogeneous. At the peak of the tsunami, these various groupings within society realize this and the force of the tsunami recedes, often before it achieves its original motive.
Those who are committed to the original motives therefore have to find ways and means to maintain the force and vitality of the tsunami and even when it recedes, they try and make sure the next round will be more forceful and greater lasting. To give up at the first try is a pretty common Malaysian characteristic. There is no sustaining power. After the ebb, people pick themselves up and almost shamefacedly go about their daily business as if nothing happened.
The tsunami of the 12th GE was not a very strong one. Worse, it was of a very short duration. This is because of the character of Malaysian society.
Malaysian society is badly fractured to say the least. This means tsunamis if they occur, occur only extremely rarely. They are also relatively weak and of short duration. Malaysian society is not so much fractured along class lines. If it were fractured along class lines, the tsunami that occurs will be much longer lasting.
As it is, Malaysians were fractured along the fight against corruption and abuse of power during this particular tsunami. This means that even if today, there is a lot of heat generated tomorrow may see everyone busy chasing their own ways of “cari makan”. This does not mean that there are no other fracture lines. On the contrary – there are plenty – which only means again – uncommon, weak and short duration tsunamis.
Those who are committed to People Power therefore need to break out from their romanticism and become more practical. This is because the people can only exercise or make real their power through political parties. In a non-violent scenario, the people can only cast their votes to make real their “will” and then only once every 4 or 5 years.
On the other hand, the political parties cannot do without the support of the people. The people and the political parties need to complement each other to make sure the system succeeds.
Therefore if the romantics reject the political parties, they end up isolated and bitter. If the practical men reject the people, they too, become isolated and rootless.
There is a 3rd option. This option exists very strongly in the west, but it is relatively weak in Malaysia.
It is the option of building strong NGOs and other organizations of grassroots people’s power. With committed, strong NGOs and other grassroots organizations, the next tsunami, when it comes can be more forceful because it is more directed and also longer lasting because it has good and experienced leadership. This is an alternative way for the people to exercise their “will”.
Not all NGOs are “good”. There will be plenty of quarrels and fights especially over personalities and petty issues. Even if Malaysia were fractured along class lines, there will be plenty of quarrels over personalities and petty issues. The trick is to be disciplined about it and the people have to control their leaders and not the other way round even when they submit to the discipline of the organization. The people have to find all sorts of ways to unite and compromise on issues which drive them apart and keep in mind the main objectives for which they work so hard.
Now that we have looked at how the people can exercise their will, we need to see how the people can defend the gains that they have achieved.
Since the people exercise their will through political parties, they have to defend the gains they have achieved also through political parties. The moment the people feel that the political parties belong to the politicians, that is when things start to unravel.
Unfortunately, this is a common attitude in Malaysia. A lot of people feel that political parties have nothing to do with them as they are apolitical. This attitude made it possible for BN to succeed in stealing Perak.
This attitude will probably result in Selangor being stolen by the BN since the dirty tricks and machinations of UMNO to seize Selangor are already well developed.
I think it will be a multi-front effort. The most likely scenario is to employ experts to take control of public opinion. This can be done by targeting the voter groups. The Muslim voters can be targeted by provocateurs taking an anti-Islam stance and blaming everything on the PR. At the same time, the liberals can be targeted by provocateurs taking an aggressive Islamist stance and blaming everything on the PR. All the while dirt will be dug up on the activities of PR politicians including affairs, theft, corruption, etc.
What is to stop them? I feel only the attitude of the people that the political parties belong to them and not someone else will be a stumbling block to dirty tricks. This means that the people also feel that UMNO belongs to them as much as PR whichever camp they sympathize with. This means that UMNO sympathizers must stop the dirty tricks practiced by UMNO on PR and vice versa.
In this way, the people will include both PR and BN supporters and not just the supporters of one side or the other. This way, hopefully the people will not be irretrievably split into predators and prey, bullies and victims by the politicians. Hopefully democracy in Malaysia will then be on a firmer footing and tsunamis will be constructive, not destructive. Hopefully this is not just a fat hope.
(BTW, when you define the people, I hope you include immigrants and descendents of immigrants as well – whether newly arrived, first generation or seventh generation. heeheehee)
