Look beyond political parties

It is too dangerous to leave politics entirely to professional politicians and their political parties. There is plenty of room for political participation by the citizenry beyond the small circle of political parties.

By Sim Kwang Yang, Malaysian Mirror

I was amused when I read the Borneo Post report on Nov 14 quoting the Sarawak Chief Minister Abdul Taib Mahmud challenging independent agencies and NGOs to form political parties to fight elections, rather than playing politics behind “disguises”’

 

Citing an example, he said, “Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (Suhakam), which is supposed to fight for human rights, has raised a lot of issues on land, which later jumped into orangutan talk.”

Unfortunately for Taib, the Sarawak Suhakam Commissioner Dr Mohd Hirman Ritom Abdullah came out and clarified that Suhakam had been given a mandate by Parliament to promote and protect human rights in Malaysia.

Then on Nov 17, the Star carried a further clarification by Professor Emeritus Dr Khoo Kay Khim, who is also a Suhakam commissioner, that the body is neither an NGO nor a political party, but a statutory body set up under the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia Act 1999, to look into issues dealing with human rights in the country.

He also explained that Malaysia was a member of the United Nations, whose Paris Principle required human rights commission to be set up to monitor the situation in the country.

Taib’s political values revealed

I will not say that Suhakam is a pretty toothless tiger, and their findings and recommendations are not binding on the offending parties. It is better to have a Suhakam than not having one at all. Democracy is all about institution building.

I will also not say that Taib is too old for his job. He is a man of many responsibility, and a slip of the mind and tongue is quite human for everybody.

But his call for NGOs and independent agencies to register themselves as political parties before they are qualified to criticise the government is revealing of his worldview and his political values.

The registration of a new political party is tightly controlled, and probably would require the personal approval of the prime minister. In the case of Sarawak, the PM would probably consult the Sarawak CM in accordance with their BN spirit.

Commenting on his blog The Broken Shield, Joseph Tawie has already pointed out that the application for the registration of a new party, Malaysian Dayak Congress (MDC), has been turned down on security grounds as if the new party would bring chaos to the country.

But Taib’s call is revealing in more ways than one. He betrays his unspoken assumption that criticism of the government and politics are the exclusive preserve of the mainstream political parties. In post-colonialism theories, his view regards all the rakyat as Subaltern, junior members of the post-colonial state who are mere objects of administration instead of subjects of self-determination.

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