MCLM – Needed or Not?

by batsman

Yes, I have been uneasy about a 3rd force in Malaysian politics. The reason is clear – we do not need 3 or more cornered elections. Having said that, there is however still a dire need for the existence of independent NGOs with some gumption. Democracies cannot function well without strong independent NGOs and it is obvious we badly lack these.

Even the Bar Council is described as being toothless and Amnesty International Malaysian Charter comes up with opinions so rarely that they all seem to be on permanent holiday.

The MCLM is envisaged to be an independent NGO which offers candidates to political parties short of good men and women fills this gap to a certain degree. There should actually be more such organizations (not necessarily all of them fielding candidates for elections). This means the MCLM can be an NGO with some political clout.

It would have been ideal if Malaysian politics had a 2 party system, each party capable and willing to take the reins of power. Unfortunately we don’t have this yet and we need to know what it takes to get it. Blind loyalty to this concept without understanding what it takes to achieve it will probably end up in a place where blind loyalty always takes fanatically blinded people.

I submit that what it takes to have a healthy 2 party system is the passionate involvement of the people in the democratic process. As it is, most people are too busy earning a living. Others are just couch potatoes throwing out comments from the comfort and security of their couches. There are only a few committed activists who have sacrificed time, effort, money, family, security and freedom for their ideals. So when hot and passionate meets fat assed complacency, there is bound to be sparks. Not that this is good or bad – it is just the nature of things.

Unfortunately the situation with our political process is such that the formation of MCLM will not create the dissolution of concentration and discipline, but that concentration and discipline is already falling apart. The opposition is especially prone to fracture into tens of mini-political parties. As it is, we are already fighting a 3 cornered fight in Batu Sapi.

Just as PR victories in the last GE pushed BN to swallow their arrogance and be especially kind and attentive to the people, can we hope that the formation of an MCLM will push PR to do the same? After 2 years of facing dirty politics and fair and unfair criticisms, our veteran opposition politicians are just about to fall into the only possible mode of operation that the situation in Malaysian politics allows – arrogant, insensitive and hard of hearing.

Our people are used to patronage and uneasy about rocking the boat. When the Chinese community in Gua Musang gets a rotten ketua kampong, they blame PAS. OK, so PAS may share some fault here, but if you are screwed by members of your own community, shouldn’t you do something about it rather than just blame PAS and wait to be bullied some more and wait for the next elections to punish PAS? If you cannot get rid of some rotten ketua kampong, how much more difficult will it be to get rid of a rotten and corrupt national government? Can a MCLM help in this situation? I think it can, if it is not too late.

It seems that only the BN has some semblance of discipline to hold together reasonably well but then such discipline is the discipline of corruption, calumny and greed. Vast amounts of money are needed to keep the BN together and even greater amounts are needed for it to hold on to power.

As it stands it is said our national debt is already 50% of our GDP. Our fantasy budget 2011 looks like pushing this debt up into the stratosphere just to win votes in the GE to come. This can only mean that our ringgit will be worthless as will our bank savings and economic collapse is a real possibility.

When this happens, it will be a natural end to the 30% debate because we will probably have to sell of Petronas or PNB or Sime Darby or Maybank or some such national asset to get hard currency. The foreigners will then own the country.

As it stands they already probably do. With the emphasis on bringing foreign investment in record amounts from budget to budget, can anyone in his right mind still think the economy is owned by Malaysians? Billions of ringgit of foreign investments every year means that the country’s assets are in the hands of the foreigners to do as they please – or at least to make profits as they like. So by quarrelling over the miserable 30% of what is left is really stupidity personified which seems to be what the UMNO delegates in the recent UMNO general assembly did looking and sounding much like orang utans trying
to speak Eskimo.

It may be that our forefathers who fought for independence wasted their time because their descendents, seized by petty jealousies regarding each other, allowed the country to fall back into foreign hands.

So if our debt is approaching 100% of GDP and most of the profitable ventures in the hands of the foreigners – how will we be able to pay back the debts except by selling off Petronas? Is it a rumour that we have already sold Bintulu’s gas 50(?) years in advance after the last economic crisis for fire sale prices?

Apparently Britain is selling off its forests to pay for its debts. Maybe we should do this too and relocate the Orang Asal, the Ibans and the Penan to Putrajaya to be protected by the “crushed” morality of UMNO Youth and their unemployed logger cronies, much good that this will do except maybe in the creation of more Melayu Baru to join the happy cosmopolitan family of Arabs, Turks, Pakistanis, Africans etc.

So it looks like we are going to have 20 to 30 new political parties next year. Some of these will probably be funded by UMNO, so the corruption is just going to get worse.

So do we need a MCLM? If it can encourage ordinary Malaysians to become passionate about their own future – why not?