The Order and Stability Vote

By batsman 

It is elections season. Given the distasteful, disruptive and confusing events over the past couple of years, many people will opt for the Order and Stability vote. If only life would go back to being peaceful and uncomplicated again. Many people have written about it and one in particular – MP Hannah Yeoh has also touched upon it.

I say let us learn from another source – an unlikely one. 

The Oprah Winfrey show on 24 March featured 5 women in their 40’s to 60’s who were victims of a suave and romantic seducer who preyed on their peculiar vulnerabilities. All these women were divorced after long marriages and were desperate for order and stability in their lives. This expert seducer made use of their needs and made them very happy for a time. They claim there were few clues and indications as to the vile motives of their seducer and they were fooled for several years until things fell apart. 

Apparently this seducer had been actively taking advantage of vulnerable women for over 10 years and in that time, he had given many women the HIV disease even though he knew he was HIV positive. He was caught only when a few of his victims decided to end his activities and save more women from being infected with the deadly disease. They decided to fight back. 

Order and stability is good. Most people want it. But what price are you willing to pay to get it? If the situation is already rotten, wishing for an immediate short cut towards order and stability is like engaging in a grand delusion. 

In fact the criminals and psychopaths would have you engage in this grand delusion until you have been robbed of everything you have and you wake up from a wonderful dream to face the nightmare of reality and desperately fighting for survival and sanity. 

Let us next learn from the terrible nightmare of war. In Bosnia, the innocent civilians of Sarajevo were told they were to be taken to a safer place when they were being rounded up. They ended up being massacred. When things are already bad, wishing for safety and security is a grand delusion. It stops one from defending oneself against genocidal psychopaths. 

During WW2, when the Nazis invaded the Ukraine, they rounded up the Jews to a place called Babi Yar. Up to the very last minute, these victims were given the impression that they were going to be safe. Batch after batch of innocent people were stripped naked, marched into mass graves and machine gunned. A thin layer of sand was then thrown on top of each batch. Apparently this was to make the next batch of victims move faster as they walked over the bodies of the previous batch to take their positions under the firing squad. Apparently people are more willing to walk over sand than to walk over the naked bodies of dead people. The sand was the great cover up and safety was the grand delusion. 

The same thing happened in Poland until the Nazis decided it was more efficient to kill people in concentration camps, so when Jews were being shipped to concentrations camps, they were told they were being transported to some place safer. 

In the Palestine, people are given the grand delusion that they have the chance to have an independent Palestinian state of their own. In the meantime, Israeli warplanes were bombing civilians with white phosphorous just as Ghadafi’s warplanes are bombing Libyan people with whatever bombs he has at his disposal. Everyone is given the impression that it is alright for Israeli warplanes to be used against Palestinians while it is not alright for Ghadafi to use warplanes against Libyans. Everyone is given the illusion that it is alright for British and French warplanes to bomb Libyans with smart bombs while it is not alright for Ghadafi’s warplanes to bomb Libyans with stupid bombs. 

In Malaysia, the situation is already bad. I submit that voting for order and stability is to vote for a grand delusion. Under these conditions the only reasonable thing to do is to vote to complete the reform programme. 

The tsunami of 2008 created quite a lot of upsets and confusion, but it did not succeed in washing away the edifice of corruption, abuse of power and degeneration. The reform movement sputtered and slowed down. Things became very ugly. It is not surprising that some people might want to vote for Order and Stability even before the reform movement is complete and even before the rotten edifice of corruption and degeneration is washed away. This means that the situation is still bad and a vote for safety, security, order and stability is, under these conditions, a grand delusion. 

Of course not everyone will suffer when the nightmare becomes apparent. To maintain the illusion of Order and Stability, crimes have to be covered up and the victims have to be silenced. Not only that there should be as few victims as possible for each crime to make things easier and not reach unmanageable proportions. 

This is made somewhat easier since many people have a buffer. The buffer protects them from being victims of daylight robbery and corruption. This buffer may be a safe neighbourhood, connections or money or even much needed skills. Criminals will avoid people with buffers to concentrate on those who have none. So it is that the poor and marginalized who suffer the most, but eventually when the power of the criminals and their greed become too great, everyone will become victims. The question is – was TBH seen as having no buffers and what of Kugan? Was it a matter of bad judgment on the part of the abusers or did people fight back against abusiveness until it was thought a Royal Commission of Inquiry was considered necessary to diffuse the situation? 

The women in the Oprah TV show were mostly from the middle class with money, skills and connections. Even then it took more than 10 years before the criminal was apprehended. These women knew how to fight back. They did not vote for Order and Stability since fighting back was difficult, need time, money and effort and carried risks. 

Will Malaysians face reality, take the risk of completing the reform programme or will they vote to play out their grand delusions? Will they see some of the most powerful people in Malaysia today as suave, charming, generous and romantic persons or as dangerous and evil persons? What do you think?