Embattled Malaysian PM unwilling to embrace radical reform: analyst
By Radio Australia
The promises earlier this month from Malaysia’s Prime Minister Najib Razak to reform the country’s harsh security laws were seen by many as a sign the government is turning its attention towards the next election.
The vote may come as early as next year, or as late as 2013.
But it seems the security laws will be an issue as will the calls for electoral reforms by the coalition of non-government organisations known as Bersih, or “clean”.
Presenter: Liam Cochrane
Speaker: Dr Syed Muhammad Khairudin, associate professor at the National University of Singapore
- Listen:
- Windows Media
KHAIRUDIN: These promises are not something that is put in just merely to respond to the protest that has taken place a few weeks ago. I think the prime minister is sincere about making wide ranging changes and transformations in Malaysian society and in the laws. I’m sure that the ISA law will be removed from the current legal structure, but the question is with the removal of these ISA laws, will the current juridical practices that are in place in the Malaysian society be changed as well and I think the situation on the ground and the feeling on the ground is such that even without ISA, the ways in which laws have been enforced in Malaysia will not change very much.
COCHRANE: So it’s more about the enforcement as well as the laws themselves?
KHAIRUDIN: Yes, I mean ISA has been there for the last 50 years, be it whether it is used as a way to in a sense sideline opposition in the Malaysian society or not. The fact is that there are many other indirect ways in which the Malaysian government had dealt with opposition parties and opposition groups. So the ISA, the removal of the ISA would in the sense, create some kind of confidence amongst the public with regards to the attempt by the prime minister to change the landscape and the politics of Malaysian society. But the question lies whether this change would result to other changes in the ways in which laws has been put in place in the country.
COCHRANE: And we have seen the way the Malaysian government has cracked down on protest. Quite recently, the protest in July, tens-of-thousands of people coming to the street demanding fairer elections as part of the Bersih movement. Now just as a bit of background before we get onto it. Bersih first emerged in 2007, but this recent action has been dubbed Bersih 2.0. They faced a huge police presence and were eventually dispersed with teargas and water cannon and that kind of thing. On the streets of Kuala Lumpur, how is the Bersih Coalition seen these days?
KHAIRUDIN: Well, it varies. I think among the young generation which I would call as the liquid generation of the current Malaysian society. They see Bersih as part and parcel of their own aspirations to structure the making of a new Malaysian society. A lot of the young people I spoke to, a lot of the young people whom I interviewed in my own research see Bersih as fulfilling their demands for a new political structure in Malaysia. Many of them are sceptical with regards to the current government’s ability to make widespread changes in the political landscape in Malaysia and they saw Bersih as one of those strategies that they could employ to initiate change from below.
COCHRANE: That’s with the youth and I presume the urban youth. What about outside the capital, in the countryside, what’s the view there?
KHAIRUDIN: Well, I think the view from the rural side of Malaysia varies from village to village, from people from different status and class positions in society. In general, I think there is a substantial number of Malaysians who exist in a sense minimal position in Malaysian society. Many of them support Bersih, but they are not willing to participate in the process of political change. They constitute perhaps 30 per cent of Malaysian society. We have another 30 per cent of the young rural youth who saw Bersih as representing their aspirations and demands and, of course, 30 per cent of the Malaysian society right now, those are beyond the age of 40 years old see Bersih as stifling at one level, but at another level, it is part and parcel of the attempt by ordinary Malaysians to make their country a better place to live in.
COCHRANE: There was a crackdown as I mentioned against the Bersih protests in July. Has that changed at all, is the government showing any sign of softening its position on these opposition voices?
KHAIRUDIN: Well, I think the government tries to give a more human face to whatever it’s trying to do right now. One thousand 700 people were arrested right after the Bersih protest and more came in right after that. Of course many of them were released in the end, but the current changes and the current situation that we see right now, the issue with regards to the interpretations of history in Malaysia and the libel case that is put against a leader of PAS currently, only goes to show the more things change, the more things remain the same. And it seems to me at least that whilst the government is now pressured to change the way in which it has been running politics and legislation in the country, they’re unwilling to make radical changes in the ways in which they have conduct their management of the country.
COCHRANE: In the leadup to the Bersih protests, in July, the prime minister alleged that the leader of the Coalition was anti-Muslim. What role do you think that religion and ethnicity will play in the future of the Bersih movement and the Opposition’s struggles?
KHAIRUDIN: Well, I think we need to understand Bersih as against the nature and the texture of the current generation that you see today in Malaysia. They are the liquid generation that sees beyond class, race, status, religion and ethnicity. They do not see Bersih as a Malay initiative or as a non-Muslim initiative, even though the one that is at the helm of the Bersih protests is a non-Muslim lawyer or attorney. They see Bersih as an attempt to create a new Malaysian society beyond race, class and religion and I think the ways in which Najib has portrayed Bersih as a non-Muslim movement somehow does not speak well about his understanding of the demands of the Bersih protesters.
COCHRANE: Is there a danger that that creates ethnic divisions or religious divisions?
KHAIRUDIN: Well, there are implications for sure and I think many Malays who has a more conservative outlook may see Bersih as an attempt to take away the special privileges that Malays have enjoyed in the country, but generally, the demands of Bersih were clear and that it was pretty straightforward. It was about electoral reforms in the country and these electoral reforms will lead to fairness in the system to the benefit of the Muslims and the Malays, as well as other communities in Malaysia.
COCHRANE: A lot of the coverage focused on the protest itself and the reaction from the government. What about those clear objectives that Bersih had, have they made in progress since July?
KHAIRUDIN: Yes, somehow it’s lost in translation, the mainstream media have not been helpful in portraying Bersih in its true way and in its true essence. I think the ways in which we could arrive at the aspirations of Bersih and its true intentions is to go to the alternative media there in place. The internet has been helpful in that respect, and, of course, you have YouTube, videos and other alternative medias that are available for people to tap upon. . Certainly the mainstream media has not been supportive of what the Bersih protesters were trying to get at and I think it bodes badly upon the mainstream media in Malaysia.
COCHRANE: There’s a bit of speculation about when the election is going to be called. What’s your view, when do you think it will happen?
KHAIRUDIN: Well, I don’t think it’s going to be called upon so soon. So many changes are taking place in Malaysia. I doubt the Malaysian government knows what is happening really on the ground. So many groups are pulling the society in many different directions and the Coalition that is place right now, the Barisan Nasional, has yet to understand what is happening in that society. Elections will not be so soon. I would expect it to be called perhaps late this year or perhaps somewhere next year.
