Towards the 14th General Election (UPDATED with Chinese Translation)
Would PAS agree to separate religion from politics when religion is what puts them in power? Would Umno, MCA or MIC agree to separate race from politics when race is what puts them in power? Would DAP agree to drop ‘Chinese causes’ when ‘Chinese causes’ is what puts them in power? Would PKR agree to dump Anwar Ibrahim when the party’s cause is to make Anwar the Prime Minister? Would Barisan Nasional agree to electoral reforms when gerrymandering helps them get into power with less than 50% of the votes?
THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
Raja Petra Kamarudin
I joined the Liberal Democratic Party soon after I ‘landed’ in the UK in early 2009 and almost a year before the 2010 UK general election. So I joined Lib Dem not because they won the election (in 2009 they had not won yet) but because I wanted them to win the election. And I am paying a RM50 a year membership fee (as opposed to only RM1 for Malaysian political parties).
The reason I joined Lib Dem and not Labour, the then ruling party, or Conservative, the then opposition party, is because Lib Dem is pushing for political reforms while Labour and Conservative are just fighting each other to be in power (just like Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat are in Malaysia).
Hence, while in Malaysia we are still talking about a two-party system, in the UK we already have that. Now what we want is a strong third force to balance the two equally strong parties because both Labour and Conservative are equally bad (dua-dua pun sama).
If you can remember, soon after that, also in 2010, I mooted the idea of the Malaysian Civil Liberties Movement (MCLM). I needed someone in Malaysia to head the MCLM because I was ‘stuck’ in the UK and that would have made it difficult for me to manage the MCLM since all our activities would be in Malaysia. I then approached various people to ask them to head the MCLM. One such person was the late Tunku Vic (photograph below).
Tunku Vic, however, could not head the MCLM yet at that time for reasons I am not at liberty to reveal. (Those who knew Tunku Vic would know why and would also know whom he was related to — it was a family matter). I then asked Haris Ibrahim to head the MCLM and, at first, he, too, did not agree. Later, after some persuasion, he agreed, but only if I agreed to be the Chairman.
My plan for the MCLM is that it would be a third force. But it would not be a third force in the form of a political party like Lib Dem in the UK. It would be a NGO or movement that would engage both Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat to push for political reforms. Malaysia needs political reforms (such as to abolish race and religion politics) and within those political reforms would be electoral reforms (such as a plus-minus 10% seat variation and to abolish postal voting).
Haris and I agreed (which we announced during the MCLM launch in London) that all those who sit in the MCLM committee must not be directly involved in any political party or participate in the elections as a candidate. If they want to contest the elections then they must resign from the MCLM or not get involved with the MCLM in the first place.
Sad to say, both Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat ignored us. In fact, Pakatan Rakyat viewed us as an enemy whose objective was to help Barisan Nasional by engaging in three-corner contests and thus splitting the votes in favour of Barisan Nasional.
Somehow they interpreted ‘third force’ as meaning three-corner fights. One DAP leader from Johor actually told me that their HQ had instructed them to not cooperate with the MCLM while one PAS leader phoned me to tell me that unless Anwar Ibrahim endorses the MCLM then PAS cannot work with us.
I make no secret of the fact that that broke my heart. I really felt hurt. If they do not want to take us seriously that is one thing. Politicians only work with people who can get them votes and they don’t think that the MCLM can get them any votes. But to accuse us of being saboteurs was hitting below the belt somewhat. For everything that we have done for the opposition over 35 years since the late 1970s, the last thing that we deserve is to be called traitors to the cause.
And what they are not able to accept is that ‘cause’ here means political reforms and not meaning to help any particular political party get into power.
I was involved in Bersih in 2007. In fact, the late Tunku Vic, Din Merican (the Blogger) and I were the ones who lobbied Istana Negara to agree to meet the Bersih committee to accept the Memorandum for electoral reforms. His Majesty the Agong consented to receive the Bersih delegation but limited to only ten representatives.
Ten was good enough for us.
We spent months planning Bersih. I even met the Umno people to ask them to support Bersih. Many did, but ‘off the record’, for obvious reasons. Some Umno people even donated caps and T-shirts, which I distributed to all and sundry.
On the day of the Bersih march, which attracted tens of thousands of people, we successfully reached the palace gates. Then we were asked to wait outside and not go in yet. It seems some of the political leaders were coming to join us. But why did they not march with us? Why come later only after we successfully reach the palace gates (and not without incident, too, mind you)?
We waited about an hour before the political leaders arrived and ten of them went into the palace. The rest of us, all those who had worked for many months to make Bersih a success, were left standing outside the gates. After handing the Memorandum to the representative of His Majesty the Agong, the political leaders came out to ceramah to the crowd.
In short, the politicians hijacked Bersih. Then, of course, they organised Bersih 2.0 and Bersih 3.0 under the patronage of the politicians. We wanted Bersih to be a people’s movement, not a tool of the political parties. And we wanted that because we also wanted Barisan Nasional to support Bersih. Now Bersih is just the fourth coalition member of Pakatan Rakyat. Would the Umno people now support Bersih like they did with Bersih 1.0 in 2007?
Because of what I viewed as the failure of Bersih (‘failure’ in the sense of not being an independent third force but rather part of a political party) I felt we needed a new third force to fight for political reforms. And that was the whole reason for the MCLM.
But the MCLM too failed. And it failed because the politicians could not control it like they could Bersih so they refused to have anything to do with the MCLM. And the rest of the story is now all water under the bridge, which you all know about.
The 13th General Election is now over. There is very little we can do about that. We now need to prepare for the 14th General Election in the next four or five years time. But what are we going to do? And how do we do it? Plus who is going to do what needs to be done?
That is what we now need to ponder upon.
I still believe we need an independent movement to push for political reforms. And within those political reforms must be electoral reforms. And it must be the people and not the politicians who do this. The politicians will not push for political reforms.
Would PAS agree to separate religion from politics when religion is what puts them in power? Would Umno, MCA or MIC agree to separate race from politics when race is what puts them in power? Would DAP agree to drop ‘Chinese causes’ when ‘Chinese causes’ is what puts them in power? Would PKR agree to dump Anwar Ibrahim when the party’s cause is to make Anwar the Prime Minister? Would Barisan Nasional agree to electoral reforms when gerrymandering helps them get into power with less than 50% of the votes?
This is not a decision for me to make. I live in the UK and have no plans or wish to return to Malaysia. Another one million other Malaysians also live outside Malaysia and many also do not plan or wish to go back to Malaysia. It is you 28 million Malaysians who live and work in Malaysia who need political reforms. Hence you need to make the decision as to what you are going to do to face the 14th General Election in 2018 or so.
Your call!
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邁向第14屆大選
伊黨是靠宗教上位的，他們能否分得開政治和宗教呢？巫統，馬華，和囯大黨都是靠種族主義來掌權的，他們能否在他們的政治思想裏把‘種族’這個因子給拿掉呢？行動黨是靠“華人鬥爭”起家的，他們能否摒棄“華人鬥爭”呢？公正黨的鬥爭目的是要把安華捧上首相寶座，他們能否把安華換下來呢？囯陣是靠不公平的選區劃分才有辦法以少過50%的票數執政的，他們能否支持選舉改革呢？
原文：Raja Petra Kamarudin
譯文：方宙
我在抵達英國不久后就加入了自由民主黨（LibDem），當時是2009年初吧。我加入他們並不是他們已經贏得了大選（他們在2010年大選才獲勝的），而是因為我要他們贏得大選。我還爲此繳付了RM50的年費呢（馬來西亞政黨會員費只是RM1而已）。
我當時加入LibDem的原因是因爲他們要帶來政治改革而工黨（當時的執政黨）和保守黨（反對黨）要的只是斗個你死我活（就像大馬的囯陣和民聯一般）。
所以說，儅我們還在大馬大談兩綫制時英國他們早已做到了。我們現在需要的是一個給力的第三勢力來平衡這兩個大頭，因爲工黨和保守黨都是一樣的爛(dua-dua pun sama)。
如果你還記得的話，我在2010年閒提出了大馬公民自由運動（Malaysian Civil Liberties Movement，MCLM）。我當時急需有個人來帶領MCLM，因爲我正被“卡在”英國，這導致我很難親身管理MCLM因爲大多數的活動都是在大馬舉行的。我因此接觸了很多人，希望能找到人來擔此重任，而其中一個就是敦姑維克Tunku Vic（上圖者），但是他因某個原因不能出任（你們有人認識他的話那肯定會知道那個原因是什麽—-那是個家庭原因）。爾後，我找Haris Ibrahim商談此事，而他一開始也不同意。但經過我的游說后他終于答應了，條件是我必須成爲主席。
我的計劃是要MCLM以非政黨模式組成第三勢力。它將以非營利團體方式來接觸囯陣和民聯以推動政治改革；馬來西亞急需政治改革（如廢除種族宗教政治）和選舉改革（如所有選區的選民總數不可以有多過10%的差別和廢除郵票等）。
Haris和我當時同意(我們在倫敦的MCLM‘開幕儀式’時有做出宣佈)MCLM的委員一概不得和任何政黨有直接接觸和不得參與大選；如果他們想要參選的話就得退出MLCM。
遺憾的是，囯陣和民聯都忽視我們。更絕的是，民聯直接把我們看成敵人，講說我們的目的是要以3角戰的方式在大選時分散民聯的票源來幫助囯陣獲勝；他們把‘第三勢力’了解成大選三角戰。柔佛的某位行動黨領袖私底下跟我說黨總部已下令不准跟MCLM合作，而也有一名伊黨領袖給我打電話，跟我表示除非安華點頭支持，伊黨是不會跟我們有任何瓜葛的。
我從未掩飾那一切對我的傷害有多大，我真的很受傷。政客只會跟那些會為他們帶來票源的人合作而他們認爲MCLM不會為他們帶來任何選票。他們不重視我們是一回事，但他們倒過來冤枉我們，說我們專搞破壞，那簡直跟在我們的下陰踢上兩腳沒什麽兩樣。自70年代開始，我們所做的一切都是爲了反對黨，但得來的就只是一個叛徒的駡名。
我們的目的是想要政治改革，不是幫任何政黨奪權。
07年我參與了Bersih。事實上，是我，Tunku Vic和Din Merican 三人遊説皇室來和Bersih委員們見面和接受選舉改革備忘錄的。最高元首最後同意和最多十個代表見面。
十個代表對我們來講，已經很足夠了。
我們用了數個月來策劃Bersih，我甚至還和巫統的某些人見面，要求他們多多支持。他們很多人都支持（當然都是私底下），有些人還捐了帽子T-恤等，而我也把這些給派光了。
到了Bersih那一天，我們吸引了數万人前來參加，也成功地遊行到了皇宮大閘。但就儅我們走到了皇宮時，有人叫我們暫時還不要進去，留在外邊等，因爲有些政黨首領正趕著過來加入我們。奇怪了，爲什麽他們不和我們一起遊行呢？爲什麽要等到我們成功抵達皇宮了才出現呢？（請記得我們一路遊行過來是多麽的艱難）
我們等了大約有一個小時之久，那些領袖們終于到了，然後就一行十個人頭也不囘地走進了皇宮，而我們這群爲了Bersih嘔心瀝血的就呆呆地被遺忘了在大閘外邊。在把備忘錄轉交給最高元首代表以後，這一群政客就走了出來，然後就地給人群來個講座。
簡短來説，Bersih被一群政客騎劫了，而接下來他們就順手推舟地舉辦了Bersih 2.0 和 3.0。我們要的Bersih是個全民的運動，不是某個政黨的政治工具，我們要的是巫統也有份支持Bersih。但現在Bersih已成爲了民聯的第四個成員，那請問巫統還會像在2007年般地支持以後的Bersih嗎？
因爲Bersih失敗了（失敗是指Bersih再也不是第三勢力了而是政黨的工具），我覺得我們必須再來一個新的第三勢力繼續我們的改革鬥爭，這就是MCLM成立的原因。
但MCLM也失敗了，原因是政客們不能像他們之前控制Bersih般地控制MCLM，所以他們拒絕和MCLM有任何聯係。往後所發生的你們都知道了。
現在第13屆大選已經結束了，我們對此所能做的是非常有限的。我們現在要做的是替5年后的第14屆大選備戰。但我們應該做些什麽呢？我們應該怎樣去執行呢？我們應該找誰來執行呢？
這是我們該深思的事情。
我還是相信我們需要一個獨立的個體來持續我們的政治改革。我們的政治改革必須涵蓋選舉改革，而我們的改革必須是由人民而不是政客來推動的。政客根本就不會想要看到任何政治改革。
伊黨是靠宗教上位的，他們能否分得開政治和宗教呢？巫統，馬華，囯大黨，它們都是因種族主義掌權的，他們能否在他們的政治思想裏把‘種族’這個因子給拿掉呢？行動黨是靠“華人鬥爭”起家的，他們能否摒棄“華人鬥爭”呢？公正黨的鬥爭目的是要把安華捧上首相寶座，他們能否把安華換下來呢？囯陣是靠不公平的選區劃分才有辦法以少過50%的票數執政的，他們能否支持選舉改革呢？
這些都不是我說了算的。我現在生活在英國，沒打算再囘馬來西亞，在我之外還有1百萬的馬來西亞人也在國外生活，當中也有很多人都不打算回國。這是你們這些2千8百萬生活在馬來西亞的急需的選舉改革。你們必須作出決定，你們必須選擇要如何面對2018年的第14屆大選。
這是你們的選擇！！
