Can Malaysia survive its current political earthquake?

If we do not address the weaknesses in the system, a change of leadership or government alone will not help to curb future abuses. To institute a systemic change, we cannot depend on any politicians to help us do it. They are the problem and not the solution.

Khoo Kay Peng, The Ant Daily

If there were a Richter scale to measure Malaysia’s political calamity, we would have just hit a magnitude of 8.0 this year. Many aftershocks are awaiting us too.

The calamity has become a burden and a barrier to the country’s progress and development. Malaysia’s political woes are largely caused and inflicted by the politicians.

The main controversy on everyone’s mind is the 1MDB multi-billion debt crisis. But the key issue is not only the RM42 billion debt accumulated by the wholly government-owned company. 1MDB is part of the symptom of a systemic failure in our government. There were other similar cases eg. Port Klang Free Zone, National Feedlot Corporation, Felda Global Ventures, Malaysian Airlines System and others. None of these cases have found a closure yet.

The main issue is a lack of accountability and credibility in our governance system. If we do not address the weaknesses in the system, a change of leadership or government alone will not help to curb future abuses. To institute a systemic change, we cannot depend on any politicians to help us do it. They are the problem and not the solution.

In Malaysia, we have failed to institute change because we do not take change seriously enough. We tend to be overly dependent on politicians to do it for us. We are adopting a mindset of a lesser evil is the best we can get. But all oppressive regimes started from being lesser evils or fake reformists. Without a proper check-and-balance mechanism, these regimes once installed are difficult to be uprooted.

Barisan Nasional has shown the same kind of resilience. The coalition has a remarkable staying power and had survived countless of controversies and scandals. Its resilience is once again put to the test through the leadership crisis that the coalition is going through now.

If the BN survives in the next general election, there could only be two possibilities.

First, the coalition has taken the necessary steps to reform and to correct its weaknesses and mistakes. For this to happen, other parties in BN must be able to persuade or pressure Umno, the most dominant party in the coalition, to change its way. This is remotely unlikely because the weaker parties such as MCA, MIC and Gerakan are too beholden to Umno to continue to enjoy some fringe roles in the government.

Second, their power base is so entrenched that they could survive even the most destructive controversies that could have brought down most governments. Moreover, the Malaysian voters are too immune to any controversies and are accustomed to putting ethno-religious priorities above good governance. Politicians who are adept at playing up the race-religion card can hold on to power perpetually.

Voters who had put their hope in the Pakatan Rakyat coalition to bring them the change should be disappointed. Instead of building on their electoral gains, Pakatan component parties have gone on a self-destruction mode; from leadership tussle in Selangor, dispute on Hudud implementation in Kelantan to controversial development policy in Penang. With PAS severing ties with DAP, the Pakatan coalition is effectively defunct.

Critics have been proven right that these parties with differing political ideology and intention cannot agree on a common political framework and leadership structure even if they were to win federal power. In the states that they are governing, their governments are mired with the same kind of controversies, poor policies and weaknesses that the previous BN state governments had faced.

The impact of the political calamity is huge. More and more Malaysians, especially those in urban areas, are thinking very negatively about the country’s future. It is affecting both consumers and investors’ confidence. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The more people think negatively about the country, the more people are going to take drastic action to either move abroad or shift their capital abroad. As a result, the local economy is going to suffer in the long run.

What can we do? We need a new response to the situation. To save the country, we must engage in an open and sincere national dialogue. The people and not any politicians or their nincompoops must lead it. The dialogue must transcend race and religion but put common interest at the forefront. Let’s talk about the need to reform our political system and to install an honest and responsible government.

If need be, we should form a new multi-racial coalition for national reforms to take on the incumbents responsible for our national problems. This multi-racial and inclusive coalition must make a thorough review of the socio-political system to cast out the weaknesses and loopholes for abuses.

If we cannot cast our options beyond just changing leaders and regime, there is little hope for a sustainable change. Nothing short of building and strengthen the public institutions, rule of law and our core competency to create a thinking and constructive society is going to move us forward.

Many are telling us that the prognosis of this country’s future is not positive, but the most important question is do we know what we need to do? Do we need anyone to tell us what to do?

 

Khoo Kay Peng is a political analyst and management consultant. 

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