Bah Humbug to Your Hypocritical Declaration

They may try to bury Dato Sri Najib Razak politically, but not before they have cremated the trust and faith their supporters have placed on them.

Kenneth Lee

After watching in silence the intense play in Malaysian politics over the last year, the so-called “Citizen’s Declaration” of 4 March 2016 has jolted me from my passive observer urbanite Malaysian self.

The coming together of 91-year old Tun Mahathir and his sworn arch-enemies of old – DAP, Pakatan Harapan, Bersih and Hakam – is the finest example of disloyalty and disingenuity to the Rakyat.

I am a Malaysian Chinese born in the 1970s to parents who lived through the Second World War, the 1957 Independence of Malaya and the May 13 incident of 1969. I grew up with accounts of the struggles to unite Malaysians of all races in apparent and genuine harmony, even if that meant an affirmative pact in favour of the Bumiputras. It was a compromise towards the growth of the Malaysian nation. I was brought up with one-Malaysia aspirations by parents who looked forward to change and reforms so that their children may move beyond Malaysia’s political and racial undercurrents.

The first Prime Minister I have any real recollection of is Tun Hussein Onn. I remember him as a young child in early 1980s looking up to the man who brought to my home Rukun Tetangga in which my parents participated together with the rest of the community. Those indeed were simpler times of joyful laughter amongst neighbours who were not wary of the other’s leanings.

Then came along Tun Mahathir whom we were told in school would become the father of modern Malaysia – the visionary who would put Malaysia on the global map. Malaysia would have its own national car Proton, the tallest twin towers in the world and the best airport in South East Asia.

Fast-forward ten years later, Malaysia was being transformed. KLIA, KLCC, KL Tower, ERL, Putrajaya Administrative Centre, together with cranes and tractors, filled up Kuala Lumpur’s landscape. Together with this propulsion of economic development, came the brickbats and the backlash of “progress”. “Milo” tins became an everyday addition to the conversation when we talked about Proton cars. The words “projects”, “cronyism”, “nepotism”,  “corruption”, “sedition” and “ISA” became synonymous to Tun Mahathir. But it was boom time for Malaysia, and these travesties linked to Tun Mahathir’s premiership were brushed aside.

In 1998, I was a young and impressionable lawyer in Kuala Lumpur. On the September night Anwar Ibrahim was arrested on allegations of sodomy, I was called on by fellow lawyers, mostly seniors, to show support for Anwar Ibrahim who had been arrested on trumped-up charges. Being active members of a largely ignored (by Tun Mahathir) Malaysian Bar, they had been fighting for a voice against the autocratic rule of Mahathir, his money politics, the crackdown of media, unlawful detentions under the Internal Security Act and various government bailouts of his crony companies.

I was educated on the 1988 Malaysian constitutional crisis and the UMNO split in which Tun Mahathir had taken a course of action which would spell the end for judicial independence in Malaysia. The removal of then Lord President Tun Salleh Abbas and other judges and Ops Lallang were unforgivable abuses executed by Tun Mahathir not to be tolerated by any right thinking Malaysian (much less a law practitioner).

I lapped up what I was told – Anwar’s guilt or innocence aside, Malaysia’s No. 1 enemy Mahathir has abused his powers and as protectors of the law, we should champion Anwar Ibrahim’s human rights. So I spent several nights keeping vigil with my lawyer mates in Anwar Ibrahim’s Bukit Damansara home listening to accusations of political fix-ups hurled at Tun Mahathir and then public prosecutor Abdul Gani Patail. The ambush-style arrest, police brutality and questionable evidence against Anwar Ibrahim made a convincing case and drama against the hateful duo.

And thus I marched in arms with reformists and leaders in search for “justice” and reforms for the Rakyat. A dream was sold to me, but little did I know that this would in Malaysia’s history become a shameful hypocrisy.  

A year later and just before the 1999 elections, I chided an elder who said that he would still vote Barisan National despite all of Mahathir’s scandals such as the RM22 billion Perwaja Steel and RM1.2 billion Konsortium Perkapalan scandals, simply because DAP led then by Lim Kit Siang and Karpal Singh had not gotten their acts together with the quickly-formed Keadilan. In spite of my protestations against Mahathir’s abuse of powers, he explained that it was difficult to choose between the devil and the deep blue sea. At least Tun Mahathir seemed to be doing his job, having blamed Anwar Ibrahim and George Soros for all of Malaysia’s financial crises.  

Tun Mahathir eventually retired, or so we thought. It appeared though that his political career continued to thrive behind the scenes pulling puppet strings of those who did his bidding and whomever he had cultivated during his 22-year reign.

And so it was that I continued to support whomever I thought were compatriots, activists and reformists the likes of Zaid Ibrahim, Maria Chin and Ambiga Sreenavasan, to show displeasure against the misfortune spread by the Mahathir regime, unto Anwar Ibrahim, the Malaysian judiciary, freedom of speech, clean elections and the ordinary Malaysian who wants to live in peace and harmony in a just society.

Thus seeing Tun Mahathir and his son Mukhriz on 4 March 2016 hold hands with Lim Kit Siang and Zaid Ibrahim (and probably Anwar Ibrahim too had he not otherwise been detained), and share a laugh with Ambiga Sreenevasan and Maria Chin is tantamount to a slap on the face of Malaysians who supported any of their causes. In the least it is a slap to mine.

I am not so naïve as to believe that foes are permanent in politics. But such an unholy alliance coming from leaders and teachers Malaysians (used to) looked up to is reviling. Where is your integrity?

Is everything that was once taught to me and remembered to me about the root of Malaysia’s problems so easily forgotten for the sake of a temporary ally in Tun Mahathir in pursuit of his personal agenda to put his son in place of the incumbent Dato Sri Najib Razak? Is it not obvious that the token mention of reforms in the humbug-of-a-declaration written by Tun Mahathir a mere pacifier to secure your signature? Are the ideals we fought for all these years as cheap as the paper that declaration was written on?

When I see this motley crew of sworn foes together, I wonder what stories they will now teach the younger generations, or will they continue to rewrite Malaysia’s history for them with a string of lies, half-truths and blurred perspectives so as to justify their personal ambitions?

I wonder too if they have not set Malaysia back from real credible change for good. They may try to bury Dato Sri Najib Razak politically, but not before they have cremated the trust and faith their supporters have placed on them.

Who can the Rakyat trust now? Certainly NOT any of the 45, or 57, or 58, folks who signed the “Citizen’s Declaration”, not anymore.