What politics has taught us

(Kwong Wah Daily) – Efforts to topple the ruling UMNO have actually empowered UMNO 2.0. On the other hand whether DAP can discharge its duties to the Chinese community as has been done by MCA is something for the people to ponder upon.

I was born in the 80’s and am about 30 years of age now. I spent my life under the reign of Tun Mahathir before the age of 18. When I was young, I always heard my elders saying all sorts of racial inequity such as the university quota system; the need of a Malay director to start a business and the Chinese cannot be the prime minister, etc. etc.

I spent my university days in the era of Abdullah. We have been “brainwashed” that the Government bore most part of the tuition fees, the Government also provides loans for us to study in the university and also there are many Malays in the university.

After graduation, I started work in the society. That was 2007. Then in 2008, the unexpected political tsunami changed the political landscape. The political module that we were so familiar with changed overnight. Several states fell into the hands of what we called the opposition parties like DAP, PKR and PAS.

DAP had state assemblymen in Kedah, Penang, Perak and Selangor. They became part of the ruling coalition of these states. Then I learned for the first time things that are impossible in politics. Under the state Constitution, a non-Muslim cannot be appointed as the menteri besar. A good example is Perak. DAP won most seats in Perak and the Sultan wanted a list of candidates for the post of menteri besar. DAP recommended Ngeh Koo Ham.

Eventually, the Sultan picked a candidate from PAS which had the least seats to be the menteri besar due to constraints of the state Constitution. Such an arrangement has taught me that behind democracy, racial sensitivity is to a certain extent a decisive factor.

In the 2013 general election, DAP, PKR and PAS formed Pakatan Rakyat. They made public their election manifesto, declaring boldly their tempting alternative policies like abolishing the expressway tolls and forgiving the PTPTN loans.

However, all Pakatan efforts were in vain. The Chinese shouted “Ubah” and the Malays shouted “Ini Kalilah” but the slogans failed to find resonance among voters. In reality, the feeling of “Ubah” stayed only among the Chinese voters while the Malays had no plan to topple the government. It was our delusion.

Now the 2018 election is imminent and politics has changed so much that people even find it difficult to adjust. PAS has left the opposition camp while Tun Mahathir has joined the opposition alliance against Barisan. I thought DAP and PKR would give up their promise of abolishing expressway tolls and write off PTPTN loans after Tun Mahathir joined the opposition camp because they are Tun Mahathir’s political legacies.

However, the abolition of tolls and deferred repayment of PTPTN loans still appeared in Pakatan Harapan’s election manifesto. Originally, I thought with Tun Mahathir’s ruling experience, they could come out with a more practical manifesto. Instead, their manifesto is still stuck in concepts which are impractical.

As my hopes turned into despair, I found that I was wrong again. With his vast ruling experiences, Tun Mahathir is aware of what could be done and what couldn’t be done. So shortly after declaring the manifesto, he made an honest reply on the feasibility of the manifesto. He did not think all the pledges in the manifesto can be fulfilled, especially on the abolition of tolls and GST. He admitted frankly that Pakatan component parties had too much socialist leaning. In other words, they are too idealistic.

Has Tun Mahathir been changed by Pakatan or just that Tun Mahathir has remained unchanged? In reality, Tun Mahathir has not endorsed Pakatan’s socialist and idealistic leaning. Tun Mahathir has taught me what politics is and what policy is. Politics is aimed at pleasing the crowds while policy is for implementation. In simple words, election manifesto presents a beautiful vista to fool the voters but may not be implemented.

Why can’t a Chinese be the prime minister? There is no answer and the question has been a puzzle to us. The Federal Constitution does not stipulate that the prime minister must be Malay or a Muslim but an unwritten rule takes shape because of the political environment.

As the representative of the second largest community during independence, MCA had twice fought for the post of deputy prime minister. However, MCA has never been one with the largest number of seats in the ruling alliance.

As a Pakatan partner with the largest number of seats in Pakatan, DAP always insists that it has no intention to fight for the deputy prime minister’s post. Their supporters have begun to accept such an arrangement. The argument now is that fair administration is most important regardless of who becomes the prime minister or deputy prime minister.

However, in politics, power and authority count and the post of deputy prime minister is symbolic of power and authority. Political development in the past 10 years has taught us many things. We now realize our dreams in the past are just dreams. For the sake of toppling the existing government, we have forsaken the ideals and principles we have held firm for many years. We have chosen to accept our destiny.

Efforts to topple the ruling UMNO have actually empowered UMNO 2.0. On the other hand whether DAP can discharge its duties to the Chinese community as has been done by MCA is something for the people to ponder upon.