MGG Pillai Commentary View

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Reply to an Open letter to MGG Pillai and the Opposition: As suspicious as always

THIS LETTER IS FROM an acquaintance, one of a dozen in the past few weeks, all well-argued, well-presented, which suggest that one should not go against whoever is in power. That is of no use, it suggests, for that only makes me misconceive the intentions of the Government. My reply follows after this letter below.

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On Friday, Mar 5, 2004, at 18:37 Asia/Kuala_Lumpur, Azlen Hj Azizli wrote:

Dear Uncle Pillai,

The fact that you are still at it after all this years has intrigued me. Having had many an argument with you before on matters pertaining to the country and your previous claims of corruption and thrife, I am bemused that you are still adamant to pursue your line of abuse towards the administration. The reasons I shall not even attempt to discuss here, since it will only fuel your purported misconception about the government.

Some of your points do make sense, and that to a certain extent has rescued you from your freefall into the abyss of internet hogwash. But you can’t go on making accusations after accusations and basing your points on what you hear from your friends, from dissident factions and your gut intuition alone. This will undoubtedly present only one side of the view that people want to read. We must give the people the due credit that they would be able to digest a balanced view and make up their mind about it. We must not only feed them with stories of hatred and suspicion and cover-ups which we might think is the case. You as you claim to be a responsible Malaysian should take the balance view and weigh all the facts in front of you and to present it in the best way for people to judge. You cannot make presumptions and decide for the people. That would only lead people to presume that you are no better, even worse than the people which you are claiming to be fighting against and which you claim you want to expose.

Why the continued suspicion over the government’s every action? I can understand your concern over the over-indulgences that have been committed by past administrations. The building of the Two Towers, which might have been envisioned by its owners after reading JRR Tolkien and a few of these mega biggies are of course a waste of money, and only to showcase our capability to stand alongside the world’s best. Unfortunately we still fall short of achieving this aspiration, and I agree that in the past, many were inclined to only paint a Mona Lisa out of the mayhem and trouble many of these projects were in.

That Pak Lah has put a stop to some is refreshing, though I agree that more must be done to actually curb our excessive spending on projects which actullay do not benefit the greater mass of the Malaysian populace. Having said that however, we have to also look at the reality of the picture today, and decide on the next step towards our future.

I draw you to the upcoming elections, and I am sure that despite your concerns of some BN losses, the ruling coalition shall still be returned with a 2/3 majority; and maybe more. The fact that the feel good feeling has returned to Malaysians could not be denied. Despite all your bickering and the allegations coming on the net about the government; the public is still quite happy with the way the new PM is holding his own against the challenges left behind by his predecessor. So the BN is going to win, the only question is how big a majority?

But what is of real concern is the decorum which has befallen the idealism of the Barisan Alternatif. I am concerned that the grounds which had paved way for the formation of this loose coalition have been upended and henceforth lead to the downfall of the BA. Why if one might add? What happened to the vigour, the charismatic approach and even the ding dong whipping that were so inherent and common in 1999?

I would pity the answer if it was linked in any way with a former DPM who now resides in a cell in Sungei Buloh prison. If it was, then the opposition really is doomed, preying on issues that are only communal or seasonal and actually not having anything new or alternative really to challenge the BN’s stranglehold. If we really want change, then perhaps we should actually look at improving the way the BA is going to perform in future, and not look only into the shortfalls which we claim might have occurred with the government.

I fear that after all these years, the opposition is still where they were 46 years ago, in limbo and trying to still practice the very politics that they accuse the BN of doing. The DAP has always been linked with communal politics due to the extended longevity of one Lim Kit Siang. Even Dr M, Lee Kuan Yew and a host of others have left the mainstage, but Lim still harbours the hope of leading the DAP to greener pastures. He must be woken up. New generation voters do not define themselves to his line of thinking, they do more to Kerk Kim Hock. He is too old anyway to actually see forward 10 years from now. Many doubt he was able to in the first place. If he had, he would have wisely chosen to take the DAP away from PAS’ religion politics in 1999 and that could have saved the DAP. Instead it benefited UMNO’s political allies and BN wehich resulted in a thrashing for the DAP. And Lim lost his leadership to PAS. Not only that, he lost the people’s faith in him. It is thime for him to pack up his bags and go, and let young people define the role of the future DAP.

Keadilanis a roasted party, partly because many of its gumball leaders meet in all these eateries and cafes aligning themselves to Anwar and then suddenly finding themselves back to square one after 1999. They are bereft of issues, their only call for survival is on Anwar, and that too is waning really, really badly. Will there actually be Keadilan in future? Its embalmment with the PRM is looking like the marriage of two dead identities. They must find an issue other than Anwar which could last for at least the next 20 years to remain a credible force. If not, I even fear for Wan Azizah in Permatang Pauh. Anwar is a foregone conclusion, even if he makes a return now he would have lost all his zeal and finesse. It would be best for Keadilan to shut the book on him and move on. If his case goes up again, maybe he will get his day, but that is it. Nothing more, nothing less.

PAS is the only real threat to BN, and this threat is looming larger to becoming a national threat for our decided way of life. Malaysians in 1957 had chosen to walk this walk, to talk this talk and to live this life. For us to force upon ourselves to change this into PAS’ vision of an Islamic state bereft of tolerance and progress is absurd, if not comical. But they do have a strong following in the backward states which they had rules, and because of this they remain entrenched. People who feel themselves marginalized and left behind will often try to find blame, and that would most definitely benefit PAS in this instance. But their idea of an Islam which mirrors that of the Shiite scares me. Hudud id hudud, no doubt about it, but at the same time, it must be implemented as worded by Allah SWT. And Allh’s word could not be translated into what PAS believes. It is one, as with Islam, and at the moment PAS’ interpretations of Islam remain questionable. They are making headways in certain states due to this, and that scares me even further. But please don’t tell me that they would make a better government than the BN, their more than 10 years of wasteful bashing in Kelantan and the obvious pilih kasih attitude in Terengganu only points out to the fact that if this is the true face of PAS, they are even worse than what they claim UMNO to be.

Which leaves many with very little choices really, but to vote for BN still. Actually, it is not because the BN has good policies that actullay entice people to vote for them, but the absence of any real alternatives should they fail to that make people still choose BN election after election. The malays will one day wake up, my only fear is that it will be too late to realize that they are left so far behind by the other races because of this coomunal politics, and it is their fault. But that is another story.

For now, I hope Uncle Pillai can actually use this to his advantage and improve on his meanderings to ensure that at least for our generation, the stuff he dishes on the net are worthy of the man he claims to be … less he is the type to conjure up such types of nonsense that is overtaking his sanity nowadays.

Please consider.

TQ

Ahmad Yazid

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This is my reply

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Dear Ahmad:

Several points intrigue me about your note: one, this belief that the government is in charge, it should be allowed to carry on with what it does, those who disagree should be dismissed because they are not the government; two, the government is the only source that provides information to the people, and no one else, especially the naysayers, should; three, that what I write is based on my "purported misconception" about the government; four, that I should stop writing anything that would upset the government in its task of doing what it wants at its will; five, that I have a bounden duty to be fair in whatever I write. Everything should be forgiven and forgotten because the government is elected.

In all the years I have been writing about Malaysia, no one takes issue with me on what I write, indeed no one would talk to me when I ask for information or check what I had heard. But let general elections come around, and I get well-written letters like yours - yours is one of a dozen in the past few weeks. If you, and the others, had engaged me in debate at the time the articles were written, perhaps we could have got a civil and civil debate going, that could have had wider repercussions in how events are perceived. I hope this is not written with the general election in mind, for you have raised a number of issues which I shall try to answer.

Civil and civic society improves and strengthens with debate. The Sunni Islam is all the stronger because of the challenge from the minority Shia Islam. Does this mean then that Shia Islam must be banned because it expresses a view Sunni Islam shuns? Is it not a democratic right of every citizen to say what he wants within the law, as it is for those who disagree to rebut it? Yes, I am critical about what happens in this country. Yes, I want change. If that change comes from within the BN, so much the better. But is the BN capable of change? I doubt it. It is so entrenched with the status quo, that it shuts out all opposition.

I write, or rant, as some would insist, on issues that I find unacceptable in a democratic society. I presume you would agree with me that, for all its faults, it is a democratic society. But this democracy can be made better, there must be more public and political involvement in making it better, and it cannot if the conditions for public and political debate and space is restricted as a matter of course. This restriction cannot be enforced by the Opposition. Only the government can. What frightens is that it does not hesitate to do just that.

I am not impressed with many superficial and superflous attacks made on the government, by NGOs and others, because it is fashionable to do so. There is, I believe, an unfortunate tendency amongst them to organise the opposition to a foreign standard, we are blamed because our actions do not meet a higher mythical standard. But sometimes it strikes home. The SCOMI affair for example; the Anwar Ibrahim fiasco, for another. But the NGOs and others would play an important role because homegrown Opposition is stymied and constrained. The Government and the ruling coalition would not meet those who criticise it to explain or challenge what is said.

You suggest that as a responsible Malaysian, I should take a balanced view of what I say. I would if I am a journalist writing for foreign audiences. It would make more sense for you to accuse the BN-controlled mainstream newspapers of what you accuse me of: it is they who do not, as newspapers, report on what the Opposition is all about. But that is said to be all right. What are party-owned newspapers for but to push a party point of view. Instead of asking me why I do not write balanced articles, you should ask the editors of those newspapers why they do not. For they present the newspapers as one of record and do not state they report only the government, and the Opposition when it suits them or if there is something nasty to write about.

If I am on a rant, I make that clear. I make no bones about what I write on Malaysian politics: I am on a rant. It is a point of view. I have been doing it for a decade and more. Those who read me know what I am about. If you think, I make no sense, then don't read me. That is your right. I write because an unstated view rarely reaches the government's ears, and is often ignored because of ignorance, arrogance, the belief that no view but its is sustainable. The Anwar Ibrahim affair cut that shot. The government suddenly realised that it needed an organisation to explain Malaysia's case to the world. Some of those involved are very good, very impressive, and it is one of the better things to happen within the government from it.

You say Pak Lah is the man in charge, and he means well. I do not doubt it. But remember he has been in the Mahathir government for years, and is party to much of what was wrong about the Mahathir epoch. He does not have a new persona because he is now in charge. He has to prove his right to office, and he would be measured on how he conducts himself in office. He has shown no sign of a significant shift away from the Mahathir direction, except what he says. But this is not to mean that the Opposition would dent the BN's two-thirds majority (I do not think it would) or that it would not upset the BN ground, not by seats or states captured, but by turning solid BN majorities into less solid and marginal ones. We saw it happen in 1999, and this would continue in 2004.

The Opposition has much work to do before it can make a difference. KeADILan is riddled with contradictions and confusions, though it lost some of that when PRM joined it, to give it a solidity it did not otherwise have. The PRM and PSM, in my view, remain the parties of principle in Malaysia today, bar none. They have not won elections, but Malaysia is a better place because they were around. The DAP is past its prime and mired in the political contradictions and confusion that strikes every Malaysian political party, bar two, and in the BN. But because the Opposition is so riddled in confusion and contradiction, without an organisation to challenge the BN, should it therefore give up the ghost and let the BN win by default? If they are so insignificant, why is it so upset and, yes even frightened, that the Opposition can steal a march over it? There is a reason for this. It has ignored the Opposition, taken the voter for granted, assumed that if you restricted their political space, they would disappear into the woodwork. They did not. They stayed. But since you argue they are insignificant, why is BN so upset at this?

As for me, I present one point of view. It is for you to accept, reject, or dismiss me as a crank, what I write. I do not write it to subvert minds or get people to be subversive. The Malaysian education system, in the words of the government, is the best there is. People are taught to think - you and I are examples of that - and they should be given the freedom to decide what I write is of any use or relevance. If, on the other hand, the people's minds can be confused by a critical article on Malaysia, then I shudder to think what society do we live in now that if the people are not spoonfed, they would flounder. I have a far healthier respect for the Malaysian mind than you profess.

Yours as ever

MGG

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@streamyx.com
06 March 2004