MGG Pillai Commentary View

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A prime minister who likes warm water, keropok, vanilla ice cream and holidays in Japan

TO MARK THE PRIME Minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's first year in office, the mainstream newspapers bend over backwards to praise him with banal platitudes when it should be taking a critical look at his stewardship. The Star, to mark the event, asked its readers to guess what his favourite likes are, a sort of political reality show. We now know, why we know not, that his favourite role model is Tun Abdul Razak; his favourite historical Malaysian personality, Tengku Abdul Rahman; his favourite drink, warm water ('air suam'); his favourite food, rice porridge; his favourite snack, keropok; his favourite colour, blue; his favourite song, Bahtera Malaysia; his favourite movie, My Fair Lady; his favourite ice cream flavour, vanilla; his favourite holiday destination, Japan. The 8,000 readers who responded guessed right half his choices. What is that meant to prove?

The Star approach is typical of this re-creation of Pak Lah as 'one of us' by the mainstream press to divert attention into irrelevance when larger issues of state demand his, and our, attention. We know why. Pak Lah sits on an uneasy throne which his spinmeisters believe can best be secured by banal platitudes and irrelevant sideshows. Malaysia is not alone in this. The Singapore Straits Times recently carried a news story about President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono urging Indonesians to prefer the nation's interest not their own. Look at the New Straits Times front page headlines about Malaysian affairs: it is one banal platitude or irrelevant sideshow after another. The issues that should be discussed are not. The ghastly reality television shows, now the staple on Malaysian television networks, have come into the mainstream of life, and newspapers begin a print edition of it.

It reveals how profoundly institutionalised mediocrity has seized centre stage. There is no escape from it. Not when political policies are made in deference to it. The blabbing of cabinet ministers and civil servants show no intellectual content even it is policies they announce. Everything is reduced to the lowest common denominator. Why? It is this fear of what the Chinese call "kiasu", a fear to fail. In the modern world, one is afraid to fall, and go to extraordinary lengths to mask failure.

There is a fear to stand out in a crowd, especially when he who does is marked. So Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim are enemies of the people because they have fallen out of political favour with UMNO; The opposition is useless because it cannot, election after election, match the resources of the National Front, which should be supported for ever because it has been re-elected every time since 1955. But Edison, the inventor of the electric bulb, failed in his experiments 2,998 out of 3,000! It is this urge to go on in face of impending disaster that makes one want to can suceed.

When what passes for intellectual debate is the assumption that the dominant view is the only one, the mainstream media reduce it to banality. This view is reached not be hard thought but by often irrelevant and skewed polls and manufactured news. The mainstream newspapers and media run campaigns with no aim than to show that even if it would not provide the news the people want to read, they are still with them.

When interest flags, an issue is manufactured. It was rape at one time. They took extra care to report all the rapes that happen, report them gruesomely, often several in the same edition, then get the NGOs and individuals to express horror and shock, and soon a cabinet minister, even the prime minister, will say what a terrible thing rape is – did we not know that? – and soon all stops are pulled, and death and harsher penalties are pressganged into law. Any who objects that penalties have been on the law books for centuries are made out to look like rapists themselves. A few exemplary and often grotesque punishments are meted for rape, the truth of it as effective penalty proclaimed, and then its fades from public memory until a new issue catches their fancy.

The belief has taken place that only the present matters. Without the past, the present must flounder. We are who we are for who we were. Our past makes our present. If we dismiss our cherished heritage as the blunders of the past, as we are prone to, how are we to grout our presence in history? Forty years ago, we dismissed Indonesia as a failed state. Indonesia's confrontation of Malaysia was dismissed as the devil's work. But whether you like it or not, this laid the groundwork for the secure and stable country Indonesia now is. Democracy functions better there than here. It is a nation that moves slowly but surely as it has for more than 500 years, taking the falls with the successes in benign pride. And it shows in the confidence and pride of its citizens at what they have achieved. In Malaysia, we insist history begins when a new prime minister takes over. His past is forgotten as his present and his future is carved out of ice, like those of intricate ice sculptures at hotel receptions, which disappears when he does.

One would have thought, indeed expected, that Pak Lah's one year in office would be a critical examination of his tenure so far. It does not surprise that the Star did not ask what his favourite books or philosopher is or even his favourite religious philosophers or leader, for its questionaire was to attract readers, not answers, a marketing exercise no more. The truth is Pak Lah does not have a clue to what he wants for Malaysia under his governance beyond the mind-boggling banal platitudes he mouths when given a chance. What is his view on corruption? He is against it. On Southern Thailand? He is against it. How would he solve it? I dare say he has no idea. When issues of state are at risk, how does a liking for rice porridge or vanilla ice cream or a fondness for holidays in Japan help him address then?

But Pak Lah had more banal homilies to "celebrate" his first year in office: "I am well aware that expectations are high but I will take that as a challenge. We need to make sure that we are in pursuance of various programmes and projects introduced. I believe the programmes and projects are implementing are what the people want … We believe in power-sharing and want to reach out to all races in the country, thus we also have taken into account unity among the people when implementing policies. We have been very conscious in that aspect since the beginning of the nation, and will continue to do so (The Star, 01 Nov 2004, p2)." Amen.

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@streamyx.com