MGG Pillai Commentary View

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The four mortal dangers of Malaysian democracy

POLITICAL DEBATE DOES NOT exist in Malaysia. It is discouraged. By the government and opposition. Only one view is allowed to exist, that of whoever is in charge. It does not matter if is the National Front (BN) government, UMNO, PAS, DAP, Parti Keadilan Rakyat, your cultural or social club. They are led, in this culture of ours, by petty dictators, all claiming to control the truth, scheming to shut out dissent, and surround themselves with a cordon sanitaire of cronies and supporters. It is seen as an affront for the leader to be challenged, and elaborate precautions are put in place to wiggle out challengers. It is a frightening indictment of democracy in Malaysia. The late lamented Tun Suffian's aphorism of there being freedom of speech but not after, is unfortunately all too true.

Malaysia would be independent for half-a-century in three years, but there is little to suggest we are better off now than in 1957. The rule of law is a pastiche of what it was, the dictates of authority defining it more than the law. The civil service has lost its bearings, the once incorruptible now told by the prime minister, no less, not to be corrupt. The police has lost its well regarded place in society, is seen as the goon squad of the government, and corrupt to boot. The armed forces is no position to fight a war, its generals more interested in the perks of office and arms purchases than to defend the country. Parliament and state assemblies are but rubber stamps, with no debate of substance. So moribund is it that it caught all by surprise when BN members of parliament demanded questions of a cabinet minister in a tone that in Malaysian democracy is the opposition's.

The discordant voices we need for a consensus is absent. The political parties are run by a tyrant in each party, with a public posture that fits it to its roots, in government or opposition, and with no qualities of leadership for people to have faith in. The BN is backed because it is in power, and who they believe can deliver. But it does not. Its leaders have creative explanations why it cannot while demanding of the party faithful to let them resolve it for them. In short, politics in Malaysia is form than substance: what is said more important than what is done. When this is the prevailing view in the country's media, which does not even pretend to have an independent or critical view of government shortcomings, it adds to the spin that all is well.

The biggest casualty of Malaysia's democracy is democracy itself. Democracy is not what it is but a stick to beat people with, an ideology in which the opposition must be defeated at all cost. It is rare in a modern democracy for the government in power to lose. It is rare of a modern government not to put barriers, in the name of democracy, to put the opposition at a disadvantage. The United States goes on a crusade to impose democracy as proof it works, not that it does. There is not a democratic country in the world where corruption does not underpin elections. It does not matter if the country is the United States or the Ukraine. The party that can amass the most wealth by dubious means wins, especially when the electoral system is suitably modified against the opposition.

In Malaysia, democracy such as it is is in mortal danger. The democracy we have is a genteel description for the autocracy we have. The BN government has made it increasingly difficult for the opposition to spread its views, rushes elections through in less than a fortnight, all in the name of efficiency and cost. But when we look at how other countries, perceivably in worse shape than Malaysia, we see strains that we can only wish for: a vibrant press that would challenge the government, as in Zimbabwe and Ukraine; a judiciary that would call the government to account; an opposition leader who can be heard in his country's newspapers. In Malaysia, even those in his cabinet perceived to be against the prime minister gets short shrift in the media. Look at how the deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Najib Tun Razak's recent visit to Jakarta was reported in Malaysian newspapers; never mind that his visit was upstaged by the Malaysian nemesis-in-chief, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim; but he got better play in Indonesian newspapers than he did in his own country.

Where the BN went wrong, and is so far gone that it is all but irreversible, is its arrogant view that since it is in power, it should be unchallenged. It worked awhile, but as the years went by, the advantage it had in reshaping the government and society after the 13 May racial riots has passed it by. UMNO took control of the government so decidedly and firmly that it turned a multiracial government into a Malay government. UMNO and BN claims the coalition is multiracial; but that is spin: UMNO rules the BN like a mafia chief its minions. What should frighten us all is that UMNO in charge rules at the leader's dictates, ignoring all else. In time the centres of administration and governance, neglected and ignored, were overgrown with the weeds of arrogance and corruption, and in demented a state that it cannot be put right short of a revolution. A new leader invariably rewrites history.

The New Economic Policy had as its politically unmentionable aim UMNO, not Malay, domination of the levers of power. The non-Malay parties in the Alliance, and later BN, gave up the ghost, their leaders frightened of their own shadows to make peace with the UMNO leaders as surrogates, cronies and proxies. The non-Malay ground was marginalised. It gave the UMNO and Malay elite to take matters in its own hands. In its wake came the four issues that now all but threatens the Malaysian state: Malay racism, Islamic extremism, corruption and incompetence. Each by itself can destroy the state; all four hand-in-hand makes it an explosive cocktail indeed.

The BN and UMNO knows it, will not prevent discussing it for reasons that include the breakdown of the elaborate charade it had built around how democracy is alive and well. But these four issues have spread, like a canker, through the system, in the centre and in the states. One follows the other, and in all, and exclusive to Malay politicians and civil servants. This view excludes every non-Malay and non-Muslim from the body corpus, in politics and government, and accepted by the non-Malay political parties in the BN for no reason than that their leaders are eunuchs in the UMNO court than as leaders fighting for their people's rights.

The Malay racism reared its head in the immediate years of the NEP; Islamic extemism got mixed up with Malay racism in the mid-1980s – it is after a civil servant who decided that Jesus is verboten in Christmas carols this year. This led to non-Malays kept down in the civil service and public sector, their promotions blocked for no reason than their race; and kept even more firmly down when Islamic fanaticism wound its way into the civil service. Little is talked of this in public, but in time the non-Malays were not taken into the civil service in even the smaller numbers they once were. There is an official quota on entry, and an unofficial quota at every stage of a non-Malay's career in the civil and uniformed services, in which the only reason for it is race and religion. Most non-Malays today would not even consider a career in the government and civil service, which they believe can only lead to pain and frustration.

It takes a generation for policies to fruit. We see the fruits of the NEP today. The government tears its collective hair at the presence of a few non-Malays in the police services; their shortage makes routine policing difficult and counter-productive. But it has been government policy for a generation not to recruit police officers except as tokens. This has two unintended consequences: those who should be selected stay away; those who should not be, are because they are the only ones available. When they are not – in the police force, for instance – to interact with people and as often as not confined to headquarters, any interest in joining it is quashed ab initio. Now the police force is reduced to begging for non-Malay recruits and officers. It would take more than pious words and promises to wean them back. But without the non-Malays, policing takes on a dangerous racial tinge.

But this closed circle of Malay racism and Islamic fanaticism gives rise to both corruption and incompetence. The postman who kept 21,000 letters in his house because he did think his pay adequate is the product of all these four shibboleths. He is not alone. When no penalties incur for work not done in a culture where other than competence reigns, this is the result. The postman reflects a larger malaise in the government and politics. We cannot do without the Indonesians, for they work and we don't. When this is followed by a government insistence all is well, when it is not, the explosive cocktail is so volatile that one does not know when it would explode or the damage it would cause. Few in government seriously addresses this, for they as recipients of privilege do not see why this should change: after all, endless meetings, frequent rounds of golf whilst at work, a salubrious life, little or no work done – all this is not a bad way to end a lifetime of work and privilege. But the fuse is ticking. And explode it must one day.

[An edited version of this is my column in Harakah, the PAS organ, in its latest edition, published today, 14 December 2004.]

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