It never creases to amaze me how politicians in this country can get away with anything. Not only do they contradict themselves on a daily basis, their hypocrisy is mind-boogling.
Take for instance the word “democracy”. All politicians I know swears that they are for democracy and some even say they will defend it with their blood. Unfortunately in Malaysia, democracy does not mean “democracy” as most people think. In Malaysia, democracy means hypocrisy and double or even triple-talk.
The best example of this “democracy” at work is party elections. Every time there is a party election, the leader will say this is democracy at “work”.
Before you can even blink, they will also say the “party” has “decided” that “no contest for the top posts” is the best way for party elections. So definition number one: democracy means no elections for top posts.
Then, when a challenger emerges, its back to democracy at “work”. This means the leader will use all sorts of presidential power to ensure that there is no such thing as a fair fight. If the challenger has more than an even chance to win, then the challenger is immediately packed off to the disciplinary committee for one or more of the following. All based on recent cases — take your pick:
1) “destroying the credibility of XXX’s elections”
2) “tarnishing the party’s image”
3) “money politics”
4) “sabotaging the party during the elections”
It is as if going after the top job is a regarded as a capital sin nowadays. It is as if one can only lawan towkay if one is willing to be kicked out of a party. There does not appear to be any other way.
Malaysians politicians have a mentality that it’s a winner-take-all situation. The moment you lose, you are out, forever.
The good news of course is that since the public is so forgiving and have a short memory, you can move to another party without much difficulty. This appears to be the most popular route for MCA leaders.
Lim Chong Eu was the president of MCA before he jumped and became the leader of Gerakan. Lim Kheng Yaik, then a young turk who was planning to challenge the old guard in MCA, was kicked out of MCA but he end up as leader of Gerakan and one of the longest serving member of the cabinet. Tengku Razaleigh who lost narrowly to Mahathir in the 1987 Umno polls, left the party and established Parti Semangat 46. In the Democratic Action Party (DAP), the people behind the KOKS, Knock-out Kit Siang or Knock-out Karpal Singh, have all left the party. One of the most prominent members of KOKS, Wee Choo Keong, is now a MP for PKR. The irony of course is that when Wee was forced out DAP he actually established a new party, Malaysian Democratic Party (MDP). MDP obviously was not selling so PKR.
Over in Sarawak, Leo Moggie and Daniel Tajang who challenged James Wong for Sarawak National Party (SNAP) ended up forming a new party, Parti Bansa Dayak Sarawak (PBDS). Parti Rakyat Sarawak (PRS) and Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP) were all created by challengers to the existing leader.
I agree that this sort of thing happens all over the world but in Asia and Malaysia its so vicious that one could almost say that our level of political development is still stuck in the Stone Age. A modern political party must embrace differences in opinion but in Malaysia political leaders regard themselves as God. A God must not be challenged and all those who challenge God must be struck down by lighting and banish forever. This may explain why people will do anything to be God and once they become God, only the real God can remove them.
One way out of this mess is to impose term limit. I cannot think of another way to limit the damage done by these little Gods on the Malaysian political system. The good news is that the younger generation no longer tolerates these Malaysian Gods and their nonsense. Hence I am willing to bet that the recent actions against Chua (MCA) and Subra (MIC) will ultimately lead to unhappy endings for the incumbent presidents of MCA and MIC. Malaysian Gods are not as powerful as before!
James Chin is a Malaysian academic. The views expressed here are his own and do not reflect the views of institutions he is associated with.
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