Any other political leader whose party had been so humiliated as UMNO was at this election would by now have tendered his or her resignation.  Abdullah Badawi however, is slow on the uptake.  He does not respond to subtle signals, even though there was nothing subtle about voters’ rejection of his leadership.  The only way to get his attention would be to hit his thick skull with a two-by-four lumber, metaphorically speaking of course.

            At a press conference early this morning he declared, “I don’t know who is being pressured (to step down), I’m not resigning.”  At best, that reflects a leader totally out of touch with the harsh reality; at worse, the bravado of an idiot.  With Abdullah, it is both.

            If UMNO members do not complete what the voters had set out to do in this election – that is, get rid of Abdullah – then the next elections would be even uglier.  If former UMNO leader and Prime Minister Mahathir was accurate in his assessment that the party can no longer be reformed from within ( a sentiment I share), then we are indeed watching the beginning of the end for UMNO.  The implosion has begun.

            Nothing is inevitable, however.  This once proud party could indeed regain its luster and the citizens’ confidence if it were to thoroughly cleanse itself.  As with a fish, the rot begins at the head.  Chopped off the head, and unlike a fish, with a viable organization a fresh, unblemished head will emerge ready to take over, as with a hydra.

            Fortunately the party has a chance to do this soon.  Its Supreme Council members must move forward the party’s leadership conference that was postponed to this August.  The council should also rescind its earlier “tradition” of there being no contest for its top posts.  It should open up the process and loosen the rules.  There is no need for a prospective candidate to line up support from umpteen divisions.  To discourage frivolous candidates, institute the payment of deposits, as with the general elections.

            Those two initiatives would immediately open up the field.  UMNO could then preview more candidates instead of restricting itself to the same tired old faces.  New faces of course would not guarantee change.  We have already seen many young leaders in UMNO who are only too quick to learn and too eager to acquire the unsavory traits of their elders.

 A New Dawn for Malaysia

 As Anwar Ibrahim rightly observes, this election marks “a defining moment” in the history of the nation and the opening of “a new chapter.”  It is indeed a new dawn for Malaysia, a pivotal point in its politics.  He can say that with considerable authority.  More than any other person, Anwar was responsible this remarkable reshaping of the Malaysian political landscape.  Even though he was not allowed to contest this election, he campaigned actively.

            He was also instrumental in aligning the opposition parties.  Those parties also worked closely together in 1999 and 2004 elections, but without Anwar’s personal involvement they did not achieve much.  Clearly the Anwar factor is real and remains formidable.

            The academics will no doubt have their own voluminous analyses of this election, the most significant turning point in Malaysian politics.  I wish only to highlight one positive and refreshing trend.  This election saw all parties fielding many new and young candidates.  Two young fresh talents deserve scrutiny for different reasons, but both reflect the greater political dynamics.

            One is Nurrul Izzah, Anwar’s daughter who defeated Welfare Minister Shahrizat Jalil in the Lembah Pantai constituency which included the upscale community of Bangsar and the University of Malaya campus.  Unlike many of her cabinet colleagues, Shahrizat was a competent minister.  She also treated her novice political opponent civilly and with respect, rare among UMNO politicians.  They have a penchant for demonizing their opponents.

            Nurrul Izzah’s considerable talent (she after all has a graduate degree from Hopkins) and appeal aside, her victory reflects the waning support of UMNO among urban sophisticated voters.

            On the other hand, the fate of another young candidate, Abdullah’ son-in-law Khairy Jamaluddin, provides an amusing contrast.  A year or two earlier Khairy, using the “protection” of his father-in-law, managed to ascend to the number two position in UMNO Youth san a contest or election.  This time he was catapulted to contest the hitherto safe rural parliamentary seat of Rembau.  Despite being challenged by an unknown school teacher, Khairy managed only to squeak through.  UMNO has problems even in the Malay heartland.

            Obviously this Oxford graduate was attempting to ride on his father-in-law’s coattail, except that Khairy made the mistake of not recognizing that his father-in-law had no coattails; he was naked!

Non-Political Lessons From This Election

 For Malaysians who rely on the mainstream media or who are guided by their opinion shapers, the results of this election would be a shocker.  For those who follow the Internet however, this was exactly what we had expected.

            While the pundits in the mainstream media were all wet in their prognostications – they all confidently predicted a return of Barisan’s supra-majority – Raja Petra of Malaysia-Today was spot on in his overall predictions.  He also predicted a significantly reduced majority for Abdullah and a greatly enhanced one for Najib.

            Mainstream media readers may not have heard of “Chegubard” Badrul Hisham Shaharin, Khairy’s political opponent in Rembau, but ‘Netizens are very familiar with him.  They also contributed substantially towards his campaign.  Had indelible ink been used on voters to prevent repeat voting and had the Elections Commission not have spare postal votes handy, Chegubard would have handily crushed Khairy.

            Equally telling was that I had difficulty assessing both Malaysiakini and Malaysia-Today; their websites were swamped despite having multiple mirror sites.  Even when the authorities suspended Malaysiakini’s website, it could still be accessed via its mirror sites elsewhere.

            For another telling contrast, I had no problem at all downloading the mainstream media’s websites.  In my hunger for news however, I readily settled for second best!  This election is more than a repudiation of Abdullah Badawi.  It is also a repudiation of the mainstream media and their pundits and journalists.

            Doing away with Abdullah is much more doable task, not so with our incompetent sycophantic media.  UMNO members must not shy away from doing the necessarily dirty task at hand, getting rid of its leader Abdullah Badawi.  If they fail to do that, then Malays would not hesitate in getting rid of UMNO.

Farish A. Noor  

THAT the leadership of the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) has now come out to endorse the People’s Declaration (see http://www.malaysia-today.net/The_Peoples_Voice.pdf) – an initiative by Malaysia’s civil society calling for the reaffirmation of the people’s fundamental political rights – is indicative of the success of the behind-the-scenes lobbying in the lead up to nomination day, and of the cobbling together of a loose opposition coalition for Malaysia’s 12^th general election.  Even more telling is the fact that PAS has also sidelined some of its more contentious demands for an Islamic state, a factor that has always served to turn non-Muslim voters away from the party.

            These developments, recent as they are, nonetheless point to what may be the new realist politics of PAS today.  While the party remains under the tutelage and leadership of the ulama who dominate its executive council and council of ulama, the party’s second and third-rung leadership is cognisant of the fact that if PAS ever wants to be seen seriously as a Malaysian party with a national appeal, it has to take into account the demands, needs and sensitivities of non-Muslims in the country.  The latest moves to secure its place in the opposition line-up, and to present itself as a credible alternative, therefore reflects the party’s awareness of the simple fact that the Malaysian public has developed and matured over the past five decades, and that Malaysian society is far more complex and heterodox today than it ever was.

PAS’s Evolution

We should not be too surprised by PAS’s changes though for despite the political rhetoric, the party has experienced many important changes in its ideological orientation.  During the time of Dr. Burhanuddin al-Helmy’s leadership (1956-1970), PAS was widely seen as a progressive Islamist party that was committed to the ideal of an Islamic state but at the same time, very much dedicated to the causes of anti-colonialism and anti-imperialism.  This was the time when PAS tacitly supported the workers’ movements and trade unions of Malaysia, aligned itself with progressive forces among all ethnic and religious groups, and was even suspected of being a “Leftist-Islamist” party.

            During the 1970s, PAS was under the leadership of Asri Muda who took it towards a completely different direction by injecting the party’s official discourse with notions of Malay ethno-nationalism.  The party under Asri Muda’s leadership raised concerns about the plight of the Malays of Patani, and strove to be the champion of the Malay language and culture, thereby overturning Burhanuddin al-Helmy’s progressive legacy.  It was also during this time that PAS reached its nadir in politics by joining the Barisan Nasional, a move that backfired on Asri Muda as it robbed him of his credibility and power in the long run.

            The PAS we know today is the PAS that was rescued from the ashes of defeat by the ulama in the early 1980s.  Men like Ustaz Nik Aziz Nik Mat and Ustaz Hadi Awang, then led by the fiery Ustaz Yusof Rawa, the first Murshid ‘ul Am (spiritual leader) of PAS, were inspired by the Iranian revolution and were determined to create an Islamic state in Malaysia.  But the tumultuous years of the 1980s and early 1990s also witnessed something that PAS’s leaders did not anticipate:  the emergence of a more complex and plural Malaysian society.

            For decades, PAS operated on the simple principle of the three P’s: Padi, Pondok, PAS (translated to mean padi fields, pondok schools, and PAS to reflect the party’s former image as rural-based).  PAS was seen, and saw itself, as the party of the poor agrarian Muslims of the north.  But today, Malaysian society is so complex as to defy such stereotyping.  The Hindraf phenomenon, for instance, demonstrates that the Malaysian-Indian community is far more diverse and complex than what MIC leaders may wish to see them for.  Likewise the urbanisation of Malay-Muslim society has given rise to all manner of new Malay constituencies and alternative sub-cultural groupings, ranging from the well-heeled urbanite cosmopolitan middle classes to the Mat Rempit under classes and a host of other subaltern groupings.

            PAS must realise that its commitment to the People’s Declaration, and its decision not to press ahead with its Islamic state demands has to be for the long-term; and not simply a matter of political gimmickry and strategising. The Malaysian public has grown weary of the political manoeuvrings of all political parties in this country; where leaders who brandish the keris one day will turn around and declare their love for other races the next.  Likewise, PAS should not embrace the People’s Declaration simply for the sake of gaining points for this electoral race, only to revert back after the elections to its past, six years ago, when its leaders openly declared support for the Taliban.

            For the sake of all Malaysians who are about to place their trust in the political parties in two weeks time, and for the sake of PAS’s own conscience and credibility, PAS which has endorsed the People’s Declaration must stick to the values of that document in the years and decades to come – regardless of the outcome of the elections and PAS’s fortunes thereafter. Empty slogans like “Islam is the solution” no longer suffice; those will not convince young and restless Malaysians who long for real structural, institutional, and economic changes.

            In the final analysis, this new realism reflects PAS’s own awareness that its primary vote base –the Malays – are no longer living in pondoks in the padi fields.  Malaysian society has evolved; let us hope that all the parties in this country will mirror and reflect the maturity that we have gained after so long.

Dr. Farish A. Noor is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University of Singapore; and one of the founders of the www.othermalaysia.org research site. This article first appeared on www.malaysiavotes.com

Dr. Farish (Badrol Hisham) Ahmad-Noor, Senior Fellow, Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Research Director for the Research Cluster ‘Transnational Religion in Contemporary Southeast Asia, Nanyang Tech Uni, Singapore Tel (off) 6790 6128

Chapter 6:  People:  Our Most Precious Asset  (Cont’d)

Empowering the Citizens

No matter how well educated, healthy, and harmonious the citizens are, the nation will never get the full benefit of their talent unless they have some freedom. If they are controlled, the best that could be expected is what has been assigned to them. They are akin to robots, doomed to doing their routine tasks flawlessly and unquestioningly, but nothing beyond. If we empower citizens with the freedom that is rightly theirs, then there is no limit to their height of achievement.

Many leaders, especially those with an authoritarian streak, naively assume that the much-vaunted “Asian values” mean that community interests must always override that of the individual, as encapsulated in the Japanese saying, “The nail that sticks out gets hammered.” Many leaders and followers confuse freedom with license. Leaders use that as an excuse not to grant citizens their freedom, followers use it as an excuse to abrogate their responsibilities.

It is individuals who make up the community, and a community is only as good as its members. As the scholar Fazlur Rahman wrote, “Whether ultimately it is the individual that is significant and society merely the necessary instrument for his creation or vice versa is academic, for individuals and society appear to be correlates. There is no such thing as a societiless individual.”31

The first article of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, where it asserts that humans are born free, with equal dignity and rights, and endowed with reason and conscience, could easily have been excerpted from the Quran. Those authoritarian “Asian value” leaders gleefully point to India and the Philippines on the dangers of “too much freedom.” Both the Indian Parliament and the Filipino Congress alternate between a raucous talk shop and a three-ring circus, but without the entertainment value of either.

Many mistakenly equate elections and democracy with freedom. As Fareed Zakaria noted in his The Future of Freedom, many countries have elections and all the trappings of democracy, except for the freedom of their citizens.33 Those elections are rigged, corrupted, or simply coerced. Saddam Hussein received 99.9 percent of the votes. Had he known who those 0.1 percent of the voters were, the next election would have seen him secure 100 percent approval!

Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew and South Korea’s Pak did more to enhance freedom of their people through their enlightened economic policies than Nehru ever did for the Indians and Aquino for the Filipinos, their noble sounding democratic ideals notwithstanding. Singaporeans and South Koreans have been freed from that most oppressive fear, the fear of privation.

To be on the next trajectory of development and realize the flowering of society would require citizens be given greater latitude. They must be treated less as raw recruits blindly marching on orders but more as officers, requiring them to think and be creative.

This is where most Asian countries fail; their leaders insist on total control. Where the leaders are smart and educated as in Singapore, the control takes the form of sophisticated legal maneuvers. Those who dare think freely would be threatened with bankruptcy inducing libel suits. Where the leaders are less smart and more corrupt like Malaysia, the control is through fear (the Internal Security Act) and cajoling (through offerings of state bounty to induce compliance or outright bribery as in “money politics”). Regardless, the effect is the same, the stultifying of creativity and innovation.

On Malaysian campuses, brilliant and productive academics who do not regularly sing praises for the establishment do not get tenure. Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak once publicly reprimanded a scientist for publishing studies on air pollution. A senior Professor of Mathematics at the Universiti Kebangsaan, one of only a handful of Malays with such a qualification, was reproved by a MOE functionary for daring to criticize the government’s policy of teaching science and mathematics in English. Although I disagree with the learned professor, nonetheless I find his criticisms valid and deserve wider hearing, if for no other reason than to improve the evident weaknesses of the program. Academics who have not published anything substantive since their dissertation but never tire of sucking up to the powerful on the hand are regularly promoted.

This control, exercised in the classrooms, lecture halls, and faculty lounges, percolates down to formative and impressionable young minds. The consequences cannot be good. I have encountered many young Malays, graduates of top American universities, paralyzed with indecision awaiting a “directive” from their sponsors back home. Many could easily secure their own fellowships for further studies and thus save the Malaysian government from having to expend more resources on them. Used to receiving instructions from high above, they cannot even think about their own future.

I see this pattern even among local professors. When the government announced expanding the use of English, few universities took the initiative further. Only Universiti Utara made English mandatory for its undergraduates. Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) went further by teaching its courses in English. That was sensible as most were in the sciences and technology. Unfortunately when some discredited politicians and has-been academics seeking their last hurrah protested, UPM quickly backtracked. Its officials were easily cowered; they did not have the courage to challenge their detractors.

Meanwhile the other universities are still waiting for their directives from the ministry. That mindset is not a recipe for greatness but a sure path to mediocrity. The same stranglehold bounds artists, writers and journalists. Talented young filmmakers like Amir Muhammad will never see their creations on public television. Malaysian viewers get to view only mediocre productions by unabashed government propagandists masquerading as artists, and they wonder why the public is turned off. Political cartoonist Lat, once widely endeared, is now essentially emasculated since receiving his Datukship. The independent human spirit however, can never be doused. Today we have the likes of Zunar whose brilliant and biting political cartoons spice up the web pages of Malaysiakini. Zunar will never get his datukship; he will be lucky not to be locked up on some trumped up charges of “disrespecting” authority. Meanwhile we get to enjoy his sharp and witty insight.

National literary laureate Shahnon Ahmad, no fan of the establishment, was hounded after publishing his very biting political satire, SHIT (no translation needed). Najib Razak called for stripping Shahnon of his Datukship and literary honors. How small minded!

Economists may have their elegant studies on what makes some societies progress and others regress, but I have my own quick and dirty observation. How a society treats its best and brightest, and the corollary, who it rewards and honors, is the best and most reliable indicator. When I peruse the honor lists on Sultans’ birthdays, I am saddened. Malaysia is honoring (and encouraging) the wrong people and the wrong behaviors, and by default, discouraging and not respecting the right people and their worthy endeavors.

America is great precisely because it places high premium on personal liberty, and jealously guards that freedom. The flowering of the arts and sciences in America is because their practitioners are free to explore and express new ideas. When I see how Indonesia treats its gifted writers like Prameodya Ananta Toer, I am saddened for the writer. I am however far more saddened for Indonesia. It will never achieve greatness unless it nurtures, rewards, and honors its talented and creative citizens.

The greatest threat to personal freedom is our own government. As long as Malaysia has such repressive rules as the Internal Security Act and the Printing Press Act, and gives free rein to its censors, it will never achieve greatness. It saddens me to hear the next generation of leaders in UMNO Youth who are supposedly better educated and more attuned to the ways of the modern world justifying, no, glorifying, such repressive rules.

Next:  Chapter 8:  Culture Counts

Spring comes early in my part of California.  Already there are exuberant splashes of dancing daffodils on the hillsides.  Soon the colorful California poppies will pop up.  With the weather becoming warmer, the rattlesnakes too will soon emerge from their winter slumber.

            Talking of rattlesnakes, I am reminded of the story of the kindly lady who saw one such weakling that was dying from the long cold winter.  Taking pity on the poor critter, she took it home and nursed it back to health.  One day while she was feeding the now robust creature, it took a swipe at her hand and bit her.

            As she lay dying she asked the snake why it had done that.  “You should have known better, lady!  You knew I was a rattlesnake, you should have killed me back then!”

            On March 8, 2008, Malaysia will have a general election, with Prime Minister Abdullah seeking a second term, having secured an overwhelming mandate back in 2004.  This will be the voters’ collective judgment of what Abdullah did with that mandate.

            If Barisan Nasional retains its supra-majority and Abdullah remains as Prime Minister, rest assured that he will continue the pattern he set in his first term.  He will once again reward his cronies and family members with sweetheart mega billion contracts san competition, just as he has done during his first term.  His excuse then was that he did not know that he was doing it!  He will continue dozing off during meetings in the mistaken belief that Malaysians approve of such mediocre performances.  Also, expect the bureaucracy to become even more bloated.  This self-styled “number one civil servant’s” answer to every problem is to spend more money and employ more staff.

            For Malays, expect more books on Islam to be banned and more raids by moral vigilante groups intent on keeping us on the “straight path.”  And expect this Imam of Islam Hadari to lead even more prayers in public, with the television cameras rolling on, of course.

            For non-Malays, expect more temples to be torn down to make way for “community development,” more cash demands from their insatiably greedy Ali Baba partners, and more reasons to take their children out of national schools.

            In short, Malaysians would be like that innocent lady who took pity on the emaciated rattlesnake.  Malaysians took pity on Abdullah and gave him another chance.  Unfortunately, true to form, this rattlesnake Abdullah Badawi will bite us back with a vengeance.

Who Should We Blame?

There is a little bit of that kind lady in all of us, of wanting to be helpful, and yes, also to be forgiving, of wanting to give someone especially our leaders another chance.  We believe in the basic goodness of our fellow human beings.  We are generous and believe that goodwill begets more goodwill.  In short, we are not rattlesnakes.

            Unfortunately, there are the small minority amongst us who are indeed rattlesnakes.  No matter how kind we are to them, their basic instinct is to bite back.

            When I find a rattlesnake near my house, I remove it away back to the hills.  If it returns, then I will not hesitate to kill it.  I give that critter only one chance; it is too dangerous to have a rattlesnake crawling around near my house.

            Malaysians have been too kind and for too long to this rattlesnake of a leader, Abdullah Badawi.  He interprets the huge mandate he received in2004 not as a trust given by citizens to lead them to greater heights, but as a license to indulge his private fantasies.  He is not at all embarrassed by being endlessly feted, or of him and his adult family members jetting off to far away destinations in his newly acquired (at taxpayers expense of course) luxurious Airbus.  Where and when did this grandson of a pious and humble village imam acquire his extravagant tastes?

            When Abdullah was appointed Deputy Prime Minister back in 1998, this is what I wrote in my book The Malay Dilemma Revisited:  “Abdullah is not known for his intellect or sense of mission.  Nor is he very inspiring. . . . He would be Malaysia’s Jimmy Carter, an honorable enough man but totally ineffective leader.”  I was wrong about the honorable part.

            I also wrote, “Abdullah’s only redeeming quality was his humility; a fine enough tribute for a friend but an overrated quality in a leader.”  As we now know, Abdullah has a lot to be humble about, to borrow Churchill’s quote.

Democracy:  Self Correcting

The mistake Malaysians made was in giving Abdullah that massive mandate in 2004.  That however, was understandable, prompted no doubt by the kind lady instinct in us all.  Unfortunately it cemented in Abdullah the delusion that his many inadequacies were indeed virtues.  Our intellectuals and pundits too were also taken in, mistaking Abdullah’s silence for substance, his humility for wisdom.  Had Malaysians been less generous and our intellectuals more critical, Abdullah would have a far less inflated sense of his own capabilities and virtues.  Who knows, we might be spared his vulgar excesses.

            Even Prime Minister Mahathir was fooled by Abdullah to appoint him as Mahathir’s successor.  At least Mahathir recognized his error of judgment (albeit belatedly) and is now working hard to remedy his greatest mistake.

            The beauty of democracy is that citizens can (or at least are given a chance to) correct our collective mistakes, or even those of our leaders.  In this upcoming election, voters in Kepala Batas could do a great national service if they were to boot Abdullah out.  That would effectively remove him as Prime Minister.  More significantly it would trigger a seismic shift in UMNO’s leadership.  With the party’s ban on contesting top posts effectively circumvented, it would get a chance to preview many other candidates.

            If Kepala Batas voters were shy in exercising this historic opportunity, then Malaysians could still teach Abdullah a lesson by substantially reducing his coalition’s victories.  That would also trigger a challenge to his leadership and we would have the same effect as the first scenario.

            We Malays have a saying that sometimes we have to be unkind or even cruel in order to be kind.  We may think that we are being kind by giving a five-ringgit note to a starving drug addict, but then he would just as quickly use that money to get his next fix.

            In the social sciences there is the concept of “enabler,” specifically referring to the battered wife syndrome, of the wife whose toleration of her husband’s abuses encourages him to be even more abusive.

            In this election voters will have to be cruel in order to be kind to our leaders, ourselves, and our nation.  Malaysians must be wise enough not to be inadvertent enablers of corrupt and incompetent leaders.  We must get rid of the rattlesnakes among our leaders before they bite us.

            If Malaysians were to continue on with business as usual with this election, then we have only ourselves to blame.  It would not be the fault of the rattlesnake if it were to bite us back, as surely it would.