10 things Najib must do

by P Gunasegaram

Malaysiakini

May 10, 2013

QUESTION TIME
 The dust from the 13th general elections has not quite settled and there is some chance it may be kicked up again as Pakatan Rakyat could challenge some of the results in court. For Barisan Nasional and Najib Abdul Razak, they rule with a minority of the votes, a morally illegitimate government that reflects a flawed and fraudulent election system.

If BN wants to pick up and regain the people’s trust and recover some lost ground from Pakatan, it simply cannot continue as before. There’s no point pointing fingers at the Chinese community when there has been an urban swing to Pakatan by all communities living in major towns, cities and suburbs.

Even if the swing of the Chinese community  to Pakatan is greater than that of other communities, they are entitled. The Chinese, like any other community, can vote for any party they want without having to face racist, seditious, provocative and loaded questions from Utusan Malaysia such as ‘Apa lagi China mahu?’ Utusan is not and never will be the distributor of the largesse of the country which is owned by everyone.

There are a number of substantive issues with BN as government, top of which is corruption. Next comes a steadily deteriorating education system totally out of whack with our requirements as a people and a nation. Then there is systematic racial and religious polarisation as an instrument of control and to appeal to the Malay vote. Also, there is this issue with Najib’s wife.

Below are a list of 10 things that Najib must do if he and BN are to regain credibility in the eyes of the people and do better. If he chooses to do otherwise and makes hay while the sun shines, future governments can still hold him accountable. The change requires an about turn from the way things have been done for the past three or so decades but in a sense, he has no choice – do or perish at the polls. Do, and you may be forgiven your past transgressions and faults.

1. Put a stop to corruption, patronage and cronyism

Najib should publicly declare a national fight, jihad, crusade or any other name he wants to use against corruption. He must make a firm stand that corruption in any form, anywhere and at any level will no longer be tolerated.

He may want to look into an amnesty system suggested by his brother CIMB Group CEO Nazir Razak but should include significant payback of ill-gotten gains, too. Without an amnesty of past offences, too many people may have to go to jail and it may even affect the proper functioning of the country. Najib should invite public feedback for such a scheme.

There are a number of prongs to this, and three more of our measures relate to corruption. Among the key things that he has to do is to unshackle the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and empower them to investigative everyone. If he makes MACC accountable directly to Parliament via a change in legislation, he is likely to get support even from the opposition.

As part of the process, he needs to devolve the power to prosecute from the attorney-general, which results in a whole lot of selective prosecution and multiple opportunities for corruption. Power to prosecute should be delegated to individual, investigating deputy public prosecutors, with the AG having an oversight to require DPPs to prosecute, but never to stop prosecution.

Also individual regulatory bodies such as Bank Negara Malaysia, the Securities Commission, the Companies Commission, Customs, etc must be given their own power to prosecute without reference to the AG at all.

Once these measures are done he must allow an independent, revitalised and efficient MACC and regulatory bodies to do their job without fear or favour.

And getting rid of corruption means as well a system of free and fair elections with proper controls, checks and balances to stop cheating at the polls and ensure an electoral roll without phantoms and other ghosts.

2. Shut down 1MDB and similar dark organisations

We have written much about 1Malaysia Development Bhd here and here and trust there is more than enough information to begin investigations. In a nutshell, 1MDB represents one of the most insidious schemes ever to cheat the nation out of billions of ringgit. It has raised loans of about RM20 billion and mispriced them by as much as RM4 billion, the money going into the pockets of unnamed people who were able to get first bite at the cherry.

On top of that, RM7 billion of funds remain overseas in the Cayman Island, invested in indeterminate portfolio funds while more than RM10 billion have been used to buy power assets at inflated prices from their current owners. By liquidating 1MDB, Najib will put an end to a dubious scheme of raising capital and investing which is done under closed doors and in the dark with dubious partners.

We really urge Najib to take a close look at 1MDB. He will be shocked at what has happened. If he wants to end corruption and wastage of funds, he has to end 1MDB.

3. Get in a clean, able, efficient and technocratic cabinet

Tough times call for tough actions. You can’t have a bunch of people who may be crooked at the top and hope to make the country straight. It is imperative that the cabinet is based on merit and ability. Yes, you have to make allocations according to parties but if the parties don’t come up with a credible name, throw it out. Ministers don’t have to be MPs, they can be made senators to join the cabinet.

Party warlords should remain that and do their politicking elsewhere and leave the running of government largely to technocrats. It will be a grave mistake to use cabinet posts as a system of rewards and punishment. Malaysia needs to move to a system whereby only capable people have a chance of becoming cabinet ministers.

It is important that cabinet ministers are untainted, have no major links to any major business groups, and act independently and in the best interests of the country as a whole at all times.

4. Declare his assets and require the same for public reps

Najib must set  the example by declaring all his assets publicly to show that he has not accumulated assets beyond his normal means. He must require the same for his cabinet ministers, chief ministers, MPs and state assemblypersons as well as higher ranking civil servants, and introduce necessary legislation which is likely to be supported by the opposition. This will improve public confidence in our elected representatives and civil servants.

5. Revamp education

Najib must have the courage to make major changes in education. Education must first of all be secular and hold to principles of knowledge, research and inference.

It needs to equip students not only with a base of know-how but also teach them how to think. It needs to liberate minds, aspirations and the human spirit. It needs to incorporate much better English education for our students and workers to plug into the rapid changes taking place in the world, for which access is unavailable in Malay. He needs to reintroduce the teaching of science and maths in English for a start.

He needs to look at ways and means to make education and particularly schools a unifying force where students of all races mix, make friends, appreciate and eventually celebrate and affirm our diversity, to become truly Malaysians no matter race or religion.

For that he may have to seriously relook the multiple educational systems in the country to move towards a single school system which will nevertheless guarantee mother-tongue and religious education. All that needs considerable courage.

6. Fight Muhyiddin if he makes a challenge

The days of two-thirds majority and no opposition are gone, perhaps forever. Najib, as BN head, obtained a mandate, tenuous and as illegitimate as it may seem under the circumstances. If Muhyiddin Yassin wants to be PM let him get the mandate from the people directly. Najib must resist the temptation to make a deal. Umno delegates can remove him as party head and that would put paid to his premiership. If it comes to a fight, he should fight.

7. Restore fully personal freedom and civil rights

All laws restricting personal rights and the right to information must be removed. That would include any restrictions on freedom of assembly, the conduct of which can be controlled by other laws. It would include the Official Secrets Act, too, and the Printing Presses and Publications Act as well as sedition laws whose scope should be considerably narrowed.

What we need is unfettered discussion of deep issues which need to be brought to the surface, resolved and reconciled. Without regular self-examination, criticism and reform, neither the individual nor state and society can progress. The idea that we can disagree peaceably without giving way to violence and build upon our agreements must be allowed to come forth and blossom.

8. Put down firmly any attempt at violence

This is a corollary to the earlier point. For too long, Malaysians have been gagged by a threat to violence by what amounts to an extreme, small minority which deliberately creates incidents to stop the discussion of vital points affecting the country. The majority of Malaysians want free and fair expression and dissent to be permitted and are tired of being threatened.

Already, there are rumblings among some groups who want to create incidents in the wake of the elections. These groups must be firmly resisted and the full weight of the law thrown against them if they persist. Malaysians will no longer be held hostage.

9. Stop playing the race and religion cards

Race and religion are convenient cards to play when the game approaches deadlock. But it is not likely to hold currency much more. We need corruption out, we need efficiency in. We need to manage our resources for the betterment of all Malaysians and not let it go to cronies at the expense of the people. People recognise that playing the race and religion card is merely an attempt to camouflage that.

Najib should clearly disassociate himself from Utusan Malaysia’s racist stance and stand for a multi-racial Malaysia. Can there be any other Malaysia?

10. Keep his wife out of state and business affairs

Stories about Najib’s wife are reaching Imelda Marcos proportions. Her close association with state matters and fraternising with rich businessmen and big names is unprecedented for a Malaysian PM’s wife.

Her continued involvement with these and her constant presence in the socialite and even political and prominent news pages of mainstream newspapers (until some weeks before the general elections) will raise serious questions in the minds of Malaysians as to her role as the PM’s wife. It is more than time that Najib put his foot down here.

There are of course other measures he must take. And if he can work with the opposition to bring about these changes, great. But if Najib or any other prime minister is not prepared to implement these basic 10 measures, the least required for the functioning of a developed democracy working for the benefit of the people, then it is is incumbent upon all of us to reject them at the next polls.

P GUNASEGARAM is founding editor of KiniBiz. He rates a fair chance of a Malaysian tsunami in the next elections but is not absolutely sure which way the wind will blow.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 14 May 2013, 8:10 am and is filed under
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A Budding Sprightly Spring

by
Kee Thuan Chye

Malaysian Digest

THE young are not happy with the result of the 13th general election (GE13) held on May 5. I saw that for myself at the ‘Black 505’ rally in Penang on May 11, at which most of the participants were young people – of all races.

They came by the tens of thousands, carrying Pakatan Rakyat and Malaysian flags, blowing vuvuzuelas … and sporting banners that spoke of the unity they profess: “We are Malaysian – Malay, Chinese, Indian.” For them, the race-based politics of the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) is anathema.

In that sense, the ‘Black 505’ rallies, which have since been held in Selangor, Penang and Perak to tremendous responses have become more than just demonstrations of disgust at the alleged electoral fraud of GE13; they are also manifestations of a real sense of unity among like-minded Malaysians.

This is the kind of unity that BN, despite throwing out billions of ringgit to buy allegiance, cannot possibly engender. In fact, this unity has come about because BN, after its poorest performance at a general election to date, has been playing the racial card wildly. Prime Minister Najib Razak and ex-prime minister Mahathir Mohamad and Umno’s propaganda rag Utusan Malaysia have been attempting to demonize the Chinese for BN’s own failings. But their devious attempts have backfired on them. Other Malaysians have come forward to defend the Chinese, including even Umno members Saifuddin Abdullah, the former higher education deputy minister, and Shahrir Samad.

They point out from clear-cut evidence in the voting patterns that Malaysians of all races voted strongly against BN, not just the Chinese. The popular vote itself spoke resoundingly of more than half the voters’ rejection of BN. Indeed, this is the first time in Malaysia’s electoral history that the winning coalition obtained less of the popular vote than the loser.

Pakatan leader Anwar Ibrahim knows this favors his coalition, and is milking the voters’ dissatisfaction to maximum effect through organizing the ‘Black 505’ rallies. In Selangor on May 8, about 100,000 people showed up for what turned out to be essentially another Opposition ceramah running down BN and the Election Commission (EC) for allegedly colluding in the fraud.

But that didn’t really matter to the cheering crowd. What mattered most was the sense of community they experienced gathering together to denounce the alleged act of fraud that had denied them a change of government. Those who had been devastated by the GE13 result, those who had cried their hearts out when it was announced – they all experienced catharsis at the Kelana Jaya Stadium in the company of fellow comrades for change.

I was there that night, and what heartened me was not the politicians’ rhetoric but the spirit of the people. They indicated they were not going to accept the GE13 result meekly, and in their cries of “tipu” (cheating) and “bohong” (lying) was the unmistakable ring of steely determination.

It was this that motivated me to attend the Penang rally as well. And what I saw there was basically the same.

For starters, the drive from Penang island to the Batu Kawan Stadium on the mainland took nearly three hours as the North-South Expressway was jammed up for several kilometers, but the people in the cars that crawled along with me were apparently too buoyed up to care. Mostly dressed in black, the color designated for the occasion, they were singular in purpose.

Everyone was a friend. The four middle-aged Indian men in a car I passed by, the group of young Chinese in another car with PAS and PKR flags sticking out of it, the young Malays on motorcycles bearing PAS and DAP flags – they smiled, they waved, they raised thumbs-up signs. Everyone was in it together. Everyone recognized in one another their common purpose. Even lorry drivers passing by on the North-South Expressway honked in support.

When I got to the Bukit Tambun toll gate, I was amazed to see the number of cars already parked in its vicinity. I asked someone how far more I would have to go to reach the stadium and was told it would be another three kilometers. Many people were willing to leave their cars at the toll area and walk all the way there.

I decided to drive on. As I did so, I passed thousands of people walking in an orderly fashion towards the stadium. They were mostly young and in high spirits, headed more for a carnival than for a protest rally. They carried flags, blew vuvuzuelas, sang songs, chanted slogans. There was hardly a policeman in sight; in fact, the police needn’t have been there because the marchers were all so disciplined. And the motorcyclists as well.

It was about 8:30pm when I reached the stadium and managed to find a parking space. Inside, about 30,000 to 40,000 thousand people had gathered, but as the night wore on, more and more came in. Many others couldn’t make it, like my friend and his nephew coming from the island only to find they couldn’t cross the Penang Bridge because it was too jammed up.

One by one, the politicians came forward to speak, but it was the same old bluster. They accused the EC of being complicit in the fraud, called on Najib to step down, said Pakatan had won the popular vote, that it had won the entire general election.

But did it?

After drumming up such a frenzy with these rallies, Pakatan must surely have to prove that it did. But can it?

I’ve been told that Pakatan is investigating 27 seats, and numerous lawyers and accountants have volunteered for the job. But will they be able to secure the tabulated results from all the streams of the constituencies whose results are being questioned? Will they be able to get the all-important Borang 14 (Form 14) which carries the details of the voting in each stream, validated by all the polling agents present and the ketua tempat mengundi (returning officer)? Will they be able to get all the Borang 14 of all the streams in all the 27 constituencies?

Is this what the rallies so far and those to come – in Pahang, Johor and Sabah – are leading to? Will they culminate in the presentation of incontrovertible evidence that Pakatan was indeed cheated of victory?

Or are these rallies just Anwar’s way of trying to drum up a show of strength to boost his cause? A case of taking a gamble and hoping to come up with aces?

Ultimately, he must know, rallying the people and riling them up will not be enough. They will want to see action, expect a resolution to the claims of cheating. If Pakatan doesn’t offer one, how would they feel? What then might be the consequences?

As I thought about this that night while sitting out the jam heading home after the rally had ended, something else distracted me. It was the sight of the rally participants walking back to their vehicles, in the same orderly manner as before. They showed they were not there to create a disturbance; they were there to assert their right – to be heard. And they were united in spirit.

It is this that is perhaps the most precious feature of these rallies. And it is this that Malaysia needs to cultivate. If nothing else, Anwar and Pakatan have managed to harness that spirit. And it is perhaps their success in doing so that might exonerate them if nothing comes off in the end.

As I watched the young rally participants pass by, still energetic despite the long walk, some reluctant to go home, some still waving banners by the side of the expressway to the encouragement of honking motorists, I felt exhilarated by their refreshing vigor.

I felt I was witness to a revolution of the young. A Budding Sprightly Spring.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 14 May 2013, 6:28 pm and is filed under
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A new way out of racial politics

Mohamad Tajuddin Mohamad Rasdi

Malaysiakini

May 14, 2013

I wish to echo the honest sentiment of Azmin Hassan, director of the National Unity and Integritation Department, in urging a cessation of racist statements by the media and politicians of ethnic-based parties and NGOs. As an academic, a father of five children and as a member of the rakyat in this beloved country of ours we must seek a surer solution that such racial riots in 1969 shall not repeat in our future.

We, the rakyat, and I, the civil servant, as well as Azmin must intervene amidst such irresponsible statements by our so-called national leaders as well as a once-respected national daily.

My call is slightly different than others in resolving this racial stalemate. I am now a grandfather at the age of 51 and may still harbour a chance of my witnessing my grandson voting in a fair election hopefully by a more professional and multi-racial based Election Commission without leaders that seem to favour one group above another.

What I would like him to do is to choose a party, any party that no longer carries any race-based ideology or for that matter any ‘religious’ ideology, whether Islam, Christianity, Buddhism or Hinduism. That is our Malaysian Dream. No more race-based or religious-based political parties.

NGOs who wish to cater to Malays, Chinese, Indians, Dayaks, Islam, Christianity and other religions are welcome to participate in the democratic process within the rules of ‘adab’ or courteous discourse, far from the venom of those spouted by one Zulkifli Noordin.

Now how shall we do this? My solution? I urge the decent, honest and hardworking leaders of MCA and Gerakan to join together and form a single multi-ethnic party. Which leaders do I call on? I call on Ong Tee Keat and Dr Koh Tsu Koon, two Chinese parliamentarians whom I respect and have not gone overboard in silly, selfish and racist statements uttered by one such as Chua Soi Lek.

Why do I ask these two leaders to sit down and think about the Chinese people? Because in the 505 election, the Chinese showed that they can do two things clearly. First they can vote for a multi-racial party called the Democratic Action Party as well as Parti Islam Se-Malaysia and Parti Keadilan Rakyat.

They did not vote a party that has the word ‘Malay’ or ‘Chinese’ in it. The Chinese people of Malaysia are more matured than our leaders as they have outgrown racial politics and racial polarisation.

Secondly, the overwhelming support to a Chinese-majority party such as DAP showed that the Chinese still want to cling on some sort of identifiable cultural platform of their own ethnic upbringing, which is a human and natural reaction. So, my message to Ong Tee Keat and Koh Tsu Koon is, why not form a new  multi-ethnic party that just happens to have a majority membership who are Chinese?

Any student of politics will tell us that there should never be one dominant super party that commands the majority of a race. DAP is a good, hardworking political party that believe in racial harmony… now. But who is to say, like Umno, once a highly respected Malay party that looked after the poor Malays and the fate of Islam, has fallen far because of poor leadership seeking personal pleasures and gratification at the cost of a party’s unrest.

Now PAS is looking very nice to not only Malays but other races as well, but PAS, too, one day will be tainted by greed and power-mongering of leaders with limited vision. The fall of Husam Musa seems to be the shift in the pebbles that might bring the whole boulder down in future elections.

Thus, if MCA can take the high road and eliminate its party and join with Gerakan or form a new party than I can salute both leaders, Ong and Koh, as they who have heralded a new politics of non-race based parties. Next we can speak nicely to young visionary leaders of the MIC and convince them to join this new multi-ethnic party and become an alternative force to the non-Malay citizens to stand against the DAP in the next election.

Once this multi-ethnic Chinese majority party is set up, then we  can ask Umno to revisit the idea of its own founding father Onn Jaafar to set up a Parti Negara-like entity which would probably have a more Malay majority membership.

Finally, we will politely ask Parti Islam Se-Malaysia to refrain from using the word ‘Islam’ but continue to develop the ideology into a more multi-ethnic and multi-religious force so that we would be able to see a few Christians and Hindus sitting in its supreme council. I have enough knowledge of Islam to know that it is a most versatile ideology and idea that can conform to various demands to society.

The different approach of such a spiritual-based party is that it is bent on drawing lessons of morality from spiritual awareness rather than a simple mechanism of say, ‘democracy’. Thus, there would be two or three Malay majority parties that have multi-ethnic membership for the Malays to depend on.

We should have gone through this transition stage a long time ago. The BN was in that position four elections ago to transform racial politics and merge the whole disparate parties into a single entity, but the rise of leaders that saw their survival on creating popularity through racial strife won the day.

Finally, I wish to call again on the honest and visionary leadership of Dr Koh and Ong to lead the way. They are at the position of history where this idea can take root. One day, we will all wake up and not really care which political party wins because none of them will hype on racial or religious issues but rather the humdrum issues of economy, education, work and environment.

Personally, as a father, a civil servant and an academic, I care not whether an Anwar Ibrahim, a Lim Kit Siang or a Najib Abdul Razak becomes the prime minister from whichever political party they come from. Ultimately, the most important ‘political party’ that we are all concerned with is simply… us the rakyat.

May all our children and grandchildren live in a new Malaysia with equal opportunity to better themselves while taking care of others and leading a truly peaceful and spiritual existence.

MOHAMAD TAJUDDIN MOHAMAD RASDI is a professor at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia’s School of Architecture. An eloquent writer, he has authored over 30 books, including his latest, ‘Why Listen to the Vice-Chancellor?’

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 14 May 2013, 4:43 pm and is filed under
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After Malaysia Election, Political Attacks Continue as Opposition Calls for Protests

By JOE COCHRANE

New York Times

May 10, 2013

JAKARTA, Indonesia — If there was a moment after the nail-biting national election on Sunday when Malaysians could envision a respite from five years of political turmoil, it did not last long.

Within hours of the election commission’s announcement early Monday that Prime Minister Najib Razak’s governing National Front coalition had won a majority in Parliament, Anwar Ibrahim, the opposition leader, declared that the voting was rigged, said he would contest the results and called for nationwide protests.

The prime minister’s office countered that Mr. Anwar was a poor loser stirring up unrest, while the police warned that the opposition leader and dozens of other people who spoke at a protest rally in a packed soccer stadium just outside the capital, Kuala Lumpur, on Wednesday night could be charged with sedition.

Such tit-for-tat exchanges between the government and the opposition were commonplace after the 2008 election and in the campaign for the vote last Sunday. But analysts say that the continuing political attacks and threats of protest this time are raising the specter of a potentially explosive showdown fueled by ethnic tensions laid bare again in the vote and longstanding animosity between Mr. Najib and Mr. Anwar.

“In a way, it’s escalated things,” said Simon Tay, the chairman of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs. “And with an escalation, you’re not sure of what the results will be.”

The election was itself something of a referendum on the ethnic-based politics that has prevailed under the National Front, which has led the country since its independence from Britain in 1957. Under that system, ethnic Malays have been given preferences in land purchases, bank loans and university admissions.

Voters were essentially given a choice between a semiauthoritarian government that has delivered economic development, albeit through ethnic-based political and economic policies, or a total change in leadership to a combative but untested opposition.

With a record 80 percent of registered voters turning out, the National Front won 133 of the 222 seats in the federal Parliament. But the tally represented a loss of seven seats compared with 2008 and, for the first time since 1969, the governing coalition took less than 50 percent of the popular vote.

While rural Malay Muslims tipped the balance to Mr. Najib, a higher-than-anticipated number of Chinese-Malaysians voted for the opposition.

Mr. Najib, 59, said at a nationally televised news conference early Monday that he was surprised by the voting pattern, which he called a “Chinese tsunami.” This was repeated in comments in Malay-language newspapers that implied that Chinese voters had betrayed Mr. Najib’s party, the United Malays National Organization, or UMNO, which many Chinese supported in the past.

Analysts said that Chinese voters were upset that the government had not made more progress in rolling back official preferences for ethnic Malays.

While Mr. Najib has urged national reconciliation and called ethnic-based campaign politics “unhealthy,” some analysts said his “tsunami” comment only magnified the ethnic debate in Malaysia and exacerbated post-election tensions.

“The political divide in Malaysia is poisonous,” said Karim Raslan, a Malaysian newspaper columnist and political observer.

The weeks before the election featured vociferous attacks in the strongly pro-government mainstream news media, in which Mr. Anwar, 65, was labeled a divisive, pro-American agent, while another senior opposition leader was rumored to be gay. (Spreading such rumors has become a not-uncommon political tactic in a country where homosexuality remains illegal.) A number of sex tapes purporting to be of opposition candidates, including Nurul Izzah Anwar, 32 — the opposition leader’s daughter, who successfully defended her seat in Parliament — were anonymously posted on the Internet.

The governing coalition “hasn’t learned anything from the voter backlash,” Ms. Nurul said. “I foresee the continuation of gutter, racist and hate politics.”

The opposition’s campaign platform included allegations that the governing coalition perpetuated widespread official corruption and would expand the state affirmative action programs that favor Malay Muslims, who account for 60 percent of Malaysia’s 29 million people. The government has rejected such claims.

The roots of the current dispute are also extremely personal and date back to 1998, when Mr. Anwar, who at the time was a senior UMNO leader and deputy prime minister, was ousted in an internal party struggle with Mahathir Mohamad, 87, the country’s prime minister at the time. Mr. Mahathir retains significant influence within the party.

Mr. Anwar was arrested and beaten while in custody and in 1999 was sentenced to more than five years in prison on corruption and sodomy charges, which he served. The charges were later dropped, but relations with Mr. Mahathir remained fraught.

“Certainly the level of dislike, disdain, of lack of respect for each other has gone up considerably in the last 10 years or so, especially since after 2008,” said Lim Teck Ghee, head of the Center for Policy Initiatives in Kuala Lumpur.

Last year, Mr. Anwar said he was “willing to forgive but not necessarily forget” his dismissal and imprisonment. Still, Mr. Lim said there remained widespread concern within UMNO that Mr. Anwar would open legal inquiries against Mr. Mahathir, Mr. Najib and other senior party officials should he ever become prime minister.

“It’s not simply concern about who is the next prime minister,” Mr. Lim said. “Mahathir’s very afraid that if Anwar and the opposition come to power, Mahathir’s place in history is going to be smeared, and I think he is fighting that very, very strongly, and this feeds into the politics of hate in the country.”

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 14 May 2013, 8:00 am and is filed under
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Analysis of the Malaysian Indian votes at GE13

— Satees Muniandy

The Malaysian Insider

May 13, 2013

MAY 13 — In the recently concluded GE13, we have witnessed quite an obvious trend of the chinese predominantly voting for the federal opposition Pakatan Rakyat. The malays on the other hand had been generally supportive of the ruling coalition Barisan Nasional (BN), barring a few states like Selangor, Kelantan and Terengganu. There has been very little mentioned about the indian voting trend. Therefore this article is intended to shed some light into how the Indians voted, taking into account the local demographics of the various constituencies.

During the build up towards GE13, there had been a lot of chest thumping by Barisan Nasional, particularly by the MIC leadership, that the indian support had returned to pre-2008 levels. It had been speculated that the community anger towards the BN government following the Hindraf instigated 2007 protest and the subsequent ISA crackdown of its key leaders, had subsided following the overtures made by prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

The community had also felt letdown by some Pakatan Rakyat state governments – particularly noted was the disillusionment towards the PAS led Kedah state government for failing to honor its promise to declare Thaipusam a state holiday, along with the failure of its state executive councilor Manikumar in managing a lot of issues concerning the indian community residing mainly in the southern tip of the rice bowl state. The community was however noted to be generally very pleased with the performance of the DAP led Penang and PKR led Selangor state governments – particularly in relation to the land issues plaguing the temples & tamil schools, and state employment opportunities for the Indians.

In the days approaching GE13, Najib Tun Razak appeared to have pulled off a coup when Waythamoorthy, leader of one of the many fractions of the fractured 2007 Hindraf movement signed a memorandum of understanding with his government and subsequently urged the indian community to return BN to the parliament with a 2/3 majority.

The effect of this development was quite difficult to be interpreted as there was immediate disapproval from previous Hindraf associates including from non-other than Waythamoorthy’s own brother – P.Uthayakumar, who in the eyes of many among the indian community is still the de-facto leader of Hindraf. There was strong nationwide protest against Waythamoorthy for this perceived betrayal in inking a deal with the UMNO led BN government and this, along with the candidature of Zulkifli Noordin representing BN in Shah Alam parliamentary constituency after having only recently insulted Hindusim and indians over video recordings didn’t bode very well on paper for the BN with regards to indian support.

So how did the indians actually vote at the end? To understand this, let us first look at how MIC fared. In contesting 9 parliamentary seats and 18 state seats, it only won 4 parliament and 5 state seats, immediately already indicating an abysmal result and poor indian support for its candidates. In the 5 parliament seats it lost (Sungai Siput, Kapar, Subang, Teluk Kemang, Kota Raja), they were predominantly urban malay majority seats and this means MIC cannot blame the poor chinese support for BN as a cause for its defeat.

In fact, it’s well known that the BN had on average between 60-80 per cent of malay electorate support for the coalition in GE13 and this therefore indicates that the indians in urban constituencies had ditched MIC in droves. The indian support swing towards PR was so strong that even the malay electorate couldn’t rescue MIC in these constituencies, a fact acknowledged by the MIC secretary general T Murugesan. For example, in Kota Raja parliamentary constituency which has 44 per cent malays, 29 per cent indians and 25 per cent chinese – PAS candidate won by a thumping 29,395 majority, with a vote share of 64 per cent of the turnout. Assuming at best 45-50 per cent malay and 80-90 per cent chinese support for PR, it will still require about 75 per cent support from the indian community to secure the above given majority, and this support proportion was found to be roughly applicable across the other 4 parliamentary seats MIC had been soundly defeated.

Nevertheless, MIC whilst acknowledging poor indian backing in urban areas is still in denial with regards to indian support in the rural areas. They have used the slim victories in Cameron Highlands, Segamat, Hulu Selangor and Tapah to argue their case. However, closer look at these constituencies paints a different picture altogether.

First of all, these seats had only between 10-14 per cent indian electorate, as compared to the likes of Kota Raja with 29 per cent indians, Sungai Siput with 21 per cent indians and Teluk Kemang with again 21 per cent indians.

Secondly, when analyzing the voting streams, the indian majority streams had actually voted for PR. For example indian predominant voting streams in Cameron Highlands like Ladang Sungai Palas, Ladang Blue Valley and Kampung Raja was won comfortably by DAP’s M Manogaran with indian support approximately about 65 per cent for DAP.

Finally, there was a unique factor in each of these constituencies which ensured MIC victory. In Cameron Highlands and Tapah, the presence of 20-30 per cent of orang asli, a well-known fixed deposit vote bank for the BN had negated the gain from the indian support for the PR candidate. In Hulu Selangor and Segamat, the BN had another form of fixed deposit vote bank – large Felda electorate to rely upon to ensure MIC victory, with up to 90-95 per cent of vote share for BN noted in Felda voting streams.

To further illustrate that the indians had ditched BN in GE13 regardless whether it was rural or urban locality, we can use the rural Kedah state seat of Lunas as an example – won by PKR with a huge majority of 9084. The constituency has an electorate breakdown of 46 per cent malays, 28 per cent chinese and 25 per cent indians. BN, which recaptured Kedah, boasts about 55-60 per cent malay support in that state based on neighboring state seats statistics.

If this is applied, PR would have received 40-45 per cent malay support, along with roughly 80-85 per cent chinese support. Therefore for the PKR candidate to have won this seat with such majority, indian support about 75-80 per cent would have been required, again dispelling claims that rural indian support had waned for PR. The same argument can also be applied for other rural/semi-urban ‘indian’ seats where the MIC had been decimated, namely Bukit Selambau (Kedah), Sabai (Pahang), Hutan Melintang (Perak) and Ijok (Selangor).

PR indian candidates fared extremely well in GE13, with solid indian electorate support. A total of 8 indian MPs and 18 Aduns have been elected from the PR side of the divide, compared to the 4 indian MPs and 5 Aduns from BN.  Some of the constituencies with highest indian electorates in the country like Prai (36 per cent), Seri Andalas (35 per cent) and Buntong (48 per cent) witnessed massive victories for PR candidates.

Prof Ramasamy, the DCM II of Penang representing DAP secured a whopping 78 per cent of the votes cast in his Prai constituency and his rival L Krishnan of MIC was only about 900 votes away from losing his deposit.  Xavier Jayakumar, the former Selangor EXCO won by a whopping 15 633 majority in Seri Andalas, smashing his BN rival – MIC’s youth chief T Mohan. In both these constituencies, analysis of the indian majority streams indicate indian support to be anywhere between 70-80 per cent for the PR to secure such vast majorities.

Therefore this analysis estimates that the indian support in urban areas for the PR to be between 70-80 per cent and in rural areas to be between 60-70 per cent. MIC’s far and few victories were due to either malay Felda settler’s or orang asli’s strong backing for the BN – the last remaining bastion of BN support.

The BN, and MIC in particular had again failed to muster the indian electorate support, faring even worst than in 2008. Their earlier false belief that the indian support had returned to the BN after witnessing a reduction in open agitation by the community, was clearly dispelled based on the GE13 results. The indian electorate had come out in force and voted for PR, matching approximately that of 2008 elections.

* Satees Muniandy is political assistant to DCM II of Penang.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 14 May 2013, 6:55 am and is filed under
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BN’s reduced wins put spotlight on ‘war room’ strategists

By Jahabar Sadiq

The Malaysian Insider

May 14, 2013

KUALA LUMPUR, May 14 — Questions are being asked about Barisan Nasional’s (BN) “war room” strategists whose plans with a substantial budget did not appear to stop the ruling coalition from losing more federal and state seats in the May 5 general election.

The BN war room was tasked with selecting the candidates and advising various strategies to win the polls. It counts Rompin MP Datuk Seri Dr Jamaluddin Jarjis, PWTC chairman Datuk Seri Dr Alies Anor Abdul, Petronas director Omar Mustapha Ong, Umno secretary-general Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Mansor, party information chief Datuk Ahmad Maslan and former minister Datuk Seri Idris Jusoh as among its members.

“It was just a crapshoot. Their ideas didn’t work and their white list predictions were wrong,” a senior Umno divisional leader told The Malaysian Insider on condition of anonymity.

The war room had stuck to its prediction of BN winning between 145 and 150 federal seats and also getting back Selangor in Election 2013 although some senior BN leaders were privately doubtful of the figures.

And by noon on Polling Day, the war room had issued its “white list” of 118 federal seats it was sure to win, but some like Pasir Mas, Shah Alam and Lembah Pantai were lost, which some Umno divisional leaders said reflected the disconnect between the leadership and the ground.

Poster boy of Umno’s insensitivities

The Malaysian Insider also learnt that Jamaluddin was behind BN putting Perkasa vice-president Datuk Zulkifli Noordin as their direct Shah Alam candidate despite his controversial remarks that offended Indians about their Hindu faith.

It was understood that Jamaluddin felt that Zulkifli’s candidacy would not be too much trouble as the latter had already apologised to the Indians for his remarks which he claimed were made when in PAS.

But sources said the strategist did not consider that Zulkifli would become the poster boy of Umno’s disregard for sensitivities of non-Malays.

Raja Nong Chik lost in Lembah Pantai despite devoting his Federal Territory Ministry resources on the city constituency.“The most galling thing is they put Shah Alam on the white list because they thought the Malay majority there would support Zulkifli. How wrong they were,” said an Umno source, commenting on the strategy that backfired.

“There are conservatives with a big ‘C’ and there are conservatives with a small ‘c’. The strategists just did a desktop analysis but did not figure that there are new voters apart from substantial number of Chinese and Indians there,” he added.

He explained that the desktop analysis done by the war room contributed to the belief that BN would do well and even get back its two-thirds parliamentary majority in Election 2008.

“You can’t assume that a Malay majority seat will go back to you or think that you can share the Chinese and Indian votes and later predict you win big nationally and Putrajaya,” said the source.

Outsourced strategies

Another Umno source noted that BN had also outsourced some of the strategy to public relations and branding experts such as APCO’s Paul Stadlen and TV3’s Datuk Seri Ahmad Farid Ridzuan but it appeared to no avail.

Stadlen has been Putrajaya’s main contact with the international media while Farid had been seconded from TV3 parent, Media Prima Bhd, to the Prime Minister’s Department for the past few years.

“They were spending money on local newspapers with shrinking circulation and TV stations that did not appeal to the young. What a waste of time and money,” he said.

It has been estimated that BN had spent more than RM100 million directly and indirectly for the massive media campaign that encompassed print, television, billboards and online sites for Election 2013.

The source, who had been involved in election campaigns since 1999, said the war room had experienced people such as Idris, Tengku Adnan and Jamaluddin but they were incapable of fighting the new media or adapt strategies to attract votes from the younger generation.

“The mainstream media had blacked out the opposition but in the social media, whatever bad we or the mainstream media did, it was amplified online and made people hate us further. As it is, they don’t even read or watch what we do,” he added.

Election machinery meltdown

Other BN sources also pointed out that the coalition’s machinery did not appear to work as well as expected, in a repeat of what happened in Election 2008, against Pakatan Rakyat’s (PR) machinery that comprised grassroots members and youths.

“Ahmad Maslan proudly said there will be 66,600 ceramahs but where? It was so hard to even organise one because there were no speakers of national stature or from other component parties,” said a winning BN candidate who declined to be named.

“I had to do everything on my own and get people to speak in the one main ceramah I had,” he said, adding “I saw others who were just talking to their election machinery.”

Despite the lack of help, the BN man said he did better than Senator Raja Datuk Nong Chik Raja Zainal Abidin, who lost in Lembah Pantai despite devoting his Federal Territory Ministry resources on the city constituency.

“Raja Nong Chik was a minister and he had focused City Hall’s efforts on Lembah Pantai but yet failed to win. The war room thought he would so they white listed that place but you can see how fallible they are,” he added.

Last-minute tactics switch

The BN sources agreed that the war room strategists had made assumptions without checking with local divisional officers and ground reports.

“There was so much raw data coming in but not much analysis as everyone kept to themselves for fear of leakage,” said one source.

“They also changed tactics without considering what had been done in the past few years on the ground,” he added, pointing out the last-minute switch for four-term Johor Mentri Besar Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman was one such mistake.

He said that the presumed MCA candidate Jason Teoh had done some ground over the past two years in Gelang Patah “but the war room panicked like MCA just because Lim Kit Siang was contesting there”.

“So, they thought Ghani can do the job but it was a massive loss as he doesn’t know the area well although his office is there. Perhaps Teoh could have done better as all he had to do was win over the Chinese voters,” said the source.

He added Lim’s presence with other top DAP leaders also cut BN’s popular votes and losses in the Umno bastion state. “The machinery got frightened of Lim and just gave up,” he added.

The source said this was repeated in other states where DAP had made a big push, such as Negri Sembilan and Selangor but the war room strategists did not react as they were just focused on winning more federal seats.

“There was just this huge disconnect. And that was reflected in the expected results and what we finally got,” he added.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 14 May 2013, 9:46 am and is filed under
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Don’t give up on Chinese voters, Umno told

Malaysiakini

May 13, 2013

Umno supreme council member Saifuddin Abdullah has warned that his party would be committing political suicide if it chooses to shift further to the right after losing the support of Chinese Malaysians in the May 5 general election.

Saifuddin said Umno should continue its moderate ideology and stay away from extremism and racism.

The former deputy minister said in an exclusive interview with Sin Chew Daily that there was no sign of Umno moving further towards racial politics after the 13th general election.

However, the final outcome would largely depend on the party leadership election slated for the end of this year.

“The future direction of Umno will rely on the composition of the supreme council after the party election this year,” he is quoted as saying.

Saifuddin, who is seen as a liberal young Umno leader, failed to defend his Temerloh parliamentary constituency against PAS Youth chief Nasrudin Hassan, who is known for his hardline Islamic stance.

Give up on Chinese, lose GE14

On the call to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak from certain quarters to stop appeasing to the Chinese voters since they did not support BN in GE13, Saifuddin said this was the view of “extreme Malays”.

Should BN give up on MCA and the Chinese party gives up on Chinese voters, he said, BN would not be able to win the next general election.

“If there is no Chinese representative in the cabinet, we can kiss goodbye to the 14th general election.”

Citing MIC’s success in pushing up its Indian support in this general election, Saifuddin argued that MCA could do the same in the next general election.

He urged Najib to recognise the United Examination Certificate (UEC) of the independent Chinese secondary schools, saying there is no reason for the government to accept foreign qualifications such as the A-level, International Baccalaureate and South Australian Certificate of Education but not the UEC.

“Xiamen University (from China) will open a branch in Sepang next year. UEC holders can enter this university but cannot enter local universities nearby. How are you going to explain this to your children?” he asked.

Saifuddin dismissed the claim that Najib should resign to take responsibility for BN’s electoral setback saying that a two-thirds majority was no longer possible in a democratic country.

‘Umno’s result better than in 2008’

“If they want the prime minister to step down because of this (failure to capture two-thirds majority), it would be a wrong KPI (key performance index).

“Furthermore, Umno obtained a better result than that in the March 8, 2008 election. Umno members should admit that Najib’s performance was much more better than that of former prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.”

Saifuddin reminded Umno members that Najib is the “best product” of BN in the general election and the ruling coalition would not have scored such a result without Najib.

Scrapping this “best product”, he said, would be committing suicide.

In another interview with Malay daily Sinar Harian, Saifuddin dismissed Najib’s view that the 13th general election saw a “Chinese tsunami”.

Noting that BN won in almost all Malay-majority polling districts and lost in Chinese-majority polling districts, Saifuddin argued that the voting behaviour was not drawn along ethnic lines but based on the voters’ demand for more development or democracy.

However, Saifuddin still defended Najib, saying the prime minister’s statement was “balanced” as he also stressed on national reconciliation, which the people have forgotten.

“I think what was reported by the newspaper (Utusan Malaysia) is another issue. I think the statement of prime minister is very balanced.”

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 14 May 2013, 10:08 am and is filed under
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Keep Alive The Fight

By Allan CF Goh

We may shed silent tears,

But keep faith through the years.

Let’s keep alive our hope,

With disappointments cope.

Though cheated of our dream,

Let’s not frustration scream.

Let’s keep alive the fight,

Till tyranny takes flight.

Fraud cannot defeat truth.

Let’s think this rightly through.

Victory will dawn one day.

It’ll not be long delayed.

The writing on the wall

Says BN will soon fall,

Because of racism,

And vile cronyism,

And those foul corruptions,

And discriminations.

We must not rejoice yet,

Till our big goal beget,

To change the government,

End the nation’s torment.

Believe in ‘right is might’,

We can still win the fight.

When that day comes along,

Folks will live freedom’s song.

Onwards, Putrajaya,

Fight on till berjaya!

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 14 May 2013, 4:40 pm and is filed under
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Losers discover too late Mahathir no more an asset

Daily Express

Friday, May 10, 2013

Kuala Lumpur: Election 2013 has laid bare the declining influence of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad as a political force, an analysis of where and how he campaigned showed.

The former Prime Minister campaigned incessantly but Barisan Nasional (BN) candidates whom he backed or shared his ideals – such as the controversial Zulkifli Noordin and Ibrahim Ali – all lost.

In Kedah – where his son Mukhriz is now Mentri Besar on the back of a BN victory – local politicians and observers have pointed out that voters gave PAS the boot because of poor governance by the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) party.

Brand Mahathir did not win Kedah for BN, but it was rather a case of PAS losing the state, one senior Umno politician in Kedah said.

Dr Mahathir’s attempt at painting the battle for Gelang Patah in Johor as a Malay versus Chinese battle also failed miserably.

Many analysts and BN politicians have said that his incessant playing of the race card for the Election 2013 campaign saw support for him deplete.

“He still has his niche group of supporters in the Malays, they wouldn’t simply demonise leaders whom they feel have been there for them long enough.

“But yes… at times, it may be true that his time is over.

What he says, how he says it, may not have traction among the younger generation, in the urban areas. But let us not forget – he is not the PM of the day,” Sabah Umno secretary Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan said.

But other leaders were not so kind, believing the 87-year-old Dr Mahathir should finally enjoy his retirement and stay out of current day politics where they say he is fast growing irrelevant.

They said that in the age of social media politics, Dr Mahathir’s influence is waning quickly as Malaysians prefer the more liberal, moderate and inclusive brand of politics brought by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

Dr Mahathir’s strong support base among the traditional, older Malay voters would likely be insufficient to win the votes for Barisan Nasional (BN) again.

They said that it would be the fast-growing urban, middle-class and young voters who will soon form a larger part of the electorate.

And going by the vote trend of Election 2013, it is this key demographic that BN must win over if it wants to return with an even stronger mandate in the next general election.

“I hope by looking at the analysis of the elections, he will realise that his time is over,” said Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (IDEAS) Chief Executive Wan Saiful Wan Jan.

“He should leave the administration of this country to the new generation of politicians led by Najib.

“He has had his time and he has done tremendous things but his day in politics is over. Before he destroys his legacy, perhaps it is time to leave gracefully,” he added.

Election 2013 saw Dr Mahathir backing right-wing Muslim hardliners like Perkasa President Datuk Ibrahim Ali and vice-President Datuk Zulkifli Noordin but neither emerged victor in their contest.

Shah Alam Umno division chief Datuk Ahmad Nawawi M. Zin admitted that if Dr Mahathir had not campaigned in Shah Alam, BN may have earned more votes.

Rafidah agreed that the use of racism to win support should be rejected.”On the whole, in the cities, I feel Dr Mahathir’s influence is no longer relevant as the issues he brings and his opinions do not really suit with the current generation, especially with his backing of Perkasa.

“Perhaps BN has to review this,” he said.

While his foes in Pakatan Rakyat (PR) made sure their leaders worked hard to eschew racism while on the hustings, it was race that dominated nearly all of Dr Mahathir’s speeches over the stretch of the 15-day campaign period.

He repeatedly singled out his long-time parliamentary foe Lim Kit Siang for leaving his seat in Ipoh Timor to contest the Chinese-majority Gelang Patah seat in Johor, calling the DAP veteran an “extremist racist” for allegedly attempting to sway the Chinese to hate the Malays.

“I will say it out as vocal as possible. Lim Kit Siang is a racist.

Lim Kit Siang is a racist. Lim Kit Siang is an extremist racist,” he had said during a ceramah in Shah Alam three days before polling day.

Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz, a veteran Umno leader who served under Dr Mahathir’s administration agreed that the use of racism to win support should be rejected.

Without singling out her ex-boss, the outspoken former Wanita Umno Chief said that racial diversity should be wielded as a strength and not a weapon to divide and rule.

“Gone are the days when we can become champions of a certain race.

I never subscribe to it. We are Malaysians first and foremost.

“I am a Malaysian who happens to be Malay… but it is our Malaysian-ness that we carry proudly when we are out there,” she said.

Merdeka Center for Opinion Research director Ibrahim Suffian, however, noted that while Dr Mahathir’s methods had been rejected by the urban and middle-class electorate, the leader still commands a huge following among Umno’s traditional support base in rural, Malay Malaysia.

“Voters are more discerning. They reject this brand of ethnic chauvinism,” he observed.

But Ibrahim said Dr Mahathir still has much influence within Umno, the BN lynchpin, a point that fellow political analyst Wan Saiful agreed with.

Wan Saiful insisted that Dr Mahathir should bow out from the political scene and make a graceful exit, saying this was necessary for the former Prime Minister to ensure his legacy as Malaysia’s ‘father of modernisation” is not marred by mistakes he may make today.

“Najib is the PM of today and Dr Mahathir is of yesterday.

Najib has sensed the need to move into a different direction and this is what he is doing,” he said.

Agreeing, Ibrahim reminded of the vast changes in the flow of information in today’s political landscape, saying this had largely affected the results of Election 2013 and Dr Mahathir’s influence.

“There is that challenge because Dr Mahathir is used to running a country when there was no social media and the population was more easily controlled and was smaller.

“Today, you have a much younger generation who live in times when information is free-flowing.

The environment has changed and with it, many of our leaders must change too,” he said.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 14 May 2013, 6:31 am and is filed under
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Malaysia edges toward change but comes up short

Peter Drysdale

Bangkok Post

10 May 2013

On Sunday, after a hotly contested general election, a record electoral turnout and over half a century of essentially one-party rule, the Malaysian people edged toward change _ but chose not to make the leap.

The campaign saw the ruling Barisan National (BN or National Front) emphasise stability, continuity and economic growth, and the opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR or People’s Alliance) urge the end of corruption, the institution of minority rights and dealing with issues over the cost of living. In a contest that always seemed too close to call, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak has held on to power, taking the prize from the indefatigable Anwar Ibrahim and his PR.

The election confronted Malaysia with big choices. While the Najib government led a tactical retreat on some elements of the old order, Mr Anwar called for its sweeping rejection.

Malaysia struggles with breaking through the “middle-income trap”. Wages have climbed to the point where the country can no longer compete internationally in labour-intensive manufacturing yet skills and systems haven’t improved so that Malaysia can compete effectively in the same product lines as more advanced countries.

Without further reforms, it is difficult to see how Malaysia can escape from this middle-income trap. Much of the struggle to find a way through has to do with escaping the legacy from the old order _ a “New Economic Policy” framed over 40 years ago that entrenched discrimination against minorities (including the significant entrepreneurial classes) and affirmative action through government-linked corporations (and systemic entrenchment of political patronage and corruption).

The Najib administration did a creditable job in implementing Malaysia’s so called “New Economic Model” _ a shift away from the old New Economic Policy _ that aims to double the country’s per capita income by 2020 via a raft of reforms across key economic sectors and government.

While targets have been met or exceeded and economic growth has picked up despite the unfavourable international circumstances (the World Economic Forum now ranks Malaysia 21st out of 142 economies in its world competitiveness ranking, up from 26th in 2010), the implementation of these programmes still has to address the core problem of the long-standing bumiputra (sons of the soil) affirmative action policy.

Mr Najib, to give him his due, tried hard to reform bumiputra policy, but failed in the face of pressure from within his own party, as well as from powerful ethnic Malay interest groups. The Malay elite have reaped enormous benefits from the policy and were unlikely to surrender their privileges easily.

Nonetheless, Mr Najib entered the election with a standing that far exceeded that of his ruling coalition _ commanding an enviable approval of 61% _ paradoxically because of the support of the Malay elites as well as his progressive inclinations.

The election was clearly about alternative visions of Malaysian society and democracy. But it was also a deeply personal contest on epic scale between two charismatic political leaders.

As Meredith Weiss observed in the lead-up to Sunday’s vote: “this election is a two-party election (the BN is registered as a single party; the PR functions as one)… Both coalitions have been forced to articulate clear policy agendas, and even if the usual communal and monetary inducements still have a large bearing on results neither side [took] victory for granted.”

Mr Najib sought a mandate for his leadership after being appointed to the prime ministership by the ruling coalition in 2009. Mr Anwar had dealt a historic electoral blow to Mr Najib’s predecessor, Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, in the 2008 elections from outside parliament, for the first time denting BN’s super two-thirds majority.

By one account, Mr Najib played a sophisticated double game against his experienced and wily opponent. He tried to outflank the reformist opposition by repealing security laws and introducing his comprehensive economic transformation programme that sought to catapult Malaysia into the ranks of the high-income countries.

He appealed for a harmonious society through his “One Malaysia” slogan while also placating his party’s ethnic Malay base by protecting pro-Malay affirmative action in government, business and education. Mr Najib adopted the outward trappings of a dynamic, youth-courting reformer, a strategy that got him over the line.

Malaysia’s economic performance, while solid, has yet to deliver the shine promised by ambitious but tailored reform. The distaste for privilege, corruption and discrimination in the law attracted a wide if fractious coalition for reform that presented the government with a real challenge.

In reality, Mr Najib and Mr Anwar have more perhaps in common than either might care to concede. Both cut their teeth in the cauldron of youth politics and graduated with distinction. Both are charismatic and commanding personalities. Both claim the mantle of reformer, one from within government and the other having been a former deputy prime minister. Both are comfortable with the ambiguities of Malaysian politics.

Both have been haunted by controversy _ Mr Anwar in the form of repeated allegations of sexual misconduct, and Mr Najib by his aide’s conviction for murder in the case of Mongolian model Altantuya Shaariibuu. It is said that this is why their personal rivalry is so deep and bitter.

With so many obstacles placed in his way to political comeback, an Anwar victory would have been a remarkable triumph. After rising to the deputy prime ministership, he was sacked by former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad during the Asian financial crisis, endured political persecution, imprisonment on charges of sodomy, release, and political rehabilitation in 2008.

His charisma, ambition, political skill and deep inside knowledge of the weaknesses in the ranks of the BN kept together the broad and unlikely coalition _ Islamists, ethno-nationalists, non-Muslim ethnic minorities, socialist democrats and economic liberals _ that delivered his parliamentary gains on Sunday.

But not enough, and Prime Minister Najib will now continue to confront the challenge of reform from within.

Peter Drysdale (
[email protected]
) is editor of the East Asia Forum. This article originally appeared in the East Asia Forum on May 6, 2013.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 14 May 2013, 7:44 am and is filed under
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Malaysia elections: Next battle: Staying on as party president

Reme Ahmad in Alor Setar

The Straits Times

Thu, May 09, 2013

PM Najib Razak has to convince warlords in his own party to keep him on as chief.

MALAYSIA – Even as the dust settles from his victorious battle against Malaysia’s galvanised opposition, Prime Minister Najib Razak might be heading for another fight – convincing warlords in his own party to keep him on as chief.

Umno is scheduled to hold its internal elections, held every three years, before the end of this year.

Some expect the Umno president to face a challenge from his deputy then.

Datuk Seri Najib’s performance in the general election will be the main yardstick used by Umno leaders to decide whether to let the 59-year-old continue as president, or to allow Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, 66, to mount a challenge.

The Umno-led Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition won 133 parliamentary seats on Sunday, with the opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR) getting 89. In the previous general election, BN had won 140 seats.

So yes, under Mr Najib, the 13-party ruling coalition had won back Kedah and kept Perak. The latter was taken from PR a year after the 2008 election as a result of defections by several assemblymen; Mr Najib has now secured a mandate to keep it.

But were Sunday’s results good enough? Analysts have mixed views.

“I don’t think 133 is a bad number under the current state of politics,” said Associate Professor Sivamurugan Pandian from Malaysia Science University in Penang. “He has won his mandate to do things his own way and to utilise his mandate.”

Still, the murmurs in Umno about the looming leadership challenge to Mr Najib will not go away.

After all, he fell short of his own target of getting a two-thirds majority in the federal Parliament. And he did not win back Malaysia’s wealthiest state Selangor, despite appointing himself as state election What’s more, conservative elements within Umno have long been unhappy with Mr Najib’s assiduous wooing of the minority Chinese voters, including raising funding to Chinese schools and recognising the degrees of overseas Chinese universities.

In his victory speech early on Monday, Mr Najib said that since voting had been racially polarised – with most Chinese voting for the opposition – “one of the programmes we will undertake is national reconciliation”.

But this could be yet “another unwelcome signal” to his critics in the nationalist Malay party, said a Kedah Umno leader.

Both insiders and observers warn that Umno can ill-afford another divisive leadership battle.

“Umno at this stage cannot afford to have another big fight as this could cause BN to collapse,” said Professor Mohamed Mustafa Ishak from Malaysia’s National Council of Professors.

There are also concerns that while Umno has retained the support of rural Malay voters, urban Malays continued to drift away.

The final signal on Umno’s direction could come from an 87-year-old figure who still wields much influence, observers say.

Former premier Mahathir Mohamad had helped push Mr Najib’s predecessor, Tun Abdullah Badawi, out of office after BN lost its two-thirds majority in 2008. In March, he said that if Mr Najib failed to perform, a leadership challenge would be normal.

Much, therefore, might hinge on whether Dr Mahathir gives Mr Najib a passing grade.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 14 May 2013, 7:30 am and is filed under
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Malaysia’s election  – A dangerous result

The Economist

May 11th 2013 |From the print edition

After a tainted election victory, Najib Razak needs to show his reformist mettle

AT FIRST sight, the general election in Malaysia on May 5th, the closest-fought since independence in 1957, looks encouraging. A lively campaign inspired a remarkable turnout of 85% of the country’s 13.3m voters. The government’s victory seems recognition of Malaysia’s solid economic performance and of the progressive reforms introduced by Najib Razak, the prime minister. He has repealed some oppressive, colonial-era laws. He has even begun to dismantle the affirmative-action policies favouring the ethnic-Malay majority over Chinese Malaysians (about a quarter of the population) and Indians (8%). Those policies are at the root of the corruption and cronyism poisoning Malaysian society.

Look again, however, and Malaysian politics seems near breakdown. The opposition coalition led by Anwar Ibrahim alleges electoral fraud and has refused to accept the result. Whether that is true or not, it is certain that the ruling coalition, Barisan Nasional, has huge inbuilt advantages. Gerrymandered constituencies meant that with less than 47% of the popular vote, its worst-ever electoral performance, it still won 60% of the 222 parliamentary seats. The state has dispensed cash handouts and other goodies, while much of the civil service works as a party-political tool, and the election commission has long brushed aside allegations of malfeasance. Add in an obsequious mainstream media, and it is rather remarkable that so many Barisan Nasional campaigners still felt the need to resort to blatant vote-buying.

All of this gives rise to two dangers. The first is of a loss of faith in the political process itself. Mr Najib argues that, in a parliamentary system, it is not the popular vote that matters. But in any system it is time to redraw boundaries when distortions have reached this level (something for others, such as Britain and Japan, to note). And Mr Najib owes it to Malaysians who backed the opposition—more than half of the electorate—to investigate the alleged frauds.

The second danger is of a rekindling of the ethnic animosities that led to bloody rioting in the 1960s. Mr Najib has said he wants to be prime minister for all Malaysians. Sadly, however, he presided over an ugly campaign by his United Malays National Organisation, UMNO, the main component of Barisan. In the rural Malay heartlands, UMNO was as negative, racially divisive and pro-Malay as ever. Barisan’s ethnic-Chinese parties did lamentably at the election. Mr Najib has blamed Barisan’s losses on a “Chinese tsunami”, encouraging disgraceful anti-Chinese headlines in the Malay-language press.

Casting the election in such racial terms is neither wise nor accurate. The tsunami washing over Barisan is of the young and the rising urban middle class, sickened at the unfairness, cronyism and corruption they see around them. Mr Najib has taken to Facebook to court these groups. All things to all Malaysian voters, he is more popular than his party.

Show your true colours

The threat he faces now is from UMNO itself. It was quick to dispatch Mr Najib’s predecessor after he did almost as badly in the previous election in 2008. Likewise, UMNO hardliners might argue that what is needed now is to bolster support among its Malay core by replacing Mr Najib with a less bashful Malay supremacist. In fact, if UMNO is to have a future in a prospering Malaysia it needs young urban voters, not poor rural ones. To counter his opponents in the party, Mr Najib therefore needs to capitalise quickly on his own popularity to reform more boldly: to complete the demolition of the affirmative-action edifice; to go further in improving civil liberties; and, above all, to make the electoral system fairer.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 14 May 2013, 7:21 am and is filed under
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Malaysia’s general election –  Tawdry victory

The Economist

May 11th 2013 | KUALA LUMPUR |From the print edition

The government scrapes home—allegedly aided by vote rigging

ON MAY 5th Malaysia’s Barisan Nasional coalition, led by the prime minister, Najib Razak, was re-elected for the 13th time in a row. Barisan won a majority of seats in parliament, 133 out of 222, against 89 for the opposition, a three-party coalition called Pakatan Rakyat and led by Anwar Ibrahim. The turnout was a record 85%. And so the same government which has ruled Malaysia since independence from Britain in 1957 is set for another five years in office.

Within Barisan, the overriding sense is of relief. It did slightly better in terms of seats than some had predicted. Scratch the surface, however, and in almost every respect this was a lamentable result for the ruling coalition, its worst ever. Not only did it lose a further seven seats to Pakatan, but it won with only 47% of the popular vote. It is further evidence of how the electoral system is skewed in Barisan’s favour, allowing it to stack up seats in the rural Malay heartlands with far fewer voters than Pakatan needs to win seats in more urban areas. In many places the opposition increased large majorities. For instance, in Penang in the north of the country the Barisan defeat was so humiliating that its candidate for governor, Teng Chang Yeow, resigned from all his party posts. Several government ministers lost their seats.

Most striking was that ethnic Chinese (about a quarter of the population) shifted their votes away from Barisan towards the opposition. The Chinese party of the Barisan coalition, the Malaysian Chinese Association, won just seven seats, down from 15, whereas the opposition’s mainly Chinese Democratic Action Party (DAP) picked up ten seats, for a final tally of 38.

Mr Najib, unwisely, spoke of a “Chinese tsunami” breaking over his Barisan coalition. He has only his party to blame. The United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) dominates the Barisan coalition and appeals mainly to ethnic Malays and other indigenous groups who make up two-thirds of the population. UMNO ran a nasty, divisive campaign in the heartlands. This shored up its base of rural Malay voters, known as the bumiputra (“sons of the soil”). But it also alienated Chinese and other voters, already tired of the cronyism and corruption associated with affirmative-action policies that favour Malays over other ethnicities in business, education and the civil service.

So, despite professing to promote a multi-ethnic Malaysia, Barisan’s election strategy has left the country more divided than ever, both along ethnic lines and between urban and rural areas. The Malay press has not helped, with headlines asking “What more do the Chinese want?”, as if ethnic Chinese acted ungratefully towards Barisan.

For their part, DAP leaders argue that the result was not so much the consequence of a Chinese tsunami as an urban one. The heartland of the party is in urban and semiurban seats, where it increased its share of the Malay as well as the Chinese vote.

Yet the result will not be the only dent in the government’s authority. So too will be the manner in which it was gained. Barisan starts all elections with incumbent advantages, including a slavish state media, tons of cash and constituency boundaries drawn in its favour. On top of that, allegations of dirty campaign tricks abound. “Phantom voters”, for example, appear to have been bussed into marginal constituencies to boost the Barisan vote. Nurul Izzah Anwar, Mr Anwar’s daughter, contested one such seat in Kuala Lumpur. She and her supporters met several Bangladeshi workers who had been brought into the constituency to vote. She won, but only just.

In Penang, where Barisan was desperate to unseat the DAP, its people took over cafés and restaurants for the campaign’s duration in order to give away free beer and food and hold lucky draws. Even Mr Teng, Barisan’s candidate for governor, called this “unacceptable”. In the state of Sabah, where Barisan stacked up crucial seats, many stories circulated of straightforward cash handouts to voters.

Independent domestic groups monitoring the elections are still gathering information about fraud, but their verdicts so far are damning enough. Ambiga Sreenevasan, the head of Bersih, campaigning for fair elections, calls them the “dirtiest yet”.

Mr Anwar claims that fraud cost him the election. On May 8th he and followers staged a big protest rally against the result. His claim is almost certainly an exaggeration. Still, the bitterness engendered by the vote will persist. “National reconciliation”, which Mr Najib sees as the way to heal the wounds, looks a way off.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 14 May 2013, 7:08 am and is filed under
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Ordinary Malaysians, whether Malays, Chinese or Indians, are more Malaysian-minded and patriotic than MCA/UMNO/BN leaders who have been trying to racialise the 13GE results for the past nine days

Ordinary Malaysians, whether Malays, Chinese or Indians, have shown that they are more Malaysian-minded and patriotic than MCA/UMNO/BN leaders who have been trying their utmost in the past nine days to racialise the 13th general election results so as to divert attention from the new-found unity among Malaysians, particularly the young generation of Malaysians of all races, for a new Malaysian politics to end racial politics, corruption, cronyism, abuses of power and all forms of exploitation and injustices in the country.

The first and most irresponsible and anti-1Malaysia blow was struck by none other than the advocate of 1Malaysia, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who kicked off the racialisation of the 13GE results with his shocking but baseless statement that the 13GE results was a “Chinese tsunami” when it was a Malaysian and urban tsunami!

Najib and UMNO leaders found justification in the racialisation of the 13GE results, calling it a “Chinese tsunami”, from the campaign of the MCA President, Datuk Chua Soi Lek, during the entire 13GE period, warning that if MCA candidates are defeated, the country will be landed with a “two-racial rather than a two-party system”.

Chua Soi Lek was clearly looking for an excuse to explain an anticipated dismal MCA electoral performance in the 13GE, claiming that defeated MCA candidates are victims of a Chinese tsunami and uprising of the Chinese versus the Malays, and that under the circumstances he and the MCA leaders cannot be blamed if they do not do well in the 13GE.

Chua was cooking up an excuse to justify MCA’s dismal electoral performance, but he has done Malaysia’s race relations and nation building, both the Chinese in particular and Malaysians as a whole, a great disservice and even committed a most unMalaysian and unpatriotic act by giving justification and legitimacy for the prejudiced and bigoted who want to see the 13GE results as a “Chinese tsunami” or a Chinese versus Malays manifestation, when it is not the case at all!

The Malaysian Chinese voters voted in the 13GE on May 5 not as Chinese but as Malaysians like their Malay and Indian vote-countelrparts who similarly voted as Malaysian citizens rather than as Malays or Indians to assert their citizenship rights for a country where there is an end to racial politics, corruption, abuses of power and all forms of exploitation and injustices in the country!

The Pakatan Rakyat coalition, which comprised DAP, PKR and PAS, is not a mono-racial grouping but a multi-racial coalition of Malaysians covering all races, religions and regions in the country.

It is not just the Chinese, but the Malays, Indians, Kadazans and Ibans, who are excited by the hope and promise of UBAH in the 13GE, which is the most powerful repudiation of the mischievoius claim that the 13GE results were a Chinese tsunami when they were a Malaysian and urban tsunami for UBAH.

True, comparatively there had been a higher percentage of Chinese voters supporting the UBAH message in the 13GE than the other racial groups, but this UBAH political awakening had not been exclusively confined to the Malaysian Chinese as there can be no denial of the fact that there had also been substantial support from all other races, whether Malays, Indians, Kadzans or Ibans, for UBAH, or Najib and UMNO/BN coalition would not have lost more parliamentary seats than in the 2008 general elections, securing 133 Parliamentary seats on May 5 as compared to 140 Parliamentary seats in 2008.

I do not know how long Chua can survive as MCA President, as there is mounting pressure inside MCA for him to immediately resign as MCA President for the MCA’s Seven-Eleven (7-11) showing in the polls, and that he should not wait until the MCA party polls in December.

There is even talk of a “Save MCA” mass signature campaign to requisition an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to remove Chua immediately, in the same manner that Chua had succeeded in forcing out his predecessor Ong Tee Keat as MCA President.

We in the DAP do not want to get involved in MCA politics, but as Chua has done a supreme disservice and a most unpatriotic act in giving currency to the UMNO belief that the 13GE results was a Chinese tsunami when it was a Malaysian and urban tsunami, the last thing Chua should do as MCA President is to totally undo this great disservice he had done both the the Malaysian Chinese and the Malaysian nation by convincing Najib and the UMNO leadership that they should stop regarding the 13GE as a Chinese tsunami recognise that it was in fact a Malaysian and urban tsunami which must be addressed with proper policy responses by a responsible UMNO/BN leadership!

Is Chua capable of undoing this great disservice he had done to the Malaysian nation as a whole and the six million Malaysian Chinese in particular?

If Chua is not prepared, or incapable, of undoing the great damage he had done, is the rest of the present MCA leadership prepared to speak up to remedy the great wrongs which Chua had committed to the Malaysian nation and the Malaysian Chinese with his distortion of the 13GE results as a purported Chinese tsunami resulting in a two-racial system?

In this connection, I commend the former Higher Education deputy minister, Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah and the BN MP for Johor Baru Shahrir Samad for speaking up to repudiate the fallacy of the dangerous theory that the 13GE results are a Chinese tsunami when they were in fact a Malaysian and urban tsunami.

It is really sad and tragic that Saifuddin and Shahrir can speak up for the truth but Chua and MCA leaders dare not do the same, but even worse, are trying the poison race relations by claiming that the 13GE results are a Chinese tsunami.

UMNO Supreme Council member Datuk Seri Nazri Abdul Aziz has said that UMNO leaders were in a state of shock and needed a “cooling off” period to come to terms with losses in Chinese votes in the 13GE.

This is understandable but what is inexcusable, intolerable and unforgivable is for anyone to make inflammable, racist and seditious statements like the one made by the former Federal Court judge, Mohd Noor Abdullah, which must rank as the most racist and seditious speech ever made in Malaysia in the past 44 years!

Why has the police and the Attorney-General not taken any action to arrest, charge and prosecute Mohd Noor for the most divisive, destructive, racist and seditious speech ever made in the country in the past 44 years?

I agree fully with the call by the National Unity and Integration Department (NUID) Director-General Datuk Zulkifli Noordin urging politicians and the media to stop race-baiting and inciting racial tension.

But will the Prime Minister, UMNO leaders and in particular the UMNO mouthpiece, Utusan Malaysia, (not to mention the outsourced UMNO outfits like Perkasa), listen to the NUID?”

The biggest culprits in race-baiting and inciting racial tensions since the May 5 general elections results come from the UMNO leaders.

Are they prepared to end all race baiting by stop racialising the 13GE results, such as irresponsibly claiming that it wlas a Chinese tsunami when in fact it lwas a Malaysian and urban tsunami involving all Malaysians, regardless of race, religion or region?

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 14 May 2013, 4:43 pm and is filed under
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Rallies replace riots in Malaysia

By Chin Huat Wong

Asia Times

KUALA LUMPUR – On May 13, 1969, the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur was a living hell with vehicles, houses and the national consciousness set ablaze. Clashes between ethnic Malays and Chinese claimed 196 lives according to official police estimates. Independent foreign observers estimated the death toll as ten times higher.

Triggered by the outcome of the 1969 elections, that riot paved way for two years of emergency rule and a fundamental change in politics and society. The then ruling Alliance Party – a coalition of three communal parties representing Malays, Chinese and Indians and their regional allies in Sabah and Sarawak – found itself squeezed by Malay and non-Malay opposition from both flanks.

In terms of popular votes in peninsular Malaysia, the opposition Pan-Malaysia Islamic Party (PAS) rose from 15% in 1964 to 24% at the 1969 polls, threatening the then ruling United Malays National Organization’s (UMNO) claim as ethnic Malays’ sole political representative. In contrast, the popular support for non-Malay opposition parties was constant at 26%.

Thanks to a first-past-the-post (FPTP) voting system and strategic avoidance of multi-cornered electoral fights, non-Malay opposition parties saw their parliamentary seats rise from six in 1964 to 22 in 1969, while PAS increased its share only marginally from 9 to 12. The non-Malay opposition’s electoral gains were at the time conveniently interpreted as an ethnic Chinese challenge to ethnic Malays’ political dominance.

When UMNO’s junior partner Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA), which suffered a major setback at the 1969 polls, decided to stay out of the cabinet to respect the popular verdict, this was unfortunately viewed as a Chinese decision to abandon communal power sharing with UMNO. The riot resulted in a transfer of power from Malaysia’s first Prime Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman to his deputy Abdul Razak Hussein, the father of current prime minister Najib Razak.

In the wake of the riot, Abdul Razak implemented a series of pro-Malay policies, most significantly the New Economic Policy (NEP), and co-opted most of the opposition into Barisan Nasional (BN), an expanded version of the previous ruling Alliance. He effectively built an electoral one-party state which remained unassailable until 2008, when opposition parties that later came to form the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) coalition made historic gains at the ballot box.

These historical facts are worth revisiting because history seems to have repeated itself in many ways in the general election held on May 5. Like in 1969, BN lost its majority in popular votes, polling only 47%, despite allegations of widespread irregularities and fraud. Nevertheless, mal-apportionment and gerrymandering of constituencies allowed the ruling coalition to maintain 60% of parliament’s total seats.

Najib’s first response to the poor popular showing was that BN’s electoral setback was due to a “Chinese tsunami”. Altogether, the PR opposition coalition won only 40% of parliament’s seats while notching a bare majority of 51% in popular votes.

Individually, popular support for the PR’s Chinese-dominated Democratic Action Party (DAP) rose from 14% to 16%, while PAS’s vote share also rose from 14% to 15%. The Malay-dominated centrist People’s Justice Party (PKR) won 20% of all votes cast, compared to the 19% it garnered five years ago.

Thanks to the first-past-the-post electoral system, DAP emerged as the largest party with 38 parliamentary seats, while PKR and PAS lost respectively one and two seats at 30 and 21 respectively, despite winning more votes than they did in 2008.

Following Najib’s cue, the UMNO-controlled Malay language daily Utusan Malaysia asked on its front page the next day “What more do the Chinese want?” – painting an unbecoming portrait of a greedy and insatiable minority. The following days saw more provocative headlines on the same theme. Former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad joined the attacks, accusing the Chinese of “rejecting the Malays’ hand of friendship”. (Ethnic Chinese account for around 25% of the national population, while ethnic Malays account for around 60%.)

On May 12, a retired senior judge and card-carrying UMNO member upped the ante by warning the Chinese of a Malay backlash against their “betrayal”. “When the Malays are betrayed, they will react and their wrath will be endless,” he said. The judge even called for an expansion of NEP-related privileges for ethnic Malays that “from today on, every business would have a 67% share ready for Malays to be taken up at any time”.

As in post-election 1969, the MCA has decided against joining the new cabinet in response to the popular will. With only seven Chinese members among BN’s 133 parliamentary delegates, the question of a lack of Chinese representation in the new government has already been raised in certain quarters.

Like UMNO’s relentless efforts to co-opt the opposition after the 1969 polls, calls have been made for the DAP to join BN to represent the Chinese, or for a grand coalition government to include both BN and PR. The pro-BN Chinese daily Sin Chew misleadingly reported that DAP was contemplating the proposal of forming a coalition government with BN.

Unfortunately for Najib, the Malaysia he faces is vastly different from the racially-charged one his father took over in 1969. Malaysians’ knee-jerk reaction to speculation of possible race-based riots and political violence has virtually disappeared in the past five years. Post-election riots have not materialized, despite UMNO and BN stalwarts race-baiting public statements.

The 2008 elections saw PR take power in five out of Malaysia’s 13 federal states, including the comparatively prosperous states of Selangor and Penang. Significantly, Malaysians have grown more cohesive in their protest against electoral fraud and corruption under the BN. Even though political violence may break out anywhere anytime, the probability of it spreading along communal lines is almost nil.

Thanks to UMNO’s pro-Malay policies after 1969, the socio-economic status of many Malays has improved over the years, closing once yawning inter-communal gaps in wealth and income. After the Utusan Malaysia’s provocative headlines, warnings have spread through SMS to the Chinese that they should refrain from any protests against election fraud to avoid becoming the target of another May 13, 1969 riot.

Despite those threats, the protest rallies organized by PR in Kuala Lumpur and the states of Penang and Perak have attracted tens of thousands angry citizens clad in black, the symbolic color for mourning, to lament the death of democracy after BN’s questionable victory on May 5. The rally participants have been multi-ethnic and youthful.

In the early 1970s, then prime minister Abdul Razak dismissed democratic participation in the name of communal harmony. “In our Malaysian society of today, where racial manifestations are very much in exercise, any form of politicking is bound to follow along racial lines and will only enhance the divisive tendencies,” Razak said.

Now, in 2013, young adults and even teenagers are marching in high spirits to the opposition rallies, almost as if they are attending dance parties. Ironically, politics now unites Malaysians who yearn for change regardless of their ethnic and cultural backgrounds. In the first black-clad rally held in Kelana Jaya, where some 120,000 reportedly attended, a group of Malays shouted “we are Chinese” in response to Utusan Malaysia’s racial hate-mongering.

Personified by the marching multi-ethnic youth clad in black, Malaysia has finally left behind the threat of ethnic riots after 44 years. Najib may believe that his party and coalition won the 2013 election, but anyone who has seen the recent rally crowds will conclude otherwise: they have lost a generation and the popular mandate to rule.

Chin Huat Wong is a fellow at the Penang Institute, a think tank linked to the Penang State Government. He earned his PhD from the University of Essex on a thesis focused on Malaysia’s electoral and party systems. He is also a steering committee member of the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections 2.0, also known as Bersih 2.0.

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 14 May 2013, 5:14 pm and is filed under
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The journey of 900km

— R. Yang

The Malaysian Insider

May 13, 2013

MAY 13 — On the night of May 5, the outcome of the election was somewhat predictable — the slow release of the electoral results coupled with huge contradiction between the official and unofficial results. We were filled with disbelief, disappointment and anger towards to failure of the caretaker government and the affiliated public institutions to ensure a clean and fair election.

On May 6 evening, there was news that Pakatan Rakyat (PR) calling for a mass rally at the Kelana Jaya stadium. Upon arriving back in Singapore on May 7, my friends IV and BF informed me of their intention of participating in what would be a maiden rally for them. With little hesitation, we took the decision to be part of the historical moment in Malaysia. I informed my manager on my decision to take urgent leave and, delightfully, he wished me all the best for the trip.

On May 8 afternoon, BF and I rented a car in Johor Baru and started the journey of 400km at 3pm. In general, everything was smooth. We were stopped by policemen at Seremban who asked us where we were heading to. “Shah Alam,” I said and we were released. Some wrong exits were made but fortunately we managed to pick IV and continued our journey to the stadium.

At 7.30pm traffic was crawling along the North-South Expressway at the Subang exit. It took us more than 45 minutes to travel the final 2km and the cars weren’t moving at all after the toll. It was 8.15pm. Some drivers abandoned their cars and walked. We were lucky to locate a spot to park the car and headed to the stadium.

It was a drizzling that evening. The people who walked with us were in black or yellow. I know that this was going to be a historical black parade in Malaysia to send a defiant message to the regime that we, the rakyat, would not tolerate blatant fraud in our electoral system. In addition, we wished to reiterate that BN’s disappointing results were a reflection of Malaysians’ sentiments instead of the clumsily-coined “Chinese tsunami”.

As we entered the stadium, what we saw was simply stunning. The spectator seats and the field were filled with people dressed in black, carrying flags, umbrellas and some self-made message boards. People from different ethnic and age groups had gathered here for a common purpose — to voice our stand against the electoral fraud. Some may have said that we were exploited by Pakatan Rakyat for its political agenda in this rally. However, for those fellow friends who were in the stadium, we could proudly proclaim that Pakatan Rakyat had successfully restored unity among Malaysians. Never once were we united until the formation of Pakatan Rakyat after the 2008 election.

It was an eventful session with many veteran and rising speakers taking to the stage. There were brilliant speeches made by Nurul Izzah Anwar, Lim Kit Siang, Siti Aishah and, of course, Anwar Ibrahim. The message we were sending was clear and loud — all we want is a clean and fair election.

We are Malaysians first and as proud Malaysians, we will work together to challenge the status quo which is filled with cronyism, corruption, racism and suppression. In contrary to BN’s divide-and-rule rhetoric which aims to create ethnophobia, the core message by Pakatan is to dismiss the fear-mongering tactics which have been employed by BN and that Malaysians can rise above ethnicity to unite as fellow Malaysians.

There is no Chinese tsunami. We have had enough of this ethno-centric nonsense. It is, in fact, the rakyat’s uprising against the ruling elite.

The rally ended with the singing of “Negaraku”, our national anthem, which we were so fond of since our childhood. Singing it now again with almost 100,000 people in the stadium carried a profound meaning. It was our forefathers’ vision to build a nation upon principles of liberty and justice.

As the late Tunku Abdul Rahman stated in his speech at the proclamation of independence in Merdeka Stadium:

“Independence is indeed a milestone, but it is only the threshold to high endeavour — the creation of a new and sovereign state. At this solemn moment therefore I call upon you all to dedicate yourselves to the service of the new Malaya: to work and strive with hand and brain to create a new nation, inspired by the ideals of justice and liberty — a beacon of light in a disturbed and distracted world.”

We should really reflect on what we have achieved in nation building since our independence. The 13th general election recorded the demise of democracy and our public institutions. However, it is imperative for us not to give up and to persist on bringing the necessary changes required to restore the very foundations of our country.

As the rally ended, the first question I had in mind: “So, right now, how would I be driving back to Singapore in this massive jam at 12.30am?”

                This entry was posted on Tuesday, 14 May 2013, 10:01 am and is filed under
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