Election Fever...

It's the voting season right now, and I don't mean choosing Jackass 1 over Jerkoff 2 in American Idol or Malaysia's Akademi Fantasia, though Jackass/Jerkoff dichotomy is still applicable to politics. This is the double-whammy year for me since both Malaysia and the US will hold their national elections soon: March 8 for Malaysia and November 4 for the US. I, for one, will not vote in Malaysia, though I do follow the elections very closely. My reasons: I'm not registered to vote in Malaysia (a conscious decision on my part) but more importantly, I believe the election is highly unfair to the Opposition and heavily favors the government. But I will vote in the US, even if my preferred candidate, Barack Obama, improbably lose the Democratic party nomination to Hillary Clinton.

Yes, I'm well aware of the criticism: if we don't vote the change into government, then how can we introduce change to system? This is assuming that change can only be made from inside the system. Well, even if the Opposition candidates manage to overcome the long odds and various undemocratic measures employed by the government, there is still the overwhelming dominance of the government faction to contend with in the Parliament. Assuming that if the Opposition manage to pass some kind of watered-down electoral reform law, the government faction can still challenge it in the courts, and with the pathetic state of affairs of the subservient Malaysian judiciary right now, the law will almost guaranteed to be struck down as unconstitutional. Yes, I'm a cynic and I do blame my social science background for making me one.. haha.

Below is the excerpt from an interview of the current chief of the Malaysian Election Commissions (EC), Abdul Rashid Abdul Rahman, done by MalaysiaKini, 24 Sept 2003. The vignettes of the interview go to show that the EC is simply a tool of the government to further entrench and sustain its dominance and to foil the challenges from the Opposition. Look at the inane comment about the role of EC as an "independent body." Does everything has to be laid out word-for-word in the Federal Constitution in order for it to be perfectly understood? An analogy can be made to a judge in the Lina Joy's apostasy case when he said that if Muslims have the right to revert to other religions, then the Constitution would have explicitly mentioned it. Yeah, it's as though the Article 3 of the Constitution, which protects freedom of religion, has no meaning whatsoever. Fuckin' dumbass! And by the way, EC's job is not just to set up the polling booth. If that's the case, then the government can just hire the building contractor. This guy has no fuckin' clue whatsoever about the functions and the responsibility of EC and what does free and fair election mean. In the Malaysian case, certainly the right man for the job! Anyway, here are parts of the interview:

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But isn’t the EC meant to be an independent body?

No, never ever. You look at the constitution, what does it say? That there shall be a commission that enjoys the public confidence. It does not say ‘an independent commission’.

But to enjoy public confidence, you need to be independent.

Not necessarily so. It means that we have to do our job but the basic guidelines are that we must conduct a free and fair election. (This does) not necessarily mean you are independent. How could you be independent? There is no one EC in this world that is truly independent.

You can never escape from the government of the day from being involved in elections. Whether the EC is seen to be independent - fair and free - depends on one important fact: how tolerant is the ruling party? In most Western countries, the party in power is tolerant. They take criticism openly. Here, we have not come to that level.

He (Opposition leader, Lim Kit Siang) raised these kind of issues like money politics. I asked him: ‘What money politics? You expect me to have eyes and ears to be everywhere (and monitor) who take or give money? That’s not my duty. I just put the polling booth and then you vote. Whether you vote for money, I do not know. But if you know, you take them to court.’ He said he does not believe in judiciary, they are unfair. (But) then you (can’t) blame me.

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The current electoral system in Malaysia is heavily stacked against the Opposition and the electoral arena, I think, is the least effective way to affect radical changes in the presently corrupt system. The best example is the 1999 General Elections, when the Opposition failed to inflict major damage to the government's hegemony though the prevailing socio-economic conditions was positively in its favor. The only real meaningful change has to come from outside i.e. the civil society. The civil society David almost succeeded in 1998-99 in toppling the BN Goliath, but alas, it wasn't meant to be. It was one stone short from knocking down the juggernaut. The Bersih and Hindraf campaigns are good signs that the civil society is again gearing up for a more prominent role in the Malaysian socio-political system. This, coupled with possible major inroads made by the Opposition parties in this upcoming elections, will hopefully bear real pressure on the BN-led government to reform itself. To hope for an Opposition-led government following this election is wishful thinking. The target is to weaken BN's 90 percent near-absolute majority in the Parliament to just 50 percent simple majority.

As much as I wish for radical changes in Malaysia a la Indonesia's Reformasi, I know that it is not realistic. In the Indonesian case, the 1997-98 economic crisis (Krismon aka Krisis Moneter in local parlance) was just the final nail in Suharto's coffin, which had been preceded by various political crises at least since the late 1980s. Still, change is change, and I take whatever change I can get for now and keep my hopes up for more in the future. And I also hope to prove wrong the old French adage: Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose (The more things change, the more they stay the same)--in case if the Opposition does come to power someday.