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Malaysia’s political tornado picks up speed – J.D. Lovrenciear

February 21, 2016

Malaysia is gripped in a sinking political quagmire that certainly does not augur well for the times ahead.

While many nations across the globe are rising up to match the socio-economic and socio-political challenges of unprecedented proportions, we are sinking deeper by the months given the deepening fissures appearing all over the racially anchored, ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) party’s frameworks.

Will the 42% of voters in the last general election who gave the mandate to BN to lord over the 52% of the voting population who aspired to see a change in government now shift their loyalty come the next election?

Will Umno itself permanently break into a two-camp faction as the pro and anti Najib’s armies battle on or settle for an unholy compromise at the eleventh hour? 

Will the BN component parties – MCA and MIC in particular, lose the groundswell as their “big brother” Umno cracks up?

We are already seeing MIC deeply wounded by the fight for supremacy between two leaders. Just as well, MCA is also under acute attack by the Chinese business community and educationists.

Meanwhile, the “sodomy-charged/political prisoner” – depending on which camp you hail from – who harnessed and bridled the opposition block, thereby raising the hopes for an unprecedented change in government, saw DAP and PKR make great inroads in the last elections.

Two jewels in the crown were bagged as DAP got Penang while PKR took Selangor.

But today with Anwar Ibrahim safely locked away in prison, what will be the battle armour of the opposition coalition that is already seeing its own brand of political checkmates as Umno bleeds, and MIC and MCA suffer from increasing injury time and casualties.

While propaganda peddling moves into higher gear as both sides of the Umno divide battle on, PAS is being held onto as their “Joker” card in a desperate need to net the crucial Malay Muslim population. Likewise, Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) – the PAS splinter faction, is meanwhile the opposition’s best bet for now.

At the epic centre of this political tornado building up in Malaysia stars Datuk Seri Najib Razak. Will he survive the rising tornadoes around him with his hand-picked oarsmen forming the executive, judiciary and the law enforcement institutions?

Or will the often touted “Machiavellian” former prime minister of 22 years succeed in his determined plan to oust Najib? Will he count on his ex-comrades alone or will he relent and enlist the opposition block including a let bygones be bygones truce with Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim?

Indeed the world is watching as the media world trains its radar on Malaysia without fear or favour.

Some are even counting on their hopes that the end is near for the realisation of the not so long ago peddled “Rahman” theory.

Some are already beginning to cut their cloth discreetly to measure up just in case their prediction for the winning side goes wrong.

In the midst stand the Malaysian voters who alone can make a decisive clean sweep to set the country right all over again after over five decades of political passivity or “political grooming” in more politically correct terms.

Or will we fall for the “free lunches” – the gravy train rewards for the street smart politicians and business communities and pathetic handouts to the masses?

Worse, will we fall for the race territorialism that has been deeply entrenched into Malaysian mindsets?

Or will we be successfully baited by the powers that be who are accomplices to a dressed-up national agenda with their often tested and working up scaling of horrendous fears of an external enemy out to corrupt our religious piety and sanguinity?

The question that eludes us all is why must one nation of people suffer from such perilous uncertainty because of one man’s determination to lead the country?

The answer perhaps lies in the fact that Malaysians place political party interests and goals above principle-centred and charismatic leadership. And those political party premiums have been race and religion and economic pie sharing.

Will we ever as a nation of people rise above the dust of humanity’s failure – self-interest, and place democratic rights and freedom as our investment capital in order to join the world to battle the rising shapes of the new economic and socio-political order?

But in all likelihood even this question will be marred by our own myopia as we debate about democracy, freedom and rights.

In a nutshell, wonder what the future of this once hopeful beacon in the third world would be.

We should shudder to think about how all of us would have had a hand, knowingly or unwillingly, in this impending catastrophic failure of a nation that chose to build its post-independence political and socio-economic landscape with race, religion and economic labels.

Or is there still hope and is time not against us to set the clock back and redeem our lost horizon of principle-centred leadership, ethically sound pillars of governance and weave a social fabric that does not fray on its seams or tear apart in the future ahead of us as the United States and China take centerstage? – February 21, 2016.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.