Death by politics

I recently met a bright and talented young journalist, and we got to chatting about the thing that most Malaysians talk about when they get together – politics.

When the topic came to the prolonged 1MDB controversy and the recent revelations that our prime minister may have a direct link to it, she became extremely animated.

“I love it!” she exclaimed.

“The drama makes life so much more exciting!”

She echoed what many Malaysians actually feel, but maybe are not yet willing to admit: that they’re really enjoying the current political “sandiwara”.

Perhaps it takes age, or perhaps it takes a more sombre perspective from someone who has much to lose if our country slips into chaos, but the hard truth is that our nation simply cannot bear the cost of much more politicking.

Since Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was sacked as deputy prime minister in 1998 and subsequently jailed, Malaysia has been thrown into a seemingly never-ending political circus.

We have gone through almost 20 years of heightened political drama, but have been deprived of the order and long-term developmental policies that politics is ultimately meant to bring to the people it serves.

Throughout Malaysian history, politicking has only succeeded in setting our country back from meeting its fullest potential.

The damning habit of picking ministers based on their political party and not on their qualifications has created an overall dimmed leadership in every ministry, but has probably had the worst effect on our education system.

Directionless and terribly myopic in its scope, our education system now only attracts students from nations with education systems worse than ours, while our top scholars are systematically being lured to neighbouring countries on full scholarships and grants, where most of them will choose to stay and serve later in their lives.

Politics has also thus created a dearth of talent in our country, as the able and educated tire of our seasonal development, racist policies and corrupt government. Emigration is not a problem exclusive to Malaysia, of course, but our diminishing pool of highly capable is a crisis which will further set our developmental goals back.

When talent leaves, we are forced to try and compensate but often end up doing so with second-or-third grade talents, leaving our Vision 2020 an increasingly remote dream.

Politics has created a crippling strain in our ethnic relations. To be fair, the cracks probably date back far beyond the past 20 years, but the recent decade has seen some of the most toxic racial undertones in our nation’s history.

It’s telling of how far we have regressed when after almost 60 years, it is still too easy to find people who have never shared a meal with a Malaysian of another race.

Our political system has also made our institutions so undependable that in the current 1MDB chaos, Malaysians are not even looking to the judiciary, law enforcement, the attorney-general’s office or Parliament to bring order and justice.

Instead, Malaysians are held ransom by the next move of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and the ruling Umno party, as if the fate of an entire nation rests solely on what Najib and his party decide to do.

What has happened to rule of law? What has happened to accountability?

We may have grown desensitised to the gravity of the misdeeds at hand, but the shocking reality is that an astounding amount of public money remains unaccounted for, and yet nothing has been done despite it being almost a year since the controversy was made public.

Nations around the world are seeking to improve the quality of their citizens’ lives beyond just putting food on the table and a roof over their heads. They are progressing at a rate that can only be described as dizzying, as Malaysia can only sit back and marvel.

That’s what politics unbridled does to a nation so gripped and preoccupied by all the drama. It makes us forget what good governance looks like.

To regain any semblance of respectability that he may still hold, Najib has to either step down or furnish the public with irrefutable proof of his proclaimed innocence.

If he chooses instead to throw this nation into further politicking by “fighting” out his political crusade, Malaysians will have to endure yet another period of developmental stagnancy, both in our economy and in our social-cultural development.

The cost will be great. We will lose even more ground in the painstakingly slow healing of our strained ethnic and religious ties.

We will remain like an infant nation, when, in fact, we are to celebrate 58 years of independence in a matter of weeks.

We will be cursed to forever be a country known for “exciting” politics, but nothing much else. – July 12, 2015.

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