Elections and Choices

It is said that one of the corner stone of democracy is the empowerment of the people to choose, among other things, who they want to govern them. The choice is entirely theirs.

The choice can be relatively simple, as in countries like the bastion of democracy, Britain, to make. It’s either Left or Right, I mean Labor or Conservatives. Akin to the Democrats or Republicans of the US of A. This is not to deny the existence of the Liberals, the Greens and what have you, but they are usually marginal.

Choices, however, are much more difficult to decide upon elsewhere. And Malaysia is a case in point. In the light of all the talk of an impending General Elections in the media (both print and online), Mail lists and Blogs, I venture my opinion of how difficult it is to choose and from a non-Muslim Chinese Malaysian perspective.

I started with a prioritized list of what I want (selfish, as it may sound, but important because whatever govt. policies, etc. are implemented will ultimately affect me as a citizen, for better or for worse) from whoever is the government of the day –


1. An assurance that my “periok nasi” (and by extension those of my family too) will be taken care off. And here, I do not mean expecting freebies from the government. We are willing to earn our keep, so to speak, but basic opportunities (like in education, in public sector employment and in business) should not be denied us.

2. Freedom, within the bounds of the law, to live our lives as we choose to. This is important to our social, cultural and religious well-being. Our ethnicity, values, beliefs (including faith) and even education shaped our lifestyle and unreasonable restrictions (on whatever grounds, secular or religious) must not be imposed.

3. A government that do not temper with basic human and democratic rights and also the institutions through which these rights are exercised and arbitrated. This being third in my list does not in anyway detract from their importance. It is just that this post, as I have stated earlier, is from a non-Muslim Chinese Malaysian perspective. Hence community considerations are mentioned first.


Now comes the hard part. Who should I choose to govern me that can meet my “wants”, if not totally at least substantially? Ideally it should mean a party neutral on race and religion (that is, not representing the interests only of a particular race or members of a particular faith) but fully aware, at all times, of the complexities of a multi-racial and multi-faith society.

The reality, however, of Malaysian politics, is that the major contending parties are almost all race-based, sadly.

BN may tout itself as the “national unity party” but it is really UMNO and friends, with UMNO taking the lead and calling the shots. And UMNO has always touted “ketuanan Melayu”. So I am not sure whether a BN government is the best choice to govern me.

What about BA? Again it is one strong sizeable party, PAS and another, that is Parti Keadilan Raayat (I am not sure whether this name is official yet).
But here again the membership is overwhelming Malay, though I concede that PKR has a semblance of being a multi-racial party. While BA has come out strong in their denouncement of corruption, cronyism and injustice, personally, I think they have not approached with the same fervor, the question of continuation Bumiputra rights, the creation of level “playing ground” for all races and related matters. Thus again I have my doubts about choosing.

PAS being an Islamic party also compounds the difficulty in making a choice.
Will they really be as “liberal” to non-Muslims as they say they would? The example of Kelantan and Trengganu states does not suggest so. My no. 2 “want” mentioned above will I think be seriously compromised if I vote PAS.

That leaves the outsider, DAP. Here I am skeptical they will ever shed their “Chinese party” label. Not only is their membership mainly Chinese, but because they are strong in urban areas, the issues they raise (the common complains about corruption, etc. aside) tends to overlaps the Chinese grievances and this has perpetuated the label. It would have been ideal if they had pursued social democratic issues instead, as expected of a party with socialist ties. These being more of “class” issues rather the race/religious ones, DAP might have been a choice for me. But my practical side tells me they do not have the clout to be able to run the country.

What then? Sometimes not choosing is a choice.