OCT 8 — Today is the 18-month anniversary of March 8, 2008 and political pundits are inclined to analyses, prognoses and jokes. My question — as a point of examination — is it tenable for Pakatan Rakyat political operatives to be full-time in the various posts and initiatives within the present political construct as determined by Barisan Nasional?
For although average voters in this country are fixated with the personality battles, the outcome of the real war will rely on the foot soldiers — the hundreds who provide the brains and organisation to their leaders. Right now in this battle of attrition, Pakatan is bleeding silly.
Last week, one key PR organiser was seeking applicants in a “writers’ mailing list” for assistants, political secretaries and more — to man the party’s responsibilities.
PR has four states to run, 84 MPs and hundreds of assemblymen requiring drivers and party offices which require organisation all year round.
Which is unprecedented. Former political secretaries and assistants are now office bearers, themselves needing help. The resources of the three parties are stretched to their practical limits.
And they have to keep running while being dogged by the triumvirate — BN’s grip of resources thanks to 40 years of centralisation to Putrajaya, the application of federal arms to bog down PR efforts (courts, MACC, police, etc) and Malaysia’s expanding educated class, ever willing to deride all and sundry but loathe to participate.
It takes people, and without them you will end up arguing principles not policies.
The long years under Umno were about “alternative” opportunities to aggrandise oneself when in power. The pay of any political assistant under the Public Services Commission scales may be low, but when you look at them, they don’t look wanting, do they?
The political leaders themselves assume leadership of GLCs, boards and corporations, giving “legal” income to the offices of those in office.
The system is set to make all opposition leaders suffer even if they get some power bases, until they take over federal leadership.
A complete winner-take-all system.
The cynic’s riposte would be, “You chose to take on BN. We gave votes, so go and fight. Don’t make excuses.”
But mate, asking the willing with less experience to fight with fly swatters against tanks is just whack. It is akin to saying those who perished in the Warsaw uprising had only themselves to blame for not having the munitions of the German army.
A 50-year-old incumbency is even mightier than the German’s Blitzkrieg.
What is at stake is not the future of Pakatan Rakyat, but the plausibility of us being stuck in the rut of single-party rule.
And a future of a continued single-party rule is ominous. Many of the “limited freedoms” will dissipate in direct proportion to the loss of political strength to oppose the single-party system.
The man on the street — who may care jack-all about government — is in the line of fire. His ignorance does not protect him.
Do we want to the next generation to live under a system like that?
The era of plain ideologies is over. The left, right, regionalists, religionists and minimalists have all tempered their positions to political practicalities.
The apparent death of ideology only underlines the drawing together of universal good (Tories indulging in benefits for the weak, Lefties accepting the need for big business to spur private initiative to maximise general resource, clerics seeing the benefits of investments), and the eradication of absolutes.
Politics is the appeasing of individual needs, then personal preferences in the national spectrum. The state has to be minimalist in harm, and constantly seek to maximise benefits, through the management of resources and the employment of policy.
Active ideas make it possible.
Which leads to the paramount need for competing sides. Without them, ideas will become the privy of the few, and the need to convince the many unnecessary.
Competing sides give us options to choose from. A, B or more.
Not the zero-opposition nightmare Datuk Khir Toyo envisioned for Selangor.
Our democracy is at stake here. And it will drown with the collapse of the opposition to single-party rule.
China reinvested in democratic principles after the terror of the Cultural Revolution and the death of Mao. It is still a single-party nation, but in our lifetime we will see multiple parties in China. They see the need for stability, but they understand the presence of progressive ideas will only be assured through the contributions of competing sides.
BN is adamant that the single-party system is the way forward even if all evidence internationally is the contrary. There is no convincing BN; they are unwilling to give any more than they absolutely have to, and if that causes paralysis to our long-term fates, it seemingly does not bother them.
They don’t just want to rule, they want to rule with no potential threat to their rule.
My former councillor colleague in Dengkil owns a mechanic shed. Let me rephrase that. He is a mechanic with a shed. His intentions are noble, but what incentive is there for a fresh law graduate to work in his service centre for RM1,200 a month?
More so, why is his civic drive beyond those who have sat through Kantian lectures in foreign universities?
It seems everyone with some level of education, and not directly benefiting from the near authoritarian rule of the country, has many issues with the way things are run in the country. They are equally scathing of players who want to alter the status quo.
However, these “loud voices” don’t want to participate, they just want to watch. Well, grab a good seat, a nice comfy seat. A good drowning is occurring in a body of water near you.
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Great article that strikes the cord right in the centre. Why not come out with a blueprint of what needs to be done and see if there those out there who are willing to save the drowning.