"Casting the election in such racial terms is neither wise nor accurate.
The tsunami washing over Barisan is of the young and the rising urban
middle class, sickened at the unfairness, cronyism and corruption they
see around them."
AT FIRST sight, the general election in Malaysia on May 5th, the
closest-fought since independence in 1957, looks encouraging. A lively
campaign inspired a remarkable turnout of 85% of the country’s 13.3m
voters. The government’s victory seems recognition of Malaysia’s solid
economic performance and of the progressive reforms introduced by Najib
Razak, the prime minister. He has repealed some oppressive, colonial-era
laws. He has even begun to dismantle the affirmative-action policies
favouring the ethnic-Malay majority over Chinese Malaysians (about a
quarter of the population) and Indians (8%). Those policies are at the
root of the corruption and cronyism poisoning Malaysian society.
Look again, however, and Malaysian politics seems near breakdown (see article). The
opposition coalition led by Anwar Ibrahim alleges electoral fraud and
has refused to accept the result. Whether that is true or not, it is
certain that the ruling coalition, Barisan Nasional, has huge inbuilt
advantages. Gerrymandered constituencies meant that with less than 47%
of the popular vote, its worst-ever electoral performance, it still won
60% of the 222 parliamentary seats. The state has dispensed cash
handouts and other goodies, while much of the civil service works as a
party-political tool, and the election commission has long brushed aside
allegations of malfeasance. Add in an obsequious mainstream media, and
it is rather remarkable that so many Barisan Nasional campaigners still
felt the need to resort to blatant vote-buying.
All of this gives rise to two dangers. The first is of a loss of
faith in the political process itself. Mr Najib argues that, in a
parliamentary system, it is not the popular vote that matters. But in
any system it is time to redraw boundaries when distortions have reached
this level (something for others, such as Britain and Japan, to note).
And Mr Najib owes it to Malaysians who backed the opposition—more than
half of the electorate—to investigate the alleged frauds.
The second danger is of a rekindling of the ethnic animosities that
led to bloody rioting in the 1960s. Mr Najib has said he wants to be
prime minister for all Malaysians. Sadly, however, he presided over an
ugly campaign by his United Malays National Organisation, UMNO, the main
component of Barisan. In the rural Malay heartlands, UMNO was as
negative, racially divisive and pro-Malay as ever. Barisan’s
ethnic-Chinese parties did lamentably at the election. Mr Najib has
blamed Barisan’s losses on a “Chinese tsunami”, encouraging disgraceful
anti-Chinese headlines in the Malay-language press.
Casting the election in such racial terms is neither wise nor
accurate. The tsunami washing over Barisan is of the young and the
rising urban middle class, sickened at the unfairness, cronyism and
corruption they see around them. Mr Najib has taken to Facebook to court
these groups. All things to all Malaysian voters, he is more popular
than his party.
Show your true colours
The threat he faces now is from UMNO itself. It was quick to dispatch
Mr Najib’s predecessor after he did almost as badly in the previous
election in 2008. Likewise, UMNO hardliners might argue that what is
needed now is to bolster support among its Malay core by replacing Mr
Najib with a less bashful Malay supremacist. In fact, if UMNO is to have
a future in a prospering Malaysia it needs young urban voters, not poor
rural ones. To counter his opponents in the party, Mr Najib therefore
needs to capitalise quickly on his own popularity to reform more boldly:
to complete the demolition of the affirmative-action edifice; to go
further in improving civil liberties; and, above all, to make the
electoral system fairer.
No comments:
Post a Comment