𝘼 𝙛𝙖𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧’𝙨 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚

𝘼 𝙛𝙖𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧’𝙨 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚

𝙋𝙤𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙨 𝙫𝙨 𝙋𝙤𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙡 𝙋𝙖𝙧𝙩𝙮

父愛的心聲: 正治與政黨

The biggest enemy of Malaysian democracy is the existence of wilful political parties. It all started with leaders wanting to be angels of the people, but instead, they became monsters. When morale and ethic go against money and power, most of the time money and power will emerge as the winner, as many wrong policies, wrong environment, wrong system, wrong values wrong thinking and wrong practice, would have been introduced, even when ugly politicians are caught, they will use the political party to politicize, to delay ending up in jail or do not want to go to jail. They lose their soul as a human instead of staying true to their religious beliefs. There are currently so many examples of such ugly politicians for historians to record and study on.

The political parties in Malaysia mostly end up like this, with bad practices and habits of putting the party’s interest first, voters’ interest second, and the people’s interest third (as for non-voters, they won’t even care). The political parties will negotiate, compromise, and allocate seats or resources before an election, but neglecting the quality (A.M.C.E.) and the training (FC, RN) of actual candidates, the understanding of good governance as well as the needs of the people. The bad practices of “party first, people later” have resulted in our democracy system not properly working for the people and country but working instead for the party itself. Some ugliest party heads end up filling their own pockets, while some clever ones end up empowering their closer families. As ugly as it may seem, this is the Malaysian politics of today. Cleaning up this dirty pond seems like mission impossible. However, my dear, from Clearwater, you believe you can help to clean up the cloudy pond. As a father, I salute you for taking on this responsibility and duty, but we started missing you already. For the first time, you missed our Hokkien 拜天公 celebration. Still, I will continue to support you to put the country first, family second.

In Malaysia, politics has become a business. Forming a political party is like venturing into a good business opportunity whereby successful candidates, instead of representing the people, would represent just the party. Wakil rakyat becomes wakil party. All these started with negotiations before voting, under the guise of coordination, perikatan, barisan, pakatan, etc. Such a “pakat” habit is for the selfish interests of political parties and leaders and in fact, a coalition practice before an election is a democratic system gone wrong. This is why “katak” becomes the norm for Malaysia.

Political funding is one of the main sources of corruption in Malaysia. The party system leaves people with no choices, as we are voting for the whole group as one “package” and not individual good leaders. And when good people are not elected, a good government cannot be achieved no matter how we vote. This “democracy” game was set up by western thinking and values when we gained independence. The one-man-one-vote system has come to a bottleneck; the neck of rakyat is held by the ugly politicians and the political system becomes the “ugly politicians get rich” game which doesn’t work for Malaysia. With sixty years of democracy, corruption in Malaysia has come to an emergency status. For example, just the 1MDB case alone, the amount of money involved, the international news and scandals, number of countries or parties involved internationally, its geopolitical influence coupled with the pandemic, skyrocketing national debts, terrible brain-drain, and the impacted livelihood of the B40s. Instead of repairing all these, the political parties in Malaysia have become the biggest destroyer of the country and the biggest enemy of our democracy.

The ugly politicians, amid the pandemic, insisted on elections in Sabah, Melaka, Sarawak and now Johor. This pond is just getting cloudier and smellier. Politics is dirty, this has become a fact for Malaysia. People are all being forced to drink water from the dirtiest pond. 

God sent the entire world a message in the form of the Covid-19 pandemic which resulted in disastrous lockdowns, untold number of deaths, suicides and depression. More recently, we experienced another natural disaster in the form of the catastrophic floods. These signs have clearly put the spotlight on Malaysian’s huge income and living conditions disparity in our country. Our leaders need to prioritize but instead they have prioritized grabbing Power. The first principle of Rukun Negara, “Kepercayaan Kepada Tuhan”, must be upheld. 

The way forward for the Malaysian democracy system is a thorough revamp and overhaul. Currently, our drinking water reservoir is like a smelly pond. All the pumps and filtering systems lie in the hands of ugly technicians with corrupted intentions. To me, all these auxiliary systems have a handbook and operating manuals to follow. Our federal constitution is exactly like the handbook. At this critical time, 50% of all Cabinet members and 50% of all state Excos, instead of being chosen from election system candidates, should be replaced with the selection system candidates, and be complemented with a recommendation and scrutinization system. It means returning the power back to the Rulers, like Tengku Zafrul, an apolitical individual with financial expertise selected as a Senator and appointed to the Cabinet. All state rulers must be empowered to appoint 2 Cabinet members, candidates with morale and capability, to take care of their state interests through the selection and recommendation system.

While the remaining 50% of candidates chosen through elections should go through an open and transparent voting without prior coalition, without any Pakatan or barisan whatsoever. No party is made up of all angels, and likewise, no party is made up of all devils. Coalition killed all the good candidates. Good politicians become bad politicians because of coalitions, as party interests must come first, and you can’t go against your ugly party heads’ wishes. There are good gems in every corner of the country, waiting to serve, just like you.

Using a proper mechanism to recruit quality candidates through selection, recommendation and scrutiny systems should be a new way forward. All old or new political parties like MUDA, if they follow strictly the rules and regulations by the Election Commission whereby state and parliamentary seats are allocated a maximum spending limit of RM100k and RM200k respectively, then there must not be any excuse claiming that elections cost a lot of money. As political funding is the starting source of corruption, we must enforce new stringent laws, rules, and punishments to all new or current political parties.

A known devil vs the unknown angel, this is the current dilemma of Malaysian voters. This is also the painful experience of GE 14 voters. Any political ideology in this world, be it capitalism or socialism, is never going to work without the strong fundamental of morale and ethics. It is my strong belief and hope that only the Rulers of Malaysia and the Conference of Rulers can stop the corrupted politicians based on Islamic values. All Malays are Muslim, the Federal Constitution empowers Islam to be under the prerogative of all Rulers. Moreover, the second principle of Rukun Negara, Kesetiaan Kepada Raja dan Negara, is based on the spirit of our Constitution. Malaysia needs a new pond with clear water because if we keep drinking the dirty water from the same old pond, people will suffer further, with or without the pandemic.

My dearest Dian, ever since you decided to join politics, this has garnered so much media attention on your character and ability to serve and as your father, my name has been associated with all sorts of headlines. As humans, we all have two positions: one from the sky and one on earth. The love of a father is universally similar. No one can take away the position of fathers and daughter. 

Now you chose to help clean up the cloudy pond by joining MUDA. As your father, I am proud of you and I have no doubt you and your comrades are working hard to filter the cloudy water from the pond to benefit the people, like helping the recent flood victims. However, to change the whole cloudy pond water altogether is a different challenge. I wish MUDA all the best in the Johor election, and I hope MUDA will get ready to contest 222 seats independently, to right the wrongs. People first, party second; Country first, everything else comes second.

Dian, my dearest daughter, a candle with confidence to brighten up others around you. Don’t forget to convey the alphabets in you sisters’ name to the voters. “Dian” in Malay means candle, it can also mean the four core values in polictics, 

D – dignity

I – integrity

A – accountability

N – noble

Father

19 Feb 2022