Malaysia, politics, the rule of law and other cool stuff

Hello, here's a brief (I'm using the word loosely here) summary of a cool forum which I just attended and which I think you all should know about (i.e. read this and think)

Right, the forum was held at my campus (law faculty NUS) from 2 to 6 and was about the social, political and legal consequences within the Malaysian landscape post March 8 GE 08. The panel of speakers were Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, Rita Sim, Elizabeth Wong, Nurul Izzah Anwar and Tony Pua.

The MC, one prof Tang, categorically stated at the start of the forum that in no way was the forum politically motivated even though the entire panel did not contain a single BN man. He clarified that they had indeed extended invitations to BN to send speakers down for the conference but "they unfortunately could not be here with us". I'm not complaining. It's not as if they (BN) ever had anything useful to say anyway, and it sure made everyone there way more comfortable in speaking their mind.

Anyway, first up was Rita Sim (executive director of Sin Chew publications and deputy chairman of the Institute of Strategic Analysis & Policy Research). She gave a brief intro of Malaysian political history, from Mahathir's transition of power to Abdullah in 04 right up to the present scenario. Important points highlighted during the speech was the fact that the Malays would remain the dominant political power in Msia in the forseeable future (come 2020, they'll make up 70 % of the total population) and other cool stats like how the opposition actually won the popular vote in the peninsular, meaning if not for Sabah and Sarawak, BN would most certainly have lost. Interestingly enough, in GE 08, Sabah and Sarawak voters numbered some 1 million out of 10 million registered voters in Msia (a total of 4 million voters did not register, of which 60% were Malay) but under the Federation of Malaysia agreement, the two states would have a minimum of 25% seats in parliament. So yes, some votes are more equal than others.

After Rita Sim concluded her introduction into the Msian political scenario, Elizabeth Wong (former secretary general of HAKAM and current state assemblyman for Bukit Lanjan under the PKR banner) continued with a speech on federalism in Malaysia and the future political scenario envisaged (ie most optimistic scenario): a two party democracy. She suggested that reformasi and the current political revolution in Msia was really kickstarted way back during the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997 - way before the sacking of Anwar really. While the official reason for the severe economic downturn back then was blamed on Soros and his band of evil speculators, a public disquiet started to circulate about the general mismanagement of our nation under BN (which was probably a better explanation of why our country was as f***ed as it was).

Anyway, the moment we were waiting for: Q n A. First question: what is the future of ISA in our country? Tony Pua, not one to miss an oppurtunity to score political points categorically stated that the future pakatan rakyat government would unequivocally reject the ISA in its entirety. The answer was quickly shot down as political rhetoric by the panel of mostly legal and public policy students and staff and the thorny issue of anti-terrorism was raised. Malik Imtiaz further went on to say that the current ISA was very much in breach of our constitution and that however, our penal code and criminal sentencing procedure had been amended to reflect the current international support for anti-terror preemptive action. Rita Sim suggested that if the current ISA is removed, most likely an anti-terror preemptive arrest related legislation would be passed and Malik Imtiaz said he was wondering why the opposition wasn't already pressing for such a position (perhaps something we might be looking forward to? Or not) Anyway, to sum things up: Current ISA = abuse of human rights not in line with constitution. But we will most likely need a similar anti-terror law (perhaps subjected to judicial review?)

Next Question: What of the schism between the two rather conflicting ideology of PAS and DAP. Are they just going to shelf the Islamic State idea and the Malaysian Malaysia idea aside? Wouldn't such rifts create problems down the line if they were to continue to work together. At this juncture, Nurul Izzah (on a side note, she's pretty good looking) pointed out how the act of actually getting the 3 opposition parties to avoid 3 corner fights during this GE was already a mean feat in itself. She pointed out how PKR had many a sleepness night during the PAS-UMNO talks. She however concluded that it was probably better to get stuff like this out of the way early in the relationship than later. Malik Imtiaz suggested that public bickering amongst PAS and DAP might even be a good thing, after all, we wouldn't like another BN where UMNO says something offensive and MCA and MIC is told to shut up and accept it. Tony Pua also added that it is unlikely that either party will shelf their core ideologies but as a matter of pragmatism and democratic evolution, they have agreed to concentrate on the common goals, rather than let their differences sweep them aside. It must be noted that leaders on both side probably have a tough job on their hands placating their hardcore grassroots supporters and to give them credit, they have so far done a pretty decent job of cooperation.

After a brief tea break, the session continued with Nurul Izzah downplaying the idea of protest votes and suggesting instead that to a certain extent, voters were now genuinely receptive of the opposition ideals (a notion that Rita Sim snorts at). She elaborated more about the demography of the urban Malay, their role in politics, the recent Permatang Pauh by-elections and the importance of young people seeking change amongst other things. Tony Pua further elaborated on the accidental rise of civil discourse and civil liberty movement in Malaysia which he credited to a large extent to the BN leadership's incompetency at being authoritarian. Failure to crack down hard enough on dissent led to expose after damaging expose which ultimately discredited BN to the point of no return, at least in the urban belt. There was also talk about the growing awareness among the Sultans of their role as future King-makers (the irony) and Sabah's frog and money politics. In particular, the frank political portrayal of money politics in Sabah and Sarawak highlights the difficulty the opposition will have even if they manage to woo them over, especially given their (the politicians from Sabah and Sarawak) increasing awarness of their political clout in deciding who gets to rule Malaysia. On a side note, Tony Pua is one hell of a sarcastic bastard and a dangerous man to let loose in a forum. Anyway, they probably said alot of other interesting things which I've now forgotten because I lacked the foresight of taking down notes. But the important thing is this: Malaysian politics is changing, and no one knows where we're heading.

Final (and IMO the best) speaker: Malik Imtiaz Shawar. The guy's a famous human rights lawyer, currently representing one Raja Petra Kamaruddin. He was threatened with death when he was legal observer for the Lina Joy case. Malik commented dryly that the other panelists had shunted all the unwanted topics unto his shoulder, mainly issues concerning the state of the judiciary and state of human rights. Anyway, his frank, almost brutal protrayal of Malaysia was scary. Picture this: mass media which were essentially propaganda machines. A compliant judiciary that pays no attention to principles of legal precedence. A police force akin to a private militia. And they fucked GE 08 up. UMNO is shocked, scared and most worrying of all, fighting for survival. More so in light of the horrifying allegations made against Najib. The PM-to-be will not just be fighting for a political career once he takes over the helm of UMNO. Rest assured, he knows that if the opposition ever come to power (and Malik Imtiaz and quite alot of Malaysians aren't exactly holding their breath), he could probably end up in jail if investigations turn up anything nasty. This is his last chance to wield and consolidate power, and the only way BN knows how to do it is to either make people like them or take away people who dislike them in the scariest manner possible. Shock and awe. He (Malik) then proceeded to cite the numerous examples from our colourful history of the government doing just that. Interestingly, we learn that a man (Abdul Malik Hussin) detained during the reformasi movement of 98' was awarded RM2.5 million in damages for torture suffered at the hands of the former IGP while under ISA detention. He then highlighted the very real danger that all those present among the panelists were likely to be detained anytime under the ISA, given the growing desperation of the ruling regime.

What does this mean for us? Simple. We cannot take things lying down. It is in our best interests to keep ourselves well-informed and educated so that we know what are our rights and how to protect them. When push comes to shove and crackdowns are imminent, we must resist. Change does not happen to people sitting in their armchairs. If we relent, the government will then be justified in employing their fear tactics and we risk sliding back to another 50 years of misrule. I'm not saying Pakatan Rakyat is great. I'm arguing that BN is so bad, we can't get any worse. Our country has probably reached the lowest ebb in terms of national development and it is up to us to make our stand here and now.

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Things you should do:

1. Be interested in what's going on, it's in your best interests.
2. Do not be afraid to speak up.
3. Support the people who speak up.
4. Get involved in public activism: participate in debates and discussions, blog or publish your views, anything, so long as you do something.
5. Register as a voter when you can.
6. Vote.

I apologise if my writing is rather incoherent, I'm just darn tired after a long day but I really want to write all this down before I forget. Oh, and here's something interesting which I learnt from Rita Sim. When Sin Chew reporter Tan Hoon Cheng was arrested under the ISA for publishing a racist remark by Ahmad Ismail, Dato' Seri Ong Ka Ting personally called Pak Lah and Najib and informed them that should she not be released, the groundswell of anger following her arrest would be likely to force him to sever MCA from BN. So now we know...