After the Malaysian Elections: Caught Between False Choices

By Nasruddin Hikmat

Well it happened. Not quite the way some of us in Malaysia expected it, but it happened nonetheless – the Barisan Nasional was returned to power with a landslide victory on Sunday, March 21st. But some of us did not expect such an overwhelming majority for the BN. Imagine – the BN won about 90% of the total number of seats in federal parliament. And here we were thinking that this only happens in Singapore. Or Syria. Or some banana republic.

I was a first-time voter in these elections, and as such I frantically tried to reeducate myself on the electoral process in Malaysia before I finally cast my vote. I wanted to vote with my eyes wide open. It wasn’t easy – there are things I had to dig up that no media organization in its government-shackled mind would ever think of publishing to educate voters. And as a Malaysian, most of my effort wasn’t about accumulating new information – it was about joining the dots between the kinds of repressive laws that have been introduced or strengthened over the years, and the whole mechanics of political participation. For example, it becomes crystal clear during elections why the State imposes so many restrictions on the media – it is one way of ensuring that the media denies the opposition its right to fair coverage during the campaigning period.

So I’ll just have to reiterate what Malaysians have always known – political parties do not enjoy a level playing field. The opposition is not given fair or adequate space in the media to air its issues. On top of that, during this particular campaigning period, the BN actually took out ad-space in the print and broadcast media to attack the opposition. The opposition, of course, could not mount an effective response because it was shut out from the mainstream media. On top of that, because candidates have to privately fund their own campaigns, deposits have been set so high that only candidates from moneyed political parties (i.e. BN component parties) can afford to run without any difficulty. On top of that, the official campaigning period of 8 days severely restricts what the opposition can do, especially since the BN has a perennial unofficial campaigning period via its control of the media. On top of that, gerrymandering has become rife since the supposedly independent Elections Commission was stripped of its powers to re-delineate the boundaries of constituencies. On top of that, the Elections Commission chooses to be toothless and does not exercise the powers that it still has to ensure that opposition candidates are not disadvantaged during elections. In fact, I could go so far as to say that the Elections Commission colludes with (i.e. is beholden to) the wishes of the BN to the detriment of the opposition, but the Malaysian government would just slap the Sedition Act on me for saying something like that. So I won’t.

And on top of that, Malaysians have to tiptoe around various laws that restrict our freedom of expression, freedom of association, freedom of thought and right to privacy. Off the top of my head, we have the University and University Colleges Act (which, among other things, does not allow students to hold demonstrations or protests), the Internal Security Act (which allows for detention without trial if one is suspected threatening “national security” – sound familiar?), the Official Secrets Act (which is a brick wall many an investigative journalist repeatedly bangs their head against) and the Printing and Printing Presses Act (which forces the media to be extra nice to the government in power so that printing licenses keep getting renewed).

So, in a climate like this, only to citizens of Middle Eastern and African dictatorships would Malaysia appear to be a model Muslim democratic state. Of course the BN quite convincingly sells ordinary Malaysians the idea that we need all these laws to protect ourselves from the big bad Islamic fundamentalists (or the big bad Communists, before 1989).

And this is where things get really sad. The opposition Islamist party, PAS, truly is populated with a bunch of overzealous dimwits who advocate literally cutting off the hands of thieves and stoning unmarried pregnant women to death. (It’s proof of adultery, d-uh!)

So, as much as I enjoy PAS-bashing, I have to stop here. Because apart from it being easier than saying my ABCs, I’d also be missing the point. The thing is, PAS was absolutely confident that voters supported its vision of an Islamic state. Its coalition partner, Keadilan, was also convinced of PAS’s support amongst the grassroots and it pussyfooted around PAS’s vision of an Islamic state without offering an equivocal stand on the issue. Keadilan, by the way, was formed in 1999 by supporters of the deposed Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and was backed by several reformists. It swiftly joined a coalition of opposition parties – PAS, the center-left Chinese-based Democratic Action Party (DAP), and the center-left, ethnically plural Malaysian People’s Party (PRM). During the 1999 elections, PAS tripled its presence in parliament because of its alliance with Keadilan, while the DAP – playing the role of sacrificial lamb in the coalition – lost some ground in parliament. PRM, as had always been the case, failed to gain a single seat in parliament.

In 2001, PRM and Keadilan agreed to merge, while DAP chose to leave the opposition coalition because it just could not stomach PAS’s stand on the Islamic state issue.

And how their fortunes have shifted. The DAP has retained its presence in parliament, while PAS has suffered more than an 81 per cent decrease in its share of parliamentary seats. Keadilan has won only one parliamentary seat this time, compared to five in 1999.

Of course, given the monstrous machinery that the BN has at its disposal to intimidate voters and undermine the opposition, it was always a no-brainer that the BN would win the elections anyway. (And if anybody still thinks this does not necessarily mean that the BN is undemocratic, I’d like to draw their attention to a sentiment recently voiced by the Reformist Iranian lawmaker Rajab Ali Mazrouie, “An election whose results is clear beforehand is a treason to the rights and ideals of the nation.”)

But this still does not answer the question of why PAS and Keadilan suffered such humiliating defeats. On the surface, it could appear to some quarters as though Malaysians are really that much in love with the BN. But here’s another way of looking at it – in 1999, voters chose to support PAS in droves because PAS was seen as an ally of Keadilan. Voting for Keadilan and its allies, therefore, was one of the very few ways angry Malaysians had of protesting against an abusive and corrupt state. In 2004, after having PAS’s true ambitions dawn upon them, Malaysians have chosen to protest against PAS. And Keadilan, which has refused to dissociate itself from PAS’s frightening ambitions, was mercilessly punished by voters this time around.

Whatever it is, this does not bode well for the state of democracy in Malaysia. For one thing, many so-called pundits are already claiming that these election results are proof that what happened in 1999 was only an aberration, and that the call for reform is now obsolete. And for another thing, the majority that the BN now enjoys in parliament is absolutely horrifying. It’s bad enough that we have an atrophied judiciary, a muzzled press and a warped education system – it will now also be very difficult for the opposition to offer effective checks and balances in parliament.

And of course, I have a nasty feeling that many people will start to think that the Islamic state is now a non-issue. Wrong. Big time. If we now choose ignore the previously frenzied buildup to the call for an Islamic state, then we are inviting karma to come back and bite us in the ass in the not-too-distant future. And it is not that voters do not want an Islamic state – they just do not agree with PAS’s version of an Islamic state. We still have not unpacked what exactly people understand by the concept of the Islamic state and exactly what they mean when they say they want one.

Which is what makes it so difficult to be a Malaysian sometimes. It is good that we showed PAS what we really think of their Islamic state. But at what cost? And to be honest, it’s not just PAS that has proposed ludicrous and inhuman laws. For example in the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, it is a crime for any adult Muslim male to “neglect” Friday prayers. Not too long ago, it was okay for husbands to legally divorce their wives by sending out text messages through their cellular phones. If a Muslim decides to officially embrace another religion, or to officially renounce Islam, he or she could be put through a bureaucratic nightmare and sent off to be “rehabilitated” for a couple of years. It is ridiculous and dangerous for any state to legislate on matters of personal faith. And yet we have plenty of these laws in Malaysia.

And these are laws upheld by the BN – the very same party that people voted for because they were so afraid of the Islamist extremists.

It makes me sad to see this happening, because it is as though Malaysians are saying, “We don’t want to go to the guillotine, so BN please keep us in our chains and blindfolds thank you very much.” It is sad because these choices being presented to us are false choices. In a truly democratic state, we wouldn’t have to choose either scenario because there’d be a third, real choice – freedom.

I know a lot of people are then going to point at me and ask what I have to offer. Well, I would suggest that we all start from scratch. I hope the more moderate factions in PAS realize that though they may fervently believe Allah is on their side, the sentiment expressed by voters this time speaks volumes. And hopefully they will learn to accept pluralism within Islam as well as outside of Islam. I hope that Keadilan pulls its act together and tells us all exactly where it stands. And I hope this is a stand that upholds the principles of democracy and human rights. I hope that ordinary Malaysians will go on trying to find creative ways of expanding the space for democratic participation. And from my mouth to God’s ears, I hope that the new Prime Minister chooses to use his power for good, not evil – shades of Lord of the Rings.

And I hope we regain the plot. Not too long ago, the spiritual leader of PAS dismissed the Deputy President of Keadilan for being a socialist heathen. But once upon a time a previous spiritual leader of PAS, Dr. Burhanuddin Al-Helmy, delivered a speech at the party’s general assembly in 1956 in which he stated that the progressive forces of Islam, nationalism and socialism had much in common, and could achieve much by aligning with each other. The fight for democracy, he said, includes meaningfully filling up the democratic space with a plurality of ideologies – each committed to upholding the democratic rights of citizens.

Though I would rather chew the toes off my left foot than align myself with PAS now, I feel like if I were around back then, I would have very warmly and tenderly embraced Dr. Burhanuddin Al-Helmy for saying what he said. Because those words could truly unlock the power of making real choices.