The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion
The Malaysian Insider :: Opinion |
| Posted: 22 Jun 2011 05:46 PM PDT JUNE 23 — We can only look back at our past to recognise the pivotal points that have brought us to where we are today. Today, I am blessed to have a boss who supports and shares the same passions as I do: playing a role in strengthening civil society in Malaysia, along with wildlife conservation and rural community-based initiatives. I particularly look forward to her mentorship as she has played a very significant leadership role in Green Surf, a home-grown Sabah coalition that successfully fought to stop a coal power plant being built in the state. I count back the years that has brought me to this point. It is easy to pinpoint my early interest in conservation and environment work: a childhood memory of watching a documentary of a solitary female researcher slogging her way through a Borneo rainforest searching for orangutans (like bells ringing in my head, telling me that this would be me one day — the bells later proved right) to being fascinated by the Greenpeace protests in Sarawak in the 1990s. I did not understand why foreigners would care so much about rainforests so far away from their homeland. I did not understand why the local newspapers were so hostile towards the protestors, to the point of making negative personal commentaries about their weight and looks. My initial confusion made me question what I had thought was truth. That everything I read and hear from other people is not necessarily the absolute truth, but rather a semblance of truth from their unique perspective and experiences. Yet my political awareness only fully emerged at a later stage. I connect those dots back to my participation in the 2007 Bersih march. It was probably the first time I had felt very proud as a Malaysian, to be surrounded by so many of my compatriots seeking a change in our electoral system that we feel is unfair and not representative of a democracy that our country is built upon. It was the beginnings of a personal stirring to learn more about the political issues beyond my home state of Sarawak. Indeed to march along other Malaysians who felt as strongly as I did was inspiring and gave me courage to continue exploring other sensitive issues. There has been much furore over the past week about the upcoming Bersih 2.0 march. A lot of it has been emotional, and hurtful, no matter what race or religion we belong to. No one with a decent heart and a sane mind likes to have an ethnic community singled out either to be blamed or condemned for their apparent participation in the march. Your brother is my brother, your sister my sister. When you try to hurt others, you only end up hurting yourself. Like in 2007, I intend to participate for I support the eight demands as listed out by the organisers of the march for freer and fairer elections. This year, it is particularly poignant for me, as a Sarawakian, for it was the alleged abuses in the last state election that had prompted the call to revive Bersih 2.0. Even if you don't believe in the money politics that took place in the last state election, or worse yet, think money politics is what elections is all about, you cannot deny the very basic fact that the non-Barisan Nasional component parties had no free and fair access to the mainstream media. One of the eight calls of Bersih 2.0 for the Election Commission to rectify. And that is one out of many legitimate grouses made not just by political parties, but also civil society. At the end of the day, to me, it does not matter what political party is in power, but rather those in power are reminded of and humbled by the immense responsibility placed on them. I fear that those who tricked and paid their way towards political power will not have these values in check. By coming into power with arrogance, they will continue to lead us with arrogance. The eight calls of Bersih 2.0, if implemented, will help give us more representatives that we seek, no matter what political parties they hail from. We want statesmen who will lead us with honour and honesty, not politicians who burn images and threaten our communities. So what role will I play come July 9? Could this be a pivotal point in not just our personal lives, but our country's? And 10 or 20 years from now, when we look back and ponder how Malaysia was brought to this fine point, where hopefully we have made leaps and bounds towards advancing national social consciousness for a government that truly represents us, could we then say to ourselves, I played a small role that one fine day? This is why I intend to march. * The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist. Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
| Pakatan’s not-so-secret weapon Posted: 22 Jun 2011 05:36 PM PDT JUNE 23 — Every day Pakatan Rakyat's answers are walking past, around and near it. It only has to open its eyes. Barisan Nasional (BN) has spent its way to loyalty, service and power so long that it would not know how to organise a Tupperware party without financial allocations. Which is why its lifestyle cost keeps rising with no end in sight. When something is bought, inflation sets in. At the other corner of the ring, the opposition stands cash strapped, even if particular individuals inside it have personal funds. Which is constantly demoralising, but do not forget that an amazing percentage of able, smart and articulate people are sympathetic to Pakatan's cause. They are the answers. College-educated Malaysians mostly voted for Pakatan in Election 2008. This is not to say that these voters are card-carrying members of PKR, the DAP or PAS, nor have they demonstrated an intention to sign up. They probably have a list of concerns with one or even all these parties. Why then the preference? Pakatan represents what is not BN; to put it optimistically, it is the work in progress for a collective future, a better future. What befuddles is that Pakatan does not embrace them into the general movement to change the country. They leave them as outsiders, as general observers. There are reasons why some would not want an active role, their obligation to change may not extend that far. But how about the others who do want to, and are not in the trenches as we speak? They can't dig without spades. Before we go into the whos and hows, what are Pakatan's questions in order for these answers to bear meaning? Pakatan has to win a general election across 14 states held simultaneously. It will be the standard eight-day campaign — 222 campaigns for 222 parliamentary seats. Each seat requires fund-raising, local mobilisation, a plan for maximum reach in minimum time and personnel. A campaign manager and his team, co-ordinating efforts with the party and its coalition partners, and give a real good go. And that's just to win power. A post-BN Malaysia would need new and innovative ways to resolve long-standing problems. An economy over-reliant on natural resources. Sub-standard public education and questionable free healthcare. Public transportation in disarray. A bloated civil service. A quality of life chasm between Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo states. Race relations suffocating due to over-politicisation and false dawns. Three million immigrants in the country, with no fair policy to confront the matter. And we can go on. Which is why Pakatan has to talk about the day after. Because that conversation will shape its manifesto and initiate processes to deal with the issues when it rules. It has to empower people. Empower a section of Malaysians who are ready to take up the challenge — so that they can examine, factor, plan and execute the future. Now I can hear my colleagues in the background snorting and shaking their heads. They'll say they are for that, and I am sure they mean it. But the proof is in the pudding. All the sound-bites of change — inclusivity, democratisation, gender policies, power sharing, party of the masses, youth power, autonomy, etc — have been verbalised and I am sure another press conference can be hastily arranged to reiterate and repeat them. But who is saying these sound-bites and who is shaping the use of these sound-bites? The same people over and again? Odd to explain your commitment to inclusivity, new voices and a firm NO to the "same old, same old" politics, when you too are a "same old, same old" making the statement. There is elitism on both sides of the fence in Malaysian politics. I'm not sure whether it is our colonial past or our Asian insecurities, but our inclination for incumbency and a small pool is evident. Pakatan remains a country mile ahead of BN in getting new faces and increasing its pool, but the scale is nowhere close to what is necessary. It is not that at any given majlis (event) registration lists are not filled with names, phone numbers and emails. But if you talk to talent management specialists, they'll tell you getting bright people to your side requires more than having their phone numbers. Talented people are a tricky lot, and they'll have their reservations about politicians. Talent does mean a level of independence, impatience and intelligence. This is the who-and-how part. In Election 2004 I showed up to volunteer for a parliamentary campaign. Not a party member, I just wanted to help. They asked me and a friend to staple posters to strings. Then at the second half of the evening, they let us string the posters up. This process continued for days, with leafleting added for variety. There was a nucleus of people, six to eight who were close to the candidate, with one of them the campaign manager. None of them actually asked us for our background like work and stuff throughout the five days we stayed on. Leafleting, poster pasting and running general errands should not be beneath anyone, and they are things that have to be done. However knowing that two of your party workers are post-graduates can give you options of using them for some cerebral work too. It got a bit more ridiculous when the deputy head of my unit at the management faculty bumped into me one evening, she too was a poster stringer. She got to do more though; she made some curry-puffs for the volunteers. By the time it was Election 2008 little had changed. Visiting a coalition partner's campaign HQ on nomination day evening, I was told that since the candidate was home they were done for the day. They were only signing up election observers for polling day a fortnight away. There was this guy living 25km away who drove there to sign up and help, and they had nothing for him to do. But more so they asked nothing about who he was. This was a common theme everywhere I went, and I went to many campaign centres and followed their campaigns. It seemed that there were fixed roles for volunteers and little else. Pigeonholed as extras in a badly-produced film. It seemed to me the enthusiasm of the voters and volunteers on their own pushed organically many campaigns to success in 2008. Malaysians looked for ceramahs to attend, centres to come to and ways to give a high-five to campaigners. These campaigns did not happen to Malaysia, Malaysia happened to these campaigns. This is not to downplay the great work done by opposition leaders and their small teams all year round without fanfare and parades. This is to say they could have used the talent at their disposal better. The help is ready and willing, the change agenda is on course, it's the leaders who have to learn how to harness the energy so that we move forward with conviction and not by accident. The management strength of Pakatan needs to be up-skilled. This is not about just the election campaigns, this is about the whole nine yards. Bersih, Facebook groups against towers, trains and palatial homes and other initiatives are reminders to Pakatan. Civil society wants in. There is a whole slew of engineers, corporate managers, architects, pilots and the like who want to see change, and see Pakatan as the bearer of their intent. Pakatan's staff have to get on with them on their terms. Don't form consultative groups, form work groups. They are smart enough to pick up the nuances of politics — that it is the art of the possible. They'll also realise the intricacies of party-coalition relationships, power plays and the X factors — many work in large corporations with matrix reporting and the exact same issues. They won't give you bad ideas. They do understand not all ideas have to be accepted. But they do need to know that the good ones will be used, not taken as suggestions. They are not filling up the "suggestion forms" at a supermarket checkout. If you ask for help, then you use the help. If you ask the help so that you can procrastinate on political permutations, then the help will leave. The agenda is huge, a lot of work is necessary from the politicians, their staff, the political parties' middle leadership, affiliated and non-affiliated NGOs, volunteer workers and Malaysians overseas. What we need is organisational leadership. Too long have we clambered in the dark though all of us are humming the same tune. Someone's got to man up and switch on the light. * The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist. Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
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