Focus Focus: C-C-C-Changes

By the time you read this, it would have been a month after the 12th Malaysian General Elections. Who would have thought, huh? All the hoping, all the dreaming, and all the wishing for some kind of change has come true, plonking us right here: five West Malaysian states are now governed by the PAS-PKR-DAP coalition; the Barisan Nasional component parties reduced to tatters with some reviled giants felled; the new BN government now rules with a simple majority.

What does this mean? Political analysts here and around the world are launching lucrative careers theories trying to explain this monumental seachange - the Barisan has not conceded this kind of defeat since 1969, and even then not by this much. The Opposition that captured Penang at the time (meaning Gerakan) were quickly absorbed into the ruling coalition.

On one level, we saw that the maturing Malaysian electorate (meaning those of you who voted; if you haven't registered, why not do it now - better safe than sorry!) was not loathe to embrace a post-racial, issues-based political sensibility. Of course, it helped that PAS dropped all calls for the setting up of an Islamic State (and they continue to refute any intentions of doing so in Kedah), and that DAP actively shared their ceramah stages with PKR's more populist (read moderate Malaysian) political figures and in doing so perpetuated a united front. In other words, Malaysians were thrilled  watching the birth of a new coalition: a more centrist and moderate Barisan Rakyat that sought to be the antithesis of the Barisan Nasional.

Intricacies aside, the rejection of the BN (its popular vote was reduced to about 51%, an historical low) says that the voting majority longed for a Malaysia that was not governed nor populated by ethnocentric political parties. We are ready to face the basic issues of the day without being clouded by ethnic sentiments: rising oil and goods prices; high crime rates; political and judicial corruption; erosion of the Malaysian Constitution affect us all. How will the new face of Malaysian politics deal with these banal yet fundamental concerns?

In Penang, Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng has already called for the running of local council elections again (and more state governments will follow suit); in this fashion, the everyday grievances of the people, such as clogged drains, poor infrastructural maintenance ad nauseam, can be directly looked after by the people who, by right, should be the ones looking after them (that's you, DBKL, MBPJ ad nauseam)! The councillors remain the people's custodians, working to ensure that the municipal councils are run effectively and are free from corruption (Selangor billboards should be the first to go!).

The issue of transparency will prove a delightful spectator sport. The PAS-DAP-PKR coalition would be wise to make public all government accounts, showing us how the taxpayers’ money is spent and to what end. The remaining states governed by BN should follow suit, if it wants to at least learn from its past (read rasuah-riddled) mistakes.

More than anything else, the 12th General Elections disclosed a new superpower in Malaysian politics: ordinary Malaysians themselves! I can't remember reading so many SMSes urging and pleading me to not waste my vote, to sideline race-based politics, to think of the greater Malaysian good. And let's not forget 'Makkal Sakthi' (People Power); if it were not for the Bersih and HINDRAF rallies, we would not see this V for Vendetta-like tide of change.

Actually, that was it. The image of a wave of Guy Fawkes marching near the end of that movie is simply what we're seeing today. One Malaysian alone cannot hope to break the monopoly of the status quo; it took the combined force of some five (out of 10.9) million voters: who gave Teresa Kok her 36,000 majority; who ousted Shahrizat from Lembah Pantai; who said an equivocal “No” to Samy Vellu, Koh Tsu Koon, and Zainuddin Mydin. The elections showed Malaysians that they above all have power to give and to take back.

It will take some time, but BN will either reform and learn from its errors or stay the course and be relegated to political oblivion. In the mean time, PAS-DAP-PKR will have to learn to work together more closely, more meaningfully, and more professionally, if it is to keep the Rakyat's hearts and votes in years to come.

We have four years, five at best. Let's prove to each other, to our forefathers (who were stopped in their nation building tracks in 1969), and to our future that this Malaysia is worth fighting for.

TEXT Fahmi Fadzil