Politics and elections in Malaysia II

Politics and elections in Malaysia II

Although Arif Shah knew that his people considered him to be a perfect gentleman, and although he knew that he was loved by the two other races, he still campaigned with all his energy. I can still see him as he visited his constituents in the flooded areas, knee deep in water. Unlike Anwar, he promised to focus on local issues and even refused to use Anwar’s sodomy trouble to his advantage. Instead he called Anwar his guru (in Malay, guru means teacher). He explained that he served under Anwar when Anwar was a BN chief.

He was so exhausted that after the elections, the wife took him home to check if had lost any weight. The meter read 98.2kg. He lost 7kg. But weight was not the only thing he lost. Arif Shah lost the election too. He trailed 15,000 votes behind Anwar.

Although the Prime Minister, his deputy, - the crown prince who had been promised the premiership come 2010 – and the party knew that Anwar was a big trouble, they did not use the 3-letter word which is the chief ingredient of Nigerian elections.

I was baffled that nobody even mentioned it. As if the word, RIG, didn’t exist. Even the sometimes critical media did not mention it.

A person that is not afraid of calling diabolical acts like rigging by their names is Dr. Mahathir Muhammad, the former Prime Minister. But he conceded it was the people’s decision when he said, “Anwar did not win. BN lost”. In other words, BN did not do a good job in the campaigns. So people had no choice other than to elect Anwar.

Arif Shah said he lost the election because, “people believed PKR promises”. But according to The Sun newspaper of 28th August, 2008, it was not only Anwar’s promises that swayed the people to his side.

In its analysis titled ‘Umno conflicts hurt own campaign’, it said that the fact that Arif Shah Omar was picked as the BN candidate over his division chief who had lobbied to be chosen as the candidate, contributed to what happened in the last ten days.

The Sun further said that, “It was a difficult campaign for the amiable Arif Shah. It is learnt that while the Umno by-election machinery was up and running and many BN posters and streamers were printed, none of these were accessible to the candidate.

“The most glaring sign was that despite having a by-election operations centre, Arif Shah was found operating from his home”. And what did Arif Shah think about this? “He was his usual amiable self denying there was any sabotage of his campaign.”

The beautiful thing about Malaysian politics is that the politicians genuinely believe that the choice belongs to the people.

After the by-election, Dr. Mahathir warned the ruling party to “take note of the message sent by the voters this time”.

But the Prime Minister, Ahmad Badawi, believes BN still has the people’s confidence. “The result of the by-election cannot be interpreted as a trend that can happen in other constituencies. The BN, which won 140 parliamentary seats in the March 8 general elections, still commands strong support from the people. What happened was not something so big as to change the situation that existed after the last general elections”.

However, Anwar thinks it is big enough for the opposition to form a national government come September 16. But Dr. Mahathir doubts if Anwar will become a Prime Minister. He said Anwar can not get at least 30 MPs from BN to cross over to the opposition to form a simple-majority government.

But Anwar’s camp said they don’t need the 30 MPs to cross over, they only need them to cross over. I’m still battling to understand the differences between the two cross-overs.

Whether Anwar will become Prime Minister or not, remains to be seen. But, for a BA graduate in Malay Studies, he has come along way.

Two years after he joined Umno in 1982, he became the Youth Leader. And another two years later, in 1986, he became the ruling coalition Vice-President. He was both finance and education minister; two portfolios that are important in any country. For example in Malaysia, the position of the Minister of Education is the most politicized. Every person - except Tun Abdul Razaq - who has been Prime Minister had been the Education Minister.

Anwar has also held teaching positions at Oxford University in UK, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in USA and School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University. He is also the Honorary President of the London-based think-tank, Accountability since 2006.

Anwar was the Deputy Prime Minister between 1993 and 1998. It was from that position he fell to corruption and sodomy charges. On the corruption charge, he was sentenced to six years in jail and banned from politics on the 14 April, 1999. On the sodomy charge, he was sentenced to nine years on 8 August, 2000. But the sodomy conviction was overturned in September 2004 and Anwar was released. However, he could not participate in active politics until 14 April 2008. Therefore, he could only collect back the baton he passed to his wife in 1999 in the August 26 2008 by-election.

Even if Anwar becomes Prime Minister, can he change anything? As I switched between Obama’s speech on CNN and Anwar’s interview on Aljazeera, I observed the pains Anwar took to explain the changes he plans to make without changing the structures on which Malaysia was built. “Other races understand that Islam is the religion of Malaysia and Bahasa Melayu is the official language but….”

Malaysians are pretty comfortable with the way things are now. And nobody dares make any major changes. For example, UiTM (Universiti Tecknologi Mara) admits only the Malays. When the politicians wanted to test the waters by suggesting that 10% of the admission space should be given to other races and foreign students, 10,000 thousand students protested the next day.