On Why PKR Poses The Only Real Threat to UMNO/BN
My Malaysian friends never ceased to be amazed when they discover that I nominally support PKR (formerly known as Keadilan), in addition to DAP. To them (and this are mostly Johoreans, who have never had a DAP or PKR opposition option before), the Anwar Ibrahim-lead PKR doesn’t inspire much trust from them.
To those people, I’m now inviting them to consider my rationale as to why their current assumptions and perceptions of PKR are actually errornous. Feel free to lambast me if you disagree with me on this 
Now, just a short introduction of PKR before we start for the benefit of those who aren’t very familiar with it. PKR was the result of a merger between Parti Keadilan and Parti Rakyat Malaysia. Parti Keadilan, the original party prior to PKR, was formed in 1998 by supporters of Anwar Ibrahim when he was unceremoniously booted out from his Deputy PM office, and expelled from UMNO by the then PM, Dr Mahathir. Even though while he was behind bars, Anwar Ibrahim has always been the unofficial leader of PKR. During his incarceration, his wife, Dr Wan Azizah assumed the party’s Presidency post. Anwar was released in 2005, after 6 years in prison, and he is now planning to contest in the next GE if it is held after April 2008, when his conviction barring his re-entry into politics lapses.
A Multiracial Party
Now, to the main gist of my points on why we should support PKR. The most obvious reason is that it’s a multiracial party, unlike the BN component parties. There are no discriminatory membership restrictions based on one’s race to joining PKR. Political parties responds to what the people want from them. To truly propel or even ‘force’ the present monoracial parties to embrace a Bangsa Malaysia vision, we as voters have to put our votes where our mouth is. It’s all fine and dandy constantly saying how we would love a Bangsa Malaysia to flourish in Malaysia, but doesn’t it border on hypocrisy when we then vote for BN during elections? If monoracial parties still manage to get more votes compared to multiracial parties in elections, then where’s the incentives for them to embrace a more multiracial outlook in their policy formations and memberships?
Supporting a Malay-lead secular Opposition platform
Malaysia had never managed to have a strong Opposition throughout its 49 years of Independence. Much of this steams from the fact that Malaysia’s Opposition has invariably been made up of Chinese or Indian-based parties. Seeing that these ethnic groups are minorities, they have never been able to present an UMNO-lead BN much of a threat. PKR thus presents an opportunity for all Malaysians the chance to transform our current political system into a 2-party political system, in which power can alternate between 2 major parties or coalitions. The present status quo of a Malay-lead Government vs a Chinese-lead Opposition cannot be any good for Malaysia’s ethnic relations in the long run. The government invariably spins every issue into racially divisive issues, and this can be eliminated with the Opposition being lead by a Malay leader.
Also, having a strong Malay-lead Opposition has the huge advantage of turning BN’s unfair gerrymandering process to its own advantage, since PKR would also be competing in those rural or semi-urban Malay-majority constituencies which are the keys to winning power, as UMNO fully understands.
PKR Being A Compromise Between DAP and PAS
In politics, one has to be realistic if one wants to win elections and power. Unfortunately, before the formation of PKR, there seemed to be no way forward for a fragmented Opposition. The social-democratic and secular DAP has long enjoyed the support of roughly half of the Chinese and Indian voters with their penchant for exposing corruption and misuse of power, their vocal highlighting of issues pertinent to those communities, as well as their appealing ideal of forming a ‘Malaysian Malaysia’. However, the Malay (and Muslim) voters harbour the impression (whether justified or not) that DAP seems more preoccupied with non-Malay affairs than with theirs. Hence, DAP has never managed to obtain many Malay votes, which had always effectively stunted its influence and electoral performances.
And then there’s PAS. PAS’s leaders have always impressed the Malays with their humbleness and their pious way of living. They also promise their voters to provide a cleaner government. And they’ve proven true to their word, with no scandals coming out from the state governments of Kelantan, and previously, Terrenganu. However, like the Chinese supporters of DAP, the Malay supporters of PAS have also got to realise that PAS isn’t gonna be the party who would be able to dislodge BN from power. Mirroring the Malay’s perception with DAP, many non-Malays do not want an Islamic government due to their fear that that would lead to excessive Islamic social conservatism in their society. Hence the reason why they still vote for BN if there was only BN and PAS candidates in their constituency.
Hence, all this then leads us to PKR. I believe that PKR can offer us the way out of this wedge in Opposition politics. PKR has enough Islamic credentials to persuade PAS supporters to vote for it, as well as still retaining some of its old ‘Reformasi’ movement luster within its ranks. It is also sufficiently multiracial to entice the non-Muslims to vote for it. To me, these two ideological factions, if PKR gets the balance right, has the potential to soften the harder edges of each side, and in the process has the potential to form Malaysia’s first party which attempts to address the issues of ALL Malaysians, and not just of a particular community. Also, in my opinion, this provides Malaysia with the first step towards reducing the unhealthy inter-ethnic suspicions and distrust there. This is because all the communities can come together and trash out their problems in a healthy and constructive manner within the party as EQUAL members of one party, and not as members of different parties like in BN.
What About The Issue of Anwar Ibrahim?
On Anwar Ibrahim, my position is this:
1. Yes, many non-Malays do not really trust him, courtesy of his stint in UMNO. So based on this fact, can we conclude that he’s still a Malay ultra?
In my humble opinion, I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt that he’s a changed man to some degree, after spending 6 years in prison. Why did he join UMNO then? Why does a good politician like Datuk Michael Chong join MCA instead of DAP? Does that mean that he’s a racist? Not necessarily. It’s just not that straightforward. Michael Chong might have decided to join MCA because he thought that with its larger funds and network support, he would be able to better serve his fellow Malaysians. Likewise, Anwar might very well have decided to join UMNO because he recognised that it gave him a better platform at the top (in the PM-ship position) to improve Malaysia, instead of joining a fringe party like PAS or forming a new party from scratch.
Plus, who are we to judge whether a person can change after spending 6 years behind bars? Most of us have never experienced that before in our lives.
However, I do not as yet view Anwar Ibrahim in quite the same way as Michael Chong in terms of their noble commitments to the people. I tend to see Anwar as a more pragmatic and ambitious politician. However, in the field of politics, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact, many successful politicians must have these traits, with their beliefs coming in second, and only implemented after they’ve won power. On the event that Anwar really still and has always harbored Malay nationalistic sentiments, I would still recommend that Malaysians of all races to support him. The reason is exceedingly simple. If there’s only a BN - PKR fight in your constituency, then what’s the difference between BN nationalistic candidates (ala UMNO, MCA and MIC) versus PKR nationalistic candidates (ala the unfortunate ‘unreformed’ old school politikuses who still adhere to dated ideologies of only striving to serve their own communities)? BN has shown that it is incapable of governing the country competently on the economic as well as social aspects of things. FDI’s going out of Malaysia, international competitiveness is going down, and unemployment going the opposite direction. What’s the harm in giving PKR a try when BN’s already this unpalatable? At the very least, we could, like I’ve stated before, send an indication to the ruling elites that Malaysians will now embrace multiracial and multireligious parties at the expense of exclusive monoracial ones in BN, even though those multiracial parties, its leaders or its members might not yet be perfect at the moment. Better an imperfect multiracial and multireligious party than a perfect monoracial party, in my opinion.
2. Is Anwar then still on an Islamic platform?
This is the second reason why many non-Muslims are still apprehensive about him. However, if he was really a diehard Islamist politician, why didn’t he join PAS when he first decided to enter into politics? Why didn’t he just join PAS when he was ousted by UMNO in 1998? And why didn’t he take up PAS’s offer for him to lead them again when he was released from prison in 2005? To be fair, one’s passion about something does not automatically preclude one from being passionate about another issue. Is it fair to automatically say that Anwar isn’t a Bangsa Malaysia supporter just because he happens to be passionate about his religion as well? Is it fair that I accuse a Catholic-Malaysian as being unpatriotic to Malaysia because he follows his spiritual leader in the Vatican?
And finally, if he’s really a Malay ultra and Islamist, then why did he choose to form a multiracial, multireligious party in the form of PKR? He could have easily choose to follow the path of Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and form a new Malay-only party ala Semangat 46.
3. Was the government’s treatment of Anwar fair?
I personally don’t think so, regardless of how he was like personally. If the government could so easily take away the civil rights and liberties of a former Deputy PM, what hope left is there for regular Malaysian citizens? So why still vote for BN, when they’ll take that as meaning that we support their actions?
On The Possibility That Anwar/PKR Might Return to BN?
This is a real possibility that many voters think about. History has shown before that a former UMNO splinter group, Semangat 46, lead by Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, returned to UMNO after failing to make much inroads in the elections.
However, again, I am not worried about that. Why? Because it seems to me to be a patently stupid reason for people to choose to vote for BN instead of PKR in a BN-PKR fight (of course, I’m talking about this with the assumption that DAP is not contesting for that seat) just because they are afraid they would waste their protest vote if PKR does eventually does return to BN. To me, that’s just more of a reason to vote for PKR because the pros of doing that outweighs the cons. In the best case scenario, if PKR wins lots of seats, we would then have a strong secular, Malay-lead multiracial Opposition front in the form of a PKR-DAP alliance, which might even be able to win governance away from BN in the future. And if the worst case scenario does eventuate and PKR returns to BN, then you voting for PKR previously would be no different from you voting for BN, which was what you had wanted to do anyway because of your reservations towards PKR’s commitment on being in Opposition! You didn’t lose anything even if PKR chickens out from the Opposition in the eventual future, comprehende? On the contrary, you would have at least attempted to give Malaysia a viable 2-party system. Also, your decision not to vote for PKR because of that suspicion would also act as a self-fulfilling prophesy, since PKR would soon no longer be politically viable, and would be forced to go back into BN.
In Conclusion
Based on all of my reasons above, I venture the opinion that PKR is the only viable Opposition party able to really hurt BN/UMNO’s political dominance, due to it’s uniquely unifying characteristics. I also venture the opinion that voters actually have very little to lose when choosing the PKR candidate in contests involving PKR and BN candidates.
I would be interested to hear any of your criticisms on my arguments, as well as any alternative opinions you might have on how to move Malaysia’s democracy forward. Cheers!
Agreed.
Our government is absolutely unfair to Anwar. There was no rule of law, the judge and police were corrupt, witness was bought. If BN/UMNO can do that to a deputy-PM, they can do it to us.
However, it is almost impossible that UMNO will absorb PKR back in. Najib and our Tun, together with their hudlums in UMNO will not allow that. They are terrified of him.
Not voting for the opposition will be a “self-fulfilling prophecy”. UMNO has come to a stage were they can’t differentiate between party(UMNO) and government. They think being not loyal to UMNO means not loyal to Malaysia. It’s time for their wake up call.
One more thing, UMNO likes to frighten Chinese voters with the May 13 incident. Tun Dr M told Newsweek (after threatening the Chinese during the 2004 election) in an interview that he did not believe another May13 will occur again due to the larger middle class Malay.
However, racial polarisation is getting worse in recent years under the BN gov. Even I myself don’t mix with non-Chinese much (shame to admit).
The opposition is one of the few ways our country can be salvaged before BN(mostly UMNO) reduces it to scrap.
Comment by iamyuanwu — November 6, 2006 @ 3:18 pm
On the Anwar bit, there’s actually be a difference between guilty by association and guilty by collusion. Anwar Ibrahim in his various ministerial roles pushed for policies that can’t exactly be described as Bangsa Malaysia - banning Christmas carols in shopping malls to moving up the end of the year holidays so there won’t be a prolonged Christmas holiday.
His record wasn’t that he was a member of a Cabinet who did all these crap, rather, he is the actual perpetuator of these policies. His record doesn’t show much to be pleased with.
Comment by Rajan R — November 7, 2006 @ 3:46 pm
iamyuanwu: Yeah man. You know, many people think that when we lament about the government, we are automatically some kind of Westernised kaypohs. But the fail to see just how real Malaysia’s current problems really are, thanks to an inept and racially-segmentalised government.
Just because Malaysia seems like a relatively prosperous does NOT mean that BN had done everything right in the past. Things can turn bad startling fast, and that’s why its every Malaysian’s responsibility to ensure that it doesn’t. The best example of this is Zimbabwe. Before Mugabe came into power, it was one of the richest African nations in the world. Now, after his unrestraint plundering of his nation’s wealth, it has quickly become the pariah of Africa in the space of a decade.
Rajan R: Thanks man, for the heads up on that. I need to do more research on that then, I guess. However, even if we (or non-Malays anyway) view him as a liability to PKR, I feel that we still have to consider 3 things:
1. A strong PKR as a party itself is still the best bet to take on UMNO-BN to form a genuine 2-party system in Malaysia
2. Are we so sure that 6 years behind bars cannot change a person?
3. Is the present administration really better than what PKR or DAP can offer? Granted, PM Abdullah may be a good man, weak, but good, but I think there can b no denying that many of his ministers and MPs and MBs are all crap to the core. A party, if too rotten, cannot be saved by just one person, as Abdullah has amply demonstrated these few years.
So I still think that the whole BN should be discarded by the electorate in favour of giving the Opposition a chance to be in power for a change. After all, office terms only lasts 5 years.
Cheers man.
Comment by sigma — November 9, 2006 @ 8:09 am
On your points, 1) I’m not disputing that, which all the more makes Malaysian politics a rather sad affair.
2) Perhaps. But wouldn’t a changed man tell the world about his change? He has been keeping extremely quiet about his Islamist past.
3) Hard to say. I really doubt PKR and DAP would fix many of the flaws of Malaysia (except the few notable ones, *hint* *hint*) - and social democracy doesn’t exactly have the best of records, especially in developing countries.
Comment by Rajan R — November 9, 2006 @ 2:33 pm
List of racial discriminations in Malaysia, practiced by government as well as government agencies. This list is an open secret. Best verified by government itself because it got the statistics.
This list is not in the order of importance, that means the first one on the list is not the most important and the last one on the list does not mean least important.
This list is a common knowledge to a lot of Malaysians, especially those non-malays (Chinese, Ibans, Kadazans, Orang Asli, Tamils, etc) who were being racially discriminated.
Figures in this list are estimates only and please take it as a guide only. Government of Malaysia has the most correct figures. Is government of Malaysia too ashamed to publish their racist acts by publishing racial statistics?
This list cover a period of about 49 years since independence (1957).
List of racial discriminations (Malaysia):
(1) Out of all the 5 major banks, only one bank is multi-racial, the rest are controlled by malays
(2) 99% of Petronas directors are malays
(3) 3% of Petronas employees are Chinese
(4) 99% of 2000 Petronas gasoline stations are owned by malays
(5) 100% all contractors working under Petronas projects must be bumis status
(6) 0% of non-malay staffs is legally required in malay companies. But there must be 30% malay staffs in Chinese companies
(7) 5% of all new intake for government army, nurses, polices, is non-malays
(8) 2% is the present Chinese staff in Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF), drop from 40% in 1960
(9) 2% is the percentage of non-malay government servants in Putrajaya. But malays make up 98%
(10) 7% is the percentage of Chinese government servants in the whole government (in 2004), drop from 30% in 1960
(11) 95% of government contracts are given to malays
(12) 100% all business licensees are controlled by malay government e.g. Approved permits, Taxi permits, etc
(13) 80% of the Chinese rice millers in Kedah had to be sold to malay controlled Bernas in 1980s. Otherwise, life is make difficult for Chinese rice millers
(14) 100 big companies set up, owned and managed by Chinese Malaysians were taken over by government, and later managed by malays since 1970s e.g. MISC, UMBC, UTC, etc
(15) At least 10 Chinese owned bus companies (throughout Malaysia, throughout 40 years) had to be sold to MARA or other malay transport companies due to rejection by malay authority to Chinese application for bus routes and rejection for their application for new buses
(16) 2 Chinese taxi drivers were barred from driving in Johor Larkin bus station. There are about 30 taxi drivers and 3 are Chinese in October 2004. Spoiling taxi club properties was the reason given
(17) 0 non-malays are allowed to get shop lots in the new Muar bus station (November 2004)
(18) 8000 billion ringgit is the total amount the government channeled to malay pockets through ASB, ASN, MARA, privatisation of government agencies, Tabung Haji etc, through NEP over 34 years period
(19) 48 Chinese primary schools closed down since 1968 - 2000
(20) 144 Indian primary schools closed down since 1968 - 2000
(21) 2637 malay primary schools built since 1968 - 2000
(22) 2.5% is government budget for Chinese primary schools. Indian schools got only 1%, malay schools got 96.5%
(23) While a Chinese parent with RM1000 salary (monthly) cannot get school-text-book-loan, a malay parent with RM2000 salary is eligible
(24) 10 all public universities vice chancellors are malays
(25) 5% - the government universities lecturers of non-malay origins had been reduced from about 70% in 1965 to only 5% in 2004
(26) Only 5% is given to non-malays for government scholarships over 40 years
(27) 0 Chinese or Indians were sent to Japan and Korea under “Look East Policy”
(28) 128 STPM Chinese top students could not get into the course that they aspired e.g. Medicine (in 2004)
(29) 10% place for non-bumi students for MARA science schools beginning from year 2003, but only 7% are filled. Before that it was 100% malays
(30) 50 cases whereby Chinese and Indian Malaysians, are beaten up in the National Service program in 2003
(31) 25% is Malaysian Chinese population in 2004, drop from 45% in 1957
(32) 7% is the present Malaysian Indians population (2004), a drop from 12% in 1957
(33) 2 million Chinese Malaysians had emigrated to overseas since 40 years ago
(34) 0.5 million Indian Malaysians had emigrated to overseas
(35) 3 million Indonesians had migrated into Malaysia and became Malaysian citizens with bumis status
(36) 600000 are the Chinese and Indian Malaysians with red IC and were rejected repeatedly when applying for citizenship for 40 years. Perhaps 60% of them had already passed away due to old age. This shows racism of how easily Indonesians got their citizenships compare with the Chinese and Indians
(37) 5% - 15% discount for a malay to buy a house, regardless whether the malay is poor or rich
(38) 2% is what Chinese new villages get compare with 98% of what malay villages got for rural development budget
(39) 50 road names (at least) had been changed from Chinese names to other names
(40) 1 Dewan Gan Boon Leong (in Malacca) was altered to other name (e.g. Dewan Serbaguna or sort) when it was being officially used for a few days. Government try to shun Chinese names. This racism happened in around year 2000 or sort
(41) 0 churches/temples were built for each housing estate. But every housing estate got at least one mosque/surau built
(42) 3000 mosques/surau were built in all housing estates throughout Malaysia since 1970. No churches, no temples are required to be built in housing estates
(43) 1 Catholic church in Shah Alam took 20 years to apply to be constructed. But told by malay authority that it must look like a factory and not look like a church. Still not yet approved in 2004
(44) 1 publishing of Bible in Iban language banned (in 2002)
(45) 0 of the government TV stations (RTM1, RTM2, TV3) are directors of non-malay origins
(46) 30 government produced TV dramas and films always showed that the bad guys had Chinese face, and the good guys had malay face. You can check it out since 1970s. Recent years, this tendency becomes less
(47) 10 times, at least, malays (especially Umno) had threatened to massacre the Chinese Malaysians using May 13 since 1969
(48) 20 constituencies won by DAP would not get funds from the government to develop. Or these Chinese majority constituencies would be the last to be developed
(49) 100 constituencies (parliaments and states) had been racistly re-delineated so Chinese voters were diluted that Chinese candidates, particularly DAP candidates lost in election since 1970s
(50) Only 3 out of 12 human rights items are ratified by Malaysia government since 1960
(51) 0 - elimination of all forms of racial discrimination (UN Human Rights) is not ratified by Malaysia government since 1960s
(52) 20 reported cases whereby malay ambulance attendances treated Chinese patients inhumanely, and malay government hospital staffs purposely delay attending to Chinese patients in 2003. Unreported cases may be 200
(53) 50 cases each year whereby Chinese, especially Chinese youths being beaten up by malay youths in public places. We may check at police reports provided the police took the report, otherwise there will be no record
(54) 20 cases every year whereby Chinese drivers who accidentally knocked down malays were seriously assaulted or killed by malays
(55) 12% is what ASB/ASN got per annum while banks fixed deposit is only about 3.5% per annum
There are hundreds more racial discriminations in Malaysia to add to this list of “colossal” racism. It is hope that the victims of racism will write in to expose racism.
Malaysia government should publish statistics showing how much malays had benefited from the “special rights” of malays and at the same time tell the statistics of how much other minority races are being discriminated.
Hence, the responsibility lies in the Malaysia government itself to publish unadulterated statistics of racial discrimination.
If the Malaysia government hides the statistics above, then there must be some evil doings, immoral doings, shameful doings and sinful doings, like the Nazi, going on onto the non-malays of Malaysia.
Civilized nation, unlike evil Nazi, must publish statistics to show its treatment on its minority races. This is what Malaysia must publish……….
We are asking for the publication of the statistics showing how “implementation of special rights of malays” had inflicted colossal racial discrimination onto non-malays.
Comment by human book — November 11, 2006 @ 6:29 pm
Well as much as I would agree that PKR has some support for it to be part of an Opposition coalition, it won’t be able to gain much support if it leads. Pas has proven that it can lead an Opposition Front, it was only the stubbornness and irrationality of the DAP old guard which eventually led to BA’s semi-demise. You seem quick to write off Pas — you have forgotten that neither DAP nor PKR has ever ruled or taken control of at least a state. I am not saying this to discredit the other parties, but to show that Pas have the know-how, the experience and the might to take on the BN juggernaut led by UMNO. It has always been an UMNO-PAS battle ever since the formation of Malaysia. Why should Pas members vote for PKR if there is a Pas-PKR contest when Pas has a better track record?
The best thing for the Opposition right now is to stop this bickering of saying “this party must lead, that party must not” and unite under a common platform and suspend their ideologies for the moment. That is the best recourse for now.
- MENJ
Comment by menj — November 30, 2006 @ 3:06 pm
hi there…..
To give Anwar a 2nd chance….u guys must be out of ur mind!!!!Anwar may look like a strong, courage, everything of all the good part….but please…if Tun Dr Mahathir didnt sack him…What is Malaysia??…U guys know that he is Pro America rite??….FTA with america means that the opportunity for local companies will just vanish!!! He knows how to present himself …..but please….he is just an evil man….My father was once a member of his so-called roundtable until 1 day….just 6 months before TDM step down…he asked my father one question that shocked the roundtable……(HOW TO BRING TDM DOWN????????)…..Think about it…..After listening to this story ….i only can say and think….Thank GOD and my highest gratitude to TDM…MAY ALLAH BLESS HIM!!
Comment by mel — May 16, 2007 @ 10:49 am