AS we approach more polls, we gear up for another round of politicking and campaigning in what seems to be an unending stream of them since 2018.

Both sides are gearing up their narratives – Perikatan Nasional (PN) is waving its Malay nationalism banner and Pakatan Harapan (PH)-Barisan Nasional (BN) is touting its multiracial inclusivity.

Despite the brouhaha about the “green wave”, PN has so far been largely unable to win the non-Malay-Muslim vote, and its foray into more right-wing politics is unlikely to win it favour among the Bornean parties.

Regardless of the outcome, PN is expected to keep its pressure on the current government with its narrative of race, religion and royalty (3Rs) and exaggerated casuistry, false equivalences and fuzzy logic, employing a talk-first-apologise-later strategy to paint PH-BN as the enemy of 3Rs, which inversely declares itself as defender and guardian of the same.

This is expected to prolong and exacerbate the instability and heightened state of politics in the country. This doesn’t bode well for us.

Instead of battling our RM1.5 trillion debt, our weak fundamentals, inflation and the many actual problems we face, the unity government parties will be distracted with perception issues, political brickbats and the like.

More dangerously, this will corner Anwar Ibrahim and his government to keep up their acceptable popularity rate by continuing the practice of small and quick wins and micro-handouts to assuage political dissatisfaction among the Malay electorate. 

This prevents the government from executing necessary, if unpopular, moves to cut our budget deficit, enforce fiscal discipline and instil better subsidy practices. 

The current batch of rules clearly does not work well, and is causing our financial commitments to balloon, corruption to continue at the opportunity cost of better infrastructure and development programmes.

Our capital expenditure in the past decade has been steadily declining while our operational expenditure has grown exponentially.

This trend will only get worse if steps are not taken to curb our spending, optimise our civil service and shed excesses. 

All these can only happen with a popular government and tacit support from all ends, not internal sabotage and a government constantly on its toes. 

The long-term cost of this “instant-noodle politics” is apparent in the past decade of our politics.

Reputational loss and decline in investor confidence aside, we see the toll on our social harmony with racial politics dominating our mainstream discourse, leading to less permanent, transactional alliances. 

We see this affecting our development as our neighbours overtake us in economic data, attracting investors and creation of jobs. 

Job losses, pay cuts and the shrinking ringgit only makes the unhappiness worse, and the unsavoury political finger-pointing that happens as a result only turns away investors, tourists and knowledge workers from Malaysia.

This in turn lowers our taxable base, which makes it even more difficult for Malaysia to climb out of debt.

Our inability to move on from seemingly petty issues are costing us dearly, and we are unable to even point that out, or discuss real issues, due to how toxic our political climate has become, where everything and anything can be turned racial with a simple spin.

On the social end of things, communities are being pressed at both ends with economic pressure on one side and increasing scrutiny, mutual suspicion and a widening rift between class and ethnic groups, creating snags in our once tightly knit social fabric.

Former proponents of this unity, now apparently turned against it, aren’t making this any easier.

Our narrow politics need to stop, but sadly, it doesn’t look like it will, even after state elections. – July 5, 2023.

* Emmanuel Joseph firmly believes that Klang is the best place on Earth, and that motivated people can do far more good than any leader with motive.