ON April 3, 2009, Muhammad Najib Abdul Razak was sworn in as the sixth prime minister of Malaysia. Since then, there has been an unprecedented level of civil unrest beginning with the Bersih movement. The movement, as the Malay name implies, was formed to call for transparent and “clean” elections after the highly controversial and still-hotly debated “blackout” incident in the nation’s 13th general election which saw the ruling Barisan Nasional remain in power despite increasing unpopularity with the public. 

From there, everything the PM did appeared to result in more controversy: the imprisonment of Anwar Ibrahim over sodomy allegations (again), everything to do with 1Malaysia Development Board, which would be far too many to condense in one blog post; many accusations of public funds embezzlement regarding his wife; and most recently, his deal with Donald J. Trump promising to replace all aircraft engines with American-made ones, beginning with those of AirAsia.

Usually, in light of such damaging incidents, a politician’s career would be ruined. Park Geun-hye was impeached for business deals and political manipulation schemes that are laughable compared with the dubious conduct of the regular senior officer in Malaysian government. So why is it that aside from the Bersih rallies, which appear tamer with each new iteration, the people of Malaysia, particularly the youth, are not doing much about it?

I focus on the youth in particular because it is general knowledge that they are the next generation of leaders, innovators and industry pioneers. While I personally am grateful that Malaysia’s youth are not reactive to the extent their US counterparts are, in terms of being outspoken and riot-prone, it is equally depressing to see no reaction all. 

Sure, you are bound to hear a lot of spicy criticism of the government and the PM from your Uber or Grab driver, at your workplace or local mamak/kopitiam, but you never seem to see any of the youth venture an opinion of the government in the media (aside from social media, of course.) This is baffling, especially in today’s era of information overload. The criticisms that you have heard spoken by everyday people show that Malaysian youth are becoming politically-aware and are less susceptible to the lies spewed by politicians. Yet, they do nothing. In fact, some of them would rather leave the country than attempt to challenge the system.

Why is that?

Being part of said youth myself, I believe the reason is a overwhelming feeling of defeat. The feeling that no matter what we do, we can achieve nothing. Will achieve nothing. The ruling party has constructed a political machine so well-oiled that they can counter anything we or may not think up in this Orwellian nightmare.

Why wouldn’t we feel defeated? The people under the Mahathir administration has seen the aftermath of Operation Lalang and the silencing of dissenting voices.  sIt would be natural for these people and the generation after them to feel defeated when the Najib administration does the same thing except under the guise of ‘counter-terrorism’ or ‘sedition’. If anything, his administration is so reviled that should a choice be given between Mahathir and Najib, most would definitely pick Mahathir. A similar situation is happening in Britain, where most people would prefer Thatcher over Theresa. In both instances, the people picked the leaders known for their somewhat authoritarian practices because these leaders had had a clear direction for the country they headed and they had produced results.

To some, the choice was a no-brainer: Mahathir put Malaysia in the spotlight with its economic success that got the country to be listed as one of the tiger cub economies of Asia, Najib put Malaysia in the spotlight for a RM2.2 billion scandal that even got the US Department of Justice involved. Needless to say, quite a number of people have an unpleasant view of Najib.

You might be wondering why this comparison is relevant in an explanation of the feeling of defeat. This comparison is relevant because, while Mahathir had a reputation for being blunt and cracking down on dissenters, he never did anything for the sake of approval of his opposition, often opting to stick to his guns and make enemies along the way. This meant that after his tenure as PM, there were a lot of prominent figures who were critical of the government including those who worked under him, which opened more room for criticism to be given out and foster discussion and debates on policies. 

These “enemies”, also known as the opposition, are crucial for any government to function as they serve to point out the mistakes of the administration. Not that Malaysia’s opposition is bad at the job, but its focus tend to be quite narrow and it often has an agenda of its own. It becomes more complicated when the opposition is at each other’s throats, as it is now thanks to both Najib and the mistakes PKR made in the Kajang move. 

Najib, on the other hand, made “friends”. Those in Umno who were sacked or criticised by Mahathir would appear to heap praise on Najib. The opposition cannot do much either due to the aforementioned issues. This leaves the current government in an echo-chamber of sweet nothings for Najib as the vocal voices of opposition were now broken or forcefully silenced such as the repeat charges against Zunar, a political cartoonist and the organisers of Bersih.

This combination of a weakened opposition, foot-kissing politicians in BN and a clear draconian tendency to silence anyone who dares to even look at the PM the wrong way makes a very strong cocktail of despair for the youth. Add in the oft-used race card that many politicians love to abuse and the push for an ‘Islamisation’ of a moderate Muslim-majority country and you get a generation of cynical pessimists.

However, it is this very feeling of defeat that is going to keep the government in place because that is exactly what they want. Why worry about a revolt when no one feels like doing anything, right? It is soul-crushingly depressing to hear people complain about cuts in the BR1M handouts because you know that they have become slaves to the machine. The same applies for those who think about leaving the country and do not bother to think about the fates of those less fortunate than they. They can afford to think that way because they have the means. Instead of thinking about what they can do to improve the lives of those who cannot leave, they choose to save themselves not even realising their role in securing the position of the very party they loathe. The party does not care about the people. If it did, we would all be one step closer to Vision 2020 and Malaysia as a first-world nation.

Speaking as a Malaysian, all of us should not give in to this lingering poison, this sense of defeat. Instead,  use it to fuel our desire to be better. Better not only as an individual, but also as a citizen of Malaysia. Strive to fix problems, not run away from them. Unite, not as members of individual races, but as Malaysians, for every person who is born in Malaysia, who lives in Malaysia and who spends most of his life in Malaysia is a citizen of Malaysia.

These are not the words of a patriot but the words of a simple person who only wishes to see his country remain home to its people.

* Amirul Imtiaz reads The Malaysian Insight.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.