BY now, many Malaysians have already heard that the current Parliament will rig the election in favour of Najib Razak’s Barisan Nasional. You might have even read the new Economist article that openly calls Najib a thief, and describes how Parliament’s “proposed map almost guarantees Mr Najib another term, despite his appalling record”.
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As Cornell professor Thomas Pepinsky writes about Malaysia, “scholars of comparative politics do not consider it an electoral democracy. Freedom House considers Malaysia ‘partly free’. The Democracy-Dictatorship dataset codes Malaysia as a civilian dictatorship, as do Boix-Miller-Rosato. Levitsky and Way consider Malaysia to be a classic case of competitive authoritarianism”.
By almost any other measure worth evaluating, Malaysia is not a democracy.
The internationally respected Varieties of Democracy dataset also finds that Malaysia has weak democratic institutions and civil liberties. Every year, Transparency International finds Malaysia to be one of Asia’s most corrupt countries. And every year, the global Electoral Integrity Index finds Malaysia has one of the world’s worst levels of electoral integrity.
Parliament’s BN puppets who now plan to redraw the electoral map all prove their point: Malaysia is not a democracy.
In their new book, How Democracies Die, Harvard professors Daniel Ziblatt and Steven Levitsky find that democracies don’t always die because of corrupt authoritarian leaders, but also because of apathetic voters who give up and say, “What’s the point?”.
BN MPs will try to redraw the electoral map and manipulate the election. Vote anyway.
Najib will use fraudulent campaign and election practices again. Vote anyway.
The police will question and imprison people who criticise BN. Vote anyway.
Pakatan Harapan’s new 100-Day Plan is far superior to BN’s, but Najib will try to convince you that the Malaysian economy is just fine, no problem. Vote anyway.
BN politicians will call every criticism that they don’t like “fake news”. Vote anyway.
BN will try to scare you into thinking that your benefits (what benefits?) from BN will disappear. Vote anyway.
Najib will say that a conspiracy of “Westerners”, “Israelis” and “Zionists” are trying to “meddle” with your mind before the election. Vote anyway.
The BN government will threaten you with penalties if you vote for PH or other parties. Vote anyway.
When the popular vote results come out after the election, make the ruling BN government melt in humiliation at how low their numbers are. Overwhelm them. Put them in the embarrassing position of minority rule, illegitimacy, and a vote of no confidence. Send a loud, deafening message that a weak economy, laziness and theft are unacceptable for Southeast Asia’s third-largest market.
Dr Mahathir Mohamad, future prime minister Anwar Ibrahim, and the other parties are all imperfect. But voting for the strategic combination of these imperfect elements is what will ultimately make the final difference.
What do we have to lose by voting anyway? If you still plan to cast your ballot for BN this election, then you haven’t fought for a single thing in your life.
But this isn’t about Najib. It’s about what Malaysia feels is acceptable.
* Athena Angel 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.
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Comments
Najib wants to be successful by any means necessary. Najib makes promises he doesn’t keep. Najib doesn’t feel ashamed when he does something he tells other not to do or when he doesn’t do something he tells others to do. Najib grovels to those more powerful than him and dismissed those less powerful than him. Najib values relationships more than principles. Najib doesn’t mind distressing many of that a few can have pleasure . Najib doesn’t mind taking what’s does not belong to him. Najib can easily say one thing and mean something else. Najib thinks money is king.
Isn’t he way najib thinks the way all of us think ?
In a democracy , we are supposed to get a leader who is like us , who values what we value, who wants what we want.
If we vote against najib , although we think just like how najib thinks , is just a sign of envy - it means we are jealous that najib is all that we want to be are not .
If we want to vote against najib, and not be accused of voting against voting against najib simply because we are jealous and envious of najib , maybe we should change ourselves first
Posted 6 years ago by Nehru Sathiamoorthy · Reply
Posted 6 years ago by Nehru Sathiamoorthy · Reply
Posted 6 years ago by Tommy richard · Reply
Posted 6 years ago by Insightful Malaysian · Reply
Posted 6 years ago by Tommy richard · Reply