India Shines, Malaysia Withers

It was such an unexpected outcome for the world largest democracy. Despite India’s sheer complexities - deep division along state lines, religious views and ideology, the Congress Party won just short of a simple majority to emerge with the strongest mandate in decades.

The stock market responded swiftly. It simply erupted, prompting the circuit breakers into action to control the surge in stock prices. Clearly, investors love the fact that with these strong win, the Congress Party can spend less time politicking in pandering to its myriad of lesser coalition partners, and focus on building the country’s economic fundamentals, especially during this deep economic slump.

Meanwhile, over in Malaysia, the Perak MB vs. MB crisis is still brewing with both political parties slugging out their political fight in the media, in the courts and in the hearts of the people.

At the same time, the Sedition Act is invoked to arrest one single activist who demonstrated against the political upheaval in Perak. His supporters too were arrested. In a blatant act of intimidation, the police even arrested their legal representatives. It was such a farcical sight captured on camera – dozens of stern-looking police barging out their compound and arresting peaceful demonstrators bearing candlelight vigils and lawyers who were simply seeking legal counsel for their clients.

These events played out as waves and waves of crime, some bearing most heartbreaking news, cause fear and anxiety among Malaysians. Even as the police declared crime rates to be down, it offers little solace to relatives and friend of victims who died as a result of petty crimes. It pains me when I read the news that a 5 year old, along with her mother and maid, were killed by a drug addict, all for the price of…one laptop.

On the economy side, Malaysian manufacturing figures for March fell 25.5% year on year, demonstrating that Malaysia is not out of the woods yet. There is no doubt Malaysia can withstand the slump, and come out with some decent growth for 2010. This is because of god-given strong fundamentals – Malaysia is blessed with rich natural resources and various commodities with no shortage of arable land and water.

However, there is no way Malaysia will continue to enjoy the high rates of growth which we took for granted in the past. Growth of 8% or more does not seemed possible because our political “leaders” are going to spend the next 3 years squabbling and campaigning for either the greatest victory or the greatest defeat in their political career and in Malaysian history, depending on which side of the divide you are on. Endless political wrangling; mudslinging; damaging personal attacks; etc – these “leaders” will continue to bleed Malaysia, instead of leading Malaysians.

The Opposition under Anwar Ibrahim is likely to continue to draw more support. The people, especially younger voters who will have a large say come the next elections, will no longer be swayed by the old BN mantra of “if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it”. Malaysia is broken. We may have the gleaming Petronas Twin Towers; the prestigious FI Sepang race; the Monsoon Cup (?). But our hearts are heavy with apprehension. We fail to understand why the ruling party still insist on dividing the people to carves out pockets of power for their own ambitions; why cases and cases of corruption are perpetually being investigated but no one important is ever brought to shame; why our legal system is in shambles with the alleged culprits still at large; why are we afraid of letting our kids go out into the streets without the supervision of a trusted adult. We wonder how is it that politicians stresses the importance of racial harmony, but fail to condemn those within their party who utters divisive remarks. Have they not learnt anything since the General Elections?

Anwar Ibrahim is riding this wave of discontent. The time is right – millions of young voters will come out strongly to cast their votes come the next General Election. And the ruling BN has given the Opposition plenty of ammunition to place the former on perpetual defensive mode. Given the consistent barrage of negative publicity on perceived transgressions of BN’s politics and politicians, Anwar will not let up the attacks and preserve his tag as “PM-in-waiting”.

PM Najib does not really have any choice. He cannot hope to ride out these negative sentiments by assuming the electorate will swing back by some token gestures. He has to act boldly and silence the Opposition’s guns. Repeal the ISA. Repeal the Sedition Act. Allow peaceful demonstrations. Political warlords and powerful businessmen who manipulated the legal system and/or abused their positions must be named and shamed and brought to justice. Revamp the police force by setting up the Independent Commission as recommended by the Royal Commission. A true leader must not be afraid of opposing views nor should they be afraid of making difficult decisions.

Particularly in the context of Malaysia, the PM must be seen to serve all interest of Malaysians, by levelling the playing field and espousing meritocracy and transparency. Stop this tyranny of the minority (the BN/UMNO elites) against the majority (the people!). It is time to put an end to this nonsense of pitting Malaysians against Malaysians, but to unite Malaysians to compete against the World. We wait with bated breath for a true Malaysian leader to show us the way.