Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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This article first appeared in Forum, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on December 18, 2017 - December 24, 2017

We are coming down to the wire in the long and tiring game of guessing the election date.

The message from the recently concluded Umno general assembly cannot be clearer — the 14th general election is around the corner and Umno and its allies in Barisan Nasional not only must win but also win big in the polls.

In fact, the consensus is that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who is also Umno president, will dissolve Parliament soon after Chinese New Year, paving the way for the “mother of all elections”.

In beating the war drum at the Umno general assembly, Najib reminded the delegates that the coming general election is not just another election but will “determine the compass of our struggle”.

In his speech to fire up the 2,700-plus delegates at Dewan Merdeka, Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur, Najib emphasised the need for the party to win in order to defend the political power of the Malays, the sovereignty of the Malay rulers and, of course, the sanctity of Islam for the stability of the nation for future generations.

Whether we like it or not, it is now obvious to many that Malaysian politics is yet to be free from the traditional 3Rs — race, religion and royalty in the 21st century.

In addition to these, in the last few years, another R — regional political powers — is fast gaining prominence. The regional political powers, especially Sabah and Sarawak, were the kingmakers in the last two general elections. Whichever party backed by the members of Parliament from Sabah and Sarawak would eventually form the federal government. And these politicians have since put their newly discovered mighty bargaining power to good use in negotiating the restoration of Sabah’s and Sarawak’s rights under the 1963 Malaysia Agreement with Putrajaya.

The late Tan Sri Adenan Satem is best remembered as the head of the Sarawak government who had rigorously pursued the restoration of Sarawak’s autonomous powers.

Obviously, Adenan’s policies have created waves in the rather complicated Malaysian political landscape. It is common knowledge that not many were happy with him, especially on the issues of education and religion. Some quarters in Peninsular Malaysia thought he had opened up and pushed ahead too fast for their liking.

Make no mistake, some Malaysians still see the 4Rs as something negative in a multiracial and multi-religious society.

However, recent incidents have more or less made them more appreciative of the checks-and-balances role played by the 4Rs.

A case in point was the Malay rulers taking a stand on trends like the Muslims-only launderettes in Johor and Perlis. Many non-Malays are terrified when they see extremist acts committed in the name of Islam here and abroad. They feel unsettled by the way religion has encroached on everyday life at home.

They have lost faith in politicians being able to stop, let alone roll back, the disturbing ultra-Islamic trends. How could we blame them when some politicians have been too readily playing to the gallery on this sensitive issue?

In fact, some argue that the constitutional and political balancing mechanism, which our forefathers so tediously and delicately put under the framework of our Federal Constitution, to a certain extent, is to provide checks and balances on the 4Rs. In other words, the government of the day is duty-bound to manage the sometimes conflicting 4Rs to hold our uniquely diversified but relatively fragile multiracial and multi-religious society together.

For the longest time, we have always viewed the general election as the contest of political ideas or electoral promises between two political coalitions. We are all too familiar with promises made by politicians on both sides. More often than not, their promises look impressive on paper, but fall short and disappoint when it comes to actual delivery. This time around, we should not simply buy into whatever electoral promises made.

We should hold the politicians accountable for whatever ideas or policies they propose. Not only must they present their ideas and plans, they must also show us details of the funding and convince us that their proposals are workable and affordable. That is the difference between policies that are responsible and spending pledges that are simplistic and opportunistic.

Yet, the fact remains that no political idea or electoral promise, no matter how attractive, is going to work, if we don’t have a peaceful and harmonious society. And we can only have a peaceful and harmonious society, if there is a delicate balance of the 4Rs.

The key question now is, in the coming general election, which political coalition has what it takes to continue balancing the 4Rs based on the constitutional and political balancing mechanism under the framework of our Federal Constitution?

This may be the most important consideration for Malaysian voters when the 14th general election comes around.


Khaw Veon Szu, a former executive director of a local think tank, is a practising lawyer. Opinions expressed in this article are his own.

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