In The Minds of Young Malaysians

The reality of today Malaysia is people want a Malaysian Malaysia. It is important that who live in this country to support the idea that Malaysia for all Malaysians, but despite the outcome of the general elections, most of them aren’t believe in Malaysia for Malaysian.

 Most of the malays strongly believe that Malaysia must and may only remain to be ‘owned and ruled’ by Malays. Most of the Chinese are using DAP’s democratic views to demand more right for the Chinese. Most of the Indians are in worst situation where MIC or PPP are in shambles, and indians just want anybody who can support their rights.

 As long as the people in this country think of their racial ego and rights, we can never be united and there is impossible to have a two party system. This is because on both sides they support racial sentiments.

At the end of the day, this country is divided on racial ground. Malays voted against UMNO because they are sick of UMNO, Chinese and Indians just voted for any one who they view as people fighting for their rights. Moreover, the non malays are demanding better political voice and religious voice. They also want to see more non malays in police, army, government service, and  in cabinet.

UMNO has only 2 choices, to amend themselves to accommodate as little or just plough through the consensus that malays will always become rulers because of their sheer breeding capabilities (there are always more malays than non malays in numbers).

As the results, Malaysia will be divided, there won’t probably have a civil strife, but seeing more non malays leaving the country.

What need to be done:

• Political parties must be less corrupted, not money or contract driven.
• Politicians must do less of racial mongering. Must not always highlight the “ketuanan melayu”
• Malays who believe in a more malaysian malaysia are the more educated. And racism has no place in the future of malaysia.
• Islam is a religion which doesn’t promote racism, but the law.
• Malays are continue to believe the delusion that they are ok. Umno are forever giving the malays the handicap, are we actually helping the malays or are we killing the malays in the long run.
• UMNO or PAS who view Malay rights as fundamental.

Malays should realise that they are many unhappy chinese and indians out there, and malays must play the role to reach the chinese and indian community, because we are all living as one.

The role of new media in the last election has been overstated as there was limited direct access (<50%) to the internet. However, the secondary access, e.g. downloading and printing out, SMS, WOM etc has a much greater impact on the electoral.

However it is not deniable that internet media made people like Jeff Ooi possible others include Tony Pua, Elizabeth, Nik Azmi etc – people know them because they are bloggers.

It is important to point out that in the next election in 2012, it is a long time in technology, broadband would be widely accessible and sophisticated phone would allow everyone to have direct access to new media, hence bring about a true political war in the cyber space.

The political paradigm shift is PERMANENT due to the followings:

1.         The Rakyat have buried the ghost of 1969 – implied potential violence if voted too many opposition has not occur.

2.         Though many thought that the result was because BN fumble and not because the opposition won – 80% voted based on that sentiment, but only 20% regretted. They saw the opposition run the state and it’s not disaster as claimed by BN.

3.         Rakyat were empowered. It was realized in particular among the non-Malays (especially Indians), they know there is now a choice. They will not likely be going back to MIC in the near future. On the other hand, Chinese especially in Penang who are famous for split voting did not do so this time. They were all for DAP, even PAS or PKR. Although it was a protest vote but it became a wake up call.

4.         Emergence of the 2 party system.

5.         Now there is a basis of comparisons – 5 significant states ran by opposition. The people can compare the accountability, clean, transparency. The general sense is that PR is not perfect but is cleaner than BN, e.g. LGE has always says he dun have experience in running a government but he also have no experience in corruption. PAS & DAP people are extra careful in everything they do. Penang people interviewed are quite happy with LGE, and if the federal government punishes the rakyat, they will only blame BN and not PR.  BN can not match what is offered by PR e.g. Freedom of Information Act.

6.         Media HAS changed. No law has changed but voices are now more critical, news covered is more balanced. The media realized that they have to change or the people will abandon them. It is noticed that more professional journalism emerging e.g. The Nut Graph, Project Malaysia to spur the mainstream media. They are under pressure. Never before, debate between governments and opposition televised nationally. With this we can see the maturing of the political system.

Malaysia is now at its dawn moment.

It was observed that the people have no more trust for the government and government institution where corruption is so rampant that it is almost the norm rather than exception.

Economy is stagnant, despite the rosy figures. Inflation is so high that even our roads are not as congested as before, bearing in mind that Malaysians like to drive. Foreign investments are not coming in. Stock market is down.

Leaders of both ruling and opposition parties are at each others’ throats.

As opposition leader, Anwar will prompt the BN’s fall because there are still many unresolved grouses from the BN component parties within a coalition dominated by Umno.

It also showed that voters were disappointed in the BN and continued to reject the ruling coalition after the 8 March elections because there were no changes.

The point is, the votes were not Opposition votes. They were votes aimed at bringing in fresh ideas, new blood and the political energy to overcome the inertia.

The problem is, the Opposition is still a minority, and a divided one at that. It is unlikely that a shared coherent approach to the challenges facing Malaysia today will emerge from this side of the fence. But when people go to the ballot box, they may not be so rational. Some get carried away by emotion.

Anwar would not only be able to sway Sabah and Sarawak Members of Parliament, he might even be able to convince the BN’s peninsula-based component parties, such as the MCA and Gerakan, to cross over.

After Pak Lah came into power, he promised to fight against corruption and reform the police but until now, there are no obvious signs that show that his objectives have been realised.

There is no follow up and there’s a lack of political will. All we hear are just slogans. The Chinese community is very practical. They will judge (him) based on what they see is being done. The Chinese are starting to miss (former premier) Dr Mahathir Mohamad because he had the force to push for economic activities. Compared to him, the current economy under Pak Lah is sluggish and slow.

 Although we don’t see the effect (of PM’s promises) immediately, one is still able to gauge the trend of his policies whether it is progressive, stagnant or regressive. If it’s so hard to hold an inter-religious dialogue, there were worried how much more time is needed to be given to him.

It is not possible to demand for something to be done immediately but it is also not fair to give unlimited time for him to prove himself. If there are no obvious improvements in his one term tenure as PM, this reflects the lack of political will and administrative force.

Four months after the 12th General Elections (or 308), Malaysian voters cite the state of the economy and political developments as main concerns.

 The opinion poll, 2nd Quarter 2008 Peninsular Malaysia Voter Opinion Survey was carried out by the Merdeka Center for Opinion Research between 4th and 14th July 2008 to gauge voters’ perceptions of current issues, the state of the economy and leadership.

The poll’s findings will inform policymakers, politicians, and grassroots advocacy groups as they address voters’ needs as well as engage in public debate. The opinion poll also provides a view of the state of affairs approximately four months after the results of the general elections.

This poll is a part of Merdeka Center’s series of surveys intended to be carried out on a quarterly basis on issues of top voter concern and perceptions of the economic and views on Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat.

The survey reveals a large majority also indicated that they perceived the country was going in the wrong direction, based on only 28% who felt satisfied with the way things are going in the country.

This may be in part due to a deepening concern over the state of the economy as a majority (59%), were worried over economic related issues followed by 10% who cited political issues as being most important.

With respect to views on political parties and leaders, in two mutually exclusive questions, the survey found 44% of Peninsular Malaysia voters were satisfied with the Barisan Nasional while 57% report being satisfied with Pakatan Rakyat. The poll also found 42% of voters reported satisfaction with Dato’ Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s performance as prime minister.

With respect to Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim, the survey found that only 11% believed in the allegation of sexual misconduct while 66% agreed that it “was a politically motivated action to disrupt Anwar Ibrahim’s political career”.

The survey also found that public confidence towards institutions likely to be involved in handling the matter to be relatively low with not more than 33% citing confidence. The Peninsular Malaysia wide telephone survey of 1030 randomly selected Malaysian registered voters was carried out between 4th and 14th July 2008 was funded via Merdeka Center’s internally generated resources.

What is the relationship between the human rights and the politics,  and how its functions?

Human Rights should be adopted by all political parties regardless of race and religions.

Greater encouragement for the human rights discussion but be focused on the issues and not the personalities, such as the issues of corruption.

We should focus on the amount of abuses of the resources but not the race and religions or particular personalities.