by Dr. Azly Rahman
“We’ve lost, we’ve lost”
–Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, quoted in Malaysiakini, March 9 2008
Kesilapan besar Abdullah antaranya walaupun beliau mempunyai anggota Majlis Tertinggi Umno dan Kabinet sebagai penasihat utamanya, namun beliau tidak mengambil pandangan mereka kerana dilaporkan beliau pernah berkata I trust the young one.
— Harakah Daily.Net, March 9, 2008
Are you surprised by (ISA detainee) M Manoharan’s victory?
This has happened before in 1959 or is it 1964, when PAS used to go from village to village carrying the candidate’s shoes and he won….
Has Umno become irrelevant?
For the moment, yes. It’s not always so. If Umno serves the country well, and looks after all the different races, then Umno will be relevant again.
— Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysikini interview, March 9, 2008
Malaysia’s 12th. General Election must now be a possible topic of a hundred Ph.D dissertations. It is about a revolution of a country trapped in the excesses of hypermodernity. The revolution was aided by the power of cybernetics and the daulat of the rakyat. It was fueled by the ruling regime’s abuse of the ideological state apparatuses. It was also a rude awakening for a leader snoozing in Sleepy Hollow. While one slept, the rakyat engineered a usurpation—a quiet and unique revolution.
On March 9, 2008 many must have exclaimed these: “What a tsunami of a win”. “Malaysians did the Obama!”, “We have taken the giant leap forward.” “Thirteen days that shook Malaya” the headline should be. “Secure the state documents.” “We need to begin a chapter in which transparency and accountability rules.” “This is a victory of Radical Marhaenism – and ethnogenesis (birth of a new culture) of hopefully a more sober and sensible Malaysia ready to work together regardless of race, color, creed, national origin.”
What next?
There is a lot of work to be done in the area of social justice, education for multiculturalism, and development for the people, by the people, of the people. There is also a lot of people that must be brought to justice – those who have been for decades protected by a corrupt regime. The rakyat is demanding to see such process of justice executed. We have seen so much violation of the UN Declaration and Charter of Human Rights of 1946 of which Malaysia is one of the signatories. We have seen many who voiced their opinion on matters of social justice and freedom thrown into jail and detained without trial for as along as the old regime likes. We have seen, especially since the Abdullah administration the rise of Malay politicians whose leit motif is arrogance and perpetuation of dangerous divisive politics.
Back to the Malaysian Revolution of 2008. It is like the storming of the Bastille. Malaysians saw the fall of the four states and the rise of a new ‘cybernetic’ fourth estate. The broadcast media of the old regime gave way to the new, subaltern media of the revolutionary forces. There was no need to storm and take over Angkasapuri. Revolutionary ideals and notions of social justice were disseminated far fast, far, and wide through the Internet. Bloggers, columnists, members of MUD (Multiuser Domains), street artists, intellectuals, social activists, and the man and woman on the street were the revolutionary soldiers. The process began since the beginning of the last General Election – the one that saw the old regime’s landslide win. Now, we have a tsunami. A specter haunted Malaya.
The hegemony of the ruling party have made many skeptical of such a miraculous win. “Materials, machinery, and media”, as the eminent anthropologist turned politician Syed Husin Ali would say, ‘is the foundation of authoritarianism and hegemony’. But I would add another one ‘mind’ and how it is controlled as a both a disabling and enabling factor in the tsunami of a win in this decisive election. The mind of Malaysians have quietly processed what constitutes truth and justice. Silently the revolution was already underway; revolution of the mind aided by digital communication technologies spearheaded by bloggers that evolved into “blogo-ticians” inclusive. The victory of Jeff Ooi and Elizabeth Wong attested to the rise of the ‘blogotician’
What an analysis to made in Malaysia’s most exciting and mind-boggling general election. We are tasting a mandate of heaven and seeing truth and justice allying with those that patiently seeks. We saw virtue, instead of vultures being voted in.
Newer paradigm
The people of Penang, Kedah, Perak, and Selangor will now be shifting to a new paradigm. Tanjung II is now a reality. Lim Kit Siang’s dream has come true. Kedah, home of Universiti Utara Malaysia will need to be in smart partnership and make intellectual adjustments to a new paradigm as well. The university faculty will need to read The Blue Ocean Strategy to exist in harmony with the new Kedah’s ruling party. This is exciting for many. Any progressive change is exciting, as long as the revolution is a peaceful one. Any effort to free the universities from the shackles of political domination is good. Selangor, the advanced state will move a new level of sophistication but one founded upon sustainable development the meets the needs of the people. The same goes with the paradigm of development in Perak.
We are seeing a new dawn of changes if we continue to work for the total alleviation of poverty, improving the intellectual climate of the universities, and working towards true religious and racial harmony. Kelantan’s prayers against the takeover of Barisan Nasional was answered. Some say that truth and justice will always be allies of the righteous. Essentially, Man proposes, God disposes.
Not even a regime’s control of the mind, machinery, media, and materials could stop a “mandate of heaven” from running its natural course. Not even phantom voters nor candidates yelling “when “Qiamat’/Armageddon comes only the Dacing/scales of the Barisan Nasional remains standing” can win. For Muslims this is a blasphemous statement to the max; blasphemy even to the roughest and foul-mouthed of all the Mat Rempits!
Who would imagine that Nurrul Izah would beat Shahrizat Jalil, Zainuddin Maidin would lose, bloggers Jeff Ooi, Elizabeth Wong, and Tony Phua would have a field day. What is amazing—who would believe that even an ISA detainee would also win! Or check this out—the amateur videographer of the famed ‘correct.. correct.. correct’ soap opera, would also win. PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim managed to successfully get the progressive parties and interest groups to harness their energy into making this giant leap. It is hard work. It is a mind game. It was an endgame for the old regime. The old regime made a wrong move.
Full credit goes to Malaysians of all walks of life. They are the real winners and they are not to be betrayed. Their children need a better life, through education as a means for social, economic, moral, ethical, and intellectual progress. The are much more intelligent now after fifty years of independence. But for the National Front in this fateful revolution, what is its lesson before dying?
Divine intervention?
It is all these, that Divine Justice intervened, amongst many factors, against:
* Massive corruption
* Rampant abuse of power
* Creation of arrogant leaders
* Alleged Lies and deceit by the Election commission
* Outdated abuse of racist arguments
* Inability to engineer equitable and sustainable development programs
* Cronyism and nepotism
* Creation of alienated and disposed generation
* Conspicuous consumption
* Failure to control rising prices
* Rampant abuse of the Ideological State apparatus
* Inefficient management of resources
* Blatant disregard for human rights
* Suppression of the rights of the individual
* The exploitation of the dangerous concept of “ketuanan Melayu”
* The protection of corrupt leaders
* The overstaying of leaders and the continuation of the syndrome of the 22-year political itch
The next step for the four new states is to work phase out the vestiges of the old regime and to document what did not work during the reign of the old regime. How did the process of underdevelopment of the rakyat happen in those decades? Documents need to be secured and analyzed to prove what went wrong and how we must move forward based on the principles of total accountability.
The new states
Each state run by the new order of governance must showcase what an ethical just system look like and how the creativity and problem solving skills of the rakyat ought to be developed in order to teach us what development based on needs relative comfort means instead of one based on greed and conspicuous consumption. The latter has destroyed this nation. The latter was the trademark of the old regime – one that need to be destroyed.
The new regime need to bring power abusers to justice! That would be an honor to the rakyat who voted them into power. The universities need to be freed, the education system need to radically improved, good health care plans made affordable, the Mat Rempits and Alongs stopped from being reproduced, cultural pride restored through schooling that improves higher-order thinking skills, poverty eliminated, the independence of the judiciary restored. Each child is a Harvard, Columbia, Cambridge, or even Oxford material. Each child is a gift—not a utility to be cleverly abused in the form of Mat and Minah Rempits.
The party’s over but The revolution continues. Malaysians must make Malaysian Malaysia a reality.
This revolution is made possible by the daulat of the rakyat — the Makkal Shakti of Malaysia’s Radical Marhaenism, conceived by many Shao Lin masters and one whose zeal transmitted through cyberspace!