When the people are high on peyote…

Kee Thuan Chye
Nov 5, 10
Malaysiakini

COMMENT

The results of the two by-elections yesterday are portentous. No matter what analysts may say of their being isolated cases, or their being local stories with no bearing on the national saga, the implications could be deeper than some would care to admit.

Despite the decayed and fallen bridges in their villages, Sabahans stood squarely behind BN and returned its candidate to the parliamentary seat of Batu Sapi with an even bigger majority than in 2008.

They rejected the opposition candidates, one of whom was a former Sabah chief minister. He came off with the least number of votes and ended up a poor third to the PKR man. His Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) hoped to be a viable challenger to BN at the next general election, but after this defeat, it looks pretty unlikely.

It didn’t seem to matter to the Sabah electorate that the rotten bridges might reflect a rotten system. They were happy with the status quo.

And from the way it looks, they’ll be happy with it too at the next general election. By then, you can bet that those bridges would have been repaired.

In Kelantan, PAS lost its state seat of Galas to Umno, and that result was a definite letdown. Losing by a margin of 1,190 brought it close to a disaster. It looked like the Malays were flocking back to Umno, thanks perhaps to the rhetoric of the recent Umno general assembly. And the Chinese too, which was rather unexpected.

It appears the people are generally losing faith in Pakatan Rakyat. And for that, PKR has to accept the main responsibility.

First of all, Anwar Ibrahim failed to deliver his promise to take over the government on Sept 16, 2008. Then elected representatives from his party, PKR, started to leave and become independents friendly to BN. Its decline was concretised in its loss of the parliamentary seat of Hulu Selangor in the April by-election.

Lately, the poor image it created of itself in its party elections – marred by accusations of manipulation, unfair tactics, the washing of dirty linen in public by its own party leaders – has made it look like an amateur out of place in a professional theatre.

The real pros, meanwhile, like ‘best actor contender’ Najib Razak and even Muhyiddin Yassin, with help from ‘best supporting actress nominee’ Rosmah Mansor, have been treading the boards with confidence. They put their company in order and they showed it proudly to their audience.

Unwittingly, ‘foreign pro actress’ Hilary Clinton, the US secretary of state no less, helped give the ruling regime a boost by showing up in these parts just at the right time and commending Najib and Malaysia for calling for a global movement of moderates.
She even said Malaysia was recording the “right kind of growth”, probably after having been briefed on the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP). Voters looking on must surely have been swayed by her endorsement.

BN to remain in power

The writing is on the wall. BN will win the next GE. It’s now a matter of whether it will be a landslide. At the very least, BN should win back its two-thirds majority. Najib’s cunning will make sure of that. He needs a two-thirds to seal his hold on the Umno leadership, and he will get it, willy-nilly.

Najib has cleverly taken care of things. He’s winning over the Chinese gradually with his 1Malaysia and New Economic Model sleights-of-hand and apparent attempts to take Malaysia to high-income status.

Galas is a good indication of how the Chinese have been sold on this hype. He’s also promised sweeping reforms to retain skilled workers, to persuade Malaysian talents to return from overseas, and to make it easy for foreigners with expertise to work here, including providing permanent residence.

The Indians are already enamoured of him, going by the Merdeka Centre surveys earlier in the year and by BN’s win in the Hulu Selangor by-election when it fielded an MIC candidate. His recent appearance in Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur, with another ‘foreign actor’, Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh, has simply reinforced his good standing with them.

And he’s galvanised his own party – and race – with his pro-Malay speech at the recent Umno general assembly. He assured them that no one could ever take away their rights as these are enshrined in the Federal Constitution, and any amendment to the relevant article needs the consent of the Conference of Rulers.

It didn’t matter that this contradicted the spirit of his plans to liberalise the economy in order to make it more attractive to local and foreign investors; he knew he could get away with it – and it seems he has.

He’s a tricky politician, that one. Groomed by years of experience and perhaps tutelage under his father, plus advice from his public relations consultants, he knows how to push the right buttons. And so far, it’s working like a dream for him.

If all goes well, he should call for elections in the early part of next year before the global economy takes a dip, as some analysts expect it to in the later part of 2011.

With the Malaysian economy going well for him and the investments in the ETP he can boast of – even though quite a bit of it is window dressing – he will create a false sense of things being well. This will entice the electorate to fall for it as they have done so for the last five decades – so, whether you like it or not, BN will be returned to power.

Can Pakatan reverse the tide?

What can Pakatan Rakyat do about it? If the general election is called early next year, very little. The coalition has left it rather late to consolidate its position and prove its worth as a government-in-waiting.

Its lack of attention to its own public image has worked severely against it. Even if it stopped its internal bickering and went all out from now to turn voters to its cause, it will be hard to persuade people who have been fed Najib’s peyote. What feel-good counter-fix can Pakatan Rakyat top that with?

What Pakatan should have learned from observing Najib since he took over as prime minister is that you don’t really have to deliver the goods to make people believe and throw their support behind you; you only need to come up with dreams and get them excited over the possibility that these dreams might someday be achieved.

That is essentially what Najib has conjured, and even though he has not yet made a single dream come true, it sure as hell is making some kind of an impact.

KEE THUAN CHYE is the author of ‘March 8: The Day Malaysia Woke Up’, which just won 3rd prize in the Popular Readers’ Choice Awards. It has also been translated into Chinese.

10 Replies to “When the people are high on peyote…”

  1. A wake-up call for PR and back to the drawing board. When any party fail to listen to the voices from the ground, this whats happen. BN has tasted this medicine before during 0308 and this time, its PR turn to taste it probably.

    PR must learn to avoid making fools of themselves in the eyes of the Rakyat… such as internal bickering, killing each other in the name of power greed and giving chance to the MSM to whack them upside down. Why need all this as it will only give a bad impression to the Rakyat that PR is no different and maybe worse than BN. So for those voters who don’t know PR that well, seeing all this will make them think twice that its better to vote for the devil they know than the devil they dunno.

    PR need to boost its image and let the whole Rakyat know about its strength and success stories. Many now don’t know much what PR has done for the past 2.5 years and don’t see much of a success story in PR as a whole. No doubt, many success stories did happen in the states that PR has been managing in Penang, Selangor and Kelantan but majority of the Rakyat don’t know much about these success stories, except for those who may have come accross them on the net.

    Since the Rakyat needs to know more about the wonders PR has been doing, why not start a state newspaper and share all this out. RPK had also said he wonders why PR is not coming out with their own state newspapers since that is not controlled by Federal and there’s no restriction for state to come out with their own newspapers. If this can be done, imagine the number of people being exposed to the truth and understand the good side of PR, other than being drowned daily with those poison stuff in the MSM.

    Again, the people especially in the rural areas must be aware about the success stories of PR at all times and to just campaign all this during election time will be just too late. PR’s weakest point has always been the rurals areas as proven by these two by-elections. This is where BN always excel using resources to fish for votes and PR should think of better strategies to counter all this moving forward.

  2. Wrong. Galas Chinese was paid with cash. Plain and simple. Why not? It will be GE soon enough and then they can vote what they really think then. BN will not win 2/3 in the next GE. Some Indian votes will swing BN way but the Chinese is even more firmly behind PR even in Galas come next election.

    But its not enough, the Chinese are leaving in droves. Check the immigration numbers its in six figure range – that is a lot of Chinese votes. Even the grandparents are leaving to join the abroad..The Indians are also leaving but their numbers are small.

  3. Kee Tuan Chye is a good writer and with good analytical skill. However if he were to set his mind to write the reverse of what he had just written I am sure that he will be equally convincing that PR is still on-track to Putrajaya. ;-)

    Let us not jump to any conclusion on the basis of these two results. The hard fact is that Malaysia is well and truly on its way to a two party system unlike the years before the 2008 GE. Both BN and PR cannot take the mood of the electorate for granted. Particularly the the younger generations.

  4. Don’t kid ourselves – d writing is on d wall 4 quite a while
    Lately people only heard bad news n more bad news fr PR component parties
    N in dis nation, bad news fr PR will b amplified by BN-controlled msm
    Furthermore, bcos of in-fightings n implosion, members of PR component parties r sabotaging each other
    It’s no longer 1 4 all n all 4 1
    Sadly many of us had seen dis b4, n history tends 2 repeat itself
    Even RPK, once a staunch supporter of PR, is disillusioned with PR
    Is dis RIP time 4 PR?

  5. That is essentially what Najib has conjured, and even though he has not yet made a single dream come true, it sure as hell is making some kind of an impact. by KTC

    Najib can do magic one meh?Wow!kia si lang.I think Najib is just a little bit more wiser and literate than those two groups of electorate-no offence.What i mean is there’re not few peoples who don’t understand politics.They don’t even bother to read or wanting to know news espeacially politics.Go and ask some,regardless of age,u will probably can imagine why Najib can conjured some lousy magic dream on them,seriously.Examples:Who is this and that minister,what’s NEP,this n that hot news ect.Ask out side your scope of friends,and, u know.

  6. PR needs proactive leaders to turn the party around. How could Anwar keep silent when there was infighting and bickering within PKR? PKR members vying for high-ranking posts should learn to be mature and not to point fingers at each other before the public. They should put the rakyat’s welfare above self interest.

    I think PR has been resting on its laurels after Tsunami 308. It is time that PR wakes up and
    re-positions itself to face BN in the 13th GE.

  7. I have been absent from the Malaysia for more than30 years, my observation is, nothing has really changed!…”You have the money, we sell you our souls” UMNO is cash rich, this corrupted party will always use this “asset” to win the electorate over…especially, the Indian votes.
    If PR Alliance cannot become a worthy opponent of BN, particularly, with PKR with all the infighting, the electorate will have no choice but, to settle with the Devil they know!

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