Really ! Non Partisan in Malaysia Boleh?

by Richard Loh

Many NGOs, major Bodies fighting their Causes or institutions always claimed to be non partisan when making their calls for change towards their causes. This should be the way as we see it all around the globe but can it be followed in this nation whereby everything you do is one way or another tied to politics?

Non partisan: free from party affiliation
In political science, nonpartisan denotes an election, event, organization or person in which there is no formally declared association with a political party affiliation. wikipedia

Partisan: In politics, partisan literally means organized into political parties. The expression “partisan politics” usually refers to fervent, sometimes militant, support of a party, cause, faction, person, or idea. wikipedia

Once any party/parties are elected to form the government, elected representatives should shed their party partisanship and perform their government duties in a non partisan manner and served each and every rakyat irrespective of their political affiliation.

But do we see that happening, even the top leaders including the PM are so partisan that they are willing to forsake other races and religions to ensure that they remain popular among their party members. The PM even goes to the extend that he will only help those who are willing to help him with “Lu tolong wa, wa tolong lu” and inciting his party members to “crushed bodies and lost lives” in order to defend PutraJaya.

The PDRM, army, judiciary and other institutions like MACC and the EC are supposed to be non partisan in their duties to serve and protect without fear or favor, but they are more partisan then any party members.

The government always listen and work with the rakyat, so they claimed but do we see it happening? More often you will be treated as enemy of the state or even worst get arrested for daring to speak out.

The ruling government is building a wall, the great wall of PutraJaya, whereby those NGOs and Institutions calling for changes to unfair policies, outdated laws or causes that affect the ruling government will not be able to penetrate this great wall. You can scream and shout outside the wall perimeter but those inside the wall will not hear of it.

Just take a look at Bersih 2.0, how the government got so paranoid and over reacted to a simple 8 demands for the EC that it was declared illegal. Bersih 2.0 is non partisan, it invited all political parties on both side to support its call but only Pakatan Rakyat supported it and umno/bn created much chaos during the rally in downtown KL to fight their so call imaginary enemies. They simply won’t listen to the rakyat and prefer to take tough actions to show their superiority and power.

Many NGOs, the bar council and other Bodies are calling for the repeal of the ISA, EO, PPPA, other outdated policies and to impose that the PDRM, MACC and Judiciary perform their duties without fear or favor and in a non bias attitude but the great wall of PutraJaya are still rock solid to fend of all these calls.

What we can see and the only option to break down the great wall of PutraJaya is the call for a change in federal government.

I have being following a little such Bodies like Bersih 2.0, My Constitution, UndiMalaysia, SABM, Suaram and individuals like Edmund Bob, Malik Imtiaz and Haris Ibrahim, all are doing great jobs in fighting for and spreading the constitutional rights of the rakyat, spreading and pursuing their causes for changes in certain outdated laws and inefficient policies.

They are non partisan in the hope that whoever rules will take note of their demands and act on it. They can continue to be non partisan in fighting for their causes but I am wondering will it be effective with the present ruling government having the great wall of PutraJaya and shutting themselves inside?

What I see is that being non partisan will not really help in advancing any causes that are not favorable to the ruling government. What we need is partisanship to bring change in the federal government level and give notice to whichever new party taking over to listen to the NGOs, Bodies and institutions demands.

The present political scenario in Malaysia has no room for non partisanship! One way or another one has to fight for whatever cause in a partisan way.