DECEMBER 22 — In this journey, what frustrates me are not the obstacles erected by my opponents as much as the terms of engagement adopted by friendlies, who’ve concluded that they — cardinal rules — are prerequisites for victory.

In a nutshell, they — opposition politicians in general — have too much faith in themselves and too little in the Malaysian voter.

They can keep their sense of entitlement — a healthy dollop of ego keeps a politician ticking away — but similarly they might want to up their assessment of constituents and not give in to overgeneralisations or stereotypes.

Voters are more than willing to follow, if they who they are asked to follow are capable. Instead, the capacity of the voter is raised rather than the inadequacies of purported leaders.

Reject overgeneralisations of Malaysians. Instead endeavour to win any votes available without prejudging people irrevocably.

How about that for a new year’s resolution?  

It begins with silly premises

At the top of the stereotyping pyramid is over-evaluating social media driven narratives regarding politics, which is actually mudslinging.

Malaysia has an outstanding number of people with Internet accessing devices and hold record number of accounts, but the percentage of them being political or assiduously keeping up with political news is small.

It is a minority who are news-junkies slash commentators, with a sliver of them interacting in politics outside general elections. By their sheer eagerness and volume of words typed, their views become amplified.

Suddenly to politicians there are two strong factions in Malaysia, and leaders pander to their supporters’ cries and utilise cyber-troopers to negate enemies. The battle rages on, as many, many keyboards ergonomic or not meet untimely demises at the ash-heap of electronic waste.

The truth is, a substantial but minority group of Malaysians are devoted to all things political, while a larger population with a cursory interest in politics has deeper interest in the self and family.

Politicians can’t just be moths to flames.

Unicorns, elves and leprechauns

Both coalitions rely on race dynamics. The function of race exists, in decision matrixes, however the foreplay of race with other factors has multiplied since independence. The extent race clouds judgement is certainly different today.

Yet alarmingly, there is acquiescence from both factions that race trumps all other considerations. If anything in our context, the increase of Malays as a percentage of population will organically reduce perceived insecurities among Malays. Politicians will have to explain. When aware of a clear majority, Malays would find subscribing to ideas that they are crowded out petty even if bigots gnaw on the scraps of counter data.

The first side to adapt to the future of a largely secure Malay community relative to other Malaysians will be the one with a longer future in power.

More so, Malays are piecemeal forsaking the sacred cow of blind obedience. Look at the trends in the youngest voter block.

Education, even the worst kind, equips voters.

What’s necessary is imagination capturing leadership, and not one which condescends. I used to think that opposition leaders used to consciously patronise because they felt that’s how Malaysians understand ideas. 

Today, I’m not so certain. I swear at times, it appears, they are unintentionally abusive of the population’s intellect because to them, other Malaysians are less discerning.

Compassion

When my local fruits seller, said without me goading last Sunday that it’s hell for business because people were not buying, but at the same time he took RM5 off the agreed price for my purchase, I learned two things.

One, that better than a focus group, he was freely expressing his personal thoughts and reflecting on consumer sentiments, and second, far more intimate and telling, despite his personal challenges he felt I did not need to pay too much for the mangoes.

He is not political, but I am convinced he is able to show balance. Most Malaysians can when we appeal to their sense of fair-play.

The Malaysian candidness and consideration has not gone away. It’s been beaten by the cynical often and it becomes harder and harder not to be swayed by the cynicism, to become an embodiment of that which you rather not deal with. 

Overplaying negations, those louder and race dynamics, masks our sense of collective decency.

Like when x number of observers state the 1999 General Election was decided purely on race sentiments. Malays sided with an Islamist deputy prime minister sacked, and the Chinese were too self-interested to want change. So as a result, Umno lost ground, but other Barisan Nasional parties picked up the slack.

Too straightforward an explanation.

Post hoc ergo propter hoc (Latin for after this, therefore because of this). That if one outcome happens after an observable action, then it is common—even if lazily—to assume that specific action caused the stated outcome. 

It is not necessarily the case, for it may just be a coincidence. We are fixated with an expected outcome and an expected causality and therefore we enthusiastically connect them.

The causalities may differ. We are always guessing the whys from the what.

Ask me, Malays were upset by the unfair manner of the 1998 Anwar Ibrahim dismissal and their sense of fair-play forced many to vote against Umno.  And the Chinese while still affected by the Anwar ouster, after all he was courting them aggressively for a decade prior to his dismissal, had to balance between their objection to injustice and the state issued threats that political uncertainty — a year after the Chinese killings in Indonesia — might lead to the 1969 Riots revisiting them. Confronted by Mahathir Mohamad’s authoritarian bullying most opted for safety.  

A sense of fair-play is not the domain of any one race. If there was no coercion, the results probably would have been different.

Which is why appealing to compassion and the better angels on the shoulders of Malaysians can work.

In the blue zone

What the opposition need to do, if indeed they claim to be bearers of a new dawn for the nation, is to differentiate themselves clearly and not become a bogus version of their opponents.

Confront but not become overzealous about the overrepresented noise. Recognise race realities but step away from 1955, and posit your strategies to the dynamics of the present.

But never, ever, underestimate the compassion these people have and accept that if they have less faith in you, it’s not that they are incapable of consuming great ideas, but that you have not met them where they stand.