SEPTEMBER 22 ― On Sunday, Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) president Dr Wan Azizah Ismail called for all Barisan Nasional parliamentarians in East Malaysia to leave the coalition and join with the opposition. Rather tragically, however, she chose a most unfortunate analogy to underscore her point.
“A better future for all Malaysians can be achieved if our fellow 47 patriotic BN parliamentarians from Sarawak and Sabah, like the 47 Ronins of Japanese lore, leave BN to form their own independent coalition with us,” news reports quoted her as saying. “Then the promise of Merdeka and Malaysia will be fulfilled.”
It’s a mind-bending comparison. Anyone familiar with the legend would be scratching their heads in confusion because the legend of the ronins was one of revenge ― it bears no similarity to the situation of Barisan Nasional politicians in Sabah and Sarawak.
They were left masterless after their lord was forced to commit seppuku as a result of losing his temper against a shogunate official who was his guest, which is a grave offence. Then they undertook an elaborate plot over more than a year to avenge their master, after which the surviving ronins killed themselves.
Compare that to the politicians in East Malaysia. Dr Wan Azizah made the call to emulate these ronins in the context of forming a better, more effective political coalition going forward. One that is based on consensus and compromise, guided by the Federal Constitution and democratic principles.
But how is the political scenario at all comparable to the Japanese legend? Sometimes it’s better to just say it straight if you don’t have a remotely sensible analogy at hand. A bad one just hurts your argument.
Perhaps this strange analogy was due to her speechwriter catching Keanu Reeves’ 47 Ronins on Astro recently and thought it would catch the younger generation’s attention. Who knows?
In any case, it is a hollow call. These politicians are comfortable and have benefitted from the existing political alliance for so many years. Are they really going to leave all that and risk the fallout, which would very likely kill their careers, because one opposition politician tells them to? Of course not.
Inclusive narrative?
It is difficult to imagine a scenario in present conditions where the federal opposition would succeed in taking over Sarawak and Sabah. In Sabah, Umno is entrenched; in Sarawak, Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) and the rest are firmly in bed with the rest of Barisan.
In her speech yesterday, Dr Wan Azizah said that creating a better Malaysia depends on the Opposition reframing its national narrative to push for a perspective that we are all Malaysians first with the Constitution as the nationhood contract.
“Race based politics is no more an option for imagined race supremacy, anti-democratic and neo-colonialism purposes,” she was quoted as saying. “Our diversity as a people in one nation is our very soul and national identity. It is our strength, not our weakness.”
While I cannot fairly speak for Sabah, for Sarawak race politics is very real. Anyone who claims otherwise is deluding themselves.
For more than four decades, political power in Sarawak has been in the hands of the Melanaus and Malays ― by any measure minorities compared to the general non-Malay Bumiputeras.
Sarawak has long been an oddity in Umno’s longstanding stance that harmony necessitates political power to be in the hands of the majority ethnic race. Throughout these years, alone among Malaysian states, Sarawak has been ruled by minorities even as Umno reinforces its position again and again in the West.
And an unspoken fear among most of the urban Malays in Sarawak is losing political control to the majority non-Malays after holding ever since the federal government intervened in the forced removal of Stephen Kalong Ningkan all those years ago.
Many urban Malays would quietly confide that even though they know well the issues with Barisan Nasional in general, the state opposition does not inspire their support simply because firstly the state opposition is mainly non-Malays.
Secondly, the point that opposition presence in the state flies Peninsula-based colours ― DAP, PKR ― is another big negative not only for Sarawakian Malays but, I imagine, many others as well.
So there. In this light Dr Wan Azizah’s call for East Malaysian politicians to break away from Barisan, form a new entity and join with the federal opposition makes sense: it is an admission that Sabah and Sarawak are extremely tough nuts to crack.
It is difficult to envision Barisan Nasional losing Sarawak to an opposition that is not a local party whose ultimate top leadership comprises Sarawakians. The urban Malays don’t want to lose political power and most of the rest simply don’t trust Peninsular parties over local ones, however dodgy they may seem based on anecdotes of corruption and what have you.
If the federal opposition wants to build that trust, it’s going to take a lot of effort, local allies flying their own colours and many years of going at it at the grassroots level. They have some outstanding opposition leaders in Sarawak but they’ll never make significant progress as long as people think they are answering to outsiders from across the sea.
In the meantime spare us the idiotic analogies and rhetoric ― it only makes it harder for us to take you seriously.
*This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
