FEBRUARY 24 — Malaysians like to complain a lot on social media about politics, but they rarely take the initiative to contact their lawmakers on laws and policies that affect them.
Take for example, the National Security Council (NSC) Act 2016. The government tabled it in Parliament on December 1. Two days later, it was passed in the Dewan Rakyat.
True, there wasn’t enough time for most people to read and digest the Bill before it was passed. But how many voters who had read and opposed the Bill took the time to ask their Member of Parliament to vote “No”?
I myself was against the NSC Bill, but I didn’t contact my MP to tell him to vote “No.” I left it to civil society to pressure lawmakers to vote against it,when I should have exercised my part in democracy.
Malaysia, unfortunately, has a very passive democracy.
Our only exercise in democracy is casting the ballot once every five years. In between elections, we don’t do much else except hound our lawmakers when the drains or streetlights need fixing, when we should be going after the local councils instead.
Over the past few years, however, we have seen the rise in things like street protests and rallies over issues ranging from taxes to electoral fraud and corruption. That is a welcome development in Malaysian democracy.
But we must do more besides attend a demonstration every year or so. Street protests are a great show of force by the citizenry, which is sometimes necessary for big issues.
In other cases, however, we can do just the basic by writing a letter to our MP on certain legislations in which we want our MP to vote a certain way.
It is not enough to complain on Facebook, but do nothing to tell our MPs what exactly we want them to do.
If our MPs appear lazy, it’s only because we voters are lazy.
An MP’s job is to make good laws, not to fix potholes or work on local issues that are really under the jurisdiction of the local council. We should be petitioning local councils to work better, rather than go to the MP.
If local councils are not doing their jobs, then we should advocate for the return of local council elections.
So, in the case of PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang’s Bill to amend Act 355, we should actively petition our MPs to vote against it if we disagree with the Bill. As a voter, regardless of our race or religion, we have the right to demand that our MPs vote a certain way on proposed legislations.
All our complaints on Facebook about how Hadi’s Bill is merely a political tool will come to naught if our MPs do not hear directly from us.
We have the right to know what our MPs’ stand is on Hadi’s Bill. Our MPs are hiding behind party lines, refusing to make a stand, because we voters have yet to ask them directly about the Bill.
The movement BEBAS has come up with a letter template that voters can use to petition their MPs to vote “No” on Hadi’s Bill.
They’re also keeping track with a scoreboard on how MPs say they’ll vote on the Bill, so you can find out how your MP is planning to vote.
If your MP is undecided or says he or she will vote “Yes”, you should call your MP, or go to your MP’s service centre and ask him or her to vote “No.” Emails are not preferable because they’re easily deleted. (Many of the emails I had sent to MPs’ addresses listed on the Parliament website on my open letter about Hadi’s Bill had also bounced).
And if our MPs don’t answer, we need to keep pushing them until they make a definite stand and pledge to vote “No.”
Some voters in even urban areas like Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and Penang don’t know who their MP is. So, some voter education is necessary.
We must take things in our own hands instead of leaving proposed laws that have huge ramifications for the country in the hands of politicians.
Political parties should not be determining the direction of the country. It is we voters who should be directing our representatives.
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
