APRIL 15 — Speak truth to power.
On a T-shirt it looks awesome. Spectacular, even.
The kind of T-shirt a teen might wear at a rave party — if anyone still remembers how they were before Covid-19 — and jump about to the techno beat. Why would he not? It’s really cool. The statement, the audacity of rebellion.
A rejoinder, would it be just a T-shirt to Malaysians?
Something to wear or say at dinner parties, not to hold on to.
Do we speak to power, let alone about truth?
Power seemingly so far removed from us, the regular people, rakyat biasa, that at best we are just angry screamers in a vacuum.
That leaders can only see us from afar, and notice how we gesticulate inside enclosed glass cages, therefore mistaking our frenetic display as excitement about them?
Them thinking, “Look at them, they really love us. Maybe more rations at the next Budget reading.”
At KUASA, the organisation I work for, we try to bridge the distance between power and people. We insist power emanates from the people. To remind all of that over and over, so the rakyat are aware of the power they possess.
They are bothered now
Scepticism about Malaysian politics is at an all-time high. The people point to errors and say nothing has changed.
Except it has. The change is invisible in a simple quick look.
But democracy is a slow burn. Societies are changing rapidly but in small bits.
Like what happened this week.
A deputy minister publicly apologises for having a snooze at a convocation.
Not abuse of power or misappropriation of funds, but for a dead sleep two or three people struggled to wake him up from. All caught on camera.
Thirty years ago, it would be a non-event.
Deputy minister falls asleep at an event, so what’s the big deal? The state-certified media would not even report the matter. The members of the audience do not have phone cameras with them. The people go home and tell their families about it. A laugh and it ends there.
Now, everyone is a self-elected citizen-journalist. The deputy minister’s video moves at lightning speed to WhatsApp groups marked “Forwarded many times” even before he sits to eat the VVIP feast prepared for him at the said function. Comments come pouring in. He’d choke if he reads them.
Still, he prays hard that he does not become a meme. Once a famous meme for the wrong reasons, there’s no going back. You are GIF-ed to infamy.
So, the deputy minister duly apologises. Hoping it’s not too late.
What goes on online or is fed to the online audience has huge ramifications for politicians, politics and public sentiments.
Content is king
The tools are available for greater voter participation.
And this is our contribution.
We have put together on our website key parliamentary races — 20 of them — and will continue to cover them until election day.
On likely candidates, their parties’ preoccupations and how they interplay with local issues. It’s not been done before, not the least because it is a resource-intensive activity.
Yet, these key seats may determine our collective futures as they involve major players whose defeats would devastate and affect the final party seat count.
Why do it now, when there’d be approximately 12 days to election day from nomination day?
Several cogent reasons.
Regular voters with jobs, families and responsibilities require quality of days to consider choices.
It takes time for conversations about choices to reach the ground, literally. The cornerstone of informed choice is circumspection.
Outrageous claims, accusations of opponents and pandering to base feelings, finally look stupid after some time. We are adding that time.
It takes time and offering in-depth information about candidates is responsible.
People can reject candidates early. They may fancy the party but not the candidate.
Our website builds awareness but also offers space for objections and reservations. Better candidates can be highlighted to national leaders. Locals know local realities and national leaders from distance can be myopic.
Meanwhile, now local stakeholders — resident associations, business groups and village committees — can initiate conversations in the hundreds of WhatsApp groups. To see how potential candidates thereafter react or lead on issues.
Even transactional voters, the vast majority with low interest in politics, are exposed to the content, the information and the discussions.
They may ultimately pick a candidate they regret later but they will now have fewer excuses to say they were not informed before.
These reasons are also the very reasons that many countries and systems around the world, those with vibrant democracies continue to support information and discussions.
Broader content and in-depth conversations online and at the locality, can only improve the quality of our elections.
The need for information becomes self-evident with the development of the site.
However, at the end of the day, the project relies heavily on voter involvement.
KUASA’s ability to collect information is predicated on society’s willingness to participate and share.
KUASA’s ability to grow the number of seats to cover, beyond the current 20, is determined by the resources available and can be raised.
Malaysia has matured and today the tools necessary to launch our democracy forward are readily available, and organisations like KUASA have kick-started the processes.
Are you ready to speak truth to power?
KUASA’s website is currently crowdfunding for its project Info PRU15. Please visit the site mykuasa.org/pru15
Donations to the project can be made to: Bank: CIMB, Account Name: PERTUBUHAN KEBANGKITAN USAHA ANGKAT SUARA AWAM, Account No: 8010712429, Reference: InfoPRU15
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
