JANUARY 4 — It’s a proper stalemate when the country is best explained by a Neil Young album. It is ultimately unsatisfying to realise the present is all about going through the motions, in a cycle with no forward, just happy it is not a backward — seemingly.
Looking at Economy Minister Rafizi Ramli condescend to millions that they do not quite get either technology — despite glitches galore at his website — or wealth distribution as targeted subsidies to prevent the middle-class gobbling up tax-monies, it does not feel forward.
Looking at Bersatu Armada Chief Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal seeking to shut out half the country from ever leading the country as a sign of progress and stability — amend the Constitution to have a PM race requirement — reminds Pakatan and Borneo voters that the present is better and PN is backwards.
Malaysia under Anwar Ibrahim is stuck in neutral and the true disaster of it all is that given a chance, in the cold light of day, many readily accept the compromise situation.
Decision paralysis extends from the Cabinet and Opposition’s war room, to the rakyat in coffee shops.
Don Quixote’s four horsemen
Almost all major news or developments with political significance revolve around one of the four hypotheses.
Just look at your news aggregator.
A coalition of the willing versus usurpers of all sorts. It is the hottest one now as a bevy of our politicians return from the Middle East.
All suspects in the latest Perikatan Nasional (PN) and friends’ conspiracy to produce another Sheraton Move, when Pakatan Harapan collapsed after MPs shifted support in 2020.
Permutation after permutation will emerge throughout the year for two reasons.
One, the various legal actions to undo PN and friends are underway causing more panic, and two, which ironically depresses me — an open opponent of racist PN — it is the only trick PN has.
The biggest opposition coalition in the country is officially out of ideas; that saddens democratic proponents as choices, workable choices more precisely, are the bulwark of functioning democracies.
The majority shut out in their own country. Cybertroopers do not tire to remind all and sundry that PN and Pakatan’s race vote slices. Too many Malays for PN, and the rest in the opposite direction to Pakatan.
Conclusion, Malays are shut out, dwarfed and demeaned in their own country. I wished this too had a level of complexity but it does not.
It is out of touch, anachronistic in the 21st century and ignorant of the nation state. PN will not reason on this, and Pakatan won’t reject outright the premise.
Commonsense dies in an adjacent room.
Meanwhile, PN digs in with voters in Kuala Kedah with this language, and digs its grave in Miri. But PN counts on Muslim birthrates for a future bonanza.
Pakatan — with dysfunctional Barisan Nasional (BN) — is half and half on everything, in order to be worthy to all voters.
PN and Pakatan settle into a staring competition of no consequence waiting for events to force votes into either coalition’s box.
Regionalism thrives on Malaya’s preoccupations. Wait for more good news for Borneo folks. From ceiling prices for holiday flights to student loan debt relief, both Sabah and Sarawak keep their strategy open and direct, us for us.
Sarawak for Sarawakians, and eventually, Sabah for Sabahans.
Let Semenanjung fester in its fratricidal disputes, while East Malaysia charts progress unhindered by petty racism is the ethos. The harder PN and Pakatan go at each other, the more willing and desperate both are for a sliver of Borneo support.
After 60 years of Malayan hegemony, the larger half of Malaysia has found a way to manage the beast.
This is the time of Anwar. Unity Government — the sum of its parts is greater than the individual parts and they are many. Which is incidentally the PM’s playground.
While repeat prime minister Mahathir Mohamad was the master of choking life out of the political system, Anwar is the best when all things are in a flux. One moment walking with senior civil servants, the next solemnly heading to any one of the nine royal houses, and then caught joking with any one of the 18 leaders of the parties in his multipurpose coalition.
Unlike Mahathir, Anwar is not a master. But he is a chameleon and no one in PN or elsewhere comes within a solar system distance of him.
It is a game he knows too well, and the rest are clueless, not the least his party deputy president who does not adapt nor is adept. Have you seen Rafizi crack a joke successfully?
Followers of national news slowly, but surely cannot see anyone else on top regardless of the shortcomings or their own misgivings than Anwar.
Let’s go our way, only
The news repeats one of the four threads and forgets a country has to be run.
It is taken for granted that Anwar and Co can run it. Which is fine until they are found wanting.
There are no meaningful discussions on education, healthcare or the new subsidy scheme.
Nor are they necessary in Anwar’s mind. He focuses on one thing, to remind all that he is here for all.
Fortunately for him, PN is PAS dominated therefore passes on worldly distractions.
Two days into Padu, a grand plan to centralise all data on Malaysians and rule them from it, it is met with silence by PN.
The only criticism emerges from a former Pakatan MP, also former deputy minister. Stated politely, from the same bench, it feels a little like Singapore right now.
So, here’s 2024, clearly set to be more of the same with no shake up, unless, unless, Anwar commits a cardinal sin.
Anwar has a simple answer to that fear.
Which is brilliant and upsetting at the same time. Brilliant for him and the team, upsetting for democracy advocates.
He won’t personally do anything drastic without asking everyone necessary. And even then procrastinate — saw the six months' dance to announce a Cabinet reshuffle?
It will be painful to watch, for me personally, but at least no one is in doubt this is nowhere.
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
