APRIL 3 — Some time ago, as a novice commentator of politics, I have advocated for the language of technocratic governance as the selling point of an emergent opposition front minus PAS.
I used to believe that the only way for the opposition to sustain its political momentum is by drastically differentiating itself as a coalition of solid policy credentials, against the paucity of ideas offered by the incumbent BN and PAS.
The three years that has elapsed since has witnessed a vastly different Malaysian political landscape.
The establishment of the World Bank’s ‘Development Research Group in Kuala Lumpur’ — with the explicit aim of sharing the good governance practices from Malaysian — is testament that BN has made Malaysia the luminary of emerging economies.
Little wonder then that Pemandu Associates was formed with the intention to spreading this model, with significant buy-in from countries as diverse as India and South Africa.
The language of good governance therefore can no longer radically draw-out the strengths of PH in the public imagination. To contest along policy lines will inevitably demand that we acknowledge that BN has done some things right. What is required instead is a political message that can crowd out the political branding of BN.
If not along policy lines, this then demands a different kind of political imaginary—one that effectively mobilises the emotional registers of passionate politics against the incumbents. It is here that ‘Harapan’ — the namesake of Pakatan Harapan — could perhaps fill in the gap.
Yet, banking on hope is a fraught method. It conjures a kind of utopian promise that does not fulfil the demands of the here-and-now. Its vagueness and promissory nature means that at best it can only answer the people’s in highly immaterial and non-concrete terms.
Most debilitating of all, a language of ‘hope’ does not conjure an oppositional figure who is responsible for our present problems. It is only asks us to have faith in the future as a salvation for the present.
What we need to do is to passively wait for such a future, rather than actively take on the roots of our economic and political malaises.
The lethargy of the wider electorate, beyond the angry dissatisfaction by a self-proclaimed social movement #unirosak, is testament that we have completely inhered this logic of inaction and the impossibility to change the status quo. In other words, in the language of ‘Harapan’, we are passive political subjects, not active citizens.
Pakatan needs more seductive frames of politics. It needs to move on from the vague language of ‘unity’ (bersatu), or ‘hope’ (harapan), or “Book of Hope” (Buku Harapan), if it is to truly galvanise the passions of the public.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
