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Saturday, July 26, 2014

MB tussle: Leave politics to the professionals


COMMENT With the decision by PAS President Hadi Awang to support Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim, the era of amateur politics that began with the 2008 general elections has finally come to an end.

In April 2008, the weak leadership of the Barisan Nasional led by Abdullah Badawi saw record losses at the general elections. It ushered in a period of much public attention and enthusiasm for local politics. A group of amateurs comprising idealists and middle-class do-gooders actually got elected. Even a socialist got elected!

The BN government reeling from a massive loss of support tried everything to win over the electorate especially in urban areas. 1Malaysia and Pemandu were twin policies and agencies set up to give more “space” to the public and to unite Malaysians under the BN leadership.

On the sidelines, Perkasa conveniently emerged to heighten what blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin calls the 3Rs, including royalty, race and religion. Instead of treating the income inequality within the bumiputera community, the gap between rich and poor is used to demonstrate ethnic inequality.

At the last general elections, the urban voters turned further away and 1Malaysia is really as good as dead. Pemandu’s wings have been severely clipped and all those idealists who joined its ranks have left.

The civil service, which most of the time merely humoured these young and green recruits, have emerged almost completely in-tact. Change is dead in the water.

Perkasa and its ilk have also managed to keep the BN in power. It is not so much Ibrahim Ali who is popular - he lost decisively in a Muslim majority seat he contested - but the old idea of ethnic inequality and Chinese economic dominance has won the day. Distrust is alive and well, will be so for yet a few generations.

By breaking ranks with PKR and DAP in Selangor, PAS has saved the career of Selangor MB Abdul Khalid Ibrahim. There is little doubt that Khalid Ibrahim is an able administrator and manager.

Under his stewardship Selangor continues to grow economically and remains the most developed state in the country. As MB, he took the Pakatan coalition in Selangor into the last GE and reduced the BN to 12 seats.

Harsh realities of politics

Unfortunately for him, his own party has decided that they no longer want him to be menteri besar. A principled and democratically elected leader would resign and walk away. But we do not live in such a society and only an amateur would behave that way.

Power is addictive and once out of office, a person is much diminished. One can see this in former PM Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who after two decades in the highest office in the land, still craves for the limelight.

Anwar Ibrahim, whose career was cut short, is struggling very hard to come back into a position of formal decision making process. The reality is that politicians are the same whatever their political beliefs. Nobody goes into politics to sit idly by letting other people make decisions.

Many are predicting the death-knell of Pakatan Rakyat in Selangor with Khalid Ibrahim continuing as menteri besar and with PAS seemingly breaking ranks with PKR and DAP. Nothing can be further from the truth.

It is a very positive development that such power struggles are coming to light. It shows that the people at the helm of Pakatan are not amateurs but full time, knives and daggers politicians.

Anyone who thinks that Winston Churchill or Pandit Nehru were kind-hearted, amateur idealists who happen to be politicians must be brain-dead. Mohandas Gandhi may have been an exception but then he never held political office.

He was not, for example, India’s first prime minister. Similarly, Tunku Abdul Rahman became Malaya’s first prime minister and not Onn Jaafar. Those who achieve high office are professional politicians. Just as we do not expect an amateur doctor to operate on us, so we should not expect amateur politicians to run the country.

Amateurs with their idealism bleeding from their sleeves make very good campaign organisers and activists. They largely belong in the world of special interest groups, another word for civil society or NGOs.

Patronage, sponsors and public donations cushion special interest groups from the harsh reality of power politics. Most genuine NGO leaders are really not in it for political positions but for the cause. But make no mistake the nation needs them for without them progressive ideas can never make it into public policy.

Hard knocks, good lessons

Going forward, with more of the amateurism sucked out of politics and public administration, Malaysia will be a better place. Hard decisions will have to be made over issues that continue to divide us. In Selangor, Khalid Ibrahim will still have to face public issues like Kidex, dry taps and how to increase public spending to develop the state in a more sustainable manner.

The PKR, which is a party that is really growing very hungry, will most likely have to find a way to live with Khalid and without Anwar. One cannot live on idealism alone especially after so many years in the wilderness. If they pull through, they may usher in a new kind of politics.

For DAP and PAS, a world without Anwar will mean facing fundamental differences. So far, in Penang and Kelantan both political parties have demonstrated the two possible alternatives for the country. Penang is an extension of largely secular Malaysia. Kelantan with hudud can be an alternative, a glimpse of one possible future Malaysia.

The biggest loser is Khalid Ibrahim. The Selangor CEO will also have a most unenviable task of greater scrutiny from within with a higher risk of non-compliance and even sabotage. As a former CEO, he knows that he cannot move forward without managers and foot soldiers.

He can also forget about very much of the middle-class urban support if he does not shelve Kidex, reverse the ridiculously populist free water policy and upgrade public infrastructure convincingly. He has succeeded to emerge his own man, now he must reap what he sowed.

In the meantime, the Najib administration is looking much better. Whilst the Pakatan fights over the MB of Selangor post consumed by a disaster of their own making, Najib is quietly solving a major national crisis and securing the return of the victims of MH17.

The government has demonstrated that it may have bungled managing the MH370 tragedy but that it can and has learned from its mistakes. In times of crisis, the BN comes together whilst Pakatan fractures.

No wonder national support for Pakatan continues to fall away. Perhaps it is best to leave politics to the professionals.



NEIL KHOR completed his PhD at Cambridge University and now writes occasionally on matters that he thinks require better historical treatment. He is quietly optimistic about Malaysia's future.

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