MALAYSIANS have lost their patience. In 2018, we embraced change and brought down a ruling government that held power ever since our independence in 1957.
The new party that came to power was “Pakatan Harapan” which means a coalition or an electoral pact that brought hope.
Hope that would change Malaysia and rid it all of its limitations and the forge it ahead with the hope we will soon be a country that would be developed in every sense of the word
The short-lived renaissance was only to be thwarted by the Sheraton Move that stalled the process of democracy in the country with victors in the elections becoming the opposition and the losers becoming the government of the day.
Since then, the country has been grappling with constant politicking which had led voters who had to bear the brunt of the various machination that is designed to keep them in power to the detriment of the interest of the people.
While politicians were busy carving out their interests, the country was besieged by a pandemic that brought the entire economy to a grinding halt with many losing their jobs while others losing their lives.
The future looks bleak for the country if the present political situations continue to exist with politicians showing wanton disregard for the interest of the people.
The democratic system that we embraced is the Westminster model of a democratic system that worked for people in the UK as they were known as “gentlemen of politics” which unfortunately our politicians are not.
What is the route forward for Malaysia and what guarantees are there in place to ensure that politicians act in the best interest of the people and that they ventilate the concerns of the people in parliament and most important of all, they would represent the views of the people that put them in power.
We cannot continue to have the lives of 32 million people be held ransom by 222 parliamentarians who are allowed to go frolic on their own.
Many had already written about the eerie similarities being played out between Malaysia and Sri Lanka and Malaysians must come together to ensure that we don’t move towards that trodden path.
It is time that we make politicians irrespective of which side of the political divide be accountable for their actions and they represent the views of the people that voted for them through a feedback channel like the people’s parliament or citizen’s assembly.
The cardinal principle of the people’s assembly or the people’s parliament would ensure that the powers which are entirely vested in the hands of the politicians are effectively transferred to the people.
It has been said before that the business politics is too serious to be left in the hands of politicians and Malaysia is certainly a case in point that demonstrates our politicians in the name of democracy have oppressed democracy and repudiated public accountability and transparency which are the cornerstones of democracy
The people’s parliament would ensure that parliamentarians represent the views of the people they represent and debates are held in parliament that would discuss issues facing the rakyat.
The parliamentary debates that are held currently suggest that there is a fair share of people who are not able to contribute to any meaningful debates but behave like hoodlums and impeded the proper functioning of democracy.
The citizens of this country must not have any subservient attitude to the politicians and the people that put them in power.
The many images of politicians making donations with their photos plastered on aid packages when in fact the money belongs to the taxpayers and the people can be quite nauseating.
The people’s parliament can adopt the principles of consensus decision making and the majority of the people can decide on the route that politicians can take in parliament.
Currently, parliamentarians are no longer bound by the wishes of the majority of the people that voted them in but rather they are beholden to the political whips and party leaders and perhaps their political funders.
These would ensure that there is some check and balances on our politicians.
Under this form of deliberative democracy, deliberation will be central to decision-making as it adopts elements of consensus decision-making and majority rule for problem-solving. These assemblies can provide the necessary checks and balances on politicians.
The models to be adopted can be decided later but Malaysia must move forward from the present state of toxic politics to one that’s truly based on consensus and is holistically developmental. – May 2, 2022
Sathish Govind is a FocusM reader and an ex-staff of a think tank.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
