THIS is a debate as old as democracy itself: should voters choose their leaders based on their party affiliation or based on personal merits? In Malaysia, voters have historically voted along party lines since our first election in 1952.
Although this phenomenon is not unique to Malaysia, it is time Malaysian voters become more discerning with individuals vying for their votes in the 15th General Election (GE15) rather than blindly supporting the parties that they represent.
An interesting case study on this is the Sungai Buloh Parliamentary constituency. UMNO is fielding Khairy Jamaluddin to wrest the seat away from PKR.
One narrative making its rounds on social media is that Khairy or KJ needs to be voted out simply because a vote for him is a vote for UMNO president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi who’s facing corruption charges.
And purportedly, a Barisan Nasional (BN) victory there could also secure the release of Datuk Seri Najib Razak who is serving a 12-year jail sentence for corruption and abuse of power.
Such argument is founded on the “vote for party, not individuals” principle and is flawed on so many levels. First of all, denying KJ the opportunity to be elected amounts to denying Malaysians a capable leader.
Fair or unfair
Since his ministerial debut in the Youth and Sports Ministry where he oversaw the 2017 Kuala Lumpur SEA Games to the roll-out of the COVID-19 immunisation plan and the implementation of various major health initiatives, KJ has proven to be an efficient minister.
When we deny a leader of KJ’s calibre the opportunity to serve us Malaysians on account of political affiliations, we are just cutting our nose to spite our face. Isn’t democracy about selecting leaders who best serve us?
While I am no fan of Zahid nor his UMNO which KJ is part of, denying KJ the chance to be an MP means allowing Zahid and his ilk to continue riding roughshod over the party, and by extension, the country.
As we know, KJ is no typical UMNO apparatchik. He stood against Zahid in the last UMNO election and had openly criticised Najib over the 1MDB (1Malaysia Development Bhd) scandal.
If we ever want to see a shake-up in the country’s most dominant party, UMNO, then people like KJ needs to be given the space. In other words, if we detest leaders like Zahid, then there’s more reasons for KJ to win in Sungai Buloh.
Sungai Buloh is just an example of why voters need to be more perceptive with the candidates and not be blinded by party loyalty. The argument applies to every contest in the upcoming GE15 – not just in Sungai Buloh.
In every party, there are good leaders as well as rotten apples. As voters, our job is to – independent of their party affiliations – pick out the good ones so that they could serve us better while rejecting the rotten ones as they could bring us harm. – Nov 6, 2022
Aaron Wong
Subang
Aaron Wong is a viewer of Focus Malaysia.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
