By Stephen Ng
I have been largely inactive in commenting on the political scene for a good reason – to allow things to develop so that people can see where the country is heading to.
It was also about time for Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) exhilaration for 22 months in Putrajaya to die down. To some extent, pride had entered even some of the PH politicians and their true colours showed up.
However, over the years, I have to say that within both PH and the former Barisan Nasional, there are good people whom I still keep in contact with.
Despite of the ministerial positions they were holding, they have good hearts to serve the people, but these are the ones who often do not survive the political onslaught because in politics, it is kill and survive.
This is one of the reasons why good people shy away from politics, but it is always the wrong people we are allowing to run our country.
Which politician do we blame?
We are largely responsible for our own predicament for not heeding Edmund Burke’s warning, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
The good people lose heart too quickly. When they see evil, their response is either to shrink their heads into their own comfort zones or they become lukewarm. Still others who used to support PH turn against the coalition that sought to save Malaysia from going to the dogs.
To be fair, we will never have a government that is made of angels. Not everyone has the heart of Hannah Yeoh, or the sincerity of Anifah Aman in helping a mother and son return from China after they were banned from leaving the country.
Even young leaders such as Rafizi Ramli quitted politics because they could not take the onslaught, although I was aware that there was some kind of concerted campaign to kill his political career. He should have realised that the so-called “urban Chinese” who criticised him were nothing but part of a bigger scheme.
You will always get the crooks, the bandits, the “what’s there for me?” characters in both coalitions. But, if we have already seen the worst of one coalition, with the ongoing court cases; and if the other coalition made up of angels and the demons tried to establish themselves, why are we so easily disillusioned? Rome was never rebuilt in seven days.
Yes, I have whacked both sides of the coalition. I even whacked the Member of Parliament and State Assemblyman in my constituency, but this is all part of chastising them for their inaction and aloofness. I reserve the right to speak up if the voice of conscience is ignored, especially when it is communicated privately and diplomatically.
As I am watching what is happening to the country, I can only see a dangerous trend towards something worse to come if the good people do not stand up now and be counted. The same old spending habit in billions has returned. It is not good for the country or her future, but will certainly benefit a small group.
When we see something “evil” happening in our society, we prefer to remain quiet because we fear peer pressure or even losing our jobs or pensions. We choose not to do anything except to mind our own business. We have been all conditioned to think this way for far too many years.
We all know what happened before 2018, when certain characters were being paid to do a job to stir up racial tension with the hope that the ghosts of May 13 would haunt the people again. These characters have since remained silent, and I am not surprised, when their services are again required, we will see them swinging into action.
The concerted campaign now
We have seen a concerted effort to discredit Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. Previously, Anwar was accused as a spy for the Zionist regime. Anwar was also a spy for the US. And I think someone even said Anwar was a spy for Russia. All this, too, has died down.
Now, it is a different chorus: Anwar has not learnt his lesson well. Anwar has been too gullible to believe politicians from the other camp. Anwar is this and Anwar is that.
Even in a chat group, I find “smart” people are so gullible and easily swayed by what I call a well-funded, high-powered “opinion swaying” campaign that is being stringed together by some hidden hands. These ordinary Malaysians become voluntary mercenaries to attack Anwar.
If they can tarnish a former senior officer helming our banking system at a time when she is still grieving over her father’s demise, so as to save someone’s skin, they can do to Anwar a lot more.
The whole strategy is to attack that one factor that rallied people together, and this one factor is the man Anwar Ibrahim himself, not Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, not Tun Abdullah Badawi, not Datuk Seri Najib Razak and certainly not Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
Everyone has forgotten that the call for reformasi started in 1998. The clash of two characters sparked off the unhappiness amongst the Malays, then the Hindraf movement amongst the “pendatang” Indians in 2007, before 2013, also affected the “pendatang” Chinese. This snowballed to a 2018 takeover of Putrajaya for the first time.
Anwar went into prison twice, and spent nearly 10 years of his life, and not many politicians have gone through what this man has endured. That has cemented everyone’s resolution to see change in the country.
In prison, he had read many books and biographies, including Nelson Mandela, whose example he has emulated: to forgive even his nemesis. However, we all know that it is his nemesis that has let us down.
I was one of those who first wrote about giving our support to a former prime minister, with the hope that he has changed for the better. But, after what happened in the Sheraton move, I never give up hope to see a better Malaysia, one where we are all Malaysians to fight for the betterment of this nation, we call our own. Our competition is with the rest of the world.
We were willing to give our support to an old man in his nineties, but we are now saying we cannot take a 73-year-old man as prime minister. We want young leaders, but they are not forthcoming. We create another trench called “third force” just to bury ourselves further.
Instead of learning from the past mistakes, picking up the pieces together once again, we just lie down there like shattered glasses and continue to complain what we see happening in the country. Who are we to blame when the country goes from bad to worse?
We become a piece of rocking chair. And unless all of us rise up and make votes count in the coming general election, the politicians are not going to remember who put them in Putrajaya. They have to know who the real majority is, when Malaysians stand up as Malaysians, regardless of race or religion.
Let us see if they would have to eventually play to our tune and sing a different song! I believe God has never given up on Malaysia. – Jan 1, 2021
Stephen Ng is an ordinary Malaysian who speaks the voice of conscience to the nation since 2008. He is a media consultant and an author of over 10 books.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
