WITHIN the next three weeks, Sarawak will have a new government. The process of electing a new administration or returning the immediate past government begins on Wednesday, April 6, when all candidates bidding for office as legislators of the Dewan Undangan Negeri (DUN) will submit their nomination papers at the various centres in the state. Those rural towns where nomination centres are located will have brisk business; hotels fully booked. Money, money, everywhere.
DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS: An election officer helping a senior citizen to cast her vote.
Candidates from various parties will appear in their best attire ahead of processions. Flags and buntings will appear overnight; photographs of candidates on posters will adorn bus stops, trees and be strung across rural roads. There will be ceramahs during which the various contenders for office will display their public speaking skills. No need to mention the mudslinging. There will be heavy doses.
Polling will be on April 16, another colourful day when coffee shops and other eateries will be fully patronised – a lot of cash around.
The results of the polls will be announced in the course of the evening or early the next morning — an anxious moment for all stakeholders.
The chief minister will be sworn in soon after a party or a combination of parties has secured the majority of seats out of the 71 contested.
The exes
The successful candidates will be dubbed YBs (Yang Berhormats or Honourable Members) of the legislature; those who lose will be called by various names – Yang Bersara, or Yang Bekas or Yang Berkebun. The candidates who pull out of the race within the three-day period after nomination day will be called Yang Baco.
For the rest of us who are not in the ring, it will be routine: vote on polling day, or not vote at all. The Election Commission has given us the right of choice: to vote or not to vote.
However, many eligible Sarawakian voters, especially those working overseas or just across the sea – in Johor or Kuala Lumpur — have no postal vote at all. Although, the Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections 2.0 (Bersih) and several non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have been calling on the Election Commission to set up polling centres in major cities in the peninsula where Sarawakians in those cities can cast their votes, such appeals have fallen on deaf ears. And no valid reasons have been advanced by the Election Commission for denying these Malaysians outside the state the right to choose their legislators to articulate their views in the Dewan.
As it stands, the only citizens outside Sarawak having the right to cast votes by post are the employees of diplomatic service, servicemen and those in the police and their spouses and workers from Sarawak temporarily employed by the Election Commission itself.
Almost half a million eligible voters from the state, mostly young people between the ages of 21and 45, are thereby unfairly discriminated against by the system as adopted in Malaysia and there is nothing that the authorities can do or want to do about it for now — a cruel blow to the principle of universal adult suffrage, which our country has yet to subscribe to.
Those young voters will have to wait for the next federal government to be emplaced before meaningful political reforms can be considered. The incumbent federal government would be wise to embark on political reforms soon in addition to the other reforms under the grand transformation plans.
If nothing is done in the meantime to allow these eligible voters to vote, such as compulsory voting, four million plus Malaysians will have no chance to elect leaders of their country during the federal elections in two years’ time. Among them will be 400,000 young Sarawakians, their numbers increasing.
Unless rebutted, well, this state of affairs looks like it is done on purpose.
Choose the best candidates
As expected during any an election and in politics in general, there are two or more parties contending for office, not so much for the glamour of the office itself, but as it is a paid office. A dozen of the legislators will find their way to the cabinet and party men or women will be allocated positions as rewards for helping to win seats for the party that wins an overall majority.
Any party or a coalition of parties, which can command the majority of say 31 seats won at election, may claim the right to form the next government. This would be a weak government and the normal solution, ala the First Coalition Government of 1970, is to form a coalition of parties sharing power. That would be a good arrangement, I think.
All elections are about power acquisition and the incumbent politicians must at all costs retain that power. With power comes the authority to govern the state and with power comes many opportunities for good or evil.
Good politicians do not abuse powers and out of so many there may emerge some statesmen. A statesman is one who thinks not so much of the next election but of the future of the next generation(s).
All contestants in elections invariably promise to serve the constituents. All say they want to serve the public at large. However, while in office, they will change after the first term and embark upon the policy of ‘make hay while the sun shines’. I have seen changes in men while in office and before they became YBs – two different characters altogether.
With the exception of a few, possibly Tawi Sli, they feathered their own nests and accumulated more nests as they walked merrily along the corridors of power. I tend to think these men are uncomfortable to talk to their old friends who probably voted for them during the last elections. In Malaysia, this has unfortunately developed into a culture among leaders.
Propaganda war
The propaganda war, which began as skirmishes and sniping from the rooftop a few months ago, has intensified via the Internet and print media. That’s the beauty of freedom of speech or expression, and it remains robust if practitioners can abide by the relevant laws of the nation. Short of that, the actors will be responsible for their acts.
Lately, politicians have been associating defeat for the BN with halting or stoppage of ongoing development projects in the state. Why are they so naive to think that such projects will be stopped if these are beneficial to the people? It would be fair to assume there will be changes in policies if and when a new administration is installed, but no decent politician in power would take drastic actions at the expense of the people. So treat all this talk about dire consequences to the economy of the state if the opposition should come to power as mere propaganda. Discerning Sarawakians can tell the woods for the trees.
In all elections or in wars, propaganda has been used to rattle the enemy; in elections, these are your political rivals. Any government has its information service for use to disseminate information on government policies and measures. Sometimes, the service is used for the purpose of disinformation. Now the incumbent uses it; if and when the opposition becomes a government — as in Selangor, Kedah, Penang or Kelantan — similar machinery may be used.
And it is not necessarily bad as an instrument of government, if properly used for the good of the citizens and country in times of war or hostilities with a foreign power.
It is important that the voters scrutinise the propaganda issued by the parties defending their policies while in power as well as that coming from the opposition aspiring to form the next government.
Next time you read copies of the manifesto from either side of the political divide, compare and contrast the contents — these have been churned out by their respective propaganda factories.
Caution: don’t swallow the contents hook line and sinker because in practice they may take different forms altogether.
Surprises and upsets
Political Science is not an exact science and in any election there will be surprises. Candidates whom we think will surely win may lose or those likely to lose might win.
To all the candidates I say: may the best man or woman win. If you should lose, remember the old Olympics motto: ‘Not to win but to take part’ as consolation.
Better luck next time around, mate.
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