About 3 years ago, we worked hard to realize political change in our beloved homeland. We hoped the ideals we believed in and aspired to would be made a reality. Elimination of corruption and racial and religious politics, economic and social equality, and the practice of human rights were high on our wish list.
Some accepted but others tolerated the political arrangement that brought to power a new regime of hope. It carried our deepest desires and aspirations to finally stand up and be counted among known democracies. We carried them on the tidal wave of protests against a government of kleptocrats and power grabbers supported by their cohorts of sycophants and parasites.
The one and a half years after the GE14 tsunami wasn’t smooth sailing, but to the credit of our new administration, some of their manifesto promises were just beginning to take shape. There was much to be desired in the way things were being done by this largely inexperienced government. They made many mistakes and rubbed us the wrong way, which made many, especially those economically and socially weaker, disgruntled. Yet, most preferred to give them a chance to learn the lessons that came with being in power. The jury is still out and hasn’t decided on the verdict yet.
But while the jury was still trashing out the issues to come to a just verdict, it was stopped short in its determination of the case by an unexpected coup that disrupted the due process throwing it into disarray.
This was done in such a stealthy and devious manner that many were stupefied by the sudden unexpected and un-called for change. Shaken from our shock paralysis, citizens began to wake up to the reality that our election had been stolen and Peoples’ mandate invalidated. The only ones to rejoice at this unprincipled move were those hardcore BN supporters, who felt it necessary to undermine the Rakyat’s democratic mandate in favour of their paymasters and cronies hoping to profit from this invalidation of the Rakyat’s mandate.
Many held hope that the constitutional monarch would hold the mandate of the Rakyat sacred as he appeared to attempt to put things back on track under the nation’s constitution. After, so much coming and going of various delegations from the displaced elected government and the usurping administration, our election was ultimately lost, stolen from under our noses.
There seemed nothing that our elected representatives (formerly in government) could do about it as they had placed their hope in an aging autocrat from the previous regime with a jaded past of race and religious politics. A person ousted from the rejected BN administration who decided to use the dissatisfaction of the masses to promote his own vendetta against the kleptocrats. Underneath a veneer of reconciliation with the then Opposition, his politics of race and religion remained the same.
The politicians gave us no choice as we had no other potential strong, popular or experienced Third Force to fall back on. The Rakyat are left high and dry, seeing any change in our political environment merely an elusive dream.
Then came the Pandemic. Whether it was a blessing or a curse it’s hard to tell. For a while we were all dumbfounded at the hopelessness of the situation. Harapan had not delivered having spent time trying to re-invent the wheel to their specifications and keeping off attempts at alleged sabotage. Regrettably, in some aspects the new specifications were little different from the old reject. The play on racial, religious politics continued reinforced with xenophobia.
They had set the foundations for the success of the coup themselves by placing the present backdoor PM in the key position of Home Affairs and National Security. The crackdown on migrants and refugees fueled by xenophobic sentiment was a prominent characteristic of his policies and remain so. Parliament is now out of business, shuttered into silence. The Rakyat stay gagged except for the forays on social media and sporadic down-sized protests, watched by security enforcers with batons and gas cannisters at hand. The fate of the country hangs in the balance…Malaysia moves further down the road towards the Yangon junta.
Winking at Life 