THE 10th Sarawak election has already been credited for the creation and attempted resolution of several issues. There is of course the leakage of parts of the sex video, which has only stiffened the stances of those with party political allegiances. There was the bickering within Pakatan Rakyat about who should contest in which constituencies, as a result of the still too centralised process of candidate selection: if there is a dispute, why not let local people decide in a primary? Well, too late for that now.
Then there is the frantic movement over the printing and distribution of the local language Bible. The 10-point proposal (the concreteness of which seems to be in question) has seen responses ranging from cautious acceptance to outright lambasting, with some deriding the discrepancy of conditions between the peninsula and Borneo as contradictory to the spirit of 1Malaysia.
This touches upon the issue of the competence of the Federal government in matters of religion. One view is that all of this is a farce because religious freedom is already enshrined in the Constitution, so any impositions are therefore invalid in the first place. There is also the question of to what extent the Federal government has competency in this area: since the impositions on the Malay-language Bible in the peninsula are being made ostensibly to protect Muslims, and matters pertaining to Islam come under the purview of the states (differences between states already exist, to which ‘pocopoco’ policy23 has been added), it is necessary to answer whether regulation of the Bible correctly comes under that heading.
We have been here before. It seems every time a controversy with a religious angle surfaces, some vague solution will be offered or a decision deferred without an actual resolution of the core questions, which are instead loaded like firewood on a pyre waiting to be lit in a violent frenzy. Unless we resolve in the public space the issues of the extent of our Federal Constitution’s supremacy, together with the powers of the Federal government with regard to religion, we only add to the confusion. The politicians need to understand that clarity, even if it disappoints some, is less damaging to our country than attempts to appease everyone.
The dynamics of a solitary state election are rather fun. So much more attention is placed onto the particular polity, but obviously these elections are even more important being the first post-March 2008 and furthermore as a barometer ahead of the parliamentary election that is due by 2013, resulting in names and places previously unheard of to Peninsular Malaysia now on the front pages. Individual constituencies too get more prominence during by-elections as opposed to a general election. That’s why I was intrigued when the Menteri Besar of Selangor said that the Selangor Legislative Assembly will not be dissolved this year if a parliamentary election is called.
This would be a good thing not just from the point of view of Malaysians learning more about Selangor as a result of the media frenzy, but also in line with the idea of decentralisation; I have long wondered why the Mentri Besar of Kelantan had always chosen to follow the timing of the Federal government. When citizens elect representatives to their legislative chamber, it is a reasonable for them to expect that those individuals will serve the full term.
On the other hand, many people say that the Prime Minister does not have an electoral mandate, since the party that he leads has not won a general election since his premiership, and that the remedy is to call a general election. The exact same accusation was levelled against ‘unelected Prime Minister’ Gordon Brown. However, an electoral mandate is not required to be chief executive in the Westminster system; it falls upon the people’s representatives to either have confidence in that individual or not.
I wonder if some of those critics would favour a direct election for the post of Prime Minister, and, taking that concept further, for direct popular elections for the posts of Menteris Besar and Chief Ministers as well. This would certainly have repercussions on our parliamentary system, and while I am inclined to defend the Westminster model, it would nonetheless be a debate worth having.
A very happy birthday to my grand-aunt Tunku Shahariah binti Almarhum Tuanku Abdul Rahman, who turns 79 today. Every time I meet her, even if briefly, I learn something profound about our country, and I hope to have many more such meetings in years to come.
23 ‘Poco a poco’, 1 April 2011, on p 153 of this book