Can People Power happen here?
Kevin GanPublished: Jan 30, 2001 6:31 AM | Updated: Jan 29, 2008 6:21 PM
Recently, we have seen how the masses in the Philippines, angered by the deep corruption of the president who refused to resign, pushed him from office in a stunning display of people power.
Could such a thing happen here? We've had the legal monstrosity of Anwar Ibrahim's show trials and unfair convictions, the multi-billion ringgit bailout of failed cronies, monopolies created for favoured cronies as blatant as the Pos Malaysia/Odasaja computer scheme and the whitest of white elephants, the soon to be constructed ruinously expensive Bakun Dam which is nothing more than a megalomaniac's dream.
We even had several documented cases of obstruction of justice and protection of corrupt politicians by the head honcho which would have seriously inconvenienced any president or prime minister in a real democracy but peters into nothing here.
The government appears to have a highly contemptuous view of public opinion, but why hasn't such gross public abuse and wastage triggered a people power uprising to sweep away the icon of power arrogance, our long-standing prime minister who has long outlived his usefulness to the nation? To comprehend this we must understand the different social and political factors between Malaysia and the Philippines.
For a start the government maintains a stranglehold on the mass media and a near monopoly of information. The slavish print and electronic mainstream media will never publicise the stink and squalor of gross corruption involving politicians and cronies in high places.
Even worse they serve as propaganda machines to whitewash and justify any harebrained, wasteful and economically senseless use of public funds as long as they are sanctioned by Dr Mahathir Mohamad and to tear down political enemies. Biased, opinionated reporting and even outright lies are used to divert the people's attention and diffuse public outrage. Public anger is difficult to build up with a mass media that serve the regime with slavish obedience. In contrast, the Philippines have one of the freest presses in Asia and no one, not even the president, is immune to stern criticism.
Peaceful public assembly although permitted by the constitution is carefully regulated by the police who act with transparent bias to deny any opposition or anti-government rallies while permitting government-sponsored rallies which serve the political purpose of the ruling clique. Riot police stand ready to brutally break up and disperse any peaceful crowd not aligned to the government. Students are also not permitted to join any political gathering on pain of expulsion. Given that students have often been the vanguard of people power, this is far-sighted regulation designed to protect the power of the ruling party.
Barring public expression of disgust in the mainstream media and in public gatherings, can one resort to the machinery of government to voice out and correct gross abuse and injustice? Alas, Parliament is but a mere rubber stamp of the ruling party.
As a bitter irony, the public is often told to bring up grouses via the proper channel such as Parliament but the dominance of the ruling party means that any attempt to bring up sensitive matters is quashed before they see the light of day. Mahathir will never be inconvenienced by a Parliament which he totally controls. The political patronage system where one is rewarded for being loyal ensures that very few would want to rock the boat and for those one or two who dare to, retribution is swift and terrible.
However, in the Philippines there is significant opposition representation in the Senate to force the impeachment of the president. Even senators within the ruling party may vote against the president on moral grounds and personal conviction, unlike the homogenous and fearful consensus within the Barisan Nasional leaders. No BN politician dares speak out against the boss no matter how outrageous his deeds or how illogical his megalomaniac dreams. They have become boot-licking sycophants interested only in protecting their own positions.
Will the Anti-Corruption Agency provide a watchdog role on the administration? This is wishful thinking indeed as operating under the Prime Minister's Department now, it bares its fangs at small time opportunists but remains safely muzzled when it comes to the big shots. We have cases of gross corruption in Perwaja Steel and BMF which have never been solved. The ACA drags its feet at investigating documented cases of corruption against politicians on the "right" side but suddenly finds itself energised to investigate unsubstantiated allegations against political enemies such as the Murad-Anwar case.
Instead of becoming a watchdog for the public, the ACA has become a watchdog for the ruling party and even worse, a vicious attack dog to be unleashed on political enemies.
What about the courts? Can one not seek redress in the sanctity of the Law? Again this once hallowed institution has been neutralised and turned over by Mahathir. Since the sacking of the Lord President Tun Salleh Abas in 1987, the government has never lost an important case. So subjugated is the judiciary now that it was used as a battering ram to crush Anwar under the most ridiculous of show trials that would have made Stalin's trials look good. It remains to be seen whether the new Chief Justice (who due to a twist of circumstances is not Mahathir's choice) can clean up the mess in the judiciary but the rot is so deep and his time so short that one should be cautious about entertaining high hopes.
The other part of the of the judicial equation is the Attorney-General whose duty is to prosecute wrong-doers without fear or favour. Under recently retired Mohtar Abdullah, the office of the AG was turned into a corrupt tool of the ruling party to hound political enemies on dubious charges while curiously blind to well-known and documented cases of criminality by those on the right side of the fence.
We only have hopes that the AG's office will improve under the new head because it would be scarcely possible for it to sink lower than the revolting cesspool that Mohtar has dragged it down to. As a departing act of shame, he declared no case against former Chief Justice Eusoff Chin in the face of the most compelling documented evidence ever to be made public. On his departure he declared that history will judge him and judge him it will, but not in the way he supposed.
With this administrative, legal and political structure in place, what would happen should a high-ranking officer, say the head of an important statutory body, decide to appease his conscience and accuse Mahathir of corruption with juicy and documented details?
The case would have as much chance as a snowflake in a warm kitchen of surviving. We may get to read of the nasty details in malaysiakini but the mainstream media would merely mention it in passing and gloss over the damaging details. Meanwhile, reports to the police and ACA would go nowhere and public calls for action would have the Attorney-General declaring no case even in the face of compelling evidence.
Efforts to bring up the case for debate in Parliament by the opposition would be quashed by the Speaker who would announce that "there are more important matters to discuss". Any public gathering would be forcefully broken up by the riot police and the leaders arrested. The subservient press will be fully mobilised to do damage control, not that they have much to do as public anger is hard to muster in a shackled press environment. Meanwhile, there is a good chance that the whistle blower would be forced out of office and trumped up charges of corruption or misbehaviour levied against him.
Do we have any examples? Yes, we had the retired head of the ACA testifying in court during Anwar's trial that Mahathir directly interfered and ordered him to stop investigation into a corruption case against the then Economic Planning Unit director-general. Such blatant abuse of power would have dragged down any US president or triggered an investigation in any democratic country, but died with barely a whimper in the Malaysian political landscape.
Meanwhile, Anwar was sentenced to six years' jail for merely asking the police to clear his name over scurrilous allegations which any reasonable man would have done so. This is what we have come to.
We talk of Vision 2020 and reaching developed nation status by 2020. What a hollow development we would have achieved in the face of diminished civil rights and the mangling of all our cherished democratic institutions to the extent of shaking the foundation of right and wrong in our society. What is clear is that such gross anomalies cannot be corrected under the leadership of Mahathir who has done all he could to neutralise and subjugate all checks and balances to his authoritarian rule.
Mahathir is an iron fist in a velvet glove. What has been done to us was so slow and insidious that we hardly noticed until the downfall of Anwar put in stark relief the fact that we have no more checks and balances left, not even the reserve power of the Sultans which has been neutralised in a far-sighted move by Mahathir.
Progress cannot be judged solely on the backs of tall towers and concrete dams or even in the economic progress of a nation. We would be well fed but hollow and empty, a society without a soul and dry husk of a nation which has achieved physical progress while rolling back social and spiritual values.
Could such a thing happen here? We've had the legal monstrosity of Anwar Ibrahim's show trials and unfair convictions, the multi-billion ringgit bailout of failed cronies, monopolies created for favoured cronies as blatant as the Pos Malaysia/Odasaja computer scheme and the whitest of white elephants, the soon to be constructed ruinously expensive Bakun Dam which is nothing more than a megalomaniac's dream.
We even had several documented cases of obstruction of justice and protection of corrupt politicians by the head honcho which would have seriously inconvenienced any president or prime minister in a real democracy but peters into nothing here.
The government appears to have a highly contemptuous view of public opinion, but why hasn't such gross public abuse and wastage triggered a people power uprising to sweep away the icon of power arrogance, our long-standing prime minister who has long outlived his usefulness to the nation? To comprehend this we must understand the different social and political factors between Malaysia and the Philippines.
For a start the government maintains a stranglehold on the mass media and a near monopoly of information. The slavish print and electronic mainstream media will never publicise the stink and squalor of gross corruption involving politicians and cronies in high places.
Even worse they serve as propaganda machines to whitewash and justify any harebrained, wasteful and economically senseless use of public funds as long as they are sanctioned by Dr Mahathir Mohamad and to tear down political enemies. Biased, opinionated reporting and even outright lies are used to divert the people's attention and diffuse public outrage. Public anger is difficult to build up with a mass media that serve the regime with slavish obedience. In contrast, the Philippines have one of the freest presses in Asia and no one, not even the president, is immune to stern criticism.
Peaceful public assembly although permitted by the constitution is carefully regulated by the police who act with transparent bias to deny any opposition or anti-government rallies while permitting government-sponsored rallies which serve the political purpose of the ruling clique. Riot police stand ready to brutally break up and disperse any peaceful crowd not aligned to the government. Students are also not permitted to join any political gathering on pain of expulsion. Given that students have often been the vanguard of people power, this is far-sighted regulation designed to protect the power of the ruling party.
Barring public expression of disgust in the mainstream media and in public gatherings, can one resort to the machinery of government to voice out and correct gross abuse and injustice? Alas, Parliament is but a mere rubber stamp of the ruling party.
As a bitter irony, the public is often told to bring up grouses via the proper channel such as Parliament but the dominance of the ruling party means that any attempt to bring up sensitive matters is quashed before they see the light of day. Mahathir will never be inconvenienced by a Parliament which he totally controls. The political patronage system where one is rewarded for being loyal ensures that very few would want to rock the boat and for those one or two who dare to, retribution is swift and terrible.
However, in the Philippines there is significant opposition representation in the Senate to force the impeachment of the president. Even senators within the ruling party may vote against the president on moral grounds and personal conviction, unlike the homogenous and fearful consensus within the Barisan Nasional leaders. No BN politician dares speak out against the boss no matter how outrageous his deeds or how illogical his megalomaniac dreams. They have become boot-licking sycophants interested only in protecting their own positions.
Will the Anti-Corruption Agency provide a watchdog role on the administration? This is wishful thinking indeed as operating under the Prime Minister's Department now, it bares its fangs at small time opportunists but remains safely muzzled when it comes to the big shots. We have cases of gross corruption in Perwaja Steel and BMF which have never been solved. The ACA drags its feet at investigating documented cases of corruption against politicians on the "right" side but suddenly finds itself energised to investigate unsubstantiated allegations against political enemies such as the Murad-Anwar case.
Instead of becoming a watchdog for the public, the ACA has become a watchdog for the ruling party and even worse, a vicious attack dog to be unleashed on political enemies.
What about the courts? Can one not seek redress in the sanctity of the Law? Again this once hallowed institution has been neutralised and turned over by Mahathir. Since the sacking of the Lord President Tun Salleh Abas in 1987, the government has never lost an important case. So subjugated is the judiciary now that it was used as a battering ram to crush Anwar under the most ridiculous of show trials that would have made Stalin's trials look good. It remains to be seen whether the new Chief Justice (who due to a twist of circumstances is not Mahathir's choice) can clean up the mess in the judiciary but the rot is so deep and his time so short that one should be cautious about entertaining high hopes.
The other part of the of the judicial equation is the Attorney-General whose duty is to prosecute wrong-doers without fear or favour. Under recently retired Mohtar Abdullah, the office of the AG was turned into a corrupt tool of the ruling party to hound political enemies on dubious charges while curiously blind to well-known and documented cases of criminality by those on the right side of the fence.
We only have hopes that the AG's office will improve under the new head because it would be scarcely possible for it to sink lower than the revolting cesspool that Mohtar has dragged it down to. As a departing act of shame, he declared no case against former Chief Justice Eusoff Chin in the face of the most compelling documented evidence ever to be made public. On his departure he declared that history will judge him and judge him it will, but not in the way he supposed.
With this administrative, legal and political structure in place, what would happen should a high-ranking officer, say the head of an important statutory body, decide to appease his conscience and accuse Mahathir of corruption with juicy and documented details?
The case would have as much chance as a snowflake in a warm kitchen of surviving. We may get to read of the nasty details in malaysiakini but the mainstream media would merely mention it in passing and gloss over the damaging details. Meanwhile, reports to the police and ACA would go nowhere and public calls for action would have the Attorney-General declaring no case even in the face of compelling evidence.
Efforts to bring up the case for debate in Parliament by the opposition would be quashed by the Speaker who would announce that "there are more important matters to discuss". Any public gathering would be forcefully broken up by the riot police and the leaders arrested. The subservient press will be fully mobilised to do damage control, not that they have much to do as public anger is hard to muster in a shackled press environment. Meanwhile, there is a good chance that the whistle blower would be forced out of office and trumped up charges of corruption or misbehaviour levied against him.
Do we have any examples? Yes, we had the retired head of the ACA testifying in court during Anwar's trial that Mahathir directly interfered and ordered him to stop investigation into a corruption case against the then Economic Planning Unit director-general. Such blatant abuse of power would have dragged down any US president or triggered an investigation in any democratic country, but died with barely a whimper in the Malaysian political landscape.
Meanwhile, Anwar was sentenced to six years' jail for merely asking the police to clear his name over scurrilous allegations which any reasonable man would have done so. This is what we have come to.
We talk of Vision 2020 and reaching developed nation status by 2020. What a hollow development we would have achieved in the face of diminished civil rights and the mangling of all our cherished democratic institutions to the extent of shaking the foundation of right and wrong in our society. What is clear is that such gross anomalies cannot be corrected under the leadership of Mahathir who has done all he could to neutralise and subjugate all checks and balances to his authoritarian rule.
Mahathir is an iron fist in a velvet glove. What has been done to us was so slow and insidious that we hardly noticed until the downfall of Anwar put in stark relief the fact that we have no more checks and balances left, not even the reserve power of the Sultans which has been neutralised in a far-sighted move by Mahathir.
Progress cannot be judged solely on the backs of tall towers and concrete dams or even in the economic progress of a nation. We would be well fed but hollow and empty, a society without a soul and dry husk of a nation which has achieved physical progress while rolling back social and spiritual values.
View Comments0