Cyrix’s Codex

I am a supporter of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (or PKR, for short). Why, you might ask, am I pledging my political allegiance to an ‘Anwar-loving, PAS-loving, 1 seat miniscue’ party? Here’s why:

PKR logo

Before I get into the nitty gritty as to why I am a PKR supporter, a bit of background info is first appropriate. For my non-Malaysian readers, PKR is a party formed by the ex-Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, Anwar Ibrahim, in 1999, after he was sacked from the Cabinet my Dr. Mahathir Mohammad. It’s currently lead by Mr. Ibrahim’s wife, Dr. Wan Azizah. It’s a multiracial party, which aims are roughly geared towards a centrist stance: More freedom for the press and judiciary, repelling draconian laws such as the ISA and the UUCA, promoting the Bangsa Malaysia concept, plus a host of other relatively liberal policies, but while still preserving a distinct Islamic tint. It’s certainly more liberal than PAS, but less so compared to DAP.

Now , personally, I feel that the birth of PKR has the potential to be a catalyst in transforming the current Malaysian political scene, which is dominated by race-based and religion-based political parties. The whole coalition (BN) in government today is made up of the three principle component parties: UMNO (Malays-only party), MCA (Chinese-only party) and MIC (Indians-only party). I personally feel that this situation is very undesirable and doesn’t contribute positively to Malaysia’s racial integration. In fact, I think that Malaysia must be one of the only countries in the world where membership to political parties are restricted based on something as crude as race! Why aren’t race-based parties desirable in Malaysia? It’s very simple actually. A political party’s reason for existing is that of championing the rights of particular groups. Thus the Labour Parties in the UK and Australia, or the Democratic Party in the US will naturally sympathise with the working class and lower middle class segments of it’s populations. On the other hand, parties such as the the Conservatives in the UK, the Liberals in Australia, or the Republicans in the US will thus try and garner votes from the upper class or upper middle class segments of it’s populations. These parties will in turn be hostile towards the segments which makes up the support base for their rival party. So naturally, race-based parties will then cater solely for a particular race, while attacking the other races! How does this then contribute to racial harmony, as BN is so fond of claiming? If there was racial harmony, it’s in spite of BN, not because of it. Other multicultural countries would be shocked and horrified at the things that politicians say or do, all under the casual remark “Relax, it’s just politics”. In many other countries, these politicians would be accused of being racists and sacked. In Malaysia, we applaud them and vote them as our leaders. ‘Nuff said.

So that’s one thing. PKR has the potential to avoid this ugly racial politicking by being a multiracial party. Instead, it can usher in a new era of mature politics where parties fight over specific ideas and policies, such as liberalism, social democracy, green, conservativism, etc. Parties can battle it out on which income groups deserve bigger tax cuts (when do Malaysians ever hear this?), whether we should rehaul our education systems, whether we should provide more subsidies for our healthcare services, etc etc. There’s so many other policies that parties can use and champion apart from skin colour.

The second reason why I think PKR is important is a realpolitik issue. The bulk of PKR’s membership is made up of Malays. This is a very important characteristic in Malaysia politics. Because of the racial nature of politics here, if opposition parties are not made up of Malay members, or headed by Malay leaders, BN can easily try and play the race card against it. It will claim that these opposition parties will only cater for the needs of the other races and will ignore the Malays. Which is utter baldabash, as many people would know. But it’s effective, just ask DAP and formerly, Gerakan, especially against the Malay heartlands in the central peninsular and the rural Malays in kampongs. With Anwar Ibrahim at PKR’s helm, in addition to having the bulk of it’s memberships being made up of Malays, this disgusting rhetoric can swiftly be neutralised. I am also delighted with KeADILan’s merger with PRM, the sole Malay-lead social democratic opposition party who has been around for more than three decades now. I am a huge admirer of it’s leader, Dr. Syed Husin Ali, who’s now the Deputy President of PKR. It’s indeed a rarity for a Malay political leader to reject the vote-pulling ‘Malay Agenda’ issue, and, heaven forbids! advocate secularism! True, he’s commited political suicide, but heck, it’s the principle that counts. But all this doesn’t mean that all of PKR’s members consist solely of Malays. PKR also has many prominent non-Malay members, mainly Tian Chua, Christina Liew, Sivarasa Rasiah, Dr. Lee Boon Chye, Dr. Irene Fernandez, Dr. Xavier Jeyakumar, etc. Can UMNO, MCA or MIC say the same?

It is this point that I feel DAP has also failed big time. For those of you who don’t know, I am also a supporter of DAP, another social democratic multiracial party in Malaysia. It’s lead by the current Opposition Leader, Mr. Lim Kit Siang. In fact, DAP has been around longer, was the first party to strive for the Bangsa Malaysia concept, and has sacrificed, as well as achieved much more in upholding justice, and safeguarding the rights of all Malaysians than any other opposition party. It also currently holds the most seats for any opposition party in the Lower House. However, I feel that DAP is fast becoming a minority party. This is because it has failed to pull in the vital Malay support which any party needs if it wants to offer itself as an alternative government. It’s membership is currently dominated by the Chinese and Indians, but almost no Malays. Considering that Malays make up about 65% of the country’s population, unless DAP changes it’s strategy soon, it may gradually become extinct soon.

So back to PKR. One of the sticking points that PKR has to constantly face (among the non-Malays anyway) is Anwar Ibrahim, it’s unoffical leader. True, Anwar Ibrahim used to be a firebrand Islamic student leader. He was the head of ABIM, the Malaysian Islamic Youth Movement. Heck, I too have reservations about him. Make no mistake, I am advocating for the party, PKR, and not it’s leader, Anwar Ibrahim. These are different things. But this was how I finally reconciled with this issue. Firstly, Anwar is now talking about a Bangsa Malaysia. This, I feel, is a very important gamble for him to take, as he is indicating that we won’t just be confining himself to be a champion of the Malays, but instead for all Malaysians. True, this move does smack of desperation and vote-pandering. Especially so from a man who has spent 13 years in UMNO under the banner of ‘reforming it from within’ (which he failed, incidentally), and once being the president of the notorious UMNO Youth. Anwar Ibrahim is no Dato Onn Jaafar. But beggers can’t be choosers now. And heck, all politicians are scumbags, right? So what’s wrong with picking an influencial outsider to counter the powers of the rest in UMNO? They cancel each other out! However sincere Lim Kit Siang may be, the reality is that his skin colour, as well as his religion, prevents him from becoming a national and viable alternative Prime Minister. Blame BN from cultivating this culture.

Secondly, on his Islamic agenda, a closer inspection reveals some interesting things about Anwar. Firstly, if he was such an Islamic hardliner, why didn’t he join the more established PAS after he was sacked? Instead, he choose to found a new semi-secular, relatively liberal multiracial party in PKR. Plus, he could have garnered a sizeable number of Muslim Malay votes if he had agreed on PAS’s Islamic State vision, but he didn’t. Like him or hate him, kudos must be given to him for these peculiar stances of his. Plus, for those of you who are afraid that if he does win power, he would break all his present promises, so what? Just vote him and his party out again in the next elections if that happens. Heck, isn’t that what elections are for in the first place? Jeez, I feel that as long as Anwar is offering all this sweet sounding things right now, we might as well give him our votes and see what happens. It’s better than BN, who’s offering nothing at the moment.

However, all being said and done, PKR is definately no angelic party. PKR performed terribly in the last election, losing 4 of it’s seats and only maintaining 1 in the Lower House, the seat of it’s leader Dr. Wan Azizah. Plus, I feel that PKR should be much more vocal than they are now about the important issues which affects Malaysians. They can take a leaf out of DAP’s book on this. They can’t expect to remain in existence for much longer with they thundering silence on the many issues that’s happening right now. And lastly, Anwar Ibrahim should unequivalently pledge his loyalty towards his party and eschew any suggestions that he would be defecting back to UMNO in the future. He should also clearly state his positions on the concept of Bangsa Malaysia, the Islamic State, corruption, and the rights of the non-Malays. In fact, I think that PKR should dissasociate itself with PAS, and instead try and build a harmonious coalition with DAP to present a multiracial, non-theocratic, liberal alternative government to the Malaysian people. In fact, a merger between the two would be even better! PKR would then consist of all three ideological based opposition parties in KeADILan, DAP and PRM.

So yeah, PKR has tremondous potential in de-racialising Malaysian politics. Whether it will succeed or fail, remains to be seen. However, in the meantime, I’m not sure about you, but I intend to give it a helping hand