What do we Want? Democratic Multi Party Democracy! When do we want it? NOW!

If our political leaders tell us that the Malaysian people  are more concerned about having food on our table then about the politics of democracy and our political rights – then I tell you that they are wrong.

If they tell us that we are not interested in establishing a competitive multi party democracy with electoral and constitutional accountability – then I tell you that they are wrong.

If they tell us that for real economic development to happen we must sacrifice our political rights – then I tell you that they are wrong.

If they tell me that Malaysia’s ethnic and religious mix requires not liberal democracy but the guided democracy that Barisan Nasional now practice – then I tell you that you again that they are wrong.

These are all self serving arguments that seeks to exploit imagined contradictions and deficits in our multi racial society – a society that has existed even flourished, from pre Merdeka days. And we know that these self serving arguments serves to justify the consolidation of power within BN at the expense of having a multi party democratic process.

If you say that the masses or poor, illiterate, hungry and sick Malaysians are too dumb to look after themselves and require the “protection” of BN and not the freedom to chose their leader in a democratic process – then you are wrong again because you are saying that elections, legal rights and liberties are meaningless to the poor and hungry masses in Malaysia.

There is no major ethnic conflict save those started by politicians for their own self interest. There is not racial or religious divide save those artificially created by the same politicians for their own purpose.

All this Barisan Nasional say to justify vesting BN with sweeping and expansive powers.

Barisan Nasional says that Malaysians are still not yet ready for genuine multi party democracy and that only BN can save Malaysia from complete social, economic and political implosion – hence the need, they say, of the ISA. I tell you again that you are wrong!

Sir we have been ready for multi party political democracy from Merdeka days. What we have now in Malaysia is not military dictatorship but certainly civilian dictatorship!

Mahathir might have been the most enlightened of our post Merdeka Prime Minister but he used his powers for evil rather then for good.

He was the single individual most responsible for casting UMNO into the conundrum of money politics  and the Malays helter skelter into materialism. Mahathir turned into a power hungry despot who took every opportunity he could get to plunged the knife deeper into multi party democracy and in its place used the ISA and all the power within his grasp to cower the Malaysian people and his political opponents into submission and into incarceration without due process of law whenever it please him. And in the process he greatly increased his personal power. 

He would say that he triumph over the Judiciary in Malaysia. This he surely did culminating in the removal of the Chief Justice because the CJ refused to do his bidding.

And now we have a Judiciary struggling to be independent against a political master that has no compunction in using the Judiciary for its own purposes.

 

For a brief spell Pak Lah went his own way but now Najib is back to the ways of Mahathir. Najib has used the ISA to arrest, detain and prosecute political rivals, dissenters and others he considers a threat BN’s rule at will.

And what is the economic and political outcome of this civilian dictatorship? Dismal! There is no need to go into the many once touted economic initiatives of Barisan Nasional under Mahathir, Pak Lah and Najib. So many failure … abject failures! All of them saddling the people and the country with massive debts numbering in the billions. So many development projects failed. So may privatization failed. So many mega projects bleeding billions of our ringgits....and so many billions given away through negotiated mega projects to families, cronies and party parasites.  

And on top of all that we now have a wider ethnic divide compounded by the use of religious sentiments to create a heighten artificial sense of unease that allows for the continued imposition of the ISA and the use of government apparatus, especially PDRM, to advance BN’s political interest.

Corruption spread like wildfire throughout the country unchecked and even encouraged by a government totally immersed in the need for it.

Waiting in the wings are more UMNO cadres all expertly schooled in the politics of money, corruption and abuse of executive power for financial gain for their own self and that of the nation.

All around us there is overwhelming evidence to show that UMNO has failed the Malay and have failed the Nation. Because of their rule we now are faced with ethnic and religious  tensions. Politically UMNO have brought neither ethnic harmony nor good governance and most important of all, they have failed to forge a common identity for all Malaysians.      

The people have been ready to embrace democratic values a long time ago. The BN government have not. The people are no longer fooled by the sloganeering and promises of the BN government. Cakap bukan serupa bikin. Spare us your empty promises and self serving hypocritical moral pontifications. We are fed up of hearing that we are still not yet ready for democracy. That the ISA is needed for national security. That we must wait until we are more mature for full democracy.

We have waited long enough. We have waited while UMNO picks our country clean right down to the bare bone. We no longer want Malaysia to be the cesspool of corruption, cronyism and arrogance by political leaders who knows nothing about accountability and responsibility of good governance.

• We want every Malaysian of voting age to have the right to participate in the democratic process and to be free to join a political party of their own choosing.
• We want all political parties to be free to organize and disseminate information on political ideas, social and economic programs relevant to our country.
• We want all ethnic parties to be illegal.
• We want the EC to be an independent body that ensures the integrity of the electoral process and not be subjected to the direction or control of any person or authority.
• We want to be able to express our opinion without fear of government retaliation.
• We want the media to be able to do the same.
• We want the protection of civil liberties and rule of law to be upheld and we want the government to follow and respect the Constitution.
• We want an independent Judiciary.
• We want all corruption to end.

If we are to succeed every one of our people must be empowered to do his/her part in an open, pluralistic and competitive multi party political democracy. And be empowered to do it NOW! 

If the Barisan Nasional leaders that govern us now do not understand what we want of them, then they are greater fools then we thought they were. And if the do understand that this is what we want but for political expediency refuses to do as we want, then they are fools again.

Barsian Nasional has ruled us for over 30 years. UMNO has deep pockets and a large army to fight all comers at the 13^th general election. But all that BN and UMNO can do will NOT enable them to resist the demand of a nation for decent and accountable political leaders to lead them. Good governance is an idea whose time has come. We demand for nothing less.


FMZam has left a new comment on your post "What do we Want? Democratic Multi Party Democracy!...": 

Back to history when we have such coalition of political parties known as PUTERA-AMCJA, PUTERA or Pusat Tenaga Rakyat consisted of some Malay based parties (6 parties) and AMCJA or All Malayan Council for Joint Actions (13 parties) was the others. We have had that kind of democratic multi party well before Merdeka against UMNO and the British and what different is it now that we have Pakatan against UMNO and BN if Pakatan is still not good enough to defeat the devil. 

If we want a genuine democratic multi party we all know there is none in Pakatan that has the foundation to become one, yet we still go for Pakatan hoping it will do us good to first win over UMNO/BN and hope for the best second.

I thought all we have been shouting for is a party that says every Malaysian is equal and everyone is Malaysian.