Political Apathy

Politics in Malaysia remains the domain of those who are involved within it. If voter turnout in the recent by-elections are anything to go by, one would think that that statement is not true. However, sentiments among the populace are strangely those of resignation, of apathy, of non-commitment. Ask anyone their political affiliation and the answer is a perplexed rebuttal questioning the very role of political affiliation in a country like Malaysia, where Barisan Nasional has been at the helm of power ever since independence and the closest it got to a democratic defeat ended in fists and violence in order to maintain the status quo.

The people will ask, “Who else is there to vote? Barisan Nasional is all there is.”
“There is no opposition.”
“There is no real opposition.”
“There is noone I like in the opposition.”
“I don’t trust the opposition. They will misuse their power.”
“Barisan Nasional is the government. There is no need to think of the opposition.”

All these responses are common, and are usually the result of 50 years of independence under the helm of the same party, so much so that people begin to equate Barisan Nasional with the Government when they are not; they are merely the Party in Government. The very thought of another political party controlling the legislature is offensive to the senses. It is just not done. Barisan Nasional’s grip on the thought process of Malaysians is more excessive than people realize, whether or not that is BN’s intentions in the first place.

Malaysia is known as a one-party democracy; a democracy where only one party can realistically become the government and opposition support and political infrastructure is so fragmented that it cannot and is unable to garner enough electoral votes to ever grasp power in government. Other one-party democracies include Singapore and South Africa. In a one-party democracy, political rights and progression become stagnated. The party in power becomes stronger while other parties become weaker. There is no viable competition in a political sense, allowing the party in power to operate much like a monopoly in the commercial world.

Problems begin to compound themselves when the citizens of the one-party democracy do not allow themselves to expand beyond what they already know; that parties like Parti Keadilan Rakyat, PAS and DAP are real political parties in opposition.

“They will just misuse their power,” you say? How can one ever really know when no opposition party has ever been in power?

“There is noone I like in the opposition,” you say? Is there anyone you do like in the current government?

“Bah. Anwar’s doing it for his own gain. So are the other parties,” you say? This infers that Barisan Nasional does not ‘do it’ for their own gain. And yet the culture of corruption which has degenerated Malaysia into an adherent of an informal system of serfdom and medieval patronage is so ingrained within our mindset that we must accept that Barisan Nasional does ‘do it’ for their own gain, just like any other political party. It is what is incidental to that gain that should matter to us: the proper management of the nation.

As long as Malaysia continues with its tradition as a single-party state, the nation cannot logically and ideologically progress and improve. Competition is healthy within any sphere of life. One may not support the opposition solely because he does not agree with their policies, but one must surely support the ideals of a multi-party democracy.