PETALING JAYA: From the Ming Court Affair in 1987 to the Sheraton Move in 2020, Malaysian politics isn’t lacking in names or labels that give out more than a whiff of scandal.
The latest is, of course, the Dubai Move which got tongues wagging in political circles.
These slogans and catchphrases, whether they sound sinister or otherwise, represent how citizens respond to political events by turning them into sound bites that make their complexity easily digestible, say analysts and politicians.
“Giving complicated political manoeuvrings labels such as ‘langkah’ (move) makes them seem more like soap operas that ordinary citizens can relate to,” said political scientist Dr Wong Chin Huat.
“As ordinary folk get to see and understand how politicians plot against each other, and make fun of the political class, they lose their deference to political authorities.
“Compared with how politics was feared in the authoritarian era, this is somewhat psychologically democratising,” said Wong, who is from Sunway University.
Such a penchant for labels is not a new trend, of course.
Before the Sheraton and Kajang Moves in the 2000s, Malaysians witnessed the Ming Court Affair in 1987, which was a plot to oust then Sarawak chief minister Tun Abdul Taib Mahmud.
Ming Court was a hotel in Kuala Lumpur, which no longer exists, where the plot was made public.
And even before Ming Court, there was a rash of such power struggles, Wong pointed out, but they were not named for their places such as in Sarawak (1966), Kelantan (1977), Sabah (1984) and Perak (2009).
“Curiously, some post-Sheraton episodes were not named after a place, including the successful overthrow of the Sabah government in September 2020,” he said, adding that there was a similar move to change the Federal Government during the same month that never attracted a label.
However, these labels can be a double-edged sword, warned PKR communications director Lee Chean Chung.
“Although they are entertaining and even humorous, and they make complex events or ideas digestible, they can also over-simplify the problems and issues inherent in these events,” he said.
Lee, who is Petaling Jaya MP, said these political terms and slogans, which are easily understood, are distributed over different platforms to reach as many people as possible.
But he said that a political culture where everything is simplified does not lead to healthy debates but would cause more polarisation, as rivals descend into name-calling such as “parti komunis”, “parti taliban” or “parti liberal”.
“Politics everywhere is complicated. Malaysian politics is just as complex. I think it is better to equip ourselves with ways in which to deal with these complexities rather than think of politics through slogans,” he added.
But you are not a real junkie of Malaysian politics unless you also know “Sapuman: Man of Steal” or Derma A.R.A.B (Aku Rompak Awak Bayar / I steal, you pay), which were popular from 2013 to 2018 when Malaysians were trying to make sense of the 1Malaysia Development Bhd financial scandal.
The brains behind Sapuman, political satirist Zulkiflee Anwar Haque, said his cartoons were an attempt to educate and enlighten his readers even while they poked fun at politicians.
“Political issues are complex and my cartoons are meant to educate people and show how these political events are connected to their daily lives,” said Zulkiflee, who produced the film Anwar: The Untold Story.
Other labels that have emerged over the years included Project IC, which spanned over two decades in the 1980s and 1990s that eventually led to a Royal Commission of Inquiry into Sabah’s large migrant population.
And before PMX came into being, Malaysians were familiar with the 2M administration, in reference to then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his deputy Musa Hitam in the 1980s.
On the foreign front, perhaps no other moniker is as well known as the Watergate scandal which brought down US president Richard Nixon. Since then, it has spawned a whole lot of financial scandals or dramas whose labels featured the “gate” suffix.
What will 2024 hold for Malaysia in the political landscape? God forbid that a “gate” emerges here.
