Political scene in need of better solutions

I CAN'T believe we’re back here again.

I haven’t been following the intricacies of Melaka’s internal politics, and quite frankly, I don’t care to. I doubt I am the only one who has grown thoroughly sick and tired of Malaysian politics over the last few years, with no appetite for any more.

That said, I haven’t seen a single pressing reason to justify the instability caused by a change of government, much less full-on state elections in Melaka.

State elections were unnecessary in Sabah in 2020, and they are unnecessary in Melaka in 2021.

After the Sabah state elections, we saw a spike in Covid-19 cases that directly and indirectly resulted in hundreds or thousands of Malaysians getting sick.

And for what?

Was there truly some life-threatening crisis in Sabah in 2020? Is there one in Melaka in 2021?

This may sound a bit extreme, but can the people who have triggered these state elections provide an absolute guarantee that throughout the entire campaign and voting period, not a single person might catch Covid-19 and get sick as a result?

If not, then you have effectively sickened someone’s father, mother, brother, sister, wife, husband, or child.

And for what?

I would say that just this August, the country was indeed in crisis. The handling of the Covid-19 situation was indeed an emergency that was threatening all our lives, and the direction and leadership of the Federal Government could be somewhat justifiably questioned.

Even then, the vast consensus was that a general election was not the answer.

Thankfully, after a lot of uncertainty and anxiety, we succeeded in a peaceful transition of power that did not require one.

Whatever my personal feelings about Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, I cannot deny the assertions that in the time since he has taken office, the political temperature has no doubt been lowered (or was, until now at least, on a downward trend).

It is too early to gauge the full significance or effectiveness of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed between Ismail’s government and Pakatan Harapan, but it was a historic step in the right direction.

This MOU represents (or represented) a desire to move away from endless toxic politicking and move towards a more inclusive, collaborative democracy.

And now, a handful of politicians in Melaka are going to dump all that effort into the trash, turning our hopes into garbage.

And for what?

I am almost certain there is nothing even remotely resembling a public crisis that could justify this political skullduggery.

What we see here instead is what we saw in the 2020 Sabah state elections and the 2014 Kajang Move – a completely unnecessary power grab, initiated for no reason other than the personal greed and ambition of select politicians, especially the four who decided to mess with Melaka: Idris Haron (Umno-Sungai Udang), Nor Azman Hassan (Umno-Pantai Kundor), Noor Effandi Ahmad (Bersatu-Telok Mas) and Norhizam Hassan Baktee (Independent-Pengkalan Batu).

This is bad enough even in normal times; it should be downright criminal in the midst of an ongoing Covid-19 crisis.

We have made the mistake of thinking we were out of the Covid-19 crisis before, and paid for that mistake. Never again.

The leaders of the political parties involved need to take responsibility as well if they sanctioned these moves.

If they did not sanction these moves, they should act immediately against the four assemblymen responsible for jeopardising the safety of the nation.

The best solution by far would have been for the four not to have initiated anything at all until the next general election.

The second-best solution (albeit highly inferior to the first solution) would have been to work out a change of government without dissolving the state assembly – as was done at the Federal level in August.

The Governor of Melaka should likely have withheld his consent to dissolve the state assembly, similar to how the Yang di-Pertuan Agong was not inclined to consent to the dissolution of Parliament.

In this regard, perhaps we should explore no longer selecting state governors from the ranks of retired politicians. Perhaps retired civil servants such as judges, for example, would be more neutral and better suited to the task.

Another radical option to explore is to find a legal way to leave the state assembly dissolved, but not have elections until the next general election.

While a bit ridiculous, perhaps this will teach politicians a lesson, and demonstrate that governments and administrations can function (perhaps even better!) without their constant politicking and shenanigans.

Another more realistic failsafe which could have prevented this would have been the institution of recall elections.

Momentum for this mechanism has been growing. The general concept is that any elected representative who wishes to change his or her choice for leader of the government would have to resign from his or her seat and stand in a by-election so that voters can decide whether they approve of this change.

If these four assemblymen had to face the voters and risk losing their seats as a result of their decision to switch support, I daresay they would not have done so.

It is worth noting that two of the four assemblymen, Norhizam and Effandi, are serial offenders, having caused a previous collapse of the state government last year.

Also, without a mechanism like recall elections, state elections at this point may not result in any more stability than we have now, as assemblymen continue to be able to jump freely back and forth as they wish.

In that case, we would have risked Malaysian lives for literally nothing.

It seems our "honeymoon" is over. It may be that the steps we hoped would start moving Malaysia in the right direction were wholly insufficient to overturn decades of toxic, selfish politics that harm the rakyat instead of helping them.

For the rest of us then, it’s back to the drawing board. If our political leaders won’t chart a sustainable and better future for us, then we need to do it ourselves.

NATHANIEL TAN is a strategic communications consultant who works with Projek #BangsaMalaysia. Twitter: @NatAsasi, Clubhouse: @Nathaniel_Tan, Email: [e-mail]. #BangsaMalaysia #NextGenDemocracy.