It seems so familiar – an underdog finds success, thanks to tall promises and digital reach. In Malaysia, though, promises are often unkept and social media is divisive.
IT looks like elections are in the air. And for Malaysian Indians, there is reason to be optimistic.
Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has announced an additional RM50mil allocation under the Malaysian Indian Transformation Unit, raising the total to RM150mil.
It was a nice gesture, one that I hope will ease temperatures in the community and also lead to a halt, or at least a slowdown, of the mudslinging that has been going on.
RM50mil is really not much, considering there are about two million Indians in the country, but it is still something to celebrate.
But many Indians here are celebrating something else – the election victory of movie star C. Joseph Vijay, the new Tamil Nadu chief minister.
His victory means little in real terms for Malaysians, but it has been fascinating – almost like watching one of his action movies.
It’s also so much like Malaysian politics, with a slight difference. In Tamil Nadu, actors become politicians. Here, politicians are great actors.
But first, a little about Vijay. He is an immensely popular movie star who quit acting while at the very top – he used to command about 200-250 crore rupees (RM100mil to RM125mil) per movie. For his final movie, Jana Nayagan, it is said he was paid 275 crore rupees (RM135mil).
Yet, he is a political novice and his fledgling party was almost totally written off by his opponents. But in one of the biggest upsets in Indian history, he swept to victory, taking 108 of 234 seats, shaming two other parties that had taken turns to rule the state for 59 years.
For me, it was a lot like the shock Pakatan Harapan victory of 2018. And there were other things we could relate to, too.
Every vote counts
Vijay started what he called Oru Viral Puratchi (One Finger Revolution) – the title of a song from his 2018 movie Sarkar – to emphasise that every vote counts.
And it did count. In Tiruppattur, Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) candidate won by just one vote. The candidate managed 83,375 votes, edging out a former minister who received 83,374 votes.
Here’s the irony. Sarkar was produced by Kalanithi Maran, the cousin of MK Stalin, the man Vijay’s party ousted as chief minister.
At a time when many Malaysians are talking about protesting at the next election by staying away or spoiling their votes just to spite the government, there is a lesson to be learnt here.
In bed with enemies
Vijay’s ascension to chief minister was all drama.
He needed 118 seats for a simple majority and had to seek partners for the other 10. It was on-off, on-off for days before he was finally sworn in on Sunday, six days after the results were announced.
Remember when Pakatan Harapan had to seek partners after just managing 82 of the 222 seats in Malaysia? It was a lot like that.
Even with the Sabah and Sarawak parties behind it, the coalition had to get erstwhile arch-enemy Barisan Nasional on board.
Vijay’s TVK also had to persuade some of his biggest opponents to join him.
Even his smallest partners, four of whom have just two seats each, can now rattle his government.
So far, though, he has not made concessions for those who came on board, which is a good thing. One should not be held to ransom by parties that have largely been rejected by the people.
Promises, promises
So, how did Vijay win it? He could have well taken a leaf from Malaysian politics.
He made some tall promises, very like what happened in Malaysia before 2018.
Then, the Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad-led Pakatan Harapan had made some great promises. And Dr Mahathir later confessed that those extravagant promises were made because they were sure they would lose.
When they won, they had no idea how to fulfil those promises.
But we did get lower tolls (instead of toll abolition), and subsidised petrol at a time when prices were sky-high. We should at least be thankful for that.
Vijay has also promised a lot – eight grams of gold and a saree for every bride, gold for every new mother, six gas cylinders for every household, free electricity, money for unemployed graduates, money for women who head households, loan waivers – the list is long.
Some 700,00 weddings take place every year in Tamil Nadu. That would mean 5,600kg of gold to be given away.
At RM620 a gram of gold, that would cost the state RM3.5bil a year. And that’s just one promise in a state saddled with heavy debt.
Like Malaysian leaders, Vijay will learn over time that he will not be able to keep some of his promises.
The IT revolution
It wasn’t just promises that won Vijay the election. It was social media.
He had the power of the media – including cinema – behind him in movie-mad Tamil Nadu.
Thousands of “social media warriors” from his party campaigned relentlessly online. YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and many other platforms were all used.
It wasn’t just a one-finger revolution. It was a digital revolution.
Vijay’s rivals, meanwhile, were still banking on rallies.
Vijay himself held rallies, which saw crowds of hundreds of thousands. But it was not the rallies that delivered the votes. It was social media.
Online, he was everywhere. His speeches and monologues were on Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, and on WhatsApp groups all over India and even Malaysia and Singapore. They were getting millions of views.
Planeloads of enamoured Indians left Malaysia and Singapore just to vote in this election.
That’s something Malaysian can relate to, too.
Social media has become the great communication tool. But cyberspace is now packed with toxic users, with demeaning messages, many against the government.
It’s a telling sign. The next election here is also going to be won on social media. But it looks like toxic racists have the upper hand online.
Moderate voices are being drowned out, and there’s no “Malaysian Vijay” in sight.
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