Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah has suggested ten principles for reforming Malaysia's political system in his blog . These are laudable but are obvious ideas with nothing new or revolutionary about them apart from the fact that they were spoken from the mouth of a prominent Umno leader and not from the Pakatan Rakyat side of the fence.

Tengku Razaleigh also has some reform proposals for Umno.

Now the problem is Tengku Razaleigh presumes that it's relatively easy moving from point A to B, that is from the current state in which the nation is mired in to the preferred state in which the nation is emancipated and the people wield the power to dictate policy that best fulfills their interests.

With his principles and proposals, what he has done is to give us photographs of a fancy destination B and some rough directions to it. No information is provided on the contour, hazardous physical features or such along the route. The pathway appears clear and straightforward on paper (or blog).

Unfortunately for him and the rest of us, there are in reality two colossal obstacles that prevent us from starting the journey. These obstacles are namely rent-seeking (see below for definition) and the emasculation of national institutions (the judiciary, the civil service, the education system etc.).

Could Tengku Razaleigh perhaps explain how he plans to break the entrenched system of extensive rent-seeking and institutional enslavement that is perpetuated by and benefits a whole class of influential politicians, top civil servants, the corporate elites and royalties and that prevents the people from even trying to move towards the more just and democratic point B?

For he sketches out ideals and constitutional tweaks but proposes no concrete actions for removing these impediments that block the way.

He probably hopes that the entrenched status quo, the elite capture of the nation's institutions and resources (see below for definition), would simply fade away like a bad dream.

It is cosy to pronounce vague pronouncements, earn fragrant kudos, and then sit and hope that everything will fall in place or that the dissatisfied rakyat will be placated by soothing rhetoric.

It is more painful but pragmatic and valorous to dare to actually pick up the rug and shake it hard and clean. For the earnest politician, the opportunity for true sacrifice in the name of people and country lies here.

But does Tengku Razaleigh have it in him to do this given that he himself belongs to the system? Can he really pull the rug from beneath his own self?

Perhaps we should thank him for his contribution to the discourse and proceed to look further afield for daring leadership that is unshackled by conflicts of interest and has the imagination and guts to craft and implement the bold, scalpel-like measures we need.

Notes:

1. Rent-seeking:

Essentially, the extraction and retention of large/inordinate economic profits (or ‘rents’) by certain influential and powerful interest groups from a country's resource endowment, which produce little or no productive economic gain or without fair benefits or compensation accruing to the larger stakeholder (e.g., society). Corruption generally signals serious rent-seeking.

Refer here:

(a) MH Khan's paper, 'Patron-client networks and the economic effect of corruption in Asia'

(b) Terence Gomez and Jomo K. Sundram's Malaysia's Political Economy: Politics, Patronage and Profits

(d) Jomo K Sundram, YT Chang and KJ Khoo's Deforesting Malaysia: The Political Economy and Social Ecology of Agricultural Expansion and Commercial Logging

2. Elite capture:

The manipulation of ‘systems and practices [that] serve to increase the power and wealth of a few at the expense of the majority of the community, leaving the poor suffering the harshest consequences,’ or ‘the equitable operation of legal, political and regulatory institutions [that] is subverted by the wealthy and the politically powerful for their own benefit. This reference to the subversion of public sector institutions has led some people to refer to this phenomenon as ‘state capture’. Others use the term ‘elite capture’. Elite in this context means any economic, political, ethnic, social or other group trying to promote their interests at the expense of the interests of non-elite members.’ (pp. 4-5).